Great Balls ‘O Dough

This Daring Baker challenge was a wonderful one! I was seriously hoping it wasn’t a sweet one, as I’m still battling the last few holiday pounds. Our lovely hostesses, Breadchick Mary of Sour Dough and Sara of I Like to Cook chose bread… and just happened to pick my most favorite, French Bread. It just so happens to be one of my favorite chefs too, Julia Child. So from the beginning, I was doubly excited about the challenge. I followed the recipe to the letter, and chose to do Petit Pains (or boules?) instead of baguettes, as I just made baguettes a few months ago.

The recipe came along very nicely, but did take about 8 hours to complete in one day. Next time, I would probably try to stretch this to two days, and retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator. I started very early in the morning, and since I’m such a darn good wife, I actually kneaded the bread by had to avoid waking my sleeping husband with my loud mixer. I should be sainted, right? I haven’t made bread by hand in over 8 years, as I always use my Kitchenaid mixer. It was surprisingly calming to stand in my pajamas, kneading the dough while drinking my morning coffee. Quite peaceful. However, next time… I’ll continue using the mixer!
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February 29, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery, Daring Bakers

37 Critiques

South Beach Wine & Food Festival

This weekend was the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Unfortunately, it was the hottest day of the year so far… I think a record high of just shy of 90 degrees. However, even with the extreme heat, I had a absolute blast at the Grand Tasting. I’ve been wanting to go for many years, but have always had scheduling conflicts or the events were sold out. This year we planned early, and bought tickets shortly after they went on sale.

Stephan was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough food and wine for all the people, but definitely changed his mind the minute we stepped into the Grand Tasting Village. Being newbies at this event, we didn’t plan too well, and I was completely stuffed after about 15 minutes. Sheesh! I totally should have paced myself! We were passing one fabulous restaurant after another and I kept saying… OMG! I HAVE to try this! From tiny Kobe chili dogs to tuna tartare to oxtail risotto, there was every type of food imaginable. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of writing down which food was offered by what restaurant… but everything I had was fabulous!
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February 25, 2008 | Filed Under Food Events, Kitchen Gossip

14 Critiques

Wok This Way!

Yeah, I know, cheesy title! I really did use my wok, though. :) This is an easy recipe, because it uses basic ingredients, things I usually have on hand, other than a few extra veggies. Its also very quick cooking. Start your rice when you start chopping veggies. By the time you’re finished stir-frying, the rice is cooked and ready to go. You’re eating in 20 minutes!

I have to tell you… I’m uber excited about my weekend because its the South Beach Wine and Food Festival… and yours truly is going to the Grand Tasting!!!! The Forge, Touch, and Blue Door in the Delano (where my hubby proposed) are among some of the amazing South Florida restaurants who will be offering samples of their wares. There will also be many chefs including Masaharu Morimoto, (AKA The Iron Chef) Bobby Flay and Tyler Florence from the Food Network that will be there for seminars and book signings. I am just beside myself with excitement! Thank goodness I have my own personal paparazzi with me (isn’t it great to marry a photographer?) so I’ll have photos to post next week.

I would love to go to all the events, especially the Interactive Cooking Lunch with Ming Tsai (big sigh…) but everything sold out quickly. I have been a huge fan of his for many years. When I was in Culinary School, we had to write about who we looked up to in the industry. I chose him because at the time, he had a show called East meets West. What a coincidence, that’s what I am… Japanese and American… get it? Anyway, in writing this story, I decided to send Ming an email and ask a few questions. Honestly, I never expected to hear back from him. One day… maybe a month after I had written him the email, I came home to a message on my voice mail. It was MING TSAI! Not his assistant, not the assistant to his assistant, but the real deal. He left me a very long message thanking me for the email and answering my questions. Embarrassing confession: I kept that voice mail for at least 2 years, and played it back often. I’m such a dork, I know.
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February 22, 2008 | Filed Under Asian, Chicken, Dinner

9 Critiques

The World’s Most Expensive Dessert

When I worked as a pastry chef, I was once asked to put an engagement ring in a dessert. It was on top of a chocolate bombe (half-circle) that was then encased in spun sugar. Tooootally fancy pants… and the perfect dessert to use for a romantic proposal. Of course, as it left the kitchen, I had to follow it and peek at the couple and see the proposal. Thank goodness she said yes!

Check out some of these ridiculous desserts I found on the Forbes Traveller website. I’ll take this one with the 4 carat diamond, please! :) Here’s a link to the slideshow.

February 21, 2008 | Filed Under Kitchen Gossip

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Tuxedo Strawberries

In planning our Valentines day dinner, I decided to go somewhat healthy for our dessert and chose chocolate dipped strawberries. But of course, being me, I had to make them fancy with the tuxedos. I stood in my local grocery store for about 5 minutes with two boxes of strawberries. One box consisted of two pints for $4 of regular strawberries, the other was a mere (perfect) dozen ones with the stem still on. That one was $10. I was so torn… should I spend $6 more for a fraction of the strawberries simply to have the stems? The frugal side of me took over, and I bought the less expensive ones. If I had to go back, I’d say screw it and spend the other 6 dollars! The stem really does help with the dipping process. So the moral of the story is… if you’re planning on taking the time to do tuxedo strawberries, don’t cheap out… buy the fancy strawberries with the stems!

Lobster’s in the Air…..

On Valentines Day, I have recently started to prefer staying at home and cooking Stephan a nice dinner instead of battling the crowds in restaurants. I went all out this year, and made uber-fancy lobster risotto. Can we say decadent? I’ve had lobster risotto in restaurants many times, but since I was making this at home, it was more like lobster with a bit of risotto mixed in. In the end, I probably spent more moolah than had we just gone out, but it was totally and completely worth it! We also opened up a fabulous bottle of German Ice Wine that we’ve been holding onto for quite a while.

To be honest, this is the first time I’ve cooked lobster at home. The last time I did cook lobster was in culinary school. I had this chef instructor who insisted we kill the lobsters before boiling them. This really bothered me, and that is the main reason I’ve been lobster shy for the past 8 years! This time, I tried not to look the lobster in the eye, and simply placed them into the boiling water. Not sure if that is humane either, but its better than a knife through the noggin, right? :)

I made it just like I always make my risotto, but omitted the Parmesan cheese at the end. As usual, I like to eat with my eyes first, so I added a small handful of diced red and orange bell pepper more for color than flavor. I also painstakingly cracked the claws and kept the claw meat intact for garnishing. In addition, I made a lobster stock with the shells, but you can always use chicken stock. I ended up using half lobster stock and half chicken stock so the final product wouldn’t be overly lobstery (yes, that is a word!)

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February 16, 2008 | Filed Under Dinner, Seafood

20 Critiques

You Say Potato…

It seems every time I get in the mood to bake bread, I really don’t have the time for all the rising and proofing. So I flipped through one of my favorite baking books, Baking with Julia and came across this potato bread recipe. I did make a minor change by substituting part of the all-purpose flour with wheat flour. It turned out fabulous! Heavy, chewy… everything I love about homemade bread! The best part was it was all done in about 2 hours… you just can’t get better than that!

The second day, I made pressed turkey sandwiches with this bread and it was heavenly!
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February 12, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery

9 Critiques

SoFla Bloggin’

I was interviewed by the Miami Herald about food blogging in South Florida, along with several other local bloggers. The article also mentions some of my favorite MIA bloggers, Mango and Lime and Miami Dish plus I found a few new blogs that I’ve added to my google reader. Check out the article here. Also BIG thank you to my husband Stephan for pushing me to start blogging and taking all those fabulicious images!

February 7, 2008 | Filed Under Kitchen Gossip

10 Critiques

Happy New Year!

For those that are confused, today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

While flipping through the South Florida Sun Sentinel last week, these Yin-Yang cookies caught my eye. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang represent the two primal cosmic forces in the universe… plus its pretty! I decided not to use recipe in the paper, but used the one from my checkerboard cookies from this past Christmas. Its actually much easier than the checkerboard cookies and takes less time. The result is really cool!
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February 7, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery, Sweet Tooth

18 Critiques

The Crepe Queen

When I used to work at the Four Seasons Hotel, I was always on crepe duty during the lavish Sunday Brunches. I would make the crepes ahead of time in the kitchen and I had the ability to have four pans of crepes going at once. When the pans reached the perfect temperature (with, believe it or not, little portable butane stoves!) I learned to time it perfectly. I’d pour and swirl the first pan, then the second, third and fourth. By they time I finished swirling the fourth pan, the first crepe would be ready to flip. And so on and so forth. So that…. is how I landed the lofty title of “The Crepe Queen”. I felt cocky once and tried five pans… and that was disastrous! lol

Funny story… I was working the Sunday Brunch one day, with my impeccable white chef’s jacket and mile-high chef’s toque (hat) when a group of swarthy men stopped and asked if they could have some petit fours off of the dessert table. I told them no, because it was only for those participating in the brunch. According to one of the waiters, it was the Gipsy Kings. HA! How was I supposed to know? Hehe… now I know why they looked so offended because I wouldn’t let them have a chocolate covered strawberry! Sorry guys… I do like your music!
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