Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté

Belgian lambics rely on spontaneous fermentation from naturally occurring wild yeasts, giving this beer style its acidity and distinctive tartness. It doesn’t sound too different from the process that makes sourdough sour, does it? The particular style used in this sorbet recipe is fruit lambic — fresh whole fruits are added once the fermentation starts.

There’s a wide variety of fruit lambics available to use in this recipe:

• framboise (raspberry)
• kriek (cherry)
• pêche (peach)
• cassis (black currant)
• pomme (apple)

My favorite is easily the raspberry lambic. It also seems to be the most widely available.

There’s only one thing wrong with this sorbet recipe. Fresh raspberries and framboise lambic are perfectly fine on their own. I’m a firm believer in leaving well enough alone so I had a bit of trouble trying this recipe for the first time.

I couldn’t even keep the ingredients on hand long enough due to an uncontrollable habit of mindlessly popping raspberries in my mouth every few seconds. Before I realize it, there’s nothing left in the container but red streaks. A snifter or two of framboise lambic is also never a bad idea after dinner. It’s the ideal dessert beer.

The raspberries had to go directly from the bag into the blender just to make sure. Ah, the problems I face.

Now that I’ve tried it, I can wholeheartedly say that it is absolutely worth it.

View Raspberry Lambic Sorbet recipe »

Pureed corn miso soup and a poached egg served with Tofu Dengaku – broiled tofu with sweet miso topping and toasted sesame seeds.

Click: the photo event hosted by Jugalbandi

Dotted with tiny bits of yellow, it looks like any other corn soup but one taste and you’ll know it’s unmistakably Japanese. Pureed corn kernels are seasoned with dashi, miso, and soy sauce to create a soup that can be enjoyed hot or cold. Served with tofu, a poached egg, or shredded crabmeat, it can be a light meal by itself.

View Pureed Corn and Miso Soup recipe »

I had my mind set on having some polvoron for the weekend but didn’t have any powdered milk, a key ingredient. Getting a polvoron fix is serious business for me but I’m not about to run to the nearest Goldilocks (there are none). Good thing I have a recipe for a similar Spanish treat called Polvorones Sevillanos that doesn’t require powdered milk.

Filipino Polvoron and Polvorones Sevillanos are two distinct things but do share similarities other than the name. The Filipino version uses flour toasted in a dry skillet and is pressed in a mold to finish while its Spanish counterpart is shaped into ovals before baking in the oven. The resulting tastes of the shortbread made from these two methods are unsurprisingly different.

Even with the different cooking methods, both share the same crumbly texture and instantly falls apart into a fine powder upon biting. One of my hidden talents is the ability to whistle with a mouthful of polvoron without spewing the buttery powder into someone’s face.

View Polvorones Sevillanos recipe »

As much as I don’t mind making breads that take at least two days to complete, sometimes a freshly baked batch of yeasty goodness just has to come out of the oven right quick. Using pre-ferments and soakers are just two of many techniques for making bread with fully-developed flavor but, uh, they had to be made yesterday.

Planning ahead is necessary because any type of yeast bread can benefit greatly from a longer and slower fermentation. This mantra holds especially true for lean breads where flavor development depends heavily on small amounts of yeast and lots of patience.

If the main flavoring came from other sources, say spices, a bit of garlic, and maybe a sprinkling of chickpea flour, then a larger amount of yeast can be used to make the dough rise quickly. In this case, the yeast primarily acts as a leavener instead of flavor enhancer.

This seems to be the thinking behind the curry roll formula from Austrian baker Gerhard Ströck. These pungent garlic-laced buns are finished in about two hours if you skip the much-maligned “cool on a wire rack” step. Dinner rolls are much better fresh from the oven anyway.

View Gerhard Ströck's Curry Roll recipe »