Eating Cape Cod

So when a food blogger doesn't have air conditioning and it is threatening to hit 101 degrees, what does a food blogger blog about?  Other people's food!  In my case, this food just happens to be from Boston, Cambridge, and Cape Cod.  I visited the Taste Tester in Absentia this weekend (my sister) with the Resident Taste Tester (who wouldn't let me drive.  Good thing too once we hit Boston because it was AWFUL.) and we packed an awful lot into three days.  Not just food, either.  The weekend started with this:

We went to the Cape Cod National Seashore and it was awesome!  We didn't swim in it but we did walk along it for quite a while and picked up shells and rocks along the way.  And got wet.  Very, very wet.  At least from the waist down.  That was mostly a mistake though.  The tide was coming in and sometimes the waves came up higher than I expected.  It was COLD, and even though the day got very warm I don't think it ever reached a point at which I would have liked to swim in it.  Towards the halfway point of our walk we saw these:

Seals!  We have no idea what kind, but it is likely they were harbor seals.

We checked out the Nauset Light and the Three Sisters as well, but they were one beach up from our original parking spot, and after what the first beach did to my toes (I don't want to talk about it and you don't want to hear about it, trust me) we didn't go back out to the beach.

By that time we were getting hungry but it wasn't quite 5 o'clock which is when dinner at our restaurant of choice, the Bookstore and Restaurant, was set to start, so we stopped off at the Chocolate Cafe in Eastham and got truffles the size of a golf ball.  This is not a joke people.  They were massive.  And so good, I didn't even get a picture.  Don't worry, that's the only time I missed getting a picture of the amazing food.  I got a Wicked Chocolate truffle of course, but the Resident Taste Tester tried Cappuccino and the Taste Tester in Absentia had a Peppermint truffle, which were both covered in white chocolate.  I prefer dark chocolate any day!

That got us to the Bookstore and Restaurant just about on time.  It overlooked Wellfleet Harbor and had two stories.  As a rule, if a place has two stories I sit on the top story on the balcony.  How else are you going to see anything but the parking lot?  It really, really paid off this time.  A beautiful view, warm temperatures with a breeze, and oh...the food...

The bread was a lovely crusty little thing, and the oil (which I don't recommend choking on, like I did.  It is much tastier in the stomach than the lungs.) is a lovely olive oil, paprika, herb concoction.  The bottom picture, the surf and turf, is apparently one of their specialties, done a different way each day.  I can't remember the specifics of this one - grilled, maybe?  But the Taste Tester in Absentia sure liked it.  The middle one though?  The one that looks like I just single-handedly destroyed five species at once?  Well...I hate to say it but those were the tastiest five extinctions I ever met.  Shrimp, mussels, scallops, clams, and cod in a buttery herb sauce.  I think the people at the next table might have been considering getting up to leave before their meals came as I attempted to drain every last bit of my sauce with a clam shell.

Ordinarily the Resident Taste Tester and I will pick two different dishes and share, but boy was I glad he chose the Fish Pot too.  How else would I have been able to con that last scallop away from him?

After such a big dinner I think we were all wishing for a nice drive back to the apartment, but the Cape wasn't about to give us any such thing.

But we made it and when we did...

How can you turn down key lime pie?  Needless to say, I heartily recommend the Bookstore and Restaurant.  A bit pricey perhaps, but would you expect otherwise for good seafood on the Cape?

That's enough food for now.  Day two will be forthcoming.  In the meantime, are there any recipes/things to try/recommendations that you would like to see me test out and post?  Due to the aforementioned 101 degree days the Resident Taste Tester and I have purchased a window air conditioner.  I do not expect it to bring the house down to 68, but I do hope that the upright and chest freezers don't die and, perhaps, I'll get to cook.  Man, I wish this weather would go back where it belongs...

