Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I'm excited to be sharing this recipe as part of Cranberry Week - now in its third year! See all the tasty cranberry recipes being shared today below and follow # CranberryWeek on social media for more ideas all week long. Brandied Cranberries + Three Cocktails from Our Good Life Cranberry Bread Pudding from Cindy's Recipes and Writings Cranberry Jalapeno Turkey Roll-Ups from Palatable Pastime Cranberry-Olive Oil Bundt Cake with Yuzu from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies from The Redhead Baker Cranberry Orange Muffins from Cookaholic Wife Cranberry Truffles from Caroline's Cooking Cranberry Vanilla Rum Smoothie from Daily Dish Recipes Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce from The Saucy Fig Roasted Brussels Sprouts Salad with Cranberries and Feta from Cooking For My Soul Squash Soup with Cranberry Puree from A Day in the Life on the Farm Cranberry-Olive Oil Bundt Cake with Yuzu I had grand plans to make a cranberry sa...

Every once in awhile I do some recipe testing - for friends or for publishers. While I am notorious for improvising in the kitchen, when I test recipes, I have to follow the recipe to the letter. That's the point, right? To make sure that the recipe, as written, can be replicated by the home cook. Well, the recipe that I am testing tomorrow requires yuzu kosho. Since I couldn't find that at Whole Foods, I knew that I had to make it myself. Thank goodness the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf asked for a microplane from Santa last year. Yes, really. Here we go... Ingredients makes approximately 2 cups 1 C lime zest 2 T lemon zest 2 T grapefruit zest 1 t salt (I used a red salt from Hawaii) 2 T freshly squeezed grapefruit juice 2 T freshly squeezed yuzu juice (or bottled) 1 hot pepper, seeded and minced (I used a jalapeno from my friend's garden) 2 t freshly squeezed lime juice 1 demerara sugar cube Procedure Combine all ingredi...

When I asked about Easter desserts, I suggested cheesecake and was voted down. Really. Who turns down cheesecake?!? The troops wanted Tiramisù and lemon squares. Done! I spiked the crust with a yuzu liqueur that my friend Shiho had given me. Yummy. makes one 9"x13" pan Ingredients Yuzu Crust  2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C powdered sugar 3/4 C butter 2 T yuzu liqueur 1 T water (or 3 T water if you don't want to use alcohol) Topping 4 eggs 2 C organic powdered sugar 1/4 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 t baking powder zest from 2 lemons 1/2 C freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 T yuzu liqueur powdered sugar, for serving Procedure Preheat oven to 350. Place flour, powdered sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in liquid and mix until larger crumbs form. Press the dough into a 9"x13" baking pan and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. In the meantime, make the toppi...

My husband Jake and I are celebrating 15 years of marriage today. Fifteen years. On one hand that feels like a lifetime; on the other, it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye. In this past decade and a half, we've had two kids, lived in two states and five different houses, and juggled probably about dozen different jobs between us. We've been to Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; we've traveled to Italy and Costa Rica. We've SCUBA'd, zip-lined, canoed, and tangoed. It's been an amazing adventure. But it's also been work. Don't let anyone tell you that marriage is easy. So, today, as we celebrate fifteen years, I have an amazing crew of foodie bloggers lined up to share cheesecake recipes with you. Initially I put out a call for fifteen cheesecakes - hence the hashtag #FifteenCheesecakes - but the spots filled up within an hour and I had more friends who wanted to participate. So, I figured: you can n...

When D and I went to taste his first urchin on Friday, I picked up this beautiful bottle of Yuzu Junmai Sake for myself and Jake. It's brewed by the Homare Brewery in the Fukushima Prefecture. Its shape was what caught my eye initially. Then I noticed that it was infused with yuzu and I was sold. I have to say, I loved it. I love sake and I love yuzu; I just wasn't sure how well they would go together. Turns out, they are a luscious combination. The aroma is alluring and the taste is both sweet and sour. It's delicious. Kampai !!

