guest blog: lamingtons

Abby has made lamingtons a few times for us, and we get excited each time. Lamingtons are some kind of Australian dessert, and they are delicious. Basically, each one is a little cake square dipped in chocolate and covered in coconut. Do you want them yet? Then be glad that Abby has made them for us a few times and submitted the recipe to the BLBC cookbook, which I am hoping to make into an orderable book that I will post here once I finish the task.

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
2 (8 ounce) packages dried, unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x12 inch rectangular pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup butter, 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla until light and fluffy (a hand blender will help with this). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.

Pour the batter into the 8x12 inch pan. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Allow to cool overnight to give the cake a chance to firm up before Icing (leaving the cake out on the counter will actually help with this).

To make the Icing: In a large bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and cocoa. In a saucepan, heat milk and 2 teaspoons butter until the butter is melted. Add the milk to the sugar mixture and mix well to create a fluid, but not too runny, icing.

Procedure:
Cut the cake into 24 squares (bite-sized squares, or slightly larger). Place coconut in a shallow container. Dip each square into the icing, then roll it in the coconut. Place onto rack to dry. Continue for each piece. The icing will drip, so place a sheet of parchment paper under the rack to catch the drips.

vegetarian sushi

The other day, I bought a sushi kit from the HIT. It was about 20 leva, which is like $14. It seemed a bit expensive, but since I love sushi and have wanted to try it out, I decided it was worth it for the experience. Then it sat on my shelf because I didn't have the time to make it for any upcoming dinners and the HIT didn't have good avocados for a while. But tonight was the night. So, I opened up my sushi kit and more or less followed the directions. Lindsay may have pointed out that I was not doing a very good job rationing my rice out, as is evidenced by some of my jumbo sushi rolls. Whatever. I called it TEXAS Style Sushi - because everything's bigger in Texas.

 And the first, Texas Sized roll, with my hand for scale:

It was actually a very simple process, maybe because I was using a box. But still, it seemed well within my abilities except that the bagged rice helped me overcome my general inability to handle cooking rice.

1. Cook rice
2. Mix in sushi rice vinegar (whatever that might actually be)
3. Let rice cool
4. Lay seaweed out on bamboo mat
5. Scoop out a *reasonable* mound of rice into center of seaweed
6. With wet fingers, press rice out across seaweed, leaving a border
7. Lay goodies in the middle - I used cucumber and avocado
8. Roll away from you, pressing roll together as you go
9. Voila! Sushi

So I made one giant roll, one normal roll, and another giant role. Portion control difficulties with the rice. But all's well that ends well, and we all found it pretty yummy and satisfactory. If I could easily get my hands on some more sushi rice and seaweed wraps, I would definitely do it again. Very fun and yummy and pretty easy. 

noodles with tofu

I am not really quite sure how to call this sauce. The ingredients included garlic, peppers, cilantro, brown sugar, and lime juice. It was quite yummy though. I bought a sushi kit and finally had time/initiative/ingredients to use it tonight (see post), so I decided to make another asian flavored dish for the main course. As it turned out, this was ready first, so we followed our tofu noodles with sushi, but no one really complained. I liked this recipe though, even though I couldn't make the sauce as recommended with morter and pestle and just used our hand mixer, which didn't seem to work fabulously. I also have yet to find a decent onion at the HIT in like, 6 months. I'm not exagerrating. I had my eye on the recipe for a while, but the HIT has consistently been out of cilantro altogether and good avocados (for the sushi), so the stars were not aligned until tonight for this meal.

12 ounces / 340g dried soba noodles
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus a bit more for the tofu

16 oz / 450g extra-firm tofu, drained and patted dry

3 medium cloves garlic
scant 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
3 small/medium shallots - as mentioned, no onions/similar, so I just skipped this
3 small serrano peppers, minced - I wasn't sure what the Bulgarian equivalent was, so I used jalapenos
1 bunch (about 4 handfuls) of cilantro, stems trimmed
1 teaspoon natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice - I think I used a bit more
3/4 cup / 180 ml extra-virgin olive oil  - I definitely used less than this, but I didn't measure

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt generously, then cook the soba noodles per package instructions, being mindful to not overcook them. Drain, run under cold water for a minute, shake of as much extra water as possible, then toss well with the olive oil. Gently work the olive oil through the noodles. Place the soba in a large plastic bag and refrigerate overnight, or until you're ready to use them - up to a few days. [I left mine plain, no olive oil, and used it about 10 minutes after rinsing.]

Make the dressing using a mortar and pestle OR a food processor. [As mentioned, I used my hand immersion blender, with moderate success, but it was okay.] Pound the garlic and salt into a paste, then work in the shallots one at a time, then the peppers. Then the cilantro a handful at a time. The mixture should be quite smooth. Add the sugar, then the lime juice before stirring in the olive oil a bit at a time. Taste and adjust the flavors if need be - more salt, sugar, lime juice, etc.

Cut the tofu into slabs, rub gently with olive oil and place on a medium-hot grill. Cook until golden brown on one side, flip, and grill the other side as well. [I cooked it in a pan in some olive oil until the sides were a bit browned.]

To assemble, toss the soba noodles with a good amount of the dressing, reserving enough to drizzle generously on top of the tofu. Place the tofu on top of the noodles, and drizzle with more dressing. [I served the noodles plain, added the tofu, the steamed broccoli, and then drizzled the dressing on each dish and let everyone mix their own.]

Greek food

There is a reason I haven't posted in a while. Last Friday, May 20, was graduation. The students didn't come to school (but we did), and then we had the ceremony at 5 pm. We then didn't have school on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday as a result of some holiday (I will eventually read my students' journals and find out which one). So to take advantage of our 5 day weekend, about 20 of us went to Thassos, Greece. We left after graduation and drove down to Serres on Friday night, drove to the coast and took the ferry over to Thassos (island) on Saturday morning, and then proceeded to have a wonderful weeklong vacation on the beach. I was in heaven. It was the most relaxing vacation I have possibly ever had - no specific things to do except enjoy the beach, relax, have fun, and eat.

And the eating was good. Some of the other teachers introduced me to the Greek cheese salad (tirosalata), which is pretty much the best thing ever, or at least is in close competition with my other favorite food, queso. Tirosalata is a whipped cheese spread with peppers, and it tastes amazing. We spread it on bread, dipped veggies in it, and when we ran out of those, just ate it straight off the fork. I just googled the salad, and here is a recipe that I haven't tried but might well have to just so I can eat this stuff again soon. I think I ordered about 6 cheese salads over the course of the 5 days.

Of course I also ate many Greek salads. I avoided the onions, olives, and peppers, so I was basically eating the Bulgarian Shopska salata (cucumber, tomato, and shredded cyrene) with hunks of feta instead of shredded cyrene. I figured eating a cheese salad and a Greek salad would be a very healthy beach diet.

As we were on an island, I also enjoyed quite a bit of seafood - mussels, shrimp, calamari. I don't love mussels, but I ordered them several times and enjoyed the experience. When in Greece...

Okay, so I didn't really eat a wide range of food most of the time, but it was delicious. Mostly I just had to rave a little bit about the tirosalata, which I am definitely missing (but maybe my waistline isn't). Thassos was incredible, and I'm ready to go back anytime. 

cinnamon chocolate scones

Evidently I sort of have a thing for scones. I was on the hunt for a cupcake or muffin recipe that I could make with the ingredients that always hang out on my pantry shelf and in my fridge (flour, oats, various sugars, Dutch cocoa powder, eggs, cream). Then it occurred to me that I like scones a lot and that I would like to make scones using chocolate and cinnamon. Most of the recipes generated by my google search included chocolate chips or chunks, which I did not have on hand, so I got a bit nervous that I would have to improvise more than I liked and figure it out for myself. Luckily I happened upon a recipe with only cocoa powder required. Well, they required chips for the glaze, but I thought it sounded rich enough without that added.

