My Food Geek

I tend not to like traditional breakfast foods. I don’t usually eat cereal, hardly ever make pancakes, and usually save the eggs for pastries. If I am going to make breakfast, it usually ends up being French toast or a half of grapefruit, or some yummy pastries. Today I wanted eggs, so I made an omelet.

Here’s my take on breakfast: A three-egg omelet stuffed with some random greens from the CSA, green onions, and goat cheese. Not happy with just eggs for breakfast, I scavenged some extra items left over from the CSA: a few radishes and a half of avocado. To finish it all off, I added some fresh smoked pork sausages that a coworker of mine made. I didn’t even warm them up and they were still damn good cold.
It was so good, I didn’t even leave you any.

Last week Jef (aka the foodie) made the very rich Sarah Bernhardt pastries which he posted about. Something that was not mentioned there was that the almond macaroons that make the base of the pastry are wonderful cookies in their own right. I happen to be an enormous fan of anything flavored with almonds, so this simple almond cookie is one of my very favorites.

The texture of the cookies is light, airy and smooth, with a crisp outside and a slight chewiness on the inside. They have lots of almond-y goodness inside and out. These are the sort of cookie that it is very easy to lose track of exactly how many you’ve eaten!

Almond Macaroon
(makes about 60)

400g almond paste
200g sugar
3 egg whites

Preheat oven to 375°F

Beat almond paste and sugar in an electric mixer

Add egg whites, one at a time, and mix until smooth

Pipe small mounds (about 2cm) on silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet

Bake at 375°F for 10 min or until lightly browned

Let cool on silpat/baking paper

Turn paper over and peel off the back of cookies

A few days ago, I got word of a kitchen show-and-tell thing going on in the food blog world. The even was headed up by another food blog, Lucullian Delights. Unfortunately, for me, the event ended before I could get some decent pictures of my kitchen. Here’s my late entry (better late than never, right?)…

Modern home kitchens have become more than just work places. The home kitchen is no longer hidden in the back of the house in a dark corner. It has become a showplace for restaurant-grade appliances, polished rock counter tops, and 1000 square feet of island hopping madness. I’m not sure who thought we needed all of this, but I guess I didn’t get the memo.

I spent a little time working in a real kitchen during my internship for culinary school. I had grand visions of air conditioning, vast workspace, and state-of-the art machinery. Reality set in pretty quick when I learned I would get a three foot by four foot stainless steel workstation where I would produce EVERYTHING. The kitchen was hot, the equipment was old, the quarters were cramped, yet we still produced excellent food.

Working in those conditions made me realize: my kitchen is a lean, mean, gourmet food making machine. I don’t have granite counter-tops, a wall oven, or even a gas stove. What I do have is an organized workspace, several quality tools that I can count on, and willingness to make do.

As you can see, my kitchen is small. On a good day, you can get three people in there; on a bad day, just me. I think if my kitchen was any bigger, I’d fill it with more junk that I just didn’t use.

A friend of mine on IRC commented on the macarons I made a few weeks ago. He was saying they reminded him of a Swedish almond cookie, the biskvit. I did a little bit of research, and learned that these cookies are more commonly known as Sarah Bernhardts.

These pastries were invented by a Danish pastry chef who wanted to honor the actress. The classic recipe consists of a chewy almond macaroon with a chocolate mousse filling, all dipped in a chocolate glaze. I strayed a little bit from the classic recipe; I used chocolate French buttercream for the filling and tempered chocolate for the coating instead of the glaze that is suggested. Here is my interpretation of the pastry.

Sarah Bernhardts

Almond Macaroon
(makes about 60)

400g almond paste
200g sugar
3 egg whites

Preheat oven to 375°F

Beat almond paste and sugar in an electric mixer

Add egg whites, one at a time, and mix until smooth

Pipe small mounds (about 2cm) on silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet

Bake at 375°F for 10 min or until lightly browned

Let cool on silpat/baking paper

Turn paper over and peel off the back of cookies

French Buttercream

300g sugar
100 ml water
6 egg yolks
600g butter, room temperature

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and heat to 240°F

While sugar is cooking, place yolks in bowl of mixer and mix at high speed

When sugar reaches 240°F, turn the mixer to low, remove sugar from heat and

Pour in a slow, steady stream into mixer

Continue mixing until mixture turns pale yellow and is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes

Turn mixer to low and add butter in three or four parts

Continue mixing until smooth

Assembly

Flip macaroons over so the flat side is up

Place buttercream in pastry bag with a plain round tip (size of tip is not important)

Pip a small dome of buttercream on each cookie

With a soup spoon, smooth buttercream into a dome

Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes or until buttercream has hardened

Dip each cookie in tempered dark chocolate

Cookies will keep in the refrigerator for about a week or the freezer for a few months.

Christmas has come and gone, my guest has left, and all that is left is the memories. Our Christmas meal was an organic rib-eye steak that I purchased from Whole Foods. It was a bit on the expensive side, but I almost never cook and eat steak, so I figured it was worth it.

I decided to prepare the steak two different ways; an Asian inspired dish and an Italian styled dish.

The Italian dish was served on a bed of vegetable risotto, pea greens, and a white wine beurre blanc.

The Asian dish was served with steamed bok choi and baby carrots served over a bed of rice noodles and topped off with a sake/teriyaki reduction.

While it was a little strange, we had two plates for dinner. We decided it was ok since it was Christmas.