Uncasual Pâtisserie

A Japanese Wedding: The Reception

2011-12-09T13:06:00.001-07:00

Normally, at a Japanese wedding reception, called hiroen, only family, relatives, close friends, bosses from work are invited. The rest of the people with whom the couple still wish to celebrate their union will attend the after party, which they call nijikai.

After you have stressed about what to wear, next thing to stress about is the wedding gift - what to give? Well, that is just very simple. Japanese people will give cash as a wedding gift to help recover some of the cost of the wedding. But, oh my god, how much to give?? Unless an amount is indicated on the invitation, normally, they will give about 30,000 to 50,000 yen per person. It may sound very expensive, but if you compare the cost of a Japanese wedding, which this one in particular I was told it cost about 4,000,000 yen, divided by 100 guests (which is how many they had for this one), it works out to be about 40,000 per person. But the Japanese will never give an amount that can be easily divided into two because that is just bad omen, so they will either give the next odd, round number. The closer you are to the couple, the more you will give. And if you are a student or unemployed, then you won't be expected to bring any significant amount of cash gift.

Once you have determined your amount of cash gift, you need to put it into a special envelope, shuugi-bukuro.

Shuugi-bukuro

Cash gift envelope

You can get one from any stationary, paper craft, or Daiso (dollar store) in Japan. If you're lucky enough to have a Daiso store in your non-Japanese town, they would have them too. Choose an envelope with bright colours and a non-flower type of mizuhiki cord ornament on it. The above envelope has a crane mizuhiki cord ornament on it. Do not choose a black and white envelope with characters ご霊前, ご仏前 or 御供物, those are for funerals.

Funeral use ko-den bukuro

There are very specific ways to address a shuugi-bukuro.

You may be given strips of paper for the outer front envelope. You can choose ones that says 御結婚, お祝い or 寿 on it.
On that strip at the very bottom, starting from the right hand side, write vertically (in kanji if you can) the names of the recipients, with the most important person on the most right hand side.
Tuck that strip under the mizuhiki cord on the front of the outer envelope. Use glue to hold it down if you wish
There is an inner envelope. Loosen the mizuhiki cord to unwrap the outer envelope to get at the inner envelope.
On the center front of the inner envelope, write vertically (in kanji if you can) the amount you are enclosing.
On the back side of the inner envelope, on the bottom left hand corner, put your name and address down.
Insert your money, using new bills, with the face of the bills facing up as the front side of the inner envelope, so that when the recipient opens the envelope, he can see the amount written on the envelope and the face of the bills.
Tuck the inner envelope into the outer envelope, front side to front side, back side to back side. Put the mizuhiki cord back on.
The back side of the outer envelope has an upper flap and lower flap. Place the LOWER flap over the upper flap. This symbolizes that luck and happiness is rising. The other way around would be done for funerals to symbolize eyes down for the sad occasion.

There is also a specific opportunity to give these cash gifts. At the wedding I attended, after photos were taken on the garden terrace, we were escorted into another waiting room where we get to sign the guest register, give our gifts and receive a reception program book.

A waiting room before the reception

Guests have the opportunity to sign the guest book and give gifts.

Guest book and gifts are separated by bride's side and groom's side.

Finally, we were escorted to the reception hall. The closer you are to the bride and groom, the further away you sit during the reception, therefore, immediate family will sit the furthest away.

The style of the reception will vary from region to region and also depends on personal preference. This one is pretty much a Western style reception. This wedding had things like:

A welcome speech by the groom
Speeches from the bosses from work
Toasts
Personal toasting at each table from family members and the bride and groom
Cake cutting
Singing performance by some guests
Speeches from some guests (live and video recorded)
Slideshow
Re-enactments
Thank you speeches

Which fork do I start with first?? :P

There are various activities and entertainment during the reception, and of course, speeches. In my honest opinion, the entertainment are just part of the monkey show that the couple had to put on for their guests. It was cheesy but still enjoyable.

A toast

Now, you may have noticed that the bride's outer coat, uchikake, has been changed. This one can be called an iro uchikake. It is also a very heavily brocaded silk coat. Brides will usually choose bright colours such as red for this happy occasion.

Caking cutting

In Japanese, they do not use the word "cut" but rather "put the knife in"

"nyuuto o suru"

Many Japanese couples, despite doing a traditional wedding, will also change their clothes into a Western style set. Partly for fun, and partly to show that they are also modern and can integrate well into today's society.

Cheesy things like lighting candles together for each table

Lighting a heart shaped candle together

My turn to give a speech -_-u

Re-enactment of the proposal

Expressing thanks to the parents

Presenting thank you gifts to the parents

A final thank you speech to the guests

We also did get fed. And it was definitely a feast! Not in terms of the amount of food, but the taste, quality and presentation of the food.

Mid-grade tuna and leek mosaic

Topped with ginger and perilla (shiso)

Salted seafood soup of clams

Wrapped and baked in puff pastry

Pan fried lobster and scallop with bourbon sauce

Served over buckwheat risotto

Seasonal sorbet

I think it's either apples or pear

Rossini steak of black haired Japanese beef fillet with foie gras

Served with truffle sauce

Seikihan. Red rice cooked with azuki beans.

A symbol of celebration

Seasonal fruits

God, they were sweet!

A piece of the wedding cake

At the end, as a parting gift, each person or family was given a bag of wedding favours filled with very nice goodies. And since this was a traditional Japanese wedding, the favours were also tradition items.

A fine Arita-yaki dish

Bonito fish flakes

This stuff lasts forever, so it symbolizes ever-lasting marriage and longevity

Sweets

In this case, it was a loaf of dessert bread - strawberry and matcha flavoured

A very worthy trip indeed!

Next, foods from Japan.

A Japanese Wedding: The Ceremony

2011-11-30T12:12:00.001-07:00

In October, I was invited to a traditional Japanese wedding IN TOKYO!! It was my host mother's daughter who was getting married. They came to my wedding about 4 years ago, but regardless, I couldn't pass up such a rare opportunity...and apparently, neither could my parents.

I've noticed that there is a significant lack of information about a traditional Japanese wedding. It was indeed difficult to piece together the information that I'm about to provide for you, let alone obtaining some good quality pictures. And since I am a Japanese language teacher, I kind of feel that I should be posting about such things for the internet.

I say rare because according to the bride, her friends were also impressed with the fact that she is doing a traditional style one as it has become very rare. Most Japanese people these days tend to choose a Western Christian style wedding as opposed to a Shinto style wedding.

Japanese people tend to choose Shinto ceremonies for happy occasions because according to Buddhists, they believe that life is suffering and therefore Buddhist ceremonies are restricted to sad occasions. Couples will usually choose an auspicious day where the almanac indicates the day is taian.

I guess the first thing people get stressed out about when they got invited to a wedding is "what to wear". Luckily, the Japanese are notorious for rules, customs and norms which they're not shy about letting people know. So, some of the things you should know when choosing your attire:

Typical dress code for the guests:

Men:

dark suit
silver or ivory tie (black ties are for funerals!)

Women:

formal dress - can be black, but do accent it with a bit of bright colours so as to not appear you're going to a funeral.
kimono (but not the tomosode, those are for mothers and relatives!)
suits

Children

can wear anything that is appropriate for the occasion

A group photo of some of the bride and groom's guests,

showing some typical wedding reception attire of the guests

We all got dressed and headed to the venue by taxi (paid for by the bride's mother!!). First, we were in the lobby waiting around. So, we did what most people would do and take photos of and with people. I know, very lame. Then, we were escorted to a small waiting room where we were given refreshments while we wait for the bride to appear. The groom's guests are placed in a separate room.

This is sakura no yu, which is just preserved cherry blossom flowers in hot water.

It is meant for enjoying the aroma. There is not much flavour in it except maybe salty.

About the mother's costume:

Mother's of the bride and the groom will wear a type of kimono called a kuro-tomesode.
A kuro-tomesode is made of very fine silk and of very fine craftsmanship.

It has the characteristic of a black background and embroidery or dyed patterns of only a few colours restricted to below the waistline.
There are also 3 to 5 kamon, family crests, printed on both the sleeves, both sides of the chest, and the back.
This is the utmost formal type of kimono to wear to a joyous occasion.

Relatives may wear a type of kimono called an iro-tomesode. It is the same idea as the kuro-tomesode, except that the background is not black but can be of different colours.

The bride comes out about 5 minutes prior to the ceremony to greet her family, relatives and friends.

Also, to take some photos.

You can see the mother of the bride wearing a kuro-tomesode.

A bit about the bride's costume:

She wears a pure white, silk kimono called a shiromuku. It is unembroider, and has no embellishments. Shiro meaning "white", and muku meaning "pure". So the meaning behind this piece is very similar to a Western bridal gown.
Over top, she wears an overcoat called an uchikake. It is a coat of heavy brocade silk. This coat can have light embroidery and embellishments. The uchikake is long and will drag on the floor, therefore, the bride much hold up the coat so as to not dirty it.
On her head, she wears a veil called tsunokakushi. Tsuno meaning "horns", and kakushi means "to hide". What horns is she hiding?? Well, they are figurative horns of jealousy, anger and other undesirable traits. She hides them symbolizing that she will enter into this marriage with only positive traits for a new beginning. To me, the veil sorta looks like a fortune cookie.
A set like this can often be rented.

A close up of the tsunokakushi and the bride's makeup

The groom also wears a kimono, but the colours are more subdued. Usually, darker colours are chosen for men's formal kimonos. He also wears a pair of pants called hakama. It is pleated and could be divided to have legs, or undivided. His kimono gets folded up and held up by an obi waist sash and then everything gets tucked into the hakama. The hakama is a symbol of faithfulness and reliability. I am still unsure why a pair of pants can hold such meaning.

Over top, the groom wears a haori overcoat, with his family crests showing.

I also managed to get a photo of the groom before being shuffled off to the ceremonial shrine.

There are no photos allowed in the ceremonial shrine. Only the photographer is allowed to take photos. These are courtesy of the bride.

We all come in and are seated, bride's side and groom's side. With family at the very front, and of course parents at the very front (I would suppose grandparents be at the very front, but there are none present at this wedding), siblings next with their spouses and children next to them, uncles, aunts, etcetera to follow. Only family, relatives and very very close friends will attend the ceremony.

Once the strange traditional music starts to play, the procession begins. The music sounds so strange to a foreigner's ear that I could barely keep myself from laughing out loud. It didn't help that the musician playing the instruments were blowing with all they've got, like someone who's playing the bagpipes, it was a hilarious look too. Later, I found out that the mother of the bride felt the same way.

This was from a different wedding that I happened to come across at Togu Shrine in Harajuku,

but you can hear the type of music that is being played for the procession.

A glimpse into the ceremonial shrine

Wall decor

During the ceremony, the priest will doing some chanting and wave the sakaki twigs around while the bride and groom sit in the middle. After the chanting is done, there is a sake ceremony which they call san-san-ku-do, which means 3x3=9 ceremony. Whoa! There's math at a wedding?? Sorta, but it's all in the meaning. During the sake ceremony, 3 cups, called sakazuki, are used. Long ago, sake is used as a way to bring people and the gods together. So, they would never drink alone but always with people. The number 3 is an indivisible number and is considered sacred, 9 is really just triple the happiness. The bride and groom take turns taking three sips each of three different cups of sake, each one larger than the next. They do not "shoot" the sake but rather tilting the cup up very gradually and sipping lightly. The sake may not be all that delicious, and so this also symbolizes that they will encounter hardships together and will have to overcome it together. By exchanging these nuptial cups, they are pronounced man and wife.

Sakaki twigs.

These are considered sacred trees and will be offered to the gods during the ceremony.

The sake pot

The san-san-ku-do

Miko are presenting the nuptial cups of sake

During the ceremony, there is also an oath to be read for the gods. I'm not sure about the contents of the oath as my Japanese are not at that level yet. There is also a Western element incorporated into the Shinto ceremony and that is they have the opportunity to exchange wedding rings.

Reading an oath to the gods

After all the necessities are done. Those who are in attendance are served sake and we drank to symbolize that both sides of the family's friendship too are united.

Afterwards, introductions of each one in attendance are done. Each of us had the opportunity to say a short greeting and a congratulatory word for the newly weds.

For the recessional, the bride and groom leaves first, with strange music accompanying them.

The recessional

Picture time!

The wedding took place at Chinsanzo of the Four Seasons Hotel. It has a magnificent garden.

The bride and groom came up to the terrace to take photos with all the guests (including those who were only invited to the reception). Noticed that the bride's veil has now been removed.

The bride's tsunokakushi veil has been removed.

She is also holding her uchikake and kimono up so it does not drag.

The bride also has an elaborate hairdo (wig) adorned with many expensive, golden and jewelled hair combs which they call kanzashi. I saw in Asakusa at one of the souvenir stores which also sells yukata (cotton kimono) that one of these wigs without the hair combs costs 240,000 yen!!

Bride's hair with kanzashi hair combs

Once everyone is done taking photos, we were escorted to another waiting room to be let into the reception hall. But more on that later!

Thai Style Pork Satay

2011-08-26T09:38:00.000-06:00

Meow's mother is from Thailand (not to be confused with Taiwan - those people have Chinese roots no matter how much they try to deny it) but she doesn't do much Thai cooking, though we all love Thai food. With the increasing abundance of Thai ingredients, Meow is now able to recreate some of my favourite Thai dishes at home - sans the insane "Welcome to Thailand" level of spiciness.

