Mojito Cake

Our mint is gone. GONE! The management company that takes care of our rental decided than when they mowed the lawn, they would mow down our mint and chives too. Until the mowing incident, I had been making mojitos pretty regularly. I even had a special muddler stick, not that you really need one. The stick end of a wooden spoon would work just fine.
But this summer I also made a cake out of all those lovely mojito flavors. I squeezed some limes, and brewed some mint simple syrup and baked some sponge cakes. And I made Italian meringue butter-cream frosting. Oh my it was good. And I practiced my frosting skills before the big wedding cake. More on that another time.

The cake was a simple sponge cake made with lime instead of lemon zest and a bit of rum mixed in.
Whip the egg whites, which gives the cake most of its structure. Then mix the yolks with sugar, zest, and rum. Fold in the dry ingredients, then fold in the whites. It's not a particularly exciting recipe, actually comes right out of the Joy of Cooking.




What makes this cake so good is the filling. Mint lime curd. It is sooo good. As I mentioned earlier, this cake was a sort of preparation for a wedding cake. A wedding cake that used up many many egg whites while tossing aside the yolks. I wanted to find a home for those ooey gooey yolks, and curds are a great way of doing that.
Combine
8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
zest and juice of 5 limes
A handful of ripped mint
Heat it over a double boiler until it thickens. Then strain out the mint leaves, and cool. The texture won't be right until it has chilled.
The final result tastes a lot like key lime pie, zingy and creamy, and delicious when eaten out of the jar with a spoon. Mmmm.

To assemble the final product, brush one cake with a combination of rum and mint simple syrup, emphasis on the rum. Then slather on the curd. Add the second cake and douse it with more rum and mint. Finally, frost.



Although the cake and the curd went beautifully together, the frosting was too rich for such a light and ethereal cake. A seven-minute frosting might have been better.

Fish Tacos

Do you know how to fillet a fish? I'm not very good at it. In fact, after ruining a few fish, I decided to do what my mom does: just cook the whole thing and let diners get the bones out. Actually, she has this move that I have yet to learn where she fillets the fish when it's half cooked, right in the pan. Flop! And there's half the fish all neatly separated. Then she pulls out the spine with all the "arêtes" attached.
So when I bought some whole catfish at the grocery store, I thought I would try her strategy. When I say whole, I mean, the spine was still in there attached.
So I melted some butter, squeezed in some lemon and threw the whole fish right in the pan. I did not take any pictures because my attempt at filleting was not pretty, and my fingers were very buttery. I do have a pictures of the fish left over from my torturous attempts.

Notice the sheer quantity of fish I was not able to remove cleanly. All the better to make some kind of salad, I thought. But then I thought about the fish tacos I had eaten in the Purdue Union at La Salsa Restaurant. Mighty tasty with a zesty lime cilantro sauce, cabbage slaw, and avocado. Their fish tacos are made with whole big pieces of fish, but I thought my leftovers would work well too.
First, I grated some ginger. Maybe a teaspoon's worth to cook up with the left over fish.

Then, I made a mayonnaise. It's really easy if you have a food processor. I used the small bowl insert because I was only using one egg.
First, process the egg with whatever flavorings you want and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice. I used horseradish and lots of fresh basil from our garden. Then, slowly add about a cup of oil. Here, I used olive oil - not the extra virgin stuff because it tastes too fruity. Then, season with salt and pepper. Tada! Home-made mayo.

Then I prepared some fixin's. I didn't have any avocado on hand, but if you actually plan to make then, then I highly recommend avocado. So good. I just chopped some cucumbers and peppers and shredded some carrot. The carrot was very nice. Cold, crunchy, juicy. The peppers and cucumber came in handy to finish the last of the mayo when there was no more fish to make tacos with.

And then... assemble!




Nick did a good job at making his look good. They were absolutely delicious, but in the future, I would replace the peppers with avocado. Mmmm avocado.

Random update

I've had such good intentions to post here - I've been taking pictures left and right. I'm going to try to post all my food pictures and accompanying recipes in the coming week. Some were fantastic, others less exciting, and some I had forgotten I ever made. But they all deserve a spot in the limelight. I'll start with my most recent recipe, Champagne raspberry sorbet. Yum.
This recipe requires an ice-cream maker. The recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop.


In a pot over medium heat, bring to a boil 1 1/4 cups of bubbly (real Champagne is too expensive for this application, IMO), 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup water.

When it boils, add 2 cups raspberries - I used frozen, but fresh will work too, I'm sure.

Cover, turn off heat and let steep a while, about 10 minutes, but longer is OK.

Strain out seeds with a wire mesh strainer or a food mill, if you have one.

Let mixture chill. Then put through ice-cream maker. This will take longer than regular, creamy ice cream, so be prepared to watch an entire episode of Modern Family. Fun!


Once the mixture actually looks like sorbet, put it in a container and stick in the freezer for an hour or two. You can sneak a scoop ahead (I did) but it will be a bit melt-y, and won't have the right texture.

Here's what it looks like the next day.

I'll try harder

I know it's been months since I posted. I have no good excuse. I was inspired by What I Wore to take lots of pictures of what I was wearing. You see, I counted how many dresses, skirts, and summer clothes I had, and it was enough to only have to repeat each item once over the course of a summer. I've been wearing a new outfit every day, but I haven't been taking pictures of them. A few other people did though. My plan started at a wedding which I took part in. I got to choose my dress so long as it was black. Here's what I wore.


It's been a month since the wedding, so I don't remember everything I've worn. I tried recreating the outfits that I do remember. Here's something that did get (sort of) photographed when I wore it.



