Cream Puffs in Memory Lane

By keiko | Published: September 4, 2011

Mom’s Cream Puffs from My Childhood

My mother is a real and true home cook/homemaker in a typical Japanese household. Except that she was somewhat a progressive homemaker in terms of what we consumed. She belonged to a homemaker organization called Fujin no Tomono Kai and was a subscriber to a co-op CSA on demand form early on. My mom gifted me a subscription to their magazines a couple of years ago and I still receive their monthly publication sent from Japan. Apparently there is even a NYC branch.

She didn’t believe in feeding us anything processed or pre-made. Meals and snacks were all home made from scratch including breads for breakfast to miso, tofu, and pickles for everyday meals. She gets organically and sustainably produced meats, fish, and vegetables from the co-op weekly. I think she’s somewhat loosen up now that kids are long gone from the household and my parents are now older.

I never really got to eat much junk food like potato chips, candy bars, and soft drinks. I remember the occasional 100% pressed grape juice in glass bottle with farmer’s name on the label that was scarily dark and tart that she would get from co-op. But in trade for seemingly more fun and enticing marketed junk food in store aisles, I got home made desserts like seasonal apple cakes with special Kougyoku apples in winter, yeasted buns with red bean jam inside, Sakura-mochi (red bean jam wrapped in cherry blossom rice mochi) in spring, Kashiwa-mochi (steamed mochi with red bean jam wrapped in oak leaves) for Children’s Day. My favorite and most frequent repeater was her cream puffs, we call them choux cream in Japan.

 

My Challenging Time with Easy Cream Puffs with Fuss

Since I moved to the States I have encountered Italian versions at bakeries or profiteroles at restaurants, I even tried those frozen ones from super markets but most of the time I am deeply disappointed. I don’t remember when but eventually (more recently than earlier than you might think though)I got the recipe from my mom and started making my own. In the beginning I didn’t own scale and all the baking recipes from Japan would be in weights instead of volume. My mom and I had to translate that weights into volume but now I am in doubt that was accurate as I realize depending on the website source the conversion varies. If anything baking is where amounts of ingredients play significant roles. My very first try was not a success at all. I added too many eggs to the choux batter and they came out flat. After a few tries I got a hang of it and then realized this treat is one of easiest desserts that come out impressive and everybody loves. But I only tend to make cream puffs in winter time when there is no fun fruits to make pies or other fruit cakes with other than usual apples after so many apple pies.

This weekend we were going to Philadelphia for an art opening of my friend who lives far in Texas and to visit friends who live there that visit NYC more often than we visit them. I wanted to bring some home made treats for the opening but I had no fruits since we had to leave before the farmer’s market day. Pie or cake wouldn’t have been a good choice anyhow as it is hard to serve for a crowd in standing situation. I knew cookies are much easier to travel with on the bus but lacked the special wow-effect. I risked it and decided to go with mini bite size cream puffs.

Recently food52 had a contest on Your Best Fair Food and the winner was State Fair Cream Puffs. Immediately my response was, “Who associates cream puffs with state fairs?” You’d think of all the fried anything junk when it comes to state fair food and cream puffs seem too dainty for state fair. But I actually never been to any state fairs (yes I lived in Minnesota and Iowa for total of 9 years) so I asked Eric and his response was similar. But apparently at Wisconsin State Fair where this recipe author grew up is known for its dairy bakery that has been producing cream puffs during the fair since 1924 and the record for world’s largest cream puff, weighing in at 125.5 pounds, was achieved August 11 of this year. I have acquired different choux recipes over few years but I always went back to the Japanese one from the homemaker magazine. Others were either somewhat too dry or bland. I was hesitant to risk on a new recipe for this special occasion but I always want to try new recipes when I find them in the quest for finding the best. So I gave a try for this one adapted from Wisconsin Baker’s Association which gave me some funny credibility.

I was quite happy with the result especially the nice browning on top from egg yolk wash. This recipe is in the camp of drying them in the ajar oven with wooden spoon after baking them. They were mosit and soft inside but crisp on the outside, and had good balance of slat. I made the Bourbon Chocolate Whipped Cream that recipe called for and also my go to vanilla custard except this time I used half & half, the trick I got from making Boston Cream Pie previous week. This trick of combining whipped cream and custard is from my mom. We think it gives nicer consistency; nor too heavy from custard or too light and cream fatty from whipped cream.

 

The Embarrassing Flying Cream

Then here came the real problem, filling the puffs. I always just cut the puffs 3/4 of way at the middle and filled each one with spoon. I am not sure if I just don’t whip my heavy cream stiff enough or somehow mixing the custard into whipped cream make the mixture liquidly. Often times my cream mixture is soft and ooze out when one simply bites into it. So I have to warn them to take the top off and scoop up the cream from the bottom half a bit, eat the top then the bottom. On this particular occasion, the very problem pronounced itself loudly. Well, I had to fill them hours before the expected time of serving since we were taking the 2-hour bus ride from Manhattan to Philadelphia then there was a bit of time until the opening. Meantime, the cream puffs weren’t chilled to keep the cream somewhat stiff and of course they got rattled a bit on the bus.

By the time my friends could bite into their first puff, powdered sugar was disappeared into sticky clear film on top and cream mixture was loose. Yes, Eric warned me ahead of time that cream puffs don’t travel well and this would happen . But still, I wanted to please my friends and I think they at least appreciated my effort. One after another at the opening, a lot of people who got their hands on my cream puffs had messy results and I didn’t produce napkins to them. For some I could warn them in time, for others I wasn’t quick enough and had a rather embarrassing (for me) moments. One friend refused to eat another one after a messy episode, it got me thinking that this is a real problem if not to blame entirely on the warm and long travel condition.

 

Down the Road to Problem Solving

Eric swore that problem came from the slit in the middle of puff shell. The cream mixture easily oozed out the sides when you bit in. If the cream was injected into the shell without the big slit, it would not have as big of problem he said. I didn’t quite buy the theory. I thought it would still force the cream out to some weak spots on the shell and bursts. Besides I did try injecting the cream in with pastry bag with a tip but it totally failed. I didn’t think it was worth the frustration on my part.

When our friends took us to one of my favorite kitchen stores, Fante’s, in Italian Market section in Philly, Eric and our friend investigated the options. I wasn’t paying attention and focused on portion scoop I’ve been waiting to get at the very store. (They carry the best one! #1 rated by Cook’s Illustrated) They were looking at poultry baster with injection holes along the extended arm and other things and emerged with a plastic syringe saying that we can do something to the tip to adjust it for the purpose. But Eric realized it won’t work for a reason or another… The real thing for the very purpose was more expensive but now Eric figured we had to invest in the real deal, decorating syringe with Bismarck pastry tube.

