Cooking Delicious Food: Store-Everything you need right here

Cooking Delicious Food: Store-Everything you need right here

Blueberry Chiffon Cake

 Blueberry Chiffon Cake with Blueberry Frosting
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/8 cup blueberry liquid from canned blueberries
part of 1 can of Oregon blueberries, use the liquid and some of the berries
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp lemon or tangerine juice
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
4 eggs, separated into whites and yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Frosting ingredients:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 1/2  tsp of blueberry liquid from can
2 tbsp of cold milk
1/2 tsp lemon zest

Mix up the sugar and butter until smooth, and stir in the vanilla, zest and milk.  Set Aside.

To make the cake:
Mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.  Using your kitchenaid mixer, beat in the blueberry liquid, oil, tangerine or lemon juice, egg yolks and lemon zest until smooth.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg white with the cream of tartar until it forms stiff peaks.  Slowly pour the egg yolk mixture into the egg white, and fold, trying to not lose the air in the egg whites.  Pour into a greased 8 inch cake pan.  Bake for 1 1/4 hours at 325 degrees F until it springs back when touched lightly.  Invert on a cooling rack, and leave in the pan until it is cool, remove pan, and frost.

Botana Tacos

 Pork Botana Tacos, with pork shoulder
 I served the pork as homemade tacos including lime, Roma tomatoes, lettuce, cheddar cheese and a new way to make your tortillas both soft and crunchy and lower calorie at the same time.
Playing with garam masala spice again. :)/ Also found a new way to have fried shells without the frying.
I am making my usual pork botana, but added garam masala, smells yummy.
Botana is basically a braised pork and then it is baked on high heat for a few to crisp up some of the edges. I'm serving with lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, and lime as pork tacos.

 

Ingredients:

• 4-5 pound pork shoulder (can be made with pork loin, but shoulder holds up to the oven baking at the end better. Besides, you remove the extra fat at the end anyway, so why not get some of the flavor
• 1-lime
• 2 Roma tomatoes
• lettuce
• cheddar cheese-1-2 cups 
• tortillas-a new way to make your tortillas
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4-7 cups of chicken broth-enough to cover roast in liquid (Note: some stock powers contain msg)2 tbsp onion flake
• 1 tbsp coriander
• l tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbsp garam marsala
• 1-4 ounce can of diced green peppers

 This is a large spice ball. I use it for bay leaves and other whole spices.  That way you get the flavor and don't have to fish them out of the broth.

    

Add 4 cups of the chicken stock and the herbs and herb ball, all the pork, and enough extra stock to almost cover the pork. Cover and bring to a lower boil, simmer.  Simmer for 3-3 1/2 hours until meat easily pulls apart. 

                            
Using a slotted spoon, remove the meat from the braising liquid         Discard the fat.
onto a baking pan.  Use a fork the pull the meat apart a little, and
remove the fat.

  Bake in an oven preheated to 400 degrees, and bake for 25 minutes.
While the meat is cooking, prepare and place the tortillas in the oven to crisp.

   
I found a new way to "fry" my tortillas. For years it's been, what do we want, soft
tacos or crisp? and had to decide. This is cool as it's both.

Brush both sides of your tortilla (flour shown), and place into a taco holder (oven safe holder) and bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  They end up soft taco like on the bottom, and crispy along the tops, a super nice compromise, gets you both tastes.

   
Cheddar Cheese,    Limes,           Roma Tomatoes,  Sour Cream with Pepper and Dill

 Lettuce or cabbage adds a nice green too.  

Pork Botana                                                                                 Finished Botana tacos.

Taco Bar

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

                                           






 Bacon Wrapped Shrimp
Ingredients:
6 large shrimp
barbecue sauce
2 pieces of bacon
6 pieces of fontina cheese

Clean and devein shrimp.  In the cut you've made, add the fontina cheese, wrap in 1/3 piece of bacon, and use a toothpick or skewer to hold together and ease turning in the oven.  Dip into your favorite barbecue sauce, and place on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes until bacon crisps.

Curry Beef with steamed rice and sesame crisps

 Curry Beef 
Served with tortilla sesame crisps, and a pyramid of steamed rice.         

Ingredients:   
1/14 pounds beef stewing meat or cut up steak meat
3 cloves garlic
3 tbsp curry powder
1 small sweet onion, small cubes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 tsp cumin
1-13.5 ounce can of coconut milk
2 cups beef stock
1 cup of chicken stock
1/4 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ginger
1 potato, small cubes
3/4 cup of chopped carrots
1/2 of a tomato, small cubes,
1/2 cup of leeks
1 cup of water
olive oil for stir fry
2 1/2 tbsp corn starch mixed with 3 tbsp cold water for thickening at the end

Start by cutting your stewing beef into bite size pieces.  Next sear them in a stock pot with olive oil.  *Add in everything else except the tomato and corn starch mixture.  Simmer until meat and vegetables are done.  This takes approximately 30 minutes. 

At the end to thicken the sauce, stir in the pre-mixed corn starch mixture and stir constantly for a few minutes until sauce thickens.  Serve with steamed rice and the tomato pieces on top. 

I like this with sesame tortilla crisps.  Super easy, simply brush a tortilla with olive oil, add sesame seeds and garlic powder, and bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes until crisp.



*Next, to clean your leeks, cut the end off and cut in half down the middle.  Rinse under cold water.  They can have a lot of sand and dirt.  After rinsing, place into a bowl of cold water, and let set.  Any remaining dirt will sift to the bottom of the bowl.



 

Cooking Delicious Food: New store on my site

Cooking Delicious Food: New store on my site: "Hey everyone, kind of excited, I just opened a store on my site. It's still ever growing, but please check it out for appliances..."

New store on my site

Hey everyone, kind of excited, I just opened a store on my site.  It's still ever growing,  but please check it out for appliances, knives, cutting boards, utensils, you name it. I'll be adding spices, and hard to find items, as well as balsamic vinegars, oils, etc.

Please check it out, and if you need a cooking item, please buy it here while you're grabbing some good recipes to try.

Thanks A lot,
Chef Christy

Egg Rolls

                                Egg Rolls


Ingredients:
1 cup of cheese (I used a mixture of Romano, Parmesan, Fontina, and Mozzarella)
1 cup of carrots, julienned
2 celery stalks, julienned
2 broccoli stems, peeled, and julienned
1/2 of an orange bell pepper-roasted
1/4 cup left over meat (I used left over steak) can be omitted, up to you.
Egg roll wrappers



First you prepare all of your ingredients.  Julienne the vegetables as shown below.
How to Julienne a carrot

Take your clean, peeled carrot, and cut off one small edge.

Roll carrot over onto the flat edge.

Slice into thin strips.

Slice Strips into 1/2 or 1/3, the long way into matchstick shapes, or long thin strips.

Continue with the rest of the carrots. Done

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How to julienne a shallot

Take your shallot, and cut off the top and the bottom as shown. Make a small slit in the skin to make it easy to peel off.

They are often in 2 parts inside the peel, peel both parts, and you are ready to julienne.

Slice into even strips.

Then, cut those strips into 1/2 or 1/3 the long way to get long thin strips.

---------------------------
How to Peel and Julienne a Broccoli Stem

First, use a paring knife to cut the larger rough stem that will clog your potato peeler.

Continue all around it,  cutting off the nubs.

When done, it should look approximately like this.

Next peel them with a potato peeler.  The one on the left has been peeled and the one on the right still needs peeling.

2 Done sections, ready to cut.  You can use these so many ways.

Often I boil them in vegetable or chicken stock until tender, add to a thousand recipes.  Today, we're making egg rolls, so using a julienne and stir frying them in olive oil.

Slice into long wide strips, then slice those strips into 1/2 or 1/3 the long way to form long thin strips.

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Roast the bell pepper

Roast the bell pepper right on the open flame of your stove.  This way requires no oil, and gives it both a roasted flavor, but also removes the skin which can be tough sometimes.

Blacken all of the outer skin.  Place wrapped up tight in foil for 5 minutes.  It steams in there and makes the skin easy to remove.

Use a spoon to easily remove the skin.  Don't worry if a little black remains, it doesn't taste bad at all.

Slice into strips

And then cut in half.

Chop up the left over meat you chose into bite size strips or chunks.

Grate your cheese.

Now all your ingredients are ready.

Salt and pepper each set of vegetables you stir fry in olive oil.  Do the batches separately so that they are all done perfectly.  When almost done, remove to a bowl you've set aside to mix all the egg roll ingredients.

If leftover oil in the pan, use it to start your next batch.

Add more olive oil as needed.

Don't worry about browning onions, the carmelization is wonderful flavor.

Note the browned bits on the bottom on the pan, these are amazingly flavorful.  Use your spatula to get all of the up and onto the food.

Stir fry the celery until almost done.

Stir fry the carrots until almost done.

All the ingredients in the bowl.  No need to cook the leftover meat, it's already cooked, as is the bell pepper.

Mix it all together mixing well.

           Now you're ready to assemble.  Place a silpat (silicone baking sheet) or a piece of wax paper down to place your uncooked egg rolls on while making the rest of them.  You will need 1 egg slightly stirred to baste the edges, and the egg roll wrappers.

Place a couple of tablespoons of your mixture into the center of the egg roll as shown.

                        Fold up the bottom edge, and pull back with you fingers a little to make more snug and less air.  Brush the remaining 2 long edges with egg.  This will help it stick together and not open up in your hot oil.

                             Fold up the right side corner, pressing a little to seal it, and trying to make it tight.   Then fold up the left corner the same way, kind of like an envelope.

                             Fold up, rolling as tight as possible without tearing.  Fold Again and it's ready.
If it tears, no worries, simply roll it again in another wrapper, even on top of the other wrapper will be fine.

Fry Egg rolls over medium high heat-375-400 degrees F.

Use peanut oil or canola oil to handle the high frying temperature without burning.  I used canola oil.

Turn over during the cooking and continue cooking until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes per batch.  Only do 4-5 at a time, (so that it doesn't cool down the oil too much and leave you with soggy egg rolls)

Drain off excess oil on a paper towel.  For a pretty presentation, try cutting them at an angle, and arrange on a platter.