THE CHEFCHARETTE

Julia Child’s Crepes stacked with layers of Smitten Kitchen’s Mushroom sauce

Two cooks & ladies I love: Julia Child & SmittenKitchen. They inspired me to go a little crazy on making crepes. I’ve been making crepes every day because I am so… determined to master it. It bothers me that I cannot make a crepe in a perfect circle that is golden brown at the right places. I leave studio early because I want to get a head start on my next batch of crepe’s. It’s a huge blessing that I have not failed studio (yet)

I made about 15 thick, bitter ones at the Hoffmann’s with their 5 year old expired flour (lesson #1 NEVER use old flour), another 15 for father’s day,  another 15 to make more banana’s foster crepe’s for Henry & our friends, another 15 for other friends & coworkers… & am in the process of making 20 more. & honestly, out of the 60 that I had made, I was only able to keep & serve about 1/3…. or 20 crepe’s.

A crepe is a basic, thin French pancake that calls for few ingredients that we all (should) have: flour, eggs, milk, & butter (music to my ears) but it really takes a lot of practice & patience to properly make them. The first batches are almost always disastrous: oval shaped, punched with holes, lumps, uneven texture, too thick, burnt, too soggy/crispy…

But I love making crepes because it’s so exciting to hope that the next crepe will come out better, & (lesson #2) a great way to turn simple ingredients/ugly leftovers into a  beautiful presentation. So far, I’ve filled my crepe’s with proscuitto & figs, mushrooms/spinach/onions sauteed in garlic butter, pesto chicken & sundried tomatoes,  peaches with brown sugar & cinnamon, banana’s foster & ice cream.

& after so many attempts & learning from Julia Child, I have learned 4 tips to make decent crepes:

1. You must sift your flour before you mix it into your eggs/milk/water. This way, you won’t get these bubbly lumps of flour stuck in your batter
2. You must wait at least 2 hours (overnight is good) for the flour to expand, & batter to pour onto the pan with the right consistency
3.  When cooking, the pan should be fairly hot & you have to turn your pan very quickly for the crepe to form a circle. Your crepe should only take 1-2 minutes to cook on each side. If it takes longer, your pan is too cold.
4. Lay crepes out on a cooling rack immediately after they are done cooking. Do not leave them out for too long or they’ll dry out.

I know, I know, we like to skip steps. But if you want to present your friends/family with appealing crepe’s or even feed them with leftovers & still impress them by rolling them into crepe’s (OHHH fancy!) , you must be patient & willing to invest the time & energy to make them.

Since I had so… many crepe’s, I decided to stack all these Julia Child crepe’s with SmittenKitchen’s mushroom sauce. (butter piled over butter piled over butter……the best.) Fortunately, my friend Diana (a mushroom lover) came to visit & to taste-test. She & her mom finished  7/8 of it after they were “full.” Lovely.

Process

Exterior Perspective

Section

Interior Perspective

Function

Another goodbye dinner, that ends with Banana’s Foster Crepes

As I was whisking the eggs into the flour to make crepes, the man fixing the fridge became the fourth stranger who asked me if I was running a restaurant at the Gamble House…& suggested me to. I laughed. That would be lovely. I give him the “I can’t, I have studio” response that we’ve all used: “I can’t go to your party because I have studio…. I can’t sleep because I have studio… I can’t work out because I have studio…. I can’t read because I have studio… I can’t go home because I have studio…. I can’t go home for Thanksgiving because I have studio…. I can’t eat because I have studio.” Studio is the sad excuse from good things. & blame for everything that goes wrong…. “I’m sick because of studio.  I have high blood pressure because I have studio. I’m poor because I have studio. I have insomnia because I have studio. I have anxiety because of studio. I’m breaking out because I have studio. I’m fat & ugly because I have studio.”

My other arch alumni friend (& former Gensler employee) Henry, is leaving to Taiwan to serve. It definitely hurts to let this second all nighter partner go. I remember meeting him in my Freshman year when he was a 4th year.  Since then, he’s encouraged me when I had major designers block or was frustrated with Rhino-modeling or wanted to drop architecture. He’s even come to my old apartment to do Autocad drawings for me at 3AM…..Henry has been such a great older brother/mentor to me.

