Fudge Brownies

Adapted from Alice Medrich's Cocoa Brownies

Ingredients:
210g butter
250g sugar
100g cocoa powder
100g liquid fudge
3/8 tsp salt
coffee extract
3 large eggs -- cold
100g flour

Melt butter, sugar and cocoa. Stir until completely melted, and then take off heat.

Stir in the liquid fudge, salt and coffee extract.

Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by flour.

Bake at 160C until a skewer comes out nearly clean.

Notes:

You can remove it from the oven a little earlier, but it will be more squishy and difficult to slice cleanly.

The original Medrich cocoa brownie recipe is my go-to standard brownie recipe. I do usually make it with a little more cocoa powder, and often throw in different extracts and spices, but it is very good as it is. The main thing is that it needs a day to rest so the cocoa flavor matures.

The recipe with fudge is a little denser and chewier, and stays moist for longer. It has a stronger, more chocolatey taste right out of the oven, and despite the additional liquid, slices more cleanly (without freezing or any shenanigans).

Scalded Dough Flat Bread

Ingredients: 
200g strong wholemeal flour
200g all purpose flour
5g active dry yeast
2g sugar -- optional
1tsp salt
1tbsp vegetable oil -- optional
Chopped spring onion -- green bits only -- optional

Mix wholemeal flour with all purpose flour to get your flour mix.

Dissolve yeast and sugar into 60g of water.

Weigh out 200g flour mix. Pour 300g of boiling water and stir. There will be dry patches, but this is fine. Cover, and let sit for about 30 minutes. This is your scalded dough.

Pour yeast mixture, salt and vegetable oil over the scalded dough, and start kneading. Add flour mix by the spoonful until the dough becomes tacky but still kneads into a ball. I had about 60g left over, which you should use to dust your kneading board when rolling out the dough later.

Tuck into a ball, and cover with cling wrap. Let it sit on the counter for 1 hour, and then into the fridge over night.

Divide into 8 portions.

With your hands or a rolling pin, roll each portion out to roughly 10cm in diameter, and then scatter spring onion over it. Roll it up like you would a cinnamon roll, pinching the ends and edges closed. Then roll it into a ball.

At this stage, you can cook it right away or cover and put it back into the fridge.

To cook, simply roll out each ball until about 2-3mm thick and flip it onto a very hot pan -- the pan should sizzle when a few droplets of water is sprinkled onto it. Cook each side until it is speckled with light brown spots. It should puff a little in the center.

Notes: 
Scalding the dough cooks the starch, so that the bread is both softer and less likely to be uncooked in the center.

I read a whole bunch of flat bread recipes before coming up with this one. Some of them include instant mashed potato or dried potato flakes for softness, but I do not keep that in the house.

This recipe probably works with just all-purpose flour, or wholemeal all-purpose flour, but for the same amount of water, you will need more flour -- strong flour absorbs more water. You should increase the salt in this case because you will end up with more dough.

The sugar is optional. I only used it because I was concerned that my yeast was rather old and I needed to quickly find out whether it was still alive.

If meant to be eaten plain or with fairly bland accompaniments, I would up the salt to at least 2tsp.

I cooked it stove top because I have a nice, large frying pan that is flat. If using the oven, I think 3-5 minutes on the hottest setting should do the trick.

If you are not using the spring onion, I think it might be quite tasting to pan fry the dough with a bit of butter and sugar and cinnamon. Or to add ground cinnamon and more sugar to the dough for a sweeter treat.

Cider and Caramelized Balsamic Vinegar Pickled Ginger

Ingredients: 

255g thinly sliced young ginger

60g boiled cider

60g sugar 

120g water 

120g caramelized balsamic vinegar 

Umeshu -- optional 

Put everything but the ginger into a pot and bring to a simmer. Turn off when the sugar is completely dissolved, and let cool slightly.

Prepare the container(s) you will use to store the ginger by rinsing out with the umeshu. Rinse off the covers too.

Divide the ginger into the container(s).

Divide the vinegar liquid into the container(s). 

Seal, and store in fridge. 

Notes: 

The pickled ginger will be more tender and less sharp if you use young ginger. 

The boiled cider is just something I bought in New York. It is simply apple juice reduced to a syrup. You can substitute water, and perhaps some sugar if you like it sweet. 

I used my Weck jars -- straight sides, with a volume of 370ml. I split the ginger up because I could not fit it all into one, but there is no reason why you could not just dump it all into one container. 

I think this batch will be too sweet to be eaten with sushi, but that was never my intention anyway. 

The umeshu rinse is not necessary at all. I just could not find the sterilising liquid in the house, and since I will be storing it in the fridge for just a few days, I think it does not matter. 

Cocoa Tangmian Cake

Adapted from Kitchen Tigress

Ingredients: 

145g egg white
1/8tsp cream of tartar
75g sugar

75g butter
55g flour
30g cocoa powder
30g milk
65g egg yolk
1tsp coffee extract
1/8 tsp salt

Melt butter. When it is completely melted and starting to foam, dump in the cocoa powder and flour. Whisk in.

Whisk in the milk, then the yolks one at a time. Add the coffee extract and salt with the last of the egg yolk.

Whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar and sugar until firm peaks.

Fold the egg whites in thirds into the cocoa batter.

Bake at 170C for about 30 minutes.

Notes: 
My cake rose, cracked, and then sank while cooling. I could not invert the cake in the pan to cool because it rose too high -- out of a fairly tall pan.

I might have done better to use a slightly larger pan because I increased all the ingredients a little.

Tasting Notes: 
The flavor is good, but the texture has much to be desired. Back to the drawing board.

Genoa Cake, or Pain de Genes

Adapted from From Buenos Aires to Paris, originally a Pierre Hermes recipe 

Ingredients: 
3 eggs -- 55g each
200g marzipan -- see notes
50g all-purpose flour
40g butter
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp rum

Line the bottom of a 18cm round tin.

Blend the marzipan with the eggs -- see notes.

Put the marzipan mixture over a hot water bath, and whisk until it hits 60C.

Take off heat.

Whip the marzipan mixture until you can drizzle the outline of a star over the mixture, and it lasts long enough to see complete picture.

Whisk in the rum.

Whisk in the butter.

Whisk in the flour.

Bake at 180C for 20 minutes, or until the skewer comes out clean.

When cool, wrap in clingwrap and store at room temperature for 2 days.

Notes: 
The marzipan should be at least 52% almond, and it should still be soft when you take it out the package.

The original recipe suggests beating the eggs in one at a time with a stand mixer. Given the texture of the marzipan, I think using a blender is faster. I used a stick blender, but if I were making a larger quantity, I would chuck all the eggs and marzipan into a jug blender and whizz away. It would probably be less messy.

I used cacao rum for this, but I do not see why you could not use extract (perhaps a little less, maybe a tsp, or 1.5 tsp) instead. To be honest, the rum flavor was not very noticeable anyway.

I bet this cake freezes fairly well, and would be something awesome to have in the fridge for last minute toasting to serve with ice cream or poached fruit.

Tasting Notes: 
Pretty good. This actually makes a fairly small cake, so you might want to double it because it is an excellent cake.

Momofuku Ssam Bar, New York, USA

We randomly walked in and got a table.

I was trying to go to Booker & Dax, but accidentally made a reservation for the wrong the day. We wandered into Ssam Bar first, though, and they just happened to have some seats for three! Matthias's awesome luck as always.

Seven Spice Sour - Sake, Yuzu, Lime, Shichimi 
I think this was possibly my favorite cocktail through my stay in New York. The shichimi was sneaky, and I did not realise for some time that the kick was setting in. But the balance of yuzu and shichimi was exceptionally on point.

Green Pal - Japanese Whiskey, Manzanilla Sherry, Dry Vermouth, Shiso 
Matthias's cocktail. Pretty good, but on the sweeter side still for him, even though I asked for less vermouth.

Spicy Shrimp Roll - Daikon, Green Mango, Peanut
I do not actually remember this one being spicy, but it was a pretty good take on a Vietnamese rice roll. The sauce was pretty good.

Diver Scallop - Ham Dashi, Radish, Thai Basil 
The dashi was jelled, and it covered the entire dish. Nice texture, but it and the radish kinda overwhelmed the scallops.

Pig Ear Ssam 
Not on the menu any more, it seems. But it was delicious -- Matthias ate half of it. The pig ears were fried, and they came already pre-made into ssam.

Grilled Flat Iron Steak - Ramp, Parsnip, Nettle 
Matthias ordered this because steak and nettle. It came with what looked and tasted like tendon puffs to me (is this a trend? I have had this in a few other places recently too). He overwhelmingly approved of this dish.

