St. Michaels, Maryland: Part 2

"If we don't offer ourselves to the unknown, our senses dull. Our world becomes small and we lose our sense of wonder. Our eyes don't lift to the horizon; our ears don't hear the sounds around us. The edge is off our experience, and we pass our days in a routine that is both comfortable and limiting." - Kent Nerburn on traveling from Letters to my Son

For someone who begins the first moments of every morning with a bowl of Barbara’s brand cereal with original-flavored almond milk followed by a cup of strong coffee, mildly diluted with half and half and sugar, I can speak candidly about finding comfort in routine. And while I love to travel, I am also shamefully famous for on-the-road food-related tantrums like the time I woke up at a bed and breakfast in Ojai to discover that no breakfast basket had arrived at the door like it had the previous morning at eight o’clock sharp. I thought perhaps the breakfast folks were running late, so while Matt tried to sleep, I anxiously waited for thirty minutes before finally calling the front desk, only to receive the information that they delivered complimentary breakfasts on the weekend, and since it was Monday, there would be no breakfast. What did that even mean—there would be no breakfast? At this, I took the next logical step. I ran and leapt into the air, throwing myself in what Matt describes as a sloppy, swan dive onto the bed and buried my face in the pillow in such dramatic fashion that the memory of it still makes him laugh. Needless to say, driving across the country with me was also difficult on him. A scene at the Hampton Inn in Flagstaff comes to mind. No skim milk? Excuse me while I go upstairs and destroy my hotel room. 

But despite securing my breakfast staples at the beginning of this week’s vacation on the Chesapeake—“I’ll go to the grocery store! I don’t mind!”—I couldn’t help but feel hyper aware of all the ways that my world in this giant city of Los Angeles has indeed become very small. Starting with the east coast humidity. I grew up on the east coast and go home at least once a year but how quickly do I forget about that thick, hot air that kind of just lands on your skin and stays there indefinitely?

Then there were all the conversations and catching up at the wedding with all of Matt’s and my distant relatives we rarely get to see and whose lives are so rich and so different from ours. Speaking of different than ours, there was a smattering of b-a-b-i-e-s. While in Philadelphia for the wedding, I met up with my best friend from college who I hadn’t seen in over a year and who had just had her second baby a mere ten days earlier. It was so wonderful to see how she hasn’t changed a bit yet has this entire beautiful family at the same time. And then, we spent the week with our adorable nephew (whose toe point is highlighted in Part 1 of this wrap-up) and super cute niece, Isabel, who, plain as the eye can see, took to her aunt quite naturally.

I did, however, feel instantly comfortable in the enormous kitchen with the Viking range, granite countertops and dishwasher. So much so that when Matt and I left for the grocery store on the last day of vacation to shop for ingredients for dinner that night, we had only a vague game plan as to what we would make. We’d had the most amazing grilled rockfish at a local restaurant the previous night so we thought we might attempt that. If they had oysters, we thought we could grill those. Basically, we were very into the idea of grilling something, but we were comfortable with not knowing what that would be exactly. But then we arrived at Captain’s Ketch and the fresh jumbo lump crabmeat and the idea of some classic Maryland crab cakes called to us. (We would’ve had to catch a lot of crab to have acquired enough crabmeat to make one crab cake let alone enough to feed the seven of us.)

And so we returned home very nourished and with the edge back on our experiences—at least for the time being. We got in really late last Saturday night without enough energy to pick up either cereal or almond milk. Fortunately for everyone though, we did have some oatmeal and somehow, I managed to keep it together.


Crab Cakes adapted from recipe by Paula Deen
serves 8

2 pounds jumbo lump crabmeat
6 to 8 crackers, crushed
4 scallions (green and white parts), finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons of chives, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 egg
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon seafood seasoning (The house came equipped with this tub of seasoning, which we taste-tested and feel semi-confident in saying that it was probably a mix of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne.)
tartar sauce, for serving
olive oil

Directions
In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except olive oil. Shape into patties. (We found that the smaller the patties, the more manageable they were to flip and keep from falling apart. I’d say to aim for a size slightly smaller than an English muffin.)

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, carefully place crab cakes, in batches, in pan and fry until browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully flip crab cakes and fry on other side until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Serve warm with tartar sauce.

