Caramel apricot mille feuilles

Fresh apricots are wonderful eaten as is but sometimes they start getting a little mushy. This is a good way to get that apricot aroma into a mille feuille.

1 sheet puff pastry
Bake at 400 C for 20-25 minutes sandwiched between two baking sheets. Let cool and cut into 9 equal sized pieces

Apricot puree:

Apricot puree (blend 3 ripe fresh apricots in blender)
1 T sugar
2 t. cornstarch
3 T water

Heat apricoat puree and sugar over med heat. Mix cornstarch and water and add to apricot puree. Stir until thickened.

Caramel mousse

2 T dulce de leche
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 c powdered sugar

Heat dulce de leche in microwave for 20 sec until soft but not too hot. Whip heavy cream to stiff peaks in a cold bowl. Sift powdered sugar into cream and gently whip/stir to incorporate. Add a few Tbs of whipped cream to the soft dulce de leche and stir to mix well. Gently fold in rest of whipped cream until well mixed.

Layer puff pastry piece with apricot puree and caramel mousse.


I also made some apricot mousse that was too soft for mille feuilles so I made "Apricot Benedict" for breakfast with yogurt cheese, apricot puree and apricot mousse. Yum.

Pad Thai and Breakfast

Last night I made Pad Thai using the excellent guide at Chez Pim. It wasn't particularly photogenic (biting my tongue on a "your mom" joke... must grow out of adolescent, ie. graduate school, humor) but it was dangerously addictive. I'm a slow eater but I inhaled my plate and then threatened my friend with my fork over the leftovers.


Also, I've been digging making oatmeal for breakfast with fruit and some homemade almond oat crumble on top. Hearty, healthy, heavenly. Three wins.

Crème Caramels

Smooth, creamy, cold. Perfect for this hot weather.

Put on a kettleful of water to boil. Oven should be 350 F.

Caramel
1/3 cup sugar

Heat sugar in a small smooth saucepan until medium amber color. Pour into six 4 oz ramekins.

Custard
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar

Heat milk until just before boiling. In a large bowl, whisk sugar and eggs until smooth and sugar is dissolved. Slowly whisk in milk in a thin stream. Pour custard into ramekins. Place ramekins in a large baking dish. Fill dish with hot water to halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 20-25 mins. Chill overnight before eating.

Lemon Lentils

Quick, simple and delicious.

Ingredients

1 T oil
1 tsp butter
1.5 cups of red dal
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 onion chopped
3 slices ginger minced
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tomato chopped
3 cups broth
Cilantro chopped
Salt to taste
1/2 lemon juiced

Directions

• Wash lentils.
• Heat oil and butter over medium in a large pot.
  
• Add onion, ginger and garlic. Sautee until fragrant
• Add garam masala. Fry 20 seconds.
• Add tomato and stir 30 seconds
• Add lentils and sautee a few minutes
• Add in hot broth to cover. If you need more water, then add enough to cover.
• Add salt to taste. Bring to a simmer and simmer with lid on for 15 min.
• Check the dal. Add more water for thinner dal. Stir in lemon juice and garnish with cilantro

turf and surf

Took the loooong bus ride to climb Olomana. The bus system here is pretty great. I was amazed that I could take a bus that basically dropped me off in front of the Olomana trail head. It is very slow though. We waited 10 minutes for the bus to come, then it took 30 minutes to go across Waikiki to the Ala Moana shopping center. If you are leaving from Waikiki, get thyself to the Ala Moana shopping center (which just looks like/is a gigantic multilevel parking lot) and then take the #57. Tell your bus driver that you're going to Olomana or Maunawili Falls. The bus will then randomly stop in the middle of a intersection on a busy road and you will get off thoroughly confused. However, look to the west and you will see a little road running parallel to the big road. Walk over the bridge and towards the guard station of the fancy golf course. Talk with the guard there. He'll point you to the trail head and tell you to be careful of the wild pigs and suggest you carry some metal with you to ward them off.

This was all gleaned by experience. None of the native islanders we asked really knew about the trail, so we were kind of winging it. It is the same stop that goes to Maunawili Falls. Basically the stop is at an intersection of a very busy highway. Once you get off immediately turn left and go down what looks like an access road. Keep walking down the road and you'll pass by the guard house for the golf course. We stopped and talked with guard there and he gave us some good information about the trail.

The trail was beautiful, starting in forests, with roosters crowing in the distance, and passionfruit vines flanking the trail.


It soon opened up to a clearing revealing the red clay underneath:


Here is where it started to get quite steep. There were some old ropes to help you climb up but it was pretty scrambly. I was actually really happy to climb up some rocks. Haven't done it in so long.

And Oh! the view:
After a while there is a breezy shady little pine grove to rest in


After the hike, it was time for the beach! With our transfers in hand, we hopped back on the 57 and got off in the town of Kailua. Unfortunately, Kailua beach is about a 20-30 min walk from the town which was annoying. But when we finally climbed over the dune and saw the beach, it was worth it.

Stupid island

You know what really bugs me about Waikiki? This:


and this:


For crying out loud, I'm trying to finish my dissertation and start making my defense presentation. I just got a room and time reserved so I can't back out now. But how am I supposed to concentrate when the sun is rising over the palm trees and the water at the shore is warmer and clearer than an indoor pool? Here's one of the irritatingly gratuitous views I had to deal with:


Apparently, they "flatten" the beach every night. I don't know why I find this so amusing. Shows what a newb I am to beaches and islands.



Someone's been busy digging a hole to lay in... oh, that would be me. My fellow defenders have also made their own holes.

Detours

I'm in dissertation hell. Two weeks before my defense I end up here:
It's only a 10 hour flight from the East Coast island hub, Charlotte. Let's see, that would be 10 straight hours of writing and editing dissertation after waking up at 3:30am.

I splashed a bit in the water before heading over to Rainbow Drive In for BBQ pork (delicious but so much meat) and see this along the way.
Okay, the mountains look dumb in this photo but they are, in real life, enormous and towering and majestic and made me go "oooooh!" Must come back here to climb.

And no island would be complete without some cheesesteak. Philly represent!

paring down

The past six months has been an intense time for me. I was finishing up the last pieces of my research for my dissertation, working on a journal paper, writing my dissertation (well, it's almost done) and spending too much time inefficiently looking for jobs. My activities were pared down to doing these four things at least 12 hours a day and maybe one or two small adventures a week like rock climbing and tango. Then things heated up even more in the last month as I was getting incredible amounts of new data and learning more than I ever have in the same time period. Back in December, when I was just starting all this, I felt a dread in me. I didn't know if I wanted to do all this or if I could or if I would be completely unhappy and if so, how the hell would I be able to work a job as a post-doc or in a solar company? And it turns out that I... have been doing just fine. I've been really really surprised by this. I work crazy hours, I'm exhausted, I'm on a continuous roller coaster of feeling stupid one minute and very clever the next. I have had to ask for so much help which I usually shy away from doing and it has been stunning how willing people are to help out and how much I have learned from other people. I haven't been unhappy. I'm not always happy either. I guess I'm feeling focused and okay with being so focused. The little amounts of time that is usually distributed between lots of activities is now mostly focused on one big chunk. I'm making a plan to keep this focus for a while, even after I defend.

In the past month, there has also been another big change in that our lease ended for the house I've lived in with wonderful roommates for the past 4 years. I was incredibly sad about moving out as it was such a clear delineation defining the end of a period of my life and foreshadowing the changes that will also come in a couple of months. It was a great time to start paring down the things I carry around with me too. I gave away a lot of things and it felt great. I moved into a sublet for the summer and haven't unpacked much from my boxes. I've been trying to live very simply, only unpacking a small subset of clothes and still putting many things in the "give away" box. This simple idea has also carried through to cooking. I don't have much time for the elaborate desserts that I dream about making. But I've always been interested in seeing if I could eat just very simple foods, mostly produce and things not from packages. This week has been so interesting. I've cooked without salt or pepper, onions or garlic all week and find that the food tastes just as good. This morning I made a tofu scramble that tasted so fresh. Another pleasant surprise. Here are some things I've made. These are all single servings.

Pepper, corn and pine nuts
- 1/3 cup pinenuts
- 1 cup sweet corn kernels
- 1 bell pepper diced
- 1 T oil

Toast pinenuts until fragrant and light brown. Heat oil over med-high. Add pepper and corn. Sautee until peppers started to get a little browned. Stir in pinenuts.

Simple Tofu Scramble
- 1/2 block firm tofu squished between my fingers
- 1 carrot grated
- 2 big fistfuls of spinach
- 1 tomato diced
- 1 T oil

Heat oil over med. Throw in carrots and tomato. Cook 3 minutes. Add in spinach and tofu. Cooked until tofu loses the beany flavor (5-10 mins?). Eat.

waking up again and again

Pea shoots

Spring is the time for pea shoot tips. They are a delicious green - just a tad bitter like arugula but also quite sweet. It takes about 10 mins to whip up this dish. Put the rice on to cook before preparing the greens since they are likely to be done sooner than the rice.


1 lb snow pea tips
1/2 lb snow peas
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
2 T canola oil

Wash and dry pea tips and snow peas. Crush garlic with the flat of knife. In a large pot, heat oil on med-high heat. Add garlic and sautee until fragrant (1 min). Add pea tips and snow peas and stir fry until snow peas are bright green and pea tips are wilted (3-5 min). Sprinkle salt and stir. Serve over rice.

Asparagus pea pasta

1 bunch asparagus (1.5 lbs), woody stems removed and chopped into 2" long pieces
3 cloves garlic sliced
1/3 cup pecans chopped
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup peas
1 cup corn
salt and pepper
3/4 lb angel hair pasta

1. Cook pasta and drain. Heat oil and butter on medium. Add garlic and pecans. Sautee until fragrant about 1 minute.

2. Add asparagus. Sautee until the asparagus begins to turn bright green (2 mins).

3. Cover and let asparagus steam for a while (3 mins?).

4. Uncover, stir, add white wine. Cover and steam again until barely crisp done. Uncover and add in peas and corn. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in pasta and sautee until warm. Sprinkle or generously mound dish with cheese.