Daring Bakers Challenge - August with Pierre Hermé

This month the Daring Bakers Challenge sent us on a grand adventure to make Pierre Hermé’s recipe for éclairs.

All I have to say is, "Oh no!" Now I know how to make a great choux pastry... here come the cream puffs (and more time on the treadmill). Thank you to my friends Kelly and Jocelyn who made them with me. Our batch turned out 10 eclairs, varying in size and shape but all very nice and worth the effort. We shared one immediately after glazing and my, oh my... we accomplished a very good thing.

Canning season is here!

When I was a kid my family grew most of the food we needed. My father was a hunter so we always had venison, game birds, and elk in the freezer plus we had chickens for eggs and two very large gardens for produce and root vegetables. We also had a small orchard and berry patches that would produce fruits for jams, jellies, and pies. Growing up where I did, there were also several small dairies around for cream and cheese, and the woods surrounding out home provided wild blueberries, black berries, and mushrooms. The land truly gave us enough to live on!

Summer was filled with activities like canning beans, beets, tomatoes, peaches, and pears in between playing in the corn fields and building forts in the woods. We even canned cucumbers to make our own pickles with dill that we grew. June and July brought Strawberries and Rhubarb for making a delicious sauce, served warm over home made vanilla ice cream from our hand cranked ice cream maker. Late summer brought new potatoes that would carry into the Fall and ultimately the crop would be stores in the basement and used all winter long.

I learned how to can and preserve at an early age and delighted in hearing the sizzle of the pressure cooker and the "thwack!" of the canning lid as it's seal took. Throughout the Wisconsin winter we would eat what we canned, knowing how our food was grown, prepared, and preserved. My Mom did everything very naturally, canning with salt and spices.

When my husband and I bought out home I had immediate plans for the garden and now we're ready to enjoy our own home grown produce. I purchased a Ball Home Canning kit this year. It's got a lot of the same tools that my Mom and Grandma used when they canned, many of which are hard to find on their own. I had to order the kit online because I couldn't find any stores in my area that sold it! This actually surprised me because Slow Food is on the rise right now and I thought there would be some demand. Anyway, I will be canning my first batches of tomato sauce this weekend made from the tomatoes that we have grown. I'm estimating that I should be able to put up at least 20 pints of tomato sauce this summer for use over the next few months. I'll be sure to post my results after the weekend.

Breakfast with Julia

Enjoying breakfast in Julia Child's Paris neighborhood











I once spent 5 hours in the waiting room of a Ford auto service department watching Julia Child on PBS. It was perhaps the most entertaining and food-lesson-filled 5 hours of my life. I took notes, paid attention to details, gave dirty looks to anyone who attempted to change the channel, and laughed when Julia wrestled with a "big glorious beast" as she described a huge roast she was working with. So, when I visited Paris last month I made a point to walk down Rue de L'university to find Julia and Paul Child's former home where Julia's love of cooking began. Julia talked about the house in many interviews I've watched over the years and the way she described the kitchen was hilarious.

When Julia and Paul moved to France in 1949 they lived in a delightful neighborhood at 81 Rue d L'Universite in Paris' 7th arrondissement near the Musee D'Orsay and across the river from the Louvre. Julia adoringly called the building “Roo de Loo" and described the kitchen there as a third floor disaster, connected to the dining room by a dumb-waiter. The kitchen had an huge black stove that required coal to heat the two burners it had, and a box-oven that could barely warm plates, much less bake a brioche. There was a sink with no hot water and the pipes froze in the winter. So, Julia did what she could with the kitchen, putting the recipes and techniques she was learning at Le Cordon Bleu to use.


Below is a photo of 81 Roo de Loo as it is today. When I stood across the street to take this photo I thought about Julia, a new wife who couldn't boil water much less make a loaf of bread, dragging bags of fresh produce through the blue doors and up the stairs to her third floor coal stove.























Julia, if she were still with us today, would be celebrating her 96th birthday this month - Happy Birthday, Julia, wherever you may be :)

Croissants with Julia

I've been wanting to make croissants for a few weeks after being inspired to bake more complex recipes during my recent trip to France. Passing the boulongerie windows and their napoleons, pavlovas, baguettes, and croissants was inspiring! But, making complex pastries calls for an occasion! It's not like you can just whip up some dough and have a croissant with dinner. These babies take time, patience, and 1.25 pounds of butter!

