I never really understood reading and following a map until Mr. Blanton, my high school French teacher, told us to pretend that we were in “une petite voiture” driving along on the lines. And then I got it. And now we all have GPSes, but I am still grateful that I can actually give directions using a map if I have to. Merci, Monsieur Blanton.

But I never learned the word chomeur. I learned words for window and bird and cow and school. Verbs to be, to do, to go. I learned places to work: Usine. Boulangerie. Bibliothèque.  Hôpital. But never the word chomeur.

So when I chose Pudding Chomeur for this week’s Food52sday post, I just thought it was some fancy Canadian dessert. And then I looked it up. And chomeur means unemployed. Friends, pudding chomeur is the Dessert of the Unemployed. Poor man’s pudding. 

During the Great Depression, some women who used to be factory workers came up with this dessert so they could still provide their families with sweet endings.  It’s made from a bunch of stuff that most Canadians of the day could get hold of for next to nothing.  Things like eggs and butter and cream and maple syrup.  Sounds like a pretty expensive list of ingredients, but if everyone had a chicken or three and a cow–or a neighbor had one–all that was left was the maple syrup. Which comes from Canada. Which is covered with sugar maples. So, you see: Cheap!

I had Comedy Central on the other evening, and Nick Cannon was on doing stand up. I didn’t know he even did that. But I guess he does, because there he was. Anyway, he was talking about how he doesn’t understand fancy desserts.  When he was growing up, dessert was some Wonder bread with butter, sugar and cinnamon on it. I get that. I ate plenty of cinnamon toast, too. It’s cheap, and it hits the spot.

That’s pudding chomeur. It’s cheap (if you’re Canadian and own chickens and cows and maple trees), and it hits the spot.  The recipe from the Food52 Cookbook appears to be fairly standard. Some of the recipes I found used brown sugar, water and butter for the syrup, but just as many used the maple syrup/heavy cream combination. And really, when given the choice, isn’t that what you’d do?  Besides, in an Ironic Twist, I had some lovely organic Grade B maple syrup leftover from when I did The Master Cleanse. I’m pretty sure the Two Cups I used kind of canceled out The Master Cleanse.

Before I made this, I thought about plumping up and mincing some dried apples to add to the batter, and I think that would be really good, as would nuts, but I tried to stay more-or-less true to the spirit of the dish–easy-to get, cheap ingredients–and The Beloved said they didn’t have any dried apples at the store.  I did incorporate brown sugar into the batter, and because even though I think Pop-Tarts are kind of The Devil, I have long admired their flavor pairings of brown sugar-cinnamon and maple-brown sugar, I threw some cinnamon into the mix as well. And salt. In the batter and the sauce, because otherwise, I think my teeth would’ve fallen out as I ate.

This is a Very Easy dish to make. And eat. I made the batter, which is really more like a cookie dough, yesterday and threw it in the fridge. Then, today, I just boiled the cream, syrup and salt together, poured it over my dough and baked.

I served it with just a touch of unsweetened cream. Not even whipped. Just straight.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I started out with balls of stodgy dough in hot syrup, but they baked up into rich, buttery, cinnamony dumplings floating in mapley goodness. Very, Very yum.

So, there you have it. This was so good, but I can guarantee that I will be giving some of this away to the neighbors and to The Beloved’s work friends. This stuff is dangerous.

I hope you played along. If you did, please link up in the comments and/or post a picture and/or link over on the fan page. Then, tune in next week to hear The Beloved’s second pick!

Thanks, and have a lovely day.

About three weeks ago this happened:  Someone with a fan page on facebook posted on my fan page wall saying something along the lines of Hey there.  Have your readers come see my page if they want great recipes for baking.  This hit me Wrong.  It seemed Spammy and kind of obnoxious.  So I walked away for a bit, and then I came back.  I responded to please not spam my page, and a few minutes later, the post was deleted.  And life went on.

Then, last week it happened again.  The same person left more or less the same post on my wall.  This time, I did not walk away. I posted an Annoyed post regarding her post, and then I wandered over to her page and posted that I’d love for her to participate on my page and engage with me and my fans and then we would want to come and see what she is doing. And then I said that otherwise, her post was Spammy and Obnoxious.

Then my fans all validated my grumpiness (thanks for being supportive guys) on my Annoyed Post, and then her fans thought I was petty and then she apologized and, well, it was just uncomfortable and unpleasant for all involved. I deleted my post on her page. And then I posted on my page that I had let my grumpiness bleed over onto my page. Not being a fan of negativity, I was–and still am–very sorry to have perpetuated it.  Most folks who commented said things like “You’re only human,” and “I’d worry about you if you were all sunshine all the time.” And I appreciate that. None of us is perfect. I’m certainly not.

But I just couldn’t stop thinking about this.  I’m not losing sleep, but I have been considering this in the background, kind of like a virus scan running on my computer while I continue to work.  And since I was thinking about the issue, I found Barbara’s (@CreativCulinary‘s) post outlining her take on stealing recipes and giving credit where credit is due for words and photos. Or maybe it found me. Which got me thinking about some of my anthill-poking posts regarding the same issues and concerns.

And then I thought about All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

You saw all the posters from a few years ago, right? (And the book, too). “Everything we need to know we learned in kindergarten.”  And then list a whole bunch of Rules and Directives that we probably all were taught, or at least exposed to, in kindergarten.  Rules like these:

• Be nice.
• Hold hands.
• Apologize when you’re icky.
• Tell the truth.
• Nap.
• Play fair.
• Clean up.
• No hitting.

This partial list paraphrased from Peace.ca

I also thought about The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you (or Ye if you’re Olde Schoole) would have others do unto you. Or put a different way: Do not do unto others what you would not have others do to you.  It’s all about reciprocity. That we give what we want to get.  That we don’t give what we don’t want to get. And that concept is Everywhere. But don’t take my word for it. Watch this. It is well worth the 7-ish minutes it will take. Trust me. (My favorite is the one from Jainism, “A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated.” I say wander about a lot).

And if you don’t like to read a bunch of stuff, you can listen to this TEDTalk. I did. Worth it.

So, what do things I learned in kindergarten and The Golden Rule have to do with grumpiness on my fan page? A lot. I have to remember that everyone I know online is filtered (filters themselves) through an avatar/avatars and by their self-curating what they share, what and how they say things and the randomness of whether I happen to see each post/tweet/update, etc.  I have to remember this because I’m the same way. Is my hair always this smashing shade of red? No. Is my hair sometimes all jacked up? Yes. Sometimes I work in my jammies or my stripe-y robe. Sometimes I feel pissy and grumpy, yet I still post “Good morning! Hope your day is smashing!” Why? Because it’s more positive that posting, “Wow, what a crappy day.”  If I’m looking for things to bring me down, I can just watch the news.

And on top of that, it is often very difficult to convey tone in the short bursts of conversation that we have. That’s why most folks, including myself, go exclamation point and emoticon crazy out here. I don’t do it on the blog because here I am only limited by my (and more importantly, your) endurance, but on twitter and facebook, I am the queen of the one-two !- punch.

Being out in The Hinternets can be a pretty schizophrenic experience.  If you have any web presence (kind of a pretentious term, but there you have it) at all, you probably know what I mean.  Sometimes what Jenni would say is very different that what Pastry Chef Online or @onlinepastrychf might say. Or vice versa. In all honesty, it’s about marketing.  I’m selling my brand.  We all are, whether that’s what we call it or not.  But it’s also more than just that.  It has to be.  My real self needs to be The Boss of my online self.  And the real me really does believe that we attract that to which we attend. If we focus on the negative, we get the negative. If we focus on the positive, we get the positive.

So, after four-ish years of blogging and learning and doing some stuff right and some stuff wrong, here’s where I stand right now, in this moment.

• I will be nice.
• I will treat others the way I want to be treated.
• I will do my best to give credit where and when credit is due.
• I will Fess Up if I screw up, and I will apologize sincerely when I do.
• I will promote positivity; I will not perpetuate negativity.
• I don’t like to be called out in public, so I won’t be calling anyone else out.  If someone has an Issue with me or with something I’ve done or said, I’d appreciate a private chat, so if I have an Issue with what someone else has done or said, I will message them privately.
• I want people to be kind and welcoming to me, so I will be kind and welcoming to others.
• I want to be given the benefit of the doubt, so I will give others the same.
• I will share.
• I’ll hold your hand and help you if you need it, and I’ll do it with a glad heart.
• I like to feel valued, so if you contact me via twitter/facebook/blog comment/email/forum, etc, I will do my best to respond so you know your comments and questions have value.
• If I don’t have anything nice to say, I will not say anything at all.
• I like to feel like I matter, so I will treat others with respect and let them know that they matter to me.
• Before I say it, I’ll think about how I’d feel if someone said it to me.
• Before I do it, I’ll think about how I’d feel if someone did it to me.

If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for sticking with me.  In a nutshell, this is where I stand right now regarding my responsibilities to myself and others in life in general and out here in particular. I’ll end with a question.

Where do you stand?

I look forward to your input. Have a lovely day.

Part 1: ‘Shewtella would taste lovely spread between layers of orange sponge cake.

Part 2: I think I can whip ‘Shewtella with softened butter to make a buttercream. Then I can have ‘Shewtella on the inside and the outside of my orange sponge cake! Yay!

And since I’m not really one to do a lot of testing, I went for it. I made the sponge cake yesterday, sliced it into four pieces, and wrapped it up.  I made a double batch of less-sweet ‘Shewtella last evening, because I forgot that The Voice was on. Dammit. But at least I was ready for Assembly today. So, a little less dammit.

All I had to do today was make a soaking syrup for the cake, thin out the ‘Shewtella for spreading between the layers and concoct a Tasty Buttercream. So I did. And now I am a little bit Full of Cake.  And I’m smiling, because my ideas turned out to be Very Good Indeed.

