Vegan Mexican Chocolate Cake + Dulce de leche = delicious but not so vegan anymore

I'm not sure if I've confessed in the past my love for chocolate. It might seem stereotypically female, but there you have it. As a Cuban I was born with a mean sweet tooth and my ultimate weakness is chocolate. During one of our many flan making sessions, my mother told me that as a child she was occasionally given a snack of coca-cola spiked with condensed milk. With that bit of background, you'll understand my deep affection for the set of recipes I'm presenting in this post.

Dulce de leche is Latin American caramel. It is traditionally made by simmering milk and sugar together until the mixture caramelizes as most of the milk evaporates. The easier way to achieve the same delicious final product is to simmer a can of condensed milk in water for two and half hours. Many food websites warned that this practice is DANGEROUS because the can of condensed milk can potentially explode if the water level is allowed to drop below half of the can. My solution to this was to NOT allow the water level to dip below 1 inch below the top of can. Making dulce de leche is not an operation that can be left unattended, but I simply topped off the simmering water every 30 minutes and I did not suffer from an exploded can of condensed milk.

Dulce de leche:

1. Remove the label from a can of condensed milk and pierce two holes on the top of the can.
2. Place the can in a pot and fill with water until the water level is a half inch from the top of the can.
3. Bring the water to a simmer and allow the can to simmer for two and a half hours for a spreadable, viscous consistency. Simmer longer for the thick, candy-like consistency.
**Check the water level every 30 minutes and top up to the original water level as needed to prevent a dulce de leche nightmare**

The chocolate cake posted here is classified as Mexican because of the large amount of cinnamon and pinch of cayenne pepper used in the mix. Though this cake has no milk, eggs, or butter and can be made without the oil, the cake remains rich, moist, and comes out really dark with a final spicy taste which contrasts nicely with the dulce de leche. If I'm in a rush, but obligated to bake, this cake is my go to dessert for entertaining or a birthday because it can come together in 45 minutes at the most.

Vegan-Mexican Chocolate Cake (adapted from Real Simple):
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together with a fork.
2. Using the fork, make two wells in the mixture. In one well combine the vanilla extract and balsamic vinegar, in the other well pour the oil.
3. Pour the cup of cold water over all the other ingredients and mix together with the fork.
4. Stir until well combined, be sure to scrape all the dry ingredients from the bottom of the bowl. The mixture will become smooth and dark immediately as the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar takes place.
5. Pour the cake batter into a round 9 inch cake pan. Bake at 350 °F for 30 minutes.
6. Let cool for 15 minutes, run a knife around the edge of the pan and flip the pan onto a plate to decant the cake.
7. Top the cake with the dulce de leche.

Lamb Chop Taste Test on the Amateur Gourmet Community Blog

Hi dear readers,

Please check out my blog post about a taste test comparing farm-raised vs supermarket lamb chops. It's posted on the Amateur Gourmet Community blog which is an awesome cooking/eating/loving food forum supported by Adam Roberts--the Amateur Gourmet.

xx Kitchendoc

A visit to Monticello

It has been a while since I posted. First I was busy procrastinating my medical school secondary applications and then my parents came to town so I was busy eating out every night. I don't even have a new recipe to post, so I thought I'd post my pictures of Monticello while I find the time to cook something good enough to post.

Last weekend, on a day trip from DC to Virginia, I visited Monticello with my parents, my aunt and my boyfriend. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, but if I could, I would have I would have posted a picture of Thomas Jefferson's dining room which was painted this electric, ocher, yellow called "Chrome Yellow." The effect of the white and green china reflecting the color of the walls made the room glow. There was also a dumb waiter leading up from the wine cellar to the dining room so wine could be easily transported from below the house.

The room I of course have to post a picture of is the kitchen. Because the kitchen was outside, pictures were allowed. Jefferson had a state of the art kitchen for the time with an eight burner stove with adjustable heat. It doesn't sound like much now, but you have to remember that most people cooked over the fire in their hearth and that was it. Jefferson was a French food aficionado whose cook trained in France while Jefferson was minister to France from 1785 to 1789.

On a sort of political note, during the tour, all of Jefferson's slaves were either referred to as "servants" or "enslaved persons." I thought that the former obscured reality, but that the latter was a decent alternative to slave but still a bit too politically correct. Thomas Jefferson only freed six slaves during his lifetime; all of them were Hemmings. After Jefferson died all his slaves and belongings were sold to cover his debt. The picture below is of the Cook's room, which is a misleading name because the cook and his family lived in that room.

The grounds of Monticello were gorgeous with huge vegetable gardens (as seen below) a huge diversity of trees, and lovely flower gardens in the front and back of the house.

Paella de mariscos

I spent the last ten days of August in beautiful Georgetown, Texas. I returned to my homeland for a bit of relaxation and to celebrate my mother's birthday. To celebrate the eve of her birthday, she made a paella de mariscos, the ultimate celebratory meal. It might seem unfair that our family made my mother cook one of her birthday meals, but since visiting Valencia, Spain, my mother has become a paella master, so she graciously cooked a delicious paella to celebrate her birthday and my homecoming.

Paella is a regional Valenciana rice dish made in a special pan called a paellera.

Paella is seemingly straight forward to make: heat olive oil, cook onions and tomatoes together, add seafood, cook, then add rice, add liquid, let rice absorb liquid, and eat. Yet, as with all things, the act is always easier said than done. This post is a series of pictures of my mother making the paella along with a loose recipe. True paella can only be made in a paellera. I encourage you to try to make "paella" (or the imitation Spanish rice dish) at home; all the recipes are very similar so find one you like on the internet to follow.

The first step of paella is wash and cut your scallops and peel your shrimp and lobster (if you can afford lobster tails...).

Then add about 2 cups of shrimp peels, lobster tails, and salt and pepper to 3 cups of boiling water to make your seafood broth. Boil the shells and water for at least 30 minutes. When the broth is done, strain the seafood broth into a measuring cup and add 3 teaspoons of whatever type of "safron" you have on hand. I used the fake safron flowers you can buy in Chinatown or Indian stores, many Latins use Bijol, or you can splurge on real saffron. Saffron is what gives the rice its yellow color.

After finishing the broth, heat olive oil in the paella pan, add the onions, cook until translucent.


Add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes.


Add the shrimp first because they take longer to cook.

Then add the scallops and lobster tails.

Add the rice, then the liquid.

Fold in the rice with the seafood and use a spoon to evenly distribute the rice and seafood within the paella pan. Cook the paella on the stove for 25 minutes on high enough heat so that the liquid simmers as the rice absorbs the liquid.

In Spain a paella is actually finished on the stove top so that a crispy rice layer (raspa) forms on the bottom of the pan. However, in my family, we finish it in the oven. A safe move is to add another cup of liquid to the paella before placing it into a 350 °F oven, then cook the paella for another 20-30 minutes in the oven until the top rice is soft.

Let the paella rest for 20 minutes to allow the ingredients to meld (cuajar in Spanish).

Then dig in. This sized dish is supposed to feed 8 to 12 people. As you can see, my family of four ate like professionals and only left a bit for the next day's leftovers.