Barefoot Bloggers: Double Feature
I have two Ina Garten recipes to share today.
First is Curried Couscous which was chosen as the first June recipe for the Barefoot Bloggers by Ellyn of Recipe Collector and Tester. I wasn’t sure I’d like this recipe going in because I’m not 100% fond of curry all the time, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised.
This was an easy recipe to make and it only took a few minutes. I changed some ingredients to match what I had on hand and it turned out great, I think this is a very adaptable recipe. If you don’t like an ingredient, leave it out or replace it with something else you do like. I used heavy cream in place of plain yogurt and chives in place of scallions. I honestly thought of using Key Lime Pie yogurt when I realized I was out of plain, but the heavy cream was expiring first so I went with that. I’ve mentioned before that I avoid going to the store like it’s the plague, right?
The curry was not overwhelming at all. It was just the right balance of spices. There were a lot of different ingredients going into this but all of them stood out on their own. I loved the sweetness from the raisins, the flavors from the curry and onions, and the crunch from the carrots all against the backdrop of the couscous which is quickly becoming one of my favorite things to center a dish around. This dish is perfect as a side or would work as a meal.
I probably wouldn’t have ever made this own my own so thank you Ellyn for choosing it.
The Magnificent Ina Garten’s Curried Couscous
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups couscous
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup small-diced carrots
1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins
1/4 cup blanched, sliced almonds
2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
1/4 cup small-diced red onion
Click here for directions
And now for the second show…
Eva of I’m Boring (I can’t help it, I love the name of her blog…she’s definitely NOT boring though!) chose these Outrageous Brownies that I ending up missing back in May. I had never made Ina’s brownies before although I’ve heard lots about them. I’d say they are one of her most well known recipes as they are everywhere on the internet, have tons of ratings on foodnetwork.com and I’ve seen them compared against other brownie recipes a lot when people try out new ones. Now, these are not for the faint of heart. She doesn’t call them “outrageous” for nothing. They were super chocolately and I could only handle a small piece at a time or I was overloaded. I don’t like nuts in baked goods so I left out the walnuts, everything else I followed exactly except the baking pan. A few years ago, my good friend Lisa gave me a Longaberger Grandma Bonnie’s Pie Plate for my birthday filled with homemade brownies. I’ve baked brownies in it ever since – more than I’ve baked pies.
Well, I was a little late on the Outrageous Brownie train but I have finally arrived! It was a sweet ride.
Thanks to Eva for pushing me to test this recipe out. I see a lot of workouts with my Cindy Crawford tapes in the near future trying to work off all those delicious calories. Yes, I said Cindy Crawford workout tapes. Circa 1992 & ’93 and still going strong, baby!
The Fabulous Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies
Ingredients
1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (1 cup for batter and 1/4 cup in the chips and nuts)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups diced walnut pieces
Click here for directions
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chipster-Topped Brownies
Both brownies and chocolate chip cookies would likely make an appearance on most people’s favorite sweets list. I know both show up on mine. So why not put them together and make Dorie Greenspan’s Chipster-Topped Brownies? This week for Tuesdays with Dorie we got to do exactly that.
The bottom layer is a bittersweet brownie.
The top layer is a chocolate chip cookie.
The end result is pure goodness.
This was a pretty painless recipe, there isn’t too much to say about it. I didn’t have any problems except having to wash a mixing bowl twice. I halved the recipe and baked in an 8×8 pan for about 40 minutes. The only changes I made were I left out the walnuts and used all bittersweet chocolate in the brownies as somehow Unsweetened Chocolate was nowhere to be found in my jammed packed pantry. I’m sure it’s in there… somewhere!
Chipster-topped brownies reminded me of something my Mom would’ve packed in my lunchbox growing up. It has an “on the go” type feel to it – something you could wrap in plastic wrap and enjoy away from home. Or bake for a bake sale. This type of thought was probably due to the fact that I preferred them at room temp instead of warm. Maybe vanilla ice cream would have changed my mind on the warm ones, though. Also, leaving out the nuts seemed to take away some of the crunch these would have had, the chocolate chips didn’t really come through as much of a textural difference. We did really like these though, the pan of brownies kept getting smaller and smaller as the day progressed.
Thanks to Beth of Supplicious for choosing Chipster-topped Brownies for the May 26th, 2009 week of Tuesdays with Dorie. Please stop by Supplicious for the recipe here or check out Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan on pages 94 and 95. Next week, Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures chose Cinnamon Squares on pages 210 and 211. See you next Tuesday!
French Chocolate Brownies – TWD
The selection for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was French Chocolate Brownies chosen by Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook.
I like my brownies plain. But I was intrigued when I read over this recipe and saw it called for Flambéed Rum Raisins. That’s different. Being the purist that I am, I’ve never had a raisin in a brownie… let alone a Flambéed Rum Raisin. Sounded kind of fancy like. I was curious to see if I would hate this addition, but honestly, I could barely even tell they were in there. Every once in a while I would hit one but the amount of raisins actually seemed pretty conservative to me.
These took FOREVER to get done. But, that’s directly related to the fact that I somehow turned my oven off in the middle of baking. Ooops. I kept wondering what was going on when I was checking them every few minutes and they kept looking the same kind of not done. After a while of the checking, the middle of the pan looked like it had been stabbed to death. 
Once I figured out what I did and got the oven back to 300, things were good to go.
I liked these a lot. Raisins and all.
This is my cat “D” who also seemed to give his approval on this recipe. I had one brownie sitting on a plate so I could take pictures. I turned my back for a few seconds and when I looked back, he was already eating the corner off of it. I was not very happy with him. Especially since the corners are my favorite.
Stop by here to check out the French Chocolate Brownies posted by other TWD members.
Next week’s TWD selection is La Palette’s Strawberry Tart chosen by Marie of A Year From Oak Cottage. I can’t wait to try this one, I’ve been hoping someone would pick it. See you Tuesday!
