Recipe: Homemade Honey Mustard Sauce and Roasted Honey Mustard Chicken

I don’t know if honey  mustard exists in Italy but I’ve never seen it in the stores. Luckily, when the craving for the rich, sweet, tangy flavor hit me, I had honey and mustard at home and let’s face it, I’m also quite good at concocting random things in the kitchen.

I used my honey mustard as a glaze for chicken and with a few easy tweaks, I also used it as a dressing for my salad as well.

Honey Mustard (to make glaze and dressing)

My perfect honey mustard blend with basil

Equal parts honey and mustard, about a ¼ cup each

1-2 tbs basil (or rosemary, either works beautifully)

2 tbs olive oil

I chose to make relatively large quantities of the dressing because I had grand plans for my sauce (salads, dipping sauce, glaze) but you can also make it in smaller batches, you absolutely can. 

When I mix my honey mustard, I tend to add a little bit more mustard than honey, because I like the tang of the mustard just a little more than the sweetness of the honey.

Mix your honey, mustard, basil (or rosemary) and oil together well.  At this point you can serve it as a dipping sauce  or use it as a glaze for meat. Or you can add another tablespoon of olive oil to thin it down and use it as a dressing.

Made with Rosemary

Once you’ve made your honey mustard you can make your chicken. 

Honey Mustard Chicken

1 small roaster chicken, completely defrosted or fresh

½ mixture of honey mustard

1 tbs olive oil

Additional basil (or rosemary)

Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200°C (around 350°F I think).

Coat the chicken with honey mustard on both sides. Really coat it well and sprinkle with additional basil (or rosemary) and pepper.  I chose not to use salt because the mustard already has plenty of salt in it. Rub the spices, honey mustard and an additional drizzle of oil into the chicken.

When the oven is hot, put the chicken into the oven and let the chicken roast slowly. Turn when the skin has begun to turn golden brown.  Repeat.

In total, the bird cooked for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Watch the bird carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn, because each oven is different. The chicken is done when the juices start to run clear. Don't let it overcook because chicken dries out quite easily. It's much better juicy!

Honey mustard and chicken made with basil

The first time I made this, I served my chicken with sauteed spinach and a salad—mixed greens, tomato, red onion and cheese with a light vinaigrette. I also had slow roasted potatoes. I just threw them into the oven whole next to the pan and let them roast until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. 

Then, I made the chicken again with a side of

Made with rosemary

roasted potato and asparagus. I cut up the potatoes and asparagus and roasted them with a little bit of white wine and fresh lemon juice. 

Makeshifting my lunch

Everyday I try to bring lunch with me, that way I save some money (it definitely costs more to get pizza or a premade sandwich) and eat a little healthier.
On some days I make myself salad and on others I try fun variations of sandwiches.

Last week I brought a colorful and tasty salad with me. It had cherry tomatoes, some pesto chicken, lettuce, raddichio and roasted red peppers in it. The flavors were a good blend with a lot of different textures. I also made a little balsamic, olive oil and oregano mixture to drizzle over it. I went very very light though since the peppers and chicken already had a lot of flavor.

This week was a week of sandwiches for some reason. I made a couple of different varieties though so it was a lot of fun.

Pancetta, turkey, cheese, and cherry jam

I came to work on Monday with no lunch so I took a quick spin to the grocery store and found a
long baguette for €0.59 so I knew sandwiches for the week were going to happen. I found pancetta which is similar to bacon, except sliced super finely so it can be eaten raw. I also found turkey and a sliced cheese (similar to American cheese except white and more creamy). I decided to put it all together with a bit of cherry jam. It added moisture and a great flavor contrast to the salty pancetta.

Delicious lunch #2

Tuesday's lunch was vaguely similar with another pancetta and turkey sandwich. Except I used
fresh tomatoes for moisture instead of cherry jam and served it with pasta in my homemade tomato sauce. I had leftover sauce that I wanted to use before it went to waste. It had started out with eggplants but I ate them all, so this was just a spicy sauce to go with my pasta and grated cheese. It was absolutely delicious.
I had another similar sandwich yesterday but I didn't take a picture of it because it looked very much the same, but I ate it with a helping of chick peas which were nice and light.

Mozzarella, prosiutto and honey

Today I went back to the store and had to refresh my supply of bread and cold cuts. I got ciabatta which is a wider bread that's not as long. I also got prosciutto crudo and mozzarella.  Then I added a little drizzle of honey for a nice touch of sweetness.
I know, I'm a little strange, but I really enjoy the combination of salty and sweet. It doesn't work for everyone, so I recommend experimenting a bit with flavors until you find the right combinations for you.

So far this week, I've had some really good sandwiches and we'll just have to see what I cook up for tomorrow!

Recipe: Honey Whisky Chocolate cupcakes with Honey Buttercream

I don't watch football regularly. It's not my sport (to say the very least). Honestly, for as un-American as I may sound, I really, really detest football.  But the Super Bowl is a great occassion for a party. It's a great time to gather with friends, goof around and most importantly eat. So when my friends invited me over, I quickly asked if I could bring dessert.

Well, that was a couple of weeks ago and the Super Bowl is today. It took most of yesterday but I finally figured out what dessert to bring. There are a lot of dessert options out there so I definitely had a hard time deciding what would fit best at a Super Bowl party. I decided to skip cake, because it seems like a more formal, sit down dessert. You have to cut it, and serve people... Definitely too much hastle at a party where most eyes will be focused on a tv screen. And then there are cookies but those are FAR too easy to eat by the hundred. Macarons felt too formal, ice cream too much of a pain to make and so forth and so on.

