Carrot Cake

One of the Boy's favorite cakes is Carrot Cake. I've been making it from the same recipe for what seems like eons. For his 18th birthday I made this favorite. I thought I'd try cupcakes, but ended up being a little behind in the schedule so, it's a cake instead of cupcakes. It will still taste amazing, as it always does, but I really did want to try cupcakes. I'll put that in the file for the future.
The recipe I received from a friend, so I don't know its origins (this was back way before I started to care about that kind of thing, so I apologize in advance). I have made a few changes to the methodolgy and a small change in ingredients. That said, this is an amazing recipe for Carrot Cake. I've  put half recipe ingredients in parentheses because often I don't do the full two layer cake, but just one for a quick cake.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (1 1/4)
2 tsp. baking soda (1 tsp.)
1 tsp. salt (1/2 tsp.)
2 tsp. cinnamon (1 tsp.)

Mix these all together in a bowl and have ready when the time comes. Easy.
1 1/2 cups of butter, unsalted (3/4 cup)
1 cup granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed (1/2 cup)
2 tsp. vanilla (1 tsp.)
3 eggs (1 egg)
Put butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until all incorporated. Add vanilla and mix in. Add each egg, one at a time and mix until incorporated. Now you're ready for the flour mixture. Add it in heaping spoonfulls, but make sure it is mixed in before adding more. Stop the mixing and scrape the bowl often to not have bits of flour in the bottom of the mixing bowl.
2 1/2 cups of carrot, grated on the large hole of box grater (1 1/2 cups)

1 cup raisins (1/2 cup)
1 cup nuts, chopped I'm a fan of walnuts, but this is optional esp. if you're allergic. (1/2 cup)
Toss all this in the batter and mix, on low, until combined. Divide mixture into two 9" cake pans that have been sprayed w/Baker's secret (great stuff, that). Bake for approximately 30 mintues, rotate and bake for 25 or so more - checking towards the end. Use the toothpick test to verify doneness. Let cook on a rack while you consider the frosting (do I sound like AB?).
2 8 oz. bars cream cheese, softened (8 oz.)
1/2 cup butter, unsalted, softened (1/4 cup)
juice from one large lemon, strained (wing it, whatever tastes good)
2 tsp. vanilla (1 tsp.)
3 cups powdered sugar give or take (1 1/2 give or take)
Mix cream cheese and butter together, add everything else (and lemon zest if you like) and mix slowly until the sugar is incorporated.

Once cake is cool, frost as you see fit. Pretty simple as things go, but w/a decent amount of prep and around an hour in the oven this isn't something you rush. But it's well worth the time you put in. Enjoy.

Spring Garden Update

We're about to go head-long into summer. The fact that we were able to have the windows open last week, was a real shock, but it didn't last long and now it's starting to feel like the end of spring. These were some final spring blooms before the daylilies took off last week. Photos of those and the easter lilies coming up soon. 

bottle brush

Spirea  'Henry Waterer'

And the clematis jackmanii was at its best yet. I've never had this many blooms. It's been in the ground for only two years though. I'm very pleased with the way it looks, esp. in contrast to all the pale pink roses around it. 

Soft Polenta with Asparagus, Prosciutto, Garlic and Scallions

Okay, sad but true, I've never made polenta before. If I have, I don't remember it. I had no idea how easy it was. This recipe and variations of it will be on my menu rotation. The original recipe was from Mario Batalia, but I made changes to it - I just can't help myself. He called for 5 cups of water, but all the other recipes for firm polenta said 3.5 cups of liquid for 1 cup of polenta. I went in the middle and did 4 cups of water and that worked well, the polenta was soft, but not runny. I also cut my asparagus. This doesn't seem like a knife-needed recipe so I cut them. I used more garlic that 3 cloves, but that's just because the cloves were small. I doubled the prosciutto and halved the spring onions. The lemon, to me, is absolutely required. It makes all the difference in the dish.

Soft Polenta with Asparagus, Prosciutto, Garlic and Scallions
4 cups water
1 pound asparagus, trimmed, and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup mascarpone cheese
6 Tbs butter, divided
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
6 slices of prosciutto, julienne
1 bunch scallions or spring onions, slices
juice and zest of one lemon

Bring water to boil in a saucepan. Add asparagus and cook until tender, about 30 seconds to one minute. Remove from water and hold in a bowl until needed. Return water to a boil and whisking constantly, add the cornmeal. Stir until thick. Remove from heat, stir in
mascarpone cheese, cover and sit aside.

In a saute pan, heat 4 Tbs of butter until foaming over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, and prosciutto and saute until the onions are wilted. Add asparagus and lemon juice and zest. Add remaining butter to make a sauce. Taste and season with salt. To serve, place polenta in a soup plate, top with onion/asparagus mixture. Serve with grated Parmesan on the side.

Evaluation: The consistency of the polenta was just what I wanted. I think the Parmesan was helpful as I didn't salt the polenta very much not knowing how much salt the prosciutto would bring to the party. Lemon - absolutely necessary. I might cut back on the amount of the asparagus to balance it a bit more with everything and likely double the amount of prosciutto. I think this presents lots of opportunities to change ingredients, such as half some cherry tomatoes or some sliced mushrooms with garlic, use some spinach - changing the sauteed ingredients as different vegetables come into season.

