COOK'S CORNER
Quick coffee-cup cake sweetens summer days
By LINDA CICERO
lcicero@MiamiHerald.com
Readers have responded enthusiastically to our call for quick and easy summer dessert recipes. Maryann Langford of Macon, Ga., shared ''a fun little recipe'' for 5-Minute Chocolate Coffee-Cup Cake that her college-age son -- and test cook -- plans to take back to school for late-night study snacks.
''I used to mail him a commercial product that produces a single-serve microwave cake, and he says this tastes even better -- at a fraction of the cost and with none of the packaging,'' Langford writes. ``It's good and takes such a short time to make. I love it. It's big enough for two or maybe three people.''
GREEK COOKIES
We also received quite a response to Marcia Seldine's request for help replicating a cookie her Greek grandmother made which she called ''klouria'' and described as ``shaped like skinny doughnuts.''
None of the recipes we received had that name; the most similar was koulourakia. T. Barker of Kendall provided pronunciation help, too: ``kah-LOO-dee-ahs.''
An anonymous Cooper City reader sent a recipe from a cookbook by the Detroit Philoptochos chapter, ``the first Greek cookbook I owned and the one I have used the most. . . . We've been using this recipe since the 1960s and it is still one of our favorites. If I close my eyes, I see visions of my children running through the house with their friends, grabbing a handful of cookies and running back out to play.''
It takes most of an afternoon to make koulourakias unless you have help with the rolling and shaping, but once baked, the cookies store well in an airtight container and seemed to taste even better after a week.
It's possible the recipe Seldine seeks is for a Christmas cookie called melomakarona that is flavored with orange peel, cinnamon and cloves, ingredients she mentioned. Eileen Harryvan recommends a recipe she found at www.recipezaar.com (once there, search ``Melomakarona a Greek Christmas cookie''). I'm certainly going to try these next Christmas baking season!
Q: We were at a wedding shower where the caterer served a cold soup that was like gazpacho but it was white, not red. I asked for the recipe and was told it was a secret. I have found Spanish recipes for a cold white almond soup, but that's not it. Can you help?
P.M., Coral Gables
A: I have considered this soup a must for summer entertaining since we begged the recipe from Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada in 1993. I like to pass chopped cilantro, hot pepper sauce and extra sour cream as garnishes.SLEUTH'S CORNER
Q:I have been craving the snapper Mostarda served at an Italian restaurant in the heart of Miami Springs during the 1980s. I cannot remember the restaurant's name, but they were Miami Dolphin fanatics, with signed pictures of the players on the walls. I would really appreciate if anyone could provide me with the recipe.
Dania Linares
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