Mexican Night & a Tasty Dessert

Tonight we had Chicken Enchiladas for dinner along with a new to me Mexican Rice recipe. 

You make it in a rice cooker and I loved the way it turned out. I did it in my microwave rice cooker. Do you have one?

 Mine is from Pampered Chef, but you can buy similar ones elsewhere. Its a nice low tech kitchen addition. 

Chicken Enchilada recipe can be found here.

Rice Cooker Mexican Rice

1 cup uncooked rice

2 1/4 cups water

2 Tablespoons chicken base ( or omit water & use chicken broth instead)

2 Tablespoons double concentrate tomato paste (the kind in the tube)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 cup chopped onions

2 Tablespoons butter

1 dasy Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning or your favorite all purpose seasoning

1/4 cup chopped green onions

Put all except for green onions in microwave rice cooker. Cook for approximate 15 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. Fluff and let sit with lit removed for 5 mins. Sprinkle with green onions.

About once a year I make my hubby a Rhubarb Pie which is one of his favorites. I did not grow up eating Rhubarb, so the taste is still a bit foreign to me, but I never met a pie I didn't like! The hubby has a few rules about this pie - use only rhubarb, do not refrigerate and wait until the next day to eat. He says it tastes better that way and who am I to argue, although the waiting until tomorrow part is awfully hard! My rule is add plenty of sugar because let me tell you...rhubarb is tart! 

Rhubarb Pie

(inspired by Anne Dimock's Straight up Rhubarb Pie)

Crust 

 2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2/3 cup shortening

5-6 Tablespoons ice water

Filling

4-5 cups rhubarb sliced into small pieces

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/3 cup flour

dash of cinnamon

1/8 tsp orange extract

2 Tablespoons butter, chopped in small pieces

Directions

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Cut the shortening into the flour with a fork or pastry blender. Stop as soon as the sheen of the shortening disappears and the mixture is a bunch of coarse pieces. Sprinkle a tablespoon of water at a time over the dough, lifting and tossing it with the fork. When it begins to come together, gather the dough, press it into a ball and then pull it apart; if it crumbles in your hands, it needs more water. (It's better to err on the side of too wet than too dry.) Add a teaspoon or two more water, as needed.

Gather the dough into two slightly unequal balls, the larger one for the bottom crust and the smaller one for the top.  Dust with flour and roll the dough until the diameter is an inch or 2 larger than that of the pie pan. Lay the rolling pin a third of the way from one of the edges. Roll the crust onto the pin and then unroll the crust into a 9-inch pie pan and shift it into place.

Make the filling: in a large bowl, blend the rhubarb, sugar, flour and cinnamon. Pour into the crust-lined pie pan. Dot with butter.  Roll out the top crust. Then place the top crust over the rhubarb; trim, seal and cut several vents. Bake for 15 minutes; reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake 25 to 30 minutes more, or until a bit of pink juice bubbles from the vents in the crust.

What's blooming in your yard right now? Hydrangeas are loaded right now!

Boo!

Happy Halloweeny! We are having an extra wet & windy day. Not sure how many trick or treaters we will get. We may have a lot of candy left...oh darn....

To pass the time on this dreary day I decided to enjoy the remains of summer. Thursday was the last day of our downtown Farmer's Market. I wasn't able to go down there due to our department being in the middle of a physical move, but one of the girls from our department ran down there to pick up some green tomatoes. Sounded so good so that I asked her to pick me up a few. Today I turned them into fried goodness....

Fried Green Tomatoes

3 medium firm green tomatoes
salt
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tsp Tony Chachere's Seasoning or other cajun seasoning
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 1 T vinegar)
1 egg
1/2 cup addl cornmeal
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
enough vegetable oil to fill your pan 1 inch

Cut tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle both sides with salt and let sit for about 5 minutes. In three separate shallow bowls or pans combine 1) flour, cornmeal & seasoning 2) milk &  beaten egg 3) Addl cornmeal and breadcrumbs. Heat oil in pan on medium heat. Dip tomato slices in the flour -cornmeal-seasoning mix, then buttermilk-egg mixture, then the cornmeal-bread crumb mix. In the pan, fry the coated tomato slices for 3-5 minutes on each side until brown. Don't crowd the pan. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt. Serve with remoulade sauce.  

Remoulade Sauce


3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup creole mustard
1 T paprika
1 tsp creole or cajun seasoning
2 tsp prepared horse radish
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp Tabasco
1 tsp minced garlic
2 T minced green onions
1 T parsley, chopped fine

Mix all together. Can be made ahead. 

Gumbo Weather

Nothing better than Gumbo & an LSU win :-) Taking the time to make this quick post to share my recipe with some friends that asked.

 

 Chicken & Sausage Gumbo

1 cup flour

1 cup oil

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped bell peppers

1 cup chopped celery

¼ cup minced garlic

4 quarts (16 cups) chicken broth (I made earlier using a deli chicken carcass)

4 pounds boneless chicken cut into bite sized pieces ( I used a mix of thighs and breast) ( you can also do chicken with the bones in but Randy doesn't do bones)

1-2 pound good smoked sausage cut into bite sized pieces

2 Tablespoons minced parsley (I used dried)

 Bunch of green onions, chopped

1 tablespoon Tony Chachere seasoning (or other cajun seasoning)

1 Tablespoon tabasco sauce

salt to taste

Make a roux: Use an iron skillet if you have one. Heat oil until pretty hot. Turn heat down a bit and slowly whisk in flour. Whisk almost constantly, being careful to not burn the mixture. Cook until roux is like light milk chocolate (3-5 minutes usually). Add onions, bell peppers, celery and garlic. Cook until vegetables are wilted. Add chicken broth a little at a time and stir until dissolved. If it seems thick you can add more water. Add seasoning, tabasco & chicken. Bring to a boil and cook for about an hour. Skim oil from top of gumbo. Add green onions/parsley and let simmer on low for another hour or so. Chicken will be very tender and falling apart. Serve over rice. Potato Salad or Baked sweet potatoes make a good side. 

Epiphany Burgers

New Year...New Leaf. It's been a while since I've blogged and I miss it. I love using my blog as a way to catalog the things I make in my kitchen or have growing in my yard. So here we go again :-)

There's not much going on in the yard at the moment although I do see little bulbs already trying to poke their way through the dirt. Yay! So the kitchen is where its at for me right now. I got a Panasonic bread machine from my sweet hubby Randy for Christmas so I'm getting to know it and enjoying every minute!

 I've made a couple of loaves..one good..one not so great but I figure a little trial and error is to be expected. The best so far has been this homemade hamburger bun.

Its a bun I've seen around the web for awhile and has gotten rave reviews so I knew it would be a good one to try. Although it may look crusty, it wasn't. Soft on the the outside and inside just like a hamburger bun should be! Randy said it held up great..less mess, which is important to him! Give these a try..super easy with the machine.

Moomie's Beautiful Burger Buns

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine
• 1 eggs
• 3 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in your bread machine following the order given in the manual for your machine. Select dough. Allow to run cycle.
2. Dump out onto lightly floured surface. Divide into 8 pieces (I did this with a sharp knife). With each piece, slap into a bun shape. Usually four or five slaps will do it. Place on greased cookie sheets or your bun pans, cover; rise about 30 to 40 minutes.
3. Bake in preheated 375°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes till golden. Cool on wire racks.
4. You can add a teaspoon of onion powder and about 1/2 teaspoon dried onion to the dough in the bread machine. Suzy's note: I didn't try it this time, but I will in the future. Sounds good!

 Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and Epiphany!

Linking up with On the Menu Mondays

Welcome to the Ice Cream Social 2012!

Welcome to the 4th Annual Ice Cream Social at Kitchen Bouquet...come in to the parlor and see what kind of frosty treats and ice cream goodies me and my blogging friends have to share!

Statistics show that we eat more ice cream in the United States per capita than in any other country in the world. But after doing a little research it became clear that Ice Cream in one form or fashion is popular the whole world over. 

Here are a few little tidbits you may not have known about ice cream from a global perspective

• The world's top 5 consumers of ice cream in order are: USA, New Zealand, Denmark, Australia, Belgium/Luxembourg.
•  According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the biggest ice cream sundae in the world was made in Alberta, Canada, in 1988. It weighed nearly 55,000 pounds.
•  According to Guinness World Records, the largest ice cream cone (as of January 2011) was over 9 feet tall. It was achieved at an event in Italy.

There are some pretty interesting ice cream flavors and creations worldwide.

Look at this colorful Phillipine concoction called Halo Halo!!! I'm not sure how this would taste but it sure is beautiful.

Ice cream in india is often flavored with exotic spices. Cardamom is a favorite.

 

In Mexico, ice cream bars called Paletas are popular. Don't these look refreshing? The picture is from Eastside Foodbites blog..check it out HERE. 

 

Turkey is famous for their "stretchy" version of ice cream, Dondurma. See Viewfinder blog for the source of the photo below.

 

The Japanese are the most "creative" with their ice cream selections and actually have flavors including eel, octopus, eggplant, and miso!! I think I will pass on those :-) However, in doing this ice cream research I did keep coming across these cute little Mochi Ice Creams. They are ice cream coated in a sweet rice shell. I have never eaten any, but they look so cute I thought I would give them a try. Easier said than done in a house without air conditioning on one of the hottest days of the year!!!

My efforts were not nearly as pretty! You try wrapping sticky rice dough around melting ice cream and see what I mean. I filled the Mochi with Haagen Daz Green Tea Ice cream. The end result is interesting..the sweet rice cover is not so sweet but interestingly textured. I will need to go try "real" Mochi Ice Cream now to see how mine compares! Recipe follows.

  While Mochi is an ancient invention the Mochi ice cream was created in 1981 at a California restaurant. As I was making the mochi I realized I had eaten it before many times at Chinese restaurants as they are often served filled with a sweet bean paste. My insides weren't so photogenic!

 Mochi Ice Cream

Adapted from this and this recipe

10 small scoops of ice cream frozen hard unless you want the mess I had on my hands

1 cup glutinous or sweet rice flour labeled as Mochiko - I found mine in the asian aisle.

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Cornstarch - a ton of it

Combine glutinous rice flour and water in a glass bowl. Mix well to paste, then add sugar and vanilla, mix until dissolved.  Lightly cover bowl with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes. Remove from the microwave and stir well. Dough will very thick! Stir as best you can with a sturdy spatula. Re-cover and return to microwave; heat for 1 minute. When dough begins to inflate while cooking, and then deflates with the microwave door is opened – it’s ready! If dough doesn’t inflate during the previous one minute of cooking time, microwave for 1 additional minute. Remove the bowl from the microwave. Sprinkle a cutting board with a lot of cornstarch; scrape the hot dough onto the cornstarch and then pat the surface with cornstarch-coated hands. Stretch dough gently and use your hands to flatten it. Cut into 10-12 pieces. Place ice cream ball on a mochi piece and gently pinch the edges together to seal. Eat right away or return to freezer.

 We are probably all mostly familiar with the Italian version of ice cream...Gelato. I happen to think Gelato is the BEST form of ice cream created and guess what???? Despite its creaminess its actually lower in fat than most ice creams due to the fact its made with milk and no eggs!

I tried my hand at some Chocolate Gelato for my chocolate ice cream loving hubby Randy. He approves and so do I although chocolate ice cream is hardly ever my first choice. This version was actually made with skim milk (plus a little evaporated milk to give it a bit more body). Lactose free skim milk to boot!! I think I could have gotten away with pure skim. I'll try it next time. Give this simple recipe a try.  Four ingredients!!!

 Chocolate Gelato

Inspired by a recipe in Saveur

3 cups milk (I used 2 cups skim lactose free milk & 1 cup evaporated milk)
3⁄4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
3⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1. Bring 2 cups of the milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat, then remove from heat. Combine remaining 1 cup milk, sugar, cornstarch, and cocoa in a bowl, add to hot milk, and cook until sugar and cocoa dissolve and it begins to thicken (about 3 minutes). Mixture will be like pudding.

2. Set aside to let cool, then cover with plastic wrap or wax paper touching the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate overnight. Process mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

So remember the stretchy ice cream?  Gelato is also supposed to be stretchier than other ice creams as well. Can you see the stretchiness in this piece? Weird huh? Still melty though! So I had to pop this tiny little piece in my mouth immediately after this picture was taken.

 

Finally I come to France. 

 

They have great ice cream too in such beautiful clean sounding flavors. I opted to make a cousin to ice cream..the French sorbet which has no dairy whatsoever in it but somehow ends up tasting quite smooth and somehow creamy. I have oodles of blackberries beginning to ripen so I went with what I have fresh and I did not go wrong! This is to die for right now with the high temps we've had this week. Super refreshing!

Blackberry Lime Sorbet
Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

4 cups blackberries, fresh or frozen

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

splash of tequila (optional - I opted for about a teaspoon)

Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Puree the blackberries in a blender or food processor with the sugar syrup.  Press the mixture through a large mesh sieve to remove the seeds, then stir the lime juice into the sweetened puree.  Add a splash of tequila, if desired.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Source: adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Hope you enjoyed the world tour of ice cream! I'll close with an Ice Cream Colors mosaic.

Now's the time to grab a bowl, scoop some in and get some toppings going while you browse all of the fabulous ice cream posts my blogging friends have created. If you have an ice cream related post please add your link below and link back to this post at your blog. Anything ice cream related is welcome! It can be a favorite recipe, ice cream product, ice cream dishes, ice cream memories, ice cream anything! Just join right in.