Cooking: My First Pie

So I finally did it, I baked my first pie from scratch, sure the picture isn't perfect, but making a pie from scratch will make you feel a bit like a superhero. As you can not the crust isn't perfect, but I suspect that takes practice. Of course while looking for pie recipes I would choose the more complicated one not really realizing it until I really started sit down and analyze my recipe as I prepared to make it, the pie in question was: Alsatian Apple Pie http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Alsatian-Style-Apple-Pie-105573

It was delicious by the way.

A Spice Hunt and Sweet Wood Syrup

Right now is that time of the year when I want to surround myself with the scent of spices and the taste of spices and the delightful rich liquor flavor of maple syrup. The last two days I have been experimenting with making my own chai masala, so far my favorite part is the use of fresh ginger. I admit fresh ginger has become an addiction for me in my cooking lately, I love the spicy crunch it offers to dishes, I love the versatility of it, melding perfectly with sweet, sour, savory, sour, and salty. My experimenting in chai masala has left me realizing that I need clove and loose leaf assam tea for the base. That I prefer my chai without fennel seed and that it must have cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon, and of course ginger! Another interesting realization maple syrup is wonderful possibility to use as a sweetner for tea adding the wonderful resinous sweetness that can only be had from maple syrup. So the question is what are your favorite spices?

image provided by artnet.com

Image: Striped Cloth and Ginger Jar by George Van Hook

A rubied salad and dragon's breath

Last night for the second time this week, I made the Georgian salad, Lobio; to quite frankly put it I adore this salad. The irony is I have never been a big fan of kidney beans but this salad is something I can eat all by myself. It is a beautiful salad, looking rather jeweled with the red kidney beans, minced red onion, and the vibrant green of cilantro and jalepeno. I am a dragon with this salad I will eat it and keep it all to myself and because I do this I get some serious dragon's breath from the raw onion and garlic. But I must share this recipe I adore:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7870158

List: Foods I Love

I love making lists so I thought I would put one up of my favorite foods:
1. Kimchi- Fermented Cabbage and spices, who thought this would be the sort of love where I am tempted to eat the whole jar, actually I highly recommend this to spicy pickle lovers.
2. Apple Cake- I love all sorts of varieties, laced with spices or surrounded by a lovely butter batter, I will eat apple cake, comfort at one of its bests.
3. Chicharrones- yes it is deep fried pork skin! And it is so awesomely good! Eat these in a fresh corn tortilla with the simplest guacamole, and fresh salsa and well it is a form of heaven. It you love bacon try this.
4. Lentil soup- I have yet to meet a variation of this that I do not love. A comfort dish once again.
5. Bacon- I drool at the thought of this. Bacon is the ambrosia of meat. I want sainthood for the creator of this awesome cured meat.
6. Chile Rellenos- I don't know where to begin other than it can be one of the finest vegetarian dishes out there, but there are many variations. What must be understood is the magic is in a properly roasted chile, bright tangy spicy sauce, the right melting cheese, and the perfect light fluffy batter.
7. corn tortillas/corn chips- Fresh corn tortillas are an eye opener and a really sublime experience in how simplicity can be so good. Corn chips eat these with salsa and try to stop yourself, also for the ultimate experience chilaquiles or nachos.
8. Raspberry sorbet- the best way to show off the perfect flavor of raspberries.
9. Apricot preserves (homemade)- summer sunshine in a jar.
10. Smoked- If it has been smoked I will most likely try it. I love smoky flavor.
11. Fresh mozzerella- chewy, almost buttery, and so cool to the tongue.
12. Corsican omelette- I never knew the combination of fresh mint, chevre, and eggs could be so perfect until I ate this.
13. chocolate- it is called the food of the gods for good reason.
14. assam tea with a splash of tea- my breakfast drink of choice, morning wake-up is not complete until I have a cup.
15. pho- the reason for aromatics.
16. Greek Yogurt- to the yogurt haters out there, try Greek Yogurt and realize what a fool you are.
17. potatos- starchy goodness.
18. summer strawberries- get a basket from your farmer's market or side of the road stand, sit in a park by yourself, and eat every single edible ruby. Then try to remember all the bad things happening lately...it is very hard to do.
19. food made with thought- it just makes you feel good.
20. fava- the best way to show off why there should be more love for the split pea.
21. Black Beans- I think it is one of the wonders of nature.
22. spices- life just wouldn't be right without them.
23. chiles- I thank my father every time I eat chile and appreciate them, he always encouraged me as a child to eat spicy food. ditto on the bacon.
I have so many more but I am stopping here.

Local Farmer's Market: Sweet Summer Abundence

I can't help it, going to the Farmer's Market is basically for me in a sense going to church. I did not grow up in a religious family, as you can tell with that sentence. So why is it religious to me? For me it is interacting with my community and those especially who provide one of the most comforting things in the world: Food. Living in California I am all to aware of how those who grow our food are treated, probably a little bit even more, considering my focus in history was California History and my love of food. There is nothing quite like knowing the faces of those who grow your food, going from each stand sampling the unripe fruit, yet even in the unripe state are lusciously sweet that the thought of ripeness is well slightly on the dizzying. Even better knowing the ridicuslously cheap corn you just bought was picked that afternoon (by the way I highly recommend instead of boiling it, fire up the grill, and grill it, brings out the sweetness of the corn against a smoky backdrop, droolingly delicious). Or buying olive oil grown and pressed in your city; love the stuff I just got, has wonderfully spicy bite to it, that I really haven't ever tasted in an olive before.

By the way go smell your nectarines...peaches and apricots have been rhapsodized about and by the naming of this blog you can tell I already belong to the church of apricot, but got take a sniff of your nectarines and enjoy that sweet tangy lush scent.

The simplicity is your best friend: A beautifully refreshing fruit salad

Sometimes simplicity is just the best way to go, I made this, this morning to go with my toast, and had to share:

Simple Berry Melon salad:

handful of blueberries (I suspect any berry will do, but these are perfect because they don't break easily)
Quarter of a melon (I used casaba melon which is really similar to honeydew, but what ever you have) cut into chunks (no rind)
a drop of orange flower water (I suppose if using a strawberry watermelon combination the more appropriate choice would be rose water)
a sprinkle of suger (just to bring the juices out)

mix all together and enjoy the refreshing beauty of it. The blueberries and green flesh of the melon looked gorgeous together. The orange blossom water added a light touch of floral but overall was not apparent, but added the little extra oomph that made the salad so lovely.

Should it seem I don't cook anymore....?

Well, that is far from the truth, in the last two weeks I have made soups and pastas. All that of course in my desire to procrastinate or get off my butt from writing a 14 page paper (the biggie in my college career). They were all comfort foods to the max, unfortunately with the oncoming last weeks of any quarter or semester most students find themselves in the position of wanting junk food or comfort food, I am no exception. Between the comfort food needs came the run to the store for junk food. I tried out a few Giada de Laurentiis pasta recipes (one was excellent, the other so-so) and made my original onion potato soup. I also made an excellent Nigella Lawson dip recipe (which i will post about some other day), but instead I will blogging about what I did this weekend, which with the coming months will probabley been impossible, I baked! The recipe came from Gourmet and I must say is one of the easiest muffin recipes I have tried in long time, best part it had lots of berries. Although, I'm reducing the suger in this. So I present:

Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins

6 TBS unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (original called for 1 cup)

1/2 cup whole milk (room tempture if you have the time)

1 large egg (room tempture if you have the time)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen, don't need to thaw)

Need: muffin tin with 12 muffin cups (1/2 cup each, a regular muffin tin) and muffin liners.

Oven: Preheat at 400 f.

1. Whisk together milk, butter, sugar, and egg (the mixture will be lumpy, but as Nigella Lawson says the best muffins come from lumpy batters).

2. Stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt. Add the wet mixture until ingredients are just combined. Fold in blueberries gently.

3. Divide equally into muffin tray and bake for 25 to 30 minutes (I suggest you check at 2o minutes), check with toothpick. No goo on toothpick they're are done.

4. Let cool for a little while and enjoy (the give the kitchen a heavenly scent and are so much better then anything you will get at your local coffee shop). Did I mention super easy?

What to do with slightly old strawberries

The truth is quite often I buy berries I forget about them or in the case of raspberries I hyperventilate so much about the actually recipe I want to use them in that I wait to long and they begin to mold. Berries are my favorite fruit but I happen to go nuts fantasizing about what I am going to do with them and then let to much time pass. Then their are the berries that are still edible but the texture is too mushy and they look a little bit funky this really applies the most to strawberries, but I found a recipe that utilizes slightly old and funky strawberries perfectly; I originally got the idea from Gourment, but have adjusted it to my liking:

Strawberry Lassi
1/2 pound strawberries (cleaned and trimmed and sliced in half)
1/4 cup honey (adjust too your liking)
a pinch of ground cardamom
1 cup of yogurt

Put strawberries, honey, and cardamom in blender and puree until smooth. Then add yogurt and blend, until well blended. Serve and enjoy.

Perfume Review: Tom Ford/Estee Lauder's Azuree Soleil

Where to begin with Estee Lauder's Tom Ford Collection Azuree, a seasonal offering of makeup and fragrance, that was inspired to some degree from Estee Lauder's own Azuree collection. Well, I'm not going to start there, many have already done it and have written wonderful posts about the history that inspired Azuree Soleil, the fragrance of Tom Ford's collection. Rather I will say that Azuree Soleil inspires in many an image of the perfect coconut tropical scent in the most tasteful of ways, but my thoughts differ on its gourmand imagery, it is not a perfect glass of coconut water, but something all together more savory; Thai green curry. It should be noted I cannot wear most fragrances that go into near savoriness due to the fact that near savoriness is most often supported by cumin note and I am one of those people that when a cumin note is applied to the skin it is all bad. But then again Thai green curry is not the average curry it is made up of beautiful aromatics: kaffir lime leaf, lemongrass, ginger, basil, coconut cream, chili. These are scents that do not necessarily scream savory. When I first applied Azuree Soleil I was hit by a rush of spicy zest and woodiness, that reminded me a great deal of Origin's Ginger Essence (I suspect this opening is due to the citrus,woods, and vetiver mixing) and it also reminded me of some dish I had eaten. It took me a few days to realize that reminded me of Thai green curry. This image does not last through out the scent but at the very beginning, the scent goes through stage at one point a creamy gardenia coconut scent, then becoming a creamy floral caramel scent, but then the woods arrive again blending with the gardenia to make a wonderfully tropical yet earthy scent.

Back to the cooking....Rhubarb!

Yes, I am a happy cow, but then again you would be too if your grandmother gave you 1 1/2 pounds homegrown organic rhubarb. Rhubarb has to be one of the most incredibly uniquely flavored and scented vegetables out there, the scent is of grass, strawberries, and tomatoes. The flavor as if a green apple and strawberry had been mixed together. So to celebrate it in it's incredible glory I took Gourmet's 2006 Rhubarb Compote recipe and tweaked it into making it my own.

Rhubarb Compote

1 1/2 pounds Rhubarb (about 4 cups chopped into 1/2 inch pieces)

1 cup of suger

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Combine all the ingredients in a medium, heavy based saucepan, over medium and stir until suger dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cover, and cook for about 7 minutes. Let mixture cool and then chill (I had a hard time doing this) and serve with something wonderfully creamy (I did mine with Greek yogurt, but I suspect this may one of those perfect ice cream toppings). By the way you will be tempted to eat spoonfuls of this and I did and I don't regret it.

Eating expensive tropical fruit...

So here it is the exotic and delicious cherimoya (as shown above)

The uniquely fleshed White Sapote (as shown above)

So as things go I stopped at Safeway a few days ago and because I love roaming around the produce section and seeing what is new and interesting I spotted these two unique and expensive tropical fruits. I knew immediately was the scaley looking one was, a cherimoya, for a few years now I have been dreaming about trying a cherimoya, they have a following (a bit of a secret organization for a fruit, intensely delicious yet no one talks about it), and well a few years ago I read an article about them, and ever since then I've been wanting to get my hands on one. I finally did and yes what an incredible flavor, something of creamy peach with a hint of strawberry, and bizarrely enough I was getting a hint of saffron in flavor. Basically this is the lobster/filet mignon of the fruit world. I bought one and now I really want to buy another.

On to the White sapote, also known as the custard apple with good reason. I will admit I wasn't to entranced with the flavor, a hit of sweet grass with cucumber, and avocado, but the texture on this thing is killer. What a lovely creaminess, not as creamy as an avocado, but this is the only other fruit that I actually say is creamy. I also only bought one.

Gone For So Long

The last two months since my last post have gone by so fast and well have been full of stress and more stress, all culminating in me getting sick on Christmas Day, and then two weeks later getting sick again. Yet, a great deal has happened since my last post. I baked my first almond macaroons, a baked like a nut for the holidays (which included in one day baking two cakes and a batch of cookies and on another day cooking two types of curd, cranberry and lemon, and another batch of cookies). I now have a kitchenaide and I have still yet to use it, but this can be expected of me, when it comes down to new kitchen gadgetry I have am so happy and excited I am getting the months before hand but when I do get I'm not quite sure the first recipe I want to use on it (same thing happened with my food processor, but now I constantly use it). I suppose I am waiting for that first recipe that gets me going.

One of my biggest joys has been getting to know the much amazing quince (as pictured above.). I first used it on Christmas day in Nigella Lawson's roasted quince recipe and well since then my world hasn't been the same. The irony is how fashionable the quince has become this year, yet what astounded me was where I found my first quinces, which was at Mi Puebla, a Mexican supermarket chain, although why I was is beyond me, considering the quince which is known as membrillo in Spanish and holds a special place in Spanish cuisine , is obviously something that has been exchanged between Mexican and Spanish cuisine, yet considering all of the Mexican cook books I have looked at have never once mentioned quince, maybe my shock isn't too odd. Quite frankly the scent of them and the guavas mixed together was pure beauty. Later on when shopping in Safeway they had a special on Quinces and went a little nuts, so far I have made quince glaze (which turned into a glorious coral color and quince brandy).

As far as my liquor making goes: I have finally bottled up my strawberry raspberry brandy and put half a vanilla bean in each bottle and I have started on another batch of Lemon liquor. I also have the quince brandy coming along.

Things That Make Life Delicious.........

There is nothing quite like culinary discovery (and no I don't mean as in I created something completely unique, but rather discovering something new to your palate.) And here are few things I have been reminiscing over:

-Crema/creme fraiche, this is the stuff that has made me wonder why on earth is sour cream so popular?! Crema is the Mexican variation of the French creme fraiche (and they do have a direct connection), which is the wonderfully creamy decadent thick cream concoction (milder than sour cream in sourness) of gorgeousness you want to put on everything. Buy this if you have the chance and ironically most grocery stores do not sell creme fraiche but do sell crema and so many have no idea what is under their noses. A note though if using it with fruit, check the salt content on the crema (this varies greatly from producers of crema, but this rule also holds with creme fraiche). Also, I highly recommend making your own crema/creme fraiche, tons of recipes on the net, just google it.

-Next up chicharrones, fried pork skins, no this is not something I eat every day, and you probably should not, but damn it they are delicious! You can boo hoo it all you want in PC terms, but you have to admit it is wildly economical in the fact that is uses all of the animal and I can't help but respect that. Savor it when you eat it but not everyday, besides you only live once. Best way to have them: a fresh corn tortilla, slathered with guacamole, a handful of chicharrones on top of it, a spoon full of hot salsa, and to make it a pice de resistance a dollop of crema. I'm simply drooling thinking about it.

-Pho, no more needs to be said other than this is comfort and the elixir of strength for a cold winter day in a bowl.

-Spanish smoked paprika, one of the best things to institantly make a dish smokily hearty without frying up the bacon (and i love bacon!).

-Chipotles, another smoky wonder of the world. Try it with sweet potatoes and die happily.

-The simple wonder of a fresh lemon when the zest is grated (alright this adheres to any citrus really) the unlocking of the essential oils of it with a zester is quite magnificant, and I love the way it perfumes the air.

-Saffron, I can't add anything to the centuries of adulation to this spice, so enough said.

-Garlic, my tongue would be a nun if it did not exist.

What I've cooked lately: Coconut Slab

Alright, I've been gone for awhile especially on the cooking part of my blog, but I've had good reason basically since last tuesday I have not been feeling very good, and have been reduced to a diet of very bland foods because of it, and yes it was hell for a food head like me. But before I got sick I made Nigella Lawson's wonderful Coconut Slab which can be found in this book Forever Summer for my friend Liz's barbecue, well over all it was a hit, but I do have one problem with the recipe it has to do with the frosting, I liked how the cake looked with the frosting going over the sides, so don't if you make this recipe add more suger to the frosting, it looks absolutely perfect with the frosting going over the sides. And also for a very simple, comforting, and bizarrely extravegent drink (I've been on a saffron kick lately):

Saffron Milk
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
a pinch of saffron

Directions: bring all of these things to a boil and serve. Very good before going to bed.

Kir..my new favorite cocktail!

I'm not notorious for being an extreme cocktail maker but this is officially my new favorite thing (I also love Lemon Drops and Margeritas) and it is absolutely simple...it is called Kir. Kir is a French cocktail (most often an served as an apertif), that uses a dry white wine and a creme de cassis liqueur. Depending on how sweet you like it use a teaspoon of cassis or more. I'm going to admit now though I didn't have any creme de cassis liqueur but instead used my framboise liqueur, did some research and this isn't that uncommon either, the drink was delicious. From what I can tell the usual measurements for this are 1/5 creme de cassis to 4/5 dry white wine. I used up my bottle of Pinto Grigio but the most often recommended wine for this Sauvingnon Blanc, but it must be a dry white wine. Many variations were made with other fruit liqueurs. When you use champagne it is called a Kir Royale.

Lead me by your scent...Saffron

Saffron and I have had a bizarre relationship my first taste of saffron was not one that wanted me to go back for more, in fact the dish I ordered with saffron was not eaten, and I had a kind enough waitress who did not charge me for it (I really only took one bite and realized that it was not for me). Yet, what lead me back to saffron was a fragrance, that fragrance was Agent Provocateur, from there on that fragrance has spurred a search for the perfect saffron fragrance so far I haven't found it. Although one of my fragrances has a nice accent of it, which is Omnia. Otherwise I keep searching for the perfect Saffron scent. After Agent Provocateur I was willing to give Saffron another chance in the culinary field.

Pain d'Epice

If Helen of Troy was Pain d'Epice I could clearly understand the launching of a thousand ships in her name by Greece, unfortunately what we do know of Helen of Troy was she was very beautiful woman, who was not a heavenly spice bread. I am right now eating the second of my two toasted slices of pain d'epice that came from a loaf that I made last night, it has butter and Vanilla Pear jelly on it, it literally feels like I am eating autumn in toast form. The mere act of toasting it this morning brought out its heavenly spicy scent that I would pay great deal of money for if I found it in a bottled fragrance form (Now imagine how gorgeous the house smelled yesterday when I baked this and brought it out of the oven). So how did I come about making French spice bread aka pain d'epice in the middle of August, well when I was around 12 I went to visit my mother's family in France and was treated to my grandmother getting my brother and I, "gingerbread". I remember at first I did not like it because it was nothing like molasses gingerbread of the US that I was use to, and for the particular fact that it used anise seed which I did not realize until now is one of th main flavoring components to pain d'epice, yet suddenly in this last week I had an incredible craving (of course it is around August that I always have a craving for autumn and winter foods). So I did some research...and found that in fact that it was very makeable and I wanted to make some now. This is the first Recipe so far that I have used but I am now finding that there quite a few that invovle rye flour and after buying a bag of rye flour for the disastrous Nigella Lawson Rarebit muffins I really want to use my flour and this looks like the perfect way. Even if you don't like anise seed you might like this because the anise plays a role but with the blending of spices it reaches a whole new role that is rarely seen in American cookery.

By the way I have always held that if heaven exists and it has a scent, it would smell like Frangelico Liquour, well I'm adding Pain d'Epice as another scent for heaven.

My Red Lentil Quest....

I am on a quest for a perfect red lentil recipe...so far this quest has been interesting but none have lead me to going that must be apart of my recipe collection, and here is the rundown of what I have gone through:
-Red Lentil and Squash Soup recipe can be found here Recipe
I imagine this recipe would be richer with the adding of Vegetable or Chicken broth but I have a feeling this defeats the purpose. Over all not bad but it just doesn't wow, still the use of spices was excellent, but definately needs more lemon. I found myself having to add hot sauce and a runny fried egg was excellent on top (which once again defeats the purpose). Overall it reminds of the wonders a little fat can do to a recipe which this recipe didn't have and I ended up adding in the form of an egg fried in olive oil. Still this recipe seems ripe for playing with and making something amazing with it. This also needs lots of salt.
-Next up Curiousity Killed The Cooks Lebanese Mdardara I finally got this one to kind've work but I have come to a conclusion that elevation must play a huge role in the porpotioning of water to lentils and rice, also it began to burn on the way and I had to switch pans, luckly saved mixture, the fried onions were excellent on top, but the amount of times this comes to near burning rice hell makes it a definate not remake. Plus I added way more cumin. Plus a little hot sauce on top of this is excellent (I'm seeing a hot sauce trend here and I firmly blame my boyfriend).
-And lastly my Jubilance Soup sure it has red lentils but I do not feel this show cases red lentils so it really doesn't belong.
The quest continues...........

The Great Experiment

This was inspired from Curiosity Killed The Cook's cooking a recipe from every country, instead though I am everyday going to try and celebrate the national food holiday (in finding these holidays out I believe every single month has a chocolate day). I began this experiment last Saturday with milk chocolate with almonds day, didn't get to do Sunday's Sugar Cookie celebration, very much felt the effects of Monday's Pina Colada day (by the way shout to Liz for providing the Pina Colada's and the many maraschino cherries that went into it), and yesterday cooked up a dozen Blueberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry muffins in honor of Blueberry Muffin day:

Berrific Muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup fresh or frozen berries , rinsed and drained

Preheat oven to 4oo
Grease muffin pan (regular size, recipe makes a dozen)
1. Sift first four ingredients into a bowl and mix together
2. next in seperate bowl combine egg, milk, and vanilla
3. next combine wet and dry ingredients until just blended
4. add the oil and stir until just blended
5. fold berries in and spoon batter into muffin cups, Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Jubilence Soup

Jubilence Soup
aka Nigella Lawson's Happiness Soup's even brighter sister

Ingredients:
18 ounces yellow squash (around two squash) diced
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 boneless skinless chicken breast chopped
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon Madras Tamarind Hot Curry powder
a dash of cayenne (optional)
zest and juice of one small lemon
1/2 cup basmati rice
1/4 cup red lentils
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
4 cups chicken stock

Directions
1. dice squash and slice garlic
2. Sautee squash and garlic in olive oil for about 2 minutes, add chicken and lemon zest and sautee another 3 minutes, until squash is tender
3. Add stock, lemon juice, curry powder, tumeric, lentils, rice, and dash of cayenne.
4. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes until rice and lentils are tender, make sure to stir so lentils do not burn on bottom.
5. serve.

And a nice creamy topping:

Ingredients:
a quarter of a cucumber, finely diced
a dash of salt and pepper
1/4 a teaspoon toasted cumin seeds
3 tablespoons yogurt
2 teaspoons mint chopped (or go by your taste on mint)

Directions
1. mix all together and a dollop on soup
2. enjoy.

This was absolutely delicious and will be made again. so very yummy.