McVitie's Green Tea Biscuits

Two things first: I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and was kind of disappointed! I think I prefer the original. Although if they made this into a movie with Colin Firth (and, heck, throw in Clive Owen too), then I would probably re-assess my position. Secondly, according to Sitemeter, I have finally crossed the 10,000 visit threshhold! Woohoo! I know that's totally small potatoes to most bloggers, but I am easily made happy, what can I say! So, thanks visitors!


The other day, I was feeling rather down after seeing the man off so I went on a shopping spree at Mitsuwa and some Chinese grocery stores back home. You know all those rules about how to avoid impulse buying? Yeah, not one of those held with me, which is how I ended up with this little bag of McVitie's Green Tea Digestive Biscuits. I loooove their regular digestives (not to mention the chocolate dipped ones and ESPECIALLY the chocolate caramel--the last time we were in London I think I bought about 5 tubes) and I usually like green tea anything, so into the basket they went. And look! The logo and everything. Okay, I know this photo doesn't give a good sense of scale, but check it out--these are really little.


See? Wee! You know I'm a sucker for anything miniaturized. There are about 8 in one of these little snack-sized bags. But, enough about that--how does it taste? Pretty good, actually!


The green tea filling actually tastes like green tea, which is nice (and a change from other green tea flavored snacks, which sometimes taste like white chocolate colored green). Of course, I love the digestive biscuit, no question about that. Together, they are a little bit sweeter than I normally go for, but with a hot cup of tea (naturally), they are a great snack. I have to go and buy more bags now (well, after I finish watching Ninja Warrior) so excuse me!

More birthday baking: Pink Lemonade Cupcakes & Brownies, Oh My!

Man, this is a seriously backdated post. I started drafting this sometime in September, right when the weather was just beginning to cool off....well, it's officially COLD now, and I've been remiss in blogging, but it's been a really busy month! We've been travelling pretty much every weekend in October (2 weddings in a row) and it's going to be busy probably through the end of the month. But, there are some good food-related trips coming up so I anticipate some good blogging opportunities.


A couple of my coworkers had birthdays in the end of August and beginning of September, so I decided on two different items, even if there were actually three birthdays--hey, a cupcake is a cupcake! The two As got pink lemonade cupcakes, and Hurricane, who is a devotee of the cupcake truck, got brownies baked into cupcakes. (As much as he loves the cupcake truck, I hear him complain all the time about how they never have just plain vanilla or plain chocolate.) As an aside, I bought some of these parchment baking cups by If You Care and they are soooo nonstick that the brownies just kind of slid out of the cups.

I used the brownie recipe from the Martha Stewart baking handbook, because I had a couple of bars of chocolate I wanted to use, but it's definitely not the best recipe I personally have tried. Those honors still go to the King Arthur recipe that's printed on the back of their cocoa packages. Still, a brownie is a brownie!


I couldn't resist making these pink lemonade cupcakes when I saw them while I was googling away one day--I mean, they're lemonade flavored and they're pink! I was already in love with the idea. I used the recipe from Cast Sugar. I have to be honest; I wasn't that crazy about the texture of the cupcake. When baked, it almost felt like a Chinese steamed cake, which is not the texture I want from a cupcake! But hey, it uses no butter and no egg yolks, so at least it's (sort of) healthier than a normal cupcake. And the frosting made up for what the cupcake lacked. And did I mention how pink and cute they were? I almost felt bad for bestowing such a girly cupcake upon the birthday boy. Almost.

Anyway, hopefully I will have time to blog more regularly soon. This weekend we are going to the Sheep & Wool Festival, where I will attempt to stop myself from kidnapping an alpaca...

Baking on command: Plum Cake

A hazard of being known as an avid baker? Sometimes you go home and you're met with a bowl of sub-par plums and the gentle command suggestion that you do something with them. Aye, aye, Captain!

No, no, I kid. But I did head home for a little family time this weekend and since there were some plums which weren't quite juicy enough to be satisfying eaten alone, I decided that they would be perfectly fine for baking a plum cake. And, as usual, Dorie Greenspan to the rescue! I've made plum cakes before using mostly German recipes, which usually have you cutting the butter in to the flour, but this one just has you cream the butter and sugar together and it comes together in literally 5 minutes. Slicing the plums is probably the most time consuming part of this cake.


For something that takes so little time to put together, this is definitely a gorgeous looking cake, in that rustic kind of way. Although, as it turns out, plums that aren't juicy enough for eating...aren't really juicy enough for baking in this cake, either. That's my only complaint--these plums didn't really get "jammy" enough. Still, the cake base is delicious (flavored with cinnamon rather than cardamom) and I will definitely be making this again.


Oh hey, and this recipe only used 5 tablespoons of butter. In my world, that qualifies as health food. Now why did I leave the rest of the cake behind?!

(The recipe used is the Dimply Plum Cake from Dorie Greenspan's brilliant book Baking: From My Home To Yours. Go buy it! You can also find the recipe reproduced online in many, many different places.)

Another Classic: Almond Tofu

Here's another Tofugirl family classic--almond tofu or xingren dofu (also known in Japan as annin dofu). This is one of the easiest desserts to whip up, but it is so perfect for summer--so refreshing and light, yet indulgent all at the same time. My mom would always make up a giant pot of this and just keep it in the fridge so that we could all help ourselves whenever we wanted some (which, in my case at least, was all the time). Tofu is a bit of a misnomer, actually, since this is really more like almond gelatin--no tofu involved. We always had it with canned fruit cocktail, which I still kind of love (although I still pick out all the horribly colored cherries) but I decided to jazz this one up a bit by using a fresh fruit salad steeped in ginger syrup. I know the weather is starting to cool off in NYC at least, but we've still got a couple of weeks of warm(ish) weather left--so go on, have a bowl of this and relive your summer memories.


Since this is comprised of milk, some sugar, and fruit, I consider this darn near a health food--so enjoy, guilt free!

Almond Tofu
Makes about 8 servings

For the tofu:
2 packets unflavored gelatin
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract

For the fruit salad:
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
a slice of fresh ginger, crushed
assorted fruits (I used grapes, a nectarine, and a plum)

Combine the gelatin with the sugar; use the larger amount if you have a serious sweet tooth, but keep in mind that you are going to be serving this with a sweet syrup and sweet fruit. Pour the boiling water over the sugar and gelatin and stir until everything is completely dissolved. It's much harder to dissolve sugar once you add the cold milk, so try to get it all now. Add the milk and almond extract and stir. Give it a taste, and if you think it needs more sugar or almond flavor, correct it (if you think you need more sugar, I recommend using sugar syrup rather than straight up granulated sugar). Pour into a shallow pan (I used a 9" round pan which gave me a layer about 2" high, but you can use any shallowish pan), cover, and refrigerate until set, usually about 4 hours or so.

While that's setting, you can make your ginger syrup, which is so simple that all you do is dump your sugar, water and ginger slice in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar, and let simmer for another 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool. Store in the fridge (with ginger slice) until you are ready to serve. When that time comes, cut your fruit into small bits--in my case, I thinly sliced a nectarine, cubed a plum, and thinly sliced some red grapes--and toss in the syrup.

To serve, cut your tofu into diamonds; the size isn't super important, you just want to break it up a bit. Spoon a few pieces of tofu into a small bowl and pour a couple of spoonfuls of syrup and fruit over the top.

Macarons from Kee's Chocolates

Ask NYC chocolate lovers for their recommendations, and one name that always pops up is Kee's Chocolates (along with MarieBelle). I've read a lot about their unique flavors, but to be honest, I don't really eat truffles or straight up chocolate that regularly (which is why I've still got several bars from the Chocolate Show I went to last year in my fridge). I'd much rather bake with chocolate. But I did trek over to Kee's midtown outpost during lunch today to check out their macarons in my ongoing quest for the best macarons in New York.


The midtown "store" is really just a counter located inside the lobby of the HSBC on the corner of 5th Ave. and 40th St. Strange location! But lucky HSBC workers! They have a pretty good selection of chocolates, but sadly, not much in the way of macarons. What they did have were prepackaged bags of 4-6 mini macarons (I paid $6 for my bag); check out the photo above and you'll get an idea of their size. I'd say they are about the size of a dollar coin, so...small! But I gather they have "regular" sized macarons at the downtown location, and you can probably select flavors rather than going for a preselected assortment.


What they lack in size, they make up for in attractiveness.


I wish I could tell you which flavors these were, but I neglected to take adequate notes before I scarfed the lot down. I can tell you that I had rosewater lychee (the only one I can still identify), passionfruit, mint mocha, sour sap, green tea with jasmine, and one that I think was plain chocolate.


This one was my favorite, followed closely by the green tea with jasmine. One of these days I'm going to have to make it to the downtown store to sample the full range. Well, maybe after a few more trips to the gym. In the meantime, if you're in midtown and feel the need for some chocolate, why not stop in and grab some to go?

Kee's Chocolates (midtown)
452 Fifth Avenue (inside HSBC)
New York, NY 10018
Monday through Friday, 9:30am to 5:30pm
212-525-6099

Kambi Ramen

Yes, I'm overdue for a post. Unfortunately, summer has finally hit NYC in all its sticky, humid glory, and so I have done precious little baking or cooking (although we have been eating well thanks to our CSA). Mostly I just want to lie around, drinking iced water!

Anyway, the other night we stopped in at Kambi Ramen on 14th St. and 1st Ave. for a bowl of noodles after an evening of drinking at Otto's Shrunken Head (2 for 1 well drinks before 8, apparently!). I love Otto's, but I have learned an important lesson--do not try to chug a Pang's Punch. Seriously. Also, you will find cocktail monkeys in your pockets for days afterwards. Ahem, anyway!


Kambi is a fairly typical ramen joint; it's not a place to linger and have a quiet conversation, but it's great for a quick meal, and the space itself is clean and comfortable with high tables and stools. Sorry for the sub-par photos--I was too hungry to fiddle around with settings. We shared some gyoza, which were filled with pork and were quite tasty, especially the crunchy bits on the bottom. Nice and juicy, too.


And here is a much-too-close photo of my spicy miso ramen. I know from this view, it's all corn and a seaweed sail, but trust me, the stewed pork served with it was deliciously fatty. And the boiled egg was nicely boiled until just set; no sulfurous, rubbery yolks to be found here! My only complaint was that I was extremely thirsty after I finished my soup, which I will attribute to a bit too much salt. Seriously, I drank two whole bottles of water when I got home.

All in all, a great place to grab a bowl of noodles; that is, if you can resist the lure of the Papaya Dog next door...

As an aside, if you are looking for a way to cool off for a few hours, I highly highly highly recommend going to see Ponyo, the new Miyazaki movie (okay, I know it was released in Japan already, but the subtitled Disney release is out now). I loved it. Probably designed for a younger audience than Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle, but still totally enjoyable and magical. Seriously, go see it.

The Best Scallion Pancakes

I'm going to start this one off by saying that my mother is an amazing cook. We've always eaten really delicious food, and I like to think that I've absorbed some lessons through the years, although most of my attempts come nowhere near hers. However, there are a few recipes I've learned and perfected, and in the case of scallion pancakes, I think mine are better now. (Don't tell my mom I said that.)

To make 16 5-6" pancakes, combine 3 cups of all purpose flour and a teaspoon of salt. Pour in 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups of boiling water; stir with chopsticks (or a fork) until mostly combined. You'll have a fairly dry, shaggy looking mass. Turn it out onto a clean countertop and knead until you have a smooth, pliable dough. You may need to add a tablespoon or more of water, but don't add much more than that--the dough should not be sticky at all. Cover with a towel and set aside while you prepare the filling.

For the oil, combine 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil. Finely chop approximately 4 scallions, greens and whites--you should have about 3/4 of a cup total. If you have any available, you can add some finely chopped garlic chives as well.


Divide dough into two parts, and keep the one you're not working with covered with a towel. Roll the half into a rope and cut into 8 equal portions. Working with one at a time, roll out into a circle; try to roll it out thinly (less than 1/8" thick). Brush all over with a thin layer of oil, and sprinkle with a bit of salt.


Scatter some scallions evenly across your dough circle. I use about a teaspoon, but obviously you can increase or decrease depending on how scallion-y you like your pancakes. Roll your pancake up snugly into a sausage, like you would a cinnamon roll. Don't worry too much about pinching the seams shut or anything.


Form your sausage into a coil and tuck the end under into the center. These last two steps are what give the pancakes their flakiness. Flatten down into a round patty. You should end up with something that looks like this:



Dust both sides with flour and roll out again into a 5-6" round circle. Don't worry if some of the filling is forced out--you can just poke it back in. Similary, don't worry if you can't get them completely round; they'll still taste good, I promise.


As you roll them out, stack them on a plate with a layer of parchment or plastic wrap between each one. If you aren't planning on eating all 16 right away (tempting, but I don't recommend it if you don't have a large group of people. Trust me.), then once you have them rolled out, pack them into a freezer bag and store in the freezer. They'll keep for quite a while and it's convenient to have a stash on hand for emergencies.


When you're ready to cook them, heat a splash of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, put a pancake in; it should sizzle a bit, but keep the heat controlled so it doesn't brown too fast. When there are browned spots and the surface looks dry, flip the pancake and press down with your spatula. (For reasons I can't explain, this helps to encourage the pancake to puff up a bit, forming flaky layers). Cook until the second side has browned spots. Remove from the heat, cut into quarters, and serve plain or with dipping sauce (in this case, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, a dollop of sambal oelek, a few drops of sesame oil, and half a clove of garlic, smashed). Repeat as necessary!