Know Your Cake

This is my 20 page guide to cakes from around the world. The countries these cakes, pastries, pies and desserts come from include France of course, and Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Japan and America.  With it you’ll be able to name your cake and eat it too. With the guide they’ll be no more not knowing the name of the cake you just ate or wondering how you are ever going to order it again.  

Sample of one of the pages

The PDF was actually made for another of my blogs, but since it is related to food I thought it would fit right in here. Don’t expect anything too fancy or detailed; a lot of it is just cut and paste from here and there on the internet, but  it’s put together everything in one place and does the job.

Download PDF of  Kobi’s Cake Guide version 2.3

 

Bananas Foster on French Toast

(serves 6)
Bananas Foster is a version of Cherries Jubilee using Bananas instead. It’s actually a very easy dessert to make, requiring little in the way of expertise or special ingredients, and it doesn’t take too much time either. In this recipe I’ve added French Toast to the line up; the two are a great together if you don’t like your desserts too sweet.  

Ingredients

1. Bananas (500g)
2. Bread (Half a Loaf)
3. Eggs (2)
4. Butter (100g)
5. Dark Rum (1/4 cup)
6. Sugar (3T)
7. Golden Syrup
8. Vanilla Ice Cream
9. Powdered Cinnamon

Preparation

1. Beat 2 eggs in a shallow dish.
2. Cut two 1.5 inch thick slices of bread from a whole loaf and further cut each slice into three equal portions. Soak the bread, on both sides, in the dish until all the egg is gone. This will take several minutes.
3. Melt 1T of butter in a pan. Pan fry the soaked bread on very low heat, flipping occasionally until the egg is fully cooked. Leave the resulting French Toast on a wire rack to cool.
4. Place 100g of butter, 3T white sugar and 1/2 t of salt in the same pan. Dissolve the sugar in the butter under low heat.
5. In the meanwhile quickly slice your bananas. Cut diagonally across the banana to get oval shaped slices. The slices should be 1/2 inch thick.
6. When the sugar has fully dissolved, add the banana slices and turn up the heat.
7. Stir fry gingerly. When the butter and bananas begin to darken, drizzle on 1T of golden syrup followed by a sprinkle of 1t of powdered cinnamon. Finally pour in 1/4 cup of dark rum.
8. Continue to stir fry. Stop and turn off the fire when the sauce thickens sufficiently.
9.  Arrange the French Toast on one big plate or many small plates. Pour the banana caramel mixture over the French Toast and top off with small scoops of vanilla ice cream.

 Notes

• There are many varieties of banana, and the one that you choose is important as it will determine the texture of the dessert you end up making. In my opinion small is better than big.The standard Cavendish (i.e. the big ones on the left in the photo below) get mushy more easily when cooked. I find smaller varieties like the Emperor Banana tend to retain their structural integrity better under heat. You’ll have a better chance of finding them at a fruit store as opposed to a supermarket. In all cases, the bananas should be at the threshold of getting ripe and definitely not over ripe with black spots. 500g is 3 large or 8 small bananas.
• To add some flair you can serve your Bananas Foster as a flambé. The best way to do this is to preheat the rum in a metal ladle directly over the fire at the stove. Tip the ladle such that the rum is about to spill onto the fire to ignite it. Pour the burning rum over the rest of the dish at the dining table. While this is entertaining, it does impair your ability to control the viscosity of the resulting sauce, so be aware of this.  
• Banana liqueur is one of the traditional ingredients of Bananas Foster but I find it is superfluous, and besides you’ll end up with a bottle lying the house for years with little other use. It’s infinitely more important to add the pinch of salt which is left out in many recipes. If you do decide to add it, just add 2T to the rum.
• Most recipes specify brown sugar. I don’t because it burns more easily and I find caramelizing white sugar actually works better in exchanging flavour between the bananas and the sauce. I believe that’s why I haven’t a need for banana liqueur. 
• To my knowledge, Bananas Fosters was first created in New Orleans, which makes sense since there are plenty of banana plantations in the Caribbean.

