Green Carrots?

I have found the solution to my green flecked carrot cake! Too much bicarb!

Here is the science behind why your carrots may turn green when you bake with them, from this Food Science website

"Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, explains that carrots turn green when the batter "contains too much baking soda, or when the soda isn't evenly mixed in the batter."

Carrots contain pigments that are sensitive to changes in pH balance. When the shreds of carrot come into contact with the alkaline baking soda, a chemical reaction takes place that causes the pigments to change color.

Ipso facto, green carrots!

If your carrots turn inexplicably green with a recipe you've used many times before, the likely culprit is that the baking soda didn't get fully dispersed throughout the batter.

If your carrots are turning green every time you make the recipe, the ratio of baking soda in the recipe is probably off. Try reducing the amount by a quarter teaspoon next time you make the recipe.

Unappetizing though they may be, cakes and loaves with green carrots are perfectly safe to eat and taste no different than normal cakes!

Blueberries, sunflower seeds, and walnuts are also reactive to alkaline environments and experience similar color changes when the amount or distribution of baking soda is off."

BTW that picture is of Chard Muffins from the Apron Stringz blog... but you get the picture ;)

Too many carrots!!

We get our fruit and veg delivered by The Organic Collective, where we get a box full of random organic, local fruit n veg. Its awesome, its cheap ($37.50 for the 2 of us per week, in total), and its organic, WOOHOO! Anyway this week we got ALOT of carrots! We always get a few carrots but this week we got alot, and I was tired of roasting them, or putting them in a soup, so I decided to take action! Action in the form of Tessa Kiros' Carrot Cake, from Falling Cloudberries, which I havent cooked much from as yet, but we'll get there!

Anyway, 400g of carrot later, Ive definately made a dent in the carrot supplies, which is a relief... as delicious as roasts are, every night? A bit of variety is nice, and its been ages since I baked anything.

I didnt have many walnuts, maybe 20g left so I added a handful of mixed coconut, banana chips and dried pineapple to the batter, which were all pre mixed with the walnuts anyway - Im not fussy about these things, Im not likely to go sorting through the fruit and nut jar to find the lonely walnuts. It all goes in! Those who say baking is an exact science - pish posh, near enough is often good enough!

I decided to make cupcakes rather than a whole cake, as they're easier for my bf and I to take to work etc, and they're in friendlier portions (though, I dont know about you, but it DOES make eating more than one portion weigh much lighter on my concience than 2 slices of cake might!). The recipe calls for the cake to be baked for an hour, these cupcakes are done in about 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven... This is much better, I feel less guilty about eating more of them, AND they're baked in half the time. Enough to put a gleam in a gluttons eye!

They came out looking fab - they rose up beautifully (with 3 tsp of baking powder/bicarb, it'd wanna rise up!!) and didnt sink down at all. I obviously couldnt resist trying one straight away, warm, straight out of the oven... Its hard really, for cake fresh out of the oven to taste anything but delicious and that these were, it was to be expected.

After waiting for my bf to come home with cream cheese (with strict instructions which kind to get, where to get it and which ones NOT to get) he came home with the goods, and his parents, always willing cake testers! Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am terminally half arsed. I often take short cuts, dont follow instructions fully and dont measure things out properly. About half the time things go better than expected... sometimes they fall slightly short of the mark and rarely do things totally just roll over and die. Thankfully the icing didnt roll over and die (or taste like someone would rather do that, than eat it) but it did turn out slightly lumpy, because I didnt sift the icing sugar. I had no intention of sifting it, and in turn, ended up with slightly lumpy icing. What of it, it hasnt affected the taste, and considering they're going to be mistreated by being thrown into my lunchbox on a hasty, late exit to school in the mornings, no one will notice or care but me. You'll notice there is one missing... I need not explain what happened to it - it was very nice!

Something quite strange happened though... Something I added into the mix, once it was cooked, underwent some sort of chemical reaction and turned green. I have no idea what, but little flecks of green are now in my carrot cupcakes! They have no taste, and you dont notice it, aside from the random green flecks. If it were banana, I could understand it goes brown and gooey, but carrot? Or maybe the pineapple, the coconut? Did the bicarb react with something? Who knows! It still tastes great. Ill still eat them! It'll take more than random greenness to stop me eating something delicious!! They're moist and quite light... with almost half a kilo of carrots in there you wouldnt be far off the mark to say they're almost healthy!! We wont talk about the 2 cups of sugar...... Regardless, here is the recipe for you guys to have a try!

Carrot Cake:

4 eggs, lightly beaten

250g caster sugar

185ml sunflower oil

300g plain flour

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

400g carrots, peeled and grated

55g chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting:

180g butter, softened

250g icing sugar

180g cream cheese

3 drops vanilla extract

Walnut halves to decorate (optional)

Preheat oven to 180oC/350oF/Gas4. Grease and flour a 24 cm springform tin or bundt pan. Whisk eggs and sugar until creamy, then whisk in the oil. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon. Add this to the eggs and whisk. Add the carrots and nuts and mix together. Scrape into tin and bake for an hour. Once the cake has cooled; For the icing whip the butter and icing sugar together until its stiff. Beat in the cream cheese and vanilla. Spread over the cake.

make my school a prison

An interesting perspective on school funding in the US, which anyone whos been to a public school in australia can relate to as well... Theres never enough of anything!

I think its worth taking a look at what is spent per prisoner in WA and comparing it to how much schools get per student (it doesnt quite work like that but would be an interesting comparison nonetheless...)


A school superintendent in Michigan has written a public letter to the editor asking Governor Rick Snyder if his school can become a prison instead. The full text is below. What do you think?

—-

Dear Governor Snyder,

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.

One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future...by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.

Respectfully submitted,

Nathan Bootz, Superintendent, Ithaca Public Schools

Hello!

Im going to be cranking this on the way home... windows down, while I drive along the coast.

Suns out, another day thrown into the wind.

Happy days gang :D

free fair trade coffee!

Well today was a rough day, kids can be lazy and inattentive, and its a hard slog when the kids are feeling rowdy. However I managed to get through the lesson, and am thankfully feeling better hearing about the Fair Trade Coffee pay it forward day going on in NZ.

Basically, wherever Fair Trade coffee is sold, you can pay the coffee forward for the next person in line, or more if youre feeling like sharing the free trade love. A random act of kindness, supporting farmers from developing nations and raising awareness. Click on the link above to see the video about it.

If only kids could be so nice sometimes, to just do something nice, just cos. sigh.

TED Speeches

An awesome speech by Jamie Oliver regarding the state of food labelling, and attitudes toward food in kids, amongst other things... Worth a watch when you have a second!

Pappardelle w/braised leeks/pangrattato - Jamie at Home

As a part of our organic delivery box we got a leek, and I didnt really fancy making leek and potato soup, which was my first thought (we dont eat leeks often - almost never) but I remember seeing this pasta dish on jamie at home, and thinking it looked good... so i thought id give it a go I have the book, but have included a copied and pasted version, heres the link for the recipe (the picture at the bottom is also from that website... again too keen to eat to remember to take pics!).

"I've called this great dish, with its slap-you-round-the-face flavors, "cheat's pappardelle," as you can cheat by cutting your own pappardelle from ready-made fresh lasagne sheets. Pangrattato is a rich bread-crumb mixture originally used by poor people in Italy for giving their food extra flavor when they had no Parmesan cheese.
Ingredients

5 big leeks, outer leaves trimmed back, washed
Olive oil
3 good knobs butter, divided
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
A few sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked
A small wineglass white wine
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pint good-quality vegetable or chicken stock
12 slices ham, preferably Parma
2 (8-ounce) packages fresh lasagne sheets
All-purpose flour, for dusting
2 handfuls freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

For the Pangrattato
1 small handful dried porcini mushrooms
1/2 ciabatta bread, preferably stale, cut into chunks
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 sprig fresh rosemary

Directions

Halve the leeks lengthways and cut at an angle into 1/2-inch slices. Heat a wide saucepan, add a splash of oil and a knob of butter, and when you hear a gentle sizzling add the sliced garlic, thyme leaves and leeks. Move the leeks around so every piece gets coated. Pour in the wine, season with pepper and stir in the stock. Cover the leeks with the slices of Parma ham, place a lid on the pan and cook gently for 25 to 30 minutes. Once the leeks are tender, take the pan off the heat.
To make the pangrattato:

Whiz the mushrooms and bread with a pinch of salt and pepper in a food processor until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a frying pan. Add the garlic cloves and the rosemary and cook for a minute, then fry the bread crumbs in the oil until golden and crisp. Keep shaking the pan - don't let the bread crumbs catch on the bottom. Drain on paper towels, discard the rosemary and garlic and allow the bread crumbs to cool.

Bring a big pan of salted water to the boil. Lay the lasagne sheets on a clean working surface and sprinkle with a little flour. Place the sheets on top of each other and slice into 1/2-inch strips. Toss through your fingers to shake out the pappardelle, then cook in the boiling water 2 minutes or until al dente.

Remove the Parma ham from the saucepan, slice up and stir back into the leeks. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then stir in the Parmesan and the rest of the butter. Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the cooking water, and add the pasta to the leeks. Add a little of the cooking water if need be, to give you a silky, smooth sauce. Serve quickly, sprinkled with some pangrattato, extra Parmesan and any leftover thyme tips. Serve the rest of the pangrattato in a bowl on the side."

Well... it was really really good!! as you can see by the reviews on the website with the recipe, everyone has loved it.

I used a stock cube, and it was a touch salty and I used pancetta rather than parma ham (either way, they're both salty) which adds to the saltiness. the leeks were creamy and so tasty, the wine/stock/pancetta combo is a real winner, and so so easy to make. I cooked up 2 pieces of chicken in another pan and then used that pan to cook the breadcrumbs in (bf tends to pout if theres not much meat in things) which was def a good idea as I had cooked up a bit too much spag... oops... the chicken was a great addition though it went perfectly with the dish. I also used marjoram instead of thyme as that was all I had but regardless, it was great. the pangrattato was awesome, my first encounter with dried porcini mushrooms, it was great, so much flavour!!

This is an EASY dish to make, and could easily be a storecupboard standby as it doesnt really require anything too crazy. Have read other reviews saying ppl were going to try it with leftover ham/bacon etc rather than parma ham, and i think theyd all be great. Omit the meat for my vege friends, as it would still be really tasty! A pretty fab, easy meal that I urge you to try if you like leeks!!