It is my Friday roundup of places I have been!
Kelly klutz is onto art, and has done some online classes. I think I will too!
http://kelly-kautz.com/about-face/
Monday, June 16, 2014
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Re-Post: Begin the Beignets
I wrote this when Bryn was just 11, about to turn 12. She was already quite the chef and she still is. She even takes photos of her food before eating. You never know where you'll find a masterpiece.
Her food always turns out well, and she's learning the art of restraint and subtlety (we went through quite a phase of way too much garlic)....
But she wanted to make beignets after eating them at Moderne at MOMA in NYC. These are awesome...
We are still talking about the beignets dessert we had at The Modern, the lovely restaurant run by Union Square Hospitality Group at MOMA in NYC. They were light, not greasy at all and delicious dipped into the caramel sauce or the fruit salsa (mango salsa, if I recall correctly) or the maple ice cream (I think that was it; I didn't take notes) ...trust me on that, I made sure they were delicious with ANY of the sides...
At any rate, Bryn has been talking about them ever since, so what else to do but make beignets and blog about it?
It isn't that difficult--it's a yeast dough. I gave it one rise in the bowl, turned it out, rolled it, then let it go for another rise. I used a pizza cutter to cut them into diamond shapes, then fried them, dusted them with sugar and enjoyed...I had some dulce de leche in the fridge, so I dipped them in that, but does it sound strange if I say the dulce de leche was too sweet? I don't think real caramel sauce is so sweet. At any rate, I didn't like it so much like that. Guess I am a purist when it comes to this--straight up with the dusting of sugar.
I didn't have the needed evaporated milk called for in the recipe, so instead, I used a 4 oz. carton of vanilla yogurt. I thought it gave the beignets the subtlest hint of tang...Very nice.
We will not discuss here the near disaster we had the following day when Bryn wanted to surprise me by frying up the leftover dough--this recipe makes enough for a crowd, so I'd popped it into the fridge. But we are not discussing that here. Suffice it to say....
Bryn learned the following:
I believe the following:
I KNOW this:
Barb and Bryn's Beignets:
(Makes about 40 2-inch beignets)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeats
3/4 warm water
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 ounces vanilla yogurt
3 3/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons butter
Vegetable Oil for Frying
Powdered Sugar
1. Mix the yeast, water and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Let sit until creamy (about 10 minutes). Add salt, egg, yogurt and mix with dough hook. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, mix, then add butter and mix until combined. Add remaining flour and mix until dough is just pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Drizzle with a tiny bit of oil, smooth oil over dough, cover with plastic wrap and leave in warm spot for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
2. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Pat into rectangle, dust top with flour then roll out to 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Measures about 15 inches long by about 10 inches wide. Cut into diamond shapes (cut straight across one side, then on the diagonal the other way). Cover in place with a clean dish cloth. Let rise another 40 to 60 minutes.
3. Heat about 2 inches oil to 350 degrees. Gently drop beignets into oil, one at a time. Don't crowd oil or heat will lower. Turn after about 30 seconds. Fry until both sides are golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Cool slightly then dust with powdered sugar: Eat NOW.
Her food always turns out well, and she's learning the art of restraint and subtlety (we went through quite a phase of way too much garlic)....
But she wanted to make beignets after eating them at Moderne at MOMA in NYC. These are awesome...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Begin the Beignets
We are still talking about the beignets dessert we had at The Modern, the lovely restaurant run by Union Square Hospitality Group at MOMA in NYC. They were light, not greasy at all and delicious dipped into the caramel sauce or the fruit salsa (mango salsa, if I recall correctly) or the maple ice cream (I think that was it; I didn't take notes) ...trust me on that, I made sure they were delicious with ANY of the sides...
At any rate, Bryn has been talking about them ever since, so what else to do but make beignets and blog about it?
It isn't that difficult--it's a yeast dough. I gave it one rise in the bowl, turned it out, rolled it, then let it go for another rise. I used a pizza cutter to cut them into diamond shapes, then fried them, dusted them with sugar and enjoyed...I had some dulce de leche in the fridge, so I dipped them in that, but does it sound strange if I say the dulce de leche was too sweet? I don't think real caramel sauce is so sweet. At any rate, I didn't like it so much like that. Guess I am a purist when it comes to this--straight up with the dusting of sugar.
I didn't have the needed evaporated milk called for in the recipe, so instead, I used a 4 oz. carton of vanilla yogurt. I thought it gave the beignets the subtlest hint of tang...Very nice.
We will not discuss here the near disaster we had the following day when Bryn wanted to surprise me by frying up the leftover dough--this recipe makes enough for a crowd, so I'd popped it into the fridge. But we are not discussing that here. Suffice it to say....
Bryn learned the following:
- Hot grease splatters.
- Hot grease smokes.
- Hot grease burns.
- Water does not cool off grease but makes it splatter some more.
I believe the following:
- Bryn is lucky only her fingers got some splatter burns.
- We are lucky the house didn't burn down.
I KNOW this:
- Bryn is not allowed to turn on anything but the microwave and the kettle when no adults are around. Can you believe she decided to whip up beignets for kicks? Sheesh. The next Julia, right?
Barb and Bryn's Beignets:
(Makes about 40 2-inch beignets)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeats
3/4 warm water
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 ounces vanilla yogurt
3 3/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons butter
Vegetable Oil for Frying
Powdered Sugar
1. Mix the yeast, water and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Let sit until creamy (about 10 minutes). Add salt, egg, yogurt and mix with dough hook. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, mix, then add butter and mix until combined. Add remaining flour and mix until dough is just pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Drizzle with a tiny bit of oil, smooth oil over dough, cover with plastic wrap and leave in warm spot for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
2. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Pat into rectangle, dust top with flour then roll out to 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Measures about 15 inches long by about 10 inches wide. Cut into diamond shapes (cut straight across one side, then on the diagonal the other way). Cover in place with a clean dish cloth. Let rise another 40 to 60 minutes.
3. Heat about 2 inches oil to 350 degrees. Gently drop beignets into oil, one at a time. Don't crowd oil or heat will lower. Turn after about 30 seconds. Fry until both sides are golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Cool slightly then dust with powdered sugar: Eat NOW.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
It's Hot
Plus it is World Cup and I am tired of cooking. I need cold dishes stat:
Balsamic vinaigrette coleslaw: toss very thinly sliced cabbage with thinly sliced onion and some homemade balsamic vinaigrette and some celery salt. Let marinate and enjoy.
Caprese salad and all variations: fresh tomatoes mozzarella and basil. Same on a roll. Use pesto instead of basil. Try it on a pizza. Chop it up and toss in a bowl with lettuce.
Greek salad with plenty of oregano, feta and lemon and kalamata olives
Any salad, maybe with some sliced ripe strawberries.
Yogurt with homemade granola and frozen blueberries to cool me off.
Leftovers.
Cold plate of pate, cheese, olives, marinated roasted peppers and great bread.
What do you eat when it is hot out and World Cup is on?
Friday, June 13, 2014
Friday the 13th
I didn't visit many sites this week. Too crazed. But yesterday's post reminded me of this gen about whet it takes to develop a recipe:
I do very much the same as XX--I would add if a magazine comes after the fact (and payment agreement/contract) and wants recipes from sources, I say I will approach the sources, but that the pay doesn't cover my reformatting or testing the recipes--that takes time. So if you think they will need it, ask about it and make sure you are compensated. Sources, chefs included, often have little written well or scaled to serve 6 people. You might be doing the scaling.
I've also gotten permission to use both a recipe and photo from a cookbook publisher. That's fine and great. I don't test those and let the magazine know I'm not testing those--they get printed with full info, where they appeared, etc.
When I develop a recipe, I write it first--like Bev, I will research things such as proportions for a sauce, best techniques, etc. I list ingredients in the order I touch them in the recipe. I work in the kitchen with paper and pen/pencil--my recipe has arrows moving ingredients around, adding salt here, deleting another ingredient there...things that just don't work when I'm in front of a stove.
I second the use of a spiral notebook. I recently lost a recipe I had written on a separate piece of paper--I had tested it and it had my notes on it. I did a quick recreation, but that was painful.
Know the audience as best you can. They very well may not be eating truffles. Ever. So don't write a recipe with truffles. Ever.
If I can, I like to use weight vs. volume, but of course, I have to follow a recipe's style. If you are writing a recipe, it is easy to follow a style--just read the recipes in the magazine you are writing for. Don't use "Tbsp" for tablespoon if you see "tablespoon" written out.
Pay attention to whether they number steps or bullet point them or write them as a paragraph.
I time the recipe, but I also ADD time/round up to prep times when I am asked. I am very fast in the kitchen, and I know others are not. I never add time to cooking time--if it takes 15 minutes at 350F in my home, it ought to take 15 minutes in someone else's 350F oven.
I do a lot of meat recipes--they are hard to always make pretty (lots of brown)--I like to cook rare to medium rare to get some pink (one client gets food photography from me, too)--and garnishes MATTER. A lot.
Speaking of seasonality and cranberries: I always buy extra cranberries for the freezer in November and December because someone always asks me to develop a cranberry recipe for them in ...July.
I try never to develop a fresh pumpkin recipe for someone in May. No, you cannot find sugar pumpkins or jack-o-lantern style pumpkins ANYWHERE in May. (You can often find other squash recipes, so I will develop squash recipes or canned pumpkin recipes)...
When I proof, I look at ingredient list and tick it off as I read through the instructions and see it mentioned--it is really easy to skip something important (yesterday, I caught the sugar missing from a panna cotta recipe)...
Test!
Know your strengths, too--I know if I am developing a dessert recipe I will work harder than if I am developing anything else...If you fail once, hit the books looking for reasons before you test again--one recipe that comes to my mind is a lemon meringue pie that brought me to tears at a photo shoot!
Pay attention to--and list--the little things--recently I asked did readers REALLY be need to told to slice a steak when they have cooked a 1-pound steak and later are directed to put 2 1/2 ounces of the steak onto a roll (building a steak sandwich)--I mean, how ELSE would one get there? Bev wisely talked me out of snark: Yes, Barb: they really need to be told to slice the steak. So I repeat: list the little things. Write them.
I do very much the same as XX--I would add if a magazine comes after the fact (and payment agreement/contract) and wants recipes from sources, I say I will approach the sources, but that the pay doesn't cover my reformatting or testing the recipes--that takes time. So if you think they will need it, ask about it and make sure you are compensated. Sources, chefs included, often have little written well or scaled to serve 6 people. You might be doing the scaling.
I've also gotten permission to use both a recipe and photo from a cookbook publisher. That's fine and great. I don't test those and let the magazine know I'm not testing those--they get printed with full info, where they appeared, etc.
When I develop a recipe, I write it first--like Bev, I will research things such as proportions for a sauce, best techniques, etc. I list ingredients in the order I touch them in the recipe. I work in the kitchen with paper and pen/pencil--my recipe has arrows moving ingredients around, adding salt here, deleting another ingredient there...things that just don't work when I'm in front of a stove.
I second the use of a spiral notebook. I recently lost a recipe I had written on a separate piece of paper--I had tested it and it had my notes on it. I did a quick recreation, but that was painful.
Know the audience as best you can. They very well may not be eating truffles. Ever. So don't write a recipe with truffles. Ever.
If I can, I like to use weight vs. volume, but of course, I have to follow a recipe's style. If you are writing a recipe, it is easy to follow a style--just read the recipes in the magazine you are writing for. Don't use "Tbsp" for tablespoon if you see "tablespoon" written out.
Pay attention to whether they number steps or bullet point them or write them as a paragraph.
I time the recipe, but I also ADD time/round up to prep times when I am asked. I am very fast in the kitchen, and I know others are not. I never add time to cooking time--if it takes 15 minutes at 350F in my home, it ought to take 15 minutes in someone else's 350F oven.
I do a lot of meat recipes--they are hard to always make pretty (lots of brown)--I like to cook rare to medium rare to get some pink (one client gets food photography from me, too)--and garnishes MATTER. A lot.
Speaking of seasonality and cranberries: I always buy extra cranberries for the freezer in November and December because someone always asks me to develop a cranberry recipe for them in ...July.
