My favorite Lemon Cream !!

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There's this recipe from our French Pastry School text book that teaches us how to make the best lemon cream for a filling on a tart or inside a cake, or for your cream puff filling. The possibility of usage for this lemon cream is endless! And I LOVE a good lemony dessert.

Before when I made any sort of lemon tart or lemon filling for a cake, I never would have thought about adding butter to the lemon curd to make it a lemon cream. This is just SO French, adding butter to everything that they get their hands on. Being Taiwanese, (Chinese) we tend to stay away from butter, we think it is very unhealthy to the heart so maybe that's why butter never popped up in my mind to add it to my lemon curd. However, it's ironic, because Asian food are known for it's hot oil flash fry or deep fried foods, and here we are saying No to butter? HA!


So here we have your basic lemon curd ingredients and with the addition of butter to make it a lemon cream. Notice the container of butter? That's A LOT of butter to be emulsifying into your curd. Delicious!
You would go about making your lemon curd by adding sugar to your eggs and lemon juice and then combining the two mixture together then zest your lemon rind into the mix. Then over a hot
water bath, you would cook the mixture to 85degree C to pasteurize your eggs. This is important to do so, if you don't hit 85C, you will run the risk bacteria growth and someone may get seriously ill from food poisoning!

With a digital thermometer measuring the lemon curd that's being cooked over a hot water bath. It's important to keep on whisking as the curd cooks, or else the eggs will end up cooking at the bottom and you will end up getting scrambled lemon eggs. Not very pleasant to eat at all! Keep that whisk going!


When it's time, you add the butter into your curd and by using a hand blender, you will need to emulsify the butter into your curd. This will give you a real smooth, creamy and thick texture that is packed with richness and flavor! I am in love.

Lemon Cream Tart with French Meringue!

French Bread. It's the Soul of the French Bakers.

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Making French bread is quite the thrill!!.. HA.. no.. not really. It's actually quite boring. The only fun part of it is the shaping aspect. The dough is so soft and easy on the hand to play with. I started yesterday with a poolish, which in simple terms is just a starter dough that will give you a boost of flavor in your bread with early fermentation. What is interesting about the Poolish or starter dough is that, it is actually ALIVE! Yup, it's alive. Like frankenstein alive. And just like all living organisms, you need to feed it food to keep it alive and healthy. As for the Poolish, it eats flour, so every morning you feed it with some flour and it's happy. There are stories of crazy bakers, mostly frenchies, where they would bring their poolish around as they travel. This way they can feed it everyday and also make delicious bread where ever they go. It's pretty neat. I think.


As boring as making bread is for me, I still admire the process of making it. It makes me happy to see perfectly shaped dough, ready to be scored and baked. The feel of working with lots amount of flour, eggs, yeast and salt.. getting messy with your hands, sometimes it's annoying but there are times, where you just feel so relaxed with kneading all the ingredients together into a soft dough. The feel of your hands and finger tips, crusty with the bits and pieces of dried dough, yes.. it's quite annoying also but hey! It's well worth the effort and the mess.

 So sometimes we would make up to 40-50 loaves a day of french bread or other types of breads, pastries and desserts, but by the time I get home, I only have 1 loaf of bread in my hand. Yes, I give them all away to people I see. People who I don't even know that I bump into, people who happen to sit next to me on the train, or neighbors that just happen to walk in the elevator when I'm in it.

Final note. People are always so surprised when I offer food to them, and although I'm shy and I don't really like confrontation of such behavior from strangers. I know this loaf of bread, cake, or pastry will make the rest of their night a more positive one. They will go home and say, " Hey honey! guess what.. some asian kid just gave me a free loaf of bread ! " .. lol. strange.. but is it? Should it be? It makes me wonder.. what has this world become to when the thought of giving without asking for anything in return is a suspicious motive. But I'm not going to let that thought stop me from sharing what I love the most. Making YOU happy by doing what I love to do. Sharing the food that i make DUH!!!

Aging or Maturing Your Egg Whites! Loosen those coiled Proteins!

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As strange as this extra but crucial step of aging your egg whites is, the result of it is actually quite beneficial to your success of whipping up a strong meringue. Aging or "maturing" in regards to egg whites is simply just a process of evaporating some of it's moisture content in the whites, and also allowing the coiled proteins to relax over time.



And to further understand the whole "coiled" proteins and how it works, just picture a slinky and how it is all coiled up like a spring. ( But okay, I'm sure under the microscope, the coiled proteins doesn't actually look like that! But you get the idea! ) It's hard to get it to stretch out without it springing back at you, so therefore, we age/mature the egg whites in room temperature or slightly warmer to allow the proteins to loosen up. Simple as that. When the coiled proteins in the egg whites are relaxed, they become much more easier to whisk up compared to egg whites straight out of the refrigerator, which have a stiffer coiled proteins. Although, both will eventually achieve the same volume when whisked, but one will take a longer time and the other, less.



