midnight mise

Before starting culinary school, it was typical for me to spend sleepless nights dabbling in new recipes.  After a day at the office, I would decide it was urgent that I learn choux pastry, attempt the perfect lattice pie design, find a recipe utilizing beet tops so the greens wouldn't go to waste, or figure out what made the filling in Indian samosas taste so good.  I produced all of these curiosities in a tiny but well equipped studio apartment kitchen in Santa Monica, California.

My galley-style kitchen, roughly 57 inches by 17 feet, sat separate from the bedroom but close enough for the smell of freshly baked cookies (or whatever was in the oven) to permeate every square inch of space whether you wanted it to or not.  Vertical storage solutions were key, and strategic hooks and shelves lined the walls. Meanwhile, the bar sink made washing dishes and equipment a struggle, and the oven and refrigerator were smaller than typical American household appliances. While the average apartment dweller might decide this was too small a space to ambitiously cook in, I was an avid cook with serious determination.  Plus, I decided that there was a certain romance to it. During my studio apartment residency, the New York Times posted an article about Mark Bittman's famously bad New York kitchen.  Bittman's visibility as a food writer certainly fueled my motivation and my midnight mise en place habits: if he could produce so much content and develop so much knowledge in a less than perfect kitchen, why should I hold back? Like Bittman's well known book, I wanted to know how to cook everything and often used his recipes as a reference.  Through these apartment cooking adventures, I was joining the ranks of food writers in overcrowded yet desirable culinary cities, which felt like good company to be in.

A little snapshot of my old bookshelf and the beginnings of my cookbook collection, a collection which has rapidly expanded each year

So it was in this kitchen that I started experimenting with bread doughs and spices and many weekly impulse produce purchases from the Santa Monica Farmers Market.  Looking back, I think it was fate that one of the best farmers markets in the country was just a stone's throw from my office door.  It is still one of my favorite produce destinations, with artichokes the size of your head, colorful squash blossoms, juicy blood oranges, and culinary inspiration wherever you turn.

No wonder I could get lost for hours exploring new dishes and cooking methods. I learned a lot about different ingredients during this time of experimentation.  I also learned the valuable lesson that you will never have the perfect kitchen or all of the right equipment that a recipe demands.  What's important is to spend time practicing in the kitchen regardless of perceived obstacles.

Now that the culinary world is my main professional focus, my late night experiments are more rare. I spend more time wearing aprons than regular clothes, and I'm a different cook now than I was in the days of that studio apartment.  I still have a lot to learn, but now I am lucky to have so many more tools at my fingertips.  And while I may never have an ideal dream kitchen, the stuff of cookbook spreads and architectural magazines, I'll always have my determination.

Celebrate Valentine's Day with a Sour Cherry Linzer Tart

Whether you're part of a couple or going through a lonely hearts phase, this sour cherry linzer tart is the perfect Valentine's day treat.  You can find this recipe in Sur La Table's cookbook " The Art & Soul of Baking," although it's your lucky day because it looks like Sur La Table posted it online as well.  Now before we talk tart construction, I should start out by giving a shout out to the incredibly helpful Sur La Table staff in Santa Monica.  I've just started experimenting with piping bags and they went out of their way to help me navigate piping bag options for this recipe.

This particular recipe is great for a holiday or special event, because in theory there are a lot of steps you can take care of ahead of time.  However, I waited until the day of my tart deadline and finished with moments to spare.  Like so many recipes, this one starts with the step of creaming together butter and sugar.  In the spirit of Valentine's Day, one of the things I love most about baking is that you can start out with such simple ingredients and make a huge variety of creations.  Thus, I remain in awe of butter in particular and revere dairy farmers for making my experimentation possible.

Another thing I love about this recipe is the opportunity to zest.  This orange and lemon zest will eventually make it's way into the tart dough.  I've always said that if I had to pick a favorite kitchen tool, the zester would be it.  However, I have a Valentine's Day confession: my heart has been stolen away by this microplaner, a giveaway I received in my gift bag from the International Food Blogging Conference in 2010.  I am sure that somewhere in the food blogosphere, some blogger has published an op-ed about the benefits of zesting vs. microplaning. While I am curious about the difference, I have not read this op-ed and I prefer to live in ignorant bliss, microplane in hand.

Above, the orange and lemon zest are added to the 

butter, sugar & egg mixture.  After that,  

vanilla extract joins the crew

Next comes the fun part: blending the flour, nut. and spice mixture in your food processor!  I would call my food processor a "baby" food processor.  It's just big enough to blend a mixture like this one, or to make a small batch of hummus.  And while I won't deny that I've lusted after bigger, grander, food processors, I've always been inspired by Mark Bittman's philosophy that you don't have to own every cooking tool in order to execute magnificent food.  Yes, on this Valentine's Day, I'm also toasting to all of you studio apartment chefs out there.  For all of you living in big cities in little apartments, Bittman should certainly be your culinary muse if he isn't yet.  Note: this mixture includes whole hazelnuts, which can be a little bit harder to find in your average supermarket.  I found some at Whole Foods after a bit of searching.

Like so many doughs, this dough needs chilling before you work it into the tart pan.  I like to use the dough chilling time to clean up in the kitchen a bit, but this is also an excellent time to have a snack since you've been hard at work preparing your tart.  (Snacking while cooking? An essential step of the process.)

Above, part of the dough is placed into a piping bag 

and kept at room temperature.  

This dough will later turn into the tart's lattice top!

Dried cherries, cinnamon sticks, vanilla bean, cherry juice and sugar are simmered together to form the base of the filling, which is later thickened with corn starch.  Below, the cherries are separated from the juice before the corn starch is added to the liquid (the thickening step.)

Above, I don't own a fine mesh strainer, 

so I  strained the filling using a colander and some cheesecloth.  

Again, I'm always inspired my Bittman to improvise according to the situation!  

For more "food hacks" & improvisations, I would also suggest 

checking out Lifehacker's food and drink hacks.

Above, the final thickened juices are combined with cherries 

and rest atop a bowl of ice water for faster chilling.  

The filling must cool before it is added to the tart pan.

Now that the dough is chilled, it's ready to press into the tart pan.  I would highly recommend this recipe for a first-time tart maker since it's a little less intimidating than tarts that involve rolling out the dough. (That being said, the rolling pin is your friend!  Do not be afraid to embrace a recipe that involves rolling some dough.  What's the worst that can happen?)

Once the filling is finally cool, add it to the tart dough.  

Now we're cookin'!

With the filling in place, now it's time to pipe on the lattice top and then let the oven do the work!  While I'm no piping expert, I made it work and I think practice makes perfect when it comes to this part.  Most importantly, this tart was fun to make, delicious to taste, and Valentine-approved.  Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Baking into the New Year with the Great American Bakery Hunt

Although my lack of posts might have you thinking the Great American Bakery Hunt has slowed to a crawl, please cast aside your doubts-- the adventure continues! I've been keeping busy with new culinary undertakings: I recently tried Tartine's fruit galette recipe and came to the realization that I have a lot more learning to do. Mark Bittman's gingersnaps dough is currently chilling in my freezer. And I've taken to the habit of purposely letting my bananas ripen too much so "Oops, I suppose I'm forced to make banana bread."

But most of all, I'm hoping that 2009 will be the year I can really experiment with mastering breads and pastries: yes, all the great stuff. I realize that most people resolve to reduce carb consumption as a part of their desired New Year's transformations, but there's no place for that at The Great American Bakery Hunt. These hands are aching to take command of a rolling pin, a pastry blender, to learn challah, croissants, galettes, oh my! Luckily, it looks like Culver City's the New School of Cooking is offering a springtime Yeast Breads class that has my name on it. 2009 is going to be a great year.

And just when you thought that my tiny studio apartment kitchen might stop me, Mark Bittman, New York Times food writer and author of "The Bitten Blog" inspires me to go on!