I tried Rose's Carrot Cake

I baked this for Robin's birthday and it was absolutely delicious!! Thanks so much Rose! :0)

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

yum, yum, yum!

7 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. instant mashed potato flakes
3/4 c. white sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 (1/4 oz.) packages active dry yeast (not rapid rise)
1/2 c. milk, evaporated milk, or coconut milk + 2 T sugar
1 1/2 c. pineapple juice
1/2 c. unsalted butter
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

1. in a large mixing bowl combine 3 cups of flour, potato flakes, sugar, salt and ginger.
2. heat the milk + 2 T sugar to 110-120 degrees f. dissolve yeast and let sit until foamy and about doubled in size. meanwhile, heat the pineapple juice and butter to 110-120 f also. add to foamy yeast.
3. add the warm liquid to the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. add eggs and mix until smooth, then stir in vanilla. stir in enough of the remaning flour (and a bit more if needed) to make a soft dough.
4. turn dough out onto a floured surface. grease your hands and knead until elastic, about 6-8 minutes. place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour and a half.
5. grease three 9" pie pans, metal is easiest. punch dough down. turn out onto a floured surface and divide in thirds. shape each loaf into a ball and place in pans. cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes-an hour.
6. bake at 350f for 25-30 minutes. if the top browns too quickly, cover with foil. the bread is done when it sounds hollow when thumped.

this recipe also makes excellent holiday rolls! just divide each third into eight balls and roll each one on a greased surface before putting in the pan for the second rise.

Sweet Potato Pie

before i moved to the south, i'd never so much as thought about sweet potato pie. now it is counted among my favorites, when it is prepared properly. the first one i tasted was made by a friend's grandmother, and it won me over immediately.

this recipe is a pretty good copy of hers, although i doubt i'll ever get her exact recipe.
i'll be posting a very versatile crust recipe asap.

sweet potato pie

1 large sweet potato (1 lb of prepared mush, which is about two scant cups)
1/2 cup butter, room temp
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup milk (evaporated is nice)
2 eggs1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 pie crust (if you're going gluten-free you can either go naked with it and grease a pan really well with shortening and dust with rice flour, or use a gluten-free flour mix for your crust.)

line a standard 9" pie pan with unbaked crust.preheat the oven to 350 f

1. boil the sweet potato still in its jacket for 45 min - 1 hour, or until fork tender but not necessarily mushy. drain and run under cold water until you can peel it without burning yourself. if your potato is stringy, you'll want to run the mixer for a bit to blend it up before proceeding. this isn't that difficult, and you can boil enough to have extra to eat with a bit of butter and nutmeg in it for dinner. don't go around shortcutting with canned yams unless you have to. they'll make the pie loose and it won't slice right. also, your pie will be too sweet unless you decrease the sugar.
2. add the butter in pats with mixer going and cream the mixture until smooth. now add everything else and mix for a few minutes.
3. pour into the shell and bake at 350f for 45m-1hr. it'll rise like a souffle and spring back slightly when touched in the middle when its done. i can almost gurantee you'll have to tent your crust and the easiest way to do this is to have a disposable foil pie tin the same size as your pan with the center cut out of it. you can alsouse tin foil strips, or fancy crust shields.

if you're not into nutmeg, you can omit it but maybe you better just cut it back to 1/4 tsp or it won't taste right.

now i know you're wondering if by some miracle i actually followed this recipe. well, of course not. i used purple sweet potatoes and evaporated milk.

next time i might even get crazy and use coconut milk...
and, if i didn't have to special order it and wait until i couldn't anymore, id've made a blue cornmeal crust. next time.

Peanut Noodles with Tofu

Another Sunset magazine find. This one is rich and satisfying, especially if you're a peanut fan. I added some jicama slices on the side for some crunch. Next time I might add some carrot matchsticks, and cut the cucumber into larger pieces. They got a little lost in the robust-ness of the sauce.

