So yesterday my dining room was set up as a photo studio/DIY macaron assembly station. I made the sea salt buttercream first, using this recipe with the modification of extra salt (because it should be really really salty!). For the macarons, I made some variations as I wanted the cookies to be more than just colored brown. I wanted to them to taste like chocolate.

So when you are looking at a macaron recipe, you’re all like “What, this is so simple! Why I am I dropping 2 dollars a miniature cookie on these things?”

You won’t understand until you’re making the cookies, unfortunately. The process needs to be slow and it needs to be done delicately. Neither of those things are my style…I tried really hard and while they taste great and look beautiful, they are not as light and flaky as they should be. They should be more brittle to the touch and they shouldn’t weigh a ton – which means that I should have been able to make a lot more cookies. However, I did get the “foot” that macaron makers always talk about. The “foot” should be thicker, I think. Regardless, unless you are a professional french baker, you aren’t going to scoff at these things.

Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Macarons

For the Sea Salt Caramel Buttercream (adapted from Tasty Kitchen)

½ cups Sugar
½ cup Unsalted Butter, chilled
3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, room temp
¼ cups Heavy Whipping Cream
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 cup Powdered Sugar

The caramel (steps 1-3) can be made up to two weeks ahead of time. Complete the buttercream by following step 4 on the same day that you make the macaron shells!
1. Heat sugar on medium high heat. Stir constantly with a whisk as the sugar begins to melt. Once the sugar begins to boil, stop stirring, just swirl the pot a few times. Keep the pot above the heat to prevent burning the caramel.
2. As soon as all the sugar has melted and becomes a dark amber color, add in the 3 tablespoons of butter and stir until melted. Take the pan off the heat and wait for 3 seconds before pouring in the cream slowly and whisk until smooth.
3. Stir in sea salt. Let it come to room temperature before using it to make the buttercream. You now have salted caramel! The caramel can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Let it come back to room temperature before using it with the buttercream.
4. When ready to make the buttercream, mix the salted caramel in a mixer for about 3-5 minutes — you will notice it becomes lighter in color. Mix in the remaining 1/2 cup of butter. Then add in powdered sugar and mix until fluffy, scraping the sides occasionally.

For the Macaron Shells:
3-⅝ ounces, weight Egg Whites, From About 3 Eggs, Aged 1 Day At Room Temperature
1-⅞ ounces, weight Granulated Sugar
4 ounces, weight Almond Meal
7 ounces, weight Minus 5 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
5 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder For Color
1 teaspoon Sea Salt For Garnish

For the Macaron Shells:
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on medium high speed until foamy. Slowly add the granulated sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form, but do not over beat.
2. Sift almond meal, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder into a bowl. The cocoa powder is optional for color — if you don’t want to use it, add 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar to replace it. Add this mixture into the meringue. Fold together using a spatula just until incorporated. Try not to use more than 50 strokes/folds.
3, Transfer the batter to a piping bag and pipe small rounds onto baking sheets prepared with silicone mats or parchment paper. Sprinkle some sea salt on top of each shell for decoration. Let the shells sit for 30-45 minutes for the surfaces to dry out a bit. Bake at 300°F for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the pans for a moment. Transfer shells to cooling rack once they are cool enough to touch.
4. Match shells up in size. Once cooled completely, pipe the buttercream onto the bottom of one cookie, and sandwich another on to of it, pushing the filling to the edges. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

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It is sunday, which is a sad day because it means the weekend is over. But never fear. Might I suggest a Bourbon Vanilla Root Beer Float to ease your pain?

We’ve been madly in love with these flavors from Steve’s ice cream and today we decided to pair the bourbon vanilla with Boylan Root Beer. Turns out the combination of vanilla, bourbon and root beer work really well together. Next time, I’m going to add a shot of bourbon to the root beer as well. Not that you need a recipe b/c a root beer float is the easiest thing in the world, but foodgawker won’t post the photo unless there is a freaking recipe…so thanks foodgawker, for the extra 3 minutes of work!

