Archive | January, 2011

Coconut Curry Chicken

29 Jan

Woo! Another dinner meal! Not baking, true, but a really beautiful dish that’s not too spicy and easy enough for a weeknight. This recipe, which I adapted from a recipe on allrecipes.com, served 2 — me and the BF. We generally don’t eat very much, so feel free to increase the ingredients here if you’re an average-to-big eater.

I started off by dicing up a couple chicken breasts and setting them aside. In a medium bowl, I mixed together 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, and 1 teaspoon curry powder. Basically, just add in whatever you have in your spice rack. If you’re missing one or two of these things, don’t worry, just go with what you have. I also added in a dash of salt and a dash of pepper. I threw the chicken into the spice bowl and tossed it around until all the pieces were well-coated.

I heated about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and then browned the chicken. Once it was brown, but not fully cooked, I moved the pieces to the outside of the pan and added in 1/2 sliced onion, 1/4 sliced green bell pepper, 1/4 sliced yellow bell pepper, 1/4 sliced red bell pepper and 1 tablespoon minced garlic. (The onions and peppers were julienne cut. They were frozen from the leftovers of another dinner. It is not necessary to have different colored bell peppers — they all taste the same. So unless you have leftovers or plan on saving the leftovers from this recipe, just pick one bell pepper and go with it.) I cooked those till the onions became almost clear. Then I dumped in 1 can of diced tomatoes — you can choose whatever variety you like, but I usually get the ones that already have flavors roasted into them, like the one with basil, garlic, and oregano. I stirred everything up, turned the heat down to a medium-low simmer, and cooked everything for another 6-8 minutes. Then I stirred in 1/2 (8 oz) can of coconut milk. Another minute to heat it through, and I was ready to serve!

Cookin' Curry
I served it up on top of bowls of jasmine rice and served naan on the side. (If you’re lucky enough to have a Trader Joe’s where you live, get your frozen garlic naan from there. It’s easy, cheap, and delicious. I guess if you’re crazy, you could find a recipe online and make it yourself.)

Dinner Is Served

How Sue Sees It:
- I personally thought this was a little bland, but super-flavorful foods tend to be my favorite, like Indian curries, so I think I’m just picky. The BF liked this pretty well.
- You can use regular or light coconut milk, whichever you prefer. Just be sure to shake it up before you open the can.
- Next time I will probably experiment with more healthful ingredients, like chickpeas, eggplant, cauliflower, green beans, etc.

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Double Chocolate Brownies 3 Ways

22 Jan

I had the day off on MLK Day, so what better way to celebrate than make a batch of brownies from scratch? I cracked open my Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies magazine and got to work. (You can see a similar recipe of hers here, but the one in my magazine is slightly different, and that’s what I’ll outline below.) With one batch of brownies, I prepared 3 different types: double chocolate, chocolate chip, and rocky road.

I got to work by preheating the oven to 350 F and preparing my bar pan. I decided to use a bar pan instead of a traditional 9×13 pan for a few reasons: 1) It would make uniformly shaped brownies, 2) I would more easily be able to make multiple types of brownie without them running together, and 3) I got a bar pan for Christmas and hadn’t used it yet. I tried lining the bars with parchment paper because I was worried about them sticking, but that got really annoying after a while, so I gave up on that and just spread a little butter in the pan cups.

Parchment Paper
In a medium bowl, I whisked together 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl, I melted 1 1/4 cups Ghiradelli semisweet chocolate chips and 1 stick of butter. I think the easiest way to do this is just microwave it in 30-second intervals, stirring well in between. (DON’T try to microwave it longer than that without stirring — the chocolate will seize up and become an unusable consistency. Then you’ll have to throw it away and start over, and there’s nothing much sadder than throwing away chocolate.)

Once it was melted, I stirred in 1 1/4 cups white sugar and then 3 eggs. Once those were incorporated, I slowly stirred in the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Then I filled six of the bar pan cups.

Batter
Halfway through, I stirred 1/4 cup Ghiradelli semisweet chocolate chips and 1/4 cup Ghiradelli white chocolate chips into the batter. (If you want chips in all your brownies, stir in about 1 cup of whatever combo of chips you like before you fill the pan.) I filled in the rest of the bar pan cups with this chocolate chip batter.

Filling the pan
I filled another bar pan with the rest of the batter — it only filled another 6 bar pan cups. For these, I baked them about 13 minutes.

Mmm... Brownie Batter
While I waited, I cut up 3 marshmallows into eighths and chopped up a handful of pecans.

MarshmallowsMarshmallows are so sticky! They kept sticking to my fingers, and when I tried to shake them off, they’d fly off and stick to the counter!

Pecans

I pulled the brownies out, topped each one with a few marshmallow and pecan pieces, and then baked them about 5 more minutes.

Rocky Road Brownies

For the plain and the chocolate chip brownies, I baked them about 18 minutes, until a toothpick I inserted into the center of a couple of them came out with only a few moist crumbs (unlike cakes and cupcakes, which should come out clean).

I ended up with 6 double chocolate brownies, 6 chocolate chip brownies, and 6 rocky road brownies. Delicious!

Brownies

How Sue Sees It:

- It’s pretty easy to impress people with an array of brownies by just adding various toppings in different stages of the baking process. Definitely try this! And create your own!
- Lining with parchment paper was a waste of time. It was difficult to get the paper to squeeze in there, and then since it wasn’t perfectly flat, the brownies came out all deformed because they oozed in between the folds of the paper. And it turns out that the pan is non-stick enough to not matter. A little butter in the pan just in case, and I only crumbled two brownies when removing them from the pan.
Deformed Brownie- When you pull the brownies out of the oven, let them cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes. Then remove them from the pan: Run a butter knife along the edges to loosen it up and then scoop them out with a fork. If they mush in on themselves, let them cool a little while longer before attempting to remove any more. (I think the two I crumbled were because I was too impatient and needed to wait for them to cool a bit more.)
- Eat one or two brownies yourself, with a fork straight out of the pan, while they’re still warm. The brownie is nice and warm, and the chips are all melted inside. OMG so good.

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Coconut Cupcakes

20 Jan

I recently brought cupcakes to a coworker’s going away party. I tricked her into telling me that one of her favorite desserts is coconut cupcakes — well, not sure I had her fooled, I think she just went along with it, but that’s cool — then I set about finding the perfect recipe to test out. I adjusted a basic cupcake recipe to include both flaked coconut and coconut milk in the batter, and topped half with (what else?) a coconut cream cheese frosting and the other half with a chocolate coconut frosting.

For the cake: In a large bowl, I used the hand mixer to cream together 2 cups white sugar and 3/4 cup butter. I added 3 eggs and beat well. In another bowl, I whisked together  2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and  2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder. I added this mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with adding 1 cup coconut milk. I added in 1 teaspoon vanilla and then beat the entire thing well.

Coconut Cupcake Batter
I filled a muffin pan with cupcake paper liners and filled the muffin tins about 2/3 of the way with the batter. Then I baked them at 350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes (a toothpick came out clean when I poked them).

Cupcakes in the Oven
I let them cool completely and then covered half of them with a coconut cream cheese frosting. This was super easy: I made my standard cream cheese frosting, adding 2 tablespoons coconut milk when I mixed it up. After it was mixed, I stirred in 1/2 cup shredded coconut. Yum!

The 4 Cs!
For the other half of the cupcakes, I covered them with a super-rich chocolate coconut frosting. Double yum! To make sure the coconut flavor was strong enough, I topped all the cupcakes with extra shredded coconut. Don’t skip this step! The flavors of the cake and the two frostings can really outweigh the coconut flavor without the extra on top.

Chocolate Coconut Frosting
At the party, I set up my cupcake tower and alternated the cupcakes in a black-white-black-white pattern. It looked super awesome!

Coconut Cupcakes

How Sue Sees It:

I really like these because the coconut is there, but not too strong. They also looked really cool alternating between black and white cupcakes on display. But frankly — and this may just be the chocoholic in me — the best part of this project was the chocolate frosting.

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Best Chocolate Frosting Ever

17 Jan

I mixed up this chocolate frosting to cover some coconut cupcakes, and it is TO DIE FOR. It tastes like a chocolate bar turned into cream on top of a cupcake. I will mos def be using this for future baking projects.

With a hand mixer, I creamed 1/2 cup softened butter in a large bowl. I added in  2 1/4 cups powdered sugar and 3/4 cup cocoa. Then I added 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and blended in enough milk to make it a spreadable consistency — about 1/4 cup milk.

[UPDATE: I was making this with Betsy for a cake the other day, and she pointed out that I don't read very well. Apparently I've been using ground sweetened chocolate, which is totally different than cocoa powder. As in, one has additional sugar, and one doesn't. No wonder this frosting tastes amazing! It's got about a million times more sugar than an average frosting. SOOO.... if you want a super delicious frosting that may induce diabetic shock, I recommend using Ghiradelli Sweet Ground Chocolate. 01/21/12]

DELICIOUS. This is just the classic version. To cover my coconut cupcakes, I decided they needed more of a coconut flavor, so I whipped up another batch…

Chocolate Frosting

CHOCOLATE COCONUT FROSTING: In this one, I substituted  1/4 cup coconut milk for the regular milk, and then stirred in 1/2 cup shredded coconut. Still mostly a chocolate flavor, with a slight hint of coconut. Perfect for my cupcakes!

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

How Sue Sees It:
All I have to say is: try this on EVERYTHING!

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Chocolate Coconut Sandwich Cookies

4 Jan

I made these delicious sandwich cookies about a month ago and completely forgot to post them! They’re very classy – sure to impress. I took them to an office holiday party, and they completely disappeared. Here’s the basic plan: make some sugar cookies, shape them into balls, roll them in coconut, bake, then sandwich them together between melted chocolate. Yum!

I pre-heated the oven to 350 F. In a bowl, I whisked together 1 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and  1/2 teaspoon salt.

In another bowl, I beat together 1 1/2 sticks softened unsalted butter, 1/2 cup white sugar, and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar on medium for about 3 minutes. I then beat in 1 large egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. I turned the mixer to low and gradually added in the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

Batter Ingredients
Shredded Coconut
I popped the dough in the fridge for a little while to firm it up and prepared a plate of coconut flakes. After I pulled the dough out, I rolled little one-inch dough balls, rolled them in the coconut, and placed them about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Coconut Dough Balls

I baked them for about 10 or 12 minutes, rotating halfway through, until they were a light golden color around the edges. I moved them to a rack until they were cooled completely.

Coconut Cookies

I melted some milk chocolate and spread it on a quarter of the cookies, topping them with the other cookies to make milk chocolate coconut sandwiches. Then I melted some dark chocolate and spread it on the rest of the batch to make dark chocolate coconut sandwiches. The whole process took quite a while, baking multiple batches of cookies, waiting for them to cool, and then sandwiching the chocolate, but it was well worth it!

Cookie Sandwiches

 

How Sue Sees It:
- This recipe made about 20 sandwich cookies, with a couple extra coconut cookies that cracked or toasted a little too much. I served the milk chocolate and the dark chocolate separated on matching square platters. Classy!
- The coconut flavor was delicious, but not very strong. Next time, I would probably mix about a cup and a half of coconut into the batter. I’d still roll it in coconut, because it looks cool.
- To give this a more wintery, holiday vibe: Roll your dough balls a little smaller so that the final sandwich cookie is more of a round shape. Switch up the filling to white chocolate or vanilla buttercream filling (1 stick of butter, 1 cup confectioners sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, blended on medium-high until pale and fluffy). Roll the final ball in coconut again so that you have fresh coconut sticking to the middle filling. Now you have a coconut snowball!

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Herb-Crusted Pork Roast Dinner

3 Jan

I don’t often post dinner meals, frankly because I bake way more often than I actually cook dinner. Sad, I know. However, here’s a phenomenal one-dish meal that is super easy. Plus, this is technically baking, too. My brother makes this for us at family meals, and I stole the recipe from him to re-create a smaller version at home. But if you feel the need to impress a dinner party, feel free to use a huge cut of pork tenderloin, slice it up fancy, and wow the pants off your guests.

In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme, and 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs. Mix it all together, and add olive oil until it makes a paste-like consistency. Rub the mixture all over your pork roast and then place it in a shallow pan. (For just the BF and me, I use about a 1/2 pound cut of a pork tenderloin. Though I’m sure he would appreciate it if I made more than that.)

Pork in the Pan

Fill the rest of the pan with sliced carrots and diced potatoes. Crack open a bottle of white wine, and pour it right into the pan until it covers the bottom. (I prefer to cut my vegetables smaller and pour enough wine to cover them so they’re more tender.)

Cover with foil and bake at 350 F. My 1/2 pound cut usually bakes for 30-35 minutes. If you use a different size cut, check the packaging – it will often tell you how long to cook per pound. At any rate, the internal temperature of your meat should come to 160 F, and when you cut into it, there should be no pink at all, only white meat (like chicken).

Pork Dinner

How Sue Sees It:
- I’m lazy enough when I serve this at home for the two of us that I just cut it in half and plop it right on our plates. But if you make a larger roast for a dinner party, this looks amazing sliced up and served on a platter. Very impressive!
- If you don’t have any wine (or if you’re not old enough to buy any), water works just fine. I just prefer wine because even if it’s cheap wine, it adds a little more flavor. Plus a glass is nice while I’m waiting for the oven timer to ding.
- Real chefs would probably tell you to not ever substitute dried herbs for a dish like this that features them so prominently. But I won’t lie — I’ve done it. If you substitute dried for fresh herbs, cut back to one-third or one-half the amount. Also, at least make sure that your dried herbs are still good — check the expiration date, and only save dried herbs for about 6 months after you’ve opened them (even if the expiration date hasn’t come yet). They start losing their flavor after that.

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