An oldie but goodie.

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Years ago, my bro-in-law went on the Paleo diet. Years ago, a lot of people thought this sounded kooky. “Paleo, as in Paleolithic? What, do you hunt for your food and cook it over a fire?” It sounded like a good, healthy way to eat, but imagining a world without cheese or bread made me sad. And then I went the vegetarian route. Cavemen didn’t eat tofu, apparently.

Now it seems like everyone is jumping on the Paleo wagon. Rachel just threw an engagement party for her little brother and his fiancee. When I asked if there was anything I could make, she said that most of her relatives were eating like cavemen! Always up for a challenge, I said I’d make a Paleo-friendly dessert and set off googling. The first hit (maybe due to my location?) was from the Austin Post for things called Fudge Babies by Chocolate-Covered Katie. After reading a bunch (okay, that’s being generous) of other possible recipes, Fudge Babies it was.

Have you ever had a Lärabar? These should really be called Lärababies because that’s just how they taste. In particular, they’re like the (retired) Cocoa Mōlé ones because I spiced them up with cinnamon and chipotle powder. I also used almonds instead of walnuts, but had forgotten how almonds are less oily, which was not helpful when it came to shaping the balls. That’s when I decided to add some almond butter to hold things together, et voila! Spheres of raw, natural yumminess.

While maybe not the most attractive of treats, these were a huge hit; not a single one was left at the end of the party and everyone kept asking about how to make them! Katie has some other variations on her blog along with recipes for homemade Lärabars. Note: some have peanuts, which aren’t Paleo-friendly.

Spicy Fudge Babies
adapted from Chocolate-Covered Katie

1 cup (120 grams) almonds
1 1/3 cups (230 grams) pitted dates
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
4 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
4 1/2 tablespoons natural almond butter

Dump everything into a food processor and blend well. It will make a coarse meal. Form into balls…that’s it!

I was able to make 20 with this recipe.

Maranda of Jolts & Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year!

Having been born and raised in San Antonio, I can assure you that I have eaten a fair share of tamales! Often my family has them on Christmas Eve, which is a very popular tradition down here. Every grocery store has corn husks in the produce section, and some even sell giant tamaleras for steaming huge batches of tamales. You might therefore assume that I’ve made tamales before, but nope…this is why they’re on my list!

Traditional tamales are meat-filled and usually have lard in the masa so I haven’t had so many in the past couple years due to the vegetarian kinds being less common. All the more reason to make my own! Maranda provided a vegan black bean recipe which sounded tasty, but I decided to go an easier route and fill mine with monterrey jack, hatch green chiles, and cumin.

I’ve always heard about how difficult, or maybe rather time-consuming, it is to make homemade tamales, but never really knew why. It’s a tradition for many families to get together and make large quantities for Christmas, so I guess making copious amounts of anything can become tedious. Since the husks need to be soaked a few hours, there is a little planning ahead, but after that, you make the filling, masa dough, and then assemble and steam.

My experience? They were pretty easy and didn’t take all that long! That said, I only made about 15 and the filling required minimal prep, but it was just me. Pretty much every tamale I’ve had has been reheated even though most were homemade, so eating these was a new experience! They’re so much less dry when fresh out of the pot – the outer part has a softer, lighter texture.

Green Chile and Monterrey Jack Tamales
adapted from Jolts & Jollies

Usually I just link to the Daring Kitchen recipes, but used a different filling and also revised the dough a little bit. I noticed that the vegan dough had no baking powder and less salt than the chicken dough, so this is a bit of a combo of the two.

dried corn husks (I needed less than 20)

dough:
4 cups masa harina (corn tortilla mix), I used instant masa mix
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (omit if already in masa mixture)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (omit if already in masa mixture)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2-3 cups vegetable broth

filling:
8 ounces monterrey jack cheese, grated
1 4-ounce can diced hatch green chiles
ground cumin, for sprinkling over each (I used less than a tablespoon)

In a large pot, soak the corn husks for at least 3 hours, flipping occasionally until softened.