Bourbon Vanilla Root Beer Float (makes 2)

Tall glass, chilled in the freezer
2 pint Steve’s Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream
2 bottles Boylan Soda
Straw & Spoon

Start by pouring 1/3 of the bottle of cold Root Beer into a glass, add a scoop of ice cream. Fill the glass 3/4 with soda, then top with ice cream. Stir and enjoy. Add a shot of bourbon to really enjoy!

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So I’ve been tinkering with this recipe for a few days. I’ve had many African Peanut Soup and I love them all. Some of the recipes I’ve seen incorporate collard greens, others swiss chard. Some not any greens at all, which doesn’t sound fun. I made this really simple but love the slight bitterness of greens against the saltiness of the peanut which also provides just a touch of sweet. A lot of recipes call for brown sugar or sugar, but I think its perfectly balanced to omit it and just go straight for the real natural flavor. A little crispy tofu, chopped minutes and a finish with sea salt, makes it perfect. Hope you agree.

African Peanut Soup
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp coriander
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 quart vegetable broth
2 medium carrots, diced
1 bunch Collard Greens, chopped
1 cup peanut butter
1 can coconut milk
2 tbsp finely chopped peanuts (for garnish)
sea salt
Sriracha

In a large stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, cook 5 minutes or until they begin to sweat. Add spices and stir. Add vegetable broth, carrots and collard greens. Cook for about 30 minutes until the carrots are fully cooked. Add peanut butter and coconut milk and pulse with an immersion blender or transfer to a blender (careful, HOT!) and blend until there are no more chunks. Pat dry some tofu and fry on medium heat on all sides until crispy, put tofu on top, finish with peanuts and sea salt and maybe a little Sriracha.

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So I’ve been thinking about all the things that add up to make a bahn mi. Meat, butter, mayo, french bread, pickled vegetables, Sriracha… I knew I could do something similar in a salad – a low carb asian recipe that tastes similar to a vietnamese bahn mi.. Yes…I can, as it turns out. I used romaine lettuce. I don’t know if that is bad from a culinary perspective, but it worked for me. Perhaps you want to try boston lettuce, so that you aren’t the butt of every vietnamese chefs’ jokes. I then sauteed some garlic with pork and chopped shrimp. To pickle the veggies…well, I really couldn’t pickle them. Instead I just let them soak in a mixture of rice wine vinegar, water and salt, plus a little stevia to sweeten the deal and then finished cooking the meal. The pickling brine that I made ends up making a nice little dressing once you add a little soy sauce and sriracha. Check out the recipe below.

Vietnamese Salad with Pork & Shrimp

1 pound ground pork
1/2 pound shrimp, cleaned & chopped into small pieces
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 large carrot, julienned
1 seedless cucumber, juliened
1 bunch green onion, roughly chopped
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup water
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp stevia
2 cups bean sprout, drained and washed
1 head romaine, finely sliced
3 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped
chopped unsalted peanuts for topping
sesame oil
soy sauce

Prepare the quick brine by mixing vinegar, water, salt, and stevia together. Add cucumber, onion, and carrot, cover with a paper towel and set aside while cooking. Heat a saute pan on medium high heat, add the ground pork and garlic and saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to break it up. Add the shrimp and stir for 4-5 more minutes. Add the soy sauce and mix until well incorporated. Remove from heat.

On a large salad plate, assemble a layer of lettuce, then a layer of the meat mixture, then a layer of the pickled vegetables. drizzle a little of the vinegar mixture over the top, followed by a little soy sauce and sesame oil. Then a little drizzle of sriracha, to your taste. Voila, salad complete!

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In this long adventure into healthier cooking, we sometimes have a longing for things that are just taboo, save for the one day a week we indulge. The lack of carbohydrate rich foods in our diet did leave something missing. I don’t know if it’s psychological or physiological. It’s hard to say. Assuming its psychological, finding substitutes should help.

