Homemade Powdered Ginger

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I use fresh ginger regularly but not a lot of the commercial ginger powder. A small container becomes stale, bland, and not as aromatic before I'm able to use it all up. I can't remember the last time I bought and I was shocked that it costs so much. The smallest container of McCormick® is $7.00 and some fancy bottled "gourmet" brand is $15.00. Really?

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Black Forest Cake

The last time I made Black Forest cake was maybe 4 or 5 years ago. The urge to make was triggered by a cookbook called The Art Of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer. I borrowed the book after reading so many glowing reviews specially the Black Forest cake which one rater said "the best recipe ever". Well, I didn't try the recipe, returned the book, and rated it 1-star because the recipes are the same ones you can find in many many baking books. The author offers nothing new or revolutionary and I didn't like the endless anecdotes about his childhood, etc. I can't understand why cookbook authors have to talk about their past and the people who influenced them. They should either write a cookbook or a separate memoir, but please don't mix the two. But the most disappointing is the supposed to be great Black Forest Cake. Pfeiffer adds gelatin to both the cherry liqueur syrup and the heavy cream frosting. I'm sorry, but no. The cake shouldn't have gelatin, nah uh.

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Honey Cake (Lekakh)

The ingredients in this Jewish spiced honey cake (lekakh in Yiddish) remind me of fruitcake but without molasses. Honey cake is usually served during Rosh Hashanah. Joan Nathan (I adapted her recipe) says "it's also served at the birth of a son, weddings, and generally all happy occasions".

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Napa Cabbage And Radish Kimchi

I always have cabbage kimchi in the fridge. I love it in fried rice and with roasted Korean sweet potatoes. I have never made it though because it's always available from the Korean grocery store. The other day, I ran out of Kimchi and the store surprisingly also didn't have any and I was in the mood to snack on the pan-roasted sweet potato I have. I binged (yeah, I don't google anymore) the recipe right there at the store and decided I'll make for the very first time. I already have the seasoning ingredients in my cupboard; all I had to get was a piece of Napa cabbage and 2 pieces of very tiny baby Korean radish. It is an easy recipe to make in a day. The recipe I chose doesn't have fish sauce. I can definitely say the flavor is exactly like the store-bought which doesn't have fish sauce either.

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