I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

I have joked in the past that this blog should have been called Minxdips because there's more than a handful of recipes for saucy things that work well on a tortilla chip or cracker. Dips are usually pretty easy to throw together, and they aren't just for dipping chips. Sometimes I'll use one as a sandwich spread, or as a sauce for a roasted cauliflower, kebabs, or roasted chicken. Hummus is one of my favorites to make, even if I don't technically make "hummus" because I don't use chickpeas) and among the most versatile.

The following is a list of links to the dips on Minxeats. If you enjoy any, I'd love to read your comments.

artichoke spinach dip

Artichoke Spinach Dip

Caponata

Cheesy Corn Dip

Edamame Hummus

Eggplant Artichoke Appetizer

Lemony Eggplant Dip

Lemony Tomato Pepper Relish
Mediterranean Bean Dip

Mediterranean Pimento Cheese

Miso Eggplant Dip

Muhammara

nutella cannoli dip

Nutella Cannoli Dip

Parsnip Hummus

pink sultan (yogurt with beets)

Pink Sultan

pizza pimento cheese

Pizza Pimento Cheese

Romesco Sauce

Shakshouky
Shrimp and Artichoke Dip

Smoky Southwest Eggplant Dip

South x Southwest Hummus

Sweet Potato Hummus

Three Dips with Thai Flavors

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Restaurant Review - Tbiliso

Don't let the photos on the web site fool you--Tbiliso isn't a trendy, well-lit, café with hunky, tweezer-wielding chefs in the kitchen. It more resembles granny's living room transported into the shell of a 70's-era bank building. To be honest, I have no idea what the bizarre space with 20' ceilings and partial mezzanine once held, but it functions as a restaurant now, one that has enough space for large parties, live music, and dancing. At Minxeats, we're only interested in the food, which [spoiler alert] is quite good.

I discovered the restaurant whilst randomly perusing Google Maps. (One never knows what one can find!) Tbiliso's online menu lists both new-to-us items like the vegetable stew ajapsandali as well as the more familiar dolma, lula kabob, and olivier salad. Some items have intriguing descriptions, like the kupati, "minced meat and spices in intestines" (yes, it's sausage), and the tbiliso, "fried pork with fajitas and cherry tomatoes" (surely a translation issue). Each item is also spelled out in the delightfully squiggly Georgian alphabet. What caught my eye, however, was the selection of breads stuffed with cheese or meat. I'd always wanted to try Adjarian khachapuri, a bread boat filled with melted cheese and topped with an egg, and I was finally getting my chance.

On our first trip to Tbiliso to enjoy the cheesy bread boat, we also ordered the ajapsandali and kupati, plus the chakapuli, a tasty stew of lamb with sour plums. Eventually we'd like to try everything on the menu, but this was a good start.

kupati with rice

Kupati are fat pork sausages with a nice snappy casing and a garnish of onions and parsley. The online menu offers a side dish choice of fries or rice, and on that first trip we tried the rice. On our second visit, we were served a larger portion of sausage without a choice of starch. More tasty sausage = good, though the slightly oily, vegetable-packed rice was quite delicious. Though everything we ate at Tbiliso was good, the kupati was a standout both times.

 

We also enjoyed the ajapsandali, a stew of peppers and eggplant somewhat like a Georgian ratatouille. It reminded me a bit of the Indian eggplant dish baingan bharta. The spicing of the ostri, a stew of tender beef in a tomato-y broth with a whiff of coriander and fenugreek also brought to mind the food of the Indian subcontinent.

ostri

Though I have recently been cursed with lactose intolerance, I was not deterred from sampling two (so far!) of the ten or so breadlike starches on Tbiliso's menu. Perhaps the most famous Georgian bread, the adjarian khachapuri is a boatlike vessel of white bread filled with a pool of molten cheese and topped with a raw egg. One (carefully) tears off chunks of bread and dips them into the fondue-like pool of melted dairy, repeating the motion until the khachapuri is gone or there are no more Lactaid pills left. It's simple, filling, and very good.

Adjarian khachapuri

The equally mouthwatering Megruli khachapuri is similar, at least in the quantity of cheese it contains. The dairy goodness is both stuffed into and layered on top of this bread, making it quite pizza-like. It's a bit easier to eat than the Adjarian version and just as delicious.

Megruli khachapuri

Tbiliso, or "fried pork with fajitas and cherry tomatoes," came with strips of multicolored bell pepper (but not tomatoes) and was served in a sizzling hot bowl, much like the popular Tex-Mex fajitas. The tender hunks of pork would have seemed right at home nestled into folds of tortilla. I might have tried to wrap it with the khachapuri, but the Megruli style was far too oozy with cheese (not a bad thing).

Tbiliso

I can't really find fault with any of the dishes we tried at Tbiliso. Not being familiar with Georgian food at all, I cannot attest to the authenticity of any of it. From what I can tell, however, much of the menu represents the "greatest hits" of  the cuisine. The flavors and seasonings were all pleasing to my palate, and I feel like everything had been prepared lovingly by people who know what they're doing. Even if none of them is wearing a long stripy apron and tweezering microgreens onto every dish. 

Next time we're in the mood for some შემწვარი სოკო კარტოფილით or შქმერული and a boatful of cheese, we're heading back to Tbiliso. Next time, I hope to try some of the many dishes that contain walnuts, a popular ingredient in Georgia.

Tbiliso

Church Lane Shopping Center

9926 York Rd,

Cockeysville, MD 21030

https://www.tbiliso21.net/

Rating - Highly Recommended

* 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!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Otto's Naturals Grain-Free Ultimate Cookie Mix

cookies and oat milk

Here at Casa Minx, the annual Baking of the Holiday Cookies has long been one of our favorite Christmas traditions. We make rolled sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, oatmeal cookies, and a double batch of chocolate chippers. Sometimes I add an oddball, like biscotti, or last year's chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons. My brother helps out and gets to take half home, the rest we nibble into January or February or however long we can make them last. In recent years, they've lasted a good long time, as I've taken to wrapping about 1/3 of them in foil and tucking them in the freezer for a rainy day. I know you're thinking, "how do they have the strength not to snarfle up ALL the cookies right away?" It does take some willpower, believe me. Also, we tend to start Whole30 sometime in early January. It's the only diet that works for me, and it doesn't allow wheat. Or sugar. Or dairy. By packing up the cookies, I reduce temptation to cheat.

I'm not sure if it's related in any way, but after several years of giving up dairy periodically, I am now lactose intolerant. I must have perpetrated some real evil over my lifetime to deserve this punishment. Even semi-sweet chocolate morsels contain milk, as do most chocolate candy, cake, and cookies. And as mentioned above, cookies also contain wheat. Rather than give up on the joy of cookies entirely, even when dieting, I have found a work-around for my problem: Otto's Natural Grain-Free Ultimate Cookie Mix, which can be found in the fancy organic/special diet/gf aisle in many grocery stores. It's made with cassava flour, which makes a pretty darn good substitute for wheat flour in many things, plus the usual brown and white sugars and baking soda called for by a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. It only requires an egg, a soupcon of vanilla, mix-ins like chips or nuts, and a fat. The traditional fat for cookie baking is butter, but I know many families use margarine. I grew up in a no-margarine-ever household. To my palate, the butter substitutes of my youth were nasty. Today, however, there are a few tasty faux butters on the market. My personal favorite is Earth Balance, which comes in stick form as well as the usual tub. So not only can I have gluten-free cookies, they can be dairy-free as well. I even found non-dairy chocolate chips in the form of 72% cacao from Ghirardelli. (They also make 100% cacao chips, but they don't have any sugar in them. While they're not particularly bitter, they might still be a rude surprise in a chocolate chip cookie.)

If by some miracle there are cookies left by January 1, I still need to tuck them away as they contain the very non-Whole30 sugar. A bag of Otto's cookie mix only makes about 4 dozen small cookies, however, which are pretty easy to destroy in 2 weeks. In fact, I don't know how well they freeze, so I'm not even going to try. 

raw dough

Chocolate Walnut Cookies (non-dairy, gluten-free)

You may make these cookies at any time of the year. I make them for Christmas. They're not super sweet, and they taste great with an ice cold glass of oat milk (or the milk-like fluid of your choosing).

1 large egg

1 4-ounce stick Earth Balance, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 bag Otto's Naturals Grain-free Ultimate Cookie Mix

1 tablespoon pure cocoa powder

3/4 cup non-dairy chocolate chips (I used 72% cacao Ghirardelli)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

In a medium bowl, beat the egg into the cooled margarine with a fork until combined. Stir in the vanilla, cookie mix, and cocoa, and mix well. The dough will not hold together in the same way as standard cookie dough and will appear a bit loose. Stir in the chips and walnuts. 

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Scoop a heaped half tablespoon of dough at a time, pressing into a ball. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten slightly with your palm. They won't spread very much, if at all. 

Bake 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool several minutes on the sheets before moving them to racks to cool, as they are somewhat fragile while warm. Cool completely before storing in a lidded container.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

* 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!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Walnuts for Thom

While I enjoyed school, I can't say I was the best student. There were times that I made excellent grades, but I think that's mostly because the classes were too easy. I breezed through reading and whatever passed for English class in a Catholic grade school, doing well enough to earn me a spot in honors English at Catholic High. There it got much tougher. When we started talking about the pluperfect tense and diagramming sentences, my brain turned to mush. And sorry, but I found literature to be a bit of a snooze. The Red Badge of Courage. The Old Man and the Sea. Heart of Darkness. The Scarlett Letter. No thanks. Huckleberry Finn and Jane Eyre? Barf. My grossly underdeveloped prefrontal cortex was not up for the job. (Vocabulary, however, I grokked.) Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the subject matter, I managed to absorb many of the complexities of grammar. Proof? My living room bookshelf bears three well-written books with my name on the cover.

After the publication of each of those books, I wanted to thank the teacher who for two years stood in front of the 19 young women in my English class, attempting to instill in us his passion for Shakespeare and proper sentence construction. However, I had no idea where he was or how to contact him--though at some point after graduation I did have his home address and we corresponded by good old-fashioned postal mail. (This was the 1980s, people. I am old.) Recently I found a mention of him on Facebook and realized we have a friend in common. She was happy to share his contact information, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he looked forward to hearing from me. And now he reads this blog. (Hi, Thom!) 

When we met up a while back, I asked him if there was any particular subject he might like to see me cover on Minxeats, as I have been trying to post regularly again and am always up for suggestions. He said he went through the recipe directory and didn't see anything that specifically mentioned walnuts. While I do have a few walnut recipes here and there, most have been posted in the last few years, and I have not updated the directory in a very long time. I have linked some of those posts below. I also thought it might be nice to create a new recipe starring one of Thom's (and my) favorite nuts. 

Recipes on Minxeats using walnuts as a featured ingredient:

Salad with Warm Sausage Vinaigrette, Walnuts, and Goat Cheese (You could use another nut, but walnuts work best for me.)

Nutty Bars (Again, you could use other nuts, but why would you?)

Maple Walnut Biscotti (It's in the name, so absolutely essential!)

Muhammara (This is a delicious red pepper and walnut spread of Syrian origin.)

Savory Granola (While I might not eat it with milk, it's a great topping/garnish.)

Koresht-e Fesenjan (My take on the Persian walnut and pomegranate stew, with lamb.)

And now the new recipe. This is for you, Thom. 

Chicken with Walnut Pepper Sauce

I find myself making muhammara frequently, and the chicken fesenjan is my favorite order at Villagio Cafe, a Persian restaurant in my neighborhood. I've already included separate recipes for both muhammara and fesenjan, but I wanted to create a new dish using them as inspiration--a chicken dish with a walnut sauce that also features roasted red bell pepper, plus the pomegranate molasses common to both. 

Chicken thighs are one of my favorite proteins to cook. They cook relatively quickly, but can also be braised. They aren't as likely to dry out as chicken breasts <shudder>, and they have superior flavor. This recipe would work with both boneless and bone-in varieties, but would be best without skin. There's enough fatty richness in the walnuts. Besides, the skin would get soggy.

8 ounces (by weight) walnuts

Extra virgin olive oil

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs

Kosher salt

1 cup diced onion

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 cup chicken stock

1 12-ounce jar roasted red bell peppers, drained and roughly chopped

1 large or two small 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon or more fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons or more pomegranate molasses*

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or Urfa Biber, or a pinch of cayenne

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

Fresh soft herbs (parsley, cilantro, mint, chives) for garnish

Put a large skillet over medium heat and add the walnuts. Stirring frequently, cook until walnuts are golden and fragrant, 3-4 minutes. (Keep an eye on them--nuts can scorch easily.) Remove nuts to a bowl and allow to cool.

Wipe out the pan and add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Add the chicken, sprinkle with salt, and brown on both sides over medium-high heat. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside. Add a little more oil, if necessary, the onions, and another pinch of salt. Cook onions until soft and beginning to brown, 10 minutes or so, stirring frequently. Add the cumin and stir well, allowing the spices to toast for a minute. Pour in the stock and scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken back to the pan and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently, covered, for 30 minutes.

While the chicken is simmering, make the sauce. If you used walnut halves, put them in a ziptop bag and bash them with a heavy object like a meat tenderizer until they are in small pieces. (This makes them easier to blend. If you used walnut pieces, you can skip this step.) Remove a couple tablespoons of walnut pieces and set aside for a garnish. Place the remaining walnuts, bell peppers, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor with the lemon juice and molasses and blend to a paste. It's ok if it's not totally smooth, you just don't want it chunky. Add the hot pepper and smoked paprika and season to taste with salt. Here's where your taste buds come in! Imagine you're going to eat this stuff on a piece of pita. Is it bland? Add more salt. Still not right? Add a little more lemon juice or molasses. I like my muhammara a little sweet, so I add a little bit of maple syrup. When it tastes great, like you want to eat it with a spoon, scrape the sauce into a bowl and set aside. 

After the chicken has simmered for half an hour, add the walnut red pepper paste and stir to blend the sauce with the liquid in the pan. Heat until warmed through, about 10 minutes. Taste. If the sauce needs more salt, add it. You could also add more cumin, lemon, pomegranate molasses, smoked paprika, pepper flakes, even garlic (use garlic powder at this point, as raw garlic won't have enough time to cook and lose its sharpness). 

Serve over basmati rice. Garnish with some of the reserved walnuts, chopped or torn herbs, and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, if using.

