Pineapple and Red Onion Simmer Sauce, by ME!

I'm excited! I invented this all by myself. It started as a "oh no, what should I do with this chicken" that turned into one dish, and after eating that one I decided I wanted to invent something similar but not quite as cloyingly sweet. It came out really well, so I'm posting the recipe! However. Since I was making this up as I went along, I don't have exact amounts for anything--I just poured in whatever seemed like a good amount and added more later as it developed. I'm going to estimate the amounts that I used (I tried to do this as I was cooking so I could post it), but if it seems like a lot, use less and add more as you feel like it. And if you add the amount that I said and taste it and think it needs more, by all means, add however much you want!

RECIPE: Pineapple and Red Onion Simmer Sauce (for chicken or pork)

Ingredients:

-1 can pineapple (I used chopped so I could decide myself how crushed it was; you can use crushed if you want, and I'm sure it would still be delicious if you left it in chunks)

-1 medium red onion

-2 tbsp soy sauce

-1 tsp sriracha chili sauce ("rooster sauce")

-3 tbsp pineapple preserves (if you can't find these, you could either add another flavor with different preserves or just add some sweetener--it balances the salty and spicy flavors from the previous two ingredients)

-ginger, to taste (more ginger than the other things)

-a large pinch of cumin

-a dash or two of paprika

-2-3 chicken breasts or pork chops (probably 3-4 pork chops? they're smaller), cubed

Instructions:

1. Slice the onion into discs and cut each disc in half so you have half-circles of onion. This way, you'll have strips of onion in the sauce. Yay.

2. Pour the can of pineapple into a medium saucepan. If you want to crush it, use a potato masher to crush it to your desired amount of crushed. Add the onions. Put the pan over medium heat and simmer until the onion softens.

3. Add the soy sauce, sriracha sauce, and spices. Stir to incorporate. Continue to simmer until the onion is completely limp and the liquid has reduced considerably.

4. While that's simmering, chop your chicken or pork and toss it into a large frying pan. Brown lightly.

5. Once the chicken/pork is cooked through, add your sauce. Allow to simmer, infusing the meat with flavor, for 5-10 minutes. If all the liquid simmers off, stop cooking! You don't want to dry out the meat.

6. Serve over brown rice and enjoy!

Step 2: pineapples and onions, simmering away.

Step 3: this is the color that everything was. I didn't notice until now how much the liquid had reduced; I'm so used to reducing things that thicken that I was getting frustrated with it. It worked well, though!

Step 5: I used two pretty large chicken breasts and could easily have used another with the amount of sauce that I had.

Ta-daa! It really was excellent with the brown rice--I know it takes twice as long to cook, but usually if you're cooking a full meal and start the rice at the beginning, it'll be done right around when the rest of your food is done (or way sooner! luckily it retains heat well). Taking the health benefits into consideration (along with the taste), it's definitely worth using brown over white!

The meal that this was based on was mostly made of the pineapple preserves--I used about half a jar, mixed with some pineapple juice and soy sauce (and the rest of the stuff listed up there). It was quite good--tasted a lot like sweet and sour sauce that you'd get at a Chinese restaurant, but better. It had the same sticky-sweet feel to it, though, and that made me want to make a healthier version. If you want to reproduce the original one, use pineapple preserves instead of canned pineapple, dilute it with pineapple juice, and do everything I did here except the simmering it part. Oh, and leave out the onions! I didn't have an onion to put in it, even though I really wanted one. (So you don't have to leave out the onions. Actually, though, if you include the onions, you'll probably want to simmer it for a bit to soften them.)

This version didn't taste anything like sweet and sour sauce. It tasted like fruit and chicken, with a little bit of bite to it. The flavors mixed incredibly well and nothing was too overpowering. The sweetness actually made the leftovers an excellent breakfast--I normally eat leftovers for breakfast, but I felt slightly less weird about it this time since it tasted like something normal people would eat for breakfast. So this is an anytime meal!

And on a really exciting note, I found a setting on my camera that takes much less blurry pictures! So you may notice that I'm less frustrated with blurry pictures in the future. These ones all came out nicely, YAY!

I'll be back on Friday...with THE MOST EXCITING POST OF ALL TIME. I'm serious. (It will probably include people!)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I promised a post today, didn't I? Was I specific? I hope I wasn't specific. I intended to post my new favorite summer food (from Poor Girl Gourmet), but...well, last week, I went to water my tomatoes around 2 in the morning and the faucet for the hose broke and I couldn't turn it off, so we ended up having to turn the water in my side of the house off completely in order to avoid having a constantly-running hose until the plumber came. This happened...Friday or Saturday night (well, Saturday or Sunday morning). I ran away to Mike's house because not being able to use the bathroom near my room is kind of disconcerting when I wake up in the middle of the night and, well, forget that I can't use that bathroom. I returned to my house yesterday to sit around and wait for the plumber to come (he was supposed to come yesterday). He never showed up. I called and left a message asking if he could come today and for some reason I thought he was going to, but he didn't. So I wasted two days sitting around waiting for a plumber (and canceled plans with a friend I haven't seen in ages) and promptly ran away to Mike's house again, where I don't have to worry about whether or not there is water, because there is water.

However. I left my cookbook at home. Which means I can't share the recipe I planned to share, so you're getting pancakes that I forgot I had pictures of.

See? Pancakes!

These are Strawberry-Almond-Chocolate Chip pancakes. I adapted them from my Banana pancakes that I posted a long time ago. Strawberries mix in differently (and they're much more liquid), so you get a much denser pancake here--you could probably add a little bit more flour if you want them fluffy, but despite my usual dislike for dense pancakes, these were quite delicious. The recipe is just going to be for strawberry pancakes, though, because I honestly have no idea how many chocolate chips were added. Lots, I'm guessing--I always just pour them in until it looks like a good amount. Mike sprinkled slivered almonds on top of the pancakes after I poured them into the pan--they got slightly toasted and added a great texture to our breakfast!

RECIPE: Strawberry Pancakes

Ingredients:

-1 cup flour

-4 tsp sugar

-2 tsp baking powder

-dash of salt

-1 large egg

-1/2-1 cup milk (less for fluffier pancakes, more for denser)

-2 tsp almond extract

-2 tbsp vegetable oil (or melted butter)

-1 pint strawberries

-Chocolate chips (optional)

-Slivered almonds (optional)

-Butter (for the pan)

-Maple syrup

Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and salt) in a small bowl.

2. Mash the strawberries in a large bowl until they are liquidy, but with plenty of strawberry pieces remaining.

3. Add the egg. Mash it in with the strawberries.

4. Add 1/2 cup milk, almond extract and vegetable oil/melted butter to the strawberry and egg mixture. Stir.

5. Add the flour mixture to the strawberry mixture. If you want to add chocolate chips, this would be the time to do it. Stir until combined. Don't over-stir, a few clumps of flour are okay.

6. Add more milk, stirring, until the batter reaches your preferred consistency. The more liquid your batter is, the denser your pancakes will be.

7. Cook pancakes in a well-buttered frying pan over medium heat. (I use a 1/4 cup measure to pour the right amount of batter into the pan.) If you want to add slivered almonds, sprinkle them on top of the pancake as soon as you pour it into the pan. Flip when the sides look solid and the bubbles on the top are beginning to pop.

8. Transfer cooked pancakes to a plate and cover with a clean dishtowel to retain heat. Continue repeating steps 7 and 8 until all the batter has turned into pancakes.

9. Top with real maple syrup and enjoy!

If you have an absurdly good memory and have been reading my blog since February, you may notice I basically copied and pasted and changed a few things. But, I mean, it's basically the same recipe--just a different way to enjoy it! (And it's 11:30 and I'm lazy.) But really, I do love versatile recipes, and I feel like you could adapt this to fit a lot of different fruits (right now I would really love some nectarine pancakes!)

I don't know when I'll be back home with my cookbook (my staying there hinges on the water getting fixed) but I'll be back here, at least, on Tuesday. And I'm warning you in advance--you should all get REALLY EXCITED for next Friday's post. It's gonna be exciting. I can't wait :D

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Okay, so given the pie crust post from the other day, I doubt any of you are surprised that I'm following up with the actual pie. (I don't remember if I mentioned that it was coming, but it was.) This was the first Strawberry Rhubarb Pie I've ever made. I don't remember ever having seen much rhubarb around before, but this year there was always a little basket of it in the grocery store, so I had been thinking about it for a while before I actually made it. Unfortunately, when I finally decided it was time to make a pie (as in, there were enough people around that I wouldn't be eating the whole thing myself) I had to make three stops before I found any! Luckily a little farmstand near my house had a few bundles, and I'm pretty sure they grow it themselves. I got strawberries there too, but they were from somewhere else. And HUGE. Like, strawberries the size of my fist. I was surprised to find that they actually had plenty of flavor--they were delicious!

Okay, so making this pie is pretty much the easiest thing I've ever done. Aside from Blueberry pie, which doesn't require cutting anything. Oh, and Pecan pie, which is really just "mix a bunch of stuff together and bake it." So maybe it wasn't the easiest, but it's up there, and soooooo tasty! I also discovered that I suddenly develop decent Knife Skills when chopping rhubarb. Usually I'm super slow at cutting things, but this was so easy!

RECIPE: Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:
-3 cups chopped rhubarb
-3 cups sliced strawberries
-1 1/3 cups sugar
-1/4-1/2 cup corn starch (both the strawberry and rhubarb release a lot of juices, so this keeps the pie from being a liquidy mess. My rhubarb was releasing a TON of juice so I added more, but I think earlier in the season you use less. I'm not quite sure. I just know I like my pies to hold together.)
-3 tbsp cinnamon (this is really approximate--after I put everything else in the bowl, I just sprinkle tons of cinnamon on to cover it. The recipe I was loosely working from called for a quarter of a teaspoon, but that's just not enough cinnamon.)
-1 tbsp lemon juice
-Pie dough
-1 egg, beaten

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425F.
2. Place rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix it all together.
3. Line a 9-inch pie plate with your rolled-out pie dough.
4. If there's a lot of liquid at the bottom of the bowl of ingredients, add a little more cornstarch. If not, then don't. Pour the contents of the bowl into the pie plate.
5. Cover with the second rolled-out pie dough. Cut vents in the top to allow the steam to escape.
6. Using a pastry brush, brush the beaten egg over the top of the pie.
7. Place in the oven (you preheated it, right?) and let back at 425 for 10 minutes. At 10 minutes, reduce heat to 375F and bake for another 50-60 minutes.
8. Remove from oven. Let stand for 15-20 minutes (or longer) before serving. Serve with a generous scoop of french vanilla ice cream.

See how easy that was? Seriously, I think that's the simplest recipe I've posted here. Now, I think the quality of a pie is based almost entirely on the quality of the crust. Not everyone agrees here, but if you want a delicious crust and don't know how to make one then you should definitely look over my previous post and try to get a feel for it. Once you figure it out, it's easy as...well...pie.

This is what I mean about the cinnamon--just sprinkle a ton on top! I can't imagine eating a pie with only a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon. Blech.

I've tried using those things that go around the edge of the pie to stop the crust from burning, and I've tried just wrapping the edge in tinfoil, but neither of these things have worked for me. Now I just let it get a little burnt and make sure to have some ice cream in those bites.

Don't you just adore this pie plate? I have no idea where it came from; I couldn't find any of my normal glass ones but this was in the cabinet. It's ceramic with a cream-colored glaze and blue polka dots. I've decided that when I have a house with cabinets to fill with all my own cooking things, awesome pie plates are going to be one of my top priorities.

So, this was the Speedpie that came out of those crusts! (I've made pies quickly before, but never called them speedpie. I think I like it, though.) I think this might be one of my new favorite pies, and I can't believe I never made it before. I'll definitely be looking out for more rhubarb, though! How about you guys? What's your favorite pie? I'd love to know!

Is Pretty Important?

I've never made a bundt cake before in my life. I don't even own a bundt pan. However, whenever I see a recipe for a bundt cake, they look so pretty and delicious that I get sad about not owning a bundt pan. When I saw a recipe for Orange Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake on eat me, delicious, I complained to Mike about my lack of a bundt pan, and he said that he had one--problem solved! So when it was his mom's birthday, we thought it would be a good time to try out this recipe. The picture looked so pretty, with ganache dripping down the side, and it just seemed like the perfect idea. We got some oranges and chocolate chips and made sure we had everything we needed.

I haven't zested anything for years. Last time I did, it was to make key lime pie (which I really want to do again, perhaps when it feels more like summer) and I don't think I've ever zested oranges. We got huge oranges, though, and ended up with enough zest after only two of them.

We now have a basic progression of cake. First the batter goes into the pan (making the batter wasn't all that interesting).

Then the pan goes into the oven. And then it comes out of the oven, and sits and cools for a long time so that it doesn't fall apart.

And then the cake falls apart anyway when we try to remove it from the pan.

I don't get it. Mike buttered and floured the pan, which he's usually very good at, and he even thought he did so in excess this time. And, with a normal cake, you can sorta stick a knife around the edges and a spatula of some sort under it and get it out and piece it together so it looks slightly reasonable, and it'll look okay anyway because you're frosting the thing. But with all the curves and weird edges in a bundt pan, we had to pry slowly and basically ended up crumbling half of what was stuck in the pan. And, let's be honest, I'm female and it's my boyfriend's mom's birthday and I suggest making a cake and it falls apart and I flip out. I'm not entirely sure how much Mike noticed that I was flipping out, because he managed to keep his cool and attempt to piece the cake together correctly (it was like one of those weird 3D puzzles but missing some pieces). There was a little ring of 'not done' on the bottom of the cake, and I'd say maybe that's why it fell apart, but that's not the part that fell apart at all. And we could have kept it in the oven longer to fix that, but perhaps it fell apart because the rest of it was overdone and really we should have looked at the positioning in the oven before we started, but you'd think that it having been on the top rack would mean the top (well, bottom) would be the part that came out overdone, right? And I probably stopped making any sense a while ago but the point is I'm really, really glad the recipe for the ganache made way more than originally pictured and we were able to cover the whole thing and it still tasted delicious. And looked, if nothing else, acceptable.

I don't go for pretty when I bake. It's not really the point. It's wonderful when it happens, but I'm usually in a rush and don't have time to care if the pie crust cracks when I put it on top of everything else, so I just hope it cracks in an artistic way instead of a messy, ugly way. And I guess it's the same with cakes--if I can get the thing to stick together, isn't it enough that it tastes good? I mean, if I were at a bakery and wanted a cake and there was one that looked really pretty and another one that had sorta fallen apart or they'd screwed up the food coloring in the frosting or something, well, the second one would probably be discounted and still taste exactly the same, so I'd get that. What do you think? Is pretty important when it comes to food?

And, besides, when you're making a cake that tastes like a Terry's Chocolate Orange, shouldn't it be okay for it to look like someone whacked it?

(Click here to go to the recipe. The only thing I changed was to leave the instant coffee granules out of the ganache and put in some almond extract. And next time I embark on this adventure [and it tasted good enough that there will be a next time] I'll substitute almond extract for the vanilla in the cake, too.)

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies--with recipe!

I know, earlier this week, I said something about banana bread. I was fully intending to make banana bread. The bananas were getting old, and it seemed like an awesome idea at the time. (I should mention that I usually hate bananas. I'll never eat a banana. But I think they're delicious baked in things, so I let them get old and bake them into things.)

However, sometime between then and now, I was given a recipe for banana COOKIES and I couldn't resist making them. I'm very glad that I didn't. They are absolutely amazing.

These cookies include bananas, chocolate chips, AND peanut butter chips. I had to go buy banana extract (the store only had imitation, boo) and when it came time to add the butter, I realized I didn't have any and had to walk to to convenient store down the street. Well worth it. So, here--have a recipe. Go make some cookies.

RECIPE: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies

makes about 36 medium-sized cookies

Ingredients:

-2 and 2/3 cups flour

-1 tsp baking soda

-1/4 tsp salt (optional; I always leave the salt out of baked goods if possible)

-2 sticks butter (salted or unsalted)

-1 cup brown sugar

-1/2 cup granulated sugar

-3 large (or 5 medium) overripe bananas

-1 tsp banana extract

-1 large egg (should be at room temperature)

-1 (12 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

-1 (10 oz) bag peanut butter chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt if you're using it. Set aside.

3. Cream together the butter and both sugars.

4. Add the bananas, banana extract and egg. Mix well.

5. Add the flour mixture and chips. Mix until the chips are well-integrated into the dough.

6. Realize you forgot to preheat the oven, and figure it's probably better this way, since it'll heat in the amount of time it takes you to scoop out the cookie dough. Turn the oven on to 325 degrees.

7. Scoop out the cookie dough, leaving a decent amount of room on the side of each ball (the actual amount of room depends on how big you're making the cookies).

8. Bake for 18-22 minutes (and pay attention while they're baking so you can take them out earlier if they look done; they come out sort of crispy if you've only got one sheet in there. //Edit: they're not actually that crispy. They end up with a slightly harder outer layer but remain soft and chewy on the inside. These cookies may just be the most perfect cookies ever.)

Step 4

Step 7

Step 9 (eat)

Update, 17 June 2010: This recipe won a banana-dessert-recipe contest over at Haute Whimsy--you should check it out!