Tea and Oranges

A Pretty Sleeve...

2011-11-10T11:47:00.003+02:00

My trusted computer of many years has recently gone "poof" and I'm now the proud owner of a Asus Eee pad... which is so incredibly cool, I decided to dig out my sewing machine and make a fitting sleeve to keep it in when not in use... and it turned out so pretty, I decided to make another one and before I realised it, I was wondering if anyone else loved his tablet as much as me. I thought of putting one of them for sell on Ebay... here's how it looks!

Love the 70s candy fabric!

The link is here!

Cheers all!

And we are 5 now...

2011-11-10T11:24:00.002+02:00

...Adele is our new little pumpkin and it's almost hard to believe she will be 5 months in two days. She has been tasting a few things here and there, like cooked pear and carrot, but she's taking it slowly and still prefers the comfort of a warm bottle of milk...

The cold days are coming and I'm feeling that cooking vibe coming back. Nothing breaks a cold day like baking a big loaf of bread and having the oven warm up the kitchen. Oh and the smell!

I have recently made the most amazing discovery and though it has been pretty much all over the web, I just have to share it with you all. It all started when searching for a good recipe for pillowy white bread, a bit like wonder-bread, without the bad stuff in it. I personally love crusty bread with a fair amount of rye, but lets be honest, my two toddlers don't agree with that when it comes to making sandwiches. After many loafs going straight to the bin and a month hiatus from baking altogether, I discovered it.

TangZhong!

Now that I got your full attention, let me tell you that it's the best method I ever found for making that illusive wonder-bread. The bread retains just enough moisture, the crumb melts in the mouth, the crust is thin and light golden, the taste is just right... and if that wasn't enough, it's super easy to make and keeps for days without any chemicals added to it (if it lasts that long!).

Now, I don't know the exact science behind it, but I challenge you all to give it a try! The only problem you might encounter is that a bread box (Pullman) is absolutely necessary to pull this off. These might be found in speciality shops, but I also seen them on ebay and several websites. They are a bit costly, but completely worth it.

The recipe is basically that of an enriched bread, with milk powder and butter added to the dough (no eggs). The trick that changes everything is the Tangzhong, which is a mixture of flour and water, cooked until it reaches 140F (60C).

The result? Take a look!

No inside pictures yet, the bread was so hot that I decided to wait and ended up falling asleep. Will be coming soon!

So here's the recipe! Enjoy and let me know how it turns out!

TangZhong Bread

TangZhong

250 ml of water

50 g of all purpose flour

Bread Ingredients

500 g of all purpose flour

2 tbsp of skim milk powder

160 g of prepared tangzhong

210 ml of warm water

8 g of salt

50 of sugar

10 g of dry instant yeast

50 g of unsalted butter

Prepare the tangzhong, by whisking the flour and water together in a small pan. Cook on low heat without letting it boil (until 60C). It should thicken but still be quite runny. Set aside to cool. (you can keep any extra tangzhong in the fridge for a few days).

Now, mix all the dry ingredients for the bread, add the water, tangzhong and melted butter. Start working the dough until it becomes soft and elastic (about 10 minutes by hand). Let the dough rise in a well oiled and covered bowl for 1 hour (in a warm spot, like a barely heated oven). Punch down and let rest for 15 minutes.

Pour the dough on a floured surface and punch it down gently, shaping it into a rectangle, the same length as the bread box. Roll it tightly and drop it into the pullman box with the seam down.

Turn on the oven at 180C and let the dough rise in the box (without the lid) and just covered with plastic wrap (so you can see what's going on). That's about 25 minutes.

When the top of the dough is just about to reach the top of the box, put the lid on (it shouldn't touch the dough yet. Now give it another 10 minutes to fill the box a bit more and bake for 40 minutes (35 if you like it whiter). Remove the bread from the box immediately after baking and let it cool on a rack.

This recipe is exactly the right amount to fill one pullman bread pan with the lid on.

Enjoy!

Japan

2011-03-15T21:59:00.000+02:00

It's been a while.
Though I'd love to say this is finally a new post on what's been cooking in my tiny kitchen, another matter is far more pressing. As many of you might know, I have a great interest in everything Japanese and lets face it, an overwhelming number of us do. What has happened lately is a tragedy... and it is still unfolding.
I wish them all courage and strength. I'd also like to send a call out for Hiro, my good friend in Sapporo, from whom I haven't got any news. I hope you are all safe!

Want to help? Follow the link:

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/11/6246445-japans-earthquake-how-to-help
Peace.

Passion Fruit Pie - a sweet little piece of sunshine

2010-08-22T18:40:00.003+03:00

My husband's recent birthday was the perfect excuse to prepare something sweet.

Our passion fruit vine has been giving us so much fruit this year that it was meant to be... passion fruit pie.

It's like a little piece of sunshine... and it's hard to just have one slice. Enjoy!

Passion Fruit Pie

Bottom Crust
1 package of butter cookies (about 20)
1/2 cup of melted salted butter
1 teaspoon of water (if necessary)

Easy, just run the cookies in a blender, add the butter and the water and mix for about 10 seconds. Pour everything in a medium size pie mold or any other pan. Press the crust tightly. It should not be thicker than 1 cm (4 inch). Leave aside.

Passion Fruit Cream
1 small can of sweetened condensed milk
1 small pack of whipping cream (38% fat)
10 g of powdered gelatin or 1 sheet
Pulp from 8 passion fruits

Remove the pulp from you passion fruit before you start anything else. Set aside.

Start whipping your cream until firm. Now dissolve the gelatin in a little bit of hot water. Add the condensed milk, the gelatin and the passion fruit pulp to the whipped cream and fold gently. Pour it into the crust you previously prepared and let set in the fridge for at least an hour.

Passion Fruit jelly topping
Pulp from 6 to 8 passion fruit
1/2 glass of natural peach juice (nectar)
1 tablespoon of sugar
10 g of powdered gelatin or 1 sheet

Now that the cream as set, remove the pulp from you passion fruit, add the peach juice and sugar and mix well. As before dissolve your gelatin in a bit of hot water and add it to rest. Stir very well and carefully pour over the cream. Return to the fridge for at least another couple of hours, just to be sure it won't fall apart and you get nice slices.

Cheers all!

A Carb-less Nifty Little Salmon dish ... and a start up to a thinner you.

2010-08-22T12:15:00.003+03:00

It has been a little over a year now that I decided to cut down on my carb frenzy and all I can say is that it has worked wonders on my health. So, no more big bowls of spaghetti and pizza is definitely a treat for special weekends. I feel lighter and oddly enough, more energized, though I suspect there's a lot of psychology involved. (see unusually large smile when fitting in my favorite jeans)

I realized for some time already that the reason why it is so hard to keep eating right is because... well, once hunger hits, I'm not ready to give it a good fight. If I could only have a way to whisk out something really tasty and filling in less than 15 minutes, I would be out of excuses... and that's just what I set myself to do.

I went out and bought lots of individually wrapped frozen fish fillet (salmon, tilapia, haddock... any as long as it's a 100% unprocessed fish without anything added to it).

This is what I'm talking about

I also bought chicken steaks and breasts, wrapped each individually and froze them. Also, ground chicken and turkey meat, divided and shaped into individual portions of no more than 150 grams each (about 5 ounces). I guess I'm pretty much covered, protein-wise.

As for vegetables, cooking time and shelf-life was a problem so I decided to look for frozen vegetables that could also be quickly prepared and had minimal cooking involved. The best choices where frozen spinach, specially those that already come shaped into nuggets for easy use, mixed cut vegetables are also very convenient. Basically, I look for anything that is small enough to be cooked in no more than 5 minutes and also give a big plus to anything that doesn't require boiling. One of my best finds was dried wakame seaweed. All it needs is to be re-hydrated in some hot water and voila! Plus, it's incredibly healthy and rich in omega 3, doesn't spoil and is relatively inexpensive. I try to always keep cucumbers and tomatoes in the fridge, for a quick add-on to my meals.

I also got myself a digital scale to make sure I keep my carbs in check and a good 8 inch non-stick pan that is just the right size to accommodate the meal I'm setting off to cook... and also pretty much eliminates the need for extra oil.

As for carbs, I'm not a zealot. I'm not sure that cutting them down completely is healthy, but it does make things very hard and I realized soon enough that avoiding them too much always made me feel more hungry, so I compensated by eating more protein and soon enough, my cholesterol levels started to go overboard and seriously... I need that little guilty pleasure, even though it's just at 300 g (10 ounces) a day.