Now, for a short digression.  I have never professed to being a very good photographer.  I realize that my photography skills are a bit, um, Lacking.  I am of Two Minds about this fact.  Mind One says that folks will find my food more accessible since it’s not all styled to the nines.  But Mind Two (the less sunshine-y mind) fears that folks won’t even want to try to make some of my food because my pictures don’t show it off to its best advantage.

All I can do is continue to practice my photography–but never at the expense of rendering the food inedible. Trust me, I will never paint a turkey with iodine so I can take its picture–while Exhorting you to give this a try. It is Marvelously tasty, not too hard to make, and your pictures will probably be so much better than mine.

Here’s how I made mine.

I started with my four pieces of sponge, cut roughly to the same dimensions.

I peeled off the gummy top crusts, just by rolling them off the sides of the cake with my fingers.  Do this step. Like I said, the top crust is kind of gummy and brown. Removing it will make your sliced cake prettier and will help texturally as well.

I poured my orange-vanilla soaking syrup in a 7″X11″ Vessel and dunked each slice of cake on both sides. Quickly so they wouldn’t become soggy.

Except this one which I stopped to take a picture of so you could see.  Oh, well.

I heated up some of the ‘Shewtella with a bit of coconut oil to thin it so I could spread it between the layers.

Then it was just spread-stack-spread-stach-spread-stack until I had built my cake.  I let the layers firm up a bit while I made the buttercream.

And that was easy, too.  I thinned out the ‘Shewtella, added some powdered sugar (that I’d powdered myself in the blender–I didn’t want the corn starchy rawness) and whipped in very soft butter.

After I took the stacked layers out of the fridge, I trimmed all the edges so it’d be all pretty and even.

Then, a quick and dirty frosting…

…followed by a finish coat.

Not too sweet, not too heavy–this cake would be a perfect ending to a romantic meal. Like, I don’t know, maybe your Valentine’s Day meal.

This isn’t a cake you’d want to make for an after school snack, prolly, but for a special occasion, I think it really fits the bill. I do hope you enjoy it, and have a lovely Valentine’s Day.

Pudding Chomeur? I know, right–I hadn’t heard of it, either. But I’m not from Canada.  I bet that you’ve heard of it if you’re from Canada.  That and nanaimo bars, but that’s another story.  And if I were from Canada, I might just make pudding chomeur The National Dessert.

Pudding chomeur sounds magical, and that’s why I’ve chosen it for my first recipe inspiration from The Food52 Cookbook. Remember last time, The Beloved got to choose and went with the Moroccan Merguez Ragout with Poached Eggs. Fantastic choice. But Miss Jenni needs some dessert!

First, you make a kind of batter/dough and let it sit in the fridge overnight. And then–are you ready?–you pour heavy cream and maple syrup over the dough and let it bake/poach/oogify (OO-jih-fie) in the oven. So it’s kind of like cake dumplings. In maple syrup. And cream. Lord!

I know The Beloved and I will have fun with this recipe–I’ve already got some ideas about how we can put our own spin on it. I do hope that you will play along, too.

Here’s the recipe for Pudding Chomeur.  And here’s author camille‘s page on the great Food52 site. We wouldn’t be doing this series without the site or the book, so thank you so much for the inspiration, guys!

About 8 of us had talked about getting together for lunch, and as many things happen, only four could get together on the Set Date.  But that’s okay, because a)things happen as they are supposed to happen and b)we will certainly be doing this again. And again.

So it came to pass that The Beloved and I made the 1 1/2-ish hour drive to Greensboro to meet Rebecca from Chow and Chatter, Lynn from Order in the Kitchen and Ilke from Ilke’s Kitchen at a fairly swanky looking place called Print Works Bistro.

Ilke brought along her beloved as well, so we had the boys sit facing each other so the girls could all do Blogging things like giggling and taking pictures of food and laughing and sharing and snickering.  (Turns out Ilke’s beloved has done some brewing, so my Beloved invited him to brew in Charlotte later this month. And he’s coming! Fun!  I’m hoping that Ilke will be able to come as well to hang out with the Brewing Widows, chatting, snacking and drinking wine while the boys brew and do other Manly Things).

Ilke and her Beloved. I see beer widow-hood in her future!

Hi, Rebecca and Lynn!

I could go on and on about what a great time we had. About how sincerely sweet and funny Ilke is. About how Rebecca is just as delightful and interactive in real life as she is on social media. About how Lynn is simply hilarious with a self-deprecating sense of humor. But that’s not why I’m here.

I’m here to talk about the food.

Which was good. Not great.  But my meal did give me an Idea, and for that, I thank it. Thank you, meal.

