Earl Grey Cake with Kumquat Marmalade and Almond Meringue Buttercream

My brother celebrated his birthday last weekend, and, of course, I offered to make him a cake. He loves Earl Grey tea, so he requested that the cake somehow incorporate this flavor. After some brainstorming, I came up with the idea to flavor the cake itself with the tea. I like to make my cakes such that they have some sort of fruit filling and, if it works, some sort of nut on top of a flavored frosting. For this cake, I picked kumquats because their tart citrus flavor would complement the bergamot in the tea, and almonds for their mild nuttiness.

This cake isn’t very hard to make, but, as I learned while making it, you should definitely make the kumquat marmalade in advance – between the slicing and seeding, simmering, reducing of the syrup, and cooling, it takes a good 2 hours. The marmalade can be made up to a week in advance, and you should definitely make it before you start making the cake. (Learn from my mistakes!) 

Butternut Squash, Leek, and Chickpea Stew with Lemon-Parsley Couscous

This past weekend was another one that found me away from Baltimore. The bf’s friend invited us to his parents’ cottage in PA to go skiing, and, seeing as how I had never been, we jumped at the offer. We drove to PA Friday night, skied in the morning and afternoon, drove to DC in the early evening to go to my brother’s place to help him celebrate his birthday (for which I made an awesome cake which will be posted here in a few days), and then back to Baltimore late Saturday night. Not only did I not cook this past weekend, but I ate horrible food on Saturday – a frozen personal pizza for lunch and trail mix and Combos for dinner. Gross, I know. I can’t wait to get back into the kitchen this week and make some food that is not only real, but also really good.

I made this stew a few weeks ago – it was inspired by this recipe that a friend of mine had made a few weeks back. I wanted my version to be more hearty and less gratin-like, so I decided to add chickpeas and lentils to it. 

South Indian Baby Eggplant Curry

Update (January 2011): Upon retiring his long-running Minimalist column, Mark Bittman selected his top 25 recipes and this was one of them.

Update (April 2008): Mark Bittman adapted this recipe and featured it in his Minimalist column in the New York Times.

I don’t think I need to reiterate my love for eggplant. My mom has been making this dish for many years, but I never bothered to learn how to make it.

When I was home this past weekend, I noticed some small eggplants in the fridge and my mom told me to take them with me and make this curry with them. I had never made it before, but she assured me it was incredibly easy to make. She was right – the whole thing took under 20 minutes to make, there was minimal cleanup (courtesy of microwave cooking), and the best part is that it tasted exactly like my mom’s version of it.

Linguini with Vegetarian Puttanesca Sauce

I had no idea that last post would generate such a strong reaction! Maybe I should just stick to posting recipes…

I was in NY this past weekend visiting my parents (and celebrating my brother’s birthday), which means that I came back to Baltimore with some of my mom’s awesome food, which also means that I’m not doing much cooking this week. So I’m posting something I made a week and a half ago and saved for a time just like this (i.e., when I’m not doing much cooking).

An unfortunate cupcake incident, or, how do you turn down bad baked goods?

Those of you who know me well know that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. Most people (myself included) find that odd, considering that I love to bake. I have always been this way – my aversion to sweets is definitely not something that I developed as an adult in order to avoid calories. On those rare occasions I do eat something sweet, it is something that is amazingly good - chocolates from Jacques Torres, homemade cakes and cupcakes, or confections from Citizen Cake or Pix Patisserie.

Now that you know that about me, let me tell you a little story…

Review: Pazza Luna

The bf and I have been meaning to go Pazza Luna on a Wednesday night for some time now. Why a Wednesday night?

1. Wednesday night is pasta night: you can choose from 4 different pastas and it's only $10 per plate (as opposed to the regular cost $15-$20 per plate). They offer two from their regular menu as well as two specials.

2. Every day from 5-6:30 is happy hour. They offer discounted drinks (including $2/$3 beers and half price wines by the glass that regularly cost $8 or $9), and $4.50 special appetizers or $5 appetizers from the regular menu. The only catch is that you have to sit at the bar, which only seats 8 people, so you can't get there too late.

Last week was not the best for me, so the bf suggested that I take a night off and that we go out to dinner, and we made a reservation at Pazza Luna for 6:30 on Wednesday.

Goodnight Rose Cupcakes (Pistachio Cardamom Cupcakes with Rosewater Meringue Buttercream Frosting)

I was kind of bored the other night and decided that I was going to make interesting cupcakes despite the fact that my beloved KitchenAid mixer has been dead for the past month and its replacement is nowhere in sight. I’ve been on a bit of a rose water kick lately, so I decided to use a combination of flavors that are very common in Indian and Middle Eastern sweets: rose water, pistachio, and cardamom. Because the flavors are so delicate, I decided on a chiffon cupcake, but coming up with the recipe took me a while because I couldn’t find anything decent on which to base mine. After much scientific analysis (ha ha, not really) and studying of other recipes, I came up with these. (The cakes are best within 2 days of baking them – their texture is very delicate and light but they start to lose that quality after a few days.)

These might be my favorite cupcakes that I have made to date - the silkiness of the floral meringue buttercream beautifully complements these delicately fragrant and nutty cupcakes, and the finished product is really just so pretty and perfect for a special occasion (or just a boring Wednesday night).And if you’re wondering about the name, it’s because I’ve been listening to way too much Ryan Adams lately, and I found the name to be perfectly fitting.

Bánh Mì Chay - Vegetarian Vietnamese Sandwich

One of my favorite places in NYC is Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches. It’s a tiny storefront in the East Village and they only serve bánh mì, which are awesomely delicious Vietnamese sandwiches. Banh mi are traditionally made with pate and pork, but Nicky’s makes a few other versions using different meats, including a vegetarian version with marinated portobello mushrooms. I used to get one about once a month, sometimes eating it in the tiny store at one of the two small tables, sometimes taking it home with me to my apartment just a few blocks (and later, a few subway stops) away. They were so simple, but so so so so good – the combination of a crunchy baguette, pickled carrots, cilantro, and magically marinated mushrooms was divine.

Sadly, I haven’t had one in the year and a half I’ve lived in Baltimore – it isn’t quite the culinary mecca that NYC is (although I recently learned that Red Emma’s, which is just a block away from my building, has a vegetarian version made with lemongrass-marinated tofu).

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

My supervisor at work - who is awesome for many reasons - gave me a sweet holiday present last month – a jar of wild Maine blueberry jam that she had made in August while she was vacationing in Maine with her family. I didn’t want to just put it on toast; I was saving it for something really good. Last weekend, I came up with it: super-fluffy pancakes.

 

I haven’t made pancakes in years, and I recall that my previous attempts were flat and kind of blah. I know that I’m much better in the kitchen these days, so I decided to revisit them. I love using buttermilk when I bake – the end result is always seriously moist and fluffy – so I decided to use it in my pancakes, too. And, as I had hoped, the pancakes turned out exactly the same way. 

Highbrow Cocktails (my own and my love for others')

Although they were one of the big trends of 2007, I have always liked creative handcrafted cocktails. I think the infamous Milk and Honey in Manhattan’s Lower East Side was the first place to offer such libations, and, because I’m sooo cool, I used to have their phone number and have been there a few times – of course, this was a number of years ago, before they got really popular and started changing their number like every month because people were posting it on the internet. The owners of M&H then opened Little Branch, for which you don’t need a phone number to get in, and, although I’ve only been once, I think it’s just as good as – if not better – than the original (probably because it is stripped of all pretenses).

Spicy Black Bean, Corn, and Potato Soup

This is totally one of my favorite soups – it’s insanely easy to make but stands on its own as a meal. I first made this for my parents a few years ago, and they both loved it. But I think the best testament to how good this soup is is the fact that my friend Rick, the world’s pickiest eater, likes it. ‘Nuff said.

Linguini with Mushroom Carbonara Sauce

I've never heard of or seen a vegetarian version of carbonara sauce, which is really strange to me - how hard is it to just leave out the bacon? I guess the bacon is the main element, but it seemed pretty obvious to me to replace it with mushrooms, which are frequently used as a substitute for meat. I first made this a few years ago as a little experiment and clearly it worked. And since I was desperately craving it last week, I decided to make it last night. I won't lie and say it's good for you, but it certainly does make you feel good when it's freezing cold in your apartment!

Israeli Couscous with Kale, Butternut Squash, and White Beans

It's very obvious that I haven’t been home much in the past few weeks. Between going to my parents’ house for the weekend of Christmas and then back up to NYC the following weekend for New Year’s Eve, I’ve barely been home. And that means that I haven’t gone grocery shopping and that I kind of sort of have the same things in my fridge that have been there the past two weeks. (Thankfully such things last a long time in the fridge.) 

I came home from work tonight and realized that I had slim pickings in the fridge, but I refused to order food because I’ve been eating out for the past 5 days and I couldn’t bring myself to do so yet again.