A Good Cake

 What makes a good cake? Is it the flour? The type of butter or milk added.Or is the the baking process itself? many home bakers wonder as they tackle scratch cakes (made without a mix and fromcratch ) for the first time.

What actually does makea good slice? Consider what's in a cake. A good flour is essential for creating a moist crumb and tender bite. All purpose flour provides a sturdy velevety texture while cake flour has a lower protein content for a finer. more tender bite. What flour is the best? Classics like Swan;s Fown cake flour and any of the King Arthur flours work. There is also the finely milled Pilsbury Softasilk, perfect for high rise ultra tender cakes.You also need a baking soda or  powder to create gas to make the cake rise.Keep in mind that there is also baking soda which needs an natural acid like buttermilk or natural cocoa to activate.Baking powder has it's own built in acid to make the gas. A good cake needs a good fat such as butter or oil.Butter delivers a rich classic flavor while a neutral oil like canola or vegetable  stays liquid at room temperature to keep the crumb soft and moist for days,. If you;re using butter go for the best - Irish imported Kerry Gold. This has the smoothest richest flavor and texture. Eggs bind the whole batter together while adding moisture and richness Chicken eggs are the best for this. Every cake needs a liquid, whether milk, butter milk or coffee. This help dissolves the dry ingredients , hydrates the protein and creates stem to help the cake rise and expand,

To create the absolute perfect cake there also has to be crucial baking techniques.Butter, dairy and eggs must be put out to thaw out . They have to be at room temperature to emulsify  or combine smoothly along with properly tapping air. Cold ingredients can cause the batter to split or curdle.Proper creaming is also important. Beating softened butter and sugar together incorporate microscopic air pockets. When heated in the oven the trapped air expands it give the cake a light, fluffy lift. However over mixing can cause problems .Once the flour is added only mix until just combined.Over working the batter can lead to developing too much gluten which turns a soft cake into a  tough dense or rubbery one.Always remember that baking is a science. It requires precise measurements Weighing ingredients with a digital kitchen scale prevents packing too much flour into measuring cups. This results in a dry cake. What you bake the batter in also matters.Try to have aluminized steel like the USA Pan. The pans have a patented fluted /corrugated bottom to create an equal air circulation.Natural and anodized aluminum also is good to bake in. These last two prevent cake from doming and browning.

The perfect scratch can be made.It needs good ingredients , good techniques and good pans. The end result is a slice ,full  fof flavor and tenderness.

Your Favorite Birthday Meal?

 Everyone has their favorite birthday meal or dessert?It could be steak au poivre with a good red wine.It could be  smash burger with an extra side of fries? Or a homemade lasagna or shepherd's pie.

The question is what do you like to eat on your social day? Mine has always been risotto Milanese, that creamy Saffron rice dish fron Milan, There was something about the tang of the yellow strands that permeated arborio rice. It was sheer heaven and something my Mom made every year for me.

What is your favorite meal when you open up your presents? Let us know and if it'a your birthday  have a delicious one

Crazy Weather Crazy Cooking

 October has been giving us some wild weather lately. One day could be ninety  degrees and summery despite the fallen leaves. The next day could be full of frigid temps. It's worse dressing for this crazy weather  but what about cooking in it as well?

 One important  aspect is don't put away y the grill until there's the threat of a snow fall or ice storm. if the weather right now is pretty decent , keep the grill going.  You can still make all sorts of barbecue and even create fall themed salads like apple -cabbage slaw. It 's even good to host a backyard tail gate party where all sorts of meats and veggies can be put over an open flame. Many grocery stores have stopped selling charcoal but you can use non toxic , non chemically treated twigs. You can forage for twigs in your local forest. Think cottonwood,  mesquite , oak and hickory for an aromatic smoke. (of worst comes to worse and you can;t find any twigs or charcoal,, there is newspaper. Just don;t use lighter fluid on it other wise you;ll be dealing with a conflagration.  Another idea is just use your fire put to toast hot dogs and make s'mores.  As for  dessert think  apple cider popcicles to celebrate the season while cooking off. Its; just putting the cider in popsicle molds. added chopped caramel for a caramel apple effect.

If the weather is chilly and buttery then you have a whole range of warming foods to choose from. One of the simplest and the most comforting is Homemade soup.  A good Piedmontese pumpkin soup , rich with cream butter and rice is the perfect  hot meal on a nippy night. Be sure to use plan pumpkin  puree instead of the already  spiced one used for pies A chopped white onion is used for more flavor. Another great from scratch soup is a sausage bean and rice one. Use a recipe that is rich in veggies, from carrots, celery and chopped spinach and flavored with savory cannellini beans and Italian sausage. Of course cold weather means you can use the oven again for creating delicious roasts. There is nothing as satisfying as a London Broil with homemade Yorkshire pudding swimming in veef gravy. Serve with a slice of Brussell sprouts or spinach for a truly heart working, rib sticking meal. Cooler weather means a perfect time to bake too. Spiced pound cakes are always a favorite, They can be served as dessert with whipped cream or just eat plain with a hot cup of coffee or tea. 

Sometimes there is cray weather. That means going  with the flow and cooking accordingly. It makes for easier work .

&the Street Burgers Simple But Good

 It;s rare these days to come along a chain that sells simple burgers fries and soda. but 7th Street does just that.The menu is very limited.There's just burgers and cheese burgers. Meat and Impossible options.That's it. Along with the crispiest fries and the biggest can of Coke you'll ever see.

Iate there to night, curious about what they were. The decor is Fifties hamburger joint with a lot for chrome and white decor.

 However it's the food that's the throwback to burger stands of seventy years ago

I could have had my burger with the works but I just opted for their special sauce , onions and pickles. This was by far the best Impossible burger I;ve ever had they make it smash style which means it has crispy lacy edges. The fries are so good , -hot golden and crispy.. One serving can feed three people! I see on their website that they also have vegan Impossible fries and chili fries at other locations. Just these are perfect for me!

7th Street has the best old fashioned burger and fries hands down! head over to this lucky street and get a taste of something once forgotten. It' a a tasty blast from the past!!

7th Street Burgers located at  370 West Pleasant view Mall (by Stop and Shop Hackensack NJ

A Seaside Sicilian Meal

 Sicily has always been known for their vast amount of seafood.This Island has always fed millennia of visitors and conquerors it['s rich ,briny bounty.Nowadays it's easy to recreate this meal along with adding a dessert and nibbles  reflect the island's harvests.

Regular contributor David Tamis used a recent trip to the famed island to recreate a dinner  for his column in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. He first had it when Sicilian friends took him to a waterside eatery and he was able to pick out his fish. The fish was roasted in a wood burning oven and then tossed with pasta and a quickly made sauce,It is easy to replicate here.The salad is almost like salad crudi with fresh onions and red peppers quickly sauteed in olive oil. Tomatoes and white wine are added and then pieces of boneless roasted fish are added.Saffron is also added for color and more flavor.Tanis had his with bronzino but he also made it with cod and haddock.Any firm fleshed fish will do   such as rockfish sea bass or Covina. A chunky pasta is needed here so try a papparadelle rigatoni or even penne. The original recipe called for paccheri,  a sturdy  chewy kind of tube pasta. 

As for the before dinner nibbles Mr Tanis had and made zucchini eggplant caponata toast, a riff on true caponata which has more tomato and no zucchini. He wanted a lighter flavor for this  which is eggplant fried in an olive oil then simmered in a sweet sour sauce  of tomatoes vinegar and sugar along with capers,green onions.,celery and sometimes raisins. He uses only a tablespoon of tomato paste but more of celery and white onions.Sugar sweetens it while  red wine vinegar gives it a tang. Onions and celery are fried and then these ingredients are added to it along with vinegar capers, dry white wine and Castelvetrano olives.Its then served on toasted baguette slices. Dessert also represents the Sicilian harvest. he roasts pears flavored with a bit of powdered fennel seed. Sliced pears are first tossed with fennel powder, vanilla lemon juice and brown sugar and then dotted with butter cubes before roasting in a 400 degree Farenheit oven for half an hour. Zabaglione, that dreamy mixture of  egg yolk , Marsala and sugar is m ade over a double boiler and then ladled into bowls. The pears are then placed in this and served with a dusting of chopped pistachios.

Sicily is known for it;s amazing array of both fish and farm . Make these recipes to celebrate the marriage of land and sea.It's a lovely way to preserve a summer.

A Bite Of The Past

 Nowadays apples have that sweet but bland flavor.They've evolved from flavorful bites into slices of uninspiredness. Now there;s a new push to bring back the heirloom apples. They were around for centuries and somehow got lost.Not anymore.They;re comeing back with a delicious vengeance. 

New contributor  and former food and lifestyle editor at the Wall Street journals Off Duty section Sarah Karnasiewicz wrote about heirloom apples in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section.These gems are literally a taste of the past that intrigue cooks and apple afectionados alike. The flavors can have a honeyed sweetness to even a dark clove flavor.Now thanks to apple specialists or pomologists and fruit detective these lost varieties are coming back.For more than fifty years pioneers like Tom Burford of Vitginia,John Bumker of Maine and more recently Dsavid Benscotter of Washington State have surveyed property maps,aerial photos, and deserted farms. They also scoured vintage nursery catalogs, county fair records and more to search out these apples.Southberry Connecticut's James Wargo of Hidden Gem Orchard considers himself the beneficiary of their work. He can propagate a twig from an earlier type and graft it onto one of his trees. He offers an Eighteenth Century English varietal with an outside crunch and electric fizzy flavor.There is also the juicy Ribston Pippin ,a favorite fo Charles Dickens thats' making. a comeback I was the bases of his favorite apples a la Princesses also made with marmalade and cream sherry.

Mr. Wargo is  bringing back other apples from the past.He has a harvest of Kandil Sinap,a petite egg shaped variety found near the Black Sea around 1800 and the Black Oxford a1700s. specimen from Maine that  stores well and has non traditional purple skinThere are other heirloom apples that taste like banana bread. THese are so tasty that now people don't want to eat what grocery stores have to offer.Other heirloom apples like Cox Orange Pippin which has a surprisingly citrus taste with notes of honey , lemon and tropical notes and the oldest Court Pendu Gris which was first cultivated in France in the 1300's.It has a rich spicy flavor, perfect for a fall galette.Genevieve Weston is another orchard owner who is bringing back the ancient varieties that her grandfather planted in Waukesha County Wisconsin a century ago. Her family knew that the traditional apples were more flavorful and tasty than the modern ones so they made it their mission to grow them.Their apples have had it to many local farmer markets where they offer COurt Pendu Plat, first recorded in 1613  which has a nutty amusette flavor  and Calville Blanx d"Hiver used in many a tart tatin. Its' fruity mix of banana and pear notes makes it unique.

It's time to try a taste of the past. Heirloom apples are the way to go for a flavorful apple. TRy them for a different experience and a link to the past.

Fancy For The Holidays

Besides all the Halloween gear there are also Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff popping up in the stores.It raises the question is your dining room ready for the holidays? Are the lines and silverware still holding up? What about the China? Maybe it's time for a refresh.

How long do linen tablecloths last? A good one can last up to twenty to thirty  years - which is why they make excellent shower gifts (and why they were always a de rigeur wedding present). Keep in mind that they do age or yellow.Natural linen fibers yellow or oxidize over time. leaving an ivory or pale yellow tint.Food and wine stains also leave discoloration  and surprisingly putting tablecloths and napkins in the dryer.The immediate heat sets the stain and can never be washed out. If yours is old and yellow you may want to think about buying an entirely new set. There are some great buys from department stores such as  Target have sets for  around one hundred dollars. Etsy has some beautifully handcrafted sets with embroidery and lace insets for as low as thirty dollars for four napkins and twenty -two dollars for a whole set of ten. You can also get jacquard  woven tablecloth and napkins at Kohl's, This is a beautiful orange colored covering, perfect for Thanksgiving or any fall family gathering.

Chinaware, as we know from seeing it in museums can last hundreds of years. This is why it's passed down from generation to generation. However it should be treated with kid gloves. Every piece should be hand washed with a mild soap and soft cloth and sponge. Use paper ,cloth or felt plate pads to divide them so they don't scratch up against each other, NEVER microwave any chinaware that has silver or gold trim. That could damage both the plate and the microwave.If you;re looking to retire the family heirlooms there are dozens of places to find replacements. Again Target comes to the rescue here. They have one in the pattern Spritz which is [plastic with a metallic trim.These are kid and dishwasher safe.Their Stoneware choices are also lovely and these can easily turn into heirloom pieces. Amazon also has  a varied and lovely section .You can even order a few days before Thanksgiving and they'll come for the big day, This is also time to check your silverware or goldware. They may just need a gentle washing with Dawn(preferred) or Ivory . Again if you feel you need new forks and spoons then check any of your big department stores. Even Walmart has some great sets.They have a forty-nine pieces e set for as low as $29,99. This covers everything from that first course of soup to dessert.

This is the time to reassess your fancy ware. The holidays will be here soon enough. Make sure your table looks lovely with sophisticated lines, plates and utensils.