Little Ethiopia: Messob

Wow, the summer comes to a screaming halt, and somehow I haven't posted in a month! Okay, I probably shouldn't say "somehow" as if i have no idea how it happened: I've been busy. This has been a summer of two moves (finally settled in, kitchen and all), an enjoyable but time-consuming teaching job, another amorphous and independently-motivated job, and just other stuff.

As with all my posting hiatuses, I have still continued to eat and cook, but have been less than diligent about taking photos and posting my experiences. In addition, I don't happen to have a working oven right now - wouldn't you know that I would move into a place whose oven is broken, not fixable by the gas company, and may even need to be entirely replaced - so I'm living the life of a frustrated baker.

Instead of a recipe, then, I share with you Messob, adjacent to my new neighborhood. Messob is nestled in L.A.'s one block of concentrated Ethiopian stores and restaurants, amongst a conglomeration of other ethnic pockets. I don't know how long I'll live in a city as large as L.A., but I do know that this is absolutely one of the benefits: the diversity of communites collected in the city, and the resulting food availability. There's almost no limit to the food I can find without ordering online, albeit at high cost at times (for example, gelatin sheets, which I previously thought I could only get in France, and kosher gelatin, which I brought back from Israel - both available within 10 minutes drive!).

The thing I enjoy most about Ethiopian food is the commual sharing aspect of the meal; I highly recommend ordering together as a table, and getting a variety of stews, which the server should spoon out onto your injera bread. The slightly sour, spongy bread will serve as your eating utensil as you scoop up the tasty and colorful veggie and meat stews. It's difficult to find parking in the area, since the residential streets have strict parking policies, but worth it for the experience and the food.

Warning about potential awkwardness: the menu suggests that you feed your dining companions mouthfuls of injera with stew, but if you're not there with someone of intimate acquaintance, you may want to pretend that you didn't read that part of the menu...

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

Now that my baking mojo is back, I baked the coconut macaroons of my previous post on the same day as these red velvet cupcakes...and a couple batches of Parisian macarons a couple days later, along with chocolate-coated fleur de sel and caramelized white chocolate ganache. Hm, it's been a busy week. Better be careful not to burn out my inner baker again!

So, red velvet. I better choose my words carefully on this topic...I will say that red velvet has always been an enigma to me. What is the cake supposed to taste like? Is it chocolate or not? Why are so many people passionately in love with it?

After trying these cupcakes, I think I have an inkling of an answer to these questions.

I have also always wondered how vegan baking works. I've done my share of experimenting with fruit purée, egg-based egg substitute, and margarine in baking, but was convinced that vegan baking still needed to be further developed...until these cupcakes.

You may think I'm overstating my case here, but try making these cupcakes: they are better than most scratch cake recipes that I've tried making, hands down. Not only that, but they are slightly healthier, and you can serve them to anyone!

Moist, well-textured, not too sweet, and just chocolatey enough (I may have added extra cocoa powder to that end...). TRY IT! YOU WILL LIKE IT!

Much thanks to the Facebook friend who generously posted this recipe, sourced from the Mac & Cheese food blog.

I intend to use this recipe as a base for other cupcake flavors, so I'll be sure to post any successes I have.

Here we go:

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
from Mac & Cheese

2 cups soy milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 ounces liquid red food coloring OR several shakes of powdered red food coloring
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.
Add vinegar to soy milk, and set aside to curdle (so cool!).
Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Add vegetable oil, food coloring, and vanilla extract to the curdled soy milk, and mix.
Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix.
Fill cupcake liners ¾ full; makes about 22 cupcakes.
Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.

Red velvet cake is normally paired with cream cheese frosting, so you can use my cream cheese frosting recipe or this similar, optionally vegan cream cheese frosting. To use the contents of my fridge, I substituted mascarpone in for the Tofutti, and it was really good. I could taste the margarine in the icing, but I still enjoyed the icing on the cupcake.

(Vegan) Cream Cheese Frosting:

½ C margarine, room temperature
½ C Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature, or mascarpone cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 C powdered sugar

Cream margarine, cream cheese, and vanilla extract.
Slowly mix the confectioner’s sugar into the creamed sugar, and then beat until smooth and fluffy.
Frost cooled cupcakes. Pipe on with a medium round tip from a pastry bag to get the effect of these photos.

Now you're all set...but are you ready for the rave reviews?

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons

Yes, macaroooooons. The mounds of sweet coconut that have nothing to do with Parisian macarons. I've been looking for a good recipe for ages, and finally have a keeper (thank you David Lebovitz!).

I love that the French call these rochers à la noix de coco; little rocks of coconut. This is helpful in distinguishing them from the Parisian macarons, which are merengue (read: whipped egg white)-based delicacies, unlike these heavier, chewier little mounds.

The secret to the delicious chewy texture, I discovered, is cooking the ingredients on the stove top prior to forming the cookies. My less-successful rounds of coconut macaroons merely had you throw the ingredients together in a bowl, and then bake up the cookies in the oven, and they always came out less chewy and more dry than I like.

Even though I used the incorrect kind of coconut (only had sweetened dried coconut in my kitchen this week), they still turned out famously. Whether you think of coconut macaroons as a Christmas treat, Passover treat, or fourteenth of July treat, I'm guessing you would enjoy this easy recipe on any occasion.


Coconut Chocolate Macaroons (aka American Macaroons!):
grâce à Dave Lebovitz

4 egg whites
1 1/4 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 T honey
2 1/2 C unsweetened coconut* (if using sweetened coconut, reduce sugar by 1/4 C)
1/4 C flour (not a strictly unleavened Passover sweet!)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 oz chocolate chips, for dipping

In a medium-sized skillet on the stove top, combine egg whites, sugar, salt, honey, coconut, and flour. Stir constantly over low-medium heat, scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent burning. Stir until the mixture just begins to scorch (when some of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thickening, and you hear the pan contents sizzling a bit when you stir).

Off the heat, mix in the vanilla. Set aside in a bowl to cool.

When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a parchment- or silicone pad-lined baking sheet, make 1 1/2 inch mounds of the coconut mixture. Bake 18-20 minutes until golden brown on top.

If you want to dip them in chocolate:
When cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate chips (in the microwave for 30 second-bursts at a time, stirring between bursts, or in a double boiler on the stove) and dip each cookie in the chocolate. Place the dipped cookies on a baking pan lined with plastic wrap, and place the pan in the refrigerator until the chocolate has hardened.

*unsweetened coconut is also called coconut powder, medium shredded coconut, and coconut flakes.

Almond Croissant at Amandine

I have finally found a good almond croissant in LA...better in fact than many of the almond croissants I had in France! And let me tell you, I have had quite a few there - including one as big as a piece of pizza.

A croissant aux amandes is a day-old croissant, cut open and lined with almond paste, soaked in simple syrup, topped with sliced almonds, and baked all together. Sweet, almondy, and buttery.

Amandine, true to its name and reputation, had the winning pastry. It did not skimp on the almond paste, and was not too sweet, but oh so buttery and light. This croissant, accompanied by a huge café au lait, made me incredibly happy. Too happy to not share it with you. Mmmmmmm...

Marshmallow Fun

Does the Green Lantern's power ring still have intergalactic power when it is molded out of....marshmallow?

All I know is that my brother was able to hold off eating it for a whole month after his birthday, which inconceivable self control must be due to a super power! The super power also improved the texture of the candy and maintained its flavor over that month, so it clearly was a legitimate power ring.

The first of my younger brothers is famous for having gone to a friend's birthday party when he was about four years old, and when invited to participate in the party games, saying "I just came for the cake." A story he is reminded of by our family friends constantly, I might add. But this year, when his always-anticipated birthday came around, he started to drop hints about caramel and mint marshmallows.

Green Lantern's icon came to mind when I tinted the mint marshmallow green and remembered that my brother's favorite comic book character was good ole' GL. He's already anticipating the release of the GL movie in TWO YEARS, to give you an idea of his passion for the character! The symbol is lined with caramel underneath, and the green background is mint, all dipped in chocolate. A great gift for someone on a budget (me) to give someone who likes personalized stuff (him).

I will note that it is much easier to cut shapes out of marshmallow than out of caramel - thank goodness for chocolate to hold everything together! Would have been a much cleaner shape had I left the cut marshmallow without caramel lining or chocolate dipping.


These 2-foot marshmallow batons from Surfas also appeared at my bro's birthday, and may have served as little guimauve swords before we gobbled them up...we both love cake, but marshmallows may be the party game/dessert compromise we need!