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Pink Vanilla Cupcakes + Frosting!

28 Sep

Cupcakes!So I promise, this will be the last of the pink party smushed fairy postings … at least for this round! 😉 I loved the chocolate cake with that incredible white chocolate frosting, and we are still munching on (and sharing) the pink heart cookies. But the cupcakes were really special. M ordered the cupcake paper cups from Wilton – little pink flower cups. And I baked about 60 cupcakes – half were decorated with glitter and sprinkles and hearts and gumpaste/royal icing flowers ordered from a professional bake shop online. The other half were left iced for the children at the party to decorate – and they did a wonderful job! I love projects that get young people involved with and thinking about the food that they eat – even if its just from an aesthetic point of view.

Most of the decorations and the food colouring came from India Tree. Who knew beet food colouring could produce such gorgeous shades of pink – soft and pastel, natural and beautiful. The recipe for the cupcakes was adapted from a Meyer Lemon Raspberry Cupcake recipe by Amy Berman from the Vanilla Bakeshop. And the frosting was a basic garden variety confectioners frosting, but I made sure to use organic ingredients. I figure if we are going to feed young ones such rich foods, might as well make them free from pesticides and hormones and the like.

This recipe makes about 25 – 30 cupcakes. To double, I made two separate batches because baking is such a specific art – you dont want to mess up the measurements, and sometimes when you double a recipe, it just doesnt take as well. Please do try and use vanilla pods if you can – they imbue the cupcakes with such a pure vanilla scent and flavour. Nothing else comes close. I doubled the vanilla hit by adding vanilla essence as well. If you really cant find vanilla pods, double the amount of vanilla essence.

The cupcakes will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container or in the fridge. After that, theyre still edible, but may start to wilt a little. 😉 Enjoy!!!

Vanilla Cupcake

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter at room temperature
  • 2 cups light brown sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, about 3/4th scraped plus 1 – 2 tbsp vanilla essence
  • 5 large eggs, separated
  • 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 175C (350F) and line your cupcake tin with paper cupcake cups.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. The butter and sugar really need to combine well – it needs to look like a thickish cream.

Add the vanillas and beat well. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Mix together the flours, baking powder and salt. You can sift if you like (this makes a much finer crumb) but its not totally necessary. Add to the butter mixture and beat well. You will have quite a thick dough. Add all the sour cream and beat again. Set aside.

In a clean bowl, with a clean whisk, or cleaned beaters, whisk the egg whites until they are shiny and hold stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the dough.

Drop by heaping tablespoons into your cupcake cups. You should get about 25 – 30.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. I would check at 20 minutes, but it took me the full 25 to bake them.

Let the cupcakes cool in the tins.

Pink Vanilla Frosting

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
  • 4 cups confectioner’s or icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 – 2 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 vanilla bean, scraped
  • 4 tbsp heavy cream or milk
  • India Tree food colouring (red for preference 😉 )

With an electric mixer, beat the butter until it is smooth and creamy.

Sift 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar onto the butter, and beat it in on low speed. Repeat for the additional 3 cups of sugar.

Measure in the vanillas and 2 tbsp of cream, and beat well. If the consistency is to your liking, start adding food colouring, otherwise keep adding cream, 1 tablespoon at a time. I would imagine you would need the entire amount of cream, but I leave it up to you (and the heat, humidity and elevation of your kitchen!).

Beat in the food colouring 1 drop at a time. I made 2 batches of frosting and coloured them slightly differently so I had some contrast in the icing.

Beat for at least 3 – 5 minutes. What you will find is that the frosting gets a really light and fluffy, yet thick and solid consistency. I cant explain it, but frosting that has not been beaten for as long just has a different feel to it. The food colour is incorporated totally, and the frosting is very whipped if you beat it for long enough.

Once the frosting is of your desired consistency, fill a pastry bag and ice your cooled cupcakes.

If you dont have a pastry bag, do as I did. Fill a small plastic ziploc bag about 1/3rd full with frosting and cut the tip off one corner. You can use this as a makeshift bag, though be careful. The heat of your hands will start melting the icing quickly.

Decorate the cupcakes with sparkles and glitter and hearts and flowers immediately. Let everything set for about 30 minutes before refrigerating or serving.

Enjoy!

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Spinach Artichoke Dip

26 Sep

Artichoke DipI am on my way to my friend M’s house tonight – see her new baby and new house, and just hang out with one of my best friends for a while. So I thought I would post now, rather than later tomorrow trying to catch up 🙂 This Spinach Artichoke Dip was part of the birthday party yesterday. Its delicious. So good – piping hot and bubbling right out of the oven, at room temperature during the course of the party, and cold from the fridge the next day as part of a post party makeshift lunch.

And easy?! This is all about your sense of taste – so eyeball it, taste, adjust, and repeat. I use organic garlic powder here rather than garlic salt (which I find too salty, and too chemical tasting) or minced fresh garlic, which I find too sharp. Garlic powder adds a round sweetness to the dish which I love. As for the spinach and artichoke? Frozen and canned, albeit organic. You dont need the fresh here – in fact, the frozen and canned are better because they are sturdier. Just get the best quality you can.

This dish reminds me of the time I worked as a waitress in college over one Thanksgiving. A very wealthy woman was having a party, and needed help. Memorable because I made a huge amount of money but thats besides the point – amongst all the amazing things she served, she made one thing that stood out in my memory. In a large ramekin, she mixed mayonnaise, sour cream, cream cheese and a heaping amount of parmesan. She then baked this concoction in the oven quite high and served the bubbling unctuous slightly burnt cheesy result as a dip. I was amazed at such alchemy. This dish is a little more healthy (it basically has the addition of vegetables!) but the principle is the same – the mixture is so much more than the individual ingredients – and their transformative space is the heat of the oven.

Plus, people will tell you not only how good it is (“Its like you get at the restaurant!”) but also how complex the flavours. Its difficult to tell them that it takes about 5 minutes to put together 😉

For a medium baking dish, you will need:

  • 16-ounce packet frozen chopped spinach
  • 14-ounce can artichokes
  • 8-ounce packet cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup (or so) roughly grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup (or so) roughly grated romano cheese
  • Couple heaping tablespoons sour cream
  • Couple heaping tablespoons mayonnaise
  • Garlic powder
  • Dried basil

Preheat the oven to 130C (350F)

Drain the frozen chopped spinach, and squeeze tightly with you your hands to get rid of as much liquid as possible. Put into a large mixing bowl.

Drain the artichokes, and roughly chop. Add to the bowl.

Cut the cream cheese up roughly straight into the bowl.

Add 1/2 cup each of parmesan and romano, and a few heaping tablespoons each of sour cream and mayonnaise. Using a fork, stir to combine. Make sure that everything is fully incorporated.

Sprinkle over garlic powder and basil and combine again.

Taste. This is the most important part of the recipe. You might want to add more cheese, more garlic powder, more sour cream – its up to you, and is what will make your recipe taste individual. Basically, just make sure the mixture is the texture of a stiffish cookie dough. Keep adjusting until it tastes exactly as you want it.

Transfer the mixture to a baking pan, and sprinkle a bit of additional cheese over the top if you like.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until bubbling and the cheese has browned nicely.

Serve immediately, or at room temperature.

Wonderful the next day as a spread, on toast, or reheated.

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Birthday Party! Pink White Chocolate Frosting!

26 Sep

by Julia

Today was Z’s 1st Birthday Party! It was a group effort – I baked, MZ designed, organised, invited and created all the gifts, BSA Quality Controled and Julia arranged the flowers (arent they gorgeous?!). We are all full on exhausted. But it was so much fun! We made a lasting memory for Z – which is what birthdays should be about – memory, friends, and wonderful times together.

With loads of goodies

This was the birthday table… loaded with pink heart cookies, glittering pink flower cupcakes, a spinach and artichoke dip, tea sandwiches and a bottle for Z! All, of course, in a girly pink and lace colours. Very pretty.

It all looked really pretty, and tasted good too…

For Z

The cupcakes were lovely – fluffy and imbued with vanilla. It really makes a difference when you add real vanilla bean to a recipe. The tiny flecks of vanilla seed were gorgeous, and the vanilla frosting was tinted pink, with India Tree natural food colours. The decorations were all natural – and gorgeous!

Galore!

For the children, we had a red chili pinata filled with candy… And a cupcake station. We had frosted but undecorated cupcakes…

Cupcakes

And a cupcake tin filled with edible glitter and sparkles and hearts and stars

For Cupcakes

There were a lot of busy bees making beautiful creations!

Decorating

The Birthday Cake was quite insanely pink. I think this was about 15,000 smushed fairies worth of pink and glitter. (Photo courtesy of PFW)

1!

The cake itself was a buttermilk chocolate cake – lovely and fluffy. But it was the frosting (despite its liberal covering of glitter and sparkles and roses and pearls) that was absolutely awesome. It was made with a full pound of Callebaut white chocolate, and it was unspeakably good. I adapted it from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. When soft, this icing is very very billowy and smooth… it has a satiny feel to it. Gorgeously lush like silk against the skin. But in the fridge, it firms up a lot, which is great on a hot day. It enabled us to serve and cut the cake without worrying about frosting melting everywhere…

Pink White Chocolate Icing

  • 1 lb best quality white chocolate, chopped
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp corn syrup
  • 2 tbsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste if you have it
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
  • A few drops natural red food dye (I used India Tree)

Melt the white chocolate. You can do this in the microwave by placing the chopped chocolate in a microwave proof dish, and running for about 45 seconds, stopping every 15 seconds or so to mix the chocolate with a spoon. Stop when almost all the chocolate is melted, and just stir – the rest will melt easily. If you dont have a microwave, melt the chocolate very gently over the stove top using a double boiler if you can, but if not, in a small pot over very very low heat. Stir often, and take the chocolate off the heat before it completely melts. Set saide.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and salt and turn the heat up to medium. Stir the mixture until the sugar completely melts and everything is incorporated. You will have a wonderful caramel.

In a medium bowl that will fit into a larger bowl, pour in the heavy cream. Add all the white chocolate and the butter mixture, and stir well. Add the food colouring, one drop at a time, until it is of your desired pinkness!

As soon as the colour is to your liking, pop the bowl into a larger bowl that you have filled with ice and water. Stir the mixture well, and leave to cool down for at least 30 minutes in its ice bath. You may want to check on it after 10 minutes or so and refresh the ice.

What will happen is that the frosting will start to stiffen up. You dont want it completely hard, so take it out of its icebath if it starts to get very firm.

Using an electric blender, whisk the frosting until it is light and fluffy. Use immediately, or store in the fridge. If it firms up again, whisk until it is of the desired consistency.

Let your most beloved ones lick the bowl 😉

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Pink Heart Cookies

24 Sep

cookieSo I was sitting in the kitchen this morning, minding my own business when this very pink fairy flew in through the window. She had glitter dust all over her wings, sparkles in her hair, and she had the most annoying whiny buzzy sound … So I smushed her. And she exploded. And the entire kitchen was filled with pink glazed sugar cookies, bedecked with hearts and sparkle and glitter. This is what happens, apparently, when a pink fairy explodes.

Actually, I spent most of the morning baking these cookies (I tripled the recipe so I ended up with about 100 biscuits) and most of the afternoon glazing them. These are not quick work if you want to roll out the dough and then cut patterns out with a cookie cutter. They are however quite simple if you want them for easy log slices – if you want to roll the dough into logs about 2 – 3 inches thick and then just slice rounds and bake. Either way, they are very very delicious – crumbly and yet sturdy, very buttery and not too sweet. I based the cookie on Cook’s Illustrated Sugar Cookie – but I used my hands rather than a stand mixer. It worked out fine.

