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By Amber, on May 1, 2011, at 10:25 pm We have some friends here in Houston with whom I rowed in college (in Philadelphia!). Every year they have a huge crawfish boil and every year Mark has to work that day. This year he decided he was calling out sick if necessary, but fortunately the planets aligned and we got to go, free and clear! These friends take food seriously and they lived in New Orleans for several years, so they have their technique down and it was a real treat for us.
This guy was the night’s lone survivor; he was found cruising around the driveway long after the last pot was dumped onto the table:
Me with my friend Crawford:
We stayed until cleanup, and Mark got to bring home a doggie bag (or two):
By Amber, on March 31, 2011, at 10:54 pm Lard is one of those retro ingredients that supposedly made everything taste incredible back in the day. These days most recipes use vegetable shortening where lard would have been used (vegetable shortening is scary!), so you have to hunt down fresh lard and possibly render it yourself. Were our ancestors more deserving of delicious food than we are? I think not. I decided to take a shortcut and order some rendered lard online to find out what the fuss is all about. And since I was going to have to get it shipped all the way from Minnesota, I decided I might as well buy enough to fill their smallest box. Presenting eight pounds of rendered leaf lard:
I stuck the larger piece in the freezer, put the smaller in the fridge, and immediately set about determining what I’d cook first. Something called ‘lard cake‘ seemed an obvious choice, and something for which I already had the ingredients. I got the condensed milk out first. We have a bunch of this because Mark uses it to make Vietnamese coffee.
Did you know that you can make caramel by boiling a can of condensed milk? I’ve never tried it, but apparently someone did and then decided they’d bought more than they needed:
Or maybe it got stuck on a truck in the Texas heat, who knows. I moved on to another can, which was normal.
Next, the unveiling of the lard:
I wanted to smell and taste it. Smelled maybe just the faintest bit porky, definitely an animal type of smell but not an unpleasant one, and tasted the same. I cut chunks of it and packed them into a measuring cup, then processed the batter normally.
At this point, I must admit I got nervous. The batter looked completely normal, but it smelled like lard. Was this going to be any good? Were we going to be eating pork cake? But, lo! The lard smell gave way to delicious cake smell as it baked. Thank goodness.
Okay, so something weird did happen that I can’t explain, but I don’t think it’s the lard’s fault. I baked it for 45 minutes, which is longer than the recipe calls for, and sliced a piece. Hmm, very moist. Mark likes his baked goods undercooked, so I decided to live with it — until I sliced a second piece, which was not so much undercooked as it was batter. Back into the oven, which had mostly cooled down, for another 45 minutes, after which it was perfect. So does this cake take 45 minutes, 90 minutes, or something in-between? I don’t know what to tell you. But I can tell you it was moist, dense, and delicious, even after we ate half and went out to dinner a couple nights in a row, leaving the other half on the counter and coming back to it almost a week after it was baked.
And the surprise caramel? We found a use for that:
It was so good, it could only be serendipity.
If you have any ideas for what I should make next with lard, I’d love to hear them!
By Amber, on January 16, 2011, at 10:06 pm Our usual Sunday routine when Mark isn’t working is to go to brunch, do our grocery shopping for the week, and then come home and relax together. Today we were excited to find gumbo as the daily special. We’ve had it Beaver’s once before, and it had ENORMOUS chunks of pork from Revival Meats (they are opening a market near us soon and we seriously cannot wait). The pit guy made the gumbo, but sadly, the head chef hated it, so we figured we’d never see it again. Not so!
Last time we each had a cup, but today we each got the bowl — a bowl of gumbo as big around as a dinner plate, piled high with rice and two eggs (I had mine scrambled), for $10. It’s a steal. Because we are gluttons, we also had breakfast tacos with egg, cheese, and chorizo. And dessert. It was glorious, and it was a perfect meal for such a cold, grey, rainy day (Mark’s favorite kind of day, Seattleite that he is).