So this brings me back to the last post and that nifty little carb-less dish.

I just whisked out a piece of salmon out of the freezer and let it slowly defrost (about 15 minutes outside), cut into nice bite-size pieces and set aside. I then rehydrated a handful on wakame seaweed in hot water for 5 minutes, drained and lay them at the bottom of a bowl. Added the salmon, one chopped cucumber, green onion. That's pretty straight forward. What really made this dish a winner were the topping: japanese dry seasoning and a slightly spicy soy sauce my husband concocted.

The dry seasoning was sent to me from Japan and as I'm quickly running out of it, I decided to try and reproduce it at home. So here's a close up...

...and that's what's in it:

1 Tbsp of black sesame seeds

1 Tbsp of white roasted sesame seeds

1 Tbsp of dried bonito shavings

1 Tbsp of granulated wasabi (optional) - use crushed wasabi peas for a similar taste!

1 Tbsp of chopped roasted nori (seaweed sheets for sushi rolls)

1/2 tsp of fine sea salt

Mix everything well and keep in a airtight container, preferably in the fridge.

Ok, on with the sauce!

This is pretty easy too! Just mix about 1/4 of a cup of soy sauce with 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon of mirin (japanese sweet wine) and 1/2 teaspoon of Shichimi Togarashi, also called japanese 7 spice. Let it sit for a few minutes before using, so you'll get the full taste of that amazing roasted orange peel!

If you don't like spicy, you can freely skip the spicy stuff.

Now, just sprinkle your dry seasoning over the dish and add a couple of tablespoons of prepared soy sauce.

Here's a wonderfully light meal, perfect for the Summer and so easy to make, there's just no excuse to eat junk.

Have a great week all!

I'm back!

2010-06-26T14:22:00.000+03:00

Dear readers, it's been such a long time. I guess life has pretty much got in the way and I haven't found much time to sit down and share what I have been up to!
I recently started to work for a coffee shop and got back to making bread, which I absolutely love!
With little time left, I came up with some pretty neat little dishes that are easy to whisk up and relatively cheap too. One of them is this carb-less super healthy salmon dish. There isn't even any cooking involved and I have to give my husband the credit for it, he came up with the idea one of these evenings. Curious? Take a look!

This dish reminds me of one I made before, the "three way salmon", I just skipped the rice and used rehydrated wakame seaweed and used sashimi quality salmon, cut into nice fat slabs. Cucumber, green onion, a special japanese seasoning and a homemade super tasty sauce.
I haven't written down the recipe for the sauce and the seasoning, but please stay tuned, I'll write it down in the next few days!

Meanwhile, have a great weekend all! ^_^

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Traditional British Pudding - Spotted Dick

2010-04-28T22:04:00.006+03:00

The April 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding, using, if possible a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

...and this is what turned out! ^_^

I decided to go for a traditional English spotted dick, though in a not so traditional shape. It actually turned out very very pretty, though in all seriousness, I don't think I would go out of my way to bake this again. It wasn't bad and I actually had a british friend to come over and have a taste and according to him, this one actually beats most of the ones you'll find in England by miles.

I'm not yet convinced.

The warm custard did improve this pudding a lot in my opinion.

Here are more pictures of the event...

...take a look at the inside.

I will post all the recipe's details this weekend, for all of you out there brave enough!

Ps: Dear Daring Baker's staff, this is my first try at a DB's challenge and just realized I was one day late... oups.

EDIT:

As many of you pointed out, I have yet to post the recipe for my spotted dick and well, this is embarrassing in two ways. First, I wish this tasted as good as it looked, which it didn't, except for the yummy custard (whose recipe was published in another post). Second, the recipe wasn't altogether mine and now that I'm looking back to find it's author, it seems to have vanished from the web. So I'm stuck with a beautiful pudding, albeit not so tasty and no one to give credit for (though I'm not sure if I would be doing it a favor). My deepest apologies, I hope to be back soon with the recipe!

Toto Restaurant, Tel Aviv

2010-04-17T23:18:00.009+03:00

There's a game called the association game, you take a word, draw a circle around it and then, like the sun, draw rays out with associated words. Today's word is: Toto. First things that come to mind are, mmm... Dorothy's dog in the Wizard of Oz, that successful 80's band (Africa!) and Japanese toilets (those that warm your rump and even wash it).

Toto toilet in Japan, not at the T.A restaurant.

But enough with the good things, today's association is a dreadful one, a horror one would believe to exist only in the Grimm brothers' tales.
Ok, that's a tad much! ;-)

Toto Restaurant is a lauded restaurant sitting in Tel Aviv, so lauded it's often mentioned as one of Israel's top ten restaurants. Or is that so...?

As you might have guessed, I'm disgusted, furious and offended by the - for lack of better word - poor excuse of something pretending to be an Italian restaurant. While I thought of writing this review in the morning, I decided to be sure not one detail would slip away and let you know, dear Israeli readers, that Toto is most probably the most overrated restaurant in Israel.

I am writing this post, sucking on a Tums and literally in pain. Because I love food and respect so much those who pour their heart into it, I feel violated. It's like someone farted in a pan and called it ermm... Green Pasta with Shrimps and mussels. Ohh wait, that's one of the dishes I ate.

Lets start.

After we were given a menu, we were pretty much left on our own. And let me tell you, whoever wrote that menu should be kicked in the rear. No clear description, no methods of confection, no ingredients, just silly empty meaningless names. Me and my P.I.C called our waiter three times before he came, nonchalantly. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to know anything of what was written in the menu and stared at us (and at the menu) blankly, like a dead fish. We asked what pizza was there on the menu and he said... erm... there's ermm... pizza, with cheese... and additions.

Additions?

We had pretty much picked our dishes but decided to ask anyways what he recommended and again, he nodded vaguely and said we had already picked the most recommended dishes. How convenient.

Five minutes later, they brought us a plate of sliced bread, which was nice and served with a variety of olives, olive oil and a tomato sauce, very much like the type served with jachnun.

Good bread, nice olives, bitter olive oil and jachnun tomato sauce

We decided to order 4 dishes and a pizza, so we could get a good sampling of food. We politely asked that it should be brought 2 dishes at the time, so that it would not all go cold. This was completely ignored.

The first dish, Shrimp Calamari and Octopus Bisque tasted alright, but it was no bisque at all. Bisque is supposed to be a creamy seafood flavored soup (you'll soon realize there is a pattern here). This was just a mess of different things, tossed in a random sauce. Ohh, and there wasn't any octopus there either.

This was probably the best dish, though it wasn't a bisque at all.

That's basil on top.

Then came the pizza... while our first reaction was a "ohhhh nice", it quickly faded into a "errmm... something's wrong here". The crust was neither crispy or chewy... it just felt like a dense tasteless wet cookie. The tomato sauce was good though, otherwise, if you really feel like getting ripped, just spare yourself the trouble and go straight to Pizzahut.

Pizza: Salami, aged Parmesan, old and wilted arugula and basil on top.

We then tasted the green pasta with shrimps and mussels. Ok, seriously, I never really liked dill that much, except in my chicken soup and pickles, but they really went bananas on this one. The pasta was made with dill, the sauce was made with dill and the whole dish had... you guessed, dill sauce! I'm done with dill for the next few years. Pun intended... I could not dill with it. I would love to meet the guy who came up with this brilliant dish and slap him sideways, up and down.

Dill, dill, dill and basil.

Thought that was all? Ohh no... this is only going down from here.

Blue Crab with Wassabi Cream (yes, they can't even spell "Wasabi"). Four tiny crabs, hidden under a goo pile of over powering wasabi cream. I bravely started to crack the little beast open and pry anything I could from its tiny body, but I mostly just ate wasabi.

I usually enjoy wasabi, but not as a main dish.

More basil, purple this time.

Did I mention that every single dish was garnished with basil? If I was Italian, I guess that was supposed to make me feel right at home.

Not.

We also had ordered the black pasta, but, thank goodness, it didn't make it and we never got to see the likes of it. We didn't complain about it.

Time for the desserts. I must say we had high hopes and wished deep in our hearts that this could somehow redeem Toto... after all, it wasn't going too well.We looked liked two bloated wales, washed ashore, determined to live long enough to tell about the desserts. We had nothing else to hope for.

Cake or death?

I'll take the cake, thank you.

Cannoli with Mascarpone for my friend and Tarte Tatin with Whiskey ice cream for me.

Ok, it's just getting late now... I'm tired, my stomach aches and I don't even know how to start with this one.

I ate cannoli in my days, I grew up in Canada in a Italian neighborhood, so cannoli is as much part of my childhood as were Popsicle. What they presented us with was a rolled piece of cardboard. Thick, dry, flavorless and over fried. While I still hoped for a sign of crunch, there's was nothing but an old cookie and within whatever was left of its cavity, they managed to shove some cream. I can't even say if it was good, it was just cookie all over. It was served over a strawberry and cherry salad. But the truth is, it was simply preserved supermarket sour cherries with sliced strawberry and orange zest. They added some pieces of broken meringue on top and that was it. It was sickeningly sweet.

Rock hard cannoli anyone? The color you see is actually because the thing was overfried.

My Tarte Tatin, which my waiter naively called "tatine", was just sad. The tarte tatin was simply an apple crumble that didn't even taste very fresh, was served with a ball of whiskey ice cream, but all I could feel was the horrible taste of rum extract, the bad one that tastes like medicine. Some whipped cream around to make it pretty and there you have it.

Deceivingly pretty.

11:00 pm, 500 shekels later and an empty bottle of Tums, thanks Toto.

Did you have a bad experience too?
Don't get mad, get even. Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Adenda: I just realized that the chef, Yaron Shalev, was someone I actually worked with when I was at Raphael. Though he probably would not remember me, since he was mostly busy giving hell to anyone below him. If I knew he was the chef behind this restaurant, I would have never ever consider eating there. He was thoroughly unpleasant and had that holier-than-thou attitude which is the hallmark of a snotty little brat.
If you wondered, yes, it just became personal.

"1929 Gateau au Chocolat" aka Depression Cake by Chef Lida M. Touzalin

2010-04-06T22:56:00.005+03:00

Like many of you foodies out there, I own more cookbooks than I can actually keep up with and wonder if I am the only one to fantasize about actually buying a book and making each and every recipe in it. Either for the sheer challenge of it or because well, some of those cookbooks turned out pretty expensive and I'm just feeling guilty for only making a couple of recipes from them... all the while planning my next buy.

Today, I picked one of my oldest cookbooks that was given to me by my grandmother, who, in her youth, lived in the Belgian Congo, and mingled with the partying local Belgian/Jewish community. It was by then that she acquired a french cookbook called "L'Art Culinaire Français" (The French Culinary Art, 1950). A must in those days.

It is a huge fat brick, full of not so well explained recipes and quite honestly, some are just enigmatic, both technically and linguistically. The book is filled with recipes from the greatest chefs like Brillat-Savarin, Escoffier, Pellaprat and many many others, so there we have an amazing compilation that spread from how to cook "cuisse de grenouille" (frog legs) up to... the most simple chocolate cake. That was more up my alley.

The Chocolate Cake recipe I picked was from a chef called Touzalin's, author of the book "L'Amérique À Table" (America at the Table). A quick search on the internet turned out that this was actually a lady called Lida Miller Touzalin, who was not only an accomplished cook, she also happened to be the daughter of Justice Samuel Freeman Miller. a very powerful court man.

It also turned out that the book she wrote was published in 1929, the year of the Great Depression.

Going back to the my big book, I then understood why there was a small reference at the bottom of the recipe (which was written by Touzalin herself) that the recipe is very cheap to make.

I don't know about you, but I love a recipe to which I can tie a story, a mood.

This chocolate cake is indeed very cheap to make, extremely easy and while I was a bit reluctant about it's simplicity, it was delicious, airy, moist and... gone a couple of hours later.

Approved

"1929 Gateau au Chocolat" aka Depression Cake

by Chef Lida M. Touzalin

1 egg

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of milk

1 1/2 cup of flour

10 g of baking soda

70 g of bittersweet chocolate

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Separate the egg yolk from the egg white.

Beat the egg white to stiff peaks, set a aside for a moment.

Beat the yolk with the sugar for a couple of minutes, add the milk and keep beating.

Mix the flour with the baking soda and add to the previous mixture.

Beat until the batter is nice and smooth.

Meanwhile, melt the butter with the chocolate (I did it in the microwave, 30 seconds at the time and stirring) and mix until the chocolate is perfectly melted and blended with the butter.

You'll need less than a tablet

Now add the chocolate to the previous batter and mix well.

Fold the egg whites into the batter, carefully.

Pour into a well buttered mold and cook at 180 degrees Celsius for about 35 minutes.

Et Voilá!

Light, moist and delicious

Cheers all!

April's 2010 Humble Giveaway!

2010-04-03T15:29:00.012+03:00

I have been taking more or less of a break this week as it is Passover and well, flourless cooking is not really my thing. I would gladly put up some recipes of matzoh meal cakes, matzoh ball soup (kneidlach) and chocolate covered matzoh crackers, but lets be honest, we have all been there already... and pssstt... matzoh meal cakes are pretty urghh. I made matzo brei just this morning and while it was good, I can't help but remember when a friend of mine once said that matzo brei could be cut into blocks and used as bricks.

Just imagine turning saltines into flour and using that instead of flour in your favorite cake. Right.

So this was the perfect time for taking care of the garden, take out the weeds and just lay down on grass, enjoying the warmer days...

I also prepared more than my average rice dishes and one that particularly hit the spot, was the Arroz Doce, or more simply, portuguese style rice pudding.The kids just went nuts over it!

Here's Irene, digging in, under mom's watchful eye. She usually isn't allowed anywhere near the stove.

I also made some wonderful hummus and masabacha, pictured below.
Masabacha is a wonderful dish that resembles hummus, but has much more tehina and isn't as consistent. It is usually served warm, mixed with whole tender chickpeas, plenty of olive oil, a splash of tehina, chopped parsley and a hard boiled egg.

Take a fresh pita and start scooping!

Masabacha with Gina's Pita... perfect.

So, getting back to the giveaway...

I wanted to thank all of you who came by my humble blog. Each and every one of you!

Many of you left me wonderful comments and it truly made my day! This has been the driving force behind this blog and it has helped me break off those "not so easy days" when I have to take care of my two toddlers. God bless them, they keep me on my toes every moment of the day and have been sampling each and every one of the recipes here. If they don't like it, it isn't blog worthy.

This passover hiatus brought on two things. One was a much needed clean up and the second was the realization that I had too many cook books that had served their purpose. It was time to give them a new purpose other than accumulating dust. One is a particularly wonderful book by Elaine Corn, appropriately called "Chicken 150 Great Recipes for All Seasons". It is a wonderful selection of a 150 recipes with lots of interesting tidbits and techniques on just about everything regarding chicken. If you love chicken, this will likely become your chicken bible!

April's 2010 Humble Giveaway

I'm also throwing in this cute little gadget, the Chef 'n GarlicZoom!

This little garlic chopper has been receiving some mixed reviews and though I haven't tried it myself, I thought it looked kind of cute! I actually own a Chef 'n Dual Grinder and have been really happy with it. So here goes nothing! ^_^

To enter the April's 2010 Humble Giveaway, all you have to do is:
1. Follow the blog
2. Leave a comment on this post in which you let me know which is your favorite cook book right now.
That's it!

A month is a long time, so chances are, I might be adding new items to this giveaway. Stay tuned!
This giveaway is open worldwide.
The winner will be announced on the 1st of May 2010 and I will accept entries until the 30th of April 2010!

Cheers all and good luck!

_________________________________________________________________________

And we have a winner! ^_^

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 12 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

After I skipped a number (which was my own comment), number 12 was the lucky winner of this April's 2010 Humble Giveaway!

CONGRATULATIONS AF_WIFE! Enjoy!!!

Gnocchi al Amore Mio

2010-03-28T22:15:00.004+03:00

There's this little restaurant called Amore mio in Tel Aviv. As you probably guessed, it's all about Italian food. Nothing fancy and the food was alright by my book, but they had one dish that had me coming back every time. Unfortunately, the menu changed and it seems that particular dish didn't make it to the final... which is almost criminal if you ask me.

Just look at this...

Tender warm gnocchi, bite size fresh mozzarella, ripe cherry tomatoes and crunchy arugula, all tossed in a delicious garlicky pesto.

That was a classic.

Now, here's how it was made...

Pesto

150 g of fresh basil (which is about 4 cups)

30 g of pine nuts

2 garlic cloves

25 g of Parmesan

120 ml of virgin olive oil

2 g (1/2 coffee spoon) of salt

Put everything in a blender and mix for a couple of minutes until you have fine grained pesto. Don't over do it, or the pesto will start to warm up and the this will darken it's beautiful green color.

Don't worry about leaving the stalk of the basil, they taste just fine!

