March 2008 Archives
This months Daring Bakers challenge was a party cake. I meant to put this up yesterday, but Monday morning will have to do, This is my third challenge, and it went very well. Cake is always welcome in my house, so I ended up making two :D The cake is amazing. Light, fluffy, bright white. We were allowed to take some liberties with the recipe - altering the flavors, but sticking with the general recipe. on my first cake I decided to add blood orange zest to the cake recipe, and I used blood orange juice and zest, and vanilla paste in the Italian buttercream. This made the icing slightly pink, but I decided to not add food coloring to the icing.I realized I have absolutely NO skill with icing cakes. I tired to follow the instructions for icing the cake. I filled each layer with a mix of blackberry preserves and fresh blackberry juice, the layered the icing. when I finished, I was almost out of icing. Parts of the outside did not get a full covering, This dried out part of the cake, Granted - it tasted great, but looked very incomplete.
Once this cake was demolished, I decided to make another. I used everything I learned with the first cake and applied it to the second. First off, I changed the recipe. I made a honey lavender cake with lemon curd filling. This was an interesting experience. I love the smell of lavender, I make honey lemon biscotti, and I use it in some spice blends. for the cake, I ground some lavender with the sugar and added it with the sugar. I didn't use a lot, just enough to barely smell it. The next step was the icing.The Italian buttercream recipe has you whipping the egg whites and sugar before you add the butter. I replaced half of the sugar with my wife's breakfast honey (local farm down the street). I pulverized two tablespoons of lavender blossoms with a teaspoon of sugar and added that during the creaming stage. Once the icing was ready, I dug through the icing colors and pulled out the violet paste. I added the color until I had a nice violet tint. I like the icing color paste - it does not have a flavor that you can taste.
This cake came together much better. Lemon curd and icing in each layer, full coverage on the outside. But I still cannot decorate a cake. I remembered to put down a crumb coat, the I top loaded the cake and worked the icing down the sides. we had full, even coverage on the cake, and the icing was much more balanced then the previous cake. The flavors worked great, we all enjoyed this cake more then the first.This is my favorite cake recipe, we will be making this again :D
We showed up, got seated, got our water, and 7 minutes later the waitress showed up to drop off the menu's. Eight minutes later, we placed our food and drink order. They didn't have any of the teas on the menu, then we attempted to order juice for our son. She rattled off four or five juices, we ordered apple juice, and Jen returned her drink (not diet). The Waitress came back and told us they didn't have any juice, so he got to try Sprite for the first time. We both ordered the lunch sushi special, and got vegetable tempura appetizer for the little one. She served four other tables drinks before she brought our drinks out. Jen commented "she must not have kids" - appetizers and drinks are supposed to be fast - it gives little children something to do when the parents wait for their food. His stuff came out last. We waited 20 to 30 minutes for our sushi, soup, and salad. Everywhere we've been brings out the soup and salad first. Like they did at the other tables at Carytown Sushi!
Our soup and salad came out 5 minutes after our sushi was delivered. Once we were done eating, we had to wait 9 minutes to even see a waitress, and she didn't even look at us her first three passes. So, in review - the service was really bad.
Now, about the food. Is it better then the other sushi places in Richmond? Not really. The menu is frighteningly similar to Sakura's, but a little shorter, and fewer specialty rolls. Technique wise - the California rolls did not have enough rice on the outside, and the avocado was a little over-ripe. The cucumber rolls were not 'sealed' very well, two or three fell apart when I picked them up. The spicy tuna rolls had a layer of 'crunchy' - fried panko -on them, my wife likes that, but they were not very spicy. Also - there was no option for tuna rolls on the lunch menu, just spicy tuna.
I think they are a little better then Sticky Rice, but I would not go back. Akida has better sushi in the fan (Robinson and Grace), if you are downtown, go to Hana Zushi or Kobe. Osaka, Sushi Bay, Rhoda, Sakura, and Akida are better options for Short Pump/West End/VA Center areas.
Our soup and salad came out 5 minutes after our sushi was delivered. Once we were done eating, we had to wait 9 minutes to even see a waitress, and she didn't even look at us her first three passes. So, in review - the service was really bad.
Now, about the food. Is it better then the other sushi places in Richmond? Not really. The menu is frighteningly similar to Sakura's, but a little shorter, and fewer specialty rolls. Technique wise - the California rolls did not have enough rice on the outside, and the avocado was a little over-ripe. The cucumber rolls were not 'sealed' very well, two or three fell apart when I picked them up. The spicy tuna rolls had a layer of 'crunchy' - fried panko -on them, my wife likes that, but they were not very spicy. Also - there was no option for tuna rolls on the lunch menu, just spicy tuna.
I think they are a little better then Sticky Rice, but I would not go back. Akida has better sushi in the fan (Robinson and Grace), if you are downtown, go to Hana Zushi or Kobe. Osaka, Sushi Bay, Rhoda, Sakura, and Akida are better options for Short Pump/West End/VA Center areas.
Two nights ago I attended the Easy Desserts with Sauces CAP class. Martin was the instructor again, he did an excellent job teaching the course. He went over all the recipes, gave some insight to dessert making and plating. Color contrast, flavor pairing, and a few tips on making the deserts. We had 13 students, so this meant one group would have four students in it. I was first at station four, and somehow I got kicked off my team and sent to station three. I went over because they only had two members and nobody volunteered to help them; I've seen groups of two before - they never have a good time.
This was another -- hrmmm.. I know how to make all these desserts, where should I go. I had chosen the crepe suzette and strawberries with mousse station, and I ended up making churros. I'm not the greatest fan of fried food, so I immediatly grabbed the ingredients for one of our other dishes. I made the ginger cream anglaise for an apple gallet, while the other two started on the churro batter and apple gallet. I was done in a few minutes, the gallet was formed and in the oven a few minutes later, and the churro batter needed to cool before we could fry it. That's when the downtime started - I walked a round and checked out what the other groups were doing. then we were ready to start the churros. I cut the batter from the pastry bag (other guy was squeezing them out), and the third person made the chocolate dipping sauce. Well, at this point, we were pretty much done for the night. The gallet was baking, our sauces were done, and the churros were mindlessly repetitive. Squeeze, cut, fry, remove from oil, cool, dust with cinnamon sugar -- and repeat. The cooked for 3 minutes, and we had three people to watch them.
This is when I started doing the dishes -- the guy frying the churros seemed to be having a blast, so I let him do it as much as he wanted. I helped Julie clean the pots and pans from all the stations. I found this more productive then standing around and doing nothing. I'd hop back over when they needed to dust the churros, or snip them off into the oil, but for the most part, we were the least active team. The other three stations were making stuff up until the last moment.
I enjoyed the class, but it was a little unsatisfying. When everyone was done cooking and we started to taste, I realized that there needs to be some savory type of dish to help balance out the insulin coma that hit everyone after class. The only thing I could really come up with was a fruit and cheese plate with a cream cheese sauce to dip the fruit in. We would have enough time to make a fromage blanc, you could mix in some dried fruit at the end and serve it with some fresh fruit, honey nut bread, and other cheeses.
This was another -- hrmmm.. I know how to make all these desserts, where should I go. I had chosen the crepe suzette and strawberries with mousse station, and I ended up making churros. I'm not the greatest fan of fried food, so I immediatly grabbed the ingredients for one of our other dishes. I made the ginger cream anglaise for an apple gallet, while the other two started on the churro batter and apple gallet. I was done in a few minutes, the gallet was formed and in the oven a few minutes later, and the churro batter needed to cool before we could fry it. That's when the downtime started - I walked a round and checked out what the other groups were doing. then we were ready to start the churros. I cut the batter from the pastry bag (other guy was squeezing them out), and the third person made the chocolate dipping sauce. Well, at this point, we were pretty much done for the night. The gallet was baking, our sauces were done, and the churros were mindlessly repetitive. Squeeze, cut, fry, remove from oil, cool, dust with cinnamon sugar -- and repeat. The cooked for 3 minutes, and we had three people to watch them.
