Showing posts with label #BloggerCLUE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #BloggerCLUE. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Irish Blackberry Cobbler Cocktail #BloggerCLUE


Muddled blackberries release their precious juice to mix with Irish whisky, sherry and simple syrup over crushed ice for a refreshing cocktail that is perfect for Happy Hour. 

This month’s BloggerCLUE is berries and the blog I am supposed to be poking around in, looking for berry recipes is none other than girlichef, written by my friend, Heather, fellow lover of garlic and margaritas. You might remember our celebrations of National Garlic Day 2014 and 2015 and this year’s National Margarita Day. Good times!

Anyhoo, I searched through Heather’s blog and found myriad recipes with berries like her tasty Chicken Strawberry Tarragon Salad or her creamy Mixed Berry Gelato and her sweet Rosewater Raspberry Meringues, just to mention three. There were just so many too choose from!

But the title that really caught my eye was the Irish Cobbler. The name conjured up a big pan of juicy berries topped with a batter or biscuit crust, so you can imagine my surprise when I clicked on the link and discovered it was a cocktail! Well, we love a good cocktail and it’s great to get out of the rut of always mixing and drinking the same old thing so I abandoned all thoughts of ice cream and salad and baked desserts for Happy Hour.

Make sure you scroll down past the Irish Cobbler to see what other special berry recipes my fellow BloggerCLUE members have found on their assigned blogs this month!

Ingredients for two cocktails
16 ripe blackberries
3 oz or 90ml Irish whiskey
3 oz or 90ml simple syrup (I used simple syrup made from demerara sugar.)
1 oz or 30ml cream sherry (Heather says: optional. I put it in. Hey, go big or go home.)
Ground cinnamon (Heather used nutmeg. You can choose.)
Crushed ice for two glasses
2-3 ice cubes

Method
Divide the blackberries between two short cocktail glasses and muddle until you have a lovely mush of blackberries and juice at the bottom. Heather said to leave some chunks, which I duly did but that did make the drink harder to sup through a straw.



Add crushed ice to fill both glasses, right on top of the muddled berries.



In a cocktail shaker, over a couple of ice cubes, vigorously shake the whiskey, simple syrup, cream sherry (if using), and a good pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg.


Pour over the crushed ice in your glasses.


Stir well to mix the muddled berries throughout the cocktails and finish with another pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg, if desired.



Enjoy!








Have you been hunting for berrilious recipes too? You are in the right place then! Here's a list of the other BloggerCLUE participants this month.

Cheers!


Posted by at 5:15:00 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Asparagus Salmon Fried Rice #BloggerCLUE


Crunchy asparagus just barely tossed in the hot pan with garlic and onions and chilies keep the fresh taste of spring, complemented by the tender poached salmon in this delightful, and delightfully easy, fried rice.

I’ve been making fried rice for a very, very long time. In fact, it’s such a common occurrence that I’ve never even considered posting a recipe on here. Fried rice has the advantage of being quick and easy, with the fabulous capacity to turn leftovers into something new and special. I never measure or quantify. It all just goes in. Roast chicken, grilled steak, boiled shrimp, pan-fried pork chops and myriad vegetables, sure. They’ve all become fried rice at my hands. But in all my years of making this dish, I have never once thought to use salmon. And that is why I love taking part in Blogger C.L.U.E. each month.

Blogger C.L.U.E. is a fun challenge where each participating blogger is given an assignment, another blog to poke around in and find recipes that fit our “clue” or theme of the month. I’ve been taking part for several months now and each time, I learn something new and my world opens just that much wider with possibilities.

This month my assigned blog is Lemon & Anchovies and I was hunting through Jean’s beautiful pages for spring vegetable recipes. And you know what I found! What is more quintessentially springy than asparagus? I am showing all of my 52 years now (I’m among friends, right?) but I remember a time when the only asparagus I’d ever eaten came from a can. Even as I got older and learned of fresh asparagus, the season was so short that folks waited all year for the first spears to appear and they were something special. When my husband and I first met, he had three things he would not eat: beets, olives and asparagus. Turns out he had never had a fresh asparagus either! He is now a fan of both olives and asparagus – Never mind about the beets. One has to choose one’s battles. – and he loved this fried rice, even taking the leftovers for two days running for his lunch.

