Sweet N Savory

Lookie what I got!

I commented on one of Blake Makes giveaway posts last month and ended up receiving three 2oz chocolate bars from Amano - Madagascar, Cuyagua and Ocumare.  I was super excited to see the box on my front porch last week.  With the warm weather we’ve been having in Texas, I was afraid the bars may have been affected, but they were just fine. 

From Amano’s website:
Describing Madagascar “Light chocolate flavor with intense flavor notes of citrus and raspberry.”
Describing Cuyagua “Rich chocolate flavor with flavor notes of spice and melon.”
Describing Ocumare “Rich chocolate flavor with flavor notes of red fruit.”

From the descriptions alone I knew I’d enjoy the Cuyagua Premium Dark Chocolate the best.  But I think it’s a tie between that one and the Ocumare Grand Cru Dark Chocolate.  If the Madagascar Premium Dark Chocolate didn’t have such a strong flavor of raspberry, I may have enjoyed it more, but I am just not a raspberry lover.

I’ve slowly been nibbling on these at work.  It’s a nice mid-afternoon treat. 

(Yes, I sucked it up and took a picture with my stupid PowerShot S230.)

I just thought I’d share my mid-afternoon snack with you.  :-)  Yep, the outer crust. 

I made a batch of chewy cocoa brownies last night.  I pretty much followed this recipe with the following modifications:

1 stick margarine & 1/2 stick of butter (b/c that’s what I had)
Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa instead of Nestle (b/c that’s what I had)
no nuts and no powdered sugar
added some chopped semi-sweet chocolate on top befor baking

The brownies themselves were for little man’s teachers.  It’s teacher appreciation week and since I’m a food-gifter, I made some brownies.  I cut the “crusts” off so I could have pretty, uniform squares.  How anal of me, I know. 

I’ve been dying for a reason to make some brownies.  :-P  I haven’t had alot of success when using chocolate bars.  I don’t know if it’s the chocolate itself (I usually use Baker’s) or if I’m “cooking” the chocolate too long.  But, let me tell you…these cocoa brownies are to die for.  It had the right texture, flavor, and sweetness. I’m totally sold on using cocoa powder instead of chocolate bars. I may venture the way of the bar…just because I’m like that. But, if I need a sure-fire brownie, cocoa’s its for me.

I think stirfries are an awesome way to create a complete meal all in one skillet (ok, I had to use another pot to boil the noodles). You can use almost any combination of proteins, vegetables, seasonings and grains/noodles. And this stirfry did not dissapoint.

I had some soba noodles I’d picked up from my trip last week that were just screaming to be used as well as some ground pork sitting in the freezer. Thus a new stir-fry was born.

Pork & Soba Noodle Stir Fry
Yield: Feeds 4

Ingredients:
1 package soba noodles
1 lb ground pork (could use any type of proten)
½ large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced or grated, divided
2 tsp ginger, divided
Olive oil
1-2 zucchini(s) sliced
1-2 carrot (s) sliced
1 broccoli crown, sliced
¼ cup water
½ cup soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 T brown sugar
1 tsp red curry paste

In a bowl or measuring cup whisk the water, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, red curry paste, 1 clove of garlic and 1 tsp of ginger; set aside.
In a large skillet or wok, brown the ground pork with the onion; add 2 cloves of the garlic and 1 tsp of ginger about half way through.
While the pork is browning, cook the soba noodles as directed on the package. The longest part is getting the water to boil.
Remove the mixture from the skillet and add olive oil, then zucchini, carrots and broccoli. Sauté for a few minutes – do not let them cook too long. You want them to keep some of the crispness. You could add almost any other vegetables as well. Just make them all about the same size and put the longer cooking vegetables in first.
Return the pork mixture to the skillet and combine. Add the soba noodles and the liquid. Let the liquid heat up and serve.
If you want more of a thick sauce on the noodles, you could add a cornstarch slurry (mix about 1 T cornstarch with 2 T cold water) to the warm mixture and let it sit on the heat until the sauce has thickened.

I’d love to show you photos of this cupcake, but unfortunately I can’t. My sister thought she lost her camera (about a year ago) and purchased a new one. She found the old one and let me use it instead of selling it because of the warranty on the camera. But, about a month ago, she dropped hers and now, it’s busted. So, when she came to visit last month, I handed over her old one. And I am having the hardest time deciding on a replacement. The last camera I owned was (is) a Canon PowerShot S230 at a whopping 3.2 mp. Makes for some s-l-o-w picture taking and way too bright photos. I gave up using it. I’ve been doing some research on the different Canons and possibly Nikons. I don’t want to go the path of an SLR, because honestly, I don’t need that much “power”. I just want a point-and-shoot that takes nice clear photos. For my family photos and my food photos. I can only do so much research and read so many reviews. If anyone out there has any suggestions, or just LOVES their camera, please leave a comment or email me (susansweetnsavory at gmail dot com).