Cardamom Bread

Here is the problem with being a bit avante-garde in the kitchen:  when you make something once and it turns out beautifully, you may never be able to make it turn out that way again.  This situation doesn't totally apply to the recipe I am going to give you today, but there is one very important ingredient that the Resident Taste Tester and I believe I may have goofed unknowlingly the first time I made this bread, only to find the loaf lacking the second time I made it earlier this week.

Cardamom seems to be an acquired taste, a bit like anise (more on anise later.  What?  I'm half Italian, anise is bound to show up sooner or later!).  In fact, the first time I made this bread, I wasn't sure I liked it.  Neither was the Resident Taste Tester.

So we ate some.

And ate some.

And ate some more.

And in the end we both discovered that there is only one way to eat this bread - with a great big heaping spoonful of nutella slathered on top.  I'm telling you, it's a beautiful way to go.

Then I made it again, just this Tuesday, and that's when the trouble started.  I added a teaspoon of cardamom, just one teaspoon.  Cardamom is quite strong as spices go, so that was a good amount.

It wasn't enough.

Somehow, someway, we are 99% positive that the first time I made it, I misread the recipe and made it with a tablespoon of cardamom, not a teaspoon.  That would explain not only the lighter flavor, but the lighter color.  No wonder we didn't know if we liked it!  I wholeheartedly endorse using a tablespoon, but if you are unsure of whether or not you will like such a strong spice, by all means, use a teaspoon.

One final note.  It is very possible that there will not be much in the way of recipes going up for at least a few weeks.  For those of you living in your air conditioned offices and homes, it is a balmy 90 degrees out there with no signs of slowing.  And we, unlike all of you, have no air conditioner.  If you think you feel too hot to eat, just think how we feel.  In fact, it was 74 in the house this morning when we got up at 6:30.  It's 78 inside now.  So I hope you'll forgive me, but the recipes may be few and far between, at least until I figure out how to cook outside over an open fire.  Which may or may not be happening, depending on how desperate I get to eat something other than lunchmeat and grapes...

Cardamom Bread

This bread is actually meant to be made for Christmas in the shape of a wreath, but I found that it works just as well as two loaves.  I will include the wreath-making instructions just in case you would like to try it that way, but the pictures here are for the loaves, and the loaves only, since I have never tried it any other way.


1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon OR 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
2 packages active dry yeast
7(ish) cups of flour
1 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

In a mixer bowl, combine sugar, salt, cardamom, yeast, and 2 cups of the flour.  In a 2 quart saucepan over medium heat, heat butter or margarine and milk until between 120 and 130 degrees.  Turn mixer onto a low speed and beat liquids into the dry ingredients.  Turn mixer speed to medium.  Reserve one egg white and add the rest of the eggs to the mixer bowl with the mixer at a lower speed.  Beat in almond extract and about 2 more cups of flour.  Use a wooden spoon to stir in approximately 2 more cups, or as much flour as you can handle.  Turn out and knead the dough on a well-floured surface, adding more flour until the dough is soft and elastic, perhaps even a little oily and does not stick to your hands.  Place the dough in a greased bowl and allow to rise.  The original recipe says that it takes an hour for the dough to double, but that is a lie.  When the house is 74 degrees and it takes 2 hours to double, there is no way that a shorter amount of time will do.  Go read a book.  Take a bike ride.  Lie in front of the fan and try not to pant.  You're going to wait a while.

Punch down the dough (the above picture should prove that this is my favorite part).  Turn out on a clean surface.  Grease two loaf pans.  Cut dough in half and shape into loaves.  Place in pans.  Allow to rise until doubled again, up to two hours.  Read another book.  Take another bike ride.  I'm sure you'll find something to do.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brush loaves with reserved egg white.  Bake for 1 hour, covering with foil for the last 15 minutes.  The bread will still come out pretty dark on top, but do not be worried.  This is perfectly normal.

Instructions for wreath (beginning after the first paragraph break above):  Grease a large cookie sheet and the exterior of a 2 quart oven-safe bowl.  Invert the bowl onto the sheet.  Reserve a handful of dough.  Mix egg white with a dash of milk.  Roll the rest of the dough into a 30 inch rectangle.  Roll longways into a rope and curl it around the bowl on the cookie sheet.  Roll out the reserved dough and cut out holly leaves, then roll the scraps into balls.  Position the leaves and balls on the wreath like holly berries.  Affix them with the egg white and milk mixture.  Allows to rise until double.  Brush with egg white.  Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Rice Pilaf

I'll tell you a little secret:  I like garlic.  Errr...well...perhaps LOVE garlic is a better way to put it.  44 clove garlic soup?  I haven't tried it yet but I've got the recipe and as soon as I lay my hands on that much garlic at once I am going to make it.  Salad dressing?  That stuff's not dressing if garlic isn't at least number four on the label.  Garlic powder?  That stuff isn't garlic.  Only garlic is garlic and that is what I am looking for.

And rice pilaf?  Rice pilaf has GARLIC.  Four whole cloves.  (At least the way I make it it does.)  Bonus:  It is dead easy to make and dead easy to change up without worrying that things will go wrong.  Don't have carrots?  Use celery.  Don't have craisins?  Use raisins.  Don't have apple juice?  Use water or wine.  I even used white grape juice once.  You can even leave out the garlic, but you should be aware that this would make me very sad.

What are you waiting for?  GET TO IT.  This pilaf is begging to be made!

Rice Pilaf
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

3/4 cup long-grain rice
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups chicken stock (I tend to make mine with bouillon)
1/4 cup craisins (or raisins, or dried cherries, or whatever you want to experiment with)
1/4 cup carrots (or celery, etc)
1/4 cup apple juice (or water, etc)
Generous amounts of dried or fresh herbs (basil, thyme, and oregano work well)
1/2 cup nuts (unsalted cashews, walnuts, etc)

Prepare chicken stock, garlic, and all of the chopped vegetables for addition to the pilaf.  Doing the prep ahead of time is critical in this recipe because it moves pretty fast.  In a 3 quart saucepan melt the butter over medium heat.  Toast the rice and the garlic in the melted butter for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add chicken stock immediately.  Add craisins, carrots, apple juice, and herbs of your choice.  Stir well.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.  Stir in nuts.  Serve.  Makes enough for two large supper servings or four to six smaller side dishes.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

 
Disclaimer:  No cooks were harmed in the making of this post. 

I can't say the same for the stove.

Chinese cookbooks should come with disclaimers too.  Warning:  may cause uncontrollable cravings for you and anyone you share this with.

For my mom, that craving happened to be Sweet and Sour Chicken.  Thus, without warning, I found myself helping her make Sweet and Sour Sauce, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Egg Drop Soup on Saturday.  Sound more like a giant Sunday dinner undertaking?  Well it's worth making on a Saturday, let me tell you.  Just...er...avoid making it on a weekday.  Unless you have copious amounts of time.  Or never sleep.  Or work weekends.  Anyway!  It's worth it!

Just do yourself a favor:  don't forget the sweet (or the sour) or you might find yourself having this conversation:

Mom:  *tastes*  Why is this so flavorless?

Me:  I don't know.  I don't usually eat sweet and sour stuff.

Mom:  I think I'll add soy sauce.  *adds*  That's still not right.

Me:  Did you add the sugar?

Mom:  *silence*  Did I add the sugar?

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why it is not necessarily a bad thing to have two cooks in the kitchen.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

A note on the sauce:  This is not your store bought sauce.  It is not terribly sweet, nor is is the color of a sunburn.  However, I, a non-eater of most things sweet and sour, had to have this lightly drizzled over my chicken because MAN was this good.  Try it and you WILL be addicted.


