Chocolate Raspberry Filled Meringue Coffee Cake and Chocolate, Almond, Maraschino Cherry Filled Meringue Coffee Cake

This month Jamie of  Life’s a Feast and Ria of Ria’s Collection challenged us to make a filled meringue coffee cake. I was excited about this recipe because I love working with yeast. I have never had a filled meringue coffee cake, but I was excited to give this recipe a try.

This month we the option to fill our coffee cake with whatever filling we wanted. I chose to fill one of my coffee cakes with frozen raspberries and chocolate; I filled the other cake with homemade maraschino cherries, almonds, and chocolate. Both were excellent. The frozen raspberries made the coffee cake very moist while the almonds in the second coffee cake added a really nice crunch to the cake. Both were eaten quickly in our house.

Ingredients (makes 2 cakes) from a hand written recipe from Jamie’s dad

For the dough:

4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast
¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature

For the meringue:

3 large egg whites at room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

Filling for first cake:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup frozen raspberries (I used the frozen)

For the filling for the second cake:

1 cup chopped toasted almonds
1 cup maraschino cherries (I used homemade)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Egg wash:

1 beaten egg

Directions

Prepare the dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted. Ria’s version: add the 10 saffron threads to the warmed liquid and allow to steep off of the heat for 10 minutes. This will give the mixture a distinct aroma and flavor and a yellowish-orange hue.

With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:

In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the chocolate and raspberries followed by half the chocolate and raspberries).

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool.

Posted on Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays # 27.

Pineapple Jelly

I unexpected started my canning early this year when I went to the grocery store and saw that pineapples were $0.20 a pineapple on manager’s special. I stock up on pineapple since most people were not very interested in buying very ripe pineapples. We ate a lot of them fresh, but we ended up canning some into jelly and some I canned as cut pineapple since I cannot even buy canned pineapple that cheap in the grocery store.


The pineapple jelly that I made was basic and simple since I wanted the flavor of the pineapple to shine through. The kids love this simple jelly. It is sweet and tastes like sweetened pineapple juice. For the recipe I modified a recipe that I found on-line. The recipe was for mint-pineapple jam uses canned crushed pineapple and mint. I omitted the mint and water; I took my chopped pineapple and blended it for a few seconds. I got a very fine pineapple puree that gave my jam the texture of a jelly. It was perfect. My jelly came out with the perfect texture. It is soft and spreadable and tastes great with a nice piece of rye bread. The yellow color is also a wonderful treat. This pretty jelly would make a nice gift with a loaf of homemade bread.

Ingredients for pineapple jelly (yield 9 half pint jars) modified from Canning-recipes.com

2.5 cups pineapple puree
¼ cup lemon juice
7 ½ cups sugar
3 ounces liquid pectin (1 pouch)

Directions

1. Place the pineapple puree, lemon juice, and sugar in a large stockpot. Heat on high heat while stirring constantly until the solution is at a hard boil. Boil for 1 minute.

2. Remove the pot from the heat and add the pectin. Skim off the bubbles. Pour the solution into hot, sterile canning jars. Leave ¼” headspace. Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Posted on Craft-O-Manic Monday, Making Monday Marvelous.

Guest Post for Colon Cancer

I did a guest post for a colon cancer campaign.  Go stop on by to support the cause and see my recipe for Tropical Alaskan Pollock!

New Orleans Red Beans and Rice

I have been hunting for a good red beans and rice recipe. I wanted one that was full of flavor but not too spicy since Dr. Lazy Palate is not into spicy foods. I look at Emril’s recipe on Food Network, but it had too much going on in the recipe; the recipe just seemed too complicated for no reason. I have this vision that red beans and rice should be a simple dish. I wanted to find a recipe that could be someone’s comfort food.


When I checked out the book, My New Orleans Cookbook by John Besh and started reading it I knew that I had found the right chef for red beans and rice. For him New Orleans is paradise. Some people still see New Orleans as the place that hurricane Katrina decimated, but to Besh New Orleans was still his muse. The cook book reads like a good travel book. Looking at the photos makes you want to go to New Orleans even on the hottest and most humid day. The food descriptions make you salivate; as you read My New Orleans: The Cook Book you realize the food is special and like nowhere else on earth. When I read the red beans and rice recipe I knew that this was the recipe that I had been seeking. It was simple yet flavorful. This red beans and rice was an excellent budget friendly dinner. The recipe says that it serves 4, but for my family it could serve 6 (I think we eat less than the typical American family.)

