Ingredients
1 lb chicken breast
1 c lime juice
1 1/2 c vegetable oil, separated
3 T ground ancho chile pepper + more to taste
2 medium/large onion, large dice
6 corn tortillas, diced
small bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
6 c chicken stock
salt
pepper
garnishments: tortilla strips, lime, shredded cheese

Instructions
1. Marinate chicken breasts in lime juice, 1 c olive oil, ground ancho chile pepper (to taste), salt and pepper for 1-2 hours (or more). Saute chicken breasts, let cool, then shred. Put aside.

2. Heat oil in pot, add onion and caramelize slightly. Add remainder of ground ancho and allow to perfume for a few seconds. Add tortillas, allowing them to get slightly golden and crispy. (Note: mine did not get crispy, don’t worry if yours don’t either). Add cilantro and sauté for a few more seconds. Add tomatoes, sauté for a minute or two.

3. Add the stock, salt and pepper to taste (underseason at this point – you can always add more later!), bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and let simmer (covered) until it’s reduced about a quarter (10-15 minutes).

4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

5. Puree with an immersion blender (or very carefully in a standing blender).

6. Stir chicken into the soup.

7. Ladle into bowls, add garnishments and enjoy!

Chipotle Cheddar Biscuits

- makes about 40 small biscuits -
Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chipotle powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups grated and tightly packed sharp cheddar cheese
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
Kosher salt and Tabasco for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, pepper, chipotle powder, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and the 1 teaspoon of salt.

3. Add the butter and, using your hands or the back of a wooden spoon, work the butter into the dough. The mixture should look like coarse sand. Add the cheese and stir to thoroughly incorporate it into the dough.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just incorporated. Do not overmix.

5. Use a tablespoon-sized scoop to scoop the dough and drop it in mounds onto the prepared baking sheets about an inch apart. Sprinkle with tabasco (one dot per biscuit) and kosher salt and bake in the center of the oven for about 15-20 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a biscuit comes out clean.

6. Transfer the biscuits to a cooling rack. The biscuits can be served slightly warm or at room temperature (I like them slightly warm).

7. Store the biscuits in an airtight container for up to 2 days or freeze for up to a couple of months.

Without further ado, the recipe!

Brown Sugar Pound Cake Cupcakes
Makes 24 (today I halved it to make 12, worked fine)

Ingredients
3 cups sifted all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour,m baking powder and salt (and buttermilk IF you are using the solid buttermilk like I do)
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and beating until combined after each.
3. Divide evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 of the way full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool 10 minutes, turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.
4. Ice cupcakes the day you plan on serving them. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days in airtight containers or up to 3 months in the freezer. Icing recipe below.

Brown Butter Icing
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk, plus more if needed

Instructions<
1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally, until nut brown in color, about 10 minutes. (note – this happens really quickly and goes from nut brown to burnt really quickly so watch the butter very carefully!!). Remove from heat and pour butter into a bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind.
2. Add confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and 2 T milk to brown butter; stir until smooth. If necessary, add up to 2 T more milk, a little at a time, just until icing is spreadable.

OK, now that that’s out of the way, if you can’t tell, I made hummus today. A lot of it. And to procrastinate cleaning my kitchen, which is a complete disaster at the moment, I’m going to blog about it instead!!

I made three different flavors of hummus: “plain”, roasted garlic, and chipotle. All delicious (well, I think so. I hope my family will think so too when they eat them tonight!). It’s a little difficult to post the recipe, since I didn’t really measure anything, but here is my approximation. You’ll see that I started out by making a big batch of the “plain” in my big food processor and took out 2/3 of it before refining it and then used what I had taken out to make the other two flavors individually in my smaller food processor.

3 Flavors of Hummus
Ingredients
3 cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
juice of 3-4 lemons
~6 Tablespoons olive oil
~9 Tablespoons Tahini
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 whole head garlic, roasted** (see end of recipe for instructions)
chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (in a can)

Instructions
1. In large food processor, combine chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, juice of 3 lemons, approx 1 tablespoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper and three cloves minced garlic and puree until smooth. Taste and add water and/or more lemon juice if necessary to thin out. Remove 2/3 of hummus and put aside to make other flavors.

2. To continue making “plain” hummus in large food processor, add more lemon juice, salt and cumin to taste. Blend to desired consistency.

3. Make the roasted garlic flavor first unless you want to completely wash the food processor between batches (this can of course all be done with only one food processor, I just used two). Puree the entire head of roasted garlic into half of the reserved hummus. Add salt and lemon juice to taste. For a stronger garlic flavor, you can also add one additional clove of raw garlic.

4. To make the chipotle flavor, start by adding 1/2 chipotle pepper to the final 1/2 of the reserved hummus and puree. Then add some adobo sauce. Add slowly and taste along the way – this stuff gets really spicy really fast!!! I ended up adding 1 whole pepper plus about a spoonfull of sauce and ended up with a hummus with a kick that was a pretty shade of pink.

**To roast garlic: Cut the top (pointed end) off of a head of garlic. Put the garlic on a piece of foil and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap the garlic in the foil. Put it in the oven (or toaster oven) at 325 for about 35 minutes. When it’s done, you can pretty much just squeeze the garlic out of the paper!

For now though, I give you my version of Hainanese chicken. My impression is that this is one of those recipes that there are as many versions of as there are cooks – my version is based off of Mark Bittman’s version found here, I made this for dinner for friends the other night. I was quite intimidated, as it was the first time I’d ever cooked a whole chicken. It was also the first time I’d ever been inspired to cook a whole chicken.

It turned out so well! I just finished the leftovers and I’m so sad that they’re gone. This will definitely go in my regular rotation!

It took about 2 hours start to finish, but most of it was inactive time. And in addition to the chicken and rice meal, you also get a ton of extra broth, which is delicious on its own!

Hainanese Chicken
Ingredients
1 whole (3-4 lb) chicken, trimmed of extra fat
several cloves smashed garlic (I used 8) plus 1 T minced garlic
several slices fresh ginger (I used about 4 inches of ginger root, sliced)
1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
3 shallots, roughly chopped (can substitute small onion)
2 cups long grain rice (brown works just fine)
1/2 cup minced scallions
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
chopped fresh cilantro
sesame oil
low sodium soy sauce
garlic chile sauce

Instructions
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Do NOT be stingy with the salt!! Add chicken to pot along with smashed garlic and sliced ginger. Bird should be completely submerged, but only just. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let bird remain in water for 45 minutes to an hour, covered, or until it is cooked through. (for best taste, meat thermometer should register 165 when inserted near the thigh without hitting bone, USDA regs say it should hit 180)
2. Remove chicken from pot, reserve stock, and let bird cool to room temperature on a plate. Put the peanut or canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat; you may add trimmed chicken fat to this also. When oil is hot, add minced garlic, along with shallots; cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. (note that I completely burned the garlic and the shallots and my meal still turned out just fine, but you might want to watch them closely). Add rice and cook, stirring, until glossy. Add 4 cups reserved chicken stock and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover; cook for about 20 minutes, until rice has absorbed all liquid. (it will take closer to 30 minutes if you are using brown rice.) Stir in salt and pepper to taste.
3. While the rice is cooking, once the chicken is cool enough, remove skin and shred or chop.
4. When rice is done, top with chicken, cucumbers, scallions and cilantro. Drizzle entire pan (or serving dish) with soy sauce and sesame oil.
5. Serve at the table with garlic chile sauce for an extra little kick! (I promise – it’s delicious!!)

Ingredients
4-5 unsalted matzo crackers (can sub unsalted saltines if necessary)
2 sticks unsalted butter (to veganize, use vegan butter substitute)
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 T water
1 t vanilla extract
1 12 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips (again, use vegan if desired)
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I use natural w/ no sugar added)
kosher salt

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper, including the sides. Lay matzo in flat layer, breaking as necessary to make fit.
2. In a heavy saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Once melted, stir in sugar and water. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook, undisturbed, until the caramel mixture is light golden and registers 255 degrees on a candy thermometer (about 7-10 minutes). Remove from heat and let cool for one minute. Stir in the vanilla and quickly pour over the matzo, using a (heat resistant) spatula to spread evenly. Bake for 8 minutes.
3. Remove the brittle from the oven and sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Bake just until the chocolate starts to melt, about 2 minutes, then spread the chocolate evenly and let the brittle cool for 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, melt the peanut butter (in the same saucepan as you used before – no need to dirty two pots!). Drizzle the melted peanut butter over the chocolate and, using a fork, “swirl” the chocolate and peanut butter.
5. Let the brittle cool for 1 hour, then refrigerate or freeze until set, at least 2 hours. Break into pieces to serve.

