Recipe suggestion: Soy-Sesame Zucchini

I may not have tons of time to tell you all about what I've been making myself, but here is something I found that will appear on my building's menu next week. The whole blog looks pretty cool, and includes nice pictures, but I really should get back to writing... ick.

Soy-Sesame Marinated Zucchini (original found here)
4-6 servings

4 medium zucchinis (about 1 1/2 lbs), halved lengthwise and chopped to 1/2-inch thick half-moons
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Combine all ingredients and toss to coat evenly. Cover and chill for 3 hours or up to overnight, turning once or twice to evenly distribute the marinade.

Nutrition information (based on 4 servings): Cal - 58 Fat - 1.5g Protein - 3.2g Carbs - 7.4g

Daring Bakers' August Challenge - Ice Cream Petit Fours

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

(Written while cake is baking:) First, I would like to rave about beurre noisette. Browned butter. Whatever you want to call it. I wasn't sure how this would work, and was a little cautious making it. But ohhhhh my. Noisette means hazelnut in French, and it's called that because the butter turns brown and gets a delicious nutty flavor. Like a kind of unbelievable one. And oh-so-awesome. Just the batter for the cake is wonderful, I can't wait to see how it is cooked! And with the ice cream I picked... excited!

Which ice cream, then? The amazing delicious lemon ginger one that I used last month! It was so tasty, but I only got one spoonful of it and I didn't find the time to make it again. I was so excited when I realized I could do it for this month's challenge. I *do* have the recipe for you this time, unlike last month when I totally lied and never posted it. (Sorry.) I decided to try to be a little healthier and used half and half instead of heavy cream. I'll let you know if that turns out to be an ok thing.
Ok, it has all been made (and eaten!) now. The icecream was still really good, but I think that if you decrease the fat like that you *really* need to make it in an icecream maker. It was more icey than creamy. Which made it hard to bite with the cake. The cake itself was really good, as expected. I will definitely make it again! I decided for the ganache to use a cooking light recipe that I have made before to go on a (peanut butter chocolate) cake, which was delicious. Unfortunately, it was a little thick, so while it's still pretty, it's not quite as pretty as I wanted. I'll quit talking now and let you see the prettiness:


The Ginger Lemon Ice Cream recipe is one I tinkered with, while the others are straight from their original sources. Enjoy!

Ginger Lemon Ice Cream
Yields about 1 quart

2/3 cup thinly sliced fresh ginger
2 cups heavy cream (or half & half, if you like)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
Zest of 2 Lemons
5 large egg yolks

INSTRUCTIONS
Cut the ginger into thin slices. In a saucepan, place the ginger slices and add just enough water to cover. Bring the water to boil and blanch the ginger for two minutes. Drain. Save the ginger and discard the liquid. (This is important! Ginger has the lemon-like ability to curdle milk if not blanched.)

In a separate bowl, combine the finely grated lemon zest, sugar and milk. If you have a clean processor, throw the sugar and lemon zest into it. Mix with milk thoroughly until the sugar dissolves.

Place the reserved ginger back into the saucepan. Add the milk mixture, half a cup of cream and salt. Warm the mixture. Once warm, remove from the heat. Cover and steep for at least an hour or up to a whole day. I did overnight.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks.

Rewarm the ginger mixture. Remove the ginger slices with a slotted spoon. Dispose of the ginger. Slowly pour the warmed mixture in the egg yolks and continue to whisk.

Once combined, return the egg-ginger mixture to the saucepan. Over medium heat, stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spoon until it thickens and coats the spoon. Strain the mixture into a bowl and combine with the remaining cream.

Immediately chill the mixture in the freezer. Once thoroughly cooled, freeze it in your ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Get the other recipes by clicking below.

Making it official

Hi everyone. I have been telling myself this was unnecessary, but seeing how things are going and knowing it's still summer, I must admit it aloud. I am pausing my blog for the most part until I have more time. My thesis is due December 3, so I'm hoping to get back to normal after that. We'll see. I may post from time to time, but it won't be the 2-3 times a week that I was aiming for.

I will definitely continue with the Daring Bakers' challenge, do not worry! That means you'll at least get a splurge every month on the 27th. And if I carry a camera around more often, I should get more pictures of food that I have made for the house. We'll just have to see how it goes.

'See' you later!

Daring Bakers' July Challenge - Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

Yikes, I went through all the trouble of making this, and then forgot to post it on time! NOOO! Well, I'm only a day late, I'll have to hope that will do.

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

My freezer was having issues getting cold enough, so my cake was pretty soft. I decided to keep the chocolate cake with whipped cream inside, but added just a touch of cilantro to the cream. For my two kinds of ice cream, I went with ginger-lemon and coconut (I'll post the recipes soon for you.) The Ginger-Lemon is now officially my favorite and was AMAZING. The coconut was coconut. So, good, but not anything to drool about. I may pretend I have time to make the ginger-lemon one again this weekend. So tasty.

First, a picture of the separate parts, to get you started:

And then, the beautiful cake:


I served it outside, so while I had hoped to get a pretty pick of the layers, it was hot out and started melting really quickly (in addition to the freezer problem) so by the time I had cut a few pieces, it was no longer pretty. At all. Oh, plus it was 11pm, so the lighting was bad. See, I tried to take a pic outside before we got smart and moved it to the hallway:

Tous mes excuses...

All my apologies! So, where the heck have I been??

I happen to be in charge of feeding 60 college students at the moment. I live in a co-op, and right now I have to feed people breakfast, lunch and dinner, all while keeping them happy and staying within budget. A budget that equals about $130 per person, per month. Not too bad, but not fantastic, either.

Here's how it works:

1. I get a cool meal idea into my head.
2. I write down said cool idea and make sure it has a meat entrée, a vegetarian entrée, a carb side and a vegetable side (plus all dinners have salads.)
3. I go dig up recipes for said cool meal.
4. I print out recipes and put in kitchen for cooks.
5. I look in pantry, fridge and freezer to see what ingredients we still need.
6. I order ingredients from various outlets and, on occasion, go to the store to pick some up myself.

Not too bad. It's the finding recipes that is the hardest part. Loads of things don't scale up well. Have you tried to cook for 60 people lately? Yeah, I didn't think so. Actually, I don't do the cooking. But I have done it before, so I know what works or not, to an extent. I have some resources for large-scale recipes, but they often aren't that cool. Try finding beef korma for 50. Or bibimbop for 60. (If you do find them, let me know, they are two of the ones I'll need to print by Sunday night!)

Luckily, once the cool recipes are found, I can scale them up with a nice program I have and then pull it out again in 3-4 weeks so people can have more of it.

I really should be taking pictures. I really should be putting my recipes, on a smaller scale, here for you. Even if I am not cooking, I can still take credit as the evil overlord, trying to trick people into eating more healthy foods.

I think I'm winning.

Daring Bakers' June Challenge - Chocolate Pavlovas

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

I will add more, including the recipes, tomorrow, but I have to have this posted today! So here it is for now. (And oh, yeah, I finally had time to make sthg!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!)

S--er, Tuesday Splurge: Ginger Syrup and Candied Ginger

These go together because one is the result of the other. Unless you set out to make them both intentionally, which is even better! This 'recipe' takes a decent bit of time, but not a lot of attention. I think it's a cool use for left-over ginger, though you could also peel it, wrap it up and keep it in the freezer (thanks, Karen!)

I can't remember where I got the idea, so I apologize to whichever foodblogger put this into my head :) It's less of a recipe and more of guidelines. I'm actually not quite sure what I'm going to do with it. I may try to throw the ginger in the processor and sprinkle it over gingerbread the next time I make it. The ginger syrup has only been used in a rhubarb compote I made today. (Which I ate with plain yogurt and granola - YUMM!) I'm gonna try to make ginger ale with club soda. I think it would be good with any fruit, drink, icecream, or yogurt. I used the photo from this person because it looks a decent bit like mine. Will take a photo when I remember, but I wanted to get this up.


