Raspberry Cream Roll Cake

It is a shame I didn't get pictures of this in the end, it looked really nice cut into slices. I fell in love with roll cakes ("ro- ru kei-ki" in native Japanese!) in Japan- you can find any manner of these cakes in the depachika stores under department stores at the train station hubs.

Make sure you have the right size pan (rectangular enough to facilitate rolling from one side), I used a 12x 17 inch pan, Joy of Cooking states a 10.5 x 15.5 pan works too. Also, make sure you have wax paper/parchment or foil, otherwise I think this would be impossible.

Since you need to beat the yolks and whites separately, plan for separate bowls and mixers/beaters so you don't contaminate the whites with fat from the yolks.

1. Crack and separate 4 eggs- it is easiest to do this when cold, so I did this first and then waited to beat them (book says to wait until they are 70 degrees). As usual when working with egg whites, make sure none of the yolk gets into your egg white bowl. I stuck the whites in my stand mixer (in preparation for beating them into peaks), and the yolks into a pyrex measuring cup.

2. Find and measure pan- grease, line with foil overhanging edges, grease again (believe me on this). Preheat oven to 375 F.

3. Beak the 4 egg yolks from step 1 until light yellow
4. Gradually add 3/4 C granulated sugar and keep beating until gets thick and creamy- it will change consistency
5. Add 1 tea vanilla and mix
6. In a medium bowl, sift or break up the clumps in 3/4 C cake flour, 3/4 tea baking powder, and 1/2 tea salt.
7. Add the egg yolk/sugar mixture with the flour mixture and beat until "smooth", mine was quite thick.

8. In separate clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry
9. Carefully fold egg whites into other mixture in two batches
10. Pour into prepared pan, bake 12 minutes

11. Remove from oven, pull foil and cake out of pan. Cut off hard/crunchy ends from the cake and use a knife to peel cake off of foil. I flipped the cake over for the shiny top would be on the outside of the cake.

12. Use foil to carefully roll cake into the shape, so when it cools you can re-roll with the filling.

13. Beat 1 small container of whipping cream until thick. Add 1/2 C of raspberry jam and 1/2 tea vanilla.

14. Spread raspberry cream inside cake, carefully re-roll with seam at bottom.

15. Move cake to final plate or serving dish, frost with additional raspberry cream. Refrigerate before serving.

Really Good Guacamole

I've never had much luck with homemade guacamole until reading this book. The trick is to rinse the minced onion before adding it to the guac- rinsing removes that bitter onion taste that has historically taken over any of my aspiring guacs or salsas.

Gently chop into large bits in food processor:
1 large tomato
1 serrano or jalapeno chile
1-2 garlic cloves
3 TB chopped cilantro

Scoop into a serving dish and set aside.

Mince ½ a white onion in clean food processor. Dump minced onion into strainer and rinse under water. Add ½ C of the rinsed minced onion into serving dish with the tomato mixture.

Halve 3 large ripe avocados, remove pits. Using dull table knife, cut a checkerboard pattern into cut side of guac, then use spoon to scoop out into serving dish.

Use back of spoon to coarsely mash avocado. Stir in 2-3 tea of lime or lemon juice and up to 1 teaspoon of salt.

Serve with tortilla chips!

Coconut Panna Cotta (Vegan)

I got my inspiration for this from Heidi's cookbook, but since we don't keep milk in the house I used rice milk, which makes it vegan. This is very fast to make, since it uses Japanese kanten or agar-agar flakes instead of gelatin. You can buy them in either the seaweed/gelatin aisle at an Asian grocery. As a bonus, it is a really light dessert and looks beautiful. I can't wait to serve these with fresh Oregon berries after a BBQ!

Stir in a small saucepan and let sit for 10 minutes to dissolve the kanten:
1 can coconut milk
1.25 C rice milk
1/3 C organic sugar
1.5 kanten (agar-agar) flakes (or use 3/4 tea if you have agar powder)

Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer for a few minutes, stirring until kanten is incorporated. Pour into lightly greased individual ramkeins. Chill until set (40 min to an hour).

