Watermelon Sorbet

My roommates and I wanted to make some watermelon sorbet before watermelon season ended and I picked up one from the farmer's market. This was my first time making sorbet and something went wrong. I ended up with basically a giant watermelon ice cube. Did I add too much water?? I have no idea what went wrong.... I'll have to try again.

Look at all the watermelon pulp left!!

It froze so hard that you can't even scoop it, just shave off thin slivers at a time.

Quiche Lorraine

Sauteed Leeks.

This is such a decadent recipe with a lot of cream and cheese and butter. It's based off the Le Pain Quotidien Quiche Lorraine recipe. I've never had the quiche there, but I've had a lot of soups and bread there and their super delicious Nutella-type spread.

Browned custard.

Mine turned out a little runny because I used "light" sour cream, which is runnier. It took me (and friends) several days to finish because it is SO rich and heavy. I cheated and used puff pastry- I didn't want to make dough on a week night when I only have 30-45 minutes to cook. But the dough looked delicious, so it's worth a try if you have time.

This photo doesn't do it justice- sorry my kitchen lighting is terrible!

Macaroons and Blondies

Well, I had a good first attempt at macaroons. But they still didn't come out quite right- I think I need to watch some you tube videos. I tried to make David Lebovitz's chocolate macaroons and I was going to sandwich them with some nutella.

Ta-DA! a stiff peak!

The good:
- they have (uneven) feet
- they taste good

The bad:
- they are pointy
- they are not circular
- a lot of them cracked

My very poor piping skills.

I will try and tackle this again. I think one of the problems is that I was using almond MEAL, not almond FLOUR. Unfortunately I could only find almond meal and I sifted it as much as I could, but I could still see bigger chunks. And I don't think I'm properly folding the egg whites + chocolate mix. The biggest problem though? I have no idea how to pipe batter... this will be another thing to tackle in the future. At least they tasted good.



I still have leftover macadamia nuts so I made some blondies! Yum, they're from Use Real Butter. Next time I think I might make 2x the batter and keep the same amount of filling- like I said before, I like a 2:1 ratio of dough to nuts/chocolate chips. Other than that, they were GOOD. Toasting the nuts made them nuttier and with that much butter in a 8 x 8 square- you know it's going to be good.

Right now I'm trying out new recipes for my apartment's thanksgiving dinner. I want to make something besides the requisite mashed potatoes and baked mac and cheese. Also one of our friends won't be able to make it so I have to make her sweet potato pie- I'm going to need to practice. I'm thinking a brussel sprout salad with figs. It has to be vegetarian, buffet-style, and maybe kinda healthy too.

Bouillabaisse

I was obsessed with seafood soups for awhile. I decided to try and make a bouillabaisse. Unfortunately it's sort of like bolognese where there are different variations of "authentic." It varies from region to region.... but I liked this one I saw from epicurious. And this one for the rouille, which was really good. Who knew soggy bread crumbs and olive oil could be so good??

the rouille

I made a LOT of substitutions. I don't have a lobster or saffron budget. I grabbed a mixed frozen seafood bag from Trader Joe's and threw in some fresh shrimp and bass. I also used canned tomatoes. I also used some canned fish stock and then some chicken bouillon.

A nice big bowl of soup and rouille, not pictured... crusty french bread with a dash of extra virgin olive oil.

I think this was a really

Croque Monsieur

Mmmm this is like a fancy grilled cheese. The sweet, salty ham, the gooey grueyere, crisp buttery bread and the the nutty sauce. SO GOOD! I had a croque madame (a croque monsieur with a fried egg on top) at Morels at the Grove. It was good, but they put a LOT of sauce on so it was soggy. I didn't make as much sauce as the recipe called for so that the bread would still be crisp. I also substituted thyme for nutmeg and the bay leaf because that's what I had on hand. Also... no chives, but they would be great the next time I make them. I used the Trader Joe's 4 cheese sour dough bread because I love sour dough.


This is like my 10th time making a roux so I'm starting to get the hang of it. The first time I made it was for a mac and cheese and I was not sure what the hell flour + butter was going to taste like. For this one, I let it cook for awhile (on accident) so it had a nuttier taste. I'm going to experiment more with the roux and see how it affects the recipe.

All in all, a very very good sandwich. But then again, where can you go wrong with cheese + ham + butter + bread?

Baguettes

Please ignore their pale color... I spritzed water too early

I don't have a lot of experience with baking bread besides things like banana "bread." The first yeast recipe I made was for soft pretzels (which I will post later on!). This is one of my first real "bread" recipes and it was a doozy. There is so much effing resting time. It's something you can do a few minutes everyday (until the final baking day).

I got this excellent recipe from King Arthur's Flour Blog. I LOVE their blog, they give very detailed descriptions of what to do and pictures at every step. Very helpful for people new at baking. They also have really cool gadgets like the gigantic cup measurer so you know if your dough has doubled in size. Also helpful.... is youtube. I had to youtube how to properly knead dough before I bought my mixer. I tend to use my mixer for stickier doughs and hand knead for everything else.

rest 1: 14 hours

My awesome mixer doing the hard work for me :)

The final rise

yummm

I definitely need to practice making these baguettes! But I think this was a good start

Scallops and Gougeres

I was craving some scallops so I picked some up from the frozen aisle at Trader Joe's. I used this recipe for Butter-Fried Sea Scallops with Thyme and White Wine. This was my first time cooking scallops and it turned out very well! I was really scared of overcooking them, but they had a nice crust on the outside and were very tender. There are only a few ingredients and it took less then half an hour to make. I put a little bit more white wine in and served it over some pasta.


After some online searching... I've realized what's wrong with my camera! It can only macro-focus starting at 10 cm from the subject )= omgz. So don't get a nikon coolpix s560 if you want to take pictures of things up close.


Next up is a SUPER DELICIOUS recipe from David Lebovitz. I haven't made my own ice cream yet, but when I do I will buy his book! I was craving some Brazilian cheese bread (not sure what it was called, wikipedia thinks it is Pao de quijo) so I used David's recipe for Gougeres. I used parmesan and it was SO EFFING GOOD. I want to try a different cheese next time with some different herbs because these were mild. Gruyere and thyme?



They cooked perfectly, no problems puffing at all. They were crisp on the outside, and a soft eggy texture on the inside. Also, if you don't have a Silpat yet you should get one because it is the best silicon baking mat. I got mine from amazon.

This is me trying to get a CLEAR photo of the inside. )=

Mixed Berry Galette

This recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs, Use Real Butter. Especially check out the recent kitchen tours.

Here is the recipe for the mixed berry galette. First some definitions:

Galette- "a general term used in French to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes" (from wikipedia)
pâte sucrée- "A French term for a rich, sweetened short pastry used for desserts such as pies, tarts and filled cookies." (from epicurious)
how to "cut" butter into flour- I found a great link here... AFTER I made it. ):

Rolling out the dough.

So this was my first time "cutting" butter into flour and I sort of mushed it around so there were small bits of butter in the dough. I also made 3 instead of 4 galettes. It was really good although I think the pastry dough could've been better if I'd done it correctly. The berries were so warm and bursting with flavor when they came out (the butter probably helped...).

about to go in the oven