Favourite Lemon Loaf

I wear many hats in my life and the most important one is being a good Mom to my two beautiful boys. As part of this responsibility, this year I volunteered to be the Class Rep for my youngest son’s classroom. I help out with sending messages to parents, and drumming up support for causes dear to the school (like putting together Christmas baskets for neighbours in need). 

My most recent assignment was to encourage parents to contribute to a themed class basket to be auctioned off at the Withrow Public School Silent Auction taking place on February 28 at the school. Our theme was “What’s for dessert?” which was right up my alley. 

I sent out the email request last week and the first person to respond was Erica, the Mom of my son’s friend Gavin. She contributed a lovely loaf pan and a “favourite lemon loaf recipe”. We are suckers for anything lemon-related in our house so I knew I’d be trying this recipe as soon as I could get my hands on a copy – I asked Erica to send it my way and we made it that very night. We weren’t disappointed.

As with any new recipe, sometimes you test it out and it doesn’t quite make the grade. This happened to me with my first attempt – this recipe calls for self-raising flour. I didn’t have any and I guess I was really tired and wasn't thinking clearly, so I decided to just use regular flour. I also cut back on the sugar and butter, as I usually do. I figured this was OK because Erica said that she did the same thing. The end result was a very dense, not very tall loaf – the flavour was fantastic though, and so we ate the entire thing. I am posting the photo of the flat loaf below, just to make you smile.

The kids (and The King of Soup) asked me to make it again so this time I used the trusty internet to find out how to make my own self-raising flour. Turns out it’s easy – you just add baking powder and salt and voila! You’re good to go.

The photos here are from the second attempt – you can see how light and fluffy the loaf looks in the photos. Just delish.

Below are the ingredients and instructions, with my notes and edits, as usual. Thanks Erica!

Ingredients:

Loaf

¾ cup unsalted butter (I used ½ cup salted butter and ¼ cup 0% fat Greek yogurt)

¾ cup sugar (I used ½ cup)

1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest (about the zest of one lemon)

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 ½ cups self-raising flour (I used 1 ½ cups all purpose flour + 2 tsp baking powder + ½ tsp salt)

1 tsp lemon extract (the original recipe didn’t call for this but I thought it would give it an extra lemony burst, and it did)

Glaze

½ cup sugar (I used ¼ cup)

¼ cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a loaf tin (9x5 inches) with cooking spray and line the bottom of the pan with a rectangle of parchment paper (I didn’t use the parchment and everything turned out well).

In an electric mixer beat the butter, yogurt, sugar and lemon zest for 2 – 3 minutes until fluffy. 

Add the beaten eggs in three parts, alternating with a spoonful of the flour/baking powder/salt mix. Mix well after each addition then add in the remaining flour mixture and fold in until smooth.

  

Pour the batter (it’s thick) into the pan and smooth it out on top. 

Bake it for 50 – 60 minutes (it only took 45 in my oven) or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. I would start checking at about 42 minutes or so. 

Turn the loaf out onto a wire rack, then flip it over so it is right side up. Take a skewer and poke a few tiny holes in the top, and then place the rack with the loaf on it on top of a plate. The tiny holes you make in the loaf will help it to soak up the lemon glaze you are about to pour on top.

Take ¼ cup of sugar and ¼ cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice and mix with a spoon just a couple of times – you don’t want the sugar to dissolve. Spoon the mixture (quickly) on top of the warm loaf. The juice will sink in and the sugar will form a crystal-like crunch on top. In the photos you can see the crystal-like sugar coating sparkling in the light.

You can serve it immediately, or it will keep (but not for long because it is so delicious). I recommend keeping the juice that drips onto the plate and spooning it over your slice for additional lemon burst. You can serve it with sliced strawberries, or any kind of berry, or raspberry jam. 

As an 'official' dessert, it should serve 8 people. As a loaf, nibbling away bit by bit, it could last for up to 5 hours. I'd be very surprised if it lasts for longer. Especially if there are kids in your house.

Mejadra (Middle-Eastern Spiced Rice and Lentils)

Included on my holiday gift wish list for my husband this year were two books by the same author, Yotam Ottolenghi. The first, called Plenty, is all vegetarian. The second, called Jerusalem, is co-written with someone of Arab descent (Sami Tamimi), and the recipes are from Jerusalem. Well I couldn’t wait for Chanukah and went out and bought both books for myself back in the fall (first Plenty and then Jerusalem). I wasn’t sorry, as we were able to make several dishes from Plenty over the holidays and they were very well-received and quite delicious. 

Yotam Ottolenghi is an Israeli-born chef who came to cooking late in the game (started culinary school at age 30). Ottolenghi owns and operates (with Noam Bar and Sami Tamimi) four restaurants called Ottolenghi, in England (http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/). The restaurant has been an amazing success which doesn’t surprise me at all since every recipe we have attempted has been unbelievably delicious. The King of Soup’s cousin Paul, who lives in Amsterdam, has been to Ottolenghi and raved about it to us. He was the first person to recommend the cookbook Plenty to us. Since then we have recommended it to countless people including my brother (and sometimes blog -contributor Jonathan), the King’s brother Simon, and the King’s Auntie Barbara – all great chefs in their own right.

Ottolenghi also writes a column for the Guardian and that’s where I first discovered him – I was looking for vegetarian recipes online and came across his recipe for parmesan and panko-encrusted pumpkin wedges. I asked the King of Soup to make them for me for my birthday dinner – we used squash instead of pumpkin (because we are the King and Queen of substitutions) and it was amazing and delicious. I kept checking the Guardian Saturday column for more good eats from Ottolenghi – and then cousin Paul informed me that he had published a book.

Although I have been looking at the recipes in Jerusalem, I hadn’t tested anything until now. Yesterday was a holiday in Ontario, Family Day, and we spent the day playing with the kids, building Lego, cuddling the dog, and cooking. I decided to make a dish called mejadra – mostly because we had all the ingredients in the pantry and most stores were closed yesterday. This particular dish is one that is “...popular throughout the Arab world...”, and the authors labelled it as comfort food. I have to say that I agree with them – I just had a steaming hot bowl of mejadra for lunch and I was indeed comforted on this cold, wet, Toronto winter day.

It was easy to make and there are not too many ingredients, although there are several spices that some might not have handy in their spice rack. Nice to note is that this dish is completely vegetarian, and also gluten-free (as long as your lentils don't have anything added to them - check the packaging). Here is the recipe and my comments/edits as usual.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups green or brown lentils (I used one 14 oz can of brown lentils)

4 medium onions (I used 2 large sweet onions)

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

About 1 cup sunflower oil (I used between 2/3 of a cup and ¾ of a cup of vegetable oil)

2 tsp cumin seeds (I used 2 tsp of ground cumin since I didn’t have seeds)

1 ½ tbsp coriander seeds (I used 1 ½ tbsp ground coriander since I didn’t have seeds)

1 cup basmati rice (I used brown basmati which increased the cooking time)

2 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp ground turmeric

1 ½ tsp ground allspice

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp sugar

1 ½ cups water (I used more than this to help cook the brown rice – I will describe in the methods below)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Methods:

If you are using dried lentils, the authors direct you to put them in a small saucepan, cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook for 12 – 15 minutes (until they have softened a bit but still have a little bite to them). Drain and set aside. Since I used canned lentils, I didn’t do this. I just drained them and set them aside.

For the crispy onions, slice them very thinly. Then place them on a large plate or tray. Sprinkle them with the 3 tbsp of flour and 1 tsp salt. Toss them well with your hands.

 

You’re going to cook them in 3 batches. Heat a medium-sized saucepan on high heat and put about one third of a cup of the oil in the pan. 

 

Toss in one piece of onion and wait for it to start sizzling – this tells you when the oil is ready – you want the onion to really sizzle when you drop it in. Once the oil is ready, place one third of your sliced, tossed onions into the saucepan, reduce heat to medium-high and fry for 5 – 7 minutes. Toss it around a few times while cooking and keep a close eye on it so they don’t burn.

Once they are crispy enough, scoop them into a paper towel-lined colander and toss some sea salt on top. Cook the remaining 2 batches of onions using the same method (add oil each time and sprinkle salt on them in the colander). I ended up using between two thirds and three quarters of a cup of the oil – definitely not the full cup.

The next set of instructions tells you to wipe out the saucepan and toss in the cumin and coriander seeds. On medium heat toast the seeds for 1-2 minutes. Since I didn’t have seeds, I just dropped the ground spices in a stirred them for a minute or 2. I switched pots for this step – I had used a frying pan for the onions (because I really like this particular pan) but I needed a pot with a lid for the remaining steps.

After you toast the spices, add the rest of the spices, the sugar, the rice, the olive oil, ½ tsp salt and plenty of freshly-ground black pepper. Stir it all up to coat the dry rice.

Then add the lentils and the 1 ½ cups of water. Bring it all to a boil and cover it with the lid, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. 

15 minutes is enough to cook white basmati rice. If you are using brown basmati rice, you will need to open the pot at this point and add another 1 ½ cups of water. Stir it up, put the lid back on and leave it for another 10 minutes or so. Check the texture. Repeat these steps until the rice is to your liking.

Then quickly remove the lid, cover the pot with a clean tea towel, put the lid back on, remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Remove the lid and the tea towel and taste your creation. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then take one third to one half of the crispy onions and toss them in with the mixture. Fluff it up, and place it on your plates. Top with some more of the crispy onions.

Serve hot! 

P.S. It tasted even better the day after. I had two helpings for lunch today (and yes, now I have a belly ache).

Links to both books below:

http://www.amazon.ca/Jerusalem-Cookbook-Yotam-Ottolenghi/dp/044901567X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361298212&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.ca/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361298243&sr=8-2

Vegetarian Monfongo

Two weeks ago I was in Puerto Rico for a few days. It was difficult for me because I am a vegetarian who doesn’t eat fish and generally, the food in PR is very heavy on the meat or fish. We had been warned not to eat fresh vegetables because they would have been washed in local water that the delicate bellies of Canadians might not be able to tolerate. While there, I heard of several incidents of people throwing caution to the wind and ending up in their bathrooms for hours on end. 

If the vegetables and fruit had a peel on them and the peel was removed, they were considered safe. So I existed on cucumbers (peeled), oatmeal, protein bars that I brought from home, melon, and bananas. By the end of the 5 days my stomach was a mess.

On the last night of the trip, we ate in a restaurant on the resort grounds and it was the first meal that everyone really enjoyed. I was a bit put off when I first looked at the menu because again, it was full of meat and fish. I spotted some rice and beans so I ordered that, but was informed that the beans actually had pork in them. I asked the very patient waiter if there was anything at all on the menu that I could possible eat. He responded with one word: mofongo. 

Mofongo is essentially fried plantain with garlic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mofongo It has a texture not unlike potato, and the flavour is mellow and basically takes on the flavours of whatever it is cooked with. I had never had plantain before because I always assumed it would be sweet like bananas. I could not imagine something as sweet as a banana in a savoury dish, but plantain is not really sweet at all. Traditional mofongo contains pork (what a surprise), but the waiter assured me that the chef could make a true vegetarian mofongo for me. I decided that it would be good to try a traditional Puerto Rican dish at least once before leaving town, so I ordered it. It arrived in the form of a tower. The tower was hollow and inside was filled with overcooked and slightly bland vegetables. Aside from those vegetables, it was delicious.

Here is a photo of my Puerto Rican mofongo (apologies for the blurriness):

 

As soon as I returned to Toronto I did some research on mofongo recipes. One of my thoughts on the version I ate in PR was that it was a bit dry. The waiter explained to me that if I had ordered the meat or fish version, it would have come with a sauce. Because the veggie version was made specifically for me (and one other colleague who is also a vegetarian), there was no sauce. I decided that for my mofongo I would add caramelized onions since they make everything better. I also figured the oil from the cooking of the onions would add some moisture to the dish. 

I also topped my mofongo with sautéed veggies, but for my version, I added water to the pan near the end of cooking to make the veggies saucier (almost like a broth). This worked well but for the next time, I think I will make a separate veggie broth to just ladle over the entire plate before serving. My husband, who is not a vegetarian, ate his mofongo with au jus on top (he happened to be making a pot roast at the same time and so he took a ladle of the jus and used that to moisten the mofongo. He had two helpings.)

I got my eldest son to try to mofongo and he thought it was pretty good. This leads me to believe that I could form the mofongo mash into French-fry shapes, “batter” them with egg whites, and double bake them to make them like crispy French fries. This will be my next recipe test so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, here is how I made my mofongo. The recipe I used as inspiration was from http://suite101.com/article/adventurous-cooking-vegetarian-mofongo-a105334 . My only comment on this web recipe would be that the instructions were not 100% clear. Hopefully my instructions below will be easier to follow.

Ingredients:

This recipe will make 4 – 5 mofongo patties. Enough for a side dish for 3 – 4 people, or a main dish for 2 people. 

2 green plantains, peeled and sliced (note that you have to use a paring knife to remove the peel – it doesn’t come off cleanly as with a banana because the fruit is unripe)

½ tsp salt

2 cups cold water

2 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole

1 medium sweet onion, diced

Olive oil (or vegetable oil) for frying the plantain

Salt and pepper

Yellow, red, orange peppers (your choice), sliced thinly

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 carrot, sliced thinly

1 clove garlic, crushed

Feel free to add additional veggies if you have them on hand (perhaps zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.)

Water

Vegetable bouillon cube (if you opt for the veggie broth on top)

Method:

Soak the plantains in 2 cups cold water and ½ tsp salt for 15 minutes. Drain in a colander and pat dry with paper towel.

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan at medium high heat and add the diced onions and whole garlic. After about 5 minutes, add the sliced, soaked, drained plantain. Fry the plantain on each side until golden brown (about 10 minutes).

Remove from heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Pour the contents of the pan onto a chopping board and roughly chop it all up. Thank you to my husband who did this for me.

Transfer to a bowl and use a potato masher to mash it all together.  Add water or broth to make the mixture easier to handle - it will be dry.

Note: if you have a mortar and pestle large enough for the mofongo, you can skip the chopping and mashing and go directly to the mortar and pestle.

You can eat the mofongo now, or you can fry or bake it again to crisp up the outside. Before you crisp it up, make your sauté of veggies.

Heat some more oil in a pan (or use cooking spray). Sauté the onions and garlic for about 2 minutes at medium high heat, then add the celery and carrots and sauté for another 2 minutes or so. Finally, add the peppers and other veggies. Near the end of the cooking add about a cup of water to deglaze the pan and make a bit of broth. Add some salt and pepper and other herbs if desired. I didn't add any wine but I suppose you could to add deeper flavour.

Use a vegetable bouillon cube and some boiling water to make an additional broth on the side. Do not add this broth to the veggies as it will make vegetable soup which is not really what you are going for.

To crisp up the mofongo, the recipe I consulted (website above) suggested making small balls of the mixture, flattening the ball into a patty, and either frying it in the same pan or putting it in the oven on a greased cookie sheet (250 degrees for 5 minutes). I opted for the cookie sheet/oven option but found there was no way this was going to crisp up in a 250 degree oven. I ended up raising the rack and broiling at 500 degrees for 1 minute per side. 

These are my mofongo patties before being baked.

Place the mofongo patties on a plate, top with the sautéed veggies and broth. Serve while hot. If you are serving as a side dish, you can top it with whatever sauce you are serving with your main.

Enjoy!