* Pomegranate molasses is a sweet-tart syrup made from the juice of fresh pomegranates. If you don't have pomegranate molasses, use equal parts balsamic vinegar and real maple syrup. Cranberry juice or grenadine--which is made with pomegranates--work, too, though the former can be quite tart and the latter is very sweet. As always, taste everything!

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!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Nutty Bars

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on February 3, 2014.

-----------------------------------------

A day off work means free time to play in the kitchen! But first, I spent a few moments thumbing through a copy of Fat Witch Brownies: Brownies, Blondies, and Bars from New York's Legendary Fat Witch Bakery before deciding on the Pecan Bars.

We had about half a pound of pecan pieces in the freezer, but I opted to use half walnuts because they're less-expensive. I also didn't feel like opening the bag of light brown sugar when there was just enough dark brown sugar left to fit the bill. And...the original recipe called for rum. Mr Minx isn't the biggest rum fan in the world, so I used bourbon instead. The results were crunchy, sticky, nutty, and quite fabulous.

Make them. Now. Unless of course you have nut allergies.

Nut Bars adapted from Fat Witch Brownies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon bourbon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 3/4 cups coarsely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour a 9" x 9" baking pan.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar. Add the 7 tablespoons of butter, a few small pieces at a time, and combine until mixture is sandy. Stir in the nuts. Gently press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes.

While crust is baking, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter and allow to cool. Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, bourbon, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the cooled butter. Add the egg and mix well.

Pour the filling over the baked crust. Evenly sprinkle the nuts on top. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the filling no longer wobbles when you shake the pan gently.

Allow to cool completely before cutting, about 2 hours.

Makes 12 - 16 bars.

* Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Maple Walnut Biscotti

In my family, one either likes biscotti or they don't. My Dad and I have always been fans of the Italian cookies, the crunchier the better. (So much nicer to dip into coffee or tea if they don't immediately fall apart!) I have made them now and again, and he and I are pretty much the only consumers. Mr Minx has always contended that he does not care for the cookie. Until now.

I wanted to get a head start on making biscotti for Christmas, along with all the other various cookies we always bake, and thought I'd try a new recipe. I found one from King Arthur Flour that sounded great--maple walnut. I love both flavors, and we happened to have both ingredients on hand. I still had some of the little sample bottles of Runamok Maple syrup that I picked up at the Summer Fancy Food Show last year, each containing about 1/4 cup. The recipe called for 1/4 cup of syrup, so it seemed like kismet. But the only flavor we had a full bottle of was the Rye Barrel Infused one. Which of course tastes and smells like rye whiskey. So I sloshed in a wee bit of Old Overholt, too.

These biscotti are super crunchy, with a subtle maple flavor and a hint of something-something from the rye. Mr Minx ate several without my prompting, proclaiming them "very good." Perhaps he is coming around to enjoying super crunchy cookies and won't turn up his nose at them in the future. Or maybe I just got these exactly right for his tastes. In any case, they're certainly something I plan on baking again. Dad, of course, loved them too.

Maple Walnut Biscotti (adapted from King Arthur Flour)

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped, toasted
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup Runamok Rye-barrel infused maple syrup
1 tablespoon rye whiskey
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 1/2 cups AP Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Coarse sea salt, preferably Maldon

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment. Spread the walnuts on one sheet in a single layer and toast for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, until they're light brown and fragrant. Allow nuts to cool. Reserve baking sheet and parchment.

In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugars, maple syrup, and rye whiskey. Add the butter, beating well to combine. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the nuts.

With floured hands, pat the dough into two rectangles each about 10" long x 4" wide and 1/2" thick on the parchment-covered baking sheet. Wet your fingers and smooth the tops. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake dough for 30 minutes. Remove baking tray from oven and let cool for about ten minutes.

With a serrated knife, slice the loaves into 1/2" thick slices. Place the slices, standing upright, if possible, in a single layer on the second parchment-lined baking sheet. If you need more room, use the sheet that the dough was baked on as well.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, turning once if biscotti are on their sides, not at all if you were able to get them to balance upright.

Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Date, Walnut, & Nutmeg Cake

I am not a baker, although I love eating baked goods. I also love watching the Great British Baking Show and have really been enjoying the "Master Class" addendum series with Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood demonstrating their recipes. It's actually more fun for me to watch people baking than to do it myself. In fact, the thought of making something more complicated than a bundt cake or brownies is more than a bit intimidating. How those people--amateur, home bakers--can make such incredible fantasias with meringue and gum paste and multiple layers of cake and icing is incredible to me. Also time-consuming and potentially kitchen-messing.

