Diana's Monday Munchies
FOOD!

Brie with Chutney & Almonds, Served with Bread, Crackers & Fruit
Very simple tasty appetizer. Perfect for potlucks and munchies food when doing henna!  Makes the tummy happy!

Ingredients:
  • One whole brie (8oz)
  • Jar of any flavor chutney (my faves are cranberry, mango, apple)
  • Sliced almonds
Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Place the Brie wheel in a large pie plate or oven proof dish.  Spread a generous layer of chutney over the top, and evenly sprinkle with almonds.
  3. Bake 15 - 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until almonds are slightly golden and cheese inside the rind is melted.
  4. Serve with sliced French bread, crackers, red seedless grapes and sliced granny smith apples


Basil Potato Crisps
Better than Lays... you can't eat just one and they don't have MSG (although you will stuff them in your mouth like they do)!  While these are baking.. your kitchen will smell heavenly!

Ingredients:
  • 1 pound of potatoes
  • olive oil
  • fresh basil leaves (you could also use sage but I prefer basil) - you'll need one leaf for each slice
  • kosher salt
Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Leaving the skins on, cut each potato into slices approx 1/4 inch thick - not too thin.  Thicker is better.  Place slices into a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Toss well to coat.  Remove potato slices from bowl and arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Reserve olive oil in bowl for later.
  2. Bake slices at 400 for 40 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown on the bottom.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven (don't turn off oven yet).
  3. While potatoes are baking, add the basil leaves to the olive oil and salt mixture, rub leaves to be sure both sides are coated.  Once potatoes have been removed from the oven, lift a potato one at a time with a spatula and insert a basil leaf on the baking sheet and cover with the potato, golden side down.  Repeat with the remaining potatoes.
  4. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat.  Using a spatula, carefully turn potato slices over with the basil on top.  Bake at 400 for an additional 10 minutes or until bottoms are brown.  Serve right from the oven.

5 Star Chicken Vindaloo
One of my husband's favorite Indian curry dishes is chicken vindaloo.  After a few visits, didn't take long for our local restaurant to believe us when we ask for spicy.  Somehow the mild, medium and spicy 3 level rating system just wasn't broad enough.  They let us go to 10 stars, 10 being the hottest.  "How many stars you want today?" they ask.   When I order the dish..  I usually go for 5 stars... equivalent of an extra spicy dish.  When hubby orders.. he goes straight for 9 stars.  Wowser that's hot!  (Wish I could see their little star shaped measuring spoon)!  We asked them for the recipe and this our interpretation of the recipe.  This dish will definitely increase your body temperature so that you can get a good henna stain.  5 Star Chicken Vindaloo will make you sweat and you'll love every minute of it!  A bit time consuming to make, but well worth the effort.  And like most curries and stews... this will taste better the next day.

Ingredients:
  • 4 TB vindaloo paste (you can control the hotness by increasing or decreasing this paste)
  • couple splashes of vinegar
  • 2 t salt
  • 3 to 4 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces (the suggested recipe was for chicken on the bones which adds flavor but I prefer boneless)
  • olive oil
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 t cardamom seeds
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • lots of garlic, minced
  • 3 t turmeric
  • 2 t cayenne
  • 2 t cumin
  • 2 t Kashmiri masala
  • ginger root, thinly sliced
  • 2 tomatoes, skinned and quartered
  • 1/2 c tamarind or lemon juice
  • desiccated coconut
  •  fresh cilantro
Instructions:
  1. Put the vindaloo paste, vinegar and salt in a large bowl and mix well to have a smooth paste.  You should add enough vinegar so that the paste is loose.
  2. Place the chicken pieces in the bowl and stir until all are well coated with the paste.  Cover and let sit in the fridge for an hour.
  3. While chicken is marinating, heat a pan of water.  Add tomatoes. Cook for 3 minutes, turning the tomatoes.  Prep a large bowl in the sink with ice and water.  Once tomatoes are done, put in the ice water mixture.  This will cause the skin to break which you can then remove.
  4. Heat the oil in a large frying pan (preferably one with higher sides).  Stir in the bay leaves and cardamom seeds.  Add the onion and fry until golden.  Stir in the garlic, turmeric, cayenne, cumin and kashmiri masasla and mix well until the spices are blended.  Add in the chicken pieces.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring until outsides are lightly browned (chicken will cook more later).  Add ginger and tomatoes, cook for 10 minutes while stirring.
  5. Add tamarind paste (or lemon juice if you don't have tamarind) when the fat starts to separate.  Stir well, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Add salt to taste.  Sprinkle with desiccated coconut. Serve vindaloo over basmati rice and top with fresh cilantro.

