Chocolate Pudding Cake – When You Need a Chocolate Fix

There are a million and two recipes out there for a hot fudge or pudding cake. I’ve been using mine for over 10 years and its origins are long gone. If you are feeling in need of a chocolate fix, this is definitely worth a try. I'll admit that it's not the most attractive dessert out there, but it works for us.

I like this cake because:

1)   It’s easy to make. I don’t even use a mixer, just a wooden spoon.

2)   It’s very chocolatey. If you like a more mild chocolate taste (but why would you??) you might not like this one.

3)   I used to think it was relatively healthy because it has no fat whatsoever. But I think the abundance of sugar negates that lack of butter. (I know -- some of you might consider the lack of butter to be a negative in itself!)

4)   It’s really good with strawberries (or raspberries) on the side.

Chocolate Pudding Cake

1 cup flour (I use whole-wheat)

¾ cup sugar

3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup milk (I use soy)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 Cup brown sugar

3 Tbsp. cocoa

1 ½ cup hot water

1.       Combine the first five ingredients and mix well.

2.       Stir in the milk and vanilla.

3.       Spread the mixture into a greased a 9 inch square baking pan

4.       Combine the brown sugar and 3 tbsp. of cocoa. Sprinkle it over the batter.

5.       Pour the hot water over the batter. Do not stir.

6.       Bake for 40 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.

7.       Go ahead and take the cake out after 40 minutes, even if it doesn’t look done, because by the time it does look done, it will be overdone.

Artichokes and Memories

When I was born, my parents gave up their small apartment in San Francisco and moved to the suburbs, along with thousands of other young couples who were able to buy homes with loans from the GI Bill. We lived in Daly City, on Stoneyford Drive, a stone’s throw from the San Francisco city border.

We traveled into San Francisco on a regular basis, to visit our Aunt Rose, who owned an apartment building that smelled of dust and old carpeting; to dentist appointments in an office off Union Square, where we sometimes got to feed the pigeons (a disgusting pastime that the city eventually  outlawed); to see Santa and the four-story high City of Paris Christmas tree in December; to Fisherman’s wharf for fresh crab that vendors plucked out of steamy vats on the sidewalk; and to Italian restaurants, such as San Remo's and Alioto's.

At lunch one day in Alioto's, my mother made me and my brother approach a table where Joe Di Maggio was sitting with some friends to ask him for his autograph. My brother remembers that Joe asked if we wanted our picture taken with him too, but we didn't have a camera. I remember Joe's kindly smile, but mostly I remember the crusty the sourdough bread on every table. We lost track of the autograph itself, although my brother thinks that my mother still has it somewhere. The incident occurred sometime between Joe's glory days  and the early 70's when Joe morphed into being Mr. Coffee.

Behind our house were miles and miles of artichoke fields – this was California, land of lush valleys and thriving agriculture. Later, probably when I was around 10, we would watch the bulldozers come and turn the fields into the iconic ticky-tacky houses from the folk song that Malvina Reynolds wrote for Pete Seeger in the early sixties.

When you grow up eating artichokes, you think nothing of the work needed for cooking and eating them. They seem natural, don’t you know. I don’t remember what we had with artichokes, maybe crab. But today when I buy them in the late spring, I have pasta, or shrimp or risotto. My “Flavor Bible” cookbook says they go well with butter, cream, garlic, lemon, Parmesan cheese and parsley – all ingredients that go well with pasta and risotto too.

Like everything else, today’s artichokes seem bigger than the ones I remember eating – almost a meal in themselves. Nonetheless, Don and I each had our own at dinner last night. We have them with a mound of mayonnaise for dipping, because that’s how I at them as a child. I recommend this method.

I have since had whole, grilled baby artichokes that are utterly delicious and I would recommend that method as well.

Here are the artichokes from last night:

First, cut off the stem. And then, cut about 1 1/2  inches down from the top of the artichoke.

Next, pick off, by-hand, about two to three layers of the small leaves around the bottom of the artichoke and re-cut the stem close to the base. Needless to say, perfection is unnecessary.



Cut the tips off of each leaf with a pair of scissors so you don't prick yourself when pulling off the leaves to eat them.

 

Wash the artichoke and place upside down on a steamer basket in a large pot with a fitted lid. Steam for 45 to 50 minutes. Test an outer leaf for doneness by pulling it off and tasting. Some cookbooks suggest putting lemon juice in the water to reduce discoloration, but I don't bother with that.



When you get to the point where you can't eat anymore, begin the process of taking off the choke part of the artichoke so you can get to the heart. I think I ate a few more leaves at this point before starting to disassemble the artichoke.

Lift off the top mass of leaves.

Keep lifting off the leaves until you see the thistles.

Cut the thistles off with your table knife and enjoy the heart with even more mayonnaise.

Pizza with Potatoes -- It Works!

I've been wanting to put potatoes on pizza for quite some time now. I did it last night and really loved the taste and texture of creamy soft potatoes along with the mushrooms, kale and bits of seasoned tofu crumbles.

The potatoes here don't look especially attractive, I'll admit -- I might have turned the broiler on for a minute or two to brown them up. But the taste was just right.

Because I have an unreasonable fear of using yeast, I don't make pizza dough from scratch. Once or twice in the past, I had bread dough that didn't rise and ever since then, I hesitate to try using it again.  (You think maybe because the yeast was over 10 years old?) So instead of making pizza dough myself, I buy frozen dough from the grocery. (Click here for my last pizza with frozen dough.)

Here's my recipe:

Slice one Yukon Gold potato into 1/8-inch slices and stand them on end around a wire steamer basket.  Cook them until tender. Lay the slices on a dish towel to absorb excess moisture, turning them once.

Remove the stems from about four large kale leaves and wash the leaves. Chop the kale and sauté it for two or three minutes. Add two cloves of chopped or minced garlic and continue cooking for two to three more minutes. 

Sauté about three large mushrooms, sliced. I used to use uncooked mushrooms when making pizza, but my pizza was always way too juicy, because I'm not shy about using lots of mushrooms. So now I cook the mushrooms briefly, just until they release most of their liquid and the problem is solved.

Sauté about 3/4-cup of tofu crumbles with 1 tbsp. of fennel seeds and 1 tsp. each of cumin seeds or ground cumin, sage and thyme along with a sprinkling of crushed red pepper, salt and pepper.

Layer the ingredients on the pizza beginning with mozzarella. I skipped tomato sauce with this pizza because I wanted the flavors of the other ingredients to be prominent.

Add a drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper over everything and bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Behind Closed Drawers -- Tools in My Kitchen

I like to think of kitchen gadgets as real "tools of the trade." They make life easier and remind you to expand your repertoire of cooking techniques.

Here are some of my favorites:

I got these fish tweezers for about $7.95 a few years ago, and I see that they are still a bargain all over the web (Here's one site). Prior to that, I struggled for years to pick out bones from salmon and halibut and on the few times we have it, trout. I suppose I might have gone down to the basement and brought up a pair of regular pliers or gone upstairs and found an extra set of regular tweezers. But I am so glad that I didn't do either of those things. These tweezers are sturdy, small and perfect.

I use my garlic press at least every other day. I do have to admit that I'm really bad with changes and when Don bought me this I was initially skeptical, because I was doing just fine with my old garlic press, thank you very much. (For a picture of  Don, click on this post and scroll to the bottom.) My problem was that this press has moving parts that are a little tricky to maneuver. Ultimately,  I discovered that it's worth getting used to -- it's easy to clean and fits lots of garlic chunks in its little basket.

My kitchen was a one-pyrex kitchen for many years (the small one-cup version) until I just recently figured out that I really wanted/needed bigger containers. So, in one fell-swoop I bought two more sizes! (I know -- quite an impulse buy for me!). I use the medium size for saving left-over coffee in case I don't feel like making fresh on the mornings when Don goes in to his office. The big one is great for heating stock when I make risotto. The 2-cup version is handy for mixing the wet ingredients in recipes before adding to the dry ingredients.

Thanks Jenny for this small, hand-held mixer! I had gone many years without a mixer after mine broke about 10 years ago. I was actually beating egg whites for waffles and meringues with a hand-held egg beater I inherited from my mother when I went off to college! I don't use this all that often, but it takes up so little space that it is well worth having it around.

Do you use about 20 paring knives every time you cook dinner? Or maybe just 5? Of course I switch them out if I need to cut a bit of fat off a piece of chicken, but for some reason it is easier to grab a new knife out of this little container next to the stove than it is to look around and see where I set down the previous knife. Don't ask me why.

If I need to measure lemon or orange juice, I use a small, hand  juicer, but if I don't care about measuring, this juicer is the most effective tool -- so simple, so effective, so red and easy to find in the drawer.

If you drink any amount of wine at all, you need to get one of these rabbit-ear cork screws. Ours is from the Chefs catalogue.

The microplane. It fits easily in the drawer, it does a perfect job and it allows you to add lemon or orange zest really quickly and easily. Did the first-users buy them at the hardware store instead of the kitchen store?  

I'm adding this apple corer not because I like it ( I don't) but because Don uses it a lot. I prefer my apples cut and cored by hand (using a handy accessible paring knife, see above). Don says "It's quick. But there's a lot of spray back. When I do it, I always look up so I don't get spray in my glasses."

Simple Pleasures -- Cantaloupe with a Spritz of Lime Juice

I used to think that cantaloupe was something you had in chunks at breakfast, but years ago, a German friend served slices at dinner and I was hooked. They also provide a good reason to have a lime or two on hand.

We had Caesar salad with tofu croutons for dinner last night, with asparagus and these cantaloupe slices (along with panani buns from Pane d'Amore).

Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) likes to give taste previews with her food -- a sprig of mint on something that has mint or vanilla beans in yogurt or ice cream that have vanilla flavoring. I squeezed a bit of lime juice on the slices, so that's why I grated a bit of the lime zest on as well.

I frequently have cantaloupe when we have salads for dinner. They fit nicely on your plate, they provide a juicy and sweet counterpoint to a crunchy salad, and they remind me of our friend in Germany.