Lemon coconut cake

Hi everyone!  I spent the summer testing, and tasting a lot of yummy recipes, and traveling around San Francisco looking for creative ingredients, in order to bring many of my old go-to recipes up a notch.   I want to share this recipe for a very light and zesty cake, which I hope you will enjoy, and try to make it at home. It is a lemon coconut cake with a twist. My secret weapon for this treat- Lemon curd!

Ingredients:

Cake-

2 cups Flour

1cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla

1cup oil

6 eggs (2 whole and 4 whites)

2 tbsp lemon curd

2 lemons squeezed plus lemon zest from one of the lemons

Topping-

Coconut flakes (sweetened)

Lemon juice

Powdered sugar

 

How to:

In a large bowl, with your electric mixer, mix the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, zest, and LEMON CURD!! Then add all the remaining dry ingredients (sift the dry ingredients before you add them in). Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes at 350* or until golden brown.

After it cools, add the topping. Make a drizzle by combining lemon juice and powdered sugar. Pour on top and then sprinkle the coconut. Slice and enjoy!!!!

-Z

 

 

 

Passover lunch!

Hi there!

A few friends and I  decided to have a fun and relaxing  spa day. Manis, pedis.. the works. But no girl’s day is complete without a fab lunch to start you off. There was one problem…Passover!! On passover one is not allowed to eat any  bread,cookies, cakes, anything with leavening agents, etc. . Love the holiday for the family time, but not a fan of matzo.

After lots of  menu mania, and planning, I decided to make the following: Dikon- cabbage  slaw, a fennel-cranberry salad, broccoli kugel(can be found in an earlier blog entry.. add matzo meal instead of flour), a timballo(my family is sefardic so we eat rice). For dessert we had a fruit compote, and kosher for passover brownies. This lunch was figure friendly, and a big  hit. It was also a very memorable day! And because the menu was such a success I want to share the recipes with you.

(I do apologize to my readers for not taking pictures of the whole lunch menu.)

Today I will share with you the recipe for the timballo and the kosher for Passover brownies.

Timballo- a classic Italian egg soufflé with rice, veggies, and cheese

Ingredients:

2 cups rice (my rice was was from the night before. I made it with tomato sauce, and veggies)

6 eggs(egg whites are fine too)

3 oz cheese grated (any type ok)

Parmiggiano cheese to grate on top

Salt and pepper

Oil to grease casserole dish

This recipe is so easy!   Preheat oven at 350*. Beat the eggs, and add all the rest of the  ingredients into a bowl. Pour into a greased casserole dish, and grate parmiggiano cheese on top. Bake for 45 minutes at 350*, or until bubbly, and brown. Serve and enjoy!!!

Passover Brownies- This recipe is very easy and low in calories.  I use non fat yogurt to replace a lot of the oil/fat.

Ingredients:

3 whole eggs

2 egg whites

1 ½ cup sugar

¼ cup oil

1 cup non-fat plain yogurt

¾ cup cocoa

1 ¼ cup cake meal (kosher for passover)

1 tsp of vanilla

1-2 tsp espresso

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt (adds dimension to chocolate flavor)

Preheat oven to 350*. With mixer, beat eggs and sugar. Add oil, yogurt, cocoa, cake meal, vanilla, espresso, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. You can also add walnuts or chocolate chips. Lightly grease baking pan. Pour in batter and bake for 40 minutes. Watch your brownies. They may have to come out earlier depending on your oven.

When completely cooled, cut into squares, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and cinnamon. Enjoy!

I really hope you try these recipes.   Also, if there is a recipe from the luncheon you want, please  comment and I will add it.

I would also like to send a special thanks to my two friends for being such great taste testers of these new recipes. Lunch is always more fun with fab people. 

-Z

Hamentashen!!!!

Purim Sameach everyone!! What Jew does not like this holiday. It is filled with good eats and fun costumes.

Lets focus on the important part… the food! I made hamentashen  and added a few twists to this classic cookie.  I took the recipe for the dough  from the New York Times, but it was not a favorite in my book so I will not share it, and waste your time. I will share the filling recipes with you.

For the first cookie I made an apple butter.

Apple Butter:

4 apples diced into small cubes

3 tbsp water

cinnamon

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Flour for thickening(1 tsp or more depending on how it is working)

Add apples and water into the pot(medium heat). While making this, you should constantly stir the mixture. Then add the sugar lemon juice, and cinnamon. When everything cooks down, add the flour

and turn off the heat. Mix until thick. Let cool completely before using it as filling.

Raspberry chocolate chip:

For this hamentashen, I added the chocolate chips in the dough before rolling it out. This prevented the chocolate chips from burning and gave a unique look to the classic cookie.

Enjoy!

-Z

Veggie stew

Hello my fellow food lovers. I have been experimenting with stews and soups recently and after making this stew and seeing how big of a hit it was, I thought I would share it with you guys. Who doesn’t enjoy a hot soup/strew on a cold winters night.

Ingredients:

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

oil

2 carrots

5 zucchini

2 celery sticks

2 potatoes

1 can chickpea

1  cans tomato sauce(if you do not have tomato sauce you can use tomato paste and add an extra cup of water)

Grated fresh  ginger or 1 tsp ginger powder

2 tbsp cumin

Salt and pepper

1 bouillon cube

1 cup water

Steps:

Saute onion and garlic in a stew pot with the oil. You do not want it to brown, just become translucent.  Then add your water, chickpeas, tomato sauce, and bouillon cube. Let simmer for about ten minutes. Then add the diced veggies(carrots, celery, zucchini, potato). Let cook for  10 minutes. After 10 minutes add your grated ginger, salt and pepper, and cumin

Let it cook for 30 minutes or until all the veggies are cooked. The potatoes will help thicken  your stew giving you a hardy  meal.