Candied Ginger and Ginger Syrup
Serves: Depends on what you use it for! Time: An hour or so

Ginger
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water

1. Peel your ginger and then slice very thinly. This will make it take less time for the pieces to give their juice to the syrup and suck up sugar themselves.

2. Put about sugar and water into a small sauce pan with the sliced ginger. Turn on to low. Stir gently until sugar dissolves and let it simmer for at least 30 minutes. Add more sugar and water if your ginger is not covered. You will want to add more water if the bubbles while it boils look really big. That's a sign that it's a lot of sugar and will be solid when you pour it out, not syrup.

3. When you're tired of waiting for them to boil, take them out and put them on a wire rack to drain and dry.

4. After it cools for a bit, pour the syrup into a container to keep in the fridge.

I am still alive

First - FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!!!! I have officially turned in everything. I had one test. Wrote one 22 page paper. One 26 page paper. And gave a 4th semester French final and graded it. The last thing I have to do this semester is hold office hours on Monday in case anyone wants to see their grades. Why am I telling you? Because I know I've gotten woefully behind in my updates. I promise it will change. Probably tomorrow. But right now, I'm gonna tell you my favorite cereal.

Lightly Frosted Shredded Wheat. Post brand. What's the brand matter? Well, there are three ingredients: wheat, white sugar, and brown sugar. I like that. The other main brand puts in corn syrup and gelatin and some other stuff. I'd rather pass, thanks. I keep two cereals on my shelf - shredded wheat and granola. I eat them almost every morning, and always with soy milk (regular milk isn't my friend.) And a banana. Or apple. Sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day to prepare a more filling and "real" meal, but I don't want my easy food to be crap. That would be no good at all.

Ok, I do believe it's bed time :)

World's Healthiest Brownie!

Ok, I can't say for sure that they are. But they are by far the healthiest brownie I've had the pleasure to devour. Yet so moist and fudgy Let me show you a picture, to get your mouth watering.

These are another delightful product of Cara's kitchen. I made them last night and then fed bites to basically everyone who walked by. Everyone thought they were good. Many people did comment that they are not as sweet as standard brownies, and that's just fine in my book. I ruined one guy's world after telling them how wonderfully healthy they are after he had his bite. One of my friends has been experimenting with gluten-free recipes and was happy to learn that this one is, too.

In some ways, I wasn't sure if these should be considered dessert or main course. Yep, you read that right. So, why then? The main ingredient is black beans. Yep, plain ol' beans. With avocado as another key ingredient. No, I didn't lose my mind, it really is that brownie picture. And they really are good. Cara mentioned that they are better if you let them sit overnight, but I could never let them ALL sit. Actually, I was glad because I think I prefer them the first day. This way I know, though, and that is useful.

Below is the amazing recipe. I really like that it only uses one 'bowl' - the food processor (or blender.) She used egg replacer, I used real eggs. Sometime I'd like to try them with flax. She used agave nectar, I used honey. Both work, but maybe this is part of the reason I preferred them on day 1! I upped the servings to 16 (she had 12) just because I am picky and like my brownies to all be nice squares. Feel free to make 12. Or 9. Nine would be nice squares, too...

Black Bean Avocado Brownie
Servings: 16 Time: 15ish to prep, 30 to cook

1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 eggs
1/4 cup honey
1/2 of a ripe avocado (I measured, mine was 6 Tbs)
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 Tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons instant espresso

- Preheat oven to 350º F. Line an 8x8" pan with parchment paper.

- Combine black beans, eggs, honey and avocado in food processor. Blend for a few minutes, until completely smooth. Add remaining ingredients and continue blending until fully combined, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Batter will be thick.