With a mixer, combine the masa, salt, baking powder, and olive oil at medium speed. Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour in 2 cups of the broth. The dough should have a texture similar to cookie dough. If too dry, add more broth 2 tablespoons at a time.

For assembling the tamales, I’m going to direct you to the challenge write-up because Maranda has great step-by-step photos. The filling I went with is pretty self-explanatory: sprinkle cheese down the middle, top with chiles, then lightly sprinkle with cumin!

Tamales are really great when you top them with chile, but I opted to have mine with avocado salad (err, essentially unmashed guacamole) and homemade refried black beans!

Refried Black Beans
adapted from Epicurious

Black beans are tastier and more nutritious than pinto beans! Less healthy tip for the meat eaters from your naughty vegetarian friend: instead of the oil, use bacon grease. (I miss you, bacon.)

1/2 tablespoon oil (I used vegetable)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
1 15-ounce can black beans, NOT drained
1/2 to 1 cup vegetable broth or water

Heat the oil in a medium-sized skillet. Saute the garlic, cumin, and chipotle for about a minute or so over medium low heat. Add the black beans with their water, then mash them with a potato masher and/or the back of a spoon. Cook until heated through, stirring often. Stir in 1/2 cup of whichever liquid, adding more if necessary.

Thanks to Maranda for challenging us to make tamales! It’s so satisfying to be able to say that I’ve finally made these (and cross them off the list!). Now I need to experiment with different fillings and have a tamale-making party!

Nudge and Lafitte! (Monkey would never share a sill with another cat.)

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Less than a week ago, I had never even tried a madeleine. I have now eaten some absurd number thanks to Jill’s birthday last week. Since she loves the things, I decided to make her a batch and give her the pan. It’s kind of hard to justify buying one-purpose kitchen things for yourself, isn’t it?

Having never made madeleines, I turned to Emma’s blog, Of Agates and Madeleines, because if someone has the very specific thing that you want to make in their blog title, that might be a good place to start. She had made these pretty pumpkin spice madeleines a couple months ago (hey, she’s a string player, too!) and since she used Dorie Greenspan’s recipe as a base, I decided to use that as mine as well.

You know me…I have this tendency to want to make a recipe different even if I’ve never tried it before. Jill really likes coffee and cardamom (and coffee with cardamom), so I came up with that flavor combo pretty quickly. The only problem is that I didn’t really know how much coffee (brewed? ground? instant?) or cardamom to use. The closest recipe I could find for coffee madeleines was for mocha ones and since it used a tablespoon of finely ground espresso, I figured I’d do the same, but increase it by half. Also I started out with a teaspoon of ground cardamom and then added an extra quarter of it after sampling the batter. 

So this batch turned out as they should have (bump and all!), but I wasn’t convinced by the flavor. The coffee barely came through, so they mainly just tasted like cardamom-spiced madeleines. Jill liked them, but I wanted to try another batch of something a little less experimental…but still kind of different.

This time I took another Dorie Greenspan recipe and changed it up a little bit. Instead of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, I used all ginger, and then swapped the orange zest for lemon. I also came up with the brilliant idea (if I say so myself) of browning the butter because that can only improve things, right? I made these guys smaller too because standard-sized madeleines are pretty hefty.

Verdict? I think these were a little more successful, but just tasted like lemon madeleines. Couldn’t detect the ginger or brown butter which is sad, but that didn’t stop me from eating a billion of them.

Can I also say that I decreased the oven temperature by 100 degrees and baking time by 3 minutes?? I used my parents’ oven which possibly gets hotter than mine, but maybe it also had to do with the dark madeleine pan? Though now that I think of it, I didn’t decrease the oven temp with the first batch, just the baking time. Weird.

Any favorite madeleine recipes out there for Jill to make? I know she likes this one!

Inside the Esquire Tavern, San Antonio, TX. (and very reminiscent of the most awesome show ever)

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Remember when I went to that food photography workshop in October and how it was put together by the Austin Food Blogger Alliance (AFBA)? Well, I became a member the following month! I missed out on the kitchen gadget White Elephant in December due to a gig, but did participate in something a little more one-on-one, minus the in-person factor!

