Little bites of moments...

What defines ones life?  It seems to be moments and experiences that one must seize and of the roads taken.  It's those small bites and decisions that brings upon a world of paths and experiences that I might not have crossed.  

This is how my best moments seemed to have been defined.  It hasn't been planned, these moments of deliciousness and decisions come my way and sometimes with fear...I take them.  It's led me right so far.

Sometimes, many times, I do get so caught up in my comforts.  I try to remind myself that the best experiences are ones where I went with my gut.  I believe in this thing called "energy", there have been too many moments and surprises that have come my way after certain thoughts.  

So as scary some doors seem, or the fear and hardship one expect, I have to remind myself of the uncharted experiences to come to this life.  It's so much easier to wallo in past pain or be safe to the road not taken, but I hope to not limit myself to the past and the future to come.  I can't wait.

Peach Frangipane Tart

It was my friend Carolyn's birthday celebration this weekend!  I asked her if I could bake her a cake and she said she would prefer a peach pie because it was her favorite.  She was also adamant on no gifts so I stole one of her ideas of what she did for me on a past birthday...

First, let's talk about the tart.  So...I wanted to make it a bit more special then just the pie and I've tasted a really great frangipane tart with apricot so thought peaches would work well. Well, I didn't love this tart and the reason is that the peach flavor can't stand up to the creaminess of the almond frangipane.  


What is frangipane you ask?  It's an almond based filling usually made with eggs, sugar, butter, and ground almonds.  You usually see it in tarts, croissant, and other desserts.


Carolyn and party attendees said the tart was good but I am my worst critic and I didn't love this tart.  Again, the peaches kinda blended with the filling and the flavor was one note, where as with apricot, the flavors compliment since the frangipane balances the tartness of the apricots.  So I will have to remake it for Carolyn.

Now for the birthday gift story...one of the best birthday gifts that I received was from Carolyn a couple of year ago.  It was a vegetarian pot pie in a sweet white pie pan.  Carolyn makes one of the best veggie pot pies I've tasted and she gave me this pie along with the pie pan.  I thought what a great idea! The gift of food but also paired with the kitchen dish.  I loved it!  So this was perfect for her birthday since she said no gifts but yes to the peach tart.  


I also made a glaze for this by mixing the peach juices, cinnamon, and powder sugar.  

I'll need to give it a go again and treat her to a new version of this tart.  It's coming Carolyn!

Chicken & Biscuits

It's always time for biscuits!  My new friend Jason from Australia was raving about the American biscuits the last time we  met with Chris, so I had to share my versions.  I mean, this is the product of love that I discovered after I left my day job after 8 years in IT, and then spent a year learning and honing my skills from the local best.

I actually bought a few biscuit cookbooks and have been learning a lot of different versions, especially ones from the south.  I always knew the importance of the light hand but something new I've learn is that the southern light version uses a lighter flour, cake flour.  

On this day, I made a southern lighter version for the ones I served with chicken and gravy.  I also made my usual savory Tomato & Onion ones. 

This is the real chicken version with crispy bacon. I wanted to add a sunny side up egg on it but my guests were trying to eat healthy and I think the egg would have been over the top.

This version is vegetarian. I used veggie faux chicken but same gravy and biscuit.  I should note that I made the gravy "Asian", this is an continued testing from my Asian poutine.  Still working on that... My friend Chris has started focusing more on veggies.  She used to only eat "fish and fowl" but now is full veggie.  She has had four dogs at one point, and is an avid animal lover, so this didn't surprise me that she has reach this point.  It was nice to create comfort food for fellow vegetarians.  :)

Here are the tomato and onion ones. I've made and posted the recipe in the post here.

Here are the southern lighter biscuits...these were hand form and no biscuit cutter so you can see they are not quite perfect.

You can also eat it with just honey, butter, and salt.

I just love making biscuits for people and can't wait to make this again for friends!  

Raspberry Ganache Brownie

In my continued obsession with brownies, I tried to lighten the heavy chocolate with a layer of fresh raspberries, as well as adding a new texture of the glossy ganache.  It tasted great.  The fresh raspberries are a nice touch but this version was too thick for cutting and the base I used was too cakey.  Back to the drawing board but I'm sure I'll try this version again...

