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 Pea pâté Total time: 30 minutes, plus optional overnight chilling
The June 2010 Daring Cook’s Challenge was hosted by Evelyne, of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie, of The Chocolate Bunny, and they chose delicious pâté with freshly baked bread.
Adapted from Sesame Sweet Pea Spread in 356 Ways to Cook Vegetarian by Kitty Morse.
10 ounces petite peas
1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1/4 cup dry sherry
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and cook onion and garlic until softened (3-4 minutes). Add peas, sherry, and salt. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until peas are soft (4-5 minutes). Stir in lemon juice, and let cool 5 minutes.
In a blender or food processor, puree pea mixture. Add tahini and process until well blended.
 Pea Pâté with Pecans Serve chilled, formed or not.
I lined my cupcake tin with saran wrap, placed a pair of pecans in one cup, then filled them with pea mash. After chilling in the refrigerator overnight, I gently flipped them out onto my cutting board to make cute little mini pâtés.
This was the recipe I selected instead of doing the roasted red peppers from the DC challenge recipe. Maybe it was the sherry, maybe it was the tahini, I’m not quite sure, but something just didn’t seem right tasting to me after it chilled in the refrigerator. I liked it better warm, as a spread, than cold as a pâté.
 Enchiladas Verde Con Pollo Total time: Plan for 3 hours your first time, 2 hours each time after that.
The 2010 May Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food, and they chose a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.
6-8 fresh Anaheim chiles (or 4-5 pasillas)
4-6 tomatillos – peeled, with stems removed
4 cups Chicken broth
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ tsp Kosher salt (add more to taste)
¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)
Hot sauce, your favorite (optional)
2 Boneless chicken breasts (you can also use bone-in chicken breasts or thighs)
3 tablespoons Olive oil or other neutral vegetable oil (use more as needed)
Kosher salt and pepper
12 Small Corn tortillas (5-6 inch/13-15 cm). (you can also use wheat tortillas or other wraps)
6 ounces grated Monterey Jack, 170 grams (other cheeses (cheddar, pepper jack, Mexican cheeses) can be used. Just be sure they melt well and complement the filling)
Cilantro for garnish, chopped and sprinkled (optional)
 Pureed Peppers and Tomatillos Directions:
Roasting Fresh Chiles
1. Coat each chile with a little vegetable oil. If you are doing only a couple chiles, using the gas stove works. For larger batches (as in this recipe), grilling or broiling is faster.
2. Lay the oiled chiles on the grill or baking sheet (line pan with foil for simpler clean-up). Place the grill or broil close to the element, turning the chiles so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.
3. As they are completely charred (they will probably not all be done at once), remove them to a bowl and cover with plastic. Let them rest until they are cool, about 10 minutes.
4. Pull on the stem and the seed core MAY pop out. Open the chile and remove the seeds. Turn the chile skin side up and with a paring knife, scrape away the skin. Sometimes it just pulls right off, sometimes you really have to scrape it. (I kept the seeds in the pepper.)
5. DO NOT RINSE!
 Corn tortillas made with masa Green Chile Sauce
1. Put a medium saucepan of water on to boil. Boil the tomatillos until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. You can also grill the tomatillos until soft. (I prefer to grill mine, along with all peppers, onions, and garlic.)
2. Drain and puree in a blender or food processor, add roasted green chiles, peppers, onions and garlic, and blend some more.
3. Return the tomatillo-chile mixture to the saucepan along with the chicken broth, oregano, salt and pepper.
4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.
Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas
1. Heat a gas grill to medium high or build a medium-hot charcoal. Coat the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Grill the chicken until just cooked through, 4-5 minutes a side for boneless chicken breasts.
3. Cool and then slice into thin strips or shred.
 Uncooked Enchiladas Skip steps 4-12 if you’re just rolling your enchiladas.
4. In a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Dip the edge of a tortilla into the oil to check – it should sizzle immediately.
5. Using tongs, put a tortilla into the pan and cook until soft and lightly brown on each side, about 15-20 seconds per side (at the most).
6. Drain on paper towels.
7. Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done.
8. In a baking dish large enough to hold four separate stacks of tortillas, ladle a thin layer of sauce.
9. Lay four tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup (4 ounces/112 grams) of sauce over the tortillas.
10. Divide half the chicken among the first layer of tortillas, top with another ½ cup of sauce and 1/3 of the grated cheese.
