Roast!

Here is an email I just got from my friend Ben.

Re: Roast.......

Well, going to Parkside put me in the mood for meat (don't laugh)....Anyway, I found this recipe for beef braised with onions at epicurious.com. It was ridiculously simple:

I bought a 4 lb chuck roast, and cut it in half so that each piece of meat was about 2 * inches thick ...I rubbed the meat with a mixture of 1 tsp allspice, * teaspoon cinnamon, a healthy dose of fresh nutmeg, 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper... apparently in French this mixture is called "quatre epices" it said to add cloves, but I didn't have ground cloves. Anyway, then I sliced 2 lbs of onions into rings and chopped 6 cloves of garlic. I placed half of the onions and garlic in the bottom of my cast iron pan and placed the meat on top, then topped it with the remaining onions and garlic. I then covered the pan with several layers of foil (this is the secret..if the steam escapes there will be no juice and it will burn) and baked it at 400 for about an hour. After an hour I turned over the meat and baked it for 1 * hours. When I took the meat out of the oven, it was very tender, and there was a lot of gravy....which was just the juices from the meat and the onions as there was no other liquid!. I then sliced the roast and let it sit in the juice........and it tasted pretty damn good. I think next time I will add some prunes. You could serve it with potatoes, or you could make a vegetable tagine and serve it with couscous ( and play around with the spices....) Or, you could shred the meat and add some tomato to the sauce and serve it with papardelle.

You can see how focused I am on my work here....

Anyway, that's the story of the roast.

Something Rotten in Denmark

Well the doody has hit the fan at school. Did you know that the agricultural labour force in Denmark decreased by 38% in the period 1991-2004? Technology methinks.

Dinner Tonight

The birthday cake went down well, in fact none of us could wait and we ate some for elevensies and then went for lunch. We spent the afternoon at Granville Island (with the requisite visit to the Granville Island Brewery for a taster round). On the way back to the water taxi we passed through the market so that I could stop at Terra Breads, and Oyama Deli. This is the best deli and charcuterie in Vancouver as far as I'm concerned. It's run by a family who raises their own animals, and processes their own meats. I bought some butter chicken sausages which smelled amazingly like the dish my arteries have come to love. Mom and Dad, I don't think you've ever had butter chicken, Dad you would hate it, but think cream and fenugreek and chicken. So today, I made an angel hair pasta with sausage and summer tomato sauce. It's not really summer here yet, but the fog lifted for the first time in five days, and we had some sun for a change. It was a great excuse to celebrate with food. Who am I kidding? I never need an excuse. 

Angel Hair Pasta with Sausage and Summer Tomato Sauce (Rachel, use very firm tofu)

On high heat in medium saucepan, heat 4 large sausages and one cup of white wine with one cup of water until simmering. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.  Remove sausages and allow to cool. Add 1/2 cup cooking sherry to liquid, and reduce until 1/3 cup liquid remains.

 Add 2 tbsp butter to pan and a tbsp olive oil, add 1 cup finely chopped onion, 1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper and sausages cut up into 1/4 inch rounds. Fry until onion and sausage are completely cooked through. Add 2 cups finely chopped tomatoes and heat through. Meanwhile cook pasta, only briefly though, angel hair cooks quickly. Before draining, transfer 1/2 cup of pasta water to tomato sauce and heat. Toss drained pasta with generous amount of olive oil, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Add sausage and sauce. 

While the sauce was reducing, I made use of my ageing bananas, but found I didn't have enough banana for my Betty C recipe. I cheated and the results were very good. I highly recommend the following substitutions....

Where the recipe called for 1 cup and 1/2 of mashed banana, I had only one, so I topped it up with yogurt. Also, the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter milk, and I used the left over sour cream from Ursula's cake. Also, of the 2 and 1/2 cups of flour, I replaced one cup with whole wheat flour. The bread is so light and moist. It could even change my mind about the moratorium I have on all foods that are called "loaf" but are not bread. 

Banana Bread

1 1/4 c sugar

1/2 c butter

2 large eggs

1 c mashed ripe banana

1/2 c high fat yogurt (I have 6%)

1/2 c full fat sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c unbleached flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

heat oven to 350 and set rack so that top of loaf will be in centre of the oven. Grease bottom of pan (mine is about 12x4x4) but not sides.

