Spiced & Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Spiced & Baked Sweet Potato Fries - made October 8, 2013 from Baltic Maid

This was the recipe I tried with the second of my three sweet potatoes.  Sweet potato fries are my new guilty pleasure and when I go out to eat, I've taken to ordering a burger just so I could have sweet potato fries with them if they're available.  So I had to make my own with at least one of the sweet potatoes I bought.  The advantage of baking vs deep-frying is these are healthier and have less fat.  The disadvantage is they don't get crisp or as crisp if you bake them.  Despite their french fry appearance which implies crispness, these were actually soft.  I still liked them and the spices gave them a great flavor though.  I think they would've eventually gotten more crisp if I had baked them even longer but I didn't want them to burn.  I wasn't risking not having my sweet potato fries.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, grated (I didn't have any so I left it out)
about 1 1/2 lbs / 680 g sweet potatoes
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cumin (I only used 1/4 teaspoon)
1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
a few pinches cayenne

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F/ 230°C. Combine the grated garlic and the olive oil in a bowl. Set aside. Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Cut them into 1/3 inch (0.85 cm) thick sticks. Add the sweet potato sticks to the bowl with the oil and toss them until they’re evenly coated.
2. Mix the spices together in a small dish. Sprinkle this spice mix over the sweet potatoes and toss them to coat them evenly.
3. Place the fries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake them for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Flip them and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until cooked to preference.

Vanilla Butter Layer Cake

Vanilla Butter Layer Cake - made September 27, 2013 from Food Loves Writing

I saw a picture of this on pinterest and instantly thought, "I've got to try this recipe."  Not because I wanted a vanilla cake but because I just loved how the texture looked on Food Loves Writing's cake. That picture showed a perfectly baked cake and defines what I mean by "fluffy" when I talk about perfect cake texture.

You can't get that kind of texture if you underbake a cake (hello, self, are you listening?) because the texture will be dense, not fluffy.  If you overbake it, it might look better but it'll have a dry mouthfeel. 

I did try to go for the fluffy, which, in my underbaking madness, means I left the cake pans in the oven a few minutes after I wanted to take them out, turned off the oven then sat on my hands a few minutes after that, fighting every baking instinct I had not to take them out while voices in my head shrieked "It'll be dry! Take them out NOW!" When I couldn't stand the ringing in my ears any longer, I did take them out.  They weren't quite as fluffy as the original picture that inspired me to bake this but still better than my usual cake attempts that come out too soon.  Overall, this is a very good vanilla layer cake recipe. I would probably amp up the vanilla by increasing the amount of vanilla extract and adding a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste or scrapings from a fresh vanilla bean but it's a good cake. With a fluffy texture if you don't underbake it.

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus additional to grease pans
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk (I used whole milk)
Frosting (recipe follows)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
2. Melt butter and let it cool to room temperature.
3. Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in the large bowl of a stand mixer. On medium speed, add the butter, incorporating in several additions. Beat for about 2 minutes, or until combined; the texture should resemble cornmeal.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, vanilla extract and milk. Add to the flour-butter mixture in two batches (scraping the bowl once), and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, or until smooth.
5. Distribute the batter evenly between the two prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 20 minutes. Remove cakes from pans to cool completely. Frost the cake. It can stand at room temperature for 1 hour; otherwise, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Frosting (I only used a half recipe since I don't like a lot of frosting)
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 pounds (7 1/2 -8 cups) confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream, (may substitute whole, low-fat or nonfat milk)

1. In a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until fluffy. On low speed, add the sugar in batches, increasing the speed to high after each addition is incorporated. 
2. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla extract and cream in a steady stream on low speed until incorporated. 
3. Add a few drops of food coloring, if desired. Beat on high speed for 8-10 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Restaurant Review: Kaluz, Ft Lauderdale, FL

Kaluz - dinner on October 2, 2013

If you've been tracking my last few restaurant reviews, by now you're probably assuming I did nothing on either of my Florida trips but eat.  Never fear, I also worked (a lot) and exercised (could've done more) in the hotel gym.  But I don't take pictures of myself doing either of those things so you will have to make do with the food pics.  Although this set didn't really come out since I was taking them with my iphone and the lighting wasn't very good.  You can't read "Kaluz" in the above sign but that is what it says.  I just liked the picture because of the palm trees with a backdrop of the falling night sky.

