Note: This post is Thinglink-ed, pass your mouse over the images to find out more.

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't." - William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

]]>

Note: This post is Thinglink-ed, pass your mouse over the images to find out more.

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

Yes indeed there is, and it nearly drove me mad on the way to it. If you followed me on Twitter or Facebook, you couldn’t have missed the past few weeks of furious ravings, fleeting triumphs, and befuddled exasperations. Yes, I have been working on the famously fickle canelé (sometimes also spelled cannelés). And not just any canelé, mind you, but the Perfect Canelé. The one that has the perfectly, evenly baked crust the color of mahogany, perfectly, darkly caramelized but without even a hint of burnt. The one that’s crisp and shiny from just the right application of beeswax (yes, that’s what I said), contrasted with the creamy, custardy, sweetly addictive interior. The perfect canelé is what a crème brûlée wants to be when it grows up.

No, I wasn’t inventing a new recipe for it. And I surely didn’t invent the pastry itself. The Bordelais did it ages ago. Though how exactly it came about is still subject to debate. In fact even the name, and how many n’s precisely in the correct spelling is subject to passionate debate. I could recount the whole story, but I know you could google just as well as I do. So why don’t you just go read it yourself over at Wikipedia?

If you’re looking for a canelé recipe, the interweb is littered with them. Blogs have done it. Chow made a video about a search for one. The Chowhounds got a madness-inducing yet oddly mesmerizing thread on it. So did the discussion forum eGullet. Paula Wolfert, who could be called the goddess of the canéles herself, has a SIX-page recipe on it in her fabulous book The Cooking of Southwest France. She also generously published a truncated version of it on her website. My personal God of All Things Pastry Pierre Hermé has no fewer than three recipes published in his various books, including one made of chocolate (in his chocolate book with another one of my favorite authors Dorie Greenspan.) You could even watch a French (French-Canadian?) pastry chef make the canelés on YouTube. Though frankly judging from the results at the end of the video I wouldn’t recommend it.

The problem is, not one, none of it, worked for me reliably and perfectly. Not even when I followed each to the letter. Canelés are famously tricky to make, but it’s not until I tried that I realized how befuddling they truly were. All the recipes are deceptively simple, and not even that different from one another. Basically a sort of custard made of scalded milk, eggs, sugar, flour, and flavored with vanilla and rum, which is then bake in special tin-lined copper molds made specifically for the pastry.

One rather odd recipe, originally attributed to Michel Roux then later to Nick Malgieri, calls for condensed milk and milk powder, which made me suspect that it’d been created during a rather lean time in France, the war perhaps? Living now in time of abundance, I prefer fresh and less processed ingredients. I gave it a try anyway, just for the sake of research. It turns out pretty canelés, though strangely cakey rather than properly custardy. I also didn’t particularly like the flavor, so that was the end of that. Now I need to figure out what to do with all this non-fat milk powder I have left over!

The problem I had with the rest of the recipes was not so much the flavor. How could you go wrong with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and especially the rum? But it’s in the consistency of the baking. I had the darnest time trying to produce the “perfect” canelés every time. The problems are also not recipe specific. I’ve had the same “soufflé” problem, for example, on pretty much all the recipes I tried – that’s when the batter expands too much during baking that it rises up and out of the molds, only to collapse into a royal mess the oven.

So I began to focus more on the method rather than the recipe. I tried changing the eggs to equal amount in yolks only, but found the results too eggy to my taste. Belinda, the pastry chef at Manresa cautioned me not to whisk the batter, despite what most recipes said. That made a huge difference, I now stir, and very gently. By accident I also discovered that even the age of the eggs made a difference. In the end, I settled on a slight adaptation of the ingredient proportions in one of Pierre Hermé’s published recipe, but tweaked the process rather heavily, borrowing from Paula Wolfert’s sage advice and also from that maddening Chowhound thread.

Perhaps the toughest part to work on was the heat. I found that baking at a very long period at a very high temperature produced canelés that were so burnt the crust was practically carbonized. Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing with different variables, producing canelés in all shades of a rainbow, making so many befuddling mistakes it drove me to the brink of insanity. But I stuck with it. Whether it was stubbornness or madness, I stuck with it. And you know what, I got it. Finally. Allow me a minute to bask in my own personal glory. C’est moi qui l’ai fait!

I’m going to try and explain my method to you the best I could. And let me warn you I’ll be wordy. This is going to be my Pad Thai for Beginners tutorial all over again. And just like the Pad Thai recipe, I hope that this canelé recipe will prove to be useful to just as many of you.

So, are you ready to give it a try? I hope I haven’t scared you off from making canelés all together. Really, please don’t. As you could see success is entirely possible! Just do it!

Let’s begin with a few important things you need to keep in mind in your quest for the perfect canalé.

1. The molds – from copper to silicone

One of the characteristics of the perfect canelé is the stark contrast between the crisp, caramelized, evenly dark crust and the custardy interior. The best way to achieve this is with tin-lined copper molds that are made specifically for canelés. There is no two way about it, if what you’re after is the perfect canalé, the copper mold is the way to go.

Unfortunately, saying the copper molds are not cheap would be an understatement. In Europe they are about £10 each. In the US, Amazon sells them at about $20. Whether they’re worth it is entirely up to you. But if you’re going to invest in copper molds, the one I recommend is made by Matfer Bourgeat, a French company – hey it’s a French pastry! Also matter here is the size, I go for the original, about a little over 2 inch in diameter on top, and 2 inch height. I find that this particular size is the best for crisp crust:custardy crumb contrast. Please remember that the copper molds will need to be cured before the first use. (See below for more info on the cure and care of copper molds.)

What about some alternatives if you’re not ready to sell your first born for the copper molds? I have seen people bake canelé in a ring mold or even mini muffin molds. They’re probably fine, but I would miss the fluted shape of the proper canelé. I think the best alternative is the silicone canelé molds. Yes, there I said it: silicone molds are indeed fine. You will not get the perfect canelé you’re after, but if you do it properly, you can come pretty damned close to it. During my canelé madness I tested a couple of different silicone mold brands and came up with one I like and the method that gives the best, most consistent results. This is an interesting enough process to warrant a post on its own.

2. The beeswax

I was lenient with you about the molds. Though I much prefer copper, I find silicone perfectly acceptable. But you know what? I’m not budging on the beeswax. You need it. If you want to make proper canelés, with or without copper molds, you’ll need beeswax. It’s what gives the canelés their special mahogany shine and crispness. It also adds a special flavor – more than one friends I’ve shared my canelés with asked if they’re made with honey. So, to me it’s absolutely important that you use it. Without it, you could be baking something entirely delicious, but it sure ain’t canelé.

Beeswax are not that hard to find really. Next time you go to a farmers market, ask the honey seller there. Even if she doesn’t have it on display I bet she has some she could sell you. If you don’t have easy access to a farmers market this winter, call up a local honey producer in your area. Or you could always order it online. One of my local producers Marshall Farms up in Napa sells their beeswax online. In the New York metro area, Andrew’s Local Honey sells food-grade beeswax at a number of farmers market. (Unfortunately he doesn’t ship. If you East Coasters have a good source that ships, I’ll be happy to list them here, just leave the info in the comment section. Thanks.) Also, Tremblay Apiaries, who sell at the Union Square Green Market on Fridays and Saturdays, and also offer it online.

I use a 1:1 ratio of beeswax to butter to coat my copper (and even silicone) molds. Some recipes will have you use a neutral oil like Canola or even clarified butter. I use butter anywhere I could get away with, so I prefer butter here. I find that if you’re making just enough beewax/butter coating for your batch of canelés, there’s no need to bother clarifying the butter first. If you’re going to make a large quantity of the coating to keep for future batches as well, then perhaps clarifying the butter first to get rid of the butter solids will make your coating last longer.

Another important thing is the thickness -or the thinness rather- of the coating on the mold. Don’t be all like, yo I got me some beeswax so I’m gonna use it! You want to be very judicious with it, you don’t want a canelé with a coating of beeswax so thick it sticks to the roof of your mouth. Yes that happens. No it’s not fun.

The best way to achieve the optimal coating on the copper molds is to warm the molds a little first. Hot beeswax+butter mixture seize up quickly on a cold mold, creating a coating that’s far too thick. So, warm the molds first. Then, rather than brushing the wax on, a process I found gave thick, uneven coating, I pour in the hot wax mixture, then pour it out and invert the mold over a wire rack set on a cookie sheet lined with parchment to drip off the excess. This is so you could reclaim the precious beeswax to use again.

3. Air is your enemy

If you’re making a soufflé, air would be your friend. For canelés however, you really need to be careful not to incorporate too much air in the batter. In the beginning I didn’t think it would be a problem, there’s so much liquid (milk) in the batter I didn’t think I could work that much air into it. But now I know better. I process the entire batter by incorporate as little air as possible. That means stir and never whisk, and do it as gently as possible.

4. The temperature problem

If there’s such a thing as the god of temperature, you should make a tribute to her/him right now. There isn’t one? Ok, how about Hestia, the goddess of the hearth?

Temperature is such a key thing with canelés, to get the proper dark mahogany crust, you’ll need to hit it first with super high heat. I do it at 450F (230C), then I lower the heat (to 375F or 190C) to gently finish the cooking, keeping the interior moist and custardy while producing the characteristic canelé crust.

You also need to pay attention to the temperature of the molds and the batter. Following Paula’s advice, I keep mine cold, cold, cold. After giving them the wax coating I put the molds in the freezer to chill out for a while. When it’s time to fill them, I pull out my cold batter, fill, then bake immediately in the super hot oven.

And herein lies a problem. Twelve frozen copper canelé molds filled with cold batter totally kill my wimpy oven. Every. Damned. Time. I checked the temperature in the oven and it dropped drastically after the molds went in. And my wimpy home oven took its sweet time cycling the heat back up. This contributed to the soufflé problem too, as the batter expands too much when the heat is not high enough, then either collapses down around the molds making a grand mess, or collapses back into the mold itself, resulting in squat, or shall we say height-challenged, canelés. Imperfect air circulation also means that you’ll have to bake the canelés longer to get the dark crust, resulting in the interior that’s a bit too cakey and not custardy enough in my opinion.

To fix this problem, I preheat my oven at 475F, then when the frozen molds go in I reduce the heat down to 450F. Then after 15 minutes I lower it again to 375F, and continue to bake until finished. This is still not perfect, I just don’t think my oven has good enough air circulation to consistently produce perfect 12-canelé batch, so now I’m only doing 6 at a time. If your oven is better than mine, then please feel free to do the big 12 batch, but if you run into the same problems I do, then try a smaller batch. That works better and more consistently for me.

5. The resting period

Every recipe asks you to rest your batter. Some says overnight, some says a few hours. From my experience, I get the most consistent results when my batter has rested at least 36 hours, and the best results when the batter has rested a full 48-hour period. Yes, as in TWO DAYS. Let me just tell you that I have all the patience of a Central Park squirrel on Four Loco, so when I tell you you need 48 hours, people, you need 48 hours, ok?

Ok, now you’re ready for the recipe. Have fun!

Canelés de Bordeaux

The ingredients are adapted from Pierre Hermé’s recipe from Patisserie of Pierre Hermé

• 500g | 2 cups | 50cl whole milk
• 50g | 3.5 tablespoons butter
• 1 vanilla bean or 3-4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 100g | 3/4 cup +1 tablespoon AP (Plain) flour
• 250g | 2 cups (unsifted) powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (use a little less if table salt)
• 2 large eggs (Use the freshest eggs you could find, they make a difference.)
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup rum

This amount makes about 20 canneles.

Make the batter – 2 days before you plan to bake the canelés.

Place the milk, butter, and vanilla bean (that you cut in half and scrape the seeds into the pot) over medium heat and bring to a boil. If you want to be precise it should be 183F. Remove from heat and let cool down while you get to the other ingredients. (If you’re using vanilla extract instead of a vanilla bean, just add the extract with the rum later.)

Measure and then sift together the flour, powder sugar and salt.

Stir the eggs and yolks together with a fork, don’t beat. I find it easier to pass the eggs+yolks through a strainer right into the dry ingredients. That way I don’t have to beat much air into the eggs at all. If you think this is crazy you can just pour the slightly beaten eggs into it and be done.

When the milk/butter/vanilla mixture is just a bit warm but not so hot – 120F or so, or cool enough to stick your finger in it and keep it there a few seconds without burning yourself – remove the vanilla bean halves. Don’t throw them away though, instead put them in another bowl of about the same size. Pour the warm milk mixture into the bowl containing the dry ingredients, and gently stir together until well-blended. You’ll see plenty of lumps in the batter, but that’s fine for now.

Strain the lumpy batter (over a fine-mesh strainer) into the bowl you put the vanilla bean in earlier, pressing the lumps through until you get a totally lump-free batter. Add the rum and stir until combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (no need to press the plastic right over the surface of the batter) and place in the fridge to rest for 48 hours. If you can remember it, stir it once after 24 hours and put it back in the fridge to continue to rest.

Coat the molds – 1 to 2 hr before you plan to bake

• 40g | 1.5oz  beeswax, cut into small chunks (using a hot knife will make your life easier)
• 40g | 1.5oz | 3 tablespoons butter, cut into small chunks

Turn the oven on and set it to 475F (250C). Place the canelé  molds on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, the place the baking sheet in the oven.

Meanwhile, melt the beeswax in a very small pot over very low heat. Do this slowly and don’t let it burn. If you’re worried about the heat on your stovetop you could also do this on a bain marie. When the beeswax is fully melted, remove the pan from heat and add the butter chunks. The residual heat from melting the beeswax should be enough to melt the butter. If not just pass the pan quickly over the heat again. Shake the pan or stir to blend the wax and butter until homogenous.

By the time your beeswax/butter mixture is ready the molds should be warm enough. Remove the baking sheet with the (now warm) molds from the oven. Take another baking sheet, this time line it with a piece of parchment paper and place a wire rack on top of it. Find a sturdy pair of kitchen tongs and keep it at a ready.

To coat the first mold, pick it up with a pair of tongs and place on the wire rack, pour the hot beeswax/butter mixture into it. Then pour beeswax/butter mixture back into the pan, shaking to remove the excess, and place the mold upside-down over the wire rack to drip of the excess. Then start the same process again with the next mold, then the next, until you’re done coating all your molds. Remember you could reclaim the excess beeswax/butter mixture from the parchment lined baking sheet if you’re running low on the wax mixture. Just scoop it back into the pot and pass it over the heat again quickly until it’s melted.

This is a bit of a delicate balance so you might have to do it a few times to get it right. The mold has to be just warm enough to let the wax coat without lathering it on thick. If the mold is too warm, the wax won’t stick. In this case, let it cool a bit and pour the hot wax mixture in again. If the mold is too cold, the wax will coat too thick. You’ll just have to put the mold back in the oven to melt the thick coating of the wax and then recoat it properly with a new layer of wax. While your’e doing this if the beeswax/butter mixture get too cold it will solidify, so just pass the pot back over the heat until it’s melted again. Easy enough, yes?

This whole thing sounds a little complicated, but it isn’t. It’s just a delicate balance you’ll quickly learn. Just make sure your wax coating looks like the correct one in the picture, and you’re good! I find a good pair of kitchen tongs does the job very well, but you could also use a pair of heat-proof gloves instead if you find the tongs a little too unwieldy. Just make sure you don’t try it with your bare hands.

When you’re done coating all the molds, put them in the freezer and let rest at least 1 hour before you bake.

Also, remove the resting batter from the fridge, the batter will have settled and separated a bit. Give it a gentle but thorough stir until the batter is again homogenous. Make sure you scoop all the way down to the bottom to get the batter that’s settled down there to reincorporate with the rest. Cover the bowl and put it back in the fridge.

Line another baking sheet, this time with aluminum foil, place it on the middle rack in the oven to preheat.

If you have any beeswax/butter mixture left, remelt it and pour it through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any bits. You can keep it to add to your next round of canelé-making fun.

Bake the canelés – 1.5 to 5 hours before you plan to serve

Make sure the oven has been preheated at least 30 minutes to get to the right temperature.

