flour on her nose: daring cooks

Okay, not really, but this one was a a lot of work, and through either bad karma, or just bad luck, I didn't even get to eat the dish as a whole. (Oh yes, there's a fun story with this one)

This challenge was hosted by Sketchy, from Sketchy's Kitchen

This challenge was an introduction into the world of Molecular Gastronomy, the most of which I had encountered was on Food Network, watching Wylie Dufresne make ice cream with liquid nitrogen.

No worries, this is considerably easier, but still not the thing to make for a quick dinner for the kids. ;P

The challenge? "Skate, traditional flavors powdered", from the Alinea at Home cookbook.

What?

I didn't even know what skate was, before this challenge.

(Turns out that it's a fish, in the same family as manta rays. Fun)

I did a lot of substitutions. A lot. Since this recipe is SO labor intensive,and I still didn't do it very well, I'm going to copy and paste the recipe.

But first, here's what I substituted, and my horrible awful stories to go along with them.

Instead of skate, I used flounder. After poaching it, I tried a piece, and spit it out. It was like mush! This was the end of me ever getting to try the whole dish. Too many other things to do to bother with getting more fish, and cooking it again! I still have all the powders, so if the fancy strikes, I can try it.
I made a garlic powder, just to see if I could. Easiest powder ever to make...but everything it came into contact with smelled like garlic for a couple of weeks. It was awful!
Plus, I made all of my powders with a BLENDER! (for lack of better equipment) So very few of them actually came out...powdery, hahaha.

Oh goodness, this was an ordeal. I certainly hope the next challenge is a little less trying.

Left to right: Red onion, tomato, carrot, lemon, basil

Almond, pineapple, apple, lemon, ginger

Stupid fish!

(I also made: garlic, kiwi, chive, and parsley)

"Skate, Traditional Flavors Powdered - with changes

4 skate wings
* Beurre monte
* 300g fresh green beans
sea salt/kosher salt
1 banana
454g butter - 4 sticks
300g lemons
5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet
150g cilantro
150g parsley
100g dried banana chips
300g spray dried cream powder (or powdered milk)
100g cup minced red onion
200g capers (brined, not oil)

* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm)
* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion will not break - this is your poaching liquid.

Powders - prepare ahead of time
caper / onion
lemon powder
cilantro/parsley powder
'brown butter' powder

Powders
once dried, all powders should be pulsed in a coffee grinder/spice mill/morter and pestle then passed through a chinois or fine mesh strainer.

citrus powder
300g lemons
1000g simple syrup
5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet

zest 300g of lemons (10.6 oz), remove the pith from the zest and poach in the simple syrup three times. dry with paper towels and move to a dehydrating tray. 130 for 12 hours. pulse the zest in a coffee grinder, pass through chinois, and mix with citric acid/vitamin C powder.

If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 8 to 10 minutes at medium powder. Once dried, follow the other instructions.

cilantro/parsley powder
150g cilantro
150g parsley

blanch the parsley in boiling saltwater for 1 second, submerge the leaves in ice water for 3 minutes. Dry on paper towels and place on dehydrator tray. 130 for 12 hours. grind and pass through chinois.

If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 30 seconds, turn over leaves and microwave for another thirty seconds. They should be dry by now, pulse in coffee grinder, pass through chinois and reserve.

onion powder
100g cup minced red onions

dehydrator - 130 for 12 hours
microwave at medium power for 20 minutes.

pulse in grinder, pass through chinois

Caper powder
200g capers (get the ones packed in brine/vinegar)

run the capers under cold water for two minutes to remove some of the brine.
dry on paper towels and dehydrate for 12 hours at 130 degrees.
microwave instructions are unclear. Dry them as much a possible with paper towels, the microwave on medium for 1 minute. Check the moisture content and stir them. repeat for 30 second intervals until they are dry. If you use this method, pleas post the time needed to dry the capers.

Once dry, pulse and sift the powder. Mix it with the onion powder.

Brown Butter powder

100g Dried banana chips (unsweetened if possible - many are coated in honey - the freeze dried ones would be brilliant)
300g spray dried cream powder

If you cannot find the cream powder, you can substitute Bob's red mill non fat dry milk powder, or even carnation instant milk powder. The substitutions will alter the flavor a little, but you will still get the general idea.

preheat the oven to 350 degrees, sift the cream powder into a fine layer on a silpat or on parchment. bake for 4 minutes, then remove for heat. If it bakes for too long, it will burn. Be very cautious with all powders in the oven. They all go from browned to burnt in a few seconds.

grind the banana chips in a coffee grinder and mix with the toasted cream powder. Pass this through a chinois and reserve.

* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm) * Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion will not break - this is your poaching liquid.

Skate
Prepare the skate - 50G v shaped cuts are recommended
Bring 100g water, 100g beurre monte, and green bean rounds to a boil over high heat. Cook until the water has evaporated (about 3 minutes), when the pan is almost dry, remove it from heat and season with 3g salt

bring 300g water and 300g beurre monte to simmer over medium heat, add skate wings and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and flip the wing over and let rest in pan for two more minutes. Transfer to warming tray lined with parchment and season with 5 grams of fine sea salt.

Plating

Take the tip of a small spoon and make a small mound of the citrus powder, the onion-caper powder, and the cilantro parsley-powder. Swirl these around in a hurricane type pattern. I found that it is easier, and you get finer lines if you lightly shake the plate to flatten out the mounds, then swirl the spoon through it to get the pattern.

peel the remaining banana into very think slices (3mm) fan three slices on the plate, place green beans on top and place skate wing portion on top. On the tall edge, sprinkle the brown butter powder.

Substitutions The Skate can be replaced with flounder or cod. If you can get skate that is not 'prepared' IE - Skinned- get the fish monger to prepare it for you.

The powdered cream can be omitted completely, just replace it with more banana powder, or pineapple powder. Possibly non dairy creamer, but I have NO idea what would happen if you tried to brown it.

The poaching liquid is pretty much butter - it could be replaced with other poaching methods. Water, wine, bay leaf, garlic clove, pepper, etc. Try to go easy on the salt in the liquid if you use a replacement."

Warning: Really really really long post. (but it's worth it)

I'm really excited to be posting about my very first (and the very second ever) Daring Cooks Challenge. Jen from use real butter (a FANTASTIC blog, by the way) hosted this challenge.

The challenge? Dumplings/potstickers!

Warning: I'm gonna post a LOT of pictures. I had a month to do this, so I did it...multiple times ;)

This challenge was fantastic for me, as I'd been planning to make potstickers, but never got around to it. It gave me a kick in the butt, and I'm glad it did. They take a bit of preparation and setup, but if you just spend one day making them, you can have dinners and desserts (oh yes, desserts :P ) for a month! They freeze fantastically.

Anyway, the main point of this challenge was to make the dumpling wrappers by hand, and then choose any filling you want. For my savory dumplings, I went with an almost traditional pork filling, with a few changes you'll see in the recipe.
Let me just say:

They. Were. Fantastic.

I definitely suggest trying these, or your own variation.
The first batch I made, I made potstickers, then I just boiled others for a quick meal. (Boiling is by far the easiest/least involved method)

Anyhoo (that seems to be my favorite word here, eh?), a week or so after I made the pork dumplings, I wanted to try dessert variations. My first choice? Nutella! I also made chocolate filled ones (semi-sweet, milk, and white), and jam filled ones (which you can't eat while they're crispy, unfortunately, or they'll burn your mouth).

Ahhh, dumplings. Cheap to make (a pound of pork cost me $2 at Giant), easy to store, quick to cook. The perfect food for a busy person. Not that I am one, what with being home for the summer and all. And unemployed. (Hire me!!!)

:P

I suppose you want pictures and recipes, huh?

Okay, fine.

Just don't say I never bought you anything. ;)

Ingredients

Not minced well enough >__>

Evolution of my pleating skills! Haha.

Frozen dumplings about to fry

Yummy potstickers

Crunchy bottom

Frozen Jam dumplings

Deep fried and dusted with powdered sugar

Melted peach jelly

Fried nutella dumplings

Dumplings:

My filling:
1 lb of ground pork (lean, fatty, doesn't matter)
4 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tbsp of corn starch (if you don't have any, it's okay, don't fret. It's not totally necessary, it just helps bind the filling together a little more)
(everything from here down is minced. So mince it. Mince it good.)
2 cloves of garlic
1 little thing of lemon grass (stalk? is that what's it's called? haha, I don't know)
3 tbsp ginger root
3 stalks (yeah, I think that's the word) of scallions
Half of a carrot, cut into strips (like what happens when you use a veggie peeler on it, those thin layers), and minced.

Mix everything together VERY WELL. Cover and let sit in the fridge until you're ready to use it, within a day.

Dough:
4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of warm water
flour for worksurface

Mix everything in a bowl. You'll probably have to add more water...do this slowly, or you'll end up doing what I did the first time: adding more flour. Knead the dough and cover with a damp towel for about 15 minutes. Jen suggests cutting the dough into strips, and then into pieces, but I was too lazy for that, and just pulled off balls of dough. (is it any wonder that my dumplings got smaller and smaller until they were bite sized? :P ) Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough. I'm bad at measurement and can't really tell you exactly how thin to make them, but looking at the pictures should help. Place a tablespoon (or less, depending on your wrapper size) of filling right in the middle, and pleat the dumpling closed. Here, on Jen's blog, she has a great picture tutorial for making the pleats (it definitely helped me), so go look there (and then come back!)
I suggest only making one or two wrappers at a time, and filling them once you make them. The first time, I rolled out all of my wrappers, and then they stuck together D:

Boiling:
Boil water. Cook dumplings until they float. (and then like 5 more minutes, if they were frozen)

Steaming: "Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface in a steamer basket with lid. Steam covered for about 6 minutes." (Jen's words, as I didn't steam any of mine)

Potstickers! (the best, in my opinion)
Put the dumplings in a pan with 3 tbsp of vegetable or canola oil. Fry on high heat until the bottoms are golden brown. Then add 1/2 cup of water and cover the pan. Cook them until all of the water has cooked away. Uncover the dumplings and reduce to medium heat. Let them cook for another couple of minutes. EAT THEM. VERILY! :)

Now on to dessert.

The dough's basically the same, except I dissolved some sugar into the water, and only made half of the dough recipe.

Do the rolling and all of that. This is the fun part...choosing your filling! Definitely choose something thick and stable, and with a low water content, if you can help it. Because, when deep frying, all that water inside turns to steam, and wants to escape...quickly. So you might end up with leaky dumplings, which make the oil all gross. So keep that in mind. Anyhoo, heat oil in a pot to 300-350 degrees fahrenheit. Once the oil is up to temperature, use a metal spoon or spider and lower the dumplings (a couple at a time) into the oil. Leave them on the spoon until they start to float. Then, you can add a couple more. Cook them until they're golden brown, and drain on paper towels. Dust with powdered or granulated sugar. Like I said before, if you used a jam or fruity filling, you might wanna let them sit a little bit. They wont be crispy, but they won't burn your mouth, either ;P

Anyway, this was a fantastic challenge, and I think everyone should join the Daring Cooks and the Daring Bakers, to broaden their culinary horizons!
Thanks again to Jen from use real butter for this great challenge :)