Midnight (or whenever) Mug Cake For 2

This recipe is billed as a late nigh snack, but I used it as a TGIF treat after work. My trusty oversized* narwhal mug was turned into a baking dish for the experiment.
This one is dangerously simple; load everything into the mug in stages, whisking along the way, then zap in the microwave.

Batter up.

It's cake in about 10 minutes. Victory.

Warm, gooey, and Delicious. 

Difficulty Level: Easy

Will It Get Made Again? This is the sort of thing that will hit a chocolate craving in less time than it would take to go to the store... So yes.

*The mug I made this in is 20oz. The recipe notes it usually spills over the edges of standard 16oz mugs, I went for cute with less clean-up.

Cooking with Staples: Black Beans/Brown Rice

I didn't have really high expectations for this dish. Things billing themselves as healthy vegetarian weeknight dinners do not tend to wow me. While wow might be overstating it, I am a bit impressed with the results of the Black Beans/Brown Rice recipe.
This is a recipe that clearly illustrates why it can be hard to persuade busy people to switch to brown rice though, all those extra nutrients result in a much longer cooking time. In this case the brown rice spends an hour in the oven, vs the 20 minutes or less I can do with white rices (to say nothing of minute rice).

The book will tell you to boil the water in a rice cooker you're not going to cook rice in for this recipe. I went with the microwave.

It's always kind of amazing to just have all the liquid gone.

 There's also a timing imbalance due to the rice's long cooking time. The book will tell you to start cooking the beans after putting the rice in the oven; the beans will be done in less than 1/2 an hour (I estimate about 25 min, including prep). If I repeat this exactly I'll start that process half way though.

Beans, onion, spices. It's kind of everyday magic.

Difficulty Level: Easy
Will It Get Made Again?I will definitely make a version of this again. I'm going to take a serious look at brown rice pressure cooking times first though, because the hour bake kicks this out of easy weeknight scheduling territory for me (I only made this on a weeknight on a day when I working remotely). It hits the cheap, healthy, good trifecta though and for that I give Alton props.

Pictured without the avocado garish I almost forget, but do recommend.

The Butterscotch Tasting (Butterscotch Puddin')

When Alton Brown makes Butterscotch Pudding, he includes actual scotch whiskey. After talking to the biggest scotch lover in my life I ended up making this recipe using two different kinds of scotch so we could compare them. My source of scotch had a birthday this week and got real scotch pudding as a belated birthday treat.
First, make pudding. This is a simple stovetop pudding, strained for smoothness.

Yes, you should strain it.

Then I attempted to measure half a batch by eye because it seemed like it would be simple to just split the batch and put a different scotch in each half. I vow never to attempt to measure a batch of this by eye again because one "half" was significantly bigger than the other.

Not a precise measuring job. Oops. 

We ate it anyway with no regrets. The two scotches used were Ardbeg Uigeadail & Vicompte Single Malt*. We absolutely could tell that different flavors were coming though. The Vicompte is much sweeter and pairs perfectly with the smoked salt garnish. The Ardbeg Uigeadail has a strong peat flavor that would have been better with non-smoked salt (a note if we ever make this with that scotch again).

Scotland vs. France

The Pudding(s)

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? There's already a request in that we repeat this, the only question will be how many batches. I probably won't try to split a batch between different scotches again though, I've learned my lesson. Just make two batches, they'll get eaten without complaint.

*This isn't labeled scotch because it was made in France, not Scotland. Scotland has the same kind of location based trademark on the name scotch that the French have on champagne (or as California calls, it sparkling wine).

Time for Thai Iced Tea

Thai Iced Tea is one of my favorite drinks, but I have yet to reproduce the restaurant version at home. I was excited to see how Alton's homemade version would compare. The most signature part of Alton's recipe is the inclusion of tamarind pulp, which he notes is there for tang.

Add ALL THE SPICE

It definitely delivers on that front, this has the strongest sour flavor of any Thai Iced Tea I've tried. I find the tamarind is overwhelming the other spices, so I don't think this one is going to my cup of tea.

Still can't get that top layer of cream layered on the tea like in the restaurant version.

Difficulty Level: Easy
Will It Get Made Again? I'm tempted to try this without the tamarind paste and see how that compares to other versions, but I won't be repeating it as written.

Yes, I Said Chocolate Salad (Cocoa Nib Vinaigrette)

The concept behind this recipe seems to be something along the lines of "how much chocolate can I put into a salad?" The Cocoa Nib Vinaigrette has several tablespoons of cocoa nibs ground up into it and lightly sauteed with oil.

Vinaigrette in Progress

There are a couple of suggested salad pairings, all of which have both whole cocoa nibs and grated chocolate in them in addition to the dressing. I chose the version with avocado and oranges tossed with greens. This led to learning how to supreme an orange (thanks Martha).

The Supreme Oranges

Of all the people who tried this salad the biggest fan is a certified chocoholic. The general consensus though is the grated chocolate in particular is a little much.

Yes, Chocolate Salad

Difficulty Level: Medium

Will It Get Made Again? The part of this I'm most likely to repeat is actually the whole cocoa nibs in the salad, I really like the flavor & crunch. The dressing and the grated chocolate weren't my favorite so those aren't going on the repeat list.

