Hunger Games Recipe Contest Voting!

A few weeks ago I posted about my District 4 Bread recipe for the Mercury News Hunger Games recipe contest. Well voting is now open for the recipes! If you could take the time to head on over there and look at the recipes (and vote for mine?) then I WOULD LOVE YOU FOREVER!

So head on over and check out all the awesome entries and be sure to vote for your favorites! If you want to vote for mine all you have to do is search "Julia Christy" and then click "vote for this entry". If you do end up voting thank you so much! You guys rock.

Julia :)

Hunger Games Baking Adventures: District 4 Bread Recipe

Awhile ago the San Jose Mercury News posted an article about a Hunger Games recipe contest they are hosting. At first I didn't know if I was gonna enter. I may cook Hunger Games recipes but I haven't ever really created a recipe of my own before. But then my pal Cristian suggested we try to make the District 4 bread. It's described in the book as being fish shaped, salty, and tinted green because of seaweed. Sounds doable right? Bread is about as basic as it gets recipe creating wise! Not only that but my mother is a bread making fiend. She would definitely set us straight if we did anything wrong. :P

So starting out all we knew about the bread was that it was salty and had seaweed in it. Fortunately my mom was already stocked up on nori seaweed sheets. Only in my house could someone ask about seaweed and then my mom pops up with a ginormous package. Then again we are Asian so it does makes sense.... >.<

I think the bread is described in the book as being a sort of fish shaped roll but we decided to adapt a breadstick recipe that I found on AllRecipes instead. I don't know why but breadstick dough was the first thing that came to mind when I was brainstorming on how to make the bread.

So we started out by taking a bunch of the packs of nori seaweed and blending it in our blender on high.

Thank you Cristian for taking this lovely creeper shot. >.< We blended the nori till it was pretty fine but not totally a powder. Its really up to you how fine you want the seaweed to be. Its more noticeable if you don't blend it as much which is nice because then you can really see it in the bread.

A note on the seaweed. Your best bet for finding this stuff is at an oriental food market but you could also check the exotic food aisle at your local grocery store. Just ask for nori seaweed and people should know what you're talking about.

Anyway moving on with the recipe. After grinding up the nori we then started mixing the batter. 

Since the book says the bread is salty we omitted the sugar from the bread recipe and instead added an extra teaspoon of salt. Another thing we added was whole wheat flour. My mom is a whole wheat flour nut so we used half whole wheat and half white. We didn't know how green the batter would be after adding in the seaweed but we definitely wanted the bread to have a noticeable green tint. Just adding the seaweed wasn't enough so we decided to add in food coloring as well. At first I was afraid to use food coloring because if you google "green bread" you get a slew of artificial green bread loaves and I DID NOT want our bread to look like that.

 THE HORROR!!!! D:

Fortunately just 4 drops of food coloring gave it the green tint we wanted without making it look unnatural. In fact if I didn't know any better I would think the bread was naturally green!

After we finished kneading the bread we formed it into fish shapes. The book isn't specific about what kind of fish or anything so we got creative. My mom REALLY got into it. This step turned out to be the most time consuming but it was also the most rewarding. All I can say is I can see why artisan bakeries sell their animal shaped breads for so much. They take SO LONG to shape. :P Here's what our fish looked like before baking:

 Of course my moms two fish are super pro. She put us both to shame. :P Cristian made the fish head in the bottom left.

Cristian made the top fish and I made the bottom fish. You can't tell but that dorky roll thing in the middle has a 4 on it to represent District 4. >.<

Before baking we brushed the top of each fish with egg to give it a nice glossy sheen. This is what the finished product looked like:

Totally awesome right? They came out WAY better than I ever expected! I especially love that you can see the green tint even in the photograph. SUCCESS! :D

I'm a tad bit disappointed in how my fish turned out style wise. It looks kind of like a puffer fish the way the scales puffed up the way they did and that wasn't really the look I was going for but oh well. We all unanimously decided that the mini fish was definitely the cutest design. When we make the recipe again we are definitely making mostly mini fish!

As for how the bread tasted it was super delicious! Honestly the seaweed was hardly even noticeable but it gave it a nice sort of oceany scent to the bread. It was also salty just like the book said! One step we forgot was sprinkling sea salt on top of the bread after baking but that's really optional. For the true sodium addicts I guess you could say! XD

So that was my adventure in Hunger Games baking! Definitely a real success. Hopefully this will help me become more creative in the kitchen in the future.

For all you other Hunger Games fans out there here's the recipe to create your very own District 4 bread! If you decide to make it be sure to take pictures of your fish creations. I would love to see them. :D

District 4 Bread

Ingredients

2 ½ cups flour (half whole wheat/half white flour)
1 cup warm water
1 ½ tbsp vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp of salt
1 packet of yeast (1/2 tbsp)
3-4 tbsp of Nori Seaweed (blended)
½ tsp sugar
1 medium egg
4 drops of green food coloring (more or less depending on the color you desire)
Egg Wash:
1 beaten egg
sea salt for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

1. Take several sheets of nori and put them into a blender. Blend on medium speed until the nori is a fine consistency. Measure out 3 tablespoons of the nori for a less noticeable seaweed taste and 4 tablespoons for a more noticeable seaweed taste. Put aside till needed.

2. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the sugar, yeast, food coloring, and 1 cup of warm water. Once mixed add the oil, 1 egg, salt, nori, 1 cup of flour, and the remaining water. Continue stirring, adding flour as you go, until you form a soft dough. Put the dough onto a floured surface and continue to hand knead it, adding flour as you go, until the dough is soft and pliable. Place the dough into a greased bowl and let it rise to double the size (about 40 minutes).

3. Once the dough has risen punch it down and proceed to form the dough into whatever fish shapes you desire. When you’re finished brush beaten egg over the tops of the fish to add extra shine. Once the fish are done let them rise for another 25 minutes.

4. Bake the bread fish at 400 F for about 10-12 or until the top of the bread is a lovely golden brown. Additional salt may be sprinkled on top if desired. Serve and enjoy!

Tips for Fish Shaping

• Use extra nori sheets to add detail to your fish such as scales and eyes.
• Use kitchen shears to cut definition into fish fins, gills, and scales.
• Stick on extras like eyes or scales with either water or some of the beaten egg mixture.

So this recipe is gonna be our entry into the Hunger Games cooking contest! We're entering it in the Hunger Games bread category naturally. I'm sure other people will be cooking this bread for the contest too and I'm really curious to see what they come up with!

Julia :)

Cooking Adventures: From Lamb Stew to Butterbeer

This past weekend me and my friend Cristian got together again for another cooking day! Last time we got together and cooked up the Hunger Games meal of citrus chicken. This time we decided to go all out and cook up not just one book inspired dish but four! Here was the lineup:

1. Apple and Goat Cheese Tarts (The Hunger Games)
2. Peeta's Raisin and Nut Bread (The Hunger Games)
3. Butterbeer (Harry Potter)
4. Lamb Stew with Dried Plums (The Hunger Games) 

So we started out the day with the Apple and Goat Cheese Tarts. These aren't exactly a prominent element of The Hunger Games but Peeta does mention once that he makes them at the bakery. The prep for these guys took FOREVER but they turned out really cute!

Unfortunately the we added too much salt to the pastry dough so they tasted well... really salty. :P In the words of my mother: "These are practically inedible!" Yeah it was bad... She took it upon herself to make a brand new batch of pastry dough and we did it all over again. They tasted MUCH better this the second time around!

Right before we cooked up Peeta's bread there was a little fire fiasco in the oven. Lets just say that I almost burned my house down.... I kid, I kid it wasn't that bad! Cristian and I did sort of freak out though. Our conversation went something like this:

*opens oven door*

 (we took a picture for posterities sake)

Julia: Ummm Cristian. The ovens on fire.
Cristian: WHAT?!?!
Julia: What do I do?!
Cristian: Do you have a fire extinguisher?
Julia: No! Not that I know of. Should we throw water on it?
Cristian: I don't think that's a good idea. You do realize that your smoke alarm is gonna start going off?
Julia: We don't have a smoke alarm.
Cristian: Seriously?

