Month: July 2020

Orange Semolina Cake

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ 1 Comment

All over the Middle East you will find recipes for semolina cakes. This Orange Semolina Cake is exceptionally moist and the perfect end to a well-spiced meal. The recipe is from Paul Hollywood’s visit to Nicosia,Cyprus on his show City Bakes. As with most semolina cakes, this one is soaked with a delicious sugar syrup. But unlike other semolina cakes that I have eaten, the ingredients call for mastic.

My only familiarity with mastic is as chewing gum, so I was skeptical at first. But I have come to trust Paul Hollywood. He has the joie de vivre and puckishness of Julia Child and is fastidious in his baking. So if he said to use mastic…. Apparently, it is not uncommon in Greek and Cypriot cooking. Also known as the “Tears of Chios,” which sounds much more poetic than “gum,” it is a tree resin with a unique, refreshing flavor. While I am willing to adapt recipes to my own tastes and preferences, when I can, I try respecting the traditions and cultures that I am mimicking as long as they don’t conflict with mine. This Cypriot Shamali cake (known as Basbousa in other parts of the Middle East) is an example.

If you don’t wish to purchase mastic (mine came from Amazon) the cake should still be delicious without it, although you might want to increase the amount of orange zest. The flavor of the mastic was quite subtle and not like anything I could easily identify. It was definitely there, however, and quite nice. And since travel seems unlikely anytime in the near future, I was willing to spring for this (for me) unusual ingredient. As an armchair traveler, it seemed a relatively cheap investment.

Because semolina cakes are soaked in syrup, they hold up well and are even better the next day when everything has melded. You need to pour the syrup over the cake while the cake is hot from the oven. This will help the cake absorb all of the delicious orange-scented syrup. And you don’t want to miss a drop. It will seem like an enormous amount of syrup, but don’t get scared off. The cake will absorb all of it. And surprisingly, for all of the sugar, the cake is not extremely sweet.

The measurements are as I found them. I own a small, relatively inexpensive kitchen scale and have learned that conversions from weight to measures is not always accurate. No matter how you pack your measuring cup, however, 200 grams will always be 200 grams.

This cake is lovely and easy to make. Try it soon. You won’t be disappointed.

For other delicious semolina cake recipes:

Lemon Semolina Almond Cake

Basbousa (Semolina, Coconut and Pistachio Cake

Recipe

Yield: 8 very generous servings

Ingredients

For the cake

190g caster (granulated) sugar

400g semolina flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp mastic, crushed to a powder

Zest of a large orange (I used a navel)

170g natural yoghurt

2 medium eggs (I used large eggs and it was fine)

120ml sunflower or Canola oil

For the syrup

250g caster (granulated) sugar

300ml water

Juice of an orange

Garnish

25g chopped raw pistachio nuts

Directions

1. Line the base of a 20 cm. spring form cake tin (I used an 8-inch spring form tin which is just slightly larger) with baking parchment. There is no need to grease the tin.

2. Heat your oven to 190°C/Gas Mark 5. (375 degrees F.) Place all the cake ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth thick mixture. You could use a mixer if you like. Transfer the batter into the prepared tin, smooth the top to level. Bake for about 40 minutes until the cake is risen and when a skewer is inserted it comes out clean.

3. To make the syrup heat the sugar, water and orange juice. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer for 3 minutes.

4. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack on top of a pan with sides (to catch the drips.) Score the cake into 8 serving pieces. Pour over the hot syrup. It will look as if the cake is drowning but almost all of the syrup will be absorbed within 10 minutes. Once most of the syrup has been absorbed, scatter the chopped pistachio nuts over the top. Leave to cool completely before serving.

Red Miso Ginger Salmon

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

Red Miso Ginger Salmon is flavorful and delicious grilled or broiled. I admit that I have gotten away from eating fish. First, it’s very expensive in the Midwest unless you are buying lake fish. And secondly I don’t own a grill and making fish in the apartment usually means that I am stuck with that smell for a couple of days.

Atlantic salmon was actually a favorite food growing up. My mother would always get salmon steaks and we kids would fight over the crispy skin that surrounded the flesh. And then somehow I grew away from it. But I was watching Tiffani Thiessen the other night and she made a Red Miso salmon on the grill that looked so beautiful, I decided to give it one more try. And I’m really glad that I did. Mine was cooked under the broiler and had the addition of fresh ginger. Unfortunately cedar planks were unavailable at my store, but we never missed it. So don’t fret if you don’t have it either

This Red Miso Ginger Salmon couldn’t have been easier to prepare and the final product was delicious and a treat for the eyes as well. I served it with an Israeli Couscous salad with roasted vegetables and feta cheese along with Moroccan Beet Salad and homemade hummus and a riff on a Jerusalem salad. This was a perfect summer Shabbat dinner.

