I am wrapping up our culinary wishlist for 2020 and happy to report that the boyfriend and I attempted almost everything we set out to do for 2020. I shared my culinary wishlist for 2020 – part 1 back in May and this post will summarize the remainder of the wishlist, with recipes we used and helpful tips/tricks if you are interested to try any of them from our wishlist.

DUMPLINGS AROUND THE WORLD

We love dumplings so naturally this we had a lot of fun learning (and eating) about different dumplings around the world. I dedicated a separate blog post featuring 10 different dumplings along with recipes and helpful tips we learned in this process.

I MADE 10 DUMPLINGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

SALT CRUSTED FISH

Salt crust is a method of cooking fish, chicken or vegetables by burying them inside a mixture of salt and egg-white so the salt insulates and cooks the food evenly and gently. If you are intimidated by the idea of cooking fish or handling a whole fish, this is definitely a great one to begin with.

The boyfriend I used red snapper for our salt crusted fish but feel free to use other fish such as branzino or whole dorade. You can clean the fish yourself at home or ask the fish monger to clean it for you. We used this recipe as a guide https://wearenotmartha.com/salt-baked-fish/ The resulting fish was flaky, delicious, and really easy to make. I’d definitely do this again in the near future.

PANCAKE ART

Pancake art = creating impressive art on a griddle or a nonstick pan using a pancake batter with different gel food colors. This is totally the boyfriend’s domain as he is the creative/artistic one. I don’t recall which pancake recipe we used but you need a pretty basic pancake recipe that is slightly thinner with gel food color of your choice.

Helpful tips and links :

• Tools: you will need a griddle or a nonstick pan and squeeze bottles, depending on how many color you plan to use
• Make sure the pancake batter is smooth and doesn’t have any lumps, otherwise it will clog the squeeze bottles
• Adjust the heat as you are cooking your pancake; go low and slow.
• We found this tutorial very helpful with detailed explanation : https://sugargeekshow.com/recipe/pancake-art-recipe-and-tutorial/

FRENCH MOTHER SAUCES

Sauce is essentially a liquid with some kind of a thickening agent and flavors. In French cuisine, there are 5 mother sauces and it’s something that keeps coming up on cooking shows and recipes so I wanted to learn more & expand my understanding on sauces about French mother sauces. I found this Illustration by Ono Creates for Michelin Guide super helpful to look at French mother sauces at a glace. https://guide.michelin.com/mo/en/macau-region/macau/article/dining-in/the-5-mother-sauces-of-french-cuisine

In French cuisine, it is all about sauces and French trained culinary students are expected to know these sauces by heart. I didn’t make stock from scratch but made different mother sauces (or a variation) and quickly learned that it is so important to pay attention to the ingredients, heat, texture/consistency and balancing the flavors.

I made my very first mornay sauce, classic béchamel sauce with cheeses and served it with pasta. For Thanksgiving, I used the foundations of espagnole (sauce made from brown stock, mirepoix, and tomatoes, and thickened with roux) to make a gravy to go with our chicken and it was fantastic.

If you are interested to learn more about mother sauces, I’d recommend this video but really you have to get in the kitchen and start making sauces!

Vegan cheese and croquembouche are two things we couldn’t get to as a part of our Culinary Wishlist for 2020. I did made roasted hatch chili cashew sauce which is really delish but I was hoping to get more creative with cheeses.

I was hoping to make croquembouche and have a small gathering with friends but pandemic kinda took over in 2020, so I am tabling this when it’s safe for us to gather in the near future.

You can follow my previous Culinary Wishlist below:

• Culinary Wishlist for 2019
• Culinary Wishlist for 2019 – Part I
• Culinary Wishlist for 2019 – Part II
• Culinary Wishlist for 2020
• Culinary Wishlist for 2020 – Part I

Thank you everyone for following along. I am working on my Culinary Wishlist for 2021 and will share here soon.

Did you cook anything fun, new, or exciting in 2020?