Every few months I like to bust out this Thai soup that is packed with veggies. But most Thai soups tend to have noodles. Occasionally I would add julienned zucchini to the soup which…helped…but wasn’t great. To compensate for that I started using Shirataki Noodles. They are made from a white yam, but unlike most yams it has no sugar and is very low in carbohydrates. It barely has any calories either. Evidently it expands in your stomach too, giving you the feeling of fullness. This isn’t so much an issue for us, as we eat as much as we want of the healthy stuff, which is a lot less now than it was 8 months ago. I think naturally our stomachs just shrank, along with the rest of us. Some shirataki are made from tofu. I try to avoid those b/c we already eat too much soy aside from the fact that they really don’t taste as good as real shirataki noodles. The tofu is seasoned with a little soy sauce but you can use Bragg’s Liquid Amino’s instead. My girlfriend doesn’t like the word “amino” so she doesn’t go anywhere near the stuff. Alternatively, if you are not a vegetarian you could use chicken (which is how I prefer it)

Thai Coconut Milk Soup With Shirataki Noodles
2 cans coconut milk
2 tbsp red thai curry paste
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large red pepper, diced
1 large carrot, julienned
1 stalk lemongrass, cut in 3 inch pieces and smashed
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 package tofu, extra firm
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
2 packages shirataki noodles

Start by cutting the tofu into 1/2 inch thick slices. Wrap between paper towels and set on deep plate. Place a plate on top of it so that it squeezes all the water out for about 1/2 hour. Before unwrapping give another good squeeze then cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Heat sesame oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat and saute about 3-4 minutes on each side until tofu is crispy. Toss in soy sauce in pan and mix until well incorporated. Remove from heat.

Separate the coconut cream from the coconut milk. Add cream to a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Mix in thai paste and cook until fragrant. Add onions and garlic and saute until the onions sweat – about 4 minutes. Then add peppers, carrots, and lemon grass. Mix well for 1-2 minutes. Add broth and water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cover and let cook for 25 minutes. In the meantime, drain your shirataki noodles (they may smell funny but that smell goes away after you cook them. After the soup cooks for 25 minutes, add shirataki noodles and cook for another 5-10 minutes on simmer. Use tongs to remove desired amount of noodle into bowl. Use a ladle to spoon vegetables and broth into bowl. Top with tofu and enjoy.

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There are a lot of recipes out there for those looking for vegetarian lentil meatballs. Unfortunately, most of them still require breadcrumbs and cheese. I’m usually fine with a little cheese but ricotta seems to be the favorite and its got a whopping 3 grams of sugar per quarter cup. Too much for me since we are trying to stay as sugar free as possible. Then there are the breadcrumbs… I’ve been toying with a few recipes online and making some tweaks but wasn’t getting what I wanted so I went back to the drawing board.

I undercooked the lentils so they still had some bite, that way they didn’t mush up when I pulsed them in the processor. Added eggs, shitake mushrooms, garlic, cilantro (a lot of cilantro), some salt and pepper and just a touch of parmesan cheese. To further help in the binding thickening process I used almond flour which works quite well. The pesto is basil, meyer lemon, a touch of parmesan, pine nuts(muy expensivo!) garlic, olive oil and just a little water to thin it out a bit. Recipe to follow photos.

Lentil Meatballs (makes 16 meatballs)
1 cup lentils
2 cups water
bay leaf
2 eggs
8 medium shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup parmesan, shredded
1/4 cup almond flour
1 cup packed cilantro
salt to taste

Set oven to 350°. Start by rinsing the lentils and remove any stones. Put in a pot with 2 cups of water and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, cover and turn down to simmer. Let this cook for about 20 minutes until most of the water is dissolved but there is still some bite to the lentil. Drain excess water and let cool. In the meantime prepare all your other ingredient and add to food processor. When lentils are cool, remove bay leaf and discard. Add lentils the mixture in the food processor and pulse quickly about 10 times. Check mixture and make sure it’s still rough but coming together to form balls. Once you are there, shape into small 1 inch round balls and transfer to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until hot in the center and browned on the outside.

