brooklyn nom

Rhubarb Cake

2012-04-23T11:39:00.001-04:00

It's spring! Rhubarb is one of the first things to show up at the market, after ramps and scapes, and all of those onion-y greens. For me, Rhubarb means the end of winter and the beginning of the growing (and eating!) season.

This cake comes from a great little book, "Cake Keeper Cakes: 100 Simple Recipes for Extraordinary Bundt Cakes, Pound Cakes, Snacking Cakes, and Other Good-to-the-Last-Crumb Treats"- by Lauren Chattman. I love this book. It's a very reliable, unfussy book. It reminds me of the kind of everyday cakes my grandma used to keep around, although my grandma was strictly an Entenmann's Lady.

If she did bake, I'm betting that these would have been the kinds of things coming out of her oven.

On a side note, My grandma once told me that when she was a new bride she pressed her husband's underwear. Really? I guess that's what women did- how unglamorous.

Anyway- the cake!

Rhubarb Streusel Snacking Cake

First you make a Streusel-

3/4 c AP flour
2/3 c light brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t salt
5 T chilled, chopped butter

Rub the mixture together until it looks like large peas, and chill until you're ready to use.

Then you make a cake-

1/2 lb rhubarb, cleaned and diced
3 T powdered sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c milk
1 t vanilla
1 1/3 c AP flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 stick (113g) of butter
3/4 c sugar

Toss the rhubarb together with the powdered sugar and set aside. Mix your wet ingredients together in a measuring cup, and your dry ingredients in a bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, add the wet ingredients, then the dry.

Scrape the batter into a 10-inch springform and top with rhubarb, and scatter your streusel on top of that. Toss the whole affair into the oven (375*) for 45 minutes or so.

Bam! Delicious cake for visiting company, or just to keep around. I also added rolled oats to my streusel, and in doing so deemed this cake breakfast-worthy.

Let us pretend-

2012-03-28T14:48:00.000-04:00

That nearly 6 months hasn't elapsed.

Have a lamington...
Feel better?

Ok.

Did you know that lamingtons are native to Australia? They're the quintessential Australian lunch-box snack. I first saw them in A World of Cake by Krystina Castella. I decided to make them for a new friend, who happens to be Australian. How about that? I sure hope that they made it home to his wife, but I wouldn't blame him if they got "lost" on the way home.

Lamingtons are easy to make, its a yellow cake with chocolate glaze, and flaked coconut. Some lamingtons have jam inside. These lamingtons had jam inside, because- well, because more jam = more nom.
Its just a little tricky, and I'm sure every Australian mom would laugh at my preparation. I cut an 8 x 8 square dense yellow cake into cubes, then i split those cubes in half, and filled them with jam. I sandwiched them together, and impaled them onto a skewer. I used the skewer to dip the cakes into the chocolate glaze (in a mug for ease of dipping).

After their dip, I gave them a roll in the hay. Coconut, that is.

In order to transport the lamingtons, I nestled them into a bed of coconut, and put parchment and coconut between the stacks. They were very well received. <3
I've seen some really exotic preparations using rosewater icing and lime curd, or lemon, or passionfruit and coconut icing. I think lamingtons are a great blank canvas for creating something of your own!

Missed Connection

2011-11-17T11:23:00.000-05:00

You, buxom (although less now), brunette, doe-eyed domestic goddess- pottering around New York City this week.

Me, buxom (although less now), blonde, sun-shy, harried student, sleep deprived and zombie-walking through New York City this week.

You teased me with promises of NYC events/signings- I wanted to attend, but had class.

Let's get coffee, or you know, walk through kalustyan's talking about sexy spices and giggling like school-girls.

(photo from foodnetwork.com)

Linzer Cookies

2011-11-16T10:19:00.000-05:00

I was poking around the new Brooklyn HomeGoods, which if you're not familiar with- is like the home section of TJ Maxx or Marshall's expanded into an entire store. It's hit or miss, but we may have scored a home run on this recent trip!

These are Linzer cookies- and the cut-out is a squirrel!!!!!

