Vegetable Soup for the Wilful Poor

Uh...

Wow.

I just logged in to write a new post and the little infomatic graph thing told me that on October 17th there were 160 views of this blog. That is astonishing. Previous to that, more than ten views per post was a banner day. Not quite sure what I did, but thank you. ^_^

Two things about me: among my many other hobbies, I play D&D. My friend Dave jokes that my alignment is Chaotic Shiny and he just might be right. I am also a Master's student, planning on a Ph.D someday, which makes me joke sometimes about my alignment being Wilful Poor. This month in particular I've had a few unexpected expenses combine with a few I knew were coming and it's left things pretty tight in terms of cash flow as I get to the end of the month. Most students I know are in this position - it kind of comes with the territory.

I wanted to share this soup recipe as it is something I make when things need to stretch a bit because it makes a lot for not much money, is quite filling, and is fairly healthy. The original recipe is vegetarian and from a Cook's Illustrated magazine, but it's quite flexible depending on what you have on hand. You can add meat to it if you'd like - I've tried adding chicken, beef, or lamb cubes to it on separate previous occasions. Usually I add (canned) beans instead though, convenient and trusty cheap protein sources that they are. My favourites in this soup are black beans for the colour contrast, although occasionally kidney beans or chickpeas have been known to make an appearance as well. If you have mushrooms, they can be sliced up and sautéd  for a bit before adding the sliced leeks to them. If you don't have leeks, you can use onions, although if you make that trade, consider spending the time to caramelise your onions quite well, as it will really add to the flavour of the soup. Fresh herbs added at the end really brighten the presentation. I also tend to add roughly a cup each of (frozen) corn kernels and peas to brighten things up in the colour department as well. As a bonus, this soup freezes very well. I like to portion it out in sizes I can take to school for lunch for the convenience of grabbing it out of the freezer and going in the morning.

Farmhouse Barley Vegetable Soup 
(in the style of Cook's Illustrated, kind of)

1/8 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
8 sprigs fresh parsley, plus 3 tablespoons chopped and reserved
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1-2 bay leaves
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 lbs leeks, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces and washed thoroughly (white and light green parts only)
2 carrots, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
2 celery ribs, cut into bite sized pieces
1/3 cup dry white wine (or apple juice or apple cider if you don't have wine)
2 tsp soy sauce
salt and pepper
6 cups water
4 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup pearl barley (or more if you prefer; you'll need to add more stock at the end to compensate for what the extra barley soaks up)
1-3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (or diced finely, your call)
1 1/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I use the yellow skinned baby potatoes and cut them in half)
1 1/2 cups chopped green cabbage
1 tsp lemon juice

Prep: The original recipe says to grind the dried mushrooms in a spice grinder and add 2 tsps of the resulting powder to the soup, but that seems a bit fussy to me, so I just put the dehydrated mushrooms into the mix and then pull them out at the end of cooking if I remember. You can tie the herbs together with kitchen twine for easy removal from the pot; alternately, you could just throw everything into the pot and remember to fish out the sticks later.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. If adding mushrooms to the soup, add them first and cook them until they release their juices and start to darken. Add the sliced leeks, carrots, celery, wine, soy sauce and up to 2 tsp salt and stir everything together. Cook for for ~10 minutes, until celery has softened and the liquid has mostly evaporated, stirring periodically.

Add the water, broth, pearl barley, garlic, dried mushrooms (or powder if you made it), and the fresh herbs. Increase the heat to high and bring everything to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot with a lid, and leave to simmer for ~25 minutes.

Next, add the potatoes and the cabbage and let the pot return to a simmer partially covered; cook everything until the barley, cabbage, and potatoes are tender, a further 18-20 minutes.

If adding beans, corn, or peas, add them during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking so that they come up to temperature with the rest of the soup.

When cooking is complete, remove the mushroom bits and herb stems if required and then add the chopped parsley and lemon juice and stir to distribute within the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then ladle into bowls and enjoy. Or portion into containers for freezing and let come to room temperature before putting into the freezer.

