Recipes to Rival: Thank George's Bank

July's Recipe's to Rival challenge is a dish that includes: toast, fish cakes (made with potatos and cod), poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Of those components, the only item I had any familiarity with was... well... the toast! So this was a challenge for me! I loved that this recipe, while challenging in the techniques, was QUICK! The ratattouille took (well, for me at least) hours, and daring baker challenges generally seem to take days! I was able to make this entire dish in less than 2 hours - without rushing.

And it turned out great! It sure does look like a hot mess in my photos, but I blame that primarily on the eggs. I am clearly not a poached-egg chef! I wasnt a huge fan of the taste of the whites (with the vinegar from the water, and the water-logged effect) but I did love the yolks mixing in with the dish. I think I would prefer it with eggs over easy or sunny-side-up (which, coincidentally, I can cook effectively!). I made the food-processor hollandaise sauce and loved it, but Ryan found the lemon taste to be too strong (I though the tang was a nice note in with all the rich eggs and butter myself).

Many other members had issues with the batter for the fish cakes being too runny. Mine was ok. I couldnt really shape them with my hands.... but it also was not so runny that I could not form them in the pan. I think the reason why is: I didnt use leftover mashed potatos, but just boiled potato and mashed it roughly with a fork. Also, I didnt measure my potatos but used 2 medium supds - and likely that was over 2 cups. I also had a bit more cod that 1 pound (I had a choice of being over or under, I chose over) but I used the same amount of cream (I used half and half since it is what we have) and egg, though I mistakenly added the melted butter to the batter instead of reserving it for the pan.

My first run of cakes (and the batter made WELL more than 4 cakes - unless your cakes are each teh size of a small pan!!!) fell apart on me, but then I got the hang of it... treating them like pancakes seved me well (small scoops of dough, medium to medium high heat, and dont touch the patty until you are ready to flip so it gets a nice sear).

I did struggle with the eggs though. I tried the technique suggested on the boards of using a large spoon to help 'shape' the egg and it did help... a little... but my whites were still everywhere!

Overall, we both really enjoyed this dish! I loved how the flavors all came together and enjoyed the new techniques (who knew that Hollandaise was so easy? not me!). Very rich and decadent... but yummmmm!

Definitely a great challenge!

Note: follow the link in the beginning for the recipe!

Top Chef - My Take

If you watch Top Chef and have not yet seen last week's episode - stop reading now! Spoilers ahead!

Are you gone?

OK. Last week on Top Chef Ryan and I completely disagreed with which team lost. In this challenge, the contestants were in teams of two and had to create a dish using three random words from an improv club. The words were a color, a food, and a feeling. There were two teams at the bottom: one teams words were Orange, Turned-On, and Asparagus and their fatal flaw was that there was too much on the plate and the food just was not that good. The other team's words were Fuschia Drunken Polish Sausage. They decided that they were too good for the Polish Sausage and refused to serve it at all. Instead they served fish (????). Their dish tasted good... but was missing the food they were assigned. They also behaved in a very klassy way by taking a shot of tequila as they served the food - in front of their guests - and did not serve them anything! Yikes!

Needless to say, the Polish Sausage team stayed and a chef on the asparagus team went home. I am sure that if the asparagus team completely ignored the rules too, their dish could have been yummier. The Sausage team basically said "we arent going to cook a sausage in some beer and serve it. No"

WELL. Ryan and I were able to immediately come up with an awesome idea for those three words. He came up with Hangover Food - breakfast and I expanded on it.

So - my take on Drunken Fuschia Polish Sausage (and if lil ol me can come up with something good I know they could too!) This was really really good - I would even make it again. I am sure the Top CHef's could have prettied it up, I am not a "pretty" cook, but I think this proves that the sausage team could have turned on their creativity and made something good AND within the rules!

Drunken Fuschia Polish Sausage

(or, Sausage Sweet Potato Hash Fritatta with Raspberry Pancakes and Raspberry Mimosas)

Fritatta Hash:

1 sweet potato, cubed

1 small onion, diced

1/2 large ring of polish sausage, cubed

1 yellow pepped, diced

(I only used about 1/2 or 1/3 of the hash for the two of us, the rest I put inhte fridge and made the next day)

5 eggs

~4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded

splash of milk

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high. Add the sweet potato, onions, and sausage and saute until soft and just browning. Add the peppers and let soften just. put extra aside and fill an omelet-sized pan with the hash, over medium heat - so it looks to be about omelet sized. Add the eggs (beaten with milk) and cook until almost set. Flip the egg (I had my husband flip, or just wait until egg is set through if you arent a flipper). Add cheddar and cook until melted. Serve in slices.

