Lemon Loaves, Sunday Supremes and not-so Culinary Art(s)

In between several short, feet-dragging, yet strangely productive stints of working on an early draft of a major research paper, I’ve been busy making and baking over the past few days.









On Thursday evening, I made mini loaves of lemon poppy seed bread from an AllRecipes recipe for lemon poppy seed muffins that I modified slightly. I used  plain, no-fat yogurt with an extra tablespoon of lemon zest rather than store-bought lemon-flavoured yogurt, cut out a third of the sugar, didn’t use the sugar-lemon glaze on top, and didn’t put in any baking powder because I didn't have any.The little loaves have a soft, cakey texture rather than that of a dense bread, but they are delicious.

On Friday night, I made half a batch of brownies using the recipe on the Fry’s Cocoa can using plain no-fat yogurt instead of the butter, but they were so good they disappeared before I got a chance to snap them with my camera.

Today I discovered the curiously satisfying culinary skill of supreme-ing oranges. I’ve watched people doing it on TV before but had never tried it myself. I have to confess that it’s addictive in the most unusual way—it’s like, once I supremed one orange, I felt a compulsion to do it again for some reason. Maybe it’s because it makes me feel somewhat competent with a knife. Anyway, “supreme” (say it in French: soo-PREM) refers to the method of cutting all the peel and pith away from an orange, and then cutting out the bits of sweet flesh in between the membrane so that you get pretty little wedges. It sounds tedious, but it’s really easy.






Cutting up oranges on an orange cutting board with an orange knife was totally unplanned, I swear.

I used some of the supremes for a fruit salad (that mixture of cube-shaped, peach-coloured things in the plastic container in the first photo above), and had yogurt and fruit salad for breakfast, followed by a small bowl of leftover couscous salad.

The rest of the supremes were reserved for an amazing beet, orange, and spinach salad that I had for lunch today. I sauteed some baby spinach in a non-stick pan and let it cool slightly on a plate, and on top I put a mixture of rosebud beets (drained from the can, rinsed, and sliced, or you could roast fresh beets), orange supremes, green onion sliced into fine matchsticks, crumbled blue cheese, toasted chopped pecans, and a sprinkling of dried dill and freshly ground black pepper.

Finally, yesterday I made my old standby couscous salad, where I just throw in whatever vegetables happen to be in my fridge. I cooked one cup of dry couscous in chicken broth, and once I removed it from the heat, I  added ground cinnamon, cardamom, cumin,  coriander, and black pepper, then covered with a lid until the broth was completely absorbed. Then I transferrred the couscous to a bowl and added in finely sliced red cabbage, red onion, grated carrot, zucchini, raisins, the zest of one lemon, black olives, and sweet red pepper. I made an impromptu dressing from the juice of the lemon, two tablespoons or so of Sharwood’s Bombay Club-style mango chutney (I usually get the Major Grey stuff, but I wanted to try that bit of heat in the Bombay Club version), and some double-fruit, no-sugar, jam-type apricot spread. Then I threw it in and tossed the salad. I usually add chopped dried apricots and sliced toasted almonds or pumpkin seeds, too, but I was all out, and it wasn’t until after (naturally) that I thought about adding chopped dried figs. Oh well. Next time. This makes so much couscous salad that I'll probably be eating it for the next week, which is why I like to make it.







If you stand back from this close-up of the couscous salad and squint a bit, it sort of looks like abstract art.

I love anything that's even remotely artistic or clever that's made with food. I used to grin from ear-to-ear each time I saw Kraft run one of its animated fruit-and-vegetable salad dressing commercials on TV, like this one:





But I have to say that Carl Warner is the king of realistic food art. I thought I was clever making rabbits and elves out of marzipan, but his landscapes made from actual food, or “foodscapes”, are pure genius.

Anyway, it’s time I stopped procrastinating and worked on my very last paper for my Master of Arts degree. Yep, almost done.

Super-Addictive Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos

I found a great recipe online at AllRecipes for something called Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos. Addictive? Now, that’s a bold claim. Or so I thought. I made them and got hooked instantly, and once I realized how easy and healthy they are, and how great they are for lunch at work, I decided to make another batch, only this time tailored to my own tastes. The original recipe calls for kidney beans, and that’s what I used the first time around, but I think black beans taste better. Below is my own customized recipe. And if you’re like me and you like recipes that have pictures of the food, then you can click here to see a gallery of photos from people who made the original-recipe Addictive Burritos. My burritos don't look much different, except mine don't have cheese.



My Super-Addictive Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos
Makes enough for four people, two burritos each. I only have one because they’re very filling, but they’re so good, you’ll probably want two. Or three.

Ingredients:

• 1 can (19 oz.) of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups of cooked sweet potato, skins left on, cut into cubes. The number of raw sweet potatoes to start with depends on the size of the sweet potatoes. I usually start with two large raw, cut into big chunks, and I still have a bit left over after cooking and measuring.
• 4 medium cloves of garlic, or to taste – chop two and mince or finely grate the other two
• ½ cup of thinly sliced onion
• Small amount of oil, roughly 1 tsp – I use olive oil, but canola should be fine
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• ¾ tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp of cilantro paste (I use the Gourmet Garden stuff in the tube), or some freshly chopped cilantro to taste (OPTIONAL – not everyone likes cilantro!)
• Juice and zest of one lime
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 8 medium tortillas - I use whole wheat

Directions:

1. Cut raw sweet potatoes into large chunks with skins left on and boil until soft (you can add salt to the cooking liquid, but I don’t). Drain the potatoes but reserve some of the cooking liquid, about ¾ - 1 cup. When the potatoes are cool enough that you can handle them, cut them into smaller cubes, enough to make 2 cups.

2. In a nonstick pan, heat oil and sauté onion and 2 chopped cloves of garlic until soft on medium heat. Add chili powder and cumin, stir into onions and garlic, and cook for one minute. Remove from heat.

3. Drain and rinse black beans. Add to food processor along with sautéed onions and garlic. Add the 2 finely minced garlic cloves, zest and juice of one lime, and cilantro to bean mixture. Process everything until smooth in a food processor. You can use some of the reserved liquid from cooking the sweet potatoes if the mixture is too thick, adding a little bit at a time until the desired consistency is reached. Depending on the size of your food processor bowl, you may have to remove the bean mixture before processing the softened sweet potato, and then combine the two mixtures in a bowl after. That’s what I do. Otherwise, add sweet potatoes to the bean mixture and process until smooth and combined, using a small amount of the reserved potato-cooking liquid if it becomes too thick. Or you can just throw the beans and cooked potatoes in together after the onions are cooked and process it all together at the same time. Remember to stop and scrape down the sides of the processor bowl about halfway through to make sure that everything gets combined. Or, if you don't have a food processor, you can just mash it all by hand.

5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

6. Divide filling into 8 equal portions, and spoon onto warm tortillas, and roll/wrap up.

The amount of filling should be enough for 8 generously filled tortillas. The recipe as it is above is suitable for people who don’t like really hot, spicy food, even though I love hot, spicy food. You can easily add cheese to each burrito before rolling it up, and if you like extra heat, you could probably add some finely chopped fresh or pickled jalapeno, ground cayenne, or other hot peppers to the mixture before processing, or serve some pickled peppers or hot sauce as an accompaniment on the side. You can also arrange these in a baking dish, top with grated cheese, and bake in the oven for a few minutes until the burritos are warmed through and the cheese is melted, but they’re great eaten cold like a sandwich wrap on their own, without anything else. But if you did want to serve them with anything else, serve with salsa, sour cream, chopped green onions, hot peppers, lime wedges, and guacamole, or anything else you might like with Mexican food,

These are great to freeze, too. I make 8 burritos all at once, wrap them individually in plastic wrap, and freeze them together in a Ziploc bag. Then I take one out of the freezer at night and let it thaw to eat at lunch at work the next day along with some carrot sticks and red pepper strips.

