I can't think in 'Metric'...yet

So I've already been here three weeks and I'm still resorting to converting all my ingredient measures, temperature conversions and anything else that requires measurement by good old google. It's also taking sometime to figure out and find ingredients. For instance all-purpose flour is 'cake flour' and cornstarch is 'corn flour'. I still can't find a scale or a pastry cutter - but the hunt isn't over yet.

I was looking for something to make this week that required few ingredients but still had that good home taste - what's better than a snickerdoodle! After I figured out the cornstarch versus corn flour issue - I was set. In searching for new and inspiring blogs I came across 'Eggbeater' a fun and fresh blog by Shuna Lydon. She had a guest post on Simply Recipes that required a few ingredients and more important - they were all at home waiting for me and required no hunting.

Snickerdoodles
Adapted from Simply Recipes

4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

For cinnamon sugar topping:
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter until light.

Add sugars and continue to incorporate until mixture is lighter. Then add salt.

Add egg until batter is uniform.

Sift the flour, cornstarch and baking soda, and fold, in three additions, into a large bowl to create cookie dough.

On a buttered or parchment lined cookie sheet, place the dough balls 3 inches apart. Flatten the dough slightly and sprinkle about half a tablespoons worth of cinnamon sugar on the flattened surface

Set the first timer for 7 minutes. Turn the pan around and set a second timer for 7 minutes. If you are using a buttered pan they might be done at this point, or need another minute – until edges are golden brown.

Feeling Orange

I'm finally settling into our temporary home in South Africa (we move to our own place in 20 days...but who's counting?!) and I am loving my 8 to 5 work day. Leaves me the time in the evenings to enjoy making dinner, eating it...and of course having the obligatory bottle of wine...because the wine here is cheap and AMAZING. A few of my favorites so far - The Chocolate Block from Stellenbosch and Diemersfontein Pinotage both complex reds that go well with any meal. All this extra time makes me miss my family and friends A LOT...so I fill my time with reading and baking - two wonderful pasttimes! I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's book 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' - inspired me to move into a place here where we could start our own garden. It also taught me to pay attention to eating what is in season - here that's oranges!

I sometimes find a little downtime to read some of my favorite blogs. I've also come across some really amazing new ones like Eggbetaer and Vanilla Garlic. Vanilla Garlic's Garret McCord posted a wonderfully easy recipe on Simply Recipes using, you guessed it - 0ranges.

I made these Orange Poppyseed cookies lastnight for a staff meeting...I'm feeling a lot of pressure to live up to my words here and I think these will do the trick. They didn't turn out as crispy as the picture on Simply Recipes...but I love them...fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside with a hint of orange flavor all throughout. I'm not sure what flavor poppy seeds add - but they certainly look pretty! I also added some almonds because I had them sitting around.

Orange Poppyseed Cookies w/ Almonds
Adapted from Simply Recipes 2008

2/3 cup sugar
½ butter @ room temperature
1 egg @ room temperature
1 tbsp orange zest
1 ¼ cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 handful chopped, raw almonds

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add the egg and orange zest until evenly mixed

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly sift it into the butter mixture until just combined. Fold in the poppy seeds and almonds.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden brown.

Stealing Ramekins

One of the great things about buying weekly grocery's from a farmer's market is that you get fresh, preservative free food. One of the problems is it tends to spoil quicker then the preservative laden, prewashed, cut and bagged produce from the supermarket. I think we purchased a little more than we could cook on this first trip and by Tuesday our zucchini's were getting soft. I've been wanting to make zucchini bread. My history with breads is a little suspect - I've tried and tried to make GOOD banana bread and failed at every attempt - I must have tried at least half a dozen times! I've tried using yogurt, oil, butter, more than three bananas, frozen bananas, adding chocolate - you name it...I've tried it - all with less then satisfactory results. So making this zucchini bread became more of a self-test than anything.

