The Coulibiac Project

When you go to SWANKY dinner parties or restaurants, the stereotyped servings of salmon are either slices, fillets, slabs, or the whole fish itself. If you prefer the chewy slices, salmon is prepared typically by smoking or salt-cured or simply as the raw sashimi or carpaccio. For the (usual) dry, overcooked and flaky salmon, the fillet is either served grilled, broiled, braised, baked, roasted, seared or sautéed. For events that call for a large gathering, the slab or the whole salmon is either baked, poached, roasted, broiled or grilled.

However, appreciation of salmon dishes should not be boring, lest we forget that the salmon is an adventurous and diadromous fish. Adult salmon have to brave through waterfalls and predators to return to their freshwater spawning grounds before they turn pink and die. Salmon smolts have to survive natural enemies before they can reach and spend their adulthood in the sea, which also does not guarantee their return to spawning grounds. If the salmon can be fearless in their life cycle, then why not take a risk in preparing an unknown salmon dish? No, I am not talking about using a dishwasher to cook your salmon (although you could) but rather I am talking about coulibiac. Basically, this is a pot pie filled with alternating layers of rice, salmon, diced mushrooms and cream.

Salmon is not a traditional French seafood ingredient especially when you think about fish mousse, quenelles, fish stews and pâtés. Instead, salmon is used in Nordic and Russian cuisine. Coulibiac is actually a Russian dish (Cyrillic: кулебя́ка; Pronunciation: kulebyáka) with French roots because the Russian nobility (in St. Petersburg), being inspired with the culture from Western Europe, imported French chefs in the late 17th century to innovate new dishes. The French chef, Auguste Escoffier, then brought the dish from Russia to France during the early 20th century. This was also featured in the second season of Julia Child’s celebrated show, The French Chef. Since I do not have the DVD nor video files of the series, I am clueless on whether she learned this in Le Cordon Bleu or she got the recipe from Escoffier’s book Le Guide Culinaire. I got to try her recipe because I bought her “The French Chef Cookbook”.

Based from my own experience, the coulibiac took seven hours to complete. This includes kneading and preparing the pâte demi-feuilletée a.k.a. the mock puff pastry case. I know seven hours sounds horrific but what I can I say? I am a culinary purist who prefers to start everything from scratch. But fear not and let us learn from the salmon life cycle! After all that long grueling work, the dish is all worth my time. One, the dish is heavy, rich and flavorful that taking a half-inch slice can easily make me full. Two, since I eat coulibiac alone, it takes AT LEAST 6 meals to finish the entire thing, which saved me a lot of time cooking for the following few days. Three, coulibiac is such a handsome dish that it makes a good addition to a dinner party. Leaves are the typical decorations but you can be creative with your design. Four, this is a new and elegant way of preparing and enjoying salmon that I am certain you won’t get bored with this project.

Before I divulge the recipe for coulibiac which includes the pâte demi-feuilletée. Here are my tips/recommendations:
- If you are not a culinary purist, you can “cheat” by buying a puff pastry dough from a grocery store. Then, prepare the filling by yourself. This will save you five hours in the kitchen. However, the bottlenecks of a store-bought puff pastry are less flavor (because it is completely made with vegetable shortening rather than butter), less puff, and more expensive than the homemade puff pastry.
- If you are a culinary purist, the trick to make the perfect pâte demi-feuilletée is to roll the dough immediately after a two-hour chilling in the fridge. My educated guess is that this has something to do with the phase transition of butter. I think the fat in the butter at this stage is at the liquid crystal phase. (I will discuss this further when I write about puff pastries and tart doughs.)
- When you cook the salmon filling, you might want to sear the fresh salmon fillet for 1-2 minutes on both sides and cut into 1-inch cubes. After all, the salmon will be heated again. Contrary to the mainstream belief, a flaky fillet is the worst thing that can happen when you are cooking fish. The juicier the fish, the better it will taste and the more flavor it will have. Otherwise, you may also use leftover salmon.
- Once the pâte demi-feuilletée is sealed, it is IMPERATIVE that you have an opening at the top of the pastry. You may insert METAL pastry tips or foil funnel to introduce holes. The holes prevent your coulibiac from exploding caused by the build-up of steam and the expansion of the cream sauce.
- Before baking, the pastry case can be brushed with egg glazes. Egg glaze (depending on how you prepare them) gives a colorful and shiny appearance to the surface of the pastry.

Coulibiac (taken from “The French Chef” by Julia Child)

Ingredients:
Mock Puff Pastry Bottom Case (Interior dimensions: 13-14 inches long X 3 inches wide X 2 inches deep)
Mock Puff Pastry Cover
4 1/2 cups braised rice
6 cups salmon and mushroom filling
2 cups well-flavored cream sauce (salmon juice and heavy cream)
Salmon juices (optional)
Egg glaze (1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water)

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
2. Place the pastry case on a lightly buttered baking sheet.
3. Layer the bottom with a third of the braised rice. Layer with half of the salmon and mushroom filling. Spread with half of the cream sauce.
4. Repeat again with half of the remaining braised rice, half of the salmon and mushroom filling and half of the cream. Top with the rest of the braised rice. If the filling overflows the case, mound the rice layer into a dome.
5. Roll the mock puff pastry cover. The dimensions should be 1 1/2 inches longer and wider than the bottom case.
6. Paint all sides of the case with egg wash. Lay the mock puff pastry cover over the pastry case and seal firmly.
7. Mold the leftover dough from puff pastry cover into garnishes. Decorate the cover and paint with egg wash. Draw crosshatch markings around the sides of the cover using the tines of a fork.
8. Poke two holes in the cover using pastry tips. If the tips are metallic, leave the tips in the cover. If the tips are plastic, replace with with aluminum foil that has been shaped into a funnel.
9. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes, or until the pastry is nicely browned and you hear bubbling sounds from the funnel-shaped openings.
10. Serve a slice with butter, lemon butter, light cream or mock-Hollandaise (bâtarde) sauce. (See the last photo.)

Pâte Demi-feuilletée (Mock Puff Pastry Dough)
Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour (leveled and sifted)
1 3/4 sticks chilled butter
4 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening
2 teaspoon salt, dissolved in 3/4 cup cold water
Loaf pan (Dimensions: 13-14 inches long X 3 inches wide)
1 or more tablespoon cold water (optional)

1. Blend the chilled butter, shortening and the flour in a large mixing bowl, until the mixture looks and feels coarse.
2. Add the cold water. Press the dough together using the cupped fingers of one hand.
3. Roll the dough into a ball. Place on a board. Push the dough away from you using the heel of your hand into a six-inch smear.
4. Press into a bowl. Wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for two hours.
5. Once chilling process is over, preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
6. Mock Puff Pastry Bottom Case. Roll two thirds of the dough into a 1/8 inch thick rectangle. Butter outside of loaf pan. Turn the loaf pan upside down and fit the dough over it. Trim dough evenly all around and prick all over with a fork. Bake inside the oven for 6-8 minutes. Cool and unmold.
7. Mock Puff Pastry Cover. Roll the dough into a rectangle. Spread bottom half with a tablespoon of butter and fold over top half. Repeat this step with another tablespoon of butter. Cover with wax paper and chill.

Braised Rice
Ingredients:
1 1/2 dry, raw, plain rice
2 tablespoons butter
3 cups fish or chicken bouillon
2 tablespoons minced onions
Salt
White Pepper

1. Sauté the onions in butter for 5 minutes. Do not allow them to brown.
2. Stir in rice until the grains look translucent.
3. Add the bouillon and bring to a boil. Stir once.
4. Cover and bring to a simmer without stirring for 18 minutes.
5. Season with salt and pepper.

Salmon and Mushroom Filling
2 cups mushrooms, finely diced and sautéed in butter
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup shallots or scallions, finely minced
1/2 cup dry white vermouth
1/4 cup cognac
2 1/2 cups skinless and boneless cooked salmon (or 1 1/2 pound salmon fillet, seared and cut into cubes)
1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
1 teaspoon oregano or tarragon
Salt
White Pepper

1. Cook the shallots or scallions in butter for 2 minutes under low to moderate heat.
2. Stir the mushrooms, vermouth and cognac. Raise the heat to medium and boil for several minutes to remove the alcohol.
3. Reduce to a simmer and add the salmon, tarragon and parsley. Cook for several minutes under low heat.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

 

Apple Snow: Golden and Delicious

October is not just a bacchanalia of overflowing beer in pubs, bars and festivals. October is certainly the time of the year where you can keep the doctor away. Why? October in the United States is National Apple Month according to the U.S. Apple Association. As autumn starts to shed the leaves of the deciduous trees, apples also become ripe for picking in fruit orchards. Because it’s the season of the apple, they will also cost cheaper in groceries (at least here in the United States) and they will also taste a lot better than apples picked “outside” of its season.

If you are a fan of mythology, literature, the classics and arts, you would probably notice that apples typically have become either a sacred, indulgent or seductive symbol. The golden apple of discord caused three Greek goddesses to clash and compete in a beauty pageant title of being the “fairest one”, indirectly precipitating into the Trojan War. The “tomboy” Atalanta lost to Hippomenes in a race after the latter threw three irresistible golden apples of joy in order to outrun her in exchange for her hand in marriage. The golden apples of Hesperides/Hisbernia bestow immortality in Greek mythology and eternal youth to the gods of Norse and Celtic mythology. Renaissance painters use apples in their paintings as emblems of condemnation and redemption in their re-imagination of Biblical stories from the fall of man to sin to the salvation by Jesus’ loving sacrifice- depending on the persona who holds the apple.

As of this month, there are 7,500 cultivars of apples based on the place of origin and their ancestors. This does not only mean that there are 7,500 apple genomes out there but this may also imply that if your tongue has a has a detection limit of 1/7500, then tastewise, it would be able to distinguish how subtly different the cultivars are. Of course there is no human tongue that is gifted enough to achieve that feat! That is why these apple cultivars are gastronomically classified according to their use – eating, cooking and cider. Not that you have to be anal retentive, but you need to plan ahead what apple cultivar you are going to use in your recipe before you buy them in the grocery.

I must confess though that I am not much of a fan of apples, I had only come to appreciate them during the celebration of National Apple Month thanks to this marvelous recipe – Apple Snow. This dessert is simply a combination of applesauce and egg whites as the latter are beaten into stiff peaks. What’s pretty slick about this dish is how the applesauce and egg whites complement the taste and the texture. The applesauce gives the mildly zesty flavor and the sweet taste while the egg whites are responsible for the creamy texture. The addition of caramel sauce finally enhances the rich taste.

But how do you address the issue of apple cultivar for the applesauce? I highly recommend the Golden Delicious (United States) which according to the U.S. Apple Association is third most popular cultivar. While the Granny Smith (Australia) is ideal for withstanding the cooking temperatures, it is not suitable for this dessert because of high malic acid content, resulting to a sour taste (Wu J, Gao H, Zhao L, Liao X, Chen F, Wang Z, Hu X. "Chemical Compositional Characterization of Some Apple Cultivars" Food Chem., 2007, 103, 88-93. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2006.07.030). In fact, I learned this the hard way from the first time I tried preparing the applesauce from Granny Smith apples. Golden Delicious is also advisable for the applesauce not only because its low malic acid content has been consistently reported from literature but also because it contains a high sugar content in comparison to sorbitol-devoid apple cultivars like the Gala (New Zealand) and the Gravenstein (Denmark) (Hecke K, Herbinger K, Veberic R, Trobec M, Toplak H, Stampar F, Keppel H, Grill D. "Sugar-, Acid- and Phenol Contents in Apple Cultivars from Organic and Integrated Fruit Cultivation" Eur. J. Clin. Nutr., 2006, 60, 1136-1140. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602430). Finally, it just makes the experience of enjoying your apple snow both golden and delicious!

Apple Snow (taken from “The Way To Cook” by Julia Child)

Ingredients:
6 to 8 Golden Delicious apples
1 medium lemon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup sugar or even less
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup homemade caramel sauce

1. Wash, quarter and core out the seeds of the apples. Keep the peel in the apples to retain the flavor and the body of the sauce.
2. Place the apples in the saucepan along with the zest of the lemon and the cinnamon. Sprinkle the apples with lemon juice. Cover the pan and soften the apples under moderately low heat for 30 minutes. Make sure to stir and mash them frequently.
3. Remove from heat. (If you are using the cinnamon stick, remove the cinnamon from the saucepan) Transfer the apples into a food processor, purée and return the applesauce into the pan.
4. Boil the apple sauce, gradually adding the sugar. Stir in the vanilla.
5. Cover and chill inside the refrigerator for at least one hour.
6. Set the electric mixer at moderately low speed and beat the egg whites until they start to foam. Add the cream of tartar and increase the speed until stiff shining peaks are formed.
7. Reduce the speed and add the apple sauce into the beaten egg whites. Raise the mixer speed again until the mixture is stiff enough to hold its shape.
8. Drizzle or layer with caramel sauce any way you like it

Caramel Sauce
1/3 cup sugar
5 teaspoons water
1/3 cup cold heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Salt

1. Blend the sugar and the water in a saucepan and let them simmer.
2. Remove from heat and swirl to completely dissolve the sugar.
3. Return the pan to the stove at moderately high heat and boil for several minutes. Make sure peek into the pan. Once the bubbles look thick, uncover the pan and swirl it by its handle.
4. Boil for a few more seconds. Remove from heat and continue swirling.
5. When caramel has cooled but remains in the liquid state, add the heavy cream.
6. Whisk over moderate heat until the congealed caramel dissolves. Stir in salt and vanilla.

 

Weekend Cooking and Island Chicken

Olá! Tudo bem! My name is Carole and I’m a new PhooDie!

I seldom cook on weekdays. After working in the institute, I head straight to the gym. Then, by the time I get home, I’d be too tired and too hungry to cook. BUT, I have to make sure that I eat the right amount of proteins and vegetables during dinner and in my packed lunches. My solution: cook freezable food. I would cook a big batch of two or more dishes in the weekends, freeze them, and just reheat them when I need them. The more delicious they become when frozen (just like adobo), the better.

Here’s one of my favorite recipes (from my healthy recipe source, prevention.com):

Island Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

• 1 can (225 g) unsweetened pineapple (crushed) with juice
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp lime juice (lemon works just fine too)
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 chicken breast halves, skinned and boned
• 1/2 cup onions, diced
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (I usually use 2-3 tbsp of honey instead of sugar)
• 1 tsp minced jalapeno (or piri piri)
• 1 tsp cilantro, minced

1. Strain the pineapple, set aside the juice and refrigerate the pineapples.
2. Mix the pinapple juice, soy sauce, honey, garlic and red pepper flakes. Use this to marinade the chicken for at least 4 hours.
3. When the marinade is ready, cook the chicken in the marinade until the juices run out when you puncture it with a fork or a knife.
4. Take out the chicken and transfer the marinade to a saucepan. Reduce it until it has a saucy texture.
5. For the salsa, mix the reserved pineapples, onions, brown sugar (or honey, in my case), lime juice, jalapeno and cilantro.
6. On a dish, pour the sauce over the chicken and top it with the salsa.

This dish freezes quite well. If the salsa and chicken are frozen separately, they can last up to 2 weeks. It’s also like adobo, it tastes better when eaten after refrigerating/freezing.

Here’s a photo of the chicken after cooking. I didn’t make the salsa because I ran out of onions.

I love eating this dish with rice or potatoes and some veggies. Here’s how it looked like in my lunchbox today:

In Today's Lunchbox: Island Chicken with Baked Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli

It was the right lunch for a picnic in the gardens of Gulbenkian.

 

Suprême – The Breast Taste Of Chicken

Thanks to the strenuous workload of graduate courses, research and teaching. My food blog entries were as dead as Friedrich Nietzsche’s definition of God from his book “Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft (The Gay Science)”. Now that my graduate school obligations are temporarily over, it’s time to resuscitate my contributions of blog entries to Phood Journal.

Perhaps it’s an appropriate time to talk about breasts…chicken breasts…

To be honest, breasts are not my favorite part on a chicken. My order of preference when I am, say, given a half-serving of chicken or any poultry/game bird is thighs, legs, wings and breasts. I am fully aware that health and fitness buffs will contend with me but chicken breasts tend to have a very dry and bland texture. It doesn’t help too if the chicken bought from the market turns out to be an old and ailing chicken because the meat can be VERY tough. To open some gastronomic scars of my childhood, I found myself having a difficult time chewing and swallowing, and to some point would prefer regurgitating, the meat of the black chicken boiled in some weird Chinese plant extracts not because of the bitter taste coming from whatever alkaloid or natural product is found on that soup but rather the texture of the breast meat is just too DAMN dry and bland.

Then again, the chicken breast should not shoulder the blame for its taste and texture. Its prolonged exposure from the heat of braising, boiling or roasting has to compromise with the duration of completely cooking the softer, fattier and juicier red meat found on the thighs and the legs. The rule of thumb of treating chicken breasts (or any breast coming from any poultry or gamebird) with love is that you DO NOT OVERCOOK them UNLESS they come with the other parts. Plus, time is an advantage too for graduate students like me because the length of preparation can only take 15-25 minutes especially if you are aware of the “cooking parameters” that will maintain the juicy and exquisite taste and softer texture.

Paraphrasing French cuisine from Julia Child, the raw breast of a chicken is classified according to the presence of the wing, skin and the bone. If the upper part of the wing is present, then the entire slab is called a “côtelette” or simply (in English) the cutlet or the chop of the chicken. If the breast comes both skinless and boneless, then the chicken breast is called a suprême. However, a suprême is NOT ALWAYS a suprême because the definition of a suprême encompasses the cooking time and hence the taste and the texture of the flesh. If the “suprême” is overcooked, it becomes nothing more but the bland, dry and tough white chicken meat – similar to a prolonged chemical reaction that leads to an undesirable product. Instead, an actual suprême should be cooked in 205°C (400°F) for 6-8 minutes only – NOTHING LONGER NOR HOTTER.

Based on my first experience of cooking and eating a homemade suprême, the final grade that can be given to a suprême borderlines between “E” and “F” for EXQUISITE and FANTASTIC respectively. Cooking is also short and simple that the anticipation of eating can only be delayed by the preparation of the sauce. The flesh is white in color just like your white chicken meat. However, the taste is so juicy and the texture is so soft that it’s like eating the drumsticks and thighs – my conventional favorite parts on a chicken.

I think from now on, the breast (in the form of a suprême) has become my GUILTY PLEASURE.

Chicken Suprêmes Recipe (taken from “Mastering The Art Of French Cooking” by Julia Child)

Ingredients:
4 fillets of chicken breasts, boned and skinned
4 tablespoons of butter
1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
Salt
White Pepper

1. Preheat the oven at 205°C (400°F).
2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Set aside.
3. While the chicken is being marinated, melt the butter on a skillet or a flame-proof casserole under medium to high heat until the butter starts to foam and bubble. (Optional: The foam can be removed by scraping with a spoon giving the clarified form of butter.)
4. Roll the chicken breasts in butter QUICKLY and remove the skillet or casserole from heat.
5. Cover the breast with wax paper or aluminum foil.
6. Place the skillet or casserole inside the oven and bake for 6-8 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and transfer the breasts immediately to a warm platter. The leftover butter in the skillet or casserole can be used to prepare the sauce of your liking.

 

Breakfast in Bed

There are few things more lazily gratifying in the morning than being served breakfast in bed.  You don’t even need to get out of bed, and you’re already being fed – how great is that (especially in the winter, when you dread that first step out of bed onto the chilled floor)?  It’s also a great way to surprise someone, but doesn’t require too much work, skill, or money (only a lot of preparation).

I not-so-recently made breakfast in bed, and I have to say that the time I put into pre-morning preparation was probably the key to finishing on time.  You’ll, of course, need a breakfast tray, some matching plates and cutlery, and some food.  The breakfast tray can be bought anywhere where they sell kitchen things – I bought a wooden one with legs to stand the tray up in bed.  You can tailor the breakfast to the person, depending on what they do or do not like.  If you don’t know, try to extract it (in a subtle way) from them.  Some common components are:

• eggs – scrambled, sunny side up, boiled, poached (from easiest to hardest)
• bread
• cold cuts and sliced cheese
• cereal or muesli
• coffee or tea
• orange juice
• pancakes
• meat – sausages, bacon, meatballs

One note about the orange juice – please please please make an effort to squeeze it yourself!  The difference between store-bought and freshly squeezed orange juice is HUGE, and this is one thing you could definitely do on the (late) night before and chill in the fridge.

