Macaron Monday: Basil and Lime

Typically this would have been one that I saved for the summer, but we just so happened to have both basil and lime in our refrigerator. If I had any reservations, it was that these were not going to have enough lime taste to them. The lime we had was getting ready to check out, so I didn't have high hopes for its overall flavor. The basil was still pretty turgid, so I felt that if there was an imbalance in taste it was going to come from the lime.

As with most things the first time you try and make them, this was a learning experience. Let me explain.

Gelatin
This recipe called for sheets of gelatin - which we didn't have. We had the powdered stuff, but it's hardly one to one ratio between sheets and the powdered stuff. This is what I learned: If it calls for sheets - get sheets. If it calls for powder - get powder. Most anything you do as a substitute is going to be fairly inexact. Since it was a bit of a guess as to how much powder to actually use, there was a decidedly "thick springiness" to the filling. Not what I would call my favorite texture.

Splitting Italian method macaron batter
Highly inadvisable. It is very easy to weigh everything out and split up 50/50, it's not that big a deal. However, when you have one mixer to mix the meringue with, you end up trying to split a bowl of meringue between two bowls of mixed almond flour. The stuff is sticky and difficult to get out of the mixing bowl. Meanwhile you're trying to bust out a macaronage that can easily have too much or too little of the meringue. We came pretty close to 50/50 but, the egg whites were quickly losing their volume. Regina's batter was considerably fluffier and yielded more shells. Live and learn. Settle on a shell color and use it for the whole batch. Don't get cute like we did and try to split it in two.

Basil Quality
The basil flavor was completely lost in the taste of the filling. I think basil at this time of year just doesn't have a strong enough flavor to it. Get your hands on some really fresh and fragrant stuff, or just wait to make these until you can.

In the end this recipe had promise. The lime flavor was surprisingly strong. The basil was completely overpowered. I can't really say that I'd add more basil or reduce the lime, until I've had a chance to try making it with ingredients at their peak of ripeness. It never ceases to amaze me how much of a difference there is between herbs from mid-summer versus everything else.

Sorry, no link for the recipe in this post. I will, however, be happy to write up a modified version once summer hits. My guess is that some of the quantities are going to need adjusting to suit our own tastes. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Bowl of Pho

This little Vietnamese spot recently opened a few miles away from my house. While ramen will always be near and dear to my heart, on a cold December day a nice hot bowl of pho will more than suffice.

As you look at the menu you notice a lot of the usual suspects: pho, grilled noodles, a variety of rolls, banh mi, and rice plates. One thing I was hoping to strike gold on was clay pot pork, but no such luck. The prices seem to be right inline with places like Superior Pho and #1 Pho.

BoP is located around the corner from Whole Foods on Chagrin right next to DeGaetano's Pizza (where you can gut your own crust read here). From a decor standpoint, I have to say that it's more refined than Superior or #1, but not quite as slick as Bac, in Tremont.

I went with the beef pho. They give you a quart of beef stock, a container with hot sauce, hoisin, a load of bean sprouts, and a large container with thinly sliced rare beef on top of scallions and vermicelli-like rice noodles. When you put it all together it's pretty good. If I have one gripe, it's that you can pretty much taste every single component in the bowl. This is a nit picky thing on my part which I readily admit, but I more of a flavor harmony person. I think to the casual eater this is going to taste just fine, though.

I've not had the banh mi yet, but look forward to trying it on a future trip. I think for an Eastsider it's worth a stop. There's not a great deal of pho in my neck of the woods, so when the jones hits I know I don't have to drive too far. If I'm West Side do I come here? Well, assuming you're closer to Bac than here - no, I'd go to Bac. Don't expect Slanted Door, this isn't that kind of restaurant. It's a clean place, with decent food, good value, that serves the void that used to exist in the Shaker Heights/Wooodmere area.

Bowl of Pho

27339 Chagrin Blvd.

Woodmere, OH 44122

(216) 831-1730

bowlofpho2011.com

Bay Area: Romolo's Cannoli and Spumoni Factory

We had just got off the plane in South San Francisco and were headed to Berkeley. It was early afternoon and we had a decision to make, drive up through the city or go down and around. While we pondered this question, we decided to grab a quick snack in San Mateo. (Not to hanging, we decided on going up through East Bay.)

Spumoni is one of Regina's favorite. A couple years back, there was a parade held in my honor because I made a birthday spumoni ice cream cake for her. I shuttled her favorite Cleveland spumoni (from Crostatas) to our house. It has been said that it may have been my finest hour.

Romolo's Cannoli and Spumoni Factory is old school in every single way. Now run by the grandsons of the original owners, the decor has yellowing press clippings on the walls, old school ice cream ephemera, and other trinkets that have accumulated over the years. Like the rings of a tree, every memento adds street cred to the newby customer. Its as if the interior whispers to you, "I may be old, but I've still got it." 

Beware of this highly persuasive man

Obviously they have more than just spumoni. There is a wide assortment of ice cream, packaged frozen treats, and cannolis to go. I believe is all of this stuff is made on site. They also specialize in cannolis that they fill to order. The picture above shows one of the grandsons with a locked and loaded pastry bag, some powdered sugar ready for the sprinkling, and a tray full of accouterments ready to coat the ends of the crispy dessert.

Leave the gun. Take the Cannoli

You've got to watch that guy at the counter. He's very personable and informative, and what starts out as a quick duck inside for some ice cream, turns into a cannoli, cafe americano, almond cookie, and of course plate of spumoni.  I didn't even like cannolis (until I had these), and he talked me into one. The plain cream with pistachios was the way to go.

 

That's it. A little dab'll do ya.

As I said earlier, they make the ice cream on site. I think he said there was like fifteen ingredients in each part of the spumoni. I thought the texture was surprisingly smooth with the intermittent mini-chunks of cherries and nuts in each bite.

The place is worth a stop. While we were there, a lot of people wandered in after going to the pizza place next door. You could tell this was a popular pit stop for people that were on errands that they'd stop in for a quick snack. 

Romolo's Cannoli and Spumoni Factory

81 37th Ave

San Mateo, CA

(650) 574-0625

http://romolosfactory.com

Macaron Monday: Lemon Macaron

We touched upon this a little in yesterday's post about our Five Picks for the Holidays post, but this is our first foray into Pierre Herme's, Macaron. For us, this book was really about exploring his wider array of fillings. I think once you've settled on a technique and honed your recipe, the shells are for the most part an afterthought. With the exception of a few shells such as coconut or pistachio, there really isn't much variability between the meringues.

As I said yesterday, we have a recipe that works well with our stove and seems to yield exactly enough batter to fill two half baking sheets (yields (30) 40mm macs total). In my opinion the oven really seems to be the fly in the ointment when people talk about failed macarons.

We figured we'd start out with a classic that seemed pretty straight forward - the Lemon Macaron. There aren't a bunch of crazy ingredients needed, and the technique was pretty simple. It's basically the coloring of the shells and making the lemon curd.

 The Lemon Macaron

One thing we find over and over again in Herme's recipes is the presence of some almond flour for the fruit fillings. The two of us weren't quite sure what it was going to taste like, but in the end it did a good job of suspending the curd so that it didn't squirt out the sides when you bit into the mac. It isn't much, but the curd seems to hydrate the flour enough to where it blends in with the lemony filling.

These had a creamier color to them, and aren't really that vibrant yellow you would expect from a lemon mac. I'm not sure how I feel about the pastel-y color of these. I kinda like it, but it also seems to imply something more along the lines of a lemon cream. In the future I think we're going to add a 0.5g more of the yellow coloring.

We were pretty impressed with how the whole thing came together. The shells came out very smooth and the filling wasn't too thin or thick. Aged for a couple of days, these things really take on the lemon flavor. I've attached a link to the recipe here.

Our Five Picks for the Holidays

We aren't big Christmas gift people. By nature, everyone in our household is picky - from Regina and I, all the way down to the dogs. There is nothing I hate more than seeing people waste perfectly good currency on stuff other people either don' t want, or don't need. We've pretty much called a Christmas truce with most of our family and friends. You don't buy for me. I don't buy for you. No offense taken. I'll bring the booze. You'll thank me next month when the credit card bill comes.

There are a select few that we still shop for, but for us the holidays are more about cooking, eating, baking, eating, drinking, eating, and seeing our people. For those who are buyers (or askers), here's a little list of things we've bought this year that we wholeheartedly endorse.

Eastman Outdoor Wok  $169.99
   I have a an enormous aversion to the smell grease in my house. In fact, I can't stand the smell of beef or anything else lingering around long after the meal has been eaten. I cook all of our meat on a Big Green Egg, so that takes care of those smells. That being said, I love fried chicken and hush puppies. I don't have a hood that can pump that stuff outside, so I just decided I wasn't going to deep fry anything.

Until I saw this.

One thing you notice about Hawai'i is that there is a lot of outdoor cooking going on. While we were there last winter, I saw someone using one of these and had to have one. Cooking oil goes from 80 deg. to 350 in no time flat. The counter top fryers get overwhelmed easily and struggle to maintain higher temperatures, but not this. The larger wok allows for less crowding.

There is a big difference between the kind of heat you get from a stovetop wok and the beastly amount of heat generated by this thing.  This is stir fry at it's finest.  Modernist Cuisine has a great picture of the hot wok in action. The smell stays outside while you enjoy your dinner inside.
Click here to purchase or read more info.

AND EJ-1500 Newton Series 1500g x 0.1g Digital Scale $164.95

   Of the things we've bought this year, this gets the most use. We've basically taken our recipes and converted them all to grams, if they aren't already. Since we don't have any kids, much of what we cook is scaled down. Metric measurements make it so much easier to scale things in either direction. This particular scale is pretty much instantaneous. There's no fluctuation like we used to get with our old Salter that would jump all over the place. You set something on the scale and within a second it gives a readout on the weight. Being able to scale down a recipe based on weight when you get into small measurement ingredients is where this little number really shines. The only issue is that it only goes up to 1500 grams; so if you zero out a ceramic bowl you may only be able to measure out something that goes up to 700 g. Sure there are scales capable of more capacity, but like most things - it comes at a price. We found this one offered the best value.
Click here to purchase or read more info.

Books

   Who doesn't love books at Christmas? I know we do. These are two books you're not likely to find at the local Barnes and Noble, or even at Amazon. We had to get them from The Book Depository in the UK. The Herme book has been especially problematic since it keeps selling out at places like Amazon, Omnivore Books in SF, and Kitchen Arts and Letters in NYC - not to mention the price at TBD is very cheap. While we were a little leery of ordering books from across the pond, the package arrived within a week and a half and they only charged four bucks for shipping!

Bourke Street Bakery I Allam and McGuinness 
    I thought the Tartine Bakery books were good, but this one is unreal.  Until the dollar gets stronger, this is the closest I'm going to get to making my way to their Australian bakery. A cursory look reveals quite a collection of recipes, but more importantly the commentary is very readable and extremely informative. Meat pies anyone? Caveat: All recipes written in metric weights [see above EJ-1500].
Click here to buy from The Book Depository [England]

Macarons I Pieree Herme

   Pierre Herme's Macaron has been out for some time - in French. A couple of months ago it was finally published in England. We didn't buy the book so much for its macaron recipe as much as we did the fillings. The range of ganache recipes goes anywhere from vanilla, to basil and lime, to foie gras, to *gulp* ketchup. We have a shell recipe that works for us, so we haven't really messed around with the one in this book. However, once you've settled on a shell technique - it all comes down to fillings, baby!
Click here to purchase from The Book Depository [England]

Pourfect Mixing Bowls $14.99 and up
   Kitchen gadgets and holiday gifts go together like peas and carrots. I'm normally more of a traditionalist when it comes to kitchen equipe, but these bowls are great for making additions to a stand mixer. We haven't got the Kitchenaid that lowers up and down, so adding dry ingredients have always been a PITA. Regina's been able to find stray bowls at TJ Maxx Homegoods stores. Keep an eye out.
Click here for more info

Volrath (Wear Ever) Half Sheet, 13 gauge, Aluminum Baking Sheets $13.79

   These baking sheets were the biggest revelation we had this year. Olivier Dessyn of Mille-feuille turned us onto these when we were in New York for his macaron class. When I asked why our macs were getting slightly toasted on the bottom he had this to say [to the best of my memory]:

"Zee shits zat zay have here in zee US are jhunk! Zay are too seen. You cannot cook good macaron wis zis seen, dark jhunk. Zeez pens I use reflect zee heat so your macaron are more comfortable. Zee pens do not warp (like zee jhunk pens), because zay are very, very sick."

There you have it. The man speaks truths. These are the thickest baking pans I've ever seen. If anything is going to resist warping, it'll be these. The aluminum reflects the heat so that the pan just doesn't seem to get so hot. (I'm sure the thickness also helps with that.) These pans are very stable and do not burn. For the price, we haven't found anything that's even in the same universe as these. Since we got these, we've been "toast" free. The thinner steal pans were our problem.

No rust. No warping. No burning. Good-bye Chicago Metallic. I couldn't find anyone in Cleveland that carried them (Dean Supply and SS Kemp). Wasserstrom in Columbus got them to me in about a week.
Click here to purchase or for more info