sweet potato salad!

I came across a recipe of Mark Bittman's for sweet potato salad the other day and I had to make it. It's a Southwest take on a seasonal ingredient that I usually only eat with brown sugar. What's great about Mark Bittman's cooking is that he is aesthetic. His food had color and texture that jump out at you from the plate! My camera doesn't do it justice but this salad looks as good as it tastes, with green chopped cilantro, yellow bell pepper, orange roasted sweet potatoes, and red roasted onions. It's a feast for the eyes and for the mouth.




Sweet Potato Recipe:
2 medium sweet potatoes, chopped into one-inch cubes
1 can of black beans
1 yellow or red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 Red Onion, chopped
vegetable Oil

Dressing:
Juice of 2 small limes
3 Tlbs. Olive Oil
medium garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper, to taste

In a food processor add garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper. Pulse until garlic is chopped. Then add olive oil and pulse until the oil combines with the lime juice. Dressings are personal so taste it here and see if you need more/less garlic, lime juice, etc.


For the salad:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Spread potatoes and onions on a baking sheet. Add a few teaspoons of vegetable oil and sprinkle with salt. Toss to coat evenly.
Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are tender.
While the sweet potatoes roast in the oven chop up the bell pepper, discarding the seeds. Chop the cilantro and add to a large mixing bowl. Rinse and drain can of beans and add to bowl. When the potatoes and onions are done add them to the bowl and pour on the dressing! Toss to mix evenly.

(vegan)Chocolate(avocado) Cake

Here we come across one of the stranger specimins of cake recipes. It's a vegan recipe for chocolate cake with the addition of avocado as a replacement for butter and eggs. This cake was made on joy the baker's blog, and Julia and I had been eyeing it for awhile.
We made the cake vegan. But the frosting? Frosting just needs to have some cream cheese and dairy, I'm sorry! so, is it truly vegan? No. But if you don't tell I won't...
Indulge me if you will, it's a lovely looking cake, ain't it?



Cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup soft avocado, well mashed (about 1 medium avocado)

2 cups water

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

to make:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch rounds.

Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar. In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together, adding the mashed avocado.


see how pretty the avocado is when it's mixed with sugar?

Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.

Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk by hand until smooth.
Pour into pans and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn them upside down onto cooling racks to finish cooling.


The avocado buttercream frosting that came with the recipe was not a hit. The avocado blends in well with the cake batter without being overpowering. However in this frosting business the avocado took center stage and the powdered sugar gave it a sickly sweet flavor. The consistency was also undesirable, it was shiny and somewhat viscous. So? We added cocoa powder and cream cheese, phew! It balanced out the sharpness and added a creaminess that cakes just should have!

I will post a frosting recipe soon! I must say though, this cake would be great without frosting with a glass of milk or some hot tea.

balsamic strawerries

If you didn't know, strawberries with sugary balsamic glaze is great. My uncle has a recipe where he marinates strawberries in san marzano liquer and serves them warm with some whipped cream, or mascarpone, or ice cream, or...


Ingredients:
strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
whipped cream

Slice strawberries into quarters, length-wise. Mix the sugar and balsamic vinegar, and toss to coat with strawberries. Let sit for up to 1/2 hour to let flavors develop.

Flan!

Flan. Flan! There's a story here. Girl likes boy. Boy's family comes to visit. Girl wants to impress family by making spectacular flan. Girl makes puerto rican flan, with her new-yorican friend. Flan fails with the family, but girl gets authentic mexican flan pot from family with recipes from the grandma. girl now knows how to make two types of delicious flan. score.

I'm guessing you might not have a flan pot, but if you ask nicely we can make flan together : )

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of sugar
90 grams of cream cheese
1 cup of milk
1 can of condensed milk
4 eggs
4 cups of hot water on reserve

In a blender, combine all ingredients except sugar and whizzzzzzzzz it up for 2 minutes straight.
Place flan pot over high heat, add sugar. The trick is to melt the sugar without burning it. Burned sugar has an acrid, bitter taste, not so good for desserts.





