Monday, July 23, 2012

Podcast 1- Flour



In cooking there are many variations of simple ingredients used to create a whole host of foods. Flour for example, is a basic ingredient found in much of what we eat. It comes from many sources and is used in many ways. In this podcast I talk about four types of wheat flour.










Sunday, July 22, 2012

Where I buy some of the goods with which I cook.


I know, it’s not a revelation. However, I find the organic and alternative foods section here to be good. Additionally, their produce it usually quite nice and they support local growers.




Cosmos Indian Store- online store- This is a great place to shop if you are interesting in indian cooking.  http://www.indianonlinegrocery.com/servlet/StoreFront


Akins Natural Foods-   http://www.akins.com/

Scrambled Eggs- Chinese verses French


Scrambled eggs are simple; pretty much everyone has their own way of making them.  Generally speaking eggs are considered a breakfast dish in the United States.  And while I’ve yet to travel to China, I know their brekky (breakfast) is different than European or American breakfast.  I have chosen two very different methods of scrambling eggs. One I use for adding to Asian cooking and the other when I want to eat scrambled eggs.

Chinese method
This is how I learn to cook eggs in this way from my Chinese friends. I use this method when I am going to add them to fried rice. To cook eggs in this way high heat it used. In a frying pan heat a tablespoon or  two  of vegetable oil.  Carefully crack the eggs directly into the heated oil, drizzle a bit of soy sauce over it and with chopsticks(or tongs as I did here) scramble them. Watch your heat closely, be sure not to burn the eggs, pick the pan up off the heat if needed. Cook the eggs until they are fully cooked, dry looking even and break them into very, very small pieces.


French method
In a medium saucepan heat over medium heat melt a tablespoon or two of butter. Separate the yolks from the whites. When the butter has melted add the whites to the pan and with a wooden or silicone utensil stir the whites and cook until they are flecked evenly with small bits of white, stirring continually. Again, watch the heat.  Next add the yolks. And keep stirring, this is a stirring motion you are aiming for. Keep cooking until the color is even and the mixture has thickened. Pull them off the heat before you think they are really done, residual heat from the pan will finish them. The goal is to end up with a creamy egg. Notice that these are not seasoned before cooking. in this method eggs are seasoned afterwards. 










Almond cake with macerated peaches and raspberries



I made this a few weeks ago to serve when I had a friend over for dinner. The cake is very simple, only having 5 ingredients and is nicely contrasted with the fresh fruits and crunch pistachios. I based this cake off of a recipe from Laura Calder. http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/laura-calder/orange-almond-cake-recipe/index.html
Macerated peaches and raspberries.
o    Two ripe peaches
o    1 pint ripe raspberries
o    2 Tablespoons of vanilla sugar.
o    Pinch of salt.
Slice the peaches into a bowl, add the raspberries, salt and sugar, mix them together gently, being careful not to break up or bruise the fruit. Cover and allow to sit in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

 Almond Cake
Method- Preheat oven to 350º and line a 9 inch spring form with parchment.
o    6 Eggs, separated
o    1 ½ Cup Almond flour
o    Orange zest of 1 orange
o     Pinch of Salt
o    ¾ Cup Sugar

In a bowl combine egg yolks, zest sugar, and salt. Then add the almond flour. Set aside.
In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until peaks form. I did this by hand in a big bowl with a balloon whisk. The use of a mixer, stand or hand is of course, fine.

Next fold 1/3 of the whites to the yolk mixture. This addition is to lighten the batter and ease the combining of the next 2/3. Once the first this is combined add ½ of the egg whites that remain and fold, very gently. Add the last portion of whites and fold gently, mixing as little as possible. ALL of the lift this cake has comes from the air you beat into the egg whites So, easy does it.


Pour the batter into the prepared pan and gently spread evenly. Bake for 45 minutes. When it’s done, remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 5 or ten minutes. Then remove the side and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.
To serve, cut slices of the cake and top with the prepared fruit and top that with sweetened whipped cream and toasted pistachios.  

