Ginger Apricot Mini Cakes

One of my conundrums is that I often want to bake but I don't always know what to make. These refreshing little cakes were inspired by the need to bake using only the available ingredients in the house and were a rewarding experiment. 

Preheat oven to 400 F, line or butter a 12 cup pan.

1 stick butter, soft
1 c chopped dried apricots, soaked & drained
1/4 chopped fresh ginger + 2 tbsp chopped candied ginger
3/4 c vanilla sugar
3/4 c milk (I like coconut for it's thickness)
2 eggs
2 c flour
3 tsp baking powder

Sift flour and baking powder, coat ginger and apricots, then set aside.

Combine butter, sugar, eggs and milk.

Now, when you combine the wet and dry mixes, you want to make sure not to over mix. It should be a bit lumpy. Pour into lined, prepared cupcake tins. Sprinkle the tops with sugar so they will be crunchy! Bake for about 20 minutes.

Spicy Shrimp Soup

There's a magic that happens when you have good ingredients and plenty of time to create something rich in flavor and love. One of my old roommates used to make a soup of shrimp, peppers and potatoes. She always used fake butter to cook everything with before putting it all in a pot.

Not my style. The goal for me is always to layer the flavor, to build something from the bottom up that leaves you happy to the last bite. My version of the recipe is fairly simply yet with patience will leave you richly rewarded. Besides, fake butter is bad.

for two people as dinner. For four people, add in a salad.

1/2 a yellow onion, chopped
1/2 a red pepper, chopped
garlic, chopped (you can use as much or as little as you like)
1 large potato, chopped
1/2 large can of diced tomato
8 Oz shrimp
1 lime, sliced in quarters
salt, pepper, sriracha

Prep your mise-en-place. Once you start, you won't want to stop to chop something!

Saute the onion with a little coconut oil. Once the onion is soft and translucent, add the pepper, let soften a bit. Add in your garlic, let cook until garlic gives off scent. Put in your potato, cover with half can of tomatoes and water to fill the pot.

Simmer to cook the potatoes. Season with salt, pepper and sriracha to taste. If you use more than a few drops it can really spicy, so taste it before adding more! Drop in the shrimp just before serving so it doesn't over cook. Serve with good corn chips and a lime wedge or two for added flavor.

Sunday, Oyster Sunday (In Pictures)

Want to know what happened? Do stop by my friend Heather's spot for the deets!

And here is a link the Lemon Meltaways!

Portland: Food, Love and Rain

Last year my younger brother decided to move to Portland. I've spent the last year missing him as he is my partner in crime, the person I take to weird movies or museum days. I had the chance to go and hangout with him recently and we did a lot of eating, a minimum of drinking and some serious talking/watching of Dr. Who. Yes, we are those nerdy people who will stop to catch up on their favorite show while on vacation.

Portland was different than I expected. People keep telling me it's just like SF and Berkeley. Yes and no. Rather parts of it remind me of different places I have been both in California and otherwise. Someone told me Portland was small. Uh, not so much. In fact it was much bigger than I anticipated so navigating became easier once I sat down with my list and sorted out what was where.

Who knew there so many pods of food carts? Not I! We found most of them though we didn't have the chance to eat at all of them. That means there has to be another trip, right? The pod in the top pictures is actually walking distance from where Dorian lives, making it easier for us to get to. He had his first papusa and shocked me by loving the curtido as he dislikes both cabbage and carrots.We also hit up Blue Collar Baking company for scones and hot chocolate before heading to Voodoo Doughnut and then walking all over the Pearl.

Blue Collar Baking was quiet the day that we were there and a perfect spot to recharge our tired batteries after getting turned around and heading in the wrong direction for half a mile. The hot chocolate was perfect, not too chocolatey and the whipped cream has a nice swirl on it. I won't lie that we were left underwhelmed at Voodoo. The lemon cruller lacked lemon, the vanilla coconut was a bit to sweet and the peach fritter needed some more peaches as that was by far the best bit.

Look, we found my Alien pod to take me to the Mother Ship!

Once in the the Pearl we stopped for Thai food, hit up Powell's, dropped into a wonderful vintage shop called Eden and had gin and tonic at The Parish. The Parish is a joint I could see myself hanging out in a lot if I lived closer. Great atmosphere, a fun bartender (he said 'snarf, snarf' in conversation with someone else. He won my over completely with that) and really such a prime location. Definitely check it out! We also stumbled across an olive oil tasting room, Benessere. And in typical style, we attacked all the balsamic, which were pretty fab. Dorian preferred the Jalapeno while I leaned toward Fig. Thus we can tell you nothing about the olive oils until next time.

Saturday we had a really full and adventurous day! After finding some serious treasure at the Farmer's market, including hazelnuts, gorgeous snap peas, pepper jelly and biscuits....okay, can I just rhapsodize a bit here about that? Pine State Biscuits has this delectable sandwich called the Reggie which features fried chicken, bacon and gravy on a biscuit.It normally comes with cheese which it doesn't necessarily need. Dorian was able to get shiitake mushroom gravy, which he said only needed a bit of hot sauce, but he says that about everything! It was an all around win.

