Roll that pav

This month's Daring Baker's had a wonderful challenge of Chocolate Pavlovas presented by Dawn Nyman and the recipe is from Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard. I had a lot of fun with this challenge, it has mascarpone cheese AND has chocolate, whats not to love? The dare was composed of four parts, well actually five if you want to make homemade mascarpone cheese.

Part 1 - Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse
Part 2- Creme Anglaise
Part 3 - Mascarpone Creme
Part 4 - Chocolate Meringue bases

If you are making the Mascarpone cheese, then do so at least three days in advance. You will need at least 2 1/2 recipes worth as each recipe makes only 12 oz (you might have a little left over). I made mascarpone for a previous challenge and for this one, and I can assure you it is very easy and is very cost effective. Please click here for more info. If you're getting store bought mascarpone, you're all set!
    You can make all parts of the challenge up to two days in advance. Just make sure you don't assemble the pavlovas more than a couple of hours before presentation.

Part 1: Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse:

• 1 ½ cups heavy cream (cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent)
• grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
• 9 ounces 72% chocolate, chopped
• 1 2/3 cups mascarpone
• pinch of nutmeg
• 2 tbsp Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Directions:

1. Put ½ cup of the heavy cream and the lemon zest in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.
2. Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and nutmeg in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose. Add the Grand Marnier and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. (Do not overbeat, mascarpone will separate).
3. Mix about ¼ of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse OR you could just free form mousse on top of the pavlova. 

Recipe 2: Crème Anglaise (a component of the Mascarpone Cream below):

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean, split or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 6 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp sugar

Directions:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.
2. Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat.
3. Pour about ½ cup of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to keep from making scrambled eggs. Pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining cream mixture and put the heat back on medium. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERCOOK.
4. Remove the mixture from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours or overnight.

Recipe 3: Mascarpone Cream (for drizzling):

• 1 recipe crème anglaise
• ½ cup  mascarpone
• 2 tbsp Grand Marnier
• ½ cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Prepare the crème anglaise. Slowly whisk in the mascarpone and the Grand Marnier and let the mixture cool. 
2. Add cream in a separate bowl and beat until very soft peaks are formed. 
3. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture. 

 Part 4: Chocolate Meringue bases (for the chocolate Pavlova):

• 3 large egg whites
• ½ cup plus 1 tbsp white granulated sugar
• ¼ cup confectioner’s (icing) sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder

 Directions

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200º F (95º C) degrees. Line one jellypan a regular 9”x13” sheet with parchment paper.
2. Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form. (The whites should be firm but moist.)
3. Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. (This looks like it will not happen. Fold gently and it will eventually come together.)
4. Just spoon in the meringue into the jelly pan. Moisten your fingers with cold water and smoothen the top. Its much harder to smoothen with your spoon.
5. Bake for 45 minutes, Initially I baked for an hour and it crumbled and cracked too much and thus did
   not roll. Then I baked another one (a vanilla one) at 35 minutes, but that turned out to be too soft and completely collapsed.  Unfortunately I couldn’t finish my experiment as I ran out of eggs and you can't have meringue without eggs! So for those who are brave enough to try the meringue/pavlova roll, I would highly suggest baking at 45-50 minutes. At such low temperatures, oven variations and peculiarities really matter and can make or literally break your meringue. Based on your oven’s peculiarities, the baking might vary you will be the ultimate judge of that. Obviously if you don’t want to do the pavlova roll at all, and are fine with making free form meringue bases, then just bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Since I had made two versions, I decided to go with the 'safer' cooked version of the chocolate meringue base (baked for 1 hour). See in the below pic how the vanilla version is ridiculously soft? 
   
   
   
   

Assembly:

If you make a free form pavlova meringue base, then, pipe the mousse onto the meringue bases and drizzle with the mascarpone cream over the top. Since I had initially decided on the roll which didn't roll, I simply broke off the meringue pieces and stuck them in a thick base of mousse drizzled with the mascarpone creme. I then added a thick dusting of cocoa powder. Ultimately though it might have not been what I had envisioned (presentation wise) it still was awesome!

Oregon Black Truffles

Here's something I've been enjoying a lot of lately; Oregon Black Truffles. It has a very unique and explosive taste. When I saw them at the farmers market, I was immediately pulled in. I've never had actual truffles before, I've seen them on menus but they've always been so pricey that I've always felt If I wanted to get a feel for them I should just buy some and use them myself.  I have enjoyed truffle oil, but that's such a mellowed down fragrance in comparison to the real thing (maybe the ones I've had aren't that good). In any case, I got desperate to try some. Since they cost an arm and a leg, I bought a very little quantity. Thankfully, in the case of truffles, a little goes a LONG way. So they do last a bit.

I have been enjoying them with a few combinations, sometimes with home baked bread and goat cheese OR with just a simple fried egg OR and sometimes with an Arugula spread, topped with a fried egg.  Here's a link to the recipe for the arugula spread If you'd like to purchase some fry pans, there's a Foodbuzz daily special going on.

Strawberry Picking

Last weekend felt like true summer (finally) in the Northwest and the first thing that comes to mind is, berry picking. June is officially the strawberry season in most parts of the United States including Oregon. We just happen to live a few miles from several berry picking farms and every time we go there, it feels like such an escape from all the people and the concrete. 

This year, we went to Columbia Farms in Sauvie Island with some friends. We enjoyed the day with the backdrop of Mount Hood, rolling meadows, lush greenery and rows and rows of planted strawberries. The farm had several types of strawberries including 'hood' and the 'puget' varieties. My personal favorite is the 'hood', small berries but excellent in taste.


We brought in a load of about 3 pounds of luscious strawberries which then quite quickly whittled down to half after some snacking :) I made some jams with the rest.

I would rate strawberries as one of the best ways to eat a healthy snack. You can have them plain, with a sprinkling of sugar, with a drizzle of both white or dark chocolate, chopped up in a fruit salad with pine nuts, made into a vinaigrette or a sauce for pancakes (Click here for the recipe) and a dozen other ways.
Happy Strawberry eating!

Its pâté time!

This month's daring kitchen challenge was presented by Valerie and by Evelyne and it was pâté and bread. How wonderful! I have always loved pâté and I had never made it at home before. So this proved to be a very useful challenge. I made a simple Cognac chicken liver pâté and served this along with whole wheat baguette along with marinated garlic mushrooms, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh goat cheese.

The presenters had suggested recipes that used large quantities of chicken liver and given tips that one could freeze pâté and consume it later. However, considering pâté is usually made out of liver meat and basically fat, I didn't think it was reasonable for me to eat this in large quantities or eat often. So I thought it would be a good idea to only get a half pound of chicken liver for two people. Surprisingly the resulting pâté was a large amount! Even a half pound was too much! I had to freeze over 60% of the pâté for later use. So if you are going to try this I would highly suggest only making a quarter pound of chicken liver for two people.

I used a recipe from Jacques Pepin. Please find the recipe at http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chicken-liver-pate-march-2007

Chicken Pâté Ingredients

• 1/2 pound chicken livers, well-trimmed
• 1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 small garlic clove, smashed and peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves
• Kosher salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons Cognac or Scotch whisky
• Freshly ground pepper
• Toasted baguette slices (see below for more info), for serving

Directions

1. Combine everything but the Cognac and butter in a pan and cook till its just done.
2. Remove the bay leaf and blend everything in a food processor. Add the Cognac, add the butter slowly till the pâté well blended and smooth.
3. Grind fresh pepper at the last minute for added freshness. If you'd like to buy one, please check out today's special at Foodbuzz. 
4. Scrape the pâté into ramekins or a nice serving bowl and chill till firm. Overnight is recommended.

FYI: To make this healthier, I reduced the enormous amount of butter used to only 3 tbsp and eliminated the water to a few tablespoons. It was still VERY smooth and delicious!

For the Baguette - I used a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes, and made a whole wheat mini baguette and it was SUPERB! I had been hearing a lot about it and this became my most recent book purchase and I was glad that I bought this. I must highly recommend this book to all who would like to start baking whole wheat and whole grain bread. This was not only excellent, but proved to be very easy.

Arugula Spread

One of the best parts about growing vegetables is harvesting them. Tis' the season to harvest lettuce (left pic), spinach, arugula, radishes and other cool weather veggies. I use a simple metal colander to wash the dirt off the veggies. Its a basic tool that is required in every kitchen. If you'd like one, check it out at Foodbuzz

Below is a picture of my latest harvest - arugula. I made a spread out of it and it was very lovely and smooth. Quite pleasing!

 

Arugula Spread

• Handful of arugula leaves
• 1/4 cup Pine nuts or any nuts
• Half a cup of thick yogurt
• Salt
• 1 small garlic clove

Blast it through the food processor. Mix it well and thats it!

Originally I thought I was thinking of making arugula pesto but I think pesto is nowadays being corrupted to be any green mixture of nuts and cheese. So I respectfully call this an arugula spread. I used yogurt instead of cheese and olive oil to give it a spread like consistency. This is very nice with good bread and a simple fried egg.

A mat which matters...

There are some luxuries which become necessities in the kitchen. One of these is the Kitchen mat. A Kitchen mat you say? Why?
To me this is as necessary as a good dishwasher. It helps me cook for longer. If I don't spend as much time and more importantly effort cleaning up, then I can cook more and create more. The Kitchen mat, in a similar sense has become this way for me. It helps me stand longer without pain. It reduces fatigue, reduces heel pain, cracked feet and a whole bunch of other pains (Specially with my FM condition).
I've actually managed to convince some of my friends to buy em' and they love it too :) They don't have such health issues but even then, their feet feel better.
After buying this and using it for about 3 years, I cannot do without it. I have to say it has become a must for me. In fact, check out the below pics of my really old kitchen mat and the new one.

 Check out the thickness of the mat, this really helps in cushioning. 

These are actually the cheaper kinds, I buy both them at Bed Bath & Beyond as well as Costco. (Please note I am not getting paid by either Bed Bath or Costco to promote these). However if I could afford it, I would buy a Gel pro mat. I've always eyed them before but never owned them. So I can't vouch for this type. If you'd like one, check it out at FoodBuzz

I would highly recommend them

1. If you have wooden or stone floors, 
2. If you have lower back pain or knee pain
3. If you find your feet hurting after cooking very often.