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Potato Chips

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Who made them first?

So today I decided on a whim to try and make potato chips at home. I’d never done it before so in my search online I discovered that air fryer BBQ chips would be the easiest one for me to try. I had all the spice ingredients in my pantry and an air fryer I hadn’t used in awhile. All I needed was the potatoes. This is gonna be easy were the words ringing in my head as I dumped to large russet potatoes worth of burnt chips in the garbage.

Defeated I decided to turn my failure into a learning experience. Where do potato chips come from? What I found out was that in 1853 a chef by the name of George Crum was working at the Moon Lake Lodge in New York. A wealthy customer named Cornelius Vanderbilt happened to be in that day. He ended up sending his order back saying the fries were cut too thick. George in response cut and fried thin sliced potato shavings and sent the order back out. To his surprise Cornelius Vanderbilt loved it.

He began selling them in New England under the name Saratoga Chips and Potato Crunches. He eventually opened up his own restaurant putting baskets of those chips on every table. Unfortunately due to the nature of the time George was not allowed to patent his culinary genius due to being half black and half native american.

Chips From The Trunk

In 1895 a man named William Tappenden began manufacturing potato chips in his home kitchen and selling them to local grocers in Cleveland Ohio. As far as my research states he was the first person to sell what he called Saratoga Chips wholesale.

In 1920 in the southern united states a man named Herman Lay (yes Lays chips Herman Lay) began delivering his version of Saratoga chips out of the trunk of his car. His company grew quickly due to a strange claim that potatoes were an aphrodisiac. Clearly false but if you’re making money who cares right?

Keeping It Fresh

Before 1926 if you wanted to have potato chips outside of a restaurant you had to eat them out of barrels or tins. Then Laura Scudder tasked the employees of her potato chip company with an extracurricular task.

“Take sheets of wax paper and make a bag to keep our chips fresh.”

She had success! Laura Scudder and her company revolutionized the way Saratoga chips were sold across the country. The other thing she gifted the chip game with was a freshness date on the bag. Thanks Laura!

Is It All True?

Is the legend of a passive aggressive dish coming out of a kitchen in New York really the true origin? Not entirely it seems. A doctor by the name of William Kitchiner published a cookbook with a recipe for fried potato slices in 1822. An attempt to make a potato dish slightly healthier. Who knew potato chips were supposed to be a health food?

In Conclusion

So there you have it. The legend of the potato chip began either in 1853 with George Crum in the Moon Lake Lodge, or with William Kitchiner in his cookbook promoting proper nutrition. I suppose you should go with what your heart tells you. Mine says chips are amazing and snacking hasn’t been the same since.

Sources:

enchantedlearning.com

mashed.com

Chocolate Espresso Cake with Honey Icing

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A strong cup of coffee and some good chocolate chips make this cake a winner for anybody looking for that perfect combination of bitter and sweet. Like that first cup of coffee in the morning before anybody else is awake.

Ingredients

  • 1 stick of butter (room temperature)
  • 1/2 c. white sugar
  • 1/3 c. brown sugar
  • 2 eggs (room temperature)
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 c. flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 c. cocoa powder
  • 1 c. hot coffee
  • 3/4 c. chocolate chips

Icing

  1. 1/4 c. powdered sugar
  2. 2 tbsp. milk
  3. 1 tbsp. honey

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a ten inch round cake pan.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer put your butter and sugar and mix until fluffy. Add the vanilla while you mix this.
  3. Add your eggs one at a time waiting until one is combined before you put in the next.
  4. In a separate bowl whisk together all your dry ingredients.
  5. Alternating between your dry ingredients and the coffee (ending with the coffee) combine your ingredients. Don’t over mix.
  6. Fold in your chocolate chips and put in your prepared pan.
  7. Bake for 30 minutes until knife comes out clean. Leave to cool completely.
  8. Once cooled mix together your icing ingredients and swirl them on top of your cake.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Mascarpone Icing

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This is the prettiest cake I have ever made hands down. It was the crowning achievement of a day of cooking on Easter this year. I wanted to do a big southern dinner for my family because we couldn’t have any outside celebrations. I knew after a heavy dinner of chicken and greens I needed a lighter then air dessert and this is it.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 c. flour
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 1/2 c. olive oil
  • 1/4 c. butter (room temperature)
  • 1 c. buttermilk ( room temperature)
  • 3 eggs (room temperature)
  • 1/4 c. lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp. lemon zest
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Icing

  • 1 c. heavy cream
  • 1/2 c. mascarpone cheese
  • 2 tbsp. sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 10 in cake pan with cooking spray or lightly oil the pan.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer put your butter and sugar and whip till fluffy.
  3. Add eggs in one at a time waiting till one is completely combined before you add the next one.
  4. Add in olive oil and lemon juice and mix to combine.
  5. In a separate bowl whisk together all your dry ingredients and zest.
  6. Alternating between buttermilk and dry ingredients ending with the butter milk mix to combine. Don’t over mix.
  7. Bake for 30 minutes till a knife comes out clean. Leave to cool for about 20 minutes.
  8. After your cake is cooled and your mixing bowl is cleaned put all your icing ingredients into the bowl and whisk together until you get what resembles a stiff peak.
  9. Put icing on only the top of the cake. Then decorate with glazed berries and mint if you like.

Raspberry Cobbler Bars

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You know what I love but have never been able to perfect? A good cobbler. My filling never comes together enough and it always a soup. A soupy fruit soup. Unpleasant. I also can’t ever seem to get the topping right. There is something glorious and magical about that crispety crunchety oat and brown sugar topping. It warms your heart and reminds you of childhood and family. I have issues getting it to the crispety state though. Its always lackluster and the flavor is never quite there. It doesn’t fill me with that nostalgia. It fills me with the sad.

So I decided to take back the cobbler for myself with these. A traybake that brings together all the best pieces of a cobbler without the risk of soup. I made the jam component in these myself because I was feeling artisanal, but you can absolutely use a high quality raspberry preserve and get the same effect.

Ingredients

shortbread

  • 1 c. flour
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1/3 c. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp. salt

oat topping

  • 1/2 c. flour
  • 1/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4. tsp. salt
  • 1/2 c. rolled oats
  • 1/4. cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 c. butter (melted)
  • 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

raspberry jam

  • 1 package frozen raspberries
  • 1 c. sugar
  • lemon zest and juice

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. In a small saucepan put all your jam components and cook on medium low heat. You want the berries to cook down and the sugar to melt. This will cook while you make the other components. (If using store bought jam you can skip this step.)
  3. Put all your shortbread ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and stir to combine. It will look a little crumbly but you don’t want to over work it.
  4. Press the shortbread mixture into a parchment lined 9×13 pan. Par bake your crust for ten minutes.
  5. While the shortbread is baking take the jam mixture off the heat.(skip if using store bought)
  6. While the shortbread is baking put all your topping mixture into a medium sized bowl and mix to combine.
  7. Take the shortbread out and spread your jam across it and then top it with your crumble topping.
  8. Put back in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until the topping gets crunchy and the jam thickens up.

Afternoon Tea: A Brief History

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As Americans we believe tea to be a British institution back as far as we could possibly remember. As ingrained in the fabric of the United Kingdom as apple pie is to the southern United States. I was surprised to find out that Afternoon Tea is a relatively new custom. Thanks to the East India Company tea finds its way to England in the 17th century. It was popularized by King Charles the II and his wife Catherine de Braganza. Tea was such an expensive ingredient when it first made its way to England that the lady of the house often kept it and her tea making equipment under lock and key.

It wasn’t until 1840 that the idea of gathering for afternoon tea became a custom. Anna the 7th duchess of Bedford decided she didn’t enjoy that empty feeling you get when you’re hungry. The dinner meal was served kind of late, roughly around 8 pm and she got that empty feeling around four pm. So she requested a tray of tea, bread and butter and small cakes to be brought to her drawing room.

She soon began inviting her friends over to join her for tea. It became a fashionable affair. The upper class women would wear nice gowns and white gloves and join their friends for tea. They would go for walks in the garden afterwards to chat.

The traditional foods served with high tea were small sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam. Also served were small cakes and pastries. Afternoon tea now in the regular persons home tends to consist of tea and a handful of biscuits to dip into the tea. You can still have tea like the ladies of old at one of the many hotels that host a high tea. You can indulge in all the tiny cakes and tea out of gorgeous china. A proper good time.

Vegetarian Japanese Curry

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Japanese curry is typically a sauce made of curry powder, garam masala and stock. You want to give your sauce plenty of time to cook together. Curry is all about the layers of flavor you can create in that one pan.

You want to make sure when you cut your vegetables they are all relatively the same size because that means an even cook on all of them. You want to pan fry your vegetables for three to five minutes to get some color on them. Color equals flavor which will add to the full rounded flavor of your sauce.

