How to Make Bavarian Cream .... then use it for an amazing Mille - Feuille!

As you can see, my husband is my official taste tester these days! 

He has a unique palette to say the least --- nothing Indian, nothing Asian, no Bell Peppers..... and the list goes on. 

But, generally speaking when I ask him what he wants to eat he says " anything you make will be perfect". 

I guess that's what you call trust . 

Anyhow, I digress. 

As promised, here is the recipe video for how to turn yesterdays creme anglaise pastry cream into Bavarian cream and then use it to make the most beautiful and delicious Mille-Feuille. Also known in our childhood as " Napoleon". 

My first vegan dessert and adventures in the country side

Shol-e-zard
Persian Rice pudding(?) 

This one was my mother's idea actually -- a craving struck and the kitchen was again open for business.

Ingredients


1 1/8 cup Mahatma brand white rice
3/4 -1 cup sugar ( depending on your sweet tooth)
1/8 cup vegetable oil
6 1/4cups water
1/4 cup Rosewater
1/2 tsp Saffron steeped in 2 Tbsp hot water
Almonds, slivered and pan toasted
Pistachio, ground for decoration
Cinnamon, for decoration

Directions


Preheat the oven to 225F


Rinse the rice thoroughly once. Then place the rice and the water in a big pot and bring it to a boil. Once it begins to boil stir the mix regularly allowing for the rice to expand and the excess water to evaporate. It will begin to resemble Congee. Once the mixture begins to thicken and adopts a uniform opaque color add the sugar, oil, rosewater and saffron.

Continue cooking for another ten minutes, allowing the ingredients to mix together and thicken.

Finally, place the mixture into a glass serving platter, cover it with foil and place it in the oven. Turn off the preheated oven and let the rice stay there for a good thirty minutes so it will set.

Finally, after the time has elapsed, removed the Shol-e-zard and let it cool down. Once it is cool to the touch decorate with the almond, cinnamon and pistachio.

Tastes best when served cold. 

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Last week I took my annual trip up to my best friend's home/vineyard for a their harvesting of the grape festivities.  As usual, it was an amazing time with friends and family-- something I look forward to every year.

I brought back these gorgeous beauties with me:

My good friends Candy and Joey Bedoya also joined us on the trip this year to take engagement pics for my BFF and her Fiance.  All the pics aren't up yet, but I can't wait any longer -- I have to share. 

Pictures available here

Try a different perspective

Life may not be progressing as you had planned, but it doesn't mean things are " just awful" or that you are "having a bad day". 

Just yesterday I went to the gym for my weekly session with my personal trainer. ( When I signed up for the gym, I took advantage of a promotion and purchased six sessions with a trainer) As I was warming up on the treadmill I saw My  trainer walk up to some other  girl, smile, and proceed to sign her in to a training session. 

"Maybe he's just helping her out on the computer for another trainer", I thought to myself. 

"We've been training on Monday mornings regularly now, plus I got sick last week during the session and we agreed I should come an hour later so I can actually eat a breakfast before I come in, he can't have double booked me, right?" 

Nope.

Off they went into the masses of men and women sweating their hearts out in the weight room. 

Initially, my reaction as to think " Wow, really? But I planned my week according to this. I was gonna have an insane session today, then take tuesday off to go dress shopping for my friend's wedding because I'd be too sore to workout anyways."

But, shortly after verifying that he had in fact double booked the session and leaving a message for him to give me a call, I changed my perspective.

"Ok then... I'm at the gym, in this area of town, how am I going to best use my time."

I decided to check out the schedule of classes for the day and wouldn't you know, yoga was scheduled to begin in 45 minutes!  I hadn't practiced yoga in at least a year and I knew my body needed it. 

One catch. I needed a yoga mat, and I had thrown out my old one after using it in an outdoor bootcamp class.  On second thought, I'm glad I don't have a yoga mat because it gives me something to do until the class starts.

So, in that 45 minute gap, I found the closest store which sold yoga mats and bought myself a brand new one. Having plenty of time left before class, I then let myself wander into another store, walked straight to their sale rack and bought myself some new workout clothes.

Long story short:

My botched training session turned into a super productive morning where much needed workout attire was purchased and my yoga practice was given a much needed awakening.  I like to think of such situations as God's way of reminding me ( nudging me) to take care of myself and remain open to new and various options instead of limiting myself to tunnel vision. Ie: Keeping my eye on one goal and only seeing one way to get there. 

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In food news :

Barbecued Golden Potato

I've continued to enjoy my vegetables like a good girl :)

Grilled Onion

I've been experimenting with some new recipes, but they havn't reached the level of perfection I require before I share a recipe with you.

Experiment #1:  A pasta sauce made with butternut squash, tomato, tomato sauce, wine wine, onion, garlic and nutritional yeast.   I loved it, but would like to try it with more layers of flavor.

Experiment #2:  Bulgur with tomato, cinnamon, onion and other spices. Though my youngest sister liked it, I personally think I overdid it on the tomatoes. Somethings just taste better when they are kept simple and pure. 

Finally, I've exploring vegan desserts again. Case in point -- Green Tea Ice Cream with Coconut Milk

Though I love coconut and I love matcha green tea -- these two are not a compatible match in my book. I'm guessing the best matches are going to be coconut with chocolate, nuts and coffee .... 

What do you think?

Summer Strawberry Shortcake

Easy, surprisingly low-fat and low-calorie Summer dessert.

I ventured into Whole Foods and found these " dessert cups" which are like mini angel food/pound cakes at only 100 calories each. Conveniently they also had "fat free" aerosol whipped cream. Real dairy-yes; fat- no.
I have to admit, I was a bit worried about the taste but it passed the fiancee test with flying colors :)

Of course, if you want to indulge you can always make homemade whipped cream ( as in the pictures above), but the fat free version was just as scrumptious and very guilt-free. The freshly sliced strawberries are a perfect addition, especially these from local strawberries from Whole Foods were perfectly sweet!!

For those who like to indulge in decadent colorful desserts...

TRIFLE

The hardest part of this dessert is actually making the creme anglaise sauce that goes on top of the fresh fruit and pound cake. Now, if you really have a lot of time, you could make the pound cake yourself -- but in this case I had already made two appetizers and a nice gourmet entree. In other words, I wanted something simple, but impressive.

Any fresh fresh berries will do. Here, I chose organic strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. The more the merrier.

I cheated a little, took a short cut, and purchased Sara Lee Poundcake. Its not my favorite because I always prefer home made, but it put a smile on every one else's face when they found out it was a component of their dessert.

Lastly, I topped it all with creme anglaise.  In reality, it is a very decadent vanilla sauce/custard.  The basic ingredients you will need are heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks. Some people do a combination of milk and cream. But, obviously, the fattier option you choose the more "rich" or "Decadent" the resulting product will be.

Food and Wine has a good recipe.

The most important thing is to make the sauce ahead of time, allowing it to cool down. Personally, I got caught up with errands, and this dish was actually a last minute choice so the sauce didn't thicken as much as I would have liked. Next time, I will make the sauce the day before.

As a side note, still trying to find a new food lifestyle that will work for me, and with my family gatherings. I have definitely given up sweets. IE: no creme anglaise sauce or pound cake for me. But, I still need to figure out other changes which will work. For some reason, it's always a struggle.

With law school taking up more and more time, not to mention family/social obligations I finding less time to work out. The only option left seems to be 5 am. However, when I'm up studying till 1 or 2 am, a 5 am wake up call is depressing.

Suggestions?

Gooey Pumpkin Cupcakes

This one is sure to please the belly, maybe not the diet.

I took the famous "gooey bar" recipe which can be found everywhere online and tweaked it a little. The first change is putting the crust and filling in muffin tins, creating cute single servings.

Crust: One box yellow cake mix, 1 tsp pumpkin spice,  1 egg, 1 stick of butter
     - Melt the butter, when it is room temperature whisk in the egg without scrambling it and finally stir in the cake mix and spice . It should be dense like a cookie dough.

Filling:  8 oz cream cheese, 3 eggs, 2 cups pumpkin, 1 tbsp pumpkin spice , 1/2 tbsp vanilla , 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar , 3 stevia packets ( the original recipe calls for an entire box of powdered sugar :: gasp::)
      - Whisk ingredients together. I  soften and wisk the cream cheese separately before whisking it into the eggs and butter to prevent lumpiness

Preheat oven to 335, line muffin pan and put a golf ball size of the dough into each muffin holder. This will make about 15 muffins or so so I made the extra three in aluminum muffin holders which create a mini-pie looking cupcake.

Next using a round spoon press the dough along the bottom and up the sides creating a crust. Finally spoon the filling on top and bake for about 20-25 minutes. The topping should get browned and cake but it should be soft and gooey to the touch.

Serve after refrigerating for best results. Top with freshly whipped vanilla cream.

The product of law school midterms...

AUTUMN MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS

2 Eggs
1/2 cup raw sugar, Turbinado
1/4 cup butter, unsalted
1 1/2 cup mashed bananas
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp rapid yeast
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnammon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup grated carrot

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a muffin pan by either spraying with pam, or lining with muffin wrappers.

First, cream the butter and sugar together.
Next, add in the two eggs and whisk well.
Then add the mashed banana and pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract, ensuring it has been well incorporated
Now, dilute the yeast in a few teaspoons of hot water, and add it to the batter.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin spice together.
Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet batter. Do not mix the batter more than needed to incorporate flour.
Lastly, fold in the grated carrots.

Divide the batter evenly in the 12-muffin pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick ( or piece of dry pasta) comes out clean.

Guilt Free Autumn Sweets

Yes, Guilt Free :)  Why? I've put together a fat free version of the familiar pumpkin pie, and modified it into reasonable portion sizes ( about 50 calories each).

MINI PUMPKIN PIES

Ingredients:

2 cups pumpkin puree ( Libby's)
1 can fat free evaporated milk  (Carnation)
8 oz fat free plain greek yogurt  (Voskos)
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup raw sugar  ( I think it will be just fine with 1/2 cup )
Wonton Wrappers

Directions

Preheat the oven to 430F
Whisk all the ingredients together until smooth.
Spray a muffin pan with pam.
Take two wonton wrappers and place them over eachother so they are diagonal, creating an octagon.
Place this into the muffin pan creating a "crust"
Fill the crusts nearly to the top.
Place in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until the filling begins to set
Reduce the heat to 330F and cook for an additional 40 minutes