Winners is a wonderful place for cheap designer label stuff including housewares and cookbooks. Many a times, Mr. Meow and I have scrounged the aisles of Winners finding gems of cookbooks for half the price, including the two volume set of Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking. The recipe for today's satay also comes from the "winnings" of our trips to Winner's.

A typical "Winners" store

Pork Satay

from Vatch's Thai Kitchen by Vatcharin Bhumichitr

ISBN 9781845975845

Note: You can substitute other meats for this recipe such as chicken or beef. This recipe originally called for chicken

Panaeng Curry Paste

10 long dried red chillis, seeded and chopped

5 pink Thai shallots or 2 regular ones, chopped

2 tbsp of chopped garlic

2 stalks of lemongrass, chopped

1 inch fresh galangal or ginger, peeled and chopped

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

3 cilantro roots, chopped

1 tsp shrimp paste

2 tbsp roasted peanuts

Satay Marinade

2 tsp of ground coriander seeds (cilantro is the plant, coriander is the seed/root)

2 tsp of ground cumin seeds (Meow Mother likes to call this "armpit powder", it smells like it)

4 lbs of pork loin or 4 skinless chicken breasts

2 tbsp of Thai fish sauce

1 tsp of salt

1/2 cup of peanut or safflower oil

1 tsp of curry powder

1 tbsp of ground tumeric

1/2 cup of coconut milk

3 tbsp of sugar

lemon or lime wedges, to serve

Peanut Dipping Sauce

2 tbsp of peanut or safflower oil

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon of Paneang Curry paste (see below)

1/2 cup of coconut milk

1 cup of chicken stock

1 tbsp of sugar

1 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of lemon or lime juice

1/4 cup crushed roasted peanuts

20 8-inch wooden skewers

Prep

1. Soak the wooden skewers in cold water for about an hour before threading the meat, this prevents charring of the sticks.

Making the Curry Paste

I cheat and use this, close enough. But if you are so inclined as to make your own, go ahead.

Close enough

1. Drop all the ingredients into a food processors to further chop, you may finish by using a mortar and pestle to grind the paste.

Alternately, if you have a mortar and pestle,

you could grind your ingredients using that

to make the paste.

Makes 1/2-3/4 cup of paste.

You can divide the remainder and freeze in plastic bag.

Making the Satay

Best to make this at least an hour or up to 8 hours ahead so it has time to marinade.

1. Slice the pork into thin slices about 1" x 1/2"
2. Put the pork into a marinating bowl.
3. Add ground coriander, ground cumin, fish sauce, salt, peanut oil, curry powder, turmeric, coconut milk, and sugar.

4. Mix thoroughly.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to marinate for 1 to 8 hours.

I WIN!

Now you have time to make the peanut sauce

6. Preheat a broiler or outdoor grill.

Wear a glove if you have one so your hands won't stain like hell.

7. Thread 2-3 pieces of pork onto each skewer. You need to make at least 2 passes on each piece of meat so it will stay on.

2 passes

3 passes

8. Brush the remainder of the marinate onto the meat as extra.

9. Grill or broil the satays until the meat is cooked through, 6-8 minutes, turning to make sure they are browned on both sides.

Making the Peanut Sauce

I didn't have roasted peanuts at home, so I used this as substitute.

1. Heat oil in a skillet until a light haze appears.
2. Add the chopped garlic and saute until golden brown.
3. Add the curry paste, mix well, and cook for a few seconds.
4. Add the coconut milk, mix well, and cook for another few seconds.
5. Add stock, sugar, salt, and lemon juice and stir to blend.
6. Cook for 1-2 minutes, always stiring.
7. Add the ground peanuts, stir thoroughly.
8. Pour the sauce into a dipping bowl.

Serve the satays with lemon of lime wedges and peanut sauce.

Serves 2-4 people
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Meow made the mistake of marinating these overnight. The result was the spices became over powering. It wasn't unpleasant, but just wasn't what we were used to. To each their own.

The dipping sauce though, I've always find it a lot easier if it was poured onto a small plate and the roll the satays in the sauce. And it is also less dangerous to pry the meat off the skewer with a fork rather than trying to pull it with your teeth.

Cook First Apple Pie

2011-08-12T16:45:00.000-06:00

"I feel like having pie!"

So Meow made an apple pie (mainly because I was a little tired of lemon meringue pies).

Like so

My previous apple pies all suffer from the following symptoms:

runny fillings
soggy crust
half cooked apples
half cooked crusts
burnt edges

Mr. Meow suggested that I cook the apples first. This gives it a few advantages such as:

softening the apples

raw apples will "deflate" as it gets cooked so you won't have a giant gap between the top crust and the filling.

adding sufficient thickening agent to ensure the filling is not runny

blind adding is like a shot in the dark, and causes chunks

can pre-bake the crust so it is fully cooked
shorter overall bake time

Having made the lemon meringue pie previously, I've learned that insane amount of starches can stiffen the filling nicely and it really wasn't a pain in the ass to pre-cook the fill and crust. In fact, I prefer the results this gets me. So I consulted the interwebs for the best thickening agent because cornstarch wasn't working out for me and found this site explaining what different starches will do; and how people cooked the apples before baking, then devised my own plan.

Cook First Apple Pie

1 9" deep dish pre-made pie crust

1 9" regular pre-made pie crust

Pie weights

6 medium apples (I used red Jazz, about 2.5" diameter)

1/4 cup of lightly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

1 tbsp of lemon juice

1/4 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg

6 tbsp of potato starch

2 cups of water

1 egg

Gather your ingredients

1. Preheat your oven to whatever your pie crust package indicates for pre-cooking.

2. Peel and core your apples.

3. Slice the apples thinly. If you have a mandolin, use it. Saves time and effort.

I gave up on the knife after two cuts

4. Place the sliced apples in a DEEP pan or pot.

Not deep enough

5. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, lemon juice, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon to the apples.
6. Toss thoroughly.

Deep pot = easier to toss

7. Place pot of apples on the stove and cook on medium-low, bring to simmer.
8. Once simmering, put lid on until apples start to soften, stirring occasionally.
9. At some point around now, when the oven is ready, pop your bottom pie shell in and pre-bake according to package instructions. I used pie weights this time! Worked like a charm! No bubbles! Be sure to wrap the edge with tin foil though, they tend to crisp, you don't want that yet.
10. Once apples have started to soften, make a solution of potato starch with the water.
11. Slowly, pour your starch solution into the apples.
12. Stir, and keep adding the starch solution until there is enough brown jelly (from mixing with the sugar) formed to hold the filling together.
13. Pour the hot filling into your bottom pie shell. Spread the filling around. There is really no more moving around with the filling when it's inside the oven to bake.
14. Brush the inside and edges of the top pie shell and invert it over your pie with filling.

With top on

So smooth and prestine...*caress*

15. Use the handle of a fork to lightly press the edges together to seal.

16. Use a paring knife to cut vent holes. Make it look pretty. You can also poke vent holes with a fork too.

I don't know what I'm doing here with the paring knife.

17. Brush the top and edges with egg wash.

18. Wrap the edge with tin foil, but don't press the foil down or it'll stick!!

19. Bake the whole pie in the oven at 375F for about 30 minutes or top is golden brown.

You can remove the tin foil and brush extra egg wash half way through.

If foil is stuck to the pie crust edge, use a paring knife to carefully shim the two apart.

20. Serve with ice cream. Store covered in fridge.

Ta-da!

Day of baking. Ice cream is squishing the filling out.

"Covert Affairs" playing on TV. Annie is kicking ass.

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Something I've noticed about this pie is the use of potato starch. I really don't like the smell of it when it's warm. I added some nutmeg and cinnamon on top of what was stated in the recipe while the apples were cooking to cover the smell. It was fine when I had the pie on the first day at room temp, but the smell came back the second day when I had it warmed up. It's not a vile smell, but I certainly don't like it. There is no extra flavours added by it though. Maybe tapioca starch next time.

A look at the sturdiness of the filling sans ice cream squishing it.

Day old

Not leaking on this side either.

Day old

I do like how the excessive amount of starches can hold the filling up. Mr. Meow loves the filling, but finds the store bought crust a bit crumbly and starchy and suggests I make my own pie crust next time. Which is fine, it certainly makes sealing the top much easier because I can roll out the dough so it has an excess of overhang.

Filling held up. No apple pie "soup"

This pie kept much better than the lemon meringue pie. For starters, I could actually put cling wrap on it rather than using the stupid cake dome with the meringue pie. There is a tiny amount of condensation but that it expected, though there is no insane amount of beading the next day.

Dry

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Miss Humble's Lemon Meringue Pie

2011-08-01T14:30:00.003-06:00

I'll admit that a lot of recipes I do on here aren't original creations, but rather, trying out other people's recipes and making cooking notes about it. It serves two purpose: one, a memorandum for myself shall I make it the next time; two, some advice for readers shall you attempt to make it yourself.

This week, I took on the challenge of making the lemon meringue pie that is the crown of Miss Humble's blog on Not So Humble Pie. Pies have always challenged me, it's either too wet and soaked the crust, or the filling is too runny so the slice just leaks everywhere I have also been leery of adding lots and lots of corn starch to stiffen up the filling, afraid that it will cause a poor texture and taste (gluey). So, I decided to take on another pie challenge. I love lemon meringue cake from my local fancy bakery, Duchess Bake Shop, so why not make a pie? If I can figure out the pie, then I can tackle a cake next. Wishful thinking.

Sorry, skimped on photos this time.

Miss Humble did an excellent job in explaining why lemon meringue pies tend to fail in slightly scientific layman terms. But essentially, the trick in making this monster of a pie is to cornstarch it to hell, don't agitate it too much and don't overheat it.

Miss Humble's Lemon Meringue Pie

http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2011/05/lemon-meringue-pie.html

Crust:
1 9" baked pie crust
Some slightly beaten egg whites

Filling:
1 cup plus one tablespoon granulated sugar
2/3 cup cold water
1/2 cup corn starch
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (almost two lemons)
4 large egg yolks
pinch kosher salt

1 1/4 cups boiling water

Meringue:
4 large fresh egg whites, room temperature
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar* or splash or lemon juice

Cake crumbs, cake donut crumbs or bread crumbs (optional)

*omit if beating in a copper bowl.

Prepping the pie crust
1. If using pre-packaged pie crust, preheat oven according to package instructions and bake the pie shell. Don't forget to poke some vent holes and put pie weights down (I did :( ).

2. Bake pie shell. In the last 5 minutes, brush with some slightly beaten egg whites to seal the pie crust. It's okay to use some of that egg whites you are saving for your meringue.

3. Bake pie shell until slightly golden brown.

Prepping the filling

4. In a medium heavy bottom sauce pan, combine sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, egg yolks and salt.

5. Whisk until sugar is combined.

6. In a cup, combine cornstarch and cold water. Mix well to dissolve. Add to lemon mixture and whisk to combine.

7. Whisk in the boiling water and then place the sauce pan over medium-high heat.

8. Bring the mixture to a boil stirring gently with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon.

Cooking note: It is important to stir gently. Read Miss Humble's explanations on the nature of cornstarch.

9. Then reduce heat to medium-low and cook until thermometer reads 155F or mixture thickens, continuing to stir gently. Like, hard to stir thickens.

Cooking note: when I cooked mine, the thermometer read 155F but it was still runny. I thought something didn't look right especially even after I baked the whole thing for 12 minutes. So I returned the filling back on the stove and cooked it until it thickened but keeping within the 155F range. The mixture stayed within the 155F range for a long time without me having to adjust the heat.

10. Pour the filling into your prepared pie crust.

Meringue

Miss Humble discussed in depth about meringue weeping (seeping out moisture afterwards), and whether it is more beneficial to use French meringue or Italian meringue. I opted for a French meringue this time, mainly for less sweetness. I love making Italian meringues mainly because it gives such a nice glossiness to it, but it is quite sweet and sticky, and also much mess on the mixer whip.

For Italian meringues, if you're uncomfortable eating raw egg whites,

double the sugar
add water to sugar (doesn't matter how much as sugar temp/thickness relates to sugar to water content ratio)
cook syrup to 240F
add syrup to soft peaked meringue
cook cornstarch gel and add to meringue
beat until glossy and stiff

11. Drop your egg whites into a mixer and beat on medium low.

12. Start cooking your corn starch gel: add cornstarch and water to dissolve and heat on medium high, until it forms a goopy gel.

13. Slowly add your sugar in batches once your meringue has formed soft peaks, giving it time to incorporate the sugar.

Cooking note: You can use castor sugar in an equivalent weight to regular sugar too for ease of incorporation. Same volume may be too much as castor sugar is finer and will sit together closer than regular sugar.

16. Add cornstarch gel and beat until incorporated.

17. Beat until glossy hard peaks, not dry and broken.

Hot filling

18. Sprinkle some cake crumbs onto your pie, if using, to absorb meringue moisture.

Cooking note: I didn't and wish I did, my meringue slides a little off my slice of pie.

19. Immediately top with your pre-prepared meringue, bring it right to the edge of the pie to seal it.

20. Style your meringue according to personal taste.

21. Bake for 12 minutes at 350F. Any longer may cause beading on the meringue (sweating)

Cold filling

18. Allow the filling to cool completely and then transfer to the refrigerator.

19. Before serving, sprinkle some cake crumbs onto your pie, if using, to absorb meringue moisture.

Cooking note: I didn't and wish I did, my meringue slides a little off my slice of pie.

20. Top with meringue, bring it right to the edge of your pie to seal it and style according to personal taste.

21. Bake for 12 minutes at 350F. Any longer may cause beading on the meringue (sweating).

After final baking.

