Category Archives: ingredients

kale potato mash

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kale potato mash title

There are few better dinners than a roasted chicken with a hearty side.  Last night, we made a really special miso butter roasted chicken, and these mashed red potatoes were the perfect side.  On a last-moment whim, I threw in a couple handfuls of blanched kale and a bulb of roasted garlic.  The texture from the kale and the mix of of potatoes was a perfect side for a Friday night chicken.

What you’ll need:

5 red potatoes

5 yukon gold potatoes

1 bulb garlic

1 cup white cheddar cheese

2 cups chopped kale

1/4 cup heavy cream

s&p

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Slice off the top of your garlic bulb and top with olive oil and a pinch of salt, then wrap in foil and place in the oven for 30 minutes, until the cloves are soft.  Boil a large pot of salted water and add your kale.  Let the kale boil for ~4 minutes, then drain.

kale

Peel your potatoes (I liked a mixture of red and yukon gold because it gives the mash a good blend of textures).

sam handsAnd boil for about 10 minutes, until they’re ready to be mashed.  Then, add the kale and the roasted garlic.

potatoes and kaleGive everything a good mash, using a hand masher.  Once combined, add the heavy cream and salt & pepper and give everything a good stir.

mixingAll done!

xoxo,

The Hungry Texans

roasted red pepper & chickpea quinoa

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red pepper & chickpea quinoa

This roasted red pepper & chickpea quinoa was a little bit of a whim, but ended up being a super simple and satisfying meal I ate throughout the week. Roasting both the red peppers and the chickpeas yielded hearty, wholesome flavors I couldn’t get enough of!

All you need is:

2 red peppers

1 large can of chickpeas

1 cup quinoa

2 cups vegetable broth

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne

2 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt

roasted chickpeas

Start by prepping your chickpeas! Set your oven to 400. Rinse & drain your chickpeas and then lay them out to dry on paper towels, lay paper towels on top too to blot excess liquid. Wait 10 minutes or so until your chickpeas are dry-ish. Pour into a bowl and toss with olive oil & seasonings. Lay your chicks out on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. These roasted chickpeas make a great snack, salad topper, or mix in!

Roasted Red Peppers

While your chicks are baking start roasting your red peppers. My favorite trick for this is to pop my peppers directly on a gas burner. Cook & rotate them with a pair of tons ’til their skin is blackened & blistered and then remove from the heat. Pop ’em in brown paper bags to cool. Once they’ve cooled, run the peppers under cold water and remove the charred outer skin with either a paring knife or just your fingers. Remove the seeds and blot your peppers between paper towels. I finely chopped my peppers & they were the perfect quinoa fixing.

Finally, I used quinoa, but I think any grain would be great! Use two cups of broth for every cup of quinoa. Combine both & bring to a poil in a small pot. Once you’re boiling, put a lid on it, and wait until all the liquid is absorbed and you start to see the quinoa blossom (little white specks come out on each grain!). When your quinoa’s cooked, mix in your veggies and serve. Enjoy hot or cold, as lunch or dinner, alone or on a bed of greens.

 

pecan pie

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Two Saturdays ago I helped sort 7,000 Thanksgiving pies sold as a fundraiser for one of my favorite DC nonprofits, Food & Friends. In case you were wondering, 7,000 pies looks like this about 6-times! This pecan pie recipe is poco complicado, but as you read and mentally prepare yourself to recreate its splendor, if you ever think you’re ready to “next!” this recipe, take a deep breath and remember you’re only making one…not 7,000!

Before we get into the thick of it, there are a couple of things you need to know.

  1. This is a recipe for Pecan (“pi-con”) Pie not “pee-can” pie. Few alliterative phrases irk my ears more than “pee-can” pie, and this is coming from the girl who has her own fair share of Texas twists on pronunciation.
  2. This pie was extra special because it was made entirely from the fruits of one of Mimi & Papa’s pecan trees!
  3. This is my first attempt at a Pecan Pie, but you should know Goode Company Pecan Pie (GCPP) is and always will be the gold standard for this species of pie. Important characteristics worth mimicking in GCPP are: a crumbly crust, whole pecans, and balance in the crust & nuts that cuts the saccharine filling.

My recipe features pecans three ways–as a meal in the crust, whole on the bottom of the crust, & chopped in the filling–and its inspired by Tabard Inn’s Crust & Cooks Illustrated’s filling. To embark on this pie prepping adventure, you’ll need:

For the crust:

1 c pecans (chopped)
1⁄3 c sugar
1.5 c flour
1.5 sticks butter
Pinch salt
2 egg yolks
3 tbls 1/2 & 1/2
1 12-ounce can dulce de leche
8 ounces toasted pecans

For the filling:

6 tbl butter

1 c brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c corn syrup

1 tbl vanilla

2 c whole pecans toasted & chopped

Let’s start with the crust, shall we? First pulse your cup of pecans & sugar in a food processor; pulse until it’s a fine meal. Add flour, butter & salt and continue to pulse until the butter is super crumbly. Then add the eggs and half & half. Once your dough is in a nice ball, flatten it out between two pieces of parchment paper. Chill in the fridge until you’re ready to bake it. When it’s time to bake, roll or use your hands to fit your crust into a pie pan. Be sure to poke your crust with a fork (many, many times) and then bake for ~20 minutes at 350. I covered mine with parchment paper. True story, I didn’t have pie weights and my crust definitely rose a little. Once it got out of the oven, I needed to smoosh it back down to its home in the pan. Remove once it’s golden brown.

While your crust is baking is the perfect opportunity to make your filling! Setup a double boiler and melt your butter. Then mix in your sugar & salt. Then beat in eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla. Pop your bowl back on your double broiler & stir, stir, stir until your mix is shiny and warm. Remove the bowl from the heat & stir in your 2 cups of toasted chopped pecans. Ta da! You have filling.

Now this is exciting. Take your toasted whole pecans and pop those little guys on the bottom of your crust. Drizzle dulce de leche all over the pecan-filled pie crust. Then pour in your filling. Alas! It’s time to bake this baby. Pop it into your still hot 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until your pie filling stands up to a  toothpick test. Let your pie rest until it’s time for dessert (or an extra decadent afternoon treat!). I garnished ours with some Grand Marnier whipped cream & it was the perfect cream to cut the sweet.

Steamed Shiner Moules

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DC has an abundance of awesome spots to belly up to the bar with a piping hot pot of moules, a side of sizzling frites, and a stein of your favorite Belgium beer; and little by little I’ve grown quite fond of these baby bivalves (Confession: this Hungry Texan spent a week in Belgium at age 19 and left without nomming a single mussel. She’s still beating herself up for not tasting the beloved dish in its motherland). Until today when I had a craving and promptly started researching how to make them myself, I had two wrong assumptions about mussels. I wrongly assumed steaming mussels was a labor of love, I imagined hours and hours of a slow simmering pot of broth until little by little the shells started peeping open. Turns out the shells pop open in a flash and you can have ’em ready in five minutes flat! Wrong assumption #2 was that mussels were really expensive. ¡Au contraire mon frere! I got a two pound bag at Central Market (the finest grocery store) for $8.99 & that happily fed Baby Bro, Mommy Cat and me.

Misconceptions corrected, I read a little bit about making moules in Saveur and then concocted my own Texas-twist on the Belgium classic. The only thing standing between you and your own bowl of steamed moules is 9 ingredients and +/- 20 minutes!

2 lbs mussels (mine were already cleaned & debearded!)

2 stalks of celery finely chopped

1/2 c chopped onion

3 cloves of chopped garlic

the white part of 3 green onions

2/3 cup of Shiner Cheer (’tis the season!) or your favorite wheat beer

4 tbl butter

s&p

This recipe couldn’t be simpler. 5 easy steps. 1. Prep all your veggies & give your mussels a good rinse. 2. Get a large pot with a good fitting lid, place it on the stove and set your heat on high. 3. Melt your butter in the pot & then dump everything in. Add s&p and give it all a good stir, then put your lid back on. 4. Set a timer for 5 minutes and periodically give the pot a good shake. 5. Turn off the heat once you’ve reached 5 minutes or the majority of your shells have popped open.

Scoop your moules into bowls and ladle on your broth (don’t forget a bowl for discarded shells!). Serve with your favorite crusty bread and/or frites & mayo if you’re feeling fancy!

 

basics: homemade nutella

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Admission: This Hungry Texan is not so hungry.  After an incredible, veggie-rich thanksgiving dinner at Boston Boy’s family in New York (the Lone Star State was a tad far for me to travel for just a couple days), plus leftovers, PLUS some amazing bagels, I’m totally stuffed.  But that doesn’t make this recipe for homemade Nutella any less appealing.  I whipped this up with sister Emily, here forth known as Lemur Lady- she spent the last few months in Madagascar with a cast of lemurs and the girl knows a thing or two about baking.

I get it- people are crazy for nutella.  There are probably entire religions devoted to Nutella.  And when you can get a vat of it at Costco, it may seem silly to make your own.  But trust me, this homemade version is an incredible rendition- sweet from the dark chocolate but with no sugar added, nutty and rich from the toasted hazelnuts.  Plus, this comes out silky instead of becoming congealed  like the jarred stuff- double win!

Also, it takes 5 minutes to make.  So you have no excuses.  To the recipe!

You’ll need:

10 oz semi-sweet dark chocolate (if you want something sweeter, use a milk chocolate or your favorite)
1 cup hazelnuts
1 tbs oil
1 tsp salt

First, you’ll need to make your fancy double boiler.  Fill a medium saucepan 1/4 the way with water and heat to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and fit an appropriately sized stainless steel bowl over the saucepan.  Add your chocolate to the bowl and stir constantly until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  

Take the chocolate off of the heat and toast your hazelnuts with 1 tbs of oil in a large pan for about 4 minutes.

Add your hazelnuts to a blender or food processor and pulse 5-10 times, until the hazelnuts are ground.  Add your chocolate to the blender and blend until smooth.

Serve immediately or in a jar in the refrigerator (who are we kidding).  We ate it over fruit, but decided that the silky delight would be perfect drizzled over popcorn, spread on toast, or over pecan pie (ok, i did that).

xoxo,

the hungry texans

herbed honey biscuits

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I arrived home in Houston to a mountain of Saveur magazines (really! look how many there are!), and immediately started paging through them. The first recipe that screamed, “make me! make me!” was for these herbed honey biscuits. I knew they’d be the perfect addition to our Thanksgiving menu and their ease was an attractive alternative to more time-consuming yeast rolls. They’re ideal for any holiday bread basket, sopping up soup, or a savory twist to your breakfast (my egg, gruyere, herb biscuit breakfast sandwich this morning was preeeetttty tasty!).

For ~15 biscuits, gather these ingredients:

3 3/4 self-rising flour

1 heaping tbl chopped rosemary

1 heaping tbl thyme

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

6 tbls chilled, cubed butter

1 c buttermilk

3 tbl 1/2 & 1/2

1 heaping tbl honey

This is a roll-up-your-sleeves, play-with-your-food, get-your-hands-dirty type of recipe. Start by mixing your dry ingredients in a big bowl and then add all your cubed butter and start mixing it with your flour mixture. Keep playing until your mixture is a crumbly consistency and all the butter is worked into the flour in ittty bitty balls. Wash your hands & then mix in your dairy & your honey. Mix, mix, mix until your dough is a sticky, cohesive ball.

Dump your ball out onto a very well floured surface and roll it out so it’s about an inch think. Cut ’em out and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes until they’re golden brown!

creamy cauliflower soup

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I saw cream of cauliflower soup on a menu Tuesday and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind. The only hope of exercising these cauliflower demons was to try my hand at my own and I’m glad I did! Now if the fam and I hadn’t risen at the crack of dawn and Turkey Trotted with a couple thousand of our favorite Houstonians, I might have opted for a lighter Thanksgiving lunch in anticipation of the real meal later this evening, but alas we jogged/ran/walked 5k miles and deserve to refuel our weight in whole milk and half and half. Sass aside, this soup could have been way heavier. Baby bro even remarked it tasted “light”.

I borrowed the recipe from the Pioneer Woman, and it’s a keeper! You’ll need:

~20 chopped baby carrots

2 stalks of celery

1/2 one white onion

1 stick of butter

3 tbl dried parsley

2 heads coarsely chopped cauliflower (I used one white & one golden)

8 cups of veggie broth

2 cups of whole milk

6 tbl flour

1 cup 1/2 & 1/2

1 cup soup cream

salt & white pepper to taste

Chop your holy trinity, your mirepoix & roughly chop bothheads of your cauliflower. I think it’s fun to have a mix of floret sizes–some itsy bitsy pieces & some coarser, rougher, bigger pieces.

In your favorite soup pot, melt 1/2 a stick of butter and add your onions. Sautee until they’re soft and then add your carrots, celery, and parsley. Sautee for 5ish minutes until they get soft and then add your cauliflower. Put a top on your pot and wait about 15 minutes (this is where I got impatient, but it’s worth the wait!). Then pour in all of your broth.Put your top back on and bring the pot to a boil.

Once you reach a boil, turn the heat down a little bit & in a separate sauce pan melt the other half of your stick of butter. Pour in 2 cups of milk & whisk in 6 tbl of flour. You’ll have a great white sauce, then pour this into the simmering pot. Add your cup of 1/2 & 1/2 and let those flavors gel for at least 10-15 minutes or until you’re ready to serve. I seasoned throughout, but now’s a good time to start tasting spoonfuls until your salt & pepper are just right.

Right before you serve, dump and stir in your cup of sour cream. Serve with your favorite crispy bread–I recommend an herbed loaf (ours was rosemary!).

 

chinese shrimp toast

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Oh shrimp toast, you perfect specimen of asian appetizers.  You prince of perfect party pass-arounds.  Crunchy and fried on the outside, but slightly gooey in the middle, you beckon to me on every chinese menu.  But I only rarely indulge, so why not try my hand at them?  Now, this isn’t one of those “Tastes-like-the-real-thing Amazingly Baked-Not-Fried Shrimp Toast” recipes.  This is a “Quarter-cup of Oil, but Blot on Paper Towels if You’re Trying to Lose Weight” recipe.

You’ll need: (for 24 shrimp toasts)
3/4 lb shrimp
2 tbs ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 cup water chesnuts
1 egg
1/4 cup cilantro (I used 1 tbs dried)
12 slices white bread
1 handful scallions
1 handful scallions, to garnish
2 tbs sesame seeds, to garnish

Sesame-Chile Dipping Sauce:
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs sweet chile sauce
1 tbs hoisin sauce

Start by cutting the crust off of your bread and then halving each slice (I like triangles, but you can default to your preferred shape).  Set these aside.  In a blender or food processor, add your ginger and garlic and pulse ~5 times.  Then add the rest of your ingredients- egg, sesame oil, shrimp, scallions, water chestnuts, cilantro.  Pulse ~10 times, until the whole mixture has come together but is still reminiscent of shrimp.

In a wok or frying pan (I used a small frying pan to reduce the amount of oil I was using), heat 1/4 inch of vegetable oil over medium-low heat.  When the oil is ready for frying (drop a small piece of bread in the oil and if it is golden in 30 seconds, then you’re golden), place shrimp toasts shrimp side down and fry for ~3 minutes until brown.  Then pop them over to the bread side and fry for about 1 minute.

Scoop out your toasts and drain on paper towels over a cooling rack before munching.  Garnish with sesame seeds and scallions, and serve with your sesame chile dipping sauce.

xiang shou!

the hungry texans

 

Boozy Chocolate Nut Balls

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The title leaves no surprises. These ‘lil babies were quite boozy, so boozy you almost feel bad bringing them to the office an asking your coworkers to indulge in a flavorful bomb of chocolaty rum before 5 pm on a Tuesday. They say “candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker, ” but with these treats you don’t have to choose one or the other! If I made these again, I think I’d try Bourbon, and I think I’d try serving them alongside after dinner drinks, but with this basic recipe in our back pockets the opportunities to innovate upon it are endless.

Start with:

1 package chocolate teddy grahams

1 1/2 cups pecans

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup rum

1 tbl vanilla

3 tbl cocoa powder

1 1/2 tbl honey

All you need to do is mix your teddies and nuts in the food processor until you have a coarse crumb. In a separate bowl stir together your rum, cocoa, honey, and powdered sugar, then dump your crumbs to the liquid mix. Mix, mix, mix it all together and then chill until the dough is cold and you’re ready to ball. Shout out to RyBei who rolled this dough into perfect little balls. Once you have your balls, roll in powdered sugar and they’re ready for eats. These balls are super forgiving, chill well for days, and would be pretty precious stacked on top of each other in a cellophane bag and a red ribbon tied around them (#Holidays2012, I’m just sayin’!).

a hungry texans guide to thanksgiving!

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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