Desserts for Breakfast

TGIF: Picnic in the Redwoods

2012-01-26T22:12:00.000-08:00

I'm so lucky where I live: within an hour's drive, I can be in a big city, or in quirky suburbs, or standing on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, or gazing up and up and up at the tall tops of majestic Redwood forests. During the same visit in which we plundered the citrus trees on campus for marmalade, a few of my good friends and I packed up an amazing vegan feast--complete with wild rice salad, curried carrots, sweet sauteed mushrooms and kale, roasted acorn squash (and onions and garlic), Blue Chair Fruit jams, a crusty Tartine loaf, and cold-brewed tea--for a picnic under the shady canopy of the Big Basin Redwoods. Then we went hiking to give our over-stuffed bellies a rest and promptly got lost wandering through the damp, dark green forest on a soft carpet of redwood tree needles. It's days and picnics and hikes like this one that provide a wonderful, analog antithesis to the always-on-the-go, always-connected life that I live the rest of the time.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Saffron and Blood Orange Caramel Macarons, with blood orange sorbet

2012-01-22T23:50:00.000-08:00

It's been many, many years since I've celebrated Lunar New Year properly ...until now! Hi from Asia! *commence emphatic waving*

Last time I was here for the new year festivities was decades ago (omg, 'decades' makes me sound so old), when I was five. My only memory from that visit was my grandfather taking me outside on the street in front of our relatives' large apartment building at night and lighting up sparkler fireworks to play with. How they shimmered in the dark, specks of light dancing off the ends of the wands! After that, we never really celebrated Chinese New Year's in the US: there just isn't the same hubbub of excitement and fun brewing around you that makes it feel like a holiday. And, given that the lunar new year never falls during school breaks, I didn't have the opportunity to freely leave and visit again until now. (Yes, one of the wonderful advantages of dissertating, and shhh, don't tell my advisors.)

In preparation for the new year celebration, I whipped up my own version of a few new year's desserts before leaving on my trip. It's traditional to have oranges during the Chinese New Year--for luck--and to wear red--an 'auspicious' color. Lo and behold, what did I stumble upon at the market a few days before leaving: blood oranges! The perfect combination of red and orange, in a delicious fruit. :)

With the blood oranges, I made a blood orange sorbet, that turned out the most gorgeous orange-red color (rivaling the vibrant purples of the last sorbet that I made). Oh, and not to mention that it tastes deliciously orange-y. :) I also whipped up a batch of saffron and blood orange caramel macarons, which I thought were very fitting for celebrating New Year's, with the red and gold of the saffron and caramel, the nuts that traditionally represent blessings for long life, and, of course, the blood oranges. (Recipe inspired by this wonderful little macaron book.)

[click on photo above for a larger image]

I'm hoping that all of this orange and red really brings good luck to everyone for the Year of the Dragon! The last few days of the Year of the Rabbit were quite unlucky for me. On my second day here, this happened when I fell down a pile of unsecured bricks. I freaked out. Luckily, the repairman here managed to fix it because none of the internal glass elements were broken--you don't know how incredibly relieved I am. Anyways, I have been told that since I clearly used up all of my bad luck and misfortune right before the end of the old year, I should be having an auspicious new year! :)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Read on for recipes....

Blood Orange Sorbet
from The Perfect Scoop

3 cups freshly squeezed blood orange juice
3/4 cup (150 gr) sugar
2 tspn white wine, optional
zest of 1 blood orange

1. In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of blood orange juice and sugar. Warm over medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
2. Add the rest of the blood orange juice, white wine, and orange zest. Cover and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.
3. Once chilled, freeze the sorbet base in your ice cream maker of choice. (Here's mine, which works like a dream, and I also have this one.) Once churned, you may want to let the sorbet harden further overnight in the freezer.

Blood Orange, Saffron, and Caramel Macarons
inspired by Les Petits Macarons
makes 45-50 small macarons

for shells:
120 gr almond meal
200 gr powdered sugar
big pinch of saffron (6-8 strands)
1/4 tspn yellow powdered food coloring, optional
1/4 tspn orange powdered food coloring, optional
100 gr egg whites
1/4 tspn cream of tartar
30 gr granulated sugar
1 tspn cointreau
1/2 tspn water

1. Prepare two baking sheets lined with silpats or parchment paper and a pastry bag with a large round piping tip.
2. Combine the powdered sugar, almond meal, saffron, and powdered food coloring, if using, in a food processor and grind until a fine powder. Sift thoroughly through a fine mesh strainer and set aside.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the egg whites and the cream of tartar. Using a balloon whisk, quickly stir the mixture until the entire surface is covered with foam. Then, start whisking the egg whites, gradually adding in the granulated sugar once the egg whites have reached soft peaks. Whisk until you reach glossy, almost-stiff peaks.
4. Gently fold the sifted almond and powdered sugar mixture into the egg whites in two to three stages. Mix just until the ingredients are incorporated and the batter slowly re-absorbs peaks. Do not overmix!
5. Transfer the macaron mixture to the prepared piping bag and pipe rounds on the lined baking sheets. Tap the baking sheets on the table a few times to release air pockets.
6. Rest the macarons for at least 30 minutes (and up to 60), until the outside shells are no longer tacky and sticky to a light touch.
7. Preheat oven to 290 degrees F, with the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven.
8. Bake the macarons in the oven, one sheet at a time, for 24-28 minutes total, rotating the sheet half-way through the baking time to insure even baking.
9. Remove from oven, invert the shells onto their tops, and let cool.
10. Mix together the cointreau and water in a mister. Mist lightly over the bottoms of the macaron shells.

*Note: the resting and oven temperature and times are adjusted to what works in my kitchen and oven (which, to my knowledge and according to two oven thermometers, is quite accurate). Please note that you may have to adjust according to what works in your kitchen and oven.

for filling:
1/2 cup (100 gr) sugar
3 Tbspn butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tspn coarse salt
1/2 Tbspn blood orange zest

1. Have all ingredients pre-measured and ready next to the stove.
2. In a small, light-colored saucepan (with tall sides, preferably), wet the sugar with just enough water to make the consistency of wet sand.
3. Cook the sugar on medium heat. Do not stir once the sugar starts boiling; swirl the pan around gently instead to insure even cooking. Cook until the sugar is a deep amber color. Immediately add the butter and whisk thoroughly.
4. As soon as the butter has completely melted, remove from heat and add the heavy cream and salt, whisking continuously.
5. Once the cream has incorporated, pour the caramel into another heat-resistant container to cool, straining through a fine mesh sieve to remove unevenly cooked sugar, if necessary. Let cool briefly and whisk in the blood orange zest. Caramel will continue to thicken as it cools.
6. Once completely cooled, spoon a small amount on the bottom of the macaron shells and sandwich the shells together. Let the macarons cure overnight before serving.

Enjoy!

[Disclaimer: the publisher sent me my copy of Les Petits Macarons, but, as always, I would not be telling you about the book unless I personally really love it. This book is adorable and super creative with macarons, which is difficult to do in today's overly-saturated macaron market!]

TGIF

2012-01-19T23:47:00.000-08:00

Little known fact about me: I used to be the Spoons -playing champion of my youth group when I was young. I dominated at that card game. :)

Happy Weekending, everyone!

