Musings of a Traveling Chef

With lots of downtime during my recent visit to the US, I decided to attend a baking class near my area.  While searching online, artisan + no knead got me hooked at this class at Baking Arts in San Mateo.  Sure enough, no kneading is necessary but only long proofing time before you can get eat a piece of this bread. Artisan Style "No Knead" Bread Ingredients: 3 cups (400g) unbleached bread flour 1-1/2 tsp salt or 1 tbsp kosher salt 1/2 tsp instant or active dry yeast 1-1/4 cup (300g) cool tap water Corn meal for dusting (optional) Yields:  1 large 10 inch round loaf Shelf life:  2 days in room temperature Instructions: 1.  Mix flour, salt and yeast in a medium bowl.  Add water to bowl, mixing until you have a wet sticky dough, about 1 minute.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside at cool room temperature for 12-18 hours.

Fresh from the new addition to The Hutong's Baking Made Easy class is a pie making class.  I never like pies but I'm intrigued with the process.  Moreover, the class promised to create two types of pie: savory and sweet. For the savory pie, we made Mrs. Hering's Famous Chicken Pot Pie.  For the sweet pie, we made the classic Apple Pie.  I didn't know making pies was easy and fun.  I'm planning to recreate the apple pie in the near future because it was that good.  Moreover, even if it's not freshly baked when eaten, it's still so good. Classic Apple Pie Ingredients: (one large pie) Pie Crust 1 cup flour 2 tbsp sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 150g cold butter 3 tablespoons ice cold water Apple Filling 4 apples (peeled) 170 gm sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon lemon juice

After attending my cookie class and saw how easy it was to make cookies, I searched for recipes online to experiment on.  Initially, I was planning on recreating my cousin's white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies but ended up with a chocolate chip cookie due to the cost of macadamia nuts. I have baked this cookie several times with different results each time.  The only thing that is consistent is the soft and chewy texture in the middle and the slightly crunchy texture in the edges.  It's one of the most requested items by my friends during parties. Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients:  (yield 24 medium-sized cookies) 2/3 cup butter (151g) 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1-2/3 cup all purposed flour 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 6 ounces chocolate chip (I just pour whatever amount I want)

My dad owns a farm in Northern Cebu.  On one of our conversations, he mentioned that he was giving away some of his fruit produce for free so that it won't rot on the farm.  This made me think that maybe he could preserve and sell them in the local market.  I was also thinking that maybe I can study how and perhaps add this to my line of cookies that I plan to market in the future.  When The Hutong opened a Strawberry Specials class, I didn't hesitate to join. Traditional Homemade Strawberry Jam Ingredients: (yields 4-6 cups of jam) 2kg  strawberries, rinsed, hulled and cut into i-inch pieces (almost ripe strawberries) 5 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup lemon juice

For the past 10 years, I've called Beijing my home. I've eaten in a lot of restaurants, been to a lot of places and experienced life living like a local. If you plan to visit Beijing, the top 4 places to visit would be Forbidden City, Great Wall (Mutianyu section please!), Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace. However, if you talk about food, I give you fast 5 of Chinese cuisine you must try in Beijing:  1. Beijing roast duck (aka Peking Duck): a must-eat food when you visit Beijing. The duck is roasted with wood in a stone oven rubbed with spices and no oil. Best to order this dish when you reserve a seat as it take quite some time to cook. The duck will be carved right in front of you for Instagram shots!  Notable restaurants are: Quanjude (Hepingmen Branch only, don't bother with the other branches), Da Dong, Duck De Chine, Made In China (Grand Hyatt hotel). 

If you have a bunch of dried shiitake mushrooms in your pantry and wonder what to use it for, try this chicken soup that is perfect for cold, winter weather or even if you're just sick at bed with a cold and flu.  The recipe is based from suggestions of Chinese friends.  Here's to chronicling my two attempts of fixing a simple Chicken and Mushroom Soup from scratch. Chicken and Mushroom Soup Ingredients: 200g chicken breast, cubed in 1.5cm several thin slices of ginger several slices of green onion (white stalk portion only) dried shiitake mushroom, sliced in quarters 1 tsp light soy sauce salt pepper

One of the most loved dishes by foreigners is the Sichuan Spicy Chicken or La Zi Ji.  A typical dish would have either chicken cubes with bones or boneless.  The difference between the two is the flavor as the one with bones will taste much better than pure chicken meat.  However, even though it's flavorful, it's more difficult to appreciate if you have to remove the bones once in awhile while eating it. Every time I travel to a new place, I plan to add learning how to cook their dishes in my agenda.  So, in Beijing, I learned how to cook this dish from Hutong Cuisine.  It was quite a learning experience for a non-chef like me.  The teaching method was perfect for newbies and in the end, I can't believe that I was able to prepare such dish by myself. Sichuan Spicy Chicken "Laziji" Ingredients: 150g Chicken Breast fillet 1 clove garlic Ginger, same amount as garlic 1 strand of Spring Onion (white portion only) A handful of dry chillies 2...

To all my readers.. this traveling chef welcomes you to her experiences as a budding chef.  This will chronicle my travels, restaurants, baked goodies, new things I've learned related to baking, studies and anything to do with food. I started this blog to write down these ideas I have in my head that sometimes make me lose sleep.  I will share with you recipes I've tried, tested or will test and my "aha!" moments.  I'm not a culinary graduate but a budding baker.  I would rate my cooking skills as slowly getting there while my baking as almost there.  I prefer baking breads than cakes as I suck in decorating.  You will see it in my photos in my future posts.  So this is just a warning.  However, I'm hoping as I continue to write on this blog, my culinary skills, food knowledge and photography skills will grow.  Cheers and let's go! C.