CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING

This is a POSITIVELY DELICIOUS frosting recipe. What a nice variation from classic chocolate frosting!! It has a smooth, thick texture and tastes great by the spoonful!!

 

This is my new "go to" recipe for frosting snack cakes, brownies and cupcakes, it is quick, easy to make and tastes great!!

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Jiff)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 - 3/4  cup half and half (see note)
2  2/3 cup confectioners sugar

Mix the peanut butter, cocoa powder, vanilla and a few tablespoons of the half and half until it is smooth and creamy.  Add the sugar, salt and the rest of the half and half (*see note below).   Beat with electric mixer until smooth and shiny.

That's it... what could be easier?!?  We LOVED this frosting!!

NOTE: The recipe said to start with half cup of the half and half and if you want it thinner, add the remaining 1/4 cup of half and half (one tablespoon at time)...beating until smooth.

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Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 Redux

In honor of Julia Child's 100th birthday, we are revisiting Mastering The Art of French Cooking. 

I got to spend Julia Child's 90th birthday with her and a few thousands of her closest friends.



In 2009, my friend Ann, signed me up to cook a recipe from Mastering The Art of French Cooking.   Of course, I couldn't cook just one.

Recipe of the Week: Julia Child’s stuffed duck, baked cucumbers, and blackberry flan

Today’s post is the ninth in a series of weekly Julia Child recipes. Kudos to this week’s contributors, project manager Ann Burrola and her friend Lucinda, who not only prepared Pâté de Canard en Croûte (Boned Stuffed Duck Baked in a Pastry Crust), but also made baked cucumbers AND blackberry flan.
 “ the procedure may take 45 minutes the first time because of fright”—Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume I, p.570 
This week’s recipe for the Pâté de Canard en Croûte covers 7 pages in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1. This is certainly not a record for a Julia Child recipe (French bread covers 22 pages) but, based on this alone, the recipe could be considered daunting to any cook. What are we saying? A recipe that requires deboning a duck, preparing stuffing, sewing the stuffing into the duck, making a pastry crust, wrapping the duck in the pastry, and then decorating it with pastry cut-outs, is daunting! However, Julia provides detailed written instructions and clear illustrations so that anyone will know exactly how to accomplish the simplest and most complicated dishes in her cookbooks. “You’ve got all the directions and if you can read, you can cook,” she wrote.

When the call went out to write about cooking from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I signed right up. Then I e-mailed my friend Lucinda and told her “WE” had signed up to cook out of Julia’s book. She wanted to make the most complicated recipe in the book and I wanted to make the easiest one. We made them both and threw in dessert. Since Lucinda blogs, I told her to write the post and I would do the pictures. So here goes…
Lucinda’s Story
When I saw Julie & Julia, someone asked me if I had ever made the stuffed duck. I hadn’t, but thought I might give it a try. “Great,” Ann said, “you make the duck.” Ann didn’t know the recipe is seven pages long, with an eighth page for the farce or forcemeat stuffing.
The recipe has three main components. The farce, which is stuffed into a de-boned duck, which is then wrapped in a crust. I made the forcemeat and the crust and set about to de-bone the duck.


De-boning a duck takes about 45 minutes.


Julia says if you de-bone a lot of them you can cut your time by 25 minutes.


One was enough. Ann timed it. It took 45 minutes.


Once I had the duck de-boned, I stuffed it with the farce.


Then it needed to be sewn up.


At this point, I was really glad that I never went to medical school.


Once the duck is stuffed you brown it.


Then wrap it in a pastry crust.


Of course, Julia wants the crust decorated.
Now the duck goes into an oven for 2 hours and time marches on….
Let’s recap:

• 15 minutes making farce
• 15 minutes for pastry 
• 45 minutes for duck de-boning
• 15 minutes for trussing
• 15 minutes for browning
• 25 minutes for cooling
• 2 hours for baking
• 2 1/2 hours for resting 

About 5 1/2 hours into Pâté de Canard en Crouté, it was time to start the vegetable. Ann peeled, seeded, and cut her cucumbers for her Concombres au Beurre—basically, cukes baked in tons of butter!


In keeping with the “Julia aesthetic“, Ann ventured to Washington's Eastern Market in search of a fromagerie to acquire the proper butter. Sticks of American butter from the Safeway, with their skimpy 80% fat content, would not do. For Julia, we needed a block of European-style butter with its slightly higher fat content.
During all the baking and resting, there was dishwashing, table setting, and gardening. In the garden, I picked some blackberries. Ann said she saw a blackberries recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