garlic heart

Triple Chocolate Cream Cake (Raw & Vegan)

I was down in Portland this weekend and made this cake for my seester’s Birthday.  It was beautiful and decadent and chocolatey delicious and in our haste to consume it we did not take any pictures.  I think I will be making it again soon though, maybe replacing the water with tea?  We shall see…also I will exercise more patience next time when it comes to pictures.  I highly recommend making this.

Alexis’s fancy Birthday cake!

http://www.marthastewart.com/256202/chocolate-meringue-cake?czone=food/cake-center/holiday-cake-recipes&center=276954&gallery=275260&slide=256202

Retroactive Posting and Kale Chips

These past months flew by, holidays, trips, celebrating, changing jobs, drinking, eating, and I have now realized that I need to be a little more disciplined if I’m going to keep this up, which I very much want to do.  So what follows is a post I wanted to write before Xmas but never got around to…

The International District is a wonderful place.  I like to save my big grocery trips for my days off so I can walk to Uwajimiya, load up on tasty things and bus back.  Seriously, it’s totally worth the trip.  The produce and seafood are great and my groceries end up being about half the price the are at QFC.  Plus there’s the bonus of trying new snacks and foods, in addition to the selection of mochi, kimchi, and shrimp chips (three of my favorite things).  There are so many types of instant ramen that you can easily have a ramen tasting party…which AHope, CSchmitz, and I have done.

Maneki - Probably some of the best meals I’ve ever eaten have been in this 102 year old restaurant.  I highly recommend the salmon in foil pouch, salted mackerel, clams steamed in sake, and everything pretty much, along with some hot sake.  Plus its not too pricey for how great it is, I went with my dad a while back and we got at least 4 plates with rice and sake and it was around $45.  But make reservations,  they’re not too hard to come by if you leave a message during the day.  If you show up without one you may have to wait an hour even during the week.

Malay Satay Hut - Delicious Malaysion, I’m a sucker for the curried fish dishes

Seattle Deli - Bahn Mi and more; cheap, quick, tasty food

Tsukushinbo - Great bento

7 Stars Szechuan - I would recommend going in for the lunch combo, its much cheaper than dinner and you get soup and a lot of food

Jade Garden - My favorite place to get high on Dim Sum.  As most of you probably know it’s crazy crowded on the weekends so be prepared

Henry’s Cafe - Taiwanese noodle soups with hand cut noodles and generous plates of fish, rice, pickled vegetables, with a hard boiled egg

Tamarind Tree - Lovely atmosphere, great lunch specials, and a wide selection of dishes that I haven’t come across at other Vietnamese restaurants in Seattle

Pho Bac - I don’t know what to say, pho!

Gossip Espresso & Tea - They have my favorite coconut milk tea

Honey Court - This makes the list because it always hits the spot at 2 in the morning…they’re open til 3:30 on Friday and Saturday.  I have many fond drunken memories of greasy (in a good way) seafood chow mein and chow fun, but I’ve gone to this place before 10 pm maybe once or twice so…

I’d love to hear from you too, I know I’ve barely scratched the surface as far as ID food goes.

Ok recipe time, these are one of my favorite snacks of the new year:

KAALLLE CHiPs!

http://www.wholeliving.com/151709/sesame-kale-crisps

They’re super easy to make and the method can be used for other veggies pretty easily.  The most successful experiment for me was beet chips with course salt and paprika, instead of sesame and lemon.  I used a mandolin to slice them and they needed a bit longer to cook than the Kale but they worked really well.

More recipes and pictures soon, I’ll be good :)

Sweet Potato Tartlets

I’ve been wanting to make little square tartlets ever since LMigas showed me this: fruute.  They’re so pretty, as is the site, and I found myself thinking, and saying aloud if I remember correctly, ‘I want to make these, I can totally make these’.  Next was finding the right pan.  I was going to use a silicone ice cube mold but I didn’t want to chance having a smelly, melty silicone/pie mess in my oven. Serendipitously the QFC had silicone brownie bite pans on sale last week and I’m pretty sure fruute must use the same ones.  Needless to say I am very excited about this $8 investment…especially because one tart at fruute is 2.50…well and it’s in LA.

