Fleur de Sel Caramels

For the past week I have had no light in my kitchen...which puts a pretty big damper on cooking. I rent an older condo that is big and I pay very little for, unfortunately that means things break quite often. So this week not much to report on the cooking front. I made some quick easy meals I could make by camping lantern light.

Today was the first day I have been at home AND had light. I thought I would make the best of it by making something I have always wanted to make, salted caramels.

Today for the first time I made Fleur de Sel caramels and they turned out (almost) perfect :) Fleur de Sel is a specialty salt I got from a local spice shop, Green Man Gourmet. Green Man is one of my favorite local shops in Jacksonville and I am there all the time.

I followed Ina Garten's recipe and for me 248 degrees was not high enough. I should have gone to probably 250 or a little more. My caramels were a little too soft, but still very good.

 

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon fine fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Prep the pan.

Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper, allowing it to drape over 2 sides, then brush the paper lightly with oil.
Boil the sugar.
In a deep saucepan (6 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches deep), combine 1/4 cup water, the sugar and corn syrup and bring them to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until the mixture is a warm golden brown. Don't stir -- just swirl the pan.
Heat the cream.
In the meantime, in a small pot, bring the cream, butter and 1 teaspoon of fleur de sel to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Finish the caramel.
When the sugar mixture is done, turn off the heat and slowly add the cream mixture to the sugar mixture. Be careful -- it will bubble up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 degrees F (firm ball) on a candy thermometer.
Fill the pan.
Very carefully (it's hot!) pour the caramel into the prepared pan and refrigerate for a few hours, until firm.
Cut the caramel.
When the caramel is cold, pry the sheet from the pan onto a cutting board. Cut the square in half.
Roll it up.
Starting with a long side, roll the caramel up tightly into an 8-inch-long log.
Cut into pieces.
Sprinkle the log with fleur de sel, trim the ends and cut into 8 pieces. (Start by cutting the log in half, then continue cutting each piece in half until you have 8 equal pieces.) It's easier to cut the caramels if you brush the knife with flavorless oil like corn oil.
Wrap the candies.
Cut glassine or parchment paper into 4-by-5-inch pieces and wrap each caramel individually, twisting the ends. Store in the refrigerator and serve the caramels chilled.

Lobster Mac N Cheese

I first started this blog to get myself to branch out when cooking. So far I have not being doing a good job of shaking things up...but this week things are changing!

Yesterday, Raymond and I did our weekly shopping trip and decided we would fill our cart with new, fresh, and healthy items. We wanted to focus our exploration around fruits, veggies, and seafood. After a good hour in the grocery store we had gone from plan A- "Try New Everything", to plan B- "Work with What You Can Find" and then finally plan C- "Here is what the store actually carries and we can afford".

We had planned on leaving the store with two lobster tails and two crab clusters. Instead we ended up with one lobster tail and a big piece of salmon. More affordable but still delicious. So what do you do with one lobster tail? Lobster mac and cheese!

To prep the lobster:

I boiled the lobster tail until the meat was just cooked (5 mintues) and then let it cool on the cutting board. From there I used kitchen scissors to cut along the back of the shell down the middle. After that I pulled the shell off of the meat using a butter knife and my husbands helping hands. It pulled away easily after the butter knife loosened the meat from the shell.

From there I followed the lovely Ina Garten's recipe with a few changes. The first being, I cut this recipe in half and still had tons left over. The recipe below calls for a large amount of lobster so you be the judge how much you want to prepare.

I put my changes below in blue.

Ingredients

• Kosher salt
• Vegetable oil
• 1 pound cavatappi or elbow macaroni ( I used mini shells)
• 1 quart milk (1pt)
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided (4 tbs)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (1/4 cup)
• 12 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (4 cups) (I used 2 cups sharp cheddar)
• 8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (2 cups) (I used 3/4 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (1/4 tsp)
• 1 1/2 pounds cooked lobster meat (1/2 lb)
• 1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crusts removed) (1/2 cup)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it. In a large pot, melt 6 tablespoons of butter and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. Still whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt, the pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and lobster and stir well. Place the mixture in 6 to 8 individual gratin dishes.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Enjoy!

What to do with all of those easter eggs....

Though I may be 25, I am not to old to dye Easter eggs. I have been doing it for as long as I can remember...so why stop now? I boiled, dyed and decorated my eggs and was happy with an Easter morning well spent. It did leave me with one dilemma...what to do with all of those hard boiled eggs? All they really need is a dash of salt and they are great by themselves, but where is the fun in that?

So being a true southern girl, I deviled them.

Since I always spend Easter with my mother I brought the eggs to her house to devil. Unfortunately for this blog, my mother is a southern cook and does not believe in things like measuring cups...so just bear with me on that.

What you will need

1 dozen hard boiled eggs
2 Tbs yellow mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbs dill relish
dash of Cayenne pepper
Pepper to taste


Peel and rinse each boiled egg. Split the eggs length wise, remove the yolks and place them in a small bowl, and set the whites aside for filling. Mix the rest of the ingredients with the yolks until a creamy consistency is achieved. If your filling seems dry or chalky add more mayo. Do not add salt until the end, because the dill will add a lot of saltiness and you may not need any.

Fill each egg white with the yolk filling (you can use a pipping bag for a pretty filling, but I just use a spoon). Sprinkle Cayenne pepper over all of the filled eggs. Be careful while sprinkling the Cayenne. A heavy hand can make for very spicy eggs!

For some more unique ides of what to do with your left over eggs check out Real Simple's 10 Ideas for Left over Hard-Boiled Eggs- Real Simple Ideas Here!

And of course...my Easter bunny!

Enjoy!

Baby Shower Cake

One of my biggest joys is baking for someone and having them enjoy it. A few Fridays ago I threw a baby shower at work for one of my Administrative Assistants. She is the sweetest person so I couldn't have been happier to throw the shower for her. It also gave me a reason to make a cake!

I looked at tons of different cakes online for baby showers, but somehow none of them felt right. So I just decided to come up with something on my own.

I normally would make the cake from scratch and buy the frosting, but this time I used a cake mix to save time.

What you need:

2 Yellow Cake Mixes
3 Containers of Vanilla Frosting
2 Bunches of Hydrangeas
1 Wilton's Rose Food Coloring
1/2 Pint Fresh Strawberries
9" Cake Pan
6" Cake Pan

Prepare the cake mixes as directed and bake two 9" rounds and two 6" round cakes. You will have left over cake batter, I just made a pan of cupcakes with the extra. While the cakes are cooling, thinly slice the strawberries. Fill the 9" and 6" cakes separately with a thin layer of frosting and one layer of strawberries. Dirty ice each cake and put both of them in the freezer for at least 30 minutes or until the frosting is firm. Put the finishing layer of icing on each cake and stack the 6" in the center of the 9" cakes. Mix 1/2 to 3/4 cups of frosting with one or two drops of the rose food coloring. Pipe a line at the bottom of each layer of cake. Cut the hydrangeas into the desired bunch size and wrap the bottom of the stems well with plastic wrap. Hydrangeas are not edible, so you want to make sure the the stems are cover well before pushing them into the cakes. See the attached pictures for placement of the flowers and piping style.

The cake was not perfect but it was delicious, simple, and beautiful.