Flashback Friday: Bigfoot Contessa

Remember the Top Chef and Food Network Star recaps I did in the past? I also did these things I called fumetti, poking fun at individual episodes of various Food Network shows. There's a whole list of them on the "fumetti & recaps" page linked to the left, under "pages."

This post was originally published on April 28, 2011.
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Bigfoot Contessa

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sweet Potato Panna Cotta

I'm a fan of sweet potatoes, but Mr Minx is not. I really hate having to prepare two different starches with dinner if he doesn't want any of my sweet potatoes, because of course he won't go without. So I normally don't buy them at all, and only eat them around Thanksgiving, or if I can get one as a side dish in a restaurant. But we sometimes get sweet potatoes in our shipment from Washington's Green Grocer, and then I have to be inventive. I've incorporated sweet potatoes into snack cake, scones, hummus, and spaetzle, all quite successfully. And now I've used them in panna cotta.

I saw it somewhere online, perhaps a restaurant review or blog: sweet potato panna cotta with toasted marshmallow. I had sweet potatoes, and I had nice homemade vanilla marshmallows (well, not homemade by me, but by Nikki of Mallow Crunchies), and it just struck me as something I wanted to eat. And as something I could feed to my husband.

We ate the panna cotta both refrigerated and frozen. The latter is a lot like the Indian ice cream, kulfi, especially with a dose of cardamom. The former works best with the marshmallow, but both need the crunchy, burnt sugar bitterness of the pumpkin seed brittle, which also adds texture to the creamy richness.

Sweet Potato Panna Cotta (adapted from Christina Tosi)

2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons water
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup milk
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Release spray
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sugar
Marshmallows, preferably homemade

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a microwave-safe bowl. Let stand 3 minutes, until softened.

In a blender, combine the potatoes with the milk, cream, condensed milk, sugar, spices, and pinch of salt.

Warm the gelatin mixture in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, until melted. Add to the blender and blend well to combine.

Pour sweet potato mixture into a loaf pan sprayed well with release spray. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until set.

While panna cotta is setting, make the brittle. Prepare a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper and set aside. Pour the pumpkin seeds into a small skillet and toast over medium heat, shaking the pan regularly, until the seeds puff up. Remove from pan and set aside. Pour the sugar into the pan with a few tablespoons of water. Cook the sugar over medium heat until it melts and then starts to turn light amber around the edges. Stir in the pumpkin seeds and cook the mixture, stirring regularly, until the sugar turns medium brown. It will smoke; open a window. Once sugar is browned and is just starting to smell burnt, remove from heat and pour onto prepared parchment. Spread brittle slightly with a wooden spoon, then set aside to cool. Once cool, break into large shards.

If you're using homemade marshmallow, cut them into long fingers. Place a few on a piece of aluminum foil and brulee with a creme brulee torch. (If using store-bought marshmallows, line up 2-3 of them and brulee.) Cut chilled panna cotta into similarly-sized rectangles. Top each one with a piece of bruleed marshmallow and a shard of brittle.

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Gluten-Free Millet Salad with Asian Flavors

Necessity is the mother of invention. So are leftovers.

A thorough inventory of our seemingly-full fridge revealed lots of bits and pieces of vegetables. A box of cremini mushrooms, a dozen or so brussels sprouts starting to go brown, and a handful of cherry tomatoes were among the items needing to be used quickly, and I couldn't really think of a dish that would use all of them successfully. Maybe something with pasta, but that seemed too easy.

Up for a challenge, I decided to also use up some of the ancient grains I had recently purchased for experimental purposes. There were full or partial bags of amaranth, multicolored quinoa, and millet in the cupboard, and since I was feeling in an Asian food mood, I went with the millet. While one normally associates Asia with rice, millet is also an important food crop on that continent.

I threw together a peanut sauce with ingredients we usually have on hand, cooked the sprouts and shrooms, and tossed them with some cooked millet. It made a nice accompaniment to some oven-baked chicken, and lots of leftovers for lunches.

Millet Salad with Asian Flavors

1 cup millet
2 heaping tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons agave syrup
1 tablespoon tamari
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon Chinese broad bean paste (doubanjiang)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1" piece of fresh ginger, grated
Veg of your choice (I used 8 ounces of sauteed sliced mushrooms, a handful of halved cherry tomatoes, and 12 brussels sprouts, trimmed, cut into quarters, and sauteed until soft, but you can use anything you wish, from sugar snap peas to jarred red bell pepper pieces)
3 scallions, chopped
Handful cilantro, chopped
Roasted peanuts for garnish

Place millet and 2 cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover pot and let simmer 10-15 minutes, until all water is absorbed. Fluff millet with a fork and pour into a bowl to cool.

Combine next eight sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir to blend. Add a few tablespoons of water to loosen to a mayonnaise-like consistency.

Once millet is cool, stir in sauce, tossing to coat every grain of millet. Stir in your veggies of choice. Garnish with chopped scallions, cilantro, and peanuts.

Serves 8.



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Flashback Friday: Dumplings

This post, one of the most popular posts in the history of Minxeats, was originally published on April 19, 2013.
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Dumplings

On one of the final episodes of that Food Network classic, "Worst Cooks in America," the worstcooktestants are tasked with making dumplings - Chinese siu mai and wontons and Japanese gyoza. As I was watching, I thought to myself, "if those mostly-incompetent people can make an edible dumpling, a mostly competent person like me can, too!" Honestly, they made it look very easy, right down to the little pleats on the gyoza.

Gyoza, or jaiozi, in Chinese, has been my family's favorite Chinese restaurant appetizer forever. No Chinese meal was complete without them. And they had to be fried. Potstickers, they're called. One can, of course, steam them, but my favorite part of the dumpling is the crisp bottom part of the wrapper. Mmm.

I recall making jaiozi with a friend some years ago, and it seemed like a huge production. She had made the filling in advance, so it was the dumpling-forming and cooking that were intimidating to me at the time. But now that I look back, vaguely remembering that she insisted on boiling them in a large pot of water before frying, I see that we made them incorrectly. Especially since many of them fell apart before they even made it to our mouths.

I think she was mostly paranoid about using raw ground pork in the filling, but she needn't have been.

A quick online search brought up myriad variations on that filling. Some used cabbage, some didn't. Some added shrimp. Bobby Flay's recipe (found in his Throwdown cookbook) called for hoisin, chile paste, 5-spice powder and allspice. No wonder he lost. I decided to go with a more simple combination of ingredients: ginger, garlic, cilantro, and green onions. I did borrow an ingredient from Chef Flay's dipping sauce: black vinegar. The result was interesting, but the slightly molasses-y flavor of the vinegar was a bit overpowering. Much better was a more traditional sauce made with soy, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and scallions. I've supplied the recipe for both; you may decide you like the vinegar sauce. Flay uses hoisin (and a thousand other ingredients) in his, in place of the sugar and soy, which may work better than my substitutions if you don't mind a thicker sauce.

In any case, dumpling making was much simpler than expected. The round wrappers are pre-made and sold in 12- or 16-oz packages at your neighborhood Asian grocer. If you can only find square won ton wrappers, you can cut them with a large round cookie cutter.

Potstickers

1.5 lb ground pork
1 T chopped scallions
1 t grated fresh ginger
1 t chopped garlic
1 t finely minced cilantro
salt
1 16-oz package round dumpling wrappers
oil for frying

In a medium bowl, combine pork, scallions, ginger, garlic, and cilantro, plus a generous pinch of salt. You can taste for seasoning by cooking a bit of the meat in a little hot oil. Remember that the dipping sauces contain soy and will be salty, so don't overdo it.

Prepare your area for dumpling assembly: have a clean cookie sheet or two covered with parchment, a Silpat, or a clean tea towel nearby, plus a small ramekin of water, the bowl of filling, and a teaspoon.

Take a dumpling wrapper and place it into your left palm (right, if you're left-handed). Dip a finger in the water and use it to moisten the edge all the way around. Use the spoon to place a blob of meat into the center of the wrapper, then fold the wrapper into a semi-circle. If there's too much meat, take some out at this point. Pinch the middle edges of the dumpling together and then make a pleat to one side of the middle using only the side of the wrapper facing you. (In other words, the dumpling is pleated only on one face.) Add another pleat or two (if they fit) to that end, then repeat the pleats on the opposite end of center. Gently squeeze the edge of the wrapper to make sure it's closed and that there are no air bubbles, and place it on the cookie sheet. Repeat until all wrappers and/or meat are gone.

(For a visual aid to pleating dumplings, check out this video of Chef Anita Lo doing just that. Dumpling making starts at about the 2 minute mark. Before that time, she demonstrates making the dumpling wrappers themselves. She's a bit fancy; I found it easier to pinch the wrapper closed in the middle and make 2 or 3 pleats on either side.)

To cook dumplings: Add a tablespoon or so of neutral cooking oil to a large skillet over high heat. When the oil is hot, add a layer of dumplings. You can fill the pan, but don't crowd it; the dumplings should not overlap. Cover the pan and cook for a few minutes, until the bottoms of the dumplings are a nice golden brown. If the pan seems to be getting too hot, turn the heat down a bit. Once the dumplings are brown - don't turn them! - add a quarter cup or so of water (more or less, depending on the size of your pan and number of dumplings). Cover the pan and cook until the water has evaporated. At this point, the dumplings should be shiny and somewhat translucent on the top (non-browned) side. If you're concerned about the pork being cooked, cut a dumpling in half and check. If they're not cooked, add a few tablespoons more water, cover the pan, and cook until additional water has evaporated.

Remove cooked dumplings to a plate and serve with dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce 1

3 T black vinegar
1 T rice wine vinegar
2 T light soy
1 T light brown sugar
1 T chopped scallions

Combine ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so for flavors to combine.

Dipping Sauce 2

2 T light soy
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 T chopped scallions
1 t toasted sesame oil

Combine ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so for flavors to combine.

If you've made more dumplings than you can eat at one sitting, put the remaining dumplings, still on the cookie sheet, in the freezer for a few hours. When frozen solid, transfer to plastic bags and store in the freezer. When you cook them, you'll need to leave them on the heat for a bit longer.



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