Black-Russian Cake

My friend H. recently made a delicious Black Russian Cake for a movie night (read about the movie night here). The recipe comes from AllRecipes and according to H. it's pretty authentic and the results are similar to the cake she's had in Russia when she lived there. It was a delicious cake. Firm on the outside, soft in the middle and covered in a delicious glaze. It's just the right combination of chocolate and coffee flavors. H. shared some pictures with me that I thought I'd share here with all of you. I hope you'll take the opportunity to make this cake. What other time will you be able to cook with vodka and Kahlua?!

Cake batter in H.'s new bundt pan.

H.'s dog Asher was tired after working so hard helping H. with the cake.

A beautiful shot of the cake from above after it was glazed.

The glaze is a combination of Kahlua and confectioner's sugar. Mmm...

Cake is done! Time for a nap.

Black Russian Bundt Cake

Guest Blogger Adriana ~ Adriana's Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

My friend Adriana garners my respect because she is truly a wonder to behold. Adriana speaks several languages, is well-read, writes poetry, plays the piano and is a talented baker. Her intelligence boggles my mind and I'm convinced that she has extra brains that she keeps somewhere. She writes the ever interesting blog The Obsessive Rereader and she's great to follow on Twitter (@TheReReader). I was very excited when she told me she was interested in a guest post and the one she submitted is a gem!

I think it's interesting that Adriana's recipe calls for confectioner's sugar and brown sugar for the dough and granulated sugar for dipping. I'm sure the different types of sugars combined is what makes them so delightfully crispy. And coffee accompanies chocolate so well so this would be a real treat for someone looking for a variation on standard chocolate chip cookies.

Hope you'll try out her recipe, check out her blog and follow her on Twitter.
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I don’t know how I lived to be 28 without ever making chocolate chip cookies, but it’s true. For the past year I’ve been baking oatmeal raisin cookies pretty regularly, but it was my husband who finally said last week that I should make chocolate chip cookies. So I went through my cooking magazines and recipe books and finally chose a recipe for mocha chocolate chip cookies. They were easy to make and really delicious! Disclaimer: they come out very crispy, so if you like crispy, you’ll love them, but if you generally prefer softer cookies, then maybe this is not the recipe for you.

Here’s what you need:

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. table salt
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
3 Tbsp. instant espresso powder (or ¼ instant coffee granules, crushed)
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
about ¼ cup granulated sugar for dipping

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 F. Baking time: 12-14 minutes. Recipe yields about 4 dozen cookies

You’ll notice that this recipe has no eggs. The good news is that this means you can taste the dough any time you want. The bad news is that butter is your only binding agent, so you have to make sure it’s thoroughly softened before you begin mixing. Err on the side of too soft rather than not soft enough.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine your confectioners’ sugar and your brown sugar.

For my cookies, I chopped up some bittersweet chocolate that I had leftover from something else, but it wasn’t enough, so I also used some semisweet Hershey’s chocolate chips. I floured them so they wouldn’t sink, but then found out that wasn’t strictly necessary -- the cookies come out pretty flat, so the chips can’t sink very far.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and espresso powder with a hand mixer on medium speed until well combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar and brown sugar and mix until well combined. Stir in the flour mixture about ½ cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. At this point you can turn off the mixer and stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon. This is what your dough will look like:

Put the granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Scoop out about 1 Tbsp. dough and flatten it slightly. Dip one side into the sugar and then set the disk, sugar side up, on an ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Attention: they do flatten out and expand quite a bit while in the oven, so don’t be skimpy on the space. I ended up needing four cookie sheets, but two of my sheets are rather small, so you might be able to do it with only three.

Bake until the edges start to darken, or about 12-14 minutes. Let the cookies cool for 1-2 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack lined with paper towels to cool completely.

When I pulled my first batch out, I was surprised by how flat they were, but it’s very normal, given that there are no eggs in the dough. And they are delicious! They’re crispy and buttery, yet they have a bit of chewyness as well, especially when they’re still warm. I will definitely make these again. Enjoy!

