Dry-Rubbed Cauliflower "Wings"

I know this blog is rife with recipes for my favorite cruciferous vegetable, but I'm going to add one more: dry-rubbed cauliflower "wings." Why "wings?" Because the word is more appealing than "chunks," "blobs," or even "florets," and because the recipe was inspired by a local restaurant's chicken wings. 

I've used this dry rub on both wings and other chicken parts. The whole cumin and fennel seeds create a unique flavor combination that would also work on pork ribs, steak, and even fish. However, we're trying to eat more vegetarian dishes at Casa Minx. Cauliflower is my favorite meat alternative because it's nutrient dense, low in calories, and full of fiber. Plus its relatively neutral flavor works with most kinds of seasoning. If you're thinking, "blech! I hate cauliflower," well, you should probably stop reading.

The amount of savory spices in this recipe calls out for the balance of a rich and creamy sauce, so I served it with a homemade blue cheese dressing made with one of my favorite blues, Point Reyes Original Blue. Use your favorite; even the pre-crumbled stuff is fine. If you don't like blue cheese, then try feta. And if you are one of those weirdos that likes ranch dressing with their chicken wings, then omit the cheese entirely and increase the amount of TJ's Green Goddess seasoning to a full teaspoon. Taste for seasoning before adding more salt, as the GG already contains salt.

There's not a lot of either heat or sweetness in this recipe, so if you'd like a bit more of both, a drizzle with hot honey might make you happy. (I recommend Runamok Chipotle Morita honey.) 

Dry-Rubbed Cauliflower "Wings" with Bleu Cheese Dressing

For the cauliflower:

1 batch dry rub (recipe follows)

1 large head cauliflower

3 T extra virgin olive oil

1 batch blue cheese dressing (recipe follows)

To make the cauliflower: Put the dry rub into a gallon-sized plastic zip-top bag.  

Trim off the tough green leaves from the bottom of the cauliflower and discard. Rinse the head and shake dry. Trim into florets, keeping small ones (1 1/2" and smaller) whole and cutting larger ones in half or quarters. Place the florets into the zip bag with the spices, zip the bag, and shake to distribute the spices. Open the bag and add the olive oil (more, if your head of cauli was particularly large). Push out the air, re-seal the bag, and shake it around to distribute the spice mix and oil as evenly as possible onto the cauliflower. (You could also do this in a large bowl, using your hands to toss the spices and vegetable together, but the bag is much neater.)

Put the bag in the fridge to marinate.

About 90 minutes before you're ready to eat, preheat the oven to 400F. 

Line a large baking sheet with foil and dump the bag of cauliflower onto it. Arrange the florets so they are more or less evenly distributed. Place tray in oven and bake cauliflower for 20 minutes. Remove tray from oven, and turn florets over with tongs. Put back in oven for another 15-20 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender but not mushy, and browned.

Serve hot, with blue cheese dressing.

For dry rub:

1 T sweet paprika

1 T smoked paprika

1 T whole cumin seed

1 T whole fennel seed

2 t salt

1 t dried thyme

1 t Urfa Biber or your favorite chili flakes

1/2 t onion powder

1/2 t garlic powder

1 t ground black pepper

1/4 t ground white pepper

To make dry rub: Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

For bleu cheese dressing:

1/4 c sour cream

1/4 c mayonnaise 

2 ounces crumbled blue cheese (I used Point Reyes Original Blue)

1 T fresh lemon juice

1/2 t Trader Joe's Green Goddess seasoning

Pinch kosher salt

Pinch ground white pepper

To make dressing: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Use a fork to combine, crushing the cheese into small bits to distribute through the dressing. Refrigerate until ready to use.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Crunchy Stuff

I stumbled upon SAUCE UP Almond Crunch Sauce while perusing Amazon for chili crisp. Like chili crisp, it's a sweet and oily combination of fried alliums and chiles, but also contains chopped almonds and a bit of dried thyme. It's different and delicious and adds a whole 'nother level of texture to dinner. But as much as I like this product, this post isn't going to exhort you to buy it. It's going to encourage you to make your own. 

What I've been doing is to finish most of the jar, then add my own nuts, seasonings, and oil to extend the product. This stuff comes in handy when I have a dinner planned that might be somewhat lacking in texture variety, perhaps braised chicken with rice or potatoes and green beans. Thought it might be perfectly tasty, there's nothing exciting texture-wise in that dish. It needs a little crunch to zhuzh it up, give it a little spark. Sometimes I'll make up a type of dukkah, a dry blend of spices and nuts that originated in Egypt. And other times, I want something a bit oilier.

I keep a variety of both raw and roasted nuts in the freezer. Some nuts, like hazelnuts, go rancid in a ridiculously quick amount of time. Others I just don't consume fast enough. Freezing keeps them fresher for a much longer stretch of time. I may grab a couple ounces of roasted almonds or sunflower seeds which I toss into a sandwich bag and bash into smaller pieces with a meat tenderizer. These go into the mostly empty sauce jar along with a pinch of kosher salt and a glug of olive oil. Depending on the flavors of my meal, I might stir in a pinch of za'atar and toasted sesame seeds, or curry powder and nigella seeds, or toasted fennel seeds and dried oregano. For heat, I like adding a bit of Urfa Biber (a Turkish dark burgundy chile flake with a somewhat smoky flavor) or Aleppo pepper. I stir and taste and reseason, and when it tastes good, I put the jar in the fridge. (I always keep my jar in the fridge, so the nuts and oil stay in a cool and dark place, to stave off rancidity.) 

Recently, I decided to use TJ's Gluten-free Battered Plant-based Fish Fillets in tacos. Honestly, I find the average fish taco to be incredibly boring, so I would never order one in a restaurant. Battered fish (or vegan fish) is bland. Tortillas--especially commercial ones--are bland. Slaw might be vinegary, but raw cabbage is boring. Basically, the usual mayonnaise-based (more blandness) topping is left to do all the heavy lifting, flavor-wise, and it doesn't do a particularly good job of it. At least there's a bit of texture going on with the cabbage and hopefully the fish batter doesn't go completely soggy before being consumed. To me, what this dish needs to be more appetizing is a sauce that is both crunchy and spicy. An almond crunch sauce with a Mexican vibe.  I combined a little olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a goodly amount of Tapatio Picante Seasoning with freshly toasted and cooled pumpkin seeds (a small handful) and cumin seeds (1/4 teaspoon-ish) to make a textural condiment that added just the right amount of extra pizazz to dinner.

Need more than a rough guideline? Here's a "recipe." If you try it, or something like it, do let me know in the comments.

