Third time's a charm?

I think it's time to move on to a new recipe. I made the Yellow Cake for the third time last night. This time I used actual cake flour.

 

As mentioned on the box, it is 27 times finer than all purpose flour. I really did notice a difference, it was incredibly soft, I wanted to lie down in it. And it did make a big difference in the final product, the texture of the cake was much softer. However,  IT WAS STILL DRY!!! I even added an additional two tablespoons of butter, and was very generous in my measuring of the milk. I did make an error with the assembly again (I think it is the same error I made the first time, involving the milk.) I added the entire 1 cup to the egg yolks, instead of just using a 1/4 cup there, and adding the other 3/4 cup to the dry mixture first. This may be the crux of the problem, as I understand it has something to do with the gluten breakdown (blah, blah, blah) anyway, I blame the recipe, because it says 1 cup milk in the ingredient list, rather than breaking it down into the two measurements. I have since changed it in my version, for your benefit, and in case I ever decide to try this one again. But my audience is loosing patience with repeated episodes of dry cake, so it will probably be a while. 

This one was for my brother Mike's birthday. We had fun anyway, and it didn't stop us from eating half the cake. 

 

That Chocolate Frosting recipe is a keeper though, it saves the cake every time.

Mayonnaise Disaster

Pride goeth before a fall. Yesterday I attempted to make mayonnaise again. This time I used the recipe from "I Know How to Cook" instead of Julia Childs strict and fussy instructions, with all her hysterical warnings of averting crises. The IKHTC recipe was simple and straight forward with fewer steps and alarums. I was certain that, like her ridiculously labor-intensive roast chicken recipe, Julia was just being excessively gourmet and French with these instructions.

Well I couldn't have been more wrong. First of all Julia's recipe calls for three egg yolks, IKHTC calls for just one. I thought this was great because the whole process would go that much more quickly. IKHTC said to beat the yolk in a large bowl, so i used my large stainless steel mixing bowl. Way, way too big for one egg yolk. So the yolk was spread all over the base of the bowl, making it very had to get a sense of how it was coming together as I added the oil. Julia also has you add mustard and vinegar before starting with the oil to aid in the emulsification process and to "prepare the egg yolk to receive the oil". IKHTC just has you jump right in, adding the vinegar at the end, and no mustard at all. I think if I had added vinegar and mustard to the one egg yolk it would have helped the too large bowl thing at least a little bit. Anyway, there I was mixing the thin layer of egg and oil with my electric hand mixer and it seem to be thickening up just fine, I'd probably added about 1/4 cup of oil, so I guess I got over-confident and started adding the oil a little more quickly, all of the sudden the whole thing seemed to fall apart. It just stopped thickening, and lost all thick, emulsifiedness it seemed to have before. No matter how much mixing I did, nothing worked, it remained thin and liquidy and would begin to separate as soon as I stopped mixing. I ran for Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as I remembered Julia having some advice for just such disasters. She said if you added a tablespoon of mustard to a 1/4 cup of unemulsified mayonnaise and mixed heartily it would fix it right up. She said this always works. Since I have decided not to doubt her methods anymore I am going to assume she means always if you follow her instructions from the begining... it did not work for me at all. Now I had an oily, eggy, mustardy liquid in a bowl.

At this point I decided this batch was not to be rescued, but wasn't quite ready to just throw it all down the drain. So I opened a can of tuna and dumped it in. It actually was a pretty tasty, but rather wet mess, so I added one more can of tuna and chopped up some celery, carrots and scallions and that absorbed enough to make it a rather nice tuna salad that I mixed with a bunch of greens and had for lunch. So all was not lost. However, I now know that I have not achieved mastery of the egg yolk and am not in a position to take such a cavalier attitude toward  the making of mayonnaise and I don't plan to veer from Julia's well laid course again for a good while.

Baking Powder

I remember back in the very early days I mentioned how I wasn't going to make Baking Powder unless I was given reason to believe that the Apocalypse was immenent... however at that time I didn't know that it was actually the easiest thing I would have to make and not only did it not require a chemistry set and a trip to a mineral mine, it didn't even require a trip to the store. I already had all of the ingredients in my cabinets and I bet you do too.

1 Tablespoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 Tablespooncream of tartar

Mix together and store in an airtight container. I put mine in a tiny (clean)  glass jar that had once held plum jam.

Apparently most commercially produced baking powder contains aluminum. I'm not sure what ingesting aluminum will do to you, but my gut says it's probably not great whatever it is, so this is a good way to insure you're keeping that out of your system.

Marinara Sauce

I made a marinara sauce tonight for the second time. I made this same recipe about a week ago and it was so delicious and fresh tasting that I kept eating it by the spoonful when I was trying to put it away. Tonight I just made it after dinner to use up some carrots and celery that were on the verge of going off, so I haven't actually tasted it yet, but I am hopeful that it is just as good. I found the recipe on the food network website. It's a Giada di Laurentis recipe. She's Italian, so I'm thinking it's reasonably authentic and she's very upbeat and smiley, which drives my brother Mike crazy, but I don't mind it.

I have encountered chunky marinara with carrots and celery before, in fact I think I have even improvised sauces in the past with green peppers, carrots, onions and tomatoes when I have not had a jar of sauce on hand, but I have always thought of marinara as a catch all name for tomato-based pasta sauce. I'm still unclear as to whether that is the case, or if "Spaghetti Sauce", the traditional Ragu style tomato puree with garlic, basil and oregano would be considered something different. What I have learned is that marinara sauce originated with sailors in Naples in the 16th century, after the Spaniards introduced them to the tomato. The word marinara is derived from marinaro, which is Italian for “of the sea.” Because of this, many people believe it includes some type of fish or seafood. However, marinara sauce loosely translates as “the sauce of the sailors,” because it was a meatless sauce extensively used on sailing ships before modern refrigeration techniques were invented. Because the high acid content of the tomatoes and the absence of any type of meat fat resulted in a sauce which would not easily spoil, marinara sauces were particularly appealing to the cooks on these ships.

I'm reprinting the recipe just as Giada wrote it, but I think you can take quite a bit of liberty with it. For instance, the first time I made it I had no celery. This time I used three garlic cloves, because I like a lot of garlic and three carrots because I needed to use all of them and they were small. I think next time I will add green peppers. You could also do crushed red-pepper, I might do that with a serving when I reheat it. It's very nice with polenta, as well as pasta and quite good all on it's own.

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 small onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes

2 dried bay leaves

In a large casserole pot, heat the oil over a medium-high flame. Add the onions and garlic and saute until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the celery, carrots, and 1/2 teaspoon of each salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and bay leaves, and simmer uncovered over low heat until the sauce thickens, about 1 hour. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Season the sauce with more salt and pepper, to taste. (The sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, then cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium heat before using.)

Catch up and DRs Birthday

Oh my, a lot of food has been made since I last wrote. Most of it pretty banal, but all of it from scratch. I have been struggling with motivation on a level that shouldn't already be a problem so early in the year, so close to the making of New Years resolutions, resolutions that haven't even been given enough of a chance to fail. I read somewhere that it takes a month to break or start a habit, and now four months (almost) into this project, the making of the food is the new normal. There are so many things that don't even feel like effort any more, like making bread or granola. Even yogurt is only a mild effort. I finally had to make baking powder, and it really couldn't have been easier. I did have a totally unsuccessful go at making sour cream for DR's birthday chili, which was weird because I made it over the Christmas holiday and it worked out fine. But I guess I'll have to revisit that to see what went wrong. It was probably the fact that we were having guests, DRs friends who already think I am a little nutty came over to play poker, and partake of the weird set of snacks that result from trying to stay within the rules. There was an olive tray (remember the olive amendment), that included pickled okra left over from Thanksgiving, Tex-Mex Chili with tortilla chips which were made by cutting into triangles and frying corn tortillas that have been in our fridge since September (I didn't mention this to the guests), guacamole (this falls under the handmade by someone else rule - they make it fresh at Figueroa Produce), the sour cream that never set, nuts, and yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

I revisited the cake recipe from Baby J's birthday and set out with such high hopes that I was correcting all my previous mistakes. I bought actual pastry flour, assembled it while Baby J was sleeping so that he wouldn't distract me from combining the ingredients in the proper order, carefully sifted the flour, everything was going so well. It all started to fall apart when I tried to use the roasting rack in place of a cooling rack and totally split the first layer all to pieces.

I was devastated, but the second came layer out perfectly,

and DR was able to frost them so you couldn't tell at all, so I was sure that crisis had been averted and it was going to be wonderful, (my sampling of warm, broken piece was wonderful as only warm, broken pieces can be). But when it came to eating it actual slices of cake it was dry as dirt. The frosting was great, but I think the cake was even worse than the first one. I am blaming the flour. I was so excited to find actual Pastry Flour that I didn't take in that it was whole wheat pastry flour. (I'm also easily seduced by promises of making things that are delicious and better for you at the same time.)

It has come to my attention that whole wheat flour sucks moisture out of baked goods at significantly higher rate than white flour. I guess I thought it being pastry flour meant that it self corrected for the whole wheat aspect. I would like to test the theory of making it again with the an additional egg yolk and a little more milk, but I can't bear the possibility of another disappointment just yet. And it is quite a bit of cake for two adults to have around the house... and no matter how dry and awful it is, somehow I still end up eating it. The whole adventure was not lost, however because I got to test a little bit of knowledge passed on to me by my sister KK at Christmastime... Before shopping for the cake and frosting I noted that we had a box of powdered/confectioners sugar left over from the cake I made in December, so I didn't buy anymore. I didn't note that I need 3 cups of it, and that the 4 cup box was 3/4 empty. But in discussing making some dessert for Christmas, KK mentioned that you can make confectioners sugar by putting regular sugar in a coffee grinder.

 

The name powdered sugar should have tipped me off, that it's just sugar, powdered. Anyway, this was a thrilling discovery that worked out great, though it was pretty time consuming making sure all the grains were ground up. I had to grind it in batches, and run each batch through twice. But the frosting was delicious, so at least something worked out. 

Train Adventure Part Two

For my birthday last week we finally went on another train adventure. I just read my posting about our first train adventure back in November and my ambitious plans to go on the second one a week later... well two months later... better than two years I guess.

It was another beautiful day, cool and sunny and bright. This is why we love Los Angeles. Growing up my birthday usually involved ice storms and muddy puddles from snow melting off boots indoors, not than walking around outside in short sleeves and sunglasses.

We started off at the first stop of the extension, Little Tokyo/Arts District. This is the last stop before the train goes over the LA River into East LA. It is also the one neighborhood with which I am already somewhat familiar. As you might guess it is mostly as Japanese area with a great Japanese grocery store, a bunch of noodle shops and sushi joints as well as a Japanese mall. As the stop name also implies, this area also consists of a bunch of converted warehouses that serve as artist studios, performance spaces and trendy restaurants. For this adventure we kept the hipness factor at a minimum and just checked out a French café located in a strip mall on Second Street called Frances Bakery & Coffee.

There's a tiny little dining room, with a sort of Asian-French Colonial/hole in the wall feel to it. We ordered the Napoleon and a piece of cinnamon walnut coffee cake and a cup of coffee. I was worried about the coffee, because you never know in this type of place... but it was sufficiently rich and dark (although the free refill was a bit burnt).

The cakes were delicious. The napoleon was rich and creamy, and the coffee cake had a lovely and surprising hint of coconut. Even DR liked it and he usually hates coconut. I would definitley go back there if I were in the neighborhood. In reading online, it sounds like they are really known for their macaroons. So I'm going to try to keep that in mind.

We decided to walk over the First Street Bridge to the next stop, which was Pico/Aliso. This one only had one restaurant listed in the article, a hipster pizza joint, and as I said we were leaving hipster pursuits to another day, so we just jumped on the train here and road it out to Indiana, which is fourth from the end, and the next one in after we left off on Train Adventure One. Here we walked around El Mercado, which is a three story open market. There is a supermarket, all kinds of food vendors (if by all kinds you mean everything from tacos to tamales) and stalls selling a lot of crap... cheap toys, kitchy mexican clothing and tchotckes, etc. I mostly enjoyed looking at the supermarket. I'm sure some of the food is great, but we had our sites on some other places so we just looked around.

Next we went across the street to Tamales Lilianas where we had two tamales, pork & green chilis and cheese & pepper sticks.  They were both delicious. Baby J enjoyed the pork very much... the cheese and pepper was a little too much for spice for his delicate palate, but we are working on getting him into spicy food, little by little. I forgot to take a picture of the tamales, but here is the place. The guy working behind the counter was wonderfully friendly. I think he might have been the owner. They have a fancier restaurant on Cesar Chavez, I'd like to check that one out sometime.

Then we hopped back on the train heading west to Soto. The train goes underground for two stops here, and this is by far the coolest station on the whole route. It's blue, grey and white with doves flying over maps and a nest with an egg light over the center. I'll try to take some pictures next time I am there. We realized when we came out of this stop, that we should have walked from Tamales Liliana's because all the restaurants listed for Soto where really between the two stops, and about 10 blocks to the East. We decided instead of doubling back we would just walk down First Street toward the next stop and see what we came across. We ended up chatting with aguy who runs an arts community center there for a while. He said we should have walked down Cesar Chavez, parallel to the north, it has a lot more life on it, but we were running out of steam at this point, so we decided to save that for another day. Our last stop was La Placita del D.F., a teeny, tiny hole in the wall restaurant that specializes in cemitas poblanos, which is a Mexican sandwich with meat (we chose milanese - which is pounded steak, breaded and fried), white cheese, avocado, string cheese and cabbage on a buttered sesame bun. This is messy, fatty, deliciousness. We took a picture of it, but somehow it got deleted. I guess I will have to go back...

There are still dozens of places left to try along this route, so I am looking forward to Train Adventure Part Three. Hopefully it won't be months before we get to it.

Sehr gute Kartoffeln

My parents were married in Offenback, Germany and lived there for the first year of their marriage. In the square outside their apartment there was a man who came everyday and sold potatoes out of the back of a van. "Sehr gute Kartoffeln! Ein mark zwanzig!" He would call out. This means "Very good potatoes! One mark, twenty!"

Everyone in my family uses this expression whenever discussing good potatoes. It is the one German phrase we feel confident using. I know a few other niceties, yes, no, please, thank you, some numbers... but none of that is as useful as a phrase for very good potatoes, and today I have for you a recipe for Sehr gute Kartoffeln indeed.

I found this recipe on the blog Chocolate & Zucchini, which is written by Clothide Dusoulier who edited the English version of my current cookbook obsession, I Know How to Cook. She found the recipe on the blog of her friend Pascale, who got the recipe from her British mother-in-law. These potatoes dispute the argument that the Brits don't know good food. Pascale's blog is in French, and while I know a bit more than "trés bonne pommes de terre" in French, I don't quite trust myself to follow French instructions properly. I run into more than my share of recipe misunderstandings in English.

So here it is, a brilliant little secret passed around Western Europe and United States that will make your roasted potatoes crispy on the outside and soft and delicious on the inside.

Preheat the oven to 410º F

You can use any kind of potatoes you choose. I used Yukon Gold. If you use something with a rough skin, like a russet, you will probably want to peel them. If the skin is smooth, you can just scrub all the dirt off and peel alternate stripes, leaving them half-peeled. Then cut the potatoes into bite sized chunks. Place them in a saucepan large enough to accommodate them, cover with cold water, and add a teaspoon coarse salt. Set over high heat, cover, bring to a low boil, then lower the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.

Once the water is boiling and the oven pre-heated put a baking sheet with about 2 tablespoons of oil, or whatever type of fat you would like to use for roasting in the oven, so the fat and baking sheet will heat up.

After the 5 minutes of boiling, drain the potatoes and return them to the saucepan. Place a lid on the saucepan. Holding the lid firmly shut with both hands (the saucepan will be hot, so wear oven mitts or use dish towels), shake the saucepan vigorously for a few seconds, until the surface of the potato chunks is fuzzy; this will help the formation of a crust.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven, pour the potatoes onto the sheet, sprinkle with sea salt, and stir well to coat with the fat.

Return to the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, flipping the potatoes halfway through, until cooked through, crusty, and golden. If you want a little more color on them, you can switch to grill mode for the final few minutes.

Serve immediately.