Meme: The Cook Next Door

I was tagged by Adam, the Amateur Gourmet who picked me for this food meme. (Then split for 2-3 weeks of vacation!) Here’s my responses…

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own Probiotic powder?

Good Seasons salad dressing.
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The measuring!
The mixing!
The magic!

No wonder I became a pastry chef.

Who had the most influence on your cooking?

Lindsey Shere, who was the original pastry chef at Chez Panisse Burgundy wine. I was so fortunate to have someone like that influence me right from the start. I learned how to really taste things from her, and how important ingredients are to good cooking. Much more so than fancy techniques.
Alice Waters also was a positive influence as well. She has a great deal of belief in what she’s doing and is truly dedicated and passionate about her ideals.

Do you have an old photo as “evidence” of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?

Don’t have one on my hard drive. A downside of the digital age.

Mageiricophobia – do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?

Squid (or anything with tentacles.) I refuse to touch it or even look at it. Squid scare the shit out of me. Those suckers are U-G-L-Y!
My first day on the job at Chez Panisse in 1983, the chef handed me a huge bus tub of squid and told me to clean it.
Only after years of therapy was I able to overcome the trauma lafite rothschild.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?

Favorite:
My KitchenAid 5-quart Mixer
Oxo Salad Spinner (and zester and whisks)
Heatproof Spatulas

Biggest letdown:
Where do I begin?
Ok, I’ll choose the 3 worst offenders:
1. Those thick rubber heatproof gloves. You can’t get a grip on anything.
2. I hate silicone baking molds for cakes. Every time I teach a class, people keep asking me if I like them. So quit asking.
3. The French Press is perhaps the worst apparatus for making coffee. I don’t care what anyone says, so don’t try to tell me otherwise. The coffee comes out muddy, over-caffeinated, and gets cold fast. Plus they’re hazardous; I had one fly across my kitchen as I was pressing down, spraying my entire kitchen (and me) with coffee grounds. I hear about complex methods for brewing good coffee in them, but who wants to deal with that in the morning? I’ll stick with my espresso pot.

BONUS RANT: The Le Creuset Tagine that has no flange on the lid. The first time I used it, the hot lid slid right out of my hands and crashed (there’s no way to hold onto it.) They refused to give me a new one, although they did change the design eventually. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who complained. And since I sacrificed my lid for the good of others, they should send me a new one, don’t you think wine tasting?

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like – and probably no one else!

I like to eat dried pasta right from the box. Especially elbows.

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don’t want to live without?

Dark Chocolate-Covered Marshmallows
Fried Chicken without gravy (so it stays crisp) but lots of salt
Caramelized Salted Peanuts (or anything caramelized, for that matter.)

Any question you missed in this meme, that you would have loved to answer? Well then, feel free to add one!

…from Nicky at Delicious Days
Your favorite ice-cream…

The chocolate and caramel ice creams at Berthillon on the I’le St. Louie in Paris, and the Gianduja gelato at Caffè San Marco in Torino.

You will probably never eat…
Anything with tentacles.
Or Puffin.

Your own signature dish…
Fresh Ginger Cake from Room For Dessert which I’ve been served in lots of restaurants and bakeries. I’ve received more emails and kudos (from home cooks as well as people who serve it in their bakeries and restaurants) for that cake than anything else.

…from the ChefDoc at A Perfect Pear
Any signs that this passion is going slightly over the edge and may need intervention?

I’m blogging when I should be cooking.

…from Clement at A La Cuisine!
Any embarrassing eating habits?

I used to eat lunch in the shower because I was so busy when I worked in the restaurant business and never had time to eat.

…from Sarah, of The Delicious Life
Who would you want to come into your kitchen to cook dinner for you?
Aside from hauling out my Ouija board and raising Julia Child from the great beyond, the warmer-blooded Elena Arzak from Arzak restaurant is an astounding contemporary cook and is mindful, yet playful, without being silly or pretentious.

…from Adam, of The Amateur Gourmet:
Who’s your favorite food writer

Hard to pick just one. It’s definitely between Roy Andries Di Groot who wrote The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth which is the best food book ever written…(and the dude was blind!), Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book is full of great recipes and superb writing, and Richard Olney, who had the amazing ability to deftly describe a technique or taste without pretentiousness. He was American, but wrote and cooked while living in France, wandering around his kitchen in skimpy briefs drinking Scotch straight from the bottle.

