Mango & Tomato: daring cooks

3/14/10

Daring Cooks: Tri Colored Roasted Pepper & Pea Risotto with Cheddar

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

Once again, I was happy not to be intimidated by this challenge since I've made risotto a few times in the past and did not find the task too complicated.

We also had to make broth from scratching. The recipe I came up with is one of those "clean out the refrigerator" recipes.

Ingredients
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1 small rosemary sprig
1 bay leaf
10 pepper corns
3 tablespoons cilantro
3 dry de arbol chiles
6 cups water

Directions
1. Add all ingredients to a pot. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 45 min. Strain.

Now to the risotto part: if you want a full recipe, let me know. I made two changes to the original recipe: using Cheddar cheese instead of Parmesan and using red onions instead of regular ones.
Note: my SLR camera told me to charge my battery as soon as I started working on this post. Thus, the photographs you see here were shot with my point/shoot camera. Ugh, the difference is huge.

1. In oil cook chopped red onions.

2. Add aborio rice and cook for a few minutes, making sure each grain is coated with oil.

3. Add a bit of wine, and cook until it evaporates. In several batches, add the broth, making sure it is cooked off before adding more.

4. Once the rice is cooked through, add the toppings: I added a cup of defrosted peas and roasted red and yellow peppers. How do you roast peppers? Find out here.

5. Next, add cheese, let it melt. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes before serving.

I was pretty happy with how this came out!

What do you like to add to your risotto?

2/14/10

Daring Cooks: Pita & Hummus

If you are expecting a special Valentine's Day post, you will be super disappointed. Apologies :)

Instead, here's this month's Daring Cooks challenge. The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

When I saw the challenge, I was really excited. I absolutely love hummus and have made it many times. But I've never made pita.

I had a bag of wheat flour and decided to use it to make pitas. The process wasn't really hard, but my pitas did not "balloon" in the oven, and unfortunately tasted a bit cardboard-y.

The hummus was a combination of all of your typical ingredients: chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, etc. This recipe was WAY too heavy on the lemon. I should have corrected it, but I ate it as is.

I also made an Eggplant & Tomato dip to go along with the pita.

1/14/10

Daring Cooks: Tofu Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I was excited about this challenge because it looked simple enough, and yet involved doing things that I normally would not think of :) I decided to go with tofu instead of pork or chicken or beef.

Satay Marinade
1/2 small onion
2 garlic cloves
2 cm piece of ginger
2 T lemon juice
1 T soy sauce
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric

Directions
1. Puree all ingredients in the food processor (how easy is that?).
2. Marinade cubed tofu covered for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
3. Saute the tofu on all sides till golden brown (I used avocado oil).

Peanut Sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat) {I used a pinch of cayenne instead}

1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.
2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.

3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

I was pretty happy with how this dish turned out. I'm not used to a warm peanut sauce, so next time I'd go with the cold one, but overall, it was good. I had leftover tofu for breakfast the next day: not the best idea at work --> too garlicky :)

12/14/09

Daring Cooks: Salmon en croute

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

I was very excited about this challenge because 1) Simone is my on-line food blogger friend and has even guest blogged for me! 2) I really like salmon 3) this recipe looked fancy but very approachable.

If you want a full recipe, let me know. I sort of winged it :)

Basically I made a mixture from cream cheese, spinach, watercress and garlic. I then put a piece of salmon on top of rolled out puff pastry dough (from a previous Daring Bakers challenge).

I then closed the dough around the piece of fish and made a few decorative details using a cannoli tube.

Finally, I made a few slits in the dough to let the air out and glazed the whole thing with an egg wash. The salmon baked for 30 min at 390.

Overall, I was happy with how this challenge came out. If I make this another time, I'd definitely add more seasoning to both the salmon and the filling. The dough was also just slightly undercooked, so maybe cooking it an extra few minutes would have helped.

10/14/09

Daring Cooks: Pho

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

I was SO excited to learn that the challenge for October was Pho: I LOVE Pho, but have never made it. You can't imagine how incredibly simple this recipe is. I followed the recipe to a t other than an addition of a carrot (looking back on it, I also should have added some basil).

For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce
1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)

Accompaniments:
2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice

Directions:
To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning. In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently.

Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.

Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed. Strain the broth and discard the solids.

Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package. Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl. Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients.

LOVED IT!

9/14/09

Daring Cooks: Indian Dosas with Chickpea Filling & Coconut Sauce

It is time to reveal the Daring Cook's Challenge for this month: Indian Dosas with Chickpea Filling and Coconut Sauce.

I love Indian food. I love eating it, making it, the smell of it and the comfort of it. I was really exited about this challenge, even though my friend Radha, who is Indian and knows her stuff, said the recipe was super Americanized. Speaking of the recipe, if you want all the details and amounts, email me and I'll send it to you.

The coconut sauce (on the left) consisted of tomatoes, coconut milk, cumin, curry, some broth and a bit of flour. It was really easy to put together and tasted pretty good. The chickpea filling (on the right) consisted of chickpeas, onions, green peppers, carrots, turmeric, cumin and a few other ingredients. I decided to leave out oregano and use tomato puree instead of tomato paste. The filing came together smoothly, but what nearly killed me were the banana peppers. OMG did you know they are incredibly hot? I somehow managed to touch my lips after cutting the peppers and my mouth was on FIRE! So were my hands: I was seriously in pain.

I made the dosas from wholewheat flour, water, baking powder, soy milk and curry. The dosas get cooked in oil, filled with the chickpea filling and topped with coconut sauce.

