Monthly Archives: February 2013

Disappearing Marshmallows

After my round of eggs-in-cupcakes, I had some chocolate cake batter left. I thought I’d make them into smore-cupcakes.

From the left, graham crackers + mini marshmallows, just mini marshmallows, half a large marshmallow & a whole large marshmallow.

Topped off the batter, you can still see the shapes of the fillings.

Finished cupcakes! I was excited to bite into them… I figured I’d get a mouthful of gooey marshmallow & warm chocolate cupcake…

Nope! The marshmallows melted into the cake. I guess this makes sense when I think about it…

But darn, the cupcakes looked misleadingly gooey.

Upside, the melted marshmallows made the chocolate cupcakes incredibly gooey and moist.

Egg Cupcake Science

While reading 7×7’s The Big Eat 2013, I stumbled upon this particularly interesting listing — Rebel Within, from Craftsman & Wolves. I love putting edible things inside other edible things, and the idea of an egg, yolk still running inside a savory biscuit or muffin is just… awesome.

Try as I might, I haven’t been able to find a recipe online, so it’s science time…

Shamiq and I tried boiling eggs for 2, 3 and 4 minutes, and then putting them in chocolate cupcake batter (just out of laziness, I wanted to figure out the eggs before tackling a savory biscuit/muffin). This is what we found.

2 minute boiled eggs are too raw. Also, torching egg shells can cause exploding egg shells.

3 minutes seemed about right, if you’re willing to lose some of the white.

We baked two cupcakes with 4 minute eggs (easy to peel) and six with three minute eggs (harder to peel, but much less done).

And the results?

Slicing open a three minute egg cupcake…

Dangit, the yolk was cooked through. But not overcooked.

The yolks in the four minute eggs were definitely overcooked.

Oh well. And, in case it’s at all questionable, hard boiled eggs don’t go well with chocolate.

Le Papillon

Tis the season for fancy food, apparently. Shamiq invited me to join him and some of the SJ Redditors to try out Le Papillon. Because what’s the point in waiting for special occasions?

Salmon Roe & Creme fraiche

Keeping my priorities straight, I got a picture of the dessert menu, but not the dinner menu. Good job me.

Chestnut dumplings with oats, and roasted squash. Delicious and very hearty.

Quail over some sort of grain, topped with a quail egg. I love quail.

Salsify soup with duck royale & truffle. Shamiq’s appetizer. He let me steal his truffle pieces.

Hamachi tartar with avocado, lemon and peasprout emulsion.

Noisettes of red deer with huckleberries, oyster mushrooms and a parsnip tart over in the back.

Sturgeon Wellington with Chanterelles and a potato mille-feuille over in the back. And some turnips in front, but they didn’t fit in the picture.

Carrot cake with sasin molasses, walnut streusel, and cream cheese ice cream.

Chocolate-coconut terrine with chocolate and crisp caramel. I found this dessert tasty, but too rich. Also, the chocolate completely dominated the coconut.

The last treat — raisin and almond… I’m not sure what. I think toffee is the right term.

Cheesecake Brownie Science

I tried to make cheesecake brownies following the idea of black bottom cupcakes. I went for Smitten Kitchen’s “Favorite Brownies” and doubled the cheesecake section of her Black Bottom Cupcakes.

Results: Cheesecake takes longer to cook than brownies. By the time the center of the cheesecake was set, the edges were cracking and the bottom of the brownies had overcooked to a crust.

Next up: Try this in a cupcake pan, where the heat is more distributed.

13 North

Filipino inspired food by Bayani Inclano.

Dinner was at the old Saison space. It was pretty cold.

And the menu.

Pinakbet jelly over squash puree.

Bread with cultured butter.

Coconut milk with bay leaf and palm sugar.

Banana hearts, coconut milk, monggo and a coconut curl of some sort. It looks like chicharon, but it’s not.

Sinigang with clams and turnips.

