Monday, December 19, 2011

Hot Chocolate!

I recently had a request for my "liquid chocolate" hot chocolate recipe that I made for some friends in New Hampshire more than 5 years ago. The problem is, I made up that hot chocolate on the fly without a recipe. This weekend I spent some time in the kitchen concocting a recipe that I could give them that would taste very similar to the hot chocolate I made for them in New Hampshire. Here's the result.

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
3 cinnamon sticks (4 inch sticks)
3 cups of 2% milk/1 cup of heavy whipping cream (or you can use 1 quart (4 cups) of Half and half in place of the milk and whipping cream)
1 bag of milk chocolate chips (11.5 oz bag)

Directions:
Boil the cinnamon sticks in the water for at least 3 minutes (water is a better solvent than milk and will extract more cinnamon flavor from the sticks than the milk will). Reduce heat to low. Add the milk/cream OR the half and half to the water/cinnamon mixture. Add chocolate chips and mix until thoroughly melted and blended in with the rest of the liquid.

You can also add 1/4 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder in addition to the chocolate chips if you like your hot chocolate tasting more dark. I recommend tasting the hot chocolate as is, though, before adding the cocoa to make sure your taste buds need the extra cocoa.

ENJOY!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Stir fry

The sauce:
4 cubes of chicken or beef bouillon
1 and 3/4 cups of water
1.25 tsp of ginger powder
1 T of garlic powder or 7 cloves of garlic minced
4 tsp of balsamic vinegar
2 tsp of brown sugar
pinch of black pepper
1/3 cup of white sugar
1 T of sesame oil
1/4 cup of canola oil
4 and 1/2 tsp of white vinegar
1/2 cup of pear juice
1/2 tsp of guar or xanthan gum
1 tsp salt

vegetables
sliced carrots
sliced green peppers
chopped broccoli

meat
4 pounds of beef roast trimmed of fat and thinly sliced

dissolve and mix sauce ingredients together until an emulsion is obtained between water and oil ingredients. lay meat in a glass pan and pour the sauce over it to marinate the meat from 1 to 24 hours. When desired marinating time has been reached, simmer the sauce and meat mixture on low for at least one hour. Steam vegetables and then add into the meat mixture before serving. Good over garlic infused basmati brown rice.

Bread

Dry ingredients
3.5 cups of ground brown rice flour*
0.5 cups of amaranth flour*
2 cups of tapioca starch or potato starch
1 cup of instant dry milk
0.5 cups of potato pearls
2 tsp of salt
1/2 cup of white sugar
2 T of yeast
2 T of xanthan or guar gum
2 tsp of baking soda

Wet ingredients
6 eggs
2 tsp of white vinegar
1/3 cup of oil

3 cups of warm water

Directions:
mix together thoroughly the dry ingredients. mix the egg, vinegar and oil in a stand mixer until homogenous mixture is obtained. Heat the water until about 120 degrees F and then mix into wet ingredients. Slowly add dry ingredients into the stand mixer while mixing on low to prevent a mushroom cloud of flour. once all flour is added, mix on high for 3 and 1/2 minutes. Grease bread pans and neatly fill them with the dough, wiping the sides to prevent burning of dough in unwanted areas. Let the dough rise in a warm oven set to 170 degrees F until the dough has doubled in size. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, then cover with aluminum foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and enjoy.

*We now add a cup and a half of bean four instead of a cup and a half of the rice flour. It adds a great wheat like flavor and also adds nutrition and keeps costs low

*If you don't have amaranth you can substitute rice flour. Amaranth is very healthy for you though so you might try it and see if you like it.