Hahahaha so maybe my house isn't the best when it comes to fire safety.... >.< Turns out we do have a fire extinguisher but its actually not pressurized correctly so we wouldn't have been able to use it anyway. Here's a picture of me after we put the fire out:

As you can see I was VERY happy about this. Hehehe.

So after we put the fire out we were able to put Peeta's bread in the oven. It ended up turning out super good! SO DELICIOUS! I got the recipe from Fictional Food and I really encourage you guys to try it!

Next we made butterbeer! I got the recipe from the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook (I downloaded it for free from iBooks!). This was basically a syrup that we cooked up and then mixed with club soda. I would have liked it to have a bit more of a butterscotch flavor but overall it was really tasty!

We put some whipped cream on top for a foam effect! After trying this I'm really curious to know what the butterbeer at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter tastes like.

And last but not least we made Katniss' favorite dish Lamb Stew with Dried Plums! I didn't really know what to expect from this dish (especially after the last Hunger Games meal we cooked) but I shouldn't have been too worried since the recipe was derived from a Julia Child recipe and everyone knows that Julia Child can do no wrong! Again, I got the recipe from Fictional Food. This dish turned out AMAZING. I can definitely see why it was Katniss' favorite capitol dish. I didn't know what the addition of the plums was going to be like but it turned out to be my favorite part. They add a nice sweetness to the sauce and when eaten with the rest of the stew they really add a richness to the flavors. My whole family loved it and we'll definitely be cooking it again!

Here's a sort of crappy picture of what the stew turned out like:

Believe me that its much tastier than it looks. :P

So despite a pastry mishap and a little fire fiasco all the dishes turned out pretty swell! I don't know what we'll be cooking next (maybe the Hunger Games fish stew?) so if you guys have any book inspired recipes you think I should try let me know!

Julia :)

I cooked a Hunger Games meal!

Yesterday me and one of my very good friends Cristian (he's got a blog, you should check it out!) got together and cooked up one of the Hunger Games dishes from the awesome blog Fictional Food! We decided to make the Lunch With Cinna dish and it actually turned out pretty good! Here is a little walk through (complete with pictures!) of the dish.

We started out by cutting up the chicken breasts and coating them in flour and some salt and pepper.

Then we tossed them in a pan to fry them. They were supposed to get browned and all that but I didn't wait long enough for the butter to heat in the pan before adding the chicken (clearly I have no patience. :P) and so they didn't get a chance to brown. Cooking chicken breasts is tricky because the meat can turn chewy so easily. I sacrificed the browning for chicken that wasn't chewy. Not a bad trade off if you ask me, though I would have liked it browner. Curse me and my impatience! :/

Then we added in the cream, orange juice, and orange pieces. As you can see I probably should have picked a larger pan to cook this in.... hehehe. >.<

We removed the chicken and orange pieces so that we could season the sauce separately. Definitely a good idea since the pan I chose was a bit small.

And voila! The finished product! Not bad ehhh? I think it turned out fairly well. Unfortunately the sauce on its own tasted kind of odd and acidic. A commenter on the Fictional Food blog said their sauce tasted a bit like vomit and I have to agree. Cream and citrus aren't a very good pairing.... The good thing is that once it was paired with the chicken, orange pieces, and rice it tasted great! Oh and it needed salt. LOTS of salt. Yay for sodium overload! :D

Overall I give this recipe a 3.5. I think if I did it again I would make the cream sauce differently. I wouldn't add in the orange juice and just make it more of an alfredo. Hopefully that would cut down on the awkward pukish taste. :P

I'm definitely going to try the Lamb Stew with Dried Plumbs dish next! Who knows when I'll get around to it, but I will post about it when it does happen. I promise!

If you want to try making this dish you can find the recipe and anything else you might want to know about fictional food here.

Julia :)