Coconut cranberry muffins

Coconut is actually healthier than you think. Coconut fat won’t clog your arteries and your body will try to use up coconut oil (for energy) rather than storing it as body fat.

Coconut cranberry muffins

• 1 can 14oz coconut milk (full fat)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar (to 2/3 cup, if you prefer sweeter)
• 1 c almond flour (or coconut flour)
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries (or raisins)
• 1 c flaked coconut (or sliced almonds)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix together wet ingredients with sugar. Then incorporate the flours, baking powder/soda, and salt. When the mixture is almost smooth, add in the dried cranberries. Scoop batter into lined or greased muffin tin, press in coconut flakes on top. Bake for 30 to 35mins till light golden brown. -Lina

alfajores dulce de leche

One Sunday, a few friends and myself went to Hugo’s for brunch. It’s not TexMex that’s for sure, but it’s more “authentic” Mexican cuisine. Don’t kill the messenger for calling it authentic. It’s simply what the owner states on their website. ^_^ Anyways, for a nice $30 price tag, we got our Sunday brunch buffet. The food was amazing, but what really got me was the dessert. One of the dessert items were these little cookies called alfajores. Mini butter/shortbread cookies filled with dulce de leche and covered with powdered sugar. I, of course, had to find a recipe for them and make them. Here is attempt one.

I got the alfajores recipe from Nook & Pantry:

• 1 to 1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
• 1/2 c. corn starch
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 stick of butter (room temp)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• Dulce de leche (recipe to follow)
• Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. In another bowl whisk together the flour (starting with 1 cup), cornstarch, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

Add the egg and vanilla to the butter and beat until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and beat until the dough comes together. Add some of the remaining 1/4 C of flour if the dough is too wet.

Roll out the dough to about 1/8 in thickness and cut into whatever shape you desire. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown. Cool on a rack and fill with a teaspoon or more of dulce de leche (I chose more). Dust the tops with some powdered sugar.

Dulce de Leche from David Lebovitz:

Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C).
Pour one can (400 gr/14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) into a glass pie plate or shallow baking dish. Stir in a few flecks of sea salt.
Set the pie plate within a larger pan, such as a roasting pan, and add hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the pie plate.
Cover the pie plate snugly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 to 1¼ hours. (Check a few times during baking and add more water to the roasting pan as necessary).
Once the Dulce de Leche is nicely browned and caramelized, remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool, whisk until smooth.
Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Warm gently in a warm water bath or microwave oven before using.

Attempt number 2 was on Thanksgiving.  I did not have enough time to make the dulce de leche, so I used Nutella instead. I honestly thought it was 10x better than with the dulce de leche…but in my books chocolate hazelnut > caramel. hehe Either way, delicious!

Happy Holidays to all!!

-chelle

white velvet butter cupcakes

So many moons ago, or so it seems, I made red velvet cupcakes. I now present you with white velvet butter cupcakes! I’ve been making the white velvet butter cake, but decided on cupcakes this time around. The cupcake recipe is from The Cake Bible, and the buttercream recipe is from Gale Gand, although I used hers only as a guide. I had to change it a bit to make it perfect for the cupcakes.

White Velvet Butter Cupcakes:

• 4 liquid oz. of egg whites (I’ve found that 3 large eggs cover it, but you might need a 4th depending on your egg)
• 1 c. milk (1/4th cup for now and 3/4th cups for later)
• 2 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 c. sifted cake flour (please use cake flour and not all purpose, I promise it’s better that way)
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 12 tbsp. (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter softened

Preheat oven to 350F and fill cupcake trays with cupcake wrappers (I managed to make about 30 cupcakes with this recipe). In a medium bowl, combine egg whites, vanilla and 1/4 cup milk.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together to blend. Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk. Mix on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed (high if using a hand mixer) for 1.5 minutes. Then add the egg, vanilla and milk mixture in three equal parts, beating for 20 seconds between additions.