Pancakes

I used America's Test Kitchen recipe for the pancakes base (which was great - nice and fluffy!):

1 cup flour

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup milk

1 large egg, separated

2 T butter, melted

Mix dry ingredients together. Combine the milk and buttermilk in a 2 cup (or larger) measuring cup (or bowl). Whisk in egg white. Mix in the yolk and butter and add to dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

I added 1 pint of fresh raspberries (minus a few for serving)

Drop 1/4 cupfuls onto oiled skillet (med high - if the pancakes are browning too quickly lower the heat) - give enough space to breathe. 2-3 minutes on side 1, 1-2 minutes on side 2. I like to keep them warm in a 200 degree oven on a plate covered in foil while you cook the rest.

Sauce

Amounts are approximate...

1/2 bag of frozen raspberries (probably 1-2 cups) plus about 1/3 cup of Orange juice and 2-3 tablespoons of sugar in a small saucepan heated over high until berries start to break down. Add about 1/2 cup of maple syrup and heat to boiling until syrup thickens. Serve over pancakes (if I was a top chef and had time/wasnt starving by this point I would have strained it, but, well, Im not and I didnt!)

Drinks

I didnt make these alcoholic because a) neither of us had a need for the hair of the dog and b) i would prefer it with champagne, but Ryan is allergic and I didnt want to open a bottle at 10am just for me, and vodka wasnt appealing to me.

These would be great as mimosas though, and I might just make them sometime!

Put aside some of the raspberry mixture before adding the syrup. Spoon into wine glasses and top with orange juice. Add a fresh berry for garnish. Add champage or vodka as needed ;)

Autumnal Breakfast for Dinner

Who doesnt love breakfast for dinner? Not us, we love it every so often. And who doesnt love apples and pumpkin stuff? I sure do! Last weekend I tried to make pumpkin pancakes and it was a huge disaster. I should have taken pics to illustrate their terribleness. Burned on the outside... raw on teh inside... yummm. ;)

ANYHOW. This week I saw a recipe for pumpkin pancakes on Confections of a Foodie Bride and the accompanying pics looked great - not burned and not raw :)

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 cup sugar

1 1/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I used various spices - cinn, allspice, ginger, nutmeg - instead)

1 eggs

1 cup buttermilk* (I added extra milk since the batter seemed kind of thick for pancakes)

1/8 cup melted butter (I used Canola instead)

1/2 cup canned pumpkin (i used 1/2 a can)

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Sift together dry ingredients in medium bowl. Beat the eggs, buttermilk together and stream in melted butter while whisking. Whisk in the canned pumpkin - taste for pumpkin-ness and adjust pumpkin pie spice/pumpkin as desired.
Whisk the dry and the wet ingredients - batter will be lumpy but do not over-mix. Ladle 1/3 cup of batter onto the skillet and cook until the bubbles pop and the top of the pancake loses the “wet look” (about 2-3 minutes). Flip and cook 1-2 minutes more.
Top the stack of pancakes with a pat of butter and serve with syrup and a garnish of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.
Yields 6-8 pancakes, depending on size. (mine made about 12 smallish ones)
*I was out of buttermilk (go figure) so I “made” some: 1 cup milk, minus 1 Tbsp. And then I added 1 Tbsp white vinegar (can use lemon juice) and let sit on the cabinet for a few minutes while I was measuring the dry ingredients and melting butter. Whisk together and voila! Buttermilk! ***I did the same but with lemon***

The pancakes were PERFECT. Fluffy, soft, pumkiny and not at all burned/raw. Well actually... one got away and burned but that was just user-error!

Apple Cheddar Scramble

This one was of my own creation. At first I thought I would do an omelet but then I remembered that 1) I cant make omelets 2) even if I could our pans kinda suck right now and 2) I dont really like omlelets anyhow and much prefer scrambles so why on earth was I making my life too complicated!

I sauteed 1 large apple (peeled, cored, sliced to 1/4 inch and then in 1/4s) with a little butter until soft and browning, on med high stirring occassionally. Added 5 eggs beat with milk and cook until almost done. Add cubes of good cheddar and let melt and serve. We all know (and if you dont, try it, so good) that apples and cheddar are an amazing combo and they were so good in eggs that I think this is a new favorite scramble for me!