Sushi!

Homemade Fresh Crab with Avocado and Asparagus rolls  

and Mascarpone Crawfish with sauteed squash rolls

I have been on the worst sushi kick lately. It's all I want to eat these days. So naturally, I wanted to try and make some myself. I figured it wouldn't work out just because I've been led to believe that it is too hard for any non-sushi chef to do at home. First of all, that is soooo false. It's a lot easier than it looks and it also tastes just as good, if not better, than the stuff at the restaurants. This is especially true because I was using real crab instead of that imitation stuff (which I will probably use when I go back to school and no longer have papa bears credit card at my grocery disposal - not to mention amazing fresh crab available whenever you need it). The rice is also incredible. I also don't want to make any other rice ever again. I did use "sushi rice" though and not the authentic stuff, which apparently is a faux-pas but whatever. I thought it was good.
 
I also just got a new camera for Paris, so this is the first post I've done testing it out. I think the pictures came out pretty orange-y yellow, which I really don't like, but I think I just need more practice. It's a new kind of camera that's basically a cross between a point and shoot and a DSLR. i'm afraid I might regret not getting the DSLR but this wasn't exactly cheap either so I'm going to jump of a bridge if I don't get the hang of it soon. I spent my entire spring semester saving up for this beast so it better be worth my while!

Pistachio Ice Cream

For this recipe I used Jeni's best Ice cream base and then added my own pistachio paste that I ordered off of amazon. Pistachio paste is what we used at sucre to make the pistachio ice cream, so I thought buying it would be the simplest way rather than making the paste myself. It's also a lot cheaper than buying and blending them yourself, which would probably cost at least 20 big ones. I bought this one, and I also had a lot left that I can use for other things (like a chocolate pistachio tart perhaps?) I also thought it would provide the most pistachio flavor, because some recipes just soak the pistachios in the base during the cooking process and then strain them out, which doesn't leave an amazing color or texture like the paste does. I think it came out great, but it was also super rich. You couldn't eat an entire cup of this even if you tried. well...at least I couldn't...

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ever since I got my ice cream maker, I've kind of been obsessed. I've only done two blog posts so far, but I can't tell you how many times I've already used this thing. Once you fail (which you will, unless you are some kind of ice cream savant), especially a couple of times, you become obsessed with perfection. I think I finally found a fool proof, go-to base recipe that I will probably use for most of my ice creams though, so I can't start experimenting. 

When I worked at the confection studio at Sucre, I noticed we never used egg yolks. But after doing a ton of research on the web, I couldn't really find any recipes that didn't start with some form of custard (which means using egg yolks to thicken the milk, almost like making lemon curd or the filling of a berry tart if you have ever done that...) Well doing this is extremely temperamental and can go wrong at a number of different stages in the process. And the worst part about that is, many times you don't exactly know where you went wrong. Did I curdle the milk? Did I not whip the egg yolks enough with the sugar before adding it to the milk? Was my flame too hot or too low? There is so much going on at once, and so many things that could go wrong, I really needed something a bit more foolproof (heavy cream doesn't grow on trees you know...).

On a random slowish afternoon at work, my lord and saviors walked through the double glass doors dressed as a thin, hipter-ish, middle aged man and his wife. The ones that kind of remind you of your old music teachers and almost always leave a tip (people from the city - and definitely my people working at the uptown sucre know exactly what kind of people i'm talking about. Actually I bet people from certain parts of new york know what i'm talking about too...but I digress...). We started chatting about our amazing gelato and how it doesn't have eggs etc. He also turned out to be a dabbler in the homemade ice cream world as well and he suggested I try Jenni's best ice cream base, which uses cream cheese instead of eggs and a timer rather than candy thermometer (thus excluding the two things I dread about making homemade ice cream).

Obviously I went home and bought the cookbook right away. Of course I will continue to try the traditional custard based ice creams, but for now, HOLY COW this stuff is incredible! Its creamy, rich, and pretty much fool proof. You can even trade out the 3 tbs of cream cheese for marscarpone...which obviously I will be doing very very soon.... 

Whole Foods Chantilly Cake

My lovely sister, Melanie, was home for about two weeks over 4th of July week (weird how it wasn't week-end). We also got to celebrate her birthday too, which she apparently hadn't celebrated at home for about 6 years. Since I went to boarding school and then to college, I know exactly how that feels, it I knew it was special that she got to finally celebrate at home with her family. Since I almost always bake something when I go to my grandmother's house and it was also Mel's b-day, I thought this would be the perfect time to bake a cake.

