Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Cake


I love a good coconut cake. Grandma Alice (my neighbor's mom) makes one of the greatest. But hers calls for coconut cream and I have a hard time finding it and when I do I have a hard time not using it in a chichi drink or on pancakes. And her recipe is a bit labor intensive. I am anti-labor intensive.

So when I found this wonderfully simple recipe for a coconut cake (and I had all the ingredients until I looked for confectioner's sugar, of course) I just had to give it a try. I knew it would be great since it comes from the Barefoot Contessa. I decided to whip it up for our favorite neighbor, Charlie Mahuna, on his 86th birthday.

One of my favorite cooking blogs is The Sisters Cafe. I can't remember how I found it, but I did and I'm happy about it. So click here to see their coconut cake post! YUM!

Coconut Cake
from Barefoot Contessa At Home

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp pure almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup milk
4 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

Frosting
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted (I used just 3/4 of a box and it seemed sufficiently sweet)
6 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, then line with parchment paper. Grease them again and dust lightly with flour. (I used pam AND I forgot to dust lightly with flour. Fortunately everything turned out just fine)

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light yellow and fluffy. Crack the eggs into a small bowl. With the mixer on medium speed , add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl once during mixing. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well. The mixture might look curdled; don't be concerned. (I got all excited and forgot to wait for the light yellow and fluffy stage but I think it didn't matter much. On a much prouder note I happened to have extra large eggs and I'm pretty damned proud of it, thank you Costco)

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda , and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the batter in three parts, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Fold in the 4 ounces of coconut with a rubber spatula. (I used unsweetened coconut for this part)

4. Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans and smooth the top with a knife. Bake in the center of the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, until the tops are browned and cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a baking rack for 30 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto a baking rack to finish cooling. (I used 8 inch pans so I guess the cake is just a tad higher than it would have been had I used 9")

5. For the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and almond extract on low speed. Add the confectioners sugar and mix until just smooth (don't whip!). (I used 3/4 box of confectioner's and I thought it was plenty sweet. I'm not a fan of too much sweet in my cream cheese frostings)

6. To assemble , place on layer on a flat serving plate, top side down, and spread with frosting. Place the second layer on top, top side up, and frost the top and sides. To decorate the cake, sprinkle the top with coconut and lightly press more coconut onto the sides. Serve at room temperature.

VERDICT

I thought it was good. Everyone said it was Good. Kalena said it was rich (yeah, 5 sticks of butter rich). I loved the frosting but I am cream cheese frosting lover. When I started cutting it, the top started sliding off. Ugh. I think I put too much frosting in between the two layers maybe or maybe because I used a smaller cake pan. I don't know. I need to improve my baking/frosting skills.




Thursday, July 9, 2009

Baguette

After spending a week in Tahiti, I have fallen back in love with baguettes. I was never truly OUT of love, but when you visit a country where you can walk a few yards to the nearest market and purchase several baguettes for what amounts to loose change and then smother it with New Zealand butter, well, you tend to miss it when you do not have it. And of course, driving to the nearest Foodland or KTA is no substitute for those baskets full of fresh baked wonder each morning.
     So I set my sights on making my own baguettes for tonightʻs Italian feast. On the menu: fresh pesto (basil from our Hilo Farmerʻs Market) on spaghetti noodles with asparagus and oyster mushrooms sauteed in chopped garlic, butter and olive oil (with a sprinkle of red peppers and Hawaiian salt), fresh organic mixed lettuce, and a wonderful bruschetta mixture of fresh tomatoes, parmesan, garlic, fresh basil and olive oil for the bread. 
     I sent out an alert on my twitter account: Looking for a good baguette recipe to go with my pasta dinner and promptly received a reply from @foodista:



The directions seemed simple enough. Mix ingredients, let it rise, form the loaves, and bake. It was really that simple. And so few dishes. Go to the foodista.com website for the recipe, complete with its own photos.
Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/2 tsp)
1 ½ cups water, room temperature
1 tablespoon egg white, beaten with 1 cold water (optional-I didnt do this part)


Mix flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in water. Stir thoroughly (by hand or in a mixer) until dough is soft and elastic, about 12 minutes on low speed. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in a warm place (75 to 85 degrees) until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Punch down dough.

