Apple Cake

I am not usually a baker of cakes. Muffins, bars, cookies, sure. Cakes seems like so much more of an investment. Who's going to eat a whole cake? I mean, I can handle at least a couple of cookies, but a whole cake? That just seems excessive.

Well, my non-baking cake days are apparently at an end. I have a roommate who loves cake. Any kind of cake. "They feel like a celebration!" she says to me as she pores over recipe books devoted to the subject. She herself is queen of what is now infamously known as the Guinness Chocolate Cake. More on that later though.

But my tendencies toward simplicity resulted in this- an apple cake courtesy of the good ol' "Joy of Cooking". I'm a fan of apple pie but I wanted something sweeter and...well, softer. I had no idea that apple cake was even an option. And now, because of this, poor apple pie may never again find a place in our household. The absolute simplicity of this cake made the fact that it was so delicious even better. I was put on dessert duty the evening we made this and I had the batter ready for the oven in less than 10 minutes. No eggs, no beaters, just a large bowl and a wooden spoon are all you need. Well, that and the ingredients which are by no means hard to find. I also *highly* recommend the addition of rum to this cake. Talk about improving on a good thing.

Served with ice cream, this cake demands recognition amongst its more famous apple-based dessert brethren. And it deserves it.

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp. rum
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped apples (I recommend tart green apples, with the skin left on)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour an 8 inch square baking pan or line the bottom with wax or parchment paper. (I used a round spring-form pan, but honestly anything will work here.)

Whisk together in a large bowl the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.

Add the buttermilk, oil, rum, and vanilla and stir together until smooth.

Stir in the apples and nuts.

Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack. Serve warm, plain or with vanilla ice cream.

Spicy Stir-Fried Cabbage

Oh, cabbage. How often I forget about you and how sad I am when I realize how delicious you are. My mother never made cabbage when I was growing up so it always takes me a minute to remember this versatile fabulous vegetable. I'm not sure why, if anything Britain is the land of cabbage. Boiled, braised, baked, you'll find it in everything. And if there's one thing they're never out of at Tesco, it's cabbage.

Which brings me to this fabulously easy recipe (again, courtesy of the New York Times' Recipes for Health section). I was slightly dubious of this dish- it seemed *too* easy, that it would taste of, well, raw cabbage.

I was so wrong. It's spicy, comforting, a perfect side dish. Heck, make enough of this and I'll eat this for my main course. It's done in literally 5 minutes and it tastes like the best kind of unhealthy Asian takeout. But it's not. It's, get this, healthy. Well, I suppose comparatively so. There's still oil (albeit a small amount), but literally, most of the delicious flavor comes from a bit of star anise, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes. That's it! Simple as pie.

Ingredients
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 star anise, broken in half
2 teaspoons soy sauce (more to taste)
2 tablespoons Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry (I've used both, they're equally delicious)
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
1 small cabbage, 1 to 1 1/2 pounds, quartered, cored and cut crosswise into 1/8-inch shreds
1 medium carrot, cut into julienne
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons minced chives, Chinese chives or cilantro

Method

1. Combine the garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and star anise in a small bowl. Combine the soy sauce and wine or sherry in another small bowl.

2. Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or a 12-inch skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and tilting it back and forth. Add the garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and star anise. Stir-fry for a few seconds, just until fragrant, then add the cabbage and carrots. Stir-fry for one to two minutes until the cabbage begins to wilt, then add the salt and wine/soy sauce mixture. Cover and cook over high heat for one minute until just wilted. Uncover and stir-fry for another 30 seconds, then stir in the chives or cilantro and remove from the heat. The cabbage should be crisp-tender. Serve with rice or noodles.

Yield: Serves four.

Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ok, arguably, a muffin shouldn't have frosting on it. As (again, arguably) a breakfast food, one perhaps should forgo the delicious delicious topping that everyone agrees goes naturally with carrot cake, i.e. cream cheese frosting.

I completely disagree.

I know Martha Shulman, who provided this recipe as a healthy alternative to fatty muffins in her series "Recipes for Health" in (where else?) The New York Times, is probably screaming somewhere at my abuse of her new improved healthy muffin recipe, but alas, I'm sorry Martha, this muffin needs frosting.

Of course, you are more than welcome to make the muffin as Martha suggests, frosting-less, but for those secret guilt-ridden frosting-lovers out there (which I proudly count myself among), put the frosting on in copious amounts and don't you dare feel bad about it. After all, it's a healthy muffin.
And on that note, I will say that this carrot cake recipe, muffin or otherwise, is delicious. Despite the whole wheat flour, it tastes every bit as good as a standard carrot cake recipe without the dangers of dryness or mealiness. Huzzah for carrot cake and huzzah for muffins.

Ingredients (recipe for cream cheese frosting follows)
2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (Martha recommends pastry flour, I used standard whole wheat flour and did just fine)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup raw brown (turbinado) sugar (or light brown sugar, which I used)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup golden raisins tossed with 1 teaspoon unbleached all-purpose flour, or 2/3 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups grated carrots

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the upper third of the space. Oil or butter muffin tins.

2. Sift together the whole-wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla. Using a whisk or a spatula, stir in the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Do not beat; a few lumps are fine, but make sure there is no flour at the bottom of the bowl. Fold in the raisins or pecans and the carrots.

4. Spoon into muffin cups, filling them to just below the top (about 4/5 full). Place in the oven, and bake 25 minutes until lightly browned and well risen. Cover copiously with cream cheese frosting (recipe follows).

