stemsandforks

Kumquot Orange Cake with a Grand Marnier Pomegranate Icing

December 23, 2018 By stemsandforks 1 Comment

This post was sponsored by Paderno. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My long term memory is strong, vivid and somewhat creepy. A couple years ago I ran into a classmate from grade 5 on the bus. Her face was exactly the same. Dimpled chin, large freckles and green eyes. I had fond memories of her. The first time I ever had a pomegranate was in fact when Kelly offered me half the fruit. I still remember sitting in the classroom portable and Kelly telling me that we had to count how many little “ruby” seeds there were in one pomegranate. It was something she would do with her brother at home. Count every single red juicy gem and report back home on a pomegranate chart. Apparently the average was 500.

I remember that first seed I popped into my mouth. The sweet, sharp yet sour juice bursting in my mouth was unique. And simply a lot of fun plucking the little gems and counting them.

“Kelly Jamieson? It’s me. Betty Binon…Sorry Betty Shin.” Kelly squinted her eyes, tilted her head and replied a long “Hiii” She didn’t recognize me. I proceeded to explain the school we attended, our teacher, what we did together, the pomegranate counting, etc. She still had no idea who I was but did acknowledge she attended that school and had that teacher. The squinting didn’t subside. I could see Kelly was bemused and a little uncomfortable.

It has been about 30 years since that day we plucked rubies together. My recollection of Kelly was that of a precocious child. A girl beyond her years especially when it came to food. It wasn’t only pomegranates she introduced me to. Baklava, marinated mussels, cabbage rolls and curried chicken salad…with grapes! (Ahem. I know. So 80’s!)

As I got off the bus and walked to my destination. I began to remember more to the story. The only reason I got to try her baklava, and curried chicken salad…with grapes was because she would trade her much despised lunches for my simple ham and cheese sandwich. Very precocious indeed!

That Christmas for our gift swap I received 3 large red pomegranates from Kelly with a card that had the biggest THANK YOU written.

THANKS TO YOU Kelly. The beginnings of my foodie spirit started in that classroom portable because of you…and your mom!

Happy Holidays! Wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy 2019!

Cheers,

Betty Binon

9 x 13” Oblong Pan generously supplied by @PadernoKitchenWare

Kumquat Orange Cake with Grand Marnier Pomegranate Frosting

2018-12-23 04:49:01

Serves 10

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Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

35 min

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

35 min

For the Cake

227 grams or 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (not cold but not quite room temp…take out about 1 hour before baking) + more for greasing pan
400 grams or 2 cups granulated white sugar
4 large eggs room temperature
1/2 cup natural full fat greek yogurt
1/3 cup fresh orange juice from about 1 large orange
3 tablespoons of Grand Marnier
zest from about 1 orange
390 grams or 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
65 grams or 1/3 cup turbinado sugar (optional…see instructions)

For the Frosting

310 grams or 2 1/2 cups Icing sugar
4 tablespoons Grand Marnier
1/3 cup pure 100% pomegranate juice (store bought) or extracted from about 1/2 a fresh pomegranate * See notes below on how to make home made pomegranate juice
6 kumquats sliced about 1/2 cm thick
some pomegranate seeds to sprinkle
Rosemary to garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F
Grease Paderno’s 9x 13” Oblong pan with butter and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. This step is optional as the pan is completely non stick, however the turbinado is great for a mild sugar crunch on the crust.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and whisk well. Set aside
Mix the 3 tablespoons Grand Marnier and 1/3 cup orange juice and set aside
In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, on medium speed beat the butter and sugar for about 2-3 minutes until creamy and light in colour
Add the eggs in one at a time until incorporated
Then add the Greek yogurt
Add about half of the dry flour mix into your stand mixer bowl, beat for a few seconds until the flour is just incorporated
Then add the orange juice/Grand Marnier mix, beat a few seconds
Finish with the remaining half dry flour mix
DO NOT over beat. Beat lightly until just combined
Pour into oblong pan and bake in oven for 35 minutes.
Tester stick should come out clean
Let cool to room temperature about 1 hour
In the meanwhile, beat together the icing sugar, pomegranate juice and grand marnier until smooth.
Take a spatula and smooth out over your sheet cake
Sprinkle the kumquots, pomogranates, and rosemary
Serve when the kumquat skins soften and slightly caramelize in the icing after a couple hours sitting at room temperature

Notes

How to extract fresh pomegranate juice.
Split pomegranate in half and juice in a traditional citrus juicer. Then run the juice through a fine mesh sieve
OR
The longer way. Extract all the seeds from half a pomegranate. Take a fresh cheese cloth and squeeze the juices into a bowl
OR
Take the extracted seeds and blend in a blender and run through a fine mesh sieve

Adapted from Very loosely adapted from Epicurious

STEMS & FORKS https://www.stemsandforks.com/

Grapefruit Rosemary Vodka Fizz with Montellier Sparkling Water

December 20, 2018 By stemsandforks 4 Comments

This post was sponsored by Montellier Sparkling Water. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Grapefruit, lime, rosemary, ginger and vodka with a splash of sparkling water. With those ingredients, I think this drink should be renamed to Winter’s Healing Cocktail!

I have a confession. I was a late bloomer with cocktail consumption. In my twenties when Sex and the City was at its peak, every Generation X’er was drinking Cosmopolitans pre dinner. I however would always order a simple unadulterated glass of red wine. I was a purist when it came to alcohol. Anything mixed with syrups and fruits then shaken with ice and priced over $15 did not rock my boat. I felt I was too “mature” (and perhaps frugal!) to have spiked fruit punch before dinner.

Well the pendulum has definitely swung the other way. Now cocktails are my new obsession. The flavour combos are infinite. The whole shaken or stirred, ice or no ice, to garnish or not, to make it fizz or flat, warm or cold and to find the appropriate glass to reflect the cocktail’s personality are not immature at all. It’s really and truly ART. Or as I like to call it now. Its like cake in a glass!

So back to my Grapefruit Rosemary Vodka Fizz aka “Winter’s Healing Cocktail”….Initially I wanted to make this with blood oranges for a gorgeous ruby hue. But after searching all my local grocers, I realized it’s just a bit too early on in the season. I settled with grapefruit, but after concocting this cocktail, I realized I didn’t settle. This cocktail was meant to be made with grapefruit. The sour, sweet and tart taste of grapefruit mixed with the earthy rosemary and zesty zing of the ginger is sublime. Grapefruit was totally the right choice. But it needed something else. Something to elevate it to give it that festive feel. It needed…fizz…like that tingle you get when you drink champagne. It needed Montelier’s Sparkling Water. That bubbly sensation that essentially tells you it’s time to celebrate. And Montellier Sparkling Water is just that. The perfect Festive fizz. And it’s all sourced in Quebec Canada.

This recipe can easily be made virgin (non-alcoholic). Just swap out the vodka with half grapefruit juice and half Montellier Sparkling Water.

Happy Holidays!

Please Enjoy Alcohol Responsibly!

Visit http://www.montellier.ca/en/ for more information

Follow them on Instagram: @Montelliercanada

Grapefruit Rosemary Vodka Fizz

2018-12-12 17:54:34

Serves 4

A refreshing citrus cocktail with a zesty tang and festive fizz using Montellier's Sparkling Water

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Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

35 min

Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

35 min

Ingredients

For the Rosemary/Ginger Syrup: (makes about 100 ml)
1/2 cup or 125 grams sugar
1/2 cup or 125 ml or 4.2 ounces water
3 Springs of Rosemary plus more for garnishings
20-25 grams (about 2 tablespoons) skin on ginger sliced/chopped

For the Cocktail

1 Cup or 250 ml or 8 ounces of about 1 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (works out to 1- 1.5 large grapefruits)
2 tablespoons or 30 ml or 1 ounce juice from 1 freshly squeezed lime
1/3 cup vodka or 75 ml or 2 1/2 ounces
1 1/3 cup or 329 ml or 11 ounces chilled Montellier Sparkling Water

Instructions

Cut rosemary up into chunks and hit with back of knife to release some aroma. Set aside
In saucepan, heat the sugar and water on medium high and stir until sugar has dissolved and comes to a boil.
Drop rosemary and chopped ginger with skin on in the pot of slightly boiling sugar water and lightly boil for 3-5 minutes.
Reduce heat and simmer for about 8-10 minutes
Turn heat off and cover syrup with pot lid for 15 minutes or longer so that it can steep
Once the syrup has completely cooled, pour through sieve into a small jar and pop into fridge. (save the ginger for cooking or add to a glass of Montelllier Sparkling Water for a simple ginger fizzy drink)
You will be left with about 100 ml of syrup
In a measuring cup, with reamer, extract juices from grapefruit and lime.
Pour into cocktail mixer through sieve and add the vodka
Add the cooled rosemary/ginger syrup and stir.
Then add a few ice cubes and shake!
Pour about 110 ml (a bit less than half a cup) of the juice/syrup/voda cocktail mix into each of the 4 cocktail glasses
Top up with a generous 1/3 cup fresh cold Montellier Sparkling water in each cocktail glass
Add ice (optional)
Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and/or a slice of grapefruit

Notes

Cocktails can be made a couple days ahead. Add Montellier Sparkling water just before serving. Enjoy.

STEMS & FORKS https://www.stemsandforks.com/

Kimchi Walnut and Arugula Crostini with Campania Tomato Sauce

December 7, 2018 By stemsandforks 4 Comments

This post is a not for profit collaboration with Mealshare. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I could sit here and lecture you all about sharing, giving and ending youth hunger but lets be frank. The reality is most of us want to enjoy our first world lives…dinner out with friends and family. But I know We ALL Want to make a DIFFERENCE. Which is why the concept behind Mealshare is brilliant.

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Food Styling and Photography Workshop Paris France-Saturday February 2nd 2019

December 5, 2018 By stemsandforks Leave a Comment

POUR LE FRANÇAIS 🇫🇷, VOIR CI-DESSOUS

Elise Dumas from @thepineapplechef and I are thrilled to announce that we’ll be joining forces again to offer an intense full day workshop from the city of love, Paris France.

Join us for a full day of intensive learning – whether you’re a hobby photographer or an established influencer, you’ll get tons of styling and photography advice and inspiration to thrust you to the next level. We’ll have step-by-step demos, hands-on practice breakouts with Elise and I guiding each participant individually. All our tips and tricks will be shared so come armed with questions. We’ll also have a practical session on how to navigate social media and treat your blog/social media like a business. We’ll have available food props, boards, fresh botanicals and of course food to style and shoot.

Spaces are limited so book soon.

Food Styling and Photography Master Class:

When:

Saturday, February 2nd 2019

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Where:

Gorgeous classic Parisian Studio in the trendy 7th Arrondissement, Paris, France

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Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake with Mulled Wine Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Poached Pears

November 19, 2018 By stemsandforks 16 Comments

This post was sponsored by Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi Wines. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Please enjoy wine responsibly.

Wine, chocolate and cake. My three Achilles heel, my guilty pleasures, my three best amigos. These three are my food soulmates. I know it sounds extreme but that’s how much I love wine, chocolate and cake. And interestingly all three came at different points in my life.

Cake.

As a child, I’d remember attending birthday parties and seeing my friends crowd around the gift table ogling all the colourfully wrapped gifts shaking, sniffing and guessing what was in each package. I however, would be in the kitchen ogling the cake. Wondering what flavour was inside. Praying the icing wasn’t that flavourless saccharin drenched grease from a can but a fluffy home made butter cream or cream cheese icing. I’d then cue myself up in the line of kids just so, to make sure I got the right piece. That is, the largest piece and the piece from the moist centre. And of course, I always had seconds and occasionally thirds.

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Spiced Rum, Date, Walnut, Molasses Bundt Cake with Rum Caramel Drizzle

October 7, 2018 By stemsandforks 15 Comments

Koreans can’t bake.

That’s been my insecurity since starting this baking journey. That I’m Korean. And unlike my fellow caucasian friends, I have no family pie recipe or a mom that baked chocolate chip cookies with me on Saturday mornings. The only things I baked as a child were Pillsbury crescents from a tin or boxed Duncan Hines. Baking from scratch was never a part of my family growing up.