Here is the dough mixing in my kitchenaid


Letting it rise right in the kitchenaid bowl
I did have two kitchen towels over the top and wrapped the whole thing in the towel since I wanted to speed up the rising process. But I didnt need to. I waited the full 2 hours.

Divide dough in half on a floured board and shape into 2 equal rectangles. Form each into a baguette by rolling dough away from you. Continue rolling, pressing outward, until you have a long, thin loaf with slightly tapered ends. Place loaves on a greased baking sheet; loaves will double in size, so make sure there is adequate space between them. Cover the loaves with a floured, clean cloth and let rise until doubled. Score the tops of the loaves.
Letting it rise. This is about half way through.

I scored it with a little knife I use for paring. I think it was four knives for $2. Handy little suckers.

Shaping it was not a big issue but I did need to put a lot of flour on the counter. The dough was STICKY.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. At the bottom of the oven, place a baking pan filled with 1 cup hot water; this will create steam (I filled a ramkin with water and set it on the bottom of oven). Bake the bread in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 30 minutes or until loaf is brown and sounds hollow when tapped. 5 minutes before the loaf is done, brush with the egg white mixture (I was so famished I completely forgot this step).

We were so hungry at this point that our plates were already made and all we needed to do was cut the bread, slather it with butter or put the wonderful bruschetta mix on top. OMG. Thatʻs all I can say.


Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Creme Brulee

     It has been a while since I last blogged but I have two good reasons:  1-I have been travelling to places near and far, namely Oʻahu and a weekʻs worth of luxury and love (of the doing nothing sort) in Tahiti and Moʻorea. Wait. There is one more reason: my son, Kalena, has since "moved" back in and has subsequently taken over the dinner duties, and gladly I might add. Case in point: I was taking out some frozen cod fillets, he took one look at it and said, "Ooh, I want to make dinner tonight with that!" Go to it, Son, go to it.
     No one can go to Tahiti without bringing back some of their delicious Tahitian vanilla beans so with that in hand I had to do creme brulee for tonightʻs dessert. Itʻs the least I could do. 
      This Creme Brulee recipe comes from my favorite Food Network star, Ina Garten. I love Ina. 
Ingredients


  • 4 extra-large egg yolks
  • 1 extra large egg
  • 1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for each serving
  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (as a substitute for this I split one vanilla bean and put that in the milk as it was scalding. Then I had to strain the cream before pouring it into the egg mixture)
  • 1 tablespoon orange liqueur (recommended: Grand Marnier. I didnt have any so I substituted Brandy)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the egg, egg yolks, and 1/2 cup of the sugar together on low speed until just combined. Meanwhile, scald the cream in a small saucepan until it's very hot to the touch but not boiled. If you are going to use a vanilla bean, split the bean, scrape the inside and add it to the milk as it scalds. Keep stirring. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the cream to the eggs. Add the vanilla extract (if you didnt use a bean) and orange liqueur and pour into 6 to 8-ounce ramekins until almost full.
Place the ramekins in a baking pan and carefully pour boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the custards are set when gently shaken. Remove the custards from the water bath, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until firm.
To serve, spread 1 tablespoon of sugar evenly on the top of each ramekin and heat with a kitchen blowtorch until the sugar carmelizes evenly. Allow to sit at room temperature for a minute until the caramelized sugar hardens.
Verdict
It was smooth. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, even Kika who isnt a big custard fan but loves the crunchy sugar topping. I think straining it is a good idea, maybe even better if it is strained before poured into the ramekins.







Friday, June 19, 2009

Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones

Last weekend my bff, Kathy W, introduced me to the scrumptious blueberry cream cheese scones that are sold at Diamond Head Market. She is my hero.
Go forward one week and a quick glance at my Cook's Illustrated podcasts which revealed the best way to make blueberry scones. Alas, you can watch the video on how to best make it but you have to sign up (a.k.a. pay money) for access to their recipes. So I did what I always do when I am yearning for answers: GOOGLE! and voila. The entire recipe found online on the Wine Guy World blog. Lucky me! So along with the video (download the Cook's Illustrated podcasts on iTunes), the recipe and an idea of how to get the cream cheese in there, I gave it a shot.
The few modifications I made was that I ended up grating the frozen butter (one stick of salted since I didn't have unsalted) in my food processor. I did it with a hand grater the first night I made it but it wasn't fun. Not hard but not fun. It worked in a couple seconds with the food processor (grater attachment).
For the cream cheese, I mixed about 4 oz. of cream cheese and 2 tablespoons sugar. Then I flattened out the cream cheese on a plate and stuck it in the freezer. After adding the blueberries to the dough, I then took out the cream cheese, cut it into small chunks with my dough scraper, and pressed pieces between blueberries.
Hope you enjoy the pics. Believe me, the scones are among the best ever. I recall hearing comments like, "These are restaurant quality...you could sell them". Kika, my food critic, said they were like at least a 9. I think that's good. Wait. She said they were a 10. If she didn't consider Diamond Head a definite 10. Damn. I gotta work on it some more.