Almond and Stanford Citrus Marmalade Crostata

2012-01-17T00:12:00.000-08:00

It is surely one of the laws of the universe that grad students are the only people who inhabit campus 365 days a year, even over the holidays, and even during that vacation week between Christmas and New Year's. But, you know? I don't care. Because this means that I had first dibs to the bountiful citrus harvest from the trees on campus this year! Haha, suckers! So the lesson? When life gives you lemons and forces you to work over Christmas break... ....make marmalade! :D

I don't often say a lot of nice things about Stanford (after all, I have to maintain allegiance to my undergraduate alma mater--Go Bears!), but one thing I'll give it is the wonderful plethora of fruit trees on campus (plus, I would be hesitant to eat anything out of Berkeley trees, for I've heard those stories of toxic waste run-off in the creek!). In the corner where the history department is located on the Stanford campus sit loads and loads of citrus trees, with branches brimming full of white grapefruits! and oranges of all types! and lemons! Usually, when classes are in session, the low-hanging fruit gets picked off pretty quickly, but during the winter break, far more fruit remains in reach. So when two good friends (incidentally, from my undergraduate days at Berkeley) came to visit after Christmas, we made sure to go and plunder the Citrus Corner to our hearts' content.

With the resulting pounds upon pounds of random citrus fruits I ended up with on my kitchen table, I figured that the only course of action was to make marmalade--a Stanford citrus marmalade, to be exact--so that none of the fruit would go to waste waiting for me to eat it all. ... of course, then I had to figure out what to do with the resulting jars upon jars of the at once sweet and bitter but delicious through-and-through marmalade I ended up with after that. :)

Enter the almond and citrus marmalade crostata. For some reason, I used to be unconvinced that jam could make a robust-enough filling for a tart, eschewing it in favor of other types of tart fillings, like cream or even plain candied oranges. But then, at a recent Blue Chair Fruit event, I had my first encounter with a jam-filled crostata (an Italian-style tart). The nutty, substantially thicker, crumbly crust and the tightly-woven lattice top of a crostata, it turns out, make the perfect vessel for a thin but flavorful layer of sweet jam--better, in my opinion, than your average, more delicate pate sucree-style tart crust. Armed with my jars of marmalade, I jumped at the chance to try a crostata again, this time with the slightly bitter filling of the Stanford citrus marmalade.

I have to say that I think I prefer the marmalade version to a berry-based jam crostata, mainly because the sharp tangs of bitterness in the citrus punctuate the sweetness of the marmalade and almond buttery-ness in the crust. And, I also really liked the chewy chunks of candied citrus peel in the marmalade that texturally lend the tart a bit of bite every now and then. To serve, pair the crostata with some tea that has a spoonful of citrus marmalade mixed in for good measure. :)

Who says grad students can't have (delicious) fun over winter break?

Read on for recipe....

Three Citrus "Stanford" Marmalade
from the Blue Chair Jam Cookbook
makes ten 8-oz. jars

Note: make sure to allot two days for the marmalade process.

5 lbs of citrus, total:
~2 lbs grapefruit
~1 1/2 lbs oranges
~1 1/2 lbs lemons
5 lbs sugar
5 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Day 1: Fruit Preparation
1. Starting with the grapefruits, cut each fruit in half and squeeze and strain the grapefruit juice. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator. Place the grapefruit halves in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for five minutes. Discard the liquid and repeat the boiling and simmering once more. After draining, cover the grapefruit halves again with enough cold water so that the fruit floats freely in the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and keep at a lively simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring periodically, until the grapefruit is fork-tender. Remove the pot from heat, cover tightly, and let rest overnight at room temperature.
2. For the oranges, juice each half and add the juice to the grapefruit juice. Slice the oranges. Place the orange halves in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for five minutes. Discard the liquid and repeat the boiling and simmering once more. After draining, cover the orange slices with one inch of cold water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and keep at a lively simmer for 1-2 hours, until the oranges are fork-tender. Remove the pot from heat, cover tightly, and let rest overnight at room temperature.
3. For the lemons, slice each lemon thickly. Place the lemon slices in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for five minutes. Drain and discard the liquid. Return the lemon slices to the pot and cover with one inch of cold water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and keep at a lively simmer for 30 - 40 minutes, until the lemons are fork-tender. Remove the pot from heat, cover tightly, and let rest overnight at room temperature.

Day 2: Marmalade
1. Place a few spoons on a plate in the freezer. Place clean jars and lids on a baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees F for at least 30 minutes.
2. Strain the grapefruit halves from the liquid, reserving the liquid. Over a bowl, scoop the insides out of each grapefruit, scraping to remove excess pith around the insides. Strain the flesh and pith, reserving the juices and adding them back into rest of the cooking liquid. Discard the remaining solids. Cut the grapefruit into thick slices.
3. In a large bowl, mix to combine the grapefruit, oranges, lemons and their cooking juices with the sugar, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and reserved grapefruit and orange juices. Transfer the mixture to a 11- to 12-quart pot with a wide mouth. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cook at a rapid boil for at least 25 minutes. Do not stir until the mixture starts foaming. Then stir slowly to prevent burning. Test for doneness once the marmalade starts to darken slightly.
4. To test for doneness, remove the pan from the stove. Retrieve a spoon from the freezer and scoop a small amount of liquid. Return the spoon and sample of jam to the freezer for a few minutes. Once cooled, hold the spoon vertically. If the marmalade does not run off the spoon and is thickened to a jelly consistency, the marmalade is done. If not, return the pan to the stove and continue to cook for a few minutes more before testing again.
5. Jar the jams in the sterile containers. Return the jars to the oven for 15 minutes, then remove and let cool, being careful not to disturb the jars during this time. The jars should seal while cooling.

Almond and Citrus Marmalade Crostata
makes one 6 or 7-inch crostata
very loosely adapted from Maggie Barrett for the NY Times

1 3/4 cups (245 gr) AP flour
1 cup (100 gr) slivered almonds
1/2 cup (100 gr) sugar
2 tspn baking powder
9 Tbspn butter, cold and in chunks
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tspn almond extract
zest of 1 lemon
marmalade (~ 1 1/4 cups), recipe above
heavy cream
turbinado sugar

1. Combine the flour, almonds, sugar, and baking powder in a food processor. Process until the almonds are finely ground.
2. Cut the butter into the almond mixture using a pastry cutter or the food processor until the size of small peas.
3. Add the egg, egg yolk, almond extract, and lemon zest. Process just until a dough begins to form.
4. Remove the pastry dough from the food processor, form it into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap or parchment paper and chill for at least 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the tart pan.
6. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide into thirds. Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. The bottom should be slightly thicker than the edge crusts. Fill the tart with a thin layer of marmalade. Roll out the remaining dough to about 1/8-inch thick and cut into strips. Lay the strips in a lattice on top of the marmalade.
7. Brush the top of the crostata with cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
8. Bake the tart for 20-25 minutes, until the crust begins to turn golden brown. Do not let it darken too much. Remove from the oven and let cool until room temperature before cutting.

Enjoy!

TGIF, from cruising altitude

2012-01-13T00:46:00.000-08:00

2012 has already gotten off to an insane start: lots of traveling and projects scheduled for the first few months of the year, so you'll have to please excuse me if the blog scheduling turns out a bit erratic. In the meantime, though, I'll get to share wonderful sights like these. On a recent flight (on a prop plane, no less!), I was treated to the most amazing views of the SF Bay Area from above. It's always fun to have a change of perspective, and I rarely get to see the place I live so clearly from up so high!

[click on photo above for a larger image]

pictured: San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and good ol' Bay Area fog

Here's wishing everyone a great weekend!

Salt Roasted Pears with Cajeta

2012-01-01T13:08:00.000-08:00

A few days before each new year rolls around, I always get the urge to do a retrospective review of the year, but when I finally sit down to the task, I always find that I'd much rather just leave the past year to the past and look forward to what's coming next. This 'onward' sentiment was particularly strong this time around with regards to the passing of 2011. For me, this past year has felt a lot like the middle section in any trilogy--not as much excitement or change as the previous year and just a lot of set-up waiting for more action in the next year. After 2010, which saw crazy changes and drama, 2011 in comparison was much less exciting: just a lot of chugging along and trying to figure out what "normal" life should be.

...not that I've managed to hit upon "normality" yet! (and not sure I ever want to!) But, I am very much looking forward to leaving 2011 and all of its stalled uncertainty and unanswered questions and stagnancy behind and having much, much more excitement and progress in 2012.

Don't get me wrong though--2011 wasn't uninteresting and dull! In fact, I got to meet a lot of wonderful new people and see plenty of new places, so I guess I really shouldn't be complaining. :) (2011 recap at the end of this post.)

To round out the year and kick off the new one, I turned to this simple but wonderful recipe that I've had bookmarked since this time last year: salt-roasted pears. I'd heard of salt-baked fish or even salt-crusted potatoes before, so when my good friend told me about baking pears in salt, I was immediately intrigued. I don't entirely understand the science of salt-baking, but these pears turn out amazingly: soft and juicy and supple in the centers with an ever-so-slight salty tinge on the skins to balance out the sweetness inside.

[click on photo below for a larger image]

Then, instead of the recommended caramel sauce to accompany the pears, I turned to a slightly more adventurous option: cajeta, which is a dulce de leche-type sauce made with goat's milk. The thick cajeta enrobes these pears beautifully when it's poured on warmed, and the sweet, just barely cinnamon-y caramel is perfect against the lingering flakes of salt on the pears. I love it when desserts are super simple, uncomplicated, a wee bit out of the ordinary, but oh-so-good. ...Hopefully what 2012 will turn out to be as well!

Here's wishing you all a fantastic new year!

P.S. Starting off the 2012 excitement, I'll be headed to Portland, Oregon for a few days in January and would very much appreciate any recommendations you might have! Favorite Portland sights? Restaurants I *must* try? Please leave me a comment below!

--Addendum--

In 2011, I...

experienced life in snow climates for the first time on a trip to the East Coast, with old and new friends.

made a "heart attack in a pie" ... at least twice.

became obsessed with glitter.

was recognized by Saveur.

went to Edinburgh, Scotland and Manchester, England and, on the same trip,...

stopped by BlogHer Food in Atlanta for some quick food-bloggery fun.

had to bid farewell to friends moving away and welcome home friends moving back.

redecorated several parts of my house.

saw the sun rise over Half Dome.

picked olallieberries and blackberries and strawberries.

ate a meal of a lifetime.

got hooked on Doctor Who.

photographed for some exciting folks.

wrote ~5000 tweets.

instagrammed 300+ photos.

finally vacationed in Hawai'i!

spent Thanksgiving in L.A. with my best friend, cooking up a storm.

spent an inordinate amount of time playing Monopoly Deal (and losing).

per tradition, had Korean fried chicken to celebrate Hanukkah.

Read on for recipes....

Cajeta
from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop
makes about 1 1/4 cup cajeta

4 cups (1 L) goat milk
1 cup (200 gr) sugar
1/4 tspn baking soda
2 Tbspn light corn syrup
large pinch of salt
1 cinnamon stick

1. In a dutch oven or a large, heavy-bottomed pot, combine the goat's milk, sugar, baking soda, corn syrup, and salt. Break up the cinnamon stick in a few large pieces and add them to the milk.
2. Bring the milk to a boil over high heat. When the mixture begins to foam, start stirring. Reduce heat to medium high, keeping the milk at a low rolling boil while stirring. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the milk thickens and turns a beige color.
3. Reduce heat to low and continue to stir the milk, scraping the bottom of the pot, cooking until it turns a deep orange caramel brown, about 15 more minutes.
4. Remove the pot from heat and let cool.

Salt Roasted Pears
adapted from Martha Stewart

5-6 forelle pears, firm but ripe
1 lb coarse sea salt
cajeta

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Pour a thin layer of salt to cover the bottom of a deep dish. Nestle the forelle pears vertically into the salt, and cover the pears with more salt until only a bit of the tops show through.
3. Bake for 35-45 minutes, depending on the size of the pears, until the pears are fork-tender. Remove from oven and let cool briefly. Lift the pears out and brush off the excess salt.
4. Warm the cajeta briefly and pour over the pears.

Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T00:15:00.000-08:00

Due to a few last minute things that have come up at work, I have to take an unplanned hiatus from baking and the blog for the next few weeks, making for an unfortunately abrupt holiday post just so the festive season doesn't go by without me wishing y'all a wonderful Christmas. Perhaps this is all for the better anyways-- I spent the last week or so with several food-ography and baking projects, and my studio and kitchen haven't yet completely recovered from the insanity! So while I hate taking time off from the blog, I hope you'll all excuse me for dropping in to quickly wish everyone "Happy Holidays!" before this blog goes on a little sabbatical for the remainder of 2011.

I hope everyone has wonderful holiday celebrations and gets to share this lovely season with the dear people in your lives. Thank you all so, so much for being an incredible community and letting me carry on and share my food and photography and life with you every week here on this little web platform of mine. I am very much looking forward to being back and hearing from everyone in 2012!

Happy Holidays!

❤,
Stephanie

TGIF

2011-12-16T01:06:00.000-08:00

photo made and processed with the iPhone

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the new location of the ever wonderful Dandelion Chocolate chocolatiers with Anita Chu of Dessert First for a special project we're working on together. Their cavernous new space is a former photographer's studio, and I am so envious of their light.

More to come on our new project soon, I promise! It's been many, many months in the making, but hopefully I'll be able to let y'all in on the secret in short time. Meanwhile, I wish everyone a great weekend. Mine is packed with lots and lots of photography project-age, so I know it'll be good. :) Happy Friday, everyone!

Persimmon Spice Tea Cake

2011-12-14T01:25:00.000-08:00

I've been a wee-bit obsessed with bundts lately. (okay, okay, let's get your snickers and 'I like big bundt' jokes out of the way right now, please.) Bundts and quick tea cakes, to be exact. It's because they're so fast and easy and delicious, as simple as mixing the dry ingredients into the wet ones and throwing it all into the oven. And yet, there's something special and "ooooo"-inspiring about a bundt cake. It's as if baking the batter in a bundt pan magically transforms an ordinary cake into an extraordinary! cake.

For this reason, bundt (and loaf) cakes have become some of my favorite things to make during this time of year, when there is so much baking to be done for special celebrations amidst all of the scramble for end-of-the-year deadlines. Like this week. There are waaaaay too many deadlines and things to do--my "to do" list isn't really as much a list as it is a tome.

And so, enter the bundt cake to save my butt (excuse me, I couldn't resist :-P) when it came to baking for the holiday parties of the past few days. I've had these persimmons sitting on my counter, which were ripening themselves into a pulp for a while now, and I thought that a persimmon spice cake, versus the more typical pumpkin spice cake fare, would be a good excuse to use them up. So into the food processor they went, then a quick stir into a cake batter, and a little while later, out of the oven emerged this wonderfully spicy and super, super moist tea cake. I think because the persimmons are a bit more juicy than pumpkin usually is, these cakes came out even more luscious than normal.

[click on photo for a larger image]

For the second holiday party, I made an almond, meyer lemon, and poppyseed bundt, but I'll save that recipe for some other time. :) Now, if you excuse me--I hope you don't mind this ultra-short post, but my to-do list beckons! Til soon!

Read on for recipe....

Persimmon spice tea cake
loosely adapted from Tartine
makes one 9x5-inch loaf or one six-cup bundt

2 cups (280 gr) AP flour
3/4 tspn salt
1 1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1 tspn ground cinnamon
2 tspn freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tspn ground cloves
255 gr persimmon puree (see note)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups (270 gr) sugar
3 eggs
powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour cake pans and set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk to combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the persimmon puree, vegetable oil, and sugar until well-combined. Add in the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Gradually add in the dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. Do not overmix.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly.
5. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan, and let the cake cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Note: to make persimmon puree, remove the skin and seeds from 3 - 4 very ripe and soft persimmons, of either the hachiya or fuyu varieties, and puree in a food processor.

Enjoy!

TGIF: on chips and language

2011-12-08T22:07:00.001-08:00

It's not often that the three distinct worlds I seem to straddle--food, photography, and linguistics--happen to collide. But, it's happened! Dan Jurafsky, professor of linguistics at Stanford University, has just published a fascinating article with another researcher, Josh Freedman, in the latest issue of food journal-magazine Gastronomica on the use of language for marking social identity in the advertising of potato chips. And I have a little photography byline in the article. :) (Above is a photo I made for Dan's blog illustrating some of the basic concepts in the article. )

Read a summary of the article on Dan's blog Language of Food here, and then go check out the full-length article, with pictures by yours truly, in Gastronomica itself. (Those with academic access via a library subscription can access the article electronically via JSTOR here.) It'll make for some wonderful weekend morning reading!

On that note, happy weekend, all! I've got three holiday parties over the next four days. I don't know if I'll survive it all--someone might have to fish me out from beneath the inevitable mountains of powdered sugar and cookies come Monday.

Berry, Apple, and Rosemary Shortbread Bars

2011-12-03T12:31:00.001-08:00

M'dears, cookie season is officially upon us! My fridge is stocked with butter, Costco has rolled out the huge packs of parchment paper that they only carry during this time of year, and I've already had to refill my sugar and flour jars twice. Ah, the holidays!

A couple of years ago for the holidays, one of my oldest friends, Priscilla, gifted me with a box of assorted homemade cookies. In them were these amazing, amazing raspberry jam shortbread bars--so good that ever since then, I've been begging Priscilla to make the bars for me again every Christmas. For some reason, however, my begging skills are apparently not up to snuff (NTS: practice Puss'n'Boots face) because I have yet to convince Priscilla to make them for me again! Alas, great sadness. :(

But then, in the midst of a desperate craving for jam shortbread bars, it suddenly dawned on me that, as a baker, I am perfectly capable of taking matters into my own oven-mitted hands. So, enter my spin on this bar-cookie: berry, apple, and rosemary shortbread bars. Before you go and accuse me of once again going off the deep end with potentially insane flavor combinations, allow me to explain where the inspiration for this one comes from. A couple of days ago, a few local San Francisco Bay Area food bloggers and I were brainstorming flavors of blackberry jam that Sean should make (backstory: we were at an event promoting blackberries). Of course, brainstorming flavors is one of my favorite pastimes--I swear a psychologist would have a field day doing food-related free word association analysis on me. Anyways, we all threw out a bunch of suggestions: blackberry-rose! blackberry-ginger! blackberry-vanilla! And somehow, admist all of this, Irvin and I both arrived at a consensus on blackberry-apple-rosemary jam.

Over the next few days, the idea of dark berries paired with apples and rosemary stuck with me. Tart chunks of green apples seemed to be a fitting companion to supple and ultra-sweet berries, and rosemary lends the combination a more sophisticated, rustic air. Together, this trio formed the perfect storm for my long-desired shortbread bars, with homemade blackberry and wild blueberry jam and large pieces of baked apples sandwiched between crumbly layers of almost-savory rosemary shortbread. It's like having jam and apple pie all at once! :) (For a more standard variation, the rosemary can easily be left out of the shortbread, which is flavored with lemon zest as well, so it will still taste plenty yummy.)

As if these bars weren't awesome enough, I realized, after pulling them out of the oven, a fact that makes them even awesome-er. You see, these little squares of delicious are called "Berry, Apple, and Rosemary Shortbread" bars. Now, if you acronym-tize that, you get.... BARS bars. Oh yes, dear friends. Pun-age! (Okay, cue collective groan and facepalm from most of you out there and a mild applause from English major dorks like me who appreciate a good pun when they hear one!)

[click on photo for a larger image]

Anyways, Priscilla--if you're reading this-- I'm still waiting for you to make your awesome raspberry jam version of these bar-cookies again! *hint hint* And for the rest of you: what cookies are you planning to make this season? Share below!

[full disclosure: thank you to Driscoll's for the blackberries used in this recipe, and thank you to my mom for the apples used herein. As always, I wouldn't be telling you about any products that I don't myself use and love.]

Read on for recipe....

Blackberry and Wild Blueberry Jam
makes about one cup of jam
loosely adapted from Blue Chair Fruit

125 gr wild blueberries
195 gr blackberries
17 gr freshly squeezed lemon juice
160 gr sugar

1. Place a few spoons on a plate in the freezer.
2. Mix the berries together in a bowl and add the lemon juice. Let sit for a few minutes to macerate. Divide the berries in half, and set half aside.
3. In a non-reactive saucepan over medium low heat, combine half of the berries with the sugar and cook, stirring frequently, until the juices run. Increase heat to medium high until the berries boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add the remaining berries. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and stir every thirty seconds or so. Cook for 10-15 minutes more, testing for doneness after 10 minutes.
5. To test for doneness, remove the pan from the stove. Retrieve a spoon from the freezer and scoop a small amount of liquid and berries. Return the spoon to the freezer for a few minutes. Once cooled, hold the spoon vertically. If the jam does not run off the spoon and is a thick, spreadable consistency, the jam is done. If not, return the pan to the stove and continue to cook for a few more minutes before testing again.
6. Cool the jam completely, preferably overnight in an airtight container in the refrigerator, before using in the following recipe.

Berry, Apple, and Rosemary Shortbread Bars
makes one 9 x 13" pan, about 24 squares
adapted from Epicurious, via smitten kitchen

for shortbread:
4 cups (560 gr) AP flour
2 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt
1 1/2 tspn freshly grated meyer lemon zest
2 - 4 Tbspn fresh rosemary, finely chopped*
4 sticks (1 lb.) butter
2 cups (400 gr) sugar
4 egg yolks

for filling:
~330 gr crisp tart apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 tspn lemon juice
2 tspn sugar
1 tspn AP flour
1 cup blackberry + wild blueberry jam

powdered sugar, optional

1. Make the shortbread. Whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest, and chopped rosemary. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter until light. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the egg yolks to the butter and sugar one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Divide the shortbread dough in half. Wrap each half in parchment paper or plastic wrap and freeze until hard, at least 2 hours or preferably overnight.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13" baking pan with foil, leaving overhang at the sides.
7. Prepare the filling. Toss the chopped apples, lemon juice, sugar, and flour together and let sit for a few minutes.
8. Heat the jam briefly until it reaches a somewhat liquid, spreadable consistency.
9. Remove half of the shortbread dough from the freezer. Grate using a coarse grater or the grater plate of a food processor. Spread the grated dough evenly over the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
10. Spoon the jam over the first layer of shortbread dough and distribute the apple chunks in one layer on the jam.
11. Remove the second half of the dough from the freezer and grate. Pour the grated dough evenly over the jam and apple layer.
12. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the edges and top are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
13. Using the foil, lift the shortbread out of the pan. If using, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into squares.

Note: for a strong rosemary taste, use up to 4 Tbspn of chopped rosemary. For a more subtle rosemary flavor, use just 2 Tbspn.

Enjoy!

TGIF

2011-12-02T00:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's been a little crazy and hectic here in Real Life land, between Thanksgiving travels and work deadlines and new projects piling up--I'm sure you all know the feeling! But, have no fear, the recently neglected blog should be back up and running soon. Until then, I wish you all a very happy and warm first weekend of December!

