A Thai-ish Supper

I always have at least one jar of Maesri Thai chilli paste with sweet basil in the pantry. If you enjoy drunken noodles, you'll like this condiment.

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Ordinarily, I plan our weekend dinners a few days in advance, but other times I just wing it. We normally have enough raw ingredients in the house to produce something interesting without having to make a run to the store. On this particular weekend, I decided to use some of the Trader Joe's cod we had in the freezer. Cod's not my favorite--I'm not into its weird, almost-buttery, flavor-- but it's relatively inexpensive and cooks quickly. I thought I could do something like my old standby Sriracha Bouillabaisse, which is relatively easy. (I was feeling lazy.) Then I noticed a jar of Thai chilli paste with sweet basil in the cupboard, next to a can of coconut milk, and dinner suddenly veered off in a slightly different direction.

Both recipes start with sautéing aromatics, then adding tomatoes, stock, and something spicy. In this case, the spicy element is provided one of my favorite condiments. I discovered chilli paste with sweet basil leaves at H Mart many years ago. There are a couple of variations and brands available, with holy basil, or labeled as "pad kapao" sauce. All of them contain some variety of Thai basil, chile peppers, soy bean oil, garlic, and salt. The flavors are spicy and aromatic, bright and fragrant, great with everything (I think). If you appreciate the licorice-like flavors of Thai basil and are into hot stuff, I think you'll like it.

I mostly had peppers on hand--an orange bell pepper and a bag of shishitos that I haven't gotten around to using. I chopped up a handful of those; while not really spicy, shishitos still have the flavor profile of a hot green pepper, which I vastly prefer over a green bell pepper. Green beans would work nicely in this dish, too, so if you have some, toss them in. Hell, any veg would be good, and shrimp or tofu would work just as well as the fish.

I simmer the veg and wet ingredients until they look more like a sauce than a soup, adding lots of fish sauce, lime juice, and a pinch or two of sweetener (sugar, agave nectar, honey) to get a balanced flavor. Restaurant Thai food, at least in this area, tends to be sweet. It's nice to be able to cut back on the sweetness when preparing food with Thai flavors at home, but I still think many dishes need at least a touch of sweetness to balance the more intense flavors of chiles and fish sauce.

The protein is added at the last minute and heated only until cooked through. Overcooked fish is a bad thing, so don't do it. I don't think you can overcook tofu, but probably best not to let that go too long, either. I served the dish with plain jasmine rice, your favorite grain would probably be fine. If you reduce the sauce even more before seasoning, you could probably eat this over pasta, should you be so inclined.

Thai Basil Coconut Fish

2 tablespoons neutral oil
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1 orange bell pepper, sliced thinly
1-3 green chiles of your choice (jalapenos or whatever you have on hand), sliced thinly
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro stems
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt
1 Knorr fish bouillon cube plus 1 cup water, or 1 8-oz bottle of clam juice
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
1 15-oz can coconut milk
2 heaping tablespoons Maesri chilli paste with sweet basil leaves (or to taste)
Fish sauce
Lime juice
Sugar to taste
1 pound boneless, skinless cod filets, or similar white-fleshed fish
Rice for serving
Cilantro and sliced green onion for garnish

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a dutch oven or large pan with lid. Add the onion, peppers, cilantro stems, and a big pinch of salt.. Stir occasionally, cooking until veg have softened a bit and starting to brown, 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute or so. Add the bouillon or clam juice, tomatoes, and coconut milk and stir to combine. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook for 8-10 minutes to evaporate some of the liquid and concentrate the flavors.

Turn the heat down to medium. Add the chilli paste and taste for seasoning. If you are serving this with rice, you'll need the sauce to be somewhat aggressively seasoned. Add fish sauce for salt--I used a couple of tablespoons. You can add some kosher salt, too. Add a few squeezes of lime juice and a bit of sugar. Once you have the sauce flavored to your liking (it should have a nice spicy/tangy/sweet balance, but do what works for your palate), slip in the pieces of fish. Cover the pan and cook until the fish is cooked through and easily flakes apart, about 5 minutes.

Serve in bowls, with rice on the bottom or on the side. Garnish with cilantro.

Serves 4.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Flashback Friday - Spice and Dice

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on August 9, 2011.

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We Minxes love Thai food and ever since the demise of our regular haunt, Bangkok Place, we're always on the lookout for a new favorite. While we really enjoyed a meal at Bangkok Garden, being in Columbia makes it a bit of a haul and not exactly good for any spur-of-the-moment meal decisions. Recently, Mr Minx received a coupon for a place called Spice & Dice, located in a nondescript office park on Joppa Road about halfway between Goucher and Loch Raven Boulevards. That's not far from us, so we made a point to have dinner there one recent Tuesday evening. 

Spice & Dice has a bright and happy interior that, sans tables, would work well as a daycare center. Ignore, however, the many colors and patterns on the walls and concentrate instead on the menu which has a large selection of appetizers, plus curries, stir-fries, and noodle dishes. On our first trip, we sampled the fish cakes and the chicken laab from the appetizer section, plus the gingery chicken ped king and the vibrantly-spiced duck with basil sauce, all washed down with generously-sized glasses of sweet and milky Thai iced tea. After that successful experience, we vowed to visit again soon, this time with camera in tow.

A few weeks later, we met my father and brother for dinner at Spice & Dice. After taking some time perusing the many interesting menu options, Dad opted for the jasmine rice soup followed by pad thai with pork. The soup was outstanding, its light broth tangy with lemongrass and full of tender chicken. The pad thai was a fine rendition of the ubiquitous noodle dish, served with an extra helping of crushed peanuts on the side.

Jasmine Rice Soup

Pad Thai with Pork

We also sampled two appetizers, the chicken teriyaki dumplings and fried calamari. The dumplings were drizzled with an unfortunately goopy sweet sauce that did nothing for them and were otherwise forgettable. The calamari was slightly chewy, as it often is when served in the diamond-scored-rectangular chunks that tend to be typical of Asian restaurants, but was otherwise tasty, particularly when dipped in the lightly spicy pink mayo-based sauce.

Chicken Teriyaki Dumplings - pretty but meh.

Happy Calamari

As fans of Thai basil, my brother and I both ordered dishes that featured that ingredient. Or so we thought. His chicken with basil dish displayed no evidence of that herb's presence, but otherwise had a lively garlic flavor.

