Fear not, dear reader – I have the solution. This is one lemon drizzle cake that I promise will never let you down.

Zesty Lemon Drizzle Loaf

 

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Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

1 hour

Total Time

1 hour 20 mins

 

The lemon drizzle loaf is, to many, an elusive beast. We’ve all had it served up in cafes or at coffee mornings, but there are far too many lemon drizzle recipes out there that are too dry, too bland, just too blah.

Author: Eleanor Jones

Recipe Type: Baking

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 225g unsalted butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 fresh lemons
• 225g self raising flour
• 100g extra caster sugar, for the drizzle

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Whip the softened butter until light and fluffy, and then add the caster sugar, mixing until fully combined.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, taking the time to combine each one before adding the next.
4. Stir through the zest of two lemons (don’t throw them away, you’ll need the juice for the drizzle!) and then sift in the flour. Fold the mixture until it is thick and thoroughly combined.
5. Put the cake onto the middle shelf of your hot oven and bake for 50-55 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. While the cake is cooling, make the drizzle. Squeeze the juice of both lemons, getting every single drop that you can, into a bowl, and then stir through 85g of the sugar until dissolved.
7. Once the cake has cooled for around 10-15 minutes, prick it all over with a skewer or fork, and then pour the drizzle over the top. You can do it in stages to ensure even absorption.
8. While the top of the cake is still wet, sprinkle the remaining 15g sugar over the top of the cake. This will give your loaf a sweet, crunchy crust that will ensure every crumb is gobbled up in seconds.

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Juicy orange segments are dipped in dark chocolate, then sprinkled with a mixture of salt and chili for the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and spicy. And since it’s fruit, there’s no need to feel guilty about indulging in a few slices! {At least that’s what I’m telling myself.}

Chocolate Dipped Orange Segments with Chili-Salt

 

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Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

10 mins

 

Juicy orange segments are dipped in dark chocolate, then sprinkled with a mixture of salt and chili for the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and spicy.

Author: Dianna Muscari

Recipe Type: Side

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1-2 oranges, peeled, segments carefully separated
• 3-4 ounces favorite dark chocolate, melted
• 1 teaspoon chili powder*
• ½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt*

Instructions

1. Prepare a sheet pan or plate by lining with a sheet of parchment paper.
2. Place peeled orange segments on a paper towel to soak up excess juiciness. This will help the melted chocolate adhere better to the slices.
3. In a small dish, mix together chili powder & salt.
4. Dip peeled orange segments in melted chocolate, then place on parchment paper.
5. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle with a pinch of chili-salt.
6. *The measurements above are, of course, optional. You can put as much or as little chili and salt as you’d like. I found a pinch of the mixture to be just enough for a light dusting.
7. Allow chocolate to set {for faster setting, place in freezer for 6-8 minutes}.

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This was again shared by my mom. she had seen this drink on some tv channel. She has made it so many times since then and recommended me highly too make it. Every time i met her or called her, she had to ask me whether i made this drink. I always said no.

finally, i decided to make and glad i did. i brought the fresh paan leaves from a flower shop to make these. If you live in india, you can easily get these leaves from a paan shop or a flower market.

Paan Gulkand Drink

 

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Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Paan gulkand drink – a summer cooler made with pureed betel leaves, gulkand and almond milk along with basil seeds.

Author: Dassan Amit’s mother

Recipe Type: Drink

Serves: 3

Ingredients

• 6-7 betel leaves/paan – gives approx ? or ½ cup of puree
• 4 cups chilled almond milk or cow’s milk or 3 cups of milk + 1 cup chilled water
• ½ tbsp basil seeds/sabza soaked in enough water
• 1 tbsp rose syrup or rooh afza (optional)
• 4-5 tbsp gulkand or as required
• 2 to 3 tbsp of chopped dry fruits – almonds, pistachios, cashews, dry figs etc (optional)

Instructions

1. rinse the betel leaves well in water.
2. in a small blender, puree the betel leaves with some water.
3. in a bowl or jar, mix the betel leaves puree and almond milk.
4. stir well.
5. strain the soaked sabza seeds and add these.
6. stir in the rose syrup or rooh afza.
7. add the chopped dry fruits.
8. mix well and serve the paan gulkand drink in tall glasses.
9. you can also chill the drink and serve later.

