Beware the Box!

This Daring Cooks challenge was an exercise in going where you may have never been before.


Let me do the housekeeping first:
Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com/!

Edible containers was the assignment and I went through the standard list of bread bowls, bird nests of shredded potatoes, formed wontons, and much more.  "What could I do that is really different?"  I will have you know that this is part of my personality, to be different or to tackle something in a way that challenges me in a new way.  I had to go looking for inspiration and I found it in an artist named Margaret Dorfman who does amazing things with fruits and vegetables.  Though her vessels aren't edible, they are amazingly beautiful and I got a wee bit of inspiration from what she does.


Margaret Dorfman Fruit and Veggie art bowls - 3 of my favorites



So I thought...If I were going to eat a bowl made out of fruit and/or veggies what would the combination be?  So I thought of a cheese plate.  Cheese and fruit are made to go together.  Pears and Brie are my personal favorite.  Off to the store I went to browse the produce department.  Pears, apples, and beets were where I started and my goal was to build a vessel that I could cook a cheese souffle in.

I had a lot of total failures that shrunk too much, dried too much, didn't dry enough, looked odd, looked gross, and then 4 hours in a 200 degree oven and this is what I had to work with.  It was a thinly sliced pear and beet bowl that was just right.  I guess you could say that it was my Golilocks bowl - Just right.  It didn't have the vibrant color of the Dorfman bowls but it was totally edible and I thought it was really beautiful.  After whipping up a pretty standard cheddar cheese souffle, I filled my bowl, crossed my fingers that it would do good things and baked it. 

The end product was ridiculously good, fruity, cheesy, and housed in it's own little wrinkled lotus. The vessel lost a bit of it's delicate appearance once I filled it with the souffle but what it lost in beauty, it certainly made up for in taste. 

Flash forward 2 weeks.....
One morning as I was waking up I was thinking that nori might be cool to use as a container.  This thought started in a strange dream I had been having about folding origami boats with seaweed.  Please don't ask me why I was dreaming something so weird because I really have no idea but I started thinking about deconstructing a california roll.  I had no idea that you can do origami with nori sheets but trial and error says you can.  So after many attempts I successfully made an origami box and created a somewhat inside out maki roll.

Green onions, radish, carrots and crab meat were laid on a bed of sushi rice inside the nori box.  Tasty.

I loved being able to play with my food.  I use to get in trouble for doing that!  I think that I am ready for the next challenge while my brain is fired up with all of this creative opportunity.  Bring it on!  By the way, if you enjoyed looking at my edible vessels you really need to go to Daring Kitchen and see the fantastic places that other people went the idea.


Out of restriction or obstruction comes creativity.

Did you have a good time? Did you enjoy this post? Let me know and leave a comment. Share the post with your family and friends on your favorite social media or subscribe and help support Flying Monkeys. If you go to StumbleUpon using the icon on the right and click the “I Like it” button(it’s free), you help other people to discover Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys and that will help our little blog grow and our monkeys can keep doing what they do best - FLY. Thank you for all of your support. The Monkey Queen