How To... Whip Cream in Under 60 Seconds!

Hello Friends! Hope your week is off to a fabulous start. I was out of town for work Sunday and Monday, but I'm back now (woot!) and also back to blogging. One of the things I'd like to blog more about in the coming year is how to do certain things in the kitchen - I'm not talking about certain recipes, I'm talking about skills we should all have so we don't have to buy the processed version or ideas for a better way to do something we might already do in our day to day culinary adventures. I posted a few how-to posts during 2011 (how to roast garlic, how to carmelize onions, etc), but I want to have more posts like that in addition to my usual recipes and wine suggestions.

So why not start the year off with something most of us love - home made whipped cream! Not that yucky processed stuff you spray out of a can. I'm talking creamy, decadent (and sinful) cream sweetened to taste with sugar and flavoured subtley with dreamy mexican vanilla. But sometimes we just don't have time to wait or maybe you don't want to listen to the stand mixer whip at full speed for 5 or so minutes while we wait for the cream to whip to the perfect consistency (if it even whips up properly on the first try).

Boy have I got a trick for you! If you're impatient like me, you'll love this one. Dump some cream in the small bowl of your food processor. Add some sugar and vanilla to taste (start with a couple tbsp sugar and a tsp or so of vanilla). Put the lid on and run the food processor until your cream whips to soft peaks. Check after 30 seconds to see how its doing - it will take just under a minute to be done perfectly every time. Just don't overwhip or you'll have butter. :)

Note that in my pictures, I'm whipping a very small quantity of cream (just enough for one mug of hot chocolate and then a couple extra spoonfuls for tasting - strictly quality control of course!!). This tastes perfect on a delicious mug of Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate.

Hope you find this useful! I know I was intrigued when I first saw this technique about a year ago (and yep, I'm just sharing it with you now!). Stay tuned for some great posts later this week.

Until then, Happy Baking my Friends!

Sauteed Mushrooms on Crostini

Starting to think about your Super Bowl party? Looking for some classy and delicious appetizers to serve to your guests that aren't the typical natchos that Superbowl parties are known for? Make this appetizer! It is so yummy tasting and quick and easy to make. This recipe is also versatile - pile it onto crosini for a simple appetizer, garnish a creamy soup with it, or top your barbequed steak with it! I am drooling right now thinking about how good this was.

Since I know you're busy and its a week night I will keep this post short! So - on to the recipe.

The Mushroom Thing
Recipe minimally adapted from The Girl Can't Cook

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 500g fresh wild and/or domestic mushrooms, sliced
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1 tbsp minced fresh rosemary
• a bit of fresh thyme

Method:

1. In a nonstick pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute, until the garlic just begins to colour lightly (not brown). Add the onion and cook a minute longer, then stir in the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.
2. If you are using any dried mushrooms in the mixture, cover them with cold water or white wine and microwave for 1 minute, then let them sit in hot liquid until they've rehydrated. Drain and combine with the fresh sliced mushrooms in the pan. Cook until the mushrooms give up their liquid and begin to colour, about 5-10minutes, then stir in the white wine. Cook until most of the liquid is gone.
3. If using cream, stir it in now and continue cooking until the sauce is reduced and thickened. Season with the fresh herbs and serve with toasts or crusty bread. Makes approximately 2 cups.
   
   

Happy Cooking my Friends! Wishing you a great week... only 4 days left til the weekend! :D

Celebration - 100th post!

I am celebrating with sparkling wine & delicious cake tonight! Tonight marks my 100th blog post since starting A Tale of One Foodie's Culinary Adventures in June. I can't believe I've completed 100 posts already - I feel like I just started my blog. I hope you have had as much fun reading my posts as I've had writing them. I wasn't going to do much to celebrate, but I decided to make a cake today and decided to try my hand at doing a bit of basic decorating. Definitely need lots of practice, but it was fun to have a theme and something to celebrate, so here we are!

