Brandy Alexander Tapioca Pudding

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I love tapioca. But it has  reputation of one either loving or hating it. In the right base Tapioca can soar. Think of fun fruity and ever so popular bubble teas. And tapioca is apt to find its way on the higher ends menus these days in sweet and savory applications. So this clear translucent starch doesn’t have to limited to stodgy plain, but good desserts any longer. Rather than make a traditional pudding recipe with whipped egg whites, I decided to use whipped cream as I was mimicking one of my favorite dessert type cocktails, the Brandy Alexander. Tapioca cooked with egg yolks, vanilla paste,sugar,cocoa, and brandy.Then allowed to chill and folded into more brandy spiked whipped cream. All topped with fresh grated nutmeg, and served in coco rimmed containers. Rich, light, decadent, and just plain good.
 Brandy Alexander Tapioca Pudding
Serves 4
2 hours plus chilling time
1/3 cup small pearl tapioca
2 3/4 cups milk (set aside 3/4 for soaking)
2  large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup Brandy plus 1 tsp for whipped  cream
1cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp sugar
cocoa powder and brandy for rims
fresh nutmeg for grated garnish
Soak the small pearl tapioca in 3/4 cups milk in a heavy bottomed sauce pan.
Allow to soak for 1 hour. 
While waiting you can whip 1 cup whipped cream with 1 tbsp of sugar in your stand mixer. Add 1 tsp of brandy and cover to chill. 
On a low to medium heat slowly cook tapioca and milk until it starts to bubble/boil.Check and stir periodically.While waiting for this which can take 10-15 minutes, whisk egg yolks, sugar, cocoa in bowl.Once Tapioca starts to cook/boil on low heat add egg yolk mixture and whisk to incorporate. Slowly simmer on low medium heat stirring  constantly until the tapioca pearls starts to expand and become translucent. This will take another 20 minutes or so. If its cooking to fast adjust heat, so tapioca can cook completely. At final stage add vanilla and 1/4 cup of brandy. Whisk in and set aside. Allow to cool, covered  before chilling for at least 4 hours.
After completely chilled, fold in whipped cream.
Take serving glasses and dip rim a saucer of brandy. Then dip in a  saucer of cocoa powder.
Carefully spoon in pudding. Grate fresh nutmeg on top and serve.

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Fresh Homemade Hot Sauce or Sambal

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 I’m in  a phase right now. Fellow blogger Cheryl  face booked  some cool pictures takes with her I Phone and Hipstamtic and I have been obsessed ever since. I even set up a Tumblr acct to showcase my cool artsy pictures and other stuff that I cant put here. It’s that bad.  So I figured I could get some stylized  shots of these Red Chili Peppers to make the feeling of heat even more visible with this analog style of photography via digital means. I love the vintage feel . So you may see this from time to time here. It’s a phase I need to work through.
 A few weeks back I received my Culinaria Southeast Asia book and was captivated by the Sambal”s. Sambal’s are essentially chili based dipping sauce that precedes what we in the Western world think as as ketchup. Sambal Oelek being the most popular one to come to mind. Some Sambals have shrimp paste, lime, soy, sugar, ginger, garlic, tamarind, peanuts,etc. All sorts of variations exist.
I made my own variation  based on  the Sambal Cuka ( Vinegar and Chili Dip) in Culinaria. I ended up altering things and adding more ingredients. My batch was also larger because I had about 50 or so Chili peppers. I will give you roughly what I did. Taste and alter according to your tastes.This makes a large batch, that’s ideal to divide up and bottle to share. Fresh Sauce  keeps for 1 week in the refrigerator.
Fresh Homemade Hot Sauce/ Sambal
(You can scale this down as this makes over 1/4 liter, a rather large batch. You can use minimally 10 red chilies and amounts of 2 tbsp of vinegar, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 inch ginger, 1 tbsp soy, 1 tbsp sugar)
1/4 lb red chili peppers ( about 50 chili peppers)
 2 inches of fresh ginger root, peeled and cut into small pieces
1/2 fist of garlic. Cloves peeled
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
3-4 tablespoons of Soy Sauce

Wash and Stem chilies (wear gloves to protect skin).  Add rest of ingredients. Process with food processor. Store in sealed jar in the refrigerator. Keeps 1 week

