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PannaCotta-3

Vanilla

by on August 16, 2011 in Dessert

Did you know that vanilla beans come from an aromatic orchid? They are found around the world in tropical places like Madagascar (main world producer), Comoros and Reunion Islands, Uganda, Indonesia, India, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, and Veracruz, Mexico.

In France, Bourbon Vanilla is most commonly found. Its name refers to its place of origin, ‘Ile de Bourbon’, as Reunion, the tropical island east of Madagascar, was known until 1793. Reunion has been a vanilla-producing ground since the very early 1800s, when the French brought vanilla cuttings from Mexico, and planted them in the King’s garden in the capital Saint-Denis.

Here in California, we work with the Bacstrom Import Company because of their careful selection of beans, their passion for spices and the multiple choices they offer in terms of beans origins. Vanilla being such a wonderfully versatile spice, it is nice to be able to choose between the different textures (more or less moist, thick or fine) and flavor strengths offered by different varieties. Tahitian beans are very moist, thick, “oily” an flavorful. Madagascar’s are oily and large, with a very high vanillin content that gives them a strong and unique flavor. I encourage you to try them in your own culinary experiences.

This panna cotta recipe will allow you to play with various vanilla beans, and enjoy their differences :

You need (serves 4) :
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup coconut milk
2 g agar agar
1/3 cup +1/2 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla bean.
Steps :
Let the agar agar soak in water for one hour.
Mix the cream, coconut milk, sugar and vanilla seeds and bring to boil. Turn off the heat then add the agar agar. Boil until dissolved.
Pour the cream in small glasses and let it cool for about 30 min.
Refrigerate for one hour then serve.
Can be served with fresh mangoes, pureed mangoes or  a berry coulis.

At Baumé we serve a panna cotta with strawberries, almonds, a thyme coulis and a vanilla mousse. Like the recipe above, our recipe uses agar agar instead of gelatin. I prefer it for a couple reasons. One is because it stays solid at a much higher temperature than gelatin. That way we maintain the preparation’s quality during warmer weather. The second reason is that agar agar is derived from algae -or seaweed – whereas gelatin comes from the collagen inside animals’ skin and bones.  With agar agar, our dessert remains a vegetarian dish.

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RaspberrySorbet-1

A simple recipe for a raspberry sorbet

by on August 8, 2011 in Dessert

Today, I wanted to share a very quick and easy way to prepare a delicious and refreshing dessert : raspberry sorbet. Few fruits prompt as much childhood nostalgia as raspberries, so it is crucial to preserve the raspberry taste as much as possible. At Baumé, we even enhance that taste with a frozen raspberry explosion.

At home, you only need a couple of ingredients and tools : fresh raspberries, lime , sugar,  a sieve and a ice-cream maker.

Ingredients :

- 2 lbs raspberries

- 1 1/4 cup sugar

- zest of 1 lime

Steps :

1- Grate the lime’s zest and mix with the sugar

2 – Carefully select and wash the raspberries

3- Place a sieve over a large bowl. Mash the raspberries and pass them through the sieve. You should obtain a fresh raspberry coulis.

4- Mix the raspberry coulis with the lime flavored sugar until the sugar is fully disolved.

5- Pour into an ice-cream maker

30 minutes later the sorbet is ready. For a firmer sorbet, you can leave it in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours before serving.

Et voila!

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Tart-18web

Tarts and their crust

by on June 20, 2011 in Dessert

Tarts. As most of you probably know, tarts are baked desserts that consist of two elements: crust and filling.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to some of the many opportunities that a cook has to make a pie’s crust an interesting part of the play. It might seem a little challenging at first glance but with a little planning and cunning, your final result will surprise and delight you.

There are so many crusts to choose from. One could fancy a fluffy, buttery puff pastry dough for a crunchy base; a sugar dough to complement a tangy filling; a “pâte brisée” for sweet fillings; an arlette for a thin, crunchy, sweet base like in the tartelette below, etc.

The filling is the most important factor in choosing your crust. I can’t overstate how important it is to find a perfect match between both elements. Think in terms of balance of flavors, sweetness, complementary textures, visual aspects and accents.

The classic example is the tarte tatin. The lukewarm, soft, generously caramelized and lightly spiced plump apples are calling for a crunchy light crust. Using puff pastry dough will give a perfect contrast in textures, without adding too much sweetness to the already sweetened filling (the apples).

With regard to accents, a good example is our “Tarte Exotique”. We are using an “Arlette” (puff pastry dough, rolled with spices, then flattened in powdered sugar) in order to  add sweetness and crunch to the soft texture of the mango and lychees and the tangy flavors of the mango-citrus pearls. The filling is clearly the star of this tart, but the crust does not go unnoticed. A discreet but efficient smidgeon of spices allows us to perfectly tailor the flavor of the dough to our choice of fruits. Cardamom, freshly cracked pepper, cinnamon, are just a few examples of spices that can revamp a basic pie crust.

Also, be realistic about how much time you have at your disposal. For instance, puff pastry dough requires more wait time than a sugar dough or a “pâte brisée”, for the layers are the result of folding the dough and letting it sit in the fridge between each folding session. Generally, it is important to know that most doughs have to sit in the fridge for at least a couple of hours before you can roll them into a mold. Most can be prepared in advance and left in the freezer until needed.

Here is an easy recipe for a sugar dough that can be used with apricots, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and other tangy fruits.

Ingredients :

125 g butter

125 g sugar

250 g all purpose flour

1 egg

1 vanilla bean

1 pinch of salt

2 tbsp of glucose syrup (optional, yet adds elasticity to the dough)

a pinch of fresh cracked pepper

Steps :

Cut the butter into small pieces. Knead the flour with the butter. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean.

Make a hole in the center and add sugar, syrup, vanilla, salt and the whole egg.

Mix the ingredients without lingering until you obtain a homogeneous dough, then form a ball and let it cool in the fridge for 2 hours.

Then roll and transfer onto a tart mold. The crust is ready for the filling!

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Farmer’sMarket-1

Seasonal notes and a strawberry sorbet recipe

by on May 12, 2011 in Dessert

May is an exciting month for we are well into Spring, and signs that the bountiful months of Summer are around the corner pop up everywhere. English peas, asparagus, strawberries, flowers, have already returned to our tasting
menu. Many more summery delights are soon to be seen on our plates. Last Thursday was the opening day at the Los Altos Farmer’s Market. I was
delighted to see a portion of Second Street turn into this bright, joyous food celebration, and to talk to the farmers one on one. Strolling through a place like this is one of the best ways to connect with the people that grow our food, to carefully select and taste some of the best local produce, and to be inspired. I was reminded how lucky I am to live and cook in a place like this.

Each fruit and vegetable comes in numerous varieties, each of which has its own flavorful nuances. Strawberries for example are grown by more than 700 producers in California, and come in some 600 varieties. Larger, smaller, firmer, softer, juicier, drier, sweeter, tangier, darker or brighter are just some of the characteristics that you can look for while picking your strawberries. Don’t hesitate to talk to the farmers, they are usually very keen to talk about their crops and help you make the best selection for your culinary adventures.

Here is the recipe of a strawberry sorbet that can be easily done at home, and that will allow you to experiment with all the luscious fruits the markets have to offer.

You will need :
- 3 cups of pureed strawberries
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/2 cup of spring water

Steps :
Pour water and sugar into a sauce pan and quickly boil the sugar to obtain a syrup. Remove from the stove.
Once the syrup has cooled, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Mix the sugar syrup, strawberry puree and lemon juice and pour into an ice-cream maker.
Freeze the sorbet for one to two hours in freezer, then serve.

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MojitoIceCreamDuet

Our pastry chef’s Mojito Coupe

by on March 12, 2011 in Dessert



Ryan Shelton : “I was born and raised in San Jose, California. I started college as a biology and music student. At that time I was cooking because I had to in order to eat. I learned my first recipes – szechuan string beans and kung pao chicken – from a Chinese cookbook borrowed from my friend’s mom. The more I cooked and understood about it, the more I loved it. It is really the ingredients in my hands and the pan in front of me that revealed my passion for cooking. So I decided to drop out of biology to learn the culinary art at the Art Institute of California in Orange County. After working for Le Petit Paris, Chakra Indian Cuisine, and Pescadou Bistro, all in Southern California, I decided to round up my knowledge at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel. With that experience on my resume I was able to apply for my next position at Chez TJ in Mountain View, where we earned our first Michelin star together with Bruno”.

One of our signature desserts is the Coupe Glacée – this month’s flavor is Mojito. This dessert is a blatant example of the way we grow from our experimental failures. We started playing with the idea that we could create the texture of a liquid cotton candy by freezing lime and mint foam. Our first experiment was fairly successful, so we decided to integrate it to our menu and prepare it on a larger scale. Working with bigger quantities, however, only allowed us to obtain a very poor version of the prototype as the numerous portions did not freeze fast enough and collapsed. After a few more attempts, we came up with the dessert “à la minute” (just before it is served), using a liquid nitrogen technique that – as it turns out – makes an even lighter and frothier sorbet than what we intended.

This coupe is a great combination of flavors and textures. Besides the sorbet, it includes a dry and wet version of meringue, a mousse that coats the palate and disappears, pop rocks that mimic the soda in the mojito, and of course rum pearls. We serve the pearls on the side for those who prefer a non-alcoholic dessert.

Ryan is kindly sharing a home version of this dessert with you :

Recipe serves 4 :

- Lime Sorbet (recipe follows)
- Mint Foam (recipe follows)
- Pop Rocks (any flavor of your choice)
- Splash of Dark Rum (optional)
- Chiffonade Mint

1.  Scoop sorbet into bowl
2.  Top with a splash of dark rum
3.  Agitate surface of mint foam with hand blender until foamy and bubbly
4.  Cover sorbet with foam
5.  Sprinkle PopRocks on top
6.  Finish with a few strands of chiffonade fresh mint

Lime Sorbet

- 200g Spring Water
- 135g Sugar
- 200g Lime Juice

1.  Combine spring water and sugar in a pot and heat lightly until sugar is
dissolved
2.  Finish with fresh lime juice and cool to room temperature
3.  Allow to chill completely in the refrigerator
4.  Freeze in a sorbet machine
5.  Transfer to freezer

(Alternate sorbet method – no sorbet machine needed!)
- about 1 pound dry ice

1.  Finish steps 1-3 from above
2.  Place sorbet mix in a stand mixer with a paddle
3.  Set the paddle to low speed
4.  Completely crush dry ice in a ziplock bag with a mallet or rolling pin
5.  Slowly sprinkle dry ice into mixing bowl until completely frozen
6.  Wait until dry ice is completely evaporated before transferring to
freezer
(Note – dry ice may cause sorbet to be fizzy as it melts in the mouth which
is awesome!)

Mint Foam

- 400g Spring Water
- 1 bunch fresh Mint Leaves
- 40g Sugar
- 8g Soy Lecithin
1.      Heat spring water until just barely simmering
2.      Pour over mint leaves and steep for 2 minutes
3.      Drain mint from spring water
4.      Dissolve sugar in tea
5.      Add lecithin and blend to dissolve with hand blender
6.      Reserve in refrigerator until ready to use

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