Earl Grey Tea Macaroons

I'd always read about macaroons in Enid Blyton's books but it wasn't until Le Gouter Bernerdaud opened up in IFC, Hong Kong that I fell in love with them. I'm not sure whether it's the beautiful crisp shell that bursts into the light chewy centre or the stunning display of macaroons in full range of colours. I thought I'd try to make it with one of my favourite dessert flavours of late, which is Earl Grey tea. I was hoping that I can replicate the delicate Earl Grey tea chocolate from Pierre Marcolini.

There are many variations of the basic macaroon recipe but I decided to use the one from Ottolenghi’s cookbook. They always have these amazing giant meringues in the window and I figure they can’t go too wrong with their macaroons, and its worked out pretty well for me.

Base recipe for macaroons

110g icing super
60g ground almonds (or almond meal)
2 free range egg whites (60 g)
40g caster sugar
2 tablespoons of ground earl grey tea leaves

Chocolate ganache

250g double cream
250g Greenbecks chocolate 66% cocoa (dark chocolate) chopped roughly
50g unsalted cold butter
4 tablespoons earl grey tea leaves

1. Heat up the oven until 170 degrees Celsius. (If your oven tends to overheat a bit, I would take it down a notch to 150 or 160 degrees Celsius because you don’t want your macaroons to burn without the inside cooking.)
2. Sift the icing sugar and almond meal together. You can either use the almond meal, or grind it down finer so that it gives the macaroons a finer texture.
3. Place the egg whites and caster sugar in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer (that is, not a handheld one) and start whisking at full speed until the whites have formed a thick, aerated meringue. Don’t overbeat the egg whites, you want soft peaks rather than stiff peaks.
   
4. Take a third of the meringue and fold it gently into the sift almond and icing sugar mix. Once incorporated, add another third of the meringue and continue similarly until all the meringue has been added and the mix appears smooth and glossy. Don’t worry if you have knocked some of the air out of the batter, that’s the way it should be, it should be deflated by this point.
   
5. Take a sheet of baking parchment and “glue” it onto a baking tray by dotting the tray in a few places with a tiny amount of macaroon mix. Using a piping bag and a nozzle around 1 cm, pipe small rounds of macaroons mixture onto the tray spaced apart.
6. The macaroon mixture will spread a little, and then rise as well. You can make them as little or as big as you like. Mini ones are actually pretty cute! Ottolenghi has a good tip which is to draw circles onto paper to help keep the sizes consistent.
7. Now hold the tray firmly and tap the underside vigorously. This step is quite important - it should help to spread and smooth out the biscuits.
   
8. Leave the macaroons out and uncovered at least 15 mins before baking. This is apparently to give it a nice “skin” on the macaroon which will be the nice glossy shell.
9. To bake, place the macaroons in the pre-heated oven and leave for about 12 minutes. They may take a bit longer, depending on your oven. The macaroons are ready when they come freely off the paper when lifted with a palette knife. Remove from the oven as soon as they reach this stage, so you don’t overbake them and leave aside to cool completely. Don’t remove the macaroons from the paper until it has fully cooled, otherwise it will break easily.

While the macaroons are cooling, you can make the Earl Grey tea chocolate ganache.

1. Place the chocolate in a metal bowl which is large enough to sit comfortably over a saucepan of simmering water without the base touching the water. Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring steadily.
2. In another saucepan (preferably at the same time) heat up the double cream with the Earl Grey tea leaves over medium heat.
3. Let the tea leaves infuse into the cream until the cream is a lovely milky tea colour. The cream will taste quite bitter but it will be balanced by the chocolate and the macaroon.
4. Strain the double cream and slowly mix into the melted chocolate. Stir until the cream has been mixed into the chocolate.
5. Add in the butter and stir, you can either use a hand blender or mix by hand. Apparently using a hand blender you end up with a more glossy ganache!
6. Pop it into the fridge to cool until it firms up a little so that it is easier to pipe into your macaroons.
7. To assemble the macaroons, pipe the ganache onto the flat side of half the biscuits. Sandwich them with the other half, squeezing them together. Leave at room tempeture to set within a couple of hours.
   

Macaroons are best served at room temperature.

Yin Yang, private kitchen, Hong Kong

  Yin Yang entrance  

My talented friend, a food blogger, travel writer and budding cooking show host all rolled into one, Nanamoose has already written about the owner and chef of Yin Yang, Margaret Xu in this article in Muse magazine, so I will not go into Margaret's background and her foray into private kitchen cooking.  What I will do is describe our experience at her little speakeasy in the heart of Wanchai.

Nanamoose and I had been planning to go there for lunch for the past year but always ended up cancelling for one reason or another.  It came close to the month that I was leaving Hong Kong: it was quite difficult to get a booking at Yin Yang at short notice, so we were lucky that Nanamoose managed to pull some strings to get us a table for dinner one Saturday night.  As she does with all guests, Margaret sent us the menu in advance so that we could pick a few of the dishes from the various options.

As my 10-7 job (yes those were the hours I worked) was in Wanchai, I had passed Yin Yang in a cab or walked past it many a time and never noticed it.  It is housed in an old Chinese building, with a sign of "Yuen Hap" construction co., above the restaurant. You would miss it except for the black and white flag hanging above (what appears to be) the doorway.  The decor is homely and eclectic, with jars and pots tucked in one corner and colourful shopping bags on the landing near the kitchen.  On another corner is a basket of organic vegetables which have come from Margaret's garden in Yuen Long. 

The dining room is made up of two rooms, one on the ground floor with an open counter / bar area, complete with a SMEG fridge that walked out of a 50s TV show, and a 2nd floor with a small balcony that looks onto Ship street.  The old "tang lau" windows have been kept intact.

Smokey roast chicken

The restaurant had received mixed reviews so I was slightly apprehensive.  Once the banquet started, it was a feast.  The food is gorgeous to look at, Margaret's obviously had fun preparing the colourful range of bite sized appetizers.  There's no fighting required cos there's enough for each guest to sample each and every one of them.  Some concoctions are a little strange, I can't say its fusion, I guess its a modern style of cooking using traditional methods.  Then the main courses follow, Margaret comes to our table to rip up the roast chicken with pride.  It was very good: crispy on the outside with moist and smokey meat.  We had razor clams which had been satisfying large and cooked till tender, then came the deep fried whole mandarin fish which was then lit on a bed of salt for that extra zing.  The flavours were all there ... I'd say the only thing which could be improved is the table service, some of the food was cold by the time it reached our table. 
Otherwise a really lovely dining experience that I like to relieve again, soon.

Yin Yang
18 Ship Street
Wanchai
Telephone +852 2866 0868
Cost: set menu starts from HK$550 per head

Sushi Kuu, Central, Hong kong

Fresh sushi in Lan Kwai Fong, sit at the bar and let the chef work his
magic. They have a full menu of hot dishes as well but the raw fish is
still the goer.

L'atelier de Robuchon, Central, Hong Kong

We heard from a little bird that the great chef himself was in town an
supervising the kitchen so finally checked it out one lunchtime.
Funky red and black bar tables overlooking the kitchens are def the
way to go. Fun watching the calm manner in which they execute the
dishes.
On the bright side the service was excellent - maybe the great chefs
presence was a factor - which is almost as hard to come by as white
truffle in HK and unlike white truffle money doesn't guarantee it.
Loved the fresh bread basket which was constantly topped up. Amuse
Bouche of foie gras cappuccino was lovely. I was a little disappointed
with the toast (dry, hard, cold) that came with my foie gras au
natural but the main of beef cheek was lovely.

Complete deelite cupcakes, Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong

Deep pan pear tarte tatin

Peace Cafe, Wanchai, Hong Kong

It was my friend N's vegetarian day today so she suggested that we have our girl's lunch at Peace Cafe. I must admit that I never venture beyond Ship Street (towards CWB) so I nearly got lost looking for this restaurant, which actually has a pretty prominent sign. It is located on Tai Wong East Street (the one next to Ship Street), and a little quiet oasis away from the hustle and bustle of Queens Road East and Johnston Street.