Take the batter out of the fridge, and give it a stir once again, very gently but thoroughly. I find it easier to ladle some of the batter into a Pyrex liquid measuring cup and then use that to pour the batter into each mold. So that’s what I recommend. Refill the Pyrex cup as needed.

Remove the molds from the freezer, fill each one (all 12 if you think your oven can handle it, or just 6 at a time if your oven is as wimpy as mine) up to about 1cm or 1/2 inch to the top.

Remove the (now hot) baking sheet lined with aluminum foil that has been pre-heated in the oven and place it on the counter or the unlit stovetop. Arrange the molds at about equal intervals over it  - directly over the sheet and not on a wire rack. Place the baking sheet back on the middle rack in the oven. Immediately turn the heat down to 450F.

Set your timer to 15 minutes. About half way through the 15-minute period, turn the baking sheet once to ensure even baking.

At the end of the 15-minute period, turn the heat down to 375F (190C), set the timer to 45 minutes and turn the baking sheet again once. Every 15 minutes or so, open the oven door to turn the baking sheet once.

The canelé batter will rise up over the molds, but only slightly. If you see the massive poufs like the picture above under the heading “Air is your enemy”, you’re hosed. So, keep an eye on your canelés as they are baking, especially around the first 10-20 minutes. If you see that they’re puffing up way too much and about to get out of control, don’t despair, take the whole baking sheet out of the oven and put it outside for a few minutes, the poufs should calm down and settle back into the molds. You could very gently squeeze each one with a pair of tongs to help it along. When the batter settles back into the molds, put them back in the oven to continue baking. (Make sure you pause the timer when the molds are outside the oven and restart it when you put it back so you could keep track of the actual baking time.)

Your canelés should be done after baking at 375F for 45 minutes – give or take a few. If you’re unsure, just check it. About the 40-minute mark is usually good. Remove one mold and tap it upside-down to let out the canelé. If the crust is the desired color then you should be good. Give it a gentle squeeze too, the canelé should give a little, you should be able to feel that the inside is wobbly and custardy. Cut or break one in half to check the inside just to be sure. Whatever you do, don’t bake until it’s totally harden even when still hot, that’s would be far too much and you’ll get over-cooked canelés in the end. Not good.

I must say something here about the color of the crust. Yes, it is desirable to have a shiny, dark mahogany crust, but it should not be burnt. What you want is a perfectly caramelized rather than carbonized crust. Get it? For some reason there seems to be a general belief (especially here in the US) that the crust of the perfect canelés should be very, very dark, even burnt or bitter. That’s all well and good if that’s your thing. But it’s not my thing. I find the taste of carbon rather unpalatable. So, if I were you I would err on the side of slightly lighter exterior in favor of a custardy, perfectly wobbly interior and not a hint of carbon in the flavor.

I should also tell you, despite your best efforts, you will occasionally get the fault known – rather poetically – as the “white ass”. That’s when you have a pale spot or two, generally around the top (or the bottom when the mold is right-side up) of the canelés. This is nothing to commit seppuku over. It’ll happen. It’ll be fine. Just eat the evidence and don’t let anyone see.

So, now, when all your canelés bake up just as perfectly as you want them, remove the baking sheet from the oven. With a pair of tongs or a glove, pick up a mold, turn it upside-down and tap it gently, your canelé should fall right out. Let them cool down a bit over a wire rack before you chomp into them or you’ll be sorry. The canelés are at their perfectest perfect within a few hours after they’re out of the oven. They’re still good long after that, but the crust will soften and so they won’t be at their best any longer than that.

There you have it. The method that gives me the best and most consistently perfect canelés. I’m pretty sure I told you everything in the clearest possible way, but feel free to leave a comment here if you have any question. And yes, I promise you I’ll post the how-to post for the silicone molds tomorrow!

*How to cure and care for copper cannelé molds

Paula Wolfert has a great advice on how to cure copper molds before you use them for the first time. Go read it and follow her instructions. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

Most recipes will tell you never to wash the molds between use. I don’t wash mine either, but I hate the sticky films that develop after a few uses, so I’ve taken to rubbing the molds with a warm, wet cloth to gently scrub out the stuck-on bits and excess wax. Then I thoroughly dry the molds before I put them away between use. This way my molds are not sticky and gross, and frankly I’ve not had any problem with the molds sticking during baking despite the contact with the wet towel.

]]> 175 http://chezpim.com/note/pims-2010-holiday-gift-guide http://chezpim.com/note/pims-2010-holiday-gift-guide#comments Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:45:06 +0000 Pim http://chezpim.com/?p=3374 Things-I-Love-And-Use-Myself-That-Will-Also-Make-Great-Holiday-Gifts Guide. I know it's long and cumbersome, but it tells you so much more about the things that go into this guide I've put together for you. But before we even get to the guide itself, I'm going to introduce you to something else rather useful. It's an image-tagging service called Thinglink.

Thinglink-ing chez Pim

Thinglink, from the brilliant minds of my friends Ulla-Maria and Jyri Engeström, makes image-tagging super simple. Any image on Chez Pim with Thinglike icon (4 black dots) on the top left corner has Thinglink tags in them. Roll over the image and you'll see more dots popping up inside the image. Each dot is a link, on a thing, get it, Thinglink? Pretty brilliant, no? Point at one of those dots, you'll see a small pop-up that tells you what the thing is and where to go to buy or learn more about it. Now images on Chez Pim help me tell stories and help connect you to useful things. These are not advertising or sponsored links, by the way. Except for a small percentage of Amazon Associate Fees I get when I link to products on Amazon.com, I don't make any money from these links. I simply point you to where I myself would buy or learn more about these items. P.S. If you're reading this post via an RSS feed, I'm sorry but Thinglink doesn't work via RSS, so you'll have to click through to Chez Pim to read and see the links on the images. Now, let's get on with my list, shall we?

Fiesta's "Head Chefs" line of silicone kitchen tools for kids

I've only recently discovered these adorable kitchen tools, and now every kid in my life will get one (or more) as a present this holiday. I think one of the keys to get kids to eat well is to get them interested in food and in cooking, and what better way to do it than making it fun? Auntie Pimmie is going to be so popular with the kids this holiday, I can tell you that.

Tiny but not wimpy cameras

I am asked all the time what camera I use on the blog and when I travel. Here's my answer, my absolute favorite camera, the one I carry with me pretty much all the time, is this Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 20mm f/1.7 lens. I don't think I've ever loved a camera more, and I'm sure I've never spent money better than when I bought it. The Micro 4/3 format basically allows DSLR cameras to shrink to this size, which is just a bit bigger than your tiny point/shoot. This camera let me geek out all I want on a shot, by manually doing everything, or just set it to Auto and have the camera do the thinking for me. And with a lot of the controls on the outside - knobs and dials and things - it's actually quite quick to switch from one mode to another. The GF1 is the first small camera that made me leave my big Canon 5D-Mark II at home when I went to Japan and Australia earlier this year. That's how good it is, and how confident I am with it. Panasonic just announced the launch of the next model Panasonic Lumix GF2 in January, so you might want to check that one out instead. I can't vouch for it since I haven't used it myself. Shooting with the fixed 20mm lens will take some getting used to, especially if you're accustomed to the point/shoot with 10x zoom or something. But the lens is so fast and so awesome that it'll be worth it. If this still doesn't sound like a good idea, you could buy the GF1 with a more flexible 14-55mm lens. I've been poo-pooing pocket point/shoot cameras for a long time now. No matter how well they advertise their "low light" ability, it's just never adequate for me. The new CMOS sensor that recently came on the market changed my mind completely. The quality difference between shots made with the old CCD sensor and the CMOS sensor is truly night and day. Pun intended. I've been playing a bit with the Nikon S8100, another pocket camera with CMOS sensor, but the one that I really, really like is this Canon SD4000IS. The guys at dpreview like it a lot too. (I hope he doesn't read this but that's what you-know-who is getting for Christmas.) If you take photos of food when you go out to a restaurant, then get one of these and put aside your massive, embarrassing DSLR for other occasions. ]]> Come to think of it, I probably should call it Things-I-Love-And-Use-Myself-That-Will-Also-Make-Great-Holiday-Gifts Guide. I know it’s long and cumbersome, but it tells you so much more about the things that go into this guide I’ve put together for you. But before we even get to the guide itself, I’m going to introduce you to something else rather useful. It’s an image-tagging service called Thinglink.

Thinglink-ing chez Pim

Thinglink, from the brilliant minds of my friends Ulla-Maria and Jyri Engeström, makes image-tagging super simple. Any image on Chez Pim with Thinglike icon (4 black dots) on the top left corner has Thinglink tags in them. Roll over the image and you’ll see more dots popping up inside the image. Each dot is a link, on a thing, get it, Thinglink? Pretty brilliant, no? Point at one of those dots, you’ll see a small pop-up that tells you what the thing is and where to go to buy or learn more about it. Now images on Chez Pim help me tell stories and help connect you to useful things.

These are not advertising or sponsored links, by the way. Except for a small percentage of Amazon Associate Fees I get when I link to products on Amazon.com, I don’t make any money from these links. I simply point you to where I myself would buy or learn more about these items.

P.S. If you’re reading this post via an RSS feed, I’m sorry but Thinglink doesn’t work via RSS, so you’ll have to click through to Chez Pim to read and see the links on the images.

Now, let’s get on with my list, shall we?

Fiesta’s “Head Chefs” line of silicone kitchen tools for kids

I’ve only recently discovered these adorable kitchen tools, and now every kid in my life will get one (or more) as a present this holiday. I think one of the keys to get kids to eat well is to get them interested in food and in cooking, and what better way to do it than making it fun? Auntie Pimmie is going to be so popular with the kids this holiday, I can tell you that.

Tiny but not wimpy cameras

I am asked all the time what camera I use on the blog and when I travel. Here’s my answer, my absolute favorite camera, the one I carry with me pretty much all the time, is this Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 20mm f/1.7 lens. I don’t think I’ve ever loved a camera more, and I’m sure I’ve never spent money better than when I bought it. The Micro 4/3 format basically allows DSLR cameras to shrink to this size, which is just a bit bigger than your tiny point/shoot. This camera let me geek out all I want on a shot, by manually doing everything, or just set it to Auto and have the camera do the thinking for me. And with a lot of the controls on the outside – knobs and dials and things – it’s actually quite quick to switch from one mode to another.

The GF1 is the first small camera that made me leave my big Canon 5D-Mark II at home when I went to Japan and Australia earlier this year. That’s how good it is, and how confident I am with it. Panasonic just announced the launch of the next model Panasonic Lumix GF2 in January, so you might want to check that one out instead. I can’t vouch for it since I haven’t used it myself.

Shooting with the fixed 20mm lens will take some getting used to, especially if you’re accustomed to the point/shoot with 10x zoom or something. But the lens is so fast and so awesome that it’ll be worth it. If this still doesn’t sound like a good idea, you could buy the GF1 with a more flexible 14-55mm lens.

