A delight of layers, this cake has enough personality to please every texture nerd. I line the pan with caramelized walnuts, then pour the batter on top for baking. Once the cake is out of the oven and cool, I plaster the top with an easy chocolate mousse. Though it may look complicated, fret not- this is a cake you can throw together with minutes on the clock and look like a winner when the buzzer sounds.
CAKE INGREDIENTS
2 cups Crushed/Chopped Walnuts
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Bourbon
1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/3 cup Tapioca Starch
1/3 cup White RIce Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 teaspoon Salt
3/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
3 Eggs
3/4 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Coconut Milk
3/4 cup Safflower Oil
Zest of two Oranges
BUSINESS
In a large saute pan, heat the walnuts with brown sugar and bourbon over medium flame. When everything is sticky and melted, remove from the stove and pour into the bottom of a lined 9-inch springform cake pan.
Heat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (everything up until Eggs on the list).
In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until slightly thickened and lighter in color. Whisk in the oil, milk, and orange zest.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing to combine.
Pour the batter into the cake pan, over the caramelized walnuts.
Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes, until browned on top and springy to the touch.
Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.
FROSTING BUSINESS
I swear by this genius chocolate mousse posted on Food52, originated by Hervé This. Make a batch with orange juice from your remaining skinned oranges, and slather it on top of the cake before serving.
It wasn't until I was in college that my family (all living gluten free at that moment) discovered the wonder of this Brazilian bread. No yeast, no complicated blend of gluten free flours, this batter comes together in a few minutes with a small list of ingredients. You can make it with or without cheese. Adding handfuls of something sharp will amp up the flavor, though I must admit an addiction to this simple, dairy free, version. Traditionally, the batter is baked into small muffins, small rolls, but I've taken this opportunity to present you with my favorite alternative: the grill. Pour the batter directly onto a cast iron grill/griddle and you'll be rewarded with an alchemical transformation.
INGREDIENTS
1 Egg
1/3 cup Olive Oil
2/3 cup Coconut Milk (or regular milk)
1 1/2 cups Tapioca Flour
Salt and Pepper to taste
Optional: 1/2 cup Grated Cheese
BUSINESS
Heat a cast iron grill pan over medium-high flame.
In a large bowl, whisk all ingredients fiercely, until the batter is smooth and shiny.
When the grill is hot, pour the batter directly onto the iron. If it resists spreading, you can give it a nudge with a spatula, though gravity will most likely take care of the job.
Let the bread grill until it curls up at the ends, about 10-15 minutes. Check the bottom for good color, then flip it over and grill the nude side for another 10-15 minutes (or until sufficiently toasted).
Yes, I'm making a lot of cabbage this winter. Truth be told, I'm trying my best to cook from local ingredients and at my market this is the only vegetable I can find that is grown even remotely close to NYC. But, necessity is the mother of invention and I've been keeping my tummy full with delicious variations on this hearty vegetable. Tonight's presentation is tarted up with lemon rind and given a kick in the tongue with some dried chilies. Golden garlic rounds out the flavor wheel, making the dish a new staple in your repertoire.
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds Green Cabbage
1 head Garlic Cloves, sliced thinly
Rind of 2 Lemons, cut in large strips
2 Dried Chilies
3-4 tablespoons Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Business
Cut the cabbage into thin shreds, set aside.
In the bottom of a wok or large stockpot, heat the oil. When hot, add the garlic and fry until golden. Then add the lemon peel and dried chilies. Toast everything.
Add cabbage to pot, stir to combine, drop heat to medium-low and cook until tender (about 30 minutes), stirring infrequently.
A briny whip to start the evening, this mousse is wonderful with a glass of something cold and crisp (be that white wine, or beer). It's deceptively hearty and creamy with the addition of walnuts, great for spreading on toasts or crackers. Make a double batch and keep half in the freezer, you'll be all set for your next party with no planning necessary.
INGREDIENTS
4 cans Sardines packed in Olive Oil
Juice of 2 Lemons
3 cups Toasted Walnuts
1 cup Torn Parsley Leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste (beware, the sardines are already salted)
BUSINESS
Add all ingredients to a food processor (including the olive oil remaining in the sardine tins).
Buzz and whir the mixture until it is your desired consistency. The mousse can be smooth or chunky, it's delicious either way.
It's downright irresponsible to have a late breakfast without some sort of vegetable on the table. Though it may run counter to your upbringing, the breakfasts of my young adulthood have always featured something green to accompany my meats and starches. But I'll cut you some slack here, it is the morning after, after all. Have a bunch of kale in your fridge? Is it starting to wilt? Yes, of course it is. Well strip the leaves from the stems and let them crisp up in the oven. Everybody loves a good chip.
INGREDIENTS
1 bunch Kale (curly leaf)
3-4 tablespoons Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper (don't be shy here)
BUSINESS
Heat your oven to 325 degrees.
Strip the leaves from the stems of your kale, add them to your largest roasting tray/pan. If they are too bunched in the pan (i.e. on top of each other), bake them in batches.
Drizzle olive oil, and sprinkle salt and pepper over the kale, then toss with your hands until evenly distributed.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, shaking the pan intermittently, until crisp and dry.
Bacon needs no introduction, it begs no accoutrements, but sometimes (just sometimes) it likes to be treated like a GD star. It doesn't take much to put bacon in the spotlight, just of touch of sweet spice and some proper cooking. I like my bacon straight and stiff as a board, thick and crisp. For my tastes, there is no better purveyor of the porky strip than John O'Groats in LA. I base my cooking technique on their expert presentation, and it doesn't fail.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound Bacon, thickly cut
2 tablespoons Garam Masala
2 teaspoons Brown Sugar
BUSINESS
Heat your oven to 475 degrees.
In a medium bowl mix together both the Garam Masala and brown sugar.
Dredge each bacon slice through the spice mixture, coating both sides liberally.
Line a large roasting tray with the bacon slices, keeping them in one layer.
Place a rack on top of the bacon slices, to keep them flat while they bake.
Bake the bacon for 15-20 minutes, or until browned and crisp all around.
Remove the bacon from the oven and, using a fork, take each slice out of the roasting tray while still hot and let it drain on a separate rack.
This date night meal needed some heft (I intend to put my dear friend into a food coma) and what adds more power to a meal than the humble potato? Boiled, smashed, and pan fried, this potato has everything: a tender center, a crisp skin, salt, garlic. It was only missing one thing: intrigue. Enter caraway. You think of it as the flavor of rye bread, and it's the perfect compliment to a smashed potato.
INGREDIENTS
6 Red Skinned New Potatoes
1/4 cup White Wine Vinegar
Olive Oil for pan frying
1 head Garlic Cloves, smashed and peeled
1 tablespoon Whole Caraway Seeds
BUSINESS
Clean your potatoes and place them in a large stock pot. Cover them with cold water, until it is at least an inch above the potatoes. Put a lid on the pot and bring it to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are fork tender, about 35-40 minutes.
Remove the potatoes from the water, drain them and let them cool. When they're cool enough to handle, use a heavy pan to press them down (or smash them) until they're relatively flat.
In a wok or cast iron skillet, heat a good pour of olive oil. Add the garlic and sprinkle in some caraway seeds (judge the amount depending on how many batches of potatoes you'll be frying). Cook garlic and caraway until fragrant.
Add potatoes (don't crowd the pan, maybe only two at a time) and fry until golden brown, then flip and cook again until golden.
I could ruin an entire meal by nibbling snacks before dinner, and these nuts only contribute to my mealtime treason. Roasted nuts are easy to make ahead of time in large batches. They keep well in the freezer so you'll always have something on hand to feed those precocious guests arriving before you've finished in the kitchen.
Mix the nuts in a large bowl and then spread them evenly over two cookie sheets. Make sure to keep them in one layer for even roasting.
Roast the nuts for 12-15 minutes, or until toasted and fragrant. Remove them from the oven and set aside while you make the coating.
Reduce your oven temp. to 250 degrees.
In a large bowl whisk together the egg whites, rosemary, garlic, palm sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and paprika. Whisk until everything is just incorporated and slightly foamy- we’re not looking to really turn this into a meringue.
Dump the dry roasted nuts into your egg white mixture and mix everything up. Use your hands, your favorite spatula or your kids, just make sure the coating is evenly distributed over all the nuts.
Spread the now coated nuts back onto their cookie sheets (again for even roasting) and put the trays back in the oven for 4 minutes to 1 hour, or until the coating looks baked on and toasty.
Remove the trays from your oven, let the nuts cool on the trays and then break apart and serve!
The perfect appetizer for a small group. Make a batch and let your friends gather in the kitchen to nibble the crisp edges as you scrape these off the hot griddle.
INGREDIENTS
9 tablespoons White Rice Flour
6 tablespoons Sorghum Flour
1/2 tablespoon Tapioca Flour
1/2 tablespoon Potato Flour (flour, not starch, take heed)
1/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1/2 cup Boiling Water (boil first, measure later)
Salt and Pepper
Sesame Oil
~1/4 cup finely chopped Scallions
Oil for pan frying
GET BUSY
In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
Pour the boiling water over the flour mixture and stir everything together. The dough will be tough, so get in there with your hands and knead it toward the end.
Pinch off some dough the size of a ping pong ball. Dust your counter with some extra rice flour and roll the dough out into an oblong shape, about 1/8 inch thick.
