World on a Plate: To Go

Tom's Mom's Pound Cake

 

Image by JBrophy, The Butter Class

Recipe adapted from The Commonsense Kitchen, Tom Hudgens

Tom Hudgens attended and cooked at Deep Springs Ranch, Chez Panisse, and Liberty Café in San Francisco. He teaches at College of Marin and lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

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Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 2/3 cups sugar

1 tspn vanilla extract

1 tspn lemon extract

1 tblspn rosewater (or water)*

2 tblspns honey

1/4 tspn salt

5 large eggs, room temperature (about 1 1/4 cups)

1 cup sifted cake flour, sifted again after measuring (if you don't have cake flour, use another cup of AP flour)

1 cup sifted AP flour, sifted again after measuring

Makes 1 bundt cake or about 2 loaves

Do not preheat oven.  Butter and flour dust 2 loaf pans or a lrage bundt pan.  Tap the pan/s to reomve excess flour.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together well, until the mixture is cohesive, lightend in color and fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla and lemon extracts, rosewater, honey and salt. 

Using a rubber spatula or a wooden spon alternately fold in the eggs and the flours by hand in 3-4 additions, blending in each addition only partailly before adding the next one.  Once all the eggs and flour are added, gently blend the batter just until uniform.  Do not overmix. 

Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, speading evenly.  Place in cold oven.  Turn oven on to 300F.  Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cook in pan for 15 minutes; turn out cake on to a rack. 

*Notes:

Rosewater lends a subtle but exceptional taste to this recipe.  It can be easily found in most ethnic aisles of grocery stores or in a Middle Eastern grocery.

Pound cakes can be finicky.  Do yourself a favor and bring ingredients to room temperature.  Usually about 30-40 minutes on the counter.

 

Just Peachy Goodness

 
Eating as locally as possible for the last few years has come to mark a new food obsession with each passing season.  At one point last fall I couldn't get enough Brussels sprouts--a vegetable I wouldn't touch  until a few years ago. Right now I can see that apples are going to start moving front and center. As summer begins to wind down I have started thinking about my summer love this year, summer peaches. 

Sure, fresh, unadorned are great for a quick juicy mid-day snack at the desk between meetings. Then tossed into cereal and salads.  However my piece de resistance came about a month ago when I was on a eating-wise-get-it-together binge. The morning peach protein shake. Simple ingredients of almond milk, a few peaches, protein powder and fresh local yogurt.  And as this has been an evolving obsession, that morning start led to the next in the form of a divine summer peachiness slurp, the Peach-Chai-Cajeta Frappe (milkshake to those not in Massachusetts).  Divinely addictive and honestly--fairly healthy in moderation. The essence of summer peaches, the spicy chai notes and the indulgence of cajeta (dulce de leche but goat milk not cow).  

Try it before peaches disappear from the farmers market.

Peach-Chai-Cajeta Frappe

Makes 1 generous serving or 2 if you like to share

Ingredients

• 1 cup Cajeta de Leche Frozen Yogurt (such as Laloo if n/a Dulce de leche ice cream or froyo)
• 3 fresh peaches (prefer the yellow but whatever you fancy)
• 1/2 cup Chai liquid concentrate
• 2 sheets cinnamon graham crackers

Toss it in blender.  Mix and puree for about 2 minutes. Pour into tall chilled glasses with a straw. Serve and enjoy!

 

Vinturi: Essential Wine Aerator

Breakthrough wine accessory hailed by Napa wineries and experts, the Vinturi Red Wine Aerator is designed to decant red wine in the time it takes to pour a glass. It allows red wine to breathe to release its intended flavors and aromas.

First pass through with a $6 2008 Viu Manent Malbec from Chile and well, the wine tastes a excellent for that price tag.

via www.vinturi.com