Homemade Savory Nut Crunch

About 4 ounces of your favorite nut(s) and/or seed(s), which may include: roasted and unsalted almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, and sesame seeds, broken into pieces roughly 1/4" - 1/8"

Enough neutral oil or good olive oil to moisten the mixture without making it liquidy, a tablespoon or so

A pinch or more to taste of dry herbs and savory spices of your choice, such as thyme, oregano, za'atar, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, curry powder, jerk seasoning, nigella seeds, etc.

A pinch of kosher salt

Pepper flakes, such as Urfa Biber, Aleppo, gochugaru, Ancho, etc. (optional)

Combine everything in a bowl, stir and taste. Add more of anything or everything depending if it's too dry or not salty enough. You could also add a tiny bit of sweetener (sugar, honey, maple syrup) - a quarter teaspoon or so, if it seems appropriate. Garlic or onion powder would also not be out of place here, though I don't tend to add either. 

Store in a covered container in the fridge. 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Faux Crab Cakes

hearts of palm crab cake with corn salad and fonio pilaf

It has not escaped my attention that we've been eating pretty poorly recently. Poorly as in health-wise. We've consumed a lot of tasty food, but nothing with enough vegetables or fiber to make it beneficial to our physical well-being. Sure, a laminated pastry stuffed with pistachio cream does wonders for the psyche while it's being consumed, but ultimately it's adding to the layer of fluff that has been increasing around my midsection over the past year. 

I have the privilege of being able to work from home four days per week until Labor Day, so there's no excuse not to put a proper dinner on the table most nights. Plus, it's summer, so fresh produce is bountiful and delicious, and our balcony herb garden is ready to add flavor to any meal. While we Minxes are not vegan or even vegetarian, I've been trying to use less meat recently. Tofu has been in heavy rotation, and sometimes there's no meat substitute on the table at all. 

The other day, I recalled that we had a recipe for faux crab cakes, made with hearts of palm, in our second book, Baltimore Chef's Table. The recipe came from Great Sage, a very good vegan restaurant in Howard County. Rather than dig up the book and use that recipe, I decided to see what other variations on the theme could be found on the Internet. I found a couple of versions that included canned chickpeas. Yuck. No thanks. Another recipe called for sautéing the hearts of palm with celery and onion, but I wanted something even easier. I did pull out our cookbook and saw that Great Sage baked the hearts of palm for a bit, presumably to dry them out. It was 92F on the day I planned on making these, so turning on the oven was out of the question. It also used celery and peppers. What I wanted was a good old-fashioned Maryland-style crab cake with no extraneous vegetables or legumes. Just a simple binder, filler, and Old Bay Seasoning. So I made up my own recipe, and I gotta say, it turned out very well. Even the dog--who hates vegetables--liked them.

Faux Crab Cakes

This recipe can easily be doubled. 

1 14-oz can hearts of palm

2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoon mayonnaise (use vegan mayo if you are so inclined)

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon gluten-free panko (regular is fine, too)

Oil for frying (corn, canola, whatever you like)

Drain the hearts of palm and place them on a clean kitchen towel. Gather up the edges of the towel and twist them tightly together. Over the sink, wring out as much water from the vegetables as possible. You'll have crushed the hearts of palm in the process, but not enough. Using your hands, rip the vegetable into small chunks and pieces to resemble crab meat.

hearts of palm before squeezing, after squeezing, and after breaking down into small pieces.
Kinda crabby-looking, eh?

Put the hearts of palm pieces in a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Form into two rounded patties of equal size.

Add about 2 tablespoons of oil to a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, put in the palm patties. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until golden brown. Flip and brown the other side.

Serve with your favorite mayonnaise-based condiment, like tartar sauce. I served mine with an esquites-style corn salad and Yolele fonio pilaf.

2 servings.

Tell me that doesn't look like a crab cake.

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Dorot Roasted Brussels Sprouts Recipe Revisted (sponsored)

As promised, here's my interpretation of George Duran's brussels sprouts recipe, as published here just before Thanksgiving.  

I took at look at the Dorot Gardens website to see where their frozen herb cubes were sold. Not only does the site say in what stores their products are available, but also which products. Originally we were going to go to Safeway, but the one nearest to me only had the garlic and basil. The closest ShopRite, however, had all three herb cubes, plus the garlic and the glazed onions. As it turned out, they were out of parsley. No worries, I substituted the onion cubes for the parsley, and it worked out just fine. See below for my additional changes.

 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Herbs and Alliums

2 lb brussels sprouts

2 T extra virgin olive oil

Salt 

2 cubes Dorot Gardens Basil

2 cubes Dorot Gardens Sauteed Glazed Onions

2 cubes Dorot Gardens Cilantro

2 cubes Dorot Gardens Garlic

Trim the stem end off the sprouts, remove the outer layer of leaves and any others that look less than fresh, and cut the sprouts in half.

 

Preheat your oven to 375°F

Put the prepared brussels sprouts on a foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with a few pinches of salt. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and stir (or use tongs to turn each piece individually). Return to oven for another 20 minutes.

While the sprouts are roasting, place all frozen Dorot Gardens cubes in a microwave safe bowl and nuke for 1 minute until cubes are mostly melted. Stir to combine the various flavors.

After the second 20 minutes in the oven, remove the baking sheet and pour the herbs over the sprouts. Using tongs, toss the sprouts with the herbs so they are well mixed. Put back in the oven and cook an additional 10 minutes. At this point the sprouts should have some serious brown bits and crispy leaves here and there. (Sometimes I turn the oven off and leave the sprouts in for 15-20 minutes in the residual heat to get extra crispy without really cooking them further.) Dump into a serving bowl and pass around the table.

Serves 4-6. 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Blogging Minxeats

I haven't written about a restaurant here in quite a while, and I hope to rectify that situation. I'm going to blame Instagram for making me lazy. It's too easy to post a photo with a short caption and call it a day. Creating reels, on the other hand, can be quite taxing. And at the end of the day, I get no more likes, comments, or followers from putting in more work. Instagram has fucked with their algorithms entirely too much for my taste, and I am finding the whole experience unpleasant. Maybe I should get back to blogging more regularly, huh?

Sadly, blogging seems to have become the jurisdiction of Stepford Wives. Most blogs have a similar appearance, and possibly an ampersand in the name. They all have far too many photos for my taste, the same essential shot taken from slightly different angles, as if the blogger couldn't make up his/her/their mind about which one to use, so hell, they'll use them all. IMHO, blogs were better when they were messy and unprofessional. And real. So you won't find me posting a professionally taken headshot in full hair and makeup, looking coyly over my shoulder or holding a tray of cookies. No string of photos depicting brownies stacked in piles of three, piles of two, and singly, plus a couple images of the baking pan with both cut and uncut treats. Oh, and another one with brownies on a plate with a glass of milk on the side, in soft focus. What you will find is probably a lot of gabbing, because I am a storyteller and I like to talk, but feel free to scroll down to the recipe if you can't deal with my writing. (Apparently the number one comment about food blogs is, "just give me the damn recipe." It's not a blog then, is it? It's a recipe. You want those, then buy a cookbook. I have written a couple, which you can find here. Oh, and there's a nice selfie on that page, in case you need to know what I look like.)

