Posted in Secret Recipe Club

Chicken Biryani

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For January’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired up with Bobbi from Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen. It was hard to pick a recipe, which is a good sign! I tend to lean towards savory recipes for Secret Recipe Club since I bake and post sweet recipes more frequently. Bobbi’s Chicken Biryani was the perfect solution — a one pot meal that satisfied my craving for Indian food. You can customize the amount of spices to your own liking (I added extra cardamom and heat).

Hop on over to Bobbi’s site and read her inspirational story (overcoming breast cancer and gastric bypass) as well as perusing her recipe stash, including: Boozy Hot Chocolate, Pumpkin Spice Cake, White Chicken Chili, Pumpkin Mac n Cheese, Fudgy Chocolate Caramel Brownies.

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Salad with Pickled Beets & Feta

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For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired up with Turnips 2 Tangerines. After trying out some apple cider garam masala pickled beets at my local farmer’s market, I decided to tweak Lynn’s recipe for pickled beets. Thankfully I was able to find pre-cooked and peeled beets, so this recipe was even easier!

I simply subbed out the vinegar for apple cider vinegar and the spices for garam masala. I used the pickling liquid to make a simple vinaigrette (1 tablespoon pickling liquid, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or to taste, dash salt and pepper, 1/4 teaspoon mustard).

The bitterness of the greens, saltiness of the cheese, and tang of the beets all go well together. The cider vinegar and spices keep the beets from tasting too “dirty”, but they still keep their earthiness.

I’ll have to go back to Turnips 2 Tangerines and look at the other recipes I was having trouble choosing from, including: Spicy Refrigerator Pickles, Surprise carrot cake, pear nut cake, and chocolate pecan coffee cake!

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Secret Recipe Club

Marmalade & Pistachio Tea Cake

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For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired up with K&K Test Kitchen. One of my favorite things about the site is the design since the colors are so well coordinated and it is appealing to the eye. I am a web designer by day, so thats one of the first things I noticed.

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This was another month where it was hard to choose just what recipe to make. I changed up my tactic this time and asked my fiancé to pick a recipe after I whittled it down to Healthy Spinach Dip, Artichoke Dip, Pistachio Marmalade Cake, or Cashew Chicken. Even though he picked spinach dip, I ended up making the cake. Next time I swear I’ll let him really choose!

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I figured this would be a great opportunity to use some of my various jams in the refrigerator, as well as my cute gingham mini bundt cake liners from World Market.  I did adapt this recipe to use what I had on hand, and it turned out no worse for it.

I had a lovely Japanese Quince jam gifted to me by my friend Stephanie that was just itching to be used in this. I have a problem when I get things that tast good. I actually don’t eat them. They’re so precious to me I always save them for later, but then they end up getting thrown away! I wasn’t going to let that happen to this jam, so I whipped 2 mini cakes up and sent her one as part of a care package.

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You can substitute the cider for any juice (orange juice is the original). I also substituted the cornmeal with almond meal, and replaced the orange marmalade with quince jam. I also mixed the pistachios with some chai sugar I picked up at Mitsuwa on a recent trip to New York to echo the cardamom in the mix.

The texture of the cake was a bit crumbly and the bottom was a little overdone (the middle wouldn’t cook all the way). I don’t think this is due to the substitutions since this same issue was noted on K&K Test Kitchen. In the future, I would recommend bumping the cooking temperature to 325 so that none of it overcooks.

Since the cake itself that was not adjacent to the topping was a bit bland, I would definitely add more jam next time so that the flavor is more pronounced.

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Secret Recipe Club

Grilled Barbeque Chicken Pizza

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My second pair-up with The Secret Recipe Club is Traci from Burnt Apple. There were a few different recipes I was interested in, particularly the German Chocolate Cake Cookies or Bobby Flay’s German Chocolate Cake, but somehow I steered myself away from the sweets and landed on Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza.

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This recipe is incredibly easy and adaptable. It is a great snack to whip up for the game(s) that are starting up this fall!

But, like Traci says, choose a barbeque sauce that you like because it is a major player on the palette. I had a pulled pork and bbq pizza yesterday at a local restaurant and the sauce killed the otherwise crunchy crust and gooey cheese.

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Secret Recipe Club

Twice Baked Potatoes #SecretRecipeClub

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Have you ever heard of The Secret Recipe Club? I found out about it through a few blogs that I follow and thought it was a very neat idea. The way I explain it to people is that it’s like Secret Santa. You get assigned a blog “buddy” and visit their blog to pick a recipe you want to re-create. Once you find a recipe from their blog, you make it, photograph it, and post it. Everyone reveals their assigned blog at the same time and date. It’s fun to go around to different blogs and see who had who. It’s also a great way for smaller blogs to reach out to a different or larger audience.

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For my first SRC match-up I was paired with Sarah from Curious Cuisiniere. I was torn between a few different recipes that I wanted to make, but her Twice Cooked Broccoli Cheddar Potatoes called out to me. Baked potatoes are something that I rarely eat now that I’m an adult because I don’t want to heat up a whole oven for 2 potatoes. I had all the ingredients for this recipe in the house after I made some substitutions, including some potatoes that had been lingering in my crisper for far too long.  I swapped the broccoli out for some green bell pepper and added some wasabi mayo, barbeque sauce, and breadcrumbs into the mix.

This recipe is easily adaptable and surprisingly filling. I ate 2 halves for dinner and was pretty satisfied. I re-heated one for leftovers and it was revitalized quite well after a minute in the microwave.

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Secret Recipe Club