The pictures get a little worse inside because of the bad lighting - at least bad for pictures but I imagine restaurant diners really don't want to be flooded with bright florescent lights so they settle for the mood lighting.

The glass case didn't let me take a good shot but here's their wine bottle display

The bar area

I went to Kaluz with several of my coworkers from our offsite as it was near our hotel and we had heard the food was good.  The appetizer was a flatbread BBQ chicken pizza that we all shared.  It was pretty good and as always, I judge any pizza by its crust.  I'm less picky with flatbread pizza because all I ask for is a crisp crust at the edges that's also chewy and not too soggy in the middle.  This was a little soggy but not enough to mar the taste.

BBQ Chicken Flatbread Pizza appetizer

Kaluz has a variety of items on its menu so everyone was able to find something to their taste.  For the Tuna Tartare, my coworker had our waitperson verify the tuna was from the Atlantic, not the Pacific, in case anyone goes there and wants to know before they order it.  (We still have concerns about any fish from the Pacific given the nuclear accident in Japan.)

Tuna Tartare

Rack of Lamb

I pretty much threw caution to the winds and ordered the Kaluz Danish Ribs.  I figured anything with the restaurant's name in the title of the dish is going to be good and it was.  My order came with two sides so I opted for the sweet potato fries and the Crab Mac n Cheese.  No, this was not a light dinner.

Kaluz Danish Ribs with Sweet Potato Fries

I think I surprised my coworkers by how handily I made it through the plate of ribs.  I didn't eat all of it but I made enough of a dent that it was noticeable and I might've taken one of them aback at how much I could pack away, lol. Sorry, Dave, no dainty appetite here.

Crab Mac n Cheese side dish

Cedar Plank Salmon - they really do serve it on a plank

But, not to worry, there's always room for dessert - the Macadamia Caramel Brownie which, by the name alone, is going to be good, and because we were in Florida, someone ordered the Key Lime Pie.  I didn't have enough room to try the pie but I made good inroads into the brownie.  I did share but the others were probably as full as I was so I'm not sure I could really hold anyone responsible for consuming the brownie as much as I did.

Macadamia Caramel Brownie

Key Lime Pie

Fortunately, once we finished dinner and went back to the hotel, despite the late hour, I did persuade myself to go to the gym and workout for an hour.  So there was balance once again in my universe.  Sort of.

Warm Mix-in-a-Mug Chocolate Cake

Warm Mix-in-a-Mug Chocolate Cake - made September 11, 2013 from One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti

If you've noticed I've tried a few recipes from One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti lately, it's because I was testing them out for a cookbook review.  So far I've tried out her fudgy brownie recipe, Fluffy Yellow Sheet Cake, Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies and Lunchbox Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies. You can read my cookbook review on the Stir It Up section of the Christian Science Monitor here.  As part of my recipe testing, I also tried out this recipe for a single serving chocolate cake.  I normally don't make microwave desserts since that always feels like "cheating" and technically isn't really baking since I normally associate baking as being done in an oven. But I do make these (feeble) attempts to get out of my comfort zone and there's nothing like chocolate to mitigate any unease in risk taking.

The premise of One Bowl Baking is you only need one bowl to do all your mixing in and not a lot of fancy equipment to make something delicious.  In this case, you don't even need a bowl, just a mug to mix, microwave and eat from. The recipe is as easy as that sounds.  I did have to mentally adjust my baking instincts because I don't normally measure flour or sugar in measurements as small as a teaspoon or tablespoon.  But that's the point of an individual-size dessert; by definition, it's only meant for one.

