Disaster strikes the English

This month's challenge was hosted by Esther from The Lilac Kitchen. It was to make a traditional English Pudding with various options using suet and or butter. Suet is basically preserved fat from the innards of a cow or sheep, which sounds interesting, unique and fascinating. Normally I might have been happy about choosing to work with this ingredient, but considering I still have more weight to lose, I chose to work with butter, and comparing the two, butter is actually better :) For the main recipe choice, I chose to make a Chocolate English Pudding.

Many people had a wonderful experience and impressive results with their challenge. For whatever reason, mine came out completely terrible. Something went wrong with the method, the recipe...... I'm guessing it just wasn't my day. However it is through learning that one improves, so below is what I learnt.

The traditional method of cooking pudding is through steaming it. Some recipes used pressure cookers, slow cookers, steamers and other options to steam the pudding. I used a pressure cooker to steam the pudding, first I added the water to sit in the half level of the vessel inside the pressure cooker, then about 30 minutes later, I smelt burning and quickly discovered that the water had completely evaporated and the bottom of the pudding vessel had started burning. So... I obviously added more water... but... it wasn't a good estimate of what was needed and after 15 minutes more, water gushed in the pudding vessel and completely watered down the pudding taste. As far as the recipe is concerned, I misread and used AP flour instead of self rising flour, so the pudding never rose and came out flat and mushy.....

The saving grace? The pudding came out well cooked, and tasted fine after adding some chocolate sauce. Could salvage the whole thing. I swear, if I didn't know what was in it, I wouldn't touch it by how it looked. However, after tasting it was pretty nice.

TULIPS!

I live in Oregon and I am VERY lucky to have access to beautiful rivers, mountains and the ocean. One of the perks of living here is going to the annual tulip festival. Each year, during the seasonal tulip bloom, the farms hold a tulip festival opening their doors to everyone for a small fee.

 Its a really beautiful experience for children and adults alike. It really feels like you're in small part of Holland with all the tulips. Just switch the old-fashioned wind mills with rock climbing walls and fun rides for children :) Check the picture with a 'Cow Train'. Those kids were having a ball!

Tulips till the eye can see. You can really just runnnnn through the fields and have your own Julie Andrew's moment from Sound of Music :) The experience is very therapeutic. All the greenery and the multiple colors are very pleasing to the eye and the soul.

Both Oregon and Washington have wonderful tulips and daffodil festivals every year. These pictures were taken at the Woodburn Tulip Festival which is currently still going on. The only negative thing I can say is, its too popular! Everyone comes to this on the weekend. So I would highly recommend visiting it on a weekday specially if you have back troubles or pain related issues and can't spend a lot of time on the road in traffic.
Please find more details at http://www.woodenshoe.com/

Brunswick Stew - Daring Kitchen

This month's daring kitchen challenge was presented by Wolf’s Den and the challenge was to make a southern classic called Brunswick stew. It normally involves using multiple types of meat, like a combination of chicken and beef, rabbit or pork; whatever you like!
I modified the recipe quite a bit. Firstly I used only chicken pieces and I added a lot more heat than the original recipe called for. I also skipped the bacon. The end result was a lovely spicy chicken stew.

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken pieces
• 1 large potato cut in chunks
• 2 medium ripe crushed tomatoes
• 2 carrots cut in chunks
• 1 medium diced onions
• 1 can of cannelloni beans
• 3 cubes of chicken bullion
• 1 tbsp of red chilli pepper
• 1 tbsp of ground pepper
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• Parsley for garnish
• Salt to taste - Taste first and then add, both the chicken bullion and the broth have salt.

Directions
Fry the onions along with the bay leaf, ground pepper, chilli powder and cumin powder. Add the chicken pieces to brown. Then add the rest of the vegetables, broth and the chicken bullion cubes. Let it stew till the chicken and potatoes are done.

I think the next time I would add the bacon, I felt it lacked the smokiness that typical southern dishes have. I LOVED the use of cannelloni beans in this dish, it really thickened up the entire stew as if it had been boiling on the pot for hours. This version just took about 40 minutes.

Fish in Salt Bake

Sure the picture looks freaky but honest to goodness, I never thought fish could be sooo tender and flaky and just melt in your mouth. I have NEVER had fish this fantastic and I mean it!

Fish baked in a salt dome

• Whole fish - any kind about 2-3 pounds in weight. I got a trout.
• Ground rock salt or kosher salt - 3 to 4 pounds
• 3 egg whites
• A pinch of cream of tartar
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• Slices of 1/2 lemon
• Lemon Juice of the other half
• 2 tbsp rosemary sprigs

Directions

Note - You might be tempted to use only 2 pounds or lesser of salt, thinking why waste it? But it actually is not enough. Trust me, I tried. I ground up half of the 4 pound box of rock salt to mimic the Kosher salt flakes. (The rock salt is otherwise too big to form clumps easily). It just wasn't enough to create a dome for the fish.

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Add a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites and start whisking till it attains soft peaks.
3. Fold in the ground rock salt or Kosher salt. Add the lemon zest and half of the chopped rosemary.
4. Make a base of the salt and lay down the whole fish. 
5. Place the lemon slices, rest of the rosemary in the clean belly of the fish. 
6. Cover the entire fish with the rest of the salt, packing it into a dome shape. Try to cover every part of the fish. 
7. Bake for about 30-35 minutes depending on the weight of your fish and your oven peculiarities.
8. Use a wooden mallet or something hard to break off the dome. Carefully separate the fish from the bones. It should be very easy. 
9. Serve with the rest of the lemon slices and your favorite sides

I served this along with roasted red potatoes and cauliflower flavored with rosemary and ground salt and pepper. Next time around I would add more herbs to the eggwhite and salt mixture to better permeate flavors. This is definitely going to be a repeat dish in our house :)

Notes - Fish prepared in this way, won't be too salty.

EaT an Oyster bar - A review

What a fabulous treat! I had never been to EaT before and I was mad that I hadn't ... Simply put, it was good :)
The restaurant is situated in North Portland in a nice part of town, in an upscale strip mall of sorts. Inside, it looks like a typical bar. Don't be fooled the food is much better than bar food.

First thing we ordered was Le Tourment Vert - a French absinthe which was simply heavenly. It had a wonderful liquorice, anisey taste; reminded me of ouzo or sambuka. Just loved it! The drink comes with its own ornate ice water dispenser and a balancing ice cube perched on top of a beautiful spoon. You drip ice water onto the ice cube and into the gorgeous green drink. You can adjust the water level and sugar level to suit your taste. I was so fascinated by it that I was too slow in closing the tap... be warned... its green is spellbinding...

For starters, we obviously had to have their mix 'oysters on the half shell', after all it IS an oyster bar. Our mix came with the Olympia oysters, Fishhook Fjords, and something else which I can't remember. Well I'm sorry but the absinthe was doing its job quite well!

Next, I looked over the menu and quickly saw something something... FROG LEGS! Woo hoo! I have been wanting to have good ones for a longgg time. The one time I had tried em' before, they were very rubbery. I've been told that's not how they are supposed to taste. So.. I gave em' another try. I always give things three chances. I mean, come on. The service must've been off that day, the chef could've had a bad day? or the chef didn't know how to cook it. Who knows? So why not give it another chance and dive in?

I was super pleased that I tried frog legs again. I LOVED them. They were very tender, succulent and like they say.. it actually tasted like wild chicken. EaT knows how to make em'; slightly breaded and fried, it comes with a fantastic dip. It has mayo, vinegar and curry powder (the UK variety not Indian). Looks like mustard but isn't. It was a beautiful pairing.

We then shared a dish which EaT was famous for, their Shrimp Etoufee. If you like spicy foods, this is a MUST. Beautiful creole food at its best. A lot of heat, but done just well enough that you can taste the flavors, creaminess of the roux and the simplicity of the classic trinity.

Overall a great place to go to. The only bad thing I would say is, the place fills up very quickly and its a small place, so be prepared to eat at the bar. For more info, check it out at http://www.eatoysterbar.com/