Red (Beet) Velvet Cupcakes with (Goat Cheese) Cream Cheese Frosting

From Dish Paige!:

The first time I ever made Red Velvet cake, I brought it to a party and someone asked me if I used red food coloring or did it THE REAL WAY. Of course, like 99% of Americans, I made it with red food coloring and had no idea what THE REAL WAY even meant, but at that moment, 5 years ago, I vowed to avoid making or consuming Red Velvet ever again. Not because I have any particular concerns about red food coloring (I am convinced that red M&Ms taste different and better than the rest), but more so because I have concerns about prying questions from jerky people. In any case, that conversation obviously stuck in my craw and I finally had an opportunity to exorcise that particular demon last week when my Intro to Culinary class had Roots and Tubers day. THE REAL WAY, you see, uses beets to get that rich color.

Ingredients:

For the cake
3/4 cup beet puree (about 4 small beets)
1 T lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
1 cup sugar
8 T butter
3/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 T cocoa powder

For the frosting
10 oz goat cheese (room temp)
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
2 oz butter (room temp)
2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place the beets in a baking dish with about 1/2 inch of water, cover the dish with parchment and then aluminum foil and roast until the beets are tender – about 45 minutes. Once the beets are done and cooled down a bit, peel them with a pairing knife and then give them a whir in the food processor, blending until smooth. Add in the lemon juice and vinegar and set aside.


Lower the heat to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl (or your standing mixer), cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add in the vanilla and butter milk and mix until combined. Next, add the eggs and mix again. Fold in the beat puree. Finally, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.


Pour the batter into cupcake tins and bake for about 20 – 25 minutes, or until a just set. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.


To make the frosting combine the ingredients and mix until combined and smooth.

(original recipe for the cupcakes found here)

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Making Something Out of Nothing: Polenta Cakes with Black Beans

From Dish Gwen:

The other night my cupboards were looking pretty bare, and cereal for dinner wasn’t really appealing to me, so I had to get a little creative. Using a can of black beans, some corn meal, eggs and a handful of salad greens I was able to pull together a rather fancy little dish that hit the spot and was healthy to boot. I think I’ll probably make it again.

Ingredients:
- 1 can black beans
- 2 cups corn meal (or dry polenta)
- ½ cup shredded parmesan or pecorino Romano cheese
- 2 eggs
- a handful of salad greens
- 4 radishes
- 2 scallions
- olive oil
- apple cider vinegar
- salt
- pepper

Directions:
Stew up the beans with some salt and pepper to taste and keep them on warm on the back burner. In a sauce pan, boil 6 cups of salted water, then sprinkle in the polenta while whisking – make sure to whisk thoroughly because otherwise you’ll get lumps. Once the polenta is mixed in, turn the heat down to medium-low and use a spoon and stir until the it thickens. Check the polenta by tasting to see if it’s softened (if it’s grainy and tough you need to add more water and keep stirring until it softens up – this can take about ½ hour).

Grease a square brownie pan or small cookie sheet with butter, then pour out the polenta into it and smooth it over with a rubber spatula to create a flat cake. Cool the polenta in the fridge for an hour so that it firms up, then sprinkle parmesan or Romano cheese evenly across the top and put the pan in the broiler on high to melt and brown the cheese. Once it looks nice and brown take it out and let it rest for a couple of minutes. Slice the cake of polenta into 3 or 4 inch wide squares. (instead of broiling you can also fry polenta cakes! Try it!)



Dice up the radishes and scallions and toss them in a large bowl with the salad greens and a table spoon of olive oil and apple cider vinegar, plus a dash of salt and pepper. Fry two eggs and plate them on top of the dish, with the beans on the bottom, then the polenta cake, then the egg, then the salad mix on top (the plating of this dish is what takes it from random to gourmet). Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top and serve!

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Chicken Soup for the Goal

From Dish Amelia:

I’ve been cooking for a family in the city recently that needs (among other things) fresh homemade chicken soup on tap. Meaning, I go in there twice a week and make chicken soup from scratch and now I can do it with my eyes closed. I mean, I knew how to make chicken soup, and stock, and green chile stew, and Mexican style chicken soup, and lemony Mediterranean chicken soup, etc, but now I feel like I can really bang out a chicken soup pretty good. There are a million ways to do it, and I do it a little different each time, but I felt like sharing it because its a staple we all need at some point, for illness, or comfort, or hunger, or memory. It’s healing, and it can get us through.

1 extremely high quality and cute whole chicken, 3 lbs (organic, free range, local)
1 bunch very skinny asparagus, cut in one inch pieces, at an angle
8 carrots (I like doing 4 normal carrots, and 4 Kyoto carrots. These are sometimes found at the farmers market and they are pink. PINK!)
1 small onion, quartered
1 bunch of celery, base cut off, stalks divided into two piles
half a bag of frozen peas (or 4 oz fresh peas)
1 bunch dill
some sliced mushrooms
a few cloves of garlic
S&P

Get a pot and bowl. With your awesome poultry shears that can cut anything, cut chicken into four pieces.

Pull off any skin you can and throw it out (some will remain). Wash the pieces and put them in the pot. You will divide your vegetables into the “Ugly” and the “Pretty”. The uglies will go directly the pot. The uglies are half of the celery, cut into large 2-3 inch pieces, the 4 regular carrots, cut into big pieces, the quartered onion, a few mushrooms if you want and a couple cloves of garlic. Cover all the chicken and uglies with water and add an inch or two more. Cover and put on medium low heat.

Prep your pretties: Thinly slice the kyoto carrots and remaining celery, and put in the bowl with peas and asparagus segments. Set aside.

Make five other dishes. To finish soup, check chicken by reaching in with tongs and grabbing the drumstick. If the bone slips right out, you are ready to rock and roll. Pull out al the chicken with the tongs and let them cool in a bowl. With a shallow perforated spoon lift out all the ugly vegetables, as they are through doing their beautiful work. Discard them. Lift out as many impurities as you can see.


When the chicken is cooked enough to barely handle, pull the good meat off the bones. I like doing this part and it reminds me of this scene in Amelie when the guy shows his grandson the “oyster” of a roast chicken. I discovered something I didn’t know about chicken anatomy while doing this. When you dissect it this way there is a perfect piece tucked up next to a shaft of cartilage in the breast that looks like a lobster claw or some dang thing. It makes me smile every time.




Put the chicken meat back in the pot, add the pretty vegetables, some dill, and a liberal amount of salt and pepper. Let it simmer a bit more until vegetables are tender but still bright green. If asparagus turns brownish you’ve gone too far. When soup is cool enough, chill in the fridge. Skim off any other fat or impurities you don’t want. Heat as needed. Drink the broth, pick out what you don’t like, add rice, ladle a little bowl or have some with a sandwich.

Whatever you want to do, it will help get you there.

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