We visited Fat Fancy, where I found the cutest pair of green & blue shiny pants that still pain me to have left behind. But they were a size too small and petite so that would have been ridiculous. I didn't even bother trying them on. But I am still really in love with those pants, and I can certainly about them until I find something equally cute. If you are looking for cute vintage in plus sizes sold by totally adorable people, go forth and visit! You will be glad you did.

Realizing that a ton of the places that were on the list we wanted to see in the same neighborhood it was easier to plan. So off we went to The Belmont district filled with funky shops, another food cart pod and gorgeous houses. Along the way we discovered a tiny shop filled with some of the most gorgeous masks. And lucky you she is on Etsy! After hitting up a few more vintage stores, including Savvy Plus, we decided it was time to back to the real work: eating.

We stopped for a lefse and pie but stayed for the biscuits. Blues City Biscuits was just an extra fun and delightful time. The Howlin' Wolf, shrimp & grits with bacon and greens was excellent. We went back for more biscuits because Dorian was getting quite swoony over them. I'm willing to bet that if the lovely lady behind the counter had been willing, he was just about ready to propose. Yup, we are also people who would marry you just because you can make something we love to eat perfect.

The perfectly flaky biscuits were warm and slathered with honey butter. So you can see how one might be induced to go into a food coma with so much good stuff around. Since we had to walk them off so we stopped for cocktails at the Hereafter. Their signature drink comes in a mason jar filled with ice tea, lemonade, bourbon and vodka. Uh, yeah, I limited him to one!

Sunday we went to Multnomah Falls. Lovely.

Really, we barely scratched the surface but I look forward to my next visit and our next adventure. Until then, cheers!

Potato Scones ala Dot Williams

If there are two words I love, they would be potato and scone. So of course I firmly believe that they belong together. My first experience of having dough and potato together that didn't involve stew or the like, was on a trip to the Haight with family friend Steve. We had slices and he ordered potato pesto. This was so out there in my mind I simply didn't get it. One bite convinced me that he hadn't gone completely mad and lead to some new views on food.

Since that day I prefer to have pesto on my pizza and I love to make potato focaccia. The layers of pillowy goodness topped with potato and pesto is like a gift from heaven. But I digress....

While reading Dead Man's Chest (A Phryne Fisher Mystery) by one of my favorite authors, one who has inspired me to bake before (Cardamom Rosewater Cupcakes and Impossible Pie) also rarely shares recipes in the series I was reading and what is shared is usually of the cocktail variety.

Lo and behold not one, not two, but three recipes! I made the Impossible Pie and if you don't, you will be terribly sad about it. The second recipe, which I felt was an absolute must is Potato Scones. Bread and potatoes belong together, like champagne and foie gras, chocolate and strawberries or really good jam and fresh mascarpone.

Gather your ingredients and get busy!

1 cup self raising flour (1 cup flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt)

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup mashed potatoes

1/2 cup milk

Rub flour and butter together. Add potato and mix with milk to soft dough. Cut in rounds and bake 7-10 minutes in a hot oven.

Yes, you read that right, there is no temperature given in the recipe and I have shared it exactly as it was in the book. Also, my dough was so soft I was not able to cut the scones, so I used a cookie scoop. I baked mine for 13 minutes at 325 degrees, when the bottom of the scones were golden brown.

Though the consistency is more biscuit like rather than sconey these are so easy fast and easy to make! They are soft and moist, perfect for a nice bowl of stew, a lovely roast or as my friend Laurie suggested some good freezer jam & a cuppa! Off now to have a few more with some crispy bacon......

Little Rags Soup for One

When I read it, I thoroughly enjoyed Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes by Amanda Hesser and from it now have one of my favorite quick, easy lunch or snack recipes. Stracciatelle or Little Rags soup, is called that because of the ragged looking appearance of the egg if you work it properly. The trick is to keep it moving and not let it overcook. To me it's a wonderfully satisfying dish and sates any number of hungers.

 

If you have never tried the Pecorino Riserva, it is one of my all time favorite cheeses. It has a sweet nuttiness that goes well with the saltiness of the chicken broth. I have adapted Ms. Hesser's recipe solely to reflect a serving for one and omitted the garlic because I didn't have any (really I have no clue where it goes off to!). I also happen to adore sheep's milk cheese, but you are certainly welcome to use Parmigiana as is called for in the book:

 

1 1/4 c chicken broth 

1 egg 

2 tbsp Pecorino Riserva, coarsely chopped or grated 

Make sure you have all your ingredients and utensils ready as this recipe tends to move pretty fast! 

 

Simmer the broth. Whisk egg and cheese together. Remove the broth from the heat and slowly add the egg mixture. Ms. Hesser swirls the pan, but my trick is to use one chopstick and swirl it gently through the mixture as I pour in the egg. 

I do hope that not only will you give this recipe a try, but that you will read the book as well. 

 

Word of warning though, it will make you hungry!And I never loan out my copy.