Daring Lavash

This had to be the most relaxed Daring Bakers Challenge yet. Why? Not because it was something I've made before, it wasn't. Not because it was done in 5 minutes, it wasn't. This challenge was all vegan. Yup, that's what I said. All vegan. No alterations necessary. The challenge for September was lavash crackers, an Armenian style of yeasted cracker.

I was ever so slightly worried about rolling out this dough. The instructions say the thinner the better except I am dough challenged. Everyone knows that. I just went for it. Mix the dough, knead for 10ish minutes, let rise then stretch/roll. I had nothing to worry about, this dough is awesome, so stretchy and supple. I actually had enough dough for two trays rather than the one the recipe claims. I served my lavash with good ol' hummus. You really can't go wrong there.
Lavash Crackers
Recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread, by Peter Reinhart

1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 Tb agave syrup or sugar
1 Tb vegetable oil
1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb water, at room temperature
Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

2. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (see http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-if-Bre … ong-Enough for a discription of this) and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

4. Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt - a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

7. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

Mango Tango

Or more accurately Mango Teriyaki Tofu with Brown Jasmine Rice from Vegetarian Times June 2008. Mine is slightly modified because as usual, I can't leave well enough alone.
I've always found VT recipes to be hit or miss or not vegan. This one was vegan and I had a mango ripe and ready.

Mango-Teriyaki Tofu with Brown Jasmine Rice
Sauce
1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped
2 tsp fresh ginger
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup tamari
2 Tbs sugar
Tofu & Rice
1 1/4 cups brown jasmine rice
3/4 tsp salt
1 lb tofu, drained and cut into 12 slices
1/2 cup finely chopped scallions
2 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Add rice, salt and 2 cups water to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer 25-30 mins, until liquid has been absorbed.

Make you mango sauce. Puree all sauce ingredients in blender until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan and bring to a simmer stirring. Remove from heat.

Heat grill pan over medium heat, spray with cooking spray. Coat tofu slices with mango sauce and grill 3 mins per side (rotate slice 45 degrees to get cross hash grill pattern).

Stir 1/3 cup scallions, 1 tsp sesame seeds and sesame oil into rice. Mound rice on plate. Add tofu. Drizzle with remaining sauce and the sprinkle with remaining scallions and sesame.

Ultimate Comfort

If I were to make a list of all time ultimate comfort foods pot pie would be in the top 5. Even before I went to the vegan side I loved loved loved pot pie. Unfortunately most of those pot pie experiences were from the frozen food section of the super market. As most ingredient conscious people know, the frozen food section is rarely a smart place to be. Even as a vegan the freezer section can be a pronunciation nightmare. I admit I can be found there from time to time (maybe more than I'd like to confess) but frozen pot pies are a rarity in the vegan variety and even if you find one it's probably going to be a disappointment. Barely any filling ingredients, too much gravy, not enough gravy. So needless to say, I don't get my pot pies all that often. Sure I could make them but in case I haven't mentioned it yet, I am pie dough challenged (because we're being all PC here). The doughs always taste fine, I can salvage them into something usable but they just don't work like they are supposed to. I can't just roll them out, can't fold them or drape them to place them in a pan or on top of a pie. They brake, crack, laugh at me. It's all very distressing.

Dispite my dough ineptity I really really really wanted a pot pie and I wanted it the right way. Lots of filling ingredients, smooth creamy gravy, flakey crust, the works. The result was perfect! I even was able to transport the dough from the counter to the pie and everything. It all worked.
Ok the husband helped me. Those are his leaves. Aren't they cute? I did roll out and place the dough though, my biggest challenge.

Seitan Pot Pie

Filling
3 Tb Earth Balance margarine
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lg potato, scrubbed & diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 med carrots
Salt & pepper
1 lb seitan, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 lb green beans, frozen or fresh cut into 1" pieces
1/2 lb peas, fresh or frozen
Sauce
1/2 cup Earth Balance
1 cup flour
2 1/2 cup vegetable stock (or 2 1/2 cup water with a veggie boullion cube)
1/2 cup almond milk
Salt & pepper
Crust
1 cup chilled Earth Balance
3 cups flour
10oz cold vegan cream cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

For the filling, melt the margarine in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion & potato. Saute for about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic, bell pepper, carrots and cook for about 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Stir in the salt and pepper to taste. Add the seitan, green beans & peas. Set aside.

For the sauce, melt the margarine over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the flour, mixing until smooth. Slowly whisk in the stock keeping the mixture smooth. Add almond butter, salt & pepper. Pour the sauce over the filling and mix.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Get a casserole dish or 9"x13" dish or even individual pie pans ready, lightly oil. Cut the margarine into little pieces. In the bowl of your food processor (with blade attachment), pulse margarine and flour until crumbly. Add cream cheese, salt & pepper. Continue pulsing until dough comes together into a ball. Roll the dough on a floured surface to a 1/4" thickness large enough to cover your pan or big enough to be cut into rounds to cover individual pans. Pour filling into pans. Cover with dough cutting off excess and press down edges. Place a baking sheet under whatever shape your dish is as there will almost certainly be some bubbling over and bake 20-25 mins.
This is easily open to modification. Add beans, corn, squash, whatever strikes your fancy. I need more pie.

Green Smoothies Here I Come!

People have been talking about green smoothies for a while now. I'm an open minded person, willing to give most things a try so I did not write off this phenomenon. Yes they sound strange and if you are a greens hater they might even sound revolting. Luckily I am not a greens hater. In fact, I think I've liked all the greens I've tried so far. After posting the Vegan's Hundred I knew it was time for me to take the green smoothie plunge.

Yesterday at the farmers market funds were a little low so I had to be very careful of my choices. Tomatoes are always irrisistable, local plums won't be around for much longer, with my final $3 I picked a bunch of beets. The greens looked pretty good so I could eat those too. Of course this morning the greens looked less than good but I cut them from the beet root, picked out the yuck ones and placed the rest in a clean sink of cold water. After about 1 hr they looked new, bright, beautiful. What an amazing transformation. Now was the time for my first green smoothie.

Into my blender jug I tossed:
1 ripe banana
1 lemon, rind cut away but the white pith left (I hear it has some good bits) cut into chunks to pick out the seeds.
2 dried dates, pitted
6 medium beet greens
1/2 cup frozen chopped mango
1/2 cup water

I started up the blender on low quickly turning the speed up to high and as I watched the mixture blend together I hoped for the best. Could this be good? Will I need to add something else to make this edible?


The answer, luckily, was no. This came out to taste slightly creamy and sweet from the banana and dates. A little lemonade like from the whole lemon with the added roundness of mango and just an ever so faint taste of greens. If I had added fewer greens you would probably not even know they were there except for the green color of the finished product. I did not mind the light green flavor though. It just added to the bright alive over all feeling of the smoothie. I will be doing this again.

Teeny Tiny Itsy Bitsy

August comes to a close and another Daring Bakers Challenge also comes to an end. This month brought me yet another delicious dessert I had never made before, chocolate eclairs. Now that I think on it I don't think I ever ate one pregan so this was extra special.

I started out in search of a vegan pate a choux recipe. I luckily found my match at Baking Love. The dough came together rather quickly and without much fuss. I ended up using this dough to make the most teeny tiny food yet. To make these really small just use a pastry bag with a large tip to pipe the dough onto the baking sheet into mini puffs or lil' eclairs. These will expand a little but not tons so you can gauge the size of your puff well by the raw dough.

Pate a Choux

1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or baking powder
2 Tb shortening or oil
1 cup non-dairy milk
2 Tb Ener-G egg replacer whipped until stiff with 1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Prepare Ener-G egg replacer & water.

Stir together flour, vegan sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. In a saucepan, bring the non-dairy milk and oil to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the flour mixture all at once, return to heat, and reduce the heat to low. Stir constantly until the dough forms a ball that pulls away from the sides and the spoon and is smooth. Working quickly, remove from heat and add the egg replacer in thirds, beating well after each addition until the dough is glossy, smooth, and pulls away from the sides.

Using a pastry bag, dispense the choux paste onto baking tray. Alternatively, you may use two spoons to form eclair shapes or simply drop spoonfuls to form puffs.

Bake for 10 minutes at 400F, then lower the heat to 350F for another 10 minutes. Turn oven off and allow to cool, with door slightly ajar, for another 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely on racks before serving or filling.

Custard

1/3 c sugar
2 Tb flour
1/4 c cornstarch
1/4 c water
1 1/3 c nondairy milk
1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, flour, starch and water in a blender and blend until smooth, transfer to a bowl or measuring cup. Alternatively combine in a bowl and beat until smooth.

In a medium saucepan bring milk to a simmer over medium high heat. Pour about 1/2 c of the hot milk into the sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Add this mixture into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk. Heat this mixture over medium low heat whisking constantly until it begins to bubble. Remove from heat.

Transfer to a bowl and cover to cool to room temperature. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Chocolate Glaze

100g (3.5 oz) bar semisweet chocolate
1 tsp vegetable shortening (optional)

Melt chocolate and shortening in double boiler stirring until smooth.

Assembly

Split your pastries on the horizontal. Place bottoms aside and the tops on a rack over parchment.
Glaze should be barely warm, pour or spoon over tops to cover each evenly.
Pipe or spoon custard into the bottoms, don't be afraid to mound it up.
Place tops over the custard and enjoy!

Heirlooms

Now this is a thing of beauty!

After my last post on the Vegan Hundred and reading a few comments on other lists the question came up "what are heirloom tomatoes?" These are heirloom tomatoes. I usually say the uglier the better but it's totally not true. The ones on top look like they have been painted with water colors. These came from the Burlington Farmer's Market. I can't resist, the tomato season won't be around forever.

Beyond the beauty and interesting visuals the taste is amazing. Here is where I say if it's huge and ugly don't be afriad of it. The big ugly ones are soooo good! The little ones you end up eating before you could begin to think of a dish or salad to use them in.

I've grown some of the sun gold, black (the purple-ish ones), and white (the light yellow ones on the right side) cherry toms in my little garden.
These big guys go a purple burgandy but stay half green. They are a good thick tomato. Great for slicing.

The Vegan's Hundred

The Omnivore's Hundred inspired Bittersweet to create a vegan version.

The Vegan's Hundred is spreading in the vegan blogosphere as we all consider, "would I eat that?" or even "what is that?"

So as instructed:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.
5) Pass it on!

1. Natto
2. Green Smoothie
3. Tofu Scramble
4. Haggis
5. Mangosteen
6. Creme brulee
7. Fondue
8. Marmite/Vegemite
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Nachos
12. Authentic soba noodles
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Taco from a street cart
16. Boba Tea
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Gyoza
20. Vanilla ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Ceviche
24. Rice and beans
25. Knish
26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Caviar
29. Baklava
30. Pate
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Mango lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Mulled cider
37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Fast food french fries
41. Raw Brownies
42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
43. Dahl
44. Homemade Soymilk
45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Stroopwafle
47. Samosas
48. Vegetable Sushi
49. Glazed doughnut
50. Seaweed
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Tofurkey
54. Sheese
55. Cotton candy
56. Gnocchi
57. Piña colada
58. Birch beer
59. Scrapple
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Soy curls
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Curry
65. Durian
66. Homemade Sausages
67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Smoked tofu
69. Fried plantain
70. Mochi
71. Gazpacho
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Corn on the cob
75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
76. Pomegranate
77. Fauxstess Cupcake
78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
79. Jerky
80. Croissants
81. French onion soup
82. Savory crepes
83. Tings
84. A meal at Candle 79
85. Moussaka
86. Sprouted grains or seeds
87. Macaroni and “cheese”
88. Flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. White chocolate
91. Seitan
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips
94. Yellow watermelon
95. Chili with chocolate
96. Bagel and Tofutti
97. Potato milk
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Raw cookie dough

Firstly let me get the scotch bonnet thing out of the way. I've felt the heat of a raw raw scotch bonnett. I would have to be paid a significant amount of money to do that. Or maybe take the most miniscule amount per day until it was gone. Might take a year to finish.

I'm over halfway done the list already just by accident. 42 left if my count is correct. A couple things were lucky circumstance. Working for a coffee shop gave me Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee (wasn't cheap though) and a Christmas party I went to once with an ex featured some expensive wines. I couldn't tell you what they were but he wasn't worried about the price tag.

Mara, we need to take a little weekend trip to New York so I can get this Candle 79 thing out of the way. It will be a chore but sometimes you just have to take one for the team.

Thanks to the Samosaman not only have I had a good, authentic samosa but he resently added fried plantains to his farmers market stand. I'll get some tomorrow.

Ice Cream!

So I managed to get my hands on a new kitchen gadget. I've never had an ice cream maker and never used one before but after reading a few reviews I knew it would be a pretty safe purchase. I went for the Cuisinart with their reputation and most people seemed to like it over all. I've used it a couple times now and I have to say. This is a good machine. It does exactly what it should. It's not overly loud and as long as you follow the directions you have ice cream in 30 mins to 1 hr.

I haven't come up with a library of recipes yet but believe you me they will be coming. I love this thing! Vegan ice cream pretty much whenever I want it. No added crap. Flavors that may be hard to find, or impossible in vegan versions. Oh yes, there will be much ice cream. I suspect I will go back up to the pant size I just went down from. Who the hell thinks vegans are skinny?

My first creation you ask? This recipe was inspired by my husbands pregan love for Haagen Dazs Rum Raisin ice cream and my stumbling across the blog A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise made this my first "complex" recipe. I say complex lightly because it wasn't difficult. Yes, it can be improved but this came out damn good. I'd buy it.

Rum Raisin Ice Cream

3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup dark rum
1 14oz can coconut milk
1 1/5 cup soy milk (or other nondairy milk)
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tb arrowroot (or cornstarch)
1 tsp vanilla

Soak the raisins in the rum for at least 1 hour but up to overnight. The longer you soak the better.
Mix 1/4 cup of the soymilk with the arrowroot, set aside.
Heat the coconut milk, remaining soy milk and sugar in a small saucepan. Once the mixture is near a boil mix in the arrowroot mixture. The mixture should begin to thicken. Once this happens remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Set aside to cool.
Once the mixture has reached room temperature, drain the raisins reserving 1/4 cup of the rum.
Mix the rum into the milk mixture.
Freeze the cream in your ice cream maker according to the instructions. Add the raisins in 5 mins before the end of the freezing cycle.

I had to freeze mine in the freezer for an additional 10 mins to get a scoopable ice cream rather than a soft serve consistency.

That little special something

It is that time again for another Daring Bakers Challenge. I missed last month so I wanted this challenge not only to be successful but special. Something I can really be proud of. This resulted in a sloppy first attempt but I learned enough from that (and still managed a really tasty result) my second attempt was much easier.

I now know what it is that gives so many gourmet deserts that over the top deliciousness, booze. That special something, yeah, that's rum. But really, I do need to learn to decorate my cakes. The beauty of the outside never matches the beautiful taste of the inside.

So without anymore ramblings and delays I present my July Challenge:

Hazelnut Gateau with Praline Buttercream

For this recipe you will need several elements. It looks like a lot of work but it's worth it. Really. As usual I have modified the original version of this recipe to fit into my diet so we'll do without the heavy cream, the dozen or so eggs and the butter and replace them with things like flax, cashews, baking powder and vegan non-hydrogenated margarine (using a hydrogenated variety would of course work but please don't).

filbert genoise
sugar syrup, flavored with dark rum
praline buttercream
cashew whipped cream
apricot glaze
ganache glaze, prepared just before ready to use
hazelnuts, toasted for decoration if you'd like

Filbert Genoise

1cup hazelnuts, toasted & skinned

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 Tb cornstarch

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

5 Tb flax meal
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 cup warm earth balance (or your choice of vegetable margarine)

Position oven rack to the center of oven. Preheat to 350 degrees. Grease & flour three 8" round cake pans (you can also do this on a jelly roll pan, you may also want to use parchment, this does tend to stick).

Using a food processor, process nuts, flour, cornstarch, baking powder & soda for about 30 seconds. Until nuts are reduced to a powder. Set aside.

Beat flax meal and water together, mixture should thicken slightly. Add sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat until well mixed. Add warm earth balance, beat to incorporate. Add flour and nut mixture and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened and combined.

Spread batter onto prepared pans dividing evenly. It will just cover the bottom of three 8-9" pans. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven, allow to rest slightly in pan and then remove to cool on cooling racks.

Sugar Syrup

1/2 cup water
2 Tb sugar
1 Tb dark rum

In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add rum. Cool slightly before using on cake.

Praline Buttercream

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup vegetable margarine
1/3 cup praline paste (recipe follows)
1 1/2 tsp dark rum
1/4 cup soy creamer (or any nondairy milk)
3 1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Cream together shortening and margarine until well mixed and fluffy. Add praline paste, rum and creamer and beat until incorporated. Sift in confectioners sugar and beat until well mixed and fluffy.

Praline Paste

1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
2/3 cup sugar

Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper and lightly oil with margarine

Put sugar in heavy bottomed skillet. Heat on low for 10-20 minutes until sugar melts around the edges. Do not stir. Swirl if necessary to prevent burning. Brush sides of pan with water to remove sugar crystals if needed. When completely melted and carmel in color remove from heat.

Stir in nuts with a wooden spoon and separate clusters. Return o low heat and stir to coat. Cook until sugar bubbles. Turn mixture onto parchment and spread evenly. It will quickly harden into a brittle. Break into pieces and place in food processor. Process until mixture breaks down and comes together into a paste, several minutes.

Cashew Whipped Cream

1 cup cashews, soaked 1 hr or up to overnight
1/4 cup water
2 Tb agave nectar (or maple syrup)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Add all ingredients into blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.

Apricot Glaze

2/3 c thick apricot preserves, lg pieces removed
1 Tb water

In small saucepan bring water and preserves to slow boil and simmer 2-3 minutes. Add water as needed to prevent sticking.
Remove from heat and apply to cake with pastry brush.

Ganache Glaze

6oz of semisweet or bittersweet choocolate (I used Lindt Swiss Bittersweet and Madagascar 65% Dark Bars)
6 oz (3/4 cup) soy creamer (or nondairy milk of choice)
1 Tb light corn syrup
1 Tb dark rum
3/4 tsp vanilla

Chop chocolate and place in a medium sized bowl.
Heat creamer and corn syrup in saucepan on low until it reaches a gentle boil. Immediately pour over chocolate. Allow to set for one minute then slowly stir and mix chocolate and cream together until melted and mixed. Blend in vanilla and rum. Glaze will thicken but should still be pourable.

Assembly

Cut a cardboard disc slightly smaller than the cake. Measure 1 cup praline buttercream and set aside.

Place first layer upside down on disk. Using a pastry brush, moisten with sugar syrup. Spread with half of the remaining buttercream and then cover with 1/2 cashew cream leaving 1/4 inch border around the edge of cake.

Place middle layer over first, brush with sugar syrup, spread with remaining buttercream and them cashew cream.

Moisten underside of final layer with sugar syrup and then place, syrup side down over middle layer. Gently press sides of cake to align layers. Refrigerate to chill 30 minutes.

Lift cake by sliding palm under cardboard. Holding a sharp, serrated knife parallel to sides of cake. Trim sides so they are perfectly straight. Brush top and sides of cake with warm apricot glaze, sealing cut areas completely. Chill while you prepare the ganache.

Place a rack over a large shallow pan to catch ganache drippings. Remove gateau from refrigerator and put on rack. With metal spatula in hand hold saucepan about 10 inches above cake, pour ganache onto cake's center. Move spatula over top 3-4 times to get a smooth and mirror like appearance. Ganache should cover top and run down sides.

Garnish with reserved buttercream and pastry bag as the mood strikes you.

Refrigerate leftovers.

A Return from the Greek Isles

Yes, it's been a while. In general I go through phases of unfocus or maybe narrow focus. I go through each day doing the basics: eat, sleep, work, repeat. This causes everything to be neglected. Blog posts most of all. However this time I do have a real excuse. At about the time of my last post I was on my way to Montreal to fly from there to Athens Greece. We returned a couple weeks ago but I am only now getting my head back in the game.

It's so disorienting to be away for long enough to settle into a different community and pace of life and then come back here. Now Burlington is pretty chilled out when compared to other "cities" but the Greeks have the market cornered on chilled out. Even in a busy city like Athens where there are tons of cars and bikes on each street just sit down to a meal and everything just slows right down.

My husband's parents live on the little island of Ithaki (I'll have to add some links as I find them) in the Ionian Sea. My pictures so far are of the food from our favorite restaurant Polyphemus. Set in a garden so you are completely surrounded by olive and lemon trees, herbs and some vegetables and just lots of beautiful green and splashes of color in flowers.

The Greek version of hummus, this is fava. Made from yellow split peas, olive oil, garlic, red onion. On top drizzle some bright green olive oil and a sprinkling of oregano. I've tried to make this a couple times but haven't quite got the taste right. I'll post a recipe when I figure it out.

Another favorite of ours (we ate it nearly everyday in one form or another), Melitzanosalata. This is an eggplant salad made from roasted eggplant, garlic and olive oil primarily. Depending on which restaurant you are at it's always different. This has been left a little chunky and has a healthy dose of garlic and drizzling of that gorgeous olive oil. I am closer to a recipe on this one.
This is simply a fried pita. I haven't seen this offered at any other restaurant we visited but damn this just makes eating those dips heaven.
And no meal is complete without the classic Greek salad, without the feta of course. The vegetables were always just so perfect here. Tomatoes just so big and juicy. Olives a plenty. The greenest olive oil I have ever seen and probably ever will see.