A BLOG AWARD!

Posted in General by sallybr

Last week Mimi from “Chef Mimi” blog posted about several awards she’s received this year, and as she described her views on awards and the type of rules associated with each one, I found myself smiling and agreeing with her all the way… We do have quite similar views on the issue, and we both wrote posts clarifying them. You can take a look at my own views by clicking here. But, what I did not expect was that she nominated me for a super cool award, the Blog of the Year 2013, and handed me not one but three stars at once! Here is my badge, folks:

The instructions for this award are simple:

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2013’ Award

2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ the blog(s) with their award.

3 Let the blog(s) that you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them – (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges!)

4 Come over and say hello to the originator of the ‘Blog of the Year 2013’ Award via this link – http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/

5 You can now also join the ‘Blog of the Year’ Award Facebook page – click the link here https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear/ and share your blog posts with an even wider audience.

6 And as a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog … and start collecting stars…

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So, having shared all that, I will open an exception and pass this three-star award to one blogger, Sawsan from Chef in Disguise. She blogs from Jordan, and adds so much to the food blogosphere with her knowledge of cooking, her amazing photography, posts that are thoughtfully composed and go a lot deeper than simply sharing a recipe. I always look forward to a new post by Sawsan, and often wonder how a woman with a very busy life – she is a orthodontist and has two young kids – can find the time to compose such high quality posts. I don’t know how she feels about awards, and will totally understand if she prefers not to forward them, but this is just my little token of appreciation to a wonderful woman!

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And now, let me thank Mimi once more not so much for the award, but for her words about my blog, which meant a lot to me. Of course, stating that I have a “killer accent” did not hurt either. Every foreigner HATES his/her own accent, and I am not an exception, so a different perspective on it is more than welcome! 😉

6Dec2013

THE STORY OF MY FIRST CREME BRULLE

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

The year was 1991. I was in Paris (for the first time) all alone to take part of a workshop to launch the sequencing of the genome of Mycobacterium leprae. In those days sequencing the full genome of any organism was a daunting task, and I was thrilled to be a tiny part of that initial effort. I had two free weekends to explore the city. One sunny Saturday I walked for about 6 hours with a stop for lunch in a small bistrot. I asked for a gratin dauphinoise. Halfway through lunch, I bit into something very hard. It was a piece of broken glass that somehow found its way into the gratin! My French was rudimentary, but I felt I needed to inform the waitress because someone could get hurt from it. I did my best to communicate, and was absolutely non-confrontational. It is actually very hard to be confrontational if you are not fluent in a language, did you know that? Also impossible to tell a joke, so do not try that in French until you can read Proust without the help of a dictionary. 😉

The waitress was livid! She profusely apologized, offered to bring me another meal, but I told it was not necessary. She then said a bunch of things too quickly for me to comprehend, ended with a question that I also could not quite get, so I just smiled. I thought she was going to bring me the check and call it a day, but instead she came back with the owner of the bistrot, who asked if I had ever had crème brûlée. Crème quoi???? She opened a huge smile, went back to the kitchen, and returned with a tray. On the tray, a small dish, a bowl of sugar, and…. a blow torch! She caramelized the sugar right in front of me, filling the room with that unique aroma, and handing me the best dessert I had ever tasted in my 31 years of life! Unforgettable! And, they did not let me pay a single franc for anything!

Crème brûlée became my favorite dessert, I tried it at every opportunity since then, but they never quite matched my first encounter. There was something about hitting the exact proportion of sugar crust to the smooth custard underneath, or maybe it was just the full experience, the fear of speaking up about the glass in my food, and the unexpected reward… Who knows?

My version joins the French classic of my past with a Canadian-American flavor I’m quite fond of: maple syrup.

MAPLE CRÈME BRÛLÉE
(inspired by a recipe from Jacques Torres)

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 vanilla bean
1 whole egg
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
7 tablespoons maple syrup
Turbinado sugar to caramelize the top

Heat the oven to 325 F.Pour the heavy cream and half-and-half into a saucepan and place over medium heat. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and scrape the seeds from the skin, adding them to the simmering cream, together with the leftover bean.
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Scald the cream by heating it until bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan. Remove from the heat.In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole egg, egg yolks, maple syrup and sugar until well blended. Continue to whisk while slowly pouring the hot cream into the egg mixture and whisk until the mixture is smooth and homogenous in color. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the vanilla bean pieces and any pieces of cooked egg.
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Add the custard to ramekins filling them almost to the top. Bake in the heated oven inside a large baking pan with hot water coming up halfway up the sides of the molds. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Check after 35 minutes, the custard should tremble slightly when shaken, forming a little wave in the center of the ramekin, but not on the edges.Remove the molds from the water bath and place on a cooling rack for 30 minutes. Then refrigerate for 2 hours (or for to 3 days) before serving.

