Sasha's Kitchen: Passover Carrot Tzimmes Souffle

I made a delicious carrot tzimmes souffle tonight for Passover, after spending two great seders to start the holiday with my family in Philadelphia this weekend.  Passover, of course, is the holiday where you can't eat any bread or yeast for eight days.  I found this recipe in a Kosher cookbook at my parents' house the other day and decided to make it for Brad and I tonight for dinner upon our return to Brooklyn.  The mix of carrot and pineapple is just perfect.  You make the souffle with egg whites as usual, and matzo meal instead of flour, but the consistency is actually pretty similar to a typical savory souffle with the flavor of carrot tzimmes.  A real Passover treat!  This recipe is one I adapted from the cookbook Kosher By Design for the Holidays

Carrot Tzimmes Souffle
2 cups grated carrots (about five large carrots)
3/4 cup matzo meal
2 T orange juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon (added by me to the recipe in the cookbook)
2/3 cup of granulated sugar (original recipe called for a cup, but I prefer to use a bit less)
5 eggs, separated
1/2 cup canola oil
1 20 oz can pineapple, pureed in a food processor

To make the souffle, preheat the oven to 350.  Separate the eggs.  Combine the yolks with the matzo meal, carrots, oil, lemon juice, orange juice, cinnamon and pineapple.  Set aside.  Beat the egg whites in a stand mixer using the whisk attachment until they are fluffy and have stiff beaks, beating on the highest speed for about three minutes.  Then fold the mixture of carrots and everything else into the egg whites with a spatula, and fold until fully combined.  Pour into a large souffle dish and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Enjoy immediately!

Sasha's Kitchen: Passover Carrot Tzimmes Souffle

Sasha's Kitchen: Miso Glazed Salmon with Passion Fruit-Ginger Glazed Carrots

I really find cooking, and especially baking to be cathartic. When there are other things that are really giving me trouble or that I am struggling with in my life, it provides such a good release, and distraction. Sometimes the more I bake, the more it helps relax me from some of the other things going on. People wonder why I cook so much even during the week, and really that's the explanation. Anyhow, recently I tried this new salmon dish - it sounds complicated - miso glazed salmon with passion-fruit-ginger glazed carrots and creamed mashed potatoes, but it's really not that difficult. It makes a lovely, full dinner with side dishes, and is do-able on a busy week night. The ginger glazed carrots came out really well for my first time making them, as I was quite pleased. I may try to fine tune this recipe in the future to see if I can make ginger glazed carrots without any butter at all - but they were oh, so good.

Sasha's Sockeye Salmon with Passion Fruit-Ginger Glazed Carrots and Creamed Potatoes


1/3 cup white miso paste
1 T sesame oil
1 T canola oil
1 T honey
3 T rice vinegar
3 T soy sauce
sesame seeds
1 lb mini carrots
1 cup passion fruit juice (you could also use orange juice)
3 T butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 T sugar
2 T grated ginger
2 lb bag new potatoes or small red potatoes
1 /2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
 4 T creme fraiche or fat free sour cream

To prepare the  miso glazed salmon, combine the miso, sesame oil, canola oil, honey, rice vinegar and soy sauce with a whisk. Using a brush, coat the salmon, sprinkle with the sesame seeds, and bake/broil the salmon as desired.

To prepare the carrots, in a saucepan, add the carrots, fruit juice, sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Bring to a boil. Then simmer until reduced and the carrots have a nice glaze to them. The liquid should be mostly gone at this point and the carrots should be cooked al dente - this process takes about 20 to 25 minutes.

To make the potatoes, cook the potatoes by adding to a large pot and covering with water, adding a pinch of kosher salt. Bring to a boil and boil for about 10-15 minutes. Then mash the potatoes with a fork or (as I did ) in the KitchenAid stand mixer. Mix in the fat free sour cream or creme fraiche, garlic and chopped parsley.

Sasha's Kitchen: Miso Glazed Salmon with Passion Fruit-Ginger Glazed Carrots

Sasha's Kitchen: Summer Vegetable Risotto

I can't exactly take all the credit for this dish. I had planned on making a summer vegetable risotto, after the spring vegetable risotto I made a while back was so good. I bought some great locally grown vegetables for the summer dish, but asked my mom and my husband to execute the actual recipe, since Brad is a skilled risotto maker and my mom was visiting. The end result was absolutely spectacular, and luckily we have great notes on each person's contributions to this dish. The vegetables were prepared perfectly, a lovely al dente, and this might just be the best risotto yet at our house - a true feast!

Garden Fresh Summer Vegetable Risotto

2 cups arborio risotto rice

6 cups low sodium chicken stock

4 carrots, chopped

2 ears of corn, shucked

1 cup of fresh english peas

5 scallions, thinly diced

2 yellow zucchini, thinly sliced

zest of two lemons

1 cup of white wine

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 onion, diced

1 heaping tablespoon of diced garlic
1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme

Saute the garlic and onions in about three tablespoons of olive oil. Cook for several minutes until the onions are translucent. Then add the arborio rice in three tablespoons of olive oil. Then add the wine and cook over medium heat until half of the white wine is gone and dissipated. Add one cup of chicken stock and allow to reduce before adding the next cup of chicken stock. Keep adding and reducing the chicken stock, one cup at a time until fully reduced and the risotto is fully cooked. In total you will add about six cups of chicken stock. 

The carrots were sliced and steamed in a steamer until almost tender. The peas were separately then steamed in the steamer, also until almost tender. Then, briefly saute the corn kernels in a scant tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the zucchini lightly, separately, in a tablespoon of olive oil. 

Add the vegetables to the risotto. Then mix in the thinly sliced scallions, thyme and lemon zest and a half of cup of grated parmesan cheese, and serve hot.

Sasha's Kitchen: Summer Vegetable Risotto

Sasha's Kitchen: Carrot Cake (Kosher Cookbook Review)

I have been meaning to make a carrot cake for some time. So when I received a copy of Paula Shoyer's The Kosher Baker from the publisher for review on A Kitchen In Brooklyn, and saw a delicious and healthy recipe for carrot cake, I new it was time. Although I am Jewish, I don't keep strictly Kosher. But I certainly do appreciate Kosher cooking and baking. Plus, one of the best aspects of this book is also how healthy the recipes are. Because they are all intended to be parve (non-dairy), none of them us any butter, which makes for some healthier baking. I confess that my carrot cake is not fully non-dairy because I used low-fat cream cheese in the frosting (as I was unable to locate the non-dairy cream cheese that the book recommended). The recipe was so good that maybe I will try that next time using Tofutti or something.

Carrot cake is great for the fall - fresh carrots and all that cinnamon make for a lovely, fall spiced dessert. The book recommends making two cakes, trimming them, slicing them in half and making a four layer carrot cake. I confess that even though I bake extensively, I am not skilled at cake trimming. I always mean to try it out, but in the end, every time, I just make two cakes and it tastes the same anyhow. So, my adaption of the recipe from the book is for two separate carrot cakes. But if you're in the mood, feel free to trim them into a layer cake!

Paula Shoyer's Kosher Carrot Cake
Cake(s)
PAM spray
4 large egfs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tsps vanilla exract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsps ground cinnimon
3 cups peeled and thinly grated carrots

Cinnamon Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
12 oz parve cream cheese (I used regular low-fat cream cheese this time)
1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
2 1/4 tsps ground cinnamon
3 T of hney
7 cups of confectioner's sugar (I always cut down this ingredient in frosting so I used 4 cups and it was still great!)
1 1/2 T soy milk

To make this recipe, first preheat the oven to 350. Grease 2 8 or 9 inch round pans with PAM spray. In your mixer (or in a bowl using an egg beater), beat the eggs and sugars for a few minutes until thickened. Add the oil, orange juice and vanilla and mix on low speed to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the flours, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl with the eggs and sugar and mix on low speed gently to combine. Then, do the same with the rest of the dry ingredients. 

Grate and measure the carrots into  small threads and add to the batter, mixing well.  Divide the batter between the two prepared pans. Bake for about 40 minutes until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Personally, I think it is probably best to bake the cakes one at a time in the oven.

