The Daring Kitchen- Sourdough

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

I absolutely love sourdough, so as you might think, i was very excited when i got the challenge to make it. I had a little bit of drama in that my first try at a starter was terrible and as such, made terrible bread, but, i threw it away unceremoniously and started a new starter that only took a day to ferment. This new starter made much better bread, so i kept him.


Sourdough cubed with olive oil and balsamic.

The Daring Kitchen- Sans Rival

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.


I decided to use Catherine's recipe for the heavenly cake as my basis, with a few changes to the cake overall. The actual cake part or meringue was easy to make and bake, but the hard part came when melting the sugar for the buttercream. I messed up once and came close the second time(faulty candy thermometer...).

But in the end it paid off with a truly fantastic cake that my whole family loved, too bad i gave half away to my grandmother.

The Daring Kitchen -- Cooking with Tea

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

I decided to search the Internet for other recipes for my project and found where several people use tea for smoking meat. I did a smoked chicken breast using Assam tea, brown sugar and wild rice in a homemade foil stovetop smoker. The breast ended up with a really dark brown outside with a very smoky flavor that was unique. For plating, a light sauce was made using the same tea, raisins and brown sugar.

My pictures will uploaded later. Having technical difficulties.

Daring Kitchen -- Povitica

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!


This months challenge is done and posted by Locke "The Boy" Parrish. I thought this was a great recipe and truly worthy of being called Daring. I made two loaves, one with the traditional filling and another with just a basic cinnamon sugar filling, using the posted recipe and as you see, they came out great, although the traditional lacked the integrity to be cut thinly. All in all it was fun to roll and bake.

The Traditional on the right and the Cinnamon-Sugar on the left.

The Daring Kitchen - Moo Shu Pork

This months challenge was done without "The Boy" due to schedule issues but I had guest sous chef Nancy over to assist.

The October Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

To be honest, I was not all that excited about this challenge. I like Moo Shu pork but really had no desire to make it. Which is a good think about the Daring Kitchen website, it definitely makes you get out of your box.

Making the dough is really easy with the only hiccup on the first pancake which wasn't rolled thin enough. I found you had to almost make them see through to get a decent pancake. Just eating the pancake was not all that exciting but could get a sense of potential.




Sous Chef Nancy did all of the chopping of the vegetables and pork while I made the sauce. I did not put any hot sauce into it to begin with. A couple of taste tests indicated the need. Probably could have put in a little more but it tasted okay. Still wasn't getting a sense that the whole thing was going to come out and was seriously thinking about getting a pizza on the way.




Stir frying everything was incredibly easy and didn't take long. I don't own a wok but a heavy cast iron shallow pot worked very well. Taste test were showing the need for some garlic which was added. Either hunger was getting to us or this stuff was starting to taste pretty darn good. Plated and took pictures than dug into a dish that really works well together. The combination was really better than the sum of the parts.




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Location:Asbury St,Houston,United States

Wicked awesome salad

So the previous dinner was not all that but the starter salad was crazy good. Made some home made dressing that better than anything store bought and then made the salad with fresh greens, cherry tomatoes, manchego cheese and my favorite, bacon. Some cauliflower should up a little later as an impulse. I will definitely be making this again.




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Location:Houston, Texas

The Daring Kitchen -- Croissants

Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

"The Boy" did the croissants on his own and we served with a meal for his grandparents. They took alot of time to rise but the taste was very good. I would have liked them to be fluffier but over all a very good bread.

My part however was a disaster. Cornish hen with roasted vegetables was terrible. One of the worst things I ever cooked. I hope it was just a bad day for me.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Houston, Texas

The Daring Kitchen -- "Stock to Soup to Consommé"

Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook’s September 2011 challenge, “Stock to Soup to Consommé”. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!

I was really proud of how this project came out but again I am posting late and hopefully I can start getting more cooking projects posted now that my travel schedule is lightening up.

I have been making stock for some time but I have to admit I learned some tricks from this project and the stock is getting better every time. I am planning on using bones from rotisserie chicken next time. Technically, I probably skipped the soup phase because I put my chicken and vegetables in the food processor and ground them up. When added to the stock it made soup but it was not pretty. However, the Consommé came out really nice. One thing I did was strain it through a paper towel which took out all the solids and any stray oil.

"The Boy" made a nice herb brioche which had a "whatever he could find in the pantry" filling. The pesto was okay but the brioche was outstanding and the posted recipe has made into our keeper file. So enjoy the pictures.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Houston, Texas

Daring Kitchen - Candy

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

As usual we are running late but we had just done truffles. They were fairly easy and very good. The nuts are crushed walnuts and the darker ones are shaved dark chocolate.




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The Daring Kitchen -- Appam and Curry (sort of)

Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.


The Boy and I are late on this one because I have been traveling for work all summer and am having a hard time keeping up.  The Boy actually did the Appam and I made a spicy roasted green "hatch" chili, corn, red bell pepper and pork rib (leftovers) hash to go with it.  The hash was basically just putting stuff together that we had around the kitchen but it turn out pretty good.  It was spicy, nice to get some hot hatch chilis for a change.

I was a little dubious on the Appam and the first few were complete failures to cook, but after some adjustments to pan temperature and batter amounts, they started coming out okay.  It took some time before I could really get into the flavor of the Appam but The Boy liked them right off.  I found if I got them a little toasty, they tasted better to me.

Plating this time was not fantastic, but I was really impressed by The Boys presentation.  We are starting to both plate and in the future you will see both plates.  Feel free to comment on which one you think is better. I am not going so which is which, so if you do comment just indicate which color plate you like. So on with the plates.

First Monthly "Yet to be Named" Wine Club

After much discussion at work on how much some of us like wine, we decided to start having wine club.  The first one was at our house so The Boy and I decided to make some snacks.  Unfortunately, we did not get pictures of the mousse and seared ahi tuna but did get some of the homemade truffles, fresh sourdough bread and cheese and meat plate.  Enjoy.

P.S. -- The wine was good too.

Daring Kitchen -- Fresh Fraisiers

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

The Boy and I parted from the published recipe and did something that I googled and thought might be relatively easy, boy was I wrong.  The cake part was an interesting combination of sugar, eggs and flour.  First you heat the eggs and sugar over a double boiler and than whip the heck out of it using our trusty stand mixer.  Was looking for ribbons here and got to that point about eight minutes into whipping.  Was kind of worried about the mixer, it is starting to make strange noises.  The next part, I have decided is more of a skill.  You must fold in the flour, gently, quickly and without deflating the egg whip.  This was not easy and had to do it twice, which worked out okay since we used both in the cake.

The Boy made the cream which had its own challenges.  We did not use gelatin but used cornstarch instead.  It seized up faster than expected but we added some vanilla and all was right with the world.  It tasted fine and piped really well.

Decorating was the easiest part and I was proud of the finished product.  However, I am cutting out the carbs and The Boy doesn't like strawberries, so we gave it to the grandparents who seemed to like it.

The Daring Kitchen - Baklava

Blog-checking lines: Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.


Unfortunately, I am posting this a few days late due to work and school conflicts with our cooking.  This is actually our first "official" challenge and "The Boy" and I were both somewhat intimidated by the thought of hand making phyllo.  As it turned out it was not that difficult to do and was a lot of fun to make.  Not sure I was that happy with the results but this was the first time with the dough.  So with any further ado, on with the photos.

We cut the dough into 16 roughly equal parts before rolling them out.

Rolling out the dough very thin took some practice and I think that we could get it thinner next time.  It was very stretchy and seem to work well stretching it by hand.

Butter, walnuts and spices sprinkled on the rough cut dough.  I used a sheet of printer paper as a basic template.

Coiled Baklava.

Soaking in honey and sugar syrup.

Daring Kitchen - Gumbo (unofficial)

So "The Boy" and I have signed up for The Daring Kitchen for baking and cooking.  We are now officially signed up but was not for the June cooking challenge but we did it anyway to see how it would come out.  So enjoy unofficially.

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.


We decided to try seafood gumbo and making our own shrimp stock.  Making the stock was probably my favorite part of this endeavor, because it made our house smell amazing for about three days afterwards.  The homemade cajun spice was out of sight and we will be using it for many things in the future.  Below is the prep work for the stock including peeling and devining shrimp (not that much fun btw).

The stock was a lot of fun to make and like I said above, you should have smelled this.  It doesn't look very appetizing but the finished product was worth the effort.  The only issue I had was finding shrimp with the heads still attached.  Next time I will just drive down to the coast and pick some fresh ones up.

Getting the rue down had me worried so I kind of cheated.  Alton Brown showed a method of doing the rue in the oven over time and the risk of burning it is significantly reduced.  I did this and it came out a perfect "brick" color but I forgot to take a picture.  After adding all of the ingredients into the pot it was just a matter of cooking.

We served with a slice of french bread.  What is not pictured is the mini shrimp po boys that were made with the extra shrimp we had.  Fried them up in a nice flour and cajun spice coating with some homemade cocktail sauce using fresh horseradish.  So without any further commentary - the finished product.

Being a bum

Haven't cooked anything more than a bowl of cereal in the last two weeks.  The Boy and I have plenty of ideas but not much gumption to get anything done.  The Boy has become really good at making tacos, which is a "throw down" meal for us when we want something fast.  We don't make it complicated, so meat (farm raised and grass fed) cooked with homemade chili powder, organic taco shells (we still have not got around to making our own) and a really good cheese.  I personally like Manchego in my tacos.  Somehow, he has got the baking of the taco shells down perfectly and they are always light and crunchy.  I like to add this really great sauce that you can get in every market in Costa Rica.  I am down to my last bottle, so if you are going let me know.

Anyway, we will get out of the no-cooking funk soon.  Plus we have a Daring Cooks challenge that needs to be done before the middle of the month.

Small Plates --Breakfast

The Boy and I have been talking a lot about making a small plates dinner and decided to start with a breakfast themed dinner.  We were hoping to try something simple - Melons, Vegetable Frittata, Chicken and Waffles, Biscuits and Sausage Gravy, finalized by Bacon Ice Cream and French Toast.
Come to find out, making that many different things is not that simple, but not terrible.  We did as much as possible prior to having to having to start all the important things.  See pictures below:

 Some lessons learned:

• Even though I had reduced the portions, it was still to much food.
• As much preparation prior to the main cooking is very important.
• Stay calm and methodical, it gets hectic.

Duck Prosciutto -- "Final"

Cut into one last weekend, very ducky taste, but good if you like duck.  Can't quite figure out what to do with it.  Seems like it would be very good shaved thin and put on an asian style pizza.  Anyway this was the first of I hope many experiments into curing meat.  The Boy want to try salami sometime.

Duck Prosciutto -- "Check Up"

Took them out and weighed them and they have lost approximately 20% of there weight and are coming along nicely.  Appearance is good and there is no odor at all other than the good smell of duck.  I think they will be done in another couple of days.

Horseradish Infused Vodka -- Part 2 (Final)

Check the Vodka after five days with the horseradish and decide it was plenty strong.  Removed the horseradish and placed back into the original bottle.  It tastes very good and got me thinking about making the ingredients to concoct a bloody mary martini with each common bloody mary ingredient being made into infused vodka.  Next on the list with be tomato vodka, olive vodka, celery vodka, and tobasco vodka.
Sounds interesting.

Horseradish Infused Vodka -- Part 1

Well this weekend, I am fairly time constrained, so I was looking for a project that would be interesting but not take much time.  I recently was at a russian bar in St. Paul, MN and had some wonderful horseradish infused vodka and decided to make some.  Now I have experimented with infusing vodka before making lemoncello, so I had an idea of how to start.  Peeled the horseradish and cut into "sticks" and placed in the vodka to set for 10 days.  Really did not have an idea on how much to put in, so that part is an experiment.

Duck Prosciutto -- "Making Duck Breast Mummys" (Happy Mothers Day)

The last post showed the salting of the duck breast which I didn't get to take out for about 36 hours.  I made a hanging contraption using a wire hanger.  It is not the best but seems to be working okay.  After weighing the breast (approximately 5 ounces) I wrapped them with cheese cloth and they are currently hanging in my refrigerator drying nicely.  The goal is to have them lose approximately 30% of there weight.

I think this is going to work very nicely.  TO BE CONTINUED..................................

Duck Prosciutto

So I have the duck breast from the confit project and really don't have time to do justice to by cooking it, so I am thinking prosciutto.  I didn't even know you good do that with duck so I am intrigued.  The procedure seems pretty simple.  Store in salt for a period of time (24 hours), wash and let dry/cure in the refrigerator.  I love proscuitto and I love duck so this has to be good.

Once the salt does its work, I will wrap it in cheesecloth and hang it in my refrigerator until it has lost approximately 30% of its weight.

Duck Confit - Part Two

The duck pieces where put into the oven at 9:30 this morning looking like this.  The oil is some leftover duck fat I had and a little bit of olive oil.  Baked this at 200 degrees for about seven hours when the meat literally fell off the bone.  Removed the meat and separated the oil.

The fat is culinary gold and can be used in place of butter in many dishes and is especially good for roasting potatoes and other vegetables.  I am storing the duck confit in a glass container in the refrigerator with some of the fat covering the meat.

The meat tastes very good, as good as any confit I have had in a restaurant.  Can't wait to make tacos.

Duck Confit - Part One

The cooking quest this weekend is to make duck confit.  My reading suggests that the traditional way can take a couple of days and I am a traditionalist so this is part one.  Confit is a method of preserving meat in fat which was important in the pre-refrigerator days.  One of the side benefits is that is tastes good like most cured, dried, preserved meat.  I wanted to make duck confit because I am on a quest to do a dinner with just small plates (tapas) and one of those plates will be duck confit tacos.  More about the dinner at a later date.  So we will see how the duck comes out and then next weekend will be from scratch taco shells.  So on to the duck.

Went searching for duck legs and thighs at Whole Foods but could only find whole duck.  Got it home after three people at the store asked me how I was going to cook it.  It seems that duck is intimidating to most people, me included.  Broke the duck down while saving as much of the fat as possible and put the breast up for later.  Lined the bottom of a glass pyrex dish with pieces of the fat which I liberally sprinkled with kosher salt and pepper.  To the top of that I added some crushed garlic cloves, fresh thyme and bay leaves.  The thighs/legs and wings went on top with a little more salt and pepper.  Before covering, I put some whole peppercorns for good measure.  Covered and placed in the refrigerator for the night.  Tomorrow, it goes into the oven.

My first Post

So here I am after years of wanting to blog about something and I am starting to write about cooking.  My son and I started learning more about cooking about a year and a half ago and we get more adventurous as time goes on.  It is like an addiction and I think my facebook friends are getting tired of me posting pictures of things I have cooked.

So, I will try to keep this up with things we have done and anything good that we have eaten.  If you reading this thank you.