To garnish you can add a touch of lemon juice and celantro.

I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as I did.

-Z

Chocolate boozy- strawberry-brownie cake!

Hey everyone. It was my birthday last month and  I thought what a better way to celebrate then to come up with a great birthday cake recipe.

For cake use whatever white cake recipe you like.

After the cake is made and cooled, the fun part begins! Frosting and decorating it.

Slice both cakes in half making sure you slice off the tops and all hard edges. If it crumbles a bit that is fine. The frosting will cover everything.

Frosting:

Cream margarine or butter with powdered sugar(amount depends on how much you want) If frosting whole cake then about a cup or more of  each

3 tbsp coffee

2 tbsp Kahlua (you can add more depending on how you like it):)

Coco powder (keep adding until you get the chocolate color you want)

Now it is time to frost and fill the cake with the fresh strawberries, which have marinated for a while in sugar. I used a full tray of strawberries.  The fresh strawberries work very well with the decadent frosting. Do not use too much sugar because the frosting and cake are sweet. You want a little bit to bring out the flavors but you still want the tart tang the natural strawberries have. The amount of sugar added also depends on how in season the fruit is.

After all layers are added and the frosting is complete, crumble brownies on top and add bit of powdered sugar.  I hope you all enjoy this recipe and try it out!

Decadent Chocolate Almond Cake

If you have a major sweet tooth and love chocolate then this is the cake for you. It is still in the beginning stages of experimentation but I wanted to share it with you anyway. It really was tasty, although next time I want to add some orange peel to give it an extra kick of flavor.

Cake:

6 eggs( I use 3 egg whites and three real eggs to cut down on cholesterol and fat)

1 cup margarine or oil(butter works to)

a little less then a cup of sugar

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

3 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

2 cups flour

Dash of vanilla

1 tbsp almond syrup

(Add all in one bowl and mix)

*Do not over mix eggs as this will make the cake not as moist.

Bake for 30-45 minutes at 350*

To decorate:

Boil water, almond syrup and sliced almonds in a pot. Drain the almonds but keep the liquid mixture for the chocolate glaze. After almonds are soft bake them for 10 minutes to caramelize and toast.

For the chocolate glaze:

Add chocolate chips to the almond water mixture and stir on a low heat. Allow chocolate to melt.

After the cake has cooled for a bit decorate and enjoy!!!

Apple cake with caramel drizzle

Hi everyone. I noticed today that all our apples and pears were going bad. That meant one thing… CAKE TIME!’ So I came up with this recipe today, and this experiment turned into a masterpiece of flavors.

Ingredients:

Apple medley:

4 peeled and diced apples

1 pear pealed and diced

a teaspoon of butter

2 tbsp of cinnamon

1 tbsp sugar

(in a large pan melt the butter, add the ingredients and let fruit get soft and caramelized. Let cool)

Cake section:

6 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

a pinch of salt

1 cup oil

MIX EVERYTHING IN A LARGE BOWL WITH AN ELECTRIC HAND MIXER  UNTIL EVERYTHING IS COMBINED. DON’T OVER MIX OR IT MAY GET TOO TOUGH. THEN ADD THE APPLE MEDLEY. AFTER EVERYTHING IS MIXED AND FOLDED IN, POUR INTO A GREASED CAKE PAN.

BAKE EVERYTHING AT 350* FOR  35- 40 MINUTES OR UNTIL  GOLDEN BROWN AND THE TOOTHPICK COMES OUT CLEAN.

LET COOL FOR 10 MINUTES AND THEN POUR THE CARAMEL SAUCE ON TOP.

Caramel sauce:

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup margarine

1/2 cup milk

LET COOL AND ENJOY!!!

MOIST AND DELISH

-Z

Frittata al Forno

Hello everyone. I created this dish recently. It is a twist on a frittata and a egg souffle. It is full of veggies and pretty healthy. A great lunch or brunch idea that is fast and easy.

Ingredients:

2 whole eggs

1 cup egg substitute

A teaspoon of cream or milk (add to beaten eggs. This makes it fluffy)

Frozen Spinach and/or any veggies you like to eat

mozzarella cheese

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 slice bread toasted

In a large skillet saute the veggies in a little bit of oil, or Pam if you are really watching calories. Once the veggies or soft add the bread(cut in cubes) to the mixture and mix a bit. After that, in a greased casserole dish add the veggie bread mix, the eggs(which have been beaten with the cream), salt, pepper, and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes at  350*  or until browned on top.

Enjoy!

Z

Joujou’s Mafrum

Mafrum is a North African Jewish Dish eaten on Shabbat and high holidays. In this case it is an artichoke heart stuffed with meat lightly fried and cooked for hours on a low simmer in a tomato sauce. Delish!

No ordinary Chicken

I was experimenting in the kitchen today. My mom asked me to make something special for dinner. Something special… what does that mean!? So I decided I would do something completely new, something I had never done before.. Thankfully it was delish!!!

Not sure yet what I am going to call it. So if anyone has any ideas send them in.

Ok no more talk, now lets get to business. The recipe!

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs and legs(about 5 pieces of each= 10 pieces total)

5 bundles of green scallions

5 cloves of garlic

one full ginger(grated)

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Chop the scallions, grate the ginger, finely mince the garlic and add it in a bowl with the salt, pepper and oil. Mix it all together and cover every piece of chicken with the scallion mixture. Put on a baking pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until done at 375*. Half way through turn the chicken and coat each piece with the oil and scallion  sauce  that has been cooking in the baking pan.

The onions cook down and the mixture becomes a fabulous sauce for the chicken, which may I add is very flavorful and moist. But it is the combination of ginger, garlic, and scallion that make this dish.

Serve with rice or a alone with a salad. Hope you enjoy!!!

-Z