What would Brian Boitano make

I just had to blog about Food Network's new show What would Brian Boitano Make because it is absolutely hilarious. It's actually not really new. I think the show is on it's second season, but you'd never know. For some reason The Food Network only plays the good cooking shows early on weekend mornings. I don't understand why Sunny Anderson and the most annoying "Guy" ever get nice weekday slots when they make garbage, but I digress. Brian Boitano isn't fighting grizzly bears or ice skating in the show, but he is cooking up some pretty good looking food. I just can't decide if I like the show so much because it's funny, because I'm a fan of ice-skating, or because of South Park. If you don't get the South Park reference see below. Anyways, I encourage you to check it out Sundays at 1pm.

what would brian boitano do?

| MySpace Video

Chocolate Souffle

This decedent desert is light and airy and tastes like a mix of chocolate brownies and pudding. All good stuff, but the best thing about a chocolate souffle is that it's a lot easier to make than it sounds. I'm new to making souffle's, but ever since Julia Child showed me how easy it was to make I've made a couple. Yeah, I admit it. I watch 35 year old cooking shows on the Internet. You can too, click here.

Making a souffle is a production. It's a lot of steps, but its fast and easy. It took the bf and I less then 20 minutes to mix and get our chocolate souffle in the oven. First, you make a roue on the stove (equal parts butter and flour).The second step is to make a white sauce by whisking some hot milk into the roue. The white sauce gets set aside while you work on the eggs. A souffle is basically all eggs. This important ingredient gives the souffle it's famous shape and height. Separate the eggs. Stiffly beat the whites and set aside. Mix the yolks into the white sauce on the stove with your flavorings. I used a little sugar, vanilla, melted chocolate, and some Kahlua. If you were making a cheese souffle this is where you'd add the cheese. Finally, you mix it all together. Fold the egg whites into the mixture and pour into a buttered and sugared souffle dish or individual ramekins. I've done both, the pictures here are from the one medium souffle.

Souffles are finicky creatures. I'm sure you've heard horror stories of souffles falling or not rising. Luckily mine have always rose. Unfortunately they have also fallen, but that's not my fault! It turns out that all souffles fall. You basically have 10 minutes or less until all the air escapes. A souffle rises because all those whipped egg whites are basically pockets of air. As the souffle heats, the air in the pockets expand and cause the souffle to rise. The stiff sides of the baking dish help the souffle rise up and not out and this is why you should never bake a souffle in a rounded dish. Anyways, once the souffle is out of the oven, the air inside those pockets start to cool and with that your souffle starts to deflate. When this happens I get a little disappointed. I know its gonna happen, but you invest all this energy into wondering how much the souffle will rise and then there's just a few minutes to marvel at the beautiful creation before the air fizzles out.

My recipe is below. It is halfed from an original recipe with a few personal changes to make two chocolate souffles in individual ramekins or one medium size souffle. Enjoy, but I'm warning you its rich. I get full after eating half a serving, but I always have to push on or the bf tries to eat mine. Luckily, for both of us there's no way a souffle can be that bad for you. Again its mostly eggs (healthy protein) and you'd be surprised to learn what a small amount of sugar and chocolate goes in. Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup milk
1/8 cup sugar
3 egg whites
2.5 egg yolks
4 ounces semi sweet chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tablespoons Kahlua
Powder sugar for garnish

Spoon Bread

I was browsing the local Virginia section of Kroger trying to pick out some gourmet Virginia Peanuts for the family in California when a package of spoon bread caught my eye. I had absolutely no idea what spoon bread was, but was intrigued when I read on the package that it is a traditional dish from the 18th century with the consistency of bread pudding and the flavors of cornbread. The company that makes this 18th Century Spoon Bread mix, is named Byrd Mill and has been in existence since 1740. Turns out that Patrick Henry actually used to come to the mill as a child. I find very cool to be able to pick up a genuine piece of history at the local supermarket.

I would like to tell you how I made spoon bread, but truth be told I didn't cook it. I handed it off to the boyfriend, but I can tell you that the baking mix contains old fashioned white cornmeal, natural unbleached flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. The mix started off on the stove, milk and eggs were added at some point and we had a discussion on how to beat out all those lumps. The directions were not very clear so we poured it in the mixer. I know that colonial cooks didn't have Kitchen Aid mixers, but as long as were on the subject they didn't have baking mixes either! The batter was then poured into a baking dish and finished in the oven for about a half hour.

Spoon bread is actually really good. It's no wonder that history tells us it was a favorite of our first president, George Washington and that people during the revolutionary war lived off the stuff. The dish is dense, slightly sweet with a silky smooth texture and a mild corn flavor. Like the name suggests, you eat it with a spoon. You could actually cut slices out of the casserole dish, but I dug right in. Spoon bread might be known as Southern food today, but the origin is actually Native American. Records show that during the winter of 1607 the Powhatan Indians took pity on the starving settlers of the new world in Jamestown, Virginia and taught them to plant and cook corn. Thank goodness they did or we wouldn't have spoon bread. Or the United States for that matter!

The Urbanna Oyster Fesival

Yesterday the boyfriend and I took a drive to Urbanna for the 52 Annual Oyster Festival. This is Virginia's Official Oyster Festival and as far as food festivals go this is a fun one to visit. I don't even like oysters, and still had a great time!

Urbanna is in Tidewater Virginia about an hour and a half from Richmond. It is on the Rappahonnok River just down stream from the Chesapeake Bay which makes it a perfect spot for farming oysters (more on that later). This historic town has been around since the 17th century and is a quaint place with a population under 600. Once a year though the quiet is shattered and this tiny town is overrun with thousands of visitors. The Oyster Festival is so large that they actually close the one road into town. That means that in order to attend the event you must pay $20 to park about a mile away on empty fields and then walk in. This was a surprise, but it was a gorgeous and warm November day the walk into town is beautiful. That's me below posing with Urbanna's Marina on the walk back.

As for food, the festival was a seafood lover's dream. As expected oysters were everywhere and prepared every which way. Raw, roasted, fried, in stews, soup or served up in huge fritter sandwiches it was all freshly shucked(see below). There was even an oyster shucking contest early in the day.
Beside oysters, there were crabs galore. I got a bowl of Cream of Crab Soup for lunch and while it was nice, it was no she-crab soup. Unfortunately that delicacy was no where to be found. There was also plenty of fresh shrimp and scallops concoctions. The festival wasn't short of fair food favorites either turkey legs and funnel cake were everywhere.

The most amusing part of the day was when an expert oyster gardener befriended my boyfriend and I and told us everything we ever wanted to know about oysters and more. Here are the basics: baby oysters are called spats. Spats are tiny, only about the size of a fingernail, but after 10 months in the water these babies grow into full sized, edible oysters. They actually can be eaten sooner, it depends how big you like them. The spats are placed in floating cages and for the most part they are left alone. The key is to have lots of water flow running through the cages because that's where the oysters get their nutrients. Every once in awhile the gardener has to go out and clean the oysters, upgrade the cage size and throw off the crabs that may have accumulated. It sounded so easy that I decided that if I ever get a place on the water I might have to try out oyster farming.

Late in the day we made our way out of the crowds and down to the water. Out at the Marina a band was playing classic rock, oysters were being smoked and locals were drinking on yachts. In my opinion that is the perfect way to enjoy the festival so if you happen to own one of those boats and need another friend let me know!

Eating Richmond

I am happy to announce that I am now officially part of the Richmond, Virginia food blogging community! I always knew I wasn't the only one in this city who liked to eat, cook and blog...

So now you can find Chocolate Maltz at Eating Richmond alongside many other creative food blogs. All the blogs are different, but we all have Richmond in common.

So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

Beef Bourguignon

I finally saw the Julie & Julia yesterday and like everyone else who's seen the movie I decided that I needed to immediately make beef bourguinon.
Its a great movie and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. It made me realize that the Julia Child I knew from TV: the crazy old woman who would comment on what other chefs prepared is not the same cooking legend. I really need to watch her earlier episodes. I also found myself identifying with Julie Powell, but after looking up her original blog I found that the real Julie Powell is not nearly as likable as Amy Adam's portrayal. I could easily see why Julia Child would not have liked the blog which was full of obscenities and negativity about life and yes, also cooking. Oh well, it made a good movie.

Now back to the beef or boeuf bourguinon. I didn't think it would be as difficult to make as Julie in the movie made it out to be. It seemed like any other braised meat dish. Throw some ingredients in a pot wait a few hours and your done. At the very least I though it was probably easier to cook than to spell. That was before I found Julia Child's recipe on her publisher's site. I didn't realize what a hassle cooking the french way is. It involves cooking every ingredient separately, using multiple pots and pans, putting everything in the oven for 4 minutes only to remove, stir and put back in for 4 minutes before doing some other tedious step.

The ingredients were simple: stewing beef, red wine, beef stock, bacon lardons, carrots, onions and mushrooms. Bacon was the only ingredient I wasn't so comfortable with. I don't like bringing pig products into the house. I don't keep kosher and will eat ham in an Italian sub out, but I don't cook it. So this was a conundrum. The recipe didn't use normal bacon, but unfamiliar bacon lardons. Turns out that bacon lardon is cubed bacon, and that the word "lardon" stems from lard. I was thoroughly grossed out, but finally decided that Julia Child's beef bourgenion would not be the same without the bacon. However, after simmering the bacon for 1o minutes before adding to the other ingredients I'm not sure how much flavor it actually added. If I made the meal again I'd leave it out. The whole recipe reminded me a lot of making french onion soup. Two types of onions simmering in beef stock, wine and thyme. Just not as good...

The movie made it seem like beef bourguignon is the most delicious meal on earth. With the time and cost of ingredients it took to prepare I was hoping it would be. Unfortunately, I didn't love it. I mean it was good, but it had a tangy taste I didn't care for. The boyfriend happily disagreed and devoured his meal. I'm glad he enjoyed because someone has to eat the leftovers. He even went as far to say that it's his second favorite thing I've ever made. I have to remember to ask what the favorite is.I was all set to go out and buy Julia Child's cookbook after the movie, but now I'm not sure. Cooking like a french chef takes a lot of time. It's extremely labor intensive and I'm not sure it warrants the results. An article in the NY Times says that a french home cook wouldn't spend 90 minutes cooking a stew that can be made in 25. I'm going to have to agree with the common people because I am just as happy to follow a Tyler Florence or Ina Garten recipe and enjoy a delicious dinner with half the effort.

Poached Eggs

I'm on a poached egg kick. I've been eating them almost everyday for the past two weeks. Why? Well, I just recently learned how to make them and I'm amazed at how easy it is. Let me repeat that, easy. Really, once you learn the tricks all you need to do is keep an eye on the clock and you've got a perfect poached egg.

I love my eggs cooked so that the yolk isn't too runny or hard set, but when it's in that between stage. Its done when the yolk is gel like and bright orange. An egg like that extremely hard to achieve when frying. You have to worry about the temperature of the pan and about over or under cooking. It's a hassle. But when poaching its a different story. I drop my egg in the boiling water, walk away for four minutes and... Boom, an egg cooked to perfection. Another plus is that there's no added cooking fat. It's just pure, unadulterated delicious egg.My expertise on poaching is new. To be honest, the first time I tried it was egg- drop soup. I was so discouraged that I didn't try it again for a year, but then I learned a couple of the tricks. If you follow a few simple rules that help keep the egg together you too can make perfect poached egg.

Rule #1: Boil enough water in a pot to cover the egg.
Rule #2: Stir in a few drops of vinegar to the water while its boiling. (The vinegar keeps the egg white close to the yolk.)
Rule #3: Turn the heat off before dropping the eggs in. (This stops the bubbles from disturbing your egg as it sets.)
Rule #4 : Release the egg/s as close to the water as you can get. Sliding the egg out of a bowl helps.
Rule #5: Blot water off the egg with a paper towel before plating.

There you go. If you follow these simple rules you can't go wrong. Poaching also frees up your time to set the table, make toast, or pour some juice while the egg is cooking. I usually eat my perfectly cooked egg sandwiched between sourdough toast with a little cheddar cheese. So good.