I thought it was a silly buy since alternative costs none and doesn’t require any special tools, just a bit harder to eat. But Eric insisted on buying them so we did come home with those silly single purpose kitchen tool (you know what professional home cooks say about those). Another friend from grad school was in town and we were going to meet up in Brooklyn and I knew she has sweet tooth. I made another batch of cream puffs. I was pretty skeptical of this cheap looking plastic device but I had to try it once at least.

 

Verdict

Let me tell you this first, it was quite frustrating using it. But I must say the result was rather better than I imagined. There is a quirky little problem in order to use this effectively. I need to make a little slit on baked shells to let the steam out to dry them out after baking them and leave them in the warm oven for an hour. Ideally I would make the slit or hole on the bottom of the shell if I were to inject the cream in. But the bottom is hard and crisp when just baked fresh and I’d risk crushing the delicate top part of the shell by holding the shell to poke a hole on the bottom. So I ended up making slits on weak spots(thin parts) on top part. But when I injected the cream into the shell, some bursted out from those little slits or I injected cream using those slits but it would leave bit of traces of cream and they look messy. The most annoying thing using the syringe was that it can only hold cream enough to fill two puffs so I was constantly filling it back but that is such a messy job. Sometimes the top lid with handles came right off not enduring the force and made a mess. Did I mention I hate messy jobs and messy counter? So this bugged me to no end. But the ones I filled cream successfully looked neat and when I bit into them they didn’t burst the cream out all over. So the verdict? I will keep using them and get better at using it and I think it’s worth the extra work to get the perfect cream puffs. Happy Eric? But you try it once how you can stand how irritating it can be. I looked into other syringes online and there are more high-end stuff that might work better out there. But for now this is a step up from knife and spoon.

 

Ateco Cake Decorating Syringe

Bismarck Pastry Tube - Nickel plated. 2-7/8" high overall

Mini Cream Puffs with bourbon chocolate whipped cream and vanilla custard

Posted in Baked Goods, Desserts | Comments closed

Spring fruits and veggies kept me busy in the kitchen

By keiko | Published: June 26, 2011

I was busy in the kitchen in spring racing to use up all the great spring produce I tend to get too much of every week from almost twice a week ritual trip to farmer’s market.  I go to Greenmarket at Ft. Green or Williamsburg on Saturday then I go again to Union Square on Monday. My logic is that I want to get the fresh fruit to make dessert on Monday day before I go into work on Tuesday. I don’t want them sit at home not being eaten or eaten all by us. I get too excited when I see all the great fresh leafy greens that started to come out and bright crimson rhubarb and strawberries.

Just to give you an idea how I was busy in May-June, I listed desserts I made with two main fruits of my passion for spring: Rhubarb and Strawberries

Rhubarb

Rhubarb Curd Shortbread Cookies (food52)

Rhubarb-Apple infused with earl grey tea, orange blossom water, cardamom x 2 (food52)

Rhubarb custard cake (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison)

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake (Good Appetite, New York Times, Melissa Clark)

Rhubarb Custard Pie (Pie, Ken Haedrich)

Rhubarb “Big Crumb” Coffee Cake x 2 (In the kitchen with good appetite, Melissa Clark)

Rhubarb Orange Jam x2

Rhubarb Orange Marmalade

Rhubarb Ginger Preserves

Rhubarb Orange Jam with Lavender

Rhubarb Ginger Baked Challa French Toast

Straight-Up Rhubarb Pie (New York Times Essential Cooking, Amanda Hesser)

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie (Cook’s Illustrated)

Gingered Strawberry-Rhubarb Streusel Topping Pie (Molly Birnbaum, New York Times)

Strawberry Rhubarb Mousse (New York Times Essential Cooking, Amanda Hesser)

Strawberries

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Strawberry Sauce-lavender, peppercorns, star anise, lemon (New Brooklyn Cookbook, Franny’s)

Goat Yogurt Panna Cotta with Balsamic Vinegar Strawberry Sauce (Farmer’s Market Desserts, Jennie Schacht)

Berry Fool-market strawberries and raspberries (Cook’s Illustrated)

Strawberry Cream Layer Cake (Cook’s Illustrated)

Strawberry Cream Roll Cake (Farmer’s Market Desserts, Jennie Schacht)

Strawberry Jam

Strawberry-Orange Jam

Strawberry Jam with Lavender

Strawberry and Caramelized Onion Jam (at food52 community jam making party)

At the height of the season of rhubarb at Red Jacket Orchards Greenmarket stand

One of the first things I made with rhubarb this season: Rhubarb custard cake

Rhubarb custard cake

Rhubarb "big crumb" coffee cake (not that you can see anything that well from this pic..)

Strawberry shortcake with creamcheese cream filling in

Strawberry shortcake done

Strawberry rollcake

Rhubarb jam in making

Rhubarb-Ginger french toast with Hot Bread Kitchen challa bread

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Strawberry Sauce-lavender, peppercorns, star anise, lemon (New Brooklyn Cookbook, Franny's)

Goat Yogurt Panna Cotta with Balsamic Vinegar Strawberry Sauce

Berry Fool with strawberry and raspberry

Rhubarb pie

Gingered Strawberry-Rhubarb Streusel Topping Pie

Posted in Desserts, Fruit Pies, Fruits, Jam, Pies, Vegetables | Comments closed

Venturing into great Red Hook (by convenient bus) and more

By keiko | Published: May 24, 2011

Food adventures on weekend: Red Hook coofee

Last weekend we started our culinary week by taking a bus 61 from near Fulton Mall.  We always took this bus that goes to Ikea and Fairway Market from Smith & 9th off F and G trains in Gowanus near my work. It isn’t such a big deal for me to go to Red Hook after work but it is much more of a hassle for Eric to come from Williamsburg. One day I noticed that the same bus was going through our neighborhood. Who knew, we don’t have to take those trains which aren’t reliable on weekends and then bus. It was a shorter ride and it took us only about 10 minutes (of course we had to wait a bit for a bus to show up).

Our first stop was Stumptown Coffee Roasters conveniently located right off the bus stop.  I knew they opened a cafe space while back where they roast their beans for NY retailers but it is only open on weekends and I rarely made the trip to Red Hook on weekends due to train inconvenience.  I also knew that this shop specialized in non-espresso coffee methods, in other words, no cappuccino. It is a pretty low-key raw setting with piles of burlap bags of beans and a large farm table in the middle with old school rotating stools. They had bunch of coffee brewing gadgets and of course some freshly roasted beans.

Piles of burlap bags of beans at Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Red Hook

At Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Red Hook

The brew coffee bean menu at Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Red Hook. Note that there are several different devices on the counter for each method.

Counter full of brewing gadgets, French Press, Aero Press, Chemex, Syphon vacuum, and yes they weigh beans for each cup.

Drip brew bar-Hario stainless steel pour-over kettle, glass server with handle and Bee House ceramic drip vessels (3 on the right), Hario Coffee Dripper V60 with one big hole (left 2) both from Japan.

Bee House dripper

Freshly brewed coffee. Pour-over drip coffee in a mug for me and Aero Press coffee in a cup for Eric with beans that were recommended by the barista.

2 Red Hook restaurants

The usual and almost only stop in Red Hook always has been the great Fairway Market in the past. Occasionally we have made a point of going to the famed bakery Baked, but each time we were disappointed by their cloyingly sweet cakes and cookies that we decided it’s not worth it at this time during our somewhat-comitted diet. Only thing I would give another chance for Baked is their salty caramel brownie. The reason why we never gave it a try even though it’s their signature item is because they are already packaged and readily available all throughout the town (coffee shops, ice cream shops, grocery stores…) and somehow packaged meant not fresh, not authentic, not worth a try at that bakery. So we skipped Baked this time and shopped for cooking wine at dry dock wine + spirits just down the street. They have great value wines there.

I had Good Fork in mind for early and light dinner from looking through my recent book purchase, The New Brooklyn Cookbook (video demo of the dish we had here). On the way to dry dock though, we saw the other prominent Red Hook restaurant, Ft. Defiance. It looked more in tune with our taste as far as decor and atmosphere went. “I” kept going back and forth which one to try; I really had my heart set on trying the dish at Good Fork I saw in the cookbook, yet Ft. Defiance looked more promising.

Ft. Defiance, a surprise

We ended up stepping into Ft. Defiance to find out that they weren’t going to start serving dinner for another several minutes. The waitress gave each of us dinner menu and asked if we wanted to just get seated to wait till dinner time starts. We didn’t even look at the menu that closely and instantly said yes to be seated. Only after we sat down and examined the dinner menu in detail, we realized that they don’t have much variety of food on the menu. The half of the menu was drinks and there were only one of each meat and fish entrée. The rest of the very small menu was bar food like liver pâté, pickled herrings, and oysters and salads. I was very very disappointed that this place seemed more like a bar than a full-on restaurant. I wanted to just leave but that always feel awkward after sitting down with glasses of water, flatwares on cloth napkins and menu on your hand, especially we were given the menu before sitting down. So we discussed back and forth again whether to stay and order just a drink and an appetizer or leave. I don’t drink much outside home (I tend to pass out.) so that limits the quantity of our order. The real dinner after this place in mind, I didn’t want to order too much food either. So it would have been better if we said we just wanted drinks and sat at the bar. I refrained Eric from getting deviled egg and he got a beer with “Warm ricotta with roasted mushroom” at my request. The waiter didn’t seem to mind at all that’s all we were getting.

This dish doesn’t sound like anything, right? very simple. Only thing that enticed me in that name was “warm” ricotta from my own recent try-out of delicious warm ricotta crostinis.  Oh my, oh my! we hunkered this down in awe, well quietly. The composé came simple and rustic in a mini cast iron pot with drenching amount of olive oil and just the right amount of sea salt alongside hard-crusted bread slices. The mushroom was unknown in name to us but I might guess Hens of the woods wild mushroom. This small dish went beyond my expectation and my imagination how simple ingredients put together can go very far. I still keep thinking about this dish and tasting it in my head. Upon leaving we witnessed their deviled egg arriving to the next table and that even looked awesome. I think I will give them a real second chance next time to actually get dinner.

Good Fork, good steak

Even just the small dish of cheese and mushroom satisfied us so much and actually made us full, we walked over to Fairway Market to give some time until the real dinner. This was the first time I evert skipped their cheese department since we still have so much cheese from Zingerman’s. We tested all of the olive oils they had and surprisingly ended up carrying out the California oil and some other goods like Koeze’s Cream-Nut peanut butter (from Grand Rapids, MI!), Bob’s Mill award winning steel-cut oats, Spanish olive mix, pickled tomato, and olive oil packed tuna from Spain.

So here we were finally at a dinner table at Good Fork in the back part. Again here, I stopped Eric from getting what he wanted, Good Fork Hamburger and instead had us order one entrée to share; “steak and eggs” Korean style-grilled marinated skirt steaks, kimchee rice, fried egg over greens, and an appetizer spring pea croquettes. The entrée lived up to my expectation and it was enough food. We saw a guy next to our table getting hamburger and it looked nothing like conventional hamburger. I thought Eric was better off with the steak and eggs, at least he wasn’t disappointed.

The night in Red Hook wrapped up by catching the bus right away a block away from the restaurant. We headed home to the kitties all satisfied in stomach and feeling of a good time.

Alice Waters comes to New Museum

Just a few days before this visionaries series lecture at New Museum, Eric sends me the info about it. Usually I am pretty indifferent about going to a lecture since I’ve lost interest in learning especially post graduate school years. But on the spur of the moment I decided that I should go since I have been reading about her and one of my favorite cookbooks is by her, The Art of Simple Food. Another moment I thought it’s a benefit to be in a big city like New York.

I didin’t know what this lecture was supposed to be or what she would talk about. When I walked into the room, up on the projector screen I saw a cover of her new book 40 Years of Chez Panisse. She went through the history of Chez Panisse and her career as well as all her accomplished projects involving kids at public schools or collaborating with artists and so on. I kind of knew her philosophy and ideas but it was good to see her history and how she and her projects evolved over the years.

Often times she is criticized for being too much of an idealist but I still think that there are true meanings to her sustainable policy. I can understand the other side’s argument being her idea is only for the middle and upper class with enough money and all. But it shouldn’t be only for those classes and her attempts and our efforts as a larger community should focus on the possibility of moving that ideas into the poorer class.  You may not be able to do all of her mantra (organic, local, seasonal), but if you could even do one of them or at least start thinking about the possibility, I think it’s good. I certainly feel better eating abundance of fresh seasonal vegetables whether it they are organic or not. It is fun to plan menu around what’s in season especially fruit for me. I change what I use for my desserts according to the season. Winter is experimental months with non-fresh ingredients like nuts and dried fruits or dairy that are available year around. I don’t have to time to use those ingredients during the prime fruits seasons when I am too busy flirting with rhubarb, strawberries, sour cherries, quinces, plums, and so on…

Alice Waters at New Museum

Alice Waters at New Museum

Taking all in

I’d been eyeing on Alice Water’s newest book that was published last year, In the Green Kitchen, Techniques to Learn By Heart for a while and I was even thinking about putting that on wish list for my birthday next month. But after the lecture, some of her cookbooks freshly autographed were available for purchase. Even though the retail price was much more than what I could have gotten on Amazon.com I figured the value(or just personal meaning) of autograph in the calculation and acquired a copy.  Coincidentally, I was browsing through the bookshelves at the printshop where I work next day, I came across her older book, Chez Panisse Vegetables on the bottom shelf. It’s funny I never noticed it before.

I was flipping through the pages and landed on the chapter for Sorrel which I had in my fridge waiting impatiently to be consumed. I was going to make same recipe buttery cream sorrel sauce with poached eggs by Melissa Clark but I was ready for something new if I could find one that wasn’t soup (which is apparently a common dish with sorrel). There it was, Sorrel Potato Gratin with lots of cream and freshly grated cheeses. I had all the ingredients but potatoes. I borrowed the book and walked down 6th Ave in Park Slope aimlessly in search for potatoes after work.

As my iPhone 3G (3 generations ago?) stopped working for Google Map app, I couldn’t know exactly where the Union Market was around there. I kept passing people with the grocery bags so I knew it wasn’t far. Then wola!  it was right on 6th Ave.  It is a much smaller one compared to the newer one on Court Street but I got what I needed then kept walking down the street for this time, Brooklyn Larder, little provisions outpost by Franny’s on Flatbush Ave.  There I was just browsing for amusement.  I got some homemade salami from Queens and earl grey with citrus tea from Kusmi Tea for making iced tea. I asked them about salt packed anchovies but they hadn’t heard of them. (Alice Waters talks about salt packed anchovies a lot but I just haven’t been able to find them. Yes, salt packed capers I find at various places. Dean & Deluca next time.)

I used the entire bunch of sorrel leaves, more than the recipe called for and used different types of cheese I wanted to use up since they were getting oldish. I topped with homemade bread crumb I had on hand and that little addition made a good difference in this cream rich gratin. (I happened to have Ronnybrook heavy cream on hand that I planned to use for strawberry cream cake I need to make today. I am going to Brooklyn Fare after this post to get strawberries and more cream!)

Potato Sorrel Gratin adapted from Alice Water's "Chez Panisse Vegetables"

A problem of making gratin dish this big and rich, we shouldn’t eat it all by ourselves but we didn’t plan it ahead of time to make it for a gathering. So I sent some leftovers with Eric to his office to share with his business partner. I hope that it was still good heated up second day!

Posted in Coffee, Dishes, Inspirations, Vegetables | Comments closed

Rhubarb Preserving Party by food52

By keiko | Published: May 23, 2011

Can’t get enough rhubarb, right?

By such a chance, I found out about the group DYI project: rhubarb preserving party that food52 organized in Brooklyn. I discovered food52.com only after I got my copy of Essential New York Times Cookbook as a NY NPR donation gift. It took them a long time to actually send the gift (this was from their last pledge drive) so by the time I got it I was impatient and couldn’t wait to dive in. I knew the author, Amanda Hesser, was a food writer for New York Times. Since my trust and fondness for New York Times Dinging section, I might have looked her or her books up and that lead to food52.com I believe. I don’t quite remember exactly. Anyhow this is only in the past month or possibly less. I started following their tweet and that’s how I stumbled upon the event. I wasn’t checking their website that regularly so I didn’t even know that this event was in works for some time. I thought this was rather a spontaneous event.

Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser, rated #1 New York cookbook at Strand Bookstore. It's like an encyclopedia of food trend in history and archive of the NY Times best recipes. I might not try all the potential easy-enough recipes but it's fun to flip through and read some of the background stories. (I want to try making my own butter and buttermilk!)

We were asked to each bring 1 pound of rhubarb to Ger-Nis Culinary and Herb Center, amazing teaching kitchen space. I had no idea such place that holds regular cooking classes was (almost) right under my nose near my work in Gowanus. It didn’t seem like much rhubarb to me but in the end for a group of about 12 or so people, we ended up with many jars of jam and leftover uncut rhubarb.

Amanda and Merrill, co-founders of food52, were very nice, friendly, and approachable. I usually feel pretty awkward in this kind of setting where I am faced with strangers, but I felt pretty relaxed.  How thoughtful they brought coffee and pastries to kick start the party and we just dove into the tasks of washing, chopping and opening/sterilizing jars in dishwasher. I had seen these Weck jars at Brooklyn Kitchen and I contemplated whether to get them or not. They cost a bit more than usual Ball jars but they are darn cute. But one aspect of them stopped me from getting, there are many little separate parts to each jar that can get lost easily or hard to handle for a flimsy person. I always wondered about the assurance of sealing with separate rubber gasket as well. But we didn’t pressure seal these today.  I will try sealing with them when we finish the jam and use empty jars for next batch. Needless to say, they are charming little jars and I love glass jars. I definitely appreciated their aesthetic choice.

Rhubarb chopping at food52 Rhubarb-Preserving Party

Peeling orange zest for rhubarb marmalade

Chopped rhubarb and sugar in a large bowl, ready to be tossed. That's a lot of sugar, but necessary for sour fruit and for preserving purpose.

Amanda tossing the big batch of jam mixture on the floor

This was a party and lot more about getting together with people who have some interest and passion and also to connect with the common thread in this case, the website food52.com. So it wasn’t so much about learning new techniques, though I did learn about relationship between the contents you are cooking and the containers you are cooking in. It does seem pretty obvious and common sense yet it was clearly stated in front of us. We had three very different cooking instruments; small stock pot (deep and not as wide), sauté pan (shallow and wide), and a wok (small bottom, sloped wall, and wide). The surface size of electrical heating element was different for each but nonetheless these different shaped pots and pans made one get ahead of the others in the race to the boiling point. The shallow sauté pan did the best and the wok did poorly. The very same wok I used to use for my jam making before I got my beloved Le Crueset Dutch oven (7 1/4 qts.!). I thought it was kind of funny.

I truly enjoyed this event and it was comforting to know that there are other geeks out there who can get excited about rhubarb as much as I do. This is one those precious moments where I get to appreciate for being in NYC/Brooklyn.  It was an honor to meet such great cookbook and food writers and their staff. I got to ask some questions!

Rhubarb, oranges, orange and lemon zest cooking. It's amazing how different cooking apparatus make a huge difference in result; lesson 1-how fast does each pot or pan get to boiling?

Cooking rhubarb marmalade (front) and caramelized onion and strawberry-rhubarb jam (back)

Scooping a bit of cooking jam onto a plate to test the jelling in the freezer

Weck glass lids

Weck glass jars-they sure are handsome looking canning jars.

Ready to fill the jars with hot marmalade-go team work!

Weck jars filled with Rhubarb (orange) Marmalade and Savory Rhubarb Jam (named by Amanda, the original was too long to fit on the label). I forgot to take photo of all the filled jars on the table at the end of the party so here is my pile back at my place.

Then the next day for brunch I made some quick apple-rhubarb compote with honey and scooped it over cooked steel-cut oats along with formage blanc, maple syrup, and the rhubarb marmalade from the party. We probably didn’t even need maple syrup.

Rhubarb brunch: Steel-cut oats with Tonjes Farm formage blanc, Vermont pure grade B maple syrup, rhubarb-apple compote, rhubarb marmalade from the party

Steel-cut oats with rhubarb-apple compote and marmalade

I still had another pound or so rhubarb left at home and I was searching for other rhubarb recipes. I came across this new recipe, Upside-Down Rhubarb Cake from Melissa Clark’s Good Appetite via NY Times Dining twitter feed. I set out to make this cake after getting home from dinner adventure in Red Hook tonight. The batter looked kind of weird (curdled as she noted) and it called for a pretty hefty amount of butter but it sure smelled good while baking from the caramelizing top (bottom during baking) and I can’t wait to try a piece tomorrow with good cup of coffee! But the rest after Eric takes a slice, I don’t know what to do with… Anyone wants to come over for this cake?

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake from Melissa Clark's "Good Appetite"

Posted in Desserts, Fruits, Jam | Comments closed

Lazy lady’s food photo archive

By keiko | Published: May 21, 2011

During the months I skipped blogging after our move I still kept taking photos of food I made. I meant to post them but now it’s sort of out of context so I am just going to post them here as an archive and for your viewing pleasure.

Hand pounded mochi cut into rectangles for New Year's

Toshikoshi Soba/buckwheat noodle soup with mochi and watercress for New Year's Eve (except we had it on New Year's Day). I made the real deal "ichiban dashi" for the soup. Hamachi-yellow tail sashimi in the background.

Chawan-mushi/steamed savory custard with dashi, watercress, meats, and mushroom. Straining egg and dashi mixture.

Chawan-mushi assembled and ready to go into a steamer pot.

Chawan-mushi in steamer pot.

New Year's brunch-Ozouni soup with mochi and chawan-mushi.

New Year's brunch-assortment of pickles, ozouni, and chawan-mushi.

Baked salmon with lemon herb sauce and salad dinner.

Tofu steak with mushroom and bacon topping with soy/mirin sauce.

Skilette chicken breast dinner with creamy cauliflower soup

Coconut fried shrimp dinner with roasted cauliflower, glazed carrots, and dehydrated daikon salad.

Fried pounded shrimp with sticky yam ball dinner

Simple vegetable soup with homemade croutons dinner with baked orange-miso glaze salmon and olive oil mashed potatoes.

Maple glazed pork tenderloin dinner with fennel and celery salad, spicy sweet potato and bean salad, olive oil sautéed gobo, mashed pumpkin salad.

Rolled cabbage creamy stew

Spicy short ribs braised in coffee and red wine with creamy polenta

Shrimp paste sandwiched in fried bean curd pockets

Tofu steak dinner

Red wine risotto dinner

Shrimp taco with handmade blue corn tortilla from Hot Bread Kitchen

Creamless creamy tomato soup with homemade croutons and arugula salad with figs, prosciutto, walnuts, parmigiano-reggiano, raspberry-balsamic dressing from Cook's Illustrated-starter for Christmas dinner.

Glazed Flying Pigs Farm ham (6 pounds) we brought from NY to MI.

Baked items I missed to post

Cherry Cheesecake Cookies from Cook's Illustrated

German apple pancake of some sort

Biscuits!

Coconut Drop Cookies with chocolate

Deep Dish Apple Pie with caramelized top crust fro Christmas.

Posted in Baked Goods, Japanese Food | Comments closed

Spring Market Vegetables Come to My Table

By keiko | Published: May 21, 2011

More reason to like vegetables and eat healthy

Here in NY, it’s getting into the season where Greenmarkets are seeing more vendors come back and more invigorating variety of vegetables, fruits, and herbs to show up. That makes me happy and antsy at the same time. Having too many options aren’t always good for my mental state. I get to shop more relaxed during cold months but it’s hard to beat the excitement over sorting through mounds of bright crimson stalks of rhubarb, translucent ruby gems of sour cherries, or resting my eyes on gorgeous deep green of leafy vegetables, and finding intriguing array of fresh beans.  Last Monday I got a chance to go to Union Square Greenmarket and got my hands on some goodies. It is interesting to find that each different day of the week and market doesn’t always give you the same ingredients. Overall, Union Square on Saturdays is great, but there are certain things I miss from Ft. Greene or Greenpoint markets. I love the eggs from an organic farm, Garden of Eve, and seeing the girl behind the Ronnybrook Dairy who looks a lot like my dear friend Anne in Albuquerque at Greenpoint market. I love the exotic breads from Hot Bread Kitchen, and seeing the old grandpa-like man selling limited variety of vegetables and eggs (sometimes weird smoked or salted fish). I love all the handcrafted-small batch dairy products (fresh mozzarella, formage blanc cheese, un-homogenized whole milk, buttermilk, Greek yogurt) ran by this lovely family (mom, dad, and son sometimes) at Tonjes Farm at Union Square.  Sometimes I go to both Ft. Greene and Union Square and send Eric to Greenpoint one near his office since he’s working on lot of the weekends. Needless to say, my Saturdays are pretty much consumed by grocery shopping but it helps to have smooth week for cooking dinner every night and after all it is like clothes shopping or gallery hopping for some others, weekend leisure.

My harvest from Union Square Greenmarket

I love pea shoots!

Red radish with tops-I saute chopped tops with soy sauce and sesame seeds to make sprinkle for rice.

Tasoi-I made sautéed squid with tasoi, shimeji mushroom, and scallions in oyster sauce.

Young onions-I separated the top green parts and bottom bulbs for different uses.

Upon getting home from markets, I take time to wash and spin dry leafy vegetables, roll them between paper towel, and store in ziploc bags. That makes it easier during the week for cooking after work. Crisper drawer full of washed/dried greens.

Eric picked these asparagus up at Greenpoint Greenmarket. I roasted them with aged hard cheese and homemade bread crumb.

Roasted asparagus topped with poached egg (from Garden of Eve, their egg yolks is so bright!)

I had this Friday off so I went to Union Square Greenmarket for rhubarb (and Tuscan kale), and I have Saturday and Monday to go to markets. I will see what I can find this time.

Posted in Healthy eating, Vegetables | Comments closed

Here comes RHUBARB again!!! aka “Rhubarb, my love” (There isn’t Japanese word for it)

By keiko | Published: May 20, 2011

My passion for rhubarb

I must say that rhubarb is my favorite fruit I have discovered in the States. I never knew of these rather non-appealing stalks I hear grow like weed in certain parts of the country as they are not common at all in Japan. (Though my mom tells me after I kept telling her about it passionately she started seeing it in Japan occasionally.) I think my first encounter was in the form of pie at Caffeto in Minneapolis where I used to hang out with my college friends. I wasn’t into desserts as much as now back then but that was one thing I would ask specifically and make sure to get. But I didn’t know what the actual fruit looked like until I saw them at Whole Foods or Co-op sometime later. Also I never knew when the exact season was since it seems as it is always in season at grocery stores.

It wasn’t until moving to Brooklyn, I tackled cooking/baking rhubarb as to lack of knowledge. I didn’t know how to treat it, how much sugar to add otherwise it would be too sour/bitter and what else you can do with it. Around the same time as I got into pie and jam making, I started seeing some rhubarb recipes. My favorite jam recipe is Rhubarb-Orange Jam rather than with strawberry. Simple rustic rhubarb tart with honey is another of my favorite way of using it. Its juice is so amazingly fragrant and flavorful with just a bit of lemon juice or spice, almond extract. I love rhubarb pie that I got to try it whenever I see it.

Since I had to skip my Greenmarket Saturday last weekend for the bread workshop I attended all day, I went to Union Square Greenmarket on Monday in a miserable rainy weather. (dedicated, huh?) It became all worth it when I saw these bright red skinny rhubarb from one farm. Rhubarb from the only other vendor who had it was all green and fat and more expensive. It’s good to walk through the market once to see all the options, it’s easier to do that on weekdays rather than on busy mobbed Saturdays.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Mousse

I had Strawberry-Rhubarb Mousse from Essential New York Times Cookbook, drenched in Kirsch in my mind. I was willing to go over to Whole Foods to get greenhouse strawberries to sacrifice in order to follow the recipe. But luckily one of my favorite farms (Korean woman at the table, specializes in hard-to-find Asian greens and herbs) that comes on Mondays and Saturdays had field strawberries. That was my first spotting of field strawberries and they actually looked yummy. I had one more stop to make for this recipe; liquor store in Astor Place.  I had been looking for Kirsch, cherry brandy, in the past few weeks but the real ones derived from actual cherries only come in larger bottle and not so cheap. The cheaper ones are apparently made from grape juice and flavored with cherry juice. A clerk at Uva Wines told me that I could probably get away with cheaper ones if I am only using it for desserts but Eric and as well as Peter from work both convinced me that I needed to use the real deal if that’s the key flavor enhancer ingredient in the recipe.

Bright red and skinny stalks of rhubarb, my first buy of this season.

Field strawberries, first I've seen this season. They look yummy don't they?

Real deal Kircsh from France

The recipe called for surprising amount of heavy cream which made the final result a bit heavy. Nonetheless, it was smooth and jam packed with refreshing spring flavor. In the end I think the real Kirsch made a difference. It was pretty easy and quick to make and a batch yielded a lot of pink colored ramekins.

Starwberry-Rhubarb Mousse with Kirsch from Essential NY Times Cookbook

Rhubarb-Apple infused with Earl Grey tea, Cardamom, and Orange Blossom Water

I had a bit of leftover rhubarb from the mousse that I wasn’t sure what to do with, then I came across a recipe on food52.com. It was the runner-up recipe from a year ago when they did the “Best rhubarb recipe contest”. It just sounded so deliciously right for the moment, Rhubarb with Earl Grey Tea, Cardamom, and Orange Zest. All things I like and thy are in one recipe as good company to each other. Unfortunately, I didn’t have cardamom pod, oranges, nor straight earl grey tea on hand.  I replaced those with powder cardamom, bit of orange blossom water, and mostly earl grey tea with citrus from Kusmi Tea. I mixed everything in a baking dish and put it in my new convection toaster oven set at 350˚F, baked it for 15 minutes covered and another 15 minutes uncovered. This may not be the most decadent dessert but it sure was beautifully fragrant and addictive. I didn’t have vanilla ice cream either as the recipe suggested but it was still good just as it was!

Rhubarb-Apple with Earl Grey Tea, Cardamom, and Orange blossom water adapted from chez danisse recipe on food52.com

Tomorrow, I am going to “Rhubarb preserving party” in Park Slope/Gowanus that food52 tweeted about. I got my 2 pounds of fresh rhubarb from Greenmarket today and I am ready to meet other rhubarb lovers!

Posted in Fruits, Vegetables | Comments closed

Bread Extravaganza in East Harlem 2

By keiko | Published: May 16, 2011

Lunch with extraordinaire women bakers: Round Table Discussion

After 2 sessions in the morning, the Roundtable Discussion (and lunch) was led by a NYC journalist/writer. I really didn’t know what to expect and I was pleasantly fulfilled by the end of the talk.  They talked about the advantage/disadvantage of women bakers and the business side of baking industry now and then say 20 years ago when some of them started. It was great to peek into the backstage of the NYC culinary industry. I only moved to NYC in 2006 but even since then I have seen some of the culinary interests’ shift in the city especially driven by social and digital media that make everything so accessible and quickly assimilated. I’ve taken interest in food only the past couple of years, I follow tweets, read NY Times Dining section, read some food blogs, pick up Edible magazines, visit some boutique grocery stores and Brooklyn Flea and alike, and try some of the restaurants I read about… just from those I get a lot of exciting information and that inspires me to cook and bake in my own kitchen. I think I only found out about this workshop from a tweet. The discussion made me think that I am truly in a unique and exciting culinary city in the United States. ( I was hiding out in Midwest good chunk of time in my U.S. resident years)

Women continued to Bake Bread into the afternoon:

Classic Baguette by Karen Bonarth, Le Pain Quotidien

First session after lunch only had one class, The Classic Baguette, led by Karen Bornarth of Le Pain Quotidien. (Le Pain Q is another place I like and have a great memory of being one of the very first places my friends introduced me to when I moved here.) It was nice to have all the participants gathering around the long tables and actually get hands on wet dough. It was a hands-on workshop and we all got to try to shape, roll, slash, transfer, bake from three different types of fermented dough.

Karen carefully shaping baguette dough to demonstrate

Shaped baguette dough resting on couche-baker's canvas in plastic covered vertical rack

Transferring baguette dough from couche onto peel board lined with parchment paper

Transferring baguette dough from couche to peel board using the wooden paddle

Baguettes are in the oven rising quickly. I was surprised by how brief the water injection at the beginning was.

Baguettes baking in the oven, top row starts to brown

I wish I had a documentation of “slashing” demo. I was always mystified by the purpose of “slashing” in bread making where you cut splits on top of the dough wether it’s a boule or baguette and how astonishingly hard it was when I tried. I learned that it is for decorative look and also to have escape spots for bread’s inner steam while baking. Steam would find some weak spots on the dough surface even if you didn’t make the slits but that wouldn’t look very pretty.  I got to try on a baguette here and I did pretty good  using the right tool. I think my problem before was the knife I was using, it just dragged the dough surface instead of slashing into it. Karen and Amy recommended the sharp thin flexible straight edge blade or serrated knife. (I have seen the very blade at my work. I will steal some!)

Karen cutting the freshly baked baguette into half length-wise to show us the "crumb" result from each three different dough

Karen showing us the crumb condition. (i.e. large holes, small holes, consistent throughout or not)

As shabby as some shaped baguettes made by participants looked, all the baguettes turned out great once baked in the oven. Karen told us to let them rest and cool for an hour or so but one of the participants tried hot to compare later. So I tried as well and thought it was quite good already then. There is certainly something to that warm freshly baked breads.

Karen was an another great teacher, very patient and explained steps slowly and clearly. I have to note here about the assistant for this class, I think his name was Peter, perhaps who bakes at Hot Bread Kitchen. He was like the shadow prop master for Kabuki theater, discrete yet very helpful and indispensable. He was helping with tools and equipments that Karen might not be familiar with since it’s not her bakery. He humbly had us try every little step that seem insignificant or too critical for us amateurs to do and I actually enjoyed those little stuff; transferring the dough, making the crease on couche, and putting peel full of dough into the oven and hitting the water injection button. I didn’t have much interest in baguette making but this was definitely immensely informative for all bread making.

Traditional Pretzel and Bagels by Rhonda Crosson, French Culinary Institute

This class turned out to be the most revealing one for me.  I didn’t even know about this class prior but once I found out that instructor, Rhonda Crosson, baked at Zingerman’s Bakehouse in Ann Arbor, MI and she was going to demonstrate how to make traditional pretzel, I was sold!  My mom is really into soft pretzel here in the States and she has to have one every time she comes to NY. I also once in a while get the craving for real good ones like from Sigmund Pretzel Shop. So I thought it would be great to learn to make them for my mom and I also wanted to get over the fear of lye I read about in a NY Times pretzel recipe.

Rhonda rolling dough into a bagel. The same strong and dense dough is used for both bagel and pretzel.

Traditionally rolled bagel dough

Rhonda rolling the dough for pretzel

Rhonda making the thin rolled dough into a classic twist.

Rhonda making the pretzel twist

We all got to try making the twists.

Freshly baked traditional bagels and pretzels, almost all gone!

Rhonda was a very enthusiastic instructor and the way she showed us how to roll and shape bagels and pretzels was accessible for an amateur like me. Hands-on class helped me to understand how the dough behaved and learned to roll and shape. I enjoyed her small history talk for each bagel and pretzel as well.  I just couldn’t believe how easy to make bagel and pretzel, perhaps getting the lye crystals is the only mild hassle. But of course nowadays, internet finds you anything and everything. Did you know there is such thing as “pretzel salt” ? I certainly never even gave a thought. The special salt for pretzel is such that it doesn’t derive moisture from the air so the pretzel won’t get soggy over time. The best part was to eat the hot and fresh bagel and pretzel. They are meant to be eaten fresh and they were that revolutionary delicious! I took two for me and Eric to share… This I think I can do at home just as well.

Sneak-peak at Hot Bread Kitchen

Toward the end of the day, Hot Bread Kitchen staff began their production in some parts of the bakery and on the way out, I spotted a mother-daughter team making this Moroccan M’smen bread that I always buy at Hot Bread Kitchen (at Ft. Greene Greenmarket). It was so cool to see how this my favorite exotic bread was made in person. The folded dough is drenched in oil then fried them on griddle. I thought they were deep-fried but now I see how there are many thin layers within and why it’s oily.

Moroccan M’smen in process by Hot Bread Kitchen bakers

Moroccan M’smen on griddle

Moroccan M’smen cooling on wire rack shelf

Then breads’ afterlife at home

My stomach was so full from all the breads so instead of eating the breads I brought back with me, I took photos of the beauty and thought about what to do with the loaves.

Breads, baked goods, and sourdough starter from the workshop

Beautifully stenciled boule from Amy's Bread

Grandaisy's Pugliese

Pretzels (and half eaten corn tortilla, butternut squash pizza)

Amy's Bread boule turned into french toast

French baguette from the workshop turned into yummy french toast

Toasted Pugliese cubes in food processor

Fine bread crumb made with Grandaisy's Pugliese to top roasted asparagus I made later (the idea from Grandaisy's pizza demo)

And the rest of the bread was sliced and ziploc bagged and went into freezer today. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was supposed to do with the sourdough starter though I remembered Amy answered to a question saying that the starter would just die if we didn’t do anything to it that day… I read all the instructions she gave us and though I didn’t fully understand how to proceed, I “fed” the starter and put it in the refrigerator. The levain-starter she gave us wasn’t enough amount to follow the recipe and instruction she gave us but I understood that the total amount of starter didn’t have to be exact as long as you had the hydration ratio right so I had Eric help me to calculate the amount of water and flour I needed to add and mixed in.  Hopefully I didn’t kill  it on the first day! This gives me a chance to kick start on sourdough bread challenge, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have tried it.

Now back from the workshop inspired, I resumed reading the only book I have on bread making, My Bread by Jim Lahey. I think it’s a good start (no-knead, easier to tackle) and by the time my sourdough starter is ready to use for actual bread making I will be itching to recreate the experience I had from the workshop.

Small note on bread making

The throughout and after the workshop I kept thinking about my mom and aunt who are excellent bakers. I wrote about them and their baking in the earlier post so I won’t repeat here. Now I understand more about bread making though the kinds of bread they make are pretty different from these artisanal European breads, I want to ask them about the natural yeast from vegetables and type of flour they use, watch how they shape and handle their doughs. Next time I go home, I should visit my aunt at her country farm house where she bakes and learn a few of her tricks!

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Bread Extravaganza in East Harlem 1

By keiko | Published: May 15, 2011

Women Bake Bread

This was a quite exciting Saturday and it didn’t even involve Greenmarkets. Though I had to rise as early as 6:30AM which I don’t even do during the work week, this workshop led by prominent NYC women bakers (or a bakery owner) was well worth the hassle. When I got there the breakfast buffet full of breads and mini healthy muffins along with coffee and orange juice was waiting, I was ready to learn after grabbing seconds of that sweet pillowy tender bread. (I wish I’d asked what that was.) This workshop, Women Bake Bread!, was organized and hosted by Hot Bread Kitchen at La Marqueta in East Harlem to help fund their non-profit business. The space houses the market and bakery/training space/incubator kitchen is under Long Island Railroad, it was bit loud at times to hear the session but not too bad. The bakery was spacious and some big machines like walk-in convection oven and stand-in mixers were placed for production and incubator kitchen.

