Chi Photography

As a dessert to follow the great chili pot of 2010, i decided to make creme brulee servings for 40 people. Creme brulee is easily one of the most consistent desserts i make, but to make it for 40 – i encountered some problems.

the first was the 40 servings – i only had about 24 ramekins ranging from 3-6 oz sizes. I found some cheap ones that were 2 oz sized, and i had about 10 ceramic amuse-bouche spoons that would hold a creme brulee “bite”. I still had to borrow. Not only did i have the traditional white ceramic fluted ramekins (which double nicely for souffle), i also borrowed some ceramic bowls from Solamanda that were easter themed:

the second problem was the bain marie or water bath that the creme brulee ramekins sit in while being baked. I have a double oven, each with two racks, but only one large roasting pan, two 9×13″ pans, and a couple 10″ aluminum cake pans. I considered using the cast iron pans i love so much, but i was worried about all the water sitting there for prolonged periods of time. I ended up baking the creme brulee in batches, which seemed to work well, but exposed the “hot spots” and “cold spots” of my oven really quick.

So prior to mixing, i had to assemble the ingredients. The basic recipe is below, but i had to make 6 times the recipe. So that means 30 egg yolks:

I used about 3 qts of heavy cream along with 5 vanilla beans (cut and seeded) to flavor the liquid. I have been getting my vanilla beans from Buon Italia located in chelsea market in NYC. yes. i go up to new york and i bring back vanilla beans. why? becuase they sell a 2-pack of vanilla beans for $6.50 where the last check of the beans locally range from $15-20 for two!!!

Fun fact about the vanilla bean: it comes from an orchid plant. (it just so happens the US Botannical Gardens Orchid show is here too!)

There are a couple different ways to buy vanilla. The most common is vanilla extract, which is the biproduct of putting vanilla beans in an alcohol-based solution. The second most popular is the vanilla bean which comes in many different varieties like “madagascar” and “tahitian” which point to the specific plant variety – this is my favorite way of using vanilla. A more shelf-stable vanilla with no mess is vanilla paste. This is typically a vanilla bean extract from water, and has the characteristic black vanilla bean speckles in it. It does not have any alcoholic residue the extract has, and has none of the prep-work a vanilla bean requires.

No matter which preparation of vanilla you use, you can rest assured that they can be interchanged in a 1:1 ratio – meaning 1 tsp of extract = 1 tsp of paste. For more details on conversions, check here.

The most popular vanilla paste i’ve come across is, available at your local gourmet store:

anyway, after creaming the sugar and yolks, it becomes a breeze – when pouring out the final product, make sure to stir the egg/cream mixture between pours so you evenly distribute the precious vanilla beans so your guests can see them.

When baking them, you can jiggle the ramekin to see if the centers are -just set-, meaning they have a little hint of a jello-jiggle, but not a ripple like a stone in a pond. if they are completely firm, they are overcooked and may not be as smooth all the way through. it takes a batch or two to get the right feel.

Creme Brulee Recipe

Yield: 4 (~5 oz) servings

Ingredients
2 cups heavy or light cream, or half-and-half
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar, more for topping

Method

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a saucepan, combine cream and vanilla bean and cook over low heat just until hot. Let sit for a few minutes, then discard vanilla bean. (If using vanilla extract, add it now.)

2. In a bowl, beat yolks and sugar together until light. Stir about a quarter of the cream into this mixture, then pour sugar-egg mixture into cream and stir. Pour into four 6-ounce ramekins and place ramekins in a baking dish; fill dish with boiling water halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until centers are barely set. Cool. Ramekins can be wrapped tightly and refrigerated for a couple of days.

3. When ready to serve, top each custard with about a teaspoon of sugar in a thin layer. Use a butane torch and constantly move the flame over the sugar, keep the heat on until all the granules have been melted or the sugar gets to a deep tan color – when it gets to the deep tan color, STOP the flame, the sugar will continue to darken after the flame has stopped.

If you want, you can also go the broiler method: Place ramekins in a broiler 2 to 3 inches from heat source. Turn on broiler. Cook until sugar melts and browns or even blackens a bit, about 5 minutes. Serve within two hours.

I love the sourdough bread boule from Panera bread. It has a super crispy crust and a soft consistent interior. In my previous attempts at baking, i never got quite the same consistency, usually ending up with a loaf that had a good soft interior, but an average exteior. I read about professional ovens and how they have special sprayers that keep the interior very humid which helps create a better crust. In order to re-create the same kind of baking conditions, i read about baking a loaf of bread in a dutch oven. The dutch oven not only creates a consistent warming environment for the bread, it also helps seal in any moisture that evaporates. This moisture is supposed to help encourage the expansion of the loaf as well as create a crispy crust.

