southern fusion.

I'm still trying to get a hang of making pralines ever since the last time I made them successfully. Turns out, the sugar to milk ratios are pretty important to these little suckers. Too much milk and I get myself a caramel. And if they're not finicky enough, I can't just throw in anything or else they won't set properly. Right now, I'm still trying to figure out how to make almond butter pralines from the original recipe that I'm using.

However, I did successfully make some Mexican chocolate pralines! In an effort to make the praline a little more gourmet, I got the wacky idea to play around with flavor combinations. I've always loved chocolate and cinnamon together. Add a little bit of chile to it, and this flavor was exactly what I was looking for! I dusted these with a little sprinkle of cinnamon to make it extra fancy, but feel free to leave that out. I, on the other hand, like the extra boost of cinnamon!

---- o o o o ----

Mexican Chocolate Pralines
(adapted from Snapguide: Jada's DIY's & Recipes)

3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup fat-free half and half or evaporated milk
4 tbsp light butter (cubed)
2 tsp pure vanilla paste or extract
1 1/2 cups roasted pecan pieces
1 tbsp dark cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt

 
Prepare a piece of non-stick parchment paper (about 12-15 in. long) and place on counter next to cooking station. In a small bowl, stir together cocoa powder, cinnamon, ancho chile powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add both sugars and the milk into the pot and mix well with a wooden spoon until sugars dissolve. Dip a pastry or any kind of small cooking brush in cold icy water then brush the sides of the pot to melt away any sugar crystals that may have formed.

Put in your candy thermometer. Make sure the tip is not touching the bottom but is in the actual candy liquid. The mixture should begin to froth at this point. Cook the candy, stirring occasionally, until it reaches it's proper temperature of 240F degrees.

Turn the heat completely off and take it off the burner. Add in the butter, vanilla, cinnamon mixture, and chopped pecans.

Stir mixture until it becomes thick and start to turn opaque. When the candy starts to hold together, quickly spoon it onto the parchment paper. Make sure to not over crowd and make them touch, otherwise the pralines will dry stuck together. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon to garnish, if desired.

Let the pralines set at room temperature for 30 min. Afterwards, if not serving right away, store in a air-tight container for up to 2 to 3 days. Makes about 9 to 12 pralines.

tea, made strong and spicy.

Lately, I've been on a chai schtick. That warm, spicy tea is the perfect solution to the biting cold we've been having as of late. While any hot drink would've been fine, chai has always been my go-to for whenever it gets cold. What can I say? I've been in love with chai ever since the first time it's ever touched my lips.

Since I love chai so much, I find that buying a cup or two (or three!) a day started to get pricey. And when we moved to Guam and no decent tea house was in sight, desperate measures called for making my own chai at home. Thankfully, I was able to find key ingredients like cardamom on the island and decided to make my own "instant" version using several different recipes as a guide.

While the convenience of adding hot water to the "instant chai" was great, I found that getting spice sludge at the bottom of each cup was unappetizing. Even with a fine sieve, granules of cardamom, cinnamon, and pepper drifted to the bottom, soaked up the water, and formed a layer then went in my mouth, ruining those last few sips of the chai that I could've enjoyed. Not only that, the use of highly processed non-dairy powder and instant tea really bothered me . . . what was I really drinking?

When we got back state-side, I once again had access to coffee and tea houses. I drank chai steeped from actual tea leaves and it was heavenly! But those places are still hard to get to since we're currently in a small town and I find myself confined instead to store-bought bags of chai packets. After the last purchase I made and finding it lacking in both taste and flavour, I decided it was time to make my own.

I like my chai spicy. With lots of pepper and cinnamon, a good amount of cardamom, and enough licorice to round out the flavors. So when I was hunting for a recipe, this was a great starting point. I tinkered with the spice portions to suit my taste and added a bay leaf and star anise for good measure. I'm not a fan of nutmeg, so I swapped that with some allspice instead.

This turned out lovely. The spice was strong, but not aggressively so, with just the right amount of bite. The added vanilla extract made this aromatic in the best way and I loved that I knew what went in this chai. No weird chemicals, no weird powders, just spices, tea, and a good amount of milk. THIS is what good chai tastes like!

---- o o o o ---- 

Spicy Masala Chai
(adapted from Lands & Flavors)

For the Masala:
10 to 12 tbsp strong black tea leaves (Ceylon or Irish Breakfast)
6 cinnamon sticks
15 pods green cardamom, seeds only
1 tsp whole cloves
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds
5 whole allspice berries
1 pod star anise

For the Chai:
1 cup evaporated milk, half and half, or thick coconut milk
1 1/2 cups water
2 inch piece of ginger, sliced
1 large bay leaf
sweetener, to taste
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

 
Combine tea and spices and coarsely grind to make masala. Place in cheese cloth or coffee filter and tie off the ends with kitchen twine to make a bag. Set aside.

Add milk, water, ginger, and bay leaf in a 2 quart saucepan and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Once the milk comes to a boil, add the masala bag, sweetener, vanilla extract, and salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer chai for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often to prevent the milk from scorching.

After the chai has steeped, remove from heat and strain chai with a fine sieve. Serve hot with a stick of cinnamon in mugs or in glasses over ice. Bring remaining chai to room temperature before storing in the fridge to keep for up to a week.

christmas time poussin.

Merry Christmas!

Me and the hubby did another round of big cooking, but this time, sans extra people. At first, I thought that I would be weird to cook so much food for just the two of us, but I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was. We had Christmas music blaring on the radio and me and the hubby were chatting and joking around the entire time. It felt nice and festive even though it was just the two of us. :)

Let me tell you, it was still a lot of work. We were in the kitchen for nearly four hours to create our Christmas feast! In the end though, It was totally worth it. We had some whiskey brown ham, green beans, mashed sweet potatoes, creamed corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a couple of game hens in lieu of turkey.

For the game hens, I decided to try out a recipe that called for pomegranate molasses. When I was back in San Diego, I picked up some Mid-Eastern essentials and a bottle of pomegranate molasses happened to be one of them. Since then, it's been sitting in the back of my pantry, waiting to be used.

When I made this recipe, I made the mistake of marinating this for just one hour. DON'T DO THAT. In order for this to be successful, it really needs to sit overnight. Otherwise, you'll get a nice tasting skin, but no flavor on the actual poultry itself. Also, I did a rookie mistake of not adding enough salt and pepper. So, again, season well people.

Other than that, this turned out well, I thought. If I had properly marinated them, this dish would've been kick ass! The sweet tartness of the molasses really worked with the cinnamon and allspice to make a really tasty flavor combination. And the honey made a beautiful glaze that makes it finger-lickin' good. Next time, I'm trying this on a whole turkey!

---- o o o o ---- 

Roasted Game Hen with Pomegranate, Honey, and Cinnamon
(slightly adapted from One Girl in the Kitchen)

2 game hens, butterflied and ribs removed
1/3 cup pomegranate molasses
2 cloves garlic, minced
cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, olive oil to taste
3 to 4 tbsp honey

 
Rinse the game hens and pat them dry them thoroughly on the inside as well. Mix the molasses with plenty of cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper and minced garlic. Pour the marinade over the hens and rub them so that the flavor gets everywhere. Let them rest in the refrigerator, covered with plastic, for at least 8 hours, turning them occasionally.

After this time, drain the hens from the marinade, sprinkle each one with salt and pepper, and tie their legs with kitchen twine. Arrange them chest side up on an greased baking pan, and bake at about 375 for approximately 35 to 40 minutes. At the end, brush them with the honey and bake 5 more minutes or until internal temp reads at 155F degrees. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes in order to reach a safe eating internal temperature of 165F degrees.

Serve each hen on a individual plate and garnish with fresh thyme sprigs and pomegranate seeds.

thinking inside the box.

Yesterday, the hubby and I went grocery shopping together. To me, that was quite extraordinary considering he hates going to the store. Well, let me amend that statement: He hates grocery shopping with me. Apparently he's an "in-and-out" kind of guy and I'm a "browser and a peruser". In other words, I take a long time shopping for groceries.

Okay, sure. I'll give him that. I'm one of those people who go down every isle, regardless if I need anything from there, just to see if there's anything new or if I happen to remember an item I forgot to jot down on the list. I make a basic list of necessities then make up my weekly menu as I walk along the store. Inefficient? Sure . . . But it's so much more creative and fun this way! That line of reasoning still doesn't negate the fact that he hates going with me.

However, on this occasion, he happened to walk by the seasonal isle and grabbed a box of roll mix and casually suggested, "You should make some caramel rolls." Hummm. Oh-kay. Suuuuure. That shouldn't be so hard . . . I mean, I've already made some cinnamon rolls before, after all.

How hard could it be??

Well I forgot that making those cinnamon rolls were a pain in the ass. AND, not to mention that I still have to tweak that recipe. The filling itself was a mess and ROLLING that thing was even worse. I thought I would do better with the boxed mix.

Turns out, I had about the same difficulty with the boxed mix as I did making it from scratch.. Except that it was reverse . . . The filling was easier to work with and had okay results, but the dough was SOOoooo sticky. I guess I could've added more flour to the dough, but I didn't want to risk it getting tough and chewy. I was aiming for soft cinnamon rolls. So I stretched the super sticky dough until it wasn't as gluey then added just enough flour so I could transfer it to a bowl to rest.

Rolling the thing was also a nightmare. Because the dough was sticky, any flour that I added got sucked right in. My "genius plan" of putting it on wax paper didn't work, so rolling wasn't as tight as I wanted it to be. *sigh* All in all, this wasn't too bad. The final product turned out as soft as I was expecting it to be. I also tried experimenting with putting some caramel on the bottom, but since the buns were loosely rolled, all the filling drained to the bottom. :/

So, my solution was to dribble some dulce de leche on top. On hindsight, I should've bought the squeeze bottle kind instead for easier drizzling. All in all, not too bad. Just some user error that's easily fixed. I may buy another box just to keep handy in case I want to try this out again. Next time, definitely more flour.

---- o o o o ---- 

Dulce de Leche Cinnamon Rolls
(barely adapted from Pillsbury)

For the Dough:
1 pkg Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup hot water (120 to 130F degrees)
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 egg, room temperature

For the Cinnamon Filling:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

For the Caramel Topping:
1/4 cup or more dulce de leche
toasted pecans, optional

 
Make the dough:
Line 13 x 9-inch pan with aluminum foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Combine flour and yeast packets from hot roll mix with sugar in large bowl. Stir in hot water, softened butter and egg until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Knead dough on lightly floured surface 5 minutes or until smooth, using additional flour as needed. Cover with large bowl; let rest 5 minutes.

Make the cinnamon filling and rolls:
Using a fork combine brown sugar, flour, softened butter and cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll dough to 15 x 10-inch rectangle on lightly floured surface. Crumble cinnamon mixture evenly over dough. Starting with 10-inch side, roll up tightly, pressing edges to seal. Coat foil in pan with no-stick cooking spray. Cut dough into 12 slices. Place cut side down in prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and towel. Heat oven to 375°F. Let rise in warm place (80° to 90°F) 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Uncover dough. Brush rolls with 1 tablespoon of half-and-half, if desired. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Brush rolls again with remaining tablespoon of half-and-half, if desired. Using edges of foil, remove rolls from pan.

Add dulce de leche topping:
Drizzle dulce de leche onto warm buns to desired amount. As an optional garnish, top with toasted pecans before serving.

you butternut, or i'm telling mom!

One thing that I had a lot of growing up was soups. My mom would make a lot of sinigang, arroz caldo, kare kare, and sopas. A big bowl of my mom's soup always spelled comfort food to me and always made me feel better and good, even on frustrating or busy days.

Funnily enough, now that I have my own household, I rarely make any soup. It's probably because my husband isn't a very big soup eater . . . he'd rather have a big honking meal that would make him full instead of a light supper of soup and buttered bread. To each their own, I guess.

I didn't start getting into soups again until I started working for Boudin Bakery. With clam chowder, chili, and a rotating special soup of the day, it wasn't hard to revive my love of soup. Throw in a bread bowl, and soup reached new heights of wonderment!

Speaking of soup, I was still employed at Boudin's when they rolled out an updated menu. Chief among them was all new pizzas and some new soups including a butternut squash bisque. The first time I had the bisque, I was blown away. I was the type of person who loved sweet things. So, when I had a taste of something that was both sweet and slightly savory all at the same time, I was hooked. It was my favorite soup from Boudin's.

Years later, I still come back to Boudin from time to time. And I still order that soup. However, Georgia has no Boudin Bakery. They do have Panera Bread, tho. But I've tried their autumn squash soup and it just isn't the same . . . too savory and not enough sweet.

So I decided to make my own.

Surprisingly, not many people have copycat recipes for Boudin's bisque. There's a crap ton of Panera recipes out there on the web tho. Luckily enough, I did find one recipe that took inspiration from Boudin and a similar one that had different spices. I decided to combine the two to make my bisque.

What I ended up with was something special. While not exactly like the bisque from Boudin's, it has similar flavor notes and passes as an acceptable alternative. I've topped it with some tart dried cranberries (no added sugar!), toasted pecans (instead of walnuts in Boudin's and heck, I'm in Georgia after all!), and fresh and bright flat-leaf parsley. I love this soup! It's like eating autumn in a bowl!

Now . . . if only I had a bread bowl . . .

---- o o o o ---- 

Butternut Squash Bisque
(adapted from My PB+J and A Sweet Pea Chef)

1 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1/2 acorn squash, peeled and cubed
2 tbsp salted butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 large sweet apples, chopped
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock or broth
nutmeg, to taste
cinnamon to taste
1/2 cup low-fat half and half
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
dried cranberries, for garnish
toasted chopped pecans, for garnish
chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

 
In a large pot, cook butternut and acorn squash in butter over medium heat, stirring, for 20 minutes. Add onion, celery, and apple then saute for 10 minutes. Add chicken stock or broth. Season with salt and pepper then simmer for 30 minutes until vegetables are tender.

 

Remove from heat and puree using blender or immersion blender. Return to heat then sir in half and half and brown sugar. Season to taste with nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Add additional stock, if necessary. Simmer an additional 10 minutes then remove from heat.

To serve, ladle into bowl and garnish with cranberries, pecans, and parsley. Serve with crusty bread and butter on the side.