Let Them Eat Cake!

But not just any cake, French Yogurt Cake! I know the name doesn't sound ultra-appealing, but I can assure you, it is SOME good! The Food Librarian, whose lovely blog I follow, participates in Tuesdays with Dorie, where the group makes a Dorie Greenspan recipe each Tuesday. I love Dorie's recipes and used to read her column in Bon Appetit regularly. This French Yogurt Cake was The Food Librarian's choice last for Tuesday. When I saw how gorgeous her cake was, I knew I had to try it! It was love at first sight.

Wow, The Food Librarian is a baker par excellence! Her blog is chock-full of beautiful photos of her even more beautiful creations. I am SO envious of her skill, both in baking and photography. I love to bake, but cake decoration is my fatal flaw. (Along with pie crust.) I think it's because of my total inability to draw anything but stick figures. If you have not been by there, definitely check out The Food Librarian's blog! There is a Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake to die for there today.

The French Yogurt Cake is amazingly easy to make, and very non-fussy as far as cakes go. Just a dusting of powdered sugar on top and you're good to go! Dorie's recipe is actually written to produce a loaf cake, but she also gives directions for making a 9" round, which is what I decided to do. She also gives directions for making a variation with Riviera flavors, which I would have loved to try, except I think it would have been a bit too avant-garde for DC. The Riviera version calls for extra-virgin olive oil and rosemary. I love the taste of olive oil in sweet foods. Weird at first, but then it grows on you!

In her vast wisdom, the Food Librarian made her cake with one of my 2 most favorite yogurts on earth, the Fage Greek-style yogurt with 2 % fat. It is so thick, rich, and creamy you would never guess it's "low-fat." Greek yogurt is strained, so some of the whey is removed to make the yogurt extra thick and delicious. It's less sour, to my taste, than regular plain yogurt, and makes a great snack, as 1 cup not only has active cultures good for your gut, and calcium for your bones, it also has almost 20 grams of protein. I love it with some apricot preserves stirred into it. I've got DC hooked on it with black cherry jam. :) It's a staple in my fridge. Naturally, I too used the Fage yogurt in my cake.

Here are the ingredients I used:

French Yogurt Cake

1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. ground almonds (she had me right there!)
2 t. baking powder
pinch of salt
1 c. sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 c. plain yogurt (I used Fage Total Greek Yogurt, 2 %)
3 large eggs
1/4 t. pure vanilla extract
1/2 c. flavorless oil, such as canola or safflower


See? I told you it was easy! Here's my prepped pan. Dorie says to butter it, but I just used nonstick spray like I always do. I decided it would be a good idea to put some parchment on the bottom so the cake wouldn't stick to the pan. I sprayed the parchment with nonstick spray, but did not flour it as I intended to serve the cake without frosting and didn't want any floury coating left on the cake. Obviously, precision work does not interest me, as my parchment is not very circular!


The cake bakes at 350F, so I got my oven heating. Next, I mixed up my wet ingredients in the good old Kitchen Aid. I always think they look so pretty, with all the different colors and textures.

You are supposed to rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingers, but I just let the Kitchen Aid do it before I added the rest of the ingredients. The dry ingredients, flour, the ground almonds (I blitzed some slivered almonds in my food processor), baking powder and salt go in a separate bowl.

Now it's time to add the dry ingredients to the wet ones. Dorie also gives some very precise directions here on using a rubber spatula and whisking and folding. Naturally, I ignored them and just used the Kitchen Aid, adding the dry ingredients with the mixer running on low speed. I reasoned that gentle mixing would probably not toughen up the gluten in the flour any more than me floundering around with a whisk and a spatula.

After the dry ingredients are added, the oil is added. It's supposed to be folded in by hand; again, I used the Kitchen Aid. (Hey, Dorie may be a fantastic baker, but she's not the boss of me!!)

Here's my batter, all mixed up and ready to go into the oven. Dorie prudently advises you to put a baking sheet under the pan, which I did, as I've had unpleasant experiences with overflowing batter in the past, and it is definitely no fun.


I baked the cake for 40 minutes, at which time my cake tester came out clean.


