Carrot cake

I think the best carrot cakes are made with a nice blend of spices not just cinnamon.  Cinnamon is surely a king spice but I believe a good carrot cake is a lot like a tea bread or spice cake (the base of most Christmas or European styled fruit cakes).  I'm not a big raisin fan and thankfully neither is Jason's grandmother who requested the cake for her 90th birthday - sans raisins.

Preheat oven to 350

Cake recipe:

• 4 eggs
• 1 - 1 1/4 cups olive oil (do 1 and if you need more then do it up!)
• 1 and 1/2 cups vegan sugar or unrefined
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 Cups unbleached white flour
• 1/2 C whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg 
• tiny pinch of ground clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 TBSP ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots (I use a lot of carrot in my carrot cake this will average about 2-4 carrots depending on size)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (as raw and unpasteurized as you can find)

Combine eggs, vanilla, oil and sugar beat lightly.  Combine all dry ingredients and finger toss.  Combine wet to dry and fold together until well blended but no need to whip too hard (cakes can fall when you whip in a lot of air).  If you spoon your batter into muffin cups then you can bake for 20-22 minutes.  If you want a big cake then it will take 40 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.  I use a springform pan buttered and lightly floured with whole wheat. Bang out any excess wheat and it should slide right out.  Wait until thoroughly cooled before icing or it will melt right into the cake.  This cake is a really good one to wait until the next day to eat because it will be a little more moist and the spices will be a little stronger. But who can wait?

The cream cheese icing is a recipe of yogurt cheese:

• 1 container of whole milk yogurt (hung in a clean kitchen towel to drain for 4-8 hours)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 Cup or less room temp softened salted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup vegan sugar or unrefined
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of arrowroot powder (this just thickens your icing the more you use the thicker it will be)

Once yogurt cheese has become dry and lovely from hanging.  Put into bowl along with vanilla and butter (if the butter is softened you can blend this immediately if not wait for butter to soften). On a low heat or in a double boiler (I use a saucepan and just remove from the heat as needed anytime there is fear of sticking) put sugar then crack egg over it and stir briskly to keep egg from sticking or cooking through.  You want the egg to foam and stay liquid.  Let sugar egg mixture cool.  Add to the butter, cheese, vanilla  and mix together using as much arrowroot powder as you'd like to get the consistency you like.  I like my icing to be soft peaks. Like whipped cream.  Once you refrigerate the icing it will act much like purchased icing.  You can even pipe it from a bag.  I prefer to just slap it on with a paddle.

Delicious.

Oven roasted herbed potatoes and carrots with pan fried Zucchini spears

When it comes to dinner, I like things savory, spicy and hearty.  So, when I am imagining a menu, I try and find things that satisfy these cravings but are also simple and relatively quick to make.   This entry is going to detail one of my very favorite easy-to-cook meals.  I sometimes refer to these as "man meals" because they can be made just as easily on a camp stove as a regular oven, and bachelors with virtually no cooking skills can throw together a meal that is sure to impress a dinner guest.

There are four components to this menu:  roasted root veggies, pan fried zucchini, mixed greens and a ketchup-like tomato sauce for dipping.

First, the root veggies:

• Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees
• Cut your veggies (I used garlic, potato and carrot) into evenly-sized sections that will cook at approximately the same pace -- so if it's potatoes, they should be slices less than a half inch thick, same goes for carrot rounds, and any others.  Veggies that go great in this dish are rutabagas (peel them first), parsnip, carrots, potatoes, onion, hot peppers, and garlic cloves.
• Put your mix of cut veggies in a large mixing bowl and add 1-3 Tbsp of sunflower or safflower oil (enough to coat your veggies)
• Add finely chopped fresh herbs (rosemary, marjoram, thyme) in equal amounts to the the mix -- you want enough to see a speckle of each kind of herb on every piece of veggie
• Add a tsp of coarse sea salt
• Mix the herbs, oil, and veggies together until they are evenly coated.  Make sure that no veggies are dry or without herbs (you can grate some fresh black pepper over it here, or sprinkle hot pepper seeds to make it extra spicy)
• Lightly oil your cookie sheet with sunflower or safflower oil.  Pour the mix onto a cookie sheet in a single layer, meaning that there are not veggies stacked on top of one another, and place in oven for 35 minutes, turning once 15 minutes in

Once this is in the oven for 15 minutes, it's time to make the pan-fried zucchini!  Don't do it too early, or it will get soggy.

• Start a pan warming up to medium high heat
• Add 1 Tbsp of sunflower or safflower oil to the pan -- make sure it doesn't smoke as this means the pan is way too hot.
• In a small, flat mixing bowl, pour in whole wheat (not enriched!) flour about an 1/8th of an inch deep
• Add 1/2 tsp of cracked black pepper, and any savory dried herbs like oregano, basil, rosemary and thyme -- you can use an Italian or herbs de provence mix.  The herbs should be about 1 tsp worth.  Mix it until the flour and herbs are a uniform consistency.
• Cut a single zucchini into long, flat sections.  If the skin is at all tough, peel it first.
• Run each piece of zucchini under water for a moment so it is moist, no need for egg-- then dip it in the flour/herb mix so it has a thin coating of the flour/herb mix
• Place the zucchini in the hot oiled frying pan and let them cook until the bottom is browned.  You want the flour to be completely cooked.
• Once done, place the pieces on a paper towel, resting on a plate to absorb excess oil.  If the timing is right, the root veggies in the oven should be ready to come out shortly.

Lastly, time to make some ketchup-like tomato dip.  This is optional because the other stuff is already super tasty.  I like it because it gives the meal more color and flexibility.

• In a small bowl, add 1/2 Cup of crushed canned tomatoes -- make sure it's 100% tomato and nothing else
• Add a pinch of allspice, clove, coriander, plus an even smaller pinch of something spicy like cayenne or dried hot peppers -- if you have a garlic powder you trust, add a pinch of that as well.
• Add 1/2 tsp of coarse sea salt
• Add 1 tsp of sugar, or honey  (you may want more depending on your taste, but mix first and let it sit before adding more -- too much sweet is no good)
• Mix thoroughly and either serve cold, or heat the mixture and serve hot

The last element is putting a nice bed of fresh raw greens on the side.  I recommend arugula, mustard, butter lettuce, cress, and turnip greens.   I'll make a note in a later potlicker on how to make your own "greens bed" in the back yard.

So, once it's all done, plate it up and serve to whomever you want to be impressed with your mad cooking skills.