As I've just moved to South Africa I'm still building up my kitchen with staple baking necessities. For fear that K would divorce me - I've decided to do this in increments. I already lied to him about the cost of the ramekins to make the chocohotopots - is it that unbelievable to think that you can buy a ramekin for 75 cents? Needless to say he quickly figured me out! I didn't have any loaf pans so decided to make muffins instead. I combined a few different recipes and added my own chocolate for good measure. I also substituted some of the fat with yogurt - the result was better then my banana bread but I think next time I will use less zucchini - it was a little zucchini-ey (not sure if that's even a word - but you get the point). They turned out beautiful though - soft, good crumb and dotted with bright green zucchini color.

Zucchini Muffins
adapted from Simply Recipes

3 cups grated fresh zucchini - drained
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

In large bowl, mix together sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture. Fold in the chocolate.

Line the muffin pan with liners and fill the cups to the top. Bake for 20 mins.

Farmer's Finds

I've only been living here a week and already we've found an amazing Saturday morning farmer's market. Durban is filled with markets selling wares and trinkets but on my last few visits here I still had not found a good, dependable farmer's market. Problem solved when I heard about the Shongweini farmer's market in Hillcrest - a short 20 minute drive out of the city. The area is known for its beautiful hills spotted with artisan houses selling their creations and of course farms. After about 20 minutes of getting lost on winding, hilly roads, admiring the landscape, and feeling lucky that we were living in this beautiful country we stumbled (finally asked for directions) upon the Shongweni farmer's market. We purchased a weeks' worth of vegetables, fruit, cheese and bread for under 12 bucks! Amazing.

I hope to make the purchases from this market a weekly edition to this blog - baking and cooking what is grown locally. We passed a stall with beautiful mushrooms - oyster, portobellos, white top, button etc. and purchased enough to feed the three friends that we have made since we moved here. Yes, we only have three friends! We invited them over for dinner and decided to make Ina Garten's portobello mushroom lasagna. We followed the recipe but instead of using only portobellos we used a mixture of mushrooms that we purchased from the market. I also thought the recipe called for too many noodles - on average we used about three per a layer and made three layers - so anywhere from 9 - 12 noodles should be enough. But all in all it was a lovely meal for guests - we were able to enjoy appetizers while dinner was cooking itself in the oven.
Mushroom Lasagna
adapted from Ina Garten

kosher salt
olive oil
12 lasagna noodles
4 cups whole milk
12 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 pounds mushrooms
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil with 1 tablespoon salt and a splash of oil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain and set aside.

For the white sauce, bring the milk to a simmer in a saucepan. Set aside. Melt 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of the butter in a large saucepan. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Pour the hot milk into the butter-flour mixture all at once. Add 1 tablespoon salt, the pepper, and nutmeg, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring first with the wooden spoon and then with a whisk, for 3 to 5 minutes, until thick. Set aside off the heat.

Separate the mushroom stems from the caps and discard the stems. Slice the caps 1/4-inch thick. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large (12-inch) saute pan. When the butter melts, add the mushrooms and cook until tender.

To assemble the lasagna, spread some of the sauce in the bottom of an 8 by 12 by 2-inch baking dish. Arrange a layer of noodles on top, then more sauce, then 1/3 of the mushrooms, and 1/4 cup grated Parmesan. Repeat 2 more times, layering noodles, sauce, mushrooms, and Parmesan. Top with a final layer of noodles and sauce, and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan.
Bake the lasagna for 45 minutes

Of Dinner Parties and Warm Chocolate

It's cold today. It's cold in South Africa and my colleagues at work informed me that it snowed here...yes snowed...last week before my arrival. I was seriously looking forward to some warmer weather. June in New York felt like one April shower after another. My hands, feet and nose are cold and I can't seem to keep them warm...since we have no heat, I improvised and turned on the oven. A wonderful excuse to bake something!

My husband and I had a long distance relationship for three years. I was living in small studio New York and he was living in Boston. One of the things I loved about going to Boston (aside from seeing him) was access to a large kitchen. We used to throw these 'dinner parties' - I use the term loosely because they were casual nights filled with friends sitting on couches eating whatever we served them and in no particular order. K would be in charge of the savory - instructing me around the kitchen like his own personal sous chef and I would be in charge of the sweet.

