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Julio Sauce and Julio Tots | Make Ahead Mondays Cornell University Food Truck Style

October 29, 2012 by 12 Comments

 

I mentioned in my Cuban Sandwiches post that my mom, Free Range Nana, and my sister, Jessamine, and I went to Cornell University to visit my baby sister, Airlia.

What I failed to mention in that post is that Airlia is not just my sister, she is a braniac. Want proof? Here she is outside of the building where she has most of her classes and spends most of her free time.

That’s right folks. Nanoscale science. My sister is a PHYSICS major at Cornell University.  She is currently building a machine to reduce light to its smallest state. As in visible only as a mere particle. Need another example? This is the stuff she does for fun:

I took this picture understanding NOTHING of what was on there except the word torque. For some reason, the word torque has always cracked me up. Anyone else have words that crack them up? No? I’ll be quiet now.

The point is this. She spends her FREE TIME in the LAB. Do we even need to discuss what I did with my free time in college? It’s probably best if we don’t.

Airlia took us all over campus…

And I DO mean all over campus. Up the slope, down the slope, up the slope again, up the one hundred and sixty one steps into the clock tower to watch a chimes concert, into libraries…

The stacks made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. At least until Free Range Nana and Airlia almost got us kicked out of the library for giggling and I almost got us kicked out for sloshing a cup full of ice water as I tried to walk ever so silently after reading the big old SHHHHHHHHHH sign. I failed.

Don’t blink. The angels have the library… Heh. Oh come on. I have to have at least ONE reader that loves Doctor Who.

 

Uncharacteristically, Jessamine didn’t do ANYTHING to get us kicked out of the library. She behaved like a saint, but only in the library. She looks downright beatified right here.

Then all bets were off… I can’t even tell you what she’s saying here. It is so not ‘G’ rated. She took her naughty vitamins before leaving home that day.

 

Gosh, I do love my sisters.

We got to see Airlia’s favourite study spots and her dorm from last year. As we stood in a study hall in the old dorm, she pointed down through the trees and said casually, “That’s where I get Julio fries.”

“Julio-whats?” I asked.

“Julio fries. They’re fries tossed with Red Hot and oregano.”

Go on. Seriously? Are you all aware of my Frank’s Red Hot fixation? If not, let me just say this… by this point in life, I should own stock in the company. It’s not the hottest or fanciest hot sauce, by far, but it is like your best friend for life… you always know it’s there and you can trust it to do what it’s supposed to do.

You know I beat a hot path down to Louie’s lunch truck, trying to act all casual so I wouldn’t embarrass the Rocket Scientist who is my little sister. I didn’t want her to be forever associated with that crazy woman who sprinted down the hill in not-sensible high boots and stood panting at the window of Louie’s Lunch. I was chill. I did a run-walk instead of a sprint.

These Julio Fries are the brainchild of Louie’s Lunch truck on Cornell’s main campus. Louie, whoever he was, was a genius. Red Hot is a vinegar based hot sauce and vinegar is a natch with fries, right? So hot vinegar? Hubba hubba. And I don’t know WHY he put oregano in there, but I’m AWFULLY glad he did, because holy moly. I thought Red Hot was great the way it was, but I don’t know if I’ll ever eat it sans oregano again. It’s the flavour component that I didn’t even know was missing.

Airlia showed us the proper Julio fries eating technique. Yes. She was down by the school yard. Help me out here people. Tell me someone is a Paul Simon fan…

At least Airlia thinks I’m funny. And while I’m no nanoparticle scientist, my little sis thinks I’m pretty smart, too. Especially after I told her as soon as I got home I set to work and figured out the perfect ratio for making our own Julio sauce and then doused a big old batch of crispy tater tots with it. In fact, she called me brilliant.

I’m just going to revel in that for a moment or two. Okay, I’m going to revel in that with the aid of some Julio tots…

In the spirit of scientific inquiry -because I felt so inspired by the trip to Cornell- I did a little experiment with the Julio Sauce and the tots. One bowl had the pre-doused tots. The other had nekkid tots next to a big bowl of Julio Sauce for dipping purposes.

We put on very serious faces and sampled the pre-doused ones then dipped nekkid ones.

The consensus was that we preferred dipping the tots vs. pre-soaking them. They stayed crispier thatta way. Hey Louie! Sauce on the side- is it an option?

God love Louie and his sauce.

Go make yourself some Julio Sauce. It’s what smart people eat.

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Julio Sauce and Julio Tots | Make Ahead Mondays Cornell University Food Truck Style

Julio Sauce is my take on the classic Cornell University dish and sauce served by Louie's Lunch- Julio Fries. The vinegar based hot sauce mixed with oregano adds a burst of flavour to fries -to be sure- but it's also fantastic on all potato dishes. We loved them on tots, home fries and baked potatoes. What will you douse with Julio Sauce?

Ingredients

    For Julio Sauce:
  • 3/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
  • 1 heaping tablespoon dry oregano leaves
    • For Julio Tots:
  • 1 bag frozen tater tots

Instructions

To Make the Julio Sauce:

Add the Red Hot and oregano to a container with a tight fitting lid. Fix the lid firmly in place and shake. Store in the refrigerator for up to three months.

