We had never made oxtail until a few months ago, then decided to try it, used a recipe from Chateau Ste. Michelle winery for braised oxtail with frites. It was absolutely delish. Just BTW, they aren't what you'd call cheap anymore. We have a place here that started out as mostly a butcher/seafood shop with a small market that has grown and expanded to a large fruit/vege, butcher, seafood shop with a medium size market, with still very good prices compared to the chain supermarkets in the U.S. You pretty much have to go to a restaurant supply place if you want to beat their prices.
Souffles really aren't hard to make. If you want to start out small and make a dessert one, try Emeril's chocolate souffle. It also has a chocolate sauce you pour in the middle of it when it's served, but that's just way too much for me. They also freeze pretty well if you want to make them just for yourself and/or your honey. Put the batter in the individual ramekins, cover it well with plastic wrap and freeze, just make sure you eat over the next week or so, don't know how long they'll stay good (they don't last long here when I make them). They don't puff up quite as much as they do freshly made, but still taste as good. I had this in 1 of his restaurants and was totally hooked. And if you do mess up and it doesn't rise correctly, well then you have a delish baked pudding and you go ahead and make the chocolate sauce to serve with!
Waffles, my aunt makes a mean waffle. I'll dig out the recipe and post in a thread later on. Our DD has been wanting it and I need to type it up for her anyway. You fold in whipped egg whites to the batter and it makes for a light crispy waffle that actually freezes pretty well. I have to say too that a true Belgian Liege waffle is a thing of beauty as well. Of course, it's more like bread, and you pretty much have to order the pearl sugar on-line over here.
I wouldn't mind trying a turducken, you could always bone out a duck leg or 2 for the duck part and use the breasts for something else or pound out the breast and use the legs for confit. We'd have to go small too. I've done okay making duck confit with the legs. We tried doing a tea-smoked duck on the grill once, tough and chewy, it might have been over-cooked, been a long time. We did try this within the last 6 months or so though from Chef Mehta,
http://www.mushroomsonthemenu.com/portfolio/duck-breast-over-zucchini-enoki-noodles/ , and it came out perfect.
I'd like to try skate. One of the cooking competition shows used skate and the presentation was just lovely, an angel's wing, plus the recipe sounded good, but the 1 time I've seen it fresh at our place, Craig didn't want fish that week, so we didn't get any and I've never seen it back there. We'll be getting it if there is ever a next time. I'd also give Lion fish a go. They are stating to catch them commercially here now because they have adapted so well to our warm waters and have become a major invasive fish as they are eating native species and have no natural predators here.
Kimchi and sauerkraut aren't hard to make, just inactive time consuming after the initial prep. I like to make it because I think it tastes better than commercially made stuff. I won't eat commercially made sauerkraut, but will eat the small-batch kraut I make (a quart to quart and a-half). Most of the salt is in the juice so unless you are drinking the juice, there's really not that much salt in the veges. You can make vegan kimchi. The last batch I made was actually vegan and was just as good as the ones I've made using the tiny dried shrimp.
We make paella 2-3 times a year, don't have a recipe other than chicken, fresh chorizo or chaurice, whatever seafood looks best in the market, red bell peppers, onions, garlic, valencia rice since that's easiest for us to find, saffron of course, cumin, a little bit of some kind of tomato product, and broth. What we make is a hybrid of Spanish, Cuban, and American versions.
I'd like to try making Hubert Keller's Mushroom and Spinach Saint-Honore with Glazed Pearl Onions out of "The Cuisine of Hubert Keller" book, but I get odd looks and noises whenever I show it to them. Don't really know why, it's just those things, plus sliced almonds, that everybody likes but presented as a piece of art. Other than veges, it's got just a little milk, cream and butter so is vegetarian, and could even be made vegan with the appropriate subs. Since I can't find a picture of it on-line, it's kind of a mushroom cake base with the glazed onions pearl onions dotting the outside rim, with a dark green fresh spinach puree pipped in shells between the onions, with a large rosette of spinach puree in the center topped with a pearl onion with a crown of sliced almonds around it, and also with a sliced almond in each of the spinach shells between the pearl onions on the outside.
I can't really think of much else right now. Foie gras and truffles had always been on my bucket list, but have had those now. There's a few dishes I'd like to make in the "coffeetable" super chef cookbooks I have, but they require things I haven't been able to find except in huge quantities (restaurant amounts) or appliances I either don't want to get (we have so many now) or are not suitable for a home kitchen. I've been toying with getting one of the smaller molecular gastronomy kits and giving that a whirl, maybe a Christmas prezzie, hint, hint Craig.