I've included some step-by-step photos of making the cake. Making the cake didn't require much technical skill, but it did have a number of components, but it was definitely do-able in an afternoon. I used frozen strawberries so my cake isn't as beautiful as it would have been had I used fresh berries, but it still tasted delicious. I also substituted cream cheese for the mascarpone cheese because that was what I had on hand. This cake is a great way to use up lots of whipping cream if you have leftovers!

Since I'm celebrating tonight, I'll keep this post short. You can find the recipe for the cake here. The ingredients are quite basic - I had everything on hand I needed to make the cake. No pesky trip to the grocery store required today! Basic ingredients also result in being able to make this cake on a budget which is always a nice bonus.

For sparkling wine we decided to go with Yellowtail Bubbles from Australia. It is a nice, medium-dry sparkling wine with a lovely finish. It is really reasonably priced - about $15 per bottle in the BC Liquor stores. Nothing too upscale, but it still tastes delightful and the bubbles are just so fun!

So lets raise our glasses! Thanks to all of my great readers for following my blog and providing feedback to me. I've had a great time posting all 100 of my posts and hope for many more posts to come in the future.

Happy Baking my Friends! See you soon.

Chocolate Scones

If you're anything like me, you probably often buy a good sized container of heavy cream for a recipe you're making - just in case you need a bit extra. Only to find that you don't need that bit extra and then you end up racking your brain trying to come up with a way to use it up before it goes sour. Well, this recipe can help you out - it calls for a cup and a quarter of heavy cream! No more tossing leftover heavy cream in the trash!


These biscuits are really rich - so don't make them too big or you won't be able to finish them. The recipe actually calls to use them to make chocolate strawberry shortcakes so feel free to give that a try! Simply delicious. Since they're so rich, you might not be able to eat a whole batch - don't despair - they freeze beautifully so feel free to make lots if you have lots of leftover heavy cream!




Chocolate Scones
Recipe from Fine Cooking - Chocolate 2010, p 82


Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup + 3 tbsp unsweetened dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus about 3 tbsp for sprinkling
• 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp table salt
• 9 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 6 1/2 ozs semi sweet chocolate, grated or finely chopped
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, plus about 3 tbsp for brushing
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Line heavy baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder an salt together in a large bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients until largest pieces of butter are the size of small peas. Add grated chocolate and toss to combine. Combine cream and vanilla. Make well in center of dry ingredients and pour in cream mixture. Mix with a fork until dough is evenly moistened and just combined. Dough should look shaggy and still feel a little dry. Gently knead by hand 5 or 6 times to pick up any dry ingredients remaining in bottom of bowl and create a loose ball.
2. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and pat into an 8" square about 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Transfer dough to prepared baking tray and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Meanwhile, position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425F. Remove dough and trim about 1/4 inch from edges to create a neat, sharp edge. Cut dough into 12 squares and position them about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. With a pastry brush, brush the biscuits with a thin layer of cream and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake until the biscuits look a little dry and are mostly firm to the touch, about 18-20 minutes.

These biscuits are delicious tasting and a lovely treat! Make them on the weekend for a decadent breakfast - they go great with a nice strong cup of coffee. Or make them for chocolate strawberry shortcakes and impress your guests with a fun twist on the classic strawberry shortcake. I'm looking forward to Friday tomorrow! Should be the start of a fun-filled weekend!

Happy Baking my Friends!

The Ultimate Chocolate Mousse - From Scratch!

I'd like to start this post off by saying - sometimes you just need a chocolate fix - pure, rich and decadent chocolate. You don't care how many calories or how much fat, you just need chocolate! If this sounds familiar, this recipe is for you - rich, decadent and cloudlike chocolate mousse to the rescue! Serve it out of a martini or margarita glass for a fun effect. One thing to note - the recipe I use states that it only makes 4 servings... WRONG! This recipe should make 6-8 servings (I will make 8 next time I make it) - using 4 servings makes for way too much rich chocolate mousse to consume in one sitting!