White Chocolate Pomegranate Cupcakes

I may have said this in this past but this time I really really mean it. These are hands down the best cupcakes I've baked. Free Spirit Bloggers are into their 4th month together (already!) and Lataji chose this month's theme. She gave us all a choice to pick a number between 1-12 and revealed secret ingredients to work with. Mine were white chocolate and pomegranates.

The timing couldn't be more perfect because I had this bar of white chocolate I had bought from Tokyo a year back and since I was in India, I could buy a pomegranate and bring it back with me! Things fell in place beautifully and one Saturday evening, these cupcakes were born.

I searched a lot for a good white chocolate cupcake recipe and although there were quite a few that came up, I finally nailed one from Epicurious. Although a lot of the reviews said the cupcake sank in the middle, got ruined, etc, I had a nice feeling about it. I used a lower baking temperature and they came out ridiculously well. The coconut milk in the batter was intriguing too, and its my first time baking cupcakes with coconut milk in the batter!

The pomegranates gave a nice crunch to the texture and added to the appeal of the otherwise dull-looking cupcakes. One word of caution here. I only had brown sugar in hand so my cupcakes are beige in colour. If you use regular white sugar like you are supposed to, the cupcakes will be white and gorgeous like white chocolate cupcakes are supposed to look.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Pomegranates
Makes 20 cupcakes
Loosely adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:
8 oz / 240 gm white chocolate
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup regular white sugar
3 egg whites
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

*Optional Mascarpone frosting recipe below. 

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 320F / 180 C. Line cupcake pans with liners and set aside.

2. Melt white chocolate by placing it in a bowl over another bowl of boiling water and stirring frequently, or in a microwave at low heat until just melted and smooth.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl until blended. Add hot white chocolate to sugar mixture; stir to combine. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with coconut milk in 2 additions, beating batter just to combine between additions.

4. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form. Be careful not to overbeat. To check done-ness, I lift the whisk and see if a soft peak forms and gently collapses back into the mixture. Gently fold egg white mixture into batter in 3 additions.

5. Pour batter into the lined cupcake pans until 3/4 filled. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 mins or until the cupcakes don't stick to a skewer passed through their middle.

6. Cool completely and frost if desired. I thought the cupcakes were a bit too plain so decided to whip up a very simple frosting with some mascarpone cheese I had in hand.

Mascarpone Frosting Recipe

Whisk together 6 tbsp mascarpone cheese, 4 tbsp milk, and 14 tbsp icing sugar. Adjust each of the ingredients until the frosting is of pouring consistency yet not too watery. Pour over completely cooled cupcakes and place some pomegranate seeds over the frosting before serving.

The cupcakes lasted me four days, refrigerated. 

DK's Super-Hero Non Stick Pan and an Update on MMKT

I had started a blog to record all the awesome kitchen things I obsess over - called Meet My Kitchen Things. In time, a bunch of you sent me amazing things from your kitchens to share with the readers. As much as I love that blog, its been very tough to give time to this here food blog, my Project 365 blog, and a full time job, etc.

So I've decided to merge the contents of MMKT here. All old posts have been successfully imported into this site and I will be posting new updates here. That way, I have only one blog to update and all the great stuff you send will be under one roof with the recipes.

Thanks for all the love on the MMKT Facebook page. I will be messaging members separately so they can join the Edible Garden FB Page if they'd like.

Now, its time to share a long overdue post with you all. Dhivya shared her super-hero non stick pan a while back for MMKT.

Here's an excerpt:

"I am like a live wire trying to cram 100,000 things a day. I swear by multitasking. A little one added to this midst just threw my multitasking abilities haywire. An “absent-minded professor” quality has taken over me that I cant seem to help... It was a weekend and I was all set for errands. We enjoyed some tea and left, returning after almost 2 hours... As soon as I came home, a strong smell of something burning greeted us. My husband had a laugh talking about some “poor husband” who lost his dinner when a shock greeted me! It was my leftover tea in the pan that I had left on the stove assuming I switched it off! I moved it to the sink to see if I could do something about it..."

Check out her site for the rest of the story on how amazingly unscathed her super-hero non stick pan came out of the whole ordeal. Now that's a pan we all want in our kitchens, eh?

