Sweet Potato Shibori with Azuki Beans

I found this great dessert recipe online. It's grain free and sweetened with honey. They look like little pouches! They are filled with azuki beans and soy sauce/honey mixture. I did my own variations: I cooked my own azuki beans from scratch, stuffed half the pouches with a honey/soy sauce mixture, and garnished with toasted sesame seeds.

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes (not yams)


• 1 tablespoon honey


• Pinch salt


• 1 can (15 ounces) Azuki beans

Click here for the full recipe

My variation--stuffed with a honey/soy sauce syrup


The azuki beans before twisted into a pouch

Mochi Ball Dessert

This is a very quick dessert that you can make with few ingredients. It's perfect when we feel like an after dinner dessert but don't have any chocolate or cookies around the house. Serve with tea.


Ingredients

1/2 cup Mochiko (Sweet glutinous rice) flour
pinch of salt
soy sauce
sugar
ground toasted sesame seeds
cinnamon

Add salt to mochiko flour. Heat 1/4 cup of water until warm and slowly add to mochiko flour until mochiko is a crumbly consistency that can be shaped into balls (you might not need to add all the water, or you might need to add a little more. Go by how it looks.

Shape mochi mixture into chestnut sized balls.

Boil a pot of water. Add the balls and boil for 3-4 minutes. When balls float to surface, take them out and place them in a bowl of iced water to stop cooking. Dry on a plate and then toss the mochi balls in your choice of: soy sauce, cinnamon/sugar mixture, or ground toasted sesame seeds (or all 3!).

Le Pain Du Jour, Santa Monica

Le Pain Du Jour in Santa Monica is one of my favorite bakeries. I've tried the pain au chocolat, the ham and cheese croissant and the spinach croissant, and they're all drool worthy, but the one that takes the crown is the almond croissant. Dusted with powdered sugar and sprinkled with toasted almonds, this croissant with its fluffy yet crunchy pastry shell is the juiciest pastry I have ever eaten. "What is that? Almond extract?" I wondered. "Butter," Brad replied. Well butter never tasted so good, and for this I'll gladly take the extra calories.

After my first croissant, I was dreaming about having another one, so I asked for it for Valentine's Day. Yes, just a croissant please. Brad happily obliged (and got one for himself too along with a ham and cheese croissant).

One last thing, it is cash only and selection runs out as the day goes on. Go early for best selection.

Le Pain Du Jour

Jacques Torres Valentine's Chocolates

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

In honor of V-day, here's a post on every woman's favorite dessert--chocolate! And this is no ordinary chocolate... It's made by the self proclaimed "Mr. Chocolate" himself, Jacques Torres.

Ah, I'm a lucky girl. One of the families I work for gave me this Jacques Torres heart shaped box of 34 assorted chocolates. If you don't know who Jacques Torres is (that's ok, I didn't until a week ago), his list of awards and accomplishments are overwhelming. He was the former pastry chef at Le Cirque and is considered one of the country's finest chocolatiers. He has stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but thankfully you don't have to go to the big apple to get his chocolates--he sells them online here.

So what's a girl to do with 34... err, 28... um, 20 chocolates? Pace herself, I suppose. Hehe. And share them so she doesn't go into a chocolate coma! My favorite flavors so far have been the white chocolate key lime (it's the one with the cute love bug on top), dark chocolate coconut, pineapple pastis, European peanut butter and dark chocolate spiced with ancho and chipotle chilies.

Jacques' chocolate chip cookies have gotten considerable media attention. Martha Stewart, the NY Times and others have proclaimed this the best cookie ever. I got to try one and it definitely lived up to its reputation. The dark chocolate inside is swirled throughout the cookie instead of kept as "chips". The recipe for his cookie can be found here.

Beard Papa's Cookie Cream Puff

We had a couple of friends over for dinner during the weekend and I made some okonomiyaki and Harumi's carrot tuna salad. For dessert, they brought over Beard Papa's new cookie cream puffs! The crunchy cookie coating tastes sort of like gingerbread and adds a new dimension of flavor to the vanilla cream puff that I really enjoyed.

Hokulani Bakery, Hawaii

We were doing some wedding planning and came across Hokulani bakery. Hokulani is known for their cupcakes. They advertise that they only use the best local ingredients (no corn syrup, etc..). I got their chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting and it was heaven. The cake is really moist and buttery, and they offer a lot of interesting flavors like Kona coffee and pumpkin. Check it out in Restaurant Row.

