j 7/20/13 j 7/20/13

Book Review: Bouchon Bakery

I just received a gift from a fellow cooking enthusiast! The Bouchon Bakery arrived at my place this week. It's well thought out, artistically photographed and clearly written. If you're looking for a welcoming dessert pastry book, this is it.

As I write this, I have the Olive Oil Cake (p. 110) baking in the oven. Buy this book - seriously, even if it's just for the photos, even if you just want extra insight into pastry technique - even if you're an expert baker. This book is inspiring.

j 7/17/13 j 7/17/13

Egg and Cress Sandwich

Trying to find vegetarian food then traveling isn't always the easiest. When in London I found Egg and Cress sandwiches. They're the perfect thing to grab on the run.

You can make your own - basically an egg salad with watercress. Start with fresh and flavourful watercress. It's fairly easy to grow. This is from my garden.

Boil up a few eggs.

To get nice eggs like this, add eggs to cold water, bring to a boil and let sit covered for 10 minutes. Then chill in ice water before peeling.

Rather then tedious chopping, I simply smash them through a German potato grater. Available from Amazon: Kuchenprofi Potato Grater/Shredder in 18/10 Stainless Steel

Season and add mayo as you like. Personally, I hate mayo so I use Ranch salad dressing. It's got all the seasonings mixed in. It may need a bit more salt, depending on your tastes.

Lastly, stir in the cress:

I spread it on made-from-scratch flat ciabatta bread, but the Britts serve it on something lighter.

j 7/13/13 j 7/13/13

Everything is Math

λ ≃ 400nm-700nm (with a few gaps)Art, meet gardening, meet science.

Fresh picked from the jLAmode garden.

j 7/11/13 j 7/11/13

Concept: Munich

I sketched this last year while on the train from München to Berlin. It's fitted with a covered placket, french cuffs and a short spread-collar.

j 7/7/13 j 7/7/13

Squash Blossom Fritters

Mmmm... fried food.

Prepare mashed potatoes with a nice savoury spice: onion powder, dill, green onion, parsley, smoked paprika and salt.

Pick full and large flowers that open easily. This has to be done early in the morning as the flowers tend to wilt in the sun. Be sure to pick the "male" flowers as they are the easiest to work with. It's easy to tell the difference - the female flowers have small squashes attached.

Pipe in the potato mix:

Coat with a flour-water batter. I used buckwheat so that it's gluten free.

Fry ~375F until golden brown. Buckwheat is a darker grain, so these are fairly brown.

Drain on kitchen roll (paper towels):

Serve while still hot - otherwise they go soggy.

j 7/4/13 j 7/4/13

Red White and Blue Chocolate Mousse

Happy Fourth!

Not the traditional eggy mousse, rather a whipped cream and melted white chocolate. As the chocolate cools, it sets the mousse. Check out Byron Talbot's youtube channel for inspiration: http://youtu.be/j3OrIr1WrhE

j 7/1/13 j 7/1/13

Tiramisu aux Nectarines

It's got a peaches and cream flavour.

Hack up some nectarines. They have to be nice, ripe and flavourful.

Make a puree of nectarine with a splash of orange juice and a drop of vanilla extract.

Lay a base of ladyfingers and soak with the puree. Top that with a mixture of sweetened mascarpone and whipped cream. I don't use eggs in my tiramisu.

I like two layers. Once it's done, resist the urge to dig in! It's gotta chill for at least two hours.

I topped mine with vanilla bean seed.

Mmmm... yes.

*tiramisù is Italian. I used the French name... because I can.

j 6/28/13 j 6/28/13

Breakfast Wedge

Inspired by the chaps at Sorted Food [http://sortedfood.com/], a vegetarian version of an easy breakfast dish:

Check out their process here: http://youtu.be/D1mPghz6jjw

Naturally, serve it the British way - with (vegetarian) baked beans! Also served with fresh tomatoes and basil.

j 6/24/13 j 6/24/13

Garden Early Summer 2013

Fresh from the garden! Tomatoes:

'Taters, garlic and onions:

Lemon blossoms:

Sugar peas:

Zucchini:

Cucumber:

Purple beans (they turn green after cooking):

Aubergine:

Pointy tomatoes:

Giant garlic:

j 6/20/13 j 6/20/13

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Sauteed sweet potato gnocchi served with spinach, basil, tomatoes and balsamic "caviar." Here's the link to how to make the "caviar"

Boil and rice the yams:

Add flour, salt and mix:

Roll, cut and boil the dumplings. Then pan-fry.

j 6/15/13 j 6/15/13

Chèvre Cheesecake

Goat's cheese cake! I did reference a recipe for this one... but I ditched it in favour of the order of ingredients: chèvre, 2 egg whites, Greek youghurt, sugar, flour, vanilla, lemon and salt. The crust is coconut oil, graham cracker crumbs and a whisper of lemon extract.

Baked at 175C for 30 minutes and slowly cooled.

Served with a blueberry compote, strawberries and a sprig of mint.

It's also crazy good with a searing chocolate ganache.

j 6/10/13 j 6/10/13

Mascarpone and Strawberries [+1 fail, +1 win!]

This was the end result, but it took a while to get here:

I thought I'd make a cannoli filling but serve it in puff pastry cups with fruit. Everything was fine except I chose a skim milk ricotta... which is tastes and feels, to me, like ground rubber.

I tried my best to doctor it up. Adding extra mascarpone and whipping it up. Nothing worked.

It looks nice, but the texture is unfit. The overall texture is "rubbery."

So, I whipped mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla to make a sublime filling for the strawberries:

Then, serving it on thin slices of mango, the the textures and flavours were perfect. It's simple, it's subtly rich, it's sublime.

j 6/7/13 j 6/7/13

Beignet

Happy doughnut day! Celebrating French style with made from scratch beignet. These are made from my whole wheat (50%) and molasses bread dough. Mind = blown.

This one is full of Nutella!

(not vegan)

j 6/1/13 j 6/1/13

Vişne Nektari

More travels have brought me new flavours. This is a beverage typically found in Turkey. Although I rarely drink sweetened beverages, this is worth the calories.

Start with fresh or frozen tart cherries. They should constitute ~35% by mass for your recipe (I know, I know, just get a kitchen scale and everything works perfectly).

If you haven't got fresh tart cherries, frozen pie cherries are perfectly fine.

More math: ~5% should be sugar. Ex: ~250g cherries needs 50g sugar and ~750ml water. The total mass is ~1kg, but after straining the pulp, the volume yield is a bit less than a litre.