Mix sugar and butter until blended. Add eggs, beat until fluffy. Add bananas, yogurt, vanilla and sour cream. Beat until smooth. Add flour, soda and salt a little at a time. 

Pour in pan, bake approximately an hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, remove from pan and allow to cool completely before slicing. 

Happy Birthday Ursula!

This series of posts (10 in all) I wrote as I baked my friend Ursula a birthday cake. To read from the beginning, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Older Posts" and look for the entry titled "Real-time Cake Making".  It's the first in the series. The cake turned out really well! The frosting wasn't as solid as I would have liked because I omitted the chocolate, and next time I would definitely add more icing sugar to remedy that situation. You can see that I've frosted the sides pretty sparingly, I was afraid the frosting would just slink right off.  One really nice thing about it is that it's really silky, almost pearlescent. I will try to get some pictures of us eating it tomorrow!

Pink Peppermint Frosting

I made one and a half recipes for the frosting, added some red food colouring, 2tsp peppermint extract, and omitted the chocolate. I beat it for too long though, and so I am currently refridgerating the frosting until it firms up.

Cooling my Heels

The hardest part about baking a cake (never mind greasing) is waiting for the layers to cool before getting the frosting going. Sure as sugar, if you ice when the cake is hot, you will wind up with a mess.

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that I have a blogging assignment for one of my courses, Agroecology 260. Right now we are doing a kind of mock feasibility study for introducing an organic grape crop to a farm in the Similkameen Valley.

Mildred+Ed=Love

The picture in this post is of Mildred and Ed Singleton. They are so clearly in love, as am I. Thank you to Gabriel my beautiful friend and partner who makes the photos in my blog so gorgeous. 

This is so Exciting

I am about to use Gabriel's grandmother Mildred's standing mixer for the first time. It is a gorgeous 1970s yellow and comes equipped with juicer, blender, food processor and meat grinder. Gabriel's Aunt Carol gifted it to me after Mildred passed away, and it has travelled all the way from Pond Creek, Oklahoma to my humble kitchen in Vancouver, British Columbia. In a sense, we are baptizing this old workhorse.

Sifter Jam

This sifter makes me feel like a professional except when it jams. I used cake flour by the way.

Greasy Mess

Does anyone have an opinion about greasing the parchment? We're listening to Mos Def. This cake is gonna be def y'all.

Cake Pans

Greasing and flouring the pans is my least favorite part. I read some reviews of the recipe and people suggested to put a round of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan.

The Recipe

This recipe comes from epicurious.com which is essentially Gourmet and Bon Appetit Magazines.

For cake layers:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup sour cream

• 1/3 cup water

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

• 1 1/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

• 3 large eggs

For frosting

• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

• 1 cup whipped cream cheese

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

preparation

Make cake layers:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans, knocking out excess flour.

Into a bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl whisk together sour cream, water, and vanilla.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in batches alternately with sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating until batter is blended well.

Divide batter between prepared pans and smooth tops. Bake layers in middle of oven 25 to 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans on racks 10 minutes before turning out onto racks to cool completely. Cake layers may be made 1 week ahead and frozen, wrapped well in plastic wrap. Thaw layers before proceeding with recipe.

Make frosting:
In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and beat until combined well.

Assemble cake:
Arrange 1 cake layer on a large plate and spread with about 3/4 cup frosting. Top frosting with remaining cake layer. If making tepee birthday cakes, stop here and reserve remaining frosting. If making conventional layer cake, spread top and side of cake with remaining frosting.

Real-time Cake Making

Well I'm going to try something a little different. I have the laptop plugged into the stove outlet, sitting on the counter-top, and I have just done the dishes. The scene is set: I am going to bake a cake. The other day on facebook, my friend Jane K mentioned that she was baking herself a cake for her birthday, a chocolate cake with pink peppermint frosting that is. Since it's my friend Ursula K's birthday tomorrow, I felt inspired to copy-cat Jane of the velvety contralto. 

Ah! the Chineese food has just arrived. Off to fortify and prepare...