Cooking With Hanzipan

I’ve had a craving for lavender lately. Not only is allrecipes.com a veritable wasteland when it comes to the flower so are all of the other cooking blogs I cruise through. After a bit of digging I found a Lavender Tea Bread on allrecipes and after a little pondering I decided to make it into cupcakes and, with a little lemon zest, the idea started to make my mouth water. These turned out so puffy, soft and smelled so good! I can’t get enough of them. The flowers were a little disconcerting in the dough, but by the time everything had baked I didn’t notice them anymore, they’re just pretty purple specks.

Lavender Tea Bread Recipe

Via: allrecipes.com (My alterations will be in the parenthesis)

Makes 12 cupcakes or one 5 x 9 loaf.

• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lavender (I used dried flowers with the same results)
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs (I used one very very large local egg, equivalent to two from a regular store)
• (zest from 1 lemon)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. (Grease muffin tins for 12 cupcakes or one 5 x 9 inch pan).
2. Combine the milk and lavender in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat to a simmer, then remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg until the mixture is light and fluffy. (Add zest) Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the milk and lavender until just blended. Pour into pan (or cupcake tins until 2/3 full).
   
4. Bake for 50 minutes in pan or 25 minutes in cupcake tins in the preheated oven, or until a wooden pick inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.
   

Alex and Casey came over for a little dinner party with Ben and I so the three of us(Ben was on the phone with his mamarama so Alex, Casey, and I cooked) made Pad Thai. I found the recipe by googling “Pad Thai recipe” and came up with one from Alton Brown(you may know him from his Food Network show or from Iron Chef). The recipe can be found here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pad-thai-recipe/index.html

And I’ll copy and paste for convenience

• Yield 2 servings

Ingredients

• 1-ounce tamarind paste
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 4 ounces rice stick noodles
• 6 ounces Marinated Tofu, recipe follows
• 1 to 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 cup chopped scallions, divided
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 whole eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons salted cabbage
• 1 tablespoon dried shrimp
• 3 ounces bean sprouts, divided
• 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped, divided
• Freshly ground dried red chile peppers, to taste
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions

Place the tamarind paste in the boiling water and set aside while preparing the other ingredients.

Combine the fish sauce, palm sugar, and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl and set aside.

Place the rice stick noodles in a mixing bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients. Once the other ingredients are measured out into separate bowls, drain the water from the noodles and set them aside. Cut the tofu into 1/2-inch wide strips, similar to French fries.

Press the tamarind paste through a fine mesh strainer and add to the sauce. Stir to combine.

Place a wok over high heat. Once hot, add 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil. Heat until it shimmers, then add the tofu. Cook the tofu until golden brown, moving constantly, for no longer than 1 minute. Remove the tofu from the pan to a small bowl and set aside.

If necessary, add some more peanut oil to the pan and heat until shimmering. Add 2/3 of the scallions and then the garlic, cook for 10 to 15 seconds. Add the eggs to the pan; once the eggs begin to set up, about 15 to 20 seconds, stir to scramble. Add the remaining ingredients in the following order and toss after each addition: noodles, sauce, cabbage, shrimp, and 2/3 of the bean sprouts and peanuts. Toss everything until heated through, but no longer than 1 to 2 minutes total. Transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with the remaining scallions, bean sprouts, and peanuts. Serve immediately with the ground chile peppers and lime wedges.

*Notes: I doubled the recipe for the four of us and it was perfect; I used sushi rice vinegar which has a little bit of sugar in it, didn’t affect the flavor that I could tell; I did not marinate the tofu but it was still delicious; I used tamarind concentrate that came in a plastic jar and was liquidy, but followed the instructions anyway since I assumed it needs to be diluted; for “palm sugar” i just used organic evaporated cane juice(aka granulated sugar); and I used some crushed red pepper flakes and a bunch of Sriracha sauce for the spice.

Enjoy!

So. I spotted this 1/2 gallon of homogenized whole milk at Twelve Mile the other day and thought “Ah hah!” and immediately started dreaming of homemade ice cream and butter. It wasn’t until after I got it home that I realized ice cream and butter want heavy cream + whole milk. Darn. The milk was threatening to expire while I spotted this cheese recipe on Little House in the Suburbs (which is a great little blog to peruse through). It sounded good, easy and it was guaranteed to take this expired milk off of my hands and out of the fridge.

The cheese turned out…. well…. it’s cheese. I added salt and some agave to it to give it some sweetness. Dad described it as those little crumbles in cottage cheese without any of the liquid. That’s pretty accurate. I think that it even takes away some of the moisture in your mouth when you eat it it’s that dry. Oh well… live and learn, right? It was totally worth it for the experience.

After I added the vinegar and it was a-curddalin’. The dry cheese ball now resting peacefully in the fridge. I wonder if it would be good melted?

1/2 Gallon Whole Milk (Goat or Cow)
1/4 cup white vinegar or 1/4 cup Lemon juice
Salt to taste

1. Put milk into stainless steel pot and heat over medium until between 190 and 200 degrees.

2. Slowly stir in vinegar or lemon. Remove from heat and allow to curdle and cool until it’s not too hot to touch.

3. Pour cheese into cloth lined bowl. Pull together the 4 corners of cloth and twist around a spoon. Hang dripping cheese for a few hours.

4. Salt to taste and check consistency. I like a fairly hard cheese, so I hang it in the fridge overnight. That’s about the max.

5. Untie, (add any garlic or herbs or more salt, if you like) place in airtight container, and chill. Depending on how long you hung it, it should be about 12-16 oz of cheese.

Mummy and I picked up some semolina flour yesterday and then decided to make some pasta from scratch. I can remember her hanging pasta between the backs of two chairs when I was little… ah the good old days. These noodles are thick, chewy and a pretty buttery yellow color when they’re all done. They would work really well in a soup (I’m thinking chicken noodle soup… mmmm… without the chicken, that is. Oh how I miss chicken noodle soup.) or old school with a bit of pasta sauce. If you have a pasta machine, great! Crank it to about 6 and roll away! If you’re doing it by hand, make them as thin as possible, they’ll still be chewier than you think when they’re done cooking.

Twelve Mile Noodles

This recipe makes a lot of pasta (a few pounds of ravioli or enough noodles for about seven people) so make a half batch or refrigerate it if you’re not planning on feeding an army.

3 c. Semolina Flour

1 c. All purpose flour

2/3 c. water

3 eggs

2 T. oil

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients and combine thoroughly (I find that making a little well in the center of the dry ingredients and then pouring the liquid into the center and slowly combining the two, working my way from the center outwards works well if you’re hand mixing).

Make a large ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Let it rest for an hour, or refrigerate overnight (if you refrigerate, let it rest and warm up to room temperature for at least an hour before you roll it out).

After an hour, divide into six sections. Roll out each section as thin as you can into a long, narrow rectangle. Thoroughly dust with semolina and then, roll the dough up, beginning on a narrow side so that you have a narrow, thick roll (like a cinnamon roll).

Carefully slice the dough into 1/8 inch sections. Unroll each slice and hang to dry for about 30 minutes. Toss into boiling water for four minutes or refrigerate for up to three days or so (once it’s completely dry). Makes enough for about seven hearty servings of pasta.