Mofongo Relleno de Camarones

Mofongo with shrimp stuffing! Oh yeah! This Puerto Rican delicacy was inspired by a wonderful restaurant we ate at this past weekend! What is it you may ask? Well let me tell you! Mofongo is fried mashed plantains with lots of garlic and pork rinds. (I used bacon ofcourse!)

Here's what I did:

Mofongo

Ingredients: 2 green plantains, 3 garlic cloves, bacon and oil for frying. 

How to make it: Cut bacon into small pieces and fry it. Remove and reserve on power towels to soak excess grease. In the bacon grease, fry garlic for few seconds and remove and reserve. Then add some canola oil and fry the plantains cut into 1/4 inches (peeled obviously). Remove when done on paper towels. 

In a mortar add the garlic, crush and then add plantains few at a time and crush. Add bacon bits and more plantains until all is gone. Mofongo is ready!!! Recipe said it would be creamy but mine wasn't. But still yummy!

For the Shrimp Stuffing:

Ingredients: Jumbo shrimp (which is what I had), crushed tomato, a little bit tomato paste, garlic, sazon Goya, adobo seasoning, onions, carrots (coz I needed to use some up but u can add peppers to this dish) and cilantro (coz I had some)

What to do: sauté onion until translucent, add garlic, carrots, tomatoes and paste, sazon Goya and adobo. Add shrimp and cook until done and top with cilantro. 

Serve with mofongo! This stuff is yummalicious :)

When a girl wants cake!!

And it's below freezing outside, it's a great time to warm up that oven and make some yourself! I found this recipe for mini cupcakes but decided to make little cakes instead! 

 

Original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mini-Vanilla-Cupcakes-109045?mbid=ipapp

My verdict of the recipe? The cake is tasty but quite dense so you do need coffee or tea for it. 

Here's what I did differently? Nothing much. Added 1 tsp of vanilla and 1/2 tsp lime juice. Bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Frosting? Nutella frosting. Here is what I did:

2 tbsp butter, 4 tbsp icing sugar, 1 tbsp to 1.5 tbsp Nutella, 1/2 tsp vanilla and about 1/2 to 1 tsp half and half (or whipping cream or whole milk) and a pinch of salt

How to make it? Whip butter + sugar until smooth. Add Nutella, salt and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add half and half (start with 1/4 tsp) and increase until desired consistency is reached.

Poached Egg and Pesto on English Muffin!

Wanted something different than the usual egg, ham and cheese sandwich. I had recently made pesto so decided to do poached eggs instead.

It was very easy actually. Heat water + splash of white vinegar on medium heat until it bubbles but not boiling. Crack an egg in a small bowl. When water is ready create a whirlpool with your spatula. Slide egg in the middle and don't fidget. Let it cook without touching for a minute or two (until the white is opaque) and then you can then gently nudge it if it's stuck to the bottom of pan. Cook until desired done-ness of yolk!

Slide it between English muffins (cheese if you want any... I skipped it), pesto and slices of ham but I am thinking turkey would work here too!

Spicy Sausage Bread

Got this idea from Pinterest as well but I decided to make my own bread dough and filling.

Here's what I did:

For the dough: 

2 cups flour

1 cup warm water (room temp)

1 packet yeast

1/2 tsp sugar 

1/2 tsp salt 

To make the dough: Mix all the dry ingredients + add water until sticky dough forms. Put this in a floured surface and knead until the dough comes together into a ball and no longer sticky. Put in a bowl + cover with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to rise. On the side of the stove while you cook the filling is an excellent place in the cold. 

A tip: Oil the bowl you put the dough to rise. I didn't and it was not easy to take out.

For the filling:

1 medium white onion

1 pepper (I used yellow)

Couple of small cherry tomatoes or 2 Romas or 1/4 canned

Garlic minced 

Chili oil (coz I had some) + some olive oil (chili oil can be skipped)

Thyme, oregano and either paprika, chili powder or chipotle powder (whatever you have in hand)

Spicy Sausage (I used linguisa but this can be skipped for veggie lovers)

Mushrooms (baby bella)

Cheese (parm and cheddar shredded) but you can use whatever you have

To make: 

Sauté the onions in chili oil and olive oil until translucent. Add tomatoes and cook until soft. Add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant (a minute or two). Add pepper, paprika and chili pwd + sausage + mushroom and cook until dry. Add a little salt and tiny bit of sugar for taste. 

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 350F

Roll the dough in a floured surface, add the mixture in the middle + cheese on top and fold the dough from all four sides (use water, egg wash or buttermilk like I did coz I had some obviously!!) Brush the top with buttermilk + sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for 30 mins (which is what I did but it could be around 35 mins too depending on your oven..) Basically look for golden brown color or let your nose be the guide i.e. bread smells fragrant!!!!

Conga Bars or Blondies :)

Got the recipe from this months Yankee Magazine but use any chocolate chip recipe you like and add a cup of unsweetened shredded coconut to it. 

It's very good. I did not have coconut so I skipped it. Added almonds as my nut of choice then baked for about 25 mins until the stick inserted in the center came out clean! Must try!

Doro Wot and Berbere

I was actually feeling Moroccan but didn't quite want anything yellow. So I thought of Doro Wat and what a good decision it was!! This is an Ethiopian chicken stew and let me tell you it was fabulous. The spice mixture Berbere that is used in this a combo of a bunch of spices that well I happened to have. The recipe is on Savuer.com but obviously I modified (read skipped) it to suit me. 

For Berbere: Well... I never measure unless I am baking so all ingredients were eyeballed to abt 1tsp. I did skip fenugreek coz I didn't have any. I did add onion powder to the mix although I did find minced onion in the spice drawer! Used ground cloves and instead of whole chilies I used some paprika, chipotle powder and Indian Kashmiri chili powder (all approx 1 tsp or less if you like less spicy).

For Doro Wot: I actually followed the recipe except I only used half cup of ck stock and rest was water, added potatoes in with the chicken and at the last 10 minutes of cooking I added 1 can of drained, rinsed chick peas (remember was feeling Morroccan?!!)

For all the vegetarians out there, trust me, Try this recipe! Just chickpeas and potatoes will be fabulous but you can use  any veggies you like.   

For recipe: you can read the whole thing or just follow the pictures which is kinda cool - http://nomnompaleo.com/post/55432334180/doro-wat-spicy-ethiopian-chicken-stew