Springtime Treats - Macaroons!

 One of my favorite springtime treats is the macaroon.  These delights are not necessarily seasonal, but I have always found their pastel prettiness to coincide nicely with daffodils, chocolate bunnies and pink ribbons. 

    

    Now these are kind of tricky to make the first time out.  The good news is that even if they are a little deformed, few people will turn them down.  So a few tips to help you:  

1.  Do not use a tiny little oven where the heating element is only 2 inches away from the macaroons.  You may burn the darlings and cause your kitchen to fill with smoke.  And your smoke alarm might go off.  (I may have had some personal experience with this). 

2.  Try using an oven with a window so you can check your progress and hopefully avoid the debacle from #1. 

3.  You will probably have to break out the scale to measure the ingredients:

125g/4½oz confectioner's sugar 

125g/4½oz ground almonds (may have to hit up a gourmet store for this)

2 tbsp water

110g/4oz granulated sugar

your favorite ganache, buttercream, or whipped cream for filling

optional:  your favorite food coloring and decorations

 

1.    Preheat the oven to 170/C/325F/Gas 5 and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

2.    Put the icing sugar, ground almonds and 40g/1½oz egg whites together in a large bowl and mix to a paste.

3.    Put the water and caster sugar in a small pan and heat gently to melt the sugar, then turn up the heat and boil until the mixture starts to go syrupy and thickens - I don’t use a thermometer but if you prefer to use one, it should read 115C/239F at this stage.

4.    Whisk the remaining 50g/2oz egg whites in a small bowl until medium-stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl, then pour in the sugar syrup, whisking until the mixture becomes stiff and shiny. For coloured macaroons, add a few drops of food colouring. Tip this meringue mixture into the almond paste mixture and stir gently until the becomes stiff and shiny again.

5.    Spoon into the piping bag. Pipe a little mixture under each corner of the baking paper to stop it sliding around. With the bag held vertically, pipe 4cm/1½in flat circles onto the lined tray, about 2cm/¾in apart, twisting the bag after each one. The mixture should be quite loose to give a smooth finish. The piping will leave a small ‘tip’ on each circle so, when they’re all piped, give the tray 2–3 slams on a flat surface to flatten them. At this stage, sprinkle with desiccated coconut if you want.

6.   Leave to stand for 30 minutes to form a skin then bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes with the door slightly ajar until firm. Remove from the oven, lift the paper off the baking tray and leave the macaroons to cool on the paper. When cool, sandwich the macaroons together with filling.

recipe from Lorraine Pascal, BBC Good Food's Baking Made Easy 

The British Sweet Tooth - Bakery Treats in London

One of our favorite activities on vacations is exploring local bakeries.  London has many from which to choose, but the good news is that if you are in South Kensington and you have just eaten at Byron, you are only a couple of steps from Hummingbird Bakery and a couple more steps away from Ben's Cookies.  Now, you may ask yourself, who on earth shops at a bakery after eating an enormous hamburger (complete with cheese and bacon), fries, a large beer, a large chocolate malted, and courgette fries?  Why, Major Obvious, naturally.  And the offspring of Major Obvious.

So, what to get when you arrive?  How to choose?  Our favorites from Ben's Cookies are Coconut and Dark Chocolate Chunk.  My university Big Sister swears by Lemon.  At Hummingbird Bakery, the Red Velvet Cake is extremely attractive, but not particularly flavorful and tragically lacking pecans on the cream cheese frosting.  The Carrot Cake, on the other hand, is pretty tasty, if tooth-achingly sweet.

Byron - The Sequel at Old Brompton Road, London

It was very naive of me to think that I could partake in a euphoric Burger Experience all by myself without any consequences.  My family insisted on trying Byron out for themselves, so we skipped over to the Old Brompton Rd. one which is conveniently located to those great South Kensington museums like the Natural History Museum or the Victoria & Albert. 

Major Obvious had the Byron Burger complete with homemade special Byron sauce and bacon.  Little Man tried the Macaroni & Cheese while Sweet Pea had the Mini Cheeseburgers (both children's meals came with generous helpings of fries).  Everyone loved the Courgette Fries.  To cap everything off, we also ordered a chocolate milkshake with malt.  The shake came served in the tin canister, large and in charge.  Super chocolate-y, super decadent.  We had 2 servers and both were extremely friendly.  When they asked, "How is everything?" Sweet Pea responded (pointing to the shake canister), "This is YUMMY!"  Our server responded with eyes lit up, "I KNOW!  You know what's even better?  OREO."  Well, we had to leave something to look forward to next time! 

The Best Sushi I've Had In The UK - Atari Ya, London

I've FINALLY eaten sushi here in the UK that I find noteworthy!  To be fair, I haven't conducted an exhaustive search.  I tend to shy away when someone comes up to me, "There is a new sushi joint in X, we should try it out."  Rather, I'm more inclined to research and poll, asking questions such as, "Is it Japanese-operated?"  (Although I am Chinese, I do not trust my people to prepare raw fish for my consumption.  We are too inclined to cut corners).  "What are they known for?"  (If it's a place that does mostly rolls with imitation crab, I will run in the other direction).

I am pleased to report that Atari Ya is definitely Japanese.  On an early Saturday evening, my family and I attempted to eat here, only to realize that every table had a little "Reserved" sign on it.  One Japanese family after another came in and happily ordered lovely looking meals.  The waitstaff was particularly gracious to them and us, even though we had opted to just takeaway.

