The white corn cake that Fer from the Brazilian blog chucrute com salsicha made the other day caught my eye because she uses an ingredient of which I have plenty in my pantry: harina de maiz nixtamalizada, or Mexican corn flour. It’s been sitting around since Steven prepared delicious vegetarian tamales awaiting the next tamale cook-off because we didn’t know what else to make with it.

Brazilian style corn cake with Mexican nixtamalized corn flour

Fer is based here in Northern California. She shares the same trouble I do when it comes to buying corn flour for Brazilian dishes. In the US it is ground too coarsely. So she resorted to the Mexican corn flour which has a similar texture to the Brazilian. I think that’s wonderfully creative in-and-of-itself and has given me loads of new ideas already.

I’ve wanted to test this flour for some time but never got around to doing it. I guess was afraid that the way the corn was processed, nixtamalization, would impart a different flavor to the cake. Well, that was completely wrong. Thanks for debunking that myth, Fernanda!

I basically followed her recipe except that I used pastry flour in the combo corn-wheat flour. This made the cake extra fluffy. It came out deliciously corny, not too sweet and super moist.

Brazilian style corn cake with Mexican nixtamalized corn flour

key ingredients for Brazilian style corn cake with Mexican nixtamalized corn flour

1½ cups harina de maiz nixtamalizada (Mexican corn flour)
2½ cups whole milk
2 cups pastry flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup canola oil
¾ tsp fennel seeds

Pre heat oven to 400F.

Grease a large baking pan with canola oil and set aside.

Put corn flour in a large bowl, add milk and whisk together to combine. Let this mix sit for about 5-10 minutes. Add eggs and mix it again to combine. Blend in pastry flour, salt, sugar, fennel seeds and baking powder.

Transfer mixture to prepared baking pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Serve with a nice cup of black coffee.

Things with custardy fillings, textures and flavors taste like heaven to me. I love Portuguese custard pies, crème brûlée, flan, English bread pudding and of course, any decant cream-soaked French toast. A toast to French toast, I say!

decadent French toast

Last Friday I went to the new La Boulange bakery that has just opened nearby my office in the Financial District of San Francisco. My co-workers Caroline and Megan wanted to taste their popular open faced smoked salmon sandwich and soup for lunch. It looked delicious, like everything else on the menu. The pastries seemed amazingly crispy and browned to perfection. While waiting in line, I couldn’t take my eyes off of this shinny, glossy, sesame seed-covered, braided brioche (challah). It was begging to come home with me. What can I say? I’m irresistible.
I used the brioche for this marvelous breakfast the next morning.

key ingredients for decadent French toast. Mmm, that brioche loaf looks good!

decadent French toast

1 challah/brioche loaf cut into thick slices (about 6 to 8 )
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup half and half
½ tsp Kosher salt
3 tbsp sugar
~ 1 tsp canola oil
powdered sugar

Add eggs, sugar and salt to a bowl and whisk until incorporated. Add half and half and whisk again to combine. Soak bread slices on both sides for about ½ minute each. Allow bread slices to soak up liquid to almost completely saturate them with the cream mixture. Don’t let them break apart though, as it will ruin the presentation.

Meanwhile heat up a skillet with ½ tsp of canola oil, add as many slices as your skillet accommodates and fry them for about 3-4 minutes, flipping them half way. Be careful not to burn or under cook. Transfer to a serving platter, repeat with remaining. Dust powdered sugar over and serve. We had ours with some blueberries, butter, maple syrup and a nice big cuppa strong coffee.

frying the cream soaked brioche

dig in!

cranberry sour cream upside-down cake

I found this wonderful recipe for cranberry upside-down cake on Moveable Feasts, a great foodie blog that we’ve been following and enjoying for a while. Right now, Barbara, with a group of other blogger friends, is in the middle of this really engaging series called “Gourmet’s 50 Women Game Changers in Food,” where she’ll post a biographical sketch of one famous woman chef/entrepreneur at a time with one of her recipes which she prepares as part of the story. It is truly amazing to learn about these talented folk and all the interesting ways that they’ve made food their passion and life. Follow this link for the recent story about Nancy Silverton from La Brea Bakery, among other places.

Anyway, back to the cranberry cake. I’ve been on the hunt lately for an appropriately Thanksgiving-ish dessert that seems original. I’m not too into chocolate (I know, it is a real flaw) and I’ve already been asked to prepare classic pecan pie, so another pie’s out. So what could be better than a cake with cranberries?