And here are a few other outfits I pieced together from memory. I'll try to be better about taking pictures of things as they come.




I've also been on a baking kick. Again, no photos. I made an almond cake for the wedding cake I am making in July. Oh yeah... I'm making a wedding cake. More on that later. I also made a mini 2-tier yellow cake with ganache frosting for our friend Kaitlin's going away. I've got a few more coming up, so I'll try to take pictures!

Knitting Sox

I've been busy. Really busy. Writing, grading, and teaching have kind of taken over. But I have also found room for a new hobby. I learned to knit! I took a class over at River Knits.

We learned to make socks, and I am currently working on my third pair! I made some for myself.

And I made some for my husband.

And I'm working on a third pair for myself again. It's a wonderful thing to do while waiting like in dentists' and doctors' offices, or in the airport and airplane. I also always knit in front of the tube - it's relaxing while still making me feel productive. Socks feel like a great project because they're small enough to bring everywhere, so useful when completed, and easy to try new things with. My current pair are getting a spiral textural pattern and I'm planning on trying cables next and color work after that! Just watch, in July, I'll be sitting outside, in the sun, knitting wool socks. Heaven help me I've caught the knitting bug.

Leftover Frosting...

CAST YOUR VOTE!
Post your idea for what I should do with my left over frosting in the comments below (please not on facebook) and the winner will get a piece of the final creation!

I made over 50 mini carrot cupcakes for a dessert party this weekend. I was feeling a little proud of myself, but when I got there, I was even more impressed with everyone else's desserts! They looked especially wonderful all together as a big spread.

(click on the photo to see my flickr stream, and each individual dessert)


I also made some chocolate meringues, and they are fine, but I'm not a fan of meringues to begin with, so there's not much to tell except that I thought they kind of looked like tiny cow poops when I was making them.

Anyway, the dessert party was fun, but it was a lot of sugar. Nick and I came crashing down later in the day. We are still left with about half the cupcakes, and a whole lot of extra frosting.

It's a cream cheese frosting made with 16oz of Philadelphia cream cheese, one stick of butter (both at room temp) with about a cup of powdered sugar and a cup of dark maple syrup.



Now I ask YOU! What should I do with the extra frosting? Post your ideas in a comment right here. I will choose my favorite idea and make that thing! If you live in the area, I will even bring you a piece/portion of the finished product for you to enjoy. So give me your most fun and creative ideas because I'm up for the challenge.

Chocolate Meringue Recipe
As far as meringues go, these are very tasty. However, I don't really like meringue, so I'm not the best judge. Why would I make something I don't even like? Too many leftover egg whites, and guilt at throwing away food.

5 large egg whites (use the yolks to make David Lebovitz's vanilla ice cream)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2/3 cup of superfine sugar (I just put regular sugar in a food processor and process for about 20 seconds)
2/3 cup of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 275F.
1. Sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder together into a medium bowl.
2. Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and lemon juice until soft peaks form.
3. Slowly add in superfine sugar (one tablespoon at a time) and continue to beat eggs until firm peaks form.
4. Fold in the cocoa and sugar mixture.
5. Pipe onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet (in poop-shapes if you like) about 1/2 an inch apart. They don't expand much in the oven.
6. Bake for 1:30 to 2 hours. Less time for chewier centers, more time for crisp through.
7. Leave baking sheets in the oven overnight so that the shells dry out completely.
8. Store in airtight container, but not in fridge. Cold does weird wet things to baked egg whites.

Breakfast of loafers

I know, I know, it's been, like 3 weeks. I've been busy, what can I tell you. I've got a lot of catching up to do, so don't be surprised if I post about valentine's day dinner in the middle of March.
On the weekends, Nick and I like to lounge for a little while. We make a pot of coffee, sip it slowly, and contemplate what to have for breakfast. Sometimes we make cinamon buns from a can. I really love those things. But sometimes, we make things from scratch. Like these pancakes.

I used to buy box mixes for pancakes, but making them from scratch is almost just as easy, and it's one less thing to keep in the pantry. I'm always running out of room in my pantry. And in my closets. But that's another story.
This is a "4 grain" variety, which is really only three grains because white flour doesn't come from a different plant than wheat flour (not that I know of, at least).

And when I make pancakes (or pannies as we refer to them)I always like to dollop some extra ingredients when the batter hits the pan. Often it's blueberries for me and chocolate chips for Nick. This time we went for bananas. They caramelize so nicely, and taste so ooey gooey delicious.

And because these are so hearty and grainy, and they even have fruit, I like to call them "healthy", so I pour on the syrup with reckless abandon. Because as a proud Canadian, I am a proponent of lots of maple syrup. The real stuff, from Canada.


Recipe
Adapted from Joy of Cooking
Dry:
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup AP flour
1/3 cup cornmeal (adds a lovely crunch and sweetness)
1/4 cup ground oats (grind oats in a clean coffee grinder)
2 Tablespoons natural sugar (less if you're using bananas)
2 teaspoons baking soda

Wet:
1 3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup honey
3 eggs

Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Whisk wet ingredients in a second, smaller bowl.
Add wet ingredients to dry, and mix just until combined.

Pour about 1/2 a cup of batter at a time into a hot non-stick or well seasoned cast iron skillet. Quickly drop thin slices of banana or other fruit (blueberries are wonderful, even straight from the freezer) before flipping.

This recipe makes about 14-20 pancakes, depending on the size. I think they serve about 6. They're incredibly hearty, so you probably only need 2 to 3 pannies per serving. Keep them warm in the oven while you make the rest of the batches by keeping a rimmed cookie sheet in there at about 250F.