Saturday, August 28, 2010

Sweet Cauliflower-Brocoli


I've came across the sweetest cauliflower (or is it broccoli?) by the Mapucho River's feria.
Each bud is a swirl with a pointy top, they are so much more.. bushy than the normal cauliflower or broccoli. The taste is sweeter than both and soft like the cauliflower.
Whenever I see one, I buy it, LOL it's just so good plus I can keep them frozen once slightly steamed (or boiled) and salted.

August 2010 daring baker's challenge ~ Nutty and toasty meets cool and creamy...

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”.

This time's challenge was to make Petite Fours or Baked Alaska. It is mandatory to make ice cream from scratch (which I do not have too much experience with) and brown butter pound cake which I followed. I tried adding 1 table spoon of green tea powder in the milk content for the icecream before freezing, the rest you should really just follow the given recipe.

Directions:

Vanilla Ice Cream
1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)
2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.
3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.
4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.
5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine. See instructions from David Lebovitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html

**What I did was take it out of the freezer every 2 hours, when the outer rim starts to freeze and beat it up for 1 min or until smooth and foamy. Repeat 3 times then freeze over night.



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. 
It will first start to bubble, once it rises like boiled milk, turn off the heat immediately
as you might not see the browning until the froth disappears.

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
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.



 This is my first pound cake, both eat and bake, so not sure if it is suppose to be crumbly and dry. I will definitely improvise with the brown butter which smells and tastes soooooo GOOD! But the pound cake is not to either mine or my mom's liking (dear hubby's kind enough to say it's good but I know he likes the soft sponge cake better). The Green tea icecream was not good, I guess it's cus..... I subbed this time 1 cup of cream with 1 cup of evaporated milk, will not EVER do this EVER again. Oh and the top I used white chocolate... as you experts will know... I over boiled it (did it over water but still too hot).

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Daring Cooks August, 2010 Challenge: The World of Pierogi I


The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

The challenge is to make the dough from scratch and a savory or sweet filling of our choice. Well, but what is a Pierogi? Being Chinese, I think it is dumpling/wonton (steamed, boiled, fried, souped) or growing up in Paraguay, it must be Empanadas (baked or fried) ^-^

During the past month, I've ate lots of empanadas but have not made any myself, truth be told, I love it fried but can't stand the oily-odor that is created when something is fried. So here's my Chinese dumpling.

Dough Ingredients:
500g of high protein flour
1 cup of water
1 tsp of veg. oil

Knead for 10 min. Place in bowl, cover with wet towel or plastic wrap, let sit for 30min~1hr in cool area (my mom likes to put it in the fridge).

Meat filling Ingredients:
500g grind meat (beef of atleast 5% fat)
1/2 cup cold water
1 cup green onion chopped
2 tbsp minced ginger
3 tbsp soysauce ( or more if you like it saltier)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp grind black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together EXCEPT the water and beat in water little by little until it is all absorbed by the meat (takes around 1min with my Kitchen-Aid).


Or if you like it more typical Chinese will be pork with cabbage:
Pork filling Ingredients:
500g grind pork (usually pork front shoulder)
3 cup finely chopped up cabbage (great if you have food processor, but don't grind it too thin! 0.5cm~1cm is good).
1/3 cup cold water
1/2 cup green onion chopped
2 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp soysauce ( or more if you like it saltier)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp grind white pepper
1/2 tbsp salt

1. Mix the cabbage with salt. Toss and press, discard the water that comes out of the cabbage until the cabbage dehydrates to 2 1/2 cup or less. 
2. Mix all the ingredients together (EXCEPT the cabbage) and beat for 1 min until bouncy and smooth.
3. Mix in cabbage.

* That's my mom!!! ^-^

Once you have everything ready, it is time to make the "skin" (pasta shell). I will be VERY detailed as it is crucial to have a thick center and thin outer shell instead of making a large flat dough and cut them up with circular molds, NO NO NO.


Shell:
1. Cut 1/2 of the dough and leave the rest covered up.
2. Knead the dough in to a thin long strip (4cm diameter).
3. Cut the strip in pieces 3 cm wide. You may want to roll-rotate the dough 90 degrees after each cut so the pieces won't be flattened.
4. Spread loose flour over and under the doughs so that they don't stick.
5. Slightly shape the dough so that they have 2 flat sides (what you've cut) and a circular shape outside.
6. Flatten each dough with your palm, they should now be a flat circular dough of around 1.5cm thick.
7. Lightly hold one side of the dough using your left hand's thumb and index finger. Rotate the dough in one direction WHILE rolling the opposite side of the dough with a rolling pin with your right hand.
8. You should now have a shell with a thicker center (0.6cm) and thin outer circumference (0.2cm).
9. Repeat and repeat. Do the samething with the other 1/2 large piece of dough if you are fast, if not, put in the fillings and cover up with plastic wrap cus once the dough dries up it will not seal nicely.
 Here's one with 1/2 a shrimp

