Super Bowl Cake

Cake!!

I wanted to play with a new flavor idea and took advantage of the super bowl.

This cake has layers of:

- cocoa nib meringue
-bourbon soaked dark chocolate cake
-mandarin marmalade
-Grand Marnier Dark Chocolate Mousse
-Triple Sec Dark Choclate Ganache
- Triple Sec Whipped Buttercream frosting

I can not wait to cut into this bad boy.

Arthritis

What do you do when it literally pains you to enjoy your passions?  I love to bake and cook and decorate cakes, but all of those hours of standing, physical actions and many constant motions of kneading, stirring, etc all cause me great pain.  We cooked a big meal full of gougeres, steak, scallops and more, and after eight hours of cooking I was unable to stand the next day.  My ankles just refused and it felt like needles in my joints.

My doctor told me to stop working in baking and don't attempt to make sugar flowers all day because I might suffer longterm damage.  I was torn on what to do.  I worked so hard to get to this point and start a pastry career and now I am told it is going to hurt me.  I wanted to continue to work and pursue a cake internship.  I figured what's the point in growing old if you didn't live it up while you were young?

Then Alvin asked me if I wanted to be able to hold and take care of my children, he was even worried whether we should have any if I was going to damage my hands with baking.  It was such a shock and obviously something I was in denial about.  I'd rather bake and cook for just my family the rest of my life than have a childless marriage with a pastry career.  We both really want children and I had to chose between the two, I chose our family.  I always will.

I feel like I am in a place of mourning.  I am mourning the dream career I must sacrifice, the things I could have learned and the people I would learn from.  I know with my full heart it is the right decision, but that doesn't make it any easier.

I look forward to the things I will gain and the family we will make.  


But for now I will miss what might have been and wonder what I will pursue.

Our First Brew: Phase Three

Time to Drink- Finally!!

It is a lovely dark porter with plenty of coffee and chocolate notes.  Over time it the malty flavors have gotten stronger and smoother.

It has been a fun process and we are looking forward to our next home brew.

Bo Saam

If we didn't have names picked out already, we would name our first born after food, specifically Bo Saam.  It is a pork butt slow roasted at a low temperature and then finished on a high temperature with a brown sugar rub.  The meat is very bbq porky with a sweet caramelized crust.  We describe it as pulled pork with pig candy coating... aka amazing!!

It took five hours of basting every 30 minutes to keep this little piggie happy

The skin was getting a slight crisp but the meat was so tender.

Just before serving, I rubbed brown sugar all over the pork and bumped the oven up to 500F

The skin got super crispy and the oven started to smoke a bit, but unplugging the smoke alarm was worth it

The one 9lb pork butt served us about ten indvidual meals.  We enjoyed with kimichi and as carnitas in a homemade tortilla, and with Carolina vinegar based bbq sauce with potato salad on the side and inside wonton wrappers as pork potstickers.  It was great value at just under $2/lb and keep in the freezer  and reheated well.

We are looking forward to making this again soon and to help my mom make it for my upcoming bridal shower.

Soh Christmas means Karaage!!

As we are starting our family we are starting our own traditions.  One dish we have agreed on is Karaage, or Japanese fried chicken, for Christmas lunch.

We definitely don't need a pound of chicken thighs, but it was worth the extra time at the gym the next day.

And yes, Champagne is the drink of choice for Christmas Karaage.

Our First Brew- Phase Two

After two weeks of peeking in on the bottle as it ferments in the closet, it was time to bottle.



You can buy brand-new bottles, we opted for the more fun process of drinking beers and saving the empties.







Capping was easy, but with every bottle I was afraid we were going to snap them.  We are far from strong enough for that!



We snuck a little bit of the brew and it had a nice subtle chocolate flavor.  The beer was also very light in flavor and mouthfeel despite its color.  I hope the next two weeks of further fermentation in bottles will change the beer even more.

Bacon

Our First Brew- Phase One

After months of talking about it, we decided to brew our own beer with the help of Brooklyn BrewShop's  Chocolate Maple Porter kit.  





Just as the instructions describe, the process is very easy and very much like making oatmeal, but they don't warn you that it takes four or more hours.  Another point not included is that you will need at least two large pots, three to make life easy.  



For a kit encouraging beer making in NYC apartments, having three huge pots is not common.  Luckily, our hobbies include cooking and eating so we have a stocked kitchen.  




The "Mash" step requires cooking the grains in water to 160F and maintaining the cooking temperature until the grains are properly cooked.  We recently moved into a new apartment so this job of holding the temperature was a big lesson in the idiosyncrasies of our new stove.  





After an hour of the "Mash," it was time to run the grain mixture through the “lauter tun" or a strainer.  The step, also known as The Sparge, requires straining the grains from the liquid.  All very easy, but better with additional pots and an extra set of hands.  




After several, strains the liquid or wort was ready for some hops.  




After hours of cooking from start to finish, it was finally time to bottle so fermentation can begin.  




After a few days, the mix stopped its crazy bubbling and was ready for its longer term fermentation cap.




Now we wait two weeks before the next step.... bottling. 

Thanksgiving: Anti-Turkey Addition

There might not have been turkey, but our Thanksgiving dinner was very effective in the food coma department and felt very celebratory with just the right amount of holiday gluttony. 

We resourced our scallops and lobsters from The Lobster Place,  the perfect and succulent steaks from Dickson's Farmstand, and everything else from Whole Foods.  Both specialized shops at Chelsea Market were very helpful when I had questions and enthusiastic about our unusual Thanksgiving feast with their products.  The prices are reasonable and the quality far above any place else in the city.  

Our table was simple, as our typical, over-heated NY apartment kills any attempts at decorating with flowers, but candles and a colorful meal provided the desired ambiance.  In addition to enjoying our favorite dinner items, we have decided to try to pair wine with an impossible combination of surf and turf with a Béarnaise sauce.

Our line-up of contenders:

De Chanceny Cremant de Loire Brut

2010 Domaine Delaye St. Véran Les Pierres Grises

2008 Bodega Numanthia Termes Toro Numanthia

The Champagne paired nicely with the scallop first course and its lime-chile sauce.  It brought out the fish sauce wich complimented the caramelized sweetness of the seared scallops.  I couldn't get past how sweet and fresh the scallops smelled when raw, I had to resist eating them before cooking.  

The White Burgundy was the best pair for the main course of Lobster and NY Strip steaks.  The surf and turf was accompanied by green beans with caramelized shallots, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, a rustic Béarnaise and homemade butter and roasted garlic dipping sauces.  

The Tempranillo was a lovely find, but did not work well with the meal.  We enjoyed it post the three pounds of protein dinner and let the reversitol do its magic in curing our full tummies.  

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and all of its opulence reminded us how lucky we are to be able to enjoy these treats, but also how lucky we are to share them together.  

Pre-Thanksgiving: Anti-Turkey Addition

I understand that Lincoln and Dickens are to blame for turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I've never been a fan of turkey.  Why waste money and tummy space on turkey when there are scallops and truffles and foie gras in the world?   Giving thanks should come with a side of Gougeres not canned, BHA contaminated cranberry jelly.  

Since 50% of our household is foreign born and could give two craps over turkey and a overly commercialized parade, we are giving thanks over lobster and nice steaks this year.  Will it feel like Thanksgiving without the tryptophan?  I'm not sure, but a food coma from gluttony sounds just as effective and much more enjoyable to me.

Plus, this thanksgiving dinner takes an hour to cook, how long will your turkey take?

A follow-up with pictures to follow.....