Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake

This was the dessert that I decided to make for Valentine's Day. It turned out well, although the cake was a bit dry, at least before I added the strawberries and whipped cream. I had some issues with ingredients again on the way. I didn't have enough shortening and had to add some butter (only ended up using margarine instead, because I needed it to be softer). I don't think it was a huge deal, as I was pretty close to the right amount of shortening to begin with. In retrospect, I should've just softened some butter, the flavor probably would have been better. But, all in all, a successful Valentine's Day dessert.

My original plan was to cut the cakes in heart shapes. But, the cake ended up thicker than I thought. Also, when I pulled out the heart cookie cutter, it was sort of rusty, and that's no good.

CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 whole eggs or 3 egg whites
1 quart fresh strawberries, rinsed and sliced
1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients in order listed, except strawberries and whipping cream. Beat with mixer on low speed, scraping bowl constantly for 30 seconds. Beat on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally, for 3 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 13x9-inch pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool cake completely.

Cut into squares. Place 2 or 3 squares in dessert cups and layer with small amount of strawberries and whipped cream. Garnish with a whole berry.

Makes 15-20 shortcakes

Iron Chef Blogger Challenge: Turnips!

I'm sort of cheating with this blog, because while I did make a turnip recipe, I didn't like it that much. I made a turnip puff, which is basically a bunch of boiled mashed vegetables mixed with bread crumbs and egg to make sort of a casserole. The recipe I liked to is actually to make a parsnip puff. However, you can replace the pound of parsnips with a pound of turnip. Be sure you peel the turnip, and you just cut into cubes before boiling. The texture was sort of weird, and I wasn't crazy about the nutmeg involved either.

I'm also going to link to a turnip recipe that I actually like: The Lady's Pork Stew. (The recipe is a ways down the page.) It's really good, but don't listen when she says to leave the skin on the turnips. I think they're way too bitter. The downside is that it can sometimes be difficult to tell the turnips from potatoes in the finished product; which is better stressful for any vegetables haters you may have in your life.

I also roasted some new potatoes, and the most exciting bit - I fried chicken! I've never really done that before, except to make oven-fried chicken. But, I was very proud. It didn't quite get done and I had to finish it in the oven, but it was so delicious. And, I'm going to list that recipe today instead, because I recommend it much more highly than weird turnip puffs!

As a side note, I had the most amazing mac and cheese for lunch today, after Travis took me to the aquarium for Valentine's Day. It had cremini mushrooms, chicken, smoked bacon, and truffle oil. What a lovely day! Now, I'm taking some chocolate shortcake out of the oven (for chocolate strawberry shortcake later) and preparing to sear some duck breasts for dinner. In retrospect, this place might be cleaner if I didn't cook so much... oh well!

Southern Fried Chicken (from the Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook)

3 eggs
1/3 cup water
2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon pepper
One 1 - 2 1/2 pound chicken, cut into pieces (I just used thighs and drumsticks)
Crisco shortening for frying (I didn't have enough, so I used peanut oil as well)

Season chicken and return it to the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours. I used some seasoning salt a garlic powder/salt/pepper mixture that I keep in a little tupperware container.

Beat eggs with water. To just enough self-rising flour to coat all the chicken, add black pepper. Dip seasoned chicken in egg; coat well in flour mixture. Fry in a dutch oven (or I guess a fairly deep cast iron skillet) in moderately hot shortening (350 degrees) until brown and crisp. (I used about an inch of oil... I don't know if that's right, but internet research led me to believe it was reasonable.) Remember that dark meat requires longer cooking time - about 13-14 minutes, compared with 8-10 minutes for white meat.

Note: My chicken was not done after the allotted time, so I put it in a 400 degree oven for a few extra minutes. (It was already pre-heated from the turnip puff. Is it just me, or does just the name turnip puff sound strange? Ah well.)