1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
Juice from one 20 ounce can of pineapple (reserve pineapple)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 cup sugar

Combine 1 1/2 cups water, vinegar, and pineapple juice.  Heat to boiling. Combine cornstarch and 1/4 cup water.  Add to sauce mixture.  Stir well.  Add soy sauce and sugar.  Bring back to boiling, stirring constantly to make sure sugar dissolves and mixture does not burn.  Serve with Sweet and Sour Chicken, below.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

This produces the best crispy-on-the-outside-tender-on-the-inside fried chicken I have ever had.  It was so crispy I almost couldn't get a fork through it, yet so light.  The tenderizing step is optional, but I highly recommend it for the best texture.  Try it any other time you stir-fry chicken breast.  It makes a world of difference.

2 very large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

To tenderize the chicken:

Cut chicken into squares.  Toss in a bowl with a 1:1 mixture of baking soda and cornstarch.  The amount will vary based on how much chicken you are serving, but for 2 chicken breasts two teaspoons of each is sufficient.   Let sit for 15 minutes.  Rinse.  Continue with the recipe.

2 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
1 1/2 cups water
Pineapple reserved from above
1 cup lightly stir-fried carrot slices
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
3 cups water

Combine all dry ingredients, oil, and egg.  Add 1 1/2 cups water gradually and stir well to make a thick batter.  Add the chicken pieces and coat well.

Fry the chicken pieces in a few inches of peanut oil* heated in a wok to 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  It will take three or four batches to fry all the pieces.  Drain on paper towels.

To stir-fry carrot slices, melt a tablespoon of butter in a small skillet.  Add carrots and stir-fry until soft.

Bring rice and 3 cups water, covered, to a boil.  Turn down the heat and allow to cook for 20 minutes.

Serve rice, chicken pieces, pineapple, carrots, and sauce separately so that each person may assemble his or her own dish.  This recipe will serve approximately 6 people with large appetites, probably 8 to 10 people who haven't been mowing the lawn all day.

*Please please please be careful with the hot oil.  I cannot stress this enough.  Earlier this week when I made pot stickers I almost had hot oil in my eye.  On Saturday I got some on my arm.  This is a rewarding recipe, but only if safety measures are observed.  I recommend safety eyewear and long sleeves, even though that may sound silly.  Just don't dip your sleeves in the oil either.

Egg Drop Soup 3 Ways

I have been on a Chinese food bender the past three days.  Egg drop soup and pot stickers, yep, they've been on the brain.  It doesn't hurt that I have a shiny new Chinese cookbook to help me satisfy my cravings.

But I couldn't simply follow the recipe, oh no.  You see, my cooking method goes a little like this:  "Was that 2 tablespoons or 3 tablespoons of cornstarch?  Three sounds good."  *pours out three tablespoons, adds water, looks at book*  "Oh, two tablespoons.  Oh well, three should be fine.  It will just make the soup a little thicker!"  And by Jove, that's all it did.

My baking methods are a bit more by the (cook)book, although I have to admit that I haven't met a recipe for bread to which I didn't add at least a little extra flour.  8 to 9 cups?  My foot.  Try 9 1/2 to 10.  That said, I will do my best to give you actual measurements to go by since I know that not everyone is interested in eying it up and hoping for the best.  Truth be told, the first time I made the egg drop soup I did use only 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, and it worked out just fine.  On the other hand, using 3 tablespoons the next day only thickened the soup, which is how I like it, so I intend to leave it that way.

As for the eggs, get a load of these:

This is what you get when your sister raises chickens.  Yes, in the backyard.  No, I still don't want to talk about my fear of birds.  Just take your egg drop soup recipe and enjoy, got it?

Egg Drop Soup 3 Ways
Adapted from Easy Chinese Recipes

I'm calling this "3 ways" because of the vegetables that are optional to add.  Trust me, adding tomatoes or corn or leaving them out entirely definitely gives each iteration of this soup a different taste and texture.  The original recipe called for tomatoes, which I tried and didn't really like (tragedy, really, since tomatoes are pretty much my favorite food EVER), so I tried corn, which I had had at a restaurant and enjoyed, and then no vegetables at all, which is how I usually see it.  I won't stop you from using tomatoes, but I really do suggest that you use corn or just leave the vegetables out instead.

