Sevilla: Round Two

This is going to be more picture based and less wordy. But I went back to Sevilla in April and actually remembered to take pictures of the food. So here it is. And let me say, compared to Barcelona, it's like going from New York City prices to middle of Mexico prices. Amazing. Oh and my memory's a little fuzzy, as I didn't write down anything I had. So these are mostly educated guesses.

And we're going to start out with 'ambience' pictures, as blogger no longer lets me decide what order I want my pictures in; it just does it for me. Thanks so much blogger.

These first two plates of food came from a fancier place we went (the name escapes me now) that definitely had a more varied menu, reminding me of combinations they do in Barcelona. Strange thing was, it had an outdoor seating area right next to tons of other more 'touristy' bars, right off the edge of the Jardines Reales Alcazares. But once you got inside and saw the menu, the food was a different story.
This is a 'bric' or crunchy pastry filled with beef.
Foie gras, mushroom, and egg. A very familiar (and winning) combination.

Next we have Eslava. A delicious, vibrant packed bar that we made it to one night, and tried to go again but it was closed. Words of advice: Sundays and Mondays are no good for eating out.
Here's their salmorejo, which has become one of my staples in Sevilla. If you want to think of it as similar to gazpacho, go ahead, but I think it's so much better. It's like a rich tomato sauce without the pasta, sprinkled with bits of ham, hard-boiled egg, and drizzled with olive oil.
I'm seeing bits of meat...I remember the dish on the bottom right was pretty nice.
This is their signature dish. Another perfect marriage of foie and egg.

These next plates come from Taberna, a restaurant not far from the Cathedral. A very typical southern Spanish place, but mainly delicious (except for one unfortunate 'whats this?' attempt). Friendly people, and cheap cheap cheap.
Spinach and chickpeas is Andalucia's answer to 'everything's fried and there are no vegetables.' This dish is here to counter those claims.
My favorite was the dish that you can't see as well, in the back. Eggs, perfectly cooked potato 'chips', but thicker than store bought ones, so they still retained some soft potatoey-ness inside, with a fried egg and chorizo on top. It's like a perfect breakfast, anytime of day. Next you can see the one mistep at Taberna, the deep-fried eggroll like cylinder: a flamenquin. Basically a roll of cheese and ham (but not serrano, more like Oscar Mayer) then thrown into the deep fryer. As our Sevillano 'native' described it, surely only late night food, after a few drinks...Next to it is salmorejo covering a fried eggplant. I think I prefer plain ole salmorejo in its pure state, but this wasn't bad. And in front, croquetas, found all over Spain. A little fried bit of goodness.
Absolutely delicious mushrooms and jamon. You can see the brown crispiness on them, excellentely cooked, which has really endeared me to oyster mushrooms.
The inside of Taberna.
Of course I had to get salmorejo.

One of the places we'd been to before was Ajo Blanco, which is the name of a famous cold soup (after gazpacho, the most well-known of Andalucia's cold soups), but it's also the name of a Mexican-Spanish bar in Sevilla. Pretty decent food, if you ignore that they don't actually know the correct Mexican names for things (I think an enchilada might be queso fundido, a taco is a chalupa, etc). Here's the chalupa/tostada (probably listed on the menu as a gordita or something, but we'll excuse you Ajo Blanco, because in the end, it's good).

Queso Fundido

Ajo blanco. I had to get the bar's namesake soup, which is traditionally served with grapes. A cold, garlicky and bread soup with grapes might not sound so tempting, but if you ever go to Southern Spain between April and October, hot food will be the last thing on your mind. And it's pretty tasty if you get a good one.
Finally, pork and beans covered with a fine layer of melted cheese. Good work on the Mexican, Ajo Blanco.

Chocolate Babka and blogger bleh

I now remember why I took such a long, unintentional hiatus from blogposting. It's blogger. To put it lightly, I don't love it. After a few months away, I was motivated to post a delicious Thai dish just a couple days ago. As you can probably see if you scroll to the bottom of this post, I did (successfully?) post it. You might also notice that the font size is different than previous posts, because lovely blogger doesn't have actual numerical sizes, but rather "smallest, small, normal, large, largest" and somehow those still can't correspond from post to post. Interesting. I've had that problem in the past with a few posts, and I just try and ignore it because, honestly there's not really much I can do. A new fun function I was introduced to upon my most recent post was not being able to drag my pictures after uploading them. At all. The mouse turns into a little hand, pretending it will move them and place them in between bits of text exactly where I want them, but it's all a lie. It just continued to highlight the pictures. I used my noggin though, and decided to copy and paste the text in between the pictures, but I still couldn't control picture order. There was also the little problem of not being able to un-bold my font if I bolded it one time. I'll leave my ranting for now, but this is just my forewarning in case this post turns out with five unrelated pictures all at the beginning, followed by randomly sized font, half of it being in bold.

