Simply D'lish Syrup

Kitchen Ninja has a very awesome friend that owns a spectacular commercial kitchen. Today, KN got to play in it. It was an EPIC afternoon of stainless steel, butcher block counter tops,gadgets, and AC'd bliss.

The project today was to 1) harvest from the farm, and visit the farmer's market 2) infuse simple syrups with whatever I can lay my hands on 3) can the suckers.

These syrups have endless uses (I'm currently sipping on a raspberry/mint/lime infused homemade italian soda), you can use them on snowcones, in cake, in frosting, in tea, coffee, adult beverages, as a glaze for pound cake, on pancakes...the list goes on and one.

I ended up with four flavors:

Raspberry Mojito Syrup (raspberry, mint, lime, lemon)

Lavender Vanilla (infused with vanilla, lavender and mint)

Thai Spice Syrup (containing Thai Basil, Lime, Ginger, and Serrano Peppers)

Mojito Syrup (Mint, Lime)

BEHOLD...

I felt like a mad scientist, blending spices, juicing fruit, boiling steamy liquids...

This is me, Kitchen Ninja, hanging out at the kitchen that will now forever haunt my dreams. *sigh* Thanks Michelle for giving me the key and free reign!


Here's where you, gentle readers, come in. Leave a comment listing which of the four blends you'd like the recipe to. Then, after you've voiced your choice, I'll update this post with the WINNER recipe.

till later,

*kitchen ninja*

Ginger Peach Pie for Pa's Day

hmmm....peaches! millions of peaches, peaches for me.

let's quit the jibber jabber and get to the recipe, shall we?

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

4 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups butter, chilled

1/4 cup ice water

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp ginger juice/shredded ginger

Egg Wash:

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT PASTRY ARE THAT

1) THE BUTTER IS ICY COLD AND

2) THE WATER IS ICE WATER.

there is no way getting around this. your pastry will suck otherwise. trust me, I'm on the internet.

1. sift flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.

2. cut butter into chunks and then rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse meal. this takes awhile but unless you again want your pastry to die a thousand deaths you will do it.

3. combine water and ginger juice, adding to butter/flour mixture one spoonful at a time.
4. Knead dough slightly, don't overwork it. form into a ball, cut in half, form each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins before rolling out and putting into pastry pan.

Ginger Peach Filling

2 lbs cut peaches, frozen

6.75 oz of peach&mango fruit juice

2 c sugar

4 tsp grated ginger

2 tbsp corn flour

1. Mix all ingredients together, pour into prepared pastry dish. Cover with lattice pastry work if you like. I chose to do the lattice work because the peaches are so bright and inviting as they poke out of the crust.

2.Brush pie top with egg wash, and sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake at 375 for 35 mins, or until golden brown and bubbling.

We ate ours a la mode, with some vanilla frozen yogurt.

enjoy! and *hugs through the internet*

Kitchen Ninja

beets are scary and lino is bliss

Kitchen Ninja is on a mission. While, actually, Kitchen Ninja has many missions. I believe I can become excited and passionate when it comes to just about anything. It's an affliction.

This current mission was one of block printing. I needed a handmade way to reproduce a logo, and I didn't want it to look flawless in ANY way. I quite like the buy local one, partially because the text in it is a bit dodge.

And then we have BEETS. I must have subconciously known that there was an alarming side effect to eating straight-up beets for dinner, but 8 hours later, I was mildly alarmed nonetheless.

Eat 6 beets and there are consequences my friends.

But first, my recipe for:

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Eat 'Em Beets

6 fresh beets, scrubbed, not peeled and halved

kosher salt

pink peppercorns

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

you'll also need a muffin pan and some foil.

1. roll halved beets in olive oil, then season with salt and pepper.

2. foil the muffin pan and place each 1/2 into it's own muffin section.

3. bake at 350 degrees for 20 mins.

4. test to see if they're done, if so, cube or slice, then drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

They're good with a bit of goat cheese if you have it, or cold as a beet salad.

The theme this week is camp, and I will post my camp project as soon as I get to a sewing machine. but, there'll be a template! Yay! Templates!

Also, this post could be sort of "Camp" if you imagine Bette Midler or a Drag Queen reading the title of the recipe.

but really, as Susan Sontag once put it,
“ You can't do camp on purpose."

Raspberry Mojito Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tbsp. dark rum
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 325.

Combine vanilla, buttermilk and rum. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Sift all dry ingredients. Combine dry ingredients, rum mixture, and creamed mixture. This batter is quite dense, and will take about 20 - 30 mins to bake through.

While cupcakes are baking prepare the mojito filling.

Filling:

1 cup sugar
1 pint raspberries
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup rum
2 tbsp lime juice

Muddle sugar, raspberries, mint, and lime juice. let stand. Prepare Frosting.

Mojito Buttercream Frosting

3 cups confectioner's sugar
1 cup butter
4 tablespoons whipping cream ( or buttermilk for a slightly tangy flavor)
1 tsp raspberry extract
1 tsp mint extract
1 tablespoon lime juice

Mix all ingredients until incorporated, add more confectioner's sugar if frosting is too runny.

Putting together cupcakes:

Once cupcakes are completely cooled, cut small plug out of cake, trim down until it's more of a lid, fill to the brim with mojito mix, and replace lid. Raspberry mixture will sink into cake, so don't be worried if it seems too full at first.

Frost with buttercream frosting.

I like to decorate them pretty simply with a halved raspberry and a fresh mint leaf.

kitchen ninja out.

we baked some cupcakes, we had some laughs, we did a little dancing...

photos from this weekend's craftastical wedding - recipe for raspberry mojito cupcake to follow.

Rhubarb: Pt. 3 - Return of the Pie

Star Wars Nerd. yes. that's me.

The last thing I made with rhubarb was pie. Rhubarb-strawberry pie. Mommer and Pops liked the rhubarb mocktails and the cooked rhubarb mash. tomorrow - pie for breakfast. yum.

recipe below.

Rhubarb Strawberry Pie

2 cups chopped rhubarb

2 cups chopped strawberries

2 cups sugar

1/2 c flour

1 tblsp butter

desired pastry crust for 1 pie.

put pie crust in oiled pan.

combine sugar and flour - cover pastry with a fine layer of the mixture.

add fruit on top of flour/sugar mix.

cover fruit layer with rest of flour/sugar.

dot topping with butter.

cover with remaining pie crust and bake at 450 degrees for 15 mins. then decrease oven temp to 350 and bake for an additional 20 mins. this helps insure that the bottom of the crust doesn't become a soggy mess.

PIE! PIE! PIE!

and that concludes our three part rhubarb saga.

KN - out.

Rhubarb: Pt. 2 - The Syrup Strikes Back

Rhubarb is so pretty. and delicious.

the trilogy continues. I made some rhubarb simple syrup, which is fantastic! Add a little lime, some soda water OR some potato vodka. your choice.

Consider this a serving suggestion.

Rhubarb Simple Syrup

3 cups Rhubarb

1 cup Sugar

1 cup Water

Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil. Allow to boil for about 15 minutes. Taste. If it's not sweet enough for you, add more sugar and return to medium heat to simmer. Once it's to your liking, strain, and then can, or refrigerate.

Rhubarb : Pt. 1 - A New Jam

The first time I cooked with Rhubarb was last year when I helped my soon to be married friend, BARgal , bake a strawberry-rhubarb pie for her rehearsal dinner. I still maintain that it needed a lot more sugar.

Almost exactly one year later I'm standing in a kitchen in Washington, making rhubarb jam and rhubarb pie from rhubarb I just picked outside the kitchen door. awesome.

Rhubarb Jam

5 cups chopped Rhubarb

4 cups sugar

1 packet strawberry jello

cook together, allow to boil, put in a jar. simple! : )

kitchen ninja out.

Bacon Stuffed Honey Corn Muffins

oh man...these are magic.

I bake a ton of cupcakes. I bake them for meetings, I bake them for fiscal discussions, I bake them to try out new recipes, I bake them to impose order on a world full of chaos. I bake.

Tomorrow is another meeting morning, so instead of overdosing everyone on sugar at 8:30 in the morning, they're getting a heaping serving of bacon.

Here's the recipe - I had to make a lot, so you're going to need to 1/4 the recipe if you only want to make a dozen.

Bacon Stuffed Honey Corn Muffins

4 boxes of jiffy corn muffin mix

2 8oz containers of cream cheese

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 lb of bacon, grilled until crispy then drained and chopped into bite size pieces.

1 1/3 cups of buttermilk

1/3 cup of oil

4 eggs

1 can creamed corn

5 tblsp of chives, chopped

2 tblsp basil, chopped

2 tblsp parsley, chopped

1 1/2 cups honey

1/2 stick butter

Base:

Blend muffin mix, eggs, creamed corn, buttermilk, cheddar cheese, oil, and 2/3 c. honey.


Filling:

Mix cream cheese, herbs, 1/3 honey, and bacon.

Glaze:

Mix remaining honey with butter, and reserve until later to glaze muffins right after they come out of the oven.




METHOD:

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, then add one dollop of the filling mixture. cover filling with more muffin mix. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Glaze immediately after taking out of the oven, so that the hot muffins suck in all the glaze.

best served warm. Just pop in the microwave for a few seconds and they'll be amazing.


Kitchen Ninja Out.

Kitchen Ninja's little bit of green.

BEFORE: no arugula. AFTER: Arugula EVERYWHERE.

BEFORE: FEB NOW: MAY

LETTUCE! SPINACH! SNOW PEAS! ZUCCHINI! BUTTER LETTUCE! ARUGULA!CHIVES! and more tomatoes than i should have ever started back in feb. I got so excited after seeing j.me post a fantastic urban garden idea, that I had to post an update on my little garden out here in PDX.

L - R: chives, zucchini, butter lettuce, parsley. Front to Back: Heirloom tomatoes, cilantro,basil, strawberries and more heirlooms.

It may be small, but it's doing pretty well, and i've been having some pretty great salads since March. Hopefully the zucchini makes it, but they're looking pretty weak sauce.

It's totally a learning experience, and it's nice to know that my tiny piece of earth is a little greener.

~kitchen ninja

TIMBER!

Kitchen Ninja built a bench! Thanks to my Dad up in the gorge that supplied the scrap piece of wood and two logs. All I did was buy a box of nails, pick up a scrap piece of metal border material and slap it together. Below you can see the log, and the metal border stuff -I'm attaching it the back of the bench this evening. As you can see in my drawing at the top of this post, I plan with near engineer-like precision. down to the primroses and spiderwebs.

Just look at those little suckers! Heirloom tomato seedlings, hanging out in the sunny apartment, waiting for warmer temps so they can burst forth with weird and colorful tomatoes.

Below (from left to right) Snap Peas, Strawberries, Primroses, empty yellow pot (soon to be home of Basil), Thyme, BOTTOM: Red Lettuce and Spinach, Rocket and Butter crunch Lettuce.

THIS POST BROUGHT to YOU BY:

this awesome t-shirt from http://www.timberpreservationsociety.com/

and the Kitchen Ninja. She's got skills, Knife Skills.

Chocolate Walnut Pie

Last night Kitchen Ninja made a lot of deliciousness. The kitchen is only now starting to recover.

The Menu?

Ciabatta Crostini's with Goat's Milk Cheese and Red Peppers
Ceasar Salad
Pesto Chicken Pasta with Pan Grilled Asparagus
Chocolate Walnut Pie with whipped cream

The Pesto - my poor man's pesto recipe (using parsley instead of basil) came out awesome. lots of garlic, parm, lemon juice = yum.

Here's the recipe for the pie I made up on the fly.

Chocolate Walnut Pie

2 deep dish pastry shells
2 c. sugar
1/2 c water
2 c. cream
1lb 8oz bag of 60% cacao chips
1lb 8oz bag of walnuts, chopped
5 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla essence

combine water and sugar in a saucepan. let it boil, don't stir, allowing sugar to turn golden brown. take off heat, add cream. Should turn into a lovely caramel sauce. Add chocolate chips, walnuts, vanilla essence, mix well. finally, add egg to mixture, incorporating completely. Pour into shells, bake for 20 mins at 400 degrees.

serve warm (inside has consistency of molten chocolate cake) with some freshly whipped cream.

Also, I was asked how I make my asparagus, so here's the method.



Mia's Asparagus

Chop Asparagus spears in half.
Put olive oil, crushed garlic, salt, and Italian seasoning in pan. Allow garlic to brown a little.

Add Asparagus. Do not stir, allow to lightly char on one side. Once slightly charred, flipped asparagus over, put on lid, turn down heat to low. should be al dente and awesome in 5 minutes depending on the thickness of the individual spears. The slight charring adds another dimension of flavor to the asparagus.

Enjoy!

~kitchen ninja.

Diet Food?

BAH. just straight up BAH. Kitchen Ninja has been getting her ass kicked in the gym for the past month and a half. This is the reason for the recent delicious recipe drought.

Now, 18 lbs lighter, Kitchen Ninja has to figure out how to cook healthy and delicious food, because Special K for three meals a day is NOT going to cut it. It's like learning to cook from scratch. Instead of potato gratin with cheesy amazingness, I'm roasting Yukon gold potatoes with lots of caramelized onions and thyme. Instead of brussel sprouts with walnuts and smoky bacon, it's grilled pepper asparagus.

Here's my recipe for potatoes in an onion sauce.

10 Baby Yukon Potatoes, halved

1/2 red onion

2 Tbsp olive oil

thyme

garlic

salt

pepper

chives

1/2 cup water

1. Pan on medium heat, add olive oil, garlic, onions, thyme, salt & pepper. Allow onions to start browning.

2. Add Potatoes, toss in onion mixture. Put lid on pan.

3. Once potatoes start crisping and sticking to pan, lift lid, toss water in, and close lid. Allow to simmer for 5 mins.

4.Serve with chives sprinkled on top.

The late addition of the water causes the onions to form a sauce that is pretty close to french onion soup flavor - minus the butter. Just don't leave the lid off - this will cause all the steamy goodness to escape and we wouldn't want that.