March 31st, 2011

Perfectly poached in water and vinegar

On a roll with my cooking, I was inspired by The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry this week and immediately felt the need to conquer the perfect poached egg. There is a lot to know about poaching an egg that I never dreamed possible. Or rather, cooking eggs in general. The egg has rapidly become the most important part of my cooking and baking over the past few months. You can do everything and anything with it. It's like butter. It's special. The magic ingredient.

So I pulled out The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters and turned to page 142 for her instructions on poaching an egg. Water, vinegar and understanding of when to remove the egg. The thing about the egg is that it continues to cook even after you remove it from the heat. For example, the key to scrambled eggs is to gently and patiently whisk/stir until its nearly opaque, but not cooked through. As in, you wouldn't want to eat it just yet as parts are a bit slippery, but given another couple of minutes, it will be moist, fluffy and perfect. So you take it off, and those last couple of minutes are done away from the heat.

The poached eggs seems to be similar. The fresher the egg, the easier the poaching, the more snug the egg ball. The water is kept at a quiet rolling boil. As it cooks you roll the egg with a slotted spoon to center the yolk, while also preventing it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. By the time the egg whites have all turned opaque, the yolk is still soft and runny - which in my opinion is perfect. The result is a delicious flavorful poached egg - the vinegar drawing out the hint of flavor without being vinegary.

March 30th, 2011

Bookmooch Books

I had some rather unpleasant experiences with Bookmooch in the past, but I recently bought a bazillion novels that I had to give a new, beloved home. So I signed back up and started shipping out my books to fellow romance novel readers. I love wrapping them up in scrapbooking paper and packing tape. It's about $2.50/book to send first class, which is totally worth it when I can mooch books back. And eventually, I hope, a book I want will become moochable soon! Haha.

March 29th, 2011

The Farmer's Dip
Dough
East Boston, MA

The second day of my vacation began with a return visit to the doctor's office for x-rays of my foot. Yes, I'm finally having someone look at it. Afterwards I did a bit of wandering and then came back around for lunch at Dough, which is a yuppified pizza and sandwich shop couple of blocks from Maverick Square in Jeffrie's Point. The owners are local with actual culinary degrees. It's very laid back, small, and clean.

I placed my order and rather than paying, he just took off to make up the sandwich. I got to sit and read while I waited. The owner's wife and infant son were there having a late lunch themselves, but he managed to balance customers, take out orders and whipping up something for his family quite easily. It was a quiet afternoon. A local police officer came by to take his lunch there as well. The latest copy of the Boston Herald was sitting on the counter by the windows that I flipped through while I waited.

When my lunch arrived, he still waved off my attempt to pay until after I was done. I order The Farmer's Dip, which is a toasted panini sandwich containing tons of yummy roasted veggies and mozzarella, along with a light herbal dip. Officially: "Fresh spinach, carrot, red onion, cucumber, mushrooms, roasted red pepper and tomato, topped with sliced mozzarella and pressed on fresh roll served with a side rosemary au jus."

It was amazing and rich with flavor. I grabbed a homemade chocolate chip cookie and some Italian soda as well. It was a pleasant lunch with some cool radio on in the background - a laidback rock of some kind, nothing mainstream. It reminded me of Vermont. Or maybe that was the owner's t-shirt-over-long-sleeve-shirt-and-5 o'clock-shadow. Either way, great atmosphere.

I've also learned my lesson about just stopping by for food rather than calling. I've tried to call them four times in the past for delivery, but no one ever picks up the phone. Not for like 20 rings. But he did pick up the phone while I was at the shop, so I know it works. I figure it's probably best to just swing by in the future and bring a book while I wait for them to cook things up.

After my trip to Dough I also swung by La Sultana which is a Columbian bakery right in Maverick Square. The place is awash with yummy fried treats, that I'm suspicious all contain meat. The menu is entirely in Spanish, and I'm a little rusty, so I'd be hazarding a guess on the contents - and Id just eaten, so maybe next time I'll make the effort to ask about the savory treats. I did, however, pick up a delicious flan. I love the texture of flan, its like gelatin, but buttery and milky sweet all at once. That's going on my list of things to make.

With flan in hand, I jumped on one of the buses heading back towards Chelsea only to realize that (a) the bus was late so it was twice as full as usual and (b) school just let out. It was the most squished busride I've ever taken. The kids were all in good humor, decked on in uniforms, so I assume its a local Catholic school rather than the public one up by Eagle Hill. In any case, I got off early because every stop tried to cram on more people like sardines.

It was a lovely day though of visiting local food places I'd had on my list for months. Yum!

March 27th, 2011

Ricotta Pie
Tarretta's Bakery
Revere, MA

Torretta's Bakery is a small Italian shop with authentic old Italian women whipping up authentic Italian pastries. It's amazing. The shop sits right across the intersection from the Beachmont T Station in Revere. It's a corner shop with customers ducking in and out every few minutes. I went on a Sunday afternoon when there were only two other young women choosing pastries and fresh pizza. Two ladies worked the register, immediately asking what I'd like. I chose four different pastries, although it was the Ricotta Pie that was top on my list of purchases. I'd never had ricotta pie, and having Tarretta's may have been the worst decision I could have made because it sets the bar SO high that there may not be a ricotta pie that ever compares. It's AMAZING. Really, like the naughtiest thing you could possibly ever eat. Subtly sweet fluffy, moist ricotta. Barely any powdered sugar on top, so nothing overwhelming. The crust was super moist and buttery itself. It's hard to describe, but you know when you have an apple pie and the apple juices have soaked into the bottom of the crust so that its moist, sweet and soft - but not too mushy? This ricotta pie is like that on all sides. There is nothing crunchy or flaky. It's just 100% the very best part of the pie crust. It's magical.

The other things I had - a lime tart and two other pastries involving the same amazing ricotta fillings that have Italian names, which I can't remember. One was layers of soaked spongecake and sweet ricotta, while the other was like an open face sfogliatelle or pasticiotti. I'll simply have to return and jot down the names.

March 26th, 2011

Whisking pastry cream on the stove

Some friends were having a scorpion bowl party, so I thought, what better time than to bake more fun treats? I'm really obsessed with baking sweet if you hadn't noticed by this blog. Trying to fit in with the scorpion bowl theme, I thought coconut and pineapple! I had both on my kitchen counter. Not wanting to invest hours on end to this endeavor, I picked up some pre-formed pastry shells from the freezer sections and decided to dedicate my efforts to the filling.

I made a classic pastry cream, halving the Dorie Greenspan recipe that I used for the Classic Fruit Tart the week before. I then sauteed fresh cut pineapple and mixed it with a warm lime curd glaze. Bon appetit!

Pineapple + Lime Pastry Cream Tart

While the tarts were under construction, I dipped into my newly purchased cookbook: My Sweet Mexico by Fany Gerson. It's a delectable book filled with rich stories and anecdoates about authentic pastries, breads, candies and other treats from Mexico. She includes detailed easy to execute instructions as well. The simplest and most compelling recipe for me to begin with was Jamoncillo de Leche, or milk fudge. Her description made it seem super easy. Toss in ingredients and stir until it pulls away from the sides of the pan. Ta-dah! It struck me as funny simply because I investigated other milk fudge recipes online only to find them described as complex with specific temperatures and procedures to follow - like candymaking. But it wasn't that way at all. I could tell when it was ready. It was clear. I didn't need thermometer or whatever else they suggested. It did take me 45 minutes of constant stirring, instead of the 20-30 min she said. I realized mid-way through that my stove simply wasn't hot enough, hence the slow carmelization. I was too cautious at first due to concerns about burning - but I didn't need to have those fears.

Honestly, I don't know what the big fuss is about this kind of cooking. It was super easy and everyone loved the milk fudge. I used coconut milk instead of evaporated milk, so it had a hint of tropical sweet. Perfecto!

March 23rd, 2011

Newfie at Whole Foods
Boston, MA

I'll admit, a poor snapshot. But this big guy was the highlight of my day. Such a sweetie, sleeping outside of Whole Foods in downtown Boston, waiting for his parents to come out. He had the biggest, sleep eyes and his fur was fluffy soft to the touch. I wanted to give him a big hug and curl up beside him!

March 21st, 2011

Saratoga Street
East Boston, MA

I love this building on Saratoga Street. The weather worn wood in the front adds dramatic character. It's rundown, but in a romantic Restoration Hardware kind of way. Although, I do kind of doubt they have $3k sofas inside if that plastic-bag-patched window pane is any indication. But you never know. I have romanticized anyway.