Which is actually quite handy in this case because this literally took less than 5 minutes to throw together in the mug, mix and microwave.  Included in the 5 minutes was even a minute or two of cooling time before I topped it with ice cream and tried it.  The cake texture was a little dense, almost like a flourless chocolate cake but not as creamy but it was cooked (microwaved?) to doneness.  I wouldn't overcook this or it'll be tough. Don't expect the fluffy texture of a baked cake either, not unless you can time it perfectly to the point of "done" but not underdone or dry.  I added the ice cream as a personal preference to cut the richness. I don't know that this would replace a good slice of chocolate cake for me but as a quick dessert to throw together for one, it fit my need for something sweet (and chocolaty) after dinner with little cleanup and no leftovers.

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the cup

Pinch salt

2 teaspoons water

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

Pinch baking soda

1 tablespoon bittersweet chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)

1.       Butter a large microwave-safe mug.

2.       Add the brown sugar, butter, salt, water, and vanilla to the mug and stir to combine.

3.       Add the flour, baking soda and chips and stir until just combined.  Press the dough into the bottom of the mug.

4.       Microwave on high power just until the dough puffs and doesn’t look wet, about 45 seconds.

5.       Remove from the microwave and let rest for 5 minutes before eating.

Cheesy Sweet Potato, Sausage and Corn Chowder

Cheesy Sweet Potato, Sausage and Corn Chowder - made October 5, original recipe

I live in a pretty mild climate so it's a stretch to wax poetic about "chilly" autumn days being upon us, making it perfect soup (or chowder) weather.  So I won't pretend and instead say I made this because I wanted to.  One of my favorite soups is baked potato, preferably served in a crusty bread bowl just to make sure I get all of those carbs safely into my waistband.  I made up this recipe because I wanted something with the thick, creamy consistency of baked potato soup but I wanted to use sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.  I had purchased 3 sweet potatoes and wanted to try out three different recipes for them.  This is the first one.

The ultimate potato soup for me is (perhaps oddly enough) the potato cheese soup at Marie Callendar's.  Love it.  Love the creamy consistency and the cheesy flavor.  But I don't really eat at Marie Callendar's anymore (they keep closing down) so I've been without potato cheese soup for awhile.  Hence my attempt to make my own. 

I didn't quite know what I was doing but I did a search of potato soups and potato cheese soups online and came up with the ingredients most of them had in common: potatoes (check), cheese (yup), milk and sour cream. There were other variations so I just winged it and invented this one.  For the most part, I thought it turned out rather well, even despite my having a low bar of "just don't poison yourself" when it comes to my cooking.  The chowder had the thick, creamy consistency I was going for, thanks to the sour cream and the melted cheese. I added the kernels from a fresh ear of white corn for some crunch and for protein, I threw in chunks of chicken sausage to the chowder itself and topped it with turkey bacon.  I know many bacon snobs don't consider turkey bacon "real bacon" but, not being a bacon aficionado, it worked for me since it has less fat than the real thing.  The sweet potatoes were also good in the chowder but I think it would've been better if I had used a more spicy sausage.  The one I used was a sweet sausage from Trader Joe's but since the sweet potatoes were already, well, sweet as was the sweet corn, a spicy sausage would have provided for a better contrast.

This chowder is best consumed the day it's made for the optimal creamy consistency.  I refrigerated the leftovers and ate them for the next few days after and it wasn't as good.  The chowder was more lumpy to eat rather than creamy and the oil from the cheddar cheese separated a bit and had to be emulsified back in.  Otherwise, I didn't give myself food poisoning so I would consider this a success (remember the low bar).

1 medium to large sweet potato, peeled and diced into even-sized chunks
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 2-ounce sausage, cut into chunks and cooked
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup whole milk
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, mild or sharp
Cooked kernels from 1 ear of corn
2 strips bacon, crisp, crumbled
2 mini boules, centers cut out (reserve tops)
1 green onion, green top chopped for garnish (optional)

1. Heat olive oil in a medium or large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add sweet potato chunks and stir fry until tender but not mushy, stirring with a wooden spoon to cook evenly.  Salt and pepper to taste.
2. Add sausage and cook until heated through.  Set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Whisk in flour to make a roux.  Gradually whisk in the milk and the chicken broth, whisking the mixture smooth.  Add sour cream and whisk smooth.  Add shredded cheddar cheese and whisk until melted smooth.
4. Add sweet potatoes, sausage and fresh corn kernels.  Let simmer, stirring occasionally until thickened to desired consistency.
5. Heat mini boules at 350 degrees F until insides are very lightly browned.  You can butter the tops and brown them in the oven if desired.  Remove boules from oven and fill with chowder.  Garnish with crumbled crisp bacon and green onion if desired.

Lunch Box Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Lunch Box Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough September 14, 2013 from One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti

Funny thing happened to me on the way to making this recipe.  In the baking book, it turns out the volume and weight measurements for the flour didn't match; the weight measurement of 10 2/3 ounces called for double the 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons volume measure listed. By the time I discovered it, the dough was almost made and I had no way of knowing which was the right measurement.  Since the author had talked about the importance of and her preference for weight measurement, I gambled that the weight measurement would be the correct one.  Plus I spot checked the other cookie recipes in the book and they all seemed consistent with the weight measurement being the one to go with. Lastly, when I only had the volume measurement of flour added, the dough still seemed too soft and I didn't want cookies that spread so, again, that seemed to indicated the weight measurement was the right one.

Um, turns out I was wrong.  By the time I weighed the last of the flour in there and finished incorporating it, the dough was dry and crumbly. Ack.  What to do, what to do.  I needed this as part of Zoe's bake sale in my carefully time-managed schedule of cookie dough making all week and I couldn't afford the lost time in making up the right version of these cookies.  So I did what any good baker would do - I rolled with it and improvised.  I doctored in more peanut butter to make the dough less dry and come together more easily.  I added chopped up chunks of peanut butter cups (which I had planned to do anyway even if I had made the dough correctly). I formed the dough into thick discs rather than dough balls as I was afraid with a disproportionate amount of flour, the cookies wouldn't spread.  I chilled the dough discs first as is my habit with all cookie doughs.  When I baked off the taste test cookie, I drastically underbaked the cookie.  The disc remained in pretty much the same shape as when I put it in the oven as when I took it out.  It was also worrisomely fragile.  But it tasted great.  The texture was like baked peanut butter fudge.  With peanut butter cups.  Whew - cookie crisis averted.

Later on, Yvonne Ruperti confirmed the volume measurement was the correct one and the weight measurement unfortunately wasn't caught (she has the correction up on her website). So I made the recipe again, using the correct volume measurement for flour instead of the weight measurement listed. The dough still seemed soft so I didn't imprint it with the pointy end of the meat mallet like I normally do for peanut butter cookies and instead just made them into normal dough balls and froze them before I baked them.

The correct version

I was pleasantly surprised that, despite the softness of the dough, the cookies didn't spread very much and instead stayed chubby. I still underbaked them although they weren't quite the baked peanut butter fudge that the first batch was.  They're also fragile because I underbaked them but they weren't crumbly. Another good recipe from this book.

The correct version

6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup (7 ounces) packed light brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups (12 ounces) creamy peanut butter

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup peanut butter cups, chopped, optional

1. Place oven racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle positions.  Preheat the oven to 375⁰F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, stir the butter, sugar and salt until creamy.  Stir in the peanut butter and then the egg and vanilla.
3. Add the flour and baking soda to the bowl, then stir until combined. Add chopped peanut butter cups, if desired.
4. Scoop the dough into 18 balls, spacing evenly on the sheet pan (9 per pan).  Using a fork, press a crosshatch onto each cookie, pressing to about 1-inch thick.
5. Bake until light golden, puffed and just beginning to crack, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking. 
6. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Restaurant Review: da Campo Osteria, Ft Lauderdale, FL

da Campo Osteria - dinner on October 1, 2013, restaurant at il Lugano hotel

White Chocolate Bread Pudding - room service dessert

For my second week in Florida, I was out there for a 2-day offsite and we were literally offsite, holding our all-day meetings at Il Lugano Hotel. The restaurant in the hotel is da Campo Osteria and that's where our meeting attendees of 12 people went for our team dinner.  Nothing so handy as leaving the meeting room, taking the elevator back to your room to dump your laptop then taking the elevator back down to show up at the restaurant on the ground floor.

da Campo Osteria also makes the food served for room service and when I had arrived the night before, I ordered in since I'd gotten to the hotel late due to flight delays.  I had my ultimate comfort food, spaghetti and meatballs and this rich white chocolate bread pudding.  I couldn't finish it all but what I did have was pretty good.  I'm not a big fan of white chocolate but I love bread pudding and this was presented beautifully.

Bruschetta

For our team dinner, we started off with appetizers.  One of the things da Campo Osteria is known for is their appetizer of fresh pulled mozzarella prepared tableside.  One of the staff wheeled over a cart with all the ingredients and accoutrements he needed and set up by our table.  He started with cow milk curds in a stainless steel bowl that he broke up into chunks.  Wearing gloves, he poured very hot (possibly boiling hot, hence one reason for the gloves) water over the curds and started working them together, kneading the curd chunks into a smooth mass, with a folding motion, adding more hot water as he went. At a certain point in the kneading process, he started pulling the mozzarella into a long strand, much like you pull taffy into a ribbon.  Fold the strand over, pull again, knead, shape.  He ended up with an impressive smooth round disc of fresh mozzarella which he covered with oil and balsamic vinegar and plated with an accompaniment of olives, peppers, tomatoes and other foodstuffs I couldn't identify.  And that was our appetizer.  We had ordered 3 so he did the first one as a demonstration and two of my coworkers did the remaining two so they experienced preparing fresh mozzarella "from scratch".

Breaking up the milk curds

Kneading the milk curds together

Need more hot water

Stretching like taffy

Cutting the mozzarella into pieces

The plated fresh mozzarella

We got margherita pizza to share which I don't see on their online menu but it was nicely done with a thin crispy crust and a light smattering of cheese, tomato sauce and herbs.  As an appetizer, you don't want to fill up too much too soon, not when there's pasta on the menu and dessert to follow.  At least I don't.

A slice of the margherita pizza we all shared

I had had the spaghetti and jumbo meatball for dinner the night before with room service so for the team dinner, I went with the Lobster Tagliatelle.  I'm mindful to make my contributions to the seafood economy in Florida and it's hard to go wrong with lobster. This was pretty good although, having already had the bread, margherita pizza and freshly pulled mozzarella, I had to start pacing myself if I wanted room for dessert so I focused on consuming the lobster. It was a foregone conclusion I wasn't going to be able to eat all the pasta. I had run 4 miles in the hotel gym that morning, not 40.

My entree: Lobster Tagliatelle

A coworker's entree: Grilled New York Strip

And I can't have a restaurant review without dessert, of course.  Since I had already had the White Chocolate Bread Pudding the night before, I went with the Ricotta Zeppole this time.  They were served slightly warm, crunchy on the outside, and stuffed with nutella on the inside. There was some fancy food art stuck in the gelato and I tried a snippet but set it aside to focus on the zeppoles and the accompanying vanilla bean gelato. Do I even need to mention it was delicious?  Let me say it again: warm zeppoles stuffed with nutella.  Yes, they were as good as that sounded.  I shared a couple of zeppoles with my boss and that was probably a good thing so I wouldn't snarf them all down.  Because again, I only ran 4 miles that morning, not 40.  I had to keep telling myself that.

Ricotta Zeppole

Sorry, the below pic is up-ended but I couldn't get it to rotate properly.  It uploads correctly then turns itself on its end.  Anyway, one of my coworkers seated on my left ordered this dessert which is essentially a chocolate cake filled with amaretto buttercream topped with vanilla bean gelato and chocolate sauce.  He said it was good but nothing fantastic.  I'm glad I got the zeppoles instead.

Caprese Torta aka chocolate cake

My other coworker seated on my right ordered the tiramisu souffle.  I thought it was a cute presentation, warm in the cast iron pot with separate containers for the mocha gelato and mascarpone cream. I forgot to ask him how it tasted.  At the time, I wasn't sure I had looked up from my zeppoles just yet.

Tiramisu souffle with mocha gelato and mascarpone cream

Overall, I thought da Campo Osteria was a good choice for our team dinner.  Beyond the convenience factor of being located in the hotel we were staying at, the food was good, the place was large enough to accommodate our party of 12 and the service was attentive.