The Daring Cooks May 2010 - Stacked Enchiladas

Hi kids! First the good stuff.. this month's Daring Cooks' challenge! Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh. The only well lit picture taken by my friend Sue :) These were delicious.. and I had no doubt even before I made them. You could put just about any kind of Mexican/Latin food in front of me and I know it'll be delish. This recipe was straight forward and easy. My only problem was finding tomatillos. After a 1/2 a day hunt, I found 3 of them. Yes. 3. So the Green Chile Enchilada sauce happened, but I had to cut down the recipe quite a bit to accommodate my small amount of the main ingredient. That's okay though, it turned out delicious and I had enough for 2 of the 6 stacked enchiladas I made. The other 4 got a red sauce, which was the exact same recipe as the Green Chile Enchilada sauce, except I used 2 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes in lieu of the tomatillos. It also turned out to be mighty tasty. First batch of Poblanos roasting over an open gas fire :D I made 6 enchiladas as Hubbs and I were entertaining 4 of our most gorgeous and closest friends for a birthday celebration. From the response I received everyone absolutely loved the dish, and asked for the recipe. Very poorly lit and slightly blurry photo of the Green Chile Enchilada Sauce Enchiladas Thank you so much, Barbara & Bunnee! What a great, simple, easy to put together recipe that is very worthy of serving to guests! Very poorly lit and slightly blurry photo of the Red Chile Enchilada Sauce Enchiladas - hee! Please check out the rest of the Daring Cooks' spin on this recipe, I'm sure ya'll will find TONS of ideas on how to make this recipe your own. :) Hugs! xoxoxo

Cound I Be Any Later?

Hi! Sorry! Late! Late! No good excuse. Been a cooking/baking LAZIAC lately. My kitchen literally GASPS when I walk in it and stay for more than 5 minutes. Just haven't had any motivation to do much lately.. I think the worst part of winter for me is the end - that stage where we're at the end of winter/beginning of spring. It's always rainy and freezing and were most foodies would relish this time to get in as much rib-stickin', comfort-y, cozy cooking as they can before it gets too hot to even look at the kitchen, I get all blanket-y, book-y, give me a bag of chips & dip and maybe a package of Nutter Butters and I'm good for a month. :P I didn't want to miss the Daring Cooks risotto challenge even though it was one of the weirdest feelings I've had regarding a DK challenge. Basically, I've made risotto 4,825 times in my life. I've made homemade stock 1,397 times. So our challenge wasn't much of a challenge for me this month, yet I really, really wanted that creamy arborio rice in front of me. So I had to think outside the box.. I had to figure out a way to do something I haven't done or haven't done much of. So I chose to go sweet. I've made rice pudding a couple times in the past. I've made really good rice pudding in the past. But I never attempted to make it as with arborio rice and I've never experimented in making it as if I would as savory risotto dish. Meaning, instead of dumping rice in boiling water until it was cooked, and then dumping in sweetened & spiced milk until it was thick.. I decided to toast up my arborio rice in some butter first.. and then I started to ladle in the sweetened milk mixture a ladle at a time, constantly stirring until I had a rich and creamy, sweet and spicy, concoction that was just heavenly. Other than the way I prepared the rice, the recipe came from my little Gracie.. that baking maniac that puts pounds on my hips and ass by just reading a post on her blog. Yes, I'm talking about Peabody and her delicious culinary concoctions. God love her. A couple years ago she made an arborio rice pudding with stone fruit butterscotch topping. As per usual, I laughed at her post, and copy/pasted the recipe into my "Gracie" folder since it tipped my "drool meter" over to tilt. But, I never made it.. so this was the perfect opportunity to try it! Okay so I did make some changes, but only out of necessity. Stone fruits aren't in season where I live unless you consider the imports from Chile "in season" and you could only consider that if you like rock hard like stone fruit with no taste. Gah. So I went with a Bosc pear and raisin butterscotch topping instead. Dear sweet Jebus that is a combination to go into the books. SO DAMN GOOD! But SO DAMN SWEET! So I decided to throw some salt into the butterscotch and that rounded out the sweetness perfectly. The rice was so thick and creamy with just a hint to cinnamon and the pear/raisin/butterscotch sauce was downright sinful. You'll forgive my more than usual bad photos - and you'll ignore how they don't make this dessert look very appetizing - just try this.. either now with fruits that are in season, or tuck the recipe away for later in the year when the peaches and plums are at their juicy best and try it. If you like rice pudding, you'll LOVE this dessert! Thanks so much to Eleanor and Jess for hosting a great challenge that was really enjoyed by so many Daring Cooks! And thanks to Gracie for pulling me outta my comfort zone and allowing me to experiment with one of her recipes. :) xoxo