Yeah, I suck and manipulating meringues. It's probably over beaten.

That's why it was hard to style.

-------------------------
I personally find the flavour a little too tart, though any sweeter would also be nasty. Mr. Meow could not comment on whether it is good or not since he's used to having lemon meringue pies with pre-packaged fillings (ew?) and whipped topping (not even real whipped cream?) so he has never had an actual lemon meringue pie. But he's not complaining about this pie, so I guess it's good.

The pie crust was a bit soggy probably due to my first round of baking it with the runny filling. So, make sure your filling is thick to the point where you think it won't run on you before filling it and bake to seal.

And like Miss Humble said, there is no escaping from the meringue weeping if you intend on storing your pie for a few days. I noticed that there was beading on my meringue and moisture seeping out inside the pie after a day in the fridge. So, if you can help it, eat it all immediately!!

Beading after storage

Moisture seeping out of pie

As for the texture, I am surprised that with the amount of cornstarch there is in it, the pie doesn't taste starchy or have a gluey texture. Though I am still leery about something because it is just weird to me that the lemon filling is standing on its own. Meow is just weird like that.

"Look Ma, no hands!"

Nothing is running out or going *splat*

------------------------

Harry Potter's Butterbeer

2011-07-23T13:55:00.003-06:00

Double post this week! AWW YEAH!!

A friend of mine shared a recipe for this a little while ago, when HP7.2 came out. I've always wondered what some of these "wizard" food tasted like (not so much the earwax jelly bean, though). There are many variations of recipe for this beverage, but this one was put of by AP, FoxNews (bleh), basing it on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. And in my opinion, this one contains the least amount of pre-made ingredients.

So Meow tried her hand at making a fictional beverage.

You'll need candy thermometer for this, if you don't have it, you can opt for a pre-made butterscotch topping recipe.

Harry Potter Butterbeer
from WizardingWorldPark.com

Remember: 1mL = 1g

1 cup light or dark brown sugar (200g)
2 tablespoons water (30mL)
6 tablespoon unsalted butter (85g)
1/2 teaspoon salt (3g)
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar (3mL)
3/4 cup heavy cream, divided (75mL)
1/2 teaspoon rum extract (3mL)
4 12-ounce bottles cream soda (350mL/355mL)

Assemble ingredients for Mr. Caboose's approval

1. Measure 1 cup (200g) of brown sugar. This is a good chance for you to use up and chunky, hard rock, dried up brown sugar.

2. Add 2 tablespoons (30mL) of water and mix thoroughly.

3. Set the pot of brown sugar sludge on the stove and heat on medium-low, clip your candy thermometer to the pot.

4. Heat brown sugar sludge to 240F, stir occasionally.

5. While brown sugar is heating, measure out 6 tablespoons (85g) of unsalted butter.

Close enough :P

6. Add 1/2 teaspoon (3g) of cider vinegar.

7. Add 1/4 cup (58g) of whipping cream.

Meow messed up and only added 61g, still worked.

8. Add 1/2 teaspoon (3g) of salt.

9. Add 1/2 teaspoon (3g) of rum extract.

The original recipe says to put the rum extract after the syrup has cooled.

The most likely reason for this is the syrup will fizz and bubble like mad if

put in when hot, so you do either, if you choose this method, stir in the mixture carefully.

10. Remove brown sugar from stove once it reaches 240F and transfer to heat safe bowl to cool.

11. Stir in your buttery whipping cream mixture and mix SLOWLY but thoroughly. Sugar at this temperature can burn your skin.

End result of the butterbeer syrup

For the foamy topping

12. Using the remaining 1/2 cup (116g) of whipping cream, pour it into a large bowl.

Meow overpoured. Oh well.

Whipping cream will double its volume once whipped.

1/2 cup will yield 1 cup of whipped cream.

13. Steal 2 tablespoons (25g-30g) of the butterbeer syrup and add it to the whipping cream.

14. Use an electric mixer and whip until soft peaks. About 3 minutes.

Preparation:
15. Pour 1/4 cup (72g) of the butterbeer syrup into a pint glass.

Hint: I wasn't about to do a million transfers between bowl-measuring cup-glass

so I poured 1/4 cup of water into the glass and marked the level with a dry erase marker.

16. Pour 1/4 cup of cream soda into the glass and mix well.

Fizz will escape and foam will form, no worries.

17. Add ice now if you wish, and fill glass with the rest of the soda.

End result before adding whipped topping

18. Spoon about 1/4 of the whipped topping and drop it into the butterbeer. Cover and refrigerate the rest if not using right away.

Ta-da!

Serves 4

-------------------------------

I find this drink rather sweet, can probably go with less syrup mix, maybe reduce it to 1/8 cup of syrup to a 12oz cream soda.

I was so excited when I made this drink I was shoving it at Mr. Meow as soon as he got home, even before he got his shoes off. I told him I made butterbeer from Harry Potter and this is what he said:

"You made a fictional beverage?" Yes...so?

Mr. Meow tasted is and said right away that it tasted like a rootbeer float, I'm inclined to agree. Though I'm still not sure if I really like this drink or not, sure, it's nice and buttery, but it's also kinda flat and I usually don't drink the melted stuff when I'm done eating an ice cream float. Perhaps no whipping topping next time.

--------------------------------

For Dessert: Maison Bertillon on Île Saint-Louis

2011-07-22T15:00:00.011-06:00

pron.: BER-TEE-YONG

This place deserves one word: EPIC

Okay, maybe it deserves a few more, but if I can only use one word to describe it, it truly would have to be "epic". This place has nearly 60 years of history, opened since 1954. It uses no chemicals, artificial sweeteners, or stabilizers. It is all-natural, uses only milk, cream, eggs, sugar and natural flavourings. If organic, hippy, free-ranged, granola crunching vegans still have anything to complain about the purity of their ice cream, they can all go to hell. It doesn't get any better than this.

Maison de Glace Bertillon on Ile de St. Louis

Take out and tea salon

Bertillon is indeed a very popular (and profitable) ice cream. Many cafes and parlors on the little Ile de St. Louis sell some of their ice cream since Bertillon offers it in bulk (in bulk, eh? If Meow lived in France and has a freezer...). Prices vary, of course, but not by much.

We made it into the tea salon that day just before they closed. Meow kinda felt guilty for snaking in before closing keeping the ladies from being able to go home.

Mr. Meow's selection: Raspberry Melba - vanilla ice cream, raspberry sauce

"Melba" is a classic dessert, invented in 1892 or 1893

by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London to honour

the Australian soprano, Nellie Melba. *wiki

Meow's selection: vanilla and salted butter caramel

This particular location below was the one place Mr. Meow used to get his Bertillon ice cream in the summers when he was a kid. It is swarming with people, even more so than other cafes. We visited this the first time we came by Ile de St. Louis because Maison de Bertillon was closed for some family holidays of sorts.

Just a hole in the wall.

Prices and flavours available at Esterina

This is where Meow first discovered the "salted butter caramel" ice cream.

Orgasmic

Although Haagen Daz makes some impressive dulce de leche ice cream, its texture still cannot compare to Bertillon's. Bertillon ice cream is creamy, smooth and flavourful. Sure, they serve you tiny little scoops, but you'll be oh-so-satisfied afterwards. Rich, real foods equal true satisfaction; fake, substituted foods creates more desire.

--------------------------

Non Wood-fired Pizza is a Crime in Paris!

2011-07-15T21:55:00.001-06:00

Since we couldn't go to Italy and try some authentic pizzas, Paris had quite a number of pizza joints to make up for our short comings. Most of these places (save for Pizza Hut), do offer wood-fired, brick-oven pizza. What makes wood-fired, brick-oven pizza so good, you ask? Well, for starters, the oven is like 700C hot so it only takes a few minutes to cook the pizza; second, the pizza is hand tossed to a thin crust; third, toppings and creations are nothing like your homebrew "pepperoni and mushrooms" variety; forth, instead of the dried, flavourless chili pepper flakes, they give you olive oil infused with chilies.

Four Seasons Pizza: ham, artichokes, mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms

Pizza I Dogi (Latin Quarter)

Meow had a spaghetti primavera instead

Pizza I Dogi (Latin Quarter)

As you may have noticed, the pizza looks quite, err...ugly..., but that's a characteristic of hand made, hand tossed crust. Flavour is still better than your Pizza Hut variety, because sauce is tangy, toppings are plentiful, also the right amount of cheese.

Pizza Pino (Opera)
Wood fired oven pizza, "Al Pollo"

Now, there is quite a story about this jackass waiter at Pizza Pino. Pizza Pino seems to be a chain pizza joint in Paris (I don't know where else other than that). This particular waiter, I don't know whether his beef is because we're tourists or what, but he first keeps forgetting to bring me my glass of water. Mr. Meow had to ask like 3 times. Regardless of how a waiter may view a customer ordering tap water instead of mineral water, you bring the customer what she wants, dammit! Each time it was asked, the waiter was all like "right away!" and then proceed to ring up a customer and clean off tables. That, certainly was not right away. Mr. Meow suspected that the waiter was not too keen about tourists since when we were just seated, the table next to us, who were also tourists, were left with a dessert menu and practically got ignored while locals got served promptly. So, when the waiter finally got around to check on us during our meals, Mr. Meow decided to use some "local dialect", and that threw the waiter off. Service seemed to have improved somewhat afterwards. Moral of the story: If you're not keen about tourists, don't prolong their stay by ignoring them, serve them fast so they get out of there faster.

Pizza Pino (Opera)

Another Four Seasons pizza

Regardless of service, pizza when done in a wood fired oven is fabulous. We have tried to recreate some aspects of pizza-connoisseuring by making our own spicy olive oil. Mr. Meow had always been planning to make a wood-fired brick oven, so it'll be just a matter of time before Meow can enjoy Parisian pizzas at home.

----------------------

Lunch in a Parisian Chinatown: La Lune

2011-07-08T17:34:00.001-06:00

Mr. Meow didn't even know about there being a Chinatown in Paris until he picked up a copy of "Tomato", a local free newspaper. Paris Chinatown is located in the 13th Arrondissement at Place d'Italie down Avenue de Choisy. If I remember correctly, there's the metro station at Place d'Italie and drops you off at the beginning of the street. The Asian stores are still sparse in my opinion but it is still more concentrated than the rest of the city.

When I told my parents about trying Chinese food in Chinatown in Paris, they turned their noses up like "how good can it be?". Well, it is certainly much better than here.

We had some trouble finding the area too as the cabbie we got in with was rather useless and had to flag down a bypassing Asian to ask for directions. FIL (father in law) heard that there's a big Asian supermarket with the likes of T&T but didn't know (or forgot) the name, so that didn't help either. Apparently, the supermarket was called "Tang Freres" or Tang Brothers. There are 2 stores in Chinatown, a big one and a smaller one but has a little fast food outlet next to it. Needless to say, the supermarket was unimpressive, it was like walking into Lucky 97, if even.

We got out of there and looked for food. Funny enough, there's no dimsum places, or at least not that I've seen, most of them are like buffet style or cafe style. And we were approaching 2 o'clock where lots of eateries would close to comply with the 35 hour work week regulation, so food was becoming scarce. Of what remained opened, and none of us having a clue as to which place is good, I went for the old rule: if it is busy, it must be good - and went into La Lune. There were no regrets, the rule still holds true.

Royal milk tea. Yeah, no. Weak piss.

Longan, lotus, gogi berries, and bunch of other stuff brewed into a "tea".

Yes please.

DF fish fillet. It was so crunchy...!

DF shrimps. FIL ordered seconds. So you know it's THAT good.

Singapore fried noodles.

Extra fine angel hair vermicelli, small portion, perfect.

Thai style stir fried scallops. Okay.

Shanghainess pork dumplings. Not bad either. Pleasantly surprised.

La Lune

A produce store in Chinatown. It has better stock and selection of

fruits and vegetables than here.

Of course Chinese food was good in Paris! All the ingredients were fresh Fresh FRESH! This is the KEY in Chinese cooking - as long as you have fresh ingredients, you can't fuck it up. The fish croquettes was phenomenal! I do wish there is Chinese food of this caliber in this city, but alas, we are land locked and fresh ingredients is few and far in between.

S'mores Cupcakes

2011-07-03T13:33:00.001-06:00

I now interrupt your Parisian feed with a dose of summer campfire classic: s'mores, in cupcake form.

Meow had a craving for s'mores but lack a campfire, so I tried the next best thing: cupcakes! Thankfully, Martha Stewart has a recipe for it and I decided to give it a whirl. The recipe called for graham flour, I have no clue what it is, where it's sold nor the time to hunt it down. So, I did the next best thing: bought a box of graham crackers and crumbled it.

I was too lazy to make a chocolate ganache glaze for it too, so I substituted the base for a chocolate cupcake base.

I didn't mix in the crumbled graham crackers and used it like flour because I wasn't too sure what exactly it will do, but I did sprinkle it on top of the cupcake batter.

S'mores Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup warm water
1 1/3 cups crushed graham crackers
Marshmallow frosting

Preheat oven to 350F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together flours, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Reduce speed to low, add eggs, buttermilk, oil, extract and water. Beat until smooth. Scrape down side.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling 1/2 to 2/3 full.
Sprinkle graham crumbs onto the batter, lightly press it in with a spatula.
Bake. Rotating pan halfway through until cake tester comes out clean. About 20 minutes
Let cool for about 10 minutes

Marshmallow frosting

1 tbsp of unflavoured gelatin (approx. 1 envelope)

1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup cold water

1 cup sugar

In a mixing bowl, sprinkle gelatin over 1/3 cup cold water.
Allow gelatin to soften, about 5 minutes.
Heat remaining 1/4 cup water and the sugar in a saucepan over medium-high, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Stop stirring. Clip a candy thermometer onto side of pan.
Boil until syrup reaches 238F (soft-ball stage).
Remove from heat, add syrup to soften gelatin.
Whisk mixture with a handheld electric mixer starting with low speed, then working your way to high speed. Avoid splashing.
Whisk to cool, until soft peaks form. About 8 to 10 minutes.
Use immediately. Frosting will harden.
Lightly torch the surface of the frosting to brown it. Be careful with the frosting melting and running.

-----------------

Hindsight: I could probably lightly mixed in the graham crumbs into the batter because we were having issues with keeping the table clean when eating it. And leave the torching until the gelatin has set a bit more. Otherwise, the flavour is excellent!

Parisian Japanese

2011-06-24T12:00:00.016-06:00

As luck would have it, we were staying in the Japanese food district of Paris. Coupled with the fact that France gets some pretty damn fresh fish, well, this cat was in heaven. We did Japanese food I think at least 5 times.

Funny thing is that most of these places are run by Japanese people. However, they don't use Japanese nomenclature for their menu items, just a translated version of what it is. E.g. You won't see tuna on the menu as maguro like some places do here, but rather thon which is tuna in French. However, special items like toro (tuna belly) will stay as toro on the French menus, or words like teriyaki.

You can SEE the moisture oozing out from the fish :P~

From top left: red tuna, toro, hamachi, sweet shrimp, scallops, omelette

@Yamamoto Sushi - Opera

Mr. Meow got an encore of red tuna. This was a first that

HE eats this much raw fish let alone ordering an encore.

Have you ever SEEN a cascade of colors on a tuna like this?
@Yamamoto Sushi - Opera

If Paris sushi joints are run mostly by Japanese people, then they should have decent ramen! We found this place on Google Maps. It was pretty good, but disappointed that it didn't have much ramen choices, it's more of a soba/udon house.

Tempura udon. Excellent noodle texture

@Naniwa-ya - Opera

Takoyaki. Store-bought frozen stuff. Deep fried.

@Naniwa-ya - Opera

Pork cutlet curry. Reminds me of Glico packaged curry.

@Naniwa-ya - Opera

This stuff is INSANE!!

Super spicy (they don't lie) konnyaku.

@Naniwa-ya - Opera

Next, we hit up an Ikazaya, or Japanese tapas bar. There's none like it in my town, but there is one in Calgary. It still didn't measure up to this one in Paris. Both the one in Calgary (Globefish) and this place, Isse Izakaya, was bloody expensive! Much fun was had though.

Don't bother. The tuna wasn't fully defrosted even.

Frozen fish, THE NERVE!! :P
@Isse Izakaya - Opera

Korroke, but on a stick.

Everything is better on a stick.
@Isse Izakaya - Opera

Teriyaki duck...on a stick!

@Isse Izakaya - Opera

Spicy pork (spiced with Shichimi)

@Isse Izakaya - Opera

Agedashi tofu

@Isse Izakaya - Opera

Black sesame ice cream.

I've never had this kind of ice cream before, but it was so smooth

and the flavours were just the right balance, I might have to try

and recreate it at home some time.

@Isse Izakaya - Opera

Green Tea Creme Brulee

The tea flavour is SO subtle, you would have to let each bite sit

in your mouth for a few seconds before you can taste it.

It was a perfect marriage of green tea and creme brulee. Well done!

@Isse Izakaya - Opera

At the end of the night, the bill came to 100 Euros even.

What are the odds?

@Isse Izakaya - Opera

We keep walking by this ramen shop that has a giant pot of soup base brewing in the window. Well, we just HAVE TO try it. The shop looked very small on the outside, just a few 2-person tables and a row of bar seating, but there's another room in the back with a handful more tables. The ramen tasted pretty authentic to me, but then again, I don't remember what "authentic" Japanese ramen tasted like, but it agreed with my taste buds to say the least.

Our "go-to" ramen - Chashu-ra

@Taishoken - Opera

Their giant pot of soup base that's brewing in the window for all to see.
I can see the apples, daikon, carrots, shitake, and god knows what.

@Taishoken - Opera

Their noodles have a good consistency, it's not mushy nor too "hard". It has a certain elasticity to it. Soup was not too salty nor overpowering. They had a good cut of the chashu, BBQ pork, so there wasn't much connective tissues or gristle. We ate the gyozas before I remembered to take a picture of it, it was good too.

Shit, I have a ramen craving now. Never write a food blog when you're hungry...

Next stop is another sushi restaurant, Toyotomi, also in Opera district. Hey, we gotta take advantage of the fresh fish that's available for this sort of thing. This place is bustling pretty much every night. If it's busy, it's a good indicator that the food is good.

Chopsticks with maneki on them?

You KNOW you're in an awesome place :D

The salmon they have was so good, it melts in your mouth.

Mr. Meow was going to let me order some toro (tuna belly)

because he knows I love that stuff, but the fats and texture from

the salmon was sufficient for my cravings.

The combo meals come with these kushiyaki.

There's grilled pork and chicken, and then there's this strange thing:

grilled beef wrapped with cheese. The flavour was just odd.

Dessert: coconut ice cream in its shell.

I don't think these are made in house.

Toyotomi was so good, we went back there a second time before the end of our trip. The second time was no disappointment either; the salmon still melted in my mouth. The people sitting half a foot away from us were entertaining too. They spoke English, I guess they are working/living there for a bit. But some of the conversation we overheard (it wasn't hard to do when you're 6 inches away) went like this:

Guy: What's "net weight"?

Girl: It's like the weight of the stuff inside.

Guy: Like, what do you mean?

Girl: The weight of JUST the stuff inside.

Guy: *still semi confused*

Us: *WTF?* ಠ_ಠ *The weight of the stuff WITHOUT the bottle!! UGH!!*

Guy to waiter: Arigato

Girl: You know, they might be offended if you do that.

Guy: Why? I've lived in Japan for x years, I know some Japanese.

Meow: *You moron, these people are obviously Chinese,

they may not know what you're saying*

Girl: Well, in the States, if you do that they would correct you and

say "no, thank YOU". Trying to get you to speak their language.

Guy: Oh! Well... *astonished*

Us: *You're a keener tard*

They sure made the night more interesting.

--------------------------------------

Royal avec Cheese & Gyros

2011-06-17T12:24:00.001-06:00

Time for some Parisian fast food!

In Quartier Latin, there are TONS of eateries to choose from. Most of them are pizzas, pastas, raclette and traditional French. But there is this corner where all the gyros (pron. yer-ros) gather. Both offer pretty much the same thing, it's just a matter of whether you want to turn left or turn right.

Their meat is a bit different than what we get here in town. We get the processed loaf, there, it is layer upon layers of mutton slices packed into a giant loaf. In my opinion, the less processed my food is, the better.

Fries, meat and veggies all in a pita. It's like eating your entire meal

altogether at once.

They also offer the same gyros on a baguette. But when the smallest gyros (pictured above) will fill you up and then some, the baguette will be overkill.

What I don't really understand is why they put your fries into the gyros, they'll get soggy and the gyros gets too big to fit into my mouth so I end up having to pick at the fries first. It was very good nonetheless.

We turned right. You can see the loaf being roasted.

Prices aren't too bad either.

Ah McDonald's, it's part of many people's childhood memories, also a comfort food for some, especially when in a foreign land. To me, it's a bit of both, but also a third reason for visiting McDonald's even when surrounded by rich foods - curiosity about their menus.

In Hong Kong, McDonald's have Nestle Iced Pear Tea, pies with a deep fried empanada crust which includes yam pies, mung bean pies, taro pies, apple pies on a monthly rotation.

In Japan, some years ago, they had a burger named "Teridama", a teriyaki patty with an egg on top. Nasty, I was told.

In Thailand, my parents went to investigate the local McDick's without me and discovered they serve papaya salads.

In the US, they have Dippin' Dots "ice cream" and their Big'n'Tasty is actually the equivalent of a Big Extra here.

So, why the hell would I not investigate a French McDick's? I've heard enough references about a "Royale with Cheese" from Pulp Fiction, now I have to find out.

This building is a FRIGGIN' McDonald's!!

@St. Lazare

We didn't eat at the one in St. Lazare because all the tills are self-serve and requires you to have a French bank/credit card to pay. It doesn't even have a full menu.

A Royale with Cheese and a 250mL beer.

A Royale-O-Fish and a 16oz pop as opposed to the 21oz we get in Canada.

They also gave us packets of mustard-mayo for fries.

@Opera

Mr. Meow got the Royale with Cheese combo, nothing different about the burger. I find the beer amusing though. It will never happen in North America because we're so frigid. McDonald's is a place for kids and god forbid that they be near alcohol or someone drinking it! They might turn into violent alcoholic bums by proxy!! Or worse yet, scarred for LIFE just by seeing the alcohol!! North America has a higher instance of alcohol problems than Europe because kids get a rush by doing something that's "taboo" when they were kids or generally frowned up by society, the more they get away with it, they more they do it. If it's treated just like another kind of beverage, then it's not an issue, there's no desire to binge when given the chance. /rant

Meow got a Royale-O-Fish. This is different. The best way to describe it is a McChicken but someone put a fish fillet in there instead of a chicken. It's not bad, but I'd much rather it have the tartar sauce than the mayo, it just goes better. The soft drink that comes with the combo is smaller as well, 16oz compared to 21oz. It works for me especially when I get their Nestea Peach Iced Tea and it has 33% less sugar than other drinks, you don't get so thirsty.

And of course, there's the McCafe <3

Real coffee and real desserts

@Versailles

------------------------------

Eating at a French Cafe

2011-06-03T16:17:00.001-06:00

French cafes, in my opinion, are like Denny's, but tastes a HELL lot better and have a HELL lot more class.

Some cafe staples you are guaranteed to find are: omelettes, croque monsieur, croque madam, homemade fries (none of that frozen McCain shit), beer, and a good espresso.

Prices depends on the district you're in. As Mr. Meow puts it, "you're in trouble when your lunch beer, a 250mL, costs 9 Euros." Also, pay attention as to whether the prices includes tip (service compris) or not (service non-compris). Most places do include it and will state it on their menus. All prices include taxes. Now, even though most places include tip in their prices, that doesn't mean you should take every penny that they return on the check plate. Take what you want and leave the smaller change (~2 Euros) as an extra tip if they deserve it.

Now, for some cafe etiquette. Do not order something and tell them to "hold this" and "substitute that", if you don't like what's in your food, then DON'T ORDER IT!! You'll be lucky if you get service at all after that stunt or at worst, be pointed to the nearest McDonald's, which there aren't too many. If you're allergic, still try your best to get something else. Most of these are probably half put together already for efficiency sake, so changes or extra ingredients to make one just for you will be difficult.

Cafe Opera: Croque Provencale

Generally, a "croque" whatever is a slice of toasted country bread

with deli meat and melted cheese on top. Like an open-face sandwich.

Lunch at this joint ran us 50 Euros with tip - 2 croques, a juice, a beer

Cafe Didot: Omelette with ham and cheese, hand cut fries

Omelettes do not have to have cheese in it

Cafe Didot: Creme Brulee dessert

All cafes carry homemade desserts of this calibre

Cafe Didot: Coke, or "Coca" as the French call it

Made with real sugar instead of High-Fructose Corn Syrup. Real satifying.

Lunch here cost us 35 Euros with tip - 2 omelettes, a coke, a beer, a dessert

La Place @ Versailles: Croque-membert

This one is more of a pressed sandwich style,

but there's melted cheese in it nonetheless

La Place @ Versailles: Croque New Yorkaise

Lunch was about 50 Euros here, but hey, it's Versailles, a tourist trap.

2 croques, an iced tea, a beer

Word of advice: avoid tourist areas. If you see mutli-national flags anywhere on the establishment - be it the windows, doors or the menu, stay away. You're guaranteed to be gauged.

Then, there's this cafe in Giverny, home of the artist, Claude Monet. This place even has a menu based off of his books. But I think what tops this place is the view surrounding it.

Claude Monet Garden @ Giverny

Les Nymphéas @ Giverny: Bœuf mode façon de Marthe Butler

Claude Monet’s recipes selected from the book

« La cuisine selon MONET » by

Claire Joyes (Editions du Chêne)

Les Nymphéas @ Giverny: Accompanying potatoes and vegetables

Claude Monet’s recipes selected from the book « La cuisine selon MONET » by

Claire Joyes (Editions du Chêne)

Les Nymphéas @ Giverny: Sumptuous chocolate cream and orange madeleine

Claude Monet’s recipes selected from the book « La cuisine selon MONET » by

Claire Joyes (Editions du Chêne)

Les Nymphéas @ Giverny: Good'ol vegetable soup

Les Nymphéas @ Giverny: Pate on country bread with salad

Salad was so FRESH, I get depressed eating a salad in my hometown

Vegetables look and taste expired in comparison.

---------------------------------

White People Food in Paris

2011-05-20T12:00:00.001-06:00

There was this debate amongst my friends, "what to call the food North Americans, Europeans eat?" You know, the mish-mash that is served at Moxie's, Earls, or for those of you in the states, something like TGIF. There are steaks, pasta, salads, ribs, chicken, or some fish done with a mild sauce of sorts and either grilled or fried or poached. That sort of food. We have decided that it is okay to call it "white people food" and not have any racist connotations to it. Admittedly, I personally differentiate it a bit further and sometimes not call it "white people food" at all - Italian (pizza and pasta), burgers, steaks... because if you know Mr. Meow at all, saying "white people food" does not help him narrow down choices for tonight's dinner one bit.

So, white people food. By that I mean French food and others (excluding Italian) on this post. French cafe food is another whole ball of wax though.

Let's start off with this little place in Montmartre, called Chartier. It's a very chic canteen restaurant type of place where the waiters are quick to turn tables over and will seat another couple at your table-meant-for-4 if necessary. If you're concerned about privacy and your own personal bubble, or if you want to will away the evening there, this isn't the place.

The decor is tasteful, I think one travel book/website said the decor is from like 50 years ago. Menu is just printed on a sheet of paper, kinda like at Old Spaghetti Factory, with a date on it which suggests the menu may change daily.

At Chartier, they serve what they call "traditional French" - comfort food in our eyes. They are really quick about bringing the customers their food. We suspect that it's pretty much a buffet line that the waiters just pick from and serve the patrons.

Bacon salad. It's actually "lardons"

Can't go wrong with bacon.

Appetizer: Shrimp with mayo

To my disappointment, we all wolfed down our meals before I realized I wanted to take a photo of it. Beef bourgignon, coq au vin, and a steak was had.

Dessert: Madam Blanc

Ice cream, meringue crumbs, whipped cream, chocolate sauce
and my Lactaid pill on the spoon

Dessert: Peche Melba

Peaches, whipped cream, ice cream

A pair of Swedes sat across the table from us. My FIL informed me that typically, Swedes are quite racist, which I find rather funny because they got seated at the same table as a pair of Japanese couple. These Swedes didn't know how to party either, we had some rose wine left and offered it to them (they were just ordering at that time, we thought we might "help" them with their order) they turned it down!! It's not like we were drinking straight out of the bottle. Geez! If there's one thing I've learned from university, that would be "never waste liquid gold".

Let's move onto the Montparnasse district. There's a Belgian place that specializes in fries and mussels. Their slogan is something like "mussels give you energy". The inside kind of feels like a Denny's but the quality is far from it.

There seems to be other branch locations of Leon, but apparently, this particular location is where my FIL hung out when he went to school.

We each ordered a pot and it came with fries

I had the Mariniere and Mr. Meow had the Ardennaise

Some deep fried cheese in the foreground as appetizers

Paris 2011: Leon Mussels

Seattle 2003: Ivar's Clams

There is a pattern here, folks

This location seems to attract a 20-something crowd, with the occasional seniors. The waiter we had was upbeat and quick - both feet and in the head.

Next, we go just a few blocks down to a place called Hippopotamus in Montparnasse. According to Mr. Meow, it's like a TGIF in the states. Looks like a Moxie's to me.

Some kids are there with their parents; a couple of ladies are having a quiet girl's night out; couples eating with other couples...pretty generic crowd.

This place mostly does steaks and burgers it seems, but their appetizers is something from a whole different world.

Appetizer: Ox Marrow

Rather greasy, but pretty darn good with mustard and bread

There was a girl (~10 y.o) across the table who ordered it,

shows you how unrefined North American palettes can be.

FIL demanded that I retake the photo with the beer in it

because "it's not proper without the beer"

Appetizer: Nem frites

Spring rolls eaten with a mint leaf and a leaf of lettuce.

OUT.OF.THIS.WORLD!

Appetizer: Crispy Shrimps

Been there, done that.

I will not comment on the flavour or texture of the beef if it's from outside of Alberta. I've been so spoiled by the beef here that I think nothing else is comparable. Though I will say that my burger was juicy and done to the correct rawness. The waiter though, was as dim as a Toc-H lamp, cheery guy though.

Next: French Cafe Styles

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Bakeries in Paris

2011-05-13T15:00:00.002-06:00

Bread is an essential part of European diet, so bakeries are plenty. They usually carry similar items such as baguettes of several different grain types and sizes, staples like croissants and pain au chocolat, mini cakes, quiches, cookies, sandwiches and even pizzas. One can walk into a bakery and find their breakfast, lunch or dinner there.

A "hot dog", served on a baguette with a mild cheese inside.

Found in Paul Bakery

However, there are good ones and bad ones. What Mr. Meow has learned was to stick with bakeries that advertise "artisan" in their name. It means that they make their own bread dough. Others, may sell bread made from "pre-packaged" dough and only baked on site, it's nasty, I know, we've tried.

The fancier ones, as in, strictly a pastry shop, may have a tea house attached to it. You can enjoy a cup of brand name steeped tea and a piece (or two) pastries from the shop at an overly inflated price. Price depends on location too. Macarons at Laduree Champs Elysee actually costs more than Laduree in Opera, go figure.

Laduree, Champs Elysee

Laduree, Opera

Selection of items available will also depend on the location. This particular Pierre Herme did not have the famous Ispahan macaron that day. I was TEH disappoint.

Opera location

Display cases is always so wonderful to look at when passing a bakery. It's colorful, it's fully stocked, it has prices listed for items on display so you don't have to waste yours and their time just to inquire... This is almost the same as a candy store - for both adults and kids.

Fully stocked display cases

Enticing window displays

The pervasiveness of pastries in Paris is just astonishing. Restaurants will have a piece of two of pastry stuff on the menu for dessert. Bakeries line the streets like coffee shops line the streets in Seattle. Even McDonald's have a little off-shoot called McCafe that serves various kinds of pastries for a competitive price. Starbucks also have a considerably better selection of sweets than here in Canada, but at an astronomical price.

McCafe

$12CAD for all that you see in this picture

The quality everywhere is just amazing. Croissants are just the right balance of butter and dough; pain au chocolat puts in just the right amount of chocolate to be not too strong; pastries are sweet and rich, but not teeth-rotting and heavy; palmier cookies are nicely baked through and an adequate coat of carmelized sugar on top. I have yet NOT to choke on the pastry flakes off a croissant while in Paris, it's just that flaky.

Even big name chain stores get it right.

I've had so much baguettes and baguette-wiches, the roof of my mouth is raw from the crust scratching it.

Parisian Macarons Research

2011-05-06T17:26:00.002-06:00

I went to Paris for the very first time in my life with Mr. Meow. And I've made it very clear that I NEED to try some macarons from the big players for "research purposes", Mr. Meow agrees surprisingly knowing how bloody expensive they are. Macarons are everywhere in Paris from the obvious bakeries such as Pierre Herme and Laduree to smaller bakeries (almost all bakeries have them) to even McDonald's McCafe! Their prices range too, from like 3 Euros a piece to 1 Euro and change for others, of course depending on where you buy them.

McDonald's McCafe selections. They even have a proper expresso/coffee machine!

Pastry selection at a local artisan bakery, Eric Kayser

A chocolatier shop on rue Rivoli across from Les Tuleries

They have the fancy big macarons too

We only had time (and money) to research at Pierre Herme and Laduree. A box of a dozen macarons from Pierre Herme was just over 25 Euros. There were only 12 flavours that day so it worked out. I was disappointed that I couldn't try his famous Ispahan flavour, though I've found a new favourite flavour and that is salted butter caramel.

rue l'Opera location

The loot

With regards to Pierre Herme's macarons, their texture is COMPLETELY different from what I've had here in my dinky little town. The ones from our local pastry shop, Duchess Bake Shop, is well, dry and crunchy even after having matured. Pierre Herme's was just ever so slightly crispy but so light and fluffy it almost feels like it's disintegrating upon contact with your tongue. It is the most delicate, lightest, yet richest cookie Meow has even had. Even Mr. Meow was impressed. I was quickly then depressed knowing how much farther I still have to go with my macarons making.

Salted butter caramel, my favourite

No hollows, plenty of filling

The macarons held together pretty well even after the 3rd day in a ziplock bag in a fridge, except for the lemon one, it was soggy probably due to the acidity.

The most awesome one, aside from the salted butter caramel of course, is the violet and licorice. You don't taste the nastiness that is black licorice if you're not a licorice fan, but rather, to me, it tastes like what I've always imagined the colour purple would taste like if it had a flavour.

Milk chocolate and passion fruit - an acquired taste

Matisse: carrot, orange and cinnamon. It's rather nice.

Laduree macarons seemed to be more expensive. An 18 piece box, consisted of one of each flavour they had that day was 48 fucking Euros. They're still well worth it, the taste, the packaging, the visual orgasm induced by seeing all the other pastries they had in the case...

Madeleine location

Teas, cakes and candies they offer

Note the GIANT heart shaped macarons cake... :P~

Legendary

ORGASMIC!! But it's even more gorgeous inside, I didn't take pictures

of the inside because I was afraid of looking like derp.

I took the box of Laduree macs on the flight with me home, partly to see how well they'd hold up on a 10 hour flight with a 5 hour layover, but also because I was pretty sick of eating sugar by then (I think I've had at least 5 mini cakes and pastries in my last 2 days in Paris thanks to Mr. Meow's 96 year old grandma. She kept force feeding us sugar, and how do you say no to a 96 year old lady especially when you don't know how to tell her that in French). They held together fairly well through hand carrying it onto the flight, just a few cracks in some of the shell, they weren't soggy nor melted, the caramel one left a bit of a foot print on the box but that's caramel.

The un-boxing of the "Bonapart" coffret just after the purchase

After the flight and a night in the fridge

It's texture is slightly differently than Pierre Herme's. It has a bit more crunch to it, but still a hell lot more delicate, lighter and fluffier than mine or Duchess'. I don't know whether the crunch is due to it being in my fridge at home overnight even though it was in a ziplock bag. I prefer this texture better, it's less like eating fluff.

Eating it about 1.5days after purchase. Still looks good. No hollows.

Passion Fruit and chocolate, still don't like it.

Lime, no hollows, no mush. Very citrusy.

Their caramel one is far less orgasm inducing than that of Pierre Herme's, which was disapppointing. The rose one was just heavenly. Laduree and Herme had a passion fruit one which is more of an acquired taste for me, it's very tangy with a citrus pucker after every bite.

Another 2 days has passed. Still looking good. No funky smells.

Licorice, very mild.

Grape?

Vanilla. Best vanilla macrons I've ever had.

Lemon. Not mushy like the one from Pierre Herme

because I think Laduree used a buttercream instead of a jelly.

I think if I could combine Pierre Herme's flavours with Laduree's shells, it would be just perfect.
---------------------------------

Paris...

2011-05-06T12:52:00.001-06:00

I'm in the process of putting together a mini series of posts about the food in Paris, and of course, macarons. Stay tuned.

Mango-Coconut Ice Cream

2011-04-15T17:23:00.002-06:00

Stupidstore had a sale of mangoes and so of course Mr. Meow and I bought too many. We were looking for the Altaufo types as advertised in the flyers but found only Kent mangoes, we bought them. Then about a few days later, Meow went to Stupidstore again and decided to see if they have Altaufo mangoes for shits and giggles and low and behold, they do! So Meow bought. We prefer Altaufo mangoes simply because of the sweetness and texture. Kent mangoes in comparison are a bit tart and crunchy, although if given enough ripening time, they do soften up and sweeten. Though usually, they rot before that happens due to the bumps and bruises they received during shipment.

Altaufo mango

Kent mango

So, we have 2 cases (24+) mangoes sitting on the counter. What to do? All this mango talk got Meow craving some Thai mango sticky rice, but Meow lacks the skill to deal with glutinous rice let alone cooking it with coconut milk! So, I pondered about the next best thing: mango-coconut ice cream! I set out to search for a recipe and surprisingly, there wasn't a lot. So, I had to use my Meow om-nom-nom senses to judge whether this recipe will work. Well, I'll let you be the judge.

Mangoes galore!

This recipe involves cooking a custard as the base. Since my last 2 batches of ice cream turned out a bit crumbly, I grudgingly decided to give it a try knowing eggs act like a glue for most things. But I also set out to buy better ingredients because I intended to serve this as dessert for the MIL who has finicky taste and will go "mmm-mmm-mmmmm" but talk behind your back if it isn't good. I went to my local hippie store, Homegrown, to get some superior whipping cream (36%) and some fresh farm eggs. And in the process, I discovered whole milk.

Whipping cream and whole milk

Available also at Planet Organic

Now, most of us refer to homogeneous milk as "whole milk", which is right and yet wrong. Fat content wise, they are the same - at 3.25%. Pasteurization process is a bit different. Homo milk goes through high pressure treatment as well to further break down its fats and a coat of protein is applied to it so that it wouldn't separate like whole milk would. (Read more)

I would never go back to homo milk again. The taste of whole milk reminded me of my childhood days of how milk tasted like - not piss. Since coming to Canada, all you can buy (or all I had access to) was homo piss and have decided that Canadian milk is nasty. Well, not anymore.

Mango-Coconut Ice Cream
adapted from Epicurious

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!"

If you don't have fresh mangoes available, using canned mangoes is okay too. But be mindful of its sweetness and adjust the sugar accordingly.

Taste the mango custard mixture BEFORE you put in the corn syrup, you may not need it.

1 1/4 cups mango purée
3/4 cup well-stirred canned unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole milk
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
large pinch of salt

Whisk the sugar and egg yolks with a large pinch of salt together in a pot until pale yellow and forming ribbons when dropped.
Scald the milk (as in, almost boiling)
Slowly, stream in the milk while whisking the sugary egg yolk mixture.
Cook the custard over low heat in a double boiler until custard forms and maintains ripples when stirred (or alternately, coats the back of the spoon and custard stays in place when you run a finger across the spoon). This takes about 30 minutes.
If you have chunks in your custard, your heat is too strong or didn't stir often enough, so start over. Tiny chucks is fine.
Remove from stove immediately when finished. Set aside.
Puree the mango in a food processor.
Stir in whipping cream, coconut milk, vanilla, corn syrup, and lemon juice. Mix well.
Pour the mango mixture into the custard.
Pour the mango custard through a fine mesh strainer to remove and mango strings and custard solids.
Chill the custard overnight.
Pour the custard into your ice cream maker and make ice cream according to manufacturer's instructions.

Makes 1 quart

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My first batch of custard failed because I forgot to cook it in a double boiler and it completely curdled. Down the toilet it went. I was quite pissed too because I've just wasted some damn good whole milk that I could be having in my cereal!!

Mr. Meow demanded that I make another batch right away. This recipe is a good balance of both flavours, we were quite pleased.

Also, this custard based recipe gave a nice texture for the ice cream. It curls nicely when scooped, does not crumble, and is ultra smooth. It melts slower too compared to the previous Philadelphia style berry one and the yogurt one.

As for MIL, she started to steal the ice cream off of FIL's plate when she finished hers.

Dulce de Leche Frozen Yogurt

2011-04-08T15:30:00.000-06:00

My second day with the ice cream maker. I was actually looking for a recipe for a yogurt flavoured ice cream, sort of like the ones you would find in Japan or Asia, not frozen yogurt. But then these three little words (well, not so little when you love it like I do, they pop out like giant bold letters) dulce de leche popped up on my search results, I HAVE to see it (it's not like I was having any luck either with my original search). I like the fact that it’s got cream AND yogurt, so it shouldn’t be too tangy or sad. Ran out to Stupidstore and bought 2 jars of dulce de leche. I didn’t even know Stupidstore carried it until I Google’d it. It certainly saved me a lot of time and sanity, because if you’ve read my Not Nougat entry, you’d know not to ask me to caramelize sugar or anything of the like again.

I had to refrain myself from eating the whole jar with a spoon.

The stupidest thing of making ice cream is that the stupid bowl needs to be chilled in the freezer for 15 hours! 15!! So, if I only remember to pop it into the freezer before bed, that means it’ll only be ready by 3pm, and when all is said and done, the ice cream would be set by maybe 9pm. A little late for dessert in my opinion.

Dulce de Leche Frozen Yogurt

From JoyofBaking.com

Note: It’s preferred that you weigh everything out instead of volume.

1 cup (240 g) dulce de leche

1 1/2 cups (360 g) plain whole milk yogurt (I used “Balkan” style yogurt with 6% fat)

3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy cream or heavy "whipping" cream (has 36 - 40% fat content)

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

1/2 teaspoon (7 ml) pure vanilla extract

1/8 (1 g) teaspoon salt

1. Measure everything out and add to a large bowl.

Hehehehehehe...it looks like "something" *giggles*

Add cream and milk

2. Whisk together all the ingredients.

I think this will also give a fluffier texture to the cream since you are aerating it.

3. Make the ice cream according to the instructions of the manufacture of your machine.

With a Kitchen Aid machine, always start the motor on “stir” and pour the ice cream batter in while it is running to avoid ice cream being frozen to the walls of the bowl.

Initial consistency

After 5 minutes

After 10 minutes

After 15 minutes

After 23 minutes - finished

Lick the dasher! No wasting allowed!!

Finished product

4. Scoop out ice cream and place into a plastic container.

I rinsed out the yogurt container and put the ice cream back in it.

5. Allow to freeze for about 4 hours before serving.

Yield: 1 quart

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I need to reduce the amount of yogurt in this recipe if I am going to continue to use Balkan yogurt (or maybe just yogurt in general). As it turns out, the tartness of the yogurt is over powering the dulce de leche. It's still awesome, but the awesomeness of the leche needed to be brought out with dollops of more leche from the jar.

Served with crunchy caramel candy bits

Mixed Berries Marshmallows

2011-04-01T15:30:00.000-06:00

I've always wanted to try my hand at marshmallows. The recipe book I have calls for "inverted sugar", I didn't want to bother with "inverting" sugar with lemon juice and carefully cooking it somehow, so I'd been putting it off. Then I looked through Ms. Humble's collection of marshmallow recipes and saw that she didn't use inverted sugar, this seems a lot easier! With 2 days plus a weekend off, Meow set out to collect ingredients and started cooking.

A word of caution though, this is sticky, messy business! But oh-so-delicious!

Can also double as glue when in a pinch!

Mixed Berries Marshmallows
adapted from Not So Humble Pie

300g fresh or frozen berries
Meow Mix: blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries
500g granulated sugar
20g powdered gelatin
60g egg whites
1/2 cup of rice flour
1/2 cup of icing sugar
1 cup of water

Grease a 13" x 9" pan with a flavourless oil. Lay a sheet of parchment on it too for easy lifting of the marshmallows when ready.
Defrost and cook the berries in a small pot over low heat.
Mash the berries while cooking with a potato masher or a fork.
Once soft and mostly liquefied, press the berry mash through a fine mesh strainer and into a LARGE BOWL to remove seeds.

5. Set aside and let cool.
6. In a small pot, cook the sugar with a cup of water to 255F.

7. While waiting on the syrup, sprinkle the gelatin onto the berry juice and whisk until well blended.

8. When the syrup is getting close to temperature (say at 200F), start whipping your egg whites until foamy or even soft peaks.

9. When syrup has reached 255F, pour it into the berry-gelatin mixture while whisking. This will foam up to about twice the volume, hence the LARGE BOWL.

10. Whisk to mix well, then transfer to mixer with the egg whites in it. This is the messiest part I think as the mixture is sticky from the syrup and gooey from the gelatin.

11. Beat on medium high until cooled and tripled in volume.

12. Pour the sticky, messy goo into your prepared pan. Smooth with a wet spatula.

13. Cover the pan (you don't want shit to float and land on your marshmallows). Let it set and cure for a few hours before cutting.
14. Toss the rice flour and icing sugar together in a bowl and mix well.

   15. Dust the counter top (or a pastry mat) with icing sugar mix.
   16. Use a sharp knife and cut around the edges of the pan to release the marshmallows.
   17. Place the slab of marshmallows onto the dusted counter.

   18. Cut into desired shape and size.
   19. Toss each piece of marshmallows in a bowl of icing sugar mix.
   20. Keep in air tight jar for a couple of weeks.

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I like the fact that it uses rice flour/icing sugar mix to coat, it reduces the overall sweetness of an already sweet treat. These marshmallows are full of flavour, smooth, and springy. When I fed one to Mr. Meow all he said was, with a satisfied look on his face, "good job".

Mixed Berries Ice Cream

2011-03-25T15:30:00.000-06:00

This was just a craving for all things berry. It was also my first discovery on how to use my ice cream maker.

Before freezing. Soft-serve stage.

After some research, this style of ice cream - where no custard is involved, is considered as "Philadelphia Style" ice cream. I actually like the simple, no hassle method it employs. As you may know, Meow has no patience whatsoever, so cooking custard is a bitch. This recipe seems perfectly brilliant to my non-patience.

Mixed Berries Ice Cream
adapted from this particular recipe from Group Recipes.

16oz of berries (I used frozen berries from Stupidstore)
Meow Mix: blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry
4oz of castor sugar
10oz of whipping cream (I used 33% fat)
juice of 1 lemon

Puree the berries in a food processor
Strain the seeds out with a mesh strainer.
Stir in sugar, cream and lemon juice.
Pour into your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions to make.
Freeze overnight and serve.

Start!

5 minutes later

10 minutes later

15 minutes later

20 minutes later

25 minutes later

Finished!

Makes about 1 quart

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I didn't strain out the seeds which I now regret. I did debate about it when making the ice cream batter and this was the rationale that was happening in my head:

"Maybe you should strain out the seeds, it's gonna suck to chew through them."

"But I like the texture with the seeds in it! Makes it 'berry like'"

"Yeah, but do you want THAT much seeds in your ice cream?"

"Meh, it won't be THAT much. I can deal with it. Besides, it'll be too much work to strain."

"Your funeral."

Moral of the story: ALWAYS, listen to your the little voice in your head.

If you do want some seeds in it, you can scoop a bit of the solids that's left behind in the strainer and put in back into the ice cream batter.

This ice cream, after freezing, doesn't stick and curl in the ice cream scoop that well. It's a bit crumbly. Tastes great though, not too sweet.

Christmas Macarons

2011-03-18T15:30:00.000-06:00

I absolutely find Christmas colored treats nasty. Probably because of the intensity of the colors to the point where it just seems unnatural. Kind of like drinking that blue slushie.

So, how else can I bring the holiday flavours without the artificial nastiness? Well, around that time, Meow's FIL brought back from France two macrons books...

Yes, you may hate me now for owning this

LEGEND...wait for it...ARY book.

Unfortunately, Monsieur Herme didn't have anything inspiring, or rather, easy to make in a home kitchen. However, there was a recipe in the Macarons et Gourmandises book that seemed intriguing, and it involved this:

You've guessed right if you said "spiced wine"! Though the recipe in the book lets you make a spiced wine jelly. Well, jelly is kinda slippery and can't exactly be transported, so I figured if I can make it into a buttercream. Meow's logic goes that if you can put fruit puree and other goopy stuff into a buttercream to flavour it, then this could work. So, Mr. Meow got to decipher the French because he was about to clobber me over the head for reading it in an awful accent.

Macarons de Vin Epicee (Spiced Wine Macarons)

translated from Macarons Gourmands by BonApp

Spiced Wine Jelly

50mL of red wine

1 stick of cinnamon

2 cloves

4 cardamom seeds (black)

200g of sugar

Some agar-agar (vegetarian substitute for gelatin)

Heat up the wine and set it on fire (WEEEEEE!!!). Once all the alcohol is gone the flames will die, you may want to set it on fire, ahem, flambe it, a second time just to be sure.
Add the spices and sugar and let simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes.
Strain out the spices and add 0.4g of agar for every 100g of wine left.
Let cool and set.

Now you can make your buttercream and add some of this spiced wine jelly to taste.

I also melted some chocolate and drizzled onto the shells to decorate.

Purdy and tasty.

On my new Macrons Tree

Gift packs for various teachers at school.

Available in gift boxes of 12's ;)

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These were just TO DIE FOR!! I will sure be making them again.

Meow's Two Bite Fancy Brownies

2011-03-11T16:40:00.001-07:00

It was godsister's house warming party and I was responsible for dessert. By this time I was working pretty much everyday and didn't have much time to bake and stuff (hence the lack of posts), so what can I whipped up in an evening? BROWNIES!!

I followed the recipe on the side of a can of Fry's Cocoa. I find that their recipe is by far the best.

Topped with some chocolate frosting...oh yeah!

I would like to think that my piping skills have improved :P

An egg tray works surprisingly well as a mini cupcake carrier.

The trays were a bit deep and hard to get the brownies out

without wrecking the pipe job, so I stuck fancy toothpicks

to help get it out.

-----------------

Red Velvet: Cake Edition

2011-03-04T16:30:00.002-07:00

Well, the cupcakes were good so it's time to try it as a big cake. This time, I played with buttercream as a topping and covered the sides with granola. I never liked nuts so in order to get a similar crunchy texture, I though granola was a good alternative, and it was!

Cake base was the same as the cupcake recipe.

Buttercream was an Italian buttercream as per usual.

2 egg whites
35g of sugar
30mL of water
15g of castor sugar
120g of softened unsalted butter (about 3/4 cups)
1/4tsp of salt

1. Boil the 35g of sugar with 30mL of water to about 240F.

2. Meanwhile, add the salt to the egg whites and whip to frothy.

3. Stream in the 15g of castor sugar.

5. Whip egg whites to hard glossy peaks.

6. When sugar syrup reaches 240F, remove from heat immediately and stream into egg whites. Avoid whipping blades.

7. Whip until you get a bird's peak on the whisks. Now you have meringue.

8. Soften the butter and add it a spoonful at a time to the meringue. When it has been completely absorbed, add the next spoonful. At some point, it will look like it's a curdled mess, keep whipping and adding butter, it will sort itself out.

9. Add the flavourings to taste.

10. Fill a piping bag with fancy tip and pipe designs onto the cake.

Mr. Meow really liked this one.

Rose Jam Cake

2011-02-25T15:41:00.019-07:00

Meow MIL gave me a jar of rose jam which is just heavenly and to-die-for. So, for Meow Father's birthday, I decided to try it out in cake form. Seeing as Pierre Hermes has a macaron called "Ispahan" - which is roses, lychees and raspberries I think, I thought it should go nicely with canned lychees (canned before it's not lychee season), I didn't use raspberries because I hate working with raspberries...the seeds!!

Well, the lychees were tricky because they were so full of liquids after I pureed it that I had to boil it down, and they were still slippery! Couldn't figure out how to make it better so I just sucked it up.

Icing roses and leaves courtesy of J. Wilton.

I didn't make them, I was lazy and unskilled.

For the cake base, use any fluffy white/yellow cake base you like. I still have yet to find one I like.

The topping was white chocolate mousse, which I followed this recipe at No Special Effects.

It essentially requires you to make a Creme Anglais as a base and whipping cream as the counter part. Gelatin is also added the the mousse (in the creme anglais) to prevent the mousse from "breathing" which causes water to pool and seep out of the mousse.

You'll probably need to cut the creme anglais recipe in half for a cake like this (if you're justing using it as a covering).

Fillings

1 can of lychee
1 jar of rose jam (commercial is fine since I don't know how to make jam)
1/2 tsp gelatin
1 tbsp of water

1. Drain the lychee of its syrup as much as possible

2. Pulse the lychee in a food processor to puree

3. Strain the pureed lychee into a pot

4. Gently simmer the pureer until most the liquids have evaporated

5. Add 1/2 teaspoon of gelatin dissolved in 15g of water if you wish to bring its consistency to a jelly.

6. Set aside and let cool

7. Once cooled, you may layer on the rose jam in between the cake layers alternating with the lychee.

Creme Anglaise Base

120g (1/2 cup) whole milk

2 large egg yolks

15g (1-1/2 tablespoons) sugar

25g (1-1/2 tablespoons) light corn syrup

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk to a boil.

2. In a separate small bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and corn syrup.

3. Slowly pour the milk into the yolks in a thin stream while whisking madly.

4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and reduce the heat to low.

5. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and leave a trail when you run your finger through it (it will take a little more than a minute).

6. Remove from heat and strain into a bowl.

Note: You will need the creme anglaise to be hot enough to melt the chocolate in the next step, so work quickly.

Chocolate Mousse

110g white chocolate, chopped (I usually use Bernard Callebaut or Valrhona Ivoire)
250g (1 cup) heavy cream, chilled
1 teaspoon powdered unflavored gelatin
30g (2 tablespoon) cold water

1. Prepare a small cup. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let stand for 2 minutes.
Do not heat as heat will destroy the gelatin structures.

2. Dump 1/2 cup (120g) of the hot creme anglaise over the white chocolate and give each a gentle stir to melt the chocolate.

3. Stir in the dissolved gelatin into the chocolate sauce and stir until well-combined. Set aside.

4. In a well-chilled bowl and using well-chilled beaters, whip the cream until it holds medium peaks, about 5 minutes. When not using the whipped cream, keep it in the fridge.

5. Line the sides of a cake ring with acetate and place on a piece of plastic wrap large enough to cover the bottom of the ring on a rimless baking sheet or removable bottom of a tart pan. If using a cake pan, spray with vegetable cooking spray and line with a large piece of plastic wrap, pressing it against the sides.

6. Take the whipped cream and fold it into the white chocolate sauce until well-combined.

7. Pour it into the center of the cake and give it a gentle bang to level the mousse.

8. Place in the fridge overnight

Read more: http://manggy.blogspot.com/2008/11/trio-of-chocolate-mousse-cake.html#ixzz1ERsD96iq

Meow father liked the cake while Meow mother...you guessed it, thinks it's too sweet.

Red Velvet: Cupcakes Edition

2011-02-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

Back in September of 2010, it was my godbrother's birthday, so in the 2 hours that was before the dinner, I decided to whip up some cupcakes for him. I've been eying the red velvet recipe, so I decided to give it a whirl. And this is my result:

Red Velvet cakes existed before the advent of food coloring. Someone discovered that by mixing vinegar and cocoa powder together, it makes red! Today, red food coloring is added to enhance the redness, otherwise, it will be a deep reddish-brown color.

The recipe is from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. Let's get down to business.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

From Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

2 ½ cups cake flour

2 tbsp unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used Fry's)

1 tsp salt

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ cups vegetable oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

½ tsp red gel-paste food color

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

2 tsp distilled white vinegar

Makes 24

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.

2. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt

3. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

5. Mix in food color and vanilla

6. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each.

7. Stir together baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed for 10 seconds.

8. Divide batter evenly among lined cup, filling each ¾ full

9. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean.

10. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

11. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen up to 2 month, in airtight containers

Topped with vanilla frosting and sprinkles

Again, as per usual, Meow Mother complained about it being sweet. Which is a total lie.

I found these gorgeous cupcake wraps at Michael's so I was really

impatient about putting them to use.

Moe Strawberry Milk

2010-05-30T12:18:00.001-06:00

Moe, もえ（萌） pron. MO-EH

Sakuma Drops: Akihabara Limited Edition - Moe Drops

I find the drops itself are a bit too sweet for me, but at least I have a cute tin ^_^

Photo courtesy of J-List/JBox

From Petsugar:

"Moe-Chan is an adorable maid who now adorns what are the greatest contribution to the marshmallow world since the toasted marshmallow milkshake! Next are contributions to the strawberry milk world such as a giant stick of gum the size of my purse as well as drops and chocolates. Evidently the strawberry milk aroma alone will make you want to rub these items all over your naked body."

-Meow: "If I have all the strawberries and cream I want, I'd take a bath in it too!"

This stuff smells awesome, tastes awesome and I discovered it by accident. In my quest for healthier snacks, I bought a bunch of fruits the other day, strawberry being one of them. Now, I absolutely hate sour fruits so I usually have my strawberries with sugar. I've had strawberries and whipped cream before or even just drizzled with cream, but never the strawberries-sugar-cream combo. This morning, seeing how there's half-and-half (10%) cream in the fridge, I decided to make myself the breakfast of Moe champions. It's kinda like strawberry cereal now that I think about it, but it didn't cost me $6 a box.

I wolfed down the first bowl, and as I was drinking the remaining cream and licking the bowl clean, a glance to the side of my desk where a tin of Moe Sakuma Drops sit , it occurred to me: I CAN MAKE MOE CREAM!!

Ran downstairs, cut up more strawberries and giggled in world domination-esque laughter.

Moe Strawberry Milk

Fresh strawberries

Sugar

Half-and-half (10%) cream

The cutest creamer I have ever bought!

1. Quarter the strawberries, take as much as you will eat.

2. Drizzle sugar over the strawberries to taste and toss with the berries.

Too much sugar will make the cream really sweet, so be careful.

3. Pour cream over the strawberries until they've been barely covered, and toss with the berries.

4. Cover and allow to sit in fridge for a few hours.

5. The milk to have a pinkish tinge to it after it has soaked for a while.

----------------------

Other fruits you can consider adding to the mix:

Though I highly recommend that you add it when you`re gonna eat the strawberries, not to soak it in the milk too as it can end up tasting funny (maybe except the banana).

I think I'm addicted...

At least this way, I'm more inclined to eat fruits and I get my dose of calcium too.

Boeuf Bourguignon - A Photo Essay-ish

2010-05-26T09:00:00.003-06:00

This is a post about........REAL FOOD!!! Yes, real food does happen in Meow's kitchen. Usually, what gets cooked in my kitchen is nothing to write home about, but I think this is neat and plus the fact that Mr. Meow made it (and it does not involve pastries...ehm, Portuguese tarts, ehm, so it's guaranteed to be edible) so my hands are free to take pictures.

Boeuf Bourguignon (berf boor-gweeg-nyon) or Beef Bourguignon or beef stew in red wine. Similar to Coq au Vin (cock-o-veng) but done with beef. Mr. Meow is gonna kill me with the pronunciation guide. I can so hear him say "That's not really how you say it!" Whatever, close enough for the internets.

Probably ever since watching Juila & Julia movie where the girl was making beef bourguignon in her oven nearly causing a fire has piqued the interest of Mr. Meow to obtain a cast iron pot and making it, since it IS the French dish to do. We bought a cast iron pot (sorry, it's not a Le Crueset or Staub. Not shelling out $300 for one) from our local Stupidstore. We can certainly say that it's a huge WIN because it's was on sale for 20% off plus no taxes that weekend AND it's made in France. Later, we started to recognize some signs or resemblance of the Stupidstore pot to a Staubb pot. Mainly, it's the condensation dots under the lid and the French ribbon that was tied to the lid.

The Stupidstore cast iron pot

A Staub pot. Note the similar condensation dots under the lid.

Note the style of the ribbon on an authentic Staubb

Note the similarities of Caboose's ribbon and the Staub ribbon.

The ribbon from the Stupidstore pot ended up on my cat, Caboose.

He thinks he's un chat Français now.

Caboose: "Je suis un chat Français-z. J'aime toût des poissons. Je veux beaucoup beaucoup de thôn"

So, we think it's made by Staub and that's the pot we used. Since this is a French dish, Meow will leave all the work to the Frenchman, Mr. Meow. We have a whole charade of ingredients for this.

Boeuf Bourguignon

(Beef Stewed in Red Wine with Vegetables)

adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

For 4-6 people

6 oz hunk o'bacon with rind

3 lbs stewing beef preferably rump pot roast cut, cut into 2" cubes

2 carrots

1 large onion

1 lb mushrooms

2 tbsp flour

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, mashed

1/2 tsp thyme

1 bay leaf, crumpled

3 cups full-bodied, young red wine

2-3 cups of beef stock

Olive oil

Pre-game: Preheat oven to 450F

1. Remove the bacon rind, and cut the bacon into 1/4"x1 1/2". Simmer rind and bacon in water for 10 minutes.

2. Drain and dry bacon

3. Prep your vegetables. Slice carrots and onions, quarter the mushrooms.

For intense mushroom flavour, leave mushrooms out at room temperature for about a day.

4. Saute the bacon in the oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes to brown slightly.

5. Remove from pot and set aside in a dish for later.

6. Cut beef into 2" cubes. Pat and dry the beef.

It won't brown if it's damp and will spit and splatter all over you

7. Reheat pot with the bacon fat to almost smoking and saute the beef until brown.

8. Remove from pot and set aside with the bacon.

9. Brown your veggies in the same fat.

10. Return the beef and bacon to the pot and toss with salt and pepper.

"Is that enough pepper?"

"I can still SEE the beef!"

11. Sprinkle in the flour to thicken the mixture. Toss to coat evenly.

12. Set pot in oven at 450F for 4 minutes. Take out, toss the mixture, return to oven for another 4 minutes.

This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.

13. Remove pot and turn oven down to 325F.

14. Stir in the wine, and enough stock to barely cover the ingredients.

15. Add tomato paste, garlic, herbs, and bacon rind.

16. Bring to simmer on the stove.

17. Cover the pot and set in lower third of your 325F oven.

18. Adjust the heat as necessary so that the liquids simmer very slowly for 2.5 to 3 hours in the oven.

19. When meat is tender (can fork it easily), it is done.

20. Add the braised shallots to the pot

21. You may wish to skim off about 2 1/2 cups of sauce and simmer to thicken perhaps with the addition of flours, to be served over the meat.

Oignons Glacés À Brun

(Shallots Brown Braised in Stock)

from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

18-24 shallots

1 1/2 tbsp butter

1 1/2 tbsp oil

1/2 red wine, white wine, beef stock, or water

salt & pepper

4 parsley sprigs

1/2 bay leaf

1/4 tsp thyme

1. Heat butter and oil in a skillet

2. Peel the shallots (DO NOT CUT), add to the skillet to brown. About 10 minutes

Becareful not to break the shallots skin. You want to retain their bulbous shape in the end.

Thiiiiiiiiiis much shallots

3. Pour in the liquids.

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Put herbs into a cheesecloth (or a teaball) and add to the skillet.

6. Cover and simmer slowly for 40-50 minutes until shallots are tender but not decimated and liquids have evaporated.

7. Remove herb teaball and stir shallots into the boeuf bourguignon.

Before shallots addtion

--------------------------

This stew is typically served with bread. You can serve with boiled potatoes, rice and other starches too. Since a French meal is not complete without French bread, Mr. Meow also made baguettes. I have no idea how baguettes are made - you know me and doughs, I think they're magical. And the fact that he got up at 6:30am to start making it. But one interesting thing is that you can hear the crust crackling when they come out of the oven.

It sounds like a few packs of pop rocks cracking away.

Mr. Meow raving about is creation: "Good stew, good bread, good company. This was a success." I can't argue, but I find it funny that one would brag about their accomplishments in this manner.

Lemon Meringue Cake

2010-05-23T13:21:00.001-06:00

Reasons there was cake:

1) Mr. Meow, in his brilliant head, decided to make Portuguese Tarts. Left me with 6 egg whites.
2) Meow did not feel like making 120 macarons for no reason.
3) Meow *lurves* the lemon meringue cake from her local Duchess Bake Shop, but $7 for a 4" cake is sometimes steep (Mr. Meow "It's always steep").

I won't go into how epic of a fail Mr. Meow's tarts were (let's just say the tarts were deep frying in its own butter in the oven along with the yolk mix). But the cake turned out pretty good, short of me not realizing that I didn't melt the basting syrup fully so there was a hint of sugar crunch in every bite. I also had much fun with my little blow torch. *teehehehehehehehee*

The cake layer was much improved with sifting of flour while adding in. I think the real difference was when I was whipping the eggs and I actually whipped it for the recommended time instead of shutting it off early like my impatient self tells me to. The eggs actually did fluff up like double if whipped long enough, making the cake fluffy.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. It actually escaped my mind while my OCD took over.

Lemon Meringue Cake

Cake base

6 large eggs (about 1 1/3 cups)
1 1/3 cup of sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

1. Heat oven to 350F

2. Line two 9" round cake pans with parchment paper
   I didn't do the two pan thing, and I ended up over baking the sides because the middle wouldn't cook.

3. Combine eggs and sugar. Beat on high speed until light, fluffed and lemon colored. It takes about 5 minutes.

4. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans.

5. Bake until the cake springs back when touched in the center or when skewer comes out clean. About 20 to 30 minutes

6. Take cake out of pans and cool

7. Split each cake into two layers using a serrated knife. You should have 4 layers.
   This is where having one of those "bake even" strips that wraps around the pan would be nice. You won't have a cake dome to deal with.

Lemon Curd
from Not So Humble Pie

1/2 cup egg yolks
1 1/4 cup of sugar
6 tsp butter, melted and cooled.
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
zest of one large lemon

1. In a medium sauce pan, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and butter

2. Add in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and cornstarch, whisk together

3. Cook this mixture over low to medium heat like you would with a creme anglaise

4. Stir constantly and be patient. Do not allow the mixture to boil and curdle

5. When you run a finger along the back of a spatula covered with the mixture and it leaves a streak and the streak stays there, it is done. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Lemon syrup

1 cup lemon juice
2 cups sugar

1. Stir together, heat to melt all the sugar

2. Allow to cool

Meringue

6 large egg whites
1/2 cup of castor sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla

1. Whisk the egg whites to frothy

2. Slowly stream in the sugar while whisking on high speed

3. Add vanilla and continue whisking until stiff peaks not dry

Assembly

1. Start from the bottom. Take a bottom cake layer and generously baste it with lemon syrup.

2. Ladle some lemon curd and spread evenly with an offset cake spatula.

3. Continue until all cake layers are used.

4. Add some meringue onto the top of the cake and spread with an offset cake spatula.
   I find it easier to do the sides from bringing down the overflow from the cake top and then patching the gaps with extra meringue.

5. Use up all the merginue

6. Take a blow torch and brown the meringue

---------------

This was still too sweet for Meow Mother. Everything is too sweet for that woman. I give up on her. But as for Mr. Meow, he finds it has too much filling but I think it's because he ate 1/8 of the cake on the first go. I think it was fine, the syrup made the cake layers quite moist which I like.

Laziness Has Sunk In

2010-05-20T09:48:00.000-06:00

Getting sick and topping it with allergies has sucked all the energy out of me. That and the fact that it's May and subbing at schools has proven to be difficult. "Can we go outside today?" The answer is always no. I don't want mosquito bites thank you. And the kids are in general full-moon mayhem mode by now as there's only a month of school left.

That being said, sleeping at every chance possible trying to recoup has brought on the laziness bug. Not lazy enough to not bake, but lazy enough to not blog. "How does that work?" you ask, well, my OCD needs stroking from time to time, that's why. So, this time, instead of having food in the fridge waiting to be forgotten, I have pictures of my baking waiting to be shown.

Coming soon. Lemon Meringue Cake.

Apple Pies and Butter Tarts and Oh My!

2010-04-19T21:55:00.001-06:00

I had apples in the fridge that would go bad if I procrastinate on eating them any longer, so apple pie it is. I'm not a fan of pies per se, but how else am I gonna make myself eat my fruits and veggies? Add sugar, and Meow will om nom nom.

Mr. Meow refuses to let me buy pre-made pie shells, tells me to make them myself since we have a chunk of lard at home. Bloody hell. I've always been intimidated by doughs - bread doughs, tart/pie doughs, puff pastry doughs...not sure why, I think doughs require some sort of magic to make it work I guess. But since there is no Tenderflake to help me, but a chunk of lard staring longingly at me, I will satisfy the lard.

Stupidest question I've ever asked Mr. Meow: "Do you want a lard pie shell or a butter pie shell?"
Mr. Meow being all things buttery good: "Butter shell!"
Mr. Meow not realizing that I'm just asking to obtain approval: "But then I'd have to defrost the butter! We're using lard!"
Mr. Meow pointing out my stupidity: "Then why did you give me a choice?"
Meow teaching Mr. Meow something about women: "Sometimes you just need to look around and then figure out all you have to do is tell me what I wanna hear."
I got a pat on the head. *sigh*

Preamble

Fruit pies usually require a thickening agent to hold the filling together. Flour will give a cloudy filling, while cornstarch and tapioca flour will give a clear one. If using flour to thicken, it is usually double of the amount of cornstarch or tapioca flour.

Chilling the pie before baking is crucial because the fats in the shell will become solid and not cook as fast as the flour giving the flour a head start. Warm fats will make the pie a fail and not the flaky shell that you're hoping for. Though chilling the pie too long will allow the fruit juices and sugars to pool at the bottom soaking your pie crust, which is also a fail.

Chilling the pie before eating is a good thing too because it will allow the fruit to reabsorb some of the sugars in the filling.

from Sur la Table: Art and Soul of Baking

On to pie making.

None of my recipe books have a recipe that uses lard and lard isn't one of those things that you can use instead of butter. So, I followed the recipe on the box of NoName Lard.

Basic Pie/Tart Shell

227 g of lard, chilled
343 g of all purpose flour
1 tsp of salt
1 egg
2 tsp of white vinegar
water

1. Cut chilled lard into 1 inch cubes.

2. Sift together flour and salt in a mixer bowl

3. Turn the mixer equipped with a flat-beater on the lowest setting and start dropping in the lard a chunk at a time.
You don't want to turn it high early on because you don't want flour dust on your face. If you have a pouring shield for your mixer, it would be a good idea to use it.

4. Beat the mixture until it is crumbly.

5. Beat the egg in a 1-cup measuring cup

6. Add the vinegar once the egg is beaten and then beat some more.

7. Add enough water to the vinegar-egg to make 1 cup of mixture.

8. Drizzle in a tablespoon at a time of the vinegar-egg mix to the crumbly dough until the dough is moist enough. To check, take a small bit of dough and press between fingers, if it holds together, then it's done.
You may not need to use all the vinegar-egg mixture but keep the remainder on hand for repairing and kneading later.

9. Divide the dough into 1/3 and 2/3 and wrap with plastic wrap and spank it to flatten.

10. Chill the dough for about 15 minutes before using.
If the dough cracks when using, let it warm up a bit. If it still cracks, roll it into a ball, dig a hole in the middle, drizzle in a tiny bit of vinegar-egg mixture into the hole and re-knead the dough to moisten it.

Makes 1 double crust pie shell (9") with some leftovers.

Apple Pie
Adapted from Sur la Table: Art and Soul of Baking

2 1/2 lbs of apples of your choice
2 1/4 cups of brown sugar + some for sprinkling
1/8 tsp of all spice
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 cup of corn starch (or 1/2 cup of all purpose flour if you don't have cornstarch)

1. Peel and slice the apples to about 1/4" thick x 1" wide

2. Taste the apples, you may want to adjust the amount of sugar depending on its tartness

3. Toss the apples with the sugar and the spices in a large bowl

4. Add the cornstarch and toss some more

For 9" pie

Assembly

1. Dust your counter (or pastry mat if you're fancy) with flour

2. Take both doughs out of the fridge

3. Roll the 2/3 sized chunk of dough into a circle, about 1/4" thick.
Put your pie pan over top and if the dough extends 2 inches beyond the pan, you're good to go...unless your dough is still quite thick.

4. With the a long spatula, slide it under the sheet of dough to release it from the counter.
This is to make sure no parts is stuck to the counter and hence rip your dough.

5. Using the long spatula, gently fold the dough in half, then half again forming a quarter of a circle.

6. Gently lift that quarter circle of folded dough and place the point at the center of the pie pan.

7. Gently unfold the dough and if it is not where you want it to be, shake and tilt the pan so it will move, do not pull the dough to shift it.

8. Smooth out any cracks at the bottom and sides by patting the dough.

9. Trim the pie shell so that you have 1/2"-1"overhang.

10. Pour the filling into the pan.

11. Roll out the other chunk of dough to about a 9"x9" square.

12. Using a pizza cutter, cut 1" wide strips and lay the strips on top of the pie to make a lattice.
To make a lattice, start from the top, lay 1 strip across, then start from the left, lay 1 strip down, then 1 across, then 1 down, work your way to the bottom and to the right. If you're really anal about getting the perfect weave, you will have to pull back some strips as you lay new ones down.

13. Trim excess lattice strips leaving about 1/2" overhang.

14. Roll the overhanging dough towards the pie to make a ropey edge.

15. Put pie in the fridge and chill for exactly 30 minutes before baking.

16. Preheat oven to 400F

Bake

1 egg
1 tbsp whole milk

1. Beat the egg with the milk

2. Brush the egg mix on the pie

3. Bake pie on lower 1/3 rack in 400F oven for 50-60 minutes.

4. Cool before serving.

------------------------

Butter Tarts...A Canadian Thing
adapted from Now...you're cooking!

1/4 cup of packed brown sugar
1/4 cup of corn syrup
30 g of butter
1 large egg
pinch of salt
8 mL of vanilla
50 g of raisins (optional)
Tart/Pie shell

1. With the leftover pie shell dough for the apple pie, knead it into a ball again. You may need to add some vinegar-egg mix to moisten it.
Just wet your hand with the mix and knead instead of "roll ball, dig hole, drizzle mix", that would be too much.

2. In a mini muffin pan (1" wide), tear out a chunk of pie dough about the size of a pop bottle cap, place it in the pan and tamp it with the end of the rolling pin until the sides come up flush with the pan.

3. Repeat until all dough is used

4. Chill the pan of dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes

5. Mix the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and eggs with a hand mixer until smooth.

6. Add the salt and vanilla and mix some more.

7. If using raisins, drop about 2-3 raisins in each shell.

8. Ladle the syrup mixture until about 3/4 full/

9. Bake in a 400F oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the shells are golden brown.

10. Remove from pan and cool before eating.
Hot molten sugar on tongue is not pleasant. Refer to my Not Nougat sugar burns for unpleasantness.

I got 5 mini tarts from the leftover dough

------------------------------

Mr. Meow's analysis: my best pie yet! I was too full yesterday to have some of that pie, but the butter tarts, I ate...how can you go wrong with butter and sugar??

Maca-lol Supreme

2010-04-12T14:21:00.001-06:00

Easter weekend, I had my first paying order for macarons. I wasn't even offering to sell them...just yet. But a friend asked and I shall provide. I made some extra ones and this is what I did with the extras because I had a crazy idea to dip them in chocolate and then roll them in sprinkles. My friend's kids benefited.

Eeeeeaaaatttt meeeeeeeeeeeee

Maca-lol Supreme

White couverture Callebaut chocolate
Generic rainbow sprinkles

1. Chop up the white chocolate, place in a bowl and gently melt over a pot of simmering water.
Couverture chocolates are already tempered, so there is no need to overly heat/melt the chocolate. Otherwise, the chocolate will pass its stable point and you will need to temper it yourself by doing a heat/cool cycle. Pain in the butt.

2. Dip/roll/swirl the macaron into the melted chocolate.
I find it much easier to dip when it's on a stick. But using your hands is fine because you can hope that some chocolate can get on your fingers and you can lick it off later.

3. Pour sprinkles into a tiny prep bowl, before the chocolate on the macarons has solidified, roll your dipped macarons in the sprinkles. Apply a little pressure when rolling to make it stick.

4. To set, I made a stand and stabbed the macalols on it. Or you can use a mini cupcake liner to help prop it up too if you're not doing macalols. Then shove them into the fridge.

My interpretation of a Macarons Tree

My favourite ribbon: the Meow ribbon

Go figure...

------------------------
I was pleasantly surprised that these have an excellent crispy texture and are not too sweet, considering all the chocolate and candy involved. I've always complained that Callebaut chocolate tastes sweet, as it was when used as a ganache filling, but they were fabulous for dipping.

Oh yeah, the friend didn't like my macarons, she *lurved* them. :D

Busy Busy with Work

2010-04-10T17:42:00.000-06:00

Since the new roll out of the online automated work system at the school board I am working for, Mr. Meow and I had been scratching our heads to figure out how to get work without sitting in front of the computer (like I am now) like someone who doesn't have a life and watch the website populate itself with work for me to choose.

It was nice back then when I just had to make a phone call to the division substitute's office to check for work. A quick 3 minute call and talking with the nice lady on the other end would determine whether I work that day or not. Now, I have a huge 24 hour window of opportunity to determine whether I work and on which day. I can't say I don't care about my income because I do, and I care about the amount of work I get because I still have to apply for a permanent certificate, so I need the hours. So, if you were in my shoes, you'd check the board like an obsessive baker watching the macarons grow its feet. But, teachers have a life too (surprise, kids!) I don't want to be chained to the computer.

In comes this nice little software. It checks the site automatically for you and when there is something, it can send me an email or an IM. So, I have this running on my computer at home all day since my computer is on 24/7 anyways, and have it work in conjunction with my iPhone. Believe me, the iPhone has just upped its worth in my books.

Once we've got the software figured out as it wasn't too user friendly, I'm seeing every single job that comes up, so of course I can get my cherry picking.

Other subs see me with my iPhone and immediately wonder if I get notification when jobs come up. I had to tell them half the truth - that it can't, but I can check the site on the go; though I don't tell them I do get notifications but it is in conjunction with a software on the home computer. I feel guilty about it sometimes, but I tell myself: if they are absolutely serious about making the money, then they would spend more time researching on getting something to help them; and the fact that this indeed is a competitive career - the more I get out there, the more likely I would get requests and call backs which eventually would diminish my need to check the site and pick up random jobs.

The only downside is that it seems some school principals and even teachers are opposed to us checking the computer for work during teaching hours. I understand we should focus on the kids, but if jobs are gone in under 5 minutes and teachers are posting during school hours, how are we to compete with the subs who are home that day? Hell, teachers go on the computer during class too, but they will claim that they're still focused on the students. Substitute teachers should be and are expected to be just as professional as contract teachers and therefore should also be trusted to use the computer during work for work reasons when it is appropriate. This is not a personal computer use moment people!

With that said, the software is working to my advantage and I will be working nearly everyday this month. Which means less time for baking. Boo.