Troubleshooting Macarons led to Matcha Macaron Success

Practice makes perfect. You probably heard that a lot growing up. I made 3 batches of macarons today. It definitely was not intentional. I wanted to make green tea macarons with a red bean filling. FAIL!!!

I also wanted to make an earl grey macaron. That was partly successful. But flawed in the filling. I am going to go over troubleshooting macarons....What I learned from these failures.

First thing, it is important to have a scale of some sort to weigh out your ingredients. However, I do not own such a tool. Mistake #1. Secondly, do not overbeat the egg whites, you will get hollow shells. Mistake #2. Lastly, it is important to open the oven 2 minutes after you put them in to let the moisture out. This way you get the foots. Mistake #3.

After 2 batches, I was on the web searching what I had done incorrectly and the above said is what I have pinpointed it down to. Now it is really important to quickly open and close the oven to get the little foots. Don't over beat the egg whites. You can get away without a scale however. My third attempt, still no scale, but continued on, you just have to use the right recipe.

Now the color looks great here. A nice green hue for the Green Tea Macaron. I used a recipe from this blog: food je t'aime

They came out all pretty when I piped them. But they never dried. It is very important for them to dry. I waited more than an hour. I think I over beat the egg whites and over mixed it.

So they came out flat and didn't have that eggshell texture. It was more like a whoppie. Booo! FAIL!!!! ;<{

Disappointed, I continued on to make the Earl Grey Macaron. I really like this recipe. You don't need a scale for it. It is almost a tried and true recipe! I got it from Yoo Eatz.

This is how the Earl Grey turned out. You can see the foot/frille. But some of them were still hollow. But it definitely had that eggshell exterior.

I was also baking them with a baking sheet under. Ditch that 'ish. You will not get them to cook evenly. And it will take longer.

I was lazy and used a whipping cream/red bean paste mixture for the filling. BIG MISTAKE!!! It will make your macarons soggy and say bye bye to your eggshell exterior. It is best to use a buttercream filling. This is how the green tea with red bean turned out. Pretty pathetic, but still tasted good. See they do look like whoppies.

The Earl Grey Red Bean turned out better, but the whipping cream filling really bleed through. The flavor of the earl grey really came through.

Because I was so disappointed, I really had to whip up another batch to redeem these failure and figure out what was going wrong. I made a Matcha Macaron using the same Earl Grey recipe just substituted the earl grey tea for matcha powder.

This time around, I did not over beat the egg whites and I did let the oven breathe. I got the frille and they were not hollow. I was really happy with how they turned out.

Here is a close up of the feet. The oven was set to 300F and I baked them for about 15 mins. Rotate as needed.

I made a Matcha Buttercream to compliment the Matcha Macaron. The recipe for the buttercream was adapted from the blog of Ironwhisk. I can best describe this macaron as tasting like Green Tea Ice Cream.

And now for a successful Matcha Macaron recipe without using a scale.

Matcha Macaron recipe (Makes about 18 (1 1/2 in diameter))

Ingredients:

2 egg whites, at room temperature

5 tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 cup 2 tbsp almond meal

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 tsp Matcha powder

pinch of salt

Let's make macarons!

1. In a bowl, sift almond meal and confectioner sugar. Add matcha powder. Add pinch of salt. Mix lightly and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites over low speed until they begin to froth. Add sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, incorporating well after each addition. Continue beating until egg whites to medium-high speed until they are glossy and stiff peaks form. Do not over beat the eggs or else you will get hollow insides. You can also use a kitchen aid stand mixer alternatively if you want.

3. Add half of the dry mixture to the egg whites, and fold gently from the outside in using a rubber spatula, until all ingredients are well combined. Repeat with the other half of the dry mixture. Also, do not over mix!

4. Test the consistency of the batter by scooping up some of it with the spatula and letting it fall back into the bowl. If it falls heavily in chunks (or not at all), you will need to press some of the air out. With the rubber spatula, begin scraping from the outside in, and then press down on the center with the flat of the spatula (you can also press the batter against the side of the bowl). After repeating 5 times, test the batter consistency again. You want it to slowly dripping off the spatula back into the bowl and easily absorbing back into the batter at the bottom. If still too thick, press the air out a few more times being careful not to over mix.