Passion Fruit Pie - Coffee, Cilantro
Surprisingly delicious. I ordered just to try, since we were there, and was not particularly keen on either offering. But the pairing of passion fruit and what tasted like a coffee crumb or coffee cookie works deliciously well. The cilantro was rather lost, however.

Overall
Pretty good. I think Matthias liked the food more than I did.

Momofuku Ko, East Village, New York, New York, USA

Cocktails
I ordered one that had fig balsamic, gin, and orgeat. Very sippable.

Quartet Cocktail 
Delicious, and served very cold, as it should be. I cannot remember the ingredients, but it had a bunch of Matthias's favorite things, like bitters, and the new-to-us ingredient was Cappelletti, which turns out to be something like Campari.

Pommes Soufflees
A potato puff with caramelised onions inside.

Lobster Palois
We were told that it was a take on a lobster roll. It was a cylinder, with an open bottom, with the lobster meat inside.

Tartlet 
Delightful! I'd love to know how they make the 'tart' shells. It looked like it was akin to a thin pancake batter, baked in the shape of a rectangular tart case until crisp, and then topped with pumpkin and shredded cheese.

Vegetable Roll 
I remember tasting bright basil, but that is it.

Millefeuille 
Thin layers of rye puff pastry sandwiched with ikura.

Madai - Consomme, Shiso
I mostly remember they spraying the top of the bowl with a shiso spray.

Razor Clam - Pineapple, Basil 
Interesting. I expected this to be hot, but it was actually cold. The clams in the dashi were perfectly done, tender and sweet, and it was topped with little basil seeds too.

Sunchoke - Dry Aged Beef, Tarragon

Starchy and satisfying. If I remember correctly, the beef was actually just beef fat.

Uni - Chickpea, Hozon 
I never particularly like uni, but this is definitely my favorite uni dish ever. The slightly salty creaminess of the chickpea puree enhanced the flavor of the uni for me.

Mackerel Sawarazushi - Wasabi, Dashi Ponzu 
Amazing. I always love aburi sushi when done well, and this definitely ranks as one of the best things I have ever put into my mouth. This one alone would have been worth staying up until 1am for a few nights to get a reservation at Ko.

Mackerel Dashi - King Oyster, Asian Pear 
A nice touch to make the broth with the same mackerel bones. The Asian pear provided just the right amounts of sweetness and crunch.

Soft Scramble - Potato, Caviar, Herbs 
So full of potato flavor, and so so good. I cannot say the egg portion of the dish was very memorable, but the potato puree at the bottom of the bowl and the crunchy bits of potato on the top? Very, very good. The accent of sweet potato vinegar was just right.

Bread and Butter 
They offered bread with the Soft Scramble. Too white for Matthias, but otherwise pretty good. It came with some radish butter that I did not like.

Orecchiette - Octopus, Olive 
It was served as 'Octopus Bolognese'. It came across more as a chilli paste with underpinnings of tomato. I think it would have been better served over hot rice than with pasta.

Branzino - Artichoke, Yogurt, Sumac 
The fish was perfectly done, but it could have used more punch from the sumac.

Pork - Kimchi, Onion 
I liked the kimchi topping, though it could have been spicier, but the meat itself was too fatty for me.

Foie Gras - Lychee, Pine Nut, Riesling Jelly 
I do not usually appreciate foie gras, but it was more akin to a shaved ice in presentation and form, or a melting shaved cheese that is slightly funky. Eat each bite with all three components, and you have something that is not quite a dessert, and not quite a savory either.

Clementine - Campari 
At this point in the degustation, this was the perfect refresher course -- indeed, we were told that this was the pre-dessert. It was served very very cold, and the Campari was just enough to cleanse the palate.

Chocolate - Mint 
One soft and one crisp chocolate cookie-like base, topped with a quenelle of Fernet Branca pudding (or ice cream, I cannot remember which). It is quite light for a chocolate dessert, and pretty good.

Mignardises
It was one macaron with a fermented-something (I cannot remember what it is) filling that was rather savory, and a dulce de leche shortbread cookie. The macaron is definitely better.

Overall: 
Fantastic, in a word. Worth every penny.
We can often rate a degustation by how many dishes I ate a few bites, and then handed to Matthias. This was 2 out of 17, and one of them was primarily because I asked for extra bread and was worried that if I finished the pasta too, I would not be able to eat any of the later courses.