Buttercream Icing

I will never forget the first time I watched a chef split buttercream icing. I was working & apprenticing in a fantastic restaurant within pastry. During a large preparation for a brunch, the sous chef asked me if I had made buttercream icing. I said yes all the time. He sniffed that I had never made it properly and that he was going to show me how. Great I thought that's what I'm here for and quickly grabbed my book to take notes. The chef got the egg whites and sugar ready to make the Italian Meringue, set a pot of water on the stove and starting to whip them by hand over the bubbling water. (that part was impressive) I whipped the butter on the small standing mixer and when the meringue had met the proper temperature he started to seed it with the butter. I watched as he made a lumpy split mess. (not so impressive) The meringue was unfortunately still too warm!

I make loads of this now and with much success. I always tell our daughter you learn more from a mistake than by making it perfectly and watching Amadeus muck up real buttercream ranks up highly in the days of learning for me.

There are several important steps to awesome buttercream. Excellent ingredients, everything ready and temperature is key.

Lets talk Meringue. Copper bowl. It produces creamier foam. It's quicker and it's a key component to your kitchen. Buy one. Put your egg whites and sugar in the bowl and under you will have waterin a larger pot to cook whilst you whip (bain marie method). Hand mixer. There is no shame and I happily use one. I can think of alot better uses for my energy than standing and whipping.

Swiss Meringue

480 ml egg whites -680 g granulated suger (I use vanilla sugar)

• whip over simmering water until it reaches 140 degrees


• keep your egg yolks to make Lemon curd -an excellent addition to any buttercream!

Lets talk butter. Lots of butter

Whipped Butter

1kg plus 500 g of butter- whip the heck out of it and keep at room temperature

Once your meringue has reached 140 degrees, remove it from the stove and continue to whip it while it cools. Once it reaches room temp. you can start seeding your butter but don't rush! If the butter feels cooler than the meringue you might be okay if you are using a hand mixer. Continue to seed until its all in. You will end up with alot of buttercream and you needn't worry about using it all right away. You can freeze it. Just allow it to reach room temperature and then re whip it. It will split and look awful. I hold my hands on the mixing bowl while the standing mixer is whipping it and voila! Its back together no harm done!

You can add chocolate, lemon curd vanilla bean seeds or extract... to change it to whatever you wish. It's very versatile and yummy. Just remember that they need to be the same temperature!

Keeping it Local

Its a tough thing this time of year. Local produce is still available but hard to find. I trekked to the grocery store this week to get our weekly groceries & found with great dismay that there were few choices. The last of my garden tomatoes that I roasted and froze are nearly done, my herbs are dwindling fast and now walking through the produce area feels like walking through a mind field of weary distant travellers wilted and tired.

Don't get me wrong. We have great cheese such as Wooldrift farms , fantastic honey such as Wildwood Farm Honey and great places that support the local food industry such as myself and Foodlink. I make a point of purchasing local if its available but this time of year it is difficult to get fresh produce that is at the very least coming from countries that support safe farming practices. We do have the ability to vote with our spending. Support the grocery stores that support local. Buy from countries that don't use toxic pesticides on their crops , support local farms that grow organically and start your own vegetable garden.

There are still great choices we just need to make them!

Chocolate is

I used to make chocolates every day. Tempering chocolate was a time consuming process and preparing ganaches was always lots of fun. Infusing teas with the cream, making lemon buttercream to fill those white chocolate confections. It is both creative and rewarding.

Baking with chocolate is an entirely different method. Instead of tempering chocolate, the decision lies with using cocoa powder versus melting chocolate. I like to use both. Nothing beats the mouth feel of melted chocolate baked goods. You can add as much fat as you like to a cocoa powder recipe but it lacks the depth of flavour you get from melting chocolate and folding it into your batter. When choosing the right chocolate for your recipe consider what you are attempting to achieve. If I was baking for grown ups I would never consider anything less than 70% cocoa. I keep 53% in the cupboard if I get an order for a child's birthday cake. I only use Valrona cocoa powder and would never consider anything else. It is far superior to anything else out there. 100% Dutch process cocoa.

http://www.valrhona.com/

The Vegetable Garden

I ordered my seeds today. Its a daunting task because there are so many great varieties out there. Tomatoes and cucumbers are fantastic out of the garden. I grow Lemon cucumbers every year. They are small yellow and very sweet. You could eat them right out of the garden like an apple... and I do. Tomatoes I struggle with choosing.

Last year I didn't get seeds but relied on a family member who starts seeds. I was able to harvest one or two before the frost. Not a good year. Now it was cold but it turned out that there was another reason for the lack of proliferation. He confessed much later to starting seeds from store bought plants. The plants were from genetically modified seeds as they are now producing genetically modified plants that will produce seed that doesn't amount to much.

Is anyone's alarm going off? Mine is loud and clear! Genetically modified food or GMOs as people like to call them (we do love our acronyms don't we?) are now unmarked and sold in our grocery stores and we are blindly buying and feeding our families. This is beyond scary and the fact that Steven Harper is singing at a piano is getting more press time than our food crisis makes me very concerned for the future of the human race.

So let me tell you what is going in the mundcooks garden. Heirloom varieties of organically grown seeds, no sprays, no chemicals of any kind and my kitchen compost. We need to fight the GMOs in the stores and stop blindly buying whatever large corporations are feeding us.

