Pineapple, Peanuts, Chocolate, Ice Cream & Kirsch

Sometimes I like to take a few random ingredients from around the house and make a concoction out of it. This time I chose fresh pineapple pieces, honey cinnamon roasted peanuts, milk chocolate candies, vanilla ice cream and kirsch cherry liquor. To tie all these ingredients together, I flambeed the pineapple in a little butter, brown sugar, and kirsch. I added the peanuts to some butter, honey, and oats to make a granola. I melted down the ice cream and melted some chocolate into half and made a quick caramel to add to the other half to make creme anglaise. So to compose the dish I had milk chocolate cinnamon and salted caramel creme anglaise with warm kirsch flambeed pineapple, and roasted peanut granola.

Galloping Horses

Galloping Horses
1 ripe pineapple, peeled and cubed
oil
3 shallots, thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons peanut butter
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon pure cane sugar

In a large frying pan, heat the oil then sauté the shallots until browned. Stir in the peanut butter, soy sauce, and sugar. Allow to cool slightly. Place a spoonful on each pineapple cube.
I am not sure exactly why this concoction is called galloping horses but it is, and it is different and tasty.
I went a step further and added to my galloping horses. The base is a piece of mung been cake, followed by banana erccherry, the galloping horses, and a crumble of homemade paneer cheese. 

Pineapple Muffins

Pineapple Muffins

4 cups all-purpose (plain) flour

1 cup granulated (white) sugar

2 Tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

½ cup oil

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

pineapple juice + peach or orange juice to make 1 cup

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Grease or line muffin cups.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the eggs, oil, pineapple, and juice. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 30 muffins.

Pineapple is a different, yet very pleasing muffin flavor. These muffins are light and moist. They would be even tastier with the addition of a little shredded coconut. 

Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbird Cake
3/4 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
1/2 cup granulated (white) sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch ground cloves
1 large egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 can (598mL) crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Grease and flour an 8-inch round cake pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together the first seven dry ingredients.
In a separate large bowl, mix together the remaining wet ingredients. Fold in the dry ingredients until combined. Bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

This is a southern cake recipe that I have eyed for years and never tried. So I finally decided to make it. It has the flavors of banana, pineapple, and chopped pecans and/or shredded coconut, but I just used coconut. It is typically paired with a cream cheese frosting. It is so named because the sugar, coconut, banana, and pineapple makes it really sweet - and hummingbirds like sweet things. 
This is actually a lighter version of the usual cake recipe - it contains less sugar and oil, but a little extra pineapple and banana so as not to compromise any flavor or moistness. If you use whole wheat flour and unsweetened coconut, it could be an even healthier treat. 

Pina Colada Overnight Oatmeal

There is nothing alcoholic about this at all. There's just something about the words oatmeal and alcohol that don't seem to fit together. Or alcohol and breakfast in general. I suppose some may argue that. Anyway, the principle flavors of a pina colada (not that I've ever had one) are definitely present in this oatmeal, and it gives a nice tropical flavor. If we cannot escape the winter down south, at least we can bring some southern flavors to our awful winter. 

Pina Colada Overnight Oatmeal
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed
2 Tablespoons shredded coconut
1/4 cup finely diced pineapple (I used fresh)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup milk (coconut milk would work best)
fresh kiwi

As with all my overnight oatmeal recipes, place all ingredients in a bowl or a jar, mix well, and let sit in the refrigerator overnight to thicken. This is another one I do not recommend heating, but rather enjoying cold. Like a nice, cool drink on a hot sunny day. Garnish with fresh kiwi fruit.

