On our anniversary in March, Dana and I went across the bridge to a little downtown shopping district and found a mom-and-pop bookstore. The only thing I bought that afternoon was a book called Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. She gives instructions on how to assemble your own small baking containters out of aluminum cans and explains how medium size eggs are better for her recipes. I fell in love instantly! You see I have a little habit in the kitchen of making too much of a recipe and having so much leftover that we both stuff ourselves silly, or the excess simply goes to waste. This book was the perfect solution. The recipe I used was actually called Orange Spice Layer Cake but I improvised a little (per the usual!). I had no oranges, but I did have lemons and pineapple juice and that sounded pretty damn delicious together Small changes will make this recipe vegetarian or vegan. I use small silicone baking pans that I got from our local $1 store.

Ingredients:

4T unsalted butter (or vegan margarine)

1/2 c all purpose flour, sifted

1/4 c buttermilk (I used 1/8c soymilk, 1/8c pineapple juice)

yolk of one large egg (or equivalent in egg substitute)

2 t grated orange (lemon) zest

1/2 c sugar (i used 1/3 c)

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t ground nutmeg

1/8 t ground cardamom (YUCK! I used ground cloves)

1/8 t ground ginger

You will need a baking sheet and two single serve baking pans such as these square pans or this heart spring-form pan.

Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly grease and flour the insides of your baking pans and tap off excess flour. Place on a baking sheet and set aside. Combine the milk (and pineapple juice), egg yolk and orange (lemon) zest in a small bowl and wisk to mix. Place the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom  (clove) and ginger in a medium size mixing bowl and wisk to blend well (I just sifted all of these ingredients together). Add the butter and the milk-egg mixture. Beat with a hand-held mixer (i'm sure any mixing method is fine) on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 45 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl (very important because you are making a smaller batch so it could throw off the math if you don't scrape thoroughly with a silicone spatula - I got those from our $1 store too!) Spoon the batter into the prepared pans, dividing it evenly between them. Bake the cakes until a toothipick inserted comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Cool in a wire rack for 15 minutes, then run a thin, sharp knife around the edge of each pan and invert them to release the cakes and allow them to cool completely.

Problems: My cakes came out really crumbly - the top half was cooked perfectly and the bottom half fell apart. I have several guesses as to why. 1. Perhaps my substitutions caused the mixture to be unstable. 2. Perhaps my oven is the wrong temperature (have had that problem with other ovens before!). 3. I forgot to flour the pans, I only greased them. 4. did not allow them to cool completely because Dana was coming home and I wanted to feed her a lovely cake! Phew. I should really start following directions, don't you think?

Frosting:

4 oz cold cream cheese (or vegan cream cheese)

2 t unsalted butter at room temp (or room temp vegan margarine)

3/4 c confectioner's sugar (I used 1/2 c + 2 T)

1 t grated orange (lemon) zest (or just toss in the rest of what you grated)

1/2 t pure vanilla extract

1 T thawed frozen orange juice concentrate

(rather than the orange juice, I put in about 1T fresh squeeze lemon juice and 1T pineapple juice)

Place the cream cheese and butter in a medium mixing bowl and beat with a hand-held mixer on medium until blended. Add sugar, zest, vanilla and beat to mix. Add juice and beat until fluffy. Use right away or chill (then let stand 1 hr before using).

The lemon pineapple frosting is by far the best frosting I have ever made in my entire life! The book recommends cutting the cakes in half through the middle and putting a layer of frosting between the cake layers. Top with nuts, more lemon zest, sprinkles or whatever! Baking is all about having fun and improvising. All great food is made when someone says, "I wonder if this and that would go nicely together?"

I'm still trying to perfect my small-batch homemade mac and cheese - I'll let you know when it shows up!

Technorati Tags: baking, comfort foods, culinary comfort, food, foods

Whenever I mention I am going to make curry bake on twitter I always have people asking me about what's in it and how to make it, especially after I made it for Kyle and he raved about it on his blog (it may be the cure to hangovers according to him).

The sauce is rich, thick, flavorful, and creamy. The vegetables perfectly paired and the cheese adds a strange but delicious accent to the already delicious curry. It is one of our comfort foods and perfect for a casual or fancy dinner at home, to make for one, two, many, or to take to a potluck and, of course, the more you make the more meals you can enjoy it for. It doesn't usually last long in our house, though.

It's really very simple, the recipe is one I got from a very dear friend and have made it many times over the last few years. Both my partner Onyx and I are big fans of curry and this is our favorite home-made curry dish.

The only problem with sharing the recipe is that I don't measure the ingredients! I put in enough veggies and quorn to fill the dish, make enough sauce to coat it all, and flavor the sauce to taste, so this will be less precise cooking and more whatever works for you. It's easy to add things like different veggies I haven't listed, I sometimes include zucchini for example, or you could omit something that you don't like.

