Daring Cooks 6th Challenge: Chicken Pho

October 14, 2009 at 12:01 am | In Challenge, Daring Cooks, chocolate, comfort food, cooking challenge | 5 Comments
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The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. A perfect recipe for Fall, this vietnamese staple was a welcome challenge. You can’t go wrong with soup at this time of the year. I had pho once before in a local restaurant and had made a mental note to return once the weather would turn to our typical northwestern rainy season. I’m glad to now have a straightforward recipe I can do at home. One  small change I would do, however, is a little less fish sauce. Aside from that, it was a great recipe.

We had an optional challenge this month involving dessert wontons. The filling was left to our imagination. I chose “flavours of summer”. We had tried deep fried oreos, jelly beans and mars bars at the last PNE. The jelly beans and Mars TM bar weren’t very good, but the Oreos TM had definite potential. We had also had a deep fried Snickers TM before and quite liked it. So, our fillings for this challenge was a frozen mini Snickers and crushed Oreos. Well, the deep fried wonton, I think, proved an even better cover than the traditional funnel cake batter. We’ll be testing other similar fillings (hum…Reeses’ peanut butter cup…) in the chilly months to come. Thanks for a great pair of challenges!

Chicken Pho

Preparation Time: 45 cooking time + 15 minutes to cook noodles based on package directions

Servings: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce

1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)

Accompaniments:

2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice

Directions:

  1. To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning.
  2. In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil.
  3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently.
  4. Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.
  5. Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed. Strain the broth and discard the solids.
  6. Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package.
  7. Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl.
  8. Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients.

Challenge #2: Chocolate Wontons

Equipment:

• Small bowl
• Pastry brush
• Plastic wrap and/or damp paper towels
• Wok or medium-sized pot
• Frying thermometer (if you don’t have a thermometer, you can test the oil temperature by dropping in a cube of bread … if it browns quickly, the oil is ready)

Preparation time: 15 minutes + 15 minutes cooking time (for 12 wontons)

Servings: Makes 12 wontons.

Ingredients:

1 large egg
1 tbsp. water
12 wonton wrappers, defrosted (keep wrappers covered with damp towel)
12 pieces or nuggets of chocolate (use any type of chocolate you like)
High-heat oil for frying (i.e., vegetable oil, corn oil)
Confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar) for sprinkling

Directions:

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water to make an egg wash.
  2. On a clean, dry surface lay 1 wonton wrapper down with a point toward you, like a diamond.
  3. Place 1 piece of chocolate near the top end of the wrapper.
  4. Brush a very thin layer of the egg wash on the edges of the wrapper.
  5. Fold the bottom corner of the wrapper up to create a triangle and gently press to remove all air from the middle. Press the edges to adhere the sides. Make sure the wrapper is sealed completely.
  6. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and chocolate pieces.
  7. Keep the folded chocolate wontons covered under plastic wrap or a damp paper towel to prevent them from drying.
  8. In a wok or medium pot, pour in 2 inches (5 cm.) of high-heat oil.
  9. Heat the oil to 350º F (180º C) and gently slide a few of the chocolate wontons into the hot oil. Make sure you don’t crowd the chocolate wontons.
  10. Fry the wontons for 1 ½ minutes, then flip over and fry another minute until both sides are golden brown and crisp.

Daring Bakers 21st Challenge: Mallows (Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)

July 27, 2009 at 12:01 am | In Challenge, Daring Bakers, chocolate, sweet | 3 Comments
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The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.  I was thrilled when I saw that marshmallow was part of the challenge. It is something I had wanted to try making for a while, but had never got around to it. This particular cookie also had a more personal appeal to me. I grew up with “whippets“, the name of this type of cookie produced by Viau in Québec. I have fond memories of the way my father taught sis and I to eat this cookie: eat the chocolate covering first, then “inhale” the marshmallow in one breath; a technique which horrified my mother (JP!!), and naturally delighted us. :)

Last Sunday, I finally started on this recipe. We have had a very hot and dry spell, here in Vancouver, and I was worried it would affect the setting time for the marshmallow and chocolate. Nonetheless, time was running out and I went to work. The cookie base was as simple as can be. I was worried how wet and sticky it remained even after the refrigeration period, but it yielded a very nice base, almost a wringer for the original cookie. The marshmallow part turned out to be almost as simple as whipping up a meringue. Since I could not find light corn syrup, I opted for one of the options suggested in the forum, namely half glucose syrup and half normal corn syrup. It worked beautifully (but man, is that stuff sticky when you pipe it…). The ‘mallow setup quickly enough and I was off to the glazing part. Again, simple enough, using my potato masher as the holding and dunking tool. The heat didn’t help in this case at all. It was still soft come the next morning. After reading one of my DB colleague’s problem with chocolate blooming after she had refrigerated the cookies, I was hesitant to resort to that. So I took a couple to work that morning and stored it in the fridge. Not a problem. The chocolate kept its beautiful luster and I became addicted, once more, to this luscious cookie. It will definitely be part of my cookie roster.