We ordered sashimi (yellowtail, tuna, salmon), nigiri (fattiest tuna), rolls (spider, spicy tuna, cucumber avocado), chirashi, chicken teriyaki, shrimp tempura, and edamame.  Ok, I will admit that I was really hungry when I was ordering.

Everything was delicious!  Everything was awesome!  I can't wait to go there and sit down to eat.

Hoarders Beware: Coconut Cream and Coconut Pancakes

There are some ingredients that I seem to have a lot of difficulty finding at the grocery store when I need them.  One of these is cream of coconut, aka coconut cream.  In America, this ingredient is not stocked with baking ingredients, but with liquor and cocktail ingredients.  In the UK, I can't really begin to tell you where it is located. 

Because I have so much trouble with this ingredient, whenever I see it while I'm roaming the aisles, I will usually just throw it into the grocery cart.  It never goes bad and I save myself the problem of having to relocate it at a later date.  The problem with this strategy is that I often do not take inventory of my pantry.  Imagine my surprise when, two weekends ago, I discovered that I had been hoarding SIX cans of coconut cream.  4 were from the commissary and 2 were from Waitrose.  Shame on me! 

Now, another problem is that apart from the occasional coconut cake, I don't use coconut cream very often (hence my difficulty in locating it at the store).  I did a little research today and realized, to my delight, that I could just use some imagination and basically substitute it for milk or coconut milk in a lot of recipes.  Soon, ideas for coconut tapioca pudding, coconut bread pudding, and coconut rice came to my head.  And since I had been craving pancakes for a couple of days, I decided that we all needed to have coconut pancakes for afternoon tea.  As Jamie Oliver would say, the cream coconut "worked a treat" and I was pleased with the results.  These pancakes have the same texture as regular pancakes (and no crunchy little coconut bits, which some people really abhor).

Coconut Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk (or regular milk with some lemon juice squirted in and left to sit for a few minutes)
1 cup cream of coconut
vegetable oil/butter

1.  Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In another bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and cream of coconut.

2.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk to combine.  Stop whisking once everything is combined. 

3.  Heat a pancake griddle or frying pan, add some oil or butter to prevent the cakes from sticking (be generous with this...these cakes seem stickier than regular ones).  Cook the pancakes until bubbles appear all over the batter.  Flip the pancakes and continue cooking them for a minute or two longer.

4.  These are so sweet that I don't think they need any syrup, but if you want a real treat, warm up some maple syrup and sprinkle with chopped pecans or macadamia nuts. 

Byron - A Tasty Burger in London

The quest for the perfect burger in the UK poses a fun challenge.  Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant chain gives you a fine one, but unfortunately, the burger changes.  Sometimes it's Italian-inspired, other times it's more American.  The quality of ingredients is always high, but often the flavor isn't exactly what I'm seeking at that moment.

Byron, the London chain that has multiple locations, offers a consistent burger that thankfully pushes all my buttons.  It's like someone picked into my brain and came up with 3 characteristics that I most love about hamburgers, putting them all together.  From the American school of burger-making, the meat is not manhandled too much into a dense hockey puck.  The sandwich takes advantage of its British roots and comes with a sharp, tangy mature cheddar cheese.  And the coup de gras is that the burger is charred on the outside, pink all the way through and even a little bit raw in the middle, which the French embrace.

Now, not everyone would want mature cheddar or a rare, bloody hamburger.  Byron thoughtfully allows you to specify how well-done you'd like the meat and allows you to choose from a variety of cheeses that include Monterey Jack and American.  You can also get bacon, portobello mushrooms and avocado.  You can choose the condiments.  A default burger comes with iceberg lettuce, tomato, red onion, and a bit of mayonnaise.  There are a million choices to be made, which I think also comes from the American school of dining.

But wait!  Your choices aren't over yet!  What sides do you want?  You can have french fries, special skin-on chips, courgette fries (gorgeously straddling the line between tempura and beer-battered), and macaroni and cheese.  There's also milkshakes and fun American-inspired desserts like cheesecake, brownies or a sundae (which the Brits insist on calling Knickerbocker Glory). 

When it comes to describing this marvelous culinary treat, I think Homer Simpson says it best, "Mmmm.....burger."

Hyde Perk Bistro - London

Somehow I ended up with the chance to see Totem, the latest Cirque du Soleil show, at the Royal Albert  Hall in London.  Amanda and I had an hour to kill before curtain, so we wandered by Hyde Park in search of some munchies.  We dodged the raindrops and came across the Hyde Perk Bistro, a cozy little venue with a surprisingly extensive menu.  There were pre- and post-theatre meal options along with breakfast served all day and specials like the lovely leek, potato, and rocket soup I enjoyed.  Amanda got the pain au chocolate and hot chocolate (gotta give props to a girl who lives large and orders everything chocolate).  After our meal, we ordered takeaway sandwiches for our journey home after the show.  I happily chewed my brie, cranberry and lettuce on walnut bread as we drove through Old Brompton Road and saw the National History Museum, the Victoria & Albert, Harrod's and Harvey Nichols.  My compatriot's sandwich looked just as delicious with its mozzarella, tomato and pesto goodness inside an enormous ciabatta.  Hyde Perk was such a great, lucky find on a rainy afternoon!