Garlic Confit & Vegan Cassoulet (A Big Pot o' Beans)

It's almost two weeks late, but I am very happy to say:

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

In my own defense, I initially attempted to make a chicken confit well before the deadline.  The result resembled something the ancient Egyptians might have come up with if they wanted to send to send some poultry off into the afterlife with a hungry mummy.  I think I'm finally learning that when presented with a vegan option for any of the Daring Cooks challenges, take it!  (So these are not actually the Bourdain and Ruhlman recipes...sorry.)

The first element of the was a garlic confit that netted not only soft and mellow baked garlic, but also the surrounding olive oil that absorbed all that garlicky goodness.  I did substitute rosemary for thyme, partially because I love the combination of rosemary and white beans, and partially because that's what I had on hand!

Garlic Confit

Adapted from Saveur

1½ cup (360 ml) olive oil
1½ tsp kosher salt,  if using table salt, use ½ the amount
10 whole black peppercorns
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
65 garlic cloves, peeled (about 1 ½ cups)
1 dried bay leaf


Heat oven to 300°. Put ingredients into a 1-qt. pot, making sure garlic is submerged in oil. Cover pot; bake until garlic is golden brown and tender, about 1 hour. Let cool.
  Transfer mixture to a glass jar; cover surface of oil with plastic wrap. Cover jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.


The final dish, a hearty bean cassoulet, required a great deal of time, but very little actual work.  It could easily be either a protein packed side dish or a comforting meal by itself, especially with a chunk of crusty bread, slathered with your favorite spread.  (Previous sentence taken directly from list of overused foodie stylings, courtesy of Shellyfish.)

Vegan Cassoulet

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine

1 lb (about 2 C) white beans, such as Great Northern or Cannelini
2 Tbs olive oil from the garlic confit (see above)
3 leeks, sliced white & pale green portion only
4 carrots, sliced
3 celery ribs, sliced
6 cloves of garlic confit (look up again)
2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
1 bay leaf
kosher salt to taste


The night before, rinse beans and pick over for stowaways.  Place in a large pot with 6 C water, cover and leave overnight.  The next day, drain and rinse beans thoroughly.


In a large, heavy bottomed pot, heat olive oil over medium.  Briefly saute leeks, carrots, celery and garlic, then add 4 to 6 C water, beans, rosemary and bay leaf.  Do not add salt.  (I used 6 C water and ended up with a lot of liquid left over in my beans.  Use your own judgement.)  Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 60 to 90 minutes or beans reach desired softness.  Add salt and serve.


After nourishing my family, these daring beans now go to join a cast of thousands at the long running blog event My Legume Love Affair, begun by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook and hosted this month by Simona of briciole.  

Brunswick Soup

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

Wolf was kind enough to provide two different recipes for this wonderful stew.  Unfortunately I wasn't content to simply make the substitutions to make the dish allergy and kid friendly, I also insisted on combining elements of both recipes.  The result, while delicious, failed to meet the standard of "done when the spoon stands up in the middle of the pot."  Like all the Daring Kitchen challenges, this was a learning experience, and I will definitely be making this wonderful soup stew again as it should be made!

Thanks to Wolf for a great challenge and be sure to check out all the other Daring Cooks (who are able to follow a recipe) for the way this dish should be made!

Mezze

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

Wow. It's already been over two months since my last post. I took a new position at work at the beginning of the year, which radically changed my schedule and increased the number of days I work from 3 to 5. It's put a strain on all of us at the House of Food Allergies, but I keep reminding myself to be grateful for the job (and the health insurance that comes with it.)

Blogging was one of the first things that took a hit when I had to prioritize household necessities on the fly, and to be honest, I've really missed it. I still take notes for all the recipes I want to share here, and still have the automatic "I need to blog about this!" reflex whenever something food allergy related occurs. It's especially frustrating, because I had all kinds of plans for changing the look and format of the blog itself before my schedule imploded.

I'd rather do limited blogging than none at all, so here is my belated Daring Cooks offering for this month, featuring a lovely cell phone photo. Since "Make Your Own Taco" is currently one of The Kid's most requested meals, I billed this as a "Make Your Own Pita" event. I baked the pitas, made hummus and tabouleh, chopped up some veggies, and cooked up some chicken with lots of cumin for my meat lovin' hubby. Unfortunately, the pitas were the only thing The Kid really liked. (Those of us over the age of six were far more enthusiastic about the rest of the meal.)

I'm looking forward to trying the homemade falafel recipe, too, since I used to make it regularly before I began reading labels. (All mixes I've checked at the store have facilities warnings on them.) I might even get to post it. Many thanks to Michele for a great challenge and a return to blogging!