Voila! Sweet potato tartlets with cinnamon meringue!

I used a basic graham cracker crust: crumbled crackers, melted butter, a bit of brown sugar, and a whisper of nutmeg.  Forming the crust in each little square is definitely the most tedious part of this recipe, but truly its not too bad.  I found the best way to go about it was to loosely fill every cup square with the graham cracker mixture to it’s top and then press the filling down in the center working towards the walls of the cup.  You don’t have to push that hard on the sides, this will actually cause the graham cracker to stick to your fingers and not the pan.  I used the tip of my pointer finger to press the bottom corners of each cup in the attempt to make the sides perpendicular to the bottom, while gently pressing the back of my finger against the side so it wouldn’t collapse. This takes a while, I’m sure there’s a more efficient way, perhaps involving tamps of some sort.  Just watch a show or litsten to some music and you’ll be done in no time.  Then pop those crusts in the fridge, with the floppy silicone pan on top of a cookie sheet to stabilize it.

Onto the filling.  A lovely coworker gave me this recipe and I highly recommend making it in full pie size as well.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes), peeled and chopped into a 1/2-inch dice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons AP flour
3/4 cup full- or lowfat buttermilk 
1 pre baked pie crust

Boil or roast sweet potatoes until fork tender. Mash, measure out 1 and 1/4 cup. Mix with butter, lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. 

Whisk yolks with sugar until creamy, stir until potato mixture. Add flour, stir until incorporated. Add buttermilk, stir to incorporate.

Whisk egg whites to medium peak, gently fold into sweet potato mixture.

If you’re only planning on making one trays worth you can half this recipe (or two-thirds it since there are 3 eggs).  I ended up putting my extra filling in ramekins, after filling each square cup to the top, and baking them off that way.  Keeping the silicone pan on the cookie sheet, put the tartlets on the middle rack in your preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the filling is set.  The ramekins will take about 25 minutes.

When the minis are all done cool them on a rack sans cookie sheet.  Turn up the oven to 425 F.  And while your pies are cooling make the meringue.  I used 2 whites, 1/8 t cornstarch, 3 T sugar, a dash of vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon.  Beat your whites with the whisk attachment, slowly increasing the speed to a medium level.  Add the cornstarch when the whites are bubbly and you can no longer see the bottom of the bowl.  Increase the speed and whisk until soft peaks form.  Gradually add in sugar and continue whisk until you reach medium/firm peaks.  Add vanilla and cinnamon at the last minute and whisk to combine, at this point you should have firm peaks.

Invert the brownie bite pan onto the cookie sheet gently and peel away.  This seems like it would crush your pies but it doesn’t, they hold up pretty well when they’ve cooled a bit huzzah! Flip ‘em back over on the sheet and top each with a dollop of meringue, like a nice little marshmallow puff.  You can use a piping bag if you’re anal…I did.  After they’re all topped they go back in the oven at 425 for five minutes.  You can turn the sheet halfway through to get the meringue to brown more evenly.

Now they’re all ready to eat, share, and admire!  They’re also quite good chilled, just let them cool on a rack and then refrigerate them for about a half hour.

I’m sure there will be many a tartlet to come, I’ll keep you all posted.

Garlic Heart/Statement of Intent

I used to play this game, it was like would you rather but with food.  A friend and I would ask each other which food we would rather have if we had to give up one or the other, avocados or broccoli for example.  We would try to make choices between foods that were roughly in the same category, rice or pasta, and then weigh the benefits of each and their various incarnations.  As the game progressed we would try to make the decision harder and harder, our love for the foods we had to choose between greater.  For me, garlic always won.  If my body were made of food, garlic would be my heart.

What follows are my ventures in baking and cooking and eating in Seattle with all of my garlicky heart, enjoy.