11. Stack another four tortillas, top with the rest of the chicken, more sauce and another third of the cheese.
12. Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.
13. Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.
14. To serve, transfer each stack to a plate. Spoon any leftover sauce over the stacks and sprinkle with cilantro, if you wish. The stacks may also be cooked in individual gratin dishes.
My combination of peppers and chicken broth yielded enough sauce for two dishes. I made these with homemade corn tortillas the first night, with shredded chicken, and then with store-bought flour tortillas and shredded pork the second night. I think the corn tortillas had better texture and flavor, but the shredded pork was far tastier than the plain salt&pepper chicken.
I always use extra sharp white cheddar cheese for “your choice shredded cheese”.
I prefer to boil my meats and shred them, rather than grilling or pan frying. I also feel it’s helpful to season them with at *least* salt, pepper, and some sort of chili powder.
I chose to roll my enchiladas instead of stacking them. If you choose to roll your enchiladas, it’s very important to put sauce on the bottom of the pan, under your rolled enchiladas.
I found this recipe and my adjusted process to be really easy and convenient for me, and it tastes better than the recipe I had been using, so it’s definitely a keeper.
 Brunswick Stew Total time: 4-6 hours.
The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.
I’ve halved the recipe and all but butchered the rest of it. My changes are mostly in italics. For the original recipe, please visit the Wolf’s Den.
Adapted from “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners” by Matt Lee and Ted Lee
2 lb chicken (I used 2 pounds of t-bone steaks)
1/2 lb rabbit, quartered (I used 1/2 pound of homemade sausage)
4-6 slices bacon, roughly chopped
6 cups chicken broth or stock (I used beef broth)
1 lb potatoes
1 1/2 cups canned or soaked navy beans, drained
1 large onion
1 large tomato
1 large celery stalk
1 carrot
2 serrano peppers
1 1/2 tsps sea salt, and to taste
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
tabasco sauce to taste
1-In the largest stockpot you have, preferably a 10-12 qt or even a Dutch Oven if you’re lucky enough to have one, fry the bacon over medium-high heat until it just starts to crisp. Transfer to a large bowl, and set aside. Reserve most of the bacon fat in your pan, and with the pan on the burner, add in the chiles. Toast the chiles until they just start to smell good, or make your nose tingle, about a minute. Remove to bowl with the bacon. (I removed the bacon, but I added my onions at this time and sauteed them until golden brown. Then I added my peppers and proceeded to step 2 without removing anything else from the pot.)
2- Season liberally both sides of the rabbit and chicken pieces with sea salt and pepper. Place the rabbit pieces in the pot and sear off all sides possible. You just want to brown them, not cook them completely. Remove to bowl with bacon and chiles, add more bacon fat if needed, or other oil of your choice, then add in chicken pieces, again, browning all sides nicely. Remember not to crowd your pieces, especially if you have a narrow bottomed pot. Put the chicken in the bowl with the bacon, chiles and rabbit. Set it aside. (I did not remove anything from the pot.)
3- Add 2 cups of your chicken broth or stock to the pan and basically deglaze the pan, making sure to get all the goodness cooked onto the bottom. The stock will become a nice rich dark color and start smelling good. Bring it up to a boil and let it boil away until reduced by at least half. (Here’s where I transferred everything to my pre-warmed crockpot and set it to “High”.) Add your remaining stock, the bay leaves, celery, potatoes, chicken, rabbit, bacon, chiles and any liquid that may have gathered at the bottom of the bowl they were resting in. Bring the pot back up to a low boil/high simmer, over medium/high heat. Reduce heat to low and cover, remember to stir every 15 minutes, give or take, to thoroughly meld the flavors. Simmer, on low, for approximately 1 ½ hours. The stock may become a yellow tinge with pieces of chicken or rabbit floating up, the celery will be very limp, as will the chiles. (Instead of playing the waiting game, I just dumped everything into my crockpot, including all the remaining vegetables, closed the lid and let it sit for 4 hours on high. I added the lemon juice, vinegar, and some super yummy chipotle tabasco just before serving.)
(Optional 4- If you used meat with bones, complete this step) With a pair of tongs, remove the chicken and rabbit pieces to a colander over the bowl you used earlier. Be careful, as by this time, the meats will be very tender and may start falling apart. After you’ve allowed the meat to cool enough to handle, carefully remove all the meat from the bones, shredding it as you go. Return the meat to the pot, throwing away the bones.
4- Add in your carrots, and stir gently, allowing it to come back to a slow simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, for at least 25 minutes, or until the carrots have started to soften.
5- Add in your onion, beans, and tomatoes. As you add the tomatoes, carefully crush them up. Simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring every so often until the stew has reduced slightly, and onions, and beans are tender. Remove from heat and add in vinegar, lemon juice, stir to blend in well. Season to taste with sea salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce if desired.
6- You can either serve immediately or refrigerate for 24 hours, which makes the flavors meld more and makes the overall stew even better. Serve hot, either on its own, or with a side of corn bread, over steamed white rice, with any braised greens as a side.
For my broth, I did a slight variation of the optional Sunday Chicken Broth recipe provided in the challenge. Instead of using chicken bones, I used beef bones! Sunday Beef Broth!
This was a very different tasting stew from what I’m used to, even with my own personal touches. There seemed to be a very high acid content, which was startlingly good to me (not normally a fan of sour).
The optional recipe from the April 2010 DC Challenge.
From “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners” by Matt Lee and Ted Lee
Makes about 1 quart (4 cups or 919.68 grams or 32.303 oz)
Estimated Time- 1 ¼ hours
Bones and trimmings, but not giblets, of one 3 ½- 4 ½ lb (1594.32-2049.84 grams or 56-72 oz) chicken, or 12-14 oz / 341.64-398.58 grams / approx. 2 cups chicken bones and trimmings
1 large onion, trimmed, peeled, quartered
6 large stems fresh flat leaf parsley
1 stalk celery, cut into 2” lengths
2 large bay leaves
5 cups / 1149.6 grams / 40.379 oz cold water
1 cup / 229.92 grams / 8.076oz crisp dry white wine
Salt and pepper to taste
Place bones/trimmings in medium stockpot and add onion, parsley, celery and bay leaves. Add wine and water, liquid should cover all ingredients, if not, add more until it does. Bring to vigorous simmer over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer gently for roughly 45 minutes to an hour, skimming any scum or fat that comes to the surface.
Strain broth into bowl through fine mesh strainer. Discard the solids. Measure what you are left with, if not planning to further reduce, then salt and pepper to taste.
Store in tightly sealed container in refrigerator until the remaining fat congeals on the top. Remove the fat, and unless not using within 2 days, keep tightly sealed in the refrigerator. Otherwise, freeze, and it will keep for upwards of a month.
I used t-bones and fat scraps from my steaks and 1/2 cup sherry instead of a full cup of wine.
 Olives, piyaz, hummus, pita bread, cucumber raita, and tabouli. Total time: Approximately 5 hours.
The 2010 February Daring Cooks Challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to present a mezze table. The required recipes were pita bread (here) and hummus.
Recipe adapted from Flatbreads & Flavors by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
2 teaspoons regular dry yeast (.43 ounces/12.1 grams)
2.5 cups lukewarm water (21 ounces/591 grams)
6 cups all-purpose flour (17.5 -21 ounces/497-596 grams)
1 tablespoon table salt (.50 ounces/15 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (.95 ounces/29 ml)
Directions:
1. In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, and then stir 100 times, in the same direction to activate the gluten. Let this sponge rest for 90 minutes.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Let the dough rest 10-15 minutes.
3. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Rinse out the bowl, dry, and lightly oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until at least doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.
4. Place a pizza stone, or two small baking sheets, on the bottom rack of your oven, leaving a 1-inch gap all around between the stone or sheets and the oven walls to allow heat to circulate. Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).
 Pita Bread 5. Lightly flour the top of the dough and both sides of your hands. Gently punch down the dough. Divide the dough in half, and then set half aside, covered, while you work with the rest. Divide into 8 equal pieces and flatten each piece with lightly floured hands. Roll out each piece to a circle 8 to 9 inches in diameter and less than 1/4 inch thick. Keep the rolled-out breads covered until ready to bake, but do not stack.
6. Place 2 breads, or more if your oven is large enough, on the stone or baking sheets, and bake for 4 to 6 minutes, or until each bread has gone into a full balloon. If for some reason your bread doesn’t puff up, don’t worry. Wrap the baked breads together in a large kitchen towel to keep them warm and soft while you bake the remaining rolled-out breads. Then repeat with the rest of the dough.
Makes 16 large pitas.
Shown here with kalamata olives, Almost Turkish Piyaz, hummus, cucumber raita, and tabouli.
 Hummus Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.
1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml/6 Tbsp)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed (2 tsp)
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
2 tsp ground sumac
Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.
I normally like to edit the Daring Cooks recipes to make them more understandable outside the DK, but in this instance, I thought I’d keep all of the extra notations in the ingredients. Really, if you’re using dried garbanzo beans, your directions are different than if you’re using canned beans. And sometimes your canned beans are too firm and need to be boiled anyway. It’s something you’ll just have to decide each time you try to make hummus. If you’re lucky like me, you have a pressure cooker that does all the work for you, in 30 minutes or less.
 Almost Turkish Piyaz Total time: Approximately 15 minutes.
Adapted from Burcu’s Antalya Bean Salad (Antalya Usulü Piyaz) on Almost Turkish Recipes.
2 cups of cooked northern beans
1/2 onion, cut finely in half-moons
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp crushed pepper
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced or diced
Dressing:
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Mix together dressing ingredients, set aside.
In a small bowl, knead onion slices with 1 tsp salt. Rinse and drain.
In a medium large bowl, mix together beans and onions. Stir in dressing, coat well. Fold in parsley and eggs. Sprinkle with crushed red peppers.
Serve chilled or room temperature.
 Tabouli Total time: 35 minutes.
Adapted from Holy Land Brand’s website.
2 cups dry bulgur wheat
2 cups very hot water
1 cucumber, chopped and blotted with paper towel
1-3 small tomatoes, chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 cups fresh chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon pepper, or to taste
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
In a small bowl, mix together dressing ingredients, set aside.
Soak the wheat in the hot water until the water is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Drain any excess water, if necessary, and squeeze dry. I normally take this time to chop up all my vegetables.
Combine the salad ingredients, including wheat, in a large bowl. Gently stir dressing into the salad.
Serve chilled or at room temperature. Makes about 8 cups, 12 to 16 servings.
This made a whole lot of salad. We ate it for almost 4 days, with lots of help from friends, in pita bread with other assorted yummies. I’ll definitely be halving this recipe in the future (I don’t think quartering it will work very easily).
 Cucumber Raita Total time: 15 minutes.
Recipe adapted from The Indian Grocery Store Demystified by Linda Bladholm
1 medium cucumber, peeled and most of the seeds removed
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (.1 ounce/3 grams) OR use a small pinch of dried cumin—to taste
2 cups plain whole milk or Greek yogurt (17 ounces/473ml)
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
fresh cilantro, chopped, a couple pinches or more to taste
cayenne pepper, just a pinch to use as a garnish (optional)
Directions:
1. Peel cucumber, de-seed, and dice. Blot off moisture with paper towels.
2. Toast cumin seeds for a few seconds in a small, heavy frying pan over high heat.
3. In a bowl, stir yogurt until it is smooth.
4. Mix in the cumin, garlic and coriander leaves.
5. Stir in the cucumber and sprinkle with cayenne. Chill before serving.
 Pork Satay III The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by me, and I chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.
I picked this recipe for the DC challenge because it’s what I was cooking some 8 hours after offering to be the last-minute host, three days before the challenge was to be posted. The focus of this challenge is to marinade.
Total time: 40 minutes, plus marinade time.
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Thai dragon (bird’s eye) chili pepper
2 T ginger root, chopped (4 cm cubed)
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 T fish sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)
1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)
 Pan-fried tofu satay and broiled chicken satay Directions:
1. Cheater alert: If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic, ginger and peppers really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.
2. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.
3. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.
4. If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.
5. Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.*
6. Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.
* If you’re grilling or broiling, you could definitely brush once with extra marinade when you flip the skewers.
Shown above with peanut sauce.
 TexMex Pork Satay I also did this challenge using my trusty Pork Satay II marinade on tofu, pan fried (middle picture), chicken satay marinated in raita (shown with tofu), and the experimental but oh-so-wonderful TexMex Pork Satay marinated in a Chevy’s inspired chipotle and jalapeno cream sauce.
I also did all three dipping sauces suggested in the challenge (peanut sauce, Thai pepper dip, tamarind dip, with changes), as well as using the TexMex dip and my favorite raita.
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