Vanilla Bean Marshmallows with Toasted Coconut

So apparently, I lack all counting ability and the bank somehow found another $100 in the paper bag of money that we raised at the Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale - so I wrote a cheque for $2,000 to Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids Society! Thanks, Calgary!

Anyway, there was clearly a lot of non-thinking when I organized the bake sale because our oven was on the fritz. How can you bake something without an oven? I racked my brain for a no-bake treat and finally decided on marshmallows.


I think anyone who really likes candy needs to try making their own because what goes into them can be quite shocking! Truffles are chocolate and heavy cream (sometimes butter too), while marshmallows are sugar, more sugar (in the form of corn syrup), gelatin and sometimes egg whites (pasteurized, because no one likes salmonella).

I looked at a few recipes before settling on one to base my marshmallows off of - while David Lebovitz offered lots of great tips and links, I ultimately settled on one from Smitten Kitchen, using toasted coconut to coat the base instead of the usual icing sugar.


The marshmallows themselves were dead simple. Having to use a candy thermometer may be a little off-putting for some, but when it comes down to it, it's really just boiling some syrup, pouring it over gelatin, whipping it up, then mixing it with some whipped egg whites.


To make things a little fancier, I decided to use vanilla bean instead of regular ol' vanilla extract.


It was definitely a very unique smell - the familiar vanilla was there, but it was so intense there were some earthy undertones. Scraping the vanilla bean pod was a little messy for a n00b like me, but it was worth it for the flavour and seeing those little black flecks in the marshmallow mixture.

I saved the pod to make vanilla sugar, but I should've done it right away because I think it's a little too late for that now :S Oh well, I do have another one...

The marshmallows do become quite sticky and gummy to work with, but in the end it was a lot of fun "unmolding" the slab from the baking dish, then cutting it into strips, then squares with the kitchen shears.

One of the *dreaded* requirements of the bake sale was putting everything into individuals packages! So many bloggers (including myself!) stayed up till the wee hours packing everything away to help things run more smoothly during the actual bake sale. I picked up these cute little bags (originally for lollipops!) from Michaels and also attached one of my moo cards on each. It was not until later when I realized that I just gave 24 people my number! Oops! Fortunately no creepy calls yet ;)

Vanilla Bean Marshmallows with Toasted Coconut
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes 96 1"-cubed marshmallows

• 3 cups (750 mL) sweetened shredded coconut
  
• 3 envelopes unflavoured gelatin
  
• 1 cup (250 mL) cold water, divided
  
• 2 cups (500 mL) sugar
  
• ½ cup (125 mL) light corn syrup
  
• ¼ tsp (1 mL) salt
  
• ¼ cup (60 mL) pasteurized egg whites, or 2 large egg whites
  
• Seeds from a scraped vanilla bean pod

1. In a large skillet or wok, toast shredded coconut a half-cup (125 mL) at a time over medium heat, stirring constantly, until golden brown. Set aside.
   
2. Oil bottom and sides of a 13" × 9" × 2" rectangular metal baking pan and sprinkle about 1 cup (250 mL) toasted coconut on the bottom of the pan.
   
3. In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over ½ cup cold water, and let stand to soften.
   
4. In a 3-quart (3 L) heavy saucepan, cook sugar, corn syrup, remaing water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F (116˚C), about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.
   
5. With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10+ minutes if using hand-held mixer. (The motor was starting to heat up quite a bit on my hand-held mixer just when it was the right time to stop.)
   
6. In a separate medium bowl, beat egg whites with cleaned beaters until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out. Sprinkle 1 cup (250 mL) toasted coconut evenly over top. Let stand uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.
   
7. Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. (I lined mine with plastic wrap.) Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. Using kitchen shears, cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (A large knife or an oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Roll the marshmallows through the remaining toasted coconut, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

Nutrition Info (per 4 marshmallows): 148 calories, 4 g fat (4 g saturated, 0 g trans), 28 g carbohydrate (1 g fibre, 24 g sugar), 1 g protein, 65 mg sodium.

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Avenue's Best Restaurants 2012 Event

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome.

I was one of the lucky few to have been invited to Avenue Magazine's Best Restaurant/Food Issue launch event a couple weeks ago!

Every year, Avenue Magazine compiles a list of Calgary's Top 10 restaurants overall, and also names the best restaurants in a handful of other categories, including Best Brunch, Best Seafood, etc. My friends Gwendolyn, Dan and Julie sat on the judges' panel this year, along with well-known Calgary restaurant critic John Gilchrist, Avenue editor (-in-chief) Käthe Lemon and Avenue executive editor Jennifer Hamilton.

