Everyone needs fat!

Once a while I crave for healthy non fat vegan food, but basically I love fatty rich food. These days a lot of people care about their health and they are trying to get high quality organic food. I think it is a good trend. But sometimes people tend to believe that not taking fat at all is the best for health, and they are making non fat and non flavor food. Once I had a non fat brownies and I remember that I wouldn't eat those food again. 

I found some article about canola oil. They said fats and oils play an essential role in human nutrition. Fat is part of every cell in the body and is a valuable source of energy. It aids in the absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K as well as beta-carotene and slows digestion so that you feel full for a longer period.( http://www.ciaprochef.com/canola/moreinfo.html )

Canola oil is high in monounsaturated fat.

Canola oil contains the lowest level of saturated fat of any common culinary oil. It is high in monounsaturated fat, which has been shown to reduce blood cholesterol levels, and has moderate levels of essential polyunsaturated fats. Canola oil is a good source of plant-based omega-3 fat and vitamin E. Like all vegetable oils, canola oil is cholesterol-free.

Canola oil and rapeseed oil

Canola oil is pressed from tiny canola seeds produced by beautiful yellow flowering plants of the Brassica family. Cabbages and cauliflower are also part of the same botanical family! Through traditional cross-breeding, canola was created by removing the undesirable characteristics from rapeseed in the mid-1970s. Canola, however, is NOT rapeseed -- their nutritional profiles are very different.

Canola oil is officially defined as having less than two percent erucic acid and less than 30 umoles of glucosinolates. This is a strict internationally-regulated definition that differentiates canola from rapeseed. Oilseed products that do not meet this standard cannot use the trademarked term "canola." High-erucic acid rapeseed, although still grown, is now confined to production under contract for specific industrial uses.

What is erucic acid?

Erucic acid is a predominant component of rape (Brassica napus and B. camestris) and mustard (B. hirta and B. juncea) seeds. Rapeseed oil contains up to 45% erucic acid.  Food grade rapeseed oil (also known as canola oil, rapeseed 00 oil, low erucic acid rapeseed oil, LEAR oil, and rapeseed canola-equivalent oil) is limited by government regulation to a maximum of 2% erucic acid by weight in the USA and 5% in the EU, with special regulations for infant food.

Before the advent of genetic engineering, plant breeders were aiming to produce a less-bitter-tasting multi-purpose crop from oil-rapeseed that would appeal to a larger market by making it more palatable and safer for cattle and other livestock. Whilst it was possible to breed out much of the pungent-tasting glucosinolates that was the cause of the problem, the traditional methods of plant breeding, resulted in one of the dominant erucic acid genes also getting stripped out of the genome in the process, so greatly reducing its erucic acid content.

 Although this latter effect was an unintended consequence of the breeding program, it was noticed from studies on rats that they show signs of lipidosis (metabolic disorders ) when fed high quantities of erucic acid.

Orange Savarin

When I was flipping through the CIA's baking book, I found a recipe for Pineapple Savarin. I didn't have any idea what savarin was and I looked up that on the internet.

What is Savarin?
Savarin is a French cake named after Brillat-Savarin, the famous 18th century gastronome and writer. The cake is almost a bread and is leavened with yeast. In fact, it does have some similarities to Brioche, though it is a bit less rich and much less time consuming to make. The yeast caked is not very sweet and primarily has a buttery flavor to it. After it has been baked, while it is still hot from the oven, a sugar syrup is poured over the cake to sweeten it and make it incredibly moist.

This is right after baked before being soaked in the syrup. It has a lot of pore 

because of the yeast leavening and it is really light. This pore absorbs a lot 

of syrup and traps them. That's why savarin is super moist. 

We had a lot of Tangerine Orange and some of them began to be rotten. To save these miserable oranges, I used them instead of Pineapple. For garnish, I made a cute orange chips. Once I had a pink grapefruits chips at restaurant and it was really beautiful. I wondered how to make it and this time I could make it using orange. It was super easy to make it and I think we can make other kinds of fruit chip; grape chip, kiwi fruit chips, cherry chips...

The recipe called for a Chantilly cream for a garnish. For a developing chef, this was new word and I looked up than on the internet... 

What' the heck Chantilly Cream?

Chantilly ( pronounced "shahn-tee-yee" in France; "shan-ti-ly" in America) is French for "sweetened whipped cream. Some chef use confectioners sugar in their whipped cream. Actually I used it to make whipped cream for the first time and I thought I could make a lighter whipped cream than a whipped cream made with granulated sugar. 

From this experience, I got a new idea. I think it would be nice to make a chocolate Savarin! I'm gonna make dark chocolate Savarin and that will be soaked into the flavored melted chocolate. Once the chocolate gets cooled down and gets solid, I think it would be interesting texture!

INTELLIGENTSIA

This is our recent favorite coffee beans. In Cleveland, unfortunately there was no good cafe, and before we found this coffee beans, we had been thinking that cafe LOOP was the best. The cafe Loop is located in tremont OH where is neighborhood of restaurant DANTE. It's not a big cafe, and there are tables and chairs on the first floor. On the second floor, they are selling CDs and records. Sometimes we found some special edition of CDs for Japanese sales.   

 Once before, our friend told us that they had a good coffee at MOCO cafe in downtown and we tired it. The coffee bag is bright red color and there is brand name on it. The color of coffee bean is not too dark but a little bit light brown color. When I open the bag, I could smell of good smoky and bitter coffee 

aroma.

Actually this coffee is not MOCO cafe's original coffee, but they are just selling INTELLIGENTSIA coffee. When I searched about INTELLIGENTSIA's web site (http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/about/about-us ) I found out they are well-known coffee and tea shop in the US, and mainly they are doing business in LA and Chicago. But besides there, they have a lab in NY and they are selling coffee in couple big cities. 

Michael Philips who is a barista in INTELLIGENTSIA chicago and also contributing in educating people for coffee and tea has won the 2010 World Barista Championship held at the Olympia Conference Center in London, UK. According to the web site, Philips is the only consecutive US Barista champion, wining in 2009 and 2010. 

I'm really happy to see such a great coffee here by chance! I hope I can have a coffee from Michael Philips when I visit to Chicago in the future.

Home made Pizza

Eggplant & Pineapple Pizza

Pizza is one of my favorite food. There are several styles on Pizza; stuffed pizza, thin crust, thick crust... I prefer thin crust pizza and my favorite is Hawaiian Pizza with extra Pineapple. When I was kid, I hated the cooked fruits like pineapple in 酢豚, apple in curry, and cooked tomato in gratin. But as I got older, I changed my taste in food and now that I love cooked fruit in savory dish. 

We made a pizza from scratch. Mostly pizza is composed of 3 parts; dough, sauce and topping. For making pizza dough, usually people use "00 flour ( Doppio Zero)" in Italy. But we didn't have 00 flout at home, so we used AP four as a substitute. 

What is "00 flour?"

In Italy, flour is classified either as 1, 0, or 00 and refers to how finely ground the flour is and how much of the bran and germ have been removed. 00 flour is the most highly refined and is talcum powder soft. Sometimes people assume that 00 flour is low in protein and therefore particularly suitable for making pasta. But this is wrong! 00 is a category name for refining and flours of varying protein levels can be milled to the 00 category. Some one said AP flour does the "most consistently satisfying job"in standing in for the doppio zero. 

Some recipe calls for Semolina flour for pizza dough. Usually this flour is used for making pasta.

What is Semolina flour?
Typically hard durum wheat which has been ground into flour. The resulting product is high in gluten and is used for making pasta and breads. You may want to store it in your fridge if you don't use it up within a  month or so as it tend to get rancid because it contains wheat germ.

What is Durum flour?
Durum in Latin means "hard", and the species is the hardest of all wheat. Its high protein and gluten content, as well as its strength, make durum good for special uses.

We used eggplant, red pepper, artichoke hearts, pineapple, Mozzarella cheese, and hot sausage for topping. My favorite was a roasted eggplant. Because it was roasted and the water evaporated, it had a smokey and condensed flavor.

evaluation 5/5

Le Petite Triangle Cafe

Le Petite Triangle Cafe

Because I could finish my work at Dante, and we didn't go out for dinner for a white, we decided to go to Le Petite Triangle Cade for dinner. Le Petite Triangle Cafe is a french style cafe and it is located in our neighborhood near to Carnegie West Public Library. As the name suggests, it is really small cafe and usually they have just 30 seats. And one cook and one server are working. I've been to there twice. The food was very delicious and it was not expensive. 

When we visited there last night, just one table was occupied and it was very quiet. ( usually it's the most quiet day on Monday and moreover it's February! ) We had a table which was right next to the door.  

French Mojito

Every dish on the menu was so attractive that it was hard to pick up one dish from them. At first we ordered drink; Martini  & French Mojito. The ingredients in the Mojito and french Mojito are almost same. Usually a regular Mojito is made of rum, lime juice, brown sugar, mint and soda. In french Mojito, sparkling wine is mixed instead of soda. That french Mojito was sooooooo intense! I think the bartender who was the server at the same time added too much lime juice. At first sip, my mouth was overflown with saliva and my face was contorted. 

After long deliberation, we finally decided what we were going to eat. For appetizer, we got a smoked trout and for entree, we ordered Beef Bourguignon and Lamb shank.  

Smoked Trout Plate

Beef Bourguignon

Lamb Shank

Every food was just excellent. The both meat were really tender and we didn't need to use knife. And they were well seasoned with not just only salt. Actually they used salt just enough amount for seasoning. So first I thought I needed to put more salt. But after couple bites, I noticed because of the small amount of salt used I could taste the real food flavor. This time I could learn how important to control the amount of salt to make a delicious food. 

We really enjoyed the food and we were satisfied and stuffed. So we thought there wasn't any more room in our stomach, but once we saw the dessert menu, we changed our mind. ( Always we have a special room for sweets! )

Most dessert are crepe besides creme buree and we got 2 kinds of sweet crepe; lemon custard and banana foster. 

Lemon Curd

Banana Foster

The crepe was amazing! It's soft and chewy. The caramelized banana was really tender and it was melt in my mouth. I thought there was dark chocolate sauce inside because the inside was black and moreover I could taste like chocolate. But the server said it didn't have any chocolate inside. So maybe it was just my fantasy? The lemon curd was also very good. It was tart and really good flavor. I should come here often to try every crepe!

Risotto with French Bean and Pecorino Romano

Basically I like any starchy foods; rice, bread, pasta, potatoes... and moreover I really like creamy, rich dish. So risotto is kind of ideal perfect dish for me. Sometimes people tend to be very nervous about the amount of fat, but it would be terrible for me to eat a dry and no flavor fat-free food. I wouldn't say fatty food is always good, but to make good food, definitely I need to some extent of fat.
I found a Arborio rice in my dry rack and Pecorino Romano in the fridge, so I decided to cook a risotto for lunch. I also had a french bean in the fridge, and I added it to a risotto.
Because of heavy cream and butter, it turned out to be really rich and cream one which is my favorite. I blanched french bean just enough to cook, so still it was very crunchy and tasty. Also it went well with that creamy flavor.

evaluation 5/5

( ingredients )
Arborio rice, Pecorino Romano, onion, french bean, Fresh Nutmeg, heavy cream, Italian Parsley

Pecorino Romano

Pecorino Romano is a hard, salty Italian cheese, suitable for grating, made out of sheep milk ( the Italian word pecora, from which the name derives, means sheep). It is mostly used on pasta dishes, like the better-known Parmigiano Reggiano. Because of its distinctive aromatic, pleasantly sharp, very salty flavor, it is preferred for some pasta dishes with highly-flavored sauce. The sharpness depends on the period of maturation, which varies from five months for a table cheese to at least eight months for a grating cheese.
Pecorino Romano cheese should not be confused with Pecorino Toscano ( from Tuscany) or Pecorino Sardo ( from Sardinia ). Unlike Pecolino Romano, these cheese are not particularly salty and are generally eaten by themselves or in sandwiches.

Zingerman's sourdough + Zatar + Chianti Classico DOP

 sourdough bread with Za'atar (Zatar) and EVOO

Chianti Classico DOP ( Denominazione di Origine Protetta )

Chianti Classico DOP

The other day when I went to Ann Arbor MI, I bought a really good EVOO with sourdough bread at Zingerman ( Still now I haven't found a better delicatessen than Zingerman in the US!! ). It was a little bit expensive; 250 ml of bottle costed $25, but it tastes REALLY good! It tastes fruity and a little bit bitter aftertaste. Even though it is the OIL, but I would drink it by itself!   The color is beautiful transparent green ( from deep green to green with gold nuances ). According to the web site (http://www.chianticlassico.com/en/olio/il-consorzio-olio-dop-chianti-classico/ ),  this olive oil is characterized by good fruity flavor, with scents of raw artichoke and fresh grass and a delectably spicy aftertaste. This wonderful flavor is attenuated by heat, so always it should be used  without any heat.  The oil is pressed from four principal varieties, alone or together; Frantoio, Correggiolo, Moraiolo and Leccino ( a minimum of 80% ) and other olives culitivated in the zone ( a maximum of 20%). Because this olive oil is DOP, there are several rules to define it. For example the maximum permitted acidity is 0.5%, as expressed in oleic acid. ( For details... http://www.italianmade.com/foods/subcat15005.cfm )

What is Za'atar (Zatar)?

At school, in the Mediterranean class, we used this flavorful green herb mix still now I'm not familiar with this herb mix.  According to my favorite wikipedia....

Za'atar is a  genetic name for a family of related Middle Eastern herbs from the genera Origanum( Oregano), Calamintha (Basil thyme), Thymus vulgaris (Thyme) and Satureja (Savory). It is also the name for a condiment made from the dried herbs, mixed together with sesame seeds, dried sumac, and often salt, as well as other spices. Used in Arab and Israel cuisine, both the herb and spice mixture are popular throughout the Middle East. 

Because of sesame seed, it tasted like 青のり for me even though it is composed of several herbs. I had this herb mix with Zingerman's sourdough bread and Chianti Classico EVOO. Once I bite this Bruschetta, the sweetness of the Za'atar harmonized with the fruitiness of EVOO and the sourness of bread in my mouth and it's doggone gooood!! I think it would be nice to use this herb mix for pasta and pizza. 

Japanese lunch - Feb. 2nd

                                            インゲン豆のごま和え

 　　　　　　　　　　　ひじき炊き込みご飯

                                             揚げ出し豆腐

( ingredients )

french bean, sesame, bonito flake, miso, soy sauce

hijiki, rice, soy sauce, carrot, deep fried bean curd, scallion, fish stock

tofu, potato starch, veg oil. scallion, ginger, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar

( evaluation ) 4/5

The french bean was cooked perfectly; it was briefly blanched and shocked in the ice water so that still it  was crunchy but not raw.  The fresh green flavor of bean and the smokiness of sesame matched well.

The rice was well flavored and every ingredient was cooked perfectly. I put scallion on the rice as a garnish and that spicy taste contrasted to the sweetness of the rice and carrot. 

The tofu was deep fried crisply and when it was served, still it was sizzling. The sauce was made of fish stock and soy sauce and it came with ground ginger. This deep flavored sauce made bland taste of tofu more delicious. Even though it was deep fried, it was not oily at all and also not watery at all.

Jan. 30th 2011 Sunday, for dinner - chicken Tajine -

( ingredients )
whole chicken ( from west side market ), onion, dried apricot, chick peas, canned whole tomato, preserved lemon, paprika, clove, cumin, fennel, dried red pepper flakes, cinnamon sticks, ground cinnamon, fresh ginger root,  bay leaf, garlic
( evaluation )  2/5
The flavor was good and chicken was folk-tender ( it was so tender that we didn't need knife to cut and the flesh easily fell off from the bone. ) We didn't have a tomato paste so it was missing it. And I put too much chicken stock that's why it turned out like a chicken soup. While we were cooking this dish, our house was filled with luxurious aroma. I felt the onion was a little bit hard even though I braised it for more than 2 hours in the oven. Next time when I cook this dish, at first I should make sure that I have a tomato paste and measuring cup at hand.

Jan. 30th 2011 Sunday, for lunch - chicken and Japanese sweet potato curry -

( ingredients )

chicken thigh, Japanese sweet potato, onion, carrot, garlic, home-made curry powder, purchased curry roux, home-made chicken stock, apple, 福神漬

( evaluation )   4 / 5

The flavor, texture, taste were good. The sweetness of Japanese sweet potatoes matched the spiciness of curry flavor. The chicken thigh was very tender and well flavored. I thought it was delicious but there were some room to be improved.