Turkey, Turkish, Ottoman “Surprise” Baklava and Spices Gone Wild

So as I was slaving away during my 3-hour-solo-dinner challenge the other night, I figured, I’ve already got the phyllo dough out and thawed, why not make baklava too?

While it was good in principal, and actually ended up being pretty tasty, it could have been a disaster.

You see, the recipe calls for 1 to 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon in the filling.

That, my friends, is cayenne pepper. I don’t think I even need to say what happened here. Poor Taylor, still on the floor, heard me start swearing in the kitchen and panicked thinking I cut myself. Nope, but I did just dump in a boatload of cayenne into the freshly ground nut filling.

I hadn’t stirred it yet, luckily, and managed to skim off ‘most’ of the offending spice. Reground some more nuts, and hoped that you wouldn’t be able to taste it in the final product.

You couldn’t. In fact it was a decent baklava. I used the recipe I found here, using maybe 2/3 almonds (some regular and some marcona), and then the rest walnuts, because I ran out of almonds. I think it could have been better… I wasn’t too fond of the walnuts in there. Anyone have a killer baklava recipe that they swear by?

I do have to say, that this experience has reinforced the fact that our spices are out of control. Maybe if the labels hadn’t rubbed of the bottles, the above disaster could have been avoided. But the spice rack is just the beginnging…

It all started with the spice rack. Until you realize that you cannot be limited by the 16 random spices that someone decided to fill it with (Dill Weed, anyone?).

Then things start to migrate into the spice drawer. Good in concept – the drawer is just deep enough to lay down one row of spice bottles. But when that gets full, and you start buying bigger bottles and bags of spices… well..

That’s when things really start to get messy. They get thrown on a shelf in the cabinet. The very deep shelf that makes them almost impossible to find (”Taylor, where’s the oregano?” I say with my head as deep inside the cabinet as it will go. Maybe I should just get Kitty to get it for me).

They multiply, I tell you! And we’ve just discovered the wonder of spice that is the international food store, which only sells spices in large bags. Too much to transfer to a bottle (not that there’d be room in the drawer anyway), we need some spice mason jars or something. But where on earth would those go?!?

And thus I pose another question – how do you keep your spices under control? We have limited space – that drawer and some counter is about all of the room we have for any spice-containment-unit.

Turkis Caramel Banana Cupcakes

After our delicious Valentine’s day dessert of caramelized bananas, I’ve had caramel and banana on the brain. It’s such a rich and satisfying combination, one that I thought would translate perfectly into cupcakes.

However, I had a dilemma. A sugar dilemma. My fear of sugar may have delayed these delicious cupcakes longer than necessary. A few bad experiences with cooked sugar and I’m scarred for life. So no way was I going to attempt to make my own caramel for these cupcakes.

Eventually, though, I decided that there was no need to actually make caramel, when there are plenty of commercial ice cream sauces available. Simply open the jar, drizzle, and done. No cooked sugar needed. Perfect!

I also picked up a little bottle of caramel flavoring, again with the idea of avoiding cooking caramel myself. I added a few drops of the potent stuff to the batter. Nothing intense, but just enough to give the cake that much more depth of flavor.

My buttercream separated just a bit… I got overzealous with the softening of the butter, and once butter has been partially liquefied, well, you really can’t un-do it. I have realized, though, that I had been putting way too much sugar in my buttercream. Using a higher proportion of butter to sugar, adding more soymilk, and then whipping the heck out of it makes a much lighter, fluffier, and slightly less-sweet buttercream. I’m getting better at it, but I’ve still got a ways to go before I’ve mastered the ‘perfect’ frosting.

Caramel Banana Cupcakes with Easy Caramel Buttercream

Makes 20 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups plain soymilk
2 1/8 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/8 cups sugar
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract

For Frosting:
1 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons soymilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons caramel topping

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350º. Line muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.

Combined apple cider vinegar and soymilk in small bowl. Stir well and set aside (the mixture will curdle).
In a bowl, mash banana with canola oil until incorporated. Add extracts and mix well.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the curdled soymilk and banana mixtures to the dry ingredients and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup of batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

For frosting, whip butter with electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add milk, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons caramel, and beat 3-5 minutes until thick and fluffy. Add more sugar if needed to achieve proper consistency. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Drizzle with remaining caramel and enjoy!

Fusilli With Peppers, Zucchini, and Feta

I love quick, refreshing meals. Ones that you feel took virtually no time to prepare, yet are still just as satisfying as the 4-hour-long fancy schmancy dinner. It almost feels like cheating.