In her post, Barbara warns about the caramel spilling out of the dish while baking. I used a deep 10-inch glass baking dish and placed mine on top of a baking sheet covered with foil to catch any spillage. There was a bit though really not much at all. Because my dish was larger in diameter, I needed more cranberries to cover it. Also, her recipe specifically calls for “unsulphured molasses,” but I’m not sure what that is. I had some date molasses at home already, so used that instead. Otherwise, the recipe is essentially the same.

The cake had a dense almost poundcake texture that was really complimented by the sour sweetness of the cranberries, caramel and sour cream. It makes a wonderful dessert and is excellent for breakfast, too. This yummy treat is well on its way to becoming a holiday classic in my home.

cranberry sour cream upside-down cake

2½ cups fresh cranberries
2/3 cup light brown sugar
12 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp date molasses
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream

Pre-heat oven to 375F. Thoroughly grease baking dish with butter. Then cover base of dish with wax paper cut to size.

In a small pan, add 4 tablespoons melted butter, brown sugar, molasses, and ¼ cup water. Bring to boil, mix then pour into base of prepared cake dish.

Next fill base of cake dish with cranberries, making sure to lay them evenly and cover caramel sauce as much as possible.

Sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat eggs together with sour cream. Add remaining butter to egg mixture and combine. Add flour mix to egg mix and beat until smooth.

Gently cover batter over cranberries. Bake 50 to 60 minutes. Test for doneness with a clean toothpick. Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes. Then run a small knife around the edge of the cake and gently invert into a serving dish.

This is not something that I’ve ever tried before: deep frying apple rings in a corn flour batter. I read about it in the New York Times Magazine recently. The article had a dozen recipes for apples. Of course, I was only drawn to the deep-fried section Aside from this one, they recommended a way of making tempura-style apple rings, which sounded great but looked more complex; plus the more widely-known apple fritter.

batter fried apple rings

This dish calls for corn meal, but I didn’t have that, so I used corn flour instead. I made this for breakie, though I think that it could be a fun sweet-treat, especially served à la mode with vanilla ice-cream. If you’re feeling particularly frisky, then add hot fudge or caramel sauce and some whipped cream. Now that sounds good!

batter fried apple rings

2 medium apples—I used Granny Smith
½ cup flour
½ cup corn meal or flour
1 cup buttermilk
1/8 tsp cayenne
Canola oil to fry with

Peel and core apples. Cut into about quarter inch thick rings. Soak in the buttermilk.

Mix dry ingredients together. Toss apples into flour mixture. Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Let drain on paper towels. Serve warm.

Our next-door neighbor, Ann, keeps bringing us fresh produce from her country home, and we like it. Thanks for your amazing generosity Ann! This summer we were regaled many times with ultra fresh tomatoes, basil, bok choy, sweet corn, lemons, eggplants, oranges, and pears: all delicious and organically produced, and all consumed with gusto.

rustic pear tart

We had a huge bag of pears, so I decided to bake something with them. I wanted something easy because it was mid-week and I didn’t want to spend the evening in the kitchen. While checking my google reader I spotted the perfect recipe: Torta Rústica de Pêra from my blogger friend, Fernanda. Her recipes are incredible; so are her writing, blog design and pictures! Congrats Fer and happy birthday to you!

This tart is extremely simple to make because the puffy pastry dough is store bought. I have used this same kind in a very successful savory tart before. It works perfectly every time. The only problem with this tart, if it truly is a problem, is that once you start you can’t stop eating it.

rustic pear tart ready for the oven

rustic pear tart

8 organic pears
1 container Duflour puff pastry (2 sheets), defrosted
½ container apricot preserves, I used Bonne Maman
1/3 cup water
Egg wash (1 egg plus 1 tbsp water beaten)
1-2 tbsp brown sugar
Few drops of lemon juice

Pre heat oven to 350F.

Lay parchment paper on two large baking trays.

Dust the surface of your counter top with flour. Stretch each puffy pastry, giving it a rough rectangular shape. Place them on paper lined trays.

Add water and apricot jam to a saucepan, stir and warm until it becomes runny. Remove from heat

Remove tops, bottoms and core pears, cut into thin half moon shaped slices. I did not peel mine, to add to the rusticity. Brush puff pastry with egg wash. Arrange pears over pastry, slightly overlapping one another. Squeeze few drops of lemon over pear slices. Brush with melted apricot jam. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Watch it for the last 10 minutes to prevent burning.

This recipe comes from Culinaria Spain, that grand book with the vibrant yellow cover. Do you know it? We often enjoyed tortilla espanõl on our long-ago visit to that marvelous country. Until the other day, I’d never made the dish.

potato omelet with zucchini blossoms

The Culinaria gives a standard recipe then suggests that various toppings that can be used to modify it. There isn’t one for zucchini blossom. But ours were so lovely and because I really made a mess of stuffing them before, I thought that I’d use them like spinach as in tortilla de espinacas. And since this is still America, I sprinkled ours with some cheese at the end for good measure. No ketchup, though, so I guess that we’re learning.

As you might have guessed, this has a very delicate flavor that is quite nice. It sort of reminded us of a butter-free version of pommes Anna.

soaking my zucchini blossoms

potato omelet with zucchini blossoms

2/3 cup olive oil
2 ½ lbs potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
6 eggs
2 tsp salt or to taste
1 bunch zucchini blossoms
shredded cheese (optional)

Add ½ cup olive oil to skillet with 1 tsp salt on high heat. Add sliced potatoes and sauté for about 15 to 20 minutes until tender.

Meanwhile beat together eggs and remaining 1 tsp salt until foamy.
Remove potatoes from heat, drain any remaining oil and set aside. Gently fold potatoes into eggs. Let rest.

Trim flowers to remove any large stems and the inner stamens and pistils. Sauté in same pan with a touch of salt. Remove from heat and set aside once they have wilted.

Heat remaining oil in pan then pour potato egg mixture back into skillet on low heat. Cover with sautéed zucchini blossoms. Let cook for a few minutes. Then using a large dish, carefully flip the omelet over and cook on the opposite side. Once ready, flip into a serving dish, blossom side up. Sprinkle with cheese.

Whenever Hegui and I travel to Brazil, one of my favorite desserts to enjoy there is “Romeo e Julieta,” which consists of a small plate with a piece of very white, salty and mild cheese and either a small scoop or slice of red guava preserves. The colors are always dramatic: pure white and deep red. I’m fascinated by the taste and the name: Romeo and Juliet? I’ve asked many times which is which? Is the white cheese Romeo and the red guava Juliet or vice versa? Nobody seems to know the answer.

Romeo and Juliet croissants

In preparation for this story, I’ve been reflecting more on the colors of the two filling ingredients. To me, the whiteness of the cheese implies purity, cleanliness, simple joy, innocence, naivety, and surrender; the deep red, passion, lust, love, anger, and blood. Really then, the Brazilian dessert might be about the relationship between Romeo and Juliet, which as almost everyone knows was full of innocent love, blood lust, passion, surrender, naivety and all the rest.

When I think of these star-crossed lovers, I’m reminded of that amazing modernized film version of the Shakespeare play directed by Baz Luhrmann, Romeo + Juliet. Have you seen it? It’s the one with Claire Danes as Juliet and Leonard DiCaprio as Romeo. The filming is visually stunning. I especially love the famous part where Romeo climbs to Juliet’s balcony at night. In the film version, they fall into a breathtaking Southern California-style swimming pool in their party costumes as they hide from detection by the Capulet guards and Juliet’s Nurse. I’ll never forget it. Here’s the link on U-tube if you haven’t seen it.

ROMEO
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
It is my lady. O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold…

JULIET
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

This was my inspiration for today’s friendly cooking challenge: Julia Child’s croissants. Actually, this time I suggested making croissants for the challenge, but my dearest Heavenly was the force behind the organization of the delightful event. If you haven’t already, check the links below to see how the other participants’ creations turned out.

