When you can't believe you pulled it off...

[RevDahlia]

...post it here.

I mean like when you're possessed by some roving culinary demon and she inspires you to try some recipe that takes five days, or requires trips to four different grocery stores, or is so determinedly ethnic that it's intimidating (and of course you are not a member of the ethnicity in question,) or has a reputation for being extremely difficult. And you attempt it anyway, expecting it to flop dreadfully, and it turns out really, really good.

I went down to my dad's ranch in Castroville, TX for New Year's. My dad and I are always engaged in a genial food battle; I'm a better home cook, he's big into precise, elaborate recipes. I was called upon to produce something for his department's New Year's party, and for some reason I was compelled to make fried wontons.

I know jack shit about Chinese cooking, and I hate deep-frying things, and I usually avoid recipes that require producing a billion little fussy items. I'm more of a meat loaf girl. But that demon was whispering in my ear, so I went ahead and made the wontons and they turned out great. I have no idea how it happened, but there were several genuine Chinese people at this party and they raved (even though one old-school dim sum fanatic scoffed a little at my dipping sauce, which involved nam pla. "Ha, Phnom Peng style," he sniffed, before admitting that it was pretty tasty.)

The best thing about this recipe is that it's pretty easy, once you get past the intimidation factor and the lots of moving parts. All you need to do is mix the filling, wrap it in its skin, and fry. It is so, so good.

Fried Wontons

1 fat stem lemongrass (you may need 2 if your lemongrass is dry and flaky; only use the soft hearts)
1 piece fresh ginger, peeled, about 2" long
2 cloves garlic
2 scallions, white and light green parts only
1 small hot pepper, seeded
1 palmful cilantro (or not, if you hate cilantro)

1/2 lb ground pork
2 tbsps soy sauce

1 package spring-roll skins, thawed

Vegetable oil, peanut oil, or other unflavored oil

For dipping sauce:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
4 tbsps sugar
1/4 cup nam pla (Vietnamese fish sauce, available in the ethnic-foods aisle)

Special equipment: a kettle for frying and a frying/candy thermometer

Mince the first 6 ingredients very fine and put them in a medium-sized bowl. Add the ground pork and soy sauce and moosh together with your hands until all is thoroughly combined. Set aside.

Take the stack of spring roll skins and cut them in quarters crosswise, so they make smaller squares. (You may not use all of them, but they cost about a dollar a package so who cares.) Put them on a plate, under a damp paper towel and plastic wrap so they don't dry out.

Now, wrap the wontons. This is going to sound like instructions for making origami monkeys out of bubblegum wrappers; I'm beginning to understand why the Rombauers didn't include explicit instructions in "The Joy".

Take one spring roll wrapper quarter and place it in front of you on work surface, with one point down so it looks like a diamond. In the middle of it, place a small ball of meat filling. (Really small. Maybe a teaspoon, no larger.) Wet all the edges of the skin with water. Now, working quickly, raise up the corners nearest you and opposite you, so they come to a point perpendicular with the work surface. Smash them together so they stick. Then, raise up the other two corners, but don't smash them yet. Press out all the air between the filling and the skin, then smash the unsmashed corners to the smashed ones. What you are going for is a squashed pyramid shape. You really don't want any air in there, or the wonton will explode in the kettle. Got that? Now do it to the rest of the filling. You can stack the wrapped wontons on a cookie sheet and no harm will come to them.

When the wontons are wrapped, heat oil (about 4" deep) to 360 degrees in kettle. Fry wontons in groups; you don't want to crowd. They are done when they're light gold in color and look like real wontons. Carefully remove them to drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, make the dipping sauce: heat vinegar and sugar in small saucepan until sugar melts. Add fish sauce, and cook the whole arrangement down to a syrup. You can put in red food coloring if you want. Serve with hot wontons, and a dish of soy sauce in case someone hates fish sauce.

[Dingfod]

I once made a mess out of the entire kitchen and dining room to make one single apple pie after watching an episode of Debbie Fields' cooking show (Debbie Fields of Mr's Fields Cookies). It was absolute pie perfection. That was 1998. I have not made another pie since. How could I top perfection? No, it is best remembered for what it was. Too bad it wasn't state fair time, I might've won a ribbon or a baby pig or something.