Note: the recipe link is for 3 scones; I multiplied it times 4 to make my recipe. I still ended up with only 6 scones, but they are MONSTERS. I consider this a good thing. On one of them, I sprinkled some cayenne pepper, as I would like to start experimenting more with spicy Mexican-esque chocolate more often. It came out being pretty spicy and very obviously only in the crust, so I think next time, I would mix it in to half of the batch in the dry ingredients and see how it works like that. All in all, I think I like my spice scones better, but I think that is more because I just really love those scones because these were quite good. They were more like cookies than cake or scones, and as I didn't measure exactly my cream or butter [and just realized that I misread the egg amount as whole egg instead of by tbsp], I think that may have been because the dough was wetter than normal scone dough. And I think the chocolate might change the texture considerably. Anyway, definitely not a bust! Do serve with milk :)

2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 Tbs cold unsalted butter, diced
4 Tbs egg (beaten) --- I just realized that it was 1 TBSP egg, and I skipped TSBP and added 4 eggs instead of 4 tbsp, though I'm not sure how I would have measured out 4 tbsp of beaten egg
1/4 c heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract


1. Preheat oven to 375F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Place flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a food processor. Using the knife blade, process until blended. Add the butter pieces and pulse until crumbs form. Transform to a medium sized bowl. [I used a hand mixer for these steps and it seemed fine.]

3. Place egg, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk together; pour into the center of the dry ingredients and mix with a fork until the dough starts to hold together.

4. Divide into three equal parts and roll into balls, press to 1 inch thick, sprinkle with sugar, and bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.

icing: just keep mixing

Not that I am an expert, but I thought I had a word of helpful advice to people trying out baking. Icing is a little intimidating. As described in the post about butter from a scientific/cooking perspective, it really does matter what temperature it is at when it goes into the recipe. Whenever I have made icing, especially the first few times, I always have a little panic attack.

How will all that confectioner's sugar and that hunk of relatively hard butter become fluffy icing?

Oh NO! It just turned into clumps. Well, now I guess it is sort of sandy looking.

And then, bam. Somehow, when I zoned out or something, it became icing.

So it is a little bit like what Dory says in Finding Nemo, which I recently watched with my students, "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming." When it comes to icing, yes, that relatively solid butter and all that sugar will turn into icing. Just let the mixer do its thing and a couple of minutes later, it really will turn into the texture of icing.

I took a few pictures of making icing today (note: I think it was my favorite icing so far, for the chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing) throughout the process to prove that it really does magically come together. So have faith in your appliances and just keep mixing...

chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing

Today I came home and made some cornbread muffins (previous post) from SK, which she had made from a recipe on a chef's website of a restaurant she had eaten the cornbread at. As complicated as that was, the moral of the story is that the chef has a website where he posts recipes, which is unusual but cool. So I was poking around, and as I had finished the cornbread far too quickly and easily to satiate my cooking quota for the week, I looked to see if he had a chocolate cake recipe. He had his family's classic chocolate birthday cake recipe, so I decided to give it a try and make chocolate cupcakes from it.

Note: I halved the cake recipe to make 12 cupcakes and thirded (is that a word?) the frosting recipe

2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder, plus for dusting
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup boiling water
Vanilla Frosting, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and dust two 9-inch baking pans with cocoa powder and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla and whisk to combine.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder. Stir to combine.

In a steady stream, add the liquid ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the boiling water and stir on low to combine. (The batter will be thin.) Pour the batter into prepared pans. Rap the pans lightly on the counter-top to release any air bubbles inside.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack, then remove from pans to the racks. Cool completely before frosting with Vanilla Frosting.

frosting: (remember, I did 1/3 for my cupcakes)
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons whole milk

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Beat on low speed until combined, about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then increase speed to medium high and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop mixer, add the vanilla and milk, then continue beating 3 minutes on medium high on a stand mixer, or 5 minutes on a handheld mixer.

cornbread muffins

I haven't been on SK much lately, and I didn't cook this week because I was too sick/tired on Monday and luckily was saved by an event with food. I looked on Tuesday to see what she had posted lately, and I saw this sour cream cornbread recipe. It was interesting to me because it had some spicy pepper in it, and while I am not a spicy fan, I thought it sounded good and not overwhelming. Today after school, I decided that I was just going to have a low key night at home, and that meant cooking. The recipe is very easy to make and was done so quickly and easily that I went on to make cupcakes just so that I felt like I had my fill of cooking for the week. I keep slipping down to the kitchen to heat up another muffin and add some slightly salted butter to it.

SK note: Aleppo is a Turkish bright red pepper flake with a mild-to-moderate kick and a bit of tartness. I bought mine from Penzey’s in Grand Central. If you don’t have aleppo, a regular red pepper flake, cayenne or hot paprika, in a much smaller quantity, would be a nice substitution.

