Korean Peach Season? Cake for Breakfast.

...because friends make mimosas and cake sound like a pretty good idea at any goddamned hour.

Peach and Almond Upside Down Cake
with Lemony Topping

Cake:
-3-4 peaches
(whatever it takes to cover your baking dish)
-1/2 cup almond meal
-1/2 cup + 2 tbsp flour
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/2 cup sugar
-6 tbsp butter
(at room temperature)
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 eggs
-1/3 cup plain yogurt

Syrup:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2-3 tbsp water

Lemony topping:
-1 cup cream cheese
-3 tbsp milk
-2 tbsp lemon juice
-1 tbsp lemon zest
-3 tbsp sugar

This is a pretty quick one, so start by liberally greasing a 9 inch cake pan with butter and preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Peel and slice your peaches into wedges, and arrange them however you like to mostly cover the bottom of the pan. Now we've just got to get the batter and the syrup sorted out.

Batter:
Sift the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder together into a bowl. Mix the sifted stuff in with the almond meal, and set it aside while you get the wet stuff ready.

In another larger bowl, cream the sugar, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Mix in the eggs one by one, and then stir in the yogurt. Dump in all the dry stuff and mix the lot just enough to get it all sludgy. Don't try to get it perfectly smooth, it'll always look a little weird thanks to the almond meal. Set the batter aside for a few minutes while you make the syrup.

Syrup:
Put both the sugars in a small pot over high heat with about 2 tbsp of water. You don't need to stir it or anything - just allow the sugar to melt down into a syrup. It'll only take about 3 minutes, at which point  you can turn off the heat and spoon it all over the peach slices in the cake pan.

Spread the batter on top of the syrupy peaches and bang the pan on the counter to settle the batter between all the slices. Stick it in a hot oven for about 30 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted to the cakey-part comes out clean). Once baked, allow the cake to cool in the pan for around 10 minutes before trying to invert anything.

While the cake is cooling, zest a lemon by using a grater or carefully cutting the peel off the fruit (NO WHITE PITH!) and mincing it finely. Whisk that together with the cream cheese, milk, lemon juice and sugar until smooth. If you want the topping thinner, just add a little more milk until it reaches your desired consistency. If it's not quite lemony enough, add more lemony things. If it isn't sweet enough, add more sugar. You get the idea.

By now the cake should still be warm but not scalding hot, so place a large plate over the pan, and carefully flip the entire thing over so that the cake splops out onto the plate.

Serve warm with a generous dollop of lemony cream cheese and eat it for breakfast like the shameless fat kid you are.

Compensatory Duck Fat and Brandy

Sigh, requisite apologies are in order for being such a terribly negligent gastroslut. I moved to a magical land where one can fritter their time away in public saunas, and the excessive consumption of alcohol is accepted - nay, encouraged! So really, my absence should come as a surprise to nobody. 

Sorry pals, here's a little something to tide us all over until I morph back into a responsible adult:

...aahahhahah, GOOD ONE ALI!!!

Good Greasy Greens:
Duck, Mushroom, and Spinach Sauté

-3 cloves garlic

-1 yellow onion

-8 oz smoked duck breast

- 5 cups spinach

- 6 cups mushrooms of your choice 

(I did shitaake, oyster, and button)

-1/3 cup brandy

-pepper+salt to taste
-1/4 tsp hot chili flakes.

Really, all this dish involves is sequentially throwing things in a hot pan to get brown, but I will elaborate for the curious.

start by NOT WASHING THE GODDAMN MUSHROOMS and NOT ADDING IN ANY SALT UNTIL THEY ARE DONE BROWNING. Brush them or wipe them, hold on the salt - doing otherwise ensures that they flood the pan with water and don't brown as quickly.

Mince the garlic, dice the onion, and chop the mushrooms to whatever size you like - same goes for the duck and spinach. You should know that all of my amounts are pretty approximate and very flexible...meaning that I did a shit job of remembering to measure things before I stuck them in a pan.

Now the cookery: put a large pan over high heat, and fry the duck until crisp and brown. Remove the meat and set it aside for now. Also remove most of the rendered fat from the pan - keep about 3 tbsp in, and set the rest aside for other purposes. 

Add the mushrooms to the hot duck fat and fry until nice and dark. You don't need to stir constantly, just shovel it around every couple of minutes and repeat until thoroughly browned. Add the onion + garlic to the mix, and stir often until the onion bits soften and go a bit translucent. Pour in the brandy (cheap is fine, I used the last of an $8 bottle from Christmas) to deglaze the pan. Finally, lump on the spinach and allow it to wilt for a minute or two. Give it all a  quick mix and allow the greens to cook for a couple more minutes. Throw in the chili flakes, and season with salt and a generous amount of pepper  to taste. Boom, you're done.

....Sort of. It's very tasty as a side or as a savory crepe filling, but I like it atop noodles best. Toss some freshly boiled pasta in a tablespoon or two of the rendered smoked duck fat from earlier, liberally dole out some of the sauté, and cream your effin' pants while you down it like a champ. I'm sure this concoction would also work great with thick slab bacon in lieu of the duck. Enjoy until I sober up long enough to post again!