Sorry, if you've read this far and expected to find a brownie recipe. There is none on this post. If you've gotten this far and still expected a recipe, clearly you didn't read any of the words preceding this paragraph. Go back and read them. And then go back and read some old posts. New ones are forthcoming, I promise. Some will even have recipes. And I will get back into restaurant reviews. Maybe even a recap, who knows? 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Moroccan Spiced Cauliflower Steaks with Tahini Yogurt Sauce, and Carrot Salad

I'm a huge fan of cauliflower and have enjoyed it since I was a kid. I can eat it boiled into mush with butter and salt, no problem, but my husband would rather something more interesting be done with this particular veg. Luckily, cauliflower takes to seasoning pretty well, so adding a rub or sauce make a big difference in the flavor (though your house will still smell of cauliflower).

I've been craving Mediterranean/North African flavors, so when I received a jar of their Moroccan Grill Spice Rub from Serious Foodie, I knew I was going to be putting it on everything. It has a harissa vibe, but I don't find it nearly as spicy-hot. Moroccan Grill Spice Rub gets its chile vibe from guajillo chiles, which are on the mild side but have a great fruity/smoky quality. In any case, I knew it would be a flavorful addition to a dish of cauliflower with a tahini yogurt sauce. Figuring a sweet-ish element wouldn't be unwelcome on this plate, I also made a shredded carrot salad. Hubby doesn't like couscous, so quinoa acted as a stand-in neutrally-flavored starchy element to the meal.

Cauliflower always looks nice cut into "steaks," but don't freak out if your cauliflower doesn't cooperate! Sometimes it just doesn't work out. To be very honest, the time I made this recipe to photograph, I got only one nice steak, and the rest fell apart into large florets. Everything but the smallest crumbles went onto the baking sheet and got coated in marinade, and it all tasted great. 

Moroccan Spiced Cauliflower Steaks with Tahini Yogurt Sauce, and Carrot Salad

For the carrot salad:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon Serious Foodie Moroccan Grill Spice Rub

1/4 teaspoon dill seeds

salt

maple syrup or pomegranate molasses (optional)

2 cups shredded carrot (either prepackaged from the produce department or shredded in your food processor or box grater)

Chopped fresh parsley, mint, and/or cilantro, about 1/2 cup combined

For the marinade:

1 cup whole milk Greek yogurt 

1 tablespoon Serious Foodie Moroccan Grill Spice Rub

large pinch of salt

For the tahini yogurt sauce:

1/2 cup yogurt marinade

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons tahini 

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

salt

For the cauliflower:

1 head of cauliflower

Plain steamed couscous or quinoa, made according to package directions and kept warm

Additional chopped fresh parsley, mint, and/or cilantro

Additional Serious Foodie Moroccan Grill Spice Rub

To make the salad:

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, lemon, Serious Foodie Moroccan Grill Spice Rub, and a small pinch of salt. If you think it is too tart, add a bit of maple syrup or pomegranate molasses for a hint of sweetness. Put the carrots in another, larger, bowl and pour over the dressing, tossing to coat. Refrigerate for at least one hour. Stir in the herbs just before serving.

To make the marinade:

Stir together the yogurt and Serious Foodie Moroccan Grill Spice Rub with a large pinch of salt. Place half the sauce in a separate bowl. Refrigerate marinade until ready to use.

To make the sauce:

Combine remaining yogurt marinade in a food processor with the other sauce ingredients and pulse until completely blended. Alternatively, put everything in a medium bowl and stir vigorously--I find that a fork works better than a spoon for something like this. Thin with water, if necessary, to get a nice sauce consistency. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the cauliflower:

Preheat oven to 400F. 

Remove the leaves from the cauliflower and trim the end of the stem. Cut the cauliflower from top to stem into "steaks," about 3/4"-1" thick. Reserve any broken cauliflower for another use. Place the cauliflower steaks on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and, using a pastry brush, coat the tops with a thick layer of the yogurt marinade (using about half). Place the pan into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove pan from oven and carefully flip the steaks over. Brush the tops with the remaining yogurt and return the pan to the oven for another 20 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender but not mushy. Turn on the broiler and broil the steaks for an additional 3-4 minutes until there are some charred spots.

Spoon some couscous or quinoa into a shallow bowl. Top with a cauliflower steak. Add a portion of carrot salad on the side. Drizzle cauliflower with tahini sauce. Sprinkle on some chopped herbs and a bit of the Moroccan Grill Spice Rub.

Feeds 3-4, depending on the size of the cauliflower.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Cranberry-Blood Orange Limoncello Muffins

* The Fabrizia Blood Orange limoncello mentioned in this post has been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats.  

Fabrizia Spirits sent me three bottles of limoncello last month. The stuff is so good, I've killed half of each bottle. But I'm not only drinking it - I'm cooking with it. This month, I've done a riff on the classic cranberry-orange muffin. Rather than use fresh cranberries, I've used dried ones plumped up in blood orange limoncello. The booze picks up a nice pink color from the cranberries, which in turn makes the glaze (made with the plumping liquid) pink-ish, too. And tasty.

Want the recipe? Here you go!

Cranberry-Blood Orange Limoncello Muffins

For the muffins:
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup Fabrizia Blood Orange limoncello
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Zest of one large tangerine (Minneola) or the zest of 2 oranges
1 and 3/4 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons milk

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons reserved Fabrizia Blood Orange limoncello
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Combine dried cranberries and limoncello in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and allow the berries to macerate for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, drain the berries and reserve the liquid.

Preheat oven to 425F.  Line two 6-count or one 12-count muffin pans with cupcake liners.

In a stand mixer, beat the butter on high until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and tangerine zest, beating until well combined, scraping the bowl as needed.

Stir together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add to the wet ingredients and beat until just combined. Remove the mixer bowl from the stand and add 2 tablespoons of the reserved limoncello and the milk, stirring by hand with a wooden spoon until the batter is combined. Fold in the cranberries.

Spoon batter into muffin pans. Bake for 5 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350F. Bake for 16-18 minutes more, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Remove muffins from pan onto a cooling rack.

While muffins are cooling, combine the powdered sugar and 3 tablespoon of the reserved limoncello. (There will probably be a few tablepoons left over. Drink it - cook's treat.) Drizzle the glaze over the muffins, and immediately top with a few of the almonds.

