Fasnacht, Krapfen or whatever else you want to call them!

My childhood memories are steeped in food traditions, maybe that is why food is an integral part of my life and why I am constantly striving to give that to my girls.  Today is Shrove Tuesday- I never knew many people who celebrated this as a kid but in our house my mother always made Fasnacht.  Again, for years I asked people if they did this and not one person knew what the hell I was talking about.  In fact, I never knew until we moved to Austria that Fasnacht is actually Shrove Tuesday in German- it also refers to the the donuts we ate, however,  in Austria the donuts are called Krapfen and they are filled with Apricot Jam and dusted with sugar.  They arent very sweet as well- actually all sweets in Vienna are not very sweet even though they look it, I think that is actually why you can have a slice of cake in the afternoon and it doesn't send you into a sugar coma.

Anyway, I chose to make a yeast raised donut this year.  My mother makes the dough with potato but I left it out and went the purist route.  I had high hopes of sending the girls to school this morning with sugared chins and I even made the dough last night.  But as with all great intentions something went wrong.... as in I overslept!  So I had to tell them they could have them after school instead.  I cut them in the diamond shape my Mother always made and let them rise again for about 30 minutes and fried them up in some Crisco until puffed on brown on one side then flipped them to finish off.  Once I took them out to drain on paper bags I dusted them heavily with powdered sugar and called the neighbor kids to come and get them.  They were pretty good and all were happy!

Triple Chocolate Mousse

I'm going to start by saying I don't often make sweets....  I love them, but face it- I don't need them and neither does anyone else in this house.  But here something I have made recently.....  for a clients' dinner party.

Triple Chocolate Mousse- this simple french dessert was something that a client asked me to make for a plated dinner party so I immediately thought I had to do one better then straight chocolate- So I made 3 different chocolate mousses and served them in a martini glass!  (FYI anything served in a martini glass is elevating it to super stardom status in your guests eyes)  I have made chocolate mousse maybe once ever and to be honest I couldn't even remember how to make it so I started looking around online to see what my options were.  I wanted something stable that could hold up through the dinner and be really yummy so I went with making a custard base and separating it into 3 bowls and adding 3 different chocolates: white, milk and dark.  A custard is so simple really and very versatile so I would suggest everyone know how to make it- you can then take you base and make it sweet OR savory- as in the case of roasted vegetable bread pudding (yum) with a roasted garlic custard.  Ok, I digress so back to the chocolate mousse recipe.

A proper custard recipe:

Cream or Whole Milk steeped with Flavoring  (Vanilla bean in this case)
Egg Yolks whisked with sugar- you want the eggs to be light yellow and billowy
pinch of salt

the tricky part of technique here is combining hot milk with eggs..... so you temper it by starting with a ladle of hot milk and rapidly whisking it into the eggs.  You want to bring the temp of the eggs up closer to the cream so you don't shock them and make some sweet scrambled eggs.... literally.  Once you get a few ladles in and are happily whisking away pour the mix back into the saucepan with the rest of the cream.  DO NOT STOP WHISKING for about a minute or so.  Then put the pan over lowish heat and switch to a wooden spoon.  (I think a flat edged wooden spoon is the best)  Once you have heated your custard to the point where you get big flubby bubbles coming to the surface, you are done.  Since I was making triple chocolate mousse, I separated the custard into three bowls to cool.  I melted three different chocolates- white, milk and dark.  When everything was coolish I folded them together along with a little whipped cream.  Then I layered these beauties into Martini glasses and set them in the fridge to set up.  When it was time to serve, I brought them to room temp and added a raspberry and dark chocolate shavings... tada.......  instant hit!

My most memorable dish

I have eaten in a lot of places.  I find that eating street food in a foreign country can rank just as high as a 16 course dinner at Joel Rubuchon.  It is about the moment that you are in.. at the moment!  The most memorable thing I have ever eaten has to be an egg yolk ravioli over wilted spinach with black truffle.  It was at Artner in Vienna, Austria.  I totally loved this dish and had never had anything like it.  It won me over so much that here I am 3 years later still talking about it and trying to replicate it.  Until then I had never heard of a runny egg yolk encased in fresh pasta over anything.  Since then I have done some online research and found that it is a pretty old Italian dish.  I also have talked about this with a lot of people and gotten a lot of input about recreating this dish.

This time (virgin run) I wanted to go pretty simple, pretty traditional.  So I started out making some semolina pasta dough.  I think you can even buy the fresh pasta sheets here and use it.  Then I made a ricotta mixture- fresh garlic, ricotta, s&p, and lemon zest.  After I cut out the squares to build my ravioli I put a little spoonful of ricotta, making sure to create a well to hold the egg yolk.  Trick to the egg yolks... use VERY FRESH & VERY COLD EGGS.  Once you get this part together- wet the edges and press another square of pasta over top..... be very careful at this point.... I broke two completely before I even got going!    Then I popped them in the fridge to get very cold.  I boiled some heavily salted water and separately wilted some spinach in a saute pan.  Once the water was rolling I dropped in the ravioli and let it simmer away.  I didn't want it to be to over cooked so I let it go about 2.5, 3 minutes total.  I plated the spinach as the base and the ravioli over top, then I drizzled some black truffle butter over it all and grated some fresh black truffle for good measure.  Since I was feeding the family I had some roasted Chilean Sea Bass as well.

FYI, everyone loved it.

Next time I would certainly jazz it up- as someone suggested a base of duxelle in place of ricotta would be delish or using quail eggs.... all great ideas for another endeavor.

French Onion Soup

I do love French Onion Soup but everytime I order it out, it is waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too salty and I hate it.

I remember as a kid going with my sister and my parents to this french bistro called Marcels in Dutchess County NY.  We went often, like probably every other week.  My families weakness (one of them) is eating out.  We all love it!  This was back in the day, pre kids menus, pre chicken nugget days that our kids seem to live on.  So you had to order something off the menu or ask them to make you something a little special.  Also, if you went to dinner with my parents it wasn't an in and out affair- it was going to take awhile!  As a child you occupied yourself, looking under the table, taking many many trips to the bathroom, walking around in the bar etc.  Anything until your parents finished their espresso and anniesette.

Alex (my sister) always ordered Garlic Green Beans and French Onion Soup, me- Steak au Poivre and bread.  I remember having some of her soup everytime but the best part was the burnt gruyere around the edges of the crock and a spoonful of the onions...  ahhhh bliss!

I decided recently to make French Onion Soup at home....  I even made the beef stock!  If I had a skinny weird mustache I would twirl it or make some other gesture right now.  I even went for the super slow caramelization of the onions- I usually have a habit of not being able to wait for my onions to caramelize so I adjust the heat as the cooking process moves along- I also add sugar and salt which really helps.  After I cooked the onions till they were pretty much melting I deglazed with marsala, I have used sherry as well in the past.  This just gives you another layer of flavor in the onions.  Chardonnay works well too!  Then I sprinkle in a few tablespoons of all purpose flour and stir it around till the flour taste cooks out- a few minutes.  Then I start pouring in the stock and whisking the floured onion mixture.  Once it is all incorporated I switch to a wooden spoon with a flat edge and make sure I get up all the brown bits on the bottom.  I bring this to a boil and let it thicken.

At this moment in time I have one oven proof soup bowl (so sad I know).  so I ladled in some soup with onions and added a slice or two of toasted baguette- then I added grated gruyere to the top and popped it into the oven, under the broiler.  It didn't get as crispy browned as I like but this soup was really killer.  It wasn't too salty and I ended up using it as a base for another soup for a client the next day.  I would totally make this again- but seriously I need to get some bowls I can really blast in the oven!

The recipe goes a little like this:

Stock:
beef bones with some meat on them
couple of carrots peeled and cut into chunks
1 spanish onion chopped
2 stalks of celery chopped
bay leaf
pepper salt
h2o

Soup:
4 spanish onions halved then sliced thin
butter/olive oil (couple of tablespoons)
wine of your choice to deglaze
fresh thyme leaves
dusting of flour
toasted or stale baguette slices
grated gruyere

*oven proof bowls!!!!

after making stock and straining start with the onions....

in a wide saute pan melt butter oil mix, add onion slices, fresh thyme leaves, sprinkle with s&p and a spoonful of sugar to hurry it along...  cook, stirring pretty frequently until pretty golden brown.  DONT LET IT BURN.  once they are as dark as you think will work add the flour and stir for a few more minutes, deglaze with wine.  Then start adding ladles of your stock and whisking around so you don't have lumps etc.  Add the rest of the stock and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Taste it at this point and see if you need more s&p or anything else really.  Once it has the balance you like then ladle it into a bowl- add the bread slices and finish with the grated cheese.  Broil this until brown and crispy around the edges.

At the point of checking your seasoning you can stop and cool the soup down to store as well- keep it sealed up in the fridge till you want it!  Remember though to heat it through before you put it under the broiler.

French Nougat.... oooh lala

A few years ago I was in Provence for a few weeks with my family and some friends.  It was pretty awesome- we did not much more then let the kids swim in the pool at the villa, eat and go to open air markets.  Literally, I think Jill and I drove to every market in the area and did nothing but shop, walk around and look and eat….. Can’t ask for more than that!

One of the things that I saw and loved was nougat.  I have a sweet tooth though it isn’t enormous.. but the look of these “cakes” of nougat really got to me.  They had different flavors and were sold by weight and in slices.  It was awesome!  I have not seen this type of nougat again until recently.  Walking through the bakery dept at Whole Foods I saw some slices prepackaged, they even had a couple of flavors.  I picked up one (a slice was about $10) and took it home.  It was a traditional Almond flavor and it was really delicious with its sweet almost airy texture and whole crunchy almonds laced throughout.  It didn’t taste as fresh or as yummy as the ones in France but it really made me start thinking about it again.  And of course I thought…. I can make this.  I tried looking it up online and found tons of recipes all slightly varying for nougat or torrone or whatever else its called. 

I found a recipe that I thought would work- honey, sugar, water, corn syrup and almonds.  One thing it called for was a candy thermometer ….. which I don’t have any longer since someone broke it last year.  (Shows how much I use it!)  So I had to guess using my meat thermometer that only goes up to …. 200 degrees. 

I gave it a try and it looked great- not the nougat I was looking for but it was pretty damn good looking and I was impressed!  I let it sit overnight to “cure” sort of like marshmallows (which I am awesome at making).  The next day it looked good and I took it out of the pan, I cut it and put the slice on a piece of plastic wrap, it tasted good but when I looked over at the “cake” it had started to move!  It was sort of having the silly putty effect where you put it in one place and it just relaxes and spreads out….  I quickly shoved it back into the pan where it all miraculously went back together like I had never removed a slice!  So- obviously the thermometer was important after all and my “guesstimating at the temp didn’t work….. 

All said, I am not giving up on my French nougat…..  

The way it looks when I get home from the store...

I read food and cooking blogs just like everyone else.  I do it to see what other people are up to and to gather inspiration.  Sometimes I see these photos and I think JESUS CHRIST- how is it possible to go out, shop, drag it all home (thank you MoCo bag tax, now my life is not much different then living in Austria, having to bring all my own damn bags to the store), unpack, put it away and then start cooking.  Ok, just writing all that made me tired and I need to put my feet up! 

So, this is what it looks like when I get home from the grocery store….. look familiar?

How about when I cook something walk into another room and the two whippets counter surf and sample some of the goods?  At Christmas this year I bought a frozen raspberry tarte from TJ’s.  When I walked back into the kitchen the berries were gone!  After yelling at the dogs (who all scatter immediately) it turns out it was Cami- So, go figure.

Generally, I never cook one thing at a time.  I think if I did I would be a lot calmer and happier.  But I live in my world where I have to make several dishes for several people including my own.  I am able to multi task and keep it all going but it can be exhausting.  At the end I am sometimes sick of my own food and can’t wait to go home take a shower and go out to dinner.

The Holidays

I know I said I would be inspired everyday and write a little bit….. but the holidays hit as they always do- not enough done ahead of time, work, family, events etc.  We are all in the same boat!  Years ago I baked a LOT of cookies every Christmas, now I am lucky if I get one batch done!  I start out with the best intentions…..  but like everything else I grab those few minutes of staring at the Christmas tree and thinking about wrapping up the year and beginning anew when I can.  Usually that means on the couch with one of these…

This is my small recap of the holidays this year.  I did bake a couple of cookies but I am ashamed to admit they were from a box!  All in all they worked out- pretty, festive and yummy.  I made one batch of from scratch dough that they kids cut out, baked and decorated on Christmas Eve for Santa. 

I do love Christmas, it was such a magical time in my childhood and I hope I have made it that way for the girls!  This year was the first time I really saw them as getting older, wanting the old traditions but really moving onward in their lives.  Amazing to watch.

2011 went out like a lion and 2012 came in like a lamb- quiet and full of new promises.  Dim Sum on New Years Eve and Pulling out all the stops on New Years Day to ensure some good fortune and luck- Black Eyed Peas, Lentil Soup, Long Noodles, a few shavings of my own gift: a Perigord Black Truffle and of course a bottle of Veuve Cliquot.  Here is hoping 2011 is a good one for all of us. (keeping my fingers crossed of course)