I really tried to follow the recipe on the back of the cutter package, but it was suspect as a Linzer recipe because there wasn't a grain of almond in the entire recipe, not even a little drop of almond extract! (Essentially it was an orange scented butter cookie.) I ground up some blanched almonds (which I keep in the freezer) and replaced 1/2 of the flour for my almond flour, I added some almond booze, and I did keep the orange extract.
Once i cut and baked the cookies, I used my home made raspberry jam and a store bought apricot jam to fill them. I sammiched them together and dusted them with powdered sugar.

The recipe:
1 cup butter
1/2 tsp orange extract
1 tsp almond extract (or booze!)
1 cup sugar
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup flour

Mix butter and sugar, add extracts, add flours, Chill dough before rolling out.
Remember- when you cut the cookies, you need half bottoms and half tops (with holes!)
Only take out the chunk of dough you're working with, I leave the rest in the fridge till I'm ready to roll out! Bake on parchment for 10-14 minutes and cool.

Once they're cool you can set all of your bottoms flat out- so that the side that was on the baking sheet is now up. Spread with a dollop of jam.

Then add your tops (the part with the hole!) and dust with powdered sugar. The cutouts make excellent sneaky snacks!

Et voila!

Strawberry fields forever...

2011-11-09T10:00:00.001-05:00

There is some primal urge being satisfied here. When I go to the farmer's market, I tend to go a little bonzo. Like the time I came home with $35 of shell peas, or in this case, 4 pints of strawberries.
I see it- I need it, and actually, I need all of it.

It was still nice out, so I decided to do my prep on the terrace. I don't bother to hull the strawberries, unless it really needs it. These were brand new, and young, so they didn't need to be hulled.

I also separated a bunch of eggs. Most ice creams only use yolks. I used about 8 yolks.

I briefly heated the berries with a little sugar, and then ran them through the blender, reserving about a cup of whole stewed berries to mix in towards the end. I like berry chunks in my ice cream, you can blend all of it if you prefer smooth ice cream.

my custard-

4 cups half and half
8 egg yolks
scant half cup of sugar

Heat the half and half with the 1/4 c sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Beat the yolks with the remaining sugar, and add a small amount of the hot cream to temper the mixture. Usually I add 3 ladles before pouring it all into the sauce pan. Now you stir. Continue heating over low heat to allow the mixture to thicken. Somewhere in here I add my berry puree, reserving the whole berries.
Once the mixture coats the back of a spoon, you can pour it into a bowl and chill overnight. This makes your ice cream maker happy, because if you pour hot custard into the ice cream maker, it has to work really hard to chill it, and the core can melt before your custard freezes.

After the custard has cooled, you can add it to the machine. When it looks like soft serve, mix in your reserved whole berries. Continue freezing until its fairly well set. After removing from the machine, put it in a freezer container and allow it to set up a few hours. (You can also sneak a scoop at this point!)

Enjoy!

An apple a day!

2011-11-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

You know, actually, that's pretty much how it happened.

One minute we were lauding the beginning of the berry season, making tarts and pies, and velvety strawberry ice cream- and the next minute it's the end of the apple season and I'm running around trying to pick the last of the late crop at Wright's farm. We slid in just under the wire on this one...
Let me start by telling you how great Wright's is... THEY ROCK! After a few years of trying different orchards around the Hudson Valley, and either having a tough time because of "house rules" which made the experience so restrictive I felt like a convict, or because of a lack of actual fruit to pick, Wrights fixed all of those wrongs!
The orchard was so vast, we hardly knew anyone else was there! They were super friendly and very accommodating, they encourage picnicking and dogs and sampling apples! While we quickly filled our 2 bags (purchased inside the shop a short drive from the orchard) we looked for another bag to fill. An employee set the word out on his cell phone, and shot off on an ATV up the hill! A few minutes later his sister drove up with the extra bag. How's that for service? We had a great time, and there were more apples than we could pick, although we did pick over 40lbs. of Winesap and Romas. We're keeping them on the terrace in a storage bin (with a lid!) to fend off the squirrels.

Cherry picked.

2011-06-24T21:57:00.003-04:00

Actually, not cherries here- although I did pick them.

