FoodListing 2008

Some friends of mine gave me EAT: Los Angeles: The Food Lover's Guide to Los Angeles for my birthday (which is a GREAT book), and while using the book to plan out my foodscapades for the next year, I realized that New Year's would be a good time to reflect back on food highlights for this past year. So here's some of my favorite food fun of 2008!

Biggest food obsession in the kitchen: Marshmallows/Guimauve

Without a doubt, marshmallows (and gelatin, as a correllary) have been the food I have most thought about and experimented with in 2008. I have made them in all the flavors, colors, and shapes that have appealed to me, and have more ideas on the horizon (watch out for dessert sushi and vegetarian marshmallows!).




Marshmallow Posts:
Guimauve: Beginnings of an Obsession
Guimauve Part Deux: Some Kosher Fluff
Guimauve Part Three: Gelatin Sheets
The Amazing Gelatin Sheets
Marshmallow Baby Rattles
Guimauve Flavoring
Notes on Guimauve
Marshmallow Christmas Trees

Biggest food obsession in the bakery: French Macarons

This is not an obsession that has slowed down either, but I am running out of places to try macarons in L.A.! It may come down to my own baking efforts before long, but this past year was the year of Parisian inspiration and Los Angeles exploration. Truly, macarons are difficult to describe, but one taste and you'll be hooked (just look at all the exclamation points I use below...). Still the best in L.A.: Europane.






Macaron Posts:
Tasting Paris
Happy Fourteenth of July!
Paulette: Life is like this box of macarons
Europane: Mmmmacarons!
Boule: Another macaron attempt
Happy Foodie Halloween!

Favorite Food Experience
This is an incredibly difficult thing to decide; I've had a great time throwing food-themed parties with friends, going out to eat all over L.A. with new foodie friends (shout out to the AWC!), exploring food in Paris and Jerusalem, gorging myself at a chocolate buffet in Boston, rediscovering going out to eat alone, and just enjoying cooking in my own kitchen. On second thought, I'm not going to choose a favorite...

Favorite Dessert to take to a Party

Cupcakes! I can never resist the temptation to try something new for an occasion, but my method of flavoring boxed cake mixes has allowed me to play around a lot with cupcake flavors and decorations. I also happen to love how photogenic cupcakes are! "A Little More Cupcaking Around" has my favorites.









Cupcake Posts:
Cupcake Playdate
A Little More Cupcaking Around
Fall Cupcakes

Happy New Year!

Mom's Christmas Cookies

Every December, my mother's kitchen - and living room, and den, and garage - gets taken over by thousands of Christmas cookies. She works for weeks to produce these beautiful platters of cookies that get distributed to business associates, friends, neighbors, and family members; they are given out to so many people that the cookies do, indeed run out! The following are a selection of the traditional repertoire of cookies that she has built up for our family.


Santa's Whiskers cookies: Mom's grandmother's recipe. Green and red candied cherries, pecans, lots of butter, all rolled in shredded coconut. Slightly chewy with nice crispness to the edges.


Gingerbread cookies, of course! Sometimes decorated, sometimes not, but always soft and well spiced.


Pecan balls: Many call these cookies Mexican Wedding cookies, or Russian Tea Cakes, but Mom's version of these buttery, pecany balls are small and light, ready for a quick pop in the mouth. It's a good thing we have cousins who love these enough to spend hours rolling the balls by hand! The powdered sugar that we store these in at Christmas is always left over in abundance, slightly pecan-flavored and ready for sprinkling on pancakes.


Pecan bars: Anyone who loves pecan pie is a sucker for these honeyed, buttery, nutty bars - a layer of shortbread on the bottom with the gooey sugary nut layer on top.


Chocolate peanut butter bars: These require no baking, just mixing, pressing in a pan, and covering with chocolate. Amazing what magic that can come of peanut butter, powdered sugar, more butter, graham cracker crumbs, and chocolate!


Ganache Cups: My little brother's most recent addition to our selection, and the chocolatiest of chocolate treats. He creates the cups by painting the inside of small silicone baking cups with melted chocolate, and once they are hardened, he squeezes dark chocolate ganache (which is just heavy cream with chocolate) into the middle. Beautiful and so, so rich. The next generation is already making their mark!

To those who celebrate Christmas, I wish a happy and tasty holiday!

Swiss Chard Tart

Since I've made this tart four times in the last week, I feel like I need to share it with you all. I've made it so many times not just because it has a whole wheat crust, or because it's another way to get veggies on the table, or because it's a vegetarian entrée, or to use my new tart pan, but because it tastes so good! This tart is full of unexpected flavors and textures that bring something unique to any meal.

This recipe is based on Chocolate and Zucchini's Swiss Chard Pie, but I swapped out the pizza crust for the pâte brisée in the C&Z cookbook, which I made with whole wheat flour, and I used cottage cheese instead of costlier ricotta.

First, you make the pastry 30 minutes to one day ahead of time (it can be frozen for up to three days).

Pâte brisée
1 1/3 C King Arthur white whole wheat flour (white flour if desired)
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz chilled unsalted butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Ice cold water

In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour and salt, and then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or a fork until the butter and flour together make a coarse texture (this may also be done in a food processor). Stir in the egg, and then mix in the water one teaspoon at a time until the pastry starts to come together and you can form a ball. Make it into a flattened ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator 10 minutes before you plan to use it. After the 10 minutes, roll it out into a circle the size of your 10-inch tart pan (with removable bottom, if possible) on a floured pastry cloth. Lay the dough over your tart pan and press it lightly around the bottom edge. Use your hands to even the edges of the dough with the pan, removing any extra dough and smoothing out the edges. Now your dough is ready for the filling.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees while you prepare the filling.

Chard filling
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 clove garlic, minced
1 handful raisins
1 handful pine nuts, toasted
1/2 C cottage cheese or ricotta cheese

Make a cup of tea and soak the raisins in the tea.

Prepare the Swiss chard by washing the leaves and stems. Separate the leaves from the stems and chop the stems to bite-size pieces. Gradually heat the clove of garlic in 1 tsp of olive oil in a saucepan, and then add the chard stems and cook them for a few minutes. Once they start to get translucent, add the chard leaves torn up into bite-sized pieces and cook for a few more minutes until wilted. Drain the cooked chard in a colander and then squeeze out excess moisture by placing cooked chard in a clean dish towel or doubled paper towel, twisting the towel around the chard, and squeezing out as must moisture as possible (if you skip this step, the tart will be watery).

Mix the drained chard with raisins, pine nuts, and cottage cheese/ricotta. Pour the mixture into the tart crust and spread evenly. Add more cheese if you'd like the tart to be more full.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes and let cool before serving.

Mendiant Bark

Need a little last-minute holiday treat? Try this traditional French Christmas sweet that takes very little effort and time. Normally a mendiant is made as 1 1/2 inch disks of chocolate with a nut or two and a piece of dried fruit or two on top (also an easy option), but I made it into a big bar of chocolate that I broke into pieces after it hardened.

You can make this with dark chocolate, white chocolate, or any other kind of chocolate you can think of, and you can top it with any combination of dried fruits and nuts that you like. Here's my favorite version:

Mendiant Bark
12 oz. white chocolate (chips or a bar that you can cut up)
handful of dried cranberries
handful of dried apricots, diced small
a few pieces of crystalized ginger, diced small
handful of toasted sliced almonds
handful of toasted pecan bits
handful of pistachio meats

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave (no more than 30 seconds at a time, with good stirs in between) and pour out onto a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Spread as thin as you like, and proceed to sprinkle the fruits and nuts randomly and thickly over the chocolate. Crowd the toppings together and cover all open areas of chocolate so that every bite is sure to get some goodies. Make sure that all the fruits and nuts are pressed into the chocolate so that they do not fall off when you break the bark into individual pieces. Once the chocolate has hardened, use a large chef knife to break it into random-shaped pieces, or break it with your hands.

Almond and Chocolate Cake

This is for those of you who are looking for a flourless option, a lower-carb and higher fiber option, or just a plain good dessert. It has more of a cake texture than flourless chocolate cakes that are mostly made of eggs, since it uses ground almonds to replace the flour.

Almond and Chocolate Cake
From Paris in a Basket

5 oz/150 g unsweetened chocolate or 6 T cocoa
5 oz/225 g sugar (2/3 C)
7 oz/200 g butter, room temperature
10 oz/300 g ground almonds (found at Trader Joe's)
3 T flour (eliminate if you need this to be gluten free)
5 eggs, separated
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

1. Grate chocolate by hand or in a food processor (or measure cocoa). Mix with the sugar, the egg yolks, and the butter until blended and smooth.
2. Add the almonds and flour and mix well.
3. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, at soft peak add the baking powder and continue beating until firm. Carefully fold into the other ingredients. Do not overmix.
4. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). Rub an 8-inch pan (springform works well) with butter and sprinkle with flour. Pour the mixture into the pan, smooth even with a spatula and place in oven. Bake approximately 30 minutes or until a toothpick placed in the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Let cool, remove from pan and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. Serve with a spoonful of creme fraiche/whipped cream and/or fresh raspberries (or at least defrosted frozen fresh raspberries!) on the side.