Daring Cooks: Gumbo - Let the good times roll!

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

 All in all we did get the option of choosing from different recipes or perhaps changing some ingredients. I found a good amount of quality meat in the fridge and decided to do a Steak Gumbo, thanks to thepioneerwoman.com for the recipe =)

I excluded some of the spices since my mom doesn't eat spicy food and decided to make some clasic smashed potatoes, the bread in the picture was particuarly nice because it had all type of peruvian grains which made it extra crunchy. yum!

Since everyone in the family loved the soft feel of the meat and the slight spiciness of the stew it is definitely a recipe that I will make again, perhaps changing the oil roux for a butter roux since this one got a bit burnt (it didn't affect the taste greatly but it did give of a particular smell =/), tasted very good though! A real most do! (again xD)

~Karina

Daring Bakers: Maple Mousse served in an edible container

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

As always my love for bite sized food...

Arroz Zambito for Semana Santa

I do not know much of where this tradition starts, I'm told that in England it was mandatory for royalty to help the poor by giving them a small bag of alms before the Mass that day; I'd like to think this was the origin of the Holy Thursday dessert festival that occurs on my house -without delay- right before going out to Visit the Churchs. (I swear in my head this makes sense!)

It all starts with a nice Friday's soup for lunch, this is as it's name says a soup made for the Holy Friday but we like it so much we see it fitting, anyway, afterwards we prepare an arrangement of different local desserts that normally include arroz con leche, mazamorra morada and mazamorra de leche, all of which is eaten with a big yummy cinammon bun.

This year my father asked for an specific dessert and of course I felt it was my time to help out and came out with a nice dose of Arroz zambito, another type of pudding and delicious to the last bit!

This is my own take on the recipe.

Daring Cooks: Rise and Shine! Soufflé!

Yes!! it is Soufflé time! Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided many of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

First off, the molds, we needed to put some butter in them and cocoa which was in here subtituted by a kiwicha based strawberry flavor. doesn´t it look cute?  

 The next step we took was to make a ganache (it´s pink!) and since the whole idea of changing the cocoa was to make this soufflé a bit more interesting we also changed the chocolate base for a cottoncandy colored one

then for the final mix we whisked the eggs and folded in the eggy-ganache mixture, since we don´t have the proper tool (don't really know why...) we manage as we could and it looked something like this:

the mix went into the molds and soon enough we were watching them grow and grow until it seemed they were merging together!  worring moment right there!

At last! soufflés ready for eating! by the time this were done my father (oficial taster) had gone to dreamland but we made it pretty anyway and left it ready to eat. My sister ate one at that time and another one the next day and she liked the second one better, something about the eggy flavor she said.

Being the cook I just liked them all, haha but really this challenge was the first one to get a second try not because the first one was bad or anything but because it was enjoyable for all. Here´s a final picture of the chocolate original.

Hmm yummy! ^^

Later!!

~Karina

Daring Cooks: We are on a roll!

"Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food."

This challenge I was really happy about, I made my mom bring me grape leaves from our own little plants and decided that this would taste great, alas, not everything goes as we plan.

For most of the challenges I've been short on time, sure, but this one I had no time at all! when I realized it the posting time had passed and I was way too busy to try it so I missed an afternoon at work and got cooking.

I decided my rice would have a bit of white wine and a bit of this and a bit that but when I realized it my rice lacked a "kick", now being a newbie as I am I decided to try and give it one with a bit of spicy things but when I opened the door I saw other items that called my attention... long story short I ended up with a rice that tasted good but just in the end gave you a REAL kick ^^;

This I fixed by adding sausages (our sausages have a lot of herbs and have a particular mild-ish flavor) and it did the trick, buut after all of this I was tired and left my (by then) boiling pot in the stove without my watching eye...

Anyway, thought some survived most grape rolls got open before time, it was a bit sad after all the time it took, so I'm sorry to say this challenge wasn't as successful as expected, next time ne?

~Karina

Daring Bakers: Get creative!

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

My sister wanted to help decorate the cookies so there is a mix of what I wanted and what ended happening, weird as some where it was fun and she enjoyed it a lot so I think in the end there's no losing side to it. (AND we got to eat cookies! awesome ne? xD)

It was difficult for the both of us to use the piping bag... I'm sure it is quite obvious but I did really like the challenge and will try again with different designs.

The Apple Butter of Knowledge

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

 When I found out what the recipe for this month would be I wasn't exactly happy... as it is I've never actually liked boiled fruits (or vegetables for that matter..) but I thought it would be fun to give it a try anyway.

The biggest challenge was in the end to find a suitable object to store the sweetness; so some research and a day of work in the kitchen after, I found myself the owner of some cute preserves! and although my percepcion of boiled apple has not changed  at least my family was quite pleased with it. (they ate it all!!)

So despite my own tastes I would definitely make some more again. =)

Eagerly waiting for the next challenge,
~Karina