Another cookbook for you to peruse! My daughter gave me this gem years ago and I'm embarrassed to admit this is the first time I have tried a recipe out of it. I read it, then set it aside. (Sorry, Tracy) A big mistake because it's not only filled with recipes for fabulous pastries, breads and desserts, but there are lots of luncheon and light dinner recipes as well. I rediscovered it last week ( I really, really need to organize my cookbook shelves!) and bookmarked several recipes in it.
So last week I made Coco au Miel (Coconut Honey Cakes). After reading the recipe I couldn't imagine how these would turn out. Hardly any flour, not too much sugar, lots of coconut and eggs. Sounds very sweet and quiche-like doesn't it? This was another of those third time's the charm recipes. Aren't you glad you have me testing these for you first?
I can't fault the directions, they are really simple and the batter takes less than 5 minutes to make. But they did say to fill the paper muffin liners nearly to the top. Don't. They overflow. Then it said to use paper liners. The muffin stuck to it and when you tried to take it out, the top came off. Well, just in case the recipe was a flop as well, I tasted it. Delicious! So OK, worth trying to fix.
I had a club luncheon to go to the other day and I was supposed to bring a dessert so decided to make my second attempt with Coco au Miel in a miniature muffin tin. I used the paper liners again, but sprayed them lightly with Pam. They looked great, tasted divine and released from their little liners with no problem. Dainty little tea cakes, a perfect mouthful.
But I wanted regular sized muffins as pictured in the cookbook. So I got out the recipe again, used regular paper liners and sprayed them with Pam. When they came out of the oven most of them released nicely, but you had to be really careful. Even then, mine did not look at all like the ones in the cookbook's photo which were much higher.
I suppose our humidity, oven temps, ingredients all may create slightly different results than Parisian pâstisseries. The next time I make this size I am going to forget the paper liners, lightly butter the pan and sprinkle fine bread crumbs all over. (That's what Maida Heatter does.) But honestly? This size is almost too much of a good thing. Know what I mean? Too much sweet.
So of the two versions, I had more success with the mini muffins. They are quite light but dense with coconut. When I cut one of the larger ones in half you can see how moist they are inside, although it kind of scrunched up and flattened out, you get the idea.
Crunchy on the outside, soft and divine inside. The minis retain that moistness and would make a lovely bite with a cup of tea.
Coco au Miel
(Coconut Honey Cakes)
From Paris Boulangerie Pâtisserie by Linda Dannenberg
Ingredients:
1- 1/4 cups whole milk
1- 1/4 teaspoons honey
2- 1/4 cups shredded coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1- 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs, room temperature, well beaten
Method:
Preheat oven to 400°. Line 10 muffin cups with paper liners, spray lightly with Pam and set aside.
In a saucepan, bring the milk and honey just to a boil, remove from heat and set aside.
In a bowl, mix the coconut, sugar, flour and baking powder. Add the milk slowly and stir until well mixed.
Stir in the beaten eggs. The mixture will be quite liquid. Spoon into the paper cups, about 3/4 full or a bit more. Each time you fill a cup, stir the mixture to redistribute the coconut.
Bake until the cakes are golden and a cake tester comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.
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"The English love a good fool, and a fruity old fool is even better. No, not the human kind — though they do delight in those as well — it's a fool for dessert."
Isn't that a great quote? Sorry I can't remember where I found it, but I can sure tell you about fools...
A fool is a traditional English dessert involving a puree of tangy, tart fruits mixed with sugar and whipped cream and chilled before serving. Supposedly the name of this dessert comes from the French verb fouler meaning pressed or crushed, and refers to the combination of crushed fruits and thick cream. It's a dish that's simple yet elegant. Fools, which date to the 1500s, share their British ancestry with syllabubs and trifles and may have laid the foundation for ice cream. They were custards originally, swirled with cooked and pureed fruit.
The British countryside is a paradise for berry lovers. It offers gooseberries, red currants, strawberries, raspberries."Blackberry fool was quite common; blackberries would have been in the hedgerows in August. Gooseberry also was common because they grew everywhere and they were easy to cultivate in your backyard." Of course nowadays, any fruit can be used: blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, mango and kiwi, as well as other seasonal fruit. Like rhubarb!
When making fruit fools please keep in mind that anytime you use fresh fruit there is no way to know, without tasting, the exact amount of sugar needed. So tasting is very important here. Make sure you taste the sweetened puree and adjust the sugar as needed. The same is true when you mix the puree with the whipped cream.
I think you'll really like Nigella's recipe...after all, who would know better about making a fruit fool than a British chef?
Nigella Lawson's Rhubarb Fool
To quote Nigella: "Make sure you use the rosiest, reddest rhubarb you can; that monster stuff, dredged up almost khaki at the very end of August, will not quite do here. And it's hardly seasonal to mention it, but of course the pinkest, purest, pucest stalks are the forced kind. No matter, you will want to eat this whenever you can. If you haven't got any vanilla sugar to hand (though you can have, just by leaving a vanilla pod or two in a jar of caster sugar for a few days, even less if you cut the pod up), use ordinary caster sugar and add a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to the cream when you whip it."
Ingredients:
1 kg ( a little over 2 pounds) rhubarb, trimmed and coarsely chopped
300g (1 1/3 cups) vanilla sugar
500ml ( I used 2 1/4 cups) double (heavy) cream
Method:
Preheat the oven to 375° F.
Mix the rhubarb and vanilla sugar together in an ovenproof dish. Do not add water. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the fruit is completely soft. Drain in a colander, or sieve, and pour the juice (you should have about 2 1/4 cups or so) into a saucepan, then heat and let bubble away until reduced by about half. Pour into a dish and leave to cool; do not, however, refrigerate as the syrup might crystallize and lose its fabulous bright clarity.
Puree the fruit until totally smooth, then cool and chill this as well.
Whip the cream in a large chilled bowl until lusciously thick but not stiff.
Carefully fold in the rhubarb puree, then some of the reduced juice, so the mixture is streaked, rather like raspberry ripple ice cream. Pour some of the reduced syrup on top and then put the rest in a glass jug so that people can add more, if they want, as they eat.
Serves 8.
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And what is gyōza you ask? Japanese potstickers, my dears. Something I adore and order every chance I get when I'm dining out. But make them from scratch at home? Never even considered it. And if it weren't for blogger buddies Amy and Lisa, I would still be eating these only at restaurants, never realizing how amazing these can be if you make them yourself.....oh my, what a difference. Night and day.
Gyōza originated in China, and it's said to have been introduced to Japan in late 17th century. You can cook them in various ways: deep-fried, boiled, steamed, or pan-fried. And they can be filled with only vegetables or in combination with meat. The most common filling combination would be shrimp, pork and cabbage. And just so you know, gyōza is pronounced hard "g" Gee--yo--zah.
First, let me tell you how I discovered this wonderful cookbook. I was introduced to Andrea Nguyen on Amy's blog in February. And then again on Lisa's blog in April. Those two posts convinced me I had to try my hand at these so I ordered the book. And I thought: I can do these! I think.
So the book arrived and has been staring me in the face ever since I received it. I've been procrastinating; no question the book was intimidating me. The photos, the talent this chef has. Amazing. It was starting to draw dust on the kitchen counter; my thinking was that sooner or later I would either force myself to make something or put it away. Have you ever done that? The problem is I don't cook a lot of Asian food (basic fried rice, shrimp with lobster sauce and sweet and sour pork are the only recipes I've ever made. How Chinese and simple can it get?) and I certainly had never made dumplings. A couple weeks ago I opened the book, read it cover to cover, reread Amy and Lisa's postings and then spent Saturday afternoon making these. Man, were they good. And not as difficult as I thought it would be. But the best thing is this: you can make them when you have time and freeze them!
My pleating/crimping is certainly not professional, but passable. Andrea ( and the rest of you talented Asian cooks) would probably cringe. The filling was wonderful and the only hesitation I have is the dipping sauce suggested for this particular recipe. I really didn't care for it. I fiddled with a couple others and finally came up with one that I liked, but I can see it's going to be an ongoing project to find a perfect sauce. Perhaps you already have your own favorite dipping sauces, so by all means, use them.
I am going to try to give you directions the way Andrea did in the book, so while this may sound a little long and involved, I'll try to simplify it as best I can. These really are not difficult to make, I promise! And so worth the time (there are periods of dough resting, so it took me a good part of an afternoon) it takes. Make them on a rainy day and freeze them. And I bet your kids can make the pleats better than I did!