I ordered a Croque Madame. A Croque Madame is kinda like a Croque Monsieur which, like many foods with French names, is not quite as exciting as one might think.  A Croque Monsieur is a grilled ham and cheese sammich.  A Croque Madame is the same sammich topped with a poached egg and often some bechamel sauce.  And Print Works offered a Croque Madame, complete with bechamel and home fries. And who doesn’t like to cut into a beautifully poached egg so that the yolk helps to sauce the dish, right?

Well, they brought her out, and she was Huge. I mean, she was Enormous!  I didn’t exactly whip out a tape measure, but the bread was easily 4″x6″.  For those using the metric system, that qualifies as Big Ass Slices. And she was stuffed with about a 3/4″ stack (2-ish cm) of thinly shaved mild ham. And she had a ton of melted cheese on top–not in the sammich with the ham, mind you. On top.  And the egg–2 eggs!–which I had expected and becham…Wait a minute.  You’re not bechamel sauce. You’re Hollandaise sauce!  Quite the surprise. Not that I don’t love Hollandaise, but it’s mostly egg yolk and butter. On cheese. With egg. Yowza.  The bechamel would’ve made the dish a bit lighter, but probably wouldn’t have done much to relieve the overall Muchness of her.

Well, friends. I had Trained for this brunch. I had only eaten one small piece of cheese All Morning Long, so I was good and hungry when we got to the restaurant. And even with all that training, I was only able to eat half. Half!  Because, did I mention, she was Huge?!  We all decided that my Croque Madame was quite the letdown.  I mean, she could’ve been alluring and voluptuous. But she overshot the mark and just went straight into Divine territory. Not like heavenly. This Divine.

I thought to myself yesterday, as we were pitching the other half–I mean, reheated Hollandaise? And not-completely-cooked egg yolk? Sorry. Divine, meet compost pail–that I could Prolly make a Croque Madame that would have a bit more zing. Something to cut through all the fattiness.  So I did. And it was. Zingier.

Not that it was healthier necessarily. Don’t think that. If you want healthy, don’t make grilled cheese. But, as an occasional treat, it was filling and interesting and definitely hit the spot. Here’s how I made mine.

First, I cooked up some happy bacon so that it was crisp, and then I chopped it all up.  With a knife-and-fork sandwich, I didn’t want to have to be sawing through big strips o’bacon.

I also made my bechamel and spiked it with my favorite hot sauce, Gator Hammock. I let that sit on the back burner on Warm until I was ready for it.

I grated a bunch of cheese. Yes, that looks like a lot, but it was probably about 2 ounces per sandwich. Again, not diet. But good.  I got the grating idea from an Alton Brown (RIP, Good Eats) cheese episode from 2003: For Whom the Cheese Melts.  It’s a good idea. Do it.

I used some very yummy bread and spread Mayo on what would be the outside sides of four slices of bread.  I learned the mayo trick from a recent article by Ruth Reichl about how to make an Awesomer Grilled Cheese that has been making the rounds lately. It’s a good trick. Do it. (She also recommends grating the cheese. Great minds).

I layered cheese-bacon-cheese between the bread, mayo side out.

Then, I just grilled them up in the old cast iron pan.

For the last flip, I added a bit more grated cheese on top of the sammich.  This is another Ruth Reichl tip, and it’s a good one. Do it, too.

I poached two eggs.  This happened at the same time the grilling was happening.  I think I poached them for about 5 minutes, and they were perfect.

Each sammich landed on a plate, got topped w/a bit of sauce, a poached egg and a bit more sauce. Oh, and torn cilantro. Because we own a Very Ton, and I have been trying to find ways to use it up.

And that’s really it.  We both thought it Far Superior to the Divine-esque Croque Madame from the restaurant. The hot sauce and the salty zing of the bacon provided a nice contrast to the rich melty cheese on the outside, and the crispy cheese layer on top.

Like I said, you can make yours however you like.  You don’t have to make yours just like mine, but I do recommend using Ruth and Alton’s tips–those guys know what they’re talking about.

If you want to make yours the way I made mine, though, here’s how:

If you don’t make this version of Croque Madame, please make A version.  Egg yolk is just sexy, and it makes whatever it is On sexy, too. See:

Just remember that you want a little piquancy to counteract all the fatty goodness.

Enjoy and have a lovely day.

Alas, things are supposed to be Balanced around here. That’s what my shingle says, anyway.  In a vain attempt to Shove closed the barn door as I watched the back end of the horse capering merrily away, I decided that I should probably try to make a Nutella-Like-Item that would actually be a reasonably healthy choice. If I can learn to just put down the @%#*#$ spoon.

I shared with my friends on my fan page that I was considering a homemade version of Nutella, and one friend was all “Keep it away from me!” I thought I was just being a bad influence, and I promised to take her spoon from her should the need Arise. (Then I’d have Two Spoons)!!! But then she said that she was actually allergic to hazelnuts! This is an allergy I’ve never heard of, and it’s one I Do Not want to get to know. I am a Fan of the Filbert.

Start with raw cashews.

I told her that I had actually planned to use a couple of different nuts in my Trials, and she allowed as to how cashews are A-OK in her book, so I said, “Hooray!” and wandered off to the Whole Foods to find hazelnuts and cashews.  The cashews I found without any difficulty.  The hazelnuts, however, were nowhere to be found.  I asked a Guy in an apron, and he said that the Bulk Foods Lady was on break but that I should wander back by in about 15 minutes to see what she had to say.

So, I bought a card, and I smelled a bunch of different hand lotions.  I prowled the Cheese Paddock where all the lovely cheeses were milling about.  I tasted a wee little taste of Some Sort of Cheddar, which was the only sample that was even out when I was there.  I also bought some coconut milk, thinking that cashews and coconut get along quite nicely.

And toast them up yourself.

By the time I got back to the bulk foods section, Mel the Bulk Food Lady was back.  She broke the news to me that they were, indeed, Completely Out of hazelnuts and that they would have some in the next day. To which I said, “Fine. I was just going to make an Awesome Hazelnut Treat and then write about it on the Hinternets and now I’m going to tell the world that you guys were out of hazelnuts. Fine.” (I said this all smiley so she would know that I wasn’t Overly Miffed. Besides, I had my cashews). And guess what she said?! She said, “My name is Mel!” Ha! So now you guys know that Mel is your girl in the Bulk Foods Department at the Whole Foods in Cary!

Look how smooth and creamy! This is because I started with Hot Nuts.

I conducted Experiment 1 yesterday afternoon. I was Unsure about the results. It was very creamy but a little bit boring.  Later, though, Neighbor Chuck came over with eggs, and I made him taste it. He loved it. And then The Beloved came home and I made him taste it. And he loved it, too! So, I’m going to present the Original Version as well as the tweaked version that I made today.

When I tasted V1.0 earlier today, it has set up to a gloriously creamy consistency in the fridge and was very, Very tasty.  So, if you do make V1.o, let it hang out in the fridge for a few hours. The flavor will develop nicely. Knowing that, I can’t wait to try V2.0 in a few hours after it has had a chance to sit, because it is Excellent right now.

A couple of things to note:

1. Buy your cashews raw and roast them, either in a frying pan w/a tiny bit of coconut oil or just on a pan in the oven, and then process them immediately. You will end up with a much smoother butter than if you process them cold.
2. You can absolutely use a neutral vegetable oil and regular old milk to make this, but with all the health benefits of coconut oil and the lovely way that cashews and coconut get along, why would you?
3. If you do start with cold or room temperature cashews, start the butter in the processor and then finish it in a high-powered blender, if you have one.  You’ll end up with as smooth a texture as if you had started with fresh, hot cashews.
4. You can absolutely make this with hazelnuts. I will be, once Mel hooks me up!

And there you have it. Much more guilt-free (less guilt-making?) than Nutella.

Are you a fan of Nutella? Have you made a homemade version? Gonna try this version? Let me know!

Have a lovely day.

Update: Wondering what to make with your shiny new ‘Shewtella? I came up with this awesome torte. Give it a try!

Last week, The Beloved chose Moroccan Merguez Ragout with Poached Eggs as the first Recipe Inspiration for our Food52sdays series. Well, we made it last night. And, Oh Dear Lord, was it good! I mean, honestly one of the Tastiest things either of us has eaten in Quite Some Time.

The Beloved wanted to stick pretty close to the original recipe as we aren’t really familiar with Moroccan flavors, so we did. Mostly. Kind of.  I was going to pick up two of the Key Ingredients, merguez sausage and the Moroccan spice blend ras al hanout, yesterday. But that was before my car decided to die on Friday evening so that it had to be towed to the car hospital.  Where it still is.  So, The Beloved went out Sunday around lunchtime, and first I thought, “I’ll just have him stop and pick some up.” And then I thought, “Heck, I will just Make Do with what is in the house.”

So make do I did.  I looked up merguez sausage on the Hinternets and found a recipe that I Mostly stuck to. (We’d already purchased some ground lamb, so that was good). And I looked up ras al hanout on the Hinternets and found a recipe for that that I mostly stuck to.  And then we were good to go. But before I get to the ‘splainin’ of the recipe, let me ‘splain about ras al hanout.

Seems the term means something along the lines of “top of the shop,” or the Very Best. In this case, the very best spices that the spice guy has in his shop. So, instead of finding someone else’s Best, I looked to my own spice cabinet, and with a List of Spices for Reference, came up with my own Top of the Shop.

By the way, my friend, Awesome Pastry Chef Camille (it’s on her business cards) lives in Paris and works with someone from Algeria, and she Conferred with her colleague as to the meaning of ras al hanout.  Here’s what she reported:

So my colleague tells me it means “head of the shop”. “head” in this context meaning something that is essential- as in, if you want to kill a snake, you don’t cut off its tail, you cut off its head. So in a way, it’s like a mix of the most important things in the shop, its lifeblood. It also carries a connotation of that which is essential to a shop in that every shop, everywhere, must have this- if you were to go to the shop and not find it, it’s because the shop is closed.

Thanks for that, Camille. You rock.

Aside from making the sausage and the spice blend, the meal is quite easy to put together. And put it together you should. And then you should eat it. Here’s how we made ours.

After inventorying our spice cabinets and consulting our Hinternet-searched-and-found recipe for ras al hanout, we toasted up some whole spices. Clockwise from the top, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, coriander, allspice, fennel and cumin.

And then we thought, what the heck? Let’s add in a few dried hot peppers from neighbor Thomas’s pepper plant.  And some white and black peppercorns. And a few cloves. I didn’t do too well with my mis en place, as I was searching for more ras al hanouty spices while I was toasting.

The Untoastables included turmeric, cayenne, nutmeg and ginger.

And, because it can’t be Top of the Shop without some saffron, we Put Some In.

Everyone got ground up.

See?  How colorful and pretty? And aromatic. Oh, my, but it smelled wonderful.

Our Hinternet-searched-and-found recipe for merguez sauasage called for roasted red pepper, but we thought it’d be fun to use a poblano. So we did.

Fresh sausage making just requires some squishing together of ingredients, so that’s what I did.  And then, to make it look more sausage-y, I formed it into a one-pound link and wrapped it in plastic wrap so the flavors could mature for an hour or two.

Once the spice mixture and the sausage were ready to go, it was a simple matter of slowly sweating some onion and garlic in olive oil, adding some paprika and the ras al hanout…

…then browning up the merguez.

Once the merguez was well browned, we added the tomatoes and let it cook.  When we tasted, we both picked up a weird bitterness, and we thought the flavors were a bit murky.  So, we counteracted the bitterness with a bit more salt and brightened up the whole dish with some orange zest.  This turned out to be the magically secret ingredient, because when we tasted it again, we were both like, “Oh, Mama!” Which we rarely say.

Since preserved lemon is a Thing in Morocco, I considered adding lemon zest instead, but I took a cue from the coriander and Belgian-style beers and went all Blue Moon orange zesty.  Good choice.  If you have the choice between the two, go with the orange.  If you don’t, the lemon would be great too, I’m sure.

Once the sauce thickened up a bit, we measured out a portion and put it in our smaller cast iron pan. I made three wee wells for the yolks to sit, then cracked in the eggs.  Covered with a lid (a random lid–our cast iron pans don’t have lids), the eggs were done in about 6 minutes over medium-low-ish heat.  You’re supposed to serve it with harissa to pass, but we just added about a teaspoon of garlic chili paste to the whole mix, it was plenty spicy enough, what with the hot peppers and cayenne whirred up in the ras al hanout.

Garnished with orange zest, fennel pollen and torn cilantro, this was honestly one of the best things we’ve eaten in a long time.  And if you can find pre-made ras al hanout (my buddies at The Spice Shop carry it, which I found out after the fact) and merguez, this dish can be on the table in about thirty minutes.

Look at The Beloved enjoying his meal.  We both ate with Relish.  This stuff was seriously tasty.

Oh, and one note about the serving size. The original recipe says it serves 4. I’d like to see these four people, because after we both ate some of this ragout Sunday night and again last night, there is still enough for us to both have another meal and maybe enough after that for me to enjoy it over rice for a light-ish lunch the next day.  (pleasepleaseplease)

Here’s how we enjoyed it last night, by the way:

I just reheated the ragout and served it with couscous with mixed braising greens.  Couldn’t have been easier–the greens braised in 15 minutes, which–magically–is how long it took the couscous to cook. Hooray.

Seriously, you need to make this ragout.  The mixture of the rich lamb with the rich egg yolk might have been a bit much if it hadn’t been for that orange zest we threw in there, but the ragout would be incredible as a filling for a shepherd’s pie or over pasta or layered in a Mediterranean lasagna.  Do make some. You will be glad you did!

And thanks to Emily Swantner who is the fabulous cook whose recipe on The Food52 site and in the cookbook served as our inspiration.  She is known as epicureanodyssey on The Food52 Site. Go say hi and see her other delicious-sounding recipes.

And there you have it! I do hope some of you participated in our first Food52sday! If not this week, maybe you’ll be inspired by our next pick, coming on Valentine’s Day.

Take care, and have a lovely day.

Thanks to nicomachus for this Fantastic saying. Please click for direct attribution.

You guys remember Sisyphus? He’s the dude in the Greek myth doomed to push a big old boulder up a hill, and just when he’s almost. at. the. top and will be able to Bask in the Glow of his accomplishment, the #$#^%$ boulder rolls to the bottom of the hill, and he has to start all over again. And this happens for eternity.  Poor, poor Sisyphus. His life is one unending, and unfinished, task.

I completely empathize with Sisyphus. Folks who only get one week of vacation instead of two? Whatever. Folks who order 1% in their latte, and the coffee shop only carries 2%? Waa-effin’-waa.  The guy who is crushed because the restaurant is out of the ’98 vintage when everyone knows that was the best one ever? Please.

