Tag: cooking

Chocolate-Cherry Blondies

by Pam on October 1, 2012

I found this recipe in a recent Everyday Food that looked perfect for my kids. I adapted it a bit by halving the recipe, using some whole wheat flour, and mini chocolate chips because that is what I had on hand. My family likes then under cooked a bit so they are gooey. If your prefer them fully cooked then add a couple of minutes to the cooking time. They turned out to be a huge hit for their after school snack and both kids gobbled their blondie up in seconds. They said they really loved the tart cherries with the rich chocolate… I have a feeling my husband is really going to love them too.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8×8 glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine the flour with the baking soda and salt then mix well.

Using a mixer, beat the sugars together with the butter until creamy and smooth. Add the egg and vanilla then beat until mixed thoroughly. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until combined. Add the cherries and chocolate chips and mix. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Place into the oven and bake for 28 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan before slicing and serving. Enjoy.

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Chocolate-Cherry Blondies

Yield: 9

Prep Time: 10 min.

Cook Time: 28-30 min.

Total Time: 38-40 min.

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour
1/4 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of dried cherries
1/2 cup of mini semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8×8 glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine the flour with the baking soda and salt then mix well.

Using a mixer, beat the butter together with the sugars until creamy and smooth. Add the egg and vanilla then beat until mixed thoroughly. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until combined. Add the cherries and chocolate chips then mix. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Place into the oven and bake for 28 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan before slicing and serving. Enjoy.

Adapted recipe by For the Love of Cooking.net
Original recipe by Everyday Food

References

^{^} Print Recipe (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)

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Pot-roast partridge with savoy cabbage

I felt so guilty all of yesterday for the carpet disaster that I set about making a very elaborate partridge thing for my husband’s dinner, using the two partridge he had bought on an impulse at the Farmer’s Market the previous Saturday.

This was a slightly over the top thing to have on a cold November weeknight but I think my husband liked it – though I had a sudden and unexpected massive attack of nausea at 7.45pm so couldn’t eat a thing.

This would be very good for a dinner party – everyone gets their own partridge and the sides are straightforward and easy to do in bulk. I’m sure you could do this with quail, as well. Or pheasant? Or are pheasant huge?

Pot-roast partridge with Savoy cabbage

For the partridge

2 partridge
1 small savoy cabbage
2 carrots
1 medium onion
2 bay leaves
4 sage leaves
4 sticks thyme, leaves picked off
2 sticks celery
1 glass white wine
1 pint chicken stock

For the cabbage
(you do not have to have cabbage with this. Maybe some lovely mash instead, or a cauliflower cheese?)

1 cabbage
1 small onion
4 rashers streaky bacon
1 tbsp cream if you have it

1 In a casserole pan with a lid, melt some oil and butter and then brown the partridge all over. Do this quite thoroughly – I’d say for about 6 minutes in total. Once browned, remove the birds to a plate and take the casserole pan off the heat.

2 Now make your mirepoix. Don’t panic! I will explain what this is.

A mirepoix is a mound of very finely-chopped onion, celery and carrot, (although there are variations on this), which makes up the base of a lot of French sauces and soups. This is one of the reasons to own an incredibly expensive, very sharp knife from the likes of Global. Ask for one for Christmas! (I am not on commission)

Chopping up carrot and celery very small is easy enough, but I always struggle with onion. What I tend to do is try my best and then when it all starts going to piss and slipping about everywhere, I just go over it with my knife in a levering motion to get the rest really small. Not what Jamie would do BUT HE’S NOT HERE 🙁

Anyway so that is a mirepoix. Make one of these and then add to it your bay leaves, thyme leave and torn sage leaves.

This is a mirepoix. The veg could stand to be even smaller but I am a bit ham-fisted.

3 Add the mirepoix to the recently-vacated casserole pan and cook this over a medium flame for 4 minutes. I chose to stir this a lot to stop the onions from catching and it was a good idea. After this time, add your glass of white wine and turn the heat up so that it all bubbles down to just a thin pool of liquid at the bottom of your casserole. This takes a few minutes.

Now add your stock – it really must be decent stock, not from a cube – and put the partridge back in. Put the casserole with a lid on in a 180C oven.

The recipe I followed, although good, left the partidge rather scarily underdone as it only specified a 15 min cooking time. So if I were to do this again I would do 15 min with the lid on and then 10 mins with the lid off. Another benefit of this is that partridge can have an unfortunate greyish tinge to the skin and taking the lid off allows the top to brown, which is so important for presentation. And, because this is a pot-roast, you don’t have to worry about the partridge drying out because it is protected by the surrounding liquid.

4 While the partridge is cooking, shred the savoy cabbage and chop up the onion and bacon. Sweat the onion for a few minutes in some butter and oil and then add the bacon. Cook this for about four minutes and then add the cabbage. Put a lid on and leave for another four minutes. I was not happy about leaving this with so little liquid so added a ladleful from the partridge cooking sauce. In all I reckon I cooked the cabbage for about 10 minutes. The recommended 4 minutes just left it raw and crunchy. I finished the cabbage with some cream I had knocking about.

4 Once the partridge is done, remove and put somewhere to rest and keep warm. Put the casserole pan back on the hob and give it a good boil to reduce the sauce. Season generously with salt and pepper after it has reduced.

5 Serve with a pile of cabbage, a partridge (on or off the bone, up to you) and the cooking sauce.

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Mushroom Fennel Quinoa Stuffing

This savory quinoa stuffing is a delicious, protein-packed, gluten-free alternative to traditional stuffing.

A wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving table, or perfect to serve any night of the week. Serve this along side a roasted chicken, turkey breast, or make it a meal by adding sauteed turkey sausage.

And just a side note, my uncle who doesn’t like quinoa was really impressed with the flavors in this dish. I think I may have converted him *smile*.

Mushroom Fennel Quinoa Stuffing
gordon-ramsay-recipe.com
Servings: 7 • Size: 3/4 cup • Old Points: 2 pts • Points+: 3
Calories: 136 • Fat: 4 g • Carb: 21 g • Fiber: 3 g • Protein: 5 g • Sugar: 1.5 g
Sodium: 113 mg

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed well
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth (vegetarians use veggie broth)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3/4 cup fennel, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup carrots, diced
8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms
salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook rinsed quinoa in broth according to package directions.

While the quinoa is cooking, in a large heavy sauté pan add olive oil to the pan, then the onion, sauté one minute. Add the fennel, celery, and carrots, salt and pepper to taste; cook about 12-15 minutes over medium heat, until vegetables are soft.

Add the mushrooms to the pan, more salt and pepper if needed and cook, stirring 5 minutes, then cook covered for 2 minutes, or until the mushrooms have released their juice and are cooked through. Add the cooked quinoa to the pan and mix well.

Makes 5 1/4 cups.