Fried Plantains

In Haiti, we practically ate fried plantains at every sit-down meal. So when I saw plantains as the local market this weekend, I decided to give it a shot.

(Quick side note : Not knowing whether to purchase a very ripe plantain or a rather green one, I bought both. Turns out, at least for frying, the green plantain was best.

Ingredients :

1 Large Green Plantain
2 Tbs. Canola Oil
Sea Salt

Directions:

1. Slice the peeled plantain on the diagonal. (Start with a diagonal cut in the middle of the fruit and work your way to the ends.)
2. Heat oil in a skillet to Medium heat.
3. When oil is hot, place plantain slices in a single layer in the skillet. Fry for about 5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and crispy. 
4. Remove slices from the pan and drain on paper towels.
5. Immediately after removing from heat, sprinkle the slices with sea salt on both sides.
6. Serve as soon as they are cool enough to eat!

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Oh Yeah Apple Cider Doughnuts

Yep. Yum.

I used this great recipe from SmittenKitchen.com because, as mentioned in her post, the apple cider is reduced to enhance the cider flavor within the dough. Doughnuts are a lot of work to make, but oh sooooo good in the end. These were outside crispy and inside softy.

My additional comments after using this recipe : 

1. My batch yielded about 30 doughnuts though I also used approximately a 3" cutter (SmittenKitchen estimates 18). Beware you might get more than you planned. Yes, it's a good problem to have with donuts.
2. If you don't own a doughnut cutter, use what's around the house. I used a jam jar for the shape and an Airborne® tube for the holes!
3. Double dip all of the glazed donuts. Dip, cool, dip again.
4. Chopped walnuts are a tasty addition to the glazed variety.
5. The freezer and fridge time between steps is necessary, just trust me. 

I want to try this again soon...this time with caramel or maple frosting.

Olive Oil Chocolate Cupcakes

What do you do when you want to make cupcakes, but don't have eggs? Google it. Then you may find out it's possible to make cupcakes with no eggs. This recipe uses olive oil and vinegar instead.

OLIVE OIL CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES, makes 18 cupcakes :

1.5 Cups all-purpose flour

1 Cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 Cupe extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon white vinegar

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup cold water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheight. 

2. Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in a large bow. 

3. Beat in the oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water until smooth. 

4. Pour the mixture into cupcake liners. 

5. Bake for 30 minutes or until cake skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM ICING

2 1/2 Cups confectioners' sugar

3 Tablespoons cocoa

1/4 Cup butter

2 Tablespoons milk or almond milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Hot water as needed

1. In a mixing bowl, cream confectioner's sugar, cocoa, and butter.

2. Beat in milk an vanilla.

3. Add small amounts of hot water until desired spreading consistency is reached. 

SO EASY BUTTERSCOTCH BARK

Butterscotch chips

Two sheets of wax paper, approximately 18" long.

1. Melt butterscotch chips according to package. 

2. Lay one piece of wax paper on smooth countertop.

3. Pour melted chips onto wax paper.

4. Lay other piece of wax paper on top of the chips.

5. Roll out chips between the sheets until thin and even.

6. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or until hard.

7. Break into uneven pieces. 

Easy Sugar Cookie Bars

These are tasty like sugar cookies, but easy like bar cookies (aka, limited frosting efforts required). I want to call something out for this recipe...they taste better after 24 hours. It is as if the flavors have to settle into each other. Really, make 'em a day early and just let 'em lay.

I adapted this recipe from Annie's Eats.

Easy Sugar Cookie Bars
Cookie Dough :
½ cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 T. Lemon Juice
2½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda

 Frosting:
1/2 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 T.  Crisco
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt (I always add a little more to taste at the end
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 T. almond milk for texture (or regular milk is fine too)
Food coloring (optional)

 
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  
2. Grease a 8 x 12″ rimmed baking sheet
3. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and smooth, about 2 minutes.
4. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
5. Blend in the vanilla, and lemon juice.
6. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda.  Stir together with a fork to blend.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and beat on low speed just until incorporated.
8.  Transfer the cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet and press into an even layer.
9. Bake 10-15 minutes, until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting :
10. Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth.
11. Blend in the vanilla, salt, and confectioners’ sugar until smooth.
12. Mix in the milk until desired consistency is reached.
13. Tint as desired with food coloring.
14. Spread over the cookie in the pan.

