Shuna from Eggbeater reminded me that Thomas Keller is not a pastry chef. That fact never really occurred to me when I decided to use the recipe from the Bouchon cookbook. In my continuing attempt to make the perfect, or at the very least edible, macaroon, I've dumped the Bouchon recipe for one that was tried and tested at least seven times by someone who I'm sure is a Pastry Chef, David Lebovitz.
My first batch followed the recipe to the tee, including a 15-18 minute baking time, but the macaroons turned out overcooked and more like merengue crisps. When I took a bite into one of them, they cracked and splintered like a light bulb.
I cut the baking time in half to 9-10 minutes for the second batch and they turned out much softer. I was pleased with the results. But the story ends the same as the first. These macaroons tricked me. An hour after they cooled, they got super-chewy like the Bouchon ones. At least they rose with a smooth domed top and had "feet." I think maybe I over beat the egg whites, I'm not too sure. If anyone has an idea how to make the inside less chewy, please let me know.
I've run out of patience for today. The quest continues.
Will all the eating out I've done recently, it's been a while since I've actually been back in the kitchen so Friday morning I was struck with a cooking bug. I had a couple holiday parties I was going to later that night, so instead of the standard bottle of wine, I opted to bring some Peppermint Bark, recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart Live. I was a little camera happy that morning and was pretty dilligent in taking pictures of every step, so I'll spare you the details and let the pictures do the talking.
Click on the picture for the recipe:
As you can see, I made use again of my Silpat. The more I use this slipperly slice of non-stick goodness, the more I believe that Silpat is one of the greatest kitchen gadgets ever created.
The peppermint bark turned out really nice - they tasted a lot better than they looked and might I add that they look pretty damn good? I think the secret to these is the rice crispy treats, which gave made them really light and crunchy. I wrapped up about 1/2 of the recipe for my holiday party offering later that night and gave away part of the other half to Mike and Devy. Seems like these were quite the addicting candy!
Having spent a couple years of my childhood in Southern Spain, my family and I grew a certain appreciation for mariscos (Spanish for seafood) of all kinds, especially deep-fried. I remember taking drives from Rota (where we lived) to Cadiz, a fishing port along the coast, for a plateful of fried chipirones - Spain's version of calamari. Chipirones are actually small baby squid. They're fried whole, so every piece has a set of tentacles, making it extra crispy and 10x better than any calamari you could get in the US. I hate calamari served in the US has too much batter or made from the huge calamari steaks. There's nothing worse than chewy calamari. For years I've been trying to figure out how to make calamari as crispy is it was when I had it in Spain and today I think I finally figured it out. Never having had a deep fryer, I always gauged oil being at 375 degrees, the ideal temperature for deep frying anything, by how loud the explosions of drops of water were in the skillet. Besides being totally hazardous, that really doesn't tell you anything. The proper way to measure temperature is with a candy thermometer. Don't underestimate how long it takes to heat up oil, it took me much longer than I would have expected, probably at least 7-10 minutes, using my larger-than-average New York stove to get to 375 degrees. So anyway, it got to 375 so I dropped in a couple pieces. Moments later, the temperature dropped about 10-20 degrees, so I had to up the flame a little to help keep the temp constant. Here's my final product:
For crispy calamari in New York, try Pam Real Thai in Hell's Kitchen. It's cheap and comes with a good dipping sauce. You'll have to judge the rest of the food for yourself.
Pam Real Thai Food
404 W 49th St
Btwn 9th & 10th Ave
Phone: 212-333-7500
While I was watching Thomas Keller the other day demoing a recipe for Mediterranean Sea Bass on Martha Stewart live, I reminded myself that I should try to learn more of the basics listed in the back of the Bouchon Cookbook to get a head start on culinary school. Today, I've decided to start my first in a series of posts on the basics of French Bistro fare: Onion Confit. I chose Onion Confit for 2 reasons: I have a surplus of humongous Spanish onions that I bought from Costco that I can't for the life of me use and because I like saying confit (kon-FEE)... confit, confit, confit. I can tell you from my Food Lover's Companion book that I got for my birthday that confit is a specialty of Gascone, France where meat is slowly cooked and salted in its own fat, most often duck or goose. Although confit is mainly done to duck, the Bouchon Cookbook has a lot of different varieties of confits - garlic, onion, tomayto, tomahto, potayto, potahto - OK I got carried away. Here's my recollection of the recipe from the book:
1 pound of Spanish onions (2 or 3 large ones)
8 tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup of water
1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 bouquet garni
1 parchment cover
1. Half the onion lengthwise then cut into 1/4 inch thick slices (Note: the book goes in detail about cutting a v-shaped wedge at the bottom of both halves and removing any flat pieces of onion - presumably the older pieces that are going to sprout?? - just goes to show how meticulous Thomas Keller is with his ingredients)
2. In a medium skillet over low heat, warm the water and melt the butter, use a whisk to aid in the melting
3. Add the onions, salt, and bouquet garni to the liquid
4. Cover with the parchment paper
5. Stir every 20-30 minutes, more often the longer it has been cooking
6. The onions will take about 2 hours to cook and be very sweet and soft, but not fall apart
7. Remove the parchment cover and bouquet garni and let cool in its own liquid
8. Transfer the confit to a plastic container and pop it in the fridge
Onion confit is very versatile. The confit is used all over the Bouchon cookbook, but it can also be used simply as a topping on things like steak, flatbread pizzas and crackers. I decided to make Potatoes Lyonnaise, another recipe courtesy of the book, with my leftover potatoes from Thanksgiving. They were pretty much a fancified French version of country potatoes. In the words of Rachel Ray herself, they were "YUMMO."
