Iron Chef America

I really do love watching the foodnetwork. Tonight I'm watching the international battle Forgione against a chef from Thailand. The entire time I was watching I was contemplating what I would cook given the theme.

TEA LEAVES

The Iron Chefs have to be amazing chefs to find out the secret ingredient on spot and create a menu and then execute it for the first time in one hour. I am always in awe. The first 8 minutes of the show have passed and the chefs are in constant motion, pulling some of the most amazing ingredients and concepts. I've seen bacon, tuna, watermelon, jicama, pork. In one hour, each chef and his team will create a range of dishes, from appetizer to dessert. I can't wait for what they come up with.

The 20 minute first course is a new twist since the last time I watched (which was admittedly a while ago) and at the 30 minute mark adds a new ingredient? What? Ok they have to use coffee in at least one dish as well.

And the entire time I watch, I've been thinking of what I could do (given the resources, time and skill... none of which I actually have, but, a girl can dream...)

So what would I do or try to do with tea leaves? There are so many options, so many different kinds of tea. Black, White, Oolong, Jasmine, Green...

I think my menu would be something like:

• 1st course served in 20 minutes: Salad with Arugula, strawberries, and avocado with a Jasmine viniagrette (which in theory would be accomplished by slowly sauteeing the leaves in olive creating an emulsion and tossing with a little bit of  apple cider vinegar) served with Jasmine and Strawberry tea
• Green tea and coffee crusted turkey fingers with honey mustard
• Spicy Black Tea Ramen
• Lemon Earl Gray Roasted Chicken and asparagus
• Oolong crusted Whitefish seared and served with oolong and blackberry and pear risotto
• White Tea Raspberry Scones served with a fresh berry compote and a white tea clotted cream of course presented with an individual Tea pot steeping with white tea, rose and berries
• Green Tea Macarons with honey cream, Chocolate coffee macarons with oolong buttercream

It took me an entire hour to come up with my menu and I honestly have no idea how any of the concepts would come out, but I had fun watching and fantasizing my dream menu. I was utterly impressed with the menus that the iron chefs created. I never would have come up with anything similar and I certainly wouldn't have been able to execute quite so smoothly. Guess that's why I'm not an Iron Chef. :) 

And now sleep calls. 

--Raspberry Truffle

P.S. I had no idea that there were so many versions of Iron Chef all over the world. 

Chopped

I watch the food network way too often. I leave it on in the background while I'm writing sometimes or other times I just out right watch it.
I watch for recipe ideas and just general entertainment. Let's face it Guy Fieri is hilarious.. and has some fantastic restaurant suggestions!
There are shows that are simply instructional. They are amusing how tos. I love watching Paula Dean and her butter. Rachel Ray is great for a quick meal idea. There are countless other shows dedicated to recipes, to cakes, to cookies, to the semi homemade.

And then, there are the competitions. I have watched most of the episodes of the original Iron Chef and many of the American Iron Chef. There are countless shows dedicated to the battles within a kitchen but my current favorite is Chopped.

3 judges. 4 contestants. 4 secret items that must be utilized per round. 3 courses.

I love it because it's high pressure and super creative. As I watch I try to imagine what I would cook if I were faced with the same basket of secret ingredients. Often enough there are items that I've never even heard of. To be able to come up with a palatable dish, under the duress of time is impressive, to say the least.

Presentation, Taste and Creativity are the three main criteria the judges are looking at. To me it's utterly fascinating.
And sometimes the ingredients just stick in my head.
On Tuesday night, I watched a great episode and the dessert basket really stuck out in my mind.

The 4 ingredients were:

1. Chickpea flour 
2. Fresh Raspberries 
3. Rose water syrup
4. Salted Ricotta

The dishes that the chefs made looked amazing. The winner had a puddinglike dessert with specks of the ricotta hidden in bites and a fruit compote sauce. He tried to make ice cream as well, but that didn't come out as well as he wanted so he had to improvise. 

The runner up also had a fantastic looking dessert that included a raspberry and rose water sorbet and a sweet chickpea pancake with a marscapone and ricotta cream on top. It honestly looked delightful. 

I have seriously been thinking about what I would have made with those ingredients. 

In my head I have come up with a dish that I would really like to try.  And I will try it, granted I can find the rose water syrup.  

I would love to make a semi-sweet Falafel stuffed with salted ricotta and marscapone mixture and served with a raspberry and rose water sauce. 

All I can say is 

                                                            Challenge Accepted... 