This most recent visit to my in-laws in Pennsylvania yielded a trip to a local orchard, Solebury Orchards . It was hot, ungodly hot, and humid, but I was hell-bent on going berry picking. We were too late for strawberries, but we were just in time for sour cherries, sweet cherries, blueberries and raspberries. I was tasked with procuring sour cherries for the bakery, and got a few sweet cherries for myself. The cherries were a little scarce, so I think I'll just be eating those as they grow.
The raspberries though, were abundant and between me, Tim, and my mother-in-law we picked about 9 pounds of raspberries!!!

What to do with all of those raspberries?

Raspberry Mascarpone Tart:
1 Cup Mascarpone
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 Cup Honey
About 1 pint fresh raspberries

I paddled all the ingredients together in the standing mixer, and refrigerated while I made the crust.

About 1 1/2 Cups crushed Graham crackers
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
6 Tbsp Butter (melted)

Process crust ingredients in the food processor, and then press in to a 9-inch tart pan.

I also brushed the cooled crust with melted dark chocolate to seal the crust.
Once the whole kit is cool, take your chilled filling and spread it into the pan,
top with your berries.
I also added an Apricot Glaze to shine up the berries.

Chill for a few hours before serving.

Research

2011-05-17T23:00:00.000-04:00

Despite being in the bakery now, I have been baking at home as well. Today was not one of those days, but in passing the Financier Patisserie I plotzed in and had a snack.

Today's Macaron: Banana Caramel

It was a large mac, about 2.5 inches - similar to the large guys at Fauchon... Pretty tasty.

They did have some pockets inside, not as dense as the French guys, but a tasty and nice to happen by on a rainy afternoon.

Mac Success

2011-04-02T17:13:00.002-04:00

Fun times! I have successfully made macarons!
I have taken a job as a baker in an adorable bakery in Brooklyn, and today- as if on a dare we made macarons. They all came out perfectly, with no mysterious mac-icides. Look at the "feet"!
A very proud day for Brooklyn Nom. I'm looking forward to gaining more insight into the professional pastry kitchen, and sharing the tasty adventures with you!

Tips for success- this is what contributed to our success today, success rates vary day to day...

we used parchment, not silpat.

add your dry ingredients to the egg whites in 3-4 additions.

pipe them smaller than you think you should.

allow them to dry out before baking.

if you're using a convection oven (recommended) keep the fan on low, and don't place the macs in front of the fan.

take them out about 20 seconds before you think you ought to.

Cupcake Push-pops!

2011-03-24T10:06:00.000-04:00

This is a little out of form for Brooklyn Nom, as I have neither cooked these nor purchased them in Brooklyn- I'm going to make an exception, because I want them. Can you say wedding favor?

I am in awe of the Cupcake Push-pop!

(photo from Sugarbaby's Cupcake Boutique website)

Cookies for Kid's Cancer-

2011-03-23T18:14:00.000-04:00

Brooklyn Nom is proud to offer support to Cookies for Kid's Cancer in order to help raise funds for pediatric cancer research. In 2010, Brooklyn Nom was a donor to the Oxo bakesale. We made some adorable cake-pops and volunteered for a shift setting up and stocking the goodies. It was really great to be a part of the event, and in 2011 we plan to step up our support for Cookies for Kid's Cancer .

Spread the word!!!

How can you help?

There are many ways you can help:

Write about Cookies for Kids’ Cancer and our call for bake sales in May and the $225,000 match. Every reader you inspire to get involved will get us closer to reaching the full match from Glad while honoring the little boy who was known as Prince Liam the Brave.

“Like” Cookies for Kids’ Cancer on Facebook – www.facebook.com/cookiesforkidscancer - and mention us in your status updates. Blog about Cookies for Kids’ Cancer’s bake sales for Liam and the Glad match, and we’ll share your blog post on our Facebook page and encourage our dedicated fans to keep spreading the word.

Follow Cookies for Kids’ Cancer on Twitter – @cookies4kids – and help spread the word about #cookiesforkidscancer, #lovelikeliam, and #pediatriccancer.

Be sure to check in with us throughout April and May, as we prepare for the upcoming bake sale at Brooklyn Flea!

Hello Valentine!

2011-02-13T23:29:00.000-05:00

My goal for 2011 has been royal icing.
Most people want to run a marathon, I just want smoothly decorated cookies.
I have spent some time with my egg-white powder (left over from Mac fest 2010),
and have been diligently researching flooding and damming techniques.

For most things there is an undisputed expert-
see here: Amelia Coulter
But for sheer step-by-step Dani Fiore of Martha Stewart fame is a fantastic resource.

Ready for the secret?

Squeezy Bottles!

Using the Squeezy Bottles makes decorating super clean and easy. I was able to outline (Dam) and then fill in (Flood) and smooth with a mini-offset spatula.

Happy Valentines Day!

Let's get superstitious!

2011-01-22T18:07:00.000-05:00

As it seems, 2010 was the "year of teh suck" for many people. I was indifferent to it. 2010, not the best...

So I began the year with the Greek Vasilopita, and continued my sage waving with a New Orleans good luck charm. This cake was also from A World of Cake. Typically, I run away from yeasted doughs, I am far too impatient to make it through a whole proof, knead, rise, punch, shape, proof, and bake without picking paint chips off my windowsill. I persevered because my co-writer Sara had a very bad 2010, and I thought if I could pour some of my love into this cake that she would eat it and it would make her 2011 better. I think it worked. She got the bean in this one- and I didn't even plan it!

Giga-Domo Oreos!

2011-01-21T07:22:00.001-05:00

OMFG
I was perusing the internet at work, while my laptop was broken. I came across the idea for Domokun cookies at Diamonds for Dessert and I knew I had to rush home and try it. That exact evening. So after a long day at work, I picked up some minichips from Fairway on the way home. I was a little intimidated about setting colored dough into chocolate dough, but it was pretty easy and the results were totally impressive. I need to make these again when I have more time to spend decorating. The white chocolate filling for these Domoreos is so delicious; we spent alot of time making them "triple stuff." Please do check out the original post at Diamonds for Dessert .
I LOVED this recipe.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-20T16:51:00.003-05:00

Since I was about 7, when my Greek step-father joined our family, we celebrated New Years with this cake- Vasilopita.

Usually, it was made in some form of a lemon pound cake and a foil wrapped coin.
Traditionally however, it is baked in a round pan, and one piece is marked with a cross and reserved for the holy spirit. We never did that... This year I tested out (with amendments) a great new book, "A World of Cake: 150 Recipes for Sweet Traditions", by Krystina Castella.

My version is made in a loaf pan-

1.5 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda

1 C sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1 stick of butter
3 eggs

lemon zest
anise extract (just a titch)

1/2C milk

slivered almonds for the top
a coin for the inside
__________________________________

Mix dry ingredients, and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, and add the eggs one at a time. Add the lemon zest and anise extract and stir to combine.

Add the dry mix in 2-3 additions alternating with the milk. The batter should be sort of light and airy.

Pour the mix into the loaf pan and (closing your eyes!) drop in your coin and turn the pan a few times, so that you don't know where it is! Now would be a good time to mention- Wash your coin well, and wrap it in foil before adding it to the mix.
Top the unbaked cake with slivered almonds and granulated sugar.
Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

When you serve the cake, it goes from youngest to oldest... and warn your guests that they should expect some metal!!!

Much like the King Cakes of New Orleans, the recipient of the coin is blessed with luck for the year, as long as they hold on to the coin.
My husband Tim was the lucky one this year, and has put the coin in a safe place for the coming year.
It would be a shame to lose a year's worth of good fortune for some clean socks, right?

Put this on your fork and eat it!

2010-12-04T12:01:00.003-05:00

After a semester's worth of forehead wrinkle inducing school work, it is time to NOM!

I have a great weekend planned including a visit to Baked! and a feast set for a couple of princesses- the annual Second Thanksgiving Feast!

Pastabilities!

2010-09-30T08:54:00.005-04:00

After months of hinting and prodding- I have managed to wrest this pasta roller from the basement of my in-laws. We are, in the biblical sense, just borrowing it.

I have been jonesing for one of these babies for years! It is not all that difficult to use, and makes tasty pasta a doddle to make! I used white flour, semolina flour, and egg yolks to make this spectacular dish.

I had a memory of this aromatic fennel-tomato pasta dish that was given to me as a leftover, in a plastic topped Tupperware from a coworker sometime last year. It was fantastic! I was told that her husband had made it "No big deal"...
If it was "No big deal" why have I thought of it every time I pass a bulb of fennel?

I tried to recreate the memory of this dish- and I think I did a fair job.

I sauteed sliced fennel bulb in butter and olive oil. I added some fresh tomatoes and a small can of diced tomatoes to help them out. I added the whispy tops of the fennel to the pan and tossed everything together with a metric ton of pecorino romano cheese.
I like cheese.

The fresh pasta really makes a difference, and every time I make it I wonder why I don't do it more often.

Wallpaper Paste

2010-09-29T09:44:00.006-04:00

When I was a kid we always had oatmeal- usually instant packages of peaches & cream or that weird stuff with invisible gummy bears in it. Eeeew...

As a grown-up, I have tended towards the granola side of the food spectrum.
As the weather grows cooler (and warmer and cooler again) I am craving heartier foods- We have made soup twice, and Oatmeal is re-entering the roster as a starting player.

I don't imagine most people need a recipe for oatmeal- but I tend to try to cram in as many nutritive things as possible.
Peanut or almond butter is a common additive- but mashed bananas or a shredded apple are fantastic things to put in.

Today's Oatmeal:

(serves 1)

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup water
pinch of salt
1 apple- peeled, cored, and shredded
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sugar
pinch of cardamom

- Bring the salted water to a simmer and add oats, cook for about 2 minutes then add the shredded apple and sugar. Cook this for about 2 minutes and then add cinnamon and cardamom. Put it in a bowl and add another teaspoon or so of hippie sugar on top.
Sometimes I'll use maple syrup instead of the sugar.

Take a look at that sexy texture! Yup... Sexy Oatmeal!

Freshmen 15!

2010-09-17T10:14:00.004-04:00

I don't know when it happened.

At some point over the last year, I have come to favor food cooked at home to meals out.
In New York City, there are many people who eat out every meal.
This was particularly brought to my attention when I began classes at St. John's University. I went to grab a quick bite before my afternoon class, and was just appalled.
The healthiest thing I could assemble was "Atomic Wings" with a side of cole slaw.
Freshman 15? Seriously! The main problem is that these kids do not know.
They are making the choices of what and when to eat for the first time in their lives. Food is a social activity, a break from studying and classes- and they are offered high fat, high calorie, deep fried foods to eat on the run.
I was really disappointed with all of the choices on campus (I had to check them all out- I thought I may have just came across the one junk-food outpost -not...)
Being one of the few grown-ups on campus, having been there-done that, I was just really shocked at the menu.
The quality of the foods being offered is not the main problem- they're tasty and cheap. The food is not grade D or anything like that. There is just a severe lack of fresh, whole, tasty, and affordable things to eat on campus.
As an undergrad, I was spoiled. I lived in the old Bellevue building, there was a cafeteria which was open for about 2 hours a day, and which no one ate from. It was great. I either cooked- which was how I made friends, or I ate out in one of the hundreds of restaurants in the east village.
Still, I was eating most of my meals out.
Which brings me back to my point: as I come to relish my time at home more, to appreciate things like going to the greenmarket or cooking up a soup when I'm sick, I am more often underwhelmed with my meals out.

White Light, White Heat, White Velvet

2010-07-30T12:18:00.003-04:00

I was poking around the house on the hottest day of the year... What's a logical person to do?
Seek out air conditioning, shade, frosty beverages, and light noms.
That's logical people.
What did I do?
I turned on the oven.
To 350*. Three Hundred and Fifty Degrees.

But, it had to be done.

May I present to you:
The White Velvet Cupcake

... and so if necessity is the mother of invention, I share with you my findings:

Start here.

Now: Remove Chocolate, Red Food Dye, White Vinegar, and Buttermilk.
Add Yogurt, and Apple Cider Vinegar.

I realized that I wanted to make a cake, and hadn't enough butter for a cake and a frosting. I was out of buttermilk, and I only had some store brand malt tarragon vinegar or the hippy apple cider vinegar. I found the oil-based Red Velvet, and just used what I had.
It came out really well.
The substitutions I made were all within the same family of ingredients- fat for fat, acid for acid, etc.
But these baked up tall and fluffy, and more moist than a butter based cake. They seemed to keep longer and taste "cakier". They had a tight crumb, and just looked and tasted pretty.

