Posting

This has been a busy month.  We've been traveling and had our family for the holidays.  I promise to start posting more regularly in 2012.  I also encourage you to comment or join my guest list.  

For those of you who regularly view this blog, I'm posting a special menu this week to celebrate my wedding anniversary.  I really enjoy making Bob (my husband) a very special dinner for the occasion and this will be a lovely meal.  Probably including a chocolate dessert since that's his fave...

Easy Apple Cornbread

Preheat oven to 350F

1 Granny Smith Apple (chopped finely and coated with sugar

1 box of cornbread mix (that makes six muffins)
1 egg
½ cup of heavy cream
¼ cup of sugar
¼ cup of melted butter Crisco®

In a small mixing bowl, put cornmeal mix.    Add chopped apples.  Coat the apple pieces with the cornmeal mix.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until well mixed.  Fill six muffin tins.  Bake for 20 minutes.

This recipe serves two to four people.  Double everything to make this for six to eight people.  Doubles and triples perfectly!

Spinach Souffle

10 oz. of frozen spinach, thawed
1 egg
1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of heavy cream

Butter and breadcrumb a two quart souffle baking dish for the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper.  If you have freshly grated nutmeg, add some of that to the mixture.  Pour into the casserole dish.

Alternatively, cover the casserole with a light mixture of additional shredded parmesan cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes or until casserole has risen and cheese is golden brown.

Apple Pie

APPLE PIE

8 Granny Smith Apples, peeled

½ cup of sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger (each)

2 cinnamon sticks

¼ cup of orange juice/cider vinegar

In a large bowl, place peeled apples, spices, juice, vinegar sugar and cinnamon sticks.  Mix thoroughly and allow the fruit to macerate for two to three hours.

Preheat oven to 350F

Prepare the pie:

2 pre-made pie crusts

Flour (if necessary)

1 rolling pin

Butter

Heavy cream

Seasonal Sprinkles

Roll out the first piece of dough roughly ½ inch wider than the pie plate you are using.  Fold in half and place in pie plate.  Mold the crust into the sides of the pan…you want the pie crust to be flush against the edges of the pie plate. 

Cover the first piece of dough with the apple mixture and pour the juice in the bowl over everything.  Dot liberally with butter. 

Roll out the second piece of dough to match the first piece.  Seal the edges and roll over to create a nice edge.  Pour heavy cream into your hand and rub your hands together, lathering the cream over the top crust.  Add sprinkles.

Bake for one hour.

Versatile Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate ganache sounds fancy but is ridiculously easy to make and is the most versatile chocolate ingredient you can produce in your home kitchen.  It is like the glue that binds chocolate desserts together, making any chocolate dessert that much better.  My way of doing it is foolproof and requires no double boiler.  The key here is equal amounts of ingredients.  Since this is a base sauce, I do not add sugar.  Only add sugar if you are using it as a cake topping.  Otherwise, make this ahead of time and store in fridge (good shelf life) for making chocolate truffles, chocolate fondue, etc.  I use European chocolate.

Chocolate Ganache

4 oz. of bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate

4 oz. of Nutella (Italian hazelnut spread, imported from Italy)
4 oz. of heavy cream, cold from fridge

Place the chocolate and Nutella in a deep glass bowl.  Nuke in increments of 30 seconds until chocolate is melted.  Add heavy cream and stir until you have a creamy chocolate sauce.  Use immediately to coat a cake or allow to cool and put it in a fridge container for future use.  Please note that occasionally I add two pats of butter depending upon what I’m using my ganache for and/or super fine sugar (no more than a tablespoon) or alternatively, corn syrup.

Triple Frosted Brownies

Triple Frosted Brownies

When these are served, folks who love chocolate basically swoon.  Using the brownie recipe that’s already blogged, you need Hershey’s chocolate syrup; any good canned frosting (I use Betty Crocker’s whipped milk chocolate) and the following chocolate glaze. 

Triple Frosted Brownies

Hershey’s chocolate sauce

1 can of Betty Crocker whipped milk chocolate frosting

1 cup of chocolate glaze

  

Make brownies.  When taken out of the oven, put on a rack to cool.  Brush the warm brownies liberally with chocolate syrup.  Allow to cool. 

When brownies are cool, spread the Betty Crocker frosting.  Let that set for a bit.

Glaze

 8 oz. of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate

1/3 cup of butter flavored Crisco

1 tbl. of Amaretto

1 tbl. of Nutella hazelnut spread

Heavy cream

Put all these ingredients in a glass measuring cup and nuke for 1 minute or until Crisco melts.  Take out of microwave and stir in heavy cream until a deep chocolate glaze develops with no lumps.  Instantly pour over the frosted brownies and just pick up the pan and tilt until all the surface is covered with the glaze.  Serve with Cool Whip or freshly whipped cream.

Ossobucco

Home chefs are sometimes concerned to try classic dishes which sound more complicated than they are.  Ossobucco is a perfect example…it’s just a braised stew.    It is not difficult to make but you do need some very special ingredients for it to be authentic and taste fabulous.  Veal stock does not appear on the shelves of many supermarkets so I make a batch about once a month and freeze it.  You can substitute chicken stock but it’s not the same.  I have yet to find veal stock on the Internet but I’m sure it’s out there somewhere.  Classic ossobucco is a Milanese recipe that originated in Italy.

For this recipe, you want to have brown veal stock.  (I have included a recipe for brown veal stock below.  There are other types of veal stock but we’ll save that for another time.)

The other key ingredient to this recipe is pancetta.  Pancetta is Italian bacon and it has a unique flavor which lends itself beautifully to ossobucco.

Prep time for this recipe is at least 30 minutes but once assembled, it just simmers away.  You can simmer it in the oven, in a crockpot or on top of the stove.  Just allow for a minimum of two hours of cooking time and the flavors will be layered properly.  I serve this dish over buttered noodles.

Ossobucco

Ingredients:

6 to 8 Veal Shanks
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
½ lb. of pancetta, diced
Olive oil and butter
4 cups of brown veal stock
1 big head of elephant garlic, finely chopped (that’s about six or seven big garlic pieces)
Fresh chives, finely chopped
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Italian parsley
Fresh Thyme
Dried mushrooms, reconstituted
Dry white wine (about two cups...I use a Pinot Grigio)
Salt, pepper and garlic

If using the oven, preheat the oven to 300F.   

Preparation:

In a large dutch oven, put two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and 2 pats of butter.  Over very slow heat, brown the pancetta.  I sometimes throw in pork fat too (never hurt anything) for extra flavor.  You want to cook this extremely slowly so it browns nicely but does not burn.  When the bacon is nicely golden brown, remove the dutch oven from the stovetop, fill a large glass bowl with a paper towel and spoon out the bacon.  (You are reserving the fat in the pan so do not discard this.) 

Put the dutch oven back on the stovetop.   Sauté the onion very slowly until translucent over slowest heat.   Remove the pan from the heat.  Spoon onions into a holding bowl.

While the onion simmers, take a piece of cheesecloth and make a spice garnish with the rosemary, any other fresh herbs you want to add.  Set aside.

There are many methods for preparing the shanks themselves.  Some chefs like to roast them at a high temperature in the oven.  That works very well and requires no attendance.  I prefer to braise the veal shanks in the dutch oven after the flavors have started to blend together.  You may need to add a tad more of the olive oil and butter.  Put the dutch oven back on the stovetop, and the heat should be around medium low.

To prepare the veal shanks, dry them.  Dredge them lightly in flour, salt and pepper them lightly. 

Slowly braise the veal shanks until they are golden brown.  Carefully remove them from the dutch oven and put them in a holding bowl.

Remove the reconstituted mushrooms from their liquid but reserve the liquid.  Slowly simmer the mushrooms and the chopped garlic over very low heat. 

When the mushrooms are golden brown, remove the dutch oven from the stovetop.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Put all the reserved ingredients back into the dutch oven.  Place the garnish in cheesecloth on top of the stew.  Finish the cooking process.

Some chefs like to add tomatoes to this dish but I like my version without tomatoes.  Some of the classic recipes also use celery but if you make the veal stock with celery, the flavor will be there and there is no reason to add celery.

Veal Stock

Veal stock is very simple to make.  For brown veal stock, I use a combination of beef consommé and chicken stock.  It is basically a stock used to make other dishes.  It freezes well so if you are taking the time to make this expensive stock, do a large version of it and freeze it.

Ingredients:

6 to 8 lbs. of veal bones (necks, shanks, etc.)
2 large yellow onions, chopped
2 fresh carrots, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
Four cloves of garlic, chopped
3 to 4 bay leaves
¼ cup of chopped Italian parsley (fresh)
3 to 4 sprigs of Rosemary
2      32 oz. cans of chicken broth
2 cans of beef consommé

Cut a piece of cheesecloth and put the bay leaves and rosemary in the center.  Tie the cheesecloth with twine and set aside.

 
In a large dutch oven, put 2 tbl. of extra virgin olive oil and 2 pats of butter. 
Prepare the veal bones exactly as we did in the above recipe.  Slowly simmer the veal bones until golden brown.  Add all the remaining ingredients.  Simmer for several hours.

Allow the stock to cool completely before freezing.  The little meat on the bones makes a great snack.