Spring Rolls with Smoked Sprats

Why Failure?
Actually this one is my failure and is a great success at the same time. Failure for the one single reason: as a result of some strange chemical reaction, overnight, rolls leftovers acquired awkward very bitter taste. I'll try to research into this and eventually will move this post to "Successes" category because right after I made them they tasted fabulous - smokiness of fish was counteracted by freshness of greens, light, refreshing and delicious.


Idea
I've got the idea of this dish from online video by my favorite chef Jacques Pepin. I always loved sprats (I'm from former USSR after all!) but the idea to stick it into spring roll strike me to the heart :) Other ingredients, besides sprats and red onion, are my take on this recipe. Well, it worked in a beginning very well...


Short recipe
Two sprats, some julienned broccoli stem (that's what could become bitter overnight!), a little red onion and parsley leaves are rolled into rice pepper. Vietnamese dipping sauce made of fish sauce + lime juice + brown sugar + garlic goes very well with these rolls.


Lesson learned
Now I'm almost sure that broccoli was the reason for bitterness. Next time I will omit it, I just wanted to utilize broccoli stems and look what have happened :(

Rice pepper goes into warm water for a minute to become pliable.

Broccoli stems, julienned.

And finally, key ingredient, sprats, smoky and delicious as is, out of a can.

Lay prasley leaves close to opposite edge for beautiful see-through effect.

Keep rolls under wet towel to prevent from drying out.

Aren't they lovely looking things?

Arpege Egg

May be it was not a failure at all after all? May be I/we just didn't develop yet that level of taste sophistication to recognize it? May be our palates is not ready yet? Anyway, I liked the name of this dish and especially I liked the fact that it was one of the few recipes of Alain Passard, famous chef. Arpege Egg is served at L'Arpege Restaurant in Paris. So, being brave in my experimentations, I decided, what the h***, I'll make myself a favor of enjoying Arpege Egg.
That was fun to do it anyway. Taste-wise it was interesting though didn't meet my expectations. I suspect, there should be that perfect balance between sweet and salty that just top masters can reach. So, I still reserve my rights to go to L'Arpege Restaurant some time in a future.
Here is original link where I've got recipe from: ArpegeEggs. And here are pictures.

Step one: here is egg yolk in its own shell, after it was floating until barely cooked in a pot with simmering water. Some fresh chives from my garden are sprinkled on a top.

Step two: some salt and pepper and whipped whites go on a top of chives.

Final product with maple syrup on a top of whipped whites.

Here comes a bite. Looks intriguing, right? I may be revisiting this recipe, after all egg is my favorite food ever. Should I mention I had to eat my husband's and my son's portions also because after first bite they refused to finish it? It was not disgusting, the taste was just very unusual.

Cheese Souffle

I'm not sure it's right to place experimentation with souffle in My Failure category. It tasted pretty good but I guess it was lacking that extra airiness that, I imagine, must be the main feature of any kind of souffle. There can be my fault because while watching through oven window how beautifuly souffle was rising I decided to take pitures of them right away: I've opened oven, took couple shots, closed oven and guess what - it fell down! Yes, it started to rise again although damage was done already...

As you can see I baked souffle both ways: with and without water bath - didn't see much difference. As I like to simplify things, version without water bath is more appealing to me :) Though classic way is definitely with water bath as it supposed to keep souffle light and creamy.

Here is the link to original recipe I used: Perfect Cheese Souffle

My notes after trying this recipe:

-          When making bechamel make sure you got rating butter/flour/milk righ. I made it too thick. It should be soft and a bit runny.

-          Do not open oven during baking (I did and it fell)

-          I’m not sure water bath is a must.

-          Oven temp should be not more than 370

-          Overall 10 points anyway (despite the fact I used Colby Jack instead of gruyere)