Souffle

I love to make soufflés. The route you take to arrive at its spectacular conclusion is relatively simple.

I put about five eggs out so they are at room temperature when you are ready to assemble the masterpiece.

Start with a white sauce – I like to kick it up with the addition of mustard or maybe a jalapeno pepper. Making sure your bowl and whisk are fat-free (I rinse both with some vinegar water) separate the whites from the yolks. Beat the whites until they peak – add some Cream of Tartar midway through your beating. Allow your white sauce to cool a bit and add the egg yolks. Take a few spoons of this mixture and gently add to the whites. Trying not to stir too much, and gently mix everything together.

Heat the oven to 400 and butter the soufflé ramekin. Grab a piece of parchment and tie it around your ramekin with some string. Pour the mixture into the ramekin and place it on a heated element to start it on its way. At this point the string and parchment will usually catch fire: blow out the flames and fling it into the oven on the bottom rack at 375 and DO NOT peek for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, sprinkle to top of the now magnificently risen soufflé with a few tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and pop it back in the oven for about 7 minutes.

You only have five minutes in which to present your oeuvre – it WILL fall.

It will also be delicious.

THE Couch of Denim

There is a couch for sale at the MCC Thrift Store

at East 42nd and Fraser.

I have been watching it for a couple of months.
Who made this monstrosity? And WHY?
There is a green “SOLD” sticker on it – dated March 1st.

Hmmmm - sold 25 days ago – and it’s still there.

Garam Masala

Sometimes, I feel like making something in the kitchen,

but not necessarily cooking.

That’s when I put together a garam masala literally translated

from Hindi it means “hot mixture”.

There is a varied palette from which to choose.

I create the mixture according to my mood.

The basic elements include:
Cumin seed, coriander seed, green or brown cardamom seeds, star anise, cloves, peppercorns,cinnamon stick, fenugreek, fennel, turmeric or mace.

I toast all the ingredients in a dry cast iron pan.
I use a coffee grinder exclusively for spices.
Whiz the cooled down spice mixture and inhale the aroma.

Gnocchi

In with the old – in with the new: a potato ricer and microwave.

I am not a fan of the microwave. I find it’s only good for two things: popcorn and baking potatoes for gnocchi. So grab 3 big or 5 small potatoes. Microwaves cook potatoes perfectly dry for gnocchi. When the potatoes have cooled down, scoop them out and run through the ricer.

Mix up an egg, two cups of white flour, ¼ cup of grated parmesan cheese with some salt and pepper and kneed everything into a dough ball. Cut into threes and roll out the dough with your hands into long one inch diameter logs. Chop the dough into half inch bits and dust with flour. When you boil the gnocchi in a large pot of salted water it will rise to the surface when is almost done – cut through a tester to make sure it is uniformly cooked through.

In a non stick frying pan, melt butter, olive oil and sage and toss in the boiled gnocchi.

Fry up until browned.

I like to top mine with roasted butternut squash and serve with a green salad.

Cooking on Maui

I was in Maui during February.

We were in a condo in Kihei. I had a great time cooking for the six of us.
Fresh food is difficult to come by, but I found a great farmer’s market at

61 South Kihei Road – on the way to Lahania.

On Saturday morning we would travel north to the Swap Meet in Kahului.

You’ll find the farmers with their produce at the far end of the lot.

I’ve never had better fresh avocados.
The most difficult thing to understand is the lack of fresh fish on Maui.

None of the fishermen that came ashore

at the marina near our condo had any for sale.

The only fish we could buy was at the grocery store:

Tilapia from China and shrimp from Mexico – go figure!

Our main protein was the chicken from Safeway.

For the birthday Luau celebration I barbequed a pork – from Safeway.
The guys loved the breakfast feast of Spam!!!

Barbeque Report

I built my backyard barbeque last summer.

It's great for cooking pizza, putting meat on the rotisserie
and

smoking salmon.

It has sustained a few injuries over the winter, so I'll be repairing

and re-cementing it with cement I just bought from Re-store.

While I wait for the weather to clear, I'm planning on

blogging about some of my meals from the past few months.

Bon Appetit!!