Simply Ming

>> MING: This week on Simply Ming, one of my favorite people in the world, Joanne Chang, is in the house.

We're going to be cooking at home.

She has eight Flour Bakery & Cafs all over Boston, one incredible restaurant called Myers and Chang.

And today, she's going to take plums and make a plum upside-down cake.

So I'm going to ask you the question that everyone asks me, which I hate, because it's so hard to answer, but your favorite cake?

To bake, to eat?

>> I mean, this is one of my favorites.

>> MING: Is it?

>> Well, it's really simple.

>> MING: Right.

>> You know, we just put all of the dry plus the butter into the mixer, and then we're going to add some eggs, we're going to add some liquid ingredients.

>> MING: I'm going to take those same plums and make a savory dish, a spicy plum sauce with a duck spring roll.

All right, Joy, check this out.

This is, like, after ten minutes, right?

>> Wow.

>> MING: It just cooks down nice and soft.

>> Oh, my gosh.

>> MING: It's all coming up right now on Simply Ming.

>> MING: I'm so excited to have you back, Joanne.

Thanks for being here.

>> Thank you.

>> MING: You're the best >> Excited to be here.

>> MING: Even though she went to Hah-vuhd, I still love her to death.

Studied what?

>> Math.

>> MING: What kind of math?

>> Applied math and economics.

>> MING: Duh, that's why she's a pastry chef.

All right, so, as you know-- and thanks for being back here-- we're going to make you a quick cocktail.

I've created this in honor of you because you're Chinese, you drink jasmine tea like me.

>> All the time.

>> MING: It's a jasmine tea Negroni.

>> Wow.

>> MING: Right?

So I actually infused gin with jasmine tea, and this is what you end up having.

>> Okay.

>> MING: I'm going to go ahead and just fill this with ice.

So, you know the history of the Negroni?

It was created in the 1900s by a count in Italy, and actually, the count wanted something like an Americano, but wanted to riff on it, and he replaced the soda water with gin, hence the Negroni.

>> Got it.

>> MING: So, it's equal parts-- well, the recipe's, easiest recipes ever.

Equal parts of Campari-- which is a, you know, a nice bitter-- sweet vermouth, and gin, all right?

So two ounces, because it's one ounce per person.

>> Okay.

>> MING: That's the Campari-- sweet vermouth.

And if you want a little less sweet, sometimes I do, I just add half the amount of vermouth.

But we're going to go full-strength.

And I think the magic of it is this, is this jasmine tea.

Here, give it a smell.

>> Oh, wow.

>> MING: You can actually smell the tea, right?

>> That's delicious, yeah.

>> MING: And we actually just take whole tea leaves and gin.

Don't heat the gin, just overnight.

And just let it infuse overnight.

All right?

Just a good little... (ice rattling) Oh, yeah, give me, a couple of flags there would be great.

So, life's good?

>> Life is really good.

>> MING: Right?

So, how are the Flours doing?

>> Flour's great.

>> MING: You sell a ton of savory stuff, too, right?

You're not just a pastry chef, because you take all your wonderful bread-- which is awesome bread-- and you make, like, the most delicious sandwiches.

>> We are a caf, as well, exactly.

We make all the bread for the sandwiches, we make soups, salads-- everything.

>> MING: All right, nice and cold.

Then with the big ice cube.

>> Beautiful color.

>> MING: Isn't that nice?

And you got the orange flag already in.

All right, for you-- no, I serve you... (Joanne laughs) >> MING: In my country.

Chin-chin.

>> Cheers.

>> MING: Cheers.

>> Mm, that's delicious.

>> MING: Really.

Taste the tea, right?

>> Love it.

>> MING: On the back.

All right, are you ready to cook?

>> Fabulous, yes.

>> MING: Plum time, let's go, come on.

>> MING: All right, you get to bake me something.

What's the dish?

>> I'm so excited.

>> MING: Talk to me.

>> This is one of my favorite recipes.

It's from my new book, Pastry Love.

>> MING: Nice.

>> It's an upside-down plum cake.

>> MING: Awesome.

>> So, we're going to take plums, and we're going to cut them and shingle them.

But first, I'm going to make some caramel.

>> MING: Okay.

>> So this is sugar that has been cooking on the stove until it's a beautiful caramel.

>> MING: Right.

>> And now I'm going to add the butter.

>> MING: So, how much, how much water?

Just enough to moisten the sugar?

>> Just enough to moisten, exactly.

>> MING: Just regular-- just sugar.

>> Regular sugar, with a little bit of water to moisten, and then when it gets to this beautiful amber color, we add the butter, and this is what makes the cake so rich, and the caramel's, like, really rich, and deep and dark... >> MING: So one of my almost-disasters, early pastry chef years, was, I added butter to caramel... >> Yeah.

>> MING: But it was pretty full.

>> Oh, no.

>> MING: It bubbled over.

>> And it, yeah... >> MING: Oh, Chef was not pleased with me.

>> As soon as you add any sort of liquid to caramel, it foams, yeah.

>> MING: Yeah.

>> So you've got to be careful.

So we just pour this straight... >> MING: So, there's parchment paper there.

Is that buttered and parchment?

>> It's buttered and parchment, so that when we unmold the cake later, it's going to end up being, it'll just pop out.

>> MING: Awesome.

>> So, I'm going to put together the cake.

>> MING: Okay, just halve them, and... >> If you could.... exactly.

Halve them and then just slice them thinly.

So, this is a method to make a cake called the reverse creaming method.

>> MING: All right, explain, please.

>> So, creaming is when you take butter and sugar and then mix it up and then you add all the dry ingredients.

What I do is, I take all of the dry ingredients, including the sugar, and the salt... >> MING: So you go reverse, literally, you do dry first.

>> We literally do everything in reverse, there's some salt... >> MING: How thin do you want these?

>> Uh... That's perfect.

A little bit of salt, a little bit of baking soda, baking powder.

I'm just going to turn this on briefly, just to get it mixing.

(mixer churning) And then we add all of the softened butter.

So what this does is, it coats all of the flour so that you prevent gluten development.

>> MING: Interesting.

>> So when you, when you make a cake, if flour hits liquid... >> MING: Right.

>> Then that causes gluten, and then you get those big, airy holes, which is really great when you're making bread... >> MING: Or genoise, or... >> Right, but not, not when you're making cake.

You want all of the, you want to make sure that all of the flour is coated with fat.

>> MING: And that stops the gluten from... >> It does, it entirely shields it.

So while this is going, I'm going to take your plums, and I'm just going to shingle them here in the pan with all the caramel.

So the caramel might harden.

>> MING: Okay.

>> But that's okay, because as soon as it goes into the oven, it's going to cook again and melt.

And that will cause the caramel sauce for the cake.

>> MING: Wow, it's beautiful.

>> These are really nice plums.

>> MING: So, does that...

It still ends up being tender, but just not airy.

>> It's not quite as fluffy, because we don't get quite as much air in it as you might with the traditional method.

But the problem with the traditional method is that sometimes when you're, when you're adding liquid into the cake batter, you're creating gluten, and then you get a really tough cake.

So this, this method prevents that entirely.

>> MING: So I'm going to ask you the question... >> Yes.

>> MING: That everyone asks me, which I hate, because it's so hard to answer, but, your favorite cake?

To bake, to eat?

>> I mean, this is one of my favorites.

>> MING: Is it?

>> Well, it's really simple.

You know, we just put all of the dry plus the butter into the, into the mixer, and then we're going to add some eggs, we're going to add some liquid ingredients, and then you just pour it on top of the... >> MING: So, are you going for beads?

>> Yeah, I'm going, I'm trying to make all of that butter mix entirely into the flour.

So, you can see that the butter's starting to break down.

>> MING: Right.

>> And you can actually see that the flour's starting to get a little bit of yellow color.

>> MING: Yep.

>> And that's because it's being coated with all of the butter.

>> MING: And, salted or unsalted butter for you?

>> Always unsalted, always.

Because you don't know how much salt is in the butter.

>> MING: Correct.

>> And that way your cake might end up too salty.

So, that's almost done.

>> MING: Right.

>> Now, if you want to add the eggs to that.

>> MING: Okay.

>> And while you're doing that, I'm going to add some vanilla and milk to this crme frache.

>> MING: Okay.

>> We clean as we go.

>> MING: Always.

Always, always.

>> So now we're going to turn this up just a little bit.

So this is the reverse creaming.

So now we're starting to cream the butter, but it's already been, the flour's already been coated.

>> MING: Right.

>> So we don't have to worry about it getting too tough.

>> MING: What a great technique.

>> And then this is crme frache.

>> MING: Right.

>> With a little bit of vanilla and milk.

>> MING: Okay.

>> So this is our liquid, this is what... >> MING: Did you say milk?

>> Yes, yeah.

>> MING: Milk, crme frache, okay.

It's a very rich liquid.

>> (laughing): Yes.

>> MING: This is not, this is not skim milk.

>> No, this is... >> MING: Which is a phenomenon, because... (laughs): Look at the size of Joanne.

Because everyone must question you, "How are you a pastry chef at Flour?"

And, and you eat your stuff?

>> I eat all day long.

>> MING: I see-- she's-- I've been with Joanne.

She does eat, she's Chinese.

(Joanne laughing) >> MING: Right?

I mean, we eat.

>> We eat all the time.

Okay.

>> MING: So, low?

>> Yeah, low, just to mix it.

And then, as soon as it's all mixed in, you're going to turn it up really high.

>> MING: Okay.

Tell me when.

>> I would go for it.

(mixer whirring rapidly) >> MING: And, what's-- you're aerating it?

>> So, so now we're aerating it.

So, it's a little bit less air than the traditional method.

>> MING: Right.

>> But as I was saying earlier, what's great about this is, you can keep aerating it, and all of the flour is already coated with fat, so there's no gluten development.

>> MING: So, not getting tougher.

>> Not tough, just really velvety.

>> MING: Wow, look at that.

>> And you'll see that the color changes from kind of a dark yellow, and it gets lighter and lighter.

>> MING: Yep.

>> Okay, we'll get a little bit more plums... >> MING: Do you need more?

>> Uh, no, I think this is perfect.

You're going to end up shingling plums and filling in all the holes.

The plums will kind of melt down as they cook.

>> MING: Right.

>> And then when we invert it, you'll see there's going to be a beautiful, a beautiful pattern.

>> MING: Do you want one more or are you good?

>> How many did we have?

>> MING: That was four-and-a-half.

>> That's perfect.

No, that's good.

Okay, so, I think this is good.

Then we're going to take that out.

Great.

And this is why this is one of my favorite cake recipes.

Because that took all of two minutes?

Three minutes?

>> MING: I mean, it's not sweet.

>> It's not super-sweet.

>> MING: Right?

Oh, it's so good.

Wow.

>> And then we just make the caramel, you shingle... You can use any kind of fruit.

I use plums.

I really love plums in the summer.

>> MING: Right.

>> But you can do peaches, you can do-- in the fall, you can do apples, pears.

>> MING: And I love that you use the skin, too, right?

>> Oh, yeah!

>> MING: Because there's flavor in the skin, it's the most nutritious part.

Or probably not berries, right, too, too liquidy?

>> Berries are a little bit juicy, yeah.

And bananas... bananas actually work, but they, they get caramelized really fast.

>> MING: So, how long?

>> Great, this goes into a 350 oven for about 50 to 60 minutes.

>> MING: Okay.

>> Just until the cake is totally baked through, and when you press it, it springs back.

>> MING: Awesome, can't wait.

Hang on.

All right, this is 55 minutes.

Oh, look at this.

That is a beautiful... >> That looks fabulous.

>> MING: Oh, look at that.

G, B, and D. >> Okay, so, the way to demold this is, just take a knife and run it really gently around the edge.

Just try to catch any of the batter that's stuck at all.

>> MING: Okay.

>> And then take your plate, put it over, and then... >> MING: I got it.

>> It's always a little bit of a, "Cross your fingers and hope that it comes out."

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap!

>> MING (laughing): Yeah, you've got a pretty tough hands.

>> Here we go-- oh, good, I can feel it.

Nice!

>> MING (exhales): Oh, my God!

Look at that!

>> Ah, it smells so good, too.

Mmm.

>> MING: That's beautiful.

>> Beautiful plums.

>> MING: That's beautiful.

Oh, my God.

And how do you serve it?

>> So I like to serve it with a little bit of crme frache or whipped cream, or ice cream-- something a little creamy.

>> MING: All right, so before we get to dive into this, will you be my sous-chef?

>> I would love to.

>> MING: We're going to make duck spring rolls with plum sauce.

>> Excellent, can't wait.

>> MING: Awesome.

Stick around.

Joanne, that looks so good.

>> Thank you.

>> MING: I can't wait to dive into your plum cake.

So, we're going to make a quick duck spring roll with a plum sauce.

>> Okay, great.

>> MING: So here they are, same plums, and we already peeled them.

Just mince them up-- we're going to-- not mince, but just rough-dice.

>> Just chop them?

>> MING: We're going to cook that with some garlic and ginger.

And I'm going to get some caramelized onions going.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Here in front of me, I have some-- and you can buy it-- ground duck meat, right?

Which I love.

I think ground duck meat's a great product that people don't use a lot.

Why?

Because I think people are scared of duck.

>> Yeah, a lot of people don't eat duck.

I love duck.

>> MING: Duck is so great, and as a filling for a spring roll or an egg roll or wontons, it's awesome.

And you know, it's, it's good meat.

It's good for you.

Everything in moderation.

And we're just cutting this up.

We're going to get a little caramelization on the onions, because I want to get that sweetness out of the onions.

>> Okay.

>> MING: And it's going to just go ahead and put them into a pan.

I just, just a little light oil.

Just one spoon of oil.

Dump these onions in.

All right.

And as you know, really low heat, right?

>> Right.

>> MING: This is going to take about 15 minutes.

Really low.

I tend to season it towards the end.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Because I don't want, I don't want a lot of the water coming out.

So that's going nice and slow.

And then in this pan, we're going to go ahead and start the duck sauce.

So, we're going to add some minced garlic and ginger.

>> Okay.

>> MING: We're then going to add a little bit of sambal and hoisin sauce, right?

>> That's a little spicy.

>> MING: Yeah, it's not, sweet and spicy, because I like... Just, I like the contrasts of that.

All right, so we'll get this going here.

And a little bit, just a good spoon of ginger, or garlic there.

Ginger, get that going.

A tablespoon, sambal, nice and spicy.

As you know, hai xian jiang-- hoisin sauce.

You actually need to cook it, right?

When it comes out of the can...

If you're at a good Chinese restaurant, when you have Peking duck, you'll see a slick of oil on top of the hoisin sauce.

>> Right, right.

>> MING: That's because this Chinese chef, who's a good one, cooked the hoisin sauce.

So hence there's a little oil slick.

So always cook your hoisin, all right?

Want to get that going.

And all I'm doing here is cooking the rawness out of these.

>> Okay.

>> MING: So, that doesn't take that long.

Turn on a higher flame here.

How are my plums?

Voil.

These are pretty good, too, yeah?

You know?

Give it another two weeks, they'll be so much sweeter, right?

They're a little bit tart, but that's okay.

All right, so cook the rawness out of the garlic and ginger.

We can add these plums.

That should be about plenty.

This is going to cook down, splash it with a little bit of champagne, because champagne's what I matched with your, your plum cake.

Going to put a little champagne in here, and these are going to cook down about ten or 15 minutes.

When we come back, we're going to mix the onions with the duck, make some egg rolls, make some plum sauce.

>> Excellent.

>> MING: Don't go away.

All right, Jo, check this out.

This is, like, after ten minutes, right?

>> Wow.

>> MING: It just cooks down, nice and soft.

>> Oh, my gosh.