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Best Ever Rolled Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies seem pretty simple, right? Just flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, and eggs. The ingredients might not vary much from recipe to recipe, but the proportions sure do. I've seen recipes that involve 2 cups of sugar, 5 cups of flour, and only 1 1/2 cups of butter. Also ones with less sugar and flour but also less butter. And none of them seem to have very much vanilla, which should be the main flavor component.

Personally, I'm not a fan of making rolled cookies. Too much work. I'm a drop-by-spoonfuls kinda gal. But Mr Minx had a hankering to make rolled cookies. He even went out and bought a rolling pin. If he was going to do all the heavy lifting (or rolling), then I was willing to go along with it. I even had a recipe at the ready.

Years ago, I had a group of friends that got together at the holidays. One of these friends is no longer a friend because he's a big jerk, but at the time he had a girlfriend who liked to bake. Her contribution to the party that year was sugar cookies...the best damn sugar cookies I have ever eaten. Though I would probably not make them myself due to my aversion to rolling pins and hard work, I asked her for the recipe. It has moderate amounts of sugar and flour, a cup of butter, and a whole tablespoon of vanilla. I think that's the secret right there. They are sugar cookies with actual flavor.

The dough needs to be refrigerated before baking, otherwise it's too soft to roll and cut. But once chilled, it cuts like a dream (especially with sharp, brand-new, cookie cutters like ours) and bakes up into lovely crisp and buttery cookies redolent of vanilla that can be iced or, if you're lazy like us, sprinkled with festive sugars.

Laura's Sugar Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda (or dump it in a bowl and stir thoroughly with a fork). Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 minutes or so. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then add the vanilla and eggs. Beat until combined, another half minute or so. Turn the mixer off and add the flour mixture all at once. Beat at low speed until all the flour is incorporated, another minute or so, scraping the sides of the bowl once or twice. If the dough seems too stiff for your mixer, use a wooden spoon and combine by hand.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate dough about 2 hours, until firm. If it's in the fridge for longer and becomes rock hard, allow to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before rolling.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

On a floured surface, roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8-inch. Sprinkle with flour as necessary to keep the rolling pin from sticking. Cut dough with cookie cutters and carefully transfer each to a parchment-lined baking sheet (use a spatula). Sprinkle with colored sugars.

Bake for 6-8 minutes, until firm and only vaguely golden (they should not brown very much). Use a spatula to transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

Makes about 6 dozen cookies.



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Gingerbread Linzer Tart

I made the original variation on this tart (with chocolate cookies and raspberry jam) 20+ years ago. I have no idea where I got the recipe, but every once in a while I pull it out and make it for dessert. It's pretty simple, and the results are delicious. Last year, I decided to tinker with the flavoring a bit. Rather than chocolate cookies and cocoa powder, I opted to use gingerbread cookies and spices. I almost made a cranberry curd for the filling, but I was stressed out and feeling lazy, so I used a jar of Polaner seedless blackberry All-Fruit. Everyone seemed to like the variation, so I thought I'd share it with you here.

A baking note: The butter tends to ooze out of the bottom of the pan, so it's a good idea to bake this on a foil-lined baking sheet. If you use a tart pan or baking dish without a removable bottom, you won't have this issue, but it will also be a little harder to cut into wedges and serve.

Gingerbread Linzer Tart

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 1/3 cups gingerbread cookie crumbs (I used Pepperidge Farm Ginger Family cookies)
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 whole egg
1 jar Polaner All-Fruit seedless blackberry jam, or your favorite blackberry jam
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Place ground almonds, cookie crumbs, flour, sugar, ginger, and cloves into a large bowl and mix well. Distribute the butter over the mixture and add the egg. Work the dough with your fingertips, rubbing in the butter and making a smooth dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to two hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Pat about 3/4 of the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the a 9" tart pan with removable bottom. Spread the jam thickly over the crust but not quite to the edges. Roll pieces of the remaining dough into strips and arrange on jam in a lattice pattern. Sprinkle on the chopped almonds.

Bake for 35 minutes. Let the pastry cool completely in the pan.

Carefully remove the sides of the pan. The crust is fairly sturdy, so this shouldn't be a problem. You can use a knife to coax the bottom off the tart, but I usually just leave it there. Place the tart on a serving plate and cut into wedges.

Serves 12.



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Homemade Chubby Hubby Ice Cream

I am an ice cream fanatic. I could eat it every day (but I don't). One of my all-time favorite flavors is Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby (though it ranks a distant second to B&J fabulous Wavy Gravy). Chubby Hubby seemed to disappear from the market. I heard that it was discontinued. Now I hear it's back again, but different--the pretzels have changed or something. I still haven't seen it in the grocery store, so it seemed like high time to attempt to make it at home. And here's the recipe.

I changed the name to avoid copyright infringement. Also to be more inclusive.

Pudgy Partner Ice Cream

For the ice cream:
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons softened cream cheese
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 cup malted milk powder

To finish:
Fudge ribbon
1 cup peanut butter-filled pretzels, lightly crushed (I used Trader Joe's)
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter, warmed in the microwave for 30-45 seconds to liquefy

For the fudge ribbon:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/8 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1/8 cup cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon fine or table sea salt
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the ice cream: Mix 2 tablespoons of the whole milk with the cornstarch to make a slurry. In a separate bowl, whisk the cream cheese and salt together until smooth. Prepare a shallow ice bath: in a large bowl or baking pan, place an inch of cold water and several ice cubes. Set aside.

Cook the remaining milk, cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan until it comes to a rolling boil, Boil for 4 minutes, watching carefully so it doesn't boil over (stir when it starts to expand), remove from heat, and slowly whisk in the slurry. Bring back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Blend a few tablespoons of hot milk mixture into the cream cheese to loosen it, then pour the cream cheese mixture into the pan of milk. Whisk well until smooth. Pour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and place the container into the ice bath until cool, ensuring that the water level doesn't come up as far as the lid. When the mixture seems mostly cool, refrigerate until completely cold.

To finish: Make fudge ribbon.

To make the fudge ribbon: Combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook on low heat until everything is melted, then cook an additional 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Freeze ice cream according to manufacturers instructions. Once  the ice cream is done, scoop some into a large lidded storage container. Drizzle on some of the fudge sauce--feel free to allow it to settle in big globs--followed by some of the pretzels, and some of the peanut butter. Continue to layer ice cream, fudge, pretzels, and peanut butter--ending with a layer of ice cream--until all ingredients have been used up. Press a piece of wax paper onto the surface of the ice cream. Seal container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

There will be a little bit of fudge sauce left over. Store in a covered container in the fridge. Warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds to use as hot fudge sauce, or eat it from the container with a spoon.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Hu Kitchen Chocolate

Chocolate is life, right? And because I love chocolate so much, I was excited to be asked to promote Hu Kitchen's chocolate bars. The 70% stone ground dark chocolate hits all the right notes with me: it's made from organic, fair-trade cacao beans and contains no GMOs, emulsifiers, or soy lecithin. It's also vegan, gluten-free, and contains no dairy or refined sugar. There are bars stuffed with hazelnut, cashew, or almond butters, made crispy with quinoa and crunchy with cacao nibs, but also plain and salted bars. My favorite to eat out of hand is the almond butter + puffed quinoa bar, but I knew if the chocolate was that good for snacking on its own, it would be terrific for baking.

