All in the family

Most nights we have a frugal dinner, and the other night was no different: I braised some carrots in water and butter, and then a few minutes before they were done, I stirred in some rice along with turmeric, fennel and cumin seeds.  After the rice had cooked, I opened the lid of the pot to reveal a golden array of goodness!  As we tucked into our meal, I realized the harmony of the dish was not only in its colour, but also in its botany: carrots, fennel and cumin all belong to the same botanical family, Apiaceae.  What unity!  Thankfully I dressed it with basil and not dill – otherwise it would have been a little too perfect.

Light

So, okay.  

Last week we had a friend over for dinner.  Being the height of summer, and in a humid old apartment with no air conditioning, it felt appropriate to serve a meal that required minimal heat generation in its preparations, from both me and the kitchen appliances.  As such, I decided on:

– Carrot and zucchini fritters with dill sour cream
– A green salad with sunflower and sesame seeds, golden raisins, dressed with rice vinegar and sesame oil
– Corn and apple salsa with homemade tortilla chips

(To drink, we mixed cranberry juice and white wine – delicious blasphemy!  For dessert, there was chilled watermelon, though we ended up eating cookies instead.  Heh.)

I made the fritters ahead of time to avoid a hot stove blaring while the three of us tried not to melt.  The salad was mere assemblage, and the salsa too.  A non-tomato salsa was a refreshing change, and the crisp texture of a Tentation apple (a cross of a Grifer and Golden Delicious) was a perfect addition.  The tortilla chips were made by slicing wheat tortillas into wedges and spreading them on a heavy baking sheet.  Left in a 350 F oven for a mere 5 minutes, they crisped and curled up, becoming handy carrying devices for salsa.

I think the salsa was my favourite part of the meal, partially because I was quite happy and surprised with my fruit-inspired ingenuity, and because it was a deliciously light and simple way to nourish ourselves on a hot summer evening.

Corn and Apple Salsa

2 handfuls of frozen corn, thawed and drained (or if you’re lucky, fresh corn!)
1 sweet and crisp apple, diced (Tentation, Golden Delicious, Royal Gala, Honey Crisp…)
Zest of half a lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 fresh red chile or 1-2 tsp chile paste
1 small handful of fresh basil, chopped finely
1 good glug of rice vinegar (say, 2 tbsp)
1 good glug of vegetable oil 
Salt to taste

In a hearty-sized bowl, throw in your corn and diced apple.  Use a microplane to shave off the zest of half a lemon (it’ll be easier if you do this before cutting the lemon), then cut the lemon in half and squeeze over the juice.  Toss so to cover the apple with lemon juice and prevent it from going brown.  Add the chile, basil, vinegar and oil, and mix to incorporate.  Taste and add salt if you deem necessary.  Serve alongside tortilla chips, homemade or store-bought, and bask in the glow of summer.

We’ve been away

For the better part of the summer we’ve been traveling, driving and camping and hiking and drinking from waterfalls and freaking out about the black bear that climbed on top of our car and being blown away by how beautiful and varied our planet is.

Amongst all that, food sometimes came secondary, taking on a more functional role than a sensual one.

Still, macaroni and cheese from a box tastes pretty damn good after an eight hour hike with +2300 ft gain in elevation.

image

See-same

I had a really, really old package of instant black sesame powder in the pantry.  It is the kind that you are supposed to mix with hot water to make pudding.  I didn’t really like the pudding it made, so instead I decided to use it to make black sesame cake.

This is what happened:

Yay!

The base cake recipe was a chiffon cake, which by definition requires the beating of the egg whites until they are stiff to provide aeration.  However, unlike the similarly structured angel food cake, the egg yolks are used in the batter as well.  After making this cake and achieving such a light, fluffy, and moist result, I think that egg-based cakes with minimal amounts of fat are my favourite, especially for cakes meant to follow a meal.  After eating a full plate of steak and fries (or in our case, Peking duck and noodles), a dessert that sits lightly on your tongue seems more suitable, such that it avoids lending regret to the previous mouthfuls.

Humans tend to remember the beginning and the end of experiences better than the middle.  In that regard, let us end our meals on a sweet and cheery note, so that we push ourselves away from the table with those feelings in our belly and heart, carrying happy impressions into our next meal.