But Sisyphus I completely understand.  I have Dos Boulders that do that same thing to me.  One is called the Boulder of Laundry.  Or as The Beloved has called it, “The Hell of The L.”  Just when the pile is gone and the last of the L is drying away and I am just about to be all pleased with myself, he’ll wander in and dump more on the place where the pile Used To Be. Except for now it’s there again.

My other boulder, albeit a tastier one? Dinner.  The Beloved expects to eat Every Night.  Sure, I may have whipped up an Extremely Awesome spatchcocked-and-roasted chicken one night. But apparently the next day, the memory of that meal does not sustain him.  He wants food again.  And then he’ll say, “Don’t worry. I can whip up something myself.” But he says it in the wounded-puppy-dog-why-don’t-you-love-me-anymore voice. And then he makes those eyes like that dog in the old Miracle Whip commercial.  And I am forced to Set Aside the bonbons, lever myself off the Chaise and concoct…something.

This meal is the result of one such Sisyphean task.  And, even though I was less-than-inspired, it was Very Good.  So good, in fact, that I figured I’d share it here. Plus, as a bonus, the meal was on the table in Just Under twenty minutes. Not bad.

And there you have it.  I give this to all of you who also sometimes feel like Sisyphus because your Unreasonable Partner wants to eat every day.  Whip this up in twenty minutes, and then get back to your bonbons.

All the pictures are of assembling the Mango Lassi Genoise, and the video is of assembling a peanut butter and jelly genoise.  You will see that the steps are pretty universally applicable, whether you want your cake to have 2, 3 or even four or more layers.  I hope you find it helpful, so without further Ado, please enjoy both the pictures and the video.

Leveling a Cake
This is a mandatory step when working with genoise and an optional step when working with butter cakes.  For genoise, you must remove the top and bottom crusts from the cakes. This allows the soaking syrup to penetrate into the crumb. It also gives a more professional look to the cake when it is cut–notice in the pictures of the Mango Lassi Genoise that there is no brown crust of cake under the frosting. Fancy.

With a butter cake, you only need to level if the cake is domed at all. Even then, if you don’t mind a slightly rounded top on your cake, don’t worry about it. But for cakes that will be stacked, go ahead and cut off the dome.  Do this by holding a long serrated knife parallel to the surface of the cake and sawing the very top off.

This is a genoise. Notice the top crust is thicker and is
therefore easier to remove.

Torting a Cake
Torting is another optional step.  It’s just a fancy word for splitting a layer in half–or thirds–horizontally.  With butter cakes, most folks just stack two layers on top of each other with one layer of filling. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but if you’d like more layers of filling without having a cake 47 inches tall, torting is the answer.

With a butter cake, the best way I have found to torte is to wrap a long piece of dental floss around the cake, cross the ends, and then pull to split the cake.  This Does Not Work for genoise.  A genoise is a very tough cake (before soaking with syrup), and wrapping floss around the cake only makes it squeeze together like an hour glass. Then the layer tears and does not slice cleanly.  In the picture, you’ll see three layers. I torted them from one 2-ish inch tall genoise. See the layer to the left–how it’s all uneven and kinda stupid looking? That’s what dental floss does to genoise.  Lesson learned.

To torte a genoise, you’ll need to use a big serrated knife. The process is identical to leveling, but you’ll just split each layer in half or into thirds.  I’ve read in some books to place toothpicks around the equator of your cake as a guide.  I tried it once, and it just made me mad.  I find it is helpful to put the cake on a turntable and then hold the knife almost stationary while spinning the cake and sawing farther and farther in until the layers come apart.

Filling a Cake
Filling a cake is the part where you put something Tasty between the layers, both to add moisture and flavor as well as to stick the layers together.  Lots of folks use some of their frosting to fill their cake.  And that’s tasty, especially if you Love Frosting, but don’t discount some other filling ideas:  ganache (flavored or otherwise), jam, custard, fruit curd, stabilized whipped cream, sliced fruit in gelatin, gravy…maybe not that last one, but you get the idea, I think.

Anyway, filling can be as simple as just scooping some of your Preferred Filling into the middle of your cake and spreading it out to within 1/4″ or so of the edge of the cake. Or, you could take the extra step of piping an “icing dam” around the edge of your layer before adding your filling. This is an especially useful step when your filling is darker than your frosting–say chocolate ganache with coconut buttercream or something.  It keeps the filling inside where it belongs and eliminates the worry of Bleed-Through.

With a genoise, you will always want to brush or spray your layers with a soaking syrup. RLB’s ratio is 2:1 water to sugar with another 1/4-1/2 part of liqueur.  She says to use 3-4 tablespoons (1 1/2-2 ounces) of syrup per egg in the recipe. So, for a 4-egg genoise, you’ll need 12-16 tablespoons of syrup (6-8 ounces). The liqueur you choose should complement your layer. I usually just use some vanilla as it pretty much goes with everything, but you are really only limited by your imagination.

