Author Archives: admin

This year Christmas Eve’s dessert was Sticky Toffee Pudding.  I first had and fell in love with this dessert at the Golden Tea Garden in Hayward, and had made it once before.  It was a good choice.  I served it with vanilla ice cream.  I followed the instructions from this epicurious recipe pretty closely, but if I made it again I’d follow the advise of one of the reviewers and double the amount of sauce, pour same half of it on the cake the day I make it and then top it with the other half.

I made the cake the day before and the sauce a few hours earlier.

Ingredients

For the pudding

• 1 pckg (~6 oz) pitted dates
• 1 1/4 c water
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

For the sauce

• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tsp brandy
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

For the pudding

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a bundt pan or 6 ramekins.

Place dates and water in a small sauce pan and heat until it starts to boil.  Remove from heat and add baking soda.  Using a blender, puree.
In a separate bowl, sift flour.  Whisk in the baking powder and salt.
Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.  Mix in the vanilla.  Mix in one egg, then half of the flour mixture and half of the date puree.  Repeat with the additional egg and rest of flour and puree.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry, 30 to 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and let rest for 30 minutes. Unmold.

For the sauce

Put the sugar, butter and cream in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Continue cooking for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Turn off the heat and mix in the brandy and vanilla extract.

Pour sauce over the cake and serve.

This was probably my favorite dish of my 2017 Christmas Eve dinner.  And no wonder, I love gnocchi, I love Marsala sauce, and the two together are just dynamite.  Indeed, even my husband who hates gnocchi couldn’t stop eating it – even though this was already the 8th course of the night!  I used a combination of

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup Marsala wine
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• dried sage
• black pepper to taste
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 pckg (~1 lb) vacuum-sealed gnocchi

Directions

Melt butter in a wide sauce pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and mushrooms, turn heat down to medium-low and cook until soft, about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add marsala, borth and cream and cook for a few minutes.  Sprinkle sage and black pepper and mix in the lemon juice.

Meanwhile, book the gnocchi according to package instructions.  Add gnocchi to sauce in the pan and mix well.  Serve.

I wanted to make a different salad for Christmas this year and finally decided on a pear and goat cheese salad.  Alas, I couldn’t decide on any particular recipe, so I ended up making my regular Mixed Green Salad with Gorgonzola Vinaigrette and simply adding the ingredients I wanted to use.  It came out delicious.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. raspberry vinegar
• 5 oz mixed greens
• 1 bunch of green onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup cranberries
• 1/4 cup caramelized walnuts*
• 3 Tbsp. goat cheese

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil and raspberry vinegar. Set aside.

Toss together mixed greens, green onions, cranberries and walnuts in a salad bowl.  Add vinaigrette and mix well.  Crumble goat cheese on top and mix again.

* To caramelized walnuts, place 1/4 cup walnut pieces, 1 Tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. butter in a small saucepan.  Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter and sugar melt and the walnut pieces are well coated with it.  Pour onto parchment paper and quickly separate the pieces.  Let cool. Store in an airtight container.

I wanted a light snack with Middle Eastern flavors to accompany the mint pomegranate lassi I served as a first course for my Christmas 2017 dinner.  This recipe for chickpeas hit that spot.  They are good, easy to make, and they will keep for at least a couple of days in an air-tight bowl or jar.

Ingredients

• 1 15-oz can chickpeas
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Drain, rinse and pat dry the garbanzos.

Heat oil over medium heat in a frying pan.  Add chickpeas and spices. Mix well and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chickpeas pop, about 5 minutes.  Drain on paper towels and serve.

I have been working on my International Foods Project for over 17 years.  I’m making my way through the world cuisines cooking alphabetically and I have yet to get to H!  And this, despite the fact that I have skipped many cuisines on my way here.  I am taking this as the opportunity to visit them – albeit cooking just one dish from each instead of a full meal.  So far, none of these dishes have wowed me: perhaps there was a reason why I skipped the cuisines in the first place.

What we had were:

• An Afrikaans Melktart – this custard tart was actually quite good!
• Pollo a la Jardín de San Marcos – a tasty chicken dish from Aguascalientes with a very romantic story attached to it.
• A not-very-successful pancake from the Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea.
• Trinxat, a potato and cabbage mash from Andorra.
• A very fun jello cake from the Caribbean island of Bonaire
• I went back over two thousand years with a lentil soup from Classical Greece.
• A pretty intense mango sorbet from French Guiana.

I have ten more “make up” cuisines to go before moving on to finish the “Gs” (I thought I was finished, and then I found six more G cuisines!).  My hope is to start H at least by the end of the year.