Love the ingredients, not the food.

Puppy Chow Peanuts

Written on May 25, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

I think it’s safe to say most people’s favorite part about puppy chow is the peanut butter and the chocolate. Why even bother with the rest then? This recipe features the best part about puppy chow–the sweet chocolate peanut butter coating–on top of peanuts for an extra level of nuttiness and crunch.

Puppy Chow Peanuts

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:

4 cups unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup no-stir peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Method:

Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave or over a double boiler.
Stir the peanut butter into the melted chocolate to make a smooth and uniform coating.
Pour in the peanuts. Move them around to coat them completely in the peanut butter and chocolate.
Scoop the peanuts into a large sealable bag. Add in the powdered sugar and shake the bag until the peanuts are completely covered.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

If you like these, you might like almond puppy chow.

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2 10-Minute Recipes You Must Make

Written on May 24, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Recipe Round-Up

Saturday morning I was a ball of energy. I was excited to be home and have the sun out. I strapped up my laces and ran for 15 miles down back roads, past schools, up hills and through neighborhoods. And I felt really good, too! Until that afternoon when I hit the wall. Hard.

I didn’t feel like cooking. I felt like sitting on the couch and watching Tivoed Food Network pretending they were cooking for me. But then I remembered these two recipes and how easy they were. After 30 minutes in the kitchen I had dinner and dessert; who could say no to that?

Caramelized Onion and Balsamic Vinegar Bean Salad: I think the name says it all. If you like onions you will love this, and I do. The recipe makes a lot so I’ve been eating the leftovers for the past two days and it only gets better.

Espresso Chocolate Bark: I really love chocolate covered espresso beans. This is the closest way I’ve found to make them at home that’s also easy. There’s nothing better than a dessert with a buzz.

So there you go. Don’t let a long day keep you from eating well. Good food is only 10 minutes away.

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Baking Chocolate 101

Written on May 23, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in How To

Last week I got this question on my Outrageous Triple Chocolate Brownies recipe:

“What type of baking chocolate do you recommend for these? I have just been using semi sweet chocolate chips”

I’ve never met chocolate I didn’t like, but some are undoubtedly better than others, to eat and to bake with. Here’s what 2+ years of home baking has taught me:

95% of the time chocolate chips are fine. I use these chocolate chips for my baking all the time. I eat them out of the bag sometimes. Don’t give me that look; who are you, the cops?

However, that other 5% of the time when I’d be baking to really impress someone—say, something for Paula Deen or Bobby Flay—I would look at the other baking chocolate options.

Baking chocolate is available either in the baking aisle or with other specialty products. It usually comes in bar form as Scharffen Berger is in the top photo, but if you’re buying it by the pound it might be in chunk form like above. To use in recipes simply chop the chocolate into smaller sizes like chocolate chips come; this will help the chocolate melt more evenly.

Semi-sweet and bitter-sweet are practically interchangeable, so if you only have one and the recipe calls for the other don’t panic. Bitter-sweet has slightly less sugar so it will have a darker flavor. Don’t, however, interchange unsweetened chocolate with bitter-sweet or semi-sweet since that will throw the recipe’s flavor off entirely.

When a recipe calls for cocoa powder, make sure you’re using pure cocoa powder, which comes unsweetened.

The product on the left already has sugar in it and is better for hot chocolate mixes, whereas the one on the right is what most recipes will call for. Alkalized or dutched cocoa powder has been treated to remove some of the natural bitterness of chocolate. Most recipes are written for dutched cocoa powder but both will work; non-alkalized cocoa powder will have a more pure chocolate flavor.

Ultimately chocolate is chocolate and the best way to know if something’s good for baking is to taste it. You shouldn’t bake with a chocolate you wouldn’t eat. The higher percentage of chocolate that’s in the recipe the more you should consider what flavor it will bring.

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Home

Written on May 22, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Uncategorized

Home is a funny concept. We all know what it feels like, but no one can define it.

It’s not a building with a front lawn and a wood porch.

It’s not where the home fries burn and omelets come out perfectly.

It’s not where you can watch endless hours of crappy Bravo TV reality shows and still feel good about yourself(though that’s about as close as you’ll get).

It’s not about the ice cream maker just begging to be used through Summer.

It’s not about the back roads with hayfields, ice cream stands and cattle.

It’s not where there’s always a stack of cinnamon no-grain pancakes waiting for you in the morning.

It’s not where you can walk down the street and have everybody know your name.

Lady Antebellum says it best: Home is where the ~~chocolate~~ heart is.

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Gluten-Free Pancakes

Written on May 19, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Breakfast

Pancakes make me happy. My guess is that they make you happy, too. But it’s been years since I’ve made pancakes for breakfast; they’re not the most gluten-free friendly food. But after my first experiment with chickpeas flour, I realized just how much this would improve my life.

But first, a lesson on cake:

“Young man, you’re not having cake for breakfast. You’re having fried cake with syrup for breakfast.”

Done.

These were just as easy to make as “real” pancakes and tasted among the best I’ve had. They absorb moisture really easily, so have the maple syrup standing by. And they don’t get soggy! Perfect.

Gluten-Free Pancakes

Ingredients(Makes 4 medium-sized pancakes):

1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 egg
1/3 cup water
1 (heaping) Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
Butter or oil for greasing

Method:

Whisk together the flour, water, egg, sugar, baking soda, and salt until all the clumps are gone from the batter.
Heat a pan or skillet over a burner set to medium with some butter or oil. Scoop about 3 Tablespoons-1/4 cup of batter into the pan. Cook for about 40 seconds until the edges are cook and bubbles come up through the batter. Flip and cook for another 15 seconds until the other side is set. Serve while still hot.

Top with maple syrup, nut butter, coconut shreds, fruit sauce, or whatever else you can think of.

You can bet what’s on the menu for tomorrow’s breakfast.

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Warm Red Potato Salad

Written on May 18, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

Some people don’t like to cook. I don’t get them.

Most of the time I’d rather make my own meal than go to a restaurant. It’s just not the same as home cooking. Last week was crazy with work and most of my meals I didn’t cook or were just salads thrown together. It was awful. This week is much more relaxed and I’ve been able to cook again, and not just fudge but better things like this potato salad. I could eat this again and again. The vinegar and sugar make for just the right sweetness. You’ll never miss the mayonnaise in another potato salad.

Warm Red Potato Salad

Ingredients:

1lb red potatoes
1/2 yellow onion, julienned
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon chopped parsley
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Bake the potatoes for 1 hour in an oven set to 350 degrees. Remove them and cut them up into 1-inch chunks.

Soak the julienned onion in cold water for 5-10 minutes to remove some of their pungency. Drain the liquid from the onions.

Add all of the ingredients together and mix. Serve while still slightly warm. Refrigerate any leftovers

Who doesn’t love potatoes and onions? Whoever doesn’t I love them enough for the both of us.

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Alton Brown’s Microwave Peanut Butter Fudge

Written on May 17, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

This recipe is a life-changer.

I’ve long been obsessed with microwave chocolate fudge. I’ve tried making my own peanut butter fudge in the microwave in the past but the texture was never as good as the chocolate version. Finally, when I saw that Alton Brown had a recipe for microwave peanut butter fudge I knew I had to make it.

Alton Brown has to be my favorite Food Network chef, and not just for this recipe. Don’t get me wrong—I love watching Ina and Paula and Giada so that I can make fun of how ridiculous and fattening their “basic” recipes are. But Alton actually writes recipes like he knows what he’s doing, and that’s what makes him fun to cook from.

Overall I stuck to the recipe pretty well. I halved the recipe and the only change that I made was melting the butter only and stirring in the peanut butter until it melted, too.

The fudge came out as an odd, doughy texture that was delicious but not really “fudgy.” I pressed it into a pan and let it sit in the refrigerator until it hardened up a bit and it came to the right consistency.

I wouldn’t leave this at room temperature since it got soft pretty fast. But other than that it was perfect; the taste was very rich and very sweet.

In other words, I need someone to take the rest of this off my hands right away

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Summer Green Bean Salad

Written on May 16, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

This week I’m moving out of where I live now. As everyone who has ever done that before knows, that means Operation: Eat Out The Pantry has begun. I try to keep enough canned and dry goods that if a war suddenly broke out I could live off of what I have for a month. Or through a New England winter. I made this in 10 minutes from canned goods. It would be great in the Summer with fresh green beans, too. It makes a lot which means I have my work cut out for me this week.

Summer Green Bean Salad

Ingredients(Makes 4 entrée servings):

1 can chickpeas, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can green beans, drained OR 1 cup fresh steamed green beans cut
1/4 cup sliced olives
1/4 cup craisins(optional)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons white vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt

Combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl.

Toss the salad until all the ingredients are spread out. Serve at room temperature.

As good as this was, I have a feeling it’s going to be more fun eating through my chocolate stash than cans of beans. Just a thought.

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Plant-Based Diet: An Update

Written on May 14, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Running

We’ll get to that in a minute.

Back in April I posted about a plant-based diet to get back into shape after a rough 4 months or so.

And then I fell off the wagon that weekend. I had some excellent chicken dishes at the Elephant Walk and later the best raw dessert from Wildflour Bakery and other stuff I don’t really remember. But I didn’t want to stop trying then so I put on my big boy pants and made a salad.

Lots of them, actually. A typical meal has become vegetables, roasted or sautéed, with some beans or a few eggs. If I cooked an egg any way other than frying it I’m sure that’d be healthier but fried is perfection. Who can argue with that?

Oh an I drink a lot of these, too, “for my health”. They just taste so good.

Anyone, if you asked me I wouldn’t say I feel or look any different. Everyone says “Start a plant-based diet and you’ll suddenly have so much energy.” I’ve never been a bounce-off-the-wall person before and I’m still not.

But then something funny happened this week. Tuesday I casually ran 10 miles in just under 1 hour 24 minutes. That same course took me over 5 minutes longer a month before. Then, 2 days later, I ran it again in 1 hour 25 minutes, like I do this every day. I don’t. Or I didn’t, but now I do? And I’ve been increasing the weights I lift, too, so I must be doing something right.

That’s not to say I eat perfectly by any means. I eat chocolate all too often. I have honey by the spoonful when I’m bored or stressed. And I eat giant slices of vegan/gluten-free pound cake from Wildflour when I’m done with exams. It’s vegan so there must be plants in there somewhere. But progress is progress, and this is an update, not an end.

And now I’m off to run. I hope I don’t run too fast and taste cake. Or maybe I do.

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Savory Italian-Style Socca Pancakes

Written on May 12, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

I’ve had an unopened bag of chickpea flour in my pantry for 4 months.

That’s 4 months too long.

After seeing socca on Anna and Serena’s blogs recently, it was about time that I try out socca pancakes. These were so flavorful, and so easy, too. It really was just like making any old pancakes. I might have burned myself trying to pick the fried batter off the bottom of the pan; it was worth it. When(not if) I make this again, I’d use a jarred marinara sauce, but since I didn’t have any I threw that together, too, and threw in the recipe. Top with a fried egg for something truly amazing.

Savory Italian-Style Socca Pancakes

Ingredients(Makes 1 serving):

For the pancakes,

1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
olive oil for cooking

For the sauce*,

1/2 cup diced tomatoes, mostly drained of water
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt

*You could also just use 1/2 cup of your favorite store-bought marinara sauce.

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To make the pancakes, whisk together the flour, water, salt, and herb seasoning until there are no clumps in the batter.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add half of the batter to the pan to cook. Once the sides have darkened and the bottom has cooked, flip the pancake once to cook the top batter. Move to a plate and cook the other half of the batter.

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To make the sauce, mix together all of the ingredients.

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Assemble by spreading half of the sauce over the first pancake and layering it with the second. Scoop remaining sauce generously over the top and season to taste.

Socca to me.

I’ve said that about 60 times by now. I still think it’s funny.

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