Dip and Dipping Things

Sorry it's taken a while for me to post this recipe... I've been a tad drama filled and preoccupied lately :S Last week I found another recipe for green beans. I know.. I've been buying them A LOT but they are sooo cheap! Matt is getting sick of them so I think I'll have to lay off for a while.. sad :(. I decided to try charred green beans with a cajun dipping sauce! It is DELICIOUS!! It reminded me of french fries but they are obviously waaayyyy healthier. Here's the skinny.. 

Cajun Dipping Sauce (warning: this is not exact)

- 3 heaping soup spoons of mayo

- 1 tsp strong dijon mustard (maybe more depending on taste)

- 3 tsp cajun spice mix (from the previous blog entry!)

- Salt and Pepper

- Cayenne to taste (I did about 1/2 tsp)

Just mix everything in a bowl and you're done! I would taste it and tweak it to your own taste buds. I tend to lean on the spicier side for Matthew :P The green beans were easy.. I just put them on the bbq and tried to rotate the until they were cooked and a little crispy. A few committed suicide and fell into the bbq so I might try using the bbq wok next time. Seriously... they were soooooooooooooo yummmmyyyyy with the dipping sauce. 

We had left over sauce so I decided to try making yams fries. I've made them a few times now and it works out every time. Definitely a winning combination. I even tried making turnip fries last night and they were awesome! 

Yam/Turnip Fries

- 1 medium yam/large turnip

- Olive oil

- Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 450f. Whatever you do, don't wash the yam! They must be dry. Simply cut off the ends and any bad bits. If using turnips then peel away! Slice them into fries and put them in a sealed plastic container. Pour about 1-2 tbsp of olive on top with some salt and fresh cracked pepper. Put the lid on the container and shake away. The fries should be evenly coated with S&P and a little oil (not dripping with it!). Spread them out on a backing sheet, making sure the fries aren't touching one another. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip and bake an additional 10 minutes. And then you're done! I like then a little crispy so you may want to reduce the time by a few minutes. 

Hope you enjoy them!

 

Two Words: Cajun. Seafood.

Seafood is amazing! I love almost anything that comes out of the water. We've been eating tons of prawns lately since we stocked up during a sale. I was trolling the net looking for something I've never tried before and bam... cajun seafood casserole! It was perfect! I went down to the store and bought some fresh fish; snapper and sole fillets. I made quite a few changes to this recipe... here's my version.

Cajun Spice Mix 

- 2 tsp salt

- 2 tsp garlic powder

- 2 1/2 tsp paprika

- 1 tsp black pepper

- 1 tsp onion powder

- 1 tsp cayenne

- 1 1/4 tsp dried oregano

- 1 1/4 tsp dried thyme

- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Just magic bullet everything! Maybe add a bit more cayenne...depending on your preference. It makes more than you need for this recipe but I just saved the left overs and will use it for something else. 

Cajun Seafood Casserole

- 20 raw prawns (or shrimp)

- 800g white fish fillets

- Several tsp ground mustard

- Several tbsp cajun spice

- 2 cups dry white wine

- 7 green onions, finely chopped

- 7 mushrooms, finely chopped

- 1 red pepper, finely chopped

- 1/2 tsp dried basil

- 2 cups light cream (milk would work too)

- 2 cups cooked rice

- 1/2 box pasta

So I kind of doubled the recipe but didn't have enough rice so I made up some pasta... Once cooked, spread the rice and pasta in two separate casserole dishes. You can just make less seafood and do rice or pasta if you want. 

Preheat the oven to 400F. Start by cooking the prawns in the white wine. Once finished, drain prawns but KEEP the wine. Rub a little bit of ground mustard, followed by a larger amount of cajun spice on both sides of the fish fillets. Then cook them slowly in a frying pan with a splash of olive oil. Cook the veggies with 2 tbsp of cajun spice, basil, and a little olive oil. Add the green onions near the end since they don't take long. Once soft, add the wine and cream. Layer the prawns and fish in pieces over the rice/noodles. Then pour the sauce over top and bake until heated through. 

(before the oven...) 

Then you're done!! I think next time I will make slightly more sauce and add more cayenne (it wasn't quite spicy enough for Matthew... a frequent problem in our house haha). Random thought... I think I want to try this with chicken.... and only rice....

Chelsey's Coconut Cake!!

