Energy Cartoon

It is funny to me that over the years one of the reasons people have been against wind power is because they find the windmills ugly.  I mean really?

LES CSA

 Lower East Side Community Supported Agriculture - lets you buy a share in a local farm and get weekly deliveries of lots of wonderful seasonal goodies. 

The LES CSA has partnered with organic growers Monkshood Nursery and Gardens to supply Lower East Side residents with a Summer Long season of vegetables.

Share comes in two sizes: 

Family Size 8-12 veggies a week $610 a share
Small Share  509 veggies a week $395

They need your help so sign up today while shares last! 

Coconut Chocolate Bundt Cake: The Last Word

This is my third and final post about my journey into bundt cake making.  My friend Michael gave me his recipe for Coconut Pecan Pound cake which was delicious and I posted the recipe.  Then after making the recipe I started getting ideas and wondered if I could cut the sweetness a bit by adding dark chocolate into the recipe. Also I love dark chocolate and coconut it's one of my favorite combinations. I documented this experiment and published a post about it where I said I wasn't finished with this recipe yet and still wanted to try a few more things. 

Here is the final version of this recipe.  The big difference is that I use butter instead of the canola oil and added a little more baking powder and salt to recipe along with a small amount of Baking Soda.  The batter as you can see from above is thicker then the original.

Coconut Chocolate Bundt Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 F


Generously butter and flour a bundt pan.


In a large bowl add 3 cups of All Purpose Flour, 1 Teaspoon Salt and 1 Teaspoon baking powder and  1/2 teaspoon of Baking Soda.  Whisk briefly to mix.

In another bowl pour 1 Cup Buttermilk and stir in 2 Teaspoons of Coconut Extract and 2 Teaspoons of good amber Rum.

Roughly chop 1 Cup of Pecans, place in a bowl with 1 Cup of unsweetened desiccated Coconut and 3/4 cup of roughly chopped 70% chocolate or chocolate chips.

In the bowl of an standing mixer add: 2 1/2 sticks (20 ounces, 1 1/4 cups) of unsalted butter and cream with the paddle attachment, add 2 cups sugar, once the sugar has been incorporated add, 1 at a time 4 Large Eggs.  Beating well after each addition.

Starting and ending with the flour mixture add alternatively with the buttermilk mixture into the batter with the beaters on low.  Mixing until well incorporated after each addition.  Turn off the mixer and with a spatula gently fold in the nut and chocolate mixture.

Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake for an hour to an hour and 15  - until a tester comes out clean.

While the cake is baking make the ganache and the soaking syrup.

Soaking Syrup:

In a small sauce pan add 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup water, bring to boil and immediately reduce to simmer, cook for several minutes until all the sugar has dissolved and remove from the heat.  Stir in 1 teaspoon of amber rum and 1 teaspoon of coconut extract.  Set aside until the cake is out of the oven.

The Ganache: 


In a small sauce pan add 1 cup of heavy cream and bring to a boil.  Immediately take it off the heat and pour over 6 ounces of chopped 70% chocolate, stirring until completely melted. Add 1 teaspoon rum (option) mix and set aside. 

When the cake is done remove from the oven and place on a wire rack, slowly pour the syrup over the cake,  I used a spatula to make room at the sides so the syrup didn't spill over.  The Cake should soak for at least 4 hours if not over night.

If you pre-make the ganache you will need to refrigerate it, take it out an hour before you want to ice the cake.  If you want it to be more like a glaze place it in a bowl and stir it over warm water until it has reached the thickness you want.  In this instance I kept it colder as I liked it better thick, if you look at the old post you'll see in my first attempt I did the glazed look.  Also I used toasted coconut the first time and larger un-toasted the second.  Ideally I think the larger coconut flakes would be best, maybe just ever so slightly toasted, but I like the look of the white coconut on the chocolate ganache.

This is a great party cake, with an almost crunchy sweet exterior and a rich, buttery crumb redolent of coconut all set off by rich dark chocolate!

Finally even though I add pecans i removed the word pecans from the name as they really become more background crunch in this cake it's the coconut and chocolate that take center stage.

Saxelby Expands to Red Hook

Here is Anne Saxelby greeting people in her new 150 square foot walk in cheese fridge.  For those of you who have visited Saxelby Cheese at the Essex Street Market here on the Lower East Side you'll know how small her shop is.  Up until the past week the entire business was run out of this space, with a burgeoning wholesale business their tiny little walk-in fridge at the market no longer fit the bill. More room was needed!  So it was with great excitement that Neil and I went out on Sunday to help celebrate the opening of the new office and storage space on a remote street in Red Hook. 

150 square foot fridge!  And already well stocked with amazing local farm stead cheeses, with lots more to come.

