Spice Cake Doughnuts with Vanilla Bean Glaze

Happy fall, everyone! This is my favorite time of year, with its cool days, changing leaves, and great clothes. It won’t be long until you’ll find me in our neighborhood park taking endless photos of leaves and sipping a hot chocolate, all while wearing some new favorite scarf, sweater, and boots.

And, of course, I love fall baking. Besides the obvious apples and pears, there are some flavors that I tend to associate with fall. One of my favorite fall flavors is actually a combination of flavors, specifically spices. Combine some cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc., and I’m positively giddy. I just love adding those great fall spices to all kinds of things.

In fact, one of my favorite things is just a simple spice cake. So, I thought I would take the idea of a spice cake and turn it into doughnuts. You wouldn’t believe how good my apartment smelled when I was baking these. I really expected the neighbors to track the scent to my door and start demanding samples.

Then, I topped each one in a simple vanilla glaze to add a little extra sweetness. I used one of my favorite ingredients, vanilla bean paste, for the glaze. If you prefer to use a vanilla bean, I’ve included info on how to do that in the recipe. Or, if you just have vanilla extract, it’s a straight substitution. You will, however, miss out on those lovely vanilla specks!

I baked these in my doughnut pan, which I must confess I don’t use nearly as much as I should. Being able to bake homemade doughnuts so simply is both good and bad. Good because hello, doughnuts. Bad because it’s so tempting to make batches and batches of them. If you don’t have a doughnut pan, don’t let that hold you back from making these beauties. Although I’ve not tried it, I believe these would work just fine in muffin pans.

I have to tell you that we absolutely loved these little guys. They have such a wonderful flavor and texture. And that sweet vanilla glaze gives them just enough extra sweetness to make them pretty perfect. These doughnuts are a great weekend treat. Or for all you coffee drinkers out there, I bet one of these would be just lovely with a cup of your favorite coffee.

Pasta with Mussels and Chorizo

I am, for perhaps the last time, clacking away at my keyboard while enjoying the view from my window.  The dark night sky punctuated by a number of blinking exclamation points…buildings with a multitude of windows, some lit, some dark.  The view one can expect in a city.  A view one can choose to embrace, or to bemoan.

I choose to embrace it.  It’s not perfect, as city life is certainly far from perfection, but it is mine.  I choose to see the sparkling windows, peeks into other peoples' lives, making me feel more connected to the world, than separated by all these walls of concrete.  I choose to see the drugstore and the Korean grocer down the street, conveniences that make my life so much easier, instead of the traffic and incessant horn-blowing.  I choose to see the movies that C and I can watch, or not, at a moment’s notice, instead of the lack of outdoor activities and the pollution that would make it difficult in any case.

But why is this perhaps the last time I am enjoying the view?  Well, as the family grows, and we make room for our new addition, some things are likewise forgone.  My office being the first in that category.  In the interest of little H having a room of his own we are turning my office into his nursery and I will now be working in…a closet.  It’s not as bad as all that.  We’ve transformed out semi-walk-in into a semi-office and it is actually shaping up quite promising.  Maybe I’ll post pictures when it is done to encourage and inspire all flat-dwellers out there that all is not lost just because we don’t have that wide expanse of space that house and country dwellers enjoy.

Anyway, here I am, clacking away again, because I couldn’t let this day pass without wishing every last one of you a very merry Christmas!  I know I haven’t posted in a while (now if only I could have a penny for every time I’ve said that), but consider this a Christmas miracle.  A Christmas gift.  And a hopeful leap towards more posts in the New Year.

Another thing I love about my city are the small neighborhood markets that bring fresh produce and artisan wares from whence they came to our busy urban tangle.  Two such products are used in this recipe.  Fresh mussels from one of the two seafood vendors I buy from, and Spanish chorizo from two sisters who lived in Spain and are now back here and are making chorizos themselves.

