Daring Cooks Challenge – Stacked Enchiladas

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

The required part of this challenge was to make a green sauce for enchiladas using tomatillos and roasted chiles. Fortunately for me, I had some Hatch chiles I had roasted, chopped, and frozen last summer.

AND I have tomatillos year round at my neighborhood market. Some cooks were stumped by tomatillos, so if you are not familiar, tomatillos look like green tomatoes with a sticky paper over the skin. It’s hard to describe their flavor, but they taste rather green and definitely enhance Mexican style dishes.

I just boiled my tomatillos to soften them, then pureed them in my food processor. The finished sauce was beautiful.

These enchiladas were not served Cinco de Mayo, but were a gift to my mom on Mother’s Day; hence, the to-go container. This was also more of casserole than a stack. Here’s the first layer.

Since this dish was for my mom, I used real chicken and real cheese. I bought prepared chicken breasts because I don’t remember how to cook chicken, which I shredded. (I would have used mushrooms if I had made a vegan version.) Here’s the completed casserole.

I baked it for about 25 minutes.

Sorry I don’t have a picture of the enchiladas plated. My mom said the sauce was fantastic and enjoyed her casserole very much. Here’s the recipe for the wonderful sauce. It’s naturally vegan, using veggie broth instead of chicken broth.

Green Chile Sauce for Enchiladas

1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles (about eight 6 to 8 inch chiles) 24 ounces 678 grams - roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely. I used Hatch chiles, but poblanos would work well too.

7-8 ounces Tomatillos (about 4-5 medium) 212 grams - peel, remove stems

4 cups broth (32 ounces/920 grams)

1 clove Garlic, minced

½ tsp Kosher salt (add more to taste)

¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)

2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)

Hot sauce, your favorite, optional

Directions:
Roasting Fresh Chiles
1. Coat each chile with a little vegetable oil. If you are doing only a couple chiles, using the gas stove works. For larger batches (as in this recipe), grilling or broiling is faster.

2. Lay the oiled chiles on the grill or baking sheet (line pan with foil for simpler clean-up). Place the grill or broil close to the element, turning the chiles so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.

3. As they are completely charred (they will probably not all be done at once), remove them to a bowl and cover with plastic, or close up in a paper bag. Let them rest until they are cool.

4. Pull on the stem and the seed core MAY pop out (it rarely does for me). Open the chile and remove the seeds. Turn the chile skin side up and with a paring knife, scrape away the skin. Sometimes it just pulls right off, sometimes you really have to scrape it.

5. DO NOT RINSE!

Green Chile Sauce
1. Put a medium saucepan of water on to boil and remove the papery outer skin from the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. You can also grill the tomatillos until soft.

2. Drain and puree in a blender or food processor.

3. Return the tomatillos to the saucepan along with the chicken broth, chopped green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.

4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.

6. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

First things first - what is suet? It is the hard but flaky fat found on the inside of a cow or sheep around the kidneys and that area of the body.

Okay, suet is an ingredient that is just tooooo daring for me! I’m sorry, but how a person could seek out this ingredient, bake with it, and knowingly eat it is more than I can comprehend. Needless to say, Smart Balance was my healthy vegan substitute.

Another thing I don’t understand is why one would boil or steam a cake for hours when one could bake it in the oven in 20 minutes. But such was the challenge and I made a version of Spotted Dick, a boiled pudding, using chocolate chips instead of currants.

I made a single serving recipe, which may be the reason my batter was rather wet. But I was able to dust it with a little flour and roll it easily in parchment paper.

I didn’t have a traditional pudding cloth (why would I?) to wrap and boil the pudding in, so I wrapped it loosely in a double layer of foil.

I placed it in a pot of gently boiling water and let it cook for about an hour.

I unrolled it, let it cool, then cut it in two. The cake was firm with a moist crumb.

Yum, fresh strawberries to enjoy with my pudding.

Other than a slightly boiled flavor, it was a good dessert - 3 out of 5 stars.

Daring Cooks Challenge – Risotto

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

It’s been awhile since I’ve made risotto, and even longer since I’ve made my own broth. I made the broth last weekend, using the Roasted Vegetable Broth from my giant Gourmet cookbook. I chose onions, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, and garlic to roast, and seasoned the veggies with sage and parsley.

When they were done, I added them to a pot with water, a can of tomatoes, and bay leaves.

After simmering 30 minutes or so, I was left with a rich tasting, delicious broth.

Instead of discarding the veggies, I ate them for dinner!

Today I made the risotto. I’m sure you know I wanted to make a mushroom risotto, but since I was taking it to share with my young nephews, I used only onions. I got the onions nice and golden.

Then added in the rice, and the broth, about a half cup at a time.

And done!

Creamy, oniony deliciousness for everyone to enjoy.

Daring Bakers Challenge - Tiramisu

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

I have never eaten tiramisu. It must be because I’m not a fan of cheese, and tiramisu is all about the cream cheese. It’s also not the least bit healthy nor vegan friendly, and if you avoid soy as I do, it’s even more unfriendly. Nonetheless, I love these challenges and every month they are indeed a challenge!

Another major component of tiramisu is the ladyfinger cookies. Even though I didn’t use the vegan friendly recipe provided in my version of tiramisu, I did make these cookies. I used applesauce instead of margarine to keep them low fat, and although they were not the melt-in-your-mouth ladyfingers of my memory, they did make a tasty cookie.

My healthy tiramisu was quick and easy – half a banana cut in half, layered with almond cream, and topped with cacao nibs.

This is a delicious dessert I can enjoy and never feel guilty eating!

Here’s the recipe for ladyfingers if you’d like to try a vegan or dairyfree version.

EGGLESS LADYFINGERS

(Source: Adapted from Recipezaar.

