Chocolate Salami DeLuxe

Deluxe Chocolate Salami for the Holidays... I am well aware that chocolate salami is a rich dessert as it is, even in its plain form, so why make it even more decadent by adding some extra goodies? Well, that's exactly why: for me, chocolate can never be TOO decadent... 

Here's how I tweaked a holiday classic for this Christmas.

Ingredients:

8 oz dark (85%) chocolate, broken in pieces

3 tablespoons cocoa

5 oz butter biscuits

5 oz Amaretti cookies

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1/2-2/3 cup walnut pieces

zest of 1/2 medium orange

2-3 tablespoons rum extraxt, or Jamaican Rum or brandy

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

dried fruits: 4 dates, 4 apricots, 5 prunes (all chopped) and a handful of raisins

3 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup fine sugar

4 oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes, at room temperature

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the almonds and walnuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and bake them in the oven, until almonds began to toast (6-8 minutes). Set aside, and let cool completely. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over simmering water, blend in the cocoa, then set aside and let it cool.  In the meantime, crush the biscuits: put them in a large freezing bag and roll them with a rolling pin, but be careful not to turn them into dust. Crush the almonds and walnuts the same way. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the eggs one by one. Blend in the melted chocolate, the vanilla extract, rum extract (or Rum or Brandy), orange zest and the dried fruit, then fold in the crushed biscuits and nuts. Divide the mixture into three. Place one third of the mixture on a plastic wrap, then pulling the sides of the plastic wrap up, make a roughly salami shaped log. Cover it completely in plastic then firmly roll it up and down several times, to form a perfectly round sausage. Twist the two ends of the plastic wrap and tie it with a string. Repeat twice (to yield 3 logs). Refrigerate the logs until firm, for 1-2 hours. (Will keep in fridge for up to 2 weeks and in freezer for 2 months).

Note: you can roll the logs in powdered sugar (or walnut meal), to make it look more like a salami.

Mushroom Stuffed Zucchini

I turned some unused fresh zucchini from last week into Christmas Eve dinner... This was a first even for me, skipping meat altogether for Christmas Eve (we'll make up for it today, though, with some stuffed wine leaves: http://izaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/06/stuffed-wine-leaves.html). But it turned out to be not such a bad idea after all: it was really delicious, and quick AND easy to make, saving me a lot of time in the kitchen. Again, not an original recipe, there are many great recipes on the internet, I just combined 2 or  3,  with the following result:

 Ingredients for two:

2 medium (6-8 oz) zucchinis

1 shallot, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

6-8 oz brown button mushrooms, chopped

1/2 orange bell peppers, chopped

1 Roma tomato, seeded and chopped

2 tablespoon breadcrumbs

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 pinch red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence or Italian Seasoning

A handful Italian Parsley, chopped (1-2 tablespoons)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

A few slices of Cheddar or Parmesan

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Halve the zucchinis lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and some of the flesh, do not discard. Place the shells cut side up in an oiled 9 inch baking dish, season with salt and pepper. Finely chop the reserved zucchini flesh, the mushrooms and the rest of the vegetables. In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium, saute the onions and garlic until translucent (3-5 min), then add the mushrooms, bell peppers and tomatoes. Add the seasoning: pepper flakes, Herbes de Provence, salt and pepper, and cook until mushrooms release their juices, and the juices evaporate (5-10 minutes, but honestly, I didn't clock it). When the veggies are done, fold in the breadcrumbs and the chopped parsley, then stuff the zucchini boats with the stuffing, don't worry if the stuffing seems too much, just pile it over the zucchinis, the shells fit so tightly in the baking dish, the stuffing will stay on the top. Cover each shell with Cheddar or Parmesan slices, then bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown. Serve with a green salad and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Note: DO NOT precook the zucchinis. These small zucchinis will cook perfectly without pre-baking.

Cream of White Asparagus Soup

I forgot to  write down the recipe for this soup the first time I made it, so I had to improvise a little, again... I forgot the bay leaves, of course, but they were my own addition in the first place, anyway, so I don't think much harm was done.

This and all my cream soups are not for the purists, I tend to add so called "filling" vegetables to them in order to achieve a thick consistency without using too much cream, the flavor might suffer, but it's better for our waistlines. For this soup however I used a fair amount of half and half: I think the soup would be too bland without it.

Ingredients: 

2 bunch white asparagus, approx. 1 kg (2 lb)

4 medium white potatoes

3-4 stalks celery

2 shallots

2 tbs butter

2 l (32 oz)  chicken or vegetable broth

a dash of nutmeg or 4-5 fresh bay leaves

3/4 cup half and half

croutons, crispy bacon and parsley or basil to garnish (optional)

Preparation: Wash and trim the asparagus, setting aside the tips. Peel the potatoes and dice them. Wash the celery stalks and slice them. Roughly chop the onion and saute in 1 tbs butter on medium for a couple of minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables with 1/2 cup water, and cook uncovered for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the vegetables from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add the broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until all vegetables are cooked through. Add the nutmeg then let the soup cool a little before pureeing in a food processor or a blender. Add the half and half and heat the soup through before serving. Use the asparagus tips to garnish the soup along with croutons and chopped parsley/basil and/or crispy bacon (I'm using turkey bacon to cut down the calories and fat a bit). Just saute the tips in 1 tbs butter for 5-10 minutes, until they're tender. Enjoy!

Mediterranean Style Braised Eggplant

Rice U's Mediterranean grill has a wonderful Turkish eggplant salad/appetizer, which I've decided to replicate it at home. I was sure I can find the recipe online, but unfortunately the internet failed me this time. So I had to use my imagination again (hoping that my taste buds won't fail me) in trying to reconstruct the dish from memory. As a starting point I used the Imam Bayildi (The Priest Fainted) recipe, but stripped it down to its very basics, and instead of stuffing the eggplants with the onion-tomato sauce, I braised everything in the oven for 1.5 hours. As I understand, the Turkish secret to the perfect eggplants is cooking them for an extended time, until they become melt-in-your-mouth creamy. They also serve it at room temperature, rather than hot, straight out of the oven.

So, brace yourselves, my friends, this is what I came up with.

What I used:

2 large eggplants

1 onion

2 large ripe tomatoes (it's summer, so I used local, Texan heirloom tomatoes)

1.5 tablespoon sugar

Juice of 0.5 lemon

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

salt and pepper

a lot of olive oil. I didn't measure it, but I must have used about 1/2-3/4 cups.

How I made it:

First I washed and peeled the eggplants, cut them lengthwise in 1/2 inch slices, salted them, and left them drain in a colander for an hour. Then I rinsed them in cold water, patted them dry, and fried them on both sides in 1 tablespoon olive oil at a time, adding more oil as they soaked it completely up. I placed the eggplants in a greased ovenproof dish.

After that I prepared the sauce:

I chopped the onios, blanched the tomatoes, removed their skins and sliced them. Then I caramelized  the onion with 1 tbs sugar in 1 tbs olive oil, on medium high heat (5 min), then I added the tomatoes, lemon juice, 1/2 tbs sugar, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, seasoned the sauce with salt and freshly ground balck pepper and coked it for 10 minutes. When the sauce was ready, I poured it over the eggplants...

...then I added 1/2 cup water, covered the dish with aluminum foil, and braised it in the preheated oven (at 325 degrees) for an hour, then uncovered it and baked it for 20 minutes more.

Serve it at room temperature as an appetizer, or as a side dish with baked chicken.

Note: the result tastes different than the dish served at Rice, but it's darned good nonetheless. Next time, for a more similar taste, I might skip the onion, and increase the amount of sugar and lemon juice, for a more pronounced sweet-and-sour flavor.

Potato, Kale and White Bean Soup

I adapted some Spanish/Portuguese Kale Soup recipes found on the internet, to make the soup just a little lighter, without skipping the meat altogether. So, instead of chorizo I used smoked turkey legs. A few weeks back, when I made this soup for the first time, I actually used turkey bacon, which made it even lighter. This picture was taken then, and as you can see, the vegetables overpowered the kale a little - so at Peter's suggestion (who wanted a kale soup more similar to my Lettuce and White Bean Soup, recipe to follow), I increased the amount of kale from 1 bunch to 2.

Ingredients (makes 8 servings):

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 bunches of kale, cleaned, thick stems removed, and cut in 1-1.5 cm strips

3 medium potatoes, diced

4 medium carrots, sliced

1 (14 oz) can white beans (or any beans of your choice, really), rinsed

1 smoked turkey leg, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced

64 oz chicken broth

2 Tbs olive/sunflower/vegetable oil

Preparation:

Heat the oil on medium in a large soup pot, saute the onions for 5 minutes, add the turkey, and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the carrots and the potatoes, add a little water (about half a cup) and cook covered for ten minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. In the meantime, in a large skillet wilt the kale, until almost done  - just add a little water (about 3/4 cup), and cook covered for 5-7 minutes. After ten minutes of sauteing, add the broth to the vegetables and turkey, cook for 15 minutes, then add the wilted kale, the minced garlic and the rinsed beans, and cook for another 5 minutes. It's best served with freshly grated Parmesan (we skipped it now, but maybe we won't next time). Enjoy!

Savoy Cabbage Salad with Sauteed Chicken Thighs

Peter was craving some Savoy Cabbage salad his Aunt in Austria once made him. It's supposed to be a very basic creamy cabbage salad. Since I couldn't find anything simple and basic enough on the internet, I borrowed some ideas I found on the web, and added caraway seeds, mustard and some lemon juice to the the dressing. The honey is my own idea (and I might need to use more next time, because I feel the dressing needs something sweet to offset the tanginess of the sour cream and lemon juice)

Ingredients:

1 Savoy Cabbage

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground carraway

freshly gorund black pepper to taste

3/4 - 1 cup sour cream

1.5 tablespoon mustard of your choice (you can use Dijon, I just don't like Dijon mustard)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon honey (use more, if you like the sweetness of coleslaw)

Preparation:

Finely chop the cabbage, season with salt and leave to rest for half an hour. Prepare the salad dressing: mix the sour cream, mustard, honey and lemon juice well together, season with freshly ground black pepper and the caraway. Rub the salt into the cabbage with your hands, pour the salad dressing over and toss well. Leave to cool in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, preferably overnight. Serve with baked/grilled/roast chicken or pork. We served it with sauteed boneless chicken thighs seasoned with caraway, and mashed potatoes.

How to make the sauteed caraway chicken: season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and cook them in a little olive oil on both sides for about 2 minutes, add a teaspoon of caraway seeds and 0.5 cups dry white wine, then cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until the juices have reduced by half, then remove the lid and cook the thighs uncovered a few minutes more, until they're nicely browned.

Domaine Amido, Lirac 2009

Another great French wine for the price (in the $10-15 range). We discovered it on Central Market's French Festival. Unfurtunately,  last week when we tried to restock our supplies CM was out... and I'm afraid they might be out for foog. What a shame that would be!

Baked Chicken Patties

I tweaked an Italian "polpette" recipe a bit for these baked chicken patties/meatballs. The original recipe called for beef instead of chicken and was a very basic meatball recipe: using only milk soaked bread, egg and meat, then topped with tomatoes, mozzarella and anchovies. I added onions and garlic and modified the seasoning az well: instead of fresh oregano I used dried Herbes the Provence (Italian seasoning works just as well).

In this process, I think I've found the secret to the best (juicy and flavorful) meatballs... It's onion, lots of it (and garlic, of course).

Ingredients:

1 lb ground chicken

4 cloves of garlic

2 medium yellow onions or 4 shallots

1 slice of white bread, crust removed

4 tbs milk

1 large egg
2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

2 tbs breadcrumbs for the meat

1/2 cup breadcrumbs for dusting the meatballs

Olive oil for frying

2 large ripe and juicy tomatoes

fresh mozzarella

1 can anchovies

About 1 tbs Herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Gently heat the milk with the bread, until all milk is absorbed by the bread. Let cool slightly. Chop the garlic, bread and onions in a food processor then mix them together with the meat, 1 egg, 2 tbs olive oil, 2 tbs breadcrumbs, 1 tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper. Shape the mixture into medium sized patties. Spread the remaining breadcrumbs on to a plate, and roll the patties in them to coat thoroughly.  Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and fry the patties for about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer the patties into a greased baking dish, and top each of them with one slice of tomato. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and Herbes de Provence, then place the mozzarella slices on top, then finish with one-two strips of anchovy. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown. Serve hot with mashed potatoes and a mixed salad.

Serves 6.

Chicken Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Bean Chili

My (composite) recipe for Mexican stuffed peppers with bean chili. Most likely it's not very authentic (apparently beans and chili don't exactly mix), but it's a great dish nonetheless.

My husband asked me to serve some kind of a chili with the peppers, when I first made Mexican stuffed peppers, so I combined a few recipes I found on the internet, and this is what I came up with (roughly  - recipe can be freely altered, ingredients added or left out, quantities changed to fit your personal taste).

The dish will serve four hungry people.

Ingredients for the stuffed peppers:

4 poblano peppers

1 lb chicken breast or chicken thigh meat, cubed in small, 1/4 inch pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 peeled and chopped tomatoes and 4 oz tomato sauce, or one 14 oz can chopped tomatoes

0.5 lb mushroom (optional), finely chopped

0.5 teaspoon ground cumin

0.5 bunch cilantro

1 cup grated Cheddar

1 tbs lime juice

2 tbs olive oil or vegetable oil

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Ingredients for the chili:

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1  (14 oz) can black beans, drained and washed

1 (14 oz) can kidney beans, drained and washed

1 cup frozen corn (thawed) or 1 (14 oz) can corn

1 (14 oz) can tomato sauce

prepared chili con carne seasoning, or: 

1 teaspoon chili powder or crushed pepper flakes

1 teaspoon ground cumin

a pinch of cayenne pepper

half a bunch of cilantro

1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil

Preparation:

Position oven rack 4 inches from boiler, and heat broiler on high. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Slit the poblano peppers from stem to tip, remove the seeds, place them on the baking sheet and broil them turning once, until skin is blackened and charred all over (approx. 10 minutes). Place the peppers in a zipper bag or in a small glass bowl with a lid, and let them cool for at least 10 minutes. Remove the blackened skins and place the peppers in an oiled baking dish.

Prepare the meat: In a large skillet heat 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil on medium high heat, and saute the onion and garlic until softened and translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the meat and cook on medium until meat is no longer pink. Season with salt, pepper and cumin, then stir in the tomatoes and the tomato sauce, bring to a boil and add mushrooms. Cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the mushrooms and the meat are fully cooked. Stir in the cilantro and the lime juice.

Divide the filling among the peppers, stuff them and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees until cheese is melted and begins to brown (about 30 minutes). You can speed up the process by using the baking sheet you broiled the peppers on and just broiling the stuffed peppers for about 10 minutes (in this case, you might want to prepare the chili before broiling the peppers):

Preparing the chili: saute the onions and garlic in 1 tbs olive or vegetable oil for 5 minutes, add the chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin and cook for 1 minute, making sure not to burn the spices. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato sauce, cook for 5 minutes, then stir in the beans and the corn and cook for another 10 minutes. When ready, stir in the cilantro and serve the chili with the peppers and steamed rice of your choice.