chiantiglace

I will get the recipes up. They need some tweaking and some organzing, but I will get them up. When I develop recipes my math is all over the place. I end up using a couple pages trying to get everything just right. Round 6

Well week 5 is up and it is time for the 6th challenge. This week I have challenged K8Memphis to incorporate classic Southern Sweet Tea into a dessert. I had been contimplating who to challenge and what to challenge them for a while now. Unfortunately I kept comming up with ideas that were near impossible or would take much longer than a week to plan out, especially a week of only sidework. Kate is a fantastic wedding and specialty cake maker from Memphis Tennessee and is a constant and conitnuous contributor to eGullet, especially the pastry section. You can catch a demo she made here. Because of the fact that she does cakes so well I present this new challenge. Also it helps that she is a southern woman, and the challenge is comming from a southern guy (Originally from North Carolina), that is another reason why I feel it appropriate. To my knowledge she doesn't get her hands very wet when it comes to plated dessert, but I am quite certain she loves it and wishes she had more time or necsesity to play with her ideas. Now I am giving her a reason to go all out and put together a spectacular dessert that utilises sweet southern tea. The reason, besides the obvious, that I chose sweet tea is because I have seen tea incorporated in desserts quite a bit, but never southern. I have seen mint tea, green tea, oolong tea, black tea, english tea, etc, etc, etc. but I have never seen southern tea. Maybe I have just been unfortunate, but regardless of my circumstances I would like to see it and I think everyone else could appreciate it. Besides, we already have beer marked off, why not tea? I also think its a great change of pace, especially from me because I am the type of person that developes an idea in my head and sticks with it, or makes changes myself. I think K8 is a little more relaxed and open to other peoples ideas (probably a lot more). So I am very please to announce our new contestant, K8Memphis. Also, if you are just joining us, here are the previous productions: Round 1 (Kerry Beal challenges Ling in Vancouver BC)- Take pineapple upside down cake and bring it into this century Round 2 (Ling Challenges Gfron1 in Silver City NM) - Make a dessert containing an animal ingredient or product other than lard or bacon Round 3 (Gronf1 challenges Mette in Copenhagen Denmark)- Create a deconstructed beer dessert Round 4 (Mette Challenges Shalmanese in Seattle WA) - Create a dessert tapas plate consisting of 7 items in 7 days, using local and seasonal flavours Round 5 (Shalmanese challenges Chiantiglace in West Palm Beach FL) - create a dessert involving smoke that evokes Autumn

Trust me, that was one of my biggest problems.

Well nougatin is just a word, I suppose its just like a florentine or a tuile. It has a nice little snap to itif is crumbly but in large pieces (not like sablee). If the same cookie was made with seseame seeds it is quite possible that it would be harder, but not much. The walnut is soft and absorbs a lot of the moisture in the mix. When eaten, I had no problem splitting little pieces off without knocking over the "tower".

The petal is a purple orchid

Well I felt that both the clove and the lemongrass complimented the smoke flavor and the apples very well, but at the same time were quite different. The lemongrass hit your taste buds initially and the clove followed up at the end. The lemon grass in the gel is very smooth and mellow while in the sorbet is decently sour. So when eating this dessert you get smoke from the apples, sweet from the gel, bitter and spice from the caramel, and sour from the sorbet. I thought it was quite and interesting composition for the tongue.

Thankfully I figured out another way to get my pictures on to my computer. It only took 2 hours. Anyways here it is: It is Smoked Gala apple that has been diced and pressed to mold a circle and stacked with walnut nougatine. With it is Sour Cream Lemongrass Sorbet and Lemongrass Gelee'. There is also some ground up walnut praline's and a clove caramel. All the recipes are mine, I took nothing from anyone (that I know of). And kate, I also really liked the idea of clove caramel, I do not know where it came from but I am very thankful I thought of it and put it in because I goes very well. For this being a very unusual dessert, it is currently my most favorite creation. I must say I enjoyed eating it. The colors of the appl are absolutely goreous with a persistent aroma of smoke. I was cutting them up in the bake room of the bake shop (cold and 2 days old) and I still got comments from people walking through saying things like, "I smell bacon". This drove me to curiosity and I made the effort to experiment on peoples tongues. I made them eat the apple without telling them what it was. I asked for the first flavor that came to mind, it kept comming back as "meat". It seems to be on of those things that would be very difficult for people to stray their minds from, but if possible I think they could easily enjoy this dessert; I did. I have more to say, but I am pretty stressed out right now and need to take time and reflect. I hope you all enjoy, and I also hope their are a few questions or concerns out there.

