Articulated

Dauphine, part 2

I got a present in the mail today: a 4 oz. package of lavender from Penzeys spices. Four ounces of lavender is a enormous amount. All together, it’s over a cup of whole lavender spice that is incredibly potent.

Because I’m impatient, I immediately went to the store and purchased some of the items I’ll need to create my snack mix: walnuts, dried blueberries, banana chips, and crystalized ginger. I forgot to purchase coconut flakes, but I already had some sweetened coconut flakes at home, so I thought I would be okay.

The lavendar comes as little pellets that look like grains of wild rice. For this mix, I very very finely minced 1/8 of a teaspoon until I had a fine powder. If the spice has a strong aroma when whole, it’s a whole other level of strong when it’s chopped up – even this small quantity. The lavender was added to the following:

• 2.5 oz. walnuts
• 0.75 oz. dried blueberries
• 0.75 oz. banana chips, broken up
• 0.25 oz. flaked coconut (the sweetened kind, minced up into tiny flakes)
• 1 T. crystalized ginger, minced up
• 1 T. honey with a drop of vanilla mixed in
• 1/8 t. white pepper
• pinch of salt.

I mixed all these items in a plastic container with a lid that seals tightly. Once all the ingredients were in, I shook it vigorously to distribute the spices and the honey.

I probably should have put the mix onto a tray to allow the honey to dry, but I was in a hurry. I’ve been eager to try this so I simply stuck my hand into the sticky mix and tried it. My impatience was rewarded. My worries about the strength of the lavender were mostly unfounded. It was nicely balanced by the ginger, honey, vanilla, and pepper. The pepper might have been a bit stronger than in the packaged product sold by Sahale. The mix had a spicy bite to it; good thing I like spice.

Next time, I’ll need to be more patient. Alton Brown has some ideas on how to make snack mixes with nuts, and I should look at how he dries out the mixture so it isn’t super sticky. But I’m definitely on the right track. The real challenge is what to do with all of that lavender.

Bad Ban?

I’m wondering if all the people on Facebook who have recently “fanned” the ban on high fructose corn syrup really believe it should be banned. This seems to me to be quite similar to saying “let’s ban cigarettes” or “let’s ban McDonalds”. While I agree HFCS is not good for people and I personally avoid foods that include it, I do so as an educated consumer who made a conscious decision that is part of a larger effort to improve my health. Banning HFCS (or anything else) isn’t going to solve anything. Educating people might. And if that’s what this particular little fangroup is all about, then hooray. Banning things because their bad for you is at best ineffective and at worst a slippery slope. And it won’t really change the way people eat. Isn’t that really the heart of the problem?

Dauphine, part 1

I have an obsession to admit to: Sahale Snacks‘ Dauphine snack blend. I posted about this product a while back (see the link) and since then, Sahale has discontinued the product. At first, I thought it was just hard to find. I searched everywhere. I tried to order from Amazon. I tried to order it from OrganicDirect. I walked around to all the little grocery stores in all the upscale neighborhoods. I tried supermarkets in other towns when I was traveling. No luck. Eventually, my fiancee wrote to the company and learned that they stopped making it. Mention of it has been taken from their website.

The Dauphine blend is a fascinating mix: walnuts mixed with banana chips, coconut, ginger, blueberries, lavendar, and white pepper. From Amazon, where the product is still listed (though unavailable) I was able to grab the actual ingredient information from the packaging:

Walnuts, Dried Blueberries (Blueberries, Apple Juice Concentrate, Sunflower Dill), Banana Chips (Unsweetened Bananas, Coconut Oil), Coconut Flakes (Unsulphured), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Dried Ginger (Unsulphured Ginger Root, Sugar), Spice, Sea Salt, Natural Vanilla Extract.

Okay, so I now know what’s in it. How hard can it be to duplicate it? Not for retail purposes, of course. It’s for personal use. Like I said, I’m hooked.

Most of the ingredients can be easily purchased. Walnuts are easy. I can get those at the supermarket. Dried blueberries, while expensive, are the kind of thing that Whole Foods will carry. Banana chips are inexpensive and sold in many places. Coconut flakes – as opposed to the sticky sweet stuff people bake with – it a little less common but can still be found at Whole Foods or other natural markets. Dried ginger (especially crystalized ginger) has become pretty common. My dad mixes it into his ice cream. How about cane juice and tapioca syrup?

By asking the oracle and poking around a few different websites, I am finding that evaporated cane juice and sugar are not all that different. The differences are in the amount of processing and the results of that lack of processing (more molassas, varying levels of fructose and glucose, trace nutrients, etc.) on the end product. I could probably use a good organic Turbinado sugar and not have to go find some exotic sweetener. Likewise, tapioca syrup appears to be another sweetener alternative for persons or producers who don’t want to use corn syrup or who are looking for a neutrally flavored sweetener that is produced in a manner consistent with vegan food rules. One website I visited suggested that tapioca syrup could be used as a substitute for honey or maple syrup, so I could conceivably sub the other way. I have honey in my pantry and maple syrup in my fridge. No need for another sweetener.

The tricky ingredient in the list is “spice”; this word could cover a multitude of sins. The packaging for the product says that lavender and white pepper are included, so I have that to go on. White pepper is often used in my kitchen. Lavender? Not so much, no.

My fiancee and I received some wonderful spices from good friends as a Christmas gift. They are from Penzeys, and I have enjoyed using them. Since they’re a name I know, I gave their website a try. Sure enough, a search for lavender yielded this: Lavender, 40z. bag, $8.95. It’s not cheap. Reminds me of buying saffron (another spice from flowers). But this is the one tricky ingredient separating me from my Dauphine. Time to order some flowers.

Sticky-icky

Rolled fondant is one of those things that separates your typical home cook/baker from both the professional baker/confectioner (the kind of person I’ll pay to make my wedding cake) and the emotionally unbalanced artists you see creating 6ft tall, sugar-coated edifices on the Food Network. It turns a simple dessert into something that is both food and art – at once elevating the aesthetic and sacrificing some of the gastronomic quality. It’s what makes people say “ooooooo!”.

It’s that last reaction I was most interested in. Sure, the adventure of it was an attraction. I’m constantly on the lookout for the next culinary challenge, and rolled fondant is nothing if not a challenge. But, in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, what I wanted most was to create something for my fiancee that would elicit a little bit of awe – that look that says “I can’t believe you did that!”

Curiously, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day coincide this year. Therefore my creation would be most successful if I were able to marry the two themes into one great looking cake. I went to the Oracle seeking inspiration and the oracle did not disappoint.

Cake

Yellow cake is the vanilla ice cream of cake. Plain, generic, but filled with potential. It can be paired with many things. It’s a good foundation. Best Recipe has a yellow cake recipe that is decent. It requires a significant quantity of butter and eggs, so the recipe is expensive and not entirely healthy (no matter what Bill Cosby might say). Because my fiancee is not a fan of really sweet desserts, I cut back on the sugar and used rum instead of vanilla for flavoring.

Filling

For the Chinese New Year aspect, I wanted to find a filling for the cake that would evoke a typical chinese dessert. Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I wanted something red. I settled on sweet red bean paste. This is something I’ve had before in things like steamed buns and other dim sum-style desserts. It was a good flavor match with the subtle yellow cake and reminded me of something I might have at an upscale Chinese restaurant.

Red bean paste is made very simply. Dried azuki beans (small and red, looking like a cross between a mini kidney bean and a black-eyed pea) are boiled in water until soft. Sugar and a little salt is added. Cooking continues until the paste has absorbed the sugar. For a smooth paste, the mixture can be pureed and the bean skins removed by straining. I preferred an unprocessed, chunky paste for texture. To fill my cake, I mixed a bit of the chunky paste with heavy cream and covered the top of the first cake layer with a thick coating. I then placed the second layer on top of the paste and pressed firmly to make sure the paste would hold the two layers together.

Fondant

A couple of websites recommended making rolled fondant out of marshmellows. According to these sites, this creates a fondant that is much tastier than a traditional, purchased fondant. While this is a good thing, the marshmellow-based fondant suffers from two drawbacks: first, it’s very very sticky, making it difficult to work with. Second, it’s basically a combination of powdered sugar (1.5 to 2 pounds!) and marshmellows, making it extremely sweet. This can completely overwhelm the flavors of a subtle cake (like the red bean cake I made).

Making rolled fondant is like making a lean dough. In this case, the flour is replaced with powdered sugar. Playing the role of the yeast/water mixture is a warm mix of water and melted mini-marshmellows. A significant amount of powdered sugar is added to the melted marshmellow and the mixture is kneaded until it stiffens into an elastic ball that can be rolled out. The initial mixture is a bit like wet rubber cement. It gets on your hands and is impossible to remove. You just have to keep trying to incorporate more powdered sugar. Eventually, it begins to firm up and you can shape it into a ball that can be kneaded like a dough. While kneading, you can add food coloring. I added red color and did not fully incorporate it. The result was a marbled pink and white surface for my cake that was very attractive.

