The CookingBites Recipe Challenge: Almonds

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hapuka aka groper here inflate as you pull them up from deep waters. I went deep sea fishing 25 yrs ago at tolaga bay in the north island. We caught about 30 and gave them all to the skipper. We were travelling and couldn't freeze. I gave one to the motel owners who were stoked.

Russ
 
5773C64D-5492-4103-AADE-99D847182DF8.jpeg


No: this is not the same strange thing that I posted earlier. I am seriously considering deleting that recipe, because I was unhappy with it. This time, I used potatoes, and decided to make the presentation a little bit less ugly.

This was also partly an experimental recipe, although I’ve made gnocchi many many times before. I decided to see if those almonds that I turn to powder could function like flour. They held the gnocchi together on the cutting board, and I thought this was going to be a flourless gnocchi recipe.

The cohesion lasted until I dropped them in the water. I said “oh, they are foaming up a lot more than I usually see from gnocchi.” And, predictably, when I went to scoop them out, they had dissolved.

I still used a small amount of flour, but it needed it.

I have rethought my position on this, and I have decided to keep my original post. This one isn't dramatically different from what I posted earlier, so no point wasting bandwidth with a (slightly) different recipe.
 
Last edited:
Hi guys, apologies in advance that I won't be posting extensive notes on some of the great looking runner up dishes. Am about to hit the sack as am on a 5am start tomorrow for work, then straight after work am riding my motorbike to the coast for a few days. Rest assured I have thoroughly perused all the recipes in previous days, and it was no easy choice, believe me.

There was a bit of a rally cry from a few posters for TastyReuben's entry of spiedini of chicken zuchinni with almond salsa verde:

Recipe - Spiedini Of Chicken & Zucchini W/ Almond Salsa Verde

And as much as I hate to follow a crowd, in the end I had to wholeheartedly agree this was the winning dish amongst some crackers.

So congratulations mate...
 
Congratulations TastyReuben! Your recipe won the day.

Its over to you now to choose the next ingredient - simply post your choice in this thread and I'll set up the new challenge. As usual, its advisable to choose something fairly accessible in our various countries. Here is the list of what has gone before in alphabetical order and in date order. It doesn't matter if you choose something which has already been chosen as long as it isn't too recent.
 
Thank you, murphyscreek , and thanks to everyone who commented on the dish. I'll admit that I'm a bit surprised, because the dish was extremely simple and didn't involve much effort. Sometimes, that's the key, I suppose.

I have an idea of what to suggest next, it's come up in discussions here before, but I want to do a little research first to make sure it's not too "out there." I'll post back shortly!
 
Ok, I couldn't find much on availability worldwide (which is what I'm always concerned about when choosing an ingredient for everyone), so I'm just going to plow ahead and name the spice juniper berries as our next ingredient challenge.

Juniper berries have come up in discussion on the forum a couple of times (since I joined, anyway), usually with a "what do I do with these things" comment, so I thought it might be a good choice. I also just happened to watch an episode of a cooking show recently where juniper berries were part of a game hen dish.

Just a blurb from Wikipedia:

Juniper berries are used in northern European and particularly Scandinavian cuisine to "impart a sharp, clear flavor"[1]to meat dishes, especially wild birds (including thrush, blackbird, and woodcock) and game meats (including boar and venison).[8] They also season pork, cabbage, and sauerkraut dishes. Traditional recipes for choucroute garnie, an Alsatian dish of sauerkraut and meats, universally include juniper berries.[9]Besides Norwegian and Swedish dishes, juniper berries are also sometimes used in German, Austrian, Czech, Polish and Hungarian cuisine, often with roasts (such as German sauerbraten). Northern Italiancuisine, especially that of the South Tyrol, also incorporates juniper berries.

Enjoy!
 
TastyReuben said:
Ok, I couldn't find much on availability worldwide (which is what I'm always concerned about when choosing an ingredient for everyone), so I'm just going to plow ahead and name the spice juniper berries as our next ingredient challenge.

Juniper berries have come up in discussion on the forum a couple of times (since I joined, anyway), usually with a "what do I do with these things" comment, so I thought it might be a good choice. I also just happened to watch an episode of a cooking show recently where juniper berries were part of a game hen dish.

Just a blurb from Wikipedia:

Juniper berries are used in northern European and particularly Scandinavian cuisine to "impart a sharp, clear flavor"[1]to meat dishes, especially wild birds (including thrush, blackbird, and woodcock) and game meats (including boar and venison).[8] They also season pork, cabbage, and sauerkraut dishes. Traditional recipes for choucroute garnie, an Alsatian dish of sauerkraut and meats, universally include juniper berries.[9]Besides Norwegian and Swedish dishes, juniper berries are also sometimes used in German, Austrian, Czech, Polish and Hungarian cuisine, often with roasts (such as German sauerbraten). Northern Italiancuisine, especially that of the South Tyrol, also incorporates juniper berries.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...

I love them. Seriously love them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom