New Zealand Spinach Flan; And I Baked Blueberry-White Chocolate Chip Cookies!

This came out very light in texture and pleasant to the eye.

This past Saturday, Kat and I attended a Backyard Crop Swap, where we gave away citrus and took with us some greens, including New Zealand spinach, a milder-tasting leaf than regular spinach.  We also received a large-leafed green that is tart to the taste, and is used sparingly to flavour other things.  I don't remember the name of it, but I added a couple leaves to the spinach and onion:

New Zealand Spinach Flan

about four to six ounces of New Zealand spinach leaves, washed and dried
several green onions
about 8 cubic inches of sharp cheddar (measure and cut before shredding), shredded
4 jumbo eggs
about 1/2 cup pasteurized egg whites
about 1/2-3/4 cup of buttermilk
1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Heat oil in large pan or wok (larger surface area is better).  Add spinach leaves and green onion and sauté over medium heat.  Keep cooking on medium heat until most of the water evaporates from the leaves.  This will take a while, depending on how wide your pan is.

Take out a glass 8x14" baking pan with about 2" high sides.  Butter the bottom and sides of the pan liberally.  When spinach and onions are almost completely dry, spread them on the bottom of the pan.  Cover with shredded cheese.

Beat the eggs and egg whites.  Add buttermilk and continue beating.  Season with nutmeg, ground white pepper, celery seeds, and a pinch of salt.  Pour over everything, making sure you coat the top surfaces of all of the cheese.

Bake for about 45 minutes.  The top will be a nice golden color with spots of brown.  Cool for several minutes before cutting into squares for serving.

The flan came out really well.  I also baked a batch of blueberry-white chocolate chip cookies, mixing dried ginger into the batter to give it a hint of flavour.  The original recipe calls for adding chopped crystallized ginger, but I didn't have any in the place.  When I'd made them before, with the crystallized ginger, the cookies are really quite delicious.

Later in the afternoon, I followed Alton Brown's recipe for Seedy Crisps (the recipe is on the Food Network site) and they came out well, too.  This morning, I concocted a batch of hummus to go with the crackers, since the crackers have sesame seeds as well as poppy seeds.  I wish I had an eggplant to make more baba ganoush, but I don't, so I'll just look for a recipe for butternut squash, since I still have two aging butternut squashes on the kitchen counter, looking forlorn in the company of the pumpkin we'd received as part of our share in either October or November.  Good thing winter squashes keep so well!

I just joined a Meetup that is called 2 Pages.  Members meet weekly to read their writing out loud, and receive criticism and encouragement from the rest of the group.  It sounds like a good way to keep my writing practice up, especially fiction writing, since my writing on here is definitely in the non-fiction category.

In other news, I've managed to pick up Peter's cold, which consists mainly of a sore throat and raspy coughing.  I feel a little tired, but otherwise all right.  I hope it passes quickly because I want to get back to the gym.

I phoned the Department of Rehabilitation and my appointment to meet with a counselor is not scheduled until the second week of April.  I guess they must have quite a backlog there, since I think I gave them pretty open availability.  They chose the late morning of the 9th.  Until then, I'll just keep doing what I've been doing, which amounts to some writing, some reading, cooking, baking, and thinking about what the next step may be.  I think at this point, I'm able to rule out becoming a pastry chef, but not only because I was warned away from becoming a pastry chef by a younger single mother at a Meetup who'd gone to school to become a pastry chef and is now unemployed.

Like I told a friend, I think I might enjoy baking too much to turn it into a business.

Blood Orange Scones

I just made these this afternoon to go with my afternoon hot beverage.  They're really quite nice.

Ingredients:

1	blood orange
2	clementines
1	tangerine
3 c.	a-p flour
½ - 1 t	salt
1 T	baking powder
1 c.	brown sugar
¼ lb.	butter
18 oz.	ricotta cheese
2 t.	vanilla extract
1 t.	almond extract
¼ c.	beaten egg white (from carton)

Directions:

Zest and juice all fruit. Should have just shy of one cup of juice.  Set aside.

Combine flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350º F. Line baking two baking sheets with silicone liners or parchment.

Start beating the butter in a stand mixer until it softens a bit. Add ricotta and continue to blend until it reaches a fairly consistent consistency (I know, I know...).

Add sugar and continue beating until the sugar is incorporated. Add extracts and egg white, keeping the mixer going to fully incorporate everything.

Blend in zest and juices. Scrape bowl.

Add flour mixture in a few additions. There may be some left-over flour mixture. Mix in as much of the dry ingredients as possible (with a silicone spatula).  It will be a very dry batter.

Drop by heaping soupspoonfuls onto lined baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes, then swap pans, switching their orientation 180º. Bake an additional 12-13 minutes, or until they start to brown.

Cool completely on cooling racks and store in a paper bag at room temperature.

I had originally intended to bake cookies this afternoon, since our cookie jar is empty, but made these yummy scones instead.  Since the scones are being kept in a paper sack, there is still the empty cookie jar to contend with...

Hmmm... Maybe I'll actually look up a cookie recipe!  But of course, I'll improvise, as I often do...

This Week's CSA Share Included Strawberries, Collards, Kale, Beets, and Carrots

I've cooked the Collards into a soup using Better Than Bouillon for flavour, though there are also "bubble" onions (they resemble green onions but are much more bulbous, thus, the name) and several cloves of garlic that I sliced and sautéed in grapeseed oil prior to adding the thinly-sliced greens.  I boiled them, then brought out the wand blender.  I blended only some of it, for I thought it might be nice to have some strips of the greens in the soup.

I really only made the soup for tonight, because the last soup I'd made (leek, potato, and cauliflower) ended up growing after being left out for a day after it was made.  It's really too bad, because it was a very nice, creamy, tasty soup.  I can make it again sometime, when the price of leeks is again palatable.

The carrots will likely be turned into a cream soup (or at least a blended soup), and the beets will taste really good roasted.  We've gotten into the habit of roasting beets and fennel when we get them in our share.  Roasting is a simple and delicious way to serve a lot of veggies.  Might even roast a few of the carrots, too.

I asked Kat if I should cook the strawberries (we received two dry pints), or whether she thinks we can just eat them without turning them into something.  She suggested strawberry-lemon curd ice cream, but since Liz and Chris still have plenty of their portion of the lemon curd ice cream we'd made last week, it's unlikely that we'll be making ice cream again soon enough to use these strawberries.  I'm considering making lemon curd tarts topped with strawberries.  That might work.  I'll let you know if I decide on that option.

Peter made a puff pastry the other evening.  He intends to make pasties, not unlike filled croissants, I imagine.  The exciting part will be learning what he will use to fill them.  We bought a few pastries from the Vietnamese market in Little Saigon this weekend and froze most of them (we ate one of each kind, chicken and pork).  It was a pleasant drive up and visit with My Tran, the organizer for the Meetup (Asian Foodies).  Peter reiterated that he likes My Tran because she's so straightforward.  I agreed, saying that I like how practical and therefore straightforward she is.  Something she and her father, who came with her, ate but we did not try, were fertilized eggs.  I don't know whether they were duck eggs or chicken eggs.  Peter said that the embryos were developed enough to be recognizable as animals as opposed to the more sterile-looking ova.  He wondered if My Tran ate it on purpose because she knew he'd be watching her eat it.  I hadn't noticed, so obviously it was something that meant something to him, even if it didn't disgust him outright...

Moist Meyer Lemon Cake with Coconut Powder

I made this tonight:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c	coconut powder
1 1/4 c	a-p flour
1/2 t	salt
1 t	baking soda
about 3/4 c	Meyer lemon juice, from 2-3 lemons
	zest from one large Meyer lemon
1 c	butter-flavored Crisco (veg. shortening)
1	jumbo egg
1/4 c	egg white (Pasteurized)
1 c	sugar (granulated white)
1/2 t	ground (dried) ginger
1 t	vanilla extract
1 t	almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift together a-p flour, baking soda, salt, and ginger.

Place shortening into the bowl of a stand mixer and start beating it until it softens and starts to form a layer on the interior of the bowl.  Add sugar steadily, allowing it to mix into the shortening, creating a moist sandy mixture.  Scrape the bowl, then continue mixing on medium speed while adding whole egg and additional egg white.  Scrape the bowl again, then let the mixer mix while adding the coconut powder in two additions.  Scrape the bowl again, then add lemon zest and juice, and both extracts.  Allow the batter to mix for a while to incorporate more moisture into the coconut powder. Scrape the bowl again, then add the dry ingredients all at once, mixing the batter on medium (I had my KitchenAid on 4) until it becomes fluffy and light.  Pour into a nonstick 9" square pan and smooth top.  

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean but you can still hear the cake sizzling when you take it out. Allow cake to cool on a rack for ten minutes, then use s silicone spatula to ease the sides of the cake from the pan.  

Cut into 16 squares, and serve either warm or at room temperature, with ice cream or mildly sweetened whipped heavy cream.  This cake has a fine crumb and tastes deliciously lemony.  Enjoy!

PS.  If you want to experience a total lemon-overload, top the cake with fresh lemon curd!

Dive!

This evening, I will take the bus (964) to Fuddrucker's for games with SDBG.  I will beg other attendees for a lift home, as my car is parked on the street.  If I take it to Fudd's, it's not unlikely that I'll not find another parking space for the night that will be anywhere too close to home.

The carpark at my condo is being repaved.  Not re-tarred, but actually repaved.  The asphalt is being dug up and the soil underneath will be fortified before fresh concrete is poured and asphalt laid on top to form the finish surface.  At least that's the way they'll do it if they're going to do it properly, but I have my doubts as to whether the new paving job will be done well...

Anyway, that's the residential news from my neck of the woods.  Something that I look forward to doing tomorrow is diving at La Jolla Shores in the morning.  I packed (most of) our dive gear in the back of my car and it's ready to go.  The only things I could not find were Peter's gloves and hood.  He'll look for them before coming over to spend the night.  The other thing I didn't pack was his camera setup, as it's kind of a "thing" in itself and requires him to set it up to make sure it's ready to go.  Who knows, though?  He might not take the camera, depending on conditions, though he's much more gung-ho about diving than I am and will happily wade into surf that would discourage me if not wiping me out before I get beyond it.  I remember one dive in which I lost my mask the first time getting in, and ended up borrowing a mask from another dive buddy, Jackie, to make the dive.  I've lost my share of gear to the ocean, for sure, if not to lightfingered divers on boats I've been on...

I've been diving once this year (last week!), and Peter's not been diving since before Thanksgiving. We're looking forward to a boat dive near the end of this month.  It'll be a day trip departing from Long Beach (I think) to a couple/few oil rigs, upon which there is abundant sea life, including scallops, some of which I'm hoping to harvest and taste.  First, though, I'll need to find myself a new dive knife, as mine was lost from its sleeve on my drysuit when I had my neck seal replaced last year...

I need to replace my dive knife and my backup light (I lost mine on a boat about a month after buying it, which was a great disappointment).  I will look online.  I'll write about the dive if anything worth noting occurs.

Macaroons

Coconut Cashew Macaroons

Ingredients:

1/2 cup egg whites (pasteurized from a carton is ok)
2 cups confectioners' sugar
12 oz. of sweetened flake coconut (whole bag)
1 cup cashew meal (available at Trader Joe's)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º F.  Line baking sheet with silicone liners or parchment.
Beat egg whites with confectioners' sugar until it forms a thin syrup.  Add coconut and mix well.  Stir in cashew meal, making sure all of it is evenly incorporated.

Using a quarter cup measure, scoop out individual macaroons and place them on baking sheet.  They will not spread, but might leak a little egg white around them, so leave a little space between.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until they develop a brown tips on top and have lost their gloss.

Cool on the baking sheet for about an hour, then keep in airtight container (with waxed paper between them if stacking) until ready to eat.

I made these the other day when the egg whites I was beating in the KitchenAid would not form peaks (I'd originally planned to make meringues).  I decided to improvise with flaked coconut and cashew meal, and these came out pretty well.  If you prefer your macaroons less sweet, you can easily leave out some of the sugar.

Broccoli Flan for Breakfast, and the Creation of Lemon Curd Tarts

This morning, I was up early (say, around 4 am), so I took out both two small bunches of broccoli and the head of cauliflower.  I steamed both, then arranged the broccoli spears and slices (of stalk) into a glass 9" pie pan (Pyrex).  I shredded some cheddar cheese (white, from Sprouts) and sprinkled it over the broccoli.  I then beat four jumbo eggs (probably close to a half dozen "large" eggs), added enough heavy cream to make the custard equal to about 3 cups total, then added a few seasonings: freshly ground white pepper, paprika, rubbed sage, and some freshly shaved nutmeg and a sprinkling of celery seeds.  I poured the custard over everything, making sure I poured over the cheese and the broccoli all over, so that all of it had a light coating when I put it into the toaster oven, which I preheated to 350F.  It baked for about forty-five minutes.  When I took it out, the to was golden brown and slightly crusty (the cheese having floated to the top of the custard).  I allowed it to cool to room temperature. then cut a couple wedges out of it for breakfast when Kat finally emerged from her room.  The cauliflower, which is now cooked and cooled, will be ready to be mashed and/or roasted at around 350F, with butter lightly brushed onto it.

I cut unsalted butter (half pound) into an equal weight of unbleached a-p flour.  The mixture appeared quite crumbly when I added the grated zest of two small blood oranges.  I then froze the batter while I juiced the oranges and cooled the juice in the fridge.  Using about a half cup of juice, I formed a batter ball which I returned to the fridge for at least an hour and a half.

I preheated the oven (the tart pan doesn't fit into the toaster oven) to 400F, and rolled out the batter into a thickness between a 16th and an 8th of an inch, out of which I cut circles with a glass.  I pressed the batter circles into a tart pan we found in Bladen (outside Newcastle) during our visit that straddled the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I baked the first tray of the rough puff pastry without any filling;  the second batch had the lemon curd already scooped into them.  After taking the tarts out of the oven, I topped each with a few fresh blueberries.  They looked (and tasted) quite pleasant.   During the course of the afternoon, I snacked on about another half dozen tarts (yikes!).  Kat had more flan during the afternoon, I made a small batch (just a single cup, or a half pint) of mixed lemon curd (standard and Meyer), which I canned afterwards.  I've gotten into the habit of canning curds once I make them, so that they'll keep, unrefrigerated, until I'm ready to use them.

I have a bunch of ripening bananas that I want to use to make some soft cookies, and a net of clementines that I might peel to simply eat, though I'm tempted to turn them into another baked good...  I'll let you know if I make anything with them.  Also, this week, we'll receive our CSA share, so there'll be more ingredients to create into delicious food!