Mango Spiced Shrimp

While everyone else goes out and party-hardies on Saturday night, we stay home, rent some movies, and cook something special. I mean, we could go out for a nice seafood dinner, drop $40 for the two of us, or buy a nice $8 bag of frozen shrimp and a mango and make our own… and probably be more satisfied with the outcome too. Well, that’s exactly what we did. And might I say the results were simply splendid?

(And look ma! New plates! While the lime green and blue ones are lovely, food just looks fancier when it’s on a nice clean white plate.)

Mango Spiced Shrimp

You wouldn’t believe the flavor in this dish. The combination of spices in the sauce is truly delicious, and would be fantastic over chicken or tofu even. And did I mention it’s quick? Serve over jasmine rice or with edamame.
Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
4 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 mango, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 lb large shrimp, peeled, tails on
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp garlic powder

DIRECTIONS
Heat 2 tsp oil in a 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook onion, garlic, ginger, 1/4 tsp salt, allspice, cumin and cinnamon about 3 minutes. Add mango, vinegar, lime juice and sugar and gently boil, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick; refrigerate in a bowl.

Toss shrimp with red pepper, garlic powder and remaining 1/2 tsp salt. Heat remaining 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook shrimp until no longer translucent, about 2 minutes on each side. Let cool; serve with sauce.

Sautaced Bass with Mint Pesto and Spiced Carrots

So tonight we cooked the fancy fish dish. We didn’t use bass, but frozen dover sole. The fillets almost fell apart in the cooking process (so excuse the ugly plating), but it was still a delicious dish nonetheless. We weren’t too fond of the carrots cooked in chicken broth though… maybe something like white wine or vegetable broth would have been better. The mint pesto is delicious! So who designated this the week of pesto?

Sautéed Bass with Mint Pesto and Spiced Carrots

Recipe from Bon Appetit. This will be the last recipe we make from the April ‘07 issue… seeing as Taylor made a mess with the fish and spilled raw fish juice all over the magazine, so now it is contaminated. Ooops. Some good recipes in there too!
Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
Pesto:
1/4 cup packed fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup lightly toasted shelled unsalted pistachios
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled
coarse kosher salt

Fish:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
4 6-8oz striped bass fillets (with or without skin)

Spiced Carrots:
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
12 ounces medium carrots, peeled, thinly sliced into rounds
1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 cup low-salt chicken broth
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
For pesto: blend mint leaves, pistachios, olive oil, and garlic in processor until coarse puree forms. Season with coarse salt. Can be made 1 day ahead; cover and chill, bring to room temperature before using.

For fish: combine olive oil, mint, and thyme in small bowl. Spread herb mixture all over both sides of fish fillets. Cover and refrigerate fish at least 3 hours and up to 5 hours (yeah right… we marinated for maybe 30 minutes tops).

For spiced carrots: Stir all seeds in small dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer seeds to spice mill or mortar and grind coarsely.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrots, crushed red pepper, and ground seeds; sauté until carrots begin to brown in spots, about 5 minutes. Add broth and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until carrots are tender, about 6 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in each of 2 large nonstick skillets over medium-high heat. Add fish and cook until browned on both sides and just opaque in center, about 5 minutes total.

Divide carrots and any juices among 4 plates. Top each serving with 1 fish fillet. Spoon pesto over and serve.

Spiced Chai Latte Cupcakes

Folks, we have a winner. Hands down, no question about it, winner. This little gem will be joining lovely almond and rich chocolate on our wedding cupcake menu.

Holy cow they are delicious.

How they all came about:
Robin likes Chai. A lot. And upon hearing we needed a non-chocolate cupcake recipe for the wedding, suggested we try a chai cupcake. Sounds good, right? We first turned to our fail-safe book (though recently it has failed us), Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Indeed, there is a Chai cupcake recipe in there. However, it uses yogurt in the base, which, if you read the disaster that was the Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes last week, you’ll know that the yogurt didn’t fare so well. And I wasn’t going to risk that happening again.

So we began with a basic vanilla cupcake recipe, and went from there.

Chai tea is sure a complicated beast – but after a good bit of research, I understood fairly well that most chai teas are comprised of a few key spices: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger. Some used nutmeg as well, so we decided to toss some of that in the mix.

For the tea portion, we simply steeped some black tea, using the soymilk instead of water. This infused a rich tea flavor to the cupcake without needing any extra liquid – the soymilk was already in there.

The frosting was a challenge, but to me, no cup of chai is complete without a giant dollop of whipped cream. Short of frosting these with whipped cream, I wanted a frosting more silky and smooth than our standard buttercream. We decided to try, for the first time ever, a Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Success. The frosting was to die for. The best frosting I have EVER made. Much less sweet than American Buttercream, but so much richer and with an incredible depth of flavor that almost makes you think there is more in it besides egg whites, sugar, and butter. It made me extremely nervous, making it, though. The frosting feels very fragile, like it can barely support it’s own weight, and at the slightest hint of too much heat or even if you sneezed near it, it’d melt into oblivion. Has anyone worked with Swiss Buttercream before? It is so perfect in every way and I don’t want to abandon it, but I don’t want it to become a wedding-day disaster either.

Spiced Chai Latte Cupcakes with Cinnamon Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Makes 12 cupcakes. Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Frosting recipe adapted from Tartlette.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup soy milk
4 black tea bags or 2 tablespoons loose leaf black tea
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For frosting:
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350ËšF.

Heat soymilk in a small saucepan or microwave until almost boiling. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Allow to steep for 10 minutes, then remove teabags, squeezing out as much soymilk as possible. Re-measure, and add more soymilk to make exactly 1 cup. Whisk in cider vinegar, and side aside until curdled.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Pour in soy milk mixture, along with oil, sugar, and vanilla, and stir just until no large lumps remain.

Fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter (liners should be 2/3 full), and bake for 20-22 minutes or until puffed and golden. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

For buttercream: put the sugar and eggwhites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like marshmallow cream.

Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium speed until it cools and forms a thick and shiny meringue, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until is is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. Add the vanilla and cinnamon and whip for another 30 seconds until incorporated. Spread or pipe on cooled cupcakes.