Sour cherry pie

As promised, here's a picture of the cherry pie I made on Sunday. It's rough - P and I have to finish it before we leave for Connecticut tomorrow! I think that means pie for breakfast...

For those interested, I made this from a recipe in Baking Illustrated. I didn't make a lattice crust - I wasn't feeling that adventurous - but it was delicious nonetheless.

Cocoa zucchini bread

I'm the crazy person who decides to bake something the day before leaving for vacation, when there's already a long list of things to take care of. Why? Well, we had some zucchini left from last week's box, and I didn't want it languishing in our crisper for another week. I had visions of it being shriveled and moldy when we came back. As luck would have it, our friend Ginny had just emailed me a recipe for zucchini bread with cocoa that she'd been trying out with her zucchini down in Connecticut. How could I resist?

A quick word on quick breads: there's something about this type of "bread" that makes it seem easier to make on a weeknight when you're in a rush. This is considered a bread because it's traditionally baked in a loaf pan, and it's quick because it doesn't use yeast as a leavener - instead, it uses baking powder or baking soda (or in this case, both). For me, it feels quick because there's no butter in the recipe - I don't have to wait for the butter to come to room temperature to cream it, so there's no planning ahead involved.

My only change to the recipe? Rather than use a loaf pan I used an 8 x 8 Pyrex pan. My pet peeve with quick breads in loaf pans is that by the time the middle is cooked, the outside can be quite dry. It also takes longer to bake and to cool to room temperature when cooked in a loaf pan. My change of cooking vessel, I suppose, makes it less of a bread and more of a cake - but I like cake, and it has vegetables in it, so why complain?

This recipe came to Ginny courtesy of her fellow carillonneur Paul Butler. Thanks, Paul, for this recipe!

Champlain Valley Fair Blue Ribbon Zucchini Bread
source: Paul Butler

Note: making 1 1/2 times this recipe works well in a 9 x 12 pan

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (Paul uses white whole wheat)
(for chocolate zucchini bread, substitute 1/2 cup cocoa powder for the flour)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 large eggs
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups white sugar (you can use 2)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium zucchini, grated (about 2 cups)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large loaf pan, or 8 x 8 pan. Sift flour, baking soda, baking power, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. (If you're in too much of a rush to sift everything, just sift the cocoa; that can be lumpy.) In a medium bowl or the bowl of a mixer, whisk together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla extract until light and thick-looking. If using a mixer, switch to the paddle attachment. Add the dry ingredients and mix briefly enough to moisten. Add the zucchini and walnuts, if using. Stir to combine but do not over mix.

Bake about 1 hour until a cake tester comes out clean. If using a loaf pan, the pan will be very full but that's okay - put a cookie sheet beneath if you're concerned about spillage. If you're using an 8 x 8 pan, bake for approximately 40 - 45 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack.

Deconstructed deconstructed lasagna

After many days of meaning to make the lasagna tart posted on 101 Cookbooks, I have given up trying to get up the wherewithal to make a tart. (Instead, I've made a sour cherry pie...I can always find the energy to make desserts!) Instead, I took the same ingredients, and made a free-form pasta dish with it. Call it my deconstructed deconstructed lasagna.

Deconstructed Deconstructed Lasagna

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
1/2 onion, minced
pinch of red pepper flakes
2 zucchinis, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 28 oz can tomatoes (whole, crushed, chopped; whatever)
1 cup (or more) ricotta cheese
2 Tbsp chopped basil
salt and pepper to taste

1 pound of pasta (or less - it depends on how "saucy" you want your pasta.)

Boil water for the pasta. Salt the water well, and cook pasta according to directions on package to al dente.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large, shallow pan. Saute garlic and onion until soft and a bit browned. Add red pepper flakes (more if you like things hot; a pinch just makes things interesting). Add can of tomatoes. If they're whole, mush them up with the back of a spoon. Cook for 10 minutes on medium until bubbling and tomato-sauce looking. Add zucchini; cook through in sauce. Remove sauce from heat; stir in ricotta and basil. Serve with pasta.

This would probably be even more delicious if it were baked (making it a deconstructed-deconstructed-reconstructed lasagna). If I were going to do that, I would undercook the pasta a bit, mix with the "sauce", put in a greased pan, and top with grated mozzarella. Then I'd bake it at 350 degrees until the top was bubbly and brown.

Check this out!

My first piece for Beer and Butter Tarts has been posted! This is a new blog on food issues relevant to Canadians by the same people who do TasteTO, which is my favorite blog about food in Toronto. I've written a review of Mark Bittman's newest cookbook - check it out!

Cornmeal and Kale Spoon Bread

Every American Thanksgiving, my mom has made what is one of my favorite dishes: Spoon bread. Composed of cornmeal, butter, eggs, and milk, I've always thought of it as a denser, slightly wetter cornbread - and perfect as a side for all things Thanksgiving. I've seen it more eloquently described as a heavy souffle or a savoury pudding - it's a bit like polenta or cornbread in taste, but lighter in texture than both. As I love all things corn, this is something I could eat every day.