To Make Julio Tots:

Prepare frozen tater tots according to package instructions but cook them long enough to be terminally crispy. Super crunchy. Make 'em make noise when you bite 'em is what I'm saying.

Transfer hot, crunchy tots to a bowl and either serve with a side of Julio Sauce for dipping or pour over the tots for a softer dish.

Don't you feel smarter already?

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/10/29/julio-sauce-and-julio-tots-make-ahead-mondays-cornell-university-food-truck-style/

 

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Comfort Food, Make Ahead Mondays, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Whole Wheat Popovers with Greek Yogurt Creme and Strawberries

April 27, 2012 by 9 Comments

Two days ago, I walked into a doctor’s office and paid them to shoot lasers into my eyes. I felt very Jetsons… very Star Trek… very Galaxy Quest. I half expected Dr. Crusher to walk into the room to scan me. My sole disappointment was the utter lack of sound effects accompanying the laser eye procedure. I would’ve paid another few bucks for a good solid “PEWPEWPEW”. One hour later, I walked out of the office in a very chic (ahem) pair of goggles and 20/20 vision for the first time in my entire life.

Woah.

Let me just say that again.

Woah.

Science is cool. Unlike me in my Weird Al t-shirt and goggles. I did my very best Bono impersonation. I think that judging by the sniggers-not-swoons reception that my attempts received, I should leave the rock-starring to Paul David Hewson and Weird Al (who DOES rock, thankyouverymuch) and confine my rocking to the kitchen. And I do rock the kitchen, goggles or no goggles.

Let me tell you, this recipe doesn’t just rock, it rocks. the. Casbah. Popovers are simplicity itself: a simple batter thrown together in the blender, poured into a greased pan, then baked at a high temperature until puffy. You already win when you make popovers, but these are special. These are (wait for it…) HEALTHY! Holy moly. It’s true. These are whole wheat popovers. True, they puff ever so slightly less than their all-purpose counterparts, but the difference is negligible really and what you lose in loft (I promise, it’s not much!) you more than make up for in flavour and health. What in the world does a popover have to do with dessert you ask? Oh boy. You are in for a treat. Whisk together some velvety thick Greek yogurt with a little mild honey, then some lemon zest and lemon juice. That’s easy, right? Pop *open* the pop *overs* and dollop the slightly sweet Greek yogurt creme. Then you gild the lily by spooning some sweet, fragrant strawberries folded into just a little strawberry jam.

I need a moment just luxuriate in that thought. (And to grab a spoon.)

Oh forget the spoon. They’re so last century, and I am clearly space age now. Just take a bite off of one of these…

…And pile in the goodies.

I’m all for progress, even if it means strawberry juice running down my arm. Maybe even especially if it means that. Pardon me, I’m off to go look at things…

 

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Whole Wheat Popovers with Greek Yogurt Creme and Strawberries

Whole Wheat Popovers with Greek Yogurt Creme and Strawberries

Perfect whole-wheat popovers are not a myth! The finished simple, textbook pouffy popovers are honest-to-goodness whole wheat and are filled with a slightly sweet Greek yogurt creme made with honey and lemon. To gild the lily, we spoon sweet strawberries folded into a little strawberry jam over the whole thing. This beautiful and delicious dessert has the added bonus of being healthy! (Pssst. There's no reason to confine this gorgeous dish to desserts. Serve these as an eye and stomach pleasing brunch offering!)

Ingredients

    For the Popovers:
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups milk (preferably whole)
  • 1 1/4 cups (5 ounces, by weight) white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup (2 1/8 ounces, by weight) all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
  • solid vegetable shortening or non-stick cooking spray for the muffin pan
    • For the Greek Yogurt Creme:
  • 2 cups Greek yogurt
  • 2-3 tablespoons mild honey (clover, orange blossom, etc...)
  • the zest of one lemon (just the yellow part, not the white pith)
  • the juice of half of one lemon
    • For the Berries:
  • 2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled (or frozen whole strawberries, thawed)
  • 1/2 cup strawberry jam ( preferably this Strawberry Freezer Jam)

Instructions

To Make the Popovers:

Add all of the popover ingredients to the work carafe of a blender in the order listed. Blitz on high for 15 seconds. Stop the blender, remove the lid to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula or scraper, replace the lid, then blitz on high for another 15 seconds, or until perfectly smooth. Put the blender carafe in the refrigerator to rest while preheating the oven to 450°F. It should take at least 15 minutes to preheat your oven, but if it doesn't, let the popover batter continue resting for a minimum of 15 minutes.

While the batter is resting and the oven is preheating, turn your attention to a 12-cup muffin pan. Use a paper towel to generously grease the wells and the top of the muffin pan. Be sure to grease the entire upper surface of the pan. Popovers have a tendency to spread while they puff upward and it's a sad, sad thing to lose a popover because you can't get it out of the pan.

When the oven has reached 450°F, divide the popover batter between the muffin cups evenly. This should fill them approximately 2/3 full. Carefully slide the pan into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Lower the heat of the oven to 350°F and continue baking for 10 minutes more. Do not open that oven door at any point before the full baking time is complete. You will cry a thousand salty tears of regret.

