Happy Holidays!  

We just finished our Holiday After-School Cooking Series, but some of us just can’t stay out of the kitchen.  This year, we have some very special holiday classes.  While mom and dad head out to finish their shopping, we’ll be in Elf Camp, baking and packaging our own stunning homemade edible gifts.

ELF CAMP 2011

Sunday, December 18 – 1:00-4:00 p.m. (ages 5-11)– LINZER COOKIES - $50

In this class, kids will make and package these pretty jeweled windowpane cookies from Austria.

TWEEN/TEEN ELF CAMP

Tuesday, December 20 – 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (ages 10-13) $60 – CANDIED CITRUS PEEL, PEPPERMINT BARK

Thursday, December 22 – 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (ages 10-13) $60 – PEANUT BRITTLE, CRANBERRY-ORANGE CHUTNEY

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

This phrase is a good one to remember when cooking… or in my experience, baking.  Whenever you try something new and challenging, there is a chance that you will fail.  So what?

Truth be told, I’ve had my share of kitchen disasters throughout the years.  A spinach-ricotta gnocchi that turned to glob, Crème brûlée that wouldn’t set, a chicken tikka that I had marinated in VANILLA yogurt, badly burned toast… you get the idea.  Still, strangely undaunted, I pressed on.

My co-author and I are currently testing recipes for a meringue cookbook we are writing (Gibbs-Smith 2012), which will include those sweet clouds the form of cookies, pies, pavlovas, vacherins and marjolaines… just to name a few desserts.

Which brings me to the other day.  I wanted to create a Violet Macaron recipe in honor of those I have eaten at Laduree in Paris.  I have a few recipes for macarons already, but for some reason, when I started baking, the violet macarons just weren’t turning out.  At all.

Test #1 – The meringue whipped up perfectly, and became a beautiful shade of violet from the few drops of food coloring.  The almond/powdered sugar mixture was ground finely and I made sure to fold it carefully into the meringue.  Perhaps too carefully, because the cookies came out lumpy. They also didn’t have enough violet essence.

No matter how I tried to style the assembled cookies, they looked awful.

A bit of research, and I had the answer.  I would sift my almond/powdered sugar mixture next time, and add a drop or two more of violet essence.

Test #2 – The second batch tasted better, but were ugly!  They had turned brown around the edges and didn’t have the pretty shine I was looking for.  Grr.  I set about separating more eggs and leaving them out to get to room temperature.

Test #3 -  I was getting frustrated by now.  How many eggs had I gone through, anyway?  Maybe my oven wasn’t calibrated correctly…  Never mind. I repeated the steps once again, whipping, sifting, folding, praying…  This batch wasn’t awful, but where were the coveted macaron feet?  I had left them sitting on the baking sheet for a full 15 minutes before baking them!  Not only that… they were also flat.

I called my co-author to suggest the possibility of dropping the violet macarons and substituting chocolate instead.  I had made chocolate macarons many times with great success.

Though she was perfectly open to chocolate, and I could have ended my misery there, something stopped me. Was I really going to let cookies beat me?  I got my eggs out of the fridge, ready to try again.

This time, after combining the almond/sugar and meringue, I gave the batter a few extra “folds” with my spatula.  As I let the mixture fall into the bowl, it seemed slightly more liquid.  I carefully piped perfect rounds onto my parchment paper liner, and this time I left them sitting out for nearly 30 minutes to get the desired “feet.”  For good measure, I placed another baking sheet under the first to make sure they didn’t brown.  I popped them into the oven and crossed my fingers.

The fourth try was a success!!  The macarons came out perfectly, with those darling little “feet” that the ones at Laduree have.  The color was pretty, too: violet, not obnoxiously purple.  The violet essence against the fluffy vanilla-violet buttercream was perfectly balanced.

I found an old Laduree box and couldn’t help myself.  I snapped a shot of my final product on top of the box (SEE PHOTO AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE – YES, THAT  IS ACTUALLY A MACARON THAT I MADE!).  While Laduree doesn’t have anything to worry about, I felt proud that I finally achieved success.

The violet macaron recipe will be in our new cookbook, but here’s a chocolate one to try in the meantime (see RECIPES FOR ADVENTUROUS YOUNG CHEFS).

