[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_73dGSd7o&hl=en&fs=1]]
In case you missed it, I was on The Wendy Williams Show on Tuesday, September 28th to compete in a Top Chef: Just Desserts segment with my NYC Nom Nom Double Trouble Peanut Butter Cup. Two other audience members and I put our desserts up against each other to be judged by Wendy Williams, Gail Simmons, and Johnny Iuzzini. It was a blast!
29 SepTuity Fruity Chicken and Corn Fritters
1 SepIt is no secret that I love fruit paired with chicken/turkey/pork/scallops. We happened to have a lot of fruit that needed to be used, so we made up a Tuity Fruity Chicken and paired it with a great Weight Watchers recipe for corn fritters.
We cut up some plums, peaches, and sections of clementines and combined it with some Diet Sunkist, garlic, apricot preserves, salt, and pepper.
I didn’t have a broiler pan, so I tried to put a baker’s rack upside down… It actually didn’t work really, however, it was just fine. Then… we broiled. That’s it!
As for the corn fritters, it was a bit more complex… but ENTIRELY worth it! The directions were to beat egg whites until they were stiff but not glossy. Meh?
As someone that has made many a meringue, I wasn’t sure I had ever seen eggs glossy… so I just went until it peaked.
Then you mix together corn, tomatoes (we substituted these for the peppers), scallions, salt, pepper, and flour. Then you fold in the egg whites.
Then after you spray down a pan, you scoop a dollop of the mixture onto a heated pan. I was concerned that they wouldn’t stick together, but oh…
They did.
And they were amazing!
And the fruity chicken was pretty damn good, too.
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RECIPES
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Fruity Chicken (5 points for 1 1/4 pound chicken breast)
Ingredients:
· 1 tsp olive oil
· 1 medium garlic clove(s), minced
· 1/8 tsp table salt
· 1/8 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
· 1/2 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
· 2 medium peach(es), sliced
· 1 cup(s) Sunkist Diet Orange Soda
· 1 small plum(s)
· 2 small clementine
· 2 Tbsp Polaner Sugar Free Apricot
Directions:
1. In a shallow bowl, mix the orange soda, preserves, oil, garlic, salt and pepper; set aside 1/4 cup of the marinade for basting.
2. Add the chicken and peaches; refrigerate, covered at least 1 hour.
3. Preheat the broiler; spray rack with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer the chicken and peaches to the rack.
4. Broil 6 inches from heat until cooked through and peaches begin to brown, basting with reserved marinade,
5. 7-8 minutes on each side (ours were thick, so it took longer)
6. Cool slightly; spoon fruit over chicken
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Corn Fritters (3 points for a quarter of the recipe)
Ingredients
· 2 large egg(s), separated (keep egg whites only)
· 4 medium corn on the cob, kernels removed with a knife*
· 1 medium sweet red pepper(s), diced the size of corn kernels
· 1/3 cup(s) scallion(s), diced
· 1/2 tsp table salt, or more to taste
· 1/4 tsp black pepper, or more to taste
· 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
· 2 spray(s) cooking spray, butter-flavored
Directions
- In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not glossy; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, lightly beat egg yolks. Add corn, red pepper (or tomatoes), scallions, salt, black pepper and flour; thoroughly combine and then fold in egg whites.
- Coat skillet with cooking spray and warm over high heat; when skillet is hot, reduce heat to medium.
- Spoon a heaping tablespoon of batter onto skillet to make each fritter. (Do not press fritters down with your spatula since they are meant to be fluffy.)
- Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes; carefully flip and cook until lightly browned and cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes more.
- Remove cooked fritters to a serving plate and cover to keep warm. Repeat until all batter is used and then serve immediately. Yields about 4 fritters per serving.
*Frozen corn can be used instead. Thoroughly thaw before using.
Chocolate Salty Balls
30 AugI had read about cake balls in just about every food blog I touched for a few months, so when a co-worker’s birthday came up, I had to try to make them.
The idea is that you bake a regular cake, break it up and combine it with cake frosting so it becomes a fudgy texture, roll it into balls, then dip it in melted chocolate and let them harden. What could be bad about that? I actually chose to do brownies and combined it with cream cheese frosting. Here are the rolled balls:
I had read that the dipping process could be hard as the balls are heavy and fall off a toothpick, so upon exploring candy dipping advice, I saw an ingenious idea.
It’s simply a plastic fork with the center two tines removed. Easy peasy! I made sure the balls were big enough to sit on the outer tines and then you just dip and scoop them out.
One of my favorite things with chocolate recently is to add some sea salt. (One of my favorite all-time recipes is chocolate covered toffee with salt).
I know some people don’t love salt with chocolate, so I made some sweet versions. The salted ones were GONE before the sweet ones were even halfway eaten.
But they made for such a fun birthday treat!
Next time I really want to try red velvet cake + cream cheese or banana cake + vanilla frosting.
The recipe is really simple, but if you need some tips, here are two links:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/cake-balls/Detail.aspx
and
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/how-to-make-cake-pops-078637 (they feature the cuter version of putting them on lollipop sticks!)