Daring Time—Pierogi

Has anyone on the west coast ever actually made pierogi before? (And is pierogi the singular/plural? Pierogies?) I mean, I definitely have not—I've never even eaten one. Which meant that for this month's Daring Kitchen challenge, we had to judge solely based on if we liked them, since we had nothing to compare them to.

The required stuff: The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

I'm going to preface this by saying I believe that anytime you roll out dough, you are baking, not cooking. And say it with me here...I don't bake. At least this was a basic flour/egg/water recipe, which is ok because it's not exact...it's totally acceptable to add a bit more water or a bit more flour. That, I can handle. In fact, I used to make pumpkin ravioli from scratch the same way (but with tomato paste in the dough)...which, really, in my opinion, these are just ravioli. Or potstickers, actually, since there's no sauce. Anyhoo...

Shall I walk you through it?

First, I made a dough from 2 cups flour, an egg, salt, and about 2/3c water. Mixed with my hands, kneaded a million times, and let sit, covered with a damp towel, for about 20 min.

Chopped some mushrooms and shallots, sauteed them, and added 2 cups of sauerkraut and a shredded carrot. Cooked that all down for 15 min or so, added salt, pepper, and cumin, and let cool.
Rolled out the dough really thin. Used a glass to cut out 2ish inch circles. Combined the scratch pieces and kneaded back together. Had I made more, I would have repeated til gone.

Put a small scoop of mixture on a dough round, folded edges together, and pressed them with a fork to seal.

Once I got down the method, it went fairly quickly, but man...I was a busy girl.

Even KittyH helped by watching while keeping my placemat warm...Bad cat! I swear, we give her free reign of the house, and she wants to be the one place we don't want her. I kick her off the table all evening long. And every time I turn around...


In a large deep sauté pan, I boiled some salted water, then dropped them in one at a time. Cooked about 7 minutes.

In another sauté pan, I heated a bit of oil and tossed in the drained pierogies. Browned a couple minutes a side.

Kinda boring, so we concocted a dipping sauce from spicy mustard, rice vinegar and a bit of light mayo.

And...drumroll...the review:

Pammy: So? I think it's like a Russian Potsticker.
Hubby: yeah, the only difference is the dipping sauce.
Pammy: Well, yeah, but that was spur of the moment, it wasn't part of the recipe.
Hubby: It works, it's what goes...they're tasty. If you made these for a football fantasy draft party, the plate would be empty.
Pammy:....is that your way of telling me the draft is at our house this year?
Hubby: nooo...it's my way of asking you. Look at your thumbs go...are you writing all this?
Pammy: Oh, I have to get this.
Hubby: Ok...well...all the dough rolling, I mean, you could have used wonton wrappers.
Pammy: I knooow, I wasn't allowed to.
Hubby: ....who wants to do that?
Pammy: Not me. Back to the original question. I thought they were good, but not worth the time to make them. Not that good.
Hubby: At least we've expanded culturally...I always think of them more like a calzone, so I'm surprised they're so small...you should have made some big ones...one meat, one cheese, one sweet, and one wildcard. Dominate that challenge, damnit!!

Yeah, I'll get right on that. So final verdict: Good experience, but I never need to make them again. And if I do...I'm doing meat and cheese, not sauerkraut. Or a sweet one. With wonton wrappers.

Daring x3

Daring Kitchen time!

I gotta say, after last month's pate/bread debacle, I was wondering if this was the group for me. Yes, it was weird. But I like weird food. It's not like I'm used to making boxed mac and cheese for dinner every night. I guess I just like making weird food that sounds good, not weird food that my husband won't eat.

And so I got over it. Told myself to buck up, put the control issues aside, and make something I have no say over a whole once a month.

Or maybe it's just cause this month's theme didn't involve animal innards.

Either way, here we go. Daring Cook for the month of July. (How is it July???)

The required stuff:
The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Since I may have a love affair with Cooking Light, I went with their option, a deliciously creamy Chicken with Pecan Cream and Mushrooms (If an Asian/typical me option is more your style, the parallel bravely took on Asian Noodle Salad.)

With the exception of my well-known inability to read directions, I followed the recipe exactly, so I won't repost it. I didn't process the nuts quite long enough, I guess, cause they never got past this stage:


Which ended up being ok, cause once I added the water to make the "cream," this was the result:A little bit more texture than I probably should have had, but it worked out. Final review?
Hubby: It's a good sauce. The pecans are sweet...that's good...I dunno, babe, I'm not a food reviewer!
Pammy: Well...do you like it? Not like it? Should I make it again?
Hubby: Yeah, I like it. It's good...I like it. I do. It's like dressed up stroganoff.

Agreed. I'd make it again.

Two daring cooks are better than one.

It's that time of the month again. Which, hmmm. I shouldn't phrase it like that...sooo... specifically, it's the 14th, so it's Daring Cook time.

This month's challenge? Pate. Yes, the liver based mushy meatloaf stuff that, if ever offered, you probably refuse to try. Even hubby made quite the face when I told him, and he'll eat cow tongue all day long.

I've had it, though, both rabbit and chicken, and it's really pretty good. So I won't say I was stoked to make it, but I wasn't icked out, either.

And since I just so happen to be staying with my fellow Darer (?) this month, Parallel and I decided become expert pate chefs together.

I'm not sure if that's technically allowed, however (there are rules about these things, you know), so we made two kinds. The problem, however, was that apparently liver of any kind can't be purchased on a Sunday in Buffalo. Sooo we opted for the veggie option, and then got creative and made up our own veggie recipe for the second. I'll post both when I can get to a computer, cause look how fancy schmancy we were. Would make for good party food, definitely.





And since the cooking challenge for the month cheated and also asked us to bake, Parallel and I defiantly baked the easiest bread I know. I'm assuming pate would go better with the homemade baguettes they recommended, but eh. Over it. Beer bread is more fun. Not even close to gluten free, but...

The mandatory part:our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook's challenge! They've provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

And here it is:





Beer bread
3 cups flour
1tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 bottle of beer
(the darker the better)
1 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix dry ingredients, add beer. Mix well. Spread into a loaf pan. Bake 50 minutes. Brush butter over loaf. Cook an additional 5 minutes.

-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

Daring Cook, Round 1

I mentioned that I joined the Daring Kitchen a while ago, and as we have to post on the 14th of each month, well, ta-da...Challenge One completed. Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas.

I know Mexican enchiladas aren't exactly out of my realm of normal-ness, but I've never fire-roasted tomatillos before, so I can say with honesty that at least that part was new for me. And my house smells great, so I really have no complaints.

You can find the original recipe here. I decided to go for it and use full fat Monterey Jack...it's really not that much cheese, and I cooked the tortillas with cooking spray to save some cals (which left wiggle room for some light sour cream on top at the end)

I served with spanish rice and black beans heated with a bit of cumin, salt, and cayenne. (I made Chicken Fajita Rice a Roni. I don't recommend. I tossed mine. And I'll eat pretty much anything. Mushy and blah. Make your own or skip it for a salad.)

Anyway. Here it is. Rule one is that I have to include the following:
Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.


And here's the official review:
Pammy: So?
Hubby: You can taste that the sauce is homemade...the tortillas are good...very good.
Pammy: So you like.
Hubby:...(pause)...I like it more than your enchilada casserole.
Pammy: (falls out of chair, needs light resuscitation)
Hubby: I know it's labor intensive...
Pammy: Sighhhh...It's not that bad.
Hubby:...then add it to the recipe box.

And there you have it.

Daring? You have no idea.

So, I'm not a stalker...but I happened to find a childhood friend on facebook...out of sole curiosity, which unfortunately is pretty stalker-esque.

Anyway, I was surprised to learn she also writes a food blog. And as I read though it, I discovered she's part of this thing/community called The Daring Kitchen.

So, immediately losing interest in advancing my stalker status, I hopped on over to see what this business was all about.

Turns out, it's fascinating (to me, anyway). You sign up as either a 'daring cook' or a 'daring baker,' and each month they send you a recipe to try. They have a ton of rules-you have to participate a certain minimum amount, you have to post the results, and you have to do it on a certain day. If I couldn't talk about it would all be a bit too fight club for me, but blogging about it seems encouraged, so I'm in.

The parallel is also in, and we're planning on cooking on the same day (we're on a three hour time difference, so we'll see how this goes). We can't blog about it til May 14 (damn rules), so stay tuned. Don't let the anticipation kill you, ok?