Perfect Radishes with Butter and Salt

I know, I know. Ina's done them, all doodled up with herbs and such. A hundred other blogs have done them, too. But a good local or homegrown radish, spread with sweet butter, and sprinkled with coarse salt is a thing of delicious beauty. It's also a très français home-style snack. My friend's French parents served it more than once to me when I was in college, but I was still clutching on to my childhood dislike of radishes back then, and simply ate one politely. 

Fast forward, and here I am happily snacking on the same combo with radishes fresh from my own garden. If you can find them, the longer, red and white radishes are sometimes a little sweeter than the round ones.Tastes can and do change, I prove it to myself again and again. Try things more than once. Even if you think you don't like radishes, get some locally grown radishes, some good sweet butter, or even better, cultured unsalted butter (make your own) and the coarse salt of your choice. I personally prefer a sea salt over kosher, but kosher will do.

What you do is, split a radish, butter it with softened butter, dip or sprinkle with salt and pop it in your mouth. If you want to get fancy, spread the butter on a thin slice of baguette, or thin sliced dark bread like rye or pumpernickel, cover the butte with thinly sliced radish and sprinkle with salt. Too fancy for me after a day in the garden, and if you are avoiding grains. If you are following a Paleo program, just use butter made from pastured cream. Oh, yum. Goûtez-le, il est bon ! And I almost forgot, open a nice bottle of wine and enjoy the long, beautiful June evenings.

Just picked.

Simple, Quick, Butter Braised Asparagus

Succulent, juicy and tender early spring asparagus

I found the first asparagus in the market today, from this hemisphere. Spring is coming. It's early spring somewhere... Time to share my favorite way to fix asparagus with you. I've been making this asparagus recipe for so long, my family thinks I invented it. I got it from my friend next door  in our old neighborhood, Marge, sometime in the 1980's. As I recall, she found it in a magazine like Gourmet or Food & Wine. Up to that point, I had generally steamed asparagus, or quickly sautéed cuts in butter. It was expensive for newlyweds, and I hadn't started my own asparagus bed yet. In the 80s, we steamed EVERYTHING, and usually until it wasn't quite done. See what Cuisine Minceur did for us? Gave us crudités for dinner. Anyway, when she served us this at dinner, it was the essence of asparagus, and it was perfect. You're just baking it, covered, but what's happening is it's braising in its own juices, and wonderful, marvelous  butter.

Back then everything was steamed. Now, everything is roasted. After a while, I get sick of roasted  vegetables. It seems all you see is roasted this and roasted that. You can even buy vegetables frozen already roasted.You know the fad is trending away (hopefully) when you can buy them ready-roasted, frozen in bags.  Problem is, roasted vegetables aren't always succulent. tender and juicy. Sometimes they're downright tough, and dry, if the cook hasn't been paying attention. You have to stay on top of things roasting at a high temp, or all you'll have is burnt scraps to compost. What's great about this technique, is you can pop it in the oven, and go about making the rest of the meal, and then put it right on the table if you bake it in a nice dish.

These will cook in under 30 minutes, unless your asparagus is large and tough. This recipe is a shining opportunity to get creative with your seasonings. Instead of plain butter, a compound butter like chive or truffle is fabulous, or you can drizzle with plain extra virgin olive oil, if you prefer, in place of the butter. Flavored oils, like blood orange olive oil is delicious, here too, or garlic oil. I won't look if you want to include some chopped fresh garlic, some lemon zest, or a little soy sauce. All are worthy inclusions.

Asparagus ready to cover and bake. These are dotted with truffle butter.
You can nap or fix the rest of the meal while they cook.

Simple, Quick, Butter Braised Asparagus

Ingredients:

1 lb. medium asparagus
2T butter or oil of choice
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Wash the asparagus, well, and snap the stems, or peel them.

2. Arrange the asparagus in a single layer, or at most, a double layer in an oven to table baking dish that they just fit into. Dot with the butter or drizzle with oil, salt lightly and pepper.

3. Cover the pan tightly with a lid or heavy duty aluminum foil, and bake for 25 -30 minutes, 30 to 35, if they are thicker than your index finger, or a little woody.

4. Uncover and serve.

Swoonworthy Grainless Wonder: Chocolate Mocha Blender Cupcakes

Yup, you heard me. Blender cupcakes.  Rich, dark chocolatey cake, topped with a tower of unctuous mocha cream cheese frosting, these are everything our little grain free hearts can desire. Especially since they taste just like the cupcakes from the best baker you know. Just don't tell your friends until after they finish swooning that they're made with black beans. And all natural non-sugar sweeteners. Far better than all those gluten-free cakes made with 36 different odd foods ground into powders.

Everything gets mixed in the blender. No mixer for the cake part, just the blender and a small bowl to mix some of the dry ingredients.  You will need a mixer for the frosting, but the recipe makes a lot, and you can console yourself by eating the extra fabulous frosting while no one is watching.

All I could do to not just dive in. 

Grain Free Chocolate Mocha Blender Cupcakes
Adapted from the recipe for Healthy Chocolate Cake from Healthy Indulgences

Note: I keep seeing in other recipes that if you can detect a beany taste in the cake, it will disappear after they stand 8 to 12 hours. What I've actually found is that there is no discernible bean taste after they cool, if you choose very bland beans. For these I suggest organic black soy beans (Eden Brand), although regular black beans will work fine. The soy beans are also very low in carbohydrate compared to other beans, and makes this already low carb recipe still lower. My husband, who is a Type 2 diabetic can also indulge in one of these since the alternative natural sweeteners don't seem to impact his blood sugar. You body may react differently if you have blood sugar issues.

