What the pho?

The October Daring Cooks' challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the Steamy Kitchen. The challenge was Vietnamese pho and fried dessert wantons. All these recipes you can find in her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

This was a perfect challenge as the last few weeks the weather is Northern California has been cold.If you live in Berekely, CA you can understand what I mean. Hot soup on a cold night. Perfection!

The husband was surprised when he got home to see a nice hot bowl of beef pho waiting for him. He claims that he can eat pho 365 days a year and still not be sick of it. Wow!

I heart any kind of noodle soups. I love adding slices of fish cakes or thinly sliced beef.

The second part of this challenge was to make dessert wantons. I love to eat fried foods, but I don't like cooking them at home. I get paranoid about all the leftover cooking oil and seeing the food cooked in the oil turns me off to actually eating the completed product.

I decided to bake my dessert wantons instead of frying them. I was on a apple/pear phase when I made these. I sauteed chopped apples/pears with a little butter and cinnamon. Filled them up in the wantons and baked them 10 mins on each side at 350 degrees.

These came out sooo yummy. Add some ice cream and it makes a great dessert. Hot soup for dinner and a cool dessert to cool you down.

My indian experience

Did I ever tell you that I never really liked indian food until I started interning in college. My internship was working at a software company owned and run by Indians. I learned a lot during my internship. Not only did I gain a lot of work experience, but I learned a lot about another culture especially their food.

My favorite indian dish? It has to be aloo gobi hands down. What's aloo gobi? Its curried potatoes and cauliflower. I think of it as comfort food. This month the daring kitchen presented us cooks with a special indian treat, Dosa!

Dosa are a Southern Indian pancake that you would eat with either chickpea or lentil curry. I decided to pair mine with aloo gobi. Yowza! This was tasty!!! What an awesome cooking challenge!!

I can be your hero baby.....

I can try, but I don't think I would be good at it. Unless being a hero consist of baking. :) Clara from Iheartcuppycakes is bringing CupcakeHero back. TOot Toot!

What? You do not familiar with CupcakeHero? Think of Iron Chef meets the wonderful world of cupcakes. Each month a new ingredient is thrown down and participants submit their recipes along with photos incorporating that secret ingredient.

This month its BANANAS. Now if you follow iheartcuppycakes, she has made it pretty clear that she does not particularly fond of bananas. When this was first announced, I had to double take to make sure that I was seeing things right. Ha ha!

Without further waiting...I present to you Banana Royale Sundae Cupcake!

Banana cupcake layered with strawberry and chocolate cake topped with whipped cream and sprinkles.

• 3 cups cake flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup mashed banana, about 1 large ripe banana
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup strawberry preserves warmed in microwave
  
• red food coloring
• 1/2 cup instant cocoa
• 8 ounces of heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup of powder sugar
  

Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. Line cupcake pan with liners.

In large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed until light, about 30 seconds. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In medium bowl, mash banana. Add sour cream, milk and vanilla; stir to combine. Add dry ingredients alternately with banana mixture to creamed mixture; beat well after each addition.

Reserve 2 cups batter in 2 bowls -- 1 cup of batter in each bowl. Stir strawberry preserves and food coloring into 1 cup of the reserved batter. Stir instant cocoa mix into the other cup of reserved batter. Spoon half of the plain banana batter into pan. Top with strawberry batter. Spoon more plain batter over this. Top with cocoa batter. Bake at 350° for approx 15-18 mins or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes on a wire rack. Whip heavy whipping cream and powder sugar together until stiff. Pipe whipped cream on cooled cupcakes. Add sprinkles if desired.

I sent these cupcakes off to doggy day care along with the dog. I think my dog gets better treatment when the dog handlers are well fed. Wink wink. I saved a cupcake for my best friend. She loved it and was disappointed that there was only that one for her.