Zucchini Noodles Recipe

 
My love of pasta is no secret, but I’m cutting back. An article in the New York Times covering the latest research about the benefit of low carbohydrate diets has me rethinking my noodle consumption. I won’t give them up completely but now and again I can see trying something different. Something like zucchini noodles led light.

For a long time I’ve wanted one of those spiralizer type tools. But they are rather expensive and I just wasn’t sure how much use I’d get out of them. There is actually an easy way to make “noodles” out of zucchini or other vegetables using a box grater. You just lay the grater on its side like a mandoline! But I’ve just recently tried out the Microplane spiral cutter and it’s an even better option. At $14.95 it’s a lot less expensive than some of the other tools and takes up very little space. It also has two sizes so you can shred larger or smaller vegetables.

The downside to using this gadget is that it takes some time to get used to it, and to figure out how much pressure to exert to get the thickness of noodles you like. It also leaves a little stubby core of the vegetable. But it’s relatively easy to use and clean once you get the hang of it.

I don’t like raw zucchini, but by cooking the zucchini noodles in a pan sauce, you get a lovely texture and the zucchini does seem to absorb a bit of the sauce. You can also blanch the "noodles" quickly in boiling water to take off the raw edge and then toss them with a cool sauce like pesto. I’ve only begun experimenting with zucchini noodles but I’m enjoying them so far. While not chewy personal loans, they do have a lovely slippery feel.

Zucchini Noodles with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Makes 2 servings

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup cherry tomatoes


2 medium zucchini
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/3 cup peeled small to medium raw shrimp, optional

Trim then shred the zucchini using the large holes on a box grater or using a “spiralizer” tool. Heat a skillet and add the olive oil. Add the tomatoes and cook gently until they begin to break down and become saucy.

Add the zucchini and garlic and cook until the sauce reduces by about half. Add the shrimp, if desired, and cook just until the shrimp are pink and cooked through dc gear motors, the time will vary depending upon the size of the shrimp but probably no more than a minute or so. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Coconut-Salted Caramel Thumbprint Cookies

I guess I didn’t stray from cookie baking for long travel mugs wholesale. But, look at all that toasty coconut and salty caramel. How could I resist?

We all know that I bake a lot, but I’ve dialed it way up lately. It is the holiday season, after all. I decided to take advantage of the presence of plenty of baked goods variety around here to break out the coconut. I kinda figured Quinn wouldn’t even notice.

As much as I love coconut, I love toasted coconut even more. These little thumbprints are rolled in coconut, and that coconut gets all toasty in the oven.

Then, just add a simple caramel filling that’s made with just soft caramels and cream. I have become a big fan of Werther’s Original? Baking Caramels. I love the flavor, and they’re so simple to unwrap tablet plan. That last part may seem trivial, but it’s pretty important when you need to unwrap 30 or so of them.
I saved myself a couple of these for myself and sent the rest off to Quinn’s co-workers. From all reports, they didn’t last very long. I think they now hold the record for fastest empty container Singapore company formation.

For more caramel recipes and ideas, be sure to visit Werther’s Caramel Shoppe.

My Easy Mutton Biryani

This post comes up a bit later than it was meant to be. But here it is anyways … Eid Ul Adha- Festival of Sacrifice, is an important day celebrated by Muslims worldwide, to honour the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his young first born son Ismail as an act of submission to God’s command and his son’s acceptance to being sacrificed End Point Backup, before God intervened to provide Ibrahim a ram to sacrifice instead. So Muslims all over the world on this day, sacrifice in the name of God, lamb, sheep, cows … and then give the meat to all near and dear ones, to people less fortunate and those to whom it is a rare treat. Great feasts are prepared this day and bonding over food is a ritual one looks forward to. For me today I did something I’ve never dared to before. I made 10 kgs of Mutton Biryani. Biryani is celebratory food, made during festivals, in weddings …. I remember one of the best biryani’s I ever ate was at my cousins wedding. Well she was married in Jersey and she had one occasion here in Mumbai. Actually there were two things that were memorable at the wedding, one ofcourse the biryani and the second the wedding gown from David’s Bridal. It was stunning. The Biryani was like some I’ve never had before, and till this date wish I could get my hands on. But in the mean time, I’ve found my own comforting recipe. It doesn’t necessarily fall into any traditional authentic recipe, ‘cuz I’ve put in whatever I could lay my hands on, but I’ll guarantee you that it tastes phenomenal.Very aromatic, great flavours and enough masala proportion to the rice. I usually just make this for 4 to 6 people, but this time

