Peach cake - need I say more?

Yesterday we tried to beat the summer heat by sipping drinks and eating delicious food on our friend's lovely new deck. Neil and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to make the peach cake from Cook's Illustrated. I have made cakes before, but never with fruit. Before reading the article I did not realize how many things could go wrong (e.g., soggy cake, slimy fruit, bland fruit), but fortunately the magazine had detailed steps to overcome all these hazards and give me a great product the first go around!

Peach Cake

adapted from Cook’s Illustrated July and August 2011

The cake was a success! Not soggy and had a robust taste of peach. Better yet, the combination of brown sugar and almond extract in the cake batter gave the cake a caramel-like taste. And having a serving (or two) of the cake is relatively guilt-free (only 1 stick of butter - I promise!).

Taste: 4.5 out of 5
Cost: <$1 for one serving (we got peaches on sale for $1 per lb!)
Healthiness: 250 calories per serving
Difficulty: 3.5 out of 5 (mostly because it is time consuming - leave about 2 hours plus time for cake to cool)

Recipe

2 pounds peaches

5 tablespoons peach schnapps

4 teaspoons lemon juice

6 tablespoons plus 1/3 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/4 cup sour cream (perhaps I'll try low-fat next time?)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon almond extract (I was more liberal with the extract- it was so good!)

1/3 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

Directions
1) peel and slice peaches in 1/2-in wedges (about 8 wedges per peach)
2) toss 24 wedges in 2 tablespoons of schnapps, 2 tsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp granulated sugar and set aside
3) cut remaining slices cross-wise into 3 pieces. toss with 3 tbspns schnapps, 2 tsp lemon juice, 2 tbspns sugar.
4) bake diced peaches on sprayed, aluminum covered pan for 20 minutes in 425 degree oven (or until the edges of pan become browned as the juices caramelize). Allow peaches to cool.
5) whisk brown sugar, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, eggs. Add and mix butter, sour cream, vanilla, and 1/4 tsp almond extract
6) in separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to wet mixture (mix by hand!) and stir until just incorporated (some chunks are ok - you do not want to over mix the cake batter or it will be dense and rubbery)
7) toss cooled peach chunks with bread crumbs
8) put half of cake batter in greased cake pan (I used a bundt cake pan instead of springform as that is what I had handy)
9) layer chunks of peaches on batter and slightly press down
10) add remaining batter
11) arrange the peach slices on the cake in a ring
12) bake for 50 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean) in 350 degree oven

Ice cream bowls!

As a tasty aside from our Cooks Illustrated challenge - I made some ice cream bowls to share with friends who were making Guinness ice cream and caramel sauce... yummmmm. I have found a website: joyofbaking.com that appears to have some great recipes - sugary ice cream cones being one of them! I used their recipe with some modifications with fabulous results.

Ice Cream Cones (made 7 small bowls)

2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1) beat eggs and sugar until frothy and then add remaining ingredients
2) warm pan to medium-high heat, spray pan (I like to use Pam for Baking because of the sweet buttery taste with less hassle then brushing the pan with oil or butter)
3) put 2 tablespoons of batter in pan and spread quickly by moving pan in circles - you want to create a thin layer a batter with about a 4-5 inch diameter
4) cook for 3 minutes (underside should be browned) then flip and cook for another 2 minutes
5) while still hot, place crepe-like dough over a bowl or the bottom of a glass - carefully press down sides to create bowl-like shape. Allow to cool.

With my early attempts, I found that the batter did not completely harden - but I discovered a way to fix the mistake. If you find that the bowl/cone is still soft (as opposed to brittle and crunchy), put the waffle bowl in your toaster oven and toast for 2 minutes. You'll see that the batter will get soft again, however, as more moisture is being released the dough will be more likely to harden properly this time. You can avoid all this extra hassle if you make sure to cook the batter long enough in the pan initially.

Sometimes perfection is not worth it...

The three recipes we made from the Cook's Illustrated magazine were, Thai beef salad, "perfect scrambled eggs" and a cucumber salad. A change from previous weeks is that Neil and I did not prepare all the recipes together; Neil made the salad and I made the eggs as Neil won't eat eggs! Here is the break-down of the recipes:

Perfect Scrambled Eggs

So when first reading this article, I was surprised that scrambled eggs could vary so much in their texture. Apparently, cooks want to avoid rubbery or wet scrambled eggs, and strive to achieve large fluffy eggs with what the article refers to as "curds." As I love eggs, I was looking forward to trying this recipe out. The method involves using half and half and an extra egg yoke per 2 egg whites in the scrambled mix, and cooking on two heats (high then low). They also suggested cooking in a smaller pan but I did not have one handy.

