twohappypancakes.

The Story.
Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I used to have a hard to describe default username with a typographically unpleasing mix of letters. So I decided to switch it up a bit with a new one composed of common words and a balance of ascenders and descenders.

The Food.
So I decided to make pancakes this morning! I pulled a recipe from one of my all time favorite TV personalities, Alton Brown (Food Network) and picked up any ingredients at Shaw’s that my brother and didn’t have.

Recipe.

Initial prep.

I tried to mix together everything very gently, to prevent gluten formation (not beating out any of the lumps, just making sure things were mixed). Lumpy was my goal and I succeeded gloriously. Next, I tried to make happy faces.. and didn’t succeed gloriously! See below.

One happy! One er.. something.

You can kinda see the faces..

Well, after that my brother used some Star Wars pancake molds and..

:D.

-Chef Springfield

Om-nom-omelet

Well….its been quite a while since I’ve posted, and now that activity has sky-rocketed, I feel obligated to return again.  To be completely honest, I’ve been eating out more than cooking, and so I have plenty of pictures saved up from that, but I don’t think that’s what we’re going for, so I’ll save those for myself.

As you know, our ingredient this time was: onion, mushroom, bell pepper, and cream cheese.  If you know me at all, you know I’m a huge procrastinator, so by the time I decided to create this post, it was Saturday and we have new ingredients Sunday!  And I was also leaving town to go to Dave and Busters for the first time here in Houston, so I decided to make a quick and sloppy omelet for breakfast!

Ingredients:

• eggs
• mushroom
• bell pepper
• onion
• scallion
• butter (if you want)
• garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

To start, I diced up the pepper, mushrooms, and onion.  I even tried to make it pretty.

Afterwards, I just tossed in a lot of garlic powder, salt and pepper to add some flavor.  I just like this picture.

Add some oil and bam, start sautéing your fillings.  I decided last minute to add some butter, because honestly, who doesn’t like some butter on all their foods?

Moved that unto a bowl and threw in the mixed eggs and let it form its base.  Then FLIP!  Proceed to pour in your hard work and spread it around the pan.

Biggest regret, I forgot cheese.  Spinach probably would have added a nice touch of healthiness as well.  But there’s always next time!

Breakfast is served!

 

I know everyone knows how to make this but I had to get something down as a post!  I’ll post a better one soon.  Until next time!

-Chef jKwong

Mango Madness – El Fin (for now)

‘Tis the final weekend of summer break, so this’ll be my last mango-related post for a while… or at least until after my midterm on Tuesday.

Earlier today, I rediscovered some the 4 oz mason jars I had from last summer so I figured it was a sign from the universe (not-so-subtle HIMYM reference) telling me that I needed to make cheesecake. 😀 Instead of using an actual mango cheesecake recipe, I decided to make my own version based off the recipe I used last summer. I was aiming for a light mango flavor for the actual cheesecake since I wanted to add in some mango chunks both in it and on top. So without further ado, here’s the experimental recipe of the day!

Ingredients:
Serving size – 6 mini cheesecakes

• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 2 Tbs butter, melted
• 1 tsp sugar
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 Tbs mango puree
• 1/3 cup mango, cubed

For garnish:

• mango, cubed
• raspberries
• mint leaves

*This recipe can easily be doubled or quadrupled, depending on how many jars you have on-hand. For a non-mango cheesecake, simply take out the mango ingredients and add an extra tablespoon of sugar per 6 jars.

Begin by preheating the oven to 325 degrees. Spray the mason jars with non-stick cooking spray (I used PAM’s baking spray) or grease them with butter.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs,  melted butter, and sugar in a small bowl. Put a heaping spoonful of crumbs into each jar and press down to form an even crust layer.

In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer to blend the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Next, add in the egg. Then add the sour cream, vanilla and pureed mango and mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Finally, add the mango cubes and mix lightly with a spatula.

Fill each jar with about 1/3 cup of the cheesecake mixture. It should reach up to the first rim so you have plenty of room for toppings. Place the jars in a large roasting pan and pour hot water in until it reaches about halfway up the jars. This is known as a “water bath” and keeps the cheesecake from cracking while baking in the oven.

