Cooking & Conversation: Day 2- At Sea

Today was a "Sea Day."

Today's forecast was cloudy with a high of 73 degrees.

It looks more ominous than it actually was.

We are well on our way to warmer, sunnier days.

After all, we were escaping below zero temperatures and snow back home.

We picked a good week to "cruise", Norwegian style!

We got up and strolled around the ship. We had coffee

at the T-Rex Kids Pool.

There is a nice looking hot tub, but we couldn't quite figure how to get to it.

No worries, there were 6 others.

Thrillusionist, David DaVinci, the on-board magician, taught us some magic tricks.

We have a very cool card trick to show our grandsons!

Today we had a cooking demonstration

from some of the remarkable chefs on board.

They demonstrated delectable dishes

from Sushi and Le Bistro restaurants on the ship.

The first was a recipe for California Sushi Rolls.

Ingredients:

5 oz. Crab Meat sticks
3.75 oz.Cucumber (FYI 4 oz. is 1/2 cup)
1.25 oz Japanese Mayonnaise (Kewpie is a popular brand)
4 oz. Avocado
Sushi Rice
.5 oz. Sesame Seeds, roasted
.25 oz. Black Sesame
2 1/2 sheets Nori
2 oz. Wasabi
3 oz. Shoga/preserved Ginger julienned
5 oz. Kikkoman Soy Sauce

Place the half nori sheet on mat and cover with rice needed for a roll.

Work to an even layer all over. Pick up the nori and rice and turn over. Place the contents (avocado, crabstick, and cucumber) onto the nori part and squeeze a generous line of Japanese mayonnaise from end to end. Carefully roll making sure that nori and rice edges meet up with each other. Firm and shape the roll in the shushi matt.

Open the matt and sprinkle the roasted and black sesame seeds all around the roll. Close up matt and firm up again.

Remove and slice.

Then the chef demonstrated rolling the shushi with the nori on the outside of the roll.

Dip the cutting knife in warm water to aid in cutting the roll.

The next recipe is Caramel French Apple Tart.

To make the Caramel Sauce, combine 11 oz. sugar

and 2 oz. light corn syrup in a pan.

Bring to a boil for 1 minute.

Reduce the heat and cook to a rich golden brown. Add 4 oz. butter and stir until incorporated.

Pour the sauce into 10 ramekins.

Peel and core 8 fresh apples. (They used Granny Smith.)

Cut into slices and place about 3/4 of the apple on top of the caramel.

Make your own pie dough. I would use a prepared refrigerated crust, and that would be a big No-No at their beautiful restaurant. I am not a French chef, so that is my disclaimer.

They did give their recipe for a Basic Pie Dough.

3 lb. all purpose flour
1/2 oz. salt
1 lb. butter, soft
1 lb. shortening
16 oz. water, cold

Using a hook attachment and stand mixer, combine flour, salt and add the butter and the shortening.

Mix until pea-size nuggets form, about 3 minutes.

Add the water all at once and continue to mix until the dough just comes together.

Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling.

Roll out pie dough 1/16 inch thick and cut 10 rounds each 4-1/2 inches in diameter.

Place a round of pie dough on each tartlet; the dough should be flush with the edges of the ramekin.

Bake at 375 degrees until the pastry is golden brown about 15 minutes or until apples are soft:

cool slightly in the pans.

On a medium dessert plate, spoon some Caramel Sauce and then place a warm apple tatin.

Caramel Sauce

Combine 13 oz. granulated sugar and 10 oz. glucose (I looked up the substitute which is corn syrup) in a heavy saucepan and cook to a moderate heat stirring constantly until all sugar has dissolved.

Stop stirring and continue to cook to a golden caramel.

Remove from heat and shock the saucepan in an ice bath to stop cooking.

Remove from the ice bath and stir in 2- 1/4 oz. of butter.

Carefully stir in 24 oz. of heavy cream.

They served this with a light walnut cream and Florentine crunch and a mint leaf.

You are on your own trying to come up with that!

Or, another suggestion is to serve with coconut ice cream on the side.