Ultra Fine Food

Don't

2011-01-10T22:52:00.005-05:00

Whatever you do, don't click this link.

And if you DO click that link, definitely don't buy the book. I'm warning you.

If you DO buy the book, don't check your mailbox eagerly every day waiting for it to arrive.

When it does arrive, please don't skip straight to page 93. I mean it this time.

By now I'm sure it's obvious: Don't even look at the recipe for Sweet & Salty Brownies, because that sort of behaviour can only lead to more dangerous activities. Next thing you know, you'll have a pot of bubbling caramel on the stove and a bowl of melted butter and chocolate and we probably shouldn't even talk about the fleur de sel that will be involved. That would be scandalous.

For reals, don't even consider bringing those brownies over to your bestie's house for Sunday Supper. Really now, you don't want that kind of reputation.

If you don't do any of those things, you definitely won't get an email the next day (before 10:30 a.m., no less) from your bestie's husband, with the subject, "It is good."

I'm eating a brownie. It is good. That is all.

Nor will you get a follow up email, moments later, with the subject, "Time to put up..."

Enough with the wishy-washy. Let's call it what it is: this is the best brownie I've ever had.

January 10, 2011. Mark the date.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

2011-01-10T08:19:00.008-05:00

Christmas 2010 was probably my best on record. We celebrated in Waterloo! We celebrated in Brooklyn! And many delightful gifts were exchanged. Santa was particularly supportive of my culinary endeavours this year, leaving under the tree a Le Crueset tagine, copies of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Baked Explorations, and assorted kitchen gadgetry, including an enormous crock pot. Perhaps the most special of these gifts, delivered not by Santa but directly from Ken's mom, whose mad knitting skillz are to be reckoned with: a biscuit warmer.

Pretty, isn't it? And so, despite a certain Pet of the Week's best efforts to wake us up in the single digits on Sunday morning, we lingered in bed until after 10, at which point we managed to relocate our pajama'd selves onto the couch with coffee and warm biscuits - slathered in butter, and, of course, the infamous crab apple jelly.

My wish for you this New Year is that you wake up at a very reasonable hour some Sunday morning (or, even better, afternoon) and are inspired to make biscuits. I like this recipe because it's quick and oh-so-simple. If you don't have buttermilk on hand, fear not: Just mix almost-a-cup of milk with a tablespoon or so of white vinegar.

And even though you might not have such a lovely biscuit warmer, I'd bet fresh biscuits like these won't last long enough to get cold, anyway.

Fruit of the Day: Crab Apples

2010-09-07T12:01:00.010-05:00

If you've been following the saga at Ultra Fine Flair, you knew this was coming.

A crab apple, not to be confused with a non-crab apple apple, can't make up its mind. Most days, it's a useless fruit that falls into someone's lawn in Southwestern Ontario or the Northeastern United States, and, much to the chagrin of Bills-loving homeowners, rots. Occasionally (and unfortunately, much more rarely), it's a fruit that smells mouth-wateringly sweet, tastes mouth-puckeringly tart, and produces an abundance of juice that can be coaxed, through various stages involving de-stemming, boiling, sugaring, and filtering through cheesecloth, into an electric red and very tasty jelly.

Despite their proliferation in backyards this time of year, crab apples are apparently hard to come by. We visited farms, farm stands, and farmers' markets. I think that was our biggest mistake, actually, because nobody grows these trees on purpose. We'd have been better off visiting area yard sales and surreptitiously gathering the fallen fruit (possibly while simultaneously haggling over the price of a toaster). We finally found some, and negotiated a price of $25/bushel.

Note: A bushel is more than you'll ever need. Even my Special Ladies could only use half. It broke my heart a little to see the rest of that fruit rotting, but we do have enough crab apple jelly for the duration.

In the interest of research, I grabbed a few to photograph and taste. We even took some to the beach!

We both sampled a crab apple. This particular variety smells sweet and tastes tart, although not inedibly so. They're not the most efficient snack, though, unless you have a very small mouth.

Ken opted to eat a plum instead. It was very pretty inside.

A local seagull, however, was not so discriminating. After I chucked an excess crab apple onto the sand beside me, he nabbed it and ran off. À chacun son goût.

UFF Fruit Rating:

Saucy Pizza

2010-06-11T15:58:00.005-05:00

Sounds a little bit naughty, doesn't it?

I like my pizza with a thin, crispy crust. Fresh mozzarella, if it's available, is delish. Big basil leaves, yes please, and pass the oregano and red pepper flakes. And, for as long as I can remember, I've ordered pizza with extra sauce. I love me some good saucy pizza. Unfortunately, my passion for plentiful stewed tomatoes isn't shared by my Argentine counterparts, who seem to prefer pizza that's bready and cheesy, but not so much saucy. There is sauce, to be sure, but during the pizza-making process it gets all mixed in with the cheese, and in the process, kind of lost.

All of this isn't to say that I'll turn down any pizza. From the place next to where I worked in California with the deep-fried crusts (yes, that is as good as it sounds), to a giant $2 NYC slice, to an Argentina-style pie, offer me pizza, and I'm in. But I also like a project, and it's been forever since I've made pizza at home, so that's just what I did.

Full disclosure: I cheated a bit. The crust is from scratch, and couldn't be easier. The sauce, however, was from a can. It was a little too sweet, and next time I'm totally going all the way and making my own. But importantly, there was loads of it, probably enough for two pizzas, but all piled onto a single pie. Yum.

Pizza Crust: Really Simple Pizza Dough from Smitten Kitchen (I used half whole-wheat flour)

We topped half with bondiola, and the other half with eggplant, red peppers and artichoke hearts, because while Ken loves him some pork, I'm still trying to keep a couple of functional arteries.

Make This Salad

2010-06-03T20:51:00.007-05:00

Salad schmalad, right?

Well, yes, but I'm living in the land of huge, artery-clogging steaks and doughy, cheesy pizzas and empanadas. And down here it's almost winter, which means we're swimming in root vegetables, and oh dear lord help me if I read one more Northern-Hemisphere blog about strawberries.

You'll freeze some for me, won't you?

Let's be clear: When you order salad at a parrilla (Argentine grill), the default is ensalada mixta, which involves a few sad-looking torn-up bits of lettuce, hunks of mealy tomatoes, and heaps of raw white onions. But you order it anyway, because it makes you feel just a little less guilty about the unnecessarily large yet oh-so-delicious slab of meat you're about to consume.

Anyway, in my remaining two months in Argentina, I'm trying to not eat meat at every meal, and also to not contract scurvy. Here in Buenos Aires we prove daily that necessity is the mother of invention. My British friend Sarah discovered the SAP (Second Audio Program) button on her TV when she was trying to figure out how to watch "The Simpsons" in English. And I "created" this salad when I couldn't find many of the ingredients in the original recipe. This version is delicious, and the cabbage will help keep up the ol' vitamin C levels.

Farro, Cabbage, and Roasted Beet Salad
adapted from Epicurious.com

3 large beets, tops trimmed to 1"
1 c semi-pearled farro or wheat berries (note: in Spanish, this is called trigo candeal pelado - at least that's what I used and it's very tasty)
2 T extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for roasting the beets
2 T red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 large head of red cabbage, stemmed and chopped
1/2 c finely chopped onion
1/3 c chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 c crumbled blue cheese (about 4 oz/100 g)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Arrange beets in single layer in 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast until beets are tender, about an hour. Cool. Trim beets; peel.

Cook farro in large saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Note: Your grain's cooking time may vary. Mine took longer, over half an hour. Drain. Transfer to large bowl. Stir 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, and garlic into hot farro. Cool to room temperature.

Cut each beet into bite-sized cubes. Add beets, cabbage, onion, and parsley to farro; toss to incorporate evenly. Add blue cheese. Season to taste. Note: The farro (or whatever it was I used) seemed to absorb a lot of salt from the cooking water, so I only added a few twists of freshly-ground pepper at the end, and it was perfect.

I suspect this salad is infinitely malleable. I already want to add a can of chickpeas (rinsed), and some toasted chopped walnuts. The beets could easily be swapped for diced tomatoes, in which case I might also use basil instead of parsley. Yum.

Yoav's Breakfast Chili

2010-05-30T13:39:00.006-05:00

This is Yoav and Denise.

This picture was taken on Christmas, 2008, because even though I just visited them in Toronto I didn't take one picture of them together. Shame on me. I did, however, have a great time hanging out in their backyard, eating pizza and enjoying the many, many hours of daylight that Ontario has to offer this time of year. And I found out that in October they're going to be parents to one of the luckiest babies ever. I can't wait to meet him~~/her~~ (updated! hooray!).

I also got to try their new breakfast creation, which involved Yoav's homemade chili served up with eggs and avocado. It was delicious, and I was inspired to recreate it when I got back to Buenos Aires last week.

It is so tasty. Please do try this at home.

I used the Beef and Dark Beer Chili recipe from Epicurious.com, which I chose because I like cooking with beer. The flavour wasn't quite intense enough, but I think that's probably because Argentines are not generally counted among those who like it hot, and it's hard to find a good strong chili powder here. But still. Eggs & chili. Did I mention that's going to be one lucky kid?

Brown Butter

2010-04-19T22:49:00.007-05:00

Did you know about brown butter? Did you know that if you just take a knob of butter and cook it in a small saucepan over medium heat, it will sizzle and then bubble and froth and then settle down and start to smell nutty and delicious? Did you know that if you then pour that brown butter into a bowl and let it cool for a while, it tastes like a deep, spicy caramel, and can be mixed with a bit of powdered sugar and milk to make the most delicious frosting?

And if you knew, why didn't you tell me?

Part of my Friday afternoon surfing for food porn involved browsing Martha Stewart's cupcakes. After I wiped the drool off my keyboard, made a small batch of Mrs. Kostrya's Spice Cupcakes to take to a dinner party. Then on Saturday I baked a whole batch of Strawberry Cupcakes for a baby shower.

The spice cupcakes were tasty and gingerbready, and I will make them again, maybe with even more spices. Chopped up candied ginger would also be a delicious addition. The strawberry cupcakes weren't quite as strawberryish as I'd like, and I'll wait to make them again until strawberries are in season and are bursting with strawberry flavour, and even then I'll probably add half a cup or so of strawberry purée to the batter. But I won't change a thing about either frosting, both of which were made with varying quantities of brown butter, confectioners' sugar, and milk, more or less following this recipe, just adding more confectioners' sugar and less milk to make a fluffier frosting (vs. a glaze).

Brown butter. Who knew?

The Only Thing Better Than A Bunny Cake

2010-04-10T12:00:00.003-05:00

Three bunny cakes.

¡Felices Pascuas!

2010-04-02T05:00:00.002-05:00

Can you believe we've lived in Buenos Aires for the better part of the past year? ME NEITHER. All of a sudden there are Easter goodies for sale everywhere and I everyone is going on holidays for Semana Santa and it's just like when we arrived last year at this time.

The other day someone asked me what I miss, and one of the things I miss A LOT is my well-stocked kitchen. Guys, I had not one but TWO Kitchen-Aid stand mixers. Here, every apartment we've lived in (and there have been 4 since January) has its own set of kitchen implements, and when we had a brunch party last weekend, I had to borrow dishes and pans and even a whisk. Right now I am not even in possession of a cutting board. It is a sad state of affairs.

And so, on Saturday I'll be on the lookout for a round cake pan, because it's been 3 years since I've made a bunny cake, and that is far too long.

This picture is from 2007. My hair is much longer now.

In case you want to make your very own bunny cake, and may I suggest that you do, here are the instructions I carefully crafted back in 2007.

You need:

• A yummy cake recipe (or a cake mix, no judgments!) - I've made many a successful bunny cake with Epicurious' White Chocolate Layer Cake (omitting the apricot filling) but pick something that's easy for you. Carrot cake makes a sweet brown bunny.
• A round cake pan. You only need one round layer to make the cake, so you can either make two bunnies, or use the rest for cupcakes.
• Frosting (I'm going to recommend homemade for this, but only because I don't know of a store-bought one that isn't sickly sweet - funny that I used to be able to eat that stuff right from the cannister!).
• Coconut (fresh coconut is delish but sweetened shredded coconut in a bag works just as well).
• Green food colouring.
• White paper (regular copier paper is fine) and the pink colouring implement of your choice (a crayon, pencil crayon, highlighter, whatever).
• Jelly beans (for your bunny's eyes and nose, as well as to make a flowery meadow for your bunny).

After you've baked your cake, follow these simple instructions to assemble the bunny.

Assembly:

You should have something that looks like this:

Decoration:

• Frost your bunny completely. The tail can get tricky; my best advice is to be generous with your frosting, and don't be afraid to sculpt the tail a little.

• Dye the coconut to make grass: Put some coconut and a few drops of green food colouring in a ziploc bag and squish it all around. If you love coconut, keep some white to sprinkle on the bunny. Spread the green coconut around the bunny so that he's resting in a lovely meadow.

• As you may already have deduced, the bunny's ears will be made of paper. I like to make them after I see my bunny so that they're proportional to his stature - chubbier bunny, chubbier ears. (Hehe, I said "chubby.") Cut your bunny's ears out of the white paper, and add a pretty pink hue to the insides. Tuck the ears behind the bunny's head (where you made the notch out of the cake back in Assembly Step 4).

• Give your bunny jelly bean eyes and a nose.

Voilà! Your bunny is ready to be the centrepiece at your Easter table. Not to mention dessert.

Apples and Beer

2010-03-14T14:53:00.006-05:00

A dinner party, with delicious homemade curries and daal and mango salsa.

Two cakes. One from a light, buttery, spicy batter laced with caramelized chunks of Granny Smith apples.

The other, a mixture of cocoa and stout beer.

Two cakes. One filled with tart lemon curd and frosted with barely-sweet ginger-lemon whipped cream.

The second glazed with a simple and dangerously delicious chocolate-coffee ganache.

The overflow batter from both made into cupcakes: A godsend for our post-party hangovers.

We couldn't decide which we liked better. You'll have to bake them both and decide for yourself.

Chocolate Stout Cake at Smitten Kitchen

Apple Spice Cake at David Lebowitz

Lemon Curd (adapted from Epicurious)

3 large egg yolks
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c fresh lemon juice
2 T butter

In a small heavy saucepan whisk together yolks and sugar and whisk in lemon juice, butter, and a pinch of salt. Cook mixture over moderately low heat, whisking, until it reaches boiling point, 5 to 7 minutes (do not let it boil). Strain curd through a fine sieve into a bowl and cool, its surface covered with a plastic wrap. Chill curd, covered at least 4 hours or overnight.

Ginger-Lemon Whipped Cream

200 g whipping cream
1/4 c confectioners' sugar
1 T freshly grated ginger
1 T lemon zest

Beat cream until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar, ginger, and lemon. Add more ginger or lemon to taste.

Baking in Buenos Aires (BIBA): Peanut Butter Crispy Bars

2010-03-08T14:18:00.010-05:00

Baking in Buenos Aires, especially when one is trying to bake something not typically Argentine, requires translating, sleuthing, and a certain willingness to improvise.

For example, last year I baked chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips, and a few weeks ago I baked cupcakes in flan moulds. I've learned that confectioner's sugar is called azúcar impalpable, and that brown sugar is called azúcar rubia (blond sugar). And I hate to admit this, but I still haven't found real vanilla extract and have been baking with its artificial redheaded stepchild. Don't tell Martha.

On Sunday we had a potluck dinner to attend, and with all the healthy eating that's been going on around here I wanted to make something indulgent. I decided on Baked's Peanut Butter Crispy Bars and their simple and ridiculously decadent list of ingredients: peanut butter, butter, milk & dark chocolate, sugar, and corn syrup. Oh, and Rice Krispies.

It turns out, however, that in Buenos Aires, Rice Krispies are nowhere to be had. I went to three grocery stores in search of the snap, crackle and pop that, with its various flavours and box sizes, takes up half of most North American cereal aisles, but no luck. I settled for Special K (the only puffed-rice cereal I could find). The Special K flakes were much bigger than Rice Krispies, and they tasted a bit too... healthy. Then the corn syrup wasn't quite light, as the recipe calls for, and the resulting caramel was a bit cloying. And peanut butter here is mostly the super-natural no-salt-no-sugar kind, so the second layer (peanut butter and milk chocolate) didn't seem quite sweet enough and tasted almost overly peanut-buttery. Top layer notwithstanding (I have yet to meet a mixture of melted butter and chocolate that I didn't like), I had my doubts about this recipe as I was creating it.

And even when I tasted the final product, I wasn't sure. They had all the right elements for deliciousness: caramel, peanut butter, chocolate, and crunch. Despite all these wonderful characteristics, something wasn't quite right. I wasn't even sure I wanted these bars to represent at the potluck. I almost threw the whole batch in the garbage, thinking, these bars aren't worth their salt.

Salt.

Salt!

I grabbed a bar out of the fridge and sprinkled it with sea salt, and the sun broke through the clouds and made that salt sparkle like Sandra Bullock's Oscar dress, and lo, the much-adapted Peanut Butter Crispy Bar became greater than the sum of its parts. And North and South Americans alike loved them at the party: They were gone--devoured--within minutes of our arrival. I suspect they'd taste even more delicious after a day or two, but, yeah. Good luck with that.

The original recipe, which will withstand liberal adaptation, is at Smitten Kitchen.

More Breakfast: Homemade Granola

2010-03-04T17:56:00.006-05:00

I used to make granola at home all the time. But that was back in the land of (relatively) cheap maple syrup, which is all I'd ever used as a sweetener. That's not to say you can't find maple syrup in Argentina, and it's even Canadian, but a small bottle costs as much as a perfectly-grilled filet mignon that's big enough to share, and a half-litre of Malbec.

But I've been stubborn, and while I don't recommend substituting Malbec for your maple syrup (except maybe on pancakes?), honey is a viable alternative. As for the other ingredients, Buenos Aires is rife with dietéticas, or natural food stores, they're often expensive, so last week I wandered into my new favourite place in Buenos Aires: Barrio Chino, or Chinatown. Chinatown here is really less of a neighbourhood and more of a block, but you can still find lots of what you'd expect to find in any Chinatown worth its salt: Myriad knicknacks, chicken feet, and delicious fried goodies. And Buenos Aires' Chinatown has a store called Casa China that is overflowing with imported sauces, teas, and, just in case you're making granola, piles of dried fruits and whole grains.

Homemade Granola
3 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1-2 c chopped dried fruit and/or nuts and/or other healthy goodies (like ground flax seeds, sesame seeds, or wheat germ)
1/3 c sweetener (maple syrup is my first choice, but honey works well too, and I'm sure agave nectar would also be delicious).

Toss the oats and any nuts you're including with the sweetener. Spread on a baking sheet or 2 and toast in the oven. The time will vary depending on your oven. Trivia: In the 5 apartments in which we've lived in Buenos Aires, only one has had temperature indication on the oven. I've been winging it, and so far, so good. Anyway, set yours to 350°F and give the oats/nuts a stir after 15 minutes so they toast evenly.

Once your oats are toasty, let them cool, then stir in your dried fruit (including any coconut. If you want to toast the coconut--toasted coconut is super-delicious, especially on waffles and oatmeal, but I digress--do it separately, as it has a tendency to burn and might even set your toaster oven on fire. Or so I've heard). I used dates, pears, and apricots, walnuts, and sunflower seeds, and about 1/3 c toasted wheat germ. I recommend adding a sprinkle of sea salt to boost the flavour.

Granola keeps for several weeks in an airtight container.

Superbreakfast of the Future

2010-02-28T09:43:00.010-05:00

By now everyone knows what quinoa is, right? The supergrain of the future? If you're not yet familiar with this Saturny-grain, hop on over to Wikipedia for the rundown. Go on, I'll wait.

OK, so by now you know it's pronounced KEEN-wah and it comes mostly from Peru and it's very nutritious. But what you might not know is that it's really easy to cook AND it's delicious! Usually it's served in place of rice or other grains as a side dish. In Peru it's often found in granola bars, and in Bolivia, it's made into a warm breakfast drink.

The other day Meg at Not Martha posted a link to a quinoa thread on Ask MetaFilter, and casually mentioned that plain quinoa topped with an over easy or poached egg is her favourite breakfast. I did a bunch of googling for breakfast quinoa recipes but found mostly sweet options. Then I remembered Mark Bittman talking eating savoury oatmeal with soy sauce and scallions, and I got to thinking. I do love my oatmeal, but it would be nice to have more protein with breakfast, and the ability to poach an egg just happens to be one of my superpowers. And unlike flying or x-ray vision, all it took was a little practice.

Quinoa with Soy Sauce and a Poached Egg
makes 1 serving

1/4 c quinoa, rinsed
1 egg
white vinegar
sea salt
soy sauce
freshly ground pepper

Put the quinoa in a small saucepan and add 1/2 cup water. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, still covered, for about 10 minutes.

While the quinoa is cooking, heat a shallow pot (about 2 inches) of water to boiling, then reduce heat so it's just bubbling a little, but barely. Stir in a splash of vinegar (1-2 tsp) and about a tsp of salt.

Crack the egg into a ramekin or other small bowl. Using a wooden spoon, stir the simmering water to make a vortex, and gently tip the egg into the centre of the vortex.

If you timed everything just so, your quinoa should be just about done. If you can see a tiny ring around each grain but there's still a lot of liquid in the pot, remove the lid to let the water evaporate, then spoon the quinoa into a bowl. Add a few drops of soy sauce, just, you know, however much you like. When your egg is poached to perfection, remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon and place it on top of the quinoa. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Shortcuts: You can pre-cook the quinoa whenever you have time. Store it in a closed container in the fridge, and at breakfast time either warm it in the microwave or steam it on the stove. If you're really pressed for time you can also use soft-to-medium boiled eggs, but I urge you to practice poaching eggs - it's an impressive skill, and one that can bring you much deliciousness.

More on eggs: I learned how to poach an egg following the instructions on Epicurious. As for boiling eggs, I like to put a few eggs in a pot, add enough water to cover the eggs, then bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, cover the pot and remove it from the heat. Your eggs will be soft-boiled in 4-5 minutes, and hard-boiled in about 8 minutes. Rinse the eggs immediately in cold water to make them easier to peel.

Sofía's Birthday Cupcakes

2010-02-20T20:06:00.006-05:00

If you've been following along on my personal blog, you already know things have been a slow in my life, as I have a knee to heal. I haven't been tasting new fruits or cooking much of anything, and while baking is my therapy, I'm trying to curb that too since even though I spend almost 2 hours at the gym every day, working out only one leg doesn't burn as many calories as I'd like.

This week our beloved Spanish teacher. Sofía, celebrated her birthday, and as I'm not one to show up to a birthday party empty-handed, I decided to bake cupcakes. Baking cupcakes is no easy feat in Buenos Aires. Muffin tins are hard to come by, to say the least, and paper liners are scarce. But Ken went to the party store (yes, there are party stores! In abundance!) and came home with flan moulds in which to bake the cupcakes. Genius!

And so I spent Friday afternoon, in almost-unbearable heat and humidity, baking vanilla cupcakes for Sofía, because I love her. And I baked them seven at a time, because that's how many flan moulds were available at the party store.
Around 8 p.m. I texted Sofía to get the party details, and found out that I'd misread her email: The party is next Friday. Oops. What's a girl to do with 16 delicious vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting?

Luckily I had plans this afternoon to attend an English-language book exchange, so I brought them along. (It was either that or eat them all, 2 at a time.) And hopefully when I bake them again this Friday, it won't be quite so hot.

Amy Sedaris' Vanilla Cupcakes (recipe from Epicurious.com)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups milk

Amy's Instructions:

Turn oven on to 375 degrees F.

Put butter in mixer and beat at medium speed until somewhat smooth. Pour in sugar and beat well. Add 2 eggs. I like to crack the eggs on the side of the bowl while it is moving, which can be really stupid. I like to take chances. Yes, I have had to throw away my batter because I lost eggshells in the mix. Yes, it was a waste of food and yes, I know how expensive butter is, but what can I say? I'm a daredevil. Mix well. Add: vanilla, baking powder, salt, flour, and milk. Beat until it looks like it is supposed to and pour into individual baking cups, until they are about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Should produce 24 cupcakes; I get 18 because I'm doing something wrong, although my cupcakes were voted second best in the city by New York Magazine.

Ed. note: I got 16 1/2 because I'm doing something really wrong, which is called baking cupcakes in flan moulds. And also because I really like cupcake batter.

Magnolia-ish Chocolate Frosting

150 g bittersweet chocolate (minimum 60%)
75 g butter, room temperature
250 g confectioners sugar (a.k.a. powdered sugar, icing sugar (Canada), or azucar palpalble (Argentina))
1 t vanilla extract
2-3 T milk

Melt the chocolate using your preferred method of melting (double-boiler, microwave, direct sunlight). Beat in the butter (a mixer works best, but elbow grease works too, and think of how great your arms will look!). Beat in the vanilla, then add the confectioners sugar slowly (or else you'll be covered in it). Keep mixing until it's all mixed together, and then a little longer for good measure. Add milk a little at a time to get the right consistency. I like to taste it along the way - you know, just to make sure it's delicious enough.

I say this is Magnoia-ish because it's not officially their recipe, but it tastes a lot like it. This recipe made just enough frosting for my aforementioned 16 cupcakes, so if your cupcake recipe yielded more, or you just like piles of (very sweet) frosting, adjust away!

Snack

2010-02-05T17:16:00.000-05:00

Snack, originally uploaded by Kitty LaRoux.

Reblogging in honour of World Nutella Day, because it makes me infinitely happy that such a thing exists. Sadly, Nutella is prohibitively expensive here in Argentina, but it's hard to complain when the dulce de leche flows so freely. Still, if someone handed me a slice of homemade bread slathered in Nutella right now, I wouldn't complain.

The fine print: WND is co-hosted by Ms Adventures in Italy and Bleeding Espresso.

Fruit of the Day: Tumbo

2009-11-14T08:59:00.001-05:00

While most of our food shopping so far has been done at outdoor markets, we did stop in at one supermarket in La Paz. That's where we picked up the tumbo. It's small and oval, a lovely pale yellow, and very subtly fuzzy.

I cut a tumbo open length-wise to discover a very pretty orange, passionfruit-like cluster of seeds and pulp. (Turns out another name for tumbo is banana passionfruit - how appropriate!) I tasted the fruit as I would passionfruit: by eating the pulp around the seeds. At first I wasn't a fan. The taste is mild but a bit chalky, and certainly not as juicy as I'd expected. A few more seeds in, though, and the tumbo was starting to win me over. I've since seen tumbos stacked up at juice stands and I'm curious to try them blended and strained and maybe mixed with a little sugar (or pineapple juice).
UFF Fruit Rating:

Halloween FotD: Noni

2009-10-31T16:42:00.005-05:00

A picture is worth a thousand words, and when I saw the noni at the central market in Cuzco, I knew it was the perfect fruit for Halloween. It looks horrifying, like one of those squishy eyeball-balls. When I squeezed it, it even felt like one of those squishy eyeball-balls.

At left, noni. At right, eyeball-ball. Horrifying all around.

And the noni's smell? Pungent, vile, and disgusting. To say the least.

Seriously guys, it's awful, and we could barely bring ourselves to try it.

Our dedication to FotD compelled us to taste the noni, albeit barely, and its taste lived up to its smell. Gross.

The woman at the market told us it's usually consumed as juice (obviously with a LOT of other flavours and/or sweeteners). She also said noni is used to cure cancer but Wikipedia reports that it was "explored unsuccessfully" for that use. However, "in Hawaii, ripe fruits are applied to draw out pus from an infected boil." How charming.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Ceviche in Lima

2009-10-22T10:54:00.000-05:00

On our last night in Rio with Frenchy and Dutchy (aka Audrey and Eric), we asked them for a list of the best (and worst) parts of their six months in South America. They recommended cities and sites to see (and some to avoid), and told us their favourite places to stay. In Lima, they had been the first guests of the brand-new Kokopelli Hostel. Audrey advised us to ask Paolo, one of the proprietors, to point us to the ceviche restaurant to which he had taken them. Paolo offered us one better: To take us there for lunch on Monday.

(First, though, on Friday night, we went to a club. I know: I'm too old for that shit. We went with a few people staying at the hostel, all decked out in our best backpacker chic. At one point someone commented, "I'd never wear this to a club at home," to which I replied, "I'd never go to a club at home." It's true.)

Anyway, Monday rolled around and we were both very excited for lunch. Paolo rounded up a group of about 15 people from the hostel to join the festivities, and we piled into a few taxis to go to the neighbourhood of Barranco. Once there, he led us into a little market, past stalls selling raw chickens (with the feet still attached!) and even a little barber shop. The "restaurant" was a bunch of plastic tables under tarps, and we assembled enough chairs to fit our posse. We unanimously agreed that Paolo should order for all of us, and soon food started appearing on the tables.

We started out with chicha morada, a sweet and very tasty dark-purple juice that's made from purple corn. Small metal bowls of salted, roasted corn kernels also appeared on the table. We snacked on those until our first course arrived: A bowl of almost-clear broth with a mussel in each bowl and a generous sprinkling of cilantro leaves on top. It was refreshing and flavourful (especially with the addition of squeeze of lime and a rather potent hotsauce), and the mussel was particularly good.

