The rambling recipes & travels of a home baker

An interesting tip from America’s Test Kitchen:

Pineapples do not ripen once they’re picked, so to ensure you choose a ripe pineapple at the grocery store, try this trick: With one hand, gently tug at a leaf in the center of the fruit. If the leaf releases with little effort, the pineapple is ripe. Avoid pineapples with dried-out leaves and a fermented aroma—the fruit may be overripe.

Interesting!  I never knew and always used to sniff the pineapples.  I shall have to try next time.

I just got back from a lovely weekend in San Francisco visiting my brother, college and graduate school friends. Thanks to all who hosted, drove and fed me.  You all make San Francisco such a lovely place to visit and every time I think I could move there…..alas, the house…and well, I’d have to find a job and then it just wouldn’t be as much fun….

So the title of this post is My Multicultural Belly.  It goes like this:  I arrived in San Francisco late Friday evening and my brother took me to his favorite tacqueria near the corner of 29th and Mission where we split a quesadilla and I had a fresa (strawberry drink).  

The next morning (after a late evening round of Wii tennis – Ernie crushed me, it wasn’t even fun for him) we went to Tartine Bakery and had lovely french pastries early in the morning.  We barely avoided the big crowd that lines up each day.  My favorite moment was when the toddler next to us two-handed his chocolate croissant and took a big (little) bite out of it and left his cute teeth marks! 

Later that day, I met my girlfriends at Lovejoy’s Tea Room in Noe Valley where we had High Tea chock full of tea sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, jam and shortbread.  And tea too, but quite British!  A few of us headed to Richmond to walk off the food and after short walk around Clement Street, Emily (our expectant mother who is very agile on her feet!) and I stopped into Good Luck Dim Sum (where you order at the counter and you eat in back – no rolling carts here!) and we had tasty green chive dumplings.  As my friend, Melody, once pointed out, the soy sauce is for some reason thick and sweet….

We then went over to Susan and Wen’s where I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and Wen bbq’ed some steak and Korean Kalbi Style Ribs.  The next morning, Melody and I headed to brunch at Suppenkuche in Hayes Valley where we had german breakfast – mine was called Semmelknödel mit zwei Ei und Bratwürst (Bread Dumpling with two Eggs and Bratwurst).  A simple explanation, the bread dumplings smushed into a dough pancake and pan fried, served with an over easy egg, potatoes and small bratwurst - yum.  A little damage to the credit card, some coffee at Blue Bottle (smooth decaf mocha).  A trip to see Shanon, Sean and little Finn and it all ended with a quick stop into Bay Bread on Fillmore for some tasty canneles for a repeat French Patisserie ending.

Then a quick flight home on Virgin America, which rocks and their lighting is pink and purple and you can watch TV.

What fun.  My very multicultural belly is quite full.

So, a few weeks ago, a Wellesley 2005 graduate wrote me through the alumnae network and asked about my path to the Architecture profession and my thoughts about the profession since she was a law student and here’s what I wrote:

Hi V,

Take care, hope this helped!
Marlene

I’m actually surprised I think I kind of sounded like I knew what I was talking about….

So the following is the email I sent to a friend at work who asked if I had any good food experience over the weekend when I visited my friend, Sunny, in New York City.  I just wanted to save it somewhere (and delete the email)

By the end, we had to go simple cause the food was too good.On Friday night, we went to Allen and Delancey http://www.allenanddelancey.net/menu.html which is on the Lower East side, not surprisingly at the corner of Allen Street and Delancey Street. It was a superb meal. I think every one of us (there were eight of us) had a fantastic dish and their menu is slightly different than the one online, but they had about 7 appetizers and 7 entrees and that was it. Which was really nice, esp. because all of the eaters had no food issues, all were carnivores or fish people and ate all sorts of assorted foods.For appetizer I had a fantastic rabbit terrine which was excellent and a super large portion. I tried some of my friends seared bone marrow (which I had no idea was so rich and fatty, but oh, you didn’t have to scoop it out of the bone) and another friend had the oysters. And other friends said the sea scallops were wonderfully prepared. For entrees, we were all over the place, but two friends shared the cote de boeuf, another friend had cod and I had a trout, which was a pink fish and deliciously prepared with a crispy seared skin. I tasted some of my friends’ “Cabbage beef and onion” dish which was block of beef, some cabbage stuffed with braised beef, an onion side and sliced potatoes which were seared in bacon oil/fat. Delicious. The bread! The bread was wonderful and warm. A small personal baguette and a brioche/egg type roll with bacon and sage and a sprinkling of sea salt.Desserts were excellent too, I had French toast with oatmeal ice cream and caramel sauce made with bacon (that’s a big trend I guess in New York). And other friends had a delicious molten chocolate peanut butter tart with a whiskey vanilla milkshake. That was excellent because the peanut butter really stood out. They had an assortment of housemade gelato - yogurt, buttermilk, ginger, etc…

So then the next morning, in typical new york brunch time (actually a little early), we (my best friend from college, Sunny) and I went and had lox and bagels and babka (where I first tasted it!) at a friend’s place and then trekked over to Williamsburg to get our hair cut at my friends’ hilarious dutch artist hair stylist guy (complete with concrete loft and huge canvas paintings) and then ate at Egg http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/egg/ which was again excellent, but by far the best dish was the fried chicken. Crispy and light, I don’t really know how else to say it, but definitely share cause who can eat that much fried chicken. We also had an entrée with duck and dirty rice and shared a scallop and pork belly appetizer that was good. No liquor license, so it’s byo.We had made reservations at Bar Boulud, for very late http://www.danielnyc.com/barboulud/barboulud.html but were too full, so we just made our way back to Upper West Side and got gelato at Grom http://www.grom.it/eng/pages/dove_NY.htm which is the only US outpost of this Italian shop. The Chocolate extra noir was amazingly flavorful as was the Yogurt Gelato.Also on our list, but we just couldn’t take another meal was Dovetail http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/dovetail/ http://dovetailnyc.com/ which is getting good reviews, but has a similar menu as allen and delancey, so we passed. Evidently similar chefs (both English).So much food, that the next morning we changed dim sum plans (too much pork) to just pancakes at the hole in the wall chain, Jackson Hole. Just good solid breakfast. Blueberry waffle and bacon (ok a little more pork).Um, enough info for you??

Oh wait, on Friday afternoon, before I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, I had an excellent French Onion Soup and Merguez Sausage brochette at a little French Bar with another friend and we went to this cookie place next door, called One Girl Cookie http://www.onegirlcookies.com/ I have a little box for Ming so hit her up for some cookies after I give them to her.Ha ha, bet you’ll never ask me again for a food weekend summary….. Marlene

The following is excerpted from an email newsletter (The Baker’s Chronicle) from Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table on NPR

World Peace Cookies
Excerpted from Baking: From My Home to Yours. Copyright 2006 by Dorie Greenspan. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. All rights reserved.

Makes about 36 cookies

I once said I thought these cookies, the brainchild of the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies, and I’ve never thought better of the statement. These butter-rich, sandy-textured slice-and-bake cookies are members of the sablé family. But, unlike classic sablés, they are midnight dark — there’s cocoa in the dough — and packed with chunks of hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate. Perhaps most memorably, they’re salty. Not just a little salty, but remarkably and sensationally salty. It’s the salt — Pierre uses fleur de sel, a moist, off-white sea salt — that surprises, delights and makes the chocolate flavors in the cookies seem preternaturally profound.

When I included these in Paris Sweets, they were called Korova Cookies and they instantly won fans, among them my neighbor Richard Gold, who gave them their new name. Richard is convinced that a daily dose of Pierre’s cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

3. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting Ready to Bake:

5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

6. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Lora Brody’s Rugelach
Excerpted from Rose’s Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Copyright 1990 by Cordon Rose Incorporated. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Makes 4 dozen 2 1/2-inch cookies

These are, without a doubt, the best rugelach I’ve ever tasted, and, to my mind, there is no point whatsoever in improving on perfection. From my friend Lora’s wonderful book Cooking with Memories, this recipe was passed down to her from her mother.

One of the reasons these rugelach are so special is that the dough itself contains a little sugar, making it softer and more cozy and buttery than the usual. Then there is the extra zing of tartness from the apricot preserves and the sweet, sharp sting of lots of plump golden raisins. As I mentioned, perfection! As Lora warns: “Beware, you can’t eat just one!”

Dough:

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups (sift into the cup and level off) bleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

Filling:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (firmly packed) light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup golden raisins
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup apricot preserves, well stirred

Topping:

• 1/4 liquid cup milk
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Food Processor Method:

1. Into a food processor with the metal blade, place the cream cheese. Cut the butter into a few pieces and add it with the motor running. Process until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and process until incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the flour and the optional salt and pulse in just until the dough starts to clump together.

Electric Mixer Method:

1. Soften the cream cheese and butter. In a mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter until blended. Beat in the sugar and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in the flour and the optional salt until incorporated.

For Both Methods:

1. Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and press it together to form a ball. Divide the dough into 4 portions and cover each with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Filling:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts and stir with a spatula or fork until well mixed.

2. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to sit on the counter for about 15 minutes or until it is malleable enough to roll.

3. Place 2 oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

4. Using a floured rolling pin, on a lightly floured board, roll out each dough portion, one at a time, into a 9-inch circle to a 1/8-inch thickness, rotating the dough often to be sure that it isn’t sticking. Using the back of a tablespoon, spread the dough evenly with 2 tablespoons of the apricot preserves. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the raisin-walnut filling over the preserves. Press the filling firmly and evenly over the dough. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough circle into 12 triangles or pieces of “pie.”