I would not soak American-style butter cakes with a syrup as they have an unfortunate tendency to turn to mush when wet. Ew.  The only time that I might use a bit of syrup is if the cake is going to be sitting in the fridge for two or three days before serving.  I usually just wrap butter cake layers in plastic wrap and foil when still very hot and then throw them in the fridge or freezer to cool to room temperature. This keeps the cake nice and moist since the water that would normally evaporate during cooling can’t escape.

Frosting a Cake
Some cakes don’t need frosting…Yeah, right. Who am I kidding?! I love frosting, and I have never (rarely) met a layer-type cake that couldn’t be enhanced by some. Those folks who say, “Oh, all it needs is a dusting of powdered sugar!” are lying.

The Crumb Coat
To get a nice, professional, crumb-free coat of icing is a two-step process. The first step is to ice the whole cake with a very thin layer of frosting or even some of your filling.  Consider it thin layer of tasty glue that catches and holds the crumbs to keep them from Dispersing in your finished frosting.  With the mango lassi cake, I used a thin layer of my gelatin-stabilized mango curd for the crumb coat, because I knew it would set up.  With the PB&J cake, I just used a thin coat of the peanut butter buttercream.  You can watch that in the video to see all the steps, but here’s the completed crumb coat on the mango cake:

The Finish Coat
The steps to complete the finish coat are the same as for the crumb coat. The only difference is that you’ll spread on the frosting a bit thicker and take more care in making sure the frosting is smooth.

The first thing to do is to spread frosting on the sides of the cake, holding the spatula parallel to the side of the cake and perpendicular to the cake stand/turntable.  (You can start with the top, if you want.  Some folks do). To smooth out the sides, hold the spatula in place and spin the stand all the way around.

The white on top of the cake is a Greek yogurt layer and is not a part of the finished frosting.

Next, heap a bunch of the frosting on the top of the cake and spread it out evenly, holding the spatula parallel to the top of the cake and spreading the frosting back and forth.  Make sure to always keep the spatula in contact with the frosting. If you pull the spatula straight up and away from the frosting, you run the risk of pulling up some of your hard work and a bit of cake along with it.  Always the slide the spatula off to the side of the cake as opposed to lifting straight up.

Let the icing extend over the sides of the cake by a bit. You’ll clean this up in the next step.

Next, go around the sides of the cake again, holding the spatula vertically and parallel to the sides.  Scrape any excess frosting back into your icing bowl.

Now all that’s left to do is get rid of those little Up-Sticking Parts of your frosting.  Do this with the back of your spatula. Swoop in from the side, knock each up-sticking part down and pull towards the center of the cake.  Do this all the way around, and, aside from maybe a little more finessing, you are done!

Tada!!

And now, for folks who love to watch things In Motion, here’s the video tutorial, starring a peanut butter and jelly genoise: PMAT Live! Episode 19: How to Torte, Fill and Frost a Cake.

If you’d like the recipes for the component parts of the PB&J cake, click on through to YouTube. All that information is in the video description.

So, that’s pretty much it. I hope you find the information useful. Take care, and have a lovely day!

If you’d like to play along, and we really hope you will, check out the recipe inspiration for the week and then cook/bake away.  If you have a blog or a facebook/Google+ page, feel free to link to your post in the comments section. If you don’t, just let us know what you did–you can write up a “real” recipe or just describe your results.  You can also post pictures of your creations over on the fan page.

The Beloved chose first, so without further ado, here is his pick for the Inaugural Food52sday!

Moroccan Merguez Ragout with Poached Eggs

Jenni and spent about two hours going thru Food52 picking recipes that sounded good and inspiring.  I got to pick first and it took a few elimination rounds to come up with this one.  It is spicy and exotic, but seems pretty  fast and simple.  It is also hearty and warming.  So very necessary this frigid winter season.  Right! – they’re talking almost 70 on Wednesday, February 1^st.  Typically the coldest month here …

I have long wanted to try more of the cuisine of North Africa.  You can kind of get there by way of Spain and Portugal, but this looked like a chance to try something more traditional.  The sort of fare a typical local might eat.  Seeing as how I am not planning any trans-Atlantic travel any time soon, and we have yet to try any of the Moroccan eateries in the area, this seemed like the best shot for now.

We intend to follow the recipe pretty closely the first time out to get a better feel for the spicing with the rest of the ingredients, but I am looking forward to trying some variations.

Tune in next week to see our interpretation of this dish.  He wants to go the straight-up-follow-the-recipe route, and I can’t blame him. I mean, lamb sausage?!

Oh, also, I’ve set up a page for Food52sdays where you can find all the Recipe Inspirations and Recipe Interpretations. I’ll update it weekly, and if we plan ahead, I’ll post the inspirations and the week in which the interpretations are “due.”

We’re going full steam ahead on this, so we hope you’ll play along. We’d love to hear from you in the comments section, so whataya think?