Strawberry Shortcake

So yesterday was M's birthday, and initially I had planned to make Boston Cream Pie/Cake (I recently purchased round cake tins and a cake leveller, and I figured it'd be a good opportunity to give them a try). But since we were going to a friend's for dinner, I thought I'd take suggestions. The final outcome was this strawberry shortcake:

The recipe was surprisingly quick and easy, and the strawberry sauce so simple and divine...just sliced/mashed strawberries with a bit of sugar. However, the scones, while flaky and aromatic with a hint of sweet, failed to rise properly, so I'll need to look into tweaking the recipe or my method to improve the look and texture. We may just need to purchase a new canister of baking powder...

Recipe from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/StrawberryShortcakeprint.html

[UPDATE: Tried a new scone recipe and found to be much preferred: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/worlds-best-scones-from-scotland-to-the-savoy-to-the-us/detail.aspx]

SCONE INGREDIENTS

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (76 grams) cold unsalted butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) cream, half and half, or milk

STRAWBERRY SAUCE

2 pounds (900 grams) fresh strawberries
1/4 cup - 1/3 cup (50 - 65 grams) granulated white sugar (or to taste)

TOPPING

1 cup (240 ml) cold heavy whipping cream (double cream) (35-40% butterfat)
1 - 2 tablespoons (15-30 grams) granulated white sugar (or to taste)

SCONE METHOD: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in middle of oven.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.  Whisk together the egg, cream and vanilla extract and add to the flour mixture, mixing just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat or roll the dough into a 7 inch (18 cm) round. With a 3 inch (7 cm) round cookie cutter, cut out rounds and place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with a little cream. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of a scone comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack.

STRAWBERRY SAUCE: Wash, hull, and slice the strawberries. Place about one third of the strawberries in a large bowl and crush them with a potato masher or fork. Add the remaining sliced strawberries, along with the sugar. (The amount of sugar used will depend on how sweet the berries are.) Set aside to macerate at room temperature for about 30 to 60 minutes.

TOPPING: Chill the bowl and whisk in the freezer for about 15 - 30 minutes. Place the cream and sugar in the bowl and whip until stiff peaks form. The whipped cream can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for a few hours.

To Serve: Cut the scones in half and place the bottom half of the scone (soft side up) on a dessert plate. Top with some of the strawberries and whipped cream. Place the top half of the scone on the strawberries. Top with whipped cream and a few more strawberries. If there is any juice from the strawberries, drizzle a little over the top of the scone. Serve immediately.

Serves about 6-8 people.

Rhubarb sauce and Bean dip

Rhubarb sauce and bean dip....two completely unrelated dishes, but both amazing nonetheless.

At the Farmer's Market no the Square last Saturday, I picked up a few stalks of rhubarb. They weren't particularly nice-looking, but I figured it'd be good as a taster -- it's been a while since I last cooked up a batch of rhubarb sauce.

RHUBARB SAUCE

Rhubarb, rinsed
Sugar
Butter (optional)
Water
Custard (for serving)

The important thing is to make sure you remove the leaves completely -- they're poisonous. The pink and white parts of the stalk are perfectly good to use. Chop them into 1/4 or 1/2 inch pieces and toss them into a sauce pan or pot with a bit of water (add more as needed, depending on how thick you want your sauce to be). Cook until you can still see the pieces, but they've fallen apart and are mushy and all things nice. I continually poured in sugar until it tasted good...rhubarb is exceptionally tart, so this is is one of the few dishes where it isn't possible to cut or skimp on the sugar. I also tossed in a pat of butter to round out the taste. I'll be serving it with Ambrosia custard...and maybe also frozen custard! This is Wisconsin, after all.

This bean dip recipe was featured on the back of the refried beans can. Since I had all the ingredients on hand, I figured, why not? And the results are fantastic! I'll definitely be serving this all summer.

BEAN DIP

1 can refried beans
1 cup salsa
1 cup cheese

Method: Heat in microwave stirring every 1 min til hot. That's IT!

The anti-everything: banoffee pie

Condensed milk ==> dulce de leche. Just heat and stir, right? Well, yes...if you have the patience to sit and stir continually for nearly 2 hours! 

(The alternative was to dunk the entire can into a vat of boiling water for about 3 hours, but I wasn't about to risk combustibles in my apartment. Maybe I'll try the slow-cooker method next time).

Regardless, the result? A sinfully delicious banoffee pie:

I used the cheaper Burton's -- tastes fine.

Ignore my "double boiler". At the start, the condensed milk was pale and soupy

This is about 2 hours in. It needed about another hour to get a nicer golden brown caramel color, but it had already lost a lot of liquid via this method. A pressure cooker or slow cooker might yield better results, if you don't want to boil the sealed can.

DULCE DE LECHE = SIN.

Layered in a extra bananas -- the dulce de leche is quite sweet

I don't own a springform pan, but this 9x9 worked reasonably well

Not very photogenic, but thoroughly made up in taste!

Last but not least, a non-banana version, for the allergic M

In the future, I may add a hint of confectioner's sugar to the whipped heavy cream, and a teaspoon of vanilla. I think coffee or dark chocolate dusting on the top would be nice as well, especially if crunchy (like oreo cookie crumbs). One version called for chocolate IN the whipped cream, which would likely be delicious as well... and with that, we're well on our way to diabetes and clogged arteries!

