Day 36 - Pages 289-293 - Fried Apple Pie, Sour Cream Ice Cream; Pages 259-261 - Roasted New Jersey Diver Scallop, Kohlrabi Puree, Pickled Chanterelles

Today I wanted to try a number of Momofuku recipes and in order to make all of them I made several substitutions. Aside from the practical issue of using what's at hand and the additional fun factor of ignoring instructions, I'm finding that I can usually get good results by using my own ideas of what ingredients will give me the taste, texture, and look that I want. Some of the ingredients were not in season while others just weren't readily available. I'm not a strict locavore but freshness is a high priority.

The Fried Apple Pie morphed into a Strawberry Pop Tart. Strawberries are peaking right now and it was just too much bother to track down tart molds with removable bottoms like the Momofuku dessert. Keeping with a combination of quick cooked fruit and jelly I made a barely cooked strawberry compote and a strawberry jam without pectin. These were mixed together for the filling.

 I cut the water in the pastry by one third because I was going to roll out the dough and shape it free form.

    Then fried them one by one in hot oil 

  until they puffed up into little pillows

         

Topped with Sour Cream Ice Cream (Meyer lemon juice and
rind subbing for lime) they were nothing at all like the
pop tarts of the past. These were flaky, fruity, and rich.

 

 

Well, we had dessert first. The tarts were followed by my version of the Roasted Diver Scallop. Chang prefaces the recipe with the note that in the early stages the dish was in constant flux depending on what was available and in season and I had a similar experience. I stayed with the scallops and bacon dashi but omitted the nori and swapped out the kohlrabi for parsnips and chanterelles for shiitakes. I added kale to the puree for some color. It was easy to brown the scallops once the butter was added and, no surprise, the butter made them really creamy and delicious.