Chocolate Bundt Cake

Modified from here

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces butter (2 sticks)
• 1/2 3/4?-1 cup Dutch process cocoa (I used regular, TJ's)
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 cups granulated sugar (I used slightly less, maybe 2-3 tbs less?)
• 1 cup sour cream I used the top of TJ's French Cream Line yogurt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, stir before measuring
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (+ 1/2 tsp, + 1/8 to every 3 TBS of extra non-Dutched cocoa)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Grease and flour a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan with Baker's Joy or another flour+grease spray. (Seriously, that stuff is magic for bundt cakes.) Heat oven to 350°. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat; add cocoa, stirring until smooth. Whisk in the water and remove from heat. To the warm cocoa mixture, add the sugar, sour cream, 1 tablespoon vanilla, and eggs; whisk until smooth. In another bowl combine the flour, soda, and salt. Add all at once to the first mixture, whisking until well blended.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until it feels firm to the touch and has slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan. Cool in pan on a rack for 20 minutes. Carefully loosen the cake with a knife and invert onto a large plate.

NOTES: the extra cocoa was good. The yogurt seems fine, it seems moist enough. I wasn't sure it was mixed all the way at the end--it felt like there were what were either bubbles or tiny lumps of flour, but it was fine. I think I actually cooked it for close to 45 minutes and it was fine, not dry.)


*If you're using a standard baking cocoa (not Dutch-process or high-quality) add 1/2 teaspoon more of baking soda to the dry ingredients.

Pickled Cauliflower

I just made some pickled cauliflower with this recipe. Changes: I used a 24-oz jar (2 quarts would be 32 oz) so I scaled things back: 3/4 cup of vinegar, 3/4 cup of water, 1.5 tsp of salt. I used about 3 slices of a very large (but pithy) lemon, the whole clove of garlic, and the whole 1/4 tsp of black peppercorns. I don't think I used anywhere near 2 lbs of cauliflower--I just cut slices and stuck them in the jar to see what would fit, and then I blanched those. I used white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar, more because that's what I had than out of any taste preference, though I'm not a big fan of apple cider vinegar. I've seen lots of pickle recipes that use white vinegar anyway. So. I'll report back in 12+ hours.

Aaaand...months later, actually:
this was OK, but not amazing. I didn't let it sit all that long, but mostly--it's a lot of work for something that's not all that much better (to me) or exciting (to me) than plain cauliflower (which I will eat raw.) Perhaps if it had pickled for weeks it might be more interesting. 

Pesto! (Arugula & Walnut)

I used this recipe:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/arugula_pesto/

2 cups of packed arugula leaves, stems removed
1/2 cup of shelled walnuts
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/2 garlic clove peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Brown 6 garlic cloves with their peels on in a skillet over medium high heat until the garlic is lightly browned in places, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan, cool, and remove the skins.

2 Toast the nuts in a pan over medium heat until lightly brown, or heat in a microwave on high heat for a minute or two until you get that roasted flavor. In our microwave it takes 2 minutes.

3a Food processor method (the fast way): Combine the arugula, salt, walnuts, roasted and raw garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

NOTES: Browning garlic and walnuts on the stove is weird. I think next time I'll do both in the oven.
Too much garlic (!) Not sure if that was because my stovetop-browned garlic wasn't as cooked as it should be--it was almost burnt in places but it wasn't soft like roasted garlic is--or just a matter of amount. I'd say 4 cloves would be about right.
I added about 3/4 of a small lemon's worth of juice, and probably used a bit more Parmesan than called for. I also added it in in hte food processor instead of stirring it in the bowl.
I did not remove stems from the (packaged, Trader Joe's) arugula. I think removing the stems is more for less tender stuff.

Overall--very tasty and good.

[Spicy, Indian-food-inspired] garbanzos + kale

1 can of chickpeas
half an onion, chopped relatively small
6ish leaves of kale, sliced fine
splotches of marinara sauce (1/2 cup?)
shitload of paprika
salt
powdered ginger
garam masala
cumin
curry powder
yogurt

Sauteed onion in oil for a bit, added chickpeas and spices and fried a bit, dumped in marinara sauce and cooked a bit more,then dumped in kale and a little bit of water and stirred a bit and then put the lid on and cooked til the kale was wilted. Stirred a few spoonfuls of yogurt into my bowl before eating.

I do variations on this all the time, and I always forget what I do. (Tomatoes? No tomatoes? Garlic? Etc.) I usually do fresh ginger, but I think the powdered ginger might be even better. This has a nice hotness to it and it's evenly dispersed through the dish.

Moroccan roasted tomato and chickpea stew

Haven't used this recipe yet, but I want to:
http://vegrecipes.livejournal.com/1746376.html

banana bread muffins

I just made this recipe with changes.

Basically:

• 1 cup white sugar (I did 1/2 white and almost 1/2 dark brown because brown sugar is tasty)
  
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (I did 1 scant cup white flour and 1 cup white whole wheat because whatever)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (closer to 1/2 cup)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• added 1/4ish tsp cinnamon and a dash of vanilla because cinnamon and vanilla are nice. (NB last year I made banana bread and had no cinnamon and I used some combo of nutmeg and cardamom instead and it was great.)
  

I blended the bananas in the food processor first, then added the egg, oil, sugar...basically everything except the flour and nuts, and processed a few more times. Then I dumped it into a bowl to stir in the flour and nuts because my food processor is tiiiiny.

Spooned it into unlined muffin tins greased with flour+oil Pam, and now baking. I predict that the recipe's 30-40 minute bake time will be too long. We shall see. Verdict: at least 30 minutes is necessary.

Almond Bars

(from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/almond-bars/)
This is the weirdest recipe I've made in a while. I thought it would be more like a brownie minus the chocolate flavor/color, but they're cakey and sort of spongy. (My guess is this is due to beating the eggs and sugar, and also due to the two cups of flour; brownie recipes would have less flour for this size pan.) They seem better after a few hours/the next day when they're a little more dense.

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9x13 pan (I used flour+grease Pam spray.)

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar (I used less, between 1.5 and 1.75 cups, which is plenty)
  
• 1 cup butter, melted (I used salted butter)
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons almond extract (I used a little more, almost a tablespoon)

Beat the sugar and eggs with mixer. Add in butter, flour, almond extract. Mix well. Spread into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of pan comes out clean. (I was worried they'd be underbaked at that point, but they were fine. They seemed weird until they cooled and sat for a while.)