chocolate cake.

i made this cake for mary's birthday. i'm not usually a huge chocolate cake person but i love this cake. it's from "the sweeter side of amy's bread" which is very serious about baking and weighing all the ingredients and making sure everything is precise. but i don't weigh anything and so far it's all turned out alright.

CAKE:

7/8 cup unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 c.+1 tbsp. sour cream

5 tbsp. cocoa powder

2 3/8 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 c. boiling water

2 c. flour

5/8 tsp salt

4 eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup butter

1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar

-preheat oven to 350.

-butter and flour 2 9" cake pans

-melt the chocolate and set it aside to cool

-whisk together sour cream, cocoa, and baking soda until it is a smooth paste. very gradually add the boiling water until it is fully incorporated.

-in a separate bowl, combine flour and salt.

-in yet another bowl, whisk together the eggs and the vanilla.

-using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add melted chocolate and mix well.

-add eggs

-add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the liquid mixture and mix well.

-divide batter equally into two pans

-cook for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

FROSTING:

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 3/8 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

-melt chocolate chips in double boiler and set aside to cool

-mix together powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

-cream butter until it's very light but not too soft.

-add sugar/cocoa powder mixture and mix well.

-add melted chocolate, vanilla, and salt and mix until incorporated.

-then stack the cakes up and slather on as much frosting as you can. keep at room temperature so the frosting doesn't get hard.

Sweet Corn Pancakes

Last weekend I was feeling a tad daunted by the prospect of spending 6 hours at a TYSN retreat, so decided to have a leisurely morning of food and coffee to feel a bit more balanced and inspired. I made corn pancakes from a Smitten Kitchen recipe (that blog is getting some good play here lately!), buttery cooked apples (sliced apples cooked slowly with a bit of brown sugar in the cast iron skillet so they carmelized), and coffee. Yum. I tried these with a combo of corn flour and rice flour to make them wheat free - thumbs up!

Salsa! Canned Tomatoes!

This weekend I finally canned some things...thanks to KP and 25lbs of tomatoes. Both of us are fairly novice at the canning business, but KP has some family history. Which sort of says something - having seen it done and maybe not being so worried about botulism (like others of us were). Except grandma's technique to not boil the jars a second time seemed a little too risky, even to KP. Canning is scientific, and though we debated following the salsa recipe allotment of 2 cups (!) lemon juice or just putting lemon in each jar, we ultimately followed the recipe. The lemon juice functions as the additional acid needed to prevent botulism, and apparently tomatoes hover below the right amount of acidity - especially with onions and peppers. Interestingly, you need to use bottled lemon juice - I am still not clear why. I think in the future I might try to find citric acid though (way more concentrated), because 2 c. of lemon juice adds a lot of liquid.

There are lots of salsa and tomato canning recipes online. KP found this salsa recipe that is a good amount of kick. The orange and red heirlooms also made for stunning jars.

Canning was definitely an all day project- especially with the pots we had which held only 4 jars at a time. Phase two for canning includes getting another pot...maybe the actual canning kind?! FYI: 25lbs of tomatoes = 9 pints of salsa and 7 quarts of tomatoes, approximately.

more fun with eggplant!

What's that? The last eggplant dish I posted sucked, and you're still swimming in eggplant?
Try this- it's really tasty.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/01/rigatoni-with-eggplant-puree/

Ratatouille

We received an abundance of eggplant in last week's CSA, so I decided to try ratatouille. Despite the recent cold weather, I've been trying to drag out the summer menus as long as possible (because, let's face it, who still gets excited for squash in February?). This combo of summer veggies + roasted veggies seemed to be a great compromise in the summer-to-fall slide.
I used the recipe from this month's co-op advantage flyer (linked in the title), but the red wine overwhelmed and the veggies got a bit, err, smooshy.
If anyone has a better ratatouille recipe, please post. I think next time I'd try this one from the Smitten Kitchen:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/07/rat-a-too-ee-for-you-ee/

Tortilla soup

I am feeling un-inspired on the cooking front (who knew I would be ready for fall weather by now?!) so I went back to the ReBar cookbook. I am not quite yet ready for creamy food or I would try the delicious looking corn chowder. I'm a firm believer in cream soups...I just am waiting not so patiently for fall when I will use cream, cheese, and any other rich creamy substance in great abundance. This one is a little lighter - and I wish I had seen Gaybie's note to boil the corn cobs in the broth BEFORE I composted them. Alas. My sister and I tag-teamed this soup with some corn bread muffins that we put a bunch of basil in. Which was great, btw.

