Daring Cooks August Challenge

About The Daring Kitchen

The Daring Bakers: A History

In November 2006, Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice decided to challenge themselves to bake pretzels for the very first time using the same recipe. They each went ahead and posted about it on November 18, 2006.

Having enjoyed that experience tremendously, they decided to try it again the next month, this time choosing to bake biscotti. And to make matters even better, they were joined by a few more food bloggers.

As the months went by, their baking group continued to grow, until it was finally decided that this "little baking group" had to have a name and The Daring Bakers were born!

Today, The Daring Bakers span the world as bakers of all nationalities come together once a month to try something new in the kitchen!


August's challenge and my first was hosted by this is Olga from Las Cosas de Olga.

http://lascosasdeolga.blogspot.com
http://thedaringkitchen.com/about-the-daring-kitchen

The Challenge

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes.

I'm sure she will post the original recipe on her site, so I'll just post my verson. It had a few minor changes.

Sofregit

Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of olive oil
5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped (optional) I used a red pepper, to keep the red colour
4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
1 Bay leaf
Salt
Touch of ground cumin
Touch of dried oregano
Added a large pinch of paprika

Directions:

Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft. Taste and salt

Because I’m lazy I put all the ingredients in a bar mix and chopped finely, before sautéing in a pan. After I had used the amount needed in the rice dish, I pureed the rest and used as a sauce in the plate.

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes
Ingredients (serves 4):

4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or frozen if fresh are not available) not impressed with this vegetable, this was my first time cooking with it. Not sure if it’s just the ones we can get here, would substitute fresh for jarred next time.
12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)
1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
1 glass of white wine
2 Cuttlefish (you can use frozen cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)

I used Chicken

“Sofregit” (see recipe above) tripled the amount added in the recipe

300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice
Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice) Used Chicken stock
Saffron threads Use Lots


Allioli

Cooking time: 3-4 minutes

Ingredients:
1 small egg
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (as above, Spanish oil is highly recommended)
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 Tbs. Spanish Sherry vinegar or lemon juice (if Sherry vinegar is not available, use can use cider or white vinegar)
Salt to taste
I added a little saffron for flavour and colour

Directions:
Break the egg into a mixing bowl.
Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the garlic cloves, along with the vinegar or lemon juice.
Using a hand blender, start mixing at high speed until the garlic is fully pureed into a loose paste.
Little by little, add what's left of the olive oil as you continue blending.
If the mixture appears too thick as you begin pouring the oil, add 1 teaspoon of water to loosen the sauce.
Continue adding the oil and blending until you have a rich, creamy allioli.
The sauce will be a lovely yellow colour.
Add salt to taste.

It is so much easier to make this in a blender; all you have to control is the flow of the oil. I didn’t like the flavour of this; if I was making it again I would change the following ingredients.

Roast the garlic in the oven for 1-2 minutes before peeling and adding
Use a flax seed oil or walnut oil

Perhaps because I didn’t use fish, the flavours of the rice where so delicate I felt the Allioli overpowered it.