The food served here is an eclectic fusion vegetarian cuisine. Today we started off with a pumpkin soup with plump sweet wolfberries, followed by large round discs of beetroot topped with tofu. Our mains were eggplant ragu angelli pasta and a banana and zucchini curry with rice. The banana curry was mild, akin to a katsu curry, although my least favourite (I don't like cooked bananas usually), it was still very good. Serving size is generous, so three of us shared 2 main set meals.

Really liked this place and will definitely be back soon.

21-23 Tai Wong Street East Wanchai HK
Tel: 2527-5870
Email: info@worldpeacecafe.hk
HK$80 per head
http://www.worldpeacecafe.hk/eng/index.php

Chocci's Bouillinade (fish and potato bake)

I first visited the "most romantic city in the world" when I was 16. We were in Paris for a week after the end of our big family tour of Europe. The tour was run by Trafalgar so we ended up sprinting through 17 european cities in 21 days. My parents loved tours and still do: they are attracted to the fact that you can pay someone to deal with the headache of choosing and booking hotels, researching the best travel routes and mode of transport, the places of interest to visit and where to eat. I think that trip was instrumental in shaping the way I travel now (in the opposite direction): firstly, I would never go on tour so that I can organise all the parts of the trip and secondly I try always to spend as much time as possible in each city. Though I suppose I may rethink it if we ever end up with 4 kids, 2 of whom are going through difficult teenage years at the time.

Back then, I was not impressed by Paris. Grubby, rude locals and expensive was how I would have described this city. My family and I tried our first escargots and I remember squirming them down, thinking, gosh I don't think I ever want to have them again, garlic butter or not.

Since then I have to say my tastebuds and travelling habits have changed. I now eat things that would have made my skin crawl. I like wandering around cities by myself and chatting to locals in my broken French. I like finding little nooks and crannies to eat in, though where time is short, preferably with prior verification that the food is good. Time is precious so are calories!

So in May last year I wandered into a small rustic Parisian bistro by myself. I'd read about the bistro in a local restaurant guide and it sounded lovely. (I now want to kick myself because I didn't keep a copy of the guide and simply cannot remember the name of this place). What I do remember really well is this fish and potato casserole which was so amazing that I've been wondering since then what was in it. So last Saturday I set out to find out, with the help of Le Cordon Bleu cooking, a cookbook and best of all google, I found that the following comes pretty close:

Serves:- 4, Preparation time:- 10 mins, Cooking time:- 30 mins

Ingredients

• 20-30 gm of butter
• 1 large handful of parsley and 1 large handfull dill, chopped thickly
• 3 medium sized potatoes, sliced around 5 mm thick
• 500-600 gm sea bass, cut into thick chunks
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• two large shallots, chopped finely
• cayenne pepper or cracked black peppercorns (I used a hammer)
• 1/2 cup of pancetta, diced
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 cup white wine

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large pan gently

2. Add the garlic and shallots and sauteed until golden brown.

3. Add the parsley, dill, salt, peppers and pancetta and fry for another 1-2 mins.

4. Add a layer of potato, fish, and then finish with potatoes into the pan

5. Just cover with the white wine and cold water and bring to the boil

6. Add the olive oil, when boiling, then cover and simmer for about 20 mins or until the potatoes are just done.

The making of a chocolate ripple cake

Ingredients:

• 1 pack chocolate ripple cookies from Australia
• 1.5 litre of cream, whipped until stiff
• 200 ml of XO
• blueberries & strawberries to decorate

Spread a layer of whipped cream on the plate. Dip one side of the cookie into XO, then whip cream on the other side and stand in layer of whipped cream. Keep adding cookies, try to keep them as tightly packed as everyone likes the cookie, but enough cream so that the cookies can absorb the moisture of the cream and soften overnight.

Keep overnight, decorate with strawberries and blueberries on top before serving.

(Many thanks to Steph for the recipe about 12 years ago)

The 50 best things to eat in the world, and where to eat them ?

Interesting list compiled

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/13/best-foods-in-the-world

Not sure about the Vietnam and China choices, but a few others look pretty spot on!