I am sure there is a technical reason why my cake cracked on the top (doubtless related to my not following the directions precisely!). Luckily, such things do not bother me. I have long since given up any hope of achieving perfection in baking. If it tastes good, I consider it a success!

One thing that is really quite irksome is that in my desire to avoid dried-out baked goods, my stuff is sometimes not quite done all the way through, despite the fact that I always test with a toothpick. You would think that carry-over cooking would take care of it during the cooling period, but not always.

I let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes and used a table knife to loosen the edges. Thanks to the parchment, the cake came right out of the pan. When I unpeeled the parchment, I also created a small crater on the bottom of the cake where it wasn't quite done and some cake stuck to the parchment. I put the stuck part back into the crater, plastered the parchment back on, and resolved to hope for the best. I re-inverted it so it could finish cooling right-side up.

You can see my cake is falling a bit as it cools-- I bet it just needed 5 more minutes in the oven! Grrrrrr! But what else is whipped cream for, but to hide the booboos on my cake?

Inspired by The Food Librarian's example, I cut the cake in half to make two layers and filled it with some store-bought lemon curd. I get mine at TJ's, just like The Food Librarian! We are so alike, I am sure I will just absorb her marvelous baking skills through telepathy! I mean, we're both librarians, we both have food blogs, and we both like baking! The similarities are amazing!!
Here's my filled cake, although you can't really see the filling very well.

As I have mentioned, cake decoration is not my strong suit. But I think things are aren't quite perfect have their own quirky charm. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! Dorie uses a marmalade glaze to finish the cake, but it really doesn't need anything more than powdered sugar (unless it has sunk in the middle, like my cake). I filled the top of the cake with vanilla whipped cream and added some sliced strawberries. The Food Librarian's cake is gorgeous, with cascades of lovingly chopped strawberries dripping down the side of it. Mine, not quite so gorgeous. But I did have fun making it "not perfect" on purpose.


Have a slice!


It may not be photo-worthy, but we loved this cake with its delicious lemon flavor, the richness and texture of the ground almonds, and it's wonderful, moist texture. The whipped cream was a nice complement.

My cake platter, despite the fact that it's just an ordinary, scratched and faded china plate, is very special to me. The reason I used it is because it's the only plate I have that has a flat center instead of being coupe-shaped, and less likely to make my cake fall apart. While I would not use this plate if serving company, I love to use it when I'm just cooking for the family.

This plate is the last one of the "everyday" dishes we used when I was a small child. My dad (who was in the Air Force) bought this set of dishes for my mother in Japan; it's real Japanese bone china. My parents replaced this old, scratched set that had literally travelled the world with us when I was in junior high, but we kept a few of the old plates. They were much prettier before the dishwasher ruined them; I think they may have had some platinum trim on them when they were new. I love the simplicity of the wheat leaf design and the muted, sort of tone-on-tone colors. It perfectly captures my mom's simple tastes-- my dad did a great job of choosing a pattern she would like. I love to look at this plate and think about how many hundreds of meals we ate from it, back when we were all still together. And now I use it to serve food to my family.

Newsflash!!

I'm just doing a quick entry to say I am backed up on posts (been trying to follow up on comments!) but hope to have some new stuff out later today.

I'm not doing Menu Plan Monday this week because I have no idea if I will have anything to cook WITH this week. Why, you may ask?

Because we found a wonderful rental HOUSE to move into! A whole house! With our very own parking space! And a mailbox right outside the door, instead of up on the north 40! And best of all, no neighbors living right on top of us with their midnight laundry loads and continual door-slamming that sends Huckleberry into a 10-minute barking frenzy. I think he's convinced some intruder is slamming OUR door. We have an "English Flat" style apt., where the foyer is on the ground floor and the rest of the apt. is upstairs.

We're so excited. It's not far from where we're living now, so DC's work commute won't be too much longer. It has 4 bedrooms, and a nice, big family room in addition to the formal living room and dining room. It has a very nice kitchen with lots of storage space and an island. I didn't get the gas stove I've been hoping for, but the smoothtop electric is a big improvement on old Gussie with the ring-burners here in the apartment. (SHE doesn't even have a self-cleaning oven!) I am so happy it's an eat-in kitchen as well, and it also overlooks the family room, so I won't have to feel I am in exile while I'm cooking and everyone else is watching House re-runs. Plus, there is a great big pantry! And a side-by-side fridge, which I have never had. Wow, there might even be enough room for ALL my kitchen stuff (currently half 0f which is stored above the cabinets because it has no other home).

