Category Archives: Challenges

Challenges, Recipes

Daring Soufflé

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Crab & Leek Souffle

I’ve never made a soufflé before.

I knew it was something eggy, but I’m not really sure I had a concept of what one was. I just knew that they fell, and were complicated. I never ate one, I never tried to make one.

As a kid, my favourite birthday meal was home made lasagna and Black Forest cake. My girlfriend, on the other hand, loved cheese soufflé. I thought that was the funniest thing – what kid asks for cheese soufflé? Maybe it was just because I thought of soufflé as a snobby food, and not kid food. Obviously, different families eat different things.

So, yes, this is a great challenge for me. If you’ve never eaten something before, how do you know if you’ve made it right??

It’s hard to describe the texture… outside was a little bit crispy and nice, and inside was fluffy and soft. It’s almost like crossing scrambled eggs, a milkshake and crème brulée. Maybe.

Crab & Leek Souffle - baking

Blog-checking lines: 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.
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Blog Love, Challenges

Anchovy Goddess – BB7

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Anchovies

“That stench… that heavenly stench!”

Yes, today I am the Goddess of Anchovies! As a part of One Hot Stove’s Blog Bites 7 : The Iron Chef Edition, I put on the crown and try using anchovies in two different dishes. Again, I’m tying together the Blog Bites entry with my ongoing love of referring to other blogs, as seen in my earlier “Blog Love” posts.

It all started when I found a blog post with a recipe for Orecchiette with Broccoli and Mushrooms on What You Having for Your Tea, a blog I subscribed to recently. We weren’t eating much pasta at the time, and this dish looked really good and fast. There was just one wee bony ingredient that I was both unsure of and intrigued by – the anchovy.

Anchovy Orecchiette

I didn’t change the recipe much – I just tossed in a few halved grape tomatoes and garlic scapes. It was incredible, and the anchovy was subtle and really interesting. It’s one of those ingredients that seems a little weird, and you figure you can make the recipe without it… which you probably could, but you’d be missing out.

I made this dish twice, and really hoped that I could use it for an upcoming Blog Bites, since the whole point is to highlight recipes from other blogs.

As it happens, this blog bites requires that we choose an ingredient and use it in two different recipes. I added to my personal challenge by requiring that I find recipes on different blogs. In fact, I’m highlighting THREE blogs today, because I took inspiration from one blog and part of the recipe from another blog.

Let me explain.

In the last few weeks, I came across this blog post on Kalyn’s Kitchen, showing a stack of green zebra tomatoes and fresh mozzarella drizzled in Green Goddess dressing. At the time, I was more drawn to the zebra tomatoes, because I love them and hadn’t seen ANY this year (still haven’t).

Jump ahead about a week, and I decide to use anchovy as my BB7 ingredient. I do a quick search of some of the blogs I frequent, and I come across another, totally unrelated blog post highlighting Green Goddess dip, on Morsels & Musings.

Goddess Stack - naked

Taking the Green Goddess dip recipe and combining it with the inspiration to stack stuff and top it with the goodness of the Goddess, you have my second dish. I stacked grilled yellow and green zucchini, sliced tomatoes and a bit of bocconcini cheese and poured some Green Goddess sauce over the top.

So good!

Goddess Stack

The moral of the story is that anchovies aren’t only Fry’s favourite extinct pizza topping, they’re also a way to add a special zip to a sauce or a simple pasta dish. Weird, but nice!

My adaptation of the Green Goddess sauce after the jump.

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About Food, Challenges

What do I do with this? Chayote

Chayote

I’m finally catching up on my summer challenge here… finding fresh produce that I had never used before, mostly because I didn’t know what they were.

This week’s new thing is the chayote, a mexican fruit that is used like a vegetable, and sometimes referred to as the “vegetable pear”. It’s simple, and fresh tasting and doesn’t require any special preparation. To compare it to some other things you may have had before, it’s light and mild and crunchy like a daikon radish, or even a drier cucumber. Or maybe the texture of a green apple, but not the flavour? It can be used in cooked dishes, but is great raw in salads. For my first test of this vegetable, I tried both options.

I didn’t look up any recipes, and really just modified some recipes that I already enjoy.

Chayote Enchiladas

Chayote Enchiladas

To test it out, I used it in the filling for some enchiladas (that we cooked on the BBQ!) and as the crunch factor in a yummy corn and black bean rice salad.

First, let’s talk about the enchiladas. I first made enchiladas a few months back, as a part of a Daring Cooks’ challenge. I used the sauce recipe from that, as the tomatillo and poblano sauce is tart and fun, which is perfect for the summer. The veggie layer was made up of sauteed portabello mushrooms, onion and lightly cooked chayote. We did not, however, want to use the oven. It’s been a really hot and humid summer here in Toronto, and we do our best to avoid using the oven. I made a crazy decision, and we packaged them in foil and cooked them on the BBQ. This requires that you NOT put too much of the enchilada sauce in the stacks. Just put a little on each layer, and add the rest when serving. It worked like a charm! The only thing I would change is maybe spray some oil on the foil before layering the enchiladas. The hot cheese and tortilla stuck to the foil a little bit… no big deal. The chayote added a fun crunch to the cheesy, spicy mess.

Chayote Rice Salad

Chayote Rice Salad

The next dish I made was a Mexican spiced rice salad, full of grilled corn, black beans and bell peppers – oh yeah, and chayote. I think chayote really shines in salads, because it is nice and refreshing with a great crunch. Because it doesn’t have a really strong flavour, it could fit into just about any salad. I did go pretty heavy on the spices, using a mild ‘chili’ blend that I keep on hand, featuring paprika, cumin and various mild chili powders. To this, I added a touch of chipotle for smokiness and a touch of heat.

So… there are two ways to use a chayote. I’m sure there are about a million more!