Carrots Do Have A Place in Cake

Carrot cake is like a presidential candidate. Everyone knows carrot cake. Many like it and some can't stand it. Everyone has an opinion.
"It's more about the cream cheese frosting than the cake."
"Next time you should make little orange carrots out of the frosting."
"Carrots have no place in cake."

These are just some of the opinions I collected when I brought carrot cake into work. I was reluctant to bring it in because I thought it was a delicious recipe and wanted to keep it all for myself. But I figured it would be best to not eat half a sheet cake.

Who thought to put carrots in a cake? It sounds like a ridiculous idea, and yet it's delicious. Are there any other vegetables we're forgetting to put in desserts? Cabbage eclairs? Artichoke ice cream? Cucumber flan? Radish rice pudding? I could go on...

My recipe was from Cooking Light, noted as receiving the test kitchen's highest rating at the time it was published in 2005. It was a traditional rendering of the cake. Packed full of moist shredded carrots, a touch of cinnamon, brown sugar, butter, and eggs. Buttermilk added moisture without as much fat. Nothing unusual like coconut, pineapple, raisins, or nuts in the recipe. The cream cheese frosting was similarly straightforward, blending cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. No distinct flavors like maple, orange, or Irish cream. (For these and other unusual carrot cakes, search on Epicurious) A plain and simple traditional carrot cake was exactly what I was looking for, and it turned out exactly right.

Growing up, I had no idea about cream cheese frosting. I didn't know that a requirement of carrot cake was that it was cut square with a thick white layer of frosting on top or cut as a wedge just so each piece got its own orange frosting carrot. I thought carrot cake was baked in a bundt pan, sliced so that each piece was the shape of a gumdrop, and served unfrosted. I thought this because carrot cake was the only American dessert my mother knew how to make (now she makes whiskey cake quite often too), and that was how she made it. She had acquired a recipe from someone, and made it every time we had guests - which was often since my parents love to entertain. I remember standing at the mixer adding in coconut and mounds of carrots, watching the batter turn a pale orange, folding in the nuts. It was a hearty and dense cake. It could have taken you out back and roughed you up a little, so you didn't forget it was made of vegetable. It was its own breed of cake.

Traditional carrot cake is gentle, with a light, airy crumb. I like my Cooking Light version for those characteristics, and for not being too sweet or rich, but it does leave you craving more cake. I liked my mother's cake for being ultimately satisfying and filling.

Cooking Light recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1054818

Mom's recipe: TBA

Splenda

A quick comment on Splenda. I like using Splenda in place of sugar in some desserts. I don't understand the full chemistry of it, but it has worked really well in banana bread, white chocolate cheesecake, and peanut butter cookies. I would not recommend it for ice cream or the microwave brownie recipe. The distinction appears to be in the number and strength of other flavors in the recipe. White chocolate cheesecake, for example, has sugar in the white chocolate and that flavor dominates the cake so Splenda works just fine. There are also many other ingredients in it like cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. In ice cream, the sugar is combined with cream, milk and maybe one other flavor, so the flavor of the Splenda has nowhere to hide.
In the microwave brownie I have a feeling the chemistry of the Splenda combined with the microwave cooking method just didn't get along. It was hideous.

