Tortilla Pinto Bean Soup

I have another confession to make. I love soup. I'd eat soup for every meal of every day. I'm probably the only member of my household who can say that, so, needless to say I don't find myself whipping up soup all too often. Top that off with the little bit of sunshine we've finally began to see and soup seems to be the last thing on anyone's mind. Except me, of course! So, I figured it was time to spice things up. If only there was a margarita along side this bowl of soup today... one can dream.

I would have topped this with coriander and yogurt... had our coriander plant not been dying and my daughter hadn't hogged all the yogurt, le sigh!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 can plum or diced tomatoes (if plum drain and chop the tomatoes, retain the juice)
2 cups chicken stock
1 can pinto beans (or black beans, I was just out and delighted to find out that pinto beans worked wonderfully)

1 tsp dried oregano (or throw in fresh at the end)
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

top with freshly cut coriander leaves

Directions

Heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the red pepper chunks and onion. After a few minutes, throw in the garlic and cover for a few minutes.

Add the can of tomatoes.
Stir in your choice of beans, chicken stock, oregano, coriander, cumin, salt, white pepper, and cayenne.

Allow to simmer stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

Remove roughly half of the soup to a blender and whiz it up, then add it back to the pot of soup. It'll give it a little smoothness. Simmer for another 10 or so minutes.

Serve with tortillas for dipping (ooo if you let the tortilla get soggy and then eat it together, its soo tasty), a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, and top with fresh coriander. I used basil, which was also delicious.

Now that's a summery soup.

Apple Streusel Bars

Cormac loves things with apples. If it were just myself-- I'd live on chocolate chip cookies and blondies but, hey, its good to have someone to push the variety. I saw this recipe pop up on a blog I enjoy reading a while back and filed it to memory for the next time "I dunno, something with apples would be nice *slurping of saliva noise Homer-style*" was requested for dessert.
These are tasty-- at first, they came out lacking in bar-form until I realized we are impatient piggies who didn't wait long enough for the bars to cool down. If you do, they cut out perfectly. I used a 9x9 but next time I will use a 9x13 so the spread will be thinner. Also, the glaze isn't necessary (although it looks pretty)-- even with less-than-sweet apples this can manage just fine without the added sweetness of the glaze. Cup of tea?

Apple Streusel Bars
adapted from Lovin' From the Oven

Ingredients
STREUSEL CRUST:
2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 egg, beaten

FILLING:
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup AP flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp vanilla
4 cups (about 3 medium) baking apples, sliced thinly.

GLAZE:
1 cup icing sugar
1-2 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat your oven to 180C /350F.

To prepare pastry crust, dice cold butter into small cubes. Add to mixer and beat together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder under you have pea sized bits. Slowly add in beaten egg. If you have a large food processor that would work well, too.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
Gently pat about 2/3 of the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the dish. Preheat oven to 350 and set aside.
Apple filling: combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Toss with apples and spread apples out on prepared crust. I kind of stacked them like I'm making a fancy tartin.

Sprinkle reserved streusel mixture over apples evenly, sprinkle with cinnamon if you want (I loves me some cinnamon!)

Bake 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool completely (I was too impatient and dug straight in, which means its less bar-like and more gooey delicious.

Glaze: whisk icing sugar, vanilla, and roughly 2 tbsp milk. You might need more milk to get it to the desired thinness. Drizzle glaze over cooled bars-- I used a fork and that worked perfectly. Allow to harden. If you can!

Food Festival and Farmer's Market Fun!

The Boho Kitchen is working hard to bring her delicious treats to the farmer's market near you. We're aiming for a stall coming soon to the Ardkeen Market in Waterford and finger crossed applications will be received in time to set up at the upcoming Dunmore East Festival of Food set to run June 25th, 26th and 27th!

The Boho Kitchen was out and about at the recent Waterford Festival of Food in Dungarvan handing out fliers. Please let us know if you'd like to place an order or even if you like what you see! Hopefully we'll be able to nab a stall at the next Festival of Food. A fantastic weekend sampling of local food producers and talent!

