Apple Upside-Down Cake

To honor my friends' (Bruce and Rosie) sweet tooth - for March supper, I decided to make a dessert.  The book has the recipe for pineapple upside-down cake but Rosie wasn't a fan of pineapple, so I decided to substitute apple for it instead.  The recipe did say it's a general template that can work well for other fruits too, but I was still pretty nervous how it will turn out.

The cake consisted of two parts, a "pan schmear" that's made out of light brown sugar and butter that sits right at the top of the cake, as well as a cake batter itself.  So I start with the schmear by combining butter, light brown sugar, honey and dark rum together.  Vanilla extract is also used to add the extra kick cake flavor.  The recipe only needs about 1/3 of the schmear but it was difficult to make less portion since it requires some mixing.

Pan schmear - light brown sugar, rum, honey and butter

The recipe asked for 1/3 of the total schmear to be spread across the bottom of a 9 inch cake pan, but I end up using about 1/2 of the total schmear since there doesn't seem to be enough to cover the entire pan.  Left over schmear can store up to 1 month in the freezer, so you can make another one of these delicious cakes the next day!

Thin layer of schmear in a 9 inch cake pan

Then we prepare the other 1/2 of the cake, which is the cake batter itself.  The batter needs cake flour - which is a different kind of wheat flour.  I was able to find it in my local market.  Using a mixer, whisk the cake flour together with baking powder, sugar, milk, vanilla extract and 2 large eggs.  It looks so good before it even goes in the oven!

Whisked cake batter

Now I prepare the apple slices to be inserted between the cake batter and the pan schmear.  I used 1 large skinned Fuji apple and cut them into 1/8th inch wedges to layer right on the schmear.

Fuji apple slices on top of the schmear

After pouring the cake batter right on top, we are ready to bake!

Cake ready to bake

After baking at 350 for about 15 minutes, we rotate the pan and bake for additional 25 minutes.  Then we take the cake out to cool.  It looks and smells wonderful.

Cake out of the oven and cooling

After cooling off, it's show time to see if the "upside down" cake will indeed turn over!  I was worried about it sticking but it slided off onto my plate like a dream :)  And omg it looks great as well!

Finished Apple Upside Down Cake

Tasting:
This was by far the biggest surprise of the evening.  The cake came out EXACTLY like the book has described and pictured.  The apple substitute was great if not better than the pineapple version and the cake itself is moist and not too sweet.  It was difficult just having one slice, the top schmear is so good.  I had no idea how easy it was to make a dessert from this book but I am glad I did :)

This cake was a great finish to my 4 course line up for March supper evening.

March four-course supper

How good was the meal?  Well the following should tell you :)  Oreo (my friend's beloved maltese helped with the clean up!)

Pan-roasted Halibut

Since previous 3 meals have all been chicken, beef or lamb, for this month's supper, I decided to try a seafood recipe from the book.  This dish caught my eye right away because it looks very simple to make.  Like most seafood dishes, the freshness of the ingredient pretty much single handedly controls how good your dish will come out.  After visiting 3 stores and came away disappointed as Halibut just got in season right around March, I finally found some amazing Alaskan Halibut @ a local fish place.  (And yes at a crazy price, but it's worth it)

Expensive Alaskan Halibut!

Beautiful piece of fish!

I cut the fish into 12 equal pieces as the recipe calls for it.  It was very easy and the fish was definitely meaty like a steak.

Cutting the filet into equal chunks for frying

To present the dish, the recipe also recommends serving it on a bed of Chanterelle mushrooms and pea shoots.  I couldn't find pea shoots so I substituted spinach instead as the book suggested.  Chanterelle mushrooms are also not easy to find but usually a specialty store or Whole Foods will carry them.  They are pricey but definitely worth the splurge occasionally.  We sautee the mushrooms with shallots in a lot of butter.

Chanterelle mushrooms w/shallots and butter

Chicken stock is then added to make the mushrooms tender, add in baby spinach and wilt them.  You now have the perfect foundation for the Halibut.

Chanterelle mushrooms and spinach

We then move to pan frying the halibut.  Since we need to do them in two batches, we prepare a cooling rack so we can put the fish there before we set them in the oven to finish cooking.  Start with 6 pieces presentation side down in a frying pan with Canola oil.

