You can get the recipe here.

A full photoset of my adventure is here.

Unfortunately although this is late I don’t have the time to really do the challenge justice. My mom is visiting and she’s recovering from what appears to be a stroke. Long long long story. Anyway the point of the challenge was to make stock which I do make fairly often. Then you were supposed to make risotto with that stock.

So I made stock. I used my standard method of what do I have that is left over or about to go off. I buy whole or rotisserie chickens every so often and freeze the carcasses for stock. I throw in some parsley and garlic and peppercorns along with a bay leaf or two for flavor. The whole point is to extract goodness i.e gelatin from the bones.  Just after Christmas I extracted so much from one batch that it set up like a tasty meat jello in the fridge. I usually let it go for a couple of hours though I did let one cook for about a day when I was doing turkey. I’ve found that less time is fine depending on how much I want to concentrate the flavors.

Anyway so I made stock.  I had chosen to do a mushroom risotto since it went well
with the chicken I was planning on serving with it.  When I make it again I want to
save some of the mushrooms and roast them for additional flavor.

Here is the full photo set.

Now Tiramisu is not new to me, I make it several times a year since it’s Justin’s favorite dessert. However I had not tried that particular version of it, nor had I ever made my own marscapone so that was interesting to me. I usually use Kahlua in mine for flavor but this called for Marsala. So I decided to go with the Marsala and also to make a hazelnut flavored one since that is another of Justin’s favorite add-ons to coffee and chocolate. I had actually meant to start earlier in the week but my stupid overpriced dishwasher decided to break itself so I was dealing with that (it’s still not fixed).  Anyway Friday I started with the marscpone.  It was an easy process and reminded me quite a bit of making ricotta except for the change in fat levels of the dairy and acid.  From milk to cream and from vinegar to lemon juice.

So anyway it went for a long night of rest in the fridge but I stupidly forgot to take a picture after its naptime.

Another element to Tiramisu are lady fingers. I’ve made them before but as my piping skills weren’t quite up to the task since then I’ve done the insides in cake pans and just bought some for the outside. After the last one I made I decided in the future I was going to make enough filling to use it essentially as a frosting since the store bought ones are not nearly as good. This recipe did differ in the order egg whites to yolk folding but I think it yields an easier batter to work with so I will be using it in the future. I also chose to make smaller rounded shapes since I thought it would be easier to use them in parfaits with the leftovers.  Also in the last photo you can really see a difference in the ones I baked first and the ones I baked last.

The recipe called for adding a vanilla pastry cream and a zabaglione. Since I was doing two different flavors I had to make two different zabagliones.  All three recipes called for lemon zest so I dutifully microplaned some. Maybe I’m overly sensitive to the flavor but I couldn’t taste anything but lemon. It’s more than possible I added too much since I was unsure exactly how packed it was supposed to be.  I decided to use it as an accent when plating rather than adding it to the marscapone.  To be all food snobby I was hoping for a pleasing brightness but I ended up with oh my god it’s lemonaid.

So for the filling I portioned out my marscapone since I had just made double of everything and I whipped my cream. I ended up frankensteining the method I normally use and this recipe. Normally I mix everything into the marscapone and add my cream and whip it all together. I add the sugar last since I like to adjust the sweetness down a bit. This time I whipped the cream with the sugar and the vanilla.  It actually made for a lighter and less grainy texture. I also used the whisk attachment to my hand blender rather than the stand mixer. I thought it made for finer control and I will continue to do that in the future.

Whipped Cream

Putting it all together couldn’t have been easier. I made the two different dipping syrups by using instant espresso powder, warm water, some sugar and the liquor. I did add more liquor since I liked it to be a tad bit more strongly flavored. So I lined some of my mini bread pans with plastic and did my layers. The only difference between them was I had ground up some hazelnuts to add to the cocoa powder layer. With the leftovers I made some parfaits. I actually still have quite a few ladyfingers and syrup and marscapone in the freezer. I’ll probably make a casserole of it for Justin to take to work. Now the one thing I do not have is a beautifully plated finished dessert to show you since we’re having it for dinner tonight.