Ingredients

3.5 kgs mutton of small goat (the meat looks pink, if using a big goat, you might have to cook the meat longer till its soft)

2 kgs onions finely chopped

2 kgs tomatoes finely chopped

8-10 green chillis ( use as per taste)

5 tablespoons of ginger garlic paste

1/2 kg yogurt

1/2 cup Ghee

1/2 cup oil

2 tablespoons Mustard oil

2 tablespoons corriander powder

2 tablespoons toasted cumin powder

1 tablespoon fresh garam masala

2 and 1/2 packets Shan Mumbai Biryani Masala

2 kgs basmati rice

2 tablespoons oil

4 bay leaves

5 , 3″ cinnamon sticks

5 cloves

salt to taste
2 teaspoons Kewra essence
2 teaspoons saffron
1/2 cup whole milk
handful of chopped corriander
handful of chopped mint
1 cup onion sliced and deep fried till golden brown
Marinate the meat in 1/2 kg yogurt, 1 packet of the Biryani masala and 2 tablespoons of ginger garlic paste. Keep aside for an hour.
Now in a huge pot, pour in the ghee and oil and fry the bay leaves and 3 cinnamon sticks. Then add the onions and on medium flame fry till golden brown. Now add the ginger garlic paste, fry for a minute and add the marinated mutton. Now this bit lte, is where you got to show some muscle. Fry and continuously keep stirring ( Bhuno ) the meat for about 15 mins. And then add the remaining  Biryani masala packets and fry for 5 mins and now add the tomatoes, salt, corriander, cumin, garam masala and mustard oil. Give it a couple of more minutes of rigorous stirring and then cover the pot and let it simmer for an hour on low flame.
In the mean time lets prepare the rice. You will need an equally huge pot. Wash and soak the rice for about 1o mins. Then top up the pot with water, it will be excess to the rice, but don’t worry. We will strain out what we don’t need. Add the remaining cinnamon sticks, cloves, 2 tablespoons oil and some salt. Boil together till 3/4th done. Now strain out the rice, shaking of all excess water and spread all of it on laid out newspapers(in a well ventilated place). This will help soak all the water and separate the grain.
Getting back to the mutton, check if the meat is tender, also check for seasoning and add anything you need to now. If its too dry then add some water and give it a boil. You need a good gravy for the rice , so make sure you have enough. Add the chopped mint and corriander, reserving some for the garnish. Now divide the meat between both the pots equally. Now top up with rice, diving it equally. Now heat the milk in a bowl in the microwave. Mix in the saffron, and let the stands release it colour. Add the Kewra essence and pour with a spoon all over the biryani. Now sprinkle the remaining corriander, mint and fried onions. Sprinkle some cumin powder, garam masala and red chilli powder hong kong company setup. Cover tightly with a lid and on a very slow flame leave to cook for about 30-40 mins.
Serve hot with some yoghurt /raita.

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s been just over a year since I started writing a column for Yummy magazine and I must say I have been having a ball.  This blog has always been one of my favorite hobbies, and remains to be curly wigs, but writing for a magazine is something altogether different.  It’s another medium for me to reach out to fellow food lovers, as well as, hopefully, a few tentative souls who need a little encouragement to get into the kitchen and experience the total joy and liberation of creating one’s own nourishment.  It’s also something physically tangible that I can show off to my mum ;)  (Yes, I think I’ll always be that little girl happy to take her stars home to mama)

The Yummy team, those I have met thus far, are all darlings and I so enjoy working with them.  And for someone who has to rely on the same four plates and three placemats, having someone come over lugging a little shopping cart full of dishes and an oversized canvas bag (monogrammed to boot!) stuffed with fabrics and backgrounds, is quite the thrill really.  I think my food loves it just as much as I do!

If you haven’t picked the magazine up yet I encourage you to give these guys a go.  Simple recipes that don’t scrimp on flavor, interesting and relevant features, and a nice clean look.  Oh yes, and there is my wee column, “Family Kitchen”, where I share recipes from my own family table.

Here’s a recipe that came out in my column last March.  Just in case you didn't catch it then :)

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

    1/2 cup unsalted butter
    1/2 cup sugar
    1/2 cup brown sugar
    1 egg
    1 teaspoon vanilla
    1/2 cup Nutella
    1 cup flour
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    A pinch of salt
    1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
    1 cup walnuts, chopped


- Cream the butter and both sugars together until light and creamy.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Add the Nutella and beat until combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until just combined.  Do not over stir.
- Fold in chips and the nuts gently just until well distributed.
- Drop the dough by rounded spoonfuls on a parchment lined baking sheet about 1.5-2 inches apart.
- Bake in a 375F pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest for a couple of minutes on the baking pan before placing on a wire rack to cool completely Natural stone.