Place this in the oven for 30 minutes. Once it’s done, remove each jar carefully with tongs and place on a wire rack to cool. Be careful not to splash any water in your cheesecake as you transfer them onto the rack! I’ve accidentally done this a couple of times due to my impatience…

When they’ve cooled to about room temperature, they are now safe to decorate however you please! Since I had some mangoes left (okay, let’s be real… I have about 60 mangoes still), I decided to chop some up and scatter them on top. I also added a couple raspberries and mint leaves to give the dish some more color.

*Storage Tip: If I have any leftovers of these (which is rare), I usually freeze them separate from their toppings so that it lasts a bit longer. I love these little jars because they’re the perfect size for whenever you want just a small bite of dessert. Have fun experimenting with whatever toppings you’d like! 🙂

– Chef μChip

Once in a Blue Moon

Do you remember as a child before your first day of school, the night before – you couldn’t sleep, couldn’t decide what to wear, couldn’t get rid of the mixture of excitement and anxiety. Sometimes certain experiences, scents, songs, etc. render you nostalgic of a previous time. I guess anyone with a set of eyes could diagnose me with a case of nostalgia. Whether the reason being that I just returned from wandering the streets of New Orleans solo or because I officially start graduate school in three days, (I personally think it’s the latter,) I am feeling nostalgic. A couple of days ago, my birthday passed, and while I don’t really care about the numerical value of my age, I think what is more daunting is the unknown that goes along with getting older and growing up.

Back in my hometown, right before the new millennium, we had a local shopping mall with about 10 stores total – including Burdines (RIP) – and my absolute favorite ice cream shop, which served my absolute favorite ice cream flavor – blue moon ice cream ❤ To be completely honest, I have no idea what was in it, and I used to contemplate if it was just a blue-hued vanilla. If my memory serves my correctly, it was a creamy blue tinted ice cream, smooth with no chunks of anything, and when I say blue, I mean a shade in between sky and robin’s egg blue. I would get two scoops of it in one of those small Styrofoam bowls, and I would spoon it into my mouth while my mom would shop at Burdines, (though I’m pretty sure she would snack on my ice cream, as mom’s do). Shortly after the new millennium, that entire plaza got shut down – you know, small town, bad economy… – and pops up a shiny new shopping center with no ice cream parlor. And along with the closing of the plaza was the closing of my sweet blue moon relationship, until…today.

Blue Moon Ice Cream (technically a custard)

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp instant vanilla pudding mix
• ½ cup fresh raspberries pureed
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 3 drops blue food coloring

1. Begin by separating two eggs, and beat the yolks with ¼ cup of the sugar in a medium sized bowl.
2. In a sauce pan, over low-medium heat, heat up the milk, ¼ cup of the sugar, salt, and heavy whipping cream. Stir constantly, and heat until bubbles start forming around the edges of the pan.
3. Remove the scalded milk mixture from the heat, and spoon it into the egg mixture 1 tablespoon at a time to temper the eggs, stirring constantly.
4. Once fully incorporated,  pour the combined mixture back into the sauce pan and heat on low-medium heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (when you trace a line with you finger on the back of the spoon, it should leave a distinct trail).
5. After that consistency is achieved, pour the mixture into a medium bowl and whisk in the vanilla pudding mix, vanilla extract, pureed raspberries, and lemon extract. Make sure to add the blue food coloring last to achieve the blue hue that you want.
6. Refrigerate the mixture for at least two hours, and then follow your ice cream maker’s directions for making ice cream!

Blue Moon Ice Cream

Now I have a tip for storing home-made ice cream – I’ve learned that the best container for storing ice cream is wide and shallow. It allows for easier scooping in my opinion. Next time – I think I may add more blue food coloring…and take more pictures for the next post!

❤ The Food Scientist

Mango Madness – Part 2

Back when my mom had her chef’s license, she told me she had trained with an Italian chef who invited her to continue studying in Europe. Unfortunately, she turned it down to continue her work in the United States, but I still think it’s so cool that she was offered the opportunity. I’ve always loved Italian cuisine, and the photos I’ve seen make the entire country look absolutely gorgeous. I can only dream of one day traveling overseas to see the cities for myself, so I suppose I’ll have to settle for attempting to make Italian food at home.

