Archive for February, 2010

I’m not much of a baker despite liking pastry, breads, and of course, cake.

But I heard good things about an Ina Garten recipe that uses coffee in the cake batter. I tried it out.

I didn’t muck too much with the recipe since I’m not in a secure place to start messing with the careful formulas at play in baked goods. However, you can always play with the flavor profiles a bit.

Ina’s cake calls for coffee in both the frosting and in the batter. I kept things simple. I used a Scharffenberger cocoa in the cake, and used two kinds of Valrhona in the frosting. Because that was all that was left for the big “V,” it was an El Rey (the world’s best chocolate) that got shaved on top.

Ok, that was my only creative contribution: shaved chocolate on top.

The cake itself was moist, although the coffee flavor was not overwhelming. I almost think it could have used a little soaking of something fruity (not for moisture, but for the flavor) such as a berry or cherry something or another.

My only big mistake was only having salted butter at home: since I did, and realized it, I didn’t put salt into the cake, which called for it. Perhaps that’s why the cake is so much better when you get a little frosting mixed in!

Today is St. Valentine’s Day, and Trader Joes was offering these “long stemmed” strawberries. To me, this was a better gift than roses ever were.

After washing the strawberries and the leaves around the stem, be sure to dry them well. I dried them three times to make sure no water was left on the berries. They thankfully could be squeezed well without mushing, so they were perfect.

I used two types of Valrhona chocolate (76% and 42%, I believe) and mixed that with a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 Tbsp. of butter. I melted it all over simmering water, then dunked the berries in, getting a good coat. Since the chocolate wasn’t too thin, you could manage to get a good, thick coat on the berries. I placed the berries on a plate covered in parchment paper.

After 30 minutes of refrigeration to set the chocolate, I took them out so they could be eaten at room temperature.

Bon appétit!

I had little to do with it, but we celebrated the Chinese New (Lunar) New Year last night with some homemade Chinese dishes.

First were homemade pork and chive dumplings.

For 3 hours I wanted to cook my pork baby-back ribs. As the sun was still coming into the kitchen, I grabbed this photo:

of the ribs ready to go into the oven. Five-spice powder, salt, and pepper coated the ribs.

Meanwhile, a special glazing sauce for the ribs was reducing on the stove…

which included things like blood orange juice, ginger, and hoisin sauce. I painted the ribs a total of four times through the cooking process, in the last hour. They were falling off the bone.

Here were things as we were winding down… ribs, fried rice, and brussels sprouts (not sure they are Chinese, but we like them).

Happy Year of the Tiger