notes from my food diary

Would it wonderful if you make this cake for a well-deserved mom/grandmother/to-be mom on Mother’s Day? It’s quite simply a bundt cake with strawberries in it and decorated with fresh strawberries. Don’t forge the whipped cream. It just put a finishing touch to a slice of cake. Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms/grandmas/to-be moms!

Berry Bundt Cakes
Serves 12

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 cups plus 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
1 cup whole fresh strawberries
Whipped cream, optional

Preheat the oven to 350^oF. Grease and lightly flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract. The mixture will be firm.

In another large bowl, sift together the 3 cups of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Gradualy add this to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Toss the sliced strawberries with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour, and fold them into the batter.

Scrape the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake in the center of the oven until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out just clean, 1 1/4 hours.

Let the cake cool in the pan over a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Invert the cake into the cooling rack and let it completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and decorate with whole fresh strawberries in the center. Offer a slice with whipped cream.

Source: adapted from U.S.A. Cookbook by Sheila Lukins

This dish is actually one of my favorites back when I was a wee girl. If my parents and my brother and me went to a Chinese restaurant, I was secretly hoping my parents would order this dish. Why secretly? I don’t have the explanation, I think it’s because I was still a wee girl, I was pretty ignorant of what’s going on with the menu selection. That didn’t mean I didn’t like to eat, though. Now that I’m much older, I’m trying to compensate what I lacked before by making an enormous selection of dishes for my family

I was going to do beef chow fun for Rita’s party, the Chinese Take-Out Party, that’s another favorite, but due to time limit of having to go to a 20 minute-drive to a decent Asian grocery to buy fresh chow fun, I forgo the beef chow fun. Chinese barbecued pork could now be found on my local Safeway, so it’s only a breezy 5-minute drive. Everything else was in my fridge or my pantry, well, except small shrimps. I only had medium-sized shrimps which I chopped into two here. Be sure to use Madras curry powder because the flavor is definitely much more superior (triple superlatives!) to a regular curry powder found in the herb/spice section in your local grocer. I upped the amount of the curry because I liked it stronger, because I felt 2 teaspoons didn’t do much to dish.

So, Rita darlin’, here’s my contribution to your party!

Singapore Rice Noodles
Serves 4 to 6 as part of a multicourse meal

4 Chinese dried mushrooms
8 ounces rice vermicelli (mai fun)
2 tablespoons thin soy sauce
1 tablespoon Shao Hsing rice cooking wine
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 ounces medium shrimp, shelled, deveined and halved in two
1/2 cup finely shredded scallions
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 1/4 tablespoons Madras curry powder
3/4 cup homemade chicken broth or water
4 ounces Chinese barbecued pork, cut into juliene strips

In a medium bowl, soak the mushrooms in 1/4 cup cold water for 30 minutes, or until softened. Drain and squeeze dry, reserving soaking liquid. Cut off and discard stems and thinly slice the caps.

In a large bowl, soak the rice noodles in enough cold water to cover for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the noodles are limp and softened. Drain in a colander and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, and salt. Set aside.

Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking. Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and the shrimp, and stir-fry 10 seconds. Add the scallions and stir-fry 30 seconds, or until shrimp have just turned orange but are not cooked through. Transfer the shrimp mixture to a plate and set aside.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, celery, and sliced mushrooms, and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add the curry powder and stir-fry 10 seconds, or until fragrant. Restir soy sauce mixture and swirl it into the wok. Add the chicken broth or water, reserved mushroom soaking liquid and 1/3 cup cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat.

Add the drained rice noodles and return to a boil, stirring noodles to completely coat in curry mixture. Cover and cook over medium-high heat 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until noodles are just tender. Add the shrimp and barbecued pork, and cook, stirring, 1 to 2 minutes, or until shrimp are just cooked through and liquid has been absorbed by the noodles. Serve immediately.

Source: adapted from The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young.

Party on!

Yes, you read it right. My picture of mango in my post “Find your inner self” was awarded for the most drool-worthy category in Click: Au Naturel (Spring 2008) event. Thank you for all of you who has given me support and votes for this award!

Now, I could put this badge on my blog:

I don’t remember when I started but I’m not a big breakfast eater anymore. Usually my breakfast consists of milk, juice and banana during the weekdays, days which I don’t want to think “big” in the morning. Weekends are different. These are the days I could plan ahead, a day that I could be a little creative with my or actually, my family’s breakfast. All my breakfast choices that I’ve written in this blog are mostly comfort foods, foods such as pancakes, waffles, sticky buns, or quick breads. I love those and fortunately my family members feel the same too.

This next recipe that I’m going to share is something that I’ve never thought would be good for breakfast item. But actually it fitted in the theme quite nicely. The recipe is called finger pies, which uses pie crust as the skin that would be cut into small rounds and filled with preserves and chocolate chips. The end result looked similarly like empanadas. Later it would be rolled in confectioners’ sugar, just like cookies! I like the size of the pies especially, that way I could nibble on it while reading my comics in Sunday morning.

The recipe suggested that this type of pie is something that you could do with your kids. The size of the pie and simple ingredients really help. I enlisted my son to help me scatter the chocolate chips after I dropped the preserves in the pastry. It was really fun activity! Because this was a success, I’m sending this for Waiter There Is Something In My… that’s hosted by Johanna from The Passionate Cook. The theme for April is breakfast favorite. It has become a new favorite in my family, so hopefully it’ll be one for you too.

Now that I knew how to make this in a snap, I want to try it with different preserves. I was thinking of making pineapple preserves just like the one I usually use to make Pineapple cookies (Nanas tart) and fill the pie with that. This pie needs a preserves that’s thick and substantial. Time to go get the pineapples! Yay…

Little Preserves and Chocolate Finger Pies

Tender Cream Cheese Pastry
Yields 1 single crust, 9-inch standard pie

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces 1/3-less fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Combine the butter, cream cheese, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment. Blend for 30 to 45 seconds on medium-low speed. Stop once or twice, if necessary, to scrape the build-up from the beater. Stopping the machine before each addition, first add the confectioners’ sugar and 1/2 cup of the flour. With the mixer on low, blend until the flour is incorporated. Add another 1/2 cup of the flour and blend. Add the remaining flour. When all of the flour has been added and the dough starts to ball up around the beater, stop the machine. Remove the bowl and scarpe the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.

Gently knead 2 or 3 times. Divide the dough into 2 pieces of the same size. Knead each piece into a ball, then flatten it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerated for at least an hour, preferable longer, until firm enough to roll but not too solid.

Filling

Raspberry, strawberry, or other fruit preserves
Handful of semisweet chocolate chips

Garnish

Confectioners’ sugar

On a lightly floured work area, roll the dough slightly less than 1/8 inch thick with a floured rolling pin. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cutter, cut the pastry into circles. Remove the scraps, leaving the rounds in place.

Spoon about 2 teaspoons of the preserves into the center of each circle. Scatter a few chocolate chips around the preserves. Moisten the entire edge of the pastry with a wet fingertip or pastry brush, then fold the circle in half and press the edge together to seal. Roll the edge up slightly, forming a sort of rope edge. As you work, transfer each pie to the prepared baking sheet, leaving a little room between them. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 ^oF.

Using a paring knife, poke 1 or 2 small steam vents in the top of each pie. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Transfer the hot pies to a wire rack. As soon as they’re cool enough to handle, put some confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Roll each pie in the confectioners’ sugar, coating it heavily, and return it to the rack. Serve warm or let cool to room temperature before serving.

Source: adapted from Pie by Ken Haedrich

This bread has been a staple in my household for a few weeks simply because we are crazy about its texture and the flavor of sesame seeds in it. I adapted the recipe a little bit by using a white whole wheat flour instead of the regular whole wheat flour. The result is exactly what I want in a wheat bread, soft with golden crust. Some time I will leave the crust unadorned, some other time I brush it with milk and sprinkle it with sesame seeds. Using toasted sesame seeds seem to heighten the flavor of it, though it’s fine to use untoasted seeds. The recipe came from my beloved book, The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger. But even though the recipe is for a bread machine, I actually use the machine only to knead the dough and do the rest in the oven. I’m really partial to use milk and/or a combination of milk and water to achieve the best texture, and this bread is one of the best recipes in the book. Using only oil and/or water quite often resulted in a dryer bread and that’s not what my family like. The recipe suggested to eat the bread the day it’s made and I’ve proven that it actually lasted longer than one day! Even after three or four days in my bread box, it’s still unbelievably soft.

Old-Fashioned Sesame-Wheat Bread
For 1 1/2-pound loaf

3/4 cup water
3/8 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

2 1/4 cups bread flour
3/8 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon gluten
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons SAF yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions. Set to Dough cycle; press Start. While the dough is rising, grease a 9 x 5 x 2-inch loaf pan.

When the Dough cycle ends, immediately remove the dough from the pan. Using a rolling pin, and on a work surface lightly dusted with flour to prevent sticking, roll out the dough into a rectangular. Roll the dough by the short side tightly to form a loaf. Place it in the pan, cover and let it rise until doubled in bulk for about 1 hour (preferably in a warm temperature setting).

About 15 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350°F. If you desired, brush the crust with egg wash or milk and scatter some sesame seeds on top. Bake the bread for about 25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Remove the bread from the loaf and place it on a rack. Let cool to room temperature before slicing.

Source: adapted from The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger

Finger Sticks French Toast

And to add some variety of our daily breakfast, I made finger stick French toast using this bread. This time instead of using whole eggs I used leftover egg whites. Now, the toast wasn’t exactly as fluffy as it would had been dipped in whole eggs mixture, but it was pretty good and quite healthy. The recipe for egg white French toast could be found on the Internet. Four egg whites combine with milk, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon would be enough to soak about 4-5 slices of bread. You could leave the bread whole, make them to sticks, hearts or whatever shape you like. Serve with maple syrup and maybe some fresh fruits, you’ll have a wholesome breakfast.