5. Use a thin knife, if necessary, to loosen the triangles from the board. Starting at the wide end, roll up the triangle and bend the ends around to form a slight crescent shape. Place the rugelach, point underneath, about 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 30 minutes or until firm.

6. Clean the work surface of excess filling before rolling out each batch.

7. For the topping, brush the rugelach with milk. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle the rugelach with it.

8. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned. For even baking, rotate the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking period.

9. Use a small, angled metal spatula or pancake turner to transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

10. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the freezer. Keeps 5 days at room temperature, 3 months frozen.

Christmas Vanilla Sugar Cookies
Excerpted from At Home with Magnolia. Copyright 2006 by Allysa Torey. Used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

I love this Christmas cookie recipe because the dough is very easy to handle and roll out, and the cookies look really pretty and festive with the cream-colored icing and white sugar without having to do any fancy decorating. I like to use a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter, but a regular round cutter is fine too.

Cookies:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Icing:

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

White decorating sugar, for garnish

To Make the Cookies:

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat well. Add the dry ingredients, in three parts, and mix until just combined. Shape the dough into three flat disks, wrap each disk tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch fluted cutter, cut out the cookies and place on baking sheets lined with waxed paper. Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator and chill for an additional 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degree F and grease two baking sheets.

Remove the cookies from the refrigerator and arrange on the greased baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

To Make the Icing:

In the top of a double boiler, over simmering water, combine all of the ingredients. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes until smooth. Remove from the heat, transfer to a glass measuring cup, and allow to cool to lukewarm before using.

To Ice the Cookies:

Using a pastry brush, spread a light coating of icing on each cookie and then sprinkle the decorating sugar over the icing. (Let the icing set for a few hours before stacking the cookies.)

So, KMJ went to Philly for a conference and the following was her post about the food she had there.  Sounds delicious!

Sunday night:
non-descript Viet-Thai restaurant in Chinatown.  It was good, but nothing extraordinary.
 
Monday lunch: 
Reading Terminal Market, aka Pike Place with twice as many counter eateries, is conveniently right across the street.  This is also the home to Delilah’s, featured on Oprah as having the best Mac & Cheese in the country.  She has clearly taken this endorsement to heart and planned to profit from it as the small side of Mac & Cheese, about 1 cup, is $4.50!  I ordered a combo plate with a piece of chicken, cornbread and Mac & Cheese for $7.75.  I don’t know if it’s the best in the country but it was yummy.  What I appreciated was that it was cheesy without being super saucy - I’ll have to check out the recipe.  The cornbread was also yummy - sweet and not dry.  
Reading Terminal Market: http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/
Delilah’s: http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/merchants/view/54
 
Monday dinner:
Morimoto, restaurant of the same named Iron Chef.  Very cool decor, with plasticy booths lit from within that changed color periodically.  As a group we each hit our per diem limit for the day.  We ordered a lot of food and drink:  fancy drinks, assorted apps, entrees and sushi.  Favorite app was the rock shrimp.  The tempura veggies were very Morimoto as they were served with a gorgonzola sauce - this however, while tasty separately, were an odd combination together.  Oh, and the King Crab legs - those were Tachi’s recommendation.  They were good.  For dinner I had Barramundi, fried whole, served with an asian pear salad and brown butter - miso sauce.  mmmm….
Morimoto: http://www.morimotorestaurant.com/
 
Tuesday lunch:
Back to Reading terminal - I had a ham, spinach & feta crepe.  The for dessert, a chocolate mint brownie from the Flying Monkey Patisserie, which was almost as good as the ones my mom makes - very similar in style to hers.
Flying Monkey Patisserie: http://www.flyingmonkeyphilly.com/
 
Tonight’s dinner is at Tangerine.  I’ll keep you posted!  I’m off to the gym so I can keep eating!
KJ

The following is a recipe from my friend, Pam’s dad, Hal.  This oyster stew is creamy and delicious!  The Schaeffers like to enjoy it with ham sandwiches before Christmas.

Copyright 1997 by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. All rights reserved.

Makes one 9-inch single layer cake serving 8, and doubles easily 15 minutes prep time
40 minutes oven time.

Cook to Cook: Break up the last measure of chocolate by removing from its box, but leaving it in its wrapping. Hit with the handle of a knife to shatter the bar into small pieces.

• 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (two 3.5-ounce bars of Valrhona 71%, Michel Cluizel 67% to 72%, El Rey 70%, Lindt Excellence 70%, Scharffen Berger 70%, Guittard, or Ghirardelli, in that order), broken up
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken up
• 1 stick, plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 generous tablespoons instant espresso coffee dissolved in 3 tablespoons very hot water
• 5 large eggs
• 1/3 cup all-purpose unbleached flour (measure by dipping and leveling)
• 3.5- to 4-ounce bar bittersweet chocolate, broken into bite-size pieces

Decoration:

• 1 cup powdered sugar in a sifter, or 1 cup heavy cream, whipped

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a shiny 9-inch springform pan.

2. Put the first quantities of chocolate (bittersweet and unsweetened) and the butter together in a medium-sized microwave safe bowl. Melt for 3 to 4 minutes at medium power. Check by stirring. Chocolate holds it shape when microwaved. Or melt in a heatproof bowl over simmering water.

3. With a whisk, beat together the cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, salt, espresso, and eggs until creamy. Stir in the flour to thoroughly blend. Then blend in the chocolate/butter mixture until smooth. Stir in the broken-up chocolate bar. Pour the batter into the springform pan.

4. Bake 25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out with a few generous, moist streaks of chocolate. Cool on a rack 30 minutes (you could then wrap the cake and chill it up to 2 days). Serve warm, or at room temperature.

5. To do white lace on the cake, cover it with a doily and sift the powdered sugar over it.

TIPS

• If a recipe calls for a 70% chocolate, don’t assume one with a higher percentage of cocoa solids will be even better. Premium chocolates with high percentages of cocoa solids all behave differently and you can’t necessarily interchange them. Higher percentages do mean more cocoa mass and less sugar, but they also mean more cocoa butter, which will give you a different sort of melt. For instance, if you used an 85% or 90% chocolate for the pieces the recipe has you stir in at the end, aside from being too bitter in flavor, they would melt quickly and you would lose the fudgy semi-melted chocolate effect you want in the cake.
• Pans make a difference. Use a springform pan with a shiny finish rather than a dark one to avoid excessive browning on the bottom and sides of the cake.
• Don’t over bake the cake or you’ll lose the creamy quality from the softly melted bittersweet chocolate. Test with a knife as directed in Step 4.
• Strange as it seems, a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream actually gives balance to rich, intensely flavored sweets like this cake.

My friend Fiona is a baker.  She’s one of the ones who inspired me to bake.  The following is the recipe to her mom’s strawberry pie!

Crust:
35 Graham Cracker pieces (each sheet has 4 pieces)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 stick of butter (or enough melted butter to give it consistency that you could form a crust out)

Form into a crust in a pie pan and bake for about 15 minutes until turning slightly brown. Then proceed with my mom’s instructions.

Strawberry Filling:
1 large box strawberries (I think this is a little over a pound)
2T sugar (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
2T corn starch
4oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1T sugar
1 lemon
1 pre-made or pre-baked graham cracker pie crust

Cut strawberries in half and simmer them with sugar and juice of lemon.
When slightly mushy (about 5-10 mins), add cornstarch (mixed with a little water) to saucepan.
Stir constantly until mixture reaches boil, and then simmer (keep stirring) one minute more until thickens.
Remove from heat.

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and lemon zest with electric mixer. 
Spread over bottom of crust.
Top with strawberry mixture and refrigerate.
Before serving, top with sliced strawberries and whipped cream.

It is tasty!

So the following is a message from my friend, Jonah, who just had a son a few months ago and I was giving him crap about how his cute little boy will eventually get his ultra modern, white furniture and house all dirty and sticky.  This was his response:

Marlene: haven’t you figured it out? I’ve been doing my own laundry since I was 12. I KNOW how to get my whites WHITE. So he won’t have a problem getting them dirty cuz I’lljust teach him how to clean it.

Handy tip…

For tough stains on white, use a prewash like shout or OXY clean…let sit for 5 minutes and then soak in COLD water (sometimes they have a prewash stick, which you can leave on for a whole day before you wash

After which, you may want to rub slightly to coax any remnants of the stain out

If it’s supertough, then I suggest using a little toothpaste (nothing special required, and I would stay away from the gel type toothpastes becasue thy are coloured…regular white paste) It’s better than using bleach becasue it allows you to concentrate on one specific area and it’s lighter than bleach…

Then after you get most of the stain out, machine was as normal, warm to hot water. Check after ward if the stain is out prior to drying….why? If the stain isn’t out before you dry it, it’s pretty much a done deal after you dry it. If it ain’t out, you can wash it again, or try to scrub it out even more. Generally that’s for very tough stains and it may be a forgone conclusion before you even wash it…some fabrics just won’t let the stain go…

Don’t ever use sodawater…it’s a myth….the bubbles don’t get it out…it will make the stain set faster…(I learned that from a dry cleaning expert, after someone spilled half a bottle of red wine on Phiyona’s wedding dress..HE got it out, if you can believe that!)

 And his last message was this:

I forgot one thing…you do need to brush the stain when using toothpaste….just like brushing your teeth….Jonah!  The guy who insists Tim Horton Donuts are best and that Chips Ahoy Cookies from Canada are better than the ones in the US.