#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.

#80 - 2 pigeons, a chicken breast, a headless chicken and a mock final exam

It truly sounds like a poultry heavy beginning of a joke, doesn't it?  And it kind of was, except perhaps not in the way you might think.


Studying...kind of (and a day of non-stop eating)
Yesterday we spent getting ready for today's mock final.  Part of the preparation involved getting lunch - always an excellent idea.  Since I haven't been here for the first 8 weeks of term, I was excused (as I understood it) from attending the Patisserie tutorial sessions - there weren't any marks to discuss.  There was some discussion after class and a half-hearted study session.  As you can see, we were working super hard.


I noticed that the LCB cafe had a croquembouche on display.  It was one that had been done by one of our Patisserie chefs the day before - well, the assembly and the decorations had been done the day before.  A croquembouch basically means "break in the mouth" - a reference to the fact that the filled profiteroles are stuck together with caramel, which crunches when you eat it.  There are other variations (like filling the profiterole with ice cream and dipping it in chocolate) but then they are known as something else - I don't know what the something else is.  In this case, the actual profiteroles and the praline base had been done the week before.  So here is an example of something we might be able to do in a couple of hours, once we've had at least 15 years of experience and are talented...I know it's hard to see, but those are pulled sugar roses and sugar tendril-y things.  I tried to do something like that in class the other day when I was putting my ugly sugar sculpture together, but had to take them off because they just looked like mistakes from bad assembly.  Inspirational in the skill displayed, discouraging to know just how far we have to go to even begin to approach this kind of ease and skill.


Anyway, lunch...we went to this yummy burger place called Meat Liquor which is actually on the way home from class - a dangerous location.  I had a private giggle to myself that we spend time thinking of ways to plate fancy food pretty, but given a choice, this is what we go for.  There were a bunch of mushroom and swiss burgers, I had a bacon cheeseburger (see below) and 3 orders of chili cheese fries.  One of the guys liked his burger so much that he finished most of his girlfriend's burger, then ordered a second one.




Several beers (for them) and a coke (for me) later, people dispersed - some to go back to school for a couple of things, some to go home and work on their portfolios (basically the school making sure we prepare for our final exams - you have to write out recipes and methods) and a few of us to do other errands.  I went with a couple of guys to drop off some knives at this Japanese knife shop near the old school where they will sharpen the blades on a stone - a much better result than just using a steel before and after each class.  In fact the fellow did such a good job that I didn't even know I had nicked myself today until way later when I wondered why my finger was stinging.

Dinner in Poland and France
Then I went to meet a friend for dinner.  CL started basic at the same time I did for both cuisine and patisserie.  She decided not to continue on as she had a lot of travelling to do (I can't remember if she did Intermediate - they do say that memory is one of the first things to go with age...) so it was good to catch up and hear what was going on with her life.  We went to this Polish place (I think - she had heard about it from other people) and it was really good.  Her dish was kind of like a fancy version of what I fondly believe to be Hungarian Goulash since it was served with something that resembled spatzle (except made with veal escalopes) and I had a topside beef something-or-other braised in consomme - just what I wanted - a beef and vegetable dinner with a beefy veggie soup for dinner.



Then we had dessert at CL's favorite crepe place, almost next door to the restaurant.  I got ice cream with chocolate sauce and she got a chocolate and banana crepe.  Apparently the crepe is usually better (this one was kind of crunchy - not good).  Then I had her try the ice cream.  Also not good - there was something wrong with it, it tasted really fake and chemical-y.  A shame really - they had the right crepe pan / burner things that I've seen on the streets of Paris and it smelled pretty good.  I think they must have pre-made CL's crepe and it got dried out somehow.  As you can see, this photo was taken before either of us had tasted the ice cream.  There was an after photo as well, but I freely confess that vanity has prevented me from posting that photo.


4 hours of confusion...
Jetlag may finally be starting to abate - I slept in until 6am or something this morning - whenever it was that my alarm went off.  Of course that may have something to do with being up a little past midnight, getting ready for this morning's cuisine practical.  Rather, a double practical class - because we were running through our 4-hour final exam to see where we were in terms of timing and results.


There were 15 of us in the kitchen.  I've been in the kitchen exactly once before, so someone had to show me where the numbers were on the ovens so that I knew where I was for my station.  They staggered our start times by 10 minutes per side of kitchen so that we wouldn't all pile on top of each other while setting up.  Fine in theory, but in practice - well, there were a few things we didn't know, so we weren't as efficient as we could have been.  Or rather, I know I could have been more efficient if certain things had been clarified earlier on.  Anyway - a demoralizing morning a little bit.  I knew what had to be done with each component, but I kept losing my place and the induction burners have a few tricks with which I was unfamiliar.  This meant I had to stop a few times to regroup and try to remember where I was in relation to where I wanted to be.  I got told by a friend that sometimes it's good not to think.  


