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Mar 12

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Mohnkuchen, Austrian poppy seed cake

Everyone’s getting a little excitable around here. A few days of above-freezing temperatures has turned a collective just-this-side-of-desperate sense of downtrodden winter defeat into a somewhat crazy-eyed and suspicious exuberance. Folks know full well that these conditions won’t last forever and seem to be steeling themselves for the emotional roller coaster otherwise known as spring, but it’s the first sign that things will get better, and that’s notable. I’m mentally making lists upon lists of the things I will cook when the outdoor market returns and the selection at the grocery looks a little more lively, and I’ve never felt the inspirations of seasonality as much as I do living in the Midwest in late winter.

Mohnkuchen_slice

There’s something about this poppyseed cake that makes me think of spring. Perhaps it’s that our love of this cake is deeply rooted in our love of Austria, and both times we’ve gone to Austria it’s been on that cusp of late spring/early summer, both times over our wedding anniversary, both times when we’ve desperately needed a little refreshing. It’s one of the more rustic Austrian desserts and we saw it most often on the menus of Heurigen, the wine taverns that are so central to the Austrian sense of Gemütlichkeit.Versions differ slightly from place to place – some have streusel toppings and a shortbread base (the more German-style Mohnkuchen) or some sort of glaze or frosting. But all feature a base of poppy seeds ground into a texture similar to wet soil, nearly paste-like and colored midnight blue. Where in the United States poppy seeds are generally included in a recipe for appearance or texture or a slight flavor addition, in this cake the poppy seeds are the appearance, the texture, and the flavor. The cake is intoxicatingly dark in hue and flavored intensely of poppy seeds – nutty and slightly floral. The texture is toothsome, but with only the hint of the crunch you normally get with whole poppy seeds. It’s unlike any traditional American dessert I’ve had, and has become one of our absolute favorites to make.

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Mar 10

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Weekend Links, March 10

Window_daffodils

Spring inside.

At the end of this week we’re headed to Southern California for the first time in almost a year (!), so there may not be Weekend Links the next two weeks … I’ll be far too busy eating my way across the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

We brewed a batch of hard cider this winter but it turned out a little dry for my tastes … hoping this cider shandy recipe might be a good way to revive it.

It took me a bit of time to appreciate bitter cocktail ingredients like Campari and Aperol. Not there yet? This guide to appreciating bitter cocktails will help. (And once you’re there – or while you’re on the way – here are three of my favorites: negroni, Frühling’s 19,  sparkling wine with bitter orange.)

We recently added an AeroPress to our arsenal of coffee/espresso devices, and I’m loving it. If you too have AeroPress fever, here’s an interesting overview on the guy behind it (also the guy behind the Aerobie frisbee, strangely enough).

Which cocktails do you find overrated? (I have to say, I definitely agree with the Moscow Mule sentiment …)

Meal plan:

  • Quiche with leeks, bacon, swiss chard, and Emmentaler and whole wheat crust (my basic pie crust recipe using whole wheat pastry flour instead – requires at least 8 hours of resting before rolling out)
  • Massaman curry with tofu, potatoes, and carrots
  • Grilled cheese and cream of tomato soup
  • Pasta with thawed frozen pesto, plus red peppers, mushrooms, and any other random vegetables we have floating around the kitchen (there’s always some)
  • Breakfasts: Brett’s bran muffins, slow-cooker oats with fruit and spices (a variation of this)
  • Lunches: Leftovers and more kale/lentil salad, this time with toasted coconut and currants
  • Desserts: Mohnkuchen (poppyseed torte – hopefully recipe posted sometime this week)

Mar 4

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Cardamom Old Fashioneds, adjusting old favorites

I had a lot of grand plans to write a post tonight about how I develop and test cocktail recipes. I was going to talk about ratios of ingredients and categorizing types of drinks and where to get inspiration and all sorts of other helpful tips and guidelines. But it’s been a surprisingly long week, especially considering it’s only Tuesday evening, and I’m ready to head on into the relaxation part of the evening. Apologies.