Thankfully we had the option of doing one or both of the cookies for the challenge. The weather being what it is right now, I stopped at this one.  A great challenge, it really piqued my curiosity in marshmallow making. It’s an area I’ll explore more come Fall and more suitable baking climate. Thanks for a great challenge, Nicole!

Mallows (Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)IMG_0786
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serves: about 2 dozen cookies

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows
• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Homemade marshmallows:
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites , room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.
4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.
6. Transfer to a pastry bag.

Chocolate glaze:
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Daring Bakers 16th Challenge: Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino

February 28, 2009 at 12:02 am | In Challenge, Daring Bakers, baking, chocolate, sweet | 2 Comments

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The recipe was perfectly timed for Valentine’s day – can’t beat chocolate cake and ice cream. This was one of the most straightforward challenges in a while, so it took no time to put together. I did encounter some problems with my baking ware, however. While shopping at Michael’s I came across some heart-shaped silicone cupcake molds, half-priced. I’ve never really baked with silicone before, but my own cupcake pan is looking pretty ratty, so I decided to give them a try. Looking on the net, I found out that, on certain occasions, baking times must be adjusted with silicone pans. It seems to take longer. Which would make sense considering silicone is also used for a lot of heat resistant products. The recipe called for a 20-25 minutes baking period, but that was for a 10 inch cake. Since I was making cupcakes, I decided to aim for the 25 minutes. (My oven is not the hottest either — I have to set it at 25F higher than the called-for temperature). I checked the cupcakes at the half-way mark, and they were still very runny. As the 20-minute mark approached, my mom called… I remembered the cupcakes when the buzzer went off. They looked fine at first, a little scorched on the side. But, after one bite, I knew I had a over-baked them. Still, with the help of some Krispys Chocolate Mint Candy ice cream, they were quite palatable. I look forward to trying this recipe again and, most importantly, the March Daring Bakers challenge.

Krispys Mint Valentine Candy Ice Cream

February 12, 2009 at 8:34 pm | In chocolate, recipes | 1 Comment

The challenge with See’s Candies ‘ Krispys Mints® was to keep its crispiness and minty coolness intact. As with the Toffee-ettes ®, the Krispys Mints® were just right on their own.  This month’s Daring Bakers challenge involved an ice cream component. I thought the mint would be a nice add-on to the ice cream and to the main dessert for the challenge (to be posted on this blog on February 28. Stay tuned!) The results were quite nice. I simply used my regular crème anglaise recipe and added some crushed Krispys Mints to the mix.


Krispys Mint Valentine Candy Ice Cream

Ingredients
200 ml milk
100 ml cream
1/4 vanilla bean, cut, scraped
3 egg yolks
50 g sugar
6 Krispys Mints, well crushed

Infuse milk, cream w/ vanilla bean. Whisk yolks and sugar. Temper hot cream with egg mix. Return to boil. Stir on low hear until nappé. Strain and cool in an ice bath. Once cooled, pour custard into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions. I added the crushed Krispy Mints halfway through the final process.

Eat on its own or served with your favorite dessert. :)

Toffee-ettes® mini chocolate Valentine’s candy cupcakes

February 8, 2009 at 3:15 pm | In Challenge, baking, candy, chocolate, cooking challenge | 4 Comments
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As a fan of the Food Network’s Iron Chef America, I find it fascinating how chefs can incorporate one single ingredient into so many different dishes (trout ice cream, anyone?….)  So, when an email arrived from a representant of See’s Candies®, offering me a chance to develop other sweets using their own products, I jumped at the chance of playing mini Iron Chef!

My challenge was to come up with a Valentine’s day treat using one of See’s many candy products. Unfortunately, See’s Candies ® shops are not in Canada, but they were happy to send me a couple of products of my choice. I looked through the site and it was a tough choice. In the end, I settled on See’s Toffee-ettes® and Dark Mint Krispys®.

My next challenge was to find a recipe that used simple ingredients and was quick to prepare. I settled on the tried and true recipe for my cream cheese and chocolate mini-cupcakes. The chocolate batter is a cinch to put together and has a wonderful deep flavor. Add crushed Toffee-ettes® for texture and you’ve got a nice two-bite chocolaty-sweet and crunchy cupcake. Here’s the final recipe:

Toffee-ettes® mini chocolate Valentine’s candy cupcake

Preheat oven to 350F.

Dry Ingredients:

In a medium bowl, mix well together using a whisk:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

In a large measuring cup, or small bowl, mix together:

1 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients, whisk well until smooth. Crush approximately 10 Toffee-ettes® nuggets using a small processor. This should yield about one cup of crumble. Fold the crumble into the batter. Fill each cupcake liner to 3/4 full. Bake 16-18 minutes. Freezes well, and thaws in just a couple of minutes. Yields about 48 mini cupcakes.

Toffee-ettes® make a versatile add-on to many baked goods. The only challenge would be to keep them around long enough. They’re addictive just on their own! Stay tuned for my take on the Dark Mint Krispys®.

Daring Bakers 14th Challenge: French Yule Log

December 28, 2008 at 12:02 am | In Challenge, Christmas, Daring Bakers, baking, chocolate, cooking challenge, sweet | 14 Comments

french-yule-log

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. Last December, we were challenged with the traditional version of North American yule log. This year we went to Europe for the French version of this dessert. This was the most complex recipe I had done so far for DB. Reading the recipe through the first time, I started laughing at Item number 3, of this 6-parts challenge. Oooh…boy…Though time is always at a premium at this time of the year, the components were too enticing to skip.

The recipe was taken from Flore from Florilege Gourmand.. The yule consisted of six different components:

1)  Dacquoise Biscuit
2)  Mousse
3)  Ganache Insert
4)  Praline (Crisp) Insert
5)  Creme Brulee Insert
6)  Icing 

How can you say no to a dessert that includes crème brûlée and dark chocolate mousse?… Despite a shaky start (a comedy of errors more than anything), I completed this challenge over a period of two days. Luckily, since it was a frozen dessert, it could be done ahead of time. Though incredibly rich, (thin slices go a long way) it was a nice way to end  our Christmas meal and was well received. Looking forward to January. :)

Free Valentine e-cards from Chocomap

February 12, 2008 at 12:01 am | In candy, chocolate, sweet | Leave a Comment
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Valentine e-cardFrom the folks who brought the Chocomap, free valentine e-cards, designed to let that person you really care, without the calories.

Check it out at: Send an e-card bonbon

And the winner is…

January 7, 2008 at 6:00 am | In Challenge, Cooking, Daring Bakers, baking, candy, chocolate, cookbook, cooking challenge, food blog, world | 2 Comments
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Sometime in early December, as I was perusing the Daring Bakers website, I noticed an ad on the site for a Pink Champagne Truffleschocolate competition hosted by Hotel Chocolat, a UK-based purveyor of fine chocolates. The deal was simple: Submit your favorite chocolate-based recipe and their panel would pick a winner.

My all-time favorite and most acclaimed recipe is for Santa Fe Brownies, an unctuous concoction of 12 ounces of chocolate (bittersweet and semi-sweet) and cream cheese. I can’t quite recall how I got hold of this recipe. I believe my mom gave it to me, but she can’t remember where she got it from. It took me all of 2 minutes to copy my recipe onto the site’s registration and to submit it. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded when I received an email, from the marketing company behind the contest, telling me I had won! :0

Shortly after Christmas, I received my prizes: a box of Pink Champagne Truffles and a copy of the 101 Best Loved  Chocolate Recipes Book. The truffles are to die for, and the book is chock-full of scrumptious recipes (chocolate pasta anyone?…). Thank you Hotel Chocolat! It was a very nice after-Christmas present.

I baked Santa Fe Brownies while at my mother’s over the holidays. Our guests at Christmas all got to take a slab home. That recipe is definitely a winner in everyone’s book. Here’s the recipe. It’s a little-time consuming, but well worth the effort.

Santa Fe BrowniesSanta Fe Brownies
1 cup plus 1 teaspoon butter
6 squares (6 ounces) unsweetened chocolate coarsely chopped
6 squares (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 _ cups all-purpose flour
1 _ teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
1 _ cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 _ cups walnuts, broken into large pieces

Cream Cheese Mixture
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, softened (no substitutions)
1 _ teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs

Instructions :
1.Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 13x 9 inch baking pan with foil.   Melt 1 teaspoon of the
butter and brush the bottom and sides of the pan with it.  Melt the unsweetened
chocolate, semisweet chocolate, and the remaining 1 cup of butter in top of a double
boiler over simmering water.  Set mixture aside and cool slightly.

2.  Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Beat the eggs in a
large mixing bowl at medium speed until just blended.  Add the brown sugar, granulated
sugar, and vanilla: beat just until smooth.  Beat in the chocolate mixture, then flour
mixture, at low speed just until combined.  Reserve 2 1/4 cups batter.  Stir the walnuts
into remaining batter in the mixing bowl.  Spread the batter in the prepared pan.

3.  For Cream Cheese Mixture, beat the cream cheese and butter in a clean mixing bowl
at medium speed until smooth.  Gradually beat in the vanilla and sugar until light and
fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and beat just until
smooth.  Spoon the mixture over the chocolate batter in prepared pan, spreading to
edges to the pan.

4.Stir reserved chocolate batter to soften.  Spoon the batter over the cream cheese
layer.  With a knife, cut through batters in a zigzag pattern to marbleize slightly.  Bake 1
hour 15 minutes , until toothpick inserted in center comes out barely clean.  (If the top
browns too quickly during baking, cover the pan loosely with foil.)  Cool completely in the
pan on a wire rack.  Invert onto a cookie sheet; gently lift off pan and remove foil.  Invert
again, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

5.  With a long, sharp knife, cut brownies into squares, then cut each quarter into 8
squares.  (Can also be cut into slabs and frozen.) Makes 32.

Enjoy!

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Smarties smarten up…

December 13, 2007 at 12:09 am | In Trends, candy, chocolate | Leave a Comment
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Smarties BoxI was enjoying one of my favorite combination of flavors this week, chocolate and orange, when I noticed something different about my box of Smarties. There, in both French and English, a gentle reminder about the benefits of a balanced diet and physical activity. With obesity reaching epidemic levels, this effort by candy manufacturers to raise awareness is commendable. Just wondering how widespread this practice will become?…

Games for the connected chocoholics

November 30, 2007 at 10:44 pm | In Challenge, candy, chocolate, world | 5 Comments
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I’ve never been much of a computer-based gamer. I’ll play the odd game of solitaire or backgammon. I doChocolatier wander the virtual landscape of Second Life, these days looking to solve the CSI:NY SL murder mystery. But I’ve never been into this whole Doom/DOD and other multiplayer computer-based games. The idea of destroying stuff to win never appealed to me. So when I came across the game of Chocolatier in an article on macnn, my curiosity was piqued.

The game is the brainchild of PlayFirst games. According to Macnn, Chocolatier…

“…maintained a Top 20 position on several casual game sites for approximately five months.”

PlayFrst was now releasing the sequel to that game, Chocolatier 2. I took a look at the first version of the game and liked what I saw:

Chocolatier“Oh the gloriously rich and delectable life of a chocolatier! Constantly surrounded by mounds of chocolate bars and boxes of mouth-watering truffles! Become a master chocolatier one ingredient at a time as you travel the world to find the best prices and maximize production…but don’t forget about those conniving competitors who wish you poorly! Do you have what it takes to conquer the world through chocolate?”

There was a 60-minute free trial you could download to test it. I did just that and became hooked. I’m not sure where those 60 minutes disappeared, but before I knew it I was frantically looking for my credit card and signing up for the registration key. Reasonably priced at $19.95, it has been my time sinkhole for the past couple of days. Despite its simple graphics, I have found myself totally submerged in the story and its environment. Dashing from city to city, buying ingredients, factories, retrofitting them for special recipes, discovering new recipes through a deep stable of characters around the globe, making new recipes, selling chocolates, the whirlwind never stops. You are sent on special assignments, delivering letters, special orders of chocolate bars or squares – I haven’t made it to the truffle level yet, all the while accumulating and spending money. You get special awards and titles as you move up the chocolatier ladder. You can then upload your high scores and awards to the FirstPlay website to see how you stack up against other players. I was ranked 167 last I looked. Still a ways to go for me…. :) Chocolatier 2

Chocolatier 2 looks a little slicker than its predecessor, the UI a little cleaner. The PC format of both versions of the game also comes with the Together feature. Unfortunately, not so for the Mac version. There are also forums for players to interact on the FirstPlay website, with tips and tricks. I still have lots to do with Chocolatier before I will need to upgrade to Chocolatier 2. But, as I contemplate a 10-hour flight over the holidays, I may just give myself another small Christmas present before I board that plane… ;)

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