Kitchen3N

Recipes and food fun from Apt 3N

#Baesic Roasted Salmon and Veggies

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It’s January and I know many of us are trying to find ways to eat healthy. I’ve had a little extra time on my hands so I’ve been coming up with different ways to eat healthy/less meat/fewer carbs. Not exactly low fat though. Kale caesar salad. Chana dal with veggies and coconut milk. Tomato soup. Today I whipped up this salmon and mixed vegetable sauté. Follow along for inspo on my Instagram!
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I’m calling this my #baesic salmon because even though it’s a basic way to cook it, it’s bae in my recipe book. I’ve tried cooking salmon just on the the stovetop, and it just burns on the outside before cooking through on the inside. If you lower the heat too much you don’t get the nice crust. This way, if you sear it on the stovetop, finish it off the oven, you get the best of both worlds. I wasn’t sure if it would be done actually, but when I dug into it, it was juuuuuuust slightly pink and rare in the middle. If you prefer it cooked well through, leave in for 2 more minutes.
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I know we all tryin’ to eat more nutritious food, less meat, fewer carbs. And I know salmon isn’t exactly the best option either. It’s overfished, not sustainable. But I for one need to change things up from beans, lentils and eggs. We still do chicken once a week or so. Red meat once a month maybe. Baby steps.
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Ingredients

For the mixed vegetable sauté:

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 5 organic carrots (they’re smaller, so if using big carrots, use 3-4)
  • 1/2 large onion or 1 medium onion
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 12 oz cauliflower florets, or from 1 head of cauliflower
  • 12 oz broccoli florets, or from 1 large head of broccoli (I had two small heads of broccoli)
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • more salt and pepper to taste

For the salmon

  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 2tbsp unsalted butter
  • 12 oz salmon fillet
  • salt and pepper
  • a squeeze of lemon

Directions

  1. For the vegetable sauté: heat up oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add carrots, saute for 2-3 minutes, then add onions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes more. Add the garlic, then broccoli and cauliflower florets. Add butter and more salt and pepper. If the veggies are starting to brown too easily on the bottom, reduce heat to medium. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally until veggies are crisp tender, 10-15 more minutes. Taste for seasoning.
  2. For the salmon: Preheat oven to 350F. Score the skin side of the salmon – about 3 slits diagonally. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Melt butter and olive oil in at least a 9in round french or other ovenproof skillet. When bubbling stops, add the salmon, skin side down. Don’t touch it for at least 2 minutes. When there’s a nice crust, it’ll lift off easily. Flip over carefully, minimizing splatter of hot oil, using two spatulas if necessary. And cook for an additional 2 minutes. Then insert in preheated oven for 7-8 minutes.
  3. Remove from heat, finish with a squeeze of lemon and let rest for a few minutes before serving. Serve alongside steamed quinoa or brown rice.

Small Chocolate Cake

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There are many a great chocolate cake recipes out there. Why, say you, post yet another? Take for example the great Beatty’s Chocolate cake recipe that I made for many years. All the elements of a great chocolate cake: good quality cocoa, buttermilk, coffee. The problem is, they’re quite big if you’re making something for an intimate gathering. I’ve learned an 8in cake feeds approximately 20 people, and 9 feeds about 25. So, if you’re looking for a small celebration cake for the family, this is the recipe for you. If you invest (~$20) in 3 6in round pans, you can have small, chic cakes any time. I always freeze my cake layers by inverting onto plastic wrap lined 6in cake board, then wrapping well with the plastic wrap. Small cakes can be kind of wobbly and difficult to decorate unless frozen solid. Then, let come to room temperature before serving.
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I also recommend using a good quality cocoa powder for your chocolate cakes. You don’t have to break the bank. Rodelle from Amazon is really good quality for a reasonable price. You’ll get 6 to 12 servings, depending on how big you cut each slice.
I always find the best chocolate cakes are the ones with coffee in the batter. The batter will be quite thin – don’t let this worry you. It makes for a wonderfully aromatic and moist cake – doesn’t taste like coffee or mocha at all.
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For the biggest chocolate fans, frost with a chocolate ganache, using a 1:1 weight ratio of chocolate to heavy cream. Otherwise this goes great with salted caramel, vanilla, chocolate or raspberry buttercream. Links to each below!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup freshly brewed strong, hot coffee

Directions

1. Spray 3 6in cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Place the pans on top of a big sheet of parchment paper and draw circles around the bottom of each pan. Cut out each circle and line the bottom of each pan with one. Spray the parchment lined bottoms of the pans with a bit more non stick spray.
2. Brew coffee. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Add sugar to the bottom of a large bowl or the mixing bowl of your stand mixer.* Place a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda. Sift into the bowl. Add salt. Whisk to combine.
3. In a large measuring cup or bowl, combine oil, milk, eggs and vanilla extract. With the mixer running on low, or by hand, slowly add wet ingredients to dry, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Finally, add the coffee, stirring slowly and carefully, until batter is combined.
4. Divide evenly between the three cake pans (I use a scale to determine this). Bake for 25-28 minutes in preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool, then remove from pan and slice off the domes before stacking and frosting. Frost with my raspberry swiss meringue buttercream, american buttercream, vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, chocolate swiss meringue buttercream, chocolate ganache or your choice of frosting.

*I do this step first because I’ve forgotten to add the sugar too many times.

Cherry Almond Cake

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I know, I know. I’m actually posting a non-chocolate recipe. There are few things that I enjoy as much as I enjoy chocolate. Vacations. Lobster truffle mac and cheese (just discovered at cute Sunnyside spot Côté Soleil while out to dinner with the talented and endearing Moni Begum of Moni’s Kitchen). Moroccan almond cookies made by La Rose Kitchen. Actually, any almond dessert is fabulous. Rainbow cookies. Marzipan (yup, straight up). Stollen (German holiday sweet bread with marzipan filling).

So cherry almond cake was a no-brainer. Last week I had made a cherry frangipane (fancy word for almond filling) tart. Recipe from NYTimes. It was SO good, but since there’s already a perfectly good recipe out there, I wanted to share a less-fussy version of the dessert for those who may not have the time or desire to make pâte sucrée, chill it, roll it out, fit it, trim it, blind bake it, then fill and bake once more.

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The answer is this single layer cherry almond cake. A standard beginning of creamed butter and sugar with the addition of 2 tbsp of almond paste that has been sitting in my cupboard FOREVER. Thickened with an egg, flavored with almond extract. Finally beefed up with a cup of flour, leavener and salt. I greased and lined a 9 in cake pan with parchment. Then I poured in the batter, smoothed out to the edges, dotted the cherries throughout for an even distribution, topped with slivered almonds and sugar, then baked for about 45 minutes.
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I used defrosted, drained frozen pitted cherries for this. Fresh cherries would have been out of this world, but I wasn’t about to try to pit 14oz of cherries! Fresh or frozen, it’s a delicious cake, but I would decrease the sweetness next time around. I adapted it from a Cooking Light recipe (I increased the fat content so could use a lower sugar content). Feel free to try it either way!

Ingredients

  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 tbsp almond paste
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar (would decrease to 1/2 cup next time)
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract (might increase this to 1/2 tsp next time)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp cloves
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 tbsp slivered almonds
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 14 oz pitted cherries
  • powdered sugar for sprinkling

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the bottom and sides of a 9in cake pan with cooking spray, Cut out a 9in round piece of parchment and line the bottom of the pan with it. Spray with more cooking spray.
  2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and clove. Add salt and stir to combine.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a medium bowl using an electric hand mixer, cream butter, sugar and almond paste until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes at medium low speed. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add egg and almond extract, continue beating until the egg is incorporated, then scraped down the sides of the bowl again. Add half o the flour mixture, then the milk, then the remaining flour. Mix until incorporated, then pour into the prepared cake pan. Dot the top with cherries, almonds and an even sprinkling of the remaining granulated sugar.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until top is golden brown.
  5. After cooling, sprinkle with powdered sugar to serve.