Chop Chop and Cupcakes

This is where this blog pay homage to the many fantastic cooking blogs that are out there.

On Sunday I decided to celebrate Eric's half-birthday. Not for any particular reason per se, just as something to do. So I had a recipe for double chocolate cupcakes with banana filling that I wanted to make and Eric wanted some Chop-Chop, so, it being his celebration, I obliged.

Chop Chop is a food I discovered while at the University of Miami. It is fantastic stuff that is served at a medium speed food place called Chicken Kitchen. In it's most basic form it is just chicken and rice. I make a version of the Cuban Chop-chop with yellow rice (at CK it comes with white rice) which involves black beans, lettuce, tomato, and mustard-curry sauce.

The chicken- figure about one breast for each person, the following is for two breasts
Combine in a gallon ziploc bag:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
juice of 1/2 lime

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon curry

Marinate in refrigerator for about two hours. Pour contents of bag into a baking dish that is just larger than the chicken breasts so that they are in one layer on the bottom of the dish. Bake at 375 for 31 minutes or until lightly browned. Chop chicken into smaller than bite size pieces.

The sauce

1 cup mayonaise

1 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 tablespoon curry powder
adjust to taste

We used an 8 oz package of Vigo Yellow Rice and a can of black beans.

Toppings:

Shredded lettuce

Diced tomatoes
Grated Cheddar Cheese

You can put it together however you want. I tend to put mine in a large bowl or on a plate in the following order: yellow rice, black beans, chicken, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and sauce. Be liberal with the sauce, it is the best and key part!

The final product. Yum!!

Before this we made the cupcakes which was a bit of a process. Eric served as my assistant as I was cooking at his place so I could say, "Okay, I need four, sugar, baking powder..." and he brought them. What more could a cook ask for? And he showed me how to correctly use the KitchenAid, which I LOVED!!! Makes stuff so much easier. If Aunt Sharon had one of these we would not have burned up the motor of her hand mixer making cinnamon rolls for Christmas.

I made cupcakes from http://the-cupcakery-blog.blogspot.com/ week 2. To be honest they didn't go so great but I think that is because it is so sticking dry here that as they cooled they lost a lot of moisture too. Also this was my first time filling cupcakes and I didn't really have good technique (and I was trying to do it while talking on the phone, don't tell my dad). There weren't directions explaining how to fill the cupcakes so I got a frosting bag, tips, and a coupler and filled the bag with the banana pudding. Eric thought the hole in my tip was too big, I believe it was a #21, but I think it worked okay. What I needed to do was be less gentle. The picture I had in my head was that I would break through the top of the cupcake and then the pudding would push into the cupcake. That didn't really happen and by the end I figured that what I needed to do was push all the way down to the bottom and then squeeze as I pulled the tube out. Oh well. Live and learn. Then, since I don't like frosting I topped the cupcakes with ganache. The recipe I used wasn't quite sweet enough for me. I will try again sometime. We took pictures so I will share them.

Eric licking the beater, a bad habit he didn't exhibit a few weeks ago, I blame myself. He is just getting started on the day in which he may have consumed more chocolate than any other day in memory. Also you can see the work area as we are getting ready to pour the cupcakes.

Cupcakes in the oven.

Cooling on wax paper.

Done! -->