Week 6: Brazilian

I was thrilled when I discovered that the challenge for this week was Brazilian food.  I've enjoyed checking out the forum and seeing everyone else's interpretation of one of my favorite cuisines.  A lot of familiar faces have appeared, but I wanted to try something I've never made before.  I decided on Feijao Tropeiro (Trooper's Beans) which is a hearty winter dish we ate frequently when we were in Brazil in June.  It's a bean stew, similar to the famous "Feijoada".

It was a long process, beginning with soaking the beans the night before.

Early the next morning, I rinsed and drained the beans and then set them aside.  I sauteed the vegetables and meat until they started to caramelize, then added plenty of chicken broth and spices.
 

After adding the beans and letting it all cook down for a few hours, I served the feijao with Farofa (a grain side dish made from toasted cassava flour) and sliced hard boiled eggs.  

And here it is paired with white rice and a lime wedge. 

I wasn't thrilled, but it's certainly not bad.  I'll happily take it for lunch for the rest of the week.  

Week 5: Alcohol

Our challenge this week was to cook with alcohol.  There were no restrictions, and the challenge guidelines allowed for beer, wine, spirits, or any combination thereof.  I chose to do a risotto recipe featuring champagne and asparagus.

Here are most of the ingredients:

The arborio rice was first toasted in butter with shallots, and then sauteed with 3/4 cup champagne.   After the liquid had been completely absorbed, warm chicken broth was added 1/2 cup at a time.  

    

 Once all of the broth was incorporated and the risotto had reached the desired consistency, I removed it from the heat and added blanched asparagus, parmesan cheese, and a bit of salt, pepper, and butter.  

This is the finished product, garnished with crispy bacon and served with a spinach salad and a mimosa.  

Week 4: Pan Fried

This week I had high intentions of making pan fried scallops to contribute to the challenge.  That was before I realized that fresh sea scallops were either A) of poor quality or B) ridiculously expensive... So grilled cheese it is!

I bought these ingredients last week to make a "fancy" grilled cheese sandwich to accompany my tomato soup. I didn't use them then, so here they are now.

The recipe comes from a Moosewood cookbook, under the heading "Cheese sandwiches for cheese lovers".  It's a sandwich of caramelized onions, fresh thyme, and grated gruyere cheese served on a crusty Italian bread. It might not perfectly satisfy the pan-frying requirements for this week, but it was tasty! 

Week 3: Soups

This week's challenge was anything and everything soup.  I chose to make a cream of tomato soup from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook.  I meant to serve it with an upscale grilled cheese (gruyere with carmelized onions) but I didn't get around to it.

Here are 2 photos of the process:

And here's the final product:

I'd consider this to be one of the tastiest soups I've made.  It's creamy and flavorful, and pretty simple too! 

Week 2: Chinese

Week 2 of the cooking challenge is the first "theme/cultural inspiration" week, and the challenge is Chinese Food.  In a tribute to my close friend Lie, I decided to host a hot-pot dinner party.  These parties were somewhat of a tradition in college, and I invited 2 cousins + their guests over for dinner.

Closely following Lie's instructions, I chose to do a Szechuan hot pot.  It's an Asian fondue, distinguished from similar meals by the fact that the fondue broth is spicy and the dipping sauce is mild (instead of the other way around).  I purchased a packaged broth mix, and provided the following ingredients for dipping:

• Fingerling potatoes, extra-firm tofu, soy puffs
• Cabbage, asparagus
• Thin sliced ribeye steak, shrimp, chicken balls
• Pork and vegetable dumplings

I prepared rice in the rice cooker, and also made a dipping sauce of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic chili paste, rice vinegar, cilantro, green onion, and ground ginger.

The meal was very well received, and we had a wonderful time.  Out of everything provided, the shrimp and asparagus were by far the favorites.  The chicken balls had an odd texture, and the majority of my guests weren't crazy about the tofu.  

Week 1: Eggs

For the first week in 2012, our challenge was eggs.  I chose to do an asparagus quiche on a puff pastry crust.  The recipe was found in the newspaper, and we enjoyed the quiche.  It came out very thin, but was delicious topped with Parmesan cheese and served with a fresh green salad.

Week 0 - December 2011: Holiday Dishes

As soon as the contest was introduced, it was decided that the month of December would be a "warm-up" month.  The challenge, considered Week 0, was Holiday Dishes.  Any type of holiday dish was acceptable, and multi-cultural/traditional dishes were definitely encouraged.

For this challenge, I submitted my contribution to my family's holiday meal: the cheese platters.

Here's an overall view of the appetizer spread.  Both cheese trays, the vegetable crudite tray, and the dipping sauces are all visible in this photo. The first cheese tray (below) included an aged Parmesan cheese, a creamy Brie, orange flavored cranberries, salted pecans, and water crackers.

Next is the second cheese tray (also below), which featured a smoked gouda, a tangy blue cheese, 2 cracker varieties, pear slices, and aged Italian salami.

The final photo shows our veggie plate, including smoked salmon devilled eggs.  We had 4 dipping sauces for the vegetables: a french dressing, tzatziki, carmelized onion, and ranch.