Next came a dish called tiradito apaltado. Tiradito is like ceviche (fish marinated in lemon or lime juice with onions), but sometimes with oil in the marinade, and without onions. This particular tiradito was served with corn, a hunk of sweet potato, and half an avocado on top. The fish was incredibly fresh-tasting and the avocado was one of the best I've ever had, fresh and perfectly ripe. While we were devouring the tiradito, plates of crispy fried seafood (pescado frito) arrived, garnished with yuca fries and a bowl of mayonnaise for dipping. These were a mix of calamari, shrimp, and other fishy bits that had been battered and fried.

We continued the feast with ceviche - once again a mix of seafood, this time marinated in citrus and garnished with sweet red onions and more sweet potato. I loved the tiradito (especially the avocado) but the ceviche was probably my favourite dish. The fish was sweet and a little bit salty and oh-so-tender, and the thin slices of onion and sprinkling of corn added a perfect crunch.

Just when we thought we were winding down, two rice dishes appeared. One was very similar to seafood-fried rice, only not there was definitely no need to fight over the shrimp. The other was more like seafood risotto, with a lighter flavour than the fried rice but still packed full of fishy goodness. I limited myself to small portions of those (both were delicious!) so I could finish the remaining ceviche for dessert, and Ken busied himself with the leftover fried bits from the pescado frito.

Finally, Paolo announced the grand total: 14 soles (about $5) each, including tip. And we thought beef was cheap in Argentina!

More pics on in our Peru set on Flickr.

Fruit of the Day: Pepino Melon

2009-10-21T06:59:00.002-05:00

When I was in university, my roommate Lee used to exclaim "Babaghanoush!" whenever he realized something or even completed a task, kind of like you might use "Eureka!" or "Voilà!" At the time I had even more limited experience with international cuisine, and I thought Lee was just using a nonsense word. One day, while looking for hummus, I came across an unfamiliar product and sounded out the word on the label and had a similar "eureka!" moment when I realized I was looking at babaghanoush!

Today's fruit isn't an eggplant, but it does have lovely eggplant-coloured markings. I didn't buy the pepino melon on our first few trips to the grocery store, but I kept coming back to it. Its skin feels amazingly smooth and almost velvety, like a matte-finish photo.

I sliced it open and was surprised to find the inside hollow, with nary a seed in sight. The fruit itself is about an inch thick. It smelled sweet, like a ripe honeydew melon. When I cut off a smaller slice to try some, the skin peeled off easily, like that of a tomato that's been blanched. The texture is similar to a honeydew as well, and the first bite was sweet and mild and melony. As I finished the slice I identified a feint peppery aftertaste, and it suddenly occurred to me that pepino melon translates to pepper melon. Babaghanoush!
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Cocona

2009-10-20T13:35:00.004-05:00

I chose the cocona for its irresistible orangeness. It reminds me of a yellow pepper, and its stem is a little like that of a persimmon. The cocona also has skin similar to a persimmon, and is about as squishy as a very underripe tomato (read: not very).

I sliced it open to find a pale yellow insides with lots of small, soft seeds, kind of like tiny cucumber seeds. The cocona is very tart! The pulp around the seeds is juicy, but the fruit between the center and the skin is much firmer. I shared some with a couple who was in the kitchen with me. The girl thought it was like a fruity-vegetable (or a vegetabley-fruit) and the guy comment, "It's quite sharp, isn't it?" Indeed. I suspect I'd prefer the cocona juiced with a little sugar.
UFF Fruit Rating:

P.S. I LOVE comments on FotD - I learn as much from you guys as I do from trying the new fruits! Thanks, and keep 'em coming!

Fruit of the Day: Tuna Roja

2009-10-19T23:15:00.010-05:00

Before we get to today's fruit, I have to once again sing the praises of Peru's fruit. There are more new varieties than I know what to do with, and when we're craving something familiar, the options are plentiful and cheap. To wit: Here is a picture of 50¢ worth of strawberries:

They were fragrant, sweet, and delicious.

The tuna roja isn't a fish, I promise. It's a fruit, and one you might even recognize: In North America, it's more commonly known as the prickly pear. There were three prickly pear varieties available: roja (red), amarilla (yellow), and verde (green). A prickly pear traffic light! I don't remember why we chose red, but maybe because it looked the weirdest.

Without consulting the intarwebs, I wasn't sure how exactly to approach the tuna roja. I decided to slice it vertically, and was very excited when I found its insides to be as red as a beet!

I scooped out a spoonful of the juicy red insides and found the tuna to be full of tiny, hard seeds. The fruit itself is mild-tasting and not super-sweet. It's refreshing but I found it nondescript (as you may have gathered from my non-description). The seeds were too small to spit out so I just swallowed them, and they were inoffensive.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Granadilla

2009-10-18T15:48:00.004-05:00

We found today's fruit, the granadilla, in the vast citrus section of the even vaster produce section in our grocery store in Lima, Peru. I chose it for its lovely orange colour and the long stem attached to each fruit in the bin. As an added bonus, it cost all of 0.49 soles (about $0.17!).

The granadilla isn't exactly squishy like an orange. It's shell is kind of hard and you can push a dent into it with your finger (a handy trait if you want to create a little flat spot on which to rest the granadilla for a photo op). When you shake it, it sounds like there's something shaking around inside. When I cut it open, its skin (which is really more like a shell) cracked open (not unlike breaking a cracker) to reveal seeds and pulp--seeds and pulp that looked suspiciously like the insides of a passion fruit!

The granadilla is probably best eaten blended and strained, but I was impatient so I just slurped up a few pulpy seeds. It was delicious! The pulp tasted like a super-sweet combination of orange and passion fruit juices, and the seeds were small enough to be inoffensive--I just crunched them up along with the juice.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Chirimoya

2009-10-17T22:55:00.008-05:00

Yesterday we arrived in Lima, Peru, and today we spent a good half an hour exploring the fruit section of the grocery store. It was all I could do to not blow our entire day's budget on new and exciting produce. Kernels of corn are huge, like, a regular-sized cob of corn has 8 GIANT rows. And I counted at least 11 different kinds of potatoes!

Back to fruit. After much hemming and hawing, we decided to buy a chirimoya. It's closely related to the hand-grenade-shaped pinha, which was one of the weirdest-looking and most delicious fruits we'd ever tried. The chirimoya was much-hyped in my extensive fruit-research on the intarwebs, and it's from Peru! And we're in Peru! Hooray!

Even though we bought what felt like the ripest specimen, I suspect our chirimoya was a bit under-ripe. It was delicious and custardy, like the pinha, but a little harder than we expected. We did convince two skeptical Canadian girls to try it, and they thought it tasted like dessert!

UFF Fruit Rating: (Subject to change when we try a riper fruit)

Fruits of the Day: Late-Summer Berries

2009-09-28T11:59:00.007-05:00

We're back in NY for two weeks; two weeks that are going by way too quickly. This past weekend I enjoyed my favourite Saturday morning ritual: A rendez-vous with my friend Vicki at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket in Brooklyn. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Browsing the late-summer/early-fall harvest (green beans! tomatoes! Jersey peaches!) was the first time I felt a pang about our current nomadism: Even if we had unlimited counter and fridge space, our overbooked schedule doesn't include a lot of time for cooking.

I settled for small quantities of the aforementioned green beans and tomatoes, and a couple of inimitable apple cider donuts. I also couldn't resist a few containers of what were probably among the last berries of the season. There were samples available of both blackberries and raspberries, and when Vicki tried the former she remarked, "That tastes like it should cure something." In other words, they were a little tart. I mixed some of the raspberries into my Greek yogurt for dessert last night and this afternoon made the rest into Baked's Raspberry Breakfast Bars, recipe and inspiration via Smitten Kitchen. It didn't seem like I had quite enough berries to cover the bottom layer of the bars so I chopped up a peach and threw it in there as well.

The verdict? The house smelled so good while they were baking that I could hardly wait for them to cool when I took them out of the oven. And they're delicious: Sweet and buttery and slightly tart. The bars are a little wetter than I'd have liked, especially since I plan to transport them to friends' places for dessert tonight and "breakfast" tomorrow morning (if there are any left - Ken also seems to like them!), but that's why god invented Tupperware. And forks.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Figo

2009-09-12T17:15:00.006-05:00

We recently spent a very rainy day in Puerto Alegre, Brazil. We arrived at 8:30 a.m. and headed immediately to the central market, where our trusty Lonely Planet assured us we'd be able to dine at any number of restaurants and also buy delicious ice cream. We spent the morning drinking coffee and playing cards, and around lunchtime we wandered into one of the extraordinarily well-stocked fruit stands to see what we could find for FotD.

There were a bunch of new fruits, including some that we had to pass up because they were either sold only in large quantities or were just simply too large--like this guy, the unwieldy jaca (Jackfruit in English):

We settled on three different fruits, the first of which is the figo, which you undoubtedly recognize as a fig.

We're both fans of dried figs (ideally stuffed with a hunk of manchego and wrapped in proscuitto), but neither of us had tried fresh figs before. They're smooth and firm, but with a bit of squishiness. We cut one open and found its insides to be delightfully pink and seedy. Behold:

The flavour was nowhere near as intense as a dried fig, and I don't know that I'd even have been able to recognize the taste if I hadn't known what I was eating. It was very mild. The texture was the most familiar part - the seeds were unmistakeably figgy.

UFF Fruit Rating:

The Pork Sandwich

2009-08-01T16:24:00.001-05:00

Not long after we arrived in Buenos Aires, we found ourselves in a largely-expat bar watching college basketball next to a porteño named Abel. Fortunately for everyone, especially us, Abel speaks English fluently and told us about all the best places in the city to eat. Most importantly, he told us about his favourite pork sandwich, which is available at a small parrilla near the entrance to the ecological reserve.

As today was our penultimate Saturday in Buenos Aires, we finally decided to go on our pork pilgrimage. On the bus to the ecological reserve, we realized that we didn't know exactly which parrilla in the ecological reserve would have the fabled sandwich, so Ken texted Abel.

Ken: Hey, we're on the lookout for the legendary pork sandwich. How do we recognize the right stand?

Abel: It is the second one from the entrance of the ecological reserve. Mi parrillon or el parrillon. Who is this?

Ken told him it was us asking, to which Abel replied, "I thought so. Pork sandwich is an important matter. Only put chimichurri." He also advised us to get a choripán.

We found the parrilla, like an oasis in the dessert, only instead of water, it was full of delicious, delicious meat. We ordered the super bondiolita al limon - the super pork sandwich with lemon. The dude working at the parrilla sliced strips of pork off of a hunk, then put them on the hot grill and squirted lemon juice on top. After turning them a few times, he put the grilled strips on a warm roll and we slathered it with chimichurri. The sandwich was a study in delicious contrasts. The meat was juicy and perfectly cooked and salty and sweet, like all good pork should be. The bun was soft and crusty and perfectly absorbed the excess juices. Needless to say, our pork sandwich didn't last long.

We had a choripán for dessert.

Fruit of the Day: Nêspera

2009-07-30T19:20:00.007-05:00

We've been back in Buenos Aires, and unfortunately, winter, for almost two weeks. Despite an ample supply of fresh fruit (including many delicious citrus varieties - the mandarins here are amazing!) at our local verdularía, we miss our regular expeditions to the grocery store in Brazil, in which we rarely came home without a new and exotic fruit.

Like the nêspera, which also goes by loquat.

A loquat is about the same colour as an apricot, is shaped like a pear, and is fuzzier than a peach. How summery!

Inside, a loquat contains beautiful seeds that look like polished wood.

The skin was very easy to peel off, making it that much easier to eat this tasty little fruit. The loquat's flavour is mild and vaguely reminiscent of a pear, maybe one that was spritzed with honey. A little fuzzy honey-spritzed pear. And I suspect it would make a delicious jam, with very little sugar added.

Summery, indeed.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Jatobá

2009-07-26T12:18:00.006-05:00

Based on various descriptions I read on the interwebs, a snippet of the jatobá's Zagat review might read something like this:

This fruit has an "offensive" odour "similar to strong cheese". It is sometimes called "stinking toe" because of its smell.

Yay.

The jatobá (also called "Brazilian cherry," even though as far as I could tell there is nothing cherry-like about it) looks like a giant tamarind, and its pods are very hard. So hard that they're used to make wood! And so hard that, to crack one open, I had to put it under the leg of a chair, and then not just sit on the chair (...nothing!) but actually stomp my foot on the seat, at which point the jatobá pod finally gave in.

The flesh, if you could call it that, was quite dry, almost like plaster. It surround two very hard seeds. And I can confirm that the jatobá did, indeed, smell quite strong. I tasted a bit of it, and looks (and smell) were not deceiving: Jatobá tastes like pungent plaster.

I'm glad for its sake that it turns into nice-looking wood.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Membrillo

2009-07-25T10:48:00.000-05:00

A very common dessert here in Buenos Aires is queso y dulce, which just means "cheese and sweet". The dulce in question is a very thick jam, so thick that it's sliceable, made of either membrillo or batata (sweet potato). You might be more familiar with the English name for dulce de membrillo: quince paste. It's commonly served in Spain with manchego cheese, and it is delicious. And until now, I had no idea it was made from fruit!

Fruit that looks a lot like a pear, both inside and out.

The membrillo, or quince, is very hard, and was much harder to cut than a pear. At one point I thought it had a big pit because it was so difficult to get my knife through the center. It does taste vaguely like a pear, with almost the exact texture of a potato. Ken had a strong (negative) reaction to its texture and starchiness. I was less offended, and even kind of liked it. I don't think quince is generally eaten raw, so I'm going to try my hand at making quince paste with the remainder of our FotD.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Kimkam

2009-07-20T16:27:00.000-05:00

¡Hola amigos! As you may have gathered with your superior sleuthing skills, we're back in Buenos Aires. Just in case you weren't sure, I have included our handy adventure map (at left. Click to enlarge). There is a small correction on that map: It should read "Gillian & Ken Return to Winter".

I'm very excited about today's fruit. It's called kimkam, which is Portuguese for kumquat, which I've heard all about but never seen before. Kumquats look like tiny oranges. Inside, they have very pretty little green seeds. Better still, kumquats are delicious! I ate a few with the peel, which is extremely fragrant, and a few without, which was more trouble than it was worth. I skipped the inside part surrounding the seeds, but my good friend Wikipedia tells me that the whole fruit can be eaten, with the sour/salty inside providing a contrast to the sweeter outer rind.

