The Daring Cooks' Challenge No. 9 - August - Appam and Curry.

Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks' host.  Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is.  She challenged us to make appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.

Appam is a type of bread similar to a crepe made from a fermented rice batter and usually served with a curry.  Now, I didn't master this (because I left trying it to the day the challenge was supposed to be posted) but although my appam didn't look quite right, I really loved the taste of it and felt it was a refreshing accompaniment to a curry.  I chose to make Mary's Chemeen Pappas (a prawn and coconut milk curry).  The whole family loved this mild but tasty curry and I will certainly make this again.  Probably next time I try to make appam.  I'm going to get it looking beautiful next time.  I do know where I can make improvements.  I don't think I blended the rice enough and I also think my batter that I left fermenting was too thick.

Really enjoyed the challenge of making something quite different again.

I did spend a few hours of the weekend doing this, though, and I am finding that with trying to do all the challenges I am spending too long trying to fit them in when we should really be spending the weekends as a family.  So, this will probably be my last Daring Cooks Challenge and I will probably bow out of the Daring Bakers too.  Might be able to go back to them later when the kids are a bit older and I have a bit more time to myself.

Recipes - here.

The Daring Cooks' Challenge No. 8 - July - Spätzle.

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess.  Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine.  She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

I have made pasta before but had never heard of spätzle before so I decided to concentrate on making this.  According to Wikipedia (so I am happy to be corrected if this is not right), spätzle is a traditional dish of areas around Bavaria, Austria and Hungary.  Spätzle translates as "little sparrow" and is thought to be so-called because the little rustic hand-shaped nuggets are thought to resemble little sparrows.   

I started off by making Steph's family recipe for spätzle with butter and breadcrumb sauce. This makes lovely rustic little nuggets of what I would say is a cross between pasta and our traditional doughballs (which we make with four and suet).

The breadcrumb dressing gave a fantastic contrast in texture to the doughy pasta and with plenty of garlic we loved this quick and easy meal.

I then decided to try making the spätzle the slightly more modern way into noodle shapes using a spätzle press (or a potato ricer).  Unfortunately it has been so long since I used my ricer that I didn't put it together properly and found the whole process so very frustrating, not realising I had missed out part of it until I was finished.  I will have to try again to see if I can make better looking noodles.

I decided to go more along the lines of a Hungarian dish and served the spätzle with a beef paprikash (recipe from Good Food).

Recipe - Spätzle - Steph's Dad's.

Serves 4.

Ingredients - 

2 large eggs
½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk
1½ cups (360 ml) (210 gm) (7½ oz) plain flour
up to 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of herbs and spices (optional – I added some cayenne and herbes de provence)
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (3 gm) fresh parsley, chopped 

Method - 

1. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and any herbs and spices that you want to incorporate into the spätzle.

2. Incorporate the flour in small batches, by sifting in a small amount at a time and mixing until the flour is completely integrated. Keep adding flour until the dough becomes elastic, smooth and very hard to stir.

3. Boil a large pot of water. Dip a table spoon into the boiling water to wet it. To form the spätzle, fill the tablespoon about half way with dough, and release into the boiling water.

4. Boil for 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Drain the water from the spätzle. Because it's full of fun craters where water can hide, you will need to drain it especially well. Toss with the chopped parsley.

6. Plate, and dab a bit of the sauce on each spätzle. Don't add too much – it's really more of a light dressing than a sauce.

Recipe - Butter and Breadcrumb Sauce - Steph's Dad's.

Ingredients - 

6 tablespoons (90 ml) (85 gm) (3 oz) butter (I actually used 4 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil, and it worked well)

½ cup (120 ml) (30 gm) (1 oz) fresh breadcrumbs OR ½ cup (120 gm) (60 gm) (2 oz) dry breadcrumbs (either variety can be used)
salt and pepper, to taste

Method - 

1. Melt the butter... this can be done in the microwave, or on the stove. 

2. Mix in the breadcrumbs. If needed, gently heat further (especially if you store breadcrumbs in the

fridge or freezer). 

3. Season to your taste.

I'm really glad to have made these dishes.  The spätzle makes a very satisfying meal.  It has a very nice bite to it - a little bit chewy - and goes very well with the goulash.  I will certainly make it again.  So quick and easy to do too.  It has also inspired me to make doughballs again - will be making some of these for stews once we head in to the Autumn.

