Jenn Cuisine » Daring Kitchen

Daring Cooks Make Gumbo

Jenn — Fri, 13 May 2011 22:02:18 +0000

Today marks exactly two years since we Daring Cooks intrepidly revealed our first cooking challenge to the world, and every month since has been an eventful, educational (and sometimes stressful) trip across various techniques and cuisines. I am sad to say this shrimp & sausage gumbo will be my 20th and last Daring Cooks challenge that I present to you – the past 24 months have been wonderful, but I have to move on – Daring Cooks was an amazing experience, and did wonders to help me grow with my skills in the kitchen, new techniques, and above all creativity (especially when it came to making some of the challenges gluten free!).

This month for my last challenge of Daring Cooks, I made gumbo. I made mine with shrimp and sausage, and about twice as many veggies as were called for. 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.

Out of 25 total challenges so far, today marks my 20th. Twenty new experiences, trials, recipes, fails, photos and successes. Rather than reminisce about each one, I thought it might be more fun to show the dishes in picture form (each photo links to its post) – it’s funny to think about how scary making those gnocchi were that first time, and how far along I’ve come, even to host a challenge and help others. Thanks Daring Kitchen, for some great memories and helping me to become an overall better cook. So here they are, starting from the beginning:

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Daring Cooks do Ceviche – Grapefruit and mint ceviche salad

Jenn — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:01:43 +0000

This month’s Daring Cooks challenge is all about Peruvian classics – there were actually two challenges this month – ceviche and papas rellenas. Feeling in the need for some lighter fare, I decided to choose the ceviche for this month. This was a fun challenge because I got to do something new. I’ve marinated seafood in acid before in a ceviche-inspired salad, but never ever actually started with raw fish. So here is to another daring first!

I first had ceviche in Washington, D.C. at a trendy little Mexican restaurant with some friends a few years back while I was there for a conference. I was a little skeptical of raw seafood then (this was back before I ate sushi even), but I really loved how the bright sharp citrus flavors worked so well with fish and the spicy chilli peppers, and ever since I have been a big fan. I’ve always loved a really strong punch of flavor, so ceviche is perfectly suited for my palate.

Now living in a land-locked country, it’s not the easiest to get fresh caught seafood (and I’m not exactly sure how well fresh-water fish do for ceviche, so wanted to stick with ocean fish), but I found some sustainably (well if you don’t count the travel to the other side of the world) caught Pacific cod – while it was pre-frozen, I’m not sure I can get seafood of any sort that wasn’t. Not ideal, but it worked really well!

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges 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.

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DC #22 – Soba Noodles and Tempura and a Quick Photo Tour of Zürich

Jenn — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:00:19 +0000

Sometimes I love Daring Cooks’ challenges, and sometimes I’m just “meh” about them. This month, however, I knew right away that it was going to be a lot of fun. We often make soba noodles in our house since we learned where to find 100% buckwheat noodles, and both of us love tempura (deep fried anything is usually a winner with most people).

I originally had a lot of commentary to say (I always have lots of commentary), but today I am going to keep things short. I had a crazy busy trip to Zürich last week, and did a lot of deep thinking that I still have to process in my head a bit. So instead, I will leave you with some photos of beautiful Zürich and the lake – Zürich really has nothing to do with the dish of this Daring Cooks’ post, other than the fact that I did have sushi one night while I was there, and well, that’s Japanese too, haha…. yeah a bit of a stretch eh? Well sometimes we are stretched a bit thin – a bit like these soba noodles (ok, that was a terrible connection I know!) – so you’ll have to bear with me for the moment and just admire some pretty photos, and I’ll leave my comments on the recipe version I made below as well….

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

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DC #21 – Daring Cooks do Cassoulet and Confit

Jenn — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:01:51 +0000

A dish that flies in the face of 90% of New Year’s resolutions made and broken every January, cassoulet is essentially an intense and rich French version of good old pork & beans. This challenge had two techniques to learn – the art of making a confit (the ages-old preservation method of slow-cooking meat immersed in fat) and creating a version of the famed several-days-to-prepare dish from the Southwest of France, cassoulet. I had never really known what confit exactly was before, and was really excited to learn yet another new method thanks to the wonderful Daring Cooks. Unfortunately, I think I confited (is that a word?) my entire cassoulet!

Cassoulet is actually fairly easy to make – you prep all the main components separately, and then bring them together and slow cook for a nice long time, enjoying the aromas that will fill every space of your home, transporting you to a different time and place.

Blog Checking Lines: 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.

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Daring Cook’s #20: Poached to Perfection

Jenn — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 23:02:40 +0000

Jill (jillouci) and I are so excited to host Daring Cooks for the month of December! For this month, we decided to focus on a technique that seems intimidating to many, but with a little practice it’s really not that hard at all – poaching. All poaching means is cooking something in simmering (not boiling) liquid. And what more perfect way to practice the skill of poaching than learning how to poach an egg? They can make a tasty breakfast or salad accompaniment; there are so many different ways to use poached eggs, and they are used in cuisines from a variety of cultures.

The 1st recipe is one of the most well known poached egg dishes: eggs benedict – an open sandwich of English muffin, Canadian bacon, poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. This rich and decadent dish can be served as a really nice breakfast or brunch for having company over, and is sure to impress! The “daring” with this dish is in successfully poaching an egg in water, as well as making one of the famed mother sauces of France, the hollandaise.

Our 2nd recipe, oeufs en meurette (eggs in meurette sauce), is a classic dish from the region of Bourgogne (Burgundy) in France. It involves poaching an egg in a red wine/stock, which will then turn into a fabulous reduction sauce. One serves the poached egg on top of fried croûtes with sauce, bacon, mushrooms and pearl onions. This is also a great dish for breakfast/brunch as well.

And don’t worry vegans, we did not forget about you! Instead of poaching an egg, we found a delicious poached homemade seitan sausage recipe that we think you will love!

We hope you enjoyed this month’s challenge, and had fun learning the technique of poaching!

Blog-checking lines: Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

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Moitié-Moitié “Swiss Fondue” Soufflé

Jenn — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 22:48:04 +0000

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two 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.

Many people think the process of making soufflés is all about the stress and timing of getting them to come out at that perfect moment. You work out a plan, get your ingredients together, prep your ramekins, fill them up and into the oven they go. Then you watch this glorious symphony happen as they bake. Everything the soufflé was ever meant to be starts with a small puff, growing larger and larger reaching for higher and higher heights until it transforms itself into a vertiable masterpiece of art right before your very eyes.

This is the moment that everyone wants to preserve when they serve them – it’s why after this moment everything is an insane rush to get them out on the table. If you want to get a picture of your perfect soufflé, there’s even more adrenaline flowing throughout the room. I, the photographer, start running all over the place like a lost chicken every time I have to tweak something, unable to turn back the clock as I slowly watch the soufflé tragically fall. Its life work now completed entire minutes ago, the comparatively cool air of the room rushes over the dish as it lets out a long and weary sigh, until it has at last crumpled to a mere shell of its former self.

And that is when the soufflé taught me a lesson.

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Daring Cooks #18: Rolled & Stuffed (Canh Bap Cai Cuon Thit)

Jenn — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 21:35:10 +0000

Wow can you believe Daring Cooks is on to their 18th challenge already?? It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were all attempting ricotta gnocchi for the first time… Well here we are, one and a half years in. So far I’ve had a lot of fun with this group. Some challenges have been better than others, but you’ll have that with just about any blogging group. My favorite challenges so far up to this point have been the paella and sushi challenges.

This one though, might have to win the spot of #3 on my list! Even though I went in a totally different direction from the main challenge (because when do I not?), both my husband and I loved this recipe. So are you curious what the challenge was?? Sure you are!

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.

If you can’t tell from the photo above, I didn’t stuff grape leaves. In fact, neither grape leaves nor Middle Eastern cuisine were anywhere related to what I chose to do. But I did stuff and roll leaves. Instead I made Vietnamese cabbage roll soup, also known as Canh Bap Cai Cuon Thit.

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Daring Cooks go Canning! Gingered Plum Butter

Jenn — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:00:38 +0000

Before coming to Europe, I thought that a plum was a plum was a plum. Boy was I wrong. Thanks to the wonderful varieties of produce available, I’ve learned that there are different types of strawberries, peaches, and beautiful plums. Plums can be as black as charcoal, reddish, purple, or even green and yellow. Round like little ping pong balls, or oblong like a football (an American football, that is). Not only do all these varieties look different, but they have their own unique tastes and flavors too. Each week this summer we decided to pick up a fruit that neither of us have had before, and buy some to see what we think. So far the results have been quite tasty, and by tasting so many different types of produce we certainly never get tired of any one fruit!

But if I had to pick one stone fruit to have in my kitchen at all times, it would be these little green guys, the reine claude. Frankly, it took quite a bit of bribing for my husband to allow me to set some aside, not to be eaten. We can go through a kilo a day of these plums, they are as sweet as candy. I knew they would just make a perfect plum butter, and I wouldn’t have to do much to them flavor or sweetness-wise.

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.

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Daring Cooks go Nuts! Grilled Kabobs with Cashew Butter Sauce

Jenn — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:21:26 +0000

I should title this post, “the cursed food processors,” but then you wouldn’t get to know what I was making! This month’s Daring Cook’s challenge was to make a nut butter and use it in a dish. Well, nut butters mean one needs a food processor. I thought this would be a great challenge to do at home in the US visiting my parents (if I’m visiting can I still call it home?), because I knew that they would enjoy the flavors I was thinking of for this month’s dish.

Well, I get there and find that my parents’ puppy had decided that the cord of the food processor looked appetizing, and bit the cord right off of the machine! It’s quite hard to run a food processor if you have no way of plugging it into anything. Ok, so no homemade nut butters this time. Instead, I went to my nearest health store corporate giant and picked up some cashew butter. Why cashews? Well, everyone in my family loves them, and peanut butter is boring

This week I had thought about making my own cashew butter now that I am back en Suisse, but again with the cursed food processors! There was a mighty wind event the other day, and silly us left our windows open in our apt. all day. We’d gotten into the habit of this because it’s been so freaking hot lately – and trust me, you learn a totally different definition of hot when there is no A/C to be found, especially when your office faces the afternoon sun. I melt into a sweaty sticky puddle on a regular basis. It wasn’t until we left work that I thought things could be a problem. After all, tree branches don’t normally float. We got home to find so much stuff all over the floor of our apt., including the food processor!! The lid is cracked and in pieces. gahhhhh! Well, there goes making any nut butters this month. At least the wind kept our stuff inside the apt., I half expected to find our life’s belongings strewn out all over the street below.

So jarred cashew butter it is for this month. I’m ok with this, it was organic and quite tasty. As long as your’e also ok with my store-bought nut butter, onto the challenge!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

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Smoked Salmon Pâté

Jenn — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:44:32 +0000

I don’t usually write about my failures in the kitchen – after all, who wants to try a recipe that didn’t work? However, at the risk of sounding cliché, I’m learning the slow lesson that life is not always about the end result, but about the process that one went through to get there.

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

Daring Cooks always post on the 14th of the month, but I made this attempt over two weeks ago. So it appears a little out of order if you remember it was just last week that I had a miraculous find of guar gum in a natural foods store. This attempt happened before I had guar gum and before I found gluten free bread mix. We were charged with making baguettes, and after finding an awesome gluten free baguette recipe to try, learned that it would not happen without xanthan or guar gum. So, I took one of my sandwich bread recipes, and made a go without any binding agents by adding in some extra eggs and playing with the ratio of flours a bit. I have also since learned from one of my favorite gluten free chemists that gelatin or agar agar should never be used in baking, because they turn the products too brittle. I guess when making pitas or pizza dough it hasn’t been a problem for me because they are pretty flat to begin with, but for a crusty bread, brittle is definitely not a quality I’m looking for.

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