pastillage

In my culinary program, everyone has to do an 240-hour internship in their last (typically 4th) semester. I decided to do my internship in a hotel pastry department, since I've never had experience in a hotel environment.

So far it's been quite different from working at local or even chain bakeries. Although I've been making doughs, batters, shaping/piping product, occasionally I get to help out with sculptural pieces that a small bakery would simply not have the resources to do.

One piece I've been working on requires a lot of pastillage, which is similar to gum paste and fondant. Made out of sugar, gelatin, water and vinegar, it hardens as it dries, making it very useful for sculptural pieces.



Before the dough can be used it has to be kneaded until smooth (on a cornstarch-covered surface) and then rolled out flat to the approximate size of the surface it is meant to cover. In this case, it's castle gates made of foam-core board that I had a great time cutting because it utilized some long-lost drafting skills.



Once the pastillage has covered the piece and is trimmed to the exact dimensions, designs can be etched on it. In this case I used the triangle tool to indent parallel lines for bricks.



Then I took this handy plastic tool and indented individual bricks. A very hands-on process. I think there are brick stencils/rollers made for this exact purpose, but Chef likes the inexactness of this.



To actually adhere the pastillage to the foam-core board, I used royal icing (meringue + powdered sugar). It's literally like edible glue.



Then there's some more trimming and detail cut-outs like the crenellations and windows.



After that Chef demonstrated using the airbrush machine to spray food-grade airbrush coloring onto the pieces.



Here are all the pieces I cut, airbrushed with color.



Once the spray color has dried, we dabbed a side towel with water and wiped the surfaces, blending the colors together.



I hope that these things I learned will one day come in handy, like the drafting skills I had from the one architecture studio class I took in college. I guess you just never know.

sous vide: short ribs

For our last Sous Vide class we did short ribs. 48 hours at 139F! Each team prepared their short ribs a different way before they went in to cook. We did a barbecue-style dry rub, other teams did different flavored marinades. I really liked the team that used coffee and the team that used Guinness.

Anyway, while the short ribs were cooking we got to making side dishes. I had recently this recipe for Baked Ricotta, Mushrooms & Balsamic Brown Butter and I really wanted to try it so I thought this was the perfect opportunity, even though it's not a traditional barbecue side dish.

Also I made some modifications to the recipe. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

So I made the brown butter first. And then instead of sauteeing with olive oil, I reused the brown butter pan for sauteeing the garlic and red pepper flakes, to which I added onion to because I thought the onions would go really well with the mushrooms.



After the onions were almost caramelized I added mushrooms (brown and white) and white wine, sauteeing until the wine had evaporated and the mushrooms were almost dry.



I couldn't find any ricotta cheese, so I crumbled goat cheese over and broiled everything until the cheese developed toasted spots.



Lastly, I poured the balsamic brown butter over (balsamic vinegar, brown butter, salt and pepper), which really took things to the next level.



The great thing about this mushroom side dish is you can use it for so many things - to mix with pasta, to top pizza, to sautee with additional vegetables, as a side with steak, as a stuffing for veggie tacos, etc. etc. It's creamy and tangy and spicy and mushroom-meaty and just delicious.

As a plus the short ribs came out amazing as well. Sous vide made the meat so tender and juicy, like brisket cooked really well. Besides the mushrooms we also had roasted baby brussel sprouts and mashed potatoes. Can't go wrong with all that.

mama tran's beef noodle soup

It's funny, the things one does not know how to cook. For me, it was the food I grew up with, that I took for granted. When I started to cook I turned to pasta and italian seasonings. Even now, Asian ingredients still aren't familiar.

But so many years living away from home means I don't take the food I grew up with for granted. Living in the Bay Area again has meant that last year and this year, I was able to request my mom's beef noodle soup for my birthday. And this time I finally captured the process in photo so now I can make it for myself.

(As a side note, my mom wasn't always Mama Tran. For years my friends didn't have anything to call her. Mrs didn't accurately reflect her marital status, Ms made her seem like a stranger, and using her first name wasn't respectful enough. My sister Iris coined the term last summer and it stuck - very ingenious.)

