Kiss n' Swirl Meringues

Little bites of heaven. Sweet, but not too too sweet, melt-in-your mouth heaven. 4 egg whites whipped up to make 2 cookie sheets filled-to-the-brim with mini meringues.


I experimented with different ways of piping.

kisses...


n' swirls...


so pretty, oh my.


Egg whites, sugar, a pinch of salt, and a dash of vanilla make these treats have more of a toasty marshmallow flavor than an eggy flavor.

Springy, colorful, satin-like pillows of sweet. AND, these pretties are gluten-free, fat-free, Kosher for Passover, perfect for a light Easter treat, or just a sweet after-dinner delight. Love 'em, eat 'em.



Kiss n' Swirl Meringues

From EatGood4Life

4 egg whites, at room temperature
pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
food coloring (all you need is 1-2 drops)

1. Preheat oven to about 200-250 degrees F. In an electric mixer with the whisk attachment (or by hand), whip your egg whites with pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. SLOWLY add the sugar, about 1-2 tablespoons at a time until the egg whites form a lovely glossy shiny look. This should take about 5 minutes or so. Add the vanilla extract. Fold in the food coloring as you wish (I saved some white, then I added 2 drops of red coloring for pink meringues, then 1 drop of blue for purple meringues).

2. Spoon the mixture, a little at a time, into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

3. Bake for about 1.5 hours, turning once while baking. The meringues should be dry and crisp and easily lift off the parchment.

Cardamom Ice Cream

My life is going to change soon. In just a few months, I won't be living in Berkeley anymore, I won't be living in CALIFORNIA anymore. I know it sounds crazy, but I need a change. And as we all know, change can be scary.

After 4 years in Berkeley I have finally made a dent here, especially in the food scene. I have compiled a restaurant list for the Bay Area (soon to become a blog post!). I am friends/friendly with and have previously worked with many chefs/restaurant owners/managers at most of my favorite restaurants here. A large part of me is ready to experience the east coast, ready to dive into something new and spontaneous. Yet, a hefty chunk of me has this nervous feeling, this unsettling anxiety about the fact that I have little if any restaurant connections on the other side of the country. There really is nothing else like the freshness of California Cuisine, the laid-back atmosphere of a neighborhood restaurant.

I remember coming into college, I had just finished reading Alice Waters' and Chez Panisse. I had a goal and that goal was to work in her restaurant. I was determined to slip into the Bay Area food scene, and that I did.

Looking back on some food memories of my Berkeley beginnings, I will never forget one of my favorite vendors at the Berkeley farmer's markets, the Three Twins Ice Cream ice cream stand. All I had to do was sample one of their most famous (and my absolute favorite) flavors, "Dad's Cardamom," and I was completely hooked (a comforting note, Three Twins is sold at some grocery stores on the east coast...).

Below you will find my recipe for Cardamom Ice Cream. I used a basic vanilla bean ice cream recipe and just added cardamom to it. Many moons ago a friend gave me a big bag of cardamom pods from Israel. Making this ice cream was the perfect excuse to use the pods.


Kudos to nostalgia, love, good food, and scary/exciting change.

Cardamom Ice Cream

adapted from David Lebovitz's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Recipe in Ready for Dessert

makes about 1 quart

1 cup whole milk
pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6-10 green cardamom pods, split open and seeds crushed in a mortar and pestle (or about 2-3 teaspoons ground cardamom)
2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks


In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, salt, and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the saucepan, then drop in the pod. Add the cardamom. Cover, remove from heat, and let steep for 30 minutes (sometimes I just get lazy/impatient and don't steep for a long time...eh, my ice cream still comes out amazing).

Pour the cream into a medium bowl and set a mesh strainer across the top.

Reheat the milk mixture until it's warm. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the warm milk mixture, whisking constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan (this is called "tempering"). Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan with a heatproof spatula.

Pour the custard through the mesh strainer into the heavy cream. You can rinse your vanilla pod and save it to use again in another recipe.

Set the bowl containing the custard over a larger bowl of ice water. Stir the custard until cool. Freeze the chilled custard in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

***WANT MORE CARDAMOM RECIPES? Pistachio Cardamom Cake with Slivered Almonds

Greens Grains n' Gold: Quinoa with Greens (and Grapefruit!) and a Runny Egg

So yesterday I was bashing Kombucha.

