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There’s more to life than sugar….

Grilled steak w/ red wine reduction, mashed cauliflower and steamed asparagus

I’m really a salt-tooth…..

You may think that I have a big ‘ol sweet tooth judging by the first few entries in my blog. However, I am much more of a salt addict than anything else. If given the choice between chocolate cake or french fries, I’d almost always go for the latter. Anything that is salty & crunchy is my biggest weakness. Sun Chips are the greatest snack food ever invented. Wheat Thins comes a close second. I know those items aren’t exactly gourmet, but I truly believe that whoever invented Sun Chips (particularly the French Onion flavor) is a genius.

The reason I bake so much is that it gives me an outlet for my creativity. Sometimes an idea will just come to me- it isn’t because I necessarily feel like eating that item, it just……happens. Once I practically had an epiphany when all of a sudden I kept imagining this dessert made of macha spongecake layered with anko (sweet bean) whipped cream all covered in a white chocolate ganache and dusted with macha powder. I ran home and tried it- and miraculously, it just all came together….until the end. I had made the sheets of green spongecake, cut them into perfect rounds with a biscuit cutter, folded the thick anko paste in small batches into the whipped cream and started to assemble. I had a bag of white chocolate chips and used that to make the ganache, but the quality wasn’t high enough and the ganache was way too thin. You could see the green and purple layers underneath. It looked more like something out of a Dr. Seuss book than the elegant dessert I had hoped for. Although I am inspired to make savory creations, the ghosts of pastry just speak to me in my dreams. OK, that was cheesy but you get the idea.

Anyway, I did spend a nice chunk of my Saturday baking cookies for the upcoming IMBB Sugar High Friday cookie swap event, but I don’t want to post those just yet. Instead, I thought I would post a few savory dishes I have made in the recent past. Enjoy!

Paprika roasted chicken w/ vegetables

Linguini w/ seafood in a spicy tomato sauce

You put your mayonnaise in my chocolate…

I recently completed a “Pro I” course at a local culinary school. The experience was a good one, but I have to say I was disappointed that it wasn’t more challenging and a bit shocked that a few people in my class had never even boiled water. I don’t know about you, but to me, any course called “Cooking: Professional I” implies that you may want to know what a spatula looks like before enrolling. My dreams of a strict, French chef hovering over me and yelling that my julienne were not fine enough were quickly shattered. Although I learned a few new things, it wasn’t the experience I had been hoping for. I did , however, learn one secret that I wouldn’t have expected and it’s been very valuable to me ever since.

One day when we were all working on various poultry dishes, our teacher (who is a pastry chef by trade) started making us a chocolate cake for dessert. As I went to work on cutting up my chicken, I watched as she put all of the dry ingredients (cocoa, flour, salt, baking powder) in one bowl, and then reached for a giant vat of mayonnaise. She must be making some sort of sandwich spread for the chicken, I thought. But then I watched in horror as she took an entire cup of the white stuff and mixed it into the cake ingredients! I don’t even think I was aware that I burst out with “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???!!!” My teacher turned to me and said dryly, “Anne, what wet ingredients are in a cake batter?” So I stuttered, “Um….oil and eggs.” She went onto say “Anne, what is mayonnaise made out of?” So I whispered, “Er…..oil and eggs.” Still, I was skeptical. I mean, I like my mayo (especially if it’s Kewpie brand) but this was a bit much.

After we all ingested enough poultry (chicken, duck, cornish hens, turkey, pheasant) to last us a lifetime, she presented the beautifully frosted chocolate cake. I sniffed, poked, prodded and finally took a bite. It was rich, beautifully moist and ever so chocolately with the softest crumb. Who’da thunk it? All this time I’d been going out of my way to Whole Foods to pick up chickens-got-daily-spa-treatments-organic eggs thinking it’d make a better cake, and my teacher whips out a can of…….Best Foods. You thought I was gonna say Whoop Ass, didn’t ya? She may as well have, because her mayo cake certainly kicked mine.

Since then, I’ve seen several cake recipes that include mayonnaise. It turns out that the idea is not so new and your grandmother probably knew this trick. I’m not saying that mayo should replace some good eggs and oil in all cakes, but if you’re looking to make a simple but ultra moist chocolate cake, it works very well.

I recently made one for a friend’s baby shower, and it was a huge hit- of course no one knew there was a cup of mayonnaise in it either.

Macaron overload

Note to self: just because your first attempt at macaron making turned out okay, it does not mean that you will have similar luck the next time. Or the next. Just because the chocolate ones you made last week looked and tasted pretty good, it doesn’t mean you can start throwing in other ingredients and concocting other flavors and expect the same result.

Today I feel utterly defeated. This past weekend, I mixed, whipped, folded and piped myself into exhaustion only to end up with boatloads of overly crunchy and misshapen macarons. I know practice makes perfect and you learn from your mistakes, yadda yadda yadda. It’s just too bad I had to go overboard and purchase every ingredient under the sun, only to have them go to waste. Ok ok, the macarons weren’t inedible, but they were nothing close to the little Nuggets of Perfection I had dreamt about. Oh well.

I thought I’d console myself by baking a couple of loaves of bread. I started my fermentation process the night before by mixing my yeast, water, honey and salt and putting the containers in the fridge. The next day I made my dough and went about my business as I waited for the first rise. I made sure not to peak so my little blobs could get some privacy. An hour later, I checked on them and they hadn’t risen an inch. Everything smelled ok, but they looked exactly the same as before. I told myself that the yeast was just taking a nap and needed more time (er, yeah….that makes sense….) and checked back an hour later to find that the little suckers STILL hadn’t grown. By this time I had my head stuck so far down in the sand that I actually went ahead, formed the dough into boules and stuck them in the oven to bake. Who cares if everything I’ve learned about baking told me that I’d end up with a couple of doorstops?! No air in the dough? Maybe a miracle would happen and I’d end up with edible bread! After spending five hours failing miserably at macarons the day before, my ego went into overdrive. I was NOT going to have another failure!

After an hour in the oven, I pulled out my little boulders and wondered why I even tried. I knew they would be dense, chewy and inedible. I’ve read The Bread Baker’s Apprentice enough times to know that you need AIR in the little pups to make them delicious. I guess I was just in denial and hoped the baking gods would look down on me favorably.

And then a realization struck me. Even though I had done all the things I know I’m supposed to do- knead the dough considerably, place a towel over the bowls to keep out any draft, put the bowls in a nice warm place….I had a hunch that it was something else. I ran to the fridge, pulled out my handy little glass jar of yeast, and checked the expiration date. March 2003!!!! Yes, I am admitting this on the world wide web that I keep rancid food in my beloved refrigerator!!! Well, not exactly food but still- the poor little jar had been ignored since the US invasion of Iraq. New Year’s resolution: start taking weekly inventory of refrigerator and pantry.

I didn’t take photos of my failed loaves, but here are some shots of the macaron- wannabes for your viewing pleasure! The flavors are:

Pistachio w/ pistachio buttercream (a mix of butter, confectioner’s sugar and pistachio ‘butter’ I got in Italy)

Macha w/ chestnut buttercream (pureed chestnuts w/ butter and confectioner’s sugar). Notice the little nipples on there- a sign that the batter was too thick.
White sesame w/ black sesame buttercream (butter, black sesame paste and confectioner’s sugar). More nipples!

Yuzu w/ lemon buttercream

Macarons and me….

Before I write about the topic at hand, let me tell you that I just managed to erase my entire first real blog entry! I finally got the photos in the places I wanted, was fairly satisfied with the editorial and eager to see the finished product, when all of a sudden, I made a wrong move and it all disappeared. *Sigh.*

On the topic of macarons, I have a big confession to make. I spent three days in Paris last summer and didn’t eat any. Not one. I was prepared to lose my macaron virginity to Pierre Hermé but the Paris heat & humidity sent us running for the cool waters of Nice, so I never got my chance. I stood firm by my promise that there would be no first time unless it was with Pierre. So, after a week of eating the thin crust pizzas and pan bagnats of the French Riviera, I left, macaronless and heartbroken.

Did I say stand firm? Well, I figured that the chances of finding myself in Paris once again anytime soon are slim at best, and a girl has urges that need to be fulfilled! So I broke my promise to the Prince of Macarons and found myself staring at six tiny and colorful confections at Jin Patisserie- a well renowned bakery/cafe in Venice (California, not Italy). I had read about their macarons in various food publications and was eager to try them. I chose black sesame, caramel, mocha, pistachio, macha and vanilla. To all who think me a glutton- each one was about the size of a quarter, and at $1.99 a pop, not exactly a bargain. I had high hopes and carefully untied the pink ribbon from the box. I started with the caramel. Great flavor, but most of the cookie part crumbled all over me since it was crunchy and filled with large pockets of air. The pistachio one did the exact same thing, and so on, and so on. By this time I had a massive sugar headache since each one was cloyingly sweet. Krispy Kreme sweet. Bubble Yum sweet. You get the idea. I could practically hear Pierre laughing at my ignorance in thinking that anyone but he could sweep me off my feet.

The one good thing that came out of the experience was an inspiration to try and make my own. I have no delusions that I could make a macaron as well as even the most novice French baker, but I thought it might be fun to try. At the suggestion of the brilliant Cynthia (of FoodMigration fame), I read David Lebowitz’s account of his first attempt at macaron baking and carefully followed instructions. I made the chocolate/chocolate combo, and I must say- they weren’t half bad. My first batch came out a bit overdone but the cookies in the second batch were slightly crispy on the outside, chewy/melty on the inside. Yes, I just said melty. I think my years of living in Tokyo as warped my slang a bit.

I think I will continue my macaron baking and am eager to try out different flavor combinations. And one day, some day, I will have my long awaited encounter with Pierre.

I’m finally making my foray into the food blogger’s universe! Please be patient if there are technical difficulties in the first month or so!

My plan is to simply use this blog to share my cooking and eating experiences and join the vast and supremely talented food blogger world.

Hope you enjoy!

-A