Grilled Leek with Mustard Butter

About a month ago I bought a huge, beautiful leek at the Korean grocery. I didn't really know what to do with it -- I figured I'd find some potato leek soup recipe or something. The leek sat in the fridge for more than two weeks before Sheu said, "Do something with that thing!" Out of laziness, I decided to try grilling it. (Luckily the leek was still in good shape after all that time!) Grilling it turned out to be easy, and the result was very tasty!

I made it again tonight (with a fresh leek this time!). I more or less follow the instructions for grilled leeks from Joy of Cooking. It's easy with our little George Foreman grill. This could also be done with a grill pan, or on a real grill.

While the grill is heating:
First trim off the root end and the tougher green part of the leaves. Then cut the leek in half crosswise and lenghwise to make four long pieces. Rinse the pieces well in cold water. Open the layers a bit to make sure all dirt and grit is rinsed out.


Pat the pieces dry, then drizzle (or brush) with olive oil. Season with salt & pepper.


Place the pieces cut side up in the grill. We use a small George Foreman grill -- the perfect size for one large leek. Close the grill and let it cook for about 7 to 8 minutes. Done!


This is really good with mustard butter -- just mash softened butter with dijon mustard to taste. Drizzle over the leeks while they're still hot. The spiciness of the mustard complements the sweetness of the leeks. Yum!

The Best Pumpkin Bread!

This Thanksgiving, our friend Vru made the BEST pumpkin bread I've ever tasted! She found the recipe on AllRecipes.com. It's called Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread. Vru made three loaves: one plain, one with nuts (walnuts?) and one with chocolate chips.

This bread has a great texture and flavor. It's very moist, almost like cake. When Vru sent me the recipe by email, she mentioned some suggestions from reviewers for this recipe:

1. sub 1 cup of white sugar with brown sugar
2. add more cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger to make spicier
3. can add different things to each of the loaves (walnuts and golden raisins; chocolate chips)

Here's the recipe. Highly recommended!

Vru also made some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Must ask her for that recipe, too...

Man-made Dinner

Last night my darling Sheu cooked up this picturesque meal:

He got the chinese brocolli w/oyster sauce recipe on the web somewhere. The dish on the left is Three Pepper Game Hen from Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking (minus the red peppers). He used boneless chicken instead of game hen. I helped him by chopping some of the vegetables. He said it turned out pretty good. (The picture doesn't do it justice -- I need to work on my food photography skills!)

I made black eyed peas & spinach with indian spices for my dinner. It looked like a bowl of brown & green glop, and that's why it's NOT in the picture. But it was yummy.

Gingerbread Crochet Cake

I made this cake more than a year ago, for my friend Christy's birthday. It's one of my very favorite cake recipes: Applesauce Gingerbread from Joy of Cooking (1997 edition). The only change I make to the recipe is to increase the amount of each spice.

For Christy's cake I made a powdered sugar icing with orange extract for flavor. The orange goes well with the ginger flavor of the cake. Christy likes to crochet, so I added a real crochet needle to the top and tried to make the colored icing look like yarn. She got to keep the needle, of course. :-)

I've also made Applesauce Gingerbread with cream cheese icing...verrrrry yummy. It's also good with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar instead of icing.

Myriam has made some AMAZING cakes in the past--maybe she'll post some photos of her creations. hint hint

CakesCat SweetCat

Hi Tenae!

I signed up! :) hey, wow, we can type in colour (or color, for you) heh heh heh

I wonder if we can get some of those annoying emoticons. ;)

What I did that was creative today was.... muffins! (took me a minute to remember) I'm working on improving a (very) low fate recipe but I keep upping the fat content. hahaha. I've added dates, boiled in water to mush them up. I think I'll add more than the 1/2 cup I used this time but maybe that's only because I like things sweet. The recipe makes 12, asks for 1/2 cup sugar; I think that's a bit low but I'll have to compare with other recipes, that are real muffins and not mini cakes, if you know what I mean.

xo
myriam

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