Raspberry Coconut Panna Cotta

I have recently had a big pull toward heterogeneous foods where instead of having a homogeneous blob of taste, each bite is unique and food blends together in your mouth. No recipes exemplify this more than my Tri-Layer Raspberry Panna Cotta.

A fantastic recipe that just pops in your mouth but requires a bit of prep. The initial layer is a mix of raspberry puree mixed with coconut cream. This is set at an angle allowing for a visually pleasing cross section ( I set them in muffin tins). The second layer is a vanilla and heavy cream layer and then this is finally topped with a sweetened and acidified raspberry puree. Each layer on their own is great but put together this make an amazing blend. This is all topped with the obviously appropriate raspberry and mint garnish.

Probably the only nice photo I have ever made 😀

Raspberry Sauce

I had a chance to breakout my vacuum filtration setup again for a raspberry sauce I plan on using in a separate recipe. Took some time but created a very clean sauce. I taste tested and adjusting the acidity with citric acid and sugar to make a sauce that just pops.

Drink Cactus Juice It’ll Quench You

Taking inspiration from one of the greatest TV shows and a sale at Costco I decided to try my hand a my own cactus juice.

A bit of a difficult task in retrospect, cactus fruit has very tough seeds and creates a very viscous pulp when blended. The process was fairly simple. the cactus pears were peeled and pureed. I then sent these through my vacuum filter to remove all of the pulp and to thin the liquid. This then allowed for a nice sipping juice that is great on ice.

Homemade Sicilian Cannoli

Though unfortunately I don’t live in Sicily that won’t stop me from make traditional cannoli.

A bit of a laboured dish it provided a fun weekend challenge. The dough was made traditionally with Marsala wine so that it had plenty of bubbles during frying. I also added a bit of cocoa powder to add a different colour to the shells. The filling was made with drained and sweetened ricotta blended both with coconut and chocolate. Lastly the finished cannoli were coated with home toasted coconut shreds.

Lots of work but worth the effort and sat perfectly under our Christmas tree once completed.

Focaccia

A quick and easy classic rosemary focaccia is staple dish. Not much to note other than the fresh rosemary that add a perfect touch. Great on its own straight out of the oven or with some refreshing toppings.

Hazelnut Financier

Known as my “Feel Good Cookies” my hazelnut financier are exceedingly addictive. A combination of hazelnut flour and browned butter make this a supercharged nutty explosion. I coat the baking mould with butter and sugar to give it a “sugar glazed” finish. Overall a 10/10 recipe that always makes you feel good.

Bison Steaks

I found a reasonably priced cut of Bison and decided to give it a try. It was not the best quality and being that it was a round steak it was a bit tough. I decided to sous vide the steak to get the best process window and got pretty acceptable results. I didn’t notice much of a different flavor probably because it was ranch raised and went pretty well with roasted potatoes.

Custom 3D Printed Pasta Roller Attachment

With a bit of 3D design iterations I was able to convert my manual hand cranked pasta roller into an automatic Kitchen Aid attachment. This was specifically made with Siraya Tech Blu-Tough Resin which is one of the best 3D printing resins for functional parts. I had to take a few measurements but this project ended up working quite well. One of the unforeseen challenges was once completed I was seeing some grinding between the plastics that was making it into the pasta. To solve this I took the easy way out and added some Teflon tape which was actually very effective at reducing wear.

Campfire Cooking

Though modern cooking techniques have provided almost unimaginable amounts of control there is something primal about cooking over a campfire. Though a bit messy with the amount of left over soot it was effective at boiling water and general cooking.