Susan's Ginger Snaps

Brad's mother Susan makes the most amazing ginger snaps. They're thin, crisp and perfectly bite sized with a nice ginger kick to them.

Susan brought these over for Thanksgiving, and we took some back with us to L.A. We cannot stop eating them!

1 1/3 sticks butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3 Tablespoons molasses

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1-2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter, sugar, add the egg and molasses. Then add the dry ingredients. Put the mixture in the refrigerator for about an hr. Then,roll into little balls in your hand and dip into a bowl of sugar.They should be lightly coated with the sugar. I put parchement paper on the cookie sheets. Bake about 10 minutes. Cookies will puff, then crinkle on the top. They should get more crisp as they cool.

It makes about 75 - 80 cookies.

Ida's Chocolate Nut Blondies

While in Austin, there was no shortage of delicious sweets. Brad's sister Amy baked these chocolate nut blondies, and we couldn't keep our hands off of them!

Chocolate Nut bars (Ida's Recipe)

2/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3 eggs
1 6 oz package chocolate bits
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 c all purpose flour, sifted
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c chopped nuts

Combine butter/margarine and sugar. Cream thoroughly. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Sift together dry ingredients. Gradually add to the butter/sugar mixture, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add nuts and chocolate bits. Blend thoroughly. Spread evenly over well oiled 10 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 3/4 inch pan. Bake 350 degrees 25-30 minutes. When almost cool, cut in squares. Yield: about 4 dozen 3 x 1 inch bars.

Brad's Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is Brad's best cookie to date! Unfortunately, he spaced the cookies too close to each other, so they fused into one giant one. Haha.

He followed this recipe, but used regular chocolate chips instead of white chocolate chips. We finished the batch off in no time--it was absolutely delicious. He left the pistachios whole, which contrasted nicely with the chocolate chips. The saltiness of the pistachios also added a wonderful dimension. I love salty sweet desserts!

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pistachio_white_chocolate_chip_cookies/

Chocolate Oatmeal Lace Cookies

While I was out today, Brad made these cookies. They're buttery but so light. Be warned: it's easy to eat a lot of them in one sitting!

Brad made these cookies once by drizzling the chocolate over them, like a regular lace cookie. Today he decided to just put the chocolate in the middle of the cookie.

Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
For the cookies:
1/2 cup oats, chopped in food processor
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar (Brad used evaporated cane juice)
6 tbsp melted butter (until the foam subsides)
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Pinch of salt

For the ganache:
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1 tbsp heavy cream

In a food processor, chop the oats. Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

Combine all ingredients for the cookies in a large bowl and stir to combine. Spoon onto baking sheets by the teaspoon, placing each cookie at least 3″ apart from others. Bake at 425 for 6-8 minutes, or until cookies have spread and are just beginning to brown around the edges. Let them cool completely on the baking sheets before sliding them off with a spatula.

For the chocolate topping, melt chocolate chips and 2 tbsp heavy cream slowly on a stove top over low heat (a double boiler is the best method). Spoon the ganache over cookies, or drizzle on.

Makes about 24-30 cookies.

Chocolate Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

With over 200 reviews and an impressive "4 out of 4 fork" rating on Epicurious.com, you really can't go wrong with this delicious cookie recipe. I loved the chewiness of the oatmeal mixed with the shredded texture of the coconut. The cookies were moist, light, and just sweet enough--perfection!

Here's the recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Chunk-Oatmeal-Coconut-Cookies-105431

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 1/2 cups packaged finely shredded unsweetened coconut
• 12 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), cut into 1/2-inch chunks (about 2 cups)
• 3/4 cup almonds with skins (4 oz), toasted, cooled, and chopped
• 
  

My version differed slightly from the one on Epicurious--I used chocolate chips instead of chocolate chunks. I also omitted the almonds. Some reviewers also mention that you can cut out the 6 Tb granulated sugar, based on your taste. Play with it and see what you like!

Applesauce Multigrain Muffins

We had a can of Country Choice Organic's Multi Grain hot cereal in the pantry, and on the back of the can there was a recipe for these healthy muffins. For one dozen muffins, the total sugar count is only 1/2 a cup plus 2 Tb for the topping. The rest of the sweetness comes from the applesauce. There's also hardly any butter in the recipe--only 1 Tb for the topping!

The muffins are definitely not sweet (they taste like "health muffins"), so if you prefer it sweeter, I would add more sugar. I think that this is a recipe I could definitely play with to kick it up a notch. Perhaps the addition of bananas or chocolate chips would be good next time.

Here's the recipe from the back of the can:

Makes 1 dozen

Streusel Topping

1/3 cup uncooked hot cereal like Country Choice Organic Multigrain Hot Cereal

2 Tb brown sugar

1 Tb melted butter

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Muffins

1 c uncooked Hot Cereal

1 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 c applesauce

1/2 c fat free or low fat milk

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c sunflower oil

1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line twelve muffin cups with paper baking cups or oil bottoms lightly

2. Mix oats, sugar and cinnamon for the topping. Add melted butter and mix well.

3. Combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon for muffins. Mix well. In a separate bowl, mix applesauce, milk, brown sugar, oil and egg. Add dry ingredients and stir until the dry are moistened.

4. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven and serve warm.

Gluten Free Banana Muffins with Stevia

Here's a guilt free, sugar free muffin recipe that I can vouch for. Brad couldn't even tell that it was gluten and sugar free. I think the only difference between a regular muffin and this muffin is that this muffin is slightly denser and doesn't puff up as much. Taste-wise, it's addictive.

1 1/4 cups Red Mill Gluten Free flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (3/4 cup)
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp pure Stevia powder (KAL brand)
1/3 cup apple sauce (unsweetened)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
cinnamon, dried coconut (optional)


Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Line muffin cups with liners.

Whisk together flour and salt in a bowl. Whisk together bananas, butter, stevia, apple sauce, egg, vanilla in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened.

Divide batter among lined muffin cups. Sprinkle with cinnamon and coconut (optional). Bake until muffins are puffed and a toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffins to a rack and cool slightly.

Coconut Macaroons with Stevia

I've been eating too much sugar lately, so I decided to find something that would satisfy my sweet cravings but still be sugar free. Enter Stevia. I took the recipe from this website:

http://www.candida-cure-recipes.com/coconut-macaroon-recipe.html

The macaroons had a wonderful texture, but they were too sweet. I didn't even add all the stevia recommended--I used about 3/4 of the amount recommended. Next time, I will cut the amount of stevia in half.

COCONUT MACAROONS WITH STEVIA

3 large egg whites
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups dried, unsweetened, fine shredded coconut (the finer the better)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon dried ground stevia leaf (note: original recipe says 1 tsp, but I thought it was too sweet)

optional – ½ teaspoon cinnamon


Whip the egg whites. I whipped them by hand instead of machine because according to Julia Child, you must be able to do it by hand in order to understand the "vagaries of eggs". Don't you love her? My arm got sore, so Brad and I switched off.



Fold in the dry ingredients.



Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, about a tablespoon for each macaroon. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 325 degrees. (Mine actually took 25 minutes!). Macaroons are done when the tops are golden brown.



Voila!

Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence (Julia Child's Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce)

Tonight's dinner party was a success! We had so much delicious food, and everyone left with happy bellies and faces despite the horrid heat wave.

Dinner Party Menu:

-Creamy Carrot and Sage Soup with Cinnamon Croutons

-Tossed Salad with Mushrooms, Cucumber, Tomato, Red Onion, and Parmesan Crisps

-Julia Child's Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence (Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce)

-Bananas Three Ways: Rosemary and Whiskey Bananas with Vanilla Ice Cream, Bananas and Sour Cream, Toasted Coconut Banana Muffins


Creamy Carrot and Sage Soup with Cinnamon Croutons

See "A Sneak Peak" post for the ingredients. I garnished this with some sour cream and bacon (not shown). This is such a delicious and satisfying soup, and the cinnamon croutons make it even more outstanding.



Parmesan Crisps with Herbes de Provence

Ron and Fran made these crisps, and they were sooooo good!



Tossed Salad with Mushrooms, Cucumber, Tomato, Red Onion

Ron and Fran brought this salad. It was the perfect refreshing accompaniment to the chicken.



Julia Child's Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence (Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce)

Wow. Sure, Julia Child's dishes take a long time to make, but the effort is so worth it. This chicken was so juicy and tender, and the hollandaise sauce that accompanied it was full of flavor. Brad insisted that we must make this dish again. And again. The sauce is a variation on the standard hollandaise sauce because it uses the pan butter drippings and white wine instead of just plain butter.



Rosemary and Whiskey Bananas with Vanilla Ice Cream

I got this recipe from Eric Ripert's blog, and it is so delicious (and unusual!). I omitted the pepper, but everything else was the same. You make the dish in the toaster--how easy is that? (Eric Ripert actually has a whole bunch of dishes on his blog that you make in the toaster oven. )

The man is a culinary genius, and this is just one of his interesting and delicious creations. I highly recommend trying it yourself.

http://aveceric.com/category/recipes



Desert was really 3 banana deserts in one (hence the name "Banana Three Ways"). I also served my sour cream and banana dish (see "$50 a week challenge" post) and toasted coconut banana muffins. I was surprised that the coconut banana muffins actually came out tasting great after a toasting and a dab of butter! We gave some to Ron and Fran to take home, but made them promise to toast them with butter before eating them.

Coconut Banana Muffin Disappointment

Brad and I are going to a picnic tomorrow, so I made some coconut banana muffins to take. I followed this recipe from Gourmet magazine:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Banana-Coconut-Muffins-109473

Brad did a taste test and said that they were too dense and a bit dry. It must have had to do with the addition of the dried coconut. My previous banana muffin recipe is much better--it's basically just like this recipe, but without the dried coconut. (See "A (Not Very) Lazy Sunday" post) The result is moist and not too sweet.

But they look so pretty...

The $50 a Week Challenge

You know how Rachel Ray has her show "$40 a Day" in which she tries to eat all her meals in various cities for "just $40 a day"? Well, I always thought to myself, "Big deal--$40 a day is a lot of money for just one day. She should try $20 a day. Or even $10 a day.." (Can you imagine that show? Hello McDonalds!)

Inspired by Rachel Ray, I originally wanted to challenge myself to cook every meal for just $40 a week. Then I realized that no matter how I stretch my dollars, that just isn't going to happen. I'd rather not sacrifice quality to save a few extra bucks, so I settled on the more reasonable goal of $50 a week.

Friday is my grocery shopping day, and since I've been cooking a lot (all 2 weeks worth :P), it's been sort of crazy. I go to at least 3 places to get all my groceries: Whole Foods for meats (organic when possible), Ralphs for veggies and fruits, and Trader Joes for the rest (butter, eggs, cream, etc--I prefer organic dairy, and TJ's has it cheaper than Whole Foods does). When I can, I also go to farmers markets and the Santa Monica Coop.

Today I bought $110 worth of groceries for both Brad and I. That's $55 each--not bad, but I didn't reach my goal of $50.. :( Maybe next week!

Today I came up with this simple but amazing desert:

BANANAS AND SOUR CREAM WITH CINNAMON



I remember seeing some recipes for sour cream banana cake and pancakes, and thought, "Why not just cut out the extra flour and sugar?" The resulting recipe is healthier, but still satisfies your sweet tooth.

Ingredients:
1 banana
A dollop of sour cream
a pinch of sea salt
cinnamon
stevia to taste

Slice the banana into coins, put a dollop of sour cream on top, a pinch of sea salt, cinnamon, and then finally sprinkle with a very light dusting of stevia. It is so good!

A close up of my second helping:



DEVILED EGGS AND BACON ON TOAST



I wanted so much to make mayonnaise by hand as Julia Child instructs in her cookbook, so I decided to make deviled eggs for lunch today. I'd made mayo before from scratch in the food processor; it was a piece of cake. However, Ms. Child said that one should really know how to do it by hand in order to gain a good understanding of the egg.

So to become "one with the egg", I whipped, and whipped, and drizzled oil, and more oil... I guess I stopped before adding enough oil, because the mixture never really gelled like it did in the processor. Oh well. I still made the deviled eggs with my runny mayo, and it was fine. File this mayo under "works in progress".

Ingredients:

2 hard boiled eggs
Handmade mayo made from 2 egg yolks, olive oil, mustard, pepper, salt, hot sauce
1 Niiman ranch bacon strip
1 slice toasted Ezekiel bread

The hard boiled eggs


The mayo "work in progress"...


LEAF'S SIDE SALAD

I did eat out once this week, at a raw restaurant called "Leaf". I got their side salad, which turned out to be quite large. It was surprisingly tasty--much better than their collard wraps. There are some crispy nuggets of raw nuttiness under all that yellow sauce.



