Whisk: a food blog: July 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

Crème Caramel

There's a buzz in the food world around Julie and Julia, the movie coming to theatres Friday, August 7. I can't wait to see it. And thanks to Leanne Cusack from CTV News at Noon, I'll get to see a sneak preview.

I met Leanne today to talk about my link to this movie as a featured blog on Sony Picture's official trailer website and to demonstrate a French recipe from the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum that I'm working through. Here is a link to my segment on CTV News at Noon.

I was also on A Morning Ottawa with Angie Poirier this morning where I demonstrated both Leek and Potato soup (which will be another post another day) and Crème Caramel.

Live TV is a bit of an adrenaline rush. All of a sudden, the lights are on, the camera is pointed towards you, a host is asking questions about you and your work, you're working through the key points of a recipe, and in no time at all the four to six minutes are up. I'm just thankful for the professionalism of all the hosts who make being on air so much easier.

You can read all about Crème Caramel from this post that I did last year.

Recipe

from a New York Times article by Julia Child called "Eat, Memory: Sacré Cordon Bleu!"

Serves 6

For the Caramel:
½ cup sugar
¼ cup water

For the Custard:
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bring a kettle of water to boil.

To make the caramel, combine the sugar and water in a stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil. When the mixture starts to color, swirl the pan to ensure an even color. When it is a deep amber, remove it from the heat and immediately pour it into the molds and swirl to coat the bottom of each mold. Let cool.

To make the crème anglaise, heat milk and vanilla extract in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring mixture to a boil. Remove immediately from the heat and let steep for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is a pale yellow color, about 2 minutes. Continue whisking and slowly drizzle in a bit of the hot milk mixture to temper, or warm, the eggs so they won't curdle. Keep whisking and slowly pour in the remaining milk mixture. Pour this mixture into the caramel-lined molds.

Set the molds in a baking dish lined with a paper towel. Fill the baking dish with boiling water so that it comes about two-thirds up the sides of the mold. Bake until the custard sets and doesn't jiggle (and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean), about 40-50 minutes. Let the custard cool in the baking dish. Remove from the pan to finish cooling. Chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours or overnight.

To unmold the custard, run a thin knife around the edge of the mold and invert on a serving platter.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Whisk Wednesdays—Mignons de Porc Arlonaise (Pork Tenderloins with Beer)

This pork tenderloin with beer dish is a crowd pleaser. But not for the cook since it involved turning the potatoes! Now if I weren't going through this Le Cordon Bleu curriculum, I wouldn't bother turning the potatoes into the perfectly seven-sided cylindrical shapes that they're supposed to be. In fact, even when I try, they don't look turned. The potatoes are boiled in salted water until tender.

After browning the meat on all sides, it's roasted in the oven for about 15 minutes. While it's roasting, I made the sauce. Sugar and vinegar are melted and caramelized (without burning as I did the first time!), and then the beer is added carefully since it sputters. This is reduced by two-thirds before stirring in the liquid gold of veal stock, which is further reduced by half.

When all the vegetables are julienned, they're sautéed in butter. Season everything and let it all mellow together in the pan before serving.

Recipe

Serves 6

Mignons de Porc Arlonaise (Pork Tenderloins with Beer) mise en place

18 small waxy potatoes (red or white)
Salt
2 pork tenderloins, 1½ pounds each, trimmed of fat
Freshly ground pepper
6 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the Sauce:
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup wine vinegar
¾ cup dark beer
1¼ cups Brown Veal Stock

¼ pound carrots, cut into julienne
¼ pound celery, cut into julienne
¼ pound leeks (white part only), cut into julienne
¼ pound mushrooms, trimmed, rinsed, dried, and cut into julienne
¼ pound turnips, cut into julienne
You can find the recipe for Mignons de Porc Arlonaise (Pork Tenderloins with Beer) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
The sauce had a hint of sweetness from the sugar and sour from the vinegar that paired well with the pork. My favorite part of the dish was the vegetables. They were crisp, tender and buttery. But the best part of this meal was how easy it was to prepare…in one hour I had a gourmet dinner on the table.

Next Class (I'm on vacation next week.)
• Profiteroles au Chocolat (Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce) pages 304-305

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,453.13 + $18.00 (pork) + $11.18 (other ingredients) = $1,482.31
($4.86 per serving)

Butter used so far: 12 pounds, 28.5 tablespoons

. . . . . . . . . .

::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.

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Monday, July 27, 2009

Caipirinha

Caipirinha (KIE-PUR-REEN-YAH), known as the national drink of Brazil, has been gaining in popularity in the cocktail world over the past number of years. Once relatively unknown outside of Brazil, the drink is becoming a hit with international crowds far from Copacabana Beach. In fact, the International Bartender Association has designated it as one of their Official Cocktails.

The original meaning of the word Caipirinha is "someone from the countryside" or what we might call a hillbilly or yokel or country bumpkin. However, the drink has gained such popularity and sophistication that the countryside association is rarely made, and today the word Caipirinha carries connotations of the drink itself without the baggage of its origin.

It is a simple drink, with few ingredients, but like the Mojito, requires a bit of time and a gentle touch when preparing it.

The alcoholic base for the cocktail is Cachaça (KA-SHA-SA) which, like rum, is made from sugarcane alcohol, derived from sugarcane that has been fermented and distilled. This spirit is said to have been developed from sugar cane over 500 years ago. It has a sharper, tarter taste than rum and is well suited to cocktails that call for sugar and lime or other fresh fruit. Cachaça can also be used to flambé desserts, marinate meat or even as a flavoring for tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

The main difference between Cachaça and rum is that rum is usually made from molasses, a by-product from refineries that boil the sugarcane juice to extract as much of the sugar crystals as possible. Cachaça, on the other hand, is made from fresh sugarcane juice that has been fermented and distilled.

A Caipirinha cocktail is served on the rocks, over ice. The sweetness of the sugar and the tartness of the lime disguise the taste of the alcohol, but don’t be deceived. This is not lemonade in the shade! Proceed with caution!

Recipe for Raspberry Caipirinha

Serves 1

1 cup raspberries
2 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
2 ounces Cachaça
Crushed ice
Muddle raspberries and sugar together, using a muddler or a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved and the juice of the raspberries is released.

Fill the glass with crushed ice. Add 2 ounces Cachaça. Garnish and serve.

Recipe for Traditional Caipirinha

Serves 1

4 Key limes or 2 regular limes
2 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
2 ounces Cachaça
Crushed ice
Wash the limes thoroughly as the skins will be incorporated into the drink. Roll the lime on the cutting board to loosen the juices. Cut the fresh lime in half and then into 4 wedges, removing the centre portion of the pith. Place the lime wedges with the granulated sugar into a glass.

Muddle ingredients together, using a muddler or a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved and the juice of the lime is released.

Fill the glass with crushed ice. Add 2 ounces Cachaça. Garnish and serve.

Variations
To vary the recipe you can try using fresh fruits instead of lime. Replace the lime with ½ to 1 cup of one of the following: strawberries, kiwi, passion fruit, watermelon, guava, grape, mango, orange, plum, pineapple, pear, peach or even figs.

If you are unable to find Cachaça, you can substitute either vodka or rum. If it's made with rum, it is called a Caipirissimo.

Tasting Notes
The Caipirinha has a smooth, refreshing taste, similar to a Mojito, but a bit sharper. Tangy and sweet, it is a refreshing summer drink and with the multitude of fresh fruit available, can be varied according to the mood of the day.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Whisk Wednesdays—Velouté Du Barry (Cream of Cauliflower Soup)

This is an easy soup to make if you don't have to take your daughter to a birthday party, pick her up from the party, go shopping for a different birthday party, take another daughter to a sleepover, make meals in-between, and watch Hoodwinked.

The soup is named after Contesse Dubarry, a favorite of Louix XV, and just so you know ... the cauliflower represents the powdered wigs of the time.

"Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education."
— Mark Twain

Vinegar
First, you soak the cauliflower in vinegar for 5 minutes (or all afternoon while you're shopping!). The vinegar helps retain the whiteness of the cauliflower.

Roux + Stock = Velouté
Next, you cook the leeks and onions in some butter until translucent. By adding the rice flour (which absorbs more moisture than regular flour), you're making a light roux. The next step is to add white stock, such as chicken stock. Now, the mixture is called a velouté. Stir in all but 1 cup of the cauliflower florets and cook for about half-an-hour.

Here's a video showing how to make a velouté sauce.

After puréeing the soup, strain it through a fine-meshed strainer so that you get a velvety, smooth soup. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer for a bit on low.

Liaison
The last step is to make the liaison, which is a mixture of cream and egg yolks that thickens the soup and adds a richness of flavor. This is the trickiest part of the recipe since the eggs can curdle. Slowly whisking some hot stock into the cream and egg mixture is key. After "tempering" the cream and egg mixture by bringing it up to a similar temperature as the stock, combine the rest of the stock and liaison in the pot. Then, stir and watch it carefully on the heat so that it thickens a bit more without letting it boil.

Garnish
Cook the remaining cauliflower florets by boiling in salted water or steaming in the microwave. These will be part of the garnish, along with some toasted, homemade croutons.

Recipe

Serves 6

Velouté Du Barry (Cream of Cauliflower Soup) mise en place

1 small cauliflower
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large leek (white part only), chopped fine
1 large onion, chopped fine
¼ cup rice flour
6 cups Chicken Stock or water
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 slices firm white bread, crusts removed
1 egg yolk
1 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
Chervil or parsley leaves for garnish
You can find the recipe for Velouté Du Barry (Cream of Cauliflower Soup) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
The soup was smooth, rich, flavorful, slightly salty and perfect with a crunch from a crouton.

Next Class
• Mignons de Porc Arlonaise (Pork Tenderloins with Beer) pages 367-368

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,445.42 + $7.71 = $1,453.13
($1.29 per serving)

Butter used so far: 12 pounds, 22.5 tablespoons

87% complete

. . . . . . . . . .

::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.

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Sunday, July 19, 2009

Bubble Tea

What’s sweet, fruity, bubbly, and destined to rival your neighborhood double-tall-non-fat-no-whip-cream-mocha? Bubble Tea (also called boba tea, tapioca tea, boba nai cha, pearl tea, milk tea, bubble drink, zhen zhu nai cha, tapioca pearl drink, momi, momi milk tea, QQ or any combination of the above)! It’s a tea-infused milky or fruit-flavored cold drink that’s a drink you can eat.

History
Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s where legend has it that a local tea establishment attracted customers by combining fruit juices with chilled tea. According to Bubble Tea Supply, a Hawaiian company, elementary school children would look forward to buying a cup of refreshing tea after a long, hard day of work and play. Tea stands were set up in front of the schools and would compete for business with the best selling tea. Today, Bubble Tea is spreading quickly from Taiwan to other parts of Asia and to North America.

Tiny Bubbles
The bubble in Bubble Tea refers to two things. First, small bubbles are created since the drink is shaken in the ever-trendy martini shaker before serving. In addition, bubbles in the form of tapioca balls can be added to the drink. These chewy tapioca balls (or pearls or Boba) are derived from the starch of the cassava root, and they taste like a grown-up gummy bear. They are about the size of a marble and are high in fiber and full of minerals. They are generally translucent brown with a darker brown center, although you can get rainbow, green, and coffee pearls to spice up your tea. As you sip your drink, these bubbles travel up the wide straw. The texture, taste, and chewy sensation makes you want more!

There are a myriad of choices when you order a Bubble Tea. Do you want green or black tea? What flavor of Bubble Tea do you want? Some places offer up to 27 different choices. Do you want tapioca balls, and if so, do you want green, rainbow, or the regular black pearls? How about extra pearls? Do you want a slush, a sherbet, or an ice cream float version? Do you want to add small cubes of jelly, such as coconut or lychee jelly, for a different combination? You can even have it hot or cold. From university campuses to neighborhood cafés and upscale restaurants, bubble beverages have become the trendiest drinks on the menu.

Making Bubble Tea at Home
Once you're addicted, you may not want to venture out every time a craving hits. With a little preparation, you can make it in the comfort of your home. You will need tea, sugar syrup or honey, tapioca balls, flavoring (either in powder or syrup form) and creamer for the milky teas.

Tea
For the tea part of the experience, you can use green, oolong, or black tea, such as Darjeeling, Ceylon, or Orange Pekoe. (Black tea is commonly known in some Asian cultures as red tea.) Tea adds a depth, complexity, and smoothness to the Bubble Tea. Also, recent studies have credited tea for doing everything from preventing cancer to promoting a healthy heart and curbing arthritis. As well, green tea contains high amounts of powerful antioxidants called catechin polyphenols. All this healthiness offsets the calories, in my opinion!

Sugar Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups water

Pour ingredients in a large pot. Cook (without stirring) at medium to high heat until the mixture boils. Remove from heat. Cool and store refrigerated.

Tapioca Balls
You can buy the tapioca balls in several of the grocery stores in your local Chinatown. These stores also sell some of the more popular powdered flavoring (such as strawberry, mango, and lychee). You can also order the tapioca balls and flavorings from a Canadian online Bubble Tea website. As well, they sell the wide straws and cups if you need them.

7 cups water
1 cup tapioca balls

Bring water to boil. Once the water is boiling, pour in tapioca balls. Boil for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for another 30 minutes. Strain and rinse with water. Store in a container with 2 tablespoons of sugar syrup for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Now that you have the "mise en place" done for your Bubble Tea experience, you can put it together.

Recipe for Bubble Tea

Serves 1

¼ cup of flavored syrup or 1 package of powder (about ¼ cup per package)
¼ cup of hot water
¾ cup brewed tea, chilled
2 tablespoons sugar syrup
2 tablespoons tapioca balls, cooked
Ice
Shake the first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker.

Bring some water to a boil in a kettle. Measure 2 tablespoons of tapioca balls into a microwave-safe container. Pour boiling water on top of the tapioca balls to cover. Microwave for 1 minute.
Strain the tapioca balls and pour into cup.

Add some ice. Serve with a wide straw and enjoy.

For a bit of fun, add 1 ounce of rum.

Tasting Notes
You either love or hate Bubble Tea. The tapioca balls are delicious and chewy, and I always add more bubbles than I should since I love them so much. However, one friend I served it to passed it along to his wife since he found the texture of the bubbles disgusting. Send the bubbles my way ... I love them!

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Bavarois à la Fraise (Strawberry Bavarian Cream with Strawberry Coulis)

Bavarois à la Framboise (Strawberry Bavarian Cream with Strawberry Coulis)

I loved the Bavarian cream so much, I made it again. This time with local strawberries picked fresh that morning. Plus I made it on TV! Here's the link to my segment on "daytime Ottawa" on Rogers.

Doing a segment on television was definitely out of my comfort zone, and I worried excessively, even compulsively about doing it. But, it's good experience and how can you say no? The hosts, TL and Derick, made me feel very comfortable and had lots of questions to keep things moving and cover up any "ums" and "ahs" that were about to escape my mouth.

{I promise to catch up on my Whisk Wednesday posts as soon as I can. It's been an exciting, but busy month!}

Recipe

adapted from Le Cordon Bleu at Home

Serves 6

Bavarois à la Framboise (Strawberry Bavarian Cream with Strawberry Coulis) mise en place

For the Coulis:
1½ cups strawberries
½ cup confectioner's sugar
Juice of ½ lemon, strained

For the Crème Anglaise:
1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean (or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract)
3 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
4 tablespoons strawberry coulis

For the Gelatin:
¼ ounce powdered gelatin (about 1 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons cold water

For the Whipped Cream:
1¾ cups heavy cream, whipped
For the coulis, wash and hull the strawberries. Purée in a food processor and then strain the seeds out using a fine-mesh strainer. Stir in the confectioner's sugar and lemon juice. Taste and adjust sweetness.

For the crème anglaise, heat milk and scraped vanilla bean in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring mixture to a boil. Remove immediately from the heat and let steep for about 10 minutes. Remove the vanilla pod.

Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is a pale yellow color, about 2 minutes. Continue whisking and slowly drizzle in a bit of the hot milk mixture to temper, or warm, the eggs so they won't curdle. Keep whisking and slowly pour in the remaining milk mixture.

Return the mixture to the heat and stir constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon (about 5-7 minutes). Stir in the strawberry coulis.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and stir until softened. Let stand about 5 minutes. Then, stir the gelatin into the crème anglaise mixture and blend until the gelatin disappears into the mixture. Chill in the refrigerator until the mixture just starts to gel.

In a cold mixing bowl, whip the cream.

When the crème anglaise and gelatin mixture just starts to set, fold in the whipped cream. Pour the Bavarian cream into molds and chill completely for at least 3 hours or overnight.

To unmold, dip the mold in hot water for about 10 seconds. Then invert onto a serving platter. If needed, slide a knife around the edge. Serve the strawberry coulis on the side.

"Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself. You may be surprised at how easily this happens. Your doubts are not as powerful as your desires, unless you make them so."
— Marcia Weider

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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Blogging the Art of French Cooking: A Web Companion to Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

This is a modern web-based companion that works alongside Julia Child's classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I. I've assembled hundreds of inspiring pictures and engaging articles written by the world-wide food blogging community about the recipes from this book. I hope that this project will offer something new to Julia Child fans as it grows through community involvement.

Click here to learn more about this project.

How You Can Help
I've collected links for almost all the master recipes, which covers roughly half the content of the book. The book lists many variations that provide the other half, and this is where I need your help!

If you have blogged about one of the recipes that's not listed in this post or is on this list of remaining recipes, please leave a comment or email me at whiskfoodblog[at]gmail{dot}com and include the following information:

- your name
- your blog’s name and URL
- the URL of the post containing the photograph
- if you're emailing me, please send a photo in an attachment in a jpeg format that is at least 250 px tall and wide

A Web Companion to Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking