Daring Bakers: Perfect Party Cake

I cannot frost a cake neatly to save my life. But no matter, the cake was delicious.

This month’s challenge is hosted by Morven over at Food Art and Random Thoughts. Thank you so much for picking this challenge! It’s definitely a keeper. The neat thing with this recipe is that there was plenty of room for creativity. The basic cake itself is lemon flavored with layers of jam and a lemony buttercream icing. The rest was up to us.

I used fresh strawberries and strawberry jam. Since I made this for Easter, I thought a pastel spring-like color theme was in order.
In the end this was dubbed my “Horton Hears a Who” cake because of the colors.

I’ve never read any of Dorie Greenspan’s cookbooks but I’m buying the first copy I can get my hands on. She gives the best advice and little hints and tips throughout the recipe. I’ve made egg white based buttercreams exactly 4 times and none of those recipes have ever warned the baker to expect the icing to curdle and separate.

Even after 10 minutes of mixing, this is what mine looked like but all of a sudden it tightened up and turned into a miraculous frosting.

See? That Dorie doesn’t lie, it comes together just fine in the end.

Can’t wait to see what the other DB’ers have made.

Soba Noodles with Greens, Tomatoes, and Cumin

When I first saw this recipe, I thought it was an odd spice and herb combination for a pasta dish. But it has the same flavors of a good chili if you think about it.

I wasn’t aiming for any sort of fusion dish by using the Soba noodles. It was the only box of pasta I could find in the cupboard. Worked like a charm.

Noodles with Greens, Tomatoes, and Cumin (and a few other things tossed in)

olive oil
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 c. diced shallots
2 cloves garlic
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 lb. swiss chard (or other leafy greens)
2 tbsp. fresh cilantro
1 lb. Soba noodles

Saute the shallots in a bit of olive oil with the pepper flakes for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and let it cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes with the cumin and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in the swiss chard, cover the pan, and let the greens wilt down for a few more minutes. Add the cooked pasta and cilantro, mixing well.

Attention Boston Area Bakers and Dessert Lovers

If you love desserts and would like to help several non-profit Asian-American organizations in the Boston area you could:

1) Contribute your own homemade desserts (see details listed below).
2) Attend and sample all the goodies on display. Go to http://aarw.org/dessert2008/ to purchase tickets online. When it asks which organization you’re from, let them know it was a BKA’er who sent you.
3) Spread the word, do a cut and paste job of this post and publish it to your own blog or email it to anybody you know who may be interested.

If you’re able to contribute your own baked goods, please contact Truc Lai at truc.lai@bnymellon.com

Many Thanks,

Jaye aka Butta Buns
member of Boston Korean Adoptees, Inc.

PS I’ll be baking up two things: 1) Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars 2) Bacon Peanut Butter Muffins

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Dear Bakers,

A Little Peace, Dessert Tasting Fundraiser

Saturday, March 29, 2008

7:00-10:00 pm

Vietnamese American Community Center

42 Charles St., Dorchester, MA (Fields Corner)

Tickets: $20 • $10 Children 10 & under • $25 at the door

Presented by:

Asian American Resource Workshop, Asian American Movement Ezine,

Boston Korean Adoptees Inc., Coalition for Asian Pacific American Youth,

and National Association of Asian American Professionals-Boston

Corporate Sponsor: Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.

Please confirm that you will be able to provide homemade desserts for the event on this new date. Bakers will receive one complimentary ticket to the event.

We are requesting 75 bite-size portions of each dessert – whatever is your specialty.

Suggested categories:

- Chocolate desserts

- Fruit desserts

- Small cakes or cupcakes

- Cookies/bars

- Ethnic desserts

- Savory desserts

Other suggestions: cheesecakes, homemade ice cream, cream puffs, mini éclairs, etc.

You may drop off desserts from 4:00-6:30 pm. Please let us know about any special requirements:

- Dessert needs to be picked up

- Dessert needs to be refrigerated, served hot, etc.

- Dessert needs to be served or displayed in a certain way – if possible, please provide serving utensils, cake stand, etc.

Please provide the following information for tent cards that will be placed by each dessert:

- name of dessert

- name of baker(s)

- ingredients

Most bakers are donating their time and ingredients. However, if you need to be reimbursed for ingredients, please submit your receipts.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Ocean Spray Baker’s Challenge!

Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. is sponsoring a bake-off with craisins as the special ingredient. Contestants will provide 50 samples for tasting by attendees who will vote on the best dessert. If you’re interested in participating, please let us know as soon as possible and we will provide the craisins in advance. Please remember to list the name of the dessert, your name, and ingredients for the tent card placed by each craisin dessert.

Thank you very much for contributing to our fundraiser! HAPPY BAKING!

Truc Lai

Email: truc.lai@bnymellon.com

Feel Better Soup

To all my buddies out there who are sick, this is the soup I’ve been talking about and emailing you over the years. That cold you have may be strangling your taste buds but trust me, this soup has just the right texture. The cloudy bits of roasted garlic floating in the thick broth is heavenly. The garlic and spinach will get you back on the right path, it’ll feel nice going down your sore scratchy throat, and it’s easy to make.

Just a quick Helloooooo!

I’m sorry to be so absent as of late, but there just aren’t enough hours in the morning, afternoon, or night to get things done. Plus the BB&Q household is down to one functioning computer so my Internet time is sparse.

I feel bad for missing this month’s Daring Bakers challenge. But if you want to see some wonderful crusty French bread, cruise the DB blogroll. This month there are two lovely hosts, Mary of The Sour Dough and Lisa of I Like to Cook.

I’ll be back to posting in the near future.

