As promised, here's the recipe for the Key Lime Bundt Cake. It's looks harder than it is. And the bottled Key Lime juice works well.

Key Lime Bundt Cake
from Eating Well Magazine, March/April 1992

1 3/4 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons margarine (or 2 Tbs softened butter, and 3 Tbs vegetable oil)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lime zest (doesn’t have to be a key lime)
1 tablespoon Key Lime juice (either fresh or bottled)
2/3 cup buttermilk

Lime Syrup:
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar, plus extra for dusting cake
1/2 cup key lime juice

To make the cake:
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease (spray is fine) an 8” (6 cup) bundt pan or 9” (8 cup) springform tube pan. Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat margarine (or butter and oil combo) with electric mixer until softened and combined. Gradually add sugar, and beat until well blended. Gradually beat in eggs. Beat in lime zest and juice. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, alternately stir in the dry ingredients (the flour mixture) and the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Gently spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out from the center clean, and the cake starts to pull away from the sides.

After it’s cooled for a bit, but still warm, loosen the edges, and invert the pan onto a wire rack set over a plate.

To make the syrup:
In a small bowl, add the confectioners’ sugar and lime juice, and whisk until smooth.

While the cake is still warm, poke many holes into it, using a skewer or a cake tester. Slowly, spoon the lime syrup over the cake. Re-spoon any juice that falls off the cake, onto the plate below.

Just before serving, sift a bit of confectioners’ sugar over the cake.

notes:
• The cake can be made up to 24 hours ahead, then covered and refrigerated. Serve at room temperature.
• Forget to take the eggs out early, for that room temperature effect? Place them in a bowl of hot tap water for a few minutes. That will warm them up a bit.
• Don’t want to buy, or waste, buttermilk? In the baking section of the supermarket, there’s powdered buttermilk. Follow the instructions on the package.

Okay. So I've been a wee bit lax (again) with the blog. Oops. I've been busy working on the new website. And cooking, too. And bike riding. But, as promised, here's the recipe for Pad Thai, which I'l be cooking in a live demo on WGBY, Springfield's (MA) PBS station. You can see it on Thursday evening, sometime after 8:15. Meanwhile here's the recipe. All of the ingredients are available in most supermarkets. And even though it looks like a lot of ingredients and effort, it's really pretty easy to do.

Bon appetit!

Pad Thai


1/2# Pad Thai (rice) noodles
2-4 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup fish sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon paprika
6 shakes Tabasco
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 pound shrimp
1/2 pound tofu, cut into bite-sized pieces
Or any combo of chix, shrimp, and tofu
1/2 pound bean sprouts
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 egg
1/4 cup peanuts, finely chopped
3 scallions, sliced

• Place rice noodles in a large bowl, and cover with water for 30-45 minutes, or according to package instructions. You can even leave them for a few hours. They won’t disintegrate.
• Combine water, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, paprika, and Tabasco in a bowl. Set aside.
• When noodles are done soaking, drain and set aside
• In a wok or large skillet, over a high heat, and 1/2 tablespoon of oil, and cook the egg. Remove from pan. Repeat this process with the chicken, shrimp, and tofu. Remove each item from pan after they’re cooked
• Add the 1/2 tablespoon of oil to the pan, then the garlic. Sauté for 30 seconds.
• Add the noodles, fish sauce mixture, and 3 tablespoons of peanuts to the pan. Cook over a high heat for 2-3 minutes.
• Add the egg, chicken, shrimp, and tofu back into the pan to reheat.
• Add the spouts and scallions and combine. Remove from pan, and place on serving platter.
• Spread the remaining peanuts over the top, and serve

Makes approximately 6 servings

Tonight (okay, technically, it was last night) I did a cooking class at Different Drummer’s Kitchen in Northampton (MA, not England). It was a nice menu: smoked salmon crostini, Cornish hens (there’s another England reference!), mashed potato pancakes, roasted asparagus, and chocolate cake. Yup. Nice menu. But I made a promise to the class. I told them that’s I’d post a recipe on the blog. Was it the orange chocolate sauce recipe? Was it for an oven-braised pulled pork? Perhaps a Fluffernutter? I don’t remember. Maybe I had too much chocolate cake. Ouch.

