Rainbow Cream Cheese Cupcakes

This is a simple cream cheese pound cake recipe with a little variation - the inside is multi-coloured. I was about to write this as being for the kids, but I sure enjoy a rainbow cake as much as any kid, and I'm nearly 30. The frosting is a simple buttercream with a couple drops of blue food coloring, but I left the decoration to the "kids" (read: the man of the house) so it tastes better than it looks in the picture. Buttercream frosting is easy to handle and keeps its shape, so this is not only easy to make, but interactive enough to be fun.


Ingredients:

3 sticks butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

3 cups sugar

6 eggs, at room temperature

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 1/2 tbsp vanilla

Confectioner's sugar

Three (or more) colors of food coloring.

 Directions:

1) In a large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy.

2) Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

3) Add flour a little at a time, beating until smooth. Add vanilla.

4) Separate batter into 5 small bowls, then add food coloring to each to make five colors. (I usually go the standard route – red, yellow, green, blue, purple.)

5) Prepare a cupcake pan, inserting cupcake papers into each of the muffin holes, and then use a spoon to ladle the batter carefully into each cup. Then, alternate colors by ladling different colors of batter on top of each other. The cups should be about 3/4 of the way full.

6) Bake in the oven at 180 Celsius for about 30 minutes or until you can stick in a toothpick and pull it out clean.

Tips:

* This method can be used for any kind of pound cake - if you want to make rainbow colored bundt cake, layer cake, etc just spoon the batter into the cake tin the same way you might have spooned it into the cups.

Goya Champuru Yakisoba

Guess what - we got GOYA! In case you don't know, goya is a bitter melon that looks like a bumpy cucumber and is indigenous to Asia. Right now in Tokyo, people are finding other ways to stay cool besides using the AC, so planting goya as a "green curtain" in front of your windows and veranda is all the rage. As a result, we have a surplus of goya everywhere, including our own garden.

The most famous dish using goya is an Okinawan one called "Goya Champuru," which I will show you how to make one of these days. This is a variation on this dish using yakisoba, which is a treat that Japanese eat during festivals around the country. It has a real feel of summer, the way watermelon and hot dogs do in America.

This dish uses a number of items that may only be available at an Asian foods market, but unless you've lived in Japan, I guarantee you've never had anything like it.

Ingredients:

2 mounds of yakisoba
1/2 goya, cut lengthwise
80g spam (yep, they love this stuff in Okinawa)
2 tbsp salad oil
2 tbsp chicken broth
60 cc water
2 eggs
2 tsp soy sauce

Directions:

1)  Cut the goya into thin slices to resemble half-moon shapes. Soak them in saltwater for 10 minutes.
2) Heat up the vegetable oil in the frying pan, and add the goya and the spam. Cook until the spam has just begun to darken.
3) Add the yakisoba noodles and the water, and stir fry, tossing gently until the water has evaporated. Add the chicken broth and mix.
4) Mix the eggs in a small bowl, then pour in the saucepan. Cook until eggs are gently hardened.
5) Add soy sauce, mix and serve.

Tips:
* Goya is very bitter, and when it is cooked it it usually soaked in salt water to remove some of the bitterness. This is done to taste - some people prefer it bitter and others prefer it cucumber sweet. After a few times eating it you should be able to judge how long you want to soak your goya.

Zucchini and Shrimp Capellini

My favorite pasta is capellini. When I was a kid I was unfortunately subject to some very bad pasta that was always thick and sticky, so for many years I did not like pasta. It was capellini (from a different source than the said thick and sticky) that freed me from the curse.

This quick and easy recipe was designed especially for summer, and goes perfectly with the light and fluffy capellini. It will not bog you down or having you feel hot tired and sticky as we so often do this time of year.

For the sauce:
6 deepwater prawns ("northern prawns", or "pink shrimp")
200 g tomato sauce
1/2 a small-medium sized eggplant
20 g celery (finely chopped)
20 g bulb onion (finely chopped)
20 g red pepper (finely chopped)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vinegar
1 head of garlic
Pinch of salt

Directions:
1) Start by cooking the olive oil and chopped garlic in a saucepan.
2) Add the shrimp when the garlic has been browned, and cook on low heat.
3) Add the onions and celery to the mixture and let them cook until soft.
4) Then add the remainder of the vegetables, and a little salt.
5) Add the tomato sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and cook for about 3 minutes until done. Be sure there is just a little extra moisture in the sauce for when you add the pasta.

