Exquisite Course

Answering the eternal question "what's for dinner?" with a new web app that randomizes ingredients to inspire your next meal. We post our experiments here! Check out the app at: http://www.exquisitecourse.com/ And follow us on: http://instagram.com/exquisitecourse https://twitter.com/exquisitecourse

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Debbi's Dark Chocolate Date Clusters (vegan)

Debbi adapted this from a recipe to make vegan Milky Way bars, and I chunked them up with pistachios and cranberries. We made just the date caramel from the recipe, combined it with treats, rolled into balls and then covered them in melted dark chocolate.

INGREDIENTS:

15 pitted Medjool dates 

1-4 Tbsp water

pinch of sea salt

1 bar (3.5 oz) of dark chocolate

1 Tbsp coconut oil

1/4 cup shelled pistachios

1/4 cup dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS:

Add dates to a food processor or blender and puree until most of the dates are broken down or it forms a ball. Add the salt and the water slowly until you have a mixture that you can form easily but that isn't too pasty or liquid-y. Remove from the blender and refrigerate while you prepare the other ingredients.

Shell the pistachios and measure out the cranberries.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and coconut oil

Add the pistachios and cranberries to the date caramel. Put a sheet of parchment paper on a plate, then roll the caramel clusters into balls and place on the parchment.

Pour the melted chocolate over the date caramel balls and refrigerate immediately on the plate. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, then remove the balls and serve or store in a container in the refrigerator.

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Mango Lassi Ice Cream

What better way to declare it's still summer than with frozen mango treats? To my surprise, mango lassis are relatively straightforward, and after looking up a few drink and ice cream recipes along these lines, I went for it, using my all-time favorite yogurt, Greek Gods Honey flavor.

Ingredients:

2 ripe mangoes

1 cup Greek Gods Honey flavored yogurt (or other fat-laden yogurt)

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp maple syrup

Directions:

Peel and chop the mangoes then cook them down over low heat for 20-30 minutes to remove excess water (which makes the ice cream less creamy) and concentrate flavor

Refrigerate mango mixture for an hour, or until cold

Using a blender or immersion blender, first puree the mango goop, then add in the rest of the ingredients and blend thoroughly.

Add the mixture to your ice cream maker and run for the suggested time. Then freeze the ice cream for a few hours before serving. Or eat it immediately soft-serve style which is amazing.

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Coconut Cherry Garcia Pancakes

I took the BEST PANCAKE RECIPE EVER and altered it to make it richer with Greek yogurt and snazzier with cacao nibs and cherries. It's a breakfast on the sweet side (in the tradition of a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor, so yeah) but made without sugar. Coconut oil is also a dream to fry pancakes in!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey

3 tablespoons coconut oil

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

3/4 cup water

1 egg

1/2 cup frozen cherries

tablespoon orange juice

extra coconut oil

cacao nibs

Directions:

Mix together the dry ingredients

Melt the coconut oil and the honey together in a small pot

Blend the yogurt and water together

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the yogurt-water, the honey-oil and the egg, blend until smooth. Stir in cacao nibs to your liking.

Place the frozen cherries, a teaspoon or so of coconut oil and the orange juice in the same small pot as the honey mixture from before, heat on low until softened and syrupy

Add about a tablespoon of coconut oil to a cast iron pan and heat on high to melt. Bring the heat down to medium or low once the pan is sizzling hot, and fry the pancakes.

Serve with cherry syrup and a sprinkling of cacao nibs.

Serves 4

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Chocolate Almond Banana Milkshake

AKA Smoothie of the Gods! It's a smoothie that tastes like a milkshake. And it's vegan!

Ingredients:

1 cup almond milk

2 bananas

1 heaping spoonful of almond butter

1 small spoonful of pistachio creme

1 large spoonful of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 small spoonful of espresso powder

1 small spoonful of cinnamon

1 spoonful of coconut oil

Directions:

Add to a blender! You can either use frozen bananas or add a cup of ice cubes to make it cold.

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Rosemary Acorn Squash Pasta

This recipe utilizes some risotto-style techniques to really mesh the squash and the pasta in a tasty way. You can also save the seeds to roast with olive oil and salt for a crunchy snack later.

Ingredients:

1 acorn squash

1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary

1 package of penne pasta

grated parmigiano reggiano cheese

salt

butter

olive oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cut the acorn squash in half and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, set on a baking sheet and roast for approximately 30 minutes, or until you can easily stick a fork through it

When the acorn squash is cooling, bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil.

Meanwhile, peel the skin off the somewhat cooled squash and cut into 1 inch cubes

Add the pasta when the water has reached a boil and stir regularly, keeping in mind you will only boil it for half the recommended time

While the pasta is boiling, heat butter and olive oil in a pan and when hot, add half the rosemary and sizzle it for a minute, then add the cubed squash

When pasta is half way done, remove pasta with a slotted spoon and add to the pan with the squash. Reserve the pasta water!

Add a half a cup of the reserved pasta water to the pan and continually stir the pasta and squash mixture on medium high until the penne is al dente. Add more water if the pan gets dry and the pasta is not yet cooked.

Stir in the remaining fresh rosemary, then layer into a serving dish, adding a layer of shredded parm in between layers of pasta.

Serves 6

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Avocado Teff Pancakes with Cinnamon Blood Oranges

It's actually avocado-banana-greek-yogurt teff pancakes, but let's keep in simple. I adapted a recipe from here and was forced to substitute a bit due to a lack of bananas and soymilk. The result was something that seems like it shouldn't even be called a pancake, but rather some kind of extra-moist breakfasty patty.

