Shellfish and Poultry

This week in culinary school we started getting a lot more hands on. We had one class completely devoted to shellfish and one entirely about poultry fabrication (the fancy term chefs use to describe breaking down animal meat).

Okay, so I have to apologize in advance...I forgot my camera in the shellfish class so there are no photos from it. Believe me, I'm very angry with myself for this oversight, because there were a ton of great photo ops. If I get some photos from a classmate, I'll be sure to add them later. In the meantime, my vivid descriptions of the class will have to suffice.

We got to try our hand at most varieties of shellfish. Shellfish are seafood that, as the name suggests, have a shell. They fall into the following categories: Univalves (mollusks with one shell like conch), Bivalves (mollusks with two shells like oysters, clams, and scallops), crustaceans (have exterior skeletons like lobster and crabs), and cephalopods (tentacles - like squid). Class began with a brief overview of how to buy, store, and clean shellfish. Mussels, oysters, and clams have to be stored cold on ice (not in water or they'll drown). These all have to be rinsed in three changes of cold water because they have a lot of sand and grit on them. We each got to shuck clams and oysters. I actually was able to do both without too much trouble and without cutting myself! I was rewarded with some oysters topped with some delicious mignonette. The mussels were cleaned and their beards removed. The scallops we had were already shelled so we only need to remove the white muscle from each and rinse them.

Chef explained that female lobsters have sweeter meat, but there's not an easy way to tell the difference between female and male lobsters. Typically, male lobsters have narrow tails, while female lobsters have wider hips/tails. This difference is not always noticeable and quite honestly I couldn't see any difference in any of them. We each had to kill a lobster by putting a knife in the back of its head and pushing down. I decided quick was the way to go here and was happy to find that was the right choice. This being the fourth lobster I've killed, I feel like I'm getting the hang of it and am less afraid of it. I'll still never get used to the fact that lobsters keep moving for a while after they're killed (yes its super creepy when you grab the tail and it snaps up around your hand). We removed the claws and the tail and cooked them in stock until they were bright red. Once they cooled, we took out the meat and saved it for the chowder. I must confess that a claw of my lobster's meat didn't make it to that chowder pot! We peeled the shrimp and deveined it to prep for the stew. We infused the fish stock we were using as our chowder base with the shrimp shells and lobster bodies. Apparently, one should never throw away shrimp shells, because they make the best stock.

The most fascinating of the shellfish to me were the squids. We cut the tentacles from the hood (top) of the squid. In the top of the squid there is this clear quill that has to be removed. This quill is very strange. It looks like a long thin piece of plastic. We peeled and then cut the squid into bit sized pieces ready for our shellfish chowder.

The end of class we added cream to our fish stock and brought this up to a simmer. Then we added all our shellfish to cook it (everything but the lobster needed to cook in the soup). Chef sprinkled the chowder with some thyme. The chowder was absolutely delicious and chock-a-block full of fresh shellfish.

Next night's class was the poultry class. We began the class like most with some knife skills practice, ie cutting vegetables into various sized julienne or dice. This night, we did potatoes in a medium dice, which means we get to make these amazing homefries. We begin by putting the diced potatoes in cold, heavily salted water and bringing them to a boil. Then we strained and put them aside to be pan-fried later.

Our knife skill practice potatoes frying up in clarified butter
Crispy, buttery potatoes that make knife skills practice worth it!

After we prepped the vegetables, we had a lecture on poultry. Then we trussed a chicken, because when roasting a chicken whole its important to keep its shape and hold in the juices.

Trussed Chicken

After we trussed the chicken, we untied it and fabricated the chicken. The method we were taught for quartering the chicken was different from how I've been taught in the past. But, I have to say that it was the easiest method I've ever used. We started with the tail pointing towards us and cut down each side of the backbone and removed it. Then we cut through the other side of the chicken so that we had two chicken halves. With each, we split the breast from the thigh without having to cut through the bone. Viola...quartered chicken. After this, we split the leg from the thigh and cut the breast into two portions. With our next chicken we skinned and boned the breast and used these pieces to make pan-fried chicken for our dinner.

