Gingerbread - cake

Still using up the molasses, so tried another gingerbread recipe and put it in my 8x8 glass baking dish. It took a very long time to bake - so might try a bigger pan next time (9" round) to reduce the time. I got it from a newly discovered blog - which occasionally has some recipes and lots of menu ideas.

• 1/2 c butter
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 2.5 c flour
• 1.5 t soda
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t ginger
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 c molasses
• 1/2 c honey
• 1 c water

1. Melt the butter.
2. Combine with sugar and egg.
3. Add flour, soda, spices and salt.
4. Add molasses, honey and water. Use mixer to blend until mostly smooth.
5. Pour into 8x8 pan and bake at 180C/350F for 50 min or until cooked through.
   

Variations

• Add grated peel of one orange.
• Use cold coffee instead of water.

Notes
This turned out ridiculously moist and flavorful, though a little too sweet. So next time I might reduce the honey to 1/3 c and the sugar to 1/3 c. Also try a 9" round cake pan and try to get away with cooking it for less time.

5/20/10 Only had 1/3 c molasses and 1/3 c honey left. Blended until smooth in blender - lots of air bubbles. Baked in 9" cake pan at 180C for 50 min. Rose very high and unevenly. Honey had too strong of a taste (a kind I don't like). Otherwise ok.

Carrot and Potato Soup with Cumin and Ginger

This is a very easy soup to make and quite tasty. Served with caramelized onion focaccia bread. Delicious! Inspired from original.
2/28/20 Made half the recipe without onions and it was delicious. 

• 3 T oil
• 2 onions, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 t fresh ginger, grated
• 3 large* carrots, diced
• 4 large potatoes, diced
• 2 t cumin seeds
• 6 cups stock
• salt + pepper

1. Heat oil in a large soup pot on med. Saute onion, garlic and ginger for 3 minutes or until just soft.
2. Add carrots, potatoes and cumin seeds. Cover, reduce heat to low, cook for 5-7 min.
3. Add stock. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until vegetables are just tender.
4. Cool slightly. Reserve 2-3 cups of solids. Puree the remainder until smooth.
5. Season with salt and black pepper.

Variations

• Serve with cumin toast, sour cream, coriander.
• Add chili powder to the soup for a little kick.

Notes

• by "large" carrot, I mean the massively large carrots that are standard in Taipei. Each carrot is probably the equivalent of 2-3 large carrots back in the US. Roughly equal amounts of carrot and potato would do - or even 40-60 either way.

Creamy Tomato Soup

This is a delicious creamy soup without any cream! How is it done? The secret is in the bread slices. It adds the texture without the dairy. This also means you can leave this soup to boil, or reheat to boiling, without worrying about spoiling the soup (as if you had used milk). It's also recommended to use canned whole tomatoes, instead of crushed or fresh, to maximize on flavor. Very easy to put together. I made a very large batch for a party of 7 and had enough leftovers for at least 4 more servings. Based on the original.

• 6 T oil, split
• 1.5 c onion, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced or chopped
• 3 cans of whole tomatoes packed in juice (28 oz cans)
• 1.5 T brown sugar
• 4 large slices of bread, crusts removed and cut into 1" pieces
• 3 c stock or water
• pepper

1. Heat 3 T oil in soup pot over med heat.
2. Add the onion and garlic.
3. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is translucent (3-5 min).
4. Stir in teh tomatoes and their juice. Use a potato masher to break apart the tomatoes. Remove any skin still remaining. Pieces should be no larger than 2 inches.
5. Stir in the sugar and bread pieces. Bring soup to a boil.
6. Reduce the heat to med and cook, stirring occasionally, until the bread is saturated and starts to break down. About 5 min.
7. Turn off heat. Transfer to blender in 3 batches, adding 1 T oil per batch. Blend until smooth and creamy - about 2 min. Transfer to a large bowl.
8. Rinse out pot and return soup to the pot.
9. Stir in 3 c of stock or water or until soup is desired thickness.
10. Return soup to boil and season to taste with pepper.

Variations

• Serve with grated parmesan, chopped basil and grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Add a bay leaf with the garlic and onion. Remove it before blending.
• Garnish with parsley or croutons.

Plaistowe Fudge Brownies

I got some of this "Rich Dark" cooking chocolate from Australia -- and just didn't know what to do with it. It must have come from a box, because the ingredients aren't listed on the packaging. So I didn't know if I should treat it like a bitter chocolate, a dark chocolate, a semisweet chocolate, or something else altogether. So I went to the Nestle site and tried one of their recipes. Result: disgusting. Well, at least in my opinion - but others seemed to like it ok. However, I won't be making it again. I just wanted to make record of it here. I'd much rather use other recipes with a chocolate I know or just cocoa. I modified the recipe to use just the one bar of chocolate (200 g).

