WALNUT CAKE

Have you guys been reading about Rene Redzepi and his inspiring restaurant Noma? I was wowed by his enviable foraging and thoughtful approach to food in this New Yorker article. Then, when I saw Bon Appetit's piece on the home-cooked meal he and his wife made for David Chang, I knew their Walnut Cake recipe was one I needed to try.

Nuts are essential to our pantry. Give us pistachios, pecans, pine nuts, marcona almonds and we'll toss them into salads, porridge, and pastas. And of course nuts are a quick and easy snack any old time.  Whenever I stumble upon an interesting recipe that bakes with nuts, I feel compelled to give it a go and am rarely disappointed.

We noshed on Redzepi's cake for days. It works not just for dessert, but also for a nice tea, or even breakfast. Topped with a dollop of whipped cream, a few berries, or a smear of Kumquat Marmalade, this nutty cake made me extremely happy!




Notes: Keep in mind that this recipe feeds quite a crowd - considering the richness of the ingredients, a little slice is all you need. Next time, I'll try cutting the recipe in half. 

*Also I have been trying to avoid most sugars lately, thus I have adapted the recipe to use honey and coconut sugar - both great flavors that worked really well with the walnuts.


INGREDIENTS adapted from Bon Appetit March 2012 by Rene and Nadine Levy Redzepi
(printable recipe)

• 1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
• 6 tablespoons coconut sugar, * divided in half (or Redzepi asks for raw sugar)
• 7 cups walnut halves
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour ( GF folks I used Pamela's Bread Blend)
• 1  1/2 cup almond meal
• 3/4 cup honey*
• 6 large eggs
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cow or sheep's yogurt 
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon genuine vanilla extract
• optional toppings: whipped cream, berries, pears, jam, yogurt

  serves 18-24

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your 13x9x2 inch baking pan by sprinkling 3 tablespoons of coconut sugar evenly over the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

Coarsely chop 2 cups of walnuts in a food processor. Set aside.

Coarsely chop the remaining 5 cups of walnuts in the food processor. Add the flour and pulse the processor until the nuts are finely grounds. Add almond meal. Pulse to combine.

In another large mixing bowl (your Kitchen Aid Mixer, if you have one) beat butter and honey together for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs, cream, yogurt, salt, and vanilla and mix ingredients until well blended - another minute or so.

Add finely ground walnut/flour/almond meal mixture to the sugar/egg/butter mixing bowl. Stir to integrate ingredients. Finally, fold in coarsely chopped walnuts.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Sprinkle remaining 3 tablespoons coconut sugar evenly over the top. 

Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Test for doneness with a toothpick. When the toothpick comes out clean, your cake in done.

Set aside cake to cool on a baking rack.

Redzepi suggests placing the cake in the refrigerator and serving chilled. 

 ENJOY!

Caramelized Rosemary Walnuts

Sticky, salty, spicy, sweet walnuts.

I hate buying packaged snacks, yet I take that easy path more than I'd like to admit. Even with all the cooking we do around here, I still forget just how simple it is to throw something together at home. There are a million recipes for toasted nuts, but I wanted to use agave instead of the sugar you find in most caramelized versions. Plus, I had a very specific flavor in mind - a balance of cayenne kick, agave sweetness, buttery goodness, and salty crunch. I whipped up many batches of these nuts before I got the taste I was craving. Here's the recipe.


INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2  cups shelled walnut halves
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 generous tablespoons dark agave nectar
• pinch of cayenne (approximately 1/8 teaspoon)
• freshly ground sea salt

Preheat oven to 375. Place walnuts on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven for approximately 7-10 minutes. Walnuts should be fully roasted.

While walnuts are cooking, melt butter in a sauce pan. Add cayenne and rosemary leaves. Let steep for a minute or two. Add dark agave nectar. Stir and continue gently cooking for another minute or so. When walnuts are toasted, immediately add them to the saucepan and thoroughly coat with butter mixture. Let everything bubble together for another minute. Then spread walnuts on a sheet of parchment.  Grind sea salt over the tops of the nuts so that the salt will stick. Cool and serve.

Note: You can also serve these nuts with many delicious cheeses or add some to a salad with butter lettuce, pear, and Gorgonzola. Today, I tossed some caramelized walnuts into my morning bowl of Greek yogurt along with some sliced peach. Yum.

