Daring Cooks October Challenge: Brazilian Feijoada

Rachel Dana was our October 2012 Daring Cooks' Challenge hostess! Rachel brought Brazil into our lives by challenging us to make Feijoada and Farofa along with some other yummy side dishes traditionally served with Feijoada, which is a delicious black bean and pork stew.

"Hi! I’m Rachel Dana, a non-blogging member. I’m an American who has been living and cooking in Belo Horizonte, Brazil for the past 6 years. For this month’s challenge I wanted to share a traditional Brazilian meal that I believe will be possible to make anywhere in the world, so I chose Feijoada. And not only a feijoada stew, a feijoada meal, so get ready to get into the collard greens, farofa, vinagrete, and some other fun things as well. If the plate isn’t overflowing with food, it would just be inappropriate.
Feijoada is a famous Brazilian black bean stew filled with meat, mostly pork parts. A really traditional feijoada will have pig ears, feet, nose…this originated with slaves and what was left for them to cook with."

It was a little difficult for me this month - first problem was getting the ingredients, second problem was that I do not like beans.. Maybe it's just a side effect of my pregnancy, but the imagination of a stew with lots of pork meat in it was not really attractive. But I was curious to try a Brazilian dish so I changed the meat to chicken (mainly). I could only get hold of black beans in cans, so I was able to make a really quick feijoada. Instead of the collard greens for the feijoada meal I made spinach; and I also skipped making the Brazilian whit rice. The original recipe (with the pork feijoada, white rice and collard greens) can be found here.

Daring Bakers September Challenge - Empanada (with baked apples)

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

I can't believe it's already october - and that I'm posting a challenge so late ... But after my two-week 'summer' vacation in september (and all the preparing that comes with a hikig trip), days with lots of work and another lucky condition I'm it I just feel tired. My energy level has been very low during the last months and it costs me a lot of effort to stand in my kitchen for a longer time and prepare food. 

Normally I cook dinner at home, but lately I eat at work because of my overwhelming hunger attacks at noon. Also I have to stick to a bunch of food restrictions (nothing smoked or raw, soft cheese, alcohol) so I feel a little bit limited in my cooking too. I guess some of you know what I'm talking about right now. 

So I feel pity I'll maybe miss my favourite season of the year. The story of Patri about her grandmother's kitchen in Portugal inspired me (I could literally smell the flavours coming from that kitchen), and I rembered my favourite smell of fall - warm/baked apples. Usually I would make a cake with apples in fall but as we were allowed to use a sweet filling for our empanada too, I chose to make a baked apple filling. Baked apples are something mostly eaten around christmas time, but I have a really bad craving for them right now (made even some for a BBQ yesterday). The filling is my own creation I usually use for the baked apples, but which also makes a nice layer of an empanada.

 

Daring Bakers August Challenge: Filled Pate au Choux Swans

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

Today I'm just leaving a small note: I haven't been in the mood lately for some kind of baking or cooking, that's the reason I skipped the last month's challenges. My thoughts got distracted lately by something (or better someone) else ...

The swans were easy (as promised) and it was a quick challenge - so you should really give it a try (like Kat says).

Daring Cooks August Challenge: Cornmeal (Pancakes)

Rachael of pizzarossa was our August 2012 Daring Cook hostess and she challenged us to broaden our knowledge of cornmeal! Rachael provided us with some amazing recipes and encouraged us to hung down other cornmeal recipes that we’d never tried before – opening our eyes to literally 100s of cuisines and 1000s of new-to-us recipes!