Tiramisu

I’m just warning you this will be a picture heavy post….(here is the full set from the feast since there is no way I’ll use all of them)

So I was really excited by this challenge. I love hummus and pita and I had been meaning to get around to making hummus from scratch.  Making the pita just gave me a +1 to my cooking skill.  So those were the two required elements and then whatever you wanted to add to the feast was up to you. I did this last Sunday so I could have help with the baby minding while I cooked. Sometimes Elke doesn’t quite get that something needs to be done right then.  One day though she’ll love the fact that I cook, I hope. Although I can see her deciding to never cook because she resented the cooking I did or something. Anyway I ended up making:

The Feast

Pita

This came out amazingly good. I think I let it rise too long because it wasn’t exactly pita-like in its consistency. However they were quite tasty and I’ll never buy pita again. The only changes I made were that I baked them on foil since I wanted to be able to quickly change them out and I hate baking things directly on my pizza stone. Also I was out of parchment paper. This exercise also highlighted the fact that I really do need more practice in my rolling out skills since they ended up rather amoeba shaped.

Pita Dough ready to rise

Pita waiting to be baked

Hummus & Dill Hummus

Now when I say I did this from scratch, I mean from scratch. No canned beans here. However I’ll probably try canned beans next time to see if there is any appreciable difference other than bragging rights. I soaked the beans for about twenty-four hours, before I started to cook them.  I had never actually cooked beans before so I was a bit amazed at how long they took. Also I’ve got to say what a horrid smell. So once they were cooked I processed them with the other ingredients. I thought it ended up slightly stiff  and my garlic was a bit strong but in the end it beat the pants off any bought hummus I’ve had. I also did a batch of dill since that and roasted red pepper are my favorite of the flavored varieties that I’ve bought. Assuming the canned version is as good I’d totally make this again. I am not sure I will make it that frequently if I have to cook the beans myself.

Soaking Beans

Hummus

Dill Hummus

Roasted Garlic

I wrapped it all up in foil and roasted it for quite a long time. The problem was this was unusually strong garlic so I didn’t quite get that garlic candy I was hoping for.

Oh so strong roasted garlic

Yogurt Dill Dip

I made this up as I went frankensteining a couple of different recipes. I used plain full fat yogurt, cumin, fresh parsley, dill, some garlic and lemon juice.I was finishing up though I realized it was ‘off’ in some way so I looked up a few more. One of them on Allrecipes.com (which I remembered using before) suggested adding mayo. Once I added a decent sized glop of it, the dip/sauce was perfect. I’m sorry I can’t be more precise since I’m sort of an improvisational cook most of the time.

Yogurt/Dill Dipping Sauce

Falafel

Right so I was especially happy to try this from scratch. I love falafel. The mix though is usually a bit well dry and not quite as good as I’ve had in restaurants. I should have been more vigiliant though when I measured the cilantro because it really tasted like soap. It was fine once you dipped it in the yogurt sauce but ugh. However the texture was fantastic and Justin already wants me to make them again. Since I tasted them before I fried them I knew they were off so fortunately I had a package of the mix in the pantry. It was funny because even though those didn’t taste too cilantro-y hands down we reached for the from scratch ones.

Falafel Pre Chop

You can sort of see which is which in this picture

Grilled Chicken

My last dish was some grilled chicken because Justin just won’t eat a meal without meat of some kind. I did a variation of the marinade I use for chicken tikka masala but with more of a middle eastern slant. It’s yogurt with various spices, some lemon, ginger and garlic. Then I grilled them off. They were fantastic just a bit hot with lots of flavor. We loved them.

Chicken swimming in its yogurt spice bath

Tasty Grill marks

Final Thoughts

Enjoyable and tasty! Will definitely make again. Particularly next time I have people over.

]]> http://www.geekdomme.com/cooking/feb-2010-daring-cooks-challenge/feed/ 2 http://www.geekdomme.com/spinning/the-state-of-the-knitting-or-should-i-say-lack-of-knitting/ http://www.geekdomme.com/spinning/the-state-of-the-knitting-or-should-i-say-lack-of-knitting/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:03:17 +0000 zyllah http://www.geekdomme.com/?p=663 Current Mood: Happy

First off let me apologize for the signs of construction here. My old theme wasn’t really working well with the new version of wordpress so I’m in the process of searching out a theme to modify. I’m fairly pleased with this one beyond some of the color choices so we’ll see. I am way too lazy these days to deal with doing it from scratch.  I have a good excuse because who could resist this face…

Elke's first Bubble Bath

Knitting has been sparse since we decided to build a house and I became consumed with finding flooring and paint and what not. So you’d think the problem would be solved once we moved right? Oh no because then Justin went off for a year and here I was in a house we’d just moved into with 90% of our things in the garage. I told the movers to leave most of the boxes in the garage so I wouldn’t have to look at them as I was unpacking. What I didn’t realize was that out of sight= out of mind and also that less than a month later I would find out I was eating for two. So for me anyway with pregnancy came exhaustion. Of course my under-performing thyroid didn’t help matters. Sure I take synthroid but between the two of them any excess energy I had went into getting the house into a state you could live in. Since I sure as hell knew I wouldn’t have time after she was born. Anyway I think I managed to finish a clap and a scarf I had started months earlier. It was just so much easier to read. Then after Elke was born I was going to the NICU to visit her 2x a day and well yet again it was much easier to read or stare at a dumb show on TV. Now I did make her a couple of hats and a pair of socks back then. Now that Justin is home and she’s a little older I’m managing to carve out some knitting and spinning time. I love to spin and knit but by the time I’ve made dinner and cleaned up, it’s like 9 pm and I’m tired. Also Star Trek Online came out and I am a supergeek so…. So unless I get up before she does it just doesn’t happen. So my current projects are:

1. Spinning this green Corriedale I bought from a local-ish dyer at a fesitval. It’s really easy to spin and it’s very relaxing, however I feel like I’m almost relearning how to spin. Which is more than fine I just seem to need that mental break every day.

Thick N Thin since I am out of practice

2. Garter Yoke Cardigan (Rav Link)

I started this a couple of weeks ago and so far I like it I think. I’m using Classic Elite’s waterlily which is sort of their response to the semi sold craze.  I have too many sweater amounts of Worsted so I’m trying to get through them by making tons of different cardigans that I can wear in the house or under a coat where they won’t really show.

You'd think it would go quicker with just garter...

3.  16 Button Cardigan (Rav Link)

Yet another worsted cardigan. I’m modifying the pattern though so the ribs on the bottom are all of equal height. I just didn’t want to bother keeping that much track….plus I thought it looked kind of goofy. The yarn is Cashmerino, we’ll see how it wears. It will probably turn into pill central. However the yarn is nice to work with.

Started this Months ago...

4. Strangling Vine Scarf (Rav Link)

Oh Boy I started this like a year and a half ago but I’m finally getting serious about it. I think it’s incredibly lovely in this yarn. The yarn is Knitting notions in aubergine. I bought it as sock yarn but it was that really thin henry’s attic sock yarn that for me is just *too* thin. Like I’d have to knit it on a 0 or a 000 since I like a tightly knit sock. Anyway I saw this pattern and put the two together. I went down a needle size to compensate for the ultra thinness of the yarn. I’m about half way done maybe it kind of depends on how it blocks so I’ll probably do a soak and a pin out soon so I can judge how much more to do.

I love the colors in this yarn

5. Garter Rib Socks (Rav Link)

I always seem to come back to these. I like plenty of other sock patterns but for some reason these really work for me. I love lace socks but I’m always worried I’ll lose my place or whatever. These are in some leftover DIC worsted in gothic rose. I actually finished sock #1 last week but I haven’t starIted sock #2 yet. It’s been a busy week….

This is such fantastic yarn. Not too many other companies manage to make yarn that doesn't Pool

6.  Log Cabin Scrap Blanket

No rav link because although I’m using the mason dixon blanket as inspiration it’s really just a way to use up scraps leftover from various sweater projects. Also even when I’m super tired I can manage garter…

Who doesn't want an almost totally mindless project that will eventually get destroyed by the house felines?

So for the first month of belonging to the Daring Bakers, this was my challenge.  Interestingly enough I actually had made non gluten-free graham crackers from that recipe a few weeks ago and had them sitting in my freezer since I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Initially they were going to be dipped in chocolate for my grandfather but I had problems with the recipe. It was quite possibly the hardest dough I have ever worked with. It was so soft and it stuck to everything. I also sort of misread the instructions. However although they were sort of ugly and overdone they did taste right so I sort of figured at some point I’d use them in a crust. When I read the challenge I had every intention of making the recipe again and conquering it.  Although I dismissed the idea of gluten free since I don’t know anyone who avoids gluten and the pocket book is a little lean this month to be buying all sorts of flours I probably wouldn’t use again. That’s assuming I could even find them without going to nashvegas. Anyway then I realized I had mistaken the dates of the daring cooks and bakers reveal dates. So suddenly I had a day to get it all done and I have an eight month old so…..I decided that since I had already tried the recipe and had to results I would just reuse them. It was appealing since soon I’m going back to my more usual lower carb dieting and it would get them out of my freezer. So into the food processor they went…

Crumbs that I wish I had left bigger

Then I added them to the butter and cocoa. I used a mixture of nestle I’m trying to use up because somehow I ended up with 3 tins of the stuff and the Valrohna I got on my last trip to whole foods.  Except of course Elke was awake and I got a bit distracted so somehow I forgot to add the egg. So I started over and decided to just make a double batch.

Butter and Cocoa oh My

Now when I read the recipe I realized I would have to change the bottom layer. I can’t stand coconut. I don’t coconut milk in a thai curry but actual coconut no thanks. Also I’m not a huge fan of peanuts so I decided to just use the crackers. Now I should have gone with a bigger crumb on the crackers if I was going to do that but they were tasty anyway.

The First Layer

Now at this point we have to cover a few steps without pics because I made them over the course of the day when I could snatch a few minutes and I sort of forgot to take any more pics. I read about the middle layer and realized it was essentially oreo filing so I decided we’d had enough of that since I made those a couple of times over the holidays. Now I love mint and so does my husband so since I had finally managed to track down peppermint extract (seriously ever store in town was completely out for like a month over the holidays) I decided to go with that and since I wanted to make sure people knew it was mint I tinted it green. Then I proceded to the top layer. I didn’t have quite enough semi-sweet to cover I used the rest of the milk chocolate I’d bought to dip my graham crackers into. It made a really nice ganache layer…not too sweet but not bitter.

Choco Mint Nanaimo Bars

I really liked the end result however they were so incredibly rich if I make them again I’m going to find a way to stiffen the middle layer without using quite as much sugar.

First and most importantly I have a photo of the Birthday cake I made for myself last week. Inside was a pretty awesome carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It’s the Cooks Illustrated recipe and I have to say I thought the flavor, texture and moistness of the cake was spot on. However I always make a less sweet frosting . I just don’t care for so sweet my teeth ache, but because I cut back on the sugar the texture of the frosting was a little loose.

It looks so much better under a 50mm lens...

Next up we have some pizza I made using a different and much better dough recipe. I also used some leftover amatriciana sauce I had from the night before. It was super tasty I thought. I loved the texture of the dough but next time I’m going to add a bit more salt I think. Or let it rise longer since I felt it needed to develop a bit more flavor. Also I did modify it to use some olive oil in the dough.

Justin's Pizza

I have also been experimenting with cooking via Sous Vide. It’s essentially boil in a bag cooking but you don’t boil it. You cook the food at the temp you want it to be at the end. This prohibits over cooking, and you don’t get that sort of bullseye effect in meat. There is a big fancy small appliance for it now that I covet but it is a bit pricey so I’ve been using a more uhh ghetto arrangement. It does however work and the experiment was some of the best steak I’ve ever had.