1 kg of gnocchi (this is enough for 4 hungry people)

1 teaspoon of olive oil

Cook the gnocchi according to the instructions, unless you're making them from scratch, which is even better! Drain and put back in the cooking pan. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil to keep them moist and avoid them from sticking together.

Keep warm.

3 cups of cherry tomatoes

1 big bunch of arugula

350 g of mini fresh mozzarella balls

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and wash and chop the arugula in half or even in three sections if the stems are really long. Remove any hard or fibrous parts.

Drain the mozzarella.

Now, heat the gnocchi in the pan, gently. When they are nice and warm, pour in a large salad bowl and immediately add the cherry tomatoes, the mozzarella and the arugula. Pour half cup of pesto and toss the everything together. You might want to add more if you like.

Serve immediately in individual bowls and don't forget to have extra Parmesan and cracked pepper on the table, they are great additions to this light and simple dish.

Cheers all!

^_^

Three Way Salmon Chirashi Sushi

2010-03-24T19:04:00.007+02:00

Chirashi sushi can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be, all depending on how much time you've got on your hands and pretty much what combination of ingredients appeals to you. I'm utterly crazy about salmon skin sushi, but the thought of preparing it can sometimes be a turn off. So why not just throw everything in a bowl, sprinkle a handful of roasted sesame seeds and drizzle with your favorite teriyaki sauce?

Here's my favorite way to do it.

Three Way Salmon Chirashi Sushi

Let's start with the basics.

Sushi rice!

I hear a lot of people saying they can't get it right and the most common complaint is that the roll falls apart because the rice just won't stick. Here's my fail proof recipe and some tricks to turn out the perfect sushi rice!

This will make about 4 cups of cooked rice:

300 g of sushi rice (short grain)

400 ml of water

1. You need calrose rice or any Japanese rice meant for sushi. Don't try to cut corners and make it with basmati. Also, if you're new to this, don't be cocky, leave the brown rice for another time.

2. Wash your rice under cold running water and rub it gently between your fingers, without breaking the grains. Wash until the water nearly comes clean.

Wash gently to keep the grains intact...

3. Put the rice in a pan or in a rice cooker, add the water accordingly and let sit for 30 minutes. Start cooking and as soon as the water boils, cover your pan tightly, turn to minimum heat and let cook for 15 solid minutes. Turn off the heat, cover the pan with a thick towel and let it sit again for about 10 minutes. If you have a rice cooker, you don't have to worry about a thing, just don't remove the lid up to 10 minutes after the cooking is finished.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the seasoned vinegar:

40 ml of rice vinegar
20 g of sugar
pinch of salt

Mix until dissolved.

5. Pour your rice into a large bowl. If you have a wooden bowl, it's even better, it will absorb some extra moisture left in the rice. But this isn't critical. Add the seasoned rice vinegar and with a wide wooden spoon, pick the rice from under and fold it gently. You just want to blend in the vinegar without breaking the grains. Fold until the vinegar is completely absorbed. Cover the rice until you are ready to use it or it will dry out.

Hard part is over!

On to the toppings!

(For 2 large servings)

500 g of sushi grade salmon, skin on (if you can't find that, don't eat it raw)

By the way, I call this Three Way Salmon Chirashi because I actually cook my salmon in three different ways (one one them, not being cooked at all actually!).

Roasted Salmon Skin
Start by cutting out the skin from the salmon, leaving a little less than 1 cm of flesh on it. Sprinkle with a little salt on both sides.

Lay it on a nonstick pan, skin side down, turn up the heat and let it roast gently. It should take about 10 minutes to get a nice golden color without actually burning it. If you feel the need, add just a tiny little bit of oil to the pan. My salmon was quite fatty, so I didn't need to do that.
Keep checking on it and adjust the heat accordingly. When it's done, turn off the heat and flip the salmon to the fleshy side. It will finish cooking all by itself and without drying out (3 to 4 minutes).
Remove the skin from the pan, set aside.

Crunch crunch crunch

Tempura and Panko fried Salmon

For the tempura, you will need:

1 whole egg
2 tablespoons of flour
Cold water
+
1/2 cup of Panko breadcrumbs (for dredging)

In a small bowl, beat the egg with 2 tablespoons of flour and add enough cold water to get a smooth pancake-like batter.
In another bowl, pour the panko bread crumbs.

Cut the raw salmon you have in half and slice one half into thick strips, cover them in batter and dredge them in panko, then fry until nice and golden. Remove and let it drain on a paper towel.

Crispy panko covered salmon.
You can go ahead and do some quality control! ;-)

Sashimi Salmon
This is pretty easy, just take the remaining salmon and cut it in bite size pieces. I usually keep the fattiest pieces for the sashimi (feel free to skip this part if you don't like raw fish, it's alright!)

Look at those pretty stripes of fat!

Now, let's put everything together!

You will need:
2 cucumbers, chopped coarsely
2 stalks of green onion, chopped coarsely
1 avocado, sliced
Roasted Sesame (or black sesame)
Teriyaki or whichever sauce you like best!

Take two large serving bowls, add about 1/4 of the rice you made into each.
Top each bowl with half of the salmon (I usually leave the tempura for last), cucumbers, green-onion and avocado (I found out at the last moment that mine wasn't ripe enough). Give it a good sprinkling of roasted sesame seeds, drizzle with teriyaki and serve with panko covered salmon sticks on top.

Enjoy!

Sugar Cookies Filled with Spiced Sweet Potato

2010-03-23T16:46:00.002+02:00

I love sweet potatoes and there are plenty on the market at the moment. They are so tasty and the color is so amazing that it lends itself to all sorts of dishes, sweet and savory.

Today, I was feeling pretty adventurous and so I tried making sugar cookies with a sweet potato filling. I also had this wild flower honey for some time and decided to completely substitute the granulated sugar for it. I added a good measure of cinnamon, a little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Sugar Cookies with a Spiced
Sweet Potato Filling

Cookie Dough
150 g butter
150 g of sugar
2 g of salt (1/4 teaspoon spoon)
1 whole egg
1/2 vanilla pod (grated) - or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
230 g of flour

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar and salt until white and creamy. Add the seeds from the vanilla pod (or extract) and then the flour. Mix until the dough looks grainy. Add the egg and beat until the dough comes together. Put in a bowl, cover and let rest in the fridge while preparing the filling.

Spiced Sweet Potato Filling
300 g of cooked and mashed sweet potato
60 g of honey
3 g of cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
pinch of salt
zest from a whole lemon
20 g of quick oats
2 tablespoons of milk (for brushing)

Cook the sweet potato in the oven (30 minutes) or in the microwave (8-10 minutes).

Look what's hiding under that ugly wrinkled potato skin!

Scrape the inside into a a blender, add the honey, cinnamon and salt. Pulse for just a few seconds to get rid of any fibers from the sweet potato.

Pour the mixture in a bowl and add the lemon zest and mix in the quick oats, which will give the filling a little more body.

Now, take your you cookie dough and on a well floured surface and work it gently for a couple of minutes, just enough to give it some strength. Make silly faces, it's fun! ^_^

Soon, I will be put in a 180 degree oven. Bummer.

Roll it down to about 4 mm thickness, turning it often with the help of your rolling pin (just to make sure it's not sticking to the working table). Start cutting out circles with a 6 cm cookie cutter (or any other size or shape you fancy!). Drop a little coffee spoon of filling on half of the circles and cover with another half. Seal the edged by pressing. I went over again with the cookie cutter, just to make it look neat.

Place on a non-stick cookie sheet, brush with a little bit of milk and optionally sprinkle with a little bit of granulated sugar.

Bake for 16 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, or until the edges just start to brown.

Give it a good sprinkling of powdered sugar and serve with a hot cup of coffee...

And just because they turned out so ridiculously pretty, here's more of them...

Perfect fit for my coffee cup

Om nom nom nom... yummy moist filling

These cookies are even better after a few hours!

Cheers all!

Alex's Dixie Chicken Wings

2010-03-19T18:32:00.006+02:00

Dixie in Tel Aviv has been a long time favorite and unlike many other restaurants, it has been standing the test of time in the Israeli food scene. Though I think it's menu lacks cohesion (too much foods from too many different places), it is nevertheless quite good and the atmosphere is classy, yet casual. For anyone who has ever been there, the chicken wings and the Caesar salad are a must. I tasted both, and surprisingly, I was more impressed with the salad than with the wings, which they are mostly known for.

