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Tres Leches Cake in A Cup

I know you're in Paleo-land but I also know you love Tres Leches.I think this recipe could use some tinkering, or at least replacing the sauce with caramel, but dessert in a mug that only takes 10 minutes from beginning to end? That's my kind of dessert.

Tres Leches Cake in a Cup

 

Love, Elise

Hot, good and easy. I'm talking about soup.

Elise,

                It’s winter in paleo land.  Soup meets three of the four criteria for winter dinner- good, hot, easy. The fourth criterion is all-done-even-the-dishes-by-6:30. This is so I can be a member in good standing of the HBN (horizontal by nine) club. I’m thinking of fomenting a schism in the ranks of HBN and creating a fundamentalist off shoot called HBE. At any rate, if the dish meets the first three, then the last one comes down to pilot performance.

                Slow cookers are wonderful for soup. Homemade stock is sine qua non.  A hand held blender can make your life so much easier and more pleasant. It removes that pour-the-scalding-liquid-into-a-narrow-mouthed-blender step and the dirty-two-pots-because-you-have-to-blend-in-two-batches step. Just remember our 11/3/11 cautionary tale and unplug the blender every time you turn it off or you might be adding in the trip-to-the-emergency-room step not to mention the come-home-to-a blood-spattered-kitchen-and-have-to clean-it up-before-bed step.

                One of my go-to soups this time of year, really any time of year except full summer, is Curried Sweet Potato Soup. It’s a three season soup. 

 

                Good—curried sweet potatoes, say no more.

                Hot—duh.

                Easy—peel and slice the potatoes, cook them in broth and coconut milk, as some curry paste or powder and some grated ginger, blend when soft. Finish with salt and pepper.

                While this might sound pretty tame, it’s not. If you are still feeling underwhelmed, you can dress this soup up with a myriad of sides, garnishes, accompaniments and additions. Toasted sliced almonds, raisins, sautéed bananas, chopped crystallized ginger, chutney all go well on the side.   

 

You can add spinach or kale and double your superfoods. You can add some cooked ground turkey for a third superfood or shrimp sautéed in ginger and garlic if you have a little more time on your hands.

                His Lordship thinks it tastes like candy. 

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced

2 cans coconut milk

6 cups chicken broth

2 TB grated fresh ginger or more to taste

1-4 TB curry powder or paste. This is vague because curry powders and pastes vary spectacularly and you have to know yours and add accordingly

                Put the first four ingredients in a pot and simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft. Stir in the curry. Blend until soft.

                Tart it up with toasted sliced almonds, raisins, sautéed bananas, chopped crystallized ginger, chutney. Health it up with some cooking greens and/or cooked ground meat.

Oh Jerusalem

Somehow it sounds more stirring if you say Oh before the title of the cookbook, Jerusalem. It sounds like the title of a poem, which it isn't. I know this because I consulted the-source-of-all-knowledge and googled it. William Blake, however, wrote "Jerusalem".

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countence Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! Oh clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.


Not much related to cooking there, unless you count the arrows of desire. And I suppose for some recipes, mental fight. Interesting though, Blake's fascination with rhetorical questions - what immortal hand or eye, etc. That tangent aside...

Amos gave me Plenty (by Ottolenghi, not Blake, for Christmas). It's got a lot of eggplant recipes which I suppose is not surprising for a vegetarian cookbook but you know how I feel about them.

I did find a recipe that appealed to me, called somewhat incongruously, Chard and Saffron Omelettes. They aren't really omelettes, more like little pancakes with herbs in the batter  and filled with the oddest combination of chard, saffron and yukon gold potatoes. Oh yeah, and there's creme fraiche too. The flavor is unfamiliar and delicious. They are easy. And meatless. And Paleo.

If you don't have the book the recipe is here. You should try them.

Love, Elise

Leftovers

The beauty of being invited to Mom's for dinner is she always sends you home with the leftovers...

A Tale of Two Cakes, or I Probably Shouldn't Admit This

I want it, I want it, I want it...

Dear Marg,

It's the holiday season. I guess you know that. But none the less, it means holiday dinners. In our case, two back to back with no overlapping guests. For the first one I made a chocolate cake from Nigella. I know, but I like her. I think she's funny and her recipes work out for me. She's not uptight about things like measuring or how the cakes look. And she uses words like squidgy. She is the opposite of Miette.

The cake was flourless, so basically eggs, butter and chocolate. It was supposed to rise and then fall in the center creating a volcano-like crater for the cook to fill with whipped cream, which it did. It was okay. People liked it, or said they did, but no one wanted to take the leftovers home. It was light and sort of gentle, in a soft way. Pretty but vapid. I prefer a chocolate cake with more fortza. Maybe the fact that it was called Chocolate Cloud Cake should have tipped me off. I resolved to do better and thought wistfully of the chocolate cakes I hadn't made - especially the Chocolate Cherry FruitCake from Ready for Dessert.

The next night I was behind before I began. Amos offered to go to the store which was sweet but since his day was full he didn't get there until late so I couldn't start on the Chocolate Cherry Cake because we didn't have the cherries. Since time was short, the book was out and chocolate cake was clearly on my mind, I quickly settled on Racine Cake and began cracking eggs and melting chocolate. It was only when I was folding the eggs into the chocolate that I realized I was making basically the same cake. A little more chocolate, a lot more eggs, but the same general idea. No flour in sight - where was Alison?

It was better than Nigella's with more body and presence, but still in the same cloud-like camp.

I think I'm gearing up for a bout of OMG brownies, or the chocolate sour cream layer cake from Rosie's All Sugar, Fresh Cream, Butter Packed, etc etc etc...

Jet Lag Dinner

Hi Marg,

I meant to post about this a month ago, literally. When we got home from Bhutan I went on a jet-lag-fueled-bonding-with-my-kitchen extravaganza. This dinner was the one of the results.

First, turkey meatballs with zucchini and the most delightful sauce made of yogurt, garlic, lemon juice and sumac. It's a spice made from sumac berries. I bought it for the cookbook Jerusalem and have used it quite a bit. The spice and the book both.

The meatballs have mint in them and green onions and italian parsley which I use instead of the cilantro called for. I don't like cilantro. According to Harold McGee and the NY Times I am not alone. Apparently Julia Child said that if she found it in her food at a restaurant she would take it out and throw it on the floor. I'm with her.

Regardless, the meatballs, or little patties really, are delicious and you can eat the entire recipe which is supposed to serve 4-6 with just two people easily. They are fresh and light and satisfying all at the same time. And the sauce is fabulous even if you get all healthy and leave out the sourcream. Unlike the meatballs, there will definitely be sauce left over which is good because you can dip carrots in it, or smear it on leftover roast chicken, or just eat it off your fingers.

Second, for desert I made a great polenta cake with almonds, I think. I honestly can't remember what recipe I used but the pictures look like it's polenta and almonds. Although the recipe could have called for pecans, or pine nuts for all I can remember. There was a 19 hour time change remember. I have a feeling it was from David Lebovitz' Ready for Dessert because honestly that book has to be part of any bonding-with-your-kitchen extravaganza.

 Now it's a month later and I've had a cold for 2 weeks and would give anything for a measure of the energy that fueled this meal. The halls are decked but the cupboards are not far from bare and there is nary a christmas cooky in sight. I wish we lived closer so I could ride on your baking coattails.

love, Elise