Fudgy Brownies

I'm a bit obsessed with brownies right now.  I'm trying a lot of different recipes.  I recently made some fudgy ones for my friend Joan's Fourth of July party.  I also made some cakey ones but was not too happy with it. The fudgy ones turned out great and the recipe came from this super chocolate book by Scharffen Berger. 

6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
8 oz Dark 70% Chocolate Chopped
3/4 C + 2 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp of Salt
2 Eggs
1/3 C All Purpose Flour
1/2 C Walnut Toasted with Salt


-Preheat oven to 325
-Butter and line a 9x9 square pan with parchment paper.
-Melt butter and chocolates in a bowl simmering over water.  Remove from heat once melted. Watch carefully not to scorch the mixture, remove from heat if too hot and just stir and then return to simmering water as needed.
-Using a wooden spoon, beat in sugar and salt.
-Add eggs one at a time.
-Stir in flour until mixed.
-Stir in the walnuts.
-Transfer the mixture into the prepared pan.
-Bake for 30-35 min. Check with a toothpick in center. If it comes out clean, it's ready.
-Cool for 10 min in pan, then remove and cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy with a glass of milk or cup of coffee!  These are to die for!

Olive Oil Zucchini Bread

My mom loves Zucchini Bread.  I would bake her banana bread and she would say, but I want Zucchini bread.  Even my friend's little boy Bennie was like my favorite is Zucchini bread.  Whaaat?  A 4 year old prefers zucchini rather than banana? Yup!

So, I've been testing a few recipes and I think I've come up with one I like.  I realize with zucchini bread, the simpler the better for my taste.  The cake has to be very moist and soft, not too sweet, but with good spice flavors.  I've tried various versions, ones made with marmalade, pineapple, raisins, but I like to keep it simple.  The oil base makes really nice and moist and using olive oil vs. just vegetable oil also adds a nice fruity, nutty, and grassy flavor.
Here is this simple version.

3 Eggs
1 3/4 C Sugar
1 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
3 C Grated Zucchini
3 Cups Flour
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
3 Tsp Cinnamon
1 C Chopped Walnut
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Spray 2 9x5 loaf pan with baking spray oil
-Whip eggs and sugar until light and frothy, about 4 min in a stand mixer
-Add olive oil and vanilla and mix well
-Add grated zucchini until combined
-In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon
-Add all of the dry mixture to the egg mixture and mix until the dry is just combined with the wet.  Make sure to not over mix.
-Stir in the chopped walnuts.
-Transfer the batter evenly into the 2 pans
-Bake for 1 hour, test to make sure a tooth pick comes out clean
-Cool for 30 min to 1 hour

Slice them up and eat with salty butter while its warm or wrapped in plastic and give away to friends. Mom got some this weekend and Bennie/Carolyn will get theirs later this week.

Tale of Two Tarts

There really is no tale.  :)  But it starts with my trip to San Francisco where I always stop by Tartine Bakery for eclaires.  This visit, I also had their Banana Cream Tart.  Wow!  It was amazing so I decided to recreate it with their recipe.  I bought their cookbook years ago and hadn't tried any thing from it.

I had the perfect venue for this tart.  A game night at Jee & Mike's.  I have a group of friends that we always get together for a night of dinner and competitive board games between the boys vs. the girls.  I always try to bring the dessert.  Another Mike who attends hates bananas so I had to have another kind for him, thus made a raspberry version. I actually loved the raspberry one!

Now, this tart is labor intensive!  I'm not kidding, there are so many components to it.  I really recommend not trying to make all the components in one day.  Take a week to make each one on different day and assemble it the day it's going to be served or the night before.


Here are the components:

1. Tart Base, the Dough

2. Melted Chocolate

3. Pastry Cream

4. Caramel Sauce

5. Whipped Cream

Of course the key ingredient is also the fruit, the bananas and raspberries. Use organic whenever possible.  