This dish is just that. A cheaters’ dinner. A summertime tease. It’s got all the fresh and exciting flavors of summer, but something you can eat while the air is still brisk. We’ve had a few 70+ degree days here in Nashville the past couple of weeks. It’s funny how one warm day can change your entire mindset. I’m in summer mode now, and no 30-degree nights with our heat running can change that.

Fusilli With Peppers, Zucchini, and Feta

Makes 4-6 servings. Recipe from Delish.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb baby bell peppers, seeded and quartered lengthwise (or regular bell peppers, sliced into 1/2″ thick slices)
1 large red onion, halved and cut into thin strips
16 oz. long fusilli pasta
2 zucchini, cut into 2-inch sticks, 1/4-inch thick
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat in a 5-quart Dutch oven; add peppers and onion and stir to combine. Cover pot; cook 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add pasta to boiling water; cook according to package directions. While pasta cooks, add zucchini and olives to onion mixture and cook uncovered, 10 minutes, tossing frequently, until vegetables are tender.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Add pasta to vegetables and add feta cheese, black pepper, and reserved cooking water; toss. Transfer to a pasta serving bowl

Molten chocolate cake

Everyone knows chocolate is great for improving the mood… So why should you refrain from eating it?! Get ready, this molten chocolate cake recipe is a killer! The one on the picture could have been baked a little less so the center would have been more liquid… You’ll just have to try and adjust the cooking time to your own tastes. Whenever the borders are done, you can take them out of the oven. The bigger the ‘uncooked’ area in the center, the more liquid your molten chocolate cake will be.

Preparation time: 15 mn (+ 1h in the fridge) Cooking time: 6 to 7 mn

Ingredients (for 4 to 6 cakes)

7 oz (200 g) of dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
1/2 cup (110 g) of butter
1/4 cup (50 g) of golden or brown sugar
3 tablespoons of whipping cream
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of corn starch
2 eggs

Instructions

1/ In a salad bowl beat egg and sugar until mixture gets a lighter color. Add flour and corn starch and whisk.

2/ Heat a large saucepan half filled with water.

3/ Dice butter and 5 oz of chocolate and put it, along with the whipping cream, in a smaller saucepan or a metal bowl. Put in (or over, depending the size) the heating water. (This technique is called bain-marie; it’s the best way to melt chocolate without burning it).

4/ Mix molten chocolate in with egg and sugar mixture until it gets smooth.

5/ Leave preparation for 1h in the fridge so mixture gets thicker.

6/ Preheat oven to 410° F (210° C / Th 7).

7/ If you’re going to use a muffin mold, grease it. If you have round pastry cutters, line baking tray with parchment paper and place pastry cutters on it. Cut pieces of parchment paper a little bigger than the height of your pastry cutters, circle them and cover pastry cutters sides with it (as shown on picture).

8/ Fill 2/3 of the pastry cutters with chocolate mixture. Cut the 2 oz of chocolate you have left into small pieces and add on top of the chocolate dough; push it a little with your finger so it gets inside.

9/ Heat in oven for 6 to 7 minutes.

10/ Take chocolate cakes out of the oven and pull carefully parchment paper first and pastry cutters next. (If cooking paper doesn’t come out easily, they’re not cooked enough… Don’t break them! Put them back in the oven a minute more).

11/ Serve right away alone or with vanilla ice cream or custard.

Glazed Pork Tenderloin

There is so much to be said for a meal that is versatile (you can serve the leftovers multiple ways and still make everybody happy); simple (it takes hardly any preparation and cooks with almost no oversight); and tasty (it satisfied the sweet tooth and the salty tooth in our household). Yes - lots to be said about it - as I've just proven to you! It's no secret that we're a pork-loving household; this isn't the first tenderloin recipe I've shared, and I doubt it will be the last. But this one? It's going into my cooking repertoire. I've told you about that file before; it's called the If I Ever Own a Bed and Breakfast file. This recipe? It's already in it.

Glazed Pork Tenderloin / AllRecipes / Submitted by Bernice Dean
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Ingredients

• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (1 pound) pork tenderloin
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1/2 cup pineapple preserves
• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

Directions

1. Combine salt and pepper; rub over pork. Place in a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan coated with nonstick cooking spray. Place one sprig of rosemary under the pork and one on top. Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat preserves and horseradish until preserves are melted; stir until blended. Remove top rosemary sprig. Brush pork with 1/4 cup pineapple sauce. Bake 10-20 minutes longer or until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve with the remaining sauce.