Sushi

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

Back in the day before we even kissed, let alone married and reproduced, my husband and I were the best of friends. If there was a foreign film to be watched or sushi to be eaten, we were off like a shot, leaving the rest of our group to mutter about raw fish and ask "When are you two finally going to start dating?" We referred to ourselves as "sushi buddies" and spent entire weekends watching the Colors Trilogy or playing at DisneyQuest.

Now we work opposite schedules and usually communicate via text message. Our child is our new shared passion, and we have the desperate need for a nap most in common. Even if we had a regular sitter we trusted or the desire to take a six year old to a sushi bar, a tight budget and The Kid's food allergies make going out for sushi impractical at best.

This November my husband had one of those birthdays with a zero at the end. When I saw that the Daring Cooks challenge for this month was sushi, I was ecstatic. We've talked about trying to make sushi at home, even going so far as to buy sheets of nori and a bamboo rolling mat, but our homemade sushi never quite got organized. This time, though, this time it was meant to be.

On the big day I rounded up my supplies and started nice and early to prepare for the birthday dinner. I followed the directions for making sticky rice to the letter. Spent hours steaming and fanning, vinegaring and massaging it.

The ungrateful grains turned out crunchy.

I didn't have enough short grain rice to start over, so I added water, gave it some more soaking time, and cooked it a bit more.

After considerable fussing, fixing, and fuming, I tasted the rice again. Then I ordered pizza.

Several days later with both the post date and my husband's birthday well past I looked over a fridge still full of sushi ingredients and gave the rice another shot. After repeatedly googling "sushi rice" and cruising around the internets, I changed the procedure by bringing the water to a boil before adding the rice and allowing it to cook for a few minutes at a full boil before reducing the temperature. It did the trick and the rice was simply splendid.

Since I'm not comfortable either preparing raw fish or serving it to my child, the fillings I chose were smoked salmon, avocado, steamed asparagus, cucumber, carrot, and mango. Grilled eel is one of my favorites, so I also bought some smoked whitefish, which I skinned and deboned, then gently warmed in some homemade teriyake sauce. Visually the pieces did not resemble the shape of the eel, but the flavor was deliciously indistinguishable to my uneducated Western palate.

Despite construction problems with several of the rolls, everything tasted incredible. My mat was too short to make a full sized spiral roll, so it was the worst casualty of my technique, but now that I've actually tried rolling sushi on my own, I can't wait to make it again.

Many thanks to Audax and Rose for a wonderful challenge! Be sure to check out all the amazing sushi made by the Daring Cooks this month.

Potstickers

The June Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Jen of use real butter. She chose her family's recipe for Chinese Dumplings, also known as Potstickers.

In my pursuit of egg free homemade pasta, I've previously made these yummy little darlings, but neglected to blog the recipe. Thanks to Jen and her terrifically versatile recipe, that wrong is now being righted.

For a simple filling, I combined the following:

1/2 lb turkey sausage
1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced, salted, and drained
2 green onions, including bottom half of green section, thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated

The first time I made these, I was concerned that the turkey sausage would not cook thoroughly. It ends up perfectly done after pan frying, and I really like a filling with minimal prep work.

I didn't exactly follow Jen's instructions for making the dough, sticking (teehee) to the formula that had worked for me before:

2 C all purpose flour
1 C boiling water
additional flour for rolling

By using my standmixer's dough hook, I was able to knead the flour with the water while it was still boiling without scalding myself. The flour sucks the water right up into a remarkably soft and flexible dough.

Once the dough is ready, divide it in half and cover the unused dough with a wet towel. Roll the half batch of dough into a 12" snake, then cut it into 24 evenly divided pieces. Shove most of them under the towel with the other half of the dough, and start rolling them out into flat circles. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center, fold in half, and try to make the characteristic pleat. (Good pleating tutorial at Lunch in a Box.) Repeat until fingers fall off, making sure to either keep finished potstickers under towel or place on cooling rack in freezer.

Most recipes for potstickers direct the cook toward a wok or nonstick skillet to pan fry them. I've found that a cast iron skillet works suprisingly well, and gives the dumplings beautiful brown bottoms. Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to medium high and cook dumplings until golden brown on the pan side. Add 1/2 cup of water, cover, and turn down the heat, allowing to simmer for a few short minutes.

After that, move them onto a plate and start dipping them in this wonderful sauce that...I forgot to write down any sort of measurements of the ingredients for it:

soy sauce
rice wine vinegar
sesame oil
fresh ginger, grated
fresh garlic, smushed
brown sugar

Be sure to check out all the other amazing dumplings made by the brand new Daring Cooks!