Homemade Marshmallows: How to Say "I Love You"

Spring puts me in the candy-making mood and since I have a bunch of ingredients I need to use up before I leave, I decided to make a (large) batch of marshmallows. These fluffy concoctions are insanely easy to make, albeit a little messy. Whip up a batch for yourself, dunk them in melted chocolate and box them up for the ones you love. Because sometimes, nothing says “I love you” more than a carton of fluffy sweetness ♥


MARSHMALLOWS (makes approx. 4 dozen bite-size squares)

Non-stick spray
¼ cup icing sugar
¼ cup cornstarch

3 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water
1 ½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Combine icing sugar and cornstarch. Spray a 9 x 9 baking pan with non-stick spray. Sift about a quarter of the sugar and cornstarch mixture over the pan. Shake the tray so that the mixture coats the pan evenly. Shake off any excess and set aside.

Combine the gelatin and ½ cup of the cold water in a large bowl. Set aside. Combine the remaining water with the sugar, salt and corn syrup in a saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes. Remove lid and continue to cook until the mixture reaches approximately 240°F then remove from heat immediately.

Pour heated mixture slowly into the gelatin mixture. Whisk the mixture with an electrical mixer on low speed. Slowly increase the mixer speed to high and whisk for roughly 12 to 15 minutes until the mixture triples in volume and becomes really thick. Add the vanilla near the end of whisking.

Pour the thickened mixture into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly with a spatula. Dust the top of the mixture with some of the leftover sugar-cornstarch mixture. Leave the mixture to set in the pan for at least 4 hours or overnight.

When the mixture has set completely, cut into small squares with a well-oiled knife or cut into desired shapes with an oiled cutter.

Dust marshmallows with more of the sugar-cornstarch mixture. OR, if you want to do what I did, melt and temper some chocolate (I used milk chocolate) and when the chocolate is relatively cool, dip the marshmallows into it and coat evenly. Leave to set. Dunked in milk chocolate, the marshmallows taste like little bites of hot cocoa :)

(A rushed wrapping job :p )

Finally, box them up real nice and give to the ones you love! Happy spring to everyone!

The Joys of Cilantro

Sunday.

I was absolutely NOT in the mood to set half a toe out of the house and of course, in order to maintain some form of justice in the world, laziness must entail SOME sort of sacrifice. Well, in this case, it was a sacrifice pertaining to dinner (one of the three most important meals of the day).

I didn't want to go out...but at the same time, there was almost nothing that was dinner-worthy in the house. I had a tub of pig’s brain in the freezer but I wasn’t really in pig’s brain mood. So, still adamant about staying cocooned in apartment 23, I had to pull together something from the random bits of everything I could find. Mmmm…sounds appealing already doesn’t it?

I DID just stock up on eggs…but eggs alone for dinner? How unsatisfying. This is where the wonderful Cilantro makes its grand entrance.

I LOVE Cilantro. Absolutely love it. To me, cilantro is summer in a handful. Its deep, fresh green color, strong flavor and fragrant smell spell out L.O.V.E in the mind of Dorothy. Forget scented candles – break out a few bunches of Cilantro and set it in the room. Well…at least it works for me.

I had a good supply of that happy herb in the fridge, leftover from a previous meal at home. Beautiful, beautiful cilantro. I ended up making an egg “roll” – one of the most insanely flexible meals ever. I had a bit of rice to go with the egg. But since I felt like being peasant-extravagant, I flavored the rice with a few drops of sesame oil (one of the most useful things to have in any kitchen) and topped it with a little bit of pork floss. That’s right…I’m living the high life!

I have the recipe for the egg roll below but it’s pretty much redundant since ingredients AND measurements can vary according to personal taste.

Egg Roll with Cilantro, Pork Floss and other things…

3 eggs, lightly beaten
A large handful of chopped **fresh** cilantro
A handful of shredded random vegetables (I had a bag of coleslaw veggies lying around so in they went)
A good sprinkle of pork floss
½ tablespoon light soy sauce
½ tablespoon sesame oil

Combine all ingredients. Oil (NOT with the sesame oil - sesame oil gets mixed with the other ingredients) and heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Pour about a third of the mixture into the skillet and spread evenly so that the whole skillet is covered. Wait until the mixture is somewhat set, then start rolling the egg into a single roll. Move the roll to the edge of the skillet. Add a little more of the mixture to the pan and again, spread over the pan. Wait to set. Then roll the first roll into the second layer. Repeat with the rest of the mixture until you have one giant roll.
Remove from heat. Cut the roll into even sized slices. Arrange around a bowl of sesame-oil rice.

Eat.

And to end the night, I plopped 2 large spoonfuls of plain yogurt into a bowl and topped with blueberries and fresh strawberries. Yes, random bits of everything can be very very good!

Good Friends, Good Food

I'm still lamenting my return to LA after having spent a (beautiful) week in New York. But there's one thing that consoles me: being back in LA means being back in the kitchen. I was reading Julia Child's My Life in France during my stay in Manhattan and not only was it an absolutely delightful read, I could feel myself itching to get back and make something. Yes, I might as well confess it out loud - when I was in NY, part of me missed Los Angeles...but ONLY for the kitchen!!

Truth is, not a lot makes me happier than cooking for people I like. It's really not JUST the food (although, of course, that makes up a huge chunk of it) but the idea as a whole. Argh, it's hard to put into words...the point is, I already had my heart set on cooking for the girls the first weekend we all got back. Saturday.

I decided to go with a Salmone in Cartoccio dish with herb and cheese puffs on the side. I'd never made this before but I think I now LOVE this cooking method (baking the fish in individual parchment "steam packets")! When reading My Life in France, one thing that really caught my attention was Julia Child's description of the beurre blanc sauce (Butter, white wine vinegar, flavored with shallots). There was a copy of the recipe in the book and I knew I HAD to try it...so in a way, I guess going with the fish was just an excuse to try out the beurre blanc. Julia Child called it a "wonder sauce" and she was soooooo right!!!! At first, I was scared that it would be overkill if I added the sauce to the Salmon...but thank God I DID add it. It's now officially my new favorite sauce. Thank you Julia.

And what's food without wine? Of course, I'm still only a poor college kid so I had to make do with whatever we could afford. At least most cheap wine doesn't taste like absolute shit anymore - especially whites...which was good since that was what we went with. Quickly whipped up a couple of bellinis which, in my mind, are perfect when paired with salmon...and CATCHING UP!!

Foodwise, the real highlight of the night, though, was the pomegranate gin cocktail. Sososososososo good! I bought the world's cutest cocktail glasses as well so you can only imagine how stoked I was (great drink in a great cup...yes, I'm a huge serveware nerd).

And to round off the night, I made a coffee mousse cake. Yes, this was the labor of love (it took 2 days to prepare). A sponge cake base (which was dipped in vanilla syrup), topped with caramel latte biscotti and a coffee mousse. This dessert was actually an adaptation of a recipe from Claire Clark's Indulge (I bought the book a week ago and it's GREAT! I can't wait to try more things from it). The original asks for an almond sponge flavored with marzipan but: a) I was too lazy to do that and b) having blown enough money on serveware and cooking supplies already in the past few weeks, my wallet wasn't in the mood to ""splurge"" on marzipan. It also uses amaretti but neither Ralph's or Whole Foods carried it (I'm surprised they didn't at least have it at Whole Foods!) - I would NEVER have had this problem if I was back on the Upper West Side...I could just pop into Zabar's! Oh well, I used biscotti instead and it still worked fine. This dessert also gave me an excuse to try out the chocolate transfer sheets I got in New York (YES - I FINALLY have transfer sheets!!)

This was my second attempt at the whole individual mousse delices thing and, though far from perfect, I'm slowly getting the hang of it (my first go was a white chocolate and hazelnut delice...but I hated it and didn't bother taking photos at all. We shall not mention it again). I'm having a mousse cake phase right now so if you happen to live near me...I'm VERY sorry - you're going to have to put up with a lot of those in the next few weeks.

And again, with transfer sheet chocolate discs

All in all, I loved Saturday. I'm hoping I'll have more time to cook this term (after all, I do have 2 days off school). In all honesty, this is all you need: Good Friends, Good Food, (Good) Wine

...oh, and Love!!

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Pomegranate Gin Cocktail

2 parts gin

1 part Simple syrup

1 part lime juice

1/2 part pomegranate molasses

Shake in a cockatil shaker with ice. Strain into tall glass and top with slub soda.

It's Cold Outside

I hate crowds. HATE them.

So you can only imagine what I felt when Bernard and I walked into Hop Li (proper and full review to come soon) to see forty people crammed up against the front counter. It was absolutely horrible. We waited for over half an hour without even being able to get so much as our names down on the waiting list.

OK, I admit it…it was stupid of me not to make reservations on Christmas night. Really stupid. But still, it was ridiculously crowded! Eventually, we decided to get a take-out order to bring back home instead. It's no wonder Hop Li was crowded, the food is amazing.

After dinner, I made a quick dessert with what scraps of supplies I had lying around the house. I decided to make a batch of Dorie Greenspan’s Korova cookies. Now, I’ve made these before and know that this recipe produces amazing cookies but still, to me, cookies don’t really make a satisfying after-dinner dessert. To get around this problem, instead of making a batch of small cookies, I made two large cookies and served each one with a scoop of ice cream and Christmasy sprinkles (the recipe is below).

The recipe didn’t fail me – the cookies turned out great. The only problem was that, since the cookie is naturally REALLY crumbly (which is one reason why the cookie is so good), it becomes really difficult to remove from the baking sheet in one piece when it’s one huge cookie. One cookie broke into pieces when I tried to put it onto a plate…but it didn’t matter – it still tasted great. The crumbly texture also makes it perfect for eating with a spoon (which we needed to do since I added a scoop of ice cream on top!) I also used white chocolate chunks in my cookies instead of dark chocolate…just because I love white chocolate :)

Good food, no crowds. Merry Christmas.

(Yes, I KNOW fortune cookies are un-Chinese...but they taste fucking great!! I could eat a whole bag of those. My fortune this time said "The world will soon be ready to receive your talents". Awesome, now I just have to find a talent for the world to receive)

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Korova Cookies (ingredient quantities makes 2 large cookies…and you’ll have dough left over for about 4 normal sized ones)

156ml all-purpose flour
40ml cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
5 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/8 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2.5oz white chocolate chunks

Beat butter in a large bowl until light and creamy. Add the sugar, brown sugar, fleur de sel and vanilla extract to the butter and beat until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Add this to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. DO NOT overmix…don’t worry if the dough seems really crumbly – that’s what it’s supposed to be like (I know, the first time I made these, I was sure I had made a mistake somewhere since the dough seemed way too dry and crumbly). Add in the chocolate chunks and give it a quick mix to distribute it into the dough. Dump the dough onto a large piece of cling wrap.
Here, Greenspan’s recipe says to roll the dough into a log and wrap in cling wrap but I’ve found that it is next to impossible to roll the “dough” into any shape since it has the texture of sand (no joke). So, instead, when you have the mixture on the cling wrap, wrap it tightly and compress the dough into a ball shape with the cling wrap. Then, gently press and mold the “ball” into a long roll shape with roughly a 1.5” diameter (it’s hard to describe but you’ll get the hang of it when you start making them). Usually, my “roll” ends up looking like some type of slug but that doesn’t matter. Throw the dough, wrapped in cling wrap, into the fridge and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit for about minute. Preheat the oven to 325F and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. How you divide up the dough depends on the size you want your cookies to be. For normal sized cookies, you can slice the dough to about ½” thick. For my big cookies, I split the dough into thirds, with each third making one big cookie. The dough will probably crumble when you slice it up but you can just press the pieces together and press it into a circle shape on the baking tray. Bake the cookies on the center rack for around 12 minutes. The cookie centers will be soft but the edges should be done. Cool on racks…DO NOT touch or attempt to remove (especially the big cookies) until it cools for a bit. The cookie will firm up as it cools so if you attempt to remove from the tray before it cools, it will just break into pieces.

Place a large cookie on each plate. Scoop your favorite ice cream on each cookie and add sprinkles!!

(Large Cookie with triple fudge ice cream!)

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I've been baking like crazy over the last week...making gifts to send out to friends and such. And with the end of Christmas comes the end of my Christmas gift making spree. Now let's bring on 2008!!

(Sugar cookies decorated with royal icing. These made their way to Vegas!)

(Dark chocolate-hazelnut truffles)