Brats or Primanti®?

sauerkraut, fresh sausages, spicy brown mustard, cheese on a chewy crusty sandwich bun



Primanti-style sandwich: layers of chipped (shaved) ham, provolone, fries, coleslaw, and sliced tomato on Italian bread

Take your Super Bowl XLV pick. Brats (Green Bay Packers) or Primanti®-style (Pittsburgh Steelers) sandwich. Both are really delicious. I'm not too sure about the teams though and I won't be watching the game anyway.

Vote for your favorite. May the best sandwich win!

The recipe for fresh Jalapeño and Cheese Sausage is here.

Food Friday: Sinigang Mix Crusted Salmon

Who knew that a packet of sinigang mix powder would be perfect as seasoning for baked salmon fillet? Well, Yummy magazine did.

Now you must be wondering why I'm not slurping hot sinigang soup, what with the terrible cold weather we have been having lately but I was really intrigued by the idea of using sinigang soup powder as a rub. I wasn't disappointed; the baked salmon fillet is tart, salty, and delicious. I steamed some camote (sweet potato) tops to complete the "sinigang" theme.

Crispy Fries

I love watching America's Test Kitchen. They do all the work for you and always come up with recipes and cooking tricks that are interesting and helpful. One such recipe is the easier to cook 'crispy on the outside, creamy in the inside' French fries. And it really is not complicated at all. The secret to the crispiness is adding uniformly cut [into batons] Yukon Gold potatoes to room-temperature oil instead of preheating the oil. Once the oil and potatoes start boiling [over high heat], the potatoes are cooked without stirring for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the chips are separated with tongs and cooked for another 5 to 10 minutes until golden brown and crispy. I love it sprinkled with flaked sea salt and dipped in malted vinegar.

for added yumminess, I added a cup of rendered duck fat to the oil

The Daring Bakers: Biscuit Joconde Imprime/Entremet

white chocolate mousse cake with raspberry

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe from the blog, accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremet dessert.

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Wow! I've never made a cake as elaborate and labor intensive as this one. It took me almost half a day to prepare, bake, and assemble this easy-on-the-eyes and delicious dessert. Thank you Astheroshe for a choosing an exceptional challenge. I enjoyed every minute I spent making and every bite of this wonderful cake.

I followed the recipes for biscuit joconde and decor paste without any changes, except I only made half a recipe of decor paste. I added 1 whole tube, about 1½ tablespoons, of gel food dye to the decor paste to achieve the intense red color. I used a metal pastry comb to create the pattern on the decor paste which had to be frozen to prevent it from leaking into the biscuit joconde batter. Since my freezer is not big enough for the size of a half-sheet pan, I left it outside (25°F) until the decor paste firmed up.

I placed the silpat inside the pan before spreading the joconde batter evenly on top of the frozen decor paste all the way to cover the sheet pan. It took just 7 minutes to bake the cake which was immediately flipped onto a parchment paper. 1½-inch thick strips were cut to fit an 8-inch round springform pan (bottom removed and flipped) lined with parchment paper. Parchment paper is not the best thing to use for this kind of dessert because it bends and creates creases on the mousse. I would use an acetate sheet next time I make the cake. I made a mistake and did not fill the bottom with enough mousse before putting the raspberry insert and added too much on top by about half an inch; and the raspberry gelée should be thinner. Well, next time I'll try to do better, I hope. It takes a lot of patience to build the entrement cake dessert but I will definitely be making it again. Yes, definitely.

The inspiration for the design and white chocolate mousse and raspberry combo filling comes from my cookbook ADVANCED BREAD AND PASTRY by Michel Suas. The mousse is light as feather, not too sweet, super delicious, and perfect with raspberry.

White Chocolate Mousse
adapted from ADVANCED BREAD AND PASTRY by Michel Suas
1 envelop unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water
25 ounces heavy cream
16 ounces white chocolate
8 ounces milk
4 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 egg yolks

• Sprinkle gelatin on water to soften; set aside. Melt chocolate, set aside. Whip heavy cream to soft peaks, set aside.
  
• Make a crème Anglaise with milk, vanilla, sugar, and egg yolks. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl, add the gelatin and stir until well combined. Add the melted chocolate and stir until emulsified. When the mixture has cooled to 80°F, fold in the whipped cream.