Pineapple upside down cake

We both love this cake and it has turned into the standard birthday cake for us. It helps that we don't need to ice it and so its EZ! I have read some recipes that don't actually make a caramel in the first step, I suspect these are the ones that look very white in the end, I prefer this "old-fashioned" one that we found on simplyrecipes.com.

Caramel Topping ingredients:

• 1 cup of firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter
• 1 can of pineapple slices

Cake ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 6 Tbsp cake flour
• 6 Tbsp of ground almonds (from about 2 oz of whole almonds)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups of sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sour cream

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 325 °F/165 °C. 
2. Make the caramel topping. Take brown sugar and butter and combine and melt in a saucepan on medium heat until sugar dissolves and the mixture is bubbly, this usually takes us about 10 minutes on medium with slightly cooler than RT butter. The mixture gets pretty frothy after the sugar melts, so we just gently swirl it to make sure the butter and sugar are combined. Pour mixture into a 10 inch diameter stick-free cake pan with 2 inch high sides. We used a spring form, these leak. Boo. 
3. Arrange pineapple slices in a single layer on top of the caramel mixture. 
4. Whisk the flours, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, use an electric whisk to beat the sugar and butter together until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Whisk in the vanilla. Add half the dry ingredients then half the sour cream then the rest of the dry ingredients and the rest of the sour cream, whisking in between each.
5. Pour the cake batter over the caramel and pineapple slices
6. Bake cake until tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes (we sometimes have to microwave the cake in the end to get it firm, sometimes the center never gets completely firm, I suspect because of the juice from the pineapple). Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto a platter. Serve warm or at room temperature. (We mos def prefer warm!)

Chicken pot pie

I've made this recipe twice now. Its brilliant because I can just use rotisserie chicken straight from the store and because it tasted wa-ay richer than it actually is while still feeling like comfort food. The recipe is from here although I do not use their crust at all. The first time we made it we used frozen butter pastry to enclose it, which made it much richer. This time we covered the top with biscuit and it tasted so wonderful that I suspect this is how we will be making it. The biscuit recipe we used is the one logged here. We should probably have a little more biscuit than what we made to cover the pie completely, but the calories are calculated according to the proportions below.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons oil

1 cup chopped carrot 

1 cup chopped onion 

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (I used dried)

3 cups fat-free, lower sodium chicken broth (I used water and a little salt)

2 1/3 cups cubed red potato 

1.5 ounces (about 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour

1/3 cup water

2 cups diced cooked rotisserie chicken 

1 cup frozen petite peas

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cooking spray 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F or 200 C.
2. To prepare filling, heat oil over meduim-high heat. 
3. Add carrot, onion, and thyme; cook 8 minutes or until vegetables are soft. 
4. Add water, salt and potato; bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. 
5. Combine flour and 1/3 cup water in a small bowl; stir with a whisk until smooth. 
6. Return potato mixture to a boil. Slowly drizzle flour mixture into potato mixture, stirring constantly. Cook 1 minute or until mixture thickens. 
7. Stir in chicken, peas, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper. 
8. Spoon chicken mixture into an 11 x 7-inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. At this point we popped this in the oven and started making the biscuit dough since the filling should cook longer than the biscuit (40mins vs 15mins). After the dough was ready we pulled out the dish and carefully put the biscuit dough on top. 
9. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes.

Nutrition

As written, this dish makes about 8 servings of 470 kcals each. 

Tamarind and Tuna curry

I made this because I did not want to go and buy groceries. I had canned tuna and wanted curry. Google presented me with this perfect recipe which I altered to suit my ingredients. The recipe is redolent of laksa and I've already made it twice because the sour-sweetness of the tamarind perfectly complements the strong tuna flavors. It pairs perfectly with rice.

Ingredients

• 2 Cans Tuna (160g each, in water)
• 3 Onions, sliced
• 4 cloves of Garlic, sliced
• 1Tbsp Ginger, chopped
• 1 tsp Red chilly powder 
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds
• 1" square of Tamarind(Kudampuli), soaked in boiling water
• Salt to taste
• oil
• 1 tsp Mustard seeds
• Curry leaves

Method

1. Soak Kudampuli and keep it aside for 10 minutes
2. Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan and add mustard seeds
3. When the mustard seeds start to splutter add ginger and then turn off or turn down the heat. Add the garlic and curry leaves and after they are cooked, add the fenugreek seeds very briefly, max 30s.
4. Saute it till they are soft. I add salt at this stage to make the onion cook faster.
5. Add the chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder to the pan and fry on a low heat for a minute or two till it smells less raw. 
6. Add the soaked Kudampuli and water. Bring it to boil.
7. Add the drained canned Tuna and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes and then leave covered with no heat for ~10minutes.
8. Serve with rice. 

Nutrition

This recipe makes 3 big servings of 293 kcal each. Of which 11g carbs, 15g fat and 29g protein. 

Biscuits

This is a very simple biscuits recipe from All recipes that I just converted to grams to make it easy to measure out with a scale.

Ingredients

• 250 g flour
• 10 g baking powder
• 2 g baking soda
• dash of salt
• 13 g sugar
• 113 g butter
• 175 g buttermilk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C.
2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the buttermilk. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead 12 times (as little as possible to not activate the gluten). Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet, roll into a 6x6 inch square, and cut into 12 even sections. Do not separate.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center of the square comes out clean. Separate into biscuits, and serve hot.

Guacamole

We missed Mi Madres in Austin, and tried to find recipes for a few of their best tacos. However, before tacos we need guacamole. This recipe was tasty.

Guacamole

The guac recipe is from this blog.

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tbsp lime or lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp to 1/4 cup finely cut red onion
• 1-2 hot, green chiles, stems and seeds removed, minced
• 2 tablespoons cilantro finely chopped
• A dash of black pepper
• 1/2 chopped ripe tomato
• Tortilla chips (serve with)

Method

1. Cut the avocados in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avocado from the peel, put in a mixing bowl. 
2. Using a fork, roughly mash the avocado. Sprinkle with salt and lime juice. 
3. Add the chopped onion, cilantro, black pepper, and chiles. If you are adding tomatoes, add these just before serving. 
4. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent oxidation from the air reaching it. 
5. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Barbacoa Tacos

These were absolutely awesome. The smell of the ground chillies is amazing! This also comes from food network.

Ingredients

• 8 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 2 plum tomatoes, quartered
• 1 small white onion, quartered
• 8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• Kosher salt
• 2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-to-2-inch pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro (leaves and stems)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Corn tortillas, warmed, and assorted toppings, for serving

Directions

1. Heat a large cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the chiles and cook, pressing them down with a spatula, 10 seconds per side; transfer to a plate. Add the tomatoes, onion and garlic to the skillet and cook, stirring once or twice, until the vegetables are charred in spots, about 10 minutes.
2. Peel the garlic and transfer to a blender along with the tomatoes and onion (reserve the skillet). Tear the chiles into pieces and add to the blender along with 1/2 cup water and 1 teaspoon salt; pulse until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into the skillet, pressing it through with the back of a spoon.
3. Add the beef to the skillet and turn to coat in the chile sauce using tongs. Cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until a crust starts to form on the meat, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle in the cumin, cinnamon and cayenne pepper and cook 1 more minute. Meanwhile, puree 2 1/2 cups water, the cilantro and thyme in the blender; add to the skillet along with the bay leaves.
4. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and gently simmer until the meat is very tender, about 2 hours, adding up to 1 1/2 cups water if the sauce gets too thick. Remove the bay leaves and season with salt and black pepper. Serve in tortillas with assorted toppings.

Pork Adovada Tacos

This food network recipe got pretty close to replicating that yummy stuff we miss from Mi Madres Tacos in Austin.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds pork shoulder loin, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons California chile powder
• 2 tablespoons New Mexico chile powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 5 whole cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups soybean oil
• 8 to 12 white soft corn tortillas
• Diced white onion, for serving
• Chopped cilantro leaves, for serving
• Limes, for serving

Directions

1. Place the meat into an 11 by 12-inch baking dish. Toss the meat and dry ingredients with 2 cups soybean oil. Marinate overnight or for 6 hours covered in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).
3. Bake, covered, in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes. Remove and allow to cool slightly.
4. When slightly cooled chop meat into small cubes. Serve on 2 warm soft white corn tortillas. Sprinkle with diced white onion and chopped cilantro, and of coarse a squeeze of fresh lime!