Brush the flattened dough with sesame oil and sprinkle gently with salt and pepper.
Scatter about one tablespoon of chopped scallion on the dough.
Roll the dough up like a cigar and pinch the ends to secure.
Roll the cigar into a spiral.
Using your rolling pin, roll this spiral out to about 1/4 inch thick. You should have a pancake roughly 5 inches in diameter.
Heat some oil in a saute pan until it is almost smoking.
Pan fry the cake for 2-3 minutes per side, or until golden brown and crisp all over.
Let the cakes cool on a paper towel to absorb some of the oil, then slice and serve!
Do yourself a favor and scour Chinatown for veggies. You'll see things you never knew existed. Like this, Fu Gwa. It's known as Bitter Melon in America and the name is no joke. Be prepared for an intriguing taste at your table. The texture is close to zucchini, but firmer. Chop it up, stir fry it with some shitake mushrooms and put it on the table. It'll be gone in no time.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Dried Shitake Mushrooms
Hot Water
2 pounds Fu Gwa
3 tablespoons Sesame Oil
3 cloves Garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons Soy Sauce
BUSINESS
Soak the mushrooms in hot water for at least 30 minutes, until they're tender enough to cut. Cut them into bite sized pieces.
Cut the Fu Gwa in half and scoop out the seeds, then chop it into rounds or cubes.
Heat the sesame oil in the base of a wok and add the garlic when it's hot. Stir fry until garlic is browned.
Add mushrooms and stir fry for 7-10 minutes.
Add Fu Gwa and Soy Sauce, stir fry for 5-7 minutes, then serve.
Without a doubt, Dou Miao is my favorite vegetable. The pea shoots are easy to cook, tender and crunchy all at once, sweet and savory. I can eat more Dou Miao in one sitting than any other vegetable. I guess I should tell my parents they raised me well.
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons Sesame Oil
3 Cloves Garlic, sliced thinly
3 cubes Fermented Tofu (they're small but mighty)
2 pounds Dou Miao, washed
3 tablespoons Shaoxing Rice Wine
BUSINESS
Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir fry until golden.
Add fermented tofu, mash into paste.
Add Dou Miao, stir fry until reduced by at least half (about 7 minutes)
Pour in rice wine, deglaze pan, toss veggies and serve.
It's remarkable how many times I change a dessert when menu planning. What began as chocolate cupcakes with ginger sabayon morphed three times until it ended up as mossy green ramekins of matcha custard. I love the herbal note to end a meal, it feels complete.
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. You will need 6 ramekins or one large casserole dish set on top of a dish towel in a large baking pan (more on this later).
In a sauce pan combine the coconut milk, almond milk, matcha, and vanilla bean scrapings over low heat. Whisk until the matcha is incorporated into the milk (no clumps allowed)
Fill a tea kettle or another sauce pan with water and bring it to a boil. You’ll need this later.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and salt until pale yellow and slightly thickened.
Remove the milk mixture from the heat and drizzle it slowly into the egg mixture, whisking all the time. If you pour too quickly you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.
Pour the custard base through a strainer and then ladle it into each ramekin, roughly 2/3 cup per dish. Set the filled ramekins on top of the towel in the baking pan. The towel helps to prevent burnt bottoms.
Slide the baking pan into your oven and then pour the simmering water in the pan, around the ramekins. Be careful to keep the water out of the ramekins and fill the baking pan until the water is about 2/3 up the ramekins. This will help evenly bake the custards.
Bake the custard for 28-32 minutes or until the custard is gently set. It should tremble ever so slightly when you give it a tap on the side.
Remove the ramekins from the water bath and allow them to cool for an hour on a rack. Then cover them tightly with plastic wrap and set them in the fridge to chill.
A good cup of tea needs a strong biscuit, and my green tea custard is no different. These cookies have a touch of ginger and a handful of black sesame seeds to ring in the Chinese New Year. Mix the dough with your hands, save a spoon.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Oats
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Millet Flour
1/3 cup Black Sesame Seeds
3/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Salt
3 ounces Coconut Oil
BUSINESS
Heat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl mix all ingredients with your hands. Squeeze and massage the mixture until there are no visible clumps.
Press the crust into a 9-inch pie dish (or some equivalently sized glass baking dish). Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes or until just brown around the edges. Remove dish from the oven and cut it into slices while it's still hot. Let it cool before removing from dish.
Appetizers don't have to be fried and starchy (though I am a fan of a good french fry), start your next party with an extra serving of veggies. Carrots are perfect finger food.
INGREDIENTS
6 slim Carrots, with greens attached
3-4 tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1 teaspoon Orange Zest
GET BUSY
Heat your oven to 375 degrees.