DC is tickled pink because there is also a study with French doors right off the family room, big enough for the two of us to share, and hardwood floors. All 3 of us have terrible allergies, so hardwood is much better for us than carpet. (And since we are all so terribly allergic, of course, we must have 3 industriously and continuously shedding pets. Someone over at Glaxo-Smith-Kline is probably going to be able to take early retirement, they are making so much $$ on our allergy meds.)

DS is already bargaining to get TWO of the 4 bedrooms (one for his band's equipment and practice space.) But I say that's what the 2-car garage is for, LOL! He was complaining to a group of our friends over dinner recently that the garage is not "climate controlled." To which someone replied, "That's as it should be: you have to SUFFER for your art! Oh, and just know it's an obligatory part of being in a band that you must at some point live in your car." Hee, hee, for once DS had no response to that.

It looks like we'll start moving stuff over tomorrow, which means my kitchen is about to get dismantled. Or at least, partially dismantled. We''ll move everything but the furniture and our washer and dryer ourselves; we've got to have movers for that stuff. We're hoping to be all moved and unpacked by April 1, because both DC and I have business trips coming up around April 10-ish. Our lease here doesn't expire until the 17th, but we're eager to get settled, as both of us are or will be shortly experiencing major crunch time at work.

Woo-hoo!! Single family dwelling, here we come!

Saturday Morning Muffins!

First a quick reminder: don't forget my vintage recipe contest and vintage-style apron giveaway: Everything Old is New Again! Click on the link to see the entry guidelines. The deadline is April 1. I will also be giving away a copy of Gloria Chadwick's new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, so you definitely do not want to miss this! Get out those old recipe cards and start cooking! :) It's gonna be a blast!

DS has band rehearsal today. Teenage boys are always ravenous, and I had been wanting to try my hand at some kind of apple-y muffin. Here's what I came up with: Carolina Cheese Straw Apple Pie Muffins. This muffin combines the flavors of a good old fashioned cheese straw with a nice cheddary and cayenne bite with the taste of Mom's apple pie. In case you are wondering what a cheese straw is, check it out here and here.To top it all off, I made a brown sugar-cinnamon streusel topping. This muffin is really for DC, who loves apple pie and especially apple pie with cheese. The streusel adds a very nice crunch to the top! I adapted this from a recipe at Bunny's Warm Oven.

Carolina Cheese Straw Apple Pie Muffins
by Karen, the DomesticMuse

Ingredients:

Brown sugar streusel:
1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/3 c. flour
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. freshly grated nutmeg
3 T unsalted butter, melted

Batter:
2 1/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flo1ur
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t. mace
1/4-1/2 t. cayenne (depending on how spicy you like it)
4 oz. extra-sharp cheddar, shredded
1 egg
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. melted butter
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
2 c. apples, peeled and finely diced

First, preheat the oven to 425F. Combine your streusel ingredients in a small bowl, letting small clumps form.


Next, mix the dry ingredient in the good old Kitchen Aid bowl: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cayenne, and cheese. Use a whisk to get all the cheese coated with flour and blend everything.


Next, mix up your wet ingredients in a 4-cup glass measure: the egg, buttermilk, vanilla, butter, and light brown sugar.


Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed with the paddle attachment. Then, add the apples to the batter.


Next, fill your prepared muffin tins. This recipe makes about 18 muffins.

For nice peaks, fill the cups to the top with batter. Then sprinkle on your streusel topping, squeezing it between your fingers to make little clumps.

Pop the tins in the oven and bake at 425 for 7 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350F, and bake for 17 minutes. Check with a toothpick at 17 minutes. The muffins are done when the toothpick comes out clean.


Let the muffins cool in the pan on a rack for 1o minutes or so, then carefully remove them from the pan.