These cookies spread a lot during baking.  You can chill them to minimize the spread but I prefer not to – leaving their edges almost crispy and their thin middles butterscotchy in their chewiness.  Although the actual Nutella flavor is faint, I like the cookie so much that I keep making it the same way.  My original recipe for Yummy has no nuts and was meant to be frozen in a log (to be sliced up and baked later) – which of course you can opt to do here as well.

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I am happy to be a part of the Yummy roster once again this year.  I have a lot planned for my little column so I hope you take a peek one of these days.  I am also thrilled that they have given me a lovely new 2-page layout!  I couldn’t stop smiling the day I saw it :)

Now I’m off to pack for another weekend beach trip!  So I’ll leave you with these cookies…and a weekend full of hours in which to bake them :)  Wish me good weather panamanian foundation!

Plum and Nectarine Galette

Hello there! I am back! The meetings that I mentioned here went well and, although this is still a busy time for us at work, it’s a good kind of busy. They type that you know is pulling you and your team to bigger and better things, even as you wipe the sweat off your brow and wallpaper your aching back with Salonpas preamp.

But enough work talk! I feel like celebrating and I’m doing it with pie! Well, with a galette if you want to be technical. A Plum and Nectarine Galette if you want to be specific. I found some nice plums and nectarines in the Sunday market across the street from me (yes, I live two steps away from a cute little market - another reason to celebrate!) so I bought a bunch with this in mind. I had been reading about Dorie Greenspan’s Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough from the enthusiastic Tuesdays With Dorie bunch and had been meaning to try it. When I saw Cenk’s gorgeous galette on (the equally gorgeous) Cafe Fernando I knew that as soon as I had a bit of free time I would be rolling out this dough.

I must say, the legions of Dorie fans out there are not mistaken. This pie dough really is good for almost anything! It’s tasty and flaky and a snap to put together. And getting pie dough flaky in my hot and humid kitchen is a feat in itself – Dorie I owe you! I used Cenk’s version though which only has butter and no shortening. I don’t have anything against shortening, and I know it is supposed to make the dough flakier, but I was too lazy to buy some ;)

I adapted the recipe slightly to make allowances for all the humidity and heat over here – lessening the water and adding more dough-chilling time. This recipe makes enough for a 9-inch double crust pie. If you make galettes you can make two 9-inch ones (one now one later)...and you don’t have to fiddle with a pie pan ;)

Plum and Nectarine Galette
(pie dough recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours as adapted by Cenk of Cafe Fernando, filling adapted from Cenk’s recipe)

For the pie dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 sticks of butter, cut into small chunks and chilled in the freezer for about 20 minutes
1/3 cup ice water

For the filling:
300-400 grams fresh plums, pitted and sliced into eighths (I used 3 plums)
300-400 grams fresh nectarines, pitted and sliced into eighths (I used 2 1/2 nectarines)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
Juice of half a lemon

1 egg, slightly beaten (for assembly)

- Pulse flour, sugar and salt in a food processor using a metal blade.
- Remove butter from freezer, add it in the processor, and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal. Do not over mix! The pieces don’t have to be uniform. Dorie says some can be the size of fat peas and some the size of barley.
- Add ice water little by little, pulsing once in between each addition, until the dough forms clumps and curds (I lessened the water from 1/2 cup to 1/3 due to the moisture already present in my air) custom embroidery. Again, do not over mix! Chunks of butter in the dough are fine (yum!) :)
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface and very lightly and sparingly, knead just to incorporate dry ingredients.
- Divide the dough into two even balls. Flatten balls into disks and wrap individually in plastic.
- Refrigerate dough for at least an hour (I refrigerated one disk and kept the other in the freezer for future use).
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough between two sheets of baking parchment (you can roll dough directly on a floured work surface or between two sheets of plastic wrap but parchment works best for me) into a rough 11-inch circle. When rolling, turn dough over frequently and lift the parchment so it doesn’t form creases. Trim the edges to form a clean circle.
- Place your flattened dough (covered in the parchment) back in the fridge for about 20 minutes to chill again.
- Remove dough from fridge, peel of top layer of parchment, and transfer the dough, on the bottom layer of parchment, to a sheet pan or pizza pan (I used one of those pizza pans with holes on the bottom).
- Mix 1/2 tablespoon of the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl and spread on the bottom of the dough.
- Toss plums and nectarines with the rest of the cornstarch, sugar, and lemon juice.
- Arrange the fruit on the bottom of the dough, leaving 2 inches of dough left outside.
- Fold up and pleat the dough (as best you can) over the top of the fruit, leaving the center uncovered.
- Lightly brush the top of the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle both the dough and the fruit with sugar (I used Demerara sugar with large crystals).
- Place the galette in 400F oven and cook for 40-45 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.
- Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack immediately.

I love how this turned out! All rustic and earth goddess goodness...uneven buttery crust, sticky-shiny filling, sweet juices bubbling over onto the parchment, hypnotic pie-baking smell filling my flat...and C, who is not a sweets type of guy, actually had it for dessert that night (and breakfast today), claiming that “I like this kind of thing!” Yet another reason to celebrate!

More reasons to celebrate:
A wonderfully generous friend brought me back Fage Greek yogurt from her trip to Hong Kong, so I’ve been having very satisfied breakfasts :)
I discovered the most adorable earth-friendly soap stall at my neighbourhood’s Sunday market! She makes body soaps and laundry soap...the laundry soap smells so good (it’s made with herbs) that I want to dunk my head in the basin every time I wash! And I can! Because it’s safe for my skin! Joy! The best part? Unbeknownst to me at the time Ergonomic furniture, she is the same girl who supplied me with all those tomatoes a while back!
80 Breakfasts is mentioned as “click-worthy” in Rogue Magazine’s current (August 2008) issue – The Appetite Issue (piece by Wysgal)! Oh yay!!! My shameless thrill is as uncool and this magazine is cool. Thank goodness this blog managed to slip into its pages before any of them discovered how dorky I am ;)

Dulce de Leche

Whew.  What a week and then some.  As I sit here in my ‘office’, catching a much needed breath, just for 2 seconds, before I go off again, I literally force myself to, as Max so succinctly put it, ‘be still!’.

Be still --- how hard can that be?

Harder than it looks.

With the world, and life, moving so much faster than ever before, filled with so much more (more things to do, see, say, buy, experience, start, finish, eat), it’s become that much more difficult to simply stop and, consciously and wholeheartedly, be still.  But, for the very same reasons, it is that much more important to do it Managed Network.

So here I am, for just 2 seconds, breathing in and out, listening to the silence that is my city’s sigh on the weekends, savoring a warm latte, writing in this blog.  Scribbling away at the few words I have the time for while my dulce de leche simmers to life on the hob.

Making this is too simple to even venture towards a recipe.  Take a couple of cans of condensed milk**, place them in a sturdy pot that is a good deal taller than your cans.  Fill the pot with enough water to completely submerge the cans by a good 2-3 inches (or more, if the thought of exploding cans makes you nervous).  Place the pot, covered, over low heat for 3 hours, making sure that the water level stays above the tops of the cans at all times.  I place a kettle of hot water beside my pot in case I need to make a top up. When the 3 hours are up, turn off the heat but leave the covered pot, and the submerged cans within, undisturbed until the water has completely cooled down.  Once cool, take your cans, dry them off, and enjoy the uncomplicated divinity called dulce de leche Enterprise Endpoint Backup.

There are other ways to make dulce de leche but this is the way my great-grandmother (and my grandmother, and my father) made it, so this is the way I make it too.  There is something so special, so comforting and calming, about performing a task that has been likewise performed by your forebears.  It makes me feel connected, part of a greater whole.  It makes me feel, despite the transient nature of so many things nowadays, that there is goodness that endures.  And, despite the worries that come with being an adult, when I place a spoon of that smooth sweetness in my mouth, I am transported to a soft though roughly-upholstered chair, a ratty box of favored toys in front of me, with my great-grandmother lying on her sofa watching tv.  Companionable silence, no thought but to what was in front of us, content.

In these precious few moments of ‘being still’, stolen from a perpetually and oft-too-fast spinning wheel of life, I like to think of that.

I wish you've all had, or are having, a wonderful weekend…and a couple of quiet moments to ‘be still’! :)

**It must be shared that I used both Milkmaid and Carnation condensed milks, and the can of Carnation was still liquid while the Milkmaid was perfect (and it's what you see pictured here).  Milkmaid is what my father and grandmother use, and what my father strictly counseled me to use.  Apparently with good reason Hong Kong Festival.