I really enjoy this soup with a biscuit. You could probably even make dumplings on top of the soup while it's in the final cooking stages if you wanted to... I might have to try that next time. I'm also tempted to try subbing out the Yukon Gold potatoes for cubed sweet potato and seeing how that goes. In terms of yield, the tall containers on the far left hold 3 cups each, the next two over hold 2 cups each, the next three to the right hold roughly a cup each, and the final container is much deeper than it appears and likely is holding four cups of soup. So yes, ~20 cups of delicious soup in fairly short order. Win.

Savoy Cabbage and Parmesan Rind Soup

I fell in love with adding Parmesan rinds to soup the Thanksgiving that my friend Orion made his minestrone for our group feast. It was a diversity of beans, slow-cooked all day until they were creamy with Parmesan rinds in the broth slowly breaking down as the day progressed. As a soup, it was almost thick enough to stand a spoon up in. As a memory, it is vivid. I asked him how he'd come up with that idea and he kind of shrugged and said something like "We're Italian, it's just what we do." It seemed so obvious to him, but to me it was a stroke of genius.

When I saw that Yotam had a soup calling for Parmesan rinds, I actually despaired a little at first. I'm on a fairly limited budget and cheese is an expensive luxury. I was lamenting this to my Aunt one night - who dug around in her freezer and came out with a bag of rinds she had been saving for some future use. Score!

The soup comes together pretty quickly, although I found I needed to play with it a bit to get the flavour I wanted. It was a little bland right off the start, so I added a bit more cheese and a bit of truffle salt - and then I realized I hadn't added the shredded, sautéed cabbage and chile mixture. Bingo. I'd make that garnish again just as a side - it was delicious. And it added a lot to the soup. Definitely plan on making it if you are going to put the soup together. It doesn't take much extra time and the results are very worthwhile.

As usual, the recipe is as outlined in the book, and the written description includes any of my own alterations and observations.

Savoy Cabbage and Parmesan Rind Soup
(p. 104, Plenty)

Serves 4

6 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp caraway seeds, plus extra to garnish
1 medium savoy cabbage
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
5 cups vegetable stock
3 oz Parmesan rinds, plus about 1/3 cup grated Parmesan (optional)
course sea salt
1/2 mild fresh red chile, seeded and thinly sliced

To begin, heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add the sliced onion. Saute until the onions start to get soft without starting to turn golden, roughly 5 minutes. Add the garlic (I grated mine on the rasp grater) and caraway seeds and allow everything to cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove four outer leaves from the cabbage. Shred them finely and set them aside for later - they will become the garnish. You can shred more than the four leaves if you'd like - I think next time I'd double it. Shred the remaining cabbage roughly and add it to the onions in the pan. Stir to combine. Add the diced potato (smaller dice cooks faster) and continue to fry everything for another 2-3 minutes, stirring actively.

Add enough of the stock to barely cover the vegetables in the pan and bring everything to a boil. Add the Parmesan rinds, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for ~10 minutes, or until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork. Remove and discard the Parmesan rind at this point (or remove it, grate/dice it finely and add it back to the soup later... I did.). Add the grated Parmesan, if using. Stir to incorporate. Taste the soup and add salt to taste. I also added some white pepper at this stage.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow everything to cool down for a few minutes - you don't want to risk getting burned while you are pureeing the soup. If you have an immersion blender, use it to blend the soup right in the pot until you get a smooth consistency. If you don't have an immersion blender, a regular blender will work, it will just take a few more batches. I used my food processor and it did a good job of getting everything silky, so that is another potential option. If you feel the soup is too thick after blending it, feel free to add more of the stock until you reach a consistency you like. If you add additional stock, you may need to add more salt and pepper, in which case, add and taste again until you get a balance you like.

Heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a a frying pan and saute the shredded cabbage you'd set aside earlier with the sliced chile and some salt (the course salt here is wonderful, as is truffle salt - go with it if you've got it). Ideally, the cabbage will just start to soften but still appear bright green when you take it off heat.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls. Garnish with the shredded cabbage and some caraway seeds, and possibly more Parmesan if you are feeling so inclined. Enjoy!

The soup didn't wow me as much as other recipes from Plenty have - but the shredded, pan-fried cabbage was unexpectedly delicious. I'd make it again on its own. The soup held well and reheated decently the next day. I opted to dice the Parmesan rind into tiny chunks and add it back to the soup rather than discard it and I feel that was a good life choice.