I try never to develop a fresh pumpkin recipe for someone in May. No, you cannot find sugar pumpkins or jack-o-lantern style pumpkins ANYWHERE in May. (You can often find other squash recipes, so I will develop squash recipes or canned pumpkin recipes)...
When I proof, I look at ingredient list and tick it off as I read through the instructions and see it mentioned--it is really easy to skip something important (yesterday, I caught the sugar missing from a panna cotta recipe)...
Test!
Know your strengths, too--I know if I am developing a dessert recipe I will work harder than if I am developing anything else...If you fail once, hit the books looking for reasons before you test again--one recipe that comes to my mind is a lemon meringue pie that brought me to tears at a photo shoot!
Pay attention to--and list--the little things--recently I asked did readers REALLY be need to told to slice a steak when they have cooked a 1-pound steak and later are directed to put 2 1/2 ounces of the steak onto a roll (building a steak sandwich)--I mean, how ELSE would one get there? Bev wisely talked me out of snark: Yes, Barb: they really need to be told to slice the steak. So I repeat: list the little things. Write them.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
A Day in the Life of a Recipe Developer
 |
| Oops. Let's try this pizza crust again.... |
Some things you should know.
1. If I am developing beef recipes for a client in an ongoing manner (months)--it won't matter if my family loves loves LOVES the recipe. They won't see it again, because next month? Next month I have to develop five NEW beef recipes.
2. You might have to be a guinea pig if you come to dinner at my house. You can't just say "this tastes good." You will have to weigh in on salt, missing something ingredient questions and how to improve a dish. Don't be shy.
3. Yes, I really do test every recipe.
4. Yes, dessert recipes are waaaaaaay more difficult for me than savory recipes. Lemon meringue pie at a photo shoot once reduced me to tears. But I learned some stuff.
5. Not every recipe is a winner, and my family DOES let me know.
6. Sometimes you will eat turkey and cranberry sauce in July in my house.
6a. I am the one buying 5 bags of cranberries for the freezer AFTER the holidays (see #6 above). I will need them in July.
7. No matter how much you wish it, you cannot make a real pumpkin appear in July. I know this from experience too. However, a great photographer can make a fake pumpkin look close to real by giving it some soft focus in the background.
8. Count on some superior editor will say how SHE would have photographed the pumpkin soup IN a pumpkin (pooh, so original). In July. Good luck with that one. SHE was not on the phone call with sources IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE who were willing to maybe ship a pumpkin (although not necessarily the jack-o-lantern style pumpkin you are expecting) for several hundreds of dollars (when your food budget was $100--for the entire shoot). If you're curious, yes, this I also have lived through.
9. Yes, you CAN cook for me. I am not really a food snob--well, unless that means cooking me good food. And good food can, indeed, include a hot dog! Just make it a good hot dog on a good roll with good mustard.
10. Yes, sometimes I think Cheerios makes a great supper.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Recipe: Kale Chips
You can say kale is over if you like (you must be VERY trendy if you are already over it). I came late to the party. I loved Italian recipes using kale (with white beans for example). But then they started makes salads of it--and I thought they were cah-ray-zee.
Then I had kale salad. To be precise, I had Dean and Deluca's kale salad, and I was hooked--I craved it. Of course, then I wanted everything kale. And I lit on kale chips. I've done beet green chips, too, but this works better, because you get so much more kale in a bunch of kale than you get beet greens off a bunch of beets (um, if you know what I mean...).
Anyway, these are easy to make and fun to eat. I can eat the entire bunch all by myself--and it's no good letting them sit anywhere in the humid summer, because they'll just go soggy. So eat up.
Kale Chips1 bunch kaleAbout 1 tablespoon Extra-Virgin Olive OilSea Salt
Heat oven to 350ºF. Remove tough stems from kale.Tear into pieces, wash and dry thoroughly. Toss with olive oil and salt. Bake in single layer on parchment-lined baking sheets until crispy, about 15 minutes, no longer than 20. (Watch them closely--they'll go from perfectly crispy to burnt and bitter quickly...)
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