I used royal icing to glaze the cookies – a basic confectioner’s sugar and water mixture with the addition of meringue powder (basically freeze dried egg whites). The addition of the egg whites makes the glaze harden extremely well. If you have access to meringue powder, use it – there is a huge difference. You can also make royal icing with egg whites, but since they are raw, and I am making the cookies for a children’s birthday party, I decided to go with the powder.

I used the India Tree dye – and as you can see from the image – it was gorgeous! Very easy to work with, very strong colour, and an almost imperceptible taste. I love this stuff, and I love that I can bake wildly colourful cakes and cookies for young people, and not worry about poisoning them with too much food dye. Decorating these cookies by hand took a lot of time and work – but they are so pretty, it was worth it!

Sugar Cookie

This cookie is basically much like the basis for a sweet tart shell – butter (so much butter!), superfine sugar (which gives a more tender cookie and a finer crumb), a touch of salt, flour, vanilla and cream cheese. Thats it. You have to be quite gentle with the dough, and once it comes together, you shouldnt really handle it a lot. Its very very tender. I made the dough the night before, refrigerated it well wrapped, and baked the next morning.

This should yield you about 30 – 40 cookies

  • 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 16 tbsp butter (2 sticks) – at room temperature. It should be soft, but not totally giving, if you know what I mean. You want it to still hold its shape – so take it out of the fridge about half an hour before you mean to use it, and dont leave it in the heat.
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 2 heaping tbsp cream cheese

If you are baking immediately, preheat your oven to 170C (375F).

Whizz the light brown sugar in a food processor or with your immersion blender so that the sugar becomes superfine. Its not 100% neccessary but it does make a difference in the finished product.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt.

Using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture. You want flakes of butter to be completely incorporated into the flour – it should look like oatmeal. Do this as quickly as possible, but also as completely as possible. When you are happy with the mixture, use your whisk to just combine everything together again.

Pour over the vanilla and cream cheese, and again using your hands, quickly and evenly work these two ingredients into the mixture. You will see that they bind the flakes together and you will have an extremely soft dough.

Take the dough out of the bowl, and on a clean surface, knead a couple of times, using the palm of your hand to smear the dough away from you. This will lengthen the butter flakes within the dough.

Roll the dough into a ball, and divide into two.

If you are making slice cookies, fashion each half into a log, and wrap well with parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes before slicing and baking. These also freeze bloody well, so you can always have a fresh baked cookie to hand!

If you are making cookie cutter cookies, wrap each half in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 20 minutes.

Take dough out of fridge, and centre each half between two sheets of parchment paper, about the length of a jelly roll pan. Using a rolling pin and light movements, roll out the dough between the sheets, to about 1/4 – 1/8th inch thick, and refrigerate again. If you are working in an extremely hot climate, you can freeze the rolled out dough for a few minutes so it is quite stiff.

Place the parchment on a flat surface, and gently peel the top layer of parchment off the dough. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the dough, and gently transfer the cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Any scraps, you can re roll and recut into cookies, but make sure you rest the re rolled dough in the fridge or freezer before cutting cookies out of it!

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the edges just begin to brown (I burnt one lot, by the way, and they were DELICIOUS!).

Cool on a rack before glazing.

Royal Icing

  • 2 cups confectioner’s (icing) sugar
  • 2 tbsp meringue powder
  • 3 – 5 tbsp warm water
  • 3 – 7 drops of food colouring (I chose red – because PINK is our theme – of course!)

Sift the confectioner’s sugar into a medium bowl. You dont have to do this, and it usually turns out fine, but this just makes sure there are no lumps!

Add the meringue powder, and stir to combine. Add 3 tbsp of water, and whisk well. You can whisk with a balloon whisk or with an electric whisk, but you really want to combine the mixture until the icing is thick, and forms gentle peaks. Add more water if you need it – I like quite a liquidy glaze – dont worry, with the addition of the meringue powder, it hardens!

Add food colouring, a drop at a time, and whisk well to combine, until the royal icing is tinted to your desire.

Do note that I added a drop of vanilla to the icing – it made it taste quite good, but it did change the colour from light pink to darker pink.

cookieAssembly

  • Sugar Cookies
  • Royal Icing
  • Decorations – I used sanding sugar, pink and silver glitter, sparkling sugar, and sugar hearts – optional – you might want the beautiful elegance of a glazed cookie – but I was looking for exploding fairy pink!

You need to work systematically when icing these cookies.

Arrange the un-iced cookies in a tray lined with parchment paper. Have next to you the royal icing in a bowl, covered with a tea cloth (to keep it liquid), a mug, half filled with warm water, a tea spoon, and whatever decorations you want to use.

Ice 4 – 6 cookies at a time by taking a teaspoon of icing, and pouring it over a cookie, using the back of the spoon to smooth the icing over.

Once up to 6 cookies have been iced, decorate them with your sparkly sugary delights. Then go on to the next 6. The reason you do this is so that the icing does not harden before you can decorate it.

Add more water to the royal icing if it becomes too stiff – but do this literally half a teaspoon at a time – you will be amazed how it reacts to just a few drops of water.

Let the icing harden for at least 2 hours before packing the cookies into an air tight container. They can be refrigerated for up to 3 days before serving.

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Butternut Couscous

23 Sep

With Walnuts + Goats Cheese + Red Wine SauceToday we started getting in gear for Queen Z’s 1st Birthday Party. Did most of the shopping and I prepared the butter cookies for baking tomorrow morning. So tonight, we wanted a good and simple meal that would nourish us and keep us going! I decided to cook the butternut that has been sitting on the table looking at me friendly like for the last couple of days. My friend, Floating Lemons, posted a recipe on my Facebook page that inspired me.

I decided to make roasted butternut and combine it with toasted spiced walnuts and some gorgeous blue goat’s cheese I found at the market. I wanted to serve it with spinach couscous, which I have made before. As the recipe was coming together, I decided that the butternut and couscous together would be a bit dry – so I made a red wine orange sauce on the fly! I combined the butternut with the walnuts and cheese, placed them on the green flecked couscous, and drizzled the wine sauce over. It was delicious! And a great example of how a recipe can expand as you make it.

This may seem a little complex, but to be honest, I made the whole thing in one small saucepan (with a tight fitting lid!), and a roasting dish. We all have too much on our plates for me to start cooking with a thousand pots, so the recipe will reflect the step by step process I went through. It feels and sounds quite complicated, but if you read the recipe a few times, you will see that its really easy peasy!

I started the butternut roasting and then got on with the rest – toasted the walnuts, chopped the cheese (which you can omit easily if you are vegan), made the sauce and the couscous. By the time the butternut was ready, the other ingredients were just waiting to be combined!

This meal will serve 4 hungry greedy people or 6 refined ones. You can easily cut it in half as well, or double it if needed. Enjoy!

Roasted Butternut

  • 1 medium butternut, peeled, seeded and chopped
  • 9 – 12 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F).

In a large bowl, using your hands, combine the butternut, garlic and olive oil. The oil should lightly coat the butternut, not overwhelm it. Salt and pepper lightly and mix again with your hands to combine.

Line a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the butternut and garlic in a single layer on the pan, and roast for at least 30 minutes (it can go up to about 45) or until the butternut are soft, and slightly caramelised around the edges.

Once the butternut has roasted to your preference, take out of the oven and set aside to cool a little.

Toasted Walnuts

  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1 tsp (or more) paprika
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • A few drops (literally) of olive oil

Chop the walnuts into small chunks, and put them into a non stick saucepan.

Place saucepan over medium heat, and start to toast the walnuts. You need to watch quite carefully so they dont burn, and stir often with a wooden spoon. If you are worried, lower the heat a bit. The oils in the walnuts will release and you will smell the wonderful, unmatchable scent of toasted nuts. Gorgeous.

Once the walnuts have just started to toast, sprinkle the paprika, red pepper and salt over the walnuts and stir to combine. Wait for the spicy scent to hit you and then drop a few drops of olive oil over all, and stir. The olive oil will help the spices adhere to the walnuts.

Toast for about a minute or so more – and taste to see if its to your liking. If so, take off the heat, and set the walnuts aside. I put them in a teacup!

Red Wine Orange Sauce

  • 1/2 cup good red wine
  • 1/4 cup orange juice – fresh squeezed is best but if you only have orange juice from a carton thats fine too – it will be a bit sweet, and you might have to adjust accordingly.
  • 1 tbsp butter (or Earth Balance margarine if you are vegan)
  • Salt to taste (I only used a tiny pinch)
  • 2 tbsp sour cream (or heavy cream – or if youre vegan, use coconut cream or soy creamer/milk – oat milk would be good here too) – optional

This is not tons of sauce, its just a lick to give moisture and flavour.

Clean out the saucepan, and combine the red wine and orange juice together. Over high heat, bring the mixture to the boil, and boil quite rapidly until reduced by at least a third, and up to half.

Whisk in the butter or margarine, and add salt to taste. You should have quite a thick winey sauce – almost a glaze – with a strong orange flavour. Orange goes beautifully with butternut, so this will only brighten its amazing taste.

Whisk in the sour cream, if using, until the sauce is smooth. Taste and adjust salt. You could add some pepper as well, though I chose not to.

Pour into a teacup or mug (or small bowl, if youre fancy!) and set aside.

Spinach Couscous

  • 10 oz (about 280 g) box of couscous
  • 1 3/4 cup water
  • 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1 cup raw baby spinach, minced

Clean out your saucepan again, and  heat water, butter or olive oil and salt until the water comes to a full boil. Stir in the couscous, and take the saucepan off the heat. Cover with lid, and allow to sit for five minutes.

Mince the spinach very fine.

Remove the lid from the saucepan, and using a fork, fluff the couscous. Add the spinach all at once and mix thoroughly to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Assembly

  • Roasted Butternut and Garlic
  • Toasted Walnuts
  • 1/2 cup blue goat’s cheese or chevre (optional)
  • Red Wine Orange Sauce
  • Spinach Couscous

The roasted butternut should have cooled a bit to room temperature.

In the roasting tin, combine the butternut, walnuts and cheese (if youre using). Mix well. Drizzle about half of your red wine sauce over and toss gently to combine.

Arrange the spinach couscous on a serving platter or in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, and place the butternut mixture into the well. Drizzle the rest of the red wine sauce over, and serve. Enjoy with loved ones.

PS – the leftovers are divine for lunch the next day, tossed together as a salad – or you could bring the whole thing on a picnic as a salad – its good cold too!

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Vegetable Soup with Matzoh Balls

19 Sep

With Matzoh Balls!My sister and I caught the Baby Queen Z’s cold, so we are all a tad miserable. Even though its a gorgeous day outside, colds and flus almost demand a good, homemade vegetable soup. When we were little, it used to be a chicken soup with matzoh balls, so I decided to make them and add them to the vegetable soup. Matzoh balls are a supremely comforting Jewish tradition – matzoh cracker meal, combined with salt, egg and a bit of soup stock to make dumplings. Eating them feels like being enveloped in a pure cashmere blanket. And when youre ill, they are very nourishing.

I went vegetarian with the matzoh balls, though I did find good vegan recipes here and here. To be honest, I just wasnt up to trying the vegan version … not feeling focused or well enough to pay attention to multiple ingredients. But the soup is vegan – and I made it creamy and thick by whizzing it up with my immersion blender. Literally less than a minute and all those amazing veggies were pureed in a silken mass. I made the matzoh balls and boiled them in the soup pot (with the soup safely stored in a heatproof bowl) and then when they were done, introduced them to the soup.

Good, healthy, nourishing and full of vegetable love. Sure to make us all better in a jiffy!