Be brave.  And remember, if at first you don’t succeed… hopefully, there is a macaron shop around the corner J

Welcome to Little Feet in the Kitchen, the blog and cooking school for adventurous young chefs – no kid food allowed!

Making Martha Stewart's "crudite centerpieces" with farm-fresh veggies

In Los Angeles, getting farm fresh ingredients is easy, with so many local farms delivering directly to your home, and services such as Farm Box LA, who act as middle men, choosing all the best produce for you.  However, most people don’t realize that they can grow their own fruits and veggies in their own backyard… even in pots on a terrace.

On the last week of cooking camp, we took a field trip right around the corner to what I like to call The Plestis Farm.  My friends Karen and Craig are actually busy professionals, but they are also gourmet cooks, so they like to have the freshest ingredients.  My students, ages 6-12, had a blast picking (and tasting) strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and herbs, and though the corn wasn’t ready yet, they loved the mini-cornfield on the hill.

Thank you, Karen!!

There were so many ripe tomatoes to pick… from fat heirloom tomatoes to tiny pear and cherry tomatoes.

Just look at these tomatoes (below). Not too shabby for a city “farm.”

We could wait to get back to class to create Tomato Tarte Tatins, and Martha Stewart’s Crudite Centerpieces, along with cheesy cauliflower pancakes and zucchini cakes.  And yes, each and every one of us ate our vegetables – how could we not?

Tomato Tarte Tatin

Have a great week, and remember, if you don’t feel like eating your vegetables, maybe you just need to get out there and grow some of your own.  Stay tuned for the tomato tarte tatin recipe… I double dog dare you not to like it!

We just wrapped up another week at Little Feet in the Kitchen summer cooking camp with a field trip to the Montage Beverly Hills, hosted by the incredibly charming and talented Chef Richard Ruskell, winner of Food Network’s “Last Cake Standing” — also known as The Best Cake Artist in America.

Putting on chef hats in anticipation of meeting Chef Ruskell

Our wonderful mommy drivers - thank you!

Chef Ruskell first gave us a tour of the luxe Montage Hotel, including the rooftop garden…

checking out the view

…the lobby, tearoom, the ballroom and the outstanding open kitchen, which boasts a special chef’s table for the very lucky.

Though the enormous open kitchen boasting shiny copper pots, luscious marble countertops and state-of-the-art equipment was awe-inspiring, our favorite room was the special Pastry Room, the door of which is closed tightly to the public for various reasons. Entering this room was like entering a sanctuary… a sugar sanctuary, that is, as this is where cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, French macarons, chocolate dipped strawberries and every possible treat are born.

The Artist's "Paints"

Our stomachs growled as Chef Ruskell explained various buttercream techniques and the delicious cakes, cookies, desserts and pastries made at the hotel.

Luckily, Chef Ruskell was not only generous with his time and baking secrets, but also with his desserts!  He and one of his sous chefs surprised us with a cupcake decorating lesson, as well as some of his famous chocolate chip cookies… the best!

If campers hadn’t impressed the chef with their knowledge of kitchen terms such as mise en place, they definitely surprised him with their piping skills.

We love Chef Ruskell’s trick of reusing cupcake crumbs as sprinkles (below)… we’ll sign up for that recycling program anytime!

But enough about cupcakes… we wanted to see just one more cake created by the master, and we were not disappointed!  Just look at the sculpted chocolate details on this very special cake, which was made for a top secret celebrity…

dogs sculpted out of what else... CHOCOLATE!

After those delicious cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies & all of those wonderful tips from a celebrity pastry chef, the last thing we wanted to do was leave, however, Chef Ruskell had to get back to his sweet confections, so we said goodbye, and headed back to Studio City, visions of sugar still dancing in our heads.

This week, campers are focusing on lighter fare.  First up was eggs, and after cracking & separating to our hearts content, we cooked up some fluffy scrambled eggs with black truffle butter and two kinds of souffles: dark chocolate and lemon-lime with raspberry sauce.  Did you know that souffle means “to blow up” in French?  Ours definitely lived up to their names!

Second day was all about salads, and among others, we created mini-caesar salads in parmesan cups… the perfect appetizer for a dinner party!

We created our own signature salad dressings and made a Farro Salad with Mint, Peas, Arrugula and Burrata Cheese.  Our non-salad eaters promptly became salad eaters after a day in the kitchen.

Third day… let’s see… kids in the kitchen, so you automatically think… PARISIAN MACARONS!  We had so much fun creating chocolate, orange blossom, strawberry & vanilla macarons with various fillings.  Here are the chocolate ones, just out of the oven.

Children made these - take that, LaDuree!

The (macaron) filling station

Some of us opted to put some finishing touches of gold dust on their macarons… This chocolate-gold specimen tasted as good as it looks!

Okay, maybe these leftovers got a little crushed, but in this box, don’t they make you feel like you’re in Paris?

We have two more days in this week’s summer cooking camp, and we can’t wait to try the honeydew melon, cucumber, mint & jalapeno puree tomorrow… Check back in a few days to find out what the secret ingredient of tomorrow’s Iron Chef Contest is — you won’t believe it!

It’s always so quiet just before camp begins…

And then the fun begins.

Monday was Julia Child day, so we got started right away learning how to crack & separate eggs…

We also learned how to properly whisk, and whipped up some delicious omelets for lunch.

Later we made Pissaladiere Nicoise, sort of a pizza on puff pastry with caramelized onions and olives, which originated in Nice.

The eggs we had separated went into some rich, dark chocolate mousse.  Julia would have been proud.

Look at what parents got to taste at pickup… not too shabby!

pissaladiere nicoise & mousse au chocolat!

Tuesday was Jamie Oliver day.  How much do we love Jamie? We talked about how wonderful it would have been for our favorite Brit to just pop by to say hello, but instead, we settled for a YouTube video of Jamie discovering that some children didn’t know the difference between a tomato and a potato.  We love Jamie and his Food Revolution and wish that LAUSD would let him get his hands on our school lunches!  Keep trying, Jamie – we need you!

To get the day started, we made our own herb salts, to be used on roasts, salads, or wherever we want to use them.  Campers got to choose between lavender, lemon-thyme, sage, tarragon and rosemary… though some, like Grace (below), decided that a melange of all the herbs made the perfect herb salt!

Later, in honor of Jamie, we made a gorgeous salad with fresh figs macerated in honey and balsamic vinegar, individual shepherd’s pies and raspberry Eton Mess, that sweet, fluffy dessert of freshly whipped cream, raspberries and crumbled meringue cookies.   Here are some of my campers crumbling up the meringue cookies… how fun is this recipe?

If you’ve never had Eton Mess, you have something to look forward to.  It is incredibly simple, and just as incredibly delicious!

We are looking forward to tomorrow, which is Mario Batali day — a day of some delicious Italian food – we can’t wait.  We are also excited about our special guest chef, Gwen Kenneally, chef and owner of Back to the Kitchen, who is stopping by.  We can’t wait to see what she is going to teach us.

In the meantime, it’s quiet again at Little Feet in the Kitchen cooking camp, but only long enough for us to recharge.

Stay tuned… will your favorite celebrity chef be next?

Though it’s hard to pass off something like tart flambe as adventurous when it’s really just puff pastry with a creamy, luscious filling, topped with  caramelized onions and bacon…

Oh, how I loved this group of campers. It’s always so amazing to see children of all ages working so well together (last week it was 10 kids, ages 8-13) — they really came together like a family.

making Martha Stewart crudite centerpieces

We started our week out making appetizers… tarte flambes, white bean, sage and truffle crostini, bruschetta — and individual “crudite centerpieces”  – veggies suddenly became popular when presented in pretty flower pots & served with a delicious cucumber dill dip.

We moved on to salads and made Salade Nicoise, Caesar Salad (we learned how to pasteurize egg yolks in the microwave) and our own signature salad dressings.

The theme of this camp was “That’s Classic,” so we wanted to make some other classics, like chicken pot pie (yum) and roast chicken.  We found that the perfect roast chicken is one that’s stuffed with garlic, lemon, onions, rosemary and fresh lemon-thyme from the garden… we roasted it at a high temp for 5 minutes, then turned the oven down to 400 degrees for another hour and a half.  In the interest of having a perfectly moist bird, we don’t go in for those silly “the chicken is done when the juices run clear” directions.  We use a meat thermometer to make sure we didn’t overcook it.  The result was golden, crispy skin on the outside, and insanely moist meat inside. And our onions, garlic and carrots were so caramelized by the time our chicken was finished, we couldn’t stop eating them.  Please excuse our breath after all that garlic!

Our herb roasted chicken with garlic, onions and carrots was divine

What to serve with roast chicken?  Pommes anna, of course, along with an apple tart.  We were treated to a demo by my friend Claude Tait, one of the best (French) home cooks I know.  Her tarte aux pommes is one of the prettiest I have ever seen.

making tarte aux pommes with Claude

A field trip to Porto’s Cuban Bakery with the incredibly generous Executive Chef Tony Salazar leading the way was the highlight of our week, however.  We watched as talented cake decorators created magic in Swiss meringue, chocolate and glazed fruit…

Porto's Bakery Field trip with Exec Chef Tony

Swiss Meringue - an artist in the kitchen

Field trips are no fun without something sweet, though, so campers were given pastry bags full of chocolate and vanilla frosting, along with some fluffy cupcakes, and put straight to work.

During our “That’s Classic” week, we fit in an Iron Chef contest (secret ingredient: ricotta cheese), some homemade chocolate bars…

… and a very noisy (and fun) “whipped cream race.”

whipped cream race

Along the way, we agreed that the “real” Caesar salad with anchovies is much better than that nasty bottled stuff, that we like truffle butter on our potatoes, and that great friends can be made  in the kitchen. As the lovely Julia Child used to say, until next time, Bon Appetit!

THIS SUMMER, COMBINE YOUR CHILD’S COOKING CAMP WITH A FAMILY VACATION.

For one week, Little Feet in the Kitchen will be setting up shop at Playa Viva, the exclusive oceanfront eco-luxe boutique hotel outside of beautiful Zihuatenejo, Mexico.

Bask in the sun with your toes in the sand while your little ones take to the Playa Viva kitchen for four days of hands-on cooking lessons focusing on the regional cuisine of Mexico.  Cooking students ages 6-13 will make lunch for their parents each day, and when the class is over, families can spend time together on the beach, the turtle sanctuary, or exploring the sights in Zihuatenejo.

LITTLE FEET ON THE BEACH

Sample Cooking Itinerary; July 9-16, 2011; 9-1, Mon-Thurs

MARISCOS – Students will learn all about seafood, Mexican style.  First, we’ll go fishing, and then we’ll head back to the kitchen to make dishes such as shrimp ceviche, frutti de mare, and more.

QUESO – Mexican cheese. First, a field trip to the local queso fresco factory, followed by a cheese tasting in the Playa Viva kitchen, where we’ll make handmade corn tortillas, chilaquiles and quesadilla de rajas.

SAL – We’ll watch the locals rake artisanal salt washed down from the Sierra Madres, and learn all about this magic ingredient.  Menu includes salt-crusted fish and Pizza Bianca.

XOCOATL – We’ll take a trip to the local cacao farm, then head back to the kitchen for a chocolate tasting and history of chocolate, first used by the Mayans and Aztecs.  We’ll make Mexican chocolate ice cream, and watch the Playa Viva chefs create a traditional mole sauce.

Cost includes airport ground transportation, all meals and beverages (excluding alcohol), daily yoga classes, wi-fi, and cooking class, apron and chef hat for one child, beginning at $2490 for a deluxe suite).

This special opportunity is only open to a limited number of families. Reservations must be confirmed by May 31.  To book or for more info, call (818) 691-3177, or go to: http://www.playaviva.com

White Asparagus with Beurre Blanc

I almost forgot our favorite recipe from last week… What could be more retro than white asparagus with beurre blanc?  Or anything with beurre blanc, for that matter?  My LFIK students not only loved this dish, they BEGGED for more.  Luckly, I sent them home with the recipe.  You can find it on the RECIPES page of this site.  But I digress… it was time to make Pigs In Blankets, American Style.

We made these little piggies with both turkey dogs and all beef hot dogs, but of course, you could make them vegetarian if you wanted to… the truth is, they seem to be everyone’s guilty pleasure, and we served them with honey mustard and of course, ketchup.  If we had been in London, we would have served them with HP Sauce!

Meanwhile, our eggs were boiled and ready to be deviled…

making deviled eggs

Deviled Eggs

Need I tell you how delicious they were?  We topped half of them with fresh dill – the others, with smoky paprika.

Last, but definitely not least was our Cherries Jubilee (thank you, Escoffier) — only this recipe was straight out of the 50′s, with Bing cherries straight from the CAN.  We flambeed our cherries with Kirsch…

… then spooned it over vanilla ice cream and topped it with whipped cream.  In the end, we agreed that we would much prefer to create our own version with fresh cherries, sugar and butter… Escoffier’s authentic version, to be sure.  In any case, the jubilee was a hit with both the cooking students and the parents at pickup.

We are looking forward to next week’s dishes… we’re thinking chicken pot pie, bananas flambee…. or perhaps deviled crab and baked Alaska… what are your favorite retro recipes?

We continued our Winter White theme with an Endive, Fennel and Gran Padano Salad with Blood Orange Olive Oil & Lemon, followed by a Cauliflower Gratin with Truffle Butter.  Both dishes were so popular, it was a struggle to save some for the parents at pickup!

But about the endive.  I had no idea that Belgian Endive began as chicory, and then was ripped out by the roots and “forcibly grown” in the darkness!  How ghastly that I have been enjoying this pale, delicate lettuce for so long without knowing of the abuse involved?  Here is Grace chopping the (poor, poor) endive now…

You might be thinking, “there is no way children ate that salad,” and you would, of course, be wrong!  Every single one of them cleaned their plate, and a few asked for seconds.  Perhaps it was the promise of a thinly shaved piece of that Gran Padano cheese in every bite… or it may have been that incredible Blood Orange Olive oil we got from We Olive in Long Beach… or the fact that the fennel and endive are so crunchy — who knows?  Check out the before & after shots of the salad here!

Before…

And After…

Last week we baked White Chocolate Meringue Cookies and stirred up some incredible White Risotto.  I am including a few recipes below, but for more from this series and our Julia Children series, please go to our “Recipes For Adventurous Young Chefs” tab on the left… Bon Appetit!

Adventurous Chefs with White Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Stirring and stirring the risotto

White Risotto

ENDIVE AND FENNEL SALAD WITH GRAN PADANO CHEESE, BLOOD ORANGE OLIVE OIL AND LEMON

2 endives, sliced thinly

½ cup fennel root, shaved or thinly sliced (remove the core and stalks)

½ cup thinly shaved Gran Padano (Parmesan) Cheese

Blood Orange Olive Oil (Available via telephone @ We Olive in Long Beach) and at Surfas in Culver City

2-3 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon

sea salt

freshly ground pepper

Layer thinly sliced endive on a plate.  Top with shaved fennel and shaved parmesan cheese.  Drizzle blood orange olive oil and lemon juice all over the salad.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

And here is the recipe for our Cauliflower Gratin, inspired by Ina Garten!  Enjoy!

CAULIFLOWER GRATIN WITH TRUFFLE BUTTER

1 (3-pound) head cauliflower, cut into large florets

Kosher salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups hot milk

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

3/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere, divided

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

2 tbsp. truffle butter (available at Gelson’s or Surfas)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cook the cauliflower florets in a large pot of boiling salted water for 5 to 6 minutes, until tender but still firm. Drain.

Make Bechamel Sauce: melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Pour the hot milk into the butter-flour mixture and stir until it comes to a boil. Boil, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, or until thickened.

Off the heat, add 1 teaspoon of salt, the pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup of the Gruyere, and the Parmesan.  Pour 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom of an 8 by 11 by 2-inch baking dish. Place the drained cauliflower on top and then spread the rest of the sauce evenly on top. Combine the bread crumbs with the remaining 1/4 cup of Gruyere and sprinkle on top. Melt the 2 tablespoons of truffle butter and drizzle over the gratin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is browned. Serve hot or at room temperature.