Besh says the secret to a good beans and rice recipe is a good flavorful fat. He uses rendered bacon fat. I have to agree with him that the bacon fat helps brings the dish alive. Don’t substitute vegetable oil or another type of fat to make the dish “healthier” because you will lose precious flavor to your red beans and rice. To make my rendered bacon fat, I just save the fat left in the pan after cooking bacon. I place the fat in a pyrex dish with a lid on it until I need some good bacon fat for a dish. It is economical and just a little bit can add lots of flavor to a dish. I changed up some of the ingredients a bit to use items that I had in my house since I feel like red beans and rice should be a dish that you make from pantry staples when you want comfort food or when the budget is tight. I substituted the green onions for leeks since I had them on hand. I used a red bell pepper that I had frozen from last season instead of a green bell pepper. I also cut back on the onion a bit to use a half an onion that I had in my refrigerator instead of cutting into a new onion.

Red Beans and Rice modified from My New Orleans: The Cookbook p 39

2 tbsp rendered bacon fat
1.5 onions, diced
1 bell pepper, seeded, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 pound dried red kidney beans
2 smoked ham hocks
3 bay leaves
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 leek, chopped
Salt and pepper
Tabasco sauce (optional)
3 cups basic Louisiana white rice (see recipe below)

Directions
1. Melt the bacon fat over medium high heat in a large heavy bottomed soup saucepan. Sauté the onions, peppers, and celery until the onion is translucent.

2. Add the kidney beans, ham hocks, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, and leek to the saucepot. Fill the pot with water 2 inches above the food.

3. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the temperature to bring the mixture to a simmer. Cover the pot. Frequently stir to make sure that the beans to not scorch the bottom of the pot. Add water as necessary to keep the beans covered by 2 inches of water. The beans are done when they begin to fall apart when you stir the pot.

5. Remove the ham hocks and trim the meat. Add the meat back to the beans

6. Season with salt, black pepper and tobacco sauce. Serve with Louisiana white rice.

Louisiana White Rice modified from My New Orleans: The Cookbook p 15

1 tbsp butter
1 small onion, minced
1 ½ cups long grain rice
3 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Pinch salt

Directions
1. Heat the butter in a saucepot. Sauté the onions over medium heat until translucent. Add the dry rice and cook for 2 minutes.

2. Add the chicken stock, bay leaf, and salt to the pot. Bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 18 minutes or until all the chicken stock has been absorbed by the rice. Fluff the rice and serve with beans.


Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

Pork Saltimbocca

When most people think of Italy, they think of pasta, but Italy has more to offer than just pasta. When Dr. Lazy Palate got me a cooking class for Christmas this year, he got me a class called, "Italy: more than just pasta." The class focused on a lot of meat dishes. I think Dr. Lazy Palate was secretly hoping that I would come home with a million meat dishes that I loved so he can have meat every night for dinner. I enjoyed the class a lot, and I got to cook in a commercial kitchen which was cool because everything cooked so quickly with the commercial kitchen. The gas stove could heat a pan within seconds. The oven did not take forever to bake something; instead it took a few minutes. Now I can see why a restaurant can cook so quickly compared to me.


One of my favorite recipes that we made in the class was a pork saltimbocca. However, the dish was not perfect. Most people in the class noted that the pork saltimbocca was too sweet for a dinner dish. I had to agree with them. To make the pork saltimbocca better I made some modifications. I cut back on the brown sugar, substituted smoked paprika for the sweet paprika, and used some different vegetables in the pork saltimbocca. In the end, I got a perfect pork saltimbocca for me. The pork saltimbocca was not as sweet as the one we had in class and it was very filling as dinner. The pork saltimbocca is very versatile because you can serve it with mashed potatoes, polenta, rice, or quinoa and it will still be good. I also loved that the pork saltimbocca was quick to make. If you precut your vegetables, then it is even quicker to make. This dish would freeze well too for a busy night. This pork saltimbocca is going to make it one the meal plan again.

Ingredients (serves 4) modified from Chef Rosa

2 pounds pork loin, cut into ¼ inch thick cubes
½ cup light brown sugar
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp butter
1 cup red wine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 leek, minced
2 green bell pepper, diced and deseeded
1 medium red onion, diced
2 medium red apples, diced
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.

