Weekend Cooking Part 2: Clam Chowder

Last weekend, I also made clam chowder. I was hoping to put it in bread bowls, but the Safeway near me doesn't have a bakery and is therefore very lacking in the fresh bread department. Instead, I served it with a sourdough baguette and it was almost as delicious.

My clam chowder was loosely based on this recipe, but I used 3 cans of minced clams plus a small bottle of clam juice. Instead of milk and cream I mixed in half & half for the creaminess.

Yummy Bowl of Clam Chowder!

Weekend Cooking Part 1: Tacos

Over the weekend, I made steak tacos and clam chowder for Ryan and myself. Both recipes came out well, and I would make them again. 

First, the tacos were based on a recipe from Tyler Florence. I used his recipe for mojo as a base and tweaked it a little bit to my preferences and what I had on hand. I wish I had skirt steak instead of flank, but I was happy with the final product. Next time, I will add more chipotles because, while the marinade had good flavor I want it to have a little more of a kick.

Ryan's Plate of Tacos with Side of Mexican Rice

Mojo Steak Tacos

adapted from Tyler Florence

Ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 lb skirt or flank steak

Marinade:

5 garlic cloves

1 chipotle in adobo plus some adobo sauce

1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 limes, juiced

1 orange, juiced

2 tbs red wine vinegar

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

For Tacos:

Corn or flour tortillas

Guacamole

Tomatoes

Salsa

Shredded lettuce

Sour cream

Cheese

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients for the marinade into a food processor and pulse together until it forms a paste.
2. Place the steak into a resealable bag and pour in the marinade. Marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.
3. Take the steak out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before cooking.
4. Cook on a grill or cast iron pan to desired doneness.
5. Serve on tortillas with any toppings you like. I think that guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream make the perfect taco!

I Love Croissants!

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

My second Daring Bakers challenge...CROISSANTS! It's definitely a challenge to make croissants for the first time. We don't have a lot of counter space I had to clear away the appliances so I had enough room to roll out my croissants.

I love croissants, and I was happy mine turned out pretty tasty! Not big and fluffy, like bakery croissants, but they tasted right and were the right texture. I made a few plain croissants, some almond filled, and a couple chocolate. I love, love, love almond croissants so those were my favorites.

Here's a picture of how they turned out:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

In celebration of a friend's birthday, I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. Learning that he had a love for the classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter, I thought this recipe would be perfect. These thin, peanut buttery cookies are splattered with bits of chopped chocolate, creating a new twist on the chocolate chip cookie.

This recipe in particular seems to be used in various adaptations because I also saw the same recipe on another website swapping nutella for the peanut butter (now a cookie that is high up on the my list to bake). When I was making this recipe I upped the amount of chocolate by quite a bit and ended up using two types of chocolate because that was what I had on hand. I roughly chopped both a 63% cacao bar chocolate and semisweet chocolate chips and mixed them together.

Even though I don't love peanut butter cookies in general, especially the traditional fork smashed variety, these came out pretty tasty. While some came out a little more done/crispy than I would like, the ones that were crisp and chewy at the same time were yummy. It's important not to bake them too long because they will continue to crisp up while they cool. Also, the recipe says it yields 24 cookies, but I used about a tablespoon per cookie and I ended up with 55 good-sized cookies!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup creamy peanut butter

10 oz chocolate, roughly chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.
2. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and both sugars together until fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Add vanilla and peanut butter and beat until just incorporated.
4. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Remove bowl from mixer, and use a spatula to fold in chocolate. 
6. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, at least 2 inches apart. With your fingers gently press each cookie down so it's flat.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time, until cookies are slightly brown. Do not overbake.
8. Remove pan from oven and cool cookies on baking sheet for 2 minutes then transfer individual cookies to a wire rack to cool.
9. The cookies are best the day of, but can be stored, in an airtight container, for up to 3 days. They will get slightly crunchier, but perfect for dunking in a glass of milk.

Adapted from Food Gal

My First Daring Bakers' Challenge

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

This was my first Daring Bakers' challenge and I was excited. I would have rather baked something, but making chocolates was fun, too. For my two candies I did two different types of truffles. Both were dipped truffles, one is a Hazelnut Coffee Truffle (Frangelico liqueur and instant espresso on the inside, and rolled in crushed chocolate covered coffee beans) and the other is an Amaretto Truffle (Amaretto liqueur and rolled in toasted, chopped almonds). 

The main challenge of the challenge was tempering chocolate. This ended up being difficult for me because I didn't have an appropriate thermometer. I'm sure my tempering technique wasn't perfect, but after dipping the truffles in the tempered chocolate I rolled them in the toppings so any imperfections were hidden =) Here's how they turned out:

I like the Amaretto Truffles the most because I really like the Amaretto and almond flavor. Also, with the Hazelnut Coffee Truffles I used instant espresso, which I think made the chocolate bitter (and I wasn't using a very sweet chocolate to begin with).

Overall, I liked doing this challenge and I'm looking forward to having something new to try every month.