Cooking at Home

Between trips, I tend to become a homebody and really enjoying staying in and eating at home.  That allows me to occasionally try out recipes and flavor combinations that spontaneously pop in my head.  I don't really cook line by line with recipes.  I read cooking books, food articles, and blogs for ideas.  And then, I use them as a base and inspiration for my own recipe.  I get this idea in my head and flavors on the tip of my palate, and I use whatever we have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry to execute the vision.  It's like I've made myself my own cooking challenge/game.

Here are some dishes that my family and I have whipped up in the past few weeks.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinners; and mostly Asian-inspired.
Place your cursor above "Notes" below to read the captions for each photo.

If you can't see the slide show here, check out my Flickr album: At Home

Baking my favorite restaurant dessert - Bostini Cream Pie

San Francisco has always and continues to give me some of my favorite food memories.  It's the area where I grew up, and it's the area where I had some of my favorite childhood meals and dishes.

If you ask me what's my all-time favorite dessert, I'd list a few of my mom's signature baked specialties.  As I travel around the world, every city is building up my list of favorite dishes, and desserts included.  So ask me what's my favorite all-time restaurant dessert in San Francisco.

Scala Bistro's Bostini Cream Pie (also found on the menu of Bistro Giovanni in Napa).  Hands down, my favorite San Francisco treat.  Now, I haven't tried this in a few years, so I can't tell you if it's still consistent.  But from what I remember, it's a generous cup of vanilla bean custard that drowns a little orange chiffon cake, and wonderfully topped with a semi-sweet chocolate glaze.  That combination of vanilla, orange, and chocolate.. they are made for each other.

I remember when I was in grade school, I cleaned the cup and the chocolate glaze all over the plate so well that the waiter couldn't help but comment that I must have enjoyed it.  Yes, I totally did.

This Bostini Cream Pie dessert is always on my mind.  I've been wanting to make it to relive my happy memories.  So over the Easter weekend, during the height of my baking spirit, I gathered the recipe together.  It's a long process to completely cool the cupcakes, and then chill the custard.  But, it's all so worth it once you have that first spoonful of that custard, orange, and chocolate goodness.

If you can't see the slide show, check out my Flickr album: Bostini Cream Pie

Baking at Home: Hazelnut Cookies

As this past Easter weekend approached, my mood to bake was in full swing. Now was a great time to make use of a tub of hazelnuts. That's right, mmm hazelnuts.

My mom recommended I check out her baking book collection, particularly Gina DePalma's Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen.  From its opening, Batali hand-picked her to be the pastry chef.  So, yes, that Babbo.

The hazelnut recipes had a great selection of biscottis, chocolate hazelnut cookies, and a plain hazelnut cookie.  I wanted the hazelnuts to shine, so I chose the Hazelnut Cookie recipe (this is a blog that writes up DePalma's recipe).

I made two batches.  One is as the recipe dictates, with just a gentle coating of confectioners' sugar.  I also left the hazelnut skins on.  I love the homemade, speckled look; and the skins really don't give off any bitterness to distract from the nut's flavor.  These cookies turned out really great - chewy, crispy, and intense sweet hazelnut.

The second batch was coated with more confectioners' sugar, flattened, and twice baked - Hazelnut Biscotti Cookies.  They are perfect dipped in my daily cup of Americano.

I'm inspired to tweak this recipe into my own now.  Maybe lessen the sugar and bake it a little less for more chewiness.  I'm also curious to try it flour-less and/or egg yolk-less.  I'll keep you posted when I try out these new batches..

If you can't see the slide show, check out my Flickr album: Hazelnut Cookies

Mixing it up

Time for something different. Completely different.

Strawberry coffee cake fits the requirement.

Light, fluffy, intense coffee cake filled and topped with light strawberry frosting.

The freshness of the whipped strawberry flavor plays with the intensity of the roasted coffee. Not an obvious match, but it tastes to delicious together.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Strawberry Coffee Cake

Chocolate Coffee Cake Throwback!

An old favorite enhanced. One of my earliest memories of my mom's desserts is her chocolate coffee cake. Each eating required 2 slices at a time (during my chubby and skinny stages of childhood and adolescence).

Light, fluffy, moist chocolate cake filled with coffee icing and topped with chocolate icing. A chocolate lover's heaven.

This time around she used Dutch process chocolate to really bring out that chocolate intensity which the coffee icing complements so perfectly.

Even today, one slice is never enough.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Chocolate Cake

A Classic Dessert at Home, made to perfection

My mom is the complete package for an awesome mother. How is she "complete"? Because she can bake as amazing as a James Beard awarded pastry chef. I'm totally serious.

This past week alone she baked up a couple old favorites and a new treat.

First, an absolute classic - leche flan! She has spent years constantly perfecting this dessert. It is definitely one of her specialties.

I have yet to taste anything better than this in restaurants. Light...creamy...burnt caramel..absolute perfection!

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Leche Flan

Top 10s of 2011: Home Baked Goodies

As I reflect on my Home Baked posts from 2011, I found that I only had 3 posts. 2012 Resolution: Take more home baked pictures!

So, instead of my Top 10 list from 2011...
My Top 10 Favorite Home Baked Goodies since the start of Foodicles:
10. Using Bananas
9. Homemade Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
8. Eating In
7. Banana-Que
6. Chocolate Caramel Tart
5. New Desserts
4. Too many bananas and they're already so ripe? Bake with them!
3. Red Velvet, Round 2
2. Tarte Tatin
1. Always Leave Room for Dessert


Next Weekend: Top 10 Favorite Restaurants in the Philippines, the US, and in the world.

Banana-Que: Caramelized Bananas on a Stick!

Banana-que is a common Filipino street food snack. Caramelized local plaintain bananas (saba) fried on a stick. It's great for breakfast, merienda (snack time), and dessert.

When they are freshly made, it's too easy to eat so many bananas in one sitting. Sweet bananas, caramelized with brown sugar.. Soo good.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Banana-Q

Too many bananas and they're already so ripe? Bake with them!

One of the best things about life in Asia.. the fruits! There are so many varieties of tropical fruits that you'd never find in the states. And if you do, they are ridiculously overpriced.

I've been really into the local variety of Filipino bananas lately. There are three kinds: Lacatan, Latundan, and Senorita.

In the past months, I've tried all 3. After eating these, the bananas in the states taste like potatoes. The ones here are packed with flavor. It's like they have been infused with banana liquor.

The Senorita bananas are fun to eat because of the tiny size. You can have it in 2 bites.. ok maybe 3 if you want mind your eating manners. The Lacatan and Latundan bananas are a bit bigger. I prefer the Latundan variety because the bunches I've eaten have been the sweetest and boldest with banana taste.

The only problem with the bananas is that they ripen so fast. It's like a race to finish it, while trying not to gain weight from overindulging in bananas. So one of the best solutions to this problem is to bake with the bananas!

Here's a batch of banana cupcakes that my mom recently baked. In the past, she'd make banana bread. Then she moved on to banana muffins. Now, it's banana cupcakes. They are so light, fluffy, moist, and full of banana flavor. Plus, they are topped with my favorite cupcake icing: cream cheese frosting!

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Banana Cupcakes

Homemade Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies!

Every now and then, I get this mood to bake. And when that happens, I jump for recipe ideas and head to the kitchen. This time around I was in the mood to bake cookies. The only problem was that we just arrived from a month long trip, so our fridge and pantry were limited.. as in, we had no eggs.

So after some research, I decided to try out this Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookie recipe. And like with all cooking and baking I do, I adjusted the recipe with my own twists.
- Inside of instant espresso powder, I used a strong shot of espresso which would lighten the color of the cookies but still have that coffee taste.
- For the bittersweet chocolate chips, I chopped up Jacques Torres 60% Chocolate Chips.
- Instead of all chocolate chips, I also added a handful of Scharfen Berger Cacao Nibs. I love using these when I bake. It's the texture of a roasted nut with the bitterness of a dark chocolate.

And after cooling on the rack.. It was awesome! A successful recipe and baking experiment. A recipe to keep in my archives. This shortbread cookie is crumbly, buttery, chocolatey and full of coffee. So yum!

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album.

Banana-Que

A classic Filipino street food find! It's a banana coated with brown sugar, and then shallow-fried. They are typically on skewers when sold by street vendors. It's best eaten freshly made because you get that crisp from the hardened sugar coating. This is definitely one of the best ways to eat bananas and plantains!

Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Baked Goods!

My mom took a three day Professional Baking Course. I loved it when she came home in the afternoons because she brought home baked goods that she made during the day. Everything that she and her classmates made were delicious.
Day One
Eclairs

Yema Pastry
Yema is basically a sweet egg yolk which is used in various dessert recipes.



Day Two
Jelly Roll
Made from Genoise cake.

Pineapple Cake
Made from Chiffon Cake.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Apple Pie

Chiffon Cake


Day Three
Cinnamon Rolls

Brown Sugar Twist

Pan De Sal
Filipino version of a dinner roll.

Wheat Loaf Bread

More Family Meals

Before the end of our holiday vacations, my parents continued to make delicious dinners while the whole family was together.

Kare Kare
This is one of my favorite meals at home. Aside from oxtails, there are also shortribs. The vegetables include eggplant and Chinese longbeans. The dish is always better the next day when the sauce thickens and the flavors get more infused into the meat. Although, it's also great on the first day when you really taste the roasted meat taste.


Bagoong
The sauce for Kare Kare. It's basically shrimp paste with onions and pork bits.


Steak and Wine Night
To get my taste buds ready for the night, my dad and I sipped on some Maker's Mark. A nice pre-dinner drink.

The Pairing
Cabernet Sauvignon, Robert Mondavi, 1986

Vegetables
Bean Sprouts, Asparagus, Onions, and Mushrooms

Fried Rice with Steak Bits

Greg Norman Steaks - Grassfed and Ribeye Cuts
Both were tasty, but the New York cut is far tastier and buttery.

Tarte Tatin
Another batch of my mom's tarte tatin.

Always Leave Room for Dessert!

With almost every dinner that we've had at home this past week, my mom has also baked some delicious desserts to end the meal.

Chocolate Torte
Light and crisp merigue-like top with a nice dark chocolate inside. It's made with almonds so that adds to the lightness.



Chocolate Cake
This cake is one of my earliest memories of my mom's baking. I looked forward to birthdays so she could make this cake for my brothers and me. It's so fluffy and moist. The inner icing is toffee flavored. Mmm!




Coffee Crunch Cake
Another favorite from childhood. The chiffon cake is so fluffy, and the honeycomb crunch is light and crispy with a great coffee taste.





Leche Flan
My mom's perfected recipe! The caramel is dark enough so it has a slight burnt taste to give the caramel more depth. The custard is so light and amazingly creamy.

Tarte Tatin!

My mom has numerous cooking and baking specialties. Tarte Tatin has become one of them.
Fresh from the Oven

The Stages of Flipping




Perfect Flip!

Plated with Fresh Whipped Cream
The crust was delicious crisp and crumbly. The Fiji apples still had a nice bite and a good sweetness. Such a great dessert!

Using Bananas

Frozen Banana Pudding
My mom made a couple variations of banana pudding a few months ago. To preserve what we could not finish, we froze the rest. It turned out to be a nice refreshing dessert.


Banana Muffins
Instead of making a loaf-shaped, my mom tried using the cupcake pans. The result was great. I love the crusty edges and with this size there's more of that. The chunks of bananas were tasty, and overall it was nice and moist.

Chocolate Caramel Tart, Round One

My all-time favorite restaurant dessert is Scala Bistro's Bostini Cream Pie. Back when I was a chubby kid, I would scrap the entire plate with no shame.

My second favorite restaurant dessert was at the Ritz Carlton San Francisco Sunday brunch buffet. It was a chocolate caramel tart. The caramel was thick, dark, and almost burnt tasting - but burnt in that delicious way. For years, I've been wanting to recreate that dessert.

My mom passes on recipes that she finds online, and all of them look delicious. I finally tried one. It turned out pretty well...actually it was pretty successful. However, there are a few things that I can try out next time to make it even better. I definitely need to work on forming the crust better. The caramel was great, but perhaps I'll try to get it a bit darker. And as for the chocolate, I used Valhrona. A great brand for baking (and eating). Maybe I'll try to use semi-sweet instead of bittersweet - just to compare.

Lamb!

Lately I've been cooking simple comfort foods. Last night I decided it was time for a little splurge.

Garbanzo Hors d'oeuvres
I pureed some garbanzo beans, anchovies, garlic, butter, and olive oil in a blender. The crackers are the Savory Mini Crackers from Trader Joes.

Roast Potatoes
With bacon, chopped onions, and rosemary

Roast Rack of Lamb
Roasted with an olive oil rub and rosemary

Dessert Time
My brother had some of his cookie dough in the freezer. So I've been enjoying it.

Baked
It looks so professional! My brother makes some great desserts.

Red Velvet, Round 2!

My mom made another batch of red velvet cupcakes before she left.  Yay, I have dessert for the week!  She previously made square red velvet cupcakes.  This time, she tried the traditional shape.  It still had the same great, light texture and the same great taste.

Resting in the Pan

Iced!

A Look Inside
The cake was moist, light, and fluffy.  The icing was more generous this time.  Look at how light and fluffy it is!

Individually Wrapped for Freezing

 

On a side note: I just got my new camera!  The new camera pictures start with the cupcake cut open shot.  I’ve had the camera for a few days now, and I’m still so excited every time I take a picture.