The Daring Cooks' Challenge No. 7 - June 2011 - Potato Salad.

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

As you may have noticed from the lack of posts, I am still feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything for the move, work and trying to find a new job.  So, for this challenge I actually just made one of my favourite potato salads which is from Jamie Oliver's first book - The Naked Chef.

It is simply potatoes mixed with salsa verde.  Steve made salsa verde for me on an early date and the combination of capers and anchovies is one of his favourites so this always makes me think of him.

I served it warm with pan fried sea bass and then the next day we had the cold leftovers alongside some barbecued meat.  It doesn't look very pretty in the picture.  As you know, I'm not very good at pretty presentation.  It does taste fresh and tangy, though.

Here's the link for Jamie's salsa verde.

The Daring Cooks' Challenge No. 5 - March 2011 - A Peruvian Meal.

Kathlyn of Bake Like A Ninja was our Daring Cooks' March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenged 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.

I knew I would love ceviche ( a dish of raw fish marinated with lime juice and chillies) and have actually been meaning to try the recipe for it in Nigella Express for some time.  The Papas Rellenas is also a great dish - a South American version of the mince and tatties we would eat here in Scotland.

So, the ceviche to start.

I used scallops as I had a bag of them in the chest freezer and I love them.  I also diced my red onion and mixed it with the scallops.  I made this at the last minute so the scallops only marinated for 10 minutes maximum and it turned out perfectly.  The next time I will reduce the chillies a little and mince them rather than chop as we got the odd bite that nearly blew our heads off - might have just been a particularly hot chilli.  The texture was amazing - the soft but firm scallops and the crunch of the onions. I could taste the scallops but they were overlaid with the zing of the lime - such a fresh tasting dish.  Next time I will try it with a different fish but I think the scallops would be hard to beat.

Recipe - Ceviche.

Ingredients - 

1Kg firm white fish (scallops or other seafood may be substituted) (must be high quality, really fresh fish) 

2 garlic cloves, mashed

1 chilli pepper, minced

240ml freshly squeezed lime juice (8-12 limes) (NOT bottled lime juice)

1 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped

1 red onion, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

Method - 

1. Slice your fish into cubes.  (The fish is going to "cook" in the lime juice - how thick you make the pieces will determine how much the fish cooks.)

2. Place fish in a non-reactive pan in a thin layer.  Season with salt and pepper.

3. Combine the lime juice, chilli, coriander and garlic.  Pour mixture over the fish.  Stir lightly to expose all the fish to some of the lime juice mixture.

4. Put the sliced onion on top of the fish as it cooks.

5. Let stand for 10 minutes.  

6. Lift fish out of the lime juice and serve.

So, on to the main course - the Papas Rellenas.  This is a very versatile dish and any filling can be used so you can vary this every time to suit yourself.  I actually really enjoyed the filling in this one - the soaked raisins, olives and spices in the mixture made it very tasty.  The eggs were okay but I might leave them out next time as it would help to cut down the number of steps in making this and I don't think I would miss them.  Although some of the Daring Cooks put a whole boiled quail's egg in the centre of their papas and it does look very effective when sliced open.

The papas rellenas were served with a salsa criolla which was so simple to make and a very effectice accompaniment.

Recipe - Papas Rellenas de Carne.

Ingredients - 

For the dough - 

1Kg russet potatoes

1 large egg

For the filling - 

2 tbsp veg oil

250g minced beef

6 black olives, pitted and chopped

3 hard boiled eggs, chopped

1 small onion, finely diced

90g raisins, soaked in 240ml boiling water for 10 minutes then minced

1 finely diced chilli

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

60mls white wine, water or beef stock for deglazing

salt and pepper to taste

For the final preparation-

1 large egg, beaten

140g plain flour

Dash cayenne pepper

Dash salt

110g bread crumbs

oil for frying

Method - 

1. Boil the potatoes until the pierce easily with a fork.  Remove from the water and cool.

2. Once cooled, peel them and mash.

3. Add egg, salt and pepper and knead thoroughly to ensure ingredients are well combined and uniformly distributed. Set aside.

4. Make the filling.  Gently brown onion and garlic in oil for about 5 mins.

5. Add the chilli and saute for a couple more minutes.

6. Add the mince and brown.

7. Add raisins, cumin and paprika and cook briefly.

8. Deglaze the pan with the liquid.

9. Add olives and cook for a few moments longer.

10. Add hard boiled eggs and fold in off the heat.

11. Allow filling to cool before forming "papas".

12. Use three small bowls to prepare the papas.  In one combine the flour, cayenne and salt. In the second a beaten egg with a tiny bit of water. Put the breadcrumbs in the third.

13. Flour your hands and scoop up 1/6 of the dough to make a round pancake with your hands.

 14. Spoon a generous amount of the filling on to the potato then roll the potato round it to enclose it.  Repeat with the rest of the potato and filling.

15. Heat 4-5 cm oil in a pan to 175 - 190 C.

16. Dip each papa in the three bowls to coat: first the flour then the egg then the breadcrumbs.

17. Fry the papas (in batches if necessary) about 2-3 mins until golden brown.  Flip once during cooking.

18. Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm in oven if doing in batches.  Serve with Salsa Criolla.

Recipe - Salsa Criolla.

Ingredients - 

2 medium red onions, cut in half and very thinly sliced.

1/2 chilli

1 tbsp vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)

Juice from 1 lime

Salt and pepper to taste

Method - 

1. Soak the onions in cold salt water for about 10 mins to remove bitterness.  Drain.

2. In a medium bowl combine the onions with the rest of the ingredients, season with salt and pepper.

3. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes for the onions to macerate and the flavours to combine.

The Daring Cooks' Challenge No. 4 - Feb 2011 - Hiyashi Soba and 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

I have to say we love Japanese food in this house so I couldn't wait to get stuck in with this one.  My tempura wasn't as light and crisp as I would have liked - probably the oil wasn't hot enough or the batter cold enough.  I also made the spicy dipping sauce just a little too spicy for Steve and myself - oops.  Enjoyed the challenge immensely - especially the little tips I picked up here and there - like how to make the Japanese omelette.

Soba Noodles:

Ingredients
 2 quarts (2 Liters) water + 1 cup cold water, separate
12 oz (340 g) dried soba (buckwheat) noodles (or any Asian thin noodle)

Directions:

Cooking the noodles:

1.              Heat 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Add the noodles a small bundle at a time, stirring gently to separate. When the water returns to a full boil, add 1 cup of cold water. Repeat this twice. When the water returns to a full boil, check the noodles for doneness. You want to cook them until they are firm-tender. Do not overcook them.

2.              Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse well under cold running water until the noodles are cool. This not only stops the cooking process, but also removes the starch from the noodles. This is an essential part of soba noodle making. Once the noodles are cool, drain them and cover them with a damp kitchen towel and set them aside allowing them to cool completely.

Mentsuyu - Traditional dipping sauce:

Ingredients
 2 cups (480ml) Kombu and Katsuobushi dashi or a basic vegetable stock;
1/3 cup (80 ml) soy sauce; 
1/3 cup (80 ml) mirin (sweet rice wine)

Directions:

1.              Put mirin in a sauce pan and heat gently. Add soy sauce and dashi soup stock in the pan and bring to a boil. Take off the heat and cool. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Spicy Dipping Sauce:

Ingredients 
¾ cup 70gm/2½ oz spring onions, finely chopped;
3 tablespoons (45 ml) soy sauce;
2 tablespoons (30 ml) rice vinegar;
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) (4 ⅔ gm) (0.16 oz) granulated sugar;
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1/8 gm) (0.005 oz) English mustard powder;
1 tablespoon (15 ml) grape-seed oil or vegetable oil;
1 tablespoon (15 ml) sesame oil; Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste - roughly 1/3 a teaspoon of each.

Directions:

1. Shake all the ingredients together in a covered container. Once the salt has dissolved, add and shake in 2 tablespoons of water and season again if needed.

Common Hiyashi Soba Toppings:

•                Thin omelet strips *

•                Ham

•                Boiled chicken breasts

•                Cucumber

•                Boiled bean sprouts

•                Tomatoes

•                Toasted nori (Dried Seaweed)

•                Green onions

•                Wasabi powder

•                Finely grated daikon (Japanese radish)

All toppings should be julienne, finely diced or grated. Prepare and refrigerate covered until needed.

Serving:

Traditionally soba is served on a bamboo basket tray, but if you don’t have these, you can simply serve them on a plate or in a bowl. Divide up the noodles, laying them on your serving dishes. Sprinkle each one with nori. In small side bowl or cup, place 1/2 cup (120 ml) of dipping sauce into each. In separate small side dishes, serve each person a small amount of wasabi, grated daikon, and green onions.
The noodles are eaten by sprinkling the desired garnishes into the dipping sauce and eating the noodles by first dipping them into the sauce. Feel free to slurp away! Oishii!

Tempura

Recipes courtesy of pink bites and itsy bitsy foodies
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 egg yolk from a large egg;
1 cup (240 ml) iced water;
½ cup (120 ml) (70 gm) (2½ oz) plain (all purpose) flour, plus extra for dredging;
½ cup (120 ml) (70 gm) (2½ oz) cornflour (also called cornstarch);
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) (2½ gm) (0.09 oz) baking powder;
oil, for deep frying preferably vegetable;
ice water bath, for the tempura batter (a larger bowl than what will be used for the tempura should be used. Fill the large bowl with ice and some water, set aside)

Very cold vegetables and seafood of your choice ie:

•                Sweet potato, peeled, thinly sliced, blanched

•                Carrot, peeled, thinly sliced diagonally

•                Pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed, thinly sliced blanched

•                Green beans, trimmed

•                Green bell pepper/capsicum, seeds removed, cut into 2cm (¾ inch)-wide strips

•                Assorted fresh mushrooms

•                Eggplant cut into strips

•                Onions sliced

Directions:

1.              Place the iced water into a mixing bowl. Lightly beat the egg yolk and gradually pour into the iced water, stirring (preferably with chopsticks) and blending well. Add flours and baking powder all at once, stroke a few times with chopsticks until the ingredients are loosely combined. The batter should be runny and lumpy. Place the bowl of batter in an ice water bath to keep it cold while you are frying the tempura. The batter as well as the vegetables and seafood have to be very cold. The temperature shock between the hot oil and the cold veggies help create a crispy tempura.

2.              Heat the oil in a large pan or a wok. For vegetables, the oil should be 320°F/160°C; for seafood it should be 340°F/170°C. It is more difficult to maintain a steady temperature and produce consistent tempura if you don’t have a thermometer, but it can be done. You can test the oil by dropping a piece of batter into the hot oil. If it sinks a little bit and then immediately rises to the top, the oil is ready.

3.              Start with the vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, that won’t leave a strong odor in the oil. Dip them in a shallow bowl of flour to lightly coat them and then dip them into the batter. Slide them into the hot oil, deep frying only a couple of pieces at a time so that the temperature of the oil does not drop.

4.              Place finished tempura pieces on a wire rack so that excess oil can drip off. Continue frying the other items, frequently scooping out any bits of batter to keep the oil clean and prevent the oil (and the remaining tempura) from getting a burned flavor. Serve immediately for the best flavor, but they can also be eaten cold.

* Japanese thin omelette (usuyaki tamago) from Just Hungry

1 egg

1 Tbs. water or dashi stock

1 tsp. sugar

dash of salt

1 tsp. cornstarch or potato starch (_katakuriko_), dissolved in 1 Tbs. water - optional

peanut oil or similar flavorless oil for cooking

Beat the egg and water or dashi together. Add the sugar and salt and beat until dissolved. The cornstarch is optional, but it does add some more strength and stability of the thin egg. You may want to use cornstarch when you are making usuyakitamago for wrapping something in.

To ensure a very smooth egg batter, strain the beaten egg mixture through a sieve or a large-mesh tea strainer.

Heat up a nonstick frying pan over a low-medium heat and coat with a little oil: Pour some into the pan, then use a paper towel to spread it around and wipe up any excess oil.

Add a little of the egg mixture (ho much depends on the size of your frying pan, but for a small 18cm/6 inch pan allow about 1/8th cup) and rapidly swirl it around until it just coats the bottom.

Cook on low heat just until the egg is set - this should only take a minute or so. It’s done when the edges are dry and the top is just about cooked.

Loosen up the edges with a spatula, then flip the pan upside down onto a plate - the omelette should flop out, like a crepe. Let cool.

You should get about 3 usuyaki tamago per egg. If you find the pan is getting too hot and the egg is browning too much, cool off the pan by pressing it lightly on a folded moistened kitchen towel.

To use as garnish, fold 1 or 2 usuyaki tamago over into thirds, and cut into thin strips or julienne with a sharp knife. This is called kinshi tamago, scattered on the top of sushi, noodles, and so on.

