Palmiers and Pinwheels

 So the rest of the Puff Pastry dough was baked into Palmiers and Pinwheels.

4 - Five Folding of the Puff Pastry, benching 20 minutes between each roll definitely helped with relaxing the dough and keeping the butter block in the dough.  And see the wonderful result of layers and layers of lamination.

Some people like the Palmiers baked till the sugar is caramelized completely, and also to extend the shelf life.  My Palmiers and Pinwheels are baked till Golden Brown and retained sugar crystals.

More pictures can be viewed at http://picasaweb.google.com/pastrydavinci

Stir-Fried Shanghai Noodles with Shrimps

We love to order "Chow Mien" at our favorite seafood restaurant in Fremont - especially my grand-kids.  They love "noodles".  Three dishes for $18?  Not baaad.  We can feed the entire family and still got enough to take doggy bag home.  After a while though, it's time to try your own.  We found this new 99 Ranch Market in Mountain View (CA).  It's loaded with variety of Oriental noodles.  Anything from dry, instant, to fresh noodles from Japan to Taiwan to China, they got few of each.  Our goal is to find the right fresh noodles for the stir-fry to make the "Chow Mien".  As you might already know "Chow Mien" is Chinese fried noodles usually prepared with some vegetables, meat, and sauce, and it is expressed in "Cantonese" dialect.  In Mandarin, it would be pronounced more like "Tsao Mien".  Regardless, I found this Stir-Fry Shanghai Noodles.   You can practically add any kind of vegetables and meat to stir fry with it.  Since this is fresh noodles, not egg noodles, the noodles will be soft vs. "pan fried noodles" that is usually prepared with "egg" based thin noodles.  I am sure you know a lot more about the noodles than I do, but I used the following ingredients:

2 TBsp dark soy sauce
1-1/2 TBsp light soy sauce... I just used Low Sodium soy sauce we bought for both
1TBsp OYSTER sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp ground white pepper or black pepper
1/2 tsp of pre-chopped garlic in the jar  - if fresh, three cloves, chopped
1 tsp of minced ginger  (I keep them frozen, so I can use it anytime)
1/2 lb of raw shrimps - Rinsed in salt water and strained or you can use Chicken pieces
1 bunch of green onions, washed and chopped
1/4 head small Cabbage, finely Julienned or cut thinly
2 cups of fresh bean sprouts, washed and strained
3 Dry Shiitake Mushrooms, rehydrated in Hot Boiling water. Sliced.  Save the Stock.
Any other veges you want to put in.

MIX soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, and pepper together.  Set aside

Pour 3 TBsp of cooking oil in the hot wok.
Add garlic and ginger.  Stir to bring out aroma, then add green onion.  3 min.
Add Raw Shrimps (or Chicken)
Stir fried until cooked. (Not translucent anymore)
I also add a bit of chili flakes, but you can do it for your own bowl later.
WITHOUT TAKING OUT THE OIL IN THE WOK, Take out the shrimps.... try to leave as much oil in the Wok as possible.  If not enough oil to fry the vegetables, add 1 TBsp more of cooking oil.

Add Cabbage and stir-fry just until it turns translucent.  Make sure there is enough cooking oil to coat the cabbages lightly all around.  Do not over cook.    Stir fry for 3-4 min. 
(Raw cabbage seems to develop gas for many people.)
Add Bean sprouts, mushrooms, and any other veges.  Stir fry for 30 seconds.
Remove to large bowl and set aside.

In the same Wok:
Add the fresh Noodles and recommended amount of liquid on the package, e.g. 6 oz water + mushroom stock -- amount of stock from rehydrated Shiitake mushroom.
Cook the noodle until the stock goes down to 1/3 cup or something like that.  

(Some people prefer the noodles with lots of sauce, but just make sure it is not like a soup.  After all, this is Stir-fry noodles.)
Add Vegetables, Sauce Mixtures, Shrimps to combine with noodles.  

Stir Fry until everything is coated with sauce mixture.  3 to 5 minutes.
Done.

Serves 5

 

Also, there are lot more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/pastrydavinci

Blueberries on the Cloud Puff Tart

So, here is what I decided to do with the rest of the Puff Pastry dough. 
I wanted to make another Pineapple Tatin, but out of luck.  No more fresh pineapple.
In my effort to find a way to preserve the Puff Pastry's "Puffiness" even after topping it with the goodies, I came up with an idea.  I am sure others have done the same because I have seen puff pastry being used for Pate puff, but in much smaller size, of course.  So, I shaped the dough to fit my 10 " round Tart Pan - Puff Tart Shell is formed, chilled, sprinkled the top with some sugar and egg washed the top, and baked at 425'F.  Beautiful.  It puffed up like an awakening giant stretching upwards.   The sugar and egg wash coating was to help in giving some shine and flavor and not depend entirely on the pastry cream of some sort for the sweetness.  To cut down on the overall usage of sugar, I decided on the beautiful puffy Whip Cream for the topping.  That's it.  Pressed down on the puffed shell with the palm of my hands to make the well in the center (surprisingly, the shell sprang back... no problem.)  Whip cream whipped up with just a tablespoon or so of sugar to taste.  Frozen blueberries are -- I saved a pint of wonderful large fresh blueberries from the summer, frozen -- dipped in the simple syrup flavored with Raspberry Liqueur.

Then, I assembled my Blueberries on the Cloud Puff Tart.   Taste of the fresh puff pastry is just wonderful.   I loved the Puffy pastry coated with sugar.  The combination of lightly sweetened whip cream and raspberry liqueur syrup coated blueberries tasted great. 
So, here are the pictures.

 

 

Fresh Pineapple Tatin

 This is the ultimate best Fresh Pineapple Tatin ever.  It was a lucky accident.  I bought a fresh pineapple over the weekend. I was suppose to have gone to a party, but did not make it back on time to take the Fruit basket that I was going to make. So, I am stuck with a fresh pineapple. The weather is very cooperative - cool.  I decided to make the Puff Pastry that I have not touched for a long time since June.  Everything went very smoothly. I followed the regular Tarte Tatin recipe from our culinary class.  Instead of apples I used Fresh Pineapple.  I was very careful not to over caramelized in the saute pan.   Remembering that once it goes in the oven, it will get browned some more.
I am very pleased with the turn out. My puff pastry is PUFFED.  It was well worth the time waiting - benching the dough after each roll. The taste was delicious and loved the crunchy layers of the puff pastry. I wished there is a way to serve this pastry without sacrificing the "puffiness". What I mean is that - once the pastry has completed its baking, it is inverted out to a serving dish. The whole entire 4 inches of PUFFED pastry is then flattened. That's the way it is supposed to be, but I would love to see the puffiness stay puffed up. There are other recipes such as Napoleon, Cream Horns, Patty Shells, etc.  But, I think I know what I want to try with the rest of my Puff Pastry dough waiting for action in the refrigerator. Maybe I can bake a separate layer of puff dough. Then, place it on top of the finished Tatin after it has been inverted -- like a sandwiched tatin. What do you think? Or an individual small 4" Tatin, roll out two puff pastry dough, one with a hole in the middle. Then, after the baking, place the extra baked puff pastry with hole in the center on top of the finished Tatin. Nope, the puff patty shell is the same idea and easier . . . all right, Palmiers, Pinwheels, and Puff Pastry Tart Shell for Blueberries on the Cloud.

Asian Pear Tatin

Weather in Sacramento this week, due to the full moon, has been quite 'welcomingly' cool.  It also means that my kitchen is cool enough at 79'F for me to handle 1 lb of butter block for the Puff Pastry!  Yes! The last time I prepared the Puff Pastry was in the early June.  Practicing what I learned in the class to make the beautiful and wonderful, amazing Puff Pastry - Tarte Tatin, Almond-Apple Diamond, Fruit Strips, and Palmiers.  All so wonderful, but the hot kitchen is not what butter block likes.  Finally, today, I made Fresh Pineapple Tatin as a test and Asian Pear Tatin.  Pineapple Tatin is one pastry that I remember and savour the taste since I was child.  There is only one place in Japan, back then, bakes them - Fujiya Bakery at Tachikawa.  I never saw the pastry made anywhere else that I've been to.  Even in the State, I have never came across once like the ones I had.  But today, I made both Pineapple Tatin and Asian Pear Tatin.  Haven't decided what to do with the rest of the puff pastry dough, yet.

I am very happy to share this photo journal as the butter block cooperated quite well throughout the process.  So, here it is my photo journal of Asian Pear Tatin.

THAI TEA TESTING & HOW TO MAKE ICED THAI TEA

A couple of weekends ago, I craved dearly for the THAI Tea I had at one of the restaurant. I observed carefully the color, the aroma, and taste of the Thai Tea served at local Thai restaurant. I did some web search on the Thai tea. Most of the tea listed were imported from Thailand. Some are in the form of instant Thai tea powder; also there is tea leaves form of the Thai Tea being sold with Thai tea making kit. Regardless, after first three tries with various tea listed on the web, my search for the better Thai tea took me to an interesting journey. I found three different brands Thai Tea on the market where I live. At first I purchased some Oolong Tea from Taiwan, Instant Tea from Thailand (pre-mixed), and both disqualified to come close to the taste I am looking for. The instant tea tasted good, but I had my concern with the artificial color yellow #6 that it contains. But it explains the reason why the tea served at the restaurant comes out so gorgeous when served.
So, the next quest for the right Thai Tea was solved at the Koreana Plaza, local Korean market located at Olson drive, Rancho Cordova close to my office. I purchased three different tea brands and flavors. Thai Tea by Sunlee has vanilin flavour, and FD&C Yellow #6. Then, the "THAI Tea" with Anise (Thailand), and Black Tea (China).
The control of the test is to brew the tea with hot water at the same temperatures and with the same number of bags of tea. The challenge is to measure the color. So, the color fused through the glass and camera is the only mechanism I have to measure the strength of the tea. Each group of tea is steeped three times. At the end of the test, the winner of the Thai Tea is the Black Tea.  If I am not so sensitive to the food color, probably I don't mind enjoy a cup of Sunlee brand Thai tea.
To make Iced Thai Tea, after steeping the tea bags--4 tea bags to 12 oz of hot water- make it strong as it will get diluted when added to the glass of ice, add a drop of Vanilla extract. Depending on your preference, you can add pre-sweetened coffee creamery; condensed milk; then top it with half and half, or evaporated milk.  Enjoy!

 

 

Update on 11/7/2020.  This store sales organic Thai Tea.  The best part is no artificial color.  https://www.arborteas.com/organic-thai-iced-tea.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8PGo-b3x7AIVFR6tBh3rEgNzEAEYAiAAEgIONPD_BwE

Your traditional blend Thai tea to make the Thai Iced Tea should be of strong black tea,  and contain vanilla bean, cardamom and anise.  So you could blend them at home the same ingredients and see if it will produce the same taste.  Have fun testing.