Last but not least, I don't like the dulce de leche to be chilled when serving this dish (it hardens a little, like caramel). It should be chilled enough to set, then brought out to near room temperature. The bananas should be chilled and sliced immediately before serving, along with the whipped heavy cream.

[recipe modified from Food Network UK]

Banoffee Pie

1 can sweetened condensed milk (about 400g)
12 crushed digestive biscuits
1/2 stick butter, melted
2+ large ripe bananas
1 pint double cream
Ground cinnamon
Dark chocolate, grated

Method

1) Pour condensed milk into double boiler and cook over low heat for about 1.5 hours, stirring frequently. Be careful not to burn as it sticks to the bottom of the pan.

2) Crush the digestives (I hammered the biscuits in a plastic ziploc, but the original recipe called for a food processor -- pulse the butter in). Pour crumbs and melted butter into pan (knead until mixed, if you didn't use the processor) and press with your hands or a measuring cup to evenly distribute on the bottom of the pan.

3) Chill to set for about 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

4) Pour the dulce de leche over the digestive biscuit base. Spread evenly. Slice the peeled bananas and arrange over the top covering the entire surface. Whip the cream until firm and spread over the top. Sprinkle top with cinnamon and grated chocolate. Serve.

A twist on an old stand-by...

PBJ...sushi! Used sunflower seed butter rather than peanut butter. It tastes OK, but I prefer peanut butter. Next time we'll try cashew butter...I'm sensitive to almonds.

A snowy morning.

Bottom tier (330 mL): Onigiri (pre-packaged; reheated from frozen). Didn't have lettuce, so I lined the tier with leftover parchment paper.

Top tier (270 mL): Canned greens, Southern style; basil-tomato-provolone chicken balls.

The frozen onigiri and chicken balls are from Trader Joe's. I've had the chicken balls before, which are great -- we can pretend they're grilled on a stick, street-stall style! I'll edit when I can comment on how the onigiri fare.

[Edit]
Pretty good for reheated rice -- a little on the chewy side, but I rather like it. Tastes like they brushed La Choy all 'round the outside, though, so in the future will avoid pairing with the highly flavorful/salted chicken balls.

Personal criticisms? This bento lacks color, personality. It only appears appetizing if you're really hungry!

Random sentimentality.

Yesterday, Maki at Just Bento (the Queen of bento blogs) wrote a post explaining the differences between "bento" and "lunch box". At the bottom of this wonderful post, she included a Tokyo Gas commercial -- one of a few "sentimental food-and-family-love" style adverts from the company. I like to say I'm not generally one for sentimentality, but man, all the ones I saw really hit home.

And then I had a craving for tamagoyaki, which I don't even like. Go figure. Here's today's bento:

Bottom tier (330 mL): Brown rice (reheated from frozen); umeboshi; a sprinkling of gomashio.

Top tier (270 mL): Canned greens, Southern style; tamagoyaki-wanna-be omelette.

Also in the bag is a little container of plain organic yogurt topped with triple berry granola for breakfast, now that I've shifted my work hours an hour forward. The box-and-bag set also came with a water bottle, and was purchased from Loft in Bangkok all together for about $22.

Other tidbits:

As I was riding the train to work this morning, I attempted to peer into the various lunch arrangements folks had made for the day. The styles ranged from tupperware unceremoniously stuffed inside a plastic Wal-Mart bag to an insulated lunch bag to a neatly-packed clear plastic tote with lunch for 2 inside.

Obviously, the only one I could see inside was the plastic tote, which contained a sufficient but somehow unexciting lunch of a sandwich, bag of chips, large soft cookie, and a granola bar. This is pretty standard fare if you consider what a "normal" American lunch might include, or what a caterer might offer in their boxed lunch menu (...albeit for 3x what it should cost). The only discrepancy, in my opinion anyway, is the lack of 1 piece of whole fruit.

I was also struck by the fact that this lunch, despite seeming so standard, is not very healthy! (M made an observation yesterday that I'm strangely quite health-conscious. Well, can't say I don't think about it or don't try, anyway...)

Chicken Cornbread Pie

Happy New Year!

Today marks the first day of the new semester, and tomorrow it's back to work for me. I've been exceptionally fortunate, having taken a long stretch of vacation in November, followed by a few weeks working remotely prior to and following the holidays since our office is undergoing extensive renovation.

Without any new bentos to post, I did write a new year's resolution to start preparing/consuming more complex carbohydrates/grains this year, along with more fresh produce. So far we've been doing pretty well. We'll see if we can keep it up, though -- it's going to be an exceedingly busy/stressful next few months.

In the meantime, here's a fantastically easy recipe modified from Food.com:

Cornbread Chicken Pot Pie (Food.com #97946)

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of chicken soup

1 (8 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained

2 cups cubed cooked chicken or 2 cups cooked turkey

1 (8 1/2 ounce) package corn muffin mix

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In 9-inch pie plate mix soup, corn, and chicken.

3. In a separate bowl, combine corn muffin mix, milk, and egg.

4. Pour over chicken mixture.

5. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden.