#122 - Afternoon Tea (aka further research)

In which we go to afternoon tea and call it research
LM and I are continuing on our quest to have afternoon tea in as many places as we can.  We put it under the heading of "research" but this is the only kind of research which comes with snacks.
LM had been to a couple of the afternoon tea options available, so today we went to the one at Orchids at the Halekulani - gorgeous setting as always and a beautiful afternoon to match.


Tell me what seems a little off about this picture:  the self-professed owner of the sweet tooth (LM) had a blueberry rooibos tea sans sugar.  The self-proclaimed owner of no sweet tooth whatsoever (yours truly) had the Golden Assam with sugar.  Somehow in the excitement, I forgot to take a photo of the "Tea" portion of our Afternoon Tea.  Loved the scone and madeleine (the shape, for us, determines whether or not this is a madeleine, so as delicious and buttery as it was, this was a Not-Madeleine).

Tea Sandwiches with a twist
We started with the savory because...well, because we wanted to have the sweets as desserts.  I started from what sounded like the least strong to the strongest flavors.  There was the traditional cucumber sandwich with a twist, the twist being cream cheese, not butter.  Then the ham and watercress rolled sandwich - actually not bad.  The chicken and horseradish sandwich has the peanut crust (top of the photo) - there was some apricot (dried?) in the mixture as well - with the peanuts, almost a peanut buttery flavor - initially odd until LM said it was close to satay chicken.  And finally the smoked salmon with capers on...rye?  The sandwiches were interesting but couldn't top the scones which came with a lemon curd, a strawberry (?) jam and clotted cream.

We have been blessed (or is it cursed?) with standards which aim for perfection - standards which even the Chefs who taught us occasionally do not meet to their satisfaction.

Pretty is as pretty does
I have a feeling our very kind waiters thought we were crazy.  We looked, we oohed, we ahhed, and then we took the food apart.  We did the tasting by individual elements, then as a whole.  Of course top marks for presentation - the desserts were so pretty that I have vowed I will probably try some of these presentations.

However - yes, there is always a "however".  There seemed to be an awful lot of gelatine in the desserts - both in the lemon curd of the layered blueberry thing (left) and the lavender cream of the violet topped dessert (right).  Whether it's a matter of making sure the desserts set correctly so that they didn't run all over or not, the consistency of somewhere between a custard/curd and a jelly was just slightly off-putting.  Or perhaps there has been a new trend in texture of which neither of us was aware.

In any case, discussion about the technical elements led to stories about the things that went wrong in class (yes, we are still haunted by Ghosts of Classes and Bad Exams Past).  Also discussions of LM's forays into more stable creams or what we want to try again or our nightmare desserts which we will never attempt again.  (For instance, I will never attempt a sugar sculpture again, for obvious reasons.)  We sorely missed some members of our little posse.

The good thing about doing a tasting with a friend is that I felt no shame in not finishing my desserts.  Or the sandwiches.  Or picking out all the raisins (currants?) in my scones with my fingers.  But we do have more ideas of things for each of us to try and a cooking date since today we ate - the change in schedule dictated by the days on which afternoon tea was available.  It also made us feel like we didn't do such a bad job with our student tea (or at least, speaking for myself, I felt like we did ok despite my large screw up with a huge batch of chocolate mousse for the raspberry and chocolate Galaxie).

So until next time, may you find that your best is good enough and hopefully, better than good!

#121 - And the partying continues - well, the eating anyway...

And a party is...
One of the really nice things about being home with family is that we have lots of cooking parties.  That is to say, since we cook together, I consider it a party.  Perhaps the definition needs to be revisited at some point but for now it's a delicious argument to have.