Today, I decided to try my hand at a dessert known as “panna cotta,” which translates into “cooked cream.” I’ve only had this dish once at a restaurant in Little Italy (San Francisco), so I wasn’t entirely sure how this would turn out. I remember it being a soft, creamy custard that was topped with a fresh strawberry sauce. I like how layered desserts look, so I created a variation of this that would fit inside these tiny appetizer bowls I had at home.

Mango Panna Cotta (based off “My Kitchen and Photography”):
Serving Size: 8 miniature appetizer bowls

• 1 large, ripe mango
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 1/2 tsp powdered, unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk

For garnish:

• mango, cut into small cubes
• sliced almonds

I began by pureeing the mango in a blender and distributing them in the appetizer bowls to reach about halfway. Then, I put these in the freezer to firm up a bit while I worked on the cream layer.

Next, I poured the water into a small ramekin and sprinkled the gelatin over it until it blooms. In a medium saucepan, heat the heavy cream with sugar and vanilla while stirring constantly to ensure the sugar dissolves. Let it warm until tiny bubbles begin to appear, and turn off the heat before it comes to a roaring boil. Stir in the gelatin mixture. It should have a smooth consistency, as shown below.

Let the cream cool for about 10 minutes before adding in the milk. Afterwards, let it cool to room temperature before spooning it onto the pureed mango. Put it dessert in the fridge for about 2 hours or until the gelatin firms up. Garnish with some cubed mango, and voila! (Yes, I’m aware that this expression is French even though I’ve been rambling about Italy for half the post…)

I stumbled upon some sliced almonds in the pantry, so I added them as garnish. Also, I got a bit lazy while making these cups and filled 2 of them with pure cream. To differentiate these from the others, I topped them with just almonds.

And here ends my mango adventure of the day. Perhaps a new creation will be made tomorrow!

– Chef μChip

Mango Madness – Part 1

This week is summer break, and I came home to discover that our mango tree was in full bloom! We actually have 3 trees, but one of them is just bearing fruit like crazy. My mom goes out every couple of days to check on the trees and ends up bringing in at least 10 more mangoes each time.

 

The picture above shows only about 1/5 of the amount of mangoes we have collected over the past few days. Considering the insane number of mangoes we now have sitting in our kitchen, I have decided to take on the task of researching numerous mango recipes. I eventually settled on a simple one – sweet sticky rice with mango.

Ingredients (adapted from Edible Kitchen):

• 1/2 cup of sticky rice
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/4 cup + 1/2 cup of thick coconut milk
• 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar (adjust to taste)
• 1 sweet, ripe mango 
• sesame seeds (optional)

As with any sticky rice recipe, you must begin by washing and soaking the rice. I put 1/2 cup of rice in a small pot and rinsed it with water twice before draining it. Then, I added 1/2 cup of water + 1/4 cup of coconut milk and let it soak for two hours. Once it’s ready to use, simmer it over a low flame until the rice is cooked and soft.

In a medium saucepan, heat the 1/2 cup of coconut milk and 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar until it comes to a boil. Add this to the cook riced and mix well. Cover the pot for about 30 minutes until the rice has absorbed the coconut milk mixture. It should have a thick, pudding-like texture when it’s done.

Consistent with all my other posts, I decided to play around with the plating of this dessert. I used a flower-shaped cookie cutter to mold the sticky rice and topped it with sliced up pieces of mango. Finally, I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top to finish it all off!

If you’d like a sweeter dessert, feel free to either add some sweetened coconut cream on top or mix in some more sugar to the sticky rice. I personally like to balance out flavors and since my mangoes were pretty ripe, I chose to make the rice portion less sweet. Anyway, stay tuned for what’ll likely be a series of mango-inspired treats from me… at least until my current supply runs out. 😛

– Chef μChip

 

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

This week’s challenge is to use two of the following: red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and cream cheese.

The ingredients:

Before I start, I like to have everything ready to go, so I began with dicing the onion and slicing the garlic, red bell peppers, and onions. I had too much red bell pepper, so I decided to have some fun!

The next step is to butterfly the tenderloin. Make sure you have skin side down because this will allow the skin to be on top to become a nice crispy layer. Add some olive oil to a hot pan and sauté the onions, red bell peppers, and garlic. After they start browning, add in the pine nuts (for some nutty texture), mushrooms, and the basil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Next, put all of the ingredients into your butterfly’d tenderloin, roll it up and add some salt and pepper on top. Tie the tenderloin together with butcher string. Don’t tie too tightly or it will cause everything to fall out. Add some olive oil in a roast pan, place the tenderloin in it, and add some more olive oil on top.

This is before cooking:

Unfortuately, the flower doesn’t make it through the cooking process. After:

Let the tenderloin cool for 5-10 mins to allow the juices to stay in the meat instead of falling out when cutting. While that is cooling, take some wine and deglaze the pan to make a gravy. In this instance I used a Pinot Noir from Dundee Hills, Oregon. Slice the tenderloin, drip some gravy over it, and serve.

Final:

 

-Chef BloO

 

Berry Nice to Meet You!

Alright, I know. I shouldn’t try to be punny anymore, but a recent conversation with my roommmate (the Food Scientist) inspired me to try a little harder in terms of blog updates. I also took an exam earlier, and our extra credit questions were based on electrical puns so word plays were on my mind. Example? “The slippery floor at the prom would ____.” ImpeDANCE! Like.. impede dance. Get it? No? Okay 😦

ANYWAY, onto the actual dish of the day. I decided to (once again) stock up on fruit and try my hand at being artsy by making mini fruit tarts! This is one of my favorite dishes to make. However, I don’t make it very often because of how time consuming it can be. If you read my last post, you know that I’m slightly OCD when it comes to making food look pretty… so you can imagine how much time I spent in the kitchen cutting up fruit into odd shapes and seeing how to piece them together. I’m also the type of person who likes to make everything from scratch, so making everything took a while.

First off, the key to any pastry is having a good dough! I used an adaptation of a recipe for sweet pastry dough from Cook’s Illustrated.

• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour (6 oz.)
• 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar (1.5 oz)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into pieces

Start by preheating the oven to 375 degress. Then, mix together the egg yolk, cream and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Next, pulse together the dry ingredients in a food processor. Scatter the butter on top of the mixture and pulse once more. Add the egg mixture until the dough comes together, put it in some plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for at least one hour.

Once they’re ready to bake, roll out the dough until it’s between 1/8-1/4 inch thick and cut out shapes to fit inside your tart pans. Don’t forget to prick the bottoms! If you don’t prick them, the bottom of the dough will puff up, which will make it hard to form your tarts. Bake these for ~10 minutes or until they turn golden brown.

Unfortunately, I forgot to prick mine before putting them in the oven, so I took them out midway and poked a couple holes in an attempt to do some damage control…

 

While you’re waiting for your tarts to cool, you can make the pastry cream. If you’re in a bind, go ahead and use some vanilla pudding as a quick fix, but I like making the cream from scratch so I can control its sweetness.

• 2 large eggs
• 2 large yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar (3.5 oz.)
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour (25 g)
• 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon cornstarch (25 g)
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 tablespoons butter

Whisk eggs, yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch in a medium bowl until combined, making sure that there are no lumps. Heat the milk in a 2-quart sized pot until it comes to a boil. Next, temper the eggs by pouring about 1/4c of the milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly so that the eggs don’t cook. Pour the egg mixture into the pot and stir constantly for about 2 minutes until the cream reaches a custard-like consistency.

If you don’t want to fill your tarts just yet, transfer it to a clean bowl and cover it with saran wrap to prevent a skin from forming while it’s in the fridge. When you decide to fill your shells, try to smooth the tops of them to make it easier to decorate.

The fruit I had on hand were: strawberries, blueberries, peaches and kiwi. I washed all of them and prepared my chopping board, then I got to work! When I finished piecing the fruit together, I glazed the top of my tarts with a mix of apricot jelly (can be subbed with any other neutral-flavored jelly) and water. Check out some of my creations here:

          

That’s all I’ve got for now! Hope you’re all having a wonderful summer so far. 🙂

– Chef μChip

The only fried chicken recipe you’ll need.