Vegetable Soup

This makes 1 big potful. Adjust the vegetables to what you have in the fridge, but note that I almost always use onion or leek or both, carrot, and a can of plum tomatoes. Everything else comes and goes, but those are the constants 😉

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 leek, chopped
  • 3 small carrots, topped and tailed, and roughly chopped (leave the skin on)
  • 1 zucchini, roughly chopped (skin on)
  • 1 can plum tomatoes in their juice
  • 1 cup potatoes, chopped (skin on)
  • 1/2 head of rapini or broccoli, chopped
  • 1 cup chopped spinach
  • Salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, over medium heat, heat the olive oil and saute the onion and leek until they go soft and slightly melty, and a little browned along the edges. This is quite important as they form the basis of the soup, so you want to cook them long enough to caramelise a bit. This can take up to ten minutes depending on heat source.

Add the carrots, stir to combine, and let them soften, about three to four minutes.

Add the zucchini, stir to combine and let it soften, about two to three minutes.

Open a can of plum tomatoes in their juice, and pour over the soup base. I usually use one hand to hold and pour the tomatoes, and the other hand to catch the tomatoes as they fall into the soup and lightly crush them.

Fill the can with water twice, and add to the soup pot. Stir everything to combine.

Taste and lightly salt and pepper.

Add the potatoes, rapini and spinach, and lower the heat to a soft simmer. Allow the soup to simmer for about 20 minutes, checking every ten minutes or so to make sure there is enough liquid in the pot. If there isnt, top it up.

Adjust salt and pepper.

You can eat the soup just as it is – broth and wonderful chunks of vegetables. But when I am ill, I like a smooth soup, so I take it off the heat, and use my immersion blender to make a really thick silky soup. The choice is up to you.

Matzoh balls

To be honest, you could use just about any cracker in this soup – saltines or oyster or water biscuits would all do. But if you have matzoh, use it – there is something very particular about this delicious taste that owes itself to the matzoh meal. Also, if you use salted crackers, adjust salt accordingly.

This will make for quite a salty unboiled mixture. Dont worry. A lot of the salt will boil out in the pot.

  • 1 cup matzoh meal
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 2 tbsp soup stock

To make the matzoh meal, take a matzoh cracker or two, break it up into smallish pieces, and place in a sturdy ziploc plastic bag. Using a wine bottle, rolling pin or other hard, heavy implement, smash the matzoh cracker until it is dust! Very therapeutic 😉

In a small bowl, combine the matzoh meal and the salt. In a separate small cup or bowl, beat together the eggs, oil and soup stock until combined well. Pour the egg mixture over the matzoh meal, and stir lightly to combine. It will be quite sticky and soft.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

To boil the matzoh balls, transfer the soup into a large heatproof bowl. Its okay if a bit of soup remains – this will enrich the boiling liquid for the matzoh balls.

Fill the pot with water, and bring to the boil.

Take the matzoh mixture out of the fridge, and using your hands, make small balls (about 1 inch in diametre) and drop them in the boiling water. Remember that matzoh balls expand to more than twice their size, so dont make huge balls!

Boil for 20 – 30 minutes, or until cooked through. You will know when they are completely cooked when you cut through one and it is light and fluffy all the way through, having absorbed enough water to cook the insides.

Transfer the cooked matzoh balls to the soup, drain and rinse the pot, and transfer soup and matzoh balls back. Reheat gently. Eat and feel better!

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Spinach Croquettes with Tomato Garlic Mushroom Sauce

18 Sep

With Tomato Garlic Mushroom SauceThe Tiny Queen Z (M’s baby) was having a tough day today. She is teething AND has a cold! Poor thing! But it also meant that my sister was completely exhausted, having been up every hour on the hour with the baby last night, and having to be with her all day today. I wanted to make dinner that would really feel like an indulgence, but be easy to eat, quick and extremely tasty. First I thought of a simple tomato and garlic pasta, but pasta can sometimes be too heavy. We have huge amounts of spinach in the fridge (and its so good for energy and strength) – so I thought spinach croquettes!

These arent the “traditional” croquette, made with mashed potato and rolled in breadcrumbs. To be honest, thats quite an involved recipe, and I wanted to get dinner on the table in under an hour. This actually took about 30 minutes all told, and it was really good. Simple, bold flavours, hot and comforting, the indulgence of fried foods, and yet the healthiness of spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes – simply cooked, without too much fuss.

This is easily convertible to a vegan dish. In the croquettes, substitute almond meal or ground almonds for the parmesan (they give the same wonderfully nutty hit) and a few tablespoons of soy milk to bring it all together instead of the eggs. In the sauce, you could either leave the vegetables clean, or you could substitute wine or soy or coconut milk for the sour cream. Any which way, this is a wonderful meal — it makes people feel comforted and happy. We needed that today!

Serves 4 people. Makes approximately 10 croquettes / patties.

Spinach Croquettes

  • 2 tbsp olive oil (plus a drizzle of truffle oil or roasted sesame oil if you have it for depth of flavour – but not neccessary) plus more for the frying
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar or red wine or vegetable stock
  • 4 – 6 cups raw baby spinach, rinsed, and then chopped fine
  • 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (I used Panko crumbs, but you can really use anything – whole wheat would be lovely, as would sour dough)
  • 2 eggs (vegan substitution: 2 – 4 tbsp soy milk or coconut milk)
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan (vegan substitution: ground almonds)

In a medium saucepan, over medium high heat, saute the onion until it is soft and glossy, about 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and dried basil, and mix to combine. Add the balsamic or wine to the onions, and mix well. This will just soften the onions a little bit more, and add even more flavour to the dish.

Add the baby spinach in 2 batches, stirring until the spinach is just wilted, a few minutes. There will be some liquid in the bottom of the pan – this is great! You want it 🙂

Once all the spinach has been added, and lightly cooked, transfer the entire contents of the pan to a heatproof bowl.

