Austin, TX

While in Seattle last week I had dinner at the Flying Fish where I had steamed mussels prepared in a way I’d never had them before, Thai style. I was blown away by the flavor and the wonderful accompanying sauce. I shipped home 4lbs of mussels from Pike Place Market so tonight I decided to give it try. Luckily the waiter had been kind enough to give me a rough idea of what was in the dipping sauce and it was fairly obvious what the mussels were steamed in. I found a very similar recipe and adjusted it slightly to fit my needs. I think my version came out just as lovely as the restaurant version.

Thai Lemongrass & Ginger Steamed Mussels

For each lb of mussels:

Ingredients:

• approx. 1 lb. fresh mussels
• 1/2 cup good-quality chicken broth/stock
• 1 stalk fresh lemon grass - see preparation below
• 4-5 inch cube sized chunks of ginger
• 2-3 kaffir lime leaves (if you can’t find, just leave out)
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1-2 fresh thai chilies
• 2-3 Tbsp. fish sauce, to taste
• 1 Tbsp. palm sugar
• 1/2 cup rough chopped fresh cilantro, stems and all (coriander to some of you)
• 1-2 cloves minced garlic
• handful fresh basil (rough chopped)
• lime wedges to serve (optional)

Preparation:

1. Rinse mussels under cold water, removing any grit or beards left on them. Reserve in the refrigerator until you’re ready to cook.
2. Prepare the lemongrass by removing tough outer leaves and bulb at the end of the stalk. Finely slice and mince the lower 1/3 of the stalk. (If you have a pestle & mortar, you can slice then pound the lemon grass to soften it.) Chop the remainder of the stalk into 2-3 inch lengths.
3. Pour chicken stock into a deep pot that has a tight fitting lid. This was a nice opportunity to use our homemade chicken stock cubes from the freezer.
4. Add the minced lemon grass (including the stalk segments), ginger, plus the lime leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer over medium heat.
5. Add the wine, vinegar, chilies, fish sauce, sugar, chopped basil and cilantro. Stir to incorporate.
6. Turn heat up to medium-high. When sauce is gently boiling, add the mussels. Stir them in, then cover with a tight-fitting lid. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes.
7. Remove lid and gently stir the mussels. If some of them still haven’t opened, put the lid back on and allow to cook 1 more minute. (If they still don’t open, toss them)
8. Reduce heat to low and add the garlic, gently stirring it in.
9. Remove from heat. Taste-test the broth, adding more fish sauce if not salty enough. If too salty, add a squeeze or two of lime or lemon juice. If too sour, add 1-2 more tsp. sugar. If not spicy enough, add more fresh garlic and/or fresh chili.
10. When you’re happy with the taste, scoop or slide mussels into a large serving bowl (or individual bowls). Ladle broth over the mussels Add lemon or lime wedges on the side.
11. These mussels are wonderful on their own, or serve with a nice crusty bread to help soak up the juices. A good white or blush wine pairs nicely with this dish. We happened to have brought back a gorgeous Pinot Grigio/Chardonnay blend from Peity Flats in the Yakima Valley which I used in the mussels and also served along side it.

The broth was so good that my dinner companion ate half a loaf of bread sopping it up.

For the dipping sauce you only need about 2 Tablespoons per person. This is the basic formula I used:

1 part fish sauce to 3 parts lime juice
minced garlic
thai chilies
palm sugar

For this batch I mixed approximately:

2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
6 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
1 Tablespoon palm sugar
1 Thai Chili
1 clove minced garlic

Yum!

recipes, thai, food, lemongrass, ginger, piety flats, chardonnay, pinot grigio, blend, seattle, seafood, mussels, flying fish, pike place market

Wow, to say that I’ve been busy lately would be the understatement of the year. I don’t know what got into everyone but I’ve had cakes, cakes and more cakes to make. On top of all that I’m working on a website for the Cake Club’s Day of Sharing (DOS) coming up in August. I know that sounds like a long way away but the earlier we get people signed up and money rolling in, the better. The DOS is a fundraiser for our big annual Cake Show which is a big ticket item. Last year we spent over $20k and this coming year we’ll spend even more than that, if you can imagine.

A Day of Sharing, for those of you who might be curious, is an event where cake decorators gather to watch a days worth of demonstrations by other cake decorators. It is an opportunity to discover new techniques, meet other cake enthusiasts and buy cake products from specialized cake vendors. There is generally also a raffle for some fun stuff.

Our DOS this year will be held on August 10th at the Pflugerville Lions Club. I’ll post a link to the website where you’ll be able to register once it’s completed.

On Saturday I made a Chocolate Chambord Cake for my friend Lucy’s mother. In retrospect making that particular cake was not my best idea. Lucy asked me a while back if I’d make the cake and sent me a link to La Baguette, the bakery her mother normally gets the cake from. I’d never had the cake and I would be recreating a cake that her mother loves from her favorite bakery. You see a problem there? Yeah. Not to mention the fact that Lucy’s mother is also a cake decorator. I wanted the cake to be perfect as it was for Lucy’s mother. No pressure.

I found several recipes for Chocolate Chambord Cake online. The first one Lucy actually sent me. It was from Epicurious.com, which is the recipe database for Bon Apetit. They call it a Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake. The cake base for this recipe is a génoise cake, a cake named after the lovely city of Genoa, Italy, though this type of cake is more closely associated with French cuisine. The génoise cake is special because it’s made without leavening agents and instead uses air suspended in the batter to give the cake volume. Now you might think a cake based on air volume would be light and airy but that’s not the case. In fact they are dense, rich cakes. Another unique thing about this type of cake is the minuscule amount of flour it contains. The Epicurious recipe uses a mere 1/3 cup of flour, though it also used 1/3 cup of cornstarch. I don’t think I’ve ever added that much cornstarch to anything before.

The batter was lovely and I poured it into my springform pan and stuck it in the oven. It might have been fine but I made the mistake of reading the reviews. Many people mentioned shrinkage and someone said they’d gotten around that problem by leaving it in the oven after the baking was complete, to cool. I duly shut the oven off and left the cake. Although the cake kept most of it’s volume, the extra time in the oven dried it right out. While the cake was baking, I made the Chambord syrup and set it in the refrigerator to cool. That was Friday night and I was tired so I decided to start over in the morning.

Saturday morning I decided to try a different recipe and chose GuidoFreshMarketplace.com’s recipe. The batter for this cake called for whipping the egg yolks and the egg whites separately and it contained no flour whatsoever. Talk about a lovely batter!

This cake was baked in two separate 9″ pans and took a good 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for before the cake tester came out anywhere close to clean. I set them aside to cool. Meanwhile I decided that the Chambord syrup was no substitute for the gorgeous raspberry sauce I’d used in Lucy’s Death by Chocolate birthday cake, possibly the densest, richest, darkest chocolate cake I’ve ever made. I figured I could brush the cakes with the simple syrup and use raspberry sauce as a filling with the Chambord ganache. Here is a picture of the raspberry sauce:

I removed the cakes from the pan. I could tell they were very soft and gooey. This is where I made my next fatal mistake. I tried to cut one of them in half and it fell to pieces. I began to panic. It was past 1:30pm and we were supposed to arrive, cake in hand, at the restaurant at 5pm. At this point I decided to go with a tried and tested recipe and made the Death by Chocolate cake. When I made it for Lucy I used all organic dark chocolate with high percentages of cacao. Lucy asked me to make this cake a bit more milk chocolate. I melted the chocolate and butter and put it in the refrigerator to cool. Meanwhile I set the eggs and sugar to beat on low while I measured and sifted the remaining ingredients. The recipe calls for sour cream and after a mini panic I found that I actually had an unopened container in the refrigerator. Whew. I measured it and set it aside. As that baked, I ran upstairs to shower quickly. When I came back down and opened the oven I noted that the center of the cake had risen up and cracked. Hmm… I tested the cake and set it to cook for another ten minutes. When I turned around my eyes lit upon a carefully measured container of sour cream. Oh. Crap! I’d left out the sour cream! At that point I just crossed my fingers and prayed because there was no way I’d have time to bake another cake. When it was done I stuck it in the refrigerator to cool off faster. Yes, my refrigerator door was open more than it was closed on Saturday.

I tried a bit of the Guido cake that lay in pieces on my countertop. The taste was divine. I eyed the half that was intact and decided to use it as the center of the cake. What harm could a rich gooey center cause? I took the Death by Chocolate cake out and torted it. It held together well in spite of the missing sour cream. I put the half with the slightly sunken center on the bottom and evened it out with bits of the fallen Guido cake. I brushed the cake with the Chambord simple syrup, slathered it with ganache I’d whipped with a bit of cream cheese and topped it with the raspberry sauce from the Death by Chocolate recipe. I topped that with the in-tact Guido cake, repeated the toppings and finally the best layer of the Death by Chocolate cake went on top. Amazingly it all looked fairly even. I trimmed it up and topped it all with the still-a-bit-too-warm ganache I’d made while the cake was cooling. It looked lovely on top but the jagged edges of the sides was not quite so pretty. I dumped the extra into my mixing bowl and whipped it then re-iced the sides. That did the trick! I put the leftover whipped ganache into a piping bag, piped a border and some swirls on top, topped the swirls with fresh raspberries and hit the door running.

I had messaged Lucy earlier to let them know we would not be there early with the cake as originally planned. In fact, we’d be late. We were meeting at Benihana’s for tepanyaki. As it happens, Benihana would not seat them until we arrived. Argh! We finally arrived at 5:30pm. I felt really bad for keeping everyone waiting but they all seemed in surprisingly good humor in spite of our tardiness. The cake looked beautiful and I was much relieved.

Dinner was yummy and the staff brought the cake out from the back where they’d stored it for us. Lucy’s mother asked me to cut eht cake and I was pleased with how perfect the layers look. Using the gooey Guido cake for the center was the right move. The cake was moist and delicious with the raspberry flavor permeating the cake beautifully and delicately. Not too strong but definitely noticeable. Lucy even proclaimed it to be better than the one La Baguette cake. All in all I think I went through about 40 oz of fine chocolate.

Of course I failed to get a picture of the final cake but have no fear, pictures were taken at the restaurant and as soon as they are posted I’ll show you what it looked like. In the meantime, here is a fun little cake I did recently for a lady whose brother is a big soccer fan…obviously:

cake, chambord, chocolate, ganache, genoise, soccer, capital confectioners, club, DOS, Day of Sharing

I love sugar cookies but I used to hate making them because with most recipes you have to refrigerate the dough overnight. I’m not much of one for planning ahead and I’m not all that patient either. Therefore, I rarely made sugar cookies.

Last year that all changed. While attending the Capital Confectioner’s Cake Show (which is now just a mere 11 days away!), I sat in on a demonstration by local cookie diva, Penny McConnell. Penny shared her sugar cookie recipe and techniques which really blew me away. Firstly, Penny’s sugar cookies do not need to be refrigerated overnight. Secondly, the dough is soft and supple and easy to work with. You can re-roll it and re-roll it and it doesn’t dry out. You can literally use every scrap of her dough. Thirdly, her technique of coloring and watering down the dough to pipe it on before baking makes for really cool cookies. It also makes it possible to flood fill your cookies with royal icing without having to outline them and wait for the outline to dry. How cool is that? Fourthly, these sugar cookies taste fantastic! Fifthly, this is a great recipe for kids, too. See how gorgeous mine turned out?

Here is Penny’s recipe:

You’re going to love using this dough in your home. It’s really quick to put together, doesn’t need to be refrigerated before rolling, and is formulated to accept additional flour as you roll our the cookies. Feel free to make as large a batch as your mixer will hold.

Yield: 3-4 dozen cookies
Temperature: 325 degrees F

2 Cups butter, salted
2 Cups sugar, granulated
2 large eggs
4 Tablespoons pure vanilla
4 Tablespoons Almond (or other flavor) extract
6 Cups flour, all purpose
1 Tablespoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare cookie sheets with kitchen parchment.
2. In mixer bowl, mix butter with sugar until smooth. Remember to just incorporate these ingredients, do not cream until light.
3. Add all liquid ingredients to bowl. This mixture will probably curdle but the finished dough will be just fine.
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour with baking powder.
5. Add the dry ingredients all at once to the mixer bowl and process until heavy dough forms.

Penny mentioned that if your cookies come out inconsistent then you’re probably not thoroughly mixing your dough. She said your cookies should look almost uncooked with the bottoms being a slightly darker blond.

6 Tablespoons water
3 Tablespoons meringue powder (half this in very hot weather)
3.5 Cups powdered sugar, sifted.

1. Put water in mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients.
2. Put the mixing speed on low. Mix ingredients until they form a thick frosting. Depending on the freshness of the sugar, you may need to add additional water. The frosting at this point should resemble thick cookie glaze.
3. When the icing is smooth, put the mixer on it’s highest setting an process until the icing goes from shiney to dull and will stand in stiff peaks.

Note: After you make the icing, keep it covered with a damp cloth at all times (including when you have tinted it and put it into the pastry bags) or it will crust over. This icing is not a “keeper”. It does not have a long shelf-life so make jast as much as you need for the day of decorating.

Another super cool technique Penny showed was coloring your cookies with dough. She took a walnut size piece of the cookie dough and added water until it was of a consistency that it could be piped onto the cookie in a piping bag with a number 2 tip. She then colored the dough and put it in a pastry bag. She cuts out her cookies and then pipes the colored dough on to outline words. The effect was really pretty. I am so going to try it this week.

This would be a great time to make a cookie bouquet for your special someone!

Penny’s Cookie Tips
From Penny McConnell of Penny’s Pastries

Cookie decorating should be fun!

I’ve been baking and decorating cookies for most of my life for family and friends and then in my business, Penny’s Pastries, for the last ten years.

Here are some tips I’ve learned over the years that will support you and make your cookie baking memorable.

Cookies, Valentine’s, Day, Sugar, Easy, No refrigerate, kid, friendly, royal icing, dough, tips, Penny McConnell, stories