Pan-frying Halibut Filets

After frying for a few minutes, we do the same for the 2nd batch and then set the fish in a 350 degree oven to finish cooking.  Once out of the oven, we return the fish back into the frying pan and "kiss" the other side for 30 seconds.  The result is amazing.  Serve them right on top of the mushroom mixture.

Finished pan-fried halibut with Chanterelle mushrooms

Tasting:

Crispy and buttery!  The fish was of really high quality so it did taste really fresh.  The mushrooms was an absolutely wonderful accompaniment, nutty and full of flavor.  It amazes me how simple cooking can be when the ingredients are fresh and made to shine.

Scallion Potato Cakes

This dish reminds me of the Chinese green onion pancakes that's a favorite amongst many.  I wanted a side item for the halibut main dish and this seemed like a good choice.  There are only 4 ingredients for this delicious side, and it's pretty easy to make if you got some basic tools.

First we start with the potatoes.  3 pounds of large russets.  You will need a grater of some sort or a food processor.  I was really surprised how good a hand grater worked.  It shredded the potatoes just to the right size, also invest in a salad spinner, it will make drying the potatoes a lot easier.

Grated potatoes using a hand grater

The potatoes changes color (to a reddish brown) very rapidly, so submerge them in cold water while you work in batches.  The salad spinner is used to completely dry off the potatoes once you are ready to make the cakes.  The binding ingredient for this cake is corn starch, which is very interesting because it completely changes the texture of the finished cakes, I absolutely love it!  Use a 10 inch non stick frying pan, make sure there's enough oil to cover the entire bottom of the pan, spread a thin layer of potatoes, then add the scallions, season with salt and pepper.  To make it into a cake, add another layer of potatoes right on top.

Potato cakes cooking in the frying pan

Each side will take about 5-6 minutes, if all goes well you should be able to flip it relatively easily in the pan.  Or you could use a cooling rack to slide it on and off from.

Browning the cake on both sides

Since there are quite a bit of potatoes to work on, it's a good idea to keep them warm in the over at 200 degrees while you work on them in batches.  The oven also adds additional crispiness to the potato cakes.

Keeping the potato cakes warm in the oven

Once all of the cakes are done, you can stack them in any number of layers and cut into wedges.  Garnish with additional scallions for final serving.

Finished scallion potato cakes

Tasting:
Delicious!!!  The corn starch definitely made a difference in this dish, it held the potatoes together but also added that extra bite/firmness to the cakes.  It probably would've been a lot better if you ate this right as it was made, but it's difficult keeping that crispiness if you let the dish sit for too long.  So try to enjoy it when it's fresh out of the oven!  This side dish was completely gone within 30 minutes of the supper start, so my friends absolutely loved it as well.

Endive and Arugula Salad

This is a very simple salad dish to make and looked lovely in the book, so I thought I would have it as the first course for my March Adhoc At Home supper evening.  The bitterness of the endives and arugula is offset by the sweetness of the peach dressing.

Recipe calls for a Peach Puree that you can make ahead of time.  It's basically mashed peaches with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Peach Puree cooking with sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon

This is what it looks like after it's pureed and cooled off.

Finished Peach Puree for Salad Dressing

I couldn't find red Belgian Endives, so I went for all white ones.  Local market's produce guy told me that the taste is basically identical just the color looks slightly different.  He says it's very rare for them to carry the red ones.  After trimming off the ends repeatedly, we put the endives in ice water to chill.

Belgian Endives in cold water

The rest of the salad is very basic so I forgot to take more detailed images.  Dressing consists of the peach puree plus shallots, flat leaf parsley and a sherry vinegar.  The crunch in the salad is supposed to be the Marcona almonds, but I substituted pistachios instead because I couldn't find those almonds and it worked out really well in the salad.  Toss together the endives, arugula, peach slices, pistachios and some diced peaches along with the dressing and voila you are done!

Finished salad, looks yummy!

Tasting:
Very light and refreshing salad.   Peach dressing and puree really adds the sweetness needed to balance off the endives and arugula.  I just love the taste of arugula so I would've been fine even without the endives!  I think I could've used maybe only 2/3 of the endives because the portion was rather large even for 6 servings.  Super easy to make, so it's something that can be tossed together even for a week night meal.