the fish

Dad picked up 5 filets of tilapia fish from Whole Foods, and was thinking about making parchment paper fish with lemons. I told him that it works very well with halibut, but tilapia cooks extremely fast…and I wanted something sweet and spicy. He did some googling and we eventually landed on a quick and simple recipe.

For 5-6 filets (rinsed in cold water and patted semi-dry), just mix 1 c (minus 1 Tbs) of brown sugar, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp cumin, 2 pinches of salt and 2 pinches of garlic powder. Coat filets with it, put into a buttered dish (greased, to be precise) and bake at 375º F for 12-15 minutes or until it falls apart easily when a fork tries to pry a filet apart (should be white inside).

the chicken

Chicken is so awesome. My mom saw Tyler Florence cook this recipe on tv while she was at the gym and decided to make it. It turned out very good, but she should have let the crust sit on the chicken for 40 minutes before she baked it so the crust stayed on tighter. We also didn’t have enough panko, so we mixed whatever we had left with some crushed crackers.

the cake

This cake was pretty rockstar. If you remember the brand of cake flour I used for the angel food cake, on the back of the box was a recipe for ‘Moist Chocolate Cake’. *We made 1/2 the recommended recipe because we wanted to see how it would turn out…and we wanted a thinner cake since we were doing an upside-down twist. Below are the measurements we used (aside from the upsidedown-ness, you could double all the measurements for a normal chocolate cake):

*update*

I’d recommend using a chilled bowl and chilled whisks (in freezer for at least 30 minutes) so that the fat in the cream doesn’t melt on you when it’s being whipped. Since you are basically incorporating air into the cream and making the bubbles infinitesimally small, the fat globules will stick together unless they melt first :-(. If you were to keep whipping it, you would end up with butter. On a random sidenote, I want to try whipping heavy cream with salt and some spices to make fresh butter…probably won’t taste very good since all the milk you get here is pasteurized first. Oh well.

I also made a batch for the flan I made. It was mmm tasty.

Read on young padawan and when you make the inevitable journey to the sky, hopefully by that time angel’s food won’t be a surprise to you — ambrosia is another story.

Normally, I put videos at the end of the post, but because Alton’s episode analyzing the ins and outs of angel food cake is so absolutely fantastic, I recommend that you watch it before reading the rest of this post.

Hmmm, so there are a few important tips to remember when making this cake. Below, I’ve outlined what I ended up doing in the recipe.

comparisons to other cakes

chiffon cake

Uses vegetable oil instead of butter in traditional cake recipes, so shelf life is longer and cake is moister. For this reason it is used in most shelf-products (Hostess, etc.). The wiki is pretty good.

devil’s food cake

This is a cake in between a traditional chocolate cake and angel food cake. It is much airier than standard chocolate cakes and uses cocoa as opposed to melted chocolate. The wiki entry does justice to the cake.

red velvet cake

If you see the devil’s food cake wiki entry, you will see that the original red tint came from non-alkalized (non “Dutch Processed”) cocoa powder reacting with baking soda. These days since alkalized cocoa powder is more prevalent, people add red food coloring to achieve the redness.

references and other media

sites

1. the wiki
2. alton’s recipe
3. google images

pics

I went to bed after watching Four Christmases with the family (in case you were thinking of seeing it…don’t) and drinking a considerable amount of wine following the Beef Bourguignon.  The next morning, I awoke to a surprise. You guessed it — crêpes!  Biggest secret is you don’t need a crêpe pan!  Any shallow, non-stick will do.  Read on if you want to build up an appetite.

history

Right from Acadie’s website, crêpes started out in the northwest of France (near the English Channel in a region called Brittany) and were originally made from buckwheat, not white flour, because buckwheat was cheaper and easier to grow.  Because of the texture and flavor of the buckwheat, they were originally savoury crêpes, but when farmers became wealthier and experimented using white flour and sugar, desert crêpes were invented.  Nowadays, crêpes are made all over France and are becoming increasingly popular outside of France with some fantastic crêperies sprouting up everywhere.  As far as applications go, here are a few awesome ideas.

basic crêpe recipe

• 1 cup flour (sifted)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs melted butter (can brown for nuttiness)

Blend all the ingredients for 30 seconds and then let sit (crucial step to making uniform and thin crêpes; 20m-1h) to let air bubbles out. Use nonstick pan (shallower the better) over medium-high heat and butter it. First crêpe will most likely fail, but after that the pan should be correctly lubed for the rest of the batch. It’s important to pour the batter (approx. 1/4 cup per crêpe) on one side and then to swirl the batter around the pan. It’s also better to pour too little batter rather than too much (ensures thinner crêpes; if you pour too little just add some in the non-covered spot). Let the ‘public’-side (as Julia calls the side that is presented) brown nicely and then flip — about 2 minutes to brown, or until the edges start to brown and curl away from the pan’s surface. It should be flippable with your hand, but some use a very thin spatula.

You’ll also notice when professionals make them in crêperies, they use a large flat iron griddle and use a wooden “T” to ensure the uniformity of the thickness of each crêpe after the batter is ladled down.

sweet crêpe ideas

• *batter changes*: adding vanilla/cinnamon/honey/powdered sugar; half and half instead of milk; cake flour for fluffy ones? i don’t know; orange zest or other extracts/oils; juice/water mix instead of just water; flavored liquers
• banana, chocolate (Nutella or likewise), whipped cream, nuts (hazelnuts if using Nutella)
• berries (macerated in small amt of acidic juice — orange/lemon/lime/etc. — and sugar), cream
• cobbler (peach/apple) with syrup and nuts, cream
• ice cream with walnut syrup and/or honey
• layered cake: layer some filling between crêpes to make cake and bake –> slice –> eat

savory crêpe ideas

• *batter changes*: fresh herbs; stock/water mix instead of just water; wheat flour; browning butter or use heartier fat like lard/butter mix?
• duxelles (this is too good) — it’s an onion/mushroom paste (see good eats video at end of post)
• bbq meat – chicken, pulled pork, roast beef / pot roast
• glazed fish with veggies? – almost seems a waste to hide it, but it would taste good
• fruit + cheese + nuts – (as I did, with pears and Brillat-Savarin cheese from whole foods)
• layered cake: layer some filling between crêpes to make cake and bake –> slice –> eat

references and other media

sites

1. Menu - Acadie’s – CA
2. Menu – Flip Happy – TX
3. Menu - Simply Crêpes – NY
4. Menu - The Crêpe Cafe
5. basic crêpe receipe
6. crêpes images on google
7. crêpes images on deviantart
8. crêpe wiki

pics (some of crêpes and some of france i just really liked)

vids

good eats Рs5e3 Рcr̻pe expectations

*update*

Made another batch a week ago and added some corriander leaves and red chili powder to the batter. We also made a modified duxelles by sweating onions and mushrooms (standard), then added some garlic and zucchini and finally a good helping of manchego cheese. We had some avocados lying around so I thinly sliced them and put them down before the duxelles mixture and added a heart of romaine and a line of hot sauce. It was awesome. We also used the same batter (savory batter + sweet filling is fun) to make desert crêpes filled with banana, blackberries, walnuts, almond butter, whipped cream and maple syrup. ooh-de-lally.