So I made chocolate chip cookies. Giant ones. I usually don't make them that large, but I really wanted the chocolate to stand out.

I think it does, don't you?

This recipe makes 6 large cookies, but you can make smaller ones if you so desire, just break the chocolate into smaller bits. Definitely don't omit the sea salt.

Giant Chocolate Chunk Cookies

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 2.1oz Hu Kitchen chocolate bars, salty or simple or one of each
Handful of chopped nuts (optional, I used almonds)
Maldon sea salt

Put the melted butter and sugars in a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Add the vanilla and egg and stir again. Dump in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix well until all of the flour is incorporated.

Break 1 of the chocolate bars into small pieces and stir into the batter along with the nuts, if using. Refrigerate this mixture for at least one hour, until firm.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Divide dough into six evenly sized balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheets at least 4 inches apart. (I put four cookies on a standard sheet and two more on a smaller pan.) Take the other chocolate bar and break apart the segments, then cut each segment into two pieces. Press about half of the chocolate into the balls of dough. Reserve the rest for later.

Bake the cookies for 14-16 minutes, until golden brown. If using two baking sheets, about halfway through, rotate the pans and move the top sheet to the lower rack and vice versa.

Remove the cookies on the parchment to cooling racks. Press the remaining chocolate pieces into the cookies while they are still warm. Sprinkle each with a generous pinch of the sea salt.

Allow to cool completely before eating.

Makes six large cookies.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Muuna Cottage Cheese Comes in Three New Flavors

My favorite cottage cheese, Muuna, has just come out with three new flavors: Black Cherry, Raspberry, and Vanilla. I think the Raspberry is my fave of the three, but I also like the Vanilla. It actually doesn't taste like straight-up vanilla, but more like birthday cake, minus the sprinkles. It's so sweet and tasty, I'm betting this flavor will be popular with kids. And like all other Muuna flavored cottage cheeses, it has only 9g of sugar, so you can feel good giving it to your little beasts darlings. (Some popular yogurt brands have up to 36g of added sugar, which is pretty crazy, if you ask me.)

The Vanilla flavor also reminds me of cream cheese frosting. You know, the insanely good stuff that sits atop a slice of carrot cake. Who else out there eats the frosting first before tackling the rest of the cake? Show of hands? I know you're out there.

It might look a little strange to frost a cake with cottage cheese, but a dollop works nicely on a bowl of oatmeal, like this carrot cake-flavored one I concocted. I didn't add any sugar to the oatmeal itself, because the carrots and Muuna offer plenty of sweetness. The method for making the oatmeal itself is a little unconventional. I didn't eat oatmeal for years because I hate the gluey texture, but I found that if you don't stir it, it doesn't turn into something you might use for household repairs. Simply bring the water to a boil, add the oatmeal, cover the pan, and allow the oats to absorb all of the liquid. If it's not warm enough for you after 10 minutes of sitting, you can turn the heat on for a few moments. Just remember not to stir more than once.

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

For the oatmeal:
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup raisins or dried blueberries (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the carrots:
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
2 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons milk
6 tablespoons sugar

To serve:
¼ cup chopped walnuts
Vanilla Muuna Cottage Cheese

To make the oatmeal: Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil. At that point, add the oatmeal, cinnamon, ginger, kosher salt, and raisins or blueberries. Cover pan and turn off the heat. Allow the oatmeal to absorb the water, 10-12 minutes. Stir in the vanilla.

To make the carrots: Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook over medium-high heat until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the carrots, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and reserve until the oatmeal is done.

To serve: Spoon the oatmeal into four bowls. Divide the carrots evenly between bowls. Garnish with walnuts and a healthy dollop of Muuna Vanilla flavored cottage cheese.

Serves 4.


* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Foodie Book Review - Nourished, by Lia Huber

Lia Huber is the founder of the web site Nourish Evolution and has been a regular contributor to magazines like Cooking Light and Eating Well.  Her first book, Nourished: A Memoir of Food, Faith & Enduring Love (with Recipes), tells her story from about age 20 to now, from falling in love on the Greek island of Corfu to her comfortable life as a food entrepreneur and mom.

Huber's story takes the reader on a proverbial roller coaster ride through the highs and lows of her life. Though there were some really good times, there were also some tough decisions to be made regarding both relationships and health issues. Even when the results were not what she was looking for, she had enough faith to trust that God would not let her down. And things seemed to turn out pretty good for her, overall.

My favorite parts of Nourished are when Huber takes the time to describe the sights and sounds and especially the flavors she encounters in her travels through Greece and Central America. Her descriptions of the food she cooks and eats while she is on the road are mouthwatering. Even the simplest recipes, like the Frijoles de Lia below, had me wanting to race to the kitchen to cook them so I could be transported into her world. Truly Huber is at her best when she is writing about food.

PHOTO CREDIT: ALISON ASHTON

FRIJOLES DE LIA

Frijoles de olla are a traditional dish of brothy beans cooked in an earthenware pot (an olla) that are hearty enough to be a meal in and of themselves. The recipes I followed in Costa Rica—from Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless—followed a simple equation of beans, lard, an onion or garlic, and epazote. I’ve taken the liberty of adding a few more goodies that I’ve appended on over the years.

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large poblano chiles, seeded and chopped into 1/2inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, smashed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons ground ancho chile
11/2 cups dried black beans, rinsed and soaked overnight (or fast soaked in a pressure cooker)
Sea salt

In a large, heavy bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, poblano chiles, and garlic and sauté for 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion is golden brown. Add the cumin, coriander, oregano, and ancho chile and sauté for 1 minute, until fragrant. Add the beans, a generous pinch of salt, and 6 cups cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 11/2 to 2 hours, until the beans are tender. Using a potato masher, mash the beans until there’s a mix of whole beans and creamy mashed beans.