Now, for someone who cooks and is aware of food prices and confection methods, I felt a bit dishearten to pay so much money for about 8 chicken wings. Yes, they are good, but they are also highly reproducible. The moment I mentioned this, I was challenged to make them at home. And I did.

Alex's Dixie Chicken Wings

1 kg of chicken wings ( clean and divided in two at the joint)
1 cup Flour
Black pepper (to taste)
Frying oil

Sauce:
60 g of sweet chili thai sauce
100 g of sriracha hot sauce
100 g of butter (cut in small pieces) - or butter flavored margarine
1 clove of garlic chopped finely (opt.)

Clean and pat dry your wings and cut any tips.

Mix the flour with the black pepper and coat the wings. Deep fry them in hot oil or in a skillet., until golden brown (about 10 to 15 minutes).

If you can, pick nice plump wings, like this one!

Flour coated wings, ready for the fryer

To prepare the sauce, mix the sweet chili sauce and the sriracha in a small pan. heat until it almost boils. Remove from heat and add in the butter and whisk energetically. The sauce will turn creamy and lighter in color.

Thai sriracha and sweet chili sauce

Transfer your chicken wings to a large bowl and pour the hot sauce. Toss until the wings are well coated.

Serve warm.

Optionally, if you want to give it more zing, you can add finely chopped garlic to the sauce, at the same time you mixed the chili and sriracha sauce.

As a side note, this sauce also works wonderfully with other dishes, like deep fried fish, onion rings or even roasted potatoes.

You'll have people raving about it, I promise!

Have a great weekend all!

Enjoyed this post? Share it with your friends!

Semla - Because there's more to Sweden than Ikea, blondes and nice cars.

2010-03-17T21:30:00.009+02:00

Jag åt kakan!
(subtitle: I ate the cake!)

King Adolf Frederick of Sweden was, according to history, a "bon vivant". He never had much trouble on his mind, liked making little snuff boxes and loved food, so much in fact, that he dropped dead after an hefty meal that was topped with not one, not two, but fourteen cream cakes!

He became know as the man who ate himself to death and on a more happy note, it made many of us very curious about this Swedish pastry called semla.

Semla is a cardamom scented pastry filled with creamy almond paste and topped with a fabulous amount of freshly whipped cream.

I don't think I ever ate or prepared any Swedish sweets, so I was feeling a bit unsure about this. The many pictures I googled seemed to indicate this was a simple brioche filled with whipped cream. I was obviously wrong.

I was specially happy to read it was made with almond paste, which I had plenty of and not much to do with. Perfect.

I found so many recipes for semla, I ended up creating an hybrid out of several recipes, including one of mine. The cake itself is indeed similar to a brioche, but more bread like and less eggy... it's like the brioche's big brother, who happens to live in the mountains and chops his own wood. It's earthy.

The addition of cardamon gives the cake a surprising kick. Together with the almond flavor and the whipped cream, you'll be eating this treat with your eyes closed. And so the sake of history, go ahead and get yourself a warm bowl of milk. Fred would have said Ja!

Semla - Swedish Cream Cakes

Pastry Dough

300 g of flour

12 g of instant yeast

40 g of sugar

4 g of salt

4 g of ground cardamom

125 ml of milk
1 egg

60 g of unsalted butter

1 egg white with a bit of milk (egg wash)

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, except the butter.
Warm up the milk (lukewarm) whisk in the egg and add this to the flour mix.
Work the dough on medium speed for about 5 minutes.
Add the softened butter and mix until it is well blended into the dough (2 minutes).
Do not be tempted to add more flour at this point.

The dough should be a bit sticky

Take the dough out, make a ball and put in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise for about 40 minutes (in a warm place).

Meanwhile, prepare the Crème pâtissière (pastry cream)

We only need a small amount of it, but I believe it's up to you how much you'll want to mix with your almond paste. I like to have a clear feel of the taste of almonds, but adding more pastry cream will soften that flavor and make the cream lighter, though less contrasting against the taste of the cardamom in the bun.

The pastry cream is very easy to make, specially in such a small amount, so don't let this turn you down!

240 ml of milk
1 coffee spoon of vanilla extract
15 g of cornstarch
60 g granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg
20 g of butter

Pour the milk in a small pan and start heating slowly.
Meanwhile, beat together the egg, sugar, vanilla, cornstarch and salt in a bowl.
Now, when the milk is nearly boiling, lower the heat, take your bowl and with a whisk ready, pour in the egg mix a tablespoon of hot milk and whisk quickly. Add another tablespoon of hot milk, and a couple more after, always whisking.
Now, add all your egg mixture to the remaining hot milk in the pan, whisk quickly, rise the heat a little bit and keep whisking until the mixture starts to thicken. It usually takes about 4 to 5 minutes. Mix in the butter.
That's it!
Ps: in the unlikely event that your cream curdles, stay calm. Just give it a good mix with the blender and it will be alright.

By the way, I happened to have made almond paste just some days ago, but you can just as well buy it.

Pastry cream and almond paste

So, take 100 g of almond paste, put it in a bowl and add a couple of tablespoons of pastry cream and whisk until the almond paste is dissolved. Add a couple more tablespoons, keep mixing until you get a texture similar to thick porridge. My almond paste was quite a bit sweet, so I decided not to add more pastry cream and mixed in a tablespoon of milk to soften the cream a little more.

Now is a good time to turn on your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Take you dough, work it a little bit and divide it into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a nice tight ball.
Place on a baking sheet, cover lightly and let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Last rise

After this time, mix 1 egg white with a little milk. Brush the buns and bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Let them cool on a rack.

Right out of the oven

And the fun part! Take each bun and with a small sharp knife, cut out the top of the bun, any shape you like. I went the traditional way and did triangles. Remove the cap (try to keep it intact) and scrap all the bread that's right below the shape you cut out, meaning, don't scrap all the crumb!

Haven't remove the crumb on this one yet

Take all those crumbs and crumble them with your hands over the bowl with the almond cream. Mix. At this point you will probably need to add a bit of milk if it's too thick. Again, it should be similar to porridge.

I mixed in the bread crumb and added a little milk to soften

Fill your pastry up to the rim with the cream, making sure it reaches everywhere inside the bun.

Prepare your whipped cream:
250 ml of whipping cream (very cold)
2 tablespoon of vanilla sugar (avoid using liquid vanilla extract)

Whip the cream with the sugar to stiff peaks. Pour it into a pipping bag (or do it by hand, it will be just as good!) and pipe the cream on top of the bun (be generous). Put back the little lid on top of the whipped cream and give your buns a good sprinkling of powdered sugar.

More whipped cream maybe? Probably. More filling wouldn't hurt either.

Try not to eat more than 2 in a day. Seriously.

Enjoyed this post? Share it with your friends!

Frittata with Oyster Mushrooms and garlic

2010-03-10T11:41:00.005+02:00

8:00 a.m

To the horror of many of you, I'll say it. I love mornings! I wake up drowsy and, sometimes literally eyes closed, I march straight into the kitchen and mechanically press the espresso machine button. Everything is good.

I open the fridge. God it's packed. Must make same space. Quick scan. Eggs, oyster mushrooms, out.

I throw some butter into a skillet, add a couple of slivered garlic cloves.

Just when it starts to gain a little color, I add the oyster mushrooms and let it fry gently. Salt, pepper.

I beat 3 eggs with a pinch of salt, pour it over the mushrooms.

Lowered the heat and cook for about 8 minutes. As soon as the top isn't completely wobbly anymore, I put a plate upside down over the skillet, take the skillet and quickly flip it on the plate. Returned the frittata to the skillet, and gave it another 4 to 5 minutes for the other side to gain a pretty color.

Cut into large size quarters.

Served it over a nice warm toast, ripe tomatoes and freshly ground pepper on top. Added just a tiny pinch of kosher salt over the tomatoes and some drops of extra virgin olive oil.

Eat

Wishing you all a great morning!

Enjoyed this post? Share it with your friends!

Banana and Cream Cobbler Pie

2010-03-10T00:08:00.006+02:00

You will have to to forgive me, but this time, the light wasn't on my side. As much as I tried to take a decent picture of my last creation, it just wouldn't come out right. I also hate using a flash, which makes everything look crude and over exposed. I'm trying to tell myself that after all, I'm not in a studio and my camera can only do so much. This is a real home and I have to work with what I have.

What I can tell you for sure, is that this was one of the best pies I have eaten in the last few years. Yes, it was that good. I'll confess, I'm not even such a pie lover, but damn, it was good.

Without further ado, I present you...

