Strawberries

Being a yard less urbanite is fine in the winter (who wants to shovel snow). But I always feel cheated by the concrete come spring.  I grew up with a garden that attracted bees, fireflies, and humming birds. Fortunately, I inherited a plot in a community garden in May. Eager to partake in spring planting rituals, I bought seedlings for the rich, Who-filled soil. Tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, thyme, sage, dill, parsley, and hot peppers, at the insistence of my Indian mom, all found a place in the small plot.  

I felt content with my garden until I noticed a small patch of lime green plants in a neighboring plot. The deeply grooved leaves, which sat close to the ground, looked familiar. Strawberry plants! Why wasn't I trying to beckon summer's first fruit? A week later, white petaled flowers with  yellow centers graced the stems. I knew the blossoms would turn into glossy red berries - more fragrant and flavorful than the super-sized varieties shipped from California. Fearful of my weakness for their juicy flesh, I scheduled a trip to the farmer's market. 

June strawberries satisfy all the senses, whether dressed up (with cream or chocolate) or eaten right off the stem. In addition, they provide a healthy dose of dietary fiber, thanks to the tiny seeds polk-a-doting the outer flesh, and vitamin C. The one drawback: this exquisite fruit lingers around for about month. So don't waste time coveting your neighbor's patch. Visit your local farmer's market this week or schedule a trip to the closest U-Pick farm!

Fig & Brown Sugar Cake

I bought a pack of organic dried fig from Cold Storage long time ago, due to my sickness, concert and so on, the dried fig has been hibernating in the fridge for sometime. I think I've to use it before it goes expired. This fig and brown sugar cake recipe from the book of "Luscious Healthy Desserts 搞纤低卡烘培" taste quite special for me.

This cake is light and the sweetness from the dried fig is quite special. I reduced some sugar from the cake recipe as I find the fig is very sweet. The cake suppose to be spread with whipped cream but I don't have whipping cream on hand so I decided to make some buttercream to go with it. I think the cake would be much softer and lighter if I rolled it with whipped cream. The method of this recipe is quite similar to chiffon cake unlike some swiss roll recipe which is beat the whole eggs until fluffy then add add the flour. Anyway, it's not very difficult to make and I would like try to replace the fig to prunes, cherry or other dried fruits on my next attempt.

I tried a mango yogurt ice cream recipe from Small Small Baker and it's fantastic! It's very smooth and refreshing, and just so great to have a few scoops in this hot weather.

After my the first attempt on the potato buns for hotdog, I tried to make it again filled with some azuki redbean. Again, it's still not nicely shaped but the bun really soft like the one I bought from the stall.

Recipe for Fig & Brown Sugar Cake @ 60cm x 39cm baking pan.

(I used 2/5 from the below recipe to fit my smaller baking pan @ 27.5cm x 34.5cm)

(A) 150g dried fig / 20g sugar / 60g water / 20g honey / 80g rum
(B) 180g egg yolks / 100g water / 11og dark brown sugar / 150g olive oil / 30g rum / 210g plain flour
(C) 370g egg whites / 140g sugar (I used half of the sugar only) / 15g corn flour
(D) some whipping cream or butter cream (1/2 cup icing sugar / 1/2 cup butter / 1/2 tsp vanilla extract / 1/2 to 1 tbsp milk)

Methods:

1. Cook ingredients (A) at low heat until the fig soften and flavored. Chopped it into big chunk.
2. Mix water, oil and brown sugar, bring the bowl on the hob at low heat keep stirring until the brown sugar melted.
3. Mix in the egg yolks and rum then the plain flour. Add in the softened fig.
4. In another bowl, whisk ingredients (C) until soft peak then fold half of the egg whites into the fig mixture until combine. Add the remaining egg whites into the mixture until everything well incorporated.
5. Pour into a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes at 190'C preheated oven.
6. Let the cake cool down before spreading the butter cream or whipping cream and roll up into a swiss roll.

Kitchen Sisters Interviewing & Recording Workshop

Davia is conducting a 3-hour basic recording and interviewing workshop on Thursday, June 25 at 10:00 AM in San Francisco.

It is intended not just for people in radio, but those interested in oral history and others who would like to learn interviewing skills for the projects that they do. We will cover miking technique, sound gathering, use of archival audio, how to make interviewees comfortable, how to frame your questions, and how to listen (which is harder than it looks).

The fee is $100. Of course, there will be a snack.

If you'd like to attend or would like more information, please send us an email at kitchen@kitchensisters.org