Recipe #6: Roasted tomato bruschetta

This recipe seemed easy enough -- roast plum tomatoes, onions and garlic together, drizzled with a bit of olive oil. Then puree and add parmesan and fresh basil. It was definitely easy enough, and the roasted vegetables had a depth of flavor that was pretty tasty. But something was missing...I can't quite put my finger on it, but I was definitely underwhelmed by this dish. I wonder if it would've been better as a marinara sauce, actually, with grape tomatoes instead of plum tomatoes. The other thing to note is that tomatoes aren't really in season right now, which may have been another reason why this dish wasn't as good as I thought it'd be. It was a good reminder to cook with ingredients that are at their peak in flavor, when they're actually in season. 2 ladles.

Recipe #5: Lemon olive oil cake

I found the cake I want to marry. It's my soul mate.

Seriously, this cake (loaf) is outrageously good. I mean, it's so good it makes you want to cry. It's incredibly moist, fluffy, light and flavorful. I made just a few tweaks to the original recipe: I substituted lemon olive oil for the regular olive oil (from Stonehouse, my favorite olive oil -- I buy their largest size and get them refilled at the Ferry Building when I run out), and didn't sprinkle any extra sugar on top. Otherwise, I followed the recipe and it came out perfectly. I used lemons from my co-worker's backyard (he brought them into the office), and they were so fresh and pungent. The only drawback is that it makes a small loaf, and you're going to cry when the last piece is gone. 5+ ladles!

Oh -- I didn't have a wire rack (even though I bake a lot, it's just one of those things I've never bothered to get...), so I came up with a rather ingenious workaround, if I do say so myself. I have a lot of wooden chopsticks laying around (from all the take-out from the sushi restaurant next door), so I scattered them on the bottom and rested the cake on top. This contraption prevented the loaf from getting soggy on the bottom because it lets the air circulate under it. It also helped when I put the glaze over it (so that the cake wouldn't sit in a puddle of glaze). Some day, I'm going to write a book about the 101 uses for chopsticks. ;)

Here's the picture, in case you don't believe me:

And here it is after the light glaze (just a pretty sheen, nothing too overwhelming):

And here it is after I sliced into it, when it was still warm:

I think this cake is best enjoyed warm (it gets slightly more dense with time, but it's still quite moist). Next time, I might serve it with a berry coulis or even with fresh berries as a very refreshing and light dessert or as an afternoon tea cake.

Henna style wedding cake

I haven't been traveling too much lately. Too busy at work, chained to my desk, and burning the midnight oil. But, I did manage to head down to SoCal for a relative's wedding recently. Here's the cake that they served. I found it to be beautifully simple and quite elegant (and I couldn't help but think: gee, someone probably spent a lot of time piping the henna-like design, cramping their hands!): 

This one had a layer of white sponge cake and a layer of chocolate cake, topped with a buttercream frosting. 

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of wedding cake, both aesthetically and taste-wise, but for those who choose who have one, I think the simpler the better.   

Looks like something out of a wedding magazine, right?

Recipe #4: Saffron rice

My wonderful MIL gets me a new cookbook every Christmas. 2 years ago, she gave me Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc at Home," which is not only gorgeous to look at, but contains a lot of surprisingly approachable dishes (along with some intensely laborious ones). The saffron rice is definitely an easy recipe to make, and doesn't require a lot of ingredients. A few years back, I went to Barcelona and came back with a suitcase full of edible goodies, including paella rice and beautiful threads of saffron. So I actually had all the ingredients on hand, amazingly enough.

It required a bit of babysitting, much like a risotto would, but the end result was delicious - light and fluffy, and ever so delicately flavored with saffron. Note to self: go stock up in Barcelona. Go. I said, go!

Now, the best part of making this dish are the golden morsels found at the bottom of the pan - essentially, the caramelized pieces of rice:

In Korean, they call it "noorungji" and the Spanish call it "socarrat." Chefs say that it's the best part of paella, and that in fact, the mark of a good paella is how good the socarrat is (i.e. not burnt, slightly crispy, and perfectly caramelized). I must say -- I enjoyed eating the socarrat even more than the rest of the rice. 5 ladles!

Recipe #3: Whole wheat pitas

I love the idea of baking bread, but I have to admit that I'm more in love with the idea than with the execution. Bread making (not the kind you do in a bread machine) takes a great deal of patience, time, some manhandling, and a pinch of luck. I found a recipe for whole wheat pita (aha! I kept the recipe source this time) that looked so simple and so divine.

Now, you see how fluffy and light those pitas look? Beautiful. Like soft, pillows of wheat goodness.

Now check out mine:

Yes, I followed the same recipe. Stop laughing. No, really - stop it.

Mine look like flat, brown hockey pucks. And they tasted like cardboard. 

Epic fail. Zero ladles.

Brownie cookies too cute to eat (*almost*)

My friend J. is amazing: smart, gorgeous, kind, and sweet -- and a wicked baker at that. All the cookies and cakes she makes look like they're straight out of a magazine. She usually packages them up in delicate little boxes, and gives them away to friends. I happen to be one of the lucky friends, and for some reason, crumbs are perpetually hanging off my chin when I hang around her -- likely having gorged one of her masterful creations.

Recently, J. made these decadent brownie cookies. I don't actually know if they're called brownie cookies, but that's what I named them when I bit into them. That's because the consistency is moist and chewy, just like a brownie.

Ok, so how cute are these cookies?! Look how perfectly she arranged the pink, red, and while M&Ms. Now that takes effort (she told me that the best way to keep the chocolates in tact is to press them into the cookie about 3/4 of the way through baking them -- that way, they don't crack or melt)!

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and these would make a lovely gift, no?

Recipe #2: Blood orange and avocado salad

I thought I should clarify my experiment for the year, as a friend recently asked me rather incredulously if I was going to test a new recipe every day (as in, cook every day). Um...that's a negative, Ghost Rider. Or in the words of an infamously cracked out has-been diva, "Hell to the no." I still hold to the rather ambitious goal of testing 365 new recipes this year, though. Yeah...let's circle back on December 31st, shall we? ;)

This weekend, I definitely made up for lost time by testing a number of different recipes. The latest and greatest site for epicurean inspiration for me has been foodgawker.com. It's food porn, no doubt about it. It makes me realize a) food is so beautiful b) there are so many bloggers out there who put so much thought and effort into their food blogs -- it definitely puts my measly one to shame. But then again, they're out there to attract audiences, and I'm just out to entertain my family and friends.

Anyways, my recent get together with some great friends gave me the perfect excuse to try out a simple yet elegant blood orange and avocado salad. It was incredibly tasty - definitely worth a 5 ladle rating. The ingredients were so simple: blood oranges (I didn't have any blood oranges, so I substituted two different kinds of oranges - one that resembled the pink flesh of a grapefruit), avocado, and a super light dressing made simply with vinegar, olive oil, a little agave nectar, lime juice and zest. Incredibly refreshing and so simple.

Now, I have this bad habit of cutting and pasting recipes and forgetting where they came from...alas, I've already misplaced the original recipe source. Drats. At least I have the recipe...

5 ladles