As I type this the wind blowing in from the windows is getting cooler and cooler. We must be on the brink of fall! Which means pies, greens, and squash. And it means I need to harvest and freeze before it's too late!

Serves 8 (or 4 if you have a good appetite!)
8 cups vegetable stock
2 T vegetable oil
2 yellow onions, finely diced
1 T salt
10 garlic cloves, minced
2 T. minced oregano
4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
3 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
2 large red peppers, seeded and finely diced
1/2 t. liquid smoke (I omitted this)
2 tsp chipotle puree (chipotle peppers in adobe sauce blended up)
4 corn tortillas
2 avocados, diced
1/2 bunch cilantro, stemmed
asiago cheese, shaved with a potato peeler
1 lime, cut into wedges (i forgot this part!)

1. Heat the stock and keep it warm on the back burner while preparing the soup. In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and 1 t. salt and saute until translucent. Stir in garlic, oregano, half the jalapenos, and another t. salt: saute 5 minutes.
2. Pour the hot stock into the pot and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer 20 minutes. In the final 5 minutes, stir in the corn, peppers, liquid smoke, chipotle, and remaining jalapenos and salt. Simmer until corn is tender. Meanwhile prepare garnishes.
3. To prepare tortilla strips: slice each tortilla into long strips 1/4" thick. Toss with a light coating of oil and pinch of salt. Spread on a baking sheet and cook for 5 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove and let cool until ready to serve.
4. To serve, ladle broth into bowls and divide the avocado, cilantro leaves, tortilla strips, and asiago shavings among the servings. Serve immediately with a bowl of lime wedges on the side.

Veggie enchiladas

My friend Linda made these enchiladas for a dinner party a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them! Based on a Moosewood recipe, the enchiladas are filled with eggplant, cheese, peppers...and almonds, which make for a delicious crunch. Linda is a really good cook, and I worried that these might be hard to replicate, but hip hip, they turned out well. Alas, I forgot to take a photo.

Anyway, here's Linda's version:

"1 eggplant (I used more because I LOVE eggplant)
Onion- as much as you like
Green pepper- or red pepper. Or none at all if people don’t like them
Saute these 3 veggies in oil until cooked. If you want the green peppers to stay a little crunchy put them in later. (I did this 'cause I like crunchier peppers.)

Add to the veggies:
Small can of diced green chilies – mild or hot depending on your taste buds or perhaps one can of each. (Linda's preference.)
Chopped almonds or some nut to add a nice crunch.
Canned beans – I prefer black beans and sometimes I use the cans with spices and sometimes without. If they don’t have spices I usually rinse the beans.
Once the veggie mixture is cooked, I portion them out on a cookie sheet so I know how many enchiladas I’ll have. Otherwise I end up without enough tortillas or not enough veggies, etc. for small tortillas an ice cream scoop is about the right size. You’ll have to experiment. You need to add cheese and roll up the tortilla.

Monterey Jack cheese - grated
Fresh cilantro
Corn tortillas
Canned enchilada sauce. I use two cans of enchilada sauce, one hot and one mild. For a large batch you may need 3 cans. If you only use mild you should be sure to spice the veggie mixture or the sauce.

Heat the enchilada sauce in a frying pan large enough to dunk the tortillas in. (if you think you will be short enough sauce add small amounts of water.)
Dip the tortilla in the enchilada sauce, in order to cover them in sauce and to make rolling
them easier. Be careful not to leave the tortillas in the warm sauce to long or they break apart.
Remove the tortilla from the frying pan, place in your baking pan, sprinkle grated cheese onto the tortilla, then add fresh cilantro, then a spoonful of the veggies and roll up the tortilla. Place the seam of the enchilada on the bottom of the pan. If the seam is at the top they will break open during their final baking.

When the pan is full sprinkle remaining cheese on top of the pan and dribble any remaining sauce. You want to try and have some sauce left for this step. Bake covered with tin foil until thoroughly heated through. Take the tinfoil off the pan for the last 5 -10 minutes to crisp them up a little. They will dry out terribly if you don’t first leave the tin foil on the pan.

Before baking everything is basically cooked so they can be stored or frozen at this time. If you have more veggie mix than tortillas you can also freeze just the veggie mix.
Have fun making your own additions."

Thank you, Linda!