Duck Egg Pasta…The Best Pasta Ever

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The other day I decided to splurge on duck eggs on a shopping expedition to Chinatown. At $8.50 a dozen they were extravagant, but I rationalized the purchase by using them in a post, making a dessert with them, and an upcoming article I’m doing later on for Easter. I have been intrigued by duck eggs for a while as they have larger yolks and thicker shells. Duck eggs have many applications and are wonderful in rich egg based pastries. You can see in the first photo the side by side comparison between the duck egg and regular hens egg.
Being Sunday, and the weekend, Certain Someone wanted pasta. I didn’t have any dried pasta in the pantry so I decided to make some with the duck eggs. He fussed as he thought it would be a big ordeal, as my previous pasta making attempts. I knew he was thinking of the tape I made for  the Master Chef Auditions, in the messy condo undergoing  repainting. and the long wait for dinner that night. I have to say that was my worst pasta even  , as I added to much liquid and was more worried about the camera, than product. It stuck all over my new Kitchen Aid pasta rollers that Certain Someone gave me  for Christmas. But I dusted myslef off, and the rollers, and tried again. Tell me a cook or chef that doesn’t have a failure now ad then. That’s how we achieve perfection. Substituting duck eggs for regular, I achieved a dense, rich, golden dough.
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After letting it rest, dividing it in four, it was the easily, most pliable dough to roll. I managed to whip out some rich fettuccine noodles in a fraction of the time of my previous attempts with an easy clean up.

 With Spring in the air I wanted to make  Pasta  Primavera, but he wanted MEAT!  So I threw in some meat, and tons vegetables like zucchini, various hued peppers, spices, onion and garlic in a red sauce. Certain Someone fussed about all the vegetables, but admitted it was my best handmade pasta ever.  If you can find them, I highly recommend you substitute the duck eggs for hens   next time you make and egg based pasta.

 Duck Egg Pasta 
(adapted from Kitchen Aid’s Egg Pasta Recipe)
4 Duck Eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons water
3 1/2 cups All purpose four or Italian 00 flour ( the best for pasta, breads, and pizza)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
In Kitchen Aid mixer bowl  mix all ingredients with flat paddle for 30 seconds on low speed ( 2).
Switch out flat beater for dough hook and knead all ingredients for 2 minutes at same low speed.
Turn dough out and knead for 2 more minuted by hand. The dough will be very stiff.
Place in plastic , seal able bag, and let rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, This allows to gluten to relax and dough will be easier to work with.
 With a bench scraper or knife, divide the dough into four pieces.
Process with  Pasta Sheet roller.
  1. Roll out piece on no setting at low speed . Fold into thirds each time and re roll until until it starts to look smooth and uniform.
  2.  Take setting up to 2 and process sheet. Don’t fold.
  3. Take setting up to 3 and repeat on each setting until desired thickness. I processed my fettuccine up until setting 6.
  4. Take the fettuccine attachment and process each thin sheet through it.  Set aside.
  5. Repeat with other 3 sections.

Fresh pasta only requires a 2-5 minutes in rapidly boiling , salted water .  Drain .

Thanks all of you for the great, positive feedback I am receiving regarding Coco. I decided  to embed an issue  here on the blog for you to read. Of course, it cant compare to actual paper edition, but enjoy.

Presenting Coco The Magazine…Some things You Just Have To Make Happen.

