Coconut Corn Chowder

Having recently gotten rid of most of the soup in the freezer and it being the middle of February, I'd had a hankering to make some sort of soup for awhile. I love making soup. Inspiration came in the form of a great deal at Kroger- yellow corn was 10 for $1. I had to pick through it, but I ended up finding 10 great looking ears of corn! I had some cream left over from making the cinnamon rolls, so I decided on a delicious chowder. I happened upon some coconut milk while picking up rice wine vinegar, so thought I'd put a twist on the traditional chowder. We had some fresh thyme left over from the brisket I made earlier in the week, so that's the herb of choice... and of course a healthy dose of garlic and onions. (Because really, what dish is complete without garlic and onions?) Following the lead from my good ol' ATK corn chowder recipe, I went with cutting the kernels of 4 of the cobs, and grating/milking the other 6 and keeping them separate.

With that big time consuming thing out of the way, I heated a big dutch oven on medium-high. Once it was good and hot, I put in a few chunks of my seasoning bacon from the farmer's market. While that was browning, I chopped up my onion and got a little butter. I added that to the pot, turned it to low, and let it cook covered for about 12-15 minutes, til the onions were browning, fragrant and soft. In the meantime, I diced potatoes, minced garlic, opened my coconut milk, measured stock and got a bay leaf and thyme. 

I took out the bacon chunks and set them aside, and added the garlic to the onions. When that was fragrant, I added 3 tablespoons of chia flour to the onion and cooked it for about two minutes. Next, I added the stock, stirring constantly. In with the potatoes, coconut milk, bay leaf, thyme, the bacon chunks and the grated corn/pulp mixture. Bring it to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the taters are tender.

In with the kernel corn, the cream, a little salt and some pepper. Simmer until the kernels are tender but still crunchy. Toss the bacon and the bay leaf, then serve with bread. 

I didn't have any around, but I'd really like to add some curry powder to the next batch- I think it would complement this dish wonderfully. 

Coconut Corn Chowder

Adapted from ATK's The New Best Recipe cookbook

Ingredients

• 10 ears corn
• seasoning bacon (a few chunks) or a few slices bacon
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 3 Tablespoons flour (I used chia seed flour, making this gluten-free)
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 3 red potatoes, scrubbed and diced small
• 1 bay leaf
• fresh thyme leaves from 1-2 sprigs
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 cup cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Cut the kernels from 4 ears of corn, place in a bowl and set aside. Grate the remaining 6 ears, then milk the rest of the ears (use the back side of a knife to scrape the pulp out of the grated ears) set the kernels and pulp aside. 
• Heat a dutch oven over medium heat. When it's hot, add country bacon chunks. Let cook until browned and crispy. Add onion to the pot, cover and cook until browned and softened. Remove the bacon chunks  to the bowl of corn pulp and add minced or pressed garlic. Cook until fragrant, then add the flour, stirring for a couple minutes until incorporated and a paste forms. 
• Stirring constantly, add stock, followed by potatoes, bay leaf, thyme, coconut milk, bacon chunks and corn pulp mixture. Heat to boiling, then simmer until the potatoes are tender. Add the cut kernels and cream, return to a simmer and cook until the kernels are tender, about 5 minutes. 
• Serve and enjoy! (Tonight I had it with toasted rosemary-potato bread that's starting to get stale... Tomorrow I'll make that bread into croutons which will make great toppers for the rest of the week!)

Homemade Cinnamon Buns with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Glaze

So, I have a confession to make... Prior to yesterday, cooking with live yeast really intimidated me/freaked me out. It just seemed really difficult or complex or... something, but it turns out it's not! I was determined to at least try, so I picked up some yeast last time I was at the store and opened my trusty-dusty copy of America's Test Kitchen's The New Best Recipe cookbook once I got home. In the "yeast breads" section, I found glazed cinnamon rolls. It being Sunday and me having Monday off, (thank you President's Day!) I decided this was my project. (This way, even if it didn't work out, I'd still have cream cheese glaze, cinnamon and sugar working for me... it couldn't be that bad!)

Based on a couple things, I tweaked the recipe a little. Not the dough part, so much, as the filling and glazing part. The first thing: the ATK recipe did not have butter brushed over the dough before the filling was added. I knew that had to change- when I worked at Mary Mac's I clearly remember the huge table-sized rolls of dough being brushed with butter before sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. The second thing: I was convinced by some fancy marketing (interesting packaging) in the cream cheese section to purchase some white chocolate cream cheese in addition to plain cream cheese. How does a little white chocolate in the glaze not sound good!?!?!

I'm glad I started this project early in the day yesterday- 4 hours of letting the dough rise alone was time consuming but not labor-intensive. 6 hours after I started, I had big, beautiful, cool enough to be frosted and eaten cinnamon rolls. YUM!

