Experimenting.

I've been making an effort to try new recipes and techniques. Over the past week or two, i've been playing around with soups, pastries, and preserves. I made a Mushroom Barley and Spring Vegetable soup from Once Upon a Tart, and a Sweet Pea with Mint soup from Fresh Every Day.

I really liked the pea soup. Though I thought mint would be an odd addition, it added a really nice freshness to the soup. It was hard to identify it as mint, and somehow it played off the spiciness of the black pepper.



This was an attempt to make the "Cannele Colossus" from the traveler's lunchbox. Mine was more of a "Cannele Collapses." I took it out of the oven a bit too early, and the inside wasn't quite cooked through. This wasn't a complete tragedy though; the crust was delicious and the inside was a very dense custard flavored with rum and vanilla beans.

This is what happens when you attempt a giant cannele at 2am and sleep during the bake time (i was sick.)



Lastly, I made the Kumquat Preserves from Christine Mansfield's Desserts. I'd never made any sort of preserves. The process was long, but fairly simple. You soak the fruit and seeds in water overnight, boil them for a while, let the mixture rest, and then boil it again until it sets a bit. This stuff is killer- I will try and take a picture of the finished product when I crack open a jar :)

Overall I think my experiments have been successful.