Upside Down Lemon Cake

I've been cooking for friends a bit lately. You can tell, because there seem to be quite a few baked goods popping up, and I tend to save those indulgences for times I can pass them along to others. You may remember when I was studying for my oral exams. Or at least, you might remember my complete absence from this blog during that time. Well, one of my good friends is getting ready to take her test. The other day I was sitting with her at school and she looked at me with some seriously fatigued eyes (from those 12-hour reading days!) and asked me how I found the time to feed myself when I was studying. The truth is, I pretty much didn't. I ate a lot of 3 Musketeers bars from our vending machine, and the same 2 or 3 sandwiches from a nearby shop every day. Of course, I immediately invited her over for dinner last Sunday when she was done with her reading.

Anyway, I'll post a bit about what we had over the next couple of days. For now, I couldn't help but start at the end. With the highlight. With dessert. Okay, so I'll warn you upfront. If you don't like the orange peel in marmalade, that slight bitterness that cuts through the sweet, this cake is not for you. But I have more faith than that, I think you're going to love it. Not to mention that it's totally beautiful, with thin slices of stained-glass lemon, near translucent after cooking. The recipe is from the LA Times, which I know pretty much only through the Internet and the warring food sections pitted against each other at The Wednesday Chef. But after this recipe, all I can say is well done, LA Times, well done.

Lemon Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from The LA Times

4 small lemons, 3 if they're closer to medium-sized
1 1/4 cups butter, divided into 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 vanilla bean, split
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk

Wash the lemons since you're going to be using the rind, then cut all of them but one as thinly as possible. Shoot for 1/8". I tried a mandolin at first, but found I had trouble getting whole slices, so switched to the knife. Zest 1 teaspoon of lemon peel from the leftover lemon and set aside. You won't be using the rest of the last lemon in this recipe.

In a 10" oven-proof skillet, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. As the butter is melting, use your spoon to spread it up the sides of the pan as well. Off the heat, add the brown sugar and stir until it is all moistened by the butter. Spread the sugar/butter mixture into an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Arrange the lemon slices on top in a concentric circle. The slices should slightly overlap so that the sugar mixture is completely covered. Don't worry if you don't use all of the lemon slices.

This is a good time to preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cut up the remaining 6 tablespoons of butter and put the chunks in another bowl. Use the tip of a knife to scrape the seeds from the vanilla been into the same bowl. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and vanilla seeds. Add the sugar and lemon zest and continue beating until the mixture is fluffy. Beat in the first egg until it's well combined, then beat in the second.

Add half of the flour, then all of the milk, then the other half of the flour, and beat between each addition so that the mixture is well-blended.

Spread this batter over the lemons and be sure that they're covered evenly. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the cake is a light golden color and it passes the toothpick test. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes before inverting onto a plate. Serve warm or at room temperature. Be sure to use a sharp knife to cut it, so you can get through those lemon slices!

Off the Grid

Last Friday night I was glad to join the street food revolution, at Off the Grid. Off the Grid takes place Friday nights from 5 pm until 9 pm in the Fort Mason Center parking lot, right near the entrance by the little guardhouse. It's a great mix of carts, people, food and drink. Families, couples and groups can be found mingling, eating, chatting and discovering deliciously affordable bites of food.


There was plenty of room to walk around, chairs and a few tables and there was even some live music. There was no overcrowding, significant waits or lines (Chairman Bao had a line but it moved quickly). The most difficult decision may be what to try because with about 10 vendors, there is no way to try it all. They ranged from traditional taco trucks like El Tonayense to the new fangled Creme Brulee cart.


I started with potato beef curry puffs from Malaysian Lacy Crepes. They were freshly fried to a crisp on the outside with a tender and mid curry on the inside. Like most things, the portion was good for sharing. I want to try their chai banana fritters next.


I was very impressed with Chairman Bao. I tried both a duck confit and mango bun and the pork belly bun, steamed, $2.75 each. Both were juicy and fresh but I think the crunchy daikon pickle in the pork version made it my favorite. They also have a baked version. Next time!


Lee had a cup of chai, which came in various flavors such as rose and vanilla almond. It seemed a bit pricey to me at $4 a cup. Most of the dishes were in the $2 to $6 range. He also approved of the lemon mochi and succulent adobo chicken.


The spiciest bites came from Curry Up Now. The Indian street food truck. The Kathi roll made from roti stuffed with pickled onion, chutney and chicken was hot stuff! In the future I'd love to see Chinese dumplings or some kind of noodle dish along the lines of the Noodle Fest in Chinatown. But the variety thus far is terrific and I will be back!

More on Off the Grid:

A Little Yum post

SF Weekly slide show

Yelp reviews

Julia Child's Clafouti:Recipe

Cherries seem like such an American fruit. I guess it's the mythology of George Washington and the cherry tree. And then the idiom "as American as cherry pie". But cherries come from Asia Minor and are named after a Turkish town, Cerasus or the Greek city of Kerasounta, depending upon who you believe. Historically they have also been grown in Rome, in England, in France and of course, the United States.

While cherry pie is quintessentially American, my favorite cherry dessert has got to be the cakey, pudding-like French clafouti, which is traditionally made with cherries. You've got to love clafouti because it's such a great word to say-- kla-foo-TEE. Just saying it out loud makes me smile. Try it, you'll see what I mean.

I'm not the only one who loves clafouti. A few years ago in Paris, Lee and I were eating a late dinner in the Marais at a small and rustic Burgundian restaurant. Near the bar was a casual display of desserts. The least elegant of which had to be the clafouti. We watched as we ate dinner, the clafouti was cut into time and again until only one large slice was left. We ordered it, and before the waitress had a chance to serve it, the chef eyed it and started to serve himself. The waitress snatched it from him and we laughed seeing the sad look on his face and sharing his anticipation of something so plain to look at and yet so delicious to eat.

For things like clafouti you can't go wrong with Julia Child's recipe. While this serves 6-8 people for dessert, it also makes a wickedly indulgent breakfast for 4!

Julia Child's Clafouti
serves 6-8

1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
3 cups cherries, pitted
1/3 cup sugar
powdered sugar

In a blender blend the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour. Pour a 1/4 inch layer of the batter in a buttered 7 or 8 cup lightly buttered fireproof baking dish. Place in the oven until a film of batter sets in the pan. Remove from the heat and spread the cherries over the batter. Sprinkle on the 1/3 cup of sugar. Pour on the rest of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about for about 45 minutes to an hour. The clafouti is done when puffed and brown and and a knife plunged in the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve warm.

Enjoy!

Photo du Jour - Autumn Colors

A riot of color!

The Continuing Saga of la Carte de Séjour...

Well, I applied for the renewal in time. The sous-préfécture states that the renewal must be done 2 months in advance, so I turned in all my papers in June.

Guess what. No Carte de Séjour in sight.
My old one expired last Saturday.

This is my fifth renewal. Every year the same damn papers.

• proof of habitation in the form of an EDF bill or France Télécom bill (the deed to the house is useless)
• copy of passport
• copy of old Carte de Séjour
• 4 pictures in black and white. No, in color. No, in black and white. No, in color. (this seems to change every year)
• copy of my Carte Vitale
• proof of income-they basically want to know I'm not going to leech off the system
• sometimes they want more proof of income in the form of an attestation from the bank
  

Somewhere, in an office out there, is a giant dossier of duplicate copies of all my information.
Or maybe they throw it away every year and start from scratch?

It will arrive someday.

This is exactly why I want to apply for citizenship in March!

Photo du Jour - Smoked Garlic

Ail fumé - smoked garlic. Never seen this before!
There is a specialty from the the north of France, L'ail fumé d'Arleux, but this was purchased in the southwest.

Threeway Shortbread Cookies:Recipe

When I was growing up you could tell what season it was by a cursory glance at a bakery's current cookie selection. Christmas tree cookies meant Christmas, shamrock cookies meant St Patrick's day, flag cookies meant 4th of July and of course heart cookies meant Valentine's day. Unfortunately they all tasted exactly the same. And not very good I might add. Oh they looked good with all the colored sprinkles and icing, but they were hard and tough and lacking any flavor as I recall.

A seasonal cookie need not be boring. Melt-in-your-mouth shortbread for example can be shaped, not to mention flavored, any which way. The tricks to making great shortbread are to not over mix the dough--handle it as little as possible, roll it out to a uniform thickness, use the best butter you can get your hands on and don't whatever you do over bake it. Take it out of the oven before it gets brown, it will harden once it cools.

This year I suggest making a variety of heart shaped shortbread cookies for your sweetheart (or sweethearts as the case may be). The dough can be made entirely in the food processor or Kitchenaid type mixer. To prove my point about holiday cookies being tasty, I encourage you to try three different flavors at once--citrus, cinnamon and lavender. Be sure to use "culinary" grade lavender (meaning the type that has not been sprayed with pesticides). The lavender doesn't really taste like much but it gives a lovely scent and texture to the cookies. It also gives you the opportunity to give your darlings flowers and sweets in one fell swoop. Now who wouldn't love you for that?

Threeway Shortbread Cookies
Note: You can substitute cornstarch if you can't find rice flour, but the rice flour really is better, adding a nice crunch to the texture.

Cookie dough:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rice flour, white or brown
6 Tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup European style butter
pinch of salt

Flavorings:
1 microplane grate of both orange and lemon rind, 1/4 teaspoon or so total
1 pinch lavender blossoms, food grade
1 pinch ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a food processor blend the butter and sugar. When the sugar and butter are blended add the rest of the dry ingredients. Pulse until blended. Divide the dough into three lumps and add a "flavoring" to each lump. Roll each lump out to 1/4 inch thick and cut into shapes with small cookie cutter (or into strips). Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven while still a pale golden color, not brown.

Enjoy!