 

Flourless New England Clam Chowder

(serves 10)
New England or Boston Clam Chowder, the ultimate blending of seafood and vegetables in a hearty soup. When you are making America’s most famous soup there are a few things you want. Thicken the chowder without any taste of flour, make the chowder faster without having to wait an eternity for the potatoes to disintegrate, give the chowder rich layers of flavour. After a lot of trial and error, I think I have come up with just the right recipe to achieve all these things. 

Ingredients

1. Canned Clams in Brine (4 x 184g)
2. Bacon (6 slices)
3. Canned Anchovies in Oil (50g wet weight)
4. White Wine (0.5 cup)
5. Potatoes (4 large)
6. Leek (1 stalk)
7. Onions (2)
8. Scallion (10 stalks)
9. Mascarpone (125g)
10. Bread (4 slices)
11. Hon Dashi
12. Sherry
13. Dill Weed

Preparation Part I

1. Cut the crust off 4 slices of bread and leave in the fridge to dry overnight.
2. Peel the potatoes. Boil 2 (not all 4) of them in a large pot with 10 cups of water.
3. While the potatoes are boiling, cube the bread into 1cm pieces and crush them into crumbs in a plastic bag with a mallet. Toast the bread cubes lightly if they are not crispy enough to be smashed.
4. Dice 5 slices of semi-frozen bacon and allow them to thaw.
5. Fish the potatoes from the pot after boiling them for 20 minutes. Keep the water on a low simmer and put the bread crumbs in.
6. Julienne the onions. Partially open a tin of anchovies and pour its oil into a pan. Fry half of the onions on low heat in the pan, stirring occasionally.
7. In the meanwhile dice the remaining 2 potatoes into 1cm cubes. Julienne the scallion and the leek. Don’t add them to the pot just yet; you can put the cut vegetables with the raw onion bits.
8. When the onions have become limp and translucent, mash the anchovies in the tin itself and add to the pan. Stir fry for a minute to mix the anchovy into the onions, turn up the fire and then deglaze the pan with half a cup of white wine. Bring to a boil and after a minute pour the contents of the pan into the simmering pot.
9. Next, stir fry the bacon bits in the same pan. When the bacon fat has rendered and the bacon begins to brown add the brine from the clams, reserving the meat for later use. A minute after it reaches boiling, pour the contents of the pan into the (still simmering) pot.
10. When all the breadcrumbs have melted, mash the 2 cooked potatoes and add the mash to the pot followed by all the vegetable bits (including the raw potato). Add 1T of Hon Dashi pellets, 1T dill weed and 1t sugar. Top up with water such that everything is submerged. Continue to simmer for another 30 minutes stirring occasionally, then leave the pot covered on the stove to cool.
11. When you are about ready to serve your clam chowder, bring the pot back to a boil and add the clam meat. Place 125g of mascarpone in a bowl with some hot liquid from the pot. Mix until all the lumps are gone and pour back into the pot.
12. Add 3T of sherry and 1t black pepper, simmer for a further 5 minutes and then add salt (and sugar) to taste. Serve with oyster or other similar type of unsalted crackers

 Notes

• If you have fresh small neck clams you can add that to the chowder in step 11, but you still need to use the canned clams, for the clam brine.
• Yes I did not use any celery in my recipe, its not essential in my opinion. If you insist on adding some chopped celery, fry them with the onions in step 6.
• If you are using waxy type potatoes, you can keep the skin on the diced potatoes if you prefer. Depending on the size of your potatoes you may need more than 4; I’ve assumed the use of large ones. For a thinner chowder, use only 1 mashed  potato.
• If you don’t have any Hon Dashi, you can substitute in any kind of seafood-type stock cube.
• I also have a more traditional Boston Clam Chowder Recipe here.