Eating  :)
15. Wait 24 hours!
16. Cut into bars and serve!



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Three Ingredient Dark Chocolate Truffles

Husband calls this recipe my "best kitchen accident ever."

As you must know now, cake pops (or cake balls), are all the rage. I was playing around with a frosting recipe for some cake balls, and ended up with something different all together (by using ill-conceived proportions :). Also...IT IS ONLY THREE INGREDIENTS.

Three Ingredient Dark Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients:
3.5 oz. Very Dark Chocolate (around 70% cacao content)
3/4 c. Confectioners Sugar
1/2 c. Chopped Pecans (or Walnuts, or favorite nuts)

Directions :
1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second stints, stirring after each until completely melted.
2. Mix in 1/2 cup confectioners sugar. Continue to add sugar until consistency is doughy and sticks together. (My measurements are only estimates)
3. Roll mixture into 1/2" balls.
4. Finely chop the pecans and put them in a wide, shallow bowl.
5. Roll each ball in the pecans until fully coated.
6. Refrigerate until time to eat!

Makes about 10 truffles.

If you are here, You know why

All right people. Voting begins for the most delightful brownie recipe. We will be making whichever recipe gets the most votes at an upcoming social event...so choose wisely!

Vote to the right. The letters coordinate with the following photos :

A. Better Than Crack Brownies

howsweeteats.com

B. Creme de Mente Brownies

cookingbymary.wordpress.com

cookingbymary.wordpress.com

C. Black Cocoa Brownies with Coconut and Rum

janessweets.blogspot.com

Vote away!

Two (Purple) Potato Recipes

So, remember these?

Tonight was purple fingerling potato baking night! I tried two different things with these babies. Smashed and Hashed.

First, Smashed Purple Fingerling Potatoes : 

Ingredients :
1 lbs. purple fingerling potatoes
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbs. fresh cilantro
2 Tbs. goat cheese, crumbled
Salt

Instructions :
1. Boil the potatoes in heavily salted water until tender.
2. Drain potatoes and cut into one inch chunks.
3. Mix potato chunks, lemon juice, cilantro, and goat cheese in a large bowl.
4. Using a fork, smash the potatoes against the bowl wall. Add more cheese or water if consistency is too dry.

____________________________________________________________

Purple Potato Medallions

 

Ingredients :

1 lbs. of purple fingerling potatoes

1 Tbs. olive oil

Sea Salt

Goat Cheese (Optional)

Instructions :

1. Boil potatoes in heavily salted water until softer but still crisp near the inside.

2. Drain and dry.

3. Slice potatoes into 1/8-1/4" medallions.

4. Bring olive oil to medium heat in a skillet.

5. Fry medallions approximately 5 min. per side or until crispy

6. Remove from heat and salt thoroughly.

7. Sprinkle with goat cheese.

I think this meal would be awesome with an over-easy egg on top of the fried potatoes. 

They both taste like normal potatoes, but look so much cooler!!

Mint and Lime Sorbet

MMMMM. This tastes a lot like a between-course palate cleanser at a fancy meal. It refreshes your throat, breath, perspective....

Really though it tastes great. If you are using especially pungent limes, you may want to reduce the amount of lime juice and replace it with more simple syrup (vise versa is also true). This recipe is vegan and gluten free.

 

1 1/4 cup simple syrup (1 1/4 cup sugar + 1 1/4 cup water : bring to boil for one minute until sugar is entirely disolved)
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
5 fresh basil leaves
15-20 fresh mint leaves

1. Finely chop basil and mint leaves.
2. Combine all ingredients in a blender and pulse for 1 minute or until mixture is fairly homogenous.
3. Place in a container with a cover and freeze for approximately 2 hours or until mixture is almost completely frozen.
4. Remove mixture from freezer and put back into the blender. Pulse again until mixture is broken down and smooth.
5. Put mixture back into the covered container and freeze for at least another 2 hours before serving.

Enjoy your sorbet! Eat and be refreshed!

The original recipe from which I based this new one can be found here.

Herbed Mango

Whatcha gonna do with all that mint, all that mint up in your tent(/yard/pot/garden)?

Throw it, literally, on fruit.

This doesn't really count as a recipe. It's just herbs on fruit. But you should know that it's possible and it's delicious.

Herbed Mango
4-5 sprigs of fresh cilantro leaves
2-3 Fresh Tai basil leaves (regular basil is fine too)
5-10 Fresh mint leaves
1 Large mango

1. Cut mango into 1inch cubes. Great mango cutting instructions here.
2. Rough chop all herbs.
3. Mash chopped herbs under a the flat side of a wide blade knife (to bring out the oils)
4. Sprinkle herbs on mango
5. Stir
6. Chill in fridge for 1 hour

That's it! Oh my gosh it's good.

© 2011

Mile-High Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomato Sandwich

Man oh man we love this one. (Notice I haven't posted any recipes in a while...I've had a few misses...and a lot of "no time"s.)

 

Mile High Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomato Sandwich
Ingredients (for 2 sandwhiches)
2 Small Chicken breasts, or 1 Large chicken breast
4 Thick slices of artisan wheat or whole-grain bread (Doesn't have to be expensive...we got ours from Costco)
6-8 Small sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed and patted dry
2 heaping handfuls of spinach leaves
4 Tbs. crumbled feta or goat cheese (Costco carries the BEST feta made with goat and sheep milk)
2 Tbs. of your favorite white vinaigrette dressing (Again with Costco...we used a white balsamic and basil blend) Alternative : Italian dressing
Salt

Instructions
1. Cook the chicken in a skillet so that there is a nice browned skin on both sides. On my stove, that means Medium heat for about 8 minutes on both sides with the cover in place.
2. Slice the chicken breasts in 1/2" thick pieces...nice and chunky...this is a mile high sandwich!
3. Toast the bread
4. On two slices of bread, arrange the thick chicken pieces to cover the entire slice.
5. Top each slice with two tbs. of the goat cheese (we are loading it on!)
6. Dice the sun-dried tomatoes, and salt them lightly. Divide evenly and sprinkle them onto the goat cheese.
7. Load the slices with spinach leaves...it will be a little tricky, but it doesn't have to be pretty! The goal is to get at least two of our daily vegetable servings on this puppy.
8. Drizzle each slice with about 1 Tbs. of your white vinaigrette.
9. Top with the remaining slices of bread.
10. Chow.
11. In our house, the next step is "Repeat"...because Husband wants another one.
 
© 2011

Fresh Kale Salad with Tangy Lemon Dressing

Ha. Originally I titled this post "Kale Salad with Lemon-Mustard Dressing." These names are maybe descriptive, but not creative or enticing. Hm. Update! That's much better yes?

Monday has become Vegan Monday. So typically, Monday for dinner, it is time to get creative. Here's what we made tonight :

Fresh Kale Salad
1 Bunch Red Kale
1 Medium Green Bell Pepper
1 Cup Shredded Carrots
1/2 Cup Walnut Pieces
1/2 Lemon's Lemon Zest

1. Remove Kale leaves from stalks. Break into bite sized sections. Wash, and dry.
2. Toss remaining ingredients with Kale and dressing of your choice.

Tangy Lemon Dressing
1 Medium Lemon's Juice
1/2 Lemon's Zest
1 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 tsp. brown mustard
1 Dash Salt
1 tsp. sugar
4-5 Leaves fresh cilantro
3-4 Leaves fresh basil

1. Smash and mince the fresh herbs.
2. Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly with a whisk.

The lemon makes is fresh, the Kale makes is hearty. Mmm. The best part of this combo is the acidity of the lemon on the sweetness of the green pepper.

©2011