Thursday, February 18, 2010

Technical Difficulties

Maybe someday I will actually become proficient at this blogging business.  Remember how I announced a few posts ago that you can actually follow my blog (meaning you will get updates when a new post appears)?

Apparently there was a big glitch in the system.  Duh, that would rest with me, the operator.  Some of you opened up the blog and alas, there was no "Follow" button.  Turns out the reason why is because you need to sign on to Google first.  Here's how it works:

Log onto http://www.nevertrustaskinnycook1.blogspot.com/, go to the upper right hand corner and click on "Sign In."  Enter your google username and password. Once you do that and go back to the blog, the "follow" button will show up on the top left next to "share."  You can then hit it and sign up.

If you don't have a google password, go to http://www.google.com/ and click on "Sign In" in the upper right hand corner. It will let let you create a username and password.

For those of you who care about this sort of thing, thank you.  For all of you who read this blog, THANK YOU!

Now can I get back to the business of cooking and writing about it?


While I am at it, here is a photo of my favorite dish in Cambodia.  It's called "Amok" and it is fish in coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves.  The type of fish varies, but it is often made with snake fish.  Despite the name, it is really good!  Will work on finding a recipe.

Chicken with Almond and Egg Sauce

  
    
French cuisine has its luscious sauces, and certainly plenty of cuisines can be rich in texture and taste.  This sauce from Spain is luscious in a more rustic, hearty way.  The almonds provide both texture and work as a thickener.  The flavors come from the egg, garlic and saffron, all working in a subtle, and I dare say seductive way.  At a minimum, this is a wonderfully different way to prepare chicken.  Serves 2.
     
Ingredients:
4 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 cloves garlic
1 slice bread
1 tbsp chicken stock
1 pinch saffron
1 hard-boiled egg yolk
2 chicken breasts
salt/pepper
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup sherry
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
1 pinch nutmeg
1 tbsp chopped parsely
      
Directions:
Warm 2 tbsp olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium-low heat.  Add the almonds and saute a few minutes to brown to a golden color.  Add the garlic and saute 1 minute more.  Spoon out the mixture into a food processor.  In the same pan, saute the bread until golden.  Tear the cooked bread into chunks and add to the almond mixture.  Crush the saffron and mix with the 1 tbsp of chicken stock in a small bowl.  Add with the egg yolk to the almond bread mixture.  Blend the mixture briefly in the processor until a paste is formed.
Wipe out the pan and the remaining 2 tbsp of oil over medium heat.  Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and brown in the pan a few minutes on both sides.  Add the 3/4 cup stock, sherry, bay leaf and thyme, cover and simmer perhaps 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  Remove the chicken from the pan and stir in the paste, simmering a little to reheat and thicken.  Serve with the nutmeg and parsley sprinkled on top if desired.
    

How to Make a Healthier Doner Kebab: Food Tip of the Day - Thursday, February 18th, 2010

A Healthy, Homemade Doner KebabA Doner kebab, here in the UK, is often perceived as being something purchased from a takeaway late at night, by those who have just left the pub, following a few, "Refreshments." There is in a sense a stigma attached to Doner kebabs in that they are only eaten whilst one is somewhat less than sober and it is fair to say that there are a great many who have never tasted a Doner kebab in the cold, grey light of day.

This is a great shame, as Doner kebabs in the form of their traditional creation are both delicious and made from (mostly) the finest quality cuts of lamb. It was following the discovery of an extremely thought-provoking blog post from a UK blogger by the name of Tim Bennett that I finally came up with my long pondered idea for a healthier option Doner kebab. I hope, therefore, that you will visit the link below and make and enjoy the recipe which you find there:

How to Make a Healthier Doner Kebab

Beard Awards season begins

February 18

The James Beard Foundation has released its long list of semifinalists for the James Beard Foundation Awards, following a tradition started two years ago when Josh Ozersky let the list leak when he was the grand poobah of Grub Street. Before then, just the finalists were announced.

This year, that will happen on March 22, and the winners will be awarded in an exceedingly long black tie ceremony at Avery Fisher Hall on May 3.

In the meantime, two rounds of voting are underway. First, starting today, judges will narrow down each category to five (or occasionally six) finalists, who will then be voted on by that same group of judges. The winner will have the opportunity to capitalize on the publicity. It’s generally very good for a chef to win a Beard Award. It doesn’t make him or her a better chef, but it can generate considerable publicity and revenue if the chefs play their cards right.

The nominees are already pretty well-known, at least in their markets, and quite often the same people are nominated year after year – although from what I’ve perused so far of the long list this year, there are quite a few new names, which is refreshing.

Mostly the Beard Awards are a feel-good popularity contest and a chance for the fine dining world to throw a series of big, fun parties. There’s nothing wrong with that.

And I consider two of the awards to be rather important: best new restaurant, and rising star.

The Rising Star award goes to a chef aged 30 or younger and can be a real career-maker. Past winners include Marcus Samuelsson, Andrew Carmellini, Grant Achatz, Chris Lee, Corey Lee, David Chang, Gavin Kaysen and, most recently, Nate Appelman. It’s a good award to win.

And best new restaurant, well, you only have one shot at it, and that alone makes it interesting.

Voting is done by former winners and food writers like me. But I’d like to give you a chance to vote, too.

So my new poll, as you can see in the upper right hand corner of this page, is your chance to make your pick for Rising Star chef of 2010.

Will this vote count in the actual selection process?

No, it will not.

Will it at least influence how I vote?

Again, no.

But it should be fun anyway, and it will give whichever chef wins a chance to promote himself or herself as the Food Writer’s Diary Rising Star Chef. It might not be as prestigious as the Beard Awards, although really, it depends on how you spin it.

And isn’t that true of any award?

Sourdough for Dummies



There is an air of mystique surrounding the making of sourdough bread.

Any fool can knock together a simple loaf using bought yeast cultures but it takes a special type of fool to attempt catching and nurturing these teeny organisms then harnessing their unique power to create a loaf of bread.



Sourdough appeals due to its infinite variety: the special combination of flavours, textures and smells that results from the singular terroir of an area. As pretentious as that sounds its true – the airborne yeast cultures, the flour and the water are all unique. Sourdough bread made in Paris will be noticeably different to one made in San Francisco.



Previous efforts have invariably resulted in failure. Flat, puddle like breads that spread out over trays like an overly ripe cheese. Bitter tasting efforts with dense centres more suitable for constructing buildings than contributing to breakfast.



But, by Jove, I think I’ve cracked it.

After two days relentless study and nearly a month of stirring, waiting, mixing, kneading, waiting and baking here is a completely foolproof, day-by-day guide to making that most magical of breads.



Sourdough Bread

This is undoubtedly slow food. But it’s certainly worth the effort.

Sourdough is made in three stages: first you create a starter dough. The starter dough is then used to make a sponge and the sponge used to make a loaf with a little held back as the next starter.



Beautifully and simply cyclical.

All you need to do is remember the following ratios:
50:50
60:40
70:30

That is to say, the starter should be half flour and half water. The sponge 60% flour and 40% water and the final loaf around 70% flour to 30% water.

Other than that the only ingredient is salt.

Salt performs two functions. Firstly it adds flavour to the bread but more importantly it inhibits the growth of bacteria which can quickly spoil a starter dough.

You’ll also need a largish jar with a lid.

Day One – mix together equal parts of white bread flour and water. Stir and pour into the jar. Leave the lid off for a few hours then loosely close it. Let it stand overnight in a warm place – between 16 and 18°C

Day Two – Pour off half the mixture and discard. Stir in equal parts flour and water, a little salt, close the lid and leave in the fridge. Why? Bacteria struggle to multiply at lower temperatures whereas yeasts flourish.

Day Three – repeat as day two but add some rye flour to the mix. Rye flour is high in natural yeast cultures. The mix should be bubbling away now and giving off a slightly acidic smell. This is good. If you fancy speeding up the process, leave the jar out of the fridge for a few hours to accelerate the fermentation.

Days Four, Five and Six – Repeat as above.

Day Seven – After a week your starter dough should be nicely fermented with a healthy ‘sour’ niff. It might even smell faintly boozy. Give it a stir then tip into a mixing bowl to make the sponge. Add flour and water to a ratio of 60:40 (go for about 180g flour – a mixture of white, wheat and rye if you wish – and 120g water) and a sprinkle of salt. Stir well and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place for 12-24 hours.

Day Eight – Pour half the sponge back into your (now clean) starter jar, stir in a 50:50 mix of flour and water and pop it back into the fridge. This only needs refreshing once every few days now.

Add flour and water in a ratio of roughly 70:30 (for a large loaf or two small ones you will probably need 420g flour and 180g water) and a pinch of salt. Stir to combine and then turn out onto a floured surface. The dough should be quite wet. Knead and add more flour as necessary to create a dough that doesn’t stick to the surface but retains its lax and slouchy feel. Knead well for 15 minutes or so then return to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to double in size. This could take anything up to three or four hours.

After the volume has doubled, turn the dough back out onto the floured surface, swiftly knock the air out of it and shape your loaf or loaves onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops liberally with flour and cover with a slightly damp tea towel. Leave to rise for another hour.

Preheat the oven to full whack and put a bowl of water on the bottom shelf. Slash the top of the loaf to allow the bread to rise properly in the oven (a phenomenon known as ‘oven spring’ as the gas bubbles inside the loaf quickly expand due to heat) and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 120°C and give it another 15-20 minutes. It’s ready when it sounds hollow when tapped on the base



For more 'loafing' around, why not potter over to Twitter?

Happy Valentine n Happy Chinese New Year

18 februari 2010, kamis

Agak2 telat ngucapin happy valentine n happy chinese new year for u all..haha, sori penyakit males menyerang, coz tiap hari bad mood trus ngadepin 2 anak yang berantem, 2 anak yang lagi memble, 2 anak yang lagi sakit flu. Nih penyakit uda mulai menyerang lagi...huuuuuuuuuu...cape nya. Mpe gw stress banget...parah dah, anak2 kena gw omelin trus..kacauuu.





Valentine tahun ini barengan ma Chinese New Year nih, berhubung ga ada suasana chinese new year nya, jadi ya kayak hari2 biasa dah, ga bikin acara special, ga bikin masak special, cuman bikin kue chocolate aja. Bikinnya bareng2 ama anak2, yang ada mereka nyomotin cream chocolate nya..mpe mukanya pada belepotan choco dah...haha,

Ah sinciaan, kalo di indo, biasa kita makan bareng2 di rumah popo. Pada ngumpul semua dari anak, cucu mpe cicit dah tuh, rameee banget, kadang2 kangen banget ma suasana keluarga di indo. Aaah ga tau kapan ya bisa kesempatan sinciaan lagi bareng fam di Indo??
Mungkin ga ada kesempatan kale ya?? soalnya ank2 sekolah pas bulan ini, ga ada liburnya..
ahhh kapan ya ??