This was one of the best dinners I have had in forever! At first I wasn’t too sure about it…main reason being that I have NEVER made Indian food that turned out good. I have tried it a few times with horrible results. And the last time I made something with Chicken and Curry in the title it was tossed down the kitchen sink. So when I told Jorge I was making something called Green Chicken Curry…to say the least, he was not thrilled. But when he tired it, he really changed his tune! This was delicious and fresh….and ass friendly! Only 260 calories per serving (and the recipe makes 4 servings total). I changed the recipe to include chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs (for less fat/calories), a little less water, a little cayenne pepper for heat….and instead of regular yogurt, I used Chobani Greek Yogurt. I think these changes were great, especially the cayenne for the heat! And I served it with the delicious homemade Naan! Perfect dinner! Make it immediately!
Green Chicken Curry
Printable Recipe
You will need:
1 bunch cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped, 1 1/2 cups
1 bunch fresh mint, leaves, coarsely chopped, 1 1/2 cups
1 red onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic
1 1/2-inch piece ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup water, plus 1 1/4 cups
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (a little less then a pound)
1/2 teaspoon malt vinegar
1/4 cup Chobani Greek plain fat free yogurt
Cooked basmati rice or warm naan bread, for serving
Add the cilantro, mint, red onion, garlic, ginger, and salt, and pepper, to taste, to a food processor or blender. Puree on high until smooth. With the processor running, add about 1/4 cup water, and blend until the mixture is the consistency of a thick paste, a.k.a. “masala”. Set aside.
In a large pot or deep skillet heat the olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the shallot and cook, stirring often, until golden brown.
Add the spices and cook for 30 seconds. Pour the masala mixture into skillet and cook, stirring often until it deepens in color and aroma. You’ll know it’s ready when it looks shiny, little droplets of oil will appear on the surface, and the masala will hold together as a cohesive mass.
Add the chicken, coating every piece in the masala and stirring often. Continue to cook for 5 minutes, so that the masala really adheres to the chicken. Add about 1 1/4 cups water, just enough to cover the chicken, and the vinegar. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is tender and sauce has thickened slightly, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat and stir in the yogurt. Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed. Transfer the mixture to a serving dish and serve over rice or with warm naan bread.
Adapted from: Aarti Sequeria
And guess what?! Chobani Greek Yogurt wants to give you two amazing things! One being something I doubt you are as excited about as me…but it’s an interview with me! And a fun interview at that! Not just questions about my blog…but funny questions! They even asked me what I would name myself if I got to pick my own name! Best interview I have ever done!
And they are giving one of you…a case of Chobani Greek Yogurt! You will get 4 of each of the above flavors: Blueberry, Strawberry, and Peach! How awesome is that?
The giveaway will go from today, Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 till Monday, September 6th, 2010. And the following Tuesday (September 7th) I will announce the winner. You have 3 ways to enter:
1. Leave a comment telling me what you would do with your Chobani Greek Yogurt!
2. Become a fan of The Novice Chef Blog on Facebook or of Chobani on Facebook or both!
3. Tweet “I want to win a 12 pack of @Chobani Greek Yogurt from @TheNoviceChef http://tinyurl.com/2bt2opp“
For each of the entries, you must leave a separate comment or it will be considered one entry.
Good Luck!
P.S. I am getting nothing in return from this and it is fully sponsored by Chobani! Chobani contacted me to do an interview with them and then asked if I would also like to do a giveaway when I posted a link to the interview! They in no way said I had to use their products in a recipe or even ask me to link back to them! They truly are an amazing company with a great product! And I have been incredibly impressed by them each and every time we have chatted!
Screw dogs! Chocolate and flowers is a girl’s best friend! Whether it be a bad day, your “special” time, or for your birthday…chocolate should always be on the menu! When it came time for my friend Samarie’s birthday I was contemplating cupcake flavors. And when I couldn’t decided…I ended up picking three. One being Vanilla for any unadventurous losers. One was a fun, spicy flavor that I will be posting later this week. And the last cupcake flavor were these delicious Espresso Chocolate Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream.
I think between the friends, the champagne, the tiara (because every girl should wear a tiara), and the cupcakes she enjoyed her birthday! I was really glad that I made extra cupcakes because people asked the restaurant for to go boxes to take the leftovers home with them! So these must have been a winner! I know Jorge loved them since he ate 4 of them in 24 hours!
Espresso Chocolate Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream
Printable Recipe
You will need:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup self rising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp instant espresso powder
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
2 tbsp milk
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar in your stand mixer. Beat in the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa, and instant espresso and mix well. Then add flour mixture, alternating with milk, until you have a smooth batter.
Divide the batter into a 12-cup muffin pan prepared with paper liners. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 14-18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. And frost as desired.
Adapted from: How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
 (To make chocolate decorations, just melt chocolate in a ziplock in the microwave. Cut off a tiny corner and pipe onto parchment paper and allow to cool. And pop off and onto a cupcake!)
For the Espresso Buttercream:
You will need:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 to 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder, mixed in 2 tablespoons water
Beat butter on medium high, for 3 minutes. Slowly add in 2 cups powdered sugar, about a half a cup at a time. Once it is fully incorporated, carefully add the vanilla extract and espresso powder/water mixture.
At this point check the consistency of the buttercream. You should be able to lift the beaters and have the buttercream hold its shape. If it is too loose, add more powdered sugar, again 1/2 cup at a time. Pipe onto the top of cooled cupcakes as desired.
Source: The Novice Chef Blog original
Naan is like the Indian version of pita….except it is WAY better! For starters, I can make it from start to finish in under an hour and a half. I made a batch of this for dinner, for Jorge and I, and when I sat down with the Naan at the table I felt like Carrie when she was in Paris.
(By the way, I NEED this dress. And while we are speaking of NEEDing clothing I also MUST HAVE these shoes.)
I had all this deliciousness in front of me and I had one big dog Jorge eyeballing my beautiful, warm, delicious Naan. This Naan was absolutely fabulous with the Green Chicken Curry I served it with (which I will be sharing on Wednesday). This made for a perfect Saturday night dinner and it really felt like I was bringing a little of India into my kitchen! As for the recipe, if you are one of the people who change their mind about making a recipe because it calls for yeast…please don’t do that with this one! It truly is incredibly easy! I think this may actually be the easiest yeast recipe I have ever made. Give it a try and I promise you will be throwing this into your weekly meal plans!
Naan
Printable Recipe
You will need:
1/2 cup warm water
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup Chobani Greek fat free plain yogurt
1 large egg
olive oil for cooking (you can use butter if you prefer)
In a large bowl, stir together the water, yeast and sugar and let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy.
Stir in the flour, salt, oil, yogurt and egg and stir, then knead until you have a soft, pliable dough. Cover with a tea towel and let rise until doubled in size; about an hour.
Divide the dough into 6-8 pieces and on a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece into a thin circle or oval.
Cook each naan in a nice hot skillet drizzled with oil (just a teeny tiny bit–you’re not frying it) until blistered and cooked, flipping as necessary. (When the surface has big blisters and is golden on the bottom, flip it over and cook until golden on the other side.
Makes about 8 naan.
Adapted from: Tahera Rawji as seen on The Little Red House
I have been promising to update my About Me (now under Meet Jessica/Info) and do a Frequently Asked Question section for quite some time! And I FINALLY did it! Below you will find the FAQ, but please click on the Meet Jessica/Info section to check it out as well!
When did you start your blog? December 2008
Did you go to culinary school? No, I am self taught…which I can prove by all the burns on my arms!
What kind of camera do you use? When I first started I used an iPhone for my photos (yup, I know). Then I graduated to a Nikon Coolpix point and shoot. And finally I made the jump to an amazing Nikon D80 DSLR.
Can you give me some photography tips? Natural light! Natural light! NATURAL LIGHT! I cannot stress that enough. And plating goes a long way. Make it look pretty! People like pretty food, it’s just a fact.
How do you get your cupcake swirls to look like that? Well for starters I use the Closed Star Tip in the 14 inch pastry bag from Bake It Pretty. It is a huge tip and takes a while to get used to (that’s what she said—I’m sorry but I REALLY couldn’t let that one pass me by) but if you practice enough you will get the hang of it!
Do you eat everything you make? YES! Of course! How else would I recommend it to you? Now that doesn’t mean I eat ALL of the cupcakes, cookies, or pot pies! Just means that I had one and gave the rest away! Unless it is from the Ass Friendly category…then I think that just automatically means I get to eat all of it.
What is your favorite recipe off your blog? 100 Grand Cupcakes and the “Famous” Salsa Verde Sour Cream Enchiladas
What would you recommend for a party? I recommend all the recipes on my blog! If they are on here it is because we liked them! Also I always tell you exactly what I thought about the recipe in my blog post.
What can I make with _______? If you are looking for a specific ingredient to use, in the menu bar at the top there is a search feature. If you type in what you are looking to use and hit search…it will find all the posts that have that ingredient used in them!
What does it mean when it says “A Novice Chef Blog Original”? It means that that recipe has never been published before and is my very own recipe.
Can I post one of your recipes on my blog/website? Yes! Please just include me as the source with a link back to the blog post!
Can I use one of your pictures? Please contact me at Jessica@thenovicechefblog.com concerning any use of photos.
Do you write your blog posts at 3 am all the time? No that is just when they show up in your email. If you are subscribed to my blog via email, it sends the updates out between the hours of 3 and 6 am.
Do you sell cupcakes/baked goods? It depends. If you have something specific in mind please contact me through email.
Now for the nosy non blog related people’s questions:
When did you get married? October 2008
How old are you? In my early twenties. The cradle robber Jorge is in his late twenties.
Where do you live? Tampa, Florida
What color is your hair, because it looks different every time? I tend to change my hair color like most people change shoes. Currently it is blonde.
