Thursday, January 13, 2011

Homemade Potstickers

mThis is one of our very favorite recipes. I dare you to try it!

Chinese Dumplings

We have only made the pork version, as I much prefer pork to shrimp. We also have never made our own wrappers. It just looks like too much work! You can find them in packs of 50 at any Asian market for a couple bucks. This recipe makes around 70-80 I think.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Basil Pesto

I'm on a roll! So is this great food! We ate this last night and it instantly made it to our list of top favorite recipes. It is also from the Moosewood Simple Suppers cookbook.

Look Here

We ate ours on a bed of bowtie pasta with some cherry tomatoes on top. Delicious!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Navajo Stew

It sounds a little weird, but let me tell you, it tastes delicious! And its very healthy! This recipe is from our new favorite cookbook, Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers.

Serves 4; Time: 55 minutes

2 medium sweet potatoes (not more or the balance is off)
2 red or green bell peppers
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 TBSP ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 15-oz can of tomatoes
1 TBSP canned chipotles in adobo sauce (we used about 1/2 tsp of chipotle spice that we borrowed from a friend which toned down the unique flavor and was JUST PERFECT. I'll leave a comment when I can find out exactly what brand of that spice she uses)
1/2 C chopped fresh cilantro
1 15-oz can of butter beans or black beans, drained
flatbread (tortilas, lavash, pita, or naan)
plain yogurt, sour cream

Preheat oven to 450. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes. Stem and seed the peppers and cut into 1-inch pieces. Peel the onion and cut it stem end to root end into thin wedges. In a bowl, toss the vegetables with the garlic, oil,, cumin, salt, and pepper. Spread on the prepared baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes. Stir and continue to roast for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender but not mushy.

While the vegetables roast, puree the tomatoes, chipotles, and cilantro in a blender until smooth. Set aside. When the vegetables are tender, put them into a 2- to 3-quart baking dish, stir in the tomato-cilantro sauce and the beans, and return to the oven until hot, about 10 minutes.

A few minutes before serving, warm the bread in the oven. Serve the stew in bowls topped with yogurt or sour cream, with warm flatbread on the side.

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Yummiest Coconut Cake Ever!!

I've been meaning to post about 1000 recipes on here since this blog's creation. I am ashamed to say that this is my first! But it is well worth the wait, let me tell you! This cake is good! For those of you who tried it over Christmas, this adapted version of the recipe is better than the one I used out there--and Jonny will back me up on that one! I tried to find where I got this version on-line, but I can't find the exact recipe anywhere. That is unfortunate for 2 reasons...one, I have to type everything in myself now, and 2, I have no way of giving credit where credit is absolutely due. The only other problem is that I am not an exact cook and just add things and take things away as I feel appropriate and according to how I think it tastes. I'll try to recreate my version of this recipe for you, but I didn't take very good notes of my alterations. Anyway, hope this recipe works out for you and that you love it as much as we do!!

Coconut Cake

3/4 C Butter or Virgin Coconut Oil (I just used butter)
2 C Sugar
1 C Coconut Milk
3 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/8 tsp Almond Extract (I'm pretty darn sure that this made my cake taste too much like almond so I dumped a bunch of coconut extract (maybe about 1/2 tsp?) in there to cover it up. Just taste as you go and adjust)
3 C Cake Flour (I used all purpose and it worked out fine)
3 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Salt




Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 8-inch cake pans (it fits in two, but practically overflows in the oven, which is what we did). Cut a piece of wax or parchment paper the size of the cake pan bottoms and place in pans. Lightly flour the paper.

Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in coconut milk. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add in vanilla, almond, and coconut extracts.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add slowly to sugar mixture.

Divide batter between 3 baking pans and bake until brown and cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. (This recipe says 20-25 minutes but that is a lie. I have no idea how long mine ended up baking for, but it was much longer than this. I would just keep an eye on things and check it after 20 minutes and go from there. The Martha Stewart recipe that I linked to at the bottom says 40-45 minutes, but when I made her version that was too short a time too.)

Turn cake layers from pans and let cool. Remove the wax paper from cake layers. Cut off any uneven tops. Brush off crumbs. Frost each layer of cake. Pat sides and top with toasted or non-toasted coconut, and/or toasted pecans. Yum. (We did toasted pecans on the sides and non-toasted coconut on the top).

Coconut Cream Frosting
(I think I ended up making most of this recipe up...so you might want to do your own research and make up a recipe of your own. This is how I would guess at doing it again based loosely on the original recipe's suggestions)


1/2 C Butter
4 TBSP Cream Cheese
approx. 7 C Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Coconut Extract
1/2 tsp Salt
the rest of the can of coconut milk (I think I may have added extra to the cake, because I don't remember having more than about 1/4 C left, if that. Just use it if it needs more liquid I guess)
4 C (ish) Grated Coconut

Cream butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. Add the extracts and salt and mix. Add coconut milk as needed. Taste and adjust according to how you like it. Add coconut.


Good luck!! If you make this, leave a comment and let me know if you added or changed anything that you think is an improvement! For reference, I used a loose rendition of this recipe when I made this in Utah, and it is a pretty good one to bounce some ideas off of, although its yield is substantially more.