Weekend plans for the holiday month? Share below! I, for one, am headed to a cookie swap. Yay, butter and sugar!

Sea Salt and Thyme Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2011-11-20T21:42:00.001-08:00

Everyone is gearing up for epic Thanksgiving cookery right now, which marks the beginning of the upcoming holiday season marathon of roasted turkeys, mashed potatoes, and gluttony galore. In case you're looking for last minute Thanksgiving desserts: might I recommend a drunken pear frangipane tart? or pumpkin pie with caramel brandy hard sauce? (Wait, why did those first two suggestions both involve liquor???) Or, for a twist on a traditional favorite, cheddar apple hand pies?

Sometimes during the holiday season, though, I get tired of all the insane hubbub of endless buffets and fancy eating and zipping from place to place. Sometimes, I just want to slow down, take some time, stare out the window at the crisp winter days, wrap my hands around a mug of tea or hot chocolate or warm apple cider or milk while sitting by a cozy, crackling fire, listen to my favorite Christmas music, and just enjoy the holiday season and the twinkle of the Christmas lights reflecting off of the walls. For those days, this is the cookie you'll want to nosh on: seasalt and thyme chocolate chunk cookies.

This cookie is your wonderfully nostalgic, just-perfectly-chewy chocolate chip cookie (with a bit of delicate crumb still) remixed into something sophisticated and ever so "adult"--or worthy of the adult table!--, with a sprinkling of sea salt and a touch of fresh, earthy thyme. When paired with the mix of dark and semisweet large chocolate chunks, the sea salt and thyme make this cookie surprisingly novel yet familiar. I got a lot of "ooooo! What is that secret ingredient that you put in here?" moments from people who tried these cookies. And then you can just smugly and silently smile in reply. Because every holiday moment should have its share of magic and mystery. ;-)

Have a very happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Read on for recipe....

Sea Salt and Thyme Chocolate Chunk Cookies
adapted very loosely from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home
makes ~20-30 cookies

140 gr unbleached bread flour
185 gr all purpose flour
3/4 tspn baking soda
1 tspn coarse salt
2 Tbspn fresh thyme leaves
2 sticks (1/2 lb.) butter, cold and in small cubes
200 gr (1 cup) dark brown sugar
150 gr (3/4 cup) white sugar
1 Tbspn molasses
2 eggs
142 gr (5 oz.) semisweet chocolate chunks
142 gr (5 oz.) dark chocolate chunks
sea salt
water, in mister

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare sheet pans lined with parchment paper or silpats.
2. In a bowl, whisk to combine the bread flour, all purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and fresh thyme leaves. Set aside.
3. In a mixer bowl with the paddle attachment, cream the butter for about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
4. Gradually add the brown sugar, white sugar, and molasses to the butter, beating until light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Mix in the dry ingredients and then fold in the chocolate chunks until well-distributed.
7. Form each cookie using about two tablespoons of dough per cookie. Roll into a ball and place on the prepared pan, pressing down slightly to form a thick disc. Leave room between each cookie--they will spread. Sprinkle a small amount of sea salt on each cookie and mist gently with water before baking.
8. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until the edges of the cookies are just turning brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan on a rack for two minutes before removing the cookies from the pan and cooling directly on a rack.

Enjoy!

TGIF

2011-11-17T23:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving! Does anyone else around here get the feeling that time's moving faster and faster by the day?! Slow down and wait for me, please! is how I'm constantly feeling--you know, like in the movies, running desperately after a train that's speeding out of the station without you. *sigh*

Anyways, enough about how too busy I am, and more about food! and photography! Gabriela over at What Liberty Ate has put together an absolutely beautiful and lush magazine spin-off of her blog. There are several wonderful interviews with bloggers around the world in it--including me! :) It was very flattering to be included with such great company, so please go check it out!

Happy Friday-before-black-Friday, everyone!

Apple Cider Donuts

2011-11-12T14:11:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I feel as if my East Coast friends delight in going out of their way to point out all of the awesome and cool things we're missing here in California, as if to make up for the fact that we do have (relatively) mild weather and access to an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables all year round. "The blueberries are better!" I'll hear, or "The corn is far superior." Or "You don't have seasons here." (Actually, we do. Just subtle ones, and you have to have lived here for a long time to perceive them, but that's part of the charm.) And sure, every place has what it's good at, what makes it special, and that's what's neat about it--that's why I love traveling, so there's no need to go about rubbing it all in anyone else's faces, people! Harumph.

Rant aside, enter apple cider donuts. I first heard of these beauts last year, during one of my friend's "California doesn't have x" conversations. Then, this year, another friend based in NYC instagrammed a photo of apple cider donuts about to be devoured (Ah! You foodies on Instagram and Twitter torture me so!) and Jackie, a fellow tortured foodie/photographer, and I decided that something must be done about this situation. So we set out on our own apple cider donut -making adventure! (If this were a movie, cue the montage of hilariously random escapades on the Quest for the Cider Donut.)

These donuts! were yummy--crispy fried outsides, with cinnamon sugar crunch, and fluffy, cake insides. mmmmmm. They don't really taste much like apple, to my surprise--though I'm told they aren't actually supposed to--but they are nice and cinnamon-y and spicy. Jackie and I took to dipping ours in our mugs of hot apple cider (something my grandpa taught me to do with Chinese donuts and sweet soy milk), which made these donuts even more delicious. ...or coffee! they are good with a hot cup of dark roast, too.

Then we took to photographing our creations! It is so much fun to watch another photographer in action, and it's amazing to see how different people perceive the exact same subject in such drastically different ways: it's a wonderful reminder of how diversity makes this world a much more interesting and exciting place. Sure, you could attribute the differences in our images to cameras or lenses, but when it comes down to it, I'd like to think that a lot of it is about the photographer, our individual experiences, how we see and interpret the world. Such fun to remember that not everyone has the same set of eyes, or heads and hearts behind them!

Jackie also managed to capture some rare photos of my kitchen in action, so if you've ever wondered what behind-the-scenes desserts for breakfast headquarters looks like, please go check out her post about our donut adventure! Somehow, she's managed to magically make my perpetually messy kitchen look dreamy. :-D

P.S. If you remember, Jackie and I went traipsing around Hakone Gardens together in the summer. Check out our posts from that afternoon here and here!

Read on for recipes....

Hot Apple Cider
makes 1 pot

6 cups unfiltered apple juice
1 cup water
4 cinnamon sticks
15 cloves
3 star anise pods
1/2 orange, sliced

1. Combine ingredients in a pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy hot.

Apple Cider Donuts
adapted from Hearth Restaurant, via smitten kitchen
makes twelve 3 1/2" donuts and twelve 1" donut holes

1/2 cup apple cider, recipe below
1 3/4 cups AP flour
1 tspn baking power
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/4 tspn ground cinnamon
1/4 tspn grated nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1/4 tspn salt
2 Tbspn butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 egg
1/4 cup buttermilk
oil for frying

for sugar coating:
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbspn ground cinnamon

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, gently simmer the apple cider for about 20-30 minutes, until reduced to 2 Tablespoons. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. In a bowl, mix to combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth and light. Gradually beat in the sugar and brown sugar. Add the egg, reduced apple cider, and buttermilk and beat until combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until just combined--do not overmix.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle lightly with flour. Turn the dough onto the parchment and flatten until 1/2" thick. Freeze for 20-30 minutes, until slightly hardened.
6. Using a 3 1/2" circle cutter and a 1" cutter, cut out donut shapes and donut holes. Return the cut dough to the freezer for another 20-30 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, heat the oil until 350 degrees F.
8. In a shallow bowl, whisk together the sugar and cinnamon for the sugar coating. Set aside.
9. Remove the donuts from the freezer and fry a few at a time, cooking each side for about a minute until golden brown before flipping to the other side. Remove from oil and drain briefly on a paper towel before rolling in the sugar coating. Let cool briefly before serving.