Allow the cakes to cool completely. If you are going to trim the cakes and slice in half to make a four layer cake, now would be the time! if you are not going to trim the cakes like this, you may need less frosting, so it would likely be okay to cut the frosting recipe in half (if you are making two separate cakes  like I did).

To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese, vanilla, cinnamon and honey well to combine. Add in about 4 cups of confectioner's sugar and beat until it forms a frosting (much the same was as cupcake icing). The book also makes a good point - wrap plastic wrap around the top of the mixer when you do this so you do not get sprayed in a white snowfall of confectioner's sugar! Add the soy milk and beat for 30 seconds until the frosting looks creamy. 

Last, frost the cakes accordingly - either in layers or separately. If you are trimming, you will want to trim the sides of the cake as well. I simply frosted two separate cakes using a spatula.

This cake tasted great - the cake was delicious with the cinnamon and carrots, and nice and moist! And the frosting was sweet, cinnamony and delicious! I will certainly be trying more healthy, Kosher recipes from this great cookbook soon, so stay tuned!

Sasha's Kitchen: Carrot Cake (Kosher Cookbook Review)

Sasha's Kitchen: Wild Salmon with Organic Baby Carrot-Ginger Puree

My original plans for this dish involved making a celery root puree, which is something I have often enjoyed at restaurants (recently inspired by a great dinner at Mas Farmhouse in Manhattan for my husband's birthday).  I had ordered a large celery root from Fresh Direct recently and what arrived was a large root vegetable that looked like a brain.  I didn't have time to figure out how to turn it into a puree during the week so I went for a simpler organic baby carrot puree this time with the salmon.  I'll do the celery root tomorrow night with scallops.

My plans for this dish were to showcase wild organic salmon with some fresh seasonal vegetables.  I decided to use organic baby carrot for the puree, which I prepared with ginger and a bit of cinnamon.  Then, I added local fresh golden beets from the organic market.  I am a huge beet fan, but I truly love golden beets because they're just as delicious and sweet but they don't turn everything in creation magenta so they are much easier to work with.  They are also perfectly in season this time of year.  If you prefer, I think this dish would also taste great with steamed asparagus.

Sasha's Salmon with Organic Baby Carrot - Ginger Puree
2 filets (7 oz each) or organic fresh salmon
16 oz (one bag) of organic baby carrots
3 tsp of minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 lemon
white wine to taste
2 golden beets
small amount of arugula

To prepare the puree, cook the carrots in your steamer until soft. Puree in a blender or food processor with the cream, chicken broth and ginger.  Stir in the cinnamon to taste and set aside.

To prepare the salmon, I simply cut up a lemon and baked the fish (at about 350F) with sliced lemon on top, and poured some white wine over the top of the fish.

To prepare the beets, I boiled them for about half an hour.  Then, I cooled them in some cold water and rubbed the skin off and sliced the golden beets.  If you are using asparagus instead, you can simply steam the asparagus and add a bit of lemon juice.  I plated the fish in the puree with the beets, and garnished with a bit of fresh arugula.

Salmon

Sasha's Kitchen: Wild Salmon with Organic Baby Carrot-Ginger Puree

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto - Curried Egg Salad

Sometimes the best inspirations come randomly. I was at my parents looking for a quick lunch on the way out shopping with my mother. I decided on an egg salad, but wanted one with some pizazz! I started adding flavors I thought would taste great together and they did, to my great satisfaction.

Curried Egg Salad

1 boiled egg, whole
1 boiled egg, white only
1 tbsp fat free mayo (I used fat free Miracle Whip)
1 tsp chutney (I used Mrs. Ball's)
1 tbsp carrot, chopped fine
1 tbsp cucumber, chopped fine
1/4 avocado chopped
1/4 sprig green onion, chopped fine
1 tbsp raisins, reconstituted in hot water for about a minute
1 tbsp chopped toasted walnuts
1/4 - 1/2 tsp turmeric, depending on taste
salt to taste

Mash the egg, mayo, chutney, turmeric and salt until it is the desired consistancy to your taste. Fold in the other ingredients and enjoy!

Yield about 1 cup

I put this on crackers but it's great on its own or spread on a sandwich. I made enough for two people, but feel free to increase the amounts as needed.