There is no comparison to the Whole Foods Chantilly cake. It is simply fantastic. Sold by the heavenly slice, this cake is exceptionally moist and the most incredible frosting. So naturally, my instinct was to try and make it myself. And I must say, it came out pretty damn good. The cake wasn't as moist, but I'll probably play around with that recipe a bit more before it's perfected. The Chantilly cream frosting however was sensational. I mean, anything with both cream cheese, whipped cream, AND mascarpone has got to be amazing (which it was).

.....I also admit being lazy when I took these pics, and thus I really don't think they do the cake justice. It was delicious and I definitely will be making it again. Maybe I'll have a DSLR camera and I'll finally get accepted onto foodgawker....(yeah right) but a nerd can dream, right? 

Crabby Crab Cakes

Last summer my mom and I would cook a home cooked meal of my choice every thursday when my step dad was across the lake at his private practice. This summer we decided it would make more sense to cook on Wednesday, the night before Jon is away, so he could actually eat with us. Regardless of the day of the week, this is probably one of my favorite things to do over the summer. My mom and I really get to spend time together, while she can teach me knew things at the same time. Hands down, my mom taught me how to cook. She trusted me in the kitchen at a really young age, and I can't thank her enough for that. She let me bake box cakes and cookies from her warn down recipe collection. She even let me cook the family dinner a couple of times. I just loved serving people, and of course I still do. I think that is why I am so attracted the the culinary industry. I just don't know if I have the balls.... 

Also - sorry it has taken me so long to post this! I misplaced my camera for like two weeks and I had at least 3 blog posts still saved on there that I hadn't uploaded to my computer. I was having palpitations to say the least.... 


Click "read more" for more pictures and the recipe!

Prickly Pear Cactus Sorbet

After failing my first attempt at making sorbet, I thought I would use the method I learned during my internship at the Sucre confection studio. My first sorbet, although smooth at first, turned into a solid icy mess after it had settled in the freezer for several hours. Liquid glucose supposedly acts like alcohol

This recipe was incredibly easy. I can't get over it. It's still creamy like ice cream, but it doesn't require all the eggs and tempering and hoopla that goes along with it. The coconut milk gives it the nice creamy texture and a faint taste of piña colada, which I'm pretty positive is going to be the next sorbet flavor I whip up (virgin of course). 

Homemade Blackberry Gelato

It has been so long since my last post, I feel like I can't even call myself a blogger anymore. I've just been so lazy recently and haven't had the energy to spend any time in the kitchen. Summer school is only an hour and a half a day during the week though, so I don't understand why I have been so incredible tired and unmotivated - And I had so many plans for my culinary endeavors this summer too! Perhaps I'm just getting off to a late start. Maybe i'll kick it into gear once summer school is over.

After I finally got the coveted ice cream maker I had been wanting for Christmas, all I can think about these days is gelato - and ice cream - and sorbet - and frozen custard - and anything else remotely viscous that I can possibly freeze up during these incredibly hot summer days. I find myself drifting off at work as I lean over the gelato machine, dreaming and scheming of endless flavor combinations - Pear and goat cheese gelato; tiramisu ice cream with a marscarpone base, swirled with a rum coffee syrup and chunks of pound cake, blueberry crisp gelato, red velvet cream cheese ice cream, raspberry coconut sorbet.....the possibilities are endlless. But before I start making these exotic flavor combinations, I need to become a master of the basics first. You can't just toss a bunch of ingredients together and hope they freeze to that perfectly smooth and creamy texture we know and crave. Frozen desserts are an incredible science, and one simple mistake can turn your creamy gelato into an icy mess with a less than pleasant mouth feel.

For one of my first attempts, I made a simple blackberry gelato using a recipe from the book Making Artisan Gelato. It's a really great book because it breaks down and explains every step in a very easy to follow way. The first few I made turned out fantastically, but my most recent attempts have left me far from satisfied. I've been following the recipes to a T though, so I still need to figure out what it is that I have been doing wrong....that I wasn't doing wrong before.

The best tips I can give for a beginner (that I had to learn the hard way) are the following:

1. make sure you thermometer is an instant read thermometer NOT a candy or meat thermometer. The second the thermometer touches the liquid, you should have an exact temperature, s it should probably have a digital reader. I was using both a meat and and thermometer at the same time at one point and couldn't figure out why they told me completely different temps.

2. Read the recipe at least three times before getting started.

3. Weigh out all of your ingredients first.

4. Set up all of your stations before you begin cooking. You should have a milk/custard station over the stove, an egg yolk/ tempering station, and a straining/ ice bath station.  Towards the end, everything happens pretty quickly so it is better to have everything set up beforehand so you can work without stopping.

5. make sure all of your ingredients are room temp (like your egg yolks for example). I don't know the super scientific reasons for this, but I know its important. so do it.

that's all I got fa now....hopefully as I get better I'll develop my own foolproof routine.