Rhubarb pudding cake

I took a break for a few days to visit friends who I basically consider family, and to celebrate as two of them got married. I love that no matter how sporadic our emailing gets or how many kilometers separate us, we still manage to pick up where we left off, and talk for hours and hours, and celebrate wholeheartedly, like we never really parted ways.

Of course, we reunited for a wedding, but we reveled in the opportunity to hang out like old times and have fun. We had sleep-overs. We ate giant scoops of ice cream for dinner and piles of bacon for breakfast. At night, we stayed up late, chatting. We talked about anything and everything that was going on in our lives, what we are up to now and what we are doing next. It was great to see that everybody is doing so well.

This week-end couldn't have fallen at a better time for me because it reminded me of how many people are on my side and want to see me succeed. Instead of judging me for following up a PhD in chemistry with pastry school, and instead of looking at me like I'm insane for now trying to start a food business, they congratulated me for taking risks and for finding my passion. 

There were no looks of concern, awkwardness, or disbelief from people I talked to. All I saw on their faces was excitement and support. It's always nice to have friends confirm that your ideas aren't completely crazy, or when they agree that what you want to do next is crazy in a good way. So, I think now more than ever I am excited for what's to come, and I have more faith that I can and will succeed.

If you follow my facebook page, you know that I promised a rhubarb recipe, and here it is finally. I am super excited to share this rhubarb pudding cake with you (loosely adapted from Ricardo magazine, volume 11, number 5). I think this is such an easy and delicious way to showcase rhubarb: a simple homemade rhubarb compote topped with a buckwheat butter cake.

Honestly, this turned out to be one of my all-time favorite desserts that I've shared with you until now. It might become my go-to rhubarb dessert to mark the season every year. The compote is sweet, but still tart and loaded with rhubarb flavor. The buckwheat cake is delightfully nutty. I'd really like to eat this every day, maybe even twice a day (once for breakfast, and once for dessert after dinner). Don't just read this: make it!

Rhubarb pudding cakes

Published: June 3rd, 2013, Cook time: 30 minutes
    Makes 6

Rhubarb compote ingredients

• 150 grams granulated sugar
• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 4 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/4" pieces

Buckwheat cake ingredients

• 40 grams all-purpose flour
• 40 grams buckwheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 75 grams Stirling unsalted butter, room temperature
• 75 grams granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 40 mL milk

To make the rhubarb compote

1. In a medium pot, stir together the sugar and cornstarch with a wooden spoon. Add the chopped rhubarb and toss to coat then heat on medium to release the juices from the fruit, and to thicken the compote, stirring constantly.
2. When the compote has simmered for at least 5 minutes and the mixture is thickened significantly, take the pot off the heat.
3. Divide the mixture among 6 ramekins and set them aside while you make the cake batter.

To make the buckwheat cake

4. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt in a bowl, and set this aside.
5. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugar for 3 minutes.
6. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well until the batter is smooth.
7. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beating the batter just until smooth and all the ingredients are incorporated.
8. Top the ramekins of compote with the cake batter and bake for about 30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake layer comes out clean.
9. Serve these cakes warm or cold.

My take on Bluth's frozen bananas

I love everything about Arrested Development. EVERYTHING (well, except when Buster loses his hand because that was freaky). I am, of course, head-over-heals in love with Michael Bluth (played by Jason Bateman). He's so dreamy.

If you don't know the show, you should watch this.

I actually met David Cross (Tobias Fünke, the never-nude on Arrested Development) at a party once, a few years ago. It was at the book launch for The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts.

Go figure, David Cross was surprisingly normal in real life, and I was the freak at the party who asked him to sign my cookbook, which has nothing to do with the character he plays or the television show. He looked confused but I had nothing else that he could sign, so what else could I have done?

One of my favorite Arrested Development episodes is actually the second episode all about the "Bluth's Original Frozen Banana" stand. I think this was the episode that got me hooked with George's love affair with ice cream sandwiches in prison, Tobias crying in the shower, and "There's always money in the banana stand!".

So to celebrate the start of Season 4, I made a take on Bluth's frozen bananas.

I opted to make them bite-sized (which means more chocolate and toppings with each bite). You can spear each banana bite with a popsicle stick, but I lacked the freezer space for this. These are super quick and easy to make, and absolutely delicious. You can make a bunch and store them in the freezer for when you want to serve them. Just let them warm up at room temperature for about 10 minutes before enjoying.