Two-Potato Vindaloo

I wrote this recipe up originally in early September. My apologies for the delay in posting - life got a bit hinky for a while, but thankfully is now settling out.

.....

This is the 41st recipe I have made from Plenty. I am four recipes away from being done the chapter on Roots, three away from being done the chapter on Tomatoes, two away from completing the chapter on Peppers, and four away from being done the chapter on Zucchini and Other Squashes. Noting this kind of surprises me - I anticipated ripping through the chapter on Grains far more than I have, ditto for the chapter called Funny Onions. It's interesting to see how this project has gone for having so little structure to it when it was started. I am not certain I'll complete all 128 recipes in the book before the end of the year, but to be roughly a third through is pretty good. Farther than I thought I'd make it, to be honest.

I'm excited to be back at school again. September has always seemed far more like New Year's than January first for me, and the entire month flew by so much faster than I anticipated. It's taking a bit of getting used to being back in my office as I spent much of the summer and previous semester working from home, but I keep outfitting my desk with more tea and comfortable scarves, nesting and getting cozy. I made the decision to tweak my medication and as a result my ability to focus is much improved, so I'll be at my desk until this thesis is finished. It occurs to me that it's easier to focus at school because it lacks a kitchen to tempt me away from my books. ^_^

Part of being back at school is renegotiating my cooking schedule. I now need lunches that are ready to go in the morning, and I might not have the desire or patience to cook when I get home. I also have stored up a lot of different pantry items that I enjoy that have nothing to do with the Plenty project, so I am needing to balance cooking fun and random things with still working my way through this cookbook. I'm sure I'll manage. My office is hosting a potluck for our department once a month, so that will be a good time to share some of the things I've been making. My friend Jenn is heading back to her home country of Australia mid-November as well - she's been my constant tasting companion since I started this project back in January. I'm hoping to feed her all of the rest of the good things before she goes. I might have to get her a copy of Plenty as a going away gift - we've certainly spent a lot of evenings sharing food from this book. Good memories.

I've been looking forward to making this recipe for a while now, as it contains two spices I ended up special ordering. Curry leaves smell incredible and add an interesting visual element to this meal. They don't taste strongly of curry but are unique to themselves, and unfortunately, I can't think of a great substitute for them if you can't track them down. I don't recommend eating them as they are a bit tough in texture. The fenugreek has a smell I can't quite describe, other than it's sort of sweet and nutty and lovely. I might play around with it in some naan or dinner buns at some point. The fenugreek is called for in such a small quantity that omitting it from the dish won't really change it too much, so if you can't find it, don't let its lack hold you back from making the vindaloo. Hopefully you manage to track some down, though. I think it's worth seeking out. Regardless, your kitchen will be *very* aromatic while and after you are preparing this dish. Promise.

Two-Potato Vindaloo
(p. 18, Plenty)

Serves 4

8 cardamom pods
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp vegetable oil
12 shallots (~10 oz in total), peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
25 curry leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 fresh red chile, finely chopped
3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 3/4 cups water
1 tbsp sugar
salt
2 1/2 cups peeled, waxy potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
2 1/2 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
2 small red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch dice
mint or cilantro to serve
yogurt or sour cream to serve

To start: Prep your shallots, vegetables, and spices. I chose to grate my ginger on a rasp grater and I think I'd do that again - it helped it to really melt into the sauce.

I ended up blending spices that were pre-ground, but if you want to follow Yotam's method for roasting and grinding your own, it goes like this:

"Dry-roast the cardamom pods and cumin and coriander seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat until they begin to pop. Transfer to a mortar and pestle and add the cloves. Work to a fine powder, removing and discarding the cardamom pods once the seeds are released. Add the turmeric, paprika and cinnamon and set aside." (p.18)

Heat the oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Once the oil is hot, add the shallots, mustard and fenugreek seeds and saute on medium low for roughly 8 minutes, or until the shallots start to turn golden.

Add the spice mix, curry leaves, ginger, and diced chile to the shallots and continue to saute together for another 3 minutes. Everything will start to smell really fantastic right about now.

Add the tomatoes, vinegar, water, sugar and some salt and stir until everything is well combined.

Bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium, cover, and let simmer for ~20 minutes.

Once the base has simmered, add the waxy potatoes and the diced bell peppers and let simmer, covered, for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finally, add the sweet potatoes to the pot.

It's important at this stage to make sure that the vegetables are submerged in the sauce in order for them to cook properly - if you don't have enough sauce, add a bit more water to make up the difference. Cover the pot again and continue to cook for ~40 minutes, or until both types of potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.

Once the potatoes are tender, remove the lid from the pot and allow everything to simmer for ~10 minutes to reduce the sauce a bit. Serve hot, over rice, couscous, or quinoa, and garnish with the fresh herbs.

This recipe makes a very generous amount and is *very* fragrant. It holds well in the fridge and might even have been slightly better the next day. I found that I preferred to add a bit of yogurt or coconut milk to the sauce to soften it a bit, but I am far more accustomed to coconut milk-based curries than water and cider based ones, so that might just be personal preference. The fresh herbs really helped the flavours to pop, as did a tiny squirt of lime juice. I think I'd add chickpeas to it next time... they seem like they'd be a good fit.

Enjoy!

Bánh xèo

According to Yotam, this recipe is a vegetarian adaptation of a traditional Vietnamese pancake, typically made with fatty pork and prawns. He writes about his experiences in Hanoi in 2007 in the introduction to this recipe, and how mind-blowing he found the freshness of the vegetables and herbs in the local cooking. Even without venturing to a more exotic location, making this recipe last night was mind-blowing for me. I absolutely loved the combination of flavours and textures that comprise the omelette and its fillings, and the sauce that accompanied everything took it over the top. This recipe is definitely within my top five favourites from Plenty and I can see making it constantly. And I think I might try the sauce as a marinade for grilled chicken at some point, or possibly modify it a bit for a salad dressing. It was so good.

What I enjoyed about this recipe in particular is that it allows me to create a big platter of omelette fillings to set on the table to be served from. I love to cook this way, as it allows for a wide range of customization within a single meal, making it easy to suit my tastes in the moment or allow guests to adapt the meal to their own preferences. This also makes it easy to substitute other fillings in if you are shy one or don't particularly care for a listed ingredient. Everything here is also very fresh, with a minimum of cooking, which allows me to keep the kitchen cool during the warmer weather we've been having lately - not to be undervalued in a tiny place with no air conditioning. The meal also came together quickly - even with vegetable prep, I think this took ~15-20 minutes to put together, and I could probably streamline it to a solid 15 with a bit of tinkering in the recipe order.

Try this one. I don't think you'll be disappointed. As usual, the ingredient list is as presented in the book and the written description includes my alterations and observations.

Bánh xèo

(p. 54, Plenty)

Serves 4

Pancakes

1 1/3 cups rice flour

1 small egg 

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground tumeric

1 3/4 cups coconut milk

a little bit of sunflower oil

Sauce

2 1/2 tbsp lime juice

1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

2 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 fresh red chile, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/2 tsp salt

Filling

1 large carrot, peeled

1 daikon radish, peeled

4 green onions

1 fresh green chile

1 1/2 cups snow peas

1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves

2/3 cup loosely packed Thai basil leaves

1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves

1 cup mung bean sprouts

1 cup enoki mushrooms

First, a few alterations: I only had large eggs, and so used one of them rather than a small one. I also was out of coconut milk, and so substituted almond milk which I had on hand. I will make the omelettes with the coconut milk next time to see what the difference would be. I was also out of rice wine vinegar, and so substituted white wine vinegar. I grated the garlic on my rasp grater and added it to the sauce rather than having a crushed clove floating around. I was out of mint, and so that was omitted. I also was out of sunflower oil, so I used unflavoured olive oil instead.

To prepare the pancakes, whisk together the flour, turmeric, and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl or measuring cup add the coconut milk and egg and whisk together until well combined. Set aside both mixtures until you want to make the omelettes. Yotam advises that you can mix the wet and dry ingredients together now, but that the batter will thicken as it sits and require thinning with additional coconut milk or water before it is cooked into omelettes. I decided to not mix the wet and dry ingredients together until I was ready to cooke them to avoid having to tinker with thinning the batter later. 

To make the sauce, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Feel free to adjust the amount of chile to your desired heat preference; at this level, there is a very mild heat. I think if I were to do it again, I'd raise it to two chiles. Set the sauce aside until serving.

To prepare the filling, shred the carrot and the daikon. I used the large holes on a box grater and that worked well. Slice the green onions on an angle into thin pieces, and the snow peas into long, thin strips. Pick the herb leaves from their stems and put them into an appropriate bowl for serving. Slice the chile into long, thin strips as well, cleaning out the ribs and seeds to mitigate some of the heat if you so desire. Place the prepared herbs and vegetables onto a platter or into individual bowls according to your preferences. Add the mushrooms and the bean sprouts to the platter or place them within their own serving dishes. Set the fillings aside until you are ready to serve the meal.

To make the pancakes, combine the dry mixture of ingredients with the wet ingredients that had been set aside earlier. Whisk thoroughly to combine them. You are aiming for a thin, very fluid batter that Yotam describes as having the consistency of light cream. Heat up a frying pan (Yotam suggests nonstick; I had to use what I had, which required more oil), and add a minute amount of sunflower oil. Let the pan come up to roughly medium heat - you don't want things too hot here.

Pour roughly 1/4 of the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth it out into a circle. The edges can be thinner than the middle and get crispy if you like them that way, or the pancakes can be all the same thickness. I found the batter had a tendency to make cakes that were thicker in the middle and therefore required a bit of help from me smoothing them to have a more even thickness throughout. Let the cake sit undisturbed in the pan for 2-3 minutes, or until the underside starts turning a golden brown colour and the top of the cake has bubbles popping on most of its surface. Flip the cake over and cook for another ~2 minutes until the other side has started to turn golden as well. Remove from the pan to a serving plate and keep warm while you cook off the remaining three pancakes.

To serve, place a warm pancake on a plate and arrange your desired vegetables and herbs over it.

Drizzle with some sauce and dig in. I found it enjoyable to fold each side of the cake over the filling and eat it like an open-bottomed burrito, or you could fold it in half like a taco if you wanted to, or even use a knife and fork. I found the sauce would seep through the cake fairly easily and so get onto my fingers, but I figured that was part of the fun.

Enjoy!

Leftover fillings and sauce held well in the refrigerator overnight last night, but the leftover cakes came out stiff and more prone to breaking. I'd recommend making the cakes fresh each time you want them.

Fresh Red Currant and Walnut Muffins

I was recently in British Columbia on a road trip. Three of us went, and we were lucky to be hosted by family while we were there. Our hosts took us being there very seriously and went out of their way to show us a good time and great food. As we were packing up the car to head home, we were gifted with a bag of fruit to snack on for the ten hour ride back. In the bag was a smaller bag of fresh red currants, which I had only gotten to taste for the first time on this trip. They are wonderful - bright, slightly tart flavour and brilliant gem-like colour.

We didn't eat them in the car and so I decided to experiment a bit and make muffins out of them so they wouldn't go to waste. Good life choice.

Fresh Red Currant and Walnut Muffins
makes 12

2 cups (10 oz) flour
2/3 cup sugar (mix half and half with brown sugar for a bit richer flavour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup roasted walnut-infused olive oil
zest of 1 lemon
2/3 cup buttermilk (or milk with a squirt of lemon juice in it if you don't have buttermilk)
2 large eggs (best at room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup fresh red currants
2/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 400F and prepare a muffin tin your preferred way. Set aside for now.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to blend everything together. Add the lemon zest to the dry ingredients and whisk again to evenly distribute. Make a well in the centre of the bowl.

In a large measuring cup, combine the olive oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk until everything is thoroughly combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients and mix gently with a rubber spatula. You want to mix until everything is combined and the batter looks fairly smooth. A few small lumps are okay, they will disappear during baking. Gently fold in the currants and walnuts until they are evenly distributed through the batter.

Portion the batter out evenly among 12 muffin cups. If you want to add a bit of special, stir together 1 tablespoon of sugar with 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle it over the tops of the muffins.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into them comes out clean. Let cool for ~5 minutes before snacking. I actually like these better at room temperature than really warm.

Impromptu Chocolate Soufflés

It's been a while and the time I've been spending not-here has been full of good things. I went on a ten day road trip with some friends, introduced them to my home city and then went adventuring in British Columbia. I surprised myself by jumping off a 25-foot cliff into the clearest turquoise water I have ever seen. I tried all kinds of new foods, gave my camera a serious workout, and came home slightly sunburnt and happier than I have been in some time.

And it's not just me experiencing the good times - a friend recently passed her Comps with flying colours and two others recently bought and moved into their first house. We ended up having an impromptu housewarming party on Sunday night, playing board games and baking. I hadn't planned on writing a post for this so I didn't take my good camera, yet it seems that I have developed a habit of photographing most of the cooking that I do now. I thought I'd write this up to show that soufflés aren't that hard despite their reputation - we were mucking around rather haphazardly and they turned out beautifully. The biggest thing to remember is to beat the egg whites enough and not to forget the cream of tartar. We made two batches as there were seven of us there; one batch used Lindt single source Madagascar 70% chocolate, and the other used the Lindt Black Currant chocolate. The currant soufflés won the night, I think. Give some thought to using a flavoured chocolate if you want to experiment - I imagine a mint or chile chocolate would be fantastic as well.

Chocolate Soufflés
recipe slightly modified from Dinners and Dreams

Makes 4

For coating the ramekins
1 tbsp salted butter
1/4 cup of sugar

For the soufflés
3 oz good quality dark chocolate (70%+; consider using a flavoured chocolate)
2 tbsp salted butter
1 tbsp unsulphered molasses
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground clove
3 egg yolks

4 egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar

To get started, butter the sides of the ramekins. The original recipe says to use melted butter, but I prefer to use cold butter from the fridge as I find that melted butter tends to slide down the sides of the ramekins while I am working on the rest of the recipe and therefore doesn't do quite what it is intended to do. Once the ramekin has been buttered, pour roughly one tablespoon of sugar into each one and tip them so that the sugar sticks to the butter that you've just applied. The goal is to coat all of the butter with the sugar, so if you need a bit more sugar to make that happen, top up as required and then tap out the excess. What this preparation does is created something for the soufflé batter to cling to as it rises, helping to make the dessert light and airy. Once the ramekins are prepared, set them aside.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Chop the chocolate you are planning on using into fairly small pieces. This will help it melt faster. Place the chocolate into a medium sized, microwave safe bowl. Add the butter, molasses, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, and clove, and then microwave everything for 30 seconds. Stir everything together until it has evenly melted. If there is still unmelted chocolate after stirring, microwave everything again for another 30 seconds.

Separate three eggs, reserving the whites in a large bowl for later. Add each yolk to the chocolate batter individually and whisk until fully combined before adding the next yolk. The batter will thicken a bit with the addition of the egg yolks. Once all three yolks have been added, set the chocolate mixture aside for now.

To the reserved egg whites, add an additional egg white and a pinch of cream of tartar. Beat the eggs into soft peaks - they will create soft mounds when you pull the beaters out. If you are in doubt, beat the egg whites a bit longer. It's better to be closer to stiff peaks than have the whites not whipped enough or you won't get the rise you are looking for once they are in the oven. We whipped 8 egg whites at once, and it took us ~15 minutes to get to the right consistency.

Fold the whipped egg whites into the chocolate batter using a rubber spatula. As you fold, the batter will start to lighten in colour. Folding takes time, but is better than regular stirring in this case because it helps to preserve the volume of the egg whites. Keep folding until everything is well combined and a fairly uniform colour.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared ramekins.

Place the ramekins in the oven (I usually put them on a cookie sheet to make moving them around a bit simpler) and bake for 12-13 minutes. They will look like they have taken a deep breath and will have lovely, domed tops. Do not open the oven while they are baking, as they could collapse due to the change in temperature.

Once they have finished baking, remove them from the oven and serve quickly. Soufflés will deflate as they cool (read: within moments) - this will not affect the flavour, but will impact the presentation. 

They can be served on their own or accompanied by some fruit, ice cream, etc. Enjoy!

