Homemade Ricotta

Ricotta is disappointingly underrated outside of Italy.  People think of it as a filler ingredient, an extra in a dish filled with big stars.  You mix it up with big flavors assuming it is only useful for its texture.  Poor ricotta, why don't more people swoon over ricotta?

My grandmother used to mix up freshly made ricotta with sugar and give it to me and my sister as a sweet afternoon snack.  Still warm, wonderfully creamy and rich, it was eaten up in just a few mouthfuls.  It honestly is incredibly flavorsome and lovely on its own -- as long as it's good ricotta.  So give it another chance, and hey, the good news is you can easily make good ricotta at home.

How to: Homemade Pressed Cottage Cheese

It was a Monday where I was at lunch with some colleagues, with whom I shared the same gender, age and status in the company.  They talked about their booze-filled weekend and the bars they went and the people they met and the drinks they drank.  They then turned to me and asked what I did over the weekend - I said I made cheese, and I killed the conversation right there.

How to: Homemade Soy Milk

Ok I'm going to tell you straight out that it's too much effort.

This involves soaking the soy beans overnight, removing the skins, blitzing them, boiling them for thirty minutes and then straining them.  In China we have these soy milk makers where all you have to do is put the soaked soy beans in and then it does all of that otherwise superfluous manual labor and in half an hour you've got your soy milk.

Confit of Salmon

Forget about everything this salmon comes with - forget the sauce, the crunch, the courgette, those are mediocre at best, I want you to focus on that piece of salmon.  It melts like butter in your mouth.

Three years ago at a restaurant I had a piece of salmon poached in duck fat and it blew my mind away.  I think it also came with some fancy garnishes like lobster foam, duck yolk raviolo and other bits and blobs but those were not memorable.  It was the salmon, the taste of it lingered on for days as its texture was simply sublime.

How to Make Your Greens Taste Good

One should always be cautious with school cafeteria foods.  I can still see the horrid scene of steaming piles of mush in metal trays and thinking that I should just eat the side vegetables, the vegetables should be fine.  See, it's easy to screw up a moussaka or pasta (oh the sight of the pasta was heartbreaking -- flaccid pieces of penne stuck together and drowning in a pool of "cheese sauce"),  so, I thought, okay, let's stick to the vegetables, and I got a plate of broccoli and peas and I had no idea you could screw up simple vegetables. They were of that lifeless dark green, tossed in some cheap butter, unsalted and just..cooked to a soft mush. Urgh, I've used the word "mush" twice already and it's never good to describe food as "mush".  But it was.  And I was there, struggling to finish this bland mush, thinking to myself, how the f*ck do you screw up vegetables?

How the f*ck do you expect your country to eat their 5-a-days if people are only exposed to such ways of eating vegetables?  I had always found it mind-boggling why people kept advertising these smoothie recipes with "hidden" greens because you wouldn't taste them.  What the f*ck?  I love spinach, why would I want it somewhere where it can't be tasted?   And then it all made sense to me as I stared at my pile of mush - I wouldn't like my greens either if people cooked the life out of them and didn't season them. Broccoli, spinach, kale, green beans, brussels sprouts, chard can all be delicious and now I will teach you how not to screw them up (you are welcome, NHS).

How to: Potato Gnocchi

The variety of gnocchi in the world is as large as my childhood coin collection.  Yes, I was that kid.  I collected coins and soft drink cans/bottles.  The latter grew quite big as well before my mother told me to get rid of them as they filled up too many of my shelves.  I also collected model cars, but they were expensive as I only got them from proper Ferrari stores and such so that wasn't enough to call it a collection.  Anyway, I digress, back to gnocchi.  There are those made with potatoes, flour and egg; potatoes, semolina and egg; semolina and flour; potatoes and flour; those made with a choux base; those that include spinach or squid ink; those made with ricotta etc etc. 

How to: Candied Ginger

Today was a day of successes and failures.  Successes: candied ginger and tomato sauce.  Failures: burnt ginger gooseberry jam and eating too much mediocre tiramisu.  The latter two left me kind of sad.  However, rather than dwelling on the failures in life, we should celebrate the successes, and we need to celebrate these candied ginger pieces.

 They're so easy to make.  My mom had bought a pack of candied ginger and I got annoyed - I hate buying things that can be made at home.  That's also why I get annoyed when my mother buys jam! And that's why I tried making jam today but okay I've burnt jam a couple of times already.  I just forget about it until I smell the burnt sugar.