Chicken in Basil Sauce

My dish, shrimp with eggplant, contained a decent amount of basil leaves in a sweet-ish sauce that had partly been absorbed by the chunks of bright purple Asian eggplant. It was a bit inconvenient to eat the tail-on shrimp, but otherwise I happily hoovered up this dish, lusciously-sauced romaine leaves and all.

Eggplant and Shrimp with Basil

Mr Minx opted for the jungle curry, a preparation that contains none of the coconut milk present in other Thai curries. It had a very distinctive and unusual herbal flavor, predominately galangal and ginger, and was quite unlike any other Thai dish we've tried.

Jungle Curry with Pork

Some of the dishes at Spice & Dice are a bit on the sweet side - probably a nod to American palates - and the teriyaki dumplings were nothing special, but everything else was quite delicious.

While the decor was busy, the restaurant was not. I hope more people find this cute spot and stop by for a meal so it'll stay around long enough for us to become regulars.

Spice and Dice Thai Restaurant
1220 E Joppa Rd #108
Towson, MD 21286
(410) 494-8777

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Flashback Friday - Curried Banana Bread

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on April 11, 2012.

In between 30 Rock and Project Runway one week, Mr Minx and I caught an episode of Food(ography) that featured frozen treats. One of said treats was a "sexy" banana split using a base of curried banana bread topped with various exotically-flavored ice creams, served at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink in Miami. I immediately decided that I needed to make that bread. My curry cupcakes were pretty amazing, if I do say so myself, and the addition of bananas could only make it better, right?

I couldn't seem to find chef Hedy Goldsmith's recipe online anywhere, so I concocted one of my own. The result was...wow. Outstanding. The combination of banana, coconut cream, and oil produced the moistest banana bread I've ever eaten, and it had a rich and complex flavor that, while spicy, didn't necessarily taste of curry.

Curried Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons of sweet curry powder (I like Penzey's)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
Coconut cream (see directions)
4 large, very ripe, bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9" loaf pan.

Mix together flour, soda, spices, and salt and set aside.

Carefully remove the lid from a can of full-fat coconut milk. Scoop off the cream on top and place in a measuring cup. If necessary, add coconut milk to equal a half cup total. Stir in mashed bananas and vanilla.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or by hand, combine sugar and eggs until fluffy. Beat in oil, then add coconut milk mixture. Fold in dry ingredients and walnuts and pour into loaf pan.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a rack to cool completely.

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Flashback Friday - Curry Cupcakes

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on March 22, 2011.

Back in October of 2010, I posted some teaser photos of a batch of cupcakes that I baked up to test a recipe for the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest. I didn't win, so now it's safe to share.

The Chocolate Adventure Contest requires participants to use one or more somewhat-esoteric "adventure ingredients," which this year included stout, ricotta, buttermilk, saffron, coconut milk, molasses, adzuki beans, fresh beets, chiles, bee pollen, Meyer lemon, almond flour, and Sumatra coffee beans. I liked the idea of using saffron, coconut milk, and almond flour in the cupcakes themselves, and thought curry powder would be a nice accent for the saffron. The cake itself was ridiculously moist and the entire concoction was quite rich. And delicious! The curry flavoring was very subtle - I used Penzey's Sweet Curry, which has more sweet spices, especially fenugreek, one of the flavor components of "maple-flavored" syrups like Log Cabin. Taste-testers were hard-pressed to guess that the caramel and frosting were indeed flavored with curry.

Without further ado, I give you White Chocolate Saffron Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Curry Caramel Filling and Curry Buttercream Frosting. (You'll probably notice that I used basically the same base in my pistachio cupcakes. It's so good, I don't see any reason to use any other recipe.)

White Chocolate Saffron Cupcakes

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4-oz white chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut milk

Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.

Place the saffron in a small bowl with boiling water and soak for 15 minutes.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt.

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute at 50% power. Stir chocolate and if it does not melt completely, microwave for another 30 seconds at 50% power. Repeat at 15-second intervals until the chocolate is smooth when stirred.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the melted white chocolate and vanilla extract. Alternate stirring in flour mixture and coconut milk, ending with flour. Mix until no streaks of flour remain, but do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

Bake at 325F for 20-23 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Milk Chocolate Curry Caramel Filling

1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
1 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons salted butter, diced
1 ounce Scharffen Berger milk chocolate
1/8 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (Penzey's Sweet Curry, if you can get it. It's sweeter and less cumin-y than grocery store curry powder.)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

In a medium saucepan set over low heat, stir sugar, 1/4 cup water, and corn syrup until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high. Boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber, occasionally brushing down pan sides with wet pastry brush, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cream, which will cause sugar to bubble furiously, then whisk in butter and chocolate.

Add sour cream, curry powder, and salt. Cool completely before using.

Curry Buttercream Frosting

1.5 sticks of  room temperature butter
7 ounces marshmallow fluff
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (Penzey's Sweet Curry)

Combine the butter and marshmallow in a bowl, and with a hand or stand mixer, beat on medium until completely smooth. Reduce speed to low and add confectioners sugar, vanilla, salt, and curry powder. Continue to beat until smooth and fluffy.

To assemble cupcakes:

Using a paring knife, cut a small divot out of the top of each cupcake, about 1" deep x 1 1/4" wide (the little plugs are Cook's Treat!). Fill hole with some of the cooled caramel sauce. Spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large plain round or French tip and pipe in a spiral onto the tops of each cupcake, making sure to cover the caramel. Garnish with chopped pistachios or sliced almonds, if desired.

Store in refrigerator to keep frosting from getting too soft. Bring to room temperature before eating.



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Flashback Friday - Kitchen of India

Kitchen of India has pretty good food. The service, however, has always been casual at best. Haven't been in a while, so perhaps that has improved?

--Kathy

This post was originally published on October 19, 2011.
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Kitchen of India

Most Indian restaurants in the area serve extremely rich, cream-laden food that we find ourselves craving only once or twice a year. After a disappointing meal with abysmal service at India Palace in Cockeysville, and a worse one at Café Spice when it was still in Towson, we pretty much swore off dining in Indian restaurants altogether. For a few years, we got our Indian fix via delivery from the little joint just south of Northern Parkway that started out as Yeti, morphed into B'More and is now Mikie's. But this week we ventured out to try Kitchen of India, at my brother's suggestion.

Located on Joppa Road near Perring Parkway, Kitchen of India is in the space once occupied by the Nepali/Indian Mount Everest. The new restaurant features pretty much all of the typical dishes, but also has a few Bangladeshi offerings. And goat, which I can't say I've seen on any menus here in Baltimore before. It seemed like a good choice for a rainy Wednesday night dinner.

