Blackberry Passionfruit Butter Cake with Vanilla Cream

Butter Cake:

4 cups cake flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

250g unsalted butter, room temperature

4 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups powdered/icing sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup passionfruit pulp

2 cups fresh blackberries

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a round 9 inch springform cake pan with melted butter. Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Beat butter and powdered sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour and add water. Gently fold to combine. Spoon batter into prepared cake tin. Push berries into the cake batter.

Bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into center. Remove from the oven. Leave cake in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out. Leave to cool completely in a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar.

Serve with warm vanilla custard.

Vanilla Custard:

2 cups full cream milk

1/2 cup full cream

4 egg yolks, room temperature

1 tablespoon flour

2 teaspoon good quality vanilla

1 tablespoon powdered/icing sugar

Whisk flour, cream, egg yolks, powdered/icing sugar and vanilla to fully combine. Heat milk on medium heat until just warmed through and whisk in the cream mixture. Continue whisking until custard is thick and shiny.

If you prefer a runny consistency add more milk and continue to whisk.

Foraging For Food

www.hjnews.com - July 31st, 2001

It may be the 21st century, but some local Homo Sapiens are still foraging for food on occasion.

The resourceful human beings in the Cache Valley chapter of Slow Food International hunt for nuts and berries in a much different environment than that of their ancient ancestors, however - they search for edible plants among the ornamental gardens and walkways of Utah State University.

Six individuals, including botanists, a local organic farmer, a member of the Logan Foodies group and curious individuals looking to find out what edible plants they can plant in their backyards, joined Dawn Holzer, chair of the Slow Food of Cache Valley group, Friday morning on a tour of the edible plants on campus, snacking all along the way.

"A lot of the stuff that we're eating are considered superfoods," Holzer said as she stopped to pick some black currants near the engineering building. "Super-high antioxidants, but you never see them in market because they're kind of delicate and they're not commercially produced. So that's one of the beauties of foraging, is to get a lot of variety into your diet. You consume a lot of things, a lot of nutrients that you're not going to get if you just eat from the store."

Read More

Chicken Sausage Red Onion Marmalade Wraps

Red Onion Marmalade:

4 medium red onions, finely chopped

4 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoon raw brown sugar

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Heat olive oil in a large deep sided pan over medium-high heat. Add onions, stirring until lightly browned (3 to 5 minutes). Reduce heat to low and continue cooking until onions are softened (about 8 minutes more). Add raw brown sugar and balsamic vinegar, stirring occasionally until thickenend (3 to 4 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Sausage Wraps:

8 mild gourmet sausages of choice (pictured is chicken spinach fontina)

8 spring roll sheets

Preheat outdoor grill to high heat

Grilled sausages for 3 minutes each side or until golden brown and cooked. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool before you assemble wraps.

Pre heat oven to 425 F.

Lay spring roll sheet flat. Spread a thick layer of onion marmalade to cover about a third of the sheet, leaving about 2 inches clear along the edges. Place sausage across the center of the marmalade. Fold uncovered sides inward, then tightly roll. Secure wrap by dipping your fingers in some water and wetting the end, then sealing shut. 

Arrange wraps on a single layer in a prepared baking sheet. Brush the top with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with black sesame seeds. Bake until lightly brown and hot (about 10 to 15 minutes). Serve with sauce of choice.

Out Of The Shadows

www.pasadenaweekly.com - July 27th, 2011

Once part of illicit niche markets, hydroponics is finding new footing in the mainstream, fueled by a farm-to-table frenzy and fears of foodborne illnesses.

Twenty years ago, a wink and a nod was what it took for someone to get their hands on a hydroponically grown product, be it from a long-haired man in a dark alley or amid a sea of tie-dye at a Grateful Dead concert.

But today, hydroponics — the practice of growing plants in nutrient-rich water without soil, a technique long relegated to clandestine marijuana production — is emerging as the agricultural method of choice for gourmands and consumers alike.

Chefs say they prefer the control and higher quality hydroponics provides for their gourmet lettuce, herbs and other produce. Environmentally minded consumers are beginning to embrace the sustainability of hydroponics, since vegetables can be grown without harmful pesticides and herbicides while using up to 90 percent less water than traditional farming methods.

With more products cropping up at local farmer’s markets and in produce aisles across the nation, hydroponics is moving out of the shadows and into the mainstream, observers say. It’s even being eyed as a solution to feeding an overpopulated world as natural resources become increasingly scarce and as a way of sustaining human colonies that one day may inhabit Mars or the moon.

Read More