When I moved to Canada, my mom's spoon bread recipe was one of the ones I asked her to copy and mail to me so I could do my own American Thanksgiving in Canada. And for every year but the last - when there just wasn't room in my oven - I've made spoon bread at my American Thanksgiving. But why just relegate it to a holiday dish?

I had originally thought I'd make soup with the kale this week. My last week's kale attempt - boiled briefly, then generously salted and buttered - wasn't anything I wanted to make again. With the heat, though, hot soup is the last thing I want to eat. So I searched Epicurious for some alternative uses for kale.

The recipe I was most excited about was Cornmeal and Kale Spoon Bread. One of the people leaving comments on the site was right; this recipe does generate a lot of dirty dishes. I boiled the kale last night to save a step (and a pan) today, but tonight it still generated, oh...2 bowls, a frying pan, a saucepan, and the dish it's baked in.

As for the taste? You'd never really know there were vegetables in it - the flavors all blended together. The roasted red peppers and green onions just melted in, and I wish the cheese had been more assertive. It was a sharp cheddar, and even though we put in more than the recipe called for, the dish wasn't very cheesy. The spoon bread did poof up while cooking, like a good souffle (though not as high), so the texture was light.

Would I make it again? Possibly. I'm undecided if having a larger proportion of vegetables in it would make it better, or just like a strange vegetable casserole bound together with some corn mush. It was tasty, though, and inoffensive; it might be appropriate as a side dish if I'm at a loss for something to make later in the summer. As much as I love spoon bread, it might just be best in its purest form.

This week's haul

Here's what was in this week's box. For once, all are things I have a good idea of what to do with them - the challenge will be coming up with something interesting.

- a big head of broccoli
- a red potato and a white potato
- 2 more pickling cucumbers (now I have 4, since I didn't use them last week!)
- a green pepper
- a tomato
- red cabbage
- a giant head of lettuce
- green beans & purple beans
- carrots
- 2 zucchini
- a small box of pink currants

The one thing in here I've never cooked with are the currants (assuming the purple beans are like green beans - they similar, differing only in color). However, as pastry is my most favorite thing to try (as anyone looking at my shelf of cookbooks can attest), incorporating these into something shouldn't be a problem. At least I think so...

I still have the radishes from last week, and most of the cabbage and the zucchini. I have plans for the zucchini from last week, which I'll post tomorrow, since that's when we're having it for dinner!

Coffee cake

Does this recipe include things from the CSA share? Not necessarily...but it's fantastic and easy, and allows for a lot of creative freedom.

While I was growing up my stepmom would make a great coffee cake - but when I tried to make it a few years ago, it came out like a dry brick. I probably baked it too long; it seems that every apartment I have is cursed with an oven that runs hot. After the research assistant in my lab, Donna, brought in what was an incredibly tasty coffee cake, I had to try again. This is the kind of coffee cake you could eat many, many pieces of and just want to keep eating. I asked her for the recipe, and she knew it off the top of her head - clearly, this is a classic in her house.

I've played with the recipe a bit, but only in terms of the coffee cake flavoring. Cinnamon sugar is traditional (and delicious), but you can substitute other spices, or even fruit, between the layers of cake. The version in this picture? Rhubarb compote in the bottom filling layer, then a mixture of white and turbinado sugars and cinnamon in the top two layers. P says this one is the best one yet. Trust me: you'll want to lick the plate.

Donna's coffee cake

for the cake:
1 cup butter (2 sticks, or half a pound)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder

for the sugar/spice filling:
3/4 cups sugar (half white sugar and half brown works well)
2 tsp cinnamon (substitute any other of your favorite spices)
optional: 1/4 cup toasted chopped nuts

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Dissolve the baking soda into the sour cream. Add 1/3 of flour and baking powder to mixture, then half of sour cream mixture; alternate flour and sour cream, ending with flour and baking powder. Mix only until ingredients are just moistened after each addition - do not overbeat. Combine the sugar(s), spice(s), and nuts in a small bowl.

Pour 1/3 of the mixture into a greased tube pan or bundt pan. (A tube pan works better for getting the cake out and not losing any of the topping.) Sprinkle 1/3 of the sugar mixture over the batter. Layer the batter and sugar twice more, ending with a layer of sugar on top.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 - 60 minutes. Be sure to watch it carefully - test the cake 10 minutes early to ensure you do not overbake.

Some possible alternatives:
- Cardamom instead of (or combined with) cinnamon; a dash of fresh-ground (always fresh-ground) nutmeg would be a tasty addition, as well.
- Try using sugar with larger crystals (such as Demerara) or darker color (like a dark-brown sugar), or even granulated maple sugar in the sugar filling.
- Toasted slivered almonds, with an additional 1/2 tsp of almond extract, makes for a more almond-flavored cake. Almond paste in one of the layers could also be a delicious addition.
- Berries, or compote, spread into one of the layers. Be sure it's not too wet - this will interfere with the cooking of the cake.