Baby Hot Browns...thoughts...

[Unpopular Poet]

Does anyone have any experience with these derby snacks? I have been assigned these for a party and wondering if anyone has any tips. I was thinking I would confit the turkey leg and get some really nice tomatoes at the farmers market...but otherwise I am trying to stick with something relatively traditional or the host will kill me. Any experiences are much appreciated!

Thanks!

Dan

[Dave the Cook]

By "baby" do you mean "mini"? If it's meant to be finger food, you'll have to figure out how to make it a less messy affair. A cheese biscuit, split in half, might be a good base, and would let you skimp on the sauce without sacrificing the flavor profile.

I like the idea of a confit, but -- and maybe it's just me -- I hate dealing with turkey legs. All those tendons. I'd go with thighs.

[gfweb]

You might somehow put it in an egg roll wrapper. Hot Browns are gonna be messy.

[Jason Perlow]

You might somehow put it in an egg roll wrapper. Hot Browns are gonna be messy.

Empanada.

[Lisa Shock]

I did an online search and learned that apparently the baby hot brown doesn't usually involve gravy. -Which was what was confusing me with the apparent contradiction of 'snack' and 'hot brown.'

If you want to be clever, you could make the base out of bacon or prosciutto. For bacon, coil raw bacon in a muffin tin (or mini-muffin tin) and place a second tin on top to hold it in place and bake til crispy. You can also weave bacon and place it in the muffin tin, or, for a larger cup, turn the tin over and place the woven bacon over the cups. (over doesn't work for coiled bacon, it separates too much as it shrinks) or prosciutto, just carefully place it in the cups and bake for a few minutes until crisp.

You could also make cheese cups as the base. Bake small piles of Parmesan cheese on a silpat. When they just start to brown remove with a spatula and quickly place on top of an inverted cup or inverted muffin tin to form a cup shape.

If doing either a cheese or bacon base, cut bread rounds with a cookie cutter to fit inside and toast them briefly.

For extra points, figure out how to make spherified gravy and garnish with that.

[Unpopular Poet]

Tons of great ideas -- thanks everyone -- I think incorporating the bacon cups could add a nice twist -- there is sprinkled bacon on there anyway. So this is what I have come up with -- bacon cupped baby hot browns with sous vide turkey breast, oven dried heirloom cherry tomatoes and an isi foamed bechamel and Camembert (or gruyere) sauce. Looks close enough to the original recipe to be recognizable, but hopefully significantly more delicious.

Any thoughts? Is the camembert going to overpower everything else? Do I care?

Dan

[Lisa Shock]

Run some tests on the bacon. Good news is you can refrigerate and reheat your efforts, so anything that works out isn't wasted. Different bacons will shrink at different rates and give slightly different results. Running a few tests will help you get it right later.

You may wish to garnish with bacon roses. I make mine like making ribbon roses. Here's a video:

Do not use thread. Hold it together til it's done and then run a toothpick through the base to hold it together. Bake on a cookie sheet until crispy.

[MSRadell]

How do they come out? Any pictures?

[Unpopular Poet]

I would categorize the baby hot browns as a total failure that then rose from the ashes like glorious phoenix. In the end, I attempted to make the bacon cups suggested above -- I followed some online directions and unfortunately, the thickness of 1 pack of bacon to the next was not consistent -- so I only ended up with 16 bacon cups, as opposed to 32 -- I couldn't bring 16, so therefore I bailed on the bacon cups -- which is too bad, because they looked amazing. On the other hand, the rest came together -- I used some nice german brown bread -- both Pumpernickel and Bavarian Rye -- toasted them lightly, cut into squares and then topped with the sous vide turkey breast, then the oven roasted heirloom cherry tomato 1/2 -- which had also been broiled with some nice Parmingiano grated over the top. I also made a bechamel with gruyere (camembert was ruled too stinky for this crowd -- huh?) which I topped them with -- then a sliver of bacon and off to the races (after a slight warm up in the oven a while later). (I ended up not charging the sauce in the Isi -- the host ended up dropping off all of the pork loins for the party -- I ended up sous viding those as well for 5 hours and seared off in clarified butter -- awesome)

I wish I had a pic, but I don't. They were a huge hit though -- people basically went bananas for them -- at once point the people at my table asked if I could please grab the tray from the buffet table so they could have the rest - pretty funny actually. I was really frustrated at a number of points along the way -- basically wishing I had just followed the damn recipe for once -- but thank god I didn't -- the nice part was that everything I had reservations about ended up melding together -- the brown bread was a huge win -- initially I thought it was going to over power with blandness, but once the whole dish came together, the structure really held it together. I would absolutely make these again.

Thanks again for everyone and their thoughts -- total team effort.

Dan

[Lisa Shock]

So sorry about the bacon issues! I'm used to commercial bacon that comes in a big box and is all cut very consistently. I will remember your issues the next time I recommend this to someone.

I'm glad it worked out in the end! It looks like your reputation is intact!

[Unpopular Poet]

Lisa -- not a worry at all, everything happens for a reason and I was elated as to how they turned out, so good enough for me!

Dan