L'atelier des Chefs is a cookery school in London. They offer these great classes, and reasonably priced, too. My mom and I went to this 'cook, eat & run' class (these run from 13:30 - 14:00, plus eating time).
We made salmon brochettes with couscous. It was so good, and easy to make, too! My only problem was the ridiculous amount of olive oil that they used. ('Well - olive oil is good for you. So it doesn't matter!'). The couscous was literally drenched in it. It was even a bit too much olive oil for my liking....and I use a heck of a lot of olive oil!
Recipe is on the website.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my meal before I started eating it. And too bad, because it was beautiful :(
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
fresh candied ginger
So I broke down and bought a pound of ginger in Chinatown today...couldn't resist (what with the price, and the thought of yummy ginger flavored food in weeks to come). Of course, after I got back, I soon realized just how much ginger this was. Like, 2 very large chunks, and 2 smaller ones.
Solution - candied ginger. Why not? It's my favorite, it's expensive to buy (not to mention, difficult to find really good, strong candied ginger in the States), and school doesn't start until Tuesday.
I used the recipe from the Food Network, because all the other recipes seemed to think that the sugar couldn't recrystallize, and you would have to coat the ginger pieces with EXTRA sugar later on.
Here it is (with annotations from me, in red).
Ingredients:
nonstick spray (although admittedly, I never actually used this).
1 pound fresh ginger root
5 cups water
approximately 1 pound granulated sugar
Directions:
Solution - candied ginger. Why not? It's my favorite, it's expensive to buy (not to mention, difficult to find really good, strong candied ginger in the States), and school doesn't start until Tuesday.
I used the recipe from the Food Network, because all the other recipes seemed to think that the sugar couldn't recrystallize, and you would have to coat the ginger pieces with EXTRA sugar later on.
Here it is (with annotations from me, in red).
Ingredients:
nonstick spray (although admittedly, I never actually used this).
1 pound fresh ginger root
5 cups water
approximately 1 pound granulated sugar
Directions:
Spray a cooling rack with nonstick spray and set it in a half sheet pan lined with parchment. (I didn't have any of this, so I just used a clean plate and hoped that nothing would stick. It didn't).
Peel the ginger root and slice into 1/8-inch thick slices. Place into a 4-quart saucepan with the water and set over medium-high heat. Cover and cook for 35 minutes or until the ginger is tender.
Transfer the ginger to a colander to drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. (I also didn't have a colander...so I just poured out all the gingery cooking liquid into another dish, and saved all of it - you'll see why later).
Weigh the ginger and measure out an equal amount of sugar. (surprise, surprise, no scale, so I just estimated. Probably used less sugar that it called for, but no problem at all).
Return the ginger and 1/4 cup water to the pan and add the sugar. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar syrup looks dry, has almost evaporated and begins to recrystallize, approximately 20 minutes.
About that recrystallization time of 20 minutes...well, mine took more like an hour, but that could have been because my heat wasn't on very high. Lesson: DON'T BE AFRAID OF SUPER-BUBBLY SUGAR WATER! Mine came to a boil, then I turned down the heat, and tried to keep it down low enough so the whole thing wouldn't bubble like crazy. After about 50 minutes I got impatient and turned the heat up - voila! The whole thing foamed up, the ginger/sugar thing became more like a giant foamy mass, and it was done!
Transfer the ginger immediately to the cooling rack and spread to separate the individual pieces. (Once again, I just dumped the ginger pieces onto a plate, and made sure the pieces were spread out. Since everything was all recrystallized, the pieces were dry and not so sticky. Of course, if I hadn't waited for the sugar to recrystallize, then the parchment paper would have come in handy).
Once completely cool, store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Save the sugar that drops beneath the cooling rack and use to top ginger snaps, sprinkled over ice cream or to sweeten coffee.
And here is my lovely ginger! (I didn't make a full pound - more like half a pound, in case this was a total disaster).
Oh, and something the recipe didn't mention - there was a whole lot of sugar left over, not only large chunks stuck to the ginger, but large chunks stuck to the bottom and sides of my saucepan.
Yup, there it all is.
After scraping around and removing the loose sugar to save for later, I dumped that cooked ginger water into my saucepan. And added the same amount of plain water as I had that ginger liquid, to dilute (that stuff is strong!). I soaked the solution (if it's too hard to unstick, gentle heating should do the trick), and the result? Something resembling non-fizzy ginger beer! Actually, I bet if I diluted with club soda instead of water, that would work.
Anyway, this is supposed to take an hour, but since this was my first time, and I made ginger drink at the end, it probably took twice as long.
Still, completely worth it. I will definitely do this again!
Peel the ginger root and slice into 1/8-inch thick slices. Place into a 4-quart saucepan with the water and set over medium-high heat. Cover and cook for 35 minutes or until the ginger is tender.
(You need just need enough water to cover the ginger).
Transfer the ginger to a colander to drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. (I also didn't have a colander...so I just poured out all the gingery cooking liquid into another dish, and saved all of it - you'll see why later).
Weigh the ginger and measure out an equal amount of sugar. (surprise, surprise, no scale, so I just estimated. Probably used less sugar that it called for, but no problem at all).
Return the ginger and 1/4 cup water to the pan and add the sugar. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar syrup looks dry, has almost evaporated and begins to recrystallize, approximately 20 minutes.
About that recrystallization time of 20 minutes...well, mine took more like an hour, but that could have been because my heat wasn't on very high. Lesson: DON'T BE AFRAID OF SUPER-BUBBLY SUGAR WATER! Mine came to a boil, then I turned down the heat, and tried to keep it down low enough so the whole thing wouldn't bubble like crazy. After about 50 minutes I got impatient and turned the heat up - voila! The whole thing foamed up, the ginger/sugar thing became more like a giant foamy mass, and it was done!
Transfer the ginger immediately to the cooling rack and spread to separate the individual pieces. (Once again, I just dumped the ginger pieces onto a plate, and made sure the pieces were spread out. Since everything was all recrystallized, the pieces were dry and not so sticky. Of course, if I hadn't waited for the sugar to recrystallize, then the parchment paper would have come in handy).
Once completely cool, store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Save the sugar that drops beneath the cooling rack and use to top ginger snaps, sprinkled over ice cream or to sweeten coffee.
And here is my lovely ginger! (I didn't make a full pound - more like half a pound, in case this was a total disaster).
Oh, and something the recipe didn't mention - there was a whole lot of sugar left over, not only large chunks stuck to the ginger, but large chunks stuck to the bottom and sides of my saucepan.
Yup, there it all is.
After scraping around and removing the loose sugar to save for later, I dumped that cooked ginger water into my saucepan. And added the same amount of plain water as I had that ginger liquid, to dilute (that stuff is strong!). I soaked the solution (if it's too hard to unstick, gentle heating should do the trick), and the result? Something resembling non-fizzy ginger beer! Actually, I bet if I diluted with club soda instead of water, that would work.
Anyway, this is supposed to take an hour, but since this was my first time, and I made ginger drink at the end, it probably took twice as long.
Still, completely worth it. I will definitely do this again!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
more cookies + birds
Friday = peanut butter cookie day
I love this recipe - it's been a favorite since I was little, when I got the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book. The mouse cookbook that came with the actual book is full of lots of yummy recipes! This peanut butter munchies recipe is by far the easiest - it's not like the others are difficult, but this one has only three ingredients! Just the important ones, you know. Peanut butter, sugar, and an egg to hold it all together. The result is rather peanut-buttery, but hey, that's whole point, right?
Peanut Butter Munchies
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Combine all ingredients; mix well. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and drop onto lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 F, or until golden brown. Press tines of fork into cookie while still soft.
Voila!
(this is fork-pressing fail we're seeing here).
(oh peanut butter, i love you so...)
Also just cut out more birds for my bird-mobile. I'm having some issues with the placement of the strings, though. I have to make sure it doesn't look too premeditated or anything weird like that. I think I might cut out some smaller birds, and string them on as well.
I love this recipe - it's been a favorite since I was little, when I got the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book. The mouse cookbook that came with the actual book is full of lots of yummy recipes! This peanut butter munchies recipe is by far the easiest - it's not like the others are difficult, but this one has only three ingredients! Just the important ones, you know. Peanut butter, sugar, and an egg to hold it all together. The result is rather peanut-buttery, but hey, that's whole point, right?
Peanut Butter Munchies
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Combine all ingredients; mix well. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and drop onto lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 F, or until golden brown. Press tines of fork into cookie while still soft.
Voila!
Also just cut out more birds for my bird-mobile. I'm having some issues with the placement of the strings, though. I have to make sure it doesn't look too premeditated or anything weird like that. I think I might cut out some smaller birds, and string them on as well.
Monday, September 27, 2010
in the mood for food - biscuit day
I don't know what's up with me and my obsession with food lately. Seriously. It's more overpowering than, say, my desire to own a Vespa. So this morning, instead of writing my art history essay comparing an original painting with its reproduction on postcard (and how reproduction changes the meaning of art...), I was looking up different recipes online. See, a computer is a dangerous thing.
I wanted to make some real bread, and then realized that I would either have to deal with the hassle of yeast, and kneading, or buy some buttermilk, which is entirely useless for purposes other than baking bread-y type stuff (in my opinion).
The winner - biscuits (the american kind). such comfort food. and it uses so few ingredients (although I did end up having to go out and buy some baking powder).
Drop Biscuits:
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup milk (or more if needed)
Preheat oven to 450°F. Measure flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add butter to bowl and rub butter into flour with your fingers or a fork. Add milk to make a thick batter, stirring only until dough sticks together. Drop by teaspoonfuls on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 7-8 minutes.
makes 9
I ended up making two batches - 9 weeny little biscuits just aren't enough.
I wanted to make some real bread, and then realized that I would either have to deal with the hassle of yeast, and kneading, or buy some buttermilk, which is entirely useless for purposes other than baking bread-y type stuff (in my opinion).
The winner - biscuits (the american kind). such comfort food. and it uses so few ingredients (although I did end up having to go out and buy some baking powder).
Drop Biscuits:
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup milk (or more if needed)
Preheat oven to 450°F. Measure flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add butter to bowl and rub butter into flour with your fingers or a fork. Add milk to make a thick batter, stirring only until dough sticks together. Drop by teaspoonfuls on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 7-8 minutes.
makes 9
I ended up making two batches - 9 weeny little biscuits just aren't enough.
And this is all that's left. Yes, that's right. Of the biscuits consumed today I must have been responsible for at seven or eight of them. Well - they're best hot out of the oven, anyway!
I think I'll make more biscuits next weekend. Or something else. Maybe I'll have enough time to make more than one thing :)
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