Kare kare.

Halo halo.

Sans Rival. Deconstructed.

Overall, the food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t Filipino food, just vaguely inspired by. As a meal, I found the food under seasoned. If it had been one course of this food, it would be okay, but taken as a meal, it left me a little hungry (thank god for the bread) and not quite satisfied.

Here is a dog. He sits on things.

We went for a hike in the Sunol Regional Wilderness. I took lots of dog pictures.

Here’s a detour off the easy trail to Little Yosemite. Lots of great colorful rocks for Moogle to be bribed onto.

Moogle pondering life at Little Yosemite. Awesome scenery for an easy hike and short drive.

And he’s visiting the Shire…

Parmesan Cookies

I made these to accompany the appetizers we served on Christmas dinner. They’re delicious.

2 sticks unsalted butter

1/2 lb grated Parmesan cheese (I grated mine freshly, I don’t know if it makes a difference)

1 3/4 flour

1. Heat the oven to 350F

2. Beat together the cheese and the butter

3. Add in the flour to form a stiff dough. (The second time I tried this recipe, I had to add in some melted butter. The cookies turned out just fine, but spread a little more)

4. Roll the dough into three logs, and slice the logs into cookies 1/4th in thick.

5. Bake for about 17 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.

Liholiho Yacht Club

Despite making it to Liholiho Yacht Club over a month and a half ago, I’ve been procrastinating writing this up. So here’s something quick. (Went on 1/20/2013)

Tombo on a nori chip. I love crunchy things and this was no exception.

Fried pig ears garnishing a papaya salad. Did I mention I love crunchy things?

Seasoned boiled peanuts. Not much difference from the boiled peanuts my mom buys in China town…

Salmon roe and fried potato skins, over potatoes. I liked the sauce and the garnishes, but the potatoes were too starchy so the dish was a bit bland.

Miso dressing on iceberg. If you like miso, delicious.

Baby octopus with kimchi radishes. I really liked both, but not particularly together.

Sticky rice in lotus leaves, cooked with mushrooms. I wish more places served it with mushrooms… It was a nice change from the traditional fatty pork.

Manila clams in tofu. Pretty solid, but nothing to write home about.

And the mains! Pork belly to the left and fried quail to the right. I’m honestly not a huge fan of pork belly… So it wasn’t bad, but not mind blowing. The quail, however, was absolutelyfreakingamazing. Crisp, moist and slightly honeyed. The second time I went, I found that I could order an extra serving for $12. It seems a bit steep… but oh SO worth it.

Bacon apple malasadas with coconut cream. Greasy & delicious. Just like malasadas should be.

Like the host restaurant, Liholiho serves things in small portions. It’s really cute and photogenic… But my one big complaint was that the food wasn’t served hot enough. I found myself eating faster than I’d like to in an attempt to eat all the food (especially the mains, the apps were fine cold) while still warm. Service aside, the food was varied, unique and (for the most part) well balanced. I’d go back.

Oh wait, I already did. This is what happens when you finally post pictures really, really late.

The Inside of a Turducken

Here are the layers of the turducken I’d previously posted about. Nom.

From the inside (left) to the outside (right) — chicken, duck, stuffing, turkey.

Chocolate Souffles

Before the supposed end of the world last December, I told some friends that my pre-apocalypse goal was to make a souffle. So make a souffle I did. I’ve followed the same recipe thrice now (once with my roommates for a pre-apocalypse snack, once for Christmas dinner, and once just because I was hungry) and it’s been consistently reliable.

I made a few changes to the recipe — first, I don’t add the lemon juice. I have nothing against lemons, but I’m lazy and haven’t had lemons. Second, I add spices — a few teaspoons between cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, allspice and ginger. And lastly, I whipped the egg whites ahead of time, they dried out a little, but the souffle was still fine.

It pairs great with Brandy Cream.

raccoon*

adventures of a cosmic procyonid