Recipe: Cucumber and Avocado Salad

This Cucumber and Avocado Salad recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine (May 2012, p. 50) really should be called Cucumber, Avocado and Celery Salad.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how the salad was going to turn out, but it was really good, flavorful -- and healthy.

It basically involves macerating cilantro springs, ginger, chiles, salt, sugar and cucumbers together for 35 minutes;  then taking the cucumbers and adding thinly sliced celery, lime juice and oil to it and topping it all with avocado, cilantro and basil.

Easy!

Tips for next time:

• Cut the celery, cucumbers and avocado in large pieces like in the magazine photo
• Use red pepper flakes instead of 2 dried chiles de arbol because I couldn't taste the chiles at all

Recipe: Beatty's Chocolate Cake from Ina Garten

I used my super fun Nordic Ware Mini Tiered Cakelet pan that I got for Christmas for the first time and prayed that 1) the cake batter that I never had made before would be good and 2) that the cake would come out of the pan.  We were bringing these over to our friends' house, so if it didn't work out, the backup plan was to create a crumbled up cake trifle for dessert.

But my worries were for naught.  It turned out perfectly!!!

I'd been on a mission to find a GREAT (meaning phenomenal) chocolate cake batter recipe, and I found it.  I Googled "best chocolate cake recipe," and Beatty's Chocolate Cake courtesy of Ina Garten came up in the search results.  With 1,825 reviews and 5 stars, I was pretty confident that it'd be good -- except for the fact that I was using a (new) cakelet pan, not 2 round cake pans so I wasn't sure how long to bake the cakes.

Tips:

• Using my cakelet pan, it took the same amount of time to bake as the recipe calls for
• The batter filled the cakelet pan plus 7 cupcake liners
• The batter was very watery -- but that's why the cake is so moist!
• The top of the cake is a bit sticky (but again, very moist)
• We did not make the chocolate frosting;  made chocolate ganache instead as you can see

This recipe is a keeper!

Recipe: Triple-Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I love carrot cake.  And the recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine (from their Oct 1994 issue) that I wrote about last year (see below) is just, well, amazing.  Worth every bite, every calorie.

A few additional tips and learnings from this time. . .

• I was a little lazy and decided to make 2 layers instead of 3.  Don't do that with this recipe.  The cake in the middle sank in both pans, so that it was a bit concave, and we had to do cake surgery to make each layer flat in order to layer the cake.
• We made candied pecan pieces to sprinkle on top which added nice flavor/crunch.
• Like the dabs of cream cheese frosting that blog contributor (or shall I say non-contributor) the grandcruman added?
• Next time I'm going to try to decrease the oil from 1 1/2 cup to 1 1/4.  The cake is plenty moist, so I bet we can cut it down.

Original Post:  6/19/13

I made the best carrot cake I have ever tasted (almost as good as Truluck's carrot cake) this past weekend for Father's Day.  OMG.

The Triple-Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is from Bon Appetit Magazine from October 1994.  I found this recipe while searching on epicurious.com -- I was looking for an amazing carrot cake recipe -- and saw that it had 696 reviews and was rated 4 forks, which is the highest rating, however was a little skeptical because the recipe looked too easy and uses really basic ingredients.

Wow, there's a reason that it has a 4 fork rating.  It is absolutely delicious, and so if you are a carrot cake lover, you must try out this recipe.  The flavor and texture are perfect.  Most carrot cakes I've tasted are too light & airy and don't have enough 'stuff' (e.g. carrots) in them.

To make the cake even more decadent like the one at Truluck's, next time I'm going to make a caramel sauce to drizzle on the top and add candied pecans on top.

Note:  I did make 1.5x the cream cheese frosting just to make sure there was enough to frost the cake!  I'd recommend it.

Recipe: Tomato-Basil Sauce with Polenta

The Tomato-Basil Sauce with Polenta recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine's June 2012 issue (p. 34) was eh, mediocre.

It simply involves:

• mixing extra-virgin olive oil, chopped up cherry tomatoes, garlic cloves, a shallot, basil and salt & pepper
• putting it in a sealed parchment paper package (en papillote) to bake
• and then spooning it over baked or grilled polenta

A few issues with this recipe:

• There's way too much garlic in it.  7 thinly sliced garlic cloves?!?
• The tomato juice sauce runs everywhere because it's not thickened.  (I guess you can spoon up the juice and drink it?)
• The polenta needs to be seasoned with salt before grilling or baking it.

The idea of the recipe is good (plus, it's very healthy), but it just didn't come together for me as one that we'll do again.

Recipe: Sunchoke-Kale Hash with Farro

Don't be scared by this recipe's name.  We had never cooked sunchokes or kale ourselves, and it was so easy!

This Sunchoke-Kale Hash with Farro recipe was named Best Grain Dish in Food and Wine Magazine's March 2013 issue (p.60).  The magazine was featuring the 20 best-ever recipes, and this one made the list, coming from F&W Best New Chefs of 2009 Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo of Animal and Son of a Gun in Los Angeles.

This is a healthy, hearty and TASTY dish despite the ingredient list that doesn't sound super flavorful:  farro, sunchokes, kale, red onion, oyster mushrooms, extra-virgin olive oil, butter, salt and pepper.

Here are some tips:

• Added garlic with the mushrooms
• Added red pepper to add a little heat
• Squeezed lemon on the dish at the end to add some brightness
• Sprinkled it with Maldon sea salt when serving

Surprisingly, we found sunchokes at our local "regular" grocery store.  Peel them like a potato and cook them per the recipe.  I just love the texture of sunchokes.

With us moving toward a plant-based diet, this recipe fits quite nicely, and we'll definitely be making this recipe again! 

Documentary: Forks Over Knives

Last weekend we watched the documentary Forks Over Knives (recommended to me by my sister).  It has completely changed how we eat and will impact our lives forever.  

The research for eating a plant-based diet is incredibly compelling.  While we won't be giving up meat and dairy completely, we already have made a conscious effort to decrease the amount that we consume.  The link between meat (this includes poultry and seafood ~ anything that has a 'head') and health issues especially cancer is primarily what has compelled us to eat differently.  

No more milk in our household! 

We've switched to almond milk now!  

Ok. . . we still have half and half for coffee. . . 

This past week's meals were filled with farro, barley, and lots of salad & fruit.  I'll be sharing recipes that we're still making from Bon Appetit, Food and Wine and Saveur magazines -- but will be slightly modifying them to decrease the amount of oil, dairy and meat called for in the recipes.  

All in all, I'd highly recommend watching Forks Over Knives -- watch it on Neflix or borrow it from the library.  I bet it'll change how you eat too.

White Pinot Noir (or Pinot Noir Blanc) is becoming more popular and common, but really, it's not a new thing because Pinot Noir grapes are often used in Champagne or sparkling.

4/14/14 article by Jessica Yadegaran:  White pinot noir?  Like Champagne, without the bubbles

An excerpt:

What do you get when you pick cool-climate pinot noir grapes early, press them ever so gently, and limit skin contact? White wine.

But not just any white wine. Pinot Noir blanc, a rare, dry wine that's popping up in the Anderson Valley, is a bracing beauty: Complex, earthy and clear as crystal, it's unusual enough to stump even the geekiest oenophiles.

The method isn't unusual. In Champagne, it is how producers craft blanc de noirs, sparkling wine made from red grapes. The still version is becoming increasingly common in Oregon, too, where WillaKenzie, Domaine Serene, Anne Amie and others are making luscious examples of white pinot noir.