This is when I started doing the dishes -- the guy frying the churros seemed to be having a blast, so I let him do it as much as he wanted. I helped Julie clean the pots and pans from all the stations. I found this more productive then standing around and doing nothing. I'd hop back over when they needed to dust the churros, or snip them off into the oil, but for the most part, we were the least active team. The other three stations were making stuff up until the last moment.
I enjoyed the class, but it was a little unsatisfying. When everyone was done cooking and we started to taste, I realized that there needs to be some savory type of dish to help balance out the insulin coma that hit everyone after class. The only thing I could really come up with was a fruit and cheese plate with a cream cheese sauce to dip the fruit in. We would have enough time to make a fromage blanc, you could mix in some dried fruit at the end and serve it with some fresh fruit, honey nut bread, and other cheeses.
I can't stand it, I know you planned it
I'm a' set straight, this Watergate
I can't stand rocking when I'm in here
'Cause your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear
So while you sit back and wonder why
I got this f****ng thorn in my side
Oh my god, it's a mirage
I'm tellin' y'all it's sabotage
Ok, well, it wasn't intentional, but it still attacked our dish. We took the pear tart, set the oven, blind baked the crust, cooled it, filled it, and put them back in the oven. After 15 minutes I rotated the pans and they kept cooking. After 30 minutes of cooking we pulled the top tart out, and something wasn't quite right. We decided to let the larger tart cook for another 6 minutes. We were busy eating all the other dishes cooked in the class when Joe, the owner, came over and told us the oven was set to broil.
At this point I panicked, Alexia (Alexia Miles - the instructor) was concerned too. The tart is supposed to cool for 30 minutes, and the insides were not even close to being cooked. We were 15 minutes from the end of the class, so we got creative. I started scraping the burnt parts off the top of the smaller tart, and we let the larger one bake some more. TOTAL DISASTER! This was a sad looking dessert. especially since the pears were sliced at a bias and fanned out all prettily. Alexia and I started serving up tiny pieces of cooked tart. When we had everything plated, I had the bright idea to pull off the fanned pears and drape them over the petit fours. This improved the plating significantly, a little height, and some fruit. some of the cut pieces only had the filling.
They tasted pretty good, which was nice, since the baking was totally messed up.
When we were eating them I think I found out what happened. After we blind baked the crust, the other station needed to toast their bread. they asked em the temp of the oven, it matched theirs, I told them it was on bake, and they put their bread in. we left the oven on to keep it warm, my group was going to need it in a few minutes. The other group put the cheese on their croûtons and placed the pan back in the oven. We were coming close to overlapping oven usage - ours baked for 30 minutes, and theirs needed to broil for 2 minutes. Alexia said they should use the other oven so they could broil the bread. They opted to stay on our side, they said the baking would be fine. After the bread was in the oven for 5 minutes, the person working the oven said "maybe we should have used the broil on the other side, this is taking forever."
One minute later they were done.
Did you see what happened just there? I picked up on it on the way home. I kept running all the events in my head, then it hit me. The woman on the oven hopped it to broil right at the end, and didn't bother to tell anyone, or switch it back. Should I have triple checked the oven - yes, but I assumed that it would stay the same since they didn't need to change the settings. The oven has two knobs, one for temp, the other for bake setting. I had only checked the temperature.
On the plus side, the tart's flavor was good - so at least the class got to taste it.