2. Coat the pork loin with brown sugar and paprika. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

3. In a large hot skillet (that is oven safe), melt the butter. Add the wine and all the other ingredients to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until all the meat is seared.

4. Place the skillet in the oven for 10 minutes to finish the dish.

5. Remove from the oven and serve with polenta, rice, mashed potatoes, noodles, quinoa, or barley.

Posted on This Week's Cravings: 30 minute meals

Ceviche de Pescado and Papas Rellenas de Carne

I was so excited to see that our taste buds were going to Peru this month in Daring Cooks. This month Kathlyn from Bake Like a Ninja challenged us to make either ceviche or papas. Ceviche is seafood “cooked” in citrus juices while papas are potatoes filled with meat, eggs, and spices and rolled in bread crumbs and fried to a wonderful crispy texture. I couldn’t decide which dish to make, so I made both ceviche de pescado and papas rellenas de carne this month!


Ceviche isn’t really “cooked” because there is no heat involved. Basically you just lather seafood (sea bass in my case) in citrus juices and spices for a little or as long as you want to make your food as raw or as cooked as you want. The citrus juice denatures the proteins in the seafood transforming the seafood from a fleshy color to opaque. The texture of the ceviche also becomes more rubbery with the longer you let the citrus juice set on the seafood. I left my citrus juices on my ceviche for 3 hours (the minimum amount of time is 10 minutes and the maximum is one day.) I was hoping for some wonderfully flavored ceviche with a not too rubbery texture, but I was disappointed. My ceviche came out too rubbery. The flavor of the ceviche was all right, but I could not get past the rubbery texture of the ceviche. I want to try ceviche again when I have access to fish right off the boat; I also will not cook it as long. I live in a land locked location making fresh seafood very expensive and not readily available. For ceviche you need very fresh fish or seafood. Do not use seafood that smell fishy or has any discoloration like brown spots. Also, you need to make sure that your work area and utensils are very clean and sterile because citrus juice will not kill bacteria in your ceviche. Use your best kitchen cleanliness techniques when making ceviche.

Papas rellenas de carne are more forgiving. I made my papas filled with meat, jalapenos, eggs, olives, raisins, onions, and spices. These items listed out can sound a bit repulsive to a picky eater. Dr. Lazy Palate could not fathom olives, eggs, and raisins in the same dish much less a dish that tasted good, but he was pleasantly surprised by how well these papas rellenas tasted. The ingredients in papas rellenas blend well together. The papas really a taste sensation because the taste buds on your entire tongue are activated. You can’t really distinguish each individual ingredient inside the papas rellenas making this a fun and unique appetizer for a party.

For ceviche:

For papas:

Ingredients for ceviche (serves 6) from Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes by Annik Franco Barreau

2 lbs. (about 1 kg) firm white fish (scallops or other seafood may be substituted) [I used sea bass]*
2 garlic cloves, mashed
1 chili pepper, minced (I use jalapeño)
1 cup (240 ml) freshly squeezed lime juice (between 8-12 limes)
Fresh juice only, no bottled. Can use lemons in lieu of limes. (I used lemons)
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (4 grams) (1/8 oz) fresh coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
1 red onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Garnish for ceviche:

1 large sweet potato
1 large ear of corn
Lettuce leaves

Directions

1.Boil sweet potato and corn (separately) if using for garnish for ceviche. Allow to cool. (Can be done hours or even a day in advance.)

2.Wash and trim your fish. Slice into pieces between ½ inch (15 mm) cubes to 2 inch (50mm) pieces, depending on taste and texture of your ceviche.**

3.Place fish in a non-reactive, shallow pan in a thin layer. Season with salt and pepper.

4.Combine lime juice, chili pepper, coriander and garlic. Pour mixture over fish. Stir lightly to expose all the ceviche to some of the lime juice mixture.

5.Put sliced onion on top of the ceviche as it “cooks”

6.Let fish stand for 10 minutes.*** Lift fish out of the lime juice and plate individual portions ,**** garnishing with lettuce, slices of sweet potato and slices or kernels of corn if using.

* It is important to use high quality, really fresh fish. You can use previously frozen, but it’s not as good. The better your fish, the better your ceviche.

** The ceviche is going to “cook” in the lime juice – how thick you make the pieces will determine how much the ceviche cooks, so keep your own preference in mind when you are cutting the fish up.

*** I have looked at recipes all over the interwebs for ceviche, and they all have different “cooking” times – I am going with 10 minutes because that’s what the Peruvian cookbook says.