The magazine launch (and announcement of the Top 10 winners!) was held at the Bradlee Distributors showroom, an odd but fitting choice for a venue - Bradlee is an appliance wholesaler, and I couldn't help admire their integrated fridges, convection ovens and gas ranges as the chefs from the Top 4 restaurants - Brava Bistro, NOtaBLE, CHARCUT and Rouge - prepared their dishes in the demo kitchens around the space. For beverages, Divino (another Top 10 restaurant!) brought along a few types of wine to try, while Phil & Sebastian set up one of their famous pop-ups.

#4: Rouge

    
Rouge served up their own brand of "surf & turf" - sous-vide elk tenderloin on salt cod brandade mashed potatoes. The elk was very tender and not gamey at all - I wouldn't have been able to tell that it was elk if he hadn't told me! The mashed potatoes were not fishy at all, but instead very creamy and buttery; I'm sure the salt cod was there to amp up the umami flavours!

#3: CHARCUT

CHARCUT made Beef Heart Meatball Sliders - meatballs made with beef heart, herbs and spices topped with homemade tomato sauce, cheese and shaved truffle between a homemade mini-brioche.


I'd been wanting to try CHARCUT's beef heart since they served it at CHARPOP and was happy to see them preparing it here. The meatball was very moist; it definitely had a deeper flavour than your average ground beef meatball, but nothing that was metallic or off-putting. The brioche was nice and fluffy, and of course the shaved truffle didn't hurt! ;)

#2: NOtaBLE

NOtaBLE prepared one of my favourite dishes of the night - Alberta lamb roast on curried carrot puree with white beans and merguez sausage.


The lamb roast was very moist and flavourful, though a little on the fatty side and I loved the sweet carrot puree with a hint of curry spice. The tiny pieces of merguez sausage, hidden underneath my slice of lamb roast, were wonderful little bursts of flavour. So good.

#1: Brava Bistro

I'd never paid much attention to Brava Bistro - nestled between a Subway and a Starbucks across from a high school on 17th Ave, I didn't realize that such a high-calibre restaurant was hidden there... but they won Avenue's Top Restaurant of 2011(!) So I should probably check it out soon.

At the event they served "surf & turf" as well - braised beef brisket with pan-seared sea scallops... I think there was some truffle action in there too.


The scallop was so delicious. I'm used to seeing scallops overcooked and this was so tender that it almost tasted undercooked to me. The beef brisket was ok... I found it a little too salty.

I had a wonderful time trying these dishes from these great restaurants and chefs, and it was a great opportunity to brush shoulders with some industry people as well! All in all, a fun event and I can't wait to visit (or revisit) these restaurants on my own.

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Turnip Cake (蘿蔔糕)

Photo by Joyce Li

Finally, a recipe!

Mama T. was out of town for Chinese New Year (yes, I understand that was almost two months ago) but my New Years wasn't short of celebration! I had epic Chinese New Year's Eve feasts with mine and B.'s families, and a third epic feast during the New Years with my family again.

B.'s family had an epic potluck feast so I decided to make something festive to contribute. If you've followed this blog for a while (thank you, fans!) you may recall that I've made Chinese New Year's Cake (年糕) before back in my Montreal days, but I wanted to make something savoury, and a little more challenging.

Enter Turnip Cake (蘿蔔糕), aka Radish Cake, Lo Bok Cake or Daikon Cake...

Mama T. usually makes large batches of Turnip Cake and New Year's Cake during Chinese New Year, steaming them up in metal tubs and giving them out to family and friends. Like the New Year's Cake recipe, her Turnip Cake recipe comes from the Towngas Cooking Centre in Hong Kong, where Mama T. still goes for cooking classes! I actually remember being a young kid in HK for Chinese New Year, and Mama T. marking on the calendar the day she went in to learn this recipe. That was about 20 years ago, and now, Mama T.'s copy of the recipe has tons of notes, including calculations for 1.5, 2 and 2.7 (?) x the recipe.

The ingredient list is much longer than that of the New Year's Cake, but the recipe is still pretty easy, especially if you have a food processor with a grater attachment.


Mama T. still grates by hand.
Then you dice up the "filling" of dried mushrooms, dried shrimp, Chinese sausage and Chinese pork belly before pan-frying it.


This is a good time for a quick Chinese lesson!

Chinese pork belly = 臘肉 (also written as 腊肉), "preserved meat". I'm sorry to have only thought of taking the picture when I'd already chopped up the pork belly, but it essentially looks like thick slabs of bacon marinating in a dark, sweet soy sauce.