Here's Neil digging into a big wheel O'cheese.  It was a great party with delicious bread, olive oil (which is being packaged also in Brooklyn by the gals at Salvatore who make the most amazing ricotta cheese in town cheese.  It's Sicilian and cost $22 a bottle at Saxelby), charcuterie and two kegs of yummy Red Hook brewed  6 Points beer.

Congratulations to Anne and her business partner Benoit on there growing success and this brand spanking new space. World cheese domination can't be far behind!

Dirty Coal

Susan Sarandon did this PSA for the Rainforest Action Network a group I support and although I try not to post too many grim environmental disaster videos on here, but I thought this one was poignantly effective, so here goes....

Take action here.

Filthy Food

 

Just down from the Moon cakes place at 34 Ludlow is a new shop that looks to be ready for opening momentarily called Filthy Food, with the logo of an olive being impaled by a gherkin. Specializing in premium drink garnishes ...I can't wait! Appropriately it is located just around the corner from one of the best cocktail bars in town Pain Killer.  I wonder if there is a connection? More later...

Save Green Thumb

This just in...as a member of a community garden this is very important and I sure do plan to show up on Tuesday!

RALLY TO SAVE GREENTHUMB!

TUESDAY APRIL 5, 2011

12:00 NOON • CITY HALL

Download the press release PDF on our website, NYCCGC.org.

Proposed Federal Budget Cuts Threaten Funding
of New York City’s Community Gardens

In response, the New York City Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) is leading a RALLY at City Hall and calling upon our elected officials to fight to save Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. Gardeners and supporters from across the city will assemble on the steps of City Hall on TUESDAY, APRIL 5 @ 12:00 NOON, rallying to SAVE GREENTHUMB!

View/Download Press Release
Contact: Sean-Michael Fleming Cell: 347-933-4523

Joining NYCCGC will be many other community garden supporters, including: Black Urban Growers, Bronx Land Trust, Citizens Committee for New York City, Earth Matter NY, East New York Farms!, EcoStation:NY, Farming Concrete, Food Justice Project, Green Guerillas, Just Food, La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, Manhattan Land Trust, More Gardens!, and Project Harmony, Inc.

Since 1978, GreenThumb has nurtured community gardening in New York City, assisting over 600 gardens and urban farms and their collective 20,000 members with material and technical assistance. GreenThumb is fully funded by the Federal HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program with a modest budget of around $800,000 in Fiscal Year 2011— less than half of 1% of New York City’s current $200 million allocation.

The US House of Representatives’ 2012 budget calls for the elimination of funding for the CDBG program for the remainder of FY 2011, and a 60% slash to overall CDBG funding — that could translate to the elimination of GreenThumb, or at least a devastating cut to its budget!

Community gardens are important to new Yorkers, providing much needed green space to neighborhoods lacking in parkland. They promote environmental education, encourage local food production, nurture intergenerational and intercultural friendships, and help reduce crime by being the eyes and ears of our communities. As more and more people discover their benefits, it is absolutely imperative to protect and increase resources and funding for GreenThumb — the lifeblood of community gardening in New York City.

NYCCGC calls on government officials to guarantee the survival of the GreenThumb program:

• We demand that the Federal Government protect CDBG funding, not only for GreenThumb, but for all CDBG projects in new York City and across the nation;
• We strongly urge our City, State and Federal representatives to advocate for the protection of ALL CDBG funding;
• We call on the NYC Office of Management and Budget to make sure GreenThumb receives its full share of CDBG funds disbursed to new York City to maintain current operations;
• We encourage the City administration to take steps to use tax levy funds for GreenThumb operations to ensure a diversified funding stream.

Spring Fashion in the East Village

Moon Cakes

Seems like whenever I walk by this commercial Chinese bakery they are working and whatever they are making is half on the sidewalk half in the kitchen.  Today they were making extra large moon cakes.

Help A Goat, By Helping to Build A Barn...

The Girls at Ardith Mae - photo courtesy of Anne Saxelby

Ardith Mae Farms make some of the best fresh local Goat cheese I've ever had.  They also make a bunch of other great cheeses which you can buy all over town.

Ardith Mae Farms lost one of it's barns during the last big snow of the winter (it snows a lot in Northeastern Pennsylvania!) and the fine folks at Saxelby Cheese  and Earl's Beer and Cheese are both lending a helping hand, to help homeless goats get a new barn!

On Saturday 10% of all retail purchases from Saxelby Cheese will be donated towards the help build a new barn fund and on Sunday Earl's Beer and Cheese is holding a benefit brunch.

So buy your cheese on Saturday and treat your self to a nice brunch (and some beer!) on Sunday, these Goats need a home! 

Please Help the Homeless Goats