Once sugar has melted into a dark amber color put the bottom of the pan into a cold water bath so the sugar sets. It should become hard and the surface should have small cracks. Now add the blended dairy goodness to the pot.
At this point the flan pot goes into a bano maria, or a water bath. You take a large, deep pot, and place the flan pot inside it. The flan pot should sit on a metal strainer, or inverted plate. Fill water up until it reaches 3/4 of the way up the flan pot. Cover, heat and let simmer for one hour. Check on it occassionally to make sure the water hasn't evaporated. When it gets close add the hot water as needed.
...



After an hour goes by shut off the heat, and carefully, CAREFULLY remove the flan pot. You should take it off the heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Then gingerly lieft it out, and put it in the fridge to set. Once it sets (however long you can wait : )), at least 3 hours, you can take it out. It will invert onto a plate, et voila!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Hummus is a delicious Middle Eastern/Mediterranean spread. It has a great smooth texture and is quick to whip up with mostly pantry ingredients. In Bloomington it's a little elusive, especially at Kroger... so months after Don told me how easy it was to prepare I ventured out to make it.

Reasons to make your own hummus:

1. It's simple: Combine ingredients, blend, enjoy!
2. It's cheapcheap: The main ingredient, chickpeas, is about 70Cents for a can- beat that, store-bought brands! The tahini is more of a speciality ingredient, but it can be used in other recipes as well.
3. Once you start with a basic recipe you can experiment freely until you find what you like. There is no right or wrong here, follow your taste buds.
4. It's tasty: you can be super healthy and eat it with veggies or pita chips, or you can deep fry it! Yeah! ... just kidding : ). You can also try some on your next sandwich, or even schmearing some on a bagel with some lettuce, tomato and onion.
5. It's healthy: Few ingredients, and a lot of nutrition for your buck.

Below is a recipe for plain hummus. You can start from here, and add red roasted peppers or other ingredients if you wish.

Basic Hummus
1 15 oz. can of chickpeas
2 Tbs. Tahini*
1-2 Tbs. Olive Oil
3 Tbs. Lemon juice
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
salt to taste
2 cloves of garlic, minced
some water

*a word about Tahini. Tahini is a sesame paste used in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking. It's about $8 per jar which is a lot, I know! Using tahini gives hummus an authentic middle eastern flavor. That being said, you could make hummus without tahini and use olive oil, or another oil that you like, it just won't be middle eastern persay.

I recommend rinsing off the chickpeas, they're usually packaged with lots of sodium. Canned chickpeas are a little crunchy, which you may like. If you desire an supremely smooth and creamy hummus you can nuke them in the microwave for a few minutes until the chickpeas are more tender. Combine all ingredients into food processor and pulse until smooth and creamy. If the consistency is too dry add some water to thin it. You may need to scrape the sides down to incorporate all the ingredients.

To serve: You can garnish your delicious hummus with some chopped parsley and a drizzle of olive oil, and some chopped olives. Serve with veggies, toasted pita chips, whatever you've got on hand!

Variations: You can be creative here, some common additions are roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, olives, ground cumin, or some cilantro blended in. I personally love roasted red pepper, which is a cinch if you buy them in the jar.

if you were curious

Cent'Anni (Centi Anni) is an Italian saying which literally translates as 100 years. It can be translated as "may you live to be one hundred years!" pretty positive, right? Eating well and living long seem like two things that should go together, which might explain all the old people in Italy? I suggested that my friend in Italy, Mina, marry a rich old man so she could inherit all his money when he dies and pay for college, and she said "It would take too long! In Italy, there are a lot of old people, but they never die!" I guess it's good that Mina got a scholarship...
The picture is from Ischia, the island where my dad grew up in Italy. Granted he came over when he was nine and hasn't been back in years, but it's gorgeous over there! It's by the Amalfi Coast, and let me tell you, the lemons are almost as big as your head, they're massive!