On top of all that, the name "kinkan" reminds me of Kon Kan, a band I loved in high school. In fact, I didn't know until just this moment that Kon Kan is Canadian! The kimkam has already taught me so much, and now this. Thank you, kimkam.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Graviola

2009-07-19T15:30:00.000-05:00

In late-reporting districts, graviola (soursop in English) tied things up with cupuaçu in last week's FotD poll, so here he is, in all his glory:

I'd seen a lot of graviola-flavoured ice cream and juice when we were in Salvador, but never the fruit itself, so I was pretty excited when we came across this guy at a fruit stand in Brasília. He's a big fellow, and probably weighed in at a kilo or more. We carried him around in a backpack the day we bought him, and by the end of the day we'd grown quite fond of today's fruit and had even nicknamed him Little Gravi. He sat in our hostel room overnight and we continued to marvel at his weirdness.

The day after we bought him, we sliced him open. We knew he was related to our beloved pinha, so we were quite excited to try him out. Unfortunately, Little Gravi didn't live up to our (albeit lofty) expectations. Graviola has a simlar creamy texture to both the pinha and the cupuaçu, but it wasn't nearly as sweet and custardy. I did later try sweetened graviola juice, and it tasted a lot more like pinha, and I'm sure I could be persuaded to try graviola ice cream, you know, if the opportunity presented itself.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Açai

2009-07-18T03:05:00.000-05:00

It wouldn't have been a trip to Brazil without sampling some açai. Açai isn't available fresh - apparently the berries don't last for much more than 24 hours after they're harvested, so they're processed (frozen or freeze-dried) immediately after they're picked. In Brazil, açai is readily available frozen as açai na tigela, though, which simply means açai in a bowl. The options for açai na tigela are plentiful: You can get it mixed with any one of another delicious fruit, and/or topped with fruit salad, sliced bananas, or granola.

We had açai na tigela twice. The first time was at a salad/juice bar along the coast in Salvador, where we ordered it blended with mango. The medium-sized bowl was huge, and came with a little packet of granola to pour on top. The second time was at a mall in Brasília, where we ordered it with sliced bananas and granola on top. I also sampled the frozen açai pulp (it overpowered any other fruit with which I mixed it) and a drink called Guaraviton, a soft drink that's a blend of guaraná (yet another fruit) and açai. (Straight-up guaraná is a popular soda flavour in Brazil. It apparently has more caffeine than Coke, and tastes a lot like cream soda. I love it.)

As I mentioned, açai na tigella is served frozen, like sherbet, and is very dark purple. It almost tastes like frozen raspberries, or like a blend of berries - in other words, it's delicious! We both preferred the second bowl, sans mango, which may have been in part because it was garnished with a piece of papaya in the shape of a heart. I certainly can't confirm any weight-loss claims made by proponents of açai, but that may be because açai was often sold right next to irresistable Brazilian pão de queijo (cheese bread).
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Cupuaçu

2009-07-17T07:38:00.000-05:00

The results are in, and today's fruit is the cupuaçu!

A few weeks ago in Salvador I ate a chocolate filled with cupuaçu. It was tasty, but mixed with the chocolate it was hard to taste the fruit's flavour very distinctly. There was frozen cupuaçu pulp at the supermarket, but I never bought it, mostly because I could never resist the strawberry pulp. I was also kind of holding out for the fruit itself, but had mostly given up until we passed a fruit stand right here in Brasília with a whole stack of these monstrosities.

The cupuaçu looks like a huge potato, and it's outer shell is very, very hard, like wood. When we bought it, the guy at the fruit stand mimed for us how we should crack it open against concrete. We carried it to the park with us, and after we'd had our fill of jabuticabas, we decided to crack open the cupuaçu.

The insides looked like BRAINS!, only smoother. It separated pretty naturally into two sections where the seeds were held together by really light yellow, dense pulp. We dug right in and were both very pleasantly surprised: Cupuaçu tastes like mild lemon custard, with a texture similar to that of our beloved pinha. It's delicious! We found the pulp furthest from each seed to be the sweetest, and it was more vinegary closer to the seed, so we mostly stuck to the edges. We polished off half of the fruit before packing up the rest in its own handy carrying case to bring home for later.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Jabuticaba

2009-07-16T07:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we went to Brasília's city park. It's really nice! On the way, we passed a fruit stand, and guys, I couldn't believe the bounty. You are in for many fruity treats over the next few days, starting with today's fruit, the jabuticaba.

But first, The Future!

Brasília has great architecture (that is, in fact, quite futuristic). Most of it was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, who has a very informative Wikipedia page. All of our Brasília pics are on Flickr.

Now let's talk about jabuticaba.

Jabuticaba also goes by Brazilian grape, and a slew of other names that you can read all about - where else? - on Wikipedia. Jabuticabas are about the size of a big grapes, are squishy like a little rubber balls, and are very dark purple - almost black. The first jabuticaba I ate I didn't like at all. It was super bitter. Then I tried eating the insides only, without the skin, and discovered that that's the way to go. The insides taste like grapes, only even sweeter, like Welch's grape juice. The pulp is very white, and each fruit contained one or two seeds that were easy enough to spit out, especially since we were eating them in the park. If you get your hands on a jabuticaba, we recommend putting the whole berry in your mouth, biting to break the skin and release the delicious pulp, then spitting out the skin and seeds. If you do it just so, you might end up with a little jabuticaba Pac-Man.

Jabuticaba is also the name of a song by Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto, with the most charming lyrics:

If I could name
A fruit for you
It would be jabuticaba
Blue, black and small
On the outside
And soft and sweet within

You can listen to it (for free!) on Grooveshark.
UFF Fruit Rating:

P.S. We have a lot of new fruit just waiting to be discovered here on Ultra Fine Flair, and I can't decide which one should be up next. So... you get to choose tomorrow's fruit! Vote early and often!

poll by twiigs.com

Fruit of the Day: Romã

2009-07-15T08:45:00.000-05:00

The romã is the first FotD purchased here in Brasília. You might recognize it as a pomegranate.

I remember the first time I tried pomegranate seeds. I was at a restaurant in San Mateo, California, and I'd ordered butternut squash soup. It came garnished with crème fraîche and pomegranate seeds. I'd never seen anything like them before! The seeds are about the size of kernels of corn. They have yellowish centers and I've seen them range from pink to dark red on the outside of the seed (I suspect they darken, and sweeten, as they ripen). The ones I bought here weren't quite ripe, and the seeds taste tart and are still a little too crunchy inside. Fortunately I know how great pomegranate seeds can be, or I might dismiss this fruit like I did yesterday's sapoti, which according to more knowledgeable sources actually are delicious when they're ripe.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Sapoti

2009-07-14T07:26:00.000-05:00

On more than one occasion I thought I'd tapped Salvador's supply of new and wonderful fruits, but I always took a second look when we passed a fruit stand and went out of my way to check out the produce section at the grocery store. Just in case. And on more than one occasion, I was rewarded with something I'd never seen before. When I was extra lucky, I could even figure out the name of the new fruit so I could write about it.

One of those extra passes through the fruit section at the grocery store yielded today's fruit, the sapoti, or sapodilla. Sapodillas look and even feel like potatoes. I get pretty excited when a fruit doesn't look like much on the outside, because I've frequently been rewarded with fruits like maracujás and goiabas that are all inner-beauty and deliciousness. And imagine if you were the first dude to ever cut into a watermelon? That guy is a god somewhere, I'm sure.

It has gone the other way, too, like with the cajú - it looked amazing but fell completely short of expectations. And then, there are the straight-up dud fruits, the ones that I'm sure can be cooked somehow or mixed with something to make a delicacy, somewhere, but eaten straight off the vine (OK, out of the grocery store) just didn't please our North American palates. One example is the genipapo, and another, unfortunately, is the sapodilla.

According to Wikipedia, sapodillas are supposed to be delicious. According to me, they are not. The one I tried tasted astringenty and had even more of that chalky texture we found in the cajú and the persimmon, which I now realize probably means those fruits are all high in tannins. Turns out I prefer my tannins in red wine form. The sapodilla has a cute seed, though, that's just kind of tucked inside. I guess that's something.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Po(n)kan Tangerine

2009-07-13T08:43:00.000-05:00

There are countless varieties of citrus fruits available around here. We've already examined the endlessly-useful lime, and its cousin, the cleverly-disguised Bahían orange. A few days ago we asked at a fruit stand for a sweet orange, and were handed one that was apparently a cross between two other oranges (conveniently available in the adjacent bins). Forgive me, I have no idea what the names of any of these are, but presumably they all contain the word laranja (the Portuguese of -- sing it with me! -- orange). The hybrid orange was indeed the sweetest either of us had ever tasted, without even the slightest hint of tang. It was like eating orange sherbet.

Today we have yet another citrus variety, a fruit that is undoubtedly more recognizable than yesterday's. At the grocery store, it was labeled pokan tangerine, but Google suggests that it also goes by ponkan tangerine. It could also be that pokan is Portuguese for ponkan. No matter, really. The bottom line is, I can't resist buying a fruit that still has its leaves attached. Look at that guy. He's all jaunty.

The ponkan tangerine is squishy, and its skin is a little loose. The loose skin makes it really easy to peel, which I value in a citrus fruit. The cross-section is good and orangey, both in colour and flavour. It tastes juicy and sweet. The best thing about it, though, might be its smell, which currently indicates that I need to wrap this up so I can eat the little guy without getting my keyboard all juicy.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Cacau

2009-07-12T10:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was just a regular Saturday here in Salvador, Brazil. We got back from the beach around 5, showered, had a snack. Oh, and then we made chocolate.

You know, like you do on a Saturday night.

It all started last weekend when we were out for a stroll. We passed a grocery store and noticed a new fruit. It was labeled cacau, and when I shook it (oh-so-gently, of course) it sounded hollow inside, like it might contain a pit with space around it. Ken speculated at the time that cacau might translate as cocoa, and later, the internets confirmed his suspicions. Cocoa! A.k.a., future chocolate! While I captured the cacau's outsides for posterity, Ken did some more research, and learned that not only are raw cocoa beans delicious and nutritious, an ambitious individual can use them to make chocolate at home.

We are nothing if not ambitious.

First, we cut off the end of the cocoa pod, and peered inside. It was like Alien in there. It looked really, really gross.

The beans were all held together by a sinewy pulp and came out of the pod as a cluster. A very unappetizing cluster. However, as I am 100% committed to FotD, I tried a bean. The pulp is tasty! It isn't chocolatey in the least, but it's sweet. The beans themselves taste kind of like raw coffee beans. They're a little bitter, but mostly inoffensive. And when you untangle a cocoa bean from all that pulp it's very pretty, and looks like a purple almond. We ate a couple of beans then wrapped the rest of the gooey, pulpy bunch in a rag to ferment. And ferment they did! There is no photographic evidence of fermentation, but after six days, that rag smelled good and fermented. Trust me.

Next, we left them in the sun to dry while we went to the beach and ate beach-cheese and coconut popsicles.

When we got home, we put the fermented, dried cocoa beans in the oven for about half an hour. The kitchen smelled shockingly like chocolate. Then we shelled them and had a bunch of cocoa nibs.

Next up, grinding and conching. For the grinding step, we used a pestle (easily had, with all the caipirinha-making that goes on in these parts) with a clear glass mug, so we could see what was going on. We took turns grinding those beans until they finally started to look like butter. Cocoa butter! At this point they still tasted very bitter, but distinctly smelled like chocolate.

Much Googling revealed that for the conching step we were going to need a fancy machine. We could only assume that people made chocolate before such fancy machines were invented, so we decided to skip that part and just mix in some sugar. Add sugar, taste, add sugar, taste... We added about 4-5 tsp of sugar to the cocoa from a single pod, and it was still pretty bitter, so your mileage may vary.

(Tempering is another optional step that will make your chocolate look pretty, but doesn't affect the taste. We didn't care if we had to eat it blindfolded, so we skipped that step as well.)

After adding sugar, we pressed our fermented, dried, roasted, ground, and sweetened cocoa beans into a ramekin. Ramekin might come from a Dutch word for "toast" or a German word for "little cream," but last night it was Portuguese for "chocolate mould." We then went out for bolinhos de bacalhau (fried cod balls (heh)) and a couple or three caipirinhas. Give or take.

Today, Sunday, there was chocolate. We toasted the miraculous cacau fruit with a cup of the finest Brazilian coffee we could find. And we rejoiced.

UFF Fruit Rating: , obviously. This fruit turns into CHOCOLATE.

P.S. We mostly used the chocolate-making instructions here. They leave a lot of room for interpretation, which we like. The only thing we might have changed was our roasting time. The oven here is very hot (the minimum temperature is 200°C, or around 400°F), and we think we would have had even more delicious results if we'd roasted the beans for 10 minutes instead of 30.

Fruit of the Day: Caqui Rama Forte

2009-07-11T09:51:00.000-05:00

The caqui rama forte isn't a tomato, but it could play one on TV.

You probably know it better as a persimmon, yet another fruit name I totally adore. One of our persimmons was orange and the other one red. I know I've seen (and eaten) persimmons in California, but I don't remember them looking like primitive tic-tac-toe boards inside!

The first bite was sweet and juicy and really delicious, but a few minutes later both of us noticed the same chalkiness we experienced way back when with our inaugural FotD, the cajú. Not quite as chalky, but neither of us went back for seconds.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Acerola

2009-07-10T17:25:00.000-05:00

I've seen the packages of acerolas in the grocery store since the day we arrived in Brazil, and I've always walked right past them because I thought they were imported cherries. Turns out I wasn't totally wrong, as acerola also goes by Barbados cherry, or wild crapemyrtle. Wild crapemyrtle! These names just keep getting better and better, don't they?

Acerola are tart little berries, kind of like sour cherries. Also, they're bright yellow inside, which makes me love them even more. They don't have a single pit like cherries; instead, the seed is divided into three pieces that you can cut in between pretty easily. I think this seed-thing would make them a lot more difficult to use in a pie, though, unless someone invents an acerola-pitter.

This afternoon I had a glass of acerola juice. I assume it was sweetened, because it was nowhere near as tart as the fresh berry I'd eaten earlier. The juice was super cold and frothy, and reminded me a lot of the Strawberry Julius drinks I used to get at the Orange Julius in Conestoga Mall in my youth.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Do You Know What I Love (DYKWIL): Brazil Edition

2009-07-09T15:21:00.000-05:00

1. Coconut on the beach! Did I mention that you can also ask the machete-equipped dudes to crack open the coconut after you finish drinking the water, so you can eat the meat? Today on the beach we had the meatiest one ever - seriously, it was a meal in itself. Yum.
2. Sharing cooking & recipes with Jackie. Jackie and Alex run our hostel. Jackie is an amazing cook, and I like to hang out in the kitchen and ask her, "¿Qué hacés?" ("What are you making?") That's how I learned how to make pão de quiejo, or cheese bread, which will be a fixture at all future cocktail and dinner parties.
3. The paintings around our hostel. See: Jackie. She's also an artist with a wonderful eye for colour.
4. Capoeira on the beach: Every day we see guys who could easily compete with the most lithe Chinese 15-year-old in Olympic gymnastics' mat routines. For real.
5. Fruits of the day.
6. Coconut-flavoured things. Everything from cookies to ice cream to dish soap comes in coconut flavour (or scent). Delish.
7. Having sandy toes.
8. Red wine and caipirinhas.
9. The smell of fruit stands.
10. Every shade of brown skin.
11. New friends from Spain, Austria, India, Uruguay, Brazil
12. Midnight Samba, as taught by Jackie. This is one talented individual. Do you wish you were Alex yet?
13. Intense rainstorms that are over in 20 minutes and indicate in no uncertain terms that it's OK to keep sleeping.
14. Speaking of which... 8+ hours of sleep, every night.
15. Pinha.
16. The sound of Portuguese.

Today's fruit is tamarinda, which easily translates to tamarind. You've eaten it on a samosa, I'm sure, but have you ever seen it in its original form?

Those little pods cost all of 75¢. I peeled them and now they're soaking in water to eventually turn into tamarind sauce, which I think will go nicely with the cheese bread we'll eat on the beach tomorrow night. In its raw form, tamarind pulp is so tart that my mouth actually puckered when I tried eating it! I liked it anyway, and I'm betting the sauce will be delicious.
UFF Fruit Rating:

In other news, on Monday we head to Brasilia (the futuristic-looking capital of Brazil). This afternoon we made a deposit to our hostel there at a local branch of Banco do Brasil, and I'm pleased to report that Ken is even sexier in Portuguese than in English.

Yes, We Have NoMany Bananas

2009-07-08T13:09:00.000-05:00

An unfortunate combination of red wine, beer, and cachaça last night means that today's fruit - which you all know and love! - will be presented in pictures. I will tell you that the Portuguese word for banana is, conveniently, banana, and that the bananas here in Salvador are sweeter and more delicious than any I've ever eaten. They're also perfectly snack-sized, and a bunch of a dozen costs about $1.50. We eat them every day.
UFF Fruit Rating:

More Fruit of the Day posts can be found here.

Fruit of the Day: Umbú

2009-07-07T11:13:00.000-05:00

Today's fruit is the umbú, which is also called the Brazil plum or "spondias tuberosa" (how technical!). It looks a lot like a key lime, sometimes with little horns. I tried to cut one open but was thwarted by a very hard pit. The skin came off readily, though, so I peeled it and found yellowish, pulpy fruit inside.

Doesn't that little guy on the right look like a fish? Cute!

I like the taste of the umbú. It's quite tart, kind of like a lime. The fruit really sticks to the pit which makes it a little bit difficult to eat. Ken sprinkled sugar on his to make an all-natural Sour Patch Kid. Delicious! Wikipedia says it's usually boiled down with sugar to make jams or preserves, which makes sense. Also from Wikipedia: The fruit's name comes from the indigenous phrase y-mb-u, which means "tree that gives drink." I like that.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Genipapo

2009-07-06T15:18:00.000-05:00

There really is nothing more fun than browsing fruit stands and grocery-store produce sections to find new and exciting and weird fruits. Today we have the genipapo. The English translations I found were "genipa Americana" and "marmalade box". Marmalade box! What a great name for something. You may use it for your next band.

As is often the case, I had no idea what to expect from the genipapo. I read that it has a natural black ink that can be used kind of like henna to tattoo skin, so I cut into it with some caution. As you can see, its insides were pretty much as underwhelming as its outsides. The seeds are very hard and the pulp has a very strong odour and flavour that are almost chemical. Our taste-testers weren't exactly lining up for seconds. Jackie, one of the proprietors of our fine hostel (and also an excellent cook with whom I've been sharing recipes), told us that it's often used to make liquor, so we might have to check that out. In the interest of research, of course.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Fruta-Pão

2009-07-05T13:23:00.000-05:00

The other day we walked past a fruit stand and I noticed something that I had never seen before, something strange and wonderful. I picked it up and the fruit vendor explained, "That's fruta-pão." Literally, breadfruit. He said it's like bread inside. Fruit that's like bread inside? Who ever heard of such a thing? Ken says it looks like a pumpkin and a lizard had a baby.

We sliced it like bread (obviously!) and it really does look and feel like bread inside. It's very spongy and feels starchy, and it isn't sweet but it also isn't bitter. It tastes a little bit like a turnip, and we both thought it needed some accessories to make it a little more delicious. We looked up how it's eaten and discovered that it's usually cooked up with something sweet; roasted or baked with butter and sugar and coconut milk. So I cubed it and poured coconut milk over the top, then added a bit of butter and sugar and sprinkled the top with cinnamon and coconut to make a sort of breadfruit pudding. The texture still isn't quite what I was hoping for, though. Sliced breadfruit definitely isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Update! I finally remembered what fruta-pão reminds me of: yuca. The kind I've had as "fries" in Peruvian restaurants. Fruta-pão has that same denseness and starchy texture. If I ever happen upon one again maybe I'll try roasting it as a savoury side. Or maybe I'll just try to trade it for a mango.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Maçá

2009-07-04T18:23:00.000-05:00

I almost saved the starfruit for today's homage to the U. S. of A., but in the end I chose a fruit that I could transform into a delicious American-style dessert to share with all the people here in Salvador who have made us feel so at home.

The maçá isn't a sand dollar, but I guess this close to the beach, everything adopts a certain theme.

Maçá is Portuguese for apple, and this is a Granny Smith imported all the way from Chile. Right now it's peeled, cored, sliced, and nestled in a pie crust with a few of its equally tart, green amigos, and will be served up in about an hour with a scoop or two of the closest thing we could find to vanilla ice cream. (I think it's called "creme" -- I was more than tempted by the coconut flavour, but the American half of our operation is a stickler for tradition. And I think he misses the fireworks today, so who am I to argue?)
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Carambola

2009-07-03T21:02:00.000-05:00

Ay carambola! What is this fruit of which you speak?

Let's turn it on its side, cut off the end, and see if you recognize the star of today's FotD:

Just in time to be star-spangled, we have a review of the carambola, a.k.a. starfruit. I'm sure you'll agree that it's the prettiest fruit ever. Unfortunately it wasn't the most delicious fruit ever: Our particular specimen were very crunchy and tart and possibly slightly underripe, and didn't quite pass muster as breakfast snacks. But they're enthusiastic, and sometimes that's what counts the most.

Happy U.S.A. Day!
UFF Fruit Rating:

More Than Fruit

2009-07-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

While it's true that our fruit consumption has more than quadrupled since we've been in Brazil, we have been enjoying other local treats as well, and not just those that can be purchased for a buck or two on the beach. One popular street food here is the acarajé, a patty made from mashed beans that's fried in dendê oil, then split and filled with shrimp paste and other tasty bits, often including little shrimps. Other dining out options include a couple of hole-in-the-wall restaurants between our hostel and the beach, at which we split a moqueca (traditional Brazilian seafood stew) or fried fish that's served with rice and beans and a small salad. With a frosty cerveja, our grand total is always less than $7. And cooking at home is a no-brainer when a meal's worth of salmon steaks can be had for a mere $3 at the grocery store.

Tonight we were introduced to another local culinary delight: the hot dog. After our evening samba workout, a couple of the girls who work at the hostel were making hot dogs, and asked us if we wanted one. We politely declined, because we'd shared a fish stew a few hours earlier, and for me, the caloric hit of a hot dog is only worth it when it's served up in a Nathan's box and eaten on the boardwalk in Coney Island, or as a late-night post-concert snack from Grey's Papaya. But then we watched the hot dog prep. The hot dogs were cooked in a pot filled with onions and garlic and thick red tomato sauce. They were placed all saucily on fresh rolls, then topped with mayo, ketchup, little fried potato bits, and parmesan. Genius. And as Ken was still somehow managing to turn down this hot dog mecca, I was all, "OK, we'll share one!" Apparently this is how they're served everywhere, which makes the place on the corner with the $1 hot dog and juice combo suddenly quite appealing.

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-01T10:17:00.000-05:00

According to the interwebs, the only thing resembling a national fruit for Canada is rhubarb, which isn't exactly something I've come across here in the tropics, and besides, it's a vegetable. Today's fruit, then, is red and white and summery and exactly what everyone who's celebrating a national holiday this week will have packed away in their picnic baskets: the melancia.

I'm sure this Fruit of the Day needs no English translation, and probably not much of a description, either. I will say though that this is the reddest watermelon I've ever seen! And it was the kind of juicy where you have to wash your forearms after you finish eating a slice. Good stuff.

I've completely forgotten how much fruit costs in North America, but as a point of reference, this hefty chunk weighed in at just over 2 kg and cost just under $1, and will provide us with multiple delicious snacks.
UFF Fruit Rating:

To celebrate Canada Day, I decided to introduce the butter tart to Brazil (in square form, and with a liberal adaptation of Canadian Living's recipe). It's a non-native species, but given Brazilians' propensity for sweets, the butter tart has already found many natural predators here. In fact, there wasn't even a square left for breakfast this morning. Good thing we had all that watermelon.

Fruit of the Day: Laranja Bahía

2009-06-30T09:55:00.000-05:00

Do you know why the cover of R.E.M.'s album "Green" is orange?

It's because green and orange are inverse colours, and if you stare at something orange for a while then close your eyes, or look at a white surface, you'll see green.

What happens if you stare at something green for a while?

I'll give you a hint: laranja is Portuguese for orange, and these are laranjas Bahía, or Bahían oranges. They're also called laranja peras, which means orange pears. Guess what's inside!

The laranja Bahía isn't the most amazing orange I've ever eaten - it's a little bit dry, not all that sweet, and doesn't have a super-strong orange flavour. But I love this fruit, because it's oh-so-pretty and orange.
UFF Fruit Rating:

P.S. The yellow melon blended with strawberry pulp was really pretty but not quite sweet enough. We still have half the melon left, and tomorrow we'll try it with a few chunks of pineapple and maybe some yogurt. Stay tuned...

They Call Me Yellow Melon

2009-06-29T15:46:00.000-05:00

Our Fruit of the Day today is melão amarelo, which literally translates as yellow melon. We found the yellow melon in an exciting section of the grocery store, tucked in between the guava and the passion fruit. And it is indeed a lovely shade of yellow.

In a race against the waning daylight, I cut the melon open to find a pale green fruit that looks and feels like a cucumber, and tastes a lot like an under-ripe honeydew melon. Maybe we picked a yellow melon that wasn't quite ready for prime time, or maybe it's just a super-mild fruit, but either way, we were underwhelmed. We'll blend it with some frozen strawberry pulp tomorrow morning and see if that doesn't perk it up a little.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Pinha

2009-06-28T11:08:00.000-05:00

After trying today's fruit, the pinha, or sugar-apple, I may have to retool the UFF Fruit Ratings, because guys? This fruit is DELICIOUS. It may well be the most delicious fruit I have ever eaten.

As has been the case with many Fruits of the Day, the pinha doesn't look like much, kind of like a closed, green pinecone. When we first picked it up it was much squishier than either of us expected (we both thought it would be hard, kind of like a shell). We also had no idea what to expect from its insides, and again, they didn't look like much. The pinha is filled with hard black seeds, each of which is encased in white pulp. The consistency of the pulp is similar to that of the cajú or a soft banana, kind of puddingy. And it tastes just like custard. We took different approaches to its consumption: Ken used a spoon to scoop out several seeds at once, while I pulled out one seed at a time and ate the fruit before spitting out the seed. And we both can't wait to have another one.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Limão

2009-06-27T19:31:00.000-05:00

Limão is Portuguese for - you guessed it! - lime! OK, it isn't incredibly exotic, and even if you don't have one in your fridge right now, you've probably seen a lime somewhere in the last few days. And just maybe, if you're lucky, you sweet-talked someone you love into juggling a few before he mixed them up into a tasty caipirinha. I happen to be exactly that lucky.

Ken's Caipirinha (makes 2)

2 limes
2-3 heaping tablespoons of sugar
2 shots of cachaça*
Lots of ice

Cut each lime into 8 pieces and put in a mortar or other suitably heavy mixing bowl. Spoon in the sugar and muddle with a pestle until the limes are flat and the lime juice is squeezed out of the lime bits. If your limes aren't particularly juicy (hey, it happens to everyone sometimes), you can add a splash or two of water. Pour the lime/sugar mixture into a shaker, add the cachaça, fill the saker with ice, and shake it like a Polaroid picture.

Distribute between two glasses (do not strain). If you're fancy you can garnish it with a lime slice, but ours don't usually last long enough for that.

*Cachaça is alcohol made from the distillation of fermented sugar cane. Wikipedia just told me that 1.5 billion liters of cachaça are consumed annually in Brazil, compared with 15 million liters outside the country. At RS$5, or about $2.50 US per 1L bottle, I'm not surprised. Anyway, if you can't find cachaça or it's too Richie, feel free to substitute vodka and call this tasty bev a Caipiroska, like they do in Argentina.

UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Abacate

2009-06-26T15:14:00.000-05:00

Today's fruit is one that will be familiar if you've ever been to a Mexican restaurant or attended a Super Bowl party. But have you ever seen an avocado with a 14" girth?

My favourite way to eat avocado is with some salt and a spoon, and I make a mean guacamole, if I do say so myself. But Brazilians like things sweet, including avocados, and you know my stance on "When in Rome..." So, we added some lime juice and sugar and transformed this gigantic fruit into creme de abacate, or avocado cream, following the recipe on Maria-Brazil.

The lime juice wasn't such a stretch since I put that in guac anyway, but it pained me a little to mix in the sugar. In the end, we sprinkled a bit of salt on top, and it wasn't bad at all.
UFF Fruit Rating:

A Week In Brazil

2009-06-25T15:05:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Salvador a week ago, and already I never want to leave. When we told our friends in Buenos Aires that we were planning a trip to Brazil, they universally said the same thing: "Oh, you'll love it, the people are wonderful! And be careful." There was always that warning. Our friends who had been in Rio for Carnaval said the same thing: That they'd loved the city and the people, but that it was incredibly crime-ridden and dangerous and that they had to be very careful when leaving the hostel.

Honestly, I couldn't reconcile these things. How could I love a place where I'd always be on my guard? I didn't get it. Until I spent a week here.

Salvador is a city of about 3 million people. It has an old area of town called Pelorinho, that has two levels. The Elevator Lacerda connects the two. It costs 5¢ to ride, and is the only safe way between the two levels, as the steep streets between them are considered dangerous even during the day. Cars don't have to stop at red lights at night because the risk of robbery makes it unsafe to stop. During festival nights in Pelorinho, and of course during Carnaval, you can expect to feel peoples' hands in your pockets, which is why it's better to wear shorts with no pockets and keep money pinned inside.

Why, then, is it so wonderful here?

I still don't quite understand it. I guess for one, I'm OK not bringing my camera out with me when I can tote inexpensive and very photogenic fruit back to the hostel and safely snap away there. When we go to the beach, we only bring a few reais with us for snacks, and lunch for both of us with beer never costs more than $10. Every time we go to the grocery store, super-happy Brazilian music is being played, and even the guy selling shrimp skewers on the beach is singing. Last night we went out for RS$2.50 caipirinhas, then danced Samba in our hostel, and we'll probably do the same thing tonight.

Now let's talk about papaya, shall we?

In Portuguese, it's called mamão formosa, and this fine speciman weighed in at 1.1kg and cost us all of 1.27 reais, or around 65¢. Mamão formosa isn't a small fruit (the rather handsome fruit model is included for scale), and it's filled with seeds that look like peppercorns. Papaya flesh is soft and scoopable and you can - and should - eat it with a spoon. It has a very mild flavour and isn't very sweet, and if I made it into juice I'd probably add a bit of sugar (or heck, a mango) to sweeten it up a bit.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Beach Economy

2009-06-24T13:22:00.000-05:00

When we woke up this morning we headed straight for the beach, before the rain clouds had a chance to gather. We weren't disappointed, especially with our breakfast of beach-cheese and a coconut popsicle (which was basically just coconut and milk and sugar on a stick, and will give the grilled cheese a run for its money as my favourite beach snack). About an hour into our lounging I realized that my SPF 15 wasn't going to protect my creamy white Canadian thighs against the tropical sun. Luckily, you can buy little bottles of sunscreen right on the beach! Oh, those enterprising Brazilians. We summoned a sunscreen dude over to enquire about the prices of his wares. I pointed to the little (60mL) bottle of SPF 30 and asked how much it would cost.

Sunscreen Dude: 22 reais.
Me (to Ken): How much?
Ken: 22. [about 11 USD]
Me (to SD, in Spanish with my best Portuguese accent): No, that's OK, obrigada.
SD: OK, 17 reis.
Me: No, that's OK.
SD: 15.
Me: No, obrigada.
SD: You understand? 15 reais. [he started to write the number in the sand]
Me: I understand, but no thanks.
SD: Too expensive?
Me: Yes, it's OK, obrigada.
SD: 12 reais.
Me: No, obrigada.
SD: Still too expensive?
Me: Yes, but thanks.
SD: OK, 10 reais, so you will be my customer.
Me (to Ken): Pay the man.

My mom, with her superior bartering skills, will be proud.

Like yesterday's maracujá, today's FotD is also nondescript-looking on the outside. In fact, I bought this one not knowing anything about it except its name, goiaba (I don't think it has an English translation), and that it smelled delicious. Ken predicted that it would be red inside, and I resisted looking it up until after we cut it open to see for ourselves. Turns out it's watermelon-pink, and oh-so-pretty! Goiaba flesh is soft enough to scoop out with a spoon, so that's how we ate it. It was sweet and mild and was kind of the texture of mousse or soft ice cream. It did have a lot of little seeds, so it would probably be better pureed and strained.

Update: It's guava! Thanks Kari, and Parabens!
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Maracujá

2009-06-23T10:25:00.000-05:00

Today's FotD is a perfect example of why not to judge a book by its cover: At first glance, it looks kind of boring and wrinkly. But inside the maracujá, or passion fruit, is the plant-equivalent of caviar. It's filled with exotic-looking and super-flavourful pulpy little seeds. We threw it all into a blender with a mango and a splash of water, blended, then strained the seeds for a yummy breakfast smoothie. No sugar required.

UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Abacaxi

2009-06-22T11:44:00.000-05:00

Today's fruit needs no introduction, except perhaps to its Portuguese name, abacaxi (pronounced abakatchi). Abacaxi is delicious no matter how you slice it. I have to confess, I've shied away from buying whole pineapples in the past, because I'm lazy and pre-sliced pineapple is usually readily available. But that ain't me no more, because now I know it takes minutes or less to peel and slice one of these babies into a delicious afternoon snack. And talk about versatile: Put a few pieces on your ham pizza and call it Hawaiian. Slice it up and layer it on the bottom of your cake pan before you pour in the batter -- in about 30 minutes at 350°F you'll have a classic retro dessert. Throw a couple of chunks into a blender with some coconut cream and a shot (or two) of rum and you have a piña colada. That's my kind of fruit.

It's also quite photogenic, don't you think?
UFF Fruit Rating:

P.S. Today's FotD is for Kajal, who loves abacaxi and has a photo exhibit tomorrow night in NYC! If you're in town and want to see some kickass photos for the low low cost of free (including wine and snacks!) check out her blog for the deets.

Solstice

2009-06-21T14:59:00.000-05:00

Not only is today my birthday, here in the Southern Hemisphere, it's the first day of winter. I have to say, I could get used to having a winter birthday if I get to celebrate in flip-flops on the beach. Today Ken introduced me to one of Brazil's celebrated culinary treats: Cheese on the beach. It's the best thing ever. People walk along the beach carrying a little charcoal grill and a tupperware container full of pieces of cheese on skewers. For around a dollar they'll sprinkle oregano on the cheese and grill it up over the hot coals (somehow, like the provoleta we love so much in Argentina, it doesn't melt into a gooey mess). Voilà: a delicious salty treat that you don't even have to worry about getting sandy.

Today's FotD is the coco verde, or green coconut. On our daily strolls through Barra we pass at least half a dozen fruit stands, and all sell coco verde for under $1 (usually closer to 50¢, which is what we paid). The vendors use a big machete (is there such a thing as a small machete?) to level the bottom of the coconut and neatly cut a hole in the top into which you stick a straw to drink the coconut water. It is mild and a little bit sweet and very refreshing, and makes the perfect drink with which to toast birthdays or solstices or the simple fact that you are drinking coconut water right out of a coconut.

UFF Fruit Rating:

Relax'd

2009-06-20T13:01:00.000-05:00

I like Salvador.

It's easy here. I've been wearing flip-flops around because it's impossible to walk fast in flip-flops, and also, everyone's sporting a pair of Havaianas here, when they're wearing shoes at all. When in Rome, you know. I don't speak any Portuguese except to say thank you, and it doesn't matter, because everyone is smiling and patient and happy. I suspect that living in a place with a daily high around 25°C in the winter will do that to a person.

Today's FotD is the manga rosa (pink mango). I'm sure you recognize her! I was kind of hoping that this mango would be pink inside, but it looks a lot like its cousin, if only slightly smaller. It cost less than 50¢, and was everything I want in a mango: colourful, sweet, and oh-so-juicy. I could eat one of these every day, and in fact, I probably will while we're here!
UFF Fruit Rating:

Fruit of the Day: Cajú

2009-06-19T10:52:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Brazil on Wednesday evening, just in time to drink a caipirinha before the bar at the hostel closed. Yesterday we explored our neighbourhood, Barra, and picked up some fruit at the grocery store. The fruit here is insanely fresh and cheap - we bought a quarter watermelon for about 75¢, and a green coconut (that a dude on the street will hack open and stick a straw in for you) is about the same.

This is a cajú, which you might know as cashew. Did you know cashew nuts grew like that? Me neither! With only one nut per fruit, it's no wonder cashews are so expensive. The cajú was pretty cheap (around 40¢ each), but the fruit itself had a weirdly chalky/dry texture, and I wouldn't buy it again. This morning, however, we had cajú juice, and it was delicious.
UFF Fruit Rating:

Hello, Bread.

2009-06-11T12:04:00.000-05:00

Hello, Bread., originally uploaded by Kitty LaRoux.

Last night we went back to ¿Dónde me trajiste? so that I could eat this bread again. I mean, come on, wouldn't you?

Empanada Cred

2009-05-24T01:58:00.000-05:00

Tonight we had a party for Ken's birthday. More on that later, but for now, you should know, a guy from Buenos Aires told me that my empanadas, i.e., the empanadas I made, reminded him of his grandma's.

His. Grandma's.

Really, does it get any better than that?

Cooking the Argentine Way

2009-05-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

I love food. I love reading about food (including reading cookbooks and recipes), I love watching cooking shows on TV and instructional cooking videos¹ on the interwebs, I love food preparation from chopping to sautéeing, and I love baking. I am also passionate about eating. In short, food is my favourite hobby, and having a year sabbatical I have been hoping to spend more time on this hobby. So far I've mostly focused on the eating part (see: +1.5 kg). Aside from one (successful) foray into the world of empanadas a few weeks ago, I hadn't cooked any traditional Argentine fare until yesterday, when I attended the lovely and talented Norma Soued's Argentine cooking class.

Before we moved to Buenos Aires I searched² for cooking classes, but only found classes taught in English and geared to tourists (read: expensive). A few weeks ago when I was perusing Craigslist³ I came across Norma's ad. I wrote to her to ask for more information about the class, and to confirm that she would, in fact, teach in Castellano⁴. Yesterday I went to her sunny apartment in Belgrano to learn how to make empanadas, guiso de lentejas (lentil stew), and alfajores.

I was very excited about the alfajores, as the only recipe I have seen for these delicious treats was in a Martha Stewart magazine, and it was insanely complicated (surprise surprise). I'm pretty sure it involved milking your own cow to make the dulce de leche.

Norma's class was great. She and the other student, Valeria, both speak English fluently, but since I really wanted to practice my Spanish they graciously (and patiently) agreed to speak Castellano. (Patience, for real: My brain on Spanish is Windows 98 on a 386.) We prepared all three dishes together, and everything was very well explained and hands-on. When we finished cooking, we enjoyed the delicious delicious fruits of our labour with a glass of red wine in Norma's beautiful dining room.

Taking a cooking class was a great way to further my burgeoning Spanish skillz, and happily I am now all set to make empanadas and alfajores⁵ for Ken's birthday shenanigans next weekend!

P.S. Norma also offers a Middle-Eastern cooking class that you can read all about over on her blog. I haven't taken it yet but if I do, you'll be the first to know.

¹ Before I made empanadas the first time, I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube to figure out the technique of sealing the empanada called La Repulgue. In my searches I came across this empanada video that is totally worth 6 1/2 minutes of your time if you like things that are awesome.

² I have since searched en español and found many more schools and classes that I'm interested in. Hooray!

³ Craigslist isn't so huge here. Most of the postings are for bars showing NBA games.

⁴ Latin American Spanish. Castellano:Español = English:British

⁵ Some alfajores will be filled with jam, because Ken doesn't like dulce de leche. I KNOW. [Candace: This is what is wrong with him.]

Cost of Living

2009-05-11T09:30:00.000-05:00

30 Pesos
Originally uploaded by Kitty LaRoux.

In an effort to lose the 1.5 kg I've gained since we moved to this fair city, I now stop regularly at the verduleria (veggie stand) after I go to the gym. This morning's haul included 2 avocados, 2 grapefruits, 2 red peppers, a shredded salad (I like to mix that with balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper, and a little chimichurri powder, and throw a boiled egg on top for lunch), 1/2 kilo of cherry tomatoes, 1/4 kilo of green olives, 6 bananas, and the hugest bunch of broccoli I've ever seen. The grand total was 30 pesos, or around $8US.

While beef is super cheap here (we can get 2 T-Bone steaks for around 12 pesos, or $3.50), chicken and eggs at the grocery store are pricey (we've seen eggs at upwards of 20 pesos, or $6, per dozen). On Saturday we passed through a very small farmer's market in Plaza Armenia with a booth selling various meats. They had boneless skinless chicken breasts for 16 pesos/kilo ($2/lb) and 30 eggs at the bargain-basement price of 10 pesos (less than $3).

We have instituted a Sunday brunch tradition of steak-and-eggs, which means our cholesterol levels are rising proportionally to the happiness of our taste buds.

Cinco de Mayo

2009-05-05T20:46:00.000-05:00

For The Soul
Originally uploaded by Kitty LaRoux.

We spent the weekend in Mar del Plata, and on the 5 1/2 hour bus ride there we both caught colds. I spent most of Friday tilting my head awkwardly in an attempt to clear out at least part of one nostril through which to breathe. Saturday we located some psuedoephedrine, which helped matters greatly.

In other news, we left our Spanish school that was in the Centro (a neighbourhood that's more or less Manhattan's midtown--read: crowded, unfun). We now have a private tutor (Sofía) with whom we are both slightly enamoured. The lessons are fun: Yesterday we made up a whole story about a lawyer named "Mauricio" who used to be a hippie, and today we played the Spanish version of "Clue"!

And tonight, in honour of Cinco de Mayo and our waning illnesses, I cooked us up some Chicken Soup with Lime and Avocado.

Finally, I've started running again. Hooray for me! I ran an 8k race two weeks ago and finished in around 47 minutes. I have a few more 10k races lined up, and I've started training regularly with two lovely American expats who will be here to keep me going for at least another month or two.

Carne Times

2009-04-19T00:52:00.000-05:00

Vegetarians, caveat emptor: This post contains a lot of meat.

A few weeks ago at the gym, our trainer, Adrián, proposed a trip with us and our friends Dave and Mersal to what he deemed the "best parrilla [grill/BBQ] in the universe." Of course I agreed that Ken and I would love to go; after all, who am I to argue with a porteño about meat? (It didn't hurt that he also said that we wouldn't have to count any food we ate at the parrilla. Free calories!)

The parrilla in question was Los Talas del Entrerrianos, located about 45 minutes from our neighbourhood. Adrián arranged for a taxi to drive us there and wait while we consumed copious amounts of meat. Los Talas started out as a choripán stand for labourers and grew into a huge, comfortable restaurant that feels kind of like an Oktoberfest tent. Apparently all of the meat at Los Talas comes from their own estancia (ranch).

We started with house-made chorizo sausage, then ordered the lechón, or suckling pig. It's the specialty of the house, and it was beyond delicious. We sampled some of the crispy skin of the pig (which Adrián called the "galleta" or cookie) - it was crispy and salty and very, very yummy. The chicken was the best I've had so far in Buenos Aires - cooked just perfectly to be tender and juicy all the way through. We shared an order of mochillas (sweetbreads), then moved onto the beef: vacío (flank steak) and asado. While asado refers to roasting or barbecue in general, it's also used to describe a cut of meat (short ribs or spareribs).

Suffice to say we were pretty much sweating meat by the end of the meal. The ol' meat sweats didn't stop us, however, from sharing a couple of desserts, and we managed to squeeze some ice cream into our bellies somewhere between the pork and the spareribs. I swear the taxi groaned a bit when we piled back in for the drive home.

More pics on Flickr.

Steak & Eggs

2009-04-05T21:48:00.000-05:00

A day that starts out with this breakfast - at 2 p.m., no less - can't be all bad, now, can it?