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When I was child, even before magazine editors became household words, I always loved and collected magazines. Stacks and stacks of sophisticated magazines on Food and Fashion from all over the world. Other kids had games, and I had my Vogue , Gourmet , Vanity Fair, etc. I knew somehow, someway, I was going to get in those magazines some day or become a part of it. And surprisingly I did. I can count three times, in my socialite days here in Chicago, my photo made some publications .Not a big deal, but fun and exciting. Then I started writing  my blog and loved seeing the process unfold. I even got asked to write some more here and there. All this was great but where was it leading to personally and financially? In the blogging world I see a lot of great people get the deals to go on TV and write books. I’m still waiting but I try and I stay in the game because I do love it, whether it amounts to much or not. It’s about personal satisfaction at this stage in life. And sometimes in order to be satisfied you gotta take the bull by its horns. And that’s what I’m doing, by making my own magazine.
But first, here is a little back story. A few months ago, a friend who I worked with asked me to help out her friend with a last minute interview on her radio show. Ogi, the shows hostess , was a entrepreneurial woman who had her own boutique and was passionate about what she did. As what happens with bumps in the road of life, she had to reconvene and figure out another avenue to go on. She decided to launch her magazine. You may have seen me mention it. It’s called Hush, and I contribute food content. Just witnessing the pride and joy in creating this magazine got me thinking and inspired. It seems we both inspired each other. Perhaps that why we met? Why can’t I have a magazine too, based solely on things that matter to me. I have only seen maybe one or two food bloggers do this, and mine still is unique in concept. I also wanted hard copy, as opposed to electronic copy. I suppose that’s weird in this age, but one can’t deny the appeal  and intimacy of paper in hand. I wanted my magazine to focus on mainly food ,travel. or cultures. And so Coco was born.Coco was created through the brillance of the concept of MagCloud, a division of HP that allows people like you and me to publish their own magazines f or a fraction of the cost of traditional printing porcesses.. I hope you like my first issue, Discovery through the Palate. A Travel and Food Diary. It was a lot of work and fun piecing this together and I got great feedback from friends who know all about media. Call it a vanity project, but I want to give you the reader an up close, intimate view of some of my world and travels.It’s almost like a diary or scrapbook, full of great visuals, recollections, recipes, and places I would recommend when travelling. Coco is a little art and little reference. I plan to produce 4 themed issues and hope you consider placing an order. Each edition is meant to be timeless in that it’s not limited by seasons. Coco is perfect for those that are planning a trip or just aren’t able to travel, but are interested in the world at large and want to pick up an interesting tidbit here and there. It’s more than a magazine. Click here to order in the US, Canada, and The UK.





Word of Advice…A Way to Mans Heart is His Stomach. Here Is Why.

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 I’m going to go out on a limb here and may rub some people the wrong way. The cliché is true; the way to a man’s heart is through the stomach. I see a lot of women running out here in the world (and I was one of them) wondering why they can’t find the one. We as women get so wrapped up in the superficial things like appearance; we forget this basic rule of thumb. I see some really sharp beautiful women wonder what one woman has over her. It’s probably that she cooks well and most importantly is not afraid of giving of herself, it’s that simple.A lot of those women couldn’t be bothered with such mundane tasks, as cooking. I know some of people may feel I’m a doormat because it seems I’m always cooking and catering to Certain Someone. Au contraire, I’m hardly a door mat, I speak my mind, I work, I look out for me, and I expect to get nurtured back and spoiled in the same way I nurture Certain Someone. And I do. The reason I do what I do is because that’s what cooking and food is, nurturing and love. I choose to do it, no one forces me, and I have never been more centered.
 A few weeks ago there was a discussion I witnessed, between some people about mealtime and serving men. A lot of the women got all blistery about it and started in on a man can serve himself and can he cook the meal too for that matter.I love a man to cook for me but a few of us in the room were  thinking What’s the big deal about serving /feeding your man, if you choose to?There is nothing wrong or backwards with that choice either. My mother did it, my grandmother did it (and they were both working educated strong Black women). It’s not about submission, which I think is the wrong message most people see. It’s about nurturing, again. In this stressful world, I don’t care if you’re a millionaire or working class, one wants to come home to an environment that loving and peaceful. We all deserve to be nurtured. In order to be loved and nurtured we must be willing to give it too.
 Some people use sex as a weapon or lure, I use food. My first serious relationship was initiated through a package of homemade chocolate chip cookies by yours truly. It gets them most of the time. There have been some misses. I remember laying my sites on one prospect years ago, and setting out the finest china and linens at Auntie Mame’s lake view condo. I made Veal Parmesan, a dessert of Grand Mariner marinated melon balls and ice cream. It was a big deal, to me anyway, after a bit of casual dating with said prospect. He came, he ate, he tickled the ivories (literally the Aunts baby grand not me) and he left, never really hearing from him again. I run that night through my head and feel I must have scared the crap out of him because the food was exceptional, or so I heard through various sources.Bottom line he wasn’t worthy of that dinner from me, and he knew it. Certain Someone and I met over and bonded over our love of food and travel. I can say the first time I cooked for him, he was hooked. Certain Someone’s life is literally like the title of the film Up In the Air. After days working and with limited food options (some nice and not so nice, and many Business Class or First Class meals on airlines), he wants a home cooked meal. Just like Mama would make.
 I’m not a relationship expert, I just observe. And from what I see, there are a lot of women out there trying not to be forced into submission or controlled, and they equate cooking as part of that. Yet they seek relationships. They consider themselves free and liberal. I feel there is nothing more liberating and satisfying than giving cooking a try (not everyone is going to excel at it, but it’s the effort that matters) and removing that negative block and stigma. You would be surprised at what comes flowing into your life from such a loving activity.