Serves 10 to 12

Reprinted from NOURISHED: A Memoir of Food, Faith & Enduring Love (with Recipes) COPYRIGHT © 2017 by Lia Huber. Published by Convergent, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Chocolate Strawberry Naked Cake

Sometimes I am too ambitious for my own good. I've never been much of a baker, excepting the occasional tray of brownies and cookies at Christmastime. There's also the annual cake for Mr Minx's birthday, but that's usually a simple chocolate bundt. This year, I wanted to do something fancier. I was desperate to make a "naked cake," a cake with exposed layers, popularized by Christina Tosi at NY's Milk Bar. I've seen a lot of them on Instagram, and they look so cool. Also, they didn't seem all that difficult to make. Frosting the sides of the cake always seemed like the most fidgety part, and making a cake naked eliminates that whole messy ordeal.

My idea was to use the same super moist recipe that I use for the bundt cake, with the addition of roasted strawberries, and a simple stabilized whipped cream frosting. It would be like a strawberry shortcake, only not short and with the added goodness of chocolate.

I didn't want to attempt to cut round cake layers in half horizontally, pretty sure that would be a disaster. Instead, I made several flat rectangular cakes in a jelly roll pan and cut them into rounds. That ended up looking a bit sloppy. Perhaps my knife wasn't sharp enough, or the cake recipe I used was too moist. In any case, the somewhat jagged layers got stacked between pieces of waxed paper and spent the night in a cake carrier until I was able to assemble it the next day. It would have been too much to try to get it all done on Saturday morning before our annual afternoon birthday crab feast guest arrived.

The roasted strawberry idea I got from a foodie newsletter. The recipe in the newsletter was actually for oven-dried berries, but I liked the idea of cooking strawberries in the oven until they got soft and gave up a lot of liquid. Some of that liquid became a subtle flavoring for the whipped cream frosting that I stabilized with gelatin so it would last longer and not weep all over the cake.

I had used up all the strawberries in the roasting process but wanted to top the cake with something besides whipped cream. Birthday candles were out of the question (as was singing "Happy Birthday"), but I remembered we had a bag of Crunchies freeze-dried strawberries that the company sent me to taste after the Fancy Food Show. I had been nibbling them on their own, but felt they would be the perfect garnish for this cake and a good counterpoint to the squishy roasted berries between the layers. They stood up like sweet stalagmites, adding height as well as color and flavor. They softened a bit as the cake stood, but they never sagged, and I kinda liked the third strawberry texture in the mix.

Crunchies are non-GMO, gluten-free, vegan, kosher, and halal and contain no added sugar or artificial flavors. They are just freeze-dried fruit, pure and simple. I also love the Crunchies mango snacks and am contemplating making a similar cake, with yellow cake and mango filling, so I can use them as a garnish, too. That is, if we don't just eat it all straight out of the bag. :)

For someone who didn't really know what she was doing, I did a pretty decent job. Though the cake isn't the most beautiful thing in the world, it tasted so so good. ::::patting self on back:::::

Chocolate Strawberry Layer Cake

For the roasted strawberries:
2 pounds strawberries, hulled and halved, quartered if large
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate cake:
1 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons liqueur of your choice (I used Kahlua)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

For the frosting:
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatine
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnish:
Crunchies freeze-dried strawberries

To make the strawberries: Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Toss the strawberries with the sugar, then with the vanilla. (Don't put the vanilla on the sugar to cut corners; it will just make the sugar clump up and make it hard to toss with the strawberries. No, I did not learn that through experience.) Spread in one layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until strawbs are soft and there's lots of yummy juice on the baking sheet. Allow to cool at room temperature before scraping into a covered container and refrigerating until completely cooled.

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Place a layer of parchment in a jelly-roll pan and grease it lightly with butter.

Combine the butter, cocoa, salt, and 1 cup of tap water in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook only until butter is melted and mixture is completely combined. Stir in the liqueur.

Place the flour, sugar, and baking soda in a large bowl. Pour in the chocolate butter mixture in 2 or three batches, stirring between each to combine. Beat the eggs with the sour cream and vanilla and stir into the flour mixture. Whisk until fully incorporated.

Here's the tricky part. Depending on the size of your pan, ladle in enough batter to cover the parchment entirely and be no more than 1/2 inch deep. Bake for enough time that the cake springs back when you touch it. I used a 9" x 13" jelly roll pan, which made three cakes with the amount of batter specified, each baking from 13-15 minutes (the first cake took longer and the last cake took less time). An 12" x 17" pan or thereabouts would probably take 18-20 minutes, so start checking at the 16 or 17 minute mark. Just looking at it should tell you if the middle is wet or cooked through. Once your cake or cakes are baked, allow them to cool in the pan for a few minutes. Loosen the edge of the cake with a knife and turn out onto a rack to cool completely. You should peel off the parchment while the cake is still warm.

Once the cakes are cool you can cut them. If you want to make it really easy on yourself, cut each cake in half and make a square layer cake. (Next time, that's what I'm doing!) But if you want a round cake, use a 7" or 8" round template as a guide. Place each cooled cake on a cutting board large enough to hold them, or right on your counter or table if that's easiest. Using the template and a sharp knife, cut your circles. Lift them away with a large spatula and put them on parchment or waxed paper until you're finished cutting. The scraps can be eaten as a cook's treat, or put them in a plastic bag and freeze them for when you're having a cake craving.

To make the frosting: Remove 3-4 tablespoons of the strawberry roasting liquid to a bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the liquid and allow to rest for several minutes until set. If your strawberries didn't give off much liquid for some reason (perhaps because you ate it as you scraped it off the pan), use a few tablespoons of water instead.

Place the cream, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a regular bowl, if you're using a hand mixer) and beat for a minute or so. Put the gelatin in the microwave for about 10 seconds to liquify (it might take 15 seconds). Stir well so there are no clumps of gelatin, and with the mixer running on a fairly low speed, v e r y slowly drizzle it into the cream, beating all the time. Once incorporated, turn the mixer speed up and beat until medium peaks form. Don't overbeat, or you'll have butter. Scrape the cream into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip, or the tip of your choice.

To assemble the cake: Place a round of cake onto a cardboard cake round or on an aluminum-foil covered springform or tart pan bottom of appropriate size. Eyeball the strawberries. Do the pieces seem too big? Then chop them up a bit. Maybe you should just chop them up a bit anyway. Spread an even layer of strawberry pieces + some of the cooking liquid on the cake. Pipe on a layer of the cream, then top with another cake layer. Add another layer of cream, then another layer of cake. Top this third layer of cake with more strawberries and more cream. (You won't use all the strawberries. Eat them with ice cream or with a spoon.) Add the fourth layer of cake and pipe the frosting decoratively on top. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve.

