Passion Nut?

Its time again for another Daring Baker post! This is an especially fun one, as there was quite a bit of leeway in the flavoring and decorating. So expect to see many many fancy layer cakes in the blogosphere today! The hostess this month was Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts, and the recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours. You can find the recipe here.

When I saw the crazy amount of egg whites used in the cake and butter cream, I immediately knew I would fill the cake with some sort of curd. What better way to use up those yolks? Instead of the usual lemon, I chose to make passion fruit curd. I haven’t made curd with passion fruit before, so it was a bit of an experiment. Can we say yummy? I basically replaced the lemon juice with passion fruit puree in a basic lemon curd recipe. Easy peasy…

Kona Kampachi Sushi

One of my favorite things to eat is sushi. Although I’m half Japanese, I was a wimp and didn’t try sushi until I was in my early 20’s. I was always afraid of eating raw fish, but after my first taste, I was hooked. With all the different things I cook and bake, I’ve never made sushi until the other day. I had the perfect opportunity to make sushi with the Kona Kampachi (Yellowtail) so I figured it was time. Of course, I winged it as usual, and ended up with a ridiculous amount of cut veggies and not enough rice. Who woulda thought it took so much rice (and so little veggie) to make sushi? I really wanted to make Nigiri-Sushi, but I ran out of rice before I got to it. Oh well… we still had more than we could eat.

To be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll make sushi again, as it was really quite labor intensive. We also have a little family owned Japanese/Thai restaurant close to our home that has fantastic sushi. I try to go there at least once a week to cure my sushi cravings. However, the flavor was unbelievably good. The fresh Kona Kampachi with the just cooked rice… you can’t get that, even in the best Sushi restaurant. OK, maybe I’ll make sushi again if I have an amazing piece of fish that warrants home made sushi!
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March 26, 2008 | Filed Under Asian, Seafood

14 Critiques

Egg-celent cookies

I just wasn’t feeling Eastery this year. We didn’t even have an Easter dinner… just a little homemade guacamole and Coronas while watching a movie. I know, I’m a bad wife, but we’ve been so busy with Stephan’s business, it just slipped my mind. Its definitely Wedding season in South Florida! Anyway, instead of making Easter Dinner, I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to make my favorite sugar cookies. I used the same recipe from my Halloween cookies, but ommitted the baking soda. I spent some time decorating them with pink, blue and yellow Royal Icing.

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March 24, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery, Holiday Fare, Sweet Tooth

6 Critiques

Fishing Online?

Since I’ve experienced the joys of online shopping, my days at the mall are few and far between. I’ve recently started to buy some food related products online, and it’s just opened up a whole new world!

I received an email from Kona Blue and was quite intrigued. They asked if I’d like a sample of their product, which is Kona Kampachi. After a little research, I found its more common name is Yellowtail, which happens to be my favorite fish when eating Sushi or Sashimi. So I said… bring it on! I was expecting to receive a little fish, you know, maybe a pound or so.

Imagine my surprise when I got a large box that contained a huge fish! I was excited, then terrified, then came full circle back to excited. I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. The only time I’ve cleaned a fish was in culinary school, and that was almost 10 years ago! So I sharpened my biggest knife, and decided to cut it into steaks instead of filleting, as it was big enough to do that. In the end, I was successful, but my counter looked like Tony Soprano had whacked someone on it.

I’ll admit, I was a bit wary of having fish sent to me. However… it arrived, surrounded by quite a few ice packs, and was very very cold. I decided to keep my dinner simple since the fish was so fresh, and chose to pan saute the fish steak and serve it with an orange-passionfruit glaze. Fabulous, absolutely fabulous. The quality is out of this world. Next time I’m in the mood for some fabulously fresh fish, I will definitely be ordering from Kona Blue.

I was too scared to try making Sushi or Sashimi this time, but will definitely try another day. Hmmm, maybe even ceviche. Come back to see what else I do with it… as I’ll be able to make several dinners from this one fish!

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March 18, 2008 | Filed Under Dinner, Product Review, Seafood

6 Critiques

Blueberry Galette

As usual, I had something on the verge of going bad in my fridge (blueberries) and decided to salvage them by baking something. I found this galette recipe in my Essential Baker cookbook. It’s my kind of recipe… very easy, and not labor intensive. I wish I had the time to make complicated, many step recipes, but its just not in the cards for me. To make this even easier, I made the dough the day before I baked it, and let it rest in the fridge overnight. Can’t get any easier than that!

I’m entering this photo in the September Photo Event, This blog clicks (Crusts.)

Winey Chicken

While flipping through this month’s Gourmet Magazine, this particular recipe caught my eye. Its the Alsatian version of Coq Au Vin, which is one of my favorite braised dishes. Instead of the usual red wine, this recipe calls for a Riesling from the Alsace region of France, and is finished off with a small amount of cream or creme fraiche. This recipe was incredibly quick and had very little prep. It does have a shockingly large amount of leeks, which made me a little dubious of the outcome. When the leeks cooked, however, they lent a delicious flavor to the sauce. Just make sure you have some crusty French Bread to sop up the amazing sauce. Wonderful!

Rump Cake

Rum Raisin + Pound Cake = Rump Cake? Hey if Bennifer, TomKat and Brangelina are legit, then so is my rump cake! Mmmmkay!

This recipe came from The Essential Baker by Carole Bloom. Stephan’s favorite ice cream is Rum Raisin, and when I came across this recipe, I knew I would have to try it. The flavor is wonderful, but I think could have used a bit more rum and maybe a splash of vanilla. Also, I was pretty bummed when all my raisins sunk to the bottom. However, it was quite tasty, ridiculously easy and will definitely be made again one day. I served it with caramel sauce.
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March 6, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery, Sweet Tooth

14 Critiques

Who You Callin’ Chicken?

I was in the mood for some comfort food, and decided to make a whole roasted chicken. The Purdue All Natural Roasters were on sale too, so that made my decision even easier. I always keep it very simple… stuffed with aromatics and roasted on a bed of veggies. The veggies under the chicken make a wonderfully flavored pan sauce after the chicken is cooked. I would like to have brined it, as I always do my turkeys, but this was a spur of the moment roasting. Well, as spur of the moment roasting can be! Even without the brining, it was quite tasty!

One thing however, neither my husband nor I care for the dark meat. The pooches love it though, and were very happy to eat it! Next time, I think I’ll try roasting whole chicken breasts with the rib bones and see how that goes. I served it with mashed potatoes and sauteed asparagus.
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