Fancy 4th of July Burgers (Char-burgers)

I didn't orginally plan to make fish burgers on the 4th of July. I was planning to make them the weekend leading up to the 4th and then make brats on the 4th... However it turns out that Artic Char (a fish I'd never heard of) is not a common fish on my local fishmongers shelves; I had to special order it. So the brats and the burgers swapped. Alton Brown notes that this is his favorite recipe in EveryDayCook so I was intrigued.

Artic Char Fillet

These seem like the kind of burgers Iron Chef Morimoto would make. Fish based, Japanese flavor influenced, delicious. After all his years working with Iron Chef it's no wonder that Alton would come up with something like this.

Cooked in a Cast Iron Skillet, because Alton

Fancy Fish Burger

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? This is tricky. On the one hand, I would absolutely eat these again. On the reality check side, this was expensive, hard to find fish and I truly hate pulling pin bones out of fillets. The most likely scenario is that I follow the recipe again using a substitute fish, most likely regular salmon.

A Tale of Two Lemonades (Preserved Lemons-ade & Gail's Recipe for Strawberry Lemonade)

The main purpose of making the Preserved Lemons was to make this lemonade. I was curious what difference they would make in the syrup, and whether or not the salt used to make the preserved lemons would result in another oversalted drink (Alton really loves salt).

Preserved Lemons-ade

To make this you make a lemon infused syrup. Two doses of lemon, both the preserved lemons and fresh lemon juice added at the end. You then mix it with sparkling water for fizzy lemonade. I am greatly relieved to say that the salt does not overwhelm the flavor! The lemonade does have a really unique flavor with an interesting bite, but it's not going to turn into a regular drink in my house.

Preserved Lemon Syrup

Difficulty Level: Easy (Does require patience) 
Will It Get Made Again? Unlikely. It's an interesting flavor, but not addictive. Unlike the lemonade featured below.

Every summer once I start getting fresh berries I start making berry lemonade. Strawberry is my all-time favorite but you can swap the strawberries for raspberries or another berry (or mix of berries) of your choice with equally good results. This recipe evolved over the years as I first slashed the sugar in the original recipe in half, then ditched the simple syrup and sparkling water*. It's simple to make and completely delicious. As a bonus if you love strawberries you can take the hulls and use them to infuse water.

Gail's Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup of Granulated Sugar
1 Cup Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice**
2 Cups of Strawberries - Rinsed, Hulled, and Chopped in Half
Water

Equipment:
2 Cup Measuring Cup
Citrus Juicer
A Peeler with an "Eye Gouger"
Blender
2 Quart Pitcher

Directions

(Make 2 Quarts)

1. For minimum clean up, order of operations matter. Start by measuring the sugar (the only dry ingredient) and putting it in the blender. 
2. In the same measuring cup squeeze the 1 cup of lemon juice (this usually takes me 4 lemons, 3 if they're really big and juicy) and pour it into the blender.
3. Rinse the strawberries and use the peeler's eye gouger to hull them (this works so much better than dedicated strawberry hullers, and as a bonus for Alton fans means that the eye gouger designed for potatoes is not a unitasker!). Chop the strawberries in half and measure 2 cups of fruit (again, same measuring cup) and add them to the blender. 
4. Using the Puree setting on the blender, mix until the strawberries are completely liquefied.
5. Pour the strawberry puree into the pitcher.
6. Fill the blender container (with the bits of strawberry puree clinging to the sides) with water. Pause to notice that the pink tinged water is approximately the color of commercial strawberry lemonade. Pour the water into the pitcher until the pitcher is full.
7. Chill at least 2 hours. Shake lightly or stir to combine any puree that has settled and serve.

   

   The eye gouger on the top of a peeler is the best strawberry huller I've found.

   

   Just dump everything in, the sugar will dissolve when blended (which is why I stopped bothering with making a simple syrup).
   

   

   Strawberry Puree

   

   Seriously, the pink water with only the bits of strawberry puree that didn't come out in the initial pour is about the color of commercial strawberry lemonade.

   
   

   

   Strawberry Lemonade

*This started out as the Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade from the Moosewood Collective
** You can swap out store bought lemon juice without majorly effecting the flavor if you don't have the energy to fresh squeeze the juice.

Not Just Another Kale Salad, Or Is It?

This salad was certainly more work than normal. I had to manufacture two the ingredients in advance, and both have long lead times. The Preserved Lemons take 8 days to cure and the Crispy Chickpeas have another couple of hours of inactive cooking time to add to the total. The salad itself is a mix of kale and A Lot of parsley tossed in a homemade dressing that brought my first tin of anchovies into the house. A note here for anyone making this recipe, the book calls for half a 4oz tin, but I found a 2oz tin and so did not have to figure out what to do with leftover anchovies.

2oz Anchovies Tin

Just Another Kale Salad

For my house, this one did not live up to the hype of the name. As kale salad goes, it has too much parsley for my taste and the dressing just didn't win me over. To give credit where credit is due, as promised there is no overly fishy flavor from the inclusion of the anchovies, which will make me look at making classic caesers or nicoise salads in a more favorable light. This one though, is just another kale salad.

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? No, I'll stick the Rainbow Kale Slaw from the Moosewood Collective when I need a kale salad people are enthusiastic about eating.