Food, Photography and Bon Mots

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Giving Thanks for Carrot, Banana and Cardamom Cake
November 13, 2023

Giving Thanks for Carrot, Banana and Cardamom Cake

It’s the season for gift giving.  Here’s an idea: Gift a snacking cake.  Your gift will be as unique as it will be delicious. This recipe is adapted from a recipe in Chetna Masan’s great cookbook, The Cardamom Trail. You can find the book at…

Cakes, Desserts, Vegetarian
Homemade Hamburger Buns and A Really Good Burger
November 12, 2023

Homemade Hamburger Buns and A Really Good Burger

Lately, I’ve been craving a good burger. So, I bought a package of Impossible Beef in the deli section of my local Trader Joe’s, gathered all the trimmings, and set about making some fresh hamburger buns rather than those sad buns you see in big…

Breads, Vegetarian
Butternut Squash Lasagna
October 28, 2023

Butternut Squash Lasagna

There are lasagnas and then there is this beauty of a lasagna made with butternut squash.

This is quite a different take on the usual bechamel rich lasagnas that are commonly served. No bechamel here. Instead, this lasagna is stuffed with thin slices of butternut squash, lightly sauced with cream and Parmesan, and served in a pool of your best marinara. You can find excellent marinara sauce recipes on Blue Cayenne here and here.

This recipe is adapted from one in the Ottolenghi/Ixta Belfrage cookbook Mezcla. You can buy the cookbook at your local bookstore or on Amazon  here..

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. It would be perfect on your table on Halloween as you await for the arrival of the little ghouls.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

October 28, 2023
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Ingredients
  • 1 lb. butternut squash (sliced thin)
  • 14 oz. cherry tomatoes (sliced in half)
  • 4 large cloves garlic (crushed)
  • 1 T. tomato paste
  • 2 3/4 t. fine sea salt
  • 1/4 C. chopped fresh sage leaves plus 10 extra whole leaves to sprinkle on top of your lasagna after its initial baking
  • 6 T. olive oil plus a bit more for drizzling onto the lasagna at the end
  • Freshly-ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 C. heavy cream
  • 3 C. finely-grated Parmesan
  • 1 1/2 C. grated Monterey jack cheese
  • 3/4 t. freshly-grated nutmeg
  • 8 oz. dried no boil lasagna sheets
  • 1 2/3 C. vegetable stock
  • Large flake salt like Maldon for garnish
  • Marinara sauce
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
  • Step 2 Prepare a 9 inch by 13 inch baking tray or dish by spraying it with cooking spray or greasing it with butter.
  • Step 3 Slice butternut squash into very thin rings and then cut the rings in half. Combine squash slices with halved tomatoes, garlic, tomato paste, fine salt, chopped sage and 4 T. of oil. Sprinkle mixture with black pepper and mix thoroughly. Set aside.
  • Step 4 In another bowl, mix 1 C. cream, 1 3/4 C. Parmesan (grated), and grated nutmeg together. Set aside.
  • Step 5 Put the lasagna together. First, layer the bottom of your pan with a layer of dry lasagna strips. Top that layer of lasagna pasta with some of the sliced squash/tomato/garlic mixture. Top that layer of squash with dollops of the cream/Parmesan mixture. Repeat layering until you have used up all of your ingredients.
  • Step 6 Pour vegetable stock over the lasagna. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 50 minutes.
  • Step 7 After 50 minutes, remove the lasagna from the oven. Remove the foil cover. Mix the remaining 1/2 C. of cream with 1/4 C. grated Parmesan. Spread this mixture over your partially baked lasagna. Return to the oven and bake (uncovered) for an additional 10 minutes.
  • Step 8 Remove the lasagna from the oven. Sprinkle the top of the lasagna with 2 T. of olive oil. Sprinkle the 1 C. Monterey jack cheese over the top of the lasagna. Sprinkle the whole fresh sage leaves over the top of the lasagna. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes. When your lasagna is done, the sage leaves will be a pretty bright green and the top of the lasagna should be golden brown.
  • Step 9 Remove the lasagna from the oven and let it sit on the counter for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Just before you slice it, spoon about 2 T. of cream over the top and another drizzle of oil. Sprinkle generously with additional grated Parmesan and Monterey jack cheese. Sprinkle flaky salt and black pepper over the top of the lasagna.
  • Step 10 Cut neat squares of lasagna and place them on top of a puddle of warm marinara sauce.
Main Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Comfort Food: Vegetable Frittata
October 25, 2023

Comfort Food: Vegetable Frittata

I needed some comfort food this week and this baked Frittata was perfect. First, it’s beautiful. The appearance of food is important to me. In my kitchen, the colors and textures of food (not to mention the plating)  play an important part in my appreciation…