For my breakfast, I cooked:

• soft-boiled egg (wasn’t so soft-boiled by the time I served it…)
• croissant and roll (from the bakery downstairs)
• sliced cheese and salami
• freshly squeezed orange juice
• crêpes with berries and fresh whipped cream
• Nürnburgers (small sausages)

It took me about a half hour to finally prepare everything before service, but I woke up periodically during the early morning to squeeze orange juice and premake the crêpes and Nürnburgers (I reheated them afterward).

The cold items are easy enough, as is the bread (I assume you will be buying fresh bread and cold cuts from the deli, not making them yourself), but the hot items are a bit tricky.  If you know what time the person is getting up, you just need to get up about a half hour (or however long you think you need) before that to prepare everything.  If you don’t know, then…try to guess.  You can also cook everything beforehand and leave it in a warm oven until it’s ready to be served (not ideal, but will still work).  Of course, this also depends on what you’re cooking.  Use your judgement.

Some final tips about preparation:

• Buy everything beforehand (the night before, at least) and try to store it where they can’t see it or won’t be suspicious.
• Prepare what you can ahead of time.  Measure out ingredients for pancakes, set aside enough eggs and sausages to simply throw into the pan and cook as quickly as possible in the morning.
• Use linens and nice cutlery.  Add a flower if possible.  Small details make a huge difference.
• Cook with love!  Yes, waking up early is not really that pleasant, but I guarantee it will be worth seeing the smile on their face.

Have fun!

 

Hamburger Science: Why I Will Probably Never Eat At Another Burger Joint (Unless Starvation Calls For Desperate Measures)

If you were asked to name the ultimate American food or fast food on the game show “Family Feud”, there’s no doubt that hamburgers will probably be the top survey answer. Perhaps to the food amateur, he/she will be looking for the ground “ham” component from the burger patty even though the former is a slab of salt/sugar-cured pork while the latter comes from minced beef chuck. Hamburger was actually a German word coined after the city of Hamburg which served as an important Russian trade center of steak tartare (but that’s another recipe) during the last century of the Holy Roman Empire.

Even before I became a Julia Child fan, I had this curiosity on preparing and cooking hamburger patties. Most people consider the simplicity of its preparation because you just mix ground beef, onions, salt and pepper and fry them on a thin film of oil. Voilà! You have a burger!!! One of my friends gave me an account that her mom used to prepare hamburger patties before but they had a tendency to contract even before cooking that you don’t get your appetite’s worth at all. I had also made several food trips in the Philippines (where I come from) to search for the best burger joint. I even watched an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show just to find out the The Top Ten Best Burgers in the U.S. (If my memory serves me right, the best burger in America comes from a sirloin burger joint somewhere in Chicago)

Aside from simplicity, students like myself take into account the cost of a homemade burger versus a burger ordered from a fast food chain or restaurant. Assuming you don’t have to pay any state tax, service charge or value-added tax from your restaurant bill, the cost will still be at least thrice the price of making your own hamburger sandwich from the convenience of your own home.  But, here comes a big (and all-caps) BUT!!! Advantages of simplicity and cost obviously compromise the ideal flavor, texture and taste. The patties greatly contract even before frying as mentioned above. They dry up by losing their juices upon frying. No matter how iconic the hamburger is to U.S. culture, Americans (no offense) have probably underestimated its simplicity. So where does the problem lie? Lipid/fat biochemistry.

Fat inside the ground beef works two ways. Being hydrophobic or water-fearing, the presence of fat retains the moisture and juices inside the meat, therefore slowing down the dehydration/contraction process. It also adds flavor to the meat during heat-induced hydrolysis and/or oxidative cleavage.  However, if fat degradation takes place at a faster rate before or during cooking, then dehydration will occur quickly too because water is less trapped due to reduced fat levels. To solve this problem, fat content of the meat is increased by adding sour cream, thus, keeping your meat swollen and moist during cooking. This is the scientific basis behind Julia Child’s hamburger recipe from The Way To Cook.