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto - Curried Egg Salad

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Roasted Garlic Rosemary Potatoes and Spicy Salmon En Papillote with Squash and Carrot Base

Seriously, en papillote is one of my favorite ways to make fish. And it's so, so easy. Much easier than it sounds.

Tonight, before the fiance and I leave for Valentine's Day to his cabin in central Idaho (near Salmon), where there is no internet and no cell service, I made something that I knew would appeal to both him and me. This is a bit on the complicated side, but the gist of it is using a technique you're comfortable with (or getting comfortable with), with whatever ingredients you have on hand.

I started with about five medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into approximately 1-inch cubes. I later decided that I should have cut the potatoes into smaller pieces; it would have created a better mixture of crispy edges and soft centers.
Into a small Cuisinart blender went two large sprigs of rosemary, stripped off their stems, with almost an entire head of roasted garlic. I added about half a cup of olive oil, and 1/3 to 1/2 cup of white wine. I pureed that all together until the rosemary was less than half a centimeter long in its largest pieces. I used about half this sauce on the potatoes, and the rest went into reserve for a future dish.

Once the sauce was blended, I tossed the potatoes in it, and set those aside in a large baking pan -- large enough that each piece of potato was touching the bottom of the pan. This went into a 425 oven for about 20-30 minutes until I was finished preparing the fish (and watching parts of the Olympic opening ceremonies). I turned the potatoes about halfway between placing them in the oven and adding the fish to the oven.

Separately, I added to the small Cuisinart blender the two halves of a medium-sized acorn squash from Idaho's Bounty that I cooked almost a week ago. That had been merely halved, filled with butter, brown sugar and a little salt, pepper and chili powder, and baked until soft. In addition to the squash filling, I added about one canned chipotle pepper (hard to tell, since once they're canned they break apart). This is important -- it gave the final product much of its bite.

I bought two pieces of salmon that were cut from about 2/3 down the length of the fish towards its tail. By buying two pieces that were approximately the same width (2-3 inches) and same thickness, I ensured that the fish would cook approximately evenly throughout the en papillote process. I believe they were previously frozen Atlantic salmon. Certainly not my favorite, but what's available in the middle of February in Idaho, and better than some of the alternatives.

Using my madeline (a really, really fun tool, and not too expensive -- I'd recommend the investment if you have the space), I julienned two smallish sweet carrots from Idaho's Bounty, and then hand-julienned two red jalapeno peppers from Albertson's. I'd never seen red jalapenos before, which is why I sprang for them instead of some other hot pepper.

Cutting the parchment paper into hearts, per Epicurious, I began with a layer of the squash-chipotle mixture, then topped that with the julienned carrot-jalapeno mixture, and placed the fish on top of all that. I sprinkled the fish with fresh-ground black pepper, fresh-ground sea salt, and drizzles of a red wine reduction (half a bottle of red wine simmered until it was about half a cup). Winding the parchment paper into packets, I put them on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven.
(And yes, I realize that in the middle picture up there, my drizzling of the red wine reduction created something halfway between a Roswell-esque alien and a cartoon character. Totally unintentional, I assure you).

Until they came out of the oven after 15 minutes, I didn't realize that I hadn't boosted the oven from 425 to 475, which I should have. Good thing I tested my piece of salmon, and put the packets back in the oven for another 10 minutes, because when I took them out first, they were underdone. Properly, the re-ovening should have been closer to 6 minutes, because by the time the packets were done, the thinnest ends of the pieces of fish were rather too dry. Still good though, and the middles were beautifully self-steamed.

My favorite bits of the finished dish were the potatoes, which despite being too thick had some gorgeous crispiness on the edges, and the underbase of the salmon (the squash/carrot/jalepeno). It verged on being too spicy, but only *just* not too much for my palate (which was tragically blanded by four years at boarding school).
For an accompanying beverage, I went with a Moscatto (a cheap one, to be sure, as I cannot afford luxury sparkling wines), which was beautifully sweet and bubbly atop the spicy thickness of the main dish. Highly recommended pairing.

