My rotation has been keeping me plenty busy. Unfortunately, that means JC and I are eating out more often than we would like to. We have become regulars at a new restaurant in town called Impress Hot Pot. This place is the real deal. If you want to feel like you're walking into a restaurant in China, go to this place. It is owned by a UA business student who couldn't find his favorite foods from home here is Tucson. Obvious solution: open you're own restaurant! If you've never heard of hot pot, it is similar to fondue/shabu shabu (depending on what language you want to speak). You have a piping hot bowl of soup on a hot plate in the middle of the table. You're served a variety of raw dishes including thinly sliced meats, vegetables, meatballs, and noodles to dip in the soup and enjoy. They have a wonderful "make-your-own-sauce" station with a mix of different condiments like garlic, ginger, satay sauce, cilantro, cilantro, sesame oil, chili oil, and even peanut butter. They serve two kinds of broth: spicy and house soup. Spicy is an understatement. It should be called boiling, bubbling broth of lava from the deepest parts of hell--yeah, it's that spicy. When it comes to your table, you can see the hot broth loaded with chili oil and little floating bits of spices to add flavor and more heat. The other soup broth is a non-spicy savory broth that I personally enjoy more. It's still delicious and you're not in pain while trying to enjoy your dinner.
We brought some of our "white friends" here last week and basically asked for white person spicy level. This was perfect. The chef went easy on the spices and it was great. We ordered a mix of pork, beef, lamb, napa, asian mushrooms, vermicelli noodles, shrimp meatballs, and fish meatballs. When you add all of these wonderful flavors, you make a tasty soup and it's perfect for dipping in your homemade sauce.
One of my other favorite things at Impress are the cold dishes. My absolute favorite is the spicy beef tongue. Now, before you judge me, you need to try this dish. I know there are a lot of skeptics out there that will jump to conclusions about the taste and texture of beef tongue, but seriously, it is delicious. I have a firm belief that I will try anything once before I jump to conclusions. Scratch that, almost anything. The one thing I couldn't stomach was blood from the neck of a freshly slaughtered goat in Kenya. That crossed the line. Otherwise, I've had the opportunity to have palm weevil larvae in Ecuador and chicken feet, tripe, tendon, and fish eyes are all staples out of my grandmother's kitchen. Back to Impress. This dish is a mix of beef tongue, tripe, cilantro, and a spicy oily sauce. It is the perfect combination. Also, they use a special pepper called ma la from the Sichuan province in China. It's unique in that rather than the spicy burning your mouth, it makes your mouth feel numb and alter the flavor of other things. For instance, eat a few bites of this dish, and your plain water will taste like someone threw rotten lemons in it. Have I convinced you yet? I should be a restaurant critic.
Now that everyone is familiar with one of my favorite restaurants, I'll talk about the wonderful, cute cupcake I made this week. One of my favorite flavor combinations is strawberry and nutella. It is the inspiration for a mouth-watering crepe filling and so I thought I would adapt it into cupcake form. I did a little searching and found the strawberry cupcake recipe from Sprinkles' Cupcakes. The texture and moistness of the cake was just perfect, but the strawberry flavor was lacking and they turned out this terrible grey color. Next time, I think I will puree the strawberries and then reduce it on the stove for a bit. That will pull out the water, giving the mix a brighter color and stronger flavor. The real star of these treats was the frosting. I could not have asked for a better product. The frosting firmed up just perfectly and had a rich hazelnut flavor. This recipe could easily be adapted by using any other sort of spread with the same consistency as nutella. Enjoy these little cuties!
Strawberry Mini Cupcakes
adapted for mini cupcakes from Martha Stewart
- 2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a four 12-cup mini muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.
- Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
- Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 10-15 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.
Nutella Frosting
from Crepes of Wrath
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup Nutella
- 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- Combine the butter, Nutella, powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon of milk. Mix well with electric mixer, adding more milk as needed to make a fluffy spreadable frosting.
- Makes enough to pipe frosting onto over 48 mini cupcakes. If you want to just spread the frosting on, I’d half or even third the recipe.The extra frosting can be kept in the fridge in an airtight container.
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