Construction

My layered cake was cut into a simple heart shape. I made buttercream icing (search for “Cake” in this blog to find my icing recipe) and coated the cake to create a sticky surface for the fondant. I’m not sure this step is completely necessary. That, or perhaps I used too much. A small amount of icing would probably have worked. The rolled fondant, maybe 1/8 inch thick, was very heavy and easily stayed in place when spread out over the cake. The benefit of the icing is that is smoothed out the rough corners of my shaped cake and enhanced the heart shape. Trimming the fondant to the bottom edge of the cake was a challenge. This is likely due to the shape. If I had made a perfectly round or square cake, this would have been easier. However, once the fondant was spread over the cake, it was flexible enough to smooth it over the iced surface and create the professional look I was hoping for.

Result

The cake was a success. My adventure was a mixed bag. The fondant recipe is excessive. I may have discarded more fondant than I used, and I didn’t even make a full recipe. It was more like a 2/3 or 3/4 recipe. And while it did elevate the cake from a simple desert to something special, fondant totally throws off the flavor balance. I don’t usually favor appearance over flavor. While it was okay for this occasion, I wouldn’t normally make that choice.

The red bean mixture was simple and effective. I liked it plain, and it was very tasty when mixed with the heavy cream. Azuki beans are easily purchased near my home as I live in close proximity to many Chinese markets.

I’m very glad to have experienced cake-making with rolled fondant. I was a time- and resource-consuming adventure, but and experience that is worthwhile. I feel like a I took a step forward with confectionery, even if it was a step in a direction I’m not likely to follow.

Good Guac

Several years ago, when I was moving into an apartment of my own, my good friend Margot send me a wonderful housewarming gift: a molcajete. Go on, take a minute and look that up.

If you’ve ever been to a fancy (or very authentic) mexican restaurant you may have been served guacamole in one of these stone mortars. Most of the time a restaurant will do this in an attempt to justify the price of the dish you’re enjoying or perhaps make the meal feel more exotic. However, a molcajete does allow a person to prepare certain food items in a particular way, and this way (coarse grinding) is particularly good for guacamole.

A good molcajete is nearly impossible to wash. It’s a bit like a cast iron griddle or a really nice wok. You never really clean it. You season it and then you rinse it off after every use. Seasoning a molcajete takes a bit of muscle as you are required to grind various items into the porous inner surface. Once you’ve done it, you’re good to go.

Griding the ingredients in a guacamole helps to release the various flavors and makes for an outstanding final product. My guac tends to be very strongly flavored and slighly acidic but guacamole can be anything. It’s a little like salsa: its a food item that conforms to some basic rules but can be prepared in many different ways using various ingredients. Whatever you like. Here’s what I like:

• 2 cloves garlic
• some green onion (eyeball it), thinly sliced on a bias
• half a plum tomato or a little tomato paste
• half a jalapeño pepper, minced
• cilantro (half a handful of leaves and stems, finely chopped)
• the juice of half a lime
• 2 ripe Haas avocados (they should be squishy and brown)
• salt (as much as you like)
• cumin (maybe half a teaspoon)

A molcajete allows you to mash the garlic. You could also use a garlic press, I suppose. Mash together the garlic, onion, tomato, and jalapeño. Doing this first will allow the flavors (and heat) to be evenly spread through the guacamole instead of clumping up in spots. Next, scoop the meat out of the avocados and add it to the mix along with the cilantro. Mash some more. Guacamole doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, so don’t over-process. Finally, add the salt, cumin, and lime juice. At this point I sometimes use a spatula for mixing since the lime juice tends to thin out the mixture.

Be careful with your garlic. I use two cloves but I don’t mind my mouth tasting like garlic later. Thankfully, my fiancee doesn’t mind either. Also, be careful with the jalapeño. If you’re sensitive to heat, take the seeds out of the pepper before you mince it.

I usually have my guac with quesadillas. They’re incredibly easy to prepare. All you need is Jack cheese, flour tortillas, and leftovers: cooked meat, chili, some canned corn or cooked beans… get creative. Heat them up on a hot skillet or in the base of a flat-bottomed wok coated with a brushing of olive oil. Works perfectly.