My fabricated Chicken

We cleaned our boards and then fabricated a duck each. We were sent home with the duck breast, which was beyond exciting. Duck is one of my favorite meats, but one that I've never made at home. Since the fat is so much thicker on the duck, it was much harder to quarter then the chicken. We also removed a portion of the fat from the breast so it would fry easier and render less fat. This worked really well when I fried it at home for dinner...delicious!

Duck!

Now that we're cooking a bit more, I'm loving class more and more. I can't wait until next week, which is chicken stock and beef.

Who doesn't love cooking with class?

A toast to Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies...

I don't know what inspired me to make these cookies. I guess I just wanted a quick, easy treat for the week that wasn't super terrible for me. Since I started culinary school, I haven't been able to do my Sunday baking. The problem is that I still like to have a baked good everyday...you just can't cold turkey on addictions people. I really miss my baked goods (although the limited edition coconut M&Ms have made my predicament a bit more tolerable).



So in my despair, I came across this recipe for Toasted coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies in Cooking Light. The picture in Cooking Light did no justice to this cookie - in the magazine they looked dry. So, again I have no idea what made me make them (maybe I was thinking of the coconut m&ms?). Regardless, I'm really pleased that I didn't let the picture fool me. I mean were these the absolute best cookies I've ever had? No, but they're definitely a cookie I'll make again. And they're very enjoyable for a different little take on a chocolate chip cookie. You begin by toasting the coconut...which smells amazing. Then, its pretty much your typical cream the butter and the sugar and add eggs and flour and leaveners. I really thought from the picture that these were going to come out a bit too crispy but to my delight they were soft with a pleasant little hint of coconut. I will say that I cooked them for 8-9 minutes, because I feared a dry cookie. I also used regular chocolate chips because thats what I had!

mmm...cookies

Not a bad little cookie to satisfy a baked good craving

A long time coming...

I know, I know...I've been gone forever and you know that I can't possibly be out of the kitchen this long. So the truth is this, I've been overwhelmingly busy cooking. Do you feel betrayed that I haven't shared this with you before now? I'm sorry...I truly am. But, I'm here now and ready to tell you about how I'm finally fulfilling my dream of going to culinary school. I personally think that's a brilliant excuse for my absence. Hopefully, you agree and we can get past this.

I started culinary school 3 weeks ago. Before you ask...No, I have no idea whether this means I'll quit my day job and work full-time in a restaurant. The only thing I know is that going to culinary school is just something I have to do. So here's the deal...

We have 3 classes a week. The first week was mostly administrative stuff, including meeting our career advisor. This career advisor might be a problem for me...I'm not a huge fan. She laid out how we'd all be making salads for the first year out of school all for a measly $8 an hour. She also said we should volunteer at food banks and build our resume. Well as lovely as that sounds where in our schedules of full-time work and three nights of school does she think this will fit? In my opinion, a career advisor should make you feel excited about your future in the industry, but this woman just terrified me about my future. I'm not saying I wanted her to paint this unrealistic picture of how lovely working in a restaurant kitchen will be. I'm just saying maybe wait until the second month to give us a reality check instead of being a killjoy in the second class. The next class was equally upsetting, as it was all about sanitation and horror stories about how sick you can make people with contaminated food. I totally understand the necessity of the lesson, but all the same it's tough to stomach!

With week 1's less than exciting classes behind us, week 2 began with knife skills and a substitute chef instructor, who rather than teach us decided she'd just set us loose on some poor unsuspecting veggies. With these veggies, we threw together a salsa and then the chef yelled at us to clean up quickly since she'd been there since 7am. Um chef, we've been at work all day too. Also, since it was the first time we actually made anything none of us had any idea how to clean the kitchen. Needless to say, I was left wondering whether I picked the right school as my classmates and I buzzed around the kitchen trying to figure out where to put everything and how to use the dishwasher.

