Just a Photo Dump

Been up to a lot of cooking, as usual. Baking, too. Been doing my own experiments with "sponge" for muffins. 

No recipe to share herein; however, this picture is my spin on American soul food meets South Indian food. I call it Kanga Nadu Waffle Surprise. I used store bought (already ground, fermented) uttapam batter, and waffleized it. And I made a batch of my Kanga Nadu style chicken (which I think I did manage to share the recipe/formula a while back). The picture is nothing short of glorious.

Later on that week, I did another permutation, using leftover marinated chicken. I batter dipped it and attempted a Kanga Nadu Fried Chicken 65 po' boy. Well, sadly, the batter was too delicate, and I think it even detracted from the overall deliciousness of the chicken. I don't think I'll attempt that again, tho, if I do the waffle surprise, I might fry up some pieces of okra or gobi (fresh, not frozen, it just turns to effing mush when you thaw out and fry gobi).

Second picture I'll share is a bit old at this point. I decided late in the day on Easter, that I wanted "ricotta pie." Though I never cared for the ricotta rice pie my grandfather used to make (and everyone would rave about it. Blah.) Anyway, I merged the frangipane that I love with the guts of the ricotta pie, minus the rice. I put some chocolate chips in it, which managed to sink to the top of the frangipane bottom, thus forming a third, chocolatey layer, in the entire cake/thing. The ricotta filling was flavored with orange zest and vanilla, attempting to imitate Fiori di Sicilia. It was nice, but came nowhere's near what that flavoring normally is like. Much more perfumey, IMHO. Anyway, here's the frangipane ricotta "pie," which I dusted lightly with cinnamon right before baking.

Of course, what I love most of all is syncretism, taking two, oftentimes mutually exclusive concepts, and hybridizing them into something truly unique and wonderful. The second thing I love is the myriad of permutations these foodsperiments can take on. Next up will be a frangipane bottomed Japanese souffle cheesecake-Italian ricotta pie hybrid, studded with blueberries on top. But that's a foodsperiment for later date, when I know I'll have the time and wherewithall to share the excess/spoils with friends, as I cannot humanly consume everything I cook in a reasonable amount of time, and well, my freezer space is still at a premium.

So the short term expectation is that I'll do a Coconut Lemon Bar hybridization, making an enormous coconut macaraoon, I guess this could be considered a daquoise when used in this manner, in a cake pan, partially bake it. Then finish baking it with a lemony layer on top. I'm debating the merits of adding a meringue layer on top too, to add height, interest, and of course more protein. Hard to think of it how I do: a big coconutty breakfast bar, vs a sweet dessert. I do mostly sugar free baking, and I think if I use egg substitute for the lemon filling, it would be full of protein. Above and beyond everything else, I have no doubt it will be delicious.

If you want insights into what inspires my daydreams about the permutations of my foodsperiments, follow me on Pinterest. I pin some truly delicious looking things.