I Am... Spicy Dark Chocolate Mousse Recipe
This is part 5 of Tabasco's 10 ingredient challenge – 5 different recipes made from any of these 10 ingredients: Tabasco, tuna, brioche, eggs, mint/basil/cilantro, dark chocolate, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, cider vinegar and maple syrup. I'm finishing off the week on a sweet (and spicy) note with this super easy chocolate mousse inspired by Hervé This. This is a French molecular chemist who came up with an innovative way of making chocolate mousse with just two ingredients: chocolate and water. Most people would agree that chocolate and water don't mix and normally, they don't. But when you add a bit of heavy whisking into the mixture, the molecules rearrange themselves and you end up with a super smooth mousse that actually sets into something luxuriously delicious.
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I Am... Spicy Tuna Toast Recipe
This is part 4 of Tabasco's 10 ingredient challenge – 5 different recipes made from any of these 10 ingredients: Tabasco, tuna, brioche, eggs, mint/basil/cilantro, dark chocolate, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, cider vinegar and maple syrup. I think I could live on tiny food. What is it about bite sized food that is just so. much. better. than regular size? Is it the inherent cuteness? The miniature-ness of it? Or is it the fact that it's just so easy to pop into your mouth as a perfectly constructed bite? I'm all about the perfectly constructed bite. Once, in high school I made myself a plate of nachos that took over 30 minutes to assemble. I know you're wondering how it could possibly take 30 minutes to spread out some chips and top them with cheese. Well, I went all OCD and made sure that each one had the perfect amount of taco meat, jalapeños, green onions and cheese. When they came out of the oven I carefully topped each one with sour cream, guacamole and salsa.
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I Am... Crispy Eggplant Recipe
This is part 3 of Tabasco's 10 ingredient challenge – 5 different recipes made from any of these 10 ingredients: Tabasco, tuna, brioche, eggs, mint/basil/cilantro, dark chocolate, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, cider vinegar and maple syrup. Have you guys ever made your own breadcrumbs? I'm a huge fan of panko, so I usually just go ahead and keep a bunch in my pantry, but sometimes when I run out and can't be bothered to go to the store, I'll make up quick batches of breadcrumbs using whatever I have lying around. I've done it before with English muffins and here I've done it with brioche.
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I Am... Blueberry, Coconut, Dark Chocolate Cookie Recipe
The first time I made cookies by myself was a disaster. They came out like oddly fluffy, yet dense, hockey pucks. I was 12 and it was for a school bake sale. I didn't even want to bring them to school – they were that bad. Of course my mom made me, but I was too embarrassed to put them on the table with all the other perfect looking baked goods. I didn't want to waste the cookies, but I didn't want to eat them either. So I came up with – to my 12 year old mind – a brilliant idea; I left them on a bench beside the playground right outside the front of my school.
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I Am... Spicy Savory French Toast Recipe
This is part 2 of Tabasco's 10 ingredient challenge – 5 different recipes made from any of these 10 ingredients: Tabasco, tuna, brioche, eggs, mint/basil/cilantro, dark chocolate, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, cider vinegar and maple syrup. Ever since I made crispy salt and pepper french toast I've been on a savory French toast kick. There's just something that makes so much sense about bread and eggs being savory. I always have a hard time deciding between sweet and savory breakfasts, but these days I'm definitely leaning towards savory.
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I Am... Raspberry Strawberry Watermelon Popsicle Recipe
It's Popsicle Week! Billy, over at Wit & Vinegar, came up with Popsicle week as an ingenious way to celebrate summer. When it's hot outside I don't think there's any better way to beat the heat. There are a bunch of bloggers coming up with their takes on frozen treats all this week. I came up with a raspberry strawberry watermelon pop – it almost didn't happen, but I'm sure glad it did.
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I Am... Spicy Tuna Deviled Eggs Recipe
This week I'm partnering up with Tabasco for a 10 ingredient challenge! Essentially, it's 10 ingredients, 5 recipes. I absolutely love creating dishes when I have a limited number of ingredients. It's one of my favourite games: what deliciousness can I make out of what's in the pantry/fridge!? As much as I love grocery shopping, I loathe going out for specific ingredients, so I always pretend I'm in the Iron Chef Kitchen Stadium. Some of my best dishes have been created from using limited ingredients, so I was especially excited when I found out what the ingredient list was.
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I Am... Vietnamese Steak and Vermicelli Bowl Recipe
In the summertime (okay, actually, really, all the time) I am all about the steaks. I think my steak-deprived childhood has turned me into a steak fiend. But really, it's hard not to love steak, especially when there are so many delicious ways to eat it. One particularly delicious way is in bún, a Vietnamese bowl of grilled meat, vermicelli and dipping sauce.
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I Am... Easy Bánh Mì Sandwich Recipe
I think bánh mì, or Vietnamese sandwiches might be my favourite sandwich. Typically, they're made on light, crackly baguettes with fluffy, cloud-like insides – the perfect canvas for rich, savoury meats, sweet and sour pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cilantro and spicy jalapeños. The combination of flavours and textures is something that most people fall in love with, once they're tried them.
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I Am... Lemon Raspberry Cream Scones
I have a thing for scones. I'm not sure if it's because I've always had a thing for British things (as a child, Harry Potter, more recently, Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock) or if it's because they're legitimately delicious. These cream scones, at least, have a definitive answer: they're delicious! Two impartial judges proclaimed their worthiness. It could have been because they were hungry, but they aren't really the scone liking type. Too poncy, they claim.
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I Am... Pea and Avocado Pizza Recipe
Have you ever set off your fire alarm while cooking? More often than not, when I'm making pizza, I'll be rewarded with the high pitched beep of the fire alarm. It's not that the pizza burns or anything is actually smoking, but for some reason, every. single. time. I make pizza, I know I'm going to get a one minute workout while I hop up and down underneath the smoke alarm, waving a kitchen towel like a madwoman.
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I Am... Grilled Corn Recipe
When my mother-in-law was a young girl growing up in Vietnam, she would sell corn from a corn stand much like a hot dog stand. Instead of hot dogs, she’d grill up corn-on-the-cob and instead of ketchup and mustard, folks would slather on as much green onion oil as they wanted. She was well known as the cute girl with the corn stand.
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