Daring Cook's Challenge - Risotto

Blog check in line:
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.

First we had to make our own stock. The recipe called for chicken stock.

But you probably all know how I feel about that!

No ladies in my soup, thanks very much!

I used the same recipe here that I used to make the soup for the Potato Dinner Party.

Roasted onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, bay leaves, garlic paste, basil, thyme, miso and water.

I used about 3 quarts of water.


Brought everything to a boil.
Let it simmer.
When the carrot was soft, I tasted the stock and adjusted the flavors.



Then I strained the stock.
I had 2 quarts and 1 1/2 pints of stock.

Ingredients for risotto.

I had a little bit of trouble making this, because the rice was vacuum sealed.

Which is weird for me, but I suppose it keeps the rice fresh.

Saute onion.

Add rice and 3ml wine.

1 quart stock.
Stir, stir, boil.

Add 2nd quart of stock.

Repeat stir, stir, boil.

Done!

It was OK.

But I really liked it the next day.

I fried 2 cups of risotto in a little butter, added 2 of the Ladies' eggs and some frozen mixed vegetables.

That was good.

Learning To Knit

My Grandma taught me how to knit today!

I'm so excited! She gave me a ball of blue yarn and 2 pink knitting needles, so now I am working on a scarf.

Our next lesson will be purling. Or maybe casting off first and THEN purling.

It's really fun!

She was a great teacher too - very patient and super encouraging.

I love my Grandma!

Potato Starts From the USDA

Last year I followed a link to a USDA web site. They requested your name, address, e-mail, ect. and in return you could request seeds, bulbs or starts.

Then they requested that you collect growth information about the items that they sent you and report back to them at the end of the growing season.

They didn't have to send me the seeds!

But they did

And they sent little letters with the "germplasms".

~

"It is the policy of the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) to provide available materials in small quantities for research and education purposes, not for home gardening use. Please understand that this is a one time distribution because it is not our function to provide seed for home use gardening uses. We encourage you to save seeds for your own use. Standard easy to grow types are available from commercial sources. Within one year we will send you our standard forms asking for information about the performance of material you have received. The information you provide will help us better serve our mission."

~

"It is the policy of the NPGS to provide available materials in small quantities for research, education and genetic improvement purposes, not for home gardening or personal hobby type use. The material in the US NPGS is maintained to support research. While "research" can sometimes be defined loosely, our policy is not to distribute seed to homeowners "for their veggie gardens". The reason being that government agencies are not allowed to maintain programs that would be considered competing with private industry."

~

So.....they don't want to send their stuff to homeowners?

Only renters? How unfair!

Naw, I'm just being sarcastic.

I do have a hard time imagining someone (who? a scientist?) carefully tracking the growth of 10 seeds or 2 potato starts and then reporting to the government.

Of course, maybe if they have a grant......but hey! I'm saving the government money! They don't have to pay me to test and report - I'm doing it for free.

Really, if they didn't want to they didn't have to send the seeds to me.

~

Another thing - they sent the potatoes to me at the end of August. I live in Minnesota, so the potatoes had to live in my fridge for 6 months. Finally, on March 1st I took them out, because they weren't getting any better looking.

I would hate to kill them and have the USDA track me down!

I cut each potato into pieces. Some were bigger, so I cut them into 3 pieces with 2 eyes on each piece. Then I let them 'cure' overnight, exposed to the air.

I carefully marked each planting square with a number, letter and sign.
Then I wrote down the information in my planting book.

Planting the starts.







Four days later - we have green shoots!

I usually plant my potato starts outside, but these little babies couldn't wait another 2 months.

It will be interesting to see how this experiment works out.

Varieties started: Fortuna - Granola - Gladstone - Ottar - Bernadette - Iris

Tomato Starts Growing

The seeds' babies are still growing!

Starting Seeds - Spring 2010

It's time to start seeds!

Last week I went over to my Mom's house and we started peppers, eggplants, geraniums and petunias.

The propagation unit showing off its wicking layer.

Spreading in the starter soil.

Pressing the soil into each cell.

Seeds ready to be covered (except for the petunias - they need light to germinate).

Everything written out in the planting book.

The grow lab.


Fast forward ONE WEEK..........................................

Bing!

We have sprouts!

These are almost ready for transplanting.

They are so tiny!

Just to show you how we position the light over the propagation unit.

Cluinary Tour - My Haitian Dinner

When I saw the fun Culinary Tour on Foodalogue I knew that I had to try it out and play along. This week the tour stop was Haiti. So I invited my Mom and Dad over for a Haitian Dinner.
~

First up was Pikliz - a Haitian spicy pickle.

I chopped up 1/2 a head of cabbage.

Then finely chopped up 2 carrots and 1 onion in the food processor.

Then I mixed everything together and added a habanero pepper. Almost every recipe called for a scotch bonnet pepper or two, but I could only find habaneros.

I packed the whole mix into a BIG jar, with 2 tsp salt, 10 pepper corns and then I added white vinegar to fill up the jar.


Next was Joumou (pumpkin) soup and Diri ak pwa (red beans and rice).

I used squash that my Grandma grew in her garden and gave me - plus tomatoes I grew in my garden and canned.

Diri ak pwa
1 Tbs butter

1 small onion - chopped

1/2 yellow pepper - chopped

roasted garlic paste

tomato sauce - 1/2 cup

red beans, cooked - 2 cups

1 tsp. thyme

2 tsp. oregano

1 bay leaf

rice - 1 cup

1 3/4 cups stock

salt to taste

Saute onion in butter, add chopped pepper and rice. Add tomato sauce and spices, then add stock and red beans. Finally add garlic paste and bring everything to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 15- 18 mins.

JouMou Soup
2 cups pumpkin or squash - cooked

1/2 head of cabbage - chopped

2 carrots - chopped

1 small onion chopped

2 small potatoes chopped

garlic paste

stock or water - 4 pints

tomato sauce - 1/2 cup

2 tsp. lime juice

1/2 cup spaghetti - broken into small pieces

salt to taste

Saute the onion, add all the vegetables, spaghetti, tomato sauce and stock. Bring to a boil. Add garlic past and lime juice. Cover and simmer for 15 mins or until potato is tender.

Diri ak pwa cooking.

Adding spaghetti to Joumou soup.

Finally, Labouyi Bannann (banana cream).

1 unripe plantain

2 small ripe banana

1 - 12oz evaporated milk

1 - 12oz can of coconut milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

dollop of lime juice

Blend the plantain and banana together and then add the mixture to a saucepan. Add milks and vanilla and spices. Simmer over med. heat until thick.

I added some fresh ginger, but that wasn't in the recipe.

Plantain and banana.

Cooking Labouyi Bannann.

I found these sodas at the grocery store. I'm not sure if they drink them in Haiti, but they were good. The coconut one was the best. The champagne flavor tastes like a cream soda.

I made Mayi Moulin - white cornmeal mush to go with the soup.

1 cup water

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup white cornmeal

Boil water and salt. Add cornmeal and stir together. Form mush into balls and place one into each bowl. Then pour soup around mayi moulin.

Whole dinner laid out.

Diri ak pwa

Joumou soup and mayi moulin

With added pikliz

And now with some fresh spinach.

Labouyi Bannann with cream and cinnamon.

Well, it was definitely a very interesting dinner! Minnesota and Haiti are very, very far apart. A lot of the Haitian recipes that I found included ingredients that I had never heard of and would never, ever find in the local grocery stores. So, I did a little improvising. I do not guarantee that any of these recipes are authentic, but they tasted good!

I actually like the cornmeal mush ball with the soup. It was a good combination and I have never eaten a cornmeal mush ball!

The red beans and rice were hands down the overall favorite.

The big excitement of the night was when my Dad 'accidentally' ate the habenero pepper from the pikliz jar.

Let's just say he couldn't finish the meal.......

I'm still trying to figure out how you 'accidentally' eat a huge, bright orange pepper. ?

Winter Rose

Happy 1st day of March!

Just a little winter rose for you.

Spring will soon be here!