Paper Chef #6: Just Desserts?
Sometimes comfort food has nothing at all to do with what we all think of as “comfort food” and everything to do with comforting ourselves in the kitchen by diving in, feet first, and immersing ourselves in the comfort of extravagant cooking.
We cook to take our minds off the burdens we carry outside the kitchen. We cook so we can lose ourselves in the near-synesthetic experience of an extraordinary meal. We cook to discover the unexpected.
Thus, with hard times upon us, we’ve taken on Paper Chef #6 with an added gusto that gave us a trio of luscious results.
When our host Owen declared this “the first clearly dessert only Paper Chef,” we knew the gauntlet had been tossed. So, along with our one dessert, we invented two scrumptious savory dishes with the theme ingredients; strawberries, white chocolate, almond paste, and ricotta cheese.
A couple of notes on ingredients: We already had a bag of frozen strawberries and opted not to buy the fresh out-of-state ones that had just appeared at our local market, as we believed them to be too early to have much flavor. Almond paste was not something we could find readily at our local market as well. All we could locate was marzipan (and Chopper hates marzipan), and so we pounded out our own paste, using slivered almonds, toasted, and our trusty mortar and pestle.
Quinoa Crusted Prawns with Mole Fresa
(Chopper Dave uses his own suggested ingredient anyway.)
Use 16/21 prawns with shells removed, but tail on. (Save shells for shrimp broth)
Use standard breading procedure, using quinoa (both traditional and red) in the “crumb” stage.
For Mole Fresa
- 5 medium red jalepenos; roasted in 375 degree oven for 15-25 minutes, or until skin is dark and loose
- 1/2 cup fresh strawberries
- 4 medium cloves raw garlic
- 1 tablespoon almond paste
- 1 ounce melted white chocolate
- 1/2 teaspoon ricotta cheese
- 1 teaspoon fresh cilantro
Cut and de-seed chiles, then put solid ingredients into food processor & puree together.
Stir in melted white chocolate & ricotta.
For shrimp broth
- 2 cups water
- Juice of 1/4 lemon
- 4 sprigs thyme
- Shells from 10 16/21 prawns
Simmer ingredients together until desired flavor is achieved, season with salt to taste.
Thin mole puree to sauce consistency with shrimp broth.
Garnish with fresh cilantro.
Duck Leg Confit with savory Strawberry Compote
For Duck Confit
- 1 quart rendered duck fat
- 1 cup water
- Small handful of fennel fronds
- Small handful of chives
- Small handful of thyme
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
Set duck fat to simmer.
Drop herbs in.
Add four duck legs.
Simmer gently for 3 hours or until meat is fork tender.
For Compote
- 1 finely chopped red onion (cut small dice or brunoise)
- 3/4 cup frozen strawberries
- 1/3 medium-sized yellow bell pepper (also cut small dice or brunoise)
- 2 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
- 1 tablespoon almond paste
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoon white wine
Reduce until nearly dry (au sec).
Add
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper (add as needed)
- 1 teaspoon ricotta
- 1/2 ounce white chocolate
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Serve on a bed of fresh chives (preferably with blossoms).
Strawberry & Red Wine Granita
- 1-1/2 cup frozen strawberries
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 2 cup water
- 1/2 cup white sugar
Thaw and puree strawberries.
Mix all ingredients until sugar is dissolved, then put in freezer, fluff with a fork occasionally.
Melt 2 oz of white chocolate and spread dollops on parchment.
Refrigerate parchment and peel white chocolate wafers off later for garnish.
For quenelle topping
- 2 tablespoon ricotta
- 1 tablespoon almond paste
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
Mix these ingredients together, then form into quenelles and lay on top of granita servings.
Add white chocolate wafers and a strawberry flower with leaves for garnish.
Oh, by the way, everything tasted amazing. — miz D.
WOW! I posted the full roundup at http://www.tomatilla.com but mostly I am just lingering around here looking at the pictures and drooling! I am glad you took up the implied challenge and made non-dessert and once again, my sympathies.
Amazing ideas. I love quinoa but have never thought of using it this way.
So creative and beautiful. Well done.
Oh my god! I am speechless – these dishes are stunning. Did you invent these recipes yourselves? I am making one big text note to myself to learn a thing or two from you. Thanks for giving me a kick in the pants on the inspiration front. (p.s. are you coming out with a cookbook soon??)
Hi! I happened to stumble upon your blog.. Love the beautiful photos and the food look so delicious!
Belated thanks to everyone for your generous compliments! It’s been a busy week for us, so we’ve not had much time at all to update/post/surf or even cook. On this past Sunday, we held a small gathering in honor of my father(who passed away last week) and had some delicious food there, but since then, it’s been all about general catching up after these past few difficult weeks.
Melissa – to answer your questions: Yes, the recipes are Chopper Dave’s inventions. Sometimes he’ll take a recipe or two from his culinary school experience and modify the heck out of it, but mostly he just makes things up. (On the fly, sometimes as well, as in “find me something tart in the fridge to add to this sauce!” ::g::)
It’s far too early in our food blogging career to be talking cookbooks, but I’m sorely tempted to do something at some point. I’ve got a bit of a background in editing and small press publishing, so who knows?
cookbook.
small press.
hmmm.
zo.
Hungry zo,
Well, since at least some of my small press experience is entirely your fault, perhaps we should discuss this at some future date…
-m.d