Blueberry Scones
from Cook's Illustrated

It is important to work the dough as little as possible—work quickly and knead and fold the dough only the number of times called for. The butter should be frozen solid before grating. In hot or humid environments, chill the flour mixture and workbowls before use. While the recipe calls for 2 whole sticks of butter, only 10 tablespoons are actually used (see step 1). If fresh berries are unavailable, an equal amount of frozen berries (do not defrost) can be substituted. An equal amount of raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries can be used in place of the blueberries. Cut larger berries into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces before incorporating. Refrigerate or freeze leftover scones, wrapped in foil, in an airtight container. To serve, remove foil and place scones on a baking sheet in a 375-degree oven. Heat until warmed through and recrisped, 8 to 10 minutes if refrigerated, 16 to 20 minutes if frozen. See final step for information on making the scone dough in advance.

INGREDIENTS
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), frozen whole (see note above)
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (about 7 1/2 ounces), picked over (see note)
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces), plus additional for work surface
1/2 cup sugar (3 1/2 ounces), plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest 

4 oz cream cheese, plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Score and remove half of wrapper from each stick of frozen butter. Grate unwrapped ends on large holes of box grater (you should grate total of 8 tablespoons). Place grated butter in freezer until needed. Melt 2 tablespoons of remaining ungrated butter and set aside. Save remaining 6 tablespoons butter for another use. Place blueberries in freezer until needed.
2. Whisk together milk and sour cream in medium bowl; refrigerate until needed. Whisk flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in medium bowl. Add frozen butter to flour mixture and toss with fingers until thoroughly coated.
3. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; fold with spatula until just combined. With rubber spatula, transfer dough to liberally floured work surface. Dust surface of dough with flour; with floured hands, knead dough 6 to 8 times, until it just holds together in ragged ball, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking.
4. Roll dough into approximate 12-inch square. Following illustrations, fold dough into thirds like a business letter, using bench scraper or metal spatula to release dough if it sticks to countertop. Lift short ends of dough and fold into thirds again to form approximate 4-inch square. Transfer dough to plate lightly dusted with flour and chill in freezer 5 minutes.
5. Transfer dough to floured work surface and roll into approximate 12-inch square again. Sprinkle blueberries evenly over surface of dough, then press down so they are slightly embedded in dough. Add chunks of frozen cream cheese next to blueberries. Using bench scraper or thin metal spatula, loosen dough from work surface. Roll dough, pressing to form tight log. Lay seam-side down and press log into 12 by 4-inch rectangle. Using sharp, floured knife, cut rectangle crosswise into 4 equal rectangles. Cut each rectangle diagonally to form 2 triangles and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon sugar. Bake until tops and bottoms are golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 10 minutes before serving.
To Make Ahead:
After placing the scones on the baking sheet, either refrigerate them overnight or freeze. When ready to bake, for refrigerated scones, heat oven to 425 degrees and follow directions in step 6. For frozen scones, heat oven to 375 degrees, follow directions in step 6, and extend cooking time to 25 to 30 minutes.