We actually couldn’t finish, so we brought home the remains, about two cups’ worth. I told Mark he could have it all. That was until he heated half of it up tonight and I smelled it. I was helpless to resist. Mark graciously forgave my reversal of generosity.
And it was just as good as it was at brunch!
By Amber, on December 28, 2010, at 10:00 pm We had a great Christmas in Austin with my parents, my sister, and my aunt & uncle. Too bad about the part where I left all of their gifts on the dining room table in Houston!
We didn’t make it to any cupcake trailers this time because my parents’ kitchen was full of treats. I think I ate about three pounds of chocolate cake and red velvet cookies, plus a pound of chocolate-covered pretzels. It was beautiful.
On Sunday we drove out to Llano for some authentic Texas pit barbeque. Choosing from their pit is like shopping at the meat candy store, as you can see from this photo that I stole from their website:
Inside you sit down at long benches and spread your meat on a piece of paper to eat it. It’s rustic and friendly and very Texas, and it was well worth the drive, which was slightly longer than advertised by certain parties. :)
Did you eat anything exciting over the holiday?
By Amber, on December 26, 2010, at 10:00 pm …is not another cake ball how-to. Everyone is making these. People have devoted entire businesses to selling them (though I think most of those people call them ‘cake truffles’). So let’s just meditate together on the greatness of them, instead.
I like to use a devil’s food mix and a dark chocolate frosting (yes! I buy preprocessed ingredients for these, and I love it!) for the balls themselves. The first time I made them I just melted 12 oz of Scharffen Berger 70% and 65% together for the coating. I can’t be bothered to temper chocolate, because I hate multiple steps and because I have a refrigerator where I am happy to keep the finished balls for the duration of their very temporary existence. But the problem was that I ran out of chocolate. So this time I used the ganache recipe that I use to top chocolate cheesecake — 6 oz of 70% chocolate, 1 tbsp sugar, and 3/4 cup heavy cream — and doubled it. I had more than enough.
They remind me of doughnut holes at the uncoated stage. It takes ALL of my willpower not to just start popping them in my mouth…
…especially given how frustrating I find the coating process. I am going to come up with something better than what I’ve tried so far, or I am just going to start eating them as-is. Directly from the bowl, with a giant spoon. It’s win-win, as I see it.
What’s your favorite cake ball flavor combination? I might consider breaking out of my triple-chocolate rut.
By Amber, on December 19, 2010, at 10:38 pm Today was delicious! It started with pomegranate:
And progressed to chocolate:
After breakfast I took my photo for MAC Me Over (did you enter?) and then did a whole lot of Christmas baking. Today was cheesecake day. I learned that making two cheesecakes in the mixer at once is not advisable — I’m a little surprised that my beater blade survived 64 oz of cream cheese at once, but it did! I have some other treats to make, but there weren’t enough hours today.
Of course, I got plenty of help from the Pea. When I’m cooking and she goes missing, I usually know where to look for her:
I don’t know what is so fun about getting trapped in small, dark spaces, but I guess we all need hobbies.
By Amber, on December 7, 2010, at 10:03 pm After my last cheesecake experiment, I was eager to play around some more with the recipe. My parents bought us a few more ramekins for Thanksgiving, because I wanted to serve molten cakes in them and my sister also wanted to serve the five gallons of soup she made for five people in them (we ended up talking her into bowls; our small bowls are a dainty 23 oz). With Thanksgiving come and gone, I thought why not fill all of those ramekins with cheesecake?
This time I made the cream cheese/sugar/egg base and added a tablespoon of vanilla before dividing it in half. The bottom half got the usual chocolate treatment, and the upper half got 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (mini because the ramekins are only 8 oz). I spooned 2 tablespoons of the crust mixture into each ramekin and baked them for 5 minutes to set:
Next I spooned a glob of the chocolate layer into each and leveled it. Even though I had ‘set’ the crust, it still wanted to pull up a little, so I found the best way was to press the back of a spoon gently on the top and rotate the ramekin to spread the batter.