Cinnamon Rolls with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Glaze

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen New Best Recipe Cookbook 

Ingredients

Dough

• 1/2 cup milk
• 8 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees)
• 1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp.) instant yeast
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, plus 2 large yolks
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4-41/4 cups unbleached AP flour, plus more for dusting the work surface

Icing

• 4 ounces plain cream cheese, softened but still cool
• 4 ounces Philadelphia White Chocolate Indulgence cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup 
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted to remove lumps
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt

Filling

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

• For the dough, heat milk and butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave until the butter melts. Remove from heat and set aside until the mixture is lukewarm, about 100 degrees.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, mix water, yeast, sugar, egg, and yolks at a low speed until well mixed. Add salt, warm milk mixture, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on medium until well blended, about a minute. Switch to dough hook, add 2 more cups of flour. Knead at medium, adding 1 Tbsp more flour at a time if needed, until the dough is smooth and freely clears the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes. Remove dough onto lightly floured counter. Shape into a ball and put in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic and leave in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size- 1.5-2 hours. 
• For the icing, while the dough is rising, combine all the icing ingredients in the bowl of the stand mixer. Blend at low until combined, then high for about 2 minutes until smooth and free of lumps. Move to small bowl, cover and refrigerate. 
• Roll it up! After the dough's doubled, press it down and turn out onto very lightly floured work surface. Roll it out until a 16"x12" rectangle is formed, with the long side facing you. In a small bowl, mix the dry filling ingredients. Brush the dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle evenly with the dry ingredients, leaving a half-inch border along the top edge. Carefully roll up dough, tightening with your fingers as you go. When you reach the end, seal the top seam with water and dust the whole roll with flour. Grease a 13"x9" baking dish. Cut into 12 equal pieces with dental floss. (Slide floss under, then tighten ring. First cut in the middle to form two equal pieces, then cut each of those in half, then cut each remaining piece into 3 pieces). Place the rolls in the dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place in warm, draft-free spot until doubled, 1.5-2 hours.

• Bake it! When the rolls are almost doubled, preheat to 350 with oven rack in middle position. Bake until the rolls are golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the rolls reads 185-188 degrees, about 25-30 minutes. Invert the rolls onto a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. (Do this over parchment or a baking sheet- mine were dripping cinnamon-sugar yumminess all over the counter) Turn them over on a large plate and use a spatula to spread the icing all over them. Serve immediately. 

Lasagnchiladas!

So... I came up with this idea when the hubs and I were trying to figure out dinner plans for the week. He's been begging for lasagna for awhile and I've managed to get around it by making various other pasta dishes (I hate lasagna. More like loathe, detest, abhor lasagna- ricotta cheese freaks me out. Plus I've never been a huge fan of Italian food.) Anyway, he really wanted some lasagna. But then chorizo got thrown into the conversation, and I had my revelation... Mexican Lasagna... LASAGN-CHILADAS!!! I started out trying to make some corn noodles. That did not go well, I need to spend more time figuring that out. So 2 eggs, 1 1/3 cups AP flour and an hour later and I had fresh lasagna noodles.

In the meantime, I julienned 2 onions and sauteed them with a pound of chorizo.

Once the onions were softened, I added a large can of diced green chiles. While that was cooking and the lasagna was drying a little, I threw a pound of quesadilla cheese in the food processor and shredded it.

Then it was just assembly.

Some canned enchilada sauce (I'm gonna figure out how to make my own-- next time) on the bottom, then noodles, chorizo mixture, quesadilla cheese and cotija cheese.

Layer and repeat. This is an instant classic in our house. It's sort of lasagna, which Mr. Beez likes, and sort of Mexican, which he loves. Win-win!

Lasagnchiladas

Ingredients

•  Lasagna noodles (Homemade or boxed)
• 1 pound chorizo sausage
• 2 onions, julienne
• 1 pound quesadilla cheese
• Cotija cheese (or parmesan)
• 1 large can diced green chiles
• 2 cans enchilada sauce- red or green, your call

Directions

•  Preheat oven to 350. Heat a saute pan over medium high heat. Add onions and chorizo. Cook until onion is softened and chorizo is browned. Drain excess fat and add green chiles. While the chorizo is cooking, shred quesadilla cheese.
• In a 13 x 9 casserole, put a thin layer of enchilada sauce. Add a single layer of lasagna noodles. Top with about 1/4 of the chorizo mixture, then quesadilla cheese, a little cotija and some more enchilada sauce. Spread the sauce evenly over the layer.
• Continue layering until you run out of chorizo mixture. Top with a final layer of noodles, enchilada sauce, and both cheeses.
• Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown. I rotated mine halfway through cooking because my oven doesn't cook all that evenly.
• Let cool, cut, serve, and ENJOY!

I will figure out how to make those corn noodles and this dish will go from awesome to awesom-er!

Also, add jalapenos for added heat, but with the chorizo and green chiles, it's hot enough for us!