sweet potato hash w/ adobo and fried tomatoes

It's really hard to do a post after those fabulous chocolate ganache donuts with salty pistachios. I mean how can you compete with that? Well, let me see if I can try.
Sweet potato hash I know I've made before for you, but had to share another version that I enjoyed so much so that I know you'll love it too. I actually make sweet potato hash a lot, in various ways: stuffed in a burrito with cheese and rice, under eggs, over french toast, in soup, oh the list is endless because it is so versatile and tasty.
If you're a heat-junkie like me then you will love this hash. I adore adobo's--it was the perfect pairing to put them in a "sweet" potato hash.
How have you made hash before? Any favorites?

sweet potato hash with adobo
print recipe
2-3 sweet potatoes, chopped into 1-inch cubes
EV olive oil
A few TB’s of butter
salt & pepper
¼ - ½ cup caramelized onions
Worcestershire sauce
1 – 3 chopped adobo chile peppers in sauce, minced (these are hot so use caution)

Caramelize some onions (about 1 giant sweet yellow onion) after it's done caramelizing add a few drops of the Worcestershire sauce, set aside.
Heat up same skillet (don’t clean it) with some EVOO and fry up the sweet potatoes until nice & crispy, season with salt and pepper. Towards the end of cooking add a few tablespoons of butter to the skillet to melt into the hash. Then add in a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, mix until combined. Then add in the chopped/minced adobo. Stir, then serve with eggs and fried tomatoes.

fried tomatoes

2 – 3 med size tomatoes, sliced thick, set on paper towels to dry up moisture
1/4 - 1/2 cup Flour
2-3 TB cornstarch
few dashes Old bay seasoning
2 - 3 TB cornmeal
Salt & pepper
EVOO and butter for frying up tomatoes

In a flat bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Heat up same skillet you used for the sweet potatoes (no need to clean it as it has great seasoning still left in it). Melt up some butter and EVOO. Dredge the tomatoes in the dry mixture and fry them up until brown & crispy on both sides.

chocolate donuts w/ ganache and pistachios

There's really no point in writing a lengthy post...no one's going to read it--the photos are way too distracting. The photo gods were with me on the day I made these incredibly delicious donuts. Enjoy. We did. I HIGHLY recommended making them (duh). I lend inspiration for these from the infamous doughnut plant in nyc; a place where I should be working and creating (check out the pb & jelly donuts: good sweet charlotte!).

chocolate donuts w/ ganache & salty pistachios
print recipe

1 ½ cups cake flour
½ cup dutch process cocoa
¾ cup sugar
2 ts baking powder
1 ts sea salt
¾ cup buttermilk, room temp
2 eggs
2 TB butter, melted
1 ts vanilla
(I added about ½ cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate)

Preheat oven to 425. Spray donut pan lightly w/ non stick spray.
In a small bowl beat the eggs and vanilla.
In a large bowl mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Then add in the buttermilk, stir a bit, then add in the melted butter, and finally add egg mixture. Mix till just combined; no need to overmix. Fill each donut mold about 2/3 full (I overfilled, who cares, it was fine). Bake about 7 – 10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack. It’s best to place parchment paper underneath cooling racks to make it easier to drizzle the donuts with Ganache. Recipe from dawn finicane of vanillakitchen.blogspot.com

Milk chocolate ganache w/ salty pistachios.

1 cup of high quality milk chocolate chips
2 –3 TB heavy cream

½ to ¾ cup of roasted & salted pistachios, roughly chopped
(if you don’t like pistachios then use whatever chopped nut or sprinkles you desire)

When donuts are cooled time to make the ganache. Melt the chocolate chips with the heavy cream, keep stirring till you get a nice glossy and consistency. Pour chocolate over donuts and/or dip donuts in chocolate—whichever is easiest for you. Top with chopped pistachios. Let chocolate harden/set before devouring. Should make 12 - 15

spicy peanut brittle

Ok so peanut brittle, where are the photos of that? What is this brownie crap? I know. There are none. These are all I have. And normally I would NOT want to share this recipe with you because of the lack of photos, BUT (are you listening?) BUT I had to because the spicy peanut brittle was so good, so very good. The sweet & spicy melded perfectly AND the fact that the vultures in my house ate it all in 5 hours. And these 2 -3 little pieces you see here are all that I had left when I finally realized "oh no! I forgot to take the photos before the vultures set in and ate all the brittle!". So while a photo of 3 pieces of spicy peanut brittle all alone on a plate would look like crap no matter how perfectly I positioned them; I decided to dress it up a bit with fresh whipped cream and brownies.
Peanut brittle is really a great way to dress up any dessert. So keep that in mind when you want to add a little "something something" to your next dessert. You feeling me? :-)

spicy peanut brittle
print recipe

room temp butter for greasing up the silpat & spatula (or nonstick spray)
1 cup white sugar
¼ cup water
Pinch of salt
¾ cup dry roasted salted peanuts
Pinch or 2 cayenne pepper (depending on your preference), optional

Spray a silpat sheet as well as the spatula. Place the silpat into jellyroll pan, set aside.
In a medium saucepan over high heat, combine sugar, water and salt.
Cook for 3 minutes without stirring.
Once sugar has begun to melt and turn light golden color (maybe 4- 6 minutes). At this point let is cook but now stir with spatula every once in a while. Do this for another 8 – 10 minutes or if you go by color then when you know its done is by its golden amber color, not dark but golden. Golden amber is the color we want. Take off heat, stir in the peanuts then add in your pinch or two of cayenne pepper.
Now you have to work very fast. Pour this immediately over the greased silpat, and using your spatula spread out the brittle, not too thin, not too thick. Now leave it alone for at least an hour if not more to let it harden.

Notes: almonds, walnut, pecans, pistachios would work great too

giveaway time - two cookbooks!

****Contest Closed**** :-(
You know what? I have cabin fever and I'm cranky because we have WAY too many snowstorms already and it's only the beginning of January people. Of course to make myself feel even worse I read the Farmers Almanac and it said we are going to get a ton of storms. Yay! Wonderful. Isn't that great?
So to cheer myself up, I want to make you happy by having a giveaway. See if you're happy then I get happy.
I want to give away a couple fabulous cookbooks. If you are a cake lover; a kicked up cake lover that is, like me, then these are the books for you. The winner will receive BOTH of these cookbooks by Warren Brown. The cake god himself. I adore Warren Brown. He is the owner of Cake Love Bakery. Remember when he had the show Sugar Rush on the Food Network? That was such a good, relaxing show; I miss that. That and Gale Gands Sweet Dreams. I wish Warren would come back to TV, but I hear he's a busy man. If you go check out his website, he has a free cake app. How cool is that? And the best part, I hear he's super sweet--definitely a chill person with mad decorating skills; definitely a super nice person you want to bake and create with. Check out his blog too!


All you have to do is leave ONE comment with your name and email address about your all time favorite cake. And you could win BOTH of these cookbooks. Yep both.
Let's do the drawing on 1/23/2011.
Please no anynomous entries. Have a valid NAME and EMAIL address.
It might help you win if you become a fan on FB & Twitter.
Hahaha, kidding. I kid, I tease.

bourbon-vanilla bean pork roast w/ spicy pecan gravy

MmmHmm, this dish has layers of flavors. This is a sunday kind of roast dinner dish. Seriously good. The kind of dish where hubby pops in the kitchen every two hours asking "is it ready yet?". Yep, one of those kinds of dinners, where you can smell it all through the house and even outside. Remember those as a kid? Playing outside all day in the crisp fall air, coming inside for the first time and smelling your mom's roast and veggies that had been cooking for hours. Remember that smell? Remember that warmth of the kitchen? Good stuff.
This dish is worth all the prep, the marinating, etc.. Speaking of marinating I did leave this roast soaking in the marinade for 6 days. It was kind of like the Seinfeld episode (the one where they wanted to see how long they could drive the car that was almost on E? And the drive literally kept going and going and going?) Really anything soaked in booze is better right? I think I could have gone 8 days.... What would Kramer have done?





bourbon-vanilla soaked pork roast w/ spicy pecan gravy
loosely based from Emeril Lagasse
print recipe

Cook notes: I soaked my pork roast for 6 days and it was fine. The longer a meat soaks in booze the better. Make sure you pat the roast dry before roasting it. Always roast your meats on a rack, this helps with even cooking. The gravy is very thick; I like mine very thick. If you do not, then just add in more chicken stock. The gravy is not that spicy, but a gentle heat; add in more or less as you desire. And it really does help to use a high quality bourbon—makes all the difference in taste (less alcohol taste).

1 vanilla beans, split and scraped
1 ts Madagascar vanilla extract
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup plus 1 TB apple cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
A couple dashes of cinnamon
¼ cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup of good bourbon
1 pork loin, tied (about 4-6 pounds)

In a small saucepan, combine: vanilla beans, vanilla extract, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, orange juice, and bay leaves. Cook over medium heat until sugar is melted and the mixture is at a gentle boil, about 15- 20 mins. Take off the heat and add in the bourbon. Let cool.
Place pork in a glass or ceramic pan. Once marinade is cool pour on pork roast. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 48 hours. PLEASE turn the roast over every 12 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove pork from marinade and pat dry. Transfer marinade to a saucepan and reduce volume by at least 1/3. (throw away the bay leaves). We are going to use some of the reduced marinade in the gravy. Recipe from dawn finicane of http://vanillakitchen.blogspot.com Place pork on a rack on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until a thermometer reads 155 degrees F. Always let the meat rest before slicing into it; at least 5 – 10 minutes.

spicy pecan gravy:

1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter
¼ cup chopped red onion
1/2 TB chopped garlic
1/8 ts cayenne pepper (I used ½ ts)
2 TB flour, sifted
1 cup pork reduction liquid
1 cup chicken stock

Make sure to toast your pecans! Then in a saucepan cook red onions in butter for about 5 – 8 minutes. Then add in the pecans, cook and stir for about 5 minutes.
Add garlic, cayenne pepper and cook for 2 minutes.
Add flour (add in the flour via a sifter so you get no lumps), cook for 2 minutes, then add marinating liquid and chicken stock.
Continue to cook until sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Season to taste with salt and pepper, if needed.

brown sugar-cream cheese mashed sweet potatoes:

4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
3 TB butter, room temp
1/4 cup plus 2 TB dark brown sugar
A dash or three of pure maple syrup

Roast cut sweet potatoes in 400 degree oven till done; about 20 – 30 minutes.
Mash potatoes or use a food mill or ricer. Using a large plastic spatula, fold in butter, cream cheese, dark brown sugar, and maple syrup. Taste test, and add in salt & pepper if needed.
Serve immediately.