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At serving time, sprinkle each custard homogeneously with turbinado (or demerara) sugar, and caramelize with a torch. Alternatively, you can broil the surface, but be very careful not to melt the custard underneath the sugar crust. You can serve right away or refrigerate again.
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ENJOY!

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to print the recipe, click here

In 1991, I fell in love with Paris. The love only kept growing stronger.
Paris will always be my home away from home…

By the Seine, March 2007

ONE YEAR AGO: Half-a-Million Page Views!
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TWO YEARS AGO: Grilling Ribbons
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THREE YEARS AGO: Peppery Cashew Crunch
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FOUR YEARS AGO: Ossobuco Milanese

2Dec2013

IN MY KITCHEN: DECEMBER 2013

Posted in In My Kitchen by sallybr

I am excited to join my friend Celia in her super-fun series “In My Kitchen“. Stop by her site to look at what’s happening on kitchens out there in the blogosphere.

I start my virtual tour with gifts. As usual, I am the lucky recipient of wonderful gifts from special friends… At our last dinner party, we were surprised with a beautiful package!

Inside, a set of two beautiful Le Creuset baking dishes, to match the sexy-red atmosphere of our Supernova! Such a thoughtful gift, thank you V & K!

But, they did not stop there! Just a few hours before this post was supposed to go live our friend V. surprised us with another red-hot gift to color our kitchen! The most beautiful Poinsettia ever… The photo doesn’t do it justice, it is a bit too dark already, but I wanted to include it in this post. Too beautiful to pass…

From France, a very interesting ingredient found by the same friend who provided me with saffron, Ras-el-Hanout and vanilla beans. What can I say? I have a special talent to pick generous friends. Powdered cepes mushrooms. He had the opportunity of enjoying a dish prepared by a French chef using this delicacy, and went into an expedition to get some, then shared it with me. I can hardly wait to put it to use, it smells AMAZING.

From Phil, two cute bottles of sprinkles. He felt sorry for me because I saw some sprinkles that would be perfect for a recipe I wanted to make, but did not buy them. When I went back to Marshalls a couple of days later, they were gone. These are different, but will work just fine… stay tuned…

In our kitchen…. Just in time for holiday season, 6 pounds of a favorite coffee, Peet’s… Our day doesn’t start until we sit down to enjoy an early morning cappuccino!

In our kitchen… a beautiful pasta bowl that I found on ebay. A little larger than I anticipated, but it should come in handy in case we serve pasta for 22 guests and their pets. 😉

In our kitchen… a stainless steel rack for small appliances and special baking dishes. After searching for options that would not make us go broke, we ordered the same type of racks we have in the lab, from Global Industrial. The shelves can be customized according to our needs. Perfect to lodge the microwave.

In our kitchen… from Bed Bath and Beyond, napkins that are stain-resistant and don’t need to be ironed. I was skeptical when I bought a set of two just to try. I went back and got a few more. They have a soft, nice texture, and do wash very well.

In our kitchen… a delicious tea. I featured this brand before at IMK with their chamomile saffron blend. This one also contains pomegranate. I am addicted. Caffeine-free, soothing, I go through at least three cups during the day.

In our kitchen… a product I haven’t tried yet. I was intrigued by this Mexican canned yuca root, and decided to buy one can. In Brazil we can find frozen, cooked manioc root, but here in the US it is not common. Maybe this canned version could work as a starting point for “madioca frita” which we love so much!

Note added in January 2014: I just tested it, and unfortunately it doesn’t work well for “mandioca frita”. The canned product has too much moisture and I made a fantastic mess on the stove trying to fry it. The best way to enjoy this is by simply warming them with a little butter, salt and pepper. If you want “mandioca frita”, better cook the root from scratch…

In our kitchen… one of Phil’s favorite lunch items: an Ak-Mak cracker spread with a small amount of almond butter, and loaded – and I mean LOADED – with whole walnuts. That might explain why the bag of walnuts I bought at Trader Joe’s and was hoping to use in a special recipe is almost empty. 😉

In our kitchen… some racks to organize our cabinets a little better. Also bought at Bed Bath and Beyond, you can imagine that those folks at the store are starting to address me by my first name… “Hi, Sally, nice to see you AGAIN!” 😉

Not to worry, the cabinets won’t be this empty for too long. We still have a few boxes in the basement with dishes and baking stuff stored during the hellnovation. One step at a time, we move on…

And now, a message from our faithful canine friends, obviously a very important part of our kitchen!

Buck says that the allegations of him sticking the nose into a bag of peanuts are preposterous. What on Earth could possibly have caused such unfair treatment?

Osky says he loves his Mom more than any bag of peanuts. In fact, while she is watching TV, he turns his back to the tube so he can watch her instead… Too sweet for words!

Chief wants to set the record straight. He expects peanuts handed to him, and thinks his brother’s sappy demeanor is a shame. The senior Jack Russell’s main mission in life is to find a sunny spot in the house to lay down and snooze. Two months shy of his 15th Birthday, we believe he’d owned that right. 😉