meklarian

madeleines

Madeleines

Not too long after my vacation, I bought myself some Madeleine molds. I had decent success, but my first two attempts bombed and I was greatly dissatisfied with my results.

I haven’t taken pictures through the entire preparation process, as it is somewhat time sensitive. Most of the time is spent in setup- then in just a few minutes the batter takes sifted flour, and then straight to the oven. Not much time to take pictures, and not enough time to pickup a camera as the batter may break (before adding flour, anyhow).

These three Madeleines were from the first successful batch. Note that they are glossy, probably due to too much flour dusted into the molds to keep them from sticking. Also a little bit distant from the heating element in the oven.

After three batches, the first two of them unsuccessful, I finally baked a batch to some amount of satisfaction. Some people may argue that these are not browned enough on the bottom. The edges are quite well defined and firm out of the oven, though.

The fourth batch was excellent. I didn’t bother creating a glamour snapshot. Here’s a pretentious shot of one of the molds. One has to be careful to deposit the batter very carefully, as the slightest drop outside the reservoirs may cook into a crusty edge, or even burn.

One strange quirk about all of the batches, was that the Madeleines were even better the second day over the first. This is somewhat puzzling to me because a majority of online sources speak of them being best about 30 minutes out of the oven.

Here’s a link to the recipe I used. I added the zest of one orange, as well, and skipped the powdered sugar. I might try icing a batch with an orange sugar icing sometime.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/madeleines-recipe.html

another file test (via posterous API)

c'mon bbq sauce

vacation part 4 (pitons, rainbows, and sunsets over st. lucia)

Day 5, part 2: St. Lucia

 

During my departure from the beach, we approached and then passed through the edge of a rain shower over the island. The combination of water mist, position of the sun, and location of the boat made for some amazing pictures of rainbows. But first, off in the distance, were the regionally famous Twin Pitons, two small mountains with striking outlines.

 

Here is the first, of the two.

 

 

Here are both of the Pitons, together. I’m not sure if this is the most common viewing angle, though. I think most people see these from the opposite side, by the town of Soufriere.

 

 

Not too far from the beach, hints of a rainbow became visible in the cloud cover.

 

 

There have been few times I can recall in my life, where I happened to see rainbows as vivid as these. To my surprise, it only got better as we traveled north back to the port.

 

 

The left portion of the rainbow is really surprising here. There is little visible cloud cover for the rain or mist to support it.

 

 

Here is an attempt at a close-up of one of the segments. Again, little did I know at that time, that it was still going to get better.

 

 

I glanced momentarily behind us. Plenty of beauty here, but perhaps tougher to appreciate relative to the ongoing rainbow.

 

 

The other tourists and I marveled at the developing rainbow, as the segments began to merge and connect together.

 

 

I found it amusing that two catamarans were eating our wake. We weren’t really traveling fast, though.

 

 

Here, the rainbow finally stretched across the sky in one sweeping arc.

 

 

As we traveled below the edge of the falling rain, the south end of the rainbow intensified. I think at this point, the focal point was much closer, as the foot of the rainbow colored the view of everything behind it.

 

 

Here is a foot (or a leg?) of the rainbow, over the Sandals resort on St. Lucia.

 

 

As we entered the heaviest portion of the rain, a second arc began to appear on the outside of the rainbow. Unfortunately, I think it was too faint for the camera to pick up. The main arc continued to shimmer brightly in the sky, though.

 

 

The skies were clear by the time we reentered the harbor. Here is a glamour shot of the Ruby Princess, the cruise ship I traveled upon.

 

 

There was a traffic jam at the only small-boat dock adjacent to the cruise ship. We had to wait for 7 other small craft to drop off their passengers. Some of the boats were impatient and unloaded their passengers onto the currently docked boat. How peculiar. Off in the distance there is still a faint hint of a different rainbow over the island. Perhaps this was the second arc I had seen earlier.

 

 

The oncoming nightfall brought some spectacular color to the clouds and reflections in the water. I think the ship in the distance is a Norwegian Cruise Line ship. The fore of the ship in the bottom left was a Royal Caribbean ship, exiting from the harbor.

 

 

Here is a slightly different view, to show off the clouds present.

 

 

The Ruby Princess deftly turned about, and wasted no time in accelerating to top speed. The motion of the boat made it tough to take stable pictures, as I only have a small pocket-sized camera, but I did manage one decent shot at the twilight before I stopped taking pictures for the day.

 

 

Although I didn’t get to travel inland on the island, I must say that I loved every bit of my time on St. Lucia. In my opinion, even after completing the trip, St. Lucia is the best Caribbean island ever. Also, the island, as one can plainly see, is densely populated with trees. I suspect, perhaps in the spirit of Jared Diamond’s writings, that this island is also one of the most prosperous relative to the number of inhabitants.

 

The other members of my group went on a Zip Line excursion through the rainforests of the southeast corner of the island. We had a long discussion about who got the best of the island, and it seems that I did get the best of it all. However, they brought back something for me. They were allowed to bring aboard the ship a sample of a local variety of banana that their tour guide plucked from the trees during the Zip Line return.

 

It was hauntingly delicious. I’ll be sure to look out for it again if I return to St. Lucia.

 

My next post will be about Antigua.

vacation part 3 (st. lucia, anse mamin beach)

Day 5: St. Lucia

This day opened with absolutely gorgeous weather. I elected to spend this day away from the group, and I think I got the best of the island as a result.

Today’s excursion was another beach day away from the ship. Here is a snapshot of the open sea as my tour boat left the harbor.

Here is a parting glance of the cruise ship and port.

Here is a glance at the shoreline about a mile away from the port. After taking this picture, I dozed off in the sun.

About 15 minutes later, we arrived offshore from the beach. Our tour was composed of divers and snorkelers. I had initially signed up to snorkel, but it didn’t work out.

Here’s a glimpse up the shore as we jockeyed about to meet up with a smaller boat that would take us ashore.

The morning sun applying its magic upon the beach.

The divers depart for their dive site, about a quarter mile away.

Looking down into a glass-like sea.

I apologize for the pretentious snapshot. I couldn’t resist.

Looking down the shore, shortly after landing.

Some of the other tour attendees wasted no time getting acquainted with the locale.

I left my loot on this handy pedestal of stones, the footer for the palm tree providing shade over my chair.

Another pretentious picture. This felt like something one might find as a desktop background. Almost directly overhead of my beach chair.

Here is the shadow of the same palm branch.

I explored the north end of the beach, which was not groomed.

I caught a glimpse of this sand crab looking back at me. One of the other tourists warned me that there was a snake among the rocks, but I didn’t see it around.

This side of the beach had a lively surf.

Looking back over the main portion of the beach.

This intrepid seedling was well anchored into the sand. The beach sand was very fine; while standing at the edge of the waves, each wave ate away a lot of sand beneath my feet. I marveled at how well this seedling was able to hold its place.

An obligatory sit-and-watch-the-waves picture. A number of visitors came and went via the small water taxi boats during the course of the day.

The sign says it all.

Perhaps, if I ever return, I will bring some objects with me to make sandcastles. Footprints will have to do, this time around.

At mid-afternoon, it was time to depart. The afternoon sun provided a rather vivid view of the beach.

Goodbye, Anse Mamin beach!

Well, with the number of pictures I took of St. Lucia, even after selecting the best set, there are way too many to fit comfortably into one post. The next post contains the return trip and evening, with some surprising developments.

vacation part 2 (st. kitts & nevis, barbados)

Day 4: St. Kitts & Nevis

Our ship arrived somewhat early in the morning. The forecast for today predicted rain, but it only rained part of the day. I spent this day on a train tour of the island.

This is a glance towards the aft of the ship.

The island is populated by many Egrets. This was the best picture I was able to take of any of them. Our guide on the train tour mentioned that there are only four nesting sites on the island.

Here is a snapshot of our train before departure. I forget the name of the island in the distance. I looked up the name later, and it appears to be called ‘Oranjestad’, part of the Netherlands Antilles.

One thing that struck me about the island was the absence of any expansive wooded areas. Most of the island was farmland and brush.

The rain and the shaking of the train (I was on the top floor of the two-floored cars) made it tough to take stable pictures. This gem was shot with a portion of my body hanging out the window, just after we emerged from beneath a raincloud.

On the east side of the island, there are many untouched beaches. I found this one particularly pretty.

Towards the south end of the island, there was a rock quarry. Our tour guide had some veiled remarks about the state of politics and public affairs on the island. Nonetheless, the quarry machines cut very cleanly into this mountain, revealing an interesting rock face.

There wasn’t much time after the train tour to do anything else on the island. I browsed some of the tourist shops at port but didn’t find anything of note.

Day 5: Barbados

We had an early departure from St. Kitts, presumably so that we would make it over to Barbados on time. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera battery overnight, so I only have a few pictures. I split off from the group this day, on my own adventures.

I started the day at Malibu beach, which is somehow associated with the Malibu Rum Company. I had assumed that the beach was owned or operated by the company, but there were conflicting signs. In any case, it was a beautiful beach. I don’t know if the sand on this beach is natural, though. It was very well groomed.

An obligatory picture of the beach chairs and space I had to myself.

This beach faced the Caribbean Sea. The day started out clear and beautiful.

About two hours later, some dense clouds came in overhead, but no rain fell.

After the beach in the morning, I walked around downtown Basseterre. My camera was very low on battery so I didn’t take any pictures. To be honest I didn’t like the city that much, as it was a little bit dirty compared to St. Thomas. Also, the cab drivers around town were very pushy and hustled everyone within earshot.

I did snap a few pictures of the port, though, after I returned from downtown. From the ship, we could see updrafts of air into the cloud cover. A few minutes later, it began to rain, although the front stayed a few miles away.

The next port of call was St. Lucia, which I absolutely adored. Fortunately, I remembered to charge my camera batter, and I took plenty of pictures. A post will follow this one for St. Lucia.

vacation part 1 (bahamas, sea, st. thomas)

Some of you already know that I’ve been away on vacation nearly two weeks. I’ve been posting some pictures here and there, but here is a collection from the first part of the trip.

Day 1: Princess Cays, Eleuthera, Bahamas

This was the 1^st full day of the trip. I didn’t do much on this day, except hang out at the private beach owned by the princess cruise line. A striking feature of this beach is that the sand is completely white. My guess is that it is composed of crushed coral, although seashells are also another possibility. Individual grains of the stuff were quite prickly, in any case.

Day 2: At Sea (somewhere north of the Turks/Caicos)

My friend had her wedding this day at sea. Rather than disrupt her privacy, I’ll skip pictures of the wedding. I took some silly pictures this day, but most notable was a self-portrait outside my stateroom, and a picture of the sunset in the west.

This was a rather brilliant sunset, too. Vivid. Technically this was about 15 minutes before the actual sunset.

Day 3: St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands)

I took lots of silly pictures this day. Our tour took us to the Caribbean Amber Museum. After the museum, we walked around Haagensen House, a British Colonial building whose name I forget, and eventually made our way up to Blackbeard’s Lookout (or was it Castle?). Nice views of the harbor, but I wasn’t a big fan of the town. I tried a sample of some Conch when we had lunch. Tasted like really intense scallops. I can’t say that it was bad, or that I liked it. We’ll see.

Arrival in St. Thomas.

Traveler’s Palm. Festive!

Hibiscus, many of these were growing around the tour area.

I know now that this sinister looking kitchen gadget is called a Trivet, to protect tables from hot cookware.

