Carrot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Cream Frosting
By · CommentsI’m not a fan of carrot cake, but I made these anyway since I had carrots and a bunch of mascarpone on hand. They’re not bad, I had a little taste of the cake. I wasn’t crazy about the frosting and I don’t think these were my most popular cupcake. I think the carrot cupcakes I made in cupcake class were probably better.
- Carrot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Cream Frosting (The Craft of Baking, p. 160)
Cupcake Class
By · CommentsI participated in a cupcake class today at the Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell this morning, my second class there this year (taught by Chef Stefany – her blog has lots of good baking tips and recipes). Cupcakes, I made them all the time so it’s not new for me, but I thought I might pick up some good tips and ideas – and I did. The class was really good. We made three types of cupcakes, and I came home with two dozen.
First off was a Chocolate “Mostess” Cupcake, a far superior version of the ubiquitous Hostess Cupcake. It’s a really nice chocolate cake, filled with a cream filling and topped with chocolate ganache and the familiar white frosting loops. Delicious as well as very cute.
The second cupcake we made was carrot cake. Not my favorite at all, but I tried a bit and the cake is pretty good. Very light and flavorful. I love the finishing touches on this – a terrific cream cheese buttercream, toasted coconut around the edges, and little marzipan carrots that we made in class.
Last off was my favorite. I’m solidly in the chocolate camp when it comes to desserts, and am not a big fan of traditional meringue or lemon meringue pie. This cupcake is reminiscent of lemon meringue pie, but infinitely tastier. The cake is similar to a pound cake but not quite so heavy. The cupcakes are filled with a bit of lemon curd, then topped with a silky swiss meringue.
I took a few of these to a family gathering tonight and they were a big hit. Pretty to look at and really delicious.
- Chocolate “Mostess” Cupcakes with Cream Filling and Ganache Frosting (Professional Culinary Institute, Cupcakes Galore)
- Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing (Professional Culinary Institute, Cupcakes Galore)
- Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcakes (Professional Culinary Institute, Cupcakes Galore)
Fresh Fig Ice Cream
By · CommentsI love figs, especially roasted or grilled with a little cheese and honey. I’ll eat them fresh or dried out of hand. So I figured now that figs are in season, I should try out this fresh fig ice cream. It tastes – figgy. Creamy figgy flavor without that fig texture to go with it. It’s odd. great texture, but I want a little honey with it. I tried mixing a little honey in, but it overpowered the fig flavor. Maybe cooking up the cream with a touch of honey might work, but I’m not sure I’ll make this again.
- Fresh Fig Ice Cream (The Perfect Scoop, p. 80)
Nonfat Gingersnaps
By · CommentsMy quest to find the ultimate ginger/molasses/spice cookie continues. The perfect cookie is sold at The Cheese Board in Berkeley, but I haven’t been able to replicate it yet. The cookie is chewy and dense, and on the large side – and thick. I want to taste the molasses and spices. Every cookie I’ve made is fine as far as flavor, it’s the texture I haven’t gotten right yet.
These are good but are too light to be The Perfect Cookie.
- Nonfat Gingersnaps (David Lebovitz)
Normally I only cook scallops in a pan. Seared, it’s the only way I really like them. But… the new grill. It’s shiny and novel, so much nicer than the 10-year-old grill it replaced. Larry did the grilling tonight. I was busy working on the side dish. Although with the side burner attached to the grill, I could have done everything outside if I had everything prepped.
I was surprised – I really liked the scallops this way. I think it had more to do with the avocado vinaigrette and cilantro pesto than the cooking method. And the corn and zucchini, what’s not to like about cheesy sauteed vegetables (although we never had anything like it in Peru).
The gelato comes out of another book I have checked out from the library. In fact, another book I suggested they buy. It’s delicious and tastes just like lemon poppy seed cake. The texture is a little off – chalky – but I’m pretty sure that’s because I accidentally let the base come to a boil. I’m looking forward to trying more recipes from this book. It might go on my “must buy” list.
- Grilled Sea Scallops with Avocado Vinaigrette and Jalapeño Pesto (Bobby Flay’s Grilling For Life, p. 84)
- Peruvian-Style Corn & Zucchini (SF Chronicle)
- Lemon-Poppy Seed Gelato (Making Artisan Gelato, p. 96)
Cream Tart with Blackberries
By · CommentsChicken tonight was very simple, just chicken thighs tossed with garam masala and grilled. I tried something different with this terrific potato salad, used grilled potatoes instead of boiled. Yeah, boiled is the way to go.
Our farm share has been giving us zucchini and summer squash every week for the past few weeks now, and we’re overloaded. It’s a pretty new farm, so they’re still getting the hang of moderating supplies. Courgettes Nicoise is a great way to use up a lot of squash – I used a mixture of zucchini and summer squash. I should mention that I’m very picky about squash. If it’s even slightly overcooked, ick. I won’t eat it. I prefer it grilled, barely cooked, or roasted. The squash in this recipe are cooked until tender, but then it’s mashed and cooked down to remove excess water. Then pesto, olive oil and parmesan is mixed in. Really delicious. I used basil from last week’s farmshare to make up a quick pesto but even store-bought (in the prepared foods section) would probably be okay.
And then the tart. I bought Seasonal Fruit Desserts recently, despite my major effort to cull my cookbook purchasing. I justified it several ways – first, I love Deborah Madison and have most of her cookbooks already. I have a major weakness for fruit desserts. And she recently gave a talk and signed books at Omnivore Books, so how could I resist? This is a nice tart, creamy and not too rich.
- Grilled Chicken Thighs with Garam Masala
- Courgettes Nicoise (SF Chronicle)
- Creamy Avocado Potato Salad (Vegan Brunch, p. 123)
- Cream Tart with Blackberries (Seasonal Fruit Desserts, p. 139)
Grilled Equadorian Shrimp
By · CommentsOkay, this book looks interesting. I first saw it at Borders, and when I found out our local library didn’t carry it, I asked them to purchase it. And, as is the case more often than not, they did! I just checked it out and decided to cook all of tonight’s meal from the book. Everything was really good, although there were a couple of issues. The shrimp were easy and trouble-free. I cooked up an entire pound of shrimp, because it’s great to have on hand in the refrigerator. The arepas seemed a little loose, and it was tricky getting them onto and off of the grill. The batter needed to be more of a dough than a batter, but once we got the hang of it, they turned out great.
There’s an error in the salad recipe (which isn’t really much of a recipe). It calls for firm avocados for grilling (and the photo shows grill marks on the avocado), but the instructions don’t say anything about grilling the avocados. Luckily I’m a fan of grilled avocado so I had no problems winging it. I know a lot of people aren’t fans of grilled salads, but I kind of like it.
- Grilled Arepas (Latin Grill, p. 37)
- Grilled Caesar Salad (Latin Grill, p. 47)
- Grilled Equadorian Shrimp (Latin Grill, p. 37)
Frango com Piri-Piri
By · CommentsOur last (and most memorable) meal in Lisbon, we had some of the delicious grilled chicken that’s served all over Portugal – frango no churasco. It’s marinated and grilled with piri-piri sauce (Portuguese hot sauce), garlic and smoked paprika. I made up some piri-piri last night and we marinated a Kosher chicken (my favorite) overnight. Piri-piri peppers aren’t found in the US, so I used a mix of generic red chiles along with a serrano and a jalapeno. Store-bought hot sauce such as Tabsco can be used in place of the hot peppers.
My most favorite way to cook a whole chicken is to butterfly it. But since the new Monster Grill has a rotisserie on it, we figured we’d try it out. It worked great, and the chicken came out juicy and flavorful and practically falling apart. So much nicer than store-bought rotisserie chicken. We had a nice little corn saute alongside.
- Frango com Piri-Piri (The New Portuguese Table, p. 118)
- “Creamy” Tex-Mex Corn with Lime (Fresh & Light (Williams-Sonoma Lifestyles , Vol 8), p. 84)
Blueberry pie
By · CommentsAgain with the grilled pizza – also good, nice with some smoked mozzarella. This is the best blueberry pie ever. The filling is thick enough that is doesn’t gush all over the place when cutting in to it. Great crust, and the filling isn’t too sweet.
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- Smoky Corn & Black Bean Pizza (EatingWell, June/July 2006)
- Grilled Butter Lettuce with Buttermilk-Chive Dressing (Fine Cooking #105, June/July 2010, p. 42)
- Blueberry Pie (The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook)
Queen Margherita Pizza
By · CommentsA momentous occasion, we finally decided to replace our trusty, 10-year-old Weber Genesis grill. We’ve been saying we should replace it for the past few years, and I noticed that we were grilling less and less each year. Most of the time we tend to grill year-round, although the frequency dips when it’s cold or rainy (that’s when the grill pan comes in handy).
The new grill is gigantic and shiny stainless, another Weber because they make a great product and have excellent customer service. This one is from the Summit series, more than either one of us wanted to spend on a grill, but we found a great price and justify the cost because we’ll hold on to it for at least another ten years.
I knew as soon as we ordered it that the first thing I would make on it is pizza. When Larry and I first started dating, I practically lived on grilled pizza. I lived across the street from a pizza parlor and would pick up dough from them (I hate making pizza dough). Grilled pizza is an excellent single person’s food. Easy, versatile, very little clean-up. I taught Larry how to make it and we’ve enjoyed it together ever since.
The trick to grilled pizza (or any pizza if you ask me) is simple, fresh and high quality ingredients. Margherita is by far my favorite pizza. I’m not a fan of meat on pizza. We used Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough. We’re a little out of practice but I’m sure we’ll re-master the grilled pizza very soon.
- Queen Margherita Pizza (Pizza on the Grill, p. 25)
- Grilled Butter Lettuce with Buttermilk-Chive Dressing (Fine Cooking #105, June/July 2010, p. 42)