Pasta: 
120 g capellini,
half a zucchini (cut lengthwise)

Directions:
1) Use a peeler to slice sheets off the zucchini.
2) Slice the sheets lengthwise into very thin strips, like pasta.
3) Boil the zucchini with the pasta (approx two minutes) until the pasta is slightly al dente
4) Quickly cool the pasta by dumping it in a sieve and running it under cold water.
5) Add the pasta to the sauce pan and mix it all up on low heat, tossing until the sauce has coated the noodles. Then, serve.

Tips:

* My recipe does not use a lot of sauce - you may want to double the recipe if you prefer extra sauce.
* By the way, up there the picture has been taken with the sauce set on top only to show you the contrast of the zucchini strips with the noodles. As all pasta lovers know, proper pasta is served with the sauce mixed in with the pasta - it doesn't make for a good picture but sure makes for a good mouthful! I gave the instructions above as adding the pasta to the sauce, but you serve it any way you wish.

Halva

Arabian recipe number two - one after the other, because I am on a kick and made them both on the same day (with a nice curry that Avanator will probably get around to before me!)

Halva is a kind of simple cake that goes well with tea and coffee and has a unique flaky texture you won't find anywhere else. There are many, many ways to make it - some households add nuts, beans and yams, others use tahini or special flour, others use honey. But just to start, if you never made it before, you'll need a simple recipe for your base. I'll leave the rest up to you from there!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup rosewater
3-4 threads of saffron (or about 1/2 teaspoon of the ground up variety)
340 grams of tahini (pre-beaten)

Directions:

1) Boil sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat.
2) Once sugar is dissolved, add saffron and rosewater. Remove from heat.
3) Add tahini and whisk carefully to fully integrate.
4) Next, spread it evenly on a platter. Add any decorations you would like on top at this time.
5) Cover and stick it in the fridge until it cools.
6) Serve by cutting it into wedges like fudge.

Tips:

* You can use a fork to make patterns in the top of the Halva for decorations before it cools, and they'll stay. You can also add decorative nuts and raisins on the top to your liking. Do all this after you pour the mixture into the platter and before you put it in the fridge.
* Rosewater can be bought at most specialty shops, but in case you can't find it, you can make it yourself. Just take a cup of fresh, clean rose petals (you can buy them from a flower shop if you need to),  pour two cups of boiling water on top, cover and steep until the water cools. Then use a strainer to remove the rose petals and squeeze them out, and voila, you have rose water left over.
* Remember that Lavender cheesecake I made for you guys last week? You can also easily use lavender in this recipe. But beware - lavender is like perfume. Don't add too much - a little goes a long way.

Hummus

I decided to post two easy middle-eastern recipes in order, because nothing beats the heat like food designed for people who know nothing but heat. Both recipes take less than 30 minutes and require little preparation.

This one is called Hummus, and is a great way to get kids to eat chick peas. I hated chick peas as a kid. But this is one way that beans don't taste like beans. You can use this as a dip for chips and crackers, for pita bread, raisin bread, vegetables, or (as a nice Turkish guy taught me) even to spread on kebob meat.

Ingredients:

2 cups canned chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
salt
black pepper
paprika and parsley for decoration

Directions:

1) Gently brown garlic over low heat, being careful not to burn.
2) Blend garlic, chickpeas, tahini, olive oil and lemon juice in a blender until the consistency is smooth like a milkshake.
3) Add water, salt and pepper to the blender until it tastes just right.
4) transfer it to a tupperware or a covered dish and leave in the fridge overnight. Though you can serve it right away, hummus always tastes best the next day.

Tips:

* Hummus is often served with a dash of olive oil on the top. Other garnishes include black olives, cayenne pepper, and pine nuts.
* This dip keeps very well, so you can easily refrigerate it for a week or so and pull it out for those times you have the munchies.
* In Palestine, the tahini is replaced with yoghurt. So if you find yourself without tahini one day, substitute plain yoghurt and you'll be fine.
* Hummus is useful in vegetarian and vegan diets, and has tons of vitamin C, iron and vitamin B6. Fat is also all non-saturated, so this stuff won't make you fat like some other dips might.

Basic Ice Cream

I love the Japanese word "kufu." It means to "alter" or to "improvise." The best examples of this come from the kitchen - you might have a recipe that calls for apples, but you only have cherries, so you make the same recipe using cherries instead!

