Weekend Cooking/Cook the Books: Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

When this book was announced as the Cook the Books selection for December/January, I wasn't sure that I would be able to join in as both the paper book and the e-books were pretty expensive. I tried a few different places and then realised that the book was available as an audiobook and I had credits available!

Bite By Bite is a collection of short food essays from essayist and poet Aimee Nexhukumatathil. It is a really interesting mix of nostalgia, the author's personal memories, culture and food history. 

The audiobook is narrated by the author herself. Some times that can work and other times not so much, but I do think it worked here, mainly because it is her memories, her heritage, her favourite foods etc. It also worked as an audiobook for me because it isn't a straight line narrative, by which I mean because all the essays are short and about particular subjects so if you don't listen for a week it doesn't matter. You can just pick up the next story and go from there. Some of the essays are 3 or 4 minutes long and others are about 15 minutes long. 

The author is of both Indian and Phillipino heritage which brings an interesting mix of ingredients, and a little bit of competition to the mix such as when her parents disagree about whether the best mangoes grow in India or The Phillipines. There are also a number a traditional Phillipino dishes that are included such as Lumpia and Kaong. There is also an influence from her travels, such as the essays about Shave Ice and associated social history in Hawaii and Gyro from Greece.

I did learn quite a lot from many of these essays, and it did get me thinking. For example, there are numerous chapters about different types of bananas. In our supermarkets, you might be lucky to find two varieties of bananas. Who decided that those are the only two varieties that we should have? I was particularly intrigued by a variety called Saba Banana that is less sweet but is used as part of a bananacue in the Philippines. Barbecued banana with a caramel sauce sounds amazing! There were also other fruits that also have some different banana asssociated names, such as Pawpaw which can be known as names like Poor Mans Bananas or Hoosier Bananas. Here in Australia, we tend to call them Papaya. 

I was surprised to see the suggestion that you can make your own homemade vanilla extract by using vanilla beans and vodka. I have never even thought that such a thing could be possible! And this chapter was also interesting due to the history of the cultivation of vanilla. 

Some of the essays are more a collection of sentences, for example in the chapter about onion, but others are personal stories which flow a lot better. 

I am so glad that I was able to participate this time. I don't read a lot of non fiction, so I am not sure I would have come across this book if not for Cook the Books. 

I decided pretty early on what I was going to make, although I did have a few other ideas, but in the end I decided to make something that is kind of inspired by the essay on pineapple. 

I really had two reasons for making Hummingbird cakes.  The first was because in the essay, it talks about the fact that hummingbirds are banned in Hawaii as they pollinate pineapples and change the internal structure of the pineapple making them less marketable.  So yes, I have made hummingbird cake because hummingbirds are banned in Hawaii

The second reason is because my auntie had given me this recipe ages ago. Every now and again I come across the piece of paper and so today I am putting it on the blog so that I can find it again when I want to find it, not just when I happen to find it. Oh, and and a bonus reason....I have been thinking about finding something to make with cream cheese frosting for weeks!

I have made Hummingbird Cake before, but that time it was a large cake, and it also had the addition of coconut in it. 

When I was making the cakes I just used normal oil as we only had extra virgin olive oil in the pantry, and I made 1.5x the frosting because that just didn't feel like enough with the measurements. It actually could have done with double the frosting. I started trying to pipe the icing but quickly ran short so ended up just using a knife to spread it on the top, which is why they look a bit messy! Although to be fair, my baking always looks messy. It does taste good though! I served these up as dessert when my sister and her family came for dinner and they got a big thumbs up.

The Cook the Books selection for February and March is Annabel Abbs' book Miss Eliza's English Kitchen, which is also published under the name The Language of Food. This will be a reread for me so it will be interesting to see if it works for me the second time round. Here is my original review.

Hummingbird Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup self raising flour
2 tspns ground cinnamon
1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
440g can crushed pineapple in juice, well drained
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup mashed banana
2/3 cup light olive oil
Frosting
75g cream cheese, at room temperature 
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture

Line a 12-hole muffin pan (1/3 cup capacity) with paper cases

Sift flours, cinnamon and soda into a large bowl. Stir in sugar.

