Blue Cayenne

It’s strawberry season! Well, almost.

I bought a beautiful three pack of fresh strawberries at yesterday’s Long Beach Farmers’ Market. While the strawberries are not at their prime of sweetness, they are very good. Give them a look. 

What better to complement a beautiful bowl of sliced fresh strawberries that this adaptation of Maida Heatter’s much-lauded East 62nd Street Lemon Cake recipe?

Heatter is the daughter of famous “There’s good news tonight” WWII commentator, Gabriel Heatter, whose optimism in the face of some of the darkest hours of WWII got a lot of people through those awful times. She is a self-taught cook who won wide acclaim from the likes of Craig Claiborne, Jacques Pepin and Wolfgang Puck. Of Heatter’s culinary work, Pepin wrote: “solid stuff, the best of what’s done in America.” Heatter’s work in the kitchen won her several James Beard Foundation awards and resulted in a number of important cookbooks including the best-selling Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts in which she published one of her daughter’s recipes, the East 62nd Street Lemon Cake that I’m posting here.

The lemon flavor of Heatter’s divine cake is a perfect accompaniment for these beautiful strawberries. Add a dollop of whipped cream and you are in for a heavenly treat.

The link to the original recipe appears at the bottom of this post.

Recipe: Lemon Cake

3 C. sifted all-purpose flour
2 t. double-acting baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 pound butter
2 C. sugar
4 eggs
1 C. milk
Finely-grated rind of two lemons
1/2 C. lemon juice
3/4 C. sugar

Sliced Strawberries, Lemon Rind and Whipped Cream for garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a bundt or tube pan and dust it with finely-textured bread crumbs.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream butter in a mixing bowl. Add sugar and continue to beat to thoroughly incorporate sugar into butter. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down mixer bowl as you go. Turn your mixer to its lowest speed and gradually add the flour mixture and the milk. (Add flour mixture in three parts and milk in two parts. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down sides of mixing bowl as you go.) Mix in lemon rind.

Your batter will be thick. Using a spatula, scoop the batter into your prepared pan.

Bake one and fifteen minutes or until a cake tester (or wooden skewer) comes out dry when you pierce the middle of the cake around the tube.

Mix lemon juice and sugar.

Remove cake from oven and immediately brush lemon juice and sugar mixture evenly all over the warm cake.

Let cool completely (preferably several hours or overnight) before serving. Garnish with sliced strawberries, slivers of lemon rind,  and dollops of whipped cream.

Cook’s Notes: This recipe makes a large cake. I’m thinking that, once a few days have passed, this lemon cake would work well in a trifle recipe. Stay tuned.

Here is the link to the original recipe:

Maida Heatter’s East 62nd Street Lemon Cake

My idea of a good time is a good book and a steaming glass (no, make that a full pot) of masala tea.

I picked up my addiction to masala tea when we traveled in India. Fortunately, I’ve been able to build my own version of masala tea here at home–absent the buffalo milk often used to make the tea in India, of course.

Here is my “take” on masala tea.

Recipe: Masala Tea (Chai)

Boil a stick of cinnamon, 5 whole cloves, 4 crushed green cardamom pods, 2 star anise pods, a 2-3 inch stick of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds in two cups of water for about five minutes. (Your kitchen will smell wonderful!)

Add four cups of milk to the fragrant spiced water and simmer on a low heat for five minutes more, stirring often. Add 4-5 teaspoons of black tea to the liquid and let mixture steep (covered) for 10 minutes until the black tea colors your drink  a warm brown color. Sweeten to your taste with sugar.

Strain the spices out of the hot liquid and serve.

Cook’s Notes: I garnished my tea with a cinnamon stick and a star anise pod for my photograph. Pretty though it may be, you will need to remove those spices before drinking your tea.

The spicing of one’s masala tea can be individualized to one’s taste. I like (no, love) a whole lot of spices in my tea but you can change up the spices you use in your tea. This tea is also quite good with a slice of fresh ginger added to the spices and/or a few whole black pepper pods.

If you are vegan, you can substitute soy milk in this recipe.

I use black Gulabi tea (available in Indian markets and, locally, at Jon’s Supermarket) in my tea. You will get a pretty powerful punch of caffeine in your tea depending upon how much black tea you add and how long you allow your tea to steep.

Normally, I try to control my caffeine intake to make it possible for me to sleep at night, but, when it comes to masala tea, I lose all self control. Maybe that is where the good book comes into play.

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Hot, sweet and spicy.

I love that combination in foods.

I adore Vietnamese spring rolls with the spicy and sweet chile dipping sauce.

My favorite pancakes are ones I make with slices of fresh jalapeno and fresh corn folded into the batter and then drizzled with pure maple syrup just before eating (I’m making myself hungry here!) and I enjoy this simple Thai cucumber salad with its hot-sweet vinagrette.

Mine is an adaptation of a recipe I found on AllRecipes site. A link to the original recipe appears at the end of this post.

Recipe: Spicy Thai Cucumber Salad

1 large hothouse (English)  cucumber (seeded and sliced into 1/4 inch strips)
1/2 T. salt
1/4 C. white sugar
1/4 C. rice wine vinegar
1 jalapeno pepper (seeded and chopped)
1/8 C. chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 C. chopped peanuts

Directions:
Peel and slice a cucumber in half lengthwise. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds. Slice the cucumber into 1/4 inch slices and put slices and salt into a colander. Let salted cucumber slices drain over your sink in the colander for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix sugar and rice vinegar in a bowl. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Mix in chopped fresh jalapeno and chopped fresh cilantro.

Rinse the salt from your sliced cucumbers and pat them dry with a dish towel. Add the cucumber slices to the spicy vinegar mixture.

Serve at room temperature. Sprinkle chopped salted peanuts over the salad just before serving and garnish with thin slices of red radish.  You also can brighten up this spicy vinaigrette with the juice of a lime.

Here is the link to the original recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/169593/thai-cucumber-salad/