Honey Salabat Ginger Tea Cake

 Salabat -“ a simple tea of fresh ginger root, brought to a boil and left to steep until it relinquishes every drop of its restorative power.” Recently, in the New York Times magazine, a recipe appeared for a ginger honey salabat tea cake. Arlyn Osborne learned from her Philippine mother to rub salabat on a bruise so it would heal faster. She went on to experiment with baking and has written a book called Sugarcane Sweet Recipes from My Half-Filipino Kitchen.

This recipe was adapted by Ligaya Misha, however, I left out the glaze when I made it - I thought it might be too sweet for me. It is a moist delicious ginger cake, where the salabat is transformed into a ginger tea cake - I’ve left the glaze directions in as it sounds something many of my friends would enjoy. We just sliced it and ate it with some butter, like a banana bread.

Ingredients

For the cake

Cooking spray for spraying the pan

1/2 cup diced peeled fresh ginger

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

11/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup neutral oil ( canola or vegetable)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

Grated zest of l lemon - 1 tablespoon

1 tables spoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

For the glaze (optional)

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions

Heat the oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Grease a 9 by 5 loaf pan with spray and line with parchment paper so there is an overhang on both long sides.

Make the salabat (fresh ginger tea) in a small saucepan add 3/4 cup water the diced ginger and bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce to a very gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat, cover with a lid and let steep for 10 minutes.

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve (I used a teas strainer), pressing with a rubber spatula, you should have 1/2 a cup, if not add water.

Prepare the cake in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cooled salabat, honey, oil, l sugar, sour cream, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Add the flour mixture all at once and whisk until just combined. The batter will be loose and lumpy like pancake batter.

Scrape the batter into the loaf pan. Bake until golden and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean - about 1 hour.. Cover loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes of baking to prevent over browning.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack set inside a foil-lined sheet pan (this will catch the glaze later if you are glazing) Using the parchment overhang as handles, lift the cake onto the wire rack. Discard the parchment and let the cake cool completely.

Make the glaze in a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, honey lemon juice and 1 teaspoon water. Drizzle the glaze down the center of the cooled cake and spread outward, letting gravity pull long drips down the sides. Let the glaze set before slicing and serving.

 

You could also add as a garnish crystalized ginger on top. I don’t like crystalized ginger but it  certainly looks pretty.

Haddock Poached with Artichoke Hearts and Olives

I found this recipe in the MediterraneanDish.com

The Fish came out so tender and the flavors were amazing, not overwhelming the fish in any way. You can make it in one pan and serve it on the table that way.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon Spanish paprika

1 teaspoon coriander

Salt and pepper

4 filets of haddock (ours were large so I cut them in half)

1/4 cup extra virgin oil

1 tablespoon butter

3 cloves garlic minced

1 shallot minced

1/2 cup white wine

2 lemons squeezed

15 oz can artichokes (drained and rinsed)

1 roma tomato (chopped)

1/4 cup fresh dill (chopped)

1/2 cup pitted green olives

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the oregano, Spanish paprika, and coriander. Stir to mix.

Rinse the fish and pat dry with a paper towel. Season the fish on both sides with salt and pepper, then rub the spice mixture all over the fish. Set aside.

In a large cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallot and cook for 3  minutes, stirring occasionally until softened. Do not burn the garlic.

Add the white wine, lemon juice and artichoke hearts and cook for another 5 minutes until the liquid is slightly reduced.

Add the fish to the skillet and turn the heat down to medium-low. Cover and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the fish is flakey and fully cooked through.

When the fish is ready, remove it from the heat and finish with the chopped Roma tomato,  olives, and chopped fresh herbs. Serve immediately.

