Coconut Yogurt Cake

I have been wanting to make a certain cake from the latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine since I received the copy in the mail. It's the Very Vanilla Layer Cake with the Very Vanilla Frosting.

It's really striking a chord with me, but I can't justify a 3-layer cake with a foot of frosting on it, right now - I'm trying to be good and lose a pound or two. Yesterday, my resolve was waning and I grabbed the magazine and headed into the kitchen - and saw another recipe for a yogurt cake.

Now, I'm not one of those folks who pretends that if you put something in a dessert that all of a sudden it's 'healthy.' It's not. It's still dessert. However, the yogurt cake was much smaller than the layer cake. I wasn't getting something more healthy, I was just getting less cake. That works for me.

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The recipe is Key Lime Coconut Yogurt Cake.

I was all out of key limes, but I did have a bottle of Fior di Cedro that has been sitting on the liquor cabinet since we brought it back from Rome - 4 years ago. Fior di Cedro is a liqueur along the lines of a Limoncello. Cedro is a citrus that hails from Calabria and has a smooth and mellow taste. We tried it at a specialty liquor shop when we were in Rome and grabbed a bottle. Time to use some of it! I mean, really. Four years to keep something like this is ridiculous!

I added 2 tbsp to the batter in place of the lime juice and the zest, and then made the syrup with it in place of the lime juice. I have to admit this came out pretty good.

The cake itself is ridiculously light and tender and it had juuuuust a hint of the Fior di Cedro flavor. Nonna snuck in and had a slice at 10am.

Methinks the recipe will work for any number of variations, so stay tuned...

 


Garden Cooking

I have to say I am enjoying this urban gardener-stuff.

In all my 64 years, this is the first time I've actually grown something other than just tomatoes and peppers. Pot doesn't count, of course, although we did do some pretty good baked goods back in the day.

But I digress...

Food - coming out of my own yard. Who woulda thunk?!?

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We've had a few happy neighbors as too much became ready at once. I was passing out some beautiful heads of romaine lettuce earlier today. They had to come up so the green beans could go in.

I also picked a celery to make a bit of room. It's early, but tasty! There's some cauliflower out there, as well... It's probably too hot for it, now - it wants cooler weather - but we'll let it go for a while longer.

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So looking at celery, onions, radishes, a head of chicory, the last of the broccoli, and a few tomatoes almost past their prime, a dinner was born.

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I had a boneless short rib in the freezer so I pulled it out this morning. When I went to check on it at noon, I discovered it was actually catfish. The only two things in the freezer that weren't labeled, I mixed up. Go figure.

Catfish will be dinner tomorrow.

The onions and the short ribs went into the braiser and a few minutes later, so did the chopped up celery - leaves and all. Then the chopped chicory, chopped radishes, chopped tomatoes, and the broccoli. Next went about a cup of red wine - maybe a bit more - and into the oven it went - with a lid, of course.

I let it cook for a couple of hours and then pulled it out and shredded the beef. 30 minutes before dinner I splashed a bit of beef broth on it and it went back into the oven while the potatoes boiled.

It was pretty good. One of those meals that will never be duplicated, but that's okay.

Tomorrow will be catfish - and who knows what else...

 


Mahi Mahi and Spicy Salsa

It's a bit nippy outside, so I thought I'd fire up the grill and spice up some fish - and pick some produce from the garden while I was at it. Multi-talented. That's me.

First thing I did was make some salsa:

Chopped tomato, onion, radishes from the garden, jalapeño peppers, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. That's it. Salsa is the most easy thing to make. Really.

And then came the mahi mahi... All I did to it was rub a bit of oil on it and liberally coat it with Carlito's  Rojito Yucatan spice from Oaktown Spice Shop. They have some great herbs and spices. Onto the frill and it was ready in minutes.

Plus we had greens from the garden - spinach and chard sauteed with onions and garlic and finished with a squeeze of lemon. Simple and filling.

The radishes were a fun addition to the salsa. It's taking me some time to think of them as something other than a salad addition, though. Old habits die hard, but we still have a lot out there so culinary creativity is going to come into play!

In the meantime, there's lots of other things out there getting ready to harvest.

Can't wait to get the tomatoes and peppers in!

 


Baked Apple Terrine

I seriously wonder why I buy cooking magazines. I constantly find fault with them, the ones I get are often pretentious as hell. and there are rarely recipes I want to make. On top of the pretentious list is Saveur. It's the little things like telling people to ask for some vine cuttings at their local vineyard to make Quail Grilled over Vine Cuttings with Tapenade Toasts, because Lulu would never think of grilling over anything but aromatic vine cuttings... Really.

So here I am reading this, shaking my head and realizing I really don't want to know any of these people, and lo and behold, a recipe appears that, unlike the Tomatoes Stuffed with Foie Gras, Duck Confit, and Chanterelles or Pike Quenelles with Sauce Nantua, actually sounded intriguing - a Baked Apple Terrine with Calvados. It definitely got my attention since I do like apples and I do like cooking with liquor. The recipe sounded like it was made just for me!

The concept was quite easy and straightforward - cook apples in butter, cool, and then mix in eggs and bake. I could do that!

In fact, I did!

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And this, boys and girls, is a keeper. Sweet, tart, custardy, caramely, and gooey - all of my favorite things in a dessert. And it really took no time, at all.

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Baked Apple Terrine with Calvados

Adapted from Saveur Magazine

  • 8 tbsp butter
  • 3 lbs sweet-tart apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1⁄2-inch cubes
  • 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1⁄4 cup calvados
  • 8 large eggs

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add two-thirds of the apples, 2/3 cup sugar, and the lemon juice, and cook, stirring occasionally, until apples caramelize and break down into a chunky applesauce, about 30 minutes.

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Remove the skillet from the heat, stir in the calvados and salt, and let cool completely.

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Meanwhile, combine 13 cup sugar with the eggs and whip until the eggs are thickened and pale - 3 to 4 minutes.

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And preheat oven to 325°F (165°C) and butter a 2 quart baking dish.

Mix the eggs with the cooled apples...

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and pour into the buttered casserole. Top with the remaining 1/3 of the diced apples.

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- I sprinkled 2 tbsp demerara sugar on top instead of broiling it like the recipe states - and bake for about 35 minutes.

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Let cool and enjoy with whipped cream, if desired.

Let's hear it for pretentious!

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It really was easy to pull together and really came out good. One recipe out of a whole magazine isn't exactly great odds, but, I only have a couple more issues left of this thing...

Then it will be another magazine I can belittle.

 

 


Sunday Sauce

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A rainy Sunday is the perfect day to replenish our supply of pasta sauce. Actually, any day is perfect, but a rainy day really does make it easy to blow off everything else and just spend time in the kitchen! Not that we really need an excuse to do nothing but cook... but you get the idea...

Victor is still working one-handed - he gets the stitches out tomorrow morning - so I did my part of the sauce-making by opening the dozen cans of San Marzano tomatoes and the bottle of wine. My role in this really is just canning it - Capo Chef Victor does the cooking.

After all these years, we really do have this down to a science. A couple of hours to make the sauce, a couple of hours to get it all canned, and before you know it, 14 quarts of sauce are in the basement and another is on the counter for tonight's dinner.

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The recipe really doesn't vary much. Amounts change, but it's basically the same. He makes about six times this basic recipe.

Victor's Pasta Sauce

  • 2 – 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
  • 1 – Sm can tomato paste
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic (or to taste if you like more) chopped fine
  • Olive oil
  • Dried Italian seasonings
  • Hot red pepper flakes (a tsp or more or less to taste)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Red wine (always cook with a decent wine, never “cooking” wine) about a cup or cup and a half
  • Meat – such as Italian sausage or some nice beef or pork ribs or pork chops

Ok…I ALWAYS make my sauce with meat, so start with a deep, heavy pot and add about 3-4 TBS of olive oil. On high heat, once the oil is hot, start frying the sausage or pork, Let the meat get good and caramelized although you don’t have to cook it all the way through because you’ll add it back to the sauce to finish. Once the meat is browned take it out of the pot, put it on a plate and set aside.

Lower the heat to medium and sauté the tomato paste for a couple of minutes until it begins to “melt”. Add the chopped garlic and sauté with the tomato paste for just a minute (no longer or it will burn). Then add about a cup of the red wine and deglaze the pan with it, scrapping up all the good bits that stuck to the bottom when cooking the meat.

When the wine reduces by about ½ start adding the canned tomatoes.  Add one can of hot water for every can of tomatoes you use.

Now start adding the dried Italian seasonings.  I eyeball it but I would guess a good 2 TBS is fine.  Add about another ½ cup of red wine, with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir everything into the sauce. It will be very thin at this point.

Add back the cooked meat. Now this is important….at the bottom of the plate you let the meat rest on will be some of the oil and juices that seeped out. Pour that back into the pot. It has a lot of flavor in it.

Bring the sauce back to a boil then turn the heat down low and let it simmer for at least 1 and a half hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes to keep it from burning. It should reduce by about a third or a little less and get thicker. The meat will absorb the sauce and get very tender.

 

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And then it goes into jars and into the pressure canner...

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I had Victor come in and take pictures while I was filling jars. And then I took a few when they came out of the canner...

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And another...

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This should keep us in sauce until July. I wonder if we could get enough tomatoes this year to can a batch from our garden?!? That would be nice!

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This really is something anyone can do - you can pressure-can or just do a hot water bath. It's really easy - and the result is far superior to any sauce you buy in the grocery store. It really only takes a couple of hours - and most of the time is unattended.

Make some - you'll be happy you did!