Rainbow Cupcake Connection

Rainbow cupcakes are old news in the baking blog world, but I'd never partaken. A friend's birthday was the perfect occasion to test out these technocolour treats. While they look fancy and colourful, in fact it is just a plain vanilla cupcake recipe with food colouring. It's a little finicky if you are set on getting a perfect ROYGBIV rainbow in layers, but on the second round I was pretty haphazard, which resulted and equally delicious and more psychadelic cupcakes (I made a double recipe, but really only got 18, not 24-it's a pain to run out of batter halfway through a rainbow. I wanted a light coloured frosting to show off the vibrant cakes, so I went with a cream cheese vanilla bean frosting.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Vanilla Bean Icing (Cook's Illustrated-to double, just double everything except use 3 whole eggs and 2 yolks)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup / 8 tbsp / 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 egg + 2 yolks
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• food colouring

1. Heat oven to 350˚. Line muffin tin with paper or foil cups.
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add butter, sour cream, egg and yolks and vanilla and beat until smooth and shiny.
3. Separate batter into as many bowls as colours you plan on using (I did 5). Add in food colouring and mix until desired effect is achieved.
4. Divide batter between the cups as you like (useful tools include spatulas, a laddle, possibly a baster). Bake 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack before icing.

• 1 pkg cream cheese
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• seeds scraped from 2 vanilla beans
• 1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar.

1. Mix and ice cupcakes-you can get fancy with piping or just spread it on, depending on time and aesthetics.

Gazpacho

It might finally be too hot to cook now that it's stopped raining. Mark Bittman's 2007 article on summer cooking (or not cooking) has tons of great ideas and I went with gazpacho, a chilled tomato soup that makes me nostalgic for Spain (fun fact, Spanish McDonald's serves a pre-packaged gazpacho. Also beer.)
It can be made with no heat, very little effort and few ingredients. Chop 3 or 4 tomatoes and one cucumber into large chunks, tear a couple slices of stale bread into small pieces(you can create stale bread by baking the slices at very low heat for 10 minutes of so), add a clove of garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil, a bit of sherry vinegar and a couple ice cubes and combine in a blender or food processor, adding water as needed to facilitate blending. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve cold, leftovers keep well in fridge.

Rock Lobster

I consider it a basic human right to have lobster at least once when I come home for a visit. Company is the perfect excuse. Lobsters are absurdly easy to cook, absurdly involved to eat (if doing it at home; restaurants don't make you work for it). Much cheaper to do it at home, especially if you just want straight up boiled lobster.

Boil salted water in a large pot, stick your lobsters in head first, cook 15ish minutes depending on their size. Melt some butter for dipping. While waiting for the giant pot of water to come to a boil this past January, I remembered hearing tell that you could hypnotize a lobster, so my friend and I turned to youtube for guidance. If you stroke it's back at the beginning of the tail repeatedly, the lobster will go into a trance state, and you can make it do fun headstands, as seen below. We were pretty lucky as these guys were already pretty lethargic from the flight (you can pick up lobsters to take as your carry-on at the Halifax airport) and so were fairly cooperative. Once your lobster is ready you're going to need some implements, and most importantly, some napkins as it will get messy. A vise grip or crackers of some sort and seafood picks are probably the most essential. Here's a handy diagram of how to dig in.

Bruschetta and Beer-can Chicken

With the barbecue on for chicken, why not toast some bread for delicious bruschetta? Cut a baguette/similarly shaped loaf into thick slices and toast on barbecue (this will go very quickly, remain alert!) Rub some crushed garlic onto the bread and mix coarsely chopped tomato, fresh basil, a bit of olive oil and salt in a bowl, and then top with tomato mixture. Serve immediately!

Now: do you like beer? Do you like chicken? Have a barbecue? Well, do I have a recipe for you. Once you get the technique down (not hard), there are endless variations to this impressive/succulent take on roasted chicken.

Beer Can Chicken

• 1 can beer
• 1 chicken, 3-4 lbs
• 2 tbsp all-purpose bbq rub
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 2 cups wood chips of your choice
  

1. Pop the tab off the beer can. Pour half of the beer over wood chips or drink if not using wood chips. Using a church key-style can opener, make 2 additional holes in its top. Set aside.
2. Remove chicken's inside stuff. Rinse inside and out under cold running water and drain and blot dry, inside and out with paper towels.
3. Sprinkle 1 tsp of the rub inside the body cavity and 1/2 tsp inside neck cavity. Drizzle oil over the outside and rub or brush it all over the skin. Sprinkle the outside of the bird with 1 tbsp of rub and rub in. Spoon remaining rub into the beer through the hole in the top of can. Beer will probably foam up, no worries.
4. Hold the chicken upright and lower it onto the beer can, so the can fits in the cavity. Pull the chicken legs forward to form a tripod. Tuck the tips of the wings behind the chickens back so they don't get scorched.
5. Set up the grill for indirect grilling and preheat to medium. If using charcoal, place a large drip pan in the centre. If using gas, place all the wood chips in the smoker box or in a smoker pouch and preheat on high until you see smoke, then reduce the heat to medium.
6. When ready to cook, if using a charcoal grill, toss all of the wood chips on the coals. Stand the chicken up in the centre of the hot grate, over the drip pan and away from the heat. Cover the grill and cook the chicken until the skin is a dark golden brown and very crisp and the meat is cooked through, 1 1/4-1 1/2 hours. If using a charcoal grill, you'll need to add 12 fresh coals per side after 1 hour. If the chicken skin starts to brown too much, loosely tent the chicken with aluminium foil. Using tongs, hold the chicken by the can and carefully transfer it in an upright position to a platter. Let it rest about 5 minutes and then, being sure not to spill hot beer/burn yourself, lift it off the can. Carve the chicken and serve.

Potstickers

Dim Sum is a wonderful thing, and I am not without here in Halifax. The Great Wall on Bedford Rd is my favourite haunt, as well as the Cheelin stand at the Farmers Market. Excellent dumplings are available, this was more of a challenge, to see if home-made can come close in this instance.

With my good pal Cook's Illustrated walking me through, they turned out great. It is a large recipe, so I now have 30+ in the freezer ready for quick snack attacks remedies.

Potstickers

• 3 cups minced napa cabbage leaves
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 lb ground pork
• 6 tbsp minced scallions (about 4 medium scallions, white and green parts)
• 1/8 tsp ground pepper
• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp grated ginger
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed (about 1 tsp)
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 24 round gyoza wrappers (I could only find square wonton wrappers and they do nicely)
• 4 tsp vegetable oil

1. Toss cabbage and salt in colander or mesh strainer set over medium bowl. Let stand until cabbage begins to wilt, about 20 minutes; press cabbage gently with spatula to squeeze out excess moisture. Combine cabbage and all other filling ingredients in medium bowl and mix thouroughly. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until mixture is cold, at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.
2. Place 4 wrappers flat on work surface. Place one slightly rounded tablespoon filling in centre of each wrapper. Moisten edge of wrapper with water, using fingertips. Fold each wrapper in half, starting in the centre and working toward outside edges, pinch edges together firmly to seal, pressing out any air pockets. Position each dumpling on its side and gently flatten, pressing down on seam to make sure it lies flat against work surface. Repeat to form 24 dumplings.
3. Add 2 tsp oil to 12-inch nonstick skillet and quickly spread oil with paper towel to distribute evenly. Arrange 12 dumplings (or however many will fit) in skillet, lying flat on one side, with all seams facing same direction, overlapping just slightly, if necessary. Place skillet over medium-high heat and cook, without moving until dumplings are golden brown on bottoms, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, add 1/2 cup water to skillet and cover immediately. Cook, covered, until most of the water is gone and wrappers are slightly translucent, about 10 minutes. Uncover skillet and increase heat to medium-high; cook, without stirring until dumpling bottoms are well browned and crisp, 3 to 4 minutes more. Turn off burner and slide dumplings from skillet onto double layer of paper towels, browned side down, to blot excess oil. Transfer to platter and serve immediately with Scallion Dipping Sauce (below) or soy sauce. Let skillet cool until just warm, then wipe skillet clean and repeat with remaining dumplings and oil.
To freeze extras, place them uncooked on a plate, once frozen transfer to a ziploc. Start the recipe right away from cook time, no need to thaw.

Scallion Dipping Sauce

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 medium scallion, minced

Combine all ingredients and serve.

What's kuchen?

A delightful pun on 'What's cooking?' or a perfect transition to explain that kuchen is the German word for cake? I say both. Despite my German heritage, my vocabulary is limited to food (largely Christmas cookies).
Plums are ripe and plentiful right now, so when my dad brought home a bagful yesterday, we both thought 'kuchen'. This isn't strictly a kuchen, but the shortbread crust was very nice! You can do most of the prep the night before, and no messing with pastry-the crust is impossible to screw up.

Plum Tart with Lemon-Shortbread Crust (from Fine Cooking #94)

• 1/3 cup + 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 6 ripe medium black or red plums (about 4 oz. each-mine were smaller so I used 8), pitted and sliced into 16 slender wedges (or as many as you can get)
• 1/2 cup or 4 oz. or 8 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp firmly packed finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Cooking spray
• 2 tbsp plum or apricot preserves

1. In a medium bowl, whisk 1/3 cup sugar with cornstarch, kosher salt and lemon zest. Add the sliced plums and gently toss with your hands to evenly coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate 1 hour to overnight.
2. Lightly butter the bottom and sides of a 9 1/2 inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Put the butter cubes in the freezer. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk, lemon zest, and vanilla. Put the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl or a food processor (or a regular bowl if no food processor, like me), and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly and mealy, about 25 short pulses (use a pastry cutter if no processor). Add the egg yolk mixture and blend, using long pulses, just until it forms a moist, crumbly mass, about 15 three second pulses. The dough won't come together on its own, but it should hold together when squeezed. Transfer the dough to the tart pan. Dip the bottom of a flat-bottomed cup measure in flour and use it to press the doug onto the bottom and sides of the pan in an even layer (alternatively, use your hands. Or use them first and then the measuring cup to clean things up). Wrap the pan in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour to 1 day.
3. Heat oven to 375˚. Unwrap tart shell and prick the bottom and sides several times with a fork. Spray one side of a piece of parchment paper or foil with cooking spray. Line the shell with the sprayed side down and fill the lined shell with pie weights or dried beans. Set the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the pie weights and liner. Reduce heat to 350˚ and continue baking until the sides and bottom of the shell are golden brown and dry, 10-15 minutes. Cool for about 20 minutes.
4. Drain the plums in a sieve or colander set over a medium bowl for a few minutes. Pour the juice into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally until very thick, about 3 minutes. Scrape into a small bowl and let cool. Next, melt the preserves in the saucepan over medium-low heat until syrupy. Pour the preserves into the tart shell and evenly brush them over the bottom and sides. With a rubber spatula, spread the plum juice over the preserves on the bottom of the shell. Starting at the edge of the shell, arrange the plum slices cut side down and tightly overlapping in concentric circles. If you have more slices, keep tucking them in wherever they fit. You can also pile a few in the center of the tart.
If any juice remains in the mixing bowl, drizzle up to 1 tbsp. over the plums. Discard the rest. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 tbsp sugar over the plums. Bake the tart directly on the oven rack until the plums are tender when poked with a paring knife and caramelized along their edges (a few tips may even blacken), the crust is a deep golden brown, and any juices look syrupy and bubbly, 40-50 minutes. After you remove the tart from the oven, moisten the plums by dipping a pastry brush into the juices between the plums and brushing any surfaces that look dry.
Cool the tart in its pan on a rack for at least 2 hours before unmolding and slicing with a very sharp knife.

Pizza-pie

So I made pizza. Mostly this is an excuse to post this gem from the CBC Archives.

Note the pronunciation.

First I made the dough and let it do its thing for a while.
Then I made the sauce. If opening a can of San Marzano tomatoes, adding some olive oil and salt and simmering for 20 minutes counts as making. I will say yes.
I made pizza margherita (tomato sauce, cheese (I used bocconcini) and basil leaves over top after baking and classed up hawaiian, with prosciutto replacing ham.