I love a good chili. This one was the product of a particularly creative cooking session. There are many secret ingredients but the secret-est of them all is the Dr Pepper! You could also use any kind of cola; lime soda might be cool, too. Basically I used soda instead of the usual sugar. The flavor is undetectable as anything but a subtle enhancements, same as the chocolate and the cinnamon.
If you use diet soda, you must stir it in at the very end, after you've removed the pot from the heat, lest the aspartame be destroyed by the heat.
Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
2 poblano chiles, which are like large, dark, slightly wrinkled jalapeños - 1 green bell pepper plus 1 jalapeño is an acceptable substitute, diced
2 jalapenos, minced
1/2 can of crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp granulated garlic, or 5 minced garlic cloves
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp oregano flakes
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tamari or soy sauce
1/4 tsp smoked paprika (or you don't have this, use 1 tsp regular paprika)
1 tsp beef or vegetable bouillon (broth is NOT a substitute, must use bouillon)
1/2 ounces baking chocolate or 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 cans of beans, I like to use two different colors for a pretty effect
1/3 cup dr pepper
Saute the onion and peppers over medium heat in a tablespoon or corn oil until tender. Add the tomatoes and next 6 ingredients (through chocolate). Stir well, and simmer 10 minutes. Add the beans and stir until heated. Remove from heat and add the soda.
If you want to make the chili hotter for some and milder for others, reserve half the jalapenos and serve as a garnish for the heat-lovers. This chili is best served with cheese on top (because, frankly, EVERYTHING is best served with cheese on top). I like pre-shredded Mexican blend but cheddar is fine. Sour cream and green onions would also be good toppers.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Festive Candied Yams
This is a guilty pleasure, a relic of childhood, and I'm pretty much the only one who eats it at this point (well, Ariel does, but he eats almost anything).
This year I tried a variation with the intention of making the yams a little more grown-up and their sweetness a little more approachable. Here's the result. It worked pretty well - people ate about half of it, though that was with a lot of help from my friend Elana's twin toddlers. Hooray for a new generation of kids + yams!
Ingredients:
1 large can cut yams in syrup
1/2 bag of regular-sized marshmallows (Nothing wrong with the minis if you prefer them. I just like the big ones' tenderness.)
1/2 cup sugar, either the evaporated cane juice kind or packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup cranberries
1/3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
Dash cloves
2 tbsp butter
Pour about 2/3 cup of the yam liquid from the can into a small pot, and discard the rest. Spread the yams into a baking dish in one layer. Warm the yams in the microwave.
Add the sugar to the yam liquid and bring to a boil. Cook down into a syrup that stretches from the (heat safe!) spoon like corn syrup, stirring often. Then turn the heat down and add the cranberries, stirring until they pop and become soft. Stir in the spices ad the butter. Pour the sauce over the yams.
Spread a single layer of marshmallows over the yams and place under the broiler. Broil until the tops are darkened to the degree you prefer.
This year I tried a variation with the intention of making the yams a little more grown-up and their sweetness a little more approachable. Here's the result. It worked pretty well - people ate about half of it, though that was with a lot of help from my friend Elana's twin toddlers. Hooray for a new generation of kids + yams!
Ingredients:
1 large can cut yams in syrup
1/2 bag of regular-sized marshmallows (Nothing wrong with the minis if you prefer them. I just like the big ones' tenderness.)
1/2 cup sugar, either the evaporated cane juice kind or packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup cranberries
1/3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
Dash cloves
2 tbsp butter
Pour about 2/3 cup of the yam liquid from the can into a small pot, and discard the rest. Spread the yams into a baking dish in one layer. Warm the yams in the microwave.
Add the sugar to the yam liquid and bring to a boil. Cook down into a syrup that stretches from the (heat safe!) spoon like corn syrup, stirring often. Then turn the heat down and add the cranberries, stirring until they pop and become soft. Stir in the spices ad the butter. Pour the sauce over the yams.
Spread a single layer of marshmallows over the yams and place under the broiler. Broil until the tops are darkened to the degree you prefer.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Ariel requested a cheesecake for Thanksgiving, and of course that meant I had to put pumpkin in it. This is a reduced-sugar version of this recipe by Cooking Light, and can be made wholly sugar-free by simply omitting the crust. It'd be good without the crust, I only add it for the benefit of guests who expect crusts.
