Sicilian Orange Scented Olive Oil Cake

Good Morning Folks!
I have not been blogging as much as I would like to recently due to work and now a part-time job I picked up as a wine hostess at a local Virginia vineyard. My passion is still mainly with cooking, but wine is also such an integral part of the meal as well. I may start to reference food-wine pairings as I move along in my wine education, but for now, its all about the food.

This is a recipe dedicated by Saveur that I had made a few weeks back. If you are looking for something rustic with inexpensive ingredients, this is it. The oranges are basically candied as they cook down in the sugar water mixture.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Orange-Scented-Olive-Oil-Cake


A few tweeks to the recipe:

• be sure to cook the oranges down until the peel can be pierced very easily and is quite soft. you don't want to bite into a hard chunk of orange peel
• I used an extra orange for more flavor. you can also try with blood oranges, as available. I used cara cara oranges which seemed perfect for this cake.
• once the cake is pulled from the oven and has cooled down to warm, wrap loosely with saran wrap and paper towels or aluminum foil. This will ensure your cake stays moist for days.
• you might also want to try this recipe with Meyer lemons, or any other citrus fruit.

Let me know the results!

Happy Cooking!

-Dita

Marinades

Over the years of my freakish experimentation in the kitchen, combined with the advice from some of my cooking friends, I have learned the art to making your own marinades. The key to marinades is simple- a balance and contrast of all flavors.

For marinades, you want to include ingredients that contrast the others and hit each spot on the taste buds. For me, that would be sweet, salty, tart, savory, cleansing and spicy. An example of each in that order: sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, and Thai red pepper. Get it?

As long as you use a balance of each component and taste along the way, you will be amazed by the homemade marinades you can create that will be cheaper, preservative free and much tastier than those store bought sauces. Try out an experimental blend of your own and let me know how it turns out! If you are not feeling creative, here's one to try that is painless and works well as a stir fry sauce-

In a blender, combine

-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup soy sauce
-1/2 cup cooking or rice wine
-1/2 cup water
-1 1/2 inch piece of ginger
-4 or 5 cloves of garlic

Liquefy on high speed until all solids are broken down into the liquid and dissolved.
Pour into saucepan and cook down until liquid is reduced and to a thick, desired consistency of sauce. Use sauce on anything-marinade, stir fry veggies, braised tofu, dressing, etc. Enjoy! Write back to me for the results!

Happy Cooking,

-Dita