You can serve this dish with Tonkatsu pork which is more traditional, but I served mine with a breaded vegan turkey cutlet. You still get that crispy fried texture that you get with traditional curry, but the added benefit of it fitting into your dietary restrictions.

Ingredients

  • 1 package bread vegetarian cutlet (I used Gardein Turkey Cutlets)
  • 2 russet potatoes (Sliced thin)
  • 2 carrots(Sliced thin)
  • 1 white onion (diced)
  • 4 c. chicken stock
  • 3 tbsp. butter
  • 4 tbsp. flour
  • 1 tbsp. curry powder
  • 1 tsp. garam masala
  • 2 tbsp. oil(for frying veggies)
  • 2 cups rice
  • 1 watermelon radish(sliced thinly) or daikon
  • green onion(small chop)
  • 2 tbsp. rice vinegar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven according to package instructions on your breaded vegetarian cutlet.
  2. Put your sliced radish in a small bowl with the rice vinegar. The pickled radish is for garnish.
  3. Put oil into a medium frying pan. Toss in your onion and cook for four-five minutes until they begin to take on color.
  4. Place your carrot and potato in the pan and cook until your veggies start to color.
  5. Add butter to the pan and cook until butter is melted.
  6. Add flour and cook until flour is a light brown.
  7. Add chicken stock and dry seasons and cook for 20-30 minutes.
  8. I used instant rice for this recipe so it only took about five minutes. If that is what you choose to use you don’t need to cook your rice this early. You can wait till the last couple of minutes of cooking your sauce. If you choose to use regular rice in a rice cooker you are going to want to rinse and start your rice right now. The longer the sauce cooks the better the flavor so if your rice takes a little longer then you think just turn the heat down a little on your sauce. If it starts to get too thick you can add a little more chicken stock to thin it out and give the rice more time.
  9. After the sauce and rice have been cooking for roughly 10 minutes you can put your vegetarian cutlet into the oven. The ones I use take about 20 minutes to cook.
  10. Once everything is done cooking place your rice on the plate. Dress it with the curry sauce and vegetables. Place the cutlet on the plate and sprinkle the green onion over everything.

Crab Wontons

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These little pockets of deliciousness are something I have to have every time I go out to eat Chinese food. The warm cream cheese interior with the crisp fried shell make these what I would consider one of the most perfect bites of food. So I had to figure out how to make them for myself. It’s cheaper then buying them and you can eat however many you want in the comfort of your own home without the tiny lady who runs the restaurant silently judging you from behind the counter.

I don’t call these things rangoons even though they have all the same ingredients because I tried desperately to make that little parcel shape with the four folds, but after failing the first two and nearly crying I stopped and decided triangle shapes would be just fine.

Tips:

Absolutely wait until your cream cheese comes up to room temperature. Don’t make the mistake I made because you will fight the mixture the entire time you are trying to combine it.

Make sure you have a fine chop on your green onions.

You can make these without the crab meat for a vegetarian option.

Ingredients

  • wonton wrappers
  • 1 8 oz pack of cream cheese
  • 2 green onions finely chopped
  • 1/4 pound imitation crab meat
  • a splash of soy sauce
  • vegetable oil for frying
  • 1 egg beaten for egg wash

Directions

  1. Place three inches of oil in a pot and begin to heat it. You want the oil to be between 350 and 360 degrees Fahrenheit. (You want enough oil to cover the wontons once they’re in the oil.)
  2. Put all your ingredients into a large bowl and mix to combine. It’s alright if your mix is a little clumpy because once they’re fried it will be warm and creamy.
  3. Egg wash all four sides of your wonton wrapper and place a dollop of your filling in the middle.
  4. Seal it up into a triangle shape.
  5. Once your oil is up to temp fry them for two minutes. Flipping the wonton half way through to get an even cook on both sides.
  6. Serve with whatever dipping sauce you enjoy.

P is for Peanut Butter Toast

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Every morning before school when I would make myself breakfast it was normally some sort of fluffy bread product put in the toaster then smothered in what a normal person would consider to much butter and jam. Enough carbs, sugar and fat to keep you going till lunch time. The one thing that always hit the spot was something slightly different. A good slice of crusty whole wheat bread toasted and covered in creamy peanut butter.

Now I can’t quite explain what makes this breakfast treat something that still fills me up with joy to this day. It might be the way the knife runs across the toasted surface and you see that confetti of bread crumb dust that flies all over your counter. It might be the way peanut butter always melts perfectly on the warm bread and you never have to fight it like you do when your butter is ice cold. Something about toast and cold butter makes them mortal enemies, but not English muffins though. For some reason the surface of an English muffin is perfect because all its craggly bits and holes catch that ice cold butter and hold onto it for dear life. Then you are blessed with butter pockets.