Y'all enjoy! :)

Roast Salmon with Warm Lentil Salad

This is a big favorite of my DS. Hee, hee-- he's 1/2 French Canadian on his dad's side, and has always loved French food-- I guess it's in the genes. Salmon and lentils are a classic French combination. This recipe is a definite keeper-- not only is it really delicious, I can usually get it on the table in an hour or less. I enjoy salmon not only because it tastes good, but also because it tastes like home. Isn't it amazing how evocative taste and smell can be? One taste of salmon and I'm back in my grandmother's kitchen.

Whole Foods had both Atlantic and Sockeye Salmon available, and I forgot to specify which I wanted, so I ended up with the Atlantic salmon. It's so much paler in color than the Sockeye! I would have said something, except I had asked the fish person to remove the skin and she had already started cutting when I realized I didn't want the Atlantic! While the Atlantic salmon is very tasty, I still prefer the sockeye. I guess it's because that's what I grew up eating.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my Nation, the Anishinaabe live mostly in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. We are also known as the Ojibwe and the Chippewa, but our name for ourselves is Anishinaabe, which means "the original people." Anyway, my dad was born on a reservation in Minnesota, but during the 2nd World War, my family was relocated to the West Coast.

Port Orchard, Washington is "home" for my large extended family (I have about 50 first cousins!). My sister was born at the naval hospital in Bremerton, where my grampa worked. We lived with my grandparents in Port Orchard when I was very small, and some of my most vivid memories are of my grandfather making popovers for breakfast and my grandmother cooking Sockeye salmon.

Whenever I go "home" to visit, I always try to stop by the Pike Place market in Seattle and get a whole salmon cut into steaks and put on dry ice to take back with me. I truly feel like I have a treasure with me, and I ration the frozen salmon steaks out so they last as long as possible.

This particular recipe is from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home and it features salmon fillets with Lentilles Du Puy-- the tiny, black-ish green lentils the French are so enamored of, and rightly so!


I love them too. They have a nice peppery flavor, keep their shape when cooked, and have a somewhat firmer texture than regular brown lentils. The lentils combine wonderfully with a mustard vinaigrette and some crispy pancetta. Together, the salmon and the lentils are sublime.

Here is what you will need to make

Roasted Salmon with Warm Lentil Salad

1 c. green French lentils, lentilles du Puy
½ t. kosher salt
2 oz. pancetta or bacon, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
4 6 oz. pieces center-cut salmon fillet, skin removed
6 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 fresh lemon juice
Additional kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 T. white wine vinegar
2 t. Dijon mustard
2-4 T chicken stock
2 T chopped fresh herbs, such as chives, parsley, tarragon, or basil

1. Place the lentils in a large saucepan and pour in enough cold water to cover by 1 in. Add the salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until tender, 20–25 min.
2. Meanwhile, cook the pancetta in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until crisp, 3–5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
3. Pour off all but 1 T fat from the skillet and add the onion and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
4. Preheat the oven to 400F. Arrange the salmon in one flat layer in a shallow roasting pan. Drizzle with 2 T of the olive oil and the lemon juice. season with salt and pepper.

Bake until barely cooked through, 10–12 min.

5. Drain the lentils well and return to the saucepan. Add the vinegar and mustard and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the pancetta, the cooked onion mixture, the remaining ¼ c. olive oil, and 2 T of the chicken stock. Stir well and add more stock if necessary to make a moist lentil mixture. Stir in the herbs at the last minute.

I know this isn't the most beautiful looking thing in the world, but trust me, the taste of this lentil salad more than makes up for its drab appearance.

Serve each piece of salmon with some of the lentil salad.

I like serving this dish with some kind of garlicky greens on the side-- in this case, chard was on special at WF so we had a combination of red and rainbow chard sauteed with garlic in olive oil. We are all very fond of chard, so much so that I almost don't mind how long it takes to wash and chop it for cooking! It cooks down so much you need LOTS. DS and I love ours with umeboshi plum vinegar on it, but I usually serve DC's plain (he's not so adventuresome as my DS and me!).

Here is the "recipe" for the chard (this is for you, Donna! :) )

Here is DS's plate, up close and personal! He went back for seconds on the lentils, and ate every scrap of his chard

!

Bon appetit!

Bon appetit!

