Iron Cupcake: Earth - Battle Savoury!

This will be my first Iron Cupcake: Earth challenge, and I’m so excited!  Faced with the challenge of making a savoury cupcake;  that is, something you would have for dinner instead of for dessert, I tried to break down favourite dishes that might translate in cupcake form.  After lots of brainstorming, where I learned the internet is not teeming with ideas for savoury cupcakes, it came to me – Nachos.

Everyone has their own way of doing them; some like grated cheese, some the ooey-gooey processed cheese sauce.  The garnish possibilities run the gamut, from sweet (tomatoes) to salty (olives) to a little bit of heat (jalapenos).  This is my interpretation of nachos, in easy to eat cupcake form.  A cheese cupcake in a crispy tortilla cup, spiced with taco seasoning, dotted with green onions and filled with a thick salsa  and frosted with a swirl of sour cream.  Frosting is garnished with a sprinkling of finely diced tomatoes and sliced green onions and finally topped with a homemade tortilla chip.

Nachos Sabroso Cupcakes

Tortilla cups

• 4 Large tomato tortillas
• cooking spray or vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F (200C)  for the cupcakes.
2. Lightly grease 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.  Set aside.
3. Using a 4 inch cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out 12 rounds from tortillas.
4. In large pan over medium-low heat, warm tortillas, one or two at a time, until pliable.
5. As you remove tortillas from heat, gently fit into muffin cups, pleating if necessary.  Careful as the tortillas may be hot!
6. Set aside and proceed to making cupcake batter.

Cupcake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp taco seasoning (homemade or store-bought)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded old cheddar cheese
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. If you haven’t done so yet, preheat oven to 400F (200C).
2. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda and taco seasoning;  stir in cheddar cheese and green onions.
3. In small bowl, lightly beat eggs; stir in sour cream and butter.  Add to dry ingredients, all at once, stirring just until moistened.  Divide batter evenly among the 12 tortilla lined muffin cups.
4. Bake 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes in cups on wire rack.  Remove and let cool completely.  If making tortilla chips, leave oven on.

Tortilla chips (for garnish)

• 1 flour torilla
• 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
• kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F unless oven is still on from making the cupcakes.
2. Slice tortilla into 12 wedges and place on lined baking sheet.
3. Brush top side of tortilla wedges lightly with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Bake for 5 minutes, rotate baking sheet and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until tortillas start to crisp but do not turn brown.

Topping and Assembly

1/2 cup thick salsa

1 500 ml container sour cream (2 cups)

1 tomato, finely chopped

1 green onion, sliced

12 tortilla chips (homemade or store-bought)

1. Using sharp knife, cut out small circles into the middle of the cupcake, careful to not go through to the bottom (picture above).  Reserve caps.  Fill each cupcake with a 2 tsp of salsa, and gently replace cap.  If necessary, cut bottom of the cap to make room for the filling.
2. Using a spoon,  swirl sour cream on each cupcake.
3. Garnish with finely chopped tomato, green onion slices and a tortilla chip and serve immediately.

This month’s winner will receive the following fabulous prizes:

The May ETSY PRIZE-PACK:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
• something sweet and dangly from CHERRYCREEKCHARMS at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6686445.
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget the corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com

I will let you know when the voting opens, and I encourage you to vote for your favourites, even if its not mine! (of course that would be awesome too!)

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

In honour of St. Patrick’s Day, the Food network Canada website ran a poll for their March Cooking Club Challenge with three beer containing recipes. Ricardo Larivee’s Beer Batter Onion Rings won and I’m excited as this will be my first time joining the challenge.

I already have a favourite onion ring recipe though it contains milk and egg, so I am up for a change, and I knew my husband would be more than happy to be a co-taste tester!

Riccardo's Beer-Battered Onion Rings
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS:

Onion Rings

• 1 large Spanish onion, sliced into 1-cm (1/2-inch) rounds and separated into rings (if desired, set aside the small centre rings for another use)
• 1/4 cup cornstarch

Batter

• 1 cup pastry flour
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup pale ale
• Oil for frying

DIRECTIONS:

Onion Rings

1. Preheat the deep fryer to 190°C (375°F). Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet or line a baking sheet with paper towels.
2. In a paper bag or large bowl, toss the onion rings in the cornstarch to coat well. Set aside.

Batter

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Whisk in the beer.
2. Using your fingertips or a wooden chopstick, dip the rings in the batter, 4 or 5 at a time. Shake off excess batter and deep-fry for about 3 minutes, turning half way through cooking. Drain on the baking sheet. Season lightly with salt. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

I used a light canola oil, a plus is that at high temperatures needed for frying such as this, it doesn’t smoke

I used a large heavy pan, and put about an inch of oil, enough that the rings would not touch the bottom when dropped in

I then sliced a large onion we had leftover from the turkey meatballs. It really is okay if some of the rings are broken as you see here, it still tastes great and no one minds that its not a perfect O!

Rings all coated in cornstarch and ready for dipping

Mix all dry ingredients together. I used some of the cornstarch leftover from coating the onions. I do not usually have pastry flour in the house so I used all purpose flour instead.

Although the recipe calls for a pale ale, I used one of my husband’s favourite beers. I would try the pale ale next time for sure, as the beer gives the batter its flavour I think it needs to be stronger than the honey can give.

1 cup of beer as you see was not enough. I ended up using almost the entire bottle save for a bit at the bottom. This may have something to do with the fact that I used all purpose flour instead of pastry flour.

Here is the batter at the right consistency, slightly thinner than a pancake batter (it should hold onto the onion without all sliding off)

Drop in the hot oil, it should bubble instantly

Here the ring to the front left has already been turned over, it turns a nice pale brown. The ring to the right has been coated in bread crumbs like my other recipe calls for, I was interested in if this would prove to be a big difference.

Crispy brown and ready for eating! The ones to the right are the ones that I coated in dried bread crumbs. My husband and I both prefered the texture and crunch they give, although even without they do have a nice crunch, and were not extremely greasy as I thought they might be.

I felt that I still prefered my original recipe, which I will have to post (soon!) but as I am not a beer drinker I could be biased. My husband (who loves beer) thoroughly enjoyed them, and he might have me adding beer to my other onion rings(maybe because he gets to drink the leftovers? For someone with allergies to milk and eggs, this is definitely a fantastic alternative to the normal battered variety.

Actually I must say here I detest beer, but you don’t end up feeling like you’re eating onions dunked in it, and I did steal a couple before handing the rest over. My husband agreed it would be improved with a stronger beer such as Guiness or as the original recipe calls for, a pale ale.

Happy St. Patrick’s day and happy frying!

Oh Comfort Food

On Monday I had dental surgery that I am still recovering from, in a haze between pain pills, sips of iced tea and spoonfuls of applesauce.  On Sunday, knowing full well I would be chowing down on mush  this week, I decided to make something that always makes me feel warm and satisfied.  The kind of food that is like a big fuzzy blanket wrapped around you.

Lately that big blanket has been a big generous hunk of Chicken Pot Pie.

  

There is just something about veggies and chicken smothered in a yummy sauce covered with pastry to put a big smile on your face.  Usually chicken pot pie consists of veggies, chicken, and a cream sauce.  Being lactose intolerant, I can’t do the milk or cream.  I wish, because then I would have the perfect excuse right now for knocking back the pints of mint chip!   For a long time I was missing this dish because I knew I couldn’t handle all the dairy crammed into it.  This was before I moved out and started to make my own gravy.  Then it clicked.  This is just something we started throwing together, and have about where I want it now.    The pastry is Crisco’s recipe except I have replaced the shortening with all butter.  The amount of butter doesn’t bother me, but of course if you too are lactose intolerant and can’t handle butter, it can be replaced with shortening as per the original recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie

Pastry for two 9" (23 cm) pie shells or 1 double-crust pie (Adapted from Crisco)

There is two different ways to make the pastry, I’ve included both.

2 cups (5oo mL) All Purpose Flour

3/4 tsp (3 mL)     Salt

1 cup (250 mL)    Butter (or Shortening)

2 tbsp (30 mL)    Water, cold

1 tbsp (15 mL)     White vinegar

1                                Egg

Food Processor Method:

Add dry ingredients into the bowl fitted with the dough blade, add cold butter in cubes, replace top and pulse until it forms crumbs the size of large peas.  Then add the blended wet ingredients through the intake tube (is that what it’s called?) and pulse until it forms into a large clump.  This has produced a tender pastry for me every single time, and saves SO much time!

Pastry blender or two knives Method:

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl. Cut room temperature butter or shortening into flour with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Beat egg, water and vinegar together to blend. Pour all the liquid over flour mixture. Stir with fork until mixture is moistened.

For Either Method:
Divide dough in half and shape each into a ball. Flatten each into a circle and  wrap and chill dough 15 minutes for easier rolling.  If you are using a 9 inch pie plate/dish, you will only need one disc.  The other can be well wrapped in foil or a freezer bag and frozen.  If you are using a larger dish, such as a 9 x 13 pan, you may need both.

While the dough rests, turn on the oven 375F to preheat, and move onto the filling.  The dough can also be done ahead of time and refrigerated,  or frozen and just thawed the day before you need it.

Chicken Pot Pie Filling:

Chicken Breasts

2 handfuls baby carrots

1 medium onion

2 stalks Celery

1 Can peas

Chicken stock or broth

flour or cornstarch

oil or fat for sauteing

salt and pepper

1 egg for pastry wash

I should say haven’t included exact measurements because this can easily be adjusted according to how many people are you feeding.  There is only me and the husband at home, so you could add more according to your crowd.  You could of course use any vegetables you liked as well.  I like the baby carrots because they’re bite size and I don’t have to peel them, and I find them sweeter.

Cut the baby carrots into bite sized pieces and steam.  I have found that they take at least 20 minutes if not longer to soften, so I like to start this early.  Sometimes I will also do this earlier and leave them in the fridge so they’re ready for me.  While they’re steaming, chop the onion and celery finely.  If you like bigger pieces of onion and celery feel free to make them larger.  On a separate cutting board or plate, cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.

In a large deep frying pan or saucepan, heat a small amount of oil or butter, and throw in the celery and onion.  I like to cook them until they are nice and translucent as I find this takes some of the “bite” out of the onion, which I find hard on my stomach, and can be a bit overpowering in the pie.  If you prefer a stronger onion taste, you could even skip this step.

When the onions have sweated and are softened, spoon out onto a plate or bowl, set aside.  Add chicken to the heated pan.  Add a bit more fat or oil if the pan has become dried.  Brown the chicken on all sides until cooked through.  Spoon out onto plate with the onion and celery.

Pour chicken broth/stock into the hot pan, and using a spoon or spatula scrape all those wonderful brown chicken bits from the bottom of the pan.  You want enough broth to make enough gravy to cover your vegetables and chicken.  So the more vegetables and meat you are adding, the more broth you will want to use.

While whisking briskly, sprinkle flour lightly over the broth.  Add only a light sprinkling at a time, as its easier to add more than take it out.  Let the broth come to a simmering boil after each addition until its thickened.  You can also mix flour or cornstarch with water in a measuring cup to make a sort of gruel, and while whisking add this in additions until thicken.  Ideally the gravy will coat all the ingredients, but if its a bit runny its not going to ruin it I promise.  If there are lumps or bits, you can strain with a fine mesh strainer.  Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Do not worry if it tastes a bit bland at this point, when the ingredients are added back it will flavour it as well.

Add all the ingredients back into the pot with the gravy.  Using a wooden spoon, stir to coat everything.  Add canned peas  and fold gently (You could also use frozen, I just prefer canned).  I usually let this simmer for 5 minutes or so, to let the flavours mingle.  Take off heat.  Pour mixture into a casserole dish or pie plate (as long as its oven safe and can hold the filling and be covered with pastry, it works!).

Remove one disc of pastry from the fridge.  To minimize mess, I roll the pastry between a piece of parchment paper folded in half.  Placing the disc between the papers, roll out into a shape large enough to cover your dish.  Inverting the pastry still on the paper over your dish, lift the paper off.  Using a sharp knife, cut so that pastry fits, fitting the edges against the dish (as there may be a bit of shrinkage while baking).

Beat egg with fork in small bowl, and brush over pastry.  Using sharp knife, cut vent holes to allow steam to escape while baking.  If you have leftover pastry, you can also cut out little shapes to put on top.  I usually do, only because its extra pastry to eat;)

Bake until pastry is a nice golden colour, usually about 20 minutes or so, I usually start checking  after 15 minutes.

And there you have it.  It isn’t a 20 minute meal, but the end result is so well worth it.  It also tastes amazing the next day (cold or reheated!)

I now have to go find me some applesauce.