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Sep 01, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Savory Cooking
My ideal diet is balance and moderation but I sometimes get carried away with the moment—the company—the food—the wine—and then, the next day, I start thinking about what I can eat that is low in calories but doesn’t make me feel deprived. My thoughts usually turn to shrimp—Brined and Boiled.
Since in my part of the country/world, it is close to impossible to find shrimp that have not been frozen before coming to market, I love to brine them which restores the lovely firm pre-frozen texture. It’s easy to do and takes little time. I’ve also worked out a method of “boiling” them that is very similar to hard cooking an egg, i.e. they don’t get boiled at all—just heated. This results in the most tender texture.
Continue reading "Shrimp B & B—The Luxury Diet" »
Sep 04, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
I’m back—well rested and well fed and ready to begin the new year!
Thank you all for responding to each other and I’ll try to catch up with the questions that have remained unanswered as soon as possible.
Here are some Hope highlights from our lovely vacation (for me vacation means getting to cook and bake special things as well as rest).
The hornet's (paper wasp's) nest is just outside our back door but high enough above to keep them and us safe from each other. I can almost forgive them their sting when i observe the splendid home they built for themselves!
Be sure to try the Primo Focaccia which has been posted on the blog many months ago. I think it is my top favorite bread. Since I couldn't bear to throw out any of the fed starter i used all 160 grams and increased everything else by 1.185 times.
Continue reading "I'm Back!" »
Sep 04, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
o.k. i said i was back but i didn't know my computer would crash on the eve of my return, the back up battery crashing as well. then my new treo took the whole afternoon to install so i've caught up with exactly nothing! i'll try to answer some of your interesting questions/postings soon.
Sep 05, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
Some one posted on the blog that the new Crisco without transfats didn't work in the white rolled fondant. This put me into a real panick because I have a terrific recipe in the upcoming book that uses the chocolate rolled fondant.
Fellow blogger Zach Townsend tested the recipe using the new Crisco and sure enough it tore instead of stretching. He then tested the recipe using the organic Spectrum vegetable shortening that another blogger recommended for use in bread a few months ago. Eureka--it worked better even than ever before. Whoever it was who made that recommendation please step forward so we can all thank you. By the way, the spectrum shortening is available in Whole Foods and I'm sure other stores as well.
Sep 08, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
Amongst cake professionals, when it comes to cake decorating, all roads lead first and foremost to Betty Van Norstrand. I have heard about her reputation as undisputed queen of gumpaste flowers and other original decorative techniques for as long as I can remember. Most of the people who are selling gumpaste flowers around the country were trained by her.
Betty taught and partnered with the now world renowned Sylvia Weinstock, and also taught the great cake artist Ron Ben Israel. Several years ago I sent one of my dearest friends to study with Betty, but I had never actually met her myself. And finally, last Fall, I made the trip to upstate New York, near the CIA to spend the day with Betty.
Continue reading "Back to School Bells are Ringing!" »
Sep 10, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
just received a notification today that we've reached the one million + mark. if you're wondering how i'm keeping/holding up, so am i!!! of course not everyone posts and many of you are so knowledgeable with your responses to questions i don't need to add a thing!
i'm on my way to a tasting of ValRhona single vintage chocolate and will raise a toast there.
happy baking AND blogging!
Sep 11, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
I have fallen in love with a new chocolate--perhaps the best I've ever tasted and because it will be in short supply I even hesitate to promote it!
When I arrived at the ValRhona tasting, the tables were set with 2 small chocolate bars and a small plastic container holding 4 squares of unwrapped chocolate. Once the presentation started, and Vanessa Lemoine, Valrhona's Sensorial Analysis Manager and Pierre Costet, Chief Cacao Sourcer, indoctrinated us into the growing, producing, and tasting of chocolate, I started hungering for a taste (the very word chocolate always does this to me). And very quickly I went through all 4 pieces in the little container (usually I can restrain myself far better than this) and started eyeing my neighbor's sample. (Arlyn Blake, a darling friend eventually offered me 3 of them!) Somehow this chocolate, instead of satisfying chocolate craving, induced more.
THE PORCELAINA BEAN
We were taught about odor perceived through the nose versus aroma perceived through the mouth and about acidity perceived on the sides of the tongue versus bitterness perceived in the back of the tongue and throat. And when finally we were given the green light to taste the squares of chocolate and were asked whether we thought it was acidic or bitter my unhesitating answer was delicious. Vanessa agreed saying it was both acidic and bitter and indeed it was perfectly balanced, with creamy texture and just the right amount of sugar which was 64%.
Continue reading "How Perfectly Bittersweet It Is" »
Sep 14, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
We enjoyed a marvelous dinner and evening chez our dear long-time friends Ginetteand Chaim Reich who announced over Perrier Jouet Fleur de Champagne the engagement of their son Daniel. I first met the Reichs when Ginette was 1 week away from delivering him so it was a very sentimental evening. And generous Ginette offered me the beautiful painted champagne bottle to add to our porch collection (we love how the light comes through the bottles at sunset) along with two matching champagne glasses.
Everyone brought a present for New Years. Ours were these two challat. I knew that tradition dictated a round shape but Ginette told me the Israeli tradition called for two--one for the blessing. It turned out that one large one was enough for dinner as well so now she can enjoy slices of the second one from the freezer for several weeks to come!
Chaim, after saying the blessing for the bread, searched around for an appropriate knife and decided to go with what he said was the Sophardic tradition of tearing the bread. Funny how torn bread versus sliced changes the perception of flavor along with the texture. This was a first for me with challah.
Incidentally, it also turned out that 4 pounds of challah dough were too much even for my new Zo, so I finished kneading it by hand, taking care to add as little flour as possible to keep the dough sticky so it would be as light and moist as usual. It worked just fine. Everyone seemed to love it as there wasn't a poppy seed left of the first loaf.
Sep 15, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Savory Cooking
There are two things that enhance and accentuate the taste of bread and are worthy of a home-baked loaf. One is softened butter, preferably with a tiny bit of fleur de sel either in it or sprinkled on it. The other is dukka. This mid-eastern melange of toasted and ground spices and nuts was the most interesting recipe I discovered during my first trip to Adelaide Australia.. It provides one of the simplest yet most pleasing cocktail nibbles.
Thick pieces of crusty bread or baguette are dipped first into fruity olive oil which then acts as a magnet for the coarsely powdered blend of spices.
Dukkah, which is very popular in the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia, actually arrived there via Claudia Roden’s book “A New Book of Middle Eastern Food.” It was made popular by restaurateur Russell Jeavons of Wilunga. The version I am offering is based on his award winning one. But feel free to take flight from this basic recipe and personalize it according to your own taste with different nuts (pistachio or hazelnuts are a good choice) or a difference blend or balance of spices. That’s what they do down under!
Continue reading "Dukkah from Down Under" »
Sep 17, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Special Stories
A fellow blogger asked me to post a photo of my Dad's patch work quilt barn and fortunately my cousin Elizabeth Granatelli went up to visit a few weeks ago and took these photos. One is of her 91 year old Mom (my Dad's first cousin Helen) and my Dad in front of the barn.
Elizabeth fell in love with Shadow's three kittens and took this beautiful photo of Shadow with one of them. My father calls her cat but when he told me that she follows him like a shadow I gave her that name. She's so devoted to him she left her kittens and found him at quite a distance in the barn, way up in the loft. I don't know whether to be more impressed by her ability to bound up the tall ladder in seconds or his to hoist himself up far past the last rung of the ladder. He told me he wouldn't let me do that and honestly I wouldn't even be tempted to try.
Continue reading "Dad's Barn in Grafton" »
Sep 22, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Special Stories
When I was taking a required course in philosophy in college some years ago, I chose this as the subject of my term paper. It was actually my second choice as I didn’t have the guts to go with my first choice which was to write 10 Platonian inspired words as follows: “Words cannot express all that I learned in this class.”
The professor said that he would have given me an A had I dared that. I got the A anyway but with a lot more work. No regrets though—the concept I had chosen gave me a lot to think about.
Écart is a French word that someone taught me many years ago. I don’t think there is one single word for it in English. And it is a word that has become more and more relevant to me as I view the heightened hype beloved by our culture. What is real? Hard to tell. I’m fortunate in that what I do has a tangible proof of reality as in “the proof is the pudding.” It’s a complex issue for sure, but when I happened to read an article about Peter Mayle who wrote “A Year in Provence” the article of which implied that he is still living there to the great joy of everyone around including himself it reminded me of a wonderful experience we had 13 years ago on a visit to the Luberon which gives credence to the fact that truth is stranger than fiction and makes one wonder why hype or illusion should even be necessary!
Continue reading "Écart: The Gap between Illusion and Reality" »
Sep 23, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
I can only say that the Ethereal Pear Charlotte left everyone SPEACHLESS, including myself. The presentation is #1, so nice that this time I really felt what it means to say “too beautiful to cut.” I’ve made many beautiful things, but this time it really broke my heart to cut this. The taste was incredible, every component was well balanced. The biscuit sweetness with the tart raspberry conserve was so tender and tasty! The pear bavarian cream was light, cut perfectly, you could taste the pear flavor intensely. The poached pears were such a fresh cold treat, I took pride with this because many people just use canned peaches instead. And I was really satisfied to build this on this clear glass cake stand I have, the charlotte was floating in the air like heaven. Everyone was very appreciative when taking a slice home, and I think perhaps next time, they may even bring lobster and champagne when calling the next party! This dessert makes me grow my own pear tree! You really pay tribute to pears here, thanks for designing this, took me 20 years to try it.
Here is a picture of my dearest friend Deanna and her lovely kids Jade and Wilson.
Sep 29, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Special Stories
Photo Credit: Gourmet Traveler, Chris Chen
Alain Ducasse
This story was published originally in the L.A. Times Syndicate and now follows Part 1 of the trip that has never before been published anywhere!
It is a sort of inside joke amongst food professionals that we “sacrifice our bodies for our profession.” The truth, however, is that we are only partially kidding. Although professional wine tasters are not expected to swallow all the wine they evaluate and thereby become alcoholic, food tasters are not usually provided with the same means to chew and discard (or as it’s known in the industry without mincing words: spit). We are therefore often in situations which become the epitome of a mixed-blessing: the food may be an extraordinary delight to the senses but we are also paying the price of suffering by consuming an excess of calories, thereby doing repeated damage to our health and well-being. Eating small tastes would be the obvious solution but the seductive conspiracy of conviviality, politeness and wine-induced abandon inevitably lead to overindulgence.
Continue reading "Post Provence—Part 2" »
Sep 30, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Photos
My dear friend Ruth, of Montecastelli in Tuscany, where will be in just a few weeks, www.montecastelli.com is an incredibly talented photographer. She rarely sends me an e-mail without including her latest visual splendor and this one, captured at Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierras just East of Yosemite National Park, I just had to share with you.
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