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Gazpacho

Garnishing the plate

Pour the soup over the garnish

Gazpacho

 

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Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Total Time

55 mins

 

Gazpacho recipe courtesy of chef José Andrés.

Author: José Andrés

Recipe Type: Side

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

For the soup:

• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 3 pounds ripe plum tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• ¼ cup sherry vinegar
• ½ cup Oloroso sherry
• ¾ cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil

For the garnish:

• 2 1 inch-thick slices rustic bread (or any other crunchy cracker)
• ¼ cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 or 4 plum tomatoes, halved
• ½ cucumber, diced
• Edible flowers, micro-greens (optional)
• Sea salt to taste

Instructions

To make the soup

1. combine the cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, sherry, olive oil and 2 cups of water in a food processor or blender. Puree the ingredients until everything is well blended into a thick orange liquid. Pour the gazpacho through a medium-hole strainer into a pitcher. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

For the garnish

1. if using bread, preheat oven to 450F. Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes and toss in a mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Spread the bread on a baking sheet and bake on the middle rack until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Set the croutons aside to cool.
2. When you are ready to serve, dice the cucumber. Put a few croutons (or crackers), plum tomato halves, cucumber and any other garnishes in each bowl and pour the gazpacho over them. Drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

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Chef José Andrés also says that if you want to save time, you can simplify the garnish: just use a few cubes of cucumber, tomato, and green pepper and pour the soup over it.

Enjoy!

The dust is starting to settle after GoogaMooga‘s second annual food and music festival, and I can’t help but think of LL Cool J’s oft-misused catch phrase “don’t call it a comeback.” After the onslaught of criticism about long lines and insufficient amounts of food at GoogaMooga’s first run, I returned to this year’s food and music extravaganza with tentative optimism. And until 12:15 on Sunday morning, I was ready to write an article on how, this year, the event had finally earned its name of The Great GoogaMooga.

Sure, the sound on Friday night could have been better, and yes, Saturday’s weather left something to be desired. But on the whole, the food I ate at GoogaMooga was among the most satisfying I’ve had at large-scale, multi-vendor food events. The notorious lines were short, bordering on non-existent. And Saturday’s musical acts at the Joe’s Pub stage included some of the most promising local bands in New York City.

So after frankly acknowledging the fact that attendees, the musicians and (especially) the food vendors were blindsided by Sunday’s last-minute cancellation, let’s talk about the first two days of the festival.

Friday’s beautiful weather had everyone in high spirits, with early arrivers singing along to The Darkness, laughing as they realized they knew all the words. The smell of barbecue was in the air, shoulders were bare, and a surprising number of toddlers donning adorable sound-muffling headsets danced along with the mostly 20/30-something crowd.

Grilling oysters at Maison Premiere

I kicked off The Flaming Lips’ set with a round of Maison Premiere‘s grilled oysters, their brine laden with a gorgeous herb butter and aroma of char. Serving oysters at an outdoor music festival may seem more Hamptons than “hipster”, but at GoogaMooga, quality was king. Even the stands selling sliders upped the ante, as with Umami Burger’s fragrant, truffle-infused beef patty.

Another unexpected element: healthy food options. At Back Forty, Chef Michael Laarhoven served up a harissa smoked lamb over a refreshing pickled vegetable and quinoa salad with spiced yogurt. Sufficiently filling for an evening of drinking, but leaner than your average summer bbq fare, it was my clear favorite dish at the festival.

Back Forty’s smoked harissa lamb dish

Midway through the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ performance, I had a hankering for something sweet, so I headed up to the Melt Bakery cart to check out Chef Julian Plytner’s latest concoction. I’ve tried many of his flavor pairings before, but I was especially impressed by the sugar-sprinkled chocolate cookie with malted chocolate rum ice cream. Alcohol isn’t my favorite flavor in dessert, but Julian had crafted a just-adult-enough ice cream sandwich, mellowing the chocolate flavor to let the malt and rum subtly shine through.

On day two, the drizzle had us feeling indulgent, so we started the day with dessert from Red Hook’s BAKED. Head Baker Molly Marzalek-Kelly couldn’t have been more friendly, as she hawked her sweet and salty brownies, as well as “brooksters” (the love child of a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie). We eagerly gobbled up the brookster and used our remaining willpower to hold onto the brownie, which later proved to be one of the most moist and delectable I’ve ever eaten.

Red Hook Lobster Pound’s Maine lobster roll

For lunch, we opted first for Red Hook Lobster Pound‘s chilled Maine lobster roll, with a bright, mellow sweetness that helped us imagine sunnier times. Looking for a warmer dish to follow, we ran into Chef Dan Holzman of The Meatball Shop, expediting to ensure that each of his MBLT sandwiches had exactly the right amount of mayo. To say the least, we were grateful for his attention to detail. Having recently been impressed by Pok Pok‘s showing at the Lucky Rice Night Market, we settled on Chef Andy Ricker’s “phat thai.” Unusually egg’y, with crushed bits of dried shrimp, tofu, tamarind and fish sauce, it had a delayed spiciness and complexity of flavor that couldn’t have been farther from takeout food.

By Saturday’s end, we had already dreamed up a last-ditch list of the dishes we wanted to try on Sunday. Jeepney‘s pinoy corn and chori slider. DBGB Kitchen & Bar‘s Käsekrainer sausage with ramps, spring onion and mustard. Northern Spy Food Co‘s fried eggs with kale and potato hash. Big Gay Ice Cream‘s vanilla with bourbon butterscotch and cardamom and cacao nibs. (That’s the short list.)

Really, the tragedy of GoogaMooga’s cancellation on Sunday wasn’t the fact that it was poorly communicated (There was already a delayed opening when I arrived at 11:30, and nothing was announced on social media or their website. The cancellation itself came nearly 90 minutes after the scheduled opening.) The rain was constant, and despite our “make it work” game faces and weather-appropriate outfits, we still were chilled to the bone. The real tragedy is that the very vendors who killed it on Friday and Saturday were faced with a major financial hit to their bottom lines.

I’m not sure what the future of the festival holds, and I’m not one to suppose I know enough of the details about Superfly’s event planning tactics and policies. What I do know is that there are an amazing number of small food businesses in this city, and that they’re not only incredible at serving food on their own premises, but they’re also dedicated enough to surpass our expectations off-site, in challenging weather, faced with potentially ungrateful crowds. That’s the story of GoogaMooga I’d like to remember. So maybe we should “call it a comeback.”

Behind the line at Colicchio & Sons

Photos by Eric Isaac

Before heading back to Cape Breton, I swung by the Farmers’ Market to try one of Evan’s famous fish burgers and stock up on some spring produce. I also picked up some cellar carrots from Noggins Corner, which are featured in this salad. Many friends who claim to dislike carrots will quite happily devour bowls of this crisp salad. Such is the power of the very thin slice and of flavours like ginger, sesame, and maple.

Shaved Carrot Salad with Ginger, Maple, and Sesame

 

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Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

This salad is delicious on its own, but feel free to throw in a handful of bay shrimps. Enjoy!

Author: Bryan Pickard

Recipe Type: Side

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• • 1 lbs carrots, peeled into strips (I used mixed colors)
• • ¼ cup unhulled sesame seeds, toasted
• • 1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, grated
• • 3 tablespoons oil
• • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• • 1 tablespoon rice or white wine vinegar
• • ½ teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
• • pinch sea salt
• • pinch dried pepper flakes
• • sprouts for topping (optional)

Instructions

1. With a peeler, peel the carrots so you have long, thin strips.
2. In a bowl, mix the shaved carrots with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Let sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.
4. Top with sprouts and toasted sesame seeds.

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