watermelon mini cakes

macaroni and tofu turn one this week!!!!!! 

i can't believe it. *they grow up so fast* look at them a year ago (!!):

and now they are beautiful colorful egg-layin ladies and tofu is a handsome young man and they bring us so much joy (and lots of shakshuka). happy birthday, macaroni and tofu! we love you! 

obviously we made little cakes for them with all of their favorite things: watermelon, yogurt, mint, and "sprinkles" (sunflower seeds and stuff). we sang the birthday song and thought about making little party hats... but i don't think chickens really like hats. sweaters, maybe. but hats? do you have any intel on this?

yogurt, i recently learned, is really good for chickies since it helps their digestion, and mint keeps them cool and helps repel any pests. and of course watermelon hydrates them, oh boy they are big watermelon fans.

i didn't sweeten the yogurt in these since chickens don't really have a sweet tooth, but if you're looking to make a human version of these, it might be tastier to use whipped cream or sweetened yogurt between the watermelon layers. or! you could take the old sweet/savory route and use slices of feta. these are easy little cakes to make and perfect for a hot summer day!

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watermelon mini cakes

1. slice thin layers of watermelon and use a biscuit cutter to cut out your cake layers

2. stack up your layers with a layer of yogurt/whipped cream/feta (see note above) and a few mint leaves in between

3. top with mint leaves and sprinkles and enjoy!

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-yeh!

coconut rainbow popsicles

i am staying in the world's cutest airbnb in silver lake this week. it has a tomato plant, a vintage oven, a huge stash of za'atar, and a million stairs leading up to it that make me feel like i'm in a treehouse! (a climate controlled treehouse, thank heavens, because it was one hundred and twelve degrees this week!! don't smell me.) it also has some pretty delicious light pouring in at all hours of the day, so lily and alana and i made our #popsicleweek popsicles in my little kitchen. we used coconut milk, lemongrass, and the most beautiful pluots from the hollywood farmers' market, and then each took a layer to do our thang and make the popsicle equivalent to friendship bracelets. kewt. they tasted like grownup pudding pops, 10/10 would recommend. 

alana infused her layer with lemongrass for the pale green top,

lily mixed in some pluot juice for the bright pink center,

i made a malabi-inspired mix with rosewater, vanilla, and cinnamon,

and then we did a chocolate drizzle and bedazzled them with pistachios, rose petals, coconut, and glee. 

and then! billy, king of popsicle week, waltzed right in with adrianna and approved of the whole thing and it was, as the kids these days would say, gucci.

my life as a silver lake person has been so tasty and stone-fruit-filled, i can't wait to tell you more about it. but i just have a few more sleeps here, so i'm gonna go cook a branzino because mastering the art of branzino is going to be one thing i do before i leave california. bye!

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malabi pops

(this is layer #3 of these coconut rainbow popsicles. click here for the lemongrass layer and here for the pluot layer.)

ingredients

1 c full-fat coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
1/2 tsp rosewater
a pinch of kosher salt
a pinch of cinnamon
2 tb maple syrup, or to taste

optional toppings:

melted chocolate, crushed pistachios, rosebuds, toasted coconut

clues

make your lemongrass layer, pour into the bottom third of your popsicle molds and freeze for 45 minutes. make your pluot layer, pour on top of the lemongrass layer and freeze 15 minutes. insert popsicle sticks and then freeze for another 15 minutes. 

mix together all ingredients for this layer. taste and adjust as desired. pour on top of the pluot layer and freeze for an hour. drizzle with chocolate and top with pistachios, rosebuds, and coconut, if desired. enjoy!

