Cassoulet

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman. 

Obviously, I didn't follow the rules for this one at all. The original recipe was WAY too complicated, and took WAY too much time (duck confit in duck fat? $75 and 12 hours in the oven?   Hayl no).  I did make a garlic confit, which I've been slowly using up the rest of until now. I did enjoy the dish, though mine was too dry, not enough beans (I bought the wrong kind, and I only bought one can), and I didn't have bread crumbs so I had to do a makeshift kind of bread cubes made with fresh bread. BUT, this time there are pictures!

Simmering on the stove. I used sausage, chicken thighs, bacon, and butter beans (by accident).

After adding the bread pieces and toasting under the broiler.

The plated meal. A little salty, which I'll keep in mind for next time. And there will probably be a next time.

Jaconde Imprime / Entremet

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Okay, this would have been a pretty good challenge. But I fucked up. And mine turned out bad. And I didn't feel like making another one. Notes to self:  Gelatin tastes bad, ice cream melts, jaconde is not meant to be frozen, and whipped cream gets everywhere when you put it inside a cooler and drive down the interstate for 40 minutes. Lessons learned. Wished mine had been better. Glad I learned the techniques, though.