#126 - Croissants at Home (Part II)

The morning after the night before (aka final proof, baking, tasting and judgement)

Last night we left it where I went home, dubious about the results of my croissant rolling and shaping.  The theory is that things went awry because the counter and the kitchen were so hot last night.  I'd like to say that is to blame for my croissants but I think it was user error after all.  LM's croissants came out well, she said, and they were very pretty.  I have forgotten how to roll the croissants and they came out big, fat and kind of misshapen.  It has become clear that a second attempt will be required to redeem myself.

What went wrong besides hot hands and hot kitchen?

Luckily for me, I had an appreciative group of family and friends who were gratifyingly happy to taste and say how delicious they thought the croissants were.  Which only makes me more unhappy with the problematic croissants - where to start after the shaping disaster of 2014?

1.  Hmmm...for the first batch, I failed to drop the temperature from 430F to 400F (ok, I can't be bothered to do an accurate conversion - if you want the formula, it's [X (degrees F) - 32]/5/8 = Y (degrees C).  Or you can use the internet.

2.  Too much egg wash which also sealed some of the layers (and part of the reason why they didn't puff up), as well as some of the dough sticking when I transferred it to a smaller baking sheet (essentially I cooked these in a large toaster oven instead of the single large oven - and I'm glad I did!).  I'm not sure how much of the butter on the parchment paper were from ripped croissant layers and how much just oozed out and leaked everywhere from the other cuts in the pastry.

3.  I forgot to check if it was proved enough to bake (I suspect not).

4.  Overworked the dough - possibly - which would explain why the top layer seemed to be particularly breadcrust-like.

Interlude (aka Saturday morning breakfast)

Since the croissant batches took about 20-ish minutes to bake, I made breakfast.  We've been trying to use up leftovers and I thought of a fun Saturday morning breakfast idea.  We don't do egg soldiers or whatever they're called (where you dip your toast in a soft boiled egg) but Lil Sis did have a cookie cutter so I did what anyone with bread, eggs and a cookie cutter would do - see photos above.  Apparently the cut out hearts (also fried in butter, along with the bread and egg thing) were a hit.

Back to Baking

Batch 1 (?)

Batch 1 - baked at 430F

Then it was time to take the first batch out of the oven.  A little doughy...

Batch 2

Batch 2 - baked at 400F

A little better - more flaky but undercooked because I didn't allow for the size of the croissants.  Must remember to stretch the base much more during rolling so that they end up longer, stretched out and able to be bent to a crescent shape which will cook evenly on the next try.  I tried a little bit with lilikoi (passionfruit) butter.  I found it a bit sweet and the extra richness unnecessary.  Did I mention there was probably close to half a pound of butter in this recipe?

Batches 1, 2 & 3

Batch 3 - baked at 400F, then up to 430F, then back down to 400F (I couldn't decide because the croissants were so fat...)

Anyway - we couldn't taste any more so I had to leave it up to my other taste testers.

Fridge Takeover

I was also able to put my sister's fridge back the way it was supposed to be - this is what it looked like after I moved things around and made people eat leftovers yesterday and the day before.  She has a thing where she always has lots of food in the fridge so this made her nervous until I put everything back.  Of course roasting two chickens for dinner tonight resulted in enough leftover chicken that the fridge is full once again and you have to hunt (a little) to find space to put things. Must remember not to buy any more groceries until we have executed the next planned snacks / meals.

No Hobbits (but Demons and Gargoyles and dogs, oh my!)

Then it was time to have a girlie date.  I had arranged to see the Hobbit with a friend ages ago and we finally got ourselves organized.  Kind of...we met at 3.15pm for a 3.30 movie - except the movie was actually at 4.20.  So we went to see I, Frankenstein instead.  We didn't know anything about the movie except that Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy (not the Science Guy) were in it.  Any ideas about it resembling Mary Shelley's book in its actual plot were dispelled within the first 5 minutes or so.  Even better, we didn't have to buy the enormous movie snacks.  We wanted snacks because what's a movie without them?  We just didn't want the ones that were bigger than our laps - so we got the kiddie packs.  Quite a fun time, actually and we found out afterwards that the people behind us had a little dog with them the whole time - apparently he loves movies and he had been so quiet we never knew he was there.

Roast dinner

Then home for a roast chicken dinner by Lil Sis - even better than last time.  Better gravy as well - this time she cooked the onions in the same pan as the chicken and it really added something to the flavor of the gravy - good enough that even she was happy with it.  The skin was nice and crispy, the meat tender, the squash soft and sweet and the carving getting better with each attempt.  All I can say is, I am a very spoiled girl and I like it!

So until next time, may your loved ones spoil you as much as mine have been spoiling me.

#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.