The Idea Was Good

I fell in love with this dessert.   Head over heels.   (if you squint and look close enough, you can actually see this illustrated in the spoon above.)

I had grand visions of recreating it at home.    Bringing back a little taste of Charleston to our dinner table.    

On our final night in Charleston, at FIG, we dined lavishly on all kinds of good stuff.    I was thrilled that they even made me a "very special" vegetarian plate for my entree.   I seriously felt awesome.   Who gets to eat a plate full of beets and sunchokes and farro on their birthday?  (yay, me.)

But the dessert, the dessert, was fabulous.    I couldn't take any pictures as the romantic mood lighting made for some horrendous blur, but trust me when I tell you how good this was.

Chocolate Budino with Sea Salted Caramel and Toasted Hazelnuts

John wasn't super excited about it as he's not a fan of hazelnuts but he definitely jumped in after my first bite.   I'd never had a budino before, an Italian pudding.    It was light, smooth chocolate silk.    As you slipped your spoon through the top layer of chocolate, you uncovered a buttery layer of salted caramel.  Topped with toasted hazelnuts and a light dusting of flaky sea salt.    I'm sure I say this alot, but we did feel like we had died and gone to heaven.  

I knew I was going to try and recreate this at home.    A way of celebrating my blog birthday and sharing something completely fabulous with all of you.

I cleared out my calendar, set aside an afternoon, turned on some tunes, laid out my ingredients and got to work.   The sun was flooding the kitchen (spring, I love you.) and I was happy happy.  

I had the makings of a caramel base going on the stove.    The corn syrupy mixture turned a deep shade of amber and I removed it from the burner to 'gently' add the cream and butter and salt.  

Here's where everything goes wrong.   Apparently, I wasn't gentle enough.  My promising caramel base turned into rock hard solid chunks of extremely salty candy like material.    So I did what all good cooks do and dumped in a ton more sugar and an equal amount of butter followed by a heart stopping amount of cream.     I whisked and stirred.    Put it on the burner and took it off.   High heat, low heat.  Prayed a little.

Eventually, I had what looked like a caramel base.    Looks, however, can be very deceiving.    (It tasted like gritty, salty, sweet, chewy, stomach rotting, grittiness.)

I crossed my fingers that no one would notice and I buried that lump of caramel like base under an almost perfect layer of silky smooth dark chocolate Italian pudding.  

Two seriously bad stomach aches later, one of which morphed into a case of viral like flu and I learned the hard way that sometimes it is just better to start over.

On a more positive note, I've been reading up on food styling and figured my little puddings would at the very least make for a fun photography session.

Any recent kitchen mishaps that you care to share?    (Sometimes, it is just best to admit defeat.)

Culinary Risk Taking

Do you have a list?

You know the one.

The "list of everything I need to do/accomplish/attempt before 'x'" (insert age of 30, death, baby, marriage or any other significant life milestone).

We all have them.  Some lists may be more organized than others.   Mine is filed away mentally, although I am seriously considering putting it down on paper one of these days.   For two reasons, one, because my memory just isn't what is used to be and two, because if you put it down on paper, then somehow, it is more real.   Besides, then you get to check stuff off of it and this is (almost) the best part.

My list is long.   It has many things on it.   I've been hacking away at it this past year.   Some items are big, some not so big.   All are things I'd like to give a shot.

Today's post isn't about the big things.    Not the skydiving, flame eating, swimming with sharks or public karaoke singing variety.   (I lie, none of these are on the list.   John's maybe, not mine.)

It is about a small little portion of the list, a tiny corner reserved especially for culinary risk taking.    You may laugh, but I am serious.   I have a list of things that I have always been a little timid to try.   (too many ingredients, challenging technique, just darn impossible, etc.).   Most of recipes definitely require a little time, a luxury which I have actually had this past year.    

I have been slowly but surely working through my list.   Some items I will make public, many I will not, some are still in hold status, requiring a true bout of courage.

(Macaron anyone?  I will conquer these ... someday.)

So when John came home before the holidays and announced that he needed  a gift for the office... like, tomorrow, (Is this what it is like to have kids?  If so, sigh...), a little brain child appeared that softly whispered to me.... "Make Caramel.   (Preferably caramel squares wrapped in an outer layer of soft pillowy marshmallow.)"

Huh?

First, I've never made caramel in my life.   Wait, I've never made candy in my life.   But it is on the mental list and I suppose there is no time like the present and I'm sure John's office won't mind being guinea pigs (yet again).

Did I mention that I do not have a candy thermometer? (Warning One - Please do not try making caramel at home without one. I had no idea what I was delving into.)

Caramel making is a tedious process.    It requires time and lots of patience.   Lots of time.   Lots of patience.    Slowly (slowly) but surely the little list of sweet and buttery ingredients will transform itself into what is was always intended to be.    (Warning Two - You WILL get sick if you "taste test" too much of this stuff.    I am like a little kid with sugar.   Too much is never a good thing.  Trust me on this.)

In the end, we had a lovely little gift of individually parchment wrapped caramels for the office.     I am skipping all of the steps in the middle, because my point here is really about risk taking, not the recipe.     The quote I can never remember but that would apply here is the one about if you keep doing the same things over and over again, you will keep getting the same results.    And one of my favorites, what's the worst that will happen that if you try and fail?  

(PS - If you are wondering, huge fail in the marshmallow wrapping.   Huge.   Disgusting in fact.   I'll leave that to your imagination.  Also, incredibly fun to clean up.)

You can apply the lessons above to the little things, in this case, culinary risk taking in the form of a small adventure in caramel, or you can apply them to the big things.   As an added bonus, a little success in the way of small things will go a long way in giving you a little extra courage for the big things.

Besides, all of this gives me a nice little answer to those that ask me what I do on my days at home.   Culinary risk taking has a nice ring to it, I think.    Kind of even makes it sounds important.

So throw caution to the wind and give "it" a shot!    What's next on YOUR list?