Monk heads: Caramelized Cherry tomatoes in sesame seeds

I recently learned that Tete de moine (monk's head) is already a French cheese... but a name can't be changed once assigned so these shall forever remain, mes tetes de moine. If you don't get it, just turn one upside down and imagine it bobbing through a monastery.

I first tasted something of this sort outside the Chatelet Opera as an accompagnement to a pre-show glass of wine. The crispy caramel that just might cut the inside of your mouth melts along with the juiciness of the cherry tomato and honestly, I still can't decide if I love these or just think they're another silly byproduct of cooking experimentation.

In any case, they always draw comments at a dinner party, so I continue to serve them.

Tetes de moine
a dozen cherry tomatoes
1c sesame seeds
about 1+ c sugar
toothpicks

The making of these is fairly simple, with the one huge catch that you must already have an eye for making caramel.

Rinse the tomatoes, dry them thoroughly and spear each one just opposite of its little brown spot so that said brown spot (you know... where it connects to the vine) will 1. be covered by caramel and 2. create the perfect bottom surface so that they will sit up on the serving plate.

Lightly brown your sesame seeds (a couple minutes under a high heat oven, stirred often, just until you start to smell a nutty scent rising through the room) and pour them into a small bowl with at least 1/2 inch depth of seeds for dipping and rolling.

Now you can start your caramel. I am not an expert on this. I mess up frequently and have developed strong disposing-of-hot-burning-caramel skills (tip: do not pour in plastic trash bag. empty egg cartons dont burn, so they're a great receptacle) . But the basic idea is simple: heat sugar in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat without stirring until it begins boiling and starts to darken to juuuuuust the light brown color that you want. The melting will begin around the edges of the pan and slowly engulf all the sugar. If you stir before it is liquid, it clumps, but sometimes you can tilt the pot around if you just cant resist the urge to melanger. Once the sugar is all liquid, you can feel more confident stirring, but it is not highly recommended.

The tips are:
1. Dont get your heat too high or you will have half burned caramel and half still-crystal sugar
2. If you can help it, do not stir as it heats or you will have lumpy caramel
3. Watch very carefully once it starts to brown because it will quickly turn black and stinky
4. Remove from heat BEFORE you think it is done by just a few moments because it will continue to cook itself after.
5. Some recipes suggest a squeeze of lemon etc. with the sugar to make it cook slower, ie make it less likely to burn. I haven't experimented with this.
6. Next time I am also going to experiment with a pad of butter in the caramel just as it comes off the heat to make a softer crunch of the caramel. This is what they do for caramel sauces.

Assembly: just as your caramel finishes, tilt the pan to the side, pooling the caramel with one hand, grasping the toothpicks, dip and roll the bottom half of each cherry tomato in the caramel, removing the excess by dragging it along the surface of the caramel in a zig zag motion for 2 seconds, and quickly roll in sesame seeds to cover the sticky caramel surface.

Place on plate. serve. bask in comments.

Yogurt: Crème de Marron and Yogurt Tatin

Last week I finally broke down and bought a cuisinart yogurt maker and fromagerie (cheese maker)!!!! Begin frantic cooking.

The recipe for making yogurt at home stays pretty constant, though you have your choice of starters ranging from one cup of industrial yogurt to packets of powdered "yogurt starter." ...and then there are your thickeners, which vary from powdered milk to rennet or magnesium clorate (ide?) to absolutely nothing. But the recipe remains: sterilized milk, a starter stirred in, keep warm for about 8 hours, refrigerate.

But that simple line "keep warm for about 8 hours" can be a pain. I've tried wrapping the bowls in towels, heating pads, leaving the pots in the oven with only the pilot light on. I find them all fairly troublesome, especially when there are appliances that will do it for you. They are available for as cheap as ten bucks, but I opted for the nicer cuisinart because it has a probe to keep a constant temperature AND I can now make various soft cheeses!

The cooked-and-caramelized apples in this recipe are generally considered "apple pie" in the US and "tatin" here in France. Basically it is the same simmer-butter-and-apples, add-sugar-to-caramelize process, but with different crusts and reputations in the two countries. In the US its "down home" or "classic" american, while here it is almost gourmet. Heaven in a crepe... Either way, learning to make the simple basic recipe is SO useful because it can be thrown into so many different desert crusts, cakes, or simply thrown in with yogurt or whipped cream.

The Crème de Marron is another French specialty that these days, most people buy in cans. Marron is actually chestnuts, so this is a sweet paste of chestnuts, and yes, you really can roast them on an open fire. But oh do I suggest making this confection instead. The best part is you can preserve it like jelly etc., and have a year long supply! Thats my plan, but this was just from the first batch, so the blog post will come with the next round. sorry :)

So here we go: this is the recipe that fills my 6 125ml yogurt pots. Increase or decrease to fit what you are using!
The Caramelized Apples
makes just enough to cover the bottom of 2 or 3 yogurt cups. multiply as you like.

1 apple
1 generous pad of butter
about 1/3 cup sugar, brown preferred (it doesn't burn as easily)
a packet of vanilla sugar
dash of cinnamon

*The vanilla sugar is not necessary, but its a great addition to many desert recipes. If they don't sell it where you are you can make it yourself simply by keeping a separate jar of sugar in the pantry with a stick of vanilla in it. You end up with vanilla flavored sugar, which is great for absolutely anything you can think of. Coffee and cakes included.