When ready to serve, carefully remove panna cotta from ramekins and invert onto serving plates. Top with macerated berries.

Vietnamese Salad Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

This is an all-time favorite at my house. Very healthy feeling, fun to eat, and they will be good when the weather gets too hot to cook. I took cues for the peanut sauce from this wonderful book on Asian cooking.

Prepare the peanut sauce first:
Heat a wide saucepan over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, mince 2-3 cloves of garlic. When pan is hot, add olive oil and garlic, fry until garlic is golden.

Grind 1/2 cup roasted peanuts to small pieces (but not peanut butter) in a food processor. Add to the fried garlic in the pan. Stir fry until peanuts darken and release some natural oil, about 3 min.

Now add:
1 C veggie or chicken stock
1/2 C coconut milk (the lite kind is ok for this)
2 TB tamarind extract
2 TB fish sauce
1/4 C palm sugar or brown sugar
2 minced chilis (either thai or jalapeno chilis)

Continue to gently boil, about 20 min. Serve with cilantro in personal dipping cups/ramekins.

Assemble Salad Rolls:
Cut firm tofu into 1/2 inch logs
Cut half a cucumber into thin strips
Slice green onion/scallion
Grate 2-3 carrots (easiest in food processor)
Optional: soak thin vermicelli/rice noodles in boiling water
Optional: clean break off stems of thai basil leaves

Soak one rice paper wrapper in hot water for 30-45 sec or until soft. Now place on a plate or cutting board, and add the prepared ingredients from above. Roll up tightly like a burrito. As the rolls sit for 5 minutes, they will dry slightly and be easier to pick up. Don't let them sit out too long, the rice paper dries out and gets tough (not good for leftovers).

Serve with peanut dipping sauce. Serve approx 3 rolls with sauce for dinner/lunch.

Black Forest Cupcakes

After months of craving black forest (i.e. chocoate + cherry) cake while in Japan (which does not have such a thing), I finally got around to buying a can of cherries and making these cupcakes.

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pan.

Combine & melt:
8 TB Butter
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
½ C (or 1.5 oz) dutch-processed cocoa

Whisk:
¾ C (3.75 oz) Flour
½ tea Baking soda
¾ tea Baking powder

Whisk:
2 eggs
½ C sugar
1 tea vanilla
½ tea salt

Add chocolate mixture to egg mixture, mix until incorporated.

Sift in flour mixture and:
½ C (4 oz) sour cream or Nancy’s plain yogurt

Whir canned cherries and some of their liquid in a food processor. This is the "filling".

Layer cupcake batter with a spoonful of cherry filling into muffin pans. Bake 18-20 minutes, until skewer comes out clean. Cool.

Frost with cream-cheese-cherry frosting
Whir in food processor:
1 package cream cheese
a little bit of cherry "filling"
about 1/4 C powdered sugar
Drip of orange flavor or liquer

Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies

Excellent cookie- looks amazing, tastes wonderful and deeply chocolaty, and will stand out on the cookie tray. Found this recipe while browsing through this over-the-top dessert cookbook.

Only problem is the caffiene, so I used decaf espresso roast beans (finely ground) instead of regular.

Sift together:
1.5 C (or 7.5 oz) all purpose flour
3/4 C (or 2.25 oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tea baking soda
1/2 tea baking powder
2 tea fine ground espresso (I used decaf espresso roast beans, then ground on "espresso" setting at the store)

Separately, cream:
1 C softened butter
3/4 C plus 2 TB brown sugar (7.25 oz)
1/2 C plus 1 TB white sugar (4 oz)

Add & stir to combine:
1 egg
1 tea vanila
1/2 tea salt

Add sifted flour/cocoa to the creamed butter/sugar in two additions and stir until combined.

Add 1 C chocolate chips and mix into dough.

Cover and rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes (improves the texture of the dough).

Bake small sized cookies in 350 F oven for 5-8 minutes. Basically, you want to have a crust on the top, but still see a little gooey-ness inside the cookie. Take the pan out of the oven and let rest on the hot pan- cookies set up on the pan, and finish baking.

Dinosaur Kale!