Spaghetti Squash
1 large spaghetti squash, sliced in half length-wise
olive oil
sea salt

Set oven to 450°. Clean out the guts and seeds of the spaghetti squash, drizzle olive oil and coat in sea salt. Place meat side down on cookie sheet and roast in oven for 30 minutes.

Lemon Pesto
2 cups, tightly packed basil
1/4 cup pine nuts
Juice of 1 Meyer Lemon
1/4 cup parmesan
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
water
salt

Add basil, pine nuts, meyer lemon, parmesan, and garlic to a food processor. Pulse until everything is a fine mince. Slow add the olive oil until it emulsifies. Add a little water to thin and stretch it out. Salt to taste.

Assembly
Use a fork to shred the fibers of the spaghetti squash. put in a colander to let the water drain out of them. Transfer desired amount to plate. Add meatballs and cover in Pesto.

FYI this is also tasty with Red Sauce.

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We found a little breakfast spot that served Egg Hoppers, Baked eggs served with curry inside of a big dosa shell. After breakfast we got on the road and headed up into the mountains to see some of the tea country. One of the first things I encountered was a group of Tamil Tea workers picking Tea leaves and then walking their filled bags back to a shack to be weighed. Its here that they mark what appears to be a time card, for which they will be paid on their total weight picked for the day. These people didn’t know much english, except the word money, which they chanted “MoneyMoneyMoneyMoneyMoneyMoney” repeatedly, whenever I got close.

It was raining most of the day with occasional breaks of sun. At one point there was this amazing fog so we decided to chase it and see if there was a good spot to get some pictures. Traveling down these winding roads, we came upon a small house right on the edge of the mountain that might have a good vantage point. It didn’t but the people who lived in the house were pretty cool and allowed me into their home. They had a little toddler boy and a 3 year old girl who were adorable. I asked if I could photograph them and they were happy to do so. The little girl was not so sure and took her about one hundred frames to warm up to me. After that, we got some great shots. Further up the mountain there were little kids selling flowers on the roadside.

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So I’m standing in front of this chinese restaurant that has an open window taking blurry photos that look like crap when I notice that my driver and his brother are standing in the rain behind me, drenched, hands in their jeans pockets, clinching their teeth and shiver like I’ve never seen anyone shiver before. The temperature is probably about 55 degrees. I’m a little chilly but totally fine. I realize at this moment that these two boys from Galle have never experienced a climate this cold. We are way up in the mountains in Nuwara Eliya, which is a rather large town in the middle of tea country. We arrived this evening after a long drive through the mountains from Sigiriya. They picked me up at 7am and we drove until about 5pm. It took 10 hours to drive 161 Kilometers and we were met with torrential downpour, flash flooding, downed trees, which resulted in slower than average speeds on 2 lane roads through the towns of Dambulla, Kandy and then trekking through the mountains. The drive was scary for me and even scarier for the two people who’d probably hadn’t had to deal with that much flooding since the Tsunami in 2004. And this was nothing like that, but scary just the same. At one point we had to turn around and find a different route b/c the road had been closed due 4 feet of flooding that washed away the highway. For even the Sri Lankans who live up there, this was bizarre. Still we made it to our destination.

Food along the way was sparse, but we did find this little roadside eatery where this dude was frying up pastries filled with potato curry. These establishments are referred to as short eats, and while they have places like Pizza Hut and McDonalds every now and then, out here in the country there was nothing. Short Eats is Sri Lankan fast food. It’s things like Roti and fried patties, egg rolls, etc. I believe that most people would take one look at this place and say, “There is no way in hell I am eating there” and that is probably a smart idea. However, I’m a bit more adventurous, which does catch up to me at end of this trip, but that is a story for another blog post.