Tip in the breadcrumbs and eggs and stir very gently just to combine. The mixture should come together easily. If not, add water, a tablespoon at a time. You want the mixture to bind together, but lightly – you dont want it mushy and wet.

Add the parmesan or ground almonds and mix lightly.

Put in the fridge to firm up while you make the sauce.

Once you are ready to eat (about 10 – 15 minutes before hand), preheat your oven to 100C (200F), and place a pan in the oven. Sprinkle a medium to large non stick frying pan with a touch of olive oil and place on medium heat. Make palm sized patties of the spinach mixture, and saute for about 4 – 5 minutes on the first side. You should be able to get 3 – 4 croquettes in a frying pan.

Flip the croquettes and saute for about 3 – 4 minutes on the second side. As you make the croquettes in batches, transfer the cooked croquettes to the pan in the oven to keep warm. Otherwise, place on serving platter, and cover with a dishtowel or paper napkin.

Tomato Garlic Mushroom Sauce

This is wonderful with the spinach croquettes. It is wonderfully tomato-ey, sweet and slightly gooey. The mushrooms give it depth of flavour too … I use this sauce on everything – on toasted bread for bruschetta, with pasta, as a filling for a decadent omelette. Its a great sauce to have on hand and it gets put together in a matter of minutes.

  • 1 1/2  tbsp olive oil
  • 5 – 7 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 cup mushrooms (I used portabello), peeled and sliced thinly
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 – 2 cups baby tomatoes (I used a mix of baby heirloom tomatoes which were amazing!), chopped
  • 2 tbsp sour cream or soy milk (optional)
  • Pinch of sugar (optional)

In a small frying pan, over medium low heat, saute the sliced garlic cloves in the olive oil. Let the garlic saute for about 5 minutes or so. You want it to get soft and slightly sticky, and lose its bitterness. This extended cooking time really allows the garlic flavours to bloom and soften. Its critical. Be patient. Everything else goes quite quickly.

Bring up the heat, and add the mushrooms in two batches. You want to encourage the mushrooms to lose their liquid, and just start to brown a little on the edges. They will go slightly caramel and sticky in the pan. They wont do this if you put too many in at the same time, which is why you are doing this in two batches. This should be the work of minutes, and watch carefully – you dont want the mushrooms to burn, but rather to brown.

Once the mushrooms have browned, season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the baby tomatoes all at once. They will immediately start to melt in the high heat, and their liquid will bubble and start forming a lovely sauce. Mix everything together well and taste. Add sour cream or soy milk if you want a creamier sauce, and add a tiny pinch of sugar if the tomatoes are not very sweet, to bring out their tomato essence.

Serve the sauce over the spinach croquettes. YUMMY.

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Rice + Greens + Omelette

16 Sep

Greens OmeletteWe went to the food mecca, Whole Foods, the other day and I saw some gorgeous broccoli rabe or rapini. Its kind of like kang kung, bok choi or kai lan back home, but it has these lovely little broccoli like florets hiding in the deep green leaves. Its also incredibly bitter, which can be a nicely astringent flavour, but it needs to be managed carefully, and juxtaposed against creamy, sweet and salty in order to truly shine.

Tonight, I was looking for a really simple Asian inspired meal, because we have been eating rather richly of late. I wanted something clean, and yet rather toothsome. I decided to saute the rapini with sesame seeds, and a sweet salty sauce. But in order to manage its bitterness, I simmered the rapini in water for a few minutes before draining it and running under cold water. This fixed its colour and flavour, and allowed the rest of the saute to happen in minutes. It also mitigated that deep bitterness that some people find too pungent.

With it, I served plain jasmine rice, which to me is food of the heavens. I love rice, and I cook it how my mother taught my sister, and my sister taught me. That is, without measurements, but by eye and rule of thumb. And I made a very simplified omelette which I cut into strips and served on the side. If you are vegan, just saute some tofu instead. Its all good, and makes for a light, quick, easy meal… with enough leftovers, hopefully, to make fried rice the next day!

This recipe will feed 4 – 6 people depending on amounts, which are totally up to you, as you will see!

Jasmine rice

Everyone has a different way of making rice. Usually at home, I make it in a rice cooker, but my sister believes in old school.

Take 1 medium saucepan, and pour in some rice. I usually try and cover the bottom of the pan, up to about halfway up the pad of my thumb, may be an inch or so of rice… This should serve 4 people, but if you want leftovers, add more. Rinse the rice in the pot with cold water, draining the water out from the rice to get rid of a bit of starch. Do this at least three times, or until the water runs clear.

Make sure the rice is in an even layer at the bottom of the saucepan. Pour in enough water so that if your thumb is resting against the top of the rice layer, the water comes up to the first joint fold of your thumb. I swear this works for just about anyone….

Put in a pinch of salt, and bring the entire thing to the boil. Once it has boiled, reduce to simmer, and cover with a tight fitting lid. Allow to simmer until the rice is done, about 15 – 20 minutes. Once the rice is completely cooked, fluff with a fork and serve.

Its that simple, and that difficult … it is a matter of getting a feel of the rice, a feel for your own hands and measurements, and a feel for the timing of the thing. But it does work, and it is really easy once you get the hang of it!

Rapini with Sesame Seeds

  • 2 – 3 cups rapini (about 1 head)
  • Water
  • 1/4 cup sesame seeds
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp oil – olive, canola, vegetable or sesame, your choice

For the sauce:

  • 1 tsp honey or agave syrup if you are vegan
  • 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 – 2 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp soy
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp minced ginger
  • 1 tbsp chili sauce (I used Lingam’s from home)

Prepare the rapini: cut off the bottom of the stems, and chop the rapini in small 1 inch chunks.

Fill a large frying pan with water, and bring it to the boil. Tip the rapini in and boil for about 2 – 3 minutes.

