Friday, March 15, 2024

Oven Rice at High Altitude

1 lb bag long grain white rice

1 Tbsp salt

4.5 c water

2 Tbsp butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Soak rice in cool water for 30 minutes. Drain well. Spray 9x13 aluminum pan with cooking spray and place on baking sheet. Spread soaked and rinsed rice in even layer in an aluminum pan. Bring water, salt, and (optional) butter to a boil. When water is boiling, pour evenly over rice and cover immediately with heavy duty aluminum foil. Make sure all corners are tightly sealed. Bake for 35-40 mins, then turn oven off and leave rice to sit for 10 additional minutes. Fluff with a fork. 

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Strawberry margarita

 6 oz blanco tequila

2 oz cointreau

8 oz strawberries

4 oz lime juice

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Crawfish étouffée

 YIELD 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 lb. packaged Louisiana crawfish tails, soaking in 1.5 c. water

  • 3-5 cloves of garlic, minced

  • 1 lg. onion, diced

  • 1 green bell pepper, diced

  • 1 red bell pepper, diced

  • 2-3 stalks celery*, diced

  • 2 tbsp. oil (canola or veggie, tho I used olive once and it was pretty good)

  • 2 tbsp. butter

  • 4 tbsp. flour

  • cayenne

  • white pepper

  • salt

  • garlic powder

  • 3-4 scallions, chopped

  • rice

  • French bread

PREPARATION

  • Ok, so first thing's first do NOT wash off the juices from the crawfish tails! Don't even worry about the tails just yet. Leave em in the fridge for now. In a cast iron skillet, add oil and get it hot over a medium-low heat, then add your butter. Once the butter's melted and mixed up into the oil, add your flour, constantly keep the flour-oil moving, to avoid burning. So, after a few minutes of moving the roux around, it should come to that nice light tan color. Toss in your veggies and saute in the roux until the onions are translucent. Now... as your veggies are cooking, get out your bag of thawed crawfish tails. Empty the bag into a bowl and add 1.5 cups of water to them. Stir them around so you get off all the juices. Strain the tails from the juice, and set them aside. Once you're veggies are cooked down a bit, add the juice to the pan. Bring this to a boil and add your salt, white pepper, garlic powder and cayenne. You pretty much have to eyeball it yourself, cuz I ain't got a clue how much I use. Add a bit, then taste test it til you got it where you want it. Bring it to a boil, lower to a simmer and let this cook for about 20 minutes. And, while that's cooking, make your rice. After 20 minutes, add your crawfish tails and your scallions, mix that up, and let cook another 5 minutes or so. (The tails are already cooked, so it's really just a heat up you need to do.) Heat up some bread in the oven, prep 1 part rice into a bowl for 2 parts etouffee, and get it!

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Tigga buttercream

 


• BUTTERCREAM RECIPE! •
180g Pasteurized egg whites
300g superfine sugar
500g Unsalted Butter
120g Vegetable Shortening 
240g 10x sugar
1Tbsp Vanilla (or any flavoring)

Monday, March 13, 2023

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Coconut Pastry Cream

1 cup coconut milk
1 cup half-and-half
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups coconut


  1.  whisk sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl.
  2.  Add eggs and whisk until smooth.
  3. Place coconut milk, half and half and vanilla bean in a saucepan.
  4. Heat to simmering.
  5. Ladle out about 1/3 of the liquid and stir into the egg mixture.
  6. Pour egg mixture back into saucepan and heat, stirring constantly until it boils.
  7.  Let boil for 1 minute stirring all of the time.
  8. Pour through a strainer into a bowl and stir in vanilla and coconut.
  9. Place plastic wrap over custard so that it is touching the surface.
  10. Refrigerate overnight.

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Chiqui's Ice Water cake

I quote the recipe in its entirety from my old favourite, the long out-of-print A World of Baking by Delores Casella, page 14. (Published by David White, New York, 1969).” 


ICE WATER WHITE CAKE 

The lady who gave me this excellent recipe called it "Sweet Water Mountain Cake." We find that it makes a very good tiered cake. If multiplied five times, the recipe will make a 3-tier cake, with a 4-inch, an 8-inch, and a 12-inch layer. It also makes very good cupcakes, and a good loaf cake. With the exception of the water, which should be ice cold, all ingredients should be at room temperature. 

  • 3 and 1/4 cups sifted pastry or cake flour 
  • ½ teaspoon salt 
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder 
  • ½ cup butter or margarine 
  • 2 cups superfine granulated sugar 
  • 1 and ½ cups ice water 
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional) (I used ½ tsp. almond extract) 
  • ½ cup (about 4) egg whites 

Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder. Cream the butter or margarine and gradually add 1 and ½ cups of the sugar. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Combine ice water and flavourings. Add sifted dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the ice water, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Beat until smooth, but do not overbeat. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, gradually beat in the remaining ½ cup sugar, and beat until stiff and glossy. Very carefully fold this meringue into the batter, folding just until no traces of white can be seen. Turn batter into 2 9-inch round layer pans that have been buttered and floured. 

Bake in 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool in pans for 5 minutes before turning out onto racks. Fill and frost as desired.