well I just got home from finally finishing this dessert, I hook my usb cord up to my camera and get ready to transfer the images. For some reason the images arent transfering. I am more than angry right now. I have spent over 75 hours at work this week and only 47 of them were paid. I am going to let my computer rest for a bit and see if I cant transfer the images latert. I pray its just because my computer has been on all day. If its not, I am going to kick something and kick it hard.

I very very much like the idea of rosemary sorbet. But I am set on something sour and have made up my mind to make a sour cream and lemon/grass sorbet. I have skipped the pears because they just havent gotten very much appeal. But everyone seems to love the apples. They do have a very strong smoke flavor to them, more than what I need. Currently I am think of dicing up the apples and forming them with maybe a cardamon or clove caramel and toasted walnuts. with it will be lemongrass and white chocolate confections, more of the caramel sauce and possibly a lemongrass syrup or sauce of some sort, maybe like a lemongrass creme fraiche. Who knows for garnish though. Even though the smoke flavor is in only one component, I consider it the primary piece and it has enough smoke to carry over to everything. I am still thinking about the butternut. I may post that on monday or tuesday as a bonus dessert. I kind of want to take my time on that one. But the more I think about this, the better it is comming out. I am glad I have made the changes I have. Usually I make changes because the intended result was unaccomplishable. Now its being changed for simply, the better.

Oh ad by the way, what is in front of you are seckel pears, bosc pear, gala apples, cherry chillis, and butternut squash. Also they were smoked at around 150 - 180 degrees for 2 hours. The seckel pears were pulled out half way through though.

Well, I finally got some work done on this project and I am feeling good. My jeep is fixed, but it will never be the same. That aside I am fully devoting my concentration on the challenge. I must say, after the process was done, and people tasted it I had very mixed opinions. 3 out of 4 men liked it all. The one male liked the apple but nothing else. He also said he doesnt even like savory food smoked, so I wasnt really hurt. 2 out of 2 women did not like any of it. 2 other women wouldnt even taste it because they said they hate the flavor of smoke. And personally, I absolutely loved it. I do enjoy smoke flavor quite a bit (must be that north carolinian in me) but I could easy eat a whole smoked apple. I put together an interesting piece to smoke everything in. I took a little advice from some other chefs in how they have been sucsessful, seeing as it was I dont have a smoker, the smoker at work is big enough to fit 3 of me inside (rendering is pointless for me to smoke a couple handfulls of things) and all the other methods I have used smoking things were just impractical with my surroundings. What happened was I constructed two hotel pans, a 4 inch deep containing the smoldering apple wood with a perforated 2 inch hotel pan ontop lined with alumminum foil. I poked a few holes at the empty end of it. I lined another piece over top of the food and poked a small whole at the opposite end so that the smoke would travel across the fruit to escape. I must say I was estatic to find apple wood. The smell, with a smoking cinnamon stick was phenomenal. I smelled like smoke, but I also smelled like bacon and cinnamon buns, ha! If you notice with these pictures the fruit gained significant, and beautiful colors. Especially the apples. sorry, poor focus So the sour cream ice cream is fluxuating in my head. I am trying to think of something better to clear the tongue of smoke flavor. I really think it goes with the smoked pear, but a couple people have given me the raised brow over it. on a seperate plate I am still contemplating what would be better, butternut cake or ice cream. And I am still contemplating what will go good with it. I sure some ideas will come in. any thoughts?

