Last week, I was at Paris des Chefs – an event that had the best chefs and designers collaborate on creating food together. Watching them at work was awe inspiring. I was particularly influenced by Alain Passard’s approach to food and his irreproachable knife skills. My favourite workshops were, of course, those that required oodles of butter, sugar, flour and eggs. I was especially keen on learning to make Kouign Amann. Why? The Amélie fan that I am (who isn’t?), I wanted to make the same cake that she bakes in the movie.

Kouign Amann is a baked sweet specialty that hails from Brittany. In Brittany, ‘Kouign’ means cake and ‘Amann’ means butter. And mind you, there’s a lot of butter. Lots and lots of it. Probably the most I’ve ever seen going into a cake. The layers of the cake are made with a firm dough that is folded with butter and a good sprinkling of sugar before every fold. On baking, the sugar seeps through the layers and caramelises the outside, while leaving the inside soft and tender. Imagine a caramelised croissant. It’s even better than that.

At the workshop, I took my spot right in front of the chef to make sure I get step-by-step photos for the whole recipe since it can be a little complicated, especially if you’re not familiar with viennoiserie. This recipe, will all its butter and sugar is a recipe worth keeping forever (or in my case, blogging). If you have a cast iron or copper pan, use that. I can only imagine how gorgeously caramelised it will be. Oh, also, topped with apples or plums.

Note: This recipe makes a lot of kouign amann. It’s two of the baking trays that you see pictured below. Because it’s so rich, you won’t need more than 1 per person (I couldn’t eat more than half!). So scaling down the recipe might be a good idea if you’re not feeding a part of 12 people.

Koiugn Amann Recipe

For the dough:
800g /1.8lb flour
25g / 5tsp salt
30g / 1oz butter
15g / 0.5oz fresh yeast (or 5g instant yeast)
400ml /13.5 fl oz water

For the layering:
650g / 23 oz / 3 1/4th cup butter
400g / 14 oz/ 2 cups sugar

1. Make a firm dough will all the ingredients, making sure not to place the yeast and salt together. Mix together by hand or by using a stand mixer for about 10-12 minutes.

2 Form a ball, place it in a bowl and score the top of the dough with a cross. This increases the surface are for the dough to expand. Cover with a cling film and let the dough rest in a warm place for 30-60 minutes.

3 Next, use a slab of butter that’s meant for using to make laminated dough. Of course, neither of us has that, so we’ll cut up sticks of butter to a thickness of about 1 cm and place them next to each other for this.

4 Roll out the dough to form a rectangle that’s about 45x25cm in dimension. Place the butter (dimensions 20x25cm) in the centre.

5 Fold the dough over the butter from both the sides. With each fold, dust the flour with sugar.

6 Rotate the dough by 90º, so that the fold is now perpendicular to you when you roll the dough.

7 Roll to three times it’s length. Dust with sugar.

8 Fold the dough over the centre, just like it was done in step 5.

9 Roll the dough to thrice its length again. Dust with sugar.

10 Fold it into thirds again.

11 Roll out perpendicular to the fold to thrice its length. Dust with sugar.

12 Finally, fold the dough into quarters, as shown in the photograph.

13 The kouign amann dough in now ready. Roll it out once more to thickness of slightly under 1 cm.

14 When you cut vertically into the dough, you can see distinct layers.

15 You can cut a square of 15 cms and then fold in the edges to form a circle, or you can cut vertical stips, roll them up and place in cups to make individual servings.

16 Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes before baking in a preheated oven at 170ºC.

16 Based on the size of the cake dough, the baking time will vary. Bake until golden brown, and the sugar is caramelised.

17 Remove from the oven, turn the cake over so that the underside can caramelise just as well.
18 Kouignn Amann is ready – shimmering with butter.

19 Eat up. Now.

I did it.  I finally did it. I ate raw oysters.

I set a goal for myself to eat raw oysters when I first visited Paris, but I chickened out. I imagined raw oysters to be alive and squiggly, dirty with ocean grit. I imagined that on putting the oyster in my mouth, I’d have it jump up and down in there before I could swallow it. I was almost fearful of eating raw oysters, but always hoping that I’d eat them some day, get over my fear, and hopefully, like them.

When I was walking around Marché Enfants Rouges in Paris earlier today with my friend, Jennie and her boyfriend, Luis, they suggested we get some oysters. Now, Jennie and I had planned an afternoon of eating, wandering about, and drawing inspiration for our weekly pop-up lunches (which we did, in addition to eating miso soup, tartines at Poilâne’s Cuisine de Bar, and sipping on Moroccan mint tea). But oysters did not feature on that list. Thinking this just might be the day I eat raw oysters, I agreed, with the disclaimer that I might back out at the eleventh hour.

A plate of 6 oysters arrived at the table. In another plate was a shot glass filled with red wine vinegar, a wedge of lemon and a tiny wheel of butter. My heart raced, unsure if I would go through with this.

First, I watched Jennie, a recent oyster convert, eat her oyster. She detached it from the shell, drained off a bit off the sea water (she finds it too overpowering) and squeezed some lemon before she slid it into her mouth. She smiled, and I felt a bit of relief.

Look, taste, slurp, swallow.
Photo credit: Jennie. Oyster eating credit: Jennie and Luis.

My turn. I picked up an oyster from the bed of seaweed it was sitting on and opened the shucked bivalve. I nearly butchered it trying to detach it from the shell like an amateur.  I drained off the seawater, squeezed on the lemon and popped it into my mouth. It slithered into my mouth and slipped right at the back. I let it sit for a couple of seconds wondering what to do next, and then almost immediately swallowed it, slightly scared to bite into it. I should have thought this through: are we supposed to swallow it? Or do we have to bite into it and chew it? Jennie and Luis were at odds: Luis said he always swallows it, while Jennie bites into it once or twice to get some flavour from it.

The other point of contention was whether to keep the sea water in or drain it off. Luis was assertive about retaining it “because that’s where all the flavour is,” he opined. Jennie only drained it out because she found it a wee bit strong, but when eating her next oyster, she had the sea water as well and changed her stance. I did just that in the company of two regular oyster eaters.

How was it? Fun. Exciting. And above all, liberating. I finally got over my fear of eating raw oysters. It wasn’t fishy, it didn’t move and it tasted good. Not just that, I actually loved it. Absolutely. Utterly.

Second oyster: I opened it, squeezed a bit of lemon and this time, I let the sea water sit inside and had it all.  I also bit into the oyster once before swallowing it. I loved the citric zing, I loved the feeling of the slippery oyster in my mouth, I loved the smell of the ocean. I loved it all.

Close to where I live there’s an oyster man who sets up a table right outside the boulangerie every Sunday morning (now you where to find me). Hopefully, he’ll be nice and teach me how to shuck them and we’ll eat oysters right there.

Now, to make up for lost time.  Also, next goal: escargot.

Whenever I spot an apple recipe in a book, it gets bookmarked. Especially lately. I’ve been consuming apple desserts as if they’re they only kind available: apple tart, apple strudel, green apple sorbet, apple cake, apple bread. Anything at all made with apple is picked up without a second thought.

I’d bookmarked this recipe in Falling Cloudberries (one of my favourite cookbooks!) a while ago and I finally got around to making the cake a few weeks ago for the first time when we had friends over for dinner. I thought it was a bit much for 4 people, but it got over sooner than I imagined. I made it again, because I just had to share the recipe with you.

It’s an incredibly simple recipe: You cut up the apples and lay them in the baking dish, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and pour over the cake batter and pop it into the oven. One thing to be sure of it to always cut the apples much larger than you think is necessary. They cook down quite a bit, so it’s important that by the end of baking the apple chunks are substantial (I used small golden apples so I quartered them). As per the book, this isn’t meant to be an upside down cake, but I did just that so that the apples could be doused in caramel sauce. Now, about the sauce: if you’d like the sauce to seep through the cake and flavour it, pour it when the cake is still warm. If you want the caramel sauce only to sit on the apples, then wait for the sauce and cake to cool completely.

Caramel Apple Cake

Yield: 9-10 servings
Adapted from: Falling Cloudberries (USA | UK | India)

Ingredients:
3-4 apples (I used 7 small Golden apples), peeled and cut lenghtwise
1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
7 tbsp / 100g butter, softened
1 cup / 200g sugar, plus a little more for sprinkling
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 2/3 cup / 200g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup / 80ml milk

Topping: Caramel Sauce

Equipment:
A 9 inch square pan or a 10” springform cake pan.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF/190ºC. Grease and flour the baking pan.
2. Arrange the apples into the pan so that the sit tightly. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
3. In a bowl, using a stand mixer or an electric mixer, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla, followed by the egg. Mixing them in one at a time, until the mixture is soft and fluffy.
4. Whisk together the flour and baking powder and fold it into the egg and butter mixture. Finally, stir in the milk until it forms a consistent batter.
5. Pour the cake batter over the apples and smooth out the surface.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
7. Let the cake cool down for ten minutes. First, run a knife along the edges of the cake and then place a plate on the pan and turn the cake over. Tap it gently, and the cake will fall into the plate.
8. Now, depending on how you’d like the cake (read above) spoon the caramel sauce over it.

What’s your current favourite apple dessert? Perhaps you have an apple dessert to share with me, one that I absolutely must try?

How to Cut an Artichoke, the Roman way.

Early in the morning at Campo de Fiori, aside from arranging the fresh produce, the vendors are busy trimming the seasonal favourite of Italian: the artichoke. While both small and large artichokes are available whole, the trimmed artichokes, ready to cook, are also on offer.

This is how they do it in Rome: trim the outer tough leaves and thorns, pull out the fibrous choke and then rub vigorously with half a lemon so that they don’t brown. In Venice, however, instead of rubbling the artichoke with lemon, they plunge the trimmed artichokes in cold water.

Here’s the video, unedited, capturing the dexterity of the vendor and the commotion at the morning market.

View the slideshow

On an early Friday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn, had a cup of espresso and a ricotta and cherry pastry from the forno downstairs, and walked to the market I’d heard so much about, 20 metres away.

Campo de Fiori, literally meaning Field of Flowers (which it was, centuries ago), is a bustling square that houses one of the most glorious fresh food markets of Rome. It is positioned right in between River Tiber and Largo Argentina, the square where Caesar was assassinated.

During the day, Campo de Fiori hosts an open-air food market from Monday through Saturday, starting early in the morning and wrapping up by early afternoon. Here you can find seasonal fruits and vegetables, and up until a few years ago there were butchers and fishmongers too. The spice stalls here will leave you spoilt for choice: it  literally looked like there was a concoction created for every Italian dish!  At night, the square transforms into quite the nightspot, when the restaurants lining the square open up.

 When I reached Campo de Fiori food market, the morning buzz was setting in with the vendors arranging their fresh produce and wares. The Italians were their cheery self greeting “Buongiorno!” when they noticed a tourisity me snapping away.  One boisterous vendor even put forth an offer, typical of Italians: “One photo, One kiss!” Another was kind enough to let me record a video of just how they trim artichokes in Rome, a task that I find a wee bit daunting.

There was so much colour at the market: orange from the squashes, purple from the artichokes and treviso, red from the tomatoes and peppers, shades of green from the insalata mista, The lush produce at the market almost made me forget it was winter. And for an artichoke lover, there is no better time to visit.

If you do go there, don’t forget to bite into the Pizza Bianco at the Forno Campo de Fiori for me. I still dream of it at night.

Happy New Year, dear readers!

Thank you for sticking around here for yet another year. Thanks for emailing, commenting and even lurking (Hello Lurkers! Say hi!?). Wish you a delicious year ahead filled with joy, inspiration and magic.

I’m late in wishing you, but I’ve good reason. I’ve been traveling quite a bit over the holidays and I finally got home late last night. On our 14 day trip, my husband and I ate our way through Italy, travelling up from Rome to Milan. We did our own little gelato trail in Rome and Florence. Ate the famous panforte in Siena. Bought gorgeous handmade porcelain in Venice. And cooked in the most beautiful house in Verona. Whenever I knew of a bustling market in the city, I’d wake up early to go photograph the gorgeous produce. I learned so many things on this trip: Popping into the back of bakeries, and making friends with pizzaiolo at the forno I’d go to almost everyday in Rome. Getting a vendor at Campo di Fiori to show me just the right way to cut an artichoke.Tasting olive oils from the seasons’s harvest in Florence, and much more. I even surprised myself by developing a penchant for coffee.

For Christmas eve, we were at the Pantheon for the midnight mass and for New Year’s eve we were at Piazza San Marco, where possibly the entire city of Venice had converged. There, we caught some live performances and fireworks over the waters.

Keeping the New Year food goal list from the past two years alive, I’ve updated all the things I managed to do from the goals last year. This year’s list isn’t too long, because I’ve 6 months of training at Le Cordon Bleu to look forward to with something new to learn every single day.

1. Cook and bake a lot in my newly acquired cast iron skillet.
2. Make my version of Mont Blanc.
3. Make an artichoke and pine nut tart.
4. Make the Abruzzo-style pizza base from the recipe I got from a lady in Venice.
5. Harvest olives in Italy in the fall, and then see them through the crushing process to get a
6. Bake a pumpkin and ricotta flan.
7. Make chausson aux pommes.
8. Perfect 3 salad recipes and make them often.
9. Do something new with garlic.

What are your top food goals?

I’m lucky to be living 20 metres from one of the most colourful food markets in Rome, Campo di Fiori. Today, I woke up early (or perhaps it was all the caffeine I’m enjoying lately) to photograph the gorgeous produce. I ended up photographing artichokes the most. Mostly because that’s what I’m obsessed with on this trip. I’m on a mission to try out artichokes in different forms and artichoke for every meal. Artichokes on a pizza. Deep fried artichoke. Artichoke fritters. Roman style boiled artichoke.

If you have any recommendations for artichoke eating in Rome or actually, any sort of eating, I’m all ears.

I go through cookie phases. I don’t make them for months at a stretch, but when I do, I can’t seem to stop.

With cookies showing up all over the blogosphere this season, I got sucked into the madness as well. First, it was the walnut-rosemary that sat in a cookie tin on my desk. And now, these chocolate stuffed cookies.

It’s a simple cookie dough that you roll out and then stuff with really good chocolate. Stuff them well. Stuff them so that the cookie dough barely encloses it. And then bake them. A good 9-10 minutes later you’ll have warm, cookies oozing with melted chocolate.

Have them warm, pinching them a bit so that the chocolate squirts out. It’s fun.

What’s your current favorite cookie recipe?

Chocolate Stuffed Cookies

Makes 20 cookies

Ingredients:
75g butter
75g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
120g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp milk (or just enough to moisten the dough a bit)
Chocolate callets or chopped chocolate for stuffing the cookies

Equipment: Silicone mat (USA | UK)

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
2. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the vanilla extract followed by the egg yolk and continue to beat until light ad fluffy.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa together before folding into the butter mixture.
4. The dough will be dry and crumbly – it’s supposed to be this way. Add a tablespoon or so of water if you think it’s absolutely necessary.. else wrap the dough in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5. Next, roll our the dough and then cut out circles of diameter 1.5 inches. Place the chocolate (as much as you can fit) and gather together the sides to enclose the chocolate.
6. Place on the cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes.
7. Remove on a cooling rack… eat up. Great dunked in cold milk as well.