[Socratoad]

Baby pigs are nice :D

[lisarea]

I was once halfway through making spaghetti and meatballs for a bunch of people when it occurred to me that two of the people I was cooking for were full-blooded Italian guys who'd grown up eating their grandmothers' cooking, and one of their Noni's specialities was, of course, spaghetti and meatballs.

But it was too late to change course, so I just plowed through and prepared myself for the inevitable disappointment.

BUT THEY CAME OUT PERFECT. They were deemed "the best meatballs I've ever tasted" by one of the guys, and he even threated to call Noni, but I don't think he really would have.

Unfortunately, I had a really traumatic experience that turned me off of recipes for good when I was a teenager, so I am not sure exactly how I made them.

Dang it.

[viscousmemories]

That sounds delicious and doable, Rev. I love fried wontons but I never would've considered trying to make them on my own. Until now, that is. Thanks. :yup:

[wildernesse]

I am sometimes enticed by recipes that are miles long that take hours to make, and I wind up so exhausted by the recipe that I can't eat. Usually, the recipes aren't overly complicated but I have no practice making them so it takes ages. But, things usually turn out well.

One May, I made empanadas from scratch. Again, no difficult steps--just a kinda unskilled cook. Also, I probably made all 2 dozen of them.

Empanadas--makes 2 dozen.

1 whole chicken breast (1 lb.), skin removed
1/2 white onion, halved
bay leaf
1 fresh poblano chile
6 cups veggie oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground canela or regular cinnamon
4 canned plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper
2 tbs coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbs pepitas, toasted and coarsely chopped
Empanada Dough (completely different recipe)
1/2 c. shredded queso blanco
1/4 c. sugar, for sprinkling
crema pura or sour cream, for serving
--------------------------------------
Empanada Dough
2 c. all purpose flour, plus more for work surface
3/4 c. fine cornmeal or masa harina
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs veg. shortening
2 large egg yolks

In a food processor, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Add shortening; process 5 seconds. Add yolks and 3/4 c. water; process until dough is very soft, about 5 minutes. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface knead until smooth. Cover; let rest 30 minutes before using.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Make filling: Place chicken, half the onion and bay leaf in medium saucepan. Cover w/ cold water, and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Reduce heat to med-low, and poach until chicken is cooked through, about 15 min. Transfer chicken to a plate; reserve 1 c. cooking liquid, and discard onion and bay leaf. When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred meat from the bone w/ a fork; set aside.

2. Roast poblano directly over a gas flame, turning as each side blackens and blisters. Transfer to bowl and cover w/ plastic wrap; let steam 10 minutes. Remove plastic wrap; peel off and discard blackened chile skin. Removes stem, seeds and ribs; discard. Slice chile into 1/4 inch strips, set aside.

3. Finely chop remaining onion. Heat 2 tsp oil in a med. saucepan over med heat. Add onion and garlic; saute until soft and translucent. Stir in cumin and canela; cook 1 min. Add shredded chicken, tomatoes, chipotle, poblano and reserved cooking liquid. Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper; stir in cilantro and pepitas. Set aside to cool.

4. Make empanadas: Break off 1 1/2 inch ball of empanada dough. On a clean work surface, roll dough into a circle about 1/8 inch thick. Using a 3 1/2 cookie cutter, cut out a round of dough. (Or trace a glass, like I did.)

5. Place 1 tsp filling in center of each round; sprinkle with cheese. Using a pastry brush, moisten edges of dough w/ water; fold dough over to seal, pressing gently. Crimp edges w/ a fork; set aside. Repeat w/ remaining dough. Gather scraps and reroll. (Only do this once, to avoid toughening the dough.)

6. Pour remaining oil into a medium saucepan; oil should be 2 inches deep. Place over medium heat until oil reaches 375 on a deep fry thermometer. Without overcrowding the pan, fry until golden turning once, about 1 minute. Drain on paper-towel-lined baking sheet. (Or, bake at 375 for 15 minutes.) While still hot, sprinkle tops w/ sugar. Serve immediately w/ crema pura or sour cream if desired.
____________________________________

They were delicious. This could have been much easier if all or half the dough had been rolled out and cut out at one time instead of doing one circle at a time. And it probably wouldn't make a noticeable difference.

[Godless Wonder]

The closest thing to such a triumph I've had is when I more or less successfully cloned a local Thai restaurant's fabulous curry chicken. (Nit Noi is the restaurant) I described my "recipe" for it over on iidb (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=23368&page=3&highlight=%22curry+chicken%22+%22nit+noi%22), though I forgot to mention in that post that you need to add a few finely minced thai chile peppers in there. I haven't made that in awhile, but one time I made it for a half dozen people at my parents house, and they all seemed to be pretty damned happy about eating it.

This recipe is actually very easy, mostly it involves a lot of ingredients cut up, and basically stewed for awhile. The triumphant part is that I managed to cop that restaurant's chicken curry without really knowing what the hell I was doing, basically, just by guessing.

[livius drusus]

Gnocchi al ragu'.

At first glance it's nothing terribly complex; definitely time-consuming, but not difficult per se. The thing is, this time I had found the exact recipe from the exact restaurant (Al Pompiere) in the old Jewish Ghetto in Rome which makes the single best gnocchi with ragu' ever. I only remember two other things they even make at the restaurant (an amazing and unique Roman-Jewish artichoke dish dating from medieval times called carciofi alla guidea, and the to die for fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with mozarella) because every time we went I ordered the gnocchi.

The recipe turned up in one of those ask for a recipe from your favorite restaurant section of Bon Appetit or Gourmet and I was determined to replicate it, even 3000 miles away from Roman flour, tomatoes, beef and water.

It took me something like 4 hours to do it all, but the result was a Proust madeleine experience. It. Was. Perfect. Everything tasted exactly like it did at Al Pompiere. Exactly. I cried. Seriously.

And now that I'm home, I can stop teasing and actually post the recipes.

~Gnocchi~

1 1/2 lb medium potatoes
1 3/4 cups flour (unbleached all-purpose)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp salt

In a saucepan, cover potatoes by 1" of water and boil. Lower heat; simmer briskly until tender (35 - 40 min). Drain and peel while still warm. Pass through ricer into a large bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups flour, egg, salt.

Mix quickly to form soft, slightly sticky dough. Cut into 8 even portions. On cool, lightly floured surface, roll section into a 15" by 2/3" rope. Cut crosswise into 30 pieces. Repeat for other 7 portions.

Dust gnocchi lightly with flour. Cover with towels and let rest for 30 minutes. Boil 4 quarts of water. Divide gnocchi into 6 batches and remove excess flour. Cook 1 batch at a time until they rise to the top (about 3 minutes). Transfer gnocchi into an ovenproof platter and keep warm at a very low temperature.

~Ragu'~

2 Tblsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 lb lean ground beef
salt and pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine
One 1 lb can peeled San Marzano (or Roma, if that's the best you can do) tomatoes

Heat oil in a medium heavy saucepan. Add onions and cook over moderate heat until soft but not brown. Crumble beef into saucepan and season with salt and pepper. Raise heat to moderately high and cook until meat is brown (4 to 5 min). Add wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until evaporated (about 4 min). Add tomatoes and liquid, breaking up the tomatoes well with your hands as you add. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until sauce has thickened (30 to 40 min). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

[Socratoad]

Good morning Liv, I'm barely awake and not feeling quite up to being articulate, however having just read your wonderfully simple but mouth-watering recipe I just have no choice but to respond.

Ya know sometimes methinks that although you are very young you must be a throwback to an earlier gentler time when women and even a few men took so very much pleasure and pride in the preparation of food. When I came to the part were you said you actually cried when the the finished results of your recipe turned out so well I too teared up. Its your sincere passion when describing to gathering of just the right ingredients and the tender almost ritualistic description of the preparation of said ingredients, the cooking , and finally your joy filled description of the tasting. Hey woman have you ever considered becoming a cooking or food writer for a major newspaper or magazine or even a web based production of same? You would be a natural :yup:

The mere scribblings above does not even begin to describe how sincere I feel about this and just how well you would succeed at such an endeavor.

I once asked a very good woman friend of mine, a top notch social worker, who mentioned that she was just far too busy a woman to be able to take the time to prepare meals if it had ever occurred to her that perhaps she was just far too busy to enjoy life. I further added that it was highly unlikely that there would be inscribed upon her headstone after she was gone, "Here lies Joan she was far too busy to enjoy life, but she accomplished something or other which is now forgotten" The words preceding are a paraphrase of what I actually said as memories fade all too fast. But I'm sure you get the idea.

I'm happy to be able to say that my friend Joan really did get much out of our conversations and a couple of years after the above conversation actually rather abruptly changed just about all the priorities in her life, including taking much joy from the preparation of meals, dumping her pathologically "success " oriented husband. Finding a gentle man who loved her for herself and not her earning power. They are now happily ensconced on a small island not far from where they live, poorer then the proverbial church mouse, as they retired very young. I could go on and on about this couple, but I'm very proud but humble as this woman gives me the credit for planting a small seed in her head that finally blossomed into a plan that led to her actually living ..... her words.

Liv, I don't know how my appreciation of your recipe led to this Dead Sea scroll length babble, it just did. Such is the power of good food and of those who are able to describe the complete process as you so artfully do.

[livius drusus]

Oh gosh, Toad, you're way too kind to me, but thank you very much. :blush: I'm not so much a throwback to an earlier time as I am a product of a culture which still considers a meal a genuine experience. Not that the McDonald's Way hasn't encroached on that ethos in Italy too, but the solid cultural foundations remain.

I have considered being a food writer, actually. It seems to me like a total dream job, and I have the background for it too. When I was a girl, I used to keep a log of all the ladies' rooms in every restaurant we went to. My mom is still waiting for me to write the final compendium: Bathrooms I Have Known. :D

Pardon the derailment, Rev. Now back to your regularly scheduled pull-offs.

[viscousmemories]

Now back to your regularly scheduled pull-offs.
:giggle:

[RevDahlia]

Now back to your regularly scheduled pull-offs.
Ah, it's a good derailment. I think the Toad makes a good point; producing a real meal, as in one that doesn't involve boiling up a package of Ramen and eating it while watching "Law and Order", requires a frame of mind that isn't really fashionable these days. You have to think about it in a profound, meditative but still alert way, and you must take time, which everyone is convinced they don't have enough of. Also, we're supposed to be afraid of our food, dontchaknow... you're not using an egg in that gnocchi recipe, are you? Aren't you afraid of salmonella and cholesterol? And we're all supposed to be improving ourselves and our fortunes... isn't all this blathering about food a little frivolous, when we could be at the gym or putting in overtime? The only people who are supposed to care about food are those who we pay stupefying sums of money, so we can tell our friends that we went to their restaurants. The current climate w/r/t comestibles is woefully impoverished.

Here's Nigel Slater, aka the guy I would stalk if he and I weren't both happily married, on this subject:


You don't have to cook. You can send out for a pizza, queue for a hamburger, nuke a ready-made meal in the microwave, or book a table in a restaurant. You can pour water on a pot noodle, stop off for a Chinese take-out, or simply live on toast. I know this because I have done it. If you cook you will only have to trudge around the shops, get your clothes and kitchen dirty, have pots and pans to wash, your hands will smell of onions or fish, and then everyone will only eat it anyway ... So why bother?

You can get through life perfectly comfortably without lifting so much as a wooden spoon. Fine. Do that ... if you do decide to go through life without cooking, you're missing something very, very special. You are losing out on one of the greatest pleasures you can have with your clothes on. Cooking can be as passionate, creative, life-enhancing, uplifting, satisfying and downright exhilarating as anything else you can do with your life.

(I wonder how one goes about becoming a food writer, anyway. Ruth Reichl's autobiography was not helpful.)

[wei yau]

This might be more appropriate to the "Slow Food" thread, but what are they gonna do? Moderate me?

I enjoy cooking. I enjoy eating.

But, there's a lot of truth to simply not having the time to prepare a wonderful meal. My commute between home and the office takes one hour. I don't get out of work until 6pm. This doesn't leave a lot of time to prepare a good meal. I have enough time to slap something together, but the dishes are not going to be a culinary masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination.

I've tried preparing food over the weekend, but that weekend is only two-days long. With grocery shopping, house maintenance and other assorted crapola...cooking on weekends becomes another chore. There's no enjoyment in it.

So, I reserve my cooking for pleasure times for when I am entertaining guests. That's when I pull out all the stops and plan a full menu from soup to nuts (not just nuts, usually there's a bit of cheesecake).

Yes, I do love those times. Sadly, they are all too rare.

And I don't have any instances to cite as being outstanding as per the OP. I'm never ever satisifed with my cooking. Nothing I make comes out as good as I want I expected. My guests never complain, they are always effusive with their praise. I dismiss their praise as sycophantic ramblings to appease me and keep from fishing for more compliments.

The truth is, I'm never satisified with my cooking...and don't want to be. It is the dissatisifaction that compels me to try harder the next time.

[Beth]

Liv, I would love to make the gnocchi, but I wonder how well this stores. I am the only one in my household who loves gnocchi and unless I stored the stuff for meals for a couple of nights, it would have to be fed to the dogs. Not sure it is worth the trouble for a meal for my dogs and myself. I would probably also emit the beef or use coursely ground chicken breast in replacement. Anyway, it looks awesome!

[livius drusus]

Hmm... That's a good question, Beth. I've never tried to store them, but I can't imagine they'd last long. Maybe a day in the fridge, and even then you'd have to be sure they were laid out on a tray or they'll stick together.

Alternatively, you could cook them all, mix them well with leftover sauce and then tupperware them. I bet they'd be fine for a few days then. :)

[Beth]

Hmm... That's a good question, Beth. I've never tried to store them, but I can't imagine they'd last long. Maybe a day in the fridge, and even then you'd have to be sure they were laid out on a tray or they'll stick together.

Alternatively, you could cook them all, mix them well with leftover sauce and then tupperware them. I bet they'd be fine for a few days then. :)Well, I had wondered either way. I did not know if you could dry gnocchi like I do when I make my own noodles. I was also wondering if they would dissolve in the sauce after cooked. Anyway, I think I will try it next week! I just may be able to pull off fresh gnocchi with my family, usually I buy the refrigerated kind, but it seems too mushy for them. I might also be cooking it for too long. Is gnocchi supposed to be aldente(sp?)? sorry for the ignorance, gnocchi is not a common thing for us. Living where I am and the cultural influences my family had, we cook mainly cook Spanish, Cuban, Italian, Hungarian and Cajun food and sometimes Japanese or Oriental influenced things with Deep South flair mixed in(My mom and grandmother lived in Puerto Rico, Japan, and Orleans before my Gramma divorced my Grandad. My family has Italian in them and my hubby's maternal grandfather's family escaped communism in Hungary).

[livius drusus]

Well, I had wondered either way. I did not know if you could dry gnocchi like I do when I make my own noodles. I was also wondering if they would dissolve in the sauce after cooked.

They definitely can't be dried; I think they're just too thick for that. I know they don't dissolve in the sauce after being cooked, though. Whenever I've had leftovers, I combine them and then reheat on the stove (microwaves work okay but tend to make gnocchi a little mushy).

Anyway, I think I will try it next week! I just may be able to pull off fresh gnocchi with my family, usually I buy the refrigerated kind, but it seems too mushy for them. I might also be cooking it for too long. Is gnocchi supposed to be aldente(sp?)?

Since gnocchi start off soft, al dente kind of means something different for them. They do literally cook in minutes, though. Basically, once they float to the top they're done, so as long as you're guarding them with a spatula in hand ready to scoop them into the serving bowl, they should be soft but still a resistant to the bite and not at all slimy, which I bet is what your kids are objecting to.

Have you poured them out into a collander in the past? Gnocchi don't respond well to that. They tend to clump and smush.

sorry for the ignorance, gnocchi is not a common thing for us. Living where I am and the cultural influences my family had, we cook mainly cook Spanish, Cuban, Italian, Hungarian and Cajun food and sometimes Japanese or Oriental influenced things with Deep South flair mixed in(My mom and grandmother lived in Puerto Rico, Japan, and Orleans before my Gramma divorced my Grandad. My family has Italian in them and my hubby's maternal grandfather's family escaped communism in Hungary).

Oh, it's not ignorance at all. Even in Italy there are plenty of places where gnocchi are nowhere to be found.

I think it's groovy that you have so many different ethnic influences in your family. That has to make for some deliciously ecclectic food combinations. :yup:

[cappuccino]

Thank you for the gnocchi recipe!!!!!! Next to homemade ravoli, gnocchi is my top favorite food.

[livius drusus]

You're very welcome. Be sure to post if you make them. :)