Kitchen Wench

Cake is kind of my white whale.  For the longest time, I just couldn’t get it right, despite being able to handle seemingly more complicated things (e.g., pie crust) without incident.  After a slew of failures early on in my baking career (bundt cakes that got stuck in the pan, layer cakes that resembled the leaning tower of Pisa, etc), I came to the sorry conclusion that I might just be better off buying a box mix.  But you can always tell when cake comes from a mix — it’s moist and has a nice texture, but it never tastes homemade.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my fair share of artificially-flavored things, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the taste of real butter or vanilla.

But this cake  is practically idiot-proof:  it is tender, moist, and light every time.  Just like a box cake, except it tastes about a million times better.  The secret is in the buttermilk.  I’ve never baked anything with buttermilk that didn’t turn out amazing.

The original recipe calls for raspberries, but you can use any berry you want.  The other change I made is the addition of almond extract.  Having made this cake several times now, I find that it’s a bit dull with just vanilla.  The almond brings out the sweetness and lightness of the cake and contrasts wonderfully with the berries.  If you don’t like almond flavor, some citrus zest would also work nicely.

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My friend Ilana and I had a baking day on Saturday, and we made this bread recipe from Serious Eats (along with chocolate cake from The Atlantic Food Blog).  The chocolate cake was good, but the bread really exceeded our expectations.   It’s like Fall in a loaf of bread! Personally, fall is my favorite season, partly because of the weather, but mostly because of the food.  So, if you’re anything like me, I think you’ll really like this bread.

Pumpkin Walnut Cranberry Bread

From Serious Eats.  Adapted from by The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread by Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree.

• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
• 5 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 14oz can pumpkin puree
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• Zest of 1 small orange
• 7/8 cup water
• 4 1/8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg
• 2 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 1/4 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 1/3 cups toasted walnut pieces
• Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top of the loaves (optional but makes a great crunchy top)

1. Position one rack in the top third of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350F. Grease 2 loaf pans.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, cooled slightly, with the eggs. Whisk in the pumpkin puree and sugar. Stir the orange zest into the water then add to the pumpkin mixture and whisk to combine.

3.  In a separate bowl, add the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and whisk together.

4.  Pour the dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients and fold gently until almost combined, then add the cranberries and walnuts. Finish with a few gentle strokes combine without over-mixing.

5.  Divide the batter evenly between the 2 prepared loaf pans (batter will nearly reach the top of the pan). Sprinkle the top of each loaf lightly with the turbinado sugar, about 1 tablespoon per loaf, to form a crystal crust.  Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the loaf. [Note: When I made this, I needed to bake them for closer to 75 minutes.  Your experience may vary, but don't fret if it's taking over an hour.]

6. Cool the loaves in the pan for 15 minutes, then carefully turn them out of the pans and place the loaves on a wire rack until completely cooled. Wrap in plastic film and store in the refrigerator. These loaves keep well for 3 to 4 days, and freeze well if wrapped in plastic and then foil.

Makes 2 very large loaves.

This simple recipe is from the September issue of Saveur magazine, one of my favorite food magazines.  Because it doesn’t have a lot of ingredients, it’s one of those dishes where the quality of produce really makes a difference.  In other words, this soup is all about the late summer sweet corn.  Unfortunately, corn in the Mid Atlantic doesn’t compare to Midwestern sweet corn.  If you’ve ever had it, the kernels are plump, juicy, and sweet as candy.  I think it has something to do with the cooler temperatures helping the sugars in the plant develop?  I hear that’s how it works with maple trees… Point being, corn here is not nearly as flavorful.

So, I tried my best with the recipe.  I bought my corn, bacon, herbs, onions, and garlic at the Mt. Pleasant farmers’ market this weekend.  While everything else was great, the corn was small and a little bland.  I had to add some sugar and a fair bit of salt and pepper to punch it up.  If you have great sweet corn at hand, omit the sugar.  Otherwise, with a little doctoring, this makes some pretty tasty corn chowder.

Corn Chowder

Adapted from Saveur magazine

• 4 ears of fresh corn
• 4 strips of bacon, chopped
• 2 1/2 tbsp salted butter
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 rib of celery, chopped
• 1/2 a medium white onion, chopped
• 1 small bay leaf
• 3 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 3/4 lb of red potatoes, cut into 1/2″ cubes
• kosher salt, sugar, and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp sliced fresh basil for garnish

1.  Shuck corn, removing as much of the silk threads as possible.  Working over a large bowl, slice corn kernels off the cob.  Scrape the knife along the cob to remove all the juices.  Reserve 3 of the cobs and slice in half.  Set aside.

