Secret Ingredient

Spice it up!

Chai Baby Tea — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:21:14 -0700

Want to spice up your holiday? Adding masala chai to your favorite holiday dishes will give them a wonderfully exciting layer of flavor.

1. Breads. Add one cup of prepared masala chai to pumpkin or cinnamon bread recipes for wonderfully varied and spicy flavor.

2. Veggies. Use prepared masala chai to steam vegetables and rice or soak lentils and beans.

3. Soups, sauces and marinades. Add prepared masala chai directly to these dishes.

4. For you gourmands: Spicy ice cream. Boil 4 cups of masala chai over medium heat until it becomes a syrupy reduction sauce. Mix into vanilla ice cream and re-freeze.

So, what are you waiting for? Get cooking, baby! And keep us posted on your tea-inspired culinary adventures.

Crab Cake Burgers

Kelliegrl — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:42:18 -0700

eatingwell.com

Nutrition Info
Per Serving

INGREDIENTS

1 pound crabmeat
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs (see Note)
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
2 tablespoons minced chives
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 dashes hot sauce, such as Tabasco, or to taste
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS

Mix crab, egg, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, chives, mustard, lemon juice, celery seed, onion powder, pepper and hot sauce in a large bowl. Form into 6 patties.
Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until the butter stops foaming. Cook the patties until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side.
Yield: 6 servings

3. Still Hungry?
These burgers have a true crab flavor that isn't masked by fillers or strong seasoning. Serve on a bun with tartar sauce or with a lemon-juice-dressed salad of greens, sprouts and sliced peaches. This recipe works best with convenient pasteurized crabmeat, usually found in the refrigerated case near the fish counter. If you prefer lump crabmeat, cut it into small, uniform pieces.

Notes:
Tip

Panko breadcrumbs, also known as Japanese breadcrumbs or bread flakes, are coarser in texture than other dried breadcrumbs. They produce a crispy crust and are less likely to become soggy than finely ground breadcrumbs. Look for panko in the Asian food section of large supermarkets and in specialty Asian markets.

More Recipes Like This
Perfect Roast Turkey
Double Lemon-Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
Cranberry and Herb Turkey Burgers

More From EatingWell.com
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Meatloaf Cupcake (Healthy) Recipe

SweetnLow — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:27:58 -0700

Original Recipe

This recipe is similar to the meatloaf cupcakes which Yumsugar posted on June 9, 2008. The recipe is a healthier, non-red meat based meatloaf.

INGREDIENTS

Meatloaf Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tbls quick cooking oatmeal
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
2 cups shredded zucchini
¼ cup egg substitute
Salt & Pepper to taste
BBQ sauce (aim for a tomato-heavy brand)

Potato Ingredients:
4 cups red skinned potatoes – boiled till soft
4 tbls bleu cheese crumbles
¼ cup fat free milk
Powdered or Crushed Garlic (to taste)
Food Coloring (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Chop the potatoes very fine. I leave the skins on for nutrition, and the fact that they will add a "confetti" look to the outcome. Set them to boil until tender.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400. Mix all the meatloaf ingredients with the exception of the BBQ sauce. Spray down a muffin tin with olive oil. Place 1/3 cup of the meatloaf mixture into each tin. Spread BBQ across the tops before placing in oven. Set to bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove your now-soft potatoes and drain. Add remaining ingredients (and food color if you desire) and mix with an electric mixer (this will ensure the 'icing-type' consistency.) Place them in a pastry bag (or a ziploc with the corner chopped off in the alternative.)

Remove the finished meatloaves from the muffin tin. I use a soft knife or small plastic spatula to not tear the sides of the cake as badly. Squeeze the potatoes onto the meat cakes in a swirly pattern. Sprinkle the tops with rosemary for a sprinkly look.

The best sides for this dish are a green veggie. My family likes steamed broccoli or sauteed spinach. This recipe is VERY kid friendly!

Asian Style Chicken Salad

marie-lee — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:59:09 -0700

adapted from Food, Cook, Eat by Lulu Grimes

I love ordering chicken salad from Thai and Vietnamese restaurants. This is great for the hot weather we are having at the moment...very refreshing.

INGREDIENTS

Handful of wombok/Chinese cabbage, sliced
Handful of bean sprouts
1 cooked chicken breast, shredded

dressing:
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons fish sauce
juice from one lime
1 large chili, seeded and diced
French shallot or 1/2 red onion, diced
1 tablespoon dried mint

DIRECTIONS

Toss salad ingredients in a bowl. Combine dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Serve garnished with coriander, chopped peanuts and fried shallots if desired.

The Epiphany of a MEAT CAKE.

c0rkie — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:30:43 -0700

The chef behind this is a GENIUS!

This is supposedly delicious lol.
I haven't personally tried to make a meat cake yet so I wouldn't know.

I just had to share this on Teamsugar in case you haven't seen this yet.

There's even a gallery of other meatcake fanatics! Talk about having a FEAST!

the following is taken from:
http://www.blackwidowbakery.com/demo/meatcake/

This, my friends,
is my culinary epiphany.

Feast your eyes on this!

A cake...with a t-bone drawn on
it? Has our intrepid chefstress lost her mind? NO, my friends, NO!
because THIS....is MEAT CAKE.

Okay, see, this bears some
explanation. A coworker is getting married next week, and we were
talking about wedding cakes (I had just done one for two friends of
mine). He asked if I could do one for him - totally joking of
course. "Oh, sure, what kind of chef are you that you can't pump out
a wedding cake on just two weeks notice??" He went on to describe
his ultimate wedding cake. "I hate that wedding cakes are all girly.
There should be like a groom cake to go with the traditional wedding
cake. A guy's cake. Like..made out of meat."

A lightbulb went off in my
mind. "I could TOTALLY do that," I exclaimed. "A meatloaf! With
mashed potato frosting! OH MY GOD!"

"Yeah!" He was catching on.
"And like, gravy between the layers and melted cheese for the
writing!"

"Hmmmm. No, ketchup glaze," I
decided. "I am so totally going to do this," I suddenly realized.

So today I did. Here's how it
went down:

The first thing I needed was the meatloaf. I make a pretty yummy meatloaf, but I never make it the same way twice. I knew I needed a dryer meatloaf, so I would need a lot of breadcrumbs. Into a bowl, I mixed:

6 # hamburger, 80% lean
3 large AA eggs
2 TB minced garlic

1 TB minced dried onion
1 TB basil
2c bread crumbs
2 TB kosher salt

I knew there was going to be a
lot of fat left in the pans, and I am lazy, so I used disposable
cake tins. Three 8 inch rounds. There wouldn't be as much fat if I'd
used leaner meat, but the grocery store didn't have any leaner meat
in chubs, and I didn't want to spend a million dollars on this
anyway. Next time I'll cut the beef with something a little leaner,
or maybe bigger chunks of bread. I wasn't too concerned about it,
since this was only the trial run to see if this idea is even
worthy. I evenly distributed the meat into the cake tins.

And then into the 400 degree
oven until they reached an internal temperature of 170 degrees,
which was about 45 minutes. I glazed two of them after about 20
minutes, but this was an act of sheer optimism, as there was a
better than average chance I was going to have to cut the tops off
anyway, to level them.

It wouldn't do at ALL to have
them bathing in yukky grease once they were out, so I pulled them
out of the tins right away and let them cool on draining racks. Yep,
glazing was too optimistic. The meatloaf bound up a little tighter
than I would have liked - I think next time I would go with three
cups of bread crumbs instead of two. I watched an episode of Good
Eats while I waited for them to cool, and thanks to Alton, I really
wanted wontons.

Like any cake, it needed to be
leveled. I wasn't too worried about accuracy here, but I carved off
a nice level slice from each layer. They steamed up when I leveled
them, so I ate a quick lunch of meatloaf scraps while they cooled
down some more. Needed a little salt, but my meatloaf is still very
tasty. This time Alton taught me about vinegar.

I stacked the layers and cut
off the edges, to get some semblance of roundness. More scraps for
dinner, I foresee. Again, I'm not really worried about making it
perfect, because I can buy a lot of forgiveness with icing. I mean
potatoes. (pardon me, I've got to go check on my green tea melon
sorbet)

(back. It's not ready yet, but
my raspberry ginger sorbet is hardened and it is delicious and I'm
eating some.) So many scraps for dinner! mmmmm.

I am going to stack them on my
prettiest paper round. Hee hee hee.

I whipped up a little more
glaze to put between the layers. For glaze, I use Worcestershire
sauce (pronounce the city 'worcestershire' "wuss-tuh-shuh" (with
hard, english vowel sounds). 'worcester' is "wuss-tuh". the stress
goes on the first syllable in both. Don't be wrong. You don't
pronounce the 'ce', like you don't call Gloucester 'glao-che-ster'
ACK BRAIN FREEZE DAMN YOU, GINGER SORBET! ok. Sorry.
'gloucester' and 'gloucestershire' are pronounced "gloss-tuh" and
"gloss-tuh-shuh" respectively. or wuss-stur-sher, but the sauce is
pronounced "wuhsher". Yeah. I've had a LOT of emails about
this. It's very strange. A lot of them contradict each
other. say it right. the end.), brown sugar, and ketchup. This
is the only time I ever eat ketchup on purpose, because ketchup is
vinegary, salty tomato blood and it is gross. True culinary fact. I
use 1 tsp of wooshereshtir sauce, 1/4 c of brown sugar, and 1 c of
ketchup, roughly. It's like my meatloaf. I don't usually make it the
same way twice. I generally brush it on while it bakes, so the sugar
caramelizes to deliciousness, but I am just using the raw deal here.

And now I spread it between the
layers. The weight of the next layer is going to push on it, so I
don't spread the glaze all the way to the edges. I'm being extra
careful here, since I don't want the ketchup bleeding into the
mashed potatoes when I spread them on. When I fill a cake with the
same frosting that's going on the outside, I'm not so careful about
it, but in cases like this, I don't want to contaminate the outer
appearance at all.

And now the frosting! Yeah, I'm
cheating and using potato flakes - but for a specific reason. I like
my real mashed potatoes with the skin in and lumpy as hell, so you
can tell that it used to be a potato, but consistency is key here.
I'm using potato flakes for smoothness and uniformity that I can't
really get with real potatoes without killing my whip attachment.
Yes, I *have* heard of a potato ricer, but I don't have one. And the
ingredients for this alone cost me $40, so I wasn't about to invest
some money on a ricer that I'm only going to use for this. And this
is just a test cake anyway. Nyah. Yes. I'm cheating. And lazy. MMmmm
potato flakes.

Is it buttercream? Is it mashed
potatoes? hm. Hard to tell! And THAT, my friends, is the whole very
point.

And now for the crumb coat! A
very thin layer of potatoes is applied to give the cake shape, and
to seal in the meaty crumbs and glaze that escaped. If this were a
cake, I'd have frozen it for a little while before doing the actual
frosting..

..But it's not a real cake!
HA-HA! So I'm plowing ahead and smothering it with potatoey
goodness. It's at about this stage I started giggling at how well my
plan was working. Holy hell, this looked like a cake. A real, proper
cake! I am a GENIUS!

And now for the delicate
touches. A spirally border with accents of glaze and a T-bone on
top. I've never drawn a T-bone steak before. It didn't come out too
bad, though there is a definite uterusy quality to it. And the
brilliant part of this, is that mashed potatoes can be colored
(anyone who's ever seen the movie Hook will testify). So I
could have decorated this just like any other cake in the world. But
the whole point of it is to be a Manly Man Cake, and hence the
steak. Next time, I'll decorate it like a proper cake. You can pipe
the mashed potatoes as easily as frosting. I also considered cutting
some crispy bacon to be 'candles'.

It tastes delicious. I chilled
it, sliced it, then served it warmed up from the microwave. Cold
meatloaf only belongs in sandwiches, not meat cake. It came out as
well as I hoped, and it's received far more attention than I ever
thought it would. Holy cats, a lot of you have seen this! I've
received a ton of email about it, and so far the worst people have
had to say was 'ewww meatloaf'. I shrug at thee! Meatloaf - when
done properly - is delicious! Unless you are not a meatatarian, in
which case it maybe tastes like murder, but for us hardcore
meatatarians, murder tastes like meat! And meat is delicious!

And now I'm going to go watch
what Alton has to say about spices, while you look at my meatcake
some more. Bon apetit!

http://www.blackwidowbakery.com/demo/meatcake/

Weekend Chicken Sandwich

daisymae051479 — Tue, 08 May 2007 11:57:23 -0700

I thought I would share what I made for lunch one day this weekend while I was cleaning out my garage. I fried, in oil, a frozen breaded chicken breast. I sauteed up some sliced mushrooms. I browned 2 bacon strips. Then I buttered one side each of 2 slices of thick-sliced bread. I put some hot, sweet mustard on one of the unbuttered sides of bread. Then put the mushrooms and bacon slices on the mustard side. Topped that with swiss cheese. Then the breaded chicken breast. Then the other bread slice, buttered side up. I cooked that up grilled cheese style, so the bread was crispy and the cheese melted. It was really good and it totally filled me up and got me going for the rest of the garage cleaning. You could essentially put whatever you want on the sandwich, according to your tastes. I make all sorts of "grilled cheese" sandwiches with tons of extras in them - usually whatever I have on hand (think leftovers!) or am craving. Hope you like it!

Salsa Chicken

daisymae051479 — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:21:06 -0700

One of my favorite things I do with chicken is to brown some (4) chicken breast halves in a large skillet with a little oil; doesn't have to be done, just browned on both sides. Then I pour over the chicken a big jar of salsa (or more, depending on the day) to the skillet. Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce heat and let simmer about 10 min. Top each breast with a slice or two of cheese (I prefer Pepper-Jack here, but Cheddar is also nice). Sprinkle with some chopped cilantro. Cover. Remove skillet from heat and let set about 3 min. to melt the cheese. Serve with tortilla chips to scoop up the leftover salsa.

I usually serve mexi-corn from a bag or can as a side to this, but when I've had to serve children who don't like corn, I simply stir a can of drained corn into the salsa before pouring it over the chicken in the skillet, and then it's a one skillet meal and the kids get the extra veggies. A salad would be a nice side for adults also. You could even top each salad serving with mexi-corn.

secret in cooking Chinese style rice

Hera119 — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:50:55 -0700

Chinese rice,is all fluffy, and sticks together in clumps, so you can eat it with chopsticks

Here are a few things to consider when making white rice.
1. Bring the water and the rice to a boil together.
2. Do not put butter or oil in with the rice, this will cause the rice to seperate just add salt when the rice comes to a boil.
3. Stir the rice when it reaches a boil ONCE than bring down to a simmer. Vent holes will form naturally in the rice which is important for the steaming process. after about 15-17 minutes of simmering turn off the burner and let steam for 15-25 minutes. Dont peek.
4. Use a heavy bottom pan to prevent sticking.
5. Rinse the rice before cooking it.

Thai Chicken Massaman Curry

andaman — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:31:50 -0700

Here is my chicken recipe . It's 'thai chicken massaman curry'. The curry is sometimes called Muslim curry because the origin is from the muslim communities in Thailand. If you like spices this is the curry for you. It is highly aromatic.

Paste

100 grams Asian Shallots (stronger than the western types and much smaller, available in Asian stores)

50 grams Garlic Cloves
40 grams Pistachio Nuts
40 grams Pine Nuts
3 Whole Cardamon Pods
1 TB Cumin Powder
1 and 1/4 TB Turmeric Powder
1 TS Cloves Powder
1TS Smoked Paprika
1/2 TB Hot Chilli Powder
60 grams Galangal
1/2 TS Fennel Seeds
1 TS Amchoor Powder (It's dried mango powder, available in Indian stores)
1 TS Salt
1 TB Mild Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil
1/2 TS Saffron

Others
3 Skinless Chicken Breasts
2 Floury Potatoes
1 Bay Leaf
4TB Tamarind Juice
1 Can (400ML) Coconut Milk
40 grams Toasted Unsalted Peanuts (optional)

Methods
1) Peel shallots and garlic cloves. Place them under the grill until they start to blacken a little.
2) Cut the chicken breasts into small cubes. Peel the potatoes and cut into four before parboiling them.
3) Toast the pine nuts and pistachio nuts until they are slightly brown in a pan.
3) Blend the garlic, shallots, and nuts in a blender.
4) Add the oil and the rest of the ingredients. Continue to blend until it forms a smooth paste.
5) Open the coconut can and scoop the creamy part, usually it sits at the top of the can, into a wok. Pour in the curry paste and stir until it starts to bubble.
6) Add Chicken, potatoes, bay leaf and the rest of the coconut milk left in the wok.
7) After the chicken is cooked, taste the curry and season with salt, sugar, more chilli powder and tamarind juice. The curry should taste mildly sour. If you like nuts you can add toasted unsalted peanuts at the end. In Thailand it's common to find peanuts in this curry. I, however, prefer to work the nuts into the paste.

I actually cook for a living. I would very much love to hear feedbacks. Please feel free to make suggestions. Some recipes call for cinamon, I would love to hear if anyone has experimented with it?

Easy Italian Chicken

lizzyb — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:23:07 -0700

Chicken Italian
½ c grated Parmesan cheese (put some bread crumbs in too)
2 T minced fresh parley
1 tsp diced oregano
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp pepper
2 whole chicken breasts (cut in half)
3 T butter or olive oil
Combine Parmesan, parsley, oregano, garlic and pepper. Dip chicken in melted butter then in cheese mixture. Place in shallow baking dish. Drizzle remaining butter over chicken. Bake 375 for 25 minutes.