by TheLastWonton | Mar 11, 2012 | Baking & Desserts, Breakfast & Brunch
Buttery rich, boldy tangy, enticingly smooth, lemon curd plopped into flaky, tender tart shells and topped with softly sweetened whipped cream. Absurdly delicious!
TOP TEN REASONS TO MAKE TANGY LEMON CURD TARTS.
10. It doesn't matter what season, or month, or time of the year, lemon is always in vogue.
9. They take you back to olden days when Sunday dinners always ended with lemon meringue.
8. They're so pretty. Crayola is totally missing out not naming a crayon Tangy Lemon Curd Yellow.
7. You get to play with your microplane, and practice saying, "Zesty!" like Jack Nicholson.
6. Stirring slowly creates a contemplative meditation zone that is good for your soul.
5. Men dig lemon anything.
4. When you're decorating them, The Lemon Pipers may come to mind. Then you'll be singing.♫♪
3. You can easily justify having them for breakfast – fruit, cream, wheat.
2. When someone takes a bite of a tart they flash you the silliest, most satisfied grin ever.
1. They're old-fashioned, but never out of fashion. Fo' shizzle.
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Thanks Land O' Lakes for definitively the BEST lemon curd recipe ever!
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TANGY LEMON CURD TARTS - Fills 12 to 15 tart shells
12 to 15 baked, flaky pasty, tart shells (I use the same pastry as I do for my butter tarts)
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 – 2 tablespoons finely shredded lemon zest ("Zesty!")
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup butter, cut into 8 pieces
Sweetened, vanilla-ed whipped cream
Berries, mint leaves or lemon jelly beans for garnish
Beat eggs and egg yolks together in 1-quart saucepan with wire whisk. Whisk in 1 cup sugar, lemon zest and juice. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon, until mixture coats back of spoon and is thickened (12 to 18 minutes). (DO NOT BOIL.) Remove from heat. Immediately stir in 1/2 cup butter, 1 piece at a time, until mixture is smooth. Let mixture cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally, at least 1 hour.
Scoop cooled lemon curd into cooled, baked tart shells. Refrigerate. Top with sweetened, vanilla scented whipped cream and fresh berries, if desired. Serve with a song and a silly grin.
**Lemon curd can be made ahead of time and refrigerated. Keeps well for up to 1 week.**
by TheLastWonton | Feb 15, 2012 | Baking & Desserts, Breads & Sandwiches, Breakfast & Brunch, Cake, Fruits, Treats
Moist, tender, peanut butter stoked banana bread riddled with the cutest little chocolate peanut butter cups you've ever…..
♫♪♫♪ Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang. ♫♪♫♪
♫♪♫♪ Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang! ♫♪♫♪
A spell wielding witch doctor couldn't have conjured up a happier banana bread. I mean, you know, I know, we all know, that banana bread is yummy, just the way it is.
Throw in a good wallop of creamy peanut butter and a seductively sweet little heap of tiny chocolate peanut butter cups and I guarantee you happiness, in a loaf pan.
And many smiling monkeys. Well, you know, that is, if you happen to have monkeys around……like I do…..
**Thanks Cookies and Cups food blog for the great idea!**
SMILING MONKEY BANANA BREAD with Reese's minis – Makes 1 loaf
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large-ish, ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 210g (8 ounce) bag Reese minis peanut butter cups
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Butter a regular (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch) loaf pan.
Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, on low speed, combine mashed bananas, peanut butter, oil, egg and vanilla. Continue on low speed while adding dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Scrape down beater and mix in mini peanut butter cups with a wooden spoon.
Scoop batter into prepared loaf pan and bake until golden, for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.
by TheLastWonton | Feb 15, 2012 | Appetizers & Snacks, Beef, Pork & Lamb, Breads & Sandwiches, Salads & Bowls, Sauces, Dips & Condiments, Sides
Earthy, garlicky, roasted eggplant dip with a whisper of sultry smoke. Naan and pita bread simply cannot resist taking the plunge.
Besides being one of my all-time favorite things to say, (yes I have a list of words that feel good in my mouth. Doesn't everyone?) I was reminded, just the other night, that I don't make Baba Ghanoush often enough.
We had an excellent table, top centre, at the funky Dream Cafe in Penticton, for dinner and a long awaited music and Aloha fix from Hawaii's own John Cruz, one of our favorite music makers.
With anticipation buzzing in the air, we started dinner
with appies of Salad Rolls with peanut sauce and the Tri-Dip plate we always order – warm pita triangles with little bowls of hummus, tzatziki and baba ghanoush. All four of us agreed, the baba ghanoush was the best of the three. (Oh yeah, now I remember, this is good stuff – note to self – must make baba ghanoush soon.)
The evening was indulgently memorable from start to finish. Good food, good chatter, lots of giggles and passionately delicious music. John was on! The man was hot, that guitar was on fire. He filled us with Aloha, Hawaiian charm and kick-ass great music. There is nothing that compares to a potent music high. Nothing! Mahalo plenty John! You rock!
So, just a couple of nights after our John Cruz outting, with a satisfied, aloha soaked, luscious music perma-grin still stuck to my face, I set about making a batch of baba ghanoush. Sweet island tunes that I know every word to filled my house as I happily prepared for my dad-in-law's birthday dinner.
Everyone raved about the simple, earthy goodness of the baba ghanoush. Really though, that particular batch of baba ghanoush couldn't help but be anything but tasty. Besides the ingredients on the list, that dip was plump with aloha and swathed in sublime music intoxication. Yummy!
BABA GHANOUSH – 8 to 10 servings
3 good-sized, long, Japanese eggplants
1/3 cup tahini
3 plump garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 generous teaspoon Hawaiian sea, Kosher or other salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Good pinch cumin
Good pinch Hatch chili powder or cayenne
Naan or pita bread for dipping and scooping
Preheat BBQ to medium-high, or preheat broiler. Poke each eggplant a few times with the tip of a sharp paring knife. Grill or broil, watching and turning as necessary for about 8-10 minutes until the skin of the eggplants char and blister. Place eggplants on baking sheet.
Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Bake charred eggplants 20-30 minutes until very soft. Let cool 15 minutes.
Slice each eggplant in half lengthwise and scoop all of the pulp into bowl of a food processor. Add all other ingredients, except bread and process until beautifully smooth. Transfer to serving bowl. Drizzle with a bit of good quality extra virgin olive oil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, so all the flavours mingle and get to know one another.
Let sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before serving with warm naan or pita bread. And when people ask what that tasty dip is, I know you're going to agree that some words just feel good in your mouth. Enjoy!
by TheLastWonton | Feb 13, 2012 | Appetizers & Snacks, Asian, Seafood, Sides, Vegetarian, Veggies
Crispy, crunchy veggie and shrimp tempura fritters with crazily tasty textures.
Fun with tempura!
Kakiage is simply a mix of thinly sliced veggies and roughly chopped prawns, tucked into a light batter, and plopped by little handfuls into hot oil. Pulling each fritter apart a bit in the middle, with a chopstick, as it fries, adds to the divine texture of these rather indulgent Japanese fritters.
I used zucchini, sweet onion, baby carrots, asparagus, jalapeno and prawns, but Kakiage lends itself well to improvisation. Bean sprouts, sweet potatoes, green beans, green onions or whatever you have in the fridge can be easily handcrafted into hot, crispy fritters that remind us why we so thoroughly enjoy the flavours and textures from the Land of the Rising Sun. 
As with all tempura, you'll reap the tastiest, lightest, crispiest results by using ice water and only mixing the batter for a few seconds. Leaving lumps in the mixture along with cold temperature results in the unique puffy, crisp texture of kakiage. I even chill my bowl before making tempura batter for a little added cold boost. Keep it COLD and stir little! Over mixing the batter will kick the gluten into action creating a more dough-like coating, and we'll have none of that.
Kakiage is good on it's own as an appy, with a tempura or sweet Thai chili dipping sauce, or you can make a meal of it by serving with a scoop of sticky rice or with a bowl of ramen or udon noodles.