2.  In a large pot or dutch oven, heat bacon over medium heat.  Cook until crisp.  Reserve 1.5 tbsp of bacon for garnish, leaving the rest in the pot.  Add butter, dried basil, garlic, celery, onion, and bay leaf.  Cover and cook until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.

3.  Add corn, cobs, milk, and potatoes.  Cover and bring chowder to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.  Skim any foam from the surface of the soup with a slotted spoon.  Discard cobs and bay leaf.  Season with salt, sugar, and pepper.

4.  Remove pot from heat.  Using an immersion blender, puree soup to your desired consistency.  (The original recipe calls for pureeing 3/4 cup in the blender.  I got a little enthusiastic with the stick blender and ended up with a thicker chowder.)  Serve with reserved bacon and basil sprinkled on top.

Makes 4 servings.

Lee and I busted out our new blackberry gin a few Saturdays ago while watching the Capital Pride Parade roll through Dupont.  We subbed the blackberry-infused stuff for regular gin to make some mighty refreshing gin and tonics.  Be sure to include a healthy squeeze of fresh lime to balance out the sweetness. You won’t be disappointed.

Blackberry-infused Gin

• 2 pints blackberries
• 2 cups sugar, dissolved in 1 cup of water
• 2 cups gin

Combine all ingredients in a glass container with an airtight lid.  Mash up berries with a potato masher or large spoon. (I used a meat pounder.) Seal and allow to infuse for 2 weeks, shaking vigorously once a day.  Strain out berries, squeezing out excess juice.  You may wish to infuse for more or less time, depending on how intense you want the flavor.

I’ve been trying to come up with a way to use my rosemary-infused vodka, but it’s a pretty distinctive flavor.   Searching for inspiration, I started thinking about how I cook with rosemary: I like it on lamb chops.  I then thought about what other flavors I had kicking around that taste good on lamb (pomegranate, lemon, saffron, cardamom).  Turns out, they also all taste good together over ice.

And then I realized then when you make up a new cocktail, you have to give it a (stupid) name.  I thought about giving it a name that somehow referenced lamb, but that didn’t sound appetizing.  I googled “rosemary vodka” and got several hits for a drink called Rosemary’s Baby. Rosemary’s Baby, as you probably know, was a novel from the 1960s that was later turned into a Roman Polanski film starring Mia Farrow.  I’ve never seen it, so I decided to check out the plot summary on IMDB.

Well, it turns out that the movie is all about SATAN WORSHIPPERS.

I thought… well, I don’t know what I thought it was about, but satan worshippers was NOT at the top of my list.  Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be naming any tasty beverages after that movie.

Not Rosemary’s Baby

• 2 oz Rosemary-infused vodka
• 1 tbsp homemade grenadine (recipe below)
• 4 oz club soda
• slice of lemon
• dash of Sunshine Bitters

This would probably work better mixed in a cocktail shaker with ice, but this method will work in a pinch.  Combine vodka and grenadine in a glass with ice.  Stir to combine.  Top with bitters and soda.  Squeeze the juice out of the lemon, then drop rind into the glass so the citrus oils infuse the drink.  Stir and enjoy.

Rosemary-infused Vodka

• 2 cups vodka
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Place all ingredients inside a glass jar with airtight lid.  Seal and allow to infuse for 4 days, shaking vigorously once a day.  Remove rosemary.  You may wish to infuse for more or less time, depending on how intense you want the flavor.

Homemade Grenadine

Grenadine, as you may or may not know, it actually made from pomegrante juice.  A lot of people dislike the taste of grenadine, probably because the stuff you get in the store is artificially flavored.  Real grenadine tastes much better and is super easy to make.

• 2 cups pomegranate juice
• 1 cup sugar

Simmer juice and sugar until thick and syrupy.  Pour into an airtight container.  Keeps in the fridge indefinately.

Frankly, I don’t like eating cucumbers all that much.  They’re just so… watery.  And kind of, well… blah.  And every time I try to make a nice vinegary salad with them, they release all their liquid and dilute the dressing.  I’m not even sure if cucumbers have any real nutritional value aside from some fiber, which makes them even less worth eating in my book.

But cucumbers in a drink is an entirely different matter.  In fact, I think cucumber and gin might be the next great flavor combination, right up there with peanut butter and jelly or lamb and mint.  I’ve read that some gins (namely Hendrick’s) are made with cucumber, which explains why the flavors seem to pair so perfectly.  In any event, I really encourage you to try making your own cucumber gin.  It’s super easy and completely worth the effort because it takes the lowly gin and tonic to a whole new level.