Yield: Twelve muffins, depending on the size of the muffin tins.

Cream Cheese Frosting (come on, you know you want to)
(from the Joy of Cooking)

Ingredients
8 oz. cold cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Method
Beat in a medium bowl at low speed the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until just blended.
Add the sugar 1/3 at a time, and beat just until smooth and the desired consistency. Stir in ground cinnamon.
If the frosting is too stiff, beat for a few seconds longer but be careful not to overbeat.

Spinach Soup with Bacon and Thyme Croutons

My culinary life has had a bit of an upset recently. Mark Bittman, master of the minimalist cooking approach, has hung up his apron strings at the New York Times. His recipes were a source of many a weeknight dinner for me and his blog will be much missed. This doesn't mean that the Bittster is gone forever, however, he has resurfaced already with a brand new blog about...well...cooking. The point of the blog is still a bit beyond me, but as far as I can gather, he's now writing about simple hearty recipes that you can make easily. Which sounds...remarkably like his earlier blog, but never you mind. I feature here one of his newest creations (or rather recommendations). His entire entry on soup claims to show you the last four recipes you'll ever need for soup. I tend to disagree but regardless, his first item on the list, a spinach and yogurt soup is simply marvelous.

Well, marvelous if you put bacon in it. Which arguably makes everything better. The soup is ridiculously easy to make and wonderful for those late winter nights where there's still a bite in the air but you can tell spring is just beyond the horizon. When you add these croutons to it, well, here's to Bittman and here's to soup.

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 cups water
2 tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp achiote powder (or chili powder)
12 ounces spinach
1/2 cup parsley, chopped 
1 1/2 cups greek yogurt
3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces.
salt and pepper 
Thyme croutons (see recipe below)


Method
Put 1 chopped onion, garlic cloves, spices, 3 cups water, and salt and pepper in a pot over high heat.

Boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer until the onion is tender, about 10 minutes.

Add chopped spinach, tomatoes, oil, and parsley leaves; cook until the spinach is tender, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add Greek-style yogurt and purée. Stir in bacon pieces.

Garnish: A spoonful of Greek-style yogurt and chopped parsley and some thyme croutons

For croutons:
Tear up day-old bread into small bite size chunks. Douse with olive oil and a sprinkling of thyme. Put under grill/broiler under golden (c. 3-4 minutes).

Spicy Seafood and Bean Chowder

I miss chowders. Well, to be honest, I miss all kinds of soup that have "bits" in them. The British just don't appreciate them. Soup, on this island, is more often than not just a puree of vegetables. Delicious? Quite often. But still- I long for things like chicken noodle soup, beef with barley, even just a hearty mixed vegetable will satisfy me so long as there is more than one consistency to it!

And thus I yearn for American-style chowders. Don't even get me started on what I've seen pass for New England Clam Chowder over here. It's not right and I refuse to support it.

But, on that note, all is not lost. NPR has seen fit to publish online all that is good and right about chowders. And, more specifically, how you can create such glories at home. If there was ever a reason to support public radio, this is it. When I saw the idea for a spicy chowder, I couldn't help myself. If there was only one thing missing from the glory of this soup-based food, it was spice. And now, here I was, presented with a happy remedy.

My own version was sadly lacking clam juice, which I thought was unnecessary at the time but have subsequently reconsidered. I think will make the broth even better and give it that punch of salty that really evokes the sea when you have a seafood chowder. As it was though, it was enough to satisfy two non-Americans that they've really been missing something. And usually, that's all I aim for.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, diced (about 2 cups)
3 large ribs celery, diced (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
3 leeks, cleaned and sliced
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dry white wine
2 1/2 cups homemade or best-quality commercial chicken broth
8 to 12 ounces bottled clam juice (1 to 1 1/2 cups) (I omitted but highly recommend)
4 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 fresh bay leaf
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano 
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 cup lima beans
1 cup sliced sugar snap peas
Kosher or sea salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups heavy cream/whole milk
1 (16-ounce) bag frozen roasted corn kernels (use regular frozen corn if you are unable to find roasted)
1/2 pound combination of fish (some suggest grouper, I used salmon and cod) , skin and bones removed, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut in half crosswise to make bite-size pieces
1/2 cup snipped fresh chives for garnish

Method
Using a large pot, heat to medium and add the butter to the pot. When it has melted, add the onion, celery, leeks, garlic, and fennel. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is translucent and the vegetables have softened, 7 to 8 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and sprinkle in the flour, stirring well with a wooden spoon until it is fully incorporated and the mixture is pasty.

Gradually pour in the wine, stirring until the mixture is well blended. Add the chicken broth and 1 cup of the clam juice (if using). Stir in the potatoes, lima beans, sugar snap peas, bay leaf, parsley, oregano and the seasonings. Cover partially with a lid and let the chowder simmer gently over medium-low to low heat until the potatoes are tender, 20 to 30 minutes.

Stir in the cream and return the chowder to a simmer. Add the corn and the fish and cook for 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook 5 minutes more, or until the shrimp have turned pink. Ladle the hot chowder into bowls and garnish each serving with a sprinkling of chives. Serve immediately.

Note: The chowder may be prepared up to several hours ahead up through the cooking of the potatoes. Remove from the heat and let sit at room temperature. A few minutes before serving time, reheat the chowder to a simmer and finish the recipe as directed.