caramel, or a near fail

Two food posts in one week? Neither of them resulting in me sharing an actual, successful, reciplicable recipe? Oh well. That's life sometimes.

At the start of the year there were two cooking goals I wanted to accomplish, among others. Apparently time in the kitchen is one of my most favourite things to tackle, because I've already made a couple of attempts at macarons and I've played a bit with caramel.

The caramel goal isn't to make a beautiful caramel sauce - that I already know how to do thanks to Michael Smith, who tends to have some of the dreamiest, easiest recipes ever. The goal was to make those chewy, somewhat soft caramel candies. When I finally got my hands on a candy thermometer I felt like life's greatest mystery was solved. Since then I've made two attempts at caramels, and both have somewhat failed (although no epic fails, thankfully).

The first recipe I used told me to line my pan in waxed paper to make for "easy" removal which was really, really bad advice. The caramel stuck to the paper and Bunny and I spent an hour cutting things off of the paper and half the batch ended up going in the garbage. The bits I salvaged were fairly dreamy though and I quite enjoyed having one or two bits of caramel after dinner. The second fail was totally my own fault, and was a bit of a comedy of errors: I used too small a pan, so I had to rush some steps and didn't get the heat high enough after adding the cream, and speaking of the cream I used 5% coffee cream. It was cold, coffee cream was all I had, and I was too lazy to walk to the corner store for some heavy cream. I ended up with a very thick caramel sauce. Not quite what I was going for.

Luckily I have plans in mind for the big pan of caramel sauce sitting in the fridge. White cake with caramel whipped cream frosting, and I think I'll be trying a take on this luscious pot de creme with caramel instead of chocolate. That project is for the next weekend, and I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Sometimes its more fun when things don't work out as intended, and this particular mess up has certainly given me more opportunities to play.

project macaron: take two

When my first try at macarons were so close to being a success, I figured my second go would only be an improvement on the first. I mean it only made sense that I'd improve rather than get worse, right? Wrong.

This version was a bit of a disaster. First, I couldn't find the same recipe I'd used before. Or if I did it looked really, really different. So I was off to a bad start before I even got going. Second thing I really thing I screwed up is that I overwhipped the egg whites. I was so afraid of not whipping them enough that I passed the soft peaks stage and veered right on to full on stiff peak territory and that just was a no go.

So somewhat of a disaster. What I ended up with were somewhat flat, super delicate marshmallowy cookies. Tasty still, but nowhere near a macaron.

For all that they didn't come out the way I wanted there were two things that changed that I was happy with. I found a seive deeply buried in my mother's kitchen that allowed me to try Amanda's idea of sifting the powdered sugar and ground almonds, and I was really happy with the consistent texture and size there. I also changed how I piped them out, using a cone of waxed paper instead of a freezer bag and found that I had about a million times more control that way, so I'll definitely be using that piping method in the future.

kitchen project: macaron (take one)

The macaron has long been a beast I have desired to tame. It's been an elusive beast and I haven't had too many chances to get going on this. To make things worse, I'd been making a million excuses to put off trying. So I'm done putting off the attempt and I will just keep at the macarons until I get to making them perfectly.

I haven't always had the easiest time with meringues in general and while in the past I'd intended to to master the meringue before I moved on to the macaron. For so many reasons this just isn't the way to go for me. See I don't even really like a plan meringue, and there's just no sense beating myself into a tizzy trying to make something I'm not crazy about just as a self imposed stepping stone to what I really want to do.

So I've thrown in the towel and I'm just going to go straight to the macaron, and I have even made my first attempt. There's some simplicity and method to how I'm going about this. Rules, you see. Until I can fairly consistently come up with a macaron I like I'm going to stick to the same sets of guideline.

1. Use the same recipe every time
2. I can use a different filling/glue for each batch (to keep things fun and yummy)
3. No food colourings or heavy flavour additives until I get the base right
4. Never adjust more than one ingredient or process at a time

I've chosen a recipe from Anna Olsen to start with, because I find her directions simple and her accuracy pretty consistent. Plus it turned out not-terribly on my first shot, so I'm going to keep going with it.

Right now the biggest lessons I've learned are that 1) metal bowls do help when it comes to making the meringue and 2) the texture of the ground almonds probably is super important. Using my mom's mixing bowls which are all metal I came up with some pretty wicked stiff peaks, so I've solved at least one of my main meringue issues. What somewhat screwed things up though were the almonds. I ground them myself in the food processor, or maybe I just didn't use enough (what I had on hand didn't match what was called for so I kind of winged it).

I'm surprised how well it came out, all told. It wasn't perfect by any means, and there were no little feet, but they had this amazing chewy texture to the cookie itself that I'm looking forward to recreating and improving upon.

meringue mission

You may remember how I've mentioned that on my way to learning how to make macarons, I have insisted on perfecting the meringue along the way. A good meringue is the backbone of a macaron, so I felt no sense trying any other way.

To recap: I cannot make the meringue by hand. I have not been happy with the results from the KitchenAid - possibly because it is the largest and I am generally doing only two eggs at a time. I did not have a spatula before for any folding.

Update: I now have a spatula. Well, I have had one for two weeks, actually.

Revelation: My hand mixer is ridiculous at mixing eggs whites. I used the wisk attachment for egg whites, and beaters for whipped cream (I made mousse last night) and was just agog at how easy this whole thing was. Could it be that the hand mixer is the way to beat egg whites?

So. We will have to revisit this. Meringues by hand mixer.

Champagne Adventures + Risotto

Last night, Bunny and I had a blast. He was off school at about 3:30, so we met up to get groceries (and I was pleasantly surprised with the total, especially since it included a bulk chocolate chip purchase and a quart of heavy cream - staying on budget makes me happy) and then came home for reading snuggles before I got to work with dinner.

A couple weeks back, I posted about the surplus of champagne and lack of any other decent wines in our home. This week, some of that champagne (well, prosecco ... I call all sparkling wines champagne even though I shouldn't) is getting put to use in the kitchen. Case in point: tonight, I will be making chicken with a champagne cream sauce.

Last night, though, I tackled a project I've long wanted to do: risotto. Oh, I know I've made barley risotto before, but it's not nearly the same. Delicious, but different. This was a simple mushroom risotto, which certainly didn't come out perfect but came out very good for a first try (especially considering I didn't particularly use a recipe. Just elements of recipes. We've talked about this before, right?).

Also in the re-occuring theme of discovering old music I have loved, I danced around to Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake it's Morning while cleaning/cooking. I had forgotten how clearly Lua was about cocaine, and how heartbreaking Poison Oak is. How much I love his spoken word lead-ins to albums. The haunting beauty of Landlocked Blues, how much Road to Joy makes me smile and how some lines from Another Travelling Song snag my heartstrings.

Mushroom Champagne Risotto
(basic outline from Smitten Kitchen - asparagus, artichoke and mushroom risotto)

Setting Up:
Open champagne/prosecco/sparkling drinks. Pour glass for yourself. Turn on favourite music. Begin.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (approximately - I had a leeeetle bit more) arborio rice
• 4 cups (again, approximately. I don't do exacts) chicken broth
• Substitute: Water + chicken bouillon
• 3/4-1 cup dry (brut) champage etc
• 2 cups finely sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp finely chopped onion (I used red)
• minced garlic to taste (I used about 4-5 cloves)
• Olive oil to coat pans.
• Salt, to taste
• 1-2 tsp dried tarragon
• 1-2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan, plus more to garnish

Directions:

1. Slice or chop any and all ingredients that need slicing or chopping.
2. Put approx 1 tbsp olive oil in saute pan over medium heat. When hot add 1 tbsp chopped onion and minced garlic (1 clove here, for me). Saute until translucent, then add mushrooms to pan. Season liberally with salt and 1 tsp each tarragon and thyme. Saute, occasionally moving, until they begin to smell meaty and substantially reduce in volume. (Took me about 5 minutes). Remove from heat, set aside for later.
3. Bring chicken stock to a boil, reduce to simmer. The stock should stay lightly simmering the entire time you're cooking. Add approximately 1-11/2 tbsp olive oil to pot/dutch oven, bring to medium heat. Add 1/4 cup chopped onions plus garlic, season lightly with salt, 1 tsp each thyme and tarragon (or to taste). Saute until translucent.
4. Add arborio rice to onions, stir to coat with oil. Stirring frequently, cook approximately 5 minutes, until it begins to smell nutty. Bring heat down to medium low, add champagne to pot. Stirring gently but constantly until champagne is fully absorbed.
5. Slowly add broth, one ladleful at a time (my ladle holds between 1/2 to 1 cup), stirring until fully incorporated. Keep heat low - the risotto mixture should not be bubbling, just absorbing. Once each ladleful is absorbed, add another. Stir.
6. This process should take about 30-45 minutes. After about 30 minutes, taste rice for doneness, it probably won't be done but it never hurts to check. Keep adding ladles of broth and incorporating until rice tastes done. (I like the rice softer, some people might like a more al dente risotto. If you're the one eating, cook it until you like the texture.) If you start running out of broth before your risotto tastes done, bring some water to a boil in your kettle (or the same pot) and use that. It's not an exact science.
7. For a finished risotto, you're looking for something that "spreads" when plated. It should be fairly loose, and very very creamy. When your rice tastes done, at this point you're adding liquid for texture. If the risotto doesn't feel loose, add more broth and cook a minute more.
8. Remove from heat, add parmesan and sauted mushrooms, stir to incorporate.
9. Plate! Sprinkle additional parmesan over the risotto to taste (Bunny and I like lots). Enjoy. Let your significant other tell you how "This is just soooo good. Make it again? Can I have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow?" and complain that there's no meat, because I swear he's half way to being a carnivore.

Notes:

• Don't like mushrooms? Use fresh cooked peas, or small cubes of cooked squash, or whatever your heart desires.
• You could probably saute the mushrooms while the risotto is cooking, and I probably will in the future.
• Don't want to use sparkles? Dry white wine. Something you're not afraid of having a glass of while cooking.
• This recipe did not turn out perfectly - my risotto wasn't quite as loose as I would have liked to feel like I did it right (if I'd been on Top Chef, Wolfgang Puck would have given me a tutorial) but that doesn't matter. It tasted delicious. Remember, if you're cooking for yourself or for your friends/family it doesn't matter if it's perfect. Taste good? Yes? Good enough! But - you'd better believe that I will try to perfect this.

meep meep

Today's a bit of a nothing day.

Work's been strange, stress wise - halfway calm, halfway crazy undercurrents. Reality of the matter is, I know what the end result is and I just don' t like it and can't change it. So unless I'm ready to start looking for something new, it just sort of is what it is.

I've been super tired lately, and that's been cutting into my kitchen time. After the amazing dinner I cooked up on Saturday when Bunny's sister was here, I didn't do much of anything the last few days. Sunday was leftovers ... and I think I did a stir fry yesterday? That sounds right.

Today we did spinach pasta again, nothing special. But it lets Bunny eat his tomato sauce, and it used up some of the box of spinach that is begining to smell funky in the fridge. Tomorrow it goes in the trash.

What I am doing tonight, though, is making some chocolate chip cookies. Just the good old Toll House recipe, though I'm messing with the baking instructions and temperatures. I find I'm not crazy about the 7 minutes @ 375* texture, and last batch I screwed some up at a lower temperature. So the first batch of cookies is in for 12 minutes at 300* to start, and we'll see how things go from there.

Last mess up I accidentally had the oven at 275*, and after 10 minutes or so I jacked it up to 350*. I'm hoping the 300* compromise works, but I do like my cookies cooked longer at a lower temp. So we'll see how I end up being the most impressed.

Update: 12 minutes at 300* isn`t enough. Timer`s on for another 2, and we`ll go from there. But they are getting to have a bit of a properly firm top - just too unset at the moment.
15 minutes seems to do it, although with the lower temp they don`t get as golden on top ... I`m ok with that though.

I'm also going to get a couple more stitches into my current cross-stitch project ... I`m so close to done it`s crazy. Part of me wants to cop out and not go back and do the couching or backstitching, as this was just a project intended to get my mistakes out of the way and get me back into it. It`s a super cute image of a dog, that`s eventually going to go on a pillow for our dog. I`m also really interested in the next one I have - a beautiful package with this flowers on a river with a bridge to do next that I`m super excited about.

The next one also has proper aida cloth ... part of what I`m so annoyed with on this cross stitch it`s it`s just stretched cotton, and it`s not designed to be stitched the same way. It`s harder to gauge stitches on, particularly for someone with poor vision (aka me). And I really don`t think it`s going to work easily for backstitching. Ugh.