How to: Rice the Chinese Way

I didn't really know how to begin this post-- there's just so much to say about rice.  Unfortunately, unless you were brought up in an Asian household or have been in close contact with Asian culture growing up, you won't think too much of rice.  To most, there's just basmati, short grain and pudding rice.  There are some wholegrain rice like wild rice and black rice but then with the white rice there's just those.  Plain rice to you may be incomprehensible.  You may be used to eating it as an accompaniment to a curry or a stir-fry, something to soak up the rich juices.  It may be fried and tossed with herbs and spices, but you may not have had the opportunity to enjoy good plain rice.  Good quality rice, cooked perfectly, is so incredibly fragrant and flavorsome just on its own.

How to: Coconut Butter

Let me give you the ins and outs of coconut butter

How to: Flax Eggs

I'm going to keep it short and quick because I must attend to a dinner party. 

Flax eggs are often required in vegan baking.  This yields one egg, so just replace it in your normal recipes.  Obviously it only works to..hold dry ingredients together, rather than cause it to rise or something.  So you can't really replace it in fine pastries and cakes..but simple baking yes.  Also good for making veggie burgers and whatnot. 

And flax seeds are so healthy.  Oh and on a side note, flaxseeds = linseeds.  And.  While consuming 1 tbsp of it a day is incredibly healthy, make sure you eat ground flax seeds because if they're whole they'll just go through your system the way it went in.


Ingredients
1 tbsp flaxseeds
3 tbsp warm water

Method
Mix the ingredients together and leave it in the bowl for about 15 minutes until it's thick.

How to: Poached Eggs

How do you like your eggs?  I normally like my eggs perfectly scrambled or hard boiled for breakfast, but a perfectly poached egg is something truly magnificent.  Watching its  golden yolk split and mingle with the hollandaise sauce is such a treat. It's just so pretty.  It's much more aesthetically pleasing than eggs in any other form.
  I made this for my sister and her husband for breakfast tofay.  Recipe of that will come up soon but I thought I had better first start with a poached egg tutorial because it took me awhile to get right.

How to: The Best Scrambled Eggs [Happy Birthday Jess]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!  I've talked about my lovely friend, Jess, before, and I think I've yet to mention her and her celebrations.  She loves her Thanksgivings, Christmases and Halloweens, but above all, she loves her birthdays.  She loves her birthday like a child loves her birthday.  It's adorable, it really is.  She begins reminding everyone of her birthday weeks in advance, and so obviously, for someone such as her, it's important to not disappoint when the big day comes. 

She had come over for brunch, and unfortunately I didn't take photos of any of the things I cooked.  While there were many components to the dish, today I want to focus on scrambled eggs, which is always a nice thing to have for brunch.  And I found a pretty sketch of it from Debra Morris! 

People think it's such a simple thing to make, but it's so easy to screw up.  I had worked in a pub over the summer and they made horrible scrambled eggs, the ones that taste like rubber because it's so over cooked, you know?  I follow Gordon's sublime scrambled eggs recipe, and it never disappoints.  I've cooked it for several people for breakfast, and it always amazes them.  It's so velvety, creamy and as he says, simply sublime.  It really is only three ingredients -- eggs, butter and crème fraîche.

How to: Fresh Egg Pasta

It's a dry and tough dough to work with, but everyone's got to make fresh pasta at home at least once in their life.

I honestly didn't think it'd be such hard work.  I don't consider myself particularly weak, I've got some upper body strength, but my god.  I had never been so mean to a food item before.  It's not good to yell nasty things to a piece of dough, you gotta show it love and affection.  I felt bad.  Anyway, after moments of frustration, I had decided to switch tactics and, like I said, love and affection, and the dough came together and it made beautiful ravioli (post will come soon).

How to: Mussels

People get so squeamish about cooking lobsters at home -- poor little harmless creatures suffering through seconds of burning pain as they drown in a pot of boiling water. How excruciating it must be for them. How cruel. You know who I feel sorry for? The poor mussels in your bouillabaisse soup. Mussels and other shellfish of the sort just don't receive the same sort of sympathy. We seem to forget that we're also cooking them alive. 

Cruelty aside, they're wonderfully easy to cook/kill. First, discard the ones that are already dead -- the ones that don't respond. Tap them or something, see if they open up or close. See if they're gasping for air, grasping onto their last few momentsof life. I've long been desensitized to these things.

