Coconut Milk-Chile Corn on the Cob

A couple weeks ago I made coconut scones, and then I had all this leftover coconut milk. So of course, I went straight to FoodGawker, as I always do, and found this recipe for corn on the cob cooked in coconut milk seasoned with chili powder. Done. I love corn on the cob, and it's summertime so it's delicious right now. I picked up a package of already husked corn from Trader Joe's, marinated the corn for about an hour in about a can of light coconut milk, some heavy dashes of chili powder, a little salt, a little black pepper, then popped it in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes. It was a hit with me and my roommates. So if you're getting a little bored with your boiled corn on the cob or grilled corn on the cob, I highly recommend this recipe.

Carrie: ICBC Buttermilk

Ages ago, I started this entry, and then got too lazy. Now I'm finally going to finish it. Several weeks ago, the secret ingredient was buttermilk and I decided to make drop buttermilk biscuits for a Tuesday night dinner. I found this recipe via FoodGawker, and it's a Cooks Illustrated recipe adapted by Two Peas and Their Pod. The biscuits were easy to prepare and quite delicious, especially with a little honey on top.

Drop Buttermilk Biscuits (from Two Peas and Their Pod)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup cold buttermilk
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps.

Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Form small balls of dough and drop onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12-14 minutes.

Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

ICBC Tomatoes

So one of the secret ingredients recently were tomatoes, and I wanted to do something that was at least a little original. I make plenty of marinara sauce, and I can make a pico de gallo, and I can make a bruschetta, but what's something I've never done? So I of course went straight to FoodGawker and discovered fried green tomatoes. Of course! So genius. I found some green tomatoes at the Sunday St. Philips Farmer's Market last weekend, and I chose an unfried green tomatoes recipe I found via FoodGawker. I actually really liked them. We dipped them in a little ranch, and it was a fun and new side. And my sister who doesn't really like tomatoes said she liked the green ones a lot more.

Unfried Green Tomatoes
2 green tomatoes, sliced
1 cup panko crumbs
1 cup shredded Italian cheese
sprinkle of cayenne
pinch of ground black pepper
dash of salt
1 egg

Slice the tomatoes. Beat the egg. Blend cheese and panko with spices. Dip a slice of tomato into the egg, then the panko and place onto a lightly sprayed cookie sheet. After you finish all the tomato slices, spray them with an olive oil cooking spray. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. They should be crispy and lightly browned. I dipped the unfried green tomatoes in ranch dressing.

Spinach with Crispy Garlic Chips

I was looking for a side dish recently for dinner and stumbled across this recipe on The Pioneer Woman. My sister and I both like spinach well enough, and we love garlic so it seemed like a quick, simple option. Spinach isn't really my favorite lettuce, but it's so good for you.

Ingredients
one bag of spinach per two people
four or five cloves of sliced garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper

Slice your garlic cloves thinly. Throw the sliced garlic into a skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil, then turn the stove on. PW teaches that if you let the oil and the garlic heat up together, your garlic is less likely to burn. Stir lightly and let the garlic brown. After garlic browns, remove it from the pan and let it rest on a paper towel-lined plate. With your stove on medium-low, add the spinach and let it wilt in the oil and heat. Stir gently and season with salt and pepper. Remove to plate and top with garlic chips.

Carrie: ICBC Shallots

My picture's not that great, but that's what happens when I forget to take the picture before we start serving. I decided to make green beans with shallots and pancetta for this week's ICBC ingredient. Green beans are one of our favorite vegetables in this house, and I make them pretty often. Normally what I do is saute them with onions and garlic and soy sauce for seasoning, so I figured shallots would be a good sub, and that pancetta would go nicely with them. It's a simple, uncomplicated side dish, and I think green beans are an easy, tasty way to incorporate vegetables into your meal.

Green Beans with Shallots and Pancetta
green beans
shallots
sliced pancetta
salt and pepper
(I can't offer much in the way of measurements in the green beans, something around five handfuls using a small girl's hand, and then I just added the shallots and pancetta proportionally to that.)