5. Pour batter into a pastry or gallon-sized Ziplock bag (fit the pastry bag with a piping tip first). It helps if you put it in a cup. If using a Ziplock bag, snip 1/4" from one corner, twist up the loose end, and pipe onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet or silpat so that the macarons are about 1" to 1-1/2" in diameter and about an inch apart. They have templates online. When all the batter is piped out, firmly tap the baking sheet on the counter a few times, then let rest for about 30 minutes. It is important to let them completely dry! Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300ºF.

6. After the macarons have rested, bake in oven for about 15 minutes, keeping an eye on the tops to ensure they don't brown. If you have two racks, put one on top and one on bottom. After 2 mins, quickly open and close the oven to let the moisture out. This will create the little foots on the macarons. Rotate as necessary. Remove from oven, lift parchment paper with macarons onto a wire rack and let cool completely before filling.

Matcha Buttercream recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp whipping cream

2 tbsp matcha powder

Time to make the filling!

1. Cream the butter until light and fluffy, about two minutes with a mixer. (A stand mixer is great to use here.)

2. Add confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, whipping cream and matcha powder and beat together for four minutes until desired consistency.

3. Transfer into piping bag for filling.

If you like Green Tea/Matcha, you will enjoy these. I am not a big fancy of things that are too sweet and that is why I add a pinch of salt to my dry ingredients. The salt helps to tame the sweetness. Enjoy!!!!

Egg Custard Tarts....a work in progress

Egg Custard Tarts are absolutely delicious. I still am on a quest to find the tin pans to cook them in. For time being I have been using my brioche tins, but they aren't cutting it. I mean, they work, but there is always room for improvement. I am still looking for the right recipe. I totally messed up on the crust. I think I needed more patiences and didn't have the right water dough to hold my butter dough.

I recently made a flaky pie dough, I might try using that...perhaps. Something to try in the future. I was quite happy with the filling. I might use more eggs next time though. Also, a work in progress. For now, I am sharing the filling recipe. This works well when you have the right amount to crust to filling ratio.

Egg custard filling recipe:

3 eggs

3 1/2 tbsp milk

1 cup 1 tsp water

2/5 cup of sugar

Steps:

1. Make simple syrup by combining sugar and water and heat until sugar is dissolved. Let cool and set aside.

2. Once simple syrup is cooled, combine with milk and whisk.

3. In a bowl, whisk eggs and add milk mixture. Whisk to combine.

4. Sieve mixture twice. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Making the filling is pretty easy. What makes a delicious egg custard tart is having the right balance of filling and crust. The crust balances out the filling and vice versa.

My first attempt. The crust was too thin and not flaky. The filling was good. Could be less sweet or more eggy.

I doubled up on the crust here. Now too much crust but came out better. Word to the wise, be patient when making the crust.

Pancit

Pancit or Miki is one of my favorite things to eat. I grew up having this during special occassions like Christmas or Birthdays. I have watched my Dad make it, but never really made it myself. Nowadays, I am trying to recreate the dish. Sadly, my Dad has passed on so I cannot pick his brain for the recipe. Fortunately, my aunts are still around so they sometimes make it for me. When I get the chance I am going to ask them to teach me how to make it.

I have made several attempts at Pancit and here is how I did it. This time around I used the Excellent brand of Pancit noodles. Alternatively, you can also use bihon instead. There is actually no meat in this version, usually there is some pork or shrimp. I didn't thaw any so I used tofu instead. I am actually not a big meat eater so this works for me.

I used about half a pound of Firm Tofu (half of the package) and cut them into cubes.

These are the vegetables that I used: snow peas, carrots, onions and mushrooms. I think I used about a pound or less (I actually don't remember, made this a while ago) of the snow peas with the ends cut of. Two carrots and 1/4 of an onion in julienne slices. Half a package of mushrooms sliced.

These are the ingredients.

Put some oil in a wok and saute garlic with the onions. Saute for 1-2 minute or until browned.

Then add remaining vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and soy sauce (maybe about 1-2 tbsp). Then let cook for 3-5 minutes. Add Tofu and mix. Let cook for 3-5 minutes, add a little water if it looks dry. Then transfer into a bowl.

Add 1 cup of chicken broth into wok and cook pancit noodles until noodles are tender or until broth is absorb. Transfer 2/3 of the cooked veggies back into the wok and mix. Transfer into a serving bowl and top with the remaining 1/3 of the cooked veggies and serve.

And there you have it, Pancit! I was quite happy with how this turned out. Previously, I used oyster sauce, I omitted that this time around and liked it much better. Next time, I am going to try a different kind of noodle.

Lasagna

A few weeks ago, I made Lasagna. It was our Sunday Dinner but we ended up going out to meet a friend. I put it together and baked it the next day, as I had already begun the process. This recipe was inspired by Giada De Laurentiis. Here is her Lasagna recipe. Overall, the recipe came out well. The only thing I would change is not make a bechamel sauce and go straight into using the Simple Tomato Sauce. I think it will make it taste more like a true lasagna that way. The incorporation of the ricotta really help round out the lasagna.

Here are some capture shots. This is what the bechamel sauce looks like.

This is the spinach. Try to get it as dry as you can. Maybe give it a whirl in the salad spinner, or not.

I used ground beef. I think it is +90% lean. Cooked with a little oil and garlic. You can soak up any liquid with a paper toilet. It helps when your ingredients are dry to prevent a runny lasagna.

This is my ricotta mixture.

The layering begins. You start with bechamel sauce then pasta.

Add ricotta and mozzarella cheese.

Then add the spinach and pasta.

Then comes the ground beef and pasta.

Top that with ricotta, mozzarella and parmesean. And butter (optional).

And here is the finished product.

Lasagna is pretty easy to make. Not to mention it can feed you for days. The next day all the juices get soaked up and is even more flavorful.

Balance

I made macarons today. Green Tea and Earl Grey. The Earl Grey came out well, but the Green Tea was flat. Did I over mix the meringue? Anyway, I realized these suckers are sweet. I am going to have to test kitchen some batches to see what I can come up with. I will post those in the future.

Simple Tomato Sauce

I prefer a meatless spaghetti sauce. My other half likes it otherwise. To compromise, I make both. It isn't at all time consuming because I make a basic tomato sauce and add the meat later on. With my simple tomato sauce you can add any meat that you like. This recipe was inspired by Giada De Laurentiis. I have been using this base for most of my pasta dishes. The beauty about this sauce is that it doesn't have to be exact and you will get the same flavor each time. Close to it at least, since produce are seasonal in flavors.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 garlic, chopped

4 celery stalk, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

2 (28 oz) cans of crushed tomatoes (this can vary 28 or 32 oz can)

5 dried bay leaves

Instructions:

1. In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion until soft and translucent, this takes about 2 minutes. Add carrots and celery and season with salt and pepper. Saute until the vegetables are soft reducing heat to medium, this takes about 5 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes and bay leaves and let simmer on low heat for 30 mins.

3. Remove bay leaves and taste. If it is too acidic, add unsalted butter 1 tbsp at a time to round out flavors (no more than 4 tbsp).

4. Blend together with an immersion blender until smooth. Alternatively, you can use a food processor or blender. Optional, add cooked meat to sauce (ground meat or sausages.) Continue to let simmer on low heat for 30 mins.

5. This yields about 6 cups so with the left overs, you can freeze it and it lasts for about 6 months.

6. Serve with your favorite pasta. Enjoy!!!

This is what the Simple Tomato Sauce looks like.

Crock-Pot Smoky Chili

The perfect comfort food on a cold chilly day is a delicious bowl of Smoky Chili to warm you up! Frank enjoys chili so I decided to make him some. I've never made chili before and it isn't hard, it is time consuming though. Even though I used a crock-pot for this recipe, I actually had to do some prep before putting the ingredients in the crock-pot. I worked off a few recipes to create my own and this is the result of that.

This is what I refer to as a Chili Makeover because I tried to take out the high sodium contents and fatty stuff. As reference, I used this recipe as a foundation for my chili. I was inspired by this Springfield chili makeover to cut the sodium and fat as well.

The recipe that I came up with uses beer instead of chicken broth. This is healthier because you cut down on the sodium.

Ingredients:

5 strips of Applewood Smoked Bacon, chopped

1/2 pound ground beef 85/15 (you can use any variety, the sirloin is leaner though)

2 Spicy Chicken Sausage, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I got mine from Trader Joe's)

1 1/2 chopped onion

1/2 garlic minced

16oz Budweiser

6oz tomato paste

2 cans (14.5oz) of Stewed Tomatoes, chopped

3 tablespoons chili powder (I made my own without oregano, but added other herbs I had on hand)

1 tablespoon ground cumin

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 bay leaves

3 cups pinto beans (canned or prep your own)

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped green onions

2 ounces any cheese you like (about 1/2 cup)

1 tbsp olive oil

Preparation:

1. In a Dutch oven on medium-high heat, cook the Applewood Smoked Bacon until slightly browned. This is going to be the oil base. Add the onions and garlic until onions are almost translucent. Then add the Spicy Italian Sausage. Let cook until the sausage plums up. Then add in the beer and let simmer on medium heat. Transfer into Crock-pot.

2. In the same pan, add a little bit of oil and cook ground beef on medium heat. Once beef is cooked, transfer onto the crock-pot.

3. Add the cooked pinto beans onto the Crock-pot as well. I didn't used a can because of the sodium content. Instead, I soaked my pinto beans overnight and cooked them on low for 2 hours with 3 cups of water until they were soft, drained them and rinsed them. As it cooks in the slow cooker, it will get softer.

4. Add tomato paste, chopped stewed tomatoes, chili powder, ground cumin, black pepper, sugar and stir to combine. I made my own chili powder (1/8 cup sweet paprika, 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder, 1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper, 1/2 tablespoon onion powder, 1 teaspoons ground cumin, 1/2 tsp herbs mixture).

5. Add bay leaves and let cook on high in slow cooker for 6-8 hours.

6. Garnish with cheese and green onions, serve with bread.

I enjoyed the paprika flavor it really brings out that smoky taste. Next time, I will prep the pinto beans in advance because those took a while to cook. Overall, I hope you try this recipe. Bon appetit!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Frank is really into the Halloween spirit. We bought these pumpkins so that we could carve them.

Frank's pumpkin is suppose to be the Governor from Walking Dead. You can see the scar in his eye that Michonne gave to him.

Here, you can see a sword in one hand.

On the other hand is a gun.

This is my pumpkin. I wanted to try something more challenging so this is what I chose. The Hello Kitty Witch. It was fun carving these pumpkin. With the seeds, we roasted them and snack on them.

This year is a quiet halloween, it is rainy out plus being in a walk up kids don't come by.

Pretzels

I really enjoy a good pretzel! My favorite treat is the Almond Crunch at Auntie Anne's, especially when it is just out of the oven. Having indulged myself in the land of youtube, I found this recipe to make soft pretzels from Laura in the Kitchen. I don't like a salty pretzel so instead I topped my with chopped almonds. It was missing something though, so I will rework that in the future. Also, Laura's recipe makes a dozen, but they are actually small pretzels. I wasn't sure how much to roll it out, so they were about 4X6 size wise. I made some into pretzel bites as well.

Also, this recipe has you do a baking soda to water dip. Shortcut is to boil water and put it in a bowl with baking soda and dip the pretzels. Optional if you don't have a big pan.

This is how my pretzels turned out.

These are delicious right out of the oven. The baking soda water dip will give you a crunchy crust and a soft inside.

I kept the rest in a tight sealed container and would toast it to reheat it. I thought about making just half a dozen because a dozen pretzels seemed like a lot, but we actually consume half a dozen on the first sitting.

I made chili earlier this week, so that is the topic for the next blog.

Recovery

I have been sick since last week, but it really hit me on Tuesday. I was congested and my ears were crazy popping. It sucks when you have all this snot and you blow your nose and your ears pop. It's Thursday now and I have been resting, ears minimally popping and congestion has gone down. Still sound nasally though. I think it is due to my allergic rhinitis. For which I ran out of my Rx. I am too lazy to go to the doctor just yet, since I have yet to find one. I substitute it with a saline solution. I think that is sufficient. I was actually able to be more productive today. I put some garlic ginger chicken in the crock pot for dinner and made mini spinach quiches. Overall, much better than the past two days where I slept most of the day.

I was looking up crock pot recipes and this is where I ran across the mini quiche recipe. I reworked a recipe from Pillsbury. I used my left over pie crust dough from when I made apple pie. Which was Ina Garten's perfect pie crust recipe. You can also use the puff pastry ones from the store if you are lazy. I substituted the half-and-half with 1/2 tbsp of melted butter and milk to fill up 1/2 cup. I didn't have any on hand so this works.

Ingredients:

Left over pie crust dough or 1/2 portion of store bought pie and pastry dough

2 eggs

1/2 cup half-and-half or 1/2 tbsp melted butter with milk up to 1/2 cup portion

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt or garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

9 oz chopped spinach (can be frozen too)

3 tablespoons chopped green onions

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Knead dough until softened and no longer crumbly. Roll out and use a 2 inch round circle for mini pie crust. Use flour as needed. Make sure to extend dough 1/4 inch above edge of cup.

2. In medium bowl, beat eggs. Stir in half-and-half, cheese, garlic salt and pepper. Stir in drained spinach and green onions. Spoon about 1 tablespoonful mixture into each crust-lined cup.

3. Bake 16 to 18 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before carefully removing from pan to cooling rack. Serve warm or cool. Store covered in refrigerator.

I let it cool for about 5 mins before transferring it onto a cooling rack.

This is how the quiche turned out.

Next time, I make this, I am going to use a Puff Pastry Dough like for Egg Custard Tart and probably use the molds for it as well, perhaps. Also I wouldn't use the seasoned salt. I thought it was too salty. I might swap for onion powder instead. Enjoy!

Throwback Thursday

Coined as a result of social media, Throwback Thursday (#tbt) was born. Typically, I don't participate in such activities, but I was cleaning out my albums, and blow me down, it was a blast from the past one after another! This resulted in me photo texting these classical pictures. I surely found some interesting picture that the owner would cringe in seeing and thus request obliteration of such article. All in good fun....the bright side to cleaning up.

It takes us a while to finish up a bag of coffee. We finally finished the one we bought from Costa Rica. I opened a new bag today, also from Costa Rica. This blend is 100% Arabica coffee from Cafe Santa Marta, which is a Farmer-Direct. What does that mean? It means that the Farmer-Direct coffee comes directly from coffee farmers who grow coffee, harvest it, remove it from its pulp, sundry them, mill them, where there it no middle man. Essentially you know the coffee's origin. It is sustainable. These Farmer-Direct bag support the families and communities where the coffee came from. If you are a coffee enthusiast you can read more about them here.

This is the coffee that we are going to be drinking until we finish up this batch. It is a Peaberry Coffee.

Peaberry coffee comes from a single bean from the coffee fruit. Usually there are two beans. It is smaller in size than regular coffee beans. Some consider this to be of higher quality; for it is a rare and natural variation from the usual Costa Rican coffee bean. It yields 3-5% of the entire crop. It is more robust and intense, aromatic and smoother than the regular Costa Rican Beans.

Chapchae

One of my favorite things to eat is Chapchae. This is my second attempt at making it and it was much better than the first. The first time I made it, it was lacking flavor. When I boiled the noodles, I didn't add salt and I forgot to add the sesame oil until later. This time around, I made the bulgogi to add as the meat and it really made a difference. The marinate in the bulgogi really brought out the flavors.

Making Chapchae might seem a little time consuming because of all the things you have to add to it. You can pretty much pick and choose what veggies you want to add to it and stir fry then a little bit and continue piling it onto your noodle base. There are the veggies that I used.

Once everything is all cooked you mix it up and get this finished product.

As garnish, I cooked up an egg crepe style and sliced them and there you have it.

Japchae
Serves about 7-8 people

Ingredients:
1 bag of Sweet Potato noodles (dangmyeon), boiled 8-9 mins, then cut twice.
1 king oyster mushroom (you can use any kind of mushroom you like), julienne sliced
1 carrots, julienne sliced
1 red pepper, julienne sliced
1/4 of an onion julienned sliced
4 stalks of green onion chopped
1/2 brunch of spinch chopped
2 T soy sauce
2 T sesame oil
1 T sugar
2 eggs (optional)
Sesame seeds
Olive oil

Instructions:
1. Using a frying pan heat up olive oil on high to cook beated eggs crepe style, and lower heat to medium. Once egg is cooked set aside, let cool and slice into strips.
2. Cook Bulgogi. See previous blog on how to cook Bulgogi.
3. Boil noodles for 8-9 mins until cooked. Then place in a bowl and cut 2-3 times. Theses noodles are long. Add soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar. Mix it up.
4. Start cooking vegetable on a wok or frying pan. Heat up pan with oil on high. It takes about 2 mins per veggie. you can do it all at the same time or one by on or two by two. I did it in increments of two; I cooked the mushrooms with the onions. Then put that in the noodles. Then I cooked the carrots and red pepper. Then the green onions with the spinach. Re-oiling the pan each time.
5. Once all the vegetables are cooked. Mix it all together. Then add the Bulgogi. Add the Egg. Mix it all up to combine.
6. Serve and enjoy!

oh dear

I went downstairs to get the mail and on my way up as I was opening my mail, I walked into the wrong house greeted by a chihuahua and a guy saying "Hello!" I was so embarrassed and scared because of the chihuahua and walking into the wrong house. The door was open, who knew? I screamed and apologized....my neighbors probably think I am weird.

Starting from scratch.....

Have you heard of the saying, "I made it from scratch." Well, I made these from scratch. It's true, it does taste better when you make it from scratch. Yesterday was a day in the kitchen! I am kinda sore from today.

I wanted chessy corn muffins so I whipped up a batch, but from the Jiffy corn muffin mix. I added cheese to make it chessier, but the texture was too crummy. So I realize that if I want some delicious corn muffins, I am going to have to make it from scratch. That's the lesson here. But I must add, if you don't have the time, the box mix is a good substitute. These days, I have all the time in the world, so its no excuse for me.

Frank really likes apple pies so I decided to give it a try. I watch cooking/baking videos on youtube and that is where I get some recipes and techniques. We had some apples as well, so why not. I think it's also the season for apple picking.

The recipe I used for the crust is from Ina Garten. I also want to reference Laura in the Kitchen; I watched her video to get a visual of how the crust should look like. I wanted a flaky crust, so the secret is you have to work fast and keep everything cold. It is actually really fast and easy to make when you use a food processor. It is the clean up that takes longer. I would highly suggest making your own pie crust. This is how mine turned out.

I was pretty happy with how this turned out. With this recipe you have to refrigerate it for at least 30 mins before using it.

For the Apple Pie recipe, I used one from Eugenie Kitchen. I didn't use the lemon juice though because my apples did not need it. I used about 4 apples. The eggwash will give the pie a nice shine and I sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar to give it more taste and color. Skip the cinnamon if you don't like it. This is an exception for me, I am not usually a fan of cinnamon. It is actually pretty simple to make. I went with a lattice top because I though it looked pretty. See.

It just requires patience because you have to wait 2 hours to let it cool before you can eat it. Oh the torture! If you cut it to early the juices with run and you will have a soggy crust. Patience! Here's how it turned out.

I also made some Bulgogi because I was making some Chapchae. I've never made Bulgogi before, so I found this website and used it as a concrete to make my version of Bulgogi. Instead of ribeye, I used steak but cut it in strips.

Bulgogi Recipe:

1 steak cut in strips

⅓ cup of soy sauce

3 T sugar

1 T sesame oil

3 cloves of garlic, minced

¼ tsp of red pepper flakes

2 pinches of black pepper

¼ medium onion, halved and sliced into medium moon shaped slivers

3 green onions including the white parts, finely sliced into small pieces

1 T sesame seeds

Cooking time!

1. Combine and whisk soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and garlic in a bowl. Once sugar dissolves, pour into steaks, add red and black pepper. Cover and let marinate for an hour in refrigerator.

2. Heat up wok (or pan) with oil on high. Add meat with marinade. Cook for 2 minutes then reduce to medium heat and add onions. Heat for another 2 mins until meat is cooked. Then top with sesame seed.

This is what the meat looks like once its marinated. It absorbs all the seasoning for a tasty piece of meat.

And here is the finished product.

Next time, I might blog about chapchae, until then.....

Macarons, First Attempt

I've never made macarons before. I was just a consumer. My friend, Kim, introduced me to these delights one summer in Sacramento. She took me to Ginger Elizabeth where you can have an Ice Cream Macarons sandwich. Since then, I have consumed all sorts and flavors. The best savory ones I have had were from a client. They were from the little door in Los Angeles. A couple nights ago I dreamt I made some savory macarons.

Anyways, yesterday I was on a quest to find some black sesame powder to make the macarons. Luckily, they had it by a local grocery store. Making macarons you have to be precise. I actually didn't have a scale to measure things out but the recipe I found online used typical measurements. After searching high and low for the right recipe, I decided to go with the one I found on Amy's Food Adventures. She owns a dessert place in Toronto. I found her blog quite helpful since I no longer had to do any measurement conversion. Most of the ones I watched on YouTube used gram measurements. I also found this video from yoyomax12 on YouTube very helpful getting the right technique down.

When making macarons you have to wait until the batter is completely dry before you bake it in the oven. It was very humid today so I had to wait an hour and 20 mins for my drying process before I could bake these little delights. This is what they look like as they are drying.

I baked them for about 18 mins at 300 degrees F. And they turned out like so.

You have to let it cool completely before you fill them. I used a black sesame buttercream filling. I used Amy's Vanilla Bean Recipe but omitted the vanilla bean paste and used 4 tsp of black sesame powder instead.

Overall, for my first attempt I am happy that I got that nice egg shell appearance, but the foot wasn't as solid so I will need to troubleshoot that in the future. I also thought it was little sweet and wanted more nutty-ness from the black sesame. Next time, I may add less icing sugar and more almond meal or black sesame powder. I would also use a different filling, not a buttercream, perhaps a ganache.

The final product: Black Sesame Macarons with Black Sesame Buttercream.

Next, I am going to try making earl grey macarons...maybe.

Homemade

Lately I have been experimenting with making ice cream. I attempted making Fresh Peach Ice Cream. When making ice cream there is a good amount of prep work like freezing your ice cream bowl and your mixture before you churn it. Those are key and will make for great consistency. I wasn't so patient when I made the Fresh Peach so the consistency wasn't was great. In part it is probably the recipe I used. But it turned out tasty. Here it is, Fresh Peach Ice Cream.

I have also been craving those baos, I made a veggie one inspired when I had a shiitake bun at momofuku in NYC. I deep fried shiitake mushrooms with beets and carrots and some garlic, made some special sauce and voila!

I was quite happy with how these turned out. I made them again the next day, but baked the ingredients instead of deep frying, I suppose it's healthier.

I made another attempt to make ice cream because I wanted to get the consistency down. So I decided to make Coffee Ice Cream. I was definitely much happier with how this turned out. I adapted the recipe from Laura in the Kitchen but opted to take out the Chocolate Chunk and pressed my coffee with a mixture of instant, so for a pure coffee flavor. Here's a picture of how that turned out.

Right now I am making Black Sesame Macarons and am waiting for them to dry so I can put them in the oven. It took an hour or so...geezzz!