These fears were quickly laid to rest when our normal chef returned to us the next evening and taught knife skills, herb identification, and cheese identification. In that lesson, we diced potatoes, julienned carrots, and minced parsley until it was a "green wind". The green wind stage of parsley is very intense...It takes a good 5 minutes of constant knife movement. I have to admit that the next day my arm felt like it was going to fall off. During the herb identification, we learned the most common herbs and tasted each of these. At the end of class, we tasted about 20 different types of cheese from soft to crumbly to aged to blue. I went home that night and fell into a deep slumber with a happy belly full of cheese.

The next class we had our first quiz on sanitation and herb id. I'm happy to report that I aced it...woohoo! After our quiz, we had a lecture on culinary math (conversions from various measurements and upping a recipe that serves 4 to serve 10, etc). Then we had more knife skills...this time around we did a small dice of potato. We blanched some broccoli and green beans and par-boiled the potatoes and fried them in some butter. Yum!

In the next class, we had greens identification (useful since we'll be working in salads for a year!) and cleaning techniques. We julienned red and green cabbage and then wilted them with salt in a colander to remove the excess moisture. Once these were wilted, we made a mayo based green cabbage slaw and a red wine vinegar slaw with the red cabbage. I loved both of these slaws - for the green cabbage slaw we added champagne vinegar and fresh dill to it - I really think the dill added so much to this and I'm definitely putting fresh dill in all the slaws I make from now on. I also will be making a lot of slaw this style all summer. Each group also prepared one type of cooking green (kale, swiss chard, and collard greens). My group did the collard greens - we began by frying some bacon and then cooked the greens in the fat until they were fully wilted.

Our collard greens with bacon and our green cabbage slaw

The next class we had a lecture on the kitchen brigade system, the various positions in a professional kitchen, purchasing ingredients, and finding sources for ingredients. Then we discussed eggs, cut more veggies to continue honing the knife skills, and then tasted different cooking oils. We then each cooked 3 scrambled eggs in 3 different fats. According to chef, eggs should be moist, soft, and salty likes a strangers lips...I'm not so sure I'll be able to look at eggs or strangers lips in quite the same way anymore.

MMM...Strangers lips

Our next class is when the real fun began. We fileted three different fish - a flounder, a red snapper, and a mackeral. With the flounder and snapper fish bodies (mackeral is too oily to use for the stock), we made a fish stock. Then, we used this stock along with some veggies and the flounder filets to make a fish stew with tomato and a touch of cream. We also had some of the mackeral sushi style, since its a very good sushi fish (news to me but holy mackeral!).

One Fish - Flounder

Two Fish - Red Snapper

Three Fish - Holy Mackeral

Flounder Filets

Mackeral Filets

The fish stew had a lovely fish flavor from the homemade fish stock. The flounder filets were added at the last minute and cooked quickly in the stew at a boil. We got to take the rest of our filets home to chef up anything our little hearts desired. Red snapper cooked in parchment with thyme and tomato anyone?


Happily, this fish class put me in full "this is why I'm going to culinary school mood" (as you can see but all the photos I snapped I was very into it!). The class was so much fun that I hardly noticed it was 10pm when I was sampling a bowl of fish stew and mackeral sushi!

Stew on this delicious fish stew

I hope you all have forgiven this overdue post in exchange for the start of my overdue dream...

The Fo Ssam - A Tribute in Dinner Party Form - Worshipping at the Altar of Pork and Chang

Oh boy...I realize as I write this that I never posted about eating the Bo Ssam at Momofuku. Weird. If you read this, you know that I not only love pork, but I love Chef Chang. So, the fact that I neglected to lay praise on both something pork and David Chang is rather extraordinary! Thus, you probably need some sort of evidence that I loved the Bo Ssam. Therefore, I present to you my tribute - "The Fo Ssam Dinner Party"I'm not going to sugar coat it (although I do love coating things in sugar) and tell you dinner parties are a piece of cake, because frankly they're not. But, I love hosting them and find all the work well worth the effort. The good thing about this menu is that most of it can be made in advance and the main event cooks itself without asking for much attention.

Appetizers:

Because I love nothing more than to start with a prosecco or champagne, Karen and I mixed up a pomegranate prosecco cocktail from Cooking Light. This was easy to make, quite delicious, and a nice way to welcome guests and get them in a festive mood.

Dates wrapped in bacon are a great appetizer and easy to make, but they made my place a bit smokey. Oh and I would recommend that unlike me, you use tongs to remove them from the pan rather than burning your fingertip in bacon grease. I wrapped the dates a few hours before the party, so I could just throw them in the oven when people arrived. To make dates wrapped in bacon, buy pitted dates, bacon, and toothpicks. Cut a slice of bacon in half and wrap it around a date and secure it with a toothpick. Heat the oven to 400 or 425 and put the dates on a aluminum foil lined baking sheet in the oven for about 6-7 minutes, then flip them to crisp the bacon on the other side and cook for another 6 or 7 minutes until the bacon is crisped to your liking. Make sure you don't crowd the pan too much with the dates, otherwise the pan will fill up with too much grease and the bacon won't crisp as well. Drain the dates on paper towels and cool for a couple of minutes. The salty, crisp bacon and soft, sweet dates are a match made in heaven and a great kick-off to a party.

"Devils on Horseback" - Though I see no evil in these

My sister picked up some cheeses - an aged gouda and two cheeses that feature truffles. My family pretty much doesn't have a meal without having some cheese and crackers first. And if I had to bet on it, I would put down $100 that my parents have an aged gouda in their fridge as you read this.


I make nuts pretty much everytime I have people over...mostly because they're really easy to make and always manage to wow people. For the Fo Ssam, I made two types of nuts. The first were candied walnuts and pecans - take one egg white and beat it a bit until its frothy, add a tbsp of water, then add about a pound of nuts, and then you can pretty much add whatever you want. If you want candied sweet nuts, add 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2/3 cup of white sugar, a tsp salt, a pinch of cayenne, a tsp of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. If you want to make more savory nuts, add a few tbsps of brown sugar, some rosemary, thyme, salt, and a pinch of cayenne (I've done garam masala also and this turns out nicely). Put the nut mixture on a baking sheet lined with aluminum and bake at 300 for about 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes. Remove and let cool, stirring occasionally to separate the nuts.



The other nuts I made are inspired by Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn and their maple bacon almonds. I make mine differently with the same sort of principal - maple, bacon, and nuts. My best friend and I love these so much and have dubbed them Breakfast nuts. The recipe is as follows:



Fo's Breakfast Nuts:

• 1 lb nuts - I use mostly pecans with some walnuts
• 1/2lb bacon
• 1/2 c REAL maple syrup
• 1 tbsp mustard powder
• 1-2 tbsp brown sugar
• pinch cayenne

1. Using kitchen shears cut bacon into 3/4 inch size pieces. Cook bacon in large skillet until its crispy.
2. Heat oven to 300
3. Add the nuts to the pan of bacon and stir (don't drain the bacon grease!). Add remaining ingredients
4. Pour the mixture onto an aluminum lined baking sheet and cook in oven for about 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the nuts are done it'll look sugary and bubbly. Let cool and stir occasionally.

Main:

I made kimchi the weekend before the Fo Ssam. I found most of the ingredients at the Asian market M2M on the east side (including the salt shrimp in the refrigerator section), but I was an idiot and forgot the korean chile powder. So, I used american chile powder and learned the hard way that wasn't the best substitute in the world. The "fo" kimchi was a bastardized version, but there was something addictive about it in a non-kimchi way. It was saltier and smokier tasting. Oh well, next time I'll remember the korean chile powder!

I also made the buns the weekend before and froze them. I had made the buns previously when I made Chang's pork belly buns at home (so delicious and another recipe worth trying out). These aren't hard to make, but they are time consuming. Chang actually outsources these instead of making them at his restaurants. I find bread making therapeutic and I LOVE the taste of these homemade buns so much that I don't mind making them in the slightest. They taste a lot like soft white bread and you can wrap pretty much anything in them. The buns cook by being steamed, and its easiest if you have a bamboo steamer because its flat and large enough to steam a few at a time. Once made, I cool the buns and freeze them in ziploc bags. The recipe makes 50, which is a lot more then you'll need for the dinner party and might just be the incentive you need to make the pork belly buns sometime soon! Individually, the buns heat in 30 seconds in the microwave, but when you're thawing a lot at a time it takes a bit longer.

50 little buns rising on my counter

For the 8lb bone-in pork shoulder, I went to Agata & Valentina on the UES, which provided me with a truly beautiful pork shoulder. I also bought a cheap 4.5lb pork shoulder in an experiment of high level butcher vs regular grocery. That, and because I was slightly afraid that my 8 guests would plow through 8lbs in 8 minutes. The price difference between Agata and my regular grocer was about $3.50 a pound but the results were overwhelmingly in favor of the more expensive Berkshire pork from Agata.


Now, my obsession with David Chang has nothing on Martha Stewart's adoration. You can find the full recipe for the Bo Ssam and the sauces on her website. As per the recipe, I rubbed the pork the night before with the sugar and salt mixture and let it sit in the fridge. I also made the scallion ginger sauce and the Ssam sauce that night. These are both very easy to make and well worth it. I made double of both and we ended up using all of each! The ssam sauce is a vinagary chile sauce that goes really nicely with the pork. I added a bit more soy sauce to my scallion ginger sauce and a dash of sesame oil and hot sauce.

Two Little Piggies covered in salt and sugar

The next morning I put the pork in around 10:45 to slow roast for 6 hours. As per the recipe, I meticulously basted it in its own juices every hour it slow roasted. I can't begin to describe to you how delicious my apartment and frankly my entire building smelled from this masterpiece. After it was done, I tented it with foil, and when the guests arrived I rubbed it with the brown sugar mixture and finished it in the oven. My pork only took about 10 minutes for this final step, though the recipe suggests longer.

The Pork Masterpiece...I know - You stopped reading and you're on your way to Agata to get a 8lb pork shoulder

I have to tell you the pork tasted heavenly. It was moist, delicious, sweet and salty. I seriously couldn't have been happier with how it tasted. When put on a bun and topped with ssam or scallion sauce and rice, it made me wonder why I don't do this every Sunday! The smaller pork was a bit on the saltier side and a little less moist, so I would highly recommend making an 8lb one and "splurging" on the pork (pork shoulder is cheap even good pork shoulder is only about $5 a lb).

As a side, we also had rice. To make is as easy as possible, I made the rice in a rice cooker just as people arrived. That way, I could just start it and let it keep itself warm.

The plate - the pork, bibb lettuce, bun with pork and ssam sauce, and kimchi

Dessert:

Since this dinner party had a very Momofuku-ish theme to it, I decided (with some nudging from my older sister) that I would make Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie. This is not the easiest of pies to make. You start by making an oatmeal cookie dough, spreading it thinly on a sheet tray, and baking it until its crisped. Once this cools, you crumble it up with some butter and sugar to make the crust. I have to tell you that I've made the crust a few times now and find that its much easier to combine the crust ingredients in a food processor. I also have a hard time making enough crust for two pies (even when I don't sneak tastes of the cookie dough). The filling is a really easy custard to mix up, which makes up for the hard work on the crust. I find that my filling takes a bit longer in the oven for the center to set then the recipe calls for. Crack pie is, as the name claims, addictive! I find myself in the vicinity of Milk Bar and its pies and cookies a bit too often and I have a hard time not getting a slice of crack pie.

Well you can't very well just serve pie. Which means that I put my trusty ice cream maker to use and made my go-to ben & jerry's coconut ice cream. This is such an easy ice cream to make and because of the can of coconut cream it has a superb coconut flavor. I always use the sweet cream base #2 and in the final few minutes of churning I add a cup of chocolate chips. Karen proclaimed this last time that I should switch to mini-chips and I think that's a great idea!

Sweet ending - Crack Pie and Coconut Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

And that's how I paid homage to pork and David Chang,

Oui for Ouest!

Karen and I had gone to eat at Ouest a few years ago. We both recalled that we really enjoyed our meal. I'm sure we would have returned after our first visit had either of us lived on the UWS or if we had occasion to be in the neighborhood. But the truth is, neither of us find ourselves there often. So, when I received a coupon for a free bottle of wine with the ordering of an entree each, we took it as our cue to find ourselves in the area and revisit Ouest.

With the opening of Ouest in 2001, Chef Thomas Valenti is largely credited with reviving the food scene on the UWS...making it a neighborhood that people actually go out of their way to visit for a nice meal. Our meal Friday left us with no doubt that we'll travel to eat here again.

The dining room at Ouest has a modern French feel to it with dark wood and red booths that make the place rather cozy. The tables on the side we sat were a tad bit too close for my liking. This proximity coupled with the acoustics sometimes left me straining to listen to Karen rather than a potentially more interesting date conversation a table away (hmmm...I wonder what date number they're on) . But, I thought, hopefully the food would speak louder.

Having our handy little coupon for a bottle of wine under $60 for free, we selected a red wine just below this price point, a Gamay - Herve Souhaut Vin de Pays 2007. Neither of us remembers ever having a Gamay, so we figured we'd try something new. It was a fruity red that was smooth and quite delicious. Something we agreed we'd have again.

Shortly after we sat down, a tall wire basket of baguettes arrived with a ramekin of pureed chickpeas, tahini, and olive oil. The look of the bread was terribly deceiving. It looked like a crusty, unmoist baguette. But when I tore a piece off, I found I needed much less force then I thought I would. The bread was warm and soft with a oh-so-slight perfectly crisp crust. And that chickpea dip was marvelous...we cleaned our first bowl so well that they brought us another that fared equally.

We were all set to order the bone marrow appetizer, when the waiter arrived and described the special appetizer of the evening. We couldn't resist the special hamachi with a soy vinaigrette with chili flakes, minced lemon, and baby greens. They kindly split this between two plates for us (each plate being what I would expect from one appetizer portion!). This was SO amazingly delicious that we both wavered between completely devouring it and trying to make it last as long as possible. The hamachi was beautifully fresh and buttery and the soy vinaigrette had the slight kick from the chili with the tang of the lemon and soy. A gorgeous raw fish plate with multiple layers of flavor that was one of the best I've had in a while.

True to form, I ordered the pork dish - bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with grilled pork belly, braised celery and sauce soubise (an onion based white sauce). There were two large pieces of pork belly and four medium-cooked pork loin medallions wrapped in bacon. The pork tenderloin was perhaps one of the most tender/moist pieces of pork I've had in a very long time. It had a strong pork flavor that reminded me of the pork chops my grandma used to make. I used every last drop of the onion sauce that just complemented the pork so well and made it even more reminiscent of grandmas. The rich, grilled pork belly melts in your mouth leaving you in salty pork euphoria. I will say that I think the plate would've been just as good with one less piece of pork belly (or two smaller pieces), because the pork belly made the dish much heavier and diverted my attention away from the pork tenderloin. But should I really complain about too much of a good thing?

Karen had what we both agreed was possibly the most perfectly cooked piece of fish either of us has ever had...fork tender Cod with black truffle custard, cauliflower puree, asparagus, and enoki (those long thin white mushrooms). The cod split into these gorgeous flakes of buttery fish. The custard looked like a flan. So at first glance, we were both terrified that the texture would ruin our love of all things truffle. But, the texture was smooth and coupled with the fish beautifully leaving a slight truffle backdrop. The crunch of the asparagus added a nice texture to the plate. In ultimate testiment to how delicious our meals were, we both finished our plates.