The instructions below are for the pancakes, and you can cook the slices of blood orange in the pan after the pancakes are done, with coconut oil, butter and cinnamon.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons golden flax meal

1 ripe banana

1 ripe avocado

1 cup coconut/soy/rice/almond milk

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoons coconut oil

1 1/2 cups teff flour

1 tablespoon baking powder (or more)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 blood orange

sprinkling of cinnamon and powdered sugar

butter

maple syrup

Directions:

In a blender, add flax meal, banana, avocado, milk, yogurt, vanilla, honey, and 1/2 teaspoon oil. Blend well.

In a large mixing bowl, add teff flour, baking powder, sea salt, and cinnamon. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry.

Add coconut oil and/or butter to a skillet and heat it up on high

Make small dollops of pancake batter and smooth until somewhat flat discs so that the very moist mixture cooks pretty evenly.

Let the sides get crisp before flipping and you'll have a nice contrast of crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside.

When the batch of pancakes has been cooked, slice the blood orange into thin slices, sprinkle them with cinnamon, and fry them on both sides in the pancake pan with plenty of coconut oil and butter.

Top the pancakes with with the orange slices and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Drizzle with maple syrup.

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Rosemary Maple Beer Bread

Easy way to take the super easy beer bread recipe to the next level.

Replace brown sugar with maple syrup and sprinkle in about a 1/2 tablespoon (or more) of chopped rosemary. The maple syrup makes it even cake-ier and rosemary makes it seem fancy.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tsp baking powder

one bottle or can of beer

1/2 tbsp or more of chopped rosemary

butter

Directions:

Mix the flour and the baking powder thoroughly

Add the maple syrup, rosemary and beer to the flour, mixing continuously

Grease a bread pan with butter and pour in the mixture

Place two (or more) pats of butter on top

Bake @375 for 30-40 minutes

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Big Bright Green Veggie Machine

A simple smoothie that my new Vitamix makes oh so smooth. Goodbye kale chunks! I can't decide if it is a Ghostbusters smoothie or a Partridge Family 1973 linoleum smoothie. Either way - the simplicity of the process and the harmony of the fruits and veggies is making this one a new go-to in the A.M.

Ingredients:

1 apple

1 banana

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

1 handful kale

1/2 avocado

1 cup rice/almond milk

5 ice cubes

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 cup maple syrup

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Meyer Lemon Pie with Gingersnap Crust

A Debbi adaptation from this Epicurious Key Lime Pie recipe. The crust is made of pulverized ginger snap cookies instead of graham crackers and it is sooo good and relatively easy. We attempted a diamond design on the top with a stencil of our own making. We had edible glitter but it was a bust, so we sprinkled ginger snap crumbs on the stencil instead.

Ingredients

For crust

1 1/4 cups ginger snap cookie crumbs (pulverized in blender or chopper)

2 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

4 large egg yolks

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice

For topping

3/4 cup chilled heavy cream

Directions:

Make crust:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place ginger snap cookies in a blender and run until you have a mixture of dust and small chunks of cookie. Repeat until you have 1 1/4 cup of crumbs.

Stir together ginger snap crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl with a fork until combined well, then press mixture evenly onto bottom and up side of a 9-inch (4-cup) glass pie plate.

Bake crust in middle of oven 10 minutes and cool in pie plate on a rack. Leave oven on.

Make filling and bake pie:

Whisk together condensed milk and yolks in a bowl until combined well. Add Meyer lemon juice and whisk until combined well (mixture will thicken slightly).

Pour filling into crust and bake in middle of oven 15 minutes. Cool pie completely on rack (filling will set as it cools), then chill, covered, at least 8 hours.

Make topping:

Just before serving, beat cream in a bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks. Serve pie topped with cream.

***BONUS***

Decorative stencil: take a piece of 8.5x11" paper and cut shapes with an exacto knife. Lay the paper down on the pie that has already been slathered with whipped cream. Sprinkle the dust of your choice lightly over the exposed areas of the stencil and gently remove the paper (it helps to have 4 hands lifting all corners at once).

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#goodtoknow

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Beet smoothie comin up! With apples, kale, coconut, cinnamon, cocoa powder and such. #experimental #exquisitecourse #beetlejuice

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Hard boiled egg with almonds and chives, a bit of sesame oil and of course avocado. #exquisitecourse #experimental #diyfood #tacos

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When life gives you I ripe avocados, put them in the chopper with some labne and chives. #sauce #tacos #breakfast #avocado #diyfood #exquisitecourse #experimental

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Found a great recipe for mole sauce and threw in some leftover rotisserie chicken. Apparently cayenne pepper isn't the same as chili powder. Yowza! #spicy #exquisitecourse

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Winter is most definitely coming. Mac n cheese made with trofie pasta, a roux sauce of butter, milk and flour, cheddar with nutmeg, and pancetta-fried broccoli rabe. Good night! #exquisitecourse #roux #macncheese #oink #winteriscoming

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Aaaaah! The holy trinity of smoothie goodness: apple banana and kale! Who knew it could be so simple. Smoothie pics get repetitive but I had to share. #apple #banana #kale #almondbutter #almondmilk #coconutoil #maplesyrup

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Steak, green apple and sunflower seeds salad. #saltyandsweet #exquisitecourse (at Brooklyn Crossfit Columbia Street)