Baking in Buenos Aires

2009-04-02T21:27:00.003-05:00

In honour of our Spanish teacher Alejandro's birthday next week, I decided to bake cookies. Tyler recently tagged a delicious-looking Smitten Kitchen recipe for me, so a few days ago I decided to give it a go. The only hitch: I couldn't find what I've always considered the most basic of baking ingredients at either of our local supermarkets. The stores only carried artificial vanilla extract, and brown sugar was nowhere in sight. While our package of oatmeal has a recipe for oatmeal cookies with chips de chocolate, I couldn't find those, either.

Since today was a holiday and we didn't have school, we decided to check out the widely-lauded and appropriately-named Jumbo Supermarket. You can read more about Jumbo on other sites, but it was pretty much akin to Wal-Mart or the Real Canadian Superstore. The produce at Jumbo was better than our local stores, but prices were more or less the same and the selection was almost overwhelming. I did manage to find baking soda and settled for artificial vanilla extract and baking chocolate that I could chop into chunks for the cookies, but was unable to find brown sugar, which I suspected would be key to the chewiness factor in this particular recipe. I finally bought a bag of azucar negra, or black sugar. Even though it looked much darker than standard American light brown sugar, it had a similar "sticky" feeling when I squeezed the bag (i.e., it didn't feel as granulated as white sugar).

When I poured the sugar into a bowl to measure it, it looked a LOT darker than I'd expected. Behold:

Sparkly!

Aside from this substitution, the rest of the ingredients were as written, except I measured by weight instead of volume because we have a kitchen scale but no measuring cups or spoons. When I creamed the butter and sugars the resulting mixture was the colour and texture of used coffee grounds, and I was skeptical as to whether the recipe would actually work. To add to my skepticism is our oven dial (the one in the middle). Can you spot what's missing?

If you said a temperature setting, you're right! I set it somewhere in the middle and watched the first 2 batches of cookies very carefully to figure out the correct baking time.

And...? Success! I'm happy to report that we have a delicious batch of (very dark) chocolate chip cookies. We think they taste delicious; I'll let you know what Alejandro thinks.

For Goodness' Sake

2009-01-26T19:45:00.000-05:00

I've been eating these super-hippy shakes lately for breakfast and sometimes even for dinner! I mocked Ken for bringing home protein powder a few weeks ago, but it turns out that stuff is my friend, and when you put it in a blender with some berries and yogurt and milk, you can throw in a handful of spinach and not even notice.

Hippy Hippy Shake
(adapted from Clean Eating Magazine)

- 1/2 c skim milk
- 1/2 c nonfat plain yogurt
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (we have Designer Whey, but you know, whatever you like)
- generous handful of spinach (I probably throw 2 cups in there)
- 1 T ground flax seeds (here's where it gets all hippy-like)
- 1/2 c frozen berries (I like strawberries best)
- 1 T agave nectar (mmm... hippy sweetener) (optional; you could also use honey or maple syrup)

Directions: Blend. Drink.

I'm also waaaay into oatmeal these days, and pretty much just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I make McCann's Quick-Cooking Irish Oats (mmm... endosperm).

Gillian's Mouth-Watering Oatmeal
(adapted from Clean Eating Magazine)

- 1/2 c oats
- 1/2 c skim milk
- 1/2 c water
- 1 tsp almond butter
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 T ground flax seeds
- cinnamon
- salt (get the good stuff for this - it's expensive but so worth it)

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until it turns into oatmeal. Remove from heat and stir in almond butter, honey, and flax seeds. Sprinkle with cinnamon and salt. Enjoy with a cup of Earl Grey tea in your favourite mug.

Christmas Cookies!

2008-12-22T20:05:00.000-05:00

Christmas Cookies!
Originally uploaded by hickswright.

I didn't take any pics of this year's Christmas Cookie-Baking Festivities, but as it was one of my finest showings I'm very grateful that Tyler did! At one point I had not one but TWO KitchenAid stand mixers whirring away. Good times. If you haven't yet made the Chocolate Toffee Cookies over at Smitten Kitchen, hie thee to the kitchen! And save a couple for me, because they sure didn't last long around these parts.

Treats!

2008-12-03T08:09:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I finally made good on my promise to pay it forward: Brianna, Kajal, and Tyler were all recipients of Chocolate Chip Cookies 2 Ways: The heavily-blogged NYTimes recipe (which I have to admit, totally lived up to the hype), and Martha Stewart's Thin & Crisp variety (very different from the NYT recipe, and also very delicious).

Tyler's now playing over on his blog, and there's still one comment up for grabs. I suggested he gift a pack of postcards showcasing his amazing photography, and he's also an excellent baker. So if you're a blogger, you might want to head on over to leave a comment for Tyler!

Chicken Squash Action

2008-11-02T21:41:00.000-05:00

As is oft the case, last night I was ambitious. We wanted to go to First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum (British rock! Fun!) and in honour of the NYC Marathon this morning, I had supportive signs to make (Go Tiernan! Go Dawn! Go Jim! Go Robert! Go Paula!*) and plans to make a batch of Sticky Cinnamon Rolls to share with my fellow cheerleaders.

Two out of three ain't bad: We danced to Blur and Elastica and I managed to eke out a couple of Bristol board signs, but the cinnamon rolls remained at their first rise overnight. I completed them later this afternoon with great success. Really I should be blogging about those, but I also made a delicious meal tonight that involves all things Thanksgiving, things which happened to be in our fridge even though there are 3 weeks until the culinary event of the year. And despite previously detailing how to create a Bunny Cake, I've never posted my very own recipe. And so, without further ado, I give you:

Chicken Squash Action (named by Ken)
Makes 4 servings

2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c sliced mushrooms
1/2 c celery, diced
1 T fresh sage, minced
1/2 c red wine (I used Vampire Pinot Noir)

3 c butternut squash, in 1/2 inch dice
1 c chicken broth

1 c cooked wild rice
6 oz cooked boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced

In a large pan with a lid, sautée the onion, garlic, mushrooms, celery, and half the sage over medium heat until onion is caramelized, about 10 minutes. Stir in remaining sage.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine (this part smells delicious). Add the squash and the broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until squash is fork-tender (this will depend on the accuracy of your dice), about 10 minutes. Stir in the rice and the chicken breast and simmer a few minutes more, until chicken is heated through. Salt & pepper to taste.

Serve with wine and, optionally, a purring cat nearby. A few toasted sliced pecans would also be a delicious addition, or a few dried cranberries (in fact, I think I'll go add a few of those to the leftovers right now). Bon appetit!

*We met Paula on the subway on Friday night. I didn't see her running today but I'm sure she did very well!

Size Does Matter

2008-08-23T19:42:00.000-05:00

About a month ago I was at Anthropologie browsing their delightful bits (holla Ali!) when I came across these little glasses that cost all of $3 or $4 each. I think they were meant to be juice glasses, but they looked like the perfect size to hold a tiny summer parfait. It worked out just fine, don't you think?

(I haven't been quite as ambitious as the lovely and talented Miss Amy, who's making her own frozen treats this year, but this store-bought variety is really delicious.)

Slashfood'd!

2008-08-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

Check it out, yo! My apricots picture (below, top right) was featured on Slashfood on Monday!

They were delicious, by the way - I'm going to make them again tonight.

Grillin' Like A Villian

2008-08-03T19:18:00.000-05:00

1. Perfection, 2. Sunny Side Up, 3. Drizzled, 4. Bean & Tomato Salad

I'm not sure what the best part of having a backyard is, but having a grill is up there. Tonight for dinner I 'cued up a turkey burger and corn on the cob, and then tried my hand at grilling apricots for dessert. Delish. The sides are a bean & tomato salad (both of which I picked up at the farmers' market yesterday) and spicy mixed greens from a pot in the backyard. The basil in the salad is also homegrown. I love summer.

Back to California

2008-06-30T20:01:00.000-05:00

Strawberry Shortcake
Originally uploaded by Kitty LaRoux.

Last weekend I made the first of 2008's pilgrimages to California. We arrived at SFO to unusually warm weather, and after a stop for the most delicious burrito in the world, or at least North America we drove down Hwy 1 through Pacifica to Half Moon Bay. We stopped on Hwy 92 to buy strawberries, which were advertised at $6/box. We both thought it was sad that we could get California strawberries cheaper in NY right now until we learned that a box didn't mean what we thought it meant - it meant SIX of what we thought it meant! Six dollars garnered us a half-flat of sweet, ripe berries the size of small apples, which we couldn't even finish in our short stay (though not for lack of trying). Above: Possibly my most delicious birthday cake ever.

Giant Rhubarb Spotted in Southwestern Ontario

2008-06-16T23:36:00.000-05:00

Sunny Defeats the Rhubarb!
Originally uploaded by Kitty LaRoux.

Rhubarb slayed by 77-year-old woman wielding a sharp knife. Details at 11.

P.S. More verbosity coming soon, I promise. In the meantime, there are a whole bunch of new Flickr pics available for your viewing pleasure.

Bread Alone

2008-04-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

Back in December I often joked that I had a tapeworm (named Tapey) whose diet was bread and cheese. So every time I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich or picked up a slice for dinner, it was all in the name of being a good host. Then came HBJ and Tapey fell on hard times.

All attempts at hotbody were put on hold yesterday when I woke up before the crack of dawn to catch a train to Poughkeepsie, NY, then a short taxi ride to Hyde Park, home of the Culinary Institute of America. I've read numerous books about the CIA and going there has been my life backup plan for about 10 years. I will happily go $20,000 in debt to spend two years living on the campus and waking up at 5 a.m. to slave away in a kitchen (maybe I should have been born a century ago so that I could have lived as a prairie housewife!). The CIA offers a number of Saturday classes for "Enthusiasts," a category I fall into, well, enthusiastically. I've been drooling over the Artisan Bread class since I first noticed it about a year ago. Yesterday I took the class, which meant six hours baking as many different types of bread in a professional kitchen with Chef Jürgen Temme, who has been doing this "forever."

We baked sourdough, lean dough, ciabatta, focaccia, whole wheat and multi-grain loaves. I learned what a pre-ferment is, and how to make a biga and a poolish. I learned how to properly knead bread to develop the glutens, and also that if you've accurately measured your ingredients, you don't need extra flour when working with the dough. (Had Chef Temme not said this, my instinct would have incorrectly been to add more flour when I kneaded my dough.) When the chef escorted the class to lunch and said he'd stay back to bake off our loaves, I stayed behind to help him score the tops of the loaves (which, among other things, strengthens the crust's structure) and remove baked bread from the many ovens we were using. I'll be back to the CIA for a meal at some point, but who knows when I'll have an extra 45 minutes to apprentice with a professional bread baker?

Lunch, then, was my focaccia - fresh from the oven, still hot and loosely wrapped in foil for transportation back to Brooklyn, eaten in the sunshine while waiting outside the CIA for my taxi back to the train station. Dinner last night was a lean sourdough loaf with goat cheese from the farmer's market, and good red wine.

Both my belly and our freezer have been full of bread since I got home, and I'm already looking forward to replenishing both supplies. Tapey is happy, too.

Bake This!

2008-03-11T22:04:00.000-05:00

Or, a filler post because I'm mad booked this week.

Friday is Pi(e) Day! Get it? March 14? 3/14? 3.14? π? You with me here?

Celebrate! Bake a pie! Eat a pie! Here are a couple I made last year to celebrate (I think the banana cream will get a revival this year because it was soooo good):

Also, Easter is just around the corner, and it's never too early to start your Bunny Cake preparations. I took the time last year, sweet sweet readers, to post a full set of Bunny Cake instructions. Enjoy!

Taking the Cake

2008-02-10T20:26:00.000-05:00

Side 1
Originally uploaded by Kitty LaRoux.

A few weeks ago, I brought cupcakes to a friend's birthday party. Another girl there liked the cupcakes enough to recommend that I do the baking for an upcoming Indian-themed birthday party, and this cake is the result. The decorations are inspired by mendhi designs. More pics on Flickr.

(Sorry for the crap photos - I'm going to buy my new camera this week!)

Comfort Food

2008-01-21T15:07:00.000-05:00

Snack
Originally uploaded by Kitty LaRoux.

On Friday I started a loaf of the Almost No-Knead Bread from February's Cook's Illustrated and baked it on Saturday afternoon This recipe adds beer and vinegar as well as a few kneads of the loaf. The crust and texture are both as wonderful as the original, and the flavour is deeper and more complex.

The recipe rightly suggests that the bread is best on the day it's baked, but toasted with Nutella a couple of days later it's still quite delicious.

Adventures in Cooking

2007-08-20T22:40:00.000-05:00

For those of you just joining us, this is the "kitchen" in the BP.

OK. It's a bit better now. I painted and fanagled a bigger fridge, and put up shelves. But that sink is useless.

I haven't cooked a lot this summer. See above. This past weekend, already feeling nostalgic about leaving Park Slope, I hit up the Green Market at Grand Army Plaza. Sans plan, I picked up a few delicious items, including heirloom tomatoes, beets, scallops, goat cheese, a French baguette, and New Jersey white peaches. A quick surf of Epicurious and a call to Candace inspired a menu of Spinach and Beet Salad with Walnut-Crusted Goat Cheese (based on this recipe for Hazelnut-Crusted Goat Cheese Salad), Bacon-Wrapped Scallops with Port Reduction served with heirloom tomatoes, and Peaches & Cream (freshly whipped, sweetened with a bit of maple syrup) for dessert. If your mouth isn't watering by now, you should really have that looked at.

The best part about the menu was that I had almost everything in my tiny pantry (I even had bacon in the freezer). My trip to the grocery store was quick and painless, and a bottle of ruby port only costs $10.99 - who knew? Also: I got to light stuff on fire (that's the port reducing over there on the right). Good times.

I'm psyched about cooking this Fall, and to take full advantage of the delightfully large kitchen in BP:LE, I might even trek back to Park Slope for the market. You never know.

What A Girl's Gotta Do

2007-08-06T23:33:00.000-05:00

Tonight's dinner: A slice of toast* with Nutella, half a pint of Ben & Jerry's Half-Baked Frozen Yogurt and a glass of red wine.

I really can't wait to move into Bachelorette Pad: Loft Edition, now with more kitchen! Coming September 1. Stay tuned.

*Toasted, sadly, in the oven. I hope that BP:LE is also equipped with a toaster.

Dinner Dilemma

2007-05-29T20:26:00.000-05:00

Do I eat the last 6 stems of asparagus from last week's Fresh Direct order, or do I eat some of the fresh new stalks that I bought at the green market on Saturday?

(Above: The basics: Olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper and Parmigiano Regiano)

Bunny Cake!

2007-04-08T19:48:00.000-05:00

Every year I make at least one bunny cake. And every year I'm totally convinced that it's the cutest bunny cake I've ever made.

To wit:

This year I even took the time to write up the instructions for you, my loyal UFF readers, so that you too can create a bunny cake of your very own.

