It was my turn to host Cooking Club this month, and I was excited. Unfortunately, I was also a little disorganized. It felt like it was taking me forever to pull lunch together. I think I know the problem...I like to talk to much and was trying to talk while I made lunch! I made a stir fry and flourless chocolate cupcakes.
I made a beef stir fry with a brown sauce with broccoli and carrots. Here's how to do it:
Slice the beef in long thin strips about 1-2 inches long. Marinate them with 1 egg white, 1 T cornstarch, and 1 T Chinese rice win. Let marinate for at least one hour before cooking. This makes the meat so tender and juicy!
Slice carrots thin and cut broccoli into small pieces. You could probably also use frozen vegetables. I used baby carrots and sliced them as thin as I could (which was kind of hard!). I love baby carrots because they are so sweet. Blanch the broccoli by boiling it in salted water for about 1.5 minutes and then placing in ice water right away to prevent further cooking.
Prepare brown sauce: Mix together 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1 T cornstarch, 1 T soy sauce, 1 T hoisin sauce, and 1 T Chinese rice wine.
Put a tablespoon or so of olive oil in pan and heat. Cook meat until cooked through, it will only take a few minutes. Place cooked meat on a plate and wipe out pan.
Put about 2 T olive oil, two cloves chopped garlic, and vegetables in pan. Stir-fry until crisp-tender. Add meat and brown sauce. Cook until sauce is thick and meat and veggies are cooked through.
This would be great over rice. Unfortunately, that part of my brain wasn't working and forgot to put the rice in the rice cooker! I told you I was not feeling very organized!
Even without the rice, we all really enjoyed this and there were no leftovers! This was from the March 2010 Food Network Magazine on page 75.
Now, on to the dessert. I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and was super excited when I saw it. I saw someone Food Network making something similar, but theirs was a cake and was much more involved than this!
Cupcakes:
6 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli bittersweet morsels)
6 T unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Heaping 1/4 t espresso or instant coffee powder (I didn't have this so I omitted and it came out fine)
3 Large eggs, separated
6 T sugar, divided
1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla extract
White Chocolate Mint Cream:
2 oz white chocolate, finely chopped
2 oz heavy whipping cream
1/8 t peppermint extract
Prepare the white chocolate mint cream: Place the chopped white chocolate in a bowl and heat the cream to simmering. Pour it over the chocolate and stir until it melts. Add the peppermint and stir. Now, here is where I would do it differently than she did. She said chill for at least two hours and then whip. Well, mine would not whip after it was chilled. So, I would whip it before chilling.
Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 and line 12 muffing cups with cupcake liners. Stir chocolate, butter, and espresso (if using) in a saucepan over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm. In a separate bowl, beat three egg yolks and three T sugar until very pale yellow. A hand mixer works best here since it is such a small amount. In another bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form (with cleaned and dried beaters!). Add remaining three T of sugar gradually and all of the salt, beat until medium-firm peaks form. Add chocolate to eggs yolk mixture and mix. Then fold egg whites in in three batches. Be very gentle! Divid batter among prepared cups, filling about three-fourths full. Bake abt 15-20 minutes until inserted tester comes out clean or with dry crumbs.
The cupcakes will fall in the center as they sit to cool. Pile that delicious topping in the hole and enjoy! You might have to double the topping recipe to have enough for all of it! I ate two yesterday and need to make up more topping to enjoy the rest:)
