Food

Yummy!

I tell you, the best cooking isn’t really cooking at all!

Take six or eight new potatoes and two good sized Vadallia onions.  Chop the onions into quarters, but leave the potatoes whole, and lightly coast it all with garlic infused olive oil.  Then take two chicken breasts and slice them into strips.  Toss the entire mess into a high sided roasting pan, preferably cast iron or anything thick with a lid, and grind some fresh pepper on top.

Bang, on goes the lid; wham, toss it into a 350 degree oven for an hour or so, until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are soft.

Slap it on a plate, add some cold tomato slices and maybe a little piccalilli, and chow down.

Fat free, salt free and sugar free (depending on the relish), and more flavor than is decent.  Yummy nummers!  Have a little ripe watermelon for desert and life is worth living.

By the way …

The adapted version of the coffee cake was a big hit at Dian’s office party.  I wanted a version that would pop on the taste buds and, boy howdy, did it ever.

Oddly enough, while I was making the cake that I sent in with Dian, I hit a strange moment.  I’d done the main batter and was working on the streusel when I noticed that I hadn’t changed the fact that it called for a teaspoon and a half of ground cinnamon.  Okay, I’d changed the vanilla to lemon, added zest, completely rebuilt the glaze from maple to lemon, and even added cranberries to the mix … did that sound like it would work with cinnamon?

Actually, it does work, in a kinda wacky way.  The lemon and cranberry mix wonderfully, creating a sharp grace note in the sour cream batter and bursting on the tongue … then the cinnamon overlays it all with a smokey sort of fog.  Odd, but very nice.

Anyway, if any of you want to play with the recipe, here’s the finished product:

Sour Cream Lemon Cranberry Coffee Cake

Main Batter:

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature (around 65 degrees)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 extra-large eggs at room temperature (ditto)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure lemon extract
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

For the streusel:

• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup dried cranberry

For the glaze:

• 6 ounces confectioners’ sugar (by weight)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• Pinch of sea salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the lemon extract, lemon zest and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble. Mix in the dried cranberry.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Carefully transfer the cake, streusel side up, onto a serving plate. Prepare the glaze while it cools.  Mix the lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt, then slowly whisk the confectioners’ sugar in (in small doses, to keep it smooth), adding a few drops of water if necessary, to make the glaze runny. Drizzle as much as you like over the cake with a fork or spoon.