There was so much food! I was eating it for 4 days and got slightly tired of it, but this would be a good recipe for a party. You can also serve either the sauce or the filling on top of rice.

Although the recipe called for sliced cucumbers and shredded coconut as a topping, I thought it was unnecessary. Overall, I was pleased with how everything turned out.

Do you like my stacked plate look? :)

8/14/09

Daring Cooks: Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

Let me just start off by saying I'm not proud of how I did in this month's Daring Cooks challenge. The choice of the dish came from my namesake, Olga, from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes. She chose "a delicious Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment." I love Jose Andres restaurants in DC (especially Zaytinya) and was looking forward to making the dish.

Originally, my plan was to make this dish for my parents and siblings in Seattle, but Anna said my parents aren't big fans of saffron, so I never made the dish there. Once I was back in DC, I decided to make the dish without cuttlefish (calamari), to eliminate the aioli component and to use canned artichokes instead of the fresh ones. I also used turmeric instead of saffron (to get the same pretty yellow color without the taste) and only used 1/2 of the liquid and rice amounts, but the same vegetable amounts. Needless to say, my dish did not come out as awesome as some of the other Daring Cooks. Sigh. I'll try to do better next time.

The best part of the recipe, for me, was Sofregit. I adapted the original recipe and used it as part of my Grilled Zucchini and Sofregit dish.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 tomatoes, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 large onion, chopped4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 bay leaf

salt & pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large pan. Add all ingredients and cook for about an hour till they are soft.

Back to the challenge...once Sofregit is ready to go, I basically sauteed mushrooms and artichoke hearts in olive oil, then added some sofregit and white wine, followed by water and vegetable broth. Once the mixture came to a boil, I added aborrio rice, turmeric and a bay leaf. The mixture boiled for 5 minutes and then cooked for 8 more minutes on a lowered heat.

The canned artichokes overwhelmed the other flavors. I'm glad I only used 1 cup of dry rice instead of 2 cups. Now I have a bunch of rice left over for risotto.

If you have a favorite risotto recipe, please let me know :)

6/14/09

Daring Cooks: Potstickers

This month's Daring Cooks challenge was Potstickers! I have made these delicious treats before, but have always used prepared wonton wrappers...not this time! I had to make all components from scratch.

Ground chicken was on sale, so I decided to make my filling with that ingredient:

2.5 ounces bamboo shoots, finely diced
2.5 ounces water chestnuts, finely diced
1/2 red pepper, finely diced
1 inch ginger, peeled, microplaned
2 garlic cloves, microplaned
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled, grated
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
2 teaspoons sesame seed oil
1 pound ground chicken

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Fry up a few mini meatballs to see if you like the flavor. I did!

The dough was made from 2 cups of flour and about 1/2 water (add more water if necessary). Knead the dough for a few minutes and the let it sit covered for 15 minutes. I rolled out some of the dough using a rolling pin, but then decided to make life easier for myself and use my pasta machine! So much simpler! I also used my biscuit cutters to cut out the round shapes and then filled them with the ground chicken mixture. My crimping job wasn't the best, but it held everything together. I ended up leaving 2/3 of the dough and filling for the next day.

I decided to pan-fry my potstickers. What I did was pour a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pan, added potstickers (in a pretty flower pattern) and let them brown on the bottom.

Then, I very careful poured 1/2 cup of water into the pan, covered it and let the water boil out. Once that happened, I took the lid off and let the potstickers cook for another 2 minutes.

Here's the dipping sauce that I made:

2 tablespoons finely minced ginger

1 scallion, minced

2 shakes of red pepper flakes

1/3 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame seed oil

1 tablespoon white vinegar

Yesterday, I sauteed the rest of the filling in a pan and made wide pasta from the rest of the dough.

5/14/09

Daring Cooks: Ricotta Gnocchi

As if being part of Daring Bakers wasn't enough, I decided to also join Daring Cooks. The first challenge was to make Ricotta Gnocchi. Once I found out what the challenge was, I felt pretty confident I'll be able to make it. Why? Because I've made regular gnocchi in the past and liked how they turned out.

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi
Source: From The Zuni Café Cookbook.
Yield: Makes 40 to 48 gnocchi (serves 4 to 6)

For the gnocchi:
1 pound fresh ricotta
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon unsalted
½ ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
¼ teaspoon salt
all-purpose flour for forming the gnocchi

I halved the recipe and added zest of one lemon, black pepper and sea salt to my gnocchi. I also used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour because that's what I had on hand.

Directions (I must confess I cheated a bit and formed my gnocchi the same way I made the potato ones, instead of rolling them in the flour. Directions below are not "official", but rather what I did.)

1. 24 hours before making gnocchi, line a sieve with paper towels, add your ricotta, and let the extra liquid drain over a bowl for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

2. In a bowl combine ricotta, slightly beaten egg(s), salt, Parmesan, black pepper and lemon zest.

3. Add enough flour so that you'll be able to form gnocchi (similar to forming meatballs).

4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer. Drop 5-10 gnocchi at a time (depending on the width of your pot) and let them cook for about 3-5 minutes. Once the gnocchi are done, they will rise to the top.

As far as the sauce goes, I decided to do something very simple. I added quartered cherry tomatoes, torn basil leaves, a bit of olive oil, Parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper. I did not want to make a heavy tomato sauce because I wanted the lemony taste of gnocchi to shine.

Thoughts: I was very pleased with how this recipe came out. It was so much easier to make than the potato ones because you did not need to "rice" anything. Next time I think I'll try to make this recipe with all-purpose flour for a more tender texture.

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