Now on to the cupcakes. I’ve wanted to try these out ever since I saw them on Everyday Baking. I think I’ve stuck to making alot of cookies and loaves, so I’m trying to expand my reportoire. I adapted the recipe to only make a dozen.

Black and White Cupcakes
Yield: one dozen

Ingredients:
Vanilla Batter:
4 T unsalted butter, softened
¾ C + 2 T flour
1 t baking powder
¼ t salt
6 T sugar
1 egg
½ t vanilla
¼ C milk

Chocolate Batter:
4 T unsalted butter, softened
½ C + 2 T flour
¼ C cocoa powder
1 t baking powder
¼ t salt
6 T sugar
1 egg
½ t vanilla
¼ C milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter & flour muffin 12 or use paper liners.
Prepare both vanilla and chocolate batters as follows:
Whisk flour (and cocoa), baking powder and salt; set aside.
Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; add vanilla and mix until combined.
Beat in half flour mixture, followed by milk and end with remaining flour mixture. Mix until just incorporated.
Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, with half chocolate and half vanilla. I used a small scoop to divid the batter.
Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 22 to 24 minutes.
Cool cupcakes in pan, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

I frosted these with chocolate buttercream using half unsweetened and half semi-sweet chocolate. Good thing I did, as the cupcakes lacked flavor, because I forgot to add the VANILLA to both batters! Sheesh. Of all things to forget. I blame it on the fact that I was using a handmixer and not my standmixer. But I had two batters to make and I didn’t want to clean and rinse. Bad move. My handmixer is mega-fast, even on the lowest setting. I think I covered the entire counter with butter and sugar. ACK! So, alas, they turned out pretty, the flavor was very flat. Oh…and I overcompensated (on accident) with the frosting. It had way too much vanilla - and unfortunately it was the imitation kind. I know! I know! What’s wrong with me?! It had a very alcoholic flavor (is that even the proper use of the word?). *sigh*

Stay tuned for my Pork & Soba Noodle Stir-fry. That turned out MUCH better.

I’m in Dallas for a few days this week taking a MS Project class. Of course while I’m here I have to hit up a few stores and restaurants. There are a lot of different places I’d like to try, but I’m only here for a couple days and I wasn’t driving.

Let’s see…I picked up some spring rolls and seaweed salad at Eatzi’s last night, had a chop salad at Baker Bros for lunch, enjoyed some spring rolls and “tiger tears” at Royal Thai for lunch, walked around Northpark for an hour, picked up Kitchen Confidential and The Amateur Gourmet at Half Price Books and bought some ramekins, soba noodles, Valrhona semi-sweet chocolate bar, panko breadcrumbs and St Arnolds beer at World Market. I’d say it was a pretty successful trip. Ha!

Let’s just hope I can put it all to good use and come up with a delightful dish to blog about.

The food blogosphere was full of Carrot Cake this week, from the participants of Tuesdays with Dorie.  Since I know I don’t have the time (or the cookbook), I just read through all the wonderful posts and dream about taking a huge bite out of each one of their creations.  BUT!  When it comes to Carrot Cake…I stop dreaming and I start baking.  I love the flavor and the ingredients and how when I take a bite, there’s the carrot and the cake and the raisins and in this case the slight pineapple flavor, but only because I know it’s in there. 

I adapted my recipe from a Carrot Cupcake from Everyday Baking and a Carrot Cake from the Joy of Cooking.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
3/4 C unsalted butter, melted
1 C light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
2 T plain low-fat yogurt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 C grated carrots (approx 4-5 carrots)
1/4 C raisins
1/2 C crushed pineapple, lightly drained

Frosting:
8 oz low fat cream cheese, softened
4 T butter, softened
1 1/2 C confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup toasted coconut

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour, or line with parchment, or spray two 8×8 square cake pans (or, you can use just one 8×8 and cut in half later).
In a bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and then add in the carrots, raisins and pineapple.
In a separate bow whisk the butter, brown sugar, egg, yogurt and vanilla.
Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture, until combined.
Divide between the two cake pans (or just put in one).
Bake for 25-30 minutes (for one cake pan, add about 5 minutes) or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack before frosting.

Frosting:
Beat cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar and vanilla until smooth.
Frost bottom layer and then place the second layer on top. Frost the top and sides of the cake.
After frosting the cake, top with toasted coconut.

I think next time I’d add untoasted coconut to the frosting, instead of toping with the toasted coconut. The texture just wasn’t quite right for me.

