Another smiling shot of the winners (Aleta and Lilly) of an Omnivore Books Food Contest. This challenge: Stone Fruits. The entries were all diverse (okay, except maybe for a noticeable trend of peaches) and everything was delicious. Despite my resolution to keep my tastes to a minimum, I end up trying everything, and eventually went back to seconds. Damn deliciousness breaking my willpower…Here are all photos of all of them to drool over.

The winning dish?

An Assortment of Galettes. These charming galettes were the clear favorite. Excellent dough, and creative fillings. The dough was a
Pâte à Foncer dough from ‘Advanced Bread and Pastry A Professional Approach’ written by Michel Suas. I’ve attached the recipe at the bottom – perfect for summer baking!

The runner up was Lisa’s individual Financiers with Peaches, Almonds, and ‘lotsa Butter! Let me just say that these were some of my favorites – I’m a sucker for classic french pastries.

Our own Paula brought a lovely Peach Cobbler, which had the glorious addition of a little bit of almond extract, that I must remember to add to my own. It’s a wonderful marriage of flavors.

A savory Peach and Nectarine Salsa was served with chips in this absolutely adorable vintage serving dish. I’d like to get one of these! The salsa was incredible, but the entire presentation was a feast for the eyes. I can see bringing this to every summer cookout.

A Two Plum and Peach Pie was served elegantly on a raised platter (points in my book for presentation), and I loved particularly the way the plums were treated – they had an intense flavor.

A jar of plum jam. Sweet and to the point. I could see this being consumed very quickly in my house, probably equally on toast and stirred into a morning yogurt parfait.

Peach and Nectarine Pie – quite a classic pie, with nice addition of cutout circles of dough adorning the top of the pie there.

Apricot Clafoutis – one of my favorite French desserts. And so easy to make! This version with Apricots was lovely. (The chef also recommends chocolate and cherry clafoutis. I think I’d have to second that – maybe it will be my next baking project.)

Italian Pistachio Plum Cake (and it was vegan!) – a delightful, almost spongy (in a good way!) pistachio cake dotted with the perfect little plums. And it came with a delicious jam (with an extendable spoon to boot – making for the perfect competition servingware) .

Savory Plum Tarts – the last entries into the competition, a little late but they certainly held their own! Came in two flavors – one with thyme, rosemary and lavender jam, and the other with basil, honey, and balsamic.

Jealous?

Don’t worry! We have another contest coming up next month: Tomatoes!

Tomato Cooking Contest! Omnivore Books – August 14th – 4-5pm. Bring a tomato dish, sweet or savory, or just come to eat with $5 dollars in hand ready to judge your favorites. Winners split the door money and earn serious bragging rights.

*           *           *

Pâte à Foncer

from ‘Advanced Bread and Pastry A Professional Approach‘ written by Michel Suas

Don’t be put off by the metric measurements – baking in metric is much more precise and yields better results. And it’s incredibly easy to find a kitchen scale – mine that tares from metric to standard US I purchased at Ikea for about $12.

yields about 6-7 5inch galettes

Ingredients:
395 grams Pastry Flour
296 grams Butter
79 grams Milk
16 grams Egg Yolks
8 grams Salt
6 grams Sugar
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 425ºF along with a sheet pan or pizza stone (385ºF for convection oven).
2. Allow butter, milk, and egg yolks to come up to room temperature. Butter should be almost mayonnaise consistency.
3. Soften the butter and mix with the paddle attachment.
4. Add the salt, sugar, yolks, and milk, and then add the flour. Mix until just incorporated; dough should look a little bit shaggy.
5. Refridgerate dough for 1 to 4 hours.
6. Divide dough into 7 pieces. Roll dough out to about an 1/8 of an inch thick about 6-7 inch rounds. Fill with either sweet or savory filling. Egg wash crust.
7. Bake until golden about 25-35 minutes.

Dispatch from the field: April 1, 2010: Omnivore Books Edible Art Contest

What:

Yes, another great food contest – this one challenges you to create a dish that references books or art, in conjunction with the annual Edible Books Festival held all over the world on April Fool’s Day. Participants may enter their favorite food-related books or art, in the form of an “Edible” entry. For instance someone might do something clever with a stock pot and a marzipan canine to represent MFK Fisher’s “How To Cook A Wolf.” Or maybe a contestant enters “Someone Is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe” and represents it with a cake in the shape of a map of Europe with a real knife sticking out of it. The original idea for the festival came from observing Brillat- Savarin’s birthday, which falls on April 1st. Participants will be judged on creativity and flavor, and may enter for free. Eaters-only will pay $5 at the door, as well as judge the entries; the winner will split the door money with us. The more entries, the merrier!