To enhance the pretty- I used the Sarah Magid recipe to start- the idea is basically a light roux of milk and flour is cooked on the stovetop so that the proteins and gluten thicken together to stabilize the otherwise buttercream frosting.
I wanted to see if it would stand up to the heat better. It was pretty good... and I would use it again, but felt I had to add extra flavorings (Rosewater and Honey-booze) to get the results I would get on a straight butter based frosting. My theory is that the fats aren't available to bond with the flavorings because the flour and milk mixture is making up the majority of the structure... I'm not sure the mechanics yet, but I will launch an investigation.

Speaking of investigations- I have been experimenting with Agar-agar in place of gelatin in a Panna Cotta. I have had mixed results. Any input? I'm planning on posting a series, once I find the winning combination!
Until then- Enjoy the day!

Farm Fresh!

2010-07-22T09:25:00.000-04:00

I adore the bounty of Summer.

I made a healthful omelet using eggs from Flying Pigs Farm with Green Peppers from the Grand Army Plaza farmer's market, and some aged provolone cheese.
My accompaniment to this: sliced grape tomatoes with Organic Olive Oil, and black pepper.

We've been cold-brewing our coffee, because in this heat even seeing the light for the coffee maker on makes me sweat... It is almost unbearable, except I have all of this delicious Nom to make it worthwhile.

Or, " How I spent my summer vacation..."

2010-07-21T08:55:00.009-04:00

Vacation, for a number of reasons has remained elusive this year. I've been in summer school, and working, and all of those things that keep one tethered to the homestead.
We spent a night out in Bucks County, PA- Tim's hometown, and made plans to visit the DelVal agricultural school market. The grounds were "closed to the public", but I'm not public, so we poked around for a bit before exploring the market. There were many beautiful animals to gaze upon, and we made sure to see as many as we could find. Given my particular love for dairy though, we spent an inordinate amount of time looking at the Dairy Science Building:

DelVal is also our supplier for delicious, unpasteurized, whole, raw-milk. I had been meaning to try the raw-milk, and we bought waaaay more than we could use. It is creamy, grassy, and clean tasting. It's not a taste that I am particularly used to, so I think in the future a single half-gallon will set us up just fine... Unless I make some of Sara C's cheese using the raw milk!

DelVal uses their animals both as a teaching tool, and as a service to the community, by selling their wares at their own on-site market, which includes a creamery.

I used to get pretty excited about our Dairy Queen dates (we haven't got them in NY), but after nomming this heavenly nectar, well... sorry, DQ.
We sampled the black berry, and the coffee, as it was pretty early in the morning.

Complete breakfast in a cone!

Guinea Pig Pizza

2010-07-09T22:38:00.003-04:00

If anybody out there was wondering, yes, of course I ate guinea pig (locally called cuy) in Peru.

For many complicated reasons (and also just because, hell, why not?), I chose to enjoy my cuy in pizza form.

Before I talk about whether guinea pig is good eating or not, I should talk a little bit about Peruvian pizza.

It is horrible.

Seriously.

I thought pizza was one of those things that's pretty much impossible to mess up. I mean, even bad pizza, even frozen pizza, is secretly kind of good - I even enjoyed the Domino's pizza with "Chinese" toppings I had in New Delhi. And if I've ever heard of a situation where pizza could go wrong, it was international chain pizza halfway around the world from its natural setting, topped with items not found in Italy, the USA, or even China.

But Peruvian pizza gives a whole new meaning to the word "ick." I don't know where they missed the memo on this - it's flat dough baked crispy with some sort of sauce, lots of cheese, and pretty much any topping you can think of, from pineapple to clams. How can you fuck it up? Peru can fuck it up.

OK, now that we have that squared away. Cuy Pizza.

After two previous run-ins with horrid Peruvian pies, I found myself in a quaint little gourmet restaurant in San Blas, my favorite neighborhood in Cusco. A gigantic wood-burning oven filled about a third of the space. Maybe this pizza would be different - maybe this time I would only be burned by glorious melty cheese, and not my hopes and dreams. Looking over the menu, my eye caught the word "cuy" on the list of custom pizzas.