Boiled dumplings:
1. Place dumplings in boiling water ( the water should be twice the dumpling's height). Gently stir the dumpling while putting them in so that they won't stick to the bottom or with each other. 
2. Cover up the pot until the water re-boils with medium heat.
3. Add 1 cup of water and wait for the water to boil again.
4. Repeat until 3 cups of waters in total were added.
5. Check if the dumplings are floating on the boiling water and inflated, if yes, then they are ready to be served! ^-^

Crispy pan fried dumplings is my favorite but it's a bit higher in calories:
Ingredients:
1 tbsp veg. oil
water to cover up dumplings
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn starch

1. Heat fry pan (not too shallow) with 1 tbsp veg. oil.
2. Place in dumplings (1 layer only) right next to each other with the sealing side up.
3. Fry in high heat for 30sec.
4. Add in enough water mixed with 1tsp corn starch to almost covering up the dumplings.

5. Cover up the pan as it boils in medium heat. Large water bubbles should appear in between  dumplings (usually takes around 15min).
6. Take off the over, add 1 tbsp sesame oil and cook until the waters are dried out and only oil is left.
7. DO NOT move the dumplings EVER once you put them in the pan. With the cornstarch and some of the loose flours on the dumplings, they should kindda stick to each other after fried.
8. You will know it is dry enough when you shake the pan and the dumplings all move at once (together) or you may check under the dumplings to see if they are golden.
9. Place the dish on top of the pan and turn it upside down. You should get a round dish of golden dumplings! ^-^


Dumpling Sauce dip:
1 tbsp minced fresh garlic
1 tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
Mix and use as a dip, do not pour all over the dumplings! You may add a bit of hot pepper if you like it more spicy.

These raw dumplings freeze well. Just put them in the freezer in a pan or dish covered up with plastic wrap. Once they are frozen, I usually just zip lock them.
The ones at the left are made by Mumu, very cautiously sealed, and the ones at the right are by me! I use the arc between my thumb and index finger of both hands as the Pierogi form and press them seal.

Bread baking trial I

Lately I have this craving for superb artisan bread with the crispy crust and soft chewy interior. These type of breads are soo easily found in Taiwan at either Maison Kayser or Johan's. ARRRGG I miss those good old days with all kinds of foods at hand's reach!

Anyway been raising my little sourdough starter baby for a couple of weeks now. My first test recipe is the King Arthur's Rustic Sourdough Bread.
The crust did not come out as crunchy as I wanted, maybe it was the olives that I added...

Maybe what I wanted was more of a baguette feel, so I again tried one of King Arthur's Ultimate Sourdough Baguettes. I subbed 1 TBS of honey instead of the sugar.


OH YEAH! Exactly what I wanted, the crust I mean. I do not own baking stone so I just line mine on parchment paper on my oven rack. 

2 problems:
1. I am still trying to create air holes with no success yet. *sigh* Trust me, my dough is sooo slack that I can not form them into any shape but a huge slop as it sticks to everything it touches. Don't think it's my sourdough starter as the bread does raise to more than twice it's size and no, I do not flatten it as I do not even touch them after 1st rise.
2. I can't seem to get them off the baking sheet that I spray with oil :( gotta cut off the botton of my bread.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Mr. Wu @ Estacion Central

There are hundreds if not thousands of Chinese restaurants here in Chile, right a little bit lower than the number of Japanese restaurants here. Not all Japanese restaurants are really Japanese, same goes for the Chinese restaurants.

I have not been to too many Chinese restaurants to tell how they differ, but according to my husband Mumu who's been living here for over 10years now, "Those are for the local people" meaning it's for Chilean, not Chinese. On this line, there are only around 5 restaurants falls in the real-Chinese restaurant, Mr. Wu being the most frequent visited by us as it is the closest to Mumu' store.


Mumu's fav. dish is noodle soup and fried pork, but I am a big fan of HOT foods and that is what we ordered that day for lunch. The famous HOT for Chinese is not just hot-pepper hot but actually a combination of spices that produces a hot AND numb taste, one of the main spice being Sichuan Pepper.
 
 Spicy Tofu (Mala-Tofu)


Spicy Fish Soup (this is actually not a drinkable soup, but fish soaked in a hot pepper oil soup)
Main ingredients: Fish, soybean, green bean noodle, celery.

These are what we order that day, Tofu, Fish, Sour and spice soup, Stir fried veggie.
The price here is not expensive at all, most dishes are around CLP2,000~3,000. The fish cost more and it's around CLP6,000.
This place offers special Chinese breakfast on Sunday (starting at around 10:30) with various small dishes of snacks. Highly recommended!