鹽酥雞 – Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

A staple to any visit to Taiwan is immersing oneself in a night market 夜市. The streets are packed with people, shopping, and games, but most importantly, the air is filled with the most delicious smells. I had been craving an item called “Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken” (or 鹽酥雞) and finally decided to try making it myself. In order to prepare, you’ll need to get out your frying equipment out! You’ll also need to visit an Asian/Chinese grocery store to find some of these ingredients.

Tools!

 

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Ingredients:
For the marinade (measurements are pretty general – add or subtract as much as you want):
2 Chicken breasts (or thighs)
3-4 Garlic cloves
Small piece of Ginger
1 tbsp 5 spice powder
1 tbsp White pepper powder
1 tbsp Black pepper
1 tbsp Brown sugar
2 tbsp Rice wine
2 tbsp Dark soy sauce

For frying:
Thai basil leaves
Oil
2 eggs
Sweet potato flour

Seasoning:
1 tbsp 5 spice powder
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tsp cinnamon

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First, cut the chicken into bite size pieces. To marinate the chicken, toss in the garlic, ginger, 5 spice powder, white pepper powder, black pepper, brown sugar, rice wine, and dark soy sauce. Marinate it for a few hours if you can afford it. To prepare the batter, mix some eggs in one plate and pour out some sweet potato flour in another. Before frying the chicken, we want to infuse the oil with the Thai basil leaves to give the chicken more flavor. Fry the leaves until the popping/crackling stops and then put aside. Next, prepare the chicken for frying. Coat the chicken in egg first and then in the sweet potato flour. For the best results/crispiness, make sure the chicken is thoroughly coated in the flour (double-coat if necessary!). Finally, fry the chicken (a Chinese frying spoon is helpful but not necessary :D), sprinkle a mixture of the seasoning on top, and spread the Thai basil leaves.

And the results…

This dish definitely took me back to Taiwan and was super enjoyable. If you don’t want to fry, you can use the same marinade and just pan-fry with onions and peppers. If you are vegetarian, try it with some tofu!

The next time you want to get a taste of Taiwan, consider making some Taiwanese popcorn chicken. 🙂

-Chef D-Pain

Quickie with a Fungi

Looking for a quickie with a fun-guy?? How about a fungi? It’s my first time publishing a post, and I have been trying to look for an ‘edge’ or ‘style,’ or ‘voice’ that distinguishes me from the other posters (Yes, I realize your username is posted every time, but still…) As I develop that…let me share what’s up with this post.

So something we are doing different this year, among other things, such as adding new people to the blog, we are using a random ingredient generator which provides four ingredients to use in a recipe, but you only need to use two in it. This set of ingredients are set for two weeks, and then we generate four more again, etc. This week’s generated ingredients are: mushrooms, cream cheese, red bell peppers, and onions! When I read those ingredients over our text group (essentially), I immediately thought of a Philly cheese steak with a spin –the cream cheese and red bell pep. Thinking that other bloggers would do that, I ventured off into another direction…what I had in the fridge, what was going bad, and what had to be eaten before I left for New Orleans this weekend.

Long story short…I made stuffed mushrooms in about 10 minutes or less, not including the baking time, hence Quickie with a Fungi! Using whole button mushrooms, I rubbed the dirt off using a wet paper towel and removed the stems. After heating up some oil, I tossed in the aromatics (chopped onions and garlic), and chopped mushroom stems and bell peppers. I let that saute for a few minutes, and threw in chopped spinach and sliced pepperoni. As all of those flavors meshed together, I creamed together from cream cheese and shredded asiago cheese in a separate bowl. Once everything was heated, I added the cooked mixture to the cheese mixture, plus basil, parsley, S&P (salt and pepper). I then filled the mushroom caps with the stuffing and baked them on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes. And…voila!

**Note the cream cheese was at room temperature, and I preheated the oven prior to cooking on the stove 🙂

If you’re curious about the “long” story, which none of you probably are, I was inspired by the first time my boyfriend came over for dinner with my family, and I’m sure all of you have nice memories or horror stories of something similar…

If you are going to try making this, #YOLO it. You probably noticed that there are no proportions in this post, why? Maybe that’s my edge, no proportions, just right. I think that’s partially the Outback slogan or Nike or a strange combination of both, but really I just don’t measure when I cook, I just feel it.

 

❤ The Food Scientist