German Apple Cake

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Liz Eggleston

For Easter brunch, our friend Therese brought over this recipe and it was a delight. Not only is it surprisingly easy, but the texture is so perfect. The batter that you pour over the apples is really thin, so it rises almost like a popover. And while she added sugar and cinnamon, we both agreed that this could be made savory with crumbly sausage or pancetta. I can’t wait to bring this to the next potluck/brunch!

You’ll need:

4 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
2 medium apples
1/4 cup sugar (omit if you’re going to make this savory)
1/4 tsp cinnamon

To make the cake:

Preheat your oven to 400 F. Put the butter in the bottom of a rectangular glass pan and let it melt in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Slice the apples thinly, then layer them over the butter in the pan.

In a bowl, whisk together eggs, flour, milk and salt. Pour this mixture over the apples. Mix together sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle over the apple mixture.

Bake uncovered for ~20 minutes until the crust is golden and risen.

Nom!

Liz

Hungry Texans

garlicky broccoli slaw

Posted on September 18, 2013 by lovettlovett

Last week I awoke to a bountiful produce delivery from From the Farmer on my doorstep. For any friends in the DC area, I couldn’t recommend From the Farmer more highly – they deliver fresh produce to your doorstep weekly. I love it because of the flexibility of From the Farmer vs. traditional CSAs or produce delivery services. I can suspend my deliveries if I know I’m traveling and won’t have time to put my produce to good use! This week my bin overflowed with peaches, heirloom tomatoes, peppers, baby eggplants, beets, broccoli, apples and more. I wanted a fresh and hearty salad, so whipped up this garlicky broccoli slaw with beets, apples, and almonds.

For the salad:
Three heads of broccoli
Two beets, peeled and diced
Two apples, skin on and diced
1/3 cup sliced raw almonds

For the dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
juice from half of one lemon
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Start by roughly chopping your broccoli so it’s small enough to fit through the tube of your food processor. I used my the slicing disc attachment on my food processor to thinly slice the broccoli, but you could also use a mandolin or just roughly chop with a big chef’s knife.

Peel your beets and dice into bite-sized pieces. Dice your apple into similar sized cubes. In a large bowl combine broccoli, beets, and apples.

Add your almonds.

Next, make your dressing in the bowl of a food processor by combining garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle over all ingredients and toss to combine.

Serve as a side or enjoy all on its own as a salad!

xo,
julia

apple bundt cake

Posted on April 22, 2013 by lovettlovett

I know this recipe might have been better saved for the fall, but ever since Boston Boy and I peeled and chopped dozens and dozens and dozens of apples for applesauce at Miriam’s Kitchen I’ve been craving a sweet, cinnamon apple treat. I volunteered to bake dessert for a dinner party our esteemed Ragnar captain, LatinThunder hosted this weekend and this bundt cake is a convenient and easily-transportable (read: won’t Cake Wreck tossed into a bag and hanging from the handles of my bicycle).

Gather the following:

Your favorite baking spray
2 cups flour
1 1⁄2 cups sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1⁄4 tsp. salt
1⁄2 cup butter
1⁄2 cup applesauce
3 eggs
2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (I used Fugi)
1/2 cup raisins (not pictured, these were a game time addition!)

I started by making a half batch of Liz’s yummy applesauce. The rest is a glorified dump cake. You need one bowl, a stirring utensil, and you’ll be golden delicious (couldn’t pass up the opportunity for an apple pun!). In a large bowl, melt butter in the butter melter (read: microwave). Stir in sugar.

Add your eggs.

Then your cinnamon.

Then your applesauce.

Then your fresh apples.

Then your raisins (I might also recommend pecans or walnuts if you have any handy!).

Then your dry ingredients.

Mix it all up, and then pour into a well sprayed (or buttered and floured) bundt pan.

Cook at 350 for about 40 minutes (or in my case a little over half of Denise Austin’s yoga tape – streaming on Amazon Instant thankuverrymuch!). Let your cake thoroughly cool before wiggling around the edges with a knife.

Say a little prayer and hope she comes out easy! Thankfully my bundt came right out. Slice & serve! The cake’s delish and makes a great simple dessert that won’t leave you sugar-rushing, side-split, buckled over lamenting whoever initiated the fairy tale that there’s “always room for dessert”, but it’d also make a great breakfast! If you’re looking for a little more presentation and want to glam this cake up a bit – I recommend (in increasing level of difficulty) either a) sifting powdered sugar on top, b) whipping up a quick powdered sugar glaze, or c) getting fancy and making a caramel/dulce de leche sauce to drizzle on top. Get creative!