I have a confession to make. I was pretty unsure of what might happen while I was preparing the entire hamburger meat based on Julia Child’s recipe. It turns out the result was awesome. The patty itself was so thick and fat as seen on both pictures. If you ask me about the taste, it was juicy and mouth-watering that I have to fry another patty to satiate my appetite. Honestly (and I don’t mean to brag), the burger was a lot better than the burger joints here in the U.S. or those from the Philippines. Also, if you are cutting costs, hamburger is probably the practical way to go. I finished the entire hamburger meat for 6-7 dinner meals at an estimated total cost of 10 USD. That’s spending around 1.50 USD for one night of fine dining without sipping a glass of red wine.

Now that’s a HAMBURGER!!!

Burger Patty Recipe (taken from “The Way To Cook” by Julia Child)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds (681 g) of ground beef
1 egg
2 tablespoons of onion, grated
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1 teaspoon of thyme (fresh or dry) or Italian seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Cooking oil
Flour

1. In a large bowl, season the ground beef with egg, grated onion, sour cream, thyme, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
2. Divide them in any way you want to and shape them into round patties.
3. Film the frying pan with cooking oil under moderately high heat.
4. As the pan undergoes heating, lightly dredge each side of patty with flour. Fry each patty two minutes in one side and two minutes on the other.
5. If hamburger is squashy, then it is rare. Once the meat starts to bounce when pressing with a turner or your finger, it is medium rare. The hamburger patty is well done when it doesn’t bounce/spring back.

 

A haiku about my lunch in the University mensa

I’m bored in between taking out round bottom flasks from the rotavapor so I tried writing a haiku about the last meal I ate.

Write yours and post it in the comments section.

Fish filet with rice.

Thousand islands on the side.

Melons are so nice.

 

The Cookie Crack’d from Side to Side – Chocolate Crinkles

No, this is not a spin-off of an Agatha Christie novel.  Neither is this a serious, original recipe post (you can get it here), but more of a running commentary about making and eating this sweet goodie.

Chocolate crinkles are very much popular back in Manila.  This particular cookie is a regular item in school cafeterias, holiday bazaars and specialty bakeries—but not on a supermarket shelf, since it is too soft and fudgy to withstand rough commercial handling.  Its soft, fudgy, chocolate-y core hidden beneath the fine dusting of confectioner’s sugar is the dark, sweet secret of its popularity.

Perfect crinkle shot by Kookie

What’s so nice about baking chocolate crinkles is its simplicity—no need for cookie cutters, rolling pins and what-have-you.  You can make the dough way ahead of time(it is, in essence, a “dump-everything-and-mix” technique) and store it in the fridge; the dough itself has little moisture, hence the “crinkling” during baking (and storing it in the fridge removes more moisture, thus more “crinkles” on the cookie surface).  Perfect go-to baking recipe for a grad student with a sweet tooth, and an instant crowd-pleaser.  I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate?

Just a few tips: you can go “generic” with the base ingredients like flour and sugar, and even butter (provided that you live in Europe, where standard butter here is “European” butter, with at least 80-85% fat)…but never, EVER scrimp on chocolate!  For obvious reasons, of course.  And don’t hesitate to experiment with cookie sizes—the recent batch I made were “mini” crinkles, which paired well with vanilla ice cream.

Yes, nothing like chocolate, vanilla and sugar to win everyone’s hearts.  Just watch your insulin levels, though.

 

Food that I miss – Fresh seafood

I eat seafood. I like seafood. But my body doesn’t like seafood at all (skin asthma).

I remember the last time I ate a curacha (a variety of crab found in Southern Philippines, especially in Zamboanga), I was sent to bed ASAP when I puffed into this red, runny-nosed creature who couldn’t breathe properly nor scratch her skin to her heart’s content. But, oh, how I loved the sweet, meaty taste of crab! Did I regret eating curacha, with all the discomfort it gave? Not at all!

