Jacqueline Church . com :: The Leather District Gourmet

Tuesday, 09 February 2010 02:46

Margarita Olive Oil Bundt Cake

I used to have a job at a wine shop/liquor store in college. The owner was known, when offered grapes to say "I don't take my wine in pill form." He was a character who delighted in chomping on old cigars, I swear, just to irritate his wife. They had a daily routine: Nick would stroll casually up and down the aisles chomping and puffing. He'd take just as long as it took for Pearl to notice. Out would come the Glade, Pearl would be exasperated (as if she'd never seen him do this and had no way to expect it).There goes Pearl, spraying furiously, armed with air freshener flailing, trying to eliminate the odor chasing Nick to the back. "You're stinking up the store!" Nick would crack the smallest of grins. Just like the day before, she took the bait.

This cake might be seen as a "Margarita in cake form." Wonder how Nick would like it.

I had some Pasolivo Lime Oil that I’ve enjoyed different ways, try it in guacamole or drizzled on fish en papillote. I also had some Tequila bought for Superbowl Sunday (yes, I left some in the bottle) which reminded me that lime and tequila might be a nice combination in this cake. I give you:

Margarita Olive Oil Bundt Cake

(adopted Food & Wine Magazine) The original recipe used Pasolivo's Citrus olive oil.

5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar (combination of raw sugar and about 1-2 TBSP lemon-lime simple syrup)
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1 cup Pasolivo Citrus olive oil (subbed 1/4 C Pasolivo lime olive oil, 1/4 bergamot olive oil; 1/2 C first cold-pressed organic olive oil)
2 cups cake flour (out of cake flour, oops. I used substitution of 2 cups All Purpose flour. Replace 6 TBSP flour with 6 TBSP cornstarch)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 325° and butter and flour a 10-cup bundt pan. In a bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar and orange zest at medium-high speed until smooth.
(If you sub AP flour/cornstarch for cake flour, separate the eggs and beat the whites to lighten the batter. Keep the frothy egg whites separate and incorporate after the olive oil has been incorporated.)
Gradually beat in the olive oil until creamy, about 2 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk the cake flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating on medium speed between additions.   Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven for about 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a rack.

Let the cake cool completely before cutting into slices and serving.   The olive oil cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Tequila Simple Syrup
Mixed simple syrup, Herradura Tequila, agave syrup. Warmed to combine.
As cake is cooling in pan, poke all over with a skewer and drizzle Tequila syrup. Then when you flip cake onto cake plate, poke again on the top and drizzle remaining Tequila syrup.

Dust with confectioners sugar.

Can you see the places where I poked this with a skewer?

Remember the Jello Cakes that were all the rage in the 70's? I remember these large sheet cakes with neon jello streaks...you?

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Open Sky and Scales

Wednesday, 03 February 2010 18:25

Baking again

For baking especially, scales are really said to be invaluable. Sadly, I would be able to tell you...

When I wrote Weighing In on Kitchen Scales I was just gearing up for another dive into the world of baking. Just today I saw this post on Ruhlman today: Your Kitchen Needs a Scale. Yes, Michael, Yes it does.

Learned about Open Sky on Michael's blog. I have entered the contest to get the scale he uses and recommends for $1.99! Because I really want to win and am a little cranky, I'm not giving a link to that contest here. You'll just have to follow the breadrcrumbs...

What do you have to say about Open Sky?

Anyone have an experience with Open Sky they'd care to share? I like the concept and have applied to be a shopkeeper. Curious to know about what I think is a fairly new thing, I like their values and they really aim for transparency and authenticity it seems.

No-Knead Sourdough on the rise. This is going to go into the oven in a couple of hours, a cold oven set to 450 degrees. If it fails, I'm going to blame it on the lack of a proper scale.

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Pies on the Brain, of the Heart

Monday, 01 February 2010 19:33

So I just finished this post, New and Improved Perfect Pie Crust, and Rebekah Denn of Seattle a Twitter pal, shared a couple of links with me. One is just so beautifully written from Art of the Pie, Changes, just made my heart swell.

Swelling and Kvelling: Kvelling is that feeling of extraordinary pride, perfect Yiddish word. It's what I was doing when I saw this Vimeo clip teaser for Kim O'Donnel's upcoming Licking Your Chops.

Licking Your Chops / Teaser from LuuvuH on Vimeo.

Read, bake, love.

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Dumplings, Dumplings, Dumplings and other Asian Food Finds

Sunday, 31 January 2010 00:00

It started with the arrival of Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings cookbook and the arrival of Pat Tanumihardja's Asian Grandmother's cookbook.

Here you'll find a mostly pictoral post, with descriptions of these fine books and my maiden voyage to H Mart, as well as pictures of my first attempts at making gyoza skins from scratch. Making dumplings is sort of like having sex: it's not hard to do, but to do it well, is another matter. Either way, it's delicious and fun so don't be intimidated, try some homemade dumplings.

First, the books. Read my review here: Asian Cookbook Explosion is a Boon to Home Cooks.

Andrea's got a wonderful website Asian Dumplings, including many video clips and how to pictures.

Pat's website includes many recipes not in the book, along with recipes like these Sardine Puffs which are Sustainable, too!

Then my husband announced his birthday wish: "Dumplings, at least 39, one for each year, or as many as I can eat." And, I have the Oishinbo Ramen and Gyoza edition on loan from the Passionate Foodie's lending library (my friend Rich, AKA the Passionate Foodie is generous about loaning books that he knows I'd enjoy. He's introduced me to many great books, three on my nightstand right now!) Read about Rich's Saké class here, Saké Wins Over Some New Fans.

Still, reading and doing are not the same, as the Chinese say: talk does not cook the rice.

When the Kotobukiya Japanese grocery store closed in Porter Square, many of the essential ingredients were hard to find. Later the new H Mart in Burlington opened. A plan came into focus. So the quest began. Could we find the ingredients we needed? Could we make proper gyoza? It was time to try!

You will have noticed that the Oishinbo book is entitled: Ramen and Gyoza. Both are Chinese in origin and beloved by Japanese as well as many of the rest of the world. Just today as I was finishing the edits on the Suite101 book review post, I saw this article in the New York Times, One Noodle at a Time. As the excellent glossary notes, Ramen and Gyoza are often served together. Reading this article will make you hungry for a big bowl of ramen. I need to make it to Ken's Ramen in the Super88 Food Court.

Remember you can buy books I review from my Powell's Bookshelf! Click on the Icon below to go browse and buy!

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With a lover or a good-looking enemy

Thursday, 28 January 2010 18:41

Arkansas Black Apples

I had an organic one today and it was crisp and had a really complicated flavor. Some tart, very sweet, and a honey-wine richness. So good. Good to eat on a crisp fall day with a lover or a good looking enemy.

In his hundreds of miles of driving for work the other day, Doc stopped in and poked around Bolton Orchards. We loved their cider this past Fall and also their blackberry jam (both house-made).

These apples are fantastic. This tart-sweet, firm apple dates back to the 1870s and is a great cold storage apple. Ripening late (in November) it possesses a crisp flesh, even after two months of storage. It's also a tart apple, which I adore. The Arkansas Black Apple has a deep, almost purplish red skin (hence "black") and is thought to be a variety of Winesap, developed by a Mr. Brathwaite.

This apple makes for great eating (good-looking enemy, or not) and I'd think also hold well for baking. Try them in Mrs. Fisher's Apple Torte - simple apple cake your kids can bake with you.