September Girl!

Yesterday I had one of the most amazing and memorable days! Lately I've been feeling extra nostalgic because a couple of weeks ago my sister and I were remembering one of our all time favourite birthday from our childhood.
My sister's birthday is in the beginning of October and mine is on the first of September, so on the year that we had just returned from living in Pakistan and were lucky enough to spend time in Canada with grandma  before heading out on a new adventure to live in Iraq we combined both birthdays in early September with cake!  Strawberries being rare in many parts of the world we lived in I requested a white vanilla strawberry cake without any hesitation. I just love strawberries, not to mention "strawberry girl" became a nickname of mine as a toddler because I was born with a strange bright strawberry red birthmark on one side of my upper lip, it was cute but luckily faded away as a I grew up. My mother says that while living in Pakistan and pregnant with me she craved strawberries like crazy!

As we reminisced about those days we had this idea to recreate the cakes this year, and a couple of days before the day it occurred to me that those memories were exactly 20 years old since it was the memory of my 7th birthday back then and this year I'd be turning 27!!  It was also my sister's 5th birthday memory and she's turning 25 this year, I'm going to keep details of my sisters cake a secret because we will try to recreate it in October so stay tuned for that :)

I chose a more grown up version of that strawberry vanilla cake, it's three thick layers of cake containing a bit of that special picual spanish olive oil from Olive That!  in the batter.

The filling is a roasted strawberry balsamic (an 18 year old balsamic vinegar, also from Olive That!) and all frosted up with two batches of vanilla swiss meringue buttercream in a white to rosey pink ombre colour.

I hope you enjoy this sequence of shots from yesterday's party as we also celebrated the end of summer on this labour day weekend.

Ombre Cake (Balsamic Strawberry and olive oil Cream Genoise Cake)

(Genoise adapted from Cookpad)

Makes one 18cm diameter cake

Genoise

(Note: I have baked the recipe below three times yielding 3 cakes)

3 eggs

120 grams caster sugar

105 grams cake flour

15 grams unsalted butter

15 grams spanish olive oil

38 grams milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make Genoise:

Preheat the oven to 180 degree celcius (or 160 degree celcius fan-forced). Line a 18cm round cake pan with a removable base with parchment paper.

In a clean bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until thick and foamy. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, whisking constantly, until the mixture feel quite warm to the touch (about 40 degree celcius). Remove from heat and transfer the mixture to the bowl of your electric mixer. Beat on high speed until the mixture has cooled and holds soft peaks.

Meanwhile, combine butter, olive oil, milk and vanilla extract in a bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Once butter has melted, stir to mix, and when mixture feel quite warm to the touch, remove from heat, and set aside.

Sift flour over the egg mixture. Using a spatula, fold the flour through thoroughly, taking care not to deflate the mixture too much.

Add a cup of the batter to the butter mixture and mix well. Add remaining batter, and fold in gently until combined.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan and bake for about 30 minutes. The cake is done when the top is golden brown and springy to the touch. 

Immediately turn the cake out of its tin onto a cooling rack. Place a plastic container over the cake (This helps the cake to retain the moisture). When cake is cooled completely, slice cake horiontally to get 2 layers OR as I did simply use 3 cakes as three layers.

(Cake recipe source)

Balsamic strawberry syrup:

3 cups strawberries, remove tops and slice into half or quarters (if they're very large) 

1 tbsp balsamic (18 year old balsamic vinegar) 

1 tbsp sugar 

1 tsp lemon juice

Bake in a shallow glass casserole on 400 F in the oven for about 20 minutes or until it caramelizes and smells delicious! 

Allow the strawberries to cool and strain them in a fine strainer reserving only the juice for the cakes.  Use the rest of the mashed strawberry to make popsicles or in smoothies or ice cream! 

Spread a layer of the balsamic strawberry syrup over each layer of cake before spreading with buttercream. 

Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

Make this recipe of buttercream twice to have enough to frost the cake above.  Make sure to wash all utensils and bowls between batches with warm soapy water to remove any grease and then wipe down with vinegar as well to remove traces of grease of else your egg whites (first step) will not come together and whip and the recipe will fail.

Yield: 5 cups

Ingredients

5 large egg whites (30g each–total 150g)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine granulated sugar

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Method

Wipe the bowl of an electric mixer with paper towel and vinegar, to remove any trace of grease. Add egg whites and sugar, and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly, until temperature reaches 160 degrees F, or if you don’t have a candy thermometer, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot.

With whisk attachment of mixer, begin to whip until the mixture is thick, glossy, and cool. Switch over to paddle attachment and, while mixing on medium speed continuously, add softened butter in chunks until incorporated, and mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture (if curdles, keep mixing and it will come back to smooth). Add vanilla and salt, mix well. You can also add a wide variety of flavourings, extracts, and more.

Note: Because it does take some time to make, I always make in batches of 3 (vanilla), because it freezes so well and saves time. A batch of 3 fits perfectly in a 5QT KitchenAid mixer bowl. You can then thaw, divide, add separate flavours, purees, etc. I have recently decreased the amount of butter I use in my buttercream, because I find it has a lighter, fluffier quality to it. I’ve adjusted the recipe accordingly, but you can add more butter if you prefer. I’ve also recently started heating the egg whites and sugar to 160° F, rather than 140° F, and I find the meringue comes together so quickly this way (just an observation, however 140° F has worked for me for years). Just a note!

Troubleshooting: After the egg whites are mixed add the butter in small thumb size pieces into the bowl while it whips and make sure it incorporates well, if it begins to split and go "soupy" place the bowl into the freezer for a couple of minutes and then rewhip using the paddle attachment and add the remaining butter in pieces until it looks like a butter cream.

It helps to watch a couple of videos on youtube too before attempting to make this buttercream recipe. 

"Get well" Party

It's flu season and everyone I know is sick, but we still wanted to have some fun so we threw together this party on a whim and it has a bit of a "get well" theme with fresh fruits, tea and comfort foods like mini chicken pot pies.
Mini pot pies: 

Start with chicken:

You can do this the day before and it's very easy. 

Add chicken to large stock pot, cover with water and add about 3-5 tbsp salt and one squeeze of lemon juice.   You could add garlic, onion, celery but let's keep it easy and simple. 

Place pot on heat on low (chicken can stand for 30 minutes to reach close to room temp) and then heat it starting on low until it's medium low but no higher so it can poach gently.  Will take about 2 hours. 

When chicken is done (it should be cooked all the way through) remove from stock. 

At this point you can reduce the stock by boiling with lid off (not on high, just mediumish and it will reduce (keep in mind it will be pretty salty if reduced too much. 

Cool the stock down and store in the fridge. 

Remove meat from bones and chop, place in a container in fridge. 

When ready to make pot pies start with the pastry: 

Pastry: 

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup cold butter, cut in small cubes

1/4-1/2 cup ice cold water

1/2 tbsp white vinegar (or lemon juice) 

Add salt to flour, add butter and use hands to blend using thumb against fingers to press the butter and flour together until it's a "crumb" like consistency. 

Mix water with vinegar or lemon juice and add to the dough 1/4 of a cup first and if you need more add more, up to 1/2 cup. 

Bring dough together and flatten into 2 flat round disks (for easy rolling) 

Wrap in plastic wrap and set in fridge.

Veggies: 

Chop veggies

1 cup celery

1 1/2 cup carrots, diced or sliced into rounds if using tiny carrots

1 medium onion

Brown veggies in 2 tbsp olive oil and add chicken stock.  Cook until tender.  

Strain veggies and set aside.  Set aside stock as well for cream sauce (below) 

Peel 3-4 small potatoes or 2 medium potatoes and chop into tiny cubes. Add to a small saucepan of salted water and boil until tender.  Strain, cool and set aside. 

Prepare a small plate or frozen peas. 

At this point remove pie dough from fridge if it is solid so that it can soften on the counter for rolling. 

For cream sauce: 

Add equal parts butter and flour to a pan (I use about 1/4 lb which is 1/2 cup butter) and then about 1/3 cup flour and mix well on medium heat.   Add 3/4 cup heavy cream of milk (or half of each, depends on how rich you like it)  

Add stock and boiling water from kettle, about 2 cups or more. 

Stir/whisk on medium high heat until mixture thickens like an alfredo sauce consistency. 

Remove from the pot and set aside (covered with a cling wrap right up onto the surface so that it does not develope a skin) 

Roll out pie dough until it's about 1/3 inch thick and using a glass or round cutter cut enough circles to fit and number of individual oven safe ramikins. 

Preheat oven to 400 F 

To assemble pot pies layer with chopped chicken, carrot/celery/veggie mix, steamed potatoes and a sprinkling of peas in each. 

Ladel about 2 tbsp of cream sauce over each. Cover with layer of dough and brush with egg (1 egg cracked and whisked) 

Set all the ramikins on a tray (line tray with foil incase they bubble over) 

Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until dough on top is cooked and broil if needed to achieve a nice golden crust (stay close to the oven when broiling as this process goes very quick, one minute it looks white and the next it can go straight to BURN) 

Enjoy hot or warm. 

Blooming garlic bread (from the"midnight" buffet which we always seem to have after a long fun day) 

1 large sourdough bread or Italian style bread (a nice crusty bread is best) 

Slice into it creating a "checker" pattern using a serrated bread knife. Do not cut all the way through, just stop once you feel you're getting close to the bottom. 

Now either you can make a raw garlic butter or a cooked one:  I made it raw (meaning it's just grated garlic and room temp butter slathered in between the cuts. 

For a cooked version just sautee your garlic in the butter until it smells like the garlic bread we all love and then drizzle this mixture in between the cuts in the bread. 

Salt your butter slightly either way. 

For additional goodness I added small pieces of brie cheese in between so they melt into gooey deliciousness. 

Get a large piece of parchment and crinkle it up into a ball, now wet it under the faucet and shake it out so it's not dripping. 

Wrap your bread in the parchment and bake on 400.  When the parchment is dry and the bread is crisp on the outside with soft melted cheese on the inside then it's ready.  About 15 minutes or so. 

You can sprinkle with chopped chives and enjoy pulling the pieces of bread apart with your guests! 

Mini lamb meatballs with spicy Moroccan inspired dipping sauce

Mini Lamb Meatballs with Moroccan inspired dipping sauce

In a bowl add:
- 1 lb ground lamb
- Splash of worstershire sauce

In a blender pulse/grind the following: 

- 1 slice bread

- 1/4 red onion

- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 sprigs of mint, remove and wash leaves

- 2 sprigs parsley, remove and wash leaves

- zest of 1 lemon

- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses 

- Salt & black pepper

- 1 large egg

Add the marinade to the lamb and gently blend it, do not over mix.  Let it sit out until it comes to room temp, about 30-40 minutes. 

In a saucepan heat oil (I used grape seed oil for the browning, don't waste olive oil on this task) 

Brown the meatballs on all sides in batches as not to overcrowd, in a large skillet I could finish the pound of meat in 2 batches.

When cooking lamb you do not want to overcook so it just comes down to browning them and then remove them by placing them on a paper towel lined plate, they could still cook at this stage so take them out a little early.  Brown on high heat in hot oil as not to let them get grey and soggy but let them brown instantly on all sides without overcooking the middles too much, use a splatter guard as it will splash because the ground lamb contains a lot of fat inside it. 

Set the meatballs aside. 

Spicey tomato dipping sauce: 

This is an interesting recipe, I actually created it using leftover pizza sauce I made the previous day (which I grated ginger into, I love my ginger pizza sauce!! If you haven't seen my previous post on it then click here )
So I had this amazing sauce on hand and simply added abit of spice into it. 

When I began with the recipe for pizza I did the following: 

- 1 1/2 cups strained tomato sauce from a jar

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tsp ground ginger

- 1 large piece of ginger, about twice the size of a thumb, peeled and grated. 

Salt & black pepper

I simmered all of this until the tomato sauce was thick and delicious with an intense ginger flavour. Spread on pizza and you're good to go. 

For the meatball dipping sauce I began with the following: 

Add to a shallow pan: 

- 1 1/2 tsp oil

- 1/4 tsp cumin seed

- 1/2 tsp spanish paprika

- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp lemon zest

- 1 tbsp harissa (I buy a can, divide and freeze in small cubes for future use) 

- 2 tbsp chopped roasted red pepper (I buy them on sale and roast in the oven covered with olive oil on 400 until soft with blistering skins, they go into a jar with olive oil and into the fridge after peeling) 

This recipe is very versatile, just use whatever you got on hand, if you don't have something here then omit it, that's kinda how I cook so I happened to just have these ingredients (harissa/roasted red pepper) in the fridge and so they went in.  If you want a basic sauce recipe just go with the tomato/ginger and spices, and it'll be delicious! 

You can put the meatballs in the sauce or serve separately, if you think your guests would prefer a little variety why not put the red sauce in one bowl and then do a yogurt dipping sauce in the other (1 cup yogurt, chopped mint,1 tsp lemon juice, salt, black pepper) 

Here I have a saffron rice with peas, and a roasted eggplant dish, yogurt, tea and it's quite a party! 

Eggplants are roasted on the fire (on the BBQ) until skins are blistering.  I remove the skins and seedy innards and reserve the flesh.  I chop on a cutting board to the point where it's like a dip and add smashed/grated garlic to this too, season with salt, 2 tbsp lemon juice, drizzle a tbsp of tahini over and blend..  Garnish with pomegranate seeds.   Just have fun with it!

Thank you for stopping by ;)

My Middle Eastern twist on the Cheese Ball

This is my take on the cheese ball (the famous creamy soft appetizer served with some kind of crispy chip/bread at parties)

Here I've added my middle eastern touch, and served them with homemade lavash (it's really quite simple to make, you will be surprised!)

We'll start with the cheese ball(s)

I used soft savoury cheeses, no cream cheese here.

I start with Lebneh, it is a middle eastern soft creamy "cheese" made from yogurt, basically it's a strained yogurt, it's like the greek yogurt and it's the base used in dips or just served as a breakfast food drizzled with olive oil (you've probably seen it on my blog before!)

I made my lebneh because it's super easy, check out the basic instructions here  on my flickr.  Salt is added during the process so it's already seasoned.

Even after it's done sometimes lebneh can release some water as it sits so before making the cheese ball I strain some again by placing the desired amount into a bowl lined with a clean sheet of paper towel (a sturdy paper towel brand is better so that it doesn't fall apart)  This should just make it extra firm. 

The second cheese I used is goat cheese and the third variety is sheep's feta, both these were whisked together until creamy (feta is a bit crumbly so it requires a bit of whisking into the goat cheese to yield a smooth consistency)

I'd say the ratio is 50 % lebneh to 30%  goat cheese and 2% feta. 

For flavourings you can add whatever you like into the cheese or leave it plain!  I grated a small clove of garlic and zested a lemon (just a bit!)   No need to add salt and all these cheeses have enough salt. 

Blend, mixing well (you can set it in the fridge overnight!) 

Now I roll out 3  pieces of cling wrap and 3 big dollops of this creamy cheese mixture in the centre of each piece, divide in thirds so they end up equal.

Bringing the sides of the cling wrap together and twisting at the base, I tried to shape the cheese into a ball as best as possible then set them all on a flat plate and into the freezer for 20 minutes or so (this will make it easier to work with)

For the first cheese ball I rolled it in toasted pine nuts (toast the day before if you'll be too busy the day of your party!)  Toast in a dry pan on medium low until golden and move them around so they don't burn. 

Set aside to cool.

When I was ready to roll I  removed the balls and simply rolled the top and sides because this cheese is  pretty soft so I upwrapped the top and held the bottom with the cling wrap and just dunked top facing down into the pine nuts and then covered the sides by rolling gently. 

I set it gently on a plate and pulled out the cling wrap from under. 

The same technique worked for the chives (chopped finely) and the last one is covered in a light dusting of coloured pepper corns that were crushed in the mortar and pestle. Using coloured peppercorns is better that straight black ones because the green/pink peppercorns are more mild (I don't even think they're actual peppercorns but more like in the berry family or something)   I love black pepper but this one might be too intense for some people so you could switch this for anything else that you prefer. 

LAVASH:

The lavash is of 3 or 4 varieties but the dough is all the same.  It begins with the awesome recipe from my favourite bread book, Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice"  (I travelled around the world clutching this book and preferred to leave behind clothing just so that I'd be able to carry this book back with me! It is that fantastic!)

Check out the recipe here in case you do not have the book, but I highly recommend getting it.

I made the dough, proofed it overnight (yeah yeah, a little longer that I should have but anyway.. ) then divided it into 3 equal sized balls.

I rolled out and baked one at a time.  Rolling out each piece really thin, drizzled and wiped it with a bit of water and sprinkled the first with toasted sesame seeds, the second I did half with toasted cumin seeds and sea salt and the other half with toasted corriander seeds and sea salt. 

The last one I grated a bit of aged parm cheese (the real stuff) 

Bake, break 'em up into bite sized pieces and start dipping!!

Enjoy your party!