Failures that Succeed- 4/6/09

Does this picture at left look like a successful cooking experience? If your answer is no, you are observant... and wrong. I was sure that tonight's dessert, the Lemon Snow Pudding with Basil Custard Sauce on page 87, was going to be a failure. The recipe said that I should beat the gelatin mixture that would become the lemon snow cream for 5 minutes or until it had tripled in volume and was thick enough to form a wide flat ribbon. After more than 10 minutes of beating, liquid was still flying out of the mixer bowl at a rather alarming rate. There was no triple-ing and no wide flat ribbons. I decided to cut my losses and put what was left of the liquid in the bowl in the fridge to chill. I was not feeling optimistic about this lemon snow cream.
After dinner, I got the lemon snow cream and the basil custard sauce out and was pleasantly surprised. The snow cream had solidified well on top, though there was a layer of clear lemon gelatin on the bottom. The custard sauce is a sauce more than a custard and the taste of basil is a delightfully subtle twist. I could see this dessert on a high end restaurant menu. It has all the elements of a special dessert. It is light but complex in flavor. Obviously, in creation, something went a little wrong but that did not affect the final outcome. What a delightful spring dessert!

For dinner, I made the Pork Katsu with Quick Carrot Pickles on page 65. I like pork but until this month, there have not been many pork recipes in Gourmet. There were 2 in February and only one in March but Easter is bringing out the pork, more specifically, ham. This recipe used chops, pounded thin and breaded with Japanese breadcrumbs or panko. The pork was quite simple but good. Panko is a bit flakier than traditional bread crumbs and it kept its crunch through the pan frying. The carrots were quite tangy, even with the short pickling time, and were a good partner for the fried pork.
Pork Katsu with Quick Carrot Pickles- A-
Cost- $8.29
Calories per serving-500
Lemon Snow Pudding with Basil Custard Sauce-B+
Cost-$4.97
Calories per serving-300

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