Sweetbreads, spaetzle, ricotta and tomatoes

This is such an epic challenge, it deserves its very own post. That and Tristan isn't here so I'm in charge. Here is the story of how Monica learned to cook cow glands.

I knew something was up when I came home from work and Tristan had a ridiculous grin on his face. He said he had been to Bloomington Meats, so I knew I was in for a horrible treat. Not because I dislike the store, but because I knew he went there to find something crazy for me. Tristan knew I’d have a priceless reaction during the reveal, so of course he caught it on film.

Gorgeous.

Sweetbreads, spaetzle, rictotta and tomatoes

What are sweetbreads? It is a term used to refer to specific glands of an animal. Sometimes the throat, gullet or neck. Sometimes they are of the stomach, and heart variety. Ours were the neck variety of a cow.

We had seen sweetbreads on an episode of chopped before but that didn’t mean I knew what to do with them. This was one of those few times I needed to look in a cookbook. I checked in Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and to my chagrin, did not find sweetbreads in the index (LIAR!) So I used the Betty Crocker Cookbook that we have had in our family all my life and has more than a few samples on the pages, if you get my drift. Can I just say that my father will be ecstatic to know I used our family cookbook.

Can you smell the deliciousness?

Turns out, you have to boil them in water with a splash of vinegar (after defrosting) before you can really cook them the way you want. While that was boiling away, I finally figure out what the hell I was going to make. LASAGNA!! So I made a tomato sauce with tomato, sweet pepper (Thanks, Jen!), garlic, fresh basil and some dried thyme and oregano. I also boiled the spaetzle just like you would pasta during this. I also made a fresh spinach and fresh basil chop to layer in.

Appetizing, isn't it?

Once the sweetbreads had boiled for 20 mins, I took them out and cut into it. I cut them into small chunks (in case they were disgusting, we could still pick them out). Then sauteed them to make sure they were cooked through and to get rid of that disgusting grey color. Then I began to layer the lasagna.

Tomato sauce, spaetzle, ricotta, spinach and basil, sweetbreads, repeat. I topped with some grated mozzarella and threw it into the oven to warm it all up—about 15 minutes.

Still slightly gray.

The result? A fantastic meal! I don’t know if Tristan had any hope about this, but I sure didn’t once I saw the protein. We were both very pleasantly surprised by the dish. The sweetbreads were chewing but tasted fine. Tristan said they were his favorite part. I wasn’t such a fan, but could at least tolerate them and acknowledge my success with them.

And, in case you were wondering, we have another package of sweetbreads in the freezer so you know Tristan will be seeing them in his basket soon!

Avacado, cabbage, basil and hot dogs

Get excited, guys! Two successful challenges in one post! Bon appetite!

Dinner: avocado, cabbage, basil and hot dogs

Chef: Monica  

This will sound crazy. But Tristan and I will both tell you this was the best PC challenge so far. When I saw the hot dogs, I knew I wanted to do something completely different than a hotdog on a plate. There is actually a Chopped episode where firefighters were given hot dogs and about half of them kept it whole and it looked lame.

            A few weeks prior, I saw a quinoa burger on Pinterest. I think it is mostly beans and quinoa but when I saw this basket, I thought quinoa burger! So I cooked the quinoa just as the box said. I made sure that there was no extra moisture because that would really water everything down. In the food processor, I threw the hotdogs, celery, carrots and corn. This recipe could easily me modified to whatever you have on hand. You just have to add ingredients at the appropriate times. The corn I added last so it would stay whole. The carrot went in first to get nice small pieces. You can also modify the herbs and spices to what style you’re going for. I believe I did fresh basil, fresh cilantro, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. 

 

            When the quinoa is cooked, drain off any extra liquid and cool it down just a tad to make it easier to work with. Add the quinoa, and egg and breadcrumbs. I wish I could tell you how much of everything but I honestly don’t know. I used about ¼ dry cup of quinoa, two hot dogs, one carrot, one small piece of celery and that’s about all I know. As long as you can form patties that will stay together, you’ll be good. Looks nasty, doesn't it? That is the quinoa in the background.

            Just form patties, fry them in a pan like you would burgers and throw on a toasted bun with some fresh avocado. Also, you don’t have to cook as long as a burger, just get them brown and warmed through.

 

            I also made a slaw. The slaw had cabbage, carrot, red wine vinegar, oil and spicy brown mustard. I learned form Michael Symon’s book, “Live to Cook” (so awesome!!) that when making a vinaigrette to start with a 1:1 ratio of oil to acid. Add oil until you have the taste you’re looking for. So that is what I did. Much like the burger, you can modify the slaw with your favorite flavors.

 

YUM!

Dessert: Molasses, Reddi wip, apple chips and brie.

 Chef: Tristan

I don’t know about you, but when I think of brie and apple chips the first thing that comes to mind for me: brownies.

I found a recipe for a cream cheese apricot brownie. I decided I would make a brie, apple chip and raspberry brownie.

I mixed the brie with some butter, added some sugar, some sliced raspberries and a little bit of bourbon. The recipe I had called for brandy, I didn’t have any brandy and thought bourbon would taste better anyway. Mixed in one egg and some molasses and let that sit while I worked on the brownie batter.

For the brownies I melted butter and dark chocolate chips. I kept mixing things together in the wrong order with this recipe so ultimately I mixed the eggs, flour, sugar etc together at the same time. Added the chocolate and butter to this and some chopped walnuts.

Continuing the theme of not having half of what my recipe called for, I didn’t have the right size pan. Decided to use a bread pan instead. Was supposed to layer brownie batter, with the brie and fruit mixture. With the pan I was using I didn’t have enough brownie batter to cover the brie mixture. Did the best I could and threw it into the oven.

30 minutes later the kitchen smelled amazing. Topped the brownie with some Reddi Wip and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The dish was good, but other than the Reddi Wip none of the basket ingredients were really easily identifiable. The chocolate overpowered everything. Still it was a delicious dessert.

Lettuce, tortilla chips, lime and corn

Dinner: Lettuce, tortilla chips, lime and corn

Chef: Tristan

I decided to add lettuce, lime and corn to a recipe I make often. My mother learned the recipe from Charlie Gibson on Good Morning America years ago, so the dish is known as “Charlie” in our house. Charlie is essentially a tortilla chip and bean casserole.

I cooked the corn, made some tomato sauce, added the lime juice and hot sauce to the tomato sauce. I mixed in the corn and the lettuce, added some beans and poured that over the chips. That went into the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Normally I would add enchilada sauce to the dish as well, but decided the hot sauce in my tomato sauce would add enough kick.

Because I felt like I was cheating a little bit I decided I should try and use the ingredients in something that I hadn’t made before. Seeing I had a lot of lettuce left over a salad seemed like the obvious choice. I made a lime dressing, threw in some corn and crumbled tortilla chips and served that next to the Charlie.

 

Dessert: persimmons, mandarin oranges, organic sucane, brie

Chef Monica

Picked by Tristan

Let me start off by saying, we started this challenge not knowing what a ripe persimmon looks like. A ripe persimmon is squishy. Squishier than you think it should be. Ours were hard. But let’s move on.

The sucane was some raw sugar stuff that I decided needed to be baked into something. 

I used the food processor (our new favorite kitchen tool.) and whipped up a quick little crust. Just flour, sugar and COLD butter. I shoved the crust into mini muffin tins and threw them into the fridge just for a few minutes to set the butter cold again. Then into the oven.

The crusts were not exactly what I was hoping for. The butter chunks were a little too large in ratio to the mini muffin tin. Meh. I cut what I thought were small pieces of brie, threw those into the crusts and added a piece of persimmon and a mandarin slice. Back into the oven to melt the brie.

The end result was not bad. Honestly, I thought it was going to fall apart and taste like raw flour. The biggest problem was the brie was very overwhelming. I needed half the brie and twice the fruit. The persimmon was still raw after everything was said and done.

Israeli couscous, broccoli, olives, beer

Challenge 1: Israeli couscous, fresh broccoli, canned olives, and Orangy Amber beer

Ingredients picked by: Tristan

Chef: Monica

Wow. Who would have thought the first challenge would be such a huge flop? Not us. When Tristan revealed the basket to me, I didn't expect to have too many problems. It seemed obvious to me, couscous cooked in beer and a fresh salad on top. Pssh. No prob.

Well I should have know it was going to be a bad experience when I opened the beer and it firework-ed all over me. I barely manage to save 1 and 1/4 of beer for the couscous.I would have been better off if I lost most of it. The beer over foamed in the pot making a huge mess in now TWO parts of the kitchen.

Meanwhile I blanched the fresh broccoli (for fear of bugs more than flavor) and frozen corn. I chopped fresh cucumber, mint and the smallest bit of jalapeno. For this chopped salad I made a mango, lime and honey dressing, with S & P.

I tasted the couscous while it was simmering and boy was that bitter. I scrambled to add more flavor. I used garlic, rosemary, thyme and S & P. Nope, still horrible. I added honey hoping it would mellow it out. Nope, still horrible.

I'll let Tristan take over the commentary about how horrible it tasted...

Somehow the couscous tasted burnt. There was none of the beer taste, it was just bitter and burnt. The first bite seemed like it was just an anomaly, but each bite after that was worse than the one before it. I just read the ingredients Monica added to save the couscous, none of them came through.

Dessert: Mango nectar, cottage cheese, wildberry honey and cinnamon.

Ingredients picked by Monica.

Chef: Tristan

After Monica’s horrific dinner I wanted something that would fill us up a bit. Decided a bread pudding would be the best bet. I consulted a cook book and determined we didn’t have any of the ingredients needed, but I would fudge it anyway. I threw the mango nectar, cottage cheese, honey and cinnamon in a pan and put that on the stove. Poured that and some eggs over our bread and put that in the oven. 

 

I made a mango honey sauce to drizzle over top, add a sprig of mint and some raspberries on top.

Verdict: It was okay. Not great, looked kind of gross with the chunks of cottage cheese, but had good flavor.

First Post

Word Press and Tristan weren't friends, so we're moving back to blogger. Tristan gets blogger thanks to his SSI Challenge. Below we've reproduced our first post.

Welcome to the Pressure Cooker. In the Pressure Cooker we'll be bringing you the most random food creations using 4 ingredients selected at by each other, friends and YOU the reader.

Who are the contestants?

Tristan and Monica, foodies who watch way too much Food related television.

The rules?

In less than two hours create a delicious dish using 4 mandatory ingredients plus anything else located in the kitchen. While this is kind of a competition, each competitor will cook separately. The kitchen is not large enough for two people to cook at the same time and maintain relationship bliss.

Cookbook use is allowed. This is our dinner and we don't want to totally waste food. Part of the reason for doing this is to increase our talent in the kitchen. This is will force us to use different techniques and learn how to use different ingredients. Without a cookbook we'll just ruin a bunch of food.

The Ideas:

SSI Challenge continues - cook using spam, beans, rice and ramen

And somewhat related to the SSI Challenge, the $4 challenge

The Dinner Party Challenge - we invite guests over, they bring the 4 ingredients, we make them dinner.

Fast Food Challenge - at least one of the ingredients will come from a drive thru.

Frozen Freezer Frenzy - all of the ingredients come from the back of the freezer.

Chopped Challenge- Replicate basket ingredients from Chopped on Food Network.

Method Challenge- must cook with a certain style such as grilling or braising.

Reader's Choice- You choose the ingredients for us.

Expired- Ingredients will come from the pantry, whichever 4 items are closest to expiration.

Happy Holidays- Holiday themed baskets.

Farmer's Market- The ingredients come from the Farmer's Market.

Leftovers- One- four of the ingredients will be left overs.

The Name of the Game:

As many of our friends know, we struggled to decide on a name for our challenge. From the beginning Monica wanted to use "Diced" and Tristan wanted to use "Knifed." We spent a good 48 hours turning verbs into titles. We tried to put it to a vote on Facebook but we ended up with more options than we anticipated. Chiffonaded, Deglazed, Reduced, and Julliened were all contenders but still no winner. After a few days of debate we decided to go with the Pressure Cooker (Thanks Ryan!). If Tristan does a horrible job, he is Diced by Monica. If Monica does a horrible job, she is Knifed by Tristan. Astute readers may notice the blog's address is CookedUnderPressure.wordpress.com ThePressureCooker, PressureCooker, PressuredCooked, etc were all already taken. Tristan likes the address as it makes him sing the Under Pressure song every time he says it.

Stay Tuned for our first food post later today.