LEFTOVERS FOR LUNCH

Yesterday's lunch: leftover boeuf bourguignon with added cauliflower and watercress. Oh, this dish just gets better and better the longer you wait!

A Flurry of Dishes

Days off tend to make me lethargic, but today was an exception. Chalk it up to the culinary wave I've been riding, perhaps. Instead of dilly dallying, I woke up, vacuumed the house (twice in one week??), furminated my bunny (i.e. brushed her to take out all the fur she's been shedding), went grocery shopping for stevia, and then made a whole flurry of dishes.

There were hits, there were misses, and there were what I like to call "works in progress".

Let's start with the hits...

CREAM OF CAULIFLOWER SOUP

I tweaked this recipe just a bit by using fresh ginger instead of powdered, a red onion instead of 2 leeks, no celery, both homemade beef and chicken stock (instead of just chicken stock), and a touch of sour cream and coconut milk to thin the soup out instead of half and half. I love this soup! It's creamy, but not heavy. It's also low on the glycemic index, unlike the carrot and sweet potato soups I've been making. Just one cauliflower yields a lot of soup. I also roasted some cauliflower florets in the oven to add to the soup as a garnish in the end.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cream-of-Cauliflower-Soup-350616



Before putting it in the blender..


PLUM RASPBERRY AND RED WINE COMPOTE

I had some leftover red wine from last night's beef stew, so I found this recipe on epicurious. I prepared it the night ahead, and it was just delicious the next day for dessert. Brad put it over vanilla ice cream while I was happy just eating it plain. For this dessert, it is important to give it time for the flavors to meld; I had a taste yesterday, and it was definitely not as good as it was today.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Plum-Raspberry-and-Red-Wine-Compote-5629

after 24 hours of marinating in the red wine syrup reduction


Brad's half eaten ice cream with fruit


The red wine syrup..


RED WINE BARBECUE SAUCE

Brad requested burgers for dinner, so I made hamburger with a red wine BBQ sauce (yes, I was trying to find a way to get rid of the extra red wine from last night!). It turned out great, and was so easy to make.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Red-Wine-Barbecue-Sauce-109711



Now let's move on to the "works in progress"...

FRIED POLENTA

I had a bunch of leftover polenta from last night, so I wanted to make broiled polenta for lunch. I cut some of the leftovers into slices, coated them with some olive oil, and put it under the broiler and waited.... And waited.... There was no browning whatsover. I took it out, put it in the toaster oven and tried broiling it again. And again, nothing.

Finally, I decided to eat my failed broiling experiment and try frying instead. I heated the oil till it started smoking, dried off one piece of polenta with a paper towel, and then put it in the olive oil. After 4 minutes on each side, I was left with a golden piece of fried goodness. It was heaven. Too bad I only made one piece :P

I tried making this again for Brad for dinner, but it just didn't crisp up like it did earlier. This is definitely a work in progress.

My one perfect piece of fried polenta:


My lunch today: fried polenta with leftover boeuf bourguignon



HAMBURGER WITH AVOCADO, SOUR CREAM, FRIED POLENTA AND RED WINE BBQ SAUCE

This was a "leftovers" meal. The BBQ sauce was the best part!



Finally, we've come to the "disasters" section. There was only one disaster today...

DOUBLE FUDGE BROWNIE (with Stevia)

I have never cooked with Stevia, but I figured I should start because sugar is not good for me and I don't want to get diabetes. I searched online for stevia recipes and found this one. I made some substitutions (butter instead of margarine, half and half instead of skim milk, 1/2 gluten free baking mix and 1/2 regular flour, and pure stevia extract instead of the stevia blend. I guess all of these substitutions was my first mistake. My second mistake was that I didn't measure out the stevia, but added it in little scoops to taste. The problem was, I ended up making it way too sweet! I tried to remedy this by adding more chocolate/butter/half and half. The result was just a mess. It stuck to the cupcake mold, was too moist inside, and was not sweet enough in the end.

On the bright side, I whipped my first egg whites by hand into peaks! Brad helped---it sure takes a lot of beating to make those peaks :P

http://www.cookingwithstevia.com/web/desserts07.shtml

The brownie tops (the rest stuck to the pan)



Coming out of the oven



The mess...



(The disaster didn't stop us from polishing off the whole plate of brownie tops tonight, though.)