Vegan Mango Bundt Cake Recipe

I brought back 4kg of mangoes when I came back after my two-week vacation back home. 4-5 days after I got back, they all they started ripening at the same time and pretty rapidly at that. I started panicking and quickly looked up mango dessert recipes. After indulging in a good amount of mango lassi and mango milkshake, I was still left with more mangoes than we could just eat up (what a lovely lovely problem to have!) so I started looking for mango dessert recipes. Although I was tempted to make the no-bake mango cheesecake, the fact that we would both end up finishing it in 2 days deterred me.

If I had Photoshop installed in my Mac and some patience, I would have edited that grey line out of this pic.

Since I was out of eggs, I started searching for eggless mango cakes. Quite a few popped up and most had some other ingredient that I didn't have either - like sour cream or buttermilk. Then I saw this vegan mango cake recipe in Holy Cow Vegan and decided this is it!

I've always wanted to take an artistic shot like this. Since I don't use a tripod, it was tricky. Shaking the sieve with my left hand and holding camera and clicking with the right (all the while fearing that the camera would fall and the lens would break *shudder*)

Vegan Mango Bundt Cake Recipe
Serves 10
Adapted from: Holy Cow Vegan

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1 1/2 cups ripe mango puree

1/3 cup neutral oil (vegetable, canola, etc)

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 180C.

2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom powder well together.

3. In another bowl, whisk the mango puree, oil, sugar and vanilla until well combined. Add this to the flour mixture and fold until there are no traces of flour left. Don't overmix, just use your hand whisk or a silicon spatula to do this.

4. Transfer to a a greased bundt pan and bake in the pre-heated oven until the cake is cooked through and a skewer passed through it comes out with a few crumbs in the end. It took my cake about 40 mins to reach this stage.

Transfer to a cooling rack, dust with some icing sugar and serve warm or at room temperature with some mango puree drizzled over it if you'd like.

Notes:
- Although this cake came out just fine, I realised that I am not a fan of eggless cakes using oil as a substitute. I think the mental image that this piece of cake has oil in it turns me off. Although for this mango cake, the flavour of oil was at a minimum, I would just add 1/2 a cup of melted butter next time when I try it. Of course, then it will no longer be vegan.

- If you don't have fresh ripe mangoes in stock, just use canned mango puree. Works just as fine too.

Also, HUGE thanks to Sakshi for the super cute cake stand she gifted me while we met and roamed around the Bay Area and SFO. You the best!

Vegan Dad on the Road: Govinda's and Sweet Freedom

Only two days left in Philadelphia and then it's back home. I will miss the option of going out to eat but I can't wait to get back to the family (and my kitchen). Yesterday's stop was Govinda's. I had been there before and I don't think much has changed. Keep in mind that I am talking about the "Govinda's to Go" side of the restaurant--a small and slightly shabby take-out diner with slow service that largely serves vegan takes on American diner classics. It's a bit greasy and a little sloppy but I still think it's fun. I have yet to go to the fine dining side which is only open Thursday to Friday. I decided to get two things this time, and not the chicken cheesesteak since I had that last time. First up: the Kofta Sub.
I liked it. The meatballs were a little mushy but I liked the spiciness with the tomato sauce and cheese. Next: fish sandwich.
I have never had faux fish before and it was actually pretty good. By itself it had a rather fishy taste and texture (if you are into that kind of thing). I would have preferred tartar sauce to a glob of vegenaise and pickles, and I thought the "fish" got lost in all the toppings and bun. Govinda's is another place that suffers from very average bread. If only these veggie places could hook up with a quality bakery it would make things oh so much better.

Since it is only a few doors from Govinda's, I popped into Sweet Freedom.
Many of you had recommended it and a few had not. As you well know I don't do gluten-free baking. I have nothing against it, it's just that I don't have a gluten intolerance and I really love bread. So, I'm not exactly sure how to review the stuff that I ate. It's not fair to compare it to its glutenated (is that a word?) counterparts, but it sounds patronizing to say it's good for gluten-free. But, I think that is what I am going to have to say. But first, let me tell you that a place like Sweet Freedom is my dream--a small, specialty bakery where I could serve up all sorts of awesomeness. Maybe in another life . . . . I really have to admire that variety of things Sweet Freedom offers: all of it soy, egg, corn, dairy, gluten, peanut, and refined sugar free. I got there at the end of the day and a lot of the stuff had been sold so I chose the Strawberry Double Chocolate Cookie Sandwich, and a Coconut Bliss Cupcake.
I wasn't crazy about the cookie sandwich--the filling had a toothpaste consistency, was too thick, and didn't taste very much like strawberry. The cookie was pretty crumbly . . . but then again it had no gluten to hold it together. The cupcake was better, I think, and was moist but really heavy and dense (and not worth $3.75). Again, no gluten. I would not go back, but I think if I had a gluten intolerance or allergies then this place would be a piece of heaven.

Vegan Dad on the Road: Reading Terminal Market

I love to wander around Reading Terminal Market when I come to Philadelphia. The downside is there is a lot of meat there. I mean a lot. I guess that is because the locavore scene is largely about meat these days. But there are some good local produce stands as well, a vegetarian place to eat, a little spice store, a book store, some bakeries, etc. It's a funky place where you can get some local produce (I got some white cherries and peaches) and you can people watch to your heart's content.

Mushrooms and Fettuccine in Vegan Tomato Basil Sauce

I've been sitting with the compose box open for the past 20 mins and I can't think of a single thing to say except that this fettuccine recipe rocks. I made it for dinner one night and hadn't meant to post it on the blog but after tasting it, I had to take some pics so I can share it here.

Its adapted from the fabulous VeganYumYum.

Note: Fettuccine is traditionally pasta with egg in it so its not vegan by default. I bought vegan fettuccine from an organic store in Singapore. If you are vegan, please double-check the fettuccine you buy.

Fettuccine in Vegan Tomato Basil Sauce
Serves 2

Ingredients:
5 bundles* of (vegan) fettuccine
1 cup mushrooms, sliced thin (use any kind you like)
2 ripe tomatoes
4 cloves of minced garlic
1/4 cup raw, unsalted cashews
1 tbsp tomato paste (important)
1/3 cup water
1 tsp black pepper
Fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

How I Made It:

1. Boil enough water to cover the fettuccine with some salt. Once its come to boil, slowly immerse the fettuccine and cook until its soft yet firm.

2. Chop the tomatoes and blend with the tomato paste, cashews and the water. Start with 1/4 cup water and add more as you go. I didn't blend it too smooth since I wanted the texture the cashews would give.

3. Heat olive oil in a pan and add the garlic. Fry for 30 seconds until lightly browned. Then add the mushrooms and saute for 2-3 mins until they soften a bit and sweat a bit.

4. Add the blended sauce with some salt and simmer for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water if necessary to thin it out. I added more water than original recipe when blending so I didn't need to. The cashews will make the sauce thick.

5. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and mix well until combined. Add the chopped basil and freshly cracked black pepper. Adjust salt if necessary. Serve immediately.

*The fettuccine I bought was in bundles. If you buy in packets or any other measure, please use your discretion for quantity.

All pictures taken in the homemade light box for food photography. 

Vegan Dad on the Road: Brunch at Mi Lah

After many a recommendation I went for brunch at Mi Lah on Sunday. I wanted a mix of savoury and sweet so I ended up ordering a lot of food. First up: Tofu Benedict with kale and roasted potatoes. The kale was a welcome addition to my on-the-road diet but the potatoes were a little overdone. The Tofu Benedict had great taste but, as you can see from the pic, lacked a little something in the presentation. I could have used more Hollandaise sauce (which tasted great) since the pieces of tofu were substantial and the plain whole wheat English muffin needed something to mop off the plate.
Next: french toast. I had to ask for maple syrup, which I thought would have been a standard part of the dish. This tasted great but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is deep fried instead of pan fried. I also wasn't crazy about being served the end of the loaf of bread. Still, I really enjoyed the brunch as did the continuous stream of people coming in the door.

St. Michaels, Maryland: Part 1

In terms of feeling better about life in general, let's face it, vacation works. So much so that I’d like to shoot a commercial for it. It'd be like one of those psuedo-spiritual, super general ads you watch and aren’t sure what’s being pitched until the very end when white letters appear over a calm scene and spell out Nike. Or Cotton. Or Cialis. But at the end of my commercial, that word would be vacation.
This vacation began with a wedding. These guys below? Why, they're the Manhattan boys, of course, pictured clutching their signature drink, The Manhattan.
The following morning it was onward and eastward to St. Michaels, Maryland where we would be staying for the week in a beautiful house sitting on a 160 acre farm on the Chesapeake Bay.

(This is what humidity looks like.)

When the owner of the house stopped by to show us how to use the fairly intense stereo system, he told us that he'd built the house so that the front faced the bay. Matt took the below photo from a kayak-in-motion. The place could probably be described as pretty, no?

Being on the Chesapeake, I had major designs on a crab-related attempt. In fact, that's what I'm thinking about here in my temporary Ina Garten-esque kitchen. So when the owner also told us about the crab pots at the end of our dock, Matt and my heads nearly exploded. You have what now? Tell us more. This sounds like a job for the Manhattan boys. Do you have bitters and a jigger of vermouth?

We quickly learned the ropes of dockside crabbing. Step 1: Purchase chicken necks. Step 2: Fill the pots with our newly acquired chicken necks. Step 3: Give the pots an overnight soak. Step 4: Check the pots early in the morning for terrapins. If you see a terrapin, set it free. No questions asked. Step 5: If you see crabs, grab them with gloved hands and put them in a green bucket, filled with bay water. Also, by no means kick in more than two pots—each dock is allowed two, any more and the professional crabbers will come by and cut your ropes!
This next part was the trickiest. We had to kill them. David Foster Wallace's essay, "Consider the Lobster" immediately came to mind. Namely, the part where he asks: "Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?" Well, having been firmly faced with this task for the first time in my life, I can tell you that it certainly didn't feel all right, which is strange for any number of reasons, but particularly so considering that just the other week I basked in the retelling of the deliciousness of linguine and clams—fundamental to which, is the killing of live clams.

A few pages later, however, Foster Wallace offers this: "The whole animal-cruelty-and-eating issue is not just complex, it's also uncomfortable. It is, at any rate, uncomfortable for me, and for just about everyone I know who enjoys a variety of foods and yet does not want to see herself as cruel or unfeeling. As far as I can tell, my own main way of dealing with this conflict has been to avoid thinking about the whole unpleasant thing." And see, that's the problem with a live crab or lobster. The fact that they are moving and you are the one that is going to stop them from moving ever again makes this notion of you as a cruel or unfeeling person unavoidable. But if we want to eat them, we should, at least in some circumstances, be able to deal with this unpleasantness. Otherwise, we shouldn't be eating them at all, right?

In the end, we killed them. They didn't move around for long. And yes, they were delicious. And yes, it feels wrong to say that. However, I feel I've made some awkward strides in the never-ending journey of understanding the food I eat and where it comes from and tried my best to honor the lives of those blue crabs. Now, can we please talk about the corn? Oh, the corn! The Mexican-style roasted corn! I loved it so much.



There were so many reasons to love this corn. For starters, there was no moral dilemma tied to it. Secondly, it was covered in mayonnaise and topped with cheese, cilantro, chile powder, and lime juice. It was both indulgent and fresh-tasting at the same time, and our amazingly cute nephew, Henry, unexpectedly boasted a perfect toe point during the grilling process.

So much more to come. Stay tuned for St. Michaels, Maryland: Part 2!

Mexican-Style Roasted Corn via Saveur
serves 4

4 large ears corn, with husks still attached
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups crumbled cotija cheese (We substituted shredded cheddar.)
4 tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
4 tsp. ancho chile powder
Kosher salt and freshly ground black
pepper, to taste
1 lime, cut into four wedges

1. Working with one ear of corn at a time, peel back the husks to expose the kernels, leaving husks attached at the base; remove the silk threads and tie husks together with kitchen twine around base of cob to form a handle. Repeat with remaining ears. (We didn't do this step and it turned out all right.) Transfer corn to a large bowl or pot of water and let soak for 30 minutes. FYI: this includes the husks! (We only soaked the corn and the husks kept catching fire on the grill.)

2. Build a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill over medium-high heat. Transfer corn to grill; cook, turning occasionally, until charred and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove corn from grill and brush with mayonnaise. Place cheese on a plate and roll each ear of corn in cheese to coat. Sprinkle corn evenly with some of the cilantro, chile powder, and salt and pepper, pressing the corn so that seasonings and cheese will adhere to the mayonnaise. Serve with lime wedges.