Tartlet Florentine avec Oeuf Poche et Sauce Hollandaise (Tartlet with Poached Egg, Sauteed Spinach and Hollandaise Sauce)
The starter wasn't too bad but I messed up the timing a bit.  Things actually take a little while longer in these ovens, possibly because the old ones often seemed to run super hot.  This means that the 10 minutes I allocated to the tartlet shell was insufficient and I was cutting things close so I wouldn't have to reheat - not a good idea until you know how the kitchen equipment works.  (Really - the ovens have a light, but it took a couple of tries to figure out they don't stay on if you take your finger off the button.)  Then being a bit discombobulated and not feeling really comfortable, I missed a couple of very basic things - like seasoning the Hollandaise sauce.  I tasted it, but only after I had presented the plate - ick.  It needed lots of salt and some lemon juice in the worst way.  Also, it was overcooked - I wasn't sure what that meant because it wasn't scrambled, but eventually found out that it was probably because my sauce was too thick (did I mention the lemon juice?) so it wasn't quite the right consistency.  Spinach needs a bit of work - it's the English kind so quite a bit tougher than the Popeye the Sailor Man kind.  You actually have to blanch it now instead of just sauteeing it, which is what we used to do.


Also, the eggs were old.  How do I know?  The whites just bloomed everywhere when I put in the second and third eggs.  The first one was fine - I'm normally pretty good with eggs, even the slightly old ones, but we don't have slotted spoons and I was having difficulties coaxing the whites to envelope the yolks.  I do know that if it happens in the exam, I'm going to request better eggs or something.  And perhaps take them out of the fridge a little earlier, although I think that has less to do with the whites going everywhere than the age of the eggs.


The main
Verdict: deep fried pigeon legs (instead of confit - yummy, but not what they were looking for) and the pigeon crown was woefully undercooked.  I venture to say that perhaps it was still not cooked at all?  I'm unsure whether the chef was going a little bit easy on me because he knows it's only my second day in the new cuisine kitchens - I hope not because it would suck to feel like you're on track only to find out they were easing you in.  There isn't time to be eased in!


I messed up the lettuce a little bit but I think that's an easy fix for next time.  I wasn't happy with the timing (starter was 15 minutes behind where I wanted to be, 10 minutes beyond actual service time and the main was 15 minutes behind the actual service time - a fail if it had happened in the exam).  Luckily there were a few things that did go right - both sauces (the pigeon and the lettuce glaze), the vegetables (although still need to practice turning - dratted turnips!) and the glazes...and a silly oversight - the parsley chiffonade, which is a stupid thing to lose points for in the exam.  Still a possibility of passing the final, which would make me so happy.  I got my review back - they call you out of the room to give you individual comments - I was so unhappy on the way out but it's always good to be told that it's not bad.  Especially from a chef who is as amazing as Chef EB.  I'm not sure if he ever says something is good - usually he says it's ok.  But then again, he may say that to other people - I just don't hear it and that's fine because the day that I hear that something is good is going to be a day when I skip out of school.


There is hope on the horizon and I just have a bit of focused work to do.


As much confusion as there was in my head today, there is hope that it will be so much easier next time.  Who knows, one of these days I might even figure out the induction burners without actually standing over the silly thing.


So until next time, I wish you ease of focus, clarity of mind and satisfaction in what you do.  

#72 - Adventures in cooking

So here are some photos from cooking at last.


Apparently technology and I are still not on great terms because I thought I got the photos earlier but found I hadn't put them on my computer after all. Oh well...so - still work to be done but getting better.  Initial try was a basic roast chicken dinner with some salad, stuffed mushrooms, jus and rice. Rice - because this is Hawaii and my audience prefers rice instead of potatoes. As do I. Looks like the Asian roots of Hawaii are coming out!  I had a little problem with the julienned snow peas, but I now know that it's because I tried to julienne them after I had cooked them (when they were slippery inside) instead of before.  Note to self for the next time...


I couldn't find decent chicken stock.  They keep selling chicken broth so I thought I'd try one out.  Ick - the stock wasn't good until I added a ton of wine to the jus, at which point it tasted good enough that eventually people just ate it on the rice.  The list of ingredients on the "broth" had chicken flavoring and some kind of sugar extract and all kinds of other stuff on it.  I just wanted to see chicken, some veggies and water.  Is that so much to ask???  At the moment it looks like I will have to make my own to get what I want, but it just means I have to plan at least a day in advance so that I have enough time to make some stock.  I got a mock-horrified look from the guy at Tamura's (a local wine store who also sells some specialty ingredients and yummy food) when I  mentioned the chicken stock wasn't my onw.

Some other sights...
-just another day at the mall...Ala Moana Centre Stage.  So nice to see hula while waiting for them to finish making my coffee.  This seems to happen most days - I think it's around noon or 1pm or something.  It's nice for the tourists because they get a little show and it's nice for the dancers because they get an appreciative audience.  For me it's just one more thing that makes home, home.

A Saturday afternoon in the winter...our view while we had our lunch by the water just off Diamond Head.  On men's canoe, one women's canoe.  It was kind of nice - we got the vicarious thrill of watching some skilled paddling while eating by the water.  Is it possible to claim someone else did your exercising for you???



Welcome back dinner for the parents:
Prep = 4 hours.  Cooking the amuse bouche - 3 minutes.  Cooking the appetisers - 10 minutes (while we were eating the amuse bouche).  Cooking the main - 8 minutes.


I read Anthony Bourdain's updated edition of Kitchen Confidential and I finally found out that I am not crazy for getting pissed off when people mess with my stuff in the kitchen.  It's called mise en place for a reason and I had to try to keep my cool while fending off my mom's well meaning but incredibly annoying attempts to help.  (Yes Mom - I know I can use that pot.  I chose this one for a reason.  No thank you - I want the shrimp shells, I need them to infuse the oil for the dressing/salsa.  Yes, you may watch and I am happy to explain what I am doing.  No, don't touch that bowl!  No, please don't try to help me plate - they all need to look the same.  Yes please to helping put the plates on the table - careful, they're hot and they need to face the same way.  Thank you!)


Apparently it has something to do actually organizing our minds - in which case mine is still messy.  Organized chaos is not acceptable in the kitchen so I have to think a lot harder because I sometimes forget things are there if I can't see them.  It helped to separate the things into the various courses.  I think I used most of the small pots in the kitchen and we went through a lot of plates.


Preparing amuse bouche

Amuse bouche - pan fried scallop and celeriac puree, Thai-ish style shrimp with celeriac puree (right - for the person allergic to scallops but not shrimp...)  I didn't know one of the guests generally doesn't like scallops so it was a compliment to be told that she liked this one.

Starter - stuffed mushrooms (and bacon bits!) with zucchini spaghetti and tomato concasse.  My plating on the left, my sister's suggestion on the right...

Preparing main - pan fried ginger and green onion Ono steak, lemongrass and keffir lime shrimp, rice and zucchini spaghetti.  Inspired by the lobster open lasagne in Superior...

Plating the main...

Dinner being kid tested...

Verdict:  yummy.

(Q:  Want some more?

A:  Mmm hmmm.)

There was enough food left which we didn't cook that I ended up sending some home with friends and leaving some marinating in the fridge for the next night for my parents.  This is what my girlfriend KK did for dinner the next night, using her own ideas for plating - wish I'd thought of that.  Nice plating, Ms K!  It's nice that she went to the trouble of making her dinner pretty.  We had a rather entertaining text exchange about the cooking of the fish:
Her:  How do I cook the fish?
Me:  Hot pan.  Oil.  Fish in pan.  Cook.
Her:  I can do that.


No photos of dessert - lemon crunch cake (the remaining half from my birthday dinner a couple of nights before)...I hadn't made dessert because I didn't feel like it - between various food restrictions, gluten, eggs and to some extent, lactose were out which makes it a little difficult to make dessert.  Fruit salad had been done rather a lot, but something was missing so out came the leftover birthday cake.  Even the non-dairy/non-gluten/non-egg people had a teeny tiny bite which rounded out dinner nicely.


A gray, rainy, overcast winter day (left) and the same winter day an hour later (right).  Lunch at the Plumeria Beach Cafe (Kahala Hotel).

A no-no of presentation - crap sprinkled on the plate rim.  My sister said maybe it was their way of presenting their plate.  I told her it was wrong...probably it didn't help that I wasn't a huge fan of the food (tasted like leftover steak) - the batter or whatever it was supposed to be suffered from being super soggy.  The roasted salmon belly salad was good although it would have been nicer if they had removed the skin.  I found out why the dish was part of a prix fixe menu for lunch at what looked like a discounted price.  I'm still of the opinion that it's one thing not to waste food or to find another use for it in a dish, but I would have thought you wouldn't want the customers to be able to tell.  I mean really, if you look at the ingredients of each dish and break it down, this option was actually more expensive because you can't really serve the components as anything and they would have gone in the rubbish bin anyway.


Anyway, this trip home has been a great one to study what other people make and serve.  There was so much to learn and appreciate about the local food here (yum - time for dinner now, bye!) and what we like to eat.


So until next time, happy eating.