 

Corn Maque Choux

(serves up to 8)
Corn Maque Chaux is a New Orleans type of cream style corn with carries to this day a hint of century-old French and American Indian influences. It’s a delightful side dish which is simple yet immensely satisfying.  Corn Maque Chaux’s defining feature is its lightly cooked corn kernels which retains their sweetness and crispiness. This makes it go really well with roasted meats and steak. To accentuate the flavour of the fresh corn, mine is a light version without bacon or garlic.

 

Ingredients

1. Corn (4 ears)
2. Capsicum (1)
3. Onion (1)
4. Butter (30g)
5. Chicken Stock cube (1)
6. Cream (1/4 cup)
7. Whiskey
8. Paprika
9. Tarragon
10. Thyme

Preparation

1. Start by shaving the corn kernels off the ears. Don’t cut that closely to the cob, and leave some sharp edges.
2. When you are done, scrape the edges to release a sort of corn mush which will be used to thicken the gravy.
3. Finely dice 1 onion and 1 capsicum (a.k.a. bell pepper?).
4. Dissolve 1 chicken stock in 1/2 cup of hot water. Add the corn mush and 1/4 cup whiskey to the stock.
5. Fry the onion bits with a large slab of butter on a low flame in a large pan till they becomes limp. Add the capsicum and continue the slow stir fry until the onion begins to brown.
6. Add the stock, and corn kernels and continue to simmer. Next add 2t paprika, 2t thyme, 2t tarragon and a sprinkle of black pepper. Follow this up with 1/4 cup of cream.
7. Continue to simmer until the liquid boils down to the consistency of a light gravy. The sauce will thicken on cooling. Serve your maque choux warm or cold.

Notes

• I think Maque Chaux is pronounced Mark Chu, like an Chinese dude’s name.
• Scrape with the blade perpendicular to the cob. Do not carve bits of the cob off by holding the blade at an angle.
• Some people add little bits of crayfish or prawns to their maque chaux. Marinate the meat lightly in oil, pepper and salt and add it to the mix towards the end so it isn’t overcooked.
• Leftover Maque Choux is very versatile and has many uses, as part of an omelette, as the topping of a ramen.    

 

No-Cream Boston Clam Chowder

(serves 6)
Boston Clam Chowder is a clam chowder of the white variety that is popular in the New England area. Its basic ingredients are pretty standard, but it is precisely the combination of clams, bacon, onions, potatoes that makes the Boston Clam Chowder such a favourite. Its perfect for cold weather, or just anytime you hunger for a hearty soup. Once you know the secret to thickenining a chowder properly, whipping up a batch is not all that difficult.

Clarification – just because there is no cream doesn’t mean this is a healthy recipe.

Ingredients

1. Canned Clams in Brine (3 x 184g)
2. Smoked Clams in Oil (1 flat tin)
3. Onion (1)
4. Fennel (equivalent of 1 onion)
5. Bacon (6 slices)
6. Potato (2)
7. Milk (1 cup)
8. Butter (50g)
9. Flour
10. Sage
11. Thyme
12. Cognac