Now onto the food, which brings me to Martha Stewart. God love her. Her Baking Handbook was another recently acquired cookbook, and after flipping through it multiple times, I've found that there actually are a lot of recipes that I need to explore more. At first I just wanted it for this one cake recipe that I made, with pistachio extract (although I couldn't find that) and a trusty stand-by swiss meringue buttercream recipe.

I went to a brunch a couple weeks ago and after lots of debate and narrowing it down, I decided on a recipe that I probably never would've given a second thought to, if I didn't have Martha's book, and hadn't passed the recipe numerous times, and it had chocolate, so that helped. It's a chocolate babka, and down in Texas, we don't really do babka, so for me it was kind of a 'meh' option. But after further inspection, it looked pretty darn good, and I always love playing around with yeast.

Verdict: I can't wait to make this again. It was delicious, and a big hit at the brunch. I actually got a compliment a couple weeks after the brunch from a girl who had told her family how good it was. Dunno if it was me or Martha, but it worked.

Chocolate Babka

Martha Stewart's The Baking Handbook

makes 3 loaves (I just made one, easy--kind of--to divide in thirds)

A babka can be frozen in the pan for up to a month before baking. When ready to bake, remove from freezer; let stand at room temperature for about five hours. be careful not to underbake; otherwise, the center may not set properly.

1 1/2 c warm milk

2 envelopes (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast (I actually combined fresh and dry)

1 3/4 c plus a pinch of sugar

3 whole large eggs, plus 2 large egg yolks, room temperature

6 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 tsp salt

3 1/2 stick butter (1 3/4 c), room temperature, cut into pieces

2 lb semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp heavy cream

streusel topping (recipe follows)

In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast and a pinch of sugar over the warm milk; stir until dissolved. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. In a meduim bowl, whisk together 3/4 c sugar, 2 eggs, and the yolks; add yeast mixture, and whisk to combine.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. Add the egg mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Switch to the dough hook. Add 2 sticks butter, and beat until completely incorporated and a smooth, soft dough forms, about 10 minutes. The dough should still be slightly sticky when squeezed. (All this can actually be done by hand, as I did not have an electric mixer. I also accidentally added all my butter, things got confusing with the dividing measurments and then adding in parts, etc. Yet I worked in a bit more flour and turned out fine. Too much butter is never that bad of a thing.)

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead a few times utnil smooth. Place dough in a well-buttered bowl, and turn to coat with butter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

In a bowl, stir together chocolate, remaining sugar, and the cinnamon. Using a pastry blender, cut in remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter until combined; set aside filling.

Generously butter three 9-by-5-by-2 3/4-inch loaf pans and line with parchment paper, leaving a 1 1/2 inch overhang along hte long sides. Brush more butter over the parchment, and set aside. Punch down the dough, and transfer to a clean work surface. Let the dough rest 5 minutes. (As you'll see, I didn't have a loaf tin, mine's more of a round loaf).

Meanwhile, beat the remaining egg with cream. Cut dough into three equaql pieces. On a well-floured work surface, roll out one piece of dough to a 16-inch square, about 1/8 inch thick. (Keep other pieces covered with plastic wrap while you work.) Brush edges of dough with the egg wash. Crumble one-third of the chocolate filling evenly over dough, leaving about a 1/2 inch border on the long sides. Roll up dough lengthwise into a tight log, pinching ends together to seal. Twist dough evenly down the length of the log, a full five or six times. Brush the top of the log with egg wash. Crumble 2 tablespoons fillin gdown the center of the log, being careful not to let mixture slide off. Fold log in half into a horseshoe shape, then cross the right half over the left. Pinch ends together to seal and form a figure eight. Twist two more times, and fit into a prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.

Preheat oven to 350F, with a rack in the lower third. Brush the top of each loaf with egg wash; sprinkle with one-third of the streusel topping. Loosely cover each pan with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until dough has expanded and feels pillowy, about 40 minutes.

Bake loaves, rotating halfway through, until golden, about 55 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325F; bake until loaves are deep golden, 20 to 30 minutes more. (If the tops begin to brown too quickly, tent with aluminum foil. I say I don't think I had to cook mine nearly that long.) Transfer pans to wire racks to cool completely. Babkas can be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days.

streusel topping

makes enough for 3 loaves (3 cups)

1 2/3 c powdered sugar

1 1/3 c flour

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c) butter, room temperature

Combine sugar and flour in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger clumps remaining.

Kaeng Keao Wan Kung

And I’m back. I never left, but got lazy, fashion week(s) happened, weather in Barcelona has been conducive to sitting around, and doing nothing, wanting to blame the government or something. I still need to write that letter, as today, mid-Spring, was in the 50s I think, but I didn’t want to depress myself by actually confirming it.

It has left me a bit of time to cook though, and nice warm and spicy things. Remember that Time Life series of cookbooks from the 70s that I just love? Well I got another one for Christmas and I finally put it to use. And then I made the same thing again because it was that easy and that delicious. This one is Pacific and Southeast Asian Cooking. Honestly, when I got it I was expecting a little less Pacific and a little more Southeast Asian, because there’s almost an abundance of photos of crispy whole pigs with skewered pineapples sticking out of them, (heck, it even gives you a step by step diagram of “Carving a Roast Pig the Island Way”), but I’ve easily found many recipes that I’m ready to try.

I really wanted it for the Southeast Asia stuff, to expand my love of curries from India to other parts, and this book doesn’t fail at showing a different side to food that I pretty much have no idea about. I was happy to discover that there’s a Chinese shop here that has Cloud Ears, which after reading my handy glossary in the recipe booklet, I found out was a type of dried mushroom. That same glossary also taught me about ginger’s cousins, like laos, lengkuas, andkha, but unfortunately I couldn’t find those at the Chinese shop, so ginger had to suffice. And it did.

I chose to make a green curry. I’m mainly attracted to green foods over red, if we’re going to look at the food line like that. A nice green tomatillo salsa over a standard red tomato one? Of course. Basil pesto rather than ragu? Obviously. Green curry and not red? Now you get the hang of it…

I am a shrimp lover, but I almost never order it out here because a)it usually comes whole, meaning shell, head, antennae, everything, and I hate peeling my food while I’m supposed to be eating it, and b) it’s pretty expensive, especially for a coastal city where you think it shouldn’t be that hard to get. But I’ve found a couple seafood stands in the Boqueria Market (if you don’t know what that is, shame on you) that have normal sized shrimp for 10euro/kilo. None of this miniature-lobster like langostinas that I’m not even sure how to prepare and is more than twice the price, but good ole shrimp that I’m used to, and for about 5 euros, I can feed three people with it.

So I pinpointed the Green Shrimp Curry recipe and went to town. The reason it’s so easy is because you make the green curry paste yourself, which keeps in the fridge for at least a month , and then when the time comes to make the curry, you basically throw the paste in a pan with some coconut milk, shrimp, and ginger (or ginger’s cousin). I loved making the paste because I (or my parents) had just bought myself (or me) a new hand-blender with attachments to a mini-food processor and a whisk. Let me tell you, I love that little baby processor, and it’s actually not too small, but not too big, just the right size. Fits in my cabinets and holds the perfect amount of hummus or what have you. And the whisk ain’t bad either, she’s got some kick in her. Back to the curry though.

The worst part of it was deveining all those little shrimp, but as long as I don’t have to dip my hands into my bowl of food at the dinner table, I’m much happier. And, there were leftovers. We also had some corn tortillas and avocados handy, so I decided to be very coastal Mexican and make shrimp tacos. Also delicious.

Kaeng Keao Wan Kung (Thai)

Green Shrimp Curry

adapted from Pacific and Southeast Asian Cooking (I changed things like making your own coconut milk. You can thank me now)

Serves 4-6

1 ½ lbs medium-sized uncooked shrimp

3 c coconut milk

2 Tbsp green curry paste (recipe follows)

1 Tbsp kachai, pulverized or finely chopped/grated (or ginger if you have never heard of kachai, like myself)

2 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp fresh hot green chili strips (I omitted this and enjoyed the spice as was)

Cilantro and lime to garnish

Shell the shrimp and devein them. Wash with cold water, pat dry, and set aside (in the fridge if it’s going to be a while).

In a heavy saucepan, heat one cup of the coconut milk until it boils and then simmer and stir until the liquid is reduced to about ¼ cup. Add the green curry paste and the kachai/ginger, and cook briskly, still stirring from time to time, until most of the liquid in the pan has evaporated.

Add the shrimp and turn them about with a spoon for 3 or 4 minutes or until they are firm and pink. Stir in the remaining 2 cups coconut milk and the fish sauce and, stirring occasionally, simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning and garnish with cilantro and lime juice.

Serve at once from a deep heated platter or large bowl. Kaeng keao wan kung is traditionally accompanied by hot boiled rice (which I did, good to soak up all the sauce).

Green Curry Paste

makes about ½ cup

6 fresh green chilies, each about 2 inches long

2 Tbsp finely chopped shallots or scallions

1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

1 Tbsp sereh (lemongrass’s cousin, of course)

1 Tbsp shrimp paste

1 tsp laos (ginger’s cousin)

1 tsp coriander seed, finely ground

1 tsp finely grated lemon peel

1 tsp salt

Wash the chilies, then stem and seed them (if you want really spicy, leave the seeds in). Slice them into rounds. In your mini-food processor (or whatever you may have), combine all the ingredients and pulse until well-combined, scraping down the edges as needed. Tightly covered and refrigerated, the paste may be safely kept for a month or so.

Tiramisu Cheesecake

Oh the endless possibilities that cheesecake provides. Tiramisu cheesecake is just another example. And because it was an experiment and I decided to throw it together kind of last minute, my recipe is a little loose and you might need to change it for your own preferences.

Before I made it, I looked at a lot of different recipes online and found many that used the lady fingers crushed up and mixed with butter to provide the base, and some others that put them directly in the cake. I like the latter idea better and the rest of it was pretty simple. I did a normal cheesecake layer, then the soaked ladyfingers, and finally a top layer of sweetened mascarpone.

Not much else to say about this except I took it to a party and it was a big hit. And I was worried about soggy lady fingers sinking into cream cheese, but fears ended up being unfulfilled.


Tiramisu Cheesecake

crust
½ c butter (125 g)
1.5 box graham crackers or Maria cookies
pinch of salt

Crush cookies any way you can (beat them in a plastic bag, pulse them in a food processor), melt butter, and mix the two together with salt, then press on the bottom and up the sides of a springform pan. Bake at 170C/340F oven for 10 minutes.

cheesecake
600g cream cheese
1 c sugar, seperated
3 eggs
250g mascarpone
½ c marsala or sweet sherry
½ c espresso
ladyfingers
good chocolate for grating
pinch of salt

Mix the cream cheese at room temperature, with half the sugar. Seperate the eggs and whip the whites to soft peaks. Mix the yolks into the cream cheese, and then add a pinch of salt and fold in the egg whites. Pour the mixture into the prepared crust. Now mix the marsala and espresso together, dip the lady fingers in so they are well coated on all sides and moist, and then layer close together over the cream cheese. Finally mix the mascarpone with the remaining sugar, egg yolk, some salt, and when well combined, fold in the egg whites. Pour this over the ladyfingers and spread out evenly with a spatula. Now put in a preheated oven, still at 350F/170C and cook for about 30 minutes. My standard 'doneness' test is if the edges are set but it's still wobbly in the middle. When that happens, take it out and let cool. Store in the fridge overnight and just before serving, grate chocolate all over the top of it. Enjoy.

Enchiladas Potosinas

Few things are better in life than homemade Mexican food. My parents always tell me that was one of the beauties of living in El Paso back in the late 70s and early 80s, before the city it was across the border from became known as one of the most dangerous places in the world, and back when labour was cheap.

People sometimes think Mexican is a bunch of grease and yellow cheese, and while Tex-Mex, which is close to my heart, might fit under that category more often than not, real Mexican is just as varied and regional as Italian cuisine (which others might argue is just a bunch of pasta and pizza; also, this is not the case). If you need any proof of this, I recommend the cookbook The Taste of Mexico by Patricia Quintana from 1986. This is also-pre Mexican explosion. Before it became trendy to make guacamole tableside in a molcajete and charge and arm and a leg for it. I think this book is the real deal. I’m really drawn to cookbooks that divide their foods by region, so you don’t feel like you’re getting a whole big mish-mash of what one might perceive as Mexican. And with the divisions in Quintana’s book, you see where seafood is a large player, get a taste of Mole Poblano, and see everything in between from various stews to different preparations of meats.

Enchiladas aren’t too cryptic to most Americans. You know it’s a tortilla, basically stuffed and rolled, covered in sauce and then baked. Depending how they’re prepared, they can be pretty Tex-Mexy. In The Taste of Mexico, I found a recipe for Enchiladas Potosinas where you make the corn tortillas yourself with a bit of chile ancho so they come out a brilliant dark red, stuff and lightly fry them, and then serve. In my book, these are not typical enchiladas. From what I’m used to, these were more like a take on empanadas or perhaps a gordita of some sort. Along with some guacamole, a sprinkle of queso fresco, and perhaps some sour cream, you garnish them with cilantro and onion…the only necessary condiments in real Mexican cooking which you’ll quickly find is tradiontal fashion after visiting a taco truck.
“Do you want everything on it?”
“What’s everything?”
“Cilantro and onion.”
“Yeah, sure. Everything.”



Enchiladas Potosinas
from The Taste of Mexico, Patricia Quintana, 1986

In the Tangamanga market in San Luis Potosi, local cooks prepare this typical dish on braziers while hungry market-goers huddle around them eagerly awaiting the fresh enchiladas.

For the stuffing
¼ c vegetable oil
½ cup white onion, chopped
1 c salsa verde (recipe to follow)
Salt to taste
2 ½ c queso fresco or ricotta or feta

For the dough
6 oz chiles anchos, lightly roasted, seeded, and deveined
2 cloves garlic, whole
1 tsp salt
2 ¼ lb fresh masa or equivalent made with masa harina
3 c vegetable oil

For the garnish
1 c queso fresco, crumbled
1 c white onion, finely chopped
2 c guacamole

Prepare the stuffing: heat oil in a frying pan. Sauté onion until soft. Add green sauce. Salt, and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and cool. Stir in cheese.
Prepare the dough: soak chiles in water to cover for 25 minutes. Drain, and reserve soaking water. Blend chiles in a metate, blender, or food processor with garlic, salt, and a little soaking water. Add chile mixture to masa, and knead until dough is smooth and not sticky. If necessary, add more soaking water.
Divide dough into 24 balls, 2 inches in circumference. Make tortillas, using a tortilla press. Heat tortillas on a hot comal or griddle, turning once. Immediately place 1 teaspoon of stuffing in the center of tortilla, and fold over, like a turnover. Repeat, using all tortillas. Keep hot. Heat oli in a saucepan for 10 minutes. Fry enchiladas in oil over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes. They should remain soft. Drain on paper towels.
To serve, place enchiladas on a platter. Garnish with cheese and onion. Serve with guacamole.
The enchiladas can be made ahead through filling and folding. Freeze, and thaw at room temperature until partially thawed. Fry immediately.
Makes 24 enchiladas.

Salsa verde
1 qt water
12 tomatillos, husked
7 medium cloves garlic, whole
4 to 8 chiles serranos (vary according to preference of piquancy)
3 Tbsp white onion, coarsely chopped
Salt to taste
¾ c cilantro leaves, with a bit of stem

Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Add tomatillos, 4 garlic cloves, 4 or more chiles, and onion. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, and remove from heat. Drain, and reserve cooking water. Cool.
Meanwhile, puree 3 garlic cloves in a molcajete or food processor, adding salt to taste. Add cilantro, and blend. Add tomatillo mixture. Add a little cooking water, and blend. The sauce should have a slightly thick consistency. Correct seasoning.
To serve, pour green sauce into a molcajete, and garnish with onion and cilantro.
Makes about 2 cups.