These pictures are from my first attempt, which i admittedly left in the oven about 10 minutes more than i should have. I used by trusty le creuset 5 1/2 qt dutch oven which is proving to be a very versatible (albeit heavy) workhorse in the kitchen.

The result: success!

I really like the consistency of the interior. Although the exterior was a little darker than i like, it had a great crispiness to it. I will attempt to make this again and take photos of a (hopefully) better loaf!

Recipe (from Ratio by M. Ruhlman)
20 oz (by weight) bread flour
12 oz water
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp active yeast

Knead together the ingredients until it comes together. leave in bowl and cover with plastic wrap. let it proof till it gets to twice its original size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Knead the proofed dough and allow to sit for 15 minutes before throwing it onto a piece of parchment laid inside a 5 1/2 qt le creuset dutch oven. (preheat the dutch oven before putting the loaf inside). if you want, you can rub the outside with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 30 minutes with the cover on (be careful, the plastic knob is only rated to go up to 500 degrees i think, otherwise it starts smoking). Then take off the cover and bake to an internal temperature of 200 degrees.

As i get more and more into photography, i went from the kit lens to the more high-end lenses (f 2.8 100mm USM macro and f2.8 24-70L), then i went to get the flashes (first a 430ex, then a 580exii). Now that i have the “essential” hardware, i wanted some light modifiers. It started with a single light stand, which grew to two, and a reflector disc. I even got a lightsphere and on-flash diffusers.

So now, all i’m missing is a lightbox, right?

The problem i have with some of the lightboxes available on the market is they tend to be a bit pricey. Some of them don’t have as much adaptability or portability either. The limitations on size and usefulness led me to look at some DIY light box sites, and i came up with this:

Materials:
20′ white 3/4 in. PVC pipe (~$4 worth)
4 white 3/4 in. PVC “T” fittings (~$1.50)
4 white 3/4 in. PVC 90 deg elbow fittings (~$1.50)
4 rubber chair covers (1 in. size fits over the 3/4 pvc) ($2.99)
12 circular magnets (to hold the fabric in place) ($4.99)
1 massive poly/cloth painters drop cloth ($8.99)

Tools:
hacksaw
sandpaper (to clean up the edges after cutting)
rubber hammer (optional)

Instructions:

1. Measure out what size box you want to make. keep in mind you can cut more PVC to change the dimensions of the box at anytime.

2. cut all the long pieces of pvc pipe and the 4 “connector” pieces to attach the elbow fittings to the “t” fittings.

3. assemble all the pieces together.

4. cut the poly/cloth dropcloth to the dimensions of the box. Lay the top part of the cloth over the pvc bar so it overlaps and put a magnet on either side to secure it.

The biggest reasons i liked this project was:

1. it was cheap
2. it was easy to assemble
3. it is portable
4. it is expandable (just cut some more pvc to make longer sides) and customizable

Below are some sample photos i took using the lightbox setup pictured above.

As a challenge for myself, i sometimes like to host large dinner parties where i am responsible for cooking almost all the food for the night. The latest dinner was my biggest yet. Normally i had been cooking for 15-20 guests, which was a challenge in itself in my old place with a single oven and limited counter space. What was on the menu?

Chili.

Usually, i will cook for about 12-15 people, but after getting an estimated guest list of 40+ people, i realized i had a daunting task ahead of me. first off, i estimated the necessary amounts of food i would need to buy. so where am i going to go to get lots of cheap food? the local korean store and a costco of course! it was great day at the local Lotte and Costco, i came home with this:

These were the raw ingredients needed to make the chili, a half-sheet of bacon corn bread, a half-sheet of spicy corn bread, pasta for the cincinnati-style fans, and 40 ramekins of various-size creme brulees.

For protein, i had the following:
~18 lbs of lean ground chuck
~ 4 lbs hot italian sausage
~ 4 lbs chicken andouille sausage
~ 4 lbs bacon (drained)

So the big problem came of “how to brown all this meat?”. The solution? divide and conquer. I pulled out my two 10″ Lodge Cast Iron Skillets and started cooking in batches. After each batch was finished cooking, i put the meat in the pot beside it and kept on cooking!

After all the meat was cooked, now it was a matter of combining all the ingredients together to make the soup. There was a considerable amount of dicing and chopping involved:

~ 60 stalks celery
~ 8.5 lbs onions
~ 12 bell peppers
~ 20 carrots

So how did i keep chopping and cutting without my hand feeling like it was going to fall off? thankfully i chose to use my Kycoera Ceramic knife to do all the work for me. If you haven’t use a ceramic knife yet, pick one up next time you’re at Williams Sonoma or Sur La Table, you’ll notice immediately that the ceramic knives are way lighter than their metal counterparts. Even the light Global Knife line does get as light as ceramic. The weight is one of the distinct advantages to owning a ceramic knife, the second is that the blade should never need to be sharpened under normal use. Ceramic is a much harder material than the high-carbon steel used in traditional knives and will hold its factory edge for the life of the knife. With the advantages, however, come the disadvantages, which prevent a ceramic knife from being my go-to knife. Ceramic knives are brittle and may break if dropped onto a hard surface or if a “plant and twist” motion is put on it. This prevents the knife from being used to manipulate bone-in meat. I pretty much use this knife on veggies because it slices through everything perfectly every time. For a big cutting project like the chili mise en place, my kyocera let me cut without fatigue.

After combining all the ingredients, all that was left was to let it simmer out and let all the flavors combine. i tend to like a super savory smoky chili, the smoke comes from two places: chipotle peppers and liquid smoke. yes. i cheat and use liquid smoke

The result: delicious chili and fixin’s for way more than 40 people (about 25 quarts) and dessert for everyone! I’ll have a future post on the 40 creme brulees with recipe.

I’m working on the time-lapse video i took during the party, that’ll hopefully be up soon.

Since my brief time working for both William Sonoma and Sur La Table, I’ve always had my eye out for the stainless steel products available. Most notably, the All-Clad line of cookware. Because while i was an employee at these two stores, i could get the employee discount, however – also because i was an employee, i couldn’t really afford all the cooking toys i wanted. I did however, get to buy the All-Clad Multi-pot for two (maybe three) wedding registries and got some good feedback on it. After walking into a William Sonoma the other day, i found it – a display model All-Clad Multi-pot on sale from $150 to $80, the same 40% discount as the employees get. So i had my internal debate of whether or not i would really need a 12 qt pot (i already have a 5 qt, and 20 qt), and then weighed that against whether i’ll find this good a price again.

Needless to say, the price won. At 40% off, this pot is easily the best deal of the entire All-Clad Stainless steel line and a must-have for any kitchen.

The thing i like most about this pot is that it is very multipurpose. Not only is it a 12 qt stock pot, but i also has a perforated insert that can be used for boiling noodles, keeping large pieces filtered when making stock, or as a large steamer basket. The multi-pot also comes with a smaller steamer basket with larger perforated holes. This is pretty much exclusively for steaming.

The addition of the All-Clad stainless steel makes this a super attractive addition to my growing All-Clad family:

1 qt LTD sauce pan
1 qt SS sauce pan
7.5 in SS saute pan
10 in SS french saute pan

The All-Clad wishlist only has two more pans on it:
3 qt saucier
6 qt deep saute pan

The Roaming Domo is back, after the fall season, changed out of his Franken-Domo outfit, and ready to travel! What’s first on the list for 2010? Lake Tahoe for some snowboarding!

Below are the photos from Domo:

domo at dulles

domo in denver for layover

do Domos and Crocs get along?

Domo’s D-Wagon (Jeep Commander)

Fancy Domo

domo on the slopes

So as you can see, Domo got to experience lake tahoe, but due to me being distracted a lot with the scenery and snowboarding, i was unable to take more photos with him. anyway, tune in next time for the Roaming Domo!

How does one deal with record-making snowfall over the course of a weekend? Build a mini-park for snowboarding!!!!

I went and got snowed in at Mark’s for the blizzardy weekend. Camera and snowboard in hand, ready to have some snow-tastic fun. Jesse came by saturday morning to join in on the festivities.

First we had to scope out a good spot for a ramp/drop-in. The grill will provide support right?

After a few hours of building, we ended up with a pretty respectable drop-in, about 8 feet from top to bottom, reaching about 20 feet to the ramp.

and to test out how deep the snow was, Mark volunteered to jump in

The snow was super fluffy and at least knee-deep, the wind blew some snow about waist deep in some places.

a great picture of mark that i didn’t take (thanks Jesse!)

We make a wide ramp initially and started snowboarding off it into the fresh powder, and eventually made a mound of snow and put two cornhole-boards-in-the-making on top to make a sweet box to ride (it even looks like i know what i’m doing!)

To get an idea what we built, check out the video:

Admittedly my review is a little biased because i’ve already been a fan of the executive Chef Jacob’s website and podcast at freeculinaryschool.com. His podcasts and online videos help viewers learn about the cooking techniques he learned from his time at the California Culinary Academy. I started listening to his podcasts from the beginning, and couldn’t wait for the chance to go to his restaurant Fredrick’s in Tahoe. As luck would have it, i had the opportunity to eat at Fredrick’s Fusion Bistro this past weekend, and it was mind-blowing. We ended up meeting the chef and talking with him between courses. We also had the unique luck in being the only diners that night (possibly a product of the economy and the post-holiday lull).

To start, we ordered the chef’s recommendations of lobster dogs, angry ahi, and phyllo dough wrapped crab. Chef Jacob sent out a complimentary order of his signature salmon pate, which i thought was amazingly smooth and not at all fishy. Fredrick’s had won a Tahoe food competition for their lobster dogs, and for good reason. The whole lobster tail was battered in a combination of rice and AP flour, making the coating light and crispy.

We were pleasantly surprised with the phyllo dough-wrapped crab which was kind of like a super big crab cake sitting in a pool of a grapefruit-juice based sauce.

I think the biggest surprise for us was the angry ahi tuna which was described as being a maki-sized tuna roll with an angry ahi sauce. We were warned the sauce had a kick, and Chef Jacob definitely delivered.

For our entrees, we had the braised short rib, duck breast, and the seafood hot pot. The short rib was incredibly tender and had some strong asian flavors in the sauce. The duck breast (bone-in) was cooked to a perfect medium and had all the flavor with none of the super-gamey texture. I got the seafood hot pot, which combined some soba noodles, mussels, and shrimp in a coconut-based thai-influenced soup which was delicious as well.

The desserts we ordered were the chocolate-espresso bread pudding, butternut squash creme brulee, and the “coffee and donuts” local favorite. I normally do not like bread pudding, but the bread pudding was really chocolate-y and soft that i almost forgot it was bread pudding!

I had the butternut squash creme brulee and was absolutely amazed at how smooth it was and how the light sweet nutty-ness of the squash came through.

The coffee and donuts dish was actually a large cup filled with mini beignets and a mocha reduction with emulsified butter as a dip – inventive and delicious!

This was one of the two greatest eating experiences i’ve ever had, the first being at Devi in NYC. There is something about being able to connect with the chef that makes the experience even more than just about the food. We were lucky enough to speak at length with Chef Jacob, and after eating his food, i’m a big fan of not only his podcasts but also his food.

So if you’re going to be in Incline Village at North Lake Tahoe, make a reservation at Fredrick’s located at 907 Tahoe Blvd. Incline Village, NV 89451 or call them at 775-832-3007.

If you’ve ever been to the Panera Bread near Gallows Rd and Lee Hwy in Merrifield, there’s a good chance you’ve seen This Guy. He has been named the “Panera Bread iMac Man”, which is appropriate because he’s an older dude who brings his 24″ iMac inot Panera and sets up shop in one of the booths. What does he spend his time doing? WoW.

I started noticing this guy a lot when i spent time at Panera studying for my boards – kind of hard to miss considering he’s there a lot!

Anyway, if you haven’t seen him yet, go spend more time at Panera!

The following is a way, way way late post of a trip i took over the summer with friends from high school – we still keep in contact with each other, but haven’t been on a vacation together since our high school years. Pictured below is the whole group (with me taking the photo).

Aruba is an island located in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela. It is a small island, about 75 square miles, with the major airport being in Oranjestad. This is the first time i’ve gone to the caribbean since going with my parents a long long time ago when i was smaller. I was very excited to take a dip in the caribbean water, see the natural rock formations, and also to take a spin at some “cheap” gambling!

So what vehicle would be appropriate to drive around in our tropical destination vacation?

Nothing like a pair of Yaris’ (yarii?) to gangsta-lean in while driving down the main streets of Aruba.

So i guess the way that i like to think of aruba is that its an island divided into three main areas: Downtown, South end, and North end. Most of the nice beaches are located in downtown on the western side of the island, where the eastern side has mostly rocky beaches/cliffs. Downtown is the area where most of the hotels and clubs/nightlife tends to be. The South end has a handful of hotels and a boardwalk, but most notably was the Marriott (where we stayed) and the private island available to Marriott guests. The North end has the national parks and the (former) natural bridge, and the rock formations park.

Some of biggest enemies to an SLR are dust, sand and moisture. In aruba, i encountered all three. I read some tips and tried “acclimatizing” the camera when i wanted to use it, letting the moisture equalize when i brought the camera outside – but that only helped a little. I never really found a great way to minimize the humidity – but i tried to keep it covered when i wasn’t using it, and brushed off any visible sand/dust with my lens pen.

Picture of salamander being coupley and cute. They spent a long time balancing these rocks, amanda had some trouble with her pile for some reason.

Hooray for Aruba!