Banana and Cream Cobbler Pie

There are basically three parts to this recipe. The pie crust, the filling and the crumble that goes on top. As you'll see, it's actually easier to make than it looks.

Ingredients

Pie crust

85 g unsalted butter
115 g sugar
3 g table salt
265 g flour
5 g baking powder
100 g cream (32%)

Cinnamon Crumble

120 g unsalted butter
175 g of sugar
140 g of flour
140 g of almond flour
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
12 g of cointreau

Banana and Cream Filling

500 g of ripe bananas
1/3 of a vanilla bean (grated) or 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
100 g of sugar
150 g of cream (32%)
20 g of corn flour
1/2 lemon juice

Method
The pie crust

Using a mixer, cream the butter with the sugar and the salt. Start adding the flour mixed with the baking soda and alternate with the cream, until the dough comes together. Do not over work. Wrap in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

The crumble topping

No need to wash your mixer. Just put all the ingredients for the crumble in it and run the mixer at medium speed for 4 to 5 minutes.

Pick all the bits together, cover and set aside.

The banana and cream filling

Mash the bananas with a fork and grate your vanilla bean. Put these in a small pan, together with the sugar, cream and lemon juice. Start cooking on low heat for about 10 minutes. Dissolve the corn flour with 1 to 2 tablespoons of cold water and add to the banana cream, letting it cook for just another minute.

Remove from heat and let it cool.

Putting everything together...

Start rolling out the dough for the pie crust (5 mm thick). This dough is not always easy to handle, so if you have a hard time, use a piece of waxed paper both under and over the dough while rolling it.

Lay it down carefully in the pie pan. I used a 28 cm wide pan by the way.

Fill with the cooled banana cream, spreading it out nice and evenly.

To put the crumble on top, I used a funnel with a large nozzle to push down thick ropes of crumble dough. I suppose there might be other ways, but this actually worked pretty well for me. Though it might seem like a good idea, don't try to use a pastry bag.

Once you got all your dough made into little cylinders, spread it out over the banana filling.

Cook at 180 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes or until the top is nice and golden brown.

Let it cool a bit before removing from pan. Finish with a generous sifting of powdered sugar and serve warm with your favorite ice cream on top. Vanilla... chocolate... even strawberry.

What I really love about this pie, is that the those big chunks on top actually become like crunchy cinnamon butter cookies. Yum.

Cheers all!

Enjoyed this post? Share it with your friends!

Levinski Market - The Spice Mecca

2010-03-05T18:27:00.014+02:00

The Levinski market can be crowded and noisy and more often than not, dirty, but look to the sides and you'll suddenly be taken by it's charms.

The smell of spices, neat pyramids of paprika and an never ending array of colors.

It's beautiful really, in a messy way, like a Jackson Pollock painting. Stay focused, there is so much to choose from, up from the high shelves, down to the neatly lined sacks of walnuts, herbs and tea mixes on the side walk.

Grab a bag and take a little bit of everything, ask questions later.

A couple of visits and you'll instinctively find yourself returning to the same places, like making them your own. It's a bonding thing.

I usually start with my favorite dry goods shop located on Nahalat Binyamin street, about 15 meters north of Levinski. It's got everything under one roof. From tehina to organic dried figs. It's never crowded, which always give you a little time to talk with Meir Gabbay while eating a big fat medjool date.

For spices, seeds, coffee and all kinds of little odd powders, David's the place.

I'm a rather big coffee drinker and I'm a bit ashamed to say that until recently, I thought the most trustworthy place to get my ground coffee was Café Neto. On a whim, I decided to get 250g at David's and just hoped for the best.

The container holding the different blends of coffee is, to say the least, pretty impressive. Like an amazing piece of steam-punk, with it's beautiful copper color and fat knobs. I chose the Italian blend.

The coffee turned out to be excellent and in no way inferior to what I used to buy at the coffee shop. It isn't very strong, like what I'd get in Europe, but it tasted great and produced a nice thick, light colored cream on top. No fancy packaging here, thought I think it looked pretty neat and kind of retro.

Mr. David at his shop

Also, If you're on Levinski, you have no excuse to go hungry. Right next door to David's Shop, a small sandwich bar is the perfect place for a pit stop.

Kaimak, sandwich and coffee Shop

...may I say the sandwiches are pretty good too. Fresh and making use of the local spice market products, everything is made right under your eyes. And that's fine with me. The decoration, while simple, is homey and inviting, with a definite middle eastern touch.

It's all about little details at Kaimak...

...and good honest food at a fair price. You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Cheers all!

Spicy Chicken Meatballs with Garlic Coconut Sauce

2010-03-03T15:55:00.005+02:00

I always wondered what could I possibly make with ground chicken that wouldn't be better with ground beef. Ground chicken is like the diet coke of ground meat, just not evil enough. But somehow, it turns up in my freezer every now and then, usually when all other meat supplies have been exhausted. It looks at me, pale and undecided, willing to soak up any flavors I'll add to it, because truly, it hasn't much of it's own.

I tossed it in a bowl and let it defrost for the next hour. Desperate, I sat down in front of the computer and googled "ground chicken" and looked at random pictures. By the third page, I finally found something that looked appetizing enough. The recipe was coming from Indian Cooking and was simply called Spicy Chicken Pops. A quick browse through the recipe and it was clear I would have to improvise. A lot.

It called for ginger-garlic paste, garam masala and kasoorimethi. I could figure a way to make the first two from scratch, but the last one was tricky. It happens to be dried fenugreek leaves.

Well, at least I had some kind of direction with what to do with that ground chicken.

This recipe is for 500 g of meat.

So, I started making my own garam masala mix and while I eye balled the amounts, it had more or less the following proportions:

1 coffee spoon of black pepper

1 coffee spoon of white pepper

1/2 coffee spoon of cardamom

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds (ground)
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika

1 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 coffee spoon of dried ginger (ground) - optional

I happened to have all the spices already ground, but if you have a spice/coffee grinder, you can use any whole seeds you have instead.

Now put this mixture in a small skillet and roast it for about 3 minutes on high heat.

Transfer into a small bowl and add a little bit of oil until you can make a thick paste.

I then chopped 1 medium sized onion, a little piece of ginger and 5 or 6 sprigs of fresh coriander (parsley would be just fine too) together in the blender (finely).

Now add everything to the ground chicken and season with salt. You don't have to use all of the garam masala. I personally used about 3/4 because I was afraid it would be too pungent for my toddlers to eat.

Shape little bite size meat balls and fry them until they are nice and golden brown. When ready, pick each of them with a toothpick (if you don't like the thought of getting your hands so close to the frying pan, just transfer them onto a plate and insert a toothpick on each one). Set aside.

I had a can of coconut cream laying around, so I pour it in my blender, added 4 garlic cloves, some sprigs of parsley (could be mint too!) and seasoned with salt, black pepper and few drops of lemon juice.

I prepared some instant couscous, adding a little bit of turmeric for a nice yellow color...
...and voilá!

Spicy Chicken Meatballs with Garlic Coconut Sauce

Tips for getting that perfect macaron

2010-03-02T19:11:00.017+02:00

Truth be told, I failed quite a few batches before I got it right.
When I finally succeeded, I also realized I was being sabotaged, both by my unreliable equipment and my gut feeling.

Yes, macarons are tricky little cookies. And what's more annoying, is that adding to the fact that they aren't the easiest to make, they also aren't very cheap. If you are like me, you might have experienced that more often than not, when they fail, it's an unsalvageable mess. Not mentioning cleaning up.

Humidity, temperature, over and under beating, even the pipping method can wield variable results. I have yet to reach the perfect macaron and I'm still struggling to get rid of those pesky air pockets. They aren't so much of a problem really, specially when Chef Pierre Hermé himself mentions that before filling the macarons, the inside of the shells can be slightly pressed to make space for the cream. When left to mature, those air pockets become practically unnoticeable. Still...

Let me tell you that almost all recipes for macarons are extremely similar, except some are made with the french meringue method and others with the Italian meringue method. The french method is seemingly easier, but it's also easier to overwork the batter (with disastrous results). When using the Italian meringue method, you are required to boil sugar syrup to a certain temperature and add it, while boiling hot, to the egg whites while beating these full speed. It's more intimidating at first and requires you to have a sugar thermometer and preferably a good stand mixer (with a stainless steel bowl), but you get a far more stable batter. Once you almost reached the right consistency, you can even divide the batter and make different batches of colors and flavors and you'll be alright.

On the other hand, the french method, because it's faster, allows you to make more batches... I'm still not sure which one I prefer, but since I have both the time and the material, I like playing it safe and use the italian method.

Any way you go about it, here's my personal check list for successful macarons:

1. Have your oven temperature checked - more often than not, it lies by over 10 to 20 degrees Celcius. In the world of macarons, that is not acceptable.

2. Measure your ingredients exactly - a digital scale is a must. Beside, it will make you feel like a mad scientist.

3. Do all the ingredient prepping the day before, this includes:

Drying your almond meal in the oven and mixing it with your powdered sugar and blending both together.
Weight your egg whites and leave outside the fridge for at least 24 hours
Weight all the remaining ingredients.
Put everything in individual containers, label if necessary.

4. Using a little bit of dried egg white (albumin) and tartaric cream in the meringue will make the batter even more stable. Don't be affraid to use them.

I usually find those and other unusual products in specialized shops like The Cook Store and 4Chef, both on Hachashmonaim-החשמונאים.

Here's the dried egg powder (pure albumin). You just need about 5 g of this for a whole batch of macaron.

For the step by step recipe, I followed the excellent guide by Mercotte, which is the most thorough I have yet to see. And most importantly, it works.

The batter should flow like magma...

Here they are, ready for the plunge...
(I'm using a Teflon sheet by the way - best stuff I ever tried!)

...and 13 minutes later.

I decided to fill these with a rose flavored buttercream. But no tasting just yet, they have to stay in the fridge for about 3 days until the flavor matures and the cookie becomes one with the cream.

You'll soon be in my belly.

Cheers all!

Frango na Púcara - Portuguese Style Crock Pot Chicken

2010-02-28T14:50:00.004+02:00

It's a cold and rainy day in Tel Aviv.

All I want right now is to wrap myself in a blanket and watch Coupling. I also don't feel like cooking up a storm and I just thought of a recipe that would fit the bill. This recipe comes straight from my grandmother's notebook and it proves beyond doubt that simple ingredients and ingenuity can go a long way. She wasn't a fussy lady. After all, she had to feed 5 children with very little resources, most of which, came from her own labor. She could do it all and it's pretty amazing by today's standards.

This here her amazing crock pot chicken recipe.

Irene's Frango na Púcara

1 large chicken (cut into 8 pieces)

4 large onions (quartered)

2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)

1 shot glass of Porto Wine

1 shot glass of água ardente - the equivalent would be grappa or a fruit brandy

1 glass of white wine

2 tablespoons of butter or butter flavored margarine (if keeping it kosher)

1 large tablespoon of prepared mustard (I used French's Mustard)

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Start by gently melting the butter in the microwave and mix it with the mustard and garlic. It will look a bit like a vinaigrette. Set aside.

Take an heavy pan with a lid (oven proof, like a Le Creuset) and spread the onion at the bottom.

Now put the chicken on top and pour the Porto, água ardente and white wine.

Add the butter mixture on top of the chicken and season with a tablespoon of kosher salt and a little bit of black pepper.

Don't mix anything.

Before...

Cover with the lid and cook in the oven for 1 hour at 200 degrees celcius. Don't open the lid during the cooking time.

In about 30 minutes, you're entire kitchen will be smelling so good, you'll know there's something out-worldly happening inside that pan.

Now, take the lid off and turn on the grill. Let the chicken brown for another 5 to 10 minutes.

And here it is...

...and after.

The chicken is melt-in-your-mouth tender and the skin, which is now slightly roasted, is encrusted with a salty/garlicky/tangy layer which I can't resist. The onion at the bottom tastes so good, it's usually not enough. The original recipe calls for 2 onions, but I had to double it because it's almost a side dish all by itself.

Serve it with a simple basmati rice.

Enjoy!

Never too late for Hamantaschen

2010-02-27T21:37:00.009+02:00

...and as a matter of fact, I could just about eat them all year long.

This is the recipe I have been using for the last few years and it never failed me. It's easy to make, easy to work with and best of all, you can accidentally over stuff your hamantaschen and it won't open up. They stay exactly the way you make them. Picture perfect!

Are they any good? You'll have to try for yourself, but I can assure you, they are the most tender, melt in the mouth hamantaschen you'll ever had.

But! There are rules to get it right.

1. Don't use fillings that you've never tried before, like jams, which will boil out of the cookie and make a mess.

2. Don't make short cuts if you don't have all the ingredients.

3. Double check your oven's temperature.

To make hamantaschen, you need to make the dough and the filling. You can find many recipes for fillings, but I recommend giving this one a try, specially if you aren't a big fan of poppy seeds, like me.

Let's start with the dough:

Hamantaschen Dough

300 g of flour

100 g of powdered sugar

1/2 coffee spoon of baking soda

pinch of salt

200 g of butter

2 egg yolks

1/2 organic orange zest

1/2 orange juice

Take the zest from your half lemon and squeeze out the juice into a glass. Add an equal amount of cold water to it (it will make about 1/4 of a cup).

Cut your butter into small pieces.

Put the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt into the mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until it looks like coarse sand.

Now, lower the speed to the minimum and add the 2 egg yolks, the orange zest and half the orange juice. Speed up the mixer just until the dough forms a ball and stop immediately. It's very important not to over work the dough.

If you feel that the dough is still crumbly, add just a few more drops of orange juice and speed up your mixer for just a few seconds.

Remove from the mixer unto a working surface and make a neat ball. Put it in a plastic bag and let it rest while making the filling.

Spiced Almond Nut Filling

My favorite filling is by far medjool dates. I usually eye ball the recipe, but I'll post it as soon as I have it on paper. If you like almonds, you'll love this one!

100 ml of milk

100 g of sugar

50 g of butter

60 g of honey

1/2 orange zest

cinnamon (to your taste)

large pinch of salt

pinch of ground clover (opt)

20 ml of arak (or any other liquor that you like)

100 g of almond meal (or ground poppy seeds)

30 of cranberries (raisins or chopped dates)

30 g of coarsely ground nuts (I like walnuts, but you can use pecans or even macadamia)

6 to 8 tablespoons of breadcrumbs (highly variable)

My favorite filling is by far medjool dates. I usually eye ball the recipe, but I'll post it as soon as I have it on paper.

Start by gathering everything on the list. It will be much easier.

Warm up the milk in a small pan, add the butter, sugar, honey, zest, cinnamon, salt, clover and arak. Let it nearly boil, just so the flavors blend. Remove from the heat and add the almond meal, the cranberries and the nuts. Finally, add the breadcrumbs. Start with 3 to 4 tablespoons and give it a good stir. It should have approximately the same texture as the hamantaschen dough, so keep adding and stirring until you get the right consistency. Ideally, you should even be able to shape small balls with this filling. It should not be too stiff though!

Now is a good time to turn on your oven (turbo is fine) and heat it up to 190 degrees celcius.

Now, take your dough and gently flatten with the rolling pin, sprinkling flour both under and over.

Sometimes, the dough will still stick to your counter top. Don't worry. Just scrap it off and shape it back into a ball. Work it a little bit and try again. When you dough is about 5mm thick, start cutting circles with a cookie cutter (no smaller than 8cm). Take all the scraps, shape a ball and repeat.

Put all your circles of dough on your floured working surface and have a little bowl with water nearby.

Dip your fingers in the water and just moisten 3 or 4 circles. Drop about a coffee spoon of filling in the middle and gently close the dough around it, so you'll get 3 corners, leaving the filling visible in the center. Seal the seams well. Moisten another 3 or 4 circles and repeat.

Put your hamantaschen on a lined cooking tray (no need to leave much space between them, since they don't really rise). Cook for about 15 minutes or just until they start to be slightly golden.

This recipe usually makes two trays of cookies (25 to 30 cookies total)

If you have any trouble making this recipe, please let me know, I'll work with you until you get it right!

Swirly Feathers - or how I mastered the supermarket challah

2010-02-26T19:15:00.003+02:00

One of my favorite things about a good challah, is unfortunatly something I seem to find only in the store bought kind. But being the DIY nut that I am, this was too good of a challenge to just resign myself.

Until recently, I even started wondering if this was achieved unnaturally with some kind of additive that conditions the dough.

I'm talking about "feathering". I have no idea if there is a particular name for this, but even a lengthy search on the internet didn't turn out anything clear on this matter. Every time I buy a supermarket Challah and crack it open, it seems to be made of long yummy, slightly moist, swirls of bread crumb... whilst the ones that are home made, turn out caky or like white bread, meaning, no feathering whatsoever. They are good, but it's just not the same.

I decided to try Uri Scheft's recipe. Nothing seemed particularly different from any other Challah recipe, except that the picture in the book seemed to have the intriguing pattern of a feathered crumb.

I followed the recipe exactly and even used a timer.

Well, I did add a good 30 minutes to the first rise, because the dough obviously didn't double it's size. And yes, I also added another 15 minutes to the final rise for the same reason. But that's it! (blame it on the cold weather).

My electronic scale. Can't live without it.

I have to admit that my skill at making braids ends with making them on my own hair, because when it comes to dough, it just looks silly. I did manage to make some pretty neat 25 cm long ropes and this time, I didn't roll it like the usual. Could it have made a difference? I want to believe so.

I usually roll by pressing the dough, pretty much like anyone would do with play-dough, but this time, I did it like when making a baguette. By flattening it down a bit and rolling it unto itself. I did it about 3 times until I got the right length.

And here are my three challot, ready for the final rise.

Covered with a kitchen towel and a plastic bag to keep moist

After raising for 35 min (plus 15 in my case) and glazing with egg (no sesame seeds this time), I cooked them at 220 degrees Celcius for 25 minute (if you are serious about cooking, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. You won't believe how often your oven thermostat is out of whack.

As you can see, the braid didn't come out very pretty, as expected, but it smelled fantastic. At this point, I had absolutely no hope for feathering, since this looked like any homemade bread... but I was wrong.

Success!

Distinctive swirly feathers. Yum.

לחם בבית by Uri Scheft

2010-02-25T10:38:00.010+02:00

As many of you may know, I love bread. I mean... I LOVE it.

Bread is not only the perfect vehicle for all sorts of yummy things, when made properly, it can be delicious all by itself... sometimes, just sometimes, it might even be the star, no matter what you put on top of it.

Unfortunately, the art of making good bread can be elusive.

This brings me to little book I recently got my hands on and I would like to share with you.

לחם בבית by Uri Scheft is a little book with a little over a hundred pages that can be found at Lehamim Bakery on החַשְׁמוֹנָאִים street, Tel Aviv.

Step inside this place and you'll instantly be taken to Carb Heaven.
Everything looks delicious, fresh and beautiful to look at.
Cleverly, there are also bite size versions of pretty much everything... so you'll have no choice but to grab a box and to fill it up to your heart's content.

No wonder the place is always packed and just for once, I can understand what's all the buzz about.

So in a recent visit, my husband noticed they were selling a book. At 76.00 shekels a pop, I hesitated a bit, wondering if this wasn't another book like the one I bought from the restaurant Catit (a high-end collection of recipes you'll have a hard time making at home). I browsed nervously and finally decided to take it home with me.

And rightfully so.

This book is a jewel of bread wisdom.

Well organized and straight to the point, it explains all the concepts behind making good bread at home. The recipes are not complicated, but either if you are new to bread making or not, I recommend not skipping the book's technical explanations, which are extremely valuable.

You can find bread recipes everywhere, but essentially, what makes the real difference is the process. In that aspect, this little book is a winner. If you follow it diligently, you'll be rewarded with beautiful tasty bread, just like what they sell at the shop.

Uri Scheft, if you ever stumble upon this humble blog:

Thank you.

Cream Cheese Fraisier

2010-02-23T22:42:00.006+02:00

Oh, I know I know, it's been a long time and to whoever out there, I apologize for taking such an inexplicable long time to write anything substantial.

These last weeks have actually been quite rich, food-wise. Amazing marbled steaks, a beautiful (and equally delicious) "Fraisier", homemade butter puff pastry, yummy Portuguese style chicken, salted cod fish cakes... and macarons... lots of macarons.

I also had the chance to visit quite a number of restaurants and eateries in Tel Aviv, some of which left me pleasantly surprised, while others literally made me fume. For all those with whom I had the pleasure of sharing a meal out, it's pretty clear that I just can't keep my thoughts to myself, either they are complementing or not. Years of working in restaurants does this to you. Once you step in a restaurant, no matter where, everything is familiar and you'll notice small details, like bits of information reconnecting you to a past experience. You know you've been there in a way. While most have the bliss of simply having to decide whether the food is good or bad, when you worked in a restaurant, nothing is ever that simple.

It's compulsive really.

If you love food, food should love you back.

Talking about love, how's this for a start?

Fraisier (still with the ring)

This was a highly modified version of the famous french "Fraisier", which stands for a wonderful, genoise and mousseline cream, strawberry cake. Seriously, there's nothing not to like about it. This was made for my daughter's birthday and as always, I overestimated how much time I had and ended up cutting some corners. Fortunately, it came out both beautiful and delicious.
Ps: Because it was meant for children, I skipped the soaking liquor and because I don't really like marzipan, I left it out (though admittedly, it does help to hold the cake together more neatly).

So lets get started!

First of, you need some material. This is mostly a cream based cake, so you'll have to get hold of a ring mould. Either those that open on the side and have a separate bottom or a simple stainless steel ring (you'll need a decorative carton bottom for this one). You can actually find the simple ring at the same place as the first link (it just doesn't show on the website). "Mistral" happens to be close to where I live, so it's convenient.

I highly recommend a simple ring. Not only are they higher, but the fact that you'll be sliding it up the cake makes for flawless results.

Cream Cheese Fraisier

There are now some amazing strawberries on the market, so get a couple of boxes (and perhaps a third one you'll be eating as you work!).

Genoise (Pierre Herme)

140 g of flour

40g of butter

4 eggs (room temperature)

140 g of sugar

Turn your oven on at 180 degrees Celcius.

Prepare a large shallow tray with a sheet of cooking parchment, which should form a rim around the tray of about 3 cm high. Take your ring mold and check that it's size matches the tray. Later, you'll need to cut a circle of cake that will fit that same mold.

Gently melt the butter in the microwave (or a small pan) and let it cool down a bit.

In a bowl, beat the eggs and slowly start adding the sugar. If you feel compelled to work a bit a harder, Mr. Herme recommends putting the mixing bowl over another pan of nearly boiling water (a technique called "bain marie"). I almost never do it and still get very reasonable results.

Anyway you go about it, keep beating the hell out of it. After about 10 minutes it will triple it's original volume.

Stop mixing, and using a spatula, gently start to fold in the butter and the flour. Just fold, don't stir! When the flour is well mixed in, pour half of the batter on the prepared tray and spread it with the spatula until it's about 2 cm thick. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until nice and golden.

Slide the cake with it's parchment paper on the counter top and put another cooking sheet. Cook the second half of the batter.

After you let it cool down a bit, use your ring mold as a cookie cutter (another reason why I prefer the simple rings). Cut 2 circles of cake. Keep aside.

Now is a good time to prep your strawberries. Separate them in three bowls:

a. the really pretty ones - 2 should be enough

b. The big even sized ones - cut in vertical slices (4 mm thick).

c. The not so pretty ones - chop coarsely

Cream Cheese Filling

1 package of Philadelphia cream cheese

2 small boxes of liquid whipping cream (very cold) - guessing they were about 150 ml each

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of powdered gelatin (dissolved in a little bit of warm water)

Red food coloring (opt)

Beat the cream until it forms nice stiff peaks (careful not to overdo it).

Now beat the cream cheese with the sugar, vanilla extract and a bit of red food coloring (you just want a hint of pink).

Dissolve the gelatin in a little bit of warm water and quickly add it to the cream cheese.

Carefully fold the cream cheese with the whipped cream.

Vanilla Syrup

1/2 cup of water

2 cup of sugar

vanilla extract

Mix everything and bring to boil until sugar is completely dissolved. Let it cool.

Now for the fun part:

Place your ring in whatever plate you're planning to serve your Fraisier on and put a circle of cake at the bottom. Sprinkle a good amount of vanilla syrup directly on the cake.

Take your B strawberries and stick them neatly to the inside of the ring (see the next picture for a better idea). Now pour 1/2 of the cream, making sure it gets everywhere. Sprinkle your C strawberries on top. Pour half the remaining cream and top with the second circle of cake, give it also a good sprinkling of syrup. Pour the rest of the cream you have, to cover the top of the cake. Even it out nicely with a spatula.

Now is the time to let it set. I recommend leaving it in the fridge until the next day. This will allow the flavors to blend with each other. If you are in too much of a hurry, like I was, put it in the freezer for an a couple of hours.

When ready to serve, decorate with the rest of your A and B strawberries.

One thing I would certainly like to try on another occasion, is to add a bit of pureed strawberries in the

the cream (instead of food coloring). Yum. I'll leave it up to you to give it a try!

Fraisier (ringless)