We aren’t here to talk about butter pockets though. I think for me the thing that makes peanut butter toast so amazing and a thing that should always be a part of your breakfast rotation is probably the velvet texture of warm peanut butter and soft toast that coats the inside of your mouth and warms your spirit. It’s like eating a warm peanut butter cookie straight from the oven, but in a way that doesn’t have people judging your diet.

I rediscovered this gift a few weeks ago when I decided as a fully fledged grown up I could buy fancy peanut butter and a nice loaf of bread. It washed over me like a warm wave. That hit of sweet and slightly savory that ticks all the boxes and makes you feel like you’ve done something nice for yourself. Sometimes all it takes is two ingredients coming together to give you nostalgia and a hit of protein to get you through the day.

Mini Quiche Cups

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Mini crust-less quiche cups are the perfect throw together breakfast for your family any day of the week. In and out of the oven in about a half an hour. I took mine in a Mediterranean direction but you can go whatever way you like.

Ingredients

  • 7 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 red onion, diced
  • 12 cherry tomatoes
  • 1/3 cup feta cheese
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • salt/pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
  2. Whisk together the eggs, cream, salt/pepper, onion and mushroom.
  3. In each muffin slot place one cherry tomato and a sprinkling of feta cheese.
  4. Fill each slot half way up and sprinkle more feta on top.
  5. Bake for 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

It really is that easy and the recipe is customizable to what flavors your family likes. Even if you just like a hefty helping of sharp cheddar with your eggs throw that in there. Start your day with those warm little cheddar pockets. Everyday is better with cheese.

Sometimes things just fail…

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Baking is a science for a reason. These are the kind of wise words I can give myself a half hour later as I’ve given myself time to think on it. This is not something I can tell myself as I am recklessly throwing butter and powdered sugar into a mixture with my espresso ganache that had gloriously failed. Why did it fail? I’m not certain. Maybe because I used milk instead of cream. Maybe the milk wasn’t hot enough. Maybe not enough butter…not enough chocolate. I have no idea but it failed.

I was not going to realize my beautiful vision for a lush chocolate cake with espresso chocolate ganache and hazelnuts. It was going to be amazing. I had been dreaming of it for an hour. Why didn’t I just start again you ask? Because I was sad. I was sad that it failed. I don’t like failure. So I tossed the broken mess of a frosting and made my husband eat naked chocolate cake with me. He loved the cake. He loved it just as it was. Sometimes things are ok just as they are. Maybe it was meant to be a naked cake. Sometimes things just fail but what I saw as a failure my husband saw as a success. I needed that moment of positivity when I very nearly cried over split buttercream.

Baking is a science. You need to understand the basics before you can try and save something that’s broken. Start again if you can or try and find the success moment in the middle of what might feel like a failure. My cake was good. Moist…delicious. That was enough today.

Tilapia Tacos with Pickled Radish and Jalapeno

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This recipe is a play on one that is in The Portlandia Cookbook. I purchased this book because I wanted something that would help give me some inspiration for celebrating the ingredients that are local to the Pacific Northwest. Growing up in a place surrounded by mountains and lakes gives you ample opportunity to source the freshest proteins. We are also an area that prides itself on our culinary craftsmanship. You will find many small scale breweries and artisanal shops selling anything from local made jams to popcorn. A perfect place to pick up a food based gift to take home to your family.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Tilapia fillets (cut into strips)
  • 2 cups shredded cabbage (green or red or a mixed bag)
  • 4 small radishes (thinly sliced)
  • 1 jalapeno (thinly sliced)
  • oil for pan frying the fish
  • 2 tbsp of a sweet vinegar for pickling (I used a spanish variety)
  • salt to taste
  • sour cream and guacamole for garnish

Directions

  1. Place your radish and jalapeno in a bowl with the vinegar. Set it aside.
  2. In a medium sauce frying pan on medium high heat put 2 tbsp neutral tasting oil. Heat the oil till it shimmers and moves like water in the pan.
  3. Cook the fish on one side for three to four minutes. Then flip the fish and cook for three to four minutes on the other side. You want a nice even browning without overcooking the fish.
  4. When the fish is cooked put one piece in each tortilla.
  5. Garnish with cabbage, sour cream, guacamole, and your pickled veg.