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Macaron Me!

In the last week or so, I have taken upon myself the task of Macaron making. I was foraying into unknown territory and what an adventure! So new was I to these trendy meringue-like confections that I initially got them confused with macaroons! Note the additional 'o'. Although both are made with similar ingredients of grounded almonds or almond-meal, sugar and eggwhites, macaroons have shredded coconut folded into the meringue and is baked till crispy on the outside and chewy inside. Macarons however, has no coconut and are more like shells to be sandwiched with any flavoured creams and fillings. The latter can be incredibly temperamental and success is subject to so many technical elements. But the endless choice of flavoured fillings and textural bliss of a good macaron can make your taste buds sing!

I tasted my first Macaron at a tea-party more than a year ago and noted the interesting texture and flavour but didn't think too much about it. Afterall, I'm not a fan of pure meringues as they're too sweet for my liking. It was not until I went to Hong Kong for my honeymoon and saw for myself that macarons were all the rage in town, so I thought I should see what the fuss is all about. So my hubby and I bought 6 Jean-Paul Hévin macarons ranging from pure chocolate to bergamot and I guiltily admit that we ate all of it in a matter of 2 minutes? But even more shameless is the fact that we turned and walked back to the chocolatier and bought more! Hehe..

Since I took up food blogging, I have been looking at several food blogs on the internet, clicking on their links to more food blogs and I noticed that almost every food enthusiast have attempted macarons. As a newbie to the world of blogging, I too wanted a share of this experience. But like the fool, I jumped straight into my first attempt without researching the recipe and technique properly so my first trial was a SPECTACULAR FAILURE! They weren't macarons at all: more like flat discs with holes, no ruffled feet, a dull complexion and the chewiest consistency ever. Needless to say, the whole batch ended in the bin. I should have taken photos but I was so disappointed at the result that I wasn't in the mood to photograph them. I should have.

5 days later, I decided to try again. This time, I used the recipe from Serious Eats which was in turn adapted from A La Cuisine and other various food blogs. There was a slight improvement (the macarons finally have feet) and I made sure I folded the mixture until it flowed like 'magma' BUT it was my heavy-handedness in piping the batter that made the macarons turn out more like a fudge cake and the feet was too flared out from the crusted shells. I might have overmixed the batter too. This is what it looked like.

Not satisfied, I tried again, this time following everything by the book as best as I could except for point 2:-

• Aged the egg whites for 24 hours at room temperature
• This was not in the recipe but I added cream of tartar when the eggwhites were foamy from beating. This stabilizes the beaten eggwhites and contributes to its volume.
• Folded the dry ingredients into the stiff eggwhite mix until it flows like 'magma' or so I think.
• Piped smaller rounds, apparently the piped mix will spread about 1 cm more.
• Let the piped macarons sit for 2 hours until a crust/skin develops. Apparently some say this is not such an important step. 30 minutes will suffice but I think it depends on temperature and humidity.
• Baked it in a 160C oven with a wooden spoon wedged between the oven and door to prevent the shells from burning. You want them cooked but not browned.

And the results:

• Nice shiny shell
• Nice ruffled feet
• Initial bite was a crunch, followed by a slightly soft chewy meringue-like consistency
• No air-pocket between shell and feet. Phew.....

Notes for improvement:-

• I think the batter was slightly overmixed, so might lessen the mixing time a little next time.
• Process the almond mill and icing sugar before sifting.
• Continue experimenting with different techniques especially with Italian Meringue which requires warm syrup to be poured into the eggwhites. I must experiment with Pierre Hermé's recipes. He's an acclaimed french pâtissier who's considered to be the guru of Macarons!
• Go easy on the rose flavouring. The purple macaron (which was laced with sifted crushed lavender) was overpowered by the rose flavoured buttercream which reminded my friend of Hazeline snow! (That white stuff you put on your face).
• Experiment with various fillings!

Ahhhh...so much to learn! It never ends...

With that, I leave you with pictures of my purple and green macarons. The third batch ones.

Baked shells cooling 

Purple and Green shells

Stack of macarons. Green ones were sandwiched with chocolate ganache laced with orange curacao and purple ones with hazeline snow, er I mean rose flavoured buttercream

Bite!

Curry Pillow Pastries

Curry pillows - Sort of curry puff, sort of samosa but I'm sticking to curry 'pillows' based on their shapely resemblance. Besides, original Malaysian curry puffs are made with a different pastry (with shortening or ghee) and the 'fat' pastry is rolled with a 'water' pastry which contributes to its layers and flakiness. They are then deep-fried like samosas. For my curry pillows, I used short-crust pastry instead and opted to bake them in place of deep-frying. As my colleague requested a vegetarian number, I left out the chicken in this recipe but it's still tasty! And the short-crust pastry is very buttery and melts in the mouth so that works for me.

Next time, I shall make the real deal, curry puffs, fried and with the lot including hard boiled eggs (Think of the RM 1 IKEA karipap..SUPER DUPER YUM - my favourite)

Anyway, Kel, this one's for you. Feel free to adjust the seasoning (salt, sugar and soy sauce) according to taste. I reduced the curry powder because mine is extremely spicy. If you haven't got time to make the short-crust pastry, you can substitute it with frozen puff pastry. 

Ingredients

Short Crust Pastry

400g  plain flour

200 g butter - chilled

1 egg - lightly beaten

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon cold water (or enough to form dough)

pinch of salt

extra egg - beaten for egg wash.

Method

1. In a large bowl, sift the flour, salt and sugar. Cut the butter into cubes and place in the flour
2. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Make a well in the middle and add in the beaten egg and water.  With a butter knife, work the mixture together until it forms a rough ball or the dried ingredients have absorbed the moisture. 
4. If mixture is too sticky, add a little more flour.
5. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and with your hands, gather the dough into a smooth ball.
6. Wrap pastry in cling wrap and chill for 20 minutes before using.

Ingredients

Potato Filling

5 potatoes - washed and peeled

1 cup frozen peas

1 - 2 onions - finely chopped

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon of salt OR to taste

1/2 cup coriander leaves - chopped

Method

1. Boil the whole potatoes till tender.
2. Drain the water and mash the potatoes.
3. In a pan or wok, dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds until fragrant. Be careful not to burn them. The idea is to keep tossing them over the heat for about 1 minute or till the aroma's released.
4. With a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder, grind the seeds to powder.
5. Heat oil in a wok or pan.
6. Toss in the mustard seeds ( Alert~! the seeds tend to pop so don't stand too close)
7. Add in chopped onions and fry until translucent (approximately 1.5 to 2 minutes)
8. Add in the mashed potatoes, peas, grinded spices, curry powder, turmeric powder, soy sauce, sugar and salt and incorporate them well into the potato, in a cut and mash motion. Adjust seasoning to taste.
9. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously, so the potatoes don't stick to the wok/pan.
10. Stir in the chopped coriander leaves
11. Leave to cool.
12. Preheat oven to 200C and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper
13. Split pastry into 2.
14. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry with a rolling pin until about 3mm thick
15. Score straight lines on the pastry and cut out 8 cm x 6 cm rectangles.
16. Place a big tablespoonful of potato filling at the top edge of the rectangle, fold in the sides and roll to the end.
17. Pinch sides to seal and neaten the 'pillow' by squaring it up with your finger tips.
18. Place on lined baking tray.
19. With a fork, make patterns by pressing the sealed edges down and then turning the fork, use the back of it to press it back into the main body. Make a few holes at the top of each 'pillow'
20. Repeat until all pastry (including the offcuts) is used up.
21. Brush each 'pillow' with eggwash
22. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes until 'pillow' is golden brown.
23. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 20-25 pieces

Notes/Tips:

• You can substitute the short-crust pastry with store-bought puff pastry.
• Use ice cold water and try not to handle the pastry too much as this might cause pastry to toughen instead of a buttery short texture.
• You must chill the dough for at least 20 minutes to relax the dough and make it easier to roll-out.
• Add curry leaves, chicken or beef mince to the filling for added flavour.
• You can use cumin and coriander powder readily available from stores, but dry-roasting and grinding the seeds just before adding to cooking is much more aromatic. 

Corn Fritters for Dinner?

Given that I've been plagued by weeks of insomnia, my sense of time has gone all topsy-turvy! Even dragging myself to cook today was an achievement as I'm really really tired. But as insomnia goes, no matter how zonked you are, you just can't sleep. My frazzled brain decided that Corn Fritters (usually a breakfast item) would be the order of tonight's dinner menu.

Ok...not entirely true.

My brain is definitely fried from sleep deprivation but I've chosen corn fritters because a colleague at work requested for a recipe of something vegetarian, a snack that could be eaten outdoors like at a picnic and one of the first things that popped into mind was corn fritters: easy, tasty and versatile.