Entree, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Ellen’s Pumpernickle Bread
October 16, 2023

Ellen’s Pumpernickle Bread

Ellen was one of my students at Los Alamitos High School. We reconnected a few years ago through our mutual love of bread baking. Now I am her student. Ellen operates a You Tube channel,  Bread Machine and Baking Videos With Ellen Hoffman. Her specialty…

Breads, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies: Asparagus in Puff Pastry
October 15, 2023

Oldies But Goodies: Asparagus in Puff Pastry

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for Asparagus In Puff Pastry

Here is the link to the recipe: Asparagus In Puff Pastry.

You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne. If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.

Appetizer, Asparagus, Blue Cayenne, Main Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Holiday Pumpkin Cravings: Pumpkin Bars
October 13, 2023

Holiday Pumpkin Cravings: Pumpkin Bars

Whoa! It’s Christmas at my local Costco! I haven’t even embraced the idea of Halloween yet, let alone considered spending $1000 (Yikes!) for an artificial tree. (For that price, maybe the tree comes complete with the presents!)  Pumpkin is beginning to sound good to me, though.…

Cakes, Desserts, Vegetarian
A Tasty Work In Progress: Konbi Egg Salad Sandwich
September 29, 2023

A Tasty Work In Progress: Konbi Egg Salad Sandwich

It started with a food picture as so many of my culinary adventures begin.    It was a New York Times Food piece on Los Angeles’ Konbi Restaurant’s Egg Salad Sandwich–an elegant riff on the 7-Eleven Egg Salad Sando sensation in Japan.  But…it was hard.…

Eggs, Sandwiches, Vegetarian
A Honey of a Honey Cake
September 22, 2023

A Honey of a Honey Cake

Happy belated new year to those who celebrate.

Last week, the Internet was rife with recipes for Honey Cake to celebrate Rosh Hashanha. Some of the postings were ebullient paens to the cake and its spicy flavors.

I couldn’t resist and selected a recipe from Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Pearlman. You can find the original recipe here. The praise for that recipe was particularly effusive. 

As I put the batter together, I was impressed by the long list of interesting ingredients that go into making the cake–everything from a quarter cup of bourbon to coffee and allspice. In the end, as I whisked the final ingredients into the batter I had a few moments of doubt. I was dealing with a very liquid batter. Could this possibly work? I rechecked my ingredient list. I checked the recipe against Ina Garten’s recipe for the same cake. Everything checked out and I slid my loaf pans (the recipe makes two generous loaves of the cake) into my oven. 

Forty-five minutes later, I had a delicious moist cake.  Who knew?

 

Honey Cake

September 22, 2023
Print This
Ingredients
  • 3 1/4 C. plus 2 T. all-purpose flour
  • 1 3/4 t. baking powder
  • 1 t. baking soda
  • 1 t. kosher salt
  • 4 t. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 t. ground cloves
  • 1/2 t. ground allspice
  • 1 C. vegetable oil
  • 1 C. honey
  • 1 1/2 C. granulated sugar
  • 1/2 C. dark brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 t. vanilla extract
  • 1 C. warm coffee
  • 1/2 C. fresh orange juice
  • 1/4 C. whiskey
Directions
  • Step 1 Prepare two loaf pans by greasing them and lining them with a sheet of parchment that overhangs the sides of the loaf pan. The overhang will come in handy as handles to remove your finished cake from the pan.
  • Step 2 To prepare the batter, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves,  and allspice together. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add oil, honey, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, coffee, juice and bourbon whiskey. Mix in your stand electric mixer if you have one. This is a loose batter! Pour your batter into the two prepared loaf pans.
  • Step 3 Bake the cake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 45-55 minutes. Your cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
  • Step 4 Cool the cake on the counter for at least 15 minutes.
  • Step 5 Cook’s Note: The flavor of the spices in this cake are enhanced as this cake ages. It is at its peak on days two and three but, because it is so moist, it stays great longer than that. I served my cake with a scoop of the best vanilla ice cream I could find (Nancy Silverton’s Nancy’s Fancy Bourbon Vanilla–a gift from my good friend Debbie) and a couple of ripe figs. 
Cakes, Desserts, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies: 40th Anniversary! Marion Burros’ Plum Torte
September 15, 2023

Oldies But Goodies: 40th Anniversary! Marion Burros’ Plum Torte

    Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for Marion Burros’ iconic Plum Torte. This month marks the 40th anniversary of that recipe…

Cakes, Desserts, Plums, Vegetarian

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