The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Book Review - And Duchess Potatoes on the side..

I've returned to This Book Makes Me Cook, a delightful little Internet "Cooking The Books" reading group that I chanced upon a while back, after a lazy summer where I neglected everything blog wise.
I'm glad I picked this month to return, else I would have missed out on reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society which had been on my back burner for a while as it had come heavily recommended by two of my enthusiastic reader friends.
 So I picked up the book late on one of those blissful rainy weekends where the stage has practically set itself up for a good read, thunder rolling outside, rain pelting the windows, the amorous glow from a well positioned lamp, the bed covers drawn just high enough to not interrupt the frequent page turning.


And then I thought "What on earth is this book on about?".


I couldn't figure it out for the first five pages. The text was in the form of a series of letters back and forth between people that hadn't even been introduced to me and I felt a little lost. I put the book down, bemoaned the choice, but returned later that night and gave the book one more try. Darn it, if anything, I had to unearth what the Potato Peel Pie was about!


And that was when the magic happened.


The characters grew on me, the letters started to make sense. New characters came and went, but their stories lingered on. The protagonist Judith, an authoress with an independent feminist streak frowned upon by society and her era, is stuck mulling about what her next novel should be about as she is hounded by publishers, friends and editors. She chances upon a book club filled with haphazard characters. They have formed a reading group in Guernsey as a ruse to avoid detection by the Nazis that they were feasting on hidden, contraband foods, namely a roasted pig. She is drawn by their story of hardship, friendship and perseverance and inevitably travels to meet them at the expense of some of her personal relationships and commitments.


The story telling is gentle, humorous, sad and poignant and Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (yes, two authors wrote this book!) effortlessly transport us from our comfortable suburban confines to the windswept, rugged Channel Islands. Your heart winces at the stories of hardship and the fate of some of the characters and you manage to crack a smile or two at the witty dialogues that are intermittent in the story. If you are a fan of British writers of the Wodehouse and Blyton ilk, then this book will probably appeal to you as it did to me.


Now onto the cooking part of this book club!


Unfortunately, the Potato Peel Pie described in the book was as awful as it name suggests, Potato Peels layered with a smattering of beet juice. Can I get a collective Eeeewwwwww.....


To turn the gist of the book completely on its head, I chose to serve up the rather royal and decadent Duchess Potatoes which I ogled for a very long time at Cynthia Nelson's brilliant Tastes Like Home.


While everyone else in the Book Club rightfully made intellectual attempts to imagine what meagre offerings the characters of the book had to endure, I decided to cook something that they NEVER would have had the chance to eat.

Duchess Potatoes (entirely sourced Cynthia's recipe which was featured in the Stabroek News and her Taste Like Home website)


4 large potatoes


Salt and pepper to taste
1 heaped Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp sour cream (optional)
¾ cup grated cheese (I use my personal fave Monterrey Jack)
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon water
Parsley - to garnish (optional, I omitted)


1. Wash and peel potatoes. Slice into big pieces and add to salted, boiling water. Boil till potato pieces are cooked and are fork-tender. Drain from water and mash potatoes in a bowl.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Add butter, sour cream and cheese to potatoes while it is still hot. Mix thoroughly and taste for seasoning (add salt and pepper to taste).
4. Mix in beaten egg. At this point the potatoes must have a very soft consistency, like thick porridge.
5. Pour the potato mixture into a Zip-loc bag or clean cellophane or wax paper cone, and snip off one end of the bag to form a piping spout.
6. Pipe the potatoes into oven proof ramekins going in a circular motion. Transfer the bowls onto baking sheet/tray.
7 Sprinkle paprika mixed with water and stir into a paste. Brush or spoon onto the tops of the potato mixture. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the edges are golden-brown.

Daring Bakers - Ice Cream Petit Fours

That is a tiny piece of brown butter pound cake, with vanilla bean ice cream sandwiched in the middle, and then covered smothered in ganache.

Yum.

