Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

Falafel is one of my favorite street foods. I still have dreams sometimes about the particularly delicious spinach falafel I had in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Alexandria, Egypt. There seem to be limitless variations each bringing something new and delicious to the classic chic pea-based falafel. I also happen to love sweet potatoes, and when I came across a recipie that included both (and also did NOT include deep frying) I couldn't pass up trying it out for myself.

Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

from 101 cookbooks

2 medium sweet potatoes (orange inside), around 700g or 1 1/2 pounds in total

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 small cloves of garlic, chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 big handfuls of fresh cilantro/coriander, chopped

Juice of half a lemon

a scant cup (120g) gram /chickpea flour (can't find any? buy some dry chic peas and grind them in your food processor)

a splash of olive oil

a sprinkling of sesame seeds

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425F degrees (220C) and roast the sweet potatoes whole until just tender - 45 minutes to 1 hour. Turn off the oven, leave the potatoes to cool, then peel.

Put the sweet potatoes, cumin, garlic, ground and fresh coriander, lemon juice and gram/chickpea flour into a large bowl. Season well, and mash until smooth with no large chunks. Stick in the fridge to firm up for an hour, or the freezer for 20-30 minutes. When you take it out, your mix should be sticky rather than really wet. You can add a tablespoon or so more of chickpea flour if necessary (the water content of sweet potatoes varies enormously).

Reheat the oven to 400F/200C. Using a couple of soup spoons (put a well-heaped spoonful of mix in one spoon and use the concave side of the other to shape the sides) or a falafel scoop if you have one, make the mixture into falafelly looking things and put them on an oiled tray. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, until the bases are golden brown.

Makes about 18 falafel, enough for 4 - 6. I enjoyed it on it's own but was especially tasty with a tzadziki sauce or a yogurt garlic sauce (yogurt, garlic and salt and pepper mixed to taste) with some toasty warm pita and sprouts.

Bread with a good story

DC is a strange town. It's a town of contradictions, controversy, conflict and confluence. And occasionally little, tiny, adorable bread makers. With a good stories. It's not every town that has some of the world's best brains coming through, trying their darndest to make their mark on teh world. The Mr. happens to work in a place were such said brains congregate to try to find solutions to the worlds trickier problems. One of his favorite colleagues' stay was cut short by an urgent call home - just some trifling thing about prosecuting one of the Balkans' bloodiest tyrants, and needed to move quickly. He ended up giving just about everything of his away to his colleagues and lucky Mr. P came home with a itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny bread machine. Shoved into some dark cabinet and forgotten for years, a fortuitous search for matching tupperware lids uncovered the little bread-making gem. I was instantly smitten and haven't bought sandwhich bread in weeks!

Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good handmade bread. The whole process is remarkably fufilling and cathartic for me. However, in this crazy life, sadly, there is not always time to make bread this way. And so, turning out adorable, delicious loaves of bread in 45 minutes isn't such a terrible alternative. This recipie is scaled for this particular itty, bitty machine, but can be scaled up to other grown-up-sized breadmakers.

Spelt Bread

1/2 c warm water
1 Tbs butter
1/2 c spelt flour
3/4 c bread flour
1 1/2 Tbs agave or honey
1 Tbs dry milk
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp rapid-rise yeast

Place in order in bread machine. Set to "wheat" bread setting and begin baking cycle. Makes particularly amazing toast when well jammed and/or buttered.

for scale

Pulla - Finnish Cardamom Bread

Pulla. I used to love to come home after school to a house warm and smelling of fresh baked cinnamon rolls. A sure sign my Aiti, my father's mother, who spend a good part of the year with us, had a very productive afternoon. At Christmas, she would make little bread men with them, using currants for eyes and buttons, sometimes adding a little simple frosting. I have fondly sticky memories of sharing pulla and my grandmother's homemade raspberry freezer jam, chest puffed out in pride at having helped my grandmother make the jam, at my elementary school's Heritage Day. Although, admittedly, I grew rather tired of hearing "You're Finnish? Finn-ished? So you're done, right?" by the end of the day.

My grandmother passed away a few years ago, sadly, never writing down her own recipe for her cardamom bread. My dad has his own technique for making it (he's successfully adapted the dough-making portion for the bread machine!) and I've tried to recreate it as best I can, giving it my own spin of course. I always make multiple batches at once, as each batch is quite the labor of love. I do love the process of making it though - it always makes me feel closer to my grandmother - a woman who had a very large part in raising us but was no longer able to do much cooking by the time I was getting really interested in it. It also helps me feel a bit closer to my Finnish heritage - though only half of my ethnic makeup, is certainly a formative half. In our flawed but never-the-less melting pot of a society, it feels good to have something solid to hold onto when it comes to tradition and roots. Making pulla is a very grounding thing, especially when preparing it for your pulla-loving family. I don't think I've quite achieved her mastery, but I like to think that she's watching and nodding approvingly.

Bread

2 c milk

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 Tbs. crushed cardamom seeds

2 pkgs. dry yeast (or 2 Tbs)

6 c unbleached white flou

2-3 c whole wheat flour

2/3 c butter1 tsp salt

Topping

1 egg yolk

1 Tbs waterplus about

1/4 c Turbinado sugar

Optional for Cinnamon Rolls:

2 Tbs melted butter

1/4 c white sugar

1/2 brown sugar

3 Tbs cinnamon

1. Scald milk with cardamom and 2 Tbs of sugar from 1/2 c of white sugar

2. Cool to lukewarm, and add yeast. let sit for 5 minutes or until doubled

3. In seperate bowl, add remaining white sugar and brown sugar, salt and 1 1/2 c white and 1 1/2c wheat flours

4. combine melted butter cooled to lukewarm, egg and milk/yeast mixture

5. add wet mixture to dry, adding remaining flour as necessary

6. knead for 10 minutes, then allow to rise about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in greased bowl covered in a damp dish towel.

7. Shape into braids (2-3 depending on size) or rolls*, cover with dish towel and allow to rise 45 mins or until doubled8. For braids, brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with turbinado sugar9. bake in 350 degree oven for 15-25 minutes

*rolls option: roll dough flat into a rectangle to about 1/4" thick, spread melted butter till covered and sprinkle sugar mixture evenly accross it. Roll into a log and cut into 1/2-1" slices and place in buttered cake pan (round or rectangular). Allow to rise as mentioned above and then bake as described.

Blueberry Scones

I confess, I was right there with many young girls in the world when it came to tea parties. My sister and I were queens of them - and believe me, it took serious mastery to engender regency to mudpie making (and yes, I mean literal mud). Once we were old enough to be entrusted with slightly battered but shabbily elegant tea set from the thrift store, our parents were hard pressed not to find us taking tea when they came home from work. I'm sure the sticky remnants of cinnamon sugar toast only made our exuberant embraces of them all that more special - if perhaps contributing to increases in dry cleaning bills.

When I reached 5th grade, we once had the very special priveledge of taking high tea at the Four Seasons. Even now, I can perfectly recall the sheer delight at living out one of our favorite girlhood fantasies - the deep puice color and tangy flavor of the black currant tea I ordered (each of us got our own pot, amazing!) and the scones decadently smeared with Deveonshire Cream and topped with fresh strawberries. Oh! I'm salivating at the mere memory!

To this day, scones always taste a bit of wonder and evoke a sprinkling of that magic of childhood and imagination.

Blueberry and Lemon Scones
inspired by orangette

½ c half and half
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 Tbs unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
3 Tbs sugar
1/4-1/2 c frozen blueberries
2 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat together the milk and the egg and then set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, working until you have no lumps bigger than a pea. Add the sugar blueberries and zest.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Bring dough together gently with a wooden spoon.Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately ½-inch thick, and cut into 8 or 12 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat, if you have one. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges with a little extra half and half. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack.

Popovers

This, friends, is how all mornings should begin. Licking sticky homemade strawberry jam off of your fingers after swallowing a delicious bite of still-warm-from-the-oven popovers your significant other made for you as you lazily slept in. Maybe a little almond butter on the next bite...

Birthday Cake for Mr. Pleasant

Each new year deserves quite the celebration - and for me that celebration needs cake. Great cake, make you wiggle your toes in culinary exstasy kind of good cake. The enjoyment of said birthday cake depends on a number of things of course - and I truly, honestly believe that the love put into a cake, no matter what the recipe, ingredients or skill, truly make the expereince the most rewarding. Perhaps nothing so dramatic as the magical realisim of Like Water for Chocolate, when the embittered cake baker pours all of her hurt, sorrow and anger into a wedding cake that makes all the guests suffer as she has. No, something more along the lines of sharing something with the people you care about. Birthday cake that my mom or grandmother made always tasted magical somehow. One of the first cakes I ever made all by myself as a kid, albeit from a mix, tasted really, really good to me - surely because of the hope and excitement I poured into it and pride I had in it. That said, I've also made some pretty awful things - no matter what feelings I was channeling at the moment - although in doing so, have good stories that my family still laugh about (ask my sister about the cinnamon bun that exploded the microwave sometime).

So yes, homemade, lovingly made and proudly displayed cake can be very tasty. It's even better when the cake is really, really amazingly delicious. Definitely a testament to Ms. Bernbaum here on the cake itself - such delicate crumb, velvety texture - something I admit to not always achieving with every cake I make. She broke down the basics to make a fool-proof, fabulous cake. It's a bold move to title one's cookbook the "Cake Bible" but Bernbaum does it credit!

Raspberry Chocolate Cake

Cake (from Bernbaum's Cake Bible)

1/2 c + 3 Tbs dutch process cocoa

1 c boiling water

3 large eggs

2 1/4 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 + 2 Tbs sifted cake flour

1 1/2 c sugar

1 Tbs baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 c unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 9 x 1 1/2 inch round pans and line with wax or parchment paper (also greased). Wisk together cocoa and boiling water, cool to lukewarm. In another bowl, lightly combine eggs, vanilla, 1/4 of cocoa mixture. In large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Add butter and remaining cocoa mixture. Mix on low until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape down sides. Gradually add egg mixture in 3 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addtion. Scrape batter into pans, bake for 25-35 minutes - until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Filling

approx. 3/4 c raspberry jam ( I used a combo of black and red raspberry jam)

1/4-1/2c frozen raspberries, thawed and drained

dash (to taste) of raspberry rum (we had on hand) although framboise liquer would be lovely

Frosting

basic vanilla buttercream

powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, milk

Finishing Touches

solid milk chocolate, warmed in hand then shaved. pressed lightly to sides of cake with wooden spoon

Cupcakes - Vegan and Delicious (not an oxymoron)

Despite eating every day, I think many of us hardly think twice about our relationship with food. So much goes into every bite we take. From seed to plant to produce, from source to table, from ingredients to heaping dishes, from nourishment to comfort - our relationship with food is anything but simple. I've found that how you feel about and deal with food says a lot about where you are - and who you are.

Is food just about filling a void? Cramming something down your gullet because it's time to eat- you're running late and just need something to get you to lunchtime? Or is food about nourishment - not only nutritional, but emotional as well? The truth, realistically for most of us is something in between. We are busy people. We are on budgets. We have precious little time as it is, and frequently even less energy to do much with it.

When I think about the meals of my childhood, I don't think about the protein to complex carbohydrates ratio, or the proportion of my plate covered in vege, but I remember time spent with my family. Those precious few moments in an otherwise chaotic blur of sports practice, homework, school, friends, rehearsals and girl scouts - my family always made time to sit down and eat a meal together. Be it 20 minutes of morning oatmeal or 30 minutes of spaghetti, I remember those times because they filled me with something more than just food. They filled me with a special kind of nourishment, body and soul, that did more to get me through the days than old-fashioned oats ever could on their own.

I had the great pleasure of attending Molly Wizenburg of orangette's book signing when she was in DC this week. One of the things she said that I found profound despite seemingly obvious, is that food has a story. I've been trying more and more to really think about the stories around the food I make and eat. Giving full justice to the full experience of food - source to belly and beyond.

Appreciating our imperfect relationship with food - perfection never makes for great stories, now does it? - I turn to this particularly scrumptious, yet relatively healthy and animal-product free chocolate cake. I made it as cupcakes and couldn't get enough of them. Best, of course, when shared with those you love whenever your chaos-filled life allows ;)





Chocolate Cake with Chocolate 'Butter Cream'
from npr

Makes 12 cupcakes or one 9-inch cake

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (can use a mix of wheat and white flours)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease one 9-inch cake pan or line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add the oil, vanilla, vinegar and water. Whisk together until smooth.

Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool before frosting.

For the butter cream:

4 ounces unsweetened (or bittersweet) chocolate, chopped
3 cups confectioners' sugar
8 Tbs shortening (I use non-hydrogenated), room temperature
2 to 3 tablespoons almond milk, plus more, if needed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat chocolate in a double boiler until melted. Let cool to room temperature. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the confectioners' sugar, margarine, milk, vanilla and salt, and beat on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes, then reduce the speed to low. Add the chocolate and beat until combined, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 1 minute more.

If the frosting is dry, add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it is creamy but still holds peaks.