Maple Chipotle Lamb and Jess' Experimental Corn Chowder

So, today we decided to step away from our usual comfort zone when it came to our choice of meat and decided to try and recreate an amazing soup we had at Hector's Casa, a lovely Mexican restaurant in downtown Kelowna.

Jess' Experimental Corn Chowder

What We Used:

• 1/2 onion
• 5 cobs of corn, shucked
• 5 red chilies, chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups milk or cream
• 1 cup cheese, grated
  
• salt and pepper to taste

To start with, we heated some oil in the bottom of a large pot. We chopped the onions and chilies and added them to the oil, cooking them till the onions were transparent.

After shucking and rinsing the corn down, we cut the kernals from the cobs and added them into the pot with the onions and chilies, setting a portion aside for later. Then the chicken stock was added and we let it simmer.

After the corn was tender, it was time to mulch the soup so that everything was properly incorporated. We tempered the milk (we used milk instead of cream, but you can use whatever) and added it in slowly, then added salt and pepper to taste. The reserved corn and grated cheese were thrown in to finish the soup off.

Verdict?

Hooooly~~~~

Sweet with heat. Absolutely awesome. We're thinking of tossing a strip of bacon in the pot during the onions and chilis frying... but other than that it was perfect.

No recipe for the Maple Chipotle Lamb... We just grilled a butterfly cut lamb sirloin with a Maple Chipotle sauce we picked up from Quality Greens. Sam had never had lamb, and even though it wasn't quite the traditional method of cooking, it was all good.

Verdict?

HOMIGAWD, sooooo good. I would DEFINITELY eat lamb again, it was SO GOOD. We cooked it medium rare, it was so tender and juicy and the Maple Chipotle was sweet and just the tiniest bit spicy. Delicious!

-Sam and Jess

Wednesday Movie Night: ???

Wednesday movie night again, with Mina at the helm and showing us...well... actually we have no clue what we're watching, really. All she sent us was a violence disclaimer and the following:

"It's about this guy with superhuman powers, and he's kind of mysterious and his story is told over the course of the movie. He seems to be a very dangerous guy, but as the movie goes on, you realize he's on the side of good. Once that is established, the fights are hilarious. The gore is met with "who the hell is actually THAT tough?""

So...hilarious fights, lots of violence. Apparently it's dubbed, which only adds to the awesome. Either way, I'm looking forward to a gloriously bad movie (I like them. It's a personal love of mine, bad movies)

Besides all that, we were told that it was set in Hong Kong. Lazy as we are, we decided that chinese food was the way to go and sent out a general plea to movie night participants for donations. Meanwhile, the Kitchen of Despair decided to make a favorite of Sam's: Hot and Sour Soup.

What We Used:

• 4 1/2 cups Chicken Broth (Yes! We actually had some on hand this time! I had bought a couple cartons of Campbells anticipating a recreation project i'm interested in, but we're using it prematurely.)
• 2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts (apparently you can also use shrimp and tofu and whatever else, but we're being friendly to me (I'm allergic to most seafood) and Luke (who has a wierd thing with Tofu))
• 1 cup Julienned Carrot
• 1 cup Thinly Sliced Shittake Mushroom
• 1/2 cup Bamboo Shoots cut like matchsticks
  
• 2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 1/2 tsp White Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Hot Pepper Sauce
• 2 tbsp Corn Starch
• 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 Green Onions, thinly sliced
  
• 1 Egg

After all the veggies and such are prepared, throw the chicken broth, chicken, carrots, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, vinegar, pepper and hot sauce in a medium sauce pan, though I used my biggest pot because I like it. Bring everything to a boil over medium/high heat, then turn it down to low and cover it. Cook for about five minutes, or until the chicken's not pink anymore.

While this is going on, stir together cornstarch and soy sauce in a bowl until smooth. Once the chicken broth is done cooking the chicken, stir the cornstarch mixture into the pot. Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. ( Yes, I was vehement about not boiling your soup, but this is a little bit different. You HAVE to boil this type of soup. )

In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Add the green onions to the soup, and while it is boiling, slowly stream the egg into the soup while stirring or whisking in one direction. This should make the egg cook in the high heat of the liquid, forming long threads. Continue stirring it in one direction for about one minute, or until the egg is fully cooked.



Verdict?

"Oh my god, yum yum yum yum." -Sam

What the N00b Learned:

• Don't boil soup. Except this one, apparently.
  
• Julienning carrots makes my brain hurt

-Sam and Jess

Soup and Sandwich Combo

Post dropping off resumes and doing some email work, we decided that today's big project was going to be a highly experimental Orange Raspberry Coffee Cake for Clara. The decision was also in part because we left all our tips and icing bags in the Other- Other Kitchen (ie: My house.) and we were looking for something that didn't involve frosting.

ORANGE RASPBERRY COFFEE CAKE

What We Used

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup instant coffee powder (in this case, we used Maxwell House orange cappuccino.)
• 1/4 cupbutter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk (as needed)
  
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup fresh raspberries (or frozen if fresh are unavailable)
  

Topping:

• 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
  
• 2/3 cup brown sugar (we used demerara... which is what B has on hand for when he randomly makes pies)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). This recipe can make a 9x13, but we opted for two 91/2 round pans so we could split the cake... half going to Clara and the other half to be devoured by our DnD group.

Anyway... grease and flour your pans. Make the topping first. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl then cut in the butter until it makes coarse crumbs. Set it aside.

Mix the dry ingredients for the main part of a cake in a bowl (Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, instant coffee). Cut in the butter until (again) mix is coarse crumbs*. In a measuring cup, crack the egg then add milk until it makes 1 cup. Stir the vanilla into the eggy milk thing.

*Both Sam and I were getting tired, so we handed off the fork to B the Pie Man and he took over for a while.

Add the milk, egg and vanilla to the dry mix until it's moistened and fold in the raspberries. Note that you don't want the batter to be completely smooth. Spread the mix in the bottom of the pan(s), apply the topping in whatever quantity looks good, and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick slides out of it clean.

What The N00b Learned:

• Don't cut the butter with the broccoli knife.

Verdict?

Fantastic. It's not overwhelmingly sweet, which would make it perfect with coffee. There's a hint of orange, but just enough to compliment the raspberry. Finally, because of the topping, you're hit with the faintest hint of apple crisp nostalgia.

Dinner tonight consisted of Sam announcing that she had a fair bit of broccoli in the fridge she 'really really needed to use'. We scoured our minds for Broccoli recpies that our very picky eaters (ie: The Guys) might enjoy.

I figured broccoli soup might be good, even though I have a natural adversion to liquid food... But Sam was apparently a genius with soups in school and relished the opportunity to do this. Also, to go with the soup (remember, adversion to liquid food. I generally need something solid to eat with my taste of soup) I figured bistro style club sandwiches would be fun. So without much ado, Sam's recipe for homemade cream of broccoli soup!

What We Used

• 2 stalks celery
• 1/2 large onion
• 2 heads of broccoli (florettes AND stems. Sam was adamant) chopped
• Olive Oil
• stock or water
• Onion powder, black pepper, and garlic powder to taste
• 2 cups Cream
  
• Cheese

Sam started by chopping the celery and onion and set them aside in a bowl. She says you need to have everything prepped before you start adding stuff. Peel some of the skin off the broccoli stems (because it's a little tough) then chop the broccoli. Set a small portion of the broccoli aside for adding later (for texture).

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Oil measurements (according to Sam) vary according to the pot... and when I peeked into the vessel in question I noted that there was just a splash.

Sam Says: 'heat it enough so it coats the bottom of the pot. You can add more if needed'.

Add the onions, celery and the spices, then cook over low heat until onions are transparent. Try not to caramelize the onions because you don't want too much color.

Sam added a bit more oil and the broccoli (note: not the stuff you set aside. Hold that for later). Put in enough water or stock to cover the broccoli. We didn't have broth, though Sam mentioned it would be the best, and filtered water it was. Then the soup was set to simmer until everything in it was soft.

Sam did the honors of mulching the soup. Normally, you'd transfer it to a blender or food processor, but Sam has this handy dandy pot safe hand blender that she just stuck in the pot.

The next step was tempering the cream, which I'm going to hand over to Sam:

"Here is Sam's lesson on tempering cream! Tempering is necessary to prevent cream in soups and other hot dishes from curdling. What you need to do is put the cream in a bowl or some sort of dish that doesn't mind getting warm. Add the soup or whatever hot liquid it is you're using to the cream in small amounts while constantly stirring, until the cream itself is warm. Once all of it is warm, you can add it slowly to the pot!"

Needless to say, we added the cream gradually. Make sure you reduce heat first! After the cream is in, add the broccoli you set aside, taste and add salt or whatever spice you feel the soup needs. Then on low heat and stirring occasionally, wait for the broccoli to become tender.

Cheese can be served on top, or stirred into the soup at this point.

What the N00b Learned:

• For cream based soups it's better to use white pepper(because of the color), though slightly less since it has a stronger flavor. We used black since it's what we had on hand.
• I wish I had the POWER OF SCIENCE. My eyes are burning like hell.
• Never boil soup. Simmer soup. Boil bad. Simmer good. Yay!
• Don't cook your spoon.

Extra Extra:

Club Sandwiches are easy mode, but we can still give the construction order:

(starting at the bottom and going up)

• Toast. We used whole wheat, thick sliced.
• Mayo
• Chicken. ( We butterflied and pan fried fresh chicken breasts, but I've seen places just use sliced chicken lunch meat.)
• Lettuce
• Toast.
• Mayo
• Bacon
• Cheese
• Tomato
• Mayo
  
• Toast.

We like mayo. Apparently


Verdicts?

The sandwich was perfect. Sam opted to pan fry with just salt, pepper, and grapeseed oil which gave the chicken a fabulous, subtle flavor. The soup was fantastic. We didn't need any salt, just a bit of cheese to top it.

What the Noob Learned:

• Getting the core out of iceberg lettuce is simple. Just turn the head core side down and whack it on the counter a few times. Then pull the core out!!
  

-Jess

Bonus Mr Science says:

"The difference between oils is the length of the carbon chains on the glycerol. The difference between animal oils and plant oils is that animal oil is saturated and plant oils are not. But to make margerine, you have to hydroginate plant oil to make it more saturated."

Thank you Mr. Science!