This month Julia Child would be 96 years old if she were still roaming the Earth in search of her next great meal. What better way to honor her memory than baking one of her recipes! So, after contemplating my work out schedule (exercise is very necessary if croissants are in the picture) I invited my friends Jocelyn and Kelly over for a baking day (we made a few recipes, and I'll post about those another day).

I've only made croissants a few times in my life but each time I've used the recipe from Baking With Julia and they have turned out really well. And afterall, who better to "teach" anyone how to bake any French recipe than the ultimate authority on French cooking, butter, and baking in America.

Croissants aren't difficult to make, they're just time consuming. Julia's recipe takes a minimum of 16 hours of prep but don't let that scare you - there are plenty of rest periods along the way. The initial dough has to be chilled over night or a minimum of 8 hours. Then, once the butter is pounded, shaped, and incorporated into the dough, the dough must be rolled out and folded four times, leaving a 2-hour chilling time between each roll and fold session. Then, once the croissants are rolled and shaped, they need to rise until they are 3-times their initial size.

Rather than explain the entire recipe, I'll let you go on the adventure of trying them out for yourself. Here are a few photos from our attempt that may help guide you along the way!

Making the dough



















Rolling out the dough for the 8 hour chill

















pounding the butter into a rectangle to be folded into the dough



















with the butter incorporated, this is flip/roll number one of four



















The croissants are shaped and allowed to rise



















The finished buttery products















I think Julia would be proud that we attempted her croissant recipe and came out successful! Bon Apetit!

Housewife Tip: Parchment paper is very necessary to this recipe. If you don't line your baking sheets with it, your croissants will be swimming in a pool of butter and won't crisp up on the bottom as much as they should. We greased our baking sheets rather than used parchment because I didn't have any left.

Thai cooking lesson

A friend of mine went to Thailand recently and took a one day cooking lesson. She offered to come over and bring some recipes to show me what she had learned so, I gladly accepted the offer.

I learned about lemongrass...

Lemongrass is used as an herb in Asian cooking, particularly Vietnamese, Thai, and Malaysian dishes as well as some Caribbean recipes. It has a citrus essence and when used fresh the stalk itself is too hard to be eaten. Lemongrass is used for to infuse flavor. There is a softer inner part of lemongrass that can be eaten but I've not tried it.

Below are a few of the dishes that we made over the course of the evening.

Tom Kha Gai (coconut chicken soup with lemongrass)











Pad See Ew (wide rice noodles with bamboo shoots, broccoli, and chicken)












I have read recently that lemongrass can also be grown at home by leaving the stalks in a glass of water for a few weeks until they sprout small roots. The grass can then be transplanted to soil so... I'm going to have to give it a try.

Recipes
Pad See Ew
Tom Kha Gai

PS - Apologies for the less than good photography on this one. It was a rather warm evening in the kitchen!

Meat, it's science, people!

My husband likes to watch America's Test Kitchen, especially if the topic has anything to do with grilling meat. We seem to have a problem with getting the correct doneness without drying the meat out or turning it into a black brick before we can eat it. We've tried low and slow, high and fast, marinated, oiled, foiled, and broiled and we just can't seem to get steaks done quite right.

Recently my husband watched an episode where the A.T.K folks talked about a trick to juicy, not charred steaks on the grill so, of course he had to try it out on an eye of round steak that we picked up. I admit, I was skeptical but, knowing that there's chemistry involved in cooking meats, I was game. Here's what you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 290-degrees
2. Pat the meat dry and place it on a baking sheet, seasoned
3. Leave the meat in the oven for 5 minutes and turn it over
4. Leave the meat in the oven for 5 more minutes and take it out
5. Place on the grill and finish cooking to your desired doneness (for us, that's Medium)

The steaks turned out perfectly! They didn't stick to the grill, they stayed juicy inside and they were tender and delicious. They even had those fancy grill marks that you pay big bucks for in a steak house. I was impressed!

Housewife Tip - So, because I had to know why all of this works, I did some research. The low oven heat removes moisture from the surface of the meat which would normally be the first thing a flame goes for and, the low heat begins to break down the protiens in the meat rather than just "grill kill" them, giving you a tender steak every time.

My tomato garden

There is nothing like a home grown tomato - fresh from the vine, still warm from the summer sun. In the Winter, tomato products at our house (aside from the fresh ones for salads) are the result of our summer garden. So far, so good - we have had success growing tomatoes four years in a row now and, each year we have been able to preserve enough tomato sauce, pasta sauce, and tomato juice to make it through the rainy California winter. A few years ago, my husband and I started a tradition of planting our tomato garden on the weekend following St Patricks day. This may seem early to some but, with a little careful pampering, we have been able to make the early start work for us.

Here is a photo of planting day...



















We planted the following varieties:

Mamma Mia (for sauce and juice)
Early Girl (because we can't wait!)
Sweet 100's (nothing like picking clusters for immediate salad use)
Yellow Pear (so unique and they can be eaten like candy from the vine)
Cherry (I like how they explode in casseroles and one pot meals)

Brandywine Heirloom (I adore their juicy sweetness and rich color for Caprese)
Green Zebra Heirloom (a slightly citrus flavor and fun color)


Below are photos taken on June 29 - 3 months after planting

































We have been enjoying Sweet 100's and Cherry tomatoes for a few weeks now and tonight, we had our first Early Girl's with dinner. Below are some photos of what I picked tonight and a preview of the gorgeous Brandywine's that are ripening.


































I'm looking forward to trying this recipe from VeganYumYum for tomato basil cream pasta this weekend.

Cupcakes of London

Hummingbird Red Velvet












On my recent trip to London I decided to visit a few cupcake shops in addition to my usual stop at Hummingbird Bakery for a red velvet cupcake. I only had one, yes, one red velvet cupcake at Hummingbird this time. I was proud of my ability to abstain from my usual two of three (hey, they're that good).

Wandering the streets of Chelsea I found Buttercup, a shop that I have read a lot about but had never been to. I was so happy to see their little green storefront with a window full of cupcakes and stepped in to start my decision making process. I knew it might be tough but oh, what to have? Coconut, chocolate, peanut butter, cookies and cream... the choices! As it turns out, Buttercup is celebrating their first anniversary and the shop was decorated for the celebration. I enjoyed the staff, the ambiance, and most of all... the red velvet. Donna's red velvet cake has a light crumb and spongy texture that I look for in a cupcake. The cake to icing ratio is perfect - just enough to smear a little on the lower half of the cupcake that usually goes ignored.

Buttercup Cookies and Cream


















Buttercup Red Velvet
















In Notting Hill I found Cookie Girl, aka Xanthe Milton, selling her cupcakes at the Portobello Road Market. Maybe I've been under a rock because come to find out Cookie Girl has a Web site and popular cookie following and, she has a book coming out in 2009. The cupcakes were whimsically decorated and I gladly bought a sample. Because this was my first time even hearing about Cookie Girl and tasting her cupcakes I went for the standard vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. Disappointing was the first word that came to mind when I broke open the attractive little cake to inspect the crumb. The cake was dry and over baked, leaving a 1/4" brown ring around the edge. The cake was very dry and didn't taste much like vanilla at all - it really didn't taste like anything. The icing was nice - it had that slightly grainy texture that I appreciate in homemade butter cream and, the icing probably holds up well in heat (most butter creams do not). I look forward to giving Cookie Girl cupcakes another try the next time I breeze through on market day.



Cookie Girl Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Butter Cream













Housewife Tip: This is just word of mouth but, I have been told on two different occasions by two different cupcake connoisseurs that the popular Candy Cakes is a bit of a factory front. Rumor has it that Candy Cakes claim their cakes are "baked fresh daily" in their shops are really thawed daily in their shops. That's right - supposedly they come out of the freezer to thaw, are decorated, and sold as fresh baked. I didn't have time to explore this rumor on my own and I repeat, this is just a rumor among cupcake connoisseurs in London. On my next visit, I plan to find out for myself. Have you been to Candy Cakes? If so, please post your experience.

The Return of the Housewife

Thank you for the emails while I was away! I did not abandon ship, I simply set anchor and visited land... a foreign land... actually, two foreign lands.

I was in the UK for a week working with my English colleagues and then I took some time off to visit France for another week. I'm still gathering thoughts and sorting photos but I can share this photo of the view from my Paris hotel room with you all for now.


















Just imagine all of the culinary delights that exist within this view... ohh la la!

Bonjour!
Le Housewife