How many animals DO you actually have? Yes I know I am a zoo keeper at this point. We currently have 3 cats, Lil’ Bit (my mother named her so don’t make that face at me), Benny, and Bobbi. We also have a dog, Brody.
What kind of dog is Brody? Brody is a cocker spaniel. Yes, I know he does not look like one, but I promise he is! He is 30 lbs, 3 years old, and enjoys playing golf (no, I am not kidding).
A little note before this post:
Make sure and go check out my interview by the amazing Sarah from Taste Of Home magazine!
Ok so let me explain. I know I have a problem. A cupcake problem. But you know you love them as much as me! And while I would love to make a beautiful layered cake…unless I am having a ton of people over it just doesn’t make sense. Cupcake recipes are easily scaled down…while if you scale down a layered cake you have a small cake…which just is not as pretty as a big one. Then the other problem…slices of cake are SO much harder to send home with other people! Cupcakes are super easy to send home with guests! I buy clear throw away plastic cups and they are perfect to toss a cupcake into. Literally just drop the cupcake in and it will travel safely to their house in the cup holder. Then when they are ready for their cupcake, using kitchen scissors, cut that puppy outta there! And the biggest reason I make cupcakes instead of cake…you can’t bake a beautiful cake and have some and then send it over to someone’s house or into work with your Mom. Because there would be a glaringly obvious piece of cake missing. No this way, I can have eleven one and no one will be the wiser.
These particular cupcakes were great! I used my amazing cupcake freezing abilities and froze the leftover chocolate cupcake batter from the 100 Grand Cupcakes. So when it was time to make these cupcakes, I just took out the batter! My Mom would tell you these are not cupcakes. Because they don’t have frosting. To her, frosting is the best part of cake or cupcakes….or anything else for that matter. But to me, it is all about the cake (except for here and here, because let’s face it, those two icings are phenomenal). But don’t get too upset, and start thinking that without icing you are going to feel like you are missing something. Because inside of each cupcake is a healthy dose of Nutella! and on top sits a delicious Ferrero Rocher. These cupcakes were definitely tasty….and are a perfect cupcake for the frosting challenged (you know who you are).
Like I said these cupcakes were tasty, but you will never guess who ate 3 in less then 2 minutes…
Yes. That’s right. My 30 pound dog ate 3 extremely chocolate-y, filled with Nutella, and topped with a Ferrero Rocher cupcakes. There were 3 cupcakes remaining on the table as I helped a friend out to her car. It was pouring raining, so I can guarantee that it took me no longer then 2 minutes. When my sister and I returned inside we found the 3 cupcakes we were planning on eating…Gone. No trace. No crumbs. No wrappers. Nothing. My sister, Haley, then said, “Oh man! Did Laura take all the cupcakes?!” And I said no…but I bet if you look around the corner, Brody is hiding in his corner where he thinks I can’t see him. She looks. And yes, he is laying here. On his back, legs straight up in the air, passed out.
And now you probably are thinking, he must have gotten so sick! Did you rush him to the vet? Did he die?! Well, no. I did not take him to the vet. I didn’t even worry about him. You see….Brody has an obsession with chocolate. When he was a puppy he ate an entire box of Russel Stover Valentines day chocolate, with no consequences other then chocolate on his white mouth. And about a year ago he ate an entire package of Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans from Starbucks. Again with no consequences. Each time I have worried…but this time I thought oh well. And the next morning I wake up…go downstairs…make some breakfast for Haley (my sister)…and guess where Brody is. You would think Brody would be suffering from a chocolate tummy ache…or at least sleeping off his chocolate hangover. But no, there he was, giving me his big puppy dog eyes begging for some chocolate chip pancakes.
And then the following week I was heading to my Mom’s with Brody and I had made some cupcakes for that night. So we all loaded up into the car and check out these iPhone pictures (so sorry for bad quality) I got on our way there. Brody didn’t want me to post these photos because it proves how obsessed he is with cupcakes (even more so then his Mama)…he also was upset that I didn’t fix his mohawk that day and so he doesn’t look like his idol, Puck from Glee.
Can I please have a cupcake? They smell so good! I promise the chocolate in it won’t kill me!
GIVE ME A CUPCAKE NOW, Pretty Please? I am not going to say please again!
He alternated between these two positions for the entire 30 minute car ride….and whenever he thought I might have forgotten him he would let out a nice loud whimper. Does anyone else have a dog that loves cupcakes and chocolate? Or did I really find my perfect doggie soul mate?
So if you don’t believe me, believe him. These cupcakes were delicious! Not as delicious as the 100 Grand Cupcakes…but then again I don’t think anything will ever top those.
Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes
Printable Recipes
You will need:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Nutella
30 Ferrero Rochers
Heat oven to 350°F.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).
Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups.Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Once cooled, cut out a small piece from the center and fill with Nutella. Top with a Ferrero Rocher candy and slightly press candy into Nutella to ensure it stays on top. Store at room temperature.
Makes 30 cupcakes
Adapted from: Hersheys
Ferrero Rocher idea from Let’s Dish
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