Tempura Asparagus

I warned you. This stuff is SOOOOOO good! It's another RR magazine recipe that I copied and kept in my arsenal. Everything about this recipe, the sesame seeds in the batter and the dipping sauce with the dijon mustard. In the words of RR, "Yum-O!"

Speaking of the amazing dipping sauce, here is what you will need:
1/4 C Yogurt
2 T Mayo
2 T Dijon Mustard
1 T Honey

Jim helped me by making the dipping sauce.

Mayo and Dijon.

While Jim mixes the four ingredients together for the sauce, I move on to the batter. You will need:

3/4 C Flour

1/2 C Cornstarch

1/4 C Sesame Seeds

3/4 t Salt

1/2 t baking soda

Mix those ingredients in a shallow and wide enough bowl to drop and roll the asparagus in.

Here is the (not so) secret ingredient for the "tempura" batter. Club Soda! Add 1 Cup seltzer (at room temperature.)

To prepare the asparagus I lopped off the bottoms. Usually these should have heads, but I lopped those off when I made the chicken pot pie. Just wash these and trim the bottoms and pat dry with a paper towel.

When you pour the seltzer it will bubble a lot. Mix it well, but don't overmix because the bubbles make it light and airy. If there are lumps, it's okay. Once everything is mixed, start dipping and frying.

Work with about 4 asparagus at a time, you don't want to crowd the pan.

Here is something new for me. Grapeseed oil. I read that it has a high smoking point so its great to fry foods in, and it's a healthier alternative to some other oils. Grapeseed oil is extracted from the seeds of grapes, typically wine grapes. (Okay, being a wino, I love that!)

I just used a half an inch of the grapeseen oil, turned the heat to medium-high. If you use a thermometer you are wanting the oil to get to 375 degrees. Without a thermometer, test the oil by dropping a little batter in the pan. You want it to sizzle. The asparagus cook quickly, maybe 45 seconds to a minute on each side.

I drain these on paper towels.

Then plate these up along with your dipping sauce. Oh my, oh my, oh my!

These are so yummy!

Going, Going...

Gone!

Spiced Popcorn Snack Mix

This recipe for Spiced Popcorn Snack Mix was first spotted in Rachael Ray’s magazine, but it wasn’t until I saw it on Aggie’s blog that I was convinced I had to make this popcorn for myself (and my friends). This will be the last recipe I post from the Fall Football Party, however. I’m sure ya’ll are getting sick of snack foods and ready to read some hearty meal recipes again. I have some GREAT stuff coming down the pipeline. How about Tempura Asparagus? Oh, this one will be good – go now and buy asparagus to get ready for that post! Also coming up I have Won Ton Soup, Black Olive and Red Pepper Risotto, Firecracker Shrimp, Oatmeal Cookies, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, T-Bone Steak with Baked Sweet Potato…I can’t wait for you to see these dishes!

But when you need a spiffed up snack mix, this popcorn was really easy to make and the flavors blend REALLY well together. I found myself picking out all the pumpkin seeds though, they were my favorite.

Here is what you need:
8 cups air-popped popcorn (I used three regular size bags of microwave popcorn which is too much – unless you increase the other ingredients)
1 cup roasted peanuts
1 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
7 TB butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I would use more of this next time)
1 tsp cinnamon (I doubled this amount)
Salt and Pepper


I had two sheet pans of this popcorn. One would be better.

I purchased the roasted and salted pumpkin seeds, but you could certianly do this yourself.

Again, I purchased the roasted and unsalted peanuts, but you could toast these yourself too.

Butter into a hot pan.

Melt it.

Add brown sugar and WHISK! Whisk in the cayenne too until bubbling and thickened, 2 to 3 minutes.

Sprinkle the popcorn with peanuts and pumpkin seeds. Then pour the brown sugar all over the top of the popcorn. Toss to coat. Season with cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Bake at 200 degrees until toasted, 40 minutes. Let it cool completely. This was very well received. Thanks Aggie for giving me the push I needed to try this snack mix.

Texas Spicy Pecans

I have been holding on to this spicy pecan recipe for at least a year. The Fall Football party last weekend seemed like the perfect time to give it a shot since I was trying to come up with easy make ahead dishes that I could set out for people to nibble on. If you like bold and spicy flavors, this is for you! Jim and I agreed it was way too spicy for our taste, but fortunately our friend Chris loved them so I sent a large bag home with him.

Here is the list of spices that go into this Texas Spicy Pecan recipe:
1 tbsp Ground Ginger
1 tbsp Ground Thyme
1 tbsp Ground Basil
1 tbsp Granulated Garlic
1 tbsp Ground Coriander
1 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tbsp Ground Allspice
2 tbsp Cayenne
2 tbsp Ground White Pepper
2 tbsp Ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp Ancho Chile Powder
2 tbsp Granulated Onion
2 tbsp Ground Cumin
2 tbsp Hot Chile Powder
2 tbsp Dark Chile Powder
1/2 C Lawry's Seasoned Salt
½ C Mexican Light Brown Unrefined Sugar

Talk about a potent blend of spices! Grind any spices that are not in powder form (corriander) and sift everything together.

And you also need: 1/2 C Pure Maple Syrup

and 2 pounds of Pecan Halves.

Pour maple syrup into a heavy stainless pot and bring syrup to a boil. Then pour in pecan halves and stir steadily until syrup passes soft ball stage and adheres to pecans. I wasn't sure what soft ball stage was so I just stirred and watched for the syrup to form a thick coating. (And when I say thick, this is actually thin - if you think about 1/2 cup of syrup and two pounds of pecans, it is going to be a thin layer)

I lightly brushed vegetable oil in this glass bowl, then poured half the pecans inside.

Next I topped the pecans with half the spice blend.

Add the rest of the sticky pecans and pour the rest of the spices on top, stir to coat evenly.

Spread in a single layer (as best you can) on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake 250 degrees for 30 minutes.

After 15 minutes I pulled the pecans out and tossed them around, then put them back in for the last 15 minutes.

I don't think I'm going to make these again unless requested by Chris. I think I will make up my own recipe for the spices in the future. I liked the maple syrup and the pecans, but how about simply tossing in cinnamon, sugar and maybe a pinch of nutmeg and maybe a pinch of cayenne too. That would be good, right? I will post an update when I experiment with this recipe.

Pumpkin Beer Bread: A Party Favor

Don’t you love the smell of fresh baked bread? That lovely smell rarely comes from my kitchen because frankly, baking bread is too much work and requires more patients than I can give to that little loaf. THEN I discovered the beer bread, oh yeah! The beer takes the place of the yeast needed for bread to rise. There is no need to knead the dough, let it rest, punch it down, let it rise again….who has time for that?!? With beer bread, you simply mix four ingredients with beer and then bake. Voila! Fresh home baked bread. When I was trying to think of a fall treat I could send each guest home with at the Football Party, this beer bread came to mind.

This pumpkin ale that I paired with the bread mix is really good too! A co-worker of mine mentioned that she stocks up on this ale because its only seasonal and she loves it so much. Once I tried it, I knew what she was talking about. It isn’t a sweet cider, it’s definitely a beer but it has a hint of spice on the finish. There really is just a faint flavor of pumpkin and it goes so well together.

Here are the ingredients you need for Basic Beer Bread:
3 cups flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 oz beer

Since I was making 10 Fall treats to-go, here is what I did. I found these clear cellophane bags on the party aisle at my grocery store for $2. I purchased whole wheat flour to give it that hearty fall feel. And lastly I purchased the pumpkin ale and the disposable loaf pans. Everything cost me less than $20.

Because I was assembling these in bulk, I dumped the whole wheat flour into a large mixing bowl because it was quick and easy to scoop and measure this way.


Using a one cup measuring cup I scooped 3 cups of flour into my bags.

Then measured 1 T sugar, 1 T baking powder and 1 t salt, right into my gift bags.

Twisted and tied the bags closed and set aside.

Repeat process until you’ve filled enough bags for your guests.

Next I placed my pumpkin ale in each disposable loaf pans.

I experimented with different bows and ties, but settled upon a simple silver bow tied around the top of the bags.