After the full baking time is done, remove the pan from the oven, let the popovers rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then gently turn them out onto a cooling rack. These taste best when served still warm, but are still delicious at room temperature.

To Prepare the Greek Yogurt Creme:

Whisk together all of the ingredients for the creme until smooth. Refrigerate until you are ready to use.

To Prepare the Berry Topping:

Gently break up the strawberry jam with a fork in a medium sized mixing bowl. Fold in the strawberries.

To Assemble the Dessert:

Slice or gently pull a popover in half. Dollop a generous amount of the Greek Yogurt Creme on the bottom half, position the top half over it and spoon the strawberry topping over the whole thing. Serve immediately!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/04/27/whole-wheat-popovers-with-greek-yogurt-creme-and-strawberries/

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Desserts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Holiday Food, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Ninfa’s Green Sauce (Bonus Recipe Hack)

February 10, 2012 by 17 Comments

Full disclosure: I’ve spent some time in Houston but I’ve never been to Ninfa’s. I’m not even sure I’m pronouncing the name properly. Is it NIN-fahz? NEEN-fahz? neen-FAHZ? However you say it, though, I now want to eat there desperately because if this sauce is a sign of what they have to offer… Well, let’s just say that it’s all bound to be spectacular.

The truth is, I had neither heard of the aforementioned place, however it’s pronounced, nor the recipe I’m about to give you until I saw this post by Lisa Fain of Homesick Texan, whose blog I have loved for a very long time. This is one of those recipes where -while reading it- you know exactly how it will taste and you know you want it. Badly. Now.

And so, after seeing this recipe a little over two years ago, I made it a mere year and a half later for the first time. Sigh. It’s really hard to source certain ingredients around here. Avocados, cilantro, sour cream, jalapenos? Oh sure. Easy peasy. It’s those green tomatoes that gave me fits. First of all, when I had green tomatoes on the vine this summer I was so busy I didn’t know whether I was coming or going and forgot ALL ABOUT THE DADBURNED RECIPE. Pardon me while I go bang my head on the wall for a minute or two. Secondly, when I remembered the recipe there were no green tomatoes (or yellow as the recipes suggests substituting) anywhere within a two hour drive.

Well, shoot.

I’m resourceful? Why was I letting this lack of green tomatoes stop me? (Because I wasn’t thinking, that’s why.) I had an entire shelf full of green tomato salsa verde I had made over the summer staring me in the face. Big, fat duh! I hacked the recipe. While the original called for 3 green tomatoes, I simply substituted 2 cups of homemade green tomato salsa verde* and a splash of water, then proceeded as directed with the rest of the recipe. Well, except for that whole Greek yogurt vs. sour cream thing… but I’ll get there momentarily.

*You can’t find green or yellow tomatoes and don’t have homemade green tomato salsa verde on the shelf? No problemo. Use an equivalent amount of store bought salsa verde in its place. Yes, most commercially available salsa verde is made with tomatillos, but that’s certainly not going to hurt the overall affect here! Live boldly! Substitute!

Speaking of substitutes, I decided to sub in a cup and a half of the zero fat Greek yogurt I had snapped up on clearance at Aldi last week. I’m not a no-fat/low-fat proponent by any means, but cheap is cheap and this stuff is good anyway with no weird preservatives or flavour improvers. Heck yes. Go Team Frugal! It worked like a charm! I mean, why wouldn’t it? What took me so long to think of the recipe hack? Yeesh.

This sauce. Let me tell you. It is smooth. It’s so smooth it’s smoove. It’s velvety, it’s rich (thank you, avocados), it’s spicy, it’s creamy, it’s garlicky. I ate it on tacos, Fritos, on a spoon, on my finger… So darned good. Mama. I considered rubbing it on the pulse points as perfume. Hubba hubba. I know my husband would approve.

Here’s another bonus. You know avocado’s distressing tendency to brown after being cut/smashed/whatevered? It doesn’t in this sauce or at least it does it at a far slower rate. My amateur food scientist theory is that the happy bacteria in the Greek yogurt (and I’d imagine the same could be said for sour cream) and the acid in the tomatillos/green tomatoes keep it from oxidizing. But that’s just a theory. And who cares? The sauce is good. And pretty. And pretty good. Geez. It’s better than good. It’s great. It’s habit forming.

Now what are you waiting for? You need this sauce. You need it tonight. You need it for the weekend! Go forth and create green sauce!

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Ninfa’s Green Sauce

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: about 5 cups

Ninfa’s Green Sauce

This creamy, dreamy, spicy, garlicky, smooth-as-silk avocado salsa is simply magical. Use as a sauce or dunk to your heart's content.

Recipe originally from the Houston Chronicle via Homesick Texan and recipe hack by yours truly!

Ingredients

  • 3 medium green or yellow tomatoes, coarsely chopped (Or 2 cups green tomato salsa verde or commercially available salsa verde with about 1/2 cup of water.)
  • 4 tomatillos, peeled of the paper husk, rinsed and coarsely chopped
  • 1 to 2 jalapenos, stemmed and chopped (if using the salsa verde, also remove the jalapeno seeds.)
  • 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 3 ripe avocados, halved, pitted, and scooped from the shells with a spoon
  • 4 stems worth of cilantro
  • 1 tsp. of salt
  • 1 1/2 cups of sour cream (or Greek yogurt, which is my preference.)

Instructions

Add the green or yellow tomatoes (or the salsa verde and water) to a heavy-bottomed saucepan along with the tomatillos, jalapenos, and garlic. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tomatillos are tender. Remove the pan from the burner and let the mixture cool for about 15 minutes.

Transfer the contents of the pan into a food processor or blender with a metal blade. Add the avocados, cilantro and salt and blend until completely smooth. Use a rubber or silicone spatula to scrape the sauce from the food processor or blender into a mixing bowl and whisk in the sour cream or Greek yogurt until evenly coloured. Serve immediately or store in a jar or other container with a tightly fitting lid for up to a 4 days.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/10/ninfas-green-sauce-bonus-recipe-hack/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Component Foods, Condiments, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , ,

Seared Mushrooms and a Mushroom Melt

December 21, 2011 by 12 Comments

I want to talk about my new favourite sandwich.

This sandwich firmly bridges the gap between dude food and chick vittles. Grilled cheese is always the ultimate in sandwichery, but grilled cheese that is crammed to overspilling with seared mushrooms? It’s the best of all worlds. The combination of gooey, salty cheese and umami packed mushrooms with just a hint of onion on buttery toasted rye bread is unparalleled. We’re talking about the kind of food you continue eating after you’re already full just because you want to keep tasting it.

You can go any direction you want with the mushrooms… I opted for baby portabella mushrooms (also known as cremini mushrooms) but you could go with white buttons or chanterelles or any other mushrooms or combination of mushrooms that are readily available and/or ding your chimes. The key is to sear them in a screaming hot pan until you get lovely brown bits on the outside. That’s where the flavour lives in a seared mushroom. While the seared mushrooms are accompanied by a bit of onion and white wine in the cooking and deglazing process, they gain a vibrancy  you don’t want to miss when thinly sliced scallions are stirred in after they’re off the heat.  Sounds good so far, right?

Enter the cheese which no longer has to stand alone.

Cheese and mushrooms are a match made in heaven. Both naturally contain those flavour compounds commonly known as umami but together they tickle your taste buds in ways that make your eyes roll back into your head.

It’s a well known fact that I love cheese (aside from the waxing rhapsodic above…) but I tell you the truth when I say it’s the mushrooms that really and truly make this sandwich sing. I cannot emphasize enough how much you should make the seared mushrooms. Make them. Really. Today.  REALLY.  Even if you’re not going to use them in grilled cheese (what are you nuts?!?) you can still have these handy to put on steaks or burgers or wrapped in omelets or topping scrambled eggs or add to sauces or just plain on a fork. They’re so good that I make them with three pounds or more of mushrooms at a time and portion them out in little plastic containers to freeze for the upcoming month. Because a supply of these mushrooms is ever present in my home and freezer, when I read Kevin at Closet Cooking’s post about mushroom grilled cheeses, I was more than halfway there to my rendition of his recipe.

When I’m slicing that many mushrooms at a time, my new  best friend, this Togiharu Gyutou 8.2″ knife sent to me by the folks at Korin.com is absolutely indispensable.

In actuality, I’m so reliant on this knife after just two weeks I can’t remember how I sliced things before I got it. It’s the sharpest knife, by far, that I have ever owned. In fact, I have a little confession.

I knew Korin was sending me the knife and I went a little fan girl over it. I’ve admired their knives from afar for quite some time. While some people collect baseball stats and memorabilia, music trivia and cds, etc… I collect information about my favourite chefs and the gear they prefer. I know Chefs Daniel Bouloud and Chris Costentino both swear by Japanese knives from Korin. That was good enough for me. I was hyper waiting for the package to arrive. When the UPS guy knocked on my door and handed me the package he remarked that the return address looked like it was in the same neighborhood as the old Yankee Stadium. I took that as the only ouvre I needed to start yammering about the knife that was in the box. Evidently, my UPS guy is a fan of great knives, too, because he asked to see it. I opened the packaging, took out the gift box in which the knife was packaged, lifted the lid and made my first mistake. Because the gift box was pretty, I didn’t want to put it down on my floor, so I attempted to hold it and slide the plastic safety sheath from the knife simulataneously. I promptly cut my finger. On the plus side, the knife was so incredibly sharp* that the only indication I had that I’d done such a stupid thing was the little stream of crimson dripping from my finger to the floor. The UPS driver oooed and aaahed over the knife (and I’m pretty sure he missed the quick blood letting I performed on myself) and headed out. I retired to the kitchen to bandage myself** and start slicing things that were not attached to me and my nerve endings.

*Like my dad always says, a sharp knife is a safe knife. That was the cleanest cut I’ve ever incurred in the kitchen. It closed itself almost instantly and healed up in two short days.

**Yes, I keep bandages in the kitchen. What can I say? I’m a klutz.

The way I see it, a good knife cuts stuff, but a great knife slices, chops and cuts in a way that takes the effort out of the task and looks good while doing it.  This is a great knife. Whether you’re slicing onions and mushrooms or chopping kale stems or slicing paper thin strips of pork for tocino (future post teaser!), it makes the job easy.

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Seared Mushrooms and a Mushroom Melt

Seared Mushrooms and a Mushroom Melt

Seared mushrooms are accompanied by a bit of onion and white wine then tossed with scallions for added vibrancy before being combined with a variety of cheeses and turned into the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich.

Make these exceptional seared mushrooms even if you're not a grilled cheese lover. You can keep them handy to put on steaks or burgers or wrapped in omelets or topping scrambled eggs or just plain on a fork.

Adapted from Kevin at Closet Cooking

Ingredients

    For the Seared Mushrooms:
  • 1 1/2 pounds assorted mushrooms, sliced (baby portabellas, chanterelles, button mushrooms, etc...)
  • 1 tablespoon (or more) neutral oil such as canola, peanut, vegetable, etc...
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 of a small yellow onion, diced very small
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
  • splash of white wine or stock
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 3 green onions, green part only, thinly sliced
    • For the Mushroom Melt:
  • 3/4 cup of seared mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup grated assorted nice melting cheeses (I used a mix of Kerrygold Blarney Castle, fontina and extra sharp Cheddar)
  • 2 slices hearty bread like rye or pumpernickel
  • 1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

To Make the Seared Mushrooms:

Place a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil and heat through until shimmery. Add the mushrooms (you can divide into batches to avoid overcrowding the pan if necessary) and a pinch of salt and use a spoon to distribute the mushrooms evenly in the pan. After you do that, don't stir the mushrooms for at least 1 minute (unless they start to smell or sound like they're cooking too quickly.) The goal is to develop a nicely browned surface on the mushrooms.

If you have to cook the mushrooms in batches, just move the previously cooked batch to the perimeter of the pan and add a little more oil before putting in the next batch of mushrooms with a pinch of salt.

When the mushrooms are flecked with brown, toss in the onion and garlic, stir and cook just until fragrant (about 1 minute or less), then add the white wine or stock to the hot pan and scrape up any brown bits that are stuck to the pan. Add the butter and cook, stirring, just until melted. Remove from the heat, taste for salt, then add pepper and any additional salt to taste.

Eat hot or store leftover mushrooms in individual portion sizes in the freezer for up to a month.

To Make the Mushroom Melt:

Toss the seared mushrooms and grated cheese together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Melt half of the butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet or griddle over medium heat. Place one piece of the bread on top of the melted butter, pile the mushroom cheese mixture on the bread, then place the remaining piece of bread on top. Let the sandwich cook and toast until the bottom piece of bread is golden brown. Lift the sandwich with a spatula and toss the remaining butter into the pan. Put your hand on top of the sandwich and carefully flip it over before lowering it to the pan (taking care not to burn your fingers!)

Toast for 1 minute, add a splash of water to the pan and cover for another minute to melt the cheese completely. Remove the lid and continue toasting the sandwich until the bottom is a deep golden brown. Transfer the finished sandwich to a cutting board to slice before plating and eating.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/12/21/seared-mushrooms-and-a-mushroom-melt/

 

Korin.com sent the knife to me to review, but all opinions about the knife are mine.

 

 

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Component Foods, Product Reviews, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: ,

Champorado (Chocolate Rice Porridge)

November 30, 2011 by 14 Comments

 

Filipino food is some of my favourite  in all of the Earth. It’s not just because it’s great (although it is), but because for most of my youth, it represented the sum total of what was exotic in my life. Growing up in some of the most rural parts of Michigan it was nothing to run across scads of Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and other assorted Nordic names. I betcha I could pick up a Finnish phone book and rattle off the names like I was born there. My Grandpa was a pastor on a nearby reservation, so Native American names were run of the mill. Polish immigrants? Yep… here and there. Italians? On every street (as few and far between as the streets were.)

Then there was my mom’s friend, Tecla. She was from the Philippines and was most emphatically not Nordic. She was always dressed to the nines while most of us were in parkas and mukluks.  She sat down on the edge of the piano bench when my mom played and belted out the latest love songs that were on the radio. Her nails were always long and filed and dramatic and brightly coloured. She was most definitely not the same as everyone else around us and she was exciting. Most thrilling of all was her food. It was so different from everything else I had ever eaten -adobo chicken, lumpia, tocino, pancit- it was bursting with flavour and boy was it good. Even better, she shared it her mouthwatering dishes with us every chance she got. To this day, my last supper meal* includes lumpia.

*Are you familiar with the “last supper” game? It’s simple, but it tells you a lot about people (and vice versa.) All you do is consider what, of all you’ve ever eaten or would like to eat, you would request for your last meal if you could choose anything. So how about it? What would you have for your last meal?

While the wonderful world of Filipino food obviously rocks the savoury, I would be remiss if I didn’t wax rhapsodic about one of the easiest and most head-explodingly delicious dishes they have to offer: Champorado.

Champorado is, in short, chocolate rice porridge (or rice pudding, if you will.) It’s rich. It’s filling. It’s creamy. (Although you don’t add milk  unless you want to while serving. That creamy texture comes courtesy of magical rice.) It’s chocolatey. It’s breakfast. It’s snack (I dare you to serve this to your kids and then try find a more popular after school snack. Go on. I dare you.) You don’t have to know how to do anything more complicated than measure, boil, stir, scoop and eat. FFFTW (Filipino Food For The Win!)

As if all this wasn’t already enough, consider this. You can whip up a huge pot of Champorado and keep it in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator. Scoop out enough for a serving and gobble it up cold, or reheat it with a splash of evaporated milk (as it is usually served), half and half or plain old milk.

Every single time I make Champorado, I get the song “Desperado” stuck in my head, but I walk around the kitchen singing it this way at the top of my lungs: “Chaaaaaaaam-poh-rah-doh! Why don’t you come to your senses…” I don’t recall Tecla ever doing this particular tune, she was more of a “Wind Beneath My Wings” kind of lady, but somehow, I think she would approve.

Thank you, Tecla, wherever you are…

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Champorado (Chocolate Rice Porridge)

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Champorado (Chocolate Rice Porridge)

On cold winter days, there's nothing like a breakfast, late afternoon or bed time snack of Champorado: a rich, chocolate laden rice porridge that comes to us courtesy of the Philippines. Eat it hot, warm, room temperature or cold, plain or the way most folks do with a good splash or two of evaporated milk, plain milk or half and half. This is comfort food extraordinaire!

Adapted from Tecla and Jun-Blog

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sticky or sushi rice, uncooked
  • 5 1/4 cups water
  • 6 ounces finely chopped bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (or semi-sweet chocolate chips. In other words, half a bag of most brands.)
  • 2 tablespoons to 1/3 cup of raw sugar (or granulated white sugar), according to preference
  • pinch of salt
    • Optional for serving:
  • evaporated milk, half and half, or plain milk to pour over the porridge

Instructions

In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir together the rice and water and the pinch of salt and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom. When it reaches the boil, immediately drop the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking, or until the rice is soft and swollen.

Turn off the heat, stir in the chopped chocolate (or chocolate chips) and sugar, cover the pan, and let stand undisturbed for 5 minutes. When 5 minutes are up, remove the lid and stir vigorously until everything is evenly coloured and very chocolatey looking. Serve hot, warm or cold with a good splash or two of milk on top.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/30/champorado-chocolate-rice-porridge/

Are you on the hunt for more great Filipino recipes? Try two of my most trusted resources (great blogs, incredible recipes, beautiful photography):

Jun-Blog In his words, he’s a Philippine born, San Francisco based professional food and cookbook photographer, so you know his stuff is going to be gorgeous, but the recipes. Oh, his recipes. They’re mouthwatering and always great. I can’t recommend him highly enough!

Burnt Lumpia I’ve been a loyal reader of Marvin since long before I ever put fingers to keyboard here on Foodie With Family. He is always witty, always fun and his food is to die for. Plus, his pen name is Burnt Lumpia, for crying out loud. Lumpia. As in my death row meal. How could I not love him?

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Breakfast Foods, Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Filipino Food, kid food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

Fromage Fort (Cheese Spread)

November 23, 2011 by 6 Comments

We interrupt these Thanksgiving preparations to bring you a Public Service Announcement. This is only an announcement. This post will take less than five minutes to read and less than five minutes to prepare. You may then return to cooking for your feast:

Did you get invited to a last minute shindig? Do you need just-one-more-thing to round out your holiday feasts? Do you love cheese?

That last question is the most important really, because this is a recipe for cheese lovers. Serious cheese lovers only. Because this is how you use up the odds-and-ends in your cheese collection. You do have a cheese collection, right? A nub of Romano, a hunk of Cheddar, a couple tablespoons of crumbled bleu, some Asiago pieces rattling around in a bag or a drawer or a container in your refrigerator…

Well, the French ride to the rescue here, with the classic Fromage Fort. Fromage fort translates as “strong cheese” and believe you me, there’s nothing wussy about it. It is CHEESE writ large. It is a cheese spread from the country that many people find synonymous with cheese.

So what is Fromage Fort like? (Look away, my French friends. You may be horrified at this description.) It’s kind of like good ole American pimiento cheese, but minus the pimientos and plus wine. How could you possibly go wrong?*

*Let me tell you how you could go wrong. You could use Velveeta or American cheese. If you do that? You’re totally on your own. Blech. Don’t misunderstand. There’s a time and a place for both of those, but neither of those belong here. Emphatically. Amen.

The only specialty item you’ll need is a food processor. That’s kind of non-negotiable here for the best texture. Other than that, the world is your Fromage Fort oyster. You can make this five minutes before running out the door or a week in advance. The longer it sits, the stronger it gets!

Serve with crackers or crusty bread or veggie platters or on baked potatoes or pretzels or… or… or… You get the idea!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Important Cheese Eating advice: When making Fromage Fort, try to steer away from using too much from the bleu cheese or really salty cheese families (Asiago, Romano, Parmesano). Let those be “accent” notes. Use a milder cheese (Cheddar, Jack, etc…) as the melody!

 

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Fromage Fort (Cheese Spread)

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Fromage Fort (Cheese Spread)

Fromage Fort -French for strong cheese- is a classic recipe that uses up odds and ends in your cheese collection. This slightly garlicky cheese spread touched with a flavour of white wine makes a wonderful appetizer or addition to any cheese course when served with crackers, crusty bread or crudites.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound of assorted cheeses (Cheddar, Asiago, Romano, Parmesan, Monterey Jack, Colby, Swiss, etc...)
  • 1/4 cup of dry white wine (or more, depending on desired texture)
  • 1/2 a large clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
  • Cracked black pepper to taste
  • Optional: Chopped herbs for garnish

Instructions

Grate cheeses and add to the bowl of a work processor fitted with a metal blade. Add remaining ingredients and fix lid onto the food processor. Process until you have a spreadable consistency. Check the texture. If you want it runnier, add a splash of white wine and process again. Scrape into a bowl or a ramekin. Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to a week.

If desired, garnish with chopped herbs.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/23/fromage-fort-cheese-spread/

 

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Appetizers & Snacks, Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Getting Creative With Leftovers, Holiday Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Snacks, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

One Pot Tex Mex Pasta Toss

November 22, 2011 by 2 Comments

Yesterday, I banged the drum for playing with your food and above is my proof of why that is a virtuous kitchen activity. You are looking at a creamy tomato pasta with chorizo, black olives, cilantro, sour cream and candied jalapenos. …And scene.

No. It doesn’t really end there, although since we are two days away from Thanksgiving, I will keep this short and sweet.

If no one ever played with their food there would be no such things as Buffalo wings, nachos, baked potatoes, lentil soup, pickles, jam or olives (among other things.) Seriously. Have you ever tasted an unbrined olive? Big, fat, alum-laden ew. The point is, someone did it.

Someone has to do it.

You don’t have to go whole hog and start developing recipes from the ground up. Just tinker. Substitute one herb for another, try shallots instead of onions or vice versa, use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream… Look at what’s similar. What makes it similar? Is it texture, flavour, smell? Think of cooking as a puzzle where you’re fitting different things together in the best possible way. But here’s where it’s better than a puzzle. A puzzle can only be put together in one way. Foods have a nearly limitless number of combinations. Isn’t that a great thought? There is a perfect dish out there for everyone. It’s just up to us to find it!

This dish was borne of playing with the dish I posted yesterday. If you make them both you’ll see that while they are two dishes that use the same method and have textural similarities, that they are two completely different meals!

… Now before I share this with you and scoot off to make pies and whatnot I want to lay a little homegrown truth on you. I appreciate each and every one of you who visits here on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. Your presence and feedback makes Foodie With Family such a rewarding project for me that I can’t imagine what I’d do without you all. For each of you, I am grateful. Thank you for making this so fun for me. May your Thanksgiving Day be as wonderful as you hope!

With love,

Rebecca

 

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One Pot Tex Mex Pasta Toss

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Mexican style chorizo
  • 1 onion, peeled and diced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced or pressed
  • 1 dried arbol chili pepper, whole
  • 1 can (14-ish ounces) tomatoes (You can use diced, crushed or puree.) ~or~ 1 1/2 cups chopped, diced or crushed tomatoes
  • 1 cilantro stem, whole
  • 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 5 cups chicken stock
  • 1 pound uncooked dry shaped pasta (I used Campanelle. Other good choices would be small shells, cellentani, fiori and rotini, or any other pasta with hollows to hold sauce and meat.)
  • 1/4 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
  • 4 ounces (half of an 8 ounce brick) cream cheese or neufchatel cheese, cut into squares
    • Optional for garnish:
  • Minced fresh cilantro
  • halved or chopped black olives
  • chopped sweet onions
  • sour cream
  • candied jalapenos

Instructions

Break up the chorizo into a stockpot over medium heat, stirring and breaking up further with a sturdy spoon. Cook until chorizo is cooked through (browning is not necessary... just cook it through!), then use a slotted spoon to move the chorizo to a plate. If you are using a homemade, lean chorizo, you will need a little additional fat for the next step. If you are using a fattier chorizo, you can use the drippings in the next step.

Drain all but about 1 tablespoon of the drippings from the pan (if using lean chorizo, add 1 tablespoon of peanut oil or canola oil) and return the pan to the heat, dropping the temperature to low. Add the onion and garlic and whole arbol chili and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and soft.

Pour in the chicken stock and tomatoes then raise heat to medium high, bringing the mixture to a boil. When it is fully boiling, stir well, then add in the noodles and half of the reserved chorizo and the cilantro stem, oregano and cumin, using tongs to toss it until the noodles soften enough to be submerged. Add the lid, drop the heat to low again, cover tightly, and simmer for about 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the noodles are al dente (cooked mostly through with just some resistance in the center when bit.) Remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in the grated cheese and the cubed cream or neufchatel cheese, cover again and let stand for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes are up, toss the noodles in the sauce until the cream cheese is melted and the sauce is thickened.

Serve the noodles garnished with the remaining chorizo, and chopped fresh cilantro, black olives, sweet onions, sour cream and candied jalapenos, if desired.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/22/one-pot-tex-mex-pasta-toss/

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Comfort Food, kid food, Main Dish, Meat, Pasta, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Honey Potato Rolls

November 18, 2011 by 12 Comments

Every year right around this time I get sappy. I spend November first through January tenth in a heightened state of emotional lather. We have all five boys’ birthdays interspersed among Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. The ever-racing nature of time is really driven home by singing Happy Birthday twenty five times in six weeks (I figure an average of five rounds of Happy Birthday per child) and throwing in Christmas carols to boot.

What this boils down to is that I am the Queen of the Holidays. I’m not suggesting that I’m about to whisk the immaculate turkey-shaped-folded-cloth-napkin-white-light crown from Martha Stewart’s coifed and calm head. Not even close. We are talking about Queen Thanksgiving and Christmas Spirit, folks.

We make handprint turkeys and construction paper cornucopias and real live turkey feather (dead turkey, rather. I’ve never plucked a feather from a live one.) headdresses to honour the native people who helped the settlers. We have a very Omnimedia-unapproved Christmas tree. Each year it is filled with odds and ends like homemade ornaments, bamboo umbrellas from our beloved and now defunct Chinese restaurant, and an ornament from my piano teacher when I was a kid. But there’s more. There are pieces of iridescent ribbon the children loved that they cut from a gift several years ago, rocks (Yes, rocks. My children love them.), twigs –because as one child said, “A tree can never have too many!”, and more often than not, a few lovingly arranged paper towels. I didn’t ask on that one. What I do know is that the child who does that has a look of rapture on his face when he does. That’s enough for me.

I burst into song with no provocation. I dance around the kitchen waving wooden spoons while my eyeballs glitter and my smile gleams (if a tea-soaked smile can do such a thing) at those who enter my lair. I brandish homemade cookies and cakes and bread and candies and dried fruit under the noses of anyone who says, “I’m hungry!” because the baking and the cooking reaches near manic levels.

Oh, the baking and the cooking.

What makes you feel the holiday spirit more than a scent of cookies or a rising loaf of bread wafting from the stove? I can’t think of a thing. I would add to the list, however, licking your fingers to remove the chocolate after breaking a freshly set batch of English toffee, a tall glass of cold eggnog, a steam-capped stockpot of simmering soup, and a pan of hot, soft rolls fresh from the oven, dotted with butter.

Topping the list of things that equal Thanksgiving to me are rolls: specifically, my grandmother’s rolls. You may remember me having an attack of guilt when I made another kind of roll last week. They were the chief joy of the Thanksgivings of my youth and remain one of the biggest to this day. Her rolls are, in a word, perfect. My copy of her recipe, on an index card written in her hand, is one of my prize possessions. The soft, golden brown potato rolls with a touch of nutty whole wheat and a subtle hint of honey reliably disappear faster than the other fixings at the feast.

But there’s another wonderful reason to count on these rolls. You can make the dough, form the rolls, put them in pans, wrap them tightly and freeze them days in advance. To bake, thaw on the counter for about two hours, then let rise for another hour and a half. Bake and tada! Fresh rolls with all the hard work done well ahead of time.

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Honey Potato Rolls

Honey Potato Rolls

Soft, golden brown potato rolls with a touch of nutty whole wheat and a subtle hint of honey reliably disappear faster than the other fixings at the feast, but don't save them for Thanksgiving alone. If you're looking for the perfect accompaniment to a bowl of creamy soup, look no farther.

Ingredients

  • 2 ¼ teaspoons (or one packet) yeast. Active Dry Yeast or Instant are both acceptable
  • 1 ½ cups warm water (for best flavour, use the water in which you cooked potatoes)
  • 2/3 cup honey
  • 1 cup lukewarm mashed potatoes
  • 2/3 cup butter, softened to room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 5 to 5 ½ cups all purpose flour

Instructions

To Make the Dough:

In a large mixing bowl, the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water and honey, stir gently and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Let stand for 2 minutes. Add everything but the flours and stir well (using a sturdy spoon or dough hook) to combine. Add the whole wheat flour and 2 cups of the all purpose flour and stir well until even. Add the remaining flour and stir it in. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook to knead it. Otherwise, turn onto a generously floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about five minutes. Transfer the dough into a large clean mixing bowl or dough bucket, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours but no longer than 5 days.

To Shape the Rolls:

Grease or butter two 9”x13” rectangular or four 8” round baking pans and set them aside.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and punch it down. Divide in half, then portion each half into 20 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.

Place the dough balls into the prepared pans (5 rows of 4 in each rectangular pan or 10 rolls in each round pan.) Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until puffy in appearance and nearly doubled in size, about 2 hours.

To Bake the Rolls:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Bake the rolls for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. If desired, brush the finished rolls with melted butter.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/18/honey-potato-rolls/

Filed Under: Bread, Comfort Food, kid food, Rebecca, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , ,
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