Garnish with freeze dried strawberry pieces before serving.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Indian Ceviche

It's Fancy Food Show season again and food samples have been showing up on our doorstep. A box of popcorn products was eagerly anticipated particularly because it contained three bags of Masala Pop. I had tasted Masala Pop's Rose Caramel flavor at the show last year and was excited that not only did it taste delightfully (yet subtly) of rose, but it was also a kettle corn-style product that wasn't overly sweet. The package we received from the company also included Chai Caramel, with true sweet-spice chai flavors in a light caramel glaze, and Savory Coconut, which has a lovely turmeric/coconut thing going on.

I decided that the Savory Coconut would be smashing on ceviche. What? You've never had popcorn on your ceviche? It's a popular accompaniment to the dish in Ecuador. It gives the ceviche a nice crunch.

If you can get impeccably fresh shrimp, then you can probably make this dish the traditional way, by "cooking" the protein with the citrus juice alone. However, as most shrimp available are IQF (individually quick frozen) and who knows how many times they may have thawed and refrozen by the time they get to your house, I recommend lightly cooking the shrimp first with heat. I poached mine in salted water just until they were pink, iced them down immediately, and popped them in the fridge until I was ready to assemble the dish.

Because the popcorn had Indian flavors, I decided to do the same with the ceviche by adding pinches of cumin, garam masala, and ginger. Not a lot, just enough to be noticed. Coconut milk might have been a nice addition, but I didn't want to detract from the coconut flavor in the popcorn. Feel free to add a few dribbles if you are so inclined.

This makes a lovely appetizer, lunch, or even a light summer supper with a green salad and some bread.

Shrimp Ceviche with Indian Flavors

3 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
Juice of 2 limes (divided use)
Salt
1/2 lb 31-40 shrimp
3 tablespoons finely chopped bell pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped tomato
1 tablespoon finely minced tender cilantro stems
Pinch ground cumin
Pinch garam masala
Pinch ground ginger
Tabasco or hot sauce to taste
Cilantro leaves
Masala Pop popcorn

Combine the red onion and the juice of half a lime in a small bowl with a pinch of salt. Cover and set aside for at least an hour.

Poach shrimp until just pink in simmering salted water. Chill shrimp in an ice bath and refrigerate until ready to use.

Remove shells and chop shrimp into dime-sized pieces. Combine with the peppers, tomatoes, cilantro stems, and spices. Drain the onion and add to the shrimp, along with the juice from the remaining 1 and 1/2 limes. Taste for seasoning and add salt, a few shakes of hot sauce, and additional pinches of the spices if you feel it needs them. Refrigerate until cold, about an hour.

Serve garnished with cilantro and Masala Pop popcorn.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Meatballs a la Smitten Kitchen

The Minx has been a long time fan of Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen blog and recently purchased her cookbook aptly titled, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. She had bookmarked several recipes she wanted to play around with and one meatball recipe (or meatloaves as they are referred to in the book) sounded particularly interesting to me. Since I had a day during the week when I couldn't think of anything to make for dinner, Minxy suggested that I attempt this recipe. After all, she had already procured all the necessary ingredients on our last trip to the grocery store. I agreed and, in a break from my usual routine of using a recipe as merely a guide and coming up with my own riff on it, I was determined to cook the dish exactly as it was written in the cookbook.

Well, "best laid plans" and all that! It turned out, we didn't have precisely all the ingredients we needed. The glaze called for four tablespoons of tomato paste and the meatballs needed one tablespoon. I only had three tablespoons in the fridge and no spare can in the pantry. so I substituted two tablespoons of tomato paste and two tablespoons of ketchup in the glaze. Since ketchup already brings sugar and vinegar to the party, I reduced the honey and cider vinegar by half. Oh, actually, the honey in the pantry had solidified, so I replaced honey with agave syrup. The finished product turned out just fine.

Having successfully riffed my way around the glaze, I was totally prepared to make the meatballs exactly as described in the book. Trouble was, because of a peculiar layout choice in the book, three of the meatball ingredients were printed on the following page in a corner by the mashed potato recipe. I didn't notice them until after I had already assembled the balls. Since two of the ingredients were milk and eggs, I thought for sure the meatballs would be dry. Thankfully, they too turned out great.

All I had left to do was make the mashed potatoes. Whoops, I couldn't find buttermilk at the store, so that was out. Also, I thought Ms. Perelman's technique was overly fussy, so I just made mashed potatoes they way I normally do, but keeping the brown butter element since it sounded too delicious to pass up. The mash also turned out just fine, and the brown butter provided an added nuttiness that was quite wonderful.

So here it is: my intended-to-be-faithful-but-actually-not-so-faithful take on the Smitten Kitchen's Meatloaves and Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes.

Tomato-Glazed Meatballs with Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes (adapted from Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook)

Glaze
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon agave syrup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon table salt

To make glaze: Mix all the ingredients together in a saucepan. Whisk constantly while bringing to a simmer over medium heat.The glaze should come together in a couple minutes. Put it aside for later.

Meatballs
2 slices sandwich bread
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 medium celery stalk, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
olive oil, for cooking
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds ground beef
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

To make meatballs: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whiz the bread in the food processor until it becomes crumbs and set aside. Roughly chop the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot before adding to the food processor. Pulse it until the vegetables become a finely chopped pulp.

Pour a little olive oil into a skillet and heat for a minute over high heat. Lower the heat to medium and add the vegetable mix. Add salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently. When the mixture starts to brown, take off the heat and add to a large bowl with the breadcrumbs.

Add the remaining ingredients to the veg and breadcrumbs and mix the ingredients together with your hands. Once everything is incorporated, form twelve similar-sized meatballs. Arrange them in a baking dish, making sure they are evenly separated. Coat each meatball with a thin layer of the glaze. Place in the oven and bake until thoroughly cooked, about 20 minutes (160 to 165 internal temperature).

Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes
2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

To brown butter: Melt the butter in a pot over medium-low heat. Stir regularly and keep a close eye on it. Once the milk solids have cooked away and the butter is a clear golden color, the butter will start to brown and take on a nutty aroma. As soon as it starts to brown, take it off the heat so it will not burn. Put aside for later.

To make the mashed potatoes: Peel and dice the potatoes. Place in a medium saucepan and cover the potatoes with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat so that it maintains a steady boil without boiling over. Cook the potatoes until they feel tender with a fork, about 15 minutes.

Drain the water. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher. Add the browned butter and milk and incorporate with the potatoes until smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.

To serve: Place a layer of the mashed potatoes on the plate and set two meatballs on top. Drizzle the meatballs with some of the leftover glaze.



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Mediterranean Pimento Cheese

Pimento cheese is a southern specialty. A fairly simple combination of shredded cheese, mayo, and chopped pimento or roasted red pepper, it's great slathered on everything from crackers to burgers. Not being particularly southern, I am willing to take liberties with the recipe and make it my own.