Although some of pastry chefs in France will age their egg whites for days, weeks and sometimes even months! But you don't have to go to the extreme like that. They are most likely aging their egg whites for a different and specific purpose, like evaporating moisture content- and we will get to that in the later posts. But aging your egg whites for moisture evaporation is VERY important in making macarons, and yes, we will also talk about that later.

Macarons. The 2 Methods of Making.

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When it comes to macarons, there are two methods of making them: the French method and the Italian method. Some chefs will tell you, they swear by the French method, and another will not hear of anything than the other. And knowing how chefs or pastry chefs are, once they have their mind set on their own philosophy, it is then a one way street. Personally, I don't have much of a preference, however if I were to choose to make macarons, I would most likely choose the Italian method over the French. *Only because you have less of a chance to over mix your batter.


In this post, I will explain the differences between the two methods.

Although there are two methods of making the macaron, and each method will require you to do things a bit differently, the general idea is the same. To incorporate your meringue into your mixture of almond flour and confectioner sugar.
1) THE MERINGUE: The French method of making the macaron requires you to start whipping your egg whites with a large amount of sugar into a stiff peak. What you will end up with is classically called, "French Meringue". The Italian method of making the macaron is similar, but instead of making the French meringue, you are now making the "Italian Meringue". And this is done by boiling a mixture of water and sugar to a temperature of 118C - 121C and then adding it to your lightly frothed egg whites.

THE MIXTURE OF SUGAR AND WATER: SIMPLE SYRUP


BOILING THE SYRUP TO 118C OR 121C.
2) THE MIXING: During the incorporation of meringues into the dry mixture, I find it harder to fold in the French meringue into to dry mix compared to the Italian meringue. Although it is harder to fold in the French meringue into your dry mix, at the same time, the border line between a nicely incorporated and an over mixed is just a matter of 2-3 extra stirs away. Once you have over mixed your batter, you will start to release the water content that was once trapped by the stiff meringue, resulting in a very runny batter that will not hold its dome shape when piped. You will have an easier time folding in the Italian meringue and the chance of over mixing the macaron batter is smaller. Since the egg whites are partially cooked by the hot syrup, therefore making the proteins bonds stronger.
THE FRENCH METHOD - FOLDING IN THE FRENCH MERINGUE

THE ITALIAN METHOD - FOLDING IN THE ITALIAN MERINGUE


3) THE RESTING: There is also a difference between the period of resting time prior to baking your macarons. Resting time is one of the many important factors for the proper rise of the macarons during baking. Resting will allow a thin layer of skin to form on the surface of your piped macaron, and is also one of the contributors to producing the famous "feet" on the bottom of your baked shells. The French method will contain more moisture content and thus, will require you to rest your piped shells for at least 15-30 minutes depending on the humidity of the room. The Italian method, on the other hand, only requires you to rest your piped macaron batter for approximately 10-15 minutes. The reason for this shorter time of rest is due to the evaporation of moisture already happening when you were adding the hot syrup into your egg whites and whipping it to cool.

BEFORE RESTING


AFTER RESTING

French Macarons

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French Macarons. They're simply just amazing. With nothing but just a few easy ingredients; they are fairly easy to make. And the French method, much easier than the Italian method, and no need to fuss over cooking the simple syrup to 118C.  And if you've never had a macaron in your life before, today would be a good start to treat yourself with these little bite size French sweets.

Now to start. You will need some basic baking tools. Mixing bowls, whisks, spatulas, pastry bag with round tip, baking tray, and parchment paper or a silpat which is a non stick silicone pad. Crank your oven to 320F. You don't need a high temperature to bake the macaron shells. Most ovens is best at 320F, but if you have a really powerful oven, perhaps 310F is good enough. For convection ovens with fans blowing to better circulate the hot air, 300F is prefect. Now. Ingredients. Simple and fast. You will need almond flour which you can usually find in your local pastry ingredient shops or high end grocery stores. And if you cannot finding, don't worry, just buy almond slivers and blitz them in the food processor until course. If they tend to clump up because of their natural oils being released, just add some icing sugar and that will absorb all the oil. Next, you will need more icing sugar along with good quality cocoa powder. And like always, I shouldn't have to remind you to don't skimp out on the good stuff. Always pay a little extra for that better quality.
Whisk all dry ingredients together, or if you are lazy and smart like me, just blitz them all in the food processor. Like so.