**Thanks to My Kitchen Snippets food blog for the inspiration!**
KAKIAGE ~ Japanese Vegetable and Shrimp Tempura Fritters – Makes 15-20
15 (31-40 count) prawns, peeled, deveined and chopped into 2-3 pieces
1 medium zucchini, cut into thick matchsticks about 2-inches long
1 small sweet onion, peeled, halved, and very thinly sliced
20 thin fresh asparagus stalks, chopped into 1 – 2 inch lengths
2 small carrots, peeled, very thinly sliced into 'coins'
1 fresh jalapeno, minced
BATTER:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 – 1 cup ice water
In medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add beaten egg and ice water and mix lightly. Batter should be quite thin. Add prawns and all chopped veggies. Stir to evenly coat.
Heat about 1/2-inch oil in a large skillet or heat oil to deep-fry in wok, over high heat. Once oil is hot, either spoon or take small handfuls of batter coated goodies and carefully slip into oil. Use a chopstick to keep fritters in small, irregular rounds, but also spread the centres of the fritters a bit, with a chopstick to create more texture and delicate crunch. Fry, in batches, until golden, about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes per side.
Drain on paper towels and serve hot with your favorite dipping sauce.
by TheLastWonton | Feb 5, 2012 | Baking & Desserts, Cake, Fruits, Treats
Fresh strawberries indulged in a buttery, brown sugar caramel, crowning a tender, moist sour cream cake. You too can make strawberries sing your praise.
You know what I'm talking about. You open the fridge and you hear little voices. Usually faint, from somewhere towards the back, behind the eggs, the pickles and the juice boxes. If you're like me, you can usually grab what you need, pretend you don't hear a thing and (thwap) close the door.
But today when I opened the fridge, I listened. This time, to the sweet, little voices of the beautiful, fresh strawberries I bought just the other day. "Pssst, here we are, back here. Don't you dare forget us! You better use us up, before you know what…."
So, really, what could I do? I picked up the whiny, red, little darlings. "You're absolutely right', said I, remembering a recipe from Joy the Baker that I had enthusiastically bookmarked last summer, in the height of berry season. Looking the strawberries square in the, um, berry, without hesitation announced, "I'm going to make your day!"
Forest Grump walked through the kitchen without batting an eye. Thankfully he doesn't even think twice anymore when he catches me talking to food. Life is good.
Today, as it turns out, Forest Grump is very happy I had a strawberry chit chat, because he didn't stop mmmm-ing even once as he gobbled down two pieces of warm-from-the-oven strawberry upside-down cake.
Good testimonial.
This cake is easy peasy to make. I did increase the strawberry quotient, but didn't change too much else. As Joy says, "the simple brown sugar and sour cream cake is sweet and moist with a sturdy but delicate crumb." Amen!
The cake is best served warm with a dollop of brown sugar sweetened, vanilla scented whipped cream.
And I know I have a vivid imagination, but when I flipped the golden baked, wonderfully aromatic cake upside-down to reveal it's crimson beauty, I could have sworn I heard a faint, but spirited chorus of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow!"
STRAWBERRY UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE - Makes one 9-inch cake
FOR THE TOPPING:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 generous cups sliced fresh strawberries
FOR THE CAKE:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg
2/3 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 350F. Use a 9-inch round cake pan with at least 2-inch sides.
Place 1/4 cup butter in cake pan and place in oven. When butter is melted, remove pan from oven. Using potholders, tilt the pan around and around, coat the bottom and sides with butter. Once sides are coated, set aside.
In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream 1/2 cup butter and brown sugar on medium speed until slightly pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, add egg and vanilla and beat for another minute.
Stop the mixer, scrape the bowl and add the dry ingredients. Beat on low speed while adding the sour cream. Beat until the batter comes together and is just nicely combined. Batter will be pretty thick.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar evenly over the melted butter in pan. Layer the sliced strawberries over the butter and sugar.
Spoon batter over berries and spread evenly with a large, wet spoon that has been run under hot water. Bake 35-40 minutes, until golden and a skewer or toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Let cake rest for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the cake and invert onto serving platter. Serve warm with sweetened whipped cream.
And now, I just cannot help myself but join in with your strawberries for a wee serenade to regale your yummy efforts! ♫♪♫♪ For you're a jolly good felllllooooow, which nobody can deny! ♫♪♫♪