In the end, I decided to make cupcakes because you can decorate them beautifully but they're handheld and easy to pick up and go.
Then I had to figure out what KIND of cupcake to make... That took a while to figure out because again way too many options and I'm just not decisive enough. I decided to go with something that reminded me of football.... Liquor became my theme.

My first cupcakes were these:

Honey Whisky Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup espresso (cooled)
1/4 cup whiskey
1-2 tsp honey
1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, coffee, whiskey, yogurt and oil. Carefully sift the flour mixture into liquid. Combine until smooth.

Pour the mixture into your 12 prepared cupcake liners. They should be about 3/4 of the way full.
Lower the heat to 325°F and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

the perfect consistency

Honey ButterCream:
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbs honey

Cream the butter with a small blender. Carefully add in the powdered sugar and once smooth blend in the honey.

Refridgerate until you're ready to frost!

There are a couple of easy ways to frost.

1. The slather method; take a spoonful of frosting and spread it with a knife.
2. The piping method: take a plastic ziplock bag (bigger is better, otherwise you'll just make a mess) fill it with your frosting. Cut off one bottom corner. Your ready to frost. I chose to pipe in a circle, but the "pastry bag" really allows you to get creative. 

And that was cupcake number 1! I made two other kinds as well!

-Raspberry Truffle

Recipe: Panko Crusted Shrimp with a Jalapeno Honey sauce

For the Jalapeno Honey Sauce:
1/4 Jalapeno, finely diced
1 tbs honey
1 tsp olive oil
2 or 3 shots of rum
1 clove of garlic, crushed

For the Shrimp:
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste
24 shrimp (around 6 per person)
1 egg, beaten

Coat the bottom of a sauce pan with a thin layer of olive oil. Over a low flame, brown a clove of garlic. Remove and then add the Jalapeno. Sautee for about 1 minute and then add the honey and rum. Reduce down stirring constantly.

Beat the spices into the egg. Make sure your shrimp are clean. Dip each into the egg mixture and then dredge in flour. For an extra crispy version dip, dredge in both a second time.
Lightly fry in oil until the shrimp turn a beautiful red color.
When you take the shrimp out of the oil, lay on a paper towel to absord the excess oil.
Drizzle with the Jalapeno Honey Sauce and serve with a salad.

For a lighter version, bake the shrimp in at oven preheated to 300° for about 10 minutes or until the shrimp turn red underneath the batter.

Panko Crusted Baked Shrimp served with a side salad and brown rice risotto with asparagus

-Raspberry Truffle

The Sweetness of Honey

Before last year, I never liked honey. Actually, the list of foods I didn't eat before was ridiculously long: vegetables, fruits, certain meats, fish... I don't know why honey made it onto the blacklist. One of my favorite cartoon characters was obsessed with honey, which generally meant that I would happily eat said food. Cookie monster ate cookies (like a champ lol) and so did I.  Popeye ate his spinach for the awesome muscles and so did I. Winnie the Pooh Bear could not get enough HONEY into his belly and yet I couldn't be bothered. I have no idea what was going on in my baby brain but I would not eat honey.
Nowadays I've come to my senses. Honey is delicious! Honey is adaptable! I'll have honey in my tea. I make honey chicken fingers. I even put honey into my savory french toast mixture. Honey can be used in place of syrup for pancakes or it can be a replacement for refined sugar.
And it comes in such great varieties ranging from the very sweet to the less sweet. There are smooth honeys and harsher tasting honeys. Honey that tastes like flowers is delightful for some while chestnut honey is more the speed of others.
I love tasting and experimenting with the flavors!

Recipe: Honey Turkey fingers...

like chicken fingers, but a little sweeter and actually leaner :) I'm going for cooking cheaper and leaner, so turkey breast is a great replacement to chicken...

So basic recipe 1 turkey breast cut into slices or if available you can just buy prepackaged cutlets... However, unfortunately, presliced was not available, so I had to do it myself which I don't mind except I only just realized how not well-stocked my kitchen is. There's no butcher knife, just the serrated kind. I don't know if you've ever tried to cleanly slice raw turkey breast, but let me tell you, it doesn't actually work out overly too well, just well enough to do what I was doing, but with added cursing lol.

Alright I've gotten off track, here's the recipe list:

1 turkey breast sliced, or cubed, however big you like your turkey fingers :D

1 egg

1-2 tablespoons honey

app. 1 cup bread crumbs (I kind of eyeballed it like usual lol...)

pepperoncino (otherwise known as red pepper flakes) as desired

a pinch pepper

a pinch salt

oregano as desired

basil as desired

Olive oil for pan

So quite simply, crack your egg, add your honey and salt and stir. In another bowl or plate add bread crumbs and all other spices, mix throughougly (I may have spelled that wrong... but spell check I don't think is functioning lol). Take your turkey, dip in egg mixture and then completely cover in breadcrumbs.

Heat oil in pan, add turkey, cook on each side until browned, and until center is white. When done place onto paper towel (to drain any excess oil) and serve while still warm, although they're pretty fantastic cold too ;)

Simple and yummy and for your reading pleasure, or I suppose looking pleasure, I'm adding pictures, just to make you a little bit hungrier...

all set up and ready to go assembly line style :)

there's my fresh honey that I bought in the market place, soo yummy, just sweet enough...

my peperoncino, and breadcrumb mix

starting the frying process :)

now doesn't that look yummy

and these finished ones look even tastier :D

and for final serving purposes, eat with a bed of lettuce, some tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, with some fresh Italian bread on the side

^.^ sooo happy with my food making tonight!!

And that's the update, happily making food in Italy!

~Raspberry Truffle

p.s. and it made a really great lunch the next day as a sandwich, with lettuce, mozzarella and balsamic vinegar :)