Chicken With Pineapple Sauce

This was the second, perfected trial for Mom's pineapple chicken recipe, which may become a new family favorite. The first attempt at this recipe was featured on March 20th. A few tweaks were made, and we now have a yummy new chicken recipe. My mother doubled the amount of chicken (because she wanted to make more), but kept the sauce ingredients the same, as we found it was too sweet last time. She did however increase the amount of soya sauce in order to further counter the overwhelming sweetness, which was evident by the change in sauce color. She also used fresh chicken breasts, and cooked them and diced them the day before, but was sure not to overcook them and to cool them properly. One problem we still seem to have is the viscosity of the sauce. She tried to make it thicker this time by stirring in some cornstarch and boiling it, but it didn't seem to work. Maybe there was not enough cornstarch or maybe the mixture was not boiled long enough. Then she transferred the sauce to a slow cooker and added the chicken, then heated the chicken in the sauce, and kept it warm until it was time to eat. This did not help thicken the sauce either. So this dish was best served with a slotted spoon, but the chicken still absorbs enough of the sauce to be moist, flavorful, and sweet. The only problem now is a lot of leftover liquid. It is tasty over rice, I suppose!

Mom's Pineapple Chicken

Tonight my mother decided to try a different recipe for supper. As usual, she looked at several recipes online for pineapple chicken, decided she didn't like any of them entirely, and took the parts she liked from each of them and made her own recipe. This was really just an experiment and the first trial run, so she wanted all of our feedback; good and bad. She plans to try again and perfect the recipe. She is certainly off to a good start, as it turned out quite tasty.
Here is basically what she did:

In a large pot or saucepan melt a little butter or margarine.
Add 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 1/4 cup liquid honey, and one Tablespoon soya sauce.
Cook over medium heat for a few minutes to make a nice sauce.
Add in two cooked, chopped chicken breasts and one can (398mL) pineapple chunks with the juice. Cook until warmed through and chicken absorbs the sauce.

Feedback
Most of the original recipes call for cooking the chunks of chicken breast in a little oil beforehand but my mother used precooked chicken because she had it on hand. Because the chicken came form the freezer, when it was cut, it turned out more like a shredded consistency. Personally, I liken this consistency, and it would be especially good over a bed of rice or even on a bun. But chunks of chicken would probably look nicer and work better with the sauce.

The sauce was not much of a sauce. This is because my mother omitted the cornstarch from the recipe to boil in and thicken the sauce. So, once the chicken was added, it absorbed all of the sweetener and pineapple juice. It also absorbed more because it was shredded rather than chopped. This certainly made the chicken moist and juicy, but there was no separate sauce. Maybe crushed pineapple instead of pineapple chunks would work better too, and fit better with chunks of chicken.

The dish was very sweet. A little too sweet for a chicken supper. There is 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup honey, and the sweetness of the pineapple juice. Next time, my mother may cut back on the sugar a little, and add some more soya sauce or a little lemon juice or vinegar to cut the sugar a little.

The dish was fine as is, and none of the feedback was really negative. But there is room for a few improvements. We will keep experiementing, and see what we can come up with!

Carrot Cake

Easter is tomorrow, so I made carrot cake, which I will decorate in an Easter theme for tomorrow. I will frost it in cream cheese icing of course, because that goes best with carrot cake. Carrot cake is difficult to define. Everyone has their own definition of "true" carrot cake and what it should contain. Generally speaking, I think most people would agree that carrot cake should be moist with a fine crumb, and contain just the right amounts of sugar, oil, and carrots. Now here is where things really start to vary. Some insist carrot cake must contain pineapple and grated apple or applesauce. Others have to have toasted walnuts, shredded coconut, and golden raisins. Chocolate carrot cake is also an option. I wanted a really moist carrot cake without too much added things to stir in, so I used crushed pineapple and applesauce, and no nuts, coconut, or raisins. Here is my recipe, which I came up with from looking at a lot of recipes for carrot cake and adapting them. This cake recipe makes a large batch, three cakes. I will use the two rounds for my Easter cake, and freeze the square for later use. It could also be baked in one tube or bundt cake (10 inch or 3 liter capacity) for a longer period of time. 

Carrot Cake
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups granulated (white) sugar
1 can (14 ounces/ 384 mL) crushed pineapple (or buy pineapple rings and crush them in a blender)
2 large carrots, grated

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round and one 8-inch square cake pan. 
In a large bowl, mix the first seven dry ingredients.
In a separate medium bowl, beat the eggs and oil. Gradually beat in the sugar. 
Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, add the pineapple and carrots. Mix until well incorporated. Divide evenly among the three pans. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
An electric mixer is not necessary for this recipe, but it does make mixing easier.