What's in it:

8 oz. spaghetti

1/2 cup chicken/vegetable broth (reduced sodium)

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. red chile flakes

3 tbsp. soy sauce (reduced sodium)

14 oz. firm tofu, cut into cubes

1 english cucumber, cut into matchsticks

1 green onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

1/3 cup roasted peanuts

How to make it:

1. Cook pasta, drain and set aside.

2. Heat broth, garlic, peanut butter, sugar, chile flakes, and soy sauce in pasta pot until boiling, stirring often. Add tofu, cucumber, and pasta and toss to coat.

3. Transfer pasta to a serving bowl; top with onions, cilantro, and peanuts.

Serves 4 to 6. Takes 30 minutes.

Mmmmmm.

Source: Sunset magazine, October 2010 issue, pg. 104, submitted by Karen Goodwin.

Homemade Gumdrops

Gumdrops were a favorite sweet of mine growing up. However, my recent rediscovery of them has left me a little disappointed: maybe the quality has gone down since I was a kid, or maybe my tastebuds are more refined. Either way, I felt the need to try making some with actual fruit juice...actually, I felt compelled to make pear-flavored gumdrops shaped like slugs.



Homemade Gumdrops, recipe i found on whatscookingamerica.net (which has some good basic candy recipes, by the way)

3/4 cup fruit juice
1 (1 3/4 oz) pkg of powdered pectin (like used for making jam)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
optional food coloring to match juice and make it look more colorful

first, prep a standard size loaf pan by greasing. then line with tin foil and grease that too.

1. over low heat in a small saucepan mix the granulated sugar and corn syrup until the sugar is fully dissolved. turn the heat up to medium, insert a candy thermometer and cook until 280 deg F. (soft crack stage) if you don't have a candy thermometer, you can test the sugar stage by dropping a bit into a glass of cold-ish water. the syrup is ready when it freezes into threads (not a ball) that are still soft.
2. while the sugar gets to temp, put the fruit juice, baking soda and pectin in a medium saucepan over medium heat. this mixture will foam up a bit like a science project volcano. bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat and do not let it boil again.
3. when the syrup is ready, pour it into the juice mixture in a slow stream, stirring constantly. remove from heat and stir in food coloring if using. let stand a moment, as some juices will have foam on top still and it'll need to be skimmed off.
4. pour into your prepared pan and let set overnight. when set, use a knife dipped in sugar or lightly oiled to cut into pieces. The gumdrops will still be a little sticky, so you might like to oil your fingers lightly. roll in sugar and let set out a few hours to firm up. store in an airtight container in the fridge.

i have a bit of a problem following directions, so in making pear flavor gumdrops i made these alterations:
for the 3/4 c juice: 1 fresh pear plus a few canned pears and a bit of the liquid pureed to a fine pulp, then strained, plus a drizzle of honey. i let it sit out to get sort of slug-colored, the way pears do if you don't douse them in lemon juice.
i didn't have enough corn syrup so i subbed some for the canning liquid of the pears plus a little more sugar. this turned out to be good, but could have gone wrong, as the pear syrup made the boiling syrup start to brown and caramelize before it really reached 280. i barely let it get to temp before i was worried the flavor would ruin and then added it to the fruit juice.
also, i added a half a shot of elderflower cordial to the finished gummies, which made them not set as hard as they otherwise would have.
next up: lime green gummies shaped like inch worms?

Labels

My fellow chefs,
As you might have noticed, there are category "labels" at the top of this page that help you sort for what you're looking for, like in a recipe book. When you write up a recipe, you'll see a slot at the bottom that says "labels for this post". Please add the words that apply from the labels at the top, just as you see them. Of course, as some of you have done, you can add additional labels like "chocolate" or "coconut" for example, to help with further searching.

Unfortunately, I am limited to ten labels total. I realize that lumping vegetarian & vegan together might be an issue, because they involve different ingredients and restrictions. I figure, though, that if you're looking for one of these categories and use the "vegetarian-n-vegan" topic to sort, you would know if the recipe applied to one, the other, or both topics by reading the ingredients. If you have suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks to all who have contributed, and have yet to contribute. My cooking horizons are already expanding as a result.