Pate a Chou and Crème Patissiere


Éclairs and cream puffs.
         This is a long post, which is fitting because it is a long process to make these recipes, One that I’m not sure is worth it for me. I worked on making these for the better part of about two day. I am however, glad I have made these. To make pate a Chou and pastry cream is (in my humble opinion) a must for a person who wants to be considered a baker. It is a labor and like most French food that I’ve experienced, simple and complex at the same time. I must admit  though, that I am not as fanatical about éclairs and cream puffs as other people I know. They are enjoyable and yummy. But I find the versatility of the recipes far more appealing than eating these two treats. Pate a Chou can be used for many desserts yes, but it is also great for savory foods. For instance, one could add herbs to the dough and fill them with crab salad. 
A few points of interest to the prospective preparer of profiterole, crème puffs or éclairs:
 Make the pastry cream first- that’s all. Do it first.
Mix the dough by hand or use a mixer?: I mixed everything by hand including the dough (I rant more about this later) the dough has to be mixed by hand while on the stove but once it comes to the egg adding part, one could use a mixer, be it stand or hand.
Make small batched- no, seriously. I developed blisters on my hand mixing the dough. It would have been less strenuous in smaller batches.
Crème Patissiere
A quick search of the conveniently located Internet yields a wealth of recipes and information.  In my hunt I saw a few variances on pastry cream, those that use cornstarch to thicken and those that use flour. The use of cornstarch will cause the mixture to thicken quickly, under a minute kind of quickly but, you pay for that in texture. It is still yummy but one can feel the cornstarch. The use of flour will give a smoother more velvety final product but, it takes more patients in preparation. Other variables include what type of dairy. Some use cream, other half and half and other use milk and some call for the addition of butter and extracts to finish. 
But being a person who has been cooking several years, I have a fair collection of cook books. I ventured into my library and pulled one of my favorites, Larousse Gastronomique. It is more or less a hefty lesson on all things related to the French table and cooking packed into a mere 1000 pages. While my edition, printed in 1961, has instructions printed in English thankfully, it maintains the proper French names for all of the recipes. I often fancy things with a vintage. So, I chose to go with a recipe in the book. It called for the use of flour, It was the oldest I could find and it methods were preferable to me.
You have to make the Pastry Cream first. It needs to chill over night.
o    2 Cups Whole milk
o    ½ half vanilla bean
o    6 Eggs Yolks
o    1 Tablespoon butter- good quality
o    ½ Cup flour
o    1 Cup Sugar
Begin by putting the milk and vanilla bean in a pan and put it on medium heat.
In a heavy pan whisk together everything else. Paying close attention to not burn the milk, bring it to a boil. Then temper into the egg mixture. Over medium heat brings this to a boil, stirring constantly. For the last few minutes I used a whisk but the rest of the time I used a silicone spatula. After it thickens, pass the crème through a sieve into a bowl and chill.
When I made this, I made a double batch.



Pate a Chou II
For the pastry I relied on Larousse Gastronomique again. This dough it used for many things both savory and sweet.  I did look around on the Internet at various recipes to see what they said but settled on the recipe from the above-mentioned book.  Many of the recipes I saw called for bread flour or cake flour rather than all-purpose or surprisingly small amounts of eggs. The recipe from the book used all-purpose, so I did too.
I made the recipe as printed. One could divide the recipe by half which would equate in fewer cream puffs or éclairs but who wants fewer of either of those? But, honestly unless you have supreme upper body strength (or a mixer)I would recommend that you do divide it.  Because mixing 4 cups of milk into 4 cups of flour isn’t simple. And it doesn’t get any simpler when mixing in the FOURTEEN eggs, one at a time nonetheless.

o    Four cups whole milk
o    ¾ cup butter- good quality
o    1 ½ teaspoons salt- I used Fleur de Sel.
o    4 ¾ Cups Flour
o    12-14 Eggs- good quality
The method is pretty simple but, intensive. First, in a heavy bottom saucepan, bring to a boil the milk, butter and salt. While that is heating sift the flour.  When the milk mixture boils, remove from the heat and add the flour all at once, stirring with a wooden spoon Return to the heat and keep stirring, continually. 