Sometimes I do go into the kitchen to bake, and sometimes it goes well. Normally when I cook, I alter recipes like crazy, but I can't do that with baking. Baking is science, and therefore shouldn't be messed around with because it could end badly. So I rely on cookbooks most of the time. Like The Cardamom Trail, by former British Baking Show contestant Chetna Makan. Chetna was known for using unusual flavor combinations in her baked goods, which is one of the things that endeared her to me. But she also liked to bake straight-up British favorites, like Victoria sponge and lemon drizzle cake. The recipe I've included in this post is for a cake somewhat similar to sticky toffee pudding in that it uses dates as a main ingredient. There's also a sauce component, which I have omitted, that would make this dish even more like STP. (And I would have made it, had we double cream on hand.) Without it, this cake is somewhat like a quickbread in flavor and texture, and it is lovely with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a cup of coffee or tea.

Date, Walnut, & Nutmeg Cake (from The Cardamom Trail)
You need a kitchen scale for this one. Also, you can make your own self-raising flour by adding 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to a cup of flour. For this recipe, you'll need about 2 cups of flour. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and then measure out the 10 1/2 ounces.

4 1/2 ounces pitted dates, chopped
1 cup water
5 1/2 ounces of unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the pan
5 1/2 ounces light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 1/2 ounces self-raising flour
1 3/4 ounces walnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a bundt pan and set aside.

Bring dates and water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated before adding the next. Add the baking soda and the flour and mix well. Fold in the dates and any leftover liquid, the walnuts, and the nutmeg.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before unmolding cake. Allow to cool completely before dusting with powdered sugar.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Quick Sticky Buns

Sometime before Christmas, I received a package of samples from Davidson's Organics. Though I had never heard of them, Davidson's has been around for 40 years already. Goes to show what I know, huh? Davidson's specializes in tea, every type, from black to green to herbal, both loose leaf and bagged. Lots of fun blends like jasmine almond with orange and tulsi red vanilla. I love tea, both to drink and to cook with, so I was especially excited to receive two of their specialty tea products, jelly and chocolate, both made with Earl Grey tea.

I sat on them for a while, trying to think of what to concoct. They also sent some holiday tea bags, so I sipped tea and thought on the matter. Then it came to me. I'd make cinnamon rolls.

Yes, I know cinnamon rolls are not the first thing one thinks of when contemplating both chocolate and tea jelly, but stay with me here. The chocolate, which is flavored with both Earl Grey tea and lavender, would go into the filling, and the jelly would be part of the glaze. And I just happened to have some puff pastry in the freezer. And yes, I do know that cinnamon rolls and sticky buns are made with an enriched yeast dough, not puff pastry, I also knew that puff pastry would work just fine and it would be much much faster.

The texture of the pastry, after baking, reminded me of the creme horns my Mom liked - flaky and crisp. The chocolate didn't melt much, so there were still nice crunchy bits of both the choc and the nuts inside. I liked the combination a lot. And the icing, made with the jelly, powdered sugar, and a bit of lemon, added another dimension of flavor, and not just another layer of sweet.

Quick Earl Grey Sticky Buns

1/2 bar Davidson's Organics Earl Grey Lavender Organic Dark Chocolate
1/2 package puff pastry
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped nuts
2 tablespoons Davidson's Organics Earl Grey Tea Jelly
Powdered sugar
Lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Grate the chocolate and set aside.

Defrost the pastry according to package directions. Unfold sheet and go over it with a rolling pin to smooth out the creases and to enlarge the square by about 1/2 to 3/4 inch both in height and width.

Sprinkle the pastry with a thin layer of brown sugar, then shake on some cinnamon (but not too much). Add a layer of the chocolate and another of the nuts. Roll the pastry into a log, being careful not to lose too much of the filling in the process. Cut the roll in half, then cut each half into three pieces. Place pieces open-side-up on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes until browned and puffed. Set aside to cool.

Make the icing by microwaving the jelly until liquid, about 1 minute. Stir in enough powdered sugar to make a runny glaze. Flavor with a bit of the lemon juice.

When the buns are cool, drizzle with icing. Makes 6.

* 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!



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Chipotle Cherry Brownies

Regular Minxeats readers have to know that I am obsessed with brownies. Obsessed. (Well, not really, but that's one of those words you young'uns use all the time, regardless of its actual meaning. I'm trying to be hip with the lingo.) I've tried many brownie recipes over the years, and posted a good many of them here, including one abomination made with Splenda and black beans. (Go ahead, read that post. It's one of my favorites. Read the comments, too, while you're at it.) My all-time favorite brownie recipe is the one found on cans of Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa. The large sugar-and-fat to flour ratio makes for brownies that are gooey and messy, as opposed to cakey. (I suppose cakey brownies have their place, but why not just eat cake?) Mmm. So good.

I must confess that when I saw The Messy Baker: More Than 75 Delicious Recipes from a Real Kitchen in my Amazon recommendations, I put it on my wish list solely because of the cover photo. Of brownies. Deep Dark Cherry Chipotle Brownies, no less. (Yes, that's the link to the recipe on her blog. No need for you to buy her book, too, unless you want all of the other goodies inside.) Nobody purchased the book for me last Christmas, so I took it off the wish list and put it in my shopping cart. In January. But I didn't pull the trigger to buy it until August. Of course, the first recipe I tried from the book was for those brownies.

At first taste, when they were just a bit warm, I wasn't sure of the texture. They're very fudgy and dense. Which is fine, better than cakey, but not as gooey as I like. So I refrigerated them, and that made all the difference in the world. Cold from the fridge, they are like candy. Chocolate candy crack. They are spicy, but not too (and I added the full teaspoon of ground chipotle) and fruity from the cherries, which does help cut back the heat. I also added some walnuts, to add a bit of crunch, plus I like walnuts in my brownies. They are really, really good. Really good.

I think I found my second-favorite brownie. Try them. If you don't like spicy, then skip the chipotle, substitute ancho instead, or leave the pepper out entirely. And eat them cold, straight from the fridge, with a glass of milk (or a bourbon, if you're me). You won't regret it.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Muhammara

A couple months ago, we took a field trip to Southern Maryland for a fishing tournament. Figuring the ride would be long, we took snack foods in the form of a box of Triscuits and a tub of Trader Joe's Muhammara. We'd never tried the stuff before, muhammara, but the combination of walnuts, roasted bell peppers, and pomegranate molasses sounded really good. And it was. Really good. I could have eaten the entire container myself (AND the whole box of sweet potato/onion Triscuits - yum), but I did share with Mr Minx.

When the next stitch and bitch rolled around, I decided to make muhammara. I typically make some sort of dippy thing, because it's the neatest thing to consume while knitting. There were only two of us this time, but we pretty much killed the entire batch. So tasty, and I think this recipe from Epicurious, with my adjustments (much less bread and oil), tasted pretty similar to TJ's version, only, of course, home-made, and therefore, better.

Muhammara (adapted from Epicurious)

1 large red pepper, peeled, seeded, and roasted, or 1 1/2 jarred roasted red peppers
5 tablespoons fine fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted lightly and chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Big pinch cayenne
4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Blend everything together in a food processor until it's a fairly smooth paste. Serve with crackers or crudite.



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Summer Shrimp Salad

I love when dinner ideas come to me while I stroll through the supermarket. It was a warm summer afternoon and I was in the mood for something cool and refreshing. That means nothing fried, nothing with red meat or particularly carb-laden. I lingered in the produce section for inspiration and spotted plump heads of Belgian endive. I thought, "I love endive salad!" A few feet later, I saw ripe red watermelon and a similar thought came to mind. "I love watermelon salad!" A walk past the seafood counter and, you guessed it, "I love shrimp salad!"

Ordinarily I'd make shrimp salad with mayonnaise, celery, and Old Bay. Endive and watermelon are similar in that both work nicely with a balsamic vinaigrette and some sort of cheese, like feta or bleu. And walnuts. Walnuts go with everything. (My apologies to those with tree nut allergies.) Why not just make an endive salad that just so happens to have both watermelon and shrimp? And, just to be different, use a mustard vinaigrette in place of the balsamic. Anyway, balsamic vinegar makes the endive look like it's old and turning brown.

Once I peeled the shrimp, I tossed them in a quick poaching liquid made up of lemon juice, a bay leaf, and peppercorns in plain water. I found some Knorr shrimp bouillon cubes in the cupboard and tossed half of one of those in, too. (Knorr seafood bouillon cubes are commonly found in Asian markets, like H Mart.) The shrimp cooked quickly, and once they were done I set them aside to cool a bit while I worked on the dressing. Mr Minx was called in to dice the watermelon.

While there were a few steps to the process, the dish came together pretty quickly. By the time the chopping and dressing-making was complete, the shrimp were cool enough to handle. I tossed everything except the cheese and walnuts together and put them in the fridge to cool completely. Once it was chilled, all I needed to do was to fill the large endive leaves (optional - I thought it would be pretty) and sit down to eat.

Summer Shrimp Salad

This would be great with crab, too.

1 bay leaf
5 peppercorns
Juice of half a lemon
Half a Knorr shrimp bouillon cube (optional)
1 tablespoon of salt (divided use)
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
5 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 shallot, minced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 heads Belgian endive
1 cup diced watermelon
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 tablespoons chopped toasted walnuts
Bleu cheese crumbles

Put 3 cups of water in a 2 quart saucepan and add bay leaf, peppercorns, lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and reduce to a simmer. Add the shrimp and cook for 3 minutes, until shrimp are opaque. Turn off heat and allow shrimp to cool in the liquid. When cool enough to handle, drain the shrimp and cut each into 3-4 pieces. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Combine the dijon, honey, rice wine vinegar, and shallot in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, or to taste. Toss half the vinaigrette with the cooled shrimp.

Thoroughly rinse and dry the endives. Cut the stem ends off and set aside 8 - 10 of the largest leaves. Chop the remaining endive and place in a bowl. Add the watermelon, parsley, and walnuts. Toss with the remaining vinaigrette. Add the shrimp and toss again. Season with the remaining salt to taste.

Spoon some of the salad into the reserved endive leaves. Mound the remaining salad in the center of the plate. Sprinkle all with bleu cheese.

Serves 3-4

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Nutty Bars

A day off work means free time to play in the kitchen! But first, I spent a few moments thumbing through a copy of Fat Witch Brownies: Brownies, Blondies, and Bars from New York's Legendary Fat Witch Bakery before deciding on the Pecan Bars.

We had about half a pound of pecan pieces in the freezer, but I opted to use half walnuts because they're less-expensive. I also didn't feel like opening the bag of light brown sugar when there was just enough dark brown sugar left to fit the bill. And...the original recipe called for rum. Mr Minx isn't the biggest rum fan in the world, so I used bourbon instead. The results were crunchy, sticky, nutty, and quite fabulous.

Make them. Now. Unless of course you have nut allergies.

Nut Bars adapted from Fat Witch Brownies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon bourbon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 3/4 cups coarsely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour a 9" x 9" baking pan.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar. Add the 7 tablespoons of butter, a few small pieces at a time, and combine until mixture is sandy. Stir in the nuts. Gently press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes.

While crust is baking, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter and allow to cool. Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, bourbon, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the cooled butter. Add the egg and mix well.

Pour the filling over the baked crust. Evenly sprinkle the nuts on top. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the filling no longer wobbles when you shake the pan gently.

Allow to cool completely before cutting, about 2 hours.

Makes 12 - 16 bars.

* Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Best Brownies Ever

We're brownie fans. Not fake brownies made with black beans, egg substitute, and artificial sweetener - the real deal, made with real eggs, real sugar, and a whole stick of real butter. And lots of chocolate. Our favorite brownies have more chocolate than flour, and they are chewy and gooey. It just so happens to be the recipe on the back of a can of Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa, which I've included for you here.

A word of advice: wait until brownies cool a bit so you don't burn your mouth as you attempt to eat the whole pan in one sitting with a spoon.

Ghirardelli Brownies

2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a spoon or a mixer, combine eggs with sugar and vanilla. Beat in butter. In a separate bowl, mix together sweet ground chocolate and cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt. Gently stir into the egg mixture. Add nuts. Spread batter into a greased 8 inch square pan. Bake 25-30 minutes.



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Beet Salad

For some, beets are an acquired taste. I, however, grew up eating them. My Grandma's beet barszcz was one of my favorite foods, and I never turned up my nose to jarred pickled beets. But red beets have that distinctive earthy flavor that can be hard for some to take. Other colors of beets can be milder - I've had orange beets that were as naturally sweet as candy, without the dirt flavor. The same goes for chioggia beets.

When raw, chioggias have alternating red and white concentric rings (which earned them the nickname "candy stripe" beets). Cooking turns them a fairly uniform medium fuchsia-pink. Their flavor is sweet and fruity, with little of the dirt earthiness of standard red beets. (Your palate may vary.)

The sweetness of beets makes them a perfect pairing for salty and tangy flavors, like vinegar, mustard, feta cheese, and olives, and an ideal salad ingredient. I like to add toasted walnuts, too, for a bit of buttery crunch.

Chioggia Beet Salad

2 beets, 2" - 3" in diameter, tops removed
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
generous pinch of salt
pinch garlic powder
pinch ground cumin
pinch ground paprika
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
greens of your choice (arugula is nice, but so is plain old romaine)
feta cheese
green or black olives
toasted walnuts
fresh dill and mint (optional, but nice)

Scrub any dirt off the beets and place them in a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the beets are easily pierced with a knife. Turn off heat, remove beets from water, and allow to cool to a temperature comfortable enough to handle. Peel off and discard the skins. Slice the beets.

Place the orange juice, vinegar, mustard, and salt into a small bowl and beat well with a fork. Add the spices and beat again. Drizzle in the olive oil, beating constantly, until the ingredients are emulsified. Taste for seasoning and add more of whatever you think it needs. If you prefer a sweeter vinaigrette, whisk in a few drops of honey or agave syrup.

For each serving, place a handful of greens on a serving plate. Top with half the beets. Drizzle with a few spoonfuls of the dressing (whisk again if it has un-emulsified). Top with crumbles of feta, some sliced olives, pieces of walnut, and dill and mint.



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Summer Fancy Food Show 2013 - Savory Delights

A couple of summers ago, I was all set to attend my first Fancy Food Show. It was in DC that year, a relatively short MARC ride away. But plans changed and I ended up spending the day with an old friend. This year, I was determined to go, even though the venue had changed to New York. I love New York, despite its nasty soup-like Summertime humidity, so I was even more excited to attend the event.

After a series of mishaps including a very late train into town and a taxi accident (I was not hurt), I made it to the Javits Center relatively unscathed (albeit sweaty). My first line of business was to check out the booth for José Andres Foods (which will get its own post), after which I simply walked up and down the aisles and checked out the products that most interested me.

The Fancy Food Show is an orgy of food samples. I can't tell you how many booths offered olives and/or olive oil, but there were quite a few. Olives are fine and good, but I was more interested in the unusual.

One of the more interesting products was a vegetarian caviar made from kelp. Kelp Caviar also offers the real deal, but the fake stuff was far more intriguing. There are eight flavors to choose from, including wasabi, balsamic, ginger, and truffle, and I found the tiny pearls to be somewhat like tobiko (the caviar one finds on sushi), only without the snappy texture.

Spain and Italy were well-represented and offered a goodly amount of olive-related products. I skipped much of them in search of other nations to taste. As I walked through the aisles of Mexican-produced items, I noticed that quite a few of them were tequilas and mezcals. Despite the fact that it was still pretty early in the day, I admit to tasting a few of them. Among the best were the mezcals from Oaxaca. The Real Minero, brewed in earthenware pots, is reminiscent of a fine Scotch, intensely smoky, but with a familiar (to tequila drinkers anyway) agave fruitiness. Another smoky, but lighter and drier, mezcal is the Yuu Baal brand. These mezcals have only been available in the US for about six months, and right now in selected restaurants and liquor stores in New York. I meant to pick up a bottle before heading home, but sadly wasn't able to find the time for a booze-shopping expedition.

Fueled by alcohol, I was attracted to a sign that said "World of Chia," which I took to mean a booth of chia seed products. While Interfoods does have one raspberry jam-like product that contains the Omega 3-rich chia, the rest of their products were pepper purees and fruit pulps. Despite being warned that the habanero puree I was slathering on a cracker was "very hot," I popped it in my mouth anyway. Like I said - fueled by alcohol. When the rep asked if I was ok, I acted like it was nothing despite the fact that the right side of my mouth was on fire and smoke was likely coming out of my ear. I thanked him, took a card, and went off to find something creamy and sweet to kill the heat. What I found first was more alcohol - an astonishingly delicious cocktail made with avocado oil, lime, and cucumber by Junior Merino, the Liquid Chef. There were three or four other cocktails on offer, and while I really wanted to try them, or have another one of those insane cucumber ones, I hightailed it out of the spicy, alcoholic land of Mexico and stumbled into Canada.

Canadians are so nice. Not only did the lovely Marianne Pemberton of Vancouver's Ethical Bean offer me a sample of their coffee, she made me a latte. Ah....sweet relief! As I sipped, she told me about Ethical Bean's fair trade organic coffees and showed me their nifty free iPhone app that one can use to track their bag of coffee beans, from growing and picking to roasting, via QR code. And that latte was pretty delicious. Now they have to start selling their product here in the US, because shipping costs from Canada are pretty outrageous.

Another product I liked was Hammons Black Walnut oil. A Sofi award finalist in 2011, the oil has a black walnut flavor that is a bold change from extra virgin olive oil. If you've never tried a black walnut, well, it's a bit hard to describe exactly. It's walnutty, sure, but also darker and fruitier. "Earthy" is a good word for it. Black walnuts are a

wild crop that are hand-harvested, so of course they're a little more expensive than regular walnuts. But what was most surprising about the Hammons oil was that it's available at Walmart. Apparently they're big on exotic oils and sell a good deal of them. However, if you're like me and won't shop at Walmart, Costco also carries Hammons Black Walnut Oil and it can be purchased online at Nuts.com, too. I think it would be a dynamite substitute for olive oil in an olive oil cake.

As far as I'm concerned, one can't have too many sources for seasonings. The Spice Lab features 180 gourmet salts and peppers and were offering sample packs of their pink Himalayan, truffle, and applewood smoked salts. And if applewood isn't your thing, they also have salts smoked with Hawaiian guava wood, grape vines, cherry, alder, hickory, and Welsh oak. They also have exotic salts flavored with saffron, curry, herbes de Province, Thai ginger, and green tea. Just imagine the kick they'd give the garden variety margarita (or a fancier one made with cucumbers, like that one I wish I was sipping right now)!

There were many more interesting savory and liquid treats at this year's Fancy Food Show, but these were my favorites. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on some of the sweet goodies I sampled.



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Lazy Baklava

As I mentioned in my b'stilla post, I don't like messing with filo. But I loooove baklava. And homemade is almost always better than store-bought, at least in my experience. That way, you know it's fresh.

The best baklava I ever ate was made by a guy named Lou. He brought a big tray of it to Martin's Eastwind one Tuesday night when a bunch of random people got together to do country line dancing. I do believe it was all pistachio, and it definitely was all delicious.

While the following recipe can't hold a candle to Lou's baklava, it's quick and easy and turns a slice of bread or a croissant into a quick and easy facsimile of a certain nutty treat.

Baklava Spread (adapted from Elle's New England Kitchen)

1 1/2 cups toasted nuts (I used half pistachios, half walnuts)
1/2 cup honey
pinch kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse about 20 times until nuts are in small pieces but not quite a paste. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Makes 1 generous cup

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