Foodgasms

Yukon golds


I got to make the potatoes this Thanksgiving

real potatoes

I was without my Kitchen Aid stand mixer so I got to hand mash them...I had fun..I slipped chunks of Monteray Jack cheese and garlic....and the real butter...

while no one was looking...

tortoise said:

Thank you, Tati. I'm still on cloud 9. If you are still stuffed, then I trust you had a wonderful meal?



Thanks, A! It was so much fun. Exhausting, but labor of love exhaustion is a wonderful thing. How was your day? Did you go with the ratatouille or the the puffy asparagus?

Click to expand...

i went with the ratatouille some fried polenta and a bread pudding.

had a nice dinner party last night. game hens with a lime/thyme marinade roasted with tiny taters, leeks, and baby vidalias. easy 1-pan dinner.

I accidentally used chicken broth in my vegetarian cousin's separate portion of stuffing. Then I accidentally told her about it and she ate it anyway.

That's love.

Holiday goodies...here we come!

Strawberry Balsamic Truffles

In a food processor, whirl into fine bits:

11 oz of 70% chocolate
Bring 1 cup of cream or half and half to a simmer. Remove from the heat and add 1 Tbs of balsamic vinegar to the hot cream. Don’t be alarmed as the vinegar will immediately cause the cream to curdle. Pour this hot cream into the food processor of chocolate bits and pulse for 15 seconds.


http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/6294/strawberrytrufflesii0.jpg Pour the resulting ganache into a glass loaf pan, cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool at room temperature for several hours.

The truffle ganache will set up to a nice firm consistency. Scoop out portions with a small ice cream scooper so that you have thumb tip sized pieces. I found my scoop to be too big, so i cut each portion in half. With your finger tips, round down the corners of your ganche pieces, making smoothish lumps.

Prepare for coating your truffles by grinding 1/4 cup of dehydrated strawberries in a coffee grinder. These berries can be ground down to a fine powder. To keep the fruit powder nice and loose, add 1 tsp of corn starch and stir. Place this powder in a small bowl.

To coat the truffles in a thin layer of chocolate:

In a double boiler, melt finely chopped chocolate until just barely melted. Remove from the heat and stir. Add a couple tablespoons of finely chopped chocolate and continue stirring till the second addition of chocolate is melted. It should be just smooth and barely warm, not hot.

Place a spoonful of melted chocolate in the palm of your hand. Place one of your truffle bits in the puddle of chocolate and swirl it around to coat entirely. The resulting shell of chocolate can be quite thin. Drop the coated truffle into the bowl of strawberry powder and shake to coat. Allow the outer shell to set up before spooning the powdered truffle out of the powdered strawberry and onto a surface to finish firming up.

Makes about 40 fat thumb tip sized truffles.

diabetic coma from that last post!

tati, do you know how to make peppermint bark? i'd love a recipe for that.

I'm going to be making an American-style Goodie Basket to give out to friends and co-workers. I'm stumped as to what I could put in it. I'd love to put stuff in which is difficult or impossible to get here, but all I've come up with so far is fudge. And I've had to import the Fluff just to make it They don't have sweetened-condensed milk or chocolate chips either, so the Fluff recipe won out because it was lightest to ship

I was really excited about trying to make chocolate covered cherries (my absolute favourite filled chocolate), but I can't find the proper cherries anywhere either! Ugh.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to hearing about some of your favourite recipes for holiday goodies. Ooh, maybe I could traumatise them all with a mini-loaf batch of fruit cakes So, tell me all about your favourite holiday gift-basket recipes!

Tonight I tried something new in the shops: A white-wine version of Gløgg/Glögg. It was sensational! It was amazing! I drank nearly a liter of it myself! This is an incredible discovery for me because I generally hate booze in most of its forms. This was super-sweet and was infused with lemon and bourbon vanilla. I'm totally stocking up.

try Ice Wines

Batchoohus said:

try Ice Wines

Click to expand...

Is that just a wine cooler?

Tinkersquash said:

Is that just a wine cooler?

Click to expand...

No, it is different:
http://www.winesofcanada.com/icewine.html
The Icewine harvest, done entirely by hand, commences once the temperature drops below - 10 to -13 degrees C and the grapes have naturally frozen on the vines. As the frozen grapes are pressed, the natural water portion of the juice remains within the grape skins in the form of ice crystals, and a tiny but precious ration of highly concentrated juice is expressed.

Hester said:

diabetic coma from that last post!

tati, do you know how to make peppermint bark? i'd love a recipe for that.

Click to expand...

I love this recipe, because it uses both dark and white chocolate, it not only tastes great with both chocolates combined, it also looks beautiful. I made it last Christmas with my niece and it was a hit.

Layered Peppermint Crunch Bark (Adapted from Bon Appetit)
http://www.holdmyfile.com/n_images/usr/gal8767/s_img/f0002.jpg
17 ounces high quality white chocolate, finely chopped
6 ounces peppermint candy canes, crushed
7 ounces high quality bittersweet chocolate
5 1/2 tablespoons whipping cream
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

Turn large baking sheet bottom side up. Cover securely with foil. Mark 12
x 9-inch rectangle on foil. Stir white chocolate in metal bowl set over
saucepan of barely simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch
water) until chocolate is melted and smooth and candy thermometer
registers 110°F. (chocolate will feel warm to touch). Remove from over
water. Pour 2/3 cup melted white chocolate onto rectangle on foil. Using
icing spatula, spread chocolate to fill rectangle. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup
crushed peppermints. Chill until set, about 15 minutes.

Stir bittersweet chocolate, cream and peppermint extract in heavy medium
saucepan over medium-low heat until just melted and smooth. Cool to barely
lukewarm, about 5 minutes. Pour bittersweet chocolate mixture in long
lines over white chocolate rectangle. Using icing spatula, spread
bittersweet chocolate in even layer. Refrigerate until very cold and firm,
about 25 minutes.

Rewarm remaining white chocolate in bowl set over barely simmering water
to 110°F. Working quickly, pour white chocolate over firm bittersweet
chocolate layer; spread to cover. Immediately sprinkle with remaining
crushed peppermints. Chill just until firm, about 20 minutes. If you let the bark go much
longer than this - it will be very hard to cut neatly.

Lift foil with bark onto work surface; trim edges. Cut bark crosswise into
2-inch-wide strips. Using metal spatula, slide bark off foil and onto work
surface. Cut each strip crosswise into 3 sections and each section
diagonally into 2 triangles. You can also just break into large chunks and enjoy!

awesome!!! i can't wait to try this.

stupid question---what's the best way to crush candy canes. i tried to make this on my own one year but couldn't get the candy canes to crush right. the chunks were either too big or were pulverized and powdery.

Hester said:

awesome!!! i can't wait to try this.

stupid question---what's the best way to crush candy canes. i tried to make this on my own one year but couldn't get the candy canes to crush right. the chunks were either too big or were pulverized and powdery.

Click to expand...

I have crushed them first with a meat mallet between sheets of saren wrap (much like pounding chicken) and then placed them in a spice grinder for a couple of seconds, if I needed smaller crushed. It worked well for me, when I was making Peppermint Ice Cream.

Hester said:

awesome!!! i can't wait to try this.

stupid question---what's the best way to crush candy canes. i tried to make this on my own one year but couldn't get the candy canes to crush right. the chunks were either too big or were pulverized and powdery.

Click to expand...

I had that problem too...I found that using candy canes and those starlight peppermint candies helps that...the whole candies are less fragile and you get the small chunks with them...I pulsed them for a few times in my food processor with the metal blade, the candy canes I put in a ziplock bag and took my Grandmother's rolling pin to it...light touch tho...unfortunately, you can't use the pounding to take out the days frustrations!

Rambling Rose said:

Oddly enough, we had a great day. I'm just a snob when it comes to cooking with what I think are the best ingredients. Next year, I'll shop and we will not have frozen mashed potatoes.

They do not taste just as good and they never will.

Click to expand...

I feel for you, Rose. The "you buy, I cook" method ONLY works if the buyer agrees to a strict NO SUBSTITUTIONS policy.

