Baked Spring Rolls with Spiced Honey Nut Filling

Don't call these honey-nut rolls "easy" baklava, or, worse, "cheater's" baklava, because, really, they're not. Calling them baklava creates an expectation which cannot, and is not supposed to, be met. These rolls aren't as heavily filled with nuts as baklava; nor are they nearly as sweet and sticky. They're meant to be light, delicate, flaky, nutty, mildly sweet, and with just a tinge of warm cinnamon scent. When you bite into one, the crispy skin is shattered into shards like a brittle ancient parchment scroll in the hands of a clumsy archaeologist.

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Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickled Asparagus

One of my new-found passions is pickling -- specifically quick, easy, overnight (or 3-day-long at the most), refrigerator, no-canning-involved kind of pickling. Ease of preparation is, of course, a big factor. But the key thing for me lies in the fact that quick pickling produces pickled fruits and vegetables that retain a great deal of their freshness, color, and texture while characteristically tasting of delicious pickling liquid and spices.

See how these asparagus spears are roughly the length of a hot dog bun? See the possibilities? Can you visualize them getting cozy with a grilled hot dog in natural casing or a charred spicy merguez, perhaps? And that's just one of the many, many ways to use pickled asparagus.

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Sriracha Shrimp Stir-Fry

Now that you have stocked your Thai pantry with Thai Sriracha sauce, homemade or store-bought, it's time to put it to good use. You can use Sriracha as you would your Tabasco sauce. A lot of people know and do that. But Sriracha as a stir-fry sauce?

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English Muffin Bread - A Soft Loaf of Nooks and Crannies

Those who have read my post on the best homemade English muffins, detailing how much and why I love Alton Brown's English muffin recipe with my little tweak, are well aware of how picky I am when it comes to the texture of English muffins. I am aware of most of the English muffin bread recipes that are out there on the interwebs and given several of them a try only to have my belief exponentially reinforced, i.e. a very, very wet dough is the way to go. After having spent several months experimenting with different ratios and formulae, as of March 20, 2010, I have found this recipe to consistently produce the most satisfactory result and -- thank heaven -- the easiest to make.

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Rosemary-Citrus Dried Strawberries and Meringue: An Interpretation of Curtis Duffy and the Many Applications to Which It Leads

This post was supposed to be something drastically different. You were initially supposed to read a tragic-comic tale of how I -- a serious home cook who has absolutely no formal culinary training -- attempted to recreate Chef Curtis Duffy's Golden Trout dish only to find myself in the state of bewildered stupor and self-pity that lasted for hours once reality had kicked in. Instead, you're reading about the delicious and versatile rosemary- and citrus-infused dried strawberries along with rosemary- and citrus-infused meringue bark with a faint scent of pine and citrus dispersed throughout its light-as-cloud, airy, chocolate-laced self.

How did that happen?

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Homemade Sriracha - How to Make Thai Sriracha ซ้อสศรีราชา

In continuing our Stock Your Thai Pantry series, one item that must be mentioned is Sriracha sauce (ซ้อสศรีราชา) -- the all-purpose hot sauce that originated from a city after which it was named. I can't think of any hot sauce that is more widely used and versatile when it comes to the modern Thai cuisine. Even though Sriracha has become a generic name for similar hot sauces made both domestically and outside of Thailand, the Thai palates don't have a hard time recognizing the authentic spicy, sweet, tangy, garlicky sauce that we grew up with.

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Blood Orange Upside-Down Semolina Cake

Blood oranges slices are arranged on the bottom of a cake pan with a light sprinkling of sugar. Once baked, the sugar and the orange juice turn into garnet-colored syrup that is soaked up by the tender semolina cake. Requiring only extra-virgin olive oil and no butter, the cake batter can be prepared very simply by hand in one mixing bowl.

Did I mention there is vodka in the batter?

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Announcing a Cooking Contest with Chef Curtis Duffy

You are cordially invited to participate in a cooking/blogging event and vie for a grand prize worth over $200, courtesy of Avenues Restaurant and BLiS™, maker of fine ingredients trusted by several nationally-acclaimed chefs.

Cooking Contest with Chef Curtis Duffy


The contest will be judged by Curtis Duffy, Chef de Cuisine of Avenues Restaurant, Chicago, based primarily on the contestant's ability to achieve a harmonious balance between the required ingredients in terms of color, aroma, flavor, and texture. Creativity manifested through plating and presentation, though secondary to the first criterion, is also important.

Please know that even though we have a professional chef as the judge, we're not looking for 4-star restaurant quality or presentation. So there is no need to feel intimidated. We expect most, if not all, of the contestants to be enthusiastic home cooks just like you who want to have fun with the ingredients and get in touch with their "chefy" side. No liquid nitrogen required. No spherification. No need to present your dish amidst a plume of solid CO₂. Well, unless you want to.

Contestants will create a multi-element entrée using all of the following ingredients:

Chocolate with a minimum of 85% cocoa solids



Mushrooms - any one variety or a combination of multiple varieties



Fish - any one variety



Fennel - Every part of the plant, i.e. bulb, stalks, fronds, must be used.

Entries must be posted on your blog and one image of your entry (500 x 333 pixels only) sent to Leela at leela[at]shesimmers[dot]com by midnight (Central Time) on Sunday April 11th, 2010. Your entry must include links to both She Simmers (http://shesimmers.com) and Curtis Duffy (http://curtisduffy.blogspot.com) with a mention of this contest.

Those who do not have a blog can participate by submitting an image of your entry (500 x 333 pixels) by the time indicated above with a list of ingredients and detailed method of preparation.

The winner will be announced here at shesimmers.com on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010. The winning entry along with the other entries that have been submitted, with links to the participants' blogs or websites, will be included in the announcement post.

Please note that while the contest is open to all, the prizes will be available only to residents of the United States. Should a non-resident of the United States win, s/he must designate a resident as the recipient of the prizes.

The winner will:

• Enjoy $50 off each person for a 2-person dinner at Avenues Restaurant -- a gift from the Peninsula Chicago. In addition, on your visit, Chef Duffy will include in your dinner menu his interpretation of your winning creation. If the winner cannot travel to Chicago, s/he can opt to forfeit the discount offer and instead enjoy the honor of having his/her winning entry, with Chef Duffy's refining touch, included in the menu of Avenues Restaurant.
  
• Receive an extraordinary gift set with a value of over $100 from BLiS™, maker of high-quality ingredients used in the kitchens of Alinea, Moto, The French Laundry, Le Bernardin, Charlie Trotter's, Per Se, Providence, and many other restaurants.

The set includes -

• One 375-ml bottle of BLiS Bourbon Barrel Matured Pure Maple Syrup. Grade A dark amber pure maple syrup has been aged in 12-18 year old single barrel bourbon casks. The barrels are carefully agitated until the honey, charred oak, vanilla and spice notes are imparted into the maple syrup syrup for a pure, one-of-a-kind natural flavor.
• One 100-ml bottle of BLiS Elixer Extra Old Fine Solera Sherry Vinegar. Extra old fine sherry vinegar is aged a second time in 18-year-old maple-cured single bourbon casks that have previously aged pure maple syrup for many months and are assembled in a true solera system. The result of this costly and long aging process is a very complex vinegar with notes of butterscotch, vanilla, and tart chocolate which can be used in various applications.

See my article: Rosemary-Citrus Dried Strawberries and Meringue: An Interpretation of Curtis Duffy and the Many Applications to Which It Leads.

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Fesenjan: Persian Pomegranate Walnut Chicken Stew

"Have some fesenjan," my gracious host, Sargon, pointed in the direction of a wet mass of brownness in a ceramic bowl on the buffet table. A brief moment of awkwardness followed. The fact is -- in terms of appearance, this thing could only be described as uninteresting at best and unappetizing at worst. Nestled between a platter of colorful assorted vegetables and a bowl of vibrant-colored saffron pilaf, the stew's lack of aesthetics became even more pronounced which, in turn, made my reluctance to plunge the serving spoon -- poised in mid-air -- into it more justified.

"It's good," Sargon assured me. At that very moment, three things popped into my head: 1. it would be very rude of me to refuse the food which my host was recommending, 2. how awful of me to unfairly judge a stew who had never done anything to hurt me, and 3. doggone it, how many times in your life do you get invited to a Persian/Assyrian Christmas party? Eat up!

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Sweet Potato Mascarpone Bourbon Bread - Announcing the Winners of Battle Sweet Potato

A few weeks ago, I bought a 16-ounce tub of mascarpone cheese. Half of it was used to make the ethereal and delicious banana mascarpone soufflé pancakes, and the other half was used to make this hearty sweet potato mascarpone bourbon bread to mark the conclusion of our 5th Beet 'n Squash event - Battle Sweet Potato.

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Ostkaka: Swedish Cheesecake Recipe from Mikael

As much as I love blogging, one of the things that come with putting yourself in public is that you get strange things in your mailbox. Every day -- and I mean every day -- my mailbox is inundated with stolen content notifications, invitations to join a mail-order bride club, offers for a product that's supposed to enlarge a body part I don't have, etc. If you catch me in front of the computer muttering and saying bad words under my breath, chances are I'm checking my email.

But interspersed with tooth whitener offers and 24-hour free passes to websites of dubious nature are kind notes from my readers who take the time to tell me how appreciative they are of this little blog. If there's any truth to a definition of (divine) grace as "an undeserved favor," well, then I have to say I've found myself at the receiving end of grace quite frequently ever since I started blogging 16 months ago. If you catch me in front of the computer flapping my arms, grinning like an idiot, and whimpering with joy, chances are I'm checking my email.

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Thai Stir-Fry of Chicken, Fresh Ginger, and Mushrooms: Gai Pad Khing

This is a classic Thai dish that has been a household staple for a long, long time. I adore this stir-fry on top of a mound of Jasmine rice and one egg, perfectly-fried Thai-style, on the side.

More importantly, this is one of the dishes which make you glad you have Bruno by your side.

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