The rapini will turn a deep emerald green. This is good. Once it has boiled for a few minutes, tip it into a sieve and run cold water over to stop the cooking process. Set aside.

Make the sauce. In a teacup or small bowl, combine all the ingredients, whisk with a fork, and taste. Adjust so it is sweet and nutty and salty and hot all at the same time. Add or subtract to your liking. Set aside.

In the same frying pan, toast the sesame seeds. Once they turn light brown, and give off that distinctive sesame scent, add the oil and chopped onion. Saute for a minute or two until the onion has become soft.

Add all the rapini, and cook for a few seconds, mixing in the sesame seeds and onion with the rapini.

Pour the sauce over, and allow to bubble a bit.

Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve in a bowl, with a spoon to scoop up the sauce and pour over the rice.

Asian omelette

This serves 4 people – I always use 1 less egg than the number of people I am serving. Adjust accordingly. Also, I use a spice mixture I got at a Japanese grocery. It has seaweed, nuggets of wasabi and sesame seeds. If you cannot find this, add some crumbled dried seaweed strips (usually coated with soy or teriyaki) or just add some sesame seeds and may be half a teaspoon of mustard.

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp Japanese spice mix or as in note
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp oil

Whisk together the eggs, sesame oil, spice mix and soy sauce in a small bowl, and set aside.

Heat the small amount of oil in the same frying pan as you cooked the rapini until it just shimmers.

Pour in the egg mixture and lower the heat to medium low. Allow the omelette to cook through, shaking the pan every so often, and using a spatula to encourage the uncooked egg to go to the bottom of the pan.

Once the omelette has cooked through, use your spatula to segment the omelette into quarters. Place on a cutting board or a plate and slice finely into thin strips.

Serve with rice and rapini for a beautiful juxtaposed light meal.

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Mushroom, Leek + Zucchini with Spinach Couscous

15 Sep

mushrooms leeks and zucchiniI dont know what it is, but the last couple of days I have been completely enveloped by colour when I cook… Yesterday, I made a green spinach pie, before that a green pasta, and a few days before a bright pink-fuschia raspberry pie. Today, I was also thinking about colour, but I wanted something bright and sunny because all of us were sad to say goodbye to Essia. I came up with a quick and easy meal that tastes amazing – sauteed leeks, mushrooms and zucchini, all tinged yellow with turmeric, and couscous, its sunniness modified by the addition of bright green spinach.

It was a happy meal – and its flavours while mellow, had a slight zing to palate. This combination can easily be made into a vegan dish by the exclusion of the sour cream (or substitution with some soy milk). I was looking for spices and herbs to accent the dark notes of the mushrooms and the roasted sweetness of the leeks – turmeric has an earthy quality, and paprika a mild sweetness. Combined with the tang of basil and the rounded richness of dijon mustard, they added layers of flavour to this meal that elevated it into specialness.

I added a few sliced tomatoes right at the end for their spark of colour and their finishing sweetness. Please do as you wish, though if you do have some beautiful small tomatoes around, they are a summery addition to this perfect stew. I also minced and added about a cup of raw spinach to the couscous. You cant really taste it, but it is so good for you that sliding it into the buttery perfection of couscous is a good idea – getting some raw green vegetables into the system without any fuss or effort at all.

This recipe will serve 4 people

Leek, Mushroom + Zucchini Stew

  • 2 tbsp olive oil (if you want added flavour, add a few drops of your favourite oil to the olive oil base)
  • 3 – 5 cloves of garlic, sliced fine
  • 1 medium leek, chopped
  • 1 small to medium zucchini, halved and sliced
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp dried or fresh basil
  • 1/2 cup pistachios (or cashews or almonds – pistachios just worked in this for me, but go with what you like!)
  • 2 – 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar or wine
  • 1 cup mushrooms (I used portobello), peeled, sliced and chopped
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 2 – 3 tbsp sour cream or soy creamer/milk OR about 1/4 – 1/2 cup vegetable stock or wine
  • 1  cup baby roma tomatoes, sliced

In a large, non stick pan, over medium high heat, saute the garlic until just softened. Add the leek, and lower the heat. Sautee for about 5 minutes, or until the leek has turned glossy and softened quite a bit. Add the zucchini and sauté until softened. Add the salt, pepper, paprika, turmeric and basil, and stir well to combine. Scute for another few minutes to enable the spices and herbs to bloom.

Add the pistachios (or other nut) and stir well. Saute for another minute or two. Add the balsamic and allow the mixture to simmer down.

Add the mushrooms, and stir well. Cook for about 3 – 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms have let go of their liquid. Add the dijon mustard, and the sour cream (or vegetable stock), and simmer for at least 5 minutes, or until the liquid has bubbled down and reduced to a thick coating over the vegetables.

Take off heat, and add the sliced tomatoes, and mix well. The tomatoes will soften in the heat of the stew, but will not cook down and become mushy.

Taste for seasonings, and adjust.

Set aside while you make the couscous.

Spinach Couscous

  • 10 oz (about 280 g) box of couscous
  • 1 3/4 cup water
  • 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1 cup raw baby spinach, minced

In a saucepan, with a tight fitting lid, heat water, butter or olive oil and salt until the water comes to a full boil. Stir in the couscous, and take the saucepan off the heat. Cover with lid, and allow to sit for five minutes.

Mince the spinach very fine.

Remove the lid from the saucepan, and using a fork, fluff the couscous. Add the spinach all at once and mix thoroughly to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning.

To serve, plate the couscous in a large bowl. Ladle the stew over. Eat and be comforted 🙂

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Essia’s Spinach Pie

14 Sep

Spinach PieTomorrow, Z’s first and greatly beloved au pair, Essia is leaving to go home to Germany. Essia has become part of the family, and today was one of those days of laughter and memory, tears and bittersweet melancholy. Its a time of change, not just for Z,  but for M + B who watch their surrogate daughter leave with ache and love. I think its easier for babies … they love those who love them. Z is adjusting well to Julia, her new love… For the adults though… We have been through partings before, and we know the heart soreness that accompanies leave taking. We understand that change is a part of life, that loving and loss are intertwined. We accept it, but its difficult. It hurts.

