Fun with Food (or what happens when culinary students get bored...)

What happens when culinary students have too much downtime on their hands? They have "fun with food." In Japanese class, as we waited for rice to cook we occupied ourselves taking silly photos. Click on the "Fun with Food" photo album to see them all.

Recipe: Black Bean Brownies

This weekend, in anticipation of a dinner party, I stayed up Saturday night until 2:30am baking black bean brownies. Bizarre, right? You don't taste the black beans when they're done though, and when you think about Asian desserts, beans aren't that weird.

The benefits of these brownies (other than hidden iron and fiber) are:

• They are flourless (hello gluten intolerant folks)
• Have no refined sugar (hello diabetics, hypoglycemics, etc.)
• And it's just pure fun freaking people out when you tell them what's in them.

Originally from the baking book Baking with Agave Nectar, I grabbed the recipe from the food blog 101cookbooks.com, where they seem to be all the rage judging from the comments section. A few things I did... I was short on agave syrup, so I used 1 cup agave, and a half cup of wildflower honey. The honey had delicious flavor, which I think enhanced the brownies. I also used espresso powder instead of instant coffee.

The "brownie" that results tastes more like fudge than a brownie really. Since it's crumbly at first, it helps to refrigerate it before cutting pieces, ideally overnight.

Sweet and Savory

Baking class photos, both sweet baking (galettes, cake, etc.) and savory (pizzas, bread, biscuits) will be up shortly. I'm way behind on photos but hope to catch-up on Mediterranean and Thai Class photos as well this week. We're already three classes into our Ethnic Cuisine unit, and approaching "Iron Chef" style midterms next week.

Have You Seen These Vitamixes?

We all showed up post-holiday weekend feeling a little off. It was the first time since starting classes we had a weekend away! Everyone was happy and ready to dive in to Thai Class when we discovered the laptop (normally attached to our lecture projector) missing. Maybe someone locked it away over the break? But then we started noticing other little things missing-- a juicer gone, a Kitchenaid stand mixer, and two Vitamixes. If you haven't seen a Vitamix, they look like an industrial-sized blender from the 70s. But these powerful machines are the Rolls Royce of food appliances, and carry an appropriately royal price tag as well. Could we have been robbed? The office desktop computer and mammoth-sized copy machine were also gone (these were no lazy burglars), and then a window bar was discovered broken. That pretty much confirmed it.

As we started cooking our Pad Thai, Red Curry Vegetables, Thai Iced Tea, green papaya salad, and other goodies, the cops were called. One lone officer showed up. He checked the place out, confirmed our suspicions (the window ledge had been wiped clean of footprints even), and left too early for dinner (poor him).

What I really want to know is what robbers are aware of the value of Vitamixes? After all, they left the food processors which had been right next to them behind! All really odd if you ask me. Somewhere in Oakland right now thugs may be pawning a juicer, Kitchenaid or those Vitamixes. Either that, or they're having a huge cake baking and margarita mixing party.

ps-- In other weird news I made "black bean brownies" this weekend. They were actually fudgy and incredible, as weird as that sounds (you'd never know what was in them). Posting with the full recipe and baking tips soon.

Drink Your Kale (Recipe) + Externship Update

Writing my galette baking posting got me in trouble... I started craving sweets immediately after and went for my chocolate stash. The next morning the craving was still there and, since I didn't have any galettes in the house, I resorted to ice cream (malted peanut toffee fudge). What says you're living life to its fullest better than pulling a pint out at 7am? Since my brain doesn't work before about 10am, I had the added bonus of not thinking enough to feel guilty until later.

That was yesterday. Today, fired by a deep sense of regret I pulled out the blender and made a smoothie. But not any old smoothie. This was the mother of all healthy "I'm going to wash all the scum out of your system and replace it with easily absorbable liquid nutrients" frosty breakfast beverages. I've heard more and more talk lately of blending kale into smoothies -- which set off my "weird ingredient" alarms (I still have some healthy eating hang ups. Drinking vegetables is one of them). But my friend Courtney said she does it, and I stumbled on a recipe (which I can no longer find...oops!) with it while looking at my classmate's blog recently. What better way to balance out having ice cream for breakfast one morning than with a kale-spiked smoothie the next? And it was pretty good! I'll drink my kale again, except without berries next time because those little tooth coating seed buggers made it an embarrassing commute to work today. By the way, this alarmingly green smoothie in the photo is not mine (mine was not green, it only had little green flecks). Just as I don't think before 10am I certainly can't function well enough to garnish or remember to snap a shot.

Now for the externship update... I had a meeting with the catering company, Back to Earth, where I'm "externing" yesterday. They were one of the first catering companies in the Bay Area to pioneer seasonal organic catering and have a stellar reputation, so I'm thrilled to learn from them and excited to put in my first hours next Saturday (at a wedding in San Francisco).

Breakfast Smoothie

Ingredients

1 cup almond or "real" milk

1 tbsp nut butter (For extra protein. I used almond)

1 tsp ground flax seeds (for their omega-3s and fiber)

1/3 cup frozen fruit, optional (I used berries but would recommend mango instead)

1/2 frozen sliced banana (Or use non-frozen, but it won't be as thick)

1 tbsp agave syrup, honey or one pitted chopped date (Add more liquid sweetener or date to taste if you'd like it sweeter)

4 kale leaves, rinsed, stem removed and chopped

Cinnamon to taste (optional, the recipe that inspired me used it but I forgot it completely)

Procedure

Blend all at top speed, stopping to push ingredients down if needed to get everything combined.

Dueling Dates

It's always nice to have options, especially when it comes to dates. I can't help you with your love life if that's what you were hoping for (and I'm not going to reveal any juicy scoop on mine, sorry). But I can share two very good dueling stuffed date (as in the medjool kind) recipes.

Tonight was Western Mediterranean Class. We made Moroccan cous cous, harissa spiced carrots and homemade pita, among other phenomenal recipes. It was my favorite class so far. If I could only cook one cuisine, this would be it. For dessert, there was mint tea and a sweet version of stuffed dates with yogurt, mint and orange zest. When I entertain a signature appetizer of mine is a savory version of a similar recipe -- I call them "Date Bon Bons." Here are the recipes for both!

Date Recipe #1: Savory Date Bon Bons

This appetizer is an easy single bite that artfully combines the intense sweetness of the date and saltiness of the prosciutto. The goat cheese adds a creaminess and the basil heightens all the flavors. Using basil struck me as weird before I tried it, but believe me it's a key ingredient. And if you want to make them vegetarian, use the basil without the prosciutto as the wrap. These are extremely simple and can be prepped ahead, then broiled at the last minute.

Ingredients

1/3 cup soft herbed goat cheese
16 Medjool dates, pitted
16 large basil leaves
4 wide, thin slices prosciutto di Parma, each cut into 4 long strips
16 toothpicks, soaked in water 10 minutes

Procedure

1 Heat broiler to low.
2 Spoon 1 teaspoon cheese into each date; wrap with a basil leaf, then a prosciutto strip. Secure with a toothpick.
3 Broil until cheese bubbles, about 3 minutes. Serve warm.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 187 calories per 2 dates, 3 g fat (1.9 g saturated), 36 g carbs, 3.3 g fiber, 6 g protein

Source: Self Magazine, December 2007

Date Recipe #2: Sweet Lebneh Stuffed Dates

Ingredients

24 medjool dates, split on the top and pit removed
1 cup yogurt cheese (Lebneh), make the night before (or skip this step and buy at TJs)
1 orange, zested
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup fresh mint, finely chopped
½ cup almonds, toasted and chopped

Procedure

1 To make the yogurt cheese (make the night before), line a fine mesh strainer with a thin linen towel or several layers of cheesecloth. Set over a bowl. Pour the yogurt into the prepared strainer and then gather the edges of the towel together so that the yogurt is covered. Allow to sit in the refrigerator overnight to drain, or for a few days for an even thicker cheese. Or as a short cut, Trader Joes also sells Lebneh.
2 Place the pitted dates on a flat surface. In a bowl, mix together the yogurt cheese, orange zest, vanilla, and mint. Fill each date with some of the mixture. It is easiest to pipe the yogurt mixture into the dates with a pastry bag. Sprinkle the dates with the almonds and serve.

Servings: 12
Author: Jennifer Miller, Natural Chef Instructor/Culinary Administrator

Galette Recipe #2: Apple-Marzipan Galette with Caramel

Our blueberry mini galettes in class also made me think of this incredible apple marzipan galette I've made for years, topped with caramelized sugar and vanilla bean ice cream. This recipe is doable for even non-bakers like me. Sharing it as another option, and to show how versatile galettes are.

And my apologies, I am behind on class photos. You can see some baking class photos in my previous post, and I've just added pictures from chicken class. I have the full baking class and first ethnic cuisine album to upload... more soon!

Apple Marzipan Gallete with Caramel and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

The original recipe calls for sugar, but you can reduce or substitute it. I've always made it as a normal pie size, however it would work just fine to create single-size servings just like the blueberry galettes.

Ingredients

1/2 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie dough, or make your own if you've got time
Butter (for greasing baking sheet)
1/2 cup marzipan, softened
4 cups sliced peeled Granny Smith apple (about 2 pounds)
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon almond extract, divided
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Dash of salt

Procedure

1 Preheat oven to 425°.
2 Line a jelly roll pan with greased parchment paper. If you want to be extra cautious, sprinkle sugar on as well.
3 Roll dough to a 14-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Place dough on prepared pan. Roll marzipan to a 9-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Place marzipan on top of dough. If it's too difficult to roll, I've also just "sliced" it into coins and laid these on top of the dough, which works fine.
4 Combine apple, 1/2 cup sugar, flour, 3/4 teaspoon almond extract, juice, and salt in a large bowl; toss well. Spoon apple mixture over marzipan. Fold 2-inch dough border over the apple mixture, pressing gently to seal (dough will only partially cover apple mixture). I "crimp" the sides with my fingers for presentation.
5 Bake at 425° for 30 minutes or until lightly browned (apple filling may leak slightly during cooking). Depending on your oven, you may want to slightly reduce the temp to 375 the last 10 minutes.

Topping options

Solidified caramel drizzle - Place 1/4 cup sugar in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until sugar dissolves, stirring as needed to dissolve the sugar evenly (about 4 minutes). Cook 1 minute or until golden. Remove from heat; carefully stir in 1/4 teaspoon almond extract. Drizzle over galette.

Caramel sauce - Start as above, but after cooking until golden, remove from the heat, whisk in the almond extract, and also add 1 ounce of butter and 6 tablespoons of heavy cream. Drizzle over the galette.

And of course ice cream!