Pastry Perfection

Normally as the first hints of spring and summer push through the clouds, my food cravings turn from cool weather comfort foods to fruit, salad and all things fresh. This year, my sweet tooth has appeared out of the cold. One of my earliest family traditions was Sunday donuts, and my grandmother gave me a Chocoholic's Cookbook when I was about 10. I have a special place in my heart for all things pastry but I have never been a candy/icing/soda kind of junk food junky. Last week though, I had root beer with lunch and five Swedish fish on my way to the grocery store. Well technically they were dinosaurs, not fish. Are gummy dinosaurs still Swedish? This is case in point regarding my candy expertise.

However, in my noble undertaking to sample every gelato, Belgian waffle, coffee cake and croissant in Vancouver,  I now have a new love in my life. PappaRoti. It even sounds comforting. Why this cult-status Asian sensation has taken so long to make it to North America is one of the world's new great mysteries.  It has spread from its origins in Malaysia throughout Asia, to Dubai and London. And now, the first PappaRoti in Canada has just opened conveniently down the street from us in Vancouver.

Not quite warm fresh baked bread, not quite buttered biscuit, flaky soft croissant, cinnamon churro or sweet French toast, but somehow all of these at once, the shop sells this one perfected pastry alongside traditional coffee shop espresso and tea drinks. They offer the buns topped with fruit, caramel or chocolate sauces but we opted for the original, splendid in its simplicity, served on a board lightly dusted with powdered sugar and baked with a pat of butter inside.

As I sit watching the rain that bridges the gap between winter and summer, the warm, light pastry sounds like the perfect accompaniment. Even maybe worth a trip to the UAE if you don't in fact live down the street.

Shoot… I'm hungry.

Feast of the Seven Fishes

The end of 2013 was "busy" for us, to say the least. So what more perfect time than New Year's Day 2014 to relax and reflect on the enjoyable moments of the end of the year, which inevitably include food and drink! Since we had to miss my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, this year, our holiday feast season began with Christmas. Not coming from a religiously affiliated family, holiday traditions for us always mean simply a time to celebrate our greatest loves - each other, and food. Those of us with Italian heritage especially enjoy embracing that part of ourselves at these times, and the spouses enjoy the culinary benefits that come with being members of a partly-Italian family!

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian Christmas Eve tradition, which my family has incorporated into our holiday tradition for the last many years. We save recipes especially for this dinner, and I look forward to it all year. There are traditional Italian favorites like Baccala (fried cod balls), but every family has their own favorite recipes and flavors, and there are no rules; just that you have a lot of fish, and family to share it with.

Our family favorite is seafood soup. First, because when we don't have time to come up with seven separate courses, it helps us incorporate more than one fish at a time. And second, because it is an amazingly comforting, delicious and hearty dish that, to me, embraces the feeling and flavor of the family meal. The fish that we include varies depending on what looks good at the market that day, but is always a firm white fish, at least one shellfish, and scallops.

This Christmas, my husband and I were on our own so we "simplified" the meal a bit, snacking on smoked salmon pate with crackers earlier in the day; a simple arugula, cherry tomato and smoked albacore belly salad in the afternoon, and shrimp cocktail pre-dinner. We moved on to panko-crusted lump crab cakes with roasted red pepper coulis for an appetizer, before the main dish of seafood stew with crusty bread, rounding out our seven fish with swordfish, bay scallops and mussels.

Here is the recipe my family uses, altered yearly for seafood variations, and whatever other spontaneous changes we decide to make. Serves 4.

2 Tbl olive oil
1/2 c chopped onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 c chopped fennel
1/2 c chopped leeks
1/2 c chopped carrots
red pepper flakes to taste (spicy but not overwhelming)
1 tsp turmeric
a few threads of saffron
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups fish or vegetable broth
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup cubed potatoes
1 1/4 c swordfish or halibut
1 1/4 c bay scallops, or sea scallops cut in half or quarters
8 clams and/or 8 mussels
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley

Make fish stock with vegetable stock base, water and any discarded shrimp, crab or lobster shells, brought to a boil and left to sit until ready to use. Strain shells.

When broth is ready, heat oil in a large soup pot. Saute onion, garlic, fennel, leeks and carrots until soft. Add red pepper, saffron, turmeric, bay leaf, broth, wine, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Add potatoes and simmer until soft, about 10 minutes. Add broth or tomatoes if desired. Add fish, scallops and shellfish. Simmer until shellfish open and fish is cooked through, a few minutes. Add cream, bring to a boil and remove from heat. Add parsley and serve in large bowls with crusty bread.

Most importantly, share with people you love. As my favorite Italian proverb goes, "a tavola non si invecchia", or, you don't grow old at the dinner table.

Shoot! I'm hungry.

Delectable Dallmann

It's so hard to choose a "favorite" thing to photograph as a culinary photographer. I have had the pleasure of immortalizing all kinds of food, from the elaborately bedecked cookies of Badunkachunk, to the minimally modern French creations of Le Gavroche, to the grand and sophisticated spreads of the Rosewood Hotel Georgia; dripping syrup, oozing cheese, crisp salads, juicy cheeseburgers, seared seafood, silky caviar...

I have to say though, that with my affinity for tiny elaborate details and my life-long love affair with chocolate, I have a very special place in my heart for the perfect morsels that are Dallmann Confections.  In another life, I would have been a chocolatier; maybe, even, like Vianne in Chocolat, I'd find myself in a quaint French town guessing which of my creations would ignite long-forgotten passions in my customers. In this life, I will have to settle for admiring Isabella's art. And art it is. Intricate lavender lace patterns, graceful swirls of color, Pollock splatters against rich reds and royal blues, creamy centers voluminous with the flavors of bananas foster, hibiscus flowers, passion fruit, cardamom; each piece transporting you to a magical heaven as it melts sumptuously in your mouth.

I've now had the fun of two photo shoots with Isabella's creations; the first one creating little chocolate tableaus in various themes - flowers, exotics, savories, chocolates to pair with wines... - and the second one photographing the photographs, now transformed into the covers of beautiful boxed collections, tempting you to peek inside and make your selection.

And, aside from the actual first taste of a truffle, isn't the selection the best part? I remember as a kid being given little sample boxes from Whitman's, See's, Russell Stover... ripping off the shrink wrap, pulling off the gold foil-embellished lid, staring wide-eyed and paralyzed into the depths of my treasure, trying to guess by shape and drizzle pattern which one would be my favorite. The same sense of nostalgic wonder exists in the Dallmann Confections boxes, except instead of your grandmother or the Easter Bunny, this one was given to you by your impossibly elegant and beautifully mysterious European aunt.

Every flavor is impeccable, whether a unique and exciting combination with flowers or spices, or a perfected recipe for a traditional ganache; you run no risk of a nose-crinkling encounter with a chocolate let-down.

Dallmann Confections opens its second location in November, at San Diego's new downtown waterfront retail destination, The Headquarters at Seaport District. The new shop will feature these collections as the perfect gift for everyone. No more "my _____ went to San Diego and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." Instead, a luscious 9-, 16- or 25-piece box of truffles from the San Diego Collection, featuring San Diego's night skyline or one of its beautiful beaches.

Or a selection from the Traditional Collection, an homage to Isabella's grandfather who opened the first of the family's pastry shops in Austria in 1954.

The Exotic Collection for your jet-setters and daydreamers; the Flower Collection for your mom; the Beer & Chocolate Collection for your brother. Oh. Did I mention there are also chocolate bars and hot chocolate mixes? How about just one of everything, please.

With so many to choose from, many visitors will be racking their brains for more people to buy gifts for. I know I've already started my list. And I'm on top!

Shoot! I'm hungry.

(P.S. Go ahead, you know you want to: www.dallmannconfections.com)