Well, we come to a significant milestone here, folks (isn't that redundant? Aren't milestones per se "significant?"). This is Annalena's 600th posting. She saw it coming for a while, and had been giving it much thought, including presenting one that had no recipe in it at all, but addressed her friend Bobby's request, long ago, but not forgotten, for a post on how to achieve serenity in the kitchen.
An interesting question indeed. Annalena's first response was that if you are looking for serenity, go anyplace but the kitchen. Bobby's request, however, resonated for a while. Perhaps this answer will be seen as a cop out, but it is true: my serenity begins when I enter the kitchen. It is not always apparent. In fact, it usually is NOT apparent, but the serenity comes, from my process: the cook's process, before I go into the kitchen. When it works, the serenity is wonderful, internal, and cannot be shared. That happens with some frequency, but not always. There have been a few times, when the level of serenity has been so high that it has crossed into bliss, and Annalena feels as if she is not really in the kitchen. That is one experience which also, cannot be shared, and Annalena wonders if there is something akin to "runner's high," which happens to cooks.
That level of serentiy, should not be confused with the cook's happiness or satisfaction, which occurs when s/he sees people enjoy the food prepared - sometimes - and sometimes happens whether anyone eats the food or not, just from the successful completion of what the process was all about.
I know that much of this is sounding very high fallutin and incomprehensible. I would like to offer an example, with a recipe, by way of showing THIS cooks' process.
I had found a recipe, on Lidia's blog, for espresso mousse. It looked like a good, simple, delicious recipe. I passed it on to my friend Keith (you've met him before, yes?), as almost "food porn teasing." I send Keith recipes, he sends back comments. I cannot reprint many of them. I sent this one, thinking that it would be a good dessert, but thinking that, given the coffee, he would not want it for dinner, as it would keep him awake.
Came back the answer "are you high Clarice?" or some variation. OF COURSE I should make it. We were set.
Except... in Annalena's world view, coffee is a flavor reserved for cold weather desserts. Now when the heat index is crossing 100, and the market is bursting with summer fruit, Annalena just feels that dessert must involve fruit. The thought processes began, and all led to tropical fruits. Bananas, mangos, and so forth. All well and good.
Except.... Annalena treats these as fruit to be used during the winter, when she's gotten fed up with apples, quinces and pears. So the thought processes continued.
They spun away from fruit, because mousse is soft, and Annalena wanted something crunchy in the dish.
What goes with coffee? COOKIES! Espresso is Italian, and is there any cookie more Italian than an amaretti cookie? Annalena happened to have a large box of them on hand. So, the dessert would include crumbs of amaretti cookies.
Now, the process gets more interesting. Most people believe that amaretti are made from almonds. Not true. Classically, they are made from BITTER almonds; however, bitter almond products are not permitted in the United States, as they are viewed as toxic. So, know what most amaretti are made of? Noyaux. What are noyaux? GLAD YOU ASKED. You know how, when you eat a peach, sometimes the pit splits and there's this little tiny almond shaped pit inside? That, ragazzi, is a noyaux. And it looks like an almond because the stone fruits are all members of the same family as is the almond.
You're beginning to see where I'm going , aren't you? With this connection in mind, the fruit became easy. The key was NOT to try to link it to the coffee, but since there was an almond flavor in the dish, link it through the crumbs. So, there it was. And since the dessert was cold, something warm or room temperature, and it became roasted stone fruit: apricots, sweet cherries, and the most almondy tasting of all fruits, sour cherries. A dessert was born. And consumed. In mass quantities.
That is Annalena's process, one of dogged effort to get to serenity. If you cook, you have another one, I'm sure you do. Let us all know what yours is. Hope you enjoy mine. And now, the recipe.
Let's do the easy stuff first. Slice about half a pound of apricots into thin slices and toss them with 1/4 cup of sugar. Roast them at 350 for six minutes and then add a half pound combination of pitted sweet and sour cherries, also tossed with a quarter cup of sugar, for six minutes. The apricots will have baked for 12 minutes, the cherries for six. After they've cooled, combine them. Put them in a small container, and store them out of the refrigerator.
To Lidia's mousse. You need a tablespoon of unflavored gelatin. Ragazzi, a tip here: the packets will say they contain a tablespoon. They almost never do, adn with gelatin, you must be precise. So, measure. Open a second packet if you have to. Sprinkle it over 1/4 cup of cold water, and leave it alone.
Make some caramel. Do this by combining a cup of sugar with 1/4 cup of water (for reasons unclear to me, Lidia adds 3 drops of lemon juice). Put this in a deep pot, and heat it, over medium heat. Don't stir it, and don't go away. Keep an eye on it. YOu want it to go to a dark brown, but this stuff can go from dark brown to burned in seconds. Part of the challenge of working with caramel, is playing the game between cooked and burned. Some, including Annalena, like a slightly burned flavor. In this preparation, you can get away with it. You can't with all of them.
Anyway, while that is happening, "scald" a cup of milk in another part. What is scalding? Scalding is when the milk just begins to bubble along the sides. When that happens, turn it off. Leave it for a minute, because first, you're going to pour 3/4 cup of heavy cream into that caramel. Try to keep your face away from it. You'll get a facial or worse, because the caramel will sputter and steam will come up. Whisk them together. You will get clumps, and that's ok. Now stir in the milk. Try to get this as smooth as possible.
Put it aside for another minute, and separate three eggs. Put the egg yolks in a largish bowl, because you're going to temper them. Annalena almost never bothers with this step, but the caramel is so hot that you really need to do it otherwise you will scramble your eggs. To temper, beat the egg yolks thoroughly, and then pour in about 1/4 of the cream mixture. Pour it all back into the pot, and cook, at medium low heat, with a constant whisking action, until you can "see" (and you will see), a custard form. According to Lidia, this will take nine minutes or so. It took me four. Keep your eyes open.
Take this off the heat, and stir in the gelatin, until it's completely combined. Now, add 1/2 cup of espresso. I made espresso for this preparation, from beans, but if you had to, you could use the espresso powder. Don't substitute regular coffee. It's not strong enough.
Chill this custard for a couple of hours, and then...
Whip up a cup of heavy cream. No need to add sugar. Get it stiff. In a separate bowl, whip up the three egg whites until they're stiff. Fold the egg whites into the custard, and then the whipped cream. You'll need a large bowl. If you taste the dessert at this point, you will find it very strong, almost burnt tasting. That will disappear (remember I told you about pushing the caramel?). Refrigerate this overnight.
What you have is what I would call a "bavarian cream," rather than a mousse, but call it what you like. You will call it good. To serve this up, put some of the roasted fruit in a circle around the center of a bowl. Put in a nice serving of the mousse, and then about half of a crumbled amaretti cookie on top.
THERE. We have a composed, lovely dessert, that carries through on a lot of different ideas, and also continues our theme of "accessorizing" a basic dish.
All good, all wonderful.
600 posts. I hope that you can point to some that you really enjoy.
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