Month: May 2012

Uncategorized

Lazy Daisy Cake

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This is my favorite, super easy dessert that I make when I want something that looks really fancy, but doesn’t take a lot of effort. I only make this cake during the summer when the strawberries are in season. The cake itself isn’t super sweet, so you need the berries to be ripe. I got this recipe from my Oma and it is one of the few recipes that require whisking where I refuse to use my Kitchen Aide.   You do need an unusual pan called an obsttortenform. It’s similar to a tart pan, but the bottom is raised. When you flip the cake out there is a depression in the center that you can fill with fruit. I’ve seen the pan in some specialty cooking stores, but I bought mine at a German bakery. This cake is best served with some fresh whipped cream!

Lazy Daisy Cake

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

zest of 1 lemon

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup whole milk

1 packet glaze mix

Fresh strawberries

Fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour your pan really well. My pan isn’t nonstick, so  I lined it with foil first.

Obsttortenform! Use butter and flour to keep your cake from sticking.

Whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until lightened in color and the batter falls in ribbons off the whisk.

light ribbons

Add the lemon zest. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add to the egg mixture and whisk until lump free, but be careful to not over mix. Add the oil and the milk to the mixture and whisk until combined. Pour into your pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and the toothpick test comes out crumb free.

Nice and golden brown.

Once cool, invert pan onto a serving platter.

Right side up! Ready for fruit.

Fill the depression with fruit anyway you like! I sliced my strawberries in half and laid them in a pattern, then sprinkled a handful of blueberries on top to fill in the gaps.  The goal is to cover the entire surface of the cake with fruit.

Cover ALL the cake!

Prepare your glaze, following package directions. Here’s the brand I used:

You can usually find it in the german aisle at your local grocery store.

I decided to add  a couple of drops of red food coloring to make it blend with the strawberries, but that is completely optional.

Red glaze

Pour over the fruit and use a pastry brush to spread it around evenly. Work quickly! This glaze sets up super fast.

All done! So pretty!

I like serving this cake with whipped cream. You could use the stuff in the can if you were feeling ultra lazy, but that’s no fun! The secret to this whipped cream is the non-homogenized, super fresh and semi-local heavy cream I used. It came in this super cute bottle! Bonus!

High quality cream makes all the difference.

You can find vanilla bean paste at most specialty cooking shops. I love the little black specks. You can also split a vanilla bean in half and use the seeds, or use high quality vanilla extract in a pinch.

Fresh Whipped Cream

16 oz heavy cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Add the heavy cream to your mixing bowl.  Start mixing on medium speed. Slowly sprinkle in the granulated sugar while the mixer is running. Feel free to add more or less sugar to taste. Whip until stiff peaks form.  Add the vanilla bean taste and let mix for a few more seconds to combine. Done!

Delicious. I was dunking strawberries in it and just eating gobs of this stuff.

This is one of those desserts where the end product looks like it took way more effort than it actually did. Love it!

A perfect showcase of seasonal berries.

♥Sprinkles

Grilling · Main Course

Grilled Sea Bass

camimayLeave a comment

Today is grey and rainy, so I figured I would relive the sunshine of two weekends ago by posting a delicious meal I had.  My dad used to go diving every weekend when we lived in Hawaii, so I ate a lot of fresh seafood as a kid.  If you’ve never had it, then you should give it a try. It has a really lovely bold, briny flavor. I didn’t want to mask the naturally amazing flavor of the sea bass, so I seasoned it simply with some sea salt and fresh ground pepper and served it with a tomato and mango salsa. I grilled some zucchini and made a simple german style potato salad on the side. Add some local, organic mixed greens for a nice side salad  and you’ve got a nicely rounded dinner.

Grilled Sea Bass and Zucchini with a Tomato/Mango Salsa 

The fillets didn’t have skin, so I put them on foil to keep them from falling apart.

Season the fillet with sea salt and ground pepper. Lightly drizzle with some olive oil and put on your preheated grill.  This fish has tons of flavor and doesn’t need a lot of help to shine. My fillet did not have skin, so we cooked it on foil. If you’ve ever tried cooking a skinless fillet on a grill, you know why. Lower the lid and cook until done! The fish will turn opaque and will easily flake apart when it is done.

For the zucchini, slice about 1/8-1/4 inch thick with a mandolin the long way. You can use a knife, or cut rounds, it just may take you a little longer. Give it the same treatment as the sea bass. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Cook over medium heat 2-3 minutes per side.

Beautiful grill marks!

Tomato Mango Salsa

1 cup cherry tomatos, cut into halves or fourths depending on size

1 large, sweet Mango, diced

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

4 mint leaves

Add the garlic and pepper flakes to the olive oil in a small pan and heat gently over low heat until the garlic starts to sizzle. Don’t let the garlic brown. Turn off the heat and let cool. Whisk the balsamic vinegar into the olive oil mixture to get a nice emulsion. Toss the mangos and tomatoes together and season with salt.

Sweet and Spicy

Add a spoonful of the oil/vinegar dressing and toss to coat. Taste! Add more of the vinaigrette, to taste. It will add a nice heat to the salsa. Chiffonade the mint leaves and add.

So colorful!

