Cupcake times...and dumplings too

I had a m-o-n-S-T-E-R craving for cupcakes the other day...and nary a Flour or South End Buttery in sight! My favorite is SEB's carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting, after a certain Katie's delicious carrot cake. Mmmm. I prefer any cupcake at Flour and SEB over the highly hyped, but rather disappointing ones I've tried during my cupcake R&D period in NYC - Billy's Bakery, Magnolia, Two Little Red Hens, Crumbs all came up short. Either too dry and/or too sweet. I had a yummy one once at Blue Dog Bakery, and then another pretty good one on 7th Ave and 20th..I think. If Chikalicious or Kyotofu had cupcakes, I bet they would taste awesome. If you're ever in NYC, you absolutely have to try the black sesame tofu dessert at Kyotofu. Any dessert at Chickalicious will make you swoon.

It's so funny, but since moving abroad to the land of food, I've been obsessed with...American and Asian foods. And I'm not alone!
I have American friends who are just obsessed about mundane American things that they just can't easily find here. From every corner, croissants, pain, steak frites, hundreds of kinds of cheeses, escargot and other yummy French food beckon to me, but I'm fixated on finding peanut butter, baking powder, baking soda, cilantro, scallions, tofu, my favorite brand of fish sauce and soy sauce, Schezuan black bean sauce, bean sprouts, miso. And that's just the short list. I have even tried sprouting my own bean sprouts from green mung beans..it ended badly.  I might try to make my own tofu, encouraged by Steven who says I should at least try. Don't get me going on the types of flour and sugar I've researched to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie with just the right amount of chewiness. Carrefour and Intermarche, even Lidl carry Suzie Kwan..but that's not real Chinese and so far I have resisted buying the tiny expensive bottles of inferior soy and fish sauce. I'd rather wait until I can go to Supermarche Asie in Lyon.

Now back to cupcakes: With the closest cupcake bakery in Annecy, and a dozen brand spanking new silicone cupcake molds burning to be used, I decided to make cupcakes from scratch. I'm usually happy with cupcakes from a box, but I'm saving my only Duncan Hines yellow cake mix for a rainy or lazy day.

Although Google turned up hundreds of cupcake sites, I settled on David Lebovitz's Showgirl cupcakes. A great simple recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson. Remember to use room temperature butter and eggs, sift the flour if possible, and carefully fold in the flour a little at a time. Since my French oven seems to cook faster than my Boston oven, I baked the cupcakes for only 12 minutes instead of the recommended time.

I found Lebovitz's site in Spring 2010 while searching for ice cream recipes. His chocolate peanut butter ice cream recipe (no longer on his site) is to die for..and I also loved the salter butter one. After reading his book, The Sweet Life in Paris, and trying a few recipes, I became a fan. And when I visit Paris, I hope to sign up for his chocolate tours.

The Showgirl vanilla cupcakes came out light and dense at the same time; like a soft pound cake. Not overly sugary. Just right with a touch of raspberry buttercream frosting. MIAM, MIAM. YUMMY.

I'm now onto finding a great chocolate cupcake recipe and a peanut butter chocolate frosting. And maybe a carrot cake one after. And after that, I might tackle macarons again, or madeleines.

To prepare for CNY I'm also making my own dumpling wrappers using La Fuji Mama's recipe. Necessity is the mother of re-invention. I detest gross thick rubbery dumpling wrappers..even if the filling is delicious, a bad wrapper just ruins the dumpling experience for me. I've used Fuji Mama's recipe half a dozen times now, each time resulting in light, thin wrappers (instead of her 40 skins, I manage to come out with 47 or 48 skins) with a bit of chewiness to them. Make sure you dust your working counter and your rolling pin well to avoid sticking. I usually lay the rolled out wrappers side-by-side on plastic wrap that's been dusted with flour. And after I have 15 or so rolled out wrappers, I wrap these dumplings before continuing to roll out more skins.

These are the pre-cooked ones. To cook, I use a steam-fry method.

1. Brush some vegetable oil into the bottom of a well-oiled pan.
2. Place as many dumplings (minus one dumpling) as can fit on the surface of the pan.
3. Cover and cook over high heat for a minute or two (to create a crispy browned bottom).
4. Then add 1 tablespoon of water, and cover it again quickly (before it splatters too much all over the place).
5. Cook over medium-high heat until the dumpling has steam-fried..about 4 to 5 minutes.
6. Enjoy dumplings with ponzu sauce, or soy sauce mixed with Oelek Sambal, some vinegar, minced ginger, a bit of sesame oil. Add sugar to sweeten to taste. Add more Oelek Sambal if you like it spicy like I do.

What kind of foods do you crave from your homeland? What would you bring abroad with you?