Have a look at the daring cooks' blogroll to see other versions of this dish.

The Daring Cooks' Challenges No. 3 - Cassoulet.

Well, cassoulet, eh?  I have made plenty of cheat versions of this in my time but have never done an authentic one.  It's great timing in that this is perfect food for the cold weather and the dark days but really bad timing in that this is the time of year when people are trying to cut back a bit on the calories after all the excesses of the festive season.  I dread to think how many calories in a portion of this and I'm certainly not going to try and work it out as we have been eating mountains of it!

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

So, I chose to follow the fairly traditional recipe of Bourdain and Ruhlman but I have made a few little changes and I'll put my adapted version up here for my own use.  The first thing I did was to halve the quantities of everything and I am so glad I did as even this makes a mountain of the stuff and, as you will be able to tell from the ingredients, it is very filling and very calorific.  The other changes I will be tempted to try next time are 1) this recipe doesn't have the breadcrumb topping that a lot of cassoulet recipes have and I would like to try that.  It did need a little something to add texture.  As it was, we served it with crispy garlic bread which served the purpose; and 2) I notice Delia roasts her pork belly in her version - I think I would like to try that too as I do love a caramelised, roasted pork belly.

I also cheated and didn't make my own duck confit.  This is because it was actually easier for me to get duck confit than fresh duck legs and I have made duck confit in the past so didn't feel it would matter too much.

Be warned - this takes 3 days to make but is ideal for cooking for guests as there is nothing to do except put in the oven on the last day.

Recipe - Cassoulet (based on recipe by Bourdain and Ruhlman)

Ingredients - 

550g dried cannelini beans

450g fresh pork belly

1 onion, quartered

1 bouquet garni

salt and pepper

30g duck fat or dripping

6 Toulouse sausages

3 onions, thinly sliced

1 head of garlic

16 slices of thick cut smoked bacon

2 confit duck legs

Method -

1. Place the beans in a large bowl and cover with cold water so there are at least 2 or 3 inches of water above the top of the beans.  Soak overnight.

2. Drain and rinse the beans and place in a large pot.  

3. Add the pork belly, the quartered onion and the bouquet garni.

4. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 30 mins.  Season with salt and pepper and continue to simmer until the beans are tender, about 30mins more.

5. Let cool for 20 mins then discard the onion and the bouquet garni.

6. Remove the pork belly, cut it into squares and set aside.

7. Strain the beans and set aside, reserving the cooking liquid separately.

8. In a saute pan, heat the dripping over a medium-high heat until it shimmers and becomes transparent.

9. Carefully add the sausages and brown on all sides.

10. Remove sausages and set aside.

11. In the same pan, over medium-high heat, brown two onions, sliced, and one clove of garlic, sliced.

12. Once browned, remove from the heat and transfer to the blender and puree until smooth.

13. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C/GM 4.

14. Line the bottom of a deep ovenproof dish with the bacon.

15. Slice the remaining onions.

16. Peel the remaining garlic bulbs and cut into big chunks or leave whole.

17. Strip the duck meat from the bones and rip into bite-size chunks.

18. Cut sausages into chunks.

19. Arrange all your ingredients in alternating layers.  begin with beans, then sausages, then more beans, then pork belly, beans, duck, then finally more beans.  Add a dab of the onion puree and a scattering of onion and garlic to each layer.

20. Add enough of the bean cooking liquid to just cover the beans, reserving about 240mls in the fridge for use later.

21. Cook in the oven for one hour then reduce the heat to 250F/130C/GM 1/2 and cook for another hour.

22. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.  Refrigerate overnight.

23. Cook at 350F/180C/GM 4 for one hour.

24. Add extra bean cooking liquid if needed.

25. Reduce heat to 250F/130C/GM 1/2 and continue cooking for another 15 mins then serve.

So, the verdict?  It was absolutely gorgeous - really filling and hearty.  But it is a faff and I have had dishes with beans and chorizo and the like which can be put together in an hour and taste brilliant too.  I think I will try it again with the breadcrumb topping and with roasting the pork and see how that goes.  I certainly would consider this if I was feeding guests on a cold day but I wouldn't make this at home just for us.  Loved the challenge and am really glad I did it.  I think making the confit was the main point of the challenge so I obviously cheated on that, but, hey, I know I can do that whereas I have never made a proper cassoulet before so I'm happy.