Preparation 

1. Julienne the onion and fennel into small bits. For this part you only need the fennel bulb, but you can save the leafy bits (some people call it the frond?) for garnishing.
2. Cut the bacon into small squares; the bacon will be easier to handle if it is stacked and semi frozen.
3. Peel and dice one potato into small bits that will disintegrate after some simmering. This will make the chowder thicker. Cut the second one into large cubes that will remain intact.
4. Fry the bacon bits in a pan on low heat to melt its fat. When the bacon is beginning to crisp nicely, add the onion and fennel and stir fry till they begin to caramelize. Turn up the heat and add the clams, including their brine.
5. Pour everything into a soup pot. Add the potato and 2 cups of water. Set to a low simmer.
6. Dry the pan with some kitchen towels and melt 50g of butter in it on a low flame. When the butter has melted, sprinkle in 2T of flour and stir fry till the flour begins to darken. Next, pour in 1 cup of milk very slowly, stirring vigourously the entire time to flatten lumps.
7. After a while, you will end up with a thick white sauce. Add the tin of smoked clams to the sauce, including all the oil. Stir in some of the soup into the white sauce till it gets watery, then pour everything back into the soup pot.
8. Add 1t thyme and 1t sage to the pot and simmer for an hour. You’ll need to stir occasionally to prevent bits from sticking to the bottom. Add hot water to bring the soup back to the right consistency as needed. At the end, a piece of bread should be able to stand (not just float) on the chowder. With 5 minutes to go, add 2T of brandy.
9. Season only after the simmering is done. Taste first before adding salt. Depending on how salty the clam brine was, you may (or may not) need to add a pork / vegetable bullion cube. On the soup plate itself, garnish with black pepper and fennel leaves, plus some chopped parsley if you like.

Notes

• Use only the bottled variety of clams. Any food canned with brine will acquire a metallic taste and thus clams in a can are a no,no. The smoked clams are in oil, so the ‘can rule’ doesn’t apply.
• If you have the good fortune to be using fresh clams, all the better. Soak your clams in cold water to get them to extrude sand, and then quickly cook in boiling water for a minute. Use the boiling liquid in the soup as per the brine mentioned above but add the clams (after shelling) only at the very end – so the meat remains tender.
• If you don’t want to use or can’t find fennel, substitute with celery.
• The white sauce is an essential step so don’t think you can skip it. The flour will soak up the oil from the bacon and smoked clams. Otherwise, you may end up with droplets of oil floating on the surface.
• How come some restaurant’s clam chowder is so much whiter? They use milk in step 5.
• I also have a Flourless Boston Clam Chowder Recipe here. 

 

Maryland Muffin-tin Crab Cakes

(serves 5 =10 mini cakes)
My friend Reiko made me some Maryland Crab Cakes a few years back and that’s when I discovered this is one of the best ways to eat crab. I’ve been struggling ever since to come up with a crab cake that tastes better than hers. By jove, I think I have finally done it, by flavouring the crab meat with chinese wine in a pan-fry and mixing in a tad of curry spices. Do try it.     

Ingredients

1. Crab Meat (450g)
2. Dill Mayonnaise (1 cup)
3. Bread (5 slices)
4. Garlic (1 bulb = 12 cloves)
5. Shallots (6)
6. Egg (1)
7. Vegetable Oil
8. Basil
9. Dillweed
10. Chinese Wine (or Cognac)
11. Woustershire Sauce
12. Djoin Mustard
13. Coriander Seed Powder
14. Cumin

Pre-Preparation 

1. You will first need to make some mayonnaise according to my Dill Mayonnaise recipe. You can do this just before the crab cakes, it doesn’t take long.
2. You will also need to cut the crust off 5 slices of bread and leave them uncovered in the fridge for a few hours to dry it out.
3. While fresh is best, in this case I think you can get away with using canned crab meat. If you plan to use fresh crab meat, you should boil or steam the crabs ahead of time, and then deshell them (450g of crab meat = 1 pound = 2 cups tightly packed = 3 cups loosely packed). Try to use bigger crabs as they have firmer meat and the crab meat will be in larger chunks.           

           Canned Crab Meat                           Bread Crumbs                                   Muffin Tin
               

Preparation 

1. Peel and then halve the garlic and shallots. Use a food processor to mince them (together). Spread half of the minced mixture evenly onto the bottom of a large bowl and keep the other half for use later.
2. Dice the dried bread into crouton sized pieces and then given them a two second pulse in the food proccessor to crumb them. Zoom in on the picture above to see the desired texture. Place the crumbs into the bowl with the garlic and shallots. Add 1T Dill weed, 1T of chopped basil and 1t salt and mix well.
3. Brown the remaining minced garlic and shallot in a pan on low heat with 3T of vegetable oil. Next, add the crab meat and gently stir fry with the heat turned up. Do your best not to break up the chunks of crab meat.
4. When the pan is sizzling hot, sprinkle on 1/4 cup of chinese wine (for cognac, see below). Gentrly stir fry again til the liquid has dried up and then turn the heat off. Season with 1t of white pepper.
5. In a small bowl stir together 1 egg with 3T mayonnaise, 1T woustershire sauce, 1t mustard, 1t cumin and 1t coriander seed powder.
6. Mix the crab meat into the bowl of bread crumbs. Next, spoon the egg mixture into the bowl, mix well to bind all the constituents. 
7. Preheat the oven to 175^oC (350^oF).
8. Brush the muffin tin with vegetable oil. Spoon in the raw crab cake, filling each hole to the brim before moving on to the next one. Press down firmly with a tea spoon to make sure the crab-bread mixture is compact. Next push the raw crab cake away from the rim of each hole to give the crab cakes a rounded top.
9. Bake for 13-15 minutes depending on when your crab cakes reach a light golden brown. After you remove the muffin tin from the oven, allow it to cool for a bit so the crab cakes can firm up. The colour should continue to deepen.
10. Serve with the rest of the mayonnaise and some mixed greens. 

Notes

• What if you don’t have a food processor? You can mince the garlic and shallots manually easily enough. For the bread, toast lightly, dice and then smash in a zip lock with a meat mallet.
• Cognac has a high alcoholic concentration. If you are using cognac instead of chinese wine, start off with 3T of the brandy in the measuring cup and top this up to the 1/4 cup mark with water.
• Crab Cakes can also be served for breakfast, they go very well with fried or poached eggs. See =>
• Instead of 10 mini-cakes, you can also form you crab cakes into 5 mini-hamburger sized patties. Just shape the cakes by hand and use a regular baking tray.
• Don’t use butter or olive oil as they don’t cook well at high temperature.

 

Oven Baked BBQ Pork Ribs

(serves 1-2)
I came up with this method of BBQing pork ribs after I had to give up my BBQ stove and it seems every cloud has a silver lining after all. My BBQ ribs are better than ever and I don’t have to keep basting them while they cook. The trick is to cook the ribs as if you are braising them and then dry them out with a second round of baking. I use a hybrid technique with dry rub marination and wet sauce cooking and you know what that means: super succulent ribs that are full of flavour.  

Ingredients

1. Pork Ribs (800g)
2. BBQ Sauce (3/4 cup)
3. Garlic (12 cloves = 1 bulb)
4. Coriander Seed Powder
5. Cumin
6. Paprika
7. Bourbon
8. Oregano
9. Brown Sugar

Preparation 

1. Have the butcher cut your ribs into individual bone sections. You should end up with about 10 large pieces. Cooking the ribs individually gives more surface area for flavour to cling to and makes for tidier eating as well.
2. Mix the following in a bowl: 2t brown sugar, 2t coriander seed powder, 1t cumin, 1t paprika, 1t oregano, 1t salt (each t = heaping teaspoon here except perhaps for the salt).
3. Add your meat to the bowl and massage the mixed spices evenly into the meat. Wait half an hour (or a day if you have the time).
4. Preheat your over to 175^oC (350^oF).
5. Stir together 3/4 cup of BBQ sauce, 3/4 cup water and 2T bourbon. Peel the garlic and add them as whole cloves to the sauce.
6. Arrange your ribs in a pyrex dish such that the meat is only one layer high. Choose an appropriately sized baking dish such that there is no empty space left over, and if required slant the thinner ribs to make more room (refer to the picture). If you don’t do this, you will end up needing more sauce to cover your ribs.
7. Pour your diluted BBQ sauce over the ribs. Cover the entire baking dish snugly with aluminium foil and place it in the oven.
8. After 1 hour and 20 mins, remove the foil and bake for a further 15 minutes to dry up and scorch the outside of the ribs (and this is why the ribs must be only one layer high). After the uncovered bake, the sauce should have also dried down to the right thickness. Serve the ribs with the thickened BBQ sauce seperate in a small bowl.