Mexican Pork Chops: Gloria's, and Glorious!

Bijol from my pan-pal, Nathan. Please check out his wonderful blog, La Cocina de Nathan, for some wonderful Cuban and Mexican food.

This month's recipe for Second Sunday San Antonio is Gloria's Mexican Pork Chops.

Of course, I rarely make anything without fooling with the recipe. Here's the original recipe. You can do it in the oven or stovetop, and since I had a hankering for Cuban-Style Yellow Rice, I opted to do stovetop and cook the rice separately. We love intense flavors at our house, so I also decided to add a spice rub to my porkchops for a hot, smoky flavor note.

Ingredients:
2-3 T extra-virgin olive oil
4 loin pork chops
For spice rub:
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
cumin
chipotle chile powder
4 cloves crushed garlic

1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. cumin
1 1/2 t. ancho chile powder
1 1/2 t. chili powder
salt to taste
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
1 can Mexican stewed tomatoes
1 c. shredded 4-cheese Mexican blend

1. Wash the porkchops and pat dry with paper towels. Season on both sides. with salt and pepper, then rub on both sides with some cumin, chipotle chile powder, and the 4 cloves crushed garlic.

2. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork chops and brown on both sides, 5 minutes per side, over medium heat. Transfer to a plate.

3. Add the onion to the skillet and saute in the pork drippings about 5 minutes, until translucent and tender, Add the green peppers and saute for another 3-4 minutes. Add the minced garlic and saute 2 minutes. Season with the black pepper, ancho chile powder, chili powder, and cumin.

After adding the spices to the pan:

4. Add the tomatoes and 1/2 can water. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes to blend the flavors.

5. Add the porkchops back to the pan. Simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes.

6. Uncover and sprinkle with the cheese. Simmer, covered, 5 to
10 more minutes or until the cheese melts.

I served this with Nathan's Arroz Amarillo.

Here's the recipe:

Nathan's Arroz Amarillo (Stove-top version)

Makes about 3 c. of rice

2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
3 lg. cloves garlic, crushed
1 c. long grain white rice1 1/2 c. water
1 t. Bijol or saffron threads
1/2 box frozen baby peas (I left them out this time, but they are really good!)
Salt to taste

1. Make the sofrito: Heat the oil in a 4 qt. saucepan over medium heat and saute the onion with salt until translucent. Added the bell pepper, more salt, and sautee until softened, about 5 min. Add the garlic and cooked it for about a minute, until fragrant. Don't leave the garlic unattended-- it will burn if you don't stir it. Nathan says if you burn the garlic, you have to start over.

2. While the sofrito is cooking, wash the rice well, in several changes of water, until the water runs clear. This is very important to avoid having gummy rice. It gets rid of all the excess starch. Also, if you are using saffron, heat the 1 1/2 c. water in the microwave for 1 min. Add a generous pinch of saffron threads and let steep. Add this saffron infusion to the pan instead of plain water in step 3.

3. Add the water to the pan along with the cumin, bijol, salt to taste, and the rice. Stir to mix well. Bring the rice to a boil, cover the pan, and turn the heat down very low. Simmer, covered for 15 minutes.

4. Remove the rice from the pan and let it sit for 5 minutes, without lifting the lid. After 5 minutes, test to see if it is done. (Rick Bayless says that at this point if the rice is still a little hard, cover the pan and put it back over low heat for 5 minutes. If the rice is completely dry and still hard, add 2 T water to the pan and then return to low heat for 5 min.)

5. Add the frozen peas and stirr gently just until they are thawed.

DELICIOUS!

To go with the porkchops, I made an old family favorite, Brushed Eggplant. It's a recipe I found in a Sara Moulton cookbook. It is very simple.

Slice eggplant into 1/4" thick slices.

Then brush both sides with vinaigrette dressing. I usually have some homemade dressing on hand, but today I used some bottled raspberry vinaigrette.

Place the slices on a baking tray.

Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes, or until tender. You can turn the oven off and let them sit for 10 minutes or so if you'd like them a little crisp.

Dinner's ready!

These porkchops were wonderful! DC said they were the juiciest porkchops he's had in a long time! I highly recommend Gloria's recipe.

!Buen provecho!