tasting memories

Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.

These are the kind of brownies that are super moist on the inside with a nice crackly crust on top. They are dense, rich and on the sweet side. Be sure to use a good chocolate like Callebaut or Valrhona.

This is Ruth Reichl's brownie recipe from her book, Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table. It's the best brownie recipe I've tried so far.

Artpark Brownies
2/3 cup butter
5 ounces unsweetened, best quality French chocolate
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup sifted flour

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Butter and flour a 9" square baking pan.

2. Melt butter and chocolate in double boiler, over boiling water. When melted, add vanilla and set aside.

3. Beat eggs and salt in mixer. Add sugar and beat at high speed for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is quite white.

4. Add chocolate and butter mixture and beat at low speed, just until mixed. Add flour and combine quickly, until there are no white streaks.

5. Pour batter into baking pan and put in oven. Immediately turn oven down to 350° and bake for 40 minutes. Note: the normal toothpick test will not work on these brownies, but if you want to try pricking them with a toothpick, it should come out not quite clean. Do not overbake; these brownies should be fudgy.

Makes 12 brownies.

Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.

Most recipes call for large eggs, but what if you only have jumbo eggs or medium eggs in your fridge? Use the conversion guidelines in Sizes to figure out how much to use.

Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.

This cream cheese frosting goes wonderfully with banana cake or carrot cake. Unlike many cream cheese frostings, this one is on the lighter side and requires your cake to be kept cool for best results. The original recipe was adapted from RecipeZaar's Best Ever Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. I cut down the sugar in their cream cheese frosting from 3 1/2 cups to 2 1/2 cups. The frosting is still plenty sweet, but more subtle and soft.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add confectioners sugar and beat at low speed until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Makes 2 cups frosting.

Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.

There are many reasons to celebrate this month. Today is our 8th year anniversary of moving to New York City from small town Bozeman, MT. Our company, Smatter Inc., incorporated three years ago this month. And, next Friday is the one year anniversary of this blog. However, this cake does not celebrate any of these events. This cake celebrates a little girl's first birthday this month.

Banana cake is a wonderful summer cake and makes an ideal birthday cake. If you are planning a party, you can make the cake a day or two ahead of time, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, refrigerate, and then frost it the day of the party. It's great even without frosting. I recommend serving it cooled rather than at room temperature.

The recipe was adapted from RecipeZaar's Best Ever Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. In the original recipe, they recommend you freeze the cake after it comes out of the oven. I find this step unnecessary and the results are still moist and wonderful (not to mention that placing a hot pan in the freezer can be potentially damaging to other items in the freezer). The recipe will yield one large sheet cake or a double layered round cake.

This cake is delicious, so, find a reason to celebrate in August and try it out for yourself.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
1 1/2 cups ripe bananas (about 3 bananas), mashed
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 cups cream cheese frosting
chopped walnuts (optional, for garnish)

1. Preheat oven to 275°. Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans (or one 9" x 13" cake pan). In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla.
3. Beat in the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let it sit in the pan for about fifteen minutes. Remove the cake from the pan by inverting the pan and cool to room temperature in a cooling rack. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours or up to three days before frosting.
5. Frost the cake and refrigerate for one hour to allow the frosting to harden.

Makes 16 servings.

Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.

Scott, Angelica and I went to Puerto Rico to visit family in late August last year. It was a trip fraught with turmoil as my mother's mental illness had become much more pronounced and balancing the needs of my grandparents and my mother was a loosing battle. This was supposed to be our vacation but really, it was an exercise in keeping it together. A running joke was that this vacation was Boot Camp: the Puerto Rico edition.

We spent countless hours in the scorching sun scraping the wrought iron fencing around my grandparents home. Even more hours into the night were spent painting the fence with oil-based enamels. Between these exercises we would go and visit my mom who lived in the fishing town of Santa Isabel about twenty minutes away from Ponce. We met her thug housekeeper, who despite his friendly and humble demeanor seemed like the kind of man that had a dark past. We listened to Mami's theories about the grand conspiracy of the serpent people and how Angelica and I were destined to eradicate them. Despite her handicap and needing a wheelchair to get around, Mami even managed to teach Angelica how to dance flamenco - the great dance of serpent stomping.

This trip was devastating.

There was no way to even make a dent in my family's need. Even though Angelica and Scott were patiently going along with all that this family visit required, I could see that they were being pushed. We rented a car and took an overnight trip to the eastern coast of the island just to take a deep breath. We drove until we found a little hotel beside the beach in the town of Patillas. As we walked beside the road toward the hotel I was delighted to see tamarind pods strewn under our feet, discovering the large trees growing wild by the side of the road overhead. What a happy and simple moment. Finding the tamarind grounded me that day. It reminded me of my roots: that I come from an island of proud but humble people where chaos and pleasure live side by side. It reminded me of childhood, when things were somewhat simpler and the sour and earthy taste of tamarind could shock the senses and provide a temporary reprieve.

I found some fresh tamarind at the Chelsea Market's Manhattan Fruit Exchange this week, and I could not resist bringing some home. Today, I am making some fresh tamarind juice and remembering that day last summer when we sat and stared at the ocean and the horizon line, incredulous, speechless at what was happening around us.

Refresco de Tamarindo (Tamarind Juice)
1 pound fresh tamarind in the pod
4 cups of water
3/4 cup sugar or more, to taste

1. Peel the tamarind and place the flesh (with pits) it in a heavy sauce pan. Add the water and soak for an hour.
2. Use your hands to massage the tamarind and remove as much flesh from the seed as possible.
3. Bring the tamarind mixture to a boil and quickly remove from the heat. Pour through a colander to strain out the seeds and casings.
4. Add sugar to taste and cool the juice down. Enjoy served over ice.

Makes 6 - 8 servings.