Feast For The Eyes

By JEFF HOUCK The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 1, 2007

BRADENTON - For Jaden Hair's 34th birthday last August, her husband, Scott, bought her a 35 mm Canon EOS Digital Rebel camera. Even though she was thrilled with the extravagant gift, she took one photo, got intimidated by all the buttons and knobs, and put the camera back in the box.

Hair, who was born in Hong Kong, teaches modern Asian cooking classes throughout the Bay area, using tips and recipes she learned from her mother while growing up. In February, she created a food blog, Jaden's Steamy Kitchen, to serve as an archive for her recipes. She wanted to dress up the site with photos of her dishes, so she picked up the camera and gave it another shot.

Soon, it became an established ritual: Before any dinner plate could be served to her family at their Bradenton home, it first made a stop at a piece of white foam board perched on her living room ottoman for a quick close-up in the soft evening light from her patio.

In less than six months, photos from Jaden's Steamy Kitchen (SteamyKitchen.com/blog) appeared on such hip food Web sites as Slashfood and Chowhound. In May, RealEpicurean.com gave her a first-place award for a shot of Tropical Island Salmon. SeriousEats.com featured her German Oven Pancakes as its photo of the day in mid-July. YumSugar.com cooed over her frame of coconut rice.

Steamy Kitchen now attracts 3,000 unique visitors a day - a huge number considering the newness of the site and its niche topic.

The natural lighting in the photos provides an ethereal quality that adds to each frame's visual flavor. And though the dishes are tastefully plated, they look like something almost anyone could mimic with a little practice. Far from being hyperstylized photos that culinary connoisseurs disdain as "food porn," the pictures, nonetheless, have a professional quality. Nothing indicates that her photo studio is merely a piece of living room furniture with an office supply background.

"I have no photography training whatsoever," Hair says. "Just like in cooking. I never went to culinary school. I'm self-taught. But when I get into something, I really, really get into something."

The inspiration for many of her entrees, appetizers, desserts and beverages comes from necessity. A hot Florida day prompted Hair to concoct a glass of lemongrass ginger ale. She just happened to have lemongrass growing in her back yard.

"It was one of those insanely hot and humid days, and I wanted to make a fragrant mixed drink that made me feel like I was on vacation," Hair says. "When you've got two small kids, going away to a remote tropical island for a nice, quiet, relaxing vacation is as likely as my laundry getting folded by itself. ... You've gotta use your imagination."

Even more impressive: She's able to accomplish the blogging, the cooking and the shooting of portraits while sons Andrew, 4, and Nathan, 2, take turns scurrying through the kitchen and hanging on to her arms. Occasionally, they star on the site. Last week, Hair featured a sequence of photos showing Nathan taking a bite out of Andrew's left shoulder as the boys fought for the first bite of Asian Lettuce Cups With Ground Turkey & Green Apple.

"The dish looks scrumptious; there's no doubt about that," commented Ariela, a 26-year-old graduate student from Connecticut who has her own food blog at BakingAndBooks.com. "But my favorite part of this post was the action shots of your little ones. I can almost hear the sound effects [as] they attack that food. Rawr! Chomp!"

Hair says the photos are what distinguishes the blog.

"Anyone can come up with a recipe," Hair says. "The photography is why people come to the site. After all, you eat with your eyes first."

PHOTO CUTLINES:

Firecracker Shrimp With Sweet Chili Sauce

"This shot was taken right in front of my big sliding glass door as the sun was starting to come down. I had two goals when taking this photo: to highlight how light, crisp and thin the wrapper was (The wrapper is so crisp that it literally shatters in your mouth when you bite into it) and to show how beautiful the shrimp tails are by having the natural sunset light filter through the tail."

Fresh Lemongrass Ginger Ale

"I shot this photograph outside on my lanai. The sun was just setting and produced some gorgeous shadows and lighting. I wanted it to feel like you were on vacation, too. I also included a few slices of ginger and a stalk of the lemongrass because a drink is sometimes difficult to 'taste' in your mind just from a photo on your computer screen; the ingredients help nudge you in the right direction. The garnish is an orchid from one of my plants, a lemongrass leaf and a slice of ginger."

German Oven Pancakes

"I took this photo in the midmorning light. Of course I had two little hungry kids hanging on to me - half of the shots I took included a chubby hand reaching for a strawberry or a fast-flying finger trying to catch the swirl of whipped cream. I was lucky and was able to get a couple of good shots. I wanted to make sure that you could see how colorful, sweet and juicy the fresh fruit was. All of the fruit was from the organic farm stand near our home - many people think that organic fruits are small, dull and expensive, ... but look how incredibly vibrant the strawberries, mango and kiwi are! I included the skillet in the photograph - because we eat right out of the skillet; and it takes an ordinary pancake and fruit salad and transforms it into a unique tradition."

TIPS FOR TASTY PICS

"I have one simple rule in my photography: The food and ingredients should be the superstar," says food blogger Jaden Hair, who specializes in "drool-worthy" photography. She offers these suggestions for making tasty food photos:

•Having a white background does a couple of things: a) It reflects the light to give a nice glow around the dish; and b) It gets rid of all the background distractions. If you are shooting in your home - the chairs, couch or TV in the background. You can buy a white foam board at any office or art supply store.

•Don't use flash, which flattens out your image and makes food look very unappetizing. Use the macro function on your camera and get up close to the food.

•Use natural light when possible. Light through a window, lanai screen or a very lightweight curtain works best, as the harsh light gets filtered and you end up with a soft lighting effect.

•Look for curves, angles and shadows. Because photography is so one-dimensional, find ways to feature textures, interesting ingredients or curves and angles. Look how beautiful the curve of the shrimp tail is! Are you using a beautiful square platter? Angle the corner toward the camera to create some depth. Notice how I angled the skillet so that the handle comes out toward you. Pay attention to how the shadows fall on your dish. Rotate the plate, move the dish, or simply pick a new spot to shoot. Gentle shadows can be so graceful, as in the Fresh Lemongrass and Ginger Ale photo.

•All these photography tips are great, but it all comes down to choosing fresh ingredients and good quality meats. Of course, if it looks good and tastes bad, what's the point?! Ninety-three percent of my food photos are dishes that I cook for our family supper in my home kitchen. I usually get about two minutes to quickly shoot the photo - my kids and husband are anxiously waiting at the dinner table, and, of course, I want to make sure that the dish is still hot when serving. The other 7 percent of the dishes that I photograph are still created in my home kitchen but late at night when my kids are asleep and I don't have to share any of the yummy deliciousness ... usually the common denominator in that category is chocolate.

HAIR'S UPCOMING CLASSES

•Fresh Italian Pasta & Sauces, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Chef's Table, 8473 Cooper Creek Blvd., Sarasota; $50 per person. See how simple ingredients such as eggs and flour come together to create silky linguine and plump ravioli. For reservations, call (941) 360-0007.

•Korean Feast, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium, 2080 Badlands Drive, Brandon; $45 per person. Hands-on class teaches how to cook a Korean barbecue feast. To register, call (813) 653-2418.

"This is one of my favorite recipes because it is so incredibly simple to make," says Jaden Hair. "Other than frying, there is no other cooking involved. At my dinner parties, these are always the first to go as they are delicious, easy to eat and incredibly addictive. They are light, crispy and the sweet chili sauce adds the perfect spice and tang."

FIRECRACKER SHRIMP WITH SWEET CHILI SAUCE

25 large shrimp, de-veined, patted dry

15 egg roll/spring roll wrappers, cut in half diagonally (2 triangles)

Oil for frying (canola, vegetable or peanut)

Marinade:

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon grated ginger (using rasp grater)

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce such as Mae Ploy brand

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Cornstarch Paste:

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup water

Combine marinade ingredients in bowl; marinate shrimp for 20 minutes.

After marinating, pat the shrimp dry with a paper towel, taking care to wipe the tails very dry. Wrap each shrimp in an egg roll or spring roll wrapper half:

Lay shrimp straight, with tail sticking out on the long side of the triangle. Roll the shrimp tightly in the wrapper and fold over the point of the triangle, up and over the shrimp. Continue rolling; with a pastry brush, brush the cornstarch "paste" on the remaining corner to seal. Seal tightly and lay the shrimp to rest with the sealed edge on the bottom (to let the seal dry and adhere).

Fry in 2 to 3 inches of hot oil (375 degrees) for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden brown and shrimp is cooked through. Serve with sweet chili sauce for dipping.

Note: Roll the shrimp tightly in the wrapper or else the shrimp may fall out during the frying. Also, buy your egg rol or /spring roll wrappers (different names for the same thing) from an Asian market. Do not use the wrappers found at the large chain supermarkets labeled "pasta wrappers." Those are very thick and starchy and don't taste very good.

FRESH LEMONGRASS GINGER ALE

1 pound fresh ginger, cut into small dice (don't bother peeling)

2 stalks lemongrass stalk, outer leaves discarded and roughly chopped into 1/2-inch sections

1 1/2 cups sugar

Soda water

Gin (optional)

Combine the first three ingredients in the container of a food processor, and process until it becomes a consistency of a thick puree. You may have to stop the machine and scrape down the sides a couple of times.

Place the puree in a saucepan with the sugar and 1 quart of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat to medium and simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Let the mixture cool. Strain through a couple of layers of cheesecloth and a fine mesh strainer. Chill in the refrigerator. You can make this lemongrass ginger syrup up to a week in advance.

To serve, place about 1/4 cup of the syrup in a glass full of ice. Fill with soda water and/or gin; taste and add more syrup if you like. Garnish with a lime wedge, then serve.

Makes about 1 quart - at least 10 glasses.

"My kids [2 and 4 years old] make German Oven Pancakes every Sunday morning," Hair says. "They crack the eggs, sift the flour and mix the batter all by themselves. We pour it into a skillet and the pancake billows up and out while baking in the oven. Every Sunday morning, we top the pancake with lots of fresh fruit, whipped cream and eat it right out of the cooled skillet. Ditch the electric mixer, and use a whisk and a large bowl ... some traditions are just better doing it the old-fashioned way."

GERMAN OVEN PANCAKES

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, sifted

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Position rack in the middle (or lower). If you have a convection oven, set it at 425 degrees (the pancakes rise even higher with the convection setting).

Beat eggs in a large bowl. Stir in the milk, melted butter, sugar and salt. Gradually add flour to egg mixture, a spoonful at a time. Have your child help you by spooning the flour in while you whisk by hand. You could also just sift the flour directly into the bowl, which is what we do. Make sure the flour is well-incorporated in the batter with no lumps.

Lightly spray a 9- to 11-inch oven-safe skillet (no plastic handles or teflon!) with cooking spray. Pour batter into the skillet. Bake 12 to 18 minutes depending on the type of skillet or pan you use. (It's fun to turn on the oven light and watch the pancake form.) Top with fruit, granola, whipped cream or just eat it plain. You can also mix chocolate chips in the batter.

Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324 or jhouck@tampatrib.com.