Here's what you would need to recreate the dish for yourself (serves 4):

1 lb boneless beef shank
4 cloves garlic, minced
the equivalent amount of ginger, minced
9 cups water
2 star anise
1.5 tablespoons Por Kwan beef base
1 small daikon
2 large carrots
1/2 lb chinese wheat noodle
handful of cilantro, scallion & jalapeño for garnish



First sautee the beef shank (USA!) with garlic and ginger until the outside is brown.



Then add water, star anise and beef base (stir to dissolve). Turn the heat up until the broth is almost boiling, then turn the heat down to simmer.



In the meantime, cut the daikon and carrot into chunks. Usually we do roll cut, but my mom bought this handy tool in Vietnam that imparts wave patterned cuts, so we did that.



Also cook the dry noodle in boiling water. You want them a little softer than al dente, but be careful because they cook faster than Italian hard pasta. Once they're done, drain and set aside in a covered bowl.



After the broth has been simmering for about 45 minutes, add the daikon and carrots. Keep simmering for another 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.



Chop up the garnishes. Besides cilantro/scallion and jalapeño, we also had Chinese fermented mustard greens (sour and crunchy) as well as toasted peanuts.



Portion the noodles into bowls and ladle broth over it. Then top with beef, daikon and carrot pieces. Lastly, garnish to your heart's content!



Hopefully, eating this will be as satisfying for you as it is for me. Thank you Mama Tran!

lunch for 1, dinner for 2

I think I've talked about how I don't really cook for myself.

Sometimes, though, I'll buy something on a whim (like berries at the Civic Center farmer's market), or somebody will give me something (Iris and heirloom tomato) or leave behind something (former roommate Molly and yellow lentils) and I'll be prompted to make something of it.

For the heirloom tomato, I actually waited until I could get to the East Bay and go shopping at Berkeley Bowl (think Whole Foods but local and cheaper). They have the best mozzarella. So good I took a picture in case you ever see it and feel like having some good cheese.



I've been making this salad since I started cooking for myself. It's a summer classic - tomato, mozzarella, basil. And it looks beautiful when you take some time to assemble. The dressing is just olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.



The lentils I cooked with mirepoix and chicken broth. Spices: cumin, oregano, cayenne, bay leaf. I could've put some meat in but didn't.



This was my first time with yellow lentils. They taste kind of meal-y, like garbanzo bean-ish. I didn't like them the way I do brown lentils.

And it was way too much food. For all the effort put into cooking and plating, I only ate about half.

In contrast, my old roommate Tram came back to visit for the weekend and cooked up a storm for her brother - vegetable, fish, meat soup, rice, the works.



I was invited to share the food for dinner, and it was just like family meals growing up. I even ate more than I normally do. No photos to show for it, just a full belly and happy heart. The way meals are supposed to be.

accidental s'mores

If my blog had a "mistakes" category, this would go there.

So I wanted to make rice krispies. But I didn't have any rice krispies. I had cornflakes. So I thought it would be a good idea to substitute, except it wasn't. Because the cornflakes got soggy in the marshmallow mixture I made.

Maybe it would have been better if I had upped the cornflake to marshmallow ratio. But anyway, I ended up with a pan of marshmallow that tasted like it had wet cardboard bits in it.

But I didn't want to throw it in the trashcan. After all, I had used my last gelatin sheets making the marshmallows, and I wanted to serve it at my birthday board game night. So then I thought about hiding the marshmallows, in a sandwich, like with graham crackers.

The graham crackers really distracted from the soggy cornflake bits. But just for good measure, I crushed and toasted some smoked almonds and coated the remaining marshmallow sides. The almonds stuck really well to the marshmallow, and provided further distraction with their salty smoky crunch.



At the party I melted some chocolate chips with some vegetable oil in the microwave, so the marshmallow sandwiches were could be dipped and eaten. And it was kind of like a s'more, if you think about it. But next time I will omit the cornflakes for sure.