Roses

First of the Month - April

Wisteria - 1 April 2011

The changes that take place between March 1 and April 1 are always impressive. It now truly looks like spring and I for one say, yipee! The blooms are almost gone from the wisteria, which is sad, but worth it for the few weeks it is covered in purple flowers. The bald cypress now has leaves, so it no longer looks quite so sad and the river birches have new lime green leaves. The oak has done its typical shedding of leaves for spring, odd I realize, but true none the less. It looks a little forlorn, but is starting to get new lime green leaves as well. The weather is wonderful, hardly an humidity and temps in the mid to high seventies. Not too shabby. Here's to April. 

Oak - 1 April 2011

River Birch - 1 April 2011

Bald Cypress - 1 April 2011

River Birch #2 - 1 April 2011

Camellia - 1 April 2011

Cook's Illustrated - March & April 2011

Why is it magazines always arrive weeks ahead of their dates? I received the March & April 2011 edition of Cook's Illustrated weeks ago. I don't get it, but I also don't get why you receive a renewal bill a year in advance either - I won't pay one more than three months out - it seems like a racket to me.  But I'm me, so no big surprise there.

So I love to go through anything I get from Cook's Illustrated or Cook's Country magazines and pick out the recipes that I want to make. The trouble is that I sometimes don't go back and make any of it and I need to figure out a way to how to keep these good ideas to the front of my mind. Perhaps going to my online version of their websites and printing the recipes to add to my notebooks.

So here is what I have picked from this magazine:

p.  6-7 - Ultimate Steak Sauce - What a cool idea. Make your own steak sauce. Really? I must try this. It also has a recipe for cooking steak inside - which we rarely do since we can grill out the vast majority of the time.

p. 8-9 - Simplifying Potato Galette - This looks simple with only a few ingredients. But you know with Cook's Illustrated, it won't be or if it is, it will involve lots of dirty dishes.

p. 13 - Quick Mushroom Ragu - So will it only take 30 minutes to make it? I doubt it. Sauce needs to take longer - to me, it's a weekend thing - that you serve during the week after it sits in the fridge for a couple of days. I'll give this a go - on a weekend.

p. 14-15 - Wicked Good Boston Cream Pie - I have never made a Boston cream pie before, even though it's not a pie per se. It does seem like something I would like and it's components, well, I could really like it. I hope.

Can Jam April - Herbs: And the winner is...

Well it was Apple Jelly with Lemon and Sage... but I didn't make it. I don't know why really - perhaps because I had such a hard time deciding it meant that I wasn't into this month. Perhaps because I waited late and it got mixed up with the boy's birthday (Happy 17th!) Ah well, life goes on and I'm looking forward to next month's challenge. 

Can Jam April - Herbs - still no (real) decision

There were only three real contenders I found after reviewing my books. 1) Pickled Asparagus (p. 75 - Putting Up, Stephen Palmer Dowdney) to which I would need to add herbs - not a big challenge there. 2) Apple Jelly with Lemon and Sage (p. 22 - Preserves, Lindy Wildsmith). The only jelly I've ever made is hot pepper jelly and it's pretty forgiving -hope this is too. 3) Rosemary and Red Wine Jelly (p. 56 - Well Preserved, Mary Ann Dragan) seems interesting, but also a little strange.
And then I remembered that I had copied out a bunch of recipes from library books last year. Can o'worms. So then added 4) Herb Jelly with Variations, 5) Herb Wine Jelly, and 6) Herbed Asparagus (Ellie Topp, Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving) to the list of contenders.

So I stopped thinking about it and ordered a jelly bag, extra bags, kitchen twine in a cute stainless holder, and some very pretty Leifheit jars.

Can Jam April - Herbs - more deliberation

herb |(h)ərb|noun1 any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume


So does that eliminate some of the things I've been thinking about. I'm thinking fennel is a vegetable, but perhaps it's both depending on what you use it for. Lemon grass - that would qualify. 
In my research, rosemary and quince (does it sound like a posh law firm?) showing up quite often together, but we don't get many (any?) quinces around here. 
I did not realize I had so many British canning/preserving books -- they don't seem to often bother with a water bath and have this odd (IMO) notion of turning the jars upside down after sealing them - to what purpose, I do not know, but ...
Pickled asparagus could be right - esp right now, but would need to introduce and herb and frankly, beyond tarragon, which I could take or leave, I'm not sure what to add that wouldn't over power the asparagus. Blue Book / Preserving - blanks - as was, The Glass Pantry (see Library Thing site for details), so ... more research, but first - time away. nice. 

Can Jam April - Herbs

So the challenge for this month, well, April anyway, is herbs - well, hell - that's wide open. What is currently growing in the garden for me - rosemary, oregano, and parsley. I had no idea parsley would survive the winter (the coldest for the longest that I remember), but it came through with flying colors and looks great right now but may be about to bolt. I've not grown it before - so I'm not quite sure how it works. Oh, and fennel  - forgot that. And the cilantro will probably return as it usually does. I'm betting The Glass Pantry has a few ideas.
Need to check the farmer's markets to see what else is out there right now - hopefully not necessitating anything flown in from across the planet.