Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Lavender Brownies

After visiting the Cache Creek Lavender Farm and getting my bottle of Culinary Lavender I figured it would be a while before I tracked down a recipe to cook. Imagine my surprise when the San Jose Mercury News had an entire article about cooking with lavender in the next weeks food section! Along with information on how to grow and dry lavender, they also included several recipes. Lavender-Smoked Salmon Fillets, Little Lavender Baskets (think egg noddles and chutney wrapped in lettuce) and, the one that caught my eye, Lavender Brownies.

These were okay, but I'll be honest. These brownies were not a hit. Quite a few folks just didn't like the slight lavender flavor. If you don't like the smell of lavender, you won't like these. And even some folks that like lavender in general, couldn't wrap their taste buds around lavender in food (one taster commented that it reminded her too much of her lavender bath soap at home). I liked them, good chocolate flavor with just a hint of lavender (you can add more of the culinary lavender to the batter, but I'd stick to just a bit). But I couldn't eat more than one at a time (Really? Only one brownie at a time? Maybe this is my new diet tool!!). I think these would make a great addition to a nice little tea party cut up in little squares on a plate surrounded by some dried lavender.

The article states that for a more intense lavender flavor you can add another teaspoon of the buds to the sugar mixture. The Mercury News adapted this recipe from one from "Bittersweet" by Alice Medrich.

LAVENDER BROWNIES

10 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon lavender buds
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325. Put sugar and lavender buds in a food processor and pulse together.

Set a double boiler or a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Add butter, lavender sugar, cocoa and salt, stirring occasionally until the butter melts and the mixture becomes fairly smooth and hot. Remove from heat and let cool until the mixture is warm.

With a wooden spoon, stir in vanilla, then add eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. The mixture will be smooth and shiny. Add the flour and stir until well incorporated, then stir the mixture vigorously 40 more strokes. Pour into an 8x8 baking pan lined with parchment paper or foil, making sure two ends overhang the edges of the pan.

Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with just a bit of batter on it. Let pan cool completely on a wire rack, then use the ends of the foil or parchment paper to lift the brownies out.

Makes 16 brownies.

Note: I used the Culinary Lavender I bought from Cache Creek Lavender Farm. You can find pre-made lavender infused sugar at some specialty markets or online at Amazon.com.

Wednesday Food Section

Yesterday was Food Section day in the Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle. Here's my take on what they had to offer.

TOMATO ICE CREAM The Chronicles big front page spread was all about using tomatoes in desserts. Now, some of the  recipes sounded like they might be good, and I've enjoyed tomato soup cake in the past, but...seriously...I'll save my tomatoes for salads and good pasta dishes...tomatoes in my creme brulee? Not on my need to have list. The Chronicle did have an awesome looking recipe for Tres Leche cake (or Four-Milks in this instance) which looked pretty good. I'll cut that out and save it for my adventurous cooking phase.

COOL SOUPS The Merc did have some cool recipe for some cold soups; they are starting a new column on beer which should be interesting; a reduced calorie BLT? What's the point then?; And they talk about some awesome sounding beef jerky which I'll have to check into...but that wasn't what caught my eye in this weeks food section...these two little items did:

MICHAEL CHIARELLO - TV Food Fan is going to be very upset with me when he finds out that I will not be able to make the opening of the new Michael Chiarello "NapaStyle Store" in downtown Los Gatos this weekend. Michael will be there this Saturday from 2-4 PM. Place will probably be packed but it would be fun to get a glimpse of Mr. Chiarello and even more fun to send a photo to TVFF! But that wasn't the bit that had me sobbing into my sushi...no it was this:

IRON CHEF MORIMOTO One of my cooking heroes will be in town and I will not be able to see him :(  Masaharu Morimoto will be in San Jose on September 27th to do demonstrations and sign his new book at Sur La Table at Santana Row. Sigh. There will be a mass of people but still it would have been great to even see him from a distance and I would have gladly stood in line for hours to have him sign a book. And I know I'm letting TVFF down by not getting snapshots and reporting on it. Sigh.

Wednesday = Food

Wednesday means food day in the US. It's when grocery stores put out their sale ads for the week and when newspapers across the land talk about food. Most larger cities have an entire section in the local newspaper totally devoted to food...reviews, recipes, restaurant openings and closings, food related articles. I used to be an avid reader and recipe clipper of my local San Jose Mercury food section. Somewhere I still have a big file of these clippings and actually, one of the few "go to" recipes I have is one for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies I got out of the Merc at least twenty years ago. But lately, since I no longer get the daily paper and rely on the internet for most of my news, my perusing of the food section is limited to when I find a copy at the gym or while grabbing a Starbucks.

Luckily I went to the gym last night and the Wednesday food section had several interesting tidbits:

CHERRIES: First of all I had no idea that cherries could get "rug burns", but I guess they can and it seems California Rainiers are full of them. Lots of cherries are coming from Washington State right now and since I still have to try The Single Guys recipe for Chocolate Dipped Cherries, I may have to pick up some.

PESTICIDES: Seems they did studies and it's just as effective to wash your fruits and vegetables in water as it is to use those expensive fruit and vegetable washes. That just saved me a few bucks.

FRENCH LAUNDRY: The closest I think I'm going to get to a meal at The French Laundry restaurant anytime soon is to go see the movie "Ratatouille". The movie starts Friday and it seems French Laundry chef Thomas Keller helped the Pixar Animation crew get the food details just right. The Pixar folks not only worked at the French Laundry to get a feel for how chefs work, they took cooking classes and dined in famous restaurants in Paris! Now that's my kind of job. Yes, the story is about a rat who cooks, but hey, if Stuart Little can have Geena Davis as a mother, why can't a rat be a chef?

THE FAIRY FAT MOTHER: But the article in the food section that made me stop in my tracks was a story about one of my favorite Food Network cooks, Paula Deen. They say folks either love her or hate her (sorta like Rachel Ray) and I'm definitely in the first group (unlike Miss EVOO where I'm in the second group). The article didn't tell me anything I didn't know about Paula except that Gooey Butter Cakes are one of her most popular recipes. And then (be still my heart) the newspaper gave a recipe for Gooey TOFFEE Butter Cake!!! Oh hell yeah!! Mr. L kept bugging me about what I was making for desert on the 4th of July and after seeing this, no question. The Pineapple Gooey Butter Cake got raves so I can see this being just as yummy. I'll just try to ignore the fact that each little square is only 329 calories!