Wednesday Recipe: No-Bake Nutella Tart

Apr 25, 2018 | Cooking, Recipes | 0 comments

I am super busy with the Kickstarter campaign, so no time to bake, let alone test complicated recipes. Let’s go with something really simple this week: No-Bake Nutella Tart. The original recipe for this claims to require only five ingredients (also has much prettier pictures. I’ve whittled it down to four. It’s the perfect dessert to whip up in a hurry. Just keep Oreo pie crusts in stock (never a bad idea). In the photo above, I actually ran out and used a brownie mix as the base, pouring the ganache on top. Decadent!

NO-BAKE NUTELLA TART

In a small saucepan, heat heavy cream until just starting to boil. Add chocolate and reduce heat to a simmer, stirring until the chocolate is fully melted. Remove from heat and add Nutella, stirring until fully blended. (Note: you can also just heat the cream and chocolate in the microwave, but I like the stove for finer control.) Pour into pie shell. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes or in the fridge for 2 hours. Decorate with raspberries and chopped hazelnuts, if desired, then serve.

Wednesday Recipe: Lamb Chilindron

Apr 4, 2018 | Cooking, Recipes | 0 comments

I found the original version of this recipe in Tapas and Spanish Cookery by Hilaire Walden, and I adapted it to more Southwestern tastes, as well as simplifying it for Instant Pot cooking. As the descendent of many generations of sheep ranchers, I love lamb passionately, and this is probably my favorite lamb dish.

For those who do not live in the Southwestern United States, you can find adequate canned Hatch green chiles at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, but I recommend ordering El Pinto’s Green Chile on Amazon.com. Likewise, any red chile powder, or even some good quality smoked paprika, will do, but Hatch or Chimayo red chile powder is best. Note that if this seems too spicy to you, you can simply substitute bell peppers for the chiles.

LAMB CHILINDRON

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-1/2 lb lean lamb, cubed (lamb stew meat will do in a pinch)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 small Spanish onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup dry sherry (optional)
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup diced Hatch green chiles
• 4 beefsteak tomatoes, peeled seeded and chopped, or a 12-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon red chile powder

Set your Instant Pot to saute and heat the olive oil. Brown the lamb thoroughly, in batches if necessary. Remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Add the onion to the Instant Pot and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add sherry and deglaze the pot. Stir in green chiles, tomatoes, and red chile powder. If using fresh tomatoes, simmer for about five minutes until the tomatoes break down into a chunky sauce.

Return the lamb to the Instant Pot and stir briefly to coat with sauce. Close the Instant Pot and set it to Meat/Stew for 45 minutes. Allow the Instant Pot to depressurize naturally. Serve with rice. Serves 6.

Wednesday Recipe: Chocolate Waffles

Mar 28, 2018 | Cooking, Recipes | 0 comments

Wow! Look at that! I actually got my act together enough to post a recipe ON TIME! It must be all the gorgeous spring weather inspiring me.

I discovered this recipe entirely by accident. My younger daughter, Nora, requested waffles for her birthday breakfast – I always bring the kids breakfast in bed, and usually I make face pancakes. But she wanted waffles because I hadn’t made them in ages. Well, there’s a reason for that. They’re messy, they take forever to cook in the waffle iron, and they’re just annoying.

But necessity is the mother of invention. Dutifully, I dug out the waffle iron that morning at dawn, and then I went looking for the recipe book that came with it. No dice. I have absolutely no idea where it went. So I went to my go-to source for new recipes, The Joy of Cooking, which has several waffle recipes. And lo, I discovered that I had only one egg, which sharply limited what I could do. Most of the recipes were too complicated to easily cut down. All except the very last actual waffle recipe (I do not count French Toast Waffles, which is just french toast made on a waffle iron, I kid you not).

Chocolate waffles is a relatively simple recipe that does not require much in the way of exotic ingredients, nor many eggs. The original recipe calls for cake flour, which I completely ignored and used King Arthur all-purpose white flour instead. The results were surprisingly excellent. The batter becomes thick and foamy, almost like merengue, which makes for wonderfully light waffles. The flavor is rich and satisfying. The original recipe states, “Delectable with ice cream,” and I wholeheartedly agree, but for breakfast, I served them with warm raspberry sauce and whipped cream. For the face waffle, I used apple slices for the eyes and mouth and fried ham for the hair (bacon also works well, but that was a little too much multitasking at that hour of the morning).

The one downside to these waffles is that they dry out very quickly and get rather hard, so make sure to store any leftovers in air tight containers as soon as you’re done stuffing yourself. In my next attempt, I may try adding applesauce to improve the moisture level. I originally made a half-batch of this recipe, then made a triple batch a few days later to bring in to Nora’s class, and I had no trouble with either adjustment, other than that tripling the recipe was complete overkill, and we are still swimming in leftover chocolate waffles.

I’ve altered the recipe to make use of modern tools such as a microwave, which makes it considerably easier. The original recipe considers the cinnamon and nutmeg optional, but I think they’re essential to the rich, delicious flavor.

CHOCOLATE WAFFLES

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup milk

Place the butter and unsweetened chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and melt on 100% power for 1-2 minutes. If you put the chocolate on top, this will prevent the butter from splattering all over your microwave. Stir the butter and chocolate together until all ingredients are thoroughly melted. Add sugar and beat in well. Add eggs and beat in well. Stir in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to the egg batter in batches alternately with the milk, combining thoroughly until no lumps of flour remain. The batter should be fairly stiff, resembling merengue. If too stiff to spread easily, add a little more milk.

See that batter? It’s trying to escape! Apply sparingly to the iron to avoid messy spills.

Perfectly toasted chocolate waffles

Ladle sparingly onto a hot waffle iron. This batter rises a LOT, so try to just barely cover the iron. Otherwise, you’ll have batter overflowing the sides. Follow the directions for your waffle iron, but note that this batter cooks quickly (about twice as fast as Belgian waffles in my experience), so keep a close eye on them. Makes about 6 waffles, depending on the size of your iron.