Author: arielleclementine

Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

arielleclementine5 Comments

You wouldn’t know it by looking at it, but this cake is lousy with strawberries.  Andy and I picked up a pound of berries from the farmers’ market (they were picked yesterday!).  So springtime-y wonderful.

This has become one of my very favorite cakes.  I made it for the first time a couple months ago and have made it three times (!) since then. I, um, like cake.  The first time I made it, I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand (most are standard pantry ingredients), including a fresh pint of raspberries because I like to snack on them, and buttermilk because I had just made chicken fried steak and cream gravy with cube steak from the farmers’ market.

This cake comes together in no time.  Really, it is profoundly simple.  And when you’re finished baking and cooling it there’s nothing more to do than to devour it- no stacking/frosting/dusting.  It is delicious and perfect just as it is. Next time you have a hankering for a lovely country cake, give it a go!


Strawberry Buttermilk Cake
via Smitten Kitchen via Gourmet magazine

Makes one nine-inch round cake

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
  • 1 cup fresh raspberries, halved strawberries, or other berries (about 5 oz)
  1. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
  2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well.
  3. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter berries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.
  4. Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate. Eat feverishly.

G’Raj Mahal

arielleclementine3 Comments

The Fearless Critic, my go-to source for Austin restaurant reviews, recently listed the Indian food truck G’Raj Mahal as the top-rated Indian food in Austin, above even my beloved Clay Pit. Needless to say, I had to try it. 

Helen and I dropped in a few days ago, and friends, it was just perfect.  Helen nailed it when, after our dinner, she said that it was the perfect blend of Austin and Indian food.  So true.  You can see in both pictures above that the dining area is flanked by an awesome bicycle-powered 80 foot snake.  There’s also a giant praying mantis closer to the truck.  Why? I have no idea.  But they, combined with the gypsy-like curtained pavilion and dreadlocked, tattooed waiters, give this place a magical, mystical Austin vibe.  And on top of that, the food is incredible.  To wit:

We started with the vegetable samosas packed with tender curried potatoes and peas, which came with three chutneys, all delicious. Helen favored that dark one in the top right, and I fell in love with whatever the hell that light green one is.  I thought it would be mint-flavored, but it tasted more like coriander to me.  Sorry for the lack of identification here- someone please enlighten me if you have any insights on these mystery chutneys!

Anyway, then the rest of our food came out.  Here’s the overhead shot:

Yes! We ordered a lot! We like to eat 🙂 Here’s what we had:

Aloo Gobi (curried potato and cauliflower).  We love! Our waiter (yes, you do have a waiter- this is one classy food truck) asked how hot we wanted our curries and they were prepared to our request of medium.  Anyway, this is Helen’s favorite Indian dish, and she and I both adored this version.

This is Makhani, a buttery, tomato-y sauce that is similar to, but more delicate than Tikka Masala. We had it with chicken, but you had a choice of having the sauce with paneer, shrimp, or black lentils (!) too.  I’ve made Murgh Makhani at home, from the terrific Fat cookbook, but G’Raj Mahal put mine to shame.  So elegant.

Our last main, Malai Kofta, were vegetable dumplings simmered in curried cream.  I had never heard of this, but it ended up being one of our favorites.  The ‘dumplings’ weren’t at all what I was expecting.  They were tightly-packed, deep fried little veggie nuggets that reminded me more of falafel than the fluffy boiled biscuits I’m accustomed to.  The curried cream sauce they were bathed in was my favorite, I think.

Lastly, the naan.  Sweet lord, this was terrific.  The naan was a fluffy, puffy delight that would have been extraordinary in it’s own right, but those magnificent bastards painted the whole thing with ghee, Indian clarified butter.  Yes. Yes. I could have eaten forty.

A note about when to go to G’Raj Mahal.  Andy and I tried to go a week ago, but it was a Friday, around 8 pm. It was packed and there was a 45 minute wait.  This place is around the corner from El Naranjo, so we went there instead. Helen and I went again on Wednesday around 6:45 and sat down and were served right away.  So, if you’re like me, go a bit earlier on a week night.  If you’re cool, on the other hand, hit this place up in the wee hours after a trip to Lustre Pearl.

Guacamole!

arielleclementine6 Comments

Hi, friends! Don’t you just want to stick your face into this bowl of guacamole? No? Just me? Well, it really is delicious… Andy and I had this for dinner tonight along with grilled skirt steak fajitas and deep fried plantains with crema (!) It was a happy night in the ole Arizpe household. Side note- why was this the first time I’ve fried plantains? They are so, so tasty.

When I was growing up my mom would occasionally make guacamole with one of those seasoning packets they stock in the produce section next to the avocados, and oh man! We would go wild for it! Not to knock the seasoning packet, but this guacamole is so much better.  It’s loosely adapted from Rick Bayless, with way more lime and no tomatoes.  If you don’t have a go-to guacamole recipe, I humbly present this for your approval:


Guacamole

  • 2 large avocados, diced large
  • 1/2 small onion, diced finely (about 1/4 cup)
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 jalapeno or 1 serrano, seeds removed, minced
  • 1 handful cilantro, minced (about 1/4 cup)
  • 3-4 tablespoons lime juice (from 1-2 limes)
  • 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (to taste)
  1. Put the diced avocado in a small bowl and mash half-assedly with a fork.  You want it to be a little chunky so as to distinguish itself from the guacamole that comes out of the Taco Bell caulking gun.
  2. Add in the rest of the ingredients (onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, and salt) and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning.  If it seems flat, add more lime or salt or both.
  3. If you’re not serving it immediately, press a piece of saran wrap onto the surface of the guacamole and refrigerate.

Also, just for fun, here’s the cast of characters and (bonus!) a hot little pic for you meat lovers:

In case you were wondering, this is just a piece of skirt steak, seasoned with kosher salt and pepper, and grilled until nicely charred over a charcoal fire.