**** The portions can vary; in Lima ceviche is served as a starter, in a fairly small portion.

Ingredients for papa rellenas de carne (serves 6) from Spanish teacher Mayra

For the papas dough:

2¼ lb (1 kg) russet potatoes
1 large egg

For the papas filling:

2 tablespoon (30 ml) of a light flavored oil
½ lb (250 grams) ground beef
6 black olives, pitted and chopped
3 hard boiled large eggs, chopped
1 small onion, finely diced (about 1 cup (240 ml))
½ cup (120 ml) (90 gm) (3 oz) raisins, soaked in 1 cup (240 ml) boiling water for 10 minutes, then minced
1 finely diced aji pepper (I used jalapeño)
2 cloves garlic, minced or passed through a press
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (4 gm) (1/8 oz) ground cumin
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) (2 gm) (1/16 oz) sweet paprika
¼ c. white wine, water or beef stock for deglazing
Salt and pepper to taste

For the final preparation of the papas:

1 large egg, beaten
1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm) (5 oz) all-purpose flour
Dash cayenne pepper
Dash salt
1 cup dry (240 ml) (110 gm) (4 oz) or fresh (240 ml) (60 gm) (2 oz) bread
Oil for frying (enough for 2” (50 mm) in a heavy pan like a medium sized dutch oven)

Directions:

In order to save time, you can boil the potatoes, and while they are cooling, you can make the filling for the papas. While that is cooling, you can make the potato “dough” for the papas. In this way, little time is spent waiting for anything to cool.

For the papas dough:

1.Boil the potatoes until they pierce easily with a fork. Remove them from the water and cool.

2.Once the potatoes have cooled, peel them and mash them with a potato masher.

3.Add egg, salt and pepper and knead “dough” thoroughly to ensure that ingredients are well combined and uniformly distributed.

While the potatoes cool down before finishing the dough, you can make the filling for the papas:

1.Gently brown onion and garlic in oil (about 5 minutes).

2.Add the chili pepper and sauté for a couple more minutes.

3.Add ground beef and brown.

4.Add raisins, cumin and paprika and cook briefly (a few seconds).

5.Deglaze the pan with white wine.

6.Add olives and cook for a few moments longer.

7.Add hard boiled eggs and fold in off heat.

8.Allow filling to cool before forming papas.

Forming and frying the papas:

1.Use three small bowls to prepare the papas. In one, combine flour, cayenne and salt. In the second, a beaten egg with a tiny bit of water. Put bread crumbs in the third

2.Flour your hands and scoop up 1/6 of the total dough to make a round pancake with your hands. Make a slight indentation in the middle for the filling of the papas.

3.Spoon a generous amount of filling into the center and then roll the potato closed, forming a smooth, potato-shaped casing around the filling of the papas. Repeat with all dough (you should have about 6 papas).

4.Heat 1 ½ - 2 inches (4 – 5 cm) of oil in a pan to about 350 – 375° F (175 - 190°C).

5.Dip each papa in the three bowls to coat: first roll in flour, then dip in egg, then roll the papas in bread crumbs.

6.Fry the papas (in batches if necessary) about 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Flip once in the middle of frying to brown both sides of the papas.

7.Drain the papas on paper towel and store in a 200ºF (95ºC) (gas mark ¼) oven if frying in batches.

8.Serve your papas with salsa criolla (or other sauce of preference) immediately.

Posted on this week's craving: ground beef

Mardi Gras King Cake

The first time I visited New Orleans I was in high school with my parents. We went in winter during off season, and it was a blast. The town was already gearing up for Mardi Gras when we went and visited Mardi Gras World the artists were already busy at work building and designing floats for Mardi Gras. I loved all the colors of the event. We also sampled some king cake at a local bakery, and I was in love from the first bite. The cinnamon bread with the sweet frosting was a perfect combination. The king cake was similar to a cinnamon roll only more moist and chewy.


I have always wanted to recreate my first king cake experience at home; I decided that this year I was actually going to do it because I put this on my list of 10 things that I want to make in 2011. I checked out a cookbook from my local library called My New Orleans: The Cookbook. I patiently waited 2 months for this cookbook since someone else had the cookbook checked out at the library. However, I was sure that this cookbook had the best Mardi Gras king cake. I was right. My Mardi Gras king cake was perfect. The flavor and texture was spot on. I do not think that I could have picked a better basic king cake recipe if I tried. The only thing that I did wrong was that I waited too long to put my colored sugars on top of the icing so they did not stick to the icing which is all right because I am not a fan of eating foods with artificial dyes in it anyway. I highly recommend this perfect Mardi Gras king cake recipe to anyone.

