Coconut saffron macarons

This is going to be my last batch of macarons before a long while. I am macaroned out. Maybe you are too. This last batch was flavorful and fun to make, but the warmer weather is calling me to other horizons. I will soon be obsessing over ice cream flavors, I know.
This recipe calls for one of the world's most expensive spice: Saffron. Would you believe that one pound of dry saffron requires 50,000 to 75,000 flowers, the equivalent of a football field's area of cultivation, and that 40 hours of labour are needed to pick 150,000 flowers! Now we all feel better we spend so much money on such minute quantities of saffron. Yet, to me, it tastes so good, the delicious flavor justifies the price!
The macarons are filled with coconut paste. I opted for a powdered version of dehydrated coconut vs. the flaky stringy version, which my husband (my main guinea pig) cannot stand. It's easy to throw flakes into a mixer and give them a few pulse in order to get powdered coconut. 


Coconut Saffron Macarons: (Macarons a la Noix de Coco et au Safran)

90g aged egg whites (about 3, aged on your kitchen counter 24 hours or longer)
110g almond meal
200g powdered sugar
30g granulated sugar
one pinch of saffron, crushed between your fingers

Coconut filling:

1/2 cup dehydrated coconut, powdered

2 tbsp softened butter

2tbsp heavy cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

pinch of salt

Sift together the almond meal and powdered sugar in a big bowl.  You don't want any lumps in there. Throw in the crushed saffron.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer. When they start foaming, throw in the granulated sugar and the zest. Beat on high until stiff peaks form.
With a rubber spatula, dump the egg whites in the almond mixture and FOLD gently until the dry ingredients and egg whites are well married. However, do not stir too much. Run a knife through. If the line disappears after ten seconds, stop folding.
Throw this paste in a large  decorator bag (fitted with an Ateco #807 tip if possible) and pipe away on a silpat covered baking sheet. The macarons should be about 2 inches in diameter and 1 inch apart as they spread a little.
Let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Pre-heat your oven on 300F.
Bake the macarons for 18 minutes (keep an eye on them and you can give them a push with a finger to see if they are set). Let cool completely.

Prepare the coconut filling by blending together the coconut powder, sugar and salt first in a small bowl, then adding in thin slices of butter until you get a crumbly texture. Slowly pour in the cream  and blend well until smooth.
Spread a layer of coconut buttercream on a shell and cover with another shell. Repeat with all shells and refrigerate overnight to allow the filling to harden and the flavors to marry. 

Little shell ready to buttered up

The photo shoot!

Everyone showing their guns!

Looking all sassy

Looking good for the camera

Spicy basil beef and a red from the Vallee d'Aoste

Here is another recipe full of Asian flavors. It's rather easy to execute, tasty and easy to pair with a good wine. This beef dish has quite a spicy kick, so it would work well with a light to medium-bodied red wine with good acidity to refresh the palate. The wine I picked for the occasion is almost French (!) since it comes from the Vallee d'Aoste, this tiny region in north west Italy, bordering France, and where French and Italian are the official languages. When I was 8 or 10 years old, I even thought the region and its people were French! So there - here is an almost French wine for my blog.

Here is what I found about "La Kiuva" on the importer's website: "La Kiuva is a tiny co-op in the Vallée d'Aoste consisting of 60 growers comprising 25 hectares of vines and producing 8000 cases of 3 different wines. The DOC of Arnad-Montjovet is named for two small villages in the Vallee d'Aoste where the main grape grown is Picatendro, the local clone of Nebbiolo, which yields small bunches of tiny, ripe grapes that mature well in these northern climes and give intense fruit and depth to the local wines.

This wine is 75% Nebbiolo plus a range of the local grapes including some Pinot Noir."

Ok. Nice meeting you. I also found out that this wine received a long maceration on the skins and one third is raised in barrel, the rest in steel.

My tasting note: The Kiuva 2007  is a medium ruby color with hints of garnet on the rim. Its nose is still youthful with medium intensity aromas of blackcurrants and blackberries, earth, moss, white pepper, brambles, violet, dried herbs and a bit of licorice. On the palate, the wine is fully dry with medium plus acidity, medium alcohol and medium body. It has medium green tannins, medium intensity of flavors and medium length with a green brambly finish. Cassis, blackberries, redcurrants, green wood, white and green pepper, violet flowers, earth and moss mingle together. It overall had too much green-ness to my taste but this was fortunately working well with my dish's flavors. The retail price is about $18.

Here is to a simple and quick weeknight dinner!

Spicy Basil Beef: (Boeuf Saute au Basilic)

1/2 pound round steak (or a beef part fit for grilling), cut into thin slices

6 tbsp olive oil

Bunch of fresh basil

4 tbsp fish sauce

2 tsp brown sugar

2 red pimentos, cut into thin slices

6 garlic cloves

2 tsp freshly grated ginger

juice of a lemon

salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a wok. When hot, throw in half of the basil leaves and let them fry until  golden and crisp. Turn the heat off. Drain the leaves on pieces of paper towel and reserve.

In a big ziplock bag, mix together the fish sauce and sugar. Add in the beef slices and marinate about 30 minutes. 

Heat up the wok and throw in the pimentos, ginger and garlic. After a minute, add in the beef slices, and the rest of the basil leaves (chopped). Cook about 5 minutes and season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. 

Serve with the fried basil leaves on top.

All ready to go!

Chopping basil

Note to self: avoiding touching eyes after chopping the pimentos

My side dish for the occasion: Broccoli rabe

Easy peazy weeknight dinner

Quickly made, quickly eaten!

Chocolate avocado macarons

This batch didn't turn out right. After nearly 2 weeks without baking macarons, being sick and taking care of a sick baby, I guess I was a little tired. But macaron baking is a science! So many things can go wrong and it is so easy to mess up. Macarons should have a smooth surface (that's why we sift the dry ingredients for the shells), have feet (that's why we let the raw shells rest before getting in a pre-heated oven), they should not be hollow (otherwise it means we incorporate too much air while folding the meringue into the dry ingredients), they shouldn't be too hard and crunchy (otherwise it means they baked too long), they shouldn't have cracks in the shells (otherwise it means there was too much moisture in the dough or in the oven), they shouldn't....
In a nutshell, macarons are not for the faints of heart. It's always good to have valium on hand when baking a batch.
This chocolate avocado batch didn't come out right. They tasted super yummy, but who cares if they were delicious wif they didn't have the right look! I am making macarons not whoopie pies.
However, I decided to come clean and bear it all out, right here.
My mistakes were a) to eye ball the amount of cocoa powder I threw in with the almond powder (I think I threw in 5 tablespoons instead of a modest 2), which gave me too much dry ingredients for the amount of meringue to mix with, and b) to bake 2 batches at once in my oven, which tends to increase the ambient moisture and create cracks in the shells.
This said, my husband thought they were delicious and the batch only lasted 2 days in the fridge...

Chocolate Avocado Macarons: (Macarons au Chocolat et au Beurre d'Avocat)

90g aged egg whites (about 3, aged on your kitchen counter 24 hours or longer)
110g almond meal
200g powdered sugar
30g granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

zest of one lime
Avocado filling:

The flesh of 1 avocado, mashed

juice of one lime

2 tbsp softened butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

pinch of salt

Sift together the almond meal and powdered sugar in a big bowl. Sift in the cocoa powder. You don't want any lumps in there.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer. When they start foaming, throw in the granulated sugar and the zest. Beat on high until stiff peaks form.
With a rubber spatula, dump the egg whites in the almond mixture and FOLD gently until the dry ingredients and egg whites are well married. However, do not stir too much. Run a knife through. If the line disappears after ten seconds, stop folding.
Throw this paste in a large  decorator bag (fitted with an Ateco #807 tip if possible) and pipe away on a silpat covered baking sheet. The macarons should be about 2 inches in diameter and 1 inch apart as they spread a little.
Let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Pre-heat your oven on 300F.
Bake the macarons for 18 minutes (keep an eye on them and you can give them a push with a finger to see if they are set). Let cool completely.

Prepare the avocado butter by blending together the mashed avocado, lime juice, salt, sugar and butter until smooth.
Spread a layer of avocado butter on a shell and cover with another shell. Repeat with all shells and refrigerate overnight to allow the filling to harden and the flavors to marry. 

All the protagonists are present

Firing up the electric beater

Meringue - check!

Where it kinda went wrong for me!

A tall glass may help you load up your pastry bag

Piping down the macarons

Preparing the avocado butter while the shells are cooling

Avocado butter - check!

I kinda polished off the rest of the avocado butter with my finger...

Avocado is very healthy!

So are macarons!

Lavender quince macarons

It's been a trying week so far. I've been sick and, even worse, my baby's been sick. This doesn't make for an inspire and productive pâtissière. Today, I finally started dreaming up recipes again, which leads me to believe, there will be new posts soon.
Two weeks ago, I discovered that my local health store was even more awesome than I thought. They carry all sorts of herbs and spices, and -oh divine surprise- culinary lavender. That brought me so much joy. I don't need much to be happy.
This morning I wiped up a batch of lavender honey ice cream. The kind of ice cream that is custard-based (meaning, it contains eggs). Very promising, and on the healthy side. All this honey will surely cure any lingering sore throat.
When I brought home my beloved lavender, I proceeded to bake lavender macarons, of course. They could have been filled with a number of fillings like white chocolate ganache (or buttercream) or lemon curd. I tried those too. What I want to talk about today, however, is my lavender macarons filled with quince paste. Hey why not.

Lavender Quince Macarons: (Macarons a la Lavande et a la Pate de Coing)

90g aged egg whites (about 3, aged on your kitchen counter 24 hours or longer)
110g almond meal
200g powdered sugar
30g granulated sugar
2 tablespoons ground culinary lavender

Quince paste 

or quince jelly, blended with softened butter in equal amount

Sift together the almond meal and powdered sugar in a big bowl. Sift in the lavender powder. You don't want any lumps in there.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer. When they start foaming, throw in the granulated sugar. Purple food coloring can be added too (preferably in gel or powder form, not to add extra moisture!). Beat on high until stiff peaks form.
With a rubber spatula, dump the egg whites in the almond mixture and FOLD gently until the dry ingredients and egg whites are well married. However, do not stir too much. Run a knife through. If the line disappears after ten seconds, stop folding.
Throw this paste in a large  decorator bag (fitted with an Ateco #807 tip if possible) and pipe away on a silpat covered baking sheet. The macarons should be about 2 inches in diameter and 1 inch apart as they spread a little.
Let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Pre-heat your oven on 300F.
Bake the macarons for 20 to 22 minutes (keep an eye on them and you can give them a push with a finger to see if they are set and ready after 19 or 20 minutes in the oven). Let cool completely.

Spread a layer of quince paste or quince butter on a shell and cover with another shell. Repeat with all shells and refrigerate overnight to allow the filling to harden and the flavors to marry. It would be even better to let the macarons rest for 2 days before eating them. Hard as it sounds.

Very fragrant macarons

Gorged with quince goodness

The big close-up

The middle player is my little lavender plant

Vouvray and slow cooker coconut & green curry pork

This will be a short post, yet an important one in my book since I've just discovered the most delicious easy dinner thanks to thekitchn.com. All I wanted was an excuse to babble about Francois Pinon's Cuvee Tradition Vouvray from 2008, and bam, I fell in love with this recipe, which I am gonna make at least once a month from now on.
That was a mouth full.
I am not gonna go over the recipe since it is already very well laid out here. I confess  I didn't exactly follow the recipe. I couldn't find the very specific brand of green curry mentioned in the article and, because I have a preference for red curry, I used red curry. I also added about 1/4 cup of honey in the slow cooker, just before throwing back in the shredded slow-cooked pork. I served the curried pork with brown rice and sauteed baby bok choy.
The wine I chose, my beloved Vouvray, was matching the dish perfectly. It is such a beautiful wine, and when drunk in the perfect "context", its beauty is even greater.
Francois Pinon is a seventh generation winemaker in the Loire Valley region, who owns about 14 hectares of vines, most of them 30 to 50 years of age. He does not use any herbicides, pesticides or any chemical treatments on his vines, which are harvested completely manually. He uses only natural yeasts for the fermentation process. The latter takes place in old wooden casks or foudres. The wine is then aged in stainless steel casks. Mr. Pinon sparingly uses filtration and sulphur on his wines.
My particular wine of interest here is his Cuvée Tradition, an interesting cross between a dry and off dry wine. When tasting it, I was leaning more towards dry but there is indeed some residual sugars. They call this type of wine "tendre" (meaning it is between dry and off dry). The acidity is high, the flavors deep and bright, giving this wine a wonderfully long length. Definitely a keeper for people with a good cellar.

My tasting notes:
The wine is a pale gold fading to a watery rim. Its nose is youthful with medium plus intensity of aromas - Dominant notes of honey, quince and minerals. Wet stones, chalk (really!), candied lemons and oranges, figs, ginger, thyme, white blossoms.
On the palate, it is strangely between dry and off dry, with high acidity, medium alcohol, high intensity of flavors and medium plus body. Flavors of honey, quince, pear, fig, candied lemon, wet stones, wet wool, blossoms, straw, dried herbs and ginger seem to dance on your tongue never-endingly. The high acidity, strong minerality and concentrated flavors are the perfect combination of factors to give this wine long length and ageability.
Give a hug to your wine store owner if he carries this wine.