I will never forget that last night we joined Yulee & Leon’s “charette night” at the Gamble House two years ago.  Henry fell asleep almost immediately under the tables. What was supposed to be a productive all nighter/charette became a night of singing Falling Slowly/playing guitar, procrastination & 6 hour napping sleeping.

So before Henry moved out, he & some of our friends came over for a “goodbye Henry” dinner. Henry is such a gracious & humble man who has strange, but brilliant & hilarious things to say. We’re all going to miss his words & friendly, geeky face.

I asked Henry a few days ago what he’d like for his final dinner, & he asked me to cook the same dinner I cooked & brought to his studio for his very final charette before he graduated. so cute. what an honor. After we settled down the table & took the first bites of our dinner,  we both smiled, looked at each other, & said the same thing: the dishes have improved & are now more flavorful. Practice makes perfect.

Dinner Menu

• Peach ginger iced tea
• Mini fig, proscuitto, arugula & mini pesto pizza’s
• Trader Joe’s Mushroom risotto
• Sauteed garlic asparagus
• Parmesan Tilapia filets
• Banana’s Foster Crepes

I’m starting to realize that I shouldn’t post all my recipes on Tumblr, & must save some/many recipes in the actual cookbook. This banana’s foster crepe recipe has been a huge success among friends, family, & even their friends & family. It will certainly be included in TheChefCharette cookbook, which, is definitely making good progress. :) Feel free to come over to test/get a taste of what (could possibly) will be found in TheChefCharette.

Starting the summer right, with my first baking class

During my finals, my breaks typically involved some kind of baking or cooking, whether it was to feed myself, to clean out my pantry/fridge, or to feed my friends, or a combination of all of these…. I would always find an excuse to bake and/or cook.

My friend asked me why I wouldn’t just take a break to watch a tv episode/movie, & I told him it’s simply because you can’t even share that with people. you can’t talk over it. but food? food is something you can always give, share, & enjoy with people. & have great conversations over. especially during finals. once you make one batch of cookies, you can give it to SEVERAL acquaintences, friends, professors, etc :) everyone gets a little bit of something.

….& oh, I learned that studying off the computer is a terrible idea, because my roommate & I constantly found myself wandering off through so many websites looking for some cooking classes I could enroll in. Even the night before my ballet final performance, I’d slide a batch of green tea cookies into the oven in between each of my run-throughs my petit allegro. (I prob spent more time baking than dancing & studying combined)

It was one of the most intense & tiring nights. but so. worth. it. mixing the green tea powders together, testing out the green tea cookie batter (& consuming too much caffeine through that) + saute-ing up & down & chasse-ing side to side.. well, you can be certain that i was sore for a week after that.

Honestly, culinary arts is something that I am considering. Whether or not I actually pursue baking as a profession or just keep it as a side hobby, I decided to sign up for a cooking class. While I was shopping at Sur La Table (therapeutic during finals), I I noticed that they had an upcoming macaron baking class. The $69 cost was very painful to see….but I could not resist. I’d go back to the class registration every day, in some hope that the fee would magically decrease, but of course, it didn’t. I ended up enrolling in it. I figured that if I learn the secrets to baking these RIGHT, then I’d no longer be a slave to Bottega Louie or ‘Lettes, but could reproduce them myself & for my friends :)

piping out raspberry buttercream onto each hazelnut crust :) i was scared of making misshaped rounds & overfilling the macarons, but they came out almost perfect!

Me + Chef Katherine Torres, a sweet, knowledgable, patient woman & baker. She graduated from the Art Institute & emphasized to me that those bakers who are artistically talented, are more likely to be skillful in baking than those who aren’t creative/artistic. She has not only inspired me, but she encouraged me. We’ll see where it goes from here ;)

p.s: please don’t ask me to make macarons for you. i received lots of help from her & other women. gotta practice them myself now ;)

Mini Lavender Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

What does Lilly do the day before she has to move into her apartment and start her new year of studio? She bakes mini Lavender Cupcakes and spreads it with Lemon Buttercream Frosting.

The reason why I choose lavender is because my cousin, Elaine, gave me some dried lavender leaves from her trip to France. And heck, I’ve been craving for something delicate and soothing. It has so many qualities that make it perfect. It smells amazing. It looks beautiful. According to howstuffworks.com,  ”Lavender is considered calming to those with nervous tension.”

Crap. (My mom walks into the kitchen.)

Mom: WHAT? AGAIN? MORE BAKING? WHY ARE YOU MORE WORRIED ABOUT BAKING THAN COOKING YOUR OWN DINNER?

I smell the lavender aroma, smile and say “yes,” and continue to beat my eggs into my batter. She walks out of the kitchen, complaining about the mess that I made and the flour on the floor. I later give her a bite, and she stops complaining.

Mini Lavender cupcakes

(Makes about 30 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients

• 3/4 C milk
• 1 tbsp finely chopped dried lavender (or 3 tbsp of fresh)
• 6 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 C white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine the milk and lavender in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat to a simmer, then remove from heat, and allow it to cool.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until completely smooth. Beat in the eggs until the mixture is light and fluffy. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir it into the creamed mixture alternately with the milk and lavender until just blended. Pour into lined paper tins. Fill to about 2/3 full.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a wooden pick inserted into the cupcakes until it comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Allow it to completely cool before spreading lemon buttercream frosting.

Lemon Buttercream frosting

Ingredients

• 1/2 C Butter, softened
• About 1.75 C confectioner’s sugar
• 1 lemon, juiced & zested
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• dash of salt

Directions

1. Combine butter, sugar, and salt until smooth
2. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla and beat for about 3 minutes until creamy
3. Spread onto lavender cupcakes.Garnish with lavender or lemon zest. (optional)

Nutella Pistachio Icebox cookies

For my last official summer night before my first day of school, I invited Yulee over to my apartment. Yulee’s my first discipler and she just graduated from USC with a B.Arch. Right now, she is currently job-searching. Chances are that she’s probably going to leave soon…. so before things got too busy, we came up with a list of things to do. One: to bake together.

I try to think of something that she’d enjoy baking AND eating. Two things come into my mind.

1. Nutella
2. Pistachio

Since she came back from studying abroad n Italy, she corrects me:

“The correct pronounciation is pi-sta-kee-o!”

I laugh. And I ask her how does Pistachio icebox cookies sandwiched with nutella sound? Her face lits up like a happy child.

And after I pull out all my ingredients and bowls, I ask her to mix the flour and butter together. She slowly mixes it and looks a little uncomfortable. I ask her what’s wrong. She confesses to me:

“Lilly, I’ve actually never baked from scratch before. Last time I made you those red velvet cupcakes, I used cake mix.”

I am shocked. But I laugh and tell her it’s okay and to just mix it so everything is well incorporated and to just enjoy it. We help each other out. She mixes the batter. I take over. She rolls the dough into logs. I wrap it and stick it in the freezer for an hour and at the meantime, watch Amelie together. I slice the logs into 1/4” rounds and spread them onto my slipat and slide the sheets into the oven. Once they are cooled, she spreads the nutella. Before Yulee leaves, we pack them into these cute little boxes I bought for her to bring back to Lu’s apartment.

look how happy she looks :)

Nutella Pistachio Icebox Cookies

(Makes about 30 sandwiched cookies)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsultaed butter, room temp
• 1/4 C sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 1/2 C and 2 tbsp all-urpose flour
• 3/4 C chopped unsalted pistachios (or if salted, omit adding salt)
• 1 tsp salt
• Nutella

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat butter ad 1/4 C sugar until light and fluffy. Make sure it’s well incorporated.  Add egg and almond extract and beat altogether. add the flour and salt and mix altogether until well-combined. Add pistachios and mix into batter.
2. Turn the dough onto a clean work surface. Divide in half and roll each piece into a log, about 1 1/2” in diameter. Wrap in parchment paper or plastic wrap and twist the ends tightly. Chill in freezer for an hour or overnight.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or slipat. Let one of the dough logs stand at room temperature until it’s soft enough to slice. Roll the dough logs in sugar if desired and slice into 1/4” thick rounds. Place about 1” apart onto prepared sheets. Bake, and flip each cookie halfway through, until the cookies are golden brown around the edges, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Once the cookies have cooled to the touch, spread about 1 tsp of Nutella on one cookie and top sandwich it with another cookie. Allow it to cool and enjoy!