What New Successes Have You Had in March?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Chief Longwind Of The North

Certified/Certifiable
Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Messages
12,454
Location
USA,Michigan
What are yopuir new culinary successes for March. I had a couple, one of which was tonight's supper.

I'll list them in order of occurance, and what I did to make them successfull.

1. Enhanced pepperoni flavor" I purchased some uncured pepperoni that looked great in the package. What I found out when trying one of the paper-thin slices twas that the sausage texture was perfect, the flavor was lacking. It had the correct flavors; but they were weak. I peeled apart the slices and layed them onto parchment paper. I put a tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes, and a tsp. of fennel seed into a mortar, and ground them together. I rubbed this mixture all over the pepperoni slices on both sides, re-packaged the slices and let it all sit in the fridge for a week. This was a resounding success. For my efforts, I had full pepperoni flavor, that I adore.

2. Foolproof Fudge: I posted this recipe last week. I used 1 pkg. Ghiradelli 70% cocoa morsels, 3 tbs. cream, 1/8th cup coconut oil, 2 tbs. butter, and 14 oz. sweetened-condensed milk. I heated all of the ingredients together ntil the chocolate began to melt. I stirred it until smooth, and poured the mixture into parchment paper lined pan, and chilled for a couple hours. I did have to blend it to homogenize the coconut oil into the fudge.
made it, and chilled it, the coconut oio separated out, floated to the top and hardened. So I re-heated it, and put it into the blender. I let it blend for about a minute, then put it back into its container, and chilled it once more. It came out perfect, with great flavor. I made two more batches, one with pureed raspberries, and one with peanut butter added. They all turned out great. By adding a bit more coconut butter, I was able to make a smooth, soft, creamy candy filling.

3 - Wonton Soup: Instead of my usual chicken wontons, filled with chicken, water chestnuts, and other Asian inspired ingredients, I made a seafood wonton filling. Thjis soup gave me ocean flavor that paired well with a good fruit desert. Here's how I made it:

Ingredients:
15 jumbo, peeled and devained raw, pink jumbo shrimp
1 pkg. cream cheese
1/8 cup sauteed, cooked Pink Salmon
16 wonton skins
finger bowl of water
2 tbs. freshly cut green onions
4 cups water.
3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 tsp. granulated onion powder
1 tsp.Spanish Paprika

Thaw and peel the shrimp. Place the shrimp skins,paprika and garlic into a 2 quart pot, along with the 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 20 minutes.

While the shrimp skins are simmering, saute 7 shrimp in a tbs. of butter until just pink. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Wonton filling:
Soften the cream cheese. When the shrimp is cooled, mince it. Mix the cream cheese, minced shrimp, and cooked salmon together until well blended.

Place one tsp. of the mixture on the middle of one wonton skin. Wet the edges of the wonton skin. Place another wonton skin on top of the first, and pinch the edges together, removing as much air as possible from the wonton. Fold all of the corners to the center, and place on a rack. Repeat until all of the filling is used up.

Remove the shrimp skins from the broth. Add the wontons and set the timer for 8 minutes. Make sure there is enough broth to cover the wontons. When the time has elapsed. Leave the heat at simmer. When the timer alarm goes off, add the remaining shrimp and simmer for 2 more minutes. If you desire, you could add a little ginger to this soup. After the two minutes has gone by, add the chopped green pepper and serve

No additional salt was needed for this soup as the saltiness of the raw shrimp, and the cream cheese provided all the seasoning required.

For desert, I recommend poached pears, hot with french vanilla ice cream, or sliced banana..

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Back
Top Bottom