Take charge, our future depends on it.

http://www.terraedibles.ca/

Variations of Apple

I just bought a very large bushel of local Gala apples. They are significantly smaller than the typical New Zealand variety that we see in the vast majority of grocery stores today. These are small light and very very sweet. They are far superior to those from distant regions as they are tree ripened. Tree ripened apples are sweeter and according to Harold McGee, small apples have smaller cells and will keep better. He also said that the only significant vitamin that is in the apple is in the peel so I completely raked havoc on these when I made my Alsatian Fruit Tart (as I peeled and roasted them). They were delicious and if nothing else, there is still fibre!

Crust recipe

(30' tart tin)

250 g flour-1/2 t salt-2t vanilla Castor sugar-125 g butter -1 egg yolk -5 t water

Filling

1.5 k gala apples -mace-cinnamon-nutmeg-allspice

Custard

100 g sugar-2 eggs-80 ml buttermilk-125 ml 35 % cream-1 t cinnamon

• make pastry and chill, roll out dough and arrange in tart shell and chill while peeling apples
• preheat oven to 400 F
• Peel, core and quarter apples, slice the quarters in half and toss in spices
• arrange artfully in the shell and put in oven for 35 mins
• while crust and apples are baking
• make the custard, I also made a *streusel topping but you needn't bother it tastes great without! (Alsace is quite close to Germany so this makes sense)
• After the apples and crust is baked pour into the tart and reduce temperature to 300 F and bake until set.

Apples are one of the best ways to enjoy the local region even when the harvest is long done. Buy local and if your grocery store doesn't offer them, ask! We can make this change if we keep it up! And now on to the next apple recipe!

*Streusel Topping
1/2 cup flour-4 tablespoons butter-4 tablespoons brown sugar1 -2 teaspoons cinnamon

New Year Resolutions

Every year people celebrate the New Year resolve to eat better, exercise more and generally develop a healthier lifestyle. What were people eating this year that was so bad? If they cooked more at home, I believe that they have accomplished more than most. With diabetes, heart and blood pressure problems are on the rise not to mention obesity; the problem of poor eating habits is just part of a bigger issue.

What are we doing that is so wrong? We rely on companies to provide us with all the answers to these issues for a start. If we could only simplify the issue we would be better off. Going out and buying our way through the problem does not solve anything. We buy a treadmill and dry our laundry on it. We buy fruits and vegetables and then go through a drive thru in the morning to get our meal. We need to make the time and effort to follow through on our good habits to make them a reality.

My answer is simple: turn off the television and get outside people! It doesn't take a rocket scientist (although it’s more up the nutritionists alley) to realize that sitting all the time is not going to create muscle!

I sometimes feel guilty when I cook. I mean, I cook with the good stuff. Cream and butter for a start and I use lots of fresh vegetables and fruit too everyday. I will also confess that I love good cheese.

A small portion of really lovingly prepared food is the true answer not avoidance. I feel no kinship for these people who wear a badge of honor for not eating something. They punish themselves by not trying something and that is truly sad. It’s the people who make hamburger helper or go through the drive through and eat themselves silly are not only doing themselves a great disservice to their palettes, they are also causing themselves greater health issues later on. I don't believe that anyone ever benefited from these quick fix diets -other than the people selling the books or the large corporations creating pre wrapped frozen entrees whose packaging threaten our landfill sites. We have lost our connection to food and it has to change. We have to change. Good food is not the enemy. Our poor lifestyle habits are.

People stop watching the food network and go for a walk. Get outside and get reacquainted with your neighbourhood. Reconnect with your community. Join a yoga class, a running club, go swimming. Do something.

So this year, I resolve to continue to cook with butter, eat fantastic local cheese and drink excellent wine. I also resolve to get outside for 20 -35 minutes a day outside and do something!

Cooking with Wine

I like to deglaze. Its one of the things that is the most satisfying steps when cooking. My mother makes all kinds of wine and they say that you shouldn't cook with what you wouldn't drink and I believe that to be true. Most of the time. Sometimes I purchase wine that is a little on the swanky side. I could not part with it in my risotto but gladly drink it beside the finished product. During the holidays my fridge got pretty full of stock, appetizers, dips and leftovers from entertaining. I basically ran out of room. There were several bottles of open wine that just wouldn't fit. I decided that the only decent and respectable thing to do with the wine was to finish them. Myself. Now keep in mind that there were other people there and I was cooking. I was just cleaning up and chatting... and drinking copious amount of Pinot Gris. I found pots and pans in strange places the next day. Not to mention a nasty headache. While working in one particular restaurant... actually there were two that I can recall the chef basically cooking the entire pot of risotto with wine and NO STOCK. It was pretty gross. Gobs of melted butter floated on top to. It was a mess. And the customer was paying $20 for that grossness. I also hate hate hate restaurants that cook their risotto part way and finish it. It can sit around for a while and is down right dangerous to eat. One worthy of note trick I found in my travels was taking a regular white wine, adding some sugar and reducing the heck out of it. Voila! Ice wine! Pretty sweet huh? And way cheap! In a pinch it would work! Anyway I am trying to get at is a little of the good stuff can go a long way. All of the bits at the bottom of the pan need to be there. They make your sauces complete. And its fun to have a glass now and again. Just don't try to free up fridge space by finishing off the three bottles. You won't like yourself in the morning and the dishes will more than likely need to be rewashed.