Happy Macaron Day

Yes so I'm a week late..Happy Belated Macaron Day!
Lady Macaron at Potato Head...

Every Sunday from 10AM-3PM

Happy New Year from Lady Mac

Happy New Year!
Here's a short clip of my highlights in 2009

Potato Head's NYE Party 31 Dec. Celebrating New York 1930s
"If I could have a photobooth all day long, I would take pictures all night long!"

My mom and I infront of a Plymouth 1948, I turned out be a Pocahontas from the 30s!

My 1st featured article in AMICA magazine on french macarons and my time in Paris. A journey I shall never forget!

On the bridge of the Seine river, goofin' off with my friends from our French class, we had fun that day, and that Berthillon ice cream sure is the best I've tasted so far!!

My macaron display at Potato Head, selling only on Sundays! my precious little project...Fashion et Macaron=Pourquoi pas?

Sunday Brunch @ POTATO HEAD will never be the same again~
Available from 10AM til SOLD OUT as we always do :)

Sunday Brunch @ Potato Head

Sunday sell-out at Potato Head, 29 November 2009. Do you like the display???????

Flower Power Macaron

When you master your oven, there is no greater joy in baking macarons, now I can make it fat with a slight crunchy shells (last longer in Jakarta's humid and hot weather) or slightly flatter (the way it's suppose to be). I honestly prefer them to be authentic that is flatter, with flittery feet that doesn't raise up so gigantically. However after taking them out from the fridge they get very soft easily and if I sell them without a cold case, then I'm afraid they'll deformed way too fast. Today though I made really fat macarons, eventhough they look prettier with more hummphf, they're way too crunchy. I still prefer flatter versions.

But hey the look great against the flowery background. Today I made lavender and rose macarons. The passionfruit-chocolate macs were made a few days ago. I couldn't believe what I found today at Kem Chicks, a supermarket in Kemang that sells a lot products from overseas, yep those Monin flavoured syrup, they even have...(shock shock!) chestnut matcha green tea flavoured syrup!!! how Pierre Hermé is that! Unbelievable what products they carry in this tiny totally-underated Jakarta. Even Melbourne does not have that! With a price tag of Rp.147,000, I thought I'll try a few bottles and see how really good they are. So what flavour do I need desperately...umm Rose and Lavender!

I made a Pâte á Bombe Recipe using the leftover egg yolks. It is a french buttercream that takes a bit too long to make, and tasted well...like normal cream, so next time I'm going to just use a ganache based filling with added tpt (tant pour tant, almond and icing sugar mixture). Happy that my oven is working a-ok! Tomorrow I'm starting a new job as PR for Potato Head restaurant...which happens to be owned by my brother and his partners. So good luck to me and I hope I can spread the macaron words!

le macaron de la nature étrange

The pink painting above is by a very famous almost celebrity painter in the Philipines. His name is Ronald Ventura and his is very talented indeed. He does a lot of etching using black pencils and over the top sculptures as well. That particular pink number sold for US $21,000 last night! Oh goodie oh

My first macaron baking outside of Melbourne did yield a mediocre result, being a perfectionist, I was determined to find a way to break into my oven again (meaning adjusting to a new home oven for the third time in three months). After the fourth batch the macarons turned out pretty good, frilly feet, top shells without the slight burnt and easy to peel bottoms that were cooked almost-perfect. The only downside is that they were still flat compare to my macs I baked in Melbourne chilly weather. Perhaps it was because I didn't refrigerate my egg whites for a week as I was in a hurry to bake 60 macarons for an exhibition at my brother's galerie and just decided that morning that I was going to whip up some hideous magic that somehow I was ready to conquer my oven!

Perhaps from the photos you might think that they look fat and happy macs, but they were still not above my level of satisfaction and although I got rave reviews from everyone, I was sceptical. And not to mention the hideous colours (oops I used the word 'hideous' again)! Surprisingly and well obviously the black sesame were the all time favourite (green) with a tint of green tea. The pink white choc with strawberry flavour using my Lindt white couverture chocs were indeed very nice, a bit sweet but I would definitely used that pink chocolate again. The brown ones were cappuccino caramel and I added tant pour tant (almond and icing sugar mixture) to stabilize the texture. Those were all gone too at the end of the night cos everyone said they loved the chewiness from the almond and caramel bite.

Was having nervous tensions on how to serve my macs, and was searching around my home to see what I could use to create a bit of difference and voila! I nicked my brother's wooden cabinet's shelves, whip them clean and put some tissue for le macaron de la nature étrange. The Strange Nature Macaron...

Pink October Macaron

So good news everybody! I got my PH MACARON book that was previously sold out and out of print early this year and nOOOWWW it's available again through amazon.fr. I was so excited I had to press my enter button a few times, instead of being disponible it was en stock! hurrayyy and on top of that I'll be getting it express by the end of the week (counting my days!!).

Apparently it was just re-printed and came out on the 10th September and I am pretty sure by a few weeks, this book will be out-of-print again. So hurry up macaron afficianados and fans alike, go get it! it was seriously cheap for 28.40EUR plus delivery.

On other news, I did another Ladurée tasting, this time, pistachio, caramel with salted butter (caramel au beurre sounds so much better doesn't it?) and lime (which is cédrat in french and only available in summer). Pistachio has very crunchy pistachio nuts and not at all sweet which is good, PH pistachio is smooth and with a ganache based whereas Ladurée's is buttercream based. I would go with Ladurée's if I to pick one between a pistachio flavour but PH's pistachio with cherry centre is fun to eat!

I've tasted Ladurée's caramel au beurre before and I fell in love. Just perfect saltiness with none of the burnt sugar taste as caramel do often gives.

Lime surprisingly is not that tangy as lemon but I love the ganache cos it has a slight coconut taste, what is with all these hidden coconut in french macaron??? but don't take my word on that coconut cos I still have lots of research to do. Love the disco lime colour though, it's so retro and gosh can't believe I'm eating that!

What I did to my Ladurée box (I put all my macaron colours in there and the dust powder too!)

Macaron gift box

So partly it was boredom and the other half I was anxious to do a macaron box. I know I know...doesn't she has anything better to do? well I love macaron, and what better thing than to do a happy macaron box! I got my inspiration from Sydney over the weekend, we went to this cute-retro-art gallery/store at Darlinghurst and the owner, Gary McEwan is a proud gay artist and he does so by exhibiting a lot of well I'm sure you know what I mean. Surprise-surprise, he used to have a shop at Acland St, St Kilda for 20 years! but moved to Sydney after all the bad chain stores capitalises good ol' Acland.

I actually got the box cover/card from that store and I just did my own drawings inside. It's meant to be a pop-out kinda card but yeah I was rushing it towards the end. Good news to come towards the end of next week about my macarons coming out into the Melbourne stratosphere! It's gonna be BIG and I'm still keeping it as a secret (I hope so, though a few people already know so by my twittering) but will post details as soon as it's confirmed! Will do more of these cards when I have the time.... :) happy macaron day!

A Swirl of Colour

I am going ga-ga over this macaron clip! Previously from paris breakfast blog, I was curious to know how they create the trio of colours in one macaron. Wow. Crazy Cool big time!

Visit their website at http://www.fresson-chocolatier-patissier.fr

image 1 from amabilia.com
image 2 from blog-europeauto.com

From Paris...with sweet-love

My sixty (yes that's 6-0) french macarons from Ladurée and Pierre Hermé to last me...forever. I got every flavour of PH's excluding his foie-gras and truffle combination (since they cost 8euro each!!) and all 15 flavours of Ladurée permanent range. Although they got squished, all I can say is, I'm glad they arrived safely and I am really looking forward tasting them again...this time to be documented (and blogged). I hope to dream of macarons tonight...hope to wake up with a flat tummy though.

Ladurée 15-permanent flavours:
Chocolat - Chocolat amer (Bitter chocolate)- Vanille - Café - Pétales de Rose - Pistache - Framboise (Raspberry)- Cassis violette (blackcurrent violet)- Caramel au beurre salé (salted caramel)- Fruits Rouges (mixed-red fruits)- Fleur d’Oranger (orange blossom)- Réglisse (licorice)- Citron (lemon)

Pierre Hermé flavours:
Mogador (chocolate passionfruit) - Infiniment Caramel (caramel buttercream)- Chocolat - Rose (rose buttercream with raspberry centre)- Cassis (blackcurrant)- Menthe Fraîche (Mint) - Huile d'Olive & Vanille (Olive oil and vanilla) - Mandarine & Baies Roses (Mandarin ganache with rose scent) - Jasmine (jasmine ganache) - Pistache et Framboise (pistachio and raspberry centre) - Americano Pamplemousse (grapefruit buttercream)

The Scent of Jasmine

Jasmine Macaron would have to be my favorite macaron flavour at the moment. This is a newer version I did last week without the added lychee from a previous post. Everyone agrees that the lychee didn't really add anything special and the taste combined with the jasmine scent didn't blend nicely. This time though I use the new Essential-bought Lindt White Chocolate couverture specially for baking. The taste is definitely a masterpiece as my parents said, and it is here to stay...

By the way, I love the Essential store at Prahran market, I think it is the greatest thing in Melbourne for chefs, full-time bakers and the occassional-bakers alike. I drool everytime I see the Kitchen-Aid mixers on display. One day...One day...I kept saying to myself.

from bakerella at flickr.com. This is what I want! or perhaps what every baker wants...

How To Eat a Macaron

Click here to watch how to eat a macaron from petites boutchées, a patisserie that specializes on macaron and cupcakes. So funny and utterly true! macarons are gifts from Heaven above!