139 replies to this topic

[Ling]

Hi everyone! In our last Iron Baker challenge, I was given the task of coming up with a modern take on the retro classic Pineapple Upside-down Cake. For those who missed it the first time around, a picture of my creation can be found here. Now that the first round is over, it's my pleasure to introduce gfron1 as the next baker who will be presented with the new challenge!

gfron1 is a very talented baker who has posted beautiful dessert creations in our Dessert thread. I am a huge fan. Here is a look at what he can do!

So, my challenge to gfron1 is this:

Make a dessert containing an animal ingredient or product other than lard or bacon by October 10th.

I think all of us will be waiting with bated breath for whatever innovative/scary/(and most importantly) tasty combinations you come up with!

(Now we just gotta wait around until he notices this thread and accepts... )

P.S. If you're vegetarian, I can change the challenge.

Edited by Ling, 02 October 2006 - 07:43 PM.

[gfron1]

Animal product!??? Wow...well, OK. So I accept wholeheartedly.

I'll post a bit more for background in the morning, but it reminded me of my fried peach skins that looked like bacon. My very, very initial thought is incorporating fish into a sweet paste and boiling it as a noodle - never done it, don't know if it would work, but its a starting point. Also, feel free to clarify the challenge if I stray from the original concept like if you're looking for a big piece of flesh draped over a chocolate cake (I gave up my veggieism about a year ago thank goodness).

My other thought is that I want it to be accessible but a bit over the top.

So that's it for now. All I have to say is I am very honored and can't wait to get going. As my spouse said, "You were challenged by the only EGulleter to have their own verb! Wow!" So, I'm off to out-Ling the Ling!

[chiantiglace]

I always wanted to use duck fat and utilize it in each piece of one dish.

Also, are eggs an option, other than chicken of course, or are they too close to a necsesity and not different enoug? Because quail, duck, and turtle eggs could all be an interesting motive.

[Ling]

Oh right, I forgot to exclude eggs as one of the animal ingredients you can use. Quail, duck, ostrich (if you can find some!) and turtle eggs are good.

chiantiglace: I've made duck fat pastry before. I just froze it and grated it into the dough. It was for a dinner where one guest was mildly allergic to dairy and I couldn't use too much butter.

[chiantiglace]

I love duck, anything duck really. Its a fascinating creature. Hell I have made bitter curry chocolate sauces with duck, does anything not pair well with duck?

I enjoy poaching pears in duck fat as well, its just the season for it too.

[Nishla]

I was thinking duck too...I think I saw an iron chef episode where crispy sweetened duck skin was incorporated into a dessert. I bet that would be tasty with fruit, maybe in sorbet form. It could go with a tart made with duck fat pastry!

[gfron1]

Hmmm...I'm a duck rookie, and live 3 hours from any major city, so we'll have to see what I can get. I can say that I'm racking my brain to see if I can use local animals - javelina, rattle snake, bison, etc.

Edited by gfron1, 02 October 2006 - 09:20 PM.

[Pan]

Somewhere on these forums is a discussion of asyura/ashure, also shortened to "sura" on the East Coast of the Malay Peninsula. This sweet sort of viscous...hmmm, I can't think of the term for this (in Malay, it's sometimes called a form of bubur)...exists in various parts of the Muslim world including Turkey (and, I think in some form, some part of the Indian Subcontinent?). The East Coast Malay version of it is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. It's highly complex and rich, and includes chicken among various and sundry ingredients. Unfortunately, my mother doesn't know where the recipe she got from one of our erstwhile neighbors is.

[After Googling:]

OK, I found the discussion of the Malay version of the sweet. It's in the Kuih / Kueh thread, and I've revived the discussion of sura in order to inquire about an interesting Malay-language recipe I found while Googling.

The Turkish version is discussed somewhere in the Greek V Turkish Food thread.

I'm not suggesting that you try to reconstruct a wondrous traditional foodstuff you've almost definitely never tried, but if more light can be shed on it, it might give you some ideas.

Edited by Pan, 02 October 2006 - 09:35 PM.

[chiantiglace]

new mexico eh? How about lizard pie.

By the way, bison goes great with cinnamon.....

Edited by chiantiglace, 02 October 2006 - 09:48 PM.

[Renka]

Isn't it funny that Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is fast approaching and some of the mooncakes (more of a dessert/tea time item) out there have a savory animal product mixed in with the sweet filling. i.e. cured ham in lotus paste (which isn't bacon per se), traditional salted duck egg yolk in lotus paste. I don't really think this is what Ling was thinking of honoring when she came up with this suggestion (my guess is that she had great success during her week of blogging in Seattle with that duck fat pastry).
Depending on how you look at it, some other Asian bakery or dim sum items could be considered dessert like.
Just a few minor suggestions if you're really stuck, gfron1. In no way do I envy your position!

[rjwong]

Milk (from a cow or goat) & Honey would be considered animal products, technically speaking.

Should these two be excluded as well?

[Ling]

Well, let's just say that cream, butter, and milk are all very obvious and I don't think gfron1 is one to shy away from what's safe. I think he'll be doing some really interesting stuff this week anyway so I guess there's no need for me to impose more limitations.

[chiantiglace]

Milk (from a cow or goat) & Honey would be considered animal products, technically speaking.

Should these two be excluded as well?

Milk and honey are both bi-products of animals. Though it would be a great idea to incorporate such things in the whole scheme of things to really liven up the dish, but if all it contains (pertaining to animal products) is sheeps, goats, llama's milk or cheeses and honey (a product made by insects) I think it will be off target.

Quite honestly that would be too easy, because I can take just about any dessert ever made and replace one or more of items with the compositions of others, and I am sure gfron1 could too. Thats not a challenge.

I say lets stick to closely knit animal products, instead of bi-products.

[s_sevilla]

This conjures up images of all those damned ice-creams they come up with in Iron-chef: Japan.

Except for the fact that Uni makes me puke, I think this could be put to good use in a frozen confection of some sort.......come to think of it, a lot of things could be turned into ice-cream and come out at least half-decent. Lobster is pretty sweet, so that could be used, and oysters always have a sexy allure, so if they could be incorporated into a dessert successfully, they could go over well too.

Since I consider cheese to be a fine dessert, taking a savory path is a possibility as well.

And as a last afterthought.....I particularly enjoy fried grasshoppers, and they're even better when covered in chocolate, and those count as an animal product, right?

edit: I almost forgot....mincemeat has meat and suet in it, and I've always had that on ice-cream......how about a reinvented mincemeat?

Edited by s_sevilla, 02 October 2006 - 11:58 PM.

[Ling]

And as a last afterthought.....I particularly enjoy fried grasshoppers, and they're even better when covered in chocolate, and those count as an animal product, right?

Wow. Bonus points if gfron1 catches his own insects, frieds them, and eats them!

[s_sevilla]

lobster, vanilla, corn, olive oil....... crispy lobster and sweet-corn cake or blini with a vanilla-creme fraiche ice-cream......still would need something to cut the richness of the whole thing, maybe a citrus powder or a coulis, perhaps some blood oranges (the color would be nice), probably a light sprinkle of flour-de-sel.

I almost want to try this, but lobster is out of my budget for just playing around with.

[jackal10]

This is too easy.
There is a long tradition of MINCEMEAT as a sweet ingredient, from medieaval times to the present day.Orginal recipes have, besides the dried fruit, sugar, spices and rum, not only suet, but also meat and cubes of kidney, adding a base note. Delicious. I'd love to see a mince pie for this challenge

Of course there are very many suet pies, where the pastry is made with suet, or like Xmas pudding, suet is the fat in the pudding stuff. Sussex pond pudding, with a whole lemon inside is one of the best.

If you want a challenge, make an original calfs foot (or harts horn) jelly from scratch - I guess gelatine, unless made from scratch is too much of a cheat.

[gfron1]

I assume Lorna went through the same thing last week - I had trouble falling asleep and woke up very early with ideas running through my head. Since this is a challenge, I feel like I should stay away from duck fat, and other things that are incorported into a dessert. What I'd really like to do is have the animal product be the focus of the dessert.

I had to look up the definition of animal to see if bugs were fair game. Coincidentally, we're in the tail end of our tarantula mating season, so those nasty suckers are everywhere right now...but not for long.

Renka, your comment intrigues me because I've felt drawn to the mooncake thread...drawn enough that I've been looking at buying a mooncake mold. I have a antique Chinese store nearby, and I just happen to be visiting that area tomorrow - so if they have one, maybe I'll see that as a sign.

My wake-up thought was focused on bison. I was thinking of a paperthin sheet of bison (cut against the grain), soaked in an infused simple syrup (maybe sage), cooked somehow (possibly fried or boiled in sugar water) to make it very delicate and edible, with green chile chutney, and accompanied with a sage mousse. Clearly my sleep turned me to a conceptual dessert which I am in no way commited to, but I love the idea of making this dessert scream Silver City. All of these piece may prove to be too much in the end.

To add to the drama, I've accepted Lorna's challenge on a week where I'm throwing a Japanese potluck tomorrow night (I got a Bubble Tea Party Kit :), a cheese cutting party on Thursday night in preparation for my monthly cheese party (we're having German to celebrate Oktoberfest) on Saturday night, for which I agreed to carve a lifesize bust out of velveeta blocks of a friend for his 85th birthday. That on top of running my store and my full-time job running a meth treatment clinic. Now that my excuse and whine is firmly established...I'm awake, enjoying my Peet's coffee and raring to go! Thanks again to Kerry for unleashing the beast, and to Ling for the challenge.

Edited to add: And Jackal, I still think an interesting take on mincemeat might be fun since I've never had the real thing, and we're approaching the mincemeat season.

Edited by gfron1, 03 October 2006 - 06:19 AM.

[M. Lucia]

Just a thought that came to mind,
In Turkey they make a dessert chicken breast pudding, I always thought it sounded gross, but people really love it. Seems like a homestyle type dish, but perhaps has the potential to be gussied up. And clearly fits the animal component.

Chicken Breast Pudding
Tavuk Gogsi

I'm going to southern Turkey next week on holiday, maybe I'll check it out (I'm currently posted in Syria, hence my eG absence).

[Swisskaese]

How about mincemeat ice cream?

[gfron1]

A co-worker had a suggestion, which follows many of yours, and honors my desire to have a local/regional flare - mincemeat tamales. We're we're having some language difficulties in communicating with my local carniceria...but I think I'll have some fresh suet be the end of tomorrow.

[Mette]

How about something caramel/pork crackling-like - sweet, salty, smooth, crunchy (and of course chocolate in some form)

Good luck

[FistFullaRoux]

Biggest issue I think is that it probably couldn't be a cold dish. rendered or cooked animal fats + cold = nasty.

First thing I thought of was mincemeat, but someone else beat me to that. Maybe a take on the Italian Lardo, sweetened and served with a berry or acidic component.

And speaking of eggs, would caviar or roe count? That could be interesting in a creamy sauce type of venture.

[jackal10]

Not that you asked, but Mincemeat Tart is covered in Autumn and Festive Preserves http://forums.egulle...showtopic=30785

[Kouign Aman]

To play with your previous idea:

Those thin sheets of buffalo you described - dried then coated in a flavored light caramelized sugar coating on one side, for crunch. Flavor with warm sweet (and bitter) spices - sage, turmeric, cinnamon, mace, allspice, etc

Im thinking give the buffalo the texture of the dried-beef-in-a-jar (dbiaj)before combining it with the sweet. I have no idea if that is possible without using the inordinate amounts of salt also associated with the dbiaj.

[ludja]

A co-worker had a suggestion, which follows many of yours, and honors my desire to have a local/regional flare - mincemeat tamales.  We're we're having some language difficulties in communicating with my local carniceria...but I think I'll have some fresh suet be the end of tomorrow.

Interesting...tamales are more specific to New Mexico but empandas might be another possibility.

I wonder if there is any way to fit green or red chile in there...may not be easy.

The other meat flavored profile that I thought about is red mole. Perhaps one could tweak the balance of flavorings to make a sweeter but still pleasing take on the mole flavorings in a dessert. One could play up the dried fruit, toasted nut and chocolate flavors.

[gfron1]

Thanks Ludja - you always have great ideas. I was playing with the idea of a green chile chuntey...I need to get the primary dish figured out. Ling, why do I have the feeling I won't know what I'm going to make until it hits the stove :)

[Lori in PA]

I know it's sort of off-topic, though it is food-related -- PULEEZ post a pic of the Velveeta sculpture, ok?

[jay b]

how about smoking the buffalo . like they make salmon smoked indian candy

[Pam R]

Welcome to eGullet jay b!


gfron - Ling doesn't exactly hand out easy assignments, does she?? I can't wait to see what you come up with.