Author: The Answer is Always Pork

Cooking and Eating in San Francisco

Categories
Recipes

baking therapy: chocolate ganache tart

Another week full of coworker birthdays! Why so many birthdays? Well, as my coworker Noah pointed out, this week is 9 months after Valentine’s Day. 😉

I always ask the birthday boy or girl if they have any allergies (I don’t want to kill anyone on their birthday) and Joel replied, “I’m allergic to anything that’s not sweet, fattening or chocolate”.  Sounds good to me!

I decided to make a chocolate ganache tart because it looked so pretty and fancy in the picture, but the recipe was super simple.

Chocolate Ganache Tart, from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food
3 tablespoons slivered blanched almonds
6 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups (spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons grated orange or lemon zest (I did lemon)
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make dough: In a food processor, pulse almonds until finely ground. Add sugar, flour, zest (if desired), and salt; pulse until combined. Add butter, pulsing until coarse crumbs form with no large butter lumps. I don’t have a food processor, so I grated the butter on the cheese grater and cut it in with 2 knives.

Immediately transfer dough to a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Using a measuring cup, evenly press dough in bottom and up sides of pan.

Bake in center of oven until golden brown and firm to the touch, about 20 minutes. (At 20 minutes, my crust was still really soft so I let it go longer, but upon eating the next day it seemed too crunchy). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Make ganache: Place chocolate in a large mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, heat cream until just about to boil. Pour hot cream, through a sieve, over chocolate. Stir until smooth and creamy in texture. Mix in vanilla. (As we learned in the chocolate mousse adventure, be careful not to torture the chocolate).

Pour chocolate mixture into center of cooled tart shell. Let stand until set, about 2 hours, or chill for 1 hour.

I served it with fresh raspberries.

Conclusions: It was rich, chocolatey and decadent. The acidity of the berries was a perfect accompaniment. I wasn’t thrilled with the crunchiness of the crust and may try a different crust recipe next time. The coworkers all really enjoyed it and I’m pretty sure I saw someone go in for thirds.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

baking therapy: banana cream pie

Oh pate brisee, why did you torture me so! I lovingly and carefully incorporated your flour, butter and water, painstakingly chopping the butter into tiny bits, and all you do to thank me is collapse upon yourself in the oven.

Not a terribly successful weekend for desserts. I decided to make a banana cream pie for my coworker’s birthday (she requested a banana dessert) and wanted to make the pie crust from scratch. I followed a recipe that used all butter, because crisco sort of freaks me out, but sadly, only one of the two pie crusts was even usable after baking (and the usable one was definitely ugly).

I followed a Martha Stewart recipe for the pie.

Despite the aforementioned crust issues, making the vanilla custard went smoothly. And once the pie crust was topped with sliced bananas and vanilla custard, you could hardly tell it was an once ugly. I served it with a dollop of whipped cream.

Conclusions: All of my coworkers loved it, even the ones that don’t like banana cream pie (myself included). Surprising myself, I would make it again and recommend you all to try it.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

chocolate mousse: trial and error

This is a lesson on how to make chocolate mousse, and also how not to make chocolate mousse. It took Jordan and I two tries to turn out an edible product for our Sunday party, and sadly, we can’t say we’re thrilled with the end result of this recipe.

Eggs, cream, chocolate … all delicate ingredients that don’t respond well to harsh treatment. We were harsh. On our first attempt, we’re fairly certain we burnt the ingredients every step of the way. The result: a chunky, grainy, chocolate goop.

A side-by-side comparison of a correct custard (smooth and creamy) and an incorrect custard (burnt and grainy).

While we successfully passed the custard stage on on our second attempt, we over-chilled the chocolate custard, which resulted in an overly dense mousse even 1.5 cups of whipped cream couldn’t save. It was edible certainly, but too rich to be throughly enjoyed.

Still on the hunt for the perfect chocolate mousse …

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

sunday dinner party

We invited a few friends over for a dinner party on this past Sunday and decided to attempt to conquer another recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Drizzly weather made bouf bourguignon the recipe of choice, and Jordan and I dove right in. After carefully reading the recipe, shopping, and then carefully re-reading the recipe, we began. We followed Julia’s instructions to a t (which is pretty impressive, considering how much Jordan loves to improvise in the kitchen and how detailed Julia’s instructions are) and the bouf turned out beautifully. It was moist, fork-tender, flavorful and drenched in a perfect beefy-bacony sauce. I love braised meats, but I’ve noticed that their sauces occasionally have a bitter aftertaste … well, not Julia’s. This sauce is perfect and I think we made it well.

We served the bouf with mashed potatoes and a salad of spinach, arugula, pomegranate chevre.