Yummm! This was one of my favorite meals in a long time. The sea bass was AMAZING! The fish monger told us that a big fillet was only one serving, maybe two. It seemed ridiculous until I tasted the fish. My friends and I ate so much that we only had a little bit of leftovers for the next day!

Until the next sunny day

 

Grilling · Main Course

Grilled Portobello Burgers

camimay1 Comment

Hey all!

Yesterday was another gorgeous day in the Pacific Northwest!

It matches my Kitchen Aid!

What better way to break in the grill than to throw a couple of burgers on it? It was feeling like a mushroom sort of day, so we went out and got ourselves a couple of nice, big portobello caps. I really like portobello mushrooms. Some people get really excited about steaks for the same reasons that I get excited about portobellos.  They’re juicy, meaty, and the charred bits are the best! These are also infinitely more delicious than a boca burger, and almost as easy.

Grilled Portobello Burgers

2 large portobello mushroom caps

1 large clove of garlic (or to taste)

2 generous pinches kosher salt

1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

Fresh ground pepper (to taste)

Clean your mushroom caps with a damp cloth and remove the stems my gently twisting. Be careful and don’t break them in half like I accidentally did.

Ready to go!

Finely chop the garlic. Sprinkle your salt onto your chopped garlic and chop some more. I like to give it a good smash with the blade of my knife, so the garlic is almost a paste.

Harvesting rosemary from the patio

Finely chop your herbs. I used fresh rosemary and thyme because I have a couple of flourishing plants living on my patio. Feel free to substitute  your own favorite fresh herbs, or a couple of pinches of whatever dry herbs you have on hand. You’ll want to use less if you’re using dried herbs.

Mix together the balsamic vinegar and olive oil in a shallow dish that is large enough for the mushrooms to lie flat on. Since I broke one of them, the pie plate worked fine. Side note:  My favorite balsamic vinegar comes from this little shop down on St. Helens Ave. in Tacoma. They make their own and it is awesome!

From Stink!

Add your garlic and herbs to the balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixture.  Grind some black pepper over the whole concoction and then place the mushrooms gills side down into the mixture.

Gills side down!

Spoon some of the marinade over the top. Let it marinate for at least 30 minutes, an hour is better.

Soaking up all the deliciousness

Preheat your grill and oil the grates. I like to spoon some marinade into the gills (really get it saturated) and over the top right before throwing it on.

Again, gills side down

Cook for about 5-8 minutes or until you can see the edges start to curl and the mushrooms shrink a bit. Flip and cook for another five minutes. The texture should be still firm, but less crunchy (like a raw mushroom), more….squishy, for lack of a better word. You don’t want to overcook it to mush.

Toast your buns in the last couple of minutes.

Toast the buns!

Once you flip the mushrooms, add sliced cheese and close the lid on the girl for a minute or until the cheese is all melty.

Cheesy Mushrooms

I fried up a couple of eggs and threw them on top since this ended up being breakfast for me, along with some tomato and avocado.

Breakfast burger?

Look at this finished masterpiece! It was delicious.

♥

Avocado and mushrooms, le sigh, so perfect!
Breakfast · Dessert

Mixed Summer Berry Sauce

camimayLeave a comment

It feels like summer!  Even though Washington is famous for sprinkles, it is the most beautiful place on earth when it’s sunny out.

My absolute favorite thing about the summers in Washington are the fresh berries! I LOVE summer berries, and it is always quite the accomplishment when I actually make something with them instead of just eating them all straight from the carton!

Fresh strawberries to top my Greek yogurt!

YUM!

I’m pretty proud to report that I managed to shared the wealth of berries with a group of friends. I invited a few over for a breakfast of french toast, a warm mixed summer berry sauce, and framboise mimosas! I didn’t take any pictures of the finished meal 😦 I’m still getting used to documenting my culinary adventures! I did, however, take a couple pictures of the berry sauce, so that’s what I’m going to share with you today!

I do realize that there is rhubarb in this recipe, and that rhubarb is not actually a berry. It was my first time using rhubarb in anything! We spooned this sauce over some vanilla ice cream the night before and it was amaaaazing!

Mixed Summer Berry Sauce

2 cups chopped strawberries (quartered is fine)

1 1/2 cups blueberries, divided

2 cups raspberries, divided

2 stalks rhubarb, cut into 1/2″ pieces

4 Tbsp framboise

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup orange juice

In a big sauce pot, mix the strawberries, 3/4 cup blueberries, 1 cup raspberries, and the rhubarb. Toss to coat with both sugars and add the orange juice. It seems like a lot of sugar, but the rhubarb is incredibly sour. You may need more or less depending on how sweet your berries are.

Throw it all in a pot!

Cook over medium/low heat, stirring occasionally. The berries are going to release a lot of liquid. Keep cooking, stirring occasionally, until the berries are cooked down and the whole thing has a syrup-y consistency.

Already looks delicious!

Turn off the heat, and add the reserved berries. You want these to stay relatively raw to give the sauce texture. Stir in the frambroise. Done! Serve warm over anything and everything that goes well with fruit. If you want a really thick consistency, you could whisk together about 3 TBSP cornstarch with equal parts water and pour it in before adding the rest of the berries, while it is still on the heat. I will warn you that it does create a opaque appearance in the sauce that is not as lovely.

Enjoy!

♥