Tag Archives: news

  • Orange Cake With Dark Chocolate Chips

    January 7, 2013

    40 Comments

    Orange Cake With Chocolate Chips.

    Orange Cake With Chocolate Chips.

    It’s January (frankly, a pretty crummy month) and we face a choice, should we start making resolutions or help people break them? Since most resolutions seem to involve people enjoying less food, drink and fun we favor “breaking” resolutions. (Unless you resolve to do more good things for yourself and others, in that case- carry on!) But if you are trying to rid yourself of an otherwise harmless and / or pleasurable indulgence and feel a bit of weakness, or lack of shame, or just admit that you want to live life without regret…well come on over, have a snack, grab a cocktail and enjoy some cake. We will be waiting here at the farm with open arms and a warm kitchen, always. And if you happen to amble by the farm in January, then you might be lucky and get some orange cake with dark chocolate chips.

    ocake3ocake4And thank heaven for citrus this time of year (and good chocolate any time of year). Just when you slog through that last bite of heavy (albeit lovely) holiday food, the oranges and lemons arrive to bring a burst of bright flavor back to winter. The Meyer lemons, cara-cara and blood oranges seem to save the light and bring it back to our houses, right when we need it the most (yeah, yeah, we are in California it isn’t that cold, but whatever ;-). The winter citrus gives us sorbet, cocktails, savory sauces, confections and this cake that combines fresh oranges and dark chocolate. Hard to go wrong.

    ocake5ocake6And very hard to go wrong if you use the best dark chocolate you can find. As a special Christmas gift, the boys and I gave Carolyn a big bag of Mast Brothers dark chocolate chips. The Mast Brothers hail from Brooklyn and have some of the best chocolate we have ever tasted. We are all for local chocolatiers, and many do excellent work- but great is great, and we can’t do better than Mast Brothers chocolate. Simply awesome, and worth a mention all the way out here on the left coast. We usually reserve our best chocolate for eating out of hand, but this cake combines chocolate chunks and a chocolate ganache glaze with sweet, bright orange flavor and a light “cake-y” texture. It is a perfectly balanced bite, and the better the chocolate, the better the cake.

    ocake9ocake10As for the recipe, we adapted it from Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa), who adapted it from the famous Hampton’s bakery and caterer Loaves and Fishes. Good recipes tend to travel well and this is no exception. There are no special ingredients or techniques in this recipe, it just asks for a bit of extra effort and good chocolate. The recipe for the cake is mostly standard, as is the recipe for the chocolate ganache you use to “glaze” the cake. The only extra step is to create an orange syrup and brush it into the cake. But this step does make a difference. Every bite explodes with the sweet oranges and a blast of deep, dark chocolate, but the acid of the oranges and slight bitter edge of chocolate balances the flavor. Good from beginning to end.

    ocake2So when you decide to give up on that resolution about cake, or sugar, or chocolate, or fun…try this recipe out. If you’re gonna break the resolution, it may as well be worth it. Or, even better, just bake the cake and share. No resolutions required (ever).

    Orange Cake With Dark Chocolate Chips: Continue reading →

  • Roasted Parsnips With Thyme

    January 3, 2013

    45 Comments

    parsnipNow that it’s January and we start to cleanse ourselves of the holidays, we seem to fully embrace winter vegetables. Not that we don’t like our winter vegetables, we just like spring and summer produce better (we like spring and summer better than winter, period). But when we do revisit winter vegetables we always come back to parsnips and wonder why we  took so long. Parsnips aren’t just a decent winter vegetable, they can be sweet, flavorful and a lovely compliment to the roasts, braises and stews that make up so much of our cold weather cooking. And, believe it or not, when you roast parsnips with a little fat, salt and thyme you get a snack you can enjoy at any time.

    parsnip1parsnip4If you are unfamiliar with parsnips (or had a bad experience and tried to forget), they are a root vegetable that looks like a large ivory-colored carrot (some varieties are less uniformly shaped). Parsnips combine some of the sweetness of carrots and a bit of the earthy flavors of potatoes with a slight “rooty”, sarsaparilla-like note. Parsnips play very well with heavy fats like cream, beef drippings and bacon fat, so they tend to go with heavier dishes. But you can roast, mash or purée parsnips with just a bit of added fat (or sugar if you are so inclined) for a healthier dish. The only issue left to deal with is texture.

    parsnip5parsnip6parsnip7The big issue with parsnips is in many dishes they are either undercooked and/or have stringy and woody sections. Nigel Slater once noted that most people experience their first parsnip in a roast or stew when they think they just ate a “woody potato”. First impressions often last a lifetime, and this is no way for people to discover parsnips. (It isn’t an accident that most chefs love parsnips, but mostly serve them pureed.) But there is a simple trick that takes care of any textural issues, just cut the parsnip in thin wedges and steam it before you oven roast. The smaller pieces cook in less time and the steaming allows the rest of the parsnip to cook evenly. It does take a few extra minutes, but what else do you have to do in the dead of winter?

    parsnip8parsnip9Otherwise, this is a very easy dish to make. Peel and cut the parsnips into wedges, halve the thin ends and quarter the thicker ends. Steam for ten minutes and then toss the parsnips with a mixture of butter and bacon fat or beef drippings, salt, pepper and thyme (olive oil doesn’t seem to love parsnips, just a FYI). Lay out the wedges on a baking dish and cook in a 350 degree oven for one hour. About halfway through the cooking turn over the parsnips so they caramelize on a few sides. And they will caramelize and give you a sweet, slightly crispy outer crust that gives way to a sweet, earthy and creamy center, simply delicious. You can serve these with almost any meat dish, but we garnish the parsnips with a bit of coarse salt and some chives and start snacking…they never last more than a few minutes.

    parsnip10 Continue reading →