THIRTY-EIGHT : LIME AND MANGO ICE CREAM

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

APRIL 27 2012

THIRTY-EIGHT : LIME AND MANGO ICE CREAM
 
You probably think you got the best of me, don't you, April. Getting all hot and sunny last weekend and twisting my thoughts until I truly believed summer was here and rainy days were behind us. I got caught up in your little mind game and though, "hey, I think I'll make ice cream!" Okay, you got me.

But, you know what? The ice cream is actually really damn good. And your 2012 appearance has just about ended. So suck on that while we slurp down yummy, fruity homemade ice cream. Yes! I win!

THIRTY-ONE - THIRTY-FOUR : BEANCAKES, CARAMELIZED FENNEL AND CITRUS PUDDING

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

APRIL 14 2012

THIRTY-ONE : SAUTEED CARAMELISED FENNEL
THIRTY-TWO : MASHED BLACK-EYED BEANCAKES WITH GINGER ONION MARMALADE
THIRTY-THREE : GINGER ONION MARMALADE
THIRTY-FOUR : HOT CITRUS PUDDING

Me: "Dang, everything on my plate is brown and looks the same." Hubby: "That's how you know it's authentic English food!"

bean cake on the left - caramelized fennel on the right

Thankfully our first bites quickly reveal the two items to offer vastly different taste, texture and experience.

TWENTY-THREE : STEAMED TREACLE SPONGE PUDDING

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 18 2012

TWENTY-THREE : STEAMED TREACLE SPONGE PUDDING
 
Steamed treacle pudding.. have you any idea!?! I sure didn't. How about the fact that "pudding" is actually cake. And Delia assumed I am blithely steaming puddings every holiday and therefore failed to mention exactly how to steam a pudding and what that even means. So I turned to my friend internet for more guidance and discovered it is basically a sponge cake cooked in a steam bath for hours and I should be able to rig up a steaming contraption fairly easily from my various pots and bowls. So, here goes!

TWENTY-TWO : ICED APPLE SOUFFLE

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 12 2012

TWENTY-ONE : ICED APPLE SOUFFLE WITH CARAMELISED APPLE

 
Reading through this recipe, I was initially perplexed as to how this could possibly be classified as a soufflé. Isn't a soufflé a stressful baked dish made light as air by folding in whipped egg whites and served immediately out of the oven before it deflates and everything is ruined? Apparently, that is only half true. According to a random internet dictionary, a soufflé can be defined as such:

soufflé [ˈsuːfleɪ]

n

1. a very light fluffy dish made with egg yolks and stiffly beaten egg whites combined with cheese, fish, etc.

2. a similar sweet or savoury cold dish, set with gelatine

While tonight's soufflés have no gelatine, they are fluffed with stiffly beaten egg whites and fall soundly in the category of a sweet cold dish. So fine, Delia, I accept that this is a soufflé.

TWELVE : MARMALADE BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

FEBRUARY 14 2012

TWELVE : CHUNKY MARMALADE BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

There's nothing much to say about this very simple dessert, except... it may have just revolutionized breakfast and reminded me exactly why I'm doing this project. Yep, that's all :)

Seems like the perfect quick, weeknight dessert. All I gotta do is make little butter and marmalade sandwiches. Then quarter them, stack them in a baking dish with squares of candied orange peel and fresh orange zest and cover with a quick custard that bakes into fluffy, creaminess.

spread butter and Seville orange marmalade on ciabatta slices

ELEVEN : FALLEN CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE WITH ARMAGNAC PRUNES

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

FEBRUARY 11 2012

ELEVEN : FALLEN CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE WITH ARMAGNAC PRUNES

Here I am again, for the third time in my life (and all within the last month) watching a bowlful of butter and dark chocolate slowly melt into glossy swirls. I'm watching and worrying to myself that I will miss the moment when the egg whites are peaking softly and will accidentally whip them to death. And how will I know when the egg yolks are ribboning perfectly?!? I just know I'm gonna screw this all up.

chocolate and butter become one

And I still can't quite convince myself there is really any point to making this stupid souffle which I don't even want to eat. I am going to a party, so hopefully someone there will be in the mood for a shot of sugar straight into their veins.

SEVEN & EIGHT : CHOCOLATE OVERLOAD

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

FEBRUARY 05 2012

SEVEN : CHOCOLATE BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING
EIGHT : FOUR NUT CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

So far I've learned that it's pretty darn easy to make really rich, super ooey-gooey decadent desserts. The only problem is that no one will actually eat them. I sure won't (born without a sweet tooth) and hubby doesn't care much for chocolate. And if I take it to work or to a party, the overall response is something akin to anger or annoyance... "Wow, that looks really good. How dare you bring it here and tempt me with your delicious dessert! I'm trying to eat healthy and lose a few pounds! Don't you even care?!?"

FOUR : DEEP LEMON TART

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

JANUARY 30 2012

FOUR : DEEP LEMON TART

The custard in this tart is so impossibly light it all but disappears on the tongue, leaving only the essence of lemon filling your senses. Like eating the lemon's very soul.

While there are quite a few steps in this recipe, nothing about it is all that difficult.

EIGHTY-SEVEN - NINETY-FIVE : SUNDAY SAUCE!

JANUARY 5 2012

EIGHTY-SEVEN : OLIVES
EIGHTY-EIGHT : ANTIPASTO PLATE
EIGHTY-NINE : CANNELLINI, CAPER, LEMON & ANCHOVY CROSTINI
NINETY : MULLED WINE
NINETY-ONE : PORK BRACIOLA MARINARA

NINETY-TWO : POTATO GNOCCHI 
NINETY-THREE : GNOCCHI MARINARA  
NINETY-FOUR : PUNTARELLE WITH LEMON, CAPERS, ANCHOVY & PECORINO
NINETY-FIVE : TIRAMISU

 
And that's all folks. I am now done with the book! My grand adventure culminated tonight in a fabulous Sunday Sauce (on Thursday) party where I crammed all the remaining dishes onto the table and we ate until we just about burst. I think it will be easiest to talk about each section separately. So here goes...

EIGHT-ONE - EIGHT-THREE : NEW YEARS EVE!

DECEMBER 31 2011

EIGHTY-ONE : SPAGHETTI WITH CRABS
EIGHTY-TWO : SLOW-ROASTED RIB EYE, SLICED COLD
EIGHTY-THREE : VANILLA BEAN CREME BRULEE

New Year's Eve demands decadence... and we did not disappoint. Surf 'n turf, baby!

First I have to admit that I did not exactly follow the the recipe for the rib eye. Sorry Frankies, I just can't shell out $60 for a beautiful rib eye roast, cook it to perfection, then just shove the whole thing in the fridge to be served cold, hoping it is worth it. I just can't. Not even for "thoroughbred roast beef". I also did not roast it at the temperature they designated. Last year I did a super, super slow roast that was amazing so decided to do it again this time. So, instead of cooking it at 325º, it spent over 4 hours in the oven at 200º which makes it exactly medium-rare through the entire thing. I did use the fantastic herb rub from the recipe which smelled like heaven while it was cooking.

Phew.. now that I've got that off my chest, I can tell you all about our New Year's Eve feast :)

FORTY-THREE : OLIVE OIL CAKE

SEPTEMBER 26 2011

I'm not sure why baking gets me so flustered. Maybe it's the clouds of flour covering the kitchen or knowing it's actually important to measure out the ingredients correctly. Of course, it doesn't help that I knocked over a full glass of water just as I was supposed to add the dry ingredients, in three additions, making sure each is fully incorporated. Panic!!

Truthfully, if I remove my baking phobia from the equation, this is a very easy recipe. Once I found cake flour (thanks Mom!), it was just a matter of whisking everything together in the correct order. First up are eggs, sugar and orange zest. Into this mix goes 2 cups (!) of olive oil.

adding 2 cups olive oil to the batter

THIRTY-THREE : RED WINE PRUNES WITH MASCARPONE

AUGUST 18 2011

It turns out, stewed prunes aren't just for old ladies. Awesome restaurants serve them too! And oh man are they rich. I was planning to whip up this little dessert while camping last weekend. I bought red wine, a couple pounds of prunes and the mascarpone. But, totally forgot to bring sugar and a cinnamon stick from home. Dang! It was gonna be so perfect. A dozen hungry campers would devour the prunes in no time flat!

Instead, I made a batch a few days ago and it was all up to my dear hubby to eat them. I tried, really I did, but they were soooo rich that I could only eat one single prune before a sugar headache kicked in.

TWENTY-SEVEN : HAZELNUT PANNA COTTA

JULY 23 2011

This recipe marked a number of firsts for me: first time using a whole vanilla bean, first time cooking with gelatine and the first time making panna cotta. I must say, it all seemed to go pretty smoothly! First I scraped the insides out of the vanilla bean.

scraped vanilla bean

Then stirred the gelatine into cold water to "soften". It ended up looking kinda weird, but I guess that's probably how it's supposed to look!

softened gelaine

TWENTY-THREE : CHEESECAKE

JULY 11 2011

Well, what can I say. I am totally unimpressed with the cheesecake. I thought it was overly fluffy, kinda dry and just missing a zip of some kind. It needed a fruity topping or something to make it sing. The crust was the other half of the pate brisee recipe from the chocolate tart, but it didn't live up to it's first half. Just dry and brittle.

Now believe me, there is a VERY high probability that I totally screwed it up and all of these flaws are completely my fault. In fact, I would probably bet on it. And I have a few ideas of where things went wrong...

First...
I don't ever really bake so I'm not sure when the egg whites have reached the point where they "hold stiff peaks". I dumped them into the mixer, cranked it up, and let it go for a while. They may possibly have been overwhipped. Could that be the cause of the "over-fluffyness"?

Second...

SEVEN ~ TEN : FAMILY DINNER PARTY

JUNE 20 2011

SEVEN : CARROTS
EIGHT : SWEET POTATOES
NINE : PATE BRISEE TART SHELL
TEN : CHOCOLATE TART

That's right, FOUR recipes conquered today! We hosted a little dinner party for some family this evening and picked up an enormous salmon from the farmer's market for the main course. There aren't any salmon recipes in Frankies, so I chose a couple simple sides to accompany the fish.

Since there were going to be eight people and I'm not a huge fan of dessert, I jumped at this chance to get one of the desserts out of the way. After consulting with hubby, who will end up having to eat any leftovers (poor guy), I picked the chocolate tart for tonight. Mostly because it's the most decadent dessert and we will need all the help we can get eating it.

Luckily, I was able to make the tart shell and the roasted carrots last night. The pate brisee came together quite easily, thanks to my handy KitchenAid mixer. Half of the recipe goes into the freezer to be used for the cheesecake recipe. The rest is pressed into a tart pan with removable bottom, baked, cooled and popped into the fridge to wait overnight. Thankfully I was able to borrow said tart shell with removable bottom because I really don't want to buy something I will only use once. Speaking of... where am I going to find a springform pan for the upcoming cheesecake? That is a question for another day.