Hell's Kitchen: Cheese-Stuffed Jalapenos in Beer batter

This is a little crazy, but if you carefully pick jalapenos that won't scab your hands as soon as you touch them or turn your evening into sweaty milk-chugging hell (sounds oh so inappropriate) then you should be in the clear.

Mine ended up burning just one too many taste buds off my tongue (and I add hot sauce to everything).

WARNING: Capsaicin, the stuff that makes chilis hot, is OIL SOLUBLE. Which doesn't really help when you're deep frying them.

The batter is fantastic, in fact just deep fry some without anything and it still would make for a decent snack.

What you'll need:

• 1. 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2. 1 teaspoon salt
• 3. 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4. 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 5. 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 6. 2 eggs
• 7. 1 cup beer
• 8. 1 cup of grated cheese
• 9. 1/2 quart vegetable oil
• 10. 2 cups sliced jalapeno peppers
• 
  
• 
  
• 1. Beat together ingredients 1-7 in a bowl.
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 2. Grate some cheese.
• 
  
• 3. Heat up some oil (around 375F)
• 
  
• 4. Wash peppers, cut a small slice into one of the sides and stick some cheese in it.
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 5. One by one, dip the peppers into the batter and into the oil. Watch out!
• 
  
• 6. Fry until golden brown 'n' crispy. I just waited until some cheese started oozing out.
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 7. Dry on a plate with some paper towels.

Tiramisu

This is the quintessential post for a cooking blog.

So without much further ado,

What you'll need:

• 2 cups of milk
• 3/4 cups of granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup of flour
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup of dark rum (Captain Morgan seemed to do the trick)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 8 oz of mascarpone

• 32 ladyfingers (works with 24 as well)

• 1 1/2 cup of strong coffee or espersso
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of dark rum
• rasberries (optional)

Ladyfingers can be found in any large local supermarket, mascarpone is a little pricey but oh-so-worth-it.

How it's done:

Custard

1. In a medium sized saucepan, heat 1 3/4 cups of milk and 1/2 cups of sugar.

2. Bring to a boil

3. Meanwhile whisk together 1/4 cup of milk and 1/4 cup of sugar and egg yolks in a heat proof bowl

4. Combine the two in the heatproof bowl

5. Whisk, whisk, whisk

6. Add to a new clean medium saucepan

7. Bring to a boil, and whisk until it thickens

8. Strain into a large bowl (remove lumps)

9. Whisk in 1/4 cup of rum and vanilla

10. Seal the bowl, you don't want a crust to form. Cling film and rubberband works great

11. Refrigerate (for at least 3 hours)

Coffee Soaking Syrup:

1. In a large shallow bowl, combine rum, coffee, and sugar.

Tiramisu-building:

1.Line a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan with plastic wrap. Make sure it extends over the sides.

2. Dip one ladyfinger at a time in the coffee mixture, line the bottom of the loaf pan with about 8 ladyfingers side by side.

3. Cover completely with custard.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until full, or custard is used up.

5. Cover air tight and efrigerate (over night or about 6 hours)

To serve, flip over carefully, and remove plastic. Serve with grated dark chocolate sprinkled on top and rasberries or strawberries

(PS the Custard and strawberries are fucking incredible)

Cheese Enchiladas with Red Mole

Adapted from "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian."

Guess who's back with a brand new wrap? It's the season, and I decided to devote a bit of my summer to my dear readers (and cooking).

I got a great amount of help from my house mates for this one, in fact they did most of the cooking, while I stood there taking pictures.

This is quite the meal, it will take a little while in preparation, but it is most certainly worth every minute you put into it. Also, note if you can get a helping hand for this, I recommend asking anybody for a little side-kicking, (what I was doing) while the maitre-d does her or his magic. Have some coffee at hand.

Judging by the cocoa powder and different kinds of chilies, it's quite the authentic Mexican dish. It has great flavour, quite unique, and the nuts give it a peanut-butter like consistency that goes really well with fresh herb garnishes and lime.

What you need for 8 servings:

For the red mole

• 12 to 15 mild chilies - anything goes (New Mexico, mulatto, pasilla, guajillo, ancho)
• 2 cups of nuts (peanuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts - I used peanuts and it worked great)
• 1/4 cup of tahini
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder or unsweetened chocolate
• 1 large onion
• 1 head garlic
• 4 plum tomatoes (you can use cans)
• 2 thick slices of white bread (use that rock solid loaf in the pantry)
• 1 quart vegetable stock or water
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil

Spices for the mole

• 3 or 4 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground allspice (Jamaican works)
• 2 teaspoons anise seeds
• Generous portion of salt and pepper

For the enchiladas

• 20 tortillas (small)
• 3 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, monterey jack or other)
• 1 can of dark red kidney beans (optional)
• Creme freche, cilantro, lime for garnish
• Scrambled egg (optional)
• Guacamole (optional)
• Tofu (optional)

Preparation

The red mole

1.Soak the chilies in hot water

2. Add chilies, nuts, tahini, cocoa, onion, garlic, tomatoes and bread in a food processor, with enough stock to get things going.

3.Heat oil in a big, deep pot over medium heat. Add pureed mixture and spices.