For the most part, I followed the Tartine's recipe exactly for the components except for the caramel sauce. I used more and have my own version so I'll reference my recipe posted previously.   I also had to cook the tart base longer than indicated in the recipe so noted that, but I love this tart base and will use it again. I used 3 fresh bananas vs. the 2 indicated.  I was also luke warm on the pastry cream.  I don't know if it's my technique but it got a bit grainy even after I strained it.  I'm trying different recipes before I tweak and come up with my own.   

Tart Base

Makes enough for 2 10" tarts

1 tsp Salt

2/3 c Water, very cold

3 c + 2 tbsp All-purpose flour

1 c + 5 tbsp Unsalted butter, very cold

-In a small bowl, add the salt to the water and stir to dissolve. Keep very cold until ready to use.

-To make the dough in the food processor, put the flour in the work bowl. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and scatter the pieces over the flour. Pulse briefly until the mixture forms large crumbs and some of the butter is still in pieces the size of peas. Add the water-and-salt mixture and pulse for several seconds until the dough begins to come together in a ball but is not completely smooth. You should still be able to see some butter chunks.

-To make the dough by hand, put the flour in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and scatter the pieces over the flour. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture forms large crumbs and some of the butter is still in pieces the size of peas. Drizzle in the water-and-salt mixture and stir and toss with a fork until the dough begins to come together in a shaggy mass. Gently mix until the dough comes together into a ball but is not completely smooth. You should still be able to see some butter chunks.

-On a lightly floured work surface, divide the dough into 2 equal balls and shape each ball into a disk 1-inch thick. Wrap well in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or for up to overnight.

-Preheat the oven to 375F

-Roll dough out to 1/8-inch thick and place into pie dish. Blind bake the shell for 25mins until the surface looks light brown. Remove the shell from oven and remove the weights, return pie shell to oven and bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes longer. 

-Let the shell cool completely on a wire rack before filling.

Pastry Cream

Makes 2 1/2 cups

2 c Whole Milk

1/2 of a Vanilla bean

1/4 tsp Salt

4 tbsp Cornstarch

1/2 c + 1 tbsp Sugar

2 Large eggs

4 tbsp Unsalted butter

-Have a bowl ready for cooling the pastry cream with a fine-mesh sieve resting on the rim.

-Pour the milk into a heavy saucepan. Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and use the tip of a sharp knife to scrape the seeds from the pod halves into the milk. Add the salt, place over medium-high heat, and bring to just under a boil, stirring occasionally and making sure that the milk solids are not sticking to the bottom of the pan.

-Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth.

-When the milk is ready, slowly ladle about one-third of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the egg-milk mixture back into the hot milk and continue whisking over medium heat until about 2 minutes. I order for the cornstarch to cook ad thicken fully, the mixture must come just to the boiling point. You want to see a few slow bubbles. Remove from heat and immediately pour through the sieve into the bowl. Let cool for 10minutes, stirring occasionally to release the heat and prevent a skim from forming on top. 

-Cut the butter into 1-tablespoon pieces. When the pastry cream is ready (temp should be at 140F) whisk the butter into the pastry cream 1 tablespoon at a time, always whisking until smooth before adding the next tablespoon.

-To cool the cream, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap directly onto the top of the cream (the plastic wrap prevents a skin from forming on the surface). Chill until ready to assemble the tarts.

Whipped Cream
1 c Heavy Cream (very cold)

2 tbsp Sugar

-Pour heavy cream into a mixing bowl and whip with a whisk or a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until thickened. 
-Add the sugar and continue to whip until it holds medium-firm peaks.
Refrigerate until ready to use.


Caramel Sauce
http://mkdyy.blogspot.com/2010/12/homemade-caramel-saucevv.html 


Assembling of the Banana Cream Tart

Fully Baked and Cooled 10-inch Flaky Tart Dough Pie Shell

3oz Bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped

1/2 c Caramel Sauce

2 1/2 c Pastry Cream 

3 Ripe Bananas, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds

3 oz Bittersweet chocolate bar for making curls

-Have the pie shell ready for filling. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Remove from heat.

-Using a offset spatula, pastry brush, or the back of the spoon, spread the melted chocolate evenly over the bottom of the pie shell. Refrigerate for 10minutes to set the chocolate.

