July Daring Cooks Challenge: More Photos

July Daring Cooks Challenge: Molecular Cuisine and Me

For this month's Daring Cooks Challenge, Sketchy chose a recipe from Grant Achatz' Alinea at Home cookbook - Skate, traditional flavors powdered. Because of my own taste preferences and availability/sustainability of seafood and a couple of missteps along the way, my challenge became something more along the lines of Scallops, simplified flavors powdered. The experience itself was one that I am happy to have tried, and certain techniques will get incorporated into my routine. That being said, I'm not so sure that there is a future in it all for me.

The whole process started one sunday with the dehydration of the various flavor components - capers, red onions, candied lemons, cilantro and parsley. I knew I was in trouble when the only thing that smelled remotely enticing to me was the candied lemon zest. I'd read from another adventurer that the smell of these items all together was wonderful, and it just wasn't flying for me.

I ventured on, however, and ground up the condiments and sorted them into little jars to await the rest of the challenge. Lesson learned: really dehydrate everything that you intend to grind up because it makes a big difference in the ability to grind the ingredients as well as the taste profiles. My red onions and capers were just the tiniest bit soft when I ground them and I believe I lost a lot of the effect for those powders (not just because that bit of moisture made them more lumpy than powder-like).

The final powder was a brown butter powder which just didn't work for me. I used dry milk powder and baked it as suggested. Mine did not brown, and I was so afraid of burning it, that I sort of took it as is. I then attempted to grind the dehydrated banana that I had purchased at Trader Joe's for the rest of the brown butter powder. Another dehydration fail. It wasn't so much dehydrated banana as it was banana leather. Leather doesn't grind. It's actually very tasty, but not useful in a spice grinder. So I used the lightly toasted milk powder on its own, but I am positive that I did not get the benefit of that flavor profile.

On challenge day, I had a hard time finding one of the substitute fishes that had been suggested by Sketchy, and was not entirely disappointed because of the aforementioned sustainability issues. I went with scallops, frankly because I already had access to them and I thought the texture would lend itself well as a substitute. In this, I was right.

The next step called for simmering green beans and the fish (separately) in beurre monte - essentially chunks of cold butter with a bit of water. This technique really brought out the richness and simplicity of the scallops and gave a sweetness to the green beans. I emphasize simple here, since the flavor dynamics of this dish are all in the powders, but there was something refreshing in that simplicity and I will definitely use that method again.

When it came time to plate, I kept to the recipe as close as I could. I thinly sliced bananas (which I was very skeptical about), topped them with my buttery beans and then the scallops which I dusted with my cream-colored powder. I created two powdered flavor areas - one for the caper/red onion/herbs and one for the lemon powder to which I added some smoky paprika and some garlic powder, partly for color and partly because I was nervous about the caper/onion/herb set not being as amazing for me as it might be for some others.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with the way the dish came together. The flavors of the banana added sweetness and a tropical brightness. I didn't love the powders that I sort of banished, but the combination of lemon, paprika and garlic definitely brought the whole dish to a new level. While I'm not 100% sure the effort level was worth making this a regular part of my routine, I think the effects were successful and I might conjure something up along these lines again.

To complement it all, I poured myself the 2007 Goosecross Napa Valley Chenin Blanc. I was nervous that there would be too much sweetness, but the citrus flavors like grapefruit and lemon and the crisp pear added yet another level of flavor to the dish. All in all, a wonderful pairing.

Pizza Experiment: More Photos

The Great Homemade Pizza Making Experiment: Take 1

I've always wanted to make my own homemade pizza. I've also always found ways to put it off. Recently, I received a beautiful pizza stone as a gift and decided that the universe had finally said, give it up already, woman, and make your pizza!

So, armed with Whole Foods organic whole wheat pizza dough, I rolled out a great little pie and topped it with all local ingredients - local tomato puree that we received as part of our winter CSA last year, local mozzarella that I picked up at the Fulton Stall Market, fresh pecorino-style cheese from Valley Shepherd at the Borough Hall Farmers' Market, and garlic scapes, also from Borough Hall Farmers' Market.

I was aware of the issue one might have getting your topped uncooked pizza from the counter into the oven. I had thought through this issue and somehow, when the time came, I decided that I would wing it. I made a makeshift pizza peel out of cardboard, using copious amounts of flour to keep my dough from sticking. I didn't realize, however, exactly how long it would take to get my oven up to the requisite 500F, and so my little pizza sat on its little peel while the whole kitchen warmed up, softening the dough and rendering my flour useless.

In short, the pizza turned into a goopy mess and I hadn't even gotten close to the oven. I managed to slide the pizza onto a baking pan (apparently, I don't have a real cookie sheet with no edges) and force it into a vaguely-pizza shape. It was not so pretty.

Even though I did not win points for beauty, the pizza did come out tasting great. The dough was a little chewier than I would have liked considering the stone, but the toppings were the stars and the cheesy, gooey, garlicky mess made for a lovely dinner, even if it was a near-disaster.

To enjoy my pizza even more, I pulled out the 2007 Sobon Amador County Hillside Zinfandel which I picked up at Astor Wines. This is a fabulous weeknight zin that worked beautifully with the pizza. The dark fruit flavors took some time to open up, but once I'd gotten a chance to get into the wine, the fruit complemented the cheesy kick of the pizza and was very enjoyable. I definitely recommend this wine.

Farmers Market: mozzarella, pecorino-style cheese, garlic scapes
Winter CSA: tomato puree
Pantry Items: olive oil, red pepper flakes
Non-local items: pizza dough (from Whole Foods, ingredient origins unknown)

Little Local Meals Everywhere

While I often try to make a big production out of my local meals, there are often the little unsung hero meals throughout the week which are satisfying and local and tasty.

This week, my OLS entry will showcase a couple of those. Not least because I've had a harder time pulling together a complete dinner. Breakfast and afternoon snacks, though, abound!

First, I had a lovely breakfast tartine with a local baguette from Sullivan St. Bakery, spread with butter from Maine and raspberry preserves from Sarabeth's. I served this with a bountiful bowl of local New Jersey blueberries from the farmers' market. Not even any fall-backs on pantry items with this one!

The other mini-meal that I put together is, of course, present in one form or another every week for me. The fresh local cheese crostini with fresh herbs and cracked pepper. The combo here was ricotta from Valley Shepherd Creamery, sage from my garden and a bit of pepper sprinkled on top. I also noshed on marinated cucumbers and rainbow carrots, although this didn't make the photospread. The pepper was the only non-local item.

So here's to celebrating the local mini-meals along with the macro-meals!

Farmers' Market: blueberries, cucumbers, carrots, Valley Shepherd fresh ricotta
Whole Foods' local items: baguettes, butter
FreshDirect local items: preserves
Homegrown: sage
Pantry items: black peppercorns