Pasta with Mussels and Chorizo

    Olive oil
    500 grams linguine (or any long pasta of your choice)
    1 kilo mussels
    300 grams Spanish chorizo (about 3), chopped
    6-8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
    1/2 cup (or thereabouts) white wine
    1 small bunch of parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped, and stems finely chopped
    1 small bunch of basil, leaves picked
    optional: dried chili flakes


- Cook pasta in a big pot of rapidly boiling and well salted water.
- While the pasta is cooking, get on with your chorizo and mussels.  Heat a large skillet (one that will fit all the chorizo, mussels, and pasta) over medium high heat.  When the pan is hot, add a couple of swirls of olive oil.  Add the garlic, parsley stems, and chorizo.  Sauté until the chorizo is lightly browned and has released its orange paprika-infused oil – this shouldn’t take long. If your chorizo seems to exude an alarming amount of oil you can take some out at this point – just remember that you will need some of that oil to create the sauce so leave a good amount back.
- Add the mussels to the chorizo in the pan and toss until the mussels are slicked with oil.  Add the wine and chopped parsley leaves and cover.  Cook for about 5 minutes, shaking the pan a few times, until the mussels have opened.
- While the mussels are cooking test your pasta for doneness.  The packet usually says 12 minutes but test after 10.  You want the pasta to still be a smidge underdone, as it will carry on cooking when you transfer it to the mussels.  Once it has reached that point, drain, saving some of the pasta water.
- Check to see if your mussels are done.  If most have already opened, tip the cooked pasta noodles into the pan with the mussels and chorizo and toss well to get all the pasta coated in the liquid (which is now a heavenly combination of chorizo oil, white wine, and mussel juices).  Add the basil leaves and toss again.  The pasta will suck up most of the liquid, and will continue to do so even off the heat.  If it starts to look dry add some of the pasta cooking water.
- Take the pan off the heat and enjoy immediately.

I love the combination or shellfish and chorizo (including shrimp and chorizo…yum) and this dish plays off that perfect marriage excellently.  Since there are so few ingredients here try to get the best you can.  The smoky chorizo, plump mussels, and fresh herbs work wonders together.  This is the kind of dish I like to make on a weekend when we are all at home and I come from the market with my bag bursting with fresh things.  It makes me feel closer to nature despite the buildings and cars and congestion that tell me otherwise.

With my beloved city, with my new closet-office, with the coming New Year, and with life…I am choosing to embrace, to endeavor to be Ms. Brightside, as corny as that sounds.  Life is too short and can be filled with too many potholes and pessimists.  There is much I am grateful for and more that I am looking forward to.  And good food to share is definitely one of those. 

Paiche Recipe and Giveaway

It’s not everyday that you get the chance to try a fish you’ve never even heard of before. Last week I cooked paiche (pie-chay) a fish from the Amazon, also known as arapaima or pirarucu. Freshwater paiche are huge, growing be up to near 500 pounds, and breathe through lungs rather than gills. Considered a prehistoric fish, the flesh is very firm, but also rich and high in omega-3 fatty acids General management course.

Endangered in the wild from overfishing, paiche is now raised commercially in ponds so wild fish remain protected, and free of any antibiotics or mercury. It’s one of the top fish farmed in Peru, and you may find it on restaurant menus or at Whole Foods, the only retailer currently selling it in the US.  It’s easy to cook paiche for a couple of reasons, because it’s dense and firm it won’t easily fall apart and because it’s rich it doesn’t get dry, even if you overcook it. It has a very clean, buttery slightly sweet flavor and is somewhat similar to sea bass or cod in texture.  I prepared the dish simply with a tangy sauce that held up well to the flavor of the fish, and served it with a winter salad of fennel, radishes and lemons with fresh mint.

If you'd like to try paiche, leave a comment telling me how you'd choose to prepare it. I will pick one winner at random who will receive a $50 Whole Foods gift certificate. One entry per person, and you must leave a valid email address (don't worry, only I will see it) and have a US mailing address. I will pick the winner on January 27th, 2014. Whole Foods offers a few recipes to consider such as Lime-Roasted Paiche with Sweet Potatoes and Pan-Seared Paiche with Spicy Avocado Sauce. I think it would be fantastic in this ceviche.

Note: The salad can also be served separately elyze. A tiny pinch of sugar brings out the sweetness in the fennels and lemon. I used California Olive Ranch Limited Reserve olive oil, which is seasonally available only after the harvest. Like the Italian "olio nuovo" it's very fresh and best used while before it mellows.

Paiche with Miso Butter and Fennel Radish Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients

4 paiche fillets, about 6 ounces each about 3/4 inch thick
2 teaspoons oil

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons white miso
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into about 5 pieces

1/2 fennel bulb
5 radishes
1/2 lemon
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (olio nuovo recommended)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
20 mint leaves, thinly sliced

Instructions

Using a mandolin if you have one, or a very sharp knife, thinly slice the fennel, radishes and half a lemon, removing any seeds.  Toss the slices with olive oil, salt and mint.

In a small saucepan combine the lemon juice, miso, mustard and sugar with a whisk. Heat very gently over low heat and whisk in the butter, allowing it to melt and emulsify the sauce company registration hong kong.

Sear the fish in a hot non-stick pan coated with a little oil, and cook about 4 minutes on each side. The fish should be cooked through and white, not pink.

One each plate serve a fillet of fish, topped with a tablespoon of the sauce and with some salad.

Ai Faith Meng

Red wine, put in the eyes, light up my desire to drink, just drunk, again how?

The world's most beautiful not pay off old scores tom ford sunglasses, but I am sorry!

I love you, I miss you. You are my dream, you have come into my life, and I think you are an inseparable part.

Love in the most sad not end is not had begun, but always cold! Look at you every day more and more far away from me, I am afraid! I'm afraid that day! I'm afraid I am far away from you, even if it is a stone's throw away, but for me is the horizon! Not with vigour and vitality, not not pleased with oneself, not brokenhearted innumerable twists and turns. At the end I had to take the pain of separation!

A meet, leave, but everyone is afraid of parting! People all say yes and mean no, say repeatedly repeatedly saying "no feast" Cloud Provider, who is willing to drink this cup of farewell?

Love, the sometimes is happy, but not the sometimes is pain! Who can pass through this love? Hell-bent fell in love with you, how would this give up, how can it down!

I love you, I miss you!

Sometimes it is not clear what is missing, what is the dream; I do not know when you want to sleep, or sleep dream of you! Every time I woke up, are not willing to open your eyes, just to be in the gloom I feel close to you close, feel the warmth you gave me. But when I open my eyes in not when, but found that the corners of his eyes slightly moist, will fall into the reverie......

You are my dream, you are in my life iPhone 4 casing! I think you have is my inseparable part; you want to become my habit! You want to be! You want to become a kind of eternal, every moment of every minute "she" was to accompany me, until my life is eternal!

Fried Fish with Garlic Lemon Butter Caper Sauce

As I watch little C march out into summer school in her fluffy skirt and sleeveless top (summer!) and her electric blue flats, I realize, once again, how quickly time flies.  It seems like only yesterday she was a helpless little thing who would wake up every 2 hours needing to be fed, breath smelling sweetly of milk.  Now she is a far from helpless, fiercely independent little firecracker with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of her own opinion.  Her breath, suffice to say, does not smell sweetly of milk anymore, and she is, most of the time, breathless and sweaty from how much she runs around (plus, it’s summer!).  I want to hang on to every bit of unrestrained laughter, every bedtime story/tuck-in (no matter how much irrational delaying tactics play a part), every sticky hug, every little moment.

I’ve never been a motherly person.  Little C has been, and still is, the only infant I have ever held in my life.  I have never been absolutely confortable with children, and I can’t say, my own aside, that I am now.  It still takes me by surprise that it’s taken just this one cherry bomb to turn me into a mother.  And of all the things, in these past three years, that I have done with her, the one thing that makes me feel the mother-child connection the most is feeding her.

I don’t mean nursing…although I did do that for the first year of her life.  I mean feeding her actual food.  The food I make and the food I eat.  Carefully picking choice bits from my plate and placing them in her waiting mouth.  Especially if I’m doing it with my hands.  I feel like I am taking part in a ritual older than time, something billions of mothers did before me.  That careful, deliberate, passing on of nourishment.