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I went back and made the tart at home. I poached the pears in red wine. Everything went perfectly - and it looks gorgeous. Here are some more pics of the pear tart :D
Wow -- The last two days I've been playing with sauces. Yummy delicious sauces, but the end products have been drab and bland looking. Last night I made a horseradish and mustard sauce. I reduced 4 cups of homemade chicken stock to half a cup, made a super tasty roux out of rendered fat from the corned beef brisket, and finished it with Dijon mustard and fresh horseradish. Healthy -- not really. Tasty -- very much so. I stirred in the sauteed onions and corned beef and served it over some warm sourdough bread and warm whole wheat bread. mmmmmmm.The night before, I cooked up some carrots, zucchini, Italian chicken sausage, and squash. I deglazed the pan and created a roux to make a sauce with. A little like a chicken gravy finished with sun dried tomato paste and cream. Jen liked it so much, she had it for lunch the next day.
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Other News:
I have some posts about CAP classes to put up, and here are a few pics of random stuff off my camera.
Sourdough
deLux is the latest offering by the Richmond Restaurant Group - owners of Europa, Michelle's at Hanover Tavern, the Hard Shell, and The Hill Cafe. The place looks nice, the music was right off my iPod, and the waitstaff is friendly. That being said, our first visit was a bit of a disaster. We went there today for lunch with our two year old. He was great, didn't throw anything, no screaming, just a little talking and giggling when we were keeping him busy. We placed our drink order (soda's), and the waiting began.
It took a few minutes for our drinks to come out, and even longer for the to-go cup for the little guy. We then placed our food order. After about 30 minutes, our food came out. I ordered a Reuben, Jen ordered a hamburger, and we got the little one a hummus platter. As our food was coming out, the waitress dropped my plate. She rushed back and got me my side of potato salad as they re-fired my sandwich. Jen's burger was warm, but not hot, and I had some potato salad. I nibbled on the hummus platter, expecting my food to come out in 5 to 7 minutes. After 10 minutes passed, I started to eat the hummus platter. Jen said the burger was good, but nothing spectacular. As for the hummus platter - CousCous has better hummus, a better platter, and I think it costs less.
How was the Reuben? I couldn't tell you. After waiting 23 minutes for it to get re-fired I had them put it in a to go box. How was the potato salad? It was a bit of a letdown. They used redskin potatoes, whole grain mustard, celery, and a few other ingredients. I don't know about you, but when I see whole grain mustard, I expect to taste some mustard, it was like it was there solely for look. Our drinks were never refilled either.
They call themselves a diner, open almost all hours of the day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But night is mostly a bar/hangout. How can a place that is considered a 'diner' be SO slow at sandwich preparation? Especially when there were only 5 tables with people? I'd be afraid to see how long the waits are when theya re full. I'm unlikely to go there again.
It took a few minutes for our drinks to come out, and even longer for the to-go cup for the little guy. We then placed our food order. After about 30 minutes, our food came out. I ordered a Reuben, Jen ordered a hamburger, and we got the little one a hummus platter. As our food was coming out, the waitress dropped my plate. She rushed back and got me my side of potato salad as they re-fired my sandwich. Jen's burger was warm, but not hot, and I had some potato salad. I nibbled on the hummus platter, expecting my food to come out in 5 to 7 minutes. After 10 minutes passed, I started to eat the hummus platter. Jen said the burger was good, but nothing spectacular. As for the hummus platter - CousCous has better hummus, a better platter, and I think it costs less.
How was the Reuben? I couldn't tell you. After waiting 23 minutes for it to get re-fired I had them put it in a to go box. How was the potato salad? It was a bit of a letdown. They used redskin potatoes, whole grain mustard, celery, and a few other ingredients. I don't know about you, but when I see whole grain mustard, I expect to taste some mustard, it was like it was there solely for look. Our drinks were never refilled either.
They call themselves a diner, open almost all hours of the day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But night is mostly a bar/hangout. How can a place that is considered a 'diner' be SO slow at sandwich preparation? Especially when there were only 5 tables with people? I'd be afraid to see how long the waits are when theya re full. I'm unlikely to go there again.