One of my favorite, no fuss dinner party desserts is 'Chocohotopots' aka Molten Chocolate Cake from Nigella Lawson. I love warm, oozing and bubbly desserts served with cold, fresh ice cream. I've tried a number of variations - sometimes adding orange zest, flavored liquors, or mint but always served with vanilla bean ice cream or freshly whipped maple cream.

Chocohotopots
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

1 stick + 1 tbsp unsalted butter
4 oz semisweet chocolate
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
3 tbsp all purpose flour

preheat oven to 400F
butter 4 ramekins with 1 tbsp butter

Either in a microwave or in a bowl suspended over a pan over simmering water, melt the dark chocolate and 1 stick butter, then set aside to cool a little.

In another bowl, mix the eggs with the sugar and flour with a hand whisk and beat in the cooled butter and chocolate mixture. Fold in the orange zest. Divide the mixture between the 4 buttered ramekins. Bake for about 20 minutes, by which time the tops will be cooked and cracked and the chocolate gooey underneath.

Red Velvet Goodness

Red Velvet cake is one of those flavors that brings back memories. It reminds me of coffee shops in Richmond, Virginia where I grew up. I've been thinking a lot about Richmond lately. It's an amazing city - small enough to get to know all your favorite restaurants, coffee shops & dessert places but large enough to still be alive with culture, diversity and interesting people. The best banana pudding is at Comfort on Broad St. The best bread pudding at White Dog on Main St. The best ice cream hands down at Gelati Celesti on Broad St. When I was in college I knew exactly where to go for almost any craving...late night pizza, damn good ethiopian food, and the best coffee.

Durban, South Africa where I'm living now, reminds me a lot of Richmond. Small enough to already have my favorite meals at my favorite restaurants. Right now it's dessert at Cafe 99. Still figuring out the coffee situation - but I think I have a winner in The Green Bean - free trade coffee from Ethiopia that the owner roasts himself in the shop. I'm on my way out the door to the farmer's market.

Back to red velvet cake though - I love it so much that there was no debate about what I wanted for our wedding cake. I froze the top tier to save for our 1st anniversary - but on the day after the wedding we grew inpatient and ate a half defrosted red velvet cake - bad move! I recreated our wedding cake for our first anniversary. K was delighted and it was devoured before I could take pictures!

Since then I've made the cupcake version quite a few times for different occasions including just last week for our going away party. I've tried a few different recipes - some with too much cocoa some with not enough - and in the end my favorite recipe comes from Paula Deen with a little tweaking. I add more cocoa for more chocolate flavor and substituted yogurt for 1/2 the oil.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Adapted from Paula Deen, 2007

2 ½ cups flour (minus 1 tbsp)
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
¾ cups vegetable oil
¾ cups plain yogurt
1 cup buttermilk, room temp
2 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp white distilled vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin pans with paper.

Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. In separate bowl, mix together oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly and bake for about 20 minutes (mine only took 18mins), turning pan once, half way through.

Remove and cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 lb. cream cheese, room temp
2 sticks butter, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

In mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter & vanilla until smooth, add sugar on low speed and beat until light & fluffy.

Welcome to Pinch of Salt

Welcome to Pinch of Salt - a blog about everything food. This started as a passion for baking but I quickly realized that my obsession with all things food didn't end at baking! Over the years I have taken my own culinary tours, baked something new every week, enjoyed my husband's creations in the kitchen, read countless food books, spent hours combing through the best and brightest food blogs, been lucky enough to eat some of the most amazing meals at the most amazing restaurants in the world and taken a few classes with friends. Here's my chance to share it with you. I've been meaning to start this for a while - but weekends working and busy New York City life seemed to get in the way. My husband and I moved to South Africa and finally have some time to bake, read, write, explore and eat! This is inspired by my pops whose only self-reported weakness was food - he left a legacy of children with a sweettooth so large - each one of us has likely finished a box of krispy kremes, thin mints, or a batch of my red velvet cupcakes! So here it goes...hope you enjoy!