In November, it was announced that there was going to be a first-time swap between the AFBA bloggers and Boston Food Bloggers. Two awesome, rhyming cities with large populations of folks with culinary obsessions…of course we’d want to swap food!

Who was I paired with? Ryan from This Is Not A Martini. His unusual creations include a Fried Green Tomato Martini, Roll With It (sushi-inspired), and for food science-lovers, a Deconstructed Mac N Cheese Martini. Clearly a creative guy, right? I think the Pad Thai One On  and Fall For Me sound like the first two I’d try!

When I asked Ryan if he had any likes/dislikes when it came to food, he basically said he’s open to anything, but isn’t big on sweets. I had a hunch about both of these things from his blog, so started thinking of what I could send when my usual instinct is to make cookies. I got to thinking about flavors of south Texas, which is heavily influenced by our southern neighbor, Mexico!

Here is what I ended up sending: red and green tortilla chips from El Lago with Salsa Verde from Austin Slow Burn, barbecue sauce from The Salt Lick, and Chile Lime Peanuts made by me! I drew a nerdy card to go with it and wrote a little more than intended (not surprising).

Now, what did Ryan send me?

Ingredients for a cheddar apple pie martini! So New England, right? Awesome!

Why am I so late with posting this? I wanted to actually make the martini but needed a couple things to do so first (like, hello, martini glass? and thank you, Goodwill).

Isn’t it pretty? The beverage part of this is vodka, cinnamon liqueur, apple jelly, and sparkling apple cider. Where is the cheddar component? Cheddar powder coats half of the rim! The other half is rimmed with apple jelly and then coated with a blend of sugar and dried apples. He even included decorative sugar leaves! Pretty genius, no?

It was definitely different from any other cocktail I’ve tried, and I really enjoyed it! I ate some white cheddar rice crackers with it, which was a nice combination.

Thanks so much to Ryan for the fun tasty beverage! Also, many thanks to Jodi and Rachel for organizing the swap and matching up everyone! You can read about some of the other swaps here.

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So my first attempt at sourdough (AKA the December Daring Bakers’ Challenge) was a bust, but I persevered! That night I started feeding Brutus the Starter again from Day 1. He developed a voracious appetite and grew so much more than in the first week!

After reading through all of the posts in the challenge reveal thread of the DB forum, I felt better knowing that others had some related problems. A few things were different this time around: I used my scale to measure everything while making the dough, and resisted the temptation to over-knead. The production leaven was definitely bigger and more bubbly, and the dough itself was more wet than last time, which is supposed to be a characteristic of sourdough. There were also a couple differences due to being in my kitchen rather than my parents’: this loaf is round (different proofing vessel!) and it was a whole new oven and slightly different climate.

I also crossed my fingers while the dough was resting.

Good news: this loaf turned out much better than the first! As you can see, there aren’t any gaping holes at the top and even though the crumb is still dense, there are bubbles. It also tastes better, though still not much like sourdough. It sounds like this is normal with new starters and that they become more sour with age. Brutus is now two weeks old! Also, the bread did not smell like mac ‘n cheese while baking this time. I’m still not sure why that was, but there was one other member who had that issue.

I was planning to make the provided recipe for Welsh Rarebit/Cheese on Toast because it sounds tasty! However, having washed so many dishes, I decided to go an easier route. After toasting up a couple slices brushed with olive oil, I spread on some of the black-eyed pea hummus that I had made the same day! So, so good and totally vegan!

New Year’s toast on New Year’s Eve…

My goal is to continue feeding Brutus and keep working on improving my sourdough-making skills. Many thanks to Jessica for choosing both a challenging and practical thing for us to make and for sharing her helpful videos and tips. Again, her write up and recipes are here if you’d like to see them.

I hope that you all had a great holiday season!

Thanks so much to each one of you for swinging by here this past year.

Cheers to 2012!