Just in case you've never made a pound cake, don't be shocked - it uses a pound of butter, a pound of flour, and a pound of sugar. Yikes! Once you get over your surprise, get baking because this is truly delightful. I added in a little matcha green tea powder and subbed some yuzu sake for the usual vanilla to create this delicious pound cake. Ingredients 1 pound (3 1/4 C) white whole wheat flour 1 pound (4 sticks) softened butter, plus more for pans 1 pound (2 C) organic granulated sugar 4 t matcha green tea powder 1 T yuzu sake (you can use vanilla extract here, or any other liqueur you desire) 9 large, room-temperature eggs  Procedure Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 4 mini loaf pans.  Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on high until pale and fluffy, approximately 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and stir in the yuzu sake. Beat eggs and add to the butter-sugar mixture. Fold in the flour in 3 ad...

Enough of the sweet quince creations...it's time for something smoky, spicy, and savory: quince-poblano-pumpkin salsa. Before you start, roast two poblano peppers and one mini sugar pumpkin. Poach four quinces (cored, peeled and sliced). Thinly slice the peppers and cube the pumpkin. In a large flat-bottom pan, brown three sliced shallots and the peppers in a splash of olive oil. Add the quince, 1 C water, 1/2 C white balsamic vinegar and bring to a simmer. Cook until the quince begins to soften and come apart. Add in 2 T yuzu juice, 2 C cubed roasted pumpkin, and more water if needed. Continue cooking until the pumpkin begins to soften. Then stir in 2 t smoked paprika and season with freshly ground salt to taste. Spoon into sterilized jars and process in a water bath.

Today is Quince Day...at least it's the day that I was able to pick up the ten pounds of quince that I ordered from Happy Girl Kitchen. There's something magical about quince and I'm sure it's only augmented by the fact that it's in-season time is so brief. But that scent is intoxicating and I waiver between wanting to cook it all immediately and just wanting to sit here with a fruit to my nose, breathing in the heady, floral aroma. I decided to poach a batch first. When Barbara Ghazarian writes in  Simply Quince , "the old-fashioned, long simmer method on the stove top is the only process that develops the characteristic caramel color and full-bodied flavor of the fruit," I'm going to trust her and not try to re-invent quincing. Yes, I'm making it a verb: to quince. But I added in a whole vanilla bean and used yuzu as my citrus. 7 C water 1 C organic granulated sugar 1 whole vanilla bean 2 T yuzu juice 8 C peeled, cored, sliced qui...

   Okonomiyaki is a savory pancake. Okonomi means something along the lines of "what you want" and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked." Widely available around the country, the dish is typically associated with the Kansai or Hiroshima areas. And toppings and batters vary by region. We kept ours simple: cabbage, dried shrimp, and green onions. The batter: 1-1/2 C chicken stock, 1-1/2 C white whole wheat flour, and three eggs. Whisk all of the ingredients together to form a thin pancake batter. Stir in 6 C of cabbage, 1/2 C dried shrimp, and 1/2 C chopped green onions. Cook in a flat pan until the batter is cooked, the cabbage is softened, and the pancake is lightly browned. I had seen beautiful images of okonomiyaki garnished with okonomiyaki sauce marbled with mayonnaise. Dylan opted for the plop and smear method. So, it wasn't very photogenic, but it was delicious. All the okonomiyaki sauce recipes I found were slightly differe...

This week's challenge for the  Food Matters Project was chosen by Sara of Simply Whole Kitchen : Quinoa Tabbouleh. Mark Bittman writes that tabbouleh is usually made from bulgur wheat and warns against turning this into a grain salad; tabbouleh should be an herb and vegetable heavy dish. Done. Here's our hostess's take on the recipe: Simply Whole Kitchen's tabbouleh ...and here's what the rest of the gang did. Click here and look in the comments section. What I used... cooked organic tricolor quinoa (1 C uncooked) 2 Persian cucumbers 3 kumato brown tomatoes 2 C fresh chopped Italian parsley 1/2 C fresh chopped mint 2 fresh chopped scallions olive oil freshly ground pink Himalaya salt freshly ground rainbow peppercorns juice from 1 yuzu 1/4 C chopped pecans What I did... I cooked the quinoa according to the package directions, then let it cool. Then I added the cucumbers, tomatoes, and fresh herbs. And tossed it w...