The photo taken above was taken by Andrew a homeschooling student. I took this Mardi Gras King cake to our friend’s farm on Fat Tuesday. Andrew has always had an interest in photography, so I gave him a very short lesson in food photography, and I had him stage and take the picture of this Mardi Gras king cake. I think he did a fantastic job for his first food photo. I really like what he did with the ribbon in the picture.

Ingredients for King Cake from My New Orleans: The Cookbook by John Besh p 58

For the Cake

1 cup lukewarm milk, about 110⁰
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp dry yeast
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup melted butter
5 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon zest
3 tsp cinnamon
Several dashings of nutmeg

For the icing

2 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup condensed milk
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Purple, green, and gold decorative sugars
1 fève (fava bean) or plastic baby to hide in the cake after baking

Directions

1. Mix the warm milk, sugar, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of the flour in a large bowl. Whisk the mixture until the sugar and yeast are dissolved. Bubbles should form at the top of the mixture.

2. After the bubbles have formed, add the butter, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Whisk the mixture. Add the flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg and fold into the mixture. Slowly fold in the rest of the flour into the mixture with a spatula.

3. Mix the dough until it comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Shape the dough into a ball. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 15 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

4. Put the dough back in the bowl and cover the bowl with a towel. Place the bowl in a warm draft free area to rise for 1 ½ hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

5. Preheat the oven to 375⁰. Punch down the dough and divide it into 3 equal sized pieces. Roll each dough piece into a long snake of equal size. Braid the 3 pieces of dough together. Shape the braid into a wreath and connect the loose ends of the dough together to make the wreath a single unit. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes on a cookie sheet or baking stone.

6. Bake the king cake for 30 minutes or until the king cake is golden brown. Allow the king cake to cool for 30 minutes.

7. While the king cake is cooling, make the icing. Whisk the sugar, condensed milk, and lemon juice in a medium sized bowl until the mixture is smooth and spreadable. If the icing is too thick, then add a few drops of water. If the icing is too thin, then add a few teaspoons of powdered sugar.

8. Hide the bean or plastic baby in the king cake. Spread the icing on top of the king cake. Add the colored sugars to the top of the icing. Serve the king cake at room temperate on a decorative plate.

Soto Ajam: Indonesian Chicken Bouillon

This week Dr. Lazy Palate had soup club and it was his turn to cook. After his last disaster with chicken noodle soup and a potato soup that did not go over well, he told me that I can make his soup for his soup club. First he told me to go exotic because most of the basic soup recipes have all been made; then he retracted his request and told me to make a basic soup with a little flair. I dug through my huge list of recipes that I wanted to try and found an Indonesian recipe for Indonesian soto ajam or chicken bouillon. According to my World Atlas of Food book, in Indonesia soup is served as the part of the meal and not as precursor to meal and it can also be the main dish in a meal (p 258). This Indonesian soto ajam looked perfect for his soup club. It is broth based chicken soup that is different without being over the top and it is something that picky Dr. Lazy Palate will probably eat since he does not care for most of the soups made in soup club.


I was shocked when Dr. Lazy Palate came home and told me that not only could he eat the Indonesian soto ajam, but he enjoyed it. I was waiting for him to tell me that he didn’t like the ginger root or the hint of lemon. This is an unexpected win to reform his lazy palate. The Indonesian soto ajam has a hearty broth with subtle hints of lemon and ginger that add a complexity to the chicken soup. The chicken in the Indonesian soto ajam is perfectly tender and juicy.

Traditionally this soup would have been served with the carrots, leeks, and celery as a garnish along with hard boiled eggs and rice, but to simply the process for his soup club I decided to add the carrots, leeks, and celery to the Indonesian soto ajam. I also left off the hard boiled eggs and rice because other soups in the club usually have rice served on the side so I did not see the need to double up on the rice. I also knew that Dr. Lazy Palate had an early meeting the day of soup club, so I left off the eggs so he wouldn’t have to make multiple trips in and out of the building on the morning of his soup club. The recipe I posted below is for the more traditional Indonesian soto ajam, but you can feel free to add the garnish in the Indonesian soto ajam as I did or you can leave it as a garnish depending upon your needs.

Ingredients for Indonesian soto ajam (serves 6-8) modified from the World Atlas of Food edited by Jane Grigson p 258

3 tbsp canola oil
3 medium-sized onions-finely chopped
1 garlic clove-crushed
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp tsp ground coriander
1 tsp grated lemon rind or ¼ tsp sereh (powder lemon grass) [I used the lemon rind]
3 lb chicken with organs removed [I used a 5 lb chicken to make the soup go further]
2 ½ quarts water
Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish

2 carrots, finely chopped
2 leeks, finely chopped [I used both the white and green part]
2 celery stalks, finely sliced
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
2 cups cooked rice

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large stock pot. Add the onions and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook until the onions turn clear. Add the cayenne pepper, coriander, and sereh or lemon rind. Cook for 1 minute.

2. Add the chicken and water. Bring the soup to a boil. Cover and decrease the heat to allow the soup to simmer for 1 hour.

3. Remove the chicken from the stock. Allow the soup to simmer for 30 more minutes or until the soup stock has decreased to 6 cups. Taste the stock and add salt and pepper to taste.

4. While the stock is simmering, debone the chicken and finely slice the chicken.

5. Add the chicken back into the soup and serve with the garnish.

Caramel Lace Chocolate Chip Cookies

I officially have more than 50 unique dishes that I have photos of that I can blog about saved on my computer. I am trying to work on blogging about all of my cooking adventures. I have a problem with making a recipe only once because I find so many good recipes that I can not wait to try. Dr. Lazy Palate gets upset with me because I am not capable of making the same chocolate chip cookie twice. I enjoy the variety, and I seem to be able to appreciate each cookie on its own merit, but Dr. Lazy Palate is a creature of habit. He wants the same roast, chicken, and chocolate chip every single time. Well I did it again. I made a different type of chocolate chip cookie. This one has caramel all around the cookie.

These are very sweet and crispy cookies. I enjoyed them because they were different than your usual chocolate chip cookie. Little BBQ loved them as well. Dr. Lazy Palate thought that they were all right, but he still want his usual chocolate chip cookie. I would recommend making these if you want a change in pace.
The recipe is from the book, Treasury of Holiday Cookies. The book is not my usual style because it uses a lot of boxed mixes as a base to build a cookie, but I found the book’s pictures inspiring. I find that I am not an adventurous person when it comes to cookies. I am not known to make beautifully decorated cookies either, but all the photos in this book had beautiful cookies that did not require hours of delicate piping. One recipe in particular stuck out at me, a recipe for caramel lace chocolate chip cookies. The caramel around the cookie was bunched up like a candy wrapper. They were pretty and didn’t use exotic ingredients making them good to serve at a party.

I had to do a lot of experimenting to figure out how to make my caramel bunch up all pretty around my cookie because the directions provided in the recipe were not good. The original recipe says to leave the cookies cool for 2 minutes on a baking sheet when they leave the oven before you start bunching up the caramel with your fingers to make the lace pattern, but I found that the caramel was too cool by this point. Instead of getting a pretty lace pattern I got broken caramel. I tried bunching the caramel with my fingers as soon as it got out it got out of the oven, but it is too hot. I found that the best method for bunching up the caramel is to take them out of the oven and use the stick end of two wooden spoons to quickly bunch of the sides of the caramel to produce the lace pattern. I then let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes before I transferred them to a wire rack to fully cool.

Ingredients for Caramel Lace Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 3 dozen cookies) modified from Treasury of Holiday Cookies p 81

¼ cup butter, softened
½ cup light corn syrup
1 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup flour
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375⁰F. Grease baking sheets.

2. Combine butter, corn syrup, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended.

3. Combine flour and salt in a small bowl. Mix into butter mixture at low speed until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Drop teaspoons of dough 4 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.

5. Bake at 375⁰F for 5 minutes or until edges are golden brown (it took 4 minutes in my oven.) The chocolate chips will remain in the center while the dough spreads out. Be careful not to over bake these cookies.

6. Remove the cookies from the oven and using 2 stick ends of wooden spoons, quickly bunch up the caramel around the chocolate chips.

7. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes.

8. Using a spatula remove the cookies from the baking sheet and place them on a wire rack to cool. Serve at room temperature.

Posted on Sweet Tooth Friday