4. Stir for 5 minutes on medium.

5.When steaming, put on low, and stir for 20 minutes.

6. Put back on medium, at rest of stock. Stir until thick and smooth (and shiny)

Enchiladas

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Spread thin layer of mole on bottom of casserole dish. (about 9 by 12 inch)

3. Wrap cheese and beans in tortillas, and tightly pack them together in dish

4. Cover in the rest of the mole, sprinkle cheese on top.

5. Bake for 25 minutes at 350F.

NB

-With this recipe you end up with a lot of mole, but you can pretty much add it to anything, and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days.

-Of course you can also half this recipe. It is meant for 8 servings after all.

-The optional fillings for the enchiladas are recommended, although kidney beans and a bit of creme freche can do wonders.

Sweet Potato Quesadillas with Lemon and Cilantro

This is a wonderful little recipe, a subtle, but delicious taste. Prepared in a pan, the tortillas make for a wonderful crispy meal. The melted cheese will hang in strings from your plate.

I especially recommend adding a little avocado. It adds to the subtle varieties of tastes.

What you'll need for 5 quesadillas:

• 3 pounds of grated cheese of your liking. Cheddar works like a charm.
• 3 sweet potatoes
• 1 avocado
• 10 tortillas
• Juice from 1 lemon or lime
• Healthy amount of cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel and steam the sweet potatoes until they are soft.

2. Squeeze the lemon, chop the cilantro, put aside.

3. Add a little oil to the pan, add a tortilla.

4. Add cheese. Then, add chunks of sweet potato, generously top with lemon juice and chopped cilantro.

5. Add a little more cheese, top off with the second tortilla.

6. Flip when the underside turns slightly brown and crisp.

7. Cut into 4 equal parts and prepare on a plate. Garnish.

Beet('s your) Soup

Hello there folks,

It has been a while. 4 months and 2 days to be exact. I was in university.

Also, while you're here already, there's no link to my website on here. So here it is.

I'm excited for another season of Dangermann's kitchen, and I hope you are, too. The holidays are almost here, I'm finishing off exams at the moment and am just about ready to enter the food blog world once more, and prepare recipes for you, so you don't have to (do it wrong when you try it).

It is strange writing on a blog, it's kind of like being on a phone, without knowing who you are talking to and not hearing them either.

So here it is, it's your mother's favourite soup!

What you'll need:

some oil for frying

2 onions

2 cloves of garlic

6 beets

3 mid-size potatoes

3 1/2 cups of vegetable or beef stock

And guess what, that's it folks. When I made this soup, I was amazed to discover that the taste of the beets did not require any additional salt and pepper. Simply delicious.

These amounts make quite a few portions, so if you are a student, with a tupperware tendency, I recommend inviting your friends and showing off to them (your mom would love this, too).

It is very quick to prepare. The only downside is the fact that absolutely everything near you and the beets will turn a nice radioactive red wine red.

1. Scrub the beetroot. I had to google to find out what this means. I simply peeled them and that worked just fine. Chop them up to 1 inch thick cubes.

2. Prepare potatoes in the same way as above.

3. Fry chopped onions in a large pot with some oil. Add garlic later.

4. Fry for a minute, add potatoes and beets, and fry for another minute.

5. Add stock, and stand back for some steam action.

6. Cook for 30-35 minutes, until beets are soft.

7. Food process it with a magic stick (as we say in Germany) or dump in a food processor to make a nice baby-food-paste-like consistency.

Enjoy. You may season with salt and pepper, but I didn't have to.

Avocado Soup

Do you have ripe, soft avocados in the fridge, and don't feel like guacamole? Then this recipe is for you. It is very quick to prepare and easy to cook.

The main ingredient besides avocado is milk. It tastes great (some times even better) with soy milk. If you would like it a little creamier, you could add something heavier, like a bit of creme freche.

The vegetables are not a must, but add some nice texture to the soup.

What you need:

• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 cups of milk
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of cumin

Optional (but recommended):

• Fresh basil, oregano
• More cumin
• 2/3 cup of zucchini
• 2/3 cup of chopped green bell peppers
• Fresh chives

1. Mash avocados and mix with the milk in a bowl.

2. Heat in saucepan, and add the rest of the ingredients.

Vegan: Blueberry Muffins

Blueberries are in season and turns out Quebec has their own wonderful blueberry fields, which means the blueberries are amazing, even when bought in the local supermarket.

The vital ingredient is lemon zest. The lemon zest adds that hint of lemon after the sweet sourness of the blueberries. I added plenty of blueberries. So many that my landlady noted, the dough was just there to hold together the blueberries.

Since it's vegan week, I replaced the eggs and milk with soy milk and a bit of cornstarch.

What you need (adapted from egglesscooking.com):

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• Zest of two lemons
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of vanilla flavoured soy milk
• 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups of blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Combine dry ingredients, and stir in the rest. Add blueberries at the end. If you squish them now, they won't explode in your oven like they did in mine.

3. Oil muffin rack. We don't want to use butter now do we? Of course you can also use paper or silicon muffin cups. The blueberries can get a little sticky on the sides.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Poke to see if it cooked all the way through. Wait for intoxicating lemon blueberry muffin smell.