The Daring Cooks’ April 2011 Challenge: EDIBLE CONTAINERS (savory)

Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!


My choice was to make something really easy. Here in Serbia it`s quite usual to use phyllo pastry to make different kinds of pies. Since the healthier food is becoming more and more popular, it`s not a surprise to find whole wheat phyllo pastry. I decided to make savory container out of buckwheat phyllo.


Here`s how I made it:

Brioche mold came out to be an excellent choice for preparing the container. First, I cut three thin buckwheat layers into a circular shape, big enough to completely cover the mold and then I sprinkled the top one with a tiny bit of olive oil. Container-to-be was baked in pre-heated oven at 200C for 5 minutes.


Simple as that!!!


Baked container had to be filled with something tasty and light, so I made a salad. In order to prepare it, you`ll need no more than 10 minutes. Buy:

• cabbage, and cut it in thin stripes
• sesame seeds-place them in the frying pan (you don`t have to grease it) on medium fire until they become light brown.
• carrot-grated
• sea salt to taste or tamari sauce
• few drops of water
• toasted sesame oil

Mix well all the ingredients, place them in the freshly baked food container and serve with the main dish of your choice.

The Daring Cooks February 2011 Challenge: Cold Soba Salad & 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


Let`s see what Lisa has to say about these pearls of Japanese cuisine:
 

Soba is a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. It is served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth as a noodle soup. It takes three months for buckwheat to be ready for harvest, so it can be harvested four times a year, mainly in spring, summer, and autumn.


Hiyashi Soba is a popular dish in summer. It's like a noodle salad. Restaurants in Japan serve Hiyashi Soba only in summer. Even if you don't have much appetite because of the heat, Hiyashi Soba can be appetizing. Common Hiyashi Soba toppings are omelet strips, ham, cucumber and grated Daikon. You can also have the noodles just with the dipping sauce.


Tempura is a Japanese dish of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. A light batter is made of cold water (sometimes sparkling water is used to keep the batter light and soft wheat flour (cake, pastry or all-purpose flour). Eggs, baking soda or baking powder, starch, oil, and/or spices may also be added

I decided to make my own version of soba noodles for two reasons-first, I like homemade noodles and second-soba noodles are very expensive in Serbia. I did a bit of research and found lots of interesting sites about soba making (try this one). Finally, I found my own version of, let`s say, buckwheat rather than soba noodles, in preparing of which I used pasta machine.

Here`s what you need:

• 400g buckwheat flour
• 100g all-purpose flour
• 240ml of very cold water

The important thing is that the buckwheat-all purpose flour ratio is 80:20.

Mix the flours in a bowl and add water. Knead for at least 10 minutes, until you get very soft dough. Use pasta machine to form long noodles:

Cooking the noodles (slightly adapted Lisa`s directions):



Heat 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. You want to cook noodles until they are firm-tender. Do not overcook them.


Drain the noodles and rinse well under cold running water until the noodles are cool.  Once the noodles are cool, drain them and cover them with a damp kitchen towel and set them aside allowing them to cool completely.


Cold buckwheat noodle salad

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
You need:

• egg
• leek
• spring onions
• tamari sauce

Beat an egg in a bowl and fry it. After it`s fried, cut it into stripes.
Cut the leek and fry it for 5 minutes.
While waiting for egg and leek to cold, cut spring onions.
Mix vegetables and egg with prepared noodles and sprinkle with tamari sauce.
 

Tempura
 
Since this was my first time to make tempura, I chose to trust Lisa and see what`s going to happen.
 

Ingredients



1 egg yolk from a large egg

1 cup iced water

½ cup  plain (all purpose) flour, plus extra for dredging

½ cup cornflour (also called cornstarch)

½ teaspoon  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

Directions:


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.

Now, for the record-I used only one kind of vegetables-onions. Yes, I made onion ring tempura!
Let` continue with directions:

Heat the oil in a large pan or a wok. For vegetables, the oil should be 160°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.

Dip the onions 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.

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! And so I did! Yummy!

The Daring Bakers January 2011 Challenge: BISCUIT JOCONDE IMPRIME/ENTREMET

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

If you are asking yourself what is imprime, or what the...beep...is entremet, here`s what Asteroshe says:
 

A joconde imprime (French Baking term) is a decorative design baked into a light sponge cake providing an elegant finish to desserts/torts/entremets/ formed in ring molds. A joconde batter is used because it bakes into a moist, flexible cake. The cake batter may be tinted or marbleized for a further decorative effect.

This Joconde/spongecake requires attentive baking so that it remains flexible to easily conform to the molds. If under baked it will stick to the baking mat. It over baked it will dry out and crack. Once cooled, the sponge may be cut into strips to line any shape ring mold.

Entremets (French baking term)- an ornate dessert with many different layers of cake and pastry creams in a mold, usually served cold.

The real challenge for me was in the fact that my hand mixer wasn`t working properly. Second challenge was/is my permanent shortage of free time. So, I had to mix everything with my not-very-strong hands and I had to do it QUICKLY. That`s why my final result isn`t very neat. Take a look:

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Here`s how I made joconde sponge:

 

85g almond flour
75g confectioners' (icing) sugar
25g  flour
3 large eggs
3 large egg whites
30g unsalted butter, melted

Directions:




In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whitesto firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.


Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)


On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light.
Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.


Fold in melted butter.


Reserve batter to be used later.

As for the Décor Paste , I decided to make cocoa version:

100g unsalted butter, softened

100g Confectioners' (icing) sugar
4 large egg whites 

100g cake flour

                        30g cocoa

 

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy  

Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.


Fold in sifted flour with cocoa powder.

For further directions about making the pattern and baking joconde sponge, please visit accro.

I can only mention, that I needed less than 15 minutes ( took me 10 minutes) to bake the spongecake. Here you can see the bottom of the cake-to-be in the mold:

The cake needed some super-fast creamy fillings to fill up the joconde sponge, so I chose combination of oranges and chocolate.

1st layer-orange filling

You need:

• 1 glass (~2 dl) squeezed orange juice
• 1 glass (~2 dl) store bought 100% orange juice
• 3 tbs fructose
• 1-2 tbs orange zest
• 80g powdered vanilla pudding

Dissolve powdered pudding in one glass of squeezed orange juice and set aside. Heat store bought juice and fructose in a meadium size pan until it starts boiling. Add dissolved pudding, and stir quickly until mixture becomes very thick.


2nd layer-chocolate filling

• 100g dark chocolate
• 2 dl heavy cream
• 2 dl milk
• 40g powdered chocolate pudding.

The steps resemble those in previous filling. Dissolve powdered pudding in milk and set aside. Heat cream, add chocolate and when it starts melting, add the mixture of milk and pudding. Stir and stir until it thickens.

 Now, you have all the elements for one tasty cake.

For the final touch: Sprinkle your cake with both grated white and dark chocolate and let it cool for a while (overnight) in the fridge

Daring Cooks January 2011 Challenge: Hearty Winter Stew

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.


First of all, I have to say that this is the very first Daring Kitchen Challenge I`m taking part in, and I`m extremely glad that the topic was so dear to my freezing heart :). I`m not particularly fond of winter, but the thought of warm stew in my cozy kitchen, when the snow is falling outside...makes me feel... hmmmm...safe, absolutely protected.
 
Although being complete and utter omnivore, I decided to prepare vegeterian cassoulet in delicious company of red onion confit. Reason for my non-sausage-eating decision lies in the fact that I`m fed up with meat and too much fat in these "post-festive" days.
 
So, here`s the result:
 
 

A plate of 100% pure comfort food!

Now...let`s start from the beginning!

First, I prepared red onion confit:

• 2 red onions
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• salt to taste

Cut the onions as shown in picture above. Heat the olive oil in the heavy pot over medium heat and add the onions. Cook the onions until soft, about 15 minutes, then add sugar and vinegar and continue cooking until onions almost start melting. Add salt. That`s it! :)

(My way) Vegeterian Cassoulet (for 2)

• 2 leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise, and then chopped into very small pieces
• 2 medium sized carrots, chopped
• 1 celery rib
• red onion confit
• 2 garlic cloves
• pinch of ground cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• oregano and thyme
• 1 can of beans
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup lukewarm water

(I have to say that I generally avoid using canned food (well, there are some exceptions-fish, for example), and always soak beans. This time, I realized that cooking canned beans would be a real challenge and big change for me. )

Preparation:

Cook leeks, carrots, celery, and garlic in oil with tomato paste, bay leaf, dried herbs, cloves, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden, about 15 minutes. Stir in red onion confit, beans, then water, and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender but not falling apart, about 30 minutes.

And....Let the happiness overwhelm you!!! :)))))