Moving on to our wet ingredients. Having your egg whites already aged for a day in room temperature allowing some moisture to evaporate and the proteins to relax. In the mixing bowl, whisk together your egg whites, meringue powder and sugar until stiff peak. The addition of meringue powder will help strength your meringue since you are just adding in dried up egg whites. And they will always help with the absorption of moisture. Kitchen Aid comes in really handy in whisking this up.
Next. Fold in your meringue gently into your dry mixture and careful not to whisk the mixture. It's tempting to just want to whisk it all together, but if you do so, you will end up destorying all the little air bubbles in your meringue and you will end up with a very runny batter. I would say 4/5 of the time over mixing is the cause of most failures in macaron shell making. So to properly fold your mixture, start from 11o'clock direction, scoop down to 4 and glide across to 7 and lift up to bring over to 2.
After when your batter has been mixed to this point above. As you can see it's quite shiny and almost pudding like surface. Very glossy. The consistancy of the batter is still quite thick, but it should resemble the viscosity of a milkshake, where it should only juuuusttt slightly hold it's ripples before merging back into it's puddle. If it's too runny, and it doesn't hold it's shape, you have over mixed it.
With your macaron batter, fill it into your pastry bag with a round tip. If you are using a Wilton brand pastry tip, a size #8-9 would be good. You want to pipe out small even circles about the size of a quarter and half. And. here's a trick, if you are right handed, always start piping your rows from the left to the right. Always start from top left and pipe across to the right, and shift 1 row down after or start from the top left and pipe down, then shift 1 collum over. Making sure you stagger the spaces so they are not all the rows are right above each other or beside. Pipe each shell in between the space gap of two top shells or two side shells. This way the heat will distribute even through out the baking process. Then we need to let these macaron batter rest. Allowing them to form a skin on the surface so when it rises in the oven, it will create a nice dome shaped shell. Also, this will help with the proper development of the "feet" which is a signature symbol of macarons. As you can tell from the picture above and the pictures below, there's a difference on the surface of the shells. The ones below have been rested for about 20 minutes in room temperature and they have formed a skin. They don't feel sticky to the touch, and they are still quite soft on the insides.
After resting, you are ready to bake. So in a 320F oven, place your macarons and bake for about 16-20 minutes depending on your oven. In convection ovens, it only takes a quick 10-11 minutes with the fan on. Another trick for normal ovens, you can preheat another tray in the oven and simply place your macaron tray onto of the hot tray already in the oven. That extra heated tray will give you an extra boost in heat temperature and also help insolate more heat. Trust me. No matter how many times I've baked a cake, a bread or even small petits four desserts like these macaron shells, everytime when I peak in the oven to see if they have risen correctly and they have~ I get so excited and kiddish. I do a little fist pump in my mind and I smile and say to myself, "whew~ good job Jack".
These macaron shells came out prefectly with a nice even rise and very well developed "feet" on the bottom. If you end up with TOO much feet, it means you have under mixed your batter or your oven temperature is too high. If you don't have much of any feet, chances are you have over mixed and or your oven temperature is not high enough.Allow your shells to cool to room temperature before piping your filling. Especially if you are using a buttercream filling or a ganache in this case, you don't want your macaron shells to be warm when you are filling it. It will obviously start melting your buttercream and ganache. So rearrange your macaron shells and play match maker with similiar sized shells. Then have 1 roll top facing up and 1 roll top facing down so this way you can pipe your filling in an organized manner and also assamble'em without confusion.
For this chocolate macaron, we are filling it with a chocolate ganache that is a mixture of 70% dark chocolate and 30% milk chocolate in ratio. I find this will tone down the bitterness of the dark chocolate, but still giving you a nice richness of the cocoa flavor, but not too much of the sweetness.

FRIDAY DATE NIGHT at HOME

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My book “Table for Two” by Warren Caterson arrived yesterday. I was so excited while opening the envelope to finally lay my eyes on the recipes. The book is signed by the author which makes it even more special!
So what is “Table for Two” about? As Warren says in the Preface of the book, the idea for the book came from a simple but frequent lament he came across over and over again: “I’d love to cook more, but I don’t know how to cook for only two people.” The recipes are simple to follow and the selection is amazing: from soups to salads, seafood, meat, vegetarian recipes to my two favorite meals: dessert and breakfast. And if you have leftovers in your fridge, no worry, there is a whole chapter dedicated to transforming them into a yummy meal for two! But before the recipes starts, Warren introduces us to cooking terms, ingredients, and a measuring chart.
Yea, for me reading a cookbook equals reading a romance novel!


The idea was born as soon as I saw the cover of the book Table for Two. On the cover there is a couple engaged in a conversation and as it was Friday, date night was making a complete undeniable sense! And so the sinister plan of removing the kids (not so kids anymore, 13 and 17) from the house was born: “Ohh you both look so tired! It was along week and you both worked so hard; studying,   doing homework, bla, bla, bla! I think you deserved a break, would you like to go to cinema?” And the rest is history! While daddy drove them to the cinema and made sure they bought tickets, snacks, and were safe inside the building, I whipped together a nice dinner for two: white rice, BROCCOLI AU GRATIN (from the book), spicy orange cordials, and for dessert cookies “Mint Toppar” that I baked a day before with a cup of Turkish coffee! Yep, you got to keep romance going on to keep it interesting in a relationship!