Enjoy!

TGIF: Scenes from Frog's Leap

2011-11-10T23:27:00.001-08:00

As previously promised, here are more scenes from my recent visit to Frog's Leap. It has been a few years since I'd been to the winery last, and in that time, they've definitely grown leaps and bounds. Last time I visited, it was a quiet and sleepy little winery, just starting to make it big, and this time around, it's clear that the secret of this wonderful place has gotten out, because it was packed with tasters and visitors. Yet, somehow, this place still manages to keep its little small-winery charm, especially nestled between the huge Napa Valley behemoth wineries that taste so corporate. Plus, they're still one of the only ones doing dry-farmed, sustainable, and organic wine-making--a huge bonus in my book.

This kitty! was there the last time I visited, perched on the same couch in the same position. She's an old cat now, but she still manages to be the sweetest thing ever.

A winery employee teaching us about different types of grapes and how they have to take care of them.

I love the smell of barrel rooms, with the earthiness of the woods, and the vague dampness from the cool and the wine. It's amazing to see how many barrels are stacked here (and in the basement level below), and how the wine stains the wood a bright maroon red.

For more Frog's Leap scenes and grape-inspired deliciousness --> this previous post.

This week has sort of flown by faster than ever! But that's what happens when you're having fun and getting swamped at work all at the same time. In any case, I hope everyone has a beautiful November weekend!

Concord Grape Sorbet

2011-11-08T02:04:00.000-08:00

Concord grapes! These things are a-mazing. Until a year ago, I had no idea what concord grapes were. And yet, all over the internets and all through the markets, I heard people buzzing about these grapes, how wonderful they are, how awesomely grape-y they are. "What in the world?!--People are insane," I thought smugly. ... until finally one day last fall, someone at the farmers' market offered me a sample concord grape.

The moment that I popped the grape into my mouth, I was stunned. From out of the thick skin burst a huge punch of GRAPE! juice. Like, there was no actual grape flesh--just 100% juice. And I was startled to actually recognize the flavor: this--concord grapes, apparently--was what every kid could identify blindfolded as quintessential lunchbox grape juice, or the ultra-sweet and ultra-purple grape-flavored popsicles. This was Grape, the very definition.

[click photo for larger image]

Unfortunately by the time I had discovered the wonderfulness of concord grapes last fall, their season had come to a close. So I waited (very impatiently, bugging the farmers at the market every week) for the reappearance of concords, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them when they did show up: concord grape sorbet.

The wait was well worth it! because this concord grape sorbet is every bit of juicy, sweet, grape-packed nostalgia that you remember from childhood, in a super-smooth sorbet form. It's so refreshing and perfect for the end of a heavy, starch-filled autumn meal, and the color! is absolutely gorgeous as well.

I loved this sorbet so much that I came *this close* to not posting it--I wanted to keep it my little IRL secret! :) But then, when a fellow blogger came to town and I took her and another good blogger friend to tour one of my favorite wineries in Napa/Rutherford, I just couldn't resist a grape-inspired post. Plus, some secrets are just too good not to share!

Many more photos from Napa forthcoming! It's just too gorgeous up there to fit it all in one post!

Read on for recipe....

Concord Grape Sorbet
adapted from David Lebovitz

2 1/4 lb. (1 kg) concord grapes, stemmed
1/3 cup water
6 Tbspn (90 gr) sugar
4 Tbspn red wine

1. Combine grapes and water in a saucepan. Cover and cook, stirring periodically, for about 4-7 minutes until the grapes are soft and juices are dark purple.
2. Remove from heat and press the grapes through a fine mesh strainer to extract all of the liquid, about 3 cups total.
3. Add the sugar and wine to the grape juice. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved.
4. Chill the mixture thoroughly and freeze in ice cream maker of choice.

Enjoy!

TGIF

2011-11-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

[click on photo to view it large!]

Everyone who had a hard, tough week: raise your hands!

Okay, for those of us with two hands raised way up (and even for those of you with one hand raised or who are too exhausted and drained to raise any hands), I hope for all hopes and for the sake of sanity that next week will be better.

Until then, here's a ray of sunshine for us all. Happy weekend!

Cheddar Apple Hand Pies

2011-11-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

I have a snacking problem. Mainly, I find it really hard to snack in moderation. I've given this problem a lot of deep thought, and I've finally figured out why: it's because I have to have a balance of sweet and savory. If I snack on something sweet, I end up craving something salty, and then something sweet again, and then something salty, and then... well, you get the picture. It's *not* a pretty sight.

Having identified the problem (yay, me!), I set about to try to solve it. Was there a way to get both sweet and savory in one bite in wonderful snack form? This is what I came up with: white cheddar and cinnamon apple hand pies.

The solution seemed so simple, really--actually, staring me in the face at the market, which is currently brimming with crisp apples galore!, with every variety you've heard of and some hierloom varieties you've never heard of (and some varieties even the farmers themselves have never heard of--no joke, they sell these as "unknown" varieties). "Apples," I thought to myself (a lot of thinking to myself is involved in my life--it may or may not be a good thing), "apples make a healthy snack." And so it was, me carrying bagfuls of apples home, only to be combined with butter and sugar in pie form. ("healthy" is a relative term....)

Of course, the salty ingredient to go with tart, juicy, cinnamon-y apples would have to be cheddar. Preferably the sharpest white cheddar you can find in the store, so that the flavor pops out in the pie crust. (Also, I used white cheddar for you East Coast folks who are always complaining that our West Coast yellow cheddar just doesn't cut it--happy now?) And, of course the form factor had to be something that could fit conveniently in one hand and be eaten on the go: it's supposed to be snack food after all!

[click on photo for larger image]

The result was a hand pie that is the perfect marriage of sweet and savory, tart and spiced and salty and sharp. The dough flakes off like soft, lightly crisped shards of cheesy butter straight into your mouth, revealing an inside of warm, sweet, fruity apple pie filling, all topped off with a tiny bit of coarse sugar crunch sprinkled on the outside. When baking, these pies fill the house with a wonderfully complex aroma--baking cheese wafting through the rooms to give way to the amazing smell of bubbling apples. Even though I usually open all of the windows when I bake, this time I closed all of the windows and doors of the house to keep the autumnal scents in just a little bit longer. Also, these hand pies are great snack foods because you can prep a bunch ahead of time and stick un-baked ones in the freezer in a zip-top bag, popping one or two in the oven as needed whenever you want.

I have to say that hands down, these cheddar apple hand pies are some of my favorite baked goods that I've made, like, ever--I kid you not. You *must* try these. They were definitely the sweet-and-savory, one-bite-has-it-all snacks I was looking for to fix my snacking problem.... but.... there's only one issue....

It appears that I made them too delicious to just eat one (or two or three) of. Oops.

Welcome to November, everyone!

Read on for recipe....

