The Supreme eG Baking and Pastry Challenge (#2)

[gfron1]

Thanks Anthony. I was afraid that someone would say its pulled sugar instead of spun. I've been wanting to play with pulled, but not at this point in the game. I'll rely on something a bit more comfortable with - chocolate.

[Ling]

Hmm...you could do a pork rind chocolate bar. You could flavour the dark chocolate with cinnamon, cayenne, anything to give it a bit of Mexican heat. You could crisp up pieces of pork rind and use it as the "crispies" in the chocolate bar...maybe do some kind of flavoured nougat layer as well.

Or you could do a tasting set of three childhood favourite candies/treats. One pork rind chocolate bar, maybe a chicken skin lollipop (seasoned, on a stick, covered in caramelized sugar), and one other...perhaps a fruit-flavoured treat. Maybe a orange/Grand Marnier cream tart with duck fat pastry (duck a l'orange?)

Edited October 6, 2006 by Ling (log)

[gfron1]

One distraction is over. Here is the almost complete cheese bust...step by step:

[MichelleGL]

What a great challenge! It would be SO easy to do bacon (I have tons of ideas for bacon-- what can I say, bacon inspires), but Ling nixed that option from the get-go to up the level of difficulty.

I really like the bone marrow and pork rind suggestions. I've heard of bone marrow flan at Chez Panisse; I imagine it could easily lend itself to creme brulee as well. It could also just be diced up while cold, sauteed, and then spooned/drizzled around a plate.

I had killer maple syrup-candied pork rinds at MiniBar in Washington, DC (a restaurant I HIGHLY recommend, by the way). I think the current issue of Gourmet magazine has the recipe. There was a slight spice to it, too (I think cayenne?). I've also coated cut up pork rind bits in tempered chocolate and then rolled in cocoa powder before-- something I had in Spain. Salty, sweet, smoky, crunchy, YUM!

Can't wait to see yours results! Have fun.

**Oh, sidenote-- you all would get a kick out of this... you know those cheesy chocolate fountains that people go crazy for? I'm buying one for a party I'm having in a couple weeks (they sell small ones at Costco for $40!) and instead of serving it with the cliche strawberries and store-bought angel food cake, I'm serving it with deep fried bacon and pork rinds! It's gonna RULE. I'm also making cinnamon marshmallows, graham crackers and peanut butter cookies for the less adventurous.

[Pat Churchill]

Why not sub another acid fruit? Lemon / orange / kumquat wont have the same discomforting effect as raw pineapple. The only two fruits that dissolve meat are pineapple and papaya (to the best of my knowledge).

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Umm. I am thinking tamarind paste...

[LittleIsland]

gfron1... a baker AND a sculptor???!!!

My hat's off to you!! How long did that cheese bust take?

[Kouign Aman]

oh .... candied buffalo carpaccio, spread with tamarind paste, and served with a thin crisp of caramelized sugar....

served rolled or in a cone shape.

[gfron1]

gfron1... a baker AND a sculptor???!!! 

My hat's off to you!!    How long did that cheese bust take?

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Its the first time I've carved anything like that - it was very fun - velveeta is a surprisingly good sculpture media. It took me about 3 hours. I want to carve a hole in the top of his head and put chips in it.

[Ling]

gfron1... a baker AND a sculptor???!!!  

My hat's off to you!!      How long did that cheese bust take?

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Its the first time I've carved anything like that - it was very fun - velveeta is a surprisingly good sculpture media. It took me about 3 hours. I want to carve a hole in the top of his head and put chips in it.

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DO IT!!!

[chiantiglace]

Wheres my ANIMAL DESSERT?

[gfron1]

Since Anthony is getting impatient I'll get everyone up to date. First, let's go through my excuse list...

1. Being sick...CHECK

2. Having to carve a head out of cheese...CHECK

3. Throwing a cheese party for 125...TONIGHT

But, I have made good progress. Last night I had the most ethereal moment. You know that point when food moves beyond sustinence over to life energy. I was making my tamales using the method taught me by a friend last week who lived in Mexico. She had me use frozen posole, rub the skins, process with fresh corn, etc., and for anyone who knows how great fresh homemade tamales smell, imagine digging past the processing, the tiredeness, the packaging of powdered masa, and inhaling the most pure, intense masa smell ever. Then add in the orange zest that I added, and you'll understand why it was ethereal. I'm sure the moment was enahnced by watching Farenelli (a movie about a castrati opera singer) and drinking our favorite Spanish trilogy, but its an aroma I hope I don't soon forget.

This morning I'm going to make my ice cream liquid so it will be ready for tomorrow, then tomorrow all I have to do is the main animal component and plating.

The idea of having to prepare a dessert basically for a photoshoot is unusual. I'm used to doing multi-day, multi-component desserts, but this is a bit different since all of you will only see the pictures (unless you try the recipes). It adds importance to the picture which I typically would sacrifice for taste. Just a bit odd...

BTW, I believe I have targeted our next challengee...and I knew long ago what their challenge will be.

[lexy]

gfron1... a baker AND a sculptor???!!!  

My hat's off to you!!      How long did that cheese bust take?

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Its the first time I've carved anything like that - it was very fun - velveeta is a surprisingly good sculpture media. It took me about 3 hours. I want to carve a hole in the top of his head and put chips in it.

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DO IT!!!

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Best. Idea. Ever.

Are people going to eat the head - i.e. go up and carve off an ear or something?

Seriously though, eG ought to have Medals of Culinary Devotion for efforts like that

[chiantiglace]

The idea of having to prepare a dessert basically for a photoshoot is unusual. I'm used to doing multi-day, multi-component desserts, but this is a bit different since all of you will only see the pictures (unless you try the recipes). It adds importance to the picture which I typically would sacrifice for taste. Just a bit odd...

I totally know what you mean. Its hard to to explain it to friends too when you try to ask them over to eat it. The give you the 21 questions as if you are trying to get something from them.

"All this dessert, that took you four days to make, and all you want me to do is drive over and eat it".

[chefpeon]

Tonight on Iron Chef America.....Morimoto does Iced Squid Candy.

That is all.

[gfron1]

We're in the home stretch. Now that all distractions are aside, I've hunkered down to finish the dessert. Today I made the ice cream liquid - sage, sweetened with agave nectar:

Yesterday I made the mincemeat first:

Then I filled the homemade masa (absolutely stunning aroma):

And finally tonight I prepared the buffalo sheets by coating them in brown sugar for the night:

[Ling]

Fascinating! I've never had mincemeat either, and await your verdict.

[gfron1]

1 o'clock MST and we're in the countdown stage. I just started my dehydrator for the meat. I'm going to do the slow oven roast in an hour from now. I'll fry the meat minutes before.

I had a minor setback when my friend's icecream maker cannister had a an ice bag frozen inside of it. So I rushed to my store and bought a new icecream maker...that means at least 6 hours until its frozen. Its been fun this weekend because our local paper ran a little story about all of this so now the small town of Silver City is rallying around the dessert.

[Kerry Beal]

1 o'clock MST and we're in the countdown stage.  I just started my dehydrator for the meat.  I'm going to do the slow oven roast in an hour from now.  I'll fry the meat minutes before. 

I had a minor setback when my friend's icecream maker cannister had a an ice bag frozen inside of it.  So I rushed to my store and bought a new icecream maker...that means at least 6 hours until its frozen.  Its been fun this weekend because our local paper ran a little story about all of this so now the small town of Silver City is rallying around the dessert.

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Does your paper have online capability. Would love to see the article!

[gfron1]

It does - www.scdailypress.com, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to get in. If I can get in, and its free, I'll post the URL.

[gfron1]

Here is the buffalo after 45 minutes in the dehyrdrator. Notice how thin my butcher got the meat. you can see the bars through the meat. The spotting is cinnamon. Much to my surprise, this jerky machine is going to give me...well...jerky. My guess is that this won't be the method that ultimately is used in the dessert.

[gfron1]

The jerky beef is a bit tough, but very tasty. I'm doing a pan fried- burnt cinnamon steak as I type. My ice cream bowl is ready, so we're within an hour.

[Nina C.]

Go Gfron! The finish line is in sight - I can't wait to see the results. And more importantly, find out how tasty they were.

[gfron1]

Got it! I'll explain the full process in the recipe page, but I did a burnt cinnamon pan fry. Great texture. Great flavor. Almost tastes mole-esque as many of you suggested, and it should go great with the tamale. I've popped it into the drier to try and crisp it a bit more.

Edited to add: I've just had 3 people taste it and they all loved this method...photo coming soon.

Edited October 8, 2006 by gfron1 (log)

[K8memphis]

Please relate how dessert-y this is.

I'm trying to imagine bison dessert.

Now I like cinnamon on my salmon, but it's still not dessert.

If you can put any words on it, how does buffalo become a dessert??

Thanks

[gfron1]

Here we go!

First, thanks again to Kerry for starting this fun challenge, and to Ling for tapping me. Also, thanks for the many comments. Some I used, some inspired me, but all were greatly appreciated. It was a blast and definitely a challenge. You'll see a new thread for the new challengee in moments.

The idea became - celebrating my regional foods. I used (when available) only locally produced/grown products, and local flavors. The challenge was to create a dessert using animal (not byproduct).

In the end I created a mincemeat tamale, sage ice cream, burnt cinnamon bison flag on top of pineapple coulis and green chile marmalade. The tamale masa was made totally from scratch using posole and fresh corn with orange zest incorporated. It was filled with suet and meat mincemeat, also including pineapple, apricot and raisin. The sage ice cream was just what you would expect: sage, cream, half n half, and sweetened with agave nectar. The bison flag became the challenge. The technique that ultimately worked was to marinate the paperthin slice of meat in brown sugar (absorbed by the juices), and to pan fry in butter, sprinkled with sugar and lots of cinnamon. Once this cooled it was a brittle and very tasty accompaniment to the rest of the dessert.

Taste: The tamale was really nice. I enjoyed the mincemeat, especially the combination of the meat/suet and pineapple. The masa was something truly special. I mentioned in previous posts how nice the aroma was, and the taste didn't let me down. It was so elemental, and as cheesy as its sounds, it really touched my soul. The flag was a gimmic and tasted niced, but I wouldn't make it again. The hit was the sage ice cream! Fantastic. It made you think you were about to have mint ice cream, but it didn't go there - superb! All recipes will be posted tomorrow when I catch up. So, without further delay, here are the pics:

Edited October 9, 2006 by gfron1 (log)