After perusing the menu, we decided we wanted to sample their tandoori dishes, and rather than ordering the "mixed tandoori platter" appetizer, I requested the "tandoori mixed grill" entrée which offered chicken tikka, shrimp, fish, seekh kabab, & tandoori chicken. I even made sure to order it by number in case the waitress didn't understand. Unfortunately, I also said, "we'd like it served first, as an appetizer." Apparently all she heard was "tandoori appetizer" and that's what we got - a meagre selection of dry chicken pieces, a few chunks of nicely spiced seekh kabab, and a few dry shrimp among a plethora of lightly cooked green bell pepper and onion. Feh.

My brother went for his usual chicken tikka masala, his gauge for restaurant quality much like Mr Minx's usual kung pao chicken order in a Chinese restaurant. In other words - if they like this particular dish, they're likely to enjoy others, should they venture to try something completely different.

That's a pretty good way to describe Kitchen of India's tikka masala - completely different. Used to a rich tomato-tinged cream sauce, we were all pleasantly surprised to receive a dish of chicken chunks sauced in what tasted, to me, suspiciously of pumpkin. Regardless of what comprised the sauce, the flavors were quite nice, with a bit of heat.

Mr Minx tried the goat curry and received a dish of tender chunks of goat meat bathed in a sauce redolent of cloves.

I'm a big okra fan so couldn't pass up the bhindi masala, a dry fry of okra with browned onions. It had a rich, buttery flavor and was smashing with basmati rice.

With our meal we had cups of tea - what must have been the world's strongest chai. It was practically espresso. The black tea flavor was much more prominent than were the spices, and while rich with cream, the drink needed several sugars to cut the tannin. When we were finished eating, the waitress removed Mr Minx's half-full cup by mistake, leaving my brother's empty one behind. I suggested he ask for a fresh cup, but he demurred. I secretly think he was relieved he didn't have to finish the first one.

So...Kitchen of India is a mixed bag. The goat, okra, and chicken entrées were all quite good, as was the accompanying basmati rice and the naan we ordered. The service was a little shaky though. Not only did the order get mixed up and the tea removed early, but also the check was placed on the table while my brother was still eating. But...what we ate was interesting enough that we'd go back for more.

Kitchen of India
1842 E Joppa Rd
Parkville, MD 21234
www.kitchenofindiaus.com
(410) 663-6880

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.



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Flashback Friday - Grub Street Diet

My diet is pretty boring.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on April 24, 2013.
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Grub Street Diet

One of my favorite features of the New York Magazine Web site is the "Grub Street Diet." Every week, some NY-based celebrity (actor, musician, director, media mogul, etc.) is asked to keep track of everything he or she eats during the week and submit it to the magazine in essay format. Some folks have an interesting life but a boring diet, and with some others it's vice versa.

Recently, Mr Minx and I found ourselves eating in restaurants a lot more than usual, which made me think of the Grub Street Diet. We're in the "interesting diet, boring life" category, as you'll see.

Monday, April 15
Monday is usually Panera day, and my regular order is a large coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I've been stuck on their Mediterranean egg white, which has pesto, spinach, cheddar, and roasted tomatoes on ciabatta. It's quite a tasty combo - love the roasted tomatoes - and plenty filling to satiate me until lunch.

Around 1pm, lunch was a Voskos exotic fig non-fat Greek yogurt. It tasted ok, but the fig seeds made it unpleasantly crunchy.

Mr Minx always has dinner in the works when I get home from work. This evening, he was in the process of making a day-glo yellow Curry of Indeterminate Origin from a recipe he found on teh Innernets. He insisted it was supposed to be a Thai-style curry, but it looked Indian. Smelled Indian, too. In any case, it was brightly colored and slightly sweet and went nicely with a big pile of basmati rice. It also used up the block of super-duper-firm tofu we picked up at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago that was on the verge of expiration.

Tuesday, April 16
Today, I went to Au Bon Pain for my coffee. I like iced coffee when the weather is warm. ABP only offers the caffeinated stuff, so I make my own by overfilling my cup with ice and mixing hot decaf and their Irish cream flavor half and half (their hazelnut is rather flavorless) with some milk. Their large iced drinks are so huge, I end up finishing it with lunch. But first, breakfast, which is a boring cup of Muller FruitUp yogurt in the Peach Passionfruit flavor. It's tasty enough, I suppose, though the fruity part on the top is a bit gelatinous. And now that I've gone to look for the nutrition label online, I've decided that I can no longer eat this particular yogurt. Why? Because it contains tilapia. Yes, I realize that is a fish, but I wonder if Muller knows that?

I was hoping that the UMB farmers' market would have started up already so I can get my summertime fix of two tacos from Ruben's Mexican Food. Instead, I ate the lunch I brought, which was home-made sweet potato hummus with baby carrots and sweet potato tortilla chips.

Mr Minx picked me up from work today. When I asked what he wanted to do for dinner, he suggested we could eat the leftover pasta from Friday. Except for the tilapia in my yogurt this morning, I hadn't eaten meat since Saturday, so really wasn't in the mood for that particular pasta, which had a vegetarian goat-cheese-and-tomato sauce. Mr Minx then suggested we go to Burger Brothers, which at that point on our ride was about a block away, so that's what we did. The first time we ate there, the burgers and fries both were super-salty. This time, the saltiness of my cheeseburger with bleu cheese, pickles, and tomato was my own damn fault, since bleu cheese is salty, but it wasn't anything like the first time. The fries were pretty good, too.

Wednesday, April 17
On Wednesday, I took the day off work so we could get a bunch of errands done. Breakfast was a bowl of cereal - a handful of Honey Bunches of Oats to finish off the box, and another handful of Mini-Wheats, topped with 2% milk.

Squire's everything pizza
We then went to Home Depot to pick up stuff for our new vegetable garden, made a trip to the storage locker to pick up some furniture, including a much-needed office chair. We had been using one of my Dad's old chairs from probably the late 80s. It was so wonky that after sitting in it for more than ten minutes we found ourselves sliding so far forward our knees were in danger of hitting the ground. That one was disposed of in a quick trip to the dump. We had borrowed my brother-in-law's truck, so after returning that to him, we visited with my mother-in-law who lives in the same area. By the time 3pm rolled around, our stomachs were growling and Mom suggested we order a pizza from Squire's, which we did. Almost nothing satisfies a ravenous appetite more than one of their hearty "everything" pizzas topped with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and meat sauce. I was a pig and ate three slices, but other than the cereal, didn't eat anything else all day.

Thursday, April 17
I was home on Thursday, too, and after a breakfast of toasted Panera honey wheat bread topped with a bit of Richard Blais's recipe for pimento cheese (post on that coming soon!), I decided to tackle a recipe from a cookbook that I received for review. The pineapple upside-down cake from Tate's Bake Shop: Baking for Friends turned out extremely well. Except for the part when the caramel oozed up the side of the pan and out onto the bottom of my oven. Luckily, it was lined with a sheet of foil that caught the now-burning and smoking caramel, and I quickly whipped it out and replaced it with a fresh sheet, all without: 1) burning myself; 2) causing the cake to fall.

No lunch again today because we planned to have dinner with my brother at Birroteca. He's been threatening to move out of town and has been trying to eat at as many of the restaurants I've recommended as possible. Earlier in the year, Mr Minx and I had a terrific meal at Birroteca with our friend Melinda, but it was mostly vegetarian in nature. This time, we ordered dishes fit for a carnivore (and a post about that meal will be forthcoming). We again ate the calamari alla plancha because it's so freakin' good, but we also tried the meatballs, the duck duck goose pizza, and the Thursday special of Sicilian steak.

Friday, April 18
I was back to work today and had an Oikos Café Latte yogurt for breakfast. No fish in that yogurt, but it does have "black carrot" juice for color. Huh? It was really good - I'll buy this one again. Lunch was leftover hummus from Tuesday with more baby carrots.

For dinner, we had the leftover pasta that we eschewed on Tuesday, beefed up (literally) with some of the steak left over from Birroteca. We try to be really good about eating all of our leftovers, whether they come from meals eaten at home or in restaurants. There's too much waste in this country as it is.

Four days a week, we eat nothing between dinner and bedtime, but on the weekends, we indulge in a bit of ice cream. Tonight we had it with some of the pineapple upside-down cake from Thursday.

Saturday, April 19
Breakfast was leftover black bean enchiladas from last Sunday's dinner, topped with a fried egg. We need the protein for the day ahead.

For the past three Saturdays, we've been attempting to downsize our storage locker. This week, we made still more progress before calling it quits and going home to wash up a bit. Honestly, I can deal with dust and grime for only so long before my dirty hands trigger my semi-compulsive need to wash them.

After washing up, we decided to have dinner at Earth, Wood, & Fire. The last time we were there, I fell in love with their coal-fired chicken wings. They're perfectly cooked, tender and juicy, with a nice crisp skin with patches of char and a light smack of cumin. I had some of those with a small arugula salad with bleu cheese and seedless grapes.

Late night dessert was a bowl of ice cream with pineapple upside-down cake.

Sunday, April 20
The original plan was to meet my brother and Dad at the Nautilus diner for breakfast. Mr Minx and my brother were then going to head down to the Orioles game and Dad would drive me home. But Dad wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home with the dog. While the boys ate omelettes and bacon, I made myself a sandwich with pancetta, a fried egg, and a spoonful of Blais' pimento cheese on toasted rye. While the Nautilus is fine and dandy, I dare say I probably got the better end of the breakfast deal.

After taking quite the long walk with the dog in order to obtain one of those horrible "e-collar" thingies so he won't scratch his eyes out (he has terrible hay fever), I spent the afternoon reading cookbooks before heading to the kitchen to work on dinner. I wasn't sure if the boys would be up for dinner after the game, but I made enough for several people anyway - red-braised chicken thighs, smashed marinated radishes (both from Fuchsia Dunlop's latest Chinese cookbook) and some oven-roasted asparagus with sliced garlic. I fixed a "beauty plate" for photographing, then ate that as my dinner, along with the lion's share of asparagus.

We finished up our ice cream stash with more cake before hitting the sack a bit earlier than usual.

See. Boring. And long-winded, to boot.



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Masala Mama

One of the many products we were introduced to by this summer's Fancy Food Show was Masala Mama spice mixes. The company puts out a whole line of individual spices, but they also do pre-measured dry mixes to make cooking Indian food at home super easy. They're not stupid simple though - one doesn't merely dump the contents into a pan a la Hamburger Helper. There are explicit instructions included along with multiple seasoning packets that get introduced at different points during cooking. So you learn a bit of technique while being mostly lazy.

For instance, the Goa Coconut Curry came with a packet of kokum (related to mangosteen and nothing that the average American home cook will find in the supermarket) that needed to be added to a can of coconut milk and heated. The dried pink fruit was then left to soak in the warm milk in order to impart flavor and color. While that was going on, a second package of spices was fried with onions to make the base for the dish.

Goa fish curry doesn't normally have a ton of vegetables in it, as pictured, but we had carrots and tomatoes and peas and not a whole lot of fish, so I tossed them in for both bulk and nutrition. The dish turned out really well, tasting a lot more like something that came from a restaurant than from my kitchen. We haven't had an opportunity to try the Vindaloo spices yet, as the first ingredient is "chiles" and I have no idea how hot it's going to be. Not that we dislike spicy food--on the contrary, we enjoy it--but I've heard stories about the heat levels that dishes like vindaloo can reach. It's for the American market though, so I suppose it can't be that mind-blowing.

Masala Mama, founded by chef Nidhi Jalan, is based in Brooklyn, NY. Their products are certified USDA Organic and come from artisanal farms in India. They also offer three gourmet simmer sauces (Goa curry, Tikka Masala, and Vindaloo), 10 spice kits in addition to the two above, three spice blends (Garam Masala, Tandoori Masala, and Magic Curry Powder) and over 30 organic individual spices. If you can't find them in your local Whole Foods, you can buy the spice kits online at http://www.masalamamaspice.com/organic-indian-spice-kits/.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Grub Street Diet

One of my favorite features of the New York Magazine Web site is the "Grub Street Diet." Every week, some NY-based celebrity (actor, musician, director, media mogul, etc.) is asked to keep track of everything he or she eats during the week and submit it to the magazine in essay format. Some folks have an interesting life but a boring diet, and with some others it's vice versa.

Recently, Mr Minx and I found ourselves eating in restaurants a lot more than usual, which made me think of the Grub Street Diet. We're in the "interesting diet, boring life" category, as you'll see.

Monday, April 15
Monday is usually Panera day, and my regular order is a large coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I've been stuck on their Mediterranean egg white, which has pesto, spinach, cheddar, and roasted tomatoes on ciabatta. It's quite a tasty combo - love the roasted tomatoes - and plenty filling to satiate me until lunch.

Around 1pm, lunch was a Voskos exotic fig non-fat Greek yogurt. It tasted ok, but the fig seeds made it unpleasantly crunchy.

Mr Minx always has dinner in the works when I get home from work. This evening, he was in the process of making a day-glo yellow Curry of Indeterminate Origin from a recipe he found on teh Innernets. He insisted it was supposed to be a Thai-style curry, but it looked Indian. Smelled Indian, too. In any case, it was brightly colored and slightly sweet and went nicely with a big pile of basmati rice. It also used up the block of super-duper-firm tofu we picked up at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago that was on the verge of expiration.

Tuesday, April 16
Today, I went to Au Bon Pain for my coffee. I like iced coffee when the weather is warm. ABP only offers the caffeinated stuff, so I make my own by overfilling my cup with ice and mixing hot decaf and their Irish cream flavor half and half (their hazelnut is rather flavorless) with some milk. Their large iced drinks are so huge, I end up finishing it with lunch. But first, breakfast, which is a boring cup of Muller FruitUp yogurt in the Peach Passionfruit flavor. It's tasty enough, I suppose, though the fruity part on the top is a bit gelatinous. And now that I've gone to look for the nutrition label online, I've decided that I can no longer eat this particular yogurt. Why? Because it contains tilapia. Yes, I realize that is a fish, but I wonder if Muller knows that?

I was hoping that the UMB farmers' market would have started up already so I can get my summertime fix of two tacos from Ruben's Mexican Food. Instead, I ate the lunch I brought, which was home-made sweet potato hummus with baby carrots and sweet potato tortilla chips.

Mr Minx picked me up from work today. When I asked what he wanted to do for dinner, he suggested we could eat the leftover pasta from Friday. Except for the tilapia in my yogurt this morning, I hadn't eaten meat since Saturday, so really wasn't in the mood for that particular pasta, which had a vegetarian goat-cheese-and-tomato sauce. Mr Minx then suggested we go to Burger Brothers, which at that point on our ride was about a block away, so that's what we did. The first time we ate there, the burgers and fries both were super-salty. This time, the saltiness of my cheeseburger with bleu cheese, pickles, and tomato was my own damn fault, since bleu cheese is salty, but it wasn't anything like the first time. The fries were pretty good, too.

Wednesday, April 17
On Wednesday, I took the day off work so we could get a bunch of errands done. Breakfast was a bowl of cereal - a handful of Honey Bunches of Oats to finish off the box, and another handful of Mini-Wheats, topped with 2% milk.

Squire's everything pizza

We then went to Home Depot to pick up stuff for our new vegetable garden, made a trip to the storage locker to pick up some furniture, including a much-needed office chair. We had been using one of my Dad's old chairs from probably the late 80s. It was so wonky that after sitting in it for more than ten minutes we found ourselves sliding so far forward our knees were in danger of hitting the ground. That one was disposed of in a quick trip to the dump. We had borrowed my brother-in-law's truck, so after returning that to him, we visited with my mother-in-law who lives in the same area. By the time 3pm rolled around, our stomachs were growling and Mom suggested we order a pizza from Squire's, which we did. Almost nothing satisfies a ravenous appetite more than one of their hearty "everything" pizzas topped with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and meat sauce. I was a pig and ate three slices, but other than the cereal, didn't eat anything else all day.

Thursday, April 17
I was home on Thursday, too, and after a breakfast of toasted Panera honey wheat bread topped with a bit of Richard Blais's recipe for pimento cheese (post on that coming soon!), I decided to tackle a recipe from a cookbook that I received for review. The pineapple upside-down cake from Tate's Bake Shop: Baking for Friends turned out extremely well. Except for the part when the caramel oozed up the side of the pan and out onto the bottom of my oven. Luckily, it was lined with a sheet of foil that caught the now-burning and smoking caramel, and I quickly whipped it out and replaced it with a fresh sheet, all without: 1) burning myself; 2) causing the cake to fall.

No lunch again today because we planned to have dinner with my brother at Birroteca. He's been threatening to move out of town and has been trying to eat at as many of the restaurants I've recommended as possible. Earlier in the year, Mr Minx and I had a terrific meal at Birroteca with our friend Melinda, but it was mostly vegetarian in nature. This time, we ordered dishes fit for a carnivore (and a post about that meal will be forthcoming). We again ate the calamari alla plancha because it's so freakin' good, but we also tried the meatballs, the duck duck goose pizza, and the Thursday special of Sicilian steak.

Friday, April 18
I was back to work today and had an Oikos Café Latte yogurt for breakfast. No fish in that yogurt, but it does have "black carrot" juice for color. Huh? It was really good - I'll buy this one again. Lunch was leftover hummus from Tuesday with more baby carrots.

For dinner, we had the leftover pasta that we eschewed on Tuesday, beefed up (literally) with some of the steak left over from Birroteca. We try to be really good about eating all of our leftovers, whether they come from meals eaten at home or in restaurants. There's too much waste in this country as it is.

Four days a week, we eat nothing between dinner and bedtime, but on the weekends, we indulge in a bit of ice cream. Tonight we had it with some of the pineapple upside-down cake from Thursday.

Saturday, April 19
Breakfast was leftover black bean enchiladas from last Sunday's dinner, topped with a fried egg. We need the protein for the day ahead.

For the past three Saturdays, we've been attempting to downsize our storage locker. This week, we made still more progress before calling it quits and going home to wash up a bit. Honestly, I can deal with dust and grime for only so long before my dirty hands trigger my semi-compulsive need to wash them.

After washing up, we decided to have dinner at Earth, Wood, & Fire. The last time we were there, I fell in love with their coal-fired chicken wings. They're perfectly cooked, tender and juicy, with a nice crisp skin with patches of char and a light smack of cumin. I had some of those with a small arugula salad with bleu cheese and seedless grapes.

Late night dessert was a bowl of ice cream with pineapple upside-down cake.

Sunday, April 20
The original plan was to meet my brother and Dad at the Nautilus diner for breakfast. Mr Minx and my brother were then going to head down to the Orioles game and Dad would drive me home. But Dad wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home with the dog. While the boys ate omelettes and bacon, I made myself a sandwich with pancetta, a fried egg, and a spoonful of Blais' pimento cheese on toasted rye. While the Nautilus is fine and dandy, I dare say I probably got the better end of the breakfast deal.

After taking quite the long walk with the dog in order to obtain one of those horrible "e-collar" thingies so he won't scratch his eyes out (he has terrible hay fever), I spent the afternoon reading cookbooks before heading to the kitchen to work on dinner. I wasn't sure if the boys would be up for dinner after the game, but I made enough for several people anyway - red-braised chicken thighs, smashed marinated radishes (both from Fuchsia Dunlop's latest Chinese cookbook) and some oven-roasted asparagus with sliced garlic. I fixed a "beauty plate" for photographing, then ate that as my dinner, along with the lion's share of asparagus.

We finished up our ice cream stash with more cake before hitting the sack a bit earlier than usual.

See. Boring. And long-winded, to boot.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Curried Banana Bread

In between 30 Rock and Project Runway one week, Mr Minx and I caught an episode of Food(ography) that featured frozen treats. One of said treats was a "sexy" banana split using a base of curried banana bread topped with various exotically-flavored ice creams, served at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink in Miami. I immediately decided that I needed to make that bread. My curry cupcakes were pretty amazing, if I do say so myself, and the addition of bananas could only make it better, right?

I couldn't seem to find chef Hedy Goldsmith's recipe online anywhere, so I concocted one of my own. The result was...wow. Outstanding. The combination of banana, coconut cream, and oil produced the moistest banana bread I've ever eaten, and it had a rich and complex flavor that, while spicy, didn't necessarily taste of curry.

Curried Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons of sweet curry powder (I like Penzey's)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
coconut cream (see directions)
4 large, very ripe, bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9" loaf pan.

Mix together flour, soda, spices, and salt and set aside.

Carefully remove the lid from a can of full-fat coconut milk. Scoop off the cream on top and place in a measuring cup. If necessary, add coconut milk to equal a half cup total. Stir in mashed bananas and vanilla.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or by hand, combine sugar and eggs until fluffy. Beat in oil, then add coconut milk mixture. Fold in dry ingredients and walnuts and pour into loaf pan.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a rack to cool completely.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cook Like a Top Chef - Sarah Grueneberg's and Floyd Cardoz' Seared Fish with Coconut Curry

The recipes on Top Chef are often so complicated that it's difficult for the home cook to recreate them exactly. I tend to take liberties with just about every recipe I encounter anyway, so it made sense for me to tinker with this recipe, too.

The whole reason I decided to try the dish that won Sarah Grueneberg a Quickfire Challenge in the Top Chef Texas finale was because I happened to have fish, coconut milk, and shallots in the house. There was also a lone orange in the fridge. As I started cooking the dish, I decided that the rather mild-seeming coconut sauce could use a little more zip, so I dug through the cupboard for my little baggie of vadouvan, a type of curry seasoning that I first heard about when Jamie Lauren used it to spice a carrot purée way back on Top Chef season five. With the addition of the vadouvan, I could hold back on the excessive amount of turmeric (4 tablespoons!) called for in the recipe, and I also halved the amount of coriander. And since I had to peel the orange that would essentially be a garnish, I tossed a strip of it into the sauce to add extra flavor.

Needless to say, I did not have a Dungeness crab hanging around (this is Maryland! Such alien creatures are not allowed!), nor did I have any other crustaceans on hand, so I skipped the crab salad part. Now that I look back on my recap for that particular episode, I see that the judges felt this dish needed more acid; even if I couldn't make the salad, I should have added a squirt of lime or two. The finished dish was a bit on the mild side, although it was quite tasty. And, surprisingly, easy to prepare.

Seared Fish with Coconut Curry (inspired by this dish from the Top Chef 9 finale part 2)

1 naval orange
Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into coins
2 whole shallots, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons roughly chopped coriander stems
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon coriander
1 teaspoon vadouvan or regular curry powder
1 can coconut milk
2 8-oz mahi mahi fillets, halved
4 asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 1" segments
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons bias-cut green onion
Cilantro
Salt and black pepper, as needed

With a vegetable peeler, cut a 1" x 3" long piece of orange rind, scraping off the pith if necessary, and set aside. Peel the rest of the orange and cut into supremes. Set aside.

In a medium sauce pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil, add ginger, shallots, and coriander stems and sweat for 10 minutes. Then stir in turmeric, coriander, and vadouvan. Top with coconut milk, add strip of orange peel, and simmer on low for 10 minutes, strain and set aside. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a medium pan, heat 4 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Season mahi with salt and pepper. Cook fish on both sides a total of 8 minutes, finish the pan with butter.

Remove fish and add asparagus pieces, cook for 2 minutes.

Place a pool of coconut sauce on a plate, place fish on top. Scatter asparagus and orange segments around the plate. Garnish with green onion and cilantro.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Bollywood! Part 2

There were a handful of unwatched Bollywood movies in our collection, and of those we chose Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, a 188-minute extravaganza from 1999 starring Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, and "most beautiful woman in the world" Aishwarya Rai. Apparently Salman Khan has had fatwas issued against him for his un-Muslim-like behavior. Surprisingly, none of them cited his ham-like over-acting.

While the acting occasionally got pretty over-the-top, Hum's art direction was astonishing. The amount of color and pattern in every scene was quite a feast for the eyes. As for the story, it revolved around a fairly typical love triangle with aspects of forbidden love and arranged marriage, and lots of goo-goo eyes instead of kissing. (The film censors in India rarely risk offending audiences by showing lip-on-lip contact.)

Uh-oh - is there going to be kissing? Not so anyone can see.

And while we watched, we feasted our stomachs as well. After viewing a bit more than half the movie while noshing on the appetizer course, we took an intermission so I could prepare our entree. I had originally wanted to make a Malabar shrimp curry, but every recipe I found called for curry leaves, which I haven't seen in shops recently. Then I found a recipe on Serious Eats that sounded interesting and rather quick to cook. It was rich and delicious served over basmati rice with a side of cucumber and red onion raita. And of course I had to invent a cocktail for the occasion--made with pomegranate juice, rose water, and the new VeeV acai liqueur--that I dubbed the Jai Hind.

Shrimp Curry, adapted from Serious Eats

1/4 cup slivered, blanched almonds
2 teaspoons canola oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large tomato, cored and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
3/4 teaspoon garam masala
10 ounces of shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt to taste
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro

Toast slivered almonds in a dry skillet until they grow fragrant and brown slightly. Allow to cool, then grind in a spice or coffee grinder.

Pour the oil into a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the almonds and garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the tomato, cayenne, salt, sugar, and garam masala. Stir occasionally and cook for 2 to 4 minutes. The mixture will seem very pasty.

Add the shrimp and the cream, stirring well to incorporate the almond mixture into the cream. Turn heat to medium and cook until shrimp are opaque. Add salt to taste.

Serve garnished with cilantro.

Jai Hind

4 oz pomegranate juice
1 oz Pama liqueur
1 ox VeeV liqueur
2 ounces vodka
1 ounce rosewater
2 teaspoons agave nectar

Mix all ingredients in a chilled cocktail shaker. Serves 2 generously.

"Where's my plate, Mom?"

Read Bollywood Part 1 here.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Bollywood! Part 1

Back in 2003, Turner Classic Movies had a "Hooray for Bollywood" month in which they aired twelve classic Indian films, three per Thursday night. Over a period of three weeks, Mr Minx and I watched and enjoyed Pakeezah, Rangeela, and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge--the latter so much, we bought it on DVD. As our first experience with Indian cinema, we found Bollywood movies to be extremely colorful and full of glorious music, a fun and exotic escape from life in Baltimore.

At some point, I found a cheap source for Bollywood DVDs and bought several, some of which we hadn't yet watched because we hadn't found the time. (Bollywood movies are long, typically running 2.5 - 3 hours.) Recently I decided we needed to make a change from our regularly scheduled programming and planned a dinner-and-a-movie night, involving an Indian movie and home-cooked Indian food.

I didn't necessarily want to make classic Indian food but maybe something more modern, so I asked America's Next Great Restaurant finalist, Sudhir Kandula, for some ideas. He suggested that I do a simple samosa filling wrapped in puff pastry, and some vegetable fritters served with a mint sauce as starters.

Seems like most Indian restaurants - at least the ones that deliver to Chez Minx - offer only potato samosas, and while those are fine, I prefer meat-filled ones. I decided on a filling that is essentially a dish called keema mattar, a dry mixture of ground lamb and peas, because it is simple and tasty and I could make it the day before and stash it in the fridge. The next day, I'd just have to fill and bake the pastries, leaving more time for the other components I wanted to make.

For the vegetable fritters, I used chopped cauliflower and corn, and rather than making a mint sauce, I opted to make a fig chutney. I also purchased jars of carrot pickle and garlic relish to serve with the appetizer course. Everything was delicious, and the puff pastry was a genius idea. I'm going to make these again and again. The fritters also turned out well, and I suppose they'll be added to the repertoire seeing as I have a bag of gram (chickpea) flour to use up now.

Recipes follow...and stay tuned for more recipes later in the week.

Samosas

1/2 cup chopped onion
1 lb ground lamb
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1 package pre-made frozen puff pastry

Over medium heat, cook onion and ground lamb together, breaking up clumps of lamb with a wooden spoon, until lamb is no longer pink. Drain off fat.

Stir in cayenne, garam masala, cumin, garlic powder, and ginger. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add lemon juice and peas, cook until peas have thawed, about 3 minutes more. Stir in mint. Remove from heat and refrigerate until ready to use.

To assemble samosas:
Preheat oven to 400F. Thaw puff pastry dough according to package directions. When thawed, unfold one piece of pastry at a time onto a work surface. Using a sharp knife, divide pastry into 9 squares.

Take a square of pastry and roll it out slightly with a rolling pin, enlarging it by about a quarter of an inch on all sides. Place a tablespoonful of filling at the center of the pastry square. Bring up opposing corners to meet at center, sealing edges with your fingertips and forming a rough pyramid shape. Repeat with remaining 8 squares and remaining pastry sheet.

Bake in preheated 400F oven for 15 minutes until puffed and brown. Makes 18.

Cauliflower Corn Fritters 

1 small head cauliflower
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
about 2/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup chopped green onion
vegetable oil for frying
salt

Remove outer leaves and lower part of stem from cauliflower. Blanch in boiling water for about 4 minutes until crisp tender. Remove from heat and place in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Roughly chop about 1 cup of the cauliflower and refrigerate the rest for later use.

Mix flours, cornstarch, baking powder, cumin, and salt in a bowl. Add 2/3 cup water and whisk until smooth. Add the cauliflower, corn, and onion to the batter and mix to combine. It will be very thick.

In a large saute pan, heat a tablespoon of oil until it shimmers. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of fritter batter into hot oil and press down lightly to form cakes. Do not crowd the pan - I got about 6 to fit comfortably.

Cook over medium-high heat until bottom side has browned. Flip fritters and brown other side. Remove to a paper-towel-lined plate and sprinkle with salt while fritters are still hot. Repeat until all batter is gone.

Fig Chutney (adapted from the Spice House)
12 dried figs
3 tablespoons agave nectar
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon candied ginger, finely chopped
3 tablespoons Sambuca
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
salt

Remove stems from figs and cut each into eighths. Add all ingredients to a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook until figs are soft and much of the liquid has evaporated, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. When cool, refrigerate until ready to serve.

Read Bollywood Part 2 here.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Pila Anda

We try to eat a substantial breakfast on weekend mornings; usually this involves eggs (either scrambled or over-easy) and toast, occasionally with bacon. While this is one of the few meals I can eat repetitively, sometimes a change is nice. This past weekend, as I fried up some turkey bacon, I decided I really wanted to eat Eggs Benedict. Only we had neither English muffins nor the desire to make hollandaise. After poking around a bit, I discovered a naan, which led me to make a gorgeous yellow curry-based sauce that I dribbled over fried eggs, turkey bacon, and toasted naan.

Quick Curry Sauce

1 teaspoon curry powder (I used Penzey's Sweet Curry)
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Greek yogurt
milk
1 teaspoon chopped cilantro
honey (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

In a small microwave-safe bowl, mix curry powder, mayo, and Greek yogurt. Add a small amount of milk, if necessary, to make a drizzle-able consistency. Microwave 1 minute on high until sauce bubbles and turns an intense yellow. Taste for seasoning - if you use a standard curry powder, you may want to add a drop or two of honey to sweeten and mellow the spices; add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in cilantro. Serve over eggs layered with bacon and bread of your choice.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Curry Cupcakes

Back in October of 2010, I posted some teaser photos of a batch of cupcakes that I baked up to test a recipe for the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest. I didn't win, so now it's safe to share.

The Chocolate Adventure Contest requires participants to use one or more somewhat-esoteric "adventure ingredients," which this year included stout, ricotta, buttermilk, saffron, coconut milk, molasses, adzuki beans, fresh beets, chiles, bee pollen, Meyer lemon, almond flour, and Sumatra coffee beans. I liked the idea of using saffron, coconut milk, and almond flour in the cupcakes themselves, and thought curry powder would be a nice accent for the saffron. The cake itself was ridiculously moist and the entire concoction was quite rich. And delicious! The curry flavoring was very subtle - I used Penzey's Sweet Curry, which has more sweet spices, especially fenugreek, one of the flavor components of "maple-flavored" syrups like Log Cabin. Taste-testers were hard-pressed to guess that the caramel and frosting were indeed flavored with curry.

Without further ado, I give you White Chocolate Saffron Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Curry Caramel Filling and Curry Buttercream Frosting. (You'll probably notice that I used basically the same base in my pistachio cupcakes. It's so good, I don't see any reason to use any other recipe.)

White Chocolate Saffron Cupcakes

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4-oz white chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut milk

Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.

Place the saffron in a small bowl with boiling water and soak for 15 minutes.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt.

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute at 50% power. Stir chocolate and if it does not melt completely, microwave for another 30 seconds at 50% power. Repeat at 15-second intervals until the chocolate is smooth when stirred.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the melted white chocolate and vanilla extract. Alternate stirring in flour mixture and coconut milk, ending with flour. Mix until no streaks of flour remain, but do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

Bake at 325F for 20-23 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Milk Chocolate Curry Caramel Filling

1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
1 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons salted butter, diced
1 ounce Scharffen Berger milk chocolate
1/8 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (Penzey's Sweet Curry, if you can get it. It's sweeter and less cumin-y than grocery store curry powder.)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

In a medium saucepan set over low heat, stir sugar, 1/4 cup water, and corn syrup until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high. Boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber, occasionally brushing down pan sides with wet pastry brush, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cream, which will cause sugar to bubble furiously, then whisk in butter and chocolate.

Add sour cream, curry powder, and salt. Cool completely before using.

Curry Buttercream Frosting

1.5 sticks of  room temperature butter
7 ounces marshmallow fluff
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (Penzey's Sweet Curry)

Combine the butter and marshmallow in a bowl, and with a hand or stand mixer, beat on medium until completely smooth. Reduce speed to low and add confectioners sugar, vanilla, salt, and curry powder. Continue to beat until smooth and fluffy.

To assemble cupcakes:

Using a paring knife, cut a small divot out of the top of each cupcake, about 1" deep x 1 1/4" wide (the little plugs are Cook's Treat!). Fill hole with some of the cooled caramel sauce. Spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large plain round or French tip and pipe in a spiral onto the tops of each cupcake, making sure to cover the caramel. Garnish with chopped pistachios or sliced almonds, if desired.

Store in refrigerator to keep frosting from getting too soft. Bring to room temperature before eating.


Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Office Party Chow

Every year we have a holiday party at work, and every year more people opt to bring restaurant food, like fried chicken or wings. While that's all well and good, I try to bring at least one home-made dish; this year I made two.

We have a former vegan-now-pescatarian in our group, and I wanted to make sure there would be food that he could eat, so I made an Asian-style pasta salad with lots of fresh veggies. Another co-worker liked it so much, she demanded the recipe before I left for my long break lest she resort to contacting me at home.

I was happy to oblige.

Pasta in repose on my "heater" which is usually stone cold in the Winter.

Asian Pasta Salad

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 cup Thai chilli paste with basil
1/2 cup snow peas, sliced lengthwise
1/2 cup baby carrots, cut into matchsticks
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 lb linguini

In a small bowl, mix lime juice, oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and chili paste.

Cook linguini in boiling salted water until tender (according to package directions). Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water to chill the noodles and wash off some of the starch.

Place noodles in a large bowl and pour over the sauce. There will be lots of sauce but it will eventually be absorbed into the noodles. Taste for seasoning and add more soy, chili paste, lime, or brown sugar if necessary. Chill for a few hours to absorb the sauce.

When ready to serve, toss with the vegetables. Serve cold.
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I've made my curried chicken salad several times in the past, always to rave reviews. The secret is in the chutney, which adds a wonderful sweet and tangy quality that balances out the dry spices in the curry seasoning.

Theminx's Famous Curried Chicken Salad

1 roast chicken, meat removed and shredded
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup Major Grey's chutney
1 T sweet curry powder (I prefer Penzey's)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped scallions
salt and pepper to taste

Place chicken meat in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, combine next five ingredients. Toss dressing with chicken and season to taste. Chill several hours or overnight to bring out the flavors. Makes about a quart.

Chicken Wings with Red Curry Jam

Father's Day was a big mess this year. First we decide to switch venues and do it at Chez Minx instead of Chez Dad. Then we planned on getting 'cue from Andy Nelson's only to find that they're closed on Sundays. Bah! So I said that's fine, I'll cook, but none of the customary grilling as the weather was expected to be hot 'n' heavy. I spent that Saturday baking brownies and lime bars, breaking down three dozen chicken wings with a dull chef's knife and lots of grunting, and making a batch of red curry jam with which to coat the wings.

Yes, I did say, "red curry jam." A recent, very brief, e-mail conversation with Top Chef season 5 cheftestant Stefan Richter reminded me of a dish I saw on his catering site: sweet and spicy chicken drumettes with red curry jam. I found the concept of red curry jam to be fascinating and thought I'd try to make my own version of it. Seemed like it could be a perfect match with chicken wings.

Red Curry Jam

1/2 cup onion, roughly chopped

olive oil

dash salt

1 jar red currant jam or jelly (save the jar)

1 tablespoon Thai red or panang curry paste 

Sauté the onion over medium heat in a bit of olive oil and a dash of salt until they soften and are slightly browned. Stir in curry paste (it will clump) and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

Transfer curry/onion mixture to a food processor and pulse until you get a chunky paste. Add the jam and process until all is well blended and there are no large pieces of anything. 

If your currant jam had seeds, strain the mixture into a bowl first to remove them. If  you used a smooth jelly, then you can skip this step if you want a jam with some texture. Transfer the strained (or not) jam into the cleaned jar. Refrigerate until ready to use.

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In the end, we postponed Father's Day celebrations until further notice and the wings went into the freezer. I broke out half of them the following Sunday because I was impatient and just had to try wings with a glaze of sweet red curry jam goodness.

For the wings themselves, I used J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's recipe from Serious Eats.  I didn't get the full amount of time in which to dry the wings, and that apparently would have made the difference. Even after nearly an hour in the oven at 450F, the wings were a bit too fatty, and the skin wasn't crisp.

Chicken sure tastes good with red curry jam on it though. I put some on a chicken salad sandwich a few days later and it was da bomb!  And if you like ketchup on your eggs...try red curry jam instead. Your taste buds will love you for it.