Carrot Cake Cookies with Currants and Coconut

My favorite cake, in cookie form.  Half chewy, half crisp, with all sorts of fruity, nutty textures throughout.  As much as we enjoy good-for-you foods, there’s always room for something sweet in my day.  Does wonders for my spirit – and blood sugar!

Recipe here.

Beer-Braised Carnitas

Four-and-a-half has been a rough age for Rice Kernel.  Forced to abandon his nap on many (busy) days, my son can be sweet, courteous, energetic, and affable one minute (or one day) and lethargic, nasty, and negative the next.  I know he’s tired but I also know he is testing his limits.  I’m sure many of you who are parents can sympathize, regardless of what age your child(ren) are.  As firm (and mean) as I am at times, one of the ways I always show him care and love is with dinner – regardless of how much we’ve butted heads that day.  This is his favorite protein recipe…. one I’ve made a few more times than I intended to these last few weeks. 

The recipe takes a bit of time to prepare but you can easily prepare it ahead of time and leftovers reheat beautifully.  Tonight we’ve prepared it with sauteed onions and red cabbage, black rice, and a jalapeno corn and cucumber relish.

Recipe here.

Ginger Fried Black Rice

I recently discovered black rice and black glutinous rice.  Nutty and fragrant, black rice is similar in taste and texture to brown rice but so much more beautiful.  Black rice is not as “fatty” as jasmine rice, but if you mix equal parts black rice and black glutinous rice, you will achieve the jasmine kernels we are all used to from Chinese restaurants.

With more nutrition than white rice, it’s worth discovering this beautiful grain.

Ginger Fried Black Rice

Ingredients

Serves 4

1/2 cup peanut oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
Salt
2 cups day-old cooked rice
2 cups day-old black rice (or black glutinous rice)
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 teaspoons soy sauce
Pepper, to taste

optional: frozen corn, frozen peas, chopped onion, carrots, scallion, ham, etc.

Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant.
2. Raise heat to medium and add rice, sesame oil and soy sauce. Cook, stirring well, until heated through. Add additional salt and pepper, to taste and any additional vegetables, if you wish.

Orange Lemon Olive Oil Cake

The last time I posted, I imagined my hiatus would be indefinite.  Indefinitely long.  Claire was increasingly interactive and on-the-go, leaving me less time to prepare meals.  Even more, though, her little teeth were cutting through at an alarming rate, which meant she was eating chunks of solid food.  Hoping to simplify my life and not have to cook separate meals for Claire and the rest of the family, I went back to basics and cooked “simple” meals that all four of us could enjoy: steamed or roasted vegetables, lightly dressed pastas, stock-cooked rice, and lots and lots of baked, broiled, steamed, and pan-fried fish.  Yes, my little girl loves fish.  I took a break from reading other blogs and websites for recipe inspiration and focused on what the four of us needed.

Toward the end of the year, we headed abroad on vacation.  Since then we’ve been trading off viruses and colds…. and continuing to subsist on simple dishes.  Nothing worth photographing or blogging about; no real “recipes” to leave for the kiddos.  It wasn’t until a chance conversation with my internist that I began thinking about Rice Kernel again.  A chance conversation in which I discovered she was a food blogger herself.

Slowly I began purusing my favorite blogs and food websites again.  Claire and Rice Kernel keep me ever-busy these days and it’s unlikely I will post as frequently as I used to.  But I will, as much as I can.  After all, Claire deserves some more variation in her ever-increasing diet. 

In celebration of all the sweet citrus trees in the neighborhood of late, a cake worthy of frosting, whipped cream, or a cup of tea with breakfast….

Orange Lemon Olive Oil Cake

Ingredients

Butter for greasing pan
2 citrus fruits (2 oranges, or 1 orange and 2 medium lemons)
3/4 cup sugar
Scant 1/2 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
3 large eggs
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (or half whole wheat, half AP)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.
2. Grate zest from fruit and place in a bowl with sugar. Using your fingers, rub ingredients together until zest is evenly distributed in sugar.
3. Halve orange and squeeze juice into a measuring cup; you’ll will have about 1/4 cup. (If you have less, you can juice the lemon.) Add buttermilk or yogurt to juice until you have 2/3 cup liquid altogether. Pour mixture into bowl with sugar and whisk well. Whisk in eggs and olive oil.
4. In another bowl, whisk together flour(s), baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gently stir dry ingredients into wet ones. Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake cake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until it is golden and a knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up.

Lebanese Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

Simple, hearty, and satisfying - and entirely failproof in the crockpot.  Perfect, even for baby!

 Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil, more for drizzling
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Pinch of ground chili powder or cayenne, more to taste
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup red lentils
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
Juice of 1/2 lemon, more to taste
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add onion and garlic, and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes.

2. Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper and chili powder or cayenne, and sauté for 2 minutes longer.

3. Add broth, 2 cups water, lentils and carrot. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover pot and turn heat to medium-low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and add salt if necessary.

4. Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to pot. Soup should be somewhat chunky.

5. Reheat soup if necessary, then stir in lemon juice and cilantro. Serve soup drizzled with good olive oil and dusted lightly with chili powder if desired.

Yield: 4 servings.

Simple Ganache Frosting

The easiest, failproof, and decadent frosting.  Simple dip your baked goods in the frosting, or drizzle it liberally for a smooth and silky finish.  Or, for a different texture whip the frosting until airy.  Either way, it is sure to delight.

Simple Ganache Frosting

12 ounces chocolate pieces
1 cup half-and-half

1. Heat the half-and-half until hot to touch, but not boiling. Pour over chocolates and stir until fully incorporated.

Teddy’s Apple Cake

Teddie’s Apple Cake
Adapted very slightly from The New York Times, Jean Hewitt, and Teddie

Serves 8

Butter for greasing pan
3 cups flour, plus more for dusting pan
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups peeled, cored, and thickly sliced tart apples like Honeycrisp or Granny Smith
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins
Vanilla ice cream (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch tube pan. Beat the oil and sugar together in a mixer (fitted with a paddle attachment) while assembling the remaining ingredients. After about 5 minutes, add the eggs and beat until the mixture is creamy.
2. Sift together 3 cups of flour, the salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Stir into the batter. Add the vanilla, apples, walnuts and raisins and stir until combined.
3. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan before lifting out. Serve at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.