Saturday 1 January 2011

2011 food challenges

It’s becoming clearer and clearer that I am not meeting my food challenges each year. Perhaps it’s because I’m so impulsive and easily bored?

I decide on a few recipes and key ingredients for the year then get distracted by some other shiny new things!

Regardless, I’m not going to stop setting myself these challenges even if they’re not always met.

I did a pretty dismal job in 2010, achieving only 9 out of 20 and still needing to blog 6 of those recipes.
I’ve decided to incorporate some of the unfinished challenges from previous years. Not all of them, but just those that still strike a chord with me somehow.

There were some dishes I thought I should attempt too. For instance every blogger worth their cyberspace has posted macarons, but then that’s kind of boring because people surfing the net for good recipe ideas don’t want to find seven hundred macaron recipes and nothing else.

Regardless, here are my 2011 Food Challenges.

Cook with new ingredients
Items or flavours I have never used before
Loomi (dried Persian limes)
Purslane (pigweed)
Shito (West African chilli condiment)
Smoked Ghanese Fish
Strawberry Gum

Learn about:
Techniques, cuisines or types of dishes I wish to master
Granola Chocolate, Cashew & Honey Granola
Iced Teas (& cooking with tea) Early Grey & Rhubarb Jam, Strawberry, Vanilla & Rose Iced Tea
Smoking Smoked Mackerel
Candies & Treats Passionfruit Truffles, Marzipan & Grand Marnier Truffles
Native Australian Ingredients Finger Lime Syrup, Oysters w Lime Caviar

Cook coveted recipes:
Recipes that I have scrapbooked over the years but never made
Pozole Rojo (red hominy stew) COMPLETE
Baby Potatoes w Blood Sausage & Crisp Parsley
Castagnaccio (Italian chestnut cake)
Česneková Polévka (Czech garlic soup) COMPLETE
Cha Traop Dot (Cambodian smoky eggplant & pork)

Finally attempt:
Dishes that have seemed too complicated to attempt before
Singapore Chilli Crab COMPLETE
Zupa Ogórkowa (Polish pickle soup) COMPLETE
Coeur a la Crème (French cream desserts) COMPLETE
Monkey Bread
Assam Laksa (Malay sour fish soup)

Invent recipes for:
Recipes I have dreamed up, seen or eaten and wish to replicate in my own way
Francesinha (Portuguese sandwich)
Green Papaya/Mango Salad
Apricot & Ganache Truffles
Musk Ice Cream
Adaptation of a Noma recipe

Taste / buy:
Market goodies that I just gots to ‘ave
Miracle fruit tablets
Violet essence BOUGHT
Sorrel COOKED WITH IT
Lightbox
New camera BOUGHT

Dine out at:
Restaurants I want to try at some point in the year
Ash Street Cellar VISITED
Attica
Mamasita VISITED
Sepia VISITED
Tomislav VISITED

Anna's AU Food Trend Predictions
(announced via Twitter)
#1 fast food goes gourmet with haute cuisine burgers, hotdogs & popcorn etc
#2 hot sauce, the Lousiana kind. ccrryysstaaaaaaalll!
#3 locavorism, foraging and native Aussie ingredients. bring on the finger limes I say!
#4 salt-sweet desserts, like bacon chocolates and salted caramels
#5 more apple & pear cider on drinks lists. yay!
#6 Nordic ingredients like elderflower & lingon
#7 smoke, whether it be smoked meat, salt, butter or chocolate
#8 choripan, Argentina's fab chorizo hot dogs
#9 Latin American cuisines, esp Mexico, Argentina, Peru & Brazil
#10 lovely tongue on more menus

8 comments:

  1. Good luck with your challenges in 2011. I look forward to reading your food adventures. Happy New Year.

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  2. Happy New Year! I also look forward to more of your posts in 2011.

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  3. Dismal job!? Don't be so hard on yourself. I think it's spectacularly impressive that you set yourself challenges and then set about doing them. lol. I know I'd be focusing on the dine out section - and getting a new camera :) Happy New Year Anna!

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  4. Good luck with your 2011 challenges - the first step is always setting your goals down - thanks for sharing them with us... I also would love to learn how to smoke (and finally make use of my smoker!) in 2011! And you definitely have to make time for Attica.

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  5. mark & gay - thanks! happy new year to you too

    helen - yeah but once you set the challenge you gotta do it! :) but thanks for the encouragement.

    trissa - same! i've had the smoker for 12 months and haven't used it. tragic. this year will be different!!!

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  6. Nice one! I should think of my foodie goals for this year as well, it would be a great way to try new things!

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  7. Great list Anna and you're way too hard on yourself! I loved monkey bread and castagnaccio (although the latter is not for everyone). And if you're stuck for a Singapore chilli crab recipe, I just went to a class at the Sydney Seafood School to make it and it was great! :)

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  8. Stumbled on you/your blog--and love it! So much variety and interest in food of all sorts! I really appreciate your wide open view of the world of food....your willingness to try new things.

    And I enjoy even the lists of goals in their categories. Gives me a push as well. Thank you!!

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Thanks for saying hello. It's great to know there are people out there in cyberspace!

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