To make sure your fish is cooked through, test it with a fork at the thickest part. Gently poke the fish and twist the fork, the fish should flake easily and should look white, not translucent grey. The internal temperature of cooked fish should be somewhere between 140 and 145 degrees 

Whole Orange Cake - Gluten Free

My friend Julia Ganson came to our house with a wonderful moist cake made from whole oranges and no flour. A recipe she found when she was living in New Zealand, carefully kept and carried over the seas to America.  She said it’s easy! You just boil the oranges, peel and all , for two hours. The cake is refreshing and bursting with orange flavor. So I looked on line and found this recipe from RecipeTin Eats. The New Zealand recipe adds 1/4 teaspoon of cardamon and suggest you finely grind the raw almonds rather than using almond meal. Also RecipeTin Eats boils the oranges for 10 minutes and then changes the water to boil again twice. Perhaps to eliminate some bitterness, I did boil the oranges for three consecutive times, but I’m going to try boiling for two hours. 

Ingredients

3 oranges

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

6 large eggs

1 1/4 cups sugar 

2 3/4 cups almond meal/ground raw almonds

1/4 teaspoon cardamon

Directions

Place 3 oranges in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over medium high heat, boil for two hours, keep an eye on the level of water.

Drain and rinse the oranges, then cool slightly.

Slice into 1/4 inch slices then dice, removing any seeds.

Cool completely.

Heat oven t o 320 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grease and line a 9 inch cake pan with parchment baking paper (I used a spring form pan)

Place chopped oranges in a food processor. Blitz on high for four ten seconds , scraping down the sides in between until it is pureed into a marmalade consistency with only a few visible bits of rind visible, does not need to be completely smooth.

Add 2 3/4 almond meal, 6 eggs, 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder,  1 1/4 cups sugar and  1/4 teaspoon cardamon to the orange mixture. Blitz for 10 seconds on high until combined.

Pour into prepared cake pan. Bake for 60 minutes until the surface is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in the cake pan.

Decorate with three slices of orange and sprigs of flowers.

Radish Tower at the Farmer's Market

 I just had to snap a picture of this impressive gigantic tower of radishes at the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.

I used the leaves to make a pesto and the radishes were nice and crunchy.

Scape Pesto

 Garlic cloves planted in October, anywhere in the garden are the first leaves to show in spring. In early June, here in Syracuse, the scapes suddenly appear, ready to make flowers - the scapes need to be cut to ensure large garlic cloves. The scapes are delicious chopped and sautéed in dishes where you traditionally use garlic. Also scapes make a delicious pesto. This scape recipe is perfect. I’ve used radish leaves mixed with a few basil leaves as an alternative. Can be frozen.

Ingredients

8 garlic scapes ends trimmed and scares roughly chopped.

1/4 cup pinenuts

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Salt 

1/4 Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

1 1/2 oz basil leaves, approximately 1 bunch

Ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions

In the bowl of a food processor combine scapes, pine nuts, 

lemon juice and zest, season with salt,

Pulse, scraping down sides halfway through with a

flexible spatula, until scapes and nuts are broken down into small pieces, 

about 1 minute. Add basil and pulse until finely minced, about ten 1-second

pulses. Add extra virgin olive oil in a steady thin stream. Taste and add salt and 

pepper as needed

Can be used right away with linguine or spaghetti, or frozen.

Sherami's Cheese Charcuterie

  Sherami hosted our book club this month, and she, being uniquely creative, had a set of Charcuterie Cheese cups on her counter. They all looked so beautiful, we each took one cup and spent ages trying to guess what she had put inside. The salami rose was especially intriguing. . . . .

 I’m sure ours will not come out so perfect, but it’s a terrific idea.

Here’s what was inside.

At the very bottom there is a layer of party mix.

4 blueberries

2 rasberries

2 white cheddar cheese squares (Aldi’s)

1 round baby bel (BJ’s)

3 cheddar cheese cubes (Aldi’s)

1 kalamata and 1 casteletrano olive on a toothpick (Wegman’s)

1 salami rose Appleton Farms Original Dry Salami,        4 slices per rose

1 sprig of rosemary

1 Delizza Macaron (Tops - frozen food dept.)

There is a video on u-tube showing how to make a salami rose  without a shot glass presented by officiallyglutenfree.com

1. Lay 4 slices of overlapping salami
   
   
   

2. . Fold all 4 slices over in half

   
   
   
   
   

3. Start rolling from one end.

 4. Use a tooth pick to secure the rosebud and

    Decorate with basil leaves.

    Although Sherami used a sprig of rosemary which held up very well, no wilting.