Having had such extraordinary success up until this point, we figured why stop when we're on a roll?! For dessert, we ordered the iced cappuccino sundae with espresso semifreddo and housemade caramel sauce with a sugary tuile and biscotti crumbles. And because we're both secretly 60 years old (complete with early weekend curfews), we each had a glass of Grahams 10 year Tawny port. When we dug in, the sundae oozed over the sides of the dish (like every good sundae should). The housemade caramel was salty and sweet and the semifreddo and biscotti crumbles were great adult twists on a childhood classic. I thought the sundae was good, but next time I would try one of the other desserts.

This meal left me plotting reasons to be on the UWS for dinner, and left Karen and I with more reasons to return then a free bottle of wine.


And that's how the Ouest was won

Maple Walnut Cake

The smell of maple just sings breakfast to me. Whether it be maple bacon, maple syrup on top of pancakes, or maple frosted donuts, maple means breakfast. When I saw this month's Bon Appetit and the Maple Walnut Cake, I just knew I had to make it. How better to make having cake for breakfast acceptable?!

When I read the recipe, I imagined and hoped that the cake would taste something like a pancake. I was not disappointed. The cake did indeed have this fantastic breakfasty flavor to it. Part of me of course rejoiced knowing that it made it more forgivable when I had a piece before noon. It's sort of like that Bill Cosby skit in which he feeds his kids chocolate cake as the perfect breakfast (arguing that the ingredients include milk, eggs, and wheat ~ viola breakfast!). I love all foods breakfast. Perhaps I love breakfast, because I'm such a morning person and no one else is up as early as I am. So, the only thing I have to do until everyone else finally decides to greet the day is eat!

The recipe is a little bit of a riff on a standard cake recipe. The big difference is that the sweetener for the cake is maple syrup and thus all liquid. I left the toasted walnuts for the cake batter in medium sized pieces (like the size of a chocolate chip), because I wanted a little crunch along with the walnut flavor. The frosting also has a good deal of maple syrup (don't even think about using anything but real maple syrup); and if you're looking for another reason it's okay for breakfast, it has a good amount of cream cheese too!

All in all, I liked that this cake is not your same old yellow, white or chocolate cake. It's a dense cake with a really tasty frosting. The texture was heavier then a pancake, but there was certainly something about the cake and its flavor that shouted "pancake" to me. It's certainly a cake I'd make again...even if I didn't need an excuse for cake at breakfast!

This cake is good any time of day...rise and shine and eat some cake,

Bread...

Out of interest, the other day I took a look at the ingredient list on my pack of english muffins that I usually have for breakfast. As is typical when I look at these lists, I'm floored by how much is in my food and how much I just don't want there (seriously...do they really need caramel coloring?!). So, my new endeavor is to make my own bread/pastry for my breakfasts so that I know what I'm eating. I know, I know this may be a bit ambitious. But, bread freezes well and most recipes make two loaves. And, as luck would have it, my parents bought me The Bread Bible for christmas. Plus, working with dough and kneading it can be pretty darn therapeutic.

I picked the Cinnamon Raisin Bread for my first week of knowing what I eat. It was a pretty easy bread to make. Yes, it takes a long time and there are a lot of rising periods, but the actual active time is pretty short. Beranbaum starts this bread with a yeast, water, honey, and flour sponge and sprinkles the remaining flour over this. This is left to rise for about an hour or so and then the kneading begins. I used my kitchenaid for the kneading. The kitchenaid kneading can be a bit tricky, because with a bread dough the kitchenaid tends to stroll across the counter when its kneading. Hence, you really have to keep your eye on it to make sure it doesn't walk its way off your counter. After it's risen, Beranbaum chills it in the fridge for a little while so that its easier to roll out. When its rolled out, its brushed with egg white and covered with cinnamon sugar and rolled up.

Rolled and ready for the cinnamon sugar

I was astonished by how amazing this bread came out. It was soft, sweet and tasted on par with some of the best cinnamon raisin bread I've had from bakeries. So exciting! And I have two loaves of it for my breakfasts! I'll take that over English Muffins anyday.

My new and improved breakfast - begging to be toasted and topped with butter

Can't wait until breakfast!