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Roasted Garlic Rosemary Potatoes and Spicy Salmon En Papillote with Squash and Carrot Base

Kelly's Kitchen in Chicago: When life gives you 5 lbs of carrots for $.98

After living in Chicago for 7 months, one of my colleagues let me in to a secret. She was eating a ginormous peach with juice dripping down her chin- she said "I got this at Stanley's and it was 10 for a dollar!"

About 6 months later, I finally got over there, and she wasn't kidding! This place always has such crazy deals. It so crowded, I try not to go when it's daylight. Once, at 8 at night, the parking lot was completely full of cab drivers doing their shopping. I'm not sure what's up with that.

It's completely changed the way I cook. Just this week, they had tangerines on sale 7 for a dollar and 3 heads of cauliflower for a dollar, and 5 lb bags of organic carrots for $.98. Game on!

This is one of my favorite recipes. I love simple soups and this one is particularly good. It was published online in the New York Times recipes for health Pureed Carrot Soup.

Things that I think make this especially good are

1. The onions are sauteed for 5 min and the carrots are added and sauteed for 10 minutes in a little butter and olive oil, which develops some deep and caramelized flavors before adding the broth.

2. The thickening agent for this soup is different than most- arborio rice, which gives it a heartier consistency.

But I'm just happy when I get to use my immersion blender. I love that thing.

My dad likes to make this too, only thickened with a potato and with some creme and ginger added. He's the one who got me the immersion blender a few years ago. Thanks dad!

Check out some other fabulous carrot recipes from this site, including carrot-papaya cupcakes and carroty latkes.

Kelly's Kitchen in Chicago: When life gives you 5 lbs of carrots for $.98

Sasha's Kitchen: Ancho Chile Braised Lamb With Blue Corn Tortillas

One of the things I love most about living in America is the richness of its melting pot of cultural traditions, and its inherent diversity.  When each of our families came to America, we all brought our own cultural traditions, and those traditions gradually mixed into a constantly evolving American identity - and an ever changing American cuisine.  This reshaping of the American culinary identities, based on the cultural traditions of people from all parts of the United States (as well places outside of the United States, as the world becomes more global) is one of the reasons that I started this food website with different writers from places all over the United States and Canada.  Tonight, I noticed similar themes expressed in the epic Iron Chef America Battle tonight between Bobby Flay and Mario Batali that I watched while preparing this.  (We can save my obsession with the White House Kitchen Garden used in those recipes for another day).  I love cooking using all of these different traditions combined with traditional cuisine and not only my own heritage (Ashkanazi Jewish, Eastern European and Swiss).

Tonight's recipe uses one of the new featured indedients for the month of January on Akitcheninbrooklyn.com, lamb, prepared in a traditional way, by braising a boneless leg of lamb, mixed with flavors of the American Southwest.  If you are interested in other ways to prepare lamb, you can find my New Years Eve recipe for rack of lamb with fresh herbs here.  Inspired by Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook, I prepared a similar southwestner-inspired lamb, rubbed with ancho chile powder (which I must emphasize, is not spicy at all).  Chef Flay's recipe (which differs significantly from mine, but certainly inspired me) is on page 172 of his cookbook.  Both my recipe and his are attempts to combine a pretty traditional dish - leg of lamb - with flavors of the southwest, in a way that makes sense from a culinary-taste perspective.

Here are the ingredients that you will need for this recipe:

1 three pound boneless leg of lamb, trimmed of fat (I bought mine from my favorite butcher and Italian Market here in Park Slope, M&S Prime Meats)
3 T canola oil
two big handfulls of baby carrots
lots of ancho chile powder - at least 4-5 T (note: this is not spicy at all)
3 stalks of celery, cut up
1 large onion, diced
4 1/2 cups low sodium Chicken Stock
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 cup creme fraiche (or lowfat sour cream if you prefer)
Fried blue corn tortillas
Parsley for garnishing
Scallions for garnishing

First, like Bobby Flay in his recipe, I rubbed the leg of lamb on all sides with the ancho chile powder.  I used the powder sparingly to creat a full coat, so I cannot begin to quantify how much I used.  Ancho chile powder is not spicy - it is made from dried polambo peppers and has a raisin like taste.