How to Section a Grapefruit

Please go check out my guest post on Kate Gabrielle's wonderful blog: The Grapefruit Chronicles. It's a picture and text tutorial on how to section a grapefruit.

Jonas' Lentil Gratin (or my version anyways)

I finally made my friend Jonas' (of All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing! fame) Lentil Gratin. It was a very simple recipe that turned out quite delicious, although you can't quite tell by my poorly lit and out-of-focus photographs. This made good use of my half-bag of lentils in my pantry. By the time I made this, it was so late into the evening that I ate most of it before it finished cooking in the oven. It was still delicious though!

Jonas' Lentil Gratin (or my version anyways)

This recipe requires three different smaller recipes that combine into one final casserole!

Lentils

8 oz. of lentils

- Cook to package instructions. Make sure you pick through the lentils for stones, bad lentils and other random bits and bobs that are not edible. Then cook in salted water, vegetable broth or chicken broth until the lentils absorb all the water. Set the lentils aside.

- I did this the night before and refrigerated the lentils. This saved me so much time!



Sauteed Onion & Garlic
- Sautee some chopped onions and garlic in olive oil. I didn't have garlic so I stuck with the onions. Once the onions are soft, set aside.

Bechamel Sauce

- Making Bechamel Sauce is a bit of a science. I use the basic formula of 1 tablespoon flour + 1 tablespoon milk + 1 cup of milk. Halve, double or triple to suit your needs.

- You need to start with a Roux which is the fat and the flour cooked together. I put 1 tablespoon of flour in a pan wil the the butter. While the butter melts, mix the flour in to cook it a bit.

- It starts to turn a golden color like this. Don't over cook it or let it get to brown.

- Slowly incorporate the 1 cup of milk and constantly whisk to get out the lumps. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to the mixture and cook over a medium flame. Keep stirring the mixture until it gets thick enough to coat the back of your spoon.

- If you have some good cheese handy, add a half cup of shredded cheese to the bechamel sauce to make a cheese sauce. Yum!

Mix the Lentils, Sauteed Onions & Garlic and the Bechamel Sauce altogether and put in a baking pan.

- Take some dry breadcrumbs and moisten with olive oil (or melted butter). Sprinkle over the casserole.

-Bake at 375 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until crispy and bubbly.

Enjoy!

Guest Blogger Kate Gabrielle ~ Autumn State of Mind

I've been wanting Kate Gabrielle to do a guest post for me for quite a while. She's a young talented artist with a penchant for good food and I love hearing about the dishes she's making. I'm delighted that she chose to do a soup recipe with Autumn in mind. With the humidity and the blazing sun that comes with summer, some of us just need an escape and Kate Gabrielle's inexpensive and easy recipe is just the portal in which to transport you into a temperate Fall day.
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I was dieting a few years ago and came across a recipe for pumpkin squash bean soup. I can't remember where the recipe originally came from, or how it eventually evolved into the soup I make now... All I know is that it is my all time favorite soup in the universe, perfect for when you're dieting or (like I am now) just pigging out on good food all the time.

I've been in an autumn state of mind recently (the beginning of August usually does that to me) so I whipped out the old soup recipe this afternoon. There are a million reasons why this soup is perfect, but I'll just give you a few:

1. It is very healty: low fat, and high in protein
2. It is the easiest recipe I've ever made
3. It is the cheapest recipe I've ever made
4. You can add ingredients to make it many different ways
5. I could devour the whole pot and still want more. It's that good.

The total cost of all the ingredients is about $5, and it feeds my family of four, with leftovers to spare. It's the perfect new-depression era meal -- both filling and cheap, delicious and easy.

Here's what you need:

30 oz. can of pumpkin
(2) 15 oz. cans of cannellini beans, rinsed
4 c. water
2 c. chicken broth (or water flavored with a bouillon cube, which is cheaper!)
Dried oregano
Onion powder

Here are the optional items you can add:

Sauteed onions
Fresh basil
Some chopped fresh squash or zucchini
Cinnamon
Garlic
Whatever else you can think of!