You’re the apple of my eye!

Julia

new year’s day supper: grilled pork chops with apple & peach chutney

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Liz Eggleston

Pictured clockwise, from pork: Grilled Pork Chops with Apple-Peach Chutney (progress), Braised Cabbage (wealth), Pan Seared Red Kale & Rainbow Chard with Bacon (prosperity), Black Eyed Peas (luck), Potato Mash (yummy), Ginger-Cabbage Potstickers (multicultural wealth).

Whew! We sure felt lucky this morning. Was it from finishing up a year full of adventure and friendship, starting countless new projects, or finishing up the year with old friends? Maybe. Or maybe it was the symbol-ripe supper we whipped up last night. We covered all of the basics- pork for progress, cabbage for wealth & black eyed peas for luck. And we even found new meaning for mashed potatoes (potato –> irish –> famine –> perseverance?) Special thanks to Man Chef Alan for bringing his perfect pecan pie and Tex-Pat & Boston Boy for peeling themselves away from the couch long enough to churn out a few cabbage dumplings.

This recipe is for the grilled pork chops, but more New Year’s Day recipes will follow. I urge you to try this pork for your next lucky supper or just a quick weeknight dinner!

You’ll need:

4 thick, boneless pork chops (you can use bone-in if you’d like)

For the Brine:

4 cups water

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp red pepper flakes

Combine ingredients for the brine in a large bowl. Place pork chops in a large ziplock bag, then add the brine and be sure the pork chops are covered in the liquid. Let them sit in a bowl overnight.

For the Chutney:

2 apples, diced

2 peaches, diced

1 jalapeno

2 tbs brown sugar

2 tbs vinegar

2 tbs minced ginger

1/2 cup red onion

1 tsp curry powder

Heat olive oil in small pan and add red onion and jalapeno. Cook until soft, then add other ingredients and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes, until soft. Mash with a potato masher or with an immersion blender, leaving the mixture slightly coarse.

Remove the pork chops from the brine ~30 minutes before cooking. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat your grill (or a cast iron grill pan) to medium low heat and cook the pork chops for 4 minutes on each side. After ~10 minutes, glaze the chops with the apple chutney on both sides. Pork gives me a bit of anxiety because I’m always afraid to overcook it, so I use a meat thermometer and take it off the heat when the internal temperature is 160°. Let them rest off the grill for 10 minutes before serving.

basics: homemade applesauce

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Liz Eggleston

Happy Hanukkah, everyone!

I’m sure all of my fellow shiksahs in the kitchen can agree that the holidays can be a doozy. As much as you love to cook, you’ll never shine a light to the recipe that has been passed down by tough critics. I’ve made my fair share of high-holiday-hiccups (starting with a milchigs fork mix-up and ending with bringing a butter-laden bread pudding to Thanksgiving) but this applesauce is not one of them. It’s the perfect way to preserve your apples and requires only two added ingredients. And during Hanukkah, you won’t find a better topping for your potato latkes.

You’ll need: (for 2 cups applesauce)
4 apples, mixed
1 tbs honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup water

We used Red Macintosh and Pink Lady apples for this recipe. You can use whichever are in season (the farmer’s market usually has enough apple samples out to give you a tummy ache), but I recommend a mix of apples to elevate the depth of flavors. Start by peeling your apples roughly (a little apple skin never hurt anyone) and chopping them into cubes. Add them to a saucepan with the water over medium heat, until they’re just simmering.

Add the cinnamon and honey and stir. In the past, I’ve used white sugar for the sweetness in my applesauce, but switched to honey because, well, apples and honey taste great together.

Let the whole mixture simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. Then, using a hand potato masher (or a food processor if you’re looking for a really smooth sauce), mash the apples until they look like applesauce.

Serve over freshly-fried latkes and or just enjoy as a sweet snack.

xoxo,

the hungry texans

a hungry texans guide to thanksgiving!

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Liz Eggleston

we all do it- that weekend before thanksgiving when friends gather, drink too much spiced cider, and potluck our faces off for that pre-thanksgiving thanksgiving celebration. call it Friendsgiving or Fakesgiving, we just call it delicious.

and this year was no different. the man chefs brought their extremely tasty green beans and a rendition of thomas keller’s stuffing that blew us meat eaters’ socks off (vegetarians beware: this stuffing starts with 1 lb of rendered bacon fat).

use these recipes for your own thanksgiving feast or just as side dishes for a wonderful meal. click through for recipes!

honey butter chicken biscuits

roasted root vegetables with charred scallion goat cheese & garlic confit

middle eastern spiced roasted cauliflower

jalapeno honey butter & sage roasted garlic butter

cranberry-orange relish

happy thanksgiving!

xoxo,

the hungry texans

Mimi’s cranberry relish

Posted on November 20, 2012 by lovettlovett

The irony of this cranberry relish (and many, many things I’ve now come to love) is it disgusted me for the first 15 years or so of my life. Thanksgiving dinner for this HungryTexan meant the blandest of plates. Turkey, mashed taters, dinner rolls. What about the dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes and cranberry relish? Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! and extra Yuck! so thought the tastebuds of a tinier Texan. Little by little my tastebuds matured and I learned the wonders of a more colorful Thanksgiving plate. I warmed to the cranberry relish last, but it’s since become one of my all time faves and it couldn’t be simpler.

Seriously, yall.Once you know how simple this homemade delight is, you better not even think about carving open a can of store-bought gelatinous cranberry goop! All you’ll need is:

1 bag of cranberries

1 apple (I used honeycrisp)

1 orange

1/2 c sugar

Slice your apples & oranges (keep the skin on!) and remove the seeds. I’d cut ’em a tiny bit smaller than the slices pictured above. Dump your cranberries, apples, and oranges into your food processor until all your fruits are pulverized. Then add your 1/2 cup of sugar and process it all together. You’ll be (cran)berry, berry happy you spent the 15 minutes to whip up this classy condiment for any Thanksgiving spread. It’s the perfect pop of color for any plate & a sweet-tart pop of flavor for your palette. Also, make this a few days in advance — it only gets better with age!

French Apple Cake

Posted on October 25, 2012 by lovettlovett

Don’t fret…still cleansing. But all this cleansing frees up all the time we’d spend eatingcookingeatingcooking with time for blogging. Texas may be bigger than France, but what they lack in size they make up for in pastry proficiency. I spotted this recipe last weekend and was immediately drawn to a non-pie recipe for Fall’s favorite fruit! A friend’s birthday was the perfect occasion to give this recipe a whirl in the HungryTexans test kitchen.

Weeknight baking begets little time for lots of ingredient scrutiny — without fail I’m missing something and on weeknights seldom have the time or energy to make that second & third trip to the store for the [INSERT MISSING INGREDIENT DU JOUR]. Per usual, couple substitutions from the orig, below’s this HungryTexan’s spin on Cook’s Illustrated’s French Apple Cake.

4 granny smith apples, cut into 8 wedges and the sliced 1/8 thick

A healthy pour of vanilla

1/2 tsp vinegar (no lemons on hand)

1 cup + 2 tbl flour

1 cup + 1 tbl sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg + 2 egg yolks

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup whole milk

The best trick of this recipe was — zap your apples before you bake ’em! Microwaving them first makes sure their tender, but not mushy. Quick 3 minutes in a glass pie plate. Let them cool and pour in the vanilla & vinegar.

While those babies relax, get your liquids whisking in your stand mixer. Start with the oil, milk, and large egg. In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder & salt. Add the dry to the liquid and whiskwhiskwhisk.

Remove a cup of the batter and set it aside. Then add two egg yolks to your main mixture. Once that’s all wonderful looking, gently fold in your apples. Pour the extra two tablespoons of flour into the mix you set aside.

Assemble your baking dish — I used a springform round pan and covered the bottom with parchment paper. Pour the apple mixture in first — make sure you have a nice healthy layer of evenly-distributed apples. Then, you can add the mixture you set aside on top. Look at you! Double layered, you’re doing great.

Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the top and pop in the oven at 325 for oh…45 to an hour until it passes the toothpick test. When we sliced it the next day, it definitely passed everyone’s tastebud test! Custard meets cake meets apply yumyums! Plus, it’s the kind of cake you can eat unabashedly with your bare hands. Extra bonus, it’ll make your house full of boys smell like a well-kept home for 3 whole days.

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