Pasties

Many cultures have some sort of portable baked or fried or steamed hand held dish.  Whether it's Calzone, Empanada, Egg rolls, Pot stickers, Piroski, Perogies, and on and on...it's usually filled with something and has a flour based exterior.

When I went to London a few years ago, I came across these things called a Pasty, it's very similar to a Piroski but has a short crust exterior. They are very lovely and comforting.  They have shops all over like we have coffee shops. It's said they became popular with miners back in the 18th century because they were portable. I had a couple of vegetarian ones filled with potato, curry, mushrooms, and other veggies.  The very traditional are usually beef, potatoes, onions, and salt.  

Last weekend, I made them for the first time for a game night potluck.  I made 2 versions, one with meat and one veggie. I made it with a Australian short crust and I created the filling flavors which were Korean marinade. 

The feedback was mixed.  The meat version needed to be more saucy.  I thought the crusts were too heavy handed.  Overall they were good but there is some more testing and tweaks to do so no recipe but here are some pics.  The next day, I tried the veggie filling with store bought puff pastry and I found that texture to be lighter and more savory. So will keep trying.  I really love them though!

Chocolate Madeleines

I've come to love the little cakes that are shaped like a scallop shells and portable like a cookie.  They are moist, soft, and have texture.  Great with coffee or tea.  I usually buy them where I see them at coffee shops.  

I bought my madeleine tins years ago but it was just one of those things that I never got around to trying to make.  A couple of weeks ago, we had a week of snow and couldn't go anywhere. I was sooooo craving some chocolate so pulled out my Donna Hay cookbook and found this simple recipe.

It's super easy to make and easy to eat.  :)  Next time, I'm going to dip them in dark chocolate.

2 Large Eggs
1/3 C Caster Sugar
1/3 AP Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
2 Tbl Dutch Process Cocoa Powder ( I added an extra spoon because I wanted strong chocolate flavor, so use 3 Tbl if you like chocolate)
2oz or 1/2 stick Unsalted Butter, melted
 
Preheat oven to 350 degree.  

Grease your madeleine pans with butter or a spray.

Place eggs and caster sugar in a bowl and whisk.

Sift flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder together.

Spoon sifted flour over egg mixture and fold through with melted butter.

Spoon mixture into greased Madeleine tin or Silicon Mold until almost to the rim.

Bake for 10 minutes or until Madeleine spring back when lightly press.

Sunday at Honore Bakery

What to do on a day anticipating snow?  Go to the nearest bakery...I am lucky that one of my favorite bakery Honore is only about 7 blocks away.  

Went there this morning for some coffee and the line was almost out the door but I waited out and picked up enough pastries for the day. I picked up 2 Gougeres since I've not had any of theirs since before Christmas, a Huckleberry Vanilla Bean Tart, and Cheddar & Green Onion Scone.  

Gougeres
Now that I've made my own, I can say...mine are just as good. :0) Correction from my previous write, their price is 1.50 each...it's their macrons that are 1.90 each.

Huckleberry Vanilla Bean Tart
I love this tart. It's very flakey and creamy pastry cream line the bottom.  The fruit is a nice nice and tart to balance the rich pastry. My favorite is their blueberry.  They change it up with seasonal fruit.

Lastly, one of my staples of savory pastry for breakfast...the scone.  I've always found these to be a little bit too much butter and not as crumbly for a scone, but still wonderful.

Gougères!

I seem to get obsessed with certain foods and keep making them until I move unto something else. Since last fall...my current obsession has been gougères aka..cheese puffs.  


The base dough is pâte à choux, the same base as the sweet pastries like eclairs, profiteroles, and the lovely cream puffs you get for free at the Than Brother's Pho place.

It sounds fancy and seem hard to make, but the opposite is true. I was a bit afraid and resisted for a long time, but once I made my first batch...realized that it's so easy and soooo savory good.  


I made some for Thanksgiving and my mom went crazy for them. She even wrapped the leftovers and froze them before anyone could eat seconds.  I've never seen her like something I bake "that much" so today I decided to make a huge batch for her to take home and freeze.


The first time I had a great gougères was when I was in San Francisco at the Tartine's bakery.  They make theirs like a big giant roll size, and it was amazing.  I didn't think about these again until my October issue of Bon Appetit.  They had a recipe for Gruyere, assagio, and thyme version. This was the version I made for Thanksgiving.  Around the same time my staple, neighborhood bakery, Honoure has been making a similar version.  A 2 inch size for a $1.90 each.  I can eat like six of them so it's an expensive habit.  They also top with a little too much salt for my liking, but still I've been eating them weekly ever since.


Today I tried the Tartine's recipe and it even better than the Bon Appetit recipe.  The end result is very similar to the one eaten at their bakery. One of the main difference was using milk vs. water and adding an additional egg.  


Mom and I ate them out of the oven...and ooooohh my god. Heaven!  She took about 50 home and I kept 10. I'm going to make some more with different cheeses like english cheddar and parm.

Here is the Tartine's recipe:  

Choux Pastry

1 1/4 c nonfat milk or water
10 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp salt
1 cup flour
5 large eggs
3/4 Gruyère cheese, grated
1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 tbsp fresh thyme, minced

Topping
1 large egg
pinch salt
grated Gruyère for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a baking sheet or use parchment paper.

Choux Pastry
Combine, milk or water with butter and salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Let the mixture come to a boil. Turn off heat. Add flour all at once. Stir vigorously until it becomes a nice mush ball.

Transfer dough to a stand mixer. Add paddle attachment. Add egg one by one at medium speed. Make sure to incorporate egg before adding the next. After all the eggs have been added, mixture should be thick, smooth, and shiny.  Remove the bowl from stand mixer.

Add Gruyère, pepper and thyme by hand using a rubber spatula.

Transfer all contents to a pastry bag with 1/2 inch plain tip (no.6 or 7). Or put in large ziplock bag and cut 1/2 inch off a corner.  Pipe one inch mounds onto the baking sheet. Leave 1 inch between each puff.

To make topping, whisk 1 egg with pinch of salt and brush over each pastry. I brushed the outer bottom half since top will be covered with cheese.  Lightly sprinkle each pastry with a little cheese and additional thyme or herb.
Picture Place in the oven immediately and bake until are are puffed and browned  Recipe says 25 minutes but I had better success at 30 min.  Also if you are baking 2 trays, switch from top and bottom rack after 15 min so they bake evenly.


Serve hot or warm. Or let cool completely and place in an airtight container. You can freeze them and recrisp the puffs at 350 degrees F for 5 minutes. 

My next party, I'm making these for you dear friends...

Goat Cheese & Red Plum Chutney Crostini

I had some girlfriends over for a late brunch this weekend.  It was so fun!  We had mimosas and I cooked my usual breakfast pastries, eggs, and potatoes.  I also did some little girly apps.  This couldn't be easier but so yummy.

At the end of summer, I had some red plums that were going soft so I made some chutney that was savory, sweet, and tart.  Toasted thin slices of baguette, spread goat cheese, topped it with this chutney, and chopped chives.  It was good...

Gateau Basque

Sitka and Spruce still impresses me very much!  I've been back there like 4 times now.  I've not seen the my chef crush Matt Dillon this time but had this amazing Gateau Basque with Huckleberries. 

Gateau Basque is an exquisite tart filled with a drier like cake. Sometimes it's filled with fruit but Sitka and Spruce kept it traditional and I believe filled it with pastry cream and baked.

They just know how to make and present food.  This is the kind of food I love to eat!

So lovely, have to show it twice!

Farm To Table

I love, love farmer's market.  Today, I met my friend Kittie for brunch then we walk the market in Ballard.  Wow...amazing choices! September is such a great period for produce...the tomatoes (from my own garden too), corn, stone fruits like plums, huckleberries, peppers, and on an on. It's winding down for summer but there are so many amazing fruits and veggies.  

Friday night, I went to one of Tom Douglas' newer place Cuoco which an Italian place in his building of new restaurants in south Lake Union.  I had this amazing dish grilled corn salad that had such sweet corn and cherry tomatoes.  It was just a simple dish of grilled corn, tomatoes, salt and I think olive oil.  

When I saw the fresh corn at the market today, I wanted to recreate this dish.  I can't think of anything that is so good but so simple.  It totally relies on the freshness and flavors of the ingredients.   I was hosting a dinner for some friends so this is one of the side dishes I decided to make.  Here is my final dish.

Below are the amazing sweet corn.  I just grilled it and cut them off the cob.  

I also picked up this lovely spinach that you see in the colander above.  Oh boy...I forgot the name of.  It was such a lovely kind and how can I forget.  I'll have to go back next week to find out again.  It tasted a little bit bitter and bite than the regular green kind but it was lovely...especially with the sweet red plums I paired it with a for salad.

Back to the corn salad.  I grew cherry tomatoes this season.  OMG...so easy and so much more flavorful than the store bought kind.  It taste like a honey dew melon tomato.  Seriously! Really reminds you of what real veggies and fruit should taste like.  This is why I am trying to eat more organic and going to farmer's market more.  So...I mixed the grilled corn with cherry tomatoes sliced, grassy olive oil, some kosher salt, and peppers.  This was so good!

Farmer's markets are such a great way to spend your morning or afternoon on weekend.  It just gives me such joy and memorable time to spend.  I ended up buying a flat of raspberries that were picked the day before, huckleberries, red plums, mint, the corn, the spinach, kale that I'm going to juice, organic raised pork chops, and autumn color bouquet of flowers.  I also picked up some cinnamon soap.  This is another post later but it's one of my favorite things in the world.  

Cheers!  

My Mom's Kimchee

I'm not even kidding!  It's not that she is my mom...her kimchee is the best ever!

Seattle is changing their laws, and permits will be available to produce and sell some pickled and baked goods from home kitchens.  

Watch out!

The above her is traditional summer kimchee and below is the cucumber kimchee.

My amazing mom...

The New Sitka & Spruce

Hello Friends!
It's been a long time...my excuse is my day job has taken a lot of my day time and beyond.  
  
There also just has been a lot of activities, traveling, spending time with my good friends, family, and helping my dear friend Hamed and Pascale with their upcoming restaurant.

I've done a lot of food...but just haven't spared the time to connect here.  It's a wonderful reminder when your friends ask about it and then you realize that more folks are paying attention than you thought.  Even a co worker friend from Paris said he followed...that's amazing!

I thought I start with a special treat I had this morning.  An unplanned brunch out to Sitka and Spruce.  What a treat! I went there for dinner last month because my sis has been raving about it and how true it was.  The Melrose building is gorgeous and they have built a great place of food there.  The building houses a flower/gift shop, cheese shop, butcher shop, wine bar, and more lovely places of food related goodies.  Next door to the Melrose building is a fish store ( 1 door down ).  It reminds me of neighborhoods in NYC or old days where you had to go to the multiple specialized places to get all your groceries.  

The heart of building is of course Sitka & Spruce.  I loved the place when it was in Eastlake neighborhood, but clearly it's blossomed to it's full personality at this new location.  The first time I went for dinner (where I was too embarrassed to take picture because we were at the communal table where the chef/owner (my crush the last 3 years) was at the head and I was too nervous.  

This time for brunch, I had no shame and here are the food. All plates were served to share.

Sweet Buttermilk Scones with Housemade Butter and Jam

Pacific Farmstead Cheese with Cherries and Honey

Housemade Yogurt with Warm Dates, Strawberries, Pomegranate Molasses, and Flowers




Salmon lox with Slivered Turnip, Orange Peel, and Honey

Ful Medames with a Six Minute Egg

Emmer Crepes with Rhubarb, Nonna Capra, Hazelnut

The only complaint I have was that there was no potato item on the menu.  It's not breakfast without spuds.  When I asked about it, they had a point...it's not in season right now.  They may get purple potato in a few weeks.  How can you get upset about that? It makes sense.  Most of their ingredients are from Washington...total localvore.

A La Bonne Franquett Coming Soon...

My good chef friend and his wife are opening a new neighborhood restaurant in Seattle!   It will be a French bistro featuring classic French techniques, using local NW ingredients.  I can't wait!  I've had the previldge of having dinner and attending his parties many times!  I will be helping out the sweets department!  Yay!  I'll keep you all posted as the restaurant opens in May. 

There is a Facebook page!  Go there and book mark it! 

The website is...

	http://alabonnefranquetteseattle.com/