Broccoli au Gratin came out super delicious (recipe a total keeper), the side of rice complemented it nicely, and sipping the cordial between bites added a refreshing sense to the atmosphere.


Spicy Orange Coridals For TwoSPICY ORANGE CORIDALS for TWO (2 6 fl.oz. glasses)(for the printable recipe click here)
Ingredients:4 fl.oz. orange juice2 fl.oz. homemade spicy syrup (recipe here)6 fl.oz. club soda 3 drops red food coloringred and white crystal sugar for rimming the glass
Directions:Mix together orange juice, spicy syrup, and red food coloring. Add club soda, stir, and fill the glasses rimmed with red and white crystal sugar.

BUSY WEEK and COLORFUL RICE

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Yesterday has been a week since I was on the net! This was one hecktic looooooooooong week! Yesterday, I first checked FoodBuzz and buzzed off all the yummy creations I missed through the week and boy, was there some pretty tasty, wonderful food to admire! Just to mention few that really intrigued my taste buds: Warm and Cheesy Gnochi Salad @Welcome to Sandra's Easy Cooking , Chocolate Panna Cotta @The Cultural Dish , Ceviche @Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves , Skirt Steak with Stout Pan Sauce @The Cultural Dish , and my personal winner KEY LIME PIE @Cherry Tea Cakes ! Love it!!!
Now about the recipe. We cook rise pretty often (I always choose rice over potatoes), although potato is the most loved starch as far as my family is concerned! They could eat "any way" potato three times a day! Rice as rice, all white on the plate is not that inviting, so I always try to add some color to it: sometimes just by adding a dash of turmeric that will turned it light yellow, or some browned vermicelli pasta to give it some movement, but mostly I add colorful veggies that really bring the rice to life. And as far as the flavor busting, well: "Spices to the rescue!"


Colorful Rice

COLORFUL RICE (feeds 6 – 8)(for the printable recipe click here)
Ingredients:5 medium carrots, diced1 tbsp Vegeta (or Dafinka)1 ½ cup water1 ½ cup frozen green peas1 cup frozen sweet corn3 medium potatoes, peeled, diced, and fried1 small onion, finely chopped5 garlic cloves, finely chopped¼ cup crushed tomatoes2 cups long grain rice, soaked in lukewarm water for 15 minutes5 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp for veggies + 3 tbsp for rice2 tsp salt½ tsp ground turmeric½ tsp black pepper¼ tsp crushed chili peppers½ tsp cumin1 tsp jerk spice1 cup golden raisins, washed and dried2 tbsp vegetable oil ½ cup walnuts, chopped
Directions:Cook carrots in 1 ½ cup of water with 1 tbsp Vegeta (or Dafinka) for 5 minutes after it comes to a boil. Add frozen green peas and sweet corn, turns the heat off, cover, and let it stand for at least 10 minutes before draining. Peas and corn will become soft, but will still be bright in color. Do not discard the veggie “water”, preserve it for rice cooking. You will need 3 cups of liquid for cooking the rice. So, go ahead and add as much of hot water as needed to the veggie “water” to obtain 3 cups of liquid. If you like you can also use chicken, beef, or veggie stock or broth. It is up to you.
Heat a skillet over medium heat, pour in 2 tbsp of olive oil, add onions, garlic and sweat a bit with pinch of salt and dash of black pepper. Add crushed tomatoes and spices (crushed chili peppers, cumin, jerk spice, black pepper). Stir and add veggies too. Let everything simmer over very low heat for about 5 minutes. Set aside. Fry your diced potatoes.
Into a pot over medium heat, put the remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tsp of salt, and ½ tsp ground turmeric. Add the drained rice, stir, and sweat for 5 minutes. Rice will absorb the oil, become yellow in color, and shiny. Turn the heat to high, add 3 cups of liquid, and bring to a furious boil. Turn the heat down to medium high, cover the pot tightly, and let the rice cook for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to minimum and continue to cook for additional 5 minutes. Turn the heat down, fluff the rice with a fork, cover, and let the rice rest for 10 minutes.
While the rice is cooking, it is time to prepare raisins. In a small skillet over medium heat, put the remaining 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Let it become really hot. Add raisins and wait until they plump out. It won’t take long! Remove them from oil and immediately stir into the veggies. If you let fried raisins stand in the air for too long, they will become hard as a rock and inedible. Add walnuts, too! Stir and set aside.
Now it is time to mix all together. I usually layer rice, veggies with raisins and walnuts, and potato into a serving plate, and than carefully fold all together. Dish can be served as is with a side of salad, or you can cook your favorite meat, chicken, or fish, and serve it with this rice.
Bon appétit!