Fail Cake

If you make this cake, try to avoid my mistake and actually follow all the directions. I promise, it will turn out much better for you. The main problems I had with this cake were: 1. I forgot sour cream so I substituted milk, and the batter was too runny; 2. I didn't have a bundt pan so I used an 8-inch springform, so the centre took forever to cook while the top dried out; and 3. I only had regular cocoa powder, so the leavening was off and it sunk in the middle. (Also I was too lazy to make ganache, which I think would have really added another dimension). That said, it was pretty tasty anyway. I am going to have to make it again, properly, and see how it goes.

Chocolate Stout Cake
1 cup stout (I used Guinness, but I would go for something richer next time)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
6 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules*

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a bundt pan well. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Beat eggs and sour cream in another bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan, then turn cake out onto rack for drizzling ganache.

Ganache:
For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of cooled cake.

*Since I didn't make ganache, I put the coffee powder in the cake batter.

Two Easy Sides

It was Elles Birthday Dinner, We had Duck, Wilted spinach and peppers, and Brown Butter Potatoes.

Wilted Spinach and Peppers

 1/3 cup Butter
2 onions peeled quartered and sliced about 1/4 inch thick
1 Sweet Pepper quartered and sliced (I used half Red and Yellow)
1 Pound spinach

Melt the butter in a large Pan (one pound of spinach is huge)
Over low heat saute the onions until just starting to carmelize.
Add the Pepper and just take the hardness off but leave the crunch.
Add the spianch and wilt.


Brown Butter Potatoes.

2 pounds Potatoes
1/4 cup butter.
Salt, and Pepper

Wash and cut the unpeeled potatoes, and place in a pot and bring to a boil and simmer until tender.
Put butter into a small saucepot and heat it until it melts over medium heat. Because butter contains as much as twenty percent water it will then begin to steam and foam. Once the water has evaporated the foam will subside and the butter’s temperature will begin to rise. The milk fat solids that are one or two percent of the butter will then begin to brown. Continue watching as it begins foaming a second time. Swirl it gently, watching the colour, until it turns golden brown and releases the aroma of toasting nuts. Immediately pour the browned butter into a bowl to stop it from browning further.
When the potatoes are tender mash in the butter and salt and pepper.

Easy Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients

Chicken Breast(s)

Tomato Sauce (meat free) - I use Classico jarred sauce. It really doesn't matter which one as long as it's meat free.

Breadcrumbs

Flour

1 Egg

Parmesan Cheese (grated)

Olive Oil

1- Pound your chicken breast with a hammer or a similar tool to make sure it is relatively the same thickness throughout. (don't skip this step, its actually important so that your chicken cooks at the same time)

2- Mix together equal parts of breadcrumbs and flour. I usually use a 1/4 cup of each for a large sized breast, but you can use more or less at your discretion. also for extra parmesaniness you can mix in about a tablespoon.

3- Beat egg in a separate bowl

4- Take the chicken that you beat-up earlier and coat it with the breadcrumb mixture, and then the egg, repeat this step until the chicken has a good coating or all the mixture is gone. (this part can be messy)

5- Heat enough olive oil in a frying pan to generously coat the bottom on medium to high heat

6- Cook you chicken in the pan until the outside is crispy (make sure that the chicken is completely cooked at this point)

7- Line an Oven-safe dish with tinfoil, this keeps the sauce from baking onto the dish and makes cleanup easier.

8- Put your cooked chicken in the pan and cover with sauce. Then cover the sauce with Parmesan cheese.

9- Put the pan in the oven under the broiler until the cheese is melty and the sauce is warm

10- Serve the chicken. I like to have this chicken with pasta on the side.

French Lentil Salad

This lentil salad is delicious, easy to make, and great either warm or cold. I make a lot of bean salads to take to campus for lunch, and this is by far the best one yet, much better than the mass of red lentils and red pepper in my fridge that is waiting for me to give up and just finish it. I could eat this salad every week and not get tired of it (and I might!).

French-Style Warm Lentil Salad
1 cup French green (Puy) lentils, picked over and rinsed (I had regular, so that's what I used)
3 cups water
1 Turkish bay leaf
½ tsp. salt, divided
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
5 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
2 Tbsp. plus ½ tsp. red wine vinegar
½ Tbsp. Dijon mustard
Crunchy sea salt, for serving
2 Tbsp. finely chopped Italian parsley, for serving

In a medium saucepan, bring the lentils, water, and bay leaf to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until almost tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in ¼ teaspoon salt, and then simmer, covered, for another 3 to 5 minutes, until tender but not falling apart.

While the lentils simmer, warm 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme, and 1/8 teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just softened, about 7 to 9 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette. In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons vinegar, mustard, and remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil, and whisk to emulsify.

When the lentils are ready, drain them in a colander or sieve, and discard the bay leaf. Dump them into the skillet with the vegetables, and add the vinaigrette. Cook over low heat, stirring gently, until heated through. Stir in the remaining ½ tsp. vinegar, and serve warm, with crunchy salt and parsley for sprinkling.

Hunter's Chicken

There's a place in Stratford that makes "Hunter Chicken." It's really, really good. I decided to try to make it myself. Because it's also really, really expensive!

So, here goes:

1/3 cup white all-purpose flour
3 T olive oil
3 T butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 kg skinless, boneless chicken thighs
6 slices bacon, chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups canned diced tomatoes
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 lb button mushrooms
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

1. Lightly coat chicken with flour.
2. Heat oil, butter & garlic in giant deep frying pan on high (be careful - try med/high and adjust). Saute chicken pieces thoroughly on each side until golden (6-8 mins per side). Take chicken out; set aside; keep warm.
3. Add bacon, onion, rosemary & thyme into pan and cook 2-3 minutes at medium. Deglaze pan with the wine. Cook 12-15 minutes on med. until cooking juices reduce and are completely absorbed.
4. Add tomatoes and put chicken back in pan. Add chicken broth, bay leaf, salt & pepper. Add mushrooms. (At this point, I also added a handful of cauliflower and carrots that were in my crisper. Obviously...this is optional...there might have even been a sprig of broccoli.)
5. Cover, reduce heat to lowest and cook very, very, very slowly for about an hour.

I didn't eat this yet. I turned off the heat, let it sit in the pan for 20 minutes, then put it into two beautiful casserole dishes, covered with plastic wrap and put in fridge.
I'm going to serve it tomorrow night.
I'll let you know how it turned out then.

Watch this space!

Notes After Dinner: I found there will still a lot of liquid in the stew. Some of the recipes called for corn starch, but I didn't like that idea. It could be served over rice to absorb the broth, but I don't care for rice and I was serving potatoes, so I didn't want to do that. Next time, I would add less broth and cook step 3 a little longer. It was very tasty, so it will definitely be worth refining the recipe.
K

Wining and Dining

First off, this lovely picture is thanks to Liza, who took control of the camera I was too lazy to do anything with. Second, my first attempt at making pot roast was pretty great, and with a few minor improvements I think it could be even more delicious (e.g. correctly estimate how much time it will take to cook so it ends up medium instead of well done; don't completely forget to add the vegetables to the stock, etc.) And of course, having people over to eat with me made it all the better.

I'm only giving the recipe for the roast, but we also had tiny potatoes roasted until crispy, a salad with mum's birthday vinaigrette (tasty!) and some roasted vegetables that Tannis brought, which included carrots, onion, sweet potatoes and apple. Plus a blueberry pie, which was inhaled too quickly to photograph, and a few bottles of wine.

All in all, quite a successful dinner party!





Boeuf à la Mode
Put in a deep bowl:
1 beef pot roast
Pour over the meat:
Red Wine Marinade (below)
Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Drain the meat and pat dry (I reserved one cup of the marinade and added it to the stock later). Heat in a Dutch oven over medium high heat:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Brown the meat on all sides. Pour off excess oil. Add:
5 cups beef stock or broth (I used 4 cups plus the marinade)
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, until tender, 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Towards the last hour degrease the simmering liquid and add:
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced onions
Cut the roast into thin slices and serve with the cooking liquid

Red Wine Marinade
Combine in a medium saucepan and simmer over low heat for 2 minutes:
2 cups dry red wine
1 small red onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs thyme
6 whole black peppercorns, cracked
1 bay leaf
2 whole cloves
Remove from heat and season to taste with salt. Let cool before using.

Elle's First Pie

 

Crust:
 Use the Double Crust Pie Dough Recipie.







For the Filling:

• 4 cups of apples peeled and sliced.
• 1/2 cup White Sugar
• 2 Table spoons Brown Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Ginger
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Cloves
• sprinkle of Mace
• 2 tbsp Corn Starch

To assemble:
Pre-heat oven to 450F
Roll out dough
Mix the filling ingredents in a bowl.
arange the filling in the bottom pie shell top with second crust.
Place in oven reduce heat to 375F bake about 45 Mins or until crust is golden brown.