Cake and Meteors

I was really lucky this past Saturday, in that I was able to go out to the family farm of an acquaintance of mine with a group of friends and take in the Perseid meteor showers that were happening over the weekend. The night consisted of a bit of distance from the city, a tractor tire ring as an impromptu fire pit, a few telescopes, a cuddly spotted cat, and a lot of fun. We were having such a good time that 3 am snuck up on us rather unexpectedly. The stars were beautiful, the meteors relatively plentiful and I got to tend the fire all night, which is always something I enjoy immensely. We even taught a few people how to make s'mores. I have to admit, I was a bit gobsmacked that there were people my age who had never had a s'more, but at least that has been remedied now.

A close friend had celebrated a birthday recently and I decided to make cake and ice cream to take out to the Star Party. I made a batch of the Saffron Spice Gelato, because he loves chai tea and saffron, and then decided to make a spiced cake to go with. For the cake I wanted something that would travel well as we were piling into cars to leave the city, so that meant no icings or serving syrups. Which creates a bit of a challenge - how to make a cake flavourful enough that no one was going to feel gypped that there was no icing?

I started poking through Dorie Greenspan's Baking and came across her recipe for Cinnamon Squares. I decided to adapt it a bit, subbing out coconut sugar for the white sugar, removing the frosting and chocolate from the batter, and substituting hazelnut extract in place of the vanilla. The results were fantastic. The swap to coconut sugar was a great decision - the cake was less sweet so the spices stood out more, and the flavour of coconut sugar is subtly different, kind of toasty. You can make this cake with regular white sugar (that is what the original recipe calls for) but if you have coconut sugar, give this a shot.

The cake was decimated by the happy crowd before I remembered to take pictures, but I figured I wanted to post the recipe because I know I'll make this again. The ribbon of espresso and cinnamon through the middle of the cake was a very inspiring combination, and I used it again today trying to make some macarons. The cinnamon dolce latte from Starbucks suddenly makes a lot more sense to me as a flavour profile. The espresso flavour it not terribly strong in this cake - it adds more of a deep richness than a distinct coffee flavour. I would encourage you to give it a chance even if you aren't actually a fan of coffee as a beverage.

The gelato melted on our way out to the party (despite the ice; I think I am giving up on ever transporting gelato or sorbetto to anywhere more than a 20 minute drive away. None of the times I've tried it have been successful) so we ended up using the melted gelato/custard as a pouring custard, which was actually very delicious. I'd do that again. Intentionally, even.

This cake as listed makes an 8x8" square pan; I doubled everything up to make a 9x13"pan with decent height. It keeps well covered at room temperature, but I doubt it will last terribly long as it is so exceptionally snackable.

Cinnamon Cake
(adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Cinnamon Squares)


For the spice ribbon in the cake:
2 tbsp sugar (I used white sugar for the ribbon)
2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp instant espresso powder

For the cake:
1 1/4 cups coconut sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 3/4 cups flour
pinch of salt
3/4 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp hazelnut extract
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp melted butter (10 tbsp), melted and cooled


Centre the rack in the oven and preheat it to 350F.

Prepare an 8x8" square baking pan with butter or cooking spray. Either line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment paper, or lightly flour the bottom of the pan.

To make the spices for the spice ribbon in the cake:
Combine the sugar, cinnamon, and espresso power in a small bowl and mix until everything is well incorporated. Set the bowl aside for now.

To make the cake:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, and hazelnut extract. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and whisk gently until everything is well combined and there are no streaks or pockets of dry ingredients left in the batter. Then gently whisk in the melted and cooled butter until it is absorbed. The batter will be smooth and glossy.

Scrape half of the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth it out as best you can. Sprinkle the reserved sugar/spice/espresso mixture evenly over the batter. Carefully pour the remaining batter over the spice mixture, sandwiching it in the middle. Smooth the top carefully - you'll find it won't want to stick to the bottom layer because of the layer of dry spices, but it will smooth if you are patient with it.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the cake has puffed up and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. A skewer inserted into the cake will come out clean. Let it rest in the pan 15 minutes before attempting to unmolding it, or leave the cake in the pan, pile it into the car, and go on an adventure. Your call.

^_^

Serve plain or with ice cream and/or fruit (raspberries would be choice), warm or at room temperature.
Enjoy.