Strawberry Shortcake With Sugar Lavender Glaze

click on the picture for a more bigger, clear view…

I made my first Old Fashion Strawberry shortcake, I know these have been around forever, but I tasted one for the first time just recently. The glaze recipe was something I wanted to add to this, so I made sugar water syrup with 3 TB of Lavender leaves once it got thick I used a sieve to discard the flowers and poured this into the strawberries for additional flavor. It came out so tasty. The shortcake itself reminded me of a scone. The left over shortcake will taste great in the morning with some Orange Marmalade inserted inside…. and with my ice cold chai…heaven…

5 cups fresh strawberries
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
Shortcake (see recipe below)
3 cups chilled whipping cream
Sugar to taste

Wash and hull strawberries; drain. Either leave the strawberries whole or sliced.

Perfect Slicing Tip: Use your egg slice. Stem the strawberries first, then slice just like you would a boiled egg. Much quick than using a knife.

In a large bowl, place strawberries and sprinkle with sugar; cover and refrigerate. Prepare shortcake.

In a medium bowl, beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form; fold in sugar.

To serve, split baked shortcakes into halves. Ladle strawberries onto top of shortcake and top with a dollop of whipped cream. NOTE: Best served when shortcake is warm. Shortcake can be reheated. The berries will be juicier if you crush a few before sugaring and let them sit for an hour before using.

Makes 8 servings.

SHORTCAKE:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chilled butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease two large baking sheets.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter or margarine until particles are the size of small peas; stir in egg and milk.

On a lightly floured surface, using 1/2 cup dough per biscuit, pat dough into eight (4-inch rounds.

Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until golden brown.

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Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp

For this week’s Magazine Monday post, hosted by Cream Puffs in Venice I found this delectable Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp. I love Thai Food it is my favorite ethnic food. I love the taste of coconut in just about anything. When I came across this recipe I had to give it a go. Did I mention how easy this is to make? 30 minutes! I found this recipe in Cooking Light.

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Cupcake With Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Filling…

Adapted from Baking Bites

Black Bottom Cupcakes
Cream Cheese Filling
16-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large egg whites, room temperature
2 tbsp sour cream, room temperature
1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips (not full size*)

Cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sour cream
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, make filling. Beat together cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth. Beat in egg whites and sour cream. Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, salt, flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Make a well in the center and add in sour cream, water, butter and vanilla. Stir together until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
Divide cake batter evenly among 24 cupcake liners. Top each portion of batter with 1 rounded tablespoon cream cheese mixture (It is ok to have a little left over).
Bake for 20-25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the side (cake only part) should come out with a few moist crumbs on it. Rotate pans halfway through baking if you are using two racks.
Cool in pans for 5 minutes. Cream cheese filling should sink slightly in this time. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

*Full-sized chocolate chips will sink to the bottom of the cupcakes, while miniature chips will remain suspended in the cream cheese center.

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Gnocchi With Wild Mushroom and Sage Ragu

For this week’s Magazine Monday Event, hosted by Cream Puffs in Venice, I found a tasty Gnocchi recipe in Bon Appetit.

I love Italian food but rarely ever make it or eat it for that matter. Italian food is on the heavier side of what I’m use to eating. Every once in a great while I head over to my favorite Italian restaurant and fall in love with it all over again. I can’t eat Italian food without wine, it’s a necessity for me and I’m not sure why it has to be that way. Lucky for me, there was a lovely white wine recommendation in Bon Appetit that I tried and loved with my dish, it’s called Torrontes. There’s only one dish that I always order on the menu of any Italian restaurant and that’s Gnocchi. So, when I came across a glimpse of a Gnocchi recipe in the new May 2009 issue of Bon Appetit I just had to give it a try. There is no picture, which usually leaves me wondering if I want to try a recipe not knowing how it should come out, but I’m very aware how Gnocchi are supposed to taste and look like. Let me start by saying, this was not easy at all for me. Dealing with dough and getting it to the right consistency is a struggle, I don’t find it a problem with baking but it is definitely more difficult to deal with in cooking. My Gnocchi came out incredibly soft, the sauce was a nice light white wine base, though I do prefer the thick white sauce and would hope to find that version in the future, this did satisfy me and I’m really sleepy after eating it too. My tummy feels heavy. I loved the way this turned out, but considering I made my Gnocchi from scratch it was time consuming.

Gnocchi
2 Pounds russet potatoes
kosher salt
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp ground black peper
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1-1 1/4 cups AP flour unbleached plus more for dusting

Ragu-
1/3 cup Olive Oil
4 Cups mixed wild mushrooms
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 TB chopped garlic
1 TB minced fresh sage leaves
2 TB minced Shallots
1 Cup Torrontes White Wine
1 cup heavy cream
Parmesan cheese as needed
Parsely 1 TB

Still looking for the link to this on Bon appetit, the directions to the recipe to follow. I’m not sure why it is not posted on their site, so I’m typing this up straight from the magazine.

Gnocchi
Preheat oven to 375F. Bake Potatoes on a bed of kosher salt in a baking dish, about 45-50 mins. (I boiled them it was much faster). While still warm, halve potatoes and scoop out the flesh. Pass the flesh through a potato ricer, or push through a coarse sieve until you have about 4 cups. In a bowl, combine potato, egg yolks, Parmesan, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Work the mixture with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add 1 cup of the flour and knead, patting and pressing the dough until all the flour is incorporated. Add the additional 1/4 cup flour if the dough feels too moist. It should be soft but shouldn’t stick to your hands. Transfer dough to a work surface and roll into a 3-inch-diameter log. Cut into 8 equal pieces. Roll dough into 1/2 inch diameter ropes. Flour the ropes, then cut crosswise at 1/2 inch intervals. Shape the gnocchi with the back of a fork or cook as is. Let dry at room temperature for 20 mins before cooking.

Ragu-
Heat a large sauté pan over high heat. Add oil, then sprinkle in mushrooms. Without stirring, let mushrooms caramelize for 7-8 mins. Stir and season with salt and pepper. Add garlic and cook, stirring for about 1 min. Add the sage and shallots and cook for 1 min. Add the Torrontes and reduce by 1/2. Then add cream and simmer until slightly reduced to sauce consistency, about 5 mins. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi. They are done when they float to the surface. Lift gnocchi out with a skimmer and transfe to a platter. Pour sauce over the gnocchi. Grate Permesan over the top, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

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Black Bean, Chicken and Red Pepper Soup..Stew…

After seeing Black Bean Red Pepper Soup at Closet Cooking and a protein version of it at Annie’s Eats, I decided I wanted protein in it so I went with Annie’s eats. Both look tasty..with slightly different ingredients. When I get burned out on meat as I always do, I’ll have Kevin’s vegetable version of it. This is a tasty black bean dish that I will keep on my repeat menu.

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Strawberry Loaf Bread

Here’s the baby creeping up on my shots. I cut a piece off from this and put it on the table and started taking pictures, all of a sudden through my camera lens I see this little hand reach over the top of the table and pick a piece off so I naturally kept shooting. Than seconds later you see a little finger scooping out the strawberry. My little munchkin loved this bread. I started off making my favorite strawberry scone recipe but realized I lacked the yogurt to complete it so I added some of my own ingredients in there and decided to go with a loaf bread. It came out quite tasty and seeing that my little one really liked it, it was a successful experiment.

2 cups AP Flour
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 tsp BP
1/2 tsp Salt
2/3 cup Cake Flour
1/4 Cup Orange Juice
2 Cups Strawberries
1/4 Cup Heavy Creme

Mix it all together with rubber spatula just until combined if it is too moist and not that of dough consistency add more cake flour. Brush the top with Milk and sprinkle brown sugar and bake until it springs back or still slightly soft in the middle.

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Scallops Wrapped in Bacon With A Spicy Sauce

Scallops is a hard meal to have as a main meal. This dish for instances works out perfectly as a nice appetizer unless you find yourself eating 4 or more of them. I came across a spicy sauce recipe from Tyler Florence, one of my favorite cooks to watch from the Food Network. I made this for dinner, but in the future I will do it as an appetizer as how Tyler Florence makes them in his recipe.

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Asian Inspired Salmon

“There’s a party in my tummy….so yummy..so yummy…”

If you have kids you know where this comes from ….I found yet another amazing Asian inspired Salmon recipe at Blog Chef, I can really taste the soy sauce and garlic in this one and it’s a keeper. I wanted to remake that Misoyaki Salmon recipe I made a week ago but I didn’t have most of the ingredients on hand so I found a recipe that requires ingredients I always have in my frig.

2 lbs salmon fillets (cleaned)
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon chili sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger (minced)
2 cloves fresh garlic (minced)
1 lime (juiced)
1 lime (zested)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 green onions (chopped)

Step 1: Heat an outdoor grill to high heat. Place salmon on 3 slightly over lapping large sheets of aluminum foil.
Step 2: In a bowl mix together soy sauce, chili sauce, ginger, garlic, lime juice, lime zest and brown sugar. Pour the sauce over the salmon. Place salmon in aluminum foil on the grill.
Step 3: Grill salmon for 4-7 minutes on each side or until fully cooked. Remove and place on a platter. If there is any sauce left over on the aluminum foil, pour it over the fillets. Sprinkle with chopped green onions.
(Makes 4 Servings)

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French Lentil Soup

It’s been beautifully sunny since the start of spring, but we still get that cold brisk in the air as soon as 4 pm roles around. So, I’m still in the mood for soups. I found a tasty looking French Lentil Soup at Bon Appetit and decided as I had a little conference call with my husband that a light side would work out great with this like Sushi. Salmon and Tuna to be exact….

I went to Morton’s Steakhouse for dinner last night, best steakhouse ever. I had a nice juicy fillet topped with asparagus and crab meat along with creamy spinach in Parmesan and we topped it off with the best souffle I’ve ever had in my life and I can just say it is one of my top 4 restaurants in California. I give 5 stars and I recommend this place to anyone that lives near one. I’ve had their food before but I’m still impressed every time I visit. It’s funny because I’ve had their food in 3 different locations, I never seem to eat at the same location.

Plan on visiting California soon? Or maybe you are lucky enough to have one of these in your home town, if so check out the food… you will not be disappointed:
Morton’s Steakhouse
Roy’s Hawaiian BBQ
La Finestra
Rockin Baja Lobster

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