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

So of course I did this last minute. And of course I tried my hand at making my own ice cream, which actually worked out well, given I do not own an ice cream machine. But the recipe I chose involved raw egg whites. And I was very brave and "foodie" and all, but the rest of my family got weak at the knees when I told them what went into the ice cream and squirmed out of their seats when I served them, and subsequently I buckled too.

I know.

I would suck at Survivor. Thats why I've never applied to go on the show.

So, for this challenge, I ended up using store bought ice cream. Sorry, it was a cop out. But at least give me brownie points for using Haagen Daz's new "Five" range, where apparently there is nothing else in their ice cream but those 5 ingredients listed. Which included eggs, by the way. And my family had no problem chomping down that ice cream.

I loved the brown butter cake, what a luscious, dreamy cake. All soft and buttery, it was very tempting to just scoff down the cake before going down the steps of making the petit fours. But this is where I raise my one little protest, I thought the brown butter cake wasn't suited for a frozen challenge. It lost some of its consistency and flavor the more it was chilled. And unfortunately, in our insane heat, I had to keep shoving the petit fours back in the freezer if they weren't eaten at once, else they dissolved into a puddley mess.

All in all, a great challenge, even though I took the easy way out and didn't use my own ice cream. It is a tricky feat to get the petit fours perfectly glazed and thye get messy and drippy the minute they start to defrost, so I'm not sure if I could make these for a crowd. For now, I'm content just devouring them all by myself, one by one.

Brown Butter Pound Cake


19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.
2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.
3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze (For the Ice Cream Petit Fours)


9 ounces (250g) dark chocolate, finely chopped (I used milk chocolate)
1 cup (250 ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
1 1/2 tablespoons (32g) light corn syrup, Golden syrup, or agave nectar
2 teaspoons (10ml) vanilla extract

Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.


Assembly Instructions – Ice Cream Petit Fours

1. Line a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) pan with plastic wrap, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and so there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides. Spread 1 ¾ to 2 cups (450ml to 500ml) ice cream into the pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze several hours.
2. Once the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a cake leveler or a serrated knife. Then split the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers.
3. Unwrap the frozen ice cream. Flip out onto one of the layers of cake and top with the second layer of cake. Wrap well in plastic wrap and return to the freezer overnight.
4. Make the chocolate glaze (see above.)
5. While the glaze cools, trim ¾” (2cm) off each side of the ice cream cake to leave a perfectly square 7.5” (19cm) ice cream cake. Cut the cake into twenty five petit fours, each 1.5”x1.5” (4cmx4cm).
6. Glaze the petit fours one at a time: place a petit four on a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it.
7. Place the petit fours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and return to the freezer for one hour.

Click here for more variations of other Daring Bakers take on this dessert!

Black Forest Roulade with Chantilly Cream

Goodness. It has been exactly two months since I last posted on this blog. Blame a hectic summer, kids underfoot with an unprecedented 4 month break from school (!), a wedding to attend and a couple of holiday trips. I'm sorry to say I almost forgot how to blog in the meantime. Apologies to those of you who have been having sleepless nights wondering which part of the earth I fell off of (har har).

Well I last left you with a sweet punch of Tiramisu, and I'm back again with yet another one! A Sweet Punch, this time chosen by the very sweet Maria, high priestess of the delectable blog Marias Menu. She challenged everyone to make a Black Forest Roulade which essentially is the chocolate version of a swiss roll. The thin cake is rolled up with a layer of whipped cream and fruit. The fruit of choice was cherries mixed with kirsch, both of which I am not a fan of, so I ended up just filling my roulade with chantilly cream (which is just cream whipped with vanilla and sugar).

I used to make what we called swiss rolls (vanilla cakes rolled with jam) as a teenager, and so this was a nice blast from the past. I did have difficulty rolling the cake though, the cake was very soft and tended to either stick to the parchment paper or break off in pieces. Next time, I would attempt greasing both sides of the parchment paper and using a lot more powdered sugar when rolling the cake. I still enjoyed the challenge, and the end product was a very rich, chocolate-y experience! Thanks Maria! Check out the others renditions of this same dish at the Sweet Punch website.

Black Forest Roulade (from Austrailan Women's Weekly)

Dark chocolate - 200gm, chopped coarsely (I used a mixture of semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips)
Hot water - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp
Eggs - 4, separated (room temp)
Caster sugar - 1/2 cup (110 gms)
Caster sugar - 1 tbsp, extra

Chantilly Cream
Whipping cream - 3/4 - 1 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Caster sugar - 1 Tbsp - adjust to taste

Position oven shelves; preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease swiss roll pan; line base with baking paper. Combine chocolate, water and coffee in large heat proof bowl; sit bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Using wooden spoon, stir until chocolate melts then immediately remove bowl from fire. 

Beat egg yolks and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until thick and creamy; this will take about 5 minutes. Using large metal spoon, fold egg mixture into warm chocolate mixture. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Using metal spoon, gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture, in two batches. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven about 10 mins.

Meanwhile, place a large sheet of baking paper on board; sprinkle with extra sugar. Turn cake onto sugared baking paper; carefully remove lining paper, cover cake loosely with a tea towel. Cool cake to room temp.
 
To prepare Chantilly Cream:
Whisk cream till it holds peaks. Add vanilla essence and sugar (adjust for sweetness), whip again.
 
Spread cake evenly with cream. Roll cake from a long side, using paper to lift and guide the roll; place on serving plate. Dust with cocoa powder. Cover roll; refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. You can also dress up the roulade with fruit or by piping some cream on top.
 
Notes & Tips from the Women's Weekly Magazine:

• This cake is a cross between a mousse and a fallen souffle. It's ideal to make it on the day of serving.
• To successfully make this cake, it is vital that the egg yolk/sugar mixture is beaten until thick and that the egg whites are beaten only until soft peaks form. Overbeating will dry out the egg whites and make it difficult to fold them into the chocolate mixture.
• To test if the cake is cooked, touch it with your fingertips: it should feel slightly firm and springy.

Storage:

•  As per the AWW notes, the filled roulade will keep for up to 8 hours in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
• As per the AWW notes, unrolled and unfilled roulade can be stored, covered with a piece of baking paper then a damp tea-towel, overnight in the refrigerator.

Tiramisu Cake - A Sweet Punch!

The Sweet Punch is a new baking-blogging group started by the trio of Ria, Divya and Maria. And of course if there are any blogging groups out there, I immediately drop everything I am doing and run and join them.

Especially if they will contribute to the needs and cravings of my sweet tooth.
Or a plate of chicken.
Because that seems to be the direction my blog is headed.Chicken. And then Cake. And then some more Cake.

This is the first challenge and it was the lovely Tiramisu Cake by Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. The recipe involves making your own mascarpone cheese (delicious! Swoon!). That itself was the feather in the cap for this recipe, because I've been longing to make homemade mascarpone, but could never bring myself to do it for lack of a trusted recipe to follow through with.

The cake has several stages and components, but everything came together beautifully and the cake was a smashing hit! I made it for my nephew's medical school intro. How appropriate, espresso coffee and liquor in a cake for a new young doc!

The only silly thing I did was I got nervous when dousing the cake with the espresso syrup and thought the cake was getting too wet and soggy and so I stopped. Silly me didn't realise that I had just barely moistened the top crust and the cake could have done with a good dousing of the remainder of the syrup. I did however think there was too much frosting for the cake, and ended up not using half of the mascarpone/cream filling.
Which is fine, because then I just proceeded to make a meal out of the filling by itself =).

Don't be intimidated by all the steps, it is totally worth the effort!

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese (make on previous day)
Double boil 250 ml of heavy whipping cream on medium-high heat stirring occasionally for 15 mins ( you can see small bubbles on the edges).
Add 1/2 tbsp lime juice and stir. You will see a slight change in the texture of the cream (it's a very light change and not like curdling of milk).
Keep stirring for one minute. Take of the heat (It will be custard -like).
When it cools down completely, pour it into a dampened muslin/cheesecloth lined strainer and leave it in the fridge for 8 hours/overnight.
In the morning you will see that it has thickened up and formed a cheese.

Tiramisu Cake ( Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)


For the cake layers:
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

For the espresso extract:
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder (I used regular coffee powder)
2 tablespoons boiling water

For the espresso syrup:
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy (I used dark rum)

For the filling and frosting:
1 8-ounce container mascarpone (store-bought or homemade)
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy (I used dark rum)
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 1/2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, or about 1/2 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Chocolate-covered espresso beans, for decoration (optional)
Cocoa powder, for dusting

Getting ready:
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butter two 9×2 inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess, and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To make the cake:
3. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.
5. Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes.
6. Add the eggs one by one, and then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
7. Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled.
8. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter.
9. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
10. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean.
11. Transfer the cakes to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them, and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right-side up.

To make the extract:
Stir the espresso powder and boiling water together in a small cup until blended.
Set aside.

To make the syrup:
Stir the water and sugar together in a small saucepan and bring just to a boil.
Pour the syrup into a small heatproof bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of the espresso extract and the liqueur or brandy; set aside.

To make the filling and frosting:
Put the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and liqueur in a large bowl and whisk just until blended and smooth.
Working with the stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, whip the heavy cream until it holds firm peaks.
Switch to a rubber spatula and stir about one quarter of the whipped cream into the mascarpone. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream with a light touch.

To assemble the cake:
If the tops of the cake layers have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them.
Place one layer right-side up on a cardboard round or a cake plate protected with strips of wax or parchment paper.
Usingpastry brush or a small spoon, soak the layer with about one third of the espresso syrup.
Smooth some of the mascarpone cream over the layer – user about 1 1/4 cups – and gently press the chopped chocolate into the filling.
Put the second cake layer on the counter and soak the top of it with half the remaining espresso syrup, then turn the layer over and position it, soaked side down, over the filling.
Soak the top of the cake with the remaining syrup.

For the frosting, whisk 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of the remaining espresso extract into the remaining mascarpone filling.
Taste the frosting as you go to decide how much extract you want to add.
If the frosting looks as if it might be a little too soft to spread over the cake, press a piece of plastic wrap against its surface and refrigerate it for 15 minutes or so.
Refrigerate the cake too.
With a long metal icing spatula, smooth the frosting around the sides of the cake and over the top. If you want to decorate the cake with chocolate-covered espresso beans, press them into the filling, making concentric circles of beans or just putting some beans in the center of the cake.
Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours (or for up to 1 day) before serving – the elements need time to meld.
Just before serving, dust the top of the cake with cocoa.

Vietnamese Caramel Ginger Chicken

Am I the only one that's been intrigued by the Pei Wei billboards in town advertising their new Vietnamese Caramel Chicken? However given that I am the only one who doesn't care for Pei Wei restaurants that much except for their awesome, awesome chicken wraps ( I HEART THOSE CHICKEN WRAPS!), I thought I would give this dish a try at home first because I stumbled across the recipe in Food and Wine magazine.
Correction.
I stumbled across two recipes for Caramel Chicken in Food & Wine magazine. Which begs the question, was it the editor's off day? The recipes were somewhat similar, so I decided to mish-mash the two and picked and chose what tickled my fancy.

And we have a winner - I loved this dish. The salty fish sauce was perfectly offset by the sweet caramel sauce resulting in neither a too-sweet nor too-salty dish. Because trust me, I would never be a fan of chicken in sugar or chicken in fish sauce, the latter which would have the aroma of the trap-door to hell.

The folks loved the dish. The hub loved the dish. Crikey, the MIL actually complimented me on the dish. Houston, we have a WINNER! I do have to mention that the kids ran away because I went a little overboard with the chilli (duly noted below). I'll just have to work on that little fault of mine.
Of course, the fact that Joanne is spotlighting Vietnamese cuisine at Regional Recipes was another incentive to try this dish too.

And why do I have those tiny clay pots featuring in the pictures. This dish is traditionally made in a clay pot, so if you are lucky enough to own one, do give it a whirl in that.

Vietnamese Caramel Ginger Chicken (adapted from two recipes in Food & Wine magazine  - "Clay Pot Ginger Chicken" by Chef Mai Pham and "Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken with Caramel Sauce" by Joyce Jue)

3 Tbsp sugar
1/3 cup hot water
3 Tbsp vegetable oil (divided use)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup Asian fish sauce
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp cornstarch
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, visible fat removed and cubed
3 Tbsp lemongrass stalks, chopped (I used jarred lemongrass stalks)
1 medium onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, (1 Tbsp crushed and 1 Tbsp cut in slivers)
1 tsp red chilli flakes (this made the dish very hot! Adjust as you see fit)
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper powder
1/4 tsp salt (omit if fish sauce is salty)
2 scallions, chopped
A few springs of cilantro for garnishing

Method
1. In heavy based pan, heat sugar on medium heat till it starts to turn amber and caramelizes, make sure all sugar has dissolved by swirling the pan. Remove from heat, .
3. Be very CAREFUL with next step, add the hot water a bit at a time, it will cause the caramel to splutter. After all the water is added, return the pan to heat if there are clumps of caramel that did not dissolve and boil until there is a caramel syrup with no lumps. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice and reserve.
4. In a bowl, mix 2 Tbsp of fish sauce, cornstarch, black pepper and the chicken. Stir to coat.
5. In a wok or clay pot, heat 2 Tbsp of oil until smoking and add lemongrass, onion, garlic and the crushed ginger. Stir-fry until the garlic and onions are golden. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp of oil.
6. Add the chicken mixture and cayenne pepper and stir-fry until the chicken turns white.

7. Add all the caramel syrup and remaining fish sauce and cook over moderate heat until chicken is glazed and cooked through. Check for salt  and adjust with fish sauce or salt (I did not add any salt, the fish sauce used to this point was salty enough).

8. Add the scallions, ginger slivers and cilantro and mix well. Either reduce the sauce if you do not want the gravy or remove from heat and serve with plain rice.

This recipe goes off to Regional Recipes - Vietnam.

Daring Bakers - Croquembouche/Piece Montee

Woo hoo! I got to make Chocolate Eclairs because of the Daring Bakers! One of my ambitious projects that has been on the back burner ever since I tasted a delightful chocolate eclair for a little bakery back in the day in Gaborone. Yes, Gaborone as in Southern AFRICA, far cry from a patisserie in Paris.

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

So not only did we have to make the eclairs, we then had to build a tower of them to form a croquembouche. I remember a French co-worker mentioning to me that these were the standard pastries at French weddings, in lieu of a wedding cake.

I LOVED this challenge and I am so proud I was able to do it. It took a trial at first because I was sure I would mess up somewhere. I had my trusty little hand held mixer, and when it came in contact with the pate a choux, it groaned and whimpered. So I utilised some elbow grease and hand mixed the dough. It came out runny and was hard to pipe, I even omitted one of the eggs because the texture was too soft. However the eclairs rose beautifully and I was able to experiment with making some mocha crème patissiere/pastry cream (Chocolate and espresso mixed into vanilla pastry cream).

In order to carry the Daring Baker torch higher, I went out and convinced my stingy self to stop stalking Pioneer Woman at all her giveaways and instead, fork up the dough to buy this little beauty....*grin*

Yes, I went above and beyond people! I have added a stand mixer to my kitchen arsenal in the name of the Daring Baker's! Well, to be honest, I was REALLY sore after the hand beating of the pastry in the first trial.

Onto Round 2 - with the mixer to do all the work, I now found my pate a choux to be a little "tough" so I added all the eggs in the recipe compared to my earlier trial. It was still stiff, and proved quite difficult to pipe, so I ended up scooping the pastry with a spoon onto the baking sheets.

I used my Mocha pastry cream again, and glazed the eclairs with a milk chocolate ganache.

I finally put all the eclairs together and made a haphazard attempt at spun sugar (It didn't work out, the spun sugar didn't form threads and all I was able to salvage were some shards which I placed at the bottom of the plate). Some of you may be wondering what my daughter asked ALOUD "Why did you put COBWEBS on the dessert?" In her honor (she graduated Kindergarten today), I prettied it up with pink and some flowers.

All in all a FANTASTIC challenge. Thank you CAT!

Recipe
This recipe has 3 main components: the pate a choux, the crème patissiere, and the glaze used to mount/decorate it.

You will need approximately 10 minutes to prepare the puff pastry, 10 minutes to pipe and about 30 minutes to bake each batch. The crème patissiere should take about 10 minutes to cook and then will need to be cooled for at least 6 hours or overnight. The glazes take about 10 minutes to prepare.

Equipment required:
• several baking sheets
• parchment paper
• a whisk
• a pastry brush (for the egg wash)
• a pastry bag and tip (a plain tip or no tip is best for piping the puff pastry; you can use a plain or star tip to fill the puff pastry with the cream)
• a flat surface such as a baking sheet or cake board/stand on which to assemble your piece montée
• some of the items you may want to use to decorate your piece montée include ribbons, Jordan almonds, fresh flowers, sugar cookie cut-outs, chocolates, etc.

Crème Patissiere 
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

1. Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk.
2. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
3. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
4. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
5. Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
* MOCHA Variation
Dissolve 1/2 Tbsp espresso powder in 1 Tbsp hot water. Mix into the pastry cream.
Melt 1 Tbsp chocolate chips in 2 Tbsp hot milk. Mix into the pastry cream as well.
6. Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)

¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
3. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
4. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

5. Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.
6. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.
7. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
8. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
9. Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.
10. Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

11. Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Ganache
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp chocolate chips

1. Place the whipping cream in a double boiler. Add the chips and stir till the chocolate melts. Remove from heat. Cool before using to glaze eclairs.

Orzo "Tabbouleh"

Tabbouleh is a delightful Middle Eastern salad made of finely diced parsley and crushed wheat (bulghur).

This is a riff on the dish using Orzo - a pasta that looks like rice, intended to replace the crushed wheat component of the salad. My brother loudly exclaimed that Orzo was left over spaghetti that had been cut up till it resembled rice. Which is not true. Because seriously, who would want that job.
"Hello. Bon Giourno. I am Giuseppe. Cutter of Spaghetti-er".
But it darn looked like it.

So technically, this is probably not Tabbouleh. . But it "looked" like Tabbouleh. And hence the fine folk at Food and Wine named the dish so. Except they used Sardinian Fregola Sarda, which is a pasta so tiny, it "looks" like crushed wheat.
And I didn't.
I used Orzo, our rice imitating pasta. And I used flat leaf parsley. Because curly parsley was nowhere to be found. So maybe I should rename this dish "Tabbouleh on Steroids".

Make. Eat. It's chock full of greens, zippy with citrus and actually GOOD for you.

For the first time ever, I'm joining in at Pasta Party #165 - that would be Presto Pasta Nights (the brainchild of Ruth at Once Upon a Feast) and which is hosted this week by Rachel at The Crispy Cook.
Orzo Tabbouleh (adapted from Food and Wine Magazine, 2006)

1 cup orzo
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice (reduce by half if you don't like strong lemon taste)
1 cup minced flat leaf parsley (chop fine)
1/2 cup chopped mint
1 kirby cucumber, diced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
Kosher salt to taste

1. Cook orzo (in boiling salted water in a large saucepan) until al dente, about 5-8 minutes. Drain, spread on a plate to cool.
2. Whisk olive oil and memon juice in a seperate bowl. Add parsley, mint, cucumber, garlic and toss.
3. Finally add cooled orzo and tomatoes and toss again. Season with salt and serve immediately.
Cooks Notes - the key is to mince the parsly and mint as finely as you can.

Indian Cooking Challenge - Ras Malai

For this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, we are making Ras Malai which is an Indian dessert made of spheres of homemade cheese (paneer) that have been cooked in syrup and then soaked in cream. ICC is the brainchild of Srivalli, and every month she sets about to challenge members to recreate traditional Indian snacks and sweets that have been long forgotten, or relegated out of the home kitchen to restaurants.

Now I have made paneer (homemade Indian cheese) before and blogged about it. The process itself is straightforward. You boil whole milk, add an acidic agent like vinegar or lemon juice, and separate the curdled cheese that is formed.

I've typically seen or used paneer in savoury dishes like Malai Kofta, so it was interesting to see this same cheese is used in a dessert! its transformation comes about by soaking and cooking the paneer in sugar syrup, and thereafter soaking it in sweetened milk that has been reduced down to almost cream consistency.

I followed the ICC recipe to the letter and I was pleasantly surprised that everything came together so well.

• Paneer. Check.
• Sweet syrup and cooking in a pressure cooker. Check. Yes, no explosions or fragmented paneer even with the use of a pressure cooker, which I am deathly scared of.
• The only part I found a little trying was in making the "Ras" - the creamy milk which is the final abode of the sweet cheese balls. You have to boil. And boil. And boil the milk down till it reduces to half. That was pretty taxing, and I had to constantly scrape out thickened cream that was starting to get burnt at the bottom of the dish.

And finally, the result.

Well, here is where the dessert turns a little sour. I'm really impressed that everything came out so well, but I'm not so fond of the actual taste of the dish. I know, quite a let-down. I think its because I have such a sickeningly sweet tooth, so get this folks, this dessert wasn't sweet enough for me!
I  know. Shoot me!
So, the next time if I make this, I'm toying with trying to sweeten the cheese itself with sugar before proceeding on. I'm sure Ras Malai purists are rolling on the floor with angst as they read this, but hey! To each his own!
=(

Ras Malai (I halved the original ICC recipe)

For the "Malai" - Cheese Balls
1 litre full cream (whole) milk
2-3 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp AP flour

Sugar Syrup
2 cups water
4 Tbsp sugar

Ras - Milk Cream
3 cups full cream (whole) milk
4 Tbsp sugar
saffron, crushed pistachios, slivered almonds, 2 curshed cardamom pods - to decorate

1. Malai - bring milk to a boil.  Add vinegar a tablespoon at a time. The milk will curdle and the cheese will separate out. Only add enough vinegar as to change the color of the separated water from white to a light green color. Drain the cheese in a cloth-lined sieve and place a weight on it to extract a smuch water out. See my more detailed post on making paneer.

2. After an hour of drying, place paneer in a bowl, add flour and knead for about 2-3 minutes. The paneer should not feel wet. Roll into small balls.
3. Bring water and sugar for syrup to boil in a pressure cooker. Add malai balls. Close pressure cooker and cook for about 10 minutes or 2 whistles.
4. Remove malai balls and squeeze gently to remove excess syrup.
5. Heat milk for "Ras" in a heavy-bottomed or non-stick pan, stir occasionally until milk is reduced to half its original volume. Add sugar and cardamom.
6. Add malai balls into milk cream mixture.
7. Decorate with pistachios and almonds. Serve chil

Waiter...There's An Omelette In My Curry...

My mother-in-law is guilty of it.
My grandmother is probably guilty of it.
My mother is guilty of it. But will probably deny being in such dire straits.
I am in esteemed company. Of opening your fridge on a Friday night and staring at a carton of eggs, half an onion, a tomato (on a good day), some left over rice and nothing else. And three pairs of hungry eyes watching you from across the room.

The universal solution for a South Indian home would be to whip up a spicy "omelette" (eggs cooked with onions and green chilli) and serve it up with the left over rice and some yogurt.

Until I was browsing through Kerala Syrian Christian Favourites, a cookbook I picked up whilst on holiday in India last year, where the very smart authoress Thressi John Kottukappally took this meagre offering one step further, and douses the omelette in a  simple and spicy tomato and coconut milk sauce. Talk about kicking it up a notch!

Now omelette and rice, which may be the most embarrassing offering that housewives in India have coughed up, now gets a deluxe make-over and becomes a "curry" honorable of placement in the middle of the table, and served to guests.

Every dish deserves its day =).

Omelette Curry (adapted from Kerala Syrian Christian Favourites Thressi John Kottukapally and Salim Pushpanath)
For Egg Omelette
5 eggs
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 green chillies, finely diced
1/2 tsp Salt
~1 Tbsp oil

For Gravy
1 small tin coconut milk (6 oz) or substitute regular milk
1 medium onion, finely sliced
2 Roma tomatoes (medium) size cubed
1/2 Tbsp ginger, crushed
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 sprigs curry leaves
4 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp chilly powder (add more if you want to make the curry HOT!)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 Tbsp oil
Salt to taste

1. Make Omelettes - Beat eggs with onions, green chillies and salt.
2. Heat a non-stick frying pan, add a little oil. Pour 1/3 egg mixture and spread around pan. Flip over to cook both sides. Fold over, slice into three sections and reserve on a plate.
3. Continue with the rest of the egg mixture in the same way as above.
4. Make Gravy - Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let them crackle.
5. Add ginger and garlic, saute slightly, then add onion.
6. When onions have turned slightly brown, add tomatoes and curry leaves. Cook till tomatoes become like pulp and most water has evaporated.
7. Mix all the spice powders listed with a little bit of water to make a paste. Add the paste to the tomato-onion mixture and fry. Add salt to taste.
8. Reduce heat to a minimum, add the coconut milk and mix well to incorporate all the spices. Thin out the mixture if you want more gravy with water or milk. Add the omelette pieces and cook for a minute.
9. Do not let the curry boil, else the coconut milk will separate. Remove from heat and serve.

Koesisters - Cape Malay "Doughnuts"

Koesisters are little fried dumplings that are a Cape Malay twist on the more traditional South African pastry "Koeksister".

The Cape Malay community is a vibrant ethnic group that call most of the Western Cape region of South Africa home. They are originally of Javanese descent, brought from modern-day Indonesia as indentured labourers. Their culture and ethnic traditions have left an indelible mark on present day South Africa, from the influence of curry in South African cuisine (and their trademark stamp "Bobotie" almost a national dish of SA) to the presence of Islam as one of the main religions in the area.

Malay "Minstrels" performing at a Street Parade - Pic from Whalecottage.com

Brightly Colored Malay houses found in the Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town (Malay Quarter) - pic from South Africa Tours and Travel.com

The Koesister is a yeasted fried cake which is seasoned in spiced sugar. The little dumplings fry up beautifully and are puffy and airy within, but it is the heady scent of the spices that delicately coat it that makes it a delicious treat.

Another variant without the sugar coating, known as "Fat Cakes", were sold piping hot outside our school gates and even our college "tuck shop" for cents. Some would have a jam filling or cream icing, there were certainly several ways to dress up these treats.

The recipe I used comes from Chef Marcus Samuelsson's beautiful cookbook "The Soul of A New Cuisine". Instead of rolling the koesisters in brown sugar as instructed, I opted for powdered white sugar because I found the brown sugar did not "stick" to my liking.

Koesisters (adapted slightly from The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa)

6 Tbsp warm water
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 cups All Purpose flour (plus extra flour for handling dough)
1 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
5 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp butter

For Coating:
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamom

For Frying:
About 4 cups canola or vegetable oil

Method:
1. Combine warm water, yeast and sugar in a large bowl. Place in a warm area for about 10 minutes. Yeast should bubble up.
2. Add flour and salt to the yeast mixture and combine.
3. Beat in egg yolks , mixing well after each addition.
4. Heat butter and milk together until butter melts. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture and mix well. Dough will be very sticky.
5. Cover bowl with damp cloth and leave for about 40 minutes. Dough should double in size.
6. Punch down dough and divide into 20 ping-pong size balls (I found the dough to be very sticky, and so I used  more flour to manage this task). Arrange on a baking sheet and leave in a warm place to rise for about 20 minutes.
7. In the meantime, mix all the ingredients for the coating and keep aside.
8. Heat oil over medium heat and fry the dough balls till golden brown, should take about 3-4 minutes per koesister. Do not let the oil get too hot, else the koesisters will burn and the insides will not cook through.
9. Remove koesister from heat and roll in coating sugar.

10. Resist the urge to pop them into mouth while hot!

These koesisters go to Meeta at Whats For Lunch Honey who is hosting Monthly Mingle - South Africa!

These little beauties are also off to Yeastspotting hosted by Susan of Wild Yeast blog.