How to: Lobsters

I finished my exams on Monday and it seemed only appropriate to celebrate with lobsters and champagne for lunch.   A bit too extravagant for university students, you say?  Yea, we thought so, so we didn't drink champagne, but the lobsters were only 8 quid each.  It had to be done.

There are different schools of thought when it comes to cooking lobsters.  Do you freeze it first?  Do you just use a sharp knife and cut them down the middle?  Or directly plunge them into boiling water?  This may be a cruel and disturbing post for some people.

After much youtubing and googling, I had thought freezing them would be the best option.  It appeared the most humane way as they would be numb and I thought they wouldn't...rebel as much.  However, the fisherman told me to just dump them in boiling water.  Leave them in the sink, do not let them touch fresh water.  Bring a large pot of water to the boil and just put them in, head first.  Wait 6-7 minutes and take them out.  Wait for the water to boil again before adding other lobsters.  Serve with clarified butter and lemon juice.  Just heat some butter in a pan till bubbling and add lemon juice.

The lobsters were surprisingly compliant.  Oh and you know how they apparently "scream" when you put them in the water?  Don't worry, it's just air coming out of their shells. The key is to not think about it, do not get emotionally involved with your lunch.

How to: Choux Pastry

I know I have an unhealthy obsession with food, but the thing is, a lot of the food, for me, are remnants of my childhood.  It's a very personal thing for me.  Do you ever bite into something and feel a sudden flush of memories in your head?  It may be something from your first date, from a school event, or from a memory of just being in the dining room with your family, maybe.

For me, just the thought of profiteroles brings me back to the kitchen with my grandmother as a child. It was my favorite dessert.  I see my grandmother at most twice a year, and I remember, I'd beg her to make me profiteroles every time.  To this day, when i talk to her on the phone, she still tells me how we need to make profiteroles together.  Unfortunately, a stroke hit her a couple of years ago and she's no longer able to cook, and my profiteroles do hers no justice.

My grandmother was the most amazing cook, and I sadly did not get many recipes from her.  You know someone's an amazing cook when they don't know how to give you the recipe.  She's always like "Just add enough milk, I don't know, a cup or two."  "Yea, just put it in a medium-temperatured oven and you'll know when it's ready."

So here, unfortunately, it's not my grandmother's recipe, but it's a recipe I've found to work quite well.  Oh, another thing, choux pastry, contrary to common belief, is Italian, not French.  Well, actually, I don't know if it's common belief but some people I've talked to assumed it was French. No, no.

It's not as difficult as you may imagine.  It's just a couple of techniques you need to get right, but then it's really easy.  It's important to stir rigorously and when you add the eggs, add them one at a time.  And I know, when you'll be stirring in the eggs, it may seem like the eggs and the dough won't incorporate, but trust me, it will.

With choux pastry you can make eclairs, profiteroles..Fill these with various pastry creams and drizzle with chocolate cream or dip them in caramel or a chocolate ganache.  It's a versatile pastry, you can also have it savory and fill with prosciutto and cheese, if you wish.

Prep time: 30 min  Cook time: 30 min  makes about 50 small choux buns

Adapted from Giallo Zafferano
Ingredients
200ml cold water
100g butter, cubed
140g flour, sifted
5g sugar
3g salt
4 eggs, whisked

1 egg yolk for egg wash

Method
Preheat the oven to 190C.  Grease a large baking tray.

Bring the cold water, salt, butter and sugar to the boil and let boil for 5 seconds then remove from heat.  Quickly stir in the sifted flour and when well-combined, put it back on the heat (medium-high) and stir until the edges come away from the pan.  Put in a bowl and leave to cool. 

Add the eggs, a bit at a time, stirring well, making sure it's completely incorporated before adding more.  You may not need all the eggs, it needs to be dropping consistency. 

Put the mixture in a piping bag and pipe into small rounds a few cm apart from each other.  Whisk the egg yolk and brush the top of the top of the choux buns with a bit of it (it's easier just dabbing it with your finger).  Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden.

How to: Creme Patisserie and other Pastry Creams

- Basic Creme Patisserie
- Chocolate Creme Patisserie-
- Limoncello and other Alcoholic Creme Patisseries
- Pistacchio and other Nut Flavored Creme Patisseries
- Coffee Creme Patisserie
- Chantilly Cream
- Diplomatic Cream

Master this and the world of pastry is your oyster.  When I was small, my aunt would have a bowl of creme patisserie with a spoonful of nutella in it for me and my cousins as a snack.  Oh the good old days of childhood when you could afford to indulge in such decadence.








