Mini Black Bottom Cupcakes

I'm not an avid baker. I may have mentioned before, and I won't hesitate to mention again, cooking is an art, baking is a science. (No, Mom, you did not come up with that quote.)

Where you can mix and match and swap and scratch (no rhyme intended) any ingredients in your cooking, with baking you have to be pretty precise. That is, of course, unless you're Julia Child or the likes of her.

When I do bake, however, I typically have one, Nathan has 2 or 3 and the rest of the treats head to either Nathan's or my own office. Nathan nor I eat much dessert at all, but we just don't want that temptation sitting on our counter. But I do like to dabble in baking here and there, and I do love dishing out treats to happy coworkers.

I was asked to be chairperson of our fortnightly (haha, another Aussie term, which means bi-weekly) staff meeting and I thought what better a time than now to bring in a treat. I immediately thought of these delightful little bites that I've never made myself but my girlfriend, Lara, has mastered.

Of course, although she has more than likely provided me the recipe, I couldn't find it, and the time change here meant I couldn't ask her. So the recipe I used is from America's Test Kitchen but it has been adapted to make mini cupcakes rather than their normal sized counterparts. I think with this recipe, mini is definitely the way to go - and less guilt is associated with your indulgence!

As I am sure you can imagine, the combination of chocolate cake and cheesecake was sure to impress and they disappeared before the clock struck 12 pm!


Makes ~36 cupcakes


Filling
1 cup cream cheese (8 oz) softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg white
1 tbsp sour cream


Cupcake
3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup water, room temperature
6 tbsp sour cream at room temperature
4 tbsp (half a stick) butter, melted and cooled
1/2 tsp vanilla extract 


TIP: get your cream cheese and sour cream out before you start prep, and melt butter to sit and cool!


1. Preheat oven to 350F, and adjust oven rack to middle position. Line a mini muffin tin with muffin liners. 


2. For the filling - In a medium bowl beat cream cheese, sugar and salt in bowl on medium speed until smooth, about 45 seconds. Add egg white and sour cream and beat again until smooth, about 1 minute. Set aside. 


3. For the cake - In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add in water, sour cream, butter and vanilla and whisk until combined and smooth (don't overdo it). 


4. Fill the muffin tin with batter so each is about half full. Drop about 1/2 tbsp of filling into each cupcake. (You might play around a bit with portions, but you should have them almost full, they rise a bit but then fall in the center as per picture). 


5. Bake for 14-16 minutes, turning the pan half way through baking. The chocolate part will be firm, the filling might be soft. Remove from oven and leave in pan for 5-10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. These are good at room temp or chilled. 


Serve and prepare to take your praise!

Tortilla Soup

One thing I didn't expect when migrating across the world, was a big difference in food. I mean, I'd always heard that Aussies are so similar to Canadians and that the cultural shock is slim to none. This is true on most fronts. I have already gone into details about some of the different words they use, but I haven't noted a food type that is not nearly as prevalent as it is back home - Mexican.

And I LOVE Mexican food. In general, stores in Australia do not carry a large variety of Mexican style food or ingredients. The main brand you see is Old El Paso (of course) but others are hard to find. The lack of Mexican food is also felt in the restaurants. Not sure if you know, but apparently Adelaide has more restaurants per capita than any other city in Australia. I've seen 2 Mexican places, that's it!

Why would I have expected any different though? I mean, Mexico is as far from here as any place! I guess I didn't really think about it at all. And I must say, any lack in Mexican food is more than made up for in the abundance of awesome Asian restaurants. From Thai to Chinese to Indian and everything in between - you can find some amazing Asian dishes in Adelaide.

So, needless to say, I try and make Mexican food at home so we never have to miss it too badly.  This tortilla soup doesn't require anything out of the ordinary (so I can find the fixings at a regular grocery store) and it certainly brings a taste of Mexico to my kitchen which is miles and miles away.

Enjoy!

Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped medium

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

1tbsp paprika

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1.5 L chicken broth

1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (3 cups)

2 bay leaves

2 tsp salt

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (you can grill, bake or fry, or use a whole chicken from the store)

Toppings

1 avocado, chopped

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 cup green onions, diced

1/2 cup pickled jalapenos

Cilantro

Tortilla chips, crushed

Lime wedges

 

1.    Heat oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and toss for about 3 minutes. Add paprika, cumin, coriander, chili and cayenne and stir for another 3 minutes.

2.    Add broth, tomatoes, bay leaves and salt and bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove bay leaves. Add chicken and simmer for 5 more minutes.

3.    Prepare with toppings, or let people dress their own.

Serve and prepare to take your praise!

Sarah's Chicken Puttanesca

Puttanesca. Generally meaning a spicy dish of tomatoes, onions, capers, olives and anchovies, and usually served on pasta. Those of you that know me might know now why I added the qualifier “Sarah’s” in the title. There’s no way I am using anchovies in anything. (I don’t care how you feel about that, Dad.)

We had this lovely dish for dinner last night with an Australian Shiraz. It was fantastic yet again. We have this one every once in awhile as it is one of Nathan’s favourites.

When I thought about the blog entry for this dish, I decided to use my handy Food Lover’s Companion, which I’ve mentioned before. Much to my dismay, the definition of Puttanesca in this book was rather off-putting and I didn’t find it appropriate for my blog at all. Let’s just say, it comes from the Italian word Puttana which means, um… a… lady of leisure, if you will. It goes even further about why it is named after that, but that’s where I am stopping. And, let’s just say, the amendment I make to this dish (mentioned above) eliminates the comparison completely…

Anyway, here goes.

1 tbsp olive oil

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 medium onion cut into 1 cm rings

12 garlic cloves split lengthwise

1 35 oz can of whole plum tomatoes

½ cup sliced black olives

½ cup sliced green olives (with pimentos)

2 tbsp baby capers

¼ cup sundried tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 pinches red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

1.     Heat oil in large frying pan over medium high heat. Brown chicken on both sides, about 4 minutes each. Remove from the pan and set aside.

2.     Lower the heat to medium low and add onion and garlic to the same pan. Toss until softened, but careful not to burn, about 8 minutes.

3.     Stir in the tomatoes, followed by the remaining ingredients. Add the chicken back to the pan and coat well with sauce. Cover and simmer until sauce is thickened and chicken tender, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve on pasta and prepare to take your praise!

Prosciutto Balls with Bocconcini and Tomatoes

Pu Pus (yes, pronounced "poo poos"). I'm not joking. Hawaiian for snacks, this is the term I grew up using to describe any sort of smaller, nibble-type snack. Basically, appetizers.

So sometimes when my Mom didn't have the usual homemade bread and cold cuts for a sandwich, she would pack our lunches full of pu pus. Pepperoni sticks cut up, cheese bites, etc. Sometimes when she didn't feel like cooking a big dinner, she would creatively decide it was a pu pu night. Gosh I feel embarrassed just thinking about how that sounds...

So, all grown up now, and the primary chef of my own household, I am responsible for coming up with all sorts of snacks, appetizers and nibbles for us, and our guests when we entertain. I like the cheese board, a homemade dip - for which I have many awesome recipes to share, and other bite-sized treats. I also like to serve a variety. This means that I need to have a few go-to pu pus that I can use to jazz up a cheese board, or complement a feta and sundried-tomato torta.

The follwing recipe is from Fine Cooking (I'm their most loyal follower and absolutely love their website and magazines!) and I just love how easy it is to whip them together and how amazing they taste. I have now served them to quite a few different groups and I've never, not once, had leftovers.

Whoever thought pu pus could be so yummy? (Did I take that too far?!)

8 pieces of prosciutto, sliced lengthwise in 2

16 pieces of fresh basil, sliced lengthwise in 2

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

8 cocktail boccochini cheeses, halved

Your best extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Lay the sliced prosciutto on your chop block. At the bottom of each strip, lay 2 pieces of sliced basil. 


2. Make a ball by pressing the cheese and the cherry tomato together. 


3. Generously salt and lightly pepper the balls before rolling up and finishing with a toothpick.

4. Refrigerate for up to one hour. Let sit on counter and drizzle with oil at least 10 minutes before serving. 

Serve and prepare to take your praise!

Fresh Rolls with Sweet Chili Sauce

Taste of Thailand Part 2

So after the visit to the traditional Thai fresh market, we headed back to Angsana's home to get cooking. After meeting her lovely little daughter who showed us, as she does all the "students," their pets - an iguana and a rodent of some sort! When we got into the kitchen, and our aprons, we were put right to work. We both loved how forward Angsana was, tossing the chicken to Dad and saying "go ahead and rinse this." She had no issues whatsoever in handing out directions.

In the making of three recipes (Tom Kha Gai, Red Curry Duck, and Fresh Rolls) she taught us plenty of tricks and lessons about traditional Thai cooking. Galangal, for example, is like ginger but has a softer taste and shouldn't be substituted. Or, when cutting lemongrass use it until you don't see purple in the slices, throw the rest out as it isn't as flavourful. She taught us that fish sauce is a staple in the Thai kitchen, they put it in everything (much to my dismay!)

We pretty much made everything all simultaneously, and just ate when it was ready. Whatever was leftover was put to good use - her kids gobble it all up when they are home from school! This recipe is for the fresh rolls, which I requested because I absolutely love them. Tha Thai version did not use a rice noodle filling like I've had in so many Vietnamese restaurants - in fact, when I asked if we were putting rice noodles in she laughed and said that we were already using a noodle to wrap them - duh!

These are so tasty and you can really play around with the innards. For example, I don't like cilantro (amongst other things...) and used just mint leaves in my rolls. We made a fresh sweet chilli sauce to go with them (another difference from the satay sauce you get in Vietnamese restaurants) and I must admit, it was far superior to its store-bought counterpart!

Serve these as a meal or an appie for company! You may need to double the sauce recipe depending on how many rolls you make. 


For the sauce: 
3 large thai red chilies, minced 
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt


1. Crush or pound the chilies and garlic together using a mortar and pestle or a meet tenderizer hammer. 
2. Whisk the sugar, vinegar, water and salt together in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the chilies and garlic, whisk. 
3. Simmer over medium to medium-low heat until thickened, about 10-15 minutes. 
4. Cool and set aside to serve with rolls.


For the rolls:
5-8 sheets of rice paper
1 carrot, peeled and cut into very thin strips
1/2 cucumber, seeded and cut into very thin strips
250 grams ground pork, cooked and drained
Lettuce 
Fresh mint 
Optional: cooked shrimp or chicken breast strips, cliantro


1. Prepare all veggies for use. 
2. Soak rice paper in luke warm water in a big bowl for about 1 minute to soften.
3. Gently remove rice paper and place on flat surface. At one end, place a bit of every ingredient (you will play around with how good your rolling skills are versus what you can fit in the roll). Start rolling, pulling the ends in about halfway, before completing the roll. 
4. Cut the roll in half diagonally. 

Serve and prepare to take your praise!

Tom Kha Gai (Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)

This is my absolute favourite Thai dish

Taste of Thailand part one. 

Just one of the many counters full of things I didn't recognise!

My Dad at the market

Well hello again! I have survived and returned from my week long holiday in Bangkok. I went there to meet my Dad. Since I've moved to Australia, our annual NYC trip is a bit far for me, so we decided to meet in Bangkok this year instead. What a fantastic trip!

The weather was very hot and humid, which made typical tourist-style activities a little uncomfortable. Patpong night market is hot and obtrusive as it is, who needs to add 35 degree heat and high humidity? So, Dad and I kept ourselves busy with some activities and a lot of wining and dining. We are both foodies, and so the tastes of Thailand were quite important! And we sure got a lot of tastes.

One of the highlights of our trip was a cooking class from *link*. This was such an awesome experience. We met Angsana, our teacher, at a sky train stop in the suburbs. She then took us to a traditional Thai fresh food market. Now that was interesting! From live frogs to eels to chicken feet and mushrooms that looked like human ears, they had it all and then some. Dad and I had previously chosen our three dishes, so Angsana led us through the market like an expert picking up every ingredient we needed.

Ill pause the story there, and continue it with the next recipe. For now, I'll share my absolute favourite Thai dish - Tom Kha Gai soup. Angsana taught us that this soup should go in sour, then taste sweet and finish spicy. That is exactly how it turned out. I add steamed rice to make this a full meal, although Angsana said you never add rice to soup, you can pour soup on rice.

250 ml coconut milk
4 stalks lemongrass, cut 1 inch long
8 pieces sliced galangal, about 1cm thick (this is a type of ginger worth finding)
1 cup water
2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup straw mushrooms, quartered (use button if you can't find straw)
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
5-7 small red and green Thai chilies, sliced thin on diagonal
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp lime juice
½ cup chopped cilantro

1. Add coconut milk, lemongrass and galangal to a medium saucepan and simmer 5 minutes.
2. Add water, chicken and mushrooms and boil until chicken is cooked, about 10 minutes.
3. Add lime leaves, sugar, salt and chillies and simmer for another 5 minutes.
4. Remove from heat. Add fish sauce, lime juice and cilantro.

Taste soup. Does it start sour, ease into sweet and end with a spicy kick? If not adjust accordingly (with lime juice, sugar and chillies).

Serve and prepare to take your praise!

Gone to Bangkok - Back in 10 days

My Dad and I are headed to Bangkok where, amongst other activities, we will take a cooking class!