On a non-food related note: CONSIGNMENT!
First, adults:

Smoking Lily Boutique is opening soon in Kilkenny on Kieran Street. Get your consignments in today! Visit the shop on facebook:

Now, children's:

A shout out for you local mama's who might be interested in getting a little more out of your children's old clothes. We're all a little guilty of spending a bit more during the boom and now is your chance to cash in on those name brands you bought for your kids. Almost anything but Penny's is accepted by The Clothes Line in good condition for consignment. That means, you trade in your clothes for credits to buy other clothes from the website. Maternity clothes being accepted as well. She's located in Passage East and accepts clothes by post and will post items to you-- no need to consign, either, buy these cheap deals outright!


More delicious treats and recipes to come! Summer is just around the corner-- any requests?

Banana Crunch Muffins

Sometimes those days arrive when you have a craving for a delicious sweet and in the corner of the kitchen you see some bananas getting a bit too ripe. Those days never happen to me because I absolutely love overripe bananas, but this time I sacrificed my bananas to make a nice treat for the family.

Now, I'll intro that I messed these up. Not really as they were still incredible, but my add-in didn't work the way I would have liked. I decided to use up old granola bars I made last week instead of making some granola or using pre-made granola. Next time I'll make some or just add in oats and nuts. Ooo, I bet a crunchy oats and nuts type of cereal would be fantastic!

On to the recipe.

Banana Crunch Muffins
adapted from Ina Garten, my hero

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 medium or large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large mashed bananas (if you want some chunks of banana in the muffin, dice one of the bananas)

2-3 cups add-in. Vary it. Granola, pecans, walnuts. I used a seed mix from Lidl. It had sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, cranberries... some other bits. I also broke up 2 homemade granola bars. Go crazy. Anything you think might be tasty with banana.

Direction

Preheat the oven 350F/180C.

Now, use muffin liners. Did you read that? Check it off in your mind? USE THE PAPERS. These muffins will stick to a muffin pan. You need those cupcake/fairycake/muffin cases.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

Add the melted butter and blend it together well with the dry ingredients.

Combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas.

Gently fold them into the flour mixture until its combined. Don't overmix. Stop when it all starts to look wet.

Use an ice cream or cookie dough scoop if you want, to put the batter into the cases. This will give you even muffins with the exact same amount of batter in each muffin. Top with granola and sugar if you'd like!

Fold in your add-in. Gently. DON'T OVERMIX.


Bake for 25- 30 minutes. Let them cool before you eat them.

Easter

I hope everyone had a nice Easter with their families, or perhaps a non-religious regular relaxing long weekend. Either way, I want to share a few pictures of the nearly half-inch thick sugar cookies decorated for Easter with royal icing I made as gifts. They are tender and buttery. These make great party favors! More information under 'What We Offer' if you are interested for your next event.

Unconventional Christening Cake

Your baby's cake needs no frills or pastels, go bold!

Cupcakes for your next occasion?

Next time a birthday or special event rolls around, consider a dozen or more decorated cupcakes. You can keep them as simple as these, or we can personalize them with whatever you'd like! The most important thing, these American-style cupcakes are moist and delicious, topped with vanilla buttercream.

A whole spread of cupcakes, instead of cake!

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The Boho Kitchen Page

New Cakes from March

Have had a few more cakes come in, still need to improve my photo skills. I'm lucky enough the last cake went to a friend who takes good pictures, so I snagged it. I'm loving the chocolate cake orders, mostly because I'm aware how utterly delicious my chocolate cake is.



Click the thumbnails to see larger images:

White Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

February 28th was my birthday. My quarter of a century on this Earth. So, while I make lots of amazing birthday cakes for everyone else, I wanted to have something a little different for myself. This was the result


Breaks my heart but as I sell these at my stall, I can't share the recipe. Sorry!!

However:

Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (without an ice cream machine!)
from David Lebovitz

Ingredients
1 cup milk
pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar (I used caster sugar, which is more fine)
1 vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan on low.
Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk.

Whisk egg yolks together in a large bowl.
Slowly add about half of the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks while continuing to whisk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

Cook over low heat (unless you want scrambled eggs!), stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

Strain the custard into the heavy cream.

Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping.

Pour into a roasting dish and allow to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Remove and give the mixture a bit of a whisk, and put the roasting tray into the freezer. Every 30 minutes, take it out and quickly whisk it very quickly, and put it back in the freezer. Within 3 hours it should be set. If its not, just leave it in there a bit longer. I simply scooped it out and put it into an old ice cream container! So decadent.