I made very few changes to Jean’s recipe only doubling most of the ingredients so we’d have leftovers and putting fresh chilies instead of sauce but I’d like to encourage you to head over to her blog to read the post where I found this recipe. Her stunning photographs and glorious description of a daytrip to the coast will put you right there with her and give you pleasant dreams of days on the beach. And while you are there, have a poke about yourself. Jean cooks beautiful food and loves to travel. Her lovely crab, asparagus and avocado omelet post will also treat you photos from a trip to Maui  and a bacon and leek quiche also means a gorgeous recap of her two weeks of summer on the south coast of France.   Amongst others. Seriously, do go see. If you are anything like me, you’ll get trip envy bad. And want to cook all the things.


Ingredients
1 1/4 lbs or 585g salmon fillets
250g asparagus
6 1/2 cups or about 900g cooked long grained Basmati rice, cooled (Day old from the refrigerator is best.)
3 eggs
2-3 shallots
4 cloves garlic
2­3 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
3 red chili peppers
2-3 tablespoons light soy sauce 
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce, plus more for serving, if desired

For serving and garnish:
Lime wedges
Fresh chives

Method
Poach your salmon in a medium-sized covered saucepan, in simmering water that comes just half way up the fillets, turning the fish halfway through. You want the fish just barely cooked through so, depending on the thickness of your fillets, about 10-15 minutes ought to do it. Take it off the heat but leave the salmon in the poaching liquid until you are ready to use it.



Cut the hard ends off of your asparagus and pop them into a glass with some cool water, just as you would cut flowers.


Beat your eggs and drizzle a little olive oil into a non-stick skillet. Pour the eggs in and cook over a low heat, turning once when almost cooked through.

When the omelet is cool enough to handle, roll it up and slice it thinly. Set aside.



Slice your shallots finely, mince your garlic and red chilies. Cut your asparagus into shorter lengths.



In a pan or wok that is big enough to hold all of your ingredients eventually, drizzle in the oils and add in the shallots and chilies. Cook for just a minute or two.



Add in the asparagus and cook, stirring frequently, for just a few more minutes. You want the asparagus to stay nice and crunchy.



Add in the garlic and cook for about a minute, making sure not to let the garlic color.



Add in the cold rice and stir well. Drizzle on the soy sauces and stir again, so that the soy is well mixed with all the rice.



It will take a few minutes to get all of that rice hot, so take the time now to use a fork to break the salmon into fairly large pieces. Remember that it will fall apart a bit more as you stir.



Add in the salmon and fold it into the hot rice.

Now add the egg ribbons and do the same, cooking just until the salmon and egg are both hot.



Garnish with chopped green onion and serve with lime and extra soy sauce, if desired.



Enjoy!



Here’s a list of this month’s Hunt for Spring Vegetables Blogger C.L.U.E. participants. I’ll be updating the list with their chosen recipes as the day progresses.


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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Bacon-wrapped Smashed Redskin Puffs

Small red potatoes, cooked to tenderness then smashed flattish, covered with bacon and fried till crispy. You can serve these as a side dish but they also make a fabulous main course alongside a big salad or vegetables.

 Food Lust People Love: Small red potatoes, cooked to tenderness then smashed flattish, covered with bacon and fried till crispy. You can serve these as a side dish but they also make a fabulous main course alongside a big salad or vegetables.

It’s Blogger C.L.U.E. Society time again, where I am assigned a blog to poke around in and find a recipe to make which fits our “clue” or theme. Which, this month, is potatoes. While I’m not the diehard fan my mother is – her last meal on earth would be potatoes and more potatoes of every recipe and description – I am quite a fan. I was also delighted to be assigned the blog A Day in the Life on the Farm, written by my friend, Wendy, a retired police officer who has taken up the life of a leisurely farmer. HA! Yeah, that was a joke. What she does do, between chores, is cook some pretty tasty dishes.