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-yeh!

a big green cobbler with leeks, gruyere, and split peas

ok hi from santa monica! i am here this week filming some videos with tastemade and generally worshipping huckleberry every moment i get. i've been wearing the half-bun and a nifty new pair of aviator sunglasses and i got a slight bit of tan, but so far no one has mistaken me for a local. i'm trying to figure it out. is it because i don't have a car and have been walking everywhere? am i acting and dressing like 76º is warmer than it actually is? or maybe it's my accent. syalad, syandwich, syanta monica.

that's ok! even if i was mistaken and someone asked me for directions, i would not know the answer. unless if it were to huckleberry. 

i'm mostly really excited to cook with california produce. and i'm thinking i'll just hide out here until our garden back home comes up with cucumbers and tomatoes and fairytale eggplants (new this year!). which brings me to this recipe, because it's likely my last recipe of the season that will require you to really cook the daylights out of vegetables before eating them...

did i ever tell you about the green party that my parents threw me when i was three? i only vaguely remember it because i was three, it might have been at chuck e cheese, but everything was the color green except for probably the food because that was back when i only ate macaroni and cheese. if i had been eating green foods though, this savory cobbler would have been a good contender for the menu. all it is is five different green things swimming in a pool of gruyere and topped with buttermilk biscuits. you can get with that, right? it's very leek-centric and has a nice scoop of dry split peas, which is a new ingredient for me! i tried them because this year is the international year of pulses (have you taken the pulse pledge yet??) and have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to have these little green dudes on hand to throw into soups and stuff.

if you'd like to add in any more green veggies to this cobbler that you have on hand or sub out the spinach for another leaf or the leeks for another allium, go right ahead. this is a very forgiving cobbler!

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big green cobbler

serves 6

ingredients

3 tb butter
3 leeks, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 bunch scallions, chopped, whites separated from the greens
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c flour
1 1/2 c vegetable or chicken broth
1/4 c heavy cream cream
2 packed cups spinach
1 c shredded gruyere
1/2 c dried split peas, cooked according to the package directions

Biscuits:

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
14 tb butter, cold and cubed
3 tb buttermilk
1 egg, beaten

clues

Preheat the oven to 425ºf.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium high heat and add the leeks, zucchini, a pinch of salt, and a few turns of pepper and cook, stirring, until the leeks are soft and translucent, 7-10 minutes. Add the whites of the scallions and the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Stir in the flour and cook for another minute, and then add about half of the broth. Cook, stirring, until the broth has thickened, and then add the other half of the broth and then cook until thickened. Stir in the cream and spinach and cook until the spinach has wilted. Stir in the cheese, the peas, and all but a handful of the scallion greens and then reduce the heat to low. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, while you make the biscuits.

To make the biscuits, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and, using a food processor or pastry cutter or your hands, incorporate the butter until the mixture is the consistency of oatmeal. Fold in the remaining handful of scallion greens and then mix in the buttermilk until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Turn it out onto a floured work surface, pat it out to 1/2” thick and then cut out round biscuits, re-rolling scraps as needed.

Pour the green mixture into an oven-safe vessel such as a casserole dish or cast iron pan or dutch oven and then top it with the biscuits. Brush the biscuits with the beaten egg and top with black pepper. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, begin checking for doneness at 25 minutes. Enjoy!

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-yeh!

thank you so much to usa pulses and pulse canada for sponsoring this post! 

falafel sliders with spicy yogurt, mint, and sumac onions

i have some advice for you! if you ever want your feet to fall off and your back to tell you no, silly pants, you won't be leaving your couch today unless it's to toast a bit of pita or fetch a bite of halva then do exactly this: get two hours of sleep tonight, two hours of sleep tomorrow night, fly on three airplanes including the 9:55pm msp-gfk flight which is basically a flying refrigerator, and then prep and cater a seven-course production in fargo the next day where two of the dishes are brand new things you've never made before but just *have* to figure out last minute because the rhubarb is here and the schnitzel doesn't feel right anymore. i'm not complaining. i'm just soliciting an energy drink sponsorship. 

