Brown Butter Herbed Quinoa Pasta

This one comes without photos...it's inspired by a dish I had at a local restaurant that was incredible!

So I may have created one of the best, simple (unhealthy), fast pasta meals I've ever made...

Brown Butter Herbed Quinoa Pasta

1/2 stick butter
1 Thai (birdseye) chili, seeds removed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 tbsp dried tarragon (to be honest, fresh would be better)
1 dash of dried sage (again, two fresh sage leaves would be better)
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lemon (juice only)
1/2 lb Quinoa (or regular) Fusilli (pro tip: I got my pasta at Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup crumbled feta

Okay, here's the assembly part...time for some stress relief:

1. Get a pot of water boiling for the pasta...once the water is boiling, add a healthy dose of salt and the pasta.

2. Mortar and Pestle: Crush the herbs, chili and salt. Mush the butter into the mortar to create an herbed paste.

3. In a hot pan--heat the herbed butter on high until butter is melted--immediately reduce heat to medium and cook herbs for ˜1 minute. Add lemon juice. Simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat

4. Once pasta is al dente, strain and add directly to sauce. Toss sauce over pasta

5. Plate pasta and put feta on top....DONE!

Habanero Apricot Sauce

Habanero Apricot Sauce

Let's get real here...again, this sauce goes with Scott's Chili and my Cornbread Pancakes...yeah it's awesome. Scott and I were wandering pseudo-aimlessly through a grocery story as I was trying to figure out what to make to go with his chili, when I thought about apricots. Scott suggested balsamic vinegar, and the rest of the blanks filled themselves in. Hope you like it!

~DKH

Prep time: 10 minutes                      Cook Time: 10~20 minutes             Total time: 20-30 minutes

Materials:

1 cup chopped dried apricots

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp of your favourite smoked habanero hot sauce

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp olive oil

Methods:

Combine ingredients over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer until sauce thickens (~10-20 minutes). Season to taste with any additional seasonings you like! Serve between a cornbread pancake and some chili!!!

Jalapeno Cornbread Pancakes

Jalapeno Cornbread Pancakes

Alright, so last week Scott and I had a cooking party and of course, I had to create something that would go well with his award winning chili--so here is the first of two items I made to go with his chili. This one is a jalapeño cornbread pancake, the other one (to be posted later this week), is a habañero apricot sauce...YUM!

~DKH

Prep time: 10 minutes                         Cook time: 20 minutes              Total Time: 30 minutes

Materials:

2 cups cornmeal (self rising)

2 cups almond milk

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp apricot jam

3 tbsp olive oil

1 egg

1 diced jalapeño

Methods:

Mix all of the dry ingredients, then add all of the wet ingredients thoroughly to eliminate lumps. Cook on a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, flipping when the bottom is golden brown. Serve hot with habañero apricot sauce and Scott's chili!!!!

Mama Downen's Friday Night Lights Chili

Mama Downen's Friday Night Lights Chili

Of course, as with any good chili recipe, I'm required to start this post with one quick statement: This chili is award winning! My high school started up an annual chili cook-off fund raiser that my mother entered and WON. Now that I've gotten that cleared up, here's the recipe:

A "quick and easy" chili recipe that's delicious, cheap and hearty. The recipe can also easily be upgraded/downgraded by swapping out and adding ingredients to make it spicier, sweeter, or wherever your tongue may lead you! I usually add minced garlic and habaneros to scorch my guests' tongues, swap the canned tomatoes with fresh ones, and use half a cup less water...

~Scottie

Prep. Time ~10 minutes                     Cook Time: ~30 minutes              Total: ~40 minutes

Ingredients:
1 white onion, chopped (1/2 in chili, 1/2 for toppings)
2 jalapeños, stemmed and chopped (keep seeds for heat)
1 lb. ground serloin
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1-2 tsp. ground cumin
1-2 tsp. garlic powder
1 can "Texas Chili Style" beans
1 can Rotel tomatoes (with peppers)
1 small can tomato sauce
1 cup water (fill up the empty tomato sauce can)
1 tbsp. olive oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Toppings:
Cheese
Sour cream
Chips/crackers (Fritos...yum)

Steps:
1. In a medium sized pot over med/high heat, sautée the jalapeños and 1/2 of the onion in olive oil.
2. Add beef, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cook until brown.
3. Add beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and water to the pot.
4. Reduce heat to med/low, cover, and allow to simmer for approximately 30 minutes.
5. Serve with cheese, sour cream, onions, your favorite hot sauce, and FRITOS! (Or crackers, etc.)
Of course, as with any good recipe, there are a few "award winning" features that have been left out to maintain the magic of Mama Downen's Chili. I would include them if I knew what they were...

Kara's Corner is up!

Hey world!

My awesome sister asked if she could add some of her recipes to this mix...of course my answer was YES because she is an awesome cook. At the top of my blog main page you'll find a tab with a link to her section of my blog "Kara's Corner." Her first post is going to be my midweek post this week: baked apples with home made pumpkin icecream: http://karahubbardscorner.blogspot.com/2012/10/an-apple-day-is-better-with-icecream.html

YUM!

Easy Applesauce

 Fuji Applesauce

So, I was hosting a small dinner party last week and I needed a quick dessert to serve with carrot cake and ice cream...so I decided to try my hand at making some applesauce. The nice thing about this one, is that you can start cooking it first and let it do its thing while you prep other dishes. Here is the recipe.

~DKH

Prep/cook time: 30 min/1.5 hours...total ~2 hours

Materials:

6-8 Medium/large Fuji Apples

1 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1-2 Tbsp Cinnamon

1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1/2-1 tsp ground gloves

1/2 tsp allspice

1 cup water

Methods: 

Peel the apples (if you prefer smooth sauce) and remove the cores. Chop apple into 1 inch cubes and place in large (at least 6 quarts) pot...preferably cast iron or similar. Add remaining ingredients and place over medium heat until the apples begin to soften and the mixture starts to boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer covered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Monitor liquid levels constantly--too much water can make for soggy sauce, too little can turn into a sticky mess. Mash the applesauce with a potato masher, and cook uncovered until the desired consistency is reached. Serve immediately, or allow to cool. Enjoy!

It's the Brittle things in Life

Brittles

Here are a few little brittle recipes I've learned/tried, hopefully you'll find them as intriguing as I.

~DKH

Useful Precooking instructions:

1. Sugar is a type of hydrocarbon, just like fats, alcohols and gasoline--so if you're cooking with sugar, you should exercise caution because it can, and will, burst into flames if left unattended over high heat. If you've ever roasted a marshmallow a bit too long, you know what happens...
2. DO NOT leave your pot of boiling sugar (flammable material) unattended.
3. Always add the theme ingredient before you start cooking--this allows any water trapped inside to come up to temperature slowly and escape, instead of exploding in your face.
4. NEVER choose a theme ingredient that might contain enough water to cause it to pop or burst (unpopped popcorn kernels for instance)--you could get very seriously burned.
5. USE a candy thermometer--it is just way easier...a digital one is probably the best option because there is no risk of any mercury leaking out into your candy.

Materials:
 1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1 cup theme ingredient*
 2 tbsp butter/margarine
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda (NOT powder, trust me on this one)

Methods: 

Place the first five ingredients into a 2 qt sauce pan, and heat them over medium-high heat and stir to dissolve sugar. Monitor the sugar mixture temperature constantly until it reaches 300 F (150 C), which is the hard crack stage for you candy makers out there (for more on why it's called "hard crack", look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_crack#Sugar_stages). When the sugar reaches the right temperature, turn off the heat, and quickly stir in the remaining three ingredients. Pour the mixture onto a greased pan or a silicone baking sheet. Smooth out candy and allow it to cool before cracking it into large pieces. Enjoy!

*So, here is where I make suggestions to you as to the types of brittles you can make with this recipe. As a general rule, you should use things that have little or no water in them (the reason is because the water will turn to steam and either explode or increase your cook time). Here are some suggestions:

• Salted Peanuts
• Banana Chips (the fried ones)
• Almonds, walnuts, cashews, etc.
• Pretzels, corn chips, etc. (I've never tried these, but they could be interesting)
• Any combination of the above

 Here is some delicious banana chip brittle I made:

For those who want to know a bit more about the theory of candy making...specifically cooking with sugar, continue reading:

Okay, so first of all, it's a bit useful to notice that we are cooking at temperatures well above boiling point, so it makes sense that adding water (or anything containing water) might cause an explosion due to rapid steam production. So you might be asking yourself: why does the recipe call for water in the first place?? Well, in order to make candy, a few things need to happen. First, a solution of boiling sugar must be made--in order to completely dissolve the granulated sugar, we add some water to help that out. As the solution heats, the boiling point of water is reached 212 F (100 C). You may notice that your mixture seems to climb up to this temperature quickly before halting for a while at the boiling point...after some seemingly arbitrary length of time, the solution begins to heat again until you reach your desired temperature. The reason this halting occurs is that there is still water in the solution which takes up energy to form steam--stopping the temperature for rising. Once all or most of the water is gone, the temperature can continue to rise because energy is no longer being used to create steam. Secondly, in order to form a smooth candy, we would like the sugar to cool in such a way as to create crystals of a size that we can control. This second point is really mostly important when creating things like fudge, caramel, syrups, etc. To avoid losing control of the crystal formation in our candy, we make sure we have a completely dissolved sugar solution. If ANY sugar crystals are left in our solution prior to cooling, they can act as nucleation points (for more on THAT subject, consult your closest thermodynamics expert) for undesired crystal formation. You may notice that in some recipes, they suggest keeping a lid on your candy while it cooks/cools in the pot...this is precisely to allow the steam that escapes from the water you've added to condense and roll down the edges of the pot--washing any undissolved crystals on the edge of the pot back into solution to be dissolved completely. Okay, I could really go on a long time about this subject--perhaps I'll write an entire post about the fundamentals of candy making...for now, try out the recipe above...and enjoy!