I'm going to try this lightened marble cake for Melik. He wants his gugelhupf...

2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1-1/3 cups sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg white
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Position the rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 350F. Spray 8- to 10- inch tube pan with vegetable oil spray.Use a wire whisk to combine the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift together. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine espresso powder, cocoa, and 1/3 cup of the sugar with 1/4 cup water. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.

In another small bowl, whisk whole egg with egg white. Set aside.

Cut the butter into pieces and place in an electric mixer bowl. Beat for about 1 minute to soften. Gradually add remaining 1 cup of sugar and beat at high speed for about 3 minutes. Dribble eggs in slowly, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beating constantly for about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in a third of the flour mixture. On medium-high speed, beat in half of the yogurt. On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour. On high speed, beat in the rest of the yogurt and the vanilla. On low speed, beat in the remaining flour.

Measure out 1-1/2 cups of yogurt batter and mix into the cocoa mixture; set aside.

Use a large spoon to fill the bottom of the pan with about three quarters of the white batter placed in dollops. Cover the white batter with dollops of chocolate batter. Top the chocolate batter with small dollops of white batter spread so that the chocolate batter shows through. Use a table knife to marble the batters together with a circular or zigzag motion; be careful not to blend them too much.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake in several places comes out clean. Cool for 10 to 15 minutes on a rack. Unmold the cake. Cool completely before serving or storing. Serve cake upside down or right side up. Cake may be stored, well wrapped, at room temperature for 3 to 4 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Nutritional Information: 230 calories and 6.9 grams of fat per serving.

Posted by Maggie at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been looking around to find something similar to the chicken and rice I had in Singapore. I'd rather make it in small portions and lighten it up. Will try below soon... from NYTimes

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, 8 ounces each
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 5-inch-long piece fresh ginger root, peeled
8 fat garlic cloves
4 jalapeño peppers
1 quart chicken broth
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice, more to taste
Cooked rice, for serving
Sesame oil, for drizzling
1 bunch roughly chopped basil, for serving
1 bunch roughly chopped cilantro, for serving
1 bunch thinly sliced scallions, for serving
1 European cucumber, thinly sliced, for serving.
1. Cut each chicken breast in half crosswise and season with salt and pepper.

2. Slice about an inch of ginger root into thin rounds and place in a large pot. Coarsely chop remaining ginger and place in a blender. Thinly slice 2 garlic cloves and add to pot. Coarsely slice remaining garlic and add to blender. Thinly slice 2 jalapeño peppers and add them to pot. Halve remaining peppers, discard seeds and coarsely chop flesh; place in blender.

3. Add chicken broth to pot and bring to a simmer. Let cook for 10 minutes. Add chicken pieces to broth and let liquid come back to a simmer. Immediately turn off heat, cover pot and let sit for 10 minutes. Cut into a piece of chicken to test for doneness. If it is not done, bring broth back to a bare simmer, then turn off heat, cover and let sit for an additional minute or two.

4. In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce and brown sugar until sugar mostly dissolves. Set aside. To the mixture in blender add fish sauce and lime juice along with 1/4 cup broth from pot. Puree, if necessary adding a little more broth to help mixture move in blender. Taste and add a pinch of salt and more lime if needed.

5. When chicken is done, transfer to a cutting board and slice. Remove garlic and pepper from broth and discard, if you like. To serve, heap rice in 4 shallow bowls and top with chicken slices. Spoon several tablespoons broth over chicken and rice, then drizzle with sweet soy sauce and sesame oil. Sprinkle on the herbs, scallions and cucumber. Serve garlic-chili-ginger sauce on the side; have additional sesame oil and sweet soy sauce on table for more drizzling.

Posted by Maggie at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Made this recently and used a few different protein components - chicken breast chunks, hot turkey sausage, and shrimp. I browned the chicken and turkey sausage and added with the shrimp a few minutes before turning the heat off. It was easy and very tasty.

Ingredients
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup celery, chopped
1/3 cup bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 (16 ounce) can chopped tomatoes
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon basil
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2-1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (Tabasco or cayenne pepper or to your taste.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canned corn or frozen corn
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups okra, sliced (fresh or frozen)
1/2-1 lb shrimp, cleaned & shells off
rice
Directions
1Add oil to skillet, heat over medium heat add the flour, to make a roux.
2(It is ready when it's color matches that of a penney).
3This may take about 15 minutes.
4Stir in onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, and black pepper.
5Cook over medium heat about 3 minutes or till vegetables are crisp tender.
6Gradually stir in chicken broth, tomatoes, salt, Worcestershire sauce, pepper sauce, corn, okra, Basil, thyme, cumin and bay leaf.
7Bring to boiling point; reduce heat.
8Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.
9Add SHRIMP during the last 5 minutes.
10Serve over Rice.

Posted by Maggie at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm going to experiment with the sourdough starter I just brought back from Buffalo. My Aunt Marcia received the starter about 50 years ago while she was in Alaska. I thought my first attempt would be a no knead recipe since I've made the almost no-knead recipe weekly for quite a while now. I would love to have a nice sourdough alternative and after some searching online, I see the bread will be more sour if you leave it in the fridge for a couple days before rising at room temp.

1 cup wheat Flour
2 1/2 cups white bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups purified water
1/8 cup sourdough starter

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a plastic container with a lid or a bowl that you can wrap in plastic. Stir the starter into the water and then pour the wet into the dry ingredients and mix until it forms a shaggy ball. Put the cover on or wrap with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 2 days. After 2 days, take the bowl out of the fridge and let the dough rest at room temp for 18 hours. Sprinkle some flour or wheat germ on a tea towel and pour the dough onto it. Spread the dough out and fold it over itself 3 times so that it's a larger ball and cover it loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for an hour and a half. 30 minutes before baking time, turn the oven on to 500 degrees and place the dutch oven including the cover into the oven. After 30 minutes, the dough should not easily spring back when pressed and is ready for baking. Take the dutch oven out and drop the dough into it and replace the lid. Turn the oven down to 425 degrees and bake it covered for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake it for another 15-20 minutes until a tap on the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow.

Posted by Maggie at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ingredients:
2.5 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 oz red food coloring
1.5 tbsp water
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp orange zest
1 cup buttermilk

icing: 3/4 cup unsalted butter, 1 lb cream cheese, 4 cups sifted confectioners sugar, 2 tbsp milk

Set oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans.
Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together twice. In a separate small bowl, whisk the cocoa, red food coloring, and water to form a paste, about 1 minute.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar, adding the sugar slowly - about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla and orange zest, beating for 15 seconds after each is added. Add the red cocoa paste and mix until incorporated.
Add the flour mixture to the butter in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk. To avoid overworking the batter, gently mix with a spatula after each addition. Once the ingredients are incorporated, beat the batter 2-3 times.
Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and smooth the top with the spatula. Bake about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then release the edges with a knife and invert the cakes on a cooling rack. Let cool.

icing: beat butter with electric mixer 30 seconds until creamy. Add cream cheese and beat 1 minute until fluffy. Add the confectioners sugar 1 cup at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition.

Ice the cake!

Posted by Maggie at 02:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)