This recipe is from my new cookbook Tyler's Ultimate by Tyler Florence. This guy is pretty awesome - his cookbook is full of beautiful pictures, helpful hints and of course delicious recipes! Be forewarned, photo quality for this post is severely lacking - I was way too excited to eat this mousse to take the time to take high quality photos - so please bear with me! This one left me in awe the other week when I made it and I really feel like I need to share it with you! So here we go:

The Ultimate Chocolate Mousse

Recipe from Tyler's Ultimate, p. 230

Ingredients:

• 6 ozs semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup chilled heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• whipped cream and chocolate shavings, for garnish (or whatever you have on hand - i used graham crumbs and fresh mint leaves)

Method:

1. bring about 1 inch water just to a simmer in a saucepan; put the chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl and set it over the pan, making sure it doesn't touch the water. Stir with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove bowl from heat and let mixture cool slightly. Then grab a whisk and beat the egg yolks into the cocolate one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 1/4 cup of the sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
3. In a chilled bowl, beat the heavy cream until it begins to chicken up. Add remaining 2 tbsp of sugar and the vanilla and continue beating until the cream holds soft peaks.
4. Now you've got the elements prepared! Stir a spoonful of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in the rest. Fold in whipped cream, taking care not to overwork the mouse or it will be heavy. Divide the mousse among 6-8 glasses. Cover and chill for several hours. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate shavings before serving.

Take the time to savour every delicious bite of this chocolate mousse! Its amazingly rich and will just blow you away. Honestly - its like the best chocolate dessert ever and satisfies even the most fierce chocolate craving. :)

Happy Baking my Friends!

Lemon Meringue Dessert

Ok, I've been procrastinating about writing this blog post ALL day. Now the day is nearly finished and I haven't blogged yet. :( So since I have nothing to do while my latest batch of bread dough rises, I will blog! I don't have any wine to tell you about today, so I'll tell you about an easy dessert to make this weekend. My inspiration comes from Jamie Oliver's TV show - Jamie at Home. He made his with lovely pears, chocolate, orange and hazelnut... but I didn't have that stuff on hand, so I made mine a little differently (and far more simple). There are three parts to this recipe - the meringue, lemon curd, and whipped cream.

First up - the meringue! I took this recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. It's easy, but be sure you have the time to to allow them to bake and dry out sufficiently.

Meringue

Recipe from Joy of Cooking p. 741

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup sugar

Method:

1. Beat egg whites, vanilla and cream of tartar in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat on high until meringue holds very stiff peaks.
2. Preheat oven to 225F.
3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Turn out meringue onto the lined tray and smooth it out into a rough rectangle shape. Leave it a little uneven so it looks rustic.
4. Bake in preheated oven for about 1 1/2 hours. Turn oven off and open door a crack and leave meringue sit in oven while it cools - for about one hour until its sufficiently dry.

Now that the meringue has been baked, make the lemon curd topping. Or, if you are really efficient, make the lemon curd while your meringue bakes!!

Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• juice from 2-3 lemons
• 3-4 tbsp butter

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 inch of water to a simmer. In a heat-proof medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar for about 2 minutes or until smooth. Whisk in the lemon juice until combined.
2. Place the mixing bowl on top of the pot of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir the mixture constantly, scraping with a spatula, until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat when it coats the back of the spoon.
3. Whisk in the butter, one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon when the piece before just about disappears into the mixture. Place in clean glass container with plastic wrap laid on top. This will prevent skin from forming. Store in refridgerator until ready to use.

Whip about 1 cup of whipping cream with vanilla and sugar to taste.

Now you're ready to assemble your dessert! Place the meringue (careful - its delicate and will break easily) on a wooden cutting board (remember we're going for the rustic look here!). Spoon the lemon curd over top and smooth out in a layer on top of the meringue. Sprinkle with graham crumbs (however may or few you like!). Then spoon the whipped cream over top. Garnish with more graham crumbs and grated lemon zest. Enjoy!

Remember not to assemble this dessert until right before you're ready to serve (you don't want the meringue to get soggy as the moisture is allowed back into it!) I hope you enjoy this dessert as much as we did. It is a rustic, casual dessert that is just fantastic following a family dinner. :) Happy Baking my Friends!