And there is not much that makes it better. We just have to live through it, and be thankful for knowing and loving one another. Essia is a special, bright and beautiful young woman, and her departure from this home will be felt deep down in its bones. But she will always be connected to Z, to us, to this family. We know that too, and we look forward to the joy of seeing each other once again.

There isnt much that makes it better… but I can do the one thing I always do, during times of celebration and times of sorrow. I cook. So I made Essia dinner. At her request, Trader Joe’s Truffle brownies (which I jacked up a bit with a sinful amount of white and milk chocolate and some coffee from the pot). And this spinach pie. It was at once rich and comforting, and hopefully conveyed how much we love Essia and will miss her. Sometimes I am not good with words. Sometimes, when I want to offer a hug, I replace it with a pie. I did that here and I hope Essia knows how much she is beloved.

This spinach pie had a secret ingredient. Underneath the spinach layer, I added caramelised onions, simmered in olive oil and balsamic, and a touch of sugar. The onions softened the spinach and made the pie take on layers of love and missing. This pie made me happy too because it had the beautiful greens of the end of summer – when baked in the oven, the spinach goes dark emerald green. So gorgeous. With it, I served a simple salad of raw white corn, fresh and sweet, with chopped carrots and minced garlic chives and wheat grass. A simple balsamic vinaigrette just to bind the flavors. It was the perfect sunshiney juxtaposition to the pie.

As we sat around the table and remembered life together, knowing that tomorrow will bring leave-taking, we were joined by our communal meal. It was such an honour to be able to provide it, not just for Essia, but for M as well.

This pie will serve 6 – 8 people. I made it in a spring form cake pan (9 3/4″) but you can make it in a pie or tart pan if you like. I have also notated how to make this pie vegan – a few simple switches between butter and margarine for the crust, and soy creamer / coconut milk with the spinach. Enjoy with those you love.

Crust

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup grated cheddar or ground almonds or walnuts
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or Earth Balance margarine (or other vegetable shortening), frozen or very cold from the fridge
  • 1 egg (optional)
  • 1 – 2 tbsp ice cold water (for vegan version, if needed for vegetarian version)

In a small bowl, toss together the flour, cheddar (or ground nuts), salt and oregano. Grate the frozen butter (or shortening) over, and toss lightly with your fingers. The mixture should resemble oatmeal.

If you are making the vegetarian version, beat the egg lightly and mix into the flour mixture until the dough comes together. If you are cooking vegan, add the ice water, and combine until the dough comes together.

Preheat your oven to 200C (400F)

Refrigerate for at least ten minutes to let the dough rest.

Once the dough has had some time relaxing in the fridge, take it out and roll out on a clean surface. Transfer to your baking tin, and make sure the edges are even. Using the tines of a fork, poke multiple holes in the dough, making sure to go up the sides!

Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes, or until the crust has browned well. Set aside to cool.

Filling – Caramelised Onions

  • 3 tbsp olive oil (plus, if you have it, some truffle oil for added richness and depth of flavour)
  • 1 large Vidalia onion, sliced into thin rings
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp light brown sugar (or agave syrup if you are vegan)
  • 3 – 5 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or wine if you like)
  • Water

In a large, non stick pan, over medium heat, sautee the onions in the olive oil until they begin to soften. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle over the sugar and a few tablespoons of balsamic, and bring the heat up to high. Cover the onions completely with water, and let the mixture come to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and let the onions simmer until all the water has been incorporated, at least 15 minutes or so.

Taste. Sometimes, if I want a deeper darker flavour (as I did here) I will do this a second time, adding more balsamic and more water, and simmering down again. The first time you go through this process, you will have quite distinct rings of caramelised onion. If you do it a second time, you will have almost jammy caramelised onion, sweet and thick and almost like a sauce. Thats what I wanted, so thats what I did. I leave it to you to decide depending on your sense of taste, and occasion.

Once the onions are to your liking, set aside.

Filling – Spinach

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 – 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
  • 6 cups raw spinach, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 cup “cream” (and by this I mean: half and half or sour cream or ricotta or soy milk creamer or cream of coconut or almond milk or … well, you get the idea. You can mix as well – so a bit of half and half with ricotta, etc. Just decide what you like and add about half a cup)
  • 1/2 cup parmesan (optional)

In a pan or saucepan, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic until just softened, over medium high heat. Add the spinach, and stir until it wilts. You dont want to over cook it, but you do want to encourage it to let go of its liquid. Season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Set a sieve over a bowl, and transfer the spinach to the sieve. Let the water drip through for about 5 minutes or so. You can encourage it by pressing down on the spinach solids. Discard the water, and transfer the spinach to the bowl. Add the cream, and taste. Adjust seasonings.

Using an immersion blender (or transfer to a blender or food processor), cream the spinach well. You want it to emulsify, and you want the garlic and spinach to combine completely. It does not need to be totally liquidised… I quite like it a bit chunky.

Add parmesan if you are using, and taste again for seasoning. You could add some chili flakes if you like a bit of a kick. Set aside.

Assembly

  • Prebaked pie crust
  • Caramelised onions
  • 1/2 cup of grated cheddar (totally optional – if you are vegan, you could use the wonderful Daiya melting cheese)
  • Spinach

Preheat the oven to 190C (375F).

Spread the caramelised onions all over the base of the pie crust. If you are using, sprinkle about half the grated cheddar over. Pour the spinach into the pie shell, and sprinkle with the rest of the cheddar.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or longer. The pie is done when it no longer wobbles ferociously when shaken 😉 or when a knife inserted into the spinach comes out clean.

Let rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. I prefer this at room temperature or even cold.

Eat with love and loved ones. Enjoy the time you have together!

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