Silverlake Farmer(')s Market And A Near Perfect Saturday

the bounty

they are like my babies

farmers market breakfast

scambled eggs with asparagus, mushrooms, spinach, swiss cheese, onion, and yellow squash

vegetable pupusas

carmela's ice cream

Last Saturday had all the components of my favorite things, making for a really extraordinary day.  I started out the day going to the Silverlake farmer's market with two of my loveliest friends, Lan and Thomas.  I don't even understand it, the farmers market makes me enormously happy.  We stocked up on the weeks produce.  I bought beets (my obsession continues), swiss chard, yellow squash, onions, yellow and red tomatoes, and Guinness ice cream from Carmela's Ice Cream.  We also whet our appetites with a vegetable pupusa, communally shared.  I have to say though, the UCI farmers market is much more impressive in variety.  

Afterwards we cooked breakfast together at my place, using the ingredients we had bought that morning.  Toasted French and sourdough loaves.  A vegetable scramble with parsley.  Sliced tomatoes.  Lemon-lavender goat cheese.  And animal crackers to top it all off.  While I was clearing the table, Lan and Thomas were watching youtube videos on my bed (see above) and something about that image struck me as hilarious.  They all of a sudden seemed like they were my children, watching Saturday morning cartoons or something.  It made me feel pretty warm and fuzzy.  

Because we all ate the equivalent of like 4 eggs each we continued the day by meeting Nancy, another phenomenal and equally lovely friend,  to bike along the beach.  Biking on the beach is another thing that makes me happy. 

Cream Cheese Pound Cake With Strawberry Compote

Remember Sara Lee pound cakes?  The other day I was grocery shopping with my mother and we were remembering how we had a Sara Lee pound cake phase when I was in elementary school.  I don't even know why, they aren't even that good.  Home made pound cake, on the other hand, is pretty amazing.

I had a large amount of strawberries and cream cheese lying around in my refrigerator and thought they might pair well, so today's treat was cream cheese pound cake with strawberry compote.  This was laborious, there's no way around it.  But it's mostly my fault because I doubled the recipe in order to get rid of all my cream cheese--making four loaves, baking at 1 and 1/2 hours each. And I only have one loaf pan, so basically this took 6+ hours.  But during the oven part of things I got some reading done, so that was nice.  

This cake is immensely dense, as a pound cake should be, though not clumsily dense--not brick like.  It somehow still manages to have a cake like texture.  The best part of this pound cake is that it isn't too sweet.  It's a little tangy from the lemon zest and the cream cheese which goes well with the strawberry compote (where the bulk of the sweetness comes from).  

Serve with ice cream for best result.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter (or 3 sticks)

3 cups flour

1 8 oz package of cream cheese

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 lemons zested

6 eggs

3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1. preheat the oven to 325

2. beat butter until whipped

3. add cream cheese until fully incorporated

4. add sugar and beat until the mixture is fluffy

5. add lemon zest and beat for 2 more minutes

6. add vanilla and almond extract

7. add salt

8. beat in flour, one cup at a time

9. line a loaf pan with wax paper and then pour mixture about 3/4 full into the pan

10. bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes

Meanwhile...

Make the strawberry compote

Ingredients:

2 cups strawberries, washed and hulled

1/2 cup sugar

the juice of one lemon

Mix all ingredients into a sauce pan over medium-low heat until the strawberries start to break down and the sauce becomes syrupy.

Wurstkuche

vegetarian chipotle sausage and belgian fries

jalapeno and mango sausage with caramelized onions and spicy peppers

Nancy told me about this place a few days ago and generally when Nancy recommends something, I tend to agree.  I really liked this place.  The ambiance.  The cucumber soda they had, though I did not order it.  The selection of dipping sauces that came with the belgian fries.  And as always when I try something new, the first thing I thought about was that I couldn't wait to take Saeyoung.  

Wurstkuche serves exclusively sausages and belgian fries.  Nancy and I hypothesized that they make their sausages in-house, though we were inconclusive.  If they did, that would be great.  The sausages range anywhere between the common bratwurst to alligator sausages.  Janice ordered the chicken apple and spices.  Jeff ordered the smoked alligator and pork, which was described as dense (in a positive sense).  I ordered the mango and jalapeno, which went great with the perfectly caramelized onions and spicy peppers.  Nancy ordered the vegetarian chipotle.  Actually, I was pretty impressed with their vegetarian options.    Everything was delicious.  We also ordered the twice fried belgian fries with curry ketchup, chipotle aioli, and buttermilk ranch.  They also had a white truffle oil glaze option, which I plan on getting next time I go there, which I hope is very soon.  