Gyōza
(Japanese pork and shrimp pot stickers)
From Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen
Ingredients for the filling:
2 cups lightly packed, finely chopped napa cabbage
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus another 1/4 teaspoon
2 cloves garlic, minced and crushed into a paste
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons chopped Chinese chives or scallions (white and green parts)
6 ounces ground pork, coarsely chopped to loosen
1/3 pound medium shrimp, shelled, deveined and chopped
Scant 1/4 teaspoon sugar
Generous 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce or light (regular) soy sauce
1 tablespoon sake
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Canola oil or sesame oil or a combination of both, for frying
Ingredients for the dumplings:
10 ounces (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup just-boiled water
Ingredients for the dipping sauce:
(Mix together well so the sugar dissolves)
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons sugar
slivers of scallions
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon chile oil (optional)
Method for filling:
In a large bowl, toss the cabbage with the 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set aside for about 15 minutes to draw excess moisture from the cabbage. Drain in a fine mesh strainer, rinse with water and drain again. Place in a tea towel and wring out any excess moisture. You should end up with about 1/2 cup firmly packed cabbage.
Place the cabbage in a bowl and add the garlic, ginger, chives, pork and shrimp. Stir and ligihtly mash the ingredients so they start coming together.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, the sugar, pepper, soy sauce, sake and sesame oil. Pour over the cabbage mixture and stir, breaking up the larger chunks of pork until everything comes together in a cohesive, thick mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes to develop the flavors. You should have about 2 cups of filling. You may prepare this a day ahead and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before assembling the dumplings.
Method for the dumpling dough:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly dust with flour.
Have your filling ready to go because you will want to fill the dumplings right away.
Bring the water to a boil and remove from heat. Let stand about a minute.
Put the flour in the work bowl of a processor. (You can also make these by hand.) With the machine running, add the 3/4 cup of water in a steady stream through the feed tube. When all the water has been added, stop the machine and check the dough. It should look rough and feel soft but firm enough to hold its shape when pinched. Add water by the teaspoon or flour by the tablespoon if needed. (I didn't) Then run the machine for another 10 seconds to further knead and form a ball around the blade. Do not overwork the dough.
Flour a work surface and knead the dough for about 30 seconds for machine-made dough, 2 minutes for hand made dough. The resulting dough should be smooth and somewhat elastic.
Press on the dough; it should bounce back slightly, but leave a slight impression of your finger. Place the dough in a zip lock bag and seal tightly, expelling all the air. Allow to rest at room temperature for a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of 2 hours. The dough will steam up the bag and make it ear-lobe soft.
Method for shaping the dumplings:
Remove the dough from the bag, turn it out on a floured work surface and cut the dough in half. Return the other half to the bag, squeeze out the air and reseal.
Roll out the dough to a 1 inch thick log. Cut the log into about 16 pieces.
Dip all the sides of each piece in flour and form it into a scallop shape. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin and roll out to a perfect circle about 3 1/4 inches in diameter. (I covered the remaining pieces with a cloth and filled each one as I finished rolling it out.)
Hold the wrapper in a slightly cupped hand and place about 1 tablespoon of the filling slightly off center on the dough. (At this point I dipped my finger in water and damped the edge half way around.) Fold the dumpling in half and press lightly to seal. Pleat and press into a half moon shape and place on the floured parchment paper. Keep the dumplings covered with a dry kitchen towel while you finish working. Proceed with the remaining pieces and then remove the rest of the dough from the zip lock bag and repeat the procedure. At this point you can cover and refrigerate or freeze the dumplings. They will keep in the freezer for up to a month. Partially thaw and smooth over any cracks with your fingers before cooking.
Method for cooking the dumplings:
In large non-stick skillet, place 2 parts canola oil to 1 part sesame oil. Add the dumplings (it's OK if they touch each other) sealed side up. Fry for a few minutes until golden brown on the bottom. Carefully, add about 1/3 cup water. It will boil and bubble. Cover the skillet with a lid or aluminum foil and lower the heat to medium. Cook until the water is nearly gone, about 8 to 10 minutes. After 8-10 minutes, remove the top slightly to allow the steam to escape. When you hear a frying sound, remove the lid entirely and allow to fry another 2 minutes or so until the dumplings are brown and crisp on the bottoms. Remove from pan and serve with the bottoms up so they remain crisp. Serve with dipping sauce.