1 15 ounce can of black soy beans, drained and rinsed
5 large eggs
1 T pure vanilla extract
6 T melted unsalted butter, cooled slightly
1T instant espresso powder
3/4 cup granular erythritol,
1/2 tsp. pure stevia extract
6T Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Place 12 cupcake papers in the cups of a cupcake pan, and spray the inside of the cups with oil cooking spray. Set the pan aside.

In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder, the baking powder and the baking soda, then set aside. Into the blender container, place the drained beans, the eggs, the vanilla extract,  and the melted butter. Puree, scraping down the inside of the blender jar as necessary. Next add the espresso powder, the erythritol and the stevia. puree again. Last add the cocoa mixture from the bowl and puree until it's all mixed evenly.  Pour the batter evenly among the 12 prepared cupcake cups, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until domed, and a toothpick stuck into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove them to a cooling rack to fin isn cooling to room temperature.

Chocolate Mocha Cream Cheese Frosting
Note: to keep the granular texture of the sweeteners from being noticeable, I suggest placing the erythritol, the xylitol and the stevia in a food processor and blending them together until the texture resembles powdered sugar. if you are lazy, like me, just use them as the come out of the package but be warned, there will be it bit of an undissolved sugar texture in the finished frosting. No one has minded so far here. They just scarf them down.

1 8-oz block of cream cheese, softened at room temp
3 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3/4 cup granular erythritol
3T granular xylitol
1/4 tsp. pure stevia extract
1 T instant espresso powder
1/4 cup hot tap water

Stir the erythritol, xylitol and the stevia into the hot water, then stir in the instant espresso. Stir to dissolve the sweeteners as much as possible. In a large bowl, with a hand mixer, whip together the cream cheese, the melted chocolate, the vanilla and the salt. When well blended, mix in the Espresso mixture, and whip on high speed for a few minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy. Pipe or spread generously on the completely cooled cupcakes. Garnish with 90% dark chocolate shavings, or dark chocolate covered coffee beans. Makes enough frosting to cover a dozen cupcakes generously, plus a bit for the cook to eat from the bowl. Ahem.

Madeleine Cookies: Cat Hair is NOT a Seasoning

Just for the record, I've never considered myself a cat-person. I've had one cat, or rather, she had me. I'm a dog person. Cats like me because they know that I'm a sucker for any small, dependent animal. Sadly, a family member passed away recently, leaving behind a cat named Madeline, who is about 9 or 10. I've been looking after her during her Mom's illness, and since the person originally designated as the cat-step-Mom can't take her, Chuck and I, and the dog are all trying to accommodate a cat who's never seen a dog or been out of her old home since she was a few weeks old.

Madeleine, aka Maddy or Madeline, is a bit mad.
No female wants her picture taken on a bad hair day.

The animals are having a Mexican Standoff. This is only my second cat, and the first one (also inherited) one liked to be outside most of the time. I, having forgotten that cats are mostly nocturnal, am not accustomed to having a cat jump on my head at 4 AM. Or cat singing. Nor am I accustomed to having an animal that can jump on to my kitchen counters or the range. I now have a spray bottle of water at hand in the kitchen at all times to  (hopefully) deter her from those places. Eeeeew. Cat hair, in my book, is NOT a seasoning. My dog doesn't shed. Madeline does. A lot.

Since the poor furry thing has come to a household where a real Francophile runs the kitchen, Madeline is now be known as Madeleine, because she really is a sweet little cookie. I started making Madeleines about a million years ago from a recipe in Marion Cunningham's " The Fannie Farmer Baking Book" for the delicate shell-shaped cookies and I still consider this recipe among the best. The do NOT have any cat hair in them, but lots of good butter, eggs and sugar. I wonder if Marcel Proust had a cat? Welcome to your new home, Madeleine!


Madeleines
Adapted from Marion Cunningham's "The Fannie Farmer Baking Book"
Makes 24


You will need to buy or borrow some Madeleine pans or molds with shell shaped indents, two would be good, since each holds 12, so you don't have to wait between batches for the pan to cool. The texture of the cookie changes as the batter stands, and the second batch will be cakier, and less crispy unless you can bake in two pans at once. If you only use one pan, let the pan cool after the first batch, wipe it out thoroughly, butter well and repeat.


2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. lemon zest, or 2 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup sifted AP flour
8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
4 T softened butter

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Smear about 1/2 teas. of the softened butter over the inside of each shell indent in each form, no bare spots, please. Combine the eggs, sugar and lemon in a big, heat proof bowl, and set the bowl over simmering water and stir until the mixture is warm to the touch. Remove from the heat and beat with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, nearly tripled in volume. May take  3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt.

Sift half of the flour over the egg mixture and fold in gently Pour in the melted butter and sift the rest of the flour over the butter. Fold in until it all is just mixed. Spoon a heaping tablespoon into each shell indent, but don't level, they'll self-level in the oven. Bake about 10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Lift each cookie from the mold with the tines of a fork or the tip of a knife and let cook. Serve with powdered sugar sifted over them if you like. Serve the same day as baked or wrap tightly and freeze.