mamster's mystery basket results

[Anna N]

I'd definitely like to do another of these, but I'm hoping someone else will organize the next one.  Not that it was any trouble doing this one;  I'd just like to be at the mercy of someone else's ingredients, since I already know what I like.

Is there any particular way you (the collective you) want to deal with this? I agree it would be interesting to have different people come up with the ingredients, but is there an etiquette we should adhere to? Both in terms of the type of ingredients but also the posting so we don't end up with competing baskets? And how often to do it? Once a month? Every two weeks?

Sorry to be so official about this. . . .

Here are my thoughts:

Once a month.

If a number of posters want to take on the job of putting together the market basket, then assign a month based on date they post their willingness to do the job on a first-come, first-served basis.

To encourage the more sophisticated (and perhaps more affluent posters) to become involved, try to offer some alternate ingredients that might entice them to participate.

Occassionally put together a "theme" basket, perhaps Chinese, Thai, Indian, etc.

Just thoughts.

Anna N.

[mamster]

I think once a month might be too often. As much as I'd like everyone to participate, I think it's going to be a fairly small group each time, and I'm not ready to commit to doing it once a month. Bimonthly or quarterly would work better.

As for your other point, I think there should be a foie gras battle, because I've always wanted to try cooking it. Truffles, of course, are a pantry item.

[Anna N]

I think once a month might be too often.  As much as I'd like everyone to participate, I think it's going to be a fairly small group each time, and I'm not ready to commit to doing it once a month.  Bimonthly or quarterly would work better.

As for your other point, I think there should be a foie gras battle, because I've always wanted to try cooking it.  Truffles, of course, are a pantry item.

I'm cool with whatever the final decision so long as the market basket challenge continues in one form or another. But I thought I'd launch a trial balloon and see what happened.

Anna N

[gknl]

I probably wouldn't do it every month either, but if people wanted to do it more often, I wouldn't feel slighted if I missed a particular month. Eight people did it this time, do you think more people will join in as it progresses? Once they read our great menus, they won't be able to resist!

I like the idea of doing different themes too, much like in the Master Chef Exam where they have to cook an Asian meal from a country assigned at random. Did you see the FoodTv show on the exam? It was cool seeing it after reading the Ruhlman book. . . . Though watching the guys fail was painful.

I'll do an ingredients list, but still have the question of formality. I think trying to come up with a list of ingredients that are challenging without being too difficult or obscure would be almost as fun as the cooking. But no foie gras, caviar or truffles on my list. I don't want to be presumptuous or step on anyone else's involvement, but I'm not adverse to doing it on an ad hoc basis either.

[torakris]

I think monthly might be a little too hard but every other month would be great.

[ruthcooks]

Some random thoughts...

A market basket without having to cook? I get much enjoyment from reading the menus and descriptions, but it is of much less interest whether anyone actually cooked. I made up a menu, but that's as far as it went.

A choice of baskets? I am mostly a Heartland/Southern/French cook who rarely delves into Chinese, Japanese, Moroccan, Indian, etc. You might want to consider a theme basket OR a non-theme basket.

Re: list of ingredients. Even though care was taken to provide a list of widely available ingredients, there were three which were unavailable in my area. Those who are fortunate to live in proximity to great markets have no idea how limited the shopping is to those who must rely on the local supermarket.

How about some input on what ingredients are pantry? Cheese is definitely on my list, as I am never without Parmesan, cheddar and cream cheese and usually have two or three others on hand.

[Andy Lynes]

I'm late with this I know, but tonight I am going to atempt to cook :

Tuna and Bacon sandwich with pecan jalapeno pesto (tuna wrapped in bacon, pan fried then sandwiched between potato galettes and served with the pesto around)

Slow roasted chicken thighs with spiced squash puree, saute cabbage and mushroom sauce.

I'll report tomorrow how it all goes.

[mamster]

Tuna and Bacon sandwich with pecan jalapeno pesto (tuna wrapped in bacon, pan fried then sandwiched between potato galettes and served with the pesto around)

I'm drooling, man.

[gknl]

Some random thoughts...

A market basket without having to cook?  I get much enjoyment from reading the menus and descriptions, but it is of much less interest whether anyone actually cooked.  I made up a menu, but that's as far as it went.

A choice of baskets?  I am mostly a Heartland/Southern/French cook who rarely delves into Chinese, Japanese, Moroccan, Indian, etc.  You might want to consider a theme basket OR a non-theme basket.

Re: list of ingredients.  Even though care was taken to provide a list of widely available ingredients, there were three which were unavailable in my area.  Those who are fortunate to live in proximity to great markets have no idea how limited the shopping is to those who must rely on the local supermarket. 

How about some input on what ingredients are pantry?  Cheese is definitely on my list, as I am never without Parmesan, cheddar and cream cheese and usually have two or three others on hand.

Which ingredients couldn't you get? And where are you, generally speaking? I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but spend some time each year in NW Alabama where I try to cook at least one new thing per visit. The first few times I was frustrated at not being able to find stuff I take for granted out here. Now that I know what I'm up against, it's a challenge. Substitutions are pretty liberal.

I don't think anyone would think less of you if you just posted a menu, but for me, half the "fun" was seeing if I could actually pull it off. And I was glad to read I wasn't the only one who trashed the kitchen in the process. The other half of the fun was being, as Mamster put it, "at the mercy of someone else's ingredients," having to deal with stuff you wouldn't ordinarily consider. It's not a competition, though I'm sure we all didn't want to screw up and humiliate ourselves , so I think it's the spirit of the challenge that counts most.

Besides, if you're satisfied with just creating menus, then ingredient availability doesn't matter (not meant in a snarky way).

[mamster]

Even though it may have sounded like I was laying down the law, there was never any chance that I was going to dis someone for only doing a menu, making a goofy substitution, using lamb as a pantry item, or what have you. Law and order was never my forte.

I'm betting the ingredients ruth couldn't get are kabocha squash, cremini mushrooms, and du puy lentils. Am I right?

I like the theme basket idea. If there were enough of these that at least, say, a half-dozen people participated every time, but anyone could feel free to sit out any particular event and know that enough people would be left to make it interesting, that would be great.

Let one thousand cornucopias blow.

[Andy Lynes]

A late afternoon dash to the supermarket resulted in a few substitutions as they were all out of tuna and squash. I came home with monkfish and sweet potato instead and cooked :

Bacon wrapped monkfish with potato galette, saute cabbage and mushroom sauce

Slow roasted chicken thighs with spiced sweet potato mash, pecan japaleno pesto and grilled and creamed sweetcorn.

So it was a meal inspired by the basket than one that really followed it too closely.

A few details on the preperation : I skinned and filleted the monkfish, laid the two fillets head to tail, wrapped them in the slightly-too-thick-for-the-job streaky bacon, then wrapped it in lots of clingfilm to get a cylindrical shape. I let it rest in the fridge whilst I made the sauce in the classical way with shallots, garlic, mushrooms (just white buttons which are actually ok for this purpose) white wine, chicken stock and double cream. Once cooked I blitzed and passed the sauce, then finished with a squeeze of lemon juice at the last moment.

I decided to use my new microplane to grate the potato for the galette. This was a bit of a mistake as, although its a medium blade, the resultant shreds were too fine. I squeezed out all the moisture from the gratings in a clean tea towel and I applied a little too much pressure as the shreds clumped back together again and would then not separate. However, the galettes were nice and crisp, if not quite the lacey "rosti" style I was aiming for. Cabbage was finely shredded, blanched then sauted with some butter and pepper.

I removed the clingfilm from the fish parcel, fried it on the hob then cooked itin the oven for about 10 minutes, which turned out to be several minutes too long as it overcooked. I sliced it into 6, laid a galette on the plate, added some cabbage, then 3 fish slices, spooned over a little sauce, then another galette. I then poured around the remaining sauce. It tasted great but didn't look quite as smart as I'd hoped.

All the while I had beeen very slowly cooking the chicken in a saute pan on the hob, skin side down in veg oil and butter. I boiled the sweet potato, mashed it then added evoo which had been warmed through with cumin. I stirred this into the mash. I made the pesto to Batali's recipe but substitiued pecans for almonds. The recipe is simply the nuts, red oinion, chilli and evoo. The result looked like pink sick but tasted OK. I would modify this recipe, maybe using scallions instead of red onion and some herbs, maybe corriander

and adding some pecorino to make more like a standard pesto recipe.

I grilled the corn on a grill pan, then sliced off the corn, then warmed it through with some cream spiked with tabasco. I finshed off the chicken, meat side down, then gave the skin a final crisp over a high heat. I didn't do anything fancy with the presentation, just dished it up, with the vile looking pesto on the side.

[Basildog]

Sounds great Andy.When you coming down to work with us??????

[Andy Lynes]

I'd love to. It could take some working out with the wife though.

[mamster]

So it was a meal inspired by the basket

That's what I had at the last Sonics game I went to, but it was just a hot dog. I would have preferred your meal.

[suzilightning]

developed the menu over the weeks - tweaking it a bit - but didn't have a chance to cook till friday. invited my friend and her husband(who won't eat fish or anything green - tooo f*%^&*g bad - get over it glen!!!!.

fire in the fireplace - a bit of a cold drizzle

started out with an appertif of sherry - manzanilla with some olives

first course - mushroom soup with the creminis and a stock created with the aromatics and the bones cut from the chicken thighs.

fish course - diamonds of poached tuna served over a bed of mixed baby greens(with my husband the mixed baby greens are a staple since he WON'T eat any other rabbit food). used some of the stock i made to go into the soup to also poach the tuna. made a dressing of evoo, capers(have at least 3 varieties in the pantry), minced anchovies, minced shallots and sundried tomatoes in oil.

main course - boned chicken thighs stuffed with braised cabbage and onions.

wrapped these puppies with bacon, seared them off, finished them in a dutch oven with a mixture of water and pinot noir(steam/braise). served over a mixture of lentils with carrots and a ragout of potatoes with onions and butternut squash. served with the pinot noir

for dessert resurrected something i haven't made since i worked at The Cook in 1977 - god, i'm amazed i could still make it!! lemon truffle. homemade lemon flavored ladyfingers(not too hard) which are fitted into a mold then drizzled with nocello and then filled with a lemon charlotte(now i remember why i don't do this - i hate workin with gelatin). chill, unmold, cut to serve and top with lightly whipped cream(or in our case - cool whip - almost everyone is bothered by real cream now)