Tag coffee

50/50 Week 33: Vietnam Rau Câu

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This was a little bit of a fail. But I think moreso in technique, not recipe.

  1. Coffee Jelly
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tsp agar agar
  • 1 1/2 cup minus 2 tsp coffee
  • 3 Tbs + 1 tsp sugar

2. Coconut Cream Jelly

  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tsp agar agar
  • 3/4 cup + 4 tsp coconut milk
  • 1/3 cup minus 2 tsp milk
  • 1/3 cup minus 2 tsp heavy whipping cream
  • 3 Tbs + 1 tsp sugar

I know the measurements are a little weird, but they were translated from ml & grams

To start off, grab 2 separate pans and dissolve your agar powder in your water. Let it sit for at least and hour.

Place your jelly mold in the freezer to make sure its nice and cold.

Put one of your pans on high heat. When the water starts boiling, the agar powder has completely dissolved and the liquid becomes clear, remove the pan from heat.

Add in coffee and sugar and mix until well blended. If there are still clumps of agar powder or sugar, put the pan back on medium heat and stir until they completely dissolve.

Discard any foam on the surface. Keep the pan warm by putting it on the stove at the lowest heat setting; stir every now and then to prevent the surface from setting.

For the coconut jelly:

In a bowl, pour in coconut milk, milk, and whipping cream. Note that this mixture has to be at room temperature.

Put the other pan on high heat. When the water is boiling and the agar powder has completely dissolved, start to add in sugar and the coconut cream mixture with the pan removed from the heat. Again, if there are clumps of agar powder or sugar, put the pan back up on medium heat and stir until they completely dissolve.

Discard any foam on the surface. Keep the pan warm by putting it on the stove at the lowest heat setting; stir every now and then to prevent the surface from setting.

Now assemble. Take your mold out of the freezer. Pour a thin layer of coffee jelly in the mold, way a couple minutes until it just starts to set up. Use a spatula to break the stream as you pour in the coconut layer. Repeat process until you’re out of jelly.

I let mine set up a little too much. You need to add the next layer when its set, but still tacky. Otherwise you’ll end up like me with completely separate layers haha

50/50 Week 32: Denmark Vaniljekranse

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Hard to pronounce, easy to eat

Ingredients:

  • 75g almonds
  • 250g AP Flour
  • 200g softened butter
  • 175g sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean

This comes together super easy…until the piping.

Use a food processor to grind up your almonds to a flour-type consistency. Don’t use almond flour here. You want the flavor.

Mix everything together. You should get a soft, but thick dough. Now, here’s where I went off the rails. It’s worth mentioning I was mostly down a hand because I broke up a dog scuffle and had a decent bite or two on my hand so probably wasn’t the best idea to try and squeeze this thick ass dough… Alas, earwax.

Anywho, you’re supposed to use a large star nozzle and pipe out rings. Apparently if you have a meat grinder.. you can use that to make your ropes and go from there…that should tell you how THICC this dough is. A meat grinder.

Once you’ve formed what you’re gonna form, bake at 400F for 6 minutes or until light brown.

Mine came out ugly as sin, but were so damn tasty. I’ll have to play around with the recipe to figure out the best extraction in the future..who knows, maybe I’ll break out the meat grinder.

50/50 Week 31: India Rasmalai

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This recipe takes a few steps, but its well worth it in my opinion 🙂

I took a shortcut with the rabri and used sweetened condensed milk.

Rabri Ingredients:

  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 1/8 tsp cardamom powder
  • a few saffron strands
  • chopped pistachios and almonds for topping

Chenna/Paneer Ingredients:

  • 5 cups whole milk
  • 1-2 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
  • a handful of ice cubes

Sugar Syrup Ingredients:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 1/2 cups water
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom powder

Start out by making your Rabri. Combine your condensed milk and whole milk over medium heat and stir until it all comes together. Add your cardamom and saffron, then set to lowest heat and simmer while you get your other ingredients together.

Time to work on your chenna/paneer. This was super cool for me because while cooking is definitely a science, this is the first time it felt like doing an experiment. Anywho, bring 5 cups of milk to a boil and then turn off the heat. Add lemon juice and stir until your milk completely curdles. If you’re having issues curdling, add some more lemon juice. Add a handful of ice cubes and let sit for a couple minutes so it’s not too hot to handle. Line a colander with a muslin cloth (in a pinch, a nice kitchen towel works..just not the fuzzy kind) Pour your curdled mess into the colander and rinse with cold water to make sure you get the lemon juice off. Pull all your corners of your cloth together and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. If you’re able, tie it as tight as you can and hang it over your faucet so it can continue to dribble out cheese water. mmmm cheese water

After about an hour you should be good to go with your Chenna. There should be no more dripping and it should be moist but not super sticky.

Time to be a kneady bitch.

Transfer your chenna to a plate and knead for about 3-5 minutes. There’s no exact time on this one you’re doing it all by feel. Knead it until it’s smooth and non-sticky. Make 12 even sized balls and flatten gently to form discs. If you have any cracking, just roll the sides gently. No one needs to know. How are they gonna know?

We’re almost done, I promise. Now to make the sugar syrup! Boil 3 1/2 cups water with 1 cup sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves and then add cardamom powder. When syrup begins to boil rapidly, gently add your chenna discs and cook covered for 9-10 minutes. Remove from heat and keep lid on for 20 minutes. For 20 minutes, pretend they don’t exist. You’ll know they’re ready when they sink to the bottom of the pan. Remove from syrupy grave and let cool briefly.

Time to assemble this sweet mouth potpourri!

Gently squeeze excess syrup out of your discs by lightly pressing between your palms. Add these to your rabri- make sure to remove from heat- and let rest for 3-4 hours. I never said this was a quick process.

Garnish with your nuts..heh

You can serve warm or cold.

I learned the hard way that my wife doesn’t like pistachios. I don’t know how I never found this out. Don’t worry, we’ve reconciled and the divorce has been postponed. More pistachios for meeee!!!

50/50 Week 26: Argentina Rogel Torta

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Ingredients:

For the dough

  • 3 cups sifted flour
  • 3 Tbs sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 7 egg yolks
  • 3 Tbs water
  • 2 Tbs almond liquor
  • 5 Tbs unsalted butter(room temp)

For the filling

  • 20 oz. dulce de leche (I tried to make my own, I recommend going the sweetened condensed route because the from scratch way took for fucking ever)

For the meringue

  • 6 Tbs water
  • 1½ cup sugar
  • 5 egg whites

In a large bowl, add the flour. Dig a well in the center of the flour and add the sugar, egg yolks, whole eggs, water, almond liquor and soft butter. Mix until smooth. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature. Preheat oven to 320F

Roll out the dough very thin. Very. 2mm thin. Standard Rogel is made in 8-10 inch discs. I personally decided to make miniature versions so I used a biscuit cutter.

This is where is gets time consuming. If you choose to make the standard size, you basically have to bake the discs one at a time. 8 times. Prick your discs with a fork before baking on parchment lined baking trays. Bake for about 10-15 minutes until golden.

For the meringue, combine your water and sugar in a saucepan. Gently boil until you reach 250-265F Use a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming on sides of pan. When you get to 230F start whipping your egg whites until they reach firm peaks. Once you reach 250, turn your stand mixer to low and gradually add your syrup to your egg whites. DON’T TOUCH THE WHISK ATTACHMENT! Once your syrup is added, increase mixer speed to high and mix for 10 minutes. Feel the sides of your bowl to make sure its cool before you stop mixing.

Transfer to pastry bag for later.

Avengers Assemble!

Place a disk on your serving tray and spread a tablespoon of dulce de leche evenly (more if you like more) place the next disk on top and repeat until you run out of disks. The top disk shouldn’t have dulce de leche on top. Instead you’ll pipe your meringue on top. If you’re fancy, blowtorch the meringue lightly.

50/50 Week 25: Italian Almond Biscotti

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup whole almonds raw
  • 2 1/4 cups AP flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs (room temperature)
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 Tbs almond extract
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp lemon zest

My aunt used to make almond biscotti for the holidays and it was always my favorite. Sadly this isn’t her recipe because we don’t really speak much nowadays but this is just as good so I’m not mad about it. 🙂

Start by preheating your oven to 325F

Toast your almonds on a baking tray for 12-15 minutes. You’ll know they’re ready when your kitchen smells deliciously of almonds.

In a bowl, whisk your dry ingredients together. In a large bowl, whisk your eggs and then add the rest of your wet ingredients together (including your lemon zest)

Once your almonds are toasted and cooled a little, roughly chop them and set aside.

Line your baking sheet with parchment paper or the always versatile silpat

Add your dry ingredients to your wet and mix with a wooden spoon until just mixed. Fold in your almonds.

Separate your batter into 2 loaf shapes on your baking tray. Dampen your fingers to shape them into a smoother shape. Bake for 30 minutes until nicely golden. Let cool for about 10 minutes and then slice 1/2 inch- 3/4 inch thick slices and place the slices back onto your baking sheet. Don’t worry, they’ll fit. Bake for 10 minutes, flip and then bake another 10 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and then enjoy alone or with a lovely cup of coffee.