Pour the batter into cupcake wrappers. Try to fill each wrapper with an equal amount of batter. I used a 1/4 cup measure and it yielded about 30 cupcakes, all about the same size. Each cupcake wrapper will be about 1/2-3/4  full. Bake cupcakes for 15-20 minutes. Do the toothpick test for “done-ness”. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

• 2 1/2 to 3 c. confectioner’s sugar (aka powdered sugar)
• 1 c. (2 sticks) butter softened
• 4 to 5 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tbsp. vanilla

In a mixer with the whisk attachment, mix together the butter and 1 c. of confectioner’s sugar and 2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream. Mix on med until mixture is blended n light. Add another cup of confectioner’s sugar and another cup of heavy whipping cream. Mix again until ingredients are combined and frosting is fluffy. On the last round, add 1/2 c. confectioner’s sugar and 2 tsp. vanilla. Mix again on med/high until frosting is light and fluffy. Taste your frosting. If it’s not sweet enough, add 1/2 c. confectioner’s sugar. If it’s not creamy enough, add another tbsp. of heavy whipping cream.

I added food coloring to my frosting, so I’ve got neon green, although they look more like pastel green and hot pink cupcakes. Colors and piping is what I’ll need to work on next ^__^

A bit of advice: If you’ve never tasted the white velvet butter cake/cupcake, I can tell you its flavor is already on the sweet side and does not need alot of added sweetness in it’s icing. If I could serve just the cupcake alone, I would, but it’s just not as pretty. hehe.  Just keep that in mind when sweetening your buttercream.

Til next time!

-chelle

Cinnamon apple madeleines, using coconut oil

I finally got the bump in the madeleine.

I haven’t baked madeleines much lately. The non-stick pans are great. I’ve switched to coconut oil for baking in the last few months. It’s healthier and better for the environment than palm oil. Measuring coconut oil can be hard, depending on the weather it can be either solid or liquid. In the summer months it’s clear looking and runny, like a vegetable oil. When I put it in the fridge it became too hard to scoop out.

Coconut oil melts at about 76°F. Since the weather has cooled, the coconut oil is a soft solid at room temperature. When you spoon it, it resembles large clumps of wax, not smooth like palm shortening. I eyeball the measurements usually, but you can melt it and pour into measuring cups for more precision (and let it re-solidify if you want a solid shortening). I don’t find the taste of coconut very prominent in the end results, but if you really hate coconut then you might notice it. Buying it in the larger jars makes the price more reasonable, and it does last a long time (shelf life and usage).

Cinnamon apple madeleines

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar*
• 1 tsp molasses*
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup melted coconut oil**
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt

*or a scant 2/3 cup brown sugar

** you can use melted butter or organic shortening instead

For more of an apple flavor, maybe add a splash of apple brandy.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix sugar and molasses thoroughly, beat in eggs, apple sauce, coconut oil, and cinnamon. Then mix the rest of the dry ingredients till smooth. Fill madeleine pans and bake for about 12mins, till the edges are browned. This makes 2 dozen full size madeleines.

The side scraping paddles are great for brownie batter too.

-Lina

Curry quinoa lentils and brown rice

It’s the end of the month and I’ll push this one over the finish line. I like to get at least one post per month. This is healthy whole grains, high in protein, tasty, and way easy. And everyone should have a rice cooker.

Curry quinoa lentils and brown rice pilaf(?)

• 2/3 cup quinoa
• 2/3 cup brown rice
• 1/3 cup lentils (any type that is whole with skin)
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 dried chili
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 1/2 cup water

Wash and strain the grains, if you aren’t washing it then you’ll need more water (1/2 cup), but quinoa requires washing. Put everything in a rice cooker, and let it cook on regular.

If using the stove top, put everything into a small heavy bottom and bring to a boil with the lid on, then turn it down to a low simmer and cook covered for 35-40mins. Remove bay leaf and chili, give it a mix in the pot before serving.

You can use vegetable or chicken stock if you like, just watch the salt. This goes great with almost anything.

-L

Happy Mother’s Day…

…and it happens to be my birthday too (happens like every other year). So we are having a big dinner with my family and I make the cake (all organic ingredients). It’s a Japanese style strawberry shortcake, meaning it’s a sponge cake base with whipped cream and strawberries.

Japanese style shortcake

sponge cake:

• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

cream chantilly (to be fancy):

• 1 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

rest:

• strawberry or raspberry preserve
• 1 qt fresh strawberries
• parchment paper

eggs and sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs and sugar till very pale yellow and is 3-4 times the original volume using a mixer. Cut parchment paper into circles to fit two 8in round cake pans (fold the paper in halves till you can’t anymore and snip the ends to fit). Oil pan with the parchment thoroughly otherwise it’d be hard to get the bottom out of the pan. Sift in flour and baking powder, fold with large metal spoon and add the vanilla while folding. When fully incorporated pour into pans and bake for 25mins.

Beat cream and sugar till it forms soft peaks, add vanilla and beat a little more. Put away till cake is completely cooled.

Take half the strawberries (the least pretty ones) and slice into 4ths. De-stem the rest for the top.

When cakes are cooled peel off the parchment paper, spread on a thin layer of preserve, top evenly with the sliced strawberries then spread the whipped cream over. Put on the next cake layer, and thin coat of preserve. Frost cake with the remaining cream. I saved some and piped it on with just a snipped sandwich baggie (I never got the hang of using decorating tips). Top with strawberries how you see fit.

-L

Scallion and potatoes

(before baking)

Here I just threw some red scallions and red potatoes together into the oven. It’s really simple and tasty. The scallions really permeate the potatoes and the olive oil.  Spring onions are in season so this would also take advantage of them and the weather (being not too warm to use the oven).

• 2lb red bliss potatoes 
• 1 bunch of scallions or 1 spring onion
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450. Cut potatoes into 4ths or 8ths depending on size. Slice scallions on the diagonal into long pieces.  Toss together with a few tablespoons of olive oil, few dashes of salt and pepper in a baking dish or cast iron pan. Bake for 25mins or till potatoes are done.

 

-L

finger foods & football

It’s no big secret I love Texas football (University of Texas that is). So, it was only fitting that my turn to cook was the night of the Fiesta Bowl (UT v. Ohio and thank goodness we won). I cooked up some eggrolls, made fish tacos, and an artichoke parmesan dip with baguette slices. I didn’t really cook much, although there was plenty of food.

This is actually a tip from Michael. Use Gordon’s original battered fish fillets. Cook in oven as instructed. Once ready, cut up the fish, and then a few fresh limes, tomatoes, lettuce and serve with flour or corn tortillas. The cream sauce in the middle is from Chuy’s (http://www.chuys.com/). It’s their famous jalapeno cream sauce and it is fabulous with everything. It’s especially tasty with fish tacos.

They sell this awesome garlic & herb butter at my local store. I had them slice up a baguette and when I got  home, I spread butter on all the baguette slices and put in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until crispy.

I served this with artichoke garlic dip.

Ingredients:

• 1 clove of garlic (minced)
• 2 cans of artichoke hearts (sliced and diced..as small as you can get it)
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of mayonnaise (i don’t measure but if the artichokes aren’t covered in mayo, you need more)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mince your garlic. Drain the cans of artichoke hearts and then dice them as small as you can get it. Place both garlic and artichokes into a bowl. Add the 1/2 cup mayo and the 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese. Mix well. If needed, add more mayo. Once mixed, place into a baking dish and put in oven for 20-30 minutes, or until slightly browned. Serve with either crackers, baguette slices, or even tortilla chips.

And then there was lumpia, which are Filipino eggrolls. Lumpia is made mostly of meat, and are much smaller than your normal eggroll. My mother made these from scratch. I’m usually the one who makes them, but for New Year’s she said she would. They’re awesome because you can freeze what you don’t cook and they’re good till…forever. hah. Anyways, she had an extra frozen batch from New Years and they are the perfect finger food, so she gave me the rest. They were deep fried to perfection. ^_^ Her exact recipe is secret, but there’s ground pork, shrimp, water chestnuts, green onions, carrots, and then seasonings.

