Endive and Scallop tart

When we think of lettuce, there are variations among them with reference to texture, bitterness and palatability. Endives is a bitter lettuce which is a great combination with light seafood. This is such an example of a wonderful recipe that would work great with the endives.
This recipe serves 4 people

Ingredients:

Basil leaves blanched 1 bu
Olive oil 1/4 cup
Salt and pepper to taste

For the orange Oil

Olive oil 1/2 cup
Orange Juice 4 ea
Orange zest 4 ea
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Tart

Puff pastry 1/4#
Belgian endives 4ea
Butter 3oz
Sugar 2oz
Fresh scallops 12 ea
Salt and pepper to taste

For the garnish

Basil leaves fried 8ea
Firm ripe plum tomatoes, peeled seeded and diced 2ea

Method:

For the basil oil:
Place the freshly blanched basil leaves in a juice extractor. Place the juice in a small sauce pan and lightly emulsify with the olive oil over low heat. Season to taste. Repeat the process for the orange oil, adding the zest at the end.

For the tart:
Roll out the puff pastry until it is approximately 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 4 (4 inch) circles. Let rest for at least 4 hours. Seperate the leaves of the endive and blanch quickly in boiling salted water. Shock in ice water and drain. Melt the butter in a large saute pan and add the sugar. Cook to form a light caramel. Add the endive and allow it to color. Remove from the heat, season and drain.
Arrange the endive leaves in a base of a 4 inch pan. Pace the puff pastry circles on top of the endive, ensuring that the outer edge is well tucked in. Set the tart in a hot oven until the pastry is browned and cooked through. While the tart is baking, occassionally press the puff pastry with the back of a palette knife to obtain a neat finish. Turn the tart out onto a tray so the endive is on top.
Season the scallop with salt and pepper and sear in a hot pan until they are browned on the outside but rare on the inside.

To serve:
Arrange the scallops on top of the endive and place 2 fried basil leaes on top of each tart. Add the died tomato to the orange oil and spoon around the plate. Finish with a drizzle of basil oil.

Tapioca Pudding

When you are catering for large group there are many simple dishes that would work wonders at the party. Among them is the tapioca pudding which blends good with any events.

This recipe yields 80 portions.

Ingredients:

Milk 9 qt
Small pearl Tapioca 3 lb
Sugar 1.5lb
Salt 2 tsp
Vanilla bean 5 ea
Egg yolks 8 ea
Sugar 1.5 lb
Heavy cream 1 qt

Method:

• Soak tapioca in milk overnight
• Bring tapioca, milk, salt, 1lb of sugar and the vanilla beans to a hot, using a double boiler. Cook tapioca until it's translucent and tender and mixture is very thick.
• Mix egg yolks with remaining sugar. Remove tapioca from heat, add egg mixture into tapioca and cool mixture over ice.
• When cold, fold in one quart of soft peak whipped cream.
• Garnish with your choice of fresh fruit (i.e raspberreis, blackberries and sauteed apples).

A weekend of fun

Being a long weekend, i decided to spend time with my brother and family. It was a weekend that was just filled with fun and learning. My sister-in-law though had a hectic schedule (being a doctor), picked me up from the station and bought me home for some good food. I was treated to a south Indian pancake (dosa). On saturday we visited the american museum of natural history which had a lot of information and worth the money spent. The lunch that was planned for the afternoon was at the Joe's Shanghai restaurant at flushing New York. My sister-in-law made sure that we have the reservations for the lunch. We waited in line though we had reservations and finally was seated with all the six of us cramped in a corner, as the restaruant was packed to the max. The waitress wasted no time, and asked if we would like to have pork or crab which does not need any explanation as this is a restaurant famous for it's dumpling which could be either pork or crab. Just the thought of my first visit here about six years back had my mouth watering. As we waited for the pork dumpling, we treated ourselves to some hot herbal tea which was set on the table. As the dumpling arrived my brother served, those steaming dumplings. It is just outstanding, i made sure i got my share of this wonderful dumpling. The next dish was the kung poa chicken which was mouth watering, then came the shredded pork & diced bean curd with jalapeno pepper and finally the beef with scallions. This treat was worth the energy that we put in waiting outside to get seated. You cant expect extra ordinary service but it is great for the food that keeps your palate craving for more.

A tip on wines

I am aware, that there are some readers to this blog wondering what too me so long to get myself back and running. I was taking a crash course on wines which is part of the Associates programme at the C.I.A Oh! let me get this right it is the culinary institute of america. This programme runs for 3 weeks and includes wines, regions, grapes, laws, varietals anything and everything that come under the term wines. It is a pretty intense course with failure rate on the high. I would like to give you a bit of the various aspects of wines, which could be of good help to all.
In the world of wine making, grapes are divided into red and white.
The major white grapes are:

Chardonnay
Sovignon Blanc
Reisling
Pino gris

The major red grapes are:

Cabernet sovignon
Pinot Noir
Merlot
Syrah

We can seperate these grapes with the body, by matching it with the tower of power:

Very light bodied whites
Muscadet (France)
Light bodied whites
Stainless steel fremened Sovignon Blanc
Medium bodied whites
Stainless steel fremened Chardonnay
Medium to full bodied whites
Barrel fermented Fume Blanc (Sovignon blanc)
Full bodied whites
Barrel fermented and aged Chardonnay

Light bodied reds
Gamay
Light to medium bodied reds
Pinot Noir
Medium to full bodied reds
Merlot, Zinfandel, Grenache, Cabernet Franc
Full bodied reds
Cabernet Sovignon, Mouverde
Very full bodied reds
Syrah/Shiraz, Petite sirah

I had the opportunity to dine with the C.E.O of Iron horse vineyards Joy Sterling. It was a wonderful experience and had the opporutnity to taste some of their wonderful wines. Blanc de Blanc which is a sparkling wine produced from 100% Chardonnay was truly amazing. This lady had a charisma and enthusism which i could feel as i sat there sipping the glasses of different wines. The dedication and care that this vineyard takes to make their wines was reflected on the wines.
California is the larger producer of wines in the U.S, with napa valley contributing a major chunk. When we buy bottles of wines, we do not realise the amount of work involved in producing that single bottle of wine. Each plantation takes a minimum of 3 years for a producer to get any yield. Most of the grapes are picked early morning to make sure that the acidity levels are balanced. The brix scale is used to measure the sugar to alcohol ratio which would determine the end product. The grapes are immediately transported to the processing plant to ensure freshness and are fermented in large stainless steel barrels with temperature regulation. In certain regions like France, Italy, Portugal there are strict government rules that needs to be followed during the wine making process. America has a short history in wine making, but has a great advantage over the rest of the world, with the rootstock fo the vitis vinifera/vitis labrusca (species of plant producing grapes), being phyloxera (an insect that destroy the roots) resistant. With the exception of Chile and parts of Australia that have not been effected by this insect.
It was a course that was worth the time spent, had a lot of information and the major aspect that is emphasised on this course is the food and wine pairing which make the dining experience pleasurable.

Stuffed lobster with spetzel and gnocchi

Stuffed lobster with spetzel and gnocchi
Originally uploaded by sujith gangadharan

This was a experimental dish which was a combination of seafood with starch of two varieties. The potato gnocchi and the spetzel. This is yet in the process of confirming which would be the best suitable starch for this seafood.
There is nothing fancy about this dish, but has a great flavor with the butter sauce that goes in with the flesh of the lobster,that has a combination of the three different peppers (red, green, yellow) diced and tossed in butter with seasoning and finished with marsala wine.
As it is yet in the process of confirming which would be a suitable starch for this elegant dish, there is the world of culinarians who can give suggestions.

Fruits in Jelly

Fruit in Jelly

Lindser Tart

Dough for the tart crust

Spreading raspberry puree filling

Final product once baked

Serves 6ea

Ingredients

Butter 1.8lb

Sugar 1.2oz

Eggs 3ea

Cake Crumbs 4oz

Cake flour 1lb14oz

Cinamon powder 1/2oz

Baking soda 1/2oz

Hazelnut powder 12oz

Raspberry puree 2lb

Method

• In a bowl mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar.
• Once it has formed a nice creamy paste add the cake crumbs, cake flour, baking soda, hazelnut powder and cinamon powder.
• Once it has totally incorported add in the eggs and mix it throughly.
• The dough will be ready for making tarts.
• Organize the tart mold six each and a rolling pin,.
• Divide the dough into six equal portions.
• Dust the table with little amount of cake flour and roll the dough flat about 1/2 inch thickness (do not excess pressure as the dough will stick to the rolling pin).
• Roll the dough back on the rolling pin and gently place on top of the tart.
• Insert the dough into the tart gently making sure not to break the dough.
• Trim off excess dough from the sides of the tart mold.
• Spread the raspberry puree 25oz each over the bottom of the tart.
• Cut strips of the dough and arrange it in a criss cross design or any design of your choice.
• Place it a pre-heated oven at 450*F for 15 minutes or until done.

Cake Decoration series

Music theme cake

Wedding cake 1

Kids play cake 1

Banquet style cake

Wedding cake 2

Spring cake

Beach cake

Kids play cake 2

Wedding cake 3

Wedding cake 4

Wedding Cake 5

Wedding cake 6

Beach party cake 2

Wedding cake 7

These are some of the creations from the future patessiers of the world. These show pieces were created by students of the Culinary Institute of America. They were given themes that need to reflected in the cakes that they make. There are competations held by the student bodies to encourage bringing out the hidden talent in the students at this prestigeous college.

Crep Raisin Bread

Crep Raisin Bread dough
Crep Raisin bread after baking

As promised i have here the second recipe for the unique bread that i was talking about in my last post. It is great to enjoy the smell of freshly baked bread. Being a raisn bread it has a sweet fragnance when you bake these breads.

Ingredients

Bread flour 6.2lb

Rye four 2.4lb

Rye sour dough 7.5oz

Sugar 10oz

Salt 2.5oz

Milk 5pint

Yeast 5oz

Butter 18oz

Raisin 2lb

Pecan/Walnuts 2lb

Method

• Pass the flour dough, rye flour though a fine mesh
• Add the sugar salt and yeast to the flour and mix it thoroughly (make sure that the salt goes in first and mix it to the flour before adding yeast, as yeast will not raise if salt is added over the yeast. As salt can kill the yeast)
• Place in the mixing bowl and add the butter let bind and then add the milk and the rye sour dough.
• Once it is mixed throughly add in the raisin and the nuts and mix it.
• Devide into 1lb torpedo shapes and bake it in the oven at 350*F
  
  

Chocolate cherry bread

Chocolate cherry bread dough

Chocolate Cherry bread after baking

This is one of the two different bread recipes that i would like to introduce to you. The two breads recipes that i am going to bring to you have unique flavor and has a texture and taste that is not found in other breads.

Ingredients:

Bread flour 2.5lb

White sour dough (mother dough) 1.5lb

Water 1.5lb

Coco powder sifted 6oz

Salt 1.25oz

Yeast 1.5oz

Coffee powder 2oz

Pre-fermented dough 1lb

Chocolate chips 1lb

Dried cherries 1lb

Method

• Before you can start off with this recipe we need to have mother dough which is pre-fermented dough that has been fed for 1 day with 1.5lb bread flour, pinch of yeast and water.
• Once we have the pre-fermented and mother dough, sift the coco powder, bread flour and coffee powder through a fine mesh.
• Mix the pre-fermented and mother dough together in a mixing bowl and add in the sifted ingredients into the bowl.
• Add water to the mixture (luke warm water) to activate the yeast and the gluten in the flour.
• Finally add in the chocolate chips and dried cherries into the bowl and mix thoroughly.
• Let rest for the yeast to develop in the bread. (the process that is going on inside the dough is the sugars feed the yeast and produces co2 gases and this gives the dough volume)
• Bake it in a pre-heated oven at 400*F