This stuff is delicious. I should have taken a picture... Apparently Lacinato (dinosaur) kale is less bitter than regular kale. It is "healthy" and this prep was fast and very good.

Over medium heat, cook minced garlic and sliced shallot in olive oil until it's not raw (but don't burn). Add 1/4 C water and chopped kale. Simmer 5-7 minutes until kale has cooked down.

Add 1/8 tea salt, 2 TB white wine, and 1/2 C veggie broth. Cover pan and simmer 10-15 minutes until the kale is tender.

Top with grated parmesan- goes great with Japanese short-grain "haiga" rice.

Biryani: Spicy Indian Rice with Veggies & Chicken

So I cheated and bought a pre-made spice mix, or "masala" labeled as a kind for biryani. This is an Indian/Pakistani version of a casserole, but oh-so-much-better! Traditional recipes have you layering the chicken mixture with rice and baking, but I think the "stir fry" method is better- the rice soaks up more flavor.

Basic steps are: marinate chicken, cook rice, simmer onions and aromatics with spices, add chicken and gently simmer for 15 minutes, then add rice, and viola.

Start cooking basmati rice (we use a rice cooker). You will use the rice at the end.

Cut up chicken into bite-size-chunks. Marinate for 15 minutes or more in something like this (I just throw the garlic, chiles and onions into the food processor, then combine with the yogurt and other spices):
plain yogurt grated ginger minced garlic salt lemon juice minced serrano pepper minced shallot or onion black pepper cumin

While the chicken is marinating, fry sliced onions in a little oil or ghee.

In food processor, make a paste of onion, garlic, ginger, and serranos. Once the onions on the stove are browned, add this paste and stir, cooking for about 5 minutes.

Add dry spices, or cheat and use a biryani masala (buy at an Indian grocery store for $1-2) and bay leaves. Stir in and cook 2 minutes. Add chunks of tomato and cook covered for a couple more minutes.

Now add 2-3 C water and the marinated chicken. Bring the pot back up to boiling, then reduce heat to barely a simmer and cook the chicken gently for 15-20 minutes.

Once the chicken is cooked and most of the liquid has cooked down, add the cooked rice, one cup at a time until you get the right ratio of the two.

Garnish generously with cashews, raisins, frozen peas, and mint leaves. If you want to be extra fancy, fry the cashews and raisins in oil or ghee for a minute before topping the biryani. The oil puffs up the raisins and gives a flair to the cashews.

Garlic Shrimp and Cabbage, Onion, Cashew Salad

This was such a success I am recreating it for dinner guests tomorrow. The basic premise here is a chopped salad, topped with hot sauteed shrimp.

1. Peel shrimp
2. In hot pan, add olive oil, garlic, sprinkle of salt. Swirl pan until garlic isn't raw (I'm on a garlic kick recently)
3. Add shrimp (in batches if you are serving more than 2 people)- don't overcrowd the pan or the shrimp will cook unevenly
4. Stir a couple times, sprinkle paprika and pepper on shrimp
5. Pour shrimp out on to a plate for serving and top with chopped parsley or cilantro. Reserve for topping salad.

Meanwhile, prep the salad:
1. toast raw cashews in a dry pan, shaking pan, until cashews smell and they have toasted spots
2. cut up napa cabbage and red cabbage
3. thinly slice red onion and green onion
4. Mix cashews, cabbage and onions in large salad bowl.

Top individual plates with salad, shrimp and simple balsamic dressing (balsamic vinegar and oil)

Apples for Dessert

Ever since I bought my first organic apple, I've been hooked. I lost my love for apples about the time I started shopping at Winco, where the apples taste like sugary styrofoam. However, organic apples (Trader Joes, or organic type store) really have flavor.


The simplest dessert is one I dubbed "raw apple pie" I just sliced up the apple and sprinkled cinnamon and rock sugar ("sugar-in-the-raw" or turbinado)









This was also very good- sliced apple with pistachios, coconut and minced cranberries. I drizzled a sweet-tart sauce over the top (proportions are approximate):

1 TB Agave syrup
2 TB Orange champagne vinegar
drizzle of olive oil
drop of almond extract