Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Matcha Macaron

this week baking was matcha macaron, it was delicious to my surprise! the green tea (matcha) cut down the sweetness in the macarons which i much prefer.

using the same macaron recipe as last time, i added 3 teaspoons of matcha to the dry ingredients, mix well and sift.

for the filling i use 115gr sweet butter at room temp, 2 table spoons powder sugar and 1/2 teaspoon matcha, mix well.

Tiramisu

last week baking was tiramisu. we ate it so fast i didn't take any picture :(
i used the chiffon cake recipe for the cake part - no lady finger here! 9" diameter chiffon cake, slice into discs about 3/4" thick.

for the soaking liquid, i used:

4 table spoons instant espresso powder (or more if prefer stronger)
200 gr kahlua (or more if prefer)
400 gr water.

dissolve espresso in boiling water, let it cool down to luke warm, add kahlua, mix well. divide liquid into 2 equal portions.

for the filling, i used:

500gr mascarpone
400gr heavy cream
100gr powder sugar

whip heavy cream, set aside. mix mascarpone and powder sugar ( i used mixer for this), fold in whipped cream.

putting together the tiramisu:

i used 9" round spring form.

line bottom of pan with 9" round cake board (if prefer)
put 1st layer of cake in pan, sprinkle with 1 portion of soaking liquid evenly, add 1/2 of the cream and spread evenly, dust with unsweetened cocoa powder.

put 2nd layer of cake and repeat the same process - soaking liquid, cream, cocoa powder, and voila.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Lime Sable

the baking of last week was Lime sable, same recipe as the one i used for mango sable way back.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Lavender macarons

By popular requests (from work), i baked the Lavender macarons this weekend.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

brunch at Fresca

met up with my friend on sunday for brunch, we decided to try Fresca since it was recommended. Fresca offers modern Peruvian cuisine. the place is nice and clean, nothing special about the interior. the crowd was mixed, the staff were friendly and fast. the menu looked good and actually the food (we peeked around at all the tables next to us) looked really good.

my friend ordered the seafood gratin, which is ok she said.

i had the seafood omelette which was ok, not my fav. i don't think seafood, cheese, tomato sauce and eggs are good mix... it was rather salty as well... there's dark molases in the fruits which could be a peruvian thing (???), i didn't like. the molases did not elevate the taste of the fruits, i think it did the opposite.

next time i would try the appetizers and sandwiches. and also request the plain fruits (without the molases).
http://www.frescasf.com/

Yield

A colleague's birthday, we took her the South ( i reccommended, yes) for lunch and to Yield for after work drinks. a tiny bar in the dogpatch neighborhood, acrross the street from Serpentine. no camera, no pic, here's a pic from the bar site

The interior in industrial rustic, i like very much! the wine menu has many selections from Spain so we ordered a bottle of brut (from Spain). it was not too dry nor fruity, perfect. the bar tender was friendly and it was not crowded yet at 6pm. on Thursday night. so it was rather relaxing.
we had the artichoke dip and the sauteed oyster mushrooms for munching. both were good but the choke dip was my fav. we ordered the second bottle of the same since everyone was enjoying it...:)
http://www.yieldsf.com/

Kayaking at Point Reyes

after dimsum at Canton, we headed to Point Reyes for sunset kayaking. i had my camera but didn't take it with me on the Kayak because there's always a chance of the kayak flipping! so one pic was taken on shore before we headed down to the kayaks.

we left shore around 6pm. the water was shallow most of the way, about 2-3 feet. the water is crystal clear and we could see the bottom of the bay - covered in eel grass. a couple of leopard sharks bumped into my kayak on the way which was kind of fun but can be scary if you don't know what it is... a bit further out to deeper water, there were tons of jelly fishes floating along. egrets and other wild birds tried to get their dinner before returning to their nests. we got to the other side of the bay when it was complete dark. cookies and pastries from a fancy french bakery in the northbay were served. then we headed back after a short break. this is the best time to see the bio lumenescence, it was like buckets of diamonds in the dark water everytime the paddles hit the water. we stopped for 5 minutes at Hog Island to listen to the night birds sounds - i felt like i was in a jungle, the sound can be scarry if you don't know what it is... and in the distance, coyotes were howling...
Back on shore around 10pm and we made it back to the city before mid night. that was fun! and the weather was perfect not too warm nor cold and the sky was clear, we could see the milky way... will do it again!
http://www.pointreyesoutdoors.com/?gclid=CICv6tKClpYCFQINgQodRzAMFw