Daring Bakers: Lemon Meringue Tart

When I saw this tart listed for this month’s DB challenge I started laughing remembering the first time that I had made it. It was eons ago when I was first learning to really bake. It was moving season and there was one realtor bringing prospective renters in and out of the apartment that evening.

There are three part to this recipe: the tart crust, the lemon curd filling, and the meringue topping. All three have subtle little pitfalls that can trip up any baker so I certainly appreciate why this particular recipe was chosen for this month’s challenge.

Liver with Mustard, Herbs, and Breadcrumbs

Usually I love liver but this was a little much for me.

As a child, I adored my grandmother’s fried liver dinners. She would scoop a bowlful of flour into a big paper sack, add the liver, and shake shake shake shake shake until the slices were thickly coated. Whenever I heard that sound it would trigger a Pavlovian-like response and I’d go tearing into the kitchen to watch her drop the slices in the big 20lb. iron skillet. The best part was that none of my brothers wanted theirs so they’d sneak pieces onto my plate or hide their untouched portions in a napkin and pass it on to me for later. I would hide my happy midnight snacks somewhere in the guest room and eat them in bed after lights out. In the mornings, I’d wake up with the window slightly opened. Gramma never said anything about the fried food odor that my hidden snacks would emit but she usually checked in on me in the middle of the night and would crack the window an inch. She never said anything and it was our little secret.

Honey Lime Wings

You know you’re from Northwestern Pennsylvania if…
________________________________________

• You consider an exotic vacation to be a trip to Ocean City, Virginia Beach, or Myrtle Beach.
• You don’t understand all the hype about Rolling Rock beer; you’ve been drinking it for years even though Iron City is better.
• You get time off of work/school for the entire three-day doe season.
• You can use the phrase “fire-hall wedding reception” and not even bat an eye.
• You know that Blue Ball, Espy, Oil City, Intercourse, Bird-in-Hand, Mars, Venus, and Slippery Rock are all PA towns.
• You know the time and location of every “wing ding night” in a 20 mile radius.

A nice roast goose

I’m reposting this from the spring because t’is the season for a fat roast goose. Posting will be light as I decide what to do with this blog. Life has an odd way of getting in the way of hobbies.

If you ever get a chance to try goose, do NOT pass it up. Today being Easter (or Feaster in my case, being an absolute heathen), we celebrated with our bi-annual roast goose dinner. So how did an American end up with such an English dish? A few years ago during a layover in England, I picked up a Jilly Cooper novel. The British version of Olivia Goldsmith, she is the literary equivalent to crack cocaine. I ended up buying all of her novels through Ebay. My favorite of all her characters is Taggie Campbell-Black, a marvelous and angelic cook. It drove me ducky trying to figure out some of the food items mentioned. How much does the average American know about kedgeree, parsnips, or Pimm’s? In my case, not a lot. The year was 1998, Google was still not born and my grasp of Internet search engines was somewhat limited. It took some years to finally solve the mystery of kedgeree. I was reduced to asking strangers on the subway who spoke with English accents. (It annoys me no end when people I don’t know randomly ask me questions about Asian foods, so perhaps that was payback. Or I’m a flaming hypocrite. Take your pick.) Christmas goose was mentioned a few times in the novels that had me intrigued. The wonderful place we get our food from carries goose during the holidays so I ventured to get one. And instantly fell in love.

A few things about goose….

The grease
Geese fly long distances so they need to have some extra junk in the trunk to keep going. It is an intercontinental bird after all. Roast in a large, deep pan fitted with a rack. I usually have one and a half pickle jars full of leftover goose fat. It is liquid gold, people! Make sure you save some. The stuff keeps well in the freezer. I pour 2 tablespoons of melted fat into popover batter, use it to sauté mushrooms, or stir fries, etc. One of these days, I’m going off the deep end and using it for French fries.

Size
It is deceptively large because of the cavity. A 12lb bird isn’t going to feed 12 people. Q and I may just be goose heads but a 10 pounder like we had today didn’t go very far. It’s a good idea to serve a lot of hearty sides like dressing/stuffing, taters, and the like so nobody leaves the table hungry.

Taste
It’s all dark meat, every single speck of it. Rich is a good adjective. And the skin is a miracle. Crispity, crunchity, it crackles between the teeth ever so pleasantly. It’s not unlike dark turkey meat and more like duck. Very good stuff. One bite of goose is worth 10 of chicken, duck, turkey, capon, game hen…..did I mention we’re goose heads here?

The only strenuous part is the excess fat removal before it goes in the oven. And I’ll spare y’all the gruesome pictures from this morning of me wrestling the neck off with a pair of scissors. Someone forgot that little detail along with a few spare feathers that were left on the wings. I cut a lot of excess fat around and inside the cavity. See the pic below.

The next step is very important. Prick the skin all over with a fork, so that the fat layers are pierced but not the meat. That helps the fat melt off of it better. Salt and pepper the whole thing. I don’t recommend stuffing this type of bird because the legs are rather short and hard to tie together. That and you’ll end up with a very greasy stuffing. Good as it is, it would probably be like biting into a piece of toast that’s soggy with bacon grease. If that sounds sexy, then by all means go for it.

Into the oven it goes at 325F, 15 minutes per pound. Like any other poultry, test with a thermometer and let it rest for 20-30 minutes before carving.

Salmon Roulades

The fish monger was a little too generous when he selected this fillet for me. Two pounds of very thick salmon is not ideal for stuffing but in the end it turned out okay. Actually, it was pretty damn good if I may say so.

There are some leftover bread crumbs in the freezer so I made a quick stuffing. The secret ingredient was this leftover yogurt dill sauce from Whole Foods.