Japchae

So I'm steering away from sweets in this post but I think that you'll like it (crossing fingers).  So for Memorial Day my family had a small barbecue.  We made galbi (korean short ribs), potato salad, thai chicken satay with peanut sauce, garden salad and japchae.  Some of you are probably thinking, "what the heck is japchae"?  Japchae is a Korean noodle dish.  The noodle looks like glass noodles, but it is actually a sweet potato starch noodle prepared with lots of vegetables.  I recently learned how to make this, so like everything else I am new to I make it a lot.  Luckily the family loves it!

Ingredients:
1 carrot, cut up to match sticks
1 small onion, sliced
1 package of button mushrooms, sliced
2 green scallions cut into 1" pieces
2 cloves of garlic
1 bunch spinach, blanched
1 package of potato starch noodles
1 tbs roasted sesame seeds
Sauce:
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs sesame oil
Dash of fresh ground black pepper
(Give or take, just season it the way you like)

Directions:
1. Stir fry the carrots and onions in a little sesame oil and a dash of salt.
2. Do the same with the mushroom and scallion, then spinach, garlic and sesame seeds.
3. Boil the noodles in a pot of water for exactly 8 minutes and no more, just 8 minutes.
5. Put all the ingredients for the sauce together in a separate pot, cook until sugar is dissolved.
4. Rinse the noodles in cold water then and drain.
5. Mix the vegetables, noodles and sauce all together over the stove until heated through,  then enjoy!

Macaron Recipe

Piped Macarons

I think the key to successful macarons is to prep everything ahead of time.  I usually have a mental check off list and it goes a little something like this:


Preheat the over to 310 degrees.  Measure out all my ingredients:
3/4 cup almond meal
2 large egg whites, aged
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup fine sugar


Prepare my piping bag.  Line my 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  Have my food gel ready at hand.  Make sure that all my bowls and mixer are free of any oil residue, trust me this is necessary ( boil your beaters in water if you have to).  Separate my egg whites the night before.


Directions. 
1. Sift almond meal and powdered sugar.
2. Beat egg whites until stiff while gradually adding fine sugar.
3. Gently fold the mixture into the egg whites 1/3 at a time.  Add any color food gel at this point.  I usually use Americolor or Wilton.  
*Do not mix, beat, stir or whatever else that does not mean fold because they will not have feet.
4. Fill the piping bags with the mixture, it'll seem a little thick but it's okay.
5. Try to pipe dollar coin size circles as identical as possible.
6. Bake for 16 minutes give or take a minute or two.
(I usually don't wait for a "skin" to form and it still turns out good.)


Once the shells are done, you should be able to slide it right off the parchment paper easily.  Allow the shells to cool then it's time to pair them up add a filling of your choice.  Fill it with pretty much anything you want.  Caramel, preserves, nutella, ganache, cream cheese, custard, buttercream, anything I tell you.  So get creative!  Oh yeah store them in an air tight container for 2 days in the fridge before you eat them or give them away because then you'll get the right texture.  Crunchy and chewy all in one bite...If it doesn't turn out the way you want it to please don't give up because once you get it right, it'll all seem so easy, easy I tell you.  Let me know how it goes!  Good Luck ^_^

Macarons Galore

French macarons, not macaroons.  Not the cookies with coconut shavings, but the ones with the filling.  When I first discovered that people  were willing to pay $2 for a cookie the size of an Oreo I was like huh?  What made this cookie so special?  I could see that aesthetically it was beautiful and such an adorable treat to have, but I continued to question what made this cookie so special still?  So one day while I was at Santa Monica, I saw a place that sold macarons so I HAD to try one.  I ended up buying a dozen just because they were so pretty and I wanted one in every color and flavor they had to offer.  So like any other treats or dessert that I have tried I had to look up the recipe and make it.  I think like bread I failed the first dozen times or so, but hating to waste egg whites and especially almond meal I gave up...for awhile.  After much research and reading all the blogs that offered tips and recipes I made another attempt and tada I had feet!  Anyone who has made macarons knows what I am talking about when I said that I had feet.  Long story short from that point on I was able to make macarons with feet every single time =) I eventually learned to make caramel to fill my macarons.  I have filled them with:

• Caramel
• Salted Caramel
• Raspberry Preserves
• Green Tea Ganache
• Chocolate Ganache

I now know why it is so expensive and truth be told it is because of the almond meal.  I have resorted to even blanching my own almonds,  manually removing the skin and then grinding it; even then it is still kinda expensive.  However, even with that said there is no stopping me from making them.  Now I just gotta find someone to eat them! 

Until next time!

Cake Pops!

My very first attempt at editing pictures =)

I still have a long way to go and lots to learn.