Cucumber-infused gin

• 2 cups gin
• 4 garden cucumbers (the little chubby ones from the farmers’ market) or 2  supermarket cucumbers

Peel cucumbers and slice lengthwise.  Scoop out seeds and discard.  Slice or chop up cucumber — the shape doesn’t really matter, you just want to maximize the surface area.  Place cucumber and gin inside a glass jar with airtight lid.  Seal and allow to infuse for 4 days, shaking vigorously once a day.  Strain and discard cucumber.  You may wish to infuse for more or less time, depending on how intense you want the flavor.

Cucumber gin and tonic

• 2 oz cucumber gin
• 4 oz tonic water

Combine ingredients in a glass with ice.  Stir.  Garnish with a slice of cucumber, if you like.

I just took this loaf out of the oven, and it’s so good than I ran to my computer to type up the recipe.  Now, beer bread does not have quite the same crusty texture and tender crumb as a yeast bread, but it’s quick, easy, and you can make it in an hour.  In other words, it’s about as close to instant gratification as homemade bread gets.

One thing I have learned is that baking with beer is a lot like cooking with wine–you should use beer that you’d actually drink.  If you don’t like how it tastes out of the bottle, you probably won’t like it baked either, so it’s in your interest to spend a little extra for something tasty.  I used Young’s Double Chocolate Stout because it is absolutely delicious.  Young’s is made with actual chocolate and is incredibly smooth.  The trick here is to use a beer that has a rich, malty flavor but is not strongly bitter.  This is a dessert bread and a very bitter beer is going to make your bread taste foul.  (I once made a completely inedible loaf out of some Bell’s Porter.  It was a grayish and tasted like burnt coffee–so, so wrong.)

I seem to be on a bit of a cherry kick here, but you could easily substitute a different type of  dried or fresh fruit.  For Christmas, I recieved a giant jar of homemade sour cherry cordial from Lee’s mom, and this seemed like a great way to use up the tipsy cherries left floating in the jar.  Fresh or canned sour cherries in water would also work just as well.

Chocolate Stout and Tart Cherry Beer Bread

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup whole sour cherries, pitted
• 12 oz Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.  Make a well in the center of the bowl and pour in beer and cherries.  Gently fold the flour into the beer, stopping when the dough has just absorbed all the flour.  Be careful not to over mix or stir vigorously, as this will destroy the bubbles and make the bread dense.

3. Pour dough into loaf pan and smooth the top with a spoon or rubber spatula. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Photo by Flickr user IRRI Images

Anyone from the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area will be familiar with my  favorite childhood grocery store chain, Byerly’s.  Growing up, I loved to eat this soup more than… well, any other soup. But I can’t get anything like it in DC, so I’ve tried to recreate it myself.  Of course, I did all this before Byerly’s so kindly posted their recipe on the internet, so it’s not exactly right, but I came awfully close.  Either way, it’s pretty delicious.

Byerly’s Wild Rice Soup

Wild rice almost an hour to cook, so I buy fully cooked vacuum packs of wild rice from Trader Joe’s.  I don’t taste a difference in flavor or texture; it’s perfectly cooked out of the bag.

If  you can’t get your hands on a aged white cheddar, omit the cheese.  I used an English cheddar aged 2 years and it has a rich, nutty flavor that adds a nice depth to the soup.  Regular supermarket cheddar tastes radically different and won’t work.

• 6 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup milk
• 4 cups cooked wild rice
• 1 cup carrots, chopped into 1″ pieces
• 1 1/2 cups celery, chopped into 1″ pieces
• 1 8 oz ham steak, cut into 1″ cubes
• 1 cup grated aged white cheddar
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1/2 tsp herbs de provence
• Salt and pepper to taste

1.  In a large pot or dutch oven, melt butter over low heat.  Once the bubbles have subsided, sprinkle in flour and whisk to make a roux.  Continue whisking until roux is golden brown.  Slowly add the chicken stock and continue whisking to get out any lumps.  Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.

2.  Lower the heat and bring soup to a simmer.  Add milk, carrots, celery, ham, rice, and herbs.  Simmer 10-15 minutes, until the carrots and celery are tender.  Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  (The cheese and ham are pretty salty, so you may not need any additional sodium.)

3.  Remove bay leaf and serve with a sprinkling of sliced almonds.  This soup also reheats and freezes well.

Makes about 6 generous servings.

