Food on my Mind

Spring quarter has begun at UW and I've fallen comfortably back into a relatively monotonous, yet efficient, pattern of cooking and eating, nothing worth noting on a blog anyway. However, due to popular demand, here's what I've been thinking:

-Empire's new Stumptown coffee ice cream is terrifyingly addictive (I'm eating some now in fact)

-In the lab at school I've been growing some edible fungi on agar...naturally my mind has wandered to wonder what it would be like to fry up one of these, agar and all. I don't think I'll be investigating this anytime soon. However, I did happen to read about agar and other plant-based gelatin replacements in Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, and learned that they are all carbohydrates (unlike gelatin which is protein). Also, agar is not digestible by humans, meaning it just passes through as dietary "fiber".

-I was recently sent an awful article about how bad agave syrup is (it's a big new health-food trend, if you haven't heard). Intrigued, I did a tiny bit of research and discovered it is, in fact, inferior to regular old table sugar. Basically, agave syrup is just fructose...Highly concentrated fructose to give it a syrupy consistency, which could easily be called "high fructose agave syrup". We've all learned how bad high fructose corn syrup is, it's the same story all over again, just with a different plant source.

-At the farmer's market a few weeks ago we found ourselves in desperate need of coffee, which lead us to discover my new favorite bakery: Fresh Flours. It's on Ballard Ave. right in the middle of the Sunday farmers market. Their skilled barista serves Stumptown coffee and their pastries are utterly divine and wont break your wallet.

-Maple blossoms were selling at the farmers market today - they're in bloom EVERYWHERE! Get your own for free! (apparently they're edible, I'll let you know when I try them....maple blossom salad anyone?)

Beignets for Second Breakfast

This morning, I woke up, ate first breakfast, took my physics final, and went back to sleep. Then I woke up again with a brilliant idea for second breakfast: beignets!! (New Orleans style doughnuts). It's basically a choux paste that gets fried.

Whipping the chouxish dough to satiny ribbons!:

Frying in bacon grease:


A landscape of beignets sprinkled with cinnamon-butterscotch-sugar:

Bread!

With nearby Essential Bakery moving far, far away to South Seattle in search of cheaper rent, Alex mentioned that we should start making bread. My first reaction was excitement at the possibility of Alex learning to make bread, then I realized maybe I could make bread too. I haven't had much luck making bread in the past several years, but I did have 48 hours with nothing but studying to do and Baking With Julia. This is roughly the Country Loaf recipe, the big change is all the flour I used is equal parts white flour and whole wheat flour.

Yesterday I made the "sponge" (basically a starter) and let it sit on the counter covered with a cloth for about 8 hours:
Then I put it in the fridge to ferment over night and pulled it out in the morning to warm up before adding the rest of the ingredients and making the bread dough. Here it is, in a lightly oiled bowl, ready for it's first rise:


I let it sit for several hours while I ran some errands and it rose a lot!:


Next I shaped it and let it rise a second time for about an hour before putting it in the oven:


Finished Product:


Delicious!

Raw

I've been skeptical of raw food diets ever since I first heard about it. Plus the only so called "raw food" I have ever had has been really unimpressive. But this evening I attended a raw food dinner that absolutely blew my mind. It was truly phenomenal and ingenuous food. It was the type of food that's recognizable, though I really had no idea what I was eating because it was unlike anything I've ever had before and absolutely delicious. I found it interesting that after a while I could actually taste and recognize most of the ingredients in each dish, though they were still perfectly balanced - I wonder if this is what a super taster feels like! I talked to a few people who try to eat only raw foods and they said they recognize that it's not for everyone, we all have different body chemistry, and for them, raw food is it. For me, eating locally is a top priority and a lot of the staples of a raw food diet are not at all local, like bananas and almonds. Most of the people that were in charge of the dinner work for Thrive, and thus used some of their recipes. I definitely need to explore this more...

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday this year I decided to attempt to perfect my favorite cake to make (and eat). It's not perfect, though it's better than the last time I made it for a friends birthday several years ago. I started it on Monday, with a basic chocolate sponge cake. On Tuesday I made my chocolate mousse according to a recipe I perfected while I was in culinary school. It's the best chocolate mousse recipe I've ever used! I used an IKEA mixing bowl lined with plastic wrap as a mold and poured the chocolate mousse into it, placed the sponge cake on top, and froze it solid over the next couple of days. On Saturday, I made the shiny chocolate glaze, quickly flipped and un-molded the frozen cake and poured the chocolate glaze over it. This is the trickiest part, the last time I made it my glaze was too hot and partially melted the mousse. This time (in reaction to last time) I made the glaze too cool so it set up before it finished oozing over the entire cake. Despite the minor aesthetic failure, it was definitely a winner. Especially since I only used Valrhona chocolate and the best eggs and cream that western Washington has to offer (this is the other reason I don't make this cake often, it's not cheap!).

Without further ado, here is the infamous Giant Chocolate Bombe:

A Life Changing Sandwich

Alex just whipped this up as a quick late night snacky-dinner sort of meal, I'm utterly amazed. It's absolutely incredible. It might even be the best sandwich I've ever had!

Bacon, apple slices, fresh ginger slices, winter salad mix, raw red onion slices, and mayonaise all between two toasted slices of Essential Bakery sourdough.

One happy girl and her sauerkraut!

I'm on a sauerkraut kick again. I couldn't wait to get home this evening so I could have my daily bowl of cabbage and microbes! Perhaps I'm just connecting with my German roots, but sauerkraut sure is tasty and makes me feel great! On a trip to Hofbrauhaus in Pittsburgh over the holidays my dinner came with the most amazing hot sauerkraut I think I've ever had. It was milder, sweeter perhaps, and served hot made it oh-so-comforting. A few days ago I stopped by the German delicatessen near my work and was blown away by their sauerkraut collection. They have sauerkraut made with red or green cabbage, sauerkraut juice, and a wide variety of brands of regional flavors of plain 'ole traditional sauerkraut. I noticed the Bavarian style is made with white wine in addition to the usual cast of characters and bought it. It's my favorite. The sweetness from the wine adds a wonderful level of complexity and distracts from the possible bacterial harshness. According to Wikipedia, sauerkraut has high levels of vitamin C, lactobaccili, and other vital nutrients. It's credited as being the antidote to almost any ailment, prevents cancer, and may even be an aphrodisiac! Woohoo! In conclusion, I would like to extend a special thanks to Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Leuconostoc, and Lactobacillus for making sauerkraut possible!