Daring Cook - May Challenge - Chicken Gumbo

Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.


I organized a potluck for my fellow business school students and started cooking and preparing the gumbo at 4:00pm today.  WOWIE!  I was surprised at how long it was going to take and actually ended up not cooking it as long as it said I should.  However it was a huge success, the pots were scraped clean by the end of the night.


Minor glitches included wondering why it wasn't a dark golden brown when I realized that was probably due to using vegetable oil instead of duck/chicken fat, having too small a cast iron pot for the food so I had to split it in half, and accidentally doing the math wrong for the amount of sausage needed.  


However all in all a huge success, people loved it and it tasted pretty darn good!  :)


Photos and more details to follow!

Daring Baker - March Challenge - Meringue Coffee Cake

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.


This was definitely a fun challenge and I was a little worried how it was going to turn out because I've never made meringue and well.. I always worry about how things are going to turn out.  They were actually quite tasty, I felt that some pieces were a bit dry because I didn't lay out the inside ingredients well enough but all my friends who tried it, LOVED it!


Definitely a success, despite it taking four hours to complete, half the time was just waiting for it to "rise" which it never really did and I wonder if that also lead to the dryness.  That or I'm used to gooey, calorie ridden coffee cakes from outside places. :)


Pictures to come!

Daring Cook - March Challenge - Papas Rellenas and Ceviche

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.


What an amazing challenge!  I've always wanted to learn to make ceviche because I love raw fish and lightly cooked in lime juice ceviche.  Then when I was in Peru I had some of the most amazing ceviche dishes and even got to try La Mar while I was out there.  The ceviche was a lot easier than I thought it would be and with the help of a friend and then later a juicer (poor friend of mine juiced half my limes by hand before I remembered I had a juicer).  

It came out beautifully.  I used yellow tail and talapia.  The yellow tail tasted best when only lightly cooked and the talapia was great either way.  

The Papas Rellenas were what I was really afraid of.  It looked like so much work!  And it was pretty labor intensive, but the recipe was actually easier than I thought it would be.  My timing was a little off so I was definitely scrabbling around the kitchen try to get everything cooked (hard boiled eggs, raisins) and minced and then into the potato cocoon.  I think it might have been easier if I had peeled and cut the potatoes and then boiled it.  One of them came out not that soft but it was too late to cook it longer.

However everything still tasted fantastic!  Thanks to a tip for frying that I learned from the tempura challenge, frying these bad boys were a breeze!  And they were seriously delicious.  I even made vegetarian ones for two friends who don't eat meat.  Instead I used everything but the meet and added spinach and mushrooms.

Can't wait to try this recipe again!

Daring Baker - February Challenge - Panna Cotta & Floretine Cookies

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I was super excited about this months Baker's Challenge because I LOVE Panna Cotta!  Love, love, love it.  I didn't realize how easy panna cotta is to make, making it taste the way I like was going to be a different challenge.  So the panna cotta came out pretty good, it could have been put into a prettier container and I totally forgot about the gelee recipe, so I had some plain panna cotta.  I thought the flavor was a bit lacking and I might try adding some vanilla beans or vanilla extract next time.  The texture came out perfect, but it pretty much tasted like whipping cream flavored panna cotta.  Still delicious though, especially after I let it set overnight.  When I first tasted it (about 7 hours of being in the fridge) it tasted more like whipped cream, after setting over night it tasted more like panna cotta.

The florentine cookies were a different story entirely.  This is where I wish I had a pipping bag or some of the other tools that make cooking easier, like more counter space. haha... because this is what happened..

***CRASH*** BAM**** BOOOM***

(thank goodness for a well trained dog, yes he got to try a taste after I cleaned it up)

On a positive note, I got to purchase a Silpat and wonder how I ever lived without it!  The end results weren't that pretty, but I think I might give it another shot and halve the recipe.  I had so much chocolate left over!  These are the before photos of the cookies (I have a tendency to dollap too much I think).

I was WAY more excited about melting this:

Into this (because I've never done it before):

The cookies tasted almost overly sweet, but magic happened when I ate it with the panna cotta!  It's like the flavors were made for each other!  I think I'll try these again, because I really want to make them pretty and also because I now have a giant container of quick oats and I'm not a huge oatmeal fan. ;) All in all, not a successful challenge for me, but definitely a fun experience!

Kings Hawaiian Sweet Bread Sliders

I've always wanted to try making beef burger sliders and with what else.. but my all time favorite bread (or one of) - Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls!  I have to say Kings Hawaiian is doing an amazing marketing job with twitter and facebook... honestly they got me.  Because they tweet so much I actually eat more of their bread than I did before.  It also didn't hurt that I went to their restaurant up in Torrance in January and it was definitely onolicious!

So I looked up their slider recipe and went off to the market to pick up ground meat and more rolls. (By the way.. the Costco near my house sells Kings Hawaiian sweet rolls in 24 packs - YAY!).

I adjusted a few items in their recipe, instead of lettuce, I used spinach and green onion, added a thin slice of tomato.  I also didn't make the aioli sauce they described.  Instead I used Grill Mates seasoning and Tapatio on the meat.  While they look delicious and were pretty yummy there were definitely things I could have done to make it better.  The bread got really soggy from the juice of the patty and the patties were a little bland.  I bought Angus beef pre-made sliders so I didn't have to sit there and mold the meat myself.  But laziness meant the burgers lacked some flavor.  If I made them myself I could have marinated the meat and added more seasoning.  I think next time I'll try that, and also poke a few holes in the meet so there's not as much juice, maybe add some cheese too!

All in all, a good first beef slider experience.

Daring Cook - February Challenge - Soba Noodles & Tempura

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com.

So this is my first ever Daring Cooks' challenge! And I know the soba was going to be no problem, although I did have difficulty finding Kombu and Katsuobushi dashi and used a fish based one instead that usually goes into miso soup.. maybe it's the same? Not sure. However it still came out tasty and doubled as a dipping sauce for the tempura!

The soba is easy to make in large batches and I made it for a Lunar New Year potluck (despite the fact the Japanese don't really celebrate Lunar New Year). 

 The tempura I was afraid of. I haven't had good experiences with deep frying things in a pot of oil and have always wanted to get a deep fryer, but opted to give it a shot anyway. The tip they provided about knowing when the oil is hot enough was fantastic - you drop a bit of batter in and if it sinks and floats immediately you're ready to go.  The trick is that the batter stays cold and the moment it hits the water is when you get that light, fluffy taste!  I had blanched the sweet potato a little too long, but they still came out tasty anyway.

1) Take the veggies, dip them into flour:

2) Dip them into the batter that sits in an ice bath:

3) Deep fry and enjoy!

I honestly was so surprised that they came out so pretty and tasty!  I'm quite proud of myself and now not as scared to deep fry things.  I think it's time to get a thermometer and forgo the deep fryer purchase.. for now. :)

Daring Kitchen

I saw my friend The Flirty Girl's post about her participation in the Daring Baker challenges.  So I decided to hop on over to the Daring Kitchen to see what all this was about.  I figured I should apply to join because I've been wanting to cook and bake more and what do you know... you can sign up to be either or both a Daring Cook and a Daring Baker!  My first post about the first assignment I got as a Daring Cook is coming up soon, so watch out for it!

And if you feel like you're ready for a challenge (these can be for novices too) you should go over there to sign up too!  Never fear if you're not an amazing cook, this can be a good place to start and to try, I'm sure at some point I'll mess up or fail at one of the challenges, but that's okay, it's a learning experience and one I'm looking forward too!