As I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion, I hate the Columbia Heights Giant.  In fact, every time I go in there, I leave either in a state of total rage, utter dejection, or both.  But I can’t seem to stop shopping there because it’s a few blocks from my apartment, right on my walk home from the Metro.

Giant has a section in the meat aisle called “SOMETHING SPECIAL”, which usually amounts to a few packages of free range chicken breasts and some sad-looking organic steaks.  However, last week I actually did find something special: duck legs!  They’re imported from Canada and what really blew my mind was that they cost less than $3 a piece.  I’d never cooked duck before, but for $2.70, I figured I could afford to screw it up.

As it turns out, roasting a duck leg is pretty much idiot-proof, and it’s delicious.  Roasting is also great because it’s easy, it renders out most of the fat, and the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender.  Lee and I actually split one leg along with a salad, butternut squash, and roasted onions.  For a heartier meal, use two legs.

Five Spice Roast Duck Leg

• 1-2 duck legs
• seeds from half a pomegranate (you could also substitute pomegranate juice for some of the wine)
• 1 onion, quartered
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 star anise pods
• dry red wine
• Chinese five spice powder
• salt, pepper, sugar

1.  Score the skin side of the duck legs with a knife.  Rub a pinch each of salt, pepper, sugar, and five spice powder onto the skin.  Be a little generous with the salt.

2.  Place duck in a baking dish along with the onions, garlic, anise, bay leaf, and pomegranate seeds.  [Tip: The best way to seed a pomegranate is in a bowl of water. Here's a video that shows you how to do it.]

3.  Pour enough red wine into the pan to come about half way up the side.  Cover the dish tightly with foil and roast at 375 for 1 hour.

4.  Remove foil from dish and continue roasting for another 30 minutes until the skin is crispy.  Alternatively, you can crisp the skin under the broiler.

5.  When the duck is finished, pour the excess fat out of the pan and reserve from later use.  (I hear it does wonders for potatoes.)  Serve the duck with pan sauce and roasted vegetables.

Serves 2.

One of my guilty pleasures is buying the occasional issue of Martha Stewart Living. Really, I’m just embracing my future middle-aged woman self… Anyway, the October issue had this big spread about heirloom pumpkins, which come in a rainbow of colors and textures. But I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to find any of these pumpkins because I don’t live in Martha’s Magical Universe, which is populated by heirloom plants, monogrammed towels, antique glassware, and giant Chow Chow dogs.

As it turns out, you can get heirloom pumpkins in D.C.  I found several varieties at the Penn Quarter and Dupont farmers’ markets, including Long Island Cheese pumpkins. I bought a Long Island Cheese because the color and shape was so pretty.  They also happen to be good eating pumpkins, and now that Halloween is over, I decided to cook it.

Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup

This recipe is modified from Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s Silky Coconut Pumpkin Soup from their book Hot Sour Salty Sweet.

I used a Long Island Cheese pumpkin that was about 14″ in diameter (probably 5-6 lbs).  To prepare the pumpkin flesh, I cut it into 6 hunks, removed the seeds, and then roasted the slices with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper for about an hour in a 375 degree oven. I then scraped out the flesh and mashed it roughly with a fork.  You can prepare this several days ahead.

• 4 cups mashed pumpkin
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 (13.5 oz) cans light coconut milk
• 4 slices of high-quality bacon
• 1 small Vidalia onion, chopped
• 5 shallots, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp sweet curry powder
• 1/2 tsp Thai curry powder
• 1/4 tsp ground tumeric
• 1/4 tsp Thai chili powder (or cayenne powder)
• a couple tsps salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

1.  In a dutch oven or other large pot, cook bacon on low heat until very crispy.  Place cooked bacon on paper towels to drain.  Pour off excess fat, leaving about 3 tablespoons in the pot.

2.  Add onions and shallots.  Cook on medium heat until translucent and softened.  Add garlic and cook another minute or two more.  Stir in mashed pumpkin and cook until pumpkin is heated through.

3.  Add coconut milk, chicken broth, and parsley.  Bring up to a gentle simmer.

4.  Puree soup.   If you have an immersion blender, you can do this right inside the pot.  If you don’t, you should get one, because it will change your life.  Barring that, you can puree the soup in a regular blender.

5.  Add spices, fish sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper.  Gently simmer for 15 minutes or so to allow flavors to meld.  Taste and re-season if needed.   Serve soup with pieces of crumbled bacon on top.

Makes about 4 quarts.