Heavenly from donuts to delirium
Vanessa from Sweet Artichoke
Anna from Keep it Luce
Joumana from Taste of Beirut
Glamorous Glutton
Jamie’s Girl
Christina from Thyme to be Loved
Erika Beth from Life’s too Short to Skip Dessert
Faith from An Edible Mosaic

Sadly, I have to admit that I had some trouble with this recipe. I followed Mamaliga’s instructions and her really helpful photos demonstrating the various moves as well as I could. I made some accidental alternations to Ms. Child’s original recipe. I forgot to buy milk, for one, so I used soy milk instead. And trying to be really cool and P.C., I got an extremely overpriced tiny bag of organic pastry flour to make my 2:1 ratio of pastry to all purpose flour mix, only to realize when I got home that the pastry flour was whole wheat. I’m not sure but I think that that made a difference.

my two bags of flour with the printed instructions and illustrations for Julia Child's croissants

adding the butter to the leavened dough

I even used a ruler to measure the dough, just like was recommended.

To make these “Romeo and Juliet” croissants, I filled each with about a teaspoon full of guava butter (from my local Brazilian market) and mascarpone cheese (the traditional salty dessert cheese from Brazil doesn’t really melt that well) before rolling them into their final shapes and letting them undergo their last rise. That’s my only addition to this straightforward yet challenging recipe.

As you might have guessed, making these takes forever. You have to let the dough rise; then add butter, fold and rest; then fold and rest again; then shape and rise again, then bake. The French must be very patient people. But the taste, divine! My god, these little messes were really, really, really good. And I don’t write that very often at all. These were good!

my guava and mascarpone

the final rise

I’m not going to recreate the recipe here, since in all other respects I followed it as precisely as I could. And really, Mamaliga’s pics in the kitchen are way better than mine ever could be. I had a lot of trouble at the end forming the final bits of dough into the correct triangular designs to roll smoothly into similarly shaped croissants. Plus I was a bit rushed, as our dinner guests where about to arrive. Instead, I fear that mine looked a bit like malnourished newborn puppies, all wiggling around in a basket.

I will make these again, eventually, perhaps when I’ve hours and hours of unstructured time on my hands. But for now, I’ll just daydream.

tasty, and fun to play with, too

Steven has been making this buttermilk pancake recipe for as long as we’ve known each other. I like it so much that at the beginning I would insist that he make double batches! It was our weekend ritual. He cooked the pancakes and I would set up the table, brew the coffee and make fresh orange juice. Then we would sit, eat and be happy! Now, of course, with the problems inherent in getting older, elevated cholesterol and weight control, they’re reserved more for special treats, like when we have out-of-town guests.

buttermilk pancakes with caramelized banana and walnuts

Last week was one of these special occasions. Steven prepared a double batch for our niece, Juliana, and our friend, Chris. Juliana was here visiting from Northern Virginia and Chris slept over after we stayed up really late playing Hearts and chatting over glasses of red wine. (See what I mean? Two batches easily fed four people!)

I suggested a twist to the basic pancake recipe this time. Why not add the extra ripe bananas that are lying around with some walnuts? Banana nut pancakes remind me of our friend, Lúcia. She served us something similar once when we visited her and her family while they lived in an enormous house on Long Island.

The bananas are simply peeled and sliced without mashing. You put them in the pancake after your pour the batter into the skillet. When you flip, the exposed banana develops a lovely caramelized flavor and browns a bit. You should try them one day soon as they’re divine!

buttermilk pancakes with caramelized banana and walnuts

1 cup flour
2 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1½ cups low fat buttermilk
1 tbs. vegetable oil with some extra to grease the pans
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
~½ walnut halves

In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together and set aside (not bananas and walnuts). In another bowl beat the egg then mix in the wet ingredients. Pour wet into dry ingredients and beat by hand until just mixed and smooth. The batter will have some lumps. That’s ok. If it’s too thick, add a bit more buttermilk. I like it somewhere in the middle between very thick and runny. That way it spreads easily but doesn’t get too thin, like a crepe.

I use two or three non-stick frying pans to make the cooking faster. Grease your pans at the start of cooking with some vegetable oil or butter. Heat pans on high. When heated, add a ladle of batter and lower temperature to medium. Place two banana slices and two walnut halves into cooking pancake. Cook on one side for one to two minutes until bubbles begin to rise to surface of batter and you can maneuver a spatula under cake. Gently flip and cook other side for about the same. Flipping is a little tricky with the heavy fillings, so don’t be distressed if you make a mess. You’ll have to experiment with the cooking times and temperatures as you go. The pancakes should be a golden brown color and cooked through without burning.

