Epic Flan Failure.

Flan. I love flan. I went to Puerto Rico for spring break one year and it didn't matter if we were eating at a shack on the beach or a fine dining place, I ordered flan. Because I was doing a Mexican-ish theme for our bbq I figured what better time to try flan. Especially when Jo Anna's mom has a recipe for me...

Yolanda's Flan
Caramel Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water

Custard
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can regular milk (use the condensed milk can as a measure)
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

For caramel, bring sugar and water to a boil, reduce heat and cook until it turns a golden brown. Pour into a deep pie dish.  Beat custard ingredients together and pour over caramel.

Holy crap step one nearly killed me. I get my sauce pan, measure out the water and then add the sugar. I stirred it up so that everything was mostly dissolved and then cranked up the heat. When I had a good boil going I turned it down and let it cook. Mistake number one of oh so many: constant stirring. I assumed sugar burns easily and you don't want that, so I whisked and whisked. Lesson learned: this results in a grainy sugar mess. I can't even tell you how long this stuff cooked. At about 15 minutes I finally text Jo Anna for help. She said don't stir and start over. I said OK. (turns out as soon as you take it off the heat the sugar hardens into an impenetrable rock. I had to boil water in the pan AGAIN just to dissolve the sugar so I could wash the damn thing...)

Caramel: Take 2.  I decided maybe I need a shallower pan for this, so I switched to a skillet, added water, sugar, turned up the heat. Jo Anna said don't touch it, so I stared at it. At this point I will mention my good friend Elliot was in the kitchen with me. He was rather amused by this whole process but now that we had such a challenge on our hands he became very invested. Our sugar water boiled, we turned down the heat and we stared. And stared. Jo said 5-10 minutes it should turn brown. 15 minutes later....

I think we made simple syrup. We got about as dark as champagne and nothing more. We lost a little faith in Jo Ann and turned to google...She had sent me an article on AllRecipes.com to help and I swear we followed everything correctly with the wet sugar method, soooo when Elliot found a YouTube video of Gordon Ramsay showing me how to make caramel in the dry style, we decided to go for it.

Caramel: Take 3. Back in the skillet. (That's what Gordon used...) 1 cup of sugar. High heat. Fancy swirl around the pan and wait. And wait. And wait until...ah ha! The sugar started to melt and turn brown finally. I think it cooked a little fast and there was a lot of yelling and rewinding Gordon's video and taking things off heat and putting it back on the heat but in the end we had a potentially slightly over done caramel. I dumped it in the pie dish and said 'Thank God.'

Mistake number 2: immediately pouring in the custard filling. As least I think this was a mistake as the caramel is like over 300 degrees and the custard clearly has eggs and stuff that will cook immediately. There was a lot of hissing and splashing and it looked like a marbled cheese cake...opps.

Mistake number 3: I TOTALLY forgot that the recipe says to put your pie dish in a water bath (a deep roasting pan works great) that covers the bottom half of the dish into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Truthfully, it was not until Thursday night when I was putting away some dishes and I saw my roasting pan that I dramatically gasped and said "SHIT! I forgot to bake the flan in a water bath!!" What can I say, the caramel really threw me off...

Mistake number 4: Forgetting you wanted to leave the flan in the oven for an extra 90 seconds after the timer went off. 4 minutes later...."SHIT! FLAN!!"  I think it got a little burny....

In the end it got eaten. It tasted a bit like burned sugar, but maybe in a good way like burnt marshmallow? I think the custard was also a bit overdone...probably has to do with the lack of a water bath and the trip into scorching caramel...

So, I learned a LOT of lessons here, and I'm getting ready to spend some time with Yolanda herself so maybe she can straighten me out...I will get this right. Forget pie. I want to conquer flan!!

Summer Time Fiesta!

We've hit the middle of the summer so my roommate and I decided to have a BBQ and invite everybody over for a night. Since I am the head chef in these parts I decided I was bored with basic burgers, hot dogs, mac salad, etc. and chose instead to go Mexican!
The plan was chips, mango salsa and queso dip for munchies, lime marinated chicken fajitas and sangria for dinner, and flan for dessert. The first 3 recipes are here, but the flan failure deserves its own post...

Pineapple-Mango Salsa
1/3 whole, fresh pineapple
2 fresh mangoes
3 tomatoes
3/4 white onion
fistful of fresh cilantro (minced in the food processor)
1 fresh jalapeno
dash of cayenne
juice of 3 key limes
salt and pepper to taste
chop it all up and let it sit over night. You can make it as mild or as spicy as you want. This one had a kick but wasn't mouth burning by any means.

Little Crank's White Sangria
Double bottle Barefoot pino (I have to plug this wine, it's my fave to use for this plus its cheap)
1/4 cup sugar
1 bag frozen strawberries
1 bag frozen peaches
(You can use whatever fresh or frozen fruit you want, this wine seems to really pull in the flavors of whatever is in it)
I mixed it up and let it sit over night to develop flavor as well. I also made pureed pineapple ice cubes to serve in the sangria. This is an overly simple recipe, but to me, it tastes the best.

Lime Chicken Fajitas (recipe adapted from this one)
chicken breasts (I cooked 5 lbs. These were the biggest chicken breasts I've ever seen...)
1/8 cup cider vinegar (just realized recipe calls for red wine but I know this time I used cider...)
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sugar
1/2 salt
pepper to taste
cilantro

All of these measurements are 'ish amounts.' Because I was cooking so much meat I had three skillets going and just eyeballed each of these ingredients into each skillet based on how much chicken there was. (I also omitted the onions and the tomato that this recipe calls for, and I cooked the chicken breasts whole and sliced them just before serving)
Once you saute up the chicken you add in these ingredients and let it simmer on low for about 20 minutes. I added the cilantro while everything was simmering just to add a bit more flavor.
 Because I was making this into fajitas and not tacos, I sauteed some red and yellow bell peppers and onions to go with it. I also had the mango salsa, shredded mexican cheese, sour cream, and fresh jalapenos out to build your own fajitas. They really were quite delicious.

 

The food's not there yet obviously, but that's the fajita bar set up!

Peanut Noodle Salad

I’ve always been a fan of pre-packaged food which sounds weird but it all goes back to the ol’ childhood.  If Mom and Dad had an event to go to it was one of the few times I could get a frozen dinner or a Happy Meal and it was awesome!  I’m pretty sure nothing was more exciting than eating dinner from a plastic tray.  Home cooked meals were the standard and those frozen dinners were a special treat.  (This is how I remember it at least; perhaps the parents know a different story)

Now that I’m on my own I still cook most of my own food because I can’t rationalize the expense of buying pre-made things that often taste better when I just make it myself.  But the other day I was at Trader Joe’s and was sucked in by the plastic boxes full of salads and sandwiches and pizzas and I had to have one.   This happens when you get off work at 8 and the prospect of whipping up a meal when you get home sounds a little like being an overachiever.  So I went home with some Thai noodle salad and happily munched away and basked in the lazy satisfaction of doing nothing to earn it.

I’ve always actually wanted to make my own peanut noodle salad but could never find a recipe that tempted me.  But after my Trader Joe’s take-home meal I decided I could do better and went on a search.  So I found this recipe for Thai peanut dressing and figured it was worth a try.  It was a success!  It is more of a warm/room temp salad of sorts.  And it was great to take for leftovers.  It makes quite a bit of noodles and it tastes good cold.

I made a few adjustments:  Halved the recipe of sauce and I still had plenty for almost a whole package of noodles, upped the lime juice, and left out the cilantro and just added it to the noodles at the end. (I also think you’re supposed to use rice noodles but I had to work with what the neighborhood store was willing to provide.)

Thai Peanut Noodles                                                    

Dressing:

¼ C Peanut Butter

1 Lime juiced and zested                             

1 ¼ tsp. Sesame Oil

½ T Rice Wine Vinegar

1 T Soy Sauce

1 ½ T Honey

¼ C Vegetable Oil

2 tsp. Chili Garlic Sauce (or Sriracha)

Salt

Grated Ginger – I used powdered b/c I forgot to buy the real deal and it turned out ok

Bean Sprouts

Napa Cabbage thinly sliced

Green onions, thinly sliced green and white parts

Carrots julienned

Red Pepper julienned

Cilantro to taste

Lime to taste

Toasted Peanuts

Soba Noodles

Chicken

Garlic

Lime

For the dressing just combine and whisk everything together.  I would increase the amount of chili garlic sauce for my taste. There was a pleasant heat to it but I wanted more, certainly adjust to your own taste.  If it’s too thick you can thin it out with some water.

Chop up the chicken and stir fry in a pan with some minced garlic, lime, salt, and pepper.

Remove chicken and throw in the veggies and white parts of the green onion.  I stir fried for maybe just a couple minutes; everything was still pretty crisp it just took some of the raw edge off the veggies, wilted the cabbage slightly and warmed it up. 

Cook noodles per package instructions

Combine the noodles, dressing, veggies, and chicken.  Toss in the green parts of the onion, cilantro and toasted peanuts.  I also added a squeeze of lime over my serving.

I hope you like it!  ~ Jo

Apple Chutney (with Pork Chops?)

Going along with Jo Anna's 'using up fruit in the fridge' theme, I needed inspiration for the giant bag of green apples sitting in my produce drawer. I took one for lunch every day last week and still had a solid 10 apples...

Lucky for me, the Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics rerun that was playing in the background featured a green apple chutney! I made some changes to her recipe, but it was a great spring board.

6 green apples
1 cup yellow onion
2 Tbsp fresh ginger
2 oranges worth fresh squeezed juice (ish 1 cup)
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cider vinegar  (I was generous with the vinegar)
1 tsp whole mustard seed
1/4 tsp garlic
solid dusting of cayenne pepper

Chop, squeeze, dump everything into a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until most of the liquid is gone.

I added the garlic and omitted the raisins from the original recipe. I also used the cayenne powder instead of red pepper flakes. I let the pan simmer for about an hour and then brought it back up to a boil to finish off some of the liquid.

I think it came out great--it's sweet but with a definite kick from the cayenne. I love pork chops and apples together so that is the plan for this chutney...

Little Crank's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Don't judge. Pie crusts are my kryptonite. Even store bought crusts foil me. I have burned edges (even though Mom taught me to foil them), I have pricked bottoms when I don't need to (turns out you only do that when you're baking an empty shell), I have had edges collapse (people can't seem to find a valid explanation for this...). I love pie and I love quiche so this is truly something I must master. Let's try again.

Tonight I decided to tackle two things: practice my pie crusts and work with rhubarb for the first time. I found a basic recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie but decided to make the dough before I went to the store. I threw about 1 1/4 cups flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt into my food processor, added 1/2 cup cold Crisco and pulsed it until I had crumbies. I had my ice water ready to go and added a tablespoon at a time until the dough pulled together (about 3). I got the dough into a ball, wrapped it in plastic, and put it in the fridge.

Then I remembered I have a beautiful, green, deep dish I never get to use that would be so cute filled with pie. Obviously this will require more dough than normal. Batch two. Go.

Dry ingredients in. Crisco in. Fail number one: too much food processor!!! My dough shot past crumbies into a cookie dough consistency. I decided more flour would help. It did and I was able to get things back on track. (Or so I thought...)

The dough was chilling and I went to the store. I found fresh rhubarb and strawberries. Like I said I had never worked with rhubarb before, so naturally I text the Big Crank. She confirmed that all I needed to do was peel it, cut the ends, and chop it up. She failed to mention that peeling rhubarb splatters a very deep, red, juice. My sink looked like a murder scene before I had my 2 cups...I also needed 2 cups chopped strawberries. Knowing my dish was a deep one I added about 1/4 cup more of both rhubarb and strawberry.

I followed the recipe other than that change and once the filling was mixed it was time to deal with the crust. I have granite counter tops so I just tossed some flour down and brought out the dough. I got my rolling pin out and started to roll out a circle. Fail number two: trying to pick up the rolled out dough to put in the dish. It crumbled to pieces! Never fear, I rolled it all together and hand mashed it into the bottom of the dish. This means it was a little too thick and a little too shallow for the amount of filling I made. Meh.

In goes the filling. Crumb topping on top. Into the oven. 50 minutes later...

It was a bit sloppy (my ever loving momma suggested it be called a crumble instead of a pie after I text her a pic...) but man was it TASTY!!!


 I have NOT conquered the pie crust yet. But I think this was a good step in the right direction.

