Oven Baked Pan Cake

When I was a child, my dad used to make this sweet breakfast item in a large square cast-iron skillet on the stove. When I got much older, I asked him for the recipe. Apparently it was one that he created after much trial and error, and had forgotten over the years. I was told that I had to recreate it by the same method, trial and error. As for the size of the cast iron pan, I used an 8" and given how much one side of the batter rose while baking, it's probably be better in a 10" or larger pan. This is my first run at remaking a childhood memory.

The recipe's ingredients and baking process is remarkably similar to German Apple Pancake, Oven Fried Pancake, Baked Peach Pancake, Yorkshire Pudding (minus the drippings of roast beef), or a Dutch Baby. I imagine that this recipe has gone through hundreds of iterations across different countries and generations. Here is my rendition of it.

Despite how it looks, it is really good.

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 c. whole milk
3/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
pinch of salt
2 tbsp unbleached granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and while it is heating up, place clean cast iron pan in oven.

1. In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and sugar.

2. Whisk eggs and milk together (1-2 minutes) by hand or with an electric mixer. Gradually whisk in flour mixture.

3. When the oven reaches the baking temp, take skillet out and put in butter pieces. The butter melts pretty quickly, so use a spoon to coat the sides of the pan with butter. This'll make it easier for the cake to slide out after baking.

4. Pour in batter and bake for 25 minutes. It should be lightly golden colored on top when done.

5. Remove from oven and slide cake out onto a plate. Cut into slices and serve with a fruit compote, eat it plain, with freshly sliced fruit, or bacon.

Butterscotch Pudding

This is a sweet use for those leftover egg yolks from the macaroon recipe. Maybe I ate too many pre-packaged butterscotch pudding cups in my younger years, and without that annato colorant, my butterscotch pudding just didn't come out as dark burnt orange as manufacturers would like you to believe this pudding is colored. I also used light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar because it's what I had on hand. The pudding came out lumpier than I thought it would even though I put it through a fine mesh sieve before refrigeration. An electric hand mixer with a balloon whisk might have removed the lumps a bit better.

Ingredients

3 c. whole milk
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/8 tsp sea salt

4 large egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

1. In a large heatproof bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and egg yolks. Then whisk in 1/2 cup of milk until combined.

2. In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat remaining 2.5 cups of milk until it comes to a boil. Turn off heat.

3. A soup ladle at a time, add the heated milk to the egg mixture while whisking. This will gradually bring the heat up in the egg mixture and the eggs won't curdle. Whisk to incorporate the remaining heated milk.

If the eggs curdle, you're better off scrapping the entire recipe or making french toast out of the remaining ingredients because curdled egg pudding does not taste all that good. Yes, I have done this before and it tastes very eggy.

4. Transfer the milk-egg mixture into a clean heavy-bottomed pan. I used the same pan that milk was cooked in, except I washed it first. Well, I only have one pan that can do this. Cook on low-medium heat, whisking constantly, until the pudding reaches a consistency akin to mayonnaise. Remove from heat.

5. Whisk in unsalted butter until melted and combined. Whisk in vanilla extract.

6. (optional) If lumps formed while cooking, pour pudding through a fine mesh strainer.

7. Put pudding into one large glass serving bowl, smaller serving bowls, or into dessert cups and cover pudding surface with plastic wrap if you don't want a skin to form on the top. The pudding can be eaten warm or chilled.

Almond Pudding with Coconut

I thought I was being terribly clever by using the uneaten coconut macaroons as a crust for the bottom of this pudding. Alas, the principles of physics were working against me. I really thought that a heavy "cookie" would stay at the bottom, but alas, the broken bits of the macaroons started floating everywhere in the thickened pudding when I poured it into a glass serving bowl.

You'll note that the ingredient ratio is awfully similar to the quick and easy stovetop method for making vanilla pudding. That is because the only ingredient swapped out is the extract, using almond extract instead of vanilla extract. Maybe the recipe's title really should be Coconut Almond Pudding. Even that is a misnomer since there are no almonds in the dessert and there is, by weight, more coconut than almond extract in it.

Ingredients

2 c. whole milk

1/2 c. unbleached granuated sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sea salt

1 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp unsalted butter

6 coconut macaroons, crumbled

Directions

1. In a pot, bring milk to a near simmer over medium heat where bubbles start to form at the edges.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Gradually add dry ingredients to the milk and whisk to keep clumps from forming.

3. Cook pudding until it has thickened. It should be able to coat the back of a spoon and not drip off that quickly. Remove from heat and stir in butter and almond extract.

4. Add crumbled coconut macaroons to the bottom of a serving dish (I used a 1-qt glass serving bowl for this). Pour pudding on top. Let cool in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

The pudding by itself tastes like I had imagined it to taste like.. a milk-based pudding with the flavor of almond. It'll be interesting when the pudding has cooled to see what the addition of another dessert component tastes like.

Bay Scallops with Garlic Basil

Unless you live in a tropical place, like Hawaii or Florida, everywhere else it's the dead of Winter. I suppose that the basil aroma would be fantastic if fresh basil were available, but it is a vibrant spring to summer-time herb. Using dried basil doesn't make the dish all that colorific and even after cooking, the dried basil just barely looks like bits of dark green. This is a two-part dish and noodle complement is prepared separately. I don't think scallops taste as good with steamed brown rice, so, I used soba (buckwheat) noodles.


Even after the scallops are drained before cooking, they release a lot of liquid. I'd estimate that half the volume of a scallop is water since that's the size they come out to be after cooking. In retrospect, I added the garlic-basil sauce during the cooking stage and it could very well have been mixed in after the scallops were removed from the skillet. I use the word skillet loosely since the cookware used for this dish isn't a skillet at all but a casserole baking dish. I like Cuisinart for its all stainless-steel construction and it can go stove top to oven without much consideration. Anyhow, back to the recipe

Bay scallops and buckwheat noodles

Ingredients
1 lb medium bay scallops, drained
1 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)


Garlic Basil Sauce
1 tbsp EVOO
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried basil


Directions
1. Heat olive oil in skillet until the oil begins to spread fluidly. Add scallops and fry until they are no longer pink, no more than 2-3 minutes per side. Scallops shouldn't be overcooked. Use a slotted spoon to remove scallops to a plate or bowl.
2. Mix cooked scallops with garlic basil sauce until combined.
3. In the same skillet, add enough water to accommodate noodle servings. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Add soba noodles and cook according to package directions.
4. Remove noodles from cooking liquid and toss with a serving of scallops.
At this point, the dish is done. I reserved the cooking liquid to do something else, perhaps as the base for brown rice congee.

Coconut Macaroons

Wikipedia says that the English word macaroon and French macaron come from the Italian maccarone or maccherone. This word is itself derived from ammaccare, meaning crush or beat, used here in reference to the almond paste which is the principal ingredient. Most recipes call for egg whites (usually whipped to stiff peaks), with ground or powdered nuts, generally almond or coconut.

This is one of my favorite confections that I have always enjoyed, usually around Passover when supermarkets tend to carry them fresh and kosher. I suppose that the eggs and coconut were humanely slaughtered and/or blessed before being processed into ingredients. This is not a gluten-free food, if all-purpose flour or matzo cake meal is used to firm up the cookie. I like my macaroons to have substance, so this recipe uses flour.

Ingredients

1 c. egg whites (about 4 large eggs, reserve yolks for another recipe)
1/2 c. unbleached granulated sugar
1 tsp almond extract
1/3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
pinch of salt (no more than 1/8 or 1/4 tsp)
14 oz (1 bag) of sweetened shredded coconut

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

1. Carefully separate the egg whites from egg yolks. I used two prep bowls for this step.
2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form and add almond extract. Whisk to incorporate flour mixture until a "dough" forms.
4. Stir in shredded coconut until it's even distributed.
5. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (makes approx 2 dozen) or rounded tablespoonfuls (makes 18-20) onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray.
6. Bake for 20 minutes until the edges of the macaroons are lightly browned. Let cookies cool on a wire rack.