well thank god I am getting it fixed today so the only I will have to worry about later is paying for it. That also means I can semi-resume all the other things in life like this. The peppers is not for "autumn" per se, I only want to smoke the peppers and add a small amount to a pear puree to give it a little extra kick. Its not all a feature in the dessert, just another little piece of the puzzle. currently I am thinking of making a pear half gel (do some experimenting) with some xanthan and gelatin in hopes of making it elastic when semi-freddo. My flan is to make a puree that holds it self just long enough at a very cold temperatur so that I can coil it or shape it how I want. After I am thinking of making a seal for it from lemongrass infused cocoa butter and possibly a small amount of white chocolate. Then I am thinking of coating my "half-gel" so that when it comes up to room temp it will have more of a burst in the mouth. I need to think of something with texture. And for some reason I cant get sour cream ice cream out of my mind.

Well, I am starting to think this challenge is a curse not a blessing. Everyone here has had an issue, but nothing like this. This morning around 6:30 while I was driving down the road my top (of a jeep wrangler) decided to fly off behind me shattering the window. I am still baffled at how this happened. I was only going 35 miles an hour and I have had that thing in hurricane weather with no screws in the front part. I guess some of the bolts got loose and unfortunately stripped off. I couldnt find any of the originals once I got me, my jeep, and the top off the road. But thankfully I found my spare bolts (ones I had incase I couldnt find the originals after taking the top off in the summer) in the back of my jeep. Unfortunately there were only 2 for the back and 3 for the front, but it got me home. I am very thankful that the top didnt fly off and fall into another car, I am surprised it didnt with the way people drive around here. I am also thankful that someone didnt hit because they were paying attention while I was stalled. Who I am not thankful for is the WPB Police Department. They showed up 45 minutes after I called them, after I dragged my top across the 3 lane highway, after I turned it over, picked it up and re-attached it myself. Ohwell. I must say, this challenge is not the greatest of my worries right now. But we will see where the week takes us.

Oh dont slow me down just yet. The worst thing anyone could ever do to me is say "thats too much", because its either all or nothing with me. Who knows, maybe I'll stumble upon cold fusion while making my cold smoker. HAHAHA! on the drive home I developed several ideas. This is going to be a hellacious week. The second my mind is sparked and I have a goal to reach, there is no getting out of the way. Looks like its going to be many sleepless nights and constant alterations. Dont be surprised if I presnt 3 plates at the end of THIS week. P.S. I have a couple seckel pears, gala apples, lemongrass, some herbs and some cherry chiles. Also considering utilizing cocoa butter and xanthan in a small percentage of the final outcome. Lets see where this goes.

Grah! I am man! Why I keep be mistaken as woman? As for smoked chocolates, see My post and this article for some ideas. A quick google reveals this and Ideas in Food for some added inspiration. ← HA, appologies Shalman. I actually dont know why I even adressed you as man or woman. I typically write clear of that distinction even when I know. I use to have a very good friend with the name Shaman who was a girl, so everytime I see your title I automatically think of her. It was more than likely just a random subconcious act.

So, smoke it is. One post, a while back, from Ted Nicely about a place he worked for briefly had utilized a smoke chocolate. Ever since then I had contimplated the idea of smoke chocolate and all sorts of other things. With this urge of knowledge I had taken the notion to many chef instructors I knew just to guage a reaction from them. Many didnt give me much feedback at all. One instructor did though, my soon to be confections instructor. We actually discussed it for a decent 10 minutes, where he gave me a very interesting idea. Unfortunately it would be very difficult to "smoke chocolate" because it would assumingly melt and creat a mess. But what if there was a way to cool the smoke and get it to "fall", possibly under the chocolate and leave it there. The atmosphere of a sealed container would definately contain a strong smoke flavor that would eventually be absorbed by the chocolate. I think the main concerns are the temperature of the chocolate, and the filtering of the smoke to lessen the debris. So it seems I will be making a trip or two to home depot. Now, before anyone checks back at me for chocolate, I am not necessarily going to utilize chocolate in the end dessert, but I would like to see where this goes. There are many other things we can smoke too. The part of the challenge that is going to be roughest for me is utilizing autumn flavors. I am in florida so , if you have ever been here late in the year its not as if you will be raking up the leaves from your sidewalk, if you catch my drift. It really does not feel like autumn here, but I will try to create the illusion. I have a whole foods up in PGA that I will be visiting in the next couple of hours, so I will give you feedback on what I am capable of doing. I think the first step I should take right now is to give a smoke flavor to as many items as I can to see what pairs well. so far I am thinking: Pears Apples Caramel Lemongrass hazelnuts pecans walnuts (definately) parsnip beet corn butternut squash thyme I am sure there will be many many more to come as I start to explore and open up my mind. Peppers may even be an option. We will see, and please dont be shy about discussion.