This recipe makes about 4 long biscuits (3" long and 3/4" wide).

(I made a half batch and got 3 cookies.)

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons/ 55gms sugar

1 teaspoon/ 5ml vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups/ 340gms unsalted butter (I used unsweetened applesauce)

2 cups/ 250gms all purpose flour

1/2 cup/ 40gms coarsely ground almonds

powdered sugar

Method:
Blend all the ingredients well and adding the coarsely ground nuts last. Scrape the batter into a piping bag with a ¾-inch plain tip and pipe into fingers about 3 inches long at 1-inch intervals onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them in a 300 degree F (150 C) oven for 30 to 45 minutes till they start turning slightly brown at the edges.

Take them out of the oven and cool on tray for about 5 minutes and then move the biscuits to a cooling rack. When slightly cool, roll them in powdered sugar. Store in an airtight container till required.

Daring Cooks Challenge – Handmade Pita and Hummus

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

I finally made pita bread, something I had wanted to try for a long time. I mixed the dough by hand and also kneaded for 10 minutes by hand. After the dough had risen, I rolled out eight flatbreads. I think I should have baked them a minute or two longer, but since this was my first attempt I stuck to the recipe instructions of three minutes.

I cut one in half to see if I had a pocket, and I did!

As I am so pressed for time these days, I made this recipe in two parts, making only the required elements of pita bread and hummus. I made the pita bread before I started another diet. (I have my eye on a tiny little dress for Chase and Cat’s wedding!) Since I’ve made hummus at least 20 times already, I decided to make a diet friendly, almost raw zucchini hummus. I followed the given recipe, but subbed in three zucchinis for the can of chickpeas and reduced the tahini to one tablespoon.

It’s not creamy like traditional hummus, but the flavor is good and it makes a fantastic salad topper.

Thanks for all of your congratulations on my son’s wedding. It’s such a fun and busy and happy time. And Happy Valentine’s Day!

Daring Cooks Challenge - Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I made this challenge the day after coming off my detox. The only requirement to this challenge was to marinade, so I took that quite literally. I chose to prepare Portobello mushrooms in the marinade recipe given (without the oil). I put my mushroom in a big plastic bag.

I made the marinade.

And then I poured the marinade into the bag and let it do its thing in the fridge for a couple of hours.

I didn’t skewer the mushrooms, just pan seared them.

Before I got the mushrooms in the pan, I made myself a side dish of Swiss chard. First I cooked the stems with a bunch of onion.

Then I added in the whole bunch of greens.

Those brown mushrooms needed some color. The final product was beautiful and delicious!

I’m posting from my sister’s home in Alabama so if this format looks weird I apologize. I still want to hear your “must make” recipe ideas for our vegan dinner party!

Daring Bakers Challenge – Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

All I can say about this challenge is I did it. I did it on a very small scale as I was short on time and as always, short on patience. I enjoyed making the dough and my tiny gingerbread house templates. I made a one-fourth recipe of dough as I was sure 9 cups of flour was more than I needed, and far more than my stand mixer could hold!

None of my house (bungalow) pieces were more than three inches.

Once cut, they baked for a few minutes.

The challenge was to build a house and get it to stand on its own. That much I accomplished. My frosting was quite stiff and gave me so much trouble as I was applying it to the walls. I did the best I could, summoning all my patience to hold the pieces until they became glued together. I bought a few different types of the typical gingerbread house decorations, and voila. Here you can see that my little house is smaller than a bottle of candy sprinkles.

Like I said, I didn’t create a masterpiece, but I did it.

You don’t have to leave a comment; I’m just posting cuz I gotta. I’m technically still on vacation a few more days, then I’ll be back with a vengeance showing off the new camera I got for Christmas!

Daring Cooks Challenge – Vegetable En Croute

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

This month’s challenge was super easy – bake something in puff pastry. My en croute was filled with a seared Portobello mushroom, pureed white beans seasoned with garlic and balsamic vinegar, and sundried tomatoes.

I wrapped it up…

… and baked it at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. It puffed up beautifully.

Here’s the inside shot. You’ll notice my upside down wrapping. The beans and tomatoes were on the bottom instead of the top!

It was a nice combination of flavors and a delicious dinner. My favorite en croute preparation is whole cauliflower, which I made for Thanksgiving dinner last year.

Puff pastry wrapped things are so festive and would be beautiful on any holiday table. It looks so fancy but couldn’t be easier. Roll out some dough and wrap something up!

Daring Bakers Challenge – Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

As you know cannoli are fried, tube-shaped pastry shells filled with sweetened ricotta cheese, pastry cream, mousse, whipped cream, ice cream, etc. Fortunately, we were given great latitude in this challenge. I have never eaten cannoli and have never wanted to. I don’t own cannoli forms, I don’t fry, and I don’t eat soy cheese or creams. But I do love these challenges! So you won’t see beautiful little pastries in this post. No, I went with a baked, savory, stacked variation with the clever name (and so fun to say) Cannolipolean.

The only required element of this challenge was the dough. I love to make dough and this dough was fun to make. It had wine in it! I loved the smell of the wine as I was rolling out the dough and as it was baking. I made a one-fourth portion of the recipe, yielding a tiny little dough ball.

It rested overnight, then I rolled out four 5-inch rounds.

I popped them into mini tart pans to bake – they just happened to be the perfect size.

A baked version is not as crispy as the fried, but these little discs browned nicely and were very crispy.

For my Cannolipolean filling, I chose two of my favorite ingredients – mushrooms and broccoli. I sauteed them with onions, garlic, wine and lots of herbs.

This turned out to be a very nice dinner. It was tasty and just the right size. And so I’ve still never eaten a traditional cannoli pastry, but that’s okay. I have a new favorite word, “Cannolipolean”!!