New Year's "Challenge" Accepted: Creole Bread Pudding Soufflé

Amy writes:

2014 was a crap year and I'm glad it's over. It started with the death of a good friend of ours and didn't ever really improve that much. There were plenty of problems, lots of losses, and several stresses. I know I could have, should have, turned all that negative energy into creative cooking but I didn't. I stopped caring what, or even if, we ate. We did a lot of heat-n-eat and take-out. I stopped cooking, and I stopped writing about it. 

I, nay we, are in a better place now. Not perfect but better. And I've realized how much I've missed food. I started this blog on New Year's Day 2008 and I'm hereby reviving it today, exactly 7 years later.  I'll admit there have been times when it seemed like work and it added stress to our lives. I'm not going to let that happen again. I'm going to let it be what I meant it to be from the beginning - an online compendium of our recipes, a journal of the time we share in the kitchen, and a fun way to improve my own cooking, writing, and photography. 

What better way to restart than with a seeming challenge from the magazine Louisiana Cooking. The cover shot? "Make it at home: Commander's Palace  Creole Bread Pudding Soufflé." Yeah, I know what you're thinking - a dessert. And a dessert so famous there's an employee at that restaurant who makes only these. Full time. Challenge accepted. 

So on New Year's Eve, A Couple in the Kitchen spent the evening exactly there. We set a menu, we shopped, we prepped, we chopped, we cooked, we enjoyed, and yes, we even cleaned. And the challenging dessert? Creole bread pudding soufflé? The best dessert we've ever made. For rillz. Happy 2015!!! We are happy to be back. 

Creole Bread Pudding Soufflé 

(Adapted for two from Louisiana Cooking November/December 2014)

Ingredients:

Pudding and soufflé: 

Butter for greasing pan and soufflé dishes

1/2 cup sugar, divided

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Dash nutmeg

1 large egg

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes

1/4 cup raisins

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Whiskey sauce: 

1/4 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 tablespoon water

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/8 cup bourbon 

Make bread pudding: Preheat oven to 350. Grease a small baking pan with butter. In a medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add egg and whisk until smooth; add cream and vanilla and stir to combine. Add bread cubes, and let soak until mixture is absorbed. Scatter raisins into prepared pan and top with bread mixture. Bake until golden brown and firm, about 25 minutes. Let cool. 

Make whiskey sauce: In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water. Bring cream to a boil In a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in cornstarch mixture and return to a boil while continuing to whisk. Let simmer a few seconds meow and remove from heat. Stir in sugar and bourbon and cool to room temperature. 

Make soufflé: Grease 2 soufflé dishes with butter and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar at high speed until foamy. Slowly add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until meringue is shiny and thick with stiff peaks. 

Assemble: Crumble half of bread pudding into a bowl. Gently fold in 1/4 of meringue. Add a portion of this into each prepared ramekin. Crumble the remaining bread pudding into the bowl and fold in the rest of the meringue. Top the soufflés with this mixture. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Poke a hole in the top of each soufflé and pour in whiskey sauce. Serve immediately. 

New Year, New Look, New Cooking Techniques

Happy New Year!

May it be a happy and blessed one for all of you. 

And Happy "Bloggaversary" to us - A Couple in the Kitchen turns 4 today!

In the spirit of new-ness, we gave the blog a makeover. We think it's cleaner and sharper, generally more stream-lined and just has a more modern look. Let us know what you think.

With "makeovers" in mind, for our first dish of 2012, we made over a classic dish we learned in 2011 from Ewa at Delishhh. We made her gravlax (cured salmon) for Chris's birthday last year, and it came out so great that Chris has been asking for it ever since. So we bought a gorgeous piece of sockeye salmon a couple of days ago and cured it in time for New Year's breakfast. That's not the makeover part. The makeover part is what we did with the Hovmästarsås, or, mustard sauce. Chris has been itching to try some molecular gastronomy techniques and so he bought himself some supplies, the names of which Amy can barely pronounce, but that's not the point, is it... The point was to spherify the mustard sauce to look like an egg yolk. And it worked! Pretty cool, eh?

Here's how we did it. And yes, you can try this at home. Have fun!

Make the mustard sauce using calcium lactate

Make the sodium alginate bath

Drop mustard sauce into sodium alginate bath,

 then rinse in cold water and serve

Cured Salmon aka Gravlax

Ingredients:

1 pound raw salmon

4 tablespoons kosher salt

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons ground white pepper

1 large bunch fresh dill

Cut the salmon piece in half. Mix the salt, pepper and sugar in a bowl. Rub the salmon all over with the salt mixture, using all of it. Put one of the salmon pieces skin down in a deep dish and top it with the chopped dill.  Place the other piece of salmon, skin side up on top of the first one. Wrap the salmon pieces in plastic wrap and place it back into the dish. Place a brick on top of the salmon, and put it in the refrigerator for 3 days, turning it twice a day. After 3 days take out the salmon and remove the dill and spices with your fingers. Slice the gravlax thinly and serve with mustard sauce and rye toast.

Spherified Hovmästarsås (Mustard Sauce)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
5 tablespoons yellow mustard
5 tablespoons dijon mustard

6 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon calcium lactate

2 cups water

1 gram sodium alginate

3 cups plain water for rinsing

Pour the vinegar in a small bowl, mix with sugar and salt and stir until somewhat dissolved.  Add both mustards and the oil and whisk until well mixed. Stir in the calcium lactate; this will react with the sodium alginate bath and make spherification possible. To make the sodium alginate bath, blend the sodium alginate into the 2 cups of water. Let both the mustard sauce and the sodium alginate bath sit in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes. When ready to serve, drop the mustard sauce into the sodium alginate bath by spoonfuls; let sit for three minutes then remove with a slotted spoon into a bowlful of plain water for rinsing. Remove from water and you have your sphere to serve as you like! 

Countdown to 2012: Our Favorites from 2011

The New Year promises to be an exciting one for us as we will be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary as well as Amy's 40th (yikes!) birthday. As far as this blog goes, 2012 will be our fifth year of food blogging, and we'll be giving A Couple in the Kitchen a good makeover (to be revealed tomorrow, so tune in!!!) to mark the occasion.

However, before we can look ahead, we wanted to look back. We reviewed all of our posts from the past year and chose our particular favorites, one from each delicious month, which we'd like to recap here today. Thank you for reading, happy eating, and have a happy and healthy New Year.

Rosemary Root Veggie Pot Pie - (January)

We love this dish for its meatless simplicity and hearty roasted vegetable goodness. It's a particularly great recipe for fall and winter.

Roast Wild Boar - (February)

We couldn't resist buying a roast that was labelled "meat from feral swine." We seasoned it and roasted it atop a bed of vegetables and it was as if we had been transported to Tuscany.

Irish Stew - (March)

We can't take credit for this one; it's a recipe from our good friend Chef Lise who got to demo it on the morning news! So exciting! And so tasty, with chunks of lamb, loads of herbs and veggies and a hint of Smithwick's Ale.

Eclairs - (April)

This post marked the first time we participated in "French Fridays with Dorie," and we learned how to make eclairs. They were so good, and so much easier than we had anticipated, that eclairs have become one of our go-to desserts.

Honey-Soy Chicken with Asian Spices - (May)

These sticky drumsticks were inspired by a trip to Boston's Chinatown. The marinade has plenty of distinct flavors from honey, soy sauce, sherry, anise, garlic and more. Yum!

Spring Onion and Ricotta Fresca Tart with Scapes and Sage -
(June)

Just looking at this post again makes us long for the newly blooming freshness of spring. We took our own spring onions and sage, some local garlic scapes, some ricotta fresca (fresh from Beltane Farm), and farm-fresh local eggs and combined them into one amazing spring tart.

Rummin' Tea - July

Because nothing says summer like a cool glass of iced tea, and nothing says summer vacation like adding rum to that cool glass of iced tea. We [heart] summer vacation.

Smoked Ribeye Steaks - August

We bought a smoker last summer, and our favorite smoker-creation was this simple meal of red-wine-marinated-smoked-ribeye-steaks. Perfect for a summer evening shared with good friends!

Green Grape and Gorgonzola Pizza - September

As we headed back to school and the old routine, we needed meals that were easy yet still spectacular. This pizza fit the bill. Sure it sounds weird, but it was

fan-TAST-ic. Really.

Squared Cider Doughnuts - October

We were lucky enough to be able to join the Secret Recipe Club this year, and this was one of our posts for that. Cider doughnuts are synonymous with autumn around here, and we just had a little fun with them, making them square and sharing them with the neighbors.

CT Food and Wine Festival - November

We strive to be well-rounded food bloggers, which means while we're usually in the kitchen cooking, we also do post reviews of restaurants we frequent and reports on food-related events we attend. This post included wine, food, charity, moonshine, and celebrity chefs, just to name a few. Fun stuff!

Cranberry-Orange Vodka Liqueur - December

This vodka-based liqueur was the first Christmas goodie we made this year. We took our friend Joanne's recipe and made it our own with some mandarin orange peels and a vanilla bean, creating a lusciously smooth spirit for the holidays.