Madhu Knits and Cooks

Cook's Illustrated Old-Fashioned Gingerbread Cake -- A Great Seasonal Treat

Cook's Illustrated delivers another great recipe with the Classic Gingerbread Cake from the January & February 2011 issue.  I was intrigued by the recipe because I don't think I have ever had gingerbread cake -- just gingerbread cookies (and I don't think I've tried gingerbread cookies in years!).  The recipe also seemed interesting because it called for fresh ginger in addition to the dried ginger that one usually sees in gingerbread (cookie) recipes.  I've been buying a lot of fresh ginger lately for my cooking, so trying this cake recipe seemed like a good way to not only use up some leftover ginger, but also have an excuse to finally buy some molasses!

The cake was fairly easy to prepare and bake.  My only modification was to decrease the amount of dried ginger to 1 tablespoon as suggested in the recipe note.  The flavor and consistency of the cake were both fantastic -- well-spiced, just lightly sweet, and moist.  I served the cake by itself (without whipped cream), but when I probably make it next winter, I will likely convert the cake into more of a "finished" product by adding some sort of cream or sauce to it.  

Alice Waters Minestrone -- Shockingly Easy, Healthy, and Delicious!

I have had the Art of Simple Food for almost three years, but I rarely use the book because I think the recipes, particularly for baked goods, can be a little complicated (so yes, not actually that "simple").  I realize that Waters probably uses proper techniques that yield unfailingly high-quality dishes, but I have to admit that I prefer shortcuts whenever possible.  

As part of what I think I can now call my long-standing effort to use more of my cookbooks though, I decided to give the Art of Simple Food another try last week.  I ended up settling on the minestrone recipe because it felt like I hadn't made a good soup in some time.  I didn't really read the recipe directions before I purchased the ingredients, so I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the recipe was to make -- perhaps the best thing about the recipe was that it required very little hands-on time, and required only water instead of my remaining precious homemade vegetarian broth.  The recipe also appears to be incredibly adaptable to different vegetables, so I think it will be the perfect summer CSA/farmer's market soup.  

Be warned that this soup goes fast!  I ate all of the 6 soup servings or so that I made within a week (though my soup did not include beans or pasta, so admittedly was lighter than the original recipe).  I think the key ingredient that makes the soup truly mouthwatering is the thyme sprigs added early in the cooking process.  My modifications to the recipe follow the picture below.

Minestrone Modifications

• Used only one large carrot, one medium onion, one zucchini, three sprigs of thyme, 1 cup spinach, and probably used only 1/2 - 3/4 of the green beans.
• I halved the amount of olive oil used to cook the carrot and onion.
• I removed the dark green parts of the leek, and only partially peeled the two tomatoes.
• I omitted the cannellini beans, and consequently the 1 cup of "bean liquid."  I used 3 cups of water in the recipe.

Apple Carrot Muffins -- Perfect for Anytime of Day

I don't think I have ever consumed a carrot muffin before, so its actually a little confusing that when I noticed some leftover carrots in my fridge last week, I thought it would be a great idea to make carrot muffins.  Wherever the initial urge may have come from though, I am definitely happy I decided to start looking up carrot muffin recipes because 1) the muffins were AMAZING, and 2) I noticed that a number of popular recipes online incorporated apples into carrot muffins.  I had one remaining Empire apple on my countertop that had I not baked it into something, I probably would have just thrown it away (though I would have undoubtedly experienced a lot of associated guilt for not eating it).  

None of the carrot/apple carrot recipes online or in my cookbooks could be made with only ingredients in my kitchen, so I decided to improvise an apple carrot muffin recipe based on the great Muffin Madness base  in the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook (on google books now).  I wasn't entirely sure how the muffins would turn out because the carrot/apple mixture seemed to have a different texture than the suggested modifications contained in the original recipe, so I didn't know what proportions of carrot and apple made sense in relation to the batter base.  My worry about the edibility of these muffins continued until the muffins came out of the oven because the muffin batter was incredibly dense and seemed too dry after I stirred in all of the ingredients, and the muffins were well under-baked at the 20 minute time called for in the original recipe.  

Thankfully though I resisted the urge to throw them away and continued to bake them an additional 5 - 7 minutes.  The baked muffins really were wonderful -- lightweight, perfectly spiced, and very lightly sweetened.  They had great color with orange and light apple-colored flecks showing throughout the surface.  I couldn't really taste the carrot at all, rather just the apple (which maybe is how apple carrot muffins generally taste?).  I brought the muffins in to my Tuesday printmaking class, and they were definitely a huge hit with multiple people asking me for the recipe!  The recipe modifications follow the picture below.

Apple Carrot Muffins -- Modifications to the Moosewood Muffin Madness Recipe

• Added 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. ground ginger to the dry ingredients
• Added 1.5 cups grated carrot (from 3 medium peeled carrots) and 1 Empire apple, peeled, cored, and chopped into small pieces (NOT grated) to batter at the end.
• Baked for 25 - 27 minutes, until a wooden skewer came out clean.

Incredibly Easy Homemade Smoky and Spicy Salsa

My Rick Bayless adventures continue with another of his free online recipes, Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa.  The salsa took virtually no time to prepare, with most of the preparation time being passively spent waiting for the jalapeno peppers and garlic to roast on the stovetop.  I used a can of fire-roasted tomatoes with chipotle peppers, which definitely added to the nice smoky flavor of the salsa.  The salsa had a bit of a kick to it, but it was far less spicy than the Bayless arbol chile salsa I made several weeks back.  This recipe was another good way to use up leftovers in my fridge and pantry, and would be a perfect addition to any March Madness parties you host this month!

Two New Indian Dishes -- Vegetarian Times Kichdi with Cauliflower and Peas, and Palak Makai from a Popular Restaurant Chef

I have been pretty busy with work lately, so trips to the grocery store have become less frequent the past several weeks.  Instead of eating out more, which has typically been my default, I have tried to use this busy time to actually use up those items sitting in my pantry, fridge, and freezer for some time.  I have surprised myself by actually being largely successful, so much so that I found myself needing to go to the grocery store to again stock up on some of those necessary staples!  

My first attempt at using up what I have without buying additional ingredients focused on two new Indian dishes.  The first was a January 2009 Vegetarian Times recipe for Kitchari with Cauliflower and Peas, an Indian rice and lentil dish.  The second was a Palak Makai recipe on Sudhir Seth's blog (the chef/owner of Passage to India, a popular Indian restaurant in Bethesda, MD) that relied on frozen spinach and corn, two items I knew were in my freezer.

Both recipes were relatively painless to construct -- the kitchari in particular requires almost no active preparation time (most of the cooking is just done over a simmer in the pot).  The palak makai mostly just relies on sauteing the spinach and one only needs to chop garlic for the dish (minimal chopping recipes are such a nice change of pace!).  

I may have over-sauteed the palak makai as the spinach was a bit dry upon completion and unfortunately was also fairly bland.  I don't think I'll make the dish again given that it was both not particularly tasty and not that healthy (the recipe calls for a generous amount of butter and cream).  Somehow though through the week, I ended up eating all six servings by myself given the lack of other easy-to-consume food in my apartment.  

 

The kitchari/kichdi turned out WONDERFULLY, such that I actually made it another 3 - 4 times over the next few weeks.  I halved the recipe the first two times I made it, though kept the ginger and cumin levels as the recipe originally stated.  The dish cooked up in about 15 minutes or so, making it the perfect quick meal.  The most recent times I made it, I made the full recipe which definitely increased the cooking time to approximately 30 - 35 minutes, and I did not adjust the spice blend upwards which made the dish less mouthwatering.  When the ginger and cumin were enhanced in the first two half-servings, the dish tasted almost like pongal, a South Indian rice/lentil dish that I grew up eating.  I think that variations of kichdi/pongal will become a frequent meal in my apartment in the months and years to come given how easy and delicious this Vegetarian Times recipe was!  I would definitely recommend this recipe as the must-try Indian recipe of the year.

Rick Bayless Hit and Miss Round 2

Last month, a new MadhuKnitsandCooks.com reader noticed my Rick Bayless post, and graciously offered to lend me a Rick Bayless cookbook, Authentic Mexican, that she owned (thank you!).  The cookbook is pretty great -- lots of general preparation tips for Mexican cuisine, as well as substitution recommendations for many of the recipes so one can truly customize meals to personal preferences.  Unfortunately for me, and I think fairly common for Mexican food, there is only a limited amount of main course vegetarian recipes in the book.  Thankfully though, the first two vegetarian recipes I tried were both easy to make and provided me new methods for cooking Mexican food which are undoubtedly helpful for the future.  

One of the recipes turned out to be spectacular and something I am sure I have had in restaurants before -- Calabacitas con Crema (Zucchini with Roasted Peppers, Corn and Cream).  The other was unfortunately pretty bland and uninteresting (Arroz a la Mexicana (con Verduras) or Mexican Tomato-Colored Rice (with fresh vegetables) -- probably a function of not using enough salt, lard and meat-based broth :-)  

The only modification I would make to the calabacitas recipe is reducing the amount of cream -- I think the cream overwhelmed the flavor of the dish, and made the dish just feel "heavy" upon consumption.  For the arroz dish, I would probably recommend experimenting with a few different spices to achieve a more interesting flavor to this otherwise bland dish.  One could also cook the rice with pork or other "natural" flavors, but for vegetarians/healthy eaters, I think the default probably is adding in some chili powder, paprika, maybe even a bay leaf, etc.  I added a roasted jalapeno (peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped) to the rice, but that change didn't result in a more enjoyable and flavorful dish.  

Finally, I want to point out that the preparation of the calabacitas dish introduced a wonderful new cooking accessory to my kitchen -- an All-Clad stainless steel fry fan, which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (and is displayed below).  The rice dish though is shown in an uninteresting, overly used bowl from my cupboards.

Calabacitas con Crema:

Arroz a la Mexicana:

My New Favorite Finished Project -- Dress for Baby Abigail

I purchased Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Moms specifically for the adorable "Amelie" dress pattern.  Somehow though the Amelie dress ended up as my third project from the book, and of course, I finished it over a month after my goal completion date.  

Despite the delay the dress turned out wonderfully and ranks among my favorite finished knit projects.  The dress fit Abigail, who is seven months old, perfectly and the colors were beautiful.  I am really looking forward to not only experimenting more with Harding's awesome book, but also with different types of accents for knitting projects, like the flowers used for this dress.  Project details follow the picture of the modeled dress.

Amelie Dress for Abigail

Pattern:  Amelie Dress from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms (I worked the pattern in the round instead of flat pieces); I cast on 67 stitches because of the larger gauge from the Meriboo yarn.  I also reduced the number of flowers on the dress.

Yarn:  Frog Tree Meriboo, 2 skeins in color 26 and 1 skein in color 000.  

Needles:  Two size 3 circulars for the edging, two size 4 circulars for the body.

Post-Blocking Measurements:  14 1/2 inches from top-to-bottom; 10 1/2 inches across the waist; 16 inches across the bottom of hte dress; 8 inches between the armholes; 4 inch long armholes; and 4 3/4 inch wide neck opening.