I LOVE these competitions we have at Omnivore. Celia mentioned a few weeks ago that the best part of owning your own small business is that you can throw a party whenever you like. This goes along with my firm belief that there is no better gathering than one which involves friendly competition and great food. My closest friends will remember tasty beverages from such smash hits as ‘Science!!!; and late nights involving some competitive Quelf. The bar was set pretty high in the past few months at the store with a very boozy Punch Contest, a Pie Contest (with 48 entries), a Pumpkin contest, and yes, even a Fried Chicken contest.

The entries were extraordinarily creative this time. I admit that I completely broke passover dietary laws to eat absurd quantities of everything. Which, of course, made me happy, but gave me a really bad stomach ache. God punishing me, mayhaps? But now, down to business – the official entries so you can judge for yourself (**by entry number – winners, and winning recipe listed at the bottom**).

1. “Slim Down for Summer Fun”: This bowl was based on Leslie Morgan’s own works of art – check out her “pool glee” series to really see the resemblance.

Home made chocolate pudding with colored cream cheese icing. Tasting notes: I ended up spooning out seconds for myself, even though I was already feeling ill from all the sugar. It was worth it. Nothing like some real chocolate pudding to remind someone that it’s drastically better than the packet stuff. And look how cute it is! (That’s her Boston Terrier floating in the pool).

2. “Fabergé cake with fruit still life“: sugar cookies decorated as fruits (seen above), and a ‘banana split cake’ – chocolate cake with strawberry and banana buttercream and chocolate ganache. His muse was the acclaimed Fabergé eggs,  originally created for Tsar Alexander III to give to his wife on Easter by world renown House of Fabergé.

From a technical standpoint, the decorative elements on these fruit cookies and cake were enough to garner a first place win, but judging included both creativity and overall taste. In addition to these awe inspiring entries, Dante (the creator) gets win points for naming his business ‘Fire and Icing‘.

3. “Salumi”: Jacqueline Mallorca’s witty entry inspired by one of the cookbooks in our very own shop, came with this incredibly funny sign:

“Homage to Salumi by Joyce Goldstein: the three all-organic, hand-fed, humanely-raised little pigs who gave their all for these salami were named Figgy, Prunus, and Apricot. The finely-chopped, guaranteed vegetarian faux pork is marbled with, um, hand-chopped noix, and blended with finely-crumbled, hand-formed, custom-baked amaretti and a splash of the best dark Barbados rum.”

Considering that Salumi is the current “it-food” (maybe second only to macarons), I thought that this entry was highly entertaining and relevant to our times. Also, these looked *exactly* like salumi. They also tasted delicious – a delicate fruit and nut log that I can see myself making to serve with tea as an afternoon snack.

4. “Alabama Lane Cake”: Katie and Annelise worked together to create this delicious cake in homage to one of my favorite books of all time, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird“. The movie happens to be on my top faves as well (nothing like a dashing Gregory Peck to make me swoon.)

This boozy cake, which is featured in the novel, was a white cake with pecans, raisins, coconut, seven-minute frosting, and “enough bourbon to kill a mockingbird”. It was served alongside a real (real cast-iron) dead mockingbird.

The cake was OUTRAGEOUSLY good. Although, this wasn’t too surprising, as Katie was previously the creator of my personal favorite “Whiskey Sunrise” at the Omnivore books Punch Contest.

5. “Mondrian Cake”: Chocolate cake with a Jacques Torres frosting. Who doesn’t love Mondrian? I’m going to take some liberty here and connect this cake with an homage to Mondrian by Silverchair, (90′s anyone?) who happened to create a particularly catchy song with Mondrian featured prominently in the video. They aren’t given enough credit for how awesome they are. You should watch it. And forgive me for getting it stuck in your head for the next week.

6. “Eat My Globe: Around the World in 80 Cookies” Inspired by another book we have in our bookshop – Eat My Globe: One Year to Go Everywhere and Eat Everything – this fantastic globe model was made with these *crack-like* lemon, rosemary and cornmeal cookies. I say crack-like, because, well, they were like crack. I personally took home the leftovers and may or may not have eaten oh, all thirty of these bedazzling buttery buttons. Even though their hues were similar to Crayola crayons. Slightly disturbing.

Winners: With such a diverse group of entrants, the entries each got several votes, but it came down to two clear winners

Second Prize, and the winner of a “So Good” pastry magazine: the Fabergé cake!

Grand Prize, and the winner of half the door money: The Alabama Lane Cake!!! Congrats guys!!

Alabama Lane Cake
a winning recipe

Adapted from Cooks.com – cake and frosting from here: and the filling from here.

LANE CAKE
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
3 c. sifted cake flour
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 egg whites
Lane Cake Filling
7 Minute Frosting
Pecan halves (optional)

Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer. Combine flour and baking powder. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Beat egg whites (at room temperature) until stiff peaks form, fold into batter. Pour batter into 4 greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks.

(Layers are very tender and fragile, so handle them carefully). Spread Lane Cake Filling between layers and on top of cake. Spread Seven Minute Frosting on sides. Garnish with pecan halves if desired. Yield: one 4 layer cake.

FILLING:

1 1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. bourbon or rye
12 egg yolks
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. each chopped pecans, shredded coconut, and quartered candied red cherries

Combine raisins and bourbon in tightly covered container; let stand at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. In top of double boiler or heatproof bowl, combine yolks, sugar, salt and butter. Stir over simmering water 15 to 20 minutes or until thick and mixture mounds when dropped from a spoon. Remove from heat; stir in raisin-bourbon mixture, pecans, coconut and cherries, blending well. Cool; cover; chill overnight before assembling cake.

LANE CAKE SEVEN MINUTE FROSTING:

1 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. plus 1 tbsp. cold water
2 egg whites
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in top of a large double boiler. Beat at low speed of an electric mixer 30 seconds or just until blended.Place over boiling water, beat constantly at high speed 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Beat 2 minutes or until frosting is thick enough to spread. Yield: 4 1/4 cups.

Omnivore Books Food Competitions
To get the official updates follow on twitter @omnivorebooks or sign up for the newsletter on the website. Well be having our next one in a month or so – I believe the concept will be “Fusion food”

I’m still working off the buzz from last night’s Punch Contest we hosted at Omnivore Books, the latest in our popular series of friendly neighborhood food competitions. (Previous throwdowns included pie, fried chicken, and pumpkin.)

The rules were simple: free entry if you bring your punch, boozy or non (okay, they were all boozy, who were we kidding?), or pay $5 at the door to drink as much punch as you can handle. Everyone judges, and the winners split the door money.

There were no actual requirements for entry, you just had to show up. Which of course, made it slightly nerve-wracking for us when it was ten minutes ’til, and the punches still hadn’t arrived. It was down to the wire, but I’m happy to report that we had 10 completely unique and intriguing entries.

Turns out, when you host a punch contest, people are happy, because you are providing them with tasty adult beverages, and the company of friends and neighbors. Well done, us.

And now a look at some of the entries:

One major trend was ingenious home made ice rings. This one was a frozen gingerale ice block, others were filled with fruit, and a vintage tupperware mold made an appearance. I was also intrigued with the variety of serving dishes – from crystal punch bowls, to jugs, to an electric fountain (alas, we didn’t have electricity, but the thought was what counted.)

Some of the punches arrived already prepared, but many were putting the finishing touches before the drinking started:

And here, the winners making their Mission Gutter Juice. It was a collaborative process.

First Place went to Mission Gutter Juice – “the punch you hate to love” with twenty votes! Just four ingredients – Vodka, Bud LIght, Fresca, and Lemonade Mix.

Second Place went to Jetsetter Punch: Brandy, rum, cachaca, cara, green tea, pineapple, and nutmeg syrup.

Third Place to Kagetaka’s Grog: a spiced persimmon vodka.

And Fourth Place – we didn’t announce it, but it was tied for my favorite with the Kagetaka’s Grog: The Whiskey Sunrise, featuring freshly squeezed grapefruit, orange, other citrus, maraschino cherries and sour mix.

And the fun didn’t end after judging! This place was a party until closing, including the late coming 11th entry, who after showing up after the judging was over, graciously donated their raspberry adult beverage to keep the party going. Thanks guys!!!

The next contests are in the works, but you can be sure to see soon Food/Art puns (such as “Finnegan’s Cake”), a Cookie Competition, and bring your best Ethnic Fusion cuisine – think (Japanese + American ) moffles (mochi waffles), or maybe (Chinese + Jewish) 5 spice tsimmes? Ok, I don’t know, I’m leaving the creativity up to the contestants… Actually, 5 spice tsimmes sounds pretty good….

Omnivore Books Food Competitions
To get the official updates follow on twitter @omnivorebooks or sign up for the newsletter on the website.

Daring Bakers. The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Every month, hundreds of bakers across the world band together in an effort to push their own culinary boundaries. Daring bakers is certainly not thirty minute meals. This month, we were making lasagna of Emilia-Romagna, a three part adventure which included home made spinach pasta, a home made ragu, and a creamy béchamel.

Ok, I thought. I’m going to make lasagna from scratch this month. Well I have another confession to make. I really, really, really enjoy Stouffers lasagna. Somehow, even after microwaving the stuff instead of baking it, it fulfills my every need and want. Somehow, this microwave boxed food is entwined with thoughts of Italian grandmothers slaving away in the kitchen, and remarkably the deception pulls itself off. Somehow, even though it pains me to say it, I love the stuff. So the idea of making a real lasagna, all from scratch… a challenge that would no doubt be fun to make, and delicious, was intriguing… but could it beat my trusty standby? You laugh, maybe you even scoff, but I was skeptical.

Challenge part #1: Homemade spinach pasta. Home made pasta is incredibly easy to make. You take just a few ingredients, usually just flour and egg, and mix, knead, roll, and voila- just a few minutes in a boiling pot of water, and done! The only difficult part: rolling out the dough. I’d highly prefer doing it with a Kitchen Aid mixer with the pasta attachment, but alas, all I have here is my own forearms, and a nice silpat rolling pin.

Another wonderful bonus of home made pasta is that the pasta dough is another good place in which to hide vegetables in for the picky eater. For this pasta, I used two eggs, 3.5 cups of flour, and I added spinach, about 6 ounces of defrosted frozen spinach, which I had emulsified with my hand held emulsifier. This makes the paste smooth, and easily workable into the dough. If I were to do this dish again, I’d probably add some basil as well, but you could easily puree any vegetable and add it to a basic dough.

Challenge part #2: A delicious ragu. For this part, I did a cheat move, using jarred pasta sauce as a base. I added meat, and cooked it for about an hour, so ultimately it doesn’t save any time, just imparts some fantastic flavor. Yes, part of it was jarred, but I don’t feel bad. The stuff is delicious.

“Cheats Ragu”

1/2 onion
an ounce of bacon
1/2 lb ground veal
1/4 cup of red wine
a jar of really good store bought tomato sauce
(I used Trader Joes Rustico- Southern Italian sauce), but I might easily have substituted barilla.

Saute the onion for about ten minutes, with some good olive oil. Add the bacon, and saute, add the half cup of wine, and cook for a minute, dump in the jar of pasta sauce. Cover really loosely (more of a stain catcher), and stir occasionally, cooking at a slow bubble for about 45 minutes or more.

Challenge part #3: A Bechamel (white sauce) This is the key to a rich, hearty lasagna. In a medium saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter, and then sift in 4 tablespoons of flour, whisking it all until smooth. Slowly whisk in 2 2/3 cup of milk, whisking constantly to avoid lumps forming. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir until the sauce thickens, about seven or eight minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and most importantly some freshly grated nutmeg. The nutmeg imparts the most wonderful flavor that gives the whole lasagna something special.

Finally, with the three parts prepared, I put together the lasagna, layering the (boiled) pasta, sauces, and some freshly grated parmesan, and baked it all (covered loosely with foil) for 40 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Ultimately, this lasagna was delicious. Painfully delicious. As in my forearms. All of the rolling. I spent three days eating it, hot, cold, microwaved, for breakfast, until I could lasagna no more. Was it better than my Stouffers? Er… Yes. Would I make it again? Yes. Although, probably sooner if I had a Martha Stewart Blue Kitchen Aid Mixer. (Hint, hint…. nudge, nudge…) Until then, I’ll savor this experience.

Aside: If anyone is interested in slaving away recreating this, I have the longer, much more detailed recipe for the pasta and assembly that I would be more than willing to email.

A few weeks ago, I discovered Barefoot Bloggers, a group of people who love Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, just as much as I do, and who have joined together to cook through her marvelous recipes. The next recipe on the list was Ina’s  Meringues Chantilly, chosen by BMK of Reservations Not Required Fantastic! I love meringues! But the question was, would it be possible to make it in my kitchen in time to post today? You see, there are rules about meringue. Fresh eggs! Metal bowl! Only on a sunny dry day! That was the one I was the most worried about…. this is San Francisco… a sunny dry day? Oh dear.

I scanned the recipe list.

My first challenge: Cream of Tartar. Hmmm.. I’ve always had cream of tartar lying around, but now I don’t have any in my new kitchen. So began the search for cream of tartar. Apparently, it’s not really something that you just buy here. Four stores later, I finally found some overpriced cream of tartar and bought it. There is nothing like spending six dollars for something you are going to use a quarter teaspoon of. Sigh.

The next part was the eggs. According to the experts, you need the freshest eggs, to help break down the protein in the whipping process. I got mine from Omnivore Books on Food, where Celia, the owner sells fresh eggs from her neighbor’s farm in addition to her well chosen selection of cook books and books on food. These eggs are the absolute best, with really big orange yolks (which because they were omitted from this recipe are about to end up in a custard).

Now for a metal bowl. I didn’t have a metal bowl, but I had a glass pyrex. Would this work well enough? According to the experts, glass should work fine- the key is not to use plastic, because the fat from previous cooking might stick to it and ruin your meringue.

Finally, Ina’s recipe called for orange liqueur, and framboise, a raspberry liqueur, although all the hard liquor I had in my house is… Seagrams Whiskey. I know. I was the queen of the liquor cabinet. Four years of collecting the finest alcoholic libations in my dorm room, and all I have now is a bottle of whiskey, in a plastic jug no less. Because my current priority is paying my rent rather than paying for the expansion of my liquor cabinet, I opted to substitute the whiskey.

Finally I was ready to make the meringues.

…And it rained hard, down pouring rain for three days. I just couldn’t do it. The experts tell you to avoid moisture- not even to run your dishwasher or boil a kettle!

Just two days ago, the sun broke through the clouds and I was prepared to make the recipe. I went to the cabinet and…. apparently we didn’t have a hand held mixer. How could I forget! Oh god, I’ve whisked meringue before, and it’s a long, arduous process with no real assurance that they will even stiffen into peaks. A quick panic led to the obvious thought- I live in an apartment building now! I could borrow a mixer!! Huzzah!! So, with the great kindness of my neighbor Khrista, the following recipe was accomplished.

The original recipe is here, but the following was my adaptation that given there are just two of us, would feed a few less than the intended recipe.

Meringues Chantilly
adapted from the Barefoot Contessa
makes 6 meringue cups

Ingredients
- 3 extra- large egg whites, at room temperature (make sure there is no yolk!)
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- a pinch of kosher salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Whipped Cream, see below
- Stewed Fruit, see below (cooled slightly or it will melt your whipped cream)

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 Farenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or a silpat, or foil, which is all I have and works fine).

2. Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and the salt on medium speed until froth. Add half a cup of the sugar, and increase the speed to high until the egg whites form very stiff peaks. Whisk in the vanilla, and carefully fold in the remaining quarter cup of sugar into the meringue.

3. Put meringue into a piping bag with a large star shaped pastry tip, or if you are me, you put it into your ziplock bag in which you have attempted to cut a star shaped tip into one of the corners. Pipe into 3 1/2 inch or so circles.

4. Bake for 2 hours, until the meringues are dry and crisp, but not browned. Then turn off the oven, and wait for four hours, or overnight. Frankly though, I think you can use them right away and they would be fine, if not even better (I like a less dry meringue).

5. On a plate or bowl, spread some of the sauce from the stewed berries, place the meringue, fill with a dollop of whipped cream, and top with the fruit and eat.

Stewed Strawberries:
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
1 teaspoon whiskey
1/8 teaspoon orange zest

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, and cook uncovered for a few minutes, allowing the sauce to get syrupy.

Whipped Cream:
Because I was not making the whipped cream for the entire recipe, I simply used about a 1/4 cup of cream and whipped it until stiff, whipped in a teaspoon or so of sugar and some vanilla, and a tiny bit more of the whiskey. It worked wondrously.

Ina’s recipe though calls for a pint of cold heavy cream, two tablespoons of sugar, two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and a tablespoon of orange liqueur. Well, next time!

Sugar High Friday is a monthly food blogging event created by Jennifer, The Domestic Goddess and is hosted each month on a different food blog. This month’s host for the event is Palachinka, and the theme is “Copycat”, where you copy one of your favorite store bought candies.

I spent a good couple of weeks thinking of the best candy I could copy. Would it be Snickers, my favorite bar candy? Pecan Divinity? Nutella? (I was seriously considering Nutella, until I realized that it would completely ruin any semblance of a healthy diet if I made it and then ate the entire concoction in two days.)

Finally I turned to Turkish candies, because Turkey happens to have some of the best confections: Lokum (Turkish Delight), Dragees (chocolate covered nuts and orange peels), Pişmaniye (a type of wispy candy floss that I can’t describe with any justice). My mother happens to be in Turkey this week, and now that I live across the country from her, I know that I’m going to be depressed when she returns and I get calls of what wonderful things she has brought home. Maybe she will send me a care package (hint).

And so, after thinking of all the candies that I wouldn’t be getting, I decided – why not create one of my favorites here at home? I finally settled on cezerye, a Turkish candy made of carrots!   Now, although they have a lot of vitamin A and B from the carrots, they also have enough sugar to fully sweeten your blood, so I wouldn’t exactly qualify them as health food, but they certainly are delicious.

Home-Made Cezerye
makes about twenty five candies

Ingredients
2 cups grated carrots
3/4 cups loosely packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
about 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup ground petit beurre biscuits
1/2 cup shredded dried (unsweetened) coconut

Method
1. Grate a few medium carrots and put into a medium saucepan with the sugar. I simply took my cup measure, loosely packed it three quarters of the way with brown sugar, topped it with the white sugar, and added water to wet the sugar (as much fit in the cup).

2. Simmer on low heat for a half hour or more, covered. Add the ground nuts and petit beurre cookies, and continue to cook uncovered for a few minutes. Take off the stove, and let cool enough to handle the mixture.

3. To make the carrot balls, roll the dough balls in some shredded coconut, as you would if you were making truffles. Place in the fridge for at least an hour, and eat!

These come out a little bit moist, but they should dry as they sit.

In an effort to diversify my kitchen productions, I’ve been looking for new food blogger challenges to have fun with. One of my favorite challenges I have found so far is the “Cheese of the Month” challenge from Adventures in Gluttony, which provides a monthly cheese suggestion to create something delicious with.

This month’s featured cheese is feta, which coincidentally happens to be one of my favorite cheeses.  I use feta and it’s cousin white cheese (Turkish ‘beyaz peynir’) almost interchangably, the latter being slightly less salty. I usually have a block of feta stored in some fresh water in my fridge, and eat it often plain, for breakfast, with a little slice of tomato and cucumber and a slice of toast with jam. Or, I crumble it on salads, into soups, or even on burgers.

For the challenge I decided to incorporate it into my lunch, baked with shrimp. This is a very loose adaptation of a broiled recipe my mother uses that I love and really should get a hold of, but nevertheless it was quick, easy and very very tasty. The feta I used was Mt. Vikos, which I picked up at Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco. I only used an ounce of feta (all I had left), but the flavor still comes out wonderfully!

A Quick lunch: Baked Shrimp with Feta
serves 1

Ingredients:
4 or 5 shrimp (I used frozen)
A few small canned San Marzano tomatoes, with juice
1/4 cup frozen peas
1 ounce feta
a pinch salt,
a pinch pepper
a couple of good pinches oregano

Method:
1. Couldn’t be simpler: In a baking dish lined with foil, put all the ingredients, stirring gently to allow the tomato juice to coat everything. Whack it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, until shrimp are pink and cooked.

To serve: I served this over a bed of steamed rice, usually I use brown, but I’ve run out and need to pick up some more. I use frozen single servings of rice that I cook and wrap while still warm, which traps the moisture and allows you to easily pop one into the microwave and eat for lunch as if it was freshly made.