Bisect the carrots from green to tip (without going through the top root). Then turn the carrot 90* and repeat, making four squiddy legs to the vegetable. Place them in a roasting tray.
Drizzle oil over the carrots, then sprinkle salt and cumin. Toss to distribute spice.
Roast the carrots for 18-22 minutes, until just barely fork tender and slightly browned at the narrow tip.
Remove the carrots from the oven and sprinkle orange zest over them. Plate the vegetables and serve.
Beets are always paired with blue cheese, which is lovely but needed a kick in bum for this dinner party. Cheese provides fat and acid which pair well with beets, so I opted to trade them for chorizo. Spicy, fatty, crisp, they make the perfect accompaniment to luscious beets.
INGREDIENTS
3 medium Beets
2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil
4 small Chorizo (the hard, cured kind, not raw meat)
2 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
Salt to taste
GET BUSY
Heat your oven to 375 degrees.
Peel and quarter your beets. Place in a roasting tray and drizzle with oil.
Roast the beets for 75-90 minutes, until they're fork tender.
While the beets are roasting, slice the chorizo into small discs and throw them in a large sauté pan. Cook the chorizo over a medium-low flame, rendering out the fat, for 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly, until crispy. Scoop the crisped meat out of the rendered fat (save the fat for another recipe).
Remove the beets from the oven, allow them 10 minutes to cool, then slice them into filets.
Toss the beets and chorizo together in a bowl with salt and balsamic vinegar. Plate and serve.
The most important ingredient in your risotto (and by far, the most often overlooked) is the stock. Go ahead and bicker over the rice (arborio or carnaroli?), the fat (olive oil or butter?), the acid (lemon juice or wine?), you’re just wasting time. No matter what combination of rice+fat+acid you settle on, if you use boxed vegetable or chicken stock your risotto will grow fat on that antiseptic flavor, the sanitized taste of cartoned stock.
INGREDIENTS
1 small Butternut Squash (about 1 pound)
1 Yellow Onion
3-4 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 cup Arborio Rice
1 glass White Wine (~3/4 cup)
1 quart Squash Stock
Salt and Pepper to taste
GET BUSY
Heat your oven to 450 degrees. Using a sharp knife, cut the rind off the squash, leaving bright orange all around. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and then cut the flesh into small cubes (less than a centimeter). Add the squash rind and seeds to a small sauce pan on the side. Cover them with water (or extra veggie stock) and heat it over a low flame.
Thinly slice the yellow onion and sauté with the olive oil in a dutch oven or other heavy bottomed stock pot. Add salt.
When the onion is translucent, add the rice to the dutch oven and sauté just until the rice grains look lightly toasted.
Add the white wine to the dutch oven, deglazing the pan. Stir in the cubed squash and cook for 5 minutes.
Begin adding the warm stock one ladle at a time to the dutch oven. Allow the rice to absorb the liquid slowly, when it looks like the liquid is gone, add another ladle full.
Stir and continue to ladle in stock until all the stock is gone, this should take about 30-35 minutes. Remove the risotto from your stove and serve.
Yogurt adds a tang and spring to this cake that is most welcome, especially as we soldier through the winter. Feel free to substitute oranges or grapefruits for the lemons, the cake is splendid with any variety of citrus. An extra dusting of sugar on top before baking will reward you with a shimmering crust to present at the table. Winter baking need not be entirely cinnamon and cloves and apples and nuts. Lighten your load, bake a bright cake, remind yourself that Spring is on its way
Yes, the trail of British colonization/oppression left us with a unique flavor map that is hard to describe without looking through the lens of conquest. I started with the wintry walnut, and thought it might be nice to pair them with currants (I always like a bit of a chew to balance the crunch of the nut when I serve these). I steered the bowl around to early English colonies, picking up some palm sugar to sweeten the nuts and some ground cloves and ginger to spice them. I thought they needed some perfume, and so zested the rind of a few oranges for good measure. They were still missing something, so I took one more trip back around the globe and picked up a heady crush of ground black pepper. With that, I was done. A food map based on British Imperialism, potentially insensitive, definitely delicious.
Corn bread is the quickest of quick breads. No fussy whisking, no tempering eggs. Just throw the ingredients together in a bowl and stir. And what happens when you remove it from the oven? You remember that the nip in the air isn’t so bad as long as you have comforting food like this. Don't forget to brew a pot of chili to eat alongside your cornbread!
I used to think that coleslaw was an abomination. I’m not sure if it was my childhood aversion to mayo or the connotations of cafeterias and dentures that did it in, but coleslaw was on my “no, no won’t eat” list for a long time. Anyway, do you ever feel like your adult food life is spent making up for the mistakes you made in your culinary youth?