 
Key Lime Pie Martini
Who wants to spend all that time in the kitchen squeezing key limes for a pie?  Those buggers are tiny!  Why not drink one?  I discovered this drink in a cute little piano bar in Fort Lauderdale.  Super simple and tastes just like a key lime pie – even down to the graham cracker.  Be careful… it’s easy to drink these and not realize how strong they are:

Ingredients:
  • 1-1/4, fl oz Grey Goose Vanilla vodka
  • 1-1/4, fl oz Ke Ke Beach Key Lime Liqueur

(equal parts works good to my taste, you may want to increase or decrease the vodka to your taste.  The more expensive vodka you use… tastes even better.  Still tastes good with Skyy Vanilla Vodka too)
Instructions:
  1.  Pour into shaker filled with ice, shake and pour.  Garnish with lime zest.

  
The Whopper Cake
My mom gave me this recipe a few years back when I was looking for a 'different' chocolate cake recipe.  It was called malted milk chocolate cake or something like that.  But... as you can tell from the name, it's got Whoppers in it (not many other malted milk ball brands out there) and "The Whopper Cake" as it has been renamed, has become a favorite with my friends for their birthdays.  They don't want any presents.. just the Whopper Cake!

Chocolate Cake
  • 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 c all-purpose flour
  • 1 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t baking soda
  • 2/3 c butter, softened
  • 1 3/4 c sugar
  • 3 eggs
  •  4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled (cut chocolate into pieces and melt in double boiler)
  • 2 t vanilla
  • 1 1/2 c milk

For your unsweetened cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate.. try to procure Scharffen Berger brand... your cake will be to die for.  You can usually find them in the gourmet section of your local organic/whole foods type market.

Cake Instructions:
  • Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease three 8x8x2 pans, lightly dust each with 1 teaspoon of the cocoa powder.
  •  Stir together flour, remaining cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl.  Set aside.
  • Place the butter in a large mixing bowl, beat with a mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar; beat until combined.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition.
  • Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk; beating on low speed till thoroughly combined.
  • Divide batter into equal proportions in each of the three pans.  Bake for 17 - 20 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove cakes from pans and transfer to wire racks.  Cool completely.
Chocolate Malt Frosting (make in advance)
  1. 1/3 c malt powder
  2. 2 - 11 1/2 oz pkgs of Ghirardelli double chocolate chips (avoid Nestle brand... but then anyone who truly likes chocolate will already know this)
  3. 2 c heavy whipping cream

Frosting Instructions:
  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the whipping cream just to boiling; remove from heat.  Stir in the malt powder.  Add chocolate chips (do not stir).  Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.  Stir until smooth; mixture will be thin.
  2. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.  Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours.  After chilling, set the bowl of frosting in a larger bowl of ice water and beat with a handheld mixer on medium speed or until all frosting is fluffy (it will turn light brown while beating).

You'll need Whoppers/malted milk balls for decoration - some whole, some cut in half.  Some smashed in a Ziploc for inner layers of cake.

Assembly Instructions:
To assemble cake: spread frosting on two of the cake layers.  Sprinkle smashed whoppers on each layer over frosting and stack them.  Add top layer; frost sides and top of the cake.  Decorate sides by running a cake comb around the side for a decorative pattern.  Decorate the top of the cake with malted milk balls.

Back to the Index of Monday Munchies

Do you want to send in your Monday Munchies and get treats?  Go HERE for instructions!