Cook until the dough pulls away from the pan. The purpose of cooking it at this point is to cook the flour. Once the dough comes together and forms a ball, keep stirring and cooking a few more minutes. 




Then pull the pan off the heat and start beat vigorously, start adding eggs one at a time. Fully incorporate each egg before adding the next.   


When all the eggs are fully mixed in and the dough is smooth transfer some of the dough into a piping bag. I used disposable piping bags and a cloth one. I suggest the disposable ones and I don't use a tip, just cut the tip to the size desired.  Pipe onto parchment lined pan in desired shape. It helps to use water to make the parchment stay in place while piping. Smooth the point of each on using your fingertip dipped into water. Then egg- wash each one. I will admit that getting the piping correct took me until my very last pan.
 Egg Wash- 2 egg yolk and 3 tablespoons of cream or milk.


Bake in a 425º oven for 15 minutes THEN drop the temperature to 350º and continue baking for 15-20 more minutes. The high heat gives the lift and sets the dough while the lower temperature dries the pastry. Be sure not to short them on the baking time. I think a few of my batches were a bit under baked. The desired outcome is that they be light, dry and almost crisp. If you thump on the bottom and it sounds hollow, it’s done.  When they are done remove from oven and let cool. They cool relatively quickly.



Once the shells and the pastry crème are chilled, the two may be brought together! To fill the éclairs,  cut them open length-wise and pipe in some crème, using a piping bag fitted with a tip of your choice. To fill the crème puffs, use a star tip on the bag and use the point to poke through the bottom and fill each. Top the éclairs with gancahe and the cream puffs with a dusting of powdered sugar.
For the chocolate topping I used a ganache. This deviated from the information in the book. The recipe there in is a mixture of chocolate and sugar syrup cooked to short thread stage.  A ganache is Chocolate and heavy cream. Some people add butter, vanilla or corn syrup to ganache.  Generally speaking, I do not. For this I added a bit of honey.
Ganache-
o    3.5 oz of good quality dark chocolate
o    2-3 Tablespoons of Heavy cream
o    About a tablespoon of honey or Golden syrup, if desired. This will result in a softer final product.
































Saturday, July 21, 2012

Fried Rice


Fried rice is a staple of my diet. I make it in a variety of ways and eat it almost every week. More often than not, I will make a big batch and eat from that for several days. And while I know some of you will read this and think “There is not frying involved, how is this fried rice?” I say to you: I know it involves no actual frying but, this is how I make it and it’s tasty. Also, I have fed this to my friends who are from china and they liked it (or were being really polite . . .) It is a simple recipe and can be fitted to personal tastes and dietary needs.

o   4 2/3 cups liquid- I use chicken stock and water
o   2 Cups of brown rice
o   Sliced Scallions -to taste- I use an entire bundle.
o   1 Can sliced water chestnuts- cut into bite sizes bits
o   1 Cup frozen peas
o   Fanistil ham- bite size pieces. I use a few slices of the pre-sliced stuff from the deli counter.
o   2 Eggs scrambled
o   Soy sauce (I use WAY more than is “healthy”)

 This is a really simple dish to make. Start by putting the rice on to boil. In a large pan bring your liquid of choice to a boil, then add the rice reduce heat so it simmers, and slap a lid on it and leave it alone. Check it after about 30 minutes. To check it, just remove the lid and look/ listen for remaining liquid by tilting the pan to the side. Don’t stir it. Ever. Seriously, I know you are questioning me again but just go with me in this one. Keep it free of all utensils until all the liquid is absorbed. Once it is done pull it off the heat and you may fluff with a fork to your hearts content. 

While the rice is cooking is a good time to prep everything else. Slice the scallion’s, water chestnuts and ham. Scramble the eggs with a drizzle of soy sauce and break it up into tiny bits. 

Now, add pretty much what ever want (ß main reason I love fried rice)

 I add first the scallions, a swig of soy sauce and the peas. Put the lid back on so that the rice absorbs those two flavors and the peas thaw. Then I add everything else and mix it all together.

Then, I eat it, loving every bite.