Next, I heated the canola oil in my dutch oven on medium high heat, and seared the lamb on all sides, which took about 10 minutes.  Then I added the carrots, celery and onions to the pot and mixed for a minute or two.  Next, I added the braising solution - in this case the chicken stock, and seasoned sparingly with the thyme, bay leaf and rosemary.  I then put the entire pot in the oven at 350 F and cooked for about an hour and a half, until it was fork tender. 

Next, I removed the lamb and the vegetables and prepared the sauce.  (Actually, my husband Brad did this part, while I worked on the spiced-pumpkin creme brulee that I will be writing about in the next couple of days).  To prepare the sauce, we strained the liquid from the braising solution into a saucepan and boiled until reduced to a sauce for about 20 minutes.

As you can see from the picture, I served the dish in a blue corn tortilla, with scallions, parsley, creme fraiche and cojita cheese (which Bobby Flay described as a firm-textured Mexican cheese that is today generally made from cow's milk).  The carrots and celery are much to tasty to go to waste, and make a nice side dish.

You can purchase blue corn tortillas and fry them to serve, or if you prefer, it also makes a tasty lamb dish on its own with the vegetable side.

Sasha's Kitchen: Ancho Chile Braised Lamb With Blue Corn Tortillas

Sasha's Kitchen: Carrot Papaya Coconut Cupcakes

Carrots, a perfect winter-themed vegetable are one of the December ingredients on this site that our writers are working on incorporating into their recipes. I wanted to include carrots in my next cupcake recipe, while mixing up some tropical flavors. So, I decided to create a recipe for carrot papaya cupcakes, and wound up throwing in some coconut, which mixed nicely with the other flavors.

I enjoyed decorating these cupcakes as well. This time, I made a pretty matching buttercream, dyed to the perfect shade of peachy orange. I created miniature carrots out of marzipan to decorate each cupcake and used an unused watercolor brush (I like to do a lot of painting - acrylic, watercolor and oil)to paint the carrots using water-based food coloring. More complex marzipan (and fondant) painting projects, which I plan to do in the future, will require investing in some professional food colorings, which I plan to purchase at my local store that sells cooking and baking equipment when I go out tomorrow. This will be perfect for upcoming projects including fondant-marshmallow Santa peeps and dreidel/Christmas tree cookies with Royal icing.

At any rate, these cupcakes really are not difficult to make, so don't be intimidated by the photos. It is worth giving a try at home, even if you have never worked with marzipan before.

If you cannot find fresh papaya to make your puree, (it's not exactly in season but you should still be able to get it, since it's not like papayas are ever grown in New York anyhow) you can substitute mango or pineapple.

Sasha's Carrot Papaya Coconut Cupcakes

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup papaya chunks, pureed in a mini-prep or food processor
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
2/3 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup canola oil

I discovered that I only had organic baby carrots, which are quite difficult to grate with a peeler, unsurprisingly. To make the mix, combine the flour, coconut, baking powder and salt in one bowl. In a second bowl, combine the carrots, papaya puree, milk, sugar and melted butter. Combine all ingredients and fill your cupcake trays 2/4 to the top. I suggest using silicon cupcake trays with paper liners. This recipe should make about a dozen cupcakes.



I baked the cupcakes at an oven preheated to 350 F for about 28 minutes (took a little longer than I thought it would). You should test them with a toothpick or fork to make sure they are done on the inside.

While the cupcakes were baking, I molded little carrots with a top out of marzipan. I used a 50-50 mix of several drops of food coloring with several drops of water (slightly diluted) to create orange and green colors. I painted the carrots with a watercolor brush (one that had never been used in painting with watercolors!) I plan on experimenting in the future with more professional grade food colorings, but for this project, the grocery store standard food coloring did the trick.

After taking the cupcakes out of the oven they should be allowed to cool for at least 30 minutes. If you frost too soon, the frosting will melt on the cupcakes.
For my frosting, I decided to do a plain buttercream, which is the most common type of cupcake frosting. It is also exactly what the name implies - butter and sugar, and lots of both. So let's not confuse these cupcakes with anything too healthy just because I made them with fresh fruits and veggies. They are quite tasty and a great treat to serve at a party.