Notes

• Choose a BBQ sauce that is smoked since you won’t be using any charcoal. Other than that, it doesn’t really matter what brand you pick as a lot of flavour will be coming from the dry rub and meat itself.
• About a quarter of the people tasting my ribs have remarked that it is to sweet. If you think you fall into this category, reduce the amount of sugar a bit in the dry rub.
• This recipe is reasonably scalable, so you can do multiples of the quantities listed above. You’ll need to bake for longer as a larger batch will take longer to come to a boil. If it is really a large batch (see the tray to the right?) there might be a lot of BBQ sauce left when the ribs are cooked; remove the foil earlier and as a last resort reduce the sauce in a pot instead of in the oven.
• You can also use a Dutch oven instead of foil, but it may be harder to find exact right size. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong with foil.
• BBQ pork ribs go well with coarse cut fries and cole slaw.

 

Chicken Avocado Salad

(serves 6-8)
Chicken Salad is everyone’s favourite. It tastes even better if you make it with brined chicken and avocado. In this recipe, I’ve replaced some of the mayonnaise with a combination of chicken stock and cream cheese to give the salad more layers of flavour. Cumin is also used  to evoke a slight oriental undertone. You can serve it on its own, as a sandwich or as a side dish. You can’t get any more versatile than that.

note: this recipe assumes you have already poached chicken according to my brined chicken breast recipe.

Ingredients

1. Poached Chicken Breasts (2 havles)
2. Potatoes (2 large)
3. Avocado(2)
4. Leek (0.5 cup, chopped)
5. Soft Cream Cheese (4T)
6. Mayonnaise (3T)
7. Cumin
8. Chopped Parsley

Preparation 

1. Peel your potatoes, cut them in half and then boil them for about 20 minutes. After the boiling is done and the potatoes have cooled, cut them into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. In the meanwhile, cut your poached chicken breast also into 1/2 inch cubes. In a salad bowl, drench the chicken in half the concentrated stock left over from the dry poaching process.
3. Slice the leek into rings and stir fry them in a pan with 3T of olive oil over a low flame till they break apart into limp rings. Turn the heat off and while the pan is still hot add 4T cream cheese (Philadelphia, tub version), 3T mayonnaise, 1/3 t of cumin and the other half of the concentrated chicken stock. Stir till everything in the pan is well mixed and allow to cool. This is your dressing.
4. Cut around the seed of each avocado such that the avocado is halved but attached via the seed only. Twist to pull each avocado into two pieces. One half will still have the seed attached, bulging out. Repeat the same process with this half so the seed becomes attached to a quarter of the avocado, at which point you should be able to wriggle out the seed with your hands. With the flat end of the avocado pieces on the cutting board, slice away the hard skin. Next, cube your avacado to the same size as the chicken and potato.
5. Add all the components to the chicken in the salad bowl, sprinkle on 1t white pepper and 1T parsley flakes. Gently fold the salad with a large spoon till the dressing covers every piece of the salad.
6. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours before serving.

Notes

• I’ve kept this chicken salad recipe simple. I urge you to experiment to get your own personal version. Apple, walnuts, raisins, pine nuts, boiled egg, raw red onion bits and ham are some things commonly found in chicken salad.
• If you want a tasty chicken salad sandwich, skip the potatoes and put everything else between slices of bread. I sometimes also serve my chicken salad with pieces of toasted milk loaf as pictured.
• You should use the riper avocados with black skin. The green-skinned ones can’t be eater raw. Leave the avocado to the last as avocado changes colour quickly if left exposed to the air.
• No salt is needed as the chicken is brined and the stock is salty. If you chicken is left over from another source, you’ll need to make a 1/4 cup of stock using 1/4 of a chicken cube.