coconut cream pie

Posted on March 14, 2013 by lovettlovett

Happy Pi Day, Hungry Texans! In celebration, I wanted to share a Lovett family favorite. We fell in love with this pie during childhood trips to Emeril’s Delmonico in New Orleans, and it wasn’t long before Big Daddy perfected it and this coconut cream pie became the dessert de résistance of every dinner party.

I took a couple creative liberties with Daddio’s classic – 3 mini pies instead of one big one (it’s the closest I could get to 3.14!) & adding coconut oil to the crust, but the core is the same and the proof is in the pudding…or in this case, the coconut custard!

Try it for yourself!

Coconut Crust

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp table salt
1 tbl sugar
6 tbl cold unsalted butter, cubed
¼ cup coconut oil
2 tbl vodka, cold
2 tbl cold water

Coconut Custard

2 ¼ cups whole milk
¾ cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup for the egg whites
3 egg yolks
¼ cup cornstarch
1 ½ tsp vanilla
2 cups toasted coconut
1 tbl butter

For your crust (which you can make a few days in advance if you’re feeling crafty!), start by pulsing sugar, 1/2 of your flour, and salt in a food processor. Add butter and coconut oil. Pulse, pulse, pulse and then add the rest of your flour. Remove from the food processor and transfer into a bowl. Trickle your water and vodka (vodka helps prevent pie crust from getting goopy & too sticky!) on top of your mixture and combine gently with a spatula. The coconut oil will give it a little bit of a crumblier texture, but it should get pretty smooth.

Next, press your dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and chill for at least 45 minutes in the fridge (or a quick 15 in the freezer). When you’re ready to bake, roll your dough out on a well-floured surface. I divided and rolled my dough into thirds for three itty bitty pies. Fold your dough into your lightly greased pie pan and then mold the crust to the pan (don’t forget to poke it!). Bake at 425 until golden brown. I admittedly could have used some pie weights for these itty bitty pies (my crusts won’t win a beauty contest!), but if your crusts start to rise, I recommend smooshing them down with the back of a spoon while they’re still warm.

Now, for the custard. This custard’s super simple and quite similar to the custard we made for our Mardi Gras King Cake. Start by heating your milk and sugar in a small saucepan until it starts to simmer. While your milk is heating, whisk your egg yolks together and set aside. When your milk is the desired temp, pour a little bit into your egg mixture to temper the eggs (we want to make sure we don’t scramble our yolks!). Stir, stir, stir, and then combine the egg and milk mixture completely.

Return your milky-egg mixture to the heat and bring to a boil. Once it boils, add in your corn starch. Stir completely and then remove from heat. Allow mixture to cool slightly and then stir in vanilla & coconut! Let your custard cool completely before even thinking about filling your crusts (no one wants a soggy crust!). Once your custard has cooled, fill your crusts and refrigerate until ready to serve. Right before you’re ready to serve, top with whipped cream (or a meringue if you’re into that…these Hungry Texans prefer heavy whipping cream over egg whites, thank you very much!). Slice and enjoy, or if if you’re making the personal size – grab a fork and forget about swimsuit season!

You’d be (coco)nuts not to love this pie!

xoxo,

HungryTexans

chocolate chip cookies

Posted on March 1, 2013 by lovettlovett

You know those weeks where everything goes more wrong than right? Maybe some boo boos happened at work, or you had to walk home in the rain without an umbrella, or you got a flat tire, or you’re running on relatively little sleep, or you flaunted bare legs expecting 60 degree temps when it dropped to the 30s, or you witnessed a borderline-fist-fight on your bus, or left your shampoo and conditioner at the gym and it’s taken you 4 days to replenish so you’ve been washing your hair with hotel samples – just to name a few things that might sour this Hungry Texans’ week. What better way to turn a sour week sweet than a comforting batch of chocolate chip cookies?

I made these cookies attempting to emulate Levain Bakery’s quarter pound cookies (out of this world!). Mine were far shy of a quarter pound (although 2 cookies deep & plenty of cookie dough later, I might be close to a quarter pound consumed). The beauty of these cookies is they combine the best of both worlds – crispy on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside. Yum! Yum!

Whip up a batch (this is a half batch) and watch all your sorrows melt away.

1 stick butter
½ c brown sugar
¼ c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
¼ + ⅛ tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp baking soda
¼ + ⅛ tsp sea salt
¼ + ⅛ tsp cornstarch
1 ¾ c flour
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup dark chocolate chips

In the bowl of a stand mixer start by creaming together your butter and both sugars. Add your vanilla. Add an egg. Add your dry ingredients. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, remove the paddle attachment, and fold in your chocolate chips.

Start balling your dough (think golf ball size or bigger)– don’t pack them too tight & your dough balls can be a little sloppy — and place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Put your balled dough in the freezer to chill for 10-15 minutes while you preheat your oven to 350.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Don’t be scared to take these guys out while they’re still a little soft. They’ll harden as they cool and taking them out early will help ensure a nice rare center.

Beware of belly aches!

xoxo,

a sugar-rushed Hungry Texan

valentine’s day rice krispies

Posted on February 14, 2013 by lovettlovett

Happy Valentine’s Day, Hungry Texans-verse! If you’re looking for a quick treat to shower upon your loved ones today whip up a batch of fruit-filled rice krispies!

Five simple ingredients and voila!

2 sticks of butter
2 bags of mini marshmellows
1 12 oz box of rice krispies
1 bag of craisins
1 cup chopped apricots

The two tricks to this recipe are opting for the stove over the microwave & adding in some chopped fruit to add a little flavor “pop” to the puffed rice “snap” and “crackle”. Brown your butter on the stove. Stir and melt marshmellows into your browned butter. Add rice krispies & dried fruit. Spread your mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Let cool 20-25 minutes and then use cookie cutters to cut into your desired shapes.

Childhood nostalgia with fruity pizazz!

Hope your Valentine’s Day snaps, crackles, and pops!

xoxo,

HungryTexans

red beans & rice

Posted on February 9, 2013 by lovettlovett

Nothing says NOLA like red beans and rice. I know it’s sacrilege, but believe it or not these red beans and rice have no bacon, sausage or any hints of meat. They’re slow cooking, flavor-packed, and will make your kitchen smell like a French Quarter cafe. The real secret to these is time (you’ll also need a little thyme).

You’ll need:

Kosher salt
1 pound small red beans, rinsed and picked over
3 tbl butter
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 small bell pepper (I used orange), seeded and chopped fine
1 stalk celery, chopped fine
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon paprika
2 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Ground black pepper
3 cups veggie broth
6 cups water
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar, plus extra for seasoning
Basic White Rice

Your beans: Start by soaking & brining them — combine 3 tablespoons of salt with 4 quarts of water. If you’re a planner, you can soak your beans for 8-12 hours over night the night before. I am not that on top of things, so I erred on the side of the quick soak. To prep your beans with the quick method, rinse your beans then combine them with salt & water in a large, covered dutch oven. Bring the water to a boil and then remove from the heat and let them rest for 1 hour. Drain your beans and then start making them tasty!

Melt your butter in a large dutch oven & add your onion, celery, and peppers. Cook until your vegetables are soft (~4-5 minutes) and then add your garlic.

Add your spices (thyme, paprika, bay leaves, cayenne, and pepper) & let the flavors start to meld for a few minutes.

Add your beans, broth & water, and bring the mixture to a boil. Once your mixture reaches a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for an hour. Stir in your vinegar and continue cooking for at least 30 more minutes. Honestly, I kept the beans on low heat for at least two additional hours. Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.

xoxo,

HungryTexans

king cake

Posted on February 7, 2013 by lovettlovett

Sharing King Cakes during Mardi Gras season is a cherished Gulf Coast tradition, but it wasn’t until college that I realized King Cake folklore isn’t universal. Jaws dropped when I explained there’s a prized baby Jesus baked inside! There are competing interpretations of what it means to eat the slice with the baby. In some circles, he or she who finds the baby is declared King or Queen for the day while in others finding the baby means bringing the King Cake next Mardi Gras. Any way you slice it, King Cakes are fun for all. Even if you don’t buy the King Cake superstitions, who can object to a giant, glorified cinnamon roll? Not us!

A homemade King Cake isn’t the easiest feat, but you should try it once! Especially if you’re nowhere near the third coast.

You’ll need:

Dough
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/2 cup buttermilk

Cinnamon Filling
1 cup milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
5 yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Cinnamon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons raw sugar

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
2 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
purple, green and gold colored sugars for garnish
traditional King Cake baby, penny, or trinket

Start by making the dough. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer & mix for 15 whole minutes. I know this seems like a crazy long time, but alas! it works and your dough will be a silky ball after 15 whole minutes. Transplant your ball into a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap and leave to proof for ~2 hours. Note: your dough would be much happier proofing in an environment resembling the Gulf Coast (~80 – 90 degrees) than a drafty DC kitchen, but we made do!

While your dough is proofing, make your filling. To make your cinnamon filling, start by combining your milk & sugar in a small saucepan. Stir rigorously to dissolve all the sugar. Once the milk & sugar mixture starts to boil, lower the heat slightly. Combine your cornstarch, vanilla, and egg yolks in a measuring cup & then add some of your warm milky mixture to the egg mixture (temper your eggs). Then, add your tempered eggs to the hot milk mixture, slightly elevate your heat, and continuously whisk your mixture until it begins to boil & the mixture resembles a thick custard. Remove custard from heat, cover & place in the fridge to chill. Once chilled, stir in cinnamon.

To make your cinnamon sugar mixture, combine all ingredients!

Once your dough is proofed, you get to play with it!

flour your work surface
flatten your ball of dough
cut into two equal parts
roll out each part into a rectangle
spread your cinnamon filling liberally on each rectangle
sprinkle your cinnamon sugar generously on each filling covered rectangle
cut each rectangle in half (hot dog-style)
roll each rectangle pinching the seems to form a cinnamon-filled snake
braid your cinnamon-filled snakes so that you have two braids
place braids on a parchment lined baking sheet & pinch ends of each braid with the other braid’s end until you have a circle

Now leave this to rise. Should rise for 90 minutes to 2 hours, although mine didn’t get greatly larger in size (it should double!).

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown!

To make your icing: cream cream cheese until soft, add powdered sugar, milk, vanilla & pinch of salt. Add powdered sugar until your icing reaches desired consistency. I went with a thin icing to drizzle over my cake through the tip of a Ziploc turned piping bag.

Once your cake cools, drizzle with icing and decorate with yellow, green, and purple colored sugars (you can make these yourself with a few tablespoons of sugar and a few drops of food coloring!). If your trinket’s plastic and could easily melt, we recommend slipping it into a seam after your cake has cooled. If you’re using something heartier like a penny, you could pop it in before your cake goes in the oven. To each her own!

laissez les bon temps rouler,

HungryTexans

a hungry texans super bowl

Posted on February 1, 2013 by lovettlovett

Hopefully one day soon we’ll get to root for one of our teams on the grid iron as they vie for victory in the Super Bowl (go Texans! go Redskins!), but until then these Hungry Texans would rather spend our game day munching on Super Bowl snacks on snacks on snacks.

Dipp-ability & cheesiness are award-winning characteristics when it comes to Super Bowl snacks. Whether you’re hosting your own Super Bowl party or looking for a dish to bring to a friend’s look no further than these delicious dips & apps!

Jalapeño Poppers

Red, White & Blue Nachos

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Pineapple Salsa

Ninfa’s Green Sauce/Tomatillo Salsa

Those snacks are perfect munchies for the Big Game, but if you’re looking to round out your menu with something a little heartier, we recommend crab cakes (in honor of the Ravens, “crab cakes & football that’s what Maryland does!“), veggie chili, or some Chicago-style DC half smokes.

Finally, to satiate your Super Bowl sweet tooth, whip up a batch of these One Bowl Brownies! If you’re a 49ers fan, we recommend using Ghirardelli cocoa powder for good luck!

Wishing you all a super Super Bowl!

yay, sports!

Hungry Texans

ninfa’s green sauce

Posted on January 28, 2013 by lovettlovett

Every Houstonian knows Mama Ninfa is an institution, and this green sauce know doubt helped her emerge as a Tex-Mex queen! I found this Houston Chronicle newspaper clipping for Mama Ninfa’s famous green sauce and didn’t skip a beat before I tried to recreate this famous salsa. The secret that’s not clear from the recipe below, is that this recipe is really good for three unique salsas/dips! With proper pauses, you can stretch this recipe from one creamy green dip into creamy green dip, avocado tomatillo salsa, and tomatillo salsa. All three are delicious in their own right, so use this recipe for one or all three!

You’ll need:

3 medium green tomatoes, coarsely chopped
4 tomatillos, chopped
1 -2 jalapeños, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves
2 tbl olive oil
3 ripe avacados
¼ c cilanto
1 tsp salt
1 ½ c sour cream (less if you go for more than one of the salsa varietals)

Combine your tomatoes, tomatillos, jalapeños, garlic & oil in a small pan. Bring to a boil & then simmer for 15 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft.

For salsa 1: let all these ingredients cool to room temperature & then mix in a food processor adding your salt, cilantro, and lime. Remove as much of the tomatillo salsa as you’d like to enjoy.

For salsa 2: add your avocados to the tomatillo mix & combine in the food processor. This is another reasonable point to pause! Scoop aside some avocado tomatillo salsa & enjoy.

For salsa 3: the most decadent, Ninfa’s-esque, creamy dip, add your sour cream & combine. Depending upon how much salsa you’ve removed already, modify the amount of sour cream you add to reflect the proportions remaining in the bowl of your food processor. Add sour cream to taste & to your desired level of creaminess.

Enjoy any of these three salsas with tortilla chips, as enchilada sauce, or taco toppers!

spinach artichoke dip

Posted on January 26, 2013 by lovettlovett

Dips take deux with this Spinach Artichoke Dip. I made this for the Texans v. Pats playoffs game a few weeks ago (these Hungry Texans will get our vengeance on those Boston Boys’ team one of these days!), but it will certainly be seeing a return appearance on our Super Bowl spread.

You’ll need:

1 package frozen spinach, thawed
1 can artichoke hearts
8 oz cream cheese
½ c parmesan (usually we prefer the real stuff, but jarred parm is a-okay for this!)
2 tbl crushed garlic
1 c sour cream
¼ c cottage cheese
Hot sauce & pepper to taste

Start by thawing your spinach and wringing out as much of the excess liquid as you possibly can. Place spinach, artichokes, and garlic in a food processor & pulse, pulse, pulse until they’re thoroughly chopped.

Then add & mix in your cream cheese.

Then add & combine your sour cream!

Then add your cheeses. Full disclosure, I usually add way more mozz, but when I set out to make this dip I got home from the store only to realize we had about 2 tbl of mozarella in the fridge (oh, rats!). I ended up adding the sprinkling of mozz I had, but the cottage cheese I substituted in worked great, so feel free to get creative with your queso!

Next, season to your desired level of kick — I did a few shakes of each pepper & hot sauce — and give it all a final few whirls around your food processor (taking time to scrape the sides and ensure it’s all combined!).

You could start dipping away now, but I think this dip’s better hot, so fill a square pyrex dish with your dip & bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes or until the top starts to get the littlest bit golden and crusty.

Enjoy with your favorite dippers and root your team to victory!

Go Texans!
Hungry Texans

pineapple salsa

Posted on January 22, 2013 by lovettlovett

The Baltimore Ravens & San Francisco 49ers have two weeks to prepare for the big game in the Big Easy. While the teams practice kicking, throwing, and clobbering, these Hungry Texans will be hard at work prepping a Super Bowl menu full of culinary “touchdowns”. This pineapple salsa will brighten any Super Bowl spread, and it’d also make a killer topping for fish tacos!

Start with:

1 whole pineapple, diced
1 jalapeño, diced
½ red onion, diced
¼ cup cilantro, diced
juice of one lime

Chopping and a little time are the only tricks to this recipe. Finely dice all of your ingredients and then combine. With a juicy pineapple the flavors meld quickly, but give your ingredients at least 30 minutes to marinate together before diving in & starting scoop with your favorite chips!

A Hungry Texans Inaugural Feast!

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Liz Eggleston

Ah, America. It’s a good time to live in DC, a district buzzing with excitement for the 57th Inauguration. The Secret Service is in their dry-run stage for Monday’s big event, but we’ve already put together our Inauguration menu fit for the president himself. Sure, we could have gone with a red, white & blue theme or made 12 versions of apples pie (trust us, we could have). But we think this POTUS is just about the cutest thing since President Bartlett, so we decided to draw on inspiration from Obama himself. A man who governed in food-loving Chicago, steals away to his native Hawaii for vacations, and now calls our very own DC his home. A president who escapes the White House for crowd-drawing trips to Ben’s Chili Bowl and Komi, and, with his lovely Michelle, has reinstated the important White House garden (the produce from which is used not only in the family’s own dinners, but also donated to Miriam’s Kitchen- go WH!) Yes, I’d say we’ve got quite the foodie president on our hands.

So we created a menu that incorporates many of the POTUS’s foodie roots- from the Windy city to the Big Island. To escape the crowded Mall (or before you head to a ball), try this Hungry Texans Inaugural Feast!