But not all sea products trigger my immune system. Fish, as long as fresh and has low histamine content (depending on the species/variety), I can take.

Alas, living here in Europe has limited my choices when it comes to sea products. The only kind of fish I see here are deep-frozen square fillets of salmon, Alaskan pollack and cod (kabeljauw). Deep-freezing fish does keep it from spoilage, but the taste isn’t quite as good as fresh—and don’t get me started on shellfish!

So, when I went to Oostende last weekend and visited the Visserkaai, with their Vismarkt…I couldn’t help but gape at the existence of fresh fish in that part of Belgium:

The ironic thing here is that fresh fish costs more than deep-frozen ones. Back in Manila, it is the other way around—fresh fish and seafood is practically de rigeour and cheaper than going to a supermarket and picking up something frozen.

Seeing these beauties, fresh and clear-eyed from the sea…made me miss Manila a lot. But then again, I’ll settle for deep-frozen ones for now—for a grad-student-on-a-budget, this is the most practical choice, than to shell out more euros for fresh fish which you can’t finish, even during Lent.

But I wouldn’t mind eating Belgian fish-and-chips in Oostende for my fix of fresh seafood.

(Though nothing can induce me…yet…to eat dried cod, seen hanging from this shop.)

 

Memories of Vancouver – Salmon Dinner for One

This morning, I found a nice email in my inbox from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, announcing that tickets were still available for Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand, being played in celebration of the Olympics being held there in about 15 days.  This, combined with my not-calling my parents for the last week because of exams, made me super, duper homesick.  And I have an exam on Monday, too, so what do I do?

Right.  Procrastinate and cook.

Those that are familiar with the Vancouver restaurant scene know that one of the defining features of West Coast cuisine is the abundance of seafood.  So what better way is there to give myself a taste of home than to make a salmon filet and put it on a minimalist plate (chichi presentation is another defining feature of Vancouver, for sure).

I passed by the fish shop in the Diskontopassage today to buy some fresh salmon, but since they were closed by the time I got there, I had to settle for frozen from Rewe.  Fresh fish cooks easier, I think, but that’s kind of rare here in Germany, since we’re not near the ocean like Vancouver is.  Oh well.

Salmon Filet with Peanut Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Materials and Methods

• 1 salmon filet (fresh or frozen)
• kartoffel puree (mashed potatoes), prepared from scratch or instant
• garlic, minced (to taste)
• peanuts, toasted
• broccoli x 2 florets
• 5 basil leaves
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt

1. Make the mashed potatoes, either from scratch or according to the directions on the package.  If you’re in Germany, the addition of some milk and a smudge of Kräuterbutter (about half a single serving, or the whole thing if you’re feeling indulgent) make the potatoes melt-in-your-mouth good.  If you’re not, I’m sorry.
2. Add the minced garlic, peanuts, and some salt to taste.  Set aside.
3. Blanch broccoli in hot water for about a minute, no longer (want to keep the broccoli as green as possible)!
4. Grill the salmon in a well-oiled, hot pan.  Sear for about a minute, then cover with a lid to allow the rest of it to cook through (about 3 minutes, but this depends on the thickness of your filet).
5. Turn over the filet to check the brown-ness of the skin.  It should be golden brown, but not burnt…
6. Mash the basil leaves with a pinch of salt and the olive oil.  I did it guerilla-style in side a cup with a spoon (I don’t have space for a mortar and pestle!).
7. Plate and serve =)

Results and Discussion

Definitely reminded me of Vancouver, and was also an excuse to try out my awesome new macro tent (an idea I got here from Flo – Flo, BEST.IDEA.EVER.  I do need a stronger light source, though – I don’t have off-camera flash…or an SLR, for that matter).  The potatoes were super garlicy, just the way I like them, and ensure that I will not be going anywhere tomorrow; the peanuts added a nice crunch, too.  The basil oil was surprisingly nice with the salmon – the Mensa usually serves fish with some kind of cream sauce, but I think West Coast cuisine tends to be a bit lighter and healthier.

So that was my little mental trip back home.  I’ll be going home for real in about a month, but for now, this will have to suffice…

And back to studying…