I've said it probably a dozen times in this thread, but it bears repeating: ingredients are everything. Take the best ingredients you can find, and don't fuck them up. That's the whole secret to great cooking.

I just returned from a wonderful backpacking trip. No foodgasms (although hot backpacking food tastes wonderful when you're on top of a cold mountain), but I did have a definite naturegasm. Too tired to mess with pictures tonight, but I will share tomorrow.

Tinkersquash said:

I'm going to be making an American-style Goodie Basket to give out to friends and co-workers. I'm stumped as to what I could put in it. I'd love to put stuff in which is difficult or impossible to get here, but all I've come up with so far is fudge. And I've had to import the Fluff just to make it They don't have sweetened-condensed milk or chocolate chips either, so the Fluff recipe won out because it was lightest to ship

I was really excited about trying to make chocolate covered cherries (my absolute favourite filled chocolate), but I can't find the proper cherries anywhere either! Ugh.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to hearing about some of your favourite recipes for holiday goodies. Ooh, maybe I could traumatise them all with a mini-loaf batch of fruit cakes So, tell me all about your favourite holiday gift-basket recipes!

Tonight I tried something new in the shops: A white-wine version of Gløgg/Glögg. It was sensational! It was amazing! I drank nearly a liter of it myself! This is an incredible discovery for me because I generally hate booze in most of its forms. This was super-sweet and was infused with lemon and bourbon vanilla. I'm totally stocking up.

Click to expand...

I'll leave the holiday goodie suggestions to the experts like Tati, but the Gløgg/Glögg sounds delicious!

Hester said:

i went with the ratatouille some fried polenta and a bread pudding.

had a nice dinner party last night. game hens with a lime/thyme marinade roasted with tiny taters, leeks, and baby vidalias. easy 1-pan dinner.

Click to expand...

Mmmm. I can smell the aromas from here. Sounds incredible.

tortoise, did you invite ddimes to the table?

CrackerjackHrt said:

tortoise, did you invite ddimes to the table?

Click to expand...

*sheepish smile*

I had a sudden overwhelming spam craving. I don't know what came over me. It won't happen again.

Okay, I have to add this to the foodgasm thread. When done right, it completely fits.

Hamburger Stew

Brown 1-3 lbs ground beef with minced garlic and onion
Drain fat
Add three or four large potatos, cut into chunks
Add enough water to barely cover
Add salt, pepper, ground cumin, and your favorite Italian herbs to taste
Bring to a boil, and let simmer until you can cut the potato chunks with a plastic spatula

Best when served over homemade buttermilk biscuits (but that may be just me).

Yes, this is what I had for dinner tonight.

tortoise said:

*sheepish smile*

I had a sudden overwhelming spam craving. I don't know what came over me. It won't happen again.

Click to expand...

heh.

when i lived in austin, i went to the spam-o-rama. the cook off was scary.

the sight of spam-filled twinkies haunts me today.

CrackerjackHrt said:

heh.

when i lived in austin, i went to the spam-o-rama. the cook off was scary.

the sight of spam-filled twinkies haunts me today.

Click to expand...

<shudder>

gravyrug said:

Okay, I have to add this to the foodgasm thread. When done right, it completely fits.

Hamburger Stew

<snip>

Yes, this is what I had for dinner tonight.

Click to expand...

my invite must still be in the postman's truck....

gravyrug said:

Okay, I have to add this to the foodgasm thread. When done right, it completely fits.

Hamburger Stew

Brown 1-3 lbs ground beef with minced garlic and onion
Drain fat
Add three or four large potatos, cut into chunks
Add enough water to barely cover
Add salt, pepper, ground cumin, and your favorite Italian herbs to taste
Bring to a boil, and let simmer until you can cut the potato chunks with a plastic spatula

Best when served over homemade buttermilk biscuits (but that may be just me).

Yes, this is what I had for dinner tonight.

Click to expand...

I can seriously smell this in my head. Delicious.

CrackerjackHrt said:

my invite must still be in the postman's truck....

Click to expand...

You have a standing invitation. You just have to get out here.

Same for you, Tort. And yes, it smells of deliciousness all through the house.