1. peel and cut up the apple and put it in a pot over medium high heat with the butter. The apple will start to cook down after a few minutes, softening

2. sprinkle sugar over top (including vanilla sugar) and stir in, watching carefully after this point so that you don't burn the sugar. Not only does it stink if you burn it, it sucks to clean. Add the cinnamon. The sugar will start to "blond," which means it is caramelizing

*NOTE: the more sugar you add, the more caramel you will have with your apples. Also, I choose not to use it, but some corn syrup will help keep it soft and gooey and not burnt.

3. at this point, it takes more experience than actual directions to know when it is done (I am sadly not quite adept at this, yet, and often burn my caramel... oh well) but it seems to go a lot smoother with the butter and apples than plain caramel does. The apples will start to puff up and make a slight whining sound like when you sautée potatoes and the inside will soften.

4. when you deem the sugar duly caramelized, the apples duly cooked, and the flavors properly melded, its done! This took about 10 or 15 minutes for my one apple.

Crème de Marron: post coming soon.

Pots of Yogurt

My yogurt maker has 6 pots that come with it, so I put a scoop of the caramelized apples in each of 3, and crème de marron in the other 3.

The yogurt, I must say, is extremely simple once you get the method.

1/2 liter of UHT milk
1 cup of previously made yogurt, homemade or bought
sweetener of choice; I used a couple spoonfuls of sweetened condensed milk
firming agent of choice (not necessary, read online for options. The easiest is a bit of powdered milk or a couple drops of rennet)

NOTE: a quick word on the milk choice. At first I was upset that they didn't have much fresh milk here in France for making yogurt, but it turns out UHT milk is WAY easier. Fresh milk you have to heat to almost boiling to sterilize, and make sure to sterilize all your utensils as well. In addition, it is more prone to leaving pockets of whey in the yogurt and a skin on top.

UHT milk you can buy and use at room temperature with no heating or cooking involved, skipping all of the sterilization, and the product is often more firm! Plus no grose skin on top.

Stir. Pour in the pots, on top of the marron and tatin, place in yogurt maker (or warm oven etc.) for 8 hours. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before eating as they will continue to firm.

Voilà!!

La Crème au Caramel

La Crème. Yes, I know "cream" just means fatty milk in English, but its a whole category of desert here! Something between pudding and custard, it seems, depending on the amount of eggs and flour.

1. Wisk together one heaping tablespoon of corn starch and 1 egg

2. put 100g raw sugar in a sauce pan (or just any slightly deep, silver pan) on low-med heat and let it melt

3. pour in 1/2 liter milk. The cold milk will make the sugar (now caramel) harden on contact, so you have to stir for a little while, waiting for it to melt into the milk

4. Let the milk and sugar mixture cool down to almost room temperature and wisk in the egg/corn starch mixture

5. Reheat, stirring frequently until its hot and a little bit foamy around the edges. (if you don't let it heat/cook a bit here it probably wont firm up into crème, maybe more of a pudding at that point?.)

6. Allow to sit for a bit, refrigerate if you need to, enjoy.

*For Vanilla Crème, use 80g vanilla sugar, skip the melting of the sugar and add "a stick of vanilla." I have no idea who sells vanilla in sticks, but Estelle says its better than vanilla extract. Caramel is really just burned sugar, so you're skipping that part and adding vanilla flavor.

Caramel Popcorn

yep.

Popcorn:
~ 1/4 c Corn kernels
oil
salt
pan with a lid

Caramel:
2 sticks butter
2 c light brown sugar
1/2 c white karo syrup

1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t vanilla extract
Large flat baking pans

Popcorn:
*To pop the popcorn, put enough corn kernels on the bottom of the pan to almost cover the bottom, and add just enough oil to coat them all with oil and add some salt.
-to test, shake the pan and if all the kernels stop banging around, there is enough oil
*cover the pot!
-unless you want hot oil splattering you and your kitchen...
*heat on medium high
*when the oil gets hot enough you'll hear the first *ding* sound. This means your first kernel has popped.
*start shaking the pot (keeping it on the heat)! and keep popping it as more and more kernels pop. This keeps the popcorn on the bottom from burning
*when the kernels slow down, or when the popcorn starts pushing up the lid

yum

Caramel:
*preheat oven to 250 degrees
*melt the butter, brown sugar and karo in a sauce pan and bring them to a boil
*let this boil for 5 minutes
*mix the salt, baking soda, and vanilla together
*after 5 minutes of boiling, add the vanilla mixture to the butter mixture
- at this point you will see it all turn lighter and start puffing up.
*after stirring these two together take them off the heat and pour them over the popcorn in large, flat pans.
*stir popcorn until coated with caramel and place in the oven


**leave the popcorn in the oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes
**When finished, let the popcorn air out and the caramel will become hard, giving it that caramel crunch!!

Tips:
-if you want to add peanuts, add them for the last 15 minute period in the oven
-put the popcorn onto wax sheets straight out of the oven

mmm Caramel Sauce

This is kind of a cheater's version of caramel sauce because real
caramel is burned white sugar. This recipe just uses brown
sugar and Karo syrup to emulate the consistency and taste.

1 c brown sugar (about)
1/2 to 3/4 butter (1 stick +)
1/4 c + Karo syrup
salt to taste

*Put all in a sauce pan on low heat

this is one of those times a good sauce
pan makes a difference; a thicker
bottom is good

*Cook until the sugar dissolves, and it comes to a boil, but NO MORE!!

This part is really hard... If it is UNDER cooked it is grainy
because the sugar granules have not dissolvedIf you
OVER cook it, it gets hard and grainy again
(different grainy... but neither is good)

So just stop as soon as when you scoop up some of
the sauce with a spoon and let it drip back into
the pot you cant seegranules, and
there is a slight boil

*You can reheat the sauce after the first time, but always add a little liquid; milk works well