Warm Rice Salad with Chard, Feta, Walnuts, and Blood Orange

You may have noticed.... I have greens on my mind. After converting our backyard to a vegetable plot nearly two years ago and watching the successes and failures of varying crops, I have come to see greens as the gems of the garden. Mustard inspired my last post, and for today's recipe I harvested rainbow chard and beet greens.

This recipe was a happy accident. A couple of weeks ago I steamed some brown rice and sauteed a couple of bunches of chard when I decided to throw the two together and continued to add other goodies that were complimentary in flavor. Luckily, I wrote down the details of these ingredients so I could recreate this scrumptious improvisation and share it with you. The rice salad is the kind of one dish meal that travels well and could be great to take to work for lunch, or share at a potluck. I hope you enjoy.


INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups cooked brown rice (at room temperature)
• 1/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
• 2 bunches chard, beet greens, and/or spinach
• 3 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 2 blood oranges
• 2 tablespoons good quality red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 ounces feta
• 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon chopped

Prepare rice and let it cool to room temperature. Brown rice is critical to the success of this dish - important both for its nutty flavor and nutritional value. Wild rice could also work, but not white.

Toast walnuts, chop, and set aside.

Wash greens. Remove stems. Chop leaves. If you are using chard for this salad, chop the stems as well. In large saute pan, heat olive oil (enough to generously coat the bottom of the pan) over medium heat. When oil is hot add chopped chard stems. Cook for about 5 minutes or until tender. Add chopped garlic. Cook garlic with stems for one minute. Add greens and a splash of water to pan. Cover and cook until greens are tender, about 6-8 minutes. Set aside.

Zest 1 blood orange and set aside for garnish.

Prepare the dressing. Juice 2 blood oranges. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar and salt. Mix. Slowly whisk in 1/2 cup olive oil to emulsify dressing.

When both rice and chard are no longer hot, but pleasantly warm, toss them together in mixing bowl. Gently fold in feta and walnuts. Top with orange zest and 1 tablespoon chopped (or "torn" - Thomas Keller's recommended preparation for herbs) tarragon. Salt to taste.

Serve at room temp. We ate this salad with grilled salmon and it was delicious.

Serves 4-6  

Aunt Nita's Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies are magical.

Six years ago, the day after Lilah was born, Eurydice brought over a batch of these dreamy cookies. Paul, my mom, and I were baffled by their deliciousness. What is in these? We kept asking each other, as we ate cookie after cookie. They have an oat-y chewiness, yet grains of Turbinado give a sugary crunch.

Every time we bake these cookies, Paul shovels them in Cookie Monster-style and chants “Oh Aunt Nita” like a mad man. They are that good.

Eurydice is letting me share Aunt Nita’s recipe with you.

Ingredients

• 2 cubes salted butter, room temp
• 1 ½ cup Turbinado sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 ½ cup oatmeal (I use Bob’s Red Mill GF Rolled Oats)
• 1 ½ cup flaked, unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cups flour (I use 1 3/4 cup Pamela’s Pancake Baking and Pancake Mix )
• 1 tsp baking powder (not necessary with Pamela''s Mix)
• 1 tsp baking soda (not necessary with Pamela's Mix)
• 1 tsp salt (not necessary with Pamela's Mix)

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar (I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to use Turbinado). Let sit 10 minutes.

Add eggs and vanilla to sugar/ butter mixture.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gluten-free folks, just use 1 3/4 cup Pamela’s Baking Mix as a substitute for all of these dry ingredients. Add flour mixture to wet mix, gradually stirring to gently incorporate ingredients.

Fold in oats, nuts, and coconut by hand.

Bake for 9-12 minutes, only until golden. Enjoy!

Carpinteria Chicken Salad

There are a million ways to do a leftover chicken salad. I like to have all the elements in separate bowls so everyone can customize to his/her taste. Even kids like this one, because they can pick and choose.

Here are the ingredients...

Leftover grilled or roasted chicken, shredded
Arugula
Fennel, julienned
Fennel tops
Radishes thinly sliced
Chevre
Toasted walnuts
Simple vinaigrette

This salad was a big hit.