--Raspberry Truffle


P.S. I'm going to Whole Foods for missing ingredients tomorrow... I'll post my finished results and pictures as soon as my sweet falafels are done....

Being Better

There are times in life when you feel down about yourself, when you suddenly realize that you are not the "best" at something you love. This feeling comes and goes in waves. It certainly has for me. There was the moment I realized that I was not the best singer in the world. I have a good voice, but not "the best". Nor do I have the drive to excel in that area. It took me a second but I realized that it's ok. I love to sing. I don't have to be "the best". I can sing for fun.

There have been more moments than I can count where I've had that sinking feeling, that sudden realization. You just have to realize that someone is going to one up you whether or not you like it.

This world is often centered around what you can do better than someone else. We focus altogether too much on the words better and best. I often wonder why and who judges such things. And more importantly, why is it important? Why focus on being better than someone else? Why try to be "the best" when it is an impossible notion? I try to think about being better than myself. I strive to improve each day without comparison.

That's usually when I retreat to the kitchen, to my corner of solitude. In the kitchen I can do anything and it doesn't matter who can do what better than you. It's a learning experience. It's a creative experience. It's about patience and you. Being in the kitchen, baking or cooking is about you and whatever you want it to be about.

On a good day, being in the kitchen is making dinner for friends. It's lighthearted and fun. It's a glass of wine while stirring the risotto. It's giggling while using that same rolling pin to roll out cookie dough because you can't figure out where your mother hid the rolling pin. It is relaxing because you can just be you. You can goof around and not worry about what happened earlier in the day. You don't have to worry about how finely you dice the vegetables or is the sauce is thickened to perfection. You can add a little too much spice and then counter with some cream. Cooking is not the moment for perfection. It's a moment for adaptation and laughing as you have to do so.

On a bad day, being in the kitchen is a solo experience. It's making pizza dough or cookie dough. It's measuring precisely. It's kneading the dough, tossing it roughly. It's throwing spices together, stirring, mixing too fast, without caution. It's using all of your focus and energy, directing it to a specific goal. It's taking that feeling from the day, that loss, that moment where you're not good enough and saying Yes I am.

Because in the kitchen, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. It doesn't matter if you're good, better or best. In the kitchen you don't have to compare. You don't have to feel compared to. You just have to cook. You just have to bake, whether you use your own recipe or someone elses.

You don't have to compare yourself to anyone else in the kitchen. Of course, you could. The food channels do, with their competitions and Iron Chefs and Chopped. But in your own kitchen, it doesn't matter. Those shows are entertainment, a way to get recipe ideas. In your kitchen, you don't have to worry about the outside world. It's not about who's better, who's the best because no matter what you're creating something. And if you don't create exactly what you imagined, you've still created something. You've still taken the calming breathes, you've gone through the motions. You can take the time to salvage a dish with a little patience and creativity.

In the kitchen you can learn the secrets to life. Patience and a little creativity.

When I'm cooking I don't compare myself to anyone else. There are plenty of professional chefs in the world who have studied for years and I feel no need to worry about it. My kitchen is my place. My kitchen is where I can goof around or where I can be serious and relieve stress.

It doesn't matter. That's what cooking does for me. It reminds me that life isn't about good, better, or best. It's about trying and pushing through. It's about being better but not about being better than anyone else. Life is tough and needs a bit of perspective sometimes. That's what cooking can do. At least for me. I think everyone has that space, be it in the kitchen, in an art studio or behind a lap top typing up a storm.

For me, cooking brings me back to myself. I haven't cooked much since being home and I realize I need to. It's part of who I am and reminds me of the rest.

--Raspberry Truffle

Homemade Healthy Pizza

Sometimes all you want is a little pizza. But goodness knows, restaurants can get expensive, and take-out, well, it's not always good. You have Domino's, Papa John's, Pizza Hut and countless other Italian pizzerias. Some are good, even amazing, but many are either greasy, the sauce is sweet or salty, the pies are small, the crust is too thin/too thick... You can't really control everything. It may be good, but not perfect. Yes, I know, I sound like a control freak. Sometimes I am.
And I kind of am when it comes to my pizza. Sometimes, all I want is a healthy, fresh pizza. Most delivery places don't have many options (although I admit there are several pizza places that do delivery and do pizza really, really well... I'll be posting about some of those options in my area soon).
So, what does the control freak in me suggest? Make your own. It's really easy to make your own  HEALTHY pizza and it's a lot of fun. It can be an individual activity (think stress relief while pounding out and rolling your dough) or a family activity (flour flying, individual pies ecc).

On Saturday night I made some pizza.
I was tempted to make my own dough, but laziness definitely won out.
We found delicious wheat dough at the supermarket. Freeze until you need and then defrost for a couple of hours before you wish to make your pizza. And if you're less health conscious (or just dislike wheat dough) there's always regular pizza dough.
When the dough was almost completely defrosted, I rolled it out and shaped one onto a circle pan and the other onto a rectangular baking sheet. If you want to make sure the dough doesn't stick, you can either spray the sheets with pam or lightly dust with flour (or semolina if you have it).
Next, toppings. Ladle some tomato sauce onto each pizza in a small layer. You can use homemade sauce or jarred (if using jarred, I usually add more spicing). Then cheese. Shredded mozzarella. I used a mix of the full fat and low fat Polly-O's shredded cheese and the melt on it was great.
And finally the last toppings. I did one meat pie (since my brother would not stand for "green things" on his slices. It was half pepperoni, 1/4 plain and a 1/4 canadian bacon. Just evenly space the pepperoni and the canadian bacon and pop into the oven. On other pies I usually drizzle a little olive oil on top, but with pepperoni and other fatty meats, it isn't necessary. I did, however, sprinkle the pie with a little oregano.
The round pie was another half and half: diced red and orange baby peppers and onions on one half and swiss chard and onions on the other. Both halves were drizzled with olive oil, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.
And into the oven they went. 350° for about 20 minutes.
The thicker the dough is the longer the pies should stay in. If you prefer a thicker crust you can even bake the dough sans topping to ensure it cooks all the way through without burning or overcooking your toppings.
And that's that. Serve warm with parmesan and red pepper flakes on the side.

It was DELICIOUS!! My family and I ate alot of those pies on Saturday night!

--Raspberry Truffle

Macarons: Commonly Confused with Macaroons

I've recently learned that Macarons are not Macaroons. It is not an uncommon misconception but that one little O makes all the difference! For anyone who is a true foodie, you're laughing right now. But I honestly didn't know there was a difference and I think that's true of many people. Whenever I bake I tend to go for the simple: the cake, the cupcake, the brownie... aka the straight forward or the traditional American dessert.

So when a friend came to me with the idea of Macarons, I automatically said "Macaroon" even though, in my head, I was thinking of a Macaron. And then we had the debate: What sweet did she actually mean to bake?

Macaron:

My flavor combinations!

• refers to a meringue based cookie
• often considered a candy
• made with almond flour (or hazlenut flour), egg whites, granulated sugar as well as powdered sugar
• two cookies are stacked and filled with buttercream or a fruit spread
• crunchy outside and soft, chewy interior
• multiple flavor combinations possible 
• e.g. earlier today we made green tea macarons with a honey buttercream and red velvet macarons with a nutella buttercream
• P.S. I wasn't entirely wrong. They are often called French Macaroons. Yes, with a double O. 

Macaroon:

• also refers to a merigue based cookie
•  but it almost always contains coconut. 
• composed of egg whites, sugar and dried coconut and is then piped with a star-shaped tip.
• then it is dipped in chocolate. 

In the end we decided that macarons were the way to go. I'm not the biggest fan of coconut and we wanted the wiggle room to play with flavors. 

The macarons won out even though they are considered to be some of the most difficult sweets to recreate. They require a lot of patience to make the meringue mixture perfectly and the heat of the oven has to be just right, otherwise the exteriors will crackle or the interior will loose it's soft gooiness.

It was a really fun process, especially since I made the cookies with two of my good friends.  But be forewarned, the cookies paired with fresh buttercream are super sweet. I think that's why they're considered "candy" in the pastry world. So next time, I think I'm going to try to find a different filling. 

Baking at just the right temperature... 

--Raspberry Truffle

P.S. at some point I will put up the recipes that we used, once I've perfected the buttercream

Recipe: Jalapeno infused olive oil

1 whole jalapeno sliced finely, discard half the seeds
1/2 cup olive oil


This is super easy to do, and is great for anyone who loves a little extra spicy. After slicing the jalapeno or any other spicy pepper of your choosing. Add the thin slices to a small sauce pan with the olive oil. The more olive oil you use, the less concentrated the spice will be. Cook the concoction on a low heat until the peppers are tender.

Pour into a small glass continer and seal. Pour over anything that you would like to make spicy. Like pizza, salads or sandwiches, spicy dip, anything at all!