See no ring of grey!

For Christmas my Inlaws were kind enough to get me this awesome Ice Cream maker.

Lovely maker of deliciousness.

I’ve only made two recipes though so far one of which is Vanilla and the other was a candied bacon ice cream. Both of them were from David Lebovitz and were  fantastic. On the vanilla one although I did double the recipe I did not double the amount of eggs but it was sill good just not quite as custardy as it would have been but that was totally my fault since I ran out of eggs.  The candied bacon was shockingly good, although I did not expect that candying the bacon would be quite so messy. Next up is Coffee since I don’t like it and I need to start my post holiday diet.

Look at those flecks...

My final photo is of Challah. I finally found a good recipe. However even though it was good I felt it needed a touch more sugar or honey. Next time I’ll try that. There are only few food things I want to conquer from my jewish heritage and pass on to Elke and this is one of them.

Best bread ever.

Once I was able to bring her home crafting sort of went by the wayside. Now that she’s a little older and Justin is back I’ve been able to add some back in but really at this point cooking is more of a frontrunner than knitting. I *have* to eat and it doesn’t take that much more time to make something good…

A whole lot of good things happened this past year so I should perhaps make a list so I can look back and remember it.

1. Elke: She rocks and is the joy of my life. Having Elke dissolved any lingering weirdness between me and my dad. I will always be grateful for how he dropped everything when I had her and how much help he was when she was in NICU. Also having Elke made me really feel like Justin and I were a family.

2. Reconnecting with my best friend. We had lost touch many years ago but through the wonder of facebook we found each other. It’s awesome having her back in my life.

3. Justin came home safe and sound.

Now for the year ahead..

1. Keep managing to carve out a bit of ‘me’ time so I stay balanced.

2. Lose the holiday and last of the baby weight.

3. Blog more.

And since I know that it’s not a blog post without a photo….

The first bubble bath.

So on to other things. Knitting has been rather sparse around here but I did make elke some really cute socks out of some leftover sock yarn. I got the pattern at Petite Purls. You’ll have to pardon the bad photos since I don’t quite find the time to upload and futz from the good camera so this is from my cell phone. The yarn is Misty Mountain Farm in Apple Pie (I think).  Although the next pair I’m not going to bother with heel stitch since It’s not like she’s going to wear shoes.

I’ve also got a good half of a lace scarf done, I just never quite have the energy to pay that much attention. Just like I cast on for a sweater but….I am working on some worsted weight house socks. They’re just a garter rib pattern and I’m using DIC gothic rose that I have left over from the Clap. So far they’re the perfect mindless pick up and put down project.

Pattern: Clapotis the Social Diease
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Gothic Rose
Needles: Addi Interchangeable sz 8
Size: Me
Pattern Notes: Everyone has made it haven’t they? However I did twist the stitches on either side of the dropped stitch to prevent biasing. I do wish yet again I had made it larger but I could block the sucker more aggressively.
Would I knit it again? Yes of course but I’m not sure when…

However I’m going to wait to take more till the tv thing above the fireplace is closed off and I have it painted. Anyway after that I had to get my husband ready to deploy. Also we found out I’m pregnant.

I’ve got about 15 weeks left before I give birth. We’re having a girl and naming her Elke Sophia unless I can’t stand it by then.

Pregnancy has been interesting, they found out I’ve got thyroid issues which explains why I’ve been so tired for so long. Anyway lets just say with the tired and trying to get the house organized I haven’t been doing much knitting. I have been working on another Clap out of dream in color. So hopefully it will be done in a day or so and I’ll have pictures.  I also started Strangling Vine.  It’s a nice fingering weight lace scarf. I’m doing it in this blackish purple sock yarn I got from knitting notions.

I still haven’t finished that black cardi since I won’t be able to wear it for a while so I lost motivation. However I did finally get an FO shot of my wicked cardi. Which although nice looking fits almost no-one. Oh well I did it in yarn I didn’t really care about and it was a steeking experiment.

So I will try to blog more often but we’ll see.