Peach Buckwheat Pancakes

Why? Because I really like peaches.

And because, long ago, in my teens, in fact, which, wow, I can't even count that high, so, yeah, a really long time ago, over a decade, as long as I've had my trusty Nissan Sentra...

(sigh)

... I worked at the best breakfast restaurant in my home town of Aptos, California, the Red Apple Café.

Now, Aptos is a small unincorporated part of Santa Cruz County, with a population of just over 10,000 people these days (less when I lived there). Small town restaurants aren't always boast-worthy, I realize, and you might assume that saying the Red Apple Café is the best breakfast joint in town isn't saying much. But that's not true. Because, honestly, it's the best breakfast restaurant I've ever been to, at least of the traditional, big menu + hearty portions + cup of coffee never half-full variety. And I have seen several parts of the Western hemisphere and eaten A LOT of breakfasts. So I feel I can credibly say it's wonderful. Everything on the menu's wonderful. But, most relevant to this here post, they have excellent buckwheat pancakes, and they also have excellent peach pancakes when peaches are in season, and when I worked there - I mentioned that this was a long time ago, when I was a flirty girl just out of high school, right? - I was able to get the cooks to make me a combo peach-buckwheat pancake meal on occasion, and it was so good that I think about it still. Years and years and years later. (Incidentally, my specially-made peach-buckwheat pancakes were always served with Corralitos Market chicken apple sausage, a v. nice side dish, but, sadly, not one for which I have a recipe.)

I've always wanted to try my hand at a homemade version, but I'm not a pro when it comes to making pancakes - except I do make some quite noteworthy, or rather, awesome peanut butter pancakes, which will be the subject of another post sometime this fall or winter, I'm sure - so I had to start with a pretty specific recipe, particularly because I've had some bad luck improvising with buckwheat flour (which is super absorbant, and results in dried-out baked goods if you ever try to swap it for regular flour, so don't).

The recipe I used is from the Food Network website - the food celebrity person isn't even someone I've heard of, so I don't know what kind of food she generally makes, but the reviews were v. good, so I gave it a go and I'm glad I did. They were really tasty. Not necessarily comparable to the Red Apple Café ones, but... well, they used Krusteaz. I can't compete with that, and the odds of it finding its way into my kitchen are slim to none.

Peach Buckwheat Pancakes

Adapted from Elie Krieger

Yield: 4 servings; about 8-12 pancakes, depending on how big you make them

3/4 cup buckwheat flour

3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup buttermilk (or plain yogurt - see note below)

3/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon real maple syrup

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or any oil, really, or melted and cooled butter or margarine)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-2 peaches, thinly sliced

Butter, for cooking pancakes and to serve

Real maple syrup, to serve

In a large bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In another bowl, beat together the buttermilk or yogurt, milk, maple syrup, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing only enough to combine them so that there are no lumps.

Preheat a large nonstick griddle or skillet over a medium flame. Ladle the batter onto the skillet with a 1/4-cup measure. Working quickly, gently arrange a few peach slices on top of each pancake immediately after pouring batter onto skillet. Flip the pancake when it is golden brown on the bottom and bubbles are forming on top, about 1-1/2 minutes. Cook the other side until golden brown, about 1-1/2 minutes. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

NOTES: If I were less mindful of my waistline (which is not what it was when I worked at Red Apple Café), the only things I would do differently next time are the following: (1) Even using a nonstick griddle or skillet or whatever, I'd cook the pancakes in a bunch of butter. It just makes pancakes so much better, as I learned at Red Apple Café. The ever-so-delicate crisp around the edges of a pancake is one of my favorite parts. (2) I might try plain yogurt instead of buttermilk next time. I like me a thick pancake. These weren't overly thin by any means, but yogurt might make them even heartier, like the ones I dream about from long ago.

Absolutely To Die For Flourless Chocolate Cake

What I've got for you on this lovely September evening is just this: one of the best things to have ever have come out of my kitchen. Twice. It's definitely in my Top 5 anyway. Resulting in indecipherable phrases from mouthfuls of cake such as, "ohmgodethssgddd" - and then, from sublimely satisfied bridal shower guests post-consumption, as they stare at their empty plates all dreamy-eyed and spent, "WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?" And it's a good thing they don't mean the recipe, because I honestly don't know; it's something I copied from some magazine or cookbook or other about eight years ago, a preliminary step in my effort to convince someone to marry me. (It worked.) Anyway, no, my guests mean where did I BUY this insanely rich and perfect dessert. Because it is so insanely rich and perfect that one would understandably expect it to have been made by a professional baker. And, frankly, I take that as an enormous compliment. It's bakery-worthy.

Have I ever mentioned that I love bakeries?

I love bakeries.

LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

Except for that one bakery across from Disneyland, near our hotel, that my husband spotted on a walk during our visit in July and then subsequently described to me with unbridled enthusiasm, because, duh, it was a bakery, and we were on vacation, and he was totally going to get lucky that night because - woo-hoo! - he just fulfilled the first and most important to-do item on my itinerary: find bakery. ... But the bakery was Coco's. My husband didn't grow up in California. He doesn't know what Coco's is.* We learned about anticlimax that day.

But Absolutely To Die For Flourless Chocolate Cake is the OPPOSITE of anticlimax. It's... well... I'm not going to get naughty on you, I'm just going to tell you it's all kinds of things we don't talk about in polite company.

And it goes exceedingly well with good quality port. And raspberries. And ice cream.

Or nothing.

Absolutely To Die For Flourless Chocolate Cake

Yield: 1 10" cake; 10-12 servings

Butter or nonstick spray, for greasing pan

6.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1" cubes, softened

6 large eggs, at room temp

Powdered sugar, for dusting

NOTES: (1) There are several important, precise steps, but none is difficult. Just keep at it. (2) Read through the recipe and make sure you have all the necessary equipment. (3) Take the recipe seriously, e.g. heavy duty foil means HEAVY DUTY FOIL. (4) Don't use a cheap springform pan. It won't be worth it. If water gets in, you will have wasted a lot of beautiful ingredients and you will not reap the benefits of your hard, precise work.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Tightly wrap outside of a 10" springform pan with three sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper, cut into an appropriately sized circle. Coat pan and parchment paper with butter, shortening, or nonstick cooking spray.

2. Combine both chocolates in a large metal bowl. Bring a saucepan of water to simmer, and set bowl of chocolate on top. (You could also use a double boiler, if you have one.) Stir just until melted. Remove from over water.

3. Bring 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water to boil in saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Gradually whisk hot syrup into melted chocolate (mixture may look curdled). Add butter; whisk to blend.

4. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and 1/2 cup sugar until well blended, about 2 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold egg mixture into warm chocolate mixture (which will have cooled slightly, so no need to worry about scrambled eggs in your cake).

5. Transfer batter to prepared springform pan. Batter will come halfway up sides of pan. Place the cake pan in a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan so that it comes one inch up the sides of the cake pan.

6. Bake cake until wooden skewer inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 50 minutes. Remove cake pan from water. Carefully remove foil. Cool completely on wire rack.

7. Gently cut around cake sides to loosen. Remove outer ring of pan. Transfer cake to platter. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

8. Poor yourself a generous mini-glass of port.

9. Lick those lips. But I didn't really have to tell you to do that, did I?

*Minnesotans: Coco's is a big pie restaurant that could be the love child of Denny's and Marie Calendar's. Its redheaded stepbrother might be Baker's Square. It's not the kind of bakery I'm on the hunt for on vacations.

Fish Tacos with Baja Creamless Crema

I've had this recipe just waiting to be shared for months. MONTHS. And I feel just terrible about that because it's delicious and, also, I invented the baja creamless crema all by myself - a rare, exciting event that I usually can't wait to talk about with you folks. But somehow the recipe and pictures just got stashed away and I went on with my life, making, eating, and writing about peach pies and watermelon gazpacho and spicy black bean burgers. So now I'm here to make things right. And your lives will all be better for me having done so.

Have I mentioned it's freaking HOT in Minnesota? Well, it is. Super balmy icky sticky hot, with a strong gust of hot wind gracing us with its presence just for good measure. Ugh. I have had the privilege of learning, however, on account of this terrible heat wave, that while Minnesota may be the Land of 10,000 Lakes, my little subsection of Minnesota - namely, Minneapolis - just happens to be the Land of 61 Wading Pools. This has come in handy lately. Especially because I think lakes are kind of gross.

The one good thing about hot weather, for some people, myself not included, is that it is conducive to grilling. The recipe below includes instructions for oven-broiling the fish for the fish tacos, but if you have the equipment and skills, I strongly encourage you to grill it. That would make what is an already delicious fish taco meal even more awesome. In fact, if you have a grill, do you want to just invite me over and we can have these tacos at your house? I'll do everything except the grilling. Because I lack the equipment and skills, sadly.

On to the recipe!

Yay!

