Food, Photography and Bons Mots

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Quiche of the Giants: Cheese, Broccoli and Onion
March 30, 2025

Quiche of the Giants: Cheese, Broccoli and Onion

This is a quiche of culinary giants. The filling for this savory tart is a variation on Craig Claiborne’s famous Quiche Lorraine filling and the crust is from Ina Garten. It doesn’t get a lot better (or bigger) than that.  You can find the links…

Appetizer, Main Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies: Mediterranean Greens and Phyllo Pie
March 29, 2025

Oldies But Goodies: Mediterranean Greens and Phyllo Pie

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 Mediterranean Greens and Phyllo Pie . You will find the recipe here.  . Want to dive…

Appetizer, Oldies But Goodies, Vegetables, Vegetarian
You Can’t Have Too Many Banana Cakes
March 23, 2025

You Can’t Have Too Many Banana Cakes

Wasn’t it Wallis Simpson (or was it Babe Paley)  who famously said that you can never been too rich or too thin?

Here is an update. You can never have too many Banana Cake recipes. We have many banana recipes here on Blue Cayenne and they’re all pretty delicious. 

https://bluecayenne.com/giving-thanks-for-carrot-banana-and-cardamom-cake

This recipe is from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s cookbook Sweet. You can buy the cookbook through your local bookstore. 

The  moist Banana Cake recipe uses a lot of ripe bananas and throws in some almond flour to boot. And…wait for it!…the cake is floating in a puddle of rum caramel.

Enjoy.

Here is the recipe as we prepared it in our kitchen.

 

Banana Cake With Rum Caramel

March 23, 2025
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Ingredients
  • For Banana Cake:
  • 7 t. unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • 1/3 C. granulated sugar
  • 1/3 C. brown sugar (packed)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 t. vanilla extract
  • 3/4 C. plus 1 T. self-rising flour
  • 1 C. almond meal
  • 2 T. malted milk powder
  • 1/8 t. salt
  • 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 t. baking soda
  • 3 ripe bananas (mashed)
  • 1/3 C. plus 2 T. sour cream
  • 2 T. dark rum
  • Chopped pistachios for garnish
  • For rum caramel
  • 1 C. granulated sugar
  • 1/2 C. water
  • 1/2 C. plus 2 T. heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 T. dark rum
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bundt pan. (I used a bundt pan that was divided into individual serving bundts. It made a cute presentation.)
  • Step 2 Cream butter and both sugars in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after the addition of each egg. Add vanilla extract and mix well.
  • Step 3 Sift the flour, almond meal, malted milk powder, salt, ground cinnamon and baking soda into a large bowl. Set aside.
  • Step 4 In a separate bowl (this recipe uses a lot of bowls!), mix mashed bananas with the sour cream and rum. Add about a quarter of this banana mixture to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix. Add a quarter of the dry ingredients. Add the rest of the ingredients alternating between the banana mixture and the butter-sugar mixture. Put this mixture into your prepared bundt pans. Bake until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
  • Step 5 To make the rum caramel, combine sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. You want the mixture to begin to change color. Don’t stir while this is happening, although you can swirl the mixture in the pan. You want the caramel to turn a dark amber color. When this happens, remove the caramel from the heat and stir in the cream and the rum. (If your mixture seizes up when you stir in the liquids, return it to a low heat and stir until smooth. Set the caramel aside for about 30 minutes before you serve it.)
  • Step 6 To serve, drizzle some of the caramel on your serving plates and position the small bundt cakes on top of the caramel. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios.
Cakes, Desserts, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies: Pickle Brine Margarita
March 22, 2025

Oldies But Goodies: Pickle Brine Margarita

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 a wonderful Pickle Brine Margarita. You will find the recipe  here.. Want to dive deeper into…

Drinks, Oldies But Goodies
Savory Blue Cheese Cheesecake
February 27, 2025

Savory Blue Cheese Cheesecake

Need a quick and elegant appetizer? Want to showcase some nice cheese?  This Savory Blue Cheese Cheesecake is your recipe! This recipe is open to a lot of variation, too—chopped chiles, red peppers, caramelized onions and on and on. For variation, you could sub in…

Appetizer, Cheese, Vegetarian
Cheesy Risotto Cakes
February 25, 2025

Cheesy Risotto Cakes

This is an excellent way to use left-over risotto. You can use your favorite risotto recipe. I suggest you use Blue Cayenne’s Porcini Mushroom Risotto recipe (omitting the green peas). You can find that recipe here.

