Cooking: June 2008 Archives

This time I was curious if separating the eggs and whipping the egg whites would make any difference. I had this idea of making a Soufflé. But reality set in. Melted chocolate + butter + sugar = a dense and grainy lump. It is impossible to fold this mixture into the egg whites. But all was not lost. I mixed it enough to make it homogeneous. And it rose in the oven.

It was interesting when I was reviewing the pictures. You could see the cake fall over the frames. This time I turned off the master flash on the camera and used a slave flash at the camera's lower right hand side (against the Lowel light). This lit up the side of the cake and gave it more dimension.

I needed to buy saffron and just couldn't resist this package. It looks like something that the Japanese would do. I wonder if the case that these jars ship in is itself a glass container?

From a lighting standpoint, two big lights to either side and a reflector in the rear was not enough. The camera mounted flash could not be pointed at the scene. The reflection would be too bright. So I pointed it away from the camera and used it to control a hand-held slave flash. I should have turned the firing of the master flash off since it created a new shadow (even pointed backwards). But the slave flash relit the shadow.

When I stopped my Monument cafe for lunch one day, I noticed someone selling locally grown produce. I wanted some heirloom tomatoes. But they didn't have any. So I bought a half of a pound of garlic for a buck. Mmmm, the smell they made while they sat in my truck was divine.

So today, I roasted them. But first I had to take a picture of my self taking a picture. I think that I need another tripod and camera...

It is a real pain to get the right balance between steaming the garlic and browning the garlic. Not only did I fail at that. But this batch of garlic acted weirdly. They secreted some protein like scum (such as floats to the top when making soup stock). Of course, this browned nicely. But it tasted bitter. So I left it out.

And, of course, after I cooked the garlic I had an idea to cook them confit style in some duck lard. Gah! Next time...

I came across this recipe and had to try it out. I only had one six inch springform pan. So I poured the rest of the batter into another baking dish. Note to future self: pour only half-way up the pan! This cake will expand quite a bit from the steam generated. It looked like a soufflé in the oven.

I also experimented a little bit. I used one teaspoon of Chipotle chile power instead of the recommended 3/4. And I also added one teaspoon of Ancho chile power as well. I wonder how it will turn out...

This month's Cook's Illustrated had a recipe for blueberry pie. And it looked good. It gave me another excuse to make another pie crust. And it provided me with some pie. Sweet, sweet, blueberry puhaaa...

Adam made Chicken Tikka Masala recently and he provided recopies here and here. This inspired me to make my own batch!

Cooking the Chicken Tikka was somewhat difficult using a gas oven. And rather wasteful during Summer. The pan underneath the burners didn't really have a good rack. So I didn't use one. But the heaping amount of yogurt sauce that I used made a mess as it sat under the chicken resting in the pan. Next time, I will definitely use a cookie rack to get the chicken up off the ground, so to speak. And I will also pound the chicken into an even thickness. The natural breast is just too thick at one end and too thin at the other. It doesn't lead to even cooking.

Also, I should have use the Highlight Tone Priority feature of my Canon camera. That rice is rather hard to not lose detail in the picture. I used two large lowel lights at both ends with a white reflector at the rear. And I also used a naked flash unit on the camera for some highlights. But I probably should have diffused it somewhat.

With all of those minor nibbles aside, the food tasted good.