Here's how you cook it:

Dump the first four ingredients into a large pot. Turn the heat on medium-high, and simmer for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then reduce to a really low heat and add the oregano and onion powder. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes more.

In batches, transfer the soup into the blender and puree until smooth. Sometimes I like to keep some of the soup in reserve so that you still have some full beans in the final soup. You can top it off with some fresh basil or parsley, or cinnamon.


When I know I have a busy week ahead of me, sometimes I cook a big batch of this soup on Sunday and keep it in the fridge, in it's original pot. A few minutes re-heating on the stove, and I have a delicious dinner, presto!

We may be in the thick of summer, but just crank up the A/C, put on some slippers and imagine that autumn leaves are falling outside your window as you eat this delectable pumpkin bean soup!

Guest Blogger Jonas Thinks About Mustard

My good friend and fellow foodie Jonas (of the excellent All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing! and Lokomotivet blogs) has done me the honor of contributing this excellent post about that oh so elegant condiment, mustard. While the tang develops, enjoy the post!
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Mustard is one of the oldest man made condiments there is still used widely today. Its origins are probably Roman and it was probably the the Romans who mixed unfermented grape juice, known as "must", with ground mustard seeds (called sinapis) to make "burning must", mustum ardens—hence the "must ard" in English or Moutarde in French. Other languages went back to the seed itself to give it a name. The German name is “Senf” and in the Scandinavian countries we call it Senap with some small variations in each country.

Mustard seeds (top left) may be ground (top right) to make different kinds of mustard. The four mustards pictured are a simple table mustard with turmeric coloring (center left), a Bavarian sweet mustard (center right), a Dijon mustard (lower left), and a coarse French mustard made mainly from yellow mustard seeds (lower right).
There are many variations; almost every country has a standard mustard known to everyone. In some countries it is very important in others not so much. Sometimes it’s hot and peppery, sometimes very acid or close to marmalade in sweetness. It comes in many shades, from the brightest yellow to darkest brown. In my country, Sweden we like our mustard quite sweet, coarsely-ground but also quite hot. The main usage for mustard is of course together with sausages or hot dogs, any variety of ham but also for salmon of all sorts. Many families have their own secret recipes for mustard; I will let you in on mine which isn’t particularly secret but a typical Swedish mustard, suitable for the types of meat mentioned above. And it is really simple to make, and at all times much better than any mustard bought in a store.



We need mustard seeds and something to grind them in. I prefer to grind seeds in a mortar as it gives me better control over how fine it will turn out. If you grind mustard seeds with an electrical device your mustard might turn out completely different from what you intended as it grinds much quicker. Remember that the “real” way do grind Swedish mustard is to roll it with a cannonball. Unfortunately cannonballs are hard to find these day so a mortar will simply have to do. In this recipe I use only black mustard seeds but yellow ones work just as well, or why not make it a 50/50 mix.



For a reasonable amount of mustard try about ½ decilitre or ¼ cup of seeds.

Then we grind it until it starts to stick to the mortar and smell really good. Add water or oil until it feels right. Cold water for mild mustard, boiling hot for a hotter mustard. A good mustard is never runny, neither should it be too firm.

Then add about a tablespoon of honey, a teaspoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of salt. At this point you have to taste the mustard to balance the sweetness, saltiness and acidity to a taste that you are comfortable with. At this stage it is also possible to add about a tablespoon of your special ingredient which could be an alcohol like whisky, rhum or Pernod. You could also give it a flavor of a spice of your choice depending on what you want to use the mustard for. Dill or Estragon are good choices. The more daring person could try a splash of strong coffee which I have heard is really good.

When ready it should look something like this. Now cover it with cling film, put it in the fridge overnight, letting the tang develop. Day two you have a totally swell mustard.