Course 1:
Three main components:
The Cake
I first attempted to make a savory pound cake with whipped egg whites for the cake base. It came out way too dense. To mock the Chocodile the cake had to be as similar to a Twinkie as possible, without the overbearing sweetness. Pound cake was the wrong direction. I pondered angels' food cake, but it would not be tender enough. I needed fat to assist in forming the savory character of the cake. Angels' food is a springy beast of no-fat and all air. Airy plus fat equals chiffon. I considered using chicken fat (schmaltz) for for the fat in the recipe, but settled for lard (no time to render chicken bits). The cake came out perfect, it was the right direction!
The Filling
I considered a savory whipped cream, but I couldn't match a flavor that I felt would satisfy the satire. I Thought of a few products I had on hand that I could experiment with and came up with an interesting offering. Dynamite sauce, the same sauce used for scallops, mussels, and whatever seafood that gaggles of sushi restaurants slather on thick and then broil to mask the natural flavor of the sea. It is also used a binder for some maki stuffings. Dynamite sauce is made from a special Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie), Masago (Capelin roe) (or Tobiko (flying fish roe)), and Sriracha sauce, and the name comes from the pop of the fish roe as it broils. This sauce would serve me well and offer a small shock value to the more squeamish guests.
The Coating
I needed a coating to emulate the thin genache used to enrobe the Twinkie in the Chocodile. My mind went back to a sauce I had rarely seen used but always found interesting, Chaud-Froid. Look up Chaud-Froid in a French cookbook and you will more than likely find a chicken breast coated with it. The sauce is made from Béchamel with added liquor and bound with gelatin. Beer would have to take place of the liquor but all other components could remain the same.
The Plate
It seems, as with all previous dinners, I don't have my choice of plates. All previous dinners the plate selection came down not having the money to purchase new plates for one event. Now, the lack of plate choice is simply because I have been pigeon-holed into using predetermined plates. After I had baked, filled, and coated the cakes I placed one on the round plate. Ugh! It was too stark and muted. So, I went crazy with the garnish... Unfortunately, my mind's pictures seem more grandiose than actual reality.
I added a needed green flavor through the use of chive oil. The oil should also serve as a moistener to the dish. Then I thought the filling wasn't a sufficient amount of dynamite flavor, so I went with a paint of dynamite. The paint looked hapdash, however. I would spoon it on the plate instead.
The two items on the top, chive and masago, would just come along for the ride to ensure that I completed my dedication to the gaudy direction I had chosen. All-in-all, I feel that it looked OK, I would have preferred a much smaller plate which I believe could have kept it much tighter.
Recipes:
Semi-Sweet Chiffon Cake
ingredients:
- 7 Eggs separated into whites and yolks
- 3 oz melted Fat (I used Lard, Schmaltz would be best (me thinks))
- 6 fl oz Heavy Cream
- 1/2 cup AP Flour (if you cake flour on hand, use it)
- 1/2 cup granulated White Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
- heavy pinch Kosher Salt
Preheat the oven to 325° (I used a convection oven, so you may want to bump your temp up by 25° if you have a standard oven)
Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.Whip egg yolks until light yellow, add sugar. Continue whipping yolks and sugar until they form ribbons.
Whip heavy cream until it forms soft peaks.
Temper fat into egg yolk mixture.
Mix salt with flour.
Alternate folding in three parts the whipped cream, whipped whites, and flour into the yolk mixture until completely folded in.
If you have cream canoe molds, use them (ungreased). If you do not, you can form your own molds with aluminum foil by folding it into rectangles and pressing them around spice bottles. (leaving one side open, of course.)
The smaller the cake, the less time it takes to bake.
I had the cakes in the oven for 25 minutes. It may take up to one hour for larger cakes. Cakes are done when their centers spring back to the touch.
If possible, invert the pan while cooling.
Dynamite Sauce
ingredients:
- 2 cups Kewpie Mayonnaise
- (if you need to make a substitute you can use the following)
- 2 cups heavy mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup Sriracha hot sauce (more or less to taste)
- 1/2 cup Masago (or Tobiko, orange colored)
(Ideally, I wanted to soy lecithin as a whipping agent. However, the stash of culinary chemicals I was going raid had been previously plundered. If you can get a hold of it, it may prove to be an interesting textural addition to the filling.)
Place sauce in a piping bag with a small tip, or a squeeze bottle with a small tip.
Chaud-Froid
ingredients:
- Béchamel
- 8 cups milk
- 1 White Onion
- 6 whole Cloves
- pinch Nutmeg
- pinch Cayenne Pepper
- 2 sticks Butter (1 cup)
- 2 cups Flour
- s/wp to taste
- score and stud the onion with the cloves, steep onion in milk, add nutmeg and cayenne
- melt butter in sauce pot, add flour and stir until incorporated, add warm milk (straining it through a sieve first)
- whisk sauce over medium heat until thickened
- 2 beers (I used Lagunitas Czech Pilsner) or 2 cups liquor of your choice
- 10 sheets of gelatin
Keep sauce warm during filling. Fill cakes from the bottom with three injections (see a Twinkie for reference) of dynamite sauce. Set filled cakes on a wire rack. Coat filled cakes with chaud-froid sauce, cool. Remove cakes from cooler and coat again with chaud-froid. Continue process until completely coated.
For chive oil;
Process 2 oz of fresh chives in a neutral oil in a blender until fully incorporated. Strain mixture through a very fine chinois of a coffee filter in a sieve if no chinois is not available.
Garnish the dish with your own preference.
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