Heureux comme un coq en pâte: soup and cake

rainy rainy rainy day today. perfect for soup. we had a monster sized zucchini to eat, and today was soup weather. we turned up the leonard cohen and i chopped the squash and peeled some garlic to roast. i left a round of zucchini out to shred and add to the soup just at the end. before sticking the veggies in the oven, i sprinkled on some dried greek oregano. yum. i made a stock with a mushroom and veggie bouillon and let that simmer while the zucchini and garlic melted in the oven. the spinach was washed in the sink and left to drip dry. once the veggies were roasted (read: once we couldnt handle the smell any longer), i scraped the goods from the roasting pan into the simmering soup and added half the spinach. i found some potatoes in the cupboard, so i threw those in as well. and then we waited.

i decided to make us some chocolate cupcakes for dessert--i love this recipe. it only makes two little cupcakes. just right for us. (though i use half the sugar and a bit more cocoa)


ive been wanting to try a green tea ganache and decided today was the day. a few weeks ago, i bought some maccha at the japanese market, and i picked up some white chocolate the other day, and ive just been waiting for the right moment. the mister didnt know; it was a surprise. he and i are both green tea junkies.

while the soup was souping, i got dessert ready. the ganache is better when it cools for a while. i melted some butter and warmed a splash of whole milk together. i added one teaspoon of the maccha, not knowing how strong it was, and then poured the hot liquid over the broken up white chocolate bits i had waiting in a bowl. i whisked and whisked and whisked until the chocolate was melted and then just kept on whisking. round and round, round and round. once the chocolate mixture gets shiny, it's safe to rest. i stuck it in the fridge and made the cuppycake batter. after a little while, i pulled it out and, after tasting it, decided to throw in another teaspoon of maccha. it was strong, but again, we love tea. so for us, it was just fine.

just a little batter

the cake recipe is super simple.
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 heaping teaspoons cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons cold water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

bake at 160°/325° for about 18 minutes.

i turned my attention back to the soup. basically, i just let it do its thing. i used the immersion blender to purée all the veggies, and just before serving, threw in the rest of the spinach and zucchini. the mister had braved the weather to grab a nice loaf of fresh bread at our local bakery, and we had our soup with vacherin. it's christian's favourite cheese. he can wax poetic about the stuff.  fo' reals.

after dinner, i whipped the ganache to make it a little fluffier, and then piped the frosting on top of the glorious chocolate cupcake.

the mister knew i was up to something... and when i called him in, he had a huge grin on his face.

we blew out our candles and he took a bite. green tea! he exclaimed!

now i have my tastebuds set on other maccha ideas....

we shall see where the wind takes us.

plein comme un œuf: salad and mirabelle clafoutis

christian returned from the market the other day with a big baskey full of mirabelles (yellow plums!). they are just as delicious as delicious can be. ive been snacking on them. as all things around here do, they were turning rather quickly and so i decided to bake those bad boys. but what? i asked christian how he felt about pie. he started salivating. ah, but we didnt have enough butter for a crust. hmm, thought i, what can i make that does not require a trip to the market on this dark and rainy day? hmm... we've got eggs... milk... so something custardy.... ah HA! clafoutis! i asked christian what he thought and he strongly approved of the idea. then i confided in him that i had never made clafoutis in my life.  he said no matter what, im sure it will be delicious.  (and you know what? he was right. )

i did some reading and settled on the following batter measurements, cobbled together from a few recipes and altered for my personal taste:

3 eggs
1 cup milk
vanilla to taste
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

the oven was turned to 175°/350°


i washed, halved, and pitted the mirabelles. then i sprinkled some sugar on 'em (i didnt pour--i sprinkled), and i then added a food good shakes of both powdered ginger and cardamon.

the rest of the ingredients were mixed together pancake style: dry ingredients combined, wet ingredients combined, all ingredients combined.


i settled on julia child's method of baking because she was a rad woman and i trust her. i buttered the casserole and then poured just a bit of batter on the bottom and baked it for 5 minutes--just until it was starting to set. then i took it out of the oven, and added the fruit. the rest of the batter was poured in and then it hung out in the hot oven for about 45 minutes.

the end result?  victory is mine!   the flavours really worked together well.  it wasn't overly sweet, or whoa-heavy, but satisfying.

earlier in the evening, i dined on salad. it was round 2 of a simple and delightful salad i had for lunch yesterday featuring roasted sweet potato, mango, and edamame (soybean)

i had a meeting to attend for work and i needed a lunch that was quick but fulfilling. it was going to be a long and intense meeting and i didnt wish for my stomach to start staging a protest in the middle. bad form.