They were fantastic. All the food was pretty good and gone by the end of the night. For dessert, I found the yummiest chocolate ice cream bon bons. So good! The game had a happy ending, so we were all happy campers. Jumping up and down. I apologize to my neighbors for our loudness.

-Chelle

Midnight breakfast sandwich

My late night meal, because I’m on my nocturnal schedule. 

Some sauteed pre-sliced mushrooms and baby spinach with garlic (salt & pepper) with two sunny side up eggs in a freshly fried bun* topped with some shaved Parmesan. All done in roughly 15 minutes.  :) I had almost everything on hand prepped, and a wok full of oil left over from making falafels and of course the dough.

*Using some stored dough, take a small handful, shaped into a flat disk and deep fry medium high.  If the oil is too hot or the shape too thick the center might remain raw and doughy.

I always save a good chunk of old dough to mix into the new dough and over time my dough has developed a nice flavor.

The yolks made it more of a fork-n-knife sandwich.

 

I find it harder to cook late at night now because we keep our new puppy Monty in the kitchen. He would wake up, I’d take him out and back, then he stares at me and subversively beg for food. 

 - Lina

Feels great to be back

mmm adobo!

It was my turn for dinner again this past Monday. I decided I would cook some Filipino food for my friends. I chose pork adobo with rice as the main meal, a simple salad to start with, and a white chocolate cake from a new favorite bakery of mine.

Adobo is pretty simple dish to make. You can use either pork or chicken, but that night was a pork night. It’s one of my favorite dishes, and no matter how I try, mine will never be as delicious as my mother’s. I have no photos of the finished meal, because we were starving and just ate…all of it.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of pork butt (sure you could use other pork parts, but trust me, this works best)
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• 1/3 c. soy sauce (dark soy sauce is awesome for this)
• 1/3 c. vinegar
• 1/2 c. water (should be enough to cover pork)

-Make sure you wash down the pork and pat it dry with a napkin. Then, you’ll want to cut the pork into about 1/2 in. thick slices. With the pork I used, I cut it first into about 5 sections. Then I cut each section into 1/2 in. thick slices. Place pork in pot. Mince 1 clove of garlic and add to pot. Add the soy sauce and the vinegar and mix well with the pork and garlic. Add water. Place on stove on med/high heat and cover. After it’s been boiling about 15 minutes, remove cover and turn heat down to medium. Stir occassionally and cook for another 15 to 20 min. You will know when it’s done when 1. the pork is tender and 2. most of the water has evaporated and you’re left with a nice, dark sauce. If the sauce still looks too watery, turn heat down to med/low and allow it to simmer until not so watery. (I’m so sorry there’s no photo to describe it better) Serve with rice and enjoy! If you really want to go homestyle, serve it with a fried egg. =)

I made a simple salad. I’m no good with making fancy salads, but I did know that Angela & Mike liked the veggies. I’m so thoughtful. ha! So I used green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and cucumber and served it thousand island dressing.

And, in my local Korean grocery store (HMART – 1302 Blalock, Houston TX 77055), there is a bakery called Tous Les Jours. I’ve bought other baked goods from there before, and the breads have always been so yummy and soft and just so tasty. I figured their cakes would be decent, so I bought a small white chocolate cake. It was that soft spongecake often used for Asian cakes, with the tastiest and lightest buttercream icing, and topped with white chocolate shavings. It was delicious. I am going to be buying more cakes from there, let me tell you. The cake was light and fresh. It didn’t feel too heavy and it was perfect for our meal. It also comes in the cutest box with a complimentary plastic cake knife.

P.S. my food blog partner, Lina, and her husband came to visit me last week and we had the most fun time. I made shrimp lumpia and will share that recipe next time!

– chelle