We had a jar of fairly mild harissa paste in the fridge looking for things to do. I decided to employ it in a pimento cheese that could hail from a land in the vicinity of the southeastern Mediterranean sea. Most pimento cheeses use cheddar as a base, but I wanted something more neutral so the feta cheese could be prominent. The harissa stands in for the pimentos, but you could certainly add red pepper to your cheese if you choose. Don't forget to add the herbs, which add more character to the salty cheese.

I spread it on ciabatta and topped it with an over-easy egg, and it was mmm! Next I'll use it on a lamb burger with lots of red onion and fresh tomato.

Mediterranean Pimento Cheese

4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
2-3 teaspoons harissa paste (or to taste, depending on the strength of your harissa)
3 heaping tablespoons mayo
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
1 teaspoon dill seeds, crushed

Combine all ingredients in a bowl until fairly homogenized in texture. There will still be small lumps of feta. Pack into a lidded container and refrigerate for several hours so the flavors can mellow. Serve with crackers or as a sandwich spread.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Runamok Chicken and Waffles

One of my favorite parts of the Summer Fancy Food Show is the new products aisle. Some of the products are truly tasty and seem promising, others not so much. My favorite of the "truly tasty" variety was Runamok Maple. Maple syrup is a bit of a mini-trend at the SFFS - there were at least twice as many maple vendors this year as last, but the total number was still very small.

I grew up eating Mrs Butterworth's on my pancakes, and trying real maple syrup for the first time was a bit of a revelation. Not only is the real stuff not as thick as the fake stuff (which gives tar a run for its money), but the flavor is also much more subtle. (Imitation maple gets its flavor from the lactone soloton, which is found in the herb fenugreek, used widely in Indian cooking. If you've ever found a curry to taste like maple syrup, it's actually the other way around - your "maple" syrup tastes like curry.)

Runamok Maple is definitely the real thing. It's hand-tapped maple sap, concentrated to remove much of the water, then boiled into the golden elixir that many of us know and love. And while Runamok Maple sells this "plain" syrup, which they bottle as the Sugarmaker's Cut, they also flavor their maple. Some are aged in barrels recently used to hold rye, bourbon, or rum, which imparts a distinct boozy taste to the syrup. They also have a line of syrups infused with things like hibiscus flower or elderberries. And then they do an amazing pecan wood smoked syrup that might be odd on pancakes, but works great in a cocktail or in place of bacon in our maple bacon chicken and waffles.

We fiddled around with the original recipe, substituting Runamok Pecan Wood Smoked Maple Syrup for the bacon. Because not everything needs to have bacon in it. No, I'm serious.

Runamok Chicken and Waffles
Serves 4-6

For herbed cornmeal waffles:
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone ground
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 ½ cups 2% milk
½ stick melted butter, cooled
2 scallions, finely chopped
8 sage leaves, finely chopped

For chicken:
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup water
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

For gravy:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups of the stock left over from cooking the chicken (if there's not enough left, add regular chicken stock to make up the difference)
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons Runamok Maple Pecan Wood Smoked maple syrup
1 tablespoon Runamok Maple Bourbon-Barrel Aged maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons chopped scallions for garnish

To make waffles: Preheat waffle iron. Preheat oven to 250°F and place a baking sheet in the oven.

Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs, then whisk in the milk and butter until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined. Stir in the scallions and sage.

Spoon batter into waffle iron according to manufacturer’s directions. Cook until golden and crisp. Place cooked waffles onto the baking sheet in the oven. Repeat until all waffle batter is used.

To make chicken: Combine all ingredients in a pot. Bring liquid to a boil, then turn the heat down and let simmer until chicken is cooked through, about one hour. Set chicken and the resulting stock aside.

To make gravy: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly, to create a light blonde roux. Raise heat and whisk in chicken stock; bring to a boil. After a minute or two, when stock has thickened to gravy consistency, lower heat to medium and stir in the cream and maple syrups. Season with salt to taste and lots of freshly ground pepper.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Cowboy Meatloaf

The Classic Catering People, based in Owings Mills, Maryland, have been in business for a lot of years. They are the Ravens official training facility caterer, and they own Miss Shirley's. And they have a lot of recipes in their files, some of which they shared with us.

We had to test 'em out first, of course. Snowpocalypse/Snowmageddon/Snowzilla 2016 Edition seemed a good time to try the meatloaf recipe, supplied by chef John Walsh. With chorizo sausage in addition to the usual pork and beef, the dish was spectacular, tender and moist with lots of meaty flavor, a nice hit of herbaceousness, and a mild sweetness. Mr Minx said it was better than his (and his is fan-freaking-tastic). I'm not willing to go that far, but I will say that I would definitely make this recipe again.

As with most recipes, they're a guideline, not a law. Me being me, I made some adjustments, based on personal taste and on what I had in my pantry. (The recipe below includes the proportions exactly as given to me by TCCP.) I felt 1/2 cup soy and 2 teaspoons salt would be too much, so I cut the amounts of both ingredients by half. We don't have pre-ground pepper and rather than take 15 minutes turning the peppermill to produce 1 1/2 teaspoons (especially with sore arms from spending at least six hours of shoveling snow), I just put in a couple of cranks. Also, I'm not a huge thyme fan, so used only about 1 1/2 tablespoons rather than 1/4 cup (and that still seemed a bit much to my palate. YMMV). Finally, rather than open a whole package of bacon just for four slices, I smeared on a couple tablespoons of bacon jam before adding the bay leaves. Of course, if you don't have bacon jam on hand, you'll just have to use bacon strips.

Cowboy Meatloaf with Chorizo Sausage
By Chef John Walsh of The Classic Catering People
Serves 8

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium celery rib, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

1/4 pound raw chorizo sausage (loose, removed from casings if in link form)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef chuck
1 1/2 pound ground pork  

3 large eggs
1/4 cup fresh thyme

1/3 cup finely chopped basil

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons ketchup (divided use)
1/3 cup heavy cream

1 cup Panko crumbs

3 bay leaves
4 slices of bacon
1/8 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Meanwhile, heat butter in a large heavy skillet and cook onion, garlic, celery, and carrot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Cover skillet and reduce heat to low; cook until carrot is tender, another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce, allspice, salt, and pepper.

Place chorizo in a large bowl with the ground beef and pork. Add cooked vegetable mixture, eggs, thyme, basil, 2 tablespoons of ketchup, heavy cream, and panko, and mix well to combine.

Form mixture into an oval loaf in a 13- by 9-inch shallow baking dish. Lay bay leaves on top and shingle bacon strips over loaf. Mix 1/4 cup ketchup and brown sugar together and coat the top of the meatloaf.

Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meatloaf registers 155°F, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Remove bay leaves before serving.



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