For other delicious salmon recipes try:

Salmon in Chermoula with Couscous

Salmon in Bengali Mustard Sauce

Roasted Salmon with Kimchi

Light Salmon Salad

Recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup honey or Agave syrup

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 

2 tablespoons red miso 

2 tablespoons soy sauce 

5 large cloves garlic, grated 

About 1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger

2 pounds skinless salmon fillet, rinsed and patted dry (Mine actually had the skin on.)

Directions

Heat the oven to broil with a heavy-duty pan inside. (For less mess, line the pan with foil. If you do not have a broiler, heat the oven to 425 degrees F. For grilling instructions, check out the original recipe.)

Combine the honey, lime juice, miso, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a small bowl or measuring cup. Mix well.

Lightly oil the pan or foil and place the salmon on top. Spoon enough sauce over the top to cover well. Reserve some sauce to spoon on just before serving.

Cook according to your oven instructions (door open partially or door closed). How long you cook the fish will depend on how thick it is and how rare you like it. I do not like rare fish but I like it to just flake easily. Mine took 15 minutes and was about 1-inch thick. Just keep an eye on it.

Moravian Coffee Cake

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ 1 Comment

If you are looking for the ultimate coffee cake look no further. This Moravian Coffee Cake is moist, fragrant, sweet and utterly scrumptious.

Today I have a guest blogger – my husband and partner of 36+ years. For most of those years Andrew never did ANY cooking or baking. Now that we are retired, he has taken up the measuring spoon and rolling pin! And I am the proud and happy beneficiary of his efforts. This Moravian Coffee Cake is one such very, very delicious example. So while this blog is called Lisa and Frances Cook, I’m thinking of changing the name to Lisa and Andrew Cook!

Hi! I’m Andrew, Lisa’s spouse, and I’m writing today about how I baked a Moravian Coffee Cake. Gosh, that’s such an unlikely sentence! Let’s put aside for now how it was that I finally started to learn how to bake after all these years, and start our story on page 124 of James Beard’s Beard on Bread, where he presents a recipe for Moravian Coffee Cake. It sounds really good, and it yields two loaves, baked in 9 x 5 x 3-inch bread pans. The addition of mashed potatoes makes a uniquely moist cake that holds up beautifully.

But…

Lisa and I have been enjoying the Great British Baking Show: Masterclass. One night we were watching how Paul Hollywood made an apricot couronne and I thought, wouldn’t it be great to make a coffee cake that looked like that? So I tried it and got a large ring, a bit flattened, but it tasted great!

But…

Wouldn’t it be even better if we added some nuts? And if it was baked in a tube pan?

Here’s the result!

For other lovely coffee cake recipes:

Italian Walnut and Raisin Coffee Cake

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Apricot Almond Cake

Lisa’s Vegan “Honey” Cake

Gateau Breton – French Shortbread Cake

Recipe

Yield: 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

    4 to 4½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

    2 packages active dry yeast (or 4½ tsp)

    ½ cup lukewarm tap water

    ½ cup granulated sugar

    1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter

    ½ teaspoon kosher salt

    2 large eggs

    ½ cup mashed potatoes (I used a Yukon Gold potato cooked in the microwave)

    1 cup somewhat finely chopped walnuts

    ½ cup dark brown sugar (Light brown sugar is fine too.)

    2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

    ½ cup melted butter

   Confectioner’s sugar icing (Optional – but highly recommended! – see below)

Directions

Put ½ cup warm water in a mixing bowl, then add 2 tsp of the granulated sugar, whoosh it around, then add the yeast. Let the yeast proof for 8 to 10 minutes.

Then stir in 2 cups of the flour, the rest of the granulated sugar, the butter and the salt. Beat until smooth, either 300 strokes by hand OR use a dough hook and stand mixer on low for a few minutes.

Blend in the eggs and mashed potatoes, then add 1 cup flour and beat 150 strokes by hand OR a minute on low in the mixer with a dough hook. Stir in more flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Either turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand, or run it on low in the stand mixer until the dough is smooth and satiny, about 8 to 10 minutes. Shape it into a ball and place in a lightly buttered bowl, turning to butter all sides. Cover and let rise in a room temperature, draft-free place until doubled, about 1½ hours.

Punch the dough down, divide in half, and let rest 10 minutes. Mix together the nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon.

Roll out each portion of dough into a roughly 13 x 10 in. rectangle. Brush with melted butter, then sprinkle each rectangle with about one third of the nut mixture.

With the long edge facing you, roll the dough up tightly into a log.

Repeat for the other portion. Butter the inside of a 10 to 12 cup tube pan with straight sides and a removable bottom. Scatter some of the remaining nut mixture on the bottom. Place one of the rolls into the pan, starting at the center and spiraling outwards. Brush with some melted butter and sprinkle on some nut mixture. Place the second roll in the pan on top of the first roll, starting at the center and spiraling outward in the opposite direction. Brush with some melted butter and sprinkle with the remaining nut mixture.

Let rise, covered with a cloth at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 45 minutes. If the top seems to be browning too quickly, lightly cover it with some foil and continue baking until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake sounds a bit hollow when tapped with a wooden spoon. Cool in pan five minutes. Remove from pan. When the cake is completely cooled, you can ice it.

Confectioner’s Sugar Icing

2 tbsp milk or water

a pinch salt

1 cup (and a bit) confectioner’s sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Put milk and vanilla in bowl. Add 1 cup confectioner’s sugar. Whisk until smooth. The icing should be thick enough to not completely run off the cake, but thin enough to drizzle and cascade down the sides a bit. Add a bit more sugar if too thin or a bit more liquid if too thick. Drizzle over the top and let it run down the sides. It’s best to do this over parchment or waxed paper so that you don’t make a mess. Let your inner Jackson Pollack out! Allow the icing to set before cutting. To store, wrap the cake up well or place under a cake dome. This can also be frozen.

——————-

Q. and A.

Q. Why roll out the dough into two tubes? Can’t I just roll it out into one?

A. Sure. I did the dough in two portions because they’d be easier for me to handle.

Q. Do I have to put the dough into the tube pan in alternating spirals?

A. Nope. You can put it in any way you want. Mine turned out to look like a fossil nautilus shell, but I didn’t know that when I started.

Q. Andrew, would it be OK to not use the tube pan? I want to use this dough to make a couronne like Paul Hollywood did.

A. Absolutely, go for it.

Creamy Roasted Mushroom Cauliflower Soup

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

This earth-toned Creamy Roasted Mushroom Cauliflower Soup tastes rich and decadent without the guilt! The flavor is earthy and full of umami. The texture is silky smooth and dissolves on your tongue.

I was coming to the end of my two weeks worth of produce and was trying to come up with something for dinner. I still had a cauliflower and 3 largish Portobello mushrooms to use up. Not yet sure what I was going to make, I decided to roast them and thought I would figure it out later.

The roasted veggies smelled soooooo good that I thought why not combine them into a creamy soup. The result was even better than I had imagined and it would be irresponsible not to share it with you. While I did use chicken stock and a little butter, this could easily be made vegan. Just swap them out for a quality vegetable stock and either buttery vegan sticks or a bit more EVOO.

This Creamy Roasted Mushroom Cauliflower Soup makes a wonderful first course or a dinner when accompanied by a salad and some good bread. This is good enough for a special dinner, but easy enough to make on a weeknight, especially if you roast the veggies the day before.

The speckled earth-tones of this Creamy Roasted Mushroom Cauliflower Soup is my idea of beauty. However, if it isn’t yours, just close your eyes, take a spoonful and be prepared to be moved. It’s THAT good.

For other delicious creamy vegan soups try:

Watercress, Spinach & Chickpea Soup

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Recipe

Yield: 3 to 4 servings, as a dinner

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds) cut into small florets

3 large Portobello mushroom caps, whole or cut into thick strips

1 medium red onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock, preferably unsalted

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter or vegan buttery substitute

Kosher or sea salt and flavored pepper like Mrs. Dash

EVOO plus more for drizzling (use garlic, basil or lemon flavored if you have it)

Optional Garnish Ideas

Toasted walnuts

Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, chives or oregano

Croutons

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. and raise the rack to the second from the top. You want the vegetables to be 6 to 8 inches from the top of the oven.

Liberally drizzle a baking sheet with EVOO (Just regular good quality EVOO). Toss the cauliflower and mushrooms in the oil. Liberally sprinkle with salt and the flavored pepper. Make sure that the veggies are in a single layer on the pan. Roast for about 30 minutes and then turn the veggies over and continue roasting for 10 more minutes. These can be made a day ahead and refrigerated if you like.

In a 5 quart pot, warm 1 Tablespoon of EVOO over medium high heat. Add the onion and 1 teaspoon of salt or to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the onion is softened. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds more.

Once the veggies are roasted, add them to the onions in the pot along with the stock and butter. Bring to a boil, partially cover the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes.

Allow the mixture to cool down to simply warm. While you can use an immersion blender (And I do love them!) you will get a smoother texture if you use a standing blender. Place the mixture in the blender and blend on low until smooth. Do not try to do this with very hot soup or you will have a mess on your hands!

Garnish and serve. Prepare to be delighted!