32 posts tagged “recipe”

Continuing with the pasta theme, my latest post over at the Ward Street Bistro is Pasta with Cauliflower.

Over at the Ward Street Bistro, my most recent post is all about cooking pasta. I love pasta with garlic so much that even looking at this photo is making me salivate! Of course, it is almost dinner time...

Over at the Ward Street Bistro, I'm getting ready for some pie-making with a round-up of "foolproof" pie crust recipes.

The web is filled with funny food-related gags for April Fools' Day.

I think my favorite is this Kitty Litter Cake. A sure hit at the office!

I am not so clever as to come up with a food gag. But over at the Ward Street Bistro, I am offering up this Rhubarb Fool.

I've got a new recipe up on Ward Street Bistro -- one of our favorite dishes for Sunday dinner - Chicken Tajine. As usual, you can either download a printable recipe and/or see how to make it step-by-step.

With Spring on it's way, I'm looking forward to featuring seasonal goodies over at the 'Bistro.

Now that I've got four whole recipes posted, it's starting to feel a little bit more like a real blog! But more are definitely on their way...

This week's post on Ward Street Bistro features a wonderful recipe from my dear Aunt Amy:

Reporting in from Chicago, where we are having a lovely visit (despite suffering slightly this morning from the switch to daylight savings time).

I'm just ducking in quickly to share my second post over on Ward Street Bistro. It's a wonderful red-pepper hazelnut dip that I made recently for a little dinner gathering. Step-by-step photos for making it are here.

Every Christmas I bake at least two things: Russian Tea Cakes (shown in the photo here) and my Apricot-Cashew "Fruitcake". I put fruitcake in quotes because it's really more of a dense (but very tender) pound cake with dried fruit and nuts.

The secret ingredient is freshly-roasted salted cashews from the nut man at the Pike Place Market.

Going to see the nut man is a ritual in itself. This year Drake volunteered for the expedition. Here is the conversation he had:

Drake: "I'd like enough nuts for about 1 cup. About how much would that be weight-wise?"

Nut Man: "I don't know... I didn't take home economics in high school."

(The guy sells nuts for a living and he can't/won't tell the weight equivalent for 1 cup of nuts? So it goes with the nut man. One year he completely ignored me while he tried to feed a bird some nuts. I finally gave up and came back later).

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This is one of these recipes where it pays to have everything laid out before you start.

First, I prep the pan, a 6-cup bundt pan, buttered and floured:

I set up my stand mixer with the butter and sugar. Yes, more butter and sugar!

I get the fruit and nuts all chopped up and in a bowl:

And put the wet and dry ingredients in smaller bowls:

For the egg whites I set up a separate little egg-white-beating station. (The mixer was my mom's--still works great. It's the mixer I grew up with.)

And, finally I have the oven pre-heating at 275F. This cake gets baked for a long time at low heat.

From here, it's a pretty quick matter of getting everything mixed up and into the pan:

• Cream the butter & sugar together
• Stir in the egg yolks
• Add the milk and flour in four alternating batches
• Stir in the fruit and nuts
• Beat the egg yolks and fold those into the batter

When you put the batter in the pan, the pan gets very full, but aside from the eggs, there isn't any leavening agent so this isn't a problem.

It bakes for 1 3/4 hours to 2 hours, during which time it emits wonderful holiday-y smells. It's important not to over-bake this so I start checking it at about 1 hour and 30 minutes. I use the "clean toothpick" method, and also by visual inspection--bake just until the cake starts drawing away from the sides. Here it is out of the oven:

Once it's out of the oven, you cool it completely in the plan. And, then finally, the reveal:

And the eating!

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APRICOT - CASHEW FRUITCAKE

3/4 c. unsalted butter
1 c. Baker's sugar (or superfine sugar)
3 eggs, separated
1/2 c. milk
2 T. apricot brandy
1 t. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup salted cashews, coarsely chopped
1/4 t. cream of tartar

Preheat over to 275 degrees F. Grease and flour a 6-cup bundt pan.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar at high speed until fluffy. In a small bowl, briefly beat the egg yolks. With the mixer on low, add the yolks to the butter mixture.

In another small bowl, combine the milk, apricot brandy, and vanilla. Measure the flour and set aside. With the mixer on low, add the milk and flour in four alternating batches: 1/4 of the milk, 1/4 of the flour, etc. Stir in the apricots, raisins, and cashews.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating egg whites briefly (the white should not be stiff). Stir in 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 3/4 to 2 hours. Cool completely in the pan. Store at room temperature wrapped tightly in plastic.