2 cakes, both alike in dignity

yeah...so, that Shakespeare reference is quite lame, I know. But it got your attention, didn't it. And I didn't use pun-I just replaced the 'houses' with 'cakes' which is still completely lame...but not AS lame as a pun, right?

eh... anyway...

Yesterday I promised to post my special French chocolate cake recipe (with homemade raspberry coulis) but I realized that it has a smidgen of flour in it, so I will also post my favorite FLOURLESS chocolate cake recipe for those for whom flour is an absolute NO.

FRENCH CHOCOLATE CAKE

(I have been making this cake for years and years and it never lets me down)

3/4 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting pan

10 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (I like ghiradelli)

3/4 cup unsalted butter, chopped

2 tsp vanilla

5 eggs, separated

1/4 cup flour (I have used white, white whole wheat, rice, you name it...it should work and be delicious)

pinch of salt (I use about 3/4 tsp)

Preheat oven to 325.

Butter a 9.5'' springform pan and then sprinkle with powdered sugar, swirl around and tap out the excess.

Set aside 3Tbsp of the sugar. Place the chocolate, butter and remaining sugar in a double boiler until melted. mix well. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and let cool slightly.

Beat the egg yolks into the cooled chocolate mixture, then stir in flour.

Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites until frothy. Increase the speed, add the salt and continue beating until soft peaks form. Sprinkle in the reserved 3 Tbsp sugar and beat until the whites really are stiff and glossy (this is what keeps the cake light tasting.) Beat in 1/3 of the whites into the chocolate mixture, then gently fold in the remaining whites. Combine well but do not overmix.

Carefully pour the mixture into the pan and tap the pan gently to release any air bubbles.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes until well risen and the top springs back when touched lightly with fingertip. (If cake is rising unevenly, rotate after 20 minutes.)

Once baked, transfer to wire rack, remove sides of pan and let cool completely.

Enjoy with raspberry sauce or vanilla ice cream or with a dusting of powdered sugar!

RASPBERRY COULIS

half a bag frozen raspberries

2 tbsp lemon juice

1-4 Tbsp sugar, to taste

In a small saucepan, melt fruit and sugar over med-high heat. Keep stirring. When boiling gently, add lemon juice. Keep stirring for a minute or two. Remove from heat and pour through a strainer into a large bowl. If you would like, hold onto fruit solids as raspberry jam. Keep refrigerated. The liquid in the bowl is your rapberry coulis. allow to cool to room temperature and enjoy drizzled on chocolate cake, etc.

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

(from Nigella lawson)

8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 stick unsalted softened butter

1tsp vanilla

6 eggs-2 whole; 4 separated

1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Line bottom of an 8'' springform pan with parchment but do not grease sides of pan. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler and set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk the 4 egg whites until firm, gradually add the 1/2 cup sugar and whisk until shites are holding their shape and peak gleamingly, but not stiff.

Remove this boil and set aside while you whisk in another bowl the 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with the 1/3 cup sugar and vanilla. Then gently fold in the chocolate mixture.

Lighten this mixture with some of the egg whites-then fold in the rest of the whites gently in about 3 goes.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until cake is risen and cracked and the center is no longer wobbly on the surface. Cool in it's pan on a wire rack. The cake's middle will sink in as it cools and the sides may splinter. It is a vision of imperfection but that's one of the reasons this cake is so good.

Valentine's Feast

This post is ridiculously, embarassingly late. It is clearly well past Valentine's Day as I publish this post. However I have been a traveller of late. The last two weeks have seen me in New York, Houston (shooting for the Houston Grand Opera!,) Atlanta, back in Midwestia, and now preparing for an upcoming return trip to NY. The trips were wonderful but I'm pretty tired and in need of some serious nesting (at least for the next few days until I leave for NYC.)

Due to being on the road so much in February I didn't have a chance to share my Valentine's feast recipes. So, perhaps you will be inspired by the following recipes to cook up a very special dinner for some other occasion. Here's the menu: Braised beef shortribs with truffle mashed potatoes, baby root vegetables, brussels sprouts, French chocolate cake with raspberry coulis.

I will give you the recipe for the short ribs, and the baby root veg in this entry and the cake with sauce in the following. I must give credit for the ultimate short ribs recipe to my dear friend Claire. I have followed it almost to the letter, save for the very end where I omitted some extra butter and added a dash of something special...