White Cheddar and Cinnamon Apple Hand Pies
makes ~12-14 pies

2 cups (260 gr) AP flour
1/4 tspn salt
4 oz.(113 gr) extra sharp white cheddar cheese
2/3 cup (151 gr) butter, cold
5-6 Tbspn water, cold
500 gr apples
1 Tbspn lemon juice
1/4 cup (25 gr) sugar
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1/8 tspn ground cloves
1/2 tspn freshly grated nutmeg
heavy cream
turbinado sugar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Coarsely grate the cheese. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the cheese and cold butter into the flour until the size of small peas.
3. Gradually add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together when pressed. Do not overmix!
4. Wrap the dough in parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Peel, core, and chop the apples into small chunks. Toss to combine the apples with the lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
6. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
7. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out to about 1/8" thick. Cut out 5 inch circles. Fill each circle with apples and fold in half. Press the edges together tightly, crimping with a fork. Cut three small slits on the top of each pie. Chill the pies in the refrigerator or freezer briefly if the dough has softened.
8. Before baking, brush the tops of the pies with heavy cream. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
9. Bake at 450 degrees F for five minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 15 more minutes, until the crust is golden.
10. Remove from oven and cool briefly before serving.

Enjoy!

TGIF: tastes of fall

2011-10-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

This week, my best friend moved into her new place, and I went to help her take her kitchen out for its inaugural spin. Upon arrival, what do I discover but a beautiful house and a gorgeously laid-out kitchen, complete with a Viking range and a cabinet full of Heath Ceramics tableware! I think I was ready to move in with her right then and there. The house itself is full of rustic old-Berkeley charm and light that I grew up loving, and the backyard boasts so many wonderful fruit trees. For dinner, we made a simple menu inspired by what's currently in the markets:

---

A Fall Housewarming Menu

Pomegranate, crisp Bartlett pear, and wild arugula salad

with lemon-balsamic vinegar dressing

Chanterelle and sage risotto

with mascarpone, parmigiano reggiano, and red pepper flakes

Sauteed young ginger-honey figs

with young ginger, honey, and a Palmier cookie
---

The combination of fried sage and chanterelle mushrooms--all earthy and slightly smokey--was so good in an ultra-creamy mascarpone risotto! Plus, I love making risotto because it forces you to stand there and stir patiently, ladling broth and watching the rice slowly plump up to al dente perfection. It's a perfect breather, analog moment in an otherwise hectic, wired life.

I hope you all have wonderful weekends planned! What are you making with fall fruits and veggies? Share below!

P.S. Help me support breast cancer research!

Lemon Fritter-sticks and Nutmeg Pudding

2011-10-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

It takes me a lot of time and hard work to maintain my 'geek' street cred. Take, for instance, what I spent my summer doing (when not traveling): watching the entire rebooted series of Doctor Who, beginning to end. I felt that it was my duty and obligation as a self-proclaimed, card-carrying geek to fill myself in on the cultural phenomenon that is the Doctor. (that, and Star Trek: Deep Space 9 hadn't been released on Netflix on-demand yet.) And I have to say, Doctor Who. is. awesome.

The one sad part about the show is that it doesn't seem to be quite as ubiquitous here as in the UK, so it's difficult to find people who "get" the Doctor Who references that I drop. Laughing silently with yourself is just not the same. So imagine my surprise and delight when my Doctor knowledge actually came in handy one day in class, of all places! [warning: geeky story starts here] One guy in class was joking around about true 'universal' statements in language, having come up with the seeming universal "All language must occur in time." (Backstory: universal statements about languages are really hard to prove and are constantly being debunked. For instance, think all languages have numbers? Some linguists have claimed that certain languages don't have numbers like we do, only concepts like "one, a few, many.") From across the room, a girl in the class suddenly shouts, "Not the Doctor's language! If he occupies the same point in time twice, then his language is occurring out of time!" Now, it will immediately occur to all of you detail-oriented Doctor fans that this statement is blatantly untrue, because the Doctor cannot cross his own timeline, a fact which I quickly pointed out to the class. Finally, in a coup de grâce, my friend in class leaned over and made a time-traveling and theoretical phonology joke that is just far too geeky to print on this blog. #win.

So it seems that I am slowly discovering a hidden world of Doctor fans around me. In reporting this incident on my facebook wall, I proceeded to learn that one of my advisors is an even bigger (and detail-oriented) Doctor fan that I am. ... Here's a mystery of the universe for you: why is it that your advisors are always better than you at everything??? (And please don't say it's because they're doctors....!)

[click photo for larger image]

In my Doctor Who-craze, I really wanted to be a character out of the show for Halloween. If I had the means and time, my first choice would be a Weeping Angel, because they are some of the awesomest and scariest villains on the show. But, in lieu of a costume since I won't have much time this year, I thought I would dress my dessert up as something Doctor Who -inspired: fritter-sticks and pudding, a reference to the favorite (and disgusting) fishsticks and pudding combination of the latest Doctor incarnate. This non-savory version is much, much more appetizing than fish and sweet pudding--I assure you--, consisting of lemon yogurt fritters and vanilla nutmeg baked custard: subtle spices of nutmeg and vanilla in the smooth cream, and a sweet tang of lemon in the deep-fried dough. Eat it as the Doctor does: dipping the fresh, sugar-coated fritters into the pudding!

Even if you aren't a Doctor Who fan, or you have now decided to stop reading this blog because I have betrayed how much of a geek I am, at least try this recipe before you go. No geek street cred required!

P.S. Favorite Doctor moments? Share below! Here's mine.
P.P.S. Also, my how lucky that I happen to have a Tardis-blue table on hand! :)

Read on for recipes....

"Fritter-sticks and Pudding"

Lemon-Yog(h)urt Fritters
makes 15-20 four-inch fritters

oil for frying
2 cups (296 gr) AP flour
1 tspn baking powder
zest of 1 lemon, freshly grated
3/4 cup (150 gr) sugar, and more for rolling
2 eggs
3/4 cup (188 gr) whole fat plain yogurt
juice of 1 lemon
1 tspn vanilla extract

1. Heat the oil until 375 degrees F.
2. Meanwhile, whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, lemon zest, and 3/4 cup sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, lemon juice, and vanilla extract.
4. Stir to combine the wet and dry ingredients. The batter will be thick.
5. Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe 4-inch long pieces into the hot oil, a few at a time. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side until the outsides are deep golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on a wire rack.
6. Once they have cooled briefly, roll the fritters in sugar.

Vanilla-Nutmeg Custard
makes four 8-oz. servings

2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup (67 gr) sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 tspn grated nutmeg, and more for serving
1 vanilla bean

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare four 8-oz. ramekins in a hot water bath.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream and grated nutmeg. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the cream. Add the pod as well. Bring the cream to a simmer.
4. Remove the vanilla pod. Temper the egg yolks by slowly pouring the heated cream into the yolks, whisking the entire time.
5. Divide the custard between the ramekins. Cover with aluminum foil.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the edges are set but the custard still jiggles when gently moved. Remove from the oven, remove from the water bath, and let cool. Sprinkle with more grated nutmeg before serving warm or cold.

Fritter recipe loosely adapted from Tartelette.
Custard recipe loosely adapted from Donna Hay.

Enjoy!

TGIF

2011-10-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

You! Please help me support Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Read about it here. And thank you to those of you who already have. :)

If we survive the weekend here in the Bay Area (after a couple of small earthquakes today, who knows what's gonna happen?), see you all next week! In the meantime, this looks like a weekend of work for me. *sigh*. Share your weekend plans below!

Think Pink! Strawberry and Cinnamon Cupcakes

2011-10-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

[Help desserts for breakfast fight Breast Cancer!]

It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month! This is one of the causes I feel strongly about, having had close family members and friends fight and survive breast cancer. It's true what they say: you never really think cancer can happen to people you know until it actually does happen to people you know. So please. Be aware. Get tested. Spread the word. Support breast cancer research.

One of the reasons I always dedicate time on this blog to talking about breast cancer is because I feel like it's something that I can actually do to help. When my family member was going through her fight with cancer, I never quite felt like it was real. I think it was just hard for me to imagine or relate to what she was going through, and, being a person of action who possesses absolutely no patience, it was incredibly frustrating to me that there was nothing I could do to just *fix* it and immediately make everything better again. I also found it really difficult to imagine the possibility of a world without her in it, and I'm very glad that I never had to actually face that situation.

