Cake

It was my sister's 24th birthday yesterday and these days I prefer to make the cakes myself, so I made a chocolate cake, 1st layer: raspberries and whipped cream, 2nd layer whipped cream, 3rd layer more raspberries and whipped cream. The cake was a chocolate genoise (with Green & Black's dutch processed cocoa powder, aka cocoa powder processed with alkali. Most cocoa powders aren't even labelled Dutch process, so it's best to check the ingredients list for cocoa powder processed with alkali. Green & Black's isn't that good, I think... It's a lot like natural, but that's all they had at the Cupertino Whole Foods...alas, they didn't have that precious European red box, who's name escapes me now, like they do in NY), which is an unleavened cake; it gets its volume from beaten (and beaten and beaten to soft peaks) whole eggs. Only three tablespoons of [clarified] butter in the whole thing, and soo good.. I used a pint of cream whipped to soft peaks. I tried to beat that cream by hand, but it took way too long. I was beating for 10 minutes, probably, until I gave up and used my mixer. Why do I beat by hand? ...eh...good exercise, I suppose?... and I think It's kind of fun.. I beat the eggs by hand :> I am looking forward to a very large right bicep. Anyways, the cake was soaked in a Grand Marnier sugar syrup (didn't have any Framboise like the recipe called for, but t'was a good substitute) and layered up. The cake was supposed to be baked in just one pan, but I made the mistake of baking it in two (like I did with my mother's birthday cake...), but I just sliced them in half and we had four layers of cake; no big deal; I just had to use my whipped cream sparingly. Anyhooze, it was a delicious cake and everyone should give genoise a try. It's a little bit delicate to make, but it is a goodie that few, if any, bakeries these days sell.

-Patricia

udon

(pardon the picture...my phone camera won't send photos anymore, therefore I used a screenshot of facebook...)

Since it has been finals/end of the semester, I haven't exactly had the time to do any real cooking/go out after I'm in the comfort of my apartment, so I have (somewhat shamefully) been eating instant noodles. Yesterday evening I stumbled across a new flavor (Katsuo) of sanukiya udon at my beloved Sunrise Mart on Stuyvesant (twixt 3rd Avenue and 9th st.). Now these aren't those famed Maruchan Cup of Noodles eaten by many a stereotypical college student; these are par cooked noodles with a nice dashi broth (there isn't a shizzle lot of sodium or a shizzle lot 'o fat) and I was quite giddy when I saw that there was even a little packet of bonito.

Zap it in the microwave for 6 minutes and you have a delicious japanese meal for $2.50 (And no dishes to do!). I also like their other flavors...mild somen (I can't take the spice of the regular, but I'm weak sauce), and the other udon flavor who's name is escaping me. Yes, I am a tad ashamed to be writing a blog about instant noodles, but...they're so good... :>

-Patricia

Cookie Marathon Part II

from back: iced sugar cookies, lemon wreaths, cranberry thumbprints

Finally I am posting part deux. I made chocolate pretzels (not pictured here) and iced sugar cookies. Both recipes are from martha stewart. For the iced sugar cookies, I used royal icing and I made my own cornets! It was quite exciting, though I overfilled the red and it oozed out everywhere... The cookies were a success! I think my favorites were the cranberry thumb prints.

Also, yesterday I went to Whole Foods and they have this huge bar of Icelandic chocolate (the brand is Sirius) for 3.99!! It's literally two chocolate bars in one and the chocolate is amazing! I got the 70%; I like the bitter stuff. They make a clean breaking sound and they come off in nice little 2cm squares. Give it a go! It's a lot of chocolate, and it's going to take me a while to eat, but so cheap!

Cookie Marathon Part I

Preparing for an x-mas party tomorrow. I've finished making 2 of 4 kinds of cookies: the first were lemon wreaths (from december 2009 martha stewart living) and cranberry thumbprints (also from martha dec 2009). i'm too tired to write more, but just a few notes: lemon wreaths' hole must be made a lot larger than the thickness of the ring because the cookie spreads and fills in the hole... most of mine have lost their hole and aren't really wreaths, but in any case they are tasty.

-patricia

I've been eating persimmons lately, well, I had three and now I'm trying to finish my apples. They just remind me of my parents, mostly, but anyhoo, they are quite delicious and have this crisp texture in the center. Remove the skin when you eat it. However, it should be said that just straight, they're kind of funky in flavor, so i add some honey (I bought some honeydew honey from Buon Italia at Chelsea Market, which is really dark and flavorful) and eat it with yogurt and it takes the funk out.

Also at Buon Italia, I bought some roasted, salted fava beans which are quite good, they're really really crunchy and taste like wasabi peas minus the wasabi.

I'm hoping to do some more interesting cooking soon for Thanksgiving and Christmas, school is eating up a lot of my time, so we'll see...

-patricia

Concord Grape Pie

So, I made the concord grape pie on Friday!

I got the grapes from the greenmarket (they were quite pricey...$6 a box, and I needed two..so I spent $12 on grapes, but "when in Rome", eh?) and concord grapes really aren't useful for anything other than jam making or pie because they have thick skins and seeds and a difficult to chew pulp, so they really must be cooked or juiced or something.

Anyways, I used a recipe from marthastewart.com (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/concord-grape-pie?) and their recipe for pate brisee (what I always use for pie crusts). It was a big undertaking; I had to peel the grapes (not that difficult, just give the grapes a squeeze and they pop right out, but doing it to 8 cups of grapes can take a while, so I watched Pushing Daisies, the show I always watch when I feel like pie making) then cook and cool for two hours then push through a sieve. But, the resulting color was beautifully purple and I got three cups of fresh grape juice from peeling the grapes, which tasted fantastic.

I baked the pie and let it cool overnight and then I bought some cinnamon ice cream (PJ Madison's) to serve with it! The ice cream is quite necessary, in my opinion, otherwise the grapeyness can be a bit jarring and the cinnamon is quite complimentary. It should be noted, however, that this pie was verrryyyy soupy (maybe it needed more corn starch, but I didn't want it to be starchy). You need to fish out your slices with a spoon. I'm just thinking of inviting some people over and throwing the ice cream on top and eating it out of the pie plate. I'm chilling the pie in the fridge right now to see if it solidifies any, but in any case, it is a fabulous pie and should be made if you happen to have concord grapes available!

p.s. blast! My bad, I strained out the skins and seeds rather than just the seeds... that's probably why it was so soupy and unwieldy...ah well

I got some fresh black eyed peas last week. They were still in the pod! I shelled them and simmered them in water with some butter and baby spinach. T'was quite good!

I was also in Chinatown to get a mooncake (lotus paste with egg yolk is my favorite) for the mid-autumn festival and I also picked up some Chinese sausage. I put one (sliced up) in my pot of rice, but I realized it's better to put it in after the water is almost all absorbed. My mom usually puts it on top of the rice and then all the fat is absorbed by that top layer...soo good.. Thankfully I have another one left and I'm going to do it right this time!

Next on my to do list: concord grape pie! It will be made Friday after my exam and after I do my laundry. I'm excited!

-Patricia