Fish Tacos with Baja Creamless Crema

Fish taco part adapted from Essentials of Healthful Cooking (a great cookbook published by Williams-Sonoma); crema from me and my brilliant culinary mind and a strong desire to not waste coconut milk

Yield: 4-6 tacos; 2-4 servings

Fish taco mixture

1/2 lb. thick, meaty fish fillet (I used Pacific halibut, approved by the Monterey Bay Aquarium; other good ones would be albacore tuna or Alaska wild salmon)

Seasoned salt & pepper

1 small cucumber, diced

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion or shallot

1 teaspoon seeded, minced jalapeño or spicy red chile (1 small or 1/2 a medium jalapeño)

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon, orange, or lime zest

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Baja Creamless Crema

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup coconut milk (don't use lowfat - would be runny and crappy)

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/8 teaspoon cayenne or black pepper

For serving

4 corn tortillas (or 8 if you like to double layer them, like I do)

1 cup loosely packed, thin-chiffonade-cut romaine lettuce (like in pretty picture above)

Optional garnishes/additions: chopped fresh tomatoes, cilantro, lime wedges, black beans

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove skin from fish and season the fish on both sides with salt and pepper. Place the fish in a baking pan in the oven and bake until slightly translucent in the very center at the thickest part, allowing slightly less than 10 minutes per inch of thickness.

Transfer fish to plate and let cool to room temperature. (The fish will continue to cook a bit on the plate and will be opaque by the time it is cool enough to handle.)

Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix together the cucumber, green onion or shallot, jalapeño or red chile, zest, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Flake the cooled fish fillets and then add them to the vegetable mixture, along with the lime juice. Toss gently to combine. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes so the flavors will marry.

To make the baja creamless crema, mix all ingredients together well and allow to sit for a while. Taste and add more spices, salt or pepper as you see fit.

To assemble tacos, warm the tortillas in the still-semi-hot oven for about 10 minutes, then fill with the fish-veggie mixture, romaine, and garnishes/additions of your choice, and then drizzle generously with the baja creamless crema. A side salad or some beans and rice chilled or at room temp would make this a perfect summer meal.

Note: the baja sauce can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator. It also makes for a great salad dressing the next day, or a tortilla chip dip. (You will likely have some left over.)

Enjoy!

Watermelon Gazpacho

This summer I realized I love watermelon. I think I was apathetic towards it before this summer, but now that I have a daughter with two teeth and a hearty appetite, I've been buying a lot of soft fruits lately and apparently I am quite fond of quite a few of them. (Someday, when I have an index of recipes, you'll notice that another favorite is peaches. A noticeably disproportionate number of the recipes I've posted on this blog involve peaches as an ingredient. But then, peaches are lovely. Until they aren't. You know what I'm talking about.)

The recipe I'm posting below was a huge hit at a bridal shower I hosted two weeks ago. It's actually the second recipe for watermelon gazpacho I've tried out in the last couple of years, and I believe the superior one. It's simple and refreshing but has a subtle kick. The other one had a bit too much going on, I think. At the shower, which involved six food stations paired with six different wines, this was paired with sauvignon blanc. I think they were well-matched. Others said they thought so too, and while I'm not one to just go on words because, duh, I was the hostess, of course people are going to say nice things to me, quite a few folks went back for seconds. So there you have it. It's tasty and goes well with sauvignon blanc.

Watermelon Gazpacho

Fairly substantially adapted from Kitchen Sense by Mitchell Davis

Yield: about 6 servings as a starter

1 medium to large watermelon, coarsely chopped, dark seeds removed (you'll want about 10 cups of chopped watermelon)

1 pint cherry or plum tomatoes, halved

1 small jalapeño, seeded and chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 shallots or 1 small red onion, chopped

1/4 cup good olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about one lime's worth)

1-2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped (about 1-1/2 cups)

Salt and pepper

Place the watermelon, tomatoes, jalapeño, bell pepper, shallots or onion, olive oil, lime juice, 1 teaspoon salt, and a few grinds of fresh black pepper into a good blender or food processor. (Note: be careful if using food processor. There will be spillage.) Pulse until ingredients are v. finely chopped and starting to liquefy. Taste and adjust the seasoning with additional lime juice, salt, and/or pepper. Place the soup in the bowl that you'll be using for chilling. Gently pour the chopped cucumber on top of the soup. Cover and chill for at least two hours, ideally a little longer. Garnish with chopped scallion, cilantro, or mint.

Some notes: The original recipe calls for tomato juice instead of tomatoes and suggests pureeing the soup until it is completely liquified and then (as if that's not enough) pouring it through a sieve. I personally like a chunkier gazpacho, so I didn't do that. But if you want a smoother soup, knock yourself out. The author also suggests adding vodka to the smooth watermelon gazpacho, pouring it over ice, and enjoying it cocktail style. I bet that would be interesting, but I'm not a huge fan of savory cocktails. If I make a watermelon cocktail any time soon, it's going to be this one.

P.S. What was that? You love my China? I do too. It's so pretty! And I need to use it more often. It's Lenox's Engagement pattern. We chose it before our wedding because the display table at Marshall Field's (RIP) was gorgeously set with it. I have yet to recreate that table.