So, if anyone out there was at the class, and remembers, please send me an email and let me know..

St. Patrick's Day is upon us. It's a holiday that somehow escaped my culinary childhood, and one that I continued to forget to celebrate until recent years. It's not that I have no love for green bagels, green beer, and all foods seasonally green. Well, okay, I don't have love for them. But I don't dislike them, either. They just never seem to show up on my food radar ("foodar?"). But this weekend was the third year in a row that I cooked corned beef and cabbage. I rarely had boiled dinners when was growing up. Gee, I wonder why? But this one has been growing on me. This year, we had a party to celebrate not only this homage to boiling, but we made it a truly international meal. The wild card this year was that two of the guests (20% of all attendees!) were vegetarians. They weren't under the corned beef spell for this one. So I had to split up the menu. Once that happened, all culinary hell broke loose, and I went wildly international with the whole menu. Here it is, with each item's origins included:

Appetizers:
• meat and potato knishes (lower east side. maybe)
• mock chopped liver (lower east side? Berkley, CA? A commune somewhere? who knows?)
• Caesar Salad (Mexico. Really)
• Vegetarian Pad Thai (duh!)
• Corned Beef and Cabbage, w/potatoes and carrots (New York and/or somewhere in Ireland)
• Checkerboard chocolate and vanilla cookies...England

So there you have it. Food from everywhere. And yeah, it turned out well. No one went home hungry.

And what are you making for this big food holiday?

Well, I survived today’s Chili Contest. In case you missed hearing about it (how is that possible?), I was in the Amherst Chamber of Commerce’s Winterfest Chili Contest. It. was held at a golf course, but we were, thankfully, inside. The winner, sadly, wasn’t moi, but was a nice chili from the Black Sheep deli. Mine was a different one, with chicken, black bens, and corn. And the secret ingredient (okay, so it’s not a secret anymore) is cinnamon. It adds almost a sweetness to it. And people almost always ask what that secondary flavor is. And, especially as a lot of people are now starting to think about bathing suits, it’s also a very healthy dish.

So, bon apetit. Go get the ingredients and make it. You’ll be glad you did.

Chicken Chili

3-4medium onions, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast (or thighs) cut into cubes
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
2 16 oz cans black beans
1 8 oz package frozen corn (try to thaw in advance, but not crucial)
1 lime, use zest, and juice from one half
salt and pepper to taste


In a large pot, over a medium heat, add the onions. Sauté these for approximately 20 minutes, until the onions are soft. Add the garlic, and raise the heat to medium-high. Add the chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, and oregano, and mix well to combine. Add the cubed chicken, and stir frequently, for approximately 5 minutes, or until the chicken is browned, but not cooked through.

Add the tomatoes, beans, corn, and lime zest and juice. Simmer for 20 minutes. Adjust the seasonings (especially the chili powder, cumin and salt) to your liking, and serve.

Makes around almost three quarts, or 8-10 servings.

This week has been a wild, culinary Iditarod. No two days were alike. And it was food, food, food from Monday morning at 9:30 until last night at 5:30. Then I came home, ate dinner, and slept for 12 hours. I wish I had one of these weeks ever month.

It started with a private cooking lesson on Monday, for a retired UMass professor. We did all kinds of seafood things, including crab cakes and salmon cakes with freshly poached salmon. Not only was it a blast, but his wife also liked the food. Always a plus…

Tuesday was a regular personal chef day, cooking for the famous multiple-bestselling author (New York Times list, of course), Michael Palmer.

