Cornbread Fail!

This is just a quick note because I thought it was funny. Yesterday, Travis went to see a movie with a friend, and I decided to bake while he was gone.

One would think that I would learn from my prior cooking failures, but unfortunately that is not the case. This is the second time in the last few months that I have cooked something in this loaf pan that overflowed into the oven. Sigh.

At least this time I had a cookie sheet under it to keep it from making such a big mess. In retrospect, I don't know if it's better or worse that I suspected it might happen again but did it anyway...

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

I made this pasta recently, and it was so simple and so delicious. It's rich but not too heavy, and the leftovers were tasty as well. Most carbonara recipes use heavy cream, but this one does not. I suppose that's probably why it feels a bit less dense.

I think this is a good dish to make on the weekend in that it looks really impressive, but it still leaves you with plenty of time to enjoy your weekend too. This is not the first time a pasta dish has surprised me - the recipes always seem so easy, but the end result is so elegant and so tasty. Sometimes I can hardly believe that I made it myself!

The recipe is from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, which Travis's parents got me for Christmas and is quickly becoming one of my favorite cooking resources.

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
1 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (3/4 cup)
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces bacon (8 slices) chopped fine
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
salt
1 pound spaghetti
pepper

Directions:

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, place a large serving bowl on the rack, and heat the oven to 200 degrees. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot for the spaghetti.

2. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, cheeses, and garlic together and set aside.

3. Cook the bacon and olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until the bacon is crisp, about 8 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until it is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover.

4. When the water is boiling, stir in 1 tablespoon salt and the spaghetti. Cook, stirring often, until the spaghetti is almost tender but still a little firm to the bite.

5. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water then drain the spaghetti, leaving it slightly wet. Remove the warm bowl from the oven and add the spaghetti. Immediately pour the egg and bacon mixtures over the spaghetti and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the reserved pasta water as needed to loosen the sauce before serving.

Dekopon (Sumo Tangerine)

I heard about this fruit on a Good Food podcast recently, and then I happened to stumble across one at Whole Foods after work the other day (I was actually only looking for pie, so it was a pleasant surprise).


There is a really fascinating article here about the fruit, but here's a quick summary: Dekopon is a tangerine variety from Japan that has been incredibly popular there since the early 90s I think. It was so popular it could cost up to $10 per fruit. However, it was illegal to import because of possible exotic diseases, etc. But, someone did managed to smuggle in some branches to graft new trees from.


After that, there's a lot of secret groves and corporate espionage sounding stuff. The article I linked to even contains the quote "I'm not happy that you found out about the Dekopon ... Some heavy hitters I work with are interested in it". And, if that doesn't sound like Chinatown but with fruit instead of water to you, you're totally nuts.


Finally, the fruit is available here in California this year (sold under the name Sumo Tangerine rather than Dekopon). So, after hearing all that craziness on the radio, I really had no choice but to buy one when I happened across it. And, it was delicious. It tastes like one of the best mandarin oranges you've ever had, but it's the size of a navel orange. It's seedless, really sweet, and really juicy. I have to say though that I also bought some Murcott tangerines that I might have even liked a little bit more. All in all, the citrus varieties available this time of year in Southern California are amazing, and you should definitely look into it.

Favorite Corn Muffins

I made this recipe over a month ago.. needless to say, I've gotten a bit behind on blogging. I also either haven't been doing much really interesting cooking or I've just forgotten to take photos of it. But, these corn muffins are amazing. It's definitely the best cornbread recipe I've ever used, and I highly recommend it. The name of the recipe (Peerless Corn Muffins) seems a little sure of itself, but it turns out to be accurate.

Peerless Corn Muffins
from The Breakfast Book, by Marion Cunningham

Ingredients:
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk, warmed
1 cup cake flour
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin tins.

Beat or whisk egg, melted butter, and oil in a mixing bowl until well blended. Stir in warm milk. Combine cake flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar in another bowl and stir with a fork until well mixed. Add dry ingredients and stir until blended. This is a light, medium-thick batter.

Spoon batter into muffin tins so each cup is three-quarters full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edges of the muffins are slightly golden and a straw comes out clean when inserted into the center. Remove from tins and cool a little on racks, or simply serve in a basket, hot from the oven.

Cranberry Oat Delights

During my quest to use a 5-pound of whole wheat flour, I made these cranberry oat delights. I have to say, this is the only recipe I made that used entirely whole wheat flour rather than a 50/50 mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour that I liked.

The recipe calls for dried cranberries, and I used craisins although I'm not sure I was supposed to. Also, I used some slivered almonds that I had in the fridge rather than walnuts or pecans. All in all, I liked these a lot. It just made a TON of cookies, and after two weeks I just couldn't eat any more and had to get rid of the last few. The cinnamon was also a little strong; I'm not sure it needed two whole teaspoons.

Cranberry Oat Delights
(recipe from King Arthur Flour)

3/4 cup ( 1 1/2 sticks, 6 ounces) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups (4 5/8 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups dried fruit: cranberries, diced apples, chopped dates, raisins, chopped apricots, or the dried fruits of your choice
1 cup (3 3/4 ounces) diced pecans or walnuts

Cream together the butter, sugar, spices, leaveners, salt, and vanilla. Beat in the egg. Add the oats, flour, fruit, and nuts, and stir to combine.

Drop the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake the cookies in a preheated 350°F oven for 7 minutes; reverse the pans on the racks, and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, until cookies are beginning to brown around the edges, but are still soft in the center. Remove from the oven, and cool on a rack. Yield: about 4 dozen cookies.

Amazing Salad Dressing

If you have never tried making your own salad dressing, I definitely recommend it. It's about 18 times easier than you think it's going to be and so delicious. Just look at those instructions! It's two lines!

This is a sesame vinaigrette I made recently, I've been eating a ton of salad lately just to get to use it. I couldn't find chili garlic paste and didn't have time to venture over to the Asian grocery, so I used chili garlic sauce instead.

Sweet Sesame Soy Vinaigrette
from Cook's Illustrated Magazine

Ingredients:

1/3 Cup rice vinegar
2 1/2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 Cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 Teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 Teaspoons Asian chili garlic paste
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
2 Teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

Instructions:

Whisk vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and chili paste in medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Gradually whisk in oils, whisk in sesame seeds. can be refrigerated up to 3 weeks.

Cooking Romanesco

Romanesco is a variety of cauliflower that is just gorgeous. It is actually a natural fractal, which is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole" (thanks wikipedia!) In this case, it is a logarithmic spiral, and each bud consists of a series of smaller buds that are also logarithmic spirals. As soon as I saw it at the farmers market, I of course thought: Awesome. But what does it taste like?

I took it home and considered what to do with it. Here's another view, of me contemplating this strange vegetable:


Ultimately, I decided on cooking it the same way I do cauliflower. So I chopped it up. At this point, it looks like a tiny felled evergreen forest!


I roasted it on 450, tossed with olive oil and salt. I used a grey sea salt that I had instead of regular kosher salt. Then, when it came out, I grated fresh parmesan over it. I understand that it looks a bit burned. That is called caramelization, and it tastes delicious.


Sidebar: ignore that fish. It tasted like the void, as Travis says. It's as if the fish had negative flavor, so that it not only was bland, but it pulled the flavor out of the bacon and sent it off into some abyss. I ate a lot of romanesco.