Memorial Day Weekend

Since our dessert for Week 7 had macarons as one of the components, I had this inspiration to try making them again.

Oh, I've had my own issues with them in the past.

One of the most (vehemently) discussed topics amongst the food bloggers, macarons are notoriously tricky to make. The egg whites must be properly whipped, the batter folded just right (not too much, but not too little), piped correctly, and a rather ambiguous resting period anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending on the weather/climate. They must have that 'foot' at the base, a perfectly smooth, slightly domed top (like an eggshell), and a chewy but soft texture.
Here is my very first attempt, made way back in March 2010.

No feet, no dome, with a hollow center. The flavor was good, sweet and nutty from the almonds.
Here is my second attempt, done in September 2010.

At least they had feet and domes. But again, these Big-Foot Macarons were hollow, nothing to chew on in the center.
But last Thursday, I was a little more confident. My baking and cooking techniques have improved, I've gained more knowledge. So with egg whites leftover from the pistachio sable cookies, I made the macaron batter. I also had some pistachio flour, so I substituted part of the almond flour with it. There are several recipes for macarons--there are ones based on French meringue, where the sugar is gradually beaten into the egg whites, versus the ones based on Italian meringue, where hot sugar syrup is beaten into the egg whites instead. I wonder if whipping the whites via Swiss meringue method produce different results?
But I figured I'd play it safe and used the French meringue method.

Resting the piped batter. This resting period allows a 'skin' to form on the surface of the macarons, which is where that domed shell comes from. The first time I made them, I didn't allow the batter to rest long enough, resulting in cracked tops. Again, the length of the resting period depends on the climate/weather. Drier weather will allow the skin to form faster.

So far, the piped batter looked pretty sitting on the baking sheet, nice and smooth. I very careful slid the baking sheet into the oven, and prayed for a miracle.

I think God answered my prayer.

I was in awe when I took them out of the oven. These were perfect! Smooth, slightly domed top, dainty feet (definitely not like my Big-Foot macarons). After letting them cool, I sampled one. Ooooh....crisp, eggshell-like exterior... the interior was a little too hollow, but had enough substance to be chewy. Unfortunately, I couldn't really taste the pistachio, but it was still deliciously nutty from the almonds. Hoorah!

Now for the filling... I made several different kinds: black sesame, grape jam, Nutella, and pistachio buttercream. The filling is sandwiched inbetween two macarons, and allowed to sit for 24 hours. Filled macarons taste the best after sitting--this allows the flavors to meld, and gives just the right amount of moisture to the macaron to make it softer.

My parents and I had a lovely afternoon tea time with these beauties. They were all delicious, but the pistachio and the black sesame fillings were the best.
Sunday was our bi-weekly Bible study at our house. Since I wanted to use the genoise scraps made the previous week (I've kept them in the freezer), I decided to make a tiramisu, sans booze and coffee, since kids will be eating these too. Saturday morning, I cut the genoise into ladyfinger-sized strips, and lay them out on buttered and sugared square baking pan. Authentic tiramisu recipe instructs the cake strips to be moistened with sweetened coffee liquor, but I substituted vanilla and almond extract instead. I whipped up some cream cheese mousse (someday I will use mascarpone cheese...) and spread it over the cake strips. On top of this, I laid out more strips of the cake, and finally topped it off with the remaining mousse. I sprinkled grated chocolate over this and put it in the freezer. Freezing allows easier and cleaner cuts.

That night, I cut the frozen tiramisu into neat squares and put it in the fridge to thaw out.

I served it after the Bible study with blackberry sauce (and the macaron on the side...yeah, I wanted to show off my work :) )

These were heavenly, and the blackberry sauce surprisingly paired very well with it. T-san and Mrs. M had seconds.... T-san licked his plate clean, literally. The kids loved the desserts also, and Sophie was definitely in a better mood by then. Earlier during the Bible study, her brother was apparently being a bully and made her cry :( But I'm glad the tiramisu and the orange juice made her day.

More Dessert Experiments/Practice/Disasters

It's been a really, really cold year. Mom's vegetable garden is very late in production, the fruit trees had a late bloom, and the hummingbirds were about three weeks late.
Despite this, she managed to harvest three stalks of baby-sized rhubarb. That yielded about two tablespoons of rhubarb compote, but that was plenty to make this rhubarb tartlet with fresh strawberry topping :)

Served with Cheesecake Ice Cream (which actually tastes like a very rich vanilla ice cream). Mom was a bit reluctant to try this, since she doesn't like overly sour foods; she remembered rhubarb as being almost intolerably sour the last time she had it. But upon tasting the tart, she discovered it to be quite delectable. My parents declared it delicious, especially with the ice cream (and Dad licked the plate clean--literally).
My next Experiment/Practice/Disaster came about with a 1 lb. pack of strawberries we bought when it was on sale the other day. Finally, they are reaching the prime of their season and were decently sweet. Wanting to make a strawberry mousse-based dessert, I decided to make a strawberry mousse cake. For the base, I decided on a genoise--it's been a while since I've made it (not since Intro to Pastry class), so I figured I'm due for practice. And boy did I need it.

My first few attempts resulted in disasters after another. During the first half of the baking, everything seems normal, the cake rises nicely. Then during the last half, it would start collapsing, creating a gi-normous crater that made the cake look like it's been hit with a pea-sized meteor.

Was it the ingredients? The oven temperature?? The pan size??? The rack position????

I've successfully made this cake before! I was so confused trying to figure out what went wrong. Then finally, I asked myself the right question: "Eggs overwhipped?"
For a while now, I've been making cakes via separated eggs method (versus both the yolks and the whites whipped together in the genoise), so now I'm used to whipping the egg whites until the soft-peak stage.... and I've been whipping the egg mixture almost until the soft peaks formed. So with fresh eggs and sugar over the water bath, I whipped the mixture until the thick ribbon stage, went on with the procedure, put the cake in the oven, and prayed. Lo and behold...

It worked. Just a simple thing like overwhipping the eggs... At least we now have lots of cake scraps that I can hopefully use in tiramisu or trifle.

With the genoise made successfully, I now moved on to the strawberry mousse. I laid a circle of the genoise in each of the ring molds (I made about three small cakes), placed strawberry slices, piped the mousse in, and put it in the freezer for easy unmolding. Once frozen, I glazed the top with plum glaze, unmolded it, then placed it in the fridge to thaw.

Hmmm....the plum glaze looks colorful....but too 'artificial'. The texture of the mousse was perfect, except it could've been sweeter. And it turns out the strawberries haven't completely thawed out even though I left it overnight in the fridge, and the strawberries were still a bit too sour for this application.

If it needs to be sweeter, then it should be with sweeter sauce/accompaniment. I folded in extra sugar into the leftover whipped cream and piped it onto the remaining mousse cake. With the extra-sweet whipped cream, topped with strawberry slices macerated in sugar and shaved white chocolate, it tasted much, much better!
Just gotta keep practicing....

A la Carte Kitchen Week 7

A la Carte Kitchen Week 7


I can't believe it's Week 7 already! Not a whole lot of specialty ingredients--just this specialty product called Activa GS, a 'meat glue' that can stick pieces/chunks of meat together, whether they be beef, chicken, or fish.

This week's menu:
Amuse & Bread: Cheese plate with Date-pecan shortbread and Rhubarb-Fennel Bread
Soup: Roasted Corn and Pearl Onion Soup
Salad: White Asparagus Panna Cotta with Watercress
Pasta: Ramp Pasta
Entree: Wagyu Skirt Steak with Creamed Corn
Dessert: Taste and Textures of Chai & Honey

My parents came with our friend T-san for Tuesday lunch service. Unlike dinner, they get a three-course instead of the six. So they get the amuse/bread, a choice of soup or salad, pasta or entree, and the dessert. My parents got the salad, T-san got the soup, and all of them got the entree. (FYI: My parents were reluctant to come to my school's restaurant, but they changed their minds when I told them that the entree is going to be Wagyu steak this week).

Amuse & Bread (different plating): It was a good idea to serve the amuse and the bread at the same time. The Rhubarb-fennel bread didn't really taste anything special, more like a spice bread. The cheese plate had the Purple Haze Goat Cheese, Rosemary Cheddar, and Barely Buzzed Cheese (from a local creamery).

Soup: Roasted Corn and Pearl Onion Soup. With bacon-onion jam. They made the Ultimate Bacon on top of the onion slices, then pureed everything. Everyone raved about the soup! I took some of the jam home myself, and even my parents liked it.

Salad: White Asparagus Panna Cotta & Watercress. With roasted beets, wild rice, hazelnuts, rosemary parmesan shortbread, fresh peas, all tossed in Tangerine Vinaigrette. Oh, and shaved Purple Haze goat cheese. There were so many components on the salad, it took three of us to plate it on time.

Pasta: Ramp Pasta. They grilled the ramps, pureed them, and incorporated the puree into the pasta. Served with rosemary-cheddar sauce and Parmesan cheese crisps.