I've adapted a recipe from 'The Australian Women's Weekly, COOK" and used Besan(chickpea) flour instead of Polenta and added some vegetable stock powder to flavour the fritters and it turned out quite yummy. This is not the deep-fried version but more of a patty or pancake. We shall explore the deep-fried one next time.

Here goes.......

Ingredients

1 cup Besan (chickpea flour)

1/2 cup self-raising flour

50g butter - melted

3/4 cup milk

1 egg - beaten lightly

1 1/2 teaspoon vegetable stock powder

1/2 red capsicum - diced

1 onion - chopped

1 cup corn kernels, drained*

1 cup chopped coriander

salt to taste

Optional: 1/2 cup grated cheese.

*I used 2 x supersweet corn on the cob, zapped in their husks in  the microwave for 4 minutes and then cut the kernels off the cob with a knife.

Method

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Heat up a lightly oiled frying pan ( olive spray will do) and spoon tablespoonfuls of batter onto the pan, spreading into a round.
3. Cook for about 2 minutes each side or until fritter is browned lightly and cooked through.
4. Remove from pan
5. Repeat with remaining batter.

Makes 8 fritters

Serving Suggestions

• Breakfast - Serve with chunky tomato salsa and sour cream, garnished with coriander or flat-leaf parsley, topped with a perfect sunny-side up egg and a side of buttered mushrooms.

• Outdoors - Make a dip of sour cream and sweet chilli sauce and freshly chopped chive.

• Something light - Tear off corn fritters into chunks and toss them in a salad of greens, tomatoes and a light olive oil vinaigrette dressing.

Enjoy!

Note to self: How about making the batter thicker, then roll it into balls, and served with creamed corn  soup. Corny enough? :P

Stack em' high!

Cherry Tomato from the garden.

Cloudy With A Chance of Fluffy Pandan Chiffon Cake...

Today I continued my trip down memory lane; this time with Pandan Chiffon Cake, one that mom used to make very often in the early 90's when we were still living in Old Klang Road. I remember I was only allowed to stir the thick green batter with a wooden spoon and not touch the egg whites. That was when I first mused to myself that eggwhites must be for grown ups only and not to be trusted in the hands of an 8 year old. Mom has often commented that Chiffon cakes are temperamental, "Aihhh, sometimes they rise so high and stay that way and sometimes the cake just sinks immediately after baking". With that in mind, I did not attempt to make any, UNTIL the Chinatown store in Melbourne suddenly stopped selling those Chiffon cakes. I was dismayed. I have to try somehow to make it.

So Chiffon Cake - Dreamy or Nightmare?

Fortunately, mine turned out super dreamy today, so pillowy soft and fluffy and moist. I was thoroughly surprised. I have previously made an Orange Chiffon cake following the recipe from Joy of Baking  and it was good but I did not own the proper Chiffon Tube Cake pan then and I prefer pandan to orange.

I'm still in the process of tweaking the recipe as I've been researching other websites and blogs to have an idea of what makes up the Chiffon Cake. Most of the simple ingredients used are the same but the quantities differ. I've hazarded a guess today with the flour quantity but the end result was worth it! I used 9 egg whites and 8 of the yolks instead of 7 and 6 respectively as listed on Joy of Baking only because I think the chiffon cake pan is bigger than a normal tube pan?

The cake kept it's height and most importantly, it was light. I suppose to obtain that result, there shouldn't be too much flour and the cooking oil does contribute to the moistness of the cake. Other basic pointers are to ensure the egg whites are well beatened and volumnised, folded gently and not stirred, not opening the door whilst the cake is baking and inverting the cake immediately after it's cooked. Oh and do not grease the tube pan at all! This will help the batter cling to the cake pan to achieve its height.

I will post a finalised recipe soon. Until then, enjoy the photos of my latest endeavor.

Pandan (Screwpine leaves). Got a more concentrated extract by pounding the leaves with a little water and then squeezing the juice out by hand through a muslin cloth rather than blending it in the machine. 

I bought these frozen from Wing Cheong Asian grocery store in Chinatown. If you're in luck, you might find fresh ones at Springvale and Footscray markets.

Natural green aromatic extract from the leaves

Cumulonimbus cloud of beaten egg-whites folded into the green batter.

Chiffon Cake Tube Pan

The finished product

The texture is akin to "Boing!" "Boing! fluffiness.