There are a couple of things that I like about this. Mainly, it is very simple. When I am making dinner, I don’t have a lot of time to spare on complex deserts. But I also like that it highlights a few simple flavors.
More later after I give it a go.
Sounds a bit lugubrious. But in fact, a “financier” is a Parisian almond tea cake. I have had them from time to time. But I have never tried to make them. They look like this
From xnowledge
But in fact, you see them in many different shapes. And the recipe? Well, I will start off with this one from Chow.
Stay tuned, and if you are lucky I might invite you to tea.
And why the sudden interest in financiers? I am a bit fagged from driving back from Tallinn yesterday afternoon. So this morning, I put on a second pot of coffee and pulled out a food book. It happened to be Carole Manchester’s “French Tea“. And there they were. They sort of jumped out at me. So did the tarte au citron. And the gâteau glacé à l’orange. But one step at a time, as my dear granny would say.
Are you a fan of outrageous cocktails? Then you might like the idea of kumquat infused gin mixed with Lillet rose to make the perfect martini.
This I have to try.
Perhaps I am a bit jet lagged (which is true), but I found this quote from a Saveur interview to be rather strange
What are your favorite ingredients and tools? Ingredient-wise, ghee (Indian clarified butter) is one of my most favorite things. I wish I could eat it by the spoonful! I add it to everything and anything possible in my daily cooking—lentils, rice, meats, flatbreads, vegetables, sauces, and when I can’t, at the end of the day, I mix a small teaspoon of sugar with it and eat it for dessert. That’s how much I love it.
Could one actually become this enamored of clarified butter? An affinity for slow cooking I could understand. For example, making pea soup or pork with sauerkraut. But butter?
As I pondered this some words from George Saunders’ words echoed
“Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.”
So, George, I am confused about clarified butter. Now what?
This year I feel totally unprepared for the holiday season. It’s not so much that I haven’t done my shopping. I never get that done early. I feel unready in a spiritual sense. Somehow, I feel unready to let go of my work regime and just relax. It helps a bit to start thinking about the special things that we enjoy together during the holidays. Sometimes they are little things, like a toast. Sometimes they are whoppers like bûche de Noël. In my family, my sister is the bûche de Noël advocate and makes sure that we are well supplied.
Seeing this video from Saveur about dueling chefs making bûche de Noël started to get me in the mood.
Enjoy!
Oh dear! The holiday season is coming. So, are you ready to entertain? That doesn’t just mean shopping for presents. What about the alcohol? Rosie Schapp can help you here with a few wise words about eggnog.
Well, then The Daily Meal offers its recommendations for the top 15 restaurants in Russia and its neighbors. Tallinn gets its share of the glory as well as a place on Mugu Island.
The web has improved my cooking in several ways. It has given me a lot of new ideas. I get these from visiting just a few websites. These include Gojee and Saveur (there are more - but I will get into that later). BTW, these types of sites are better for me than fancier food blogs because they profile ingredients and simpler dishes (that one tends to make at home) rather than expensive and complicated stuff that you might try only once in a while. It also gives me tips on how to do things better. Like squeezing the starch out of grated potatoes before making potato pancakes.
I would love to see more content like this, and I think I will — with more fun food video. Saveuir is running a contest to get this going. Nice!
Reality video is here to stay. Well, in fact it has always been here though we used to just call it the “interview” or “talk” show. The interaction in those shows gives a great combination of fun and learning. But these days, reality shows do more. People still talk but they also show us stuff - like how to do something - and do it well. Like making latkes (potato pancakes). The format is already pretty well set. But now you can find it on the web. Check out Saveur’s latkes competition.
So what’s the big deal? With costs of making video going down you will see lots of folks developing reality video formats like this for all sorts of purposes. The videos will help us connect with people in our communities and learn faster what is going on around us — and how to do stuff better. They will work if they are fun to watch.
So, made any videos recently?
Wired Magazine gives us an update on the new air cooling designs that may make it possible to fly a jet at up to mach 5. This would be nice if I had to get to Japan from Estonia in a big hurry …. let’s say for lunch. Though up until now this has not been on the agenda.
On the other hand, I do need to travel very quickly at the end of the day from stressed out to relaxed out. Hypersonic speed in this case may not be fast enough. For the summer months, I have used an air cooled variation of the negroni. Tony Bourdain offers instruction on how to make the standard version. My variation is to add fruit juice to the standard blend. And I can attest that this gets you there. But now that we have snow on the ground, the negroni variation seems a bit out of place. I am looking into whiskeysonics - probably a variation on the tried and true manhattan. Saveur has a few suggestions.
I will keep you updated on this highly important upgrade process.