Chocolate chip cookies + salt

Remember Sharples? The land of chicken croquettes, rubbery pasta, and free-flowing ice cream (especially if you accidentally grabbed a too-warm bowl)?

Actually, no. I think I've blocked it out of my head.

Except my stomach remembers some things all too well. Once in a while, I get a huge craving for chocolate chip cookies. I thought it was weird at first, then I remembered that on Mondays, when Sharples serves huge trays of cookies at lunch, half my day's caloric intake would be from those chocolate chip cookies. Now my cookie cravings don't seem so inexplicable.

Boy baiting

I was at a dinner party hosted by some NIH fellows this past weekend. Since I am absolutely clueless when it comes to choosing wines, I brought dessert instead. It's called a boy bait, named by a 15 year-old girl who submitted it as an entry to a Pillsbury bake off for its effect on boys, but a certain Australian thinks that it sounds like something a sex offender would make. I know I'd have a harder time protecting myself if those people baked like this.

Peach buckle

Did I say that I was going to research brown bag lunch ideas? What I actually meant was, uh, dessert. More specifically, a buckle.



A buckle is a cake with a layer of fruit and streusel on top. I saw this recipe when I going through my google reader feed diligently doing important work-related research and immediately knew that I had to make it. I have buttermilk leftover from my recent cake adventure and stone fruits out the wazoo at the farmer's market (99 cents/pound for perfectly ripe and sweet peaches!). What more could I ask for?

Chocolate cake

Growing up in China, I thought birthday cakes were pretty magical stuff. Like, on par with the mooncakes that we ate during the mid-autumn festivals or the garlic pickled in vinegar that would turn blue just in time for Chinese new year. On my birthdays, my granddad would pick me up early from school (and make me feel sooooo special because no one else got to leave school early that day) and take me to the state-run bakery and pick up my birthday cake. Sometimes, those standoffish middle-aged baker ladies would make it on the spot in front of a glass window through which I could watch the entire cake making process, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. She would put this simple yellow cake on a turnstile and proceed to cover it with a thick layer of frosting and flowers. At such a young age, I just couldn't comprehend how a tube of frosting can turn into flowers and other shapes -- it must be magic. Which is why I think people who make their own wedding cakes or that guy on ace of cakes are pretty much the most talented people ever.

Chocolate-covered strawberries

Mark Bittman (aka the Minimalist) made a video a few weeks ago about how eeeeasy tempering chocolate for dipping is. But it still involved more steps and more gadgets than what's really necessary. Oh yeah, I know that "all I have to do is to measure 3 or 4 temperatures with my new-fangled candy thermometer, use a double boiler, AND a stove," but really Mark, there is a fantastically easy way of doing this (maybe it's not called tempering but I can't taste the difference), so easy that Chris and I made a batch of chocolate-dipped strawberries in our dorm lounge in under an hour with delicious results, without having to maintain an optimal dipping temperature of 88-91 degrees (Dear NYT, please speak to my agent about putting a feature up on your homepage. I might be able to take time out of my busy winter break to put something together).

From Late Fall 2009

Best pumpkin pie ever?

This past Thanksgiving, Roy and I went over to the lovely Uyehara household for Thanksgiving, and I wanted to bake a Kaz-friendly dessert for it. I ended up finding a fantastic recipe using coconut milk and a bunch of spices, and it was amazing! It turns out that pumpkin and coconut milk are extremely compatible. I'm making this pie again for Christmas dinner this year, but with a buttery pat in the pan crust instead.

This is a rather plain view of the pie. It looks so much better when it's cut into slices. You'd be able to see the layer of crushed walnuts between the crust and the filling that gives the pie a lot more texture and flavor. AND as a bonus, this pie is incredibly resistant to being dropped upside-down! (Not that I would know personally, of course...)

From Edacious Eatings

Roy and I made the pie using a 9-inch pie pan, and we ended up having a lot of batter left over, so we ended up making pumpkin muffins by adding about 1/2 cup of flour and tiny pinches of baking soda and powder to the batter, and baking at 350ºC.

From Edacious Eatings

And the best thing about those muffins was that we could eat those right away!

