May 2023

I can’t take credit for this carrot cake recipe, it is from Chef Bo Friberg’s, The Professional Pastry Chef. I like this recipe because it is easy to make, bakes up very moist and when you add the cream cheese icing, your guests will be amazed at how good this homemade carrot cake is. I have used different carrot cake recipes over my career and there is only one other that I feel meets this quality.

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Carrot Cake has its Roots in Pudding?

Yes, you read that right, carrot cake is believed to have started as a pudding back in 16th century Europe. Back then sugar and other sweeteners were expensive or hard to get and recipes called for carrots to substitute the sweetness. Often times the pudding recipes would call for bread crumbs to be added as a substitute for flour as well.

In 1824, a French chef for King Louis XVI made a recipe for Gateau de Carrotts translated is literally Carrot Cake. This recipe was published in England in a French cookbook in the late 1800s. Taking a look around heritage cookbooks from other European countries you will probably find some type of bread or cake baked with carrots. Italy has a version called Torta di Carote which uses almond flour or meal as well as flour but bakes up much more denser and is generally decorated with powdered sugar and not much else. Switzerland has a version that has hazelnuts and almonds with a Kirsch Brandy glaze.

During World War II, with the food rations in England, the Ministry of Food published a recipe for a cake using carrots as the sweetener as sugar was difficult to find.

Where and when the cream cheese icing comes into play is more difficult to track down. Sometime during and after the war the UK and the US beginning to bake carrot cake regularly, at some point along the way the addition of cream cheese icing was added.

Bread Flour? I thought we were making a cake?

The reasoning for bread flour in carrot cake goes into the science realm of food and baking. Without getting too technical, the bread flour has more gluten than cake flour which allows for a firmer structure to form in the cake. Remember, this recipe has 2 lbs of carrots in the recipe. Even in recipes that call for only a pound of carrots you will find the need for bread flour to give those carrots a lift. Think of carrot cake versus other types of cake, other types of cake are many times lighter and have a different crumb than that of a denser carrot cake.

If you wish, you can add additional spices such as nutmeg or clove to this recipe. Cinnamon is the only spice called for in this recipe but spice it up if you wish, start with a 1/2 tsp of nutmeg and a 1/4 tsp of clove. If you want to get really wild, substitute one of the tablespoons of cinnamon with 1 Tbl of cardamom for a different twist on the flavor.

Enjoy!

The cake can have chopped toasted walnuts or raisins added to the batter. Add them at the same time the carrots are added.

The recipe for Cream Cheese Icing is written for the amount pictured or in the video. I recommend doing a 1 1/2 times or 2 times the Cream Cheese Icing recipe to have more for decorating or if you want a thicker layer between layers or on top.

Desserts, Recipes, Vegetarian

I can’t take credit for this carrot cake recipe, it is from Chef Bo Friberg’s, The Professional Pastry Chef. I like this recipe because it is easy to make, bakes up very moist and when you add the cream cheese icing, your guests will be amazed at how good this homemade carrot cake is. I […]

Desserts, Recipes, Vegetarian

I can’t take credit for this carrot cake recipe, it is from Chef Bo Friberg’s, The Professional Pastry Chef. I like this recipe because it is easy to make, bakes up very moist and when you add the cream cheese icing, your guests will be amazed at how good this homemade carrot cake is. I […]

Desserts, Recipes, Vegetarian

I can’t take credit for this carrot cake recipe, it is from Chef Bo Friberg’s, The Professional Pastry Chef. I like this recipe because it is easy to make, bakes up very moist and when you add the cream cheese icing, your guests will be amazed at how good this homemade carrot cake is. I […]

Desserts, Recipes, Vegetarian

I can’t take credit for this carrot cake recipe, it is from Chef Bo Friberg’s, The Professional Pastry Chef. I like this recipe because it is easy to make, bakes up very moist and when you add the cream cheese icing, your guests will be amazed at how good this homemade carrot cake is. I […]

Desserts, Recipes, Vegetarian

I can’t take credit for this carrot cake recipe, it is from Chef Bo Friberg’s, The Professional Pastry Chef. I like this recipe because it is easy to make, bakes up very moist and when you add the cream cheese icing, your guests will be amazed at how good this homemade carrot cake is. I […]

Desserts, Recipes, Vegetarian

I can’t take credit for this carrot cake recipe, it is from Chef Bo Friberg’s, The Professional Pastry Chef. I like this recipe because it is easy to make, bakes up very moist and when you add the cream cheese icing, your guests will be amazed at how good this homemade carrot cake is. I […]

Desserts, Recipes, Vegetarian

I can’t take credit for this carrot cake recipe, it is from Chef Bo Friberg’s, The Professional Pastry Chef. I like this recipe because it is easy to make, bakes up very moist and when you add the cream cheese icing, your guests will be amazed at how good this homemade carrot cake is. I […]

The name translated means, Chicken Enchiladas with Chile Sauce, don’t let the name scare you from making this deep flavored smokey enchilada sauce. Enchilada translates to “season in chile”, this enchilada sauce can be made as spicy as you like by adjusting the type of chiles you use to lessening one single type to get the spice level you wish. You can add more tomato to give the sauce a milder flavor that may be more inline with what you may be accustomed to.