Happy kitchens!
xx
cameron

Coconut Pudding

This recipe has its origins in another seemingly un-related concoction found in the 1953 edition of "The Joy of Cooking". The recipe is called "Rothe Gruetze or Fruit Juice Thickened with Farina or Cornstarch". Although the original recipe contains only five ingredients (fruit juice, sugar, salt, farina, and cream) and my recipe also contains five ingredients, I managed to completely change all but one. I prefer to imagine myself as "creative" instead of as one who flouts authority. Whatever.
The other interesting thing to note is that this recipe (aside from being easy, delightful, and refreshing) is vegan and gluten-free.

Coconut Cream Pudding

1 1/2 cups coconut juice (approx. one 12 oz can)
1 1/2 cups coconut milk (again, a can)
3/4 cup white sugar
3 T cornstarch
3 T tapioca starch (or 6 T of either starch)

1. mix the two cans of liquid in a medium saucepan.
2. reserve 1/2 cup of this liquid in a small bowl: whisk the starches in.
3. set the saucepan over medium heat and add the sugar, stirring until dissolved. continue to heat it until steamy but not bubbling. add the reserved starchy coconut milk and stir constantly until thick.
4. remove from heat and put in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap (directly on pudding surface, to prevent a skin from forming) and cool to room temp, then refridgerate until cold and enjoy!

a note about canned coconut products: if you like coconut (and you must, if you're bothering with this), you may be aware that not all coconut is created equal. for instance, i have a personal vendetta against coco lopez for no real reason. i advise a trip to your local asian market, middle eastern market, or indian market (not sure there's one near you? there is. it's probably hiding.). mexican markets usually carry some or all of the products i use...turns out most of the world uses coconut products on a regular basis...anyway, there exist probably hundreds of brands of coconuty deliciousness. the three main products i look for are: 1) coconut juice, which comes in regular 12 oz cans as well as tall steel drink cans, soda cans, juice boxes and pretty much any other imaginable packaging. if you end up with a variety that says "with pulp", its ok, just strain it out. 2) coconut milk. this comes mostly in 12 oz cans, but also sometimes in cute little 4 oz cans. it is what most people are familiar with, which is a sweet heavy-cream consistency coconut product. listen, forget about "lite" coconut milk. 3) coconut cream. this is manna, and can be hard to find. it comes in big tetrapak containers, 12 oz cans and 4 oz cans. when you open the can, you'll find its about 3/4 of the way full of pasty white coconut goodness about the consistency of tomato paste. the bottom 1/4 is full of coconut juice, which i do not like to stir in but pour off and use elsewhere. a fourth amazing but relatively un-neccesary product is coconut cream powder. i want to find a reason to need it, but as of yet its still in the pantry, unopened.

now, say for argument's sake that you don't like coconut. no problem! just substitute something liquid you do like for the coconut juice and milk. say, raspberry juice with a squeeze of lemon...or maybe dark chocolate almond milk... you'll have to adjust the sugar to taste, but otherwise the recipe ought to be fine.

p.s. if you are un-concerned about the vegan-ness of this pudding, a tablespoon of butter stirred in right after removing from the heat is pretty awesome. heck, you can use margarine (ack!) if you are makin' it vegan.

p.p.s. a complimentary topping that goes along with the whole vegan, gluten-free thing is vegan style "whipped cream"...intriguing, right? i always wondered what was in that precious $6.69 canister at the co-op. the answer is: 50 cents worth of tofu, 25 cents worth of coconut cream, 15 cents of vanilla and a nickel's worth of sugar. here it is, and don't be scared cause even though it sounds weird, it isn't. at least, it doesn't taste weird.

vegan "whipped cream"

1 box extra firm silken tofu (don't try using another tofu)
1/3 cup coconut milk (if you happen to find a cute little mini can of coconut cream, which is a thicker coconut milk, use that)
3 to 5 Tbs powdered sugar, to taste
1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla, to taste.

this absolutely has to be done in a food processor or it will be grainy and disgusting.
put everything in a food processor and puree until smooth. let sit a minute then use. delicious!

*i found a use for the coconut powder...it thickens this cream up nicely, although makes it much coconuttier. just fyi.