Hobbit Diet Day 1: Braised Chicken with Baby Artichoke

I'm currently working on a food challenge of eating like a Hobbit for 30 days. That's seven meals a day! If there's any outstanding recipes I made during this crazy journey, I will share with you here. 

When I scheduled a test kitchen day at work, I didn't think about it being the first day of the Hobbit Diet. Not that it would change anything but it was interesting for me to try to log what I just made into MyFitnessPal app.

What was I going to test? Braised Chicken with Baby Artichokes, originally from Williams-Sonoma blog. 

Fortunately, someone else made a similar recipe--actually, one of the recipes I considered testing--and added the calorie counts to the database. Surprisingly, this recipe is quite a healthy one at 280 calories per serving (if serving 6).

My lab rats...I meant, coworkers...were VERY happy with the results. The sauce. Oh my god the sauce! It's just awesome.

Easy one pot supper, I tell you!

I made it again for on Day 17 at home so Brandon could try Baby Artichokes. I served it with leftover rotini pasta, and that was a great idea. Brandon like the preparation but did not care for the artichokes...or the tomatoes (of course). That is fine because now I have all the leftover to myself.

For the next few days, I ate the leftover tossed in with the pasta. I think I like that even better than the chicken by itself.

Starfruit Upside Down Cake with Cardamom Rum Glaze

Disclosure: At press time, I am a contracted employee of Frieda's Specialty Produce. Some products are given to me as samples, some are leftover from a photo shoot, and some I purchase from an employee sale for personal use.  My opinion on this blog whether it's about Frieda's products or anything else are all my own and does not reflect that of my employer's. 

I've known Starfruit my entire life, having grown up in Thailand. I've seen them around all the time. But frankly, I don't recall having eaten any.  At least not in the past 20 years.  I got to taste it for the first time in recent memory a couple of weeks ago as we tried in vain to make a Vine for Star Wars Day.

We're now producing the new Specialty Produce 101 YouTube video for Starfruit and I was tasked to see if we can make something different with them outside of blending them into a smoothie or adding them into a fruit salad.

To be honest, there are not a lot of recipes out there for Starfruit that look appetizing or are simple. But then I read that Starfruit can be used instead of pineapples in some recipes.  And it seems I've stumbled on a winner on Epicurious.

The recipe calls for ground cardamom and comes with a warning that many people feel that 3 teaspoons of ground cardamom are too overpowering.  I already have cardamom PODS--green AND black!--in my pantry from my faux-Indian cooking, but I thought I probably should pick up a thing of ground cardamom anyway.  Then I saw the whopping $13 price tag. Never mind!

There has got to be a way around this!  Suddenly, I remembered my cardamom-infused bourbon I made a while ago for a cocktail.  So I did just that with the rum needed for the recipe.

The result is just a hint of cardamom that lets a little bit of pineapple shine through, a warmth that compliments the refreshing taste of the cooked Starfruit, and something just a tad savory to cut through the chewy sweet caramel.

Vacation on plate, I tell you.

Starfruit Upside Down Cake with Cardamom Rum Glaze
Adapted from Epicurious Pineapple Upside Down Cake

You'll need a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet for this.

Cardamom-infused Rum

Crush 3 cardamom pods in a small bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of rum. Let stand for at least 30 minutes. Discard the pods and seeds.

Topping

1 large Starfruit or 2 small ones
3/4 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

Thoroughly wash Starfruit and slice it crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Melt butter in a cast-iron skillet. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat until sugar is melted and the mixture is sticky, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Arrange Starfruit on top of sugar mixture.  Set aside.

Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon cardamom-infused rum (recipe above)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice*
2 tablespoon cardamom-infused rum for sprinkling

*I used the juice from in a can of pineapple rings in pineapple JUICE--NOT the syrup!  Brandon loves pineapples so I just poured out my 1/2 cup of juice, and dump the rest of the content into a container for him to eat later. :)

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Sift together flour, making powder, and salt. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then gradually add sugar, and eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of cardamom-infused rum. Add half of flour mixture and beat just until blended. Beat in pineapple juice, then add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended. (Batter may appear slightly curdled.)

Spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly. Bake until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cake stand in skillet 5 minutes. Put a plate over skillet and invert cake onto plate. Replace any fruit stuck to bottom of skillet. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of cardamom-infused rum over cake and cool on plate on a rack.

Serve cake just warm or at room temperature.

I think next week I might repeat this recipe but using Zululand Queen Baby Pineapples instead!

I'm with Frieda

I now work for Frieda's Specialty Produce and loving it. It's not permanent yet, but I'm telling you guys anyway for full disclosure.

This job is a foodie's dream comes true. I get to hear about exciting fruits and vegetables every day, and once in a while I get to take something home to play with.  Employee sales also yield a bounty of great loot and there is always something new to discover.

For example, I was sent home with some Kale Sprouts, a hybrid of Red Russian Kale and Brussels Sprouts. Essentially, combining Brandon's favorite new vegetable and my all time favorite vegetable into one!  I grabbed a recipe suggestion for Brussels Sprouts from Girl + Fire Paulette and cooked up these little purple-tinted beauties. A rough "add this and that for that much" recipe is below.

I mentioned the employee sale a minute ago.  The staff in the warehouse loves me now because I'm an easy target. With a little nudge, I'd buy the farm!

My very first order for the sale, I didn't order correctly so there was no produce set out for me to pick up. The guy in charge just had me take a peek at all that was still available.  I intended to only buy Baby Potatoes and Lady Apples. I walked out with Lady Apples, Meyer Lemons, Zululand Baby Pineapples, and Heirloom Tomatoes!  The following week, I didn't have exact change, so the same guy showed me some Rambutans, and instead of trying make some change, I ended up ordering more stuff.

My safety jacket for the warehouse might as well just say, "SUCKER" on the back! LOL

Needless to say, I went ahead and canceled my Tanaka Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription. I really did love that program and it was a tough one to let go of. As I told you guys, we eventually reduced our subscription about a box a month and we still can't keep up.  There are only two people in this household, y'all, and one of them can be a picky eater at times. The produce just kept piling up.

Going forward, Brandon and I can still have a culinary adventure whenever we feel like it, and we'll supplement the rest with the Farmer's Market on Sundays in Long Beach. That's good too because I really miss going to the market.

Anyways. My new cooking adventures will be a very interesting one indeed. I hope you'll come along!

Now, the "recipe" for a very addictive Kale Sprouts dish.

Pan-roasted Kale Sprouts with Bacon and Brown Sugar

This recipe is not measured in anyway. Be brave and trust your judgement! :)

Ingredients:

• About 3-4 oz. of Kale Sprouts. You can get them in bulk at some places and prepackaged in the other. You can just use Brussels Sprouts for this.
• 4 strips of bacon
• A splash of water or chicken broth
• 1 clove of garlic, minced. (Just press it through a garlic press.)
• A pat of butter
• A generous pinch of brown sugar - about a tablespoon
• Salt and pepper to taste

First, cook up your bacon in a skillet until crispy. Save about a tablespoon of bacon dripping. (Some would cook whole slices then crumble them later. I like to chop mine up first and fry up the bits.)

While the bacon is cooking, prep the Kale Sprouts. Give it a wash then trim of the bottom like you'd do with Brussels Sprouts. Halve the larger ones. Leave the little ones whole.

Add Kale Sprouts to the hot bacon dripping, season lightly with salt (bacon is already salty!).  Saute for a few minutes until the Sprouts wilt a little.

[Now, if you're doing this with Brussels Sprouts, you cook until they're nice and brown.]

Add a splash of water/broth to de-glaze the pan. Add garlic.  Once it comes to bubbling/sizzling, let reduce a bit, [if using Brussels Sprouts, until they're fork tender]. Add the pat of butter, brown sugar, and the bacon. Toss to coat.  Season to taste.

Voila! (Sorry. We were so hungry I didn't stop to plate it for a photo!)