This recipe is from Susan Spungen’s cookbook Veg Forward. The book is available through your local bookstore or on the Barnes and Noble site  here. 

 

Cheesy Risotto Cakes

February 25, 2025
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Ingredients
  • 2 C. left-over risotto
  • 1 large egg (beaten)
  • 1/4 C. panko breadcrumbs
  • Pinch of red pepper flakes
  • Fontina or mozzarella cheese (cut into 4 1-inch cubes)
  • 1/4 C. panko breadcrumbs (for dredging patties)
  • Pinch of red pepper flakes
  • Olive oil or butter
  • Grated Parmesan for garnish.
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Step 2 Combine left-over risotto, egg and 1/4 C. panko breadcrumbs.. Add pinch of red pepper flakes.
  • Step 3 Form the risotto mixture into four patties. It will be easier to do this if you wet your hands before forming the patties. Press a cheese cube into the center of each pattie and form the risotto mixture around the cheese cube.
  • Step 4 Put another 1/4 C. panko crumbs into a shallow bowl. Dredge the prepared patties in the panko breadcrumbs.
  • Step 5 Melt 1 T. butter in a shallow pan and add 1 T. olive oil. Pan fry the patties in the butter/oil mixture. You should fry the patties for about 5 minutes at medium high heat. Don’t move the patties during this step. You want the patties to form a crust during this step. Flip the patties and panfry for another minute. Place the panfried patties on a cooking try and bake for about 10 minutes. You want the patties to be heated through.
  • Step 6 Serve hot with grated Parmesan sprinkled over the patties and with a parsley garnish. Enjoy.
Main Dishes, Mushrooms, Rice, Side Dishes, Uncategorized, Vegetables, Vegetarian
White Bean and Spinach Soup
February 24, 2025

White Bean and Spinach Soup

Are you world weary? World Weary. That was an iconic Noel Coward song if you don’t recognize the reference. You can play it by clicking the link that follows. Sit back and enjoy a moment in a gentler time. (World Weary.) Not too hard to…

Beans, Soups, Spinach, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies: Apple Tart
February 17, 2025

Oldies But Goodies: Apple Tart

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 an Apple Tart. You will find the recipe  here.. Want to dive deeper into our recipe…

Apples, Desserts, Vegetarian
Pear Almond Cake
February 15, 2025

Pear Almond Cake

You have to eat this one fast.

This wonderful (and easy!) Pear Cake is exceptional on the day it is baked, full of caramelized pears suspended in a vanilla and almond-flavored tender almond flour cake.  Starting on the day after the cake is baked, the moisture from the pears quickly softens the cake. Don’t get me wrong, the cake is  still delicious but it’s pretty moist.

The way I look at it, this gives you permission to eat a lot of cake quickly. How bad can that be?

 

This is a David Tanis recipe which appears in the New York Times. You can find the original recipe here..

Pear Cake

February 15, 2025
Print This
Ingredients
  • 8 T. melted butter
  • 3 large eggs (beaten)
  • 1/2 t. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 t. almond extract
  • 2 C. almond flour
  • 1 C. granulated sugar
  • 1/4 t. kosher salt
  • 1/2 t. baking powder
  • 2 large pears (peeled and sliced)
  • 1/4 C. sliced almonds
  • Powdered sugar (for garnish)
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a springform pan.
  • Step 2 Whisk melted butter, eggs, vanilla and almond extracts in a small bowl.
  • Step 3 In another bowl, whisk together almond flour, granulated sugar, salt and baking powder. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until smooth.
  • Step 4 Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Slice the pears and arrange them on the top of the batter. Sprinkle 2 T. of sugar over the pears. Sprinkle the sliced almonds on top of the batter.
  • Step 5 Bake for approximately 55 minutes. You want the top of the cake to be a pretty brown when the cake is done and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely. Remove the sides of the springform pan.
  • Step 6 Dust the cooled cake with powdered sugar and enjoy.
Cakes, Desserts, Vegetarian
Winter Soup: Red Lentil and Vegetable
January 26, 2025

Winter Soup: Red Lentil and Vegetable

So, here we go! This is hearty lentil soup nourishes the body and the soul after a challenging beginning to the new year. This recipe was adapted from one that appears in Susan Spungen’s Veg Forward Cookbook. Here is the recipe as I prepared it…

Soups

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