Eat right away! You can freeze leftovers, if you have any, but they’re not the same.

enjoying buttermilk pancakes with caramelized banana and walnuts with black coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, maple syrup and lots of butter

I’ve been dreaming of this polenta cake with citrus glaze for months, ever since I stumbled across the recipe on the delightful blog, Journey of an Italian Cook. That was just around the time our kitchen remodel began so I’ve been putting off preparing it. Well, the wait is over and I can tell you, just as Claudia writes in her story, this cake is mesmerizing.

polenta cake with citrus glaze

Heguiberto is a real fan of any corn-cake and I love glazes, so this one truly is a match made in heaven.

I didn’t have any oranges as is called for in the original recipe (we’d just squeezed them all into juice). And I ended up using three Mexican limes, which are smaller than “conventional” ones. They were hard to zest, but worth it. I made about half the amount of glaze than was recommended. Claudia got me thinking that it was easy to overdo it. Also I didn’t use the spring form pan (I always struggle with those). Instead I tried a round glass baking dish which I lined with wax paper. The cake came out quite easily.

But unfortunately, it fell in the middle. This worried me a bit, especially after I applied the glaze and it pooled in the center excessively. Fortunately, the cake was fairly dry so absorbed it. I had missed the direction about sifting the powdered sugar for the glaze so mine was lumpy. To cover that I sifted more sugar over the whole thing before serving.

It was a huge success! My charming dinner guests didn’t even mind that the cake fell. To them it seems it felt more authentically homemade. What wonderful guests!

polenta cake with citrus glaze

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup instant polenta
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 lemon
3 Mexican limes
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup confectioner’s sugar (sifted)

Preheat oven to 325F.

Zest citrus.

Mix flour, polenta, baking powder, and salt together.

In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar together for about three or four minutes on medium high until they triple in volume. Mix in zest. In an alternating fashion, add dry mix then olive oil into beaten eggs. Blend until just moist.

Line baking dish with wax paper and pour batter into dish (about 9 inch round). Bake 30 to 40 minutes until slightly golden and surface of cake becomes firm. Remove from oven and allow to cool at least 15 minutes. Gently remove from baking dish and peel off paper.

Squeeze citrus into small bowl with confectioner’s sugar. Mix to combine. Pour glaze over cake. Dust with more sugar just before serving.

I fell in love with Angie’s recipe for rhubarb streusel cake as soon as I read it. Angie’s Recipes is an incredible blog. So often her dishes look amazing. This is the first one that I have attempted but I intend to try more soon.

my attempt at Angie's delicious rhubarb streusel cake

In hers, the ingredients were all by weight. I always find that intimidating in baking, so I measured things in grams, like she does, then converted them into volumes, as is more typical at my house. The master recipe calls for cinnamon in the streusel topping but since Hegui despises that, I left it out. I used fresh nutmeg, which I ground myself on the spot, so I didn’t actually measure it. Sorry!

The tart crust was very delicate. I was tempted to add more water but resisted. It cooked perfectly well but I struggled a bit at working with it and only really managed by using parchment paper to roll it out and used the paper in the dish rather than buttering it. There was no way mine would come off the paper uncooked.

We served this after another visit to our new favorite local restaurant, Pera, with our friends Chris and John.

remove the green leafy part from the rhubarb before use

Angie’s delicious rhubarb streusel cake

For crust:

1 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1 egg yolk
5 tbsp cold butter, diced
1 tbsp cold water

For filling:

1 lb (about 4 cups chopped) fresh rhubarb, cut into about ¼ inch pieces
½ cup ground ladyfingers
½ cup brown sugar

For streusel topping:

2/3 cup flour
1 cup almond slivers, ground
½ cup sugar
Fresh nutmeg to taste
10 tbsp cold butter, diced

To prepare crust:

Pre heat oven to 400F.

Mix all crust ingredients together in food processor on dough setting until small crumbs form. Shape into a ball (I couldn’t quite do this with mine so I pressed it into a bowl), cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for thirty minutes.

Remove from fridge and roll out between sheets of wax paper. Remove one side of paper and carefully place in 9 inch baking dish, remaining paper side down.

To prepare filling:

Pour ladyfinger crumbles in base of crust. Next fill with fresh rhubarb. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

To prepare streusel topping:

Mix all topping ingredients together in food processor on dough setting until fine crumbs form. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Sprinkle topping over filled tart.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven, let cool. Carefully remove from dish and serve with vanilla ice cream for dessert or with coffee for breakfast. Yummy!!!