Can be stored for at least a week in an airtight container in the freezer.

I’ve been making and eating a LOT of soup lately.  It’s easy to make (doesn’t dirty too many dishes in the kitchen), easy to transport to work and generally healthy (well, at least the ones I’ve been making have been).  I try to make soups that I think will freeze well, as that gives me more variety on a day to day basis (otherwise I’m stuck eating the same two soups all week, which can get a little boring).   Discussed below are most of the new soup recipes I’ve made over the last month.  I’ve also made a few more batches of the green soup with ginger featured here and it just gets better each time I make it (and freezes really well, as long as you puree it).   While I’ve simply linked to most of the recipes (so that their creators get their proper credit), I have written out the final two, as the soups I made deviated significantly from the recipes they were originally based on.

First up, I made a turkey chili with pumpkin that was pretty tasty.  Found that recipe at Serious Eats.  Of course I didn’t make it exactly as written.  I used great northern beans (I dislike kidney beans and the grocery store was out of cannellinis!).  Also, I upped all of the spices.  The resulting chili was tasty (though certainly not your typical chili!).  The pumpkin added a slight sweetness but it wasn’t overpowering at all.

Next, I made a sweet potato soup with miso and ginger that was really really good!  I got that recipe from the Kitchn.  My only modification was to use almond milk (unsweetened) instead of whole milk, as I am trying to limit my dairy intake.  The resulting soup was sweet, very ginger-y and delicious.  The miso adds a nice savory taste (umami if you will).

My next soup was a winter vegetable soup from the December issue of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine.  I definitely modified this one, and since it’s not online yet, here it is (recipe reflects my modifications):

Ingredients

2 leeks – white and light green parts only

1 T olive oil
2 medium yellow onions – chopped coarsely
2 parsnips – chopped
2 carrots – chopped
4 garlic cloves – minced
1 yukon gold potato – peeled and diced
6 c. vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
1/2 head cabbage – cored and thinly sliced
sea salt and ground black pepper
2 t white vinegar
1 T fresh chopped thyme

Instructions

1.  Halve leeks lengthwise, rinse, dry and cut into 1 inch slices.  In a large dutch oven or other heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add onion, carrots and parsnips; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened (about 5 min).  Add leeks and garlic and cook, stiring, until leeks begin to soften (about 2 min.).  Add potato, broth and bay leaves and bring to a boil.  Stir in cabbage and season generously with salt and pepper.

2.  Return soup to a boil, then reduce to a rapid simmer.  Cover and cook until all vegetables are tender – 15-20 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in vinegar and thyme.

3.  Puree with stick/immersion blender**

4.  Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.

**The original recipe did not call for pureeing.  I did it because I find that vegetables in soups often freeze better when pureed.  If you don’t want to puree it, you might want to chop all of the vegetables more finely to begin with!

Finally, this past weekend I made a Caribbean Pumpkin Black Bean soup.  Yum yum yum!!!  I based it off of a recipe from Epicurious, but I modified it enough that I think it’s worth posting here.  This is one that definitely gets better as it sits in the fridge!

Ingredients

2 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T ground cumin
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree
2 15-ounce can black beans, drained
1 14-ounce can light unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup canned vegetable broth
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
4 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Instructions

1.  Heat olive oil and sautee onion, garlic and cumin until onion and garlic are soft.

2.  Stir cumin in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat 30 seconds. Add pumpkin, beans, coconut milk, broth and  cilantro.

3.  Bring soup to boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes to blend flavors. Mix in lime juice and lime peel.

First soup up was Green Soup with Ginger, which I got from the website 101 Cookbooks. The recipe is HERE. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I did blend it all at the end. The result is interesting. I like it, but I don’t love it. It has a bit of a bitter flavor at the end that I just can’t get around. A word of advice – add the lemon juice slowly – the flavor comes on really quickly!  [MONDAY EDIT: this soup was much much better today!  Not bitter at all.  One thing that may have helped was the addition of tamari.  Also, just letting the flavors meld overnight in the fridge can (and did) make a huge difference.  Two thumbs up from me today!]

Second soup was a vegetable soup. I had bought cabbage and needed to use it so I googled cabbage soup recipes. After weeding through all the ones that were that crazy cabbage soup diet, I found a weight watchers soup that looked ok.  But only ok. So I used it as a bit of a template but the final soup really looks nothing like the recipe I found. Which is actually pretty cool. I feel like like this soup is really my own creation. And it turned out really well!! Amounts are obviously estimates and it’s a very flexible recipe, based on whatever vegetables you have around. I used bacon but, as I mentioned above, that could easily be left out for a vegetarian soup. Had I been in my own kitchen (where I have cooked heirloom beans in the freezer), I probably would have used those, but canned beans work just as well. The biggest benefit of homemade beans would have been the increased flexibility with quantity. 1 can wasn’t quite enough, but I couldn’t justify opening a second can.

Cassie’s Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
2 slices bacon (or a few Ts olive oil)
3-6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 cabbage, cored and chopped
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 zucchini, chopped
1 yellow squash, chopped
1 can beans (I used Great Northern)
salt & pepper

Instructions
1. Cook bacon in large heavy pot. Remove from pan and reserve but leave grease.
2. Saute onions, carrots and garlic in bacon grease for 5 minutes or until soft.
3. Add broth, tomatoes, green onion, cabbage, bacon, basil and oregano. Stir. (amount of broth you use depends on how voluminous your vegetables are and how brothy of a soup you want)
4. Bring to a boil and simmer (covered) for 5-10 minutes until vegetables are tender. Then add zucchini and squash and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Baking it instead of frying it makes it much healthier and the cleanup much easier. Do note that because you’re baking, not frying, the only parts that will get crispy are the parts touching the pan. Flattening the falafels is key to this method, so that you can maximize crispiness!

To go with the falafel, I made a tzatziki sauce, which was the perfect accompaniment. Served in pitas with chopped tomato. Fantastic dinner!

Baked Falafel

Ingredients
1 can garbanzo beans
1 small onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 Tbsp parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp cilantro
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Drain and rinse garbanzos. Put in a medium sized bowl and smash with a fork. Add all the other ingredients and mix well.
3. Form into small balls around 1 1/2 inches in diameter and flatten. Place on oiled cookie sheet.
4. Bake 15-20 minutes each side, until nicely browned.
5. Serve with pita, chopped tomato and tzatziki (recipe below).

Tzatziki
Ingredients

16 oz. greek yogurt
6-10 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup diced cucumber
1 tsp olive oik
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Instructions
Combine olive oil and lemon juice in bowl. Fold yogurt in slowly. Add garlic and cucumber. Stir until distributed. Serve chilled.

The season just started last week (well, it was the first week my farmers’ market had any heirloom tomatoes) and I’ve been eating them constantly!! I’ve made some amazing BLTs with those heirloom tomatoes. Very heavy on the tomato and so tasty! I’ve also eaten a few sliced up with just a little salt. But the best are these orange cherry tomatoes that I bought. So sweet – I’ve truly never tasted another tomato like them!

I wanted to use them before buying new ones on Saturday and I didn’t have much time to cook tonight, but I was able to throw a delicious meal together in about 15 minutes! I’m certain I will be making it again. No real recipe here. I made some couscous and added half a thing (pint?) of halved cherry tomatoes and half a chopped cucumber. Mixed it up and added the juice of one lemon and one lime, plus a little olive oil and salt. Seasoned it to taste and then tossed with 1/2 cup feta cheese and 1/3 cup chopped basil. Had originally planned on adding garbanzo beans but I didn’t have any. It didn’t need them. Yummy!! Filling without being heavy and the flavor of the tomatoes was able to really shine through. And did I mention that it took less than 15 minutes start to finish??

The perfect dinner for an August night!!