Ingredients:
1/2 a Yellow Onion
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Potatoes (red, yellow, and gold - or whatever you prefer)
Quorn Chicken Tenders (real chicken would probably work fine, though I've never made it with it and you might then want to cook it first?)
1 can Coconut Milk
1 to 2 cups vegenaise
Curry Powder
Salt and pepper
Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large baking dish (I usually use a 13 x 9 x 2 glass/pyrex dish) combine veggies cut into small pieces and frozen quorn chicken, approximately equal amounts of chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, and potatoes though you can add more/less of some if you wish. I usually use a somewhat equal amount of red, yellow, and gold potatoes with skins for added color, usually one or two each depending on how big they are.

In a bowl combine can of coconut milk with vegenaise and whisk to combine. Mixture should be fairly thick. Vegenaise encourages the sauce to thicken when baked, though I'm unsure what could be substituted for vegenaise.

Add curry powder, salt, and pepper to coconut milk/vegenaise mixture to taste. I use approximately 1 1/2 or 2 tablespoons of curry powder and a dash of salt and pepper. The more curry powder used the stronger it will taste, obviously. Can also add garam masala, garlic powder, or some cayenne pepper to give it a bit of kick. The flavor is completely up to you, so I suggest you play around with it.

Cover veggies and etc. with the curry powder sauce, stirring once to be sure to coat everything.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes stir it carefully and test potatoes for firmness. Cook until potatoes are done or easily pierced with a fork (usually about 15 minutes longer).

Cover with a sprinkling of cheese, I usually use cheddar or a cheddar/pepperjack mixture from Tillamook. Wait for it to cool a little, and enjoy!

This recipe can easily be made vegan by omitting the cheese and quorn chicken (has rehydrated egg white in it) or using vegan cheese.

-Scarlet Lotus

Technorati Tags: baking, comfort foods, cooking, culinary comfort, curry, edible alchemy, femme, food, home, recipe

How-To Southern Style Biscuits

It is that time of year that those of us who love to cook and bake are found twirling about in our kitchens (or standing with a dishtowel over a shoulder -depending). Something about the first chill of the air makes me want to bake yummy things for anyone and everyone. And, you know, I won’t lie, some of it is the hyper-femininity of strutting in my kitchen, apron on, with flour on my elbows. I mean, it makes me feel sexy as hell. I adore baked goods (hat tip to my chunky behind), but I personally can’t stand the preservative taste that comes with most pre-baked items and even pre-boxed items. The older I get, the more my distaste for any kind of mystery ingredients that comes with pre-made/boxed items grows.

I have out-of-town company for the remainder of this week through the end of the weekend. My house has been busy. I was raised to treat houseguests to the sort of amenities you’d expect at a very nice hotel. And, I can’t seem to let this “house-must-be-stepford-perfect” thing go. This means that all bed linens have been stripped, baseboards have been scrubbed, plant leaves dusted, floors vacuumed, couch cover washed, throw cushions washed, kitchen completely deep-cleaned, scented plug-ins replaced, microwave scrubbed out, bathrooms made immaculate, new candles set out, front yard neatened, and finally, the house is full of baked goods. I do all of this because I want to visit with my friends while they are in town, not fuss over cooking and housework. Yet, at the same time, I do want to spoil them with edible homemade love.

Last night was spent pretty much in the kitchen, apron on, and hands deep in all sorts of goodies. Barbeque chicken was made, meat is marinating, enough pumpkin bars for an army were baked, and I whipped up a quick batch of my grandmother’s buttermilk biscuits. Because, you know, a good biscuit can cure just about everything.

I know a lot of you fab femmes have amazing biscuit recipes, but I thought this might be nice for those of you new to baking. So, just in time for fall baking time (and with enough time to perfect before Thanksgiving) here is my grandmother’s recipe for perfect biscuits.

You will need:

-2 cups of all-purpose flour

-¼ cup of shortening (room temp)

-3 Tblsp of butter (room temp)

-1 tsp of salt (not pictured)

-1 Tblsp of baking soda

-2 tsp of baking powder

-1-1 ½ cups of buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk put 1 Tblsp into 1 cup of milk and wait 5 mins. Voila! Buttermilk.)

-Something to roll out the dough (for a small batch like this I use a glass)

-Something to cut the dough (again I used the glass rim)

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Using a fork cut in the shortening and the butter. Hand-mix until the lumps are pea-sized. Pour small amounts of the buttermilk into the bowl and mix. Mix until the dough just begins to leave the sides of the bowl.

Remove the dough from the bowl. Knead 1-3 times. You don’t want to over-knead because it will make the dough tough. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about ½-1” thickness. Cut out biscuits.

Place biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. A greased cookie sheet will cause the bottoms of the biscuits to overcook and possibly burn. Melt some extra butter in the microwave. Brush on top of each biscuit.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

Remove and place in a bowl. Now you are ready to serve. My favorite way to eat a biscuit is with a lot of butter and some strawberry preserves. Yum. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: baking