It’s Blue Cayenne’s Birthday!

This improbable journey started on a blustery October day three years ago.  I desperately wanted to be a better writer, a better cook, and a better photographer, but I needed a nudge–a structured project to bring all those elements together in my life. I needed deadlines, too.

So, after a lot of false starts, my direction became obvious. I would start a food blog. How hard could that be?

Well…

I remember the electric moment when Blue Cayenne went live. I had worked on the project for a couple of months. I’d told no one except my sainted photography teacher. I guess I wanted to see if he laughed riotously when I broached the possibility of posting my photographs on the Internet. (He didn’t. He is a keeper.)

I’ll be honest. My struggles with the technical details of starting a blog were daunting. I didn’t know a plug-in from a widget, but finally, in October of 2015, I had pages ready to publish. All I needed was the courage to actually do it. That was the hard part–the personally risky part– and I’ll admit that I sat staring at the “Publish” button for a very long time.

Could I? Should I? Would it work?

Then, in a moment of wild abandon and fortified by a couple glasses of very good Malbec, I pushed the button and Blue Cayenne was born.

That first blog post featured a black-eyed pea salad recipe. Black-eye pea recipes augur good luck, or, at least they do on New Year’s Day. Blue Cayenne, I knew, needed a whole lot of good luck. We were wading into a very crowded field. (Here is a link to that original recipe if you haven’t tried it: Senegalese Bean Salad. It’s a great recipe.)

For those of you who have wondered about the name, blue–saturated and intense– is a favorite color and spicy and impossibly hot cayenne pepper is a favorite spice. So, Blue Cayenne it was and we became bluecayenne.com.

Since that first post, I have posted 257 recipes. Whew!  (I try to publish five recipes a month.) Blue Cayenne’s readership has grown over the three years to somewhere between a very respectable 100 and 200 readers on an average day. Our best day ever was 544 readers. We’re ad free, too. We’re all about food.

Our operation is spartan. This is a one person (me) and a one pup (Juliet) operation, so our overhead is very low. I work for free. Juliet works for pumpkin treats and an occasional bowl of strawberry ice cream.  I cook, write and photograph. Juliet is the face of Blue Cayenne–our “Betty Crocker.” She appears on all of our pages. Blue Cayenne’s Juliet is a looker.

Thank you for reading this blog.  We’re still having fun and we’re ever so glad you are here.

Now, will you share a piece of fudgy pecan birthday torte with us?

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Torte

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Ingredients

For Cake
• 1 1/2 C. toasted pecans
• 1 C. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate (chopped--I used a mixture of bittersweet and semisweet)
• 1 C.sifted unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 C. sugar
• 1/3 C. bourbon
For The Glaze
• 1/2 C. whipping cream
• 1/4 C. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 10 ounces semisweet chocolate (chopped)
• 1 C. chopped toasted pecans
• 12 pecan halves

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch-diameter springform pan with sides that are at leasst 2 1/4 inches. Line the bottom of your springform pan with parchment paper. Dust the pan with flour and tap off the excess.
2. Using a food processor, finely grind the pecans. Watch them carefully, if you over-grind the pecans you will turn them into pecan butter. Pecan butter is wonderful, but not for this recipe. You just want a fine dry grind.
3. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the chocolate to the butter and stir the mixture until the chocolate is melted smooth. Add the cocoa powder to the melted chocolate and stir. Remove this mixture from the heat and set aside.
4. Put eggs and sugar into a bowl and whisk just until blended. Add the chocolate mixture and whisk to blend. Add the bourbon and the ground pecans and mix. Pour this batter into your prepared springform pan. Bake for about 45 minutes. You want the sides of the torte to be set but the center of the torte will jiggle a bit when the pan is shaken. Put your baked torte on a rack and cool completely.
5. To make the glaze, put butter and cream in a heavy medium saucepan and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the chocolate and stir until it is melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and let the glaze sit for about 5 minutes. You want it to be a bit cooler but you want it to be pourable, too.
6. Remove the torte from the springform pan by releasing the sides. Invert the torte onto a 8-inch cardboard round or plate. Remove the parchment paper. Set the cardboard round or plate on a cookie sheet (to catch the excess chocolate) and pour the glaze over the torte. You want the glaze to competely cover the top and the sides of the cake. Use a spatula to spread the glaze onto the sides of the torte. Put the torte in the refrigerator and let it chill for about 10 minutes. This will allow the glaze to partially set but still a little sticky. Remove from the refrigerator and press the chopped pecans around the sides of the torte and decorate the top of the torte with the pecan halves. Refrigerate overnight. Before you serve the cake, let it sit on the counter for a while. Ideally, you will want to serve it cool but not cold. You will also want to move the torte onto a clean cardboard round or a clean plate. I used a long spatula to safely move the cake.

Nutrition

Calories

6972 cal

Fat

540 g

Carbs

394 g

Protein

68 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

160

https://bluecayenne.com/lets-party-with-chocolate-bourbon-pecan-torte-blue-cayenne-is-three

This recipe is an adaptation of one that appeared in Bon Appetit Magazine.

There is an old Italian saying O mangi questa minestra o salti dalla finestra. That roughly translates to “Eat the soup or jump out of the window”–an exclamation for those times when inaction is off the table and you just have to do something–anything. Take it or leave it.

I don’t know about you but, for me, fall is a beautiful transitional season that sometimes leaves me at loose ends. I know I can’t hang onto the lazy days of summer forever. And, yet…

Even my Juliet seems wistful about the changing seasons this year. Increasingly, the melancholy little pup spends her days seeking out the dwindling rays of summer sunlight filtering through the windows in her favorite rooms. (Fortunately, I can lift her mood with her favorite pumpkin treats.)

So, this week I’ve vowed to shake off my end-of-summer lethargy. I need to do something interesting to embrace the new season. Some serious fall cooking comes to mind. What better way to accept the end of summer than by embracing fall’s distinct flavors?

But, what to make?

While I may not be ready for anything as fall-radical as pumpkin latte, these increasingly chilly late afternoons and nights have put me in the mood for a rich, hearty bowl of Italian soup.

One of my cooking heroes, Marcella Hazan, once wrote of Italian soups: “The one common link Italian soups have, the single distinguishing feature, is their substantiality. Some may be lighter than others; some may be thin; some thick. In some soups, the beans or the potatoes may be pureed through a food mill. In no soup, however, is the texture, consistency, weight–the physical identity of the ingredients–wholly obliterated. There are no food processor soups, no cream-of-anything soups in the Italian repertory.” (From Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.)

So, I’m with Marcella. No wimpy cream soup for me! Not now. I’m making a hearty minestrone.

Minestrone is one of the cornerstones of Italian cooking. Originally, minestrone was a thick vegetable soup made up of a hodgepodge of leftovers–a cucina povera (poor kitchen) dish with rustic and rural roots. There was no fixed-recipe. If you had a leftover, it went into the ever-changing soup.

Later, when more fresh vegetables were available (including tomatoes and potatoes from The New World), Italian cooks turned minestrone into a splendid stand-alone soup rich in fresh vegetables, herbs, beans, and pasta.

There are lots of minestrone recipes out there. This, I think, is a particularly good one but feel free to make it your own.

Eat this soup.  No need to jump out of any windows.

Happy fall.

Minestrone.

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Ingredients

• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 medium onion (chopped)
• 1/4 C. fennel bulbs (diced)
• 2 T. garlic (minced)
• 1 C. thinly-sliced green cabbage
• 1 t. fennel seeds
• 1 t. fresh rosemary (minced) optional
• 1 t. fresh thyme (minced) or 1/2 t. dried
• 7 C. water or vegetable stock (I used vegetable stock)
• 1 15-oz. can chopped fire-roasted tomatoes or equivalent fresh Roma tomatoes
• 1 can V-8 juice
• 1 15-oz can garbanzo beans (drained) or equivalent freshly cooked garbanzos
• 1 15-oz can cannellini beans(drained) or equivalent freshly cooked white beans (I used Rancho Gordo Marcella beans)
• 1 medium russet potato cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 C. celery (chopped)
• 1/2 C. carrots (chopped)
• 1/2 C. zucchini (chopped)
• 2 T. tomato paste
• 1/4 C. soy sauce (or to taste)
• 1 T. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 C. elbow pasta or rotini
• 2 T. Italian parsley (minced)
• 1 T. basil (fresh-minced)
• 2 t. oregano (fresh-minced) or 1 t. dry
• 1 t. sea salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 t. black pepper (ground to taste)
• Shredded Parmesan (for garnish)
• Basil (chopped- for garnish)
• Basil Pesto (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion, diced fennel, garlic, cabbage, fennel seed, thyme and rosemary (optional). Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally as you cook.
2. Add water or broth, tomatoes, V8 juice, beans, potato, celery, carrot, zucchini, and cook for about 25 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Stir occasionally.
3. Add tomato paste, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, pasta and herbs and cook for an additional 10 minutes until the pasta is done.
4. Garnish with shredded parmesan cheese and chopped fresh basil. Just before serving, spoon a dollop of basil pesto on top of each serving of soup. Let your guests stir the pesto into their soup.