La Marqueta under Long Island Railroad

Hot Bread Kitchen boule

Bread ovens with steam injection function

Walk-in convection oven for baking crackers and things. It fits a few of vertical baker's racks.

Equipment-I am not sure what this is for.

Large mixer

Dough mixing!

Large sacks of King Arthur Flour

Breakfast buffet

Country Sourdough Boule by Amy Scherber of Amy’s Bread

The morning sessions were tough to choose from since they were the ones I was most interested in and they overlapped; Sourdough bread by Amy Scherber, the founder/owner of Amy’s Bread, and Corn Tortillas and Chapatti by mother-daoughter bakers from Bangladesh at Hot Bread Kitchen. In the end I chose Amy’s class for a bit of celebrity reason and I was actually eager to learn about sourdough bread since I had certain intimidation for it and I wanted to be demystified about it.

Clearly she has been in this business for a good chunk of time (almost 20 years) and she has done a lot of training her staff bakers that she was very good at giving a lecture/demo. She did convince me that sourdough bread isn’t all that hard and time consuming, nor hard to do sourdough starter. But of course now I am home and looking over her recipe and thinking that there seems to be a lot of steps and time involved than I remember thinking during the class. Well, I suppose all that hard and long waiting period; rising (proofing) time and getting the starter ready for the specific bread, was already taken care of at her bakery before the class even started. She had a lot of tips and tricks to tell most of us home bakers and it certainly made me want to give it a try especially after getting bits of her sourdough starter to take home to try with. I have to challenge it now that I “fed” the starter which she calls “Levain”.

Amy sprinkling sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds on dough

Amy transferring dough

Amy shaping the dough-tucking in

Amy and audience assistant kneading the big mound of dough by hand-5 kilo?

Amy showing us elasticity of the dough

Amy also showed us how to make Kalamata olive studded boule dough

Stencil technique

Walnut bread and sticks with seeds already out of oven

Glimpse of beloved authentic corn tortillas

When Amy Scherber’s class ended there was a big crowd of people surrounding her. As shy as I am I couldn’t think of any questions to ask so I wander out the room. (Now I regret that I didn’t ask her about what to do when we get home with the starter bits she was giving away.) Out the hallway into the other production area with large griddle, the corn tortillas and chapatti class was wrapping up. There were piles of yellow, blue, and regular? corn tortillas hot off the griddle, and the the mother and daughter were still making them. Though I totally missed the how-to part of it, I got to taste them fresh and warm. I buy these at Ft. Greene Greenmarket every time I see them!

Yellow corn tortillas dough balls

Mother-daughter making corn tortillas

Mother-daughter stretching and rolling corn tortilla dough. (Note: the rolling pin had ridges)

Freshly made warm and fluffy corn tortillas

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Tortilla press and blue corn tortilla dough

My favorite Pizza Bianca and Roman-Style Pizza dough by Grandaisy

Another highlight of the workshop for me was this one by Grandaisy Bakery (originally Sullivan Street Bakery in SOHO). This one was one exception where the baker was not a woman but the entrepreneurial founder was, Monica Von Thun Calderon. Nonetheless, this humble baker has been with the bakery for 15 years and Monica said he is very very good. The demonstrations were on two of my favorite breads there and I wasn’t going to miss it, thus I passed the Ciabatta bread demo by Fairway Market.

The breads they were showing us are so simple that they almost had too much time left but luckily they came well prepared with tons of their signature pizzas and bianca to keep us from getting hungry. They had a trivia quiz at the end to give away their t-shirts and also we all got a whole loaf of their signature bread Puguliese, another of my favorite bread in NYC.  Those pizza doughs did seem so simple and easy to do and I have seen the recipes from Jim Lahey’s book My Bread (Sullivan Street Bakery) and thought that they seemed easy. But they taste so good seemingly impossible to completely duplicate at home. Is that the ingredients; high quality extra virgin olive oil (they use Frankie’s and i just picked up a bottle from its coffee shop, Cafe Pedlar), really fresh rosemary, and good kosher salt? Or perhaps the high heat with water injection oven. I can come close to the perfection in the ingredients department I just have to try it at home and see.

Pizza dough ready

Oiled dough

Stretching dough long for full size Pizza Bianca (home bake size seen on the lower right)

Mushroom pizza, Butternut squash pizza, and Pizza Bianca

Look at the long stretched dough! Pizza Bianca

After Grandaisy’s demo was the lunch time panel discussion. But I’d been munching on all the breads all morning I was not hungry at all. I managed to stash away some I couldn’t finish from the lunch buffet in little baggies they put out . I was feeling like such a glut but there was just so much good breads! I couldn’t help it. By the end of the day I had to pull out my portable/foldable grocery bag to keep all the breads they were giving away.

Report on afternoon session continues in #2. Stay tuned.

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Fish Night

By keiko | Published: May 11, 2011

Apparently the fishing season for striped bass has come around here. One of my employers goes fishing on a boat with his friend almost every week for striped bass. Last Wednesday he caught the biggest one I’ve seen so far, 28 pounds and 40 inches I think he said. He cuts, scales, cleans out, and slices some fillets into sashimi for us. Then there is always so much more for each of us to take home. I remembered reading up on soup stock in one of those cookbooks I acquired recently and I wanted to give it a try.  I took one of the collar bones with still so much meat on it, bones with meat, and a fillet.

28-pound striped bass from NY

The fish stock recipe from Alice Water’s book was much faster than the one from New York Times. I put the collar bone piece and smaller pieces I cut off from the bone piece in a 4-qt pot. I had some cranberry beans cooking brine water from earlier so I used that instead of water and added white wine into the pot. After boiling, I turned down the heat and added carrot slices, onion slices, parsley stems I had in freezer, peppercorns, and some celery seeds and simmered it for like an hour.

Fish stock...

Striped Bass collar bone and back bones. It is astonishingly hard to cut fish apart.

For the fillet pieces I sprinkled salt, pepper, and bit of sugar (to give caramelization) and seared it in a hot cast iron pan for about 2 minutes then put the pan in 425 F˚ oven to roast. I topped the each piece with herb butter I’d had in the fridge.

Baked striped bass with herb butter

Baked striped bass and striped bass soup dinner

For the bones with some flesh on I took a recommendation of broiling by the fisherman. I made sweet miso paste marinade and smothered that on the fish and marinated for a day. I used our new convection toaster oven broiler setting and it came out with such sweet aroma.

Simmer red miso, mirin and sake together

Striped bass with miso paste marinade

Broiled striped bass with miso paste

The man who caught the fish made panko crusted fried fish with some special pepper (Cambodian?) and shared with us. That was also delicious! very good seasoning and texture. Thank you fisherman!

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