Star tip

A few years ago I took a baking course at a local culinary college.  I had some vague aspirations that it would help my career path, but I mostly did it because I thought it would be fun.  And fun it was!  I think the first day we made bran muffins, and we continued along making choux pastry, apple pie, black forest cake, and lots more.  While I really enjoy figuring out culinary techniques at home, it was incredibly helpful to have someone show me how to properly ice a cake, or pipe frosting.  From that time onward, any cupcake that I’ve made has had a swirl of frosting applied with a star tip.  

(Muffin Lady tip #20: A cupcake looks way more professional when the icing is applied with a star tip.)

For this year’s Mother’s day I made vanilla gluten-free cupcakes using coconut flour, and a simple buttercream icing.  I don’t get to pipe much (there’s only so many cupcakes that can be decorated) so I plopped a little raspberry on top of each one, to hide any shoddy workmanship from being out of practice.  Moreover, it gave the cupcakes a very close resemblance to a part of the female body, which made me giggle, considering the significance of the day.

If you make these, I’d stay mum on the reference to body parts 🙂

Vanilla gluten-free cupcakes
5 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Whisk everything together until smooth.  Pour into lined muffin tin and bake at 350 F for about 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out dry.  This recipe should make 10-12 cupcakes.

Buttercream icing
Beat together 3/4 cup room temperature butter with 1 to 1-1/2 cups icing sugar and a few splashes of water or lemon juice.  If you like, add a few drops of red food colouring.  Beat until the icing is smooth and thick.

How to pipe icing:
Drop icing tip into the base of the piping bag (it should be a snug fit with just the opening of the icing tip showing).  Hold the bag in one hand with the tip pointing down, like you would hold a microphone.   Turn the opening of the bag down over your hand, so your hand is now hidden under the bag.  Using a spatula, scrape the icing into the bag.  Bring the opening of the bag back up and twist it shut, while pushing the icing down the bag towards the tip, until a little bit of icing starts to peep out.  Secure the twist in the bag by holding it closed with the thumb and index finger of your dominant hand.  Let the other fingers of that dominant hand brace the lower portion of the bag.  Rest the index and middle fingers of the non-dominant hand on the top of the bag close to the tip to provide steadiness.  To apply icing, simply squeeze the bag using the fingers of the dominant hand while holding the bag at about a 45 degree angle.  You can practise on a sheet of parchment paper, and just scoop the icing back into the bag.  Note that when you do that, there will be an air pocket in the bag, so be warned of a little squirting and farting when that air pocket reaches the tip.  To apply icing so that it looks like these darlings below, simply move in a concentric fashion as you squirt icing out. 

The hardest part about icing cupcakes is stopping.

Cha cha cha

Breakfast, Lunch, Tea is one of my favourite cookbooks, written by Rose Carrarini.  I love the quiet wholesomeness that she evokes through her food.  I was lucky enough a few years ago to visit Paris and have a piece of carrot cake at her restaurant, Rose Bakery.  I think we found it just as they were opening in the morning…so basically I had cake for breakfast.  Actually today I also had carrot cake for breakfast!  How fitting.

And now….she has a new book out!  How to Boil an Egg is filled with recipes that celebrate the humble ovoid.  Instead of photos, it is filled with charming paintings by Fiona Strickland that illustrate the delicate deliciousness that abound in the pages.  Besides the beautiful words and images, I was drawn to a book about eggs in the hopes of discovering new ideas to cook with the star ingredient.  Humanely raised eggs seem easier to find (and more affordable) than humanely raised meats, so it seemed an ethically and nutritionally sound decision to have them feature on the dinner table more often – preferably without feeling like we were living at a 24-hour diner.

In my commitment to actually use my cookbooks instead of living in a fantasy la la recipe-land, the other night I tried making Mrs. Carrarini’s chawanmushi!  It is the Japanese word for a savoury custard.  Stock and eggs are lightly mixed together and steamed with veggies, shrimp and whatever else you decide to add.  At first I was greatly inspired by this discovery of a new dish that seemed foreign to my gastronomic landscape, but then again I am forgetful; later I realized that my dad used to make the same thing all the time when we were little.  He made his with just water and eggs, whisked in a large ramekin and then lowered into a large stockpot to be steamed.  After the custard was cooked, he would add a swirl of soy sauce to it and that would be that.

I decided to follow Mrs. Carrarini’s more elaborate guidelines and ended up with a beautiful, light dinner, evocative of the past and relevant to the present.