Mango Summer Rolls

This recipe is basically just an assembly of fresh ingredients and can be customized as much as you want to incorporate your favorite flavors. This is my version, adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance, incorporating the ingredients I had on hand. I recently saw Giada De Laurentiis do a fruit spring roll that looks quite delicious, so really, the sky's the limit.

Mango Summer Rolls

Ingredients

• Rice paper wrappers, softened in hot water
• 1 mango, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
• 1 cup sprouts or delicate greens (I used pea shoots)
• 4 oz saifun bean threads, softened (or rice noodles)
• Cilantro, mint, coconut, ground peanuts, etc (optional)

Method

1. In the lower portion of the rice paper wrappers, place a few tablespoons of noodles, any optional ingredients, 5 slices of mango, and sprouts.
2. Tuck the sides of the paper in and begin rolling. Keep covered with a damp cloth, chilled, until ready to eat.
3. Serve with dipping sauce.

Summer Roll Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp shiracha hot sauce, or to taste
• 1 tsp soy sauce, or to taste
• 1 garlic clove, pressed/minced
• 1 1/2 tsp super-fine sugar

Method

1. In a small bowl, mix all ingredients until combined. If necessary, microwave for a few seconds to dissolve the sugar.
2. Serve chilled.

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Chai Tea Concentrate

This stuff is handy to have around at home if you're a chai tea fan. The final chai tea product is much more flavorful than anything you'd buy prepackaged at the grocery store or buy at the corner coffee shop.

Chai Tea Concentrate

Ingredients

• 10 thin slices of ginger
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 10 cardamom seeds (from about 2 pods)
• 5 cloves, or 1/2 tsp
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cup sugar, honey, agave, etc. to taste

Method

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a full boil, and then simmer over very low heat for 20 minutes.
2. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.
3. To serve, blend about two parts chai tea concentrate to one part warm or steamed milk, to taste.

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Momofuku's Compost Cookies

I was intrigued when I saw David Lebovitz post about them...really, Bugels in cookies?! But honestly, the picture for Momofuku's Compost Cookies had me at "hello"; slightly puffy, golden brown, and crackly on top, one look and you know they've got to be incredible. Or a master of disguise. Luckily, my rendition is quite fabulous if you ask me. For my add-in ingredients I used the following:

Baking ingredients:
chocolate chips
white chocolate chunks

Snack ingedients:
chocolate covered Pocky
chocolate/goo filled Easter eggs
cheddar sesame sticks
salt and pepper potato chips (thown in just to say "I did it!")

I also made the full sized, 6oz cookies which bake up to the size of a salad plate and are HUGE. Will I be making these cookies again? Probably, but with a different twist. I'm thinking Midwest style monster cookies :)

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Eggnog French Toast

Lost and forgotten in the depths of the archives, I just found this recipe which I never got around to posting. Not overly fitting to be posting a recipe with eggnog in the middle of the summer, but perhaps it'll get you thinking ahead...? Here's to hoping :)

This recipe came about during a post dinner dessert hunt. With eggnog and maple syrup in the refrigerator and a loaf of crusty bread going unused on the counter, why not make some french toast? I cut the bread into little rounds using a biscuit cutter and garnished with chocolate chips.

Eggnog French Toast

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp eggnog
• 1 tbsp dark rum
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 egg
  Crusty bread, sliced

Method

1. Preheat a skillet over medium heat.
2. In a bowl, whisk all ingredients until thoroughly combined.
3. When skillet is hot, dip bread slices into egg batter until coated, and cook for 3-4 minutes per side or until golden brown.

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an unintentional hiatus

I've been meaning to post something in the past two months, I promise. I'd like to think that things got crazy, but really I got lazy. I've got a growing stack of recipes, but my latest cooking expedition is what really got me on here. If you read the 101 Cookbooks blog, no doubt you saw these chocolate puddle cookies inspired by Nuvrei bakery in Portland's Pearl District.

I just made a half batch of them...and wow. I can't tell if the cookies are overly sweet or not. It's honestly hard to tell. The outside has a slight crunch and inside is a delicious, chocolatey cookie studded with walnuts. A bit rich on their own, pair them with a glass of milk and you'll go back for at least one more. I know I did.

The cookies are really easy to make, though you might not have all the ingredients on hand (who has three cups of walnuts or a pound of powdered sugar laying around?), but I think its worth planning for. And the best part? This is the first cookie recipe I've made in a while that came out perfectly in the first batch! I'll definitely be making these again :)

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Basic Vegan Muffins

I recently found a great vegan blog that has a ton of baked goods. I'm not vegan, nor do I intend to become vegan anytime soon, but I do like the idea of cutting out some animal products. And hey, if it tastes good, why not?!

I made these brownies this weekend, though I admit, not vegan. Using margarine sounds kind of gross, so I instead used butter. The pumpkin gives them a nice fudginess that I love, though there is a slightly strange taste that goes along with it.

My other recipe is for vegan muffins and really, they are just as good as "normal" muffins.

Basic Vegan Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 3 medium apples, peeled and shredded
• 1- 1/4 cups oat milk
• ¼ cup oil
• 1 citrus fruit (lemon or orange), zested and juiced
• ½ cup dried fruits
• ½ cup walnuts, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two muffin tins (I used one regular and one mini).
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, combine shredded carrot, shredded apple and milk and mix until well-combined. Add oil, citrus zest and juice.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in two batches until just combined. Fold in dried fruit and chopped walnuts.
4. Fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
5. Turn out onto a rack to fully cool.

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The Key to Good Cookies...

I've inadvertently "tested" it myself dozens of times. It's a hard lesson to learn and adapt to, and it'll vary depending on the recipe--the texture/moisture, recommended oven temperature, baking sheet used, etc.

What am I talking about? Not over-baking your cookies!

Someone brought in cookies to work this morning and of course I grabbed one. I'm partial to my own cookies above a lot of others, but these were delicious. The secret? They were perfectly baked, still nice and moist in the middle.

My advice is to watch those cookies closely, as there is a very fine line between perfect and overcooked. Martha Stewart advises to cook until golden around the edges but still soft in the middle, leave on the sheet for a couple minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

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tea in portland

For a cute little shop, filled with tea accessories from tea pots to infusers to mugs and beyond, as well as a large menu of looseleaf teas, Tea Zone and Camellia Lounge is amazing. They have teas from around the world and plus they'll give you delicious samples! I had some vanilla rooibos; now I'm not normally a rooibos fan, but this was good stuff.

They also have a lounge in back which looks pretty cool.

Check it out!

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Kabocha Muffins

Kabocha = Japanese pumpkin

It's one of my favorite Japanese dishes: delicious, tender, sweet pumpkin simmered in dashi stock with some sugar and perhaps some soy thrown in. I always had big portions of the stuff at "home" in Japan. And let's not forget the oh so delicious tempura fried variety over a bowl of rice. Kabocha is still my favorite part in ten-don and I will gladly trade it for my shrimp. Yum.

I found some kabocha seeds at a local Japanese grocery store, planted them, and now have several pumpkins to consume. So far I've gone through one (as they are supposed to "ripen" for a few months after harvesting) and tried a few recipes.

You can find kabocha at your local grocery store in the fall. If it's not available, you can substitute any kind of cooked fall squash with equally tasty results.

Kabocha Muffins

Ingredients

• 55g butter, softened
• 55g brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 180g kabocha, cooked and mashed
• 110g buttermilk
• 110g whole wheat pastry flour
• 15g baking powder

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease a muffin tin and set aside.
2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add in the egg and pumpkin and stir until combined. Stir in the buttermilk.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder, then fold into the wet ingredients until just blended.
4. Scoop batter into muffin tin about 2/3 of the way up. Bake for 17 minutes until golden and cooked through.
5. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

Makes 12 muffins.

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chocolate covered marshmallows

Another post about David Lebovitz...I think I mentioned his marshmallows last winter as well. If you've never had homemade marshmallows, you seriously need to try them. They are so much better than those rubbery store bought ones (though those little guys toast up very nicely), and a breeze to make in an afternoon.

For an added twist, I did some chocolate covered marshmallows as well this year! My first attempt at tempering chocolate wasn't a total disaster, though I admit it wasn't a total success either. Tempering chocolate is a pretty exact science, here are some resources:

Cooking for Engineers
David Lebovitz (of course)

Once I tempered my chocolate, I dunked the marshmallows in a few at a time until well coated, then put them on a rack to fully dry. These sure make a nice gift!

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