(now if anyone has tips on how to manipulate my pictures I would really appreciate it)






Thursday, May 28, 2009

Madis, Pressure Cooker, Summer

Kalena got a calf a couple years ago that he named Madis after a Jewish singer, Madis Yahu. Madis' mother was not able to care for him so he came to us and Kaipo bottle fed him 2x a day for weeks. Morning and night. She was so good at it. You'll never know how hard it is until you do it yourself. Plus we had Mary (another calf) at the same time and feeding one at a time was almost impossible. Imagine twins. Hungry twins. Weighing a couple hundred pounds each. Madis was slaughtered not too long ago (to prepare for Kanoa's pa'ina) and our freezer is FULL!
Last year my mom gave me a pressure cooker. Now you know I love my crockpot. Put a meal in there and just let it cook all day while you are at work. My mom did it and now I do it. But a pressure cooker is a kitchen appliance I never grew up with. And the only thing I ever remember hearing about a pressure cooker is how one blew up in the dining hall kitchen at school and a certain kitchen utility worker didn't come to work for weeks after that. So I was a bit leery. But Kalena said he does a pressure cooker stew in 20 minutes so I thought, what the heck!
I browned up the stew meat (w/ salt and pepper) in about 2 tablespoons oil, took it out, put in and little more oil and the chopped onions (cut large), and stirred a bit. But once I noticed the brown left on the bottom from the meat started to burn I took it off the burner and added one small can of tomato paste, 2 cups of chicken broth, and 3 tablespoons shoyu and stirred. Then I added all the vegetables (potatoes, celery and carrots) and about 1 tablespoon of minute tapioca (though I suppose this could be skipped. I read that this is a good way to thicken up a gravy/soup so I wanted to try it. I think I'll go ahead and add a little more next time). I stirred it all around, put the top on the pressure cooker and returned it to the burner on medium until it started to spew steam. I took that as my sign to turn it to low and let it go for 20 minutes.
Stew came out PERFECT! Yum. And knowing that the meat was hormone and antibiotic free and that it came from a steer that lived a VERY happy life in Pa'auilo and Honomu made it even more enjoyable (just got through reading Omnivore's Dilemma). I know, some people are squeamish about eating animals they've raised but it has never bothered me. In fact I felt honored. Kind of native. Earth friendly. Carnivorous.
I think everyone enjoyed it. Kim chee on the top helped to cool it down if you can believe that. Kika says to please give time for the food in the pressure cooker to cool before eating, lest a family member get "hotburn" a new funny word in our home, thank you Shelbie, referring to the HEAT of food going down down down.
I'm officially on summer vacation so hopefully posts will be more frequent.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Prime Rib Hash

Sorry no pics for this post but I just have to rave about a prime rib hash that I made using Easter leftovers.  Got the recipe idea from Simply Recipes.  No measurements. No massive chopping.  I used my food processor and a big skillet!

Ingredients (ingredients are approximate measurements)
8 - 12 oz. leftover prime rib (or any steak would work I suppose)
1 large onion (roughly chopped in processor)
8 oz. mushrooms  (roughly chopped in processor)
4+ cups leftover mashed potatoes (or cut up cooked potatoes would probably work well)
1 Tablesppon each - olive oil/butter

Directions
Heat olive oil and butter in skillet. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms to skillet with onion and cook both for another 6 minutes. Or so. Add the chopped up prime rib (I chopped it up pretty good in the food processor but I suppose you could chop it up small by hand). and mix well. Add mashed potatoes and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. I really liked it. One family member thought it was great use of leftovers. Another family member "ate way too much." I am not going to write what the last member thought. She apparently didn't care for my creative use of leftover mashed potatoes.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Peach Cobbler with Hard Sauce, Kamehameha Schools Style

This post is dedicated to my dear friend, Nani, my friend in food. And much more.

Kamehameha Schools is apparently famous for two particular delectables: haole brownies (sorry, I really don't find the word Haole to be offensive so despite PC people's efforts to be sensitive to Caucasians I will ALWAYS refer to them as haole brownies...and keep in mind that I am half Haole so I think I have a right to feel the way I do. At least 50% right) and peach cobbler with hard sauce (apparently it's not the same without the hard sauce).

The recipe circulated around many years ago and somehow I got ahold of it. Lucky me. Because despite the fact that Kamehameha Schools posts many of their best recipes online, this particular one is not there. Perhaps they wanted  to keep it a secret. But believe me, something this good that gives pleasure to all who try it should not be kept a secret. That's just wrong. I hadn't made it for several years but for lack of eggs in the ice box (I really like that word instead of refrigerator sometimes) I needed to find a great dessert to take to Nani's house. And so I searched high and low in my dessert folder and found it hiding right behind the haole brownies recipe (future post?).  I hope you give it a try. It was easy.

