Sometimes we can’t cook for every occasion. So today, we are featuring the best Mardi Gras Recipes we found. Please visit all these sites, as they have amazing recipes and ideas all around!
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
I had a couple of eggplants in my refrigerator’s vegetable drawer. They had been there for week already, I didn’t want them to spoil, but I didn’t feel like making Eggplant Parmesan with them, which was the initial purpose of buying them. I didn’t want to grill them either, because that meant cutting up other vegetables and taking out my griller, which is waaaaaaay at the back of one of my cabinets. I was too lazy. I found this eggplant recipe which seemed like a tasty alternative. Although it is time consuming (roasting the vegetables for about 50 minutes, then blend and then let it simmer for 45 min) you don’t have to do a lot of actual work. I will definitely make this again, the flavor is great and it is filling. Pair it with a nice salad and some toasted bread, and you’re set!
Roasted Eggplant Soup
Serves 4
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
3 medium tomatoes, halved
1 large eggplant (about 1 1/2 pounds), halved lengthwise (I used 2 smaller ones)
1 medium onion, halved
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
Parmesan Cheese, for sprinkling
Procedure:
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Arrange tomatoes, eggplant, onion and garlic on a large baking sheet, or two smaller ones.
- Brush or drizzle vegetables with oil then roast them for 20 minutes, pausing only to remove the garlic cloves (otherwise they will burn) and returning the pans to the oven for another 25 minutes, until the remaining vegetables are tender and brown in spots.
- Remove from oven and scoop eggplant from skin (or peel the skin, off with your fingers, which I found to be easier) into a heavy, large saucepan or soup pot. Add the rest of the vegetables, the thyme and the chicken or vegetable stock and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook until onion is very tender, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly.
- Working in batches, puree soup in blender until it is as smooth as you’d like it to be. (Or, if you have an immersion blender, you can do this in the pot.) Back in the pot, add the cream and bring the soup back to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkled with cheese.
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
As much as we love to cook savory dishes and bake desserts, we can’t ignore the fact that we need to stay healthy while we are at it. So, what’s the best choice to have it both ways? Hide vegetables in plain sight! I have been looking at the Chocolate Beet Cake recipe for quite a while now… I always wondered if the beet (that is sweet but has a bitterish after flavor to it) would be good for baking. Then I found a recipe by Straight From The Farm. Later on I would see Beet Chocolate Cakes pop on my feeds and decided it was the universe telling me I should bake it. I decided to try the recipe by Pastry Affair, since it calls for cocoa powder instead of chocolate since it’s what I had handy.
This cake will not disappoint, I am telling you, my dad is a chocolate lover. He likes the Chocolate Cake recipe that I learned to make in 5th grade and there is no recipe that can compare to that one… Until this one came along! The only thing I would leave out is the cinnamon. It was what gave it away! We had dinner that night, then time for dessert and after he went through his slice, turned to me and the conversation went something like this:
– “The cake is good, but there’s something different in it”
– ”Yes, keep going”
– “Chocolate, did you use the same?”
– “Yes”
– “Fruit, something fruity… and Cinnamon. Why Cinnamon?”
And that’s where he broke me. Told him that he was right, the cinnamon was one of the ingredients but I could’ve done without it and that the fruity something that he was mentioning was beets. He instantly smiled in surprise, said that it was good and walked away. For me, that’s mission accomplished.
Chocolate Beet Cake
Recipe by Pastry Affair
Yield: 2 9-inch or 1 10-inch cake
Ingredients:
5 medium beets (or enough for 2 cups pureed beets)
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
Directions:
- Trim stems and roots from beets. Quarter and place in a large saucepan filled with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 50 minutes, or until beets are tender. Drain liquid and remove skin. Place beets in a food processor and process until beets are pureed. Reserve 2 cups puree.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour baking pan(s).
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in vanilla and beet puree.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- Stir into the beet batter until well combined.
- Pour batter into prepared baking pan(s) and bake for 40-50 minutes (longer for the 10-inch cake) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan before removing to cool completely on a cooling rack. Dust with confectioner’s sugar.
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
There are a few recipes I’ve been wanting to make, some of them for years. One of them in particular, which has even become an inside joke with Kitty. I’ve been wanting to make a croquembouche for at least 3 years now, I always plan to make it for the Holidays, but never get around to do it. As God is my witness, I will make a croquembouche!
This year, Christmas came and went… No croquemboche. As a consolation prize, I made cream puffs. I figured I could at least try to make part of a croquembouche and see how that goes.
With much fear, I followed Martha Stewart’s directions on how to make choux pastry. I had already made cream puffs before, but the last time I tried was probably 12 years ago. The recipe is a success! I am a Martha Stewart believer again. (You know I’ve had my disappointments with her baking recipes).
You can fill your choux pastry puffs with whipped cream, as a variation use pastry cream or ice cream. You can dust them with confectioner’s sugar, drizzle with melted chocolate or… my favorite, but I was too lazy to do it, with caramel.
Valentine’s Day idea:
Use a little red food coloring to give your whipped cream a pinkish color. Try using just one drop, you can always add more.
Cream Puffs (Choux Pastry)
Recipe by Martha Stewart
Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 large egg white
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside. Combine butter, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan, and place over medium heat. Cook until butter is melted and the water just comes to a boil.
- Remove from heat, add flour, and stir rapidly. Return the pan to the heat, and cook mixture, stirring constantly, until it comes together and pulls away from the sides of the saucepan, about 5 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat, and let cool for 5 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating until they are completely incorporated and the pastry is smooth. Transfer the pastry to a bag fitted with a small coupler. Pipe about 1/2 tablespoon of the pastry into a mound on the prepared baking sheet; continue piping until all the pastry is used, spacing pastry about 1 1/2 inches apart. Combine egg white with remaining 1 tablespoon of water, and brush the top of each mound with the egg wash. Bake until the puffs are golden brown all over, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
Our friends Iveth and Mario (her husband) just moved to Colombia, so we have been keeping in touch through Facebook. While checking my news feed one night, I saw Iveth had posted a photo of what she had made for dinner. It was this Croque Monsieur, and I had to have it.
I asked her for the recipe so she could be our next Guest Foodie. We really enjoy our friends collaborating on our blog by sharing their recipes and experiences in the kitchen!
She told me she got the idea to make this dish from the movie It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin (which she recommends, by the way). On a scene from the movie Meryl prepares a Croque Monsieur, so Iveth searched for a recipe and now we have it for you!
I can’t wait to try it myself… with a little white wine. (I’ll try to get my hands on that movie as well.)
Croque Monsieur
Recipe by Iveth Bodensteiner de Villanueva
Serves 2
Ingredients
4 sliced of bread (they have to be thick slices)
4 slices of Turkey Pastrami
enough gruyere cheese to cover the bread area
1 cup of Bechamel Sauce*
Butter, for spreading
*Note: you can find the recipe for Bechamel Sauce in our Roasted Vegetable Lasagna post, here. Divide the ingredients by half to use in this recipe
Procedure:
- Preheat oven at 200 F
- Prepare your béchamel sauce, you will only need about 1 cup.
- Spread your bread slices with a little butter, on both sides. On one slice, place turkey pastrami and gruyere cheese and cover with a bit of béchamel sauce. Place the second bread slice on top.
- Spread more béchamel sauce on top of the sandwich you have made (on that second bread slice) and top with enough gruyere cheese to cover the whole thing. Repeat this process to make a second croquet monsieur.
- Place them on a cookie sheet or pyrex, and bake for about 10 min. At 10 minutes, turn your oven to BROIL. This is the part where you have to keep an eye on them. Broil until the cheese develops a nice brown crust.
- Remove from the oven and enjoy!
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
This is the best chocolate dessert I have tried in a while. Really. I had already tried to make brownie balls before, which are extremely delicious and chocolatey. But this… This is just too much. You sink your teeth into the hard chocolate covering to find a rich, moist and decadent chocolate cake filling.
I need to make more of these, with variations like… boozing them up.
If you want to give these out as Valentine’s Day gifts, remember you have to store them in a cool place so the chocolate covering doesn’t melt. Use mini cupcake liners to set them up and placing them in a nice box would be the best wrapping choice. Or, make them for yourself and enjoy them with a nice glass of Zinfandel.
Chocolate Cake Balls
Makes about 45-50
Recipe from Bakerella
1 box chocolate cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can chocolate frosting (16 oz.)
8 oz semisweet chocolate for baking (such as Baker’s, Ghirardelli baking chips)
wax paper
Procedure:
- After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
- Mix thoroughly with 1 can chocolate frosting. I used a spoon to mix it all in.
- Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50)
- Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
- Melt chocolate by placing a pot over (not on) hot simmering water. Stir until it is completely melted and smooth.
- Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)
Tips:
- To successfully dip the chocolate balls, just drop them into the melted chocolate. Then use a spoon to cover the top of the ball with chocolate to get it evenly coated. Don’t double dip, or you might get crumbles into your chocolate.
- Once it is well coated, lift with your spoon and tap off the extra chocolate against the border of the pot.
- With a firm move, let it slide off the spoon into the wax paper.
- Keep the chocolate balls in the refrigerator, and dip them by batches. Remove 4-5 at a time from the fridge to cover them in chocolate, that will make them easier to handle.
- If you think your chocolate is starting to get a little hard, but it back on your double boiler for a few minutes to keep it completely melted and smooth.
- When you finish coating all of them, you can use leftover chocolate to drizzle on top as decoration. (put it inside a sandwich bag and open a small hole to let the chocolate out)
- If you want to use sprinkles as decoration, use them as soon as you have dipped so the chocolate doesn’t set.
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
February is a busy month: Super Bowl and Valentines’ Day! We geared up recipes for both, including some nice surprises for Valentine’s, like this Luscious Chocolate Cake. We will post the recipe to it soon, and we know it’s going to become a favorite soon. The cake is perfect!
For the Desktop Calendar, you can click here.
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
When Jake flew to Guatemala to visit this last Holiday season, we ate out. A lot. But we were also invited to many family and friends gatherings for homemade meals. We were invited to a family BBQ after Christmas, and since we didn’t want to get there empty handed Jake made these Spicy-Sweet Chicken Wings to bring over.
Jake gave me American Masala as one of my Christmas Gifts, and it worked out perfectly because Jake was able to make these Spicy-Sweet Chicken Wings from Suvir’s book. My family (that already loved him) went nuts about them and now they love him even more! And having said that, we don’t have a picture of the baked wings on a nice plate… That is because as soon as we got them out of the oven we went next door and… they flew away! So, we have a picture that we’re borrowing from Suvir’s Book. Make sure to click on it so you can get his book on Amazon.
This is an extremely easy recipe, perfect for the Super Bowl. Best thing is that you can marinade them overnight to save some time on Sunday. It is savory, easy to double. And trust me, you will need to double for a Super Bowl party, even make two double batches. They are that good.
Special thanks to Suvir for signing my book! It was a very exciting surprise when I opened the book and found that he had written a special message for me! Thank you Suvir!
You can follow Suvir on Twitter @suvirsaran and Like him on Facebook at facebook.com/suvirsaran.
Spicy-Sweet Chicken Wings
Recipe from
American Masala by Chef Suvir Saran
Ingredients
5 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cracked peppercorns
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 pounds chicken wings, wings halved at the drumette joint
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Coarse sea salt
Procedure:
- Heat your oven to 400°F.
- Whisk 2 tablespoons of honey with the olive oil, salt, cracked pepper, garam masala, paprika, cayenne pepper and cumin in a small bowl. Pour into a resealable gallon-sized plastic bag and add the chicken wings. Turn to coat with marinade and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a wire rack on top of the baking sheet (you can also line a broiler drip pan with foil and cut slits in the foil so the juices don’t pool around the chicken). Arrange the chicken wings in a single layer on the rack. Roast for 35 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 3 tablespoons of honey and vinegar in a small bowl. Remove the wings from the oven and brush with the honey-vinegar. Continue roasting until the wings are slightly charred and crisp, about another 15 to 25 minutes.
- Sprinkle with some coarse salt and cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Note:
- If you want to double the recipe, you can keep the cayenne the same because they can get too hot. All the rest of the ingredients double them without any worries.
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
What can I tell you about a strawberry topping for oatmeal? Using regular oatmeal and adding this homemade topping definitely beats eating the instant variety, it’s not hard to make and you can keep a small batch to last you through the week. You could also try to make this with peaches or apples, so you can have a few different toppings to add. Keep them in an airtight container in the fridge and spoon them over hot, creamy oatmeal. Hey, it’s good for you.
Strawberry Topping for Oatmeal
Original Recipe from The Foodies’ Kitchen
Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 cups strawberries, sliced
2 teaspoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Procedure:
- In a small saucepan, bring all ingredients together.
- Cover and let them simmer for 5 minutes.
- Spoon over oatmeal.
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
Wine & Chocolate: What to pair
Wine and chocolate paired together? They’re natural companions. Both have complex flavors and notes, both have similar components and nuances in common. A wine and chocolate pairing follows the same kind of process as a wine or chocolate tasting, except you taste both together.
Pair lighter chocolates with lighter wines; darker chocolates with full-bodied wines.
Pairings for Dark, Bittersweet and Semisweet chocolate:
•Zinfandel
•Syrah
•Tawny Port
•Armagnac
•Cognac
If you’re looking to pair up Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, or Sangiovese reds, they need to be well-aged to suitably pair with darker chocolates.
Pairings for Milk Chocolate:
•Merlot
•Riesling
•Sauvignon Blanc
•Dessert wines
More Pairings
Pairing chocolate with fruit is a natural. Some experts prefer chocolate and beer combinations to chocolate and wine. In Europe, bread and chocolate are common companions. Chocolate and coffee are meant to be together, while chocolate and tea are an unlikely match that some experts swear by.
Excerpt from our Chocolate article.
© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.
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