Unfortunately Leah couldn’t join today. For the final x day I wanted to originally create a family recipe to bring the adventures through food back home however that didn’t go to plan as it didn’t work. Due to this I chose to change the plan to a new location by creating Irish potato soup. Overall it went pretty well however the broth to potato ratio seemed off so we are adding more potatoes to the leftover soup. 
Category: World Cuisine as a Window on Culture – Lynne & Leah
Another Foray into French Patisserie with Macarons
Today, Lynne and I attempted to make French macarons. Not macaroons–the coconut cookies–but macarons with frosting/filling sandwiched between two meringue-like cookies. At least, that was the goal. We selected two flavors: raspberry and peanut butter chocolate. Mixing up the batter and fillings went smoothly… or so we thought. When the raspberry cookies came out of the oven, they were very puffy and cracked, which Lynne and I guessed was due to overmixing the egg whites. The chocolate peanut butter cookies had the opposite problem; they came out of the oven quite flat, which we attributed to undermixing the egg whites. Although we are not true French patisserie masters, we now understand why good macarons are so expensive in bakeries.
Crème Brulee – 2/15
For our February X-day, Leah, Megan, and I worked together to create one of the hardest desserts to make… crème brulee. Overall the experience went smoothly except for the getting the ceramics out to cool. Due to my house’s oven being a European size the dish with our custards and water bath had to go over the back part of the rack in order to fit which caused one of the custards to accidentally get water on it when taking it out. Luckily for us it didn’t affect it too much as the custard was already cooked.
Crème Brulee: the Challenge Behind the Custard
Today Lynne and I explored the world of French cuisine with a traditional crème brulee. First, we mixed up the custard, being careful not to scramble the egg yolks. Then, we baked the custard and let it chill in the fridge. Finally, sugar was sprinkled over the top of the custard and broiled with a kitchen torch. We ran into a couple challenges along the way, mainly including beating the egg whites to the proper consistency (pictured below) and removing the custards from the hot water bath after removing them from the oven. Overall, our foray into French cuisine was complete and we really enjoyed experiencing the behind-the-scenes work for a classic French dish. We learned how the methods have been time-perfected for a dish that has been around for so long. (We also made a chocolate mousse with the leftover egg whites for some extra immersion into the world of French desserts.)
11/9 Moroccan-Inspired Chicken Couscous
Today I created a Moroccan-inspired chicken couscous that was filled with lots of good flavors. Luckily today the only issue was that my celery was starting to shred which might be the reason it was bitter after being cooked. The chicken and vegetables was marinated in a olive oil, vinegar, tomato paste, and spices. Finally the couscous was cooked in chicken broth and seasoned with cinnamon and salt.
10/21- Veggie Samosas, and a “Dough, No!”
Today I attempted to make veggie samosas. I started by creating the filling that consisted of potato, peas, and lots of spices. Then my next step was the dough, however this lead to an issue as the dough kept coming out flaky every time so I tried using puff pastry. Unfortunately the puff pastry was frozen and didn’t defrost so I ended up eating the filling by itself which was still very good. My mom and I think the reason the dough didn’t work was because the flour had expired and I forgot to check that before using it. Next time I will double check that I not only have everything I need but that nothing is expired or else things might just go wrong.
Food: the Soul of the World
We will use our love for cooking/baking to learn about different places in the world and different cultures by learning about recipes from all over and learning about how those recipes impact the community they are made in. We created a list of different foods that were popular in multiple countries and religions that we were hoping to make and then research about how certain things were important to that culture. Some of the foods we want to make are crème brulee, dumplings, tuna steaks, nanaimo bars, risotto, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, pretzels, stollen, potato salad, samosas, butter chicken, and latkes.