i loved every minute of it though!!! i have a new favorite thing to do, and that's waking up at dawn, snooping around our yard filling up baskets of chives and rhubarb and any other edible plant i can find, and then hurrying back in to chop everything up before organizing them into labeled deli containers and prepping the day away. the dinner in fargo was at this beautiful old ginormous mansion and i got to cook on an 8-burner range that had its own warming shelf under the hood. i made fried olives and rhubarb malabi and in between served a hummus course, a soup course, a shameless hotdish 😛., and then ended it with a halva course. (those in favor of making halva courses the norm, say aye!) all of the guests and kitchen folks were so darn sweet and even though i actually could not stand up straight at the end, my heart was so full and happy. 

i am off to france tomorrow. pray 4 my feet.

to celebrate the upcoming memorial day weekend, i made you a recipe that's dressed for a party! mini falafel sandwiches on hot fresh pita with hot pink onions and a quirky yogurt sauce that's refreshing and spicy all at once. it's inspired by the fact that i'm conditioned to always want tabasco on my falafel. i don't know where this came from, it's just a habit, a really tasty habit, but it sucks when you accidentally add too much and then can no longer taste your food. yogurt (or any dairy) helps calm spiciness though, a thing i learned at hot sauce camp on avery island, so even though there's a ton of tabasco sauce in this yogurt, your mouth won't be on fire, you'll just get the lovely flavor of the pepper. fresh mint and pickled onions also carry their weight in making these little sliders refreshing and ready for the summer. 

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falafel sliders with spicy yogurt, mint, and sumac onions

makes 12

ingredients

pita:

1 1/2 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 3/4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting (optional: sub out 1 3/4 cup bread flour for 1 3/4 cup for whole wheat)

sumac onions:

1 cup warm water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon sumac
1 large purple onion, thinly sliced

falafel:

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked for 10 hours or overnight and drained
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, freshly toasted and coarsely ground in a spice grinder
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, freshly toasted and coarsely ground in a spice grinder
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves with stems, roughly chopped
1/4 cup lightly packed parsley leaves with stems, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
Black pepper
Tabasco original red sauce
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Olive oil or flavorless oil, for frying

spicy yogurt:

3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons tabasco original red sauce
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

assembly:

a handful of nice big fresh mint leaves

clues

to make the pita:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the water, yeast, and sugar. Let it sit for 5 minutes, or until foamy. With the mixer running on low speed, add the salt and oil, and then gradually add the flour. Increase the speed to medium high and mix for 7-10 minutes, adding just enough additional flour so that the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Do not add too much flour. The dough should be smooth and slightly sticky. Lightly coat a clean large bowl with oil or cooking spray and then place the dough in the bowl and turn it once or twice to coat it in oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

Turn the dough onto a clean work surface and divide it into 24 equal pieces. Mold each piece into a ball by stretching the top and tucking the edges under. Place the balls 1” apart on a piece of parchment paper, cover them with plastic wrap, and let them rise for 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 500ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment.

With a rolling pin, roll out the balls of dough into 3" circles. Place them on the baking sheets and bake for about 5 minutes, or until they're puffy and just starting to brown. This will make more pita than you need for the sliders. Leftovers are tasty and can be frozen and reheated in the toaster. 

to make the onions:

whisk together all ingredients except for the onion. add the onion, cover, and let sit at room temperature for an hour or in the refrigerator overnight. 

to make the falafel:

In a food processor, combine the chickpeas, cumin, coriander, onion, garlic, cilantro, parsley, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, a few turns of pepper, a few shakes of tabasco sauce, flour, and lemon juice and pulse quickly, about 80-100 times, until the mixture is combined, but still slightly grainy. 

In a large skillet, heat 1/4” oil over medium high heat until shimmering but not smoking. Form 2" patties of the falafel mixture, packing them firmly. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel. 

to make the yogurt:

combine all ingredients.

to assemble:

cut open a pita, spread it with the yogurt, and top with a falafel patty, a mint leaf or two, and a pile of onions. enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you, tabasco, for sponsoring this post! check out the #tabascotastemakers hashtag for more tabasco recipes!