I Thought "Tartar" Referred To A People Group...

This was originally written back during the first week of October... forgot to post it. Oops!

School started and things got a little busy. I have been cooking, just not doing a great job blogging about it.

My most recent adventure was the result of an impetuous, last minute Sunday Dinner invitation I extended to some dear friends. I wasn't too stressed because I knew I had most of the meal under control. Appetizer ... piece of cake - had a beautiful head of Romaine in the crisper, some tangy pepperoncinis and a delicious Balsamic Walnut and Blue Cheese dressing I picked up at Berry Town Produce (a farmer's market) in Hammond, LA two weeks ago. I also had the main course all planned out - a simple Italian dish. Seasoned chicken breasts browned on both sides, then topped with an artichoke ricotta cheese mixture, covered in an carrettiera sauce and finished off in the oven. Oven-roasted garlic broccoli would serve as a healthy side dish.

But what to do for dessert? I needed something I could (for the most part) prepare ahead of time and just add finishing touches to as the chicken finished up in the oven. But I also wanted something with that WOW factor. Long story short - after flipping through several cookbooks I found a recipe for a Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake that had to be made well ahead of time so it could be chilled. It also suggested serving it with Berry Coulis. I adore berry sauces, so that cinched it for me!

Cake was pretty straightforward - melt butter and chocolate in double boiler and then whisk in egg yolks (taking care to make sure they do not curdle). Meanwhile, and here is where the NEW ingredient comes in to play, you whip the egg whites with cream of tartar until they achieve soft peaks and then add in a T of sugar until you get stiff, but not dry peaks. (Kitchen-Aid stand mixer made it all possible - thanks, R!) Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites (sacrifice the few for the sake of the many) and then fold in the remaining egg whites. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes. Cool thoroughly and then chill for a minimum of three hours.

So what's the deal with this Cream of Tartar stuff? Why did I need to add it? I mean, I have whipped egg whites before and never used cream of tartar. And I thought the Tartars were a people group, so why the heck are they showing up in my recipe?

According to http://www.ochef.com/, it is potassium hydrogen tartrate, an acid salt. Come to find out, milk, egg whites and baking soda are the only alkaline foods we have, so it makes sense to pair an acid with the egg whites. It stabilizes and gives extra volume to egg whites when they are being whipped. I will admit that it made my eggs whites almost cloudlike. Another technique I had read about recently in Cook's Illustrated was to start out whipping egg whites on a lower speed (medium) and only much later in the process switch it to high. I found that also helped to increase the volume of the egg whites.

To accompany my chocolate cake, and cut some of the richness, I settled on a berry coulis. I had planned on making it from only raspberries, but as I was going through my fridge I found a carton of forgotten strawberries. While the majority were sickly and a bit moldy, there were a few jewels in there, so I threw them in as well. Turned out to be a stroke of genius!

After pureeing the berries, lemon juice and sugar in the food processor, I spent the next 30 minutes forcing fruitpuree through a fine sieve. At first progress was almost non-existant. What the heck was I thinking??? This was proving to be an incredibly fruitless (ha ha) endeavor. A few minutes later, however, a magical liquid began to appear in the bowl below the sieve. Seedless puree was dripping through and my, oh my, was it ever heavenly!!! I wimped out on the whipping cream and substituted Cool Whip (insert disgusted groan here).

We all enjoyed dessert after the meal - very rich, but very good. The guys both ate two servings... I have no idea how. I will definitely be making this one again!

Next adventure - cooking while camping. Heading to Garner State Park with my Earth Girls for 5 days... fun stories and pics to follow!

Say Cheese...

Another entry that was written a while back (August) and never posted to the blog. I'm terrible at this...

Yesterday was the last day of summer vacation (in-service started today), so I spent the day doing a few of the things I love: shopping and cooking!

Mom and I went "Back to School" shopping in the morning....she bought me a fabulous Michael Kors blouse. It was the first thing we saw as we began walking around Macy's and we both fell in love with it immediately. My mom is one of the best shoppers I know... a true marathoner! She taught me well. Without all that good training over the years there would be no way I could cruise the Nutcracker Market for 6+ hours every year.

While trying to nap, I stumbled upon Giada De Laurentiis' "Everyday Italian - Friends and Family Feast" episode. Her food always looks so yummy! In addition to the Pork Loin Roast and Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese, she was making a delicious looking Hazelnut Crunch Cake. I quickly realized my life was not going to be complete until I made that cake. Luckily we were heading over to a friend's house that evening so I had the perfect excuse to bake.

What made this cake extra-perfect was the fact that one of the ingredients for the icing is mascarpone cheese. I have never used mascarpone cheese before which means it became my new ingredient for Week Two.

Before I began working on the icing I tasted the Mascarpone Cheese by itself and made a few observations:

1. I immediately sensed a striking similarity to Ricotta Cheese in both
texture and aftertaste (although more subdued on both accounts)
2. Its rich, velvety feel on the tongue was akin to the that of
butter
3. Its heft reminded me of cream cheese

The icing is composed of whipping cream, mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Very simple... in theory. Unlike Giada's icing, where the ingredients combined flawlessly, mine started to clump quickly!!! It looked like a sauce that had broken. I was almost in tears. However, R convinced me to mix my way through it and 15 minutes later (thank God for Kitchen-Aid stand mixers) I had a light, airy and absofreakinlutely delicious icing. Heavenly. Because I was in a bit of a time crunch (pun intended) and Brookshire Brothers does not carry hazelnuts, I cheated and substituted Heath Bars for the Hazelnut Brittle component.
Stroke of genius, I know.

As time was running out before we had to leave, I began to hurry and cake ended up a tad lopsided looking. And this new icing with its fluffy, delicate texture was throwing me for a loop. I considered not even taking it because of how homely it looked. However, I had stupidly made a comment on FB about the fact I was baking it, so I had no choice. Cake ended up being a big hit (phew) and I was glad I brought it along.

I loved, loved, loved my new ingredient this week and will be using it quite often from here on out. The way it was able to add a new richness to the dish without weighing it down was unexpected.

I've already begun to research how to make my own homemade mascarpone cheese...

As a follow-up:

1. No, I have not made my own homemade mascarpone cheese. Instead I stumbled on to a fabulous sale at Spec's and stocked up!

2. I have made this cake several times over the past few months and it never fails to please. Still haven't attempted the Hazelnut Crunch component - read a few reviews of it that included the mention of cracked teeth and the dental repair work that followed.

3. Lost pictures of the cake when laptop crashed back in September. Sadness...

Just Going For It...

This past Friday night my mom and I saw a fabulous movie - "Julie & Julia". LOVED it. Every single bit of it. Meryl Streep absolutely nailed Julia Child's mannerisms and cadence. If you haven't seen it, you should. Immediately.

Two things this film made me really think about: 1) appreciating my husband and 2) setting personal goals.

I know, the first one sounds like a weird idea to come away with from a movie about food, but it's true. I was hit really hard by just how often I take R for granted. You know, he supports me in so many ways and takes such good care of me and I so rarely acknowledge that. Ouch.

Both couples in the movie made their relationships work in good times and in bad. Marriage is "easy" in the good times, but what about when those curve balls are thrown at us??? Do I deal with them appropriately? And do R and I approach challenges as a team or do I shut down and try to deal with everything by myself? Sadly, I can look back and see that's frequently when my "control freak" side comes out and I don't even let R in. Time to change that...

Now, on to the food... and setting personal goals. I loved the fact that Julie set herself a goal that involved something she loved and just went for it. She took something she was passionate about (food) and pursued it completely. She kept going even when things got tough and saw it through to the end.

Which brings me to my own personal goal. No, I am not going to cook my way through Mastering French Cooking, Joy of Cooking or anything like that. This idea came from several places: 1) the movie (obviously), 2) Jeffrey Saad from this season's "Next Food Network Star" (I am still mad he did not win) and 3) my love of travel.

I am going to use (at least) one NEW ingredient each week. It doesn't have to be some exotic or expensive ingredient, just something I have never cooked with before.

So, I started last week with FISH SAUCE. My MeeMaw gave me a subscription to "Cooks Illustrated" magazine about a year ago and in the most recent issue there was a recipe for Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps. Sounded good enough - hey, I like Thai food, it was a healthy recipe and included an ingredient I hadn't used before but was interested in.

Learned some great techniques from the recipe - how to make my own fresh ground meat and the role kao kua (toasted rice powder) plays in building the body of a dish, but didn't really love the finished product. The meat was succulent, just as the recipe promised it would be, but I didn't like the combo of the fish sauce flavor with the pork. That combo completely threw R for a loop - texture was that of ground meat, but flavor of fish...

After cleaning up the kitchen I did a little more research about fish sauce and learned that Pho Mai's egg roll dip (that I just cannot get enough of) is mostly fish sauce! So while the Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps were a bust, I did learn how to make my favorite egg roll sauce at home. Therefore, I would say Week One was a success!

Now, on to ideas for this week ... in honor of Jeffrey, harissa sounds interesting...