- Spread into parchment-lined baking dish. Bake for 30-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the brownies comes out clean.

- Yay, so easy!

Nutrition info (for 1/16th of recipe): Calories - 150 Fat - 2.0g Carbs - 27.7g Protein - 7.4g

Saturday (non) Splurge: Healthy No-bake Cheesecake

You know, I just realized after typing this all up that it's not actually a splurge at all! It's delicious. It's pretty darn healthy. You could easily replace the sugar with your favorite other sweetener if you'd like to decrease the carbs and calories (listed at the end) even further. This is just good food. Let me give you a little background on this wonderful treat. I don't like NY style cheesecake. I do like ricotta cheesecake, but it takes a lot of time. This one takes a little time, but not your effort. What effort, then? Let me tell you, friendly reader.

Blender. Or Food Processor. It does its thing over a little time. As long as you don't do it by hand (I used an immersion blender on the test batch last night - took too long) you will can do something else while your machine whirs away. "Umm, ok, what are we blading to death?" Cottage cheese! Yep, you read that right. Cottage cheese cheesecake, my dear friends, is at the heart of this delicious dish. I got the inspiration for this from Cara's Cravings. I think she's my new best friend, even if she doesn't know it.

She mentioned that she blends up cottage cheese with sugar and some kind of flavoring to make a cheesecake-flavored treat. Well, I figured, if it tastes like it, why not throw in a stabilizer and make it into one? Amazingly, I could find NO recipe for such a thing. Not that they don't exist, they might well could. They just did not appear in my search. Which meant I had a mission: to figure out how much gelatin to add to make it stay solid.

I think I more or less got it. I put in too much gelatin in the big batches (we have large bags of plain stuff here) but I corrected for it below. I made two kinds: peanut butter and chocolate. Mmmmmm. And are they that gross, heavy, fat-laden crap you get from the store? (see, i told you i don't like NY cheesecake) Not a chance! Even though my people agree that the texture is a little off (only b/c of the gelatin, one I did alone was right), the flavor is on for a no-bake. Hooray! I put mine into a pre-made graham cracker crust, because I found a box of them in the pantry, but do what you think works. The recipe *is* the size of one of those, though. If anyone tries this out in a regular dish, let me know how much or if you increased it and I will include that info as well.

The cottage cheese blends nicely to a thick, creamy consistency. It may look a little grainy in the end, you can sort of see it in the chocolate picture (on the right) but you can't feel it in your mouth and it tastes good.

No-bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Serves: 12 (could be 8) Time: 5 minutes of yours, 15-20 minutes total, plus 2+ hours to chill

2 cups 2% cottage cheese (one 16 oz container)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs peanut butter
1 packet gelatin (about 2 1/2 teaspoons or 7 grams)

- Put 1/4 cup cold water in a microwave-safe bowl and sprinkle with gelatin. Let set while you continue.
- Put first four ingredients in your blender/processor. Let blend until you see no recognizable cottage cheese lumps. You will still see little grainy bits, though.
- Microwave gelatin 30-60 seconds (microwaves are so different!), until completely liquid
- Turn on blender/processor and slowly pour gelatin into it if you have an opening through which to do so. If not, add small amounts at a time and mix after each addition.
- Pour into pre-made shell, or to do crustless, just pour into 8" pie tin (or 6-8" spring form pan)
- Place in fridge, allow to chill for at least two hours or until set

Chocolate variation: Increase sugar to 1/2 cup, replace peanut butter with 1/4 cup cocoa powder

Nutrition info (1/12th of peanut butter cake, no crust): Calories - 80 Fat - 2.8g Carbs - 7.8g Protein - 6.2g

Nutrition info (1/12th of chocolate cake, no crust): Calories - 60 Fat - 1.0g Carbs - 7.9g Protein - 5.5g

Nutrition info (1/12th of store bought crust): Calories - 98 Fat - 5.0g Carbs - 20.7g Protein - 0.8g