The last thing I did was print directions to make and bake the pumpkin beer bread. I think hand written instructions would have been more personal, and attaching the note to the ribbon would have tied it together nicely, but I had many more projects to move on to at this point.


My guests seem to really enjoy these as did my co-workers. One friend of mine said her bread turned out really well, and she thought it had more of a banana flavor than pumpkin. When I do these again, I might add a tiny bit of nutmeg and/or cinnamon to the dry ingredients to give it a more prominent holiday spice flavor.

Geen Chile Corn Bread

My mother has a cast iron corn bread pan that produces sticks of cornbread in the shape of little corn on the cobs. I always loved it because the portions were perfect and the shape made it easy to dip in soup, chili or simply pick up and eat. Mom, I know you are reading this and I'm claiming that when you pass. I doubt I have to fight Brad for it, but just in case let it be known I called it first. The minks, the jewelry and your cast iron corn bread pan is mine.


When I went to college the only cornbread I made was the instant Jiffy cornbread that I mixed and dumped in cupcake tins. Those still work fine too. But when I moved to Austin and visited Z’Tejas - lord have mercy they serve some good cornbread. It comes to your table after you order the meal, like when chips and salsa arrives at a mexican restaurant. This cornbread at Z'Tejas comes in a small six inch cast iron skillet - hot - as in, just out of the oven. You put a little pat of butter on your slice and it melts right in. It's so good. If allowed I would eat the entire skillet of cornbread and be full before my meal arrived. Of course, that IS what happens when we eat at a mexican restaurant. Back to the cornbread!

I actually came across the exact Z'Tejas cornbread recipe from Slightly Cheaper Than Therapy who is from Austin also. She actually attended a cooking class by Jack Gilmore, owner and executive chef of Z’Tejas. I'm so completely jealous, but I'm working on getting over it. I read her post and thought how absolutely wonderful this cornbread would be with the taco soup.

And like I always do, I started looking up other cornbread recipes to compare ingredients, ratios and cooking methods and found some other really good ideas. Simply Recipes has a great Green Chile Cornbread Recipe that I liked because it used green chiles and also cheese. I of course had to check Ina's web site also and found a Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread recipe from her that appealed to me because it called for scallions, jalapenos and cheddar cheese.

Knowing that Z'Tejas already had a winning recipe I knew that I didn't want to stray too much. But it did seem like my recurring theme for the Fall Football Party food was "spice" so I made some very slight adjustments. Here is the original recipe with my edits in parenthesis.

1 1/2 cups of Lamb’s Corn Meal. This is a Texas brand, I'm sure what you find at your grocery store would be fine too.
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 Tablespoon of baking powder
1 Tablespoon of baking soda
1 cup of plain, nonfat yogurt
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of canned creamed corn
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of frozen whole kernel corn, thawed. (I used canned whole kernel corn here)
3 large eggs
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of REAL butter
1/4 teaspoon of salt


(I added one can of whole green chiles that I drained and chopped. I also added one cup of monterrey jack cheese and an additional teaspoon of salt.)


Start by mixing all your dry ingredients together: Lamb's Corn Meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

Then mix the other ingredients together: Creamed corn, yogurt, eggs, butter.

Instead of cracking eggs directly into your mixture, Ina suggest cracking them into a separate bowl first so that one bad egg doesn't spoil everything you are making. Good one Ina.

I thought the lighting on these photos were good so I put two egg photos. I did not crack six eggs, these are the same three eggs, I'm just appreciating the photography. It's a work in progress!

Here at the chiles I'm adding. Simply drain, and then slice and dice em.

One cup of monterrey jack cheese. Oh yeah!

Now mix the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients.

Z'Tejas would have you put this into a 10" cast iron skillet. That is currently on my wish list so instead I used this pampered chef stoneware baker. I baked this at 400 for 35 minutes. If using cast iron you could probably only go for 20. Test by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cornbread and it should come out relatively clean but still a little moist.

I don't have any photos of the finished product unfortunately. I pulled this out of the oven as guests were walking in and didn't stop long enough to take photos. It WAS delicious. I would add another can of chiles and maybe one fresh chopped jalapeno to give it more zing. Not sure the cheese added that much. This is such a good recipe, you don't have to mess with it much at all. It's great as is.