Skip to main content

Maple

Mirin Stout Glazed Roast Chicken with Maple Sweet Potatoes topped with Caramelized Shallots and Balsamic Glaze

 

Mirin Stout Glazed Roast Chicken with Maple Sweet Potatoes topped with Caramelized Shallots and Balsamic Glaze

When I first got into food blogging I had this idea that I would just take pictures of my dinner and post the recipe online. Somewhere between installing Google Analytics and starting an LLC, I realized that I was cooking in order to develop content rather than just posting what I was eating.

I guess that’s inevitable when I started to earn an income and see my website as a small business. I also realized that although I often stray from who I am as a cook in order to cultivate blog hits, I love cooking, I love food and I got in this business because of those things. When the recipes you love get ignored and the ones you don’t have strong feelings about go viral, it’s hard not to just continue to post those Pandering to the Masses recipes that go viral, but I know that I am the most happy when I cook the food I want to cook and hope that you love it, too.

I loved the way this came out, even though I know it wont go viral. It’s how I like to eat, and how I like to spend my time in the kitchen, hope you don’t mind too much.

Mirin Stout Glazed Roast Chicken with Maple Sweet Potatoes topped with Caramelized Shallots and Balsamic Glaze

Mirin Stout Glazed Roast Chicken with Maple Sweet Potatoes topped with Caramelized Shallots and Balsamic Glaze

Ingredients
  

For the Brine:

  • 2 cups water
  • 3 tbs kosher salt
  • 12 ounces brown ale
  • 2 cups ice
  • 4 chicken leg quarters or 1 whole roasting chicken, cut into quarters

For the Glaze:

  • 1 cup stout
  • 2/3 cup mirin
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • 1 tbs cornstarch
  • 3 tbs honey

For the Sweet Potatoes:

  • 2 large shallots sliced (2/3 cup)
  • 2 tbs butter plus 4 tbs divided
  • 1 tbs oil
  • 3 large sweet potatoes peeled and sliced
  • 2 tbs real maple syrup
  • 2 tbs heavy cream
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • ¼ salt
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  • 3 tbs balsamic gaze

Instructions
 

  • In a pot over medium high heat, add the water and the salt. Stir until salt has dissolved, remove from heat, add the beer and ice. Stir until ice has dissolved and brine is at room temperature or below.
  • Add the chicken quarters to a large bowl. Pour the brine over the chicken, cover loosely with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 3 hours and up to 24 hours.
  • Preheat oven to 425F.
  • Add the stout, mirin, soy, chili powder, cornstarch and honey, whisk to combine. Add sauce pan to high heat, allow to boil until slightly reduced and thickened, about 5 minutes.
  • Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, place a wire rack over the foil lined baking sheet.
  • Remove chicken from brine, discard the brine. Rinse the chicken well and pat dry. Place chicken on the wire rack.
  • Brush liberally with the glaze.
  • Roast at 425F for 45 to 55 minutes, brush with glaze every 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven when the internal temperature reaches 175F.
  • While the chicken is cooking make the sweet potatoes. In a saucepan, melt the butter with the oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook over medium-low heat until caramelized, about 20 minutes.
  • Boil the potatoes in a pot of lightly salted water until fork tender, about 12-15 minutes. Drain, return sweet potatoes to the dry pot. Add 4 tbs butter, cream, maple syrup, salt, and nutmeg, mash with a potato masher until well combined and potatoes are well mashed, transfer to a serving dish. Top with caramelized shallots, chopped pecans and drizzle with balsamic glaze.

Notes

Balsamic glaze can be bought at the store, often by the balsamic vinegar, or you can make it by reducing 1 cup balsamic and 1 tbs white sugar or honey in a saucepan until reduced and thickened.

Mirin Stout Glazed Roast Chicken with Maple Sweet Potatoes topped with Caramelized Shallots and Balsamic Glaze

Maple Chipotle Chicken Wings

Maple Chipotle Chicken Wings2

I have to admit, I did think about adding blood orange juice to this. I have a thing for blood oranges. But, I refrained, I was afraid I’d lose all of you who aren’t as into those guys as I am.

But I did fall back on my love of chipotle. We all have these "go to" flavors, don’t we? Even though we want to broaden our culinary horizons, we seem to be drawn back to that same section of the pantry. That’s ok, isn’t it?

I’m a chipotle, smoked paprika, roasted garlic, fresh basil,  sriracha, kinda girl. I also love with burrata cheese, masa harina and almost bitterly dark chocolate.

Just once I’d like to walk into the kitchen and have Ted Allen hand me a "basket of mystery ingredients" just so that I can figure out how to use them in a delightful way without any of my usual culinary crutches.

But for now, here are some chicken wings, beautifully balances with sweet and heat.

Maple Chipotle Chicken Wings

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • 2 chipotle peppers plus tsp adobo
  • 2 lbs chicken wings
  • salt and pepper
  • ½ cup flour
  • ½ tsp brown sugar
  • pinch cayenne
  • Olive oil spray

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450.
  2. Add maple, balsamic and chipotle to a food processor, process until smooth and well combined. Set aside.
  3. Rinse the wings in cold water and pat dry, sprinkle with salt and pepper on all sides.
  4. In a large bowl add the flour, brown sugar, pinch cayenne. Toss the chicken wings in the flour until completely coated.
  5. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray with cooking spray.
  6. Add chicken to the baking sheet in an evenly spaced layer. Lightly spray with olive oil.
  7. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, brush with glaze, return to oven for 10 more minutes, turn over, brush with glaze. Repeat. After 30 minutes (3 rounds) turn the oven to 500 and cook chicken until cooked through, about 10 to 15 additional minutes. Remove from oven, brush with remaining glaze.

 

Maple Chipotle Chicken Wings

Sweet Potato Beer Biscuits With Maple Sage Butter

 

 

I didn’t grow up eating Sweet potatoes.

I never saw them on my Thanksgiving table or at Sunday dinner. They just didn’t exist in my world. Until one chilly afternoon in College when I stopped by the dorm room of a Souther friend of mine who had just pulled a Sweet potato, covered in butter and brown sugar out of the microwave. She was nuts. A Vegetable with sugar on it? I couldn’t get over how strange it was to enjoy a vegetable as if it was some kind of dessert. She offered me a bite, and my instinct to recoil was overtaken by my overwhelming curiosity. I was hooked.

I shocked at how much I love it. It was a comfort food, and it was a vegetable. Biscuits, made from scratch, are a bit the same. Although I didn’t grow up with anything other than a biscuit from a tube with a fear inducing opening method, those always seemed amazing to me. Another incredible comfort food.

And the beer isn’t just here for the novelty of it. Beer is a mild leavening agent, giving this biscuits a lighter, more tender texture. For this recipe, I like a Hefeweizen or a Pumpkin Ale.

Sweet Potato Beer Biscuits With Maple Sage Butter

Ingredients
  

For the Biscuits:

  • 1 large sweet potato
  • 2/3 cup beer
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tbs sugar
  • 1 stick butter cold, cut into small cubes
  • 1 tbs melted butter

For the Butter:

  • 3 tbs butter room temperature
  • 1 sage leaf minced
  • 1 tsp pure maple syrup

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 425.
  • Pierce the sweet potato all over. Microwave on high until soft, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to work with. Remove and discard skin, add sweet potato to a bowl (should be about 3/4 cup of sweet potato mash).
  • Add the beer to the sweet potatoes and using a potato masher, stir and mash until completely combined.
  • In a bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Mix to combine.
  • Add the butter cubes and using your fingers or a pastry blender, rub the butter into the flour until completely combined.
  • Add the sweet potato beer mixture and mix until just combined.
  • Form dough into a ball and place on a lightly floured surface. Form into a square, about 1 1/2 inches high, and about 1 foot long. Cut into square biscuits. Place on a baking sheet covered with a Silpat or parchment paper. Brush with melted butter.
  • Bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes.
  • In a small bowl, add the maple syrup ingredients and stir until combined.
  • Serve biscuits warm, with maple sage butter.

 

 

 

Jalapeno Corn Waffles With Sriracha Maple Syrup & How To Survive Online Bullies

Don’t Feed The Trolls: How to Survive Online Bullies

In the age of living online, the greatest gift are the people you meet. The biggest drawback? The people you meet. Once a skeptic of online friendships, I’ve felt the connections made across the globe from one screen to another. A richness lent to my world through knowing people who live in such far off places, we never could have connected, seen our similarities, shared our thoughts and support, had it not been for two lap tops with internet connections. I’ve also seen the dark side of the vail that the computer brings, an entire society of online bullies waiting with snark and nastiness to prey on anyone with a voice. 

The blog comments I’ve seen from online bullies rage wildly from strange with a twist of insanity, to angry and hateful. The following is a list of comments I’ve seen posted to online blogs, to people who get paid little or nothing for the recipes that they post:

"I hope your baby dies. I hate you"

"Ugh, I can’t stand this girl. Will you just shut up already?!"

"This recipe sucks, it’s probably why your husband left you."

"I bet you just adopted that baby so you could get more blog hits."

"This is the most disgusting recipe I’ve ever made in my life. I substituted [lists 3 major substitutions] and it was horrible! Think before you blog, you stupid B—-!"

"It’s no wonder her husband died if she cooks like this! She pretty much killed him herself, is she trying to kill my husband too?"

I know. Horrifying. People fail to realize that another human, possibly a stay at home Mom looking for a connection to the outside world, a widow, an introvert with crippling agoraphobia, or just and average joe, will read that and be incredibly hurt. We all remember the worst comment that was ever posted to our blogs, the sting from a complete stranger who’s hate has invaded our world. I’ve recently seen two celebrities melt down on Twitter, responding to the nasty comments, defending themselves, lashing out, retweeting insults, indulging those Trolls who seek to disperse hate. 

Celebrity, blogger, or just an average mom with a twitter following, here are some rules to help us all cope:

Five Rules to Survive Online Bullies

1. Don’t Feed the Trolls. Don’t respond, engage or even post comments made out of sheer hate and anger. If a comment is just made to hurt, there is no reason to post it and you have no moral or civic obligation to do so. Delete the comment and shake the thought of it from your head. 

2. Find Power In Silence. To stay silent and to be silenced are not the same thing. There is powder in silence, feel it. There is no response to a bully or a nasty comment that makes you look cool or superior, you are only wallowing in the mud by responding. 

3. Feel Pity. Child Actor turned writer, Mara Wilson said on her blog recently:  "Very few intelligent, successful, attractive, confident, happy people spend their time bashing people they have never met. Just be glad you are not that person." A comment a stranger makes about you says a lot more about them then it will ever say about you. 

4. Strangers Will Defend You. More often than not, when I see a nasty comment posted on a blog, I watch others rush to the aid of the blogger. People who don’t know that blogger or the commenter, but who do know right from wrong, and are quick to rush to your defense. 

5. Feel Important. No one throws rocks at Tiny Tim. If you are a blogger or a celebrity, the negative comments you receive will rise in direct proportion to how important people think you are. If they didn’t think of you as successful, they wouldn’t even bother. Negative comments are a direct result of doing something right, try to think of it that way. 

I try to follow these rules on both this blog, as well as my other blog, The Beeroness, which has garnered a much higher level of praise as well as exponentially higher level of nastiness. With the good comes the bad, finding your own inner filter will help you enjoy more of the experience. 

In a completely unrelated note, these Jalapeno Corn Waffles are perfect for brunch, or to serve with Fried Chicken. And you’ll want to drink the Sriracha Maple syrup on it’s own. 

Jalapeno Corn Waffles with Sriracha Maple Syrup

Waffles:

1 cup fine yellow corn meal

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup corn kernels 

1 large jalapeno, chopped, stem and seeds removed

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup cheddar cheese

1 tbs brown sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup whole milk

1 tbs canola oil

1 egg

For the Syrup:

1/4 cup real maple syrup

1 tsp sriracha chili sauce

(Makes 4-6)

Preheat your waffle iron. 

In a bowl, combine the corn meal, flour, baking powder, corn, jalapeno, salt, cheese, and brown sugar, mix. In a separate bowl, add the melted butter, milk, oil and the egg, beat until well combined. Make a well in the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and mix until just barely combined. Spray waffle iron with cooking spray if recommended, cook in waffle iron according to manufactures specifications. 

Mix the maple syrup and sriracha and serve with the waffles. 


Follow me on twitter

Follow me on Pinterest

Like Domestic Fits on Facebook


Maple Bacon Blondies

Blondie’s used to baffle me. Why would you take a lovely chocolaty brownie and take OUT the chocolate? Isn’t that the good part? I just saw blondie’s as chocolate-less brownies, and really, that didn’t sound like much fun. Then I had a blondie awakening of sorts. If a brownie is a vessel for chocolate consumption than blondie’s can be a vessel for…caramel? Peanut butter? Maple? Blueberries? Bacon? Well, I guess just about anything. I am officially on board.

Maple Bacon Blondie’s

1 cup butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

¼ cup oil

2 tbs honey

2 cups flour

Topping:

6 strips of bacon

2 cups brown sugar, packed

1 cup of cream

3 tbs butter

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup chopped pecans

¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease a 9×13 glass baking dish.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the vanilla and salt, mix until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on high for at least two minutes until well combined and mixture is light and fluffy. Add the oil and honey and mix well. Add the flour, mixing on low until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until top is a golden brown, edges are a dark brown and pulling away from the pan. Allow to cool. Place 6 strips of bacon on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes or until bacon is cooked, darkened and crisp.

In a pot over high heat, add the brown sugar and the cream. Stir until the sugar has melted and the mixture starts to boil. Using a candy thermometer, allow to mixture to boil undisturbed until the temperature reaches 210, about 7-10 minutes. Add the 3 tbs of butter and the vanilla and stir until combined. Allow to cool (20 minutes). Pour the maple sauce over the Blondie’s. Chop the bacon and place in a small bowl, add the pecans and salt and mix. Sprinkle the bacon pecan mixture over the maple sauce. Refrigerate until maple has cooled and set.

 

Ham with Bourbon, Maple, Bacon Glaze

As I’m putting the final touches on my Easter Ham, I’m chatting with a friend of mine. A friend who wasn’t spending the holiday with his family, well, because he’s Jewish. It occurs to me, as I’m glazing my large hung of pork with smaller hunks of pork, how Un-Jewish Friendly this holiday is. Not only is it a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, it’s signature dish is Ham. SO, I apologize to all of my Jewish friends for the excessive use of bacon on this blog, and I promise my next post will be Kosher.

For those who would don an “I Heart Pork” t-shirt, this is my hands down favorite ham recipe. I was very happy with the end results and it was one of the few times I was able to eat a meal that I prepared without thinking of all the things I would change for next time.

Ingredients

1 10 lb ham

1 1/2 cup apple juice plus 1/2 cup, divided

4 strips of bacon

2 tbs butter

1/4 cup Bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace)

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar, plus 2 tbs, divided

1 cup pecans

1/4 cup grade B maple syrup

1 tsp coriander

Place the ham in a roasting pan, fat side up. Add 1 1/2 cups of apple juice to the bottom of the pan. Cook at 325 for 1 1/2 hours (for a 10 pounder, or 9 minutes per pound).

ham-pan-pre-cookedCut the bacon into small, 1/4 inch strips

ham-bacon-cutIn a sauce pan over low heat, melt the butter. Add the bacon and spread out in the pan, sprinkle with 2 tbs brown sugar. Cook slowly until the fat is mostly rendered.

ham-bacon-pan-cookedIn a small bowl, add the remaining 1/2 cup apple juice and the bourbon. In another bowl, add the brown sugar, coriander, maple syrup and pecans, mix well. A side note about Maple Syrup: Grading doesn’t have to do with the quality, like some might assume. Syrup is graded according to color and translucency. Typically, grade A is much lighter (and mellower in flavor)  than grade B.

ham-glaze-ingredientsAdd the bourbon mixture to the pan, increasing the heat to medium, and cook until reduced by 3/4. Reduce the heat to low and add the brown sugar mixture and stir until well combined and thick.

ham-glaze-cookedOnce the ham has cooked for 1 1/2 hours, remove from the oven. Increase oven temp to 375.  With a sharp knife, score the ham in a diamond pattern.

ham-scoredCover the top of the ham, and as much of the sides as possible with the glaze. Cook for an additional 20-30 minutes, or until glaze is dark and bubbly. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Cut the ham in slices, from front to back, and spoon the pan drippings over the pile of meat, or put it in a gravy boat to serve along side.

The trick to cooking a juicy ham is to under cook it. Remember that ham comes to you already cooked, you’re just heating it up and glazing it. If you cook it to the recommended 140-160 degrees, it will be dry and over cooked. Most meats will continue to cook, even up to 15 percent more, after you remove it from the oven.  If you want to thermometer cook it, shoot for closer to 110 degrees. Remember, its much better to serve slightly cold ham than dry overcooked ham.

ham-cooked