Well I suppose eventually I am going to get pushed into a challenge, so why not get it over with. I have been somewhat uneasy about the idea of doing a challenge at this point in my life because I am in unfamiliar territory. Currently I am in west palm beach which is about 750 miles from my home in north carolina and another 750 miles from my second home at school in New York. I have limited equipment of my own at this current time since I am only here temporarily. I am also working an average of 55 hours a week at the breakers, so I am going to have to attack this challenge head on. Currently I have so many ideas running through my head that it may just take me a week just to decide on the next challenge and person. Before I procede, I must thank Shalmanese for tagging me and for Kerry to have started such a wonderful project that I am delighted to now be a part of. Also, the tapas, in my opinion, was a sensational contribution to this set of events. I think it was important to bring out a different idea so soon. The tapas was not really a technique challenge (even though Shalmanese challenged herself anyways), it was actually for of an effort challenge. To compose so many ideas to flow together was definately different than what I would have anticipated for a challenge. I would have assumed that all challenges would be like mine and the others. To take one idea and to expand on that. Instead, the previous challenge took a way of eating into the dessert world. I hope with this kind of expansion we can really come up with some interesting challenges. I just hope mine can be at the same level of creativity.

If you want an answer to this question more easily you should just do a search. Many different sections of egullet have threads completely devoted to this. Many people probably wont even respond because it is something that has come up repeatedly, almost to the point of it being annoying.

Question, I also have the E Guitard couveture, will this recipe 'do' with the white chocolate as well? I have boxes of both. This seems like an ideal recipe, as I assume when chilled it remains liquid. You serve this how? With what? Have you used it as an ingredient in say a strusal like cake? Forgive the questions, I will make the sauce anyway even if just to use on icecream, it just seems like it could do a lot of things... ← No because once you put cocoa powder in it, its not white chocolate anymore. And yes, for the richness you need the cocoa powder.

Yea that helps a bunch. And since I am just now starting to get whats going on I'll just stay out of this one.

ok so, all the stuff that has been discussed, are they the desserts or the meal? And if they are the meal, what are the desserts? And if the desserts are a suprise, what are we talking about? I just want to join in, but I honestly have no Idea where to start.

The deep rich flavor actually comes from the cocoa. You need a recipe that has water, dutch processed cocoa powder, sugar, and chocolate. Your thickening agent can be whatever you want, but a good easy choice is always cornstarch. If you need a recipe let me know. I am just being lazy right now and not posting one automatically.

Doner Kabobs "Oil Down" from grenada Italian ice Gyro's

The funny bit is when they forget to turn the music on, and right around 6:30 when half the first round guests are seated they decide to turn it on.

I'm sorry too Tracy, I hope it's not too painful, but I'm sure it would make a great episode on ER. I'm just totally being silly-don't mind me. But seriously, I love this thread but I am absolutely lost--whew it's all so far over my head the jetstream is above Iceland. I hope you all enjoy prawns, seaweed soup, chorizo and soup and shrimp? for dessert? But you expanded it right to include more courses??? I can't tell where the desserts start--are we still doing desserts??? Or just baking??? Maybe I'll catch on better next time. ← Dont worry K8, I am just as lost as you are. But I will try to keep an open mind as things unfold.