Frozen banana bites

Published: May 26th, 2013, Prep time: 10 minutes
    Makes about 30 pieces

• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped
• 170 grams semi-sweet chocolate (I used Cacao Barry Méxique chocolate)
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 4 small bananas, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces

1. Line a rimmed sheet with parchment.
2. In a dry skillet, toast the shredded coconut on medium heat, stirring constantly. Transfer to a shallow dish to cool.
3. Place the chopped peanuts in another shallow dish. 
4. Melt the chocolate in a microwave save dish and then stir in the oil. Let the melted chocolate cool a little to thicken the chocolate (makes it easier for the chocolate to adhere to the banana if the chocolate mixture has thickened a little).
5. Using a popsicle stick (or a fondue fork), dip each banana slice into the chocolate then roll each around in the peanuts or coconut to coat it. Place the coated banana bites on the parchment-lined sheet to cool and set the chocolate.
6. When all the banana pieces are coated, place the sheet pan in the freezer and freeze for about 2 hours before serving.
7. Let the pieces warm up slightly at room temperature before eating to thaw the banana pieces.
8. Store in a container in the freezer.

I have been thinking about maple butter for quite a long time, possibly months.

Think of the potential here. Pure maple syrup transformed into a delicious paste means you can sandwich it in between two cookies, or spread it on toast for breakfast.

What this also implies is an even more practical way of getting maple syrup into my belly. I can eat it straight with a spoon, without making a drippy mess of my fridge area. Genius.

Maple butter is kind of a misleading name though, but the name maple cream isn't really much better, in my opinion. There's no cream or butter here. It's just pure maple syrup that has been boiled, cooled and stirred so that the syrup crystallizes in just the right way to give it this spreadable smooth texture.

Whatever you want to call it, this spreadable maple stuff is good. It's really good.

The science behind maple butter is relatively simple. You just boil maple syrup until it reaches 235°F (a.k.a 22–24°F over the boiling point of water). By doing this, you are basically concentrating the sugar, making it easier to crystallize because all the tiny sugar molecules are now really close to each other in the syrup. Icing the concentrated syrup quickly drops its temperature, again another step favoring crystallization (and specifically smaller, finer crystals over bigger, chunky crystals). In the final step, you stir the mixture for a very long time (crystallization is a process, so patience is key here): eventually it will turn opaque/creamy-looking and become maple butter.

I encourage you to sample after cooling the syrup both before and after the long stirring process because the mouth feel is really quite different, and that's how you know it's "done". However, avoid sampling the boiling hot syrup. It may be tempting, but it'll burn you really badly.

Maple butter

Published: May 23rd, 2013, Cook time: 10-ish minutes
    Makes 1 large jar (~500 mL)

• 500 mL maple syrup (I used Grade A, amber syrup from Quebec)
• 1/4 tsp canola oil (apparently helps prevent the syrup from boiling over)

1. In a deep saucepan, boil the maple syrup with the oil, until it reaches about 235°F on medium–high heat.
2. Immediately, transfer the boiled syrup to your stand mixer bowl, and drop the bowl into a big ice bath to cool the syrup down to about 60°F. Then let the syrup warm back up to room temperature.
3. With the paddle attachment, beat the syrup on low for a very, very long time (like 30 minutes even) until it turns opaque and the color of sesame butter (the texture on your tongue when you sample it will go from syrupy at the beginning of the process to very finely powdery).
4. Quickly transfer the maple butter to a large jar and store in the fridge.
5. If the maple butter separates at any point, just give it a good stir before using.

My condo teeters between semi-clean and a state much like a bomb went off.
I want to be neat, like really, really neat.
I need to be neat.
I am not neat.
Sucks to be me.
(I know, I know. It's my own fault).

I like to blame the second law of thermodynamics (yes, I'm serious) that basically states everything has a tendency towards entropy. See, it's not my fault! It just happens. Chaos in my condo is easy and it happens naturally in a sense because it requires little to no energy to make it happen and to maintain.

When I'm busy, my energy is directed elsewhere, and what usually happens is I start to clean, but never finish. I end up with the laundry rack permanently ensconced in the middle of my loft, and the vacuum always plugged and at-the-ready for me to get cleaning... eventually... My attempts to clean when I'm busy basically lead to more messiness.

The thing that bugs me about the messiness and disorder is not that it impedes my day-to-day life. There's order in the disorder, I swear. The trouble is that I feel like I am still a child and I just want to grow up. I somehow haven't outgrown the messy-room phase. I long for my dwelling to look like it is inhabited by an adult and not an untidy, way-past-her-teens thirty-something woman. I walk into other people's clean and pristine abodes and I am sad. Why am I so physically incapable of keeping a clean house?

