Painstaking gardener

Because of the congés d’été, almost every boulangerie in Paris shuts down for one month of vacation. Luckily it’s carefully coordinated with the other bakeries in each neighborhood so that Parisians never have to go too far to find fresh bread daily, one of life’s necessities in France.

le Boulanger de Monge

I see it as an excuse to leave the confines of my quartier and try other bakeries. Now that the weather in Paris has cooled down enough so that taking a stroll is possible without ending up feeling like you just crossed the desert, ending up drenched in sweat, I mètroed across Paris to a bakery on the rue des Martyrs which Clotilde confided had the best baguette aux cereales in Paris.

But as I arrived (after having to exit the first mètro due to a breakdown, then taking one bus and two mètros, which took about an hour including the time it took me persuading each driver and station agent to let me through using the canceled ticket I’d validated at the first mètro), the window shades were drawn and on the door was the all-too-familiar sign “Fermature pour les Congés”.

“Zut!”

Make that…“Merde!”

So yesterday, I hiked up towards the Pantheon to the rue Mouffetard, a rather well-known market street that I generally avoid since it’s rather pricey. Nevertheless, there’s some great places on that street and I wanted to return to le Boulanger de Monge.

(Update 10/08: Both Octave and Xavier Quere are now closed.)

On page #1 of Le Guide des Boulangeries de Paris, there are only three bakeries in Paris given the lofty 3-star status, and le Boulanger de Monge is one of the lucky few. It’s located at a busy intersection and there’s generally a queue of locals waiting for their daily bread. My first visit was a few months back with my friend Frank, and to be quite honest, I wasn’t won over.

In the window was a multi-layer cake, similar to a Napolean, with alternating layers of puff pastry and cream. Draped across the top were the broken end-shards of the cakes, which I suppose were meant to be decorative, but was suprisingly clunky and amateurish. The tarte aux pommes looked better, but tasted somewhat sec and not-really-all-that-interesting (especially in a city full of very interesting tartes aux pommes.) Perhaps it serves me right for ordering apple tart when apples aren’t in season. But since Frank wrote the book on apples, it just seemed like the right alignment of elements.

But what I came for was the bread.

Le Boulanger de Monge is an open bakery. The bakers are right there beside the patrons making the bread, everything in plain view; the organic flour, the bakers (dusted with organic flour), and the wood-fired ovens with crackly, fresh-baked bread emerging every so often. I loved the look of the levain bread, which is slashed prior to baking so comes out with a crusty sunburst baked into the surface. It’s perhaps the most beautiful bread I’ve seen in Paris. But when I got home and tasted it, I missed the sourdough-tang characteristic of my favorite levain bread from Poilâne (which deserves the 3-stars it got from the same guide), as well as the Bay Area’s Acme bakery. The bread also had a cake-like texture that crumbled when you cut it, rather than gluten-y nooks and crannies and holes, the appeal of well-crafted bread.

Yesterday I thought I would try their pain aux cereales, since as many of you know I am smitten with hearty breads chock-full grains and seeds. It cost a whopping 2.60€ for the small loaf they bundled up for me. From the looks of the exterior, I didn’t have high hopes for the loaf but ordered it anyways. When I hurried home and sliced it open, there were so few grains that I wondered where they got off calling it aux ceriales?

I suppose that I should have simply ordered a baguette, since that’s how these bread guides judge bakeries in Paris, so perhaps I need to go back since the third-time may be the proverbial charm. They did have beautiful looking little round cakes, which I will try next time; the chocolate ones in particular look rich and tasty.

Grilled Pizza on Memorial DayMemorial Day has roots, according to Wikipedia, in “decoration days,” post- and even pre-Civil War commemorations and celebrations where people gathered to decorate soldiers’ graves. Afterward they’d have a “dinner on the ground” — a potluck on tablecloths spread on the grass. I guess these potlucks are part of the spirit and the history of the barbecues and feasts we have as Memorial Day traditions today. So even if my friends and I didn’t to pause to remember fallen soldiers when we gathered this past weekend, at least maybe we can say that the barbecuing and feasting was in their honor led light. Here’s to you old soldiers, and thanks.

And boy was there was barbecuing and feasting. There were hotdogs and chickens and there were sausages. There were burgers and potato salad and deviled eggs. There were (this being Brooklyn) homemade pickles and handmade mustard. And there were ground chicken kabobs and grilled pizza. Maybe those last two stretch the traditions of Memorial Day a bit.

The chicken kabobs were simply ground chicken flavored with fresh herbs, along with onion, garlic, lemon, and lots of salt and pepper, grilled on wide, sword-shaped skewers. When I made them once before a friend said “oh, you’ve made fresh sausages.” That first time the kabobs stayed put, but this time they wanted to peel themselves off the skewers and lay down on the grill to cook like salty personal loans, herby burgers. This was no great disaster, judging by how quickly the party guests snatched them up. But still I’d like to know better how to keep them on the skewers. A friend with some experience in the matter suggested tying them in place, so maybe I’ll start practicing my butcher’s knot.

And for Memorial Day what could be more American than pizza? Cooking pizzas on a grill is quite easy, except for the part that’s always hard: stretching and pulling the dough to make a a thin crust. As usual, mine were fat and oblong, making for pizzas that were bready instead of crackery-crisp. Fortunately, the skilled and versatile Cathy Erway was on hand, and she got the knack of thin crusts down right away.

We’d prepped diligently and so had plenty of toppings: olive oil, canned tomatoes, minced fresh oregano, minced green garlic, chopped spinach, sliced mushrooms, prosciutto, anchovies, Parmesan and mozzarella. The toppings cooked up and melted down quickly on the thin-stretched dough, and the pizzas disappeared as fast as we could cook ‘em.

As for my own skills with stretching dough, well, as with the kabobs it’ll give me something to practice over the summer. I’ll have no problem trying either of them again and again and again . Until then, maybe you’ll have better luck with this recipe for ground chicken kabobs.

 
With Thanksgiving in the books, my thoughts are now firmly on Christmas baking. To me, that means lots of festive cookies and cakes and brownies and pies and such. But, really, it’s all about the cookies travel mugs wholesale.

Red velvet has become synonymous with the holidays. I’m sure these aren’t the only red desserts you’ll be seeing around the interwebs in the next few weeks. Red Velvet Cake is one of my favorite cakes, although I am pretty sure I’ve never made one. Note to self: Let’s fix that one of these days. But, I digress….

With these cookies, you can enjoy all the flavors of classic Red Velvet Cake in a cute little sandwich cookie.

You may recall that I recently partnered with Betty Crocker to have some fun creating recipes using their new Betty Crocker-Hershey’s products. I used their new Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix, added a little cocoa powder and red food coloring for the cookies. Then, I sandwiched them around cream cheese frosting mathconcept. The result is a compact and portable cousin of Red Velvet Cake!

These cookies are amazingly delicious. I don’t often use cookie mixes, but I was quite pleased with this one. For another shortcut, you can use canned frosting. If you want to make your own frosting, I suggest this one.

I love how festive these are! I think they would be just lovely packaged for a holiday gift or on a cookie tray at a holiday party. Plus, using a cookie mix makes them a great quick treat.

For more recipes using Betty Crocker-Hershey’s mixes, be sure to see these Cookies and Cream Filled Cupcakes and S’mores Swirl Brownies Singapore company formation.

Having had my share of baking lately, I wanted to try something I hadn’t made before. It still had to be sweet and not too tough. Recently my cousin had sent me this lovely bottle of cooking coconut oil which I wanted to use, and today I got my chance. I always thought coconut oil was good for hair but little did I know its other benefits. Coconut Oil is ideal for Cooking. Studies show that it is better for you than many of the other options on the market. Plus, it can help you with the good cholesterol that your body needs. We tend to always think of cholesterol as something bad but that doesn’t have to be the case.Many people like to cook with olive oil, but it is expensive. It is no secret that the economy is tough so people have to make cut backs where they can. Every dollar at the grocery store should be carefully calculated. The use of coconut oil for cooking can help you to get value in terms of your health and for taste. At the same time, it can help you to cut back what you are spending on items when you go shopping at the grocery store.There are several brands out there that you can select from, and that will influence the quality of what you get. It is a good idea to carefully evaluate the options on the market so that you can get something that works very well. Don’t be fooled by clever marketing ploys or the packaging End Point Backup. Read reviews online to find out what you should consider buying and what you should stay away from when it comes to coconut oil for cooking. One of the best coconut oils you can buy on the market is from Coconut-Oil-UK.Com. Some of the products offered are organic, and that can be something you are interested in to promote even better health benefits. Make sure you always read the labels carefully. There is both refined and unrefined options too, and there isn’t any evidence to suggest one may be better than the next. If your family enjoys sweets but you don’t want them to have all the bad that comes from them, change the recipe with coconut oil. You can use it to replace butter and Crisco to make pies, crusts, cookies, and more. If you want to encourage your family to eat more veggies, sauté them in a skillet on the stove with coconut oil. The taste is very pleasing and one that may even get your picky eaters to ask for seconds! The food you cook will taste different and it will smell different when you cook it with coconut oil. Most people find the smell and taste it creates to be very appealing. They seem to enjoy their food more and they feel great knowing that they have taking a small but significant step in eating healthier overall.

A little search on coconut oil and I found me a nice recipe that reminded me of my days in Ghana. These beautiful Amber coloured chewy candies are a household treat and unimaginably delicious. the flavour of the coconut is so mild and the caramel just perfect.

And on this sweet note and the Holy Occasion of Eid-ul-Adha may the blessings of Allah lighten up your way & lead you to happiness mathconcept, success and peace A very Happy Eid Mubarak to all of you.

Ingredients

adapted from Saveur

2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted, plus more for cutting caramels
1-16 oz. can coconut milk
? cup corn syrup
1 tsp. coarse sea salt
1? cup sugar
? cup water

Instructions

Line the bottom and sides of an 8″x8″ square baking dish with parchment and brush with coconut oil; set aside. Combine the coconut milk, corn syrup and sea salt in a 4-quart saucepan. Heat over medium low, stirring constantly for 2?-3 minutes until mixture is just warm and any coconut milk clumps are dissolved.Remove from heat and set aside. In an 8-quart saucepan, combine the sugar and the water and stir until sugar is wet. Place over medium high heat and let cook, without stirring, till the sugar turns a light amber colour. I made these by judgement as I did not have a candy thermometer. This should roughly take 10 minutes. Immediately remove from heat and pour melted sugar into the coconut milk mixture, a little at a time. Be careful, as the mixture will bubble and splash. Return saucepan to medium low heat, stirring continuously until all the caramel is dissolved. Raise the heat to medium high. If the mixture begins to boil over, reduce heat and continue to cook, stir continuously, and cook until caramel becomes quite thick. This could take a good 15 minutes. But just make sure the caramel is really thick. Immediately remove from heat and pour into the prepared pan. Let cool completely and cut into 1″ squares. Mine were a bit sticky so I put them in the fridge to set a little.Make it easier to cut them hong kong company setup.Brush your knife with melted coconut oil between cutting to avoid sticking. Wrap individually in wax paper squares. Store at room temperature.

Giada de Laurentiis joined Caryl Chinn for Easter

This is not an atypical text message from food festival doyenne Caryl Chinn, who recently joined sports and entertainment marketing firm Octagon as vice president of its new culinary division: "Are you free Sunday curly wigs? Barbara got a pound of caviar and we're chowing down!"

While they say people who work at Ben & Jerry's don't eat ice cream, throwing this kind of crazy dinner party is what Chinn enjoys doing on her days off. It's the food-world version of Dre Day every day, with ballers like Chinn's meat-master pal Ed Murphy, who will wake up early on a Saturday and decide that barbecuing pork shoulder for 12 hours is the perfect way to spend his morning, afternoon and evening. Not surprisingly, Murphy, GM of Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, is often in charge of the proteins at these dinner parties.

Nye-caryl-chinn

Caryl Chinn celebrated New Year's Eve with (clockwise from top left) Jet Tila, Betty Fraser, Barbara Brass, Ed Murphy, Mimi Mok, Aarti Sequiera, Manouschka Guerrier, Stef Kelly and Joe Moller.

These days, Chinn, whose recent credits include being executive director of Coastal Luxury Management's LA festival, often criss-crosses the country to develop events for Octagon. But when she's home in LA, she's sending out the most coveted invites in town, for 20-person gatherings much more exclusive and delicious than even the awards season parties where many members of Chinn's culinary club have cooked.

For Chinn's birthday, Giada De Laurentiis, the Food Network superstar who's now getting ready to open her first ever restaurant at the new Cromwell resort in Las Vegas, made three desserts while "The Next Food Network Star" champion Aarti Sequiera took care of the savory side with her gorgeous lamb palau.

Ed-murphy-brisket

Ed Murphy's brisket is Texas-worthy.

But Chinn's core cooking crew is a group that became known as Hoodwinked Catering after the night that Chinn, Murphy, entrepreneur Mimi Mok (now in the process of creating a gourmet market in LA) and private chef/Food Network personality Manouschka Guerrier were invited to an '80s supermodel's mansion and quickly found themselves alone in the kitchen cooking dinner for two dozen revelers they did not know. As they did their prep, Chinn concluded that they had been hoodwinked Natural stone, especially because the model's dinner guests thought the foursome were hired caterers.

