Daring Cooks Challenges

March Challenge
Cheviche de Pescado, Papas Rellenas with Salsa Criolla, and Pisco Sour



Cheviche

 

Papas Rellenas with Salsa Criolla



Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

When I discovered what this challenge was, I thought, "Are you kidding?! I don't know if I can eat fish that hasn't been cooked with heat". I figured the challenge would be eating the dish after fixing it, but I was up for the challenge. Hey, that's why I joined it in the first place! I was also quite certain that I would be eating this one by myself as my husband is not a fish lover in the first place and has adamantly said he'll never want to eat sushi with raw fish! Never say never, my mom always said.

Though we were only required to make one of the two dishes, I wanted the full experience so I decided the Cheviche would work well for an appetizer along with the Pisco Sour cocktails. Once those were finshed, we started preparing and filling the papas en rellenas...which was not at all stressful after downing the Pisco Sours! Mmmmmmm. I think those will now rival my passion for homemade margueritas! Check out this You Tube video for an entertaining lesson on making them!  How to make a Pisco Sour

The recipes for all the dishes are listed under a separate tab. Though we are allowed some discretion to make adjustments to ingredients, I chose to follow the recipes as they were given. Since all the items were new dishes for me, I wanted to experience them as true to the originals as possible. I was not disappointed!

I invited a guest over so we had 3 of us for dinner. Shandra also helps one of our other friends who does the Daring Bakers challenges, so she's getting a lot of varied experinces with food as am I! If you recall from my earlier posts, I have tried to learn to cook for one since my hubby was off doing consulting work. Well, finally I've been able to join him in the cold north of Minnesota! His co-workers are happy to support my cooking challenges....they've been in hotels and eating restaurants waaaay too much. What better way to pass chilly evenings than cooking with friends, expanding our cultural cuisine repetoires, and playing cards afterwards?



Salsa Criolla

I started early in the day, (though this isn't necessary) by preparing the marinade for the fish and the Salsa Criolla so the flavors would have time to blend well together. I had the potatoes cooked, cooled and pressed through the ricer ready to be mixed with the egg when it was time to make the dough for filling. I like to pace things out and not have to be doing several things at one time, especially when I have help in the kitchen. I'm not a good delegator, so the more things that are ready for assembly, the better I like it. Besides it helps allow time for conversation without fearing that the distraction will cause me to forget an ingredient. So am I too controlled???! I do learn to be a bit more daring!



Soak the onions in cold salt water for about 10 minutes to remove bitterness, then drain. Onions are combined in another bowl with the chili pepper, vinegar and juice of 1 lime. I use 1/2 jalepeno pepper, but the salsa could have used more heat than that. Either more of the jalepeno or a hotter pepper. I refrigerated this for several hours and the onions abosorbed the flavors beautifully.

The mixture for 'cooking' the fish was prepared and refrigerated. Mash the garlic cloves, mince the pepper, (aji if you can find it...again, I used jalapeno because I couldn't find the aji in our local stores), Combine with the freshly squeezed lime juice and cilantro. I have to say, the most expensive item in theses recipes was the fresh limes and finding good juicy ones was difficult this time of year in the northern midwest! I think it was definitely worth it though.

I was able to find locally grown russet potatoes in a very nice upscale grocery that I only found because I asked the clerk checking me out at a local Bed, Bath and Beyond where I could find a good grocery that would have good fresh produce and specialty items! I had just moved up here about a week ago and had no idea where to find things. We were also trying to equip the apartment because we were leaving most of our things at our previous home since this is to be a temporary move.  I digress!....Back to preparations for dinner.  Closely watch the potatoes so they don't overcook. Let them cool to room temperature then press through a potato ricer. They are a wonderfully fluffy texture. I also refrigerated them until ready for preparation, then took them out to warm back to room temp about 1/2 hour before I mixed in the egg. I didn't use any flour or other ingredients for the dough...just one egg and 2 1/2 pounds of russets.

                                                        Tick tock, tick tock....relaxing afternoon, then it's time to get started.

We cut the fish (I used fresh tilapia) and put the fresh lime marinade on it to set for a few minutes while we prepared the Pisco Sours. Those all went together very quickly and having the marinade done ahead of time made this a snap. By the time we finished mixing the drinks, (actually put the husband to this task...squeezing more fresh limes) the fish was ready to eat.

We were able to enjoy the appetizer with the drinks before getting down to the task of assembling and frying the papas rellenas. The somewhat tangy sour drink cut the spicyness of the cheviche. I don't think ours was too spicy though. The fish had a beautiful texture and I was so surprised how well the flavors mixed ....I truly enjoyed this and thought how lovely it would be on a warm summer evening. (Wonder what those are like????)

Okay, now we're relaxed and it's time to assemble the Papas Rellenas. I chose to use the beef filling because I loved the idea of raisins, and olives in with the ground beef. I chose a very lean beef (95% lean) since I try to limit fat in my recipes and these would be deep fried. The spices of cumin and paprika lent a nice kick to the filling as well. I think the next time (and there will be a next time for this dish, I'm sure!) I will kick up the heat a bit more and try to find those aji peppers. I like spicey but not so hot I can't taste the ingredients.

Since the potato dough was already made, we only had to brown the beef with the other ingredients: black olives, hard boiled eggs, onion, raisins (soaked for 10 minutes in boiling water), diced hot pepeer, garlic, cumin, paprika and white wine for deglazing the pan.  I wasn't really sure why I was deglazing the pan and nothing really 'stuck' to the pan and I never removed the beef mixture. I usually think of deglazing when meat has been browned and bits of it stick to the pan after removing it, but hey, a little white wine in the mixture was fine with me!

After browning the meat and adding other ingredients, stir until heated through, then off the heat and add the chopped hard boiled egg. I have seen others that use the sliced egg in the middle of the rellenas and that makes a pretty center when you cut it open. I forgot to take a picture of one of mine cut so you could see the filling after frying it. These were very scrumptious and filling. Not difficult and could be prepared for an easy weeknight meal.

The potatoes have been riced and mixed with the egg to form a dough. It shaped well and held together while we filled it.

Make sure you flour your hands first....this is bit of a messy step, but goes well with two people working together. Thanks Shandra!

Rellenas filled, coated and ready for frying.

Make sure the oil is kept at about 360 degrees F. It tends to get hotter quickly and the rellenas can burn before you know it. We only fryed one at a time and then layed them on a paper towel to absorb excess oil. They cooked in about 2 minutes and were crispy and golden.

We put this all together with a salad and crusty whole grain bread and the salsa criolla for a lovely meal. We even had leftovers! The recipe made 7 good sized rellenas and after the appetizer, one or two were plenty with the salad, bread and wine for a filling dinner. (Of course we later added some ice cream with a chocolate wine sauce and fresh strawberries for dessert, but that wasn't part of the challenge!)

A lovely meal and more new dishes to add to my recipe file. Maybe I'll even venture to Peru one of these days!

Daring Cook's February Challenge

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com

Hiyashi Soba Salad with Mentsuyu and Spicy Dipping Sauce.  I chose to use the traditional Soba noodles and was surprised how dark they were. The cooking was not difficult, though I was a bit anxious about the noodles becoming mushy. Adding cold water each time the water came to boiling for a total of 3 times and letting them boil about 3 minutes the last time yielded a nice texture; firm but not mushy. My family loved the various toppings. I had Wasabi, pickled ginger, cucumber, tomatoes, nori available and a choice of the two dipping sauces which I made using the recipes in the challenge.

 The noodles in the pictures on the challenge site looked quite white, though these buckwheat soba noodles were more brown than I had thought they would be. I watched the video and used her tips in making the noodles and the tempura batter as shown later.

My batter seemed rather thin, but it cooked up as it should. It was a little difficult to get the dry ingredients mixed through without over stirring the batter. I has seen a couple of recipes where there was a big difference in the amount of cornstarch used. I used 1/2 cup as called for in the recipe as posted in the challenge.

 I think the sweet potatoes were my favorite of the vegetables. I used shitake and cremini mushrooms, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Mmmmm! The shrimp was absolutely lovely! My husband loved the light batter....not sure he'd had tempura before, but it was definitely a hit.

This meal was definitely a hit. I have to admit, my husband and I had to give up on the chopsticks with the noodles, but my daughter seemed to be a natural with them! It was fun to prepare and it felt like a nutritional meal despite the frying since I use such great vegetables and canola oil for the frying. I will definitely incorporate this into one of my regular meals.

Cooking for One

It's been a challenge to keep cooking and eating healthy when there's only one to eat .....me! However, having signed up for an online monthly cooking challenge AND starting to get in shape, lose a few pounds, and subscribing to an "olive oil of the month" club, I have to say I'm getting a few inspirations. Of course most recipes serve 4-6 people, so even cutting them in half leaves me with quite a few leftovers. Despite the fabulous recipes I'm trying, I don't really want to eat the same thing for 3-4 days in a row. I'm hoping many will freeze well or at least keep so I can rotate them every 2 or 3 days.  I'm also going to start thinking of ways to 'find a friend' who might want to share a meal now and then.
Cleaning out all my cupboards and pantry were the first step to my creative cooking ventures.  How many cans of water chestnuts does one need? And what was I thinking of cooking....it's a staple, right??
I have found a wonderful book for my weight loss..."400 Calorie Fix". Of course I've recently purchased a few books about Olive Oil and it's uses since that is my latest passion. It works nicely with the diet since they want you to substitute olive oils for butter anyway. How convenient is that?! Here's a picture of the Thai Inspired Lettuce Wraps I made tonight. I hope the filling keeps for a day or two...it'll make a good lunch later this week.
I'll be posting my Daring Cooks challenges here as I begin that venture. Stay tuned!