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Thai Chicken Rolls

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

In an attempt to save some money I decided to make lunch for a friend and I. A co-worker told me about Thai Chicken rolls and I decided to give them a shot on my day off. They turned out pretty good!!

Before I even touched the chicken, I made the Thai vinaigrette which consisted of peanut sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, and sugar. Smelled scrumptious.

Then I sliced up some boneless chicken thighs and browned them in a frying pan.

Look at that golden crust :)

I let the chicken cool and shredded the bigger pieces by hand. Then I put it in a large bowl with a bag of coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots) and poured the vinaigrette over it. I tossed it until it was all well combined.

With that done, it was time to wrap. I bought a pack of rice wrappers. Soak each wrapper in warm water until pliable. Scoop some of the filling and wrap it like a burrito and you're just about done!

TA-DA!

Recipe : Tiramisu Cupcakes

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I love tiramisu but always thought it was a bit inconvenient to transport from place to place. After craving it for weeks and weeks, I finally decided to search through my bookmarks to find the tiramisu cupcake recipe I had saved. The first time I made it, an angel food cake base was used. This time around I opted for a different cake base. I followed Martha Stewart's Recipe hoping that she would not steer me wrong.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar
Coffee-Marsala Syrup
Mascarpone Frosting
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla-bean pod.
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.
Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Cupcakes straight out of the oven. Notice the poked holes on the tops.

* For the coffee-marsala syrup, I substituted Kahlua for the Marsala to give it a more authentic tiramisu taste. I also poked holes in the tops of the cupcakes and ladled the coffee syrup over it as opposed to brushing it on. If you are going to do this, I recommend you poke the wholes while the cake is still hot.

The frosting was quite simple to make as well. I also folded in some Kahlua at the last minute. Be warned...last time I attempted this tiramisu frosting, I added the Kahlua and over mixed the frosting causing the alcohol and mascarpone cheese to have a curdling reaction. I recommend folding it in right before you frost your cupcakes.

Mascarpone frosting with a dash of coffee liqueur.

Frosting piped and a light dusting of cocoa powder later, we have the final product.

Yummm!

The final verdict: The frosting was delicious but the cake part was a bit too dense for my liking. I definitely prefer the angel food cake as a base but if making from scratch it seems wasteful to crack so many eggs just to toss the yolk away. Try this recipe out!! I may just make these again using an angel food cake base once I figure out a substitute for fresh egg whites.

-Carmen

Recipe: Healthy Post Grape-Nuts cookies

I remember that episode on Friends when Monica tries to recreate Phoebe's grandmother's cookie recipe who claims to have gotten it from her grandmother, "Nestlay Toulouse". Hahahaha, I love that episode.

ANYway, I was eating my cereal, Post Grape-Nuts and discovered a cookie recipe in the back of the box. The only reason I even bought the cereal was it said FREE COOKIE INSIDE! Which I naturally ate before even opening the cereal packet.

~~~~~

Grape-Nuts Cookie | Prep Time: 10 min | Total Time: 25 min

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp. honey
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 cup Post Grape-Nuts cereal

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2) Beat butter and sugar in large bowl. Add honey, eggs, and vanilla. Mix well.

3) Add baking soda, salt, rolled oats, flour, and Post Grape-Nuts. Combine until just mixed.

4) Drop rounded tablespoons of dough, 2 inches apart onto lined or greased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-14 minutes or until golden brown.

5) Cool 2-3 minutes; remove from baking sheets. Cool completely on wire racks. Enjoy. Once cooled, store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

Makes 4 dozen cookies or 24 servings. 2 cookies per serving.

~~~~~

I cut the recipe in half since the only person who really eats my stuff is me. I also folded in strawberries and used a little less white sugar. It turned out perfect for me because I don't like foods that are too sweet. Wish I had some applesauce on hand because I prefer that>butter. But it turned out really moist, crunchy, and delicioso! And the best part, it's also pretty healthy (with the exception of the butter). The cookies contain a ton of vitamins and minerals including fiber, protein, zinc, magnesium, iron, etc.

-Debbie

First Time-ish Congee

Monday, February 20, 2012

Since it’s President’s Day, classes were not in session today. I woke up early afternoon craving pancakes but 10 minutes later and some sniffles (almost done recovering from a week-long cold) confirmed what I really wanted was a bowl of congee.

I’d never bothered learning how to make congee even though it was a breakfast staple growing up. I only made my first and only plain congee last year when I was in the mood for something bland. But this time, I wanted something with more flavor. My dad’s a really good cook and I still like watching him do his thing in the kitchen. One of his culinary tips is to cook the spices/herbs first to bring out the flavor, buttttt I don’t think that’s a secret. For us, that usually means it’s either the scallions, garlic, or ginger. So I used ginger. Why? I don't know, cultural instinct? :)

I sliced about 2 inches and put it in the pot as soon as I turned on the fire so the water had time to soak it in. I also added a few dashes of salt to the water for taste. To save time, I did my prep work while the rice was boiling.

I was too lazy to leave the house so I only worked with what was in the refrigerator. What I have here are baby carrots, cilantro, and because I did not have any scallions, I used onions. As soon as I finished cutting them up, I transferred them all to the pot.

I accidentally put a few pieces into the water too early when I realized it would make my congee very spicy. So I fished most of them out but some of them were still left in there. So even though I didn’t use any oil, there’s oil floating at the top of the pot. Oops. Strained it with a spoon.

As soon as the water started to boil, I took the ginger out and turned the fire down to a simmer. Part of our leftovers from last night was this takeout dish that contained of thin slices of pork and spicy pepper.

A minute into simmering it, I put in the pork and put in a dash of black pepper for taste...even though the takeout was already spicy... Didn’t they say hot and spicy soup is the way to clear up congestion?! At this point, it was starting to look really good and just because I felt like it, I also poured some oyster sauce in. Turns out it really helped temper the spiciness. I let it simmer for about 20 more minutes and realized it would've been so much faster making those pancakes. But this is 10x healthier and better for my stomach.

1 cup of rice, 10 cups of water, and enough for dinner too! How economical!

-Debbie