Zoe-caryl-chinn

Zoe goes in for a New Year's Eve kiss.

Regulars at Hoodwinked Catering gatherings, often held in Chinn's West LA house or Murphy and Mok's Mid-City digs, also include Thai food expert and TV/radio personality Jet Tila, who just announced that he's taking over the kitchen at Pakpao Thai in Dallas; "Top Chef" alum Betty Fraser, who runs Hollywood's Grub restaurant and As You Like It Catering; Stef Kelly, who does double duty as the creator of chocolate treats including the award-winning Shmookie and as a big-hearted C-CAP cooking instructor for at-risk students; Joe Moller, an upper-tier event producer who recently ran the Downtown LA Art Walk; Barbara Brass, a Wolfgang Puck Catering executive who'll often arrive with the most extravagant wine and directions on how to pair it; and Zoe, Chinn's beloved French bulldog who is the sitting-in-your-lap star of many bashes.

Chinn moved to LA about three years ago. When she lived in Manhattan, she worked at Bon Appetit for a decade and collaborated with Lee Schrager to launch his New York festival. And at her home, there were, not surprisingly, dinner parties with Marcus Samuelsson and Tyler Florence cooking and Josh Wesson pouring wine. There was also the night Tom Colicchio, fresh off opening Craft, showed up late and started making himself a sandwich. Then Daniel Boulud asked Colicchio to make him one. A couple years later, Colicchio started slinging sandwiches at 'Wichcraft. We're going to believe that this was more than just a coincidence.

But often, it's chefs who don't cook for a living who make the food you will crave for all time.

Ed-murphy-pasta

Ed Murphy's epic baked pasta for NYE.

While Murphy once worked in Boston restaurants, he doesn't consider himself a professional chef. But his food is legendary. Tila has said that Murphy's pork and 10-hour brisket is the best barbecue in LA. And the first time we met Murphy, it was at Chinn's New Year's Eve party, where he brought an eggplant incaciata: a pound of baked pasta, a pound of sausage, a pound of mozzarella, all wrapped in eggplant and baked. It was a big night indeed.

Next month, Murphy is planning weekly themed dinner parties during the World Cup: Think lots of beef and maybe even choripan if Argentina is playing. But given that Chinn and friends are involved panamanian foundation, don't be shocked if it turns out to be yet another night of champagne wishes and caviar dreams.

Here are five of Chinn's most memorable parties:

The birthday bash: Two Food Network chefs, no waiting. After Sequiera's lamb palau, De Laurentiis' desserts included iced lemon cookies, a pumpkin cheesecake and an amaretto chocolate tart.

Giada-de-laurentiis-caryl-chinn-tart

Giada De Laurentiis piped apricot cream on her amaretto chocolate tart.

New Year's Eve: Tila brought over roasted Thai salmon with a green papaya salad, and Brass cooked four racks of lamb with herb butter. Moller made uni/caviar toasts, and we also remember having easy access to four containers of caviar (American hackleback, two Russian osetras, Chinese beluga). For dessert, Mok baked chocolate bouchons from a Thomas Keller recipe, and Fraser served strawberry and balsamic souffle with black pepper creme anglaise to guests including actor Chris Williams.

Betty-fraser-caryl-chinn

Betty Fraser served dessert to Chris Williams.

Fireworks and snow cream: Tila, who runs Kuma Snow Cream in Las Vegas, brought over his snow cream machine and all the requisite toppings on July 4. The taro cream was a refreshing ending to a summer soiree that also featured a mixed grill of tri-tip and sausages.

Jet-tila-caryl-chinn

Jet Tila working on his Kuma Snow Cream machine at Chinn's.

Easter paella: Yes, this was Easter, so there was lamb, potatoes and green beans. But what everyone lucky enough to attend remembers most is actor Andoni Gracia's paella, overlowing with head-on shrimp, clams and mussels. Because every Easter should have soccarat. Mixologist Rich Andreoli (Harvard and Stone) added to the festivities with Moscow Mules.

Seafood-paella

Seafood paella should become a new Easter tradition.

The caviar party: Guerrier's Facebook post says it all: "Barbara asked me make to make cappellini with butter & lemon. So I made angel hair in a lemon butter sauce with chives & then she SLAPPED on alllll this caviar on top... yup."

Caviar-spaghetti