You need:

• A yummy cake recipe (or a cake mix, no judgments!) - I've made many a successful bunny cake with Epicurious' White Chocolate Layer Cake (omitting the apricot filling) but pick something that's easy for you. Carrot cake makes a sweet brown bunny.
• A round cake pan. You only need one round layer to make the cake, so you can either make two bunnies, or use the rest for cupcakes.
• Frosting (I'm going to recommend homemade for this, but only because I don't know of a store-bought one that isn't sickly sweet - funny that I used to be able to eat that stuff right from the cannister!).
• Coconut (fresh coconut is delish but sweetened shredded coconut in a bag works just as well).
• Green food colouring.
• White paper (regular copier paper is fine) and the pink colouring implement of your choice (a crayon, pencil crayon, highlighter, whatever).
• Jelly beans (for your bunny's eyes and nose, as well as to make a flowery meadow for your bunny).

After you've baked your cake, follow these simple instructions to assemble the bunny.

Assembly:

You should have something that looks like this:

Decoration:

• Frost your bunny completely. The tail can get tricky; my best advice is to be generous with your frosting, and don't be afraid to sculpt the tail a little.

• Dye the coconut to make grass: Put some coconut and a few drops of green food colouring in a ziploc bag and squish it all around. If you love coconut, keep some white to sprinkle on the bunny. Spread the green coconut around the bunny so that he's resting in a lovely meadow.

• As you may already have deduced, the bunny's ears will be made of paper. I like to make them after I see my bunny so that they're proportional to his stature - chubbier bunny, chubbier ears. (Hehe, I said "chubby.") Cut your bunny's ears out of the white paper, and add a pretty pink hue to the insides. Tuck the ears behind the bunny's head (where you made the notch out of the cake back in Assembly Step 4).

• Give your bunny jelly bean eyes and a nose.

Voilà! Your bunny is ready to be the centrepiece at your Easter table. Not to mention dessert.

Happy π Day!

2007-03-14T13:59:00.000-05:00

To celebrate Pi(e) Day, I baked a couple of pies.

The first was Pecan Pie with Kahlua and Chocolate Chips:

It won the coveted "Pie that Most Embodies the Spirit of Pi(e) Day" award, for its clever rendition of π in pie dough.

The second was Banana Cream Pie:

Making Banana Cream Pie is inherently funny, because you get to say things like, "I'm spreading the custard on my pie" and "Now I'm putting the banana in the custard on my pie." And those phrases make me laugh.

Another thing that made me laugh was email I received that read, "Luckily no one brought 'e' to the office on 2/7 at 18:28... Phew." Hee.

As Seen On "Survivor"

2007-02-19T23:56:00.000-05:00

"So now what do you think I should do with this coconut?"

"I dunno... Shred it or something?"

"No, the shell."

"Oh. Maybe you could make one of those coconut bra things."

"Oooh! A coconut bra! Good idea!"

Pause. "Or you could make the sound of horses' hooves."

Groceries And The City: Part 2

2007-02-06T14:15:00.000-05:00

In the heady days of FreshDirect first delivering to the BK, I was receiving at least one order a week from them. I loved that each fresh-food item had its own label that said, "Packaged for Gillian on ." I loved not lugging around the granny cart, and not carrying bags up the stairs. I also loved the occasional freebie that FD threw in. I had the idea that FD should team up with Epicurious so that when I was browsing recipes I could just add all the ingredients to my cart, and not long ago, FD introduced shopping by recipes! Woot!

On the other hand, while I kind of loved having boxes for recycling newspapers, but I didn't love the excessive packaging stylings of FD (they've since gotten much better about consolidating items).

Last year, a new outpost of Fairway opened in Red Hook, Brooklyn, about 2 1/2 miles south of our apartment in Park Slope. One Sunday morning, on a mission to check out Baked, also in Red Hook, DLang and I walked down to the 'hood. We ate delicious scones with strong coffee chasers, then walked down the street to check out Fairway.

I felt like I was home. Fairway in Red Hook has the little happinesses of a suburban grocery shopping experience, like a parking lot (!) and aisles wide enough to accommodate bona fide shopping carts. They have bins of neatly-stacked, fresh produce. And then there are the things that make shopping at Fairway a special experience, like signs enthusiastically recommending a particular goat cheese or coffee blend, and the half-dozen or so samples of olive oil from around Europe and even California.

Subsequent visits, the second of which was on Saturday, did not disappoint. This weekend, after stopping at the deli and meat counters, I took a coffee break in the café, which is right on the water and has a spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty. When I finally arrived at checkout with an overflowing cart, there was no waiting at all, and I breezed right on through. (Did I mention that Fairway delivers for the same price as FD?)

And so, while I'm still quite enamoured with grocery shopping while sitting on the couch in my pajamas, I'm going to take a little break from FreshDirect and start a weekly brick-and-mortar grocery shopping adventure. I think I could get used to a Sunday morning walk down to the water, a stop for breakfast, and an hour (or two) wandering up and down the aisles of this amazing store.

P.S. Brianna posted an excellent NYC grocery store rant yesterday - it's very frustrating living in a NYC neighbourhood in which Key Food, D'Ags, or even Gristedes are your best grocery options. At least when I lived on the Upper West Side, the 24-hour Duane Reade at the end of my block sold Ben & Jerry's.

Groceries And The City: Part 1

2007-02-05T18:40:00.000-05:00

On a recent trip to D.C., one of the highlights was a visit to Trader Joe's. The brief stop made me long for suburban grocery stores with wide aisles and 56 brands of salad dressing and the irony of throwing reusable cloth shopping bags in the back of one's Subaru wagon. This weekend, then, when I found myself with both a rental car and a Super Bowl party shopping list as long my iPod playlist, I did what any displaced small-town girl would do: I went to Fairway.

My first NYC grocery experience was surprisingly good. I'd just moved into my apartment on the Upper West Side, and had nothing except a couple of suitcases. My company put me up in a hotel for two nights during which time I purchased a futon, bedding, and a towel. As my truckload of stuff wasn't due to arrive from California for another week or two, I wandered out to Broadway and found Zabar's. I went upstairs to the housewares section where I purchased a plate and glass (both of which I still have and use). I had a brief affair with Zabar's, going there regularly on my way home from work to buy some exotic cheese or other and delicious loaves of Eli's bread.

At some point I ventured a few blocks south and into Fairway, and I was hooked. The quality of Fairway's produce rivaled that to which I'd become accustomed in California. I found exotic sauces like pomegranate marinade, and I spent way too much money on them. I always bought more than I could carry home, and usually ended up taking the bus. Once, while toting about 6 bags, one of which contained a giant bouquet of fresh basil, I overheard a kid exclaim, "Dad! Something smells like spaghetti!"

When I moved to Brooklyn, I was disappointed in the lack of good grocery stores. I almost immediately started visiting the green market regularly on Saturday mornings, and supplemented our pantry with unexciting (and sometimes downright discouraging) stops at D'Agostino's (overpriced) or Key Food (yuck). Shortly thereafter, FreshDirect started delivering in our 'hood, and I started regularly internetting my way to yummy food (and wine! and beer! and even kitty litter!) delivery, which I didn't even have to carry up five flights of stairs.

To be continued...

Kwanzaa Celebration Cakestravaganza

2006-11-30T22:46:00.005-05:00

A few days ago, Brianna IM'd me a link, which I unfortunately clicked.

Go ahead, click it. I dare you.

I watch the Food Network a lot. It's like my porn. Nine times out of ten, when The Boyfriend comes home later than me, I'm sitting on the couch, eating something of questionable nutritional value (hi bag of chocolate chips!), and watching FoodTV. I can watch just about anything on that channel, but should Sandra Lee's show "Semi-Homemade" come on air, I'm out. I'm all for convenience, but come on Sandra! A few weeks ago (while searching frantically for the remote control to END THE HORROR) I glimpsed her scooping out the insides of a pumpkin pie and a cheesecake, and mixing them together to make a pumpkin cheesecake filling. It was just wrong.

Now, in all my years of using the World Wide Web, I've seen some crazy shit - however, I don't think I've seen anything quite like Sandra Lee's Kwanzaa Celebration Cake. It's offensive and wrong on so many levels. For one, the recipe includes a store-bought angel food cake, corn nuts, and canned apple pie filling. Those things DO NOT GO TOGETHER. (Frankly, canned apple pie filling doesn't go with anything, although when we were grocery shopping for Project: Kwanzaa Celebration Cake, Brianna charitably suggested that a non-baker might use it to bake an apple pie. She's nicer than me.) Next, the recipe is on FoodTV.com, Now, I know Thomas Keller isn't exactly vying for a slot on the Food Network, but there are some respected, reputable chefs who contribute, and what exactly do Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck think of the "food" that Sandra "cooks"? Thirdly, look at her, and think hard about what this woman knows about Kwanzaa.

Let's look at that cake again:

WTF?

Anyway, we decided to get together and create this culinary delight. A quick stop at Key Food and $20 (we also bought ice cream) yielded the necessary ingredients. (Brianna had the more reasonable ingredients at home, like vanilla, cinnamon and cocoa. Somewhat surprisingly she also had corn nuts, which is good because we actually couldn't find those at the grocery store.)

I sliced the angel food cake in half and placed the bottom on Brianna's grandma's silver platter. (We really are just that classy.) Brianna mixed up the frosting, and despite my protests and the recipe CLEARLY stating that we should use a large bowl, she insisted upon adding the mix-ins directly to the frosting cannister, claiming, "That's how Sandra would do it." Spillage was minimal. We then frosted the cake (Sandra doesn't use a crumb coat) and got to the fun stuff: Canned apple pie filling. 21 ounces of it.

"There's no way this is all going in that hole."

"Make it fit. Come on, just jam it in there."

Hehe. That's what she said.

Next came the fun stuff: pumpkin seeds, popcorns, and corn nuts.

Why, Sandra? Why? What compelled you to put corn nuts on a cake?

Three Jim & Gingers later, we had assembled our masterpiece. Either Sandra's cake (and thus her hole, heh) was much bigger than ours, or she was daintier than her recipe called for with those toppings, because, dudes, look at this thing:

(We forgot the candles.)

We actually did taste it and then rinsed our mouths with turpentine, because turpentine was less offensive to our taste buds than store-bought vanilla frosting mixed with cinnamon and cocoa. Then we drank some more bourbon.

Photographic evidence is available on Flickr.

Brianna's recap of our cakestravaganza is on Random Access Babble.

Croissants Part 2

2006-11-05T20:50:00.000-05:00

Last night before bed I reviewed the instructions for Part 2 of Gillian's Adventures in Croissant-Making. I wanted to make sure that waking up at 5:30am would give me sufficient time for the rolling, cutting, shaping, rising, baking, and eating I'd need to do before going to watch the marathon. I confirmed that it would. I also confirmed that I am too immature to bake croissants, as the following instructions made me snicker: "Holding short side (side opposite tip) of 1 triangle in one hand, stretch dough, tugging and sliding with other hand toward tip to elongate by about 50 percent." Heh. (I read it to DLang who naturally thought I was trying to seduce him.) (Hi Mom. Sorry.)

I hauled myself out of bed at 5:50 to begin the festivities. First, I cut the dough in half and put half back in the fridge to make the princess ring. Next, I rolled the dough into a 12"x16" rectangle, and cut that in half. I cut each half into thirds, and then cut the thirds diagonally to make triangles.

After elongating (hee hee) the triangles, I rolled them up just like Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (and hoped fervently that they'd taste better than their tubed cousins). After tucking the baking sheets into a couple of garbage bags to allow the croissants to rise, I tucked myself back into bed for a couple more hours of sleep.

Around 8:45, I woke up again to bake the croissants. The recipe called for them to bake at 400°F for 10 minutes, then at 375°F for another 10 minutes. They looked pretty done after the first 10 minutes, so I cut the second baking time short by about 5 minutes.

I am honestly amazed at the results. They turned out perfectly! They are buttery and flakey and delicious, and DLang and I both ate 2 right out of the oven. (I had another one this afternoon, following DLang's reasoning that since it was the first time I made croissants and it worked, I could eat as many as I wanted.)

Every time I attempt something like this and it works, I'm just a little bit surprised, even though I've done things like successfully bake a wedding cake for 200 people.

A brief photo history of Gillian's Adventures in Croissants can be found on Flickr.

Note: Since I'm definitely a baker in one of my alternate lives, this weekend's entries are in keeping with the month's theme!

Croissants Part 1

2006-11-04T21:09:00.000-05:00

Recently, I decided it is one of my goals to make croissants from scratch. A few months ago I found a recipe, which calls for another recipe - both of which looked to be long and tedious and require a not-insignificant time commitment.

Training for the marathon precluded any such commitments, so I postponed the endeavour - until now.

Earlier this week, I stocked up on the ingredients, including a pound of European butter.

This afternoon before I started, I geeked out and created a spreadsheet that shows each step in making the dough and its duration, so that I'd be able to very efficiently calculate when the dough would be finished. The dough needs to rest for at least 8 but no more than 18 hours before baking, which would be a manageable window if I didn't have plans to cheer myself hoarse at the marathon for most of tomorrow morning.

I started with warm milk and brown sugar in the bowl of my stand mixer (which, to this day, best $250 I've spent in the kitchen!). I mixed in the yeast and 5 minutes later, voilà, it was foamy. (Seriously, no matter how many times I bake with yeast, the foaminess/rising properties never cease to amaze me.)

Hooray! Next step: Adding the flour and salt. Then the dough hook made dough. (The mixer kind of amazes me, too - like with buttercream, the mixer just magically makes everything look exactly how the recipe has described. Usually, anyway.)

Next, I kneaded the dough for a couple of minutes. (Aside: I *love* kneading dough.) After the all-too-short dough-kneading, I shaped the dough into a rectangle, wrapped it in Saran wrap, and put it in the fridge.

Next: "Pound butter with a rolling pin." Awesome. DLang was napping on the couch, so I leaned over gently and said, "Oh, hey. The next part is going to be a little noisy. Sorry about that." Heh.

The flattened butter went in the fridge for some chillin' and the dough came out for some rollin'. I was quite delighted to see that it had risen slightly (science schmience, rising dough is definitely magic). Rolling croissant dough is more fun than for other things because it involves rolling to a very specific size (16"x10"). I then laid the rectangular butter in the center of the rectangular dough and folded each end of dough over. (The instructions in the recipe for this part are very good, so I won't rewrite them here.) I didn't take any pictures at this point because yellow on beige doesn't photograph very well.

At 7pm I finished the last of 4 folds for the dough. Elapsed time: 5 hours.

The dough is now refrigerating until tomorrow morning, when I'll get up at some ungodly hour to roll and cut the dough, which then has to rise for another 2 hours before the croissants can be baked. Since the recipe makes 24 croissants and can't be halved, I'm going to make a dozen croissants and a princess ring (mostly because it's called a "princess ring" and that just seems too precious not to make).