-Remove the pie shell from the refrigerator and drizzle the caramel evenly over the chocolate. Transfer the pastry cream to the shell. Arrange the banana slices evenly over the pastry cream, and then lightly press them into the cream.

-Using an offset or rubber spatula, spread the whipped cream on the top. Cover with chocolate curls and powdered sugar (optional)

-Chill the pie until the pastry cream is set, at least 3 hours. Serve the pie cool. 

Assembling of the Raspberry Tart

Fully Baked and Cooled 10-inch Flaky Tart Dough Pie Shell

3 oz Bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped

1/3 c Caramel Sauce

1 Pastry Cream 

3 pints of fresh Raspberries 

-Have the pie shell ready for filling. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Remove from heat.

-Using a offset spatula, pastry brush, or the back of the spoon, spread the melted chocolate evenly over the bottom of the pie shell. Refrigerate for 10minutes to set the chocolate.

-Remove the pie shell from the refrigerator and transfer the pastry cream to the shell. 

-Arrange raspberries evenly over the pastry cream, and then lightly press them into the cream.

-Using a spoon, drizzle the caramel sauce over the fresh raspberries evenly, 

-Sift the powdered sugar over the raspberries

-Chill the tart until the pastry cream is set, at least 1 hour. Serve the pie cool.

It was work but I loved every minute of it!  The gamers gave me good feedback and more ideas for the future!  Give it a go!

Bea

I had brunch this morning at this fairly new restaurant in Madrona called Bea.  It's such a cute place and food was great!  I didn't have much expectations since my friends Hamed and Pascale picked the place and invited me.  


Check out what we had...


Crab Cakes Benedict

It had the loveliest and thinnest hollendaise sauce.


Lamb Burger with Sunchoke Chips

Caesar Salad

Side of Biscuits and Crepes

The biscuit was really nice, soft and pillowy in the center but crispy, flakey exterior.  The jam they served it with tasted homemade and not too sweet.


I now wished I took some pictures of the interior.  It was such a fresh and warm place! A quincidental neighborhood spot.  I wish it was a little closer to Ballard.  

Lavender Shortbread

I've done lavender right...I think?

I've never been a fan of adding lavender to foods.  Most of the time, it tastes like soap to me.  I love the smell and the flower but not in food.  Strangely, I think men like the flavors better than women.  I've had more guys say they like lavender and honey ice cream.  


Well, on a past trip to Napa, I picked up a bunch of great things from the lovely store of St. Helena Olive Oil Co.  They specialize in olive oils but they have so much more.  A lot of lavender bath products and one of the items were dried lavender in these little jars. 

When I brought it home, I realized it was for food and not for baths. I mean you can use it for aromatics but it's purpose was for flavoring, so I was thinking how can I best use this for the scent, flavor, but not over powering like soap.

So I made shortbread.  I chopped the small buds and blended it with sugar, then coated the basic shortbread and baked.  It was nice.  Very light lavender flavor and no sign of soap.  It's a nice accent to basic buttery shortbread.

I'm giving these to some friends that I'm meeting for brunch tomorrow, will get their opinion.

It's quite lovely...

Raspberry Jam Bar

This was a nice weekend of baking and making goodies. I ended Sunday by baking more jam bars.  There is this nice soul at work that has helped me whenever I asked and has been a technical resource that has helped me tremendously.

I've been meaning to bake some goodies and will drop these off.

These are the same orange jam bars but made with raspberry jam.


Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I wanted to make the girliest cake for my manly little bro's birthday.  There was going to be a bunch of little girls from our friends so I thought even better!  

I decided on cupcakes, mini cupcakes.  

What's better than vibrant red cake and white frosting with more red decorations.  Can't be more girly than that.  

I also love fresh fruit in my desserts so I added fresh raspberries.  Red velvet cakes are such classic flavors that I've never added a fresh component, but I loved it and will do that for future version of this cake.

It turnout really cute!  Very girly!  

Strawberry Lemon Thyme Trifle

It all started with madelines gone bad.  Last week I was trying to make some nice madelines for Vicky's birthday bash but it was a new recipe and I overfilled the tins, which resulted in a square lumps of cakes vs. the nice scallop shapes.  It tasted wonderful so I saved them to make a trifle.

I decided to make it for my brother's birthday BBQ.  The madelines were made with lemon thyme herb so playing off this flavor profile, I thought strawberries and lemon would be good.


There were four components which were lemon curd, fresh whipped cream, macerated strawberries, and the madelines torn into pieces.

I added more of the fresh lemon thyme to the strawberries.  This herb is so good.  I think better in sweet dishes then savory.

I layered each components starting and ending with the whipped cream.

It was good.  A nice combo of sweet, tart, and the freshness.  

Roasted Grapes

A few nights a go, met up with some girlfriends for some happy hour at terra plata in Seattle.  I was so eager to try this place but the only thing worth mentioning is the Roasted Grape Cheese Plate.  


I've seen grapes used in savory dishes and it makes total sense to create appetizers for wine with grapes, but I never saw it as the central ingredient.  They roasted with halved walnuts and olives, served with a very small blue cheese, and only 2 crostinis.  The idea is good and the grapes were yummy but I could have used more cheese and bread. They could have drizzled it with some honey or balsamic...something.

Everything else was okay and beautiful but very one note in flavor.  Even my friends noted this.  The place was gorgeous and the host was super nice and cheery, but also our waitress was luke warm to icy at worst.  I dont' need to revisit this place.  


This is what I'm finding these days, it's a good learning lesson.  Flavor of food is so important than the cool setting and people. There are places that know and get food.  It's about great ingredients, techniques, but also knowing flavors and how to layered them.  You notice when it's lacking but when something is great...you just know low wonderful it taste.


Bad service also is a such killer for a place. I hate it the most at places where I've love the food.  This place they need more rockin service since the food is okay.  Oh well....on to the next place.

I Baked...Orange Jam Bars

On this day, I baked some jam bars.  It was a baking with clear intentions and results I had hope for.  It was baking of something I love and that reflects me so.

The first time I made these were in 2006 at the Bothways Bakery and Cafe that I worked at.  The owner gave me pretty free reign to try new things, and these were perfect, so homey and rustic as the cafe.  

Over the years, I've tried these with different jams, spices, and also have added nuts. It's always delicious and a hit.  My favorite so far has been the raspberry jam, but this orange marmalade is up there.  I might add some chopped almonds next time.  I love that combo, orange, almond, and cinnamon. Yum!

Here is the basic recipe.  The original recipe is from William and Sonoma Baking Cookbook. I've tweaked it a bit.


1 3/4 cups of Flour
1 cup of packed Brown Sugar
2 cups of Rolled Oats
1 1/2 tsp of Cinnamon
1 tsp of Kosher Salt
1 cup of Butter, cut in dice size
1 cup of Orange Marmalade
1 tsp of Orange Extract


-Preheat over to 325 degrees.
-In a large bowl mix flour, brown sugar, oats*, cinnamon, and salt until well combined.  *Save 1/2 cups of the rolled oats.
-Add butter and using a pastry cutter, blend until light, fluffy, pea size mixture. Toss it around a bit with your hands.   
-Remove 2 cups of the mixture into a separate bowl to use a topping, set a side.
-To make the base crust, pour the remainder of the mixture into an 8" square baking pan and press firmly and evenly.
-In a small bowl, mix the orange marmalade and the orange extract.  
-Spoon the marmalade on the base crust evenly.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  The marmalade will melt in the oven and spread out.
-For the topping, mix the set aside 2 cups of the mixture and the 1/2 cups of saved rolled oats.  Spoon the mixture over the marmalade topping until evenly coated.
-Bake in center of the oven for 55 minutes.  It should be golden brown.
-Take out of the oven and cool on rack in the plan for 30 minutes.
-Slice into 2"x4" bar size.  It makes 8 bars.

Please play around with different flavors and eat it with vanilla ice cream. :)

Potato Gratin

To continue with my love of the potato, here is my favorite "graaatan"...from my chef friend Hamed's place A La Bonne Franquette.

Photo by Mini Deshpande