Next time I will have some beer.  Next time I will order two sausages.  Next time I will get the white truffle oil.  Next time I will take Saeyoung.  

Afterwards we walked around the Little Tokyo shopping center and I bought a single mango.  I like my friends, I really do.  

Wurstkuche

800 E 3rd St

Los Angeles, CA 90013

213.687.4444

http://www.wurstkucherestaurant.com/

Maple Sour Cream Muffins With Walnut Topping

Sour cream in muffins does something amazing.  

Ingredients

For batter:

1 cup sour cream

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup maple syrup

3 tablespoons of honey

1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1/4 cup butter

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of nutmeg

for topping:

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

preheat oven to 350

1. In a large mixing bowl beat butter 

2. add maple syrup and honey and beat until well combined

3. add eggs one at a time

4. add sour cream and vanilla extract

5. mix dry ingredients together

6. incorporate dry ingredients into wet ingredients in portions

7. put into cupcake/muffin tins (makes about 20 cupcakes sized muffins and about 12 muffins)

8. make the dry topping by mixing all the ingredients together until crumbly

9. top the batter with the dry topping until you can't see the batter underneath it, that is, top them generously.  there will probably be some more dry topping leftover but set aside because when the muffins start to rise and expand you may need to add more.

10. bake in the over for 20 minutes

Roasted Beet Soup

Over the weekend I bought some beets at the farmers market.  I've been told that beets are an acquired taste but I just don't understand.  What is there to not like about beets??  They're amazing!  I roasted some beets in olive oil and thyme and made it into a soup.  The color of roasted beets is phenomenal.  They let off this bright pink juice that is very sweet.  It stained my fingers and I kind of liked the way it looked.  I also had some of the beets with just a bit of lemon-lavender goat cheese and that made me very happy.  

Ingredients

2 beets

5-8 sprigs of thyme

mushrooms of your choice

1/2 a onion

4 cloves of garlic

5 baby carrots

1 cup spinach

1 cup red wine

2 cups chicken stock

1/4 cup of sausage or any other ground meat

1/4 cup broccoli and cauliflower 

olive oil

salt and pepper

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. scrub and trim the beets and put them in a large square of foil along with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and 4 sprigs of thyme

3. make a little pouch with the foil by drawing the corners together so that the foil is airtight

4. roast in the oven for 1 hour

5. in the meantime cook down onions and meat in olive oil

6. when the onions are slightly browned, add crushed garlic cloves, thyme, mushrooms and carrots

7. let everything brown and then add the cup of spinach until it has wilted

8. add broccoli and cauliflower

9. de-glaze with the red wine, making sure to scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pot

10. add chicken stock and bring the soup to a boil and then take it off the heat

11.  take the beets out of the oven and peel and then dice into cubes

12. add to soup and bring the soup back to a boil until the broth is a deep red color

13. salt and pepper to taste and serve with a spoonful of sour cream

Kyochon Chicken

chicken salad

chicken sandwich

gracie, as chicken model

kyochon chicken (half spicy/half garlic)

I think the whole Korean fried chicken thing started happening maybe 10 years ago.  I was in Seoul for the Summer and all of a sudden there were these fried chicken places everywhere, all made in the same style: fried and then coated in a spicy red pepper sauce (because red pepper sauce is in everything in korea) and served with pickled radishes.  I think kyochon was the first in an endless parade of korean chicken franchises.  In any case, now kyochon is in Los Angeles, and other parts of southern California.  

Despite having gorged ourselves on pasta at 2 am the night before, grace and I completed the weekend of fattiness with fried chicken.  I attempted to be healthy with the chicken salad but quickly realized that to get anything besides the fried chicken at kyochon is kind of pointless.  Okay, lesson learned.

Kyochon Chicken

3833 W 6th st

Los Angeles, CA

(213) 739-9292

UCI Farmers Market

I have a question: Is it farmer's market (possessive) or farmers market (plural)?  

Strawberries are everywhere.  Asparagus is everywhere.  Beets are everywhere.

I bought:

strawberries, beets, lemon-lavender goat cheese, purple potatoes, asparagus, fill, mint, and blood oranges

I plan on making:

a beet tart with goat cheese and caramelized onions

mint with strawberries and blood oranges

asparagus with dill mustard

roasted dill purple potatoes