Notes

Because this soup contains pasta, it will thicken quite a bit when refrigerated. You can add additonal vegetable broth or water to thin the soup.

Nutrition

Calories

3022 cal

Fat

85 g

Carbs

292 g

Protein

60 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

157

https://bluecayenne.com/minestrone-a-wistful-pup-and-letting-go-of-summer

This recipe is loosely adapted from one that appeared in the 2007 cookbook Vegan Fusion. That cookbook is available here.

I’ll confess right off. Eggplant and I have a rocky relationship.

It’s not because eggplant isn’t Robert-Redford handsome. Just look at that smooth skin and that sensuous coloring.

It’s also not because I don’t try. I do.  I just have trouble finding stellar recipes that showcase eggplant.

I do have a few recipes that I like a lot that incorporate eggplant and, in fact, I have posted some of them on Blue Cayenne (Blue Cayenne Eggplant Recipes ). It just seems like eggplant should be much more important in my cooking life. After all, eggplant is embraced as a key food in much of the world.

So, I’ve decided to give eggplant another chance in my kitchen and I’m on the lookout for great eggplant recipes. If you have one, please send it to me. Let’s start with this one. It is an adaptation of a Deborah Madison recipe from her beautiful cookbook, Vegetable Literacy. In her introduction to the recipe, she mentions that the dish was served as a main dish by the Seed Savers Exchange Heritage Farm. The farm is a 13,000-member organization that homes (and sells and exchanges) the seeds of 20,000 heirloom and open-pollinated plants in a quest to protect biodiversity in this age of genetically-engineered agriculture. If you are interested in their project, here is a link to their site: https://www.seedsavers.org. They sound like good folks to me.

Here is the recipe.

Eggplant Gratin in Parmesan Custard

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Ingredients

• 2 pounds oval eggplants
• Sea salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 C. heavy cream (or milk)
• 1 C. grated Asiago cheese (or Parmesan)
• 2 T. chopped basil (or to your taste)
• 4 T. olive oil
• 1 large onion (finely diced)
• 1 large clove garlic (minced or pressed)
• 1 pound tomatoes (peeled, seeded and diced)
• Freshly ground pepper
• Chopped parsley or cilantro for garnish

Instructions

1. Peel the eggplants and dice them. Toss the cubes of eggplant in a small amount of salt and put in a colander sitting over a bowl. Set the eggplant cubes aside to drain while you prepare the rest of this dish.
2. Prepare the custard by whisking the eggs and cream together. Stir ina few tablespoons of cheese and 1 T. of the chopped basil. Set custard aside.
3. Heat oven to 375 degrees F and oil an 8 by 10 gratin dish. (Alternatively, you can use 1 cup ramekins.)
4. Return to the eggplant and blot the moisture off the surface of the eggplant with a kitchen towel. Put 2 T. oil in a large nonstick skillet and turn on the heat to medium high. When the oil is hot, add the eggplant and cook it for 12-15 minutes until the cubes turn soft and are golden brown in spots. Stir this mixture while it is cooking to monitor it and keep it from burning. Scrape this mixture into a bowl and set aside.
5. Put 2 T. oil into the same pan that you cooked the eggplant in, return the heat to medium heat and add the chopped onion. Cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until it is softened and begins to take on a bit of color. This will take about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic to the pan and cook until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add the tomatoes and the cooked eggplant to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook this mixture for about 5 minutes. Taste. Add salt if necessary. Transfer this mixture into your prepared gratin dish.
6. Pour the custard over the vegetable mixture and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. You can add a bit more cheese here.
7. Bake about 30 minutes. At the end of baking you can run the gratin under the broiler to get it a little more brown. Be careful, though, the browing occurs very quickly under the broiler.
8. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro.

Nutrition

Calories

2070 cal

Fat

168 g

Carbs

96 g

Protein

71 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

154

https://bluecayenne.com/eggplant-gratin-in-parmesan-custard

You can buy a copy of Madison’s book on Amazon. Here is the link:Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy.