It was role reversal for me on my first visit to Marrakesh (it was also my first visit to North Africa) where I attended some cookery classes. Normally I’m the one teaching.

The cookery class took place at a Riad in the Medina which was almost impossible to find. An hour and half late and after going round in several circles we finally arrived at this stunning Riad. It was like walking onto a set for a glossy interiors magazine. Anyway after a glass of freshly pressed orange juice (one of the best things about Marrakesh was the abundance of freshly pressed orange juice) we got down to some serious business by making some morrocan biscuits.

“Cornes de gazelle” translated “Gazelle’s horns” were on the menu. These biscuits are probably the most popular of all the morrocan biscuits. They are simple a biscuit which is filled with almond paste. The dominant flavours are orange flower water and almonds.

Fairly simple to do: a basic pastry dough (similar to a filo pastry) is made and blanched ground almonds are blended with sugar and a bit of butter to make an almond paste.  The pastry is rolled out thinly and cut into squares. Then a sausage shaped bit of almond paste is placed into the middle and the pastry is folded over the top and pressed down to make a horn shape. A little egg is brushed on top and then they’re baked for about 10-15 minutes. There are some versions which are dusted with icing sugar but I prefer mine without. Unfortunately I lost my scribbled piece of paper where I noted my recipe but it’s similar to this one here.

The same mixture and pastry was used to make money bag shaped cookies. In addition to those were made some simple orange flower water cookies and chocolate cookies.

They had these great stamps which created a pattern after being stamped onto the biscuit.

Our teacher was lovely and very patient with all my questions, even put up with all my picture taking too. Speaking French was definetly an advantage.

Just a note: the biscuits keep for a good couple of weeks in an airtight container, that’s if you can stop yourself eating them all

The menu kicked off with a Tom Cruise inspired shaken cocktails (red berries, limonchello and gin) which fit perfectly with the summer evening and was accompanied by some 80s coloured savoury macaron (cream cheese & wasabi and green olive tapenade – Pierre Hermé started his macaron experimenting in the 80s).
First course was edible pacman with pâté powerballs and confit cherries. I had wasted considerable amount of time playing pacman in the name of research. Second course was twisted bacon and a two toned tartiflette, a kind of deconstructed version with the use of sweet potatoes and some peppery roquette to balance the Reblochon. Tartiflette was created in the 80s by the Reblochon producers to promote their cheese.

Homage to 80s power dressing and those big shoulder pads: main course of Power puff pastry shoulder pad with a boeuf printanier (slow cooked spring beef stew).
A cold war soup: communism watermelon gazpacho and cucumber capitalism sorbet was served as a palate cleanser. And to finish off a 80s Paris Brest (the 8 was filled with a praline pastry cream and the 0 with a salted butter caramel cream).
The first 4 dishes were accompanied by red wines recommended by my great local caviste who matches all my wines for me as I’m hopeless. He also recommended a lovely caramel/light Irish whisky to go with the dessert.

Special thanks to myprivatedinner for providing the apartment, Jay-P for an awesome 80s music mix, my lovely culinary assistant Bernadette, Sten Pittet for taking some pictures for me and my lovely guests for coming!

Ask first © 2010 R Khooks. Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

What do you do with a bag of very ripe/almost rotting pears? Throw them away, no. Put them on the compost heap, no. Make a pear & vanilla caramel spread of course! I recently discovered a bag of pears when I came back from my trip downunder. I was quite impressed they lasted that long considering I was away for a bit. Trying to reduce the amount of food wastage whenever possible (hence my fridge being full of little tupperware containers of leftovers or me constantly giving away food). I am on a constant search of making the most of the ingredients.

Left: Stewed pear and vanilla juice with sugar. Right: Pear caramel cooking. Ask first © 2010 R Khooks, Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

This recipe is similar to the Belgian “Sirop de liège” a gooey syrup made from pear and apple juice. The apples and pears are stewed for so long to create a dark almost molasses kind of syrup which is spread on toast or even used in savoury dishes. My version is slightly less time consuming and therefore lighter in colour. If you want a darker colour, stew the pears for longer, so they “caramelise” (slightly burn) before extracting the juice.

The bread in the shot is a slice of homemade sourdough made by a friend of mine who gave me a crash course in sourdough today. I have now got my own “live” sourdough, so I’ll be giving sourdough bread a go myself soon. Fingers crossed and mine will be as good.

Ask first © 2010 R Khooks, Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

1,5kg pears
200g sugar
50ml water
1 vanilla pod, cut in half
pinch of salt

Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the vanilla grains add to a large pot with the pod, pears chopped into large pieces and water. Cook on a low heat for 1 hour with the cover on. Stir occasionally. Once the pears have become soft and pulpy, take off the heat.

Pass the mixture through a jam bag or very fine nylon sieve. Be careful not to push the mixture too hard if the sieve is not very fine as otherwise you will get a fruit puree in the juice mixture.

Return the extracted juice to a large pan with the sugar and salt. Simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes or until the juice has become a sticky syrup. It will thicken and set once cold, so do not overcook.

Pour into a sterilised jar* and close tightly. This will keep unopened for at least 6 months. Keep in a cool and dark cupboard. Once opened store in the fridge.

*To sterilise jars, wash in soapy water, rinse well and then place open in a cool oven at 130°c for 15-20 minutes.

On the 6th October 2009 a Pie Party was circled on my social calender. I headed down to La Cocotte to show everyone how to make them. Lemon meringue, Banoffee, Apple & Cheddar and Pumpkin pie, plus a delicious pie crust were head lining the event. Recipes were all easy as pie

Special thanks to Djoukaze for the photos.

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Off with the chef whites, on with the fake eye lashes, kitten heels and my 1950s outfit. Chef Khoo no longer it was Miss Khoo who took over the Chacha in Paris for the tastiest event in town.

Monday, the 13th July 2009 I created a 3 course dinner and a Kennedy cocktail to tantalize the Parisian tastebuds. Topped off with a cupcake pimping session and some swinging sixties & fifties sounds spun by DJ Sylvania.

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Photography: Juan Diosdado.

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On Wednesday 24th June 2009 I took over the Loft for another mouth-watering mash up. For the 5 course dinner I concocted a menu inspired by all things delicious in the garden.

T. Baas created a luscious table with his green garden illustrations and Jay-P accompanied the dinner with some toothsome tunes.

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Pictures are taken by Kang Leong from Londoneater.com.

]]> http://www.rkhooks.net/2009/06/24/mash-up-ii-at-the-loft/feed/ 0 http://www.rkhooks.net/2009/06/02/mooncakes-at-la-cocotte/ http://www.rkhooks.net/2009/06/02/mooncakes-at-la-cocotte/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:12:55 +0000 rkhooks http://www.rkhooks.net/?p=578

After muffins, teatime and cupcakes it was time for something a little bit more intergalactical: Mooncakes! Well actually they’re not from out of space but a chinese pâtisserie. Mooncake madness took place at La Cocotte, Paris on the 8th April and 30th June 2009.

Check out Elleadore.com for some more pics.

Special thanks to Jim Rosemberg for the photos.

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After ‘khooking’ up a storm for the past several years in Paris I went back to my London roots with a mouth-watering “mash up” meal on

The unique dinner showcased a range of tasty ideas using food, music and the arts as forms of expression. For this scrumptious supper, I combined far Eastern flavours from PikPikZoo, Hong Kong based illustrators with a hint of more local flavour in the form of a musical mash up by Joseph Seresin.

Of course, I added my own creative touch to the 6-course dinner (paired with wine). Click here for menu.

The festive feast took place at the private dinner club The Loft.

The Loft is a private supper club and personal test kitchen of Nuno Mendes, one of London’s innovative & revolutionary chefs (El Bulli trained & previous head chef of Bacchus, London). He will be opening his next restaurant, Viajante at the Bethnal Green Town Hall in 2010.

Joseph Seresin runs by day a bespoke creative studio whose ethos is to provide a tailored solution to your project with a range of creative services encompassing anything from brand identity through to one-off illustrated pieces. At night however he is known to put his creative talents to spinning tasty tunes in hip places from London to Ibiza.

PikPik Zoo are Hong Kong based design duo Zoe Lydia and Miss Kate. Touring the world (New York, London, Paris, Stockholm & Hong Kong) with their PikPik Panda character they’ve been spreading their philosophy of we care, we share.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

Photos from event taken by Bronia Stewart.

It’s coming up to that dreaded time of the year, no not Friday 13th (although I won’t be walking under any ladders tomorrow) February 14th. Red roses, boxed chocolate, sickly sweet cards, restaurants putting on a special “valentines menu”…Makes me want to do that teenagery fingers in throat gesture. Unlike the past years where I’ve made something for you romantic folk out there this year I thought it was time to BIG UP all those singles. Why shouldn’t all the bachelors and bachelorettes celebrate too? So I came up with some tastelicious Blingscuits. The idea is to make a super-crazy-sweet-packed-Gangsta-stylee medallion (think Run dmc) and show off to the world (the idea is not to be subtle here) that you’re fablicious! Alternatively if you are with the classic folk and you need a valentine’s idea, you can write a sweet (or naughty one too) message on the blingscuit. The biscuits contain fresh ginger which is known to be an aphrodisiac and a whole ton of sugar which will make any sleepy head turn into a raving casanova.

Special thanks to my lovely model Frankie. Just definetly knows how to strike some gangsta poses

Blingscuits

125g unsalted butter
20g brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
4 tbsp treacle
325g plain flour
300g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
30g fresh grated ginger
1 tsp mixed ground spice
Writing Icing (optional) or icing sugar & food colouring
Selection of different sweets

Chain (I buy mine at the hardware store)
Binder rings
Ribbon

Preheat the oven to 170°c. Line baking trays with baking parchment. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and ginger into a bowl and stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about 5mm. Use a small plate as a template and run a knife around the edge. Cut out a hole at the top for threading the chain/ribbon through. Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven. When completely cool, decorate with the icing and sweets. Use a thick icing to stick the sweets on. Leave for at least 4 hours to dry. The gingerbread biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

What do you get when you cross a beetroot, a carrot and some ginger? A BEETROTINGER! Sorry that’s quite bad but when I saw this month’s in the bag challenge I wasn’t quite sure what to make of beetroot, carrot and celery. Maybe some sort of bloody maryesque cocktail but that defeats the purpose of doing a detox…After lots of hum and ar-ring. I decided to forget the celery and replace it with some ginger which is very good for detox aswell. And to be quite honest a cake is not very detox at all. So I suggest eating some celery to balance it out Celery is actually one of the few negative calorie foods which means that it takes the body more energy to digest than what the body consumes.

Beetrotinger cake

125g finely grated carrots
125g finely grated raw beetroot
10g finely grated fresh ginger
100g brown sugar
125g ground hazelnuts
50g flour
3 tsp baking powder
100g melted butter
2 eggs

Preheat the oven 180°c. Grease a tin 15 x 15 cm. Mix flour, hazelnuts, baking powder together add the grated carrot, beetroot and ginger. Mix again and then crack the eggs and add the butter. Combine all the ingredients. Spoon into the tin and smooth out. Bake for 20-25minutes or until a knife comes out clean.