Then I added the top layer. This one was a lot easier to spread — it was thinner, so it was self-spreading to a degree.
Here’s where the recipe needs a little tweaking: I used 2 tbsp crust in each because I wanted it thick, and that filled 8 ramekins. But the filling was enough for 11 ramekins. On top of that, I only had 10 clean and empty. So I made the 11th in a jumbo silicone baking cup and called it my test cake. I call that ‘baker’s privilege’!
I baked them for 25 minutes at 350, which was just right. The test cake went into the freezer for about 30 minutes to set up before I ate it — if you’re in a rush to serve them, try that and you should be good. Otherwise, just stick them in the fridge and you’ve got dessert for a week:
As much as I love a giant slice of cake, there is something satisfying about finishing a container of something, and a portion like a ramekin is a good way to keep yourself in check during the gluttony of the holiday season…if you can resist eating more than one at a time.
By Heather, on December 5, 2010, at 8:10 pm Blogmistress note: Tonight’s post is by my sister Heather. She is one of the best cooks I know, so you should definitely make this. She doesn’t have a blog — yet. Thanks for filling in, Heather!
I love soup. I love vehicles for melted cheese. I love wine. I love Amber. Not in that order of course. So when she asked that I make french onion soup as an accompaniment to Thanksgiving dinner, I was psyched. Now normally I make this for two, so when I adjusted the ingredient list to serve all of us and Amber and Mark left the grocery store with 23 pounds of ingredients, they questioned me. Oops. Here is what I made/watched Mark make while I directed from the couch while drinking wine.
Mark and I checking out our handiwork
Heat 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/2 stick butter over medium low heat. Once the butter melt, add 8 cloves minced garlic, 4 large sliced onions, 6 sprigs of thyme and 2 bay leaves. Cover and sweat about 30 minutes. Turn the heat up and carmelize for 15-20 minutes until colored. Briskly stir in 1/2 cup of flour and deglaze with 1/2 cup sherry, 1/2 cup red and 1/2 cup white wines. Add 32 ounces of chicken broth and 48 ounces of beef froth. Heat to boiling and simmer for 30-45 minutes until reduced by about 25%, season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour soup into 4-6 bowls, top with cubed baguettes and shredded swiss cheese. Broil 1-2 minutes until the cheese is melty and browned.
Melty, cheesey goodness. Who doesn’t love a good vehicle for cheese?
By Amber, on November 7, 2010, at 10:00 pm Yesterday I had my zillion photos from New Mexico open and I was narrowing them down to what I wanted to share next, and then somehow I lost all my progress. Doh! I don’t have the energy to redo that just now, so I thought I’d share some assorted snaps from the past week.
Who’s that reading my favorite book?
It’s Sammy! He was a birthday gift from my parents. He looks great on our bookshelves!
He came with a note from my mom:
Mark and I ordered burritos the other night for pick-up. There is a Freebirds just up the street and I think they put something addictive in the meat. The staff is young and cheerful, and we have long suspected that at least a few of them are having special smoke breaks during their shifts. Evidence:
I ordered two so I wouldn’t have to make lunch, and they made sure I knew which ones were mine:
When I sat down at my desk the next day, I noticed the bag:
Speaking of places with herbally-enhanced employees, we made a Whole Foods run tonight and I picked up some treats containing my own favorite herb:
I have a slight obsession with rosemary. I sort of have a personal theory that rosemary is the new bacon. You heard it here first. I’m very excited about these!
Also spotted at Whole Foods (it looked a lot better on my 1″ x 1″ cell phone screen!):
You know the holidays are here when the sock monkeys show up en masse!
By Amber, on November 2, 2010, at 10:08 pm I just flew in from New Mexico, and boy are my arms tired!
A sign of a good vacation is when you return home tired of food. And I have. I’ll fill you in on all the details over the next few posts, but first we are going to eat the leftover slices of pizza that we brought 737 miles in a carry-on bag. Yes, the pizza was that good.
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