ULTIMATE BEEF SHORT RIBS

2 Tbsp Vegetable oil

6 short ribs

s&p

1 med onion coarsely chopped

1 med carrot coarsely chopped

1 med celery rib coarsely chopped

3 large garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 bottle dry red wine

4 Cups chicken stock

1 tsp black peppercorns, ground

2 sprigs thyme

2 sprigs rosemary

1 dried bay leaf

1 Tbsp barbeque sauce (I used the one from Trader Joe's) note: this is optional. I added it because I thought the recipe needed a soupçon of sweet and smoky and this did the trick.

Preheat oven to 300.

In a large, heavy bottomed casserole or oven-proof sauté pan with lid, heat oil over med-high heat. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Cook in batches until nicely browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer to plate.

Pour off all but 3 Tbsp of fat. Return casserole to med-high heat and add onion, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring, until nicely browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the red wine and cook until reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Add stock, peppercorns, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf and bring to boil. Return short ribs to casserole and cover tightly.

Move casserole to oven. Braise until short ribs are tender, about 2 hours (I think it often takes longer-2.5 hours worked for me). About 15 minutes into cooking time, check to make sure the liquid is barely simmering, and reduce oven temp if necessary. When tender, transfer ribs to platter. Cover with alum foil to keep warm.

Let braising liquid stand off heat for 3 minutes. Skim off fat that rises to surface. Return casserole to stove and bring to boil over high heat. Cook until sauce is richly flavored and reduced to about 1.5 cups, 10 to 15 minutes (probably longer). Off heat, whisk in barbeque sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

TRUFFLE MASHED POTATOES

1.5 lbs. potatoes

1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sour cream

s&p to taste

Peel potatoes. Cut into large chunks. Add to boiling water and cook until tender. Remove potatoes from water (you may keep the water boiling for the baby vegetables) and move to a large bowl. Add sourcream, s&p and mash using favorite method (mine's to use a potato ricer.) When well mashed add truffle oil.

BABY ROOT VEGETABLES
Baby root vegetables: 12 oz parsnips, peeled
12 oz baby carrots, peeled
salt and pepper

Bring large pot of water to boil. Add parsnips and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to bowl. Cover to keep warm.

Add carrots to boiling water and cook until tender, about 6 minutes. Drain and keep warm with parsnips. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve: place a mound of mashed potatoes in center of warmed dinner plate. Lean a short rib up against potatoes. Spoon sauce around potatoes and garnish with turnips and carrots.

Bon Appetit!!!

Poppy seeds+Lemon=Magic

As I write this post, I am literally sitting in the Midwestia airport, enjoying the free wifi, joyfully anticipating my business class seat on this afternoon's flight to NYC. Let me just say, BE NICE to the airport check-in people. They can make all the difference in your travel experience. Take this morning: Prof. Hubs had to teach at noon so even though my flight is not until 2:30 this afternoon, I was dropped off at the airport at 11:oo am. When I checked in I made a few jokes with the check-in lady...who, I suppose, appreciated it. And bumped my ticket. To business class. And made my day :)

Not too shabby... (To Julie at Airtran-thank you for being such a sweetheart-you've completely made the horror of waiting in an airport for 3.5 hours a joy now that I know warm cookies and ample leg room await!)

I had opportunity this past weekend to bake not just one, but 2 prototypes of my new favorite cake: The luscious lemon poppy seed cake. I must say, it's unlike any other lemon poppyseed recipe I could find and I looked in all the usual places. I was thinking to myself,

"I want a lemon poppyseed cake with a tight crumb, a moist texture, not too sweet and a nice lemon-y fragrance... Sort of like my apple cake, but not apple... So what did I do? I played! And I came up with a perfectly wonderful Lemon poppy seed cake. In fact, several of those who ate it said it was the best lemon cake they had ever tasted!!!

With that introduction, I give you:

Desperate Housediva's Luscious Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

1.75 cups sugar

3 C reg flour (I used half white whole wheat, half regular white)
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 Tbsp lemon zest (zest 2 lemons)
1 Tb baking powder
1 C canola oil
1/4 C orange juice

Juice from 1/2 lemon (make sure to remove seeds!!!)

1/2 cup poppyseeds (=3 small containers of poppyseeds)

Preheat oven to 350 (in my crazy oven, I had better luck with 325...)
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and pour oil, eggs, orange juice, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, and poppy seeds. Combine until well blended.
Grease 10'' tube (bundt) pan. Fill pan with cake batter. Spread the top with a spatula to even.

Bake for about 1 hour or until spaghetti strand comes out clean. Cover top with aluminum foil if it begins to overbrown.

Allow to cool to lukewarm before turning out onto serving plate.
Freezes well.

These are the lemons who sacrificed their zest for the good of the cake:

Here is the zest they yielded:

I like to leave a few scrapes of batter for tasting purposes... strictly business, of course...

Here's a close-up of the last few bites...