Recipe

Crust:  
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter

Filling
3 or 4 16 oz. cans of sliced peaches, drained
3-4 Tablespoons minute tapioca
1-2 Tablespoons sugar (optional)

Topping:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
6 Tablespoons cold butter

Hard Sauce:
1 lb box of powdered sugar
1 cup softened butter

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Prepare crust first: cut butter into flour mixture, form a ball and pat into 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until slightly brown. Remove from oven. (my notes: I used to actually CUT the butter into the flour mixture, using two butter knives, and then advanced to one of those pastry thingees that you use to cut butter into flour for making pie crusts. I have since advanced to a food processor so I did it in that. I started first with just pulsing the flour butter sugar combination but that was taking forever so I just turned it on and as it started getting more and more blended and sticking together, I went back to pulsing, til it all just seemed to stick together. Then I just turned the food processor upside down into my ungreased pan. Pressing it out takes a bit of time and I am horrible at figuring it out if it is even in thickness from one end to the other but it doesn't seem to matter a whole lot. I tried to make sure that at least the edges came up a little bit and were not very "torn" looking but that, too, proved to not be a big issue because the peaches covered everything well. The baking took a bit longer than 10 minutes, probably closer to 20 till it was a golden brown. Don't wait for it to get too dark. You will be baking it a second time.)
  3. Prepare filling and pour onto baked crust (my notes: I only had two cans of sliced peaches and two cans of halved peaches. So I cut the halved peaches into slices and it worked out fine. I used 4 cans this time though 3 cans works just as well. It's obviously more "peachy" with 4. Don't forget to drain the peaches...no fancy draining, just right in the can. I did add one Tablespoon of sugar but two will probably be better. Moani's comment was, "it's kind of tart...but maybe after the third piece it'll get better" or something to that effect)
  4. Prepare topping: Combine all dry ingredients and cut into cold butter to form crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs over filling. (my notes: again, I used my food processor. I just put all the ingredients in (the butter I cut into pieces. I pulsed it until the consistency, when I used my fingers, felt like there were little butter bullets in the flour)
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes (my notes: I'm sure I baked it at least 10 minutes longer. I waited and waited for the topping to get a nice golden brown but it wouldn't. So I just took it out. There were some golden brown spots but not a lot and it made me a bit uncomfortable. But it was cooked. And the taste was still great. I may work on adding more butter or something else in the future and will update the post if it works better)
  6. Prepare hard sauce: Beat ingredients together. Figure out how you are going to add it to the peach cobbler. (my notes: I only prepared HALF of the recipe. And I think it was enough. I actually opened a brand new box of powdered sugar and poured out what I thought was half.  I used one of those fancy shmancy pastry bag things where you can make the icing look, well, fancy. I am not very good at it. In the past I just used to put these hard sauce globs every half inch or so using a spoon. I think another solution would be to just serve it on the side and after you cut a piece off for your guest, just put a glob on top of the cobbler. Bottom line: Do not do without the hard sauce. It offers the sweetness that makes this cobbler special.)
Half of this recipe makes a 8 x 8 inch pan, use 2 cans of peaches. But why bother with half when you can have a whole freakin' pan's worth?

Verdict
What can I say? I wish I could have eaten more but I did take it to Nani's house and I didn't want to eat it all. Especially since my husband was eating more than his fair share. Four pieces to be exact. He gave it an A and his comment was: "THICKER. Make it thicker. So there's more of it in each piece." Personally, I think he still would have eaten four pieces. Nani loved the crust. And the hard sauce. Moani apparently had tartness issues and I failed to ask her for her final verdict after she devoured her third piece. In a row. Apparently tartness isn't a big issue for her.


Baked crust. Not very golden but done.

Peaches (w/ tapioca and sugar) on top of crust
Getting ready to blend the ingredients for the topping. I cut up the butter into small pieces first.
Topping mixture on top of peaches before baking
Finished product. See how it's not too brown? But the crust is a beautiful color. I used a glass pan so I could tell it was done
The finished product. Minus the first few pieces. Then I remembered to photograph. And the picture of my second piece on the paper plate did not look very appealing, asthetic wise, but it was oh so 'ono. Notice how I am not good at the fancy pastry bag thing. But it works.

SLOW FOOD FRIDAY

S L O W   F O O D    F R I D A Y Wow. Has it been that long? Don't think I fell off the face of the earth due to my increased weig...