Then, Weds was a doubleheader. I try to avoid those, because they usually make my head explode (implode?), and I usually start to mix the two jobs In my mind, with me then asking myself what I’ve forgotten. But this time, everything went smoothly. I started with a demo of Pad Thai (this will be a theme) at the Women’s Business Expo for the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, which was a ton of fun. Then, that night, I did a class with roasting chickens and flank steak (not in the same dish, though. That would’ve been scary). It was a fun evening, AND everyone loved the food.

Thursday night was another highlight. I did a private cooking lesson party in Longmeadow. More Pad Thai, and Bananas Foster. We laughed and cooked all evening. The guests had a good time, and so did I. I really do love doing the cooking lesson parties.

Friday began two days of mass quantities of food. It started with the Great Chefs for Jimmy fundraiser for the Jimmy Fund. It was at Chez Albert in Agawam, a banquet facility, and raised over $100,000 for cancer research. I made Pad Thai (there it is agai!), non-stop, for the 1,000 attendees. Karen was there, with our friends Mollye and Brooke, who did all of the heavy lifting while I made Pad Thai. And more Pad Thai. And more Pad Thai…

But I have to say a word about Chez Albert’s executive chef, Marcel Ouimette. I’ve worked with and for many chefs, including a Michelin rated one. Chef Marcel is clearly at the top of my list of impressive chefs and people. He was gracious. He offered me use of his kitchen. And his kitchen crew treated him with a respect and friendliness that is not always show to an executive chef. And on top of that, his food was wildly creative, AND it tasted great. I’m hugely impressed…

Which brings us to yesterday. I cooked Alaskan wild-caught cod and salmon at the Boston Wine Expo. I cooked non-stop from 10:45 until 4:45. It was a blast. The Alaskan Seafood guys in the booth were fun, the attendees were having a great time (just a wee bit wine-fueled?), and I learned some new cooking techniques.

So, all in all, a great week. And a great food week.

I’m in the middle of a very busy time of public appearances. Oh sure, it’s all limousines, glamour, and Food Network appearance. Well, it’s more like quality time in the minivan, washing even more dishes, and doing cooking classes. The classes I love. I did another one at Different Drummer’s Kitchen in NoHo, and have one next Wed at What’s Cooking Kids in E. Longmeadow, aka The Gateway to Connecticut. Actually, I prefer to think of Longmeadow as Marblehead Without the Water. But I digress.

With a few other classes and appearances on the horizon, I’ll be at the Boston Wine Expo next Saturday, Jan 24. But I think the Grande (Venti?) event of the week will be at Chez Josef in Agawam next week, for the Great Chefs for Jimmy event. It’s a big fundraiser to the Jimmy Fund, a huge part of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. There’ll be a ton o’food, and I’ll be serving Pad Thai to the assembled throng.

But tomorrow (is it today already?), I’ll be serving my almost-world famous chicken chili at the open house for FT Fitness Together in Amherst. If you’re around from 10-1:00, come on by. It’s be fun, and you can get out of the cold and have some fun and chili.

And of course, if you’re curious, here’s the chili recipe. It’s even healthy…

Chicken Chili

3-4medium onions, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil (or cooking spray)
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast (or thighs) cut into cubes
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
2 16 oz cans black beans
1 8 oz package frozen corn (try to thaw in advance, but not crucial)
1 lime, use zest, and juice from one half
salt and pepper to taste


In a large pot, over a medium heat, add the onions. Sauté these for approximately 20 minutes, until the onion is soft. Add the garlic, and raise the heat to medium-high. Add the chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, and oregano, and mix well to combine. Add the cubed chicken, and stir frequently, for approximately 5 minutes, or until the chicken is browned, but not cooked through.

Add the tomatoes, beans, corn, and lime zest and juice. Simmer for 20 minutes. Adjust the seasonings (especially the chili powder, cumin and salt) to your liking, and serve.

Makes around almost three quarts, or 8-10 servings.