Conclusions: Braised meats are awesome! Although this recipe was a bit complicated and multi-stepped, it was absolutely worth the effort. Like Julia says in her memoir, and like my Nonnie says about Julia’s bouf bourguignon, if you carefully follow the recipe and don’t leave anything out the end product will be perfection.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

pasta with ricotta and heirloom tomatoes

This pasta dish was another of our quick, fresh, light dinners from the week. I wanted to celebrate the last of the tomatoes of the season!

Pasta with Ricotta and Heirloom Tomatoes
2 lbs heirloom tomatoes, sliced
1/2 c mixed herbs, chopped (I used parsley, basil and chives)
1 T olive oil
1 T lemon juice
salt, pepper, chili flakes to taste
12 oz dry pasta (I used conchiglie – cute snail shell shaped pastas)
1/2 – 3/4 c ricotta cheese
1/2 c finely grate parmesan cheese

Slice tomatoes and toss them with the chopped herbs, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain. Return pasta to the pot, add ricotta, parmesan, and pasta water. Season with salt and pepper. Top with tomato and herb mixture and enjoy!

Conclusions: A direct quote from Jordan: “This is the best thing I’ve had since …  since I can remember. Except for Lobster Day”. And from me: “the easiest ‘mac and cheese’ you’ll ever make that doesn’t come from a box”.

-Emily

 

Categories
Uncategorized

seared sesame-crusted tuna over rice noodles

It’s been strangely hot here in San Francisco. I’m talking mid-70s, but still, it is November after all. Because it’s been warm and because both Jordan and I have vigorous commutes, we’ve been in the mood for fresh, light dinners. Last night I made seared tuna over rice noodles with a side of broccolini and mushrooms.

Seared Sesame-Crusted Tuna over Rice Noodles
1 lb rice noodles, cooked, drained and cooled.

For the noodle sauce: Whisk sliced green onion, soy sauce, siracha sauce, sweet chili sauce, rice wine vinegar, and canola oil together. This was seriously approximated – I just threw a bit of everything asian we had in the kitchen together in a bowl.

1 lb fresh tuna
3 T sesame seeds
A pinch of salt

Sprinkle tuna with salt. Coat with sesame seeds, pressing seeds into fillet.

Heat 1 T of canola oil in a sauté pan over high heat until it is just about smoking. Place fish in the pan, sear for 30 – 45 seconds. Flip, sear for another 30 seconds. Remove from pan and slice.

Look how even that sear is! I'm pretty proud.

Toss rice noodles with the sauce. Lay sliced tuna over the rice noodles. Enjoy!

Conclusions: Super easy, tasty, and fresh. The only catch: Be mindful not to murder the tuna – it really does only take 30 – 45 seconds per side. Another upside: super gourmet leftovers to take to work/school for lunch.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

baking therapy: angel food cake with lemon cream

Another coworker’s birthday, another delicious treat to break up the workday. I decided to make an angel food cake for a couple of reasons …  because my mom found an angel food cake pan at a garage sale and brought it down to me last weekend, because I’ve never make angel food from scratch, and because I’ve already brought cheesecake, chocolate cake, yellow cake, and banana bread to work.

I must say, baking this cake was quite the adventure. I made a huge mess of my kitchen (mostly because I didn’t realize just how voluminous 12 egg whites can become – very voluminous) and later was thrilled when my cake popped right out of the mold after the two hour cooling period, despite looking totally stuck to the pan.

Angel Food Cake with Lemon Cream and Fresh Berries, adapted from Martha Stewart Living

FOR THE CAKE
1 cup sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
12 large egg whites
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Make the cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with rack in lower third of oven. Sift flour and 1/2 cup sugar into a bowl.

Whisk whites with a mixer on medium speed until frothy, about 1 minute. Add lemon zest and juice, cream of tartar, vanilla, and salt; continue whisking until soft peaks form, about 2 1/2 minutes. With mixer running, gradually add remaining cup sugar.

Increase speed to medium-high; continue whisking until firm, not stiff, peaks form, about 2 minutes. (At this point my mixer was overflowing with egg whites!) Sprinkle whites with 1/3 of the flour-sugar mixture. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold to combine. Sprinkle remaining flour-sugar mixture over whites in 2 additions; gently fold to combine.

Transfer batter to an UNGREASED (very important!) 10-inch angel food cake pan with legs. Gently run a knife through the center of the batter to remove any air bubbles. Bake 45 to 50 minutes.

FOR THE LEMON CREAM
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

While the cake is baking, make the lemon cream. Prepare an ice-water bath (this really does help). Whisk lemon juice, sugar, flour, and salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil; whisk constantly for 1 minute, until it thickens. Transfer to a heatproof bowl set in ice-water bath to cool completely, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk cream and lemon zest with a mixer on medium speed until medium peaks form, about 3 minutes. Gently fold whipped cream into juice mixture in thirds. Refrigerate lemon cream, up to overnight.

Remove cake from oven, and invert onto its cooling legs (if your tube pan doesn’t have legs, invert it over the neck of a wine, or similarly shaped, bottle to cool); let cool, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Yes, you let it cool upside down … the cake won’t just plop out of the pan so don’t worry like I did). Run a knife around the inner and outer edges of cake to remove. Invert onto a serving platter. (Use a knife to separate cake from bottom of pan.)

Frost with whipped cream, serve with fresh berries.

Conclusions: Delicious! Light, lemony and spongy … an angel food cake success! My coworkers all enjoyed it, especially the addition of the lemon zest.

-Emily

Categories
Uncategorized

julia child’s garlic soup and eggs coquette

I busted out Mastering the Art of French Cooking the other night. I was in the mood to cook something classic, yet more ambitious than usual. I chose two different recipes – one for garlic soup and another for poached-style eggs. I had all my ingredients, I was excited about the recipes, I felt good. And … it all went downhill from there.

A brief outline of the snowballing disasters:

The garlic soup is basically garlic, boiled, crushed and then infused into water. You turn this garlic water into a soup by adding an emulsion of eggs and olive oil. Got that far without issue. I was even proud of my very viscous emulsion. I carefully mixed the hot garlic water with the egg mixture as to not burn the eggs … another successful step. I tasted. It needed acid. I added a squeeze of lemon juice … and watched as my soup went from beautifully emulsified to curdled in seconds. Strike one.

I then decided to tackle the eggs. The idea was to bake eggs in ramekins with a little cream and butter and then top them with fresh chives and sauteed mushrooms. Delicious. Sadly, I failed to read the bit in recipe about starting the eggs on the stove to thicken the cream. Frustrated, I just tossed them in the oven in a water bath. After a few minutes they didn’t seem to be cooking at all. Strike two.

Jordan suggested we put the eggs under the broiler in an attempt to rescue dinner. It was tricky to move a small, too-full pan of water with ramekins sliding around into our drawer style broiler, but we did it. After a few minutes, we opened the broiler drawer to check on the eggs and the pan came sliding out, spilling an eggy, creamy, watery mess all over the kitchen floor. Of course, this commotion prompted Willow to come racing over to investigate. To sum things up, in our tiny galley kitchen we had myself, Jordan, a nosy dog, an open broiler door, a large eggy spill, and a pot of curdled soup. Strike three.

Amazingly, I tried to save dinner yet again by plating this disaster and serving to Jordan and myself.

We had green beans and sautéed mushrooms for dinner. I do love green beans.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

baking therapy: pumpkin seeds and pumpkin bread

Yesterday was Halloween. We woke up early and hosted a pumpkinpalooza in our kitchen … pumpkin carving, pumpkin seed roasting and pumpkin bread baking!

Step one: Carve your pumpkin. Look at what a fabulous job Jordan did!

Step two: Roast the seeds.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Scrape out all the goopy goop. Rinse the goop off the seeds. Pat dry. Toss with olive oil and salt. Roast for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy!

Step three: Bake pumpkin bread. I used the same recipe from the pumpkin cookies I made last week and just baked the batter in small loaf pans for 45 minutes. It turned out delicious and the browned butter icing was the perfect compliment this time around. So good that we never even got a picture. 😉

Step four: Enjoy pumpkin bread and roasted pumpkin seeds outside in the fall sunshine with beautiful people and beautiful dogs!

 

 

A perfect fall day!

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

lobster day

Lobster is one of those rare foods for special occasions.  Sadly, Emily has never had lobster before and I only once.  With no birthdays or anniversaries in sight, we thought we would create our own special day called “lobster day” that would be held every October 15th in celebration of … well, nothing really, aside from delicious crustacean.  (As a side note, it is now also a celebration of Willow, a new member of our family; she’s a greyhound we rescued on October 16th, but more on that in a separate post).   So with this idea planted in our minds, we got things started.  I rode my bike down to Sun Fat Seafood (the same place I got the shrimp and scallops in “paella, per se”) and picked up two live lobsters and transported them home in a cooler strapped to my back.  Needless to say it was an awkward ride home, but the thought of sweet lobster kept me going.  Cooking them couldn’t be easier.  Simply rinse them off, throw them in a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water, and wait.  There are a few signs lobsters give you to let you know they’re ready to be devoured: their shells turn bright red, the legs come off easily, and the fat starts to ooze out of the torso right in front of the tail.  We ate them with butter and bread.  I think there was a salad and some wine involved too, but all I really remember was the lobster.

-Jordan

There was a salad by the way, I made a simple yet classic caesar salad.  It was a really nice and salty counterpart to the sweet and buttery lobster.