Chocolate Pots de Creme

I've never had Pots de Creme before, but it is called chocolate pots of cream, so how can that be bad?

We made these to go after our ginger chicken dinner.

And of course another excuse to use my little green ramekins. As usual, this should make 4 but I seem to have portion issues so it only made 2.....

1 1/4 cups Half and Half
3 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to  300F
2. Bring the half an half to a simmer in a saucepan, then remove from heat.  Stir in the chopped chocolate and the sugar.  Let it sit for a bit to melt the chocolate.
3. Stir the yolks, vanilla, cocoa powder and salt together.  Check that your chocolate mixture is well stirred and then add the egg mixture.
4. Pour the entire mixture through a small sieve.
5. Place your ramekins in a baking pan and pour the chocolate in them.  Pour hot water into the pan until it reaches about halfway up the outside of the ramekins.
6. Bake until cooked in the center (about 30 minutes).  Take ramekins out of the water bath and let cool before refrigerating.

Then we topped them with a bit of whipped cream and raspberries!

They have the consistency of chocolate mousse.  MrFP usually likes chocolaty things but he liked the panna cotta better, probably because it is more like pudding.
Oh well - I liked it!

Ginger Chicken

My husband is an excellent cook.  Ginger chicken is the first thing he ever cooked for me and we make it every few weeks now.  It is a family recipe from his mom, and like all family recipes no one really knows the exact measurements of things so here is our best guess!

We like to use fresh chopped ginger but on my trip to the grocery store for ginger chicken, ingredients I forgot ginger...oops.  But turns out ground ginger works too, but I missed the little bits of it in the sauce.

We usually make Ginger Chicken in a large wok but we just got a dutch oven and wanted to give it a try.

5 chicken breasts
olive oil
1 cup white wine (red is good too, and MrFP has used beer in the past as well)
1 1/3 cup soy sauce
water or chicken stock
1 piece of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil

1. In the dutch oven (or wok) on medium heat start cooking the chicken in a bit of olive oil.  After chicken has been lightly seared, add wine, soy sauce and chopped ginger.

2. Add water and/or chicken stock until the meat is mostly submerged.  Add the brown sugar.

3. Cook on medium heat until the chicken is done. (around 45-60 minutes)  When chicken is close to being done add the sesame oil.  (too early and it will burn off all the tasty smell!)

The dutch oven was great because we had plenty of room to add some asparagus and chopped green onions.

We also had a tasty dessert!  But I'll get to that tomorrow...

Panna Cotta

I find myself with a considerable amount of unexpected free time and a stack of new kitchen toys that have yet to be used.  So here we go!

I usually choose things I want to cook based on things I ate in a restaurant and thought - This is so good, I want to eat it all the time.
I can't remember when I first ate panna cotta but it was wonderful.  I recently got married and we registered for ramekins purely so I could make lots and lots of panna cotta and creme caramel.

Here is the original recipe from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/panna-cotta/.  I made some adjustments which are reflected below.

1/3 Cup Skim Milk

1 Tbsp Pectin (original is a packet of gelatin but I couldn't find it, my husband is grossed out now because I told him what gelatin is made of so we will probably be using this more now anyways)

2 Cups Heavy Cream (original is another 1/2 cup but I ran out)

1/2 Cup White Sugar

Vanilla  (Who actually measures this? Just pour it in)

1. Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in the pectin/gelatin powder. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan, stir together the heavy cream and sugar, on medium heat until it boils. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for about a minute - keep stirring. Take it off the oven, stir in the vanilla and pour into  ramekin dishes. 
3. Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
4. I added raspberries and used a cheese grater to shave an old chocolate Easter bunny

The original said it would make 6 - it lied, it makes 4.  The pectin substitution was fine, if you wanted to take them out of the ramekin to serve, it wouldn't hold together though.  Thankfully I was planning on keeping them in anyways!