in the morning, i prepped everything so i could just throw it together and go when the time came.


i peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes, then roasted them with a handful of fresh cilantro and oil.

i steamed the edamame, while the taters were roasting,


and sliced the mango.

and then i made the dressing.

the dressing was an easy mixture of honey, rice vinegar, olive oil, fresh chopped mint, and a pinch of cilantro.

everything was plunked on a bed of lettuce and spinach (spinach was ON SALE)

christian missed out. i made enough for him too, but he didnt have time to eat it. so that was my dinner tonight. again, poor fella, he missed out.

but he DID have dessert.  

c’est le dernier cri: cilantro inspired salad and chocolate basil cake with balsamic ganache

we are back from tenerife and i have some new freckles and a deepened love affair with cilantro. i adore cilantro. so when i discovered mojo sauce, well, i was swept off my feet. mojo sauce, like enchilada sauce, is either red or green. the red sauce features red peppers and the green sauce is more or less cilantro pesto sans nuts or cheese. i warned christian that upon our return home, i might be a little mojo obsessed. traditionally, mojo sauce is served with potatoes but it's equally delightful slathered on bread. i envision tacos, enchiladas, burritos, and vegetables bejeweled with it. the experimentation shall commence shortly.

meanwhile, the mister and i love salad and we have not had enough of it lately. we were craving fresh crunchy vegetables something awful. and so for lunch, i made a super salad, complete with cilantro, that left us feeling ready to take on the world.

salad is good. 

i gathered the following:
2 carrots
1 head broccoli
1/4 cup quinoa (uncooked)
spinach
avocado
strawberries
bunch of cilantro
half bunch of parsley
dried cranberry
raisins
1 lime
honey
olive oil

in the food processor, i chopped the living daylights out of the carrots, broccoli stem, parsley and cilantro. while i was busy with that, the florets were steaming. i prepped a bowl of cold water and once the broccoli turned a magically vivid green colour, i drowned them in the cold water to stop the cooking process. they were drained and chopped and set aside. then i used the water from the steamer to cook the quinoa.

once the quinoa was cooked and fluffed and cooled, i threw it all together with the raisins and the cranberries. i made a dressing with the juice of one lime, some honey, and a healthy splash of olive oil.



i served the veggies on a bed of spinach with strawberries and a few slices of avocado for good measure.

yummo.

and then... we had plans to meet with friends for some pétanque (bocci ball) so i decided to bake a cake.   ive had it in my head to combine chocolate and basil and balsamic vinegar... so i gave it a whirl.

the cake recipe itself is a pretty standard vegan chocolate cake recipe (though i use half the sugar and salt).  the trick was adding the basil.

i went onto the balcony and plucked our basil plants until i filled a small bowl (roughly a cup-ish) with leaves. into the food processor went the leaves along with the sugar.  i ground them together and made a sticky green mixture.


3 cups flour (680 grams)
1 cup basil sugar (225 grams sugar + about one cup basil)
6 heaping tablespoons cocoa (100 grams)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cup cold water

dry ingredients were combined, wet ingredients were combined, and then all the ingredients got together in one bowl and had a good time blending.

next, i greased a cake pan with olive oil and instead of flouring it with, er, flour, i used cocoa powder. i poured in the batter and baked it for about 40-ish minutes at 350/175 degrees.

while the cake was baking, i made ganache for the frosting.

some folks swear by making their ganache with cream but i use butter.

this time i used:
200 g baking chocolate
100ish g butter
lively splishysplash of milk (this helps keep the ganache spreadable. with a 2:1 ratio, the frosting can be a devil to spread)
2+ tbsp balsamic vinegar

melt the butter on the stovetop, or warm the cream if that's what youre using, and once melted/heated through, pour over broken-up chocolate bits. then, whisk until the chocolate is melted and combined, and the whole thing has a nice shine.

i let it cool for a bit then stuck it in the fridge.

once we got to the park, i realized the knife i brought to frost the cake seemed to have run away with the spoon and the dish. luckily, i was with a gathering of swiss folk and lo and behold, there was also a swiss army knife. i frosted the cake during a game intermission and i dont think lionel the lion has ever seen his knife used in such a fashion. i promised him i'd get the knife clean of chocolate. i let him cut the cake too.
 
and there were smiles all around.

the basil added a whole new dynamic to this cake. it almost had a peppery taste, and it sure was divine. for folks who are neither basil or balsamic vinegar enthusiasts, fear not: later in the evening, my father-in-law, hardly a devotee of either of those specific flavours, devoured his slice of cake.