Coffee & Cream Cake

I love coffee, coffee ice cream, coffee jello (yes, I have a recipe for that Coffee Jello), and certainly coffee flavored cakes with the most delicious coffee whipped cream.  You can make the cake using either a cake mix or a sponge cake recipe.  Of course the sponge cake tastes much better.

Cake using Sponge Cake Recipe:

6 extra large eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

2 tablespoons coffee dissolved in 1/3 cup warm water

Sift dry ingredients. Beat egg whites with half sugar until peaks form.

Beat yolks with rest of sugar till creamy, about 5 min, then beat in oil.

Beat in coffee syrup.  Fold in flour.

Fold mixture into egg whites.

Pour into two 9 inch greased and floured pans.

Bake at 350 deg, about 25 min.

Cake using cake mix:

Use a white or yellow cake mix, adding 2 tablespoons of instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons of hot water.

Coffee Whipped Cream:

3 cups heavy cream

2 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm water

Half of a 3 oz package of vanilla instant pudding mix

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Beat till cream is stiff.

Chocolate Lines:

1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup heavy cream

Melt in microwave for 1 min or lesser until the cream just starts to bubble (watch to see it doesn't boil over).  Stir well until chocolate is smooth and shiny.  Put in a squeeze bottle and squeeze lines over cake.

Apple Crisp

When fall comes around, we go to the farm and pick apples and make apple crisp.  The smell of the baking apples and oatmeal streusel is unbelievable.  This is best eaten the same day as the streusel topping turns soft the next day.

Ingredients:
10 Cortland/Empire/Macintosh apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
Mix everything and put in buttered 9 in pie dish
Pour 2 tablespoons of melted butter over.
Top with streusel and bake 45 min at 400 deg until bubbly and top is browned.

Oatmeal Streusel:
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup whole oats
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 stick margarine or butter, softened
Rub butter into dry ingredients till crumbly.
Squeeze together to form some bigger pieces.

Quick & Easy Eggplant

Ingredients:
3 Japanese eggplant (thin long ones)
2 stalks scallions, diced
Lee Kum Kee Blackbean and Garlic sauce
Oyster sauce

Roll cut eggplant and boil till just cooked. 
Fry scallions, add blackbean sauce and oyster sauce and stir.
Add eggplant and stir and serve.

Teriyaki Salmon

 Favorite way of cooking salmon. To keep the salmon moist, dust with flour before pan-frying.

Just marinade salmon in Yoshida's sauce - a sweet Teriyaki type sauce .

Sauce is available from BJ's.

Rotisserie Chicken Porriddge

Another delicious way to use up those leftover store-bought roasted chicken.

Ingredients:

Leftover roasted chicken

1 onion, sliced

4 slices ginger

2 carrots, diced

1 16oz can chicken stock

1 cup uncooked jasmine rice

white pepper

Method:

Remove meat from chicken and shred.  Set aside.

Put bones and skin, onions and ginger to a pot.  Add enough water to just cover them and bring to a boil.  Simmer for one hour.

Drain liquid into vacuum pot (take care not to scald yourself, let it cool a little first if too hot).

Add uncooked rice and carrots and bring to a boil. Cover pot and let it stand overnight or 4 hours.

Add can of chicken stock andbring to a boil again.  Simmer till desired consistency.

Add the shredded chicken and dash of white pepper.  Taste before adding any salt.

Serve with green onions or cilantro if desired.