Bonjour and Konnichiwa LollyChops.com readers! I'm Fuji Mama (my usual home is http://lafujimama.blogspot.com) and Lolly was brave enough to invite me over here for the day to do some cooking. Isn't she a sweetie?
Lolly :: So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a few questions before you get going in the kitchen, is that alright?
FM: Of course!
Lolly :: What’s your favorite ingredient?
FM: Dark chocolate! Mmmm, that’s easy, I don’t even have to think about it.
Lolly :: What leftovers do you have lurking in your fridge right now?
FM: For some reason this question makes me think of that Capital One Ad campaign slogan, “What’s in your wallet?” Hmmm, maybe I need more sleep. But I digress . . . Actually there aren’t very many leftovers in my fridge right now. I’ve been on an “Eat up all the leftovers” kick lately. There is some leftover butternut soup I made Friday for a cookbook review that will be going up on my blog next week. I doubt it will last through the rest of the day though, it was yummy!
Lolly :: What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
FM: Godiva’s Belgian Dark Chocolate. Mmmm, I wish I had some right now, but then I probably wouldn’t be able to finish this interview as I would have made some lame excuse to leave the room and go eat my ice cream.
Lolly :: What’s your favorite memory associated with food (date, family dinner, cooking with someone, etc…)?
FM: When I was pregnant with my daughter, Squirrel, I craved spicy foods (okay, to be truthful, I always have cravings for spicy foods, it was just worse when I was pregnant with her). When I was in labor we ordered food from our favorite Indian restaurant in Tokyo (that’s where we were living at the time) called Moti. I got one of my favorite curry lamb dishes and asked for them to make it their very spiciest spicy. It was so good. That was my last meal before I went to the hospital and my last real meal before Squirrel was born. I just think it’s funny that Squirrel’s last meal in utero was extremely spicy Indian curry. How many people can say that?
Lolly :: Who is your favorite celebrity chef?
FM: Do they have to be alive? Julia Child. That woman was amazing. Okay, if you want someone who is still alive, I love Harumi Kurihara, a Japanese celebrity. Although she has never had any professional training as a chef, her home cooking has made her famous, which is chef enough for me! She has been called the Japanese Martha Stewart.
Lolly :: If a recipe calls for a clove of garlic – how much do you really use?
FM: Maybe 3 or more? I get this from my dad. My mom is always hesitant to let him into the kitchen for fear that he will drop a couple heads of garlic into whatever he is making. His mashed potatoes are famous in our family for that very reason. The whole house smells like garlic. Mmmm. Have you ever roasted a head of garlic in the oven until it is so soft that you can scoop it out and spread it on things like garlic jam? If you haven’t, you have got to try it because it’s simply divine.
Lolly :: Ahem.
FM: Oh, am I rambling again? Yes, yes, down to business! So when you asked me to be a guest blogger I was so excited because I love LollyChops, so what a cool place to set up shop for the day! But since this is our first “meeting” I wanted to bring a hostess gift. Although etiquette experts from Miss Manners say that giving a gift to your hostess is nice, but voluntary, I always like to be nice, don’t you? So when I was trying to think of what to virtually bring you Lolly I was at World Market and saw this bar of dark chocolate with sea salt in it and that made me remember a recipe for Fleur De Sel Caramels that are divine! Perfect. Fleur de sel is a hand-harvested sea salt collected by workers who scrape only the top layer of salt before it sinks to the bottom of large salt pans. This is a very special salt, perfect to go in a hostess gift for a very special hostess.
Okay, enough chit chat, let’s get into the kitchen! First we need our mis en place, because if I’m not organized I’m bound to forget something or realize I don’t have something I thought I had, and what kind of hostess gift would that make? Not a good one, I assure you.
Ok, next order of business is to line our 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper so that we can get our caramel out after it has set!
Now let’s put our cream, butter, and fleur de sel in a small saucepan, bring it to a boil, and then set it aside (don’t worry, we’ll use it again in a minute).
Now for the fun part. We’re going to boil our sugar, corn syrup, and water in a big pot until all of that sugar has dissolved, and then keep going until everything is a nice golden caramel color. When that has happened, we add our cream mixture that we had set aside (but watch out, it bubbles up big time!) and stir everything together. Then we’re going to watch our handy dandy little candy thermometer until the number says that our mixture has reached 248 degrees Fahrenheit. Mine reached this temp much quicker than the recipe suggested it would, good thing I was watching (Whew! Crisis averted!).
Let’s pour everything into our prepared baking pan. Okay, now for the hard part. We have to let it cool for 2 hours. I suggest leaving the room, or even the house, so that you’re not tempted to poke at it or taste it, because it looks yummy!
Finally we get to cut it up into little pieces and wrap them in wax paper or thick plastic wrap and they’re ready to go!
The result? A rich and creamy caramel that is soft enough to pull and mold, but firm enough that it holds up and doesn’t turn into a total gooey mess.
Here’s the recipe so you too can make caramels to give to someone special:
