Friday, April 24, 2009
Every once in a while you come across a recipe and go, “I need to make that. And SOON!” That’s what happened when I saw this recipe. The weather was starting to feel good again here in TN, and it was the weekend, so I knew I had time to devote to a yummy meal.
I wasn’t too sure about this recipe, because usually when making a burger you mix the spices all together in with the burger, but for this one you just coat the outside of the patty. I *almost* did it my own way, but I thought it would be silly to not even try it the way the recipe suggests. Well, I’ll assure you, no worries. This recipe turned out GREAT! It was moist & flavorful. I served it with (slightly burned… whoops) sweet potato fries, and a mojito. I mean, I had to buy the rum & the mint, I already owned the sugar, so that’s 3/5 of a mojito right there! I definitely DEFINITELY recommend serving it with a mojito. It was so light, refreshing, and Caribbean! Kinda makes me dream of an island vacation. đ
The Boy definitely was a fan of these, and I have a feeling I’ll be asked to make them again. Luckily, the recipe makes 4 burgers, so he enjoyed the leftovers. I also halved the mango salsa recipe, and it was plenty. The full recipe is below.
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Caribbean Spiced Chicken Burgers with Mango Salsa
Ingredients:
For the Burgers:
1 lb. ground chicken
4 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
4 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
2 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground ginger
For the salsa:
2 medium ripe mangoes
1/4 c. red onion, finely diced
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
1 Tbsp fresh mint, minced
1/2 tsp fresh ginger root, grated
juice of 1/2 small lime
1/8 tsp garlic salt
Directions:
Burgers:
In small bowl, combine thyme, salt, garlic, onion, paprika, pepper, allspice, ginger and set aside.
Divide ground chicken into four 1/4 lb rounds. Shape rounds into 1/2 inch thick patties (about 5 inches wide).
In high sided dish or airtight storage bag, combine soy sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar. Mix to dissolve sugar into liquids. Coat both sides of chicken patties with spice mixture and place into liquid. Seal and place in fridge for about 1 hour to marinate.
Turn grill on medium high. Remove chicken patties from marinade, shake to remove excess and place onto grill. Cook, flipping once, until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove from grill and let sit, covered by foil, for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Salsa:
Peel and cut mango off of seed. Cut mango sliced into 1/2 inch cubes. In small bowl, combine mango, red onion, cilantro, mint, ginger, lime juice and garlic salt. Mix lightly to combine thoroughly and refrigerate 15min - 1 hour before serving.
Friday, April 24, 2009
I love a good cocktail, and I REALLY love a good mojito. I’m not kidding when I say part of what convinced me to move into my current apartment was that it’s just around the block from my favorite rum bar, where they make the BEST mojitos in town.
Now, I know that mojitos have become really popular and your chain restaurants now “make” them, and you can get mojitos mix. But that, is insane. Why do you need a mix for such a simple, fresh drink? Believe me, pass up that artificial crap, buy these simple fresh ingredients, and you’re minutes away from a great drink!
**Right now, I don’t have a good clear picture of the drink, but you can see it in the Caribbean Chicken Burgers post, and I am definitely going to be making this drink again, so I’ll add good pictures later!**
Mojitos
from Hostess with the Mostess
1.5 oz light rum
12 mint leaves
1 tbsp sugar
.5 oz lime juice
2 oz club soda
limes for garnish (optional)
Place mint leaves in bottom of glass. Add rum, sugar, and lime juice, then muddle. Add soda water & ice. Garnish with lime wheels and/or a mint sprig.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
When I knew I’d be making sugar cookies in the shape of dog bones for my friend’s birthday, I couldn’t leave it as easy as taking the dough out of the freezer cutting and decorating. I wanted to whip up something in a chocolate version to pair with them to give to the birthday girl too!
Smitten Kitchen called these Brownie Roll Out Cookies, and I had seen some rave reviews online about them. I decided to try out this recipe. While it WAS good and yummy, it wasn’t earth-shattering delicious, and I didn’t really taste the brownie comparison. They just tasted like a chocolate cookie! Let me warn you, be sure you roll out the dough evenly. If you bake these with varying thickness, the thin ones will get crispy. As long as you don’t overbake them, they are soft & yummy. I’m not convinced I’d make these again, though. I’d like to give Martha Stewart’s recipe a try first, because so far, Martha has not failed me yet in the cookie department!
Again, I chose to decorate these with a little bit of icing and nonpariels. I can’t help it, those little round, rainbow colored spheres are just too adorable. Whether it’s on cupcakes, marshmallows, or cookies, who could resist the cuteness?
Before we get any further, I must say, these AMAZING photos were taken by the birthday girl herself! She’s got quite the eye for photography, and I always enjoy looking at her latest photos. So thank you KRISTEN for being such a great photographer, and for sharing your photos with me!
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Chocolate Roll Out Cookies
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup lightly salted butter, softened (Deb note: I donât really see âlightly saltedâ much these days, so I used one stick salted, one stick unsalted; Erin's note: I overlooked this note when grocery shopping, and only used unsalted, but added about 1/4 teaspoon more salt to make up for it)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (Erin's note: I used half regular Hershey's Cocoa, and half Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa, because I love that stuff)
Directions:
Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.
Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so donât overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Monday, April 20, 2009
No, this is NOT a leftover Valentine’s Day post. I’m slow… but not THAT slow. (PS. I played around with the color & contrast on this pic, so the dough looks very yellow…)
I had two important events coming up in the lives of two friends of mine. One was getting married, and the other was having a birthday. More on the birthday girl later. I was doing the food for the shower/bachelorette party we threw for my friend the bride. I already was planning on making cupcakes, but I wanted another snack/handy dessert. I decided to finally use the sugar cookie cutters I had bought, planning to use for Valentine’s Day, but never did. I tried one recipe, and I won’t even bother posting it, but I was NOT happy with the results. So I pulled out my Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook, and low & behold she has not one but four recipes for sugar cookies, two of which are for cutouts. I went with her basic “Sugar Cookie Cutouts” which oddly, I can’t find that exact recipe on her site. So I can’t link to it.
The directions say to divide the dough into two halves, and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. I saved one half to do cookies for the birthday girl the following week, and set out to do hearts with Royal icing for the bride. These were super simple to roll out and cut into the desired shapes, and tasted great. If you’re looking for a no-fail recipe, try this one.
I also used her recipe for Royal Icing, and there’s nothing wrong with it, I just don’t have the patience or the hand skills for it! So, needless to say, you most likely won’t be seeing cookies iced this way again on my blog again! I know lots of people that do amazing, creative things with it, I’m just not one of them.
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Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Ingredients:
COOKIES:
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for sifting
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
ROYAL ICING:
1 box confectioners' sugar (1 pound)
5 tablespoons meringue powder, or 2 large egg whites
Directions:
COOKIES:
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to just under 1/4 inch thick, adding more flour as needed to keep dough from sticking. Cut out cookies with a 4-to-5-inch cookie cutter, transferring shapes to parchment paper-lined baking sheets as you work. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat with remaining disk of dough. Chill cookies in freezer until very firm, about 15 minutes.
Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Decorate as desired.
ICING:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine sugar and meringue powder. Mixing on low speed, add a scant 1/2 cup water. For a thinner consistency, usually used for flooding, add more water. A thicker consistency is generally used for outlining and adding details. Mix until icing holds a ribbonlike trail on the surface of the mixture for 5 seconds when you raise the paddle.
And now… for the birthday girl! She’s a dog-lover to the extreme. In her tiny apartment, she has multiple, large breed dogs! She is even a “puppy raiser” and raises dogs from the age of puppies, that go on to become leader dogs. Pretty cool huh? Once, while browsing Michaels, and I saw a really cute dog-bone cookie cutter, like this one, and I KNEW I had to buy it for her! This was in like January or something. So, back to the cookies. When I knew I’d be making cookies for the bride, and would have extra cookie dough, I couldn’t resist using the “gift” just once before giving it to the birthday girl. So I cut out these adorable cookies and decorated them with nonpariels (I have a slight obsession with them, ok?). I left them as a surprise at work for the birthday girl, along with the chocolate ones (recipe coming tomorrow!), and I wasn’t there when she got them, but I think they were well received!
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