Today my dinner consisted of quinoa with a few more sips of Kombucha. Well, it tasted better today. It was extremely fizzy. That may be why it "tasted" better, because the fizz hid the taste?

Kombucha aside, my dinner felt good goin' in the bod. The new Dietary Guidelines for 2010 recommends eating lots of dark greens, so all the more reason to make this yummy dinner (and then proceed to cinnamon "toast" biscotti dunked in "chocolate sorbet" milk for dessert????).

Lately I've been into those bright pink ruby red grapefruits. They are sweet and juicy and debunk the bitter grapefruit stereotype. And segmented, they look divine.

So here I give you quinoa with dark leafy greens, broccoli, grapefruit, Parmesan, yogurt, and a runny egg. And don't forget some rustic (olive) bread to sop everything up.



Quinoa with Greens (and Grapefruit!) and a Runny Egg

serves 4

1 cup dry quinoa, prepared according to package directions
1 bunch of dark kale, chopped
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves
1 grapefruit, "segmented" into pieces
1/4 cup yogurt
Olive oil

Garnishes:
Parmesan
Parsley
Balsamic Vinegar

Add-ons:
Feta
Toasted Almonds
Raisins/Cranberries

4 eggs-over-easy (or poached)

1. Prepare your quinoa.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a separate pan. Add the chopped kale and broccoli. Cover and cook on medium heat until starting to soften. Add a few splashes of water and cover again until softer and the water has evaporated. Uncover and add the garlic. Add some salt.

3. Add the greens to the cooked quinoa. Add the segmented grapefruit and squeeze the juice from the remains. Add the yogurt and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir everything together.

4. Garnish with Parmesan, parsley, and balsamic. Add the add-ons if you wish.

5. Scoop onto a plate (or in a bowl) and serve with runny eggs and rustic bread.

I'm in a Lunch Rut, So I Made Egg Salad

What to eat for lunch? What to pack for lunch? I can't tell you how many times I have eaten a pb&j or a turkey sandwich for lunch. School is about to start again and I need some new ideas to keep me fueled throughout my busy day.

Joy the Baker made egg salad look oh so tempting. So I made it. And now I have lunch for the next two days or so (I halved her recipe).


The first step is to hard-boil some eggs. If you don't have your own method, I recommend using this one.


With some nice herbs and aromatics and good mustard, egg salad can go from drab to dapper in no time. I even added a touch of minced preserved lemon that I canned a few weeks ago.



Egg Salad a la Joy The Baker

Makes roughly 2-3 servings worth

4 eggs hard-boiled, peeled, and cut in half (again use this as a reference)

2 tablespoons mayo

1/2 teaspoon mustard (Dijon, whole grain...)

1-2 teaspoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley (feel free to use another herb if you prefer)

1 tablespoon minced shallot (again you could use red onion, scallion, green garlic...)

1 teaspoon lemon juice (I didn't have lemon juice so I used minced preserved lemon + a bit of vinegar, cider or white is good)

salt and pepper, to taste

bread, for sandwiches

1. Dump all ingredients into a bowl and break it up/mix with a fork until everything is incorporated to the consistency of your choice. Spoon onto (toasty) grainy bread for a nice sandwich.

Keeps up to 4 days in the fridge.

Cheesy-Veggie Pie, with Salami, held together by Eggs and a Splash of Milk

Quiche? Frittata? Cheesy-veggie pie, with salami, held together by eggs and a splash of milk.

Whatever its called, its easy, I made it up, its healthy, its got pie crust.

And it's great leftover the next day.


Cheesy-Veggie Pie, with Salami, held together by Eggs and a Splash of Milk

1 recipe for pie crust
1 head of broccoli, cut into tiny bites
1 zucchini, sliced thin
8 slices salami
Cheddar cheese + this other amazing Spanish cheese that I had, too
6 eggs
splash of milk
salt and pepper

1. Make you crust. Refrigerate. Roll it out. Place into a pie plate or tart pan lined with parchment. Pre-bake your crust in a 400 degree F oven until just lightly colored, about 15-20 min.

2. Take your zucchini and salami and place along the bottom of the tart pan. Whisk together your broccoli, cheeses, and eggs with a splash of milk and salt and pepper. Pour into the tart pan over the salami and zucchini. Bake until done, about 30 min.

3. Let cool for about 5 minutes. Serve.

Sprouts Cooking Club Fundraiser at Pizzaiolo

300 apple fritters. 19 frittatas. Toast, jam, butter, homemade pork rillette. Straus yogurt and granola parfaits with bananas and berries. Espressos and Americanos. Volunteers arrived early Sunday morning to help prepare for the Sprouts Cooking Club fundraiser brunch held at the trendy Oakland restaurant hot-spot, Pizzaiolo.


Sprouts Cooking Club is a children's cooking program located in the Bay Area. The program emphasizes hands-on cooking with local, sustainable ingredients and with chefs from around the area. Donations from Straus Creamery, Whole Foods Market, McLaughlin coffee, Organic Valley Farms, and Alter Eco Fair Trade supply the kids with the ingredients and materials necessary to get their hands busy and their creative juices flowing.

Here are some of the kids from the summer. They are very serious about chopping their ingredients to make homemade salsa fresca and guacamole at Picante restaurant in Berkeley:


These Sprouts go above and beyond in the kitchen—not only are they excited about all of the fresh meals they get to prepare, but they act so maturely and are not afraid to connect with all of the guest chefs, asking questions and experimenting with different textures and flavors! Going into a restaurant and seeing where their food is coming from and how it is prepared is another integral portion of the program.

Cooking and enjoying a meal together is a real treat, and in April 2010, some of these lucky kids will have the chance to travel to FRANCE to cook! This trip will provide the kids and their families an opportunity to experience first hand what another country's culinary and cultural lifestyle entails.

At the fundraiser this past Sunday, we had Jed working the frittatas and overseeing pretty much everything. Jed is actually going to go to France with the kids in April!


Tony was manning the coffee.


Volunteers from UC Berkeley were all over the dining crowd, directing people to their seats, clearing tables, washing dishes.

And I was standing over a hot pot of oil, frying up some delicious apple fritters. Dunked in glaze, these fritters were sweet and soft, and the apples gave them a nice bite.



This blogger sums up the exciting story of how Karen Rogers, founder and director of Sprouts Cooking Club, came to start the camp and foster an ever-growing next generation of chefs and food lovers.

Hooray for young, budding kid chefs!

Warm Tortilla with Cheese and Egg

Oh brother. How I spoil you.

You are my little experiment. I like to test my recipes and make you eat them. Not so bad, right?

I made you the most rockin' lunch today and you know it. It starts with a warmed tortilla, topped with cheese and a fried egg. I threw together some tomato, avocado, and red onion and splashed it with lemon juice, salt/pepper, and a sprinkle of cayenne. A dash of some hot sauce and boy are you set! The warm, slightly browned and crunchy yet soft tortilla is out of this world! Cheesy? You betcha. Eggy? Uhhuh. Colorful? Duh.

Yes, there is a bit o' butter and cheese and egg, but you get your protein, your whole grain carbs, and your vegetable/fruit serving. It fills you up and tastes so so so finger lickin' good. You can eat this like a pizza or cut into bite-size pieces. Warning: It can get messy!

Warm Tortilla with Cheese and Egg

tortilla (I used a whole wheat tortilla)
a bit o' butter
cheese
egg
salt and pepper
salsa or hot sauce

tomato
red onion
avocado
lemon juice
salt and pepper
cayenne pepper

1. Spread the tortilla with a bit o' butter on both sides. Heat a non-stick skillet to med-high heat. Place your tortilla on the skillet and cook for about 1-2 minutes or until browned. Flip and cook the other side. Take it off the heat and put some cheese over it. Keep in a warmed oven while you make your egg.

2. Fry your egg, scramble your egg, cook your egg sunny-side up, over-easy, poached, whatever way you like.

3. Place the egg atop your tortilla and cheese and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. For your "salsa," chop up your tomato, red onion, and avocado, sprinkle with salt pepper and a dash of cayenne and squeeze some lemon juice over.

Gorgeous!

Review: The Buttermilk Truck

Ever since I saw TheKitchyKitchen’s post about the Buttermilk Truck, I could not wait to come back to LA to taste the sought-after breakfast wonders served from a truck.

Gosh, it has been weeks and every day I have ogled over the bite size treats on the Buttermilk website.

The owner/founder, Gigi Pascual, graduated LMU with a BA in Business Administration and shortly after went to culinary school in NYC at The French Culinary Institute for Pastry Arts. After working in a few restaurants, she decided to open up this truck.

Food trucks are just everywhere these days. You can feast on your tacos from truck A, scarf down your cupcake from truck B, and indulge in your midnight burger from truck C. My brother raves about this organic ice cream truck in NYC, and my friend Natasha won't shut her trap about the crème brûlée cart in San Francisco's Mission district! I just found the Grilled Cheese Truck online, and wowza does that sound cheesy and comforting!

The Buttermilk truck twittered about coming to the San Fernando Valley on Tuesday December 22, so this was the day I planned to go get my buttermilk breakfast fix.

My brother and I drove 20 minutes to get to this truck. The weather was windy, very very windy. The darn wind was not so conducive to us waiting in line for 30 minutes and then having no place to sit but the parking lot curb to eat all the while having the wind blowing my hair, my sweater, my food, and my napkins all over the place.

Due to the extreme windy conditions, I was almost too overwhelmed to take nice pictures of all the food. I managed to snap a few, but if you really want to see some nice photos, check out the KitchyKitchen or the Buttermilk website.

I ordered the breakfast sandwich—a fried egg with chicken apple sausage sandwiched between two buttermilk biscuits. It was supposed to come with a cute little hashbrown pancake, but they ran out just before we ordered. Bummer.


This little b-fast sandwich looked pretty darn delish, but honestly, it needed to be salted and peppered, and even though the yolk was nice and runny, the sandwich altogether was pretty dang DRY.

My bro ordered French toast on Hawaiian bread—it came dusted with powdered sugar and garnished with a slice of strawberry. Pretty good. Nice and crunchy on the outside. Very sweet and very fried.

Then we shared the cake donut bites. These were definitely the winners of the morning. Could have been slightly more aesthetically pleasing, but I’m kind of a food snob, so sue me.

The sandwich, French toast, and cake donuts cost $8.50. Not too bad?

Well, it took 20 minutes to drive there, 30 minutes to wait in line, 10 minutes to eat, and 20 minutes to drive back home. Plus, we were kind of in the middle of nowhere, well, we were in the middle of a bunch of warehouses. That’s a lot of minutes for windy, mediocre breakfast from a truck.


Here is my suggestion: if the Buttermilk truck happens to be in your area, yah, hit that up. Otherwise, eh, just come over to my house and I can make you the breakfast of your dreams (my brother can vouch for that).

How to Poach an Egg

“When food is poached, it cooks delicately over the gentlest heat; not a bubble breaks the surface of the liquid in the pan”

--Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food

The first time I ever ate a poached egg was two years ago at Café Fanny, one of my favorite breakfast spots in Berkeley.

In lieu of attempting to emulate Café Fanny’s picture perfect poached eggs, I purchased an egg poacher. I found, however, that simply pouring an egg into a low-sided sauté pan works best.

Now be warned. The whole egg poaching thing takes a bit of practice to master. I am still in the process of tweaking and refining my technique.

Ok here we go.

Poached Eggs a la Alice Waters and Julia Child
[Oeufs pochés]

Ingredients:
Egg (or eggs)
Water
Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

Step one. Crack an egg into an individual cup or bowl. Be careful not to break the yolk.


Step two. Fill a pan with water about 2 to 3 inches deep; add a large splash of vinegar. Let it come to just below a simmer: very hot, but without any bubbles breaking the surface (as you can see some of my bubbles broke the surface—c'est la vie).


Step three. Hold the cup right at the level of the water and carefully slide the egg in. This gentle entry into the water will help the egg keep its shape. Immediately and gently push the white over the yolk with a wooden spoon for 2-3 seconds (I omitted this part…just decided to have my yolk exposed this time around). After a minute you can gently stir the water to discourage the egg from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Lower the heat if the water starts to simmer.


Step four: The egg will take about 3-5 minutes to cook, depending on your egg. The white will be set but the yolk still soft. Test for doneness by gently lifting the egg with a slotted spoon and pressing it gently with your finger to feel how set the white and the yolk are.

Step five: Carefully remove the cooked egg with a slotted spoon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

*I chose to drizzle with balsamic vinegar and place my egg atop a nice green salad for a quaint lunch. A delicately poached egg atop a hearty slice of lightly buttered toast is also a favorite of mine! Yum!

**You can poach a few eggs at a time. The same recipe applies. When cooking for a crowd, freshly poached eggs can be kept for a few minutes in a bowl of cool water while another batch is being cooked.