With this, you can stuff it in choux buns, put it in between layers of puff pastry, in a shortcrust pastry tart, in empanadas, in sweet raviolis, or eat it on its own.


From GialloZafferano 
Ingredients

500ml milk
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 slice of lemon peel
1 slice of orange peel

6 egg yolks

150g sugar

50g flour, sifted

Method

Heat the milk with the vanilla bean and the peels until it begins to simmer, then turn the heat off and let the flavors infuse for 10 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and foamy.  When the milk has cooled down, whisk in 1/3 of it into the egg mixture, then whisk in the flour.  Finally tip the mixture back into the pan with the rest of the milk, and using a wooden spoon, stir continuously over medium-high heat until it boils.  Then turn the heat down to low and continue stirring until it becomes thick, about 10 minutes. Leave to cool.

For chocolate creme patisserie
Stir in 1/4 cup of cocoa powder at the end.

Coffee creme patisserie
Infuse the milk with 40g of strong espresso powder

Alcoholic
Cherry liquor, limoncello, and kaluhua are just some examples of what you could add to the end of it.

Nut flavored
Toast the nuts and whizz it up in a food processor.  Let it infuse with the milk when you heat it up with the vanilla bean.  Then strain it.

Chantilly cream
Whipped cream + vanilla bean seeds/vanilla extract + powdered sugar (250ml + 1 stick/1 tsp + 50g)

Diplomatic cream
Mix the creme patisserie chantilly cream at a 2:1 ratio.

How to: Steak

Oh God.  It's been more than a week.  I really haven't been cooking.  I have an exam tomorrow.  And yes, I decided to post something today.  

So, steak.

It's one of those things that costs a fortune in fancy restaurants but you can easily make at home at a fraction of the price.  It's easy, but a lot of people get it wrong.  There is so much debate though.  Oil in pan or on meat, turning it once or a couple of times etc etc.  But after a multitude of research, here's how I believe you panfry the perfect steak.  Well, ok, here's my perfect steak.

How to: Artichokes

It's so nice at the end of the year.  People go crazy over preparations for Christmas, and once Christmas is over it's New Year's.  Two big celebrations, one after the other, it's nice.  It keeps your mind off other things.  Like the fact that Economics is driving me off the edge,  the fact that I'm surrounded by negativity, the fact that the heating doesn't work.  Yea,  it keeps my mind off these things.

Christmas was nice this year.  I perhaps ate a bit too much, as usual, so here's something you might consider eating to keep fit.

I like artichokes, I especially like those small marinated artichokes actually.  It's so nice in salads, pastas and pizzas.  It really does steal the show from the other ingredients even when it doesn't even mean to.  I remember once buying a whole box of those canned artichokes -- I put it in everything.   A lot of people don't like artichokes, surprisingly.

For the sensible people out there: here's how you prepare fresh artichokes.

What disappoints me the most is when I buy these huge globe artichokes and by the time I'm done with all the prepping it ends up being half the size I bought it for.  They've got these tough outer leaves that are unfortunately inedible, which you have to peel off.

Actually, not leaves, petals, I believe.

Step 1. Cut off the stems and remove all tough outer leaves.  Yes, you may end up with something very small, it's layers and layers of those tough leaves.

Step 2.  Cut off the stems, and a couple of cm off the top.   Just cut a big chunk off, don't worry. Yes, I know, it's a lot of waste and it can be worrying.  Also trim the stems.

Step 3.  You then want to cut around the head to make sure you've cut off all the tough tips from the outer leaves.

Step 4. Rub all the cut edges with a slice of lemon.  This prevents them from browning.

Step 5.  Fill a pot with an inch of water, add some salt, a whole lemon, cut into 4 slices.  Place the artichokes in, head down.  Cover, and put it over high heat for about 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of your artichoke. Check frequently to see if the water's dried out, if it has, add more water (obviously).  They're done when they feel tender on the fork.

Dressing:  I love it with just some good olive oil and some capers. They've already got the acidity and the saltiness from cooking.  You can also do a nice herby dressing with oil, mixed herbs (like parsley and mint), minced garlic.  Keep it simple.

Tip: I find it easier to cut with like a serrated knife or with scissors.