Mezze - It's What's for Dinner

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid. This month's Daring Cook's challenge brought a whole new culture into my life. I've never eaten ANYTHING Middle Eastern before, although my sister loves it and has been telling me for months that I need to try it. I have to admit, Middle Eastern fare, never really thrilled me because when I think of that kind of food, I think of beans. *shudder* Chickpeas, lentils, black beans.. all of those lil pasty tastin' legumes. If you're new to this here lil blog, then you might not know of my strong dislike of beans. Frankly, I'd rather eat live bees. ;) But I am happy to say that I was completely wrong, which is nothing new. :P Yes, Middle Eastern food does contain beans, but there is so much of a variety of other foods - I had no idea! I wanted my Mezze to be special, so I called upon my home girls. My G's, if you will. June, Blimey & Amy - 3 of my favorite people in alla world. As per usual, they were up for it and all agreed to find a Middle Eastern recipe to bring to the party. Yay! I decided to make a cold Lebanese carrot salad, green beans (one of the few that I'll eat) Lebanese style, Kalamata olive tapenade as well as the mandatory hummus and pita bread. June brought a delicious Tabouli and Amy brought a refreshing and really delicious cucumber Raita. Unfortunately, Blimey got sick so she couldn't join us, and we missed her tremendously. We piled everything onto the kitchen table and started eating immediately. SO GOOD! My absolute favorite was the green beans Lebanese style. Holy cow, I could eat that daily. I wouldn't even share much of the left overs with the gals because I HAD. TO. HAVE. IT. the next night with a roasted chicken. Delish! I really enjoyed the small bites of everything.. and liked to combine different dishes to see what went best with what. My favorite combo was a lil Kalamata tapenade on some pita followed with a lil dab of cucumber Raita. Salty with a nice tang. *slurp* As for cooking this feast - no problems really at all. I got a lil nervous when my pita didn't balloon up like Audax's and it didn't really brown up on top. The bottoms browned up nicely though. And although parts were flat and parts were bubbly it was really good pita. June was the resident Middle Eastern connoisseur and she said the pita was excellent and she loved the other dishes as well. Score! I know it was good food because I realized afterward that we had no meat and didn't even miss it! It wasn't consciously planned that way, but since it happened, I'm going to say we dedicated our vegetarian dinner to Michele. :D Eating this way is definitely fun - true party food. Next I want to do a Tapas night and then a dim sum night.. I'm looking forward! Michele, thanks so much for turning me on to this delicious food and showing me how easy it is to make pita bread! I'll definitely be making it again! You did an excellent job hosting! Love you! Check out all the rest of the amazing Mezze feasts from our Daring Cook troops! Just seeing what they've uploaded to the forums makes me all kinds of hungry for Mezze all over again! ;) xoxo

January 15th? Nooo it was JUST the 13th!

Okay so I can't win. I either am stressing to get a Daring Kitchen challenge done at the last minute, or I get it done way early and then something happens where I can't get to my lil blog to post on the damn reveal date. WTF? The January 2010 Daring Cooks' challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day. Huge apologies to Cuppy - I feel as if I have failed our host(s) miserably when I'm late to get a post up.. this wasn't intentional! And now I am seriously pressed for time - but the good news is, there was no disaster this month, so I really don't have a long post full of expletives and "whoa is me" whining. ;) I made Chicken Satay using Cuppy's longer version marinade and it didn't even look remotely appetizing as I was transferring my chicken strips (breasts sliced into strips) from the bag of marinade to the broiling pan (grill was under 2 feet of snow..) all yellow and stuff. But I kept an open mind, Lord knows I've been happily surprised often in the past with these Daring Cooks challenges! I had made my peanut sauce earlier due to time constraints and was warming it up again, while the chicken was under the broiler, when it separated. I had a small pan of peanut solid and peanut oil. Ewww. I was very dismayed over it, but thanks to my experience of making buttercream 59 gajillion times, I decided not to panic and to just get out my trusty balloon whisk and start whisking. Luckily it all came together again - only now it was almost like peanut fudge, which isn't a bad thing - just something I wouldn't normally pair with chicken. ;) Thanks to the amazing support we receive on the private forums of the Daring Kitchen, my question of why it separated was answered by Robert of An Alaskan Cook's Exploration of Food and Technique - and he thought that I had too much heat going on. And he was most likely right, I did have the heat up pretty high now that I think of it. Stupid on my part. Again, I persevered and continued on with dinner, making a batch of Basmati rice to go with. Once it was all done, yeah it still didn't look that great. My chicken was even more yellow and my sauce was no longer sauce-y. At this point, I could have binned it all and declared it a disaster, but I was HUNGRY dammit. So I plated, called Hubbs to the kitchen and got a giggle from the expression on his face. He was not amused. He must have been hungry too. hehehe I decided to take my dinner into my office so I could watch a movie (and mainly because I wasn't in the mood to hear him bitch about how awful the food was). Surprisingly.. this dinner was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I cannot express how much I LURVED it! Suffice to say that it's been well over a week since I've made Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce and a day hasn't gone by that I haven't craved it. Unfortunately, Hubbs wasn't as impressed (most likely because he turns his nose up at any form of chicken. He'll eat it but not happily.) and that's the only reason I haven't cooked this dinner several times since my first taste. But my cravings will win soon - they ALWAYS do - and he'll just have to get over it. ;) I always thank our hosts at the end of my posts, but this time I really need to lay on the lurve. Cuppy jumped in when, at the last minute, our slated January host couldn't do it. Cuppy had NO TIME and yet she came up with a well written recipe and plan for all diets. This was a quick challenge, that was most gratefully received after the busy and hectic holidays and I now have a new favorite quick meal to throw together after a stressful day at work. And yes, this recipe has been "westernized" and is not an authentic Thai recipe, but it's delicious regardless. I seriously cannot wait to make it again! Thanks so much, Cuppy!! :) xoxo

Daring Cooks December Challenge: Beef Wellington

Beef wrapped in mushrooms, wrapped in prosciutto, wrapped in a buttery, flaky crust. What could be better? The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online Well apparently.. I'm not the beef wrapped in mushrooms, wrapped in prosciutto, wrapped in a buttery, flaky crust kinda gal. This just didn't thrill me. Not only did I have HUGE problems with the pastry dough, but the final product just wasn't very "BOOYA" if yanno what I mean? Which kinda floors me, because okay - so the crust sucked, pick it off and eat the rest for crissakes, yes? But the Parma ham just got all greasy tucked in there.. the mushrooms were okay, but they were minced so kinda hard to enjoy them.. and the steak, although done perfectly and seasoned well.. just wasn't all that tasty. Did it all steam too much in it's pastry shell? Are my tasters off? I just don't know.. This is not to say that I am saddened by this month's challenge. I am always grateful to learn a new technique and recipe.. and a shortcrust pastry dough was something I'd never heard of before. And yes, I am grateful that I learned a new dough recipe, but this is one I won't be trying again. Gah. After we had dinner that night, I thought to myself that I MUST have screwed up - because, hey, that's what I do. Especially when it comes to baking and doughs, right? So I just sat on it for a day but it bugged the bejebus outta me, so I went back over the recipe and I know I didn't screw up.. but, I still ended up with uhmm.. cracker crumbs? Have a look! Sorry for the poorly lit photos - but it gets dark here at like 9 in the morning! (okay well not that early, but way too fakkin early these days [5ish in the evening]) See? Crumbly dry bad juju stuff. And this photo was taken after it had been wrapped in cling wrap and refrigerated for a few hours. I weighed my ingredients AND I even put in more water than called for! So yous guys tell me.. what. the. hell.? Anyhoo.. I ended up having to smoosh more water in there to get it to come together and roll out.. and that did work.. but I assume having done that plus the extra kneading, didn't make for a flaky crusty outcome. I also vented my dough to let the steam out.. but everything inside was still.. uhhh.. steamy. Maybe I'm just a grill or pan fry steak kinda gal? Maybe I like my beef crusty - as in crust from seasoning and a cast iron skillet or over a hot grill. I dunno. I do know that lots of members had great luck with this and I have to say that the challenge was to make whatever filling we decided on, be it beef, salmon or another fish, vegetable, pork, chicken, you name it, wrapped in dough. We did not have to make the shortcrust pastry dough recipe that was given to us by Simone. We could have used store bought or another recipe for the crust.. so I do not count this as a failure. I did learn how to make wellington and maybe on some special (it'd have to be pretty damned spectacular) occasion I'll make it again with another dough recipe and maybe I'll really crust up that meat with lots more seasoning and leave the prosciutto out.. and maybe I'll like it a lot better. And before I end this.. I have to say one more thing. HERE'S A BIG F.U. TO TRADER JOE'S FOR DISCONTINUING THEIR PUFF PASTRY. BITE ME! YOU SUCK TRADER JOES' PERSON WHO DECIDES WHAT IS KEPT ON THE SHELVES AND WHAT ISN'T BUTTWAD. Course I'll still shop there.. cuz I love it.. but damn, it was the ONLY place where I live that I can get puff pastry made with REAL BUTTER and not disgusting shortening. *sigh* And please.. don't even tell me to make it myself. Have you ever read my Daring Baker posts?? I'd have better luck milking my own breasts, churning my mammary gland juices into butter using a bucket and a broom handle and then paying someone else to fold it into a dough 5000 times. GAH. xoxo

Sushi!

No disaster! Can you believe it?? Sushi.. I thought for sure I'd be crying in my Ebi. But no.. everything went beautifully and our sushi not only turned out very pretty, but muy delicioso! I had to wait until the 14th to make it as I had a couple friends over for a sushi making/movie watching party. Both gals were an absolute delight and we all really enjoyed making the sushi. Sushi making is very time consuming due to the prep work and because of this, it is assured that our favorite sushi place will not be losing our business. *grin* Well there's that and there's the fact that the sushi chef, Jonathan Hirsch, from our favorite sushi restaurant (Lure Bistro in Willoughby, Ohio) helped me to make this party a sucess for myself and my friends! He gave great advice and hooked me up with some excellent fish and a few tools of the trade to make sushi making much easier than I ever thought it could be. Well, let me rephrase that - BASIC sushi making is easy.. the kind of sushi that looks like art work, well that's a whole different story. I could never put out sushi plates that look as beautiful as Jonathan's - and I'll tell you why I know this... The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge. I watched a video that Audax and Rose gave us the link to. It was of a pretty basic dragon roll, but what I was most interested in was how sushi chefs get the avocado to lay so perfectly on top of the roll. This video really illustrated how it's done and it's the method I used - which turned out perfectly. I was so excited! The next step was to cut the dragon roll and then plate it and decorate it. That part didn't go so well. We chose to use tempura shrimp in our dragon roll because none of us like eel. Well, even though I was using a sharp knife, when it hit the harder tempura shrimp, I over compensated by pushing the knife down to break through it (not that it was rock hard, just harder than avocado, rice, tuna and cucumber) and that ended up squishing my beautiful roll and the delicate avocada squished off and all over the place. Gah. This happened after 4 hours of prep (we also had tempura sweet potato to munch on - YUM! and I made Jaden's Pork and Crab Wonton soup again) and ya'll know me.. I was f'n starving, tired, and annoyed. So I didn't even bother decorating it. :P Mindy made gorgeous spiral rolls and Amy excelled at the Nigiri. All in all it was a most fabulous evening and we were all super impressed with our mad sushi making skilz that we didn't even know we had! Thanks Audax & Rose! It was one of the best challenges yet! And thanks Jonathan!! You made a daunting task, so much more accessible and fun! xoxo

What the Pho?

I wonder how many blog entries will be titled that today? hehe So this morning I felt fanfarkingtastic. Tonight? Not so much. Lots of talk of flu and the cold weather setting in.. and hubbs doesn't feel good.. so I dunno if this is psychosomatic or if my wonderful husband has shared a germ with me.. but I feel like poo. So this is going to be short and sweet! :) The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. Ah-mazing. That's all I can say about this Vietnamese Beef Pho soup. I was a lil iffy with those spices.. anise and cinnamon in a savory beef soup? *shudder* But boy were my eyes opened after that first taste. I couldn't have been more surprised or more happy with the results. I went with the long version of the Beef Pho from Jaden's Steamy Kitchen because Hubbs had just made his world famous (not really) chicken noodle soup 2 days before. Jaden's quick version of Pho Ga, which is found in her brand spankin' new KICK ASS book, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough for Tonight's Dinner is on the menu next week while I am on VACATION! WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!! Actually quite a few of the recipes in her book are on the menu next week as I am reviewing it for this blog, so keep an eye out! :) (It will also be reviewed on The Daring Kitchen TWICE! So look for those reviews too. ;)          Anyhoo.. this month's challenge was about learning how to toast spices and how to make a KILLER stock. Both of which I'd never tackled in the kitchen before. That stock.. oh that stock.. so rich, so flavorful.. so freakin' delicious. Just the right amount of saltiness and beefiness. AND another weird ass thing was creating a bowl full of noodles, bean sprouts, thinly sliced red onions (chilies and cilantro too.. but we omitted because we didn't have any and I couldn't talk Mr. Chicken Soup Two Fakkin Days Before I'm Suppose To Cook Vietnamese Chicken Soup into running to the grocery store for me. Gah.) LIME and RAW BEEF. Seriously. I decided to use London Broil as it was on sale, and figured hell, if it's raw, it won't be tough right? I mean.. don't get me wrong.. I like my steak still mooing, but even rare is at least seared, yanno? This was raw as raw can be.. sliced thinly and laid on top of all the other ingredients.. then the broth was poured over and it "cooked" the beef. But it didn't cook it enough to make it tough as a well done London Broil will be.. nope, it was cooked just enough to take away the raw flavor but left it tender and amazingly flavorful. And the lime just added another incredible flavor layer that makes me wanna.. GAWD DAMN I WANT SOME RIGHT NOW. I'M SICK, I SHOULD HAVE SOME. SOMEONE MAKE ME SOME. PWEASE??? *sob* 'kay well I might not really be sick and wasn't I suppose to keep this short?? Jebus. Alrighty then.. this recipe got a huge THUMBS UP from both of us. I have froze the remaining stock and can't wait to use it again. I am so looking forward to the quick version and then somewhere down the road I'm going to be roasting a chicken or two and will save the carcass to make the longer traditional Pho Ga, you can betcher sweet patootie. As a matter of fact, it's been decided that no longer will we be making our soups with store bought stock when it's SO SIMPLE MR. JENKINS to make it at home. Jaden, huge huge huge thank you for the time you gave all of us at The Daring Kitchen this month. It was a pleasure seeing your smiling face in the forums and listening to you during the conference call. Thanks for so generously sharing these recipes and your new book (there's a contest.. 3 lucky winners will win a copy of Jaden's new book!) and we hope you stop by every once in a while and say HI! Oh yeah and once you've finished your 2nd book.. uhmm... we'll so test 'er out for ya again! :D Kids.. buy this book. It's filled with gorgeous photos and amazing recipes. Check out Jaden's blog for the traditional Beef Pho recipe and the traditional Chicken Pho recipe. Also, check out the The Daring Kitchen for the Quick Chicken Pho recipe.. something to tantalize you while you are waiting for your book to be delivered to your doorstep. ;) Oh and all of you Daring Cooks out there.. I'm not going to spill the beans right now.. but Jaden is going to be offering a new contest which will be announced in the private forums on Oct. 17th.. :D And before I leave this "short" post (BAHAHAHAHAHAA) I couldn't forgive myself if I didnt plug another AMAZING contest being hosted at The Daring Kitchen from Oct. 10 to Nov. 9 - It's a cake decorating competition! The good folks at The New York Cake Convention and The US Confection Connection are giving away an all expenses paid trip for 2 to the NY Cake Convention Jan. 2 to the 5, 2010! That includes airfare, hotel accomodations, tickets to the convention and SO MUCH MORE. Check out the details HERE. This contest is open to the public as well as our Daring Kitchen members. Enter! You've got nothing to lose and so much to gain! :) xoxo

Daring Cooks' September 2009 - Indian Dosas

Hey ya'll.. well talk about the last minute AGAIN. I kept putting this challenge off because of time restraints.. but come to find out, time wasn't even an issue. Every component was quick and simple to put together. To me this challenge was more about trying a cultural food I'd never had before. This wasn't much about learning a new technique in cooking. It was so simple that Hubbs joined in and between the two of us, we were done in less than an hour. I don't mean that he can only cook simple dishes, that's not true at all.. he's quite handy in the kitchen, bless his cotton reinforced toe tube socks. Actually he's a fantastic cook.. but he's an even better sous chef when I'm cooking. ;) Never having ate Dosas before.. hell, never having ate Indian food before, I have nothing to compare this dish to. The flavors were very good, I enjoyed that aspect of it. It was the texture that kind of put me off. Although my "pancakes" were thin, they were still pretty spongy in texture. They reminded me of the pancakes that come with Mu Shu.. which I tried once and ended up eating the filling and not the pancakes - for the very same reason. hehe The filling, although we decided to not puree the chickpeas and instead mashed most of it and left some whole or partially whole, it was still too smooshy beany texture-wise for me. The coconut-curry sauce was delicious, but neither of us tasted coconut and we used a brand new can of coconut milk. Oh I should also mention, we halved the recipe but we followed it exactly, except for two things. We used all purpose flour instead of spelt and we used coconut milk in the pancakes instead of almond, rice or soy milk. Both changes were because of having to buy a large quantity of the ingredient for just a few tablespoons and/or less than a cup needed. In these times, it's almost a sin to waste anything. Now with all of my negativity - we can definitely say that's just me. Hubbs loved it. He ate several Dosas and says he'll bring the rest for lunch tomorrow. And he doesn't do leftovers, so go figger. ;) He said that he'll forego the pancakes and just bring flour tortillas with him to wrap around the filling, which he'll mix with the sauce. This makes me happy. I'm glad he enjoyed them so much. This doesn't mean much, since this is only the second time I've cooked/baked Vegan.. but my eyes have definitely been opened. Again, without ever trying what I assume are traditional Indian Dosas made with animal products, the flavors in these Vegan Dosas were so enjoyable that I didn't miss butter (don't hate me, Paula!) or cow's milk. A great big Thank You to Debyi of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen for being a wonderful hostess and for turning many of us on to the pleasure of cooking Vegan. :) xoxo

Rice with Mushrooms, Squid and Artichokes

This month we were all treated to learn how to make an authentic Spanish meal that was time consuming, but easy and so worth the hours of slow cooking. Olga of Las Cosas de Olga and Olga's Recipes, was our hostess and wow, what an amazing job she did! Thank you so much, Olga! :) I really don't have much to say about the recipe, other than it truly was delicious and it made my house smell amazing. I followed the recipe almost exactly - my only changes were to caramelize my onions slowly over low heat for about an hour before adding the rest of the veggies for the Sofregit, I used canned fire roasted diced tomatoes instead of fresh because our garden tomatoes aren't ready yet and I refuse to buy the tasteless tomatoes from the grocery store. Oh and I used squid instead of the cuttlefish that was the original seafood ingredient, just because you'd have a better chance of meeting Elvis at the local library than you would of finding cuttlefish at the grocery stores/fish markets in these parts. ;) I really took my time with the Sofregit.. mainly because of what other members were saying about theirs and I knew it'd make way too much for what the recipe called for, so I wanted the remainder to be really concentrated in flavor so I could use it to spread of bruschetta for a lil get together I'm having in a few weeks. And I'm glad I did, that stuff is amazing. I'm almost thinking of just serving it in a big bowl with a loaf of crusty bread torn up around it so people can just dip.. YUM. I was concerned, initially, about rubbery squid. From many past experiences I know that you've got two choices with squid - cooked quickly, or cooked for hours and you will get tender slices.. cooked in between those two times and you're just asking for a mouth full of rubber. Although you don't cook the squid for tooooooo long in this dish, it's longer that what I've had success with in the past and much, much shorter of a time than my dad's Christmas Calamari sauce that I cherish. But to my surprise it came out super tender! It was fantastic! I used Arborio rice since we needed a short grain rice and it made the dish extra creamy and delicious. This is definitely a dish that needs a good starchy short grain rice to give it an extra kick of wonderfulness. I now realize why the paella I made years ago was just "okay" instead of really good like this dish. I used regular long grain rice that I always have in my pantry. Now I'm rarin' to make Paella again using the Arborio. I'm looking forward! :) If you like Spanish cuisine, I highly recommend this dish. Try it! :D Check out the other Daring Cooks' versions of this recipe.. I guarantee you'll be listing the ingredients on a grocery list in the not too distant future. ;) xoxo

Hmm..

No Daring Cook challenge for me this month.. I'm sad to say this is becoming a habit, me not making my DB or DC challenges.. I feel like I'm letting my "team" down. I really don't have an excuse either. I guess I just wasn't feeling very Daring in the cooking department this month. I apologize to all the other DC's who were feeling Daring and to our Host, Sketchy. I'm really sorry I didn't participate. Please check out the other fantastic and so very, very talented Daring Cooks.. I've seen a few "previews" and I was blown away from their creativity. Check them out HERE!! Don't forget.. today is the LAST day you can sign up to be a Daring Cook on the Daring Kitchen to participate in August's challenge. If you sign up tomorrow you must wait until September's challenge. So hurry up and register! Also.. don't forget we've got many extremely talented and creative non-blogging members who participate each month.. they post their challenges right on the Daring Kitchen website and you can read/see them HERE! xoxo

Squeeeee! Even if it's the last minute!

Yeah yeah.. we all know the program by now. Ms. AlwaysByTheLastMinute. But my excitement never waned! I was thrilled with this choice of challenges by one of my most favorite sweethearts, Jen of Use Real Butter. Jen, you did an awesome job this month - thank you so muchly! And no, YOU rawk! :D With flour underneath my nails, my lower back and feet KILLING ME from standing over the counter rolling and filling, and the yummiest of Chinese potstickers sitting happily in my bellaye, I write this very short post in hopes that I can talk Hubbs into one of his magical backrubs! Obviously, I took a brief pause from my low-carb lifestyle to make these potstickers. But there was NO WAY I was going to take a chance that I wouldn't like these because of usage of an alternate flour that I am unfamiliar with. And I'm really glad I did.. that dough was a dream to work with. I went a little thinner than the recipe called for, even though I would probably have problems with them breaking while cooking (see below), but the only dumplings I truly love are the ones with the thinnest of "skins". To my amazement, I only had 2 wounded soldiers! The filling was also SPOT ON! Soooooooo delicious! Both Hubbs and I were "oooh-ing" and "awww-ing" while we ate them this evening. I decided to just make enough for dinner tonight, which left me with a lot of filling left over. I froze it and figured even if it gets a lil mooshey due to the mushrooms in it, I'll just squeeze it in a cheesecloth. Now ask me how the pleating went. Go ahead, I dare ya. Jesus, Joseph and Mary I am unfuckincoordinated. Dudes. You have no idea. I'd get like 3 half-assed pleats on one side and then just stare at the other side trying to figure out how to do it the opposite way. Hello? Needless to say, the left side of the 6 pleated potstickers I tried, all ended up being a smooshed insult to dim sum everywhere. *sigh* I finally said, "fakk it" and decided to make cute lil purses instead. Much easier - all the pleats went in the same direction and I could smoosh them LEGALLY when finished! Party on! I didn't feel like making my usual potsticker dipping sauce and couldn't find the printed page where Jen's recipe was listed, so again I said.. everyone with me.. on two! One.. two.. FAKK IT! I looked to see what I had in the fridge.. took out a small bottle of peach preserves that was only 1/2 full, a lime begging to be put out of it's misery and a bottle of rice wine vinegar. So I whipped up a peachy-lime vinaigrette for dipping and it totally KICKED ASS with the savory dumplings. :) So there you have it.. a lil late, but still mucho delicioso! Big hugs to all of our amazing Daring Cooks! I can't wait to see whatcha'll do next month! DOH! I wanted to add a link back to Jen's blog so ya'll can get the recipe and see her gorgeous photos! Here's her most recent post for The Daring Cooks - Chinese Potstickers and the original post she did back in 2007. xoxo

Ever Thrown a Party and...

felt like the only one who didn't have a good time? Gah. Before I get into it, I guess I've got some apologizing to do.. mainly to myself for being such a slacker. :P The three of yous that still read my blog, did you know that the brand new The Daring Kitchen website has been up and running since March 7th? Yeah.. it has been. And quite swimmingly too! Did you also know that we've got a whole new exciting theme with brand spankin new logos/badges created especially for the Daring Bakers and Cooks?? DID YOU KNOW we have a brand spankin' new addition to the Daring family called The Daring Cooks???? Jebus. I'm like the world's worst mom. I haven't even bragged about what a fabulous new website we have.. I haven't introduced ya'll to my youngest, lil Daring Cooks (she's the lil one at the end.. with the curls, cute eh?) and I haven't been passing out the wallet-sizes for ya'll to carry with you to show off to your own friends and family. Hell, I've even failed to mention that ya'll can own your own merchandise featuring these gorgeous logos and be the ENVY of all that know you!! I'm so ashamed. This is all true! And today, today is lil Daring Cooks' inaugural introduction to the world! Today, after months and months of awaiting her arrival, she comes to us all fluffy and cheesy.. lightly fried or slightly boiled.. dressed in the most finest of fashion.. look at her positively glow in that clarified butter and glitter with peeps of chopped fresh sage. Why she's absolutely a vision. Isn't she? I really couldn't be a more proud mom. Honest! :) Mark this day on your calendars, kids! For every 14th of each month, lil Daring Cooks' will be showin' off her gorgeousness! That's just 2 weeks after her big sis, Daring Bakers' strides down her own red carpet on the 27th of each month! So what's all of this about not having a good time at your own party? Well.. here's the deal. For our lil Daring Cooks' inaugural bash, Ivonne thought it would be a good thing if she and I hosted. She's the hostess between the two of us, you know? I'm more of the "fill up your drink?" and "let me take your coat" kinda gal, while Ivonne knows exactly what to do to make even a drab venue sparkle and shine with excitement. So I agreed to the hosting thing, but yanno... wasn't exactly all jazz-hands about it. And the she told me I could pick the recipe! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I never get to pick the recipe! I mean, it's always an option for me, Ivonne never says "we're making this and that's that" but I just am more comfortable setting the table and making sure we've got enough toilet paper, than I am with you know.. choosing the color scheme. yanno? But since I've wanted the Daring Cooks to join with the Daring Bakers for many, many months - ya'll know me by now.. I'm a cook. Not so much a baker. :P Well being able to pick the recipe was just the nicest gift ever. :D So I headed over to my sagging bookshelves and immediately grabbed The Zuni Café by Judy Rodgers. This book was given to me by my sweet and very talented "sister", Veronica. She said she just knew that I'd like it because we share the same brain. hahaaa! She was right. I LOVE IT! But! I'm kinda scared of it. Go figger. I've wanted to make so many recipes from this book but I'm always afraid I'd mess it up. So I just knew the recipe for the first Daring Cooks' challenge had to be something from The Zuni Café because of all the help and support our members are capable of, surely I'd be able to get through my first Zuni recipe in victory! :) I chose Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi from pages 221-226. The way Judy describes them, so fluffy and light and bursting with flavor.. and my being a big gnocchi fan, well it was the perfect match! I asked Ivonne what she thought about the book and she said she owned it as well and loved it very much and as soon as I said "Zuni Ricotta" she chimed in with "GNOCCHI!!" So yes, I believe this was the recipe she wanted to go with as well. hahahaa! I don't know if a trip to a local Italian chain restaurant clouded my judgement before I had even made my ricotta gnocchi or not. I want to say no, but it really might have.. to my surprise that evening, this restaurant had spinach ricotta gnocchi on the menu. Well you know damn well I had to order it. My first bite was far from spectacular.. my second bite was leaning towards being offensive.. the third bite (and quick spit into my napkin) turned the corner and went full balls to the wall disgust. I couldn't believe these were gnocchi! The texture of sponge. The flavor of well.. mustiness. Does mustiness have a flavor?? It was just a fowl, malodorous taste. One, obviously, descibed better in a smell than a flavor.. if that makes sense? Ugh. So to say I was a bit apprehensive the day I was going to make my own ricotta gnocchi isn't an exaggeration. But, surprisingly, everything went really well. I had hung my fresh ricotta cheese in cheesecloth well over 24 hours prior to cooking, so it was nice and dry. My "dough" was as soft as a baby's bottom, yet had some firmness where I could actually handle the lil gnocchi pretty easily. I even made sure to have time to set them in the fridge, as Judy recommended, to gain a little more firmness before boiling my test batch. I had decided beforehand that I wasn't going to get fancy-pants with what I was going to serve them with / in. I wanted them to be the star of that evening's dinner, so they were only getting a small spoonful of my marinara with some grated Locatelli on top. And that was it. My two lil gnocchi went into the salted boiling water and dove all the way to the bottom.. and then they headed back up to the surface and practically sunned themselves on the gentle waves of the boiling water (ha! didn't know I was poetic, did you?). I had a tiny lil bowl with just a schmear of marinara in it, waiting on the side.. 1 minute.. 2 minutes.. 3 minutes.. DONE! I scooped them out gently and allowed the excess water to drip off, then gently slid them in the tomato sauce.. OHMYGOD they smelled SO GOOD. I was SO FAKKING HAPPY that word "malodorous" didn't even pop to mind! And then I used my fork to cut one in half.. a lil resistance was met, but that's okay - I'm a lover of the more hearty "toothsome" (God I hate that word) traditional potato dough gnocchi with a lil chew to them. My hopes were high! I took my first bite.. and.. well.. Oh for fucksake. They were horrible. Spongy texture all over again. You see, I don't correlate "light and fluffy" with "spongy and fowl" you know? But apparently, I'm one of the very few that didn't love these gnocchi. From what I've read in our private DC forums, most everyone has enjoyed their gnocchi.. some so much that they've made several batches AND turned them into dessert as well! God bless 'em! :) This is the only photo taken that day.. after they were formed, before I knew they were spongy and ka-ka. :( I would love to say I'm going to try these again and this time add a lil flour to the dough.. but nope, oh hells no, I am not going near this recipe again. I am defeated. Okay that's not the right word. The recipe worked fine for me.. they actually did turn out perfect. I just don't like a "light and fluffy" gnocchi. Who knew? I am happy though that I finally got to make a recipe from The Zuni Cafe cookbook because now I'm rarin' for more. Especially that roasted chicken salad I keep hearing about. *slurp* Give this recipe a try and let me know what you thought of it.. :) Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi Source: From The Zuni Café Cookbook Yield: Makes 40 to 48 gnocchi (serves 4 to 6) Prep time: Step 1 will take 24 hours. Steps 2 through 4 will take 1 hour. Equipment required: • Sieve • Cheesecloth or paper towels • Large mixing bowl • Rubber spatula • Tablespoon • Baking dish or baking sheet • Wax or parchment paper • Small pot • Large skillet • Large pan or pot (very wide in diameter and at least 2 inches deep) For the gnocchi: 1 pound fresh ricotta (2 cups) 2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 or 3 fresh sage leaves, or a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg, or a few pinches of chopped lemon zest (all optional) ½ ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated (about ¼ cup very lightly packed) about ¼ teaspoon salt (a little more if using kosher salt) all-purpose flour for forming the gnocchi For the gnocchi sauce: 8 tablespoons butter, sliced 2 teaspoons water Step 1 (the day before you make the gnocchi): Preparing the ricotta. If the ricotta is too wet, your gnocchi will not form properly. In her cookbook, Judy Rodgers recommends checking the ricotta’s wetness. To test the ricotta, take a teaspoon or so and place it on a paper towel. If you notice a very large ring of dampness forming around the ricotta after a minute or so, then the ricotta is too wet. To remove some of the moisture, line a sieve with cheesecloth or paper towels and place the ricotta in the sieve. Cover it and let it drain for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can wrap the ricotta carefully in cheesecloth (2 layers) and suspend it in your refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours with a bowl underneat to catch the water that’s released. Either way, it’s recommended that you do this step the day before you plan on making the gnocchi. Step 2 (the day you plan on eating the gnocchi): Making the gnocchi dough. To make great gnocchi, the ricotta has to be fairly smooth. Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl and mash it as best as you can with a rubber spatula or a large spoon (it’s best to use a utensil with some flexibility here). As you mash the ricotta, if you noticed that you can still see curds, then press the ricotta through a strainer to smooth it out as much as possible. Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mashed ricotta. Melt the tablespoon of butter. As it melts, add in the sage if you’re using it. If not, just melt the butter and add it to the ricotta mixture. Add in any flavouring that you’re using (i.e., nutmeg, lemon zest, etc.). If you’re not using any particular flavouring, that’s fine. Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt. Beat all the ingredients together very well. You should end up with a soft and fluffy better with no streaks (everything should be mixed in very well). Step 3: Forming the gnocchi. Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. When it boils, salt the water generously and keep it at a simmer. You will use this water to test the first gnocchi that you make to ensure that it holds together and that your gnocchi batter isn’t too damp. In a large, shallow baking dish or on a sheet pan, make a bed of all-purpose flour that’s ½ an inch deep. With a spatula, scrape the ricotta mixture away from the sides of the bowl and form a large mass in the centre of your bowl. Using a tablespoon, scoop up about 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter and then holding the spoon at an angle, use your finger tip to gently push the ball of dough from the spoon into the bed of flour. At this point you can either shake the ban gently to ensure that the flour covers the gnocchi or use your fingers to very gently dust the gnocchi with flour. Gently pick up the gnocchi and cradle it in your hand rolling it to form it in an oval as best as you can, at no point should you squeeze it. What you’re looking for is an oval lump of sorts that’s dusted in flour and plump. Gently place your gnocchi in the simmering water. It will sink and then bob to the top. From the time that it bobs to the surface, you want to cook the gnocchi until it’s just firm. This could take 3 to 5 minutes. If you’re gnocchi begins to fall apart, this means that the ricotta cheese was probably still too wet. You can remedy this by beating a teaspoon of egg white into your gnocchi batter. If you’re gnocchi batter was fluffy but the sample comes out heavy, add a teaspoon of beaten egg to the batter and beat that in. Test a second gnocchi to ensure success. Form the rest of your gnocchi. You can put 4 to 6 gnocchi in the bed of flour at a time. But don’t overcrowd your bed of flour or you may damage your gnocchi as you coat them. Have a sheet pan ready to rest the formed gnocchi on. Line the sheet pan with wax or parchment paper and dust it with flour. You can cook the gnocchi right away, however, Judy Rodgers recommends storing them in the refrigerator for an hour prior to cooking to allow them to firm up. Step 4: Cooking the gnocchi. Have a large skillet ready to go. Place the butter and water for the sauce in the skillet and set aside. In the largest pan or pot that you have (make sure it’s wide), bring at least 2 quarts of water to a boil (you can use as much as 3 quarts of water if your pot permits). You need a wide pot or pan so that your gnocchi won’t bump into each other and damage each other. Once the water is boiling, salt it generously. Drop the gnocchi into the water one by one. Once they float to the top, cook them for 3 to 5 minutes (as in the case with the test gnocchi). When the gnocchi float to the top, you can start your sauce while you wait for them to finish cooking. Place the skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Swirl it gently a few times as it melts. As soon as it melts and is incorporated with the water, turn off the heat. Your gnocchi should be cooked by now. With a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the boiling water and gently drop into the butter sauce. Carefully roll in the sauce until coated. Serve immediately. *If you don’t want to cook your gnocchi right away or if you don’t want to cook all of them, you can make them and freeze them. Once they are formed and resting on the flour-dusted, lined tray, place them uncovered in the freezer. Leave them for several hours to freeze. Once frozen, place them in a plastic bag. Remove the air and seal the bag. Return to the freezer. To cook frozen gnocchi, remove them from the bag and place individually on a plate or on a tray. Place in the refrigerator to thaw completely. Cook as directed for fresh gnocchi. Here is a photo of the ingredients I used to make Chicken Cacciatore the following weekend.. see the plate? That's the batch of DELICIOUS potato dough gnocchi I made to go with the chicken. *slurp* :P xoxo