Cardamom_OF_2

I will say this, though – flavoring simple syrups is one of the easiest and most adaptable ways to play with cocktails, and it’s a method I rely on a lot when I’m thinking about new flavor combinations. The inspiration for this one came from a drink we made in Chicago last weekend, visiting a friend who is experimenting with making homemade bitters. (Hi, Todd!) After dinner on Friday we explored a bit with his bottles and jars of extracts and put together a drink resembling an Old Fashioned with rye, cardamom extract, bitters, and a bit of sugar. The combination of cardamom and rye was smooth, sweet, and warming, a completely natural extension of the flavors in both, and I knew I’d want to continue playing around with the idea when we came home. Read more

Mar 3

Weekend Links, March 3

Pear_galette

Double-crust pear galette, last week

A good overview of the proposed tweaks to nutrition labeling. A good start, though there’s still a lot of work left to be done.

I will never order a small pizza ever again.

Perfect timing – you can make some homemade ricotta and then use it in this sandwich, which has been haunting my food daydreams this week.

Also perfect timing, after I spent some time in my class last week telling my students why I don’t use pepper as a default in the same way I do salt, three articles exploring that very thought (1, 2, 3). “Why, too, do so many recipes invite us to season ‘with salt and freshly ground black pepper’ upon completion? Why isn’t it salt and cumin, or salt and coriander, with every dish in the Western canon? What’s so special about pepper anyway? Perhaps it’s time to rethink the spice.”

I haven’t quite jumped on the drinking vinegar/shrub bandwagon, but I will definitely try this new brand coming out of Madison and this shrub-inspired cocktail with grapefruit juice and apple cider vinegar looks really, really good.

Why do we accept the “pseudoscience” of health foods?

I wish I knew more about the nature of the restaurants on Yelp’s recently-released “Top 100 Places to Eat” list, which compiles the 100 restaurants across the country with top reviews. Looks like quite a range, and I wish I knew more about the patterns among them – good service? good food? good ambiance?

I should do a post like this one sometime soon. What are the things I always buy? I’ve been meaning to do a “Stocking the Pantry” post for a while, in the same vein.

A couple of great tips for inventing new cocktail recipes.

Speaking of which, we often start with our favorite cocktail recipes and make adjustments. Here’s an overview of some interesting Manhattan variations (granted, some are a little fancy for a home bar).

This week’s meal plan:

  • Wild rice gratin with kale, caramelized onions, and mushrooms, topped with poached eggs
  • Baked macaroni and cheese with peas, roasted onions, and bread crumbs
  • Eggs poached in thawed lentil-sweet potato stew, plus thawed Tartine-style bread with spent grains
  • Breakfasts: more overnight steelcut oats in jars, yet again (I’m thinking maybe toasted coconut and nutmeg this week?)
  • Lunches: A second round of adapting this salad, which was absolutely wonderful last week alongside bread with butter or crackers with cheese
  • Desserts: Either whole wheat trail mix cookies or my favorite oatmeal-maple cookies. Or both.
  • Drinks: I’m really excited to try out that grapefruit-vinegar cocktail I linked to above, and I’d like to play with a cardamom old-fashioned after having something like that at a friend’s house on Saturday

Feb 27

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It’s the little things – homemade ricotta

I’ve been working lately on developing more intention in what I’m doing. I know that sounds a bit trite, and I’ve also been working lately on being less trite, but it’s true nonetheless. One of the many oxymoronic elements of my personality is that I both love and loathe routine – I love having a pattern and structure to my life, but without frequent change I become bored and irritable. When I can’t make those changes I feel entrenched, and that frustration makes it difficult to see an end-game for why I’m doing what I’m doing. These are the times I buy clothes I end up not liking after the first time I wear them, or when I lose periods of time to flailing around on the internet, or when I begin to display needless signs of defeat (“This will never work,” I’ve been known to say about … oh, anything).

And while adapting to winter life has generally been pretty easy, a fog of this helpless frustration has gradually mounted along with the cold and snow and length of the season. So I’m trying to make decisions more slowly, with a little more clarity and a lot more patience, and as is usual I can see the effect this has on what I’m choosing to cook and eat.

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