Seriously!  Aren’t those the ugliest bagels you’ve ever seen?  I have no aesthetic skills whatsoever.  Ok, maybe we can blame it on the fact that this is the first time I’ve ever made bagels and I’m not even sure my dough was like it was supposed to be.  But, damn if they didn’t taste just AWESOME out of the oven.

I live in a town that does not have a bagel shop!!!!! I LOVE BAGELS. When I lived in Dallas I could at least go to the local Einstein Brothers and get a decent bagel.  But here in this small backwards town, the only place I can get a bagel…in the grocery store (or that big stupid cheap chain store super place).  And they are firm.  Not soft and chewy.  You have the toast the heck out of them to eat them.  ACK!

So, in my quest to find a decent bagel, I decided I’d make them.  I adapted  (ok I halved and substituted) my recipe from Baking and Books.  I wasn’t sure how the bagels would turn out and I didn’t want to waste all that dough or even eat a dozen bagels.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone make bagels, so I wasn’t sure if I had gotten my dough to the right consistency.  And I wasn’t even sure I was kneading correctly.  Is there a correct way to knead?  Anyway…

I am most certainly going to try again, because like I said, they were yummy.  I may do a bit more research before I try again, but all-in-all it was much simpler than I thought it’d be. 

I don’t have much in the way of pictures today, but I do have some comments on lots of things we ate and experimented on this weekend.  My family came to visit and I think we ate, cooked, baked and ate our way through the weekend.  :-)  My mom (as most moms are) the best cook in the world.  :-)  Nothing compares…no restaurants, no one else, nothing.  And she’s like most Korean moms…no recipes!  It’s all in her head and it just comes out in the food. 

We had plans to go to the park Saturday afternoon so little man could get some play time in.  It was 60 degrees and windy as all get out.  The sun was out and it provided some warmth, but with that wind it was a whipping.  We only stayed for an hour and headed back home to start the Korean feast. YUM!

My mom is awesome, can I just say, awesome! Whenever she comes to visit, she brings food and presents.  And when I say food, I mean, already prepared food.  She brought a cooler full of goodies - jjang-jolim (braised beef with hard boiled eggs), kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage), ssang-sun jeun (lighly pan fried fish), all the makings of jap-chae (noodle dish), ggim (salted seaweed sheets) and bulgogi (marinated beef), just to name a few!  We had all of that for dinner.  I was in food heaven…and later, in a food coma.  I have no recipes to share with you, just the fact that I had an awesome meal, cooked mostly by my mother, which is a rare treat now that we live a few hundred miles away. 

My sister, the 26 year old NYC attorney, wanted to make some baked goodies while she was here.  She’s the one that gifted me with my KA stand mixer at Christmas AND her kitchen in her studio apt is about the size of my bathroom, how could I deny her?  Her favorite baked goodies are as follows (in no particular order): Whoopie Pies, S’mores & Rice Krispie (or is it Krispy?) Treats.  There is a single common thread, that she someone failed to notice…MARSHMALLOW!  My mom had already made and toted the Rice Krispy Treats from KS to TX, so we decided on Whoopie Pies.  I’d made a pumpkin version back in October and those turned out pretty good (the link I had to that recipe is no longer available!)  This time we opted for the cocoa version.  I never realized what a difference the type of cocoa you use makes.  Now that I’m actually paying attention, I can taste the difference between Nestle Tollhouse and the Hershey Special Dark (those are my only options in the local stores).  When I was looking around for a Whoopie Pie recipe we could start with, I came across a recipe for an Oatmeal Cream Pie with cocoa in the cookie.  Even though it was a Whoopie Pie, it was close enough, so we went for it. 

If we’d judged it as a Cream Pie alone, it would have been great.  My only issue was I couldn’t quite get the filling to the consistency I wanted.  It could be that I didn’t use enough sugar or that I’d used neufchatel instead of the full fat cream cheese or that I didn’t half the recipe properly.  But regardless they were still good.  However, my sister still had her mind set on Whoopie Pies, and these just didn’t cut it for her. 

That was Friday night during our game night - playing Cranium and Life (the new electronic version - it’s more strategic and has no paper money!  all done on Visa cards!).  On Saturday, after the Korean feast, she wanted to make up some real Whoopie Pies.  We’d stopped by the store on the way home from the park since all my marshmallow fluff had been used up in our attempt to make some s’mores bars (which was a total debacle because the recipe called for marshmallows and not the creme/fluff, so the consistency was…interesting).

We based the pies on this recipe from epicurious.  The cake part was so soft and moist.  But the filling part just didn’t stand up.  It just kept oozing out of the pie and whenever I tried to take it bite - PLOP - it went on the floor, counter, or my fingers.  Maybe I don’t know what the texture should really be.  Maybe it’s supposed to be that loose, but I’m thinking next time I might even try some gelatin.  That’s what I used for the pumpkin version last time and the filling on those stood up much better. 

Oh, and Friday night, I made some Creamy Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas topped with some spicy Pepper Jack Cheese.  My dad thought they were delicious and commented that he didn’t know I could cook such good food.  *sigh*  I admit, I wasn’t very interested in cooking back in high school.  I was more interested in how I could get myself out of the house.  And with my dad, it’s really hard to tell sometimes if he’s serious, or kind of messing with my head.  But, I’ll take it as a compliment this time. 

Whew.  I think I’ve covered most of it…and I was so sad to see them go.  They really loved spending time with their grandson/nephew and thought he was just the funniest kid you’ve ever seen.  They laughed and giggled at just about everything he did and commented on how bright he was for a 20 month old.  I was so proud.  :-)  I wished time could stay still and we could all be together for awhile, right then and there.  But, alas, Monday came around and the real world came crashing in.  *sigh*

So, this post by Kristin at Dine and Dish inspired me to try another batch of homemade biscuits.  I told myself I’d get it some day.  But today (or rather Saturday) was not that day.  I swear I did everything I was supposed to (using the food processor).  I didn’t play with the dough too much.  There were pea-sized pieces of cold butter in the mixture.  I baked them for the minimum amount because that’s how my oven works.

The color of the biscuits was the first thing turned out weird.  It had flecks of brown everywhere.  I wonder if it’s because I use unbleached flour?  But if you look at Kristin’s biscuits, they don’t look like what I saw.  No, I didn’t take any pictures…cuz they were ugly and I didn’t feel like showing ugly. 

The texture on the inside was ok, but if you touched the outside, it was pretty solid and crisp.  Blah! 

I’ll try again…later…but it may be awhile.  In the meantime Pillsbury makes an awesome frozen biscuit you can stick in the oven.  :-\

pre-crust

I’ve noticed my posts have been leaning toward the baking side, which a dash of chocolate chips.  :-P  I figure I’ll stay with that trend and give you a savory pie. 

Back in September 2005, my sister threw me a bridal/wedding shower.  The theme, of course, was food.  The attendees (all 6) were supposed to bring a favorite recipe along with a food related gift, any advice for the soon-to-be-wed and a drawing of the happy couple.  :-)  I haven’t laughed so hard in long time.  One of my friends had her kids draw the picture…it was so cute. 

As I was flipping through the collection, I came across a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie.  I hadn’t eaten a pot pie in ages and I had a leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge just waiting to be used.  I also wasn’t going to attempt a crust, because there was this lovely box with 2 pie crusts in my fridge.  I’m not afraid to take shortcuts…especially with a toddler running around the house…who is always inevitably hungry before dinner’s ready.  So, Sunday night, I whipped up the filling for the “pie”, let it cool, then topped it with one of the already made crust and stuck it in the fridge.  Monday night, popped it in the oven for about 30-45 minutes (covered it for about the last 15 so the crust didn’t burn) and voila, dinner’s on the table.

I didn’t take a picture of the end result, because I forgot…and I had just come home from the gym and was starving, so photography was the last thing on my mind.  However, if you had seen the pie, you would say to yourself, what IS that?  Apparently leaving the pie in the fridge overnight, not a good idea.  Even though the filling was cooled, the moisture from the filling did something strange to the center of the crust.  It didn’t really crisp up.  But, I’m sure there are man of you out there that would say, DUH!  Oh well.  It still tasted good, and that’s all that matters. 

The original recipe, as it was written called for some peas and no wine.  I however decided to experiment on it a bit and took out the peas and added some white wine.  I’m not a huge pea lover.  If anything, I enjoy the canned peas better than frozen peas.  I can’t say I’ve had the pleasure of eating fresh peas.  But, I digress.  Here’s the recipe:

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
6 T butter
1/2 onion, chopped
handful of pearl onions (instead of 1/2 onion + pearl onions, you could just use a whole onion. I like the flavor of the pearls.)
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
1-2 carrots, chopped
6 T flour
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup wine
3/4 cup milk
(the liquid ratios can be modified to your liking)
2-3 cups of chicken (I used about 3/4 of a rotisserie chicken, just what I had leftover.)
Salt
Pepper
Poultry Seasoning
Hot sauce
Refrigerated pie dough, 1 sheet

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt butter in a pan. Saute the onions, celery and carrots for a few minutes, until they are soft.
Add the flour and stir for a minute.
Add the liquids and let the mixture boil for a few minutes to thicken.
Add the chicken and season to taste.

If you want to make your own crust, have at it. I didn’t have the time or the inclination (although it is on my list of try-to-do’s).
Top with the crust and bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is light brown and the filling is hot.