3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons water
2 cups chicken stock (2 bouillon cubes in 2 cups of water will suffice)
1 cup water
1 tomato, diced or 1 cup corn (optional)
A dash pepper
Salt to taste
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Stir cornstarch and 4 tablespoons water in a small bowl.  Set aside.  Bring chicken stock and 1 cup water to a boil with the lid of the pot on.  Add tomato or corn plus pepper and salt.  Add the cornstarch mixture.  Heat through, then turn off the heat.  Bringing the soup to a boil again accidentally won't hurt anything, but you definitely want to make sure that the broth is hot so that the eggs will cook thoroughly.  If your soup has boiled, wait for it to stop bubbling before adding the eggs.  Immediately upon adding the eggs, stir three times, then cover and let sit for 2 minutes.  Serve.

Strawberry Cornmeal Quick Bread

I am not afraid of anything (err...except, um, birds, but we'll talk about that some other time...).  Perhaps I should say that I am not afraid of anything in the kitchen.  I have prepared chicken, beef, and pork in a variety of ways, made cakes and cookies, and, oh yeah, prepared baklava, phyllo dough and all, from scratch.  But for this, my very first real food post, I wanted to do something so scary that no one, no one ever does it (at least no one I've ever met).  I invented a recipe entirely on my own:  strawberry cornmeal quick bread.

No ingredient lists, no measurements, no baking guidelines.  I measured as I went but everything I did was based on what I saw.  Too dry?  Add milk.  Too wet?  Add flour.  And here we are.

I added strawberries to this two ways:  mashed and stirred into the batter, and sliced and sprinkled over half the batter in the pan and then covered with the other half. This definitely gives it a full strawberry flavor which meshes well with the cornmeal, adding an unexpected but delicious nuttiness.  And trust me, if you can wait a day for the flavors to meld, it only gets better.

But I told you guys yesterday that I needed to retest this before typing it up.  Why, you ask?  The baking time, actually.  The first time I, shall we say, underbaked it by a bit.  The second time, one hour seemed to do the trick.  However, I know for a fact that my oven runs "hot" (yes, that's the technical term), thus if you have an oven that runs "cool" you should try a longer baking time.  No, I don't recommend a higher baking temperature unless you want a burnt exterior and an underdone interior.

Strawberry Cornmeal Quick Bread

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup coarsely ground cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup mashed strawberries
1 cup milk
1/2 cup (or so) sliced strawberries

Grease and flour a 9"x5" pan.  Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.  Mix well.  Stir in mashed strawberries.  Stir in milk until all ingredients are well-combined (this will take longer than you think).  Batter will be slightly lumpy.  Pour half the batter into the greased pan.  Sprinkle sliced strawberries over the batter in an even layer.  Gently scoop the rest of the batter over top of the strawberries.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

So...Yeah...

I really meant to have a recipe up for you guys by now.  Truly I did.  In fact, I have one in my back pocket but it's not quite ready for its big debut.  Something so special, so explosive...!  OK, that might not be true, but it is pretty cool for me.  I'll let you in on that secret tomorrow, after I retest it in the morning.

To be honest, I probably could post something else as my first recipe, but I really don't want to.  Plus, and this really figures, all the pictures I have taken in the past week (with the exception of the one recipe I want to start with) have been rotten.  It rained both days that I prepared something and took pictures, and the one day that the food turned out beautifully I was running late and didn't get a photograph.  Figures.  So, yes, tomorrow you will see the fruits of my labor, and hopefully they will be enticing enough to make you stay.

In the meantime, a fun fact about me and my food:

Give me a bag of Skittles (or really any other candy, fruit snack, etc) and this is what you will see.  I'm slightly OCD about the order I eat them in.  Don't ask me for all the rules I live by - your head would spin. Let's just say I like patterns and pretty things and leave it at that.