(hm... I apologize if that sounded clunky. It's difficult to articulate these thoughts and feelings while respecting the privacy of everyone involved....)

[click on image to enlarge]

This year, I wanted to ask you all for help in doing what we can to fight breast cancer. To this end, I've created two limited edition "Think Pink!" greeting card collections of pink-inspired photography that's been featured here on desserts for breakfast. Each collection has five greeting cards (they're blank inside): one set features "light" images and one set features "dark" images. All of the proceeds of the sale of these cards will be donated to the American Cancer Society to support breast cancer research, so please help me in this cause!

>>Cards available here<<

These are limited edition, so once they're gone, they're gone and won't be back, so make sure to get your set today! Single cards may also be available sometime soon, or you can contact me if you have any special requests for larger orders, etc. Please note that due to some printing delays, the dark collection won't ship until next week.

To thank you in helping me support the breast cancer awareness cause, here are "Think Pink!" strawberry and cinnamon cupcakes, also known as re-imagined "pink lady" cupcakes--sweet, very strawberry-y, and with a bit of tart and spice in the cinnamon-cream cheese frosting. Oh, and I think you should definitely eat these while watching Funny Face on Girl's Night!

Read on for recipe....

"Think Pink!" Strawberry and Cinnamon Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

for strawberry cupcakes:
1/2 lb. frozen strawberries, thawed with juices
1 1/2 Tbspn (17 gr) + 3/4 cup (150 gr) sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 1/2 cups (200 gr) AP flour
1/4 tspn salt
2 tspn baking powder
3 egg whites
1/4 cup whole milk
1 stick butter, at room temperature

1. Combine thawed strawberries (with juices) and 1 1/2 Tbspn sugar in a small saucepan. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the saucepan. Cook and simmer until the strawberries have reduced by a half, leaving about 3/4 cup. Puree in a food processor and let cool completely.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare and line 12 cupcake molds.
3. Whisk to combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the egg whites and whole milk. Set aside.
5. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and continue beating.
6. Add the wet and dry ingredients in two additions, alternating between dry and wet. Beat until combined.
7. Divide the batter between the cupcake molds, filling each mold to 3/4 full.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes come out cleanly. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.

for cinnamon-cream cheese frosting:
4 Tbspn (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (300 gr) powdered sugar, sifted
1 tspn ground cinnamon
8 oz. (113 gr) cream cheese, cold

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined.
2. Gradually beat in the sifted powdered sugar and cinnamon.
3. Gradually add small chunks of the cold cream cheese, beating well after each addition.
4. Frost cupcakes immediately. Top with sprinkles, if desired.

Cake recipe loosely adapted from Sky High Cakes.

Enjoy!

TGIF

2011-10-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

Current food obsessions include sweeter-than-sweet farmers market tomatoes and fresh, creamy, and milky mozzarella cheese. To enjoy: Whisk 1 part honey and 2 parts cherry wood-aged balsamic vinegar. Drizzle atop thick slices of tomatoes and mozzarella. Add a few leaves of fresh Italian basil and a quick dash of sea salt. Savor the perfection that is a really good, in season tomato. Mop up leftover juices with crusty, fresh-baked baguette chunks.

List your current food obsessions in the comments below!

Postcards from Summer: Hawai'i, part II

2011-10-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

I had an exciting post planned for today, but unfortunately due to powers beyond my control, that post had to be postponed for a week. :( But! That gives me time to finish telling you about my Hawai'i trip from the end of this past summer--about high time, too, since it's not really summer anymore.... *sad face*

(If you missed it previously, catch up on Part 1 of the trip here.)

First off--the food! Oh my, I was in tropical fruit heaven. Having spent good portions of time growing up in a tropical country, I know that there's just nothing like the fruit available in tropical locales, and I *loved* being back in a place where I could eat passion fruit all day every day without breaking the bank! Not to mention the apple bananas, and the sweet pineapple and the mango and dragonfruit and starfruit! (Hold the papaya, please. I've never been a big fan.) Also, I noticed one morning that all of the fruit I'd been eating was yellow. Huh.

Tip: fresh passion fruit mixed with lightly sweetened iced green tea = divine.

Then, there were the desserts: (No, we didn't eat gecko--this little guy was just hanging out on my chair at the donut shop.) For one, the malasadas--Portuguese donuts filled with oozy and jammy fruit fillings (our favorite was the blackberry). We tried a couple malasada places, but we thought Baker Tom's was by far the best. It's half malasada stand, half autoshop garage, which makes for quite an interesting roadside vibe.

Also, mochi! Like, some of the best mochi I have ever had, from Two Ladies Kitchen--soft and fluffy, some stuffed with red bean and juicy fresh strawberries, some lightly flavored with passion fruit or peach--made pretty much on the spot for you as you wait. So deliciously subtle and melt-in-your-mouth-y. I was sad that the mochi wouldn't stay fresh enough for me to bring some back for my dad, a huge mochi fan.

And how could I forget the shaved ice! Trying this famous shaved ice place took us five tries! Every time we drove by, it was closed. And then it just so happened that the next time we tried, it was Memorial Day, and they were closed. Then, we went and the store was actually open, but they didn't start serving shaved ice until 2pm, so we got a "please come back later." Finally--finally, we got our Itsu's shaved ice. I got passion fruit and pineapple, of course. As much as I adore passion fruit though, I think I've discovered that pineapple is the superior shaved ice flavor!

When we weren't stuffing our bellies full of any and all famous island desserts we could get our grubby little hands on, there was--of course--the ocean. This is where the Big Island definitely was not like what I expected Hawai'i to be. Where there were beaches, they were made of jet-black sand or porous black stone, made when hot lava hits the cold ocean water and cools so quickly that it shatters. Not all of the beaches on the Big Island were like this, but most of the ones where we were on the eastern side of the island were.

The same forces (read: volcanoes) that made the black sand also created these wonderful areas packed full with deep, wide, and geometrically-heated tidepools that made for some wonderful snorkeling. My favorite, favorite, favorite part hands-down of the entire trip was swimming with the magnificent (and large!) sea turtles that frequent these warm spots. It's amazing to see a turtle serenely glide past you underwater just bare inches away while looking at you warily out of the corner of one eye. I think the one I encountered was probably wondering what bizarre and awkward creature I was flailing alongside him.

There were so many other really cool creatures and coral in the tidepools. It was my first time snorkeling, so seeing all of the life underwater was just nothing short of spectacular. If only the lap pool I usually swim in were so interesting, I might actually go work out more!

The last day we were in Hawai'i, we splurged a bit and did the whole "resort" thing, just to have had that experience. Mauna Lani, the resort we stayed at, also had good open-ocean snorkeling, so I got to see some unimaginably giant coral out there. At one point, I even saw a huge glittery rainbow fish that reminded me of this book that I used to read when I was little, but he swam off way too quickly for me to point him out to my snorkeling companion.

Finally, the last night, I was walking out on the beach on my own when I was rewarded with a gorgeous, traditionally-Hawai'ian sunset. Mostly I just stood there gaping at it, not even taking any Instagram photos on the phone to live-tweet, but of course, I couldn't help but sneak one last shot with my camera.....

...And that's it for Hawai'i and the summer. It's been a wonderful one! 'Til next year....

more Postcards from Summer 2011:

the Big Island, Hawai'i, part 1
the French Laundry, Yountville, California

Hakone Gardens, California

Yosemite Valley, California

Edinburgh, Scotland