Instead of tidying up, I baked these cookies (adapted from Smitten Kitchen). And, by baking these cookies, I contributed even more to the mess. These cookies come out of the oven as soft, almost cake-y cookies, but become a little chewier as they cool. I baked them in a mini-muffin pan so that they'd all have a nice uniform size because my living conditions may be less than neat, but my muffins must be perfect. I'm funny that way.

At least I have cookies to eat while I stare at the chaos that is my open loft space. Yeah, you can't hide the messiness when you have a loft. It's literally hits you as soon as you walk in. Oh well. I'll grow up one day. Maybe.

Oatmeal cookies

Published: May 15th, 2013, Cook time: 10 minutes
    Makes 48 small cookies

• 115 grams (1/2 cup) unsalted butter (I used Stirling unsalted butter)
• 130 grams (2/3 cup) light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 95 grams (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 120 grams oats (I used Robin Hood quick oats)

1. Grease two 24-mini muffin pans. Set aside. Also line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugar for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the egg, and beat again until incorporated.
4. Add the vanilla, and beat again. Scrape down the bowl.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and oats.
6. Add the flour mixture to the mixer bowl, and mix on low til the dough comes together.
7. Scoop the dough with a 3/4 oz scoop (~20 g of dough per scoop) and place on the parchment lined sheet (I got exactly 24 scoops of about 20–22 grams). Refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour.
8. Preheat the oven at 350°F. When the dough is completely chilled, divide each scoop into two using a knife and place each half in a well of greased muffin pan.
9. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn golden brown. Let the cookies firm up for a minute or two before, unmolding with the help of a mini offset spatula.

The universe kind of punched me in the face this week, and so once again, I found myself vulnerable, crying on the shoulders of friends, emailing/talking to get comfort, support, help, advice. I don't think I'd survive without my friends to talk things out, bitch, complain, vent, rant... My friends help me work through my issues and see the light.

It's hard because at the same time, I am stubbornly independent. I try to do most things by myself. I hate to put people out or ask favors. I know everybody's busy, and everybody has their own lives, their own share of problems to deal with. I hate to burden people with mine on top of everything else, and I hate the vulnerability of thinking that I can't do something on my own. However, when it comes to my emotions and upsets, I have learned that I cannot deal with them alone. For that, I ask for help.

My emotional roller coaster reminds me that I've connected with amazing people over the last 5 or so years. I don't mean to be all sappy, but I can't believe how lucky I am. Sure, the universe has thrown me my share of troubles, and the universe tossed another obstacle at me this week, as though I didn't have enough of them already. But the universe also gave me my people.

Panna cotta is one of those easy desserts that you can throw together all while dealing with a life crisis. It takes about 10 minutes and then you just have to refrigerate it to set and chill til the next day. It can be lighter if made with whole milk, or a combination of milk and cream, and it can be seriously decadent if made with cream only. This vanilla bean panna cotta is lightly sweetened because I served it with some homemade strawberry jam. It's immensely refreshing and the perfect way to enjoy your preserves.

Vanilla bean panna cotta

Published: May 10th, 2013, Cook time: 10 minutes
    Makes 4 to 5 servings

• 1 packet Knox gelatin
• 63 mL (1/4 cup) water
• 500 mL (2 cups) cream, or milk, or a combination of both
• 1 vanilla bean, split in half and scraped
• 2 tbsp (25 grams) granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• homemade jam

1. Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over top. Set it aside to bloom while you work on the rest of the recipe.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the cream and/or milk with the split vanilla beans, being sure to scrape all the seeds into the saucepan. Add the granulated sugar.
3. Heat the mixture on medium–low until it just begins to steam and is almost about to boil. Take the saucepan off the heat, and whisk in the bloomed gelatin mixture until it has completely dissolved. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before adding the vanilla extract.
4. Strain the mixture into 4 or 5 small ramekins or glasses, and transfer to the fridge to chill overnight.
5. Enjoy as is, or top with a dollop or two of your favorite jam.

I'm convinced that a bowl of freshly-popped popcorn can make all sorts of miserable situations at least a tiny bit better. When I was at McGill, if it weren't for the middle of the night popcorn breaks with colleagues, I don't think I would have survived. I was miserable most of the time, and I swear the two things that kept me going were popcorn and my labmates. Fine, I didn't love all my labmates. There were a few that were not even worthy of the popcorn that fell on the floor.

I think my late night popcorn snack time at McGill sealed the fate of my relationship with popcorn. For better or for worse, I will always have popcorn.