>> MING: So I, as you do, and I do, you taste, and taste, and taste.

>> Right.

>> MING: This needs a little honey.

Why?

Because the plums just weren't quite sweet enough for me, right?

>> It's not quite season.

>> MING: And I added sambal, so just a touch of amber honey, just like that.

And if you could do me a favor.

>> Yes.

>> MING: Grab that duck bowl.

I'm going to give you... so these are the onions.

See how they've caramelized so nice?

That took 15 minutes, as well, right?

Take your time on caramelized onions.

Going to add that and mix that in, and then what I want you to do is pick, about, I don't know, ten to 12 basil leaves and just rip them in and throw them in there, as well.

>> Okay, got it.

>> MING: I'm going to add a little bit of S and P to your duck.

All right.

Like that.

And then in this same pan here... because I just want a little... just a touch more flavor, I'm going to give you just a little bit of just cooked garlic, as well.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Because I just think that duck needs a little bit more garlic.

All right, now, what I'm going to do, is, using this burr mixer-- I added some champagne.

>> Okay.

>> MING: So it was about half a cup.

And that champagne, again, which we're going to drink, helps give me the liquid.

Because then what I want to do is buzz it.

And I have a little bit of butter here.

(immersion blender buzzing) I want to make this a nice, smooth sauce.

And this is why I like these, these stand... these hand mixers, right?

Because you can, you don't have to get another bowl dirty, you don't have to get a blender cup dirty.

Make it a nice and smooth.

And then using an old French trick called monter au beurre-- to lift with butter... >> Yeah.

>> MING: We have some hard butter here.

I'm going to add a couple of pats of butter, just to give it a nice richness and kind of a mouth feel and viscosity.

Because you know what?

It's better with butter.

That was what, like, five pats?

You don't have to go crazy.

>> Okay.

>> MING: And then again, as you know, check for seasoning.

Mm, all right, just a touch of salt.

All right, duck sauce is done.

I got my little bit of... How's the duck looking?

>> The filling looks good.

>> MING: Okay.

>> You're going to add some of that to here?

>> MING: Yeah, I just want to... Again, you have to cook garlic here, right?

I want to take the rawness out.

That's all I want to do, is just a little bit of rawness out.

So, freshly sauted garlic goes in here now, too-- boom.

>> Mm.

>> MING: That is going to be our mix.

Oh, that looks awesome.

Here, let me take it out of this ice bowl.

So, now what we're going to do... is roll some spring rolls.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Or egg rolls, technically.

So, there's a whole bunch of different wrappers, right?

These I call egg roll wrappers.

This is like what my mom and I used to make in Dayton, Ohio.

The Menlo wrappers, the Filipinos, are a little crisper.

They're called lumpia wrappers.

And then, of course, you know there's the banh trang, right?

Banh trang is the one you have to soak in water, the rice paper wrapper.

>> Yup.

>> MING: I like all of these-- so we use this.

We have egg wash, which you need to the glue.

So what we're going to do is, take a little bit of these spring roll, like this.

Okay?

>> Okay.

>> MING: Yeah, you could do that... Oh, you did all four sides.

Okay, this is how I do it.

I roll it over once, right?

Then, I take the brush or your finger, and I get one side and the other side.

>> Okay.

>> MING: All right?

So a nice roll.

Then you bring in both sides, the left and the right.

>> Okay.

>> MING: And then you roll them and let it... Let it sit on the edge that you just rolled, so it can glue.

All right?

>> Got it.

>> MING: Perfect.

Do one, a couple more here.

So what you have to do is, one thing, and I'm going to show you this trick.

You have to make sure that when you roll it, that the ends don't come out.

Because notice if I... if I try to fold it this way and it comes out?

>> Right.

>> MING: That when you roll it, there's a gap.

So, you have to make sure it's straight.

>> Ah, yes, yes, okay.

>> MING: And then it'll be fine.

But you have to use, like Joanne, a finger or a brush.

You have to glue it.

(Joanne laughs) >> MING: The reason egg wash is so good is, eggs are protein, right?

So then once it cooks and hits the fryer, the protein solidifies, and it seals it.

And that's key, because the last thing you want is raw duck and stuff populating your fryer.

All right.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Cool, let's get these frying.

We'll roll a couple more, too.

350-degree oil.

Raw duck, right?

So, it's got to cook about eight minutes for these to get G, B, and D-- golden, brown, and delicious.

All right, eight minutes, duck spring rolls.

All right, Joanne, look at these.

So this has been about seven, eight minutes, right?

>> Those look amazing!

>> MING: Hey, you're definitely Chinese.

You know how to roll egg rolls!

(laughing) Do me a favor, go ahead and on that black plate, just spread out some basil, but go... Just pick them off, because I want to...

I want to eat these with the basil leaf.

So kind of like the Vietnamese way with the lettuce, but we're just going to do it with basil.

All right.

Let's take this over here.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, more, spread it all out-- like that.

And then what I'm going to do is take some of these.

Oh, yeah, look at that.

>> Mm.

>> MING: Put them like this, all right.

Here you go.

>> Oh, that looks fabulous.

>> MING: All right.

How hungry are you?

>> I'm starving.

>> MING: All right, there we go, so am I.

Then we'll do, we'll do eight.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Eight pieces as opposed to four.

Then, we have our duck sauce.

Plum, hoisin, pured.

All right.

One to two tablespoons of butter at the end, monter au beurre, just to make it taste delicious.

Right there.

Plum, two ways.

>> Looks amazing.

>> MING: Let's go eat.

All right, table.

>> MING: All right, Joanne, a little French champagne, Blanc de Noirs So, which is chardonnay and pinot noir.

>> Cheers.

>> MING: Chin-chin to you.

To everyone's good health.

So, I picked this because I think there's actually a little plumminess to it.

I can't wait to try-- could you please?

>> It's beautiful.

>> MING: Look at that.

And you do want it to sit a little bit before you cut into it, right?

Because when it's hot... >> Yeah, all of the caramel would just come out and kind of leach over everything.

So, you do want it to sit for a little bit.

>> MING: Is that the secret?

The two-slice technique?

>> What do you mean?

>> MING: Well, I heard someone say the first slice is so hard, so make two... >> Yes.

>> MING: And then you can get the first one out.

>> It gives you a little room to wiggle.

>> MING: May I dollop you?

>> Please.

>> MING: This crme frache looks, like, awesome.

All right, I'm going to go in here, and then this, we can just use our fingers, but let's try this first.

Oh, this looks so good.

Oh, my God.

>> Mmm.

>> MING: That's why James Beard picked you best in the country.

>> (laughing): Not too sweet.

>> MING: Oh, my God...

It's not sweet at all, the plums come through, but the tenderness of the cake... And, it's dense in a good way, right?

It's not, it's not airy.

>> It's, like, velvety.

>> MING: But it's so tender, oh, my God.

>> Right.

>> MING: Pound cake.

It's not to offend you, but you know what I mean?

But it has that richness of that... You can taste the... >> Super-easy to make.

>> MING: Because of the... What was it, crme frache you put in?

>> Mm-hmm.

>> MING: Oh, my God-- please, try this.

Tell me what you think.

>> Thank you.

>> MING: Finger food.

I go deep.

All right, let's see how we did here.

(crunching) >> Those are great.

>> MING: That's all right.

>> I love that sauce.

>> Mm.

>> MING: Mm.

So, your new book, Pastry Love?

>> Pastry Love.

>> MING: Is that... >> I'm excited about that.

>> MING: And how many books do you have?

>> This is my fifth.

>> MING: Eight restaurants, five books, one husband... (laughing) >> MING: What can I say, are we done?

>> We're busy, we're busy, yeah.

>> MING: You're busy-- you must be busy as anything.

Well, I can't thank you enough for being here.

>> Thank you, I always love being here.

>> MING: Joanne, you are my fave.

Love having you here.

>> Thank you.

>> MING: And to all you out there, you're my fave, as well.

Thanks for watching.

And, as always, peace and good eating.