The sauce is Gluten Free and Vegetarian, I did not list Vegetarian in the title because there is chicken in the enchilada but you can make how you like.

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Many times when I cook at home, I try to utilize what I have in the pantry or the refrigerator. Plus when we go grocery shopping we look for deals and specials that are a good buy. This is how I picked up a big bag of California Dry Chile Pods, the store we usually frequent had a big markdown on a display of these chiles for 99¢ a bag. I figured that they miss ordered or got a special shipment from the manufacturer but I don’t question those things, if it is a deal I will figure out what to make.

Scoville Scale – If you can’t take the heat…..

I know many people don’t like too much spice and the dry chiles I used in this recipe are low on the Scoville scale (500-2500 SHU) compared to Jalapenos (2500-10000 SHU) or Serrano peppers (10000-25000 SHU). The Scoville scale was invented in 1912 by Wilbur Scoville, an American Pharmacologist, much of his testing was subjective as to what the level of heat was in peppers. He came up with a scale of Scoville Heat Units or SHU.

Today, there is a more scientific test available to determine the heat of capsicum called High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). This testing reliably determines the concentration of the capsicum to determine its severity and then gets placed on the appropriate level on the Scoville scale.

Every year people are trying to cross pollinate different peppers to create hotter and hotter peppers. There are even competitions where contestants eat as many hot peppers they can, usually starting with lower level hot peppers and increase in heat on each round until there is only one contestant left. When I watched one of these competitions, it is painful to watch but there seems to be at least one person who must not feel any pain who is declared the winner.

What do I do with the leftover Rotisserie Chicken?

This is a great recipe to use for leftover chicken, rotisserie, oven baked or grilled. Shred the chicken, mix with some pepper jack cheese, dip the tortilla in the enchilada sauce and roll it up. If you have leftover other items or just want to make cheese or vegetable enchiladas, no problem, just substitute out what you have.

Another favorite is a Wet Burrito, just as it sounds, utilize this sauce to pour over a burrito of chicken fajita filled tortilla or a carne asada burrito or whatever you like. Top with some cheese and put it under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese and give some additional flavor to the sauce. Top with some sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo, and don’t forget the chips!

How ever you use this red chile enchilada sauce, I hope you ENJOY the results!

* This recipe is easy to put together, it may take a bit of time to prepare the sauce but the end result is absolutely worth it. You can make a bigger batch and freeze what you don’t use.* You can adjust the heat of the sauce by reducing the number of chiles used but the chiles used in this recipe have an earthy flavor. * You can reduce or remove the Achiote sauce from the canned chipotle as there is some heat from that as well.

* Adding more tomatoes is an option as well to make the sauce more tomato than chile if you desire.

Bachan’s Original Barbecue Sauce does it again, in this recipe the chicken thighs are marinated for a few hours before grilling. This helps to allow the marinade to penetrate the chicken before it hits the grill, this helps to get some nice caramelization on the chicken. Baste the chicken with the barbecue sauce helps get a nice sweetness glazed onto the chicken thighs. Drizzle some additional Bachan’s sauce on top of the sliced chicken on the plate, yum!

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Asian Fusion Noodles, you may be asking but what makes the noodles Asian fusion? I have seen these ingredients combined somewhere before. You may have, the noodle dish plays off of several elements in Asian cuisine.

I used what I had when writing this recipe, dry chinese noodles, Korean style kimchi, shallots for some Thai influence, and some parsnips because burdock root can found in some Asian recipes but parsnips are more common in the U.S.. So there is a mix of things going on in this noodle dish.

I point out below, that this recipe is fully interchangeable. Switch out the protein, switch out the kind of noodle, even use whatever veggies you have in the fridge that need to be used. I had the kimchi from another recipe I had written still in the fridge and felt it added a nice spice and crunch of the radish in the kimchi.

Locally, there is a company that makes radish kimchi, Cindy Yi radish Kimchi. I really like this product, it is a nice balance of acidity and spice. Check out the website, they do ship too!

Give this recipe a try, use what you have. Even adjust the heat level with a chili past of your liking.

Enjoy!

This recipe is very flexible. You can use chicken breast instead of thigh meat, or whatever protein you would like to use. Same for noodles, you can substitute most any noodle, soba (buckwheat) noodle or even a rice noodle. Be sure to pre-soak and blanch the rice noodles before adding to the sauce so they are soft.Use whatever veggies you have, broccoli, onions, or zucchini, any will work.

Add additional kimchi or other chili paste for additional heat.