Food Blog:
Cook In.
Eat Out.
Miss Tenacity.
New Mexico.
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Monday, April 14
Cake! I had never before baked a cake.... until Saturday, that is. I was under a promise to make my boyfriend's favorite dessert for his birthday: Boston Cream Pie. So out comes the Julia cookbook, and an hour later I have a beautiful yellow cake.
Then, since none of my many cookbooks actually have the rest of the recipe, I have to turn to online sources. I find what I need from Epicurious, though the directions for the custard are somewhat counterintuitive.
Here are the instructions:
"Make the custard:
In a saucepan whisk together the cornstarch, the sugar, and the milk, add the eggs, the cream, and the salt, and whisk the mixture until it is smooth. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean, reserving the pod for another use, add them to the cream mixture, and bring the custard to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly. Boil the custard, whisking, for 2 minutes, remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the butter."
Now, putting the eggs in right away, and then BOILING for 2 minutes.... that sounds like a recipe for disaster, if you'll pardon the pun. And sure enough, it started curdling. So the "whisking constantly" part makes a little bit of sense, since it will keep the size of the curds small enough so as to be undetectable. Still, a very weird custard-making technique.
The glaze part of the recipe turned out great, so that was a relief. The only hard part was slicing the cake horizontally with a less-than-ideal knife. But it did turn out, and the cake didn't break in half. Success!
Time posted: 10:04 [permalink]
Tuesday, April 8
Protein, revisited.
I am on a new strength routine at the gym. About 15 exercises total, up from 10 of my previous set. My trainer said that this first month or so I will need an insane amount of good protein to help my body adjust. I am back to eating cottage cheese, one of the most convenient forms of protein out there (for me anyway). 1 cup = 24 grams = about 1/3 of what I need each day.
I need to come up with more varieties of protein - I will quickly get sick of yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese, and the occasional steak. Time to hone my carne adovada recipe.....
Time posted: 10:55 [permalink]
Rice pudding. Mmmmm. Made this for the first time last night, and "authentic" varieties are so simple and not even really pudding-like. Here's how to do it:
1) Make some rice.
2) pour some milk in the pan with the rice, and some sugar.
3) add some raisins if you like raisins.
4) heat/stir.
5) EAT!
Restaurants I've eaten at that serve rice pudding typically are like the above - sweet, runny, and simple. Commercially prepared rice pudding mixes are more like "actual" pudding - they are gelatinous and thickened, with the rice as an accoutrement rather than the main ingredient.
Time posted: 10:49 [permalink]
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CONTACT ME: tenacity -at- gmail.com
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