Almond-Orange Cake.....

The first week of the New Year bring such an amazing sunny and beautiful days plus chilly crisp cold air that turn the water in my bird bath into rock-hard ice and my banana trees got burn overnight.  But on the Sunday morning as the ray of the morning sun came through the window while I was sipping my coffee and trying to get warm from the sunlight, I felt like I wanted to bake a cake.  But what kind of cake?   I have fresh organic oranges sitting on the counter, and then I remember I have a bag of almond flour (aka almond meal) in my pantry.  Yep! Let bake orange cake using almond flour.  Eating oranges on a first day of the New Year is believed to bring good luck.  Well, may be not exactly on the first day but the first week of the New Year or perhaps during the first month should have the same effect…..bringing me some good luck.  Right?  Right!   hehehe.... 

This cake is so easy to make. Neither flour, oil, butter nor milk is needed.  Sounds great!.  Honestly, I've never tried to bake this kind of cake before but I've always wanted to try one day.  And today is my day.  Did I mention it flourless?  ^_^

I baked the cake in my 10-inch tart pan (along with 1 4-inch paper tart pan because of a little bit of the batter left and I didn't want the cake to overflow from the tart pan) as I thought it would come out looking prettier than using a regular round cake pan.  And when it's done, I couldn't have felt happier. The cake looked amazing.  The cake itself is so moist with tangy orange flavor and not too sweet which makes it perfect with tea or coffee.  Though the cake still has a hint of the bitterness tastes from the oranges skins and pith, as many recipes have cautioned about skipping the boiling process of oranges before add in the batter, but it was not too bad at all.  I finished the little one in no time. 

Note*  if you like the cake more on the sweet side, add more a half or one cup of sugar into the cake batter, or serve the cake with orange glazed or sweet cream whipped. 

Scrumptious and incredibly moist Almond-Orange Cake  

1. For the quick orange marmalade

2 large fresh navel oranges (preferably organic and seedless)

1/2 cup sugar

2-3 tbsp. water

1.  wash dust and dirt from the oranges and cut them into small pieces, discard the seeds if any. Put the cut orange pieces in the blender or food processor and water and blended until they turn into tiny pieces (see picture).

2. pour the orange into a medium pot with sugar and bring to a boil at medium-high heat. When it comes to full boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and let it cook for about 20 minutes.

3.  Let the cooked orange cool down completely. This makes approx.  2 cups.

2. For the cake:  preheat the oven to 350'F

1 1/2 cups Almond flour/meal ( I used Bob’s Red Mill)

3/4 cup sugar (or1 cup if you like sweet)

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. almond extract

A tiny pinch of salf

3 large eggs – room temperature

1/2 cup almond slides/slivered for toppings

Powdered sugar for dusting

1. grease the tart pan with butter and lay parchment paper on top. Set aside.

2. whisk the eggs, sugar, almond extract until thick and pale, add the almond flour, baking powder, salt, and fold to combine. add cooled cooked orange into the batter and mix well.  Pour into the greased tart pan and sprinkle slivered almonds on top of the cake.

3. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the top and the edges of the cake turn slightly golden brown. 

4. serve warm (I found it tastes better than cold…) with tea or coffee or as dessert after dinner.  Enjoy! 

Spinach, mushroom, and bell pepper with sweet potato crust quiche

Happy New Year 2015 everyone!

First of all I have to apologize for my absent for the past whole year in 2014.  Many things in my personal life had happened and needed to be taken care of.  But I will not go into any details about what was going on with my life (sorry for not sharing!). There were some good news (nooo! I did not win a lotto!) and bad news that keep my life interesting and wonderful! (at least that what I thought!)

 As the 1^st day of the New Year started off bright and shine with the gorgeous clear skies along with cool crisp air of the winter in Southern California, it inspired me to get off my year with the right start.  Making heart healthy quiche for breakfast would be a great idea to start the day and year right. Right?  Right!

Let’s move on to my first post of the year “Spinach, mushroom, and sweet potato quiche.”  I love sweet potato! Do you?    Cooking in the microwave for a few minutes (depends on the size) and eating plain without anything on it is my instant joy.  But adding it into the egg dish for breakfast is such amazingly amazing!  

What you need:  can be served 4-6 people

1 large sweet potato (yam) shredded into 3 cups

5-6 large eggs

1/4 cup onion, chopped

3 cups fresh spinach (or frozen)

2 cups mushroom, chopped

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup milk

2 small yellow bell peppers (one chopped, another cut across)

1 tbsp. olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400`F

1. add a pinch of salt and pepper into shredded sweet potato and gently toss together with your hands. Then spread them over the pie pan (spray your pan slightly with cooking spray first to prevent the sweet potato stick to the pan.  I didn’t!  L ) and onto the rim evenly. Place in the oven and bake for 15-18 minutes. Take it out if the edges start to burn and cover with foil.  When the time is up, take it out and turn the oven down to 350`F.

2. add olive oil in the sauté pan over medium high heat, add onion and cook for a few minutes, then add mushroom, bell pepper, and spinach and cook until all the vegetables are wilted and let it cool down a bit. 

3. beaten the eggs in the large bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, then add milk and 1 cup of cheese, stir to combine. Add the cooked vegetables (it may still warm, but ok!) into the eggs and gently stir to combine. Pour over the egg filling into the sweet potato crust, and arrange cut yellow bell pepper on top as well as another 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

4. serve immediately with any of your favorite hot sauce or salsa!  Enjoy!

Dried Fuyu Persimmon

 

Fuyu persimmons are my favorite fall fruit that I can’t hardly wait to pick them. And I can tell you this. I am a lucky woman. Because my persimmon tree is loaded for me to enjoy every years since it’s grown enough to produce beautiful orange hue fruit. And the tree is barely 7 feet tall! In fact, not only me who enjoy the persimmons, the hubby has become a fan of persimmon as well (because he couldn’t stand seeing me love to eat them too much, so he tried and……voila!)

I remember last time I posted simple persimmon gallett and it was delicious. I’m thinking of making it again actually or I might make persimmon pie or persimmon cinnamon coffee cake!

 

  Sounds good, eh? 

 

 

 

When I was still employed, one of my colleague brought me a small ziploc bag of dried persimmon, which he made it himself. I swear to myself that one of these day I would try to dehydrate my own persimmon. But the chance of doing that has never come true. The hubby and I love to eat them fresh, just like eating an apple, and we eating them like crazy. Yeah, like crazy!  

So, this is it. This year, this time, this moment, I am going to dry my persimmons!!!

I cut up my persimmon and didn’t even realize how much I have cut them already. As far as I knew, I have filled up all the trays to go into the dehydrator machine which took me the whole morning to finish it up.    

 

 

 

 

 I left the machine run for about 10 hours. However, I have checked them in between because my nerves wouldn’t let me stay still. Well, some of them were ready but some were not. I guessed that was because my inconsistency when I cut them, because I cut them with a knife. They came out in different size in thickness. Oh well! So, I took those that were ready out of the machine and let it run for another couple hours for those that were still moist.

 

And the result? Oh yes!

One thing I know that I have gone c-r-a-z-i-e-r about persimmons! 

 

 

How to:

As much or as little of fresh Fuyu persimmons
A sharp knife or a mandolin slicer if you have one
A dehydrator machine

- clean your persimmons and slice about 3/4” thick. Peel or unpeeled, you decide – I didn’t peel mine.
- arrange in single layer on each tray and put them back to the dehydrator
- left the machine run for at least 8 hours or more if you like your persimmon in the drier side. 

 Enjoy!

 

^__^