Simple Buttercream

2 sticks of butter
3 cups of confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
several drops of food coloring

First, beat the butter in an artisan stand mixer. You really cannot make buttercream without a stand mixer. Some people can do this using a hand mixer, but I never could because 1) I could not beat the butter to the right consistency and 2) food flies everywhere and it makes a colossal mess in the kitchen (literally - butter on the walls). You should beat the butter well on a high speed. Then add the three cups of confectioners sugar, which is loose powdered sugar. Don't press it in the cups, but keep it light and airy when measuring. Beat the two together until they form a frosting and keep beating beyond that for a minute or two at a high speed. It will take a couple minutes for the two to mix properly, as in the beginning it just looks like you added too much sugar. Then beat in the vanilla and add a few drops of food coloring. I chose to add three drops of yellow and 1 drop of red to make an orange colored buttercream.

To decorate the cupcakes, frost with a frosting bag fitted with either a plain or fluted tip, which will allow the cupcakes to have a really professional look to them. It's actually very easy to do and the frosting bags are inexpensive and surprisingly painless to clean when you are done.

Top with the marzipan carrot and enjoy! Next up: apple sorbet with poached quince shortcakes, so stay tuned.

Akitcheninbrooklyn.com is doing a roundtable on carrots for the month of December. For additional carrot recipes, click here for Amasea's carroty latkes or here for Amasea's sweet gingery carrots.

Sasha's Kitchen: Carrot Papaya Coconut Cupcakes

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Carroty Latkes

With a big bag of awesome organic carrots in the fridge, I couldn't stop with just one carrot recipe (by the way, in case you don't know, carrots should never be put near apples in the refrigerator -- it'll make the carrots hairy and bitter, just like Robin Williams' career).

It being Hanukkah time, I was inspired to make something vaguely latke-ish.
Into a bowl went half a diced white onion, two very large diced roasted garlic cloves, four small grated red potatoes, and a large grated carrot, and that got mixed. In went a couple tablespoons of almond flour and a couple of white flour, salt and pepper. It honestly could have used a little smoked paprika or hot pepper powder, a little zing to balance the flavor profile, but I didn't think of it.

Then we got to the eggs. Because it's utterly cold here, the chickens aren't laying, so I haven't been able to get eggs from our local growers' co-op, Idaho's Bounty. I got my usual backup store brand, Eggland's Best, but stupidly didn't open the carton until tonight. You can see what's coming.

I removed the eggs that weren't egg-white-glued to the walls of the carton, then used a knife to halve open the eggs that weren't broken but couldn't be removed, and used a spoon to scoop out what egg interiors I could before throwing the rest away. In total, I think approximately 4 and a half eggs got into my latke mix.

I started with a medium-heat fry pan, with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, and added my first batch. After some experimentation, I ended up on the higher end of medium-high by the last batch, with about half a tablespoon of olive oil per batch.

Being kind of a salt junkie (though don't think that means I'm absent a sweet tooth -- the fiance brought home white, dark and milk chocolate Lindor truffles on Saturday, and I've been having a really hard time staying out of them!), I topped the latkes with sour cream and sauerkraut. Which was absolutely perfect. The chilled pickled cabbage was utterly delicious atop the hot, crispy latkes.

So there you go, my carroty Hanukkah experiment. Now I need to figure out what to make for Kwanzaa!

For another latke recipe using sweet potato and lingonberry, click here.
Akitcheninbrooklyn.com is doing a roundtable on carrots for the month of December. For additional carrot recipes, click here for my Sweet Gingery Carrots.

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Carroty Latkes

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Sweet Gingery Carrots (as a side)

So I tried four new things tonight -- two mostly from a recipe, and two from my head.

The two from a recipe were basic white/wheat bread and mashed potatoes, out of Joy of Cooking. The two without were what I'm calling Sweet Ginger Carrots with Leeks, and Cream of Squash Soup. More about those last two later.


Potatoes:
Unfortunately, I decided to use my Cuisinart instead of a masher to make the potatoes, and they ended up being potato puree. I did originally try a ricer, but it was going so slowly that I gave up. I really need to learn how to properly use a ricer.
I should have gotten out my manual masher, but just didn't think about it, so into the Cuisinart the potatoes went. The flavor (check out that Joy of Cooking recipe -- it has garlic, celery, bay leaf, etc) was awesome, but the texture left much to be desired. I'll definitely remember that for the future.

