King Cake Showdown

Last year I made my very first king cake. It turned out well but I remember thinking it was a little dry so I wanted to try a new recipe this year. Of course, I didn't document what i did last year but I'm pretty sure it was based on Emeril's recipe so I looked elsewhere. I ended up borrowing most heavily from this blogger from Baton Rouge.

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast or 1 package instant yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter softened (1/2 stick)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon nutmeg
grated zest of one lemon (1 tablespoon)
2 1/2 cups flour

Filling:
10 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla

Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
colored sugars (green, purple and yellow)

It turned out really lovely, I do think it was still a bit dry for me, probably would reduce the flour by 1/4 cup next time. Other changes I made were adding cinnamon and vanilla to the dough. For the cream cheese filling, I used only about 8 ounces of cream cheese and paired it with guava jelly for a really tasty twist on a classic. I also halved the amounts for the icing, I thought that was way too much. I think the icing should just be a thin glaze. I also added some lemon juice and cinnamon to it because powdered sugar sort of tastes like chalk to me, it needs a bit of dressing up.

I'm trying to be good and stay away from sugar these days but I made this cake for a king cake competition that I ended up not attending due to a torrential downpour. So I had to eat it myself, how sad. I got lots of help from Ben and assorted friends at the Super Bowl party yesterday.

Moroccan Chicken

My mother's husband made this dish a couple weeks ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my rotation. It's so good and it also works for this silly diet I'm on, even if I have to leave out the goodies like olives, apricots and/or chickpeas.

The original recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, I believe they called it Moroccan Chicken and I always find it pretty humorous to name a dish after an ENTIRE nation. As in, do I think Moroccans call this dish Moroccan chicken? Unlikely. Do Moroccans always make chicken this way when they decide to make chicken for dinner? Probably not. But nonetheless, very tasty.

Below you will find the original recipe, I made it this way and then again with my own tweaks, see my notes after the recipe.

1 1/4 t sweet paprika
1/2 t cumin
1/4 t cayenne
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t coriander
1/4 t cinnamon
3 strips lemon zest (each about 2 inches by 3/4 inch) plus 3 T juice from 1-2 lemons
5 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 chicken, 3.5-4 lbs cut into 8 pieces (4 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings), trimmed of fat
S&P
1 T olive oil
1 large onion, halved and cut into 1/4 inch slices (about 3 cups)
1 3/4 c. low sodium chix broth
1 T honey
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into into 1/2 inch thick coins, very large pieces cut into half-moons, about 2 cups
1 c. Greek cracked green olives, pitted and halved
2 T chopped cilantro leaves

-combine spices, set aside
-mix 1 strip zest and 1 t garlic and mash to a paste, set aside
-season chicken with S&P. Heat oil in dutch oven until smoking, working in batches, brown chicken skin side down until deep golden brown, about 5 minutes. Turn chicken and brown on other side, about 4 minutes. Cool, remove skin and discard all but 1 T fat.
-add onion and 2 remaining strips of zest until onions have browned at edges but retained shape, about 7 minutes. Add rest of garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add spices, stirring constantly about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Stir in broth and honey, scraping bits off bottom of the pot. Add dark meat, reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes.
-add carrots and breasts to pot, arranging chicken in a single layer on top. Cover, reduce heat to medium low and simmer until chicken registers 160 degrees, about 15 minutes.
-transfer chicken to bowl and tent with foil. Add olives to pot, raise heat to med-high and simmer until liquid has thickened slightly and carrots are tender, 4-6 minutes. Add chicken back to pot, add garlic-zest mixture, cilantro and lemon juice. Season with S&P and serve
-as a variation, replace 1 carrot with 1 c. dried apricots, halved and replace olives with 1 can drained and rinsed chickpeas.

First of all, I like spice, I just wanted more! So I doubled all the spice amounts, except for the paprika because I used hot and not sweet. I also just took the zest off of a whole lemon and threw it in the pot, I liked how it tasted cooked down, tender and spicy. I skipped that step with the raw garlic and mashing into a paste because I feel it didn't really add anything, I just put it all in the pot. Less fuss, that's my motto.

I threw out the honey, it didn't seem necessary and I'm not supposed to have any sugar. I didn't miss it at all. I did not do carrots, I did not create a bed upon which to lay the chicken breasts. The article that went with this recipe said they did that to avoid stringy, dry breasts but I found them to be fine if I just cooked everything low and slow. I do think you should turn them during the cooking to ensure that lovely juice gets into every part of the chicken. I also did not add chicken stock, the chicken has bones and they create a lovely stock all on their own.

This is great with olives and apricots, which I sadly am not eating right now but they really are a tasty addition.

Oyster Stout

Meh, not a fan. Especially not for the $4 or $5 dollars I paid for one measly bottle. I'd be just as content drinking a Guinness, which is not as bitter nor as expensive.

Here's what the experts have to say:

"Sweet and roasted flavors of dark malts, caramel, dark chocolate, wood, and something that I could see being described as barbequed oysters."

"The first smell is light cocoa, the second is a barely discernible salty ocean, I'm not playing into the name, it really has it. Some cherries and Goldings hops aroma.
Roasted malts and heavy chocolates, some light smoke and a little salt water taffy, not salty though just the taffy."

First, I call you out on BBQ oysters. I love BBQ oysters and this tasted not a bit like them. In fact, I dare say you have never even tasted BBQ oysters. Second, cherries, chocolate, the ocean and taffy? Not only did I not pick up on any of this, it doesn't sound like a winning combo in my book. And finally, do you see that twisty, wire ring around the cap? Well, it broke off and the bottle doesn't open like a regular cap would so it spilled 1/4 of the bottle out all over me and the counter before I got it off. Quirky and different is only cool if it also works.

South of the Border, Segundo Parte

Crap, this is what happens when I don't post immediately. I forget. I think I will remember but my memory is certainly hazier than when I got back a month ago, 6 weeks ago? Good Lord, this month FLEW!

Anyway, we found this taco place on the main drag, Taco los Arboles I think it was called. Blew Urge out of the water! They were open at 6am and so two mornings in a row, I ate tacos for breakfast and it was glorious. The first day I went a little nuts with the hot sauce though, hot sauce in Mexico is realllllly hot! We had shrimp and fish and chile rellenos (yes, in a taco!) and my favorite was a sort of stewed pork in a green sauce. MMMMM. Washed down with some deeply colored flor de Jamaica, which I believe is just dried hibiscus flowers soaked in water. The color is like loganberry, so intense! I plan to make some of my own to make a fancy cocktails. I couldn't ever take pictures here though because I always had pork juice running down my hands and that's bad for the camera.

So after eating at all the town's taco stands and lollygagging on the beach, Ben and I rented a scooter and that was an excellent choice. I have no words for it but riding was one of my favorite moments in Mexico.

We went to some ruins, I'm not really a fan. But Ben enjoyed it and after we spent the day in the unforgiving sun at a dusty ruin with thousands of tourists and vendors trying to hawk you crap, we stopped to go swimming here.

The cenote, as they are called, was cool and deep and when you swam out into the middle and floated on your back, you could stare up at the sky and admire the treetops dancing above.

Our last night in Tulum we spent walking along a street parallel to the main drag but completely off the tourist grid. Well, not completely of course, it was only a block away but it was a stark contrast to the shops and restaurants that catered to visitors. It felt like we were another place completely. And there was street food! I went crazy when I saw a sign for churros but our attempt to procure them failed, the churro lady was having issues with her batter. But then we saw a guy making marquesas, which is like a slightly sweet and crispy crepe with cheese melted inside and rolled up. Good, but my heart belongs to churros.

I have one more installment from Mexico and if I'm lucky, I'll write it up by Christmas. Adios!

Tonight on Our Table

Pork roast, butternut squash and spinach salad. Blueberry sour cream crumb cake with vanilla frozen yogurt.

I think I'm going through a beer phase

I've never been much of a beer drinker, I like it sometimes but generally, it's too filling and too carbonated and the taste gets overwhelming to me. However, lately I've been wanting to try different beers and I've been enjoying them and I'd like to keep track of them. I should really do that with wine too and I started doing it with cheese a few years ago and never followed through. The story of my life!

Anyway, I think it started this winter when I went home for Christmas and had something brewed by Goose Island in Illinois. It was dark and coppery, with caramel and coffee undertones and I still haven't gotten it out of my mind. Goose Island doesn't distribute in Louisiana but I heard that they were bought up by Budweiser. This initially made me sad until someone told me that it won't change anything except they will have better distribution. Fingers crossed for Louisiana!

Yesterday I got a bottle of Saison Dupont, which is from Belgium. It had a nice, blond color although on first sniff, it smelled like Heineken to my unrefined nose and Heineken smells like funky skunk. But it tasted really crisp and refreshing, I even felt like there was some banana lingering. I did not much care for the aftertaste, which I am too beer-ignorant to place. Hops? Malt? Not sure. I did a little sleuthing to see if someone else could more eloquently describe it and I found a lot of very amusing descriptions like;

"Nose is a very dense earth, soil, it feels like fresh tilled dirt. Mild chlorophyll and resin, with a big giant lemon zest."

"Hazy straw yellow with 2-3 finger stark white tightly-bubbled, frothy head with good retention with numerous blobs of lacing."

These guys clearly drink more beer than I do and for the record, I don't really know if I could place the taste of resin. I sipped mine some Havarti cheese with caraway seeds and I thought the combination was mighty fine.

Be aware that the alcohol content is somewhat higher than an average beer, which I think is usually about 5%. The Saison Dupont I think is about 6.5%. That coupled with the fact that one of them costs almost $5, makes it a perfect beer to sip on leisurely and then call it quits.

Adventures South of the Border: Part One

My Fox and I just got back from a lovely week in Mexico and of course, I wanted to share with you all of the food that we tried and tasted! The week got kicked off really right when we got all the way to the front of the customs line in Cancun and they promptly booted us (me really) back to the US. It's a funny story and I'll tell you if you ask me but suffice it to say, when we finally got admitted onto Mexican soil two days later, I was ready to put the hurt on some food.

We decided to have lunch in Cancun before jumping on the bus to Tulum and that was the worst mistake I made the whole week. Cancun pretty much sucks as a city and we ended up at a crappy buffet with sour lasagna and some funky beef skewers. They didn't even make margaritas. Thanks for nothing, Fodor's Yucatan 2011!

After that debacle, we boarded our bus and I was very glad to see the LOVE PINK sweatsuit-clad American tourists fade away in the rearview mirror. Seriously, if I saw one more girl wearing that godawful Victoria's Secret pre-fab shit emblazoned on their ass cheeks, well, it's no wonder we're not always well-loved abroad. Because we look like this. Yeah, I'm judging, so hate me.



Tulum is a dusty little town about 80 miles south of Cancun. We got off the bus and immediately stopped somewhere to cool off with a margarita. We had some that were darn tootin', as well as some fantastical shrimp ceviche. After that,we got a cab to our new home, Papaya Playa, our little cabana on the beach! Once we settled in, we went and sat in a palapa hut that overlooked the beach and had a couple more margaritas. I think perhaps I overdid it with the margaritas but after getting deported and suffering the indignity of spending a night in a motel in Indianapolis, I thought I deserved it.

Back to our cabana (27). We could open our door and lay back in the bed and watch the waves crashing in! There is nothing quite like sleeping with the sound of the sea and then wakening to the first rays of the sun stretching across the sky. The water really is a most perfect turquoise and the sand was as white as I've ever seen it.

Ai, I didn't mean to make this a play by play, let me just get to the food! I read about this place called Urge Tacos from some food writer who said they had the best fish tacos she has ever had. I don't know about that but they were good. What was really notable was that they had this salad bar that was really a taco bar with all kinds of accouterments. So I got my plate with tortillas and fish and then went and loaded up with a sweet and tangy tamarind sauce, pickled red onions, radishes and jicama, avocado-habanero sauce and so on. Their octopus ceviche was super but the horchata was just okay.

I skipped dessert because the waiter made a face when I asked about it, as if to apologize for a meager offering, not a promising sign! Now that I think of it, maybe he was grimacing at my gringa accent. Anyway, by the time we walked from the taco place to town, we were drenched with sweat and parched. Luckily we stumbled upon this great little place called El Flor de Michoacan. It had the sweetest little courtyard with flowering trees and white cast iron tables. They also made several different kinds of paletas(popsicles) to soothe weary and overheated travelers such as oursleves. We visited this place pretty much every day we were in town, it was that good. My favorite was called gazacho moreliano and it had pineapple, mango,jicama, lime and chile. So incredible!

More to come....