Vegan Cupcakes

My produce items: Lemon, Avocado

3 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup of avocado (1 medium avocado well mashed)
2 cups water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can of frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda.  Mix together avocado, vegetable oil, water, lemon juice, vanilla extract.  Combine wet ingredients to dry mixture and mix well.  I used an electric mixer.  Pour batter into cupcake holders.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Let cool for 15 minutes before applying frosting.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Final Verdict: Delicious

I was skeptical at first but after trying vegan cupcakes I absolutely loved them and wanted to try my hand at making them. They taste exactly like regular cupcakes except way more moist.  They're super moist chocolate cupcakes.  I actually got the recipe from jbahr who sent it to me.  This recipe is a slight variation from joythebaker.com.  I didn't have any white vinegar so I substituted lemon juice.  Because of the substitution I also added an additional teaspoon of vanilla extract.  I think it turned out well.

Mini Chicken Pot Pies!

INGREDIENTS:

Green Zucchini, Sweet Potatoes, Fennel, Peppers

I recently acquired a mini pie pan and have been dying to make mini chicken pot pies. Originally I intended to buy store bought crust. However, the stores decided to work against me so I ended up making my own crust. I included the crust recipe along with the pot pie recipe if you are feeling ambitious.

CRUST RECIPE:

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 Butter (1 Stick - room temperature, cubed)
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Water (You most likely will not use all of this)

1) In a bowl or food processor, mix together the flour and the salt.

2) Slowly add in cubes of butter. The mix will start to resemble cornmeal.

3) Once all the butter has been added, slowly drizzle 1 tsp at a time of water and mix together with the flour and butter. Continue this process until the dough starts to form into a ball. You will probably not use all the water as you don't want to use to much; this will cause your dough to become sticky.

4) Refrigerate your dough for at least 1 hour or overnight.

POT PIE RECIPE:

2 Chicken Breasts (medium size - cubed)
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped fennel
2 Sweet potatoes (small - cubed)
2 Peppers (small - cubed)
1 cup Peas
1 Zucchini (cubed)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 3/4 cups Chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)
1/2 cup Milk

1) Heat oven to 425°F. Roll out your dough and place into mini pie pan. I placed the bottoms in and left the tops of parchment paper for after the pies are filled. 

2) In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened.

3) Stir in chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat. Spoon chicken mixture into crust-lined pan. Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.

4) Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 

These were delicious! And the mini pie size is perfect for a one person serving. I have already made them again and will probably make them again later this week. Enjoy! 

Chicken Fricassee

Martha Stewart Recipe (two pictures from me. One from www.marthastewart.com). 

Produce from the box: white onion

Produce from the Farmer's Market: carrot, celery, herbs, lemon, eggs

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, divided

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 small yellow onion, cut into ½-inch dice (1 cup)

1 carrot, cut into ¼-inch dice (1/2 cup)

1 celery stalk, cut into ¼-inch dice (1/2 cup)

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and quartered

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ up dry white wine

4 cups chicken broth

2 sprigs fresh flat-leave parsley

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

2 large egg yolks, room temperature

½ cup heavy cream

2 to 3 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh tarragon leaves

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions 

1. Brown Chicken

Season chicken on both sides with 1 tablespoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Preheat a Dutch oven or other large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter and the oil to the pot. When butter melts and foam subsides, add half the chicken, skin side down in a single layer, do not crowd pot. Fry chicken, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 10minutes total, and transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining chicken.

2. Sauté mirepoix

Reduce heat to medium and add mirepoix (onion, carrot and celery) to pot, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon. Sauté mirepoix, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown in places, 8 to 10 minutes.

3. Cook mushroom and flour

Add mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms darken, become glossy, and begin to release liquid, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in flour, and cook until flour is absorbed by vegetables and is no longer visible, about 1 minute.

4. Pour in Wine and Broth

Add wine to pot, and bring to a boil, stirring until liquid just thickens, about 45 seconds. Add broth and stir.

5. Simmer Chicken

Place chicken, skin side up, in a single layer on vegetables, our juices that have accumulated on plate into pot. Tie parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs and bay leave together with kitchen twine, add to pot. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cover partially. Cook until internal temperature of thickest part of chicken registers 165, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to a clean plate. Simmer liquid, uncovered, until reduced slightly, about 5 minutes. Discard herbs.

6. Make and add liaison

To make the liaison (sauce thickener), whisk together egg yolks and cream in a medium bowl. Whisking constantly, pour ½ cup cooking liquid. 1 tablespoon at a time, into liaison to temper it. Stir tempered liaison into pot.

7. Finish with Tarragon, Lemon and Butter

Return chicken to pot. Add tarragon, lemon juice, and the remaining butter. Bring to simmer, stir gently to combine, and serve.

Summer Veggies

Produce from the box: one white pepper, onion (used 1/2 of it)

Produce from the Farmer's Market: yellow, green, red pepper, celery, carrots.


I cut all veggies in cubes and made two groups.
Group 1: onion, celery carrots.
Group 2: all the peppers.

Heated oil in the pan, added first group of veggies into the pan, cooked them for about 3-4 minutes, stirred often until onions were soft. Added peppers with some salt, pepper and vegetable broth. Continued to cook it for another 3-4 minutes until all peppers were soft.

Cooled the mix and made small portions. Brought some of it to friends and put some of it in the freezer.
It can be used warm (as side-dish or mixed with pasta or rice), cold as salad or as base for a soup.

I didn't add a lot of spices. I will do it when I take a portion out of the freezer. Pepper flakes can be added, curry version can be made or some fresh herbs will add a kick.

Lemon curd & yogurt fool

Produce: Strawberries


Ingredients (4 servings)

11 oz jar lemon curd (I used only 1/2 of it.)
18 oz tub 0% Greek yoghurt
7 oz strawberries
1 tbsp sugar


Method

Put the lemon curd and yoghurt into a bowl. Fold together for rippled effect. Dvidie the mixture between four glasses and chill.

Mix strawberries and sugar (I added some Cointreau and lemon zest) together and gently crush, then spoon with their juices over the chilled mix and serve.

Asian green beans with garlic and beef

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 pound green beans, washed
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cups of flank steak, cut in small pieces

Directions:

1.    Heat oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add garlic slices and cook for a minute.

2.    Stir in green beans and sesame oil and cook for eight to 10 minutes. Beans will turn bright green. 

3. Add steak cubes into the mix, continue to mix.

4.    Add soy sauce and cook for another five minutes, stirring frequently, and then transfer to serving platter.

Fried Rice with Kale and Pomegranate

My produce items: Kale and Pomegranate

1 bunch of kale
1 pomegranate
1 lemon
1/4 cup of chopped onion
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of honey
1 cup of rice

Mince onion and saute in olive oil in a skillet.  Chop up kale into desirable pieces and add to saute.  Stir periodically.  Add one tablespoon of honey and juice from half a lemon.  Stir well.

Prepare rice (I used a rice cooker).  Add rice to saute and mix well.

Seed pomegranate.  Crush pomegranate seeds well (I used a potato masher).  Drain juice into rice mixture but keep the seeds separated.  Repeat juicing and draining procedure two more times.

Add remaining half of lemon juice and additional tablespoon of honey to the rice and stir well over low heat.  Top rice with remaining pomegranate seeds or stir into mixture before serving.

Serve hot.

Serves 4-6

Final Verdict: Not Bad

The pomegranate I got wasn't super ripe.  It was more pinkish than red and the seeds were not nearly as sweet as redder/riper pomegranates.  I had to make up for the lack of sweetness with honey.  And since the pomegranate was a little on the sour side, juice from a full lemon was too much.  Half of a lemon would have sufficed.  Juicing the seeds actually made them quite soft.  I usually don't like pomegranate seeds because they are a bit tough to bite into.  Crushing them softened them up a lot and made them a nice addition to the dish.  Next time I'll try to find a riper pomegranate and lessen the lemon juice.

Couscous Salad

I never made this salad and I don’t have a recipe. I improvised.

Couscous: I followed the directions on the box and left the couscous cooling down during the prep of the vegetable salad.

Cleaned and chopped vegetables in small cubes. I had the following vegetables/fruits in the box: tomato, pears, a green and a yellow pepper, avocado and zucchini. I mixed them all with a vinaigrette (oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper) and some cornichons.

Mixed vegetable salad with couscous when couscous was still slightly warm. Added some more salt to taste.

Cornichon: French word for Gherkin. They are usually pickled with vinegar and are used with other foods and in sandwiches (especially in Europe). 

Almond Champagne Poached Pears

Adapted from this recipe:

1 bottle of almond champagne
1 cup water
1 vanilla bean, sliced & scraped
3/4 cup sugar
3 pears, cored and halved

Pour champagne into a 4 quart sauce pan with water, sugar, vanilla bean pieces and pulp over medium high heat to bring to a boil.

Decrease the heat to medium low and place the pears into the liquid, cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the pears are tender but not falling apart. Remove pears, and move to the fridge.

Remove the vanilla bean from the saucepan, increase the heat to high and reduce the syrup to approximately 1 cup of liquid, about 20 to 25 minutes - do not burn the syrup. Place the syrup in a heatproof container and place in the refrigerator until cool, approximately 1 hour.

Remove the pears from the refrigerator, spoon the sauce over the pears and serve.

The results:

Holy jesus. I've never had poached pears before, and I'm not really a pear fan, but dayum. Day-um. These were tasty. And that sauce. Oh the sauce. So sweet and almondy. And I'm definitely a huge fan of using vanilla beans, the taste is just doesn't compared to the extract. I feel like the extract is a sham compared to using the real thing. 

Quinoa and Hot Sauage Stuff Bell Peppers

Zucchini, peppers, tomato & shishito peppers 

1 sm can corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large tomato, diced
1 zucchini, diced
4 peppers, halved, deveined and deseeded
4 shishito peppers, diced
1 pkg hot sausage
1/2 cup shredded parm
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp ground rosemary

Combine all ingredients except for the green peppers. Stuff mixture into peppers, pop onto a baking dish - put about an inch of water at the bottom & cover with foil. Toss into the oven 350F for 45mins to 1 hour.

The results?
Amazeballs. Definitely keeping this recipe handy. Also had leftover stuffing and made more the next day. Plus, the recipe is super easy to throw together and these little pods are super portable. Definitely a winner in my book.