Occupy Kitchen!

So yes, I haven't blogged in a while. It doesn't mean that I'm not busy! I'm still cranking things out of the kitchen, but a lot of what I was making was for my Christmas project. Ironically, today, I decided to scrap the original idea and go with a more generic focus. My idea was to do a Chinese-food themed cookbook, but I realized that trying to make presentable dishes every weekend, whether or not I wanted to eat them or not, was turning into a very ambitious project. And I was losing my passion for it very quickly. I think it will be something I will put together later, but I think I need to spend more time perfecting my recipes and figuring out better lighting schemes in the darker months.

But aside from Chinese food, I am still baking away! Two big birthdays came and went - which meant two cakes were made along with some other treats cranked out from my oven.

Have you ever heard of Domo-Kun? He's this Japanese...err..."character" who is actually a mascot for a TV station. It's all a bit weird, but he's very cute and adorable and can be seen adorning many people's cell phones, key chains and other typical swag areas. A friend LOVES Domo - so why not make her a Domo cake for her big day? I've seen it done many times before (online) and as I was not going to do extremities (gah, I don't think I can find a box big enough for arms and legs) - it was a simple square chocolate cake.

I present to you... Domo-cake!

Cake: Dark Chocolate Cake (classic standby recipe, it never fails to shock me how much sugar it contains)
Filling: White Chocolate Mousse (next time will use gelatin or a proper egg-white stabilizer)
Frosting: Chocolate Buttercream
Details: Eyes - Girl Guide Chocolate Mint Thins, Mouth - White Candy Melts, red colouring

Yes, it does look like a Deep 'n Delicious cake! :P I used a fat star tip to pipe the buttercream. The cake was received very well, and was as delicious as it was cute!

10 Minute Dinner

I don't usually post about my day-to-day eating. It's usually fast, tasty and not so pretty looking. I'm all about the end product, heck, I've been known to eat things straight out of the pan! That's why I generally post about my baked goods. You eat one or two (or a dozen) and then get to work photographing the rest. I can take my time angling my cookies or slices of cake 'just so'. But with dinner? No, no, no, no - I gotta eat. Now.

But I was struck by the beauty and simplicity of my dinner tonight and was inspired to capture it for all to see.
I present to you my 10 minute dinner (which proves the point that good, healthy and fast food can be had):

Creamy polenta topped with sauteed kale and a couple of fried eggs!

I started the polenta first: 1/2 cup cornmeal + 1 cup water + 1 cup milk. Bring to a boil over medium and keep stirring until thickened - this takes about 5-8 minutes or so. Add in salt, pepper and grated cheese to taste. At around the halfway point, throw your eggs on one side of a frying pan and a couple of handfuls of kale on the other side. Throw the lid on for a couple of minutes. All of it should come together around the same time.

And for economy's sake, let's do a price breakdown for tonight's dinner:
Polenta: 40 cents
Eggs: 92 cents
Kale: 50 cents

Total for dinner: $1.82 (let's round up to $2 incl extra ingredients)

Seriously! A $2 dinner!

Mmmm...warm apple pie.

Nothing like it. Even Koi seems to think so.

I spent a weekend in the Okanagan cheering on some friends as they completed their first half-marathon! Woot! One of the things I really wanted to do while in the area was get some local fruit. We stopped by a local market and picked up a few pounds of apples and some other regional specialties (which also included three bottles of fruit liqueur!). I couldn't wait to use the fruit when I got home and prepared some small pies (top crust only) with pate brisee and a mix of McIntosh and Ambrosia apples. It's super easy - add sugar, spices and some starch (cornstarch, tapioca) and ta da! You've got pie!

Neapolitan Marshmallows

I forget what inspired me to make tri-flavoured marshmallows. It was something on Tastespotting I think, but it got me thinking about combining different flavours...but I'm not sure how I settled on neapolitan marshmallows. The base itself is easy to make and is flavoured with vanilla, and I have seen many variations of these fluffy treats, so why not combine it all?

So the method was simple enough: make the generic marshmallow base and then divide into three portions and flavour with strawberry and chocolate. For the strawberry I used some homemade jam and pink food colouring. For the chocolate I used cocoa and espresso powder. I placed a piping bag in a tall cup and folded over the edges for easy filling. I filled the bag in thirds (from the top, around the edge) with the three flavours and held my breath. I had no idea how the flavours would settle, but they turned out pretty tasty! It's pretty neat how the colours marbled, I piped them into two shapes: long logs to cut up later and "kiss" shapes to top cookies.

Yes, that's right! Cookies! You thought I was done at the marshmallow, right? Nope!

I made a basic sugar cookie dough, cut out small rounds, topped each round with a dark chocolate or white chocolate callet and then plopped a marshmallow kiss on top. And the results? Simply divine.
This recipe is definitely labour intensive and it's something I probably won't make very often, but I was really excited to execute this vision and was glad that it worked out well.

Urban Harvesting

As much as I am a city girl, I do love being out in the "country". For me the real appeal lies in the necessity and ability to plan, plant, tend and harvest your own food. I have been accused of taking this concept a touch too far in my own personal life. In an upcoming post I'll go into more detail - but I made strawberry marshmallows. From scratch of course. And the strawberry flavouring? From the jam that I made from the strawberries that I painstakingly picked from the farm. A true full circle moment that Martha Stewart would be proud of - not that she would admit it. She would probably smile, put her hand on my shoulder and tell me that I should have strained the jam before stirring it in. Anyway, I didn't have an opportunity to pick blackberries this year. The trip out to the farm is pretty long and I couldn't justify going solo just to pick a couple pounds of fruit. I was lucky that the local grocery store had a special on and I managed to get my blackberry fix.

I finally got to make a recipe that has been sitting in my book for a couple of years now; waiting for that day when I would come home with a few buckets of freshly picked blackberries. So maybe not this year, but there is always next.

I made Martha's blackberry shortbread squares - and they were so good. The dough incorporates ground almonds and orange and as I pressed it into the pan, I inhaled the scent, an intoxicating melange of almond, butter and sugar. Even the ground almond meal gave off that very distinct smell that only seems to come out when the nut has been pulverized, allowing the oils to release. It's a pretty basic dough that you pat in the pan and then sprinkle 4 cups of blackberries on top (whole). A cup of dough is reserved to sprinkle on top. Even though it came out great, I think it could've used another 8 minutes in the oven just to really crisp up the middle. It came out a touch soft (no matter when served on a plate with ice cream) but I think a few hours in the fridge should solve this nicely for tomorrow's distribution.

As you can see, I had a terrific time taking pictures of these beauties. When the light is good and the product is fresh, it's effortless, the best models you can get.

The Vibrant Summer Colours

Strawberry season on the West Coast is short.

But very sweet.

I made a vow a few years ago that I would not eat strawberries outside of June, and for the most part, I have stuck to that promise. Sounds drastic, right? But once you've tasted a local strawberry - you'll understand why the 10.5 month wait is worth it. Many of the strawberries available year round are enormous and lack the true panache of flavour a strawberry in June has. First of all - it's not even red on the inside! And the flavour is so watered down...I feel bloated after eating a handful and only barely tasting 'strawberry'. But a local strawberry is small and so, so, so red. On the outside and the inside. These little jewels are only available at their peak for about 6 weeks (max) and during those precious 42 days I eat as many as I can - usually burning out by the end from tasting too much fruit!

This year I did my annual pick in the local fields and came back with 10lbs. And a plan = jam, sorbet, bake, freeze and eat. All in that order too. I should note that I understand why strawberries can be expensive - they are extremely difficult to pick! Unlike blueberries which grow on very comfortable waist-to-shoulder high bushes, strawberries are grown on small shrubs really, I mean they're more like leafy hedges actually - but you have to squat to get them. Yes, squat. Low. In the sun. For hours. And then paw your way through the dirt, through the leaves and vines to get those precious berry gems. I've learned to carry a small paring knife to pick the berry by the stem and not crush the fruit off the stem with my fingers. My friends laughed at my when they saw my "set up" - a big plastic box lined with a tea towel for end-of-row storage and a smaller cardboard carry-along for my picking. Every 15 minutes or so I'd empty my cardboard box into the bigger one to be weighed at the end. The tea towel cushions the berries and provides a barrier from the hard and hot plastic. Once you get them home - you must "deal" with them right away. 5 lbs were gently rinsed and put in a large pot for jam. Another 2lbs were also rinsed and put in a smaller saucepan to make my sorbet reduction. The remaining fruit was distributed between baked good, the freezer and my tummy :)

(1 3/4 cups juice, 3/4 cup syrup)

I decided this year to reduce the strawberries over heat to really extract as much pure flavour as I could. Normally I would blitz them in a blender and then strain it - but I really wanted a more complex and bold strawberry flavour. It took a while, but it was worth it - let the berries cook and release their juice. Their ripeness was perfect and in no time I had a saucepan of red juice. I strained it and let it cool.

I mentioned before that you need a sugar syrup for the sorbet - so I used the leftover ginger-infused syrup and the combination was simply divine. Really very refreshing and bold - exactly what I needed to keep me motivated to wait those next 10.5 months.

June 2012 can't come soon enough!!

Cake & Ice Cream

It's a classic combination, isn't it?
I recently celebrated a friend's birthday and after a terrific dinner at a local izakaya joint, we went back to mine for cake & ice cream. The cake was a multilayered fruit&cream&ganache tower, finished off with a scoop of butter caramel ice cream swirled with dark chocolate. Although the cake was awesome, I was really excited to see my friends' faces when they sank their tongues into the ice cream.
I can't tell you how happy I was to see that they enjoyed it as much as I did. Butter Caramel Ice Cream (from David Lebovitz) - it's a winner!

I managed to take some blurry photos of the actual making of the ice cream, I'll share them later this week.