Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Liz]

The best upside-down cake. Luscious maple syrup
infuses apples/cake, tastes like stack of apple pancakes.

Maple-Apple Upside-Down Cake

PREP 3 Granny Smith apples—peeled, cored and cut into eighths

BTB Cup maple syrup; simmer/reduce very thick to 3/4 cup 20 min. Pour into Buttered/floured 10" round cake pan. Arrange apples in 2 concentric circles, overlap slightly.

BATTER whisk 2 c flour, tea b/powder, 1/2 tea b/soda, tea salt; set aside. In glass measure, whisk 3 lge eggs, 3/4 c buttermilk, tb vanilla set aside. Now elec/mixer/paddle 11/2 sticks sweet butter and 11/3 c sugar fluffy 3 min. Beat in dry/wet ing alternating in 3 batches til smooth; scrape sides. Scrape over apples in even layer.

Bake golden 350 deg 1 1/2 hours; cool on rack 45 min. invert onto plate; tap lightly to release; cool slightly, then cut into wedges.

SERVE with crème fraîche and salty caramel ice cream.

[Liz]

North Carolina recipe---place that grows lots of sweet potatoes.

Jalapeno Sweet Potato Chowder

METHOD Sauté/soften diced onion in 2 tb butter. Add lge
puréed baked sweet potato, qt veg stock. Btb; reduce slightly.

Now add 1 1/2 c corn kernels, tsp minced jalapenos,
1/2 cup h/cream, tsp salt. Simmer 10 min.

SERVE garnished w/ chp scallions, jalapeno wheels.

[Jamestown1630]

I’m one of those folks who like a little salad with their dressing; and that dressing sounds great!

-JT

[mschalock]

Hey, North Carolina, your recipe sounds wonderful and I am going to copy it and make it next week. I have been trying to think of ways to eat more sweet potatoes because they are so good for you. Adding the jalapeno is what makes this recipe look wonderful.

[Liz]

Good...and easy. Make it in a jif.

[Liz]

These sweets are nice---b/c you can partially pre-bake a few min in micro.

Then when you're ready, season w/ ol/oil drizzle, minced
garlic, Parm, rosemary. Cut in thin slices, and finish on grill.

Makes a nice presentation.

[Jamestown1630]

Just wanted to tell my experience with the ‘leaf-shaped herb stripper’.

A couple of threads ago, ken5050 was concerned about an efficient way to strip woody herbs like thyme; and he bought the herb-stripper gizmo and pronounced it GOOD.

I said that I’d try the leaf one

http://www.amazon.com/Chefn-Chard-Collard-Greens-Stripper/dp/B00QWNRGS8

and let you know how well it strips kale from the stalk.

Today we’ve been experimenting with fermented dill pickles and other fermented things; and I used the leaf stripper on some kale that we wanted to use to top up the dill pickles and hold them down in the brine.

So far, this thing works really well! It’s a great solution to the time-consuming task of stripping kale from the stems. I’ve only used it on about 1/4 lb. of kale so far, but so far it works efficiently, without any waste.

(Ken: haven’t tried the kale chip recipe yet, but will soon.)

Watch this space late this week, for a thread on Fermented Things.

-JT