Ahhhhhhh I'm soooooo excited that in 4 days my new brother Mark will be marrying one of the sweetest, most gorgeous girls I know! Since Matt and I both came up for Mark's bachelor party, Adrianne (my new mom!) decided to take us out to Edmonton for a girls day. Needless to say, I was excited. I wanted to do something special for her since every girl deserves to get spoiled, especially before her wedding. I picked out some lingerie since we were kind of making this trip into a VanKoughnett thrown stagette and I figured what the heck, I'll make a cake. I practiced making a corset cake (and it actually turned out ok) but when I went to make the real one nothing turned out right and it ended up in the bin... urgh, not my finest moment :S After looking through some photos online I figured I'd give it a whirl and hope for the best...

Coconut Ombre Cake

- 1 1/2cup white sugar (It was a little sweet, I would only use 1 cup next time)

- 1/2 cup shortening

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 tsp almond extract

- 1/2 tsp coconut extract

- 1 cup milk

- 2 cup unsifted flour

- 4 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 4 eggs whites, beaten

- 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

- Food coloring

As this recipe makes only two 9" rounds, I ended up making it twice. I decided to try wrapping the pans in aluminum foil and then spraying them with pam so the cake wouldn't stick. This worked SO well!!!!! Like amazing!! I will definitely do this again next time. The recipe is super simple... First beat the egg whites until stiff, then set aside. 

 Then cream the sugar, shortening and flavorings. In the second batch, I added blue coloring at this step too.

Next I sifted the flour, baking powder, and salt several times until there weren't any little clumps of powder yet. Then I alternated between adding milk, coconut and the flour mixture to the sugar/shortening, mixing after each addition. Once combined, I carefully folded in the egg whites. I poured half the batter in a pan, then added 2 drops of blue coloring and continued to fold over the batter. Once the color was mixed in evenly, I poured it in a second pan and baked at 400F for 20 minutes. While the cakes were in the oven, I made the recipe again, the only difference was adding more blue color to make the batter two darker shades. Once cool, I carved a thin layer off the top and bottom of each cake. This ensures that no brown lines will show when the cake is sliced and served.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting

- 2 sticks room temp margarine

- 2 cups shortening (omg... I know... ahh)

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 tsp almond extract

- 1/2 tsp coconut extract

- 8 cups powdered sugar (it was a little sweet.. I think I could get away with 7 cups, might help)

- 1 tbsp meringue powder

- Water or milk if necessary

- Food coloring
- White chocolate curls (optional)

I didn't pay too much attention to the icing while I was making it (Matt had just come home so we were chatting and packing for our visit). I mixed the margarine, shortening, salt and extracts together. Once they were smooth I added the meringue powder and icing sugar. I made 1 1/4 batches total, adding drops until I had made white and 3 shades of blue. I left a larger amount of icing white to crumb coat and layer the cake.

In preparation of constructing the cake, I layered pieces of aluminum foil around the edges of a plate and then placed the darkest layer in the center. Any crumbs or icing that falls onto the plate will land on the foil, which can then be easily removed once finished. It makes the plate clean up time about 5 seconds. Between each cake layer I spread white icing and sprinkled blue white chocolate curls. I had melted, dyed, and re-solidified white chocolate before and decided to add it, figured it couldn't hurt. Once the layers were finished, I thinly covered the entire cake in white icing. 

Making Pretty Petals

Before you start anything.... make sure you have enough icing bags!! I made the mistake of having 4 icing colors but only 2 bags :( So I had to empty, clean, and re-fill the bags when I needed to switch colors. Urgh... so annoying!! I was using a #10 piping tip but it got stuck on one of the bags. Since I don't have anything close to it, I just piped icing out of the coupler base. It actually worked better!

I started at the top of the cake side, completed the circumference and continued to work my way down to the bottom. I decided to mirror the cake layers... white fading to darker blue on the bottom. For each petal, add a dime-nickel size button of icing, then line your thin spatula to its center and drag to the side. Add another dot over the icing smear and repeat. At the end of the row, simply make a button (it won'v be very noticeable!!). 

For the top of the cake, I made a dark blue button in the center. Using the same method, I made concentric circles of petals fading through the shades of icing. It took me about 3 hours to do the icing. However, quite a bit of time was spent changing icing bags. 

Matt's Grandma spoiled me with two amazing cake carriers that I absolutely LOVE (you can bring anything anywhere when you have a round and rectangular carrier :) lol This cake survived an 8 hour drive from Fernie to Whitecourt and then another 2 hours to edmonton... Not a scratch on it! We surprised Chelsey with it and some presents after our girls day of lunch, pedicures, a movie and drinks.. it was so much fun!!!