As I poked around in Wendy’s potato posts, it became apparent to me that my eyesight is failing. I have an annual checkup each summer but here we are in only March, and these contacts just aren’t quite working for me anymore. When I saw the first photo of her smashed redskin potato puffs crisping up in the frying pan, I thought, “Oh, my goodness, brilliant, she has wrapped the smashed potato with bacon!” Upon enlarging the picture, I realized that was just the red of the potatoes. But then I HAD to wrap them in bacon. There wasn’t any other choice. 

Let me say that if you are not a bacon person, I’m not sure we can be friends. Wendy’s original potatoes are still brilliant. The smashing opens the skins so the fluffy insides can fry up crunchy and crispy and more-ish. They would be an excellent addition to any meal!

I intended to serve these as a side dish, just as Wendy did, but with the addition of the bacon, I changed my mind and made them the main course, with a lovely mixed salad on the side, perfect for a meal when meat doesn’t have to be the center of attention. Since the salad was so big, we still only each ate two of the potatoes.

Ingredients
Small redskin potatoes – about 2 per person
1 slice of normal smoked streaky bacon per potato (Not thick cut.)
Handful chopped green onions to serve
Cayenne pepper – optional

Method
Boil your potatoes in a large pot of water until tender, testing with a pointy knife at about 20 minutes. Cook a little longer if you still feel resistance in the middle.

Yeah, I know I said two per person and we are only two people at home but who boils only four potatoes?
Exactly no one.


Drain the water from the pot and leave the potatoes to air dry, and cool a little, uncovered in the hot pot.

When your potatoes are cool enough to handle, but are still quite warm, heat a non-stick skillet on the stove over a medium flame.

Lay one piece of cold bacon on a plate and top with a potato. Use the potato masher to smash the potato till it is kind of flattish and about the same size as the masher.



Fold the ends of the bacon over to cover the smashed potato. With a spatula, lift the bacon-wrapped potato and place it - overlapped bacon-end side down - in the heated pan.


Continue until all the potatoes are smashed and wrapped with bacon, adding as many as you can comfortably fit to the pan and leaving the rest to wait on the plate.

Overlapped bacon end side down to start.


You don’t want to crowd your pan too much because these need room around them so everything can get crispy, instead of just steaming. Also, room to maneuver makes turning them over easier.

When the overlapped bacon on the bottoms are sufficiently browned and sticking together, use a spatula to gently turn the smashed potatoes over. If little pieces of potato try to detach, just push them back where they belong with the spatula.

Push down gently on the smashed potatoes with your spatula to reflatten them occasionally.



Cook until both sides are crispy then remove the smashed potatoes to a warm plate to keep warm. Sprinkle with a little cayenne, if desired.  Continue cooking until all your potatoes are done.

Sprinkle with the chopped green onions to serve.

Food Lust People Love: Small red potatoes, cooked to tenderness then smashed flattish, covered with bacon and fried till crispy. You can serve these as a side dish but they also make a fabulous main course alongside a big salad or vegetables.


Enjoy!



Many thanks to this month’s host and organizer, Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake.



One potato, two potato,
Three potato, four,
Five potato, six potato,
Seven potato, MORE!

Here’s the list of this month’s Blogger C.L.U.E. participants. Follow the links to see which blog they were assigned and which great potato or starch recipe they have recreated.


Pin these Bacon-wrapped Smashed Redskin Puffs!

Food Lust People Love: Small red potatoes, cooked to tenderness then smashed flattish, covered with bacon and fried till crispy. You can serve these as a side dish but they also make a fabulous main course alongside a big salad or vegetables.
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Posted by at 4:10:00 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Paloma Naranjada Cocktail #BloggerCLUE

This refreshing cocktail is made with sparkling orange soda, tequila and fresh lime juice, served over ice. Add a rim of salt crystals and an extra slice of lime and it’s party time. 

It’s funny what you find out you have in common with folks when you just meet them through the internet – and no, I’m not talking about the dating sites – but through blogging and social networking. If you’ve been reading this space for a while, you know that my friend, Heather, of girlichef is fond of garlic. I mean, really, really fond of garlic. We cohosted the National Garlic Day celebration last year and gave away a few sweet (and smelly) prizes. We have bonded over raising multicultural children as well, discussing the challenges we face trying to make sure that they know where they come from, on both sides of the family. And, we love cocktails! When she posted this Paloma Cocktail,  I was determined to make it because I love grapefruit but I struggled to find grapefruit soda. I finally decided that for Blogger C.L.U.E. this month, I was going to use orange soda and drink these babies as I watched the glamorous folks saunter down the red carpet at the Grammys. So I did. You should make them for Oscar Night! Or because it’s Wednesday.

Ingredients 
2 oz or 60ml tequila
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
6 oz or 180ml real juice orange soda (I used San Pellegrino Aranciata.)

Optional: For the rim and garnish
Coarse salt
Slice of lime or wedge



Method
Wet the rim of the glass with lime juice and press it into some coarse salt spread on a small saucer then fill your glass with ice.

Mix tequila and lime juice together and pour into the glass.



Top off with orange soda.


Garnish with a slice or wedge of lime.


Enjoy!

Check out all the other Blogger C.LU.E. participants this month!

If you'd like to stalk - I meant meet -  Heather on the internet too, check out these links:

Facebook    Twitter   Instagram   Pinterest


Posted by at 8:27:00 AM 0 comments
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Red-Hot Currant-Glazed Pork Chops #BloggerCLUE

These tender bone-in pork chops are marinated with sweet and spicy red currant sauce, then cooked to juicy perfection. These are seriously good! Make sure you have two or four diners because three will fight over the last chop and ruin the whole evening. 

I am a notorious procrastinator. Well, perhaps that is a bit strong because notoriety would imply that a wide number of folks know of my procrastination when it’s probably just close friends and family. Because, so far, I have always managed to slip in under the deadline wire. When I was in school, my best 20-page papers were written in fewer than 24 hours - of course, I had (mostly) done my research but just hadn’t started putting pen to paper- and my best essays and stories got their final -30-, journalistic shorthand for The End, at about 3 a.m., mere hours before they were due. I tell myself I write best under pressure when time constraints don’t allow a bunch of faffing about. As an old professor of mine once said, “Tell ‘em what you are gonna tell ‘em, tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you told ‘em.” Introduction, body, conclusion.

Which brings me to this post, which, true to form, I am writing on the day I need to publish it. (Yay for time zones that give me “extra” time.) BUT: Way back in December, just a couple of days after I was given my assignment for February’s Blogger C.L.U.E. Society, where we poke around in someone else’s blog for a recipe that fits our clue or theme – in this case RED – I found THE recipe I wanted to make. And I wanted to make it and eat it so much that I jumped in my car and ran to the store for supplies. These gorgeous pork chops, from Christiane of Taking On Magazines were dinner that very night! The sauce is sweet and spicy and, if there hadn’t been pork chops, I could have eaten it with a spoon. So now you know how to motivate me to move more quickly.

If you haven’t met Christiane yet, you need to pop over and have a browse through her site. It’s full of great recipes that she has tested from a variety of food magazines and cookbooks, so you’ll know what works and what doesn’t, in a normal kitchen, as she says, with “kids underfoot, animals prowling the room, husbands peering over shoulders and all the interruptions that the regular Mom Chef has to face.” Since 2009, she’s shared which recipes worked for her and what she’d change if she made them again, as well as favorites from her multicultural family. And she does it all with a great sense of humor.

The red-hot currant-glazed pork chop original recipe came from Cooking Light Magazine, October 2014, and included a side dish of carrots that I have omitted. Here’s the link to Christiane’s post.

Ingredients
1/2 cup or 160g red currant jelly
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
4 (6-ounce) bone-in center-cut loin pork chops (Together mine weighed almost half a pound more or 1kg total.)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Parsley, optional for serving

Method
Combine the first four ingredients in a small bowl and stir well.



Place your pork chops on a large plate and spoon about a quarter of the jelly mixture over them, spread it around with the back of the spoon and turn them over halfway through to put marinade on both sides. Cover with cling film and marinate in refrigerator for one hour. (Mine marinated for about three hours, till I was ready to cook dinner.) Reserve remaining jelly mixture in the refrigerator.



Christiane’s – or possibly Cooking Light’s – instructions say to broil the chops but my broiler is a sad, sad thing that doesn’t give off much heat so I preheated my oven to 400°F or 200°C.

And continued thus:

If any liquid has accumulated in the bottom of your plate, pour it off and discard. Dry the chops lightly with paper towel.

Heat your grill pan to scorching hot and lay the pork chops in on one side for 4 minutes.



Turn them over and pop in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.



Remove from oven and allow to rest on a warmed plate for about five minutes. Season the chops with the salt and pepper.

Spoon remaining fresh marinade over chops. Sprinkle with a little parsley, if desired.



Enjoy!



In the interest of full disclosure, I have to tell her that Christiane’s Cherry Port Glazed Pork Loin Roast, Avocado Salad with Spicy Cilantro and Red Chili Salsa, Bistro Steak with Red Wine Sauce and Red Wine Braised Short Ribs were all strong contenders to fit our Red February theme. But the pork chops won!

Many thanks to the organizers of the Blogger C.L.U.E. Society challenge each month, Christiane from Taking on Magazines, Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake and Kate from Kate’s Kitchen.

If you are planning a special meal for Valentine’s Day or perhaps for one of the upcoming red carpet television-watching events, look no further for inspiration. Today, seeing RED is a good thing:

If you'd like to stalk Christiane online, you can find her here:

Facebook     Twitter      Pinterest
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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Strawberry Champagne Cocktail #BloggerCLUE


This twist on the classic peach Bellini uses strawberry simple syrup and strawberry puree to create a deliciously fresh Champagne cocktail, perfect for any celebration.

This month for Blogger C.L.U.E., my assigned blog is one that I am very familiar with and love. It is written by one of the most popular ladies on the interwebs because she is sweet, friendly, kind to a fault and makes the most sensational recipes. Despite all the deliciousness that comes out of her kitchen, she stays remarkably slim. Yep, my blog this month is That Skinny Chick Can Bake, written by my sweetheart of a friend, Liz.

Skinny Chick


Our theme is sparkles, so despite all the great recipes with shiny things, like her beautiful vanilla cupcakes sprinkled with silver balls or the glistening sheen of barbecue sauce on her Asian Baby Back Ribs, I had to go with the Strawberry Bellini Cocktail. Any excuse to open a bottle of bubbly, right?

Liz had been sent some simple syrups to use in cocktails when she made this originally and they looked great, but unfortunately I didn’t have any, so I made my own strawberry simple syrup from this recipe online, halving the ingredients. It was super easy and still made plenty! Or head on over to Liz’s post and check out the syrup she used. Also, Liz says this makes only two drinks but we had plenty enough strawberry puree for four or five drinks. That is to say, we drank the whole bottle of Champagne. Hey, we didn’t want it to get flat and go to waste, right?

Ingredients
7 oz or 200g ripe strawberries, stems removed (plus a few for garnish)
2 tablespoons strawberry simple syrup
Champagne

Method
Puree the strawberries in a blender with the simple syrup. Strain mixture. (I forgot this step so we were left with tiny little strawberries seeds at the bottom of our glasses. Not a big deal though.)


Put a couple tablespoons of puree in each glass.

Just look at that gorgeous red color!

Pour in some Champagne. It will bubble up so just wait till the bubbles subside and pour in a little more.



Stir to combine.


And then top up with more Champagne. Make sure to garnish each glass with a strawberry.


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This Month’s Blogger CLUE Participants are

Find That Skinny Chick Can Bake online:

     




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