Ginger Creme Brulee Ice Cream

In a previous post, I mentioned that Ronnybrook Farm Dairy was a player in my local farmers market. I am thrilled about it. A couple of weeks ago, I finally got to try their ginger crème brulee ice cream. It was delicious. What I liked the most about it: the crystallized bits of ginger. Although I wished there had been more of them. But I suppose this is Ronnybrook ice cream, not Ben & Jerry – it’s not overkill. Of course the ice-cream churning  fanatic that I am HAD to try to make my own ginger crème brulee ice cream. I was a bit disappointed that the Ronnybrook version was all about the ginger and left the crème brulee aside –false advertising in a way… And I wanted to make an ice cream with less superfluous ingredients such as natural flavors and stabilizers and guar gum and caramel coloring and beta-carotene…. Just pure ice cream. With a ginger element and a crème brulee element. For better and for worse.

I do not own an ice cream maker. I don’t have room for one. It does not stop me from churning ice cream all year long. Just as delicious as the machine-made ice cream. Believe me.

Ginger Crème Brulee Ice Cream: (Crème Brulée Glacée au Gingembre)

4 egg yolks, whisk together

about 6 inches worth of ginger, peeled and grated

½ cup granulate sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup half and half

1 cup milk (it doesn’t have to be whole milk, but who are we fooling here?)

and that’s ALL!

The first step is to make caramel, which can be tricky. Throw your ½ cup of sugar in a heavy saucepan and cook on medium high heat WITHOUT stirring. When the sugar is caramelized half way through, you can lower the heat to avoid any burning. The sugar should slowly caramelized, first the edge, then progressively towards the center. Again, do not stir.

Once the caramel is done, throw in one cup of cream away from the heat and whisking constantly. Protect your arms and hands as the caramel will be angry and foamy for a few seconds. Whisk in the rest of the dairy and return the pan to the fire (low heat) until caramel solids if there are any, are fully dissolve.

Add in the grated ginger, then pour a bit of warm cream on the beaten egg yolks to temper them. Stir in the rest of the caramel cream.

Pour this mixture back in the pan. Now is time to make a custard. Cook the creamy mixture on low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. Be careful not to let the custard boil or you will have nasty clumps in there and will have to pass the custard through a sieve.

Once the custard has become thick enough (about the point when its temperature reaches 170F), remove from the heat. Let cool.

Transfer to a large sealable Tupperware box or bowl covered with plastic wrap and put away in your fridge for the night (or at least 3 hours).

In the morning, freeze your aged custard in an ice cream maker, or, if you do not own an ice cream maker, put your Tupperware box in the freezer for 2 hours.

After these 2 hours, get the box out of the freezer and, with an electric beater, beat the custard for a few minutes to break the crystals.

Replace the box in the freezer for 2 hours, after which, repeat the beating. Again, freeze the ice cream 2 hours before beating one last time.

Give it 2 more hours before serving. This means that you should have ice cream ready to serve in the afternoon!

Tasted positive by my 2 year old son

Thanks Ronnybrook Farm for helping me make delicious ice cream!

Caramelizing stage 1

stage 2 - NO STIRRING PLEASE!

Stage 3 - Hands in my pocket

Gingerizing the caramel cream

Making custard

Ready for aging

After 2 hours in the freezer, let's beat that puppy...

Breaking nasty crystals

Who wants to lick the whisks?

Ginger creme brulee ice cream and little Joules 

In this last picture, you can see little lemon thyme Joules cookies, which I got from 122 Street Kitchen (hopefully coming to an outdoor market near you soon!).

Rosemary macarons and dried apricot butter

Summer is in the air, or rather, in my head. This might explain why I have been using a lot of spices and herbs in my recipes lately. They mean vacation and sun and lounge chair to me.
Last summer, I was obsessing over incorporating herbs into ice cream and this is how I made the most delicious (and summery) basil ice cream, lemon verbena ice cream, rosemary ice cream, but also lavender ice cream, ginger ice cream... Somebody, stop me! There is a puddle of drool on the floor!
2011 is the year of macarons to me. And again, I am obsessing over incorporating herbs and flowers in my macarons. I happen to own a box of powdered rosemary (although I suppose anybody can make their own by grinding a few spoons of dried rosemary in a clean coffee grinder) and thought it was a good excuse to throw some in my macaron shells. But then, I have to be careful with the filling I choose since rosemary flavor doesn't necessarily pair well with, uh, everything... So I closed my eyes and thought really hard about the south of France, and the scent of dried herbs and dried grass and dried fruits and -bam- I got the idea for this...

Rosemary Macarons & Dried Apricot Butter: (Macarons au Romarin et son Beurre d'Abricots Secs)

90g aged egg whites (about 3, aged on your kitchen counter 24 hours or longer)
110g almond meal
200g powdered sugar
30g granulated sugar
2 tablespoons rosemary powder


For the Dried Apricot Butter:
1/2 cup dried unsulfured apricots
1/2 cup water
1/4 honey
3/4 of a stick of butter (100g), cubed
pinch of salt

Sift together the almond meal and powdered sugar in a big bowl. Sift in the rosemary powder. You don't want any lumps in there.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer. When they start foaming, throw in the granulated sugar. Beat on high until stiff peaks form.
With a rubber spatula, dump the egg whites in the almond mixture and FOLD gently until the dry ingredients and egg whites are well married. However, do not stir too much. Run a knife through. If the line disappears after ten seconds, stop folding.
Throw this paste in a large  decorator bag (fitted with an Ateco #807 tip if possible) and pipe away on a silpat covered baking sheet. The macarons should be about 2 inches in diameter and 1 inch apart as they spread a little.
Let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Pre-heat your oven on 300F.
Bake the macarons for 20 to 22 minutes (keep an eye on them and you can give them a push with a finger to see if they are set and ready after 19 or 20 minutes in the oven). Let cool completely.

For the filling: Boil the water and throw in the dried apricots. Turn the heat off, cover and let the apricots sit there for 30 minutes.
Throw the apricots and the water in a blender with the honey and salt. Blend until smooth, then add the cubes of butter. Pulse a little longer.

Spread a layer of apricot butter on a shell and cover with another shell. Repeat with all shells and refrigerate overnight to allow the filling to harden and the flavors to marry. It would be even better to let the macarons rest for 2 days before eating them. Hard as it sounds.

A warning note: the smell of baking rosemary in your kitchen will be unbearably good. You may want to leave the room and take a timer with you so you don't let them burn. That'd be a shame.

Butter up your toasts in the morning with the remaining of the apricot butter, or fill up crepes with it. It's pretty addictive.

Plop!

Too bad I can load smells on this blog...

Dried apricot butter

Sun kissed

A rosemary and dried apricot marriage

Provence has never felt so close...

Giving a new meaning to "it's always better with butter!"

Indian creme brulee

It's been a busy week and much have been cooked and baked and whisked. Yet, I haven't found the courage to report my mischief until now.

It seems insanely ridiculous given my eating habits, but I am lactose intolerant. With the years, it seems that my stomach has thrown the sponge and is getting used to being abuse with dairy products all day. I used to take Lactaid pills or drink up Lactaid milk, until I read Nina Plank's essay on Real Food, and I was convinced that a) raw milk was best for my guts and b) life was too short to feed on half-food and ersatz. Today, I live the life - eating cheese, and many other dairy goodies, and drinking plenty of wine (of course). I don't drink raw milk except when visiting my folks in France, who live in the countryside, right where strictly controlled raw milk is available, legal and plentiful.

All this to say this: Last weekend, I made an attempt at baking a dairy free creme brulee. A dear friend was coming over for dinner and he was lactose intolerant. Yet, I couldn't bring myself to deprive him from creme brulee.

Indian Cremes Brulees: (Creme Brulees Indiennes)

For 4 ramekins/ 4 people


6 egg yolks
1 can (about 400g) coconut cream (which already contains sugar)
1/2 can coconut milk (about 20cl)
1 tablespoon cardamon powder (or 6 cardamon pods)
3 pieces of star anise
zest and juice of a lime
pinch of saffron, crushed between fingers
about 1-inch long piece of ginger, peeled and grated

Pre-heat the over to 350F.
In a heavy saucepan, stir together the coconut cream, coconut milk, anise, saffron and cardamon on medium high heat. Bring to a simmer than cover and let the spices steep 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, zest, juice and fresh grated ginger.
Temper the yolks by pouring a small quantity of coconut liquid on, stirring briskly. Whisk in the rest of the liquid, then pour into ramekins.
Place the ramekins in a water bath so that the water reaches half way up the dishes. Bake 40 minutes in the middle of the oven.
Let cool completely and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
The cremes can serve served as pots de creme, or their top can be caramelized as cremes brulees either with a blow torch or on the broiler: Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar on each dish and place on the broiler for 5 to 6 minutes (keep a close eye of the ramekins and see the sugar turn into caramel).
If using the broiler, the cremes brulees need to be served immediately.
Decorate with slices of grapefruit.

I see stars!

Grating gracefully

Petits pots to be bruleed soon

Voila!