Combine pineapple, eggs, banana and oil in a large jug. Whisk well. Stir into flour mixture until just combined. Divide mixture evenly among paper cases.

Cook in a moderate oven (180C) for 20 minutes, or until cooked when tested. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make frosting, beat cream cheese and butter in a small bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar. Beat until combined. 

Spread frosting over top of cold cakes.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Steak, baked potato, salad    
Sunday - Crispy lemon and garlic roast chicken (new)
Monday - Beef and broccoli noodles
Tuesday - Chicken and onion wraps
Wednesday - Honey pepper chicken and rice
Thursday - Pork chops, mash, beans and mushroom sauce
Friday - Takeout

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Vintage Weekend Cooking: Saved by Cake by Marian Keyes

This week I have finished an Aussie rural romance book called Wildflower Ridge by Maya Linnell. This is my first book by this author, and in fact was her debut novel, but I have been following her on Instagram for a while now. 

Like me, Maya loves baking, so it wasn't really a surprise to see baking mentioned more than once in this book, but I was surprised when I saw Marian Keyes' cookbook Saved by Cake mentioned. It has spurred me to reshare my thoughts about the book which I originally posted in 2012. The funny thing is all through this post I say that I am going to buy this book, and yet, I never actually did. Bad fan! And now, I wouldn't mind Red Velvet Cheesecake cupcakes.

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Can you remember the last time you laughed out loud when reading a cookbook? Admittedly when I am looking for a new cookbook it isn't at the top of my list of priorities, but it is an added bonus when it happens.

Irish author Marian Keyes has been a best selling fiction author for years but this book, Saved by Cake, is her first foray into writing a cookbook. As a reader, I hope that this isn't the last time she does so. As a fan, I really hope that she doesn't find herself in the same place as she was when she starting her cake making journey.

The title of this book is not just a fun title, it is a description of the role that cake played in Marian Keyes life. A couple of years ago Keyes found herself suffering with severe depression. In the introduction she talks about her depression and how baking gave her a lifeline. At one point she says "To be perfectly blunt about it, my choice sometimes is: I can kill myself or I can make a dozen cupcakes. Right so, I'll do the cupcakes and I can kill myself tomorrow." Keyes acknowledges that baking may not be the thing that saves everyone, but for her it was the thing that helped her be able to face one day at time. She went from not even owning a cake tin to having a Drawer of Dreams and so many cookie cutters. If you watch either of the videos that I have linked to above you will be able to see how much joy this new hobby that is turned into something much more has given her, which can only be  a good thing right?

I know that I said that this was laugh out loud funny but so far it doesn't sound terribly cheery but if you have read any of Marian Keyes novels, you know that she is not afraid to mix up important issues into humourous situations and her voice comes through loud and clear in this collection.  Even within the recipe you can feel her excitement and pride with the comments that are scattered through the instructions. For example, in the recipe for Lemon Curd and Pistachio Pinwheels one of the paragraphs is "When you take the pinwheels out of the oven, prepare to be amazed. They will look so professional and impressive and totally different from the last time you saw them."

In another example, in the recipe for Lebkuchen Hearts, when talking about the equipment needed - "Finally, as these are Lebkuchen hearts, you'll need some sort of heart-shaped cookie cutter. If you don't have any, you could try freestyling it with a sharp knife. Or you could simply use a different shaped cutter and change the name of the cookie to - oh, just off the top of my head - Lebkuchen Shoes. or Lebkuchen Handbags." You just know that she has done this herself before!

The recipes range from quite simple classics, where Keyes has had to resist the urge to mess around too much with the tried and tested, to more unusual recipes like a Balsamic, Black Pepper and Chocolate cake that she recommends be served with mascarpone cheese, fresh basil and balsamic vinegar which she admits sounds unusual but "at least I am not advocating anchovies".

The book is divided into sections which focus on classics, cupcakes, cheesecakes, liquid cakes, pastry, meringues and macaroons, biscuits and cookies, fruit and veg and chocolate and there is a good mix of easier and more difficult recipes in each section.

I got this book from my local library, and it is obvious that others before me have actually cooked from it, as I fully intend to do. One of the previous borrowers even left a few post it notes marking the recipes that they found particularly of interest. Their choices included Three Milks Cake, Mam's Apple Tart, Sean's Rosemary Truffles and Individual Chocolate Lava Cakes. To that list, I would add my own choices of Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes and Red Velvet Swirl Cupcakes (for which I have included both the recipe and the video of Marian Keyes making them) below. I left the post it notes in the book for the next library patron to discover too. I wonder how long they will last in there until someone takes them out.

I wouldn't have necessarily said that I was more interested in sweet themed cookbooks than savoury, but when I buy this, and I will be buying it, it will be the third such cookbook this year (I have talked about the other two here and here). They are all different in tone and content but I can see myself cooking from them all quite regularly going forward.

Red Velvet Cupcake Swirls

For the red velvet layer 

110g butter

170g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
40g cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon red food colouring
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
2 eggs
160g self raising flour

For the cream cheese layer 

200g cream cheese
1 egg
40g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Method 

Line a 12 hole cupcake tray with paper cases and pre-heat your oven to 170°C/325°F/gas 3. 

First, make the cream cheese layer by beating the cream cheese with the egg, sugar and vanilla extract. Keep it standing by. 

Make the red velvet mix by melting the butter. Put into a bowl with the sugar and beat well. Next - in this exact order! Something to do with chemical jiggery-pokery that I can't explain, but must be observed - add the vanilla extract, the cocoa powder, the salt, the food colouring and the vinegar, beating between each addition.

In a separate bowl, beat your eggs in a separate bowl and then add to the butter/cocoa mix. Sieve in the flour and fold through. 

Divide most of the mix among the paper cases, reserving perhaps a fifth, then dollop a lump of cream cheese mix onto each paper case on top of the red velvet mix. Then divide the remaining red velvet mix into the paper cases, on top of the cream cheese mix. 

Now, swirl. You can use a cocktail stick, but I used a bamboo skewer - something with a bit of length is nice because you can get right down into the red velvet mix and dredge up its murky depths - and twirl until the red and white mixes are beautifully striped. this is an extremely enjoyable exercise, so enjoyable that I never want to stop, but I must because if I don't, the two mixes will become one and the whole thing will be pointless.

Bake for 17 to 20 minutes. Cool fully on a wire rack.

You can watch Marian make these delicious sounding cupcakes in the video below:

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in October.

 I did have a moment of panic when I first sat down to write this post because I thought for a minute that I had only made one thing, but then I had a closer look and realised that I had made a couple of different things. There is no question though that the amount of things that I have made has reduced over the last couple of months, which might be an indication of COVID fatigue, or just needing some new ideas.

Our restrictions have lifted a bit over the last week, and one of the things that we are really looking forward to is beign able to go out for brunch, or for coffee and cake. Currently we are allowed to go no further than 25kms from our house. There are some suburbs that are quite famous for their cake shops, and they are just outside of our range, so it will be a bit longer before we can go for coffee and cake! So, I guess I am just going to have to make some different things.

One of the things I have to figure out how to find some recipes to challenge myself, but that's a challenge for November!

One of the unusual things about all the things that I have made in October is that I have shared all of the recipes on this blog! As you can see I was trying out a few different things when I was taking the photos. I am never going to be a food photographer really.

Lemon Syrup Cakes - This has been one of my go to recipes for years. Quick and easy and super tasty. When I make these I do warn people that they are very lemony! And yet more than one person has taken a bite and said "oh, they are very lemony aren't they!"

Banana bread - I think we have some bananas that are almost ready to be turned into cake! So we might need to makes this again this week. Yes, the recipe is so good that it is going to become one of my go to recipes for the future!

Sticky Ginger and Apple Self Saucing Pudding - Last week I shared this recipe and made this pudding. it was so good. It is probably the end of the pudding season now but I am already looking forward to when we can make it again.


Weekly Dinners

Saturday: Tuna Nicoise Salad

Sunday: Beef Stew with Dumplings
Monday: Maple Mustard Chicken Tray Bake

Tuesday: Baked Zucchini Tomato and Parmesa Risotto

Wednesday: Mexican Chicken and Rice

Thursday: Italian Sausage Tray Bake

Friday: Packet of chips and a biscuit (dinner of champions!)

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

Weekend Cooking: August Baking

It's the last Saturday of the month and that means it is time to share my baking for this month. I started doing this earlier this year because otherwise every Weekend Cooking post would be about something sweet, which might be a bit much.

This is what what I cooked during August!

Weekender cookies - This was one of the Queen Baking Club fortnightly challenges. They are cookies with currants and rolled in cornflakes.

Apple and ginger self saucing pudding - I made this one last month as well. It is so good it was worth trying again!

Banana cake with cream cheese frosting - I have had a go to recipe for choc banana bread for years, which I still love, but we had some bananas and my husband has a thing for cream cheese frosting so we tried this recipe, and it was good.

Macarons with chocolate passionfruit filling - I was sent a kit to try making macarons. I posted about making them here.

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies - these were another fortnightly challenge, and these were oh so good. You definitely only need to eat one of these cookies per sitting!

Strawberry Eton Mess Cupcakes - The final Queen challenge for this month. We enjoyed eating these,and there was an added bonus of  many leftover meringue kisses, which my husband thought was a treat something like peanuts. You can just eat them and eat them until they are all gone!

Weekly Meals

Saturday: Beef Bourgignon with mashed potato
Sunday: Beef Bougignon with rice
Monday: Baked zucchini, tomato and parmesan risotto
Tuesday: Thai Green Chicken Curry Pie
Wednesday: Bacon, Zucchini, mushroom pasta
Thursday: Steak, mushroom, broccolini, pea
Friday: Takeaway Friday - pizza

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

Weekend Cooking: May Bakes

It's the last Saturday of the month and that means it is time to share my baking for this month. I started doing this earlier this year because otherwise every Weekend Cooking post would be about something sweet, which might be a bit much.

The first thing I made this month was my first ever attempt at cinnamon scrolls. These were a no knead version. I actually posted the recipe for this bake a few weeks ago.

Next, these cupcakes were made using a recipe from Australian pastry chef Adriano Zumbo. He has been on a few baking shows in the US as well. I don't know about him as a TV chef but his cakes and pastries look amazing. So this was, in his words, a cupcake you can make with the kids. They are chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate ganache inset and a salted caramel buttercream frosting. So yes, make that with your kids!

A couple of my friends thought that these looked liked the poo emoji which wasn't very nice but they did taste absolutely delicious! I would try to make the buttercream differently because I used a premade caramel. Maybe the buttercream would look a bit better with a homemade salted caramel. Or maybe I just needed to add some sprinkes. I did buy some amazing sprinkles this month but they hadn't arrived when I made this!

There are lots of companies around the world that have been doing something special for their consumers as a result of COVID-19. One of our big brand biscuit companies (as in cookies) announced they were going to be releasing some of the recipes for their biscuits. They released three, but now they have moved to releasing recipes made using their products. The three biscuits that they released the recipes for are Scotch Finger biscuits, Iced Vovos and Monte Carlo. I do intend to try the other recipes at some point, but I did make the Monte Carlo biscuits this month and they were so good.

Working on the basis that most Weekend Cooking participants won't actually know what a Monte Carlo looks or tastes like, they are a biscuit with coconut in and a creamy filling with jam. Here is what a mass produced Monte Carlo looks like

and here is what mine looked like. Much more rustic of course but they were so good! I am definitely planning to make them again at some point, and I possibly will share the recipe soon as well.

The day that I made those biscuits we had a Zoom afternoon tea so I also made scones using this recipe that I shared a few years ago now.

It just so happened the week after that afternoon tea it was my husband's birthday and also the first week that we were allowed to have families over to visit so we had an actual afternoon tea and I made more scones! I must confess that we bought the lemon meringue pie. I was going to make it but I ran out of time.

The other thing that I did make for the afternoon tea was a Tangy Ricotta Muffin which was one of the baking club recipes this month. These were so good as well. My nephews loved them!

I do have plans to cook a couple of things over the weekend, but they will go in next month's post.

What have you been making this month?

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.