The carrot, the egg, and the coffee bean!

I read this earlier this year. Definitely worth a read.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.
It seemed that, as one problem was solved, a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.
She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?"
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the young woman replied. The mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water - but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened! The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" the mother asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?" Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong but, with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit but, after a death, a breakup, or a financial hardship, does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavour.
If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

Food for thought!
Bon Appetite.
xoxo

Pastry anecdotes and Frozen Desserts!

Genius, as Thomas A. Edison said, is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. If the idea is good but the execution is not, there goes the idea. Here, execution translates to technique. Knowing how things are done, the ingredients you will use, and the necessary equipment is key to a successful result.
It is at this point that many pastry chefs and pastry cooks can fail. The importance of execution and technique cannot be stressed enough. (Techinique Execution Techinique Execution Techinique Execution Techinique!)
The simplest things, which we take for granted, such as whipping heavy cream properly, are just as important as the most complcated tasks, like making a properly balanced ice-cream.

Personally as far as taste goes, I like to work with flavours that appeal to my tastebuds, but its important to make things you dont like to eat, because, who knows!
Personal taste is something that begins in childhood, from the first smell of your mother's cooking, and is aquired through many years, and never ends. It never should. It is a continuous process.
It should evolve and you should be open to new flaovurs, techniques, ideas and experiences.
Flavour profiles do not always have to be traditional, like chocolate, but there are some out there that are, for a lack of a better word, unusual. There is a big difference between innovation and shock value. For example calling melted ice cream "hot ice cream" (it did happen!).
It is essential to have fun whilst cooking. And its alright to make mistakes to learn and make the next one better and so on.

The following points are general guidelines that have worked for me, though they are by no means carved on stone.


Flavours first, visual appeal close behind. Keep temperature, texture andd compostion in mind.

Be aware of your enviornment and commit to using seasonal ingredients as often as possible.
Try to support local farmers as long as their produce have high quality standards. (Im a huge supporter of 'slow food')

Know the ingredients and how the interact with each other.

Always use the highest quality ingredient possible. DON'T forget that you have a tremendous responsibilty towards your customers.

Understand both Culinary and Pastry Techniques. It will give you a vaster field to play in!

A sound knowledge of technique and execution are crucial for successful results.

Bells and Snowman don't make the desserts, they only distract. Streamline your food.

Simple, clean and polished desserts are hard to achieve, but are often the best.

The less you manipulate ingredients, the better. You can always tell when too many fingers have touched your food.

Work clean, work fast and work efficient. CLEAN AS YOU GO! *A messy kitchen reflects a messy mind*

Learn from the Masters first and creat your own styles there after. Imitation is not very well reguarded. Plagerism is a crime!

Desserts are typically served at the end of a meal, and mostly people are not hungry.
Stick to smaller portions. customers should leave feeling satisfied and not stuffed and sick!

Always be willing to learn. There is always room for more knowledge. I am the first to admit that I dont know everything. If i did, why would I go on?

Keep in mind the tongue on an average can identify only three to four flavours at a time.

Respect your customers. Don't serve anything you wouldnt eat yourself.


Most importantly, have fun while cooking. When we cook our energies get transferred into our foods. Enjoy yourselves. cooking isnt Rocekt Science. It is a creative expression. Enjoy the process.



Talking about sweet nothings: I love ice-creams. Way more than chocolates!

We all love ice-cream. Infact some say our favourite flavours are almost synonymous to our personal charecteristic traits. After all, we are what we eat!

Ever wondered where this frozen piece of ecstasy comes from?

I hear, in 3000 B.C. (approximately) the Chinese made the first frozen dessert, a flavoured ice (whether it was snow with fruit juice or milk and sugar churned in a rudimentary machine that emplyed ice and salt to freeze, its unknown. There are further tales and theories that Marco Polo was responsible for taking this discovery to Europe in the 13th Century. In 1533 Catherine de Medici arrived in France, in marriage to Henry II, and brought her cadre of Italian chefs, who introduced the frozen delicacies of sorbets and ice-creams to Frnech nobility during their month long celebration. Legend has it they served a different flavour everyday!

In 1672 the English term 'ice-creams'appears in a document from the court of Charles II in England.

The first recored recipe for a sorbet appeared in Paris in the late 1600s.(ofocrse!)

The first recipe for ice cream (named " Snow of orange flowers") is recorded in a book titled 

'Nouveau Confiturier'.

Unfortunately, there is no solid evidence as to when or where man began to employ ice or freezing temperature or machines to produce frozen desserts. It is my personal opnion that the very first frozen desserts had to be flavoured snow. (seems most natural and elementary)


Some of our very favourite ice-cream leagues started close to the mid of the 1900s.

1940: Dairy Queen

1945: Baskin Robbins

1961: Häagen-Dazs

1978: Ben & Jerry's

The Basic ingredients for making Frozen desserts 

DAIRY PRODUCTS:

Milk

Heavy cream

Heavy cream is usually mixed with milk to reduce the fat content in an ice-cream or gelato base, because using only cream will produce a base with a very high fat content. Though heavy cream is used in its entirety when it comes to areated still-frozen desserts. It is one of the ingredients that is 'aerated' meaning that air is incorporated into it through whipping and it is directly responsible for the desserts' light texture and smooth mouth feel.
The other ingredients that is aerated, depending on the type of frozen dessert will be the egg (tolks, whites or both)
P.S. heavy cream needs to be very cold (ideally 4 degree celsius) to whip properly, otherwise the structure will not hold. In countries with warmer climates, one may use an ice tray on the base of the bowl, to keep the temperature low and constant.



Butter

Butter is used sporadically in some recipes mainly for flavour purposes and no so much for its contribution to the chemistry of ice cream making.

EGGS

All said about eggs, nothing is enough. What would the patiserrie world be without eggs. The thought alone is disturbing.
They are used widely from binding liquids into a moist-tender solid, to thickening sauces or custards, to emulsifying sauces and ice creams or even delaying the crystallization in ice creams due to their fat content, or as a mere coating or glazing which makes the final product so much more appealing to all our senses. And this is only the beginning.

Egg yolks are used in certain ice creams and gelatos whilst the whites are not. The whole eggs are used primarily in some varieties of still-frozen and aerated-frozen desserts, such as frozen soufflé, parfaits, semifreddos and some frozen mousses.


SUGARS
The most common sweetners used to make frozen desserts are:
Granulated or crystalline sugar
Powdered glucose
Dextrose
Invert sugar or trimoline
Honey
Lactose (found in milk)

STABILIZERS

This is the ingredient that contributes to the uniformity and consistency of a product throughout its different stages, from manufacture through its frozen storage.
Stabilizers aren't chemicals at all, they are extracted from natural sources. They help to promote air incorporation and even air bubble distribution throughout the frozen product as well as prevent the collapse of such air bubbles, which is responsible for the product's texture and mouth feel.

Some of the stabalizers used vastly are: Agar-agar, guar gum, locust bean gum, gellan gum, xanthan gum, pectin, gelatin & sodium alginate.


In the ice cream business, these are all known as “stabilizers”, and they mainly help with two things: reducing iciness, and extending shelf life.  The first time I made strawberry ice cream it came out really icy and cold because of all the extra water in the fruit.  I tried it again with a packet of powdered gelatin and it made a huge improvement.  That’s when I realized that there might be something to this stabilizer business, even in homemade ice cream.  As for the part about extending shelf life, that’s especially true when you take a pint of ice cream out of the freezer and put it back after a few minutes.  Each time it warms up a little and then re-freezes, it re-freezes at a much slower rate than when you churned it in your ice cream machine.  When you freeze it quickly, you get smaller ice crystals that taste smooth.  But when it re-freezes slowly, you get larger crystals.  Stabilizers help with that re-freezing problem also.



Guar gum comes from guar beans, which are mainly grown in India.

Locust bean gum comes from the seeds of the Carob tree, which anyone unfortunate enough to be allergic to chocolate will be familiar with, because carob is often used as a chocolate substitute (eh, sort of, anyway).  It also has a nicer-sounding name: carob bean gum.

Carrageenan comes from seaweed.  Yep, that’s right.

Xanthan gum comes from glucose or sucrose that’s been fermented with a bacteria.

Mono- and diglycerides come from either animals (cows and pigs) or vegetables (soy beans and canola oil).

Gelatin, which is found in homemade ice cream recipes more often than the ingredients above, comes from animal collagen.  I think that’s enough said on that topic

EMULSIFIERS

Emulsifiers are used to prevent the seperation of fat-in-water emulsions. Emulsifiers are molecules that are composed of a hydrophilic (water-loving) part & a lipophilic (fat-loving) part. When these molecules combine, they make it possible for water and fat droplets to become finely dispersed in each other, creating a stable emulsion. This is what gives ice-cream a smooth texture, slower melt down, and better freeze-thaw stability.
One of the most common emulsifiers is egg yolk, which makes things like mayonnaise and Hollandaise sauce possible.


Fresh fruits and vegetables, flavours, chocolates, zest, vanilla beans, nuts, herbs, spices, alcoholic beverages are some of the most common ingredients added in frozen desserts to enhance their flavours, texztures, colours and moods.
It is always STRONGLY advised to stick with all the natural produce and not artificial flavours or colouring.


Frozen Desserts can be categorised into 3 main types:

Dairy based Frozen Desserts

Icecreams, Custard based ice creams, Gelato, Sherbet & Frozen Yoghurt.

Strawberry Balsamic Ice cream

Blue Cheese & Shallot Ice cream

Candied bacon Ice cream

Carrot & Curry Ice cream

Fig & Goat Cheese Ice cream

Non-dairy Frozen Desserts

Sorbet, Frappé, Granite

Pomegranate & Mint Sorbet

Aerated Frozen Desserts

Frozen Parfait, Frozen soufflé, Frozen mousse, Semifreddo

Raspberry & Avocado Semifreddo 

Frozen Chocolate Parfait

Try this easy Vanilla Ice-cream at home:
http://www.lcbathome.com/2011/07/french-vanilla-ice-cream-ice-cream.html


"I doubt whether the world holds for any one a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice-cream."

Have a wonderful weekend. Stock up on ice creams and lots of delish goodies. Less than a month to go for Christmas, and I still haven't decided my plans for Christmas day in sunny Maharashtra.
Anywho, see you next week. Happy therapeutic weekend cooking, and don't forget to experiment with your favourite flavours in a frozen scoop of heaven!

Bon Appetite!

xoxo 

Questions to no one, answers to all.

ITHAKA

As you set out for Ithaka

hope the voyage is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians and Cyclops,

angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:

you'll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians and Cyclops,

wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.

May there be many a summer morning when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you come into harbors seen for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind-

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you are destined for.

But do not hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you are old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you would not have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

- Constantine Cavafy

P.S. A recommendation from a loved one. You know who you are. Thank you! :0)

xoxo

Star Tales

Enroute Dubai. 22nd May 2011. Local time: 11.01 pm.

I'm somewhere before Dubai, above deserted lands. I can't sleep. I'm tired. Nervous. I glance out of my little seat window, at the night skies. And do you know what I see? I see a neverending, everlasting cluster of stars.

This is not just a cluster. There are clusters and clusters. New to my eyes, but familiar to my soul. I feel stronger. I feel calmer. Its like they have all come out, to love me, to inspire me.

You have to be here, to see what I'm seeing. You know, if you were watching a cartoon, or a star treck movie, its more. Much more. This is surreal. Some are brighter. Some are bright. This is what heaven must feel like. And I know now, pixie land does exist. This wonder I see in front of me. I've seen this before. My skin has been touched by these lights before, rolling down those lush meadows. Alive is what I feel.

I try to close my eyes, and open it. Stare out. Take it all in. Click a mental picture. I try to save it in the deepest cores of my soul. Capture an element for all the sereton in my body. But everytime I close my eyes to recreate the picture in my head, it's beautiful, but when I open my eyes, there are more, much more sparkles. Maybe my human logic/experiences/stories blind me from accepting that my stars and night skies are real. I can go over this in my head a thousand times. But I wonder, nothing can be this beautiful. Not because I'm a pessimist. But because I've been told, Pixie land is a fantasy land. And you know what, fantasy is reality. Sometimes seeing is not believing, but believeing is seeing. And here I am, totally unexpectedly, experiencing one of the most divine moments of my life. And am taking it all in. Writing it down simultaneously. Just for the need to share this with you, and feel you closer to me in this watch of peace.

The Milky Way, shot from the North Sea coast.

I'm flying with the stars. Shooting.

If you watched this spectacular glow tonight, you would believe fairytales came from a very real place. 

A simple love, in a very complicated life.

P.S. Musings of a very dear friend. Tara* Nirula

“Pain, loss and separation are inevitable on the path of love, and the only way of avoiding them is by deciding not to take that path at all. In order not to suffer, you have to renounce love.It was like putting out your own eyes in order not to see the bad things in life.” - Paulo Coelho (Brida)

*Tara Nirula was an exceptional young woman whose vitality lit up International Students House and her kindness touched everyone’s hearts. Tara’s life was sadly cut short but her passion for the arts can survive through the opportunity this scholarship will give to other young people. 

The Tara Nirula ISH/LCF Graduate scholarship is a combined tuition fee and residential scholarship offered to international students from India with the ability and potential to make an exceptional contribution to the worlds of art, design, communication and performance. Applications are encouraged from those who feel they will benefit from further study to realise their full potential.

http://www.arts.ac.uk/fees-funding/funding/postgraduatestudents/mafunding/thetaranirulainternationalstudentshouseish/

The Tara Nirula ISH/LCF Graduate Scholarship will be offered annually and is the product of a partnership between International Students House and London College of Fashion, one of the UK's leading institutions for fashion studies.

Her favourite food was pizza. Don't we all absolutely love 'em!

Once my oven is up and working, hopefully by the end of the week, lets do some delish crispy home-made ones. Till then, Happy mid-week cooking!

Bon Appetite!

xoxo

La Dame blanche

I first visited Chamonix ( shah-moh-nee) almost a decade ago, which has now become an almost annual activity with the family.I may not have distinct memories from each of my trips, but the ever-so-fresh beautiful valleys and majestic yet humble Mont Blanc, has never failed to bring me closer to my elements and inspire me in so many years. Zero monotony. Each visit has been new, exciting, relaxing and absolutely splendid to say the least. One of my sole reasons to travel is always discovering new cuisines, local farmer's markets, fresh ingredients and grasping the food ideology of a place through its culture. Needless to say, i have been blessed with some wonderful friends spread across the World. Chamonix, or as I like to call it, 'My second home', is still raw and organic, even with its growing demand in tourism. It is also sometimes known as La Dame blanche (French for "the White Lady") .

Travelling from India, the easiest access to this beautiful haven is a flight to Geneva. Chamonix resides in the French Alps, very close to Switzerland. It is barely a couple of hours drive away from Geneva Airport. And the drive- Oh La La! Absolutely breathtaking and refreshing. Its like a breathe of brand new life. Everytime!

 Landing into Geneva Airport.

It all began in 1741 when two Englishman, Windham and Pococke, discovered the 'Chamouny' valley and its glaciers. In their travel they met rural mountain farmers from the region who lived off animal husbandry and a sparse harvest of oats and rye. The first ever ascent of Mt-Blanc was made in 1786, and in 1924 Chamonix hosted the first ever Winter Olympic Games. 

Driving through the lush : Enroute Chamonix!

This underdog town has very strong and traditional food roots, which are also experimented with in some of their local restaurants.Most of the restaurants have seasonal/weekly menus which make them even more interesting and caters wonderfully to the explorer in me. And EVERYTHING is exquisite on the menu. The locals love their food and take such pride in cooking it, which shows when the food is served on the table. Even the smallest cafés serve nothing but the best. One of my most favourite things to binge on there is the fresh Chantilly Cream, the heaven-like Macarons, fresh morning croissants and the exuberant variety of cheese: both local and regional, to name a few! The local farmers' markets are intensely inspirational for me. They affect the way I approach food and cook at a sub-conscious plane. The passion and pride each stall owner has in his local produce is almost sacred. All your sense organs can feast on the local fresh array of cheese, meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, wines, pastas, breads, pastry, flora & fauna, art and much much more!
The farmers are encouraging to sample their produce, for the love of food! *Sante*

 

Local pâtisserie in the Chamonix town square.

 

 A visit to the Local Farmers Market on a sunny Saturday morning.

Other than eating and food shopping there are tons of other outdoor activities and sport one can enjoy in the lap of nature. Trekking, paragliding, rafting are some of them I have explored. There are over 100 walking/trekking paths in and around this quaint township. 

Tranquil walking paths, amidst countless summer streams.

Onset of sunset, outside my Chalet balcony : Mont Blanc, covered by passing clouds.

My visit to the St.Bernard breeding farm, 10 mins from Chamonix.

Its only in the recent years, that I have spent my summers here. But it all started with visiting Chamonix to ski down the perfect snow laden slopes and end the activity with piping hot Cocoa in the cafés by the slopes.

For the ones who like more site seeing, there is a train/cable-car ride which takes you the top of Mont Blanc, which has some preserved ice caves and fossils, and ofcorse not to forget the renowned glaciers.

Spending a week there in a year, is a primary rejuvenation and a soul refuel.

A splash of fresh water on the face in the bathroom taps right from the source itself, The Alps, is the perfect way to begin your mornings here! There is not a moment spent in this valley, when you feel a mere sense of existence.  You only feel completely alive. Even if it is being curled up with your favourite book in the sunny outdoors or days of exciting adventure sports. This is where we all come back to Life!

Some of the Must visit restaurants:

http://www.hameaualbert.fr/en/gallery 

(The homemade chicken liver terrine, onion jam & mushroom in vinegar is an essential)

http://www.restaurant-caleche.com/

(Any Savoy Fondue!)

Statutory Warning: The above are some brilliant local restaurants. There are tons of little places in and around the town square which must be explored as well! Most of this town can be covered on foot.

P.S :Bear in mind the local cuisine of this region is strongly influenced by Switzerland, making it unique

 Bon Appetite!

xoxo