Steph Food

A while back, I was asked to host the July challenge for the Daring Kitchen. It was hard to decide what kind of challenge to propose to the group, but in the end I chose something that has been a favourite of mine for my whole life – noodles.

I have always been a bit of a noodle fiend, growing up with Italian and German noodles and venturing into other cultures’ versions of “noodle” as an adult. The challenge I proposed was to make noodles from scratch – without the use of motorized equipment -  and pair with an appropriate accompaniment (sauce, or whatever would go best). As an added bonus, I challenged the group to look into their own cultural backgrounds for recipes that were “noodly” (being VERY loose with the term).

Here is one of the recipes I offered… Egg Fettuccine with Aglio, Olio, Peperoncino e Basilico.

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This month’s Daring Cooks’ challenge is “Healthy Potato Salads from Around the World!”, and the timing couldn’t be better!

This gave me a perfect opportunity to morph the classic Indian “Aloo Gobi” into a fresh potato salad! Instead of drowning the potatoes in mayonnaise, I’ve made a spicy and bright dressing with yogurt. If you like potato salad, and don’t shy away from fun spices, you will love this!

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This month’s Daring Kitchen challenge is Gumbo!

Gumbo is a stew from Louisiana that is often made up of meat or shellfish, and is thickened with a dark roux, okra and/or filé powder. I was already excited to try cooking a dark roux again (for the second time ever), but things got even more exciting when I realized I had to get a new seasoning – filé.
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This month’s Daring Cooks challenge takes a stab at Peruvian cooking.

There used to be a Peruvian restaurant in Toronto that J and I liked quite a bit. They offered delicious ceviché, lots of great fish options… generally, quite a bit to choose from for us pescatarians. We were sad when it closed, and wondered where we would get our fix of Peruvian food…

I guess the moral of the story is that if you want something, get off your duff and try to make it yourself!

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I’m really just happy to have made it through this one alive! Funny how it sounded so easy at first…

This month’s Daring Kitchen post includes a serious of HILARIOUS (sarcastic) errors by yours truly. Somehow, we still ended up being able to eat most of what was prepared.

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