Instead, my Saturdays consisted of Korean language classes followed by math drills with Sargent Shin… and his chopstick wand. After math, my sisters and I would get to watch some TV whilst stuffing thousands of Korean dumplings called “mandu”. Okay. Maybe not thousands but god did it ever feel like thousands! Only after all the mandus were stuffed and our math drills were done correctly, were my sisters and I allowed to bake Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake. And if we were really lucky, my mom would have bought the chocolate icing in a carton for us to ice the yellow cake with. As a child, baking this cake and devouring it was my escape, my utopia, my moment of being unkorean.

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SweeTango Apple, Chèvre and Cardamom Tart (refined sugar free)

October 2, 2018 By stemsandforks 1 Comment

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with SweeTango. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Apples are the most cultivated and universally recognized fruit and perhaps one of the oldest that has existed on earth. It’s also arguably the most written about fruit in fables, religion and myths. It has been symbolized as both good and evil.

In the western world, we know the story of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, where the serpent tempts man to eat the forbidden fruit thereby starting the fall of man and the Christian definition of sin. Irish folklore has it that if a woman peels the skin of the apple in one continuous ribbon and tosses it over her shoulder then the initials of her future husband will appear. And the Trojan War? Well, the idea of Troy tossing the golden apple to the chosen goddess soon evolved to an ancient Greek tradition of throwing an apple to the one you love.

SweeTango apples available early October to mid November. See SweeTango.com for a retailer near you

It’s no wonder this beloved fruit has been developed and bred into such amazing varieties. One favourite variety of mine is SweeTango. Grown in Canada exclusively for the Canadian market, SweetTango is a premium apple variety famed for its crisp, sweet, tangy and juicy bite. SweeTango also holds the Guinness World Record for “Loudest Crunch of an Apple” (March 2016) The bite registered at an impressive 79.1 decibels. To put things in perspective, a normal conversation clocks in at 60 decibels and a vacuum or kitchen blender 70-80 decibels (according to American Speech-Language Hearing Association)

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Food Styling and Photography Workshop

September 4, 2018 By stemsandforks Leave a Comment

FOOD STYLING AND PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 3rd 2018

SOLD OUT

One Day Intensive Workshop

This workshop will demonstrate how to style food to tell the best and most appropriate visual story for your food or subject. Through elements such as props, natural light, angles, botanicals and editing, the simplest food or subject can be transformed into an opulent visual story. Learn how to achieve a bright and vibrant scene or a dark and moody painterly capture.

There will be a hands on style sessions where you can create a still life scene with cake, food and props. As well as an opportunity to work with a model to learn the art of Rembrandt’s chiaroscuro/lighting and triangle technique in portraits. All this will be followed up with a tutorial on editing your work in Adobe Lightroom.

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FOOD STYLING AND PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

September 3, 2018 By stemsandforks Leave a Comment

FOOD STYLING AND PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

SATURDAY OCTOBER 20TH 2018

SOLD OUT

One Day Intensive Workshop

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Carrot Almond Cake with Toasted Meringue – Dairy and Gluten Free

August 28, 2018 By stemsandforks Leave a Comment

I hadn’t planned on posting this recipe but you asked, so here it is.

I recently had a friend over that was lactose and gluten intolerant that was itching to try one of my cakes. I was also asked by fellow food blogger Andrey Tulsky to collaborate on posting a photograph on Instagram with carrots and one’s pet. And so was born this gluten free and dairy free almond and carrot cake. I love it when I kill two birds with one stone!

This uber moist, high fibre, vitamin rich cake alone was a bit too “healthy”. Initially I thought roll cake with orange marmalade to fill. But as I was cutting the cake into mini bite sizes and sampling the cutaway pieces, I realized it needed something fluffy, soft, sweet and naughty. It needed toasted meringue.

And in all fairness, meringue isn’t really “naughty” is it. Its simply egg whites and sugar. It’s the torching part that’s naughty I suppose. Firing up pure white fluffs into a light brown caramelized skin. Totally naughty. But if you’d rather “nice”, feel free to simply dust the sheet cake with some icing sugar.

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