The Three Queens. There’s an interesting legend/account of their deeds. Local heroes.

Blackbeard’s lookout tower. I suppose that this is not as impressive as it once was, now, with a swimming pool in front and hotel accommodations surrounding it. No lack of vertigo here, as I climbed up the center wrought iron stairwell inside. I’m not a fan of heights and shaky staircases.

(download)

Click here to download:

vacation_part_1_bahamas_sea_st.zip (169 KB)

Anne Bonney, Pirate. Of all the pirate statues here, this one had the most character. Also, supposedly she was Irish. Upon reflection, I really should have cropped this picture or maybe took a less accidentally suggestive picture.

After our lunch, we went for a little walk around and about. In one of the public parks, there were roosters and hens roaming about. Here’s a rather lucky snapshot (on my part) of one native.

That’s it for now. Next post, St. Kitts-Nevis and Barbados.

marshmallows!

Intro

It has been some time since my last post- I was out shopping this weekend and I came across a mixer on sale at the Williams-Sonoma store. Well, as it was 33% off an already discounted price, I decided to buy it. A few people have been pressuring me to get a mixer, under the assumption that I would make more treats. Ha, we’ll see!

I already had a promise made with a friend that if I ever bought a mixer, the first recipe I would make (and share!) would be marshmallows. Hence, here we are.

The recipe I used is based upon Alton Brown’s recipe from Good Eats. I used a little bit more water and more vanilla. Here’s a link if you’re interested in the original recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-marshmallows-recipe/index.html

Marshmallows

Ingredients

3 packages unflavored gelatin

3/4 cups water

1/2 cup water

1 cup light corn syrup

1 1/2 cups sugar (1 lb.)

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Other

1/3 cup powdered sugar

Nonstick spray

Pour the gelatin into the mixing bowl, and then pour the 3/4 cups of water into the bowl. Swirl the water around a little if necessary, to ensure that there aren’t any dry spots in the gelatin.

In a saucepan, pour the remaining half cup of water, corn syrup, sugar, and salt. Heat the mix covered for a few minutes until it starts to simmer, then remove the lid. Affix a candy thermometer and allow the syrup to come to a boil.

It is worth nothing, here, that the temperature will eventually rise quickly to 212F as the water begins to boil. Then, it will taper off as the water is expelled from the syrup. Thus- don’t be alarmed if the temperature rises quickly- you have a few minutes before it starts to ascend past the boiling point.

While the syrup is heading toward a boil, grease a pan with nonstick spray and powdered sugar.

Once the syrup has reached soft-ball stage (240F, around 6 minutes), remove the saucepan from the heat. Immediately turn on the mixer on its lowest setting, and carefully pour in the syrup.

Bring the mixer up to its highest mixing speed, and immediately pour in the vanilla. Leave the mixer on for about 14 minutes. During this time the mixture will begin to whip up and become fluffy.

Here’s another thing to note. Bring the mixture up to speed as fast as you can. This is to avoid the whisk holding the marshmallow, as opposed to the marshmallow being whipped by the whisk. Expect lots of steam to be expelled, too, as the gelatin is incorporated into the syrup.

After a few minutes, you can observe that the mixture will lighten, take on air, and puff up. Also- expect your mixer to be working very hard during this process. The table where the mixer was standing shook continuously during this ordeal.

After the mixture has fluffed up, pour it out into your pan. Immediately spread it evenly in the pan as briskly as you can, as it will become very sticky.

Allow the new marshmallow to set for at least 4 hours.

Conclusion

At this time, I did four batches and I am still waiting for everything to set. I dusted the tops with powdered sugar and covered them with foil. I will follow up later once I have eaten them. I mean- once I have shared them with friends.

archives: kohlrabi greens (june 2008)

Intro

When I buy kohlrabi, I used to feel like I was giving up on part of my purchase, as I had never tried to do anything with the leaves and would just throw them away.

Well, looking closely at the leaves, they look pretty tough and the stems are quite firm as well. Digging around on the web, I did find instances of other people cooking them and a few claims that they were delicious. I decided to give them a shot, by sautéing them.

Well, what’s the worst that could happen?

Recipe

Kohlrabi Green Sauté

1/3 lb of kohlrabi greens

2+ tsp of garlic, as desired

1+ tbsp of olive oil, as desired

Salt
Pepper

Prep the kohlrabi greens by removing the lower leafless portions of the stems. You may also cut a thin V into the leaves if you wish and remove the upper portion of the stems. Cut roughly into 1½ inch squares or strips.

Heat a frypan or sauté pan to medium-high heat. Once the pan has reached a relatively hot temperature, where a few droplets of water may sizzle a little when placed into a pan, pour in the olive oil and the garlic.

Yes, I used pre-diced garlic. Fresh is always better, though.

Saute the garlic just to the point where it is about to brown at the corners, and place the kohlrabi greens in.

Fold the greens over itself, lifting the bottom wilted leaves over the top of the uncooked leaves. Repeat until the leaves have diminished in size and become a bit limp.

Note that at this stage, there is still about half cooked and half uncooked. Keep folding!

We are just about there! A significant amount of moisture will have cooked out and the apparent volume will be reduced.

Season the greens with salt and pepper, to taste, and immediately plate.

Finished!

Conclusion

Well, ultimately, I think this is not for everyone. The cooked stems were a bit bitter, and the leaves were a little bit flavorless. I think it might be better to make a soup out of the greens instead, perhaps as a substitute for Kale. The leaves were also a bit rubbery after being subjected to moderately high heat. Slow and steady is probably the way to go. Oh well. :)

archives: clafoutis (june 2008)

Ok so this is from about a year ago- I made some mistakes with this recipe but it came out ok. If I make this again, I'll repost with fixes and with final presentation.

Clafoutis

1 Pound of Fruit (Cherries)

1/2 Cup Sugar + 1 tbsp Sugar (Reserve)

1 tsp Cornstarch

1/3 Cup Flour

1 Cup Milk

4 Large Eggs

1 tsp Salt

1/4 Cup Butter + Butter to coat baking pans

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Almond Extract

Makes enough to fit into 2x 9” Cake Pans

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To start, butter the pans, and melt a 1/4 Cup Butter over low heat.

Don’t forget to butter the sides of the pans!

Note: Low heat! This means your saucepan should not be so hot that you can’t touch the bottom.

(download)

Click here to download:

archives_clafoutis_june_2008.zip (112 KB)

Prep the dry ingredients, sifting together the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.

In the main bowl, beat the eggs until they are foamy.

(download)

Click here to download:

0archives_clafoutis_june_2008.zip (155 KB)

Next, add the sugar, then whisk or stir until mostly dissolved. A few sugar crystals floating around is ok.

Once the sugar has been well incorporated into the eggs, add the milk, vanilla, and almond extract to the eggs.

(download)

Click here to download:

1archives_clafoutis_june_2008.zip (165 KB)

Toss the cherries with the 1 tbsp of sugar that was set aside (Note: I forgot this part!). Divide the cherries between the two pans.

Add the dry mix into the wet mix, whisk together until incorporated, and then pour over each pan of cherries.

Bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes, or until the clafoutis is very puffy and browned, and has started to climb up the sides of the pan. Don’t open the oven door while it is baking, or it will collapse prematurely and the texture will be bad.

Serve warm. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top if you’d like.

(download)

Click here to download:

2archives_clafoutis_june_2008.zip (450 KB)

Serves 16 people one tiny slice each, 8 people a large slice each, or … you get the idea. :)

macaroons revisited

:) looks like everything imported from blogger just fine! Only the food posts and gaming posts are here. Everything else is at http://evilwombat.posterous.com/ . Keeping up two alter egos is a lot of work!