Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Weeks 4 Cauliflower Soup and Some Scallops and Custurd






David
I thought this weeks recipes were so good that I'm going to type them in for you. I think that you will really enjoy two of these that we could today. Here they are
Roasted Cauliflower Soup by Tyler Florence
1 Quart of Milk
Salt
1 Head of Cauliflower
1/2 onion sliced
8 fresh thyme sprigs
1 stick of butter
1 bay leaf
Olive Oil
Freshly Ground Pepper
Heat the milk and salt to simmering. Add the broken up cauliflower, onion, butter, thyme sprigs, and bay leaf. Bring back to simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf. Put into a blender and mix for a puree. Serve with Olive oil on top.
Today was interesting. We couldn't find the BIG scallops, so we decided to go with the small scallops (Carl was reluctant). The only thing was that we had to put the prosciutto (like bacon) around the small scallops. This took some skill. We ended up really liking the golden apples that were cooked with the scallops. None of us would make the scallops again.
We have figured out so far that we have a 3 hour average from start to clean up. Wow. It has been fun. Lastly, Carl and I got into a little suds war. I made a beard on him with the suds from the sink, and then he smeared suds all over my head. It was all in fun.
Carl
Vanilla Pots De Creme
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Amaretto cookies (optional contain gluten)
Preheat oven 325 F and bring saucepan to boil for water bath. pour milk and cream in saucepan place over medium low heat. bring to simmer, remove from heat.
whisk egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl till sugar dissolves. Gradually whisk hot cream mixture in a slow pour careful not to cook eggs. stir in vanilla.
Pour in 8 oz. ramekins (we used coffee cups what ever you have that is larger than 8 oz.) cover with foil to make the crust softer. Place ramekins into a large, shallow baking pan and pour boiling water (about a half inch) for water bath. Slide pan into oven. Bake about forty five minutes. Till set but still jiggles. Remove pan and let cool in water for 10 minutes. Put them in fridge for at least two hours.
Yummm and the closing of the eyes and I almost pulled a Dan Rische (a humm of enjoyment before the food entered my mouth). The vanilla pot de creme were to die for. Creamy velvet is the word I would describe. But I'm a sucker for any creme dish (especially Magginos creme brulee). But the dessert was sweet fresh and light perfect with about anything chocolate, fruit, nut, etc. need I say more. well we say so long to Tyler and on to Mexico for or festive feast of a Christmas (what?!).


Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Week 3 Middle East Meal

Carl:

This week was a very interesting week. A week of fun and wonderful ingredients and also our garbage disposal blew mango peel and water all of are kitchen.


One of are dishes was eggplant that was grilled and garnished with pomegranate and mint. We all didn't love the eggplant but were not an eggplant family eater but we loved the pomegranate. Also we had the chocolate mousse which was very heavy and left my sister lick the inside of the glass (she a chocolate lover times 10).




David
This was a fun day. We made a baked chicken dish that had a baste of yogurt, lemon zest, curry, and some spices. It was easy. We just basted it a few times with the sauce and it took about 50 minutes in the oven.
We certainly will remember this meal because of the extra clean up with the mango peel everywhere. I also enjoyed Carl trying to Zest his lemon again this week. He didn't cut himself. See the video. I loved the rice, mango, bean, cashew salad that was served with the chicken. It was awesome. I pretty much like anything with rice. This had a unique flavor and was served cold so was an interesting dish.








Here are the videos from the day.





Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Week 2 Berry Wonderful Week

Our second week was awesome.



Carl





We'll start out with dessert a berry wonderful dessert! The dessert was a berry trifle with rasberrys, blueberrys, strawberrys, and lemon whip cream. There also was pound cake but we ommitted pound cake from my dads dessert. All around are table we agreed that the lemon whip cream was wonderful with the berrys. We added lemon curd (a kind of lemon jelly ) to heavy whipping cream and sugar to create a tangy sweet mix.





















David

The salmon was easy. We just salt and peppered it and put it in a hot pan for 6 minutes each side. That came out great.

Next the side dish was an intresting mixture of flavors and ingredients. First, Carl was zesting the lemon and he accidently zested his finger. The zest was mixed with shallots in hot oil. Then we put in the peas and pearl onions. We heated that through and put that on top of some boiled potatos that were slightly mashed. I wanted the fiber in it so I left the skin on. Carl said we should have taken out the skin. We put a bunch of watercress in the mix. I don't exactly know what a bunch is. Carl told me to put the whole package in. OK. I think a bunch should be more descriptive. We also put some mint leaves in it.

All in all it was a great meal. I especially liked the potatos. Linda liked the dessert. Jamie liked the pearl onions. Carl likes just about anything. Talk to you next week.













Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Week 1 Tyler Florence:BBQ Night

We started our meal around 4:30 by making the brine for the chicken. It had to soak for 2 hours. Then we did do anything else until about 5:30 when we worked on the cole slaw. The slaw had apples, onions pecans, and cabbage in it. It was topped with a maynaise based dressing. We ended up making a little too much. I think the dressing probably should have covered half of the cabbage and we put the whole thing in. Linda and Jamie said the cole slaw was spicy.
We made the sauce for the beans which included chipotle chili's. Whew. It was really hot. We put bacon on the top of the beans as you can see in the picture. Wow. They were hot. Even Carl and I thought they were spicy.
All in all, I think it was a fun start for our project. We worked well together. We had fun. We learned a lot. We are looking forward to next week. Hope you can check in then.



The Peach Barbque Sauce Chicken was faboulous. It Definently was a crowd pleaser. With bacon, peach preserves, and thyme this barbque rocked the house. It took about an hour in whole but was well worth the thyme!







Everything we made was from Tyler Florence's book "TYLER'S ULTIMATE".