Tanta Robinatag:www.tantarobina.com,2009:mephisto/Mephisto Noh-Varr2008-12-15T01:26:17ZFrancescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-12-15:8552008-12-15T01:24:00Z2008-12-15T01:26:17ZBread workshop
<img src="/assets/2008/12/15/proofing_baskets_400.jpg" height="300" alt="focaccia" width="400" />
<p>I know, I know… I've been a flake.</p>
<p>I just got back from the Bay Area after spending a week at the <a href="http://www.sfbi.com/">San Francisco Baking Institute</a> where I took the first of many bread baking workshops: Artisan Bread 1.</p>
<p>I have only one word for my experience there: <b>fabulous</b>.</p>
<p>As soon as I process my photos, collect my notes, survive a heavy social schedule and catch up on my laundry and stuff… I'll blog properly about the workshop. For now, I can tell you that it was definitely worth the money and even the discomforts caused by a long commute on public transportation.</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-10-15:8402008-10-15T23:05:00Z2008-10-16T04:06:48ZToo many bubbles
<img src="/assets/2008/10/15/rosmarino.jpg" height="300" alt="focaccia" width="400" />
<p>The close-up looks good. It's easy to cheat in macro mode, n'est ce pas?</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/10/15/lunar_scape.jpg" height="300" alt="focaccia" width="400" />
<p>Zoom out and you start seeing the lunarscape.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/10/15/lunar_scape2.jpg" height="300" alt="focaccia" width="400" />
<p>Zoom out a little bit more and all the bubbles come into view. I am sure they are not supposed to be there. They weren't there when I made focaccia last weekend and had not time to take pictures. There's nothing like being ready to photograph a project to make it all go haywire.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/10/15/salt_bubbles.jpg" height="300" alt="focaccia dough" width="400" />
<p>I knew the dough was too gassy early on and did my best to degas it, but the bubbles had more will power than I have bread making skills. I think part of the problem may be that I can't accurately weigh tiny amounts of yeast. How am I supposed to weigh 0.85 grams of yeast for the poolish and 4.8 grams for the dough?</p>
<p>Help?</p>
<p>The good thing is that it does taste good and so far I've been able to keep <i>you-know-who</i> from attacking it.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/10/15/pipie_stool2.jpg" height="533" alt="focaccia dough" width="400" />
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-10-14:8322008-10-14T03:00:00Z2008-10-14T03:05:23ZCedar paper and stuff
<p>My baking internship fell through. Bummer.</p>
<p>I went in this morning for my orientation only to find out that they couldn't have me as an intern after all. It's all to do with me not being enrolled in school anymore and not being covered by the school's insurance. For all effects and purposes, the externship (as the school calls it) is like a class but at a different location and the school covers students if any accident should happen. The bakery I have been talking to can't afford the liability of an intern who is not really an intern. I asked if there is any possibility of a part-time position with no pay, just to learn, but it's not looking good. I'll have to come up with another plan. It's just that for the past ten days I thought that this was a done deal so I've been rather bummed today.</p>
<p>On the way home I stopped at Whole Foods for groceries and I guess I was feeling a bit down and in need of something special so I noticed something that had probably been there all the time and never caught my eye before: <a href="http://fireandflavor.com/product_full_list.asp?Cat=2&SubCat=5">cedar sheets</a>.</p>
<p>I bought a package of four 6x9 inches sheets of cedar paper, actually wood sheets and tonight put together an improvised dish that ended up being quite good. I used the cedar paper to wrap two fillets of Pacific Orange Snapper garnished with a fine Julienne of scallions and zucchini and seasoned with some finely grated fresh ginger and lemon and orange zest, a touch of salt and pepper… tied the wraps with twine and baked at 400ºF for… hmm… 7-8 minutes I think. I sauteed more of the scallion and zucchini julienne to add as garnish and threw in some slow roasted tomatoes for good measure. Not that the roasted tomatoes really went well with that dish, but that's what I had handy so shoot me. Bread, white wine, and it all turned out well.</p>
<p>Oh, and to finish it all off, a shot glass of nocino, just because. Which reminds me… I am almost out of nocino. Anybody in Italy wants to send me a good bottle? Pleaaase?</p>
<p>Okay, I'll stop feeling sorry for myself; losing the internship is not a big deal. It just happened on a day when I had an hour and a half of sleep and I don't do well with sleep deprivation.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I had a wonderful Saturday with two friends visiting and spending the day with me, eating, drinking, knitting, chatting, and being designated laps for Kelvin, who likes nothing better than lap variety. And I made a mighty good focaccia, if I may say so myself. Of course all the credit goes to Peter Reinhart's recipe; a LOT of work, but oh so tasty.</p>
<p>No pics of dinner or Saturday's lunch either. It's either cooking or taking pictures. It's especially hard to take pictures while cooking something new and when I have no expectations of how it'll turn out. Well, that's it for now. You all have a good week.</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-10-06:8252008-10-06T21:35:00Z2008-10-06T21:37:41ZThe next step
<p>A week of been busy doing nothing: trying to catch up with admin chores I have no hope of getting caught up with any time soon… spending my birthday worrying and cleaning up after Pipie who was sick for a few days (he's all better now after getting fluids, shots, pills, antibiotics and a special diet)… baking focaccia with a new recipe that must have had a typo in one of the ingredient amounts, and a bunch of other uneventful non-stuff. Oh yes, and some sudoku and solitaire playing… something I hadn't done in ages. I guess I needed some time off from anything real.</p>
<p>But I'm back now. Yesterday, Ben and I had a pow-wow to discuss our short- to mid-range plans. Nothing set in stone, just some general guidelines for our immediate future which will include me getting back to web development while I try to learn more about bread baking. Talking of which, there may be an internship at a local bakery sometime soon, if things work out.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/10/6/cheese_rolls4.jpg" height="300" alt="cheese rolls" width="400" />
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-09-29:8102008-09-29T23:45:00Z2008-09-29T23:53:25ZCurve in the road
<p>The last term at school gave me some time to reflect on what I've learned, what I want to learn, and how this culinary program fits me. You may be surprised to hear that this morning I handed in my letter of withdrawal from school. In retrospect, I think I took an academic term to give myself the time to think without the stress of a regular cooking term. Even though I was taking three classes, academics are a lot less demanding physically and psychologically.</p>
<p>Various reasons combined to convince me that continuing with this program would not be in my best interest. For one thing, the cost is excessive for someone who is not pursuing a restaurant career, and recent changes in the way the program is structured and managed have made the money/value ratio even less appealing to me. Classes are getting more and more crowded and even the best chefs cannot undo the damage caused by management. It's really a shame, because I loved my chefs and learned a lot from them, but how much can you get out of a class with more than 30 students competing for stove space and equipment or an academic class with 40+ students, half of which are either talking or eating or texting or taking and making phone calls?</p>
<p>The other big issue, and probably the most compelling, is that I have become interested in baking – and more specifically bread baking – and there is none of that left in the rest of the culinary program. I considered switching to the baking program, but only a small part of that is dedicated to bread; most of it is about cakes, pastries, chocolates, plated desserts and so on. In the end, if I really want to learn more about making bread, I'll have to do that somewhere else.</p>
<p>As a start, I signed up for a few workshops at the <a href="http://www.sfbi.com/calendar.html">San Francisco Baking Institute</a> and will be taking my first 5-day class in December. In the meantime, I'll practice as much as I can to make the most of my short stays up north.</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-09-26:8032008-09-26T20:35:00Z2008-09-26T20:38:14ZSubstitutions
<img src="/assets/2008/9/25/sherbet.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>As part of my nutrition class I had a cooking project, the only one in the past six weeks given that I've been on an academic term. The project was to take a recipe and prepare two versions of it: a regular batch and one with either reduced fat+salt or reduced fat+sugar.</p>
<p>We worked in small groups and my team worked on two versions of <a href="http://www.tantarobina.com/2008/8/19/if-i-had-to-save-one-nut">biscotti alla nocciola</a>. Our biscuits and this group's sherbet were the most successful projects. Too bad I forgot to take pictures until the last minute, when all our cookies had been wiped out.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/25/sherbet2.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>The requirements were to reduce the overall fat and sugar content by at least 25% and make the items look and taste like the original recipe. Not an easy task, as we soon found out.</p>
<p>I took care of research and experimenting with the formula and made the first two batches at home. For the modified version, I switched from European to American butter (slightly less fat), reduced the amount of butter and added an egg white to help keep the dough together. The biscuits came out too hard and dry and I showed them to my math instructor, a French chef who is really into baking. He tried them and suggested using unsweetened apple sauce to the dough to add back some softness. This required some additional fudging with the ingredients' ratios because the apple sauce, though unsweetened, increased the sugar content. But it all worked out in the end.</p>
<p>My team members prepared the production batches for class using the apple sauce and no egg white. The trick worked beautifully and our class mates were divided almost exactly in half when they had to tell the cookies apart. I was really happy with the result because we met all the requirements of the project without resorting to artificial sweeteners, as other teams did. The savory projects were not very successful and it was really obvious which batches had reduced fat and salt. It was definitely an interesting assignment.</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-09-25:8002008-09-25T16:00:00Z2008-09-25T16:06:34ZSharing the loave
<img src="/assets/2008/9/24/limpa_gnawed3.jpg" width="400 height=">
<p class="caption">Innocent… </p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/24/pipie_guilty.jpg" width="400 height=">…until proven guilty</p>
<p>Pipie is an equal opportunity sampler: Italian, Swedish, Armenian, American, you name it, he'll try it.</p>
<p>And like it.</p>
<p>And come back to the scene of the crime for more.</p>
<p>You should have seen him during the subsequent sugar crash.</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-09-24:7992008-09-24T22:40:00Z2008-09-24T22:44:32ZSwedish Bakery
<p>In my quest for good bread, I've been exploring ethnic bakeries.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/24/limpa2.jpg" width="400 height=">
<p class="caption">A typical Swedish bread: limpa.</p>
<p>This was my first taste of limpa bread. Finally a rye bread without caraway seeds so we could find out whether we really dislike rye or not. As it turns out, Ben does not like rye, while I didn't like the caraway seeds that usually come with it. This bread is quite flavorful and pairs rye flour with subtle orange zest and stronger anise seeds. For me, a successful combination.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/24/olive2.jpg" width="400 height=">
<p>But I would buy this bread just to look at it.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/24/rosemary2.jpg" width="400 height=">
<img src="/assets/2008/9/24/rosemary7.jpg" width="400 height=">
<p>Our freezer is filled primarily with baked goods these days.</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-09-24:7922008-09-24T03:00:00Z2008-09-24T03:08:15ZNatas in LA
<p><a href="http://www.nataspastries.com/">Natas Pastries</a>, in Sherman Oaks, is the only Portuguese pastry shop in Los Angeles.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/natas_sign.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<p>We went for breakfast last weekend and tried out several of their pastries. I loved the <i>natas</i> and the double expresso. At first I thought it was a Portuguese version of American coffee, because it arrived in a very large cup, but it was really good and quite close to an Italian espresso, just much larger.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/bar_corner.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<p>I was so impressed with it that I ordered another one, this time a single espresso. This turned out to be the same amount of coffee as the double, but more watery. It's okay. Whenever I go to a place for the first time, I like to try as many things as possible to get a good feel for what it offers. Next time, I'll stick to double espresso.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/my_plate.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<p>Aside for <i>natas</i>, I tried a fruit tart and a small doughnut-like thingie I can't remember the name of. The look of it reminded me of an Italian <i>bombolone</i>, but it was different. Bomboloni are larger, hollow and filled with custard. The Portuguese version is smaller and denser, with no hollow pocket inside.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/fruit_tarts.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<p class="caption">Fruit tarts… I love them.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/natas.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<p class="caption">And these are the "natas".</p>
<p>At first glance, they reminded me of Italian pastries, but the shell dough is closer to phyllo than puff pastry or the typical <i>pasta frolla</i> dough used in a lot of Italian cakes and mignon pastry. The custard filling is not unlike the <i>crema</i> in a lot of Italian pastry items, such as cannoli alla crema. I am probably saying blasphemy here from the point of view someone from Portugal, but what I mean is, the stuff is good and I am going back. :)</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/sala.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<p class="caption">The café sports an old world décor with gleaming dark wood tables and chairs, and some of the feel of European cafés.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/tiles.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<p class="caption">Blue tiles here and there add to the Portuguese ambience.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/vetrina.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/outside_seats.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<img src="/assets/2008/9/20/natas_tiles.jpg" height="300" alt="Natas Bakery" width="400" />
<p>You may have noticed a baking theme in my latest posts… did I mention my jeans are getting tighter?</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-08-24:7582008-08-24T21:25:00Z2008-08-24T21:27:44ZBrioche Modane
<p>My last bread workshop last term was about brioche and my favorite version was <i>brioche Modane</i>, so last night I prepared the dough, let it ferment, punched it down and refrigerated overnight and today I made two brioches Modane.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/24/modane1_cut2.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>Along the way I made a few mistakes, but the pastry gods took pity on me and the brioches came out smelling and tasting awesome, regardless of poor shaping and the near explosion of one.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/24/modane1_open.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>I am not 100% sure, but I suspect that overproofing may be the cause. At first I blamed the agressive scoring, but after baking the second Modane – scored more conservatively – it became evident that it still puffed up too much.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/24/proofing.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>Proofing is still a bit of a mystery to me and I am never quite sure when something is right for the oven.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/24/modane1_slashed.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p class="caption">The first brioche, scored a bit too enthusiastically.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/24/modane1_whole.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p class="caption">You can see how the pastry cream pushed through the slashes and broke the dough around the second slash.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/24/modane2_scored2.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p class="caption">The second brioche.</p>
<p>I may have left the second brioche in the oven too long. We haven't cut it yet, so I'll find out when I slices it for the freezer. In any case, I love the taste and smell of it. The golden raisins soaked in Grand Marnier and the darker raisins soaked in Brandy really add to the aroma and overall flavor. Booze… such a wonderful thing.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/24/modane2.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-08-19:7432008-08-19T00:40:00Z2008-08-24T21:13:57ZIf I had to save one nut
<p>If I could save only one kind of nut from extinction, it would be hazelnuts, and I wouldn't even have to think about it. I've never met a hazelnut I didn't like, period. They can come in any form, hiding in mashed potatoes, crusted around a trout, homogenized in gelato, as the main ingredient in biscotti and cakes… I love them all.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/19/biscotti_nocciola_240.jpg" height="320" alt="" width="240" />
<p>So when I saw a <a href="http://fiordizucca.blogspot.com/2008/08/biscotti-alle-nocciole.html">recipe for hazelnut biscotti</a> on one of the food blogs I check more or less regularly (<a href="http://fiordizucca.blogspot.com/">Fior di zucca</a>), I had to try it. The recipe is super easy, conveniently given both in English and Italian, and the <i>biscottini</i> came out fragrant and delicious.</p>
<p>I replaced the whole hazelnuts with hazelnut meal, since I had it handy, but that shouldn't make any difference since the recipe calls for grinding hazelnuts. The only real difference is that they should be peeled and my hazelnut meal includes ground skin. Those of you who've been around here for a while, know that I like rustic dishes more than super-licked "creations" and won't be surprised that I actually prefer this version. Hey, does that count as fiber?</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/19/biscotti_nocciola3.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>I still haven't decided if I prefer the biscotti with or without powdered sugar.</p>
<p>By the way, anybody has suggestions on how to store biscotti (cookies)?</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-08-17:7412008-08-17T18:40:00Z2008-08-24T21:13:46ZNew plan
<p>Tomorrow my classmates will move on to Baking 2 while I start an academic term: Math 2, Nutrition, Culinary World History. That way I can take a bit of a break and then have only cooking classes to deal with for the subsequent three terms.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7562840.stm">Michael Phelps diet</a> <i>sans</i> swimming has finally caught up with me and for the first time since starting school I am putting on weight. I guess I'd better cut on the carbs or take up competitive swimming. But not today. In fact I am heading to the kitchen to make some whole wheat dinner rolls.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/17/rolls.jpg" height="300" width="400" />
