The Demon Baker of Fleet Street

Whatever Rosa wants, Rosa gets.

I made my friend, Rosa, ‘mad’ a few months ago because I had mentioned off-handedly that I would make red velvet cake for her birthday… and I never followed through. There was something about the stories of needing three bottles of food coloring per cake. I am very Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to food. Sometimes I’m a purist that just needs to use organic sugar, and other times I’m trashy and all I want to eat is fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

But since Rosa went on vacation to Italy for two weeks, I thought I’d follow through on my promise by making red velvet cupcakes for her return.

I have to admit – I haven’t had this much fun baking in a long, long time. The amount of red food coloring WAS scary, truthfully – a tablespoon for the batter, and that is halving the recipe. But it turned the batter a shockingly blood-red color… It was truly mesmerizing.

Since I followed a cake recipe, I guessed at amounts and time for baking cupcakes. Half of the cake batter recipe comes to about 10 cupcakes, and 20 minutes is just enough time to bake all the way through but still be beautifully soft within.

The cream cheese icing didn’t go as planned, but I blame our heat wave on that. I used Nigella’s cream cheese recipe from her Guinness cake, which I have made countless times – the cake and the icing – but for some reason it would just not thicken. I finally gave up and decided to go for a hobo-chic look to the cupcakes. Trying hard to look like you’re not trying at all…

I think they turned out beautifully, and most importantly, the belated birthday girl was both surprised by them and thought them to be absolutely delicious. I tasted one; it was good… f***ing good! Definitely a recipe to make and make again.

Deep

My coworker, Christy, mentioned she made deep dish pizza the other day, and that got me thinking, why don't I have a go at making it? As a kid I didn't really like deep dish or Chicago-style pizza, growing up on thin crust Brooklyn pizza. But tastes change, and if I could make a pizza with the ingredients that I know and like, why not?

The dough is homemade, and so is the sauce. The chicken is baked in my own oven with the 'pizza' spices I have come to use for everything (thanks, Maria!). It was as simple as putting the dough in a springform pan, adding sauce, then chicken and finally cheese, and then repeating it. Very much like lasagna. As I hoped, the dough rose beautifully in the oven, creating a golden crust to encase the toppings.

The spices made an appearance in the dough, the sauce, and the chicken. The ingredients in the spices are in Norwegian, so I couldn't tell you exactly what makes them so good, but I think there must be oregano in there and also red pepper flakes. I tried to make the sauce a bit chunky, to give more height to the pizza, so I added red pepper and onions to the crushed tomatoes.

Everything worked out well -- exactly how I wanted it. That is saying a lot, because a lot of dishes on paper come out different in reality for me. I'm glad this deep dish was everthing I expected and more!

How to be...

Followers of this blog know this whole thing started -- the loving cooking and food thing -- when I came upon Nigella Lawson in the cyberworld just about 5 years ago. I have cooked countless Nigella recipes, seen countless episodes, 'talked' to countless fans. She was a huge part of my world for a long time.... and then I stopped cooking and keeping in touch with friends. I don't know what Nigella or her fans are up to now. But I hope they are still out there reading this blog sometimes, even though I am rare to post on it.

But I went blueberry picking the other day -- on such a hot and sunny day, you can't even imagine. The blueberries were ripe and beautiful. I am not a fruit eater. I admit it. I'd rather make jam or ice cream with fruit than actually eat. Which explains a lot, believe me. But this time, baking was on my mind. No one, and trust me when I say this, no one makes better muffins than Nigella. It was only natural I turned to her How To Be a Domestic Goddess for inspiration. Blueberry muffins it is. This recipe worked because it does a lot with limited ingredients, and with limited fridges, which I have had in the recent past. If you don't have much butter, you can get away with it since you use less than a stick. If you don't have buttermilk, natural yogurt and lowfat milk will do. If you don't have blueberries, just about anything else works. A lot of people have said that the recipe asks for too many blueberries, but I think 7 ounces is the perfect amount, and if you don't want a lot of blueberries, or any other berries, in your muffins, then why the heck are you eating it? The recipe gives orange zest as an option. I didn't have it, but had some expensive lemon oil I've only used once in a blueberry moon, so I used that. :)

The timing of the baking is spot on. The muffins came out puffy, soft, beautifully colored. Make these! Use frozen berries if you aren't in the season for picking your own. These muffins would make any house a home.

Wildberry

We had a family gathering a few nights ago - for my birthday - and in the funny conversations that often ensue when talking to a four year-old, I discovered the existence of a wildberry. Liam was having me guess what flavor popsicle he had the other day. It was purple, it was sweet, it could be a candy too... Not grape, not blueberry, not blackberry. Wildberry! I am not sure if wildberry is an official berry, but it got me thinking ice cream and berries.

I had some strawberries and blueberries that needed to be used up. I 'jammed' them by mixing them up with about 1/2 cup of sugar on a low heat, and boiling them down until the blueberries starting bursting and the strawberries got nice and soft. I thought about pureeing the mixture, but I wanted to keep the consistency of the berries.

I let this mixture cool in the fridge all day, and then in the evening, mixed it up with a cup of half-n-half and a cup of whole milk. I added about a 1/4 cup of honey for added sweetness, knowing that once frozen, the ice cream would be less sweet than it was as a batter.

The cold batter went into the ice cream machine -- 20 minutes until soft serve consistency, and then in the freezer it went. I would have left it in the machine for another few minutes, but I was worried about it overflowing as I think I had way too much mixture in there. Next time, I would halve the berries and liquids.

Yesterday, the ice cream had ripened and was ready to eat! It was delicious with lovely hints of berries and honey. Just the right sweetness... Nothing like 'wildberry' homemade ice cream! And it was purple, and could be eaten instead of candy. :)

Cookbook Project

My friend at work, Christy, is doing a special cookbook project – cooking her family recipes and putting it in a book to welcome a new addition to her clan.

She asked me if I would cook a few of the recipes and take pictures of them, knowing how much I love doing that. How could I say no?

Lemon Bars

These are classified in the things-Ilana-never-ate-before drawer. Even though I have spent most of my life in America, I am not, for all intents and purposes American, especially not in what I ate as a kid. My parents never made lemon bars; they never heard of them. But Christy is a true Midwestern girl, and I was psyched to try this old family recipe.

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp lemon rind
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup regular sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine slightly softened butter, 1 cup flour & 1/4 cup powdered sugar in a food processor or mixer. Bake the crust for 15 minutes in an 8x8 buttered baking pan.

Combine 2 tablespoons lemon juice, lemon rind, eggs, sugar, 2 tablespoons flour & baking powder. Pour over baked crust. Bake 25 minutes. Cool.

For the glaze, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until slightly thick. Pour over the lemon bars and let cool.

These were fantastic! Very sweet, but fantastic. A coworker even said they were the best lemon bars he has ever eaten... Yippee!

Even his website's pink...

"I like pink, and I specially like this outfit very much. The whole combination I find it really nice. We wear a lot of pink in Spain and I think it is a nice colour. If you look at my website it is also pink for this tournament”.

The boy is pretty in pink -- he can't help it.

He also can't help being the king of clay. Vamos, Rafa. Let's go for a fifth!!!

Welcome Back, Cotter!

I know I have been gone for a while. But those that are my Facebook friends know that I'm still around in some sort of cyberspace. True, most of the time I am bitching much more than I'm cooking, but the roots, the desire, still exist inside me, though dormant at times. I'm cooking again. Not that often, and not always that good, but we need money, we need to stop eating out, so I need to cook more often now. I have to push aside my laziness in going to the grocery store after work, when all I want to do is collapse on the couch.

It's getting warmer now. Something is stirring inside me, a new fervor to cook and discover and rise and fall. To cook, perchance to scheme.

The last three days I've cooked a derivative out of a derivative. It all started with an idea. We had chicken in the freezer - a triumph - and we hadn't had 'spanish chicken' in a while. Chicken poached in white wine, garlic and pimenton... Cooked till the liquid is reduced down to a sauce and the chicken is unbelievably flavored. I did an OK job of it one night while Rafa was out. Since he wasn't around to eat with me, I had a couple of filets leftover. Of course, the flavor is enhanced the next day and the day after that. I took full advantage of that.

I made pizza dough, using my favorite recipe. I added Maria's fabulous 'pasta spice' from Norway in the dough itself. The sauce I used for the pizza wasn't homemade - but I've made homemade before, and it has rocked, so I didn't feel too guilty about cheating. I topped the pizza with mozzarella and the chicken sliced into bite size pieces. It was delicious!!!!

And the next day, having some cheese leftover and remembering the puff pastry in the freezer, I made miniature puff pastry pizza pockets, filled with more chicken, cheese and sauce. I glazed the top of the pastry with olive oil mixed with more of Maria's spice, for added color and flavor. Fabulous snack....

On this lazy Memorial Day, I had a glance at some of my favorite books.... Francesca sent me a smaller version of the 'blue book', which has some lovely couscous salads in there. I don't have a patio or a bbq party invitation in the near future, but that doesn't mean I'm not making these soon, I hope. So watch this space.