To be honest, I'm not a fan of cornmeal. I've tried some recipes before, also with polenta (like this apple cake) but I didn't find it compelling. It always had a kind of 'raw' taste and left the impression of eating sand behind. There are some products made of cornmeal I like - for example tacos or french fries made out of cornmeal. So I gave it a try and chose one of the recipes given at the end  - lemon cornmeal pancakes - I love lemon, so this couldn't be a wrong choice I though. I was right. I loved the sponge-like consistency, the lemon flavour and the mixture of all-purpose and cornmeal flour which makes the pancakes a satiable dish. Instead of using blueberries and maple syrup I stacked them together with raspberry jam (in Germany, we usually eat pancakes with jam, sugar or apple sauce) becaus I love the lemon-raspberry-combination.

Foodie Month: June 2012

This month, I have been busier again. I recognised I like to cook things from the current Jamie Magazine Issues and 'reinvent' older recipes I cooked before. 

Diesen Monat war ich wieder etwas fleißiger - im Moment koche ich am liebsten Rezepte ause den aktuellen Jamie Magazinen oder 'erfinde' alte Rezepte neu.

Magazine Mondays

Pasta Rodeo - recipe from 'LECKER Trattoria' (original by Vapiano)

Pappardelle with Oxtail sauce - inspired by a recipe from the German Jamie Magazine  (Issue 3, May/June 2012)

Baking Tuesdays

Raspberry Muesli Buns - Baking Tuesdays - recipe adapted from the Jamie Magazine (Issue 27 March/April 2012) - post about my version will follow

Daring Bakers June Challenge: Battenberg Cake

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

"This cake has far grander beginnings than tea with teddy. It was actually created as a wedding cake for royalty. The first Battenberg cake was made to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria, to husband Prince Louis of Battenberg. It’s traditionally flavoured with almond and has the signature Battenberg markings, that is, the yellow and pink squares (said to represent the four princes of Battenberg). The strips of sponge are glued together using jam (normally apricot) and the whole cake is covered in marzipan. Sometimes the edges are crimped and the top is patterned with a knife."

I chose a recipe given in the challenge PDF - the Coffee and Walnut Battenberg. The principle how you do this is easy - bake the sponge, 'glue' it together with the coffee buttercream and cover with marzipan. Mandy provides lots of pictures how to do it right (just have a look at her blog) and even recipes for modelling chocolate if you don't like marzipan. I was in a hurry to get done with this, and marzipan was the fastest thing of all (otherwise I would have tried to use white modelling chocolate). 

As I didn't have a special Battenberg tin, I baked two flat rectangle cake sponges, cut them into eight cubic stripes each and assembled 'four in one'. It looked really nice but boy - there were loads of sugar and calories on that plate in the end ...

 

The Daring Cooks June Challenge: Cannelloni with radiccio and pancetta filling

Manu from Manu’s Menu was our Daring Cooks lovely June hostess and has challenged us to make traditional Italian cannelloni from scratch! We were taught how to make the pasta, filling, and sauces shared with us from her own and her family’s treasured recipes!

I am too late this month, but neverthless I will share the recipe I made for this month's challenge. I've made pasta from scratch before, and I know it's taste is unbeatable compared to store-bought one. But making the dough takes time, something I didn't have so much during the last weeks. I preferred to sit on my couch and to knit to be honest. I didn't have the energy to crouch into my cabinet, fishing for the pasta mashine on the top shelf and (much worse) cleaning it afterwards. Until I remembered I had this pancetta in my freezer and this radicchio into my fridge. I bough the radicchio about a week ago in an attempt of making something with an ingredient which I didn't use before. The thing was near to expiration date (looking at it), and I didn't wanted to throw away (I hate to cast away groceries). So I fought my inner couch potato and got cooking. The original combination of radicchio and pancetta goes with Taleggio which isn't availiable here, so I used Provolone (which I added to the bechamel sauce too). Iit's really easier to make cannelloni this way (with fresh dough instead using the store-bought ones - I found them more difficult to fill and you need to cook them before using (which you can omit when using fresh dough as I found out).  So thanks again daring Cooks for challenging me - I killed two birds with a stone this time - using radicchio and making delicious cannelloni from scratch.

Daring Bakers May Challenge: Honey & Apple Challah

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

You won't get anything special this month, because I used a already-exsisting recipe. I made exactly the same recipe some time ago when we visited my mother-in-law, and I remembered it instantly when I read the challenge. Despite of some minor changes, I kept to the recipe; and the tutorial which comes with it is really good, so I don't want to post it again (because I coulnd't have done better). It's from one of my favourite food blogs Smitten kitchen written by the ingenious Deb Perelman. She has got  a cooking book in the line (coming out soon) which I will definitively buy.

This time, I got a really soft and tasty dough (thanks to my changes I guess) compared to the last one I made. 

Honey & Apple Challah

My changes:

• added 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin spice mix (cinnamon and apples go really well together)
• used apple compote instead of the fresh apples and mixed it into the dough prior to rising

Daring Cooks May Challenge: Boeuf Bourguignon

Our May 2012 Daring Cooks’ hostess was Fabi of fabsfood. Fabi challenged us to make Boeuf Bourguignon, a classic French stew originating from the Burgundy region of France.

The moment I read the title, I had to think about THIS movie - did anybody see the movie 'Julie & Julia'? It's great, and I loved it. All of us food bloggers are some kind of Julie or Julia, aren't we? The scene I remember the most and vividly is the one were Julie is exspecting animportant visit (don't remeber of whom) concerning her blog and wants to make boef bourguignon for this occassion. It's getting late, she falls asleep and the boef burns in the oven. I really could feel with her. No idea how many of my dishes landed in the trash can. It's part of the process but I feel sad everytime. I have had meltdowns in the kitchen too. But I was fearless concerning the boef and I exspected  - and got the best. Meat melting on my tongue, flavoured with a symphony of herbs and wine. I ate it with some fresh baguette, and it was perfect. The smell attracted even the collegues of my hubby who ate his share at work. So make and enjoy too!

I halved the recipe and cooked it into the oven at 200°C for 2 hours. The remaining sauce in the pan was thick, so I just added the onions and mushrooms (no reducing required).

Foodie Month: April 2012

I started a new project in my cooking & baking life because I recognised some things lately:

First - I posted only Daring Bakers/Cooks Challenges the last months, but that is not the only thing I do in my kitchen. Of course I cannot share every recipe I make because there are people out there who make a living on saling recipes/cooking books, and I respect that. Therefor I want to share mouth-watering pictures of food for the ones who are interested. I do not cook or bake fancy stuff, so if I can do it, you can too. So I'll grab my camera whenever there is some light (left) and good looking & tasting food onto our plates and share. Maybe this will help you with decision in wether to buy a book or make a certain meal - I hope so!

Second - I confess I am addicted to cooking and baking books. Whenever there is a new one avialiable (preverably in English) I have to buy it. There are lying books and magazine all over our place - in the sleeping room, the bathroom, the living room and (of course) the kitchen. I like to read them, enjoy the pictures and the ideas which they give me to create own recipes. I pin them onto my refridgerator, my virtual pinboard and store them as pictures or pdfs on my smartphone (just in case I visit someone and need to bake or cook there - I am a little bit obsessed ...). Unfortunately some of the books are living a dire existence on their shelves,so I looked for a possibility to cook more often from them, a possibility to use all my resources and to get varied meals throuout the week. Our 'schedule' has been a little bit boring the last time, and I often sighed while thinking about "what to buy" and "what to cook".

I gave every day of the week a topic, considering what kind of chefs (or food bloggers) I like most and what things I want to try or practice more. The goal is to complete one recipe per day/topic which means share 5 recipes/pictures. So here is the first month's roundup. I was really busy what happens often when I start something, so I hope I won't run out of steam when time passes.

Magazine Mondays

- recipes from all my magazines (no matter if baking or cooking) -

Cinnamon braised lamb shanks (Jamie Oliver Magazine Issue 27 March/April 2012)

Steak with Cajun rub ('Lust auf Genuss' April 2012 Issue)

Baking Tuesdays

- baked goods (cake, bread, muffins, cookies and so on) - 

Christopsomos (Greek Celebration Bread from "The Bread Baker's Apprentice, BBA Challenge)

• Cherry-fudge Brownie Torte  ("From my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan, my adapted non-alcoholic version)

Povitica with raspberry curd and raspberries (recipe from the Daring Bakers October 2011 Challenge)

Wednesdays with Jamie

- recipes from my favourite chef (magazine recipes included) - 

• Dan Dan Noodles (my vegetarian version)

Scandinavian Thursdays

- Scandinavian recipes (preferably Norwegian dishes, savoury and sweet allowed) -

• Jansons fristelse (no picture/kein Bild)

Fridays with Beatrice

- recipes from my favourite food blogger (blog & book recipes) -

squash and potato crumble (recipe from the Boston Globe Food section)

• fennel and green pea soup

WWW-weekend

- recipes from the world wide web (favourites from epicurious, food blogs or The Daring Kitchen) -

• Mango curd mousse and strawberry cake (adapted recipe from Epicurious)
• Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Salsa and Tsatsiki (recipe from Epicurious, original by Gourmet Magazine March 2009)

Fridays with Béatrice: Fennel and green pea soup

Did I tell you about my new project Foodie Month? Well, I will soon - until then, you'll get short sneek peeks ... Part of this project is 'Fridays with Béatrice' (like I like to call it), a little cook-along with my fellow Foodie Lena from Coconut & Vanilla. We met (how else) at facebook and both love to read Béa's foodblog 'La Tartine Gourmande' - and of course we had to buy her book (as we both are addicted to cooking books).

We decided to cook randomly through our favourite recipes of the book and share our experiences - in the tradition of Tuesdays with Dorie.

Because this still should be fun and we both have a tight schedule we decided for two fridays a month we are going to share a recipe - not the recipe itself but a kind of recipe review. The pages of our copies are plastered with post-its, so this may take a while. I hope you'll like this kind of project and join us on this culinary journey. The choice of recipes made will also be based on seasonal availiable ingredients so there shouldn't be a problem to get all the things needed (aside from the environmental aspect of using local stuff instead of buying imported goods which had to be flewn in). 

Daring Cooks April Challenge: Create your own recipe - Rosemary potato bread pouches with eggplants and caramelized onions

Our April 2012 Daring Cooks hosts were David & Karen from Twenty-Fingered Cooking. They presented us with a very daring and unique challenge of forming our own recipes by using a set list of ingredients!

We were given three lists of ingredients from which we had to choose one each and design our own recipe - quite different because they didn't match that well (which was on purpose I guess).
There were recipes for inspiration but I didn't need them. The first thing that came to my mind when I read balsamic vinegar and goat cheese were some focaccias with caramelized onions and goat cream cheese I made some time ago. The recipe was inspired by one of my favourite cookbooks (which is all about caramel). I didn't post the recipe (unfortunately) but kept in mind that onions caramelized with balsamic vinegar and goat cream cheese are amazingly tasty. Why don't add some grilled eggplant slices? To put alltogether onto pizza dough was to easy and boring though (you of course can do I you find making the bread to time consuming). The additional rosemary and potato flavour just gives the final bread pouches a full and extesive flavour. No 'usual' main dish, I know, but we were asked to be creative, and this is my luxury version of a pizza.

So I chose the following ingredients from the three lists given: Eggplants, balsamic vinegar, maple sirup, goat (cream) cheese and made:

Rosemary potato bread pouches with eggplants and caramelized onions

The Daring Bakers March Challenge - Dutch Crunch Bread Sandwiches

Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

Sara grew up in the Bay Area, but was dismayed when she moved away for college that Dutch Crunch bread is not usually available outside of Northern California. For many folks from the Bay Area, a sandwich just isn’t complete without Dutch Crunch bread. Technically, Dutch Crunch doesn’t refer to the type of bread, but rather the topping that is spread over the bread before baking. In Dutch it’s called Tijgerbrood or “tiger bread” after the tiger-like shell on the bread when it comes out of the oven. The final product has a delightful sweet crunch to it that makes it perfect for a sandwich roll. It’s a common option at sandwich shops all over the Bay Area and is often one of the first breads to run out.

As I am in my 'bread-baking-mode' the last weeks, this was a great challenge for me. I used the opportunity and made a braided loaf with the dough - which you can't unfortunately see because of the topping (but it was a good exercise nevertheless). The bread was very versatile - I used it for sweet and savoury dishes and it stayed fresh for a very long time - even after 5 days it tasted like day one with the little help from a toaster. Just keep an eye on the topping when it's resting - because of the large amount of yeast it rises really quick and much, so you should use a large bowl to prevent dough disasters - just catched mine in time before it could ran over ...

The bigger slices were used to make the sanwiches and the smaller ones were used in a bread and butter pudding with raspberries like this one, I served it with vanilla sauce. Yummy! For the sandwich 'construction' I decided for warm ingredients. I love warm stuff for breakfast, especially fried eggs and goat cream cheese wrapped in bacon or ham. So why don't put that onto this crunchy bread? A fabulous treat I took to work for lunch (and which saved the day).

Sandwich of Dutch Crunch Bread with goat cream cheese in smoked ham, lamb's lettuce and blueberry-dressing

Sandwich of Dutch Crunch Bread with fried egg & shrimps, tomatoes and iceberg lettuce

The Daring Cooks March Challenge: Brave the Braising - Lamb Stew with baby vegetables

The March, 2012 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Carol, a/k/a Poisonive – and she challenged us all to learn the art of Braising! Carol focused on Michael Ruhlman’s technique and shared with us some of his expertise from his book “Ruhlman’s Twenty”.

What is braising?
Traditional cooking methods may be classed as how heat is conducted through the food. First is moist heat (poaching, simmering, steaming or boiling) where heat is conducted through some sort of liquid; be it stock, sauces or steam. The second method is dry heat (roasting, baking, broiling, sautéing, pan frying) where heat is conducted by hot air, radiation or hot fat. Different methods are suited for different kinds of food. Braising, from the French “braiser”, offers us a combination cooking method – dry heat followed by moist heat. Typically, meat is seared in hot fat which helps to add flavor and aromas, improves color (browning), and texture (crust). It is then submerged in liquid and cooked slowly and gently at low heat. In a nut-shell that’s it! It should be noted that there are endless variations for braising including stove-top versus oven; partially submerged in liquid or completely submerged; or stews where there are many ingredients that are cut into smaller pieces.
Braising has several advantages over other cooking methods in that it provides for uniform cooking when done in an oven with heat coming from all sides instead of just the bottom of the pan as well it requires less attention as it’s cooked at a slow and steady temperature for longer periods. Other advantages are that it clears the stove top for other preparations, the dish may be prepared in advance and the flavor improves over time!

I love braising and have done it before - without knowing it that I was using this technique. My all-time-favourite Jamie Oliver provides a lot of braising-style recipes in his cooking books which I cooked a lot e.g. this one. I even made one with rabbit in a mustard and prune sauce wich was delicious (sorry, both posts are in German).

The recipes provided by Carol looked interesting, there was for example one for braised fennel (I love fennel and will try it someday). But I had something else in mind. I spotted a recipe for lamb stew when I visited my friends and run through the pages of a cooking book of theirs. They love French cuisine and had a cooking book with easy everyday-life recipes. I never made something with lamb before and I decided to cook this recipe for my birthday brunch and adapted it to become a little bit more braising-style (what means to just put it into the oven so I could prepare other dishes in the meantime). My guests at the brunch loved it, it was delicious for itself, with bread and with pasta.

Daring Bakers February Challenge: Quick Breads - Lemon Loaf with blueberries

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lis stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I was glad it was a quick and easy challenge this time. Because I am preparing for my birthday brunch there was not much time left for additional elaborate baking. At first I was a little bit confused - quick breads without yeast - sounded not tasty at all. But then I discovered the leaf recipes and was glad, especilly about the Meyer Lemon loaf one. I would love to use them, but they are not availiable in Germany, what a pity! I love lemon recipes and decided to add some fresh fruits to moisten it instead of brushing it with syrup (the recipes are often very sweet, so I already reduce the sugar content). The combination with blueberries is great as tested before. To get a similar taste to Meyer lemons, I used a mixture of lemon and orange zests and orange and lemon juice. The cake is my birthday cake for work, so I hope my colleagues will like it as I do.

Daring Cooks February Challenge - Patties & fish burgers my style

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness!We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

Technically patties are flatten discs of ingredients held together by (added) binders (usually eggs, flour or breadcrumbs) usually coated in breadcrumbs (or flour) then fried (and sometime baked). Burgers, rissoles, croquettes, fritters, and rösti are types of patties as well.

This challenge offered me the opportunity to share something I really love to eat - fish burger. When I first read the topic, I thoght about usual burgers (or 'Buletten') like we use to call them here in my region (funnily, there are several words for 'burger' in different regions of Germany). But then something popped up into my mind and I remembered something - the instant though of "Oh, you could make FISH burgers again ..."

So if you are not interested in love stories, skip this part. Now I am going to tell you the love story of me and the fish burger (on Valentine's day - funny, isn't it?). It all started with my au pair time in Norway which is known for its fish. About a month after I arived there was a 'traditional food' fair at the market sqare in Trondheim. At one booth a cook was making (high quality) fish burgers. There was a long queue, but I got to taste a bit because the mother from my family knew him. I fell in love immediately. So every time I travel to Norway for vacation or feel the longing to travel there, I try to recreate this memory. I discovered you can buy ready-made burger patties at the supermarket which are called 'fiskekaker' (fish cakes) or 'fiskekarbonader'. Some contain salmon, some white fish (mainly codfish) or extra ingredients like bacon or leek. Here you can find an overview. Of course I can't get them here, so I had to make them myself. In one of my cooking books I bought in Norway (I speak Norwegian, so no problem) I found a recipe I could adapt and use for fish burgers. The book is by Andreas Viestad and also availiable in English as "Kitchen of light". If you are interested in Scandinavian cooking, you can have a peek here and for a traditional 'fiskekaker' recipe here.

This is my adaption - a version with salmon which I absolutely love and a new one with codfish, dried tomatoes and leek. And because I'm into bread baking right know, I'll add a recipe for lemon-flavoured bread rolls which suit the fish really well.

Daring Bakers January Challenge - Scones

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host.. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

The challenge scone (biscuit) recipe has been especially formulated by Audax Artifex after a large amount of research and experimentation. So if you want to make perfect scones, you should follow the link to his blog and read all the hints & tips he has been coming up with. I myself should have read them more accurately  because my scones were more flat discs than puffy and muffin-like. I guessed I patted them too flat and kneaded them a little bit too long. Resting into the fridge helped the raising process, thats the reason the walnut-gorgonzola ones are higher (they rested longer).

Nevertheless, the taste was great and the baked dough soft. I put them onto my to-do list for my next birthday lunch - a few batches more before should make a perfect result at the end ;)

My modifications were gorgonzola and walnuts for a more savoury and buttermild and passion fruit puree for a more sweet version.

Walnut-Gorgonzola Scones (front) and buttermilk-passion fruit Scones (back)

Daring Cooks January Challenge: Tamales

Maranda of Jolts & Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year!

Honestly, I do not like Mexican food at all - or South American. My taste buds can't get used to those strange and very spicy flavours (I like spicy, but not hot-so-you-can't-taste-anything-else spicy). I didn't liked the flavour of the Ceviche or the result of the enchilada challenge (too fatty althoug the filling was nice). And now Tamales with a list of ingredients hard to find and corn flour (tastes strange too) ... Luckily I know someone who runs an British-American food store and had canned tomatoes with chilies and refried black beans I could use. And I had some corn flour left which I mostly use for bread baking. I made the vegetarian version and one of my own, using salmon and avocado. Instead of corn husks, I rolled them into baking paper bound with dental floss. The final tamales were really saturating - but sadly nothing more than that. South-American food and I will never go well together I guess.

Daring Bakers December Challenge: Sour Dough & French Country Bread

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 have made sourgh dough bread before - but mine was made with rye flour (post in German).I liked the idea of making bread myself, especially after I watched a tv documentary about frozen-and-baked at the spot bread and breadrolls wich are used in lots of supermarkets and bakeries nowadays. The big bunch of enzymes used in those goods are not my kind of idea how to achieve good quality bread. So I gladly jumped in back to the roots and just the use of flour, water, salt and time.

There has been a book n my shelv for a while I wanted to bake all the recipes from the beginning to the end - The Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhard. I made two ore three recipes but didn't manage to go further. Thanks to this challenge my 'bread sparkle' is back, because the French Country Bread I made was astonishing. I used a ceramic baking plate (last year's christmas present from a friend) which is suppode to produce a really good crust - and it worked!  At first I was a little bit afraid because I had no proofing basket and the dough came out really flat onto that plate, but it got all right in the end.

The second task which came which the challenge was to 'showcase' the baked bread. A lot of ideas came into my mind, recipes I made before. There where French toasts (especially good for leftovers) or 'Arme Ritter' how we call them here. Or 'Strammer Max' which is basically bread covered in ham and fried egg, a popular cheap dish. I remember we eat lots of it during study time, using cheese and ketchup in addition. Old bread is always good for bread & butter pudding - don't throw it away! My favourite dish is 'Schweizer Brotauflauf' - Swiss bread pudding  which is savoury. Here is a similar recipe from epicurious - Savory Bread Pudding with Asparagus, Gruyère, and Fines Herbes.

I wanted something special for my special bread, and I decided for my own version of a famous French dish - Coq au vin. I served the warm dish onto the (dry roasted) bread which made a great christmas meal.
 

 

Daring Cooks December Challenge: Char Sui & Char Sui Bao

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2012 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

Char Sui is a Cantonese dish and nothing else than barbecued (pork) meat. Char Sui Bao is a bread bun with a Char Sui filling - Char Sui to go if you like ...

I didn't feel like blogging lately. I guess my annual winter depression (especially because of the lack of light) is around the corner, and my other new (excessive) hobby - knitting - are the two main reasons. My work is exhausting me, and even the joy of cooking and baking isn't enough to compensate. I didn't skip the last challenges because I didn't like them but because I couldn't get myself motivated to stand in the kitchen and concentrate for at least an hour or two.

Today, against all odds like bad time, terrible photo conditions because of the artificial light and another tiring round of overtimes, I found my way to my favourite place (besides the couch) in my appartment. I'm glad I did because now it smells ridiciously good. The buns are just ouf of the oven and I haven't had such a good outcome in a while. The marinade is similar to the one for BBQ chicken I discovered into a cooking book years ago and have used in lot of variations since. Well, I think this one wan't invented by the author of that book, wasn't it? There were lot's of variations given for cooking the meat, but I decided for the oven method (simple & easy). The result was incredible, the meat was soft and tasty (I marinated over 10 hours), and some of it dissappeared somewhere during the filling-preparing process. Must have been the occasionally occuring black hole which crossed my kitchen from time to time (although my man isn't present right now). I think the buns with their soft texture and moist & spicy filling won't last any longer ...