<p>And then I'll read about how to make home made ricotta on the September issue of <i>Saveur</i>. I've tried the lemon juice recipe but honestly that's fake ricotta, just as bad as the grainy stuff at the supermarket. The recipe on <i>Saveur</i> is still not the way ricotta is made in Italy, but it seems the best approximation you can do at home and I am going to give it a try. At least it calls for rennet and not lemon juice or vinegar.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/17/ricotta.jpg" height="300" width="400" />
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-08-15:7332008-08-15T16:50:00Z2008-08-24T21:13:30ZBaking retrospective
<p>When I started this blog, I meant to document as much as possible of my experience in culinary school. This term, between the lab module, the math class, putting together a monster notebook – no longer required but what's the point of investing this kind of money and energy if I don't do my best to preserve what I'm learning? – I didn't post much about school. So, here is a six-week retrospective for your viewing pleasure.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/baking_week1.png" height="407" alt="" width="404" />
<p class="caption"><i>Épi bread</i>, baguettes, whole wheat dinner rolls, <i>challah</i>, <i>pain de mie</i>, <i>brioche à tête</i>, <i>brioche Nanterre</i>, pretzels, bagels, pizza, focaccia, whole wheat pita.</p>
<p>My favorite week.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/baking_week2.png" height="407" alt="" width="404" />
<p class="caption">Cinnamon rolls, rye bread, pumpernickel bread, beignets, doughnuts, sourdough bread, Danish turnovers, pinwheels, envelopes, bear claws and frames, croissants, and pains au chocolat.</p>
<p>My other favorite week, if it weren't for the unbearable heat in the lab and the butter oozing out every which way from my laminated doughs. Still, everyone in our household loves croissants, and I stocked the freezer with individually wrapped Danish and croissants for many breakfasts to come.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/baking_week3.png" height="508" alt="" width="404" />
<p class="caption">Crème pâtissière, crème diplomate, puff pastry, vol-au-vents, shrimp à l'Americaine, palmiers, Napoléon, pate à choux, cream puffs, swans, éclairs, caramel, nougatine, croquembouche.<p>
<p>Not a bad week, other than the whole day we dedicated to <i>croquembouche</i>. It was an exercise in frustration and for what? It's not like you can actually eat the damn thing; it's dry, sticky, unwieldy and I can see no purpose to it other than trying to impress someone with your pastry assembly skills. Not worth the effort; give me something I can sink my teeth into. The shrimp dish, on the other hand, was delicious, and the éclairs disappeared quicker than you can say "Pipie!" Choux pastry on its own is on the dry side, but fill it with cream and it's a whole 'nother story.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/baking_week4.png" height="508" alt="" width="404" />
<p class="caption">American pie dough, apple pie, berry pie, <i>pâte brisée</i>, <i>quiche Lorraine</i>, chicken pot pie, <i>pâte sucrée</i>, pound cake (a.k.a. <i>quatres quarts</i>), muffins, scones, biscuits, fresh fruit tart, <i>ganache</i>, raspberry chocolate tart, poached pears, pear <i>frangipane</i> tart, lemon meringue tart.</p>
<p>With the only caveat that all American desserts are way too sweet for an Italian palate, the pound cake, muffins and especially the fresh fruit tart were very satisfying.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/baking_week5.png" height="407" alt="" width="404" />
<p class="caption">Two ways to make sponge cake (cold separated method and warm method), Italian buttercream, Swiss buttercream, French buttercream, American buttercream (a.k.a. decorators' icing), piping roses, leaves and borders, buffet cake, celebration cake, cheese cake, meringue noisette and Marjolaine.</p>
<p>A week of sugar and butter excess and over the top decoration. Oh, and pastel colors don't do it for me either.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/bread_workshops.png" height="509" alt="" width="404" />
<p class="caption">Baguettes, focaccia, épi, fougasse, laminated dough, croissants, pains au chocolat, bagels, challah, brioche Modane, fruit brioche (a.k.a. Swiss brioche), sausage in a brioche (no photo), and another kind of brioche I forgot the name of.</p>
<p>The best part of <i>Baking 1</i> – aside from the first week – was been able to take a few Saturday bread baking workshops. Bread… can you tell I'm really getting into it?</p>
<p>For the most part, each workshop dealt with something we had already baked in our <i>Baking 1</i> class, but using entirely different recipes, working with different chefs and in a different lab on the main campus, as opposed to our baking facilities in South Pasadena. Lab 5 is the production kitchen for the school café and has some pretty spiffy equipment such as a walk-in rotating oven and a sheeter for laminated dough.</p>
<p>The chefs in the regular courses have no latitude in terms of modifying recipes and the recipes themselves are picked for didactical purposes, how they related to each other in a sequence to build up skills, etc. rather than for their individual virtues. Because of that, we end up using recipes that are not always the best. The workshops, on the other hand, have no such restrictions and every single product that came out of those Saturday afternoons was much better than those baked in class. We also benefited from the chefs preparing preferments ahead of time, and yes, you can make bread without them, but everything tastes better with a preferment. Or maybe they put some recreational drug in the flour, who knows…</p>
<p>By the way, Ben has a theory that pasta from Italy is more popular than pasta made outside of Italy because wheat in Italy grows in fields sprinkled with poppies. We have collected no scientific proof of addiction to Italian pasta so far, but you never know. :)</p>
<p>And now, off to school for my last day of this term. The menu today is deep cleaning and exit interviews.</p>
Francescatag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-08-14:7322008-08-14T03:05:00Z2008-08-24T21:13:20ZBaking 1 finals
<p>How do you like my telescopic fork?</p>
<p>It was a gift from a friend a while back (hey, Laura, where did you buy it? I'm getting requests) and I'd been waiting for the right occasion to use it. This is finals week for my <i>Baking 1</i> class and today seemed just like the perfect time to do something silly; you know… stress and all that.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/p1040189.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>My menu for today was focaccia and cream puffs. I did good on the focaccia, at least from the locals' point of view. What they call <i>focaccia</i> here is similar to what we call <i>spianata</i> in Romagna, but our <i>spianata</i> is more flat. There is so much regional variation in Italian dishes that it's hard to tell what's what sometimes, and living in California doesn't really help straighten things out. The locals have funny ideas about what qualifies as Italian; don't even get me started.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/p1040163.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>Anyway, being that I had to follow the school's recipe for <i>focaccia</i>, I had to make it quite poofy and fluffy. <i>Check.</i></p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/p1040157.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>My version is less rich than others I've seen in class (olives, caramelized onions…), and I like it that way: just sea salt crystals and fresh rosemary.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/p1040162.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>With the cream puffs, I didn't use enough cream. I hadn't realized that they needed to be filled more and on top of that, once we set things out for the chefs to grade and left the lab, the heat deflated the cream and the tops ended up sitting on the puff bases. Oh, well…</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/p1040152.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>But my boys always like what I bring home. The focaccia was partly eaten at dinner and partly frozen. We'll see how the freezing part works out. So far, it's been a mixed bag. Some baked items freeze wonderfully; others not so well. It's all a big experiment.</p>
<img src="/assets/2008/8/14/p1040178.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="400" />
<p>I know I've been silent for a while. Things have just been hectic and having both a lab class and an academic class this term has sucked up all my time. Next term I'm going to take only academic classes which means losing the group I've been with for the past three months, but I need to take a breather.</p>
<p>The new schedule should also mean that I'll be able to blog more regularly.</p>
Bentag:www.tantarobina.com,2008-07-28:7272008-07-28T19:55:00Z2008-07-28T20:01:53ZOunce of Wisdom
<p>I stumbled upon a useful bit of knowledge today. Since many of you, like me, are <em>not</em> professionally trained in the language of recip<em>ese</em>, I thought I should share.</p>
<p>When a recipe calls for “<strong>1 ¼-oz. unflavored gelatin</strong>”, this means to use <em>one packet, a quarter-ounce in size</em> (the standard size dry packet). It does <strong><em>NOT</em></strong> mean to use <strong><em>1¼ OUNCES</em></strong> (a whole box) of gelatin. Of sticky, gooey, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7488627.stm">solid-as-a-jiggly-rock-when-you-use-five-times-the-recommended-amount</a> gelatin.</p>
<p>And that’s all I have to say about that.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/2008/7/28/ounces.jpg" height="300" alt="Bad" width="400"></p>
<p>PS: Also, should you happen to make that (very understandable, and natural, and possibly even <em>commendable</em>) mistake, I'd recommend that you detach the whisk and throw out the concoction (whole, as a single piece of... whatever it is) instead of trying to flush it down the drain. I would imagine (<em>imagine! no direct experience!</em>) that the drain would resist.</p>
<p>PPS: Also recommended is waiting for your spouse to be away for the day when trying new recipes, especially those with poorly thought-out typographic conventions. And have extra Liquid Plumr on hand at all times.</p>