Tuile

Tuile

Tuile is really easy to make and can add a vertical dimension to a dessert without a lot of effort. The name comes from the French for "tile" because tuile is often alowed to cool draped over a rolling pin to give them a distinctive shape, simmilar to the roof tile below. To create Chocolate Tuiles, substitute 3/4 cake flour plus 5 tablespoons cocoa powder for the 1 cup flour.

by jfgornet

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour

Directions:

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium high speed. Beat in the egg whites, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla.

Fold in the flour (or flour cocoa mixture) mix until just combined. Do not overmix. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut a small hole (about 3 1/2 inch diameter) in a thin piece of cardboard or plastic (sour cream lid) to serve as a stencil in forming the tuiles. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat and place the stencil on it. Using a spatula, place a small amount of the batter in the center of the hole of the stencil and spread it out evenly. If you use to much they will spread out and you will lose any details in your stencil. Carefully lift the stencil off. Repeat for more cookies.

Bake at 375 F for 4 minutes or until lightly brown around the edges. Remove from the oven. To finish these in the traditional way , remove them from the pan while they are still hot and place them either over a rolling pin, over a glass or in the hollows of an empty egg carton. Or just let them cool flat. Store in an airtight container.

[Flickr]

White Fish with Mango Chilli Relish and Soba Noodles




Well I'm almost done revamping my recipe database. It's basically a second blog that only has recipes and will be actively updated as I update the recipes. I'll still be posting all the new recipes and other things here, but if you want to take a look at older recipes that have been updated with sexier pictures, click on the categories on the right or go to garecipes.blogspot.com. A recipe search will be available soon as well. If you are interested, I'm using the very decent online word processor Google Docs to make this a bit easier to maintain. I would highly recommend it since you can create, edit, and publish all your documents from anywhere with an Internet connection.

This dish was one result of my trip to the Farmer's Market and Eastern Marktet the other day. I'll start with the recipe for the relish:

Mango Relish

1 ripe mango (small dice)
1 lime (cut into supremes click HERE to find out how)
1 or more fresh Thai Red Chilli (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons fresh ginger (finely chopped)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Combine ingredients in a non reactive container and refrigerate overnight if possible.

I used Northern Pike for this, but I'm sure many fish would work fine. To bake the fish preheat the oven to 350 C. Cut fillet into portions and brush it lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and bake. The time could be anywhere between 6 minutes to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish and your preference. Use your senses. A nicely cooked piece of fish should come apart in flakes, but should not be dry or tough.

While the fish is cooking you can cook the noodles. Soba noodles are buckwheat noodles from Japan and take about three minutes in boiling water. While they boil, sauté some finely sliced vegetables in vegetable oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. When the veg is cooked but still firm, remove from heat and toss with soba noodles and dark seame oil. Top the noodles off with fish and mango relish.

[Youtube ] [Wikipedia ]

Carbs and Performance

Researchers at the University of Birmingham are suggesting that a part of the boost we get from carbohydrates occurs before we even swallow. From the article: "improvement in exercise performance that is observed when carbohydrate is present in the mouth may be due to the activation of brain regions believed to be involved in reward and motor control." Check out the whole article HERE.

[The Journal of Physiology] via [Ars Technica]

Super Easy Brioche

Super Easy Brioche

Brioche is a French bread made rich and tasty with eggs and butter. This is one of my favourites and makes great French toast!


Categories: Bread
Yield: One small loaf.

1/4 cup warm water

1 tablespoon dried yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/12 cups white flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 large eggs

eggs, butter, or milk to glaze

Mix yeast with warm water (around 38 C) and 1 tablespoon sugar. Let stand until mixture is foamy and about doubled in volume (about 10 minutes).

Sift flour and salt into a large bowl, then stir in the salt and remaining sugar. Make a well in the center, then add the melted butter, eggs, and yeast mixture, mixing to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough onto a floured worktop and knead until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a round, then place it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm spot until doubled in size.

Punch down the dough, and form into desired shape, brush with glaze, and let rise another 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400F, bake to golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Pecan-Streusel Coffee Cake

Pecan-Streusel Coffee Cake

Categories: cake

Yield: 12

Author:Abigail Johnson Dodge in April 2009 issue of Mon Appetit

• Struesel
• Dark Brown Sugar: 2/3 cup
• All Purpose Flour: 2/3 cup
• Ground Cinnamon: 3/4 tsp
  
• Unsalted Butter, melted: 6 tbsp
• Pecans, toasted, coarsely chopped: 1/2 cup
• Cake
• All Purpose Flour: 2 cups
• Baking Soda: 1 1/4 tsp
• Ground Nutmeg: 1 tsp
• Salt: 1/2 tsp
• Golden Brown Sugar: 1 1/3 cups
• Unsalted Butter, room temp. : 1/2 cup
• Vanilla Extract: 1 tsp
• 2 Large Eggs
• Whole Milk or Reduced-Fat (2%) Plain Greek-style Yogurt: 1 cup

Struesel

Combine brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in medium bowl.  Add melted
butter; toss with fork and blend.  Using fingertips, rub mixture
together until small clumps form. Mix in pecans. Can be made 1 day
ahead. Cover and chill.

Cake
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350F.  Butter 9x9x2-inch
metal baking pan.  Combine flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt in
medium bowl; whisk to blend.  Using electric mixer, beat brown sugar,
butter and vanilla in large bowl until well blended, about 2 minutes. 
Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping
down sides of bowl occasionally.  Add half of flour mixture; beat just
until blended.  Add yogurt; beat just until blended.  Beat in remaining
flour mixture just until blended. 
Spoon half of batter into
prepared baking pan; spread evenly.  Sprinkle half of streusel evenly
over batter.  Spoon remaining batter in dollops over streusel, then
spread evenly over with offset spatula.  Sprinkle remaining streusel
evenly over top.
Bake cake until streusel topping is brown and
tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 45
minutes.   Cool cake in pan on rack 30 minutes.  Cut into squares and
serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

The Taj is comming back! And so is Gastric Adventures!

The Star Phoenix has a story about the new commercial space in the landmark King George Hotel, down town Saskatoon. When the renovations converting the hotel into luxury condominiums is complete the ground flour will be the new home of the Taj Mahal, my favourite Indian restaurant in Saskatoon, and Sous Chef, which will serve gourmet lunch and dinner, as well as meals to be cooked at home. Along with a few other places like Tusk opening downtown, this summer should see a bit if a revitalisation of the cities core.

[The Star Phoenix]