Week 11: Coffee cake and yummy curry

Jamie thought the title was a little strange because these are two items you would not generally eat together. She makes a good point, especially since we did not eat them together but I did make both of them so I wanted to include them both. For your reference both of these can be found on Epicurious.com

First, the coffee cake. I made this because I was getting together with my "moms group" which includes two dads and wanted to make a yummy dessert. I chose a toffee bar coffee cake. Here is what you need


2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (I used a bag of Skor bits)
1 cup chopped pecans (I used slivered almonds)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the first 5 ingredients until it resembles a coarse meal. 
Transfer 1/2 a cup of this to a bowl and mix the nuts and toffee bits. I would cut this back a bit next time maybe 1/3 or 1/4 cup.
Stir in the baking soda.
Add buttermilk, egg and vanilla until just combined.
Transfer to greased 13x9 pan.
Sprinkle the toffee/nut mixture over the top.
Bake at 350'F for 30 mins or so. Check with a toothpick.

Mark's thoughts: Super easy and very yummy. Would make again right now if I had more Skor bits.


Jamie's thoughts: Yummy.

Toffee bar coffee cake, enough said.

Now the curry, I made a a very nice Lentil with butternut squash and almond curry. The recipe called for walnuts which I had originally planned to replace with pecans but we had run out so, in a pinch, I used almonds and it was still yummy.

1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound)

1 large shallot
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder (or curry paste)
1/2 cup walnuts (see above for details)
1/3 cup lentils
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro sprigs
fresh lime juice to taste (optional)

This recipe is pretty easy and does not take that long to prepare it just takes a while to roast the squash and cook the lentils. 

Cut the squash into little cubes (about 1/2 inch).
Finely chop the shallots. 
Place shallots, squash, oil and curry powder in a baking dish. A couple of notes here, I used curry paste so I took about 2 Tbsp of curry paste and cut it with 2 Tbsp of water. This is where you will have to eyeball things. The recipe also called with salt and pepper to taste which seemed strange to me since you would taste it after it was cooked. I added some fresh cracked pepper and that was it. 
Bake all this at 425'F for 15 mins then add the nuts and stir and continue cooking until the squash is nice and tender, another 10-15 mins depending on how big you cut it. 

While this is going on cook the lentils. I used French green lentils but use what ever you have a around. You could also use canned lentils I would just heat them up first. I cooked them in a little veggie broth but that was probably not necessary.


Then add the squash, lentils, cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper to a bowl and mix. Serve over whatever, salad, rice, I had some left over quinoa and it worked too.


Mark's thought: Great meal that was pretty easy and very adaptable. I could see myself adding some halibut or prawns or just leaving it as is. I will make this again very soon.


Jamie's thoughts: Excellent, just as good for leftovers two days later.

Yummy curry with qunioa.