• 200 g Plaistowe Rich Dark Cooking Chocolate
• 125 g butter, unsalted
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c flour
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/2 c walnuts, chopped
• 75 g butter

1. Divide chocolate. Melt 125 g chocolate with 125 g butter in a medium saucepan. Melt over low heat, stirring constantly.
2. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla and walnuts.
3. Spread in greased, foil-lined 8x8 baking dish.
4. Bake at 180C for 25 min. Cool in pan.
5. While the brownie is cooling, melt remaining 75 g chocolate with 75 g butter in a small sauce pan over low heat, stirring.
6. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until slightly thickened.
7. Spread frosting over brownies. Cut into squares to serve.

Notes
I would make Cocoa Brownies or the bitter chocolate-cocoa combo Brownies instead of this.

Spicy Indian Cauliflower

Made rice with dahl and had this as a side vege. Delicious.

• 2-3 T oil
• pinch of mustard seed
• few dashes of cumin
• 2 t ginger, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• half an onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 t ground turmeric
• 1 head cauliflower, divided into bite size pieces
• spicy powder (red chili, red pepper, paprika)
• salt and pepper

1. Heat oil in pan. Add mustard seeds.
2. When mustard begins to pop, add cumin, ginger, garlic and onion. Stir fry until onions are golden (at too high of a heat they will burn).
3. Add turmeric and cauliflower. Stir to coat.
4. Add 1/4 c water, chili, salt and pepper. Cover.
5. Let cook until desired texture, stirring occasionally.

Jaffle Waffles

What do you get when you combine an Australian and an American? Well, I'll give you a clue: one loves jaffle irons and the other loves waffles. Lo and behold waffles made in a jaffle iron. Best of both worlds now. Woo hoo! Comes out in single serving triangle shapes.

• 2 c flour
• 4 t powder
• 1 t salt
• 3 T sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1.5 c milk, warm
  
• 1/3 c butter, melted
• 1 t vanilla - optional
  

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Combine egg yolks with milk, butter and vanilla. Add to dry mixture.
3. Beat egg whites until frothy. Gently fold into mixture.
4. Spoon into jaffle iron. Cook until nicely browned (lots of steam will come out). It takes longer than a waffle iron but works.
5. Serve fresh from the iron, plain, with fresh fruit, or maple syrup.
   

Notes

• Made 16 jwaffles.
• The waffle batter needs work - it tasted a little too eggy for me.
• Never heard of a jaffle iron? Most Americans haven't - it's like a panini machine except shaped to a sandwich and cut in triangles. The machine clamps the edges shut and the pockets hold filling.
• The vanilla makes it taste more like a fortune cookie - a bad thing in my opinion.
  

Jwaffles, Take II

• 2 c flour
• 2 t powder
• 2 T sugar
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 eggs, separated
• optional: lemon peel
• 2 c milk
• 6 T butter, melted *

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, powder, sugar and salt.
2. Combine egg yolks and milk (and lemon peel).
3. Add dry ingredients to milk mixture.
4. Fold in butter.
   
5. Beat egg whites until frothy. Fold into batter.
6. Cook in jaffle iron.

Notes

• 6 T was too much buter
• lemon peel - I made 8 jwaffles without then added 1 T at the end. Nice scent - but not sure I like the flavor. Better than vanilla though.
• Overall, this was a better recipe for texture because it came out fluffier (I truly made the whites frothy this time with an electric whisk, as opposed to using chopsticks before). However, too oily. So still needs some tweaking.
  

Sticky Date Pudding

"Pudding" in Australia means cake - and according to my local Ozzies, a steamed cake with a sweet sauce. Not sure how accurate that is as all the recipes I found for this called for baking. The caramel/butterscotch sauces are what make it "sticky". I'm not a fan of super sweet things so didn't think too highly of this dessert, but from the requester it got rated with 4 stars. I myself give it 2 stars, so taking the average this earns 3. "Golden syrup" is also an ozzie ingredient that Americans have never heard of. It's supposedly similar to molasses but not as dark, nor bitter. Lacking that, the sauce wasn't quite right.

• 1 1/4 c water
• 1 3/4 c pitted dates, chopped
• 1 t soda
• 1/4 c butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 1/4 c flour
• 1 t salt
• 1 3/4 t powder
• 2/3 c brown sugar

Sauce

• 1/4 c butter
• 1/4 c whipping cream
• 1/2 c brown sugar

1. In a small saucepan bring water and dates to a boil. Add butter and soda. Remove from heat. Let sit for 15-20 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease cake pan.
3. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
4. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, powder and brown sugar. Break apart any sugar lumps.
5. Pour wet ingredients into bowl and fold until just combined.
6. Transfer to cake pan and bake for 40 min, or until center comes out clean.
7. 10 minutes before the cake is done, prepare sauce. Bring all sauce ingredients to a boil and then simmer for 3-5 minutes, until slightly thickened.
   
8. Cool for 10 minutes. Flip onto serving plate. Poke holes throughout cake and pour half the sauce on top.
9. Serve with remaining sauce and ice cream.