To satisfy my popcorn cravings, I actually own three different machines, besides a good old stainless steel pot and lid in case all three machines fail. I kid you not. Popcorn-popping is a very serious part of my day and not to be messed with.

I don't know about you, but regardless of the popping method, I always gravitate towards savory/salty toppings. My go-to popcorn topping is obviously melted butter, but recently I've gone fancy, opting for melted whey butter from Stirling Creamery in Ontario. This butter is so good, I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I could probably eat it straight, but of course, I would never do that. Instead, I melt it and drizzle ridiculous amounts of the salty, creamy whey butter all over my popcorn. Popcorn is perfect when it's made as simple as that.

I also like to douse my buttered popcorn in Frank's Red Hot, which yields soggy popcorn that kind of tastes like chicken wings. I know you're thinking it's weird, but trust me, soggy chicken-wing-flavored popcorn is pretty awesome. Just do it and thank me later.

Last but not least, chili lime flavored popcorn. I struggled a lot with how to get this one right. Obviously the easy way to make chili lime popcorn is to just take your buttered popcorn and sprinkled with chili powder, salt, and sprinkle with lime juice. This totally works, but again, this yields damp popcorn. Recently, my new strategy is to omit the lime juice and use citric acid instead. It's a powder, and it's how many chip companies impart that tangy citrus flavor to snacks without the water. It works, and when combined with a little lime zest, lots of chili powder and salt, it's winning.

Chili lime popcorn

Published: May 7th, 2013, Prep time: 2 minutes
    Makes 8 cups

• 8 cups popped popcorn
• 3 tbsp (or even more) Stirling Creamery whey butter, melted
• 1 tsp (or more) chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (optional, if you find your popcorn isn't salty enough from the butter)
• 2 pinches (or more) citric acid or the juice of a lime
• 1/2 (or more) lime, zested

1. Toss together the popcorn with all the ingredients and thoroughly mix. Taste it and adjust your seasoning accordingly.

How to make Turkish coffee

Every time I randomly bump into my cousin R and he is with somebody I haven't met, he points to me and laughs, exclaiming "We're cousins! Can't you tell?". This leads to much confusion. See, R looks Egyptian. I, on the other hand, do not. It's an ongoing joke really, and watching people react to the information is priceless.

I may not seem Egyptian, but a few of my eating habits say otherwise. Cumin is my go-to spice when I'm cooking, or even when I just eat a fresh tomato. Fava beans are comfort food and they are also breakfast, served with eggs. I love nigella seeds, which are not to be confused with black sesame. I like to eat desserts that are soaked in syrup, especially syrup flavored with rose water. OK fine, most of these are common to many countries in that area, but point is, I'm clearly not from, say, Texas.

My latest "Egyptian" habit is Turkish coffee and it's one that I won't be giving up any time soon.

Turkish coffee has changed my life forever. It's made from Arabica beans that are super finely ground. Some also grind in cardamom, which makes Turkish coffee even better in my opinion. In Egypt, the foam on the coffee is called the "wish" (i.e. face) and it is good luck, so making Turkish coffee in the kanaka (a stovetop coffee pot) is ideal because it's really the only way to get that foam. The kanaka is the traditinal method for brewing on the stove, but my aunt taught me that now it is quite common to make it "instant", just by stirring the coffee grinds with boiling water directly in your coffee cup.

However you choose to make it, Turkish coffee is delightful. It is sweet, slightly floral from the cardamom, and not at all bitter so you can enjoy it hot, without milk, and even without any sugar.

Turkish coffee

Published: May 2nd, 2013, Cook time: up to 10 minutes
    Makes 1 cup

• 1–2 tsp finely ground Turkish coffee (a mixture of Arabica and some cardamom)
• 1–2 tsp granulated sugar (optional)

The "instant" way:
1. Place coffee grinds and sugar (if using) in a small coffee cup. Top with boiling water.
2. Stir the mixture, going around 23 times with your spoon (not 19 or 27 times!). Stirring is important so that the coffee grinds hydrate better and sink to the bottom so that you aren't drinking grainy coffee later.
3. Let the coffee settle for a few minutes and sip while hot.


The "traditional" way in Egypt (please note: this method requires a kanaka):
4. Place coffee grinds and sugar (if using) in the kanaka. Top with cold water.
5. Place the kanaka on the stove and heat on low very slowly until the mixture just begins to boil (if it boils too much, you will lose the foam, and possibly your good luck, especially when the coffee erupts out of the pot).
6. Remove from heat and let sit 1 minute before pouring into a small coffee cup.