Cooking Club members huddled around co-president senior Kiersten Chuc’s kitchen table for their first meeting on Oct. 3. They took off their backpacks and sat down, laughing about the “sketchy” Ziploc bag filled with a few inches of white granulated sugar that senior public relations officer Suvan Hukkoo had brought.
“That’s all I had!” Hukkoo said in protest as more members pulled ingredients out of their backpacks. The plan for the day was to make pesto sandwiches, tomato soup and cookies. This meal is the first of many that the club plans on making this year.
Cooking Club was previously known as Baking Club, and made the switch to reflect the variety of meals cooked during meetings. The purpose of Cooking Club is to teach students both basic and advanced meals, and the club encourages members to submit recipes. Recipes from the club are compiled by co-president senior Leon Chen. Upcoming events this year include “Surviving College 101,” which will feature quick and useful recipes for incoming college freshmen, and “Cake Décor,” which will teach elegant designs for classic cakes.
Some of co-presidents Chuc and Chen’s favorite meals to prepare are chicken pot pies, pumpkin mousse and macarons. The chicken pot pie and macaron recipes were taken directly from Chen’s Cooking Club recipe book, and Chuc used the pumpkin mousse recipe from Country Living.
Quick and easy chicken pot pies
2013-10-26 10:01:14
“When we made these last year, the first chicken pot pie exploded,” Chen said. “Don’t ever use baking powder or soda willy nilly. Only use it when there is an acid that you want to counteract. Last year, when we made our puff pastry, someone thought it would be smart to use baking powder, which you don’t need to create puff pastry. Basically, it exploded.”
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Ingredients
2 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
2 cups of green beans, pre-cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces
2 cups carrots, pre-diced into rounds
2 cups chicken, pre-cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces
Approx. 10-ounces of cream of chicken
½ cup of milk
2 lbs of puff pastry
1 egg
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 (or follow the instructions on your puff pastry if store bought).
Take out puff pastry to thaw if store bought. When thawed, use ramekins to cut holes of puff pastry and insert to bottom of greased ramekins.
Repeat for 4 ramekins.
Use the remaining puff pastry to line the sides of the ramekins, leaving around 1 inch space top.
Boil carrots with a dash of salt until they start to lose their hardness. Drain and transfer into bowl of ice water.
Boil green beans with a dash of salt until they start to turn bright green. Drain and transfer into bowl of ice water.
Sautee chicken pieces with thyme, pepper, and spices of choice until just under cooked.
In a separate saucepan, put cream of chicken and milk and bring to a boil. Watch over it carefully so it doesn’t burn. If it still seems too thick, add water to adjust thickness of stock to your liking.
Add in chicken, green beans, and carrots into your mixture and cook for 5 more minutes with the lid on. Stir occasionally.
When the filling is done, spoon the fillings into the ramekins until just under the tips of the puff pastry. Lay down another layer of puff pastry on top of the filling.
Beat an egg in the separate bowl and use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the puff pastries.
It should be done in 30 minutes, and the tops should be golden brown. Serve right away.
By Leon Chen
El Estoque http://www.elestoque.org/
Sweet and simple chocolate ganache espresso macarons
2013-10-26 10:14:53
“We made these coffee macarons last year for our Harry Potter event. It was with all 2013-ers, so we’re most likely going to make them again this year, though we have yet to,” Chen said.
“I haven’t made macarons, but they sound fun,” Hukkoo said. “[When choosing a recipe] I want to make in Cooking Club, it should be pretty easy so it would be good for people with little to no experience.”
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Ingredients
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup almond flour
4 tbsp espresso
1 tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp salt
3 egg yolks at room temperature
¼ cup white sugar
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 300 F.
Sift together powdered sugar, almond flour and espresso powder. Twice!
After sifting, put the 3 egg yolks in a cold bowl and start beating the yolks until frothy.
Immediately, add in cream of tartar and salt while continuing to beat the egg yolks. Start adding the sugar gradually.
Don’t overbeat the meringue. When you see stiff peaks form, stop within 30 seconds of their formations.
Put in the dry ingredients to the meringue 1/3 at a time, folding the mixture 15 times each time.
After 45 folds, fold it for 10 more times until you have thick, lava like consistency.
Transfer the batter to a piping bag.
Squeeze out batter onto parchment paper on baking sheet, making sure that no two are too near each other!
Quickly top with leftover espresso powder.
NOTE: There should not be nipples on the top of the cookies, it means you undermixed and they will crack. After leaving them out on the table, if they do not form a tacky shell after 30 minutes, it means that you overmixed, and feet will not form. If it spreads when you pipe it out, you overmixed.
Pop it into the oven for 18 minutes.
Heat heavy cream and pour onto chocolate chips.
Stir the ganache until it’s a consistency that is fluid like and put it into the refrigerator.
After 18 minutes, take the macarons out immediately. They should have feet and perfect tops. Let them cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Put the ganache into a piping bag.
Pipe around 1 ½ tsp of ganache per each cookie half.
After macarons are assembled, store for a day and eat the next day.
By Leon Chen
El Estoque http://www.elestoque.org/
Fall pumpkin mousse
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“I made this over the summer, and it was actually rather fun to make,” Chuc said. “It wasn’t extremely easy, but it turned out really well. When you’re folding in the pumpkin, don’t overwork the whipped cream. Fold it in as if you’re stroking a baby bear — very tentatively. This seemed like a really ‘fall’ recipe to make, and I would suggest just eating it on its own, because it’s such a delicious dessert.”
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Ingredients
5 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups heavy cream
15 ounces canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark rum
1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
3 ounces shaved dark chocolate
Instructions
Fill a large bowl halfway with ice water and set aside.
Whisk the yolks, 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, and 3/4 cup cream together in a medium saucepan. Heat while stirring continuously with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon over medium-low heat, until thickened and the mixture coats the spatula — about 10 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and set over the ice bath. Stir to cool.
Add pumpkin, vanilla, spices, and salt to the egg mixture. Stir 1 tablespoon rum and 1 teaspoon gelatin together in a small bowl. Heat the remaining tablespoon rum, and stir into the gelatin mixture until dissolved. Gently whisk into the pumpkin mixture. Beat 1/2 cup cream to stiff peaks, and fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour into a shallow dish, cover and chill until cold and thick enough to fall from a spoon in heavy dollops — about 8 hours or up to overnight.
Beat the remaining cream and sugar to stiff peaks. Alternately layer the pumpkin mousse and whipped cream in a glass serving dish. Sprinkle the chocolate shavings between top two layers. Serve chilled.
El Estoque http://www.elestoque.org/