Taste: 3.5 out of 5
Cost: $1.50 for one serving
Healthiness: 279 calories, over 60% fat - oh why do eggs have to taste so good!?
Difficulty: 3 out of 5

Despite the good taste and nice 'curds' of scrambled eggs, I doubt I will make these again for several reasons. (1) when I make eggs it is usually because I want something easy that is not cereal and this recipe can be time consuming with the extra steps (2) I rarely carry half and half around the house (3) it wastes an egg white in order to achieve the perfect egg taste!

My Favorite Eggs
One reason I hesitate to convert to the perfect scrambled eggs is that I make some pretty tasty (albeit sometimes wet) eggs.
Recipe:
1) beat two eggs, tablespoon of goat cheese, and add herb of your choice (basil or oregano work well)
2) cook on medium heat, constantly scraping pan

and voila! the eggs taste delicious - a small amount of goat cheese goes a long way!

Thai Beef Salad
Now this recipe is a keeper (with some adjustments)! I will not touch thai food - likely due to the coconut milk and peanuts that do not settle well in my stomach; however, Neil loves the complex flavor of Thai foods. This recipe did not involve curry, coconut milk, or nuts - yet still had the complex and well-balanced hot, sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and earthy flavors. The only substitutions we made were using soy sauce instead of fish sauce and buying a more affordable steak than was suggested by the recipe.

Taste: 4.5 out of 5
Cost: $12 for two servings
Healthiness: 380 calories per serving, < 30% fat, high on iron and vitamin C
Difficulty: 3.5 out of 5

Truly a delicious recipe but next time we will (1) go ahead and get the good steak or at least learn how to make a cheap steak well... (2) skip the rice. The recipe calls for browning and then grinding rice with a mortar and pestle as it is supposed to enhance the texture/taste of the dish. We are not sure that it made much a difference - so we will skip this time consuming step and see what the product is like!

Cucumber Salad
The recipe produced a refreshing, summer salad. The recipe suggested simmering the vinegar on the stove in order to reduce it and make the taste more concentrated but less watery. We skipped the olives in this one (not a fan of the taste and did not have any lying around). May consider doing this recipe again - but we actually think the cucumber salad from our African cooking may beat this one!

Taste: 2.5 out of 5
Cost: $3 for two servings
Healthiness: 99 calories per serving, over 40% fat, but loaded with vitamins A and C
Difficulty: 2.5 out of 5

Next week...
To wrap up the Cook's Illustrated challenge we will be making a peach cake!

Next challenge....
We will be taking a break from our challenges in August due to travel plans but will resume in September. More details to come!

Reevaluating personal goals

So, since the last post, we have prepared three meals from the Cooks Illustrated book and three from their app. We really have been enjoying the recipes and we always like an excuse to cook something new. But, before we discuss our reviews, we want to share some obstacles to our original goal of preparing all the recipes in the cook's illustrated book.

For those of you who have read the description of us/our blog - you'll see that we enjoy "making and eating affordable, healthy, and tasty food together." Cook's Illustrated definitely helps us make tasty food; however, healthy and affordable seems to vary based on the recipe. The corn chowder and panzanella we prepared definitely met the affordable, healthy, and tasty criteria - but some of the recipes in the book would be impossible for us mainly because of the affordable factor (e.g., stuffed pork loin). So we have accepted our "defeat" - as we know some of these recipes would be delicious but really too much of a financial burden. We will continue the challenge though - minus the more expensive meals.

From now on, when we review recipes we will rate: (1) taste, (2) cost, and (3) healthiness, and (4) difficulty. It seems like these are the factors we really value in our meals and could be useful to discuss in our blog. Hopefully these changes will work out!

Reviews of cucumber salad, perfect scrambled eggs, and the Cook's Illustrated app to come!

When life gives you tomatoes... make Panzanella!

For our July challenge, we decided to cook each of the featured recipes in our new Cook's Illustrated magazine subscription. Unfortunately, we doubt we can legally post the recipes (Neil is cautious - being a JD and all) - so we will post our reviews of the magazine in general and recipes that we prepare.

We started out with Panzanella and Corn Chowder (no pics this time - sorry!).

Panzanella
If this tells you anything, we have already made the Panzanella three times - twice for ourselves and once for a picnic AND we plan to have it again this week (when we like something - we tend to reeeaaalllyy like it). We had never had this dish before, and usually avoid raw tomatoes in our daily cooking - but this mix of crusty Italian bread, tomatoes, olive oil, cucumber, basil, and shallots really hit the spot on a warm summer day.

Taste: 4 out of 5
Difficulty: 2 out of 5

One of the highlights of the magazine is how they test several methods of preparing each dish to create a 'fool proof' and tasty outcome. This was particularly helpful when getting the bread to be the correct texture and to soak up the juices from the tomatoes.

Corn Chowder
This was our first time making chowder, so we really did not know what to expect! Fortunately, one feature of the magazine subscription is a supplementary e-newsletter that includes links to 3 minute videos showing the steps to create the dish. The videos were very useful and sped along the cooking process - given that we are visual learners :)

Taste: Sarah: 4.5 out of 5 Neil: 4 out of 5 (we just could not agree on this one...)
Difficulty: 3.5 out of 5

Wrap - Up
Two recipes into the challenge we have already found two recipes we will (and already have) replicate in the future. Lessons learned:
(1) raw tomatoes can be tasty - as long as that gooey stuff and seeds are removed
(2) fresh corn on the cob is a must when making corn chowder - so next stormy day (which there will be many in Pittsburgh) we will make sure to have some fresh corn handy
(3) a picture is worth a thousand words - video guides to recipes can be helpful and speed up the prep work

This coming week we are making cucumber salad and "perfect scrambled eggs." And given our enthusiasm for the recipes thus far - we have already downloaded the free Cook's Illustrated app and will be preparing several of those recipes.

Denmark - the land of butter, heavy cream, and MEAT

Last week we completed our last stop of our International Food Challenge. We had a much easier time finding recipes from Denmark than our previous countries and actually used several recipes from the Foreign Ministry's website. We loved the food from this country the best; however, in some ways we had to compromise our desire to eat "healthy" food as each course was filled with either eggs, heavy cream, butter, or red meat. But we both agreed that the taste was worth the calories - at least this once.

We started out with some creamy mashed potatoes topped with bacon and onions (sauteed in the bacon fat of course) and then helped ourselves to some beef and pork meatballs. Then we wrapped things up with a bowlful of creamy rum pudding. While we may not repeat these recipes regularly - we are looking forward to a get together with friends to share these recipes... especially the rum pudding!

So what is next for the Tour de Palette? We have subscribed to Cook's Illustrated and want some added motivation to try out some of the recipes. For July, we will cook through the 10 featured recipes of the magazine. This week we are doing corn chowder and panzenella - looking forward to sharing our experiences with you!

Side Dish: Burning Love - Brændende kærlighed

Taste: 4.5 out of 5
Difficulty: 2.5 out of 5
Tip: whipping up the potatoes in the food processor saves a lot of time and makes it nice and creamy

3 medium sized potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
About 1/6 pint heavy cream
3 thick rashers of fat bacon
1 onion
Salt
White pepper
Pinch of nutmeg

1) Peel the potatoes and place in microwaveable bowl. Fill with water to cover potatoes and microwave until tender (5 minutes in our microwave).
2) Put potatoes, butter, and cream in food processor and chop until smooth. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
3) Dice onions and bacon and fry in pan together until cooked (it smells amaaaazinng).
4) "Pile" the mashed potatoes onto plate and create a well in middle to place the onion, bacon, and some fat if you are feeling ambitious. 


Main Course: Meat Balls - Frikadeller

Taste: 3 out of 5
Difficulty: 2 out of 5

1/2 lb. ground beef (ground steak or chuck)
1/2 lb. ground lean pork
1/3 cup flour
1 teasp. salt
½ teasp. pepper
1 small onion, grated
1 egg
2/3 cup milk

1) Mix the first six ingredients then add eggs and milk.
2) Form into small meatballs and fry in butter until brown. Turn down the heat and cover to cook thoroughly.

Dessert: Rum Pudding - Romfromage

Taste: 4 out of 5
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
*disclaimer: we really played around with this recipe. We recommend trying out the original recipe from the website - but ours turned out well too! Our version does not have the gelatin in it - we substituted instant pudding gelatin-free mix for the sugar and gelatin.

2 eggs, separated
1 box trader joe's instant pudding
1/4 cup milk
1 ½ ounces rum
1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped

1) Beat egg yolks
2) Mix pudding mix with milk, egg yolks, and rum - let stand until it begins to thicken
3) beat eggs whites to stiff peaks and beat whipping cream until whipped
4) fold egg whites and then whipped cream into pudding mixture
5) chill for an hour or until firm

Happy 4th!

So no time to update about our amazing danish meal last night (probably the most indulgent meal yet!) as we are leaving for the long weekend and will have not Internet access. Will update with recipes/reviews by next Tuesday as well as info about our next challenge.

But here is something to satisfy your appetite for fresh, affordable, and delicious food until then...

We had a great lunch at Smoke, a small restaurant located in West Homestead.
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1597860/restaurant/Pittsburgh/Homestead-Munhall/Smoke-Homestead
Although we rarely venture to West Homestead, we went out of our way to try this place out because of the amazing Urbanspoon reviews. We have always been disappointed about the lack of good BBQ or Mexican food in Pittsburgh (sorry Madmex does not do it for us - and the BBQ we have had here is hardly noteworthy). But believe it or not - this place has both! BBQ tacos! The owners are originally from Texas (which makes it promising) and the combination of brisket and smoked meat with BBQ sauce in a freshly made flour taco - well let's just say it is divine. For $15 we got 3 tacos and a glass of Horchada - yum.  So we definitely recommend this place - but be careful of the hours - only open for breakfast (breakfast tacos!!) and lunch! Cash only -