Café Fanny: Start the Day Off Right!

Ah…poached eggs and café au lait in bowls!

The first time I ever tried a poached egg was at this quaint little café. Cooked on the outside, runny on the inside. Garnished with salt, pepper, and fresh herbs. Placed atop thick slices of toasted acme brand bread.


I have yet to poach an egg at home that tastes as good as the poached egg at Café Fanny. Maybe it is because of the whole experience of dining outside on wooden tables with a big bowl of milky, frothy coffee sitting next to me! I have a thing for holding a mug filled with hot liquid—it is just so comforting!

The homemade granola is famous! It will leave anyone satisfied for hours!


And the buckwheat crepes? Simple, beautiful, and scrumpdidiliumtious!


The orange juice is so fresh! The moment I sip it my eyes brighten up and I feel alert and ready to start the day!

The whole motto of this café is to evoke an ideal reality where life and work are inseparable and the daily pace leaves time for afternoon leisure. Eating together nourishes the spirit as well as the body.

It really makes a difference to take the time to sit down and casually enjoy a meal—I feel more satiated and complete. My body tingles with good sensations when I know I have eaten a good meal with good company.


I would definitely recommend this place to go have a laugh with friends, catch up with mom, go on a date, and/or fly solo for a bite to eat and a good ol’ people watching session!

Bonjour! Now let's eat crepes!

I’m learning to speak French. Well, sort of.

So far, I have mastered how to say, “where is the bathroom?” and “did you sleep well?”

Although my French speaking abilities are quite limited, I am learning a thing or two about French cooking these days. What I am realizing is that most desserts are really simple—just eggs, milk, sugar, and flour. This is the basis for famous clafoutis (just add cherries), Moelleux au Chocolat (just add chocolate), and of course, crepes!

The French rarely use baking powder or baking soda, either. The key is to whip the eggs really well!

When I think of crepes, I imagine a burly man standing on the cobblestone streets with a cart, using his special tool to spread the batter very thinly over the hot pan.

Many different cultures have a variation of the pancake-like crepe—the Italians have crespelle, the Jewish blintz, Dutch babies, African injera, the tortilla, the Indian dosa, and the Mexican sope...

When making the first crepe of the batch, it is bound to get messed up, but have no fear! It still tastes great and the rest of them come out looking beautiful—very delicate, lacy, and lady-like, almost like an edible doily!

So for your next Saturday morning pancake and mimosa breakfast, why not impress your friends and family with some simple and light homemade crepes enjoyed on the porch with the shining morning sun?!

Crepes
Adapted from the Joy of Cooking

Makes about 5-8 large crepes depending on the size of your pan

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten well
2/3 cup milk
½ cup water
a pinch of salt

Dry Ingredients:
¾ cup flour
2-3 Tablespoons of sugar (optional)

1. Beat eggs. Add the rest of the wet ingredients, including salt.
2. Slowly sift the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and whisk in a quick motion to be sure there are no lumps.
3. Let the batter rest. It is best to rest the batter for one or more hours in the fridge, but we did not have the patience and rested the batter for a mere 10 minutes! (the crepes still turned out great!)
4. Spray a nonstick skillet or crepe pan with cooking oil spray (we tried some with butter, but found that the butter burned too fast).
5. Place on ladle-full of batter into the pan and swirl quickly to cover the pan, getting the batter as thin as possible.
6. With a spatula, slowly check the under edges for doneness.
7. Flip the crepe over and cook a few more minutes.
8. Transfer to a plate and cook up the rest of the crepes.
9. Sprinkle a topping of your choice over the crepes, fold it up, and eat!


Sweet Topping ideas:
-butter and salt with a pinch of sugar
-jam
-fruit: strawberries, figs, bananas nectarines…
-lemon and powdered sugar
-Nutella spread
-honey

Savory egg and cheese crepes

1. Follow directions for crepe batter but omit the sugar.
2. Cook one crepe on both sides.
3. With the crepe still on the hot pan, add cheese and crack an egg in the middle.
4. Fold it over and let everything get gooey and melted!
5. Repeat with remaining batter.

More savory crepe ideas:
-Cooked spinach, onion, mushroom and cheese
-Add some pesto
-Fresh herbs and cheese
-Chicken with the works
-Artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes
-Scrambled or fried egg with crumbled sausage