Chinese sausage = 臘腸 (also written as 腊腸), "preserved sausage".

Since both are preserved meats, if you are able to find one, the other shouldn't be far away at the Asian grocery store.

Next, you cook the turnip with a bit of Chinese rock sugar (冰糖) to bring out the natural sweetness. The sugar should look like a brown brick; don't buy the yellow rock sugar by mistake! If you can't find it, then you can substitute with regular brown sugar.

B.'s family seems to be ++offended by the smell of cooked turnip, but its never bothered me.

Obviously the turnip doesn't give the cake its cake-like texture. That comes courtesy of rice flour (沾米粉) - don't buy the glutinous rice flour by mistake! - and a bit of wheat starch, less commonly known as "tang" flour (澄麵, also written as 澄面)

    



I was definitely worried about whether the recipe would be successful as the batter seemed quite thin.


But it set! It was a Chinese New Year miracle.


Despite there being too much white pepper (the original recipe calls for a whole tablespoon of salt, so I didn't add the full amount, but still added the full amount of white pepper... duh!), the turnip cake was still a hit with B.'s family. This recipe makes enough for two cakes, so I garnished one and gave it to my grandparents.

Photo by Joyce Li

I didn't have a chance to snap any photos of them fried and ready to eat, so my cousin Joyce was happy to oblige. Thanks!

In reading the recipe, I apologize for the weird weights (yes, you need a scale!) - they are converted from the Chinese measurement of taels/"liang" (兩), which are 1⅓ oz.
    

Photos by Joyce Li

Turnip Cake (蘿蔔糕)
Recipe adapted from Towngas Cooking Centre
Makes 2 x 9" round cake pans/pie dishes

• 1 tsp (5 mL) vegetable oil (植物油)
  
• 4 dried black/shiitake mushrooms (冬菇), soaked until softened, diced
  
• 8 oz (227 g) Chinese pork belly (臘肉), skin removed, diced
  
• 2 Chinese sausage (臘腸), diced
  
• 4 tbsp dried shrimp (蝦米), soaked until softened
  
• 3.3 lb (1.5 kg) daikon radish/lo bok (蘿蔔), peeled and shredded
  
• ½ piece of rock sugar (冰糖), chopped, or 1 tbsp brown sugar
  
• 10.7 oz (302 g) rice flour (沾米粉)
  
• 2.7 oz (76 g) wheat starch (澄麵粉)
  
• 1½ cups (375 mL) water (水)
  
• salt (鹽) and white pepper (白胡椒粉), to taste
  
• chopped cilantro (莞茜), chopped green onion (蔥) and/or sesame seeds (芝麻), for garnish

1. Grease two round cake pans or pie dishes. Set aside.
   
2. Heat oil in a wok over medium heat and stir-fry until fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside.
   
3. Clean the wok and cook daikon and rock sugar together over low heat. Do not drain.
   
4. In a large bowl, mix together rice flour and wheat starch. Stir in water. Add daikon with liquid into flour mixture (Be careful, it's hot!), then add in the cooked ingredients and salt and pepper. (Don't worry if it looks a little thin!)
   
5. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Steam over high heat for 45 minutes, or until the cake has set.
   
6. Garnish with chopped cilantro, green onions and/or sesame seeds. To serve, slice and pan-fry for a few minutes per side until golden.

Nutrition Info (per 1/12 recipe, without seasoning/garnish, before frying): 262 calories, 9 g fat (6 g saturated), 12 mg cholesterol, 36 g carbohydrate (3 g fibre, 6 g sugar), 9 g protein, 361 mg sodium. A good source of folate (vitamin B₄) and manganese.

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2012 Resolutions Check-Up: February

Not doing so hot...
Here's my (almost!) monthly check up of my new year's resolution!

Clear my plate
This is something I continue to struggle with - I took on more work, and in more recent weeks I'm finding I'm getting a little worse at saying no...

Be a tourist in my own city
We went to Telus Spark!

I also had a bake sale, which is not touristy at all, but it was a cool way to "get to know" the city!

Drink at least 1 L on non-work days
There is only one checkmark on my calendar and a lot of blank days... so I can only assume I'm not doing this. I haven't been very good about having my water bottle again on non-work days.

Get at least 7.5 hours of sleep per night (i.e. 10:30-11 PM bedtime)
I see only two happy faces and a lot of sad faces on that calendar... perhaps a reasonable goal to start is just one happy face per week?

Lots of work ahead of me!

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