melting your mouth

Yeah, I’m way behind the curve on this one, but whatever. I’ve been reading for a while about the wonders of macarons (not to be confused with American macaroons). I finally bought some recently at La Baguette, a French cafe at the Stanford Mall. I’m sure they were somewhat (ok, hugely) inferior to the famous ones you find on the streets of Paris, but I thought they were still pretty tasty. They’ve been in the back of my mind for a while now of something I need to try, but they are notoriously difficult to get right. They must be mixed for exactly the right amount of time so that they have a perfectly frilly “foot” at the bottom, but are not too dense. Some say they must be left out for up to a couple hours before cooking to develop a “skin” to help form that beautiful domed shape and ruffled foot, etc., etc.

So when I finally decided to try my hand, I of course carefully looked back at all the detailed directions I had seen of what to do to produce the perfect macaron, right? No, of course not. At 10:00 pm on a recent Saturday, I felt a sudden urge to bake. I was getting started kind of late, so I didn’t want anything that would take too long, but any type of cookie I had made before just didn’t seem exciting enough. I was sure David Lebovitz would have a recipe for macarons, and of course he did. Last time I tried something from his site it turned out pretty well, and I had all the ingredients on hand, so I was good to go. These actually come together pretty quickly, so 45 minutes or so later (including cooling) I had myself some very un-authentic macarons. (Though apparently I should’ve let the flavors meld overnight instead of eating the entire plate that night … I’m only barely exaggerating.)

The good news? Despite my inattention to detail (the tops are peaked, they are too narrow and tall and shaped somewhat like acorns, many of them cracked on top, but miraculously, some of them do have a decent-looking foot) they still taste pretty delicious, even if they don’t look anything like they are “supposed to.” The even better news? I’m sure I’ll be trying these again (perhaps with a more creative flavor), and when I get it right, I’ll fill you in on the results!

If you want some more details on what to do to have adequately-tasting but ridiculous-looking macarons, here’s what I did wrong that I will correct next time:

• Since our freezer is still filled with Honey-Lavender-White Chocolate Opera Cake, I halved the recipe. This meant folding the dry ingredients into only one egg white, which was very difficult to do.
• Fold the ingredients together more thoroughly. I was super-worried about overmixing, but based on these tips, I think my batter was too stiff. (Hence, I ended up with the peaked-top acorn-shaped cookies.) Apparently the batter should “flow like magma”, not hold any shape you pipe it into exactly.
• Pipe out bigger circles. (This could’ve been partly from the too-stiff batter.) I realized after the fact that David says 1″ circles and about a tablespoon for each cookie. (I just read the 1″ part the first time.) I don’t know, maybe when you move to France your definition of an “inch” shifts. At any rate, my 1″ circles were way less than a tablespoon, and I think they should’ve been a bit bigger and also flatter. Though the almost-bite-size result was kind of cute.
• I used leftover ground almonds from the opera cake, which I realized later had a little bit of flour in them. I don’t know as much about baking chemistry as I would like, but my guess is that’s probably not kosher (sorry, I know that’s a terrible pun, I’ve been hanging around Matt too long), so next time I will add a bit of the powdered sugar instead of flour to keep the almonds from turning to butter.
• Let egg whites come to room temperature. I have no idea what effect it did or didn’t have on the end result (in fact I saw one recipe saying to keep the egg whites chilled), but next time I’ll follow what most recipes seem to say and use room temperature eggs.
• Don’t grab unsweetened instead of bittersweet chocolate from the pantry for the filling. (Yep, that’s how little attention I was paying. Amazing, huh?)

Heidi at 101cookbooks recently made this beautiful spring tabbouleh, which Matt and I copied the other night. We changed it up a little — Heidi had used mostly chives instead of the traditional parsley, but I love parsley, so I decided to use it instead. Also, we have this crazy jungle of mint growing outside our kitchen window, and it needs to be tamed a bit, so we we chopped up some of that to add to the mix as well. We also replaced the walnuts with pine nuts.

I had never tried bulgur before, but I keep thinking I should branch out and try different whole grains, so here’s a first step in that direction. This was a wonderful, quick, healthy but fulfilling one dish meal — the perfect thing when we got home from the gym Tuesday night. And so pretty, too!

Spring Tabbouleh

adapted from Heidi Swanson

1 cup fine bulgur
1 bunch of asparagus, cut in 1″ pieces

1 garlic clove, crushed with a couple pinches of salt
1 lemon
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil

1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
handful of mint, finely chopped
handful of chives, finely chopped

1 c of pine nuts, toasted
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped

Boil some water (~4 c or so). Put the bulgur in a medium bowl and pour water up to the top of the grains. Let sit until just tender (Heidi says 15 minutes, but it took a little longer before it was tender enough for my taste).

Return the water to the stove, salt it, add the asparagus, and blanch for about a minute, just enough to take the edge off their bite. Or, do what I did, and put the asparagus in a microwave safe dish, pour the water over them, cover them, and microwave for about a minute.

Once the bulgur is done, press out any remaining water and add the asparagus to the bulgur.

Meanwhile, whisk together the garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. Taste the dressing, and season more as necessary.

Add the herbs, half the pine nuts, and a generous splash of dressing. Toss, add more dressing as needed, and adjust the seasoning. (I ended up using not quite all the dressing, and adding a bit more olive oil.) Garnish with remaining nuts and chopped egg.

I’ve been trying to find a fish tacos recipe I like for a long time. I think maybe I like the idea of fish tacos more than most incarnations of them. I kept trying different versions, and Matt and I would always end up kind of saying “eh, they’re ok”, and the recipe would go in the Don’t Bother Trying This Again Unless They Stop Making Cookbooks pile. But here, I think I’ve finally found a winner!

Somehow I recently got on a mailing list from Culinate, a website about food with recipes, articles, etc., and I’m actually enjoying the suggestions rather than resenting the extra space in my inbox. That’s where this recipe comes from. The fish is marinated in lime juice and soy sauce, served with a lime-chipotle mayonnaise sauce, and topped with mango salsa. Don’t think about skipping the salsa, I think that may be the key.

We used the leftover chipotles in these chicken quesadillas the next day, which, incidentally, I recommend as well.

I made these cookie cups from David Lebovitz’s blog when my cousin Anne visited a few weeks ago, and served them with Clotilde’s (of Chocolate & Zucchini) Super Simple Nutella Ice Cream. You can find the recipe for the cookies here; scroll down to find it, as it’s toward the bottom of the post. I’ve always thought tuile cookies like this were so pretty, but figured it’d probably be kind of difficult to get that lacy look right. In fact, it couldn’t be simpler — you just put a dollop of the batter on a piece of parchment and flatten it a little, and it spreads out and becomes lacy while it bakes! Getting them off the pan was slightly more challenging, mostly because I don’t have a metal spatula, so I found it easiest to tear the parchment in pieces so I could pick it up and transfer it directly to the bowls I was using for a mold.

I highly recommend these as they come together in a jiffy, but they make for a very elegant and impressive way to serve dessert. Now, I just have to get my hands on a copy of The Perfect Scoop, David’s ice cream book, for some more ideas on what to fill them with. Check it out, everything looks delicious!

In case you were wondering what I made for dinner to go with my French Bread — wonder no longer! Matt and I had Mom and Dad over for dinner so I could cook out of my new Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook that I got for Christmas. I chose one of her so-called “uncomplicated menus”, with a few changes. This is the original menu:

• Baked Goat Cheese with Garden Salad
• Carrot and Shallot Soup with Chervil Cream
• Charcoal-Grilled Chicken with Garlic Puree
• Cherries and Almond Cookies

We decided to change things around from this a bit. We had planned to make this menu back in January, and we bought ingredients and everything before Matt and I both got sick and had to cancel. We made the carrot soup then (I always like soup when I’m sick), and it was good but I wasn’t quite ready to have it again yet, so we decided to make our friend Kelly Branson’s butternut squash soup instead. Also, I’d been wanting to try the CBGB (cherries, biscuits, ginger, and butterscotch, oh my!) dessert Habeas Brulee posted a while back. But, we decided we didn’t need something quite so rich or complicated, and so we made just the almond biscuits and cherry sauce instead.

I’m not going to copy whole recipes out of this book, but I do have permission to share Kelly’s recipe for butternut squash soup which I highly recommend. I’ll give a summary of the other recipes though, and if you want more details, you can buy the book. Which, by the way, I highly recommend. I basically read the whole cookbook cover-to-cover between Christmas and New Year’s this year. It’s so beautifully written, and she includes interesting details about the origins of each recipe. Now, I just need to find an excuse to go eat at Chez Panisse!

Baked Goat Cheese with Garden Salad

I marinated the goat cheese rounds in olive oil and rosemary for a day. (It was supposed to be thyme, but I think Alice Waters would approve of using what I grow instead of having to buy something at the store.) Then I dipped the goat cheese in bread crumbs and baked it for a few minutes. I served this over mixed greens tossed in a light vinaigrette of olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe from Kelly Branson

Charcoal-Grilled Chicken with Garlic Puree

I marinated a whole chicken (cut into pieces) in garlic, red wine, and rosemary (again, it was supposed to be thyme, but I had rosemary so I used it). Matt grilled the chicken on a low charcoal fire. We also roasted garlic, and made a puree of that which we rubbed on the chicken after it came off the grill. We served this over roasted potatoes, and garnished with lemons.

Almond Biscuits with Cherry Sauce

Danielle at Habeas Brulee posted this gorgeous dessert a few months ago. She named it CBGB, for Cherries, Biscuits, Ginger and Butterscotch. The original version was almond biscuits, with a sauce made from sour cherries, garnished with candied, pickled ginger, and accompanied by butterscotch sauce. Some dessert, huh?! I’d still like to try the whole thing sometime, but for this meal, I wanted something not quite so rich and sweet. So I made the almond buttermilk biscuits and made a sauce of (frozen) black cherries, since I couldn’t find sour ones. I thought this was a perfect close to this meal. The cherry sauce was pretty sweet, but I added lemon juice for a nice tart flavor, and the biscuits were nice and crumbly but not too sweet. I definitely think I will at least make the biscuits again, and I might add some more almond extract next time, or maybe press some slivered almonds into the tops, as I wanted a little more almond flavor.