I’ve been poo-pooing pocket point/shoot cameras for a long time now. No matter how well they advertise their “low light” ability, it’s just never adequate for me. The new CMOS sensor that recently came on the market changed my mind completely. The quality difference between shots made with the old CCD sensor and the CMOS sensor is truly night and day. Pun intended. I’ve been playing a bit with the Nikon S8100, another pocket camera with CMOS sensor, but the one that I really, really like is this Canon SD4000IS. The guys at dpreview like it a lot too. (I hope he doesn’t read this but that’s what you-know-who is getting for Christmas.) If you take photos of food when you go out to a restaurant, then get one of these and put aside your massive, embarrassing DSLR for other occasions.

Mid Century dinner wares and serving pieces

I’m always trolling places like Etsy and eBay for vintage things. My current obsession is Mid Century dinner wares and serving pieces. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of them used in my photos right here on the blog. My particular obsession is pieces by the American designer Russel Wright, like the gorgeous brown carafe in the photo. I know this one is a bit steep at ~$300, but you could also find his more utilitarian but no less interesting pieces on eBay for not very much money at all. Just don’t go bidding on the ones I want, deal?

Another source of lovely Mid Century pieces here chez moi is a local shop here in Santa Cruz called Stripe Design. They’ve been loaning me some pieces to use as props, and in return I link to their Etsy shop directly from the images. So if you want a cake stand just like the one you see here, you could actually buy it. Stripe is my favorite shop in Santa Cruz so I’m so happy to be able to share it with you on my blog too.

My favorite scale, plus a lite version

If you’re looking for a gift that the intended recipient still has got, try giving them a scale. I think everyone should have a scale, and every recipe should include ingredients listed by weight. I use it all the time. Measuring by weight is not only so much more accurate, especially for baking recipes, but it’s also not as messy. I measure all the ingredients directly into the bowl I’ll mix it in. No washing a cup, a 1/2 cup, and a 1/4 cup and three different sizes of measuring spoons just to get to through a recipe.

The one on the left occupies a permanent space on my countertop. It not only measure by grams and ounces, but it actually lets you measure by the usual cups and spoonfuls. It’s quite handy to use since most recipe books still list ingredients by volume, so, while the industry still catches up with this idea, this particular scale is super helpful. I should warn you that to measure by volume you must key in the product code, all-purpose flour is 29, sugar is 52, and so on. This is so that the scale can do the conversion for you. That means you need to keep the little booklet it comes with nearby so you could look up the code. I have a workaround for this, I keep a list of ingredient codes I use most often right on my blackboard by the fridge.

If you think the volume scale is a bit spendy ($62), you can buy a simpler version of that scale without the fancy volume measuring feature at under $25. It works just as well in grams and oz, and it comes in all kinds of colors!

Time to get an immersion blender (or time to get a new one?)

Hand blender, immersion blender, stick blender, no matter how you want to call it, it’s an absolutely indispensable tool in my kitchen. I haven’t even seen my regular blender in I don’t know how long. I use it to my hand blender to blend soup right in the pot I’m cooking with. I use it when I’m making a larger amount of salad dressing or I want a tighter emulsion. I use it when I want to whip just a small amount of cream, just enough for a couple servings of dessert without having to dirty my big stand mixer bowl. I use it all the time. I think everyone should have one in their kitchen.

The middle one, by Kitchenaid, is what I’ve been using for the past three years. I love it. The sleek Cuisinart on the left is perhaps not as powerful, but it wins on the looks department and also the cheapest one of the lot. The one on the right is the fancy Bamix blender, I’ve used it, it’s pretty awesome, but it’s also quite spendy. Your choice. Just get one of these, you’ll thank me, or the lucky friend/family who got this will thank you.

Well-curated little shops

Amidst the cacophony of the web, I rely more and more on strong, independent voices to help guide my purchasing decisions. I don’t need or want a store that sells 100 different kinds of soy sauce. I want one that carries just a handful, but only the ones whose quality I could rely on. Harris Salat put together just such a shop, Everyday Japanese, where he not only brings you quality Japanese products, but also helps demystify each one in his friendly, approachable, and imminently enjoyable tone. Your food lover friends or loved ones will definitely enjoy receiving a present from Harris’s shop.

For two years now, I look forward to a pound of coffee a month sent to me by Mal Sterns of Citizen Bean. I can’t remember a time when I was less than satisfied. Some of those coffees were a bit tricky, requiring me to fine-tune my pull or my grind to fit its exigent demands. Sometimes it took me to the last shot before I got it right, but hey, I enjoyed the whole process. Mal is not a roaster, he is a coffee curator. Each month he selects a different independent roaster from around the country to feature in this subscription club. A present of 3 or 6 month subscription, longer even, will sure be loved by your coffee geek friends. And because they won’t be stuck with getting beans from just one roaster, this is particularly great if the coffee lover in your life has got a bit of a commitment issue. I’m just saying.

Food52 shop is another one I browse often. Amanda Hesser and her team does a great job of putting together a fantastic resource to independent food artisans from around the country. I’m sure you could find something that’ll fit your fancy there. Go check them out.