Entree: Wagyu Skirt Steak with Creamed Corn. Great flavor, but it turns out they cut the steak a little too thick, and my dad couldn't finish it all--it was too chewy. They really liked the daikon accompaniment on it though--as a matter of fact, on the special occassion that we do eat steak, we always serve daikon-oroshi to go with it. The enzyme, diastase, in the daikon helps with the digestion.

Dessert: Taste and Textures of Chai & Honey. With chai-spiced caramel sauce; terrine made of chai-ginger cake, bay leaf gelato, jasmine meringue; honey macaron with curry buttercream; Shasta gold tangerine curd. Everything was good, I think my personal favorite component of this dessert was the jasmine meringue.

Just Chillin' at Diva's Cupcakes

Mom and I went to Diva's....again. This place is gradually turning into our favorite afternoon snacking spot. One time when we went late in the afternoon, most of the cupcakes were gone--yes, it was our fault. Now we go in the mornings or early afternoons when there are more varieties.
We walked in, and there, in the display case, was this lovely princess, looking rather lonely sitting there by herself amongst the other homely cookies and the scones...

"Chocolate Rose" was her name. I immediately pointed to her and told the cashier, "I would like THAT one." Turned out she was the last one for the day.
With a mug of steaming coffee in hand, Mom and I headed to the greenhouse (yes, this cute bakery/cafe has a greenhouse where the guests can sit and enjoy the greenery and the welcome humidity while sipping their favorite drinks).
The Chocolate Rose has a dark chocolate cake base, with rose-flavored/scented buttercream, adorned with silver dragees. I took a knife and cut this beauty in half, and shared with my mom. How did the cake taste?.....

The buttercream was, as always, creamy and velvety smooth. And yes, there was a hint of rose towards the end, just barely enough to be detected. Flower scents/flavorings in pastries can be tricky, usually there's either too much or too little. This one could've had just a tad bit more rose flavor. As for the cake....uh... It wasn't gross, but it definitely had that "Betty Crocker cake mix" taste to it. The texture was also similar to that of a cake mix. If that really was the case, I am glad I used that 50% off coupon for this possibly pauper-in-the-disguise-of-a-princess. That being said, I would still come back here again...because I just love the laid back, warm atmosphere here, and the creative varieties of cupcakes alone is enough to make me return.

A la Carte Kitchen Week 6

A la Carte Kitchen Week 6! Sorry about the delay in update...as you can see from my previous posts, last week was a little hectic for me, with Mom's birthdays and some cake-problems and whatnot.

But this was our menu for Week 6:
Amuse: Asparagus, mushroom and goat cheese mini-pizza
Bread: Savory Potato and Sweet Potato
Soup: Pea and Cucumber Broth
Salad: Dates and Watercress
Pasta: Beet Gnocchi
Entree: Pork Belly BLT
Dessert: Taste and Textures of Herbs

Amuse: Asparagus, mushroom, and goat cheese mini-pizza. With rhubarb sauce and shredded radishes. It was pretty good, but the pizza dough was more like pita bread.

Bread: Savory Potato and Sweet Potato. With Black Garlic & Shiso butter, and spiced date-honey butter. The first time I baked them, they turned out very soft--but very bland. Neither Chef and I couldn't figure out why, but we decided to compensate by adding lots of salt to the butter. Even then, a diner commented that the butter needed more salt.
That night, when I looked over the recipe, I realized, to my horror, that I had totally forgotten to add the 1 tablespoon of salt called for in the recipe! No wonder it was bland... So I quickly emailed Chef to see if I can come in a few hours early to redo the bread. She emailed me back the next morning, telling me I can come in whenever I want. So I showed up two hours early and redid the bread--this time, I added salt and rosemary to the bread. The bread turned out perfect! Very tender and very flavorful. Chef was very happy and she ended up taking half a loaf for herself.

Soup: Pea and Cucumber Broth. With white chocolate and crispy serrano ham. This one was a chilled soup, which was nice, since the weather was really warm during this week.

Salad: Dates and Watercress. With Mortadella Mousse on Date-Honey crouton. Mortadella is like a creamy salami with mosaic of lard bits embedded in the meat. It was a pretty good salad, I'm not sure if I liked the mortadella mousse though.

Pasta: Beet Gnocchi. With three kinds of beet chips, orange-acron squash cream sauce, Seville oranges, and beets roasted in apple juice. The beets were very tasty.

Entree: Pork Belly BLT. Slow-roasted pork belly (B), sourdough-roasted tomato froth(for the bread element), roasted tomato compote(T), kale chips (L), sauteed mushrooms and aioli. The pork belly turned out really good, well-seasoned and crispy.

Dessert: Tastes and Textures of Herbs. Wheatgrass ice cream, isomalt glass (with pink peppercorn), rhubarb compote, agave-marshmallow fluff, chocolate-dipped rhubarb meringue, Chocolate-thyme beignet. The wheatgrass ice cream had this corn chips-like taste and was interesting.
Once again, all the customers left happy--they especially liked the pork belly.

Afterthought...
Usually, when making sweets, salt is pretty much optional--a teaspoon of salt won't be missed in a cookie dough, for example, so I tend to omit salt (that and Mom has high blood pressure and needs to watch her salt intake) when baking. But now I have learned the importance of salt, especially in bread baking.

Mom's Birthday Part II

Since there's no way we can eat after such gourmet lunch feast, we decided keep the dinner very simple, just some rice and pickles...and of course, the birthday cake.
I had baked the vanilla chiffon cake the night before, and it was time for assembly. I sliced up some organic strawberries, and started whipping the organic whipping cream. Then something happened. As I was whipping the cream, I noticed that it wasn't really whipping--it wouldn't thicken at all. So I increased the speed on the hand mixer. Finally, it started to thicken--in clumps. Somehow, the cream turned into butter without turning into the whipped cream first, as if though it had skipped that middle stage. So the cream got that very overwhipped look to it...

Notice the funky, curdled look on the cream frosting. It tasted OK...but the texture was off.

But the show must go on. We lit the candles, sang happy birthday, and had the cake. It tasted fine, but definitely wasn't as good as the one I made during our San Diego trip.
Honestly, I'm not sure what was wrong with the cream. It wasn't old, and I thought I was carefully watching it as I whipped, to prevent overwhipping. The only thing I can think of that I did differently was that I used powdered sugar instead of granulated. But that's textbook recipe, so it should have been fine.
But I felt kinda bad for Mom, using a poorly-whipped cream for her birthday cake. So I decided to redeem myself and the cake by redoing the cream. We got another carton of cream, and this time, I whipped it with granulated sugar. Lo and behold, it thickened in a timely manner, and turned into a lovely mound of creme chantilly.
After I removed the strawberries, I scraped off the clotted frosting off the cake, and smoothed on the freshly whipped cream.

...And added some more berries and white pearl dragees. Notice the smooth, soft texture of the cream. This is how a properly whipped cream should look. It also tasted a lot better, and Mom was happy. But we still had half of an entire cake left, so we invited Mrs. M, Hugh, and Sophie over for tea and cakes. They wolfed it down no problem. So note to self: unless absolutely necessary, don't use powdered sugar to whip the cream.

Mom's Birthday Part I

For Mom's birthday, we went to Yamato Restaurant in Park City, where our friend T-san is an executive chef.

A little peek at their menu. Yes, it's kinda pricey. We got the Omakase (Chef's choice menu), that way we can get a little bit of everything.

Appetizer: Tempura Fava Beans with shichimi-pepper. It was well seasoned and spicy, but not so much that we couldn't eat it. The beans had this fluffy, mealy texture similar to a baked potato.

Hot Plate #1: Miso MERO Sea Bass. Sea bass marinated in miso and sake lees, then broiled to a juicy perfection. Very juicy, succulent, tender...and just the right amount of seasoning. We got this when we went to Naked Fish for my birthday last year, and the quality is consistent.

Cold Plate #1: Sashimi Combo. Maguro, saba, escolar, aji, white fish, tamago, and ikura in a cucumber cup. Melt-in-your-mouth fresh fish...the escolar was pretty fatty, and by this time, I was starting get full.

Hot Plate #2: Yakitori Chicken Wings. Served with sracha and yuzu-pepper sauce. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside.

Cold Plate #2: Hirame Sashimi. They gave us ponzu to go with it. Unfortunately, the acidity in the ponzu overpowered the flavor of the hirame, and for a while, I was questioning their choice of sauce. Finally, I decided to just dip it in soy sauce--and realized I probably should've done that in the first place. By the time I realized that hirame tastes better with soy sauce, it was nearly gone :(

Dessert: Housemade Watermelon Juice. We were stuffed at this point, and we were afraid of the dessert course--but alas, T-san knew that we were full, so he gave us a light, refreshing fare that was a perfect ending to our protein-rich meal.

Mignardise: Soy-caramel glazed nuts. A nice, crunchy element. We ended up taking this home, so we can snack on it later.
It was an amazing meal, possible only because of our friendship. Thank you Chef! We love you!

My Not-So-Successful Attempts at celebrating spring

By this time, I was getting sick of snow. It's been an unusually cold year so far--I've mentioned in my previous blog that many of the vegetable seedlings weren't growing. Well, things started to warm up FINALLY the past week. I wanted to celebrate the coming of spring with something spring-y--and nothing screams "SPRING IS HERE!!" more than sakura blossoms (at least in Japan).
There are packets of sakura leaves and salted blossoms that have been hibernating in our fridge for who knows how long. I wanted to use that to make a cake. There were leftover egg whites, so an angel food cake would be a good choice, I thought. Mom made some shiro-an (white anko made from lima beans) so I thought about mixing in the blossoms into that, and using it as a filling...
And to really impart that cherry blossom fragrance, I wanted to incorporate the leaves into the batter somehow.
I laid out the leaves on the baking pan, and panned out the angel food cake batter over it, and baked it. When I took it out, the cake had this wonderful smell of the sakura! I was pretty stoked at first...unfortunately, this cake turned out to be a culinary fiasco.

I wanted to make the cake into a jelly roll, so I rolled up the cake while warm. Big mistake. For this amount of batter (I used 1/2 recipe), it's not enough to provide the structural support it needs to be formed into a jellyroll--in other words, the cake flattened into a crepe. That's right, thinner than your average pancake. And once it's this thin, an angel food cake, which is mostly just meringue, takes on a chewy texture. It rolled and held its shape beautifully, but it nearly resisted the serrated-edge blade of a steak knife.
Another mistake. The leaves. Again, they look very pretty in the picture...

...But I was completely unaware of the fact that these delicate leaves cannot withstand the intense heat of the oven. Upon being baked, these normally tender-enough-to-eat leaves were tough as leather, pretty much inedible.
So lessons learned from this failed culinary experiment:

1. Be sure to have enough batter when making angel food cake jelly-roll


2. DO NOT BAKE SAKURA LEAVES!! The better way to incorporate their flavor would be to either chop them up and mix it into the batter (the moisture in the batter will protect them from the dry oven heat) or wrap the cake with the leaves after it's baked.


3. ...Oh and did I mention that the leaves were VERY salty?? Yes, these leaves are salted, and were supposed to be soaked in water for a while before using to get the salt out.

OK, I guess I'll stick with the traditional recipe...introducing: Sakura Mochi

This is the Edo-style, where a ball of anko is wrapped in a crepe made of mochi, which is then wrapped in the sakura leaf. This time, I remembered to soak the leaves, and these turned out quite nice.

But...hopefully...eventually....I will develop a sakura cake in the future.

Salt Lake City Green Festival....and some more Gelato

Yesterday, my parents and I went to the annual Wasatch Community Gardens Plant Sale. Mom grows a lot of our vegetables; unfortunately, due to the unusually cold spring this year, everything is delayed--many of the seedlings are stunted, some of the fruit trees were late in blooming, and the hummingbirds are nowhere to be seen. She wanted to see if there were any eggplant seedlings at the plant sale.

There was a HUGE selection of heirloom tomato varieties! There were a lot of plants on sale, from Utah native wild plants to gooseberries. Mom found what she had been looking for...alas, the seedlings were indeed, quite small. Looks like everyone else is having trouble with their veggies this year.

A smoothie stand operated by a guy on wheels. Very healthy, both for the environment and the person operating the bike. His stationary bike is hooked up to a generator that supplies power to the blender. The guy in red was making the smoothie for a customer. Their conversation went like:
Guy on Wheels: "How's the smoothie looking?"
Guy in Red: "Not quite smooth enough. Can you go a little faster?"
Guy on Wheels: "...a smoothie sounds good right about now..."
There were other venders there too. We got a taste of sheep's milk cheese (Fontina style and Blue Brie) from a local creamery.
Then we went to the Salt Lake Green Festival...

That's a solar-powered DJ turntable in the background. Pretty cool.

Local Uinta beer, which is brewed with 100% renewable energy source--solar-powered brewery??

Tracy, the Trasheratops, made from crushed soda cans. Such a cool, innovative way to use garbage! I want one in my backyard.

By this time, it was close to noon, and we were getting a little hungry. So we stopped by for some gelato (again). It's funny how our favorite 'restaurant' is a frozen treat place instead of an actual diner.

Got the Sundae Duetto, which comes with 4 flavors. We got strawberry sorbetto, amaretto, espresso, and elderflower cordial. The elderflower gelato tasted just like lychee! It was refreshing and delicious. And Dad made an interesting discovery that neither mom or I didn't think of--combining the different gelato flavors. Surprisingly, the combination of elderflower and amaretto was really good! Now that I think about it, it made sense--elderflower gelato tastes like lychee, and lychee goes well with almond flavors, which is exactly what amaretto is.

I love this place already! I especially love their (almost) endless flavor selections!