Too Much For One Night

There was something about this recipe that I was drawn to. I think it was the chive crust. I was looking at a recipe for beef and leek pot pie. You always hear about chicken pot pie, but rarely beef, and it sounded infinitely better than chicken. And I never get to cook leeks! Or do anything with chives. I put beef and leek pot pie on my list for the week.
The only problem was the amount of prep work required. Cut 1.5 lbs of beef into 1 inch cubes and brown it. Chop up onions, celery, carrots and potato. Make and chill the crust. Cook the beef (essentially making a stew) for an hour. It was really a weekend kind of meal. I decided to make it on a Tuesday night.
I got home at 6:30 and was in the kitchen sharpening my knives by 6:40. I started chopping and prepping. I had already cut up the meat in the morning but that only saved me about 10 minutes. I spend 40 minutes chopping the vegetables and browning the meat. Then everything went into a big pot to stew for an hour.
In the meantime I made the crust. Crust is always made the same way. Mix up dry ingredients like flour, salt and chives. Add the fat - in this case, shortening, and create a coarse meal. Add ice water until just moist enough to come together in a dough. It turns out I didn't have any ice water ready, and I never filled my ice cube tray since moving in. Ice water is used for making crusts to keep the fat in solid form while the dough comes together. Later when the dough is in the oven and the fat melts, it leaves pockets of air which create a flaky crust. Otherwise the crust can become gluey and dense.
I put a mug of water into the freezer and waited for it to chill. I finished prepping the vegetables that were to be stirred into the stew before putting it in a pan to bake. I whisked some flour with beef broth, which would be used to thicken the stew. Finally my water was chilled, my dough formed and went into the fridge. It was supposed to chill for 30 more minutes.
At this point, the stew had been stewing for the appointed hour which meant it was nearly 8:30. I allowed the dough a mere 15 minutes of chilling time while I poured the stew into a pan. Then I rolled it out, slapped it onto the stew where it barely covered the entire pan. (Note that the recipe called for 11X7 and all I had was 13X9.) Another 20 minutes for the pot pie to bake and then it was ready. I was too tired to eat more than a small square.

Beef and Leek Pot Pie
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1714572

Pros: Uses less common ingredients like leeks and chives, loaded with veggies besides leeks like carrots, potatoes and peas, and everyone likes a good crust
Cons: Takes way too freaking long to make

Conclusion: Make a beef stew. Enjoy. The next day, make a crust and pot pie the leftovers. It's just too much for one night.

Five Minute Brownie

Yesterday I made a brownie. No, not brownies. One brownie. Better yet, I made it in under five minutes.
How does one make a brownie that fast? One way is to buy Betty Crocker Warm Delights: http://www.bettycrocker.com/Products/Warm-Delights/ But what if I'm home at 9pm and craving dessert? I don't want to go out and buy something. If I have the raw ingredients, I don't want to spend an hour making and baking a pan of brownies. The solution is the very simple five minute brownie - made in a mug.
This recipe from Instructables.com (via the Chicago Tribune) can be mixed in a few minutes and then is microwaved for 1 - 1.5 minutes. That's it! It's not as good as a great brownie mix which is often more dense and intense. But the reward to effort ratio is enormous. I found that the portion was pretty large and I only needed to eat half of it in one sitting (I at the other half later that night) so it could serve two, but I wouldn't bother cutting it in half. I also found that the cooled off brownie that I ate later was actually more dense so I think some of the liquid had evaporated. If you can hold off from immediately digging in, it might be worth letting the brownie cool. But then five minute brownies aren't made for holding off.

Microwave chocolate mug brownie

4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa
Dash of salt
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp vanilla

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large coffee mug. Add oil, water and vanilla and mix thoroughly, making sure there are no clumps of flour left at the bottom of the mug.
Microwave on high for 1 to 1.5 minutes. It should not be quite set in the center. Cool a couple of minutes and eat right out of the mug.

See http://www.instructables.com/id/Mug_Brownie/ for comments and suggestions for alterations to the recipe. People have added peanut butter, baking powder, powdered sugar, peppermint candy, etc.

Hot Dish

Another new cookbook I have that I forgot to mention is The Great Minnesota Hot Dish, which I received as a going away present when I left Minnesota. For the uninformed reader, "hot dish" in Minnesota is like casserole in the rest of the country - a pan of meat, cheese, veggies, and/or rice and perhaps a tater tot or two, which is combined with a canned creamy soup and crunchy topping, baked, and brought to pot lucks, wakes, or served for supper. I have a dish towel which displays hot dishes by region across the state of Minnesota. In the twin cities, it's Tater Tot Hot Dish and Bologna Supper, in Duluth it's Shepherd's Pie, near the Boundary Waters it's Foil Packet Dinner, in the northwest corner it's Jiffy Tuna Hot Dish and Hawaiian Meatballs, and right before you cross into Fargo it's American Chop Suey and Impossible Hamburger Pie.
The names are often better than the flavor, I'm guessing.