Easy Coffee Cake

This coffee cake is very, very tasty. It actually is pretty much exactly like this amazing cream cheese bread that my friend Jennifer used to make, back when I worked at DSS in North Carolina. I made it for breakfast on Sunday. Even after trying to slim it up as much as possible (using neufchatel cheese instead of cream cheese, etc.), it is still definitely not a healthy breakfast. After the first day, I switched it to a dessert. Travis liked it as well, enough to take it out of the fridge for more during the week (which doesn't always happen).

The recipe is from the Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook, by Paula Deen.

2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 cup sugar
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg separated
1/2 cup whole pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread one can of the crescent rolls in the bottom of the 13x9 pan. Pinch all the edges together to make one sheet. Cream together 3/4 cup of sugar, cream cheese, vanilla and egg yolk till creamy and smooth. Spread over crescent rolls. Top with the second package of crescent rolls. Again, pinch together all the edges to make it one sheet. Beat the egg white until it is frothy, spread on top. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and pecans. Bake 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

Iron Chef Blogger Challenge: Alcohol!

This week we finished a full rotation of the Iron Chef Blogger Challenge! It was back to Sarah to pick the ingredient, and she chose alcohol. It could be any variety, as long as you didn't just pour and drink it.

I had been planning on making Chinese food for Sunday dinner anyway, so it worked out well. I decided to make these Soy Sauce Fish Fillets, from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong. You can pick from a lot of different types of fish, I chose salmon. The fish is poached in a Red Master Stock, which is primarily sherry and soy sauce. I had never poached anything before, so it seemed like a good choice.

You can see my ingredients below. The recipe calls for both light and dark soy sauce. I bought some dark soy sauce at a nearby Asian grocery store. I had read online that Kikkoman is all light soy sauce. If we're all being honest with each other, I'm not sure I could tell a color difference, so I may have used all one or the other.


I had to do a lot of ingredient substitution... you have a choice of shao hsing wine or sherry (I already had sherry). The recipe calls for sesame oil, which I didn't have (I threw some sesame seeds in the stock though) as well as star anise and a cinnamon quill, which I couldn't find (I used Chinese five spice powder and a pinch of ground cinnamon instead).

All in all, it turned out great. I'm not sure the bok choy was really necessary, especially since I had also made some sweet and sour tomatoes for an extra vegetable. The salmon had a really fantastic texture, and so much flavor from the stock. It seemed to be a big hit with Travis as well. Also, it turns out that poaching really isn't that hard. Who knew!

Soy Sauce Fish Fillets
4 fish fillets (about 3.5 ounces each)
1 bok choy, core removed

Red Master Stock:
6 cups cold water
3/4 cup shao hsing wine or dry sherry
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup ginger slices
2 spring onions (scallions), trimmed and cut in half crosswise
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
2 star anise
1 cinnamon quill
2 strips fresh orange zest

Place all stock ingredients in a wide, deep pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 40 minutes to allow flavors to infuse.

Lower fish into simmering stock and cover with parchment paper to be sure it is fully submerged. Poach fish gently for exactly two minutes; there should be no more than an occasional ripple breaking the surface. Immediately remove pan from the stove and allow fish to steep in the stock for 5 minutes to complete the cooking process.

Meanwhile, separate bok choy leaves and wash thoroughly. Add bok choy to a saucepan of boiling salted water and blanch for 30 seconds or until almost tender. Drain immediately.

Using a slotted spoon, gently remove fish from stock and transfer to a serving bowl. Spoon 2/3 cup of the master stock, along with some whole spices and aromatics, over the fish. Top with bok choy and serve immediately.

Applesauce Cupcakes

I was a little nervous about this recipe before starting it. The applesauce bread I made last weekend was pretty tasty, but also a little strong. And, there was no icing listed in the recipe to go on the cupcakes. At first I did some research and found that other people have made this recipe and then added a caramel icing/glaze on top. But, I also read that the cupcakes were delicious without anything on them, so I decided to give that a shot.

I realize they don't look like much, but they were actually really good. There's a lot of sugar, and it sort of crystallized on the outside, giving them something almost like a shell. The batter looks awkward while you're making it - before you add the applesauce, it looks more like a really thick cookie dough. But it will all work out, I promise.

Before I add the recipe, here is one more from the Iron Chef Blogger Challenge: Cream Cheese. Carrie made an Artichoke Bread, and it looks delicious!

So, here it is. It's originally from the Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook. I left out the cloves (because I apparently didn't have any and don't like them that much anyway) and the raisins (because I think they're gross).

Applesauce Cupcakes
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups hot applesauce, with 2 teaspoons baking soda added

Preheat oven to 350. Mix above ingredients in a bowl by hand, except for applesauce. Last, add hot applesauce and baking soda. Pour batter into paper-lined cupcake pans. Bake for 25 minutes or until done. Yields about 2 dozen cupcakes.

Iron Chef Blogger Challenge: Cream Cheese!

It all started off so wonderfully, with an email yesterday that the secret ingredient this week was cream cheese. "Amazing!", I thought - "I'm already planning to make cream cheese brownies tomorrow!" I've had everything to make cream cheese brownies for a couple of weeks now, and I promised a co-worker that I'd bring them to work on Monday. Everything was coming together, or so I thought...


My first indication that all was not well was that I somehow managed to crack an egg inside the egg carton. I wish I'd taken a picture, it was actually sort of amazing. Looked like I was trying to separate it.

The second problem was that the recipe started on one page in my cookbook, then finished on the back of another page. So I wasn't paying quite as close attention as I should. When I finished the brownie dough, I thought it looked oddly thick. I flipped back, only to discover that I had put an entire extra cup of flour into the batter. I tried adding some more water to thin it out a bit, that was probably a bad move.

Finally, instead of layering my brownie mixture with cream cheese mixture, I accidentally put all the brownie mixture in the pan first, then had to just dump the cream mixture on top of it.

I don't know which part of this catastrophe led to the poor cooking, but something caused my brownies to still be partly liquid after their 25-30 minute cooking time. I ended up cooking them for 20 or 25 more minutes to try to get them cooked in the middle. This resulted in a brownie that is very overcooked on the bottom and a bit too gooey towards the top, as you can see below.

It is mostly edible, but a bit funny tasting. I will definitely not be taking these to work tomorrow. However, I will post the recipe anyway, since if they were made properly, I think they'd be quite delicious. There also 2 new Iron Chef Challenge (1 nutmeg, 1 bacon/mushrooms) that I forgot to link to last time: Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts and Stuffed Mushrooms/BLTs.

Cream Cheese Brownies (Paula Deen)

Brownie Mixture:
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
6 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup self rising flour
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream Cheese Mixture:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 325

For brownie mixture: blend together sugar, oil, eggs, cocoa, and vanilla. add flour; mix. add nuts.

For cream cheese mixture: Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add remaining ingredients; blend well.

Pour 1/2 brownie batter into greased pan. Layer with this cream cheese mix then top with remaining batter. Swirl into brownie batter with knife edge. Bake 25-30 minutes.

Iron Chef Blogger Challenge: Nutmeg!

I was a little bit at a loss for what to do when the secret ingredient this week was nutmeg. The only thing that really jumped to mind was eggnog, then pumpkin pie. So, I flipped through my cookbook and came across this recipe for Applesauce Bread. The only problem is that when I make bread it ALWAYS burns on the top. I mean always.

So, I did a little bit of research to try to get some tips. However, apparently no one else in the world has ever burned the top of bread, everyone else burns the bottom. Whatever, I found a suggestion to turn the oven temperature down 25 degrees, and it worked.

The bread is okay, it's really dark and probably could have used a bit more sugar (or maybe a bit less nutmeg? - the spices are really strong). I don't totally love it, but I will probably eat it for breakfast this week.

Applesauce Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients except nuts. Mix well until blended. Stir in raisins and nuts. Pour into greased and floured 8 x 4 x 3 inch loaf pan. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes.