My Food Geek

I’m giving out some link love this week…

You can tell what time of year it is just by all the berries I’m seeing lately. Last week the CSA delivered strawberries, this week I got mullberries. I’m not the only one with berries on my mind:

Peabody makes a blackberry jam cake

The pastry girl makes a black cherry clafouti

Helen makes some blueberry tartlets and a berry salad

Laura adds some raspberries to here wonderful sorbet

Brilynn puts together a strawberry mango ice cream

Finally, the geeks show us that berries can be savory with their cherry ginger chicken

Anyone else using up their summer berries? Leave me a comment if you’re posting about anything berry related. Hopefully you will all enjoy the berry season while it lasts.

Here’s a little Japanese inspired dinner we had the other night: Avocado and green leaf salad with sesame-miso vinaigrette, steamed edamame, and a chirashi style California roll.

I first saw this style of sushi preparation at a local Japanese supermarket, Nijiya Market. They served their versions in a small container with a bed of rice on the bottom covered with the toppings of your choice; popular varieties included California, Spicy Tuna, and Spicy Yellowtail.

I figured I would add a little extra presentation to mine by using a ring mold and piling the ingredients on top. I used a layer of sweetened rolled omelet, shrimp, avocado, and topped the whole thing off with mayo and sriracha.

The eater poured a glass of crazy milk, unfiltered sake served chilled, which completed our pseudo Japanese dinner.

I’ve been toying with macaron recipes for some time now. In my recipes, there always seems like there is something that can go wrong. It could be the folding, it could be the unscientific drying time, or maybe it’s just my messed up oven, but something always goes wrong. Rarely do I get a sheet pan of perfectly formed macarons…until now.

This recipe just plain works. This recipe uses Italian meringue, don’t let it scare you. This one not so hard part is the reason why they work so well. You don’t have to mess around trying to get macaronage since the meringue is very stable. One of the nicest parts of this recipe is that you can double it, split it into two parts, color/flavor each separately, and get two flavors for the work of one recipe.

Here’s the recipe with details and photos:

For the Macarons:
120g egg whites, divided
35g sugar
150g finely ground almonds
150g powdered sugar

For the sugar syrup:
150g sugar and 50g water

Process the ground almonds and powdered sugar in the work bowl of a food processor. Most recipes call for sifting, but I think this works better and gets everything combined.

In a stand mixer, whip 60g egg whites to soft peaks, add 35g sugar.

In the meantime, in a saucepan on high heat bring the water and sugar for the syrup to 230 F. on a candy thermometer.

Slowly add the boiling syrup to the egg whites and continue to whip on medium - high speed until they are completely cooled and you have a shiny meringue (10-15 minutes).

Mix the remaining 60g of egg whites and the sifted almond/sugar and carefully fold into the meringue.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the mixture and pipe macarons about 3 inches in diameter on silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake at 320 for 15-25 minutes.

Check to see if macarons are done by grabbing the top of one macaron and trying to shake it. They are done when the top barely slides against the skirt. If they are not done, extend baking time by two minutes intervals, checking after each extension.

That’s about all that is to it. I think I’m finally done with macarons for a while. I’m sure the next time I try to make them I will encounter problems again, but until then…

The foodie was contacted by someone at a marketing firm who works with Wrigley®, asking us to review some new chewing gum. This is certainly outside our normal blogging focus, but we figured, hey, why not? We get some some gum out of the deal, and it’s interesting to have a change of pace now and then. We just hope our budding readership doesn’t see it as selling out. Since I’m “the eater”, it made sense for me to be the guinea pig and try out the gum.

The gum arrived last week, and upon opening the box it came in, the first thing that struck me (after getting past the surprise at the large amount of gum we now had available on which to chew) was the fancy packaging. There are three different flavors, all packed in sleek, black, 15-piece packages that look like something that would be handed out at some high-cover dance club. Each package has the number 5 featured prominently on it, highlighted with a subtle splash of color reflective of the flavor. The flavor names are all fancied up, too: “Rain” in green, “Cobalt” in blue, and “Flare” in red. Each piece of gum is wrapped in the Wrigley’s® style foil wrappers with zig-zag edges, but brightened up with color, and decorated with many “5″s. I’m not privy to the marketing spin, so I’m really not sure why “5″, but the whole effect does look pretty.

I was really hoping for some exotic gum flavors such as some unusual spice with the obvious focus that was put on the fancier-than-normal gum packaging, but I quickly found out that despite the names, the flavors are actually standard gum-fare. Rain is spearmint, Cobalt is peppermint/wintermint, and Flare is cinnamon. All are sugar-free. Despite my disappointment with the standard flavors, I did find the gum refreshing to chew and the flavors seemed to be quite a bit longer lasting than the average gum that I’m used to. Overall I would give this new gum my thumbs up.