Personal Beef Wellingtons for Daring Kitchen

Another of the Daring Kitchen challenges that sent me out preparing a meal which would otherwise never make it to our table.  Well, I have made Empanadas, or meat pies, but this is a few steps more complicated.

The lovely Monkey Queen of, Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys, was our May Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to dive into the world of en Croute! We were encouraged to make Beef Wellington, Stuffed Mushroom en Croute and to bring our kids into the challenge by encouraging them to create their own en Croute recipes!

I limit myself by refusing to buy hormone and anti-biotic inflicted beef.  In Hawaii, though we do have several large ranches raising grass fed cattle, the challenge is to find the cut one wants in a store. Something tells me that all the fine hotels here are sucking up quite a bit of loose meat, fish and produce.  Not able to locate a center cut, 3 lb. tenderloin, I opted for the individual portion version of Wellington.  So, on a gourmet level or two up from Pigs in Blankets or Personal Pan Pizza, I give you Mini Beef Wellingtons.

The first part of the job is to prepare crepes.  Luckily, something I do on a regular basis.  One of my very favorite breakfasts.  And there are usually some left.  Perfect for this dish.  So, Sunday morning crepes and Beef Wellington for dinner.  I don't think my husband realizes just how lucky he is.

Peanut Butter Cream Scones

Sometimes my cooking adventures turn out to be an object lesson.  To me at least.  A few weeks ago I had the urge to make some peanut butter scones, because they would go so well with jelly, of course.  And, after searching for a recipe, settled on one that sounded pretty yummy.  With oats and chocolate chips, buttermilk, etc.  There were a lot of things I don't usually add to scones.  They inspired me to make even more changes.  Result: not the best.  Crumbly, fiddly to make.

So, this morning I decided to go back to my usual cream scone recipe, and just sub out peanut butter for the butter.  Cut it in as though we were cutting in butter, add the cream, and pat it out.  Yea!  A keeper.  And, because I'm so nice, I'm sharing with you.  And, don't you know, they are totally low calorie?  :)

Stuffed Beef Rolls with Prosciutto and Artichoke

I've just finished another great Donna Leon mystery, A Sea of Troubles, and was inspired to fix one of the tempting dishes that Paola made for her family.  Those lucky folks.

When the series hero, Commissario Brunetti, investigates the murder of two local fishermen on the island of Pellestrina, the small community closes ranks, forcing him to accept Signorina Elettra's (his boss's secretary) offer to visit her relatives there, to search for clues.  No end of clues and life threatening danger, solved nicely by our intrepid investigator. The dish that caught my fancy was a version of one of my favorites, Involtini Florentine, made with flank steak, and of course with a spinach stuffing.  This one, Involtini di Vitello o Manzo con Carciofi, or Beef Rolls stuffed with artichokes and prosciutto.  I cheated? and used  fancy bottled artichokes, all nicely prepared.  Just had to rinse, quarter and sprinkle them with lemon juice. Happily, my Italian Slow and Savory cookbook, by Joyce Goldstein, had the recipe, which I followed, for a change, as given.  With the exception of the artichoke shortcut mentioned above.  The filling is so yummy, with tender artichoke hearts, prosciutto, garlic and parsley, not to mention a savory sauce, beef stock reduced, and enhanced with cream at the end, which I served over spiral pasta.  A truly delicious meal.

Waimea Blue Fog Cheese for Daring Cooks

Sawsan from chef in disguise was our March 2013 Daring Cooks hostess! Sawsan challenges us to make our own homemade cheeses! She gave us a variety of choices to make, all of them easily accomplished and delicious!

I was happy to jump onto this latest challenge, due to my long postponed goal of making pressed and formed cheese.  Having experimented with cream cheese, feta and ricotta, I purchased a form and follower (the doo hickey that fits snugly on top) for pressing cheese.  Those items have been languishing in a cupboard, so hurrah, they've been put to use!

Making my own blue cheese sounded fun, despite my granddaughter's dire warnings, mentioned in an earlier post.  So using a favorite kefir and cheese site, Dom's Kefir for instructions, I started off with a half gallon of fresh, raw goat's milk, and inoculated it for 24 hours with kefir grains rather than rennet.  For a variety of reasons.  I always have it on hand for one.  You can visit his site for more information than you need or want to know.  I'm calling it Waimea Blue Fog, since I bought the goats milk there in Waimea, on the cooler, North end of the Big Island, known for an occasional fog blanketing its road and green hills.

Lemon Shrimp with Polenta and La Vignarola

Our current Cook the Books Club selection is The Shape of Water, by Andrea Camilleri. A favorite author of mine, though on second reading, this first novel of his Inspector Montalbano mystery series, is not my favorite. Too much of the corruption, poverty and sleazy side of life in Sicily maybe. Albeit thankfully balanced by the Inspector’s sense of humor and fair play.  And who, with that, according to one of his favorite chefs, "was a good customer with discerning tastes."  However, even his love of and descriptions of good food are not given as much scope in this one. 

Despite a slowish beginning of complex sentences, depressing descriptions of environmental travesties, and dour political mutterings, we do move on eventually into the plot, convoluted though it is.   I’m still not quite sure who all did what to whom and why.  Somehow you don’t feel too sorry for the various corpses.

But you have to love his conflicted main character, Inspector Salvo Montalbano.  He tries to do the right thing, despite the moral climate and political expediency, is known as a just man “who when he wanted to get to the bottom of something, he did.”  And, of course he does, intervening under cover to protect the innocent.

Duck Roulade with Sweet 'N Sour Ginger Passion Fruit Sauce

 I will start off this post with a disclaimer about sausages.  They are not my favorite food.  Also, grinding meat and stuffing pig intestines is not my idea of a fun cooking project.  To begin with, our old grinder is a bust, as opposed to "the bomb", just so you know.  And secondly, I do not possess a sausage stuffer, nor have any plans to get one.  But it's okay, there were alternatives in our Daring Cooks' challenge for this round.

For the January-February 2013 Daring Cooks’ Challenge, Carol, one of our talented non-blogging members and Jenni, one of our talented bloggers who writes The Gingered Whisk, have challenged us to make homemade sausage and/or cured, dried meats in celebration of the release of the book Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn! We were given two months for this challenge and the opportunity to make delicious Salumi in our own kitchens!

As discerning readers may have noticed, I do have a fondness for duck, so thought I would give Michael Ruhlman's Duck Roulade, from his book Charcuterie, a try.  Though it is a fairly difficult process, which briefly stated, involves removing the skin in a piece large enough to envelope the rest of the duck, which has been ground into a filling, augmented with pieces of sauteed duck breast, herbs, seasonings, etc.

Roast Duck with Cassava and Dandelion Greens

For Cook the Books Club, our latest read has been The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.  An inspired selection, for which the challenge was coming up with food to match.  Perhaps something from the extravagant feasts of the Capitol higher-ups or relating to the frugal, hungry foraging of the masses.

I had put off reading this particular book, not only because it is classed as "Young Adult", but its category, Science Fiction, is not my usual choice.  As a teen I went through an intense period of reading only this genre.  Perhaps got it out of my system.  Well, except for the Eve Dallas thrillers (by J.D. Robb), which do appear occasionally in my stack.  However all the adults I questioned gave it a thumbs up.  And, I must say, I was hooked right from the first page.  What a terrific read.  Even though you come to realize that nothing is really resolved or happy ever after, given that world.

At the same time, a scary reminder of what can all too easily happen in our own world.  As Gale muses, "It's to the Capitol's advantage to have us divided among ourselves."  Harkening to our recent elections as well as the continuing media and governmental drive to divide, by economic status and color.  So, not a completely lightweight book, but one which gets you to think as well as be entertained.

My inspiration for our cooking challenge came from the book's characters, Gale and Katniss, foraging and hunting in the forest, using whatever they could, to keep themselves and their families from starvation.  When Bob and I bought the property we live on here in Hawaii, one ideal (back in the day) was to grow some of our own food, to be able to survive if necessary, in an emergency situation, on what we could produce.  As I mentioned, an ideal.

So for this meal, duck traded with a friend, and cassava grown in our garden along with greens. Especially dandelions I thought, since they're not really cultivated, but foraged, would be a good survival meal.  Along with a glass of Lemon Mead, not necessary for existence, but groovy and  made from our own lemons.

Turkey Paté Chinois or Pilgrims' Pie

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Sometimes known as Shepherds' Pie or Cottage Pie, aka Paté Chinois, a name I was completely unfamiliar with, albeit quite familiar with the dish itself in its many guises, a veritable staple in the use of left-overs.

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2012 Hostess is Andy of Today’s the Day and Today’s the Day I Cook! Andy is sharing with us a traditional French Canadian classic the Paté Chinois, also known as Shepherd’s pie for many of us, and if one dish says comfort food.. this one is it!

According to Andy, the name for this dish, Paté Chinois, "translates from French as Chinese Pie. It’s an odd name for a French Canadian dish that doesn’t have any connection to Chinese food. The history of the name has been traced back to the Chinese cooks who worked at the camps for the railway builders in the late 19th century. Ground beef and potatoes were cheap and a dish could be spread out to feed many people."

My inspiration for this round of Daring Cooks' was turkey and breadfruit.  Using what's on hand being the main idea behind a Cottage Pie.  I was stumped on what to call it though.  Post Thanksgiving Pie?  Paté Pilgrim?  Of course, it would be the Pilgrims to Hawaii.  A later period in time.  Oh well.

Baked Guavas Stuffed with Cranberries and Sausage

These were originally meant to be Baked Stuffed Apples, as per Carolyn Hart's fictional character, the handsome, all around fantastic, Max Darling in Death Walked In.  A breakfast surprise he whips up for his wife.  How cool is that?  However I thought, this is Hawaii, and there are guavas at the moment, for which I have been feeling semi-guilty, due to neglect.  Hey they just were not calling my name.  Jam, chutney, compote, too cool for ice cream, been there, done that, boring.  But this, oh boy, oh boy, the potential!  Baked Guavas, stuffed with that sausage and cranberry combo, maple syrup drizzled over the tops.  As Rachel Ray would say, yum-o!

And they were, for sure, trust me, etc.  It was one of those experiments that come out just right the first time.  Tender, juicy, not too sweet, not too tart, flavorful ....deliciously perfect.  I did a riff off  Rachel Ray's recipe, due to Ms. Hart not providing one.  I will provide her version with my changes noted, and you can vary at will.

Since guavas are nicely tart, I skipped the vinegar, as well as the herbs, mustard, oil, salt and pepper.  You might want all those with apples, depending upon the flavor and sweetness of your fruit.