Set a pot of water to boil and drop green beans in boiling water until just tender but still a little crisp. Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil into a wok or saute pan and let heat up. Add pancetta and let the pancetta brown and crisp. Then add shallots and let them brown. After the shallots brown, add green beans and toss everything together to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook until desired tenderness.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Seafood Feasting

Because I am the nicest friend ever and because I figured these would be easy meals, I basically made two dinners last night. I made this Real Simple recipe for Garlicky Broiled Salmon and Tomatoes as well as a pasta tossed with shrimp and diced tomatoes. And because one of the girls is allergic to shrimp and two of the girls don't even eat shrimp, I separated out some pasta and tossed them a separate vegetarian pasta with diced tomatoes, a little bit of eggplant, and some asparagus. I also roasted asparagus. The salmon was delicious, and the tomatoes were okay, probably better if you like tomatoes. And the best part of the recipe was that it all happens together in the oven. See upcoming future post for my pasta, which I combined with Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Alcohol.

Baked Dover Sole & Sauteed Green Beans and Mushrooms

For a quick, easy, and healthy dinner, I highly recommend this one. I'm craving seafood for some reason this week, and so last night I picked up some Dover sole from the store as well as fresh green beans, cremini mushrooms, and a red onion. It was so easy to put together, and everything cooked really fast, which was also a plus given how late I'd gotten home.

Season the fish with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, making sure to cover both sides. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes.

Mince two cloves of garlic. Wash the green beans and put them into boiling water for a couple minutes. Remove from boiling water and dunk into bowl of ice water. Heat olive oil in a wok or skillet. Saute onions until they get a little brown and tender then add green beans and mushrooms. Add the garlic a few minutes later and toss the vegetables together. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until green beans are tender.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Bacon

I was pretty excited to see bacon as our secret ingredient of the week. Bacon's delicious, in my opinion, and it's so so versatile. I lucked out and this recipe for Spinach Bacon Potato Mille Feuille was posted on Hot Off the Garlic Press. It was really simple to put together and the end result was delicious. Oh my gosh, I have found a new favorite potato recipe. Make it. Now. I promise you'll love it. I can't pronounce it, but I don't even care.

Spinach Bacon Potato Mille Feuille
1/2 diced onion
2 cloves garlic
4 or 5 Yukon Gold potatoes
spinach leaves
three pieces of cooked and crumbled bacon
1 Tablespoon of flour
1/4 cup of heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons of butter
shredded cheddar cheese

Slice the potatoes.
Melt the butter in a pan and then add onions and garlic and a pinch of salt. Saute until translucent. Add tablespoon of flour, cream, and milk and whisk together. Cook over medium heat to a boil to thicken sauce. Remove from heat.
Grease muffin tin. Add a spoonful of sauce to each muffin cup, then layer in a few potato slices. Add spinach, bacon and cheese, then another spoonful of sauce, more potato slices, and then another spoonful of sauce and top with shredded cheese.
Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Sauce should be bubbling and cheese should be slightly browned, potatoes should be tender.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Bok Choy

Erica chose bok choy as this week's secret ingredient. I've cooked with bok choy on an occasion; it's another ingredient that I grew up eating. It's a Chinese vegetable, most similar to a cabbage or lettuce. It was also very handy because in the December Real Simple was a recipe for gingery bok choy. They pair it with sesame chicken, but seeing as how I didn't want to have to purchase sesame seeds, I decided against their chicken. I paired my gingery bok choy with teriyaki ginger chicken. It was pretty good, though I may have added a little too much soy sauce. I'm not much for measuring.

Gingery Bok Choy
bok choy or baby bok choy
grated fresh ginger
soy sauce
corn starch
sugar

In a small bowl, combine soy sauce (about a 1/4 cup to start) with ginger, sugar(1 or 2 Tbsp), water(1 Tbsp), and a tsp of corn starch. Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat and add the bok choy. Cook until it softens, 1 to 2 minutes, then add soy sauce mixture and cook until liquid thickens slightly and bok choy is tender, 3 to 4 minutes.

Other Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Bok Choy Recipes
Bok Choy (Sans) Noodle Salad
Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce