Cooking Lessons

I won't deny that going to culinary school has crossed my mind (a lot) this year...just because, well, I like going to school and I crave the hands-on, workshop style environment of a cooking class. God, have I imagined studying pastry making in Paris? Fuck yeah. All wishful thinking, as they say here, libreng mangarap. 

So, I've resorted to take the next best thing, books. Besides, there is some in proclaiming oneself as a self-taught baker and with the wealth of information available online--it really isn't bad at all, it can be done. And this afternoon, I spent time pouring over Julia Child's My Life in France. I love reading memoirs especially if they are set in places I long to see. And yes, Paris, France is on top of my list. I was a bit of a Francophone when I was in college: French novelists, painters, philosophers, I couldn't get enough of them, I even spent some time attending French classes at Alliance Francaise all those summers ago. So reading up on Julia Child's memoirs of her time in France really appeals to me, it's an easy read. 

So this afternoon I came upon a passage that struck a chord in me. It's the time Julia decided to teach herself French cuisine and enrolled herself at the Le Cordon Bleue under the tutelage of Chef Brugnard. Julia quotes her much loved mentor about the magic and secret to cooking well:

First is this passage on enjoying or loving what you do which I couldn't agree more. As an art teacher myself, I strived to instill in my students the sense of wonder in their craft, make them love what they do--even if that's the only thing that they remember from my class, it wasn't all for nothing

Bugnard insisted than one pay attention, learn the correct technique, and that one enjoy one's cooking--"Yes, Madame Scheeld, fun!" he'd say. "Joy!"

And this second quote about  the artist and the thing he has made. Man, I just love this quote--as an artist myself, I really get what he is saying...falling in love with the thing you've made. How poignant is his idea about the power of something ephemeral which lives on in memory--beautiful.

 "You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made," he said. "Even after you eat it, it stays with you--always."

God, I want to make some madeleines. 

Vanilla Cream Filled Doughnuts

Really happy with the way this turned out.
Crisp exterior yet soft and fluffy inside, that vanilla pastry cream! 

Thanks to my KitchenAid stand mixer I've become acquainted with the joys of bread making. While I have been curious to try it for some time, it really is just the laborious task of kneading the dough that has put me off doing it--and I don't know, for some strange reason I've always thought of yeast as a very exotic ingredient that would be hard to come by (weird). 

This isn't the first time  I've worked with leavened breads. Classic bagels were my first foray to the subtleties of working with flour and yeast and I must say, I'm hooked. I love every aspect of it: from creating a living sponge by activating the yeast to the patience-testing task of letting the dough proof and double in size. It's so simply, yet so satisfying in many ways.

So yesterday, I thought of trying out doughnut making of the yeast variety. The parallels with bagel making were quite similar and I just looked forward to the idea of deep frying instead of baking dough this time. So off to Google I went to search for a recipe I like. I found Joanne Chang's recipe on Martha Stewart's website to my liking. I've never actually heard of her  until now and after the success I've had with her doughnut recipe I'm eager to get my hands on her recipe books.

I didn't really have 3 1/2 or 4 inch cookie cutter so I just used the mouth of a glass tumbler to cut out the rolled dough about half an inch thick. I was able to get nineteen 3-inch pieces out of the recipe after reusing the scraps as well, so, not bad. The dough is pretty malleable and easy to work with once dusted with flour, so you won't have any problems working with the scraps. 

As for the filling, I just stuck with the standard vanilla pastry cream (I'm proud to say that  I've become quite good at making this smooth custard/pudding, it really has a lot of uses!) but I'm eager to try out different flavors next time. 

Making Things From Scratch

It took a series of (unfortunate?) events to finally push me to cook on a fairly regular basis. Mainly, it was the downtime from the summer break where I've decided that I won't really be coming back next semester (or ever) to teach. Call it a quarter-life crisis or not, I just wanted to do something really different... There was also the issue of being practical. Being unemployed has forced  me to let go of certain luxuries that I've become accustomed to--like having expensive coffee every morning or fancy restaurant dinners.

 The curious thing about domestication is that you think the routine, the quotidian will drive you insane but it wont...it will/can drive you crazy but not in the suicidal sense. I really don't know how else to put it but keeping house is a lot of work (!) and all those repetitive little things you do to keep it running just... distracts you. What I mean is you don't have time to be bored, existential, or feel sorry about yourself. It really is curious, one moment you're preparing breakfast and the next thing you know it's already dinner!

My pride and joy.

So, I've decided to leave some sort of record of this period in my life. That time when my dad and younger sister bought me a 5 Quart Empire Red KitchenAid Heavy Duty stand mixer. Where I felt like I'm in Nora Ephron's "Julie and Julia" (might I add that Julie Powell was also 30 at this period in her life?) only I have Food Channel's Anna Olson as my mentor and inspiration (who also cites Julia Child as one of her main influences to cook, how about that?).

I welcome myself to the wonderful world of baking.

Ohhh, how I want to be a patissier...