Gluttony at its best

It always works like this. Weeks will go by before I come across an exciting food item worth posting, and even then they're really not that exciting (Quinoa cereal? Please, that's SO passe). But then, I'll spend a weekend eating so much delicious food that I can't even bring myself to start a blog entry because I know I'll never stop gushing about how much happiness my digestive system experienced in such a short amount of time.

But, it's Wednesday, and if I don't talk about this past weekend today, it will be too late (alas).

It started out Friday night after seeing Wall-E (if you are that one person who hasn't seen it, go see it!). Unfortunately, the movie got out at the most inconvenient time when the Vietnamese restaurant Chris and I planned on going to closed (at 9pm on a Friday night? How are you still in business?), so we dropped by the Greek Lady nearby. It was the perfect late-night snack place (with surprisingly amazing tzatziki), so much better than your average pizza parlor stuck in the middle of a two-street intersection.

Saturday lunch was at a small Japanese place, where I encountered a dish new to me: Hew dup bap, which is kind of like the Korean version of Japanese Chirashi (Raw fish over sushi rice). Also, I have no idea why they have that one Korean dish thrown in their menu. Aside from raw fish, the Korean version has lettuce, carrots, cucumber, and Gochujang mixed in. I thought that the Gochujang would completely overpower the raw fish, but it actually worked out really well. This is definitely a dish that can be made at home. And I'll definitely remember to take pictures, because it's quite lovely looking.

Continuing our walk in West Philly, Chris and I dropped by the Naked Chocolate Cafe. Being a savvy member of Philly Carshare, Chris got us a major deal where we can get two desserts (both under $6) for the price of one. We naturally got two things that were as close to the six-dollar mark as possible: a cheesecake and an Oreo tart (which was HUGE):



Half way through, we both realized that this was more than we could handle. We had learned our lesson: instead of acting like kids in a candy store (or in this case, twenty year-olds in a chocolate store), we should have gotten something small, and made of chocolate. But, this was definitely an experience. Next time I go, I'm getting the drinking chocolate.

Our day concluded with dinner at Zot, a Belgian place where you choose the type of meat that you want along with your choice of sauce and side. But we went instead for a whole kilo (it goes surprisingly quick) of mussels steamed with rosemary, onion and garlic. It was SO good. At the end, I ended up dipping the last of our bread and even frites (Belgian Fries) in the remaining savory, seafood-y, creamy white mussel juices. I was so tempted to ask if I could pack it out, but was a bit afraid to ask.

Sunday was another glorious day. We went to Linvilla Orchards for berry-picking. I came back with a pound each of blackberries and blueberries, and 5 pounds of peaches and nectarines. I now have so much berries that instead of having berries with yogurt, I eat yogurt with my berries:

Life is good when it's filled with fruit (and a dollop of yogurt with a drizzle of honey) on top

But when presented with so much fruit, there is only one other thing to do: make a fruit tart. When my parents and I lived near a Whole Foods, I could always, without fail, buy one of their mini fruit tarts and polish it off as soon as I get home. Frankly, I would choose a fruit tart over something chocalate-y any day. Any time I see the combination of a buttery and slightly crumbly crust, the amazingly light but smooth pastry cream, and the fresh fruit on top, I'm immediately convinced that this is the best dessert ever, only something like a perfect creme brulee can occasionally out-compete.




Fresh Fruit Tart (From the Joy of Cooking)

For the Dough:

Wisk together in a bowl:
1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1/3 cups of sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Add:
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces*

Mash with the back of a fork until mixture resembles course crumbs.

Add:
1 large egg yolk

Mix together with a spatula until the dough comes together in a ball. Great the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan. Dust the pan with flour and tap out excess. Pat the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan. Thoroughly pick the bottom and sides with a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Bake until golden brown, about 22 minutes.

For the Pastry Cream:

Beat in a medium bowl until thick and pale yellow:
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbs all-purpose flour
2 tbs cornstarch
4 large egg yolks

Combine in a medium sauce pan and bring to a simmer:
1 1/3 cups whole milk

Gradually pour 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking to combine. Scrape the egg mixture back into the pan and cook over low to medium heat, whisking constantly and scraping the bottom and corners of the pan to prevent scorching, until the custard is thickened and beginning to bubble. Then continue to cook, whisking, for 45 to 60 seconds. Scrape the custard into a clean bowl. Stir in:
3/4 tsp vanilla.

Cover the custard with parchment paper, and refrigerate.

Now, for the tart!

Brush the crust with some melted fruit jelly to moisture-proof your tart. Refrigerate for 10 minutes to set the glaze. Spread:
1 cup of pastry cream**

Arrange over the cream your favorite fruits. We put a layer of thinly-sliced peaches on the bottom, and spread blue- and blackberries on top. If you have any of the melted jelly left, feel free to drip that on top of the fruit.


*Don't think about this part (...especially the fact that every slice = a tablespoon of butter) too hard.
** If you're like me, who continued for 60sec when you really should have only gone for 45sec, and discovered that your now refrigerated pastry cream looks more like clotted cream, just add a splash of whole milk and stir it in.

The Banana House

I realized that I've been living in Prof. Ken Sharpe's house for almost a month and I still haven't taken any pictures of it and our daily life here. The house certainly deserves lots of comments, given its peculiarity. For those of you who don't know, Madeline Sharpe believes that the banana is her alter ego and therefore has placed banana decorations all over the house, especially the first floor kitchen. Having a fully stocked kitchen has been ridiculously wonderful. I don't think I've eaten this well for months (in fact, now that I remember what Sharples is like, I'm almost certain of it). Faye Walker, one my housemates, is a particularly adventurous and expert cook. And with the added bonus of being spontaneous enough to make things whenever the mood strikes her, provides us with an endless amount of delicious food day in and out.

In an effort to capture all the delicious food that we make, and make up for the numerous un-photoed vittles in the past, I'm starting this blog. It'll probably filled with mostly pictures (usually under bad lighting circumstances since the flash on my camera is broken) of food and sometimes other things that's going on in my life.

So here we go.


521 Elm Ave, amidst a "jungle-like atmosphere"



Our porch



The first of many bananas to come...



Hark! A banana light!



Our gorgeous kitchen. Can you find the hidden bananas?







The the Sharpes decided that it was a great idea to rewire their dining room light. Notice the reduction in the total area lit as a result. The person sitting there is Faye, the aforementioned chef of brilliance.



The first of Faye's banana house series, documenting actual exchanges in the kitchen:
Helen: I've only eaten two of these potatoes? What am I going to do with all of them?
Faye: Why don't you make gnocchi? That'll put a dent in the bag.
Sunjay: Oh snap, you guys make your own gnocchi?
Faye: Snap! That's how we roll!
Helen: Ye-Ah!
Faye: Rock on!



We started a bread starter, and we named him Sunjay.



My side of the room shared by me and Natasha.



Today Faye decided to make baklava using Dessert Candy's recipe. I helped, mostly because of the anticipated reward.
















It was delish.

We had a mountain of phyllo left after the baklava, so Faye and I decided to make those spinach triangles (Spanakopitas) we see so often, most recently at Trader Joe's frozen section. But we didn't have feta cheese, so after consulting some recipes that use phyllo in the Joy of Cooking (hereafter referred to as the House Bible) instead we combined recipes for a spinach tart and mushroom triangles to make spinach mushroom triangles.

We sauted mushrooms (cremini and shiitake) with onions and garlic, added some fresh spinach, and hodge-podge of cheese (cream, goat, and deli swiss) to make the filling. After layering two strips of phyllo with some clarified butter (leftover from the making of balkava) in between, we spooned some of the filling into a corner and rolled the whole thing into triangles. Then we baked them at 400ºF for about 15 minutes (we may or may not have lost track).


Lunch


But! We STILL had phyllo scraps left! The only solution Faye saw was to toss them into the remaining clarified butter (if you haven't noticed by now, we clarified A LOT of butter for the baklava. The original recipe called for 3 sticks, but I think we used less. Otherwise it meant having 2/3 of a tablespoon of butter in every PIECE of baklava, thus making eating multiple pieces the biggest guilt trip ever), added cinnamon and sugar, and tossed it into the oven while the spinach tarts were still baking. The result:


Just like candy.