As soon as the simple days of food introduction where done, and food allergies were ruled out, I tried to give her food that was not too different from what we ourselves ate (just being cautious about salt and sugar).  I wanted her to try as much as she could, and to know and appreciate where this food comes from.  We would bring her to market (we still do) and show her whole fish and vegetables with the dirt still on them.   She loves the fishmongers stall…particularly the live crabs and the fish.  And I, in turn, love showing her that fish come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  I don’t know many nursery rhymes or children’s games or arts and crafts, but that I do know.  And that I can teach.

Fried Fish with Garlic Lemon Butter Caper Sauce

    Oil for frying
    1 large dapa (flounder?), approximately 1 kilo
    2 tablespoons flour
    Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
    6 garlic cloves, chopped
    2 tablespoons capers
    1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons butter
    juice from half a lemon


- Season your fish on both sides, and inside the cavity, with salt and pepper.  Dust with the flour and shake of excess.
- Heat a frying pan over medium high heat.  When hot, add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin layer.
- Add the fish gently to the hot oil.  Fry until golden brown and then flip to cook the other side.  Cook until the other side is likewise golden and the fish is cooked through.  Remove from the pan.
- Drain the oil from the pan and wipe dry.  Return the pay to the heat and add the butter.  When the butter is melted and bubbling, add the garlic.  Let the garlic fry until fragrant, this happens fairly quickly.  Add the capers and let's this fry for a bit.  Remove the pan from the heat ad add the lemon juice.  Mix well and transfer the sauce into a dish. 
- Serve the fish with the sauce on the side long with some lemon wedges for those who want them Flower shop.

I used one whole fish here – a dapa (which I think is related to flounder? anyone?) weighing in at almost 1 kilo.  This was actually a little too big for my tastes, I like fish to be a bit smaller when fried whole (this size I like baked, or steamed in the oven in this big old covered baking dish I won at a costume party…I was a school teacher).  C however loved its meaty abundance.  You can use almost any fish for this though.  A couple of smaller tilapias would do nicely, or a small lapu-lapu.  Or whatever fish is fresh and readily available where you are.  You can certainly use fillets as well, although if you are able to get fresh whole fish on the bone I encourage you to do so as they are really delicious.

You can scale the quantities for the sauce up if you expect to use a lot.  Actually cube organizers, I think that would be a good idea.  We had this with steaming hot rice and I loved the sauce both smothered on my fish as well as squashed into my rice.  It's a notch above regular lemon butter sauce and packs a lot more flavor.

Little C is not the perfect eater, and now that she has her own opinions it is not as easy to get her to try everything SKI TRIP, but she does love her fishies, especially if she sees them on the bone.  In fact, she seems to enjoy fish best when she sees me picking the meat for her from a whole fish on my plate.  And I never feel as “earth mother” as when I am doing just that.  That, at least, is one big mission accomplished in my book.

Incredible Baked Lamb Shanks

Although I fell in love with cooking all by myself, far away from home, where I had no choice but to learn how to feed myself or starve, I draw inspiration from many people.  Some I have never met Dating, some I have known all my life.  My great-aunt R falls into the latter category.  She’s my grandmother’s younger sister and has a long and colorful history of great cooking.

As a child, she taught me how to make pineapple upside down cake and apple pie.  When I was older, she demystified the workings of callos and bacalao ala Vizcaina.  Like most cooks of the generation before my parents, she uses no exact measurements or hard-and-fast recipes (except when baking of course…she was a well-accomplished baker in her heyday!).  To learn anything, I had to sit patiently and listen carefully, asking the right questions lest I end up with a whole pig’s leg in my tiny kitchen (“make sure you see the hoof!”).

These days, she is happy letting others do the cooking for her most of the time, despite her souped-up kitchen (which C and I look upon with admiration and envy).  We dine out (she loves swanky French food) or in (she also loves C’s sinigang), and always have a grand time (if you get her, my grandmother, and their other sister together the stories will floor you, as will the good-natured, though at times high-octane, teasing).

Another thing she enjoys nowadays is gifting C and I with food.  The lamb shanks I used here were from her.

Incredible Baked Lamb Shanks
(adapted from Incredible Baked Lamb Shanks in Jamie Oliver's Cook With Jamie)

    2 lamb shanks
    75-80 grams butter, cold but malleable
    4 sprigs fresh rosemary
    10 fresh sage leaves
    2 sprigs fresh thyme
    Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
    6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
    1 large carrot, peeled and finely sliced
    1 white onion, peeled and sliced into half moons
    2 leeks, sliced (note that I am using the local leeks which are much smaller that the huge Western hemisphere varieties)
    About a wineglass of red wine

- Set aside 2 sprigs of rosemary and 4 sage leaves.  Pick the leaves of the rest of the rosemary and thyme and chop.  Chop the remaining sage leaves as well.  Mix the chopped herbs with the butter.  You can alternately whiz everything together in the food processor.  Season with salt and pepper.  I like to season this until it is just above your usual level of saltiness as you will be spreading this all over the lamb and it will get diluted by the wine and vegetables.
- Using a small knife, take one of the lamb shanks and cut between the meat and the bone from the base of the shank upwards.  You want to make a hole big enough to put your finger in.  Repeat with the other shank low interest loan.
- Divide the herb butter between the “pockets” you have cut at the base of your shanks, pushing it all the way in.  Rub the remaining butter all over the shanks themselves.
- Tear off 2 arm-length pieces of foil and fold each in half to give you 2 large pieces of double-layer foil.  Divide the garlic and vegetables between the 2 pieces of foil.  Lay each shank on each pile of veg, crack some black pepper over that and another light sprinkling of sea salt, then top with the extra rosemary and sage.  This is how it will look.
- Carefully pull up the sides of the foil and then pour a swig of wine in each parcel.  Gather foil around each shank and seal shut making sure they are closed tightly.
- Arrange the parcels in a baking pan and place in a pre-heated 375F oven for 3-3.5 hours or until lamb is very tender.
- You can serve the parcels directly so each person can open their own serving, or transfer everything into a serving dish making sure not to lose any of the buttery juices!

Yet another recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Cook WithJamie.  If you were to say that I am totally enamored by this book you would be absolutely right.  Honest, delicious, earthy cooking…and these lamb shanks are a perfect example.  I’ve changed the quantities, as well as the cooking temperature and time, but essentially the method remains the same.  And what a method it is!  These were some of the softest shanks that ever came out of my oven.  Wrapping the meat and all the aromatics in foil (and see to it that it’s tightly sealed please!) creates a little steam bath that keeps the meat moist and flavorful, and renders it sinuously pliant.  The lamb ends up soft and sticky, drenched in intensely flavored buttery juices.  I plan to try this using other flavor combinations as well.

Aside from the gifts of lamb shanks, we have also received slabs of steak, Campbell’s soup, fresh apples and pears, olives, duck confit, little cans of mandarin oranges packed in syrup, beef ribs cut for kalbi, and rotisserie chicken.  Once she appeared on our doorstep with a whole leg of lamb!  I think it’s sufficient to say that we love my great-aunt R’s generous, if sometimes random, care packages.  Almost as much as we love her hk massage.

Family, and those you choose to be your family, are pretty special in my book.  Give someone in your family a hug this weekend! :)

Police Investigating Nigella Lawson Over Drug Use

nigella lawsonAfter Nigella Lawson admitted to using cocaine during a trial against her former assistants, British police have gotten involved Hong Kong Festival. According to Eater, the authorities in England say they will investigate claims made against Lawson regarding her drug use.

Her ex-assistants, whom Lawson and her former husband accused of stealing money, were found not guilty. And over the course of the trial the two women said that Lawson has allowed them to make purchases in exchange for silence concerning drugs. They also testified that the celeb chef smoked marijuana in front of her kids Cloud Service. While the police are investigating the matter they have expressed that "the witness's admissions did not by themselves provide sufficient evidence to bring charges." Therefore there is currently, "no imminent prospect" that Lawson will be accused of a crime franklin templeton.