A few days ago, he DEMANDED to help cook dinner. It's to the point where I walk into the kitchen and get anything out of the fridge, he runs over and grabs his cook tower and tries to pull it to the counter top. Cooking is getting fun, though messy, and a little dangerous. He likes to imitate whatever I do, but he's easily distracted with some pots, tongs, bowls, or scraps when I need to do some non kid friendly things. I usually give him 2 prep dishes when I start cooking, Sometimes he commandeers more as we progress. He's quite helpful at loading up dishes with chopped ingredients, though he loves to snack when we prep.
His favorites are diced celery, apples, peeled sweet potatoes, an any bread he can get his little hands on. Oh, and spices! He loves spices and the pepper mill. I have to be careful what I do when he has vegetables. If I toss the carrot scraps in the sink, he will throw ALL of the carrot in the sink. Same with squash. We already have the oven down, it's HOT. He will say it when I turn it on, turn it off, open it, close it, etc. He used to try to open the oven, but now he goes up and puts his hand on the glass in the door and says HOT. If he's by me feet, I tell him I'm about to open the oven, he will either stop, or take a few steps backwards and say HOT. It's cute, he wants to close the oven if it's open, but he usually just points to it, instead of trying to close it. Last night we started to learn about the dangers of knives. He's getting taller, and able to reach almost clear across the counter. He managed to grab the handle of the chef knife and slide it towards himself when I had my hands full. He also tries to snatch food freshly cut from the knife -- while I'm still chopping.
When the knife slid across the counter I yelled NO so loudly that he backed away from the counter. The edge side of the knife hit his fingers, but there was no cut. I grabbed the knife, checked his hands, everything was fine (luckily). I sat with him in my lap for a few minutes. I scared him good, I don't think he's ever heard me yell that loudly. It took him a few minutes to get up from my lap. We went back to making dinner, he was happy. All the knives were on the other counter.
One of the great advantages to letting him help cook -- he eats the raw veggies, and the cooked ones. I think it exposes him to some flavors he might not get otherwise. Like raw potatoes, raw zucchini, and others. He eats more of what he helps prepare - this is great!
I have a new healthy starter! My old one died and got funky when I was sick, so I rebuilt a new one from scratch. This time I stored some of the Seed Culture in the freezer. That way I should be able to resurrect it if dies again. Back to the sourdough -- I made a large loaf with mimolette cheese. I diced the cheese into little bits and incorporated it into the dough before the first rise. the bread came out great! The sourdough starter imparted a great flavor in the bread, and the little pockets of cheese were wonderful. As usual, the little guy spotted the bread immediatly and wanted some.
As for the oven spring, I think I needed to let the dough proof for 30 more minutes, or make the slashes a little larger. The bread exploded on me and cracked the base of the bread. Technically, the slash and exposure is called a grigne, but I keep thinking I mispelled a word.
In other bread baking news, I attempted the Poilane style miche again. I say again because I made a masonry brick the first time. 
Miche refers to a large round loaf. Poilane refers to Lionel Poilane, French boulanger. I don't know what I did wrong the first time, but it was quite wrong. Nothing went right. This is a LARGE and interesting recipe. It's huge, it even says not to use a stand mixer, because you will break it. It has 3 pounds fo flour in the recipe, add that to 2 cups of water, it is a mass of dough to be reckened with. as I said, the first time I made a masonry brick. It was hard and inedible. I didn't blog about it becasue I wanted to figure out how to do this darned recipe first. I made another attempt, and pulled the bread out of the oven yesterday. This one proofed better, was much easier to work with, but I think I still have the proof timing off. As with the sourdough above, this wheat sourdough exploded out of the gates. I worry about overproofing the dough and starving the yeast, but they get overexcited if there is too much food when you start to bake the bread. I'm doing some research to see if I can get this figured out.
On the good sice, the Miche taste great and has a nice crusty exterior. It think the top will soften a little int he next 24 hours, but it does not fit the bill for what my wife wanted. She wanted sandwhich bread for PB&J -- this bread requires meat and cheese. It is tangy, has a very light rye flavor, and goes great with soppresetta, cheese, garlic and oil, anything hearty.
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