Masa
3 c masa harina
½ tsp salt
1 ½ to 2 c lukewarm water

Mix ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Gather into a ball, and kenad dough until smooth and no longer sticky. Cover with a towel, and allow to stand for 1 hour.
To make tortillas, line the base of a tortilla press with a sheet of plastic wrap or wit ha plastic sandwish bag. Pinch off balls of dough from the masa. (The size will vary, depdning on desired tortilla diameter; the balls are usually slightly bigger than a walnut). Center the masa on the lined tortilla-press base. Cover the masa with a sheet of plastic wrap. Lower the top of the press, and push down the handle. Open. The tortilla will have plastic wrap on the top and bottom.
Carefully peel away the plastic on top. Place your left hand under the tortilla. Flip the tortilla onto the right hand, so the plastic is on top. Carefully peel away plastic. Flip tortilla onto a preheated, very hot griddle or comal. When the tortilla begins to dry on the edges, flip it over. Cook until the top begins to puff. Tap lightly with your fingertips to allow even puffing, and let cook briefly, about 1 ½ to 2 minutes. Remove tortillas from the griddle, warp in a napkin or clean towel, and serve.

Preparing dried chiles
The first step in preparing dried chiles is careful washing. Since they often are sun-dried on the ground, the chiles usually are dusty and dirty. Next, remove the stems (if the chiles are not to be stuffed), and slit the chiles length-wise in order to remove the seeds and veins. Preheat a griddle, and roast the chiles very lightly, turning to roast on all sides. The dried chiles will puff and reconstitute slightly. Be careful not to burn them. Burned dried chiles produce an acrid taste.

Toot Toot, Beep Beep

I'm not one to toot my own horn, I mean I try to be modest: "Oh you think that chocolate hazelnut cheesecake really was good? Oh, thanks...well, it was sooo easy..." even if I know the dessert was a dance on the taste buds.

But on this one I'm definitely tooting. Maybe because it's kind of a surprise, not in my usual play book. I'm gonna tell you right now, it's banana cake. Those words kind of make me a little nauseous, to tell you the truth. But I'm not done. It's more like an Elvis special. And it all started with some very mature bananas at work that were going to have to be thrown out. So I got to town making banana bread and then banana cake. And to make it bearable (and by bearable I mean amazingly rich and dreamy), I layered it with chocolate ganache and iced it with peanut butter frosting.

I am a sucker for peanut butter and bananas, and chocolate and peanut butter (or chocolate and anything), but for some reason, a dessert of banana cake falls to the bottom of my list. But it ended up being some of the moistest cake, on its own, that I've made. And dressed up with heavy chocolate ganache and some salty, whipped, peanut butter frosting, it's hard not to like this cake.

So toot toot.


Banana Cake with Chocolate Ganache and Peanut Butter Frosting

banana cake
2 ¼ c flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 c (4) very ripe bananas bananas
¼ c buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 stick butter
1 1/3 c sugar
2 eggs

Preheat an oven to 350F. Grease and one 9” springform pan or two 8” rounds (the first will provide three layers, the second four). With the butter at room temperature, cream it with the sugar. Mix together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mush up the bananas and then add other wet ingredients, mixing everything well. Then add to the dry ingredients and incorporate everything, including the butter and sugar mixture. Pour into the pans and bake until a toothpick comes up just about dry, about 20-30 minutes. Let cool and then remove from pans. If you are using one pan, cut with a serrated knife into three portions. If you have used two pans, cut each in half.

chocolate ganache
1 ½ c heavy cream
1 lb good dark chocolate

Bring the cream to a simmer over the stove. When it’s just under a boil, remove from heat and stir in chocolate, until it’s completely melted. After you have cut the cakes and they have cooled, frost each layer with the ganache and stack.

peanut butter frosting
1 c creamy peanut butter
3 Tbsp butter, room temperature
2/3 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and peanut butter together. On a low speed, at the powdered sugar a little at a time, and the vanilla and salt, until everything is mixed well. Taste and make sure you like the flavor. You can always tweak by adding more sugar or peanut butter. Your cake should be stacked now and layered with ganache. When you have the frosting ready, simply take a spatula and ice the outside of the cake. Now dig in.

P.S. This cake freezes very well, just defrost it and let it come to room temperature, or if you’re eating slice by slice, pop it in the microwave.

A Little Summer Something...

Thought I'd just give you a little something pretty to look at with the promise that more will come soon. This crostini, or good stuff on toast, was sort of thrown together at the last minute, but with some really great ingredients. I pulled whatever we had out of the fridge, and in this case it ended up being ricotta and pecorino romano (love its saltiness), then grilled some asparagus, and picked some fresh mint to sprinkle along with a bit of dried red pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Completely do-able and delicious. Oh, and having sunflower seed bread to throw on the grill doesn't hurt either.