In which we argue through food
My Dad has been wanting to cut down our kaffir lime tree.  My Mom disagrees.  I happen to like being able to pick my own leaves and the fruit (you don't use the juice, just the zest).  Lil Sis had bought some lemongrass earlier this week, in the hopes I might be inspired to make something with lemongrass and kaffir lime.  She was hoping for shrimp but since I found out my Mom doesn't like shrimp (only last year - how have we not known this until now???) and BS was already planning to make misoyaki butterfish (which he doesn't eat, by the by), I thought I should make some chicken.  Chicken seems to be a relatively inoffensive meat and it takes on the flavors of the kaffir lime and lemongrass really well.  Not to mention, I wanted to try a spicy version with Red Hot (same sauce as for buffalo wings, which I love).

The resulting dinner was spinach and artichoke dip by AA (see left) - vegetarian, right down to the bacon bits in it; BS's misoyaki butterfish - yum, more for those of us who eat it; kaffir lime and lemongrass chicken (with and without spicy sauce); and broccoli with garlic and olive oil.

Dad hasn't suggested cutting down the kaffir lime tree again but now I have to wonder if he will suggest it on every trip if the answer comes back via family dinner...

Then a night of take out (Cheesecake Factory which I still find uninspiring) before a dinner by Lil Sis.  She doesn't seem to enjoy cooking much, which I just don't understand.  I do understand how something can taste better when someone else cooks it.  There are several things which I can never do as well as the originals which I found - a girlfriend's tuna sandwich (I did it exactly as she did it and I've yet to be satisfied with the result); a classmate's Malaysian chicken rice (he said it's not as good as his Mom's and mine is so not as good as his!) and whether this is a matter of technique or the fact that someone else cooked, it's a little hard to say.

Dinner #2 - Lil Sis's beef stew with red wine and kale (aka how to make vegetables palatable to your children.  And your friends.  And your older sister.)
Tonight I didn't get around to taking photos the first time around or when everything was laid out and looking pretty.  However, I did get them the second time around.  I've always had a theory that when someone doesn't like something (and it's not attributable to an allergy or a really bad experience with said food) it's usually because it hasn't been cooked well.  I don't have many dislikes (okra - ew! and super bitter veggies) but kale was on the list of non-favorites for a long while.  So of course the first time I heard "kale" as an ingredient in beef stew, I was a little dubious.  Evidently this dislike was shared by my niece and nephew (4.5 and 2, respectively) - but they will eat it in this form.  Of course the competitive nature took over...er, that is to say, I wanted to encourage Lil Sis so I tried her stew.  All I can say is, she can add kale to my stew any time!  She didn't even have to hide the kale - it just needed to taste good.

And to top off her Domestic Goddess persona, chocolate chip cookies!  I don't make chocolate chip cookies so I am very impressed.  Not to mention, they are delicious (you have to taste it!) and there are quite a few of them.  Speaking of which, it's a good thing they stayed at her place instead of coming home with me or else there might have been a milk and cookies time before bed.  As it is, they are on the list as a treat for tomorrow when we need to have Elevensies / morning tea / afternoon snack / dessert / no excuse needed.  By the by, Lil Sis says she can't cook.  So if this is her not cooking, I'm happy for her not to cook for me any time!

Until next time, may your arguments and "not" endeavors be as successful as ours!

#120 - Fun date!

One of the really nice things about catching up with friends from different areas of your life is that you don't have the same old conversations.  Tonight was food, food, more food and some technical conversation about food - specifically, fat content in butter and the various brands, prices in different places and...never mind, on to the evening.

In which dinner plans go awry and confusion ensues
I caught up with a girlfriend from LCB.  We both thought that things would be relatively calm and quiet as we had planned to meet for dinner early on a Friday night.  6.30pm saw us a little bit perplexed as Plan B was completely packed.  Our chefs would not have been impressed by our preparation.  Or rather, the lack of it.

Plan C required a 30 minute wait so on to Plan D we went.  It was actually quite fun, a new Chinese restaurant we had both passed a few times but hadn't tried yet.  There was a little bit of confusion initially because the sign for the parking lot informed you that the entrance was behind you, so around the block we went.  Then a little more confusion because upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted in Japanese.  We asked the friendly waitress if the restaurant was Chinese or Japanese (note:  the name of the restaurant was something something Dragon).  She said it was both so in the spirit of the place, we ordered Japanese and Chinese food.  They came as little sharing plates (a Chinese/Japanese fusion-y pork bun for which I broke my no pork rule because it tasted like sticky, sweet, kind of teriyaki deliciousness instead of pork; Japanese fried chicken which was crispy, hot and everything fried chicken should be; cucumber with a sesame and chili dressing reminiscent of the cucumber dish at Ippudo in New York / Sydney; fried rice with Japanese curry; and crispy stir fried ong choi which was just wilted enough to be cooked but crunchy enough to feel healthy).

In which we carry out some research (aka dessert)
As you know, I'm not a big fan of the "or" option if there is an "and" option.  We went to dessert at this little place around the restaurant - I think it was called Little Oven.  My girlfriend saw a couple of things on the board which interested her and I saw a few more.  Since we were carrying out research and having talked patisserie tech speak over dinner, we were ready to dig in and try the interesting sounding things on the menu and here are the photos.  Of course we couldn't choose just one - that's like asking a parent who their favorite child is.  LM chose the more interesting sounding ones.  I have to admit I stuck to the more standard ones but how else can you establish a baseline?  You can't fake it on a standard...

PB&J cake

Verdict:  PB&J cake - white sponge was dry but the PB&J part of it was very nice as was the frosting.

S'More Brownie / Fluff Brownie (?)

S'More Brownie - both LM and I prefer our brownies a bit denser.  This is a light, fluffy brownie - almost like a cake.  So if you want something slightly lighter, it's actually a very good option.  And the scorched marshmallow was just burnt enough to get a nice little crunch on it, almost like a creme brulee.  I didn't see if they actually put some sugar on it to get the caramelization but at that point we kind of didn't care, it tasted good.

Coffee Cake

Coffee cake - moist, not-too-sweet with a nice, thick crunch on the top.  Perfect with my tea despite its moniker.

Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae

Vanilla sundae- rather a disappointment.  The ice cream was too light and fluffy - more air, not enough fat content.  But then, I like my ice creams nice and dense - you know, like Haagen Daas (oh geez, how do you spell that?) or Ben & Jerry's.

Pretty fruit decoration - I'm going to steal this one!

LM and I still have our cooking party planned - postponed from a couple of days ago till next week due to random road work.  However, we did manage to come up with a shopping list and a couple of things we want to experiment with in the kitchen.  And we came up with a (partial) menu for our snack/lunch on the day as well so I am feeling pretty organized after the dinner debacle.

She also told me the results of her butter research:  not good.  So we have a couple of theories to try out and if they don't work, someone who might be able to provide an answer.  I can't wait to play!

All in all, one of the best dates I've had in a while.

So until next time, may you have as much fun on your date/s as I had on mine and keep smiling!

#119 - Party time!

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a huge fan of junk food, sugar or deep fried food unless I have a particular craving for that food.  (Also - apologies for how this looks - I don't know what's wrong with it so I can't figure out how to fix it...)

Fried mac 'n cheese balls

Aka deliciously disgusting things from Cheesecake Factory:  fried mac 'n cheese balls (try saying that 5 times fast!).  So generally I'm not a big fan of Cheesecake Factory.  Probably because I find that a lot of their food tastes sweet to me - I'm not sure if they actually add sugar to their sauces and such but I suppose I prefer my savory foods to be really savory.  These mac 'n cheese balls tasted like an old college favorite from diners on the East Coast - fried mozzarella sticks.

Parking can be a bit of a hassle in Waikiki, so we did the clever thing:  tag team!  One person (yours truly) ran inside to pick up and pay for the telephoned order - no joke, it was early on a Saturday night (almost late afternoon) and there was a long line.  I think I heard someone say it was a 1-hour wait.  Say what?!  So I passed by all these poor souls who hadn't thought to call in and got caught in the take-out line which is where you pay for your telephone order.  They had a lot of different cheesecakes - good to get a preview of the cheesecakes we'd ordered:  red velvet and original for me (yes, I ordered 2 different ones), a mud something-or-other (the most chocolate-y one) for another friend and...the oreo one for my sister.  Not sure why but I preferred the cheesecake layer of the red velvet best.  I can't find my photos but I think you can probably google photos so I won't bore you with those.

A simple dinner

Usually my sister starts a list of things she wants me to cook for her about 2 weeks before I come home.  Coincidentally, this stopped when she had the babies...but I do still get requests.  On one occasion, I didn't actually have the ingredients nor had I prepared so we had to improvise a little for the Korean sushi (kim bap) by using vegetables and things from take-out dinners.

Of course the next time we were a bit better prepared - including having bought side dishes (pan chan) because seriously, who can be bothered to make all of these little sides at home?  We got all these at Palama Market.  The meat was from a different place that we tried for the first time - the marinade was lacking ginger and some "oomph" but it was adequate given everything else was seasoned sufficiently to hide its meaty flavor (rather than the flavor of the marinade).

I think we have fairly eclectic taste, given the Asian influence in Hawaii, my Mom's Aussie influence and the French cooking which I learned in London.  All of which sounds like the set up for a foodie joke about fusion cuisine but it isn't.

Roast Chickens

My sister also had a request about learning how to roast a chicken.  Since DC was still in town, she and I thought we could have a roast chicken dinner party - that is, we would demo the roast chicken, then my sister would make one a few days later under my supervision.  (They should allow supervision by responsible adults only - since there were none to be had, the job fell to me.)

Anyway - DC and I each roasted a chicken with our individual trussing methods.  She had a very complicated looking, very impressive trussing technique - even more impressive since she was still recovering from surgery.  I used the simplest trussing technique from Basic Cuisine.

A couple of different methods as well - DC's chicken gets roasted breast down for 45 minutes, then breast up for 45 minutes (times have to be adjusted for the size of chickens).  Mine got roasted on one side for 30 minutes, the other side for 30 minutes, then on its back for 30 minutes.  With lots of butter.

Of course that's not a complete meal.  We nixed the salad because there was so much food, but we needed to feed people veggies.  How do you get people to eat them?  Depending on my audience (especially this one) - I add cheese.  And since DC and I were trading tips (i.e. playing) we collaborated...a white cheese sauce on cauliflower and broccoli (aka bechamel with gruyere, topped with tallegio).  We used skim milk because some of the people at dinner don't do well with whole milk - but as a nod to "cutting calories", it doesn't really affect the taste or the texture so feel free to substitute skim milk in your bechamel sauce.  Once you add all the cheese, it doesn't make that much of a difference.  DC made green beans with black bean sauce.  Yum!  The veggies were a hit - not something I expected to say but if it works, why not?

And then - because it was kind of French, we did a sauce - too thick by conventional standards but since we were at home, we got to have it thicker.

A few nights later, my sister made a roast chicken with gravy.  Gravy, because she wanted to make it how Mom makes it.  Except she used butter on the chicken which makes the skin so crispy and delicious instead of Mom's bacon strips.  Big success, though true to anyone with talent, her chicken was not up to her standards.  Luckily for us, that means another roast chicken dinner for us to "taste"!  I couldn't really remember how DC trussed her chicken so we had to guess a little.  My simple method wasn't going to do it for lil sis...

She also made some really good zucchini (aka courgettes) with Ono salt (Hawaiian rock salt blended with herbs and spices for those of you who don't live here), garlic and olive oil.  Yum, I have already stolen this recipe though she doesn't know it yet.  I'm sure my willing guinea pigs will be happy to try my sister's zucchini!

Let the partying commence

I really wanted to ignore my birthday this year - it's just a reminder that time marches on while so many things on my list of things to do and places to visit grows faster than I can cross them off.  Since ignoring was not an option, I elected to go all-out.  That is to say, we did it my way.  Birthday dinner with family and close friends and for those who couldn't make the dinner, cooking parties planned over the next couple of weeks.  This didn't prevent us from having other cooking parties because what could be more fun than cooking with friends, then enjoying the fruits (or vegetables) of our labors?

But first, the most important meal of the day.  It's usually a bit of a chore to eat anything before early afternoon.  Typically I eat my first meal anytime between 1pm - 4pm (especially when I'm at work).  Don't worry, it only means my meal times are a bit skewed - not that I actually miss them because let's face it, you can't say someone skips meals if they have breakfast at 4pm, lunch at 7pm and dinner at 11pm - 12am.  Getting old is so much work...so of course I had to fuel up.  It didn't help that the company of my very cute niece consisted of an announcement "I'm hungry!" and luckily I had already been awake for over 4 hours by then.

It must also be remembered that one of the functions of family and friends is to ensure we don't take ourselves too seriously.  I successfully dodged earlier attempts, but unfortunately by sheer persistence, I eventually got caught sitting in a seat not meant for me.  Um...not much more to say than that!

Let's just go on to more partying - because what I really wanted for my birthday was just to hang out with my loved ones.

After a very quick shopping expedition for groceries (the ever reliable Palama Market providing almost everything we needed), AA and I planned a Korean dinner at my sister's house.  Lil Sis had to run a few errands so we cooked while she did her thing, then she came home to this and provided a little photobomb in the shape of bunny ears.

Before:                                                                                          During:

Mun Doo (dumplings)

Duk Kook (mochi soup)

Korean Kim Chee Stew (jigae)

After:

There are more parties yet to come so photos later - until then, may the small imperfections of your days only serve to highlight that which is happy and right.

#118 - Happy New Year!

Cuckoo for coco puffs
I had my first coco puff a few nights ago.  They're from Liliha Bakery which is known for several things, this being one of them.  (My friends wanted to know how I had grown up here and never had one of these.)  My favorite part was the pudding inside - it's one of the few things I have always liked.  Unfortunately the climate here (and possibly the moisture in the filling) means that the pastry was not crispy like it is when you have a croquembouche.  Trying to figure out how to make some at home is part of the fun when you eat something and you think of things people like (or don't like, as the case may be).

In which certain traditions are upheld
I'm not sure when a tradition becomes a tradition - is it the number of years or the number of occasions in which a certain thing is done?  Or do I go with the lawyer answer of "it depends..."?

In this case, it has been a tradition (both by reference to the number of years and the number of occurrences) that I stop by my friend SM's house on New Year's Eve if we are both home for the holidays.

It is a newer tradition that he makes truffles as his contribution to the festivities.  And because he loves chocolate and I just love to talk about cooking and the fun things you can do with food, of course we always talk about food in between our catch ups over what has happened with each other's lives over the intervening year.

Last year, still relatively fresh out of cooking school, I happened to mention something about tempering chocolate and we shook on it.  Well we followed through this year but because I forgot my truffle moulds in Sydney (aw shucks) we decided to do something a little different.  That is, I had my first coco puff from Liliha Bakery only 3 nights ago - something local people know about but which I had not had until now because I refused to eat desserts or sugary things until just a couple of years ago.

Coco puffs were something with which I was relatively unfamiliar and it took a little while to settle on the filling.  Pudding might have been a better idea but we thought we'd go with ganache because SM was going to make some anyway.

A walk down memory lane
In addition to not having my truffle moulds, I couldn't remember what equipment I had left here and what now resides in Sydney so there was some digging through my bags/closet and the kitchen.

Equipment and recipe in hand, it was time to make choux pastry.  So...a couple of years makes a very big difference because I couldn't remember how long I used to cook out the panade (the dough ball).  Then I had to add an extra egg to get the right consistency because I had cooked the panade a little too long.  And then the piping...uneven and...let's just say that you find out how much you need to practice when you start doing things again, even things which used to be second nature.

We used mystery flour - that is, it was in the fridge in the ziplock bag and I was really hoping it wasn't self-rising flour.  We baked the choux pastry in batches, experimenting with the timing because we guessimated / approximated the temperature setting.  (190 - 200 C for 20 - 25 minutes translated to about 380F for 20 - 22 minutes).  The optimum time for us seemed to be 21 minutes...

Then the truffles...there was one made with the cream infused with genmai cha and another which had plain cream but parmesan mixed through it after it the ganache cooled, for the sweet/salty combo that SM likes.  I'm not usually a huge fan of the sweet/salty but I have to say this was pretty good.  The genmai cha infused truffle was rolled in kinako powder (from soy beans) and the other truffles were dipped in tempered chocolate.

Do what you're afraid to do (again) - aka cooking nerd speak / skip to Nerdy Portion Over (below)
One of the things they used to tell us is that you have a couple of degrees' leeway to bring the chocolate back up to temperature after you melt it and cool it.  The thing is, we always used Callebaut at LCB (it's what I have in my kitchen) but SM bought Valrohna because that's what he could find.  A very good chocolate but I remember the chefs telling us you have to be very precise when you work with it because it has a smaller range of temperatures for it to stay in temper.

Until I took my Patisserie finals, I felt pretty confident about tempering chocolate, once I got the hang of it.  On the day of the final, I remember the kitchen was freezing and my chocolate got too cold, too fast and I had bad truffles.  I hadn't tempered chocolate since and all of a sudden I was going to temper chocolate - with a brand that was too expensive to mess up (especially since I hadn't bought it!) - talk about performance anxiety.

Luckily, I seem to have this perverse quirk of personality where the more stressed another person gets (SM was upset he couldn't find the right butter) the calmer I get.  He thought he messed up his chocolate for the ganache - he didn't (we split it into two separate bowls for the different flavors).

Look Mom, No hands!  (The tea infused truffles)
We had a little bit of a thing because he didn't want to roll the ganache for truffles (his hands melt it) and my melon baller was too small.  So I quenelled the ganache then he rolled it around in the kinako powder and patted it into the shape he wanted with spoons.

Assembly required (The truffles with cheese)
This one did require us to get our hands dirty.  Well, chocolate-y, anyway.

The ganache had set quite hard so we had to dig it out to roll it, but then since the chocolate had passed the test (small amount on knife blade or parchment paper, it should cloud over relatively quickly and set) we had to dip the truffles.  I did not think this through - I think next time we should skip the wire rack - you get feet on the truffles but you don't lose the bottom of the shell when it gets stuck to the rack.  Oh well, you learn (or re-learn) and mistakes help consolidate the lesson.  Of course I told people to keep it refrigerated because of the cream, and to eat it within a couple of days (because the shell wasn't intact).

Nerdy portion over
So the final results of our efforts:  a plate of truffles and a plate of "coco puffs" with ganache instead of chocolate pudding filling and no "chantilly" which is some sort of frosting they put on the coco puffs.  You can see the inside of our coco puffs below...

Not perfect, but actually quite a successful experiment.

So until next time (and for the rest of this new year) - Happy New Year and may all your experiments and forays into the unknown / slightly intimidating be as happy as our was yesterday.

#117 - "A Merry Christmas to all. God bless us every one."

Hard Core Chef
One of my brothers has a friend who went to cooking school.  By profession she does something very impressive and her standards for cooking are equally so.  (As in, she is much stricter about things like making her own stocks, which take 3 days to make, etc etc.)

Unfortunately she broke her wrist not so long ago and is still recovering from surgery.  I told her I would be her sous chef since we had discussed cooking together.  Somehow we were volunteered to cook Christmas dinner before we knew what had happened.  You can imagine how impressed I was, and how tough she is, that she did the bulk of the cooking for Christmas dinner for...14?  16?  A lot of people anyway - more than I can count on just my fingers.

I got a telephone call Monday morning - it was early for me, as I was still jet lagged and sleep deprived (I had had an argument with technology the night before, which I won but only at 4am).  I wanted to go back to sleep but woke up when she said it was to discuss Christmas dinner - specifically, the size / weight of the leg of lamb and the number of people which had grown to 13 people within less than 24 hours.  I think only cooking nerds may appreciate how we managed to talk about the right stock (and how we didn't have any) for the jus, before we decided on a cheat version because we were the only ones who would care.  By the way, the jus turned out well.

Preparation, Preparation and Preparation - Christmas Eve Day
'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the houses, creatures were stirring to get a lot of food organized for a lot of people.

Luckily Chef DC is very organized.  We got our list of who was doing what.  She and I discussed what was missing / logistics / timing.  It was all good and under control.  Nothing too complicated - but a bit of thought required given physical constraints with respect to counter space, refrigerator space, over and stove availability and our low tolerance for crap in the kitchen.

My prep was very basic - shopping, parboiling potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, mire poix for the sauce...some salad stuff, extra shopping for the more gourmet ingredients (thank you Williams Sonoma - no, this is not product placement, it's giving credit where credit is due - and letting you know shortcuts are not only ok, they can be really good).

Rock 'n roll
I'm not sure how or why it is a chef thing but it must be - I have heard this phrase so often and it's almost always in preparation for fun in the kitchen.  Though somehow it's very different to hear it in a strong French accent than in our American one.

Chef DC also did a black rice dish, a cauliflower and chickpea curry which may sound not that good to those who don't like any of those ingredients but all I can say is, wow!  (I actually hate chickpeas but I packed a whole container of this curry away for tomorrow, that's how good it was.)

Also brussels sprouts - although there are many who don't like them, these were so good my 4-year old niece not only ate them, but she told us how much she liked them as she ate them.

And Kabocha squash (Japanese green squash).  And a butternut pumpkin / carrot puree.  And a Caesar salad dressing.  From scratch. Which was totally delicious (and I have the rest of the bottle in the fridge for tomorrow, hooray!)

and then today I just made a vinaigrette and the 2 salads.  FYI, the Veal demi-glace from Williams-Sonoma made a very acceptable substitute in the absence of having a good veal stock to hand and it cut out a few steps.  We had a nice sauce about 45 minutes after we started - not a bad record...

In which we have a very merry cooking party - Christmas Day
DC showed up today with a written time plan.  I had one but it was all in my head and pretty easy.  (As in, from time we planned to serve, onions - 1.5 hours; confit garlic - 1 hour; roasted veggies - 30 minutes.)

The lamb went into a portable convection oven which is just amazing.  It came out a bit over for those who like their meat still moving but it was perfect for me.  We were on time with DC's plan (we thought we were 15 minutes behind until we remembered that we had trimmed off a lot of fat and bones) and all went well.

We had an addition in the kitchen near the end of the day - a friend is the Yorkshire pudding Queen so she made a gluten-free and a regular Yorkshire pudding (yum!).  They had different cooking times which was interesting for the person who made them, and we had to reshuffle our cooking timeline a bit to allow for the Yorkshire puddings to cook because they have to be last minute.

DC and I had a great old time - she actually fixed the leg of lamb because the butchery was done by machine so it didn't follow the joint (instead, the saw cut straight through the bone).  She gave me the piece attached to the hip so I separated it and we had a nice little loin-ish roll.  Which we forgot to cook.  But it gave some really nice trimmings which made the sauce really good and one of the girls actually took home the meat and the veggies because she said it was like stew but without as much juice.  She (DC, not our Yorkshire Pudding Queen) also put this really good rub on the lamb - an olive tapenade with a few other things thrown in - as you do.

Starters (aka Round 1 when I eventually got around to eating):  cheeses, prosciutto, a few other things and sashimi (which we sliced at home). 

Main (aka Rounds 2 and 3): Roast leg of lamb au jus and fresh mint, roasted root vegetables with rosemary and sea salt (yellow and purple carrots, fingerling potatoes, onions and garlic confit), black rice, cauliflower and lentil curry, butternut squash / carrot puree, roasted Kobacha squash and brussel sprouts with butter.

My plates:  there isn't a whole lot of difference between the first and second platefuls of food but I was slowing down by the second plate of meat and veggies. There's no way to escape the day with eating only a little bit when there's so much good food and I have a bad habit of choosing "both" when presented with a choice.  We also decided that food made with TLC doesn't have calories (for those who know about that sort of thing).

Dessert (aka Round 4):  pumpkin pie, sweet potato and haupia pie, dried fruits, cookies and ice cream.

So until next time - merry Christmas (#or insert your holiday of choice here) - happy, safe and joyous holidays to all.

#116 - Home for the holidays - In which my mission takes a flying start

Raindrops and Rainbows
One of the disadvantages of living so far away from home (or calling more than one place home) is that there is always something to miss about the other place/s.  Of course, the bright side is that there is always something to love about where you are.  If you think about it, there is no down-side to having something to miss - you can't have rainbows without a few raindrops, after all.  My first rainbow came out about an hour and fifteen minutes after I left the airport.  The scents of the flowers were lightly carried on the morning breeze, letting me know as nothing else that I was back in the Islands, beloved (the Islands) and beloved (me - by my loved ones).

(Apologies if this post looks odd - I don't know what's wrong with it and I'm not tech savvy enough to be able to fix it.  Hopefully whatever the bug is will have been worked out by the next post.)

Neither Pavlov nor his dogs...
Friends and family have held me responsible for their increased appetites and, occasionally, increased waists.  Far be it from me to shirk my responsibility for serving the same purpose as Pavlov's bell to his dogs (yes, it is an unfortunate analogy but one which was suggested by one of my friends).  I have been known to say that the most dangerous place is between a hungry Cooke and her food.  There are variations on this theme but the result is that you can replace "Cooke" by practically anything or anyone and it is still accurate.

Food is a huge part of our social scene here - I'm not sure if it's the Asian influence or if it's just because people come home for the holidays.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an Island girl/boy returning from time spent elsewhere is in want of local food to curb the cravings they have been experiencing, be it poke, sashimi, Zippy's (chili / saimin / insert your choice of food here), plate lunch, etc. etc. and a trip to a favorite local eatery tends to follow either immediately after leaving the airport or immediately after the shower immediately after leaving the airport.

My mission, which I had chosen to accept, is to eat everything while I am home.  (Of course, the everything only includes the things I want to eat.  You may not suggest snails or offal or anything else that might make you go "ew".)

As today had some patches of pouring rain (it is winter, after all) those of us who are temporarily between jobs (one of the girls and the boy at lunch - they start their new jobs next week and right after the New Year, respectively), having a day off (one of the other girls) and on vacation (that would be the girl pictured above) went for Vietnamese food.  We got food envy from the table next to us - so three of us ordered the enormous noodle salad.  And because I'm me, I ordered the Vietnamese coffee - chicory, bitter, sweetened by condensed milk in the cup before you pour the brew into the glass of ice.

Yes, the bowl was big.  Yes, it was delicious.  No, I did not manage to finish it all - I am out of shape, obviously - but the goal is to change that by the end of this trip.

Christmas Dinner - A preview of sorts...
Christmas will be a team effort - one of my brothers has a friend who was trained (very well trained) as a chef.  She is currently injured so we have divvied up duties for Christmas dinner which somehow grew from the 7 originally envisaged to about 13 people.  We'll see how it goes but the current menu has poke, sashimi, roast lamb (with jus), rosemary and sea salt potatoes, roasted vegetables, roasted garlic, chickpea and cauliflower curry (hey, don't knock it till you've tried it!), a big salad with home made vinaigrette and home made Caesar dressing, candied almonds (if I can be bothered to make them), a pumpkin and something-else puree...and people will bring starters and desserts.  Something tells me there will be lots of food so we have requested that people bring their own containers to take it home.  Tomorrow will be the test as we prep as much as possible before hand so that we don't spend all Christmas cooking.  After all, I have a visit to pay to little children who will be eager to rip open their presents...

So until next time, merry Christmas and if you must have rain, I wish you lots of rainbows.