I had been meaning to try guinea pig during my trip, but every time I'd seen it available it was extremely expensive and needed to be ordered a day in advance. One cannot simply drop into a Peruvian restaurant and order cuy, the way one can order beef or chicken. Because it's a tourist gimmick. As far as I can tell, locals only eat cuy at certain holidays; it reminded me a little bit of the Alligator Sauce Picante I'm familiar with from Louisiana. Alligator is not an everyday food - it's a tourist food and a food to be sampled once every few years at a quirky little festival somewhere in the remote reaches of the swamp.

But I'm a food blogger and a travel writer. How can I come to Peru and pass up the most famous local delicacy, simply because it's expensive and touristy? Macchu Picchu was expensive and touristy, and I loved it. Cuy pizza seemed like a good compromise - if it was as horrible as it had the potential to be, I'd only be out $5. So I ordered it.

The oven was fired up. One of those awesome "international" cokes* with no high fructose corn syrup and packaged in a glass bottle appeared, and soon my guinea pig pizza arrived as well. It looked somewhat like actual pizza. The crust was cooked through and had a bit of char. The cheese was clearly of the shredded variety, and it was actually melted on the pizza. All good signs. And it was liberally decorated with little bites of meat which looked to have been fried in their own fat. Nice.

The cuy itself tasted, to be perfectly honest, like pretty much any meat that had been fried up to the point of deliciousness. Reminiscent of rabbit, or maybe of the nutria I once ate in gumbo (long story). But definitely good. And it worked on the pizza - it was something I could see being offered at Motorino or Keste, if those restaurants had access to food-grade guinea pig.

So, guinea pig. Enjoyed. What bizarre animal should I try next? Let me know in the comments.

*speaking of sacrilege, I am just going to admit right here and now that I am a huge fan of drinking soda overseas. Every time I travel internationally I always try whatever the local specialty is, as well as a Coke. Because my love for HFCS-free Coke knows no bounds. I blame it on my first trip to Italy, when I was a dumb teenager who was not allowed to order wine, anyway. Now the taste of real sugar Coke is the taste of exotic foreign travel, and I must order it at least once on every trip.

Dog Day Kitchen: Homemade Yogurt

2010-07-07T15:34:00.004-04:00

(photo credit: Sifu Renka)

It's hot. Too hot to cook. Too hot to eat. To hot to think.

Perfect for homemade yogurt.

Yogurt is one of those things that is dead simple to make in terms of the steps involved, but a complicated undertaking in terms of all the magical food voodoo that has to happen in order for it to actually work. In other words, it involves on-purpose bacteria. Like waiting for dough to rise, you just kind of have to cross your fingers and hope.

One thing that the magical yogurt voodoo bacteria loves is heat. Which means that a heat wave is a perfect opportunity to invite them over to play.

Like rudimentary cheesemaking, the process is outrageously simple and involves very few ingredients or equipment.

You will need:
A Quart Of Milk, Whole
3 or 4 Tablespoons of Plain Yogurt*
A Pot With A Lid
A Container To Put The Finished Yogurt In
A Stove With Burners
A Warm Place
Hot Weather

Disclaimer: as with other dairy experiments, you want all equipment to be Extremely Clean so as not to invite the Wrong Sorts Of Bacteria to your yogurt party. Wash your hands, too.

What you do is this:

1. Pour the quart of milk into the pot.

2. Put the pot on the stove and don't forget to turn on the heat or anything silly like that. As far as I can tell, heat level doesn't matter.

3. Wait around until the milk reaches about 185 degrees, AKA when it starts to foam. You could use a candy thermometer, but, like I said in my ricotta post, the Central Asian nomads who invented/discovered yogurt thousands of years ago did not have Williams Sonoma, and they managed to make yogurt just fine for millennia.

4. Remove pot of hot milk from the heat.

5. Allow the milk to cool to about 110 degrees. I half-assed by getting it cool enough to where I could touch it without totally burninating my finger (but where it still felt hot to the touch). This is difficult to describe, and if you are OCD you might want to indulge in the candy thermometer. Be warned, however: yogurt is all guesswork/voodoo. No amount of OCD-ing yourself through the recipe is going to guarantee a good result.

6. When you think the milk has reached the correct temperature, add the yogurt.

7. Stir well.

8. It is now time to let the friendly bacteria you just added to your milk do its thing. What I did is this: I covered the pot** and put it into my "cool" oven. Cool being in quotes because, while the oven itself should be turned off, it should still be kind of a sauna in there. The pilot light, the thoroughly closed-up nature of the oven, and the mega heat wave we're having ensure that the "cool" oven is actually just the right temperature for Bacteria Party USA. If your oven does not have a pilot light, you can turn the oven light on. You can also put the pot in a sunny window, or the trunk of your car, or rig up some kind of Yogurt Sauna with a heating pad. The possibilities are endless, especially if it's obnoxiously hot outside.

9. Leave the milk/yogurt mixture to do its thing for a while. I like thick, tangy yogurt, and I wanted to be absolutely certain that the yogurt had plenty of time to yogurt itself. So I left mine in for 15-18 hours. If you want milder yogurt (or something drinkable like lassi or kefir), you can leave it in for less time. But eight hours is about the minimum if you want to see any real bacterial activity.

10. Come back eight or more hours later and check out the results. When you open it up, it should be immediately recognizable as yogurt. It should not smell weird. It will probably have a layer of yellowish liquid on top, but then you'll have seen that before if you've ever eaten yogurt of the non-gogurt variety.

Yogurt! I've been eating mine plain, with blueberries on top. It's also apparently easy to make flavored yogurt by adding fruit puree, lemon zest, and the like. I hope I don't have to say this, but just to cover my ass: you should store your yogurt in the refrigerator. Eat it soon - remember how you didn't put any preservatives or anything in it, and that there is bacteria in there?

Keep 3 or 4 tablespoons of your homemade yogurt to use as a starter for the next batch.

* You should use yogurt that says "contains live/active cultures" on the label. Not go-gurt.

** You could also transfer the proto-yogurt to another container at this point. I was just lazy.

The Best Thing

2010-07-06T14:26:00.002-04:00

I had planned to do tons of food blogging during my trip to Peru. I figured that a month in this fascinating and diverse country would provide me with post after post of global culinary nommitude.

Travel is all about facing the unexpected. One thing I certainly didn't expect from Peru is that I wouldn't like the food. There are very few world cuisines I actively dislike. Korean was the sole entry on that list for a while. Then I went on a pilgrimage to a Korean barbecue in Flushing, Queens, where nobody in the restaurant spoke English. It turns out I love Korean food - when prepared by and for actual Koreans. Because of my pretty much axiomatic love for any and all international cuisines, I assumed that Peru would be one food adventure after another.

I was wrong.

Of course, it didn't help that I had a bit of Atahuallpa's Revenge for the first two weeks, preventing me from jumping back on the uncooked-seafood horse that is ceviche. (I adore ceviche, I just can't eat it in its native habitat.) That, coupled with 4 years as a flexitarian*, made the simple act of digesting meals a feat in and of itself.

It wasn't until I arrived in Cusco that I started to find local food I could enjoy. There were fresh juices, empanadas, and avocados in every permutation known to man. The coffee was orgasmic. If I wanted to go out on a limb and eat a little meat, I could stop at a streetside barbecue for chicharrones or head to a Peruvian-Chinese greasy spoon for chaufa con pollo, also known as chicken fried rice.

I wasn't in love the way I fell in love with food on my trips to Italy and India, but I was surviving. Basic human metabolism was happening.

And then I found them. The best thing. Alfajores. An alfajor is a little like an oreo, if Nabisco had a soul. Three cookies halfway between graham cracker and shortbread are layered with dulce de leche so rich I thought it might be hazelnut butter, chocolate, or the nectar of the gods we call Nutella. The resulting double decker cookie sandwich is rolled in powdered sugar, and then, as if all of the above weren't enough, dusted with coconut. This is the best thing you will ever eat. Ever. It's sweet, but not tooth-achingly sweet. There a lot of different flavor elements, but rather than conflicting they layer upon each other to create a delicate symphony of pastry.

Now that I'm home, I can't say that I ever fell in love with Peruvian food. But I sure could go for an alfajor right about now.

*I sort of hate the term flexitarian, but the bottom line is that I rarely eat meat and thus don't digest it very well in large quantities. And in the above sentence, I needed a way to say that in just one word. So flexitarian it is.