Every time I visit California, I cook for my family, and I bring something to the holiday potluck that invariably happens. This year was no different.
Ingredient Challenge Dinner Party Three
Saturday, June 11, 2016 – Of all the Ingredient Challenges, there was still one I hadn’t made: salmon with kimchi. It was suggested to me by my coworker Eric S. So I had to do one last dinner party to finish up the series.
Ingredient Challenge Dinner Party Two
Saturday, May 7, 2016 – I’ve already told you the story of the ingredient challenges, so I won’t go into that again. Today, I had my second dinner party with the dishes from the ingredient challenges.
Today’s menu was
And for dessert, blood orange sorbet. (This wasn’t an ingredient challenge, but it was thematic with the rest of the dinner.)
Ingredient Challenge Dinner Party!
Saturday, February 27, 2016 – So when I first started doing ingredient challenges, the rule was that the people who issued the challenges had to eat whatever I cooked for them. (This was to prevent people from choosing the most ridiculous ingredients and make sure they picked things that people would actually eat.) That and, whatever I came up with, I wanted to share with my friends. So naturally, it’s dinner party time!
Today’s menu was
- bacon cheddar garlic mashed potatoes (by request)
- roasted butternut squash and green beans wrapped in chard
- sausage wrapped in bacon wrapped in steak
- chocolate nut rosewater honey cinnamon pastries
Ingredient Challenge #5, Take Two: Rose Water Croissants
Saturday, January 9, 2016 – So if you’ve been following along at home, you’ll remember I was really unhappy with the previous version of this challenge. Long story short, the 3-layer parfait got all mushy and turned into a 1-layer soggy parfait. Not good.
And I said I still wouldn’t be making baklava, but rather rolling stuff up into puff pastry and calling it a croissant variant. And that’s exactly what I did. The challenge was chocolate, nuts, rose water, honey, and cinnamon. The chocolate and nuts is rolled up in the puff pastry. The pastry is baked and soaked in rose water, glazed with honey, and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
And it was good.
Ingredient Challenge #6: Salmon with Kimchi Slaw
Sunday, November 29, 2015 – And now for our last ingredient challenge of the season. My coworker Eric S picked salmon (good protein base), orange juice (I can make a citrus glaze for the salmon), cantaloupe (I guess I could infuse it into the orange juice), artichoke hearts (I can work with that), and… kimchi. Okay, we’ll see what I can do.
Lucky for me, I decided to try mixing the kimchi with the roasted artichoke hearts and mayo and call it a Kimchi and Artichoke Slaw. And you know what, it kinda worked.
Ingredient Challenge #5: 3-Layer Parfait
Monday, November 16, 2015 – Something a little different this time. My friend Spiro picked rose water, honey, nuts, cinnamon, and chocolate. Now, the rose water, honey, and nuts immediately screams baklava. Which was too obvious, so I didn’t want to do that. In fact, I figured I’d avoid the whole pastry thing altogether. So my next thought was pudding.
The next problem, of course, is that rose water, cinnamon, and chocolate don’t really blend as flavors. So instead of making one pudding, I’d make three. And I’d layer the honey and nuts in between them. And call it a parfait.
Ingredient Challenge #4: Roasted Veggies with Veloute Sauce
Saturday, October 24, 2015 – Another ingredient challenge. My friend Crystal picked beets, parsnips, fennel, chicken stock, and onion. The chicken stock was an interesting one. Now, I could make soup, but that would be too obvious. So instead, I made a sauce, roasted the veggies, and topped them with the sauce.
Ingredient Challenge #3: Duck with Orange Ginger Sauce
Saturday, October 17, 2015 – Another week, another ingredient challenge. This time, it’s neither all meat nor all veggie.
My friend Alice picked walnuts, duck, cabbage, ginger, and blood orange. Sadly, it seems blood oranges aren’t in season right now, so I had to make do with regular oranges. The orange and the ginger make a pretty good sauce. The rest? Well, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Ingredient Challenge #2: Roasted Pumpkin
Sunday, October 11, 2015 – Last week, the challenge was full of meat. It’s only fitting that this week’s challenge is entirely vegetarian.
My friend Fenella chose chard, pumpkin, green beans, parsley,and tomato. And she’s a vegetarian, so the subtext was the dish had to be vegetarian. And a salad was too obvious, so not a salad.