Monthly Archives: November 2009

One Bowl Chocolate Mocha Cream Cake

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mocha_cake

I tore this recipe out of Cooking Light magazine almost two years ago, and I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to try it. Here’s the recipe from the Cooking Light website.

The chocolate cake part is a simple, lower-fat chocolate cake that uses reduced-fat mayo to make it moist. A cup of strong coffee gives a kick to the chocolate flavor, and chocolate chips add some texture to the cake. Don’t fool yourself, though. This cake might be lower in fat than others, but it isn’t low calorie or low sugar.

Once the cake is baked and cooled, you spread it with a topping of marshmallow creme and light whipped topping, flavored with more coffee, and drizzled with chocolate syrup.

Like many of the other reviewers, I found the drizzle of chocolate syrup unnecessary and too sweet. As I nibbled on the cake, I found myself scrapping most of the topping off to the side; there was just too much of it for my taste. Next time, I don’t think I’ll use all the topping. I also didn’t like the chocolate chips in the cake. Because you store this cake in the fridge, the chocolate chips get hard, and I nearly broke a tooth every time I bit one.

But having said all that, I liked the moistness of the cake and the strong mocha flavor. It is an easy cake to make and looks impressive.

Cauliflower, Potatoes & Peas Indian-Style

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indianish_cauliCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

I’m on the fence about this vegetable dish. I didn’t love it or hate it. It made a nice side to hamburgers, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to make it again. To me, cauliflower tastes best when simply roasted with salt and pepper.

In Stevens’ recipe, you start out by frying traditional Indian spices such as cumin, coriander, ginger and tumeric in vegetable oil. Then cauliflower, potatoes and water are added to the spices and braised until the veggies are tender. At the end of the braise, peas are added to the dish.

Pork Loin Braised in Milk

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pork_milkCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

Here’s another dish that makes this book worth buying. I’ve heard of dishes that use milk as the cooking liquid, but I’ve never tried them. Now I’m a convert.

You start off by inserting slivers of garlic seasoned with sage and fennel seeds into slits made in a pork loin roast. The meat is then browned on all sides. More garlic is added to the pot before it is deglazed with whole milk, then the whole thing is put into a 275 degree oven for just over an hour. Once the meat is cooked, you set it aside to rest while you finish the sauce. At this point, the milk is a caramel color and looks curdled. You boil the liquid down until all you are left with are the milk curds. At this point, the sauce is tasted for seasoning and finished with a bit of lemon juice.

The sauce tasted fine, but I had a problem with the texture and appearance. It just didn’t look very good, so I followed one of Stevens’ variations and whizzed the sauce in a blender until it was smooth and creamy. I served the pork, sliced and drizzled with the sauce, with some brown rice and homemade rolls. Both Bryan and I couldn’t stop talking about how good this was. The pork was perfectly cooked and juicy. The sauce was creamy and salty (in the very best way). I’m already planning on trying this with pork chops or maybe a pork tenderloin cut into chunks.

Braised Pork Chops & Creamy Cabbage

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pork_chops_cabbageCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

Here’s another cabbage dish from Stevens’ book. This time, the cabbage is seasoned with caraway and mustard seeds, shallots and dry white wine and braised with pork chops. The dish is then finished with heavy cream, salt and pepper.

I liked this dish, mostly. The pork was tender and the cabbage was silky and full of flavor, but I thought the caraway was a little overpowering. Next time, I’ll reduce the amount used.

Chocolate Sheet Cake

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choc_sheet_cake2choc_sheet_cake

This cake has been making the rounds in the food blogging world. The recipe comes from thepioneerwoman.com, a website by Ree Drummond, chronicling her life on a ranch. She’s witty, funny and irreverent, and I’m insanely jealous of her kitchen.

Anyway, back to the cake. It’s your typical sheet cake, you know, like the ones that showed up at every neighborhood potluck. Mormons may be known for weird jello salads and odd female names, but sheet cakes come in a close third. So when I saw this recipe, I started having flashbacks to past birthdays and ward suppers, and I knew I’d be obsessed with this cake until I made it.

It’s an easy, two-bowl recipe made with pantry staples. The cake is moist, chocolatey and sweet, thanks to two sticks of butter and two cups of sugar. The chocolate frosting for the cake is made with more butter and a pound of powdered sugar. You can add nuts to the frosting (or not) which contribute a nice crunchy texture.

I found the whole thing sweet and one dimensional. I used to love these kind of cakes as a kid, but now I prefer my chocolate darker and more bitter. That being said, as the cake sat, the frosting melded with the cake, and the whole thing sort of grew on me. Sort of.

The Simplest Potato & Leek Braise

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potato_leekCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

You can’t get much simpler than this side dish. It packs a flavor punch without much work.

Leeks and potatoes are braised in chicken stock until tender. Then, cream is poured over the veggies and baked until the whole thing is bubbly brown. At the end, you’re rewarded with nicely browned potatoes that are soft and creamy inside. The leeks seem to meld with the cream, contributing a sweet, faint oniony taste.

Top Blade Steaks Smothered in Mushrooms & Onions

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Currently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

What do you get when you cook this

mushrooms1down to this

mushrooms2and then add a whole mess of these

onionsto these and cook the whole thing together for almost an hour and a half?

steaksYou get this

smothered_steaksBeefy, oniony, mushroomy goodness that melts in your mouth. I would buy this book for this recipe alone. You take four top blade or flat iron steaks and sear them. Then you cook down a pound and a half of mushrooms (I used button and cremini mushrooms) and two sliced onions. The pot gets deglazed with dry sherry and seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme and paprika. The meat is tucked into the mushrooms and onions and braised, on the stovetop, until tender, about 90 minutes. Finally, cream and some more dry sherry is added to the pot and cooked down to create a smooth, velvety sauce.

Did I mention how much I liked this dish? I served it over brown rice to mop up all that glorious sauce. I might have even licked the plate clean. I’m pretty sure Bryan did.

Chicken Braised with Hard Cider & Parsnips

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chicken_parsnips_ciderCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

I may have not been in the best position to appreciate this dish. The week that I made it, I was sick, and I had just tried to slice off my finger with a broken drinking glass. Trying to chop vegetables and season chicken breasts with one hand, while coughing up a lung, is hard work.

This dish starts off by browning bacon and chicken on the stovetop. Once the meat is browned, a shallot is added to the pot, along with a couple of cups of hard cider. The cider is reduced, then parsnips and the meat are added back to the pot and the whole thing braises in the oven until the chicken is cooked, about 50 minutes.

Braising the chicken in the hard cider kept the meat moist. The braising liquid made a nice, albeit thin, sauce to spoon over the chicken, and the parsnips became soft and sweet. My only real quibble with the dish was that the chicken skin turned into a soft, unappetizing mess, and I had to spoon off quite a bit of grease before serving the dish.

Creamy Braised Brussels Sprouts

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sproutsCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

During a visit to our local food warehouse store, I stumbled across some Brussels sprouts. Recalling that there was a recipe for Brussels sprouts in Stevens’ book, I threw a bag into our cart.

On a side note, I’ve always called them brussel sprouts, but my dictionary primly informs me that the correct spelling is Brussels sprouts. Throwing that extra “s” in there twists my tongue up.

These braised Brussels sprouts are easy to make and easy to eat. You trim the stem and any ragged outer leaves off the little guys and cut them into quarters. The sprouts are browned in some butter before being braised into sweet meltingness in heavy cream. Once the sprouts are tender, you season them with salt and pepper and lemon juice. Then you eat as many as you can before your husband gets home and wants to share them.

On a side note, taking pictures of braised food is much more challenging then I thought. Although the picture of the cooked sprouts looks like something the cat might have coughed up, it really did taste good.