Ingredients:
50 vanilla wafer cookies
2 tbsp butter or margarine
4 blocks 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
1 can pumpkin
1 1/4 cup Splenda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 tbsp molasses
Crush the wafers - a food processor is good for this, but you can also crush them with a rolling pin inside a plastic bag. Melt the butter and mix it into the crumbs, then spread the crumbs in the bottom of either a springform pan or a silicone cake pan at least 3 inches deep. Pat the crumbs down and bake at 400 for 8 minutes.
Combine the Splenda and the spices in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Put the cream cheeses into a large microwave-safe bowl and warm up in the microwave, 10 seconds at a time, until they are easy to stir. Stir in the pumpkin, the vanilla, and the eggs, followed by the Splenda mixture.
Important note about stirring: If you beat air into a cheesecake, it will puff up and curdle when you bake it and you won't be happy with the results. Stirring must be done with care to avoid this. I don't use a machine - a food processor is wildly inappropriate for this, and a mixer gives (heh heh) mixed results. Use a spoon and be careful, or use my special cheesecake secret: An immersion blender! You can stick the immersion blender into the batter, carefully to avoid trapping bubbles, and then stir the batter with the blending stick (while blending) and as long as you don't lift the stick up too high, it won't whip any air in and you'll have a perfectly smooth batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven down and bake at 300 for 50 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the outer inch or two is beginning to turn golden and puff slightly, but the inside is flat. Cracks are okay, they happen to everyone and no one will care because it tastes AMAZING.
Ingredients:
50 vanilla wafer cookies
2 tbsp butter or margarine
4 blocks 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
1 can pumpkin
1 1/4 cup Splenda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 tbsp molasses
Crush the wafers - a food processor is good for this, but you can also crush them with a rolling pin inside a plastic bag. Melt the butter and mix it into the crumbs, then spread the crumbs in the bottom of either a springform pan or a silicone cake pan at least 3 inches deep. Pat the crumbs down and bake at 400 for 8 minutes.
Combine the Splenda and the spices in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Put the cream cheeses into a large microwave-safe bowl and warm up in the microwave, 10 seconds at a time, until they are easy to stir. Stir in the pumpkin, the vanilla, and the eggs, followed by the Splenda mixture.
Important note about stirring: If you beat air into a cheesecake, it will puff up and curdle when you bake it and you won't be happy with the results. Stirring must be done with care to avoid this. I don't use a machine - a food processor is wildly inappropriate for this, and a mixer gives (heh heh) mixed results. Use a spoon and be careful, or use my special cheesecake secret: An immersion blender! You can stick the immersion blender into the batter, carefully to avoid trapping bubbles, and then stir the batter with the blending stick (while blending) and as long as you don't lift the stick up too high, it won't whip any air in and you'll have a perfectly smooth batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven down and bake at 300 for 50 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the outer inch or two is beginning to turn golden and puff slightly, but the inside is flat. Cracks are okay, they happen to everyone and no one will care because it tastes AMAZING.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Mushroom Stew with Spaetzle
Another drastically modified recipe from Cooking Light, my favorite source of inspiration! The original was a vegetarian recipe out of the November 2010 issue, and called for a metric truckload of expensive cremini mushrooms as well as specifying a very difficult, messy, and culturally inaccurate method for making the spaetzle. I've been to Alsace and base my own spaetzle off of what I ate while I was there (it was amazing, FYI).
Incidentally, spaetzle are simple handmade noodles, enriched with butter and eggs, and are very easy to make. I don't have kids but I'm pretty sure spaetzle-making would be fun for children.
Ingredients:
1 pound lean beef stew meat, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 package cremini mushrooms, sliced thickly
1 large package white button mushrooms, sliced thickly
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup red wine
1 1/2 cups beef or vegetable broth
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Ground pepper to taste
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
For the spaetzle:
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp butter, very soft
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp milk
~1 cup flour
1 tbsp margarine or butter
Brown the beef over high heat in a dutch oven. Remove with a slotted spoon, letting the juices remain. Cook those juices until the bottom of the pan is dark brown. Meanwhile, put the porcinis into a small bowl with half a cup of water and microwave for one minute. When the mushrooms have hydrated and become soft, remove them (save the mushroom liquid!) and chop them finely.
Add the vegetables, sauteeing quickly to get most of the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, for 5 minutes. Add the red wine and scrape the rest of the browned bits off while the alcohol cooks down.
Put the meat back in the pot and add the broth, mushroom liquid, and salt. When it begins to bubble, turn down the heat and simmer, covered, for about an hour or until to desired tenderness, stirring frequently.
Meanwhile, make the spaetzle. Put a medium-sized pot full of water on to boil. Mix the soft butter, the eggs, the milk and the salt together in a bowl. Add about half the flour and mix with a sturdy spoon until smooth. Add in as much of the remaining flour as you can, a bit at a time, until you have a soft dough. (For non-bread-bakers, this is similar in stiffness to cookie dough.)
Turn out onto a well-floured surface, ideally waxed paper or a Silpat, and roll out with an equally-well-floured rolling pin to about the thickness of pie crust, which is to say about 1/8 - 1/4 inch, into a long oblong. Slice the oblong dough shape along the short side into strips 1/4 inch wide, then cut them the other direction so they're about three inches long, or whatever length you want (shape doesn't much matter). If you're doing it, use a big chef's knife to make the job easy and fast, but if it's your kids, have them use a butter knife or a dull pizza cutter.
When the water is a rolling boil, drop the spaetzle into the water all at once. Boil for 3 minutes. They'll float when they're done, so if you've rolled them very thick or cut them into large shapes and they aren't all floating after 3 minutes, let them cook another 30 seconds or so. Then drain and put into a bowl. Toss with the margarine until it melts.
When the stew is done, stir half of the parsley into it and add the vinegar. Mix the 2 tbsp flour with about 1/4 cup cold water, then pour it into the stew, stirring constantly until it thickens. Serve with the spaetzle, and sprinkle the parsley on top.
Incidentally, spaetzle are simple handmade noodles, enriched with butter and eggs, and are very easy to make. I don't have kids but I'm pretty sure spaetzle-making would be fun for children.
Ingredients:
1 pound lean beef stew meat, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 package cremini mushrooms, sliced thickly
1 large package white button mushrooms, sliced thickly
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup red wine
1 1/2 cups beef or vegetable broth
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Ground pepper to taste
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
For the spaetzle:
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp butter, very soft
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp milk
~1 cup flour
1 tbsp margarine or butter
Brown the beef over high heat in a dutch oven. Remove with a slotted spoon, letting the juices remain. Cook those juices until the bottom of the pan is dark brown. Meanwhile, put the porcinis into a small bowl with half a cup of water and microwave for one minute. When the mushrooms have hydrated and become soft, remove them (save the mushroom liquid!) and chop them finely.
Add the vegetables, sauteeing quickly to get most of the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, for 5 minutes. Add the red wine and scrape the rest of the browned bits off while the alcohol cooks down.
Put the meat back in the pot and add the broth, mushroom liquid, and salt. When it begins to bubble, turn down the heat and simmer, covered, for about an hour or until to desired tenderness, stirring frequently.
Meanwhile, make the spaetzle. Put a medium-sized pot full of water on to boil. Mix the soft butter, the eggs, the milk and the salt together in a bowl. Add about half the flour and mix with a sturdy spoon until smooth. Add in as much of the remaining flour as you can, a bit at a time, until you have a soft dough. (For non-bread-bakers, this is similar in stiffness to cookie dough.)
Turn out onto a well-floured surface, ideally waxed paper or a Silpat, and roll out with an equally-well-floured rolling pin to about the thickness of pie crust, which is to say about 1/8 - 1/4 inch, into a long oblong. Slice the oblong dough shape along the short side into strips 1/4 inch wide, then cut them the other direction so they're about three inches long, or whatever length you want (shape doesn't much matter). If you're doing it, use a big chef's knife to make the job easy and fast, but if it's your kids, have them use a butter knife or a dull pizza cutter.
When the water is a rolling boil, drop the spaetzle into the water all at once. Boil for 3 minutes. They'll float when they're done, so if you've rolled them very thick or cut them into large shapes and they aren't all floating after 3 minutes, let them cook another 30 seconds or so. Then drain and put into a bowl. Toss with the margarine until it melts.
When the stew is done, stir half of the parsley into it and add the vinegar. Mix the 2 tbsp flour with about 1/4 cup cold water, then pour it into the stew, stirring constantly until it thickens. Serve with the spaetzle, and sprinkle the parsley on top.
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