A few weeks ago, my cousin and I were griping about how certain foods have become ridiculous fads. I was rolling my eyes about how Sriracha sauce was EVERYWHERE as a go-to ingredient and was seen in every other cooking show like it had JUST been discovered, and my cousin was disgusted with the bacon-everything craze and how it abuses the privilege of enjoying bacon. It got to the point where we tried to think of the craziest food product that contained the most overhyped ingredients, and we came up with: truffle and bacon bread with artisanal cheese and ramps topped with Sriracha crème fraîche with a side of foie gras and a cupcake (ok, that last one hit home a little, but I agree; it’s totally trendy hahaha). As my cousin said, “I love those things independently, but together, it’s grotesque.”
- These look fancy enough to be served at a trendy restaurant. Let’s see who steals this snack… watch, it’ll be on “Top Chef” or “Chopped” or something soon =P
All our bitching aside, I didn’t have any orders this weekend so I had some free time to experiment and decided to basically make a grotesque concoction of our fad food pet peeves… well, minus the ramps (they don’t exist in the ‘burbs of LI), the crème fraîche (I COULD have made it @ home, but it would have taken a couple days and I didn’t feel like waiting when I could just watch the “South Park” episode instead), foie gras (see explanation for “ramps” above… Vin and I were overjoyed to have found bone marrow a few times @ the supermarket but it’s not a readily available product), and the cupcake (I hadn’t baked cakes since Vin’s steak cake and unfortunately we had to throw out the leftovers. Like steak, cake and fondant don’t last forever). I ended up making cornbread mixed with bacon and Vermont white cheddar cheese (aged… in our fridge) with Sriracha butter and truffle-seasoned salt (yes, it’s a knock-off, but truffles are wicked expensive and if anyone wants to buy me one, be my guest). And the kicker is… “grotesque” ended up looking AND tasting pretty good. I made different variations of it: one with the elegant swirl of spicy orange-hued butter topped with a bacon crisp, and the other had chopped candied bacon bits sprinkled on it. I only had a square of cornbread and bacon since any more would be pushing it and I’d be back in the hospital, but it really wasn’t too bad with the light hint of brown sugar. Vin said it was pretty tasty, too. Either way, the Sriracha butter was surprisingly delicious. That stuff is a keeper. And I can say that b/c I’ve pretty much been eating Sriracha w/Viet food since I was born and I keep a stockpile of it in our basement. Like butter, I’d get antsy if we were ever down to the last bottle. haha
- Toffee and chocolate cake cookie bars
I actually wanted to make something more elaborate like macarons or a specialty cake this weekend, but I had a migraine yesterday and my head was pounding too much to prep in advance for major baking projects. I still felt the cloudiness in my head and had bouts of “fuzzy vision” today, but I had to bake SOMETHING. Yet I felt the trendy cornbread was too quick and easy, so I rummaged up some dark chocolate and crushed Heath bar cookies, but baked them in the same square-shaped pan as the cornbread (I really like this shape) so it came out a bit more like cake. Two baked items in one afternoon… not too shabby, eh?
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