Bavarois with Kiwi Fruits Sauce

ババロア！

Portland reached and went over 100 degrees last Saturday… way above normal for this region… a great thing about Oregon summer is that the humidity is minimum and glorious. Still it made me seek for solace in an air-conditioned house with a cool dessert.

 

Bavarois is very similar to Russian dessert ‘Dreamy’ I posted in 2012. The only difference is that this recipe doesn’t use yogurt or sour cream and is supposed to be French…oui? Less rich than Italian panna cotta, slightly denser than mousse…bavorois is a go between, nice guy…I mean dessert, not too dreamy but still desirable!

Any fruits sauce is a great match for this basic bavarois. I made a quick kiwi sauce for this post.

Ingredients and Instructions for five 3 inch diameter molds (Print Recipe Here)

Advisable equipment: molds, but you can just use small cups or jars, fine mesh strainer/sieve, hand held electric mixer to be used for whipping heavy cream.

• 6-8g sheet gelatin (this determines the hardness of bavarois). Note: sheet gelatin weighs about 2 g each.  I used 3 sheets.
• 3 inch vanilla bean pod, split pod lengthwise, scrape seeds with sharp paring knife. Do not discard pod yet.
• 1 cup milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• ! Tablespoon rum (optional)
• 1 cup heavy cream

1. Soak sheet gelatin in plenty of water. Set aside.
2. Pour milk, vanilla seeds and pod in small sauce pan and cook at low heat till just before full boil. Remove pod and discard. Keep warm until needed.
   
3. Place egg yolks and sugar in the medium bowl. Whisk well until the color turns lighter and fluffy.
   
4. Whisk continuously while adding warm milk mixture a little at a time to the egg mixture bowl. Put mixture back into the sauce pan. Stir with a wooden spoon and cook at low heat until it thickens a little bit (until it coats the back of the spoon), approximately 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat.
   
5. Squeeze the excess water from gelatin and mix it well into the egg/milk mixture (#4).
   
6. Put ice and water in the large bowl,  then put the medium bowl on top of ice and water then set the sieve in the bowl. Strain the mixture (#5) into the medium bowl. Add rum if using.
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7. Be careful not to let the water overflow into the mixture, stir with a rubber spatula until cool.
   
8. Whip heavy cream until soft peaks then fold into the cooled mixture (#7).
9. Pour into the molds or cups. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until set.

Kiwi Fruit Sauce

• 2 Kiwi fruits, cut into small chunks
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 Tablespoons water
• 1 Tablespoon rum (optional)
• !-2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1. Put sugar and water in a small sauce pan over medium heat and cook until sugar melts. Cool for 5 minutes.
2. Whisk the kiwi into the pan. Add rum (if using) and lemon juice. Chill in the refrigerator.

How to remove bavarois from mold – prepare a warm bath, lower the mold into the bath 3/4 way for 3-5 seconds. Place plate over the mold and flip, voila!

As if the bavarois was not enough, I made Smore’s donuts for Tapas instagram post (#todaystapas)…luckily most of them were given away to neighbors…

Blancmange is close cousin of bavarois …milk and pretty with purple sweet potato… very smooth! Pretty soon I may have to change # to Today’s sweet!

Visit to Portland Japanese Garden…Mashiko pottery exhibit and sale were held there.
  

Japanese garden is mostly shaded so even over 100 degree temperature, it was very pleasant to stroll through the compound.And the view from there is just amazing!….Look Honey, is that your office building?

The garden reminds of Kenrokuen (兼六園) in Kanazawa.

Some people disregard the warning sign…

We drove to downtown Portland for a quick bite since it’s not far from Japanese garden. This is one of last year’s Forrest for the Trees mural project ( you could find this at SW 11th Ave. and Washington Street). Local as well as several visiting international artists including a Japanese artist participated.

Pretty neat…right?

I hope you could visit beautiful and a bit eccentric Portland soon.

Fruits Enzyme Cooking

Betting on Fruits’ Gold

When did you last hear that lots of sugar is good for you? Never? Me either, until I started making fruits enzyme extract. The sugar used in the process to make this magical enzyme actually has great benefits to your health…OK don’t quote me on it,  I’m just summarizing what it said in the cookbook. It's saying that the enzyme is a type of protein that breaks down food we take in and also boosts metabolism. It is not a snake-oil sales pitch… I hope.

Making fruits enzyme is not very hard. I found many recipes online. It seems that you could use any fruits or vegetable except ginger. The most difficult part is timing I guess. So if you don’t mind me sayin’ I’m not quite sure when to hold ‘em. Anytime you see mold or smell something funny that’s when you walk away. Like I said, the secret to survivin’ is knowin’ what to throw away…just singing (kidding).

Ingredients and Instruction for Fruits Enzyme Extract (Print recipe here)

Necessary equipment: Large wide mouth glass jar 3 liter or larger

• 1000g of your choice of fruits and vegetable – avoid ginger or strong aroma food such as garlic, garlic chives, bitter melon. Cut in chunks.
• 1000g of sugar (although I used tensai sugar, you could use regular sugar but not brown sugar)

1. Put 1/4 of fruits/vegetables in the glass jar. Add 1/4 of sugar on top. Stir with your clean and dry hand (harmless bacteria in your hand promote fermentation process faster…sounds gross doesn’t it?). Repeat three times more and mix well each time.
    
2. Cover with paper towel or cloth and secure with rubber band or twine. Do not put an air tight lid on it. Avoid direct sun, leave it at room temperature of 68 to 77 degree. If it’s lower than that, fermentation is slow. In ideal atmosphere, it will be ready in about 10 days. Make sure to stir the contents 1-2 times a day.
3. When lots of tiny bubbles are evident then it’s ready. Strain the fruits/vegetable from juice through a sieve without pressing. Keep refrigerated (if you leave the juice at room temperature, fermentation continues and may turn into alcohol) Note: fruits part should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and consumed within 5 days.

Ingredients and Instruction for meat wrapped broccoli

• 2 Tablespoons tonkatsu or Worcester sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of fruits enzyme extract
• 1 teaspoon of stone ground mustard
• 1 pound each of ground beef and ground pork, combine well
• 1/2 of medium onion finely minced
• 2 cloves of garlic finely minced
• 1 Tablespoon of finely minced ginger
• 2 Tablespoons sake
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pepper
• 1 head of broccoli divided in small florets Note: broccoli must be dry other wise it will cause spattering in the frying process
• Cornstarch or flour for dusting
• Oil for frying

1. Make sauce – combine tonkatsu sauce, enzyme juice and mustard in a small bowl. Set aside. Option: Go spicy by adding hot pepper sauce.
   
2. Heat oil in thick deep pan to 338 F.
3. Mix well meats, onion, garlic, ginger, sake, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Divide into however many broccoli florets you have.
4. Flatten the divided meat and wrap floret top tight. Dust lightly with cornstarch.
5. 
   Fry for 3-4 minutes. Receive in 2-3 layers of paper towel to remove excess oil. Serve with prepared dipping sauce.

Oatmeal cookie with minced enzyme fruits Yield approximately 2 dozen

• 140g butter room temperature
• 40ml fruits enzyme extract
• 140g low viscosity flour 
• 60g oatmeal, chopped small
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 140g fruits enzyme fruits/vegetable, minced
• 50g corn flakes (optional)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional) I used mini chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 356F
2. Whisk butter in a large bowl until creamy. pour fruits enzyme extract and continue to whisk for an additional minute.
3. Add flour, oatmeal and baking powder. Combine with wooden spoon or spatula.
4. Fold minced fruits/vegetable in, then fold in corn flakes and chocolate chips if you are using.
5. Drop 1-2 Tablespoons of the dough onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten the dough with back of spoon if you like the uniform look
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6. Bake for 20 minutes.
   Without additional sugar, cookie has gentle sweetness and scone like texture. Care for tea? Why yes!

Spicy Hot chocolate – a single serving

• 1 Tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons fruits enzyme extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• Freshly ground black pepper

1. Put cocoa powder and fruits enzyme extract in a small sauce pan. Combine well to make pasty mixture.
2. Gradually add milk to thin it out. Grind pepper in then heat up to desired temperature at low heat.

Cul de sac tale…We share what we make with neighbors sometimes, then neighbors return the favor. One of our neighbors tried this Marshmallow Gelato recipe from my blog. With her blueberry compote. Life is really cool!

Weekend warrior –  the store that specializes in orchids was moving to another location. This table was used as a display table and sold to me at a huge discount. I gave my husband a project to refinish it. I think this will be a great piece of furniture some weekends later.

Mahalo for reading this post thus far….we’re going to take a few weeks off from blogging and projects, plan to do mainly nothin on the sandy beach.