One super-easy recipe that calls for this creativity is ice cream. What? You've never made ice cream before? Why - because you don't have an ice-cream maker? Well, neither do I, and neither did the rest of the kitchens of the world until about 30 years ago - and they still had ice cream.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
2 cups cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2-3 tablespoons of whatever you want to add to the ice cream

Suggestions:
* coffee (instant)
* vanilla (only need a teaspoon of this)
* lavender extract (remember how I told you how to make this?) or fresh lavender flowers
* chamomile or rose petals (fresh only!)
* instant cocoa
* cherries, strawberries, blueberries
* Mint
* Chocolate chips or M&Ms
* cinnamon (this too, only needs a teaspoon or so)

Directions:

1) Place a stainless steel bowl into the freezer. Make sure it is level.
2) Heat up the milk until scalding.
3) Add the cream and sugar.
4) Stir in whatever you want to add to the ice cream.
5) Carefully pour the mixture into the (now cool) steel bowl in the freezer. Close the freezer.
6) Leave for about 40 minutes, then go back to the freezer and whisk the mixture.
7) Whisk the mixture every 30-40 minutes until it is completely frozen. (Takes about 3-4 hours.)

And that's it! There are ice-creams that call for eggs, but this one is just a simple summer ice-cream, nothing fancy, and the easiest sweet in the world to "kufu."

Hungarian Eszterházy Torta (cake)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY To AVANATOR!!
(The other, more culinarily talented Californian sister who is posting on this yummy blog)

For today's birthday I have decided to make an Eszterházy Torta, another Victorian Era Hungarian delicacy of the layered variety. Although it looks at first glance similar to the Dobos, it is not - in fact it may be a little easier to make. It also happens to be my favourite of the two.

Ingredients (three part):

For the sponge layers:

* 5 egg whites
* 1 whole egg
* 210 grams of sugar
* 120 grams ground walnut
* 120 grams ground almond
* 50 grams flour
* 50 grams butter

For the cream filling:


* 4/5 cup milk
* 40 grams sugar
* 20 grams vanilla pudding powder (for cooking)
* 2 egg yolks
* 250 grams
* 1 cup of heavy cream
* 1 tbsp cognac
* 10 grams of gelatin
* 2/5 cup water

For the decoration:

* 80 grams sugar
* 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
* 10 grams melted cooking chocolate (black)
* 40 grams chopped almonds
* 3-4 tbsp apricot jam

Directions:

1) Beat the egg whites with the sugar until firm. All the ground walnut and almond, then slowly add the flour and finally the butter. The point is, you don't want to wreck your puffy egg whites, so add everything slowly.
2) Bake 1/6 of the batter in a round lightly buttered and floured baking tin (21 cm) at 180-200 degrees celcius for 3 minutes each. Watch them to make sure they do not burn. When they are done remove each layer and cool on pastry sheets.
3) While they cool, let's bake the filling. First, mix the pudding powder with the sugar, half of the milk, and the egg yolks.
4) Heat up the rest of the milk in a saucepan, then add the rest of the mixture to the saucepan. Once it has been heated, turn off the heat and let it cool.
5) While it cools, whip the heavy cream and set aside, and mix the gelatin with cold water and set aside.
6) Add the cognac to the (cooled down) filling from the saucepan, then gradually add the whipped cream and the gelatin.
7) Smear the filling on five of the six layers of cake, allowing the filling to run down the sides of the cake evenly.
8) Finally, we make the top frosting. First, add the sugar to about 3 tablespoons of water and boil for about two minutes in a small pan.  Take it off the stove and add lemon juice, then put the small pan in a larger pan full of cold water. Stir the mixture until the frosting turns white.
9) Spread a very thin layer of apricot jam on one side of the very top layer of cake... and then FLIP IT OVER onto the top of your cake. (You want a dry layer on top.)
10) Spread the fondant frosting over the top of the cake. Use the melted black chocolate to make designs on the top of the cake, and coat the outside of the cake with almonds.

Tips:

* This cake is creamy though a bit lighter than the Dobos Torta from last week. Both cakes go very well with after-dinner coffee.
* The layers are much easier to handle when cooled to room temperature. Especially the top layer flip.
* Do not use too much apricot jam - think of it like perfume, not like toast. If you add too much jam, the cake will be slippery and difficult to cut.