Sriracha Apricot Chicken

Ingredients & Directions:

• 12 chicken drumsticks
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup Sriracha
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 4 tablespoons mirin
• 8-10 tablespoons apricot preserves (less if you want it less sweet)
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

1.  In a large bowl, toss chicken with salt. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

2.  Preheat oven to 450°. In a medium bowl, stir together flour and cornstarch. Pat chicken dry with paper towel. Lightly dredge chicken with flour mixture; place on wire rack set over rimmed baking pan. Roast 55 minutes or until skin is browned and crisp; turning every 15 minutes.

3.  Meanwhile, in small saucepot, combine Sriracha, vinegar, mirin and preserves. Heat to boiling over high heat; reduce heat to medium and simmer 10 minutes or until thickened.

4. Brush chicken with some Sriracha sauce; roast 8 minutes longer or until sauce begins to brown. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with remaining sauce.

recipe via foxeslovelemons

Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted any recipes here. I recently renewed the url so I figured I needed to use it at least a little. I am still thinking of new ways to revamp this blog - a new way to blog about food that’s not boring to me. Anyway, I made these cookies recently. They’re so simple, delicious, and I actually took photos of most of the baking process so here it is!

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/4 cup of raspberry preserve 

In a mixer cream together butter and sugar. Add the vanilla, almond extract, salt, and egg yolk. Beat until fluffy. Add the flour until it forms a stiff dough.

Scrape the dough onto a large sheet of wax paper. Roll the dough until it forms a rope that is about 3/4” in diameter. Roll your dough rope up in the wax paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Remove your dough from the refrigerator and let rest for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Unwrap and slice your dough into 1” slices, roll them into little balls and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie ball, fill each thumb press with raspberry preserve. 

Bake your cookies until they are lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool 5 minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet. 

Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes

Ingredients & Directions:

• 1/2 C Milk
• 3 Lg. Egg Whites
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 tsp Almond Extract
• 1 1/4 C Flour
• 1 C Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 6 T Butter, soft
• 2 T Rainbow Sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners. In a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg whites and extracts. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir to combine. Cut in butter with the paddle attachment at low speed, until mixture is coarse and sandy. Add milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl and continue beating for 20-30 seconds.

Stir in sprinkles.

Divide batter evenly into prepared tin. Bake for about 15 minutes, depending on your oven. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting. Makes 12.

Marshmallow Frosting

• 1 1/2 C Sugar
• 2 Lg. Egg Whites
• 1/3 C Water
• 2 tsp Light Corn Syrup
• 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Whisk sugar, egg whites, water, light corn syrup, and cream of tartar in large metal bowl to blend. Set bowl over saucepan of barely simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch simmering water). Using handheld electric mixer, beat on medium speed until mixture resembles soft marshmallow fluff, about 4 minutes. Increase mixer speed to high and beat until mixture is very thick, about 3 minutes longer. Remove bowl from over simmering water. Add vanilla extract and continue beating until marshmallow frosting is completely cool, about 5 minutes longer.

When cool, frost cupcakes and add more sprinkles, if desired.

I got this recipe from Baking Bites.

(Steven)

Oven Baked Risotto

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart (personally, of course) and I only ate a tiny bit of it, so I am going to save it to make arancini.

Ingredients & Directions:

General Tso’s Slow Cooked Chicken Tacos

Ingredients & Directions:

• 2 cups Chicken Broth
• 8 Oz Hoisin Sauce
• 1/3 C Fig Infused Vinegar (you can use white vinegar too)
• 1/4 C Soy Sauce
• 1/4 C Granulated Sugar
• 1/4 C Cornstarch
• 5 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 T Ginger
• 1 tsp Thyme
• 1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 4 Chicken Breasts (You could use less since it makes a lot of meat once shredded)

Whisk together broth, hoisin sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, thyme, and red pepper in a slow cooker until well combined. Add chicken to slow cooker and spoon some sauce over top. Cook on low heat setting for 6-8 hours.

Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred with 2 forks. Place chicken in serving dish and coat with desired amount of sauce from slow cooker.

While the chicken was cooking, I made a quick salsa of tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, & avocado. I added some red pepper flakes, salt, & pepper to it and then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Prepare soft taco shells, then top with chicken and salsa.

These tacos are based on this recipe here.

(Steven)

Braised Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Ingredients & Directions:

• 1 lb brussels sprouts, washed, cut in half (or quarters as long as they are about same size)
• 3 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
• 2 T diced Garlic
• 1 T Soy Sauce
• 1/4 C White Wine

1. Heat pan on medium heat then add bacon. Fry up till bacon has rendered a good amount of the fat, about 5-10 minutes. Add garlic. Stir garlic well into the bacon, fry garlic until it becomes fragrant and soft, but not burnt.

2. Add brussels sprouts to the pan then add soy sauce and white wine. Stir evenly.

3. Cover, and turn heat to low and allow brussels spouts to slowly braise in the liquid for about 15-20 minutes, or until the brussels sprouts are tender.

(Steven)

Orange Cream Scones with Craisins

Here’s a pretty simple, but tasty scone recipe I made the other day. 

Ingredients & Directions:

• 2 C flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/3 C sugar (and a little extra for sprinkling on top of precooked scones)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 T grated orange peel
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1/2 C cold butter
• 3/4 C cream (and a little extra for brushing tops of precooked scones)
• 2 T orange juice
• 1 egg
• 1/2 C Craisins

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Into a 3/4 cup measuring cup, add orange juice, then add cream to make 3/4 cup.
In a separate bowl, combine cream and orange juice mixture and the egg. Beat with a whisk until the egg is beaten into the cream mixture.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt, and orange peel.
Cut in butter into 16 pieces and add to the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter, cut butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside

Add the cream and egg mixture to the flour mixture; stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Add Craisins. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead dough lightly 12 times. Pat the dough into a circle, 3/4 inch thick.

Cut scones in pizza shaped slices or use circular cutter.

Place scones on to a parchment lined baking sheet 1 inch apart. Brush tops of scones with a little cream and sprinkle each with sugar.

Bake in to the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

I also made some Sweetened Cinnamon Butter to serve with the scones.

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 T powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients into a small bowl until combined.

Serve warm so the butter melts.

(Steven)

Cranberry Clafouti

I made this Cranberry Clafouti for a family gathering this past weekend.  It’s from Martha Stewart’s November 2011 issue.

Ingredients & Directions:

• 1 T Butter
• 1/2 C plus 2 T of Sugar
• 1/4 C plus 2 T of Flour
• Pinch of Salt
• 2 Lg Eggs
• 1 C Chilled Heavy Cream
• 3/4 C Milk (I used 2%, the recipe recommends whole)
• 2 tsp Orange Zest
• 1 1/2 C of Cranberries, chopped
• Confectioner’s Sugar, garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Butter a baking dish and sprinkle 2 T of sugar over the bottom.

Sift remaining 1/2 C Sugar, flour, and salt into a larger bowl.  Gradually whisk in eggs, 3/4 C Cream, milk, and orange zest.

Scatter cranberries into dish.

Pour batter over the top. 

Bake until puffed, slightly set, and brown around the edges, 30-35 minutes.

Optional topping: Whisk remaining 1/4 C of Cream until soft peaks form.  Dust clafouti with confectioners’ sugar.  Serve with whipped cream.

(Steven)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

I’m just going to keep it simple here.  These were delicious and I can’t recommend them enough. Recipe from Made In Mel’s Kitchen.

Ingredients & Directions:

2 C Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 C packed light-brown sugar
1 C granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners and set aside.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice.  Set that aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the  brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Beat on medium speed until well combined.  Add dry ingredients, and mix on low until smooth. Fold in pumpkin puree. 

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

(I made 12 regular sized and 12 minicupcakes.)

Salted Caramel Buttercream

• 1/4 C granulated sugar
• 2 T water
• 1/4 C heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 stick salted butter
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 C powdered sugar

In a saucepan, stir together granulated sugar and water.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Cook without stirring until mixture turns a deep amber color, about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and slowly add in cream and vanilla, stirring until very smooth.  Let caramel cool for about 20 minutes, until it is just barely warm and still pourable.  (I set aside a little to drizzle over the cupcakes)

Cheddar Cheese Soup

My friend John gave me a cook book from the Epcot International Wine & Food Festival.  I read through the entire things and decided that this soup would be the first thing I would try making.

Ingredients & Directions:

• 1/2 pound of Bacon, cut into 1/2” pieces
• 1 medium red onion, cut into 1/4” pieces
• 3 celery stalks, cut into 1/4” pieces
• 4 T Butter
• 1 C Flour
• 3 C Chicken Stock
• 4 C Milk
• 1 pound Cheddar Cheese
• 1 T Tabasco sauce
• 1 T Worcestershire Sauce
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1/2 C Warm Beer
• Chives for garnish

Cook the bacon, stirring, over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until lightly browned, in a 4 or 5 Quart pot (or Dutch Oven).

Add the red onion, celery, and butter and saute until the onion has softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes over medium heat. 

Whisk in the chicken stock and bring to a boil for one minute.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Add the milk and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.  Do not boil after you add the milk.

Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper until the cheese is melted and the soup is smooth.  Stir in the warm beer.  If the soup is too thick, thin with some milk.

Serve hot, garnished with chives.

(Steven)