Biggie's Strawberry Peach Tart

I randomly decided to also make a strawberry dessert the other day.  I always buy strawberries because they look pretty and smell so delicious and then I almost never eat them.  I don't know why, I'm weird about fruit.  This time though I was thinking I'd do something with those strawberries rather than waste them and I almost always have baking ingredients, so I found this recipe: Rustic Strawberry Tart and adapted slightly.
 
For the crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tbs sugar
4 tablespoons chilled butter
3 1/2 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:
2 cups sliced strawberries/peaches
Scant 1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon corn starch
pinch salt

I always make dough the old fashioned way - mix the flour, salt, and sugar; cut the butter in with a pastry cutter, mix in water until it's damp enough to clump and then take over with your hands to form a dough. Divide dough into two balls and roll into approx 8-inch rounds.  Place on a cookie sheet and mound the filling in the middle leaving about a 2-inch edge of crust.  Fold the crusts up over the filling, swipe it with some beaten egg white and sprinkle with raw sugar.  Bake 40 min in a 350 oven. 

I had peaches lying around that were starting to look old so I threw them in, I'm guessing this recipe can be adjusted to use whatever fruit you have lying around.

I also added sugar to the crust, I felt like a dessert crust needed it, I now realize that pie crust almost never has sugar...tasted good to me though!  I also didn't realize that the original recipe only calls for three Tbs of butter to actually go into the crust, so it all went in and I didn't find it to be anything but delicious and  extra buttery.

My work friends thought this was tasty and I agree but I would add some spice, maybe cinnamon to the mix to jazz it up a bit next time.  But overall, a success for my first "rustic" tart.  I'm a big fan of the free form crust, it made for what I think was a very pretty little fruit tart.  The crust was buttery and tender, the fruit was super ripe and sweet and very simple to make.

So the Little crank has been having trouble with pie crust lately - I almost always make only butter crust.  I just read it tends to be slightly less flaky but can be easier to handle - maybe that's why I've had success.  Thank you Epicurious.  I also like butter.  I usually roll out on wax paper which allows you to pick up the whole thing at once, flip over, flop into the pie tin. You can also roll between two sheets of wax paper - this prevents the rolling pin from sticking and breaking up the dough during the rolling process.

So I've got the crust down, but I think still looking for a more exciting filling or mix of fruit.  But it was pretty and yummy so a good mid-week treat!

Boat S'mores!

So I spent the second half of my 4th of July on a "raft" consisting of 3 sailboats, multiple power boats, and assorted dinghies tied up together floating in the bay just outside Annapolis. I'm a huge fan of the traditional s'more, and my group of friends makes sure to be prepared in any campfire situation. Obviously open flame on a mini fleet of vessels is a terrible idea, so I was forced to create one of my greatest culinary inventions to date. The boat s'more!!

We bought traditional graham crackers (they make them pre-broken into squares now, brilliant.), a jar of marshmallow fluff, and forget your regular chocolate bars! I went all out with one of my top 5 fave ingredients: Nutella.

Sitting on the bow of a sailboat with your best friends and a large chunk of the Eastport sailing community slopping together one of the yummiest summer treats EVER was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon! ...I may or may not also be referred to as 'boat s'more girl' in certain circles in Annapolis now...

Hello from the Big Crank!

Hello, My name is Jo Anna, I'm the other half of this operation!  I hail from Arizona, where I grew up and returned to from college.  I am originally from Texas though which I can't forget to mention.  The Little Crank and I met up at Wake Forest  and she's been one of my favorite people ever since!

I love food and cooking, it has been a huge part of my family life since...well, forever. Family dinners are always a sit-down affair with plenty of food, laughter, and music.  My forte has been baking though; nothing makes people happier than a delicious home-made baked good.  Hopefully this will be a way to share recipes with my Little Crank, become better home cooks, and recreate memories and new meals!

Allow me to introduce myself!

My name is Ashley and I am the Little Crank in this kitchen! I currently live in Northern Virginia but am originally from South Carolina. I went to Wake Forest University where I met the Big Crank. Now she's one of my best friends and my partner in culinary crime!

I love cooking all kinds of dishes for all kinds of parties and bringing together my favorite people to taste my favorite flavors.  Hopefully you'll learn a little about me, a little about what I find delicious, and maybe have a chuckle or two at my expense while I strive to conquer all kinds of culinary mountains. Like pie crusts. I will start with the pie crust.