My very own artisan jams and marmalades ^*new

Some of you probably already know that I make jams and marmalades. If you follow me on Twitter you might have even bought some. If this is the first you’ve heard of this, let me tell you a bit about this little adventure of mine.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been making very small batches of jams and marmalades for sale. I’m inspired by the beauty of the products I have access to in this area, like stone fruits from Andy Mariani’s legendary orchard and exotic citrus from a secret garden atop a scenic hill in Watsonville. The secret citrus garden belongs to our good friend Gene Lester, a retired engineer who has dedicated his life to his passion. He’s cultivated a magical garden of at least a couple hundreds varieties of exotic citrus. For years I’ve been visiting Gene’s garden to help David harvest citrus to use at Manresa, and one day I gave in to the mesmerizing calls and started making my own marmalades. I’ve been doing it each citrus season since.

You won’t find an “Orange Marmalade” in my collection, instead, you’ll find ones with poetic names like Bouquet des Fleurs, Sanguinello, and Rangpur. Each batch is made in the classic bitter marmalade style, from a single varietal of citrus to showcase its own unique flavor and perfume. Jeffrey Steingarten, an early (and loyal) fan of my jams and marmalades, calls them “unparalleled”.

My jams are made in much the same way, inspired by the amazing heirloom stone fruits from Andy’s Orchard. I make them in very small batches, with only pristine fruits, minimally processed sugar, and never with commercial pectin. Pectin is just for the meek. Where acidity is called for I use fabulous Meyer lemons from Gene’s garden. Each season Andy keeps some of his best heirloom fruits for me, like my favorite local plum the Elephant Heart and the heirloom white peach Silver Logan, which dates from the time bright acidity hasn’t been bred out of them. Andy also has French varietals otherwise difficult to find, such as the little-plum-that-could Mirabelle and the fantastic Reine-Claude.

All my jams and marmalades are made in small batches, in my treasured copper bassines à confiture I hauled back from France.  I only have very limited quantities, no more than 40-50 boxes (12 jar each) each year, I usually sell them out at the end of each season. This holiday is the first time I still have them for sale, because I was so busy at the end of summer I didn’t get around to putting all of them up for sale. So, if you’d like to try some, or give some away as gifts to your jam loving friends, you still have a chance, just mosey on over to my Etsy shop and get some while you can.

If, by the time you read this post, I’m already sold out of the jams – sorry – I have two local jam makers I adore and highly recommend, June Taylor Preserves and Blue Chair Fruits. Try them!

Because a food lover is never complete without wine^*new

And now, to round out my gift guide this year, I’m adding two fun gift ideas especially for the wine lovers. When one of my readers asked me why I had no wine gift ideas on my list, I had no good answer for him. I supposed it’s because if I were to start on wine I’d have to write an entire list for them alone!

There are so many fantastic ideas for wines. You could give your wine-loving dear ones a fine Burgundy she or he couldn’t normally afford. You could sign them up on a fantastic wine voyage known as the Dooniverse. But then two ideas came to me and got me so so excited I had to add them to my gift list this year.

One is some great value and lovely wines at Dee Vine Wines. David and I are very good friends with the owner Dade Thieriot (read:disclosure) so I follow him on Twitter. Lately I’ve been seeing some wonderful deals he tweeted about, so I went to check his online store. There I found 7 pages of lovely Rieslings, all under $20! Dade imports wines directly from the producers, and he only brings in wines that fit his taste. Knowing Dade, I can tell you his taste is fine indeed. So, this is a personal recommendation. Try some of those fantastic value Rieslings from his list, I’m sure you’ll love me for it. (If you’re planning on cooking Dorie’s French Supper from my Dinner @ 8, the wine I recommend for the meal is a Riesling Kabinett, and you can find some lovely ones right here at Dade’s shop.)

The second wine recommendation also came from a friend. Our dear friend Keiko Niccolini brought two of these ingenious Govino wine glasses to our pig roast (for which we asked friends to bring their own eating/drinking vessels, long story) and forgot to take them home. Instead of returning them to her I greedily kept them for my own use (read:busted). David and I love to sail, and these shatterproof Govino wine glasses are perfect for our sailing trips. Gone were the days we drank good wine out of cheap supermarket plastic cups. Now we drink them out of these stylish Govino glasses – they’re like your usual stemless wine glass but with an indentation that fits your thumb so you could grip the glass (without having to cup it like you’re a wine heathen or something.) I think they’re just brilliant. Back then they were only sold to wine professionals to use at tasting events, but now you could get them at your local stores or on Amazon. I think a set of these glasses will make just about any wine-lover among your dear ones very happy this holiday season. (read: dear my own dear ones I could use more of these!)

So, that’s my list. What about yours? What fun holiday presents are you planning to give or hoping to get? Do share!

]]> 68 http://chezpim.com/note/this-week-chez-pim http://chezpim.com/note/this-week-chez-pim#comments Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:40:27 +0000 Pim http://stage.chezpim.com/?p=1677

Keeping the romance alive

What do you do when you’ve been blogging for the better part of a decade? You take a break, a breath, and then find a way to refresh and renew the love that inspired you to do it in the first place. That’s what I just did. Welcome to the new Chez Pim.

Moving to WordPress

Change is tough, changing blogging platforms even more so. I was with Typepad for pretty much the entire life of the company Sixapart. That’s a long, long time, and it’s been a great collaboration. I cannot thank the Typepad team enough for their attention and support in those years. I send my best wishes to them on their new path at Say Media. I cannot tell you what peace of mind it’s been, to know that no matter what my Typepad blog was always there. It ran how it should no matter how crazy my traffic spike and valley. I still recommend Typepad wholeheartedly to anyone who wants to start a blog without knowing or ever caring about what’s under the hood.

As comfortable as I was with Typepad, I’ve long outgrown the platform. I pretty much single-handedly built and tweaked the old Chez Pim templates by myself. With my scant skills, it’s like building a house with the help of duct tapes and gorilla glue. It wasn’t pretty, I can tell you that. Plus, as a hosted platform, Typepad wasn’t flexible enough for me to do what I wanted to do. It’s time to move on. Say hello to my shiny new WordPress blog.

Not just a new coat of paint

The new design is not just a new palette of colors and some nifty graphics. It reflects a fundamental rethinking of where online publishing is today. “Blogging” is breaking away from the stranglehold of chronology. Content is no longer just about what’s new and fresh and MORE. Now it’s all about relevance.

So, the new Chez Pim is no longer calendar-driven series of blog posts. Old contents that are relevant today are given just as big a lead-in as the newest post I wrote this morning. That’s what the picture carousel of top of the main page and each category page does. It features not only new content, like the video post of La Mamma’s braised rabbit that I shot in Italy, but what’s useful and relevant now. Chanterelles are coming into season again, the recipe post on pickled chanterelles from last year is welcome back on the main page.

Visual storytelling

The picture carousel is also about telling stories visually, which has become a real passion of mine in the last few years. I love going to cliché places but not bringing you back the same cliché frames everyone else sees. I went to Tsukiji market in Tokyo, but if you expect that shot of rows of frozen tuna at the famed auction, you’re in the wrong place. My Tsukiji is a bloody cutting board, a rusty scale, a bucket of tuna bones, and an old proprietress in her cubbyhole “office”. And I hope you enjoy this Tsukiji as much as I do.

More focused content

Breaking from the chronological mold to one that’s more subject driven will also help me better focus my storytelling. Pulling out the wine and drink posts onto their own page made me realize how little I’ve done on the subject I love so much. So expect to hear more, a lot more, from me on that. Also expect to hear more on the Travel section, you’ll be seeing handy city guides by me and my trusted friends from around the world.

Dinner @ 8

Perhaps what I’m most proud of, and the one we’ve worked the hardest on, is the new feature Dinner @ 8. I wanted to find a way to break from the norm of cooking blogs. Instead of presenting single recipes one at a time, Dinner @ 8 takes a holistic approach to cooking a meal.

The step-by-step guide takes you through the process of the entire meal, with steps from all the recipes woven and arranged logically and efficiently so you can put dinner on your table on time. And I’m not talking a semi-home-cooked silliness. I’m talking a proper debut menu of Dorie Greenspan’s recipes from her latest book, Around my French Table: 3 courses, 4 dishes to cook, all in 3 hours. Yes, you heard me the first time. Three hours. You don’t believe me? Here’s what Dorie herself said about this new feature..

“I’m thrilled any time Pim wants to cook from my recipes, but I’m thrilled and honored that she’s kicking off Dinner @ 8 with a meal made from my new book.

Pim explained a little about her site’s redesign to me when we met in San Francisco last month and it sounded pretty terrific, but nothing prepared me for how terrific it really is.  This morning she sent me a link to the site and I clicked through just as my husband walked past my desk.  He did a double take as he exclaimed: “What happened?  You’re sitting there with your mouth wide open!” What happened was Pim’s site!

It’s beautiful, of course – Pim only does beautiful– but it’s also chockfull of great information and tips, and it’s so sensibly and helpfully laid out, and so logical that it makes everything really doable and doable in 3 hours sharp.  I love this!

I know that I’ll be cooking along with Pim and I hope you will too.  I can’t wait to hear about your adventures.”

– Dorie Greenspan, 10/13/2010

There is, of course, wine pairing suggestions for the meal. It wouldn’t be a holistic look without including the wines.

I didn’t do it alone

I couldn’t have done it alone. Meet my friend Ryan Wilke, pixel-pusher extraordinaire and véritable WordPress wiz. I cannot recommend Ryan enough. He’s fast, responsive, and crafty in some very astonishing ways. I should also mention how patient he is. I’m not an easy client to please. I knew precisely what I wanted and I wanted it precisely that way. And he managed it, every time. To Ryan, you amaze me. Thank you ever so. (Check out his site to see his take on the work he’s done on Chez Pim.)

And a giveaway, of course there’s a giveaway

This is, however, not one of those easy giveaways that you just need to leave a comment and then you’re eligible. Sorry. It’s a big prize, so you’ve got to work for it. What’s the prize, you asked? The winner will get a copy of Dorie’s new book, Around My French Table, and a copy of her last pastry book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (both courtesy of Dorie Greenspan). Plus, there’s more. From me, you’ll also receive two of my favorite pastry books, Desserts by Pierre Herme, and Paris Sweets, both also by Dorie. That’s $150 worth of books, and they will be priceless once they are signed and personalized to you by Dorie herself.

To win them, you must go to Dinner @ 8 and cook the Dorie’s French Supper menu. You don’t have to serve it at 8, eat at 7 or whenever you want, by all means. Just make sure you follow the steps and see if you could do it within the 3-hr time frame, more or less. You know, even if you’re 15-20 minutes behind schedule, you would still finish that meal faster than if you were to go at it by yourself.

So, go forth and cook, and don’t forget to enjoy yourself. You have until Monday December 6 to post evidence of that meal somewhere online. Your blog, your Foodbuzz, your Flickr, your Facebook page, anywhere you want. Go start a thread on Serious Eats if you must. Just post about it somewhere online, and then leave a comment and a link on the Dorie’s French Supper post to let us know. Dorie and I will pick our favorite 10, and will draw the winner from those 10 names.

]]> 109