Food is Food

Cupcakes are cute and affordable and remind many people of their childhood birthday parties, but they were never a favorite of mine. That’s not to say I don’t have a favorite pastry from childhood. I do. It’s the éclair.

Growing up I always scoured the bakery case for chocolate éclairs The crunchy eggy pastry, the creamy filling and chocolate glaze were much more appealing than any sugar cookie or cupcake. Their appeal has not diminished and In recent years I’ve had some very memorable éclairs including a massive one at Cake Love in Washington DC and delicate skinny ones glazed with matcha and black sesame at Sarahau Aoki in Tokyo.

Though the oblong pastry made from pate a choux and filled with pastry cream and originally called the Petite Duchesse has been around since the 1800's, according to some reports I read last year (from David Lebovitz, The Independent and even the Financial Times) éclairs have become quite trendy in Europe recently. They certainly haven’t hit critical mass here yet. But perhaps that’s about to change.

Last week I got a chance to meet the James Beard award-winning pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini as he kicked off his “Éclair Diaries” a motorcycle adventure to find inspiration for 8 new éclairs for the Le Meridien hotels. As part of the program, each hotel will offer modern versions of three signature éclair flavors – coffee, chocolate and vanilla in addition to one locally inspired flavor created by Iuzzini.

In San Francisco he shared his coffee cardamom éclair topped with bits of edible gold leaf, crunchy chocolate balls and nibs and a bit of flaky salt. The coffee cardamom eclair recipe will be in his upcoming cookbook. After his kickoff at the Le Meridien he was heading out to visit bakeries including Craftsman and Wolves as well as local farmers markets and a distillery and to forage with Chef Daniel Patterson, all to get his creative juices flowing. What will the San Francisco éclair be? We will just have to wait to find out.

With different fillings and toppings, there might be infinite variations of the eclair. Much like, you know, cupcakes.

Yummy dinner idea, from Swedish dairy giant Arla's new summer cookbook. The original idea was to make oblong meatballs, fry them, and then thread on skewers and heat on the grill, but I'm certainly not heating up the grill just to re-heat a little meat. Seems wasteful to me. So, we did small meatballs instead and then placed them on skewers.

Completely optional, of course. I thought it would entice our kids but.. well. Not so sure that worked. Dante ate five before we served the pasta, but after that, he wouldn't touch them. Titus had a tiny bite and declared that he didn't like them. Oh well. I loved them!

Lamb Meatballs
500 g lamb mince
1 red chili
zest from 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, minced
100 ml milk
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
butter to fry

Mix everything together, and shape small meatballs. Fry in butter until cooked through. Serve on skewers if you want to, or not - it's totally up to you.

Creamy Risoni
1 onion, finely minced
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tbsp butter
200 ml risoni (rice-shaped pasta)
1000 ml water
salt
1 tsp olive oil

Melt the butter, and gently fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes until softened and fragrant. Add the risoni, water and salt, and cook for ten minutes. Drain, and stir in the oil. Serve with the suggested toppings. (If you don't have picky kids, serve on a large platter. If you do though, I suggest having the toppings in separate bowls...)

Toppings:
crumbled feta cheese
finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
pomegranate seeds
cucumber
toasted pine nuts

I have to tell you about a marvelous baking book called Nytt Fikabröd! (Fikabröd means.. well, cakes and cookies and anything you'd have with a cup of coffee, basically. Nytt means new.) The authors, Jessica Frej and Maria Blohm, have already written about bread but have now made this new book as well. It's not out yet, but I've seen a review copy - and what can I say? It's good news for all gluten-intolerant people out there. It'll be released on August 8.

I've tried one recipe from it so far, and it was a huge success. I won't give away the recipe - but perhaps I can publish a version of it later on.

Browned butter makes everything better - even the eternal Swedish favorite chocolate balls. Browning the butter makes the flavors much more intense and caramelized. Yummy!

Brown butter chocolate balls

110 g butter

50 g dark chocolate

400 ml oats

110 g sugar

1/2 tbsp vanilla powder

3 tbsp cocoa

3 tbsp espresso

salt

To decorate:
Pearl sugar or coconut

Place the butter in a small saucepan, ideally one with a light inside color. Heat until it's caramel-colored, or maybe a little bit deeper. It will smell heavenly.

Chop the dark chocolate and place in a bowl. Pour over the hot butter, and wait for a minute. Stir until smooth. Next, stir in the oats, sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder and espresso, and a little pinch of salt.

Place in the fridge to firm up, then shape very small balls and roll in pearl sugar. Some prefer shredded coconut, I'll leave that up to you.

I wanted a zesty, fruity sauce with high acidity to go with a duck breast. I'm not a sauce cook, really, but this one turned out great! As you can see, with ate this with noodles and veggies, but it's also great with rice.

Makes enough for four people, with perhaps a little leftovers.

Orange Sauce
2 tbsp sugar

4 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 oranges - juice and zest

1 tbsp concentrated veal stock

250 ml white wine

Salt

1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp water

1 tbsp butter

Start by mixing sugar and vinegar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and keep cooking until the mixture turns a light caramel. Remove from heat, and add in orange juice (but reserve the zest for later!), veal stock, wine and salt. Cook on high heat until it reduces quite a bit - perhaps for 5 minutes. Lower the heat and cook for an additional 5, maybe 10 minutes.

Stir the corn starch with the water and add to the pan. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes, until it thickens. If it's too thick, add more water. If it's perfect, add the orange zest, whisk in the butter, and serve.

I wanted to try out my Chef'n Sweet Spot ice cream maker, but I didn't have that much cream at home, and I was too lazy to go shop. I looked around for a frozen yogurt recipe, couldn't find any that I liked, and decided it was easy enough to improvise. Was it? Yes, it was.

Here's what it looks like "in progress"

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
4 small servings

400 g Turkish (or greek) yogurt - about 10% fat
50 g cream (full-fat)
100 g sugar (I used a nice organic raw sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir together. Chill, and then churn - in an ordinary ice cream machine, or if you're lucky enough to have one of the Sweet Spots, in that. It'll turn out lovely and creamy and perfect as a base for whatever mix-ins you want. Titus chose gummy bears, and I had some already-cooked cherries (that I used for homemade cherry soda!) in the fridge that were perfect to fold in.

Yummy! And not horribly bad for you, either. Now I'll have to buy some cream so I can make a proper ice cream base - the kids weren't crazy about the yogurt-ness of this, they're pretty picky...

I had leftover strawberries after Midsummer, turning a little soft and mushy. What to do? Jam. Obviously.

So. I used 500 g of strawberries, zest and juice from one lemon, and seeds from one vanilla bean. I blitzed this quickly with a stick blender, then added 400 g of jam sugar (with pectin). I let it sit for about an hour, then boiled it vigorously for five minutes. And that was that. Done.

Made three small jars. (And a half, actually.)

Hands down my son's favorite food. We only eat it when it's just the two of us, or maybe when we're three - never when my husband's home though. It's our little special treat. No real recipe, just a sketch...

Fry some bacon in a pot. Add corn - from a can or frozen is fine. Cook on high heat until it starts to smell a little like popcorn. Add a little flour and stir it in well. Gradually add milk. Cook until it's thickened a little. Stir in creme fraiche and a spoonful of chives. Season with salt if you need it, and ground white pepper.

Lovely.

Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Cookies
about 50 small cookies

185 g butter, softened
150 g brown sugar
140 g white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
70 g ground hazelnuts
130 g toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
210 g flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
300 g chocolate (I used about 75 g dark, the rest milk chocolate)

Start by beating the butter with both sugars until very fluffy and well combined. Add the vanilla and the eggs, and keep beating until smooth.

In a separate bowl, mix ground hazelnuts, chopped hazelnuts, flour, salt, baking soda and chocolate. Add this to the cookie batter and mix until combined.

Chill for at least one hour. Use a cookie scoop or your hands to shape balls - I make these pretty small, about the size of a small walnut. Place on a cookie sheet (I could fit 12) and bake at 175°C for about 8 minutes.

I also freeze the un-cooked cookie-scoops, and bake directly from frozen. In that case, you might want to add a minute or two to the cooking time.

I know, I don't usually write recipes with multiple components. Maybe I should though, because lately I've been gravitating towards those kinds of recipes myself. I'm often so tired and with so little fantasy for menu planning, and it's really nice to get suggestions for things that go together. This recipe, just like many others I've been posting recently, was adapted from Samantha Larsen's cookbook. It's built just like that - around meals, rather than individual dishes. Just the thing for this mama! As always, the measurements and ingredients vary slightly from the original, to make this my own - and I encourage you to do the same.

It's certainly not the most authentic Indian Chicken Tikka Masala. I know that! But bear with me and try this - it's delicious. And do make the sides, at least the spicy cauliflower & cashew because that was just wonderful. In fact, I can't wait to make it again.

I know this looks like an awfully long recipe, but don't despair.

Chicken Tikka (kind of)
4 chicken breasts

marinade:
100 ml yogurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp garam masala
1 garlic clove, minced
1 red chili, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato purée

sauce:
1/2 tbsp neutral oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
400 ml (1 can) crushed tomatoes
1 chicken stock cube
300 ml cream
3 tbsp apricot preserves
lemon juice to taste

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade, and let the chicken rest in it for at least an hour.

For the sauce, heat the oil (I use canola) in a heavy saucepan. Add the spices and fry on medium heat until very fragrant. Add the onion and garlic and fry until soft. Add the tomatoes and the chicken stock cube and cook for ten minutes. Add the cream and cook for another five minutes and then finally the apricot preserves. Season with salt and some lemon juice.

When ready to cook, heat some oil in a frying pan and brown the chicken before removing to a roasting pan. Cover with the sauce and cook in the oven, at 175°C, for about 20 minutes.

Serve with rice and some fresh bread. (And all of the following sides, if you wish.)

Spicy Cauliflower & Cashews
1 small head of cauliflower
1 tbsp canola oil
1 onion, in fine wedges
100 ml cashew nuts
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp mango chutney
3 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

Divide the cauliflower into small florets. Heat the oil and fry the spices and the florets on medium heat for five minutes. Add the onions and cashews and fry for a few more minutes. Stir in the mango chutney, and finally the coriander. Season with salt and pepper if you wish.

Melon Salad with cucumber
1 small cantaloupe melon
1/2 cucumber
large handful fresh mint, chopped
1 lime
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp canola oil

Peel and seed both melon and cucumber. Cut into large dice. Zest the lime, and stir together with the juice, brown sugar, oil and mint. Toss with the cucumber and melon.

Raita
300 ml yogurt
1/2 tsp dried mint
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garam masala

Stir together everything and leave in the fridge for at least an hour to let the flavors mingle.

Food is Food

Category

Blog Archive

Make way for Éclairs!

Lamb Meatballs & Creamy Risoni

New Gluten-Free cookbook

Brown butter chocolate balls

Orange Sauce

Vanilla (Cherry) Frozen Yogurt

Strawberry Jam

Quick dinner or lunch - corn soup

Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Cookies

Chicken Tikka (kind of) with spicy cauliflower & cashews, melon salad and raita

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