Short eats hut near Nuwara Elia, in Central Province, Sri Lanka

Short eats cook makes potato curry patties

Potato Curry Patties served on Sri Lankan Newspaper

After this late lunch we got back on the road, just in time to catch a bunch of kids heading home from school. It was actually the last day of school before the long holiday. Our Christmas, is now also their Christmas and while they area is made up mostly of Buddhists, they have taken over some of the more popular customs of our culture – namely, the consumerism. I ended up seeing more of that in Galle. Out here it was just lush green tea plantations and waterfalls. Finally by 5pm we made it to the B&B in Nuwara Elia. The place was very highly rated on Lonely Planet, but for me, I thought it sucked. I expected to be roughing it a bit, but I specifically chose a higher priced option so that I could avoid some of the things I don’t like about roughing it. Instead what I got was a moderately priced place that was run more like a youth hostel. Totally fine, if it weren’t for the more expensive B&B price. I’ve come to find that LP is not really a very accurate guide. And that evening while I was talking to these German travelers, who were also going off of the LP guide to get around, they tended to agree with me.

Tune in to the next post. It won’t have any food (except for lots and lots of tea) but it will have a ton of portraits of people who live in Tea country.

The post On the Road to Nuwara Elia – Sri Lanka Adventures, Part 1 (The Short Eats) appeared first on Snap Food.

Emily and I rarely eat doughnuts anymore, but since Sunday is our day to go wild, we decided it would be a good day to finally find our favorite doughnut in Brooklyn. We decided to settle it, here and now. Which, of course, is easier said than done. There are different varieties of doughnuts. You’ve got: Cake & yeast, creme filled, jelly filled, pudding filled, iced, sprinkled, glazed. To simplify the selection, we narrowed it down to our preferences. I prefer white-creme filled yeast donuts, like I grew up on (To be honest, Boston/Bavarian Creme is an abomination and putting it into a doughnut is a culinary sin.), then an old fashioned cake doughnut. Emily prefers chocolate yeast doughnuts, preferably not filled with anything. I actually expected different results than what we came up with.

4.) Dunwell Doughnuts – 222 Montrose Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206 – (347) 294-0871
This Vegan doughnut establishment, started almost two years ago in Bushwick may be our least favorite, but it got into the top four for a reason. Their flavors are creative and beautifully honed, the dough, moist and fresh. And to top it off, its the only vegan option in this entire list, if thats important to you. Really love the Spiced pear, and spiced pumpkin as well as their mini cider donuts, which really aren’t that mini.

3.) Dough – 448 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205 – (347) 533-7544
Their wildly original flavors and super airy soft dough make them the place we make a bee-line for at smorgasburg in the summer. Their small Bed-Stuy gets cramped quickly, and we wish they would have packed our Chocolate Earl Grey more carefully so it could be included in this photograph, but at least it still tasted good. The Lemon Poppy Seed was tart and tangy, as lemons go.

2.) 606 R & D – 606 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238 – (718) 230-0125
While not technically a doughnut shop, this small restaurant in Prospect Heights, is worth visiting for its doughnuts alone. Their small cake doughnuts remind me of the little diner doughnuts from back home. Its small-town homemade goodness from a very cute little brunch spot. The sugar coated cake doughnuts are moist and sweet and I could eat a dozen of them.

1.) Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop – 727 Manhattan Ave, New York, NY 11222 – (718) 389-3676
Growing up, my hometown had this bakery called The City Bakery and they had the most amazing creme sticks ever. We didn’t do the weekend doughnuts often but when we did it was a treat. My father would usually wake up early and go pick up doughnuts and by the time we woke up in the morning, they were ready and waiting for us. I looked forward to those doughnuts whenever I went home to visit, until several years ago it closed down for good. I’ve no idea why they couldn’t make it work. They had a great variety of pastries and baked goods and everything was amazing. But, ah, to hell with my hometown, they are clueless. Since I couldn’t go home to it, I figured, “oh well, NYC has to have something like it or better”. It took a while but then I found it: Peter Pan Donut & Pastry shop in Greenpoint. Their creme sticks are just as good as what I remember as a kid. The place is a basic diner, no pretention and very nice eastern european girls who serve you doughnuts – what more could you ask for? This place gets our top pick because even Emily, who doesn’t care much for creme filled confections, says it was her favorite out of all of them.

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