Week 4: What do you mean the recipe says egg yolks?

This weeks blog post finds me slapping my head and saying D'oh! In the end things worked out but I was ready to lose my s#@t for a while. Before I get into that I need to set the scene for you. This week I decided to make some chocolate-hazelnut gelato. Hazelnut gelato is Jamie's favorite and since she bought me a gelato book and the ice cream making attachment for my Kitchenaide I thought it was the least I could do. 

Now if you have made a nut based ice cream or gelato before you will know it is not that it is difficult it is just that it takes a while and has a lot of little steps. We started by getting a big bag of hazelnuts from Costco. Before you can use these you must remove the skins which seems simple enough. Roast the nuts, rub with a towel and your done. In practice, not that simple. After cursing under my breath for about an hour rubbing, picking, plucking, cutting, etc I was about 2/3 of the way through the pile of nuts when Jamie decided to help me. The best thing she does is use the old google machine to find a better method for skinning the nuts. Boil them in water with baking soda.


Now the fun beings, scald the milk. Then add the ground nuts and let them sit there for a couple hours to infuse the hazelnut goodness. Strain the milk and return to sauce pan add the chocolate and melt over medium heat. In a blender mix 5 egg YOLKS and 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until very think. Now this is where I should have know something was up but I will chalk it up to lack of sleep. Instead of egg yolks I beat 5 egg whites with the sugar and it never really got that think. It did get fluffy though. 


Then add the egg mixture to the milk/chocolate mix cook it over medium heat. The book said to create a custard that is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. I think they should really define "coat" my soupy mixture coated the spoon for a few seconds. Again I should have realized something was wrong. Next you flash cool the mixture and put it in the fridge for several hours. It was some time around here that Jamie walks into the kitchen and like a jackass says "Where did you put the egg whites?" I smartly reply in the gelato and she says "Doesn't it call for egg yolks?" 

Insert head slap and D'oh here!

I decided I was too far along the process to turn back. I waited for mixture to cool put in the mixer and let 'er rip. After about 30 mins it did thicken up and once I put it in the freezer it hardened up. In the end the gelato tasted pretty good but the consistency is off. So not a total failure and I will trying it again in the near future. Maybe pistachio next time.

Recipe
3 cups roasted, skinned, and ground hazelnuts
4 1/2 cups whole milk
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate (I used Callebaut milk chocolate because milk chocolate is best)
1/2 cup of sugar
5 egg yolks (but apparently whites work too...)


Mark's thoughts: Skinning hazelnuts is fun I wish I could do it everyday. The gelato was tasty and probably worth the effort but I would not make it everyday that is for sure.

Jamie's thoughts: Jamie is a purist she likes just hazelnut and add to the fact that the consistency was off she would like me to try again with yolks this time.

Skinning the hazelnuts

Scalding the milk, ground nuts and chocolate ready to roll

Maybe a little off with respect to consistency

  

Week 3: Back in the saddle...

So after what will be referred to as the "Tuscan farro bean incident" last week I wanted to come out swinging this week. Jamie was having a couple of friends over so I thought lets try a new recipe on them. I decided to make veggie and chicken enchiladas. Now I know you are thinking what is new about enchiladas? The thing is that I love enchiladas but I have never actually made them at home for myself. I found a nice little recipe on the Canadian Living website (http://www.canadianliving.com/food/chicken_enchiladas.php) and started cooking. For the veggie enchiladas I substituted black beans for the chicken. I also added a little mexican tomato rice that we make for our burritos to both the veggie and chicken enchiladas. 

Mark's thoughts: tasty meal with limitless possibilities for filling, etc. I thought that the sauce was a little weak. The next time I am going to look for a sauce that has a little more POW! both in flavour and spice. It was a perfectly adequate sauce but it could be so much more than that.

Jamie's thoughts: Loved them! What more could she say;-)

Stayed tuned for next week when I tackle chocolate hazelnut gelato!

Top left: veggie filling. Top right: enchilada sauce. Lower left: tomato rice. Lower right: chicken filling. All cooking at the same time. It must be the Ph.D. that allows me to do this;-)

Ready for the oven

Week 2: Burned soup :-(

So it was my plan to have 2 recipes to enter this week. First, I made very yummy Harira (Moroccan Chickpea Soup). I got the recipe off Epicurious (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Moroccan-Chickpea-Soup-104356). It was simple, pretty quick and very nice for a cold rainy day. Instead of using capellini or fine egg noodles I used orzo which seemed to work quite well although it did get a little squishy when we ate it for leftovers. I also added some feta to mine and it just added that little bit of something extra. There are a couple of pictures below.

Mark's thoughts: great winter meal that could be whipped together with stuff you probably already have in your house/fridge. We will eat this again for sure.

Jamie's thoughts: tasty but needs more sauce as it was more like a stew than a soup

Ali's thoughts: she want to have it over some rice or something again because it was thicker than a normal soup

The second soup I planned on making was a Tuscan Farro and Bean soup. This is a classic cold weather Tuscan dish which Jamie and I had been wanted to try. So I did a little search and found a good looking recipe again on Epicurious (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tuscan-Farro-and-Bean-Soup-235425). We drove all over town getting the ingredients and I was stoked to make a bean and barley soup. It all started well, I got the dried beans sorted. I got all the ingredients ready and started cooking. I got to the final major step I had blended the soup added the barley and was ready to go. The problem was a then sat down and started looking at vacation options for Jamie, Luca and I completely forgetting that the recipe clearly said "stirring frequently" then next thing I knew I could smell this awful burning smell and that was it. Even though it was only slightly burnt to the bottom of the pot "the funk" had permeated the entire soup and it was a lost cause. It was a sad moment for 52 weeks, 52 eats but fortunately I had already made something new so I was still in the clear. 

On to next week I guess...

 

Week1: Follow up

Several people who read my original post suggested that I actually post the recipes (what a novel idea;-). So here is the recipe for the papaya slaw. 

Tuna Tataki with Green Papaya Slaw

Rob Feenie's recipe from Ocean Wise Cookbook

2 tablespoons (30 mL) vegetable oil

1 pound (500 g) tuna loin Salt and pepper Green papaya slaw:

1 tablespoon (15 mL) soy sauce

1 tablespoon (15 mL) rice wine vinegar

2 teaspoon (10 mL) yuzu juice

1 tablespoon (15 mL) vegetable oil

1 teaspoon (5 mL) fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon (5 mL) minced garlic

2 tablespoon (30 mL) julienne daikon (white radish)

2 tablespoon (30 mL) julienne carrot

2 tablespoon (30 mL) peeled, seeded, and julienne green papaya

1 teaspoon (5 mL) chopped Thai basil

1 teaspoon (5 mL) chopped mint

Garnish:

1 medium orange, peeled and segmented, membrane discarded

1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced

½ cup (125 mL) ripe papaya, peeled, seeded, and diced

1 tablespoon (15 mL) pine nuts Cilantro leaves 

Tuna: 

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large frying pan. Pat the tuna loin dry with paper towel and season it with salt and pepper. Lightly sear all sides of the tuna for 10 seconds each. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate. When it is fully chilled, slice the tuna loin into 1/4-inch (6 mm) slices. 

Mark's notes: We bought the tataki pre-cooked so so we skipped this step.

Green papaya slaw:

Whisk the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, yuzu juice, vegetable oil, lemon juice, and garlic together in a small bowl. Season to taste with pepper. Put the julienne daikon, carrot, and green papaya, Thai basil, and mint in a large bowl. Pour the yuzu vinaigrette over the slaw (reserve about 2 tablespoons/30 mL for finishing) and toss until the slaw is well mixed and evenly coated.

To serve: Set out four plates. Mound the dressed green papaya slaw on each plate. Garnish it with the orange segments, diced avocado, diced ripe papaya and pine nuts. Fan the tuna slices over the slaw and drizzle it with the remaining yuzu vinaigrette. Top with whole leaves of cilantro.

Makes 4 servings.

Note: Yuzu is a Japanese citrus that tastes like a mix of lemon and lime. If you cannot find yuzu juice, lime juice is a good substitute. Green papaya is available at Asian supermarkets.

Mark's notes: We did not have yuzu juice so we just used orange juice. Plus our papaya was not really green and was actually quite ripe but it was still good.

Week 1: Tuna tataki

Today we had Tuna tataki with green papaya slaw and mushroom fried rice. We got the tuna from Estevan Tuna at the Farmers market (http://www.bctuna.com/). It was pre-cooked and  frozen so we sliced it and started to eat. The papaya slaw was adapted from a recipe we got from the Vancouver Sun. The fried rice was Jamie's tried and tested recipe she "developed" when she was a kid living on the farm;-)

Mark's thoughts: Tasty, easy, would have it again.

Jamie's thoughts: Slaw was great but the tuna was a little too fishy. Would have the slaw again with some other type of fish.

The prep

The papaya slaw

The end result

What is the point?

This year I decided that in an attempt to renew my love for cooking I would challenge myself to find and try a new recipe every week. Now before you say "I think I have heard this before..." let me make it clear that this is not some "Julie and Julia" thing! This is just a person who used to really enjoy cooking and has felt bored and uninspired with the kitchen for a while now. I wanted to keep track of the recipes I tried what we thought of them, etc so I said to myself "Why not create a blog?" everyone else has so here we are blogging away like a fool. 

MARK