Christmas 2010

Between trying to finish my last few papers for my Master’s program, a vacation in Florida, working full time, and all the Christmas-related activity this year, it’s no trouble to see why I haven’t posted since September, but I did spend some time trying new recipes and crafting for the holidays this year.

I finally tried my hand at making decorated sugar cookies, and I made some to give away to my coworkers for Christmas:

I just put a few on a snowflake-decorated paper plate and enclosed each one in a holiday Ziploc bag to keep them fresh.

All the sugar cookies are decorated with royal icing with the exception of the stars and the flower. In the photo above, clockwise from left are the following: Vanilla-flavoured snowflake sugar cookies with silver dragees; vanilla people cookies with coloured sprinkles; vanilla stars with chocolate drizzle and crystallized ginger; an orange flower (flavoured with real orange zest) with chocolate drizzle and snowflake sprinkles; orange mittens; and in the center is an orange dove.

A close-up of my snowflake cookies.

I made the following pinecone elves based on a Martha Stewart idea. I didn’t put strings in their hats so that they could be hung as ornaments because I think that would have ruined them. They actually looked much cuter just sitting on the branches of my Christmas tree, which is how I displayed them.

For photos of the individual elves, you can click on the photo above to see them in my Flickr photostream. For some of the elves I free-hand embroidered their little scarves with flowers.

I also made felt Christmas candy-cane mice based on another Martha Stewart idea, and tried my hand at making felt stockings using a template that I’ve had around for years but just never used. Those felt stickers you can get at craft stores like Michaels made cute embellishments for the stockings. I used snowflakes on some stockings and Santa hat stickers on others (they aren't shown in the photos below)—I just peeled off the backing from the stickers, applied a little glue with the glue gun, and pressed them on. I gave some of the mice and stockings filled with little candy canes to coworkers and family members.

Of course, the Christmas Eve festivities at my house wouldn’t have been complete without the Penguin cheese tray (like last year), featuring olive penguin hors d’oeuvres and a cheeseball igloo. This year I made a Christmas tree cheeseball, too.

In case you’re curious about the flavor of the cheeseballs, the igloo is made with one container of Philadelphia Herb and Garlic cream cheese, finely grated fresh garlic (one or two cloves, or to taste), toasted chopped pecans, real bacon bits, grated cheddar cheese, and freshly ground black pepper. The Christmas tree is made with about half a block of plain cream cheese (light, I think), some finely grated fresh garlic (one or two cloves, or to taste), a pinch of Italian seasoning, a few pinches of dried dill, freshly ground black pepper, and parmesan and grated mozzarella cheeses. Once I formed the Christmas tree into a conical tree shape, I rolled it in dried dill, pressing it in to make it stay, and added thin rings from a red pepper for garland, some bits of carrot (left over from cutting the beaks and feet for the penguins--waste not, want not!)  for tree ornaments, and I cut a star out of a carrot slice for the tree topper.

And the pièce de résistance was my chocolate Bûche de Noël, or yule log cake, that I served on Christmas Eve. Made with a chocolate genoise cake and filled with a layer of Nutella and chocolate mousse, and frosted with my chocolate-hazelnut (Nutella) buttercream frosting, it was absolutely delicious, even though I only used half of the recipe for the genoise resulting in a tinier log. But it was the addition of my handmade marzipan elves that really put this creation over the top:

In addition to the elves, I made a marzipan snowman, marzipan mushrooms, and marzipan acorns. The "snow" around the cake is coconut, and those are chocolate rocks outlining the perimeter of the tray. The "bells" on the elf hats of the baby elf and the snowman are silver dragees. It's the first time that I've ever made a Bûche de Noël. It was challenging but worth it.

And finally, a picture of my pretty Christmas tree at night:

It’s become abundantly clear that I need to invest in a new digital camera. The one I used for my photos above was just an inexpensive little Olympus one that I bought in 2004. Hopefully, my next post won't take me over three months to get around to writing like this one, but perhaps by next time I'll have better photos to share.