1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1 cup (145 grams) yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoon (25 grams) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon dried aleppo flakes [I sprinkled some cayenne in, as seen in the photo]
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup buttermilk [I made it using milk with a bit of white wine vinegar splashed in and left to sit a min]
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 °F. Generously butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or coat it with a nonstick spray.

Whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, aleppo and salt together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream, buttermilk and olive oil. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones, mixing until just barely combined. Spread the batter in your prepared pan and bake for 22 to 25 minutes. [I put mine into a cupcake tin because I prefer my food to be already in portion sizes, and I think it took roughly the same amount of time, but just keep an eye on it.] A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.

mexican food

This weekend was the 2nd Annual NACHO COMPETITION amongst the International faculty at ACS. I was very excited about it, not least because the rubric is hilarious. I was a little distracted talking to someone on skype, so I didn't really get my entry ready in time. But I did make some chile con queso, because it is one of my favorite foods of all time and I figured it would be unique amongst regular melted cheese nachos. I was correct. I had a bunch of other ingredients for my planned-but-not-executed nachos, and they turned into dinner tonight plus a few other ingredients. I had to invite a couple of other teachers over to help make sure everything got eaten.

The menu was chile con queso, guacamole, spicy black beans, spicy chicken, and cilantro-lime rice. It featured a little more spice and kick than my normal meal because I had jalapeños in my ingredients for the Nacho Competition and because aforementioned skype friend teased me about not eating spicy foods, so I'm trying to branch out a bit. Plus, I need to get ready to move back to Texas and eat spicy food again.

• For the chile con queso, I used a recipe that I found after googling chile con queso on both US and Mexico's google sites and decided that this was the one that would work best for me. 
• For the guacamole, I just used my innate Texas guacamole skills. And it was delicious.
• The spicy black beans, I just sort of threw some things together as I was heating them up, and I liked the outcome even though it was spicy and I am usually a gigantic spice wimp.
• The spicy chicken was from a recipe I did a while ago for spicy lime chicken, and I really like it a lot. Plus, it is quite simple. 
• For the rice, I just cooked rice, which generally is a task unto itself for me, but I am finally starting to get the hang of it. Then I decided to try something new and stirred in some lime juice and fresh cilantro to give it a bit of flavor and to fit the theme of the meal. 

Chile Con Queso 

[note: she says serves four. She must mean 4 linebackers eating it as soup, as this made a GIGANTIC bowl and I didn't even use all the cheese]

1/2 onion diced (about 1/2 cup)

4 cloves of garlic minced

3 Serrano peppers diced [I have no idea what kind of peppers we have here, so I just grabbed one of each]

3 jalapeno peppers diced

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

1 cup of milk

6 cups of shredded cheese, can use any combination of Longhorn cheddar and Monterrey Jack

1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped

2 plum tomatoes, peeled and diced (about 1 cup, can use canned if tomatoes aren’t in season)

1/2 cup of sour cream

Salt to taste

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat, and then cook the onions and peppers for about five minutes or until onions are translucent.

2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

3. Whisk the flour into the butter, vegetable mix and cook for about 30 seconds.

4. Add the milk to the pot, and cook on medium, whisking constantly until sauce is thick, about five minutes. Stir in the cilantro and tomatoes.

5. Turn heat down to low, and a 1/4-cup at a time, slowly add the shredded cheese stirring into the white sauce until completely melted. Repeat.

6. Stir in the sour cream.

7. Add salt to taste.

Guacamole

3 avocados

1 tomato

1/4 onion

1 jalapeño

1 clove garlic

1/2 lime juice

cilantro

salt

pepper

Remove avocado however you like. Pour 1/2 lime juice into bowl and mash up avocado pieces to desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Chop up tomato, onion, jalapeño, and cilantro. Mash/dice/press garlic. Mix everything together. Check flavors, refrigerate until ready to eat, and then enjoy! :)

Spicy Black Beans

can of black beans, drained (rinse if you like)

1/2 onion, diced

jalapeños as desired, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped/diced/pressed

butter/olive oil

Heat up butter/olive oil [I used a combination of both]. Add garlic, onions, and jalapeños. Saute over medium heat until onions are soft. Add in black beans on medium/medium low heat until warm. Serve!