Fresh Ginger Cake

If pastry chef and baking expert extraordinaire David Lebovitz were to release a Greatest Hits collection, this Fresh Ginger Cake would no doubt make the cut. Come to think of it, he has and it did: the collection is a book called Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes, and it is a must-own for every baking enthusiast.

I have been friends with David for a good eight years, and I have known about this amazing ginger cake of his for about as long — it is one of his most requested, most celebrated recipes — but for some reason that’s the time it took for me to actually try it myself.

What is it that drives us to make a certain recipe at a certain time? Has anyone ever studied that?

At any given moment, it feels like I have dozens of recipes floating in my brain with a “to try” tag on them — recipes I’ve read about online, or in books and magazines, or ideas I’ve collected during restaurant meals or chef events. Some pop back out in a matter of days, last-in-first-out style, but others linger around for months and often years, bobbing in and out of my consciousness until the urge strikes, presumably when the right alignment of appetite, mood, and ingredient availability is reached.

Is that something you’ve experienced also? Do you let chance and spontaneity rule your cooking and baking projects, or do you have a system?

I’m wondering because, really: all I did was waste eight years of my life depriving myself of this wondrous cake.

It is called Fresh Ginger Cake, which certainly gives you a hint on the main flavor, but in truth it could be called Fresh Ginger and Molasses Cake, as half of the sweetening power is handed over to this tar-like and notoriously tricky ingredient, which can easily execute a coup d’état on your cake if you’re heavy-handed, but helps build complex layers of flavor when used properly.

In fact, David calls for mild molasses, and because there aren’t a million different types of molasses available in France — you usually have a choice of, oh, about one — I was worried mine was too strong. So I took an executive decision and used half molasses, half unrefined cane syrup from Louisiana, the same one I use for gâteau sirop.

And the resulting cake was nothing short of perfect: not too sweet (I did reduce the sugar a little bit) with a hefty ginger kick that warms the back of your throat, and a remarkably fluffy and moist texture. It’s a cake that keeps well, too, so it’s a good one to make for a household of two (I’m not counting the baby, who nibbles on three crumbs): for the next week, sliver after sliver, we kept marvelling at how moist it remained.

I served it to my mother-in-law, who had come to babysit Milan while we went to the movies for the first time in forever — I haven’t been so excited about going to the cinema since age twelve — and although she needs no bait to come and watch her grandson, she was so enthusiastic about it I hope we can do this again — the cake and the movie — very soon.

PS: I have just updated my links section if you want to take a look! And for the French speakers among you, I have done the same with the links section on the French version of Chocolate & Zucchini.

PPS: We went to see The Place Beyond The Pines and L.O.V.E.D. it. Did you?

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Draw Me A Fridge: Luisa Weiss

Luisa Weiss's sketch of her fridge.

For this new installment of our Draw Me A Fridge series (read about it here), Alexia spoke with Luisa Weiss.

Luisa Weiss blogs at The Wednesday Chef and is the author of the best-selling food memoir My Berlin Kitchen, which was published last September by Viking. She’s half American, half Italian and was born in Berlin. She moved back to her birth city three years ago, after spending a decade in New York. She now lives in Berlin with her husband Max and their 10-month-old son Hugo.

What are your fridge/freezer/pantry staples?

Fridge: Dijon mustard, a wedge of Parmesan, ketchup, at least two jars of jam at any given time, maple syrup, yogurt (whole milk for my son, lowfat for me), brown sugar (to stay moist!), unsalted butter, a tube of tomato paste, eggs (dinner’s always possible with eggs in the house), Sicilian colatura [a salted anchovy sauce] leftover from recipe testing my book, a jar of Better Than Bouillon stock base and a box of baking soda (for odor control).

Freezer: Ages ago, I read that you should keep spices in the freezer; ever since then, my freezer has been so cluttered with all those little pots and jars that it drives my husband crazy. There’s also always a box of frozen whole-leaf spinach, a bag of frozen peas and several Parmesan rinds wrapped in tinfoil in there.

Pantry: Pasta, lots of different rice varieties (I’m obsessed with my rice cooker), grains, flours, baking ingredients, canned fish, dry beans, dried fruit, nuts, lots of bottles of vinegar, coconut milk, soy sauce and canned tomatoes.

Do you do the grocery shopping for your house yourself? How often? Do you usually buy from the farmers’ market, shops?

I go grocery shopping almost every single day. I go to the farmer’s market for fruit, vegetables and farm eggs once or twice a week, but the rest of the time, I head to the stores in my neighborhood. It gives me an excuse to go outside with Hugo and since we live on the 4th floor without an elevator, I can’t do bulk shopping anyway. I get what I need that day and then I huff and puff my way up the stairs with the baby and the shopping bag. I go to Aldi for dried nuts and fruit, to the organic bakery for bread, and the Turkish grocer for fresh herbs and olives.

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Roasted Savoy Cabbage

We seem to be having one of those stubborn springs that refuses to, well, spring. And after a particularly dreary winter with a record dearth of sunny days, the grower from whom I get most of my vegetables told me he’s about a month and a half late with the spring crop.

So, despite what the calendar says — and despite my hunger for fresh peas — I am choosing to respect the realities of the current season, and to celebrate the tail end of the winter produce.

And the winter vegetable I’ve really rediscovered of late is the Savoy cabbagechou frisé in French.

I like cruciferous vegetables of all stripes and colors, but this one had always been my cabbage of least proficiency. I love it in my mother’s stuffed cabbage, and in the farci poitevin I’ve revisited in The French Market Cookbook, but I lacked ideas beyond those.

Savoy Cabbage

But then kale happened: it was suddenly easier to find on Paris markets, so I played around with it a lot — cue the mega-list of 50 things to do with kale — and naturally that gave me ideas for its close, if less fashionable, cousin the Savoy cabbage.

As it turns out, the roasting method that gave the world kale chips has a transformative effect on Savoy cabbage, too. In just a few chops of the chef knife and fifteen minutes in a hot oven, the slightly daunting head becomes a heap of lightly browned, tender at the spine but crisp-edged ribbons that I can eat by the bowlful — and happily have.

Add a touch of lemon juice, a scoop of steamed rice and a scatter of almonds, and I am content to wait for spring a little while longer. Just a little.

Roasted Savoy Cabbage

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5-Ingredient Recipes: 140 Recipe Ideas In 5 Ingredients or Less

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Jules Clancy’s fantastic new book, 5 Ingredients, 10 Minutes, and offered to give away three copies as prizes in a 5-ingredient recipe contest.

You collectively submitted nearly 140 five-ingredient recipes, all of which sound fantastic and provide a fascinating glimpse into your personal tastes and appetites. It’s been very difficult to pick just three — why, oh why do I put myself in these situations? — but I had to, so I elected Ms. C’s pan-fried tofu with kale and noodles, Rakhi’s mujaddara, and Pierre Pozi’s sardine boulettes (submitted in the French version of the contest). Congratulations! You will soon be receiving your copy of 5 Ingredients, 10 Minutes.

And to thank you all for your invaluable contributions, I’ve collated your recipe formulas into a masterlist we can all dip into; recipe details can be found in the comment section of the original post. (If you read French, you’ll find even more 5-ingredient suggestions in the French masterlist.)

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March Favorites

Stamps

A few of my favorite finds and reads for March:

~ Interested in community composting in Paris? The mairie can help.

~ French stamps with illustrated idioms (more French idioms).

~ The Washington Post’s food editor comes out as a vegetarian.

~ The Scared is scared, a video made according to a six-year-old storyteller’s specs (warning: this will make your day).

~ Paris restaurants cooking local ingredients can now get a special label.

~ I gave tips on French restaurants for the Weight Watchers website.

~ How writers can prepare for the rise in using mobile phones to read websites and blogs. (Note: Chocolate & Zucchini is available in a mobile-friendly version.)

~ This year’s skiing season in Montmartre.

~ Economics professor finds a strong link between optimism and how many fruits and vegetables one consumes.

~ Sheep to help keep Paris lawns tidy.

~ The Helsinki bus station theory for creative careers.

~ Impressive: how Cassie Johnston preps food for the week.

What about you, any recent find you’d like to share ?

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