The cookbook recipes ranged from the safe: Chicken and Rice Hot Dish, Swedish Meatballs, Cheesy Spaghetti Hot Dish, and Cheesy Fish, Rice and Asparagus
...to the gourmet: Tuna Broccoli Brie Hot Dish, Salmon with Saffron Rice, Dilled-Scalloped Potatoes
...to the downright disgusting: Spam Hot Dish, Dried Beef Hot Dish, Tofu Potato Hot Dish

I'm not too keen on making things like hot dish because I end up with far too many servings for one person (I don't want to eat hot dish for a week) and pouring canned soup over everything doesn't strike me as the best way to add flavor. But I'll give any cookbook a try.

I tried a very safe recipe to kick things off: Chicken Artichoke and Rice. With chicken pieces (I used thighs), frozen artichokes, and long grain rice, it was a hot dish with no surprises and simple flavors. Rice cooked in chicken broth with garlic, onions, lemon juice, and herbs had wonderful flavor and the only problem was there was not enough of it. The proportions seemed to be way off with only a half cup of rice for four servings. You should estimate about 1/3 cup of rice per person you want to serve. The chicken would be tastier if it were marinated in lemon and garlic overnight. But then hot dish is not known for flavorful meat. Still, I would make something like this again with tweaks to the recipe.

Next hot dish on the horizon: Maybe Parmesan Shrimp Hot Dish. No canned soup, and if I can get over the combo of clam juice and catsup in the recipe, I might like it.

Unplanned Pumpkin

Each week I pick out some recipes to make, write up a grocery list, and get around to making some but not all of my recipes. Sometimes I can't find one ingredient, like dried porcini mushrooms, or I have lunch plans or dinner plans, or my leftovers last longer than I expected. But sometimes I'll have a week like this one where I ate everything in my fridge over the course of the week, and I ran out of planned dinners by Thursday night (actually by Wednesday night - maybe I didn't plan so well).
I came home at 7:30 on Thursday and looked in my freezer. The four remaining potstickers in the package looked good. While I cooked the potstickers (pan fry for a minute until they are "potstuck" or brown on the bottom, then add a couple tablespoons of water, cover the pan and steam for 5-6 minutes. This gives you a great texture on the potsticker, different from steamed dumplings. I guess I could write a whole separate entry on dim sum!), I looked back in my freezer. I spotted a tupperware of frozen canned pumpkin, leftover from making pumpkin biscuits. Pumpkin freezes really well, so don't be afraid to try a recipe that leaves you with leftover canned pumpkin. Throw the extra in a tupperware in the freezer, I've used it months later. The pumpkin biscuits had required such a small amount of pumpkin that I had nearly a whole can left. Immediately I hit on the idea of making pumpkin soup.
I chopped a carrot and half an onion and started cooking them in a small quantity of butter while the pumpkin defrosted in the microwave. The carrot and onion base, commonly combined with celery, is called a mirepoix in French cooking, and is the base for quite a few soups. Then I added the pumpkin to the pot, with several cups of chicken broth made from bouillon, salt and pepper, and allowed the soup to cook until the carrots were soft enough to puree. My only mishap at this point was forgetting to cover the soup - the cooking pumpkin splatters quite a bit and was soon all over my stovetop and floor! After cleaning that up, I used my immersion blender with the appropriate attachment and blended the vegetables. I tasted it but it was a bit bland so then I spiced it up, adding brown sugar (just enough to cut the bitterness, not to make the soup sweet), cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, and cloves. Note that this is an appropriate use for ground ginger rather than fresh. It still didn't taste quite right, with the pumpkin giving off a slightly mealy flavor and texture. I had one more thing to add. I had some leftover heavy cream from the last time I made ice cream. I swirled some cream into the soup and tasted it. Now it was good enough to lick the bowl, and tasted even better the second day (rule of soups - they're always better after the flavors have a chance to meld overnight). Here's the approximate recipe:

Pumpkin Soup (3-4 servings)

1/2 tablespoon butter
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 can pumpkin puree
4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 cup heavy cream

Place a pot on medium heat and add butter. When the butter melts, add carrots and onion. Cook until slightly soft, about four minutes. Add salt and pepper, stirring to coat vegetables. Add pumpkin and chicken broth and stir. Cover and simmer for ten minutes, until carrots beome soft and easily crushed. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Place soup in blender or use immersion blender to completely puree carrots and onions with pumpkin. Return to pot and heat on medium again. Stir in brown sugar and spices. Add heavy cream and continue to heat for two to three additional minutes. Serve with bread.

Cookbook update

I've tried a few more recipes from my new cookbooks. First and foremost, the Bon Appetit cookbook had a delicious and simple pork cutlet recipe with a sauce made of figs, balsamic vinegar, shallots and cream. If you're trying to cut back, you can leave out the cream and it would still be delicious. Don't worry about finding fresh figs, the dried ones worked just fine. You can find the recipe here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pork-Cutlets-with-Figs-and-Balsamic-Vinegar-15604

Also from the BA cookbook, I tried to make a cornmeal crusted trout recipe. However, when I looked for cornmeal in the grocery store, all I could find was a five pound bag. I refuse to make that many corn muffins or cornmeal crusted meats. Since I had a bag of panko (Japanese bread crumbs) at home, I decided to make a panko crusted trout. Then I added a few spices to the coating, like red chili pepper and garam masala. Finally, the recipe called for a bed of watercress, which was also impossible to find in a grocery store not going by the name Whole Foods. So I ate my trout with rice. You can find the original recipe here, but my adjustments were quite tasty. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Crispy-Trout-with-Wilted-Watercress-107920

I tried a couple of recipes from the Giada cookbook but didn't quite follow directions properly. Never mind that the pasta with shrimp and lemon oil recipe said to drizzle the oil on at the end and I just went ahead and cooked the shrimp in it. It was infused with lemony flavor! And for the broiled zucchini with parmesan, I had to skip the broiling step after sauteing the zucchini. I was getting hungry!

New cookbooks are fun.

Another Use for Post-it Notes

My friend Michelle asked me a good question. When I get a new cooking magazine in the mail, how do I keep track of all the recipes I want to make? Do I mark the pages or tear out the recipes? My answer, honestly, was that I either make the recipe right away or not at all. But as I thought about it, this seemed like a lame and inefficient way of dealing with all the great recipes I come across. I feel like there is never enough time to make all the recipes I find, but I still have days when I can't think of anything to make or nothing I think of sounds interesting or delicious. So I have to go flip through some old magazines and an hour later I finally find something that I want to make.
So now I have a new strategy. Post-it notes! I'll slap a post-it on the front of the magazine and write down all the recipes from that issue that sounded good or that I wanted to try. It's an interesting exercise because as I flip through the magazine I find myself only writing down the recipes that I can truly picture myself purchasing the ingredients for and making. Although the sausage, roasted red pepper and spinach torta rustica combines bread, meat and veggies in a quiche-style dish that I would certainly enjoy, I'm not compelled to make it. On the other hand, the mac with two cheeses is more appealing to me - maybe because the second cheese is goat (first cheese is cheddar) and it's topped with caramelized shallots. Whatever the logic, it reduces the number of recipes I'm willing to try to about three per issue.
I have five years of Cooking Light and one year of Bon Appetit to go through and apply my post-it scheme. Maybe I should hire an intern.