Bread:
The bread is currently in the oven, but there were two major issues. The first is that it is very possible that I was using old yeast. And that, I've heard, is not a good thing -- your bread just doesn't rise. When I set the bread aside in a warm spot, it basically just didn't expand at all.
The second problem was that when I opened my white flour bag, it was full of gross bugs that looked to have been breeding there for a while *ICK!* Fortunately, I hadn't used it in a while, so I'm not too worried I've been downing, um, extra protein.
I sent the fiance to the store for some more white and threw the nasty flour in the trash, but my understanding is that timing is important when adding yeast to the dough, and I'd already done that with the wheat flour. So I had to leave the dough sitting for 20 minutes until he came back with more white flour. I'm blaming these two things for my imminent bread failure, and hoping to more successfuly explore baking further in the near future.
(P.S.: At the end of baking, the bread has good flavor, but is, as I expected, extremely dense -- if you end up with this problem someday, use as large a bread pan as you can, because the middle of the bread is good, but the crust is too thick. The small individual-loaf pans I used left too little good middle and too much thick crust.)

And now for the successes. W00t!

The carrots:
I sliced two large carrots to a medium thickness, and added them to a medium nonstick saute pan with about three tablespoons of butter, salt, pepper, half a diced white onion, a tablespoon or so of pinot noir, and about 2/3 tablespoon of pre-minced ginger. That pan got a lid, and about halfway through the cooking process I added about a tablespoon and a half of brown sugar -- late enough so it didn't caramelize too much and make everything too sticky/overbrowned.
In a separate pan I sauteed some leeks in Trader Joe's (OMG I miss Trader Joe's) black truffle oil and a little white wine, though I got distracted and let them go a mite too long, so a few sides of the leeks were a bit blackened (I threw out the worst pieces).

The soup:
Early in the day, I baked a squash (I think it was acorn, but I'm not certain, as I got a variety bag full of squash from our local growers' membership food co-op, Idaho's Bounty, and forgot what was in the bag). Halving the squash and removing the seeds, I put in the empty cavities about two or three tablespoons of butter, a heavy sprinkle of brown sugar, and a medium sprinkle of powdered red pepper, and baked that whole business until it was soft to a fork, probably a couple hours at 350. This is the easiest thing in the world, and there's so much you can do with the finished squash, I highly recommend it.
Later in the day, I sauteed a half-dozen diced raw garlic cloves, two large roasted garlic cloves, two large celery stems, a few slices of white onion, and salt and pepper. I put that and the scooped-out squash innards into the Cuisinart and pureed the whole mess with a tiny carton of heavy cream until smooth.
The puree was put in a medium pan on very low heat, and tasted as I was working on the other parts of the plate. It was tasting kinda meh, not complex enough, so I added some white wine and the juice from some canned chipotle peppers (probably half a tablespoon of chipotle juice total, for I'm guessing eight cups of soup). And that gave it the perfect heat -- enough to give it zing, but not so much that it overwhelmed the beautiful creamy squash flavor. I ended up topping it with some dried chives, which wasn't the right choice. Thinking back, I'd float a little citrus oil and some grated citrus peel, probably lemon, on top. Or perhaps some grated hard cheese of some kind, like an asiago, Jarlsberg or manchego (though that would be just for me, as the fiance isn't so fond of cheese). Or maybe fresh julienned Italian parsley. Mmmm...

Overall, the meal was a success: the soup and carrots definitely starred the show, enough that the weird potato texture almost got lost. Fortunately, there's some soup left, now waiting for another meal in the freezer. There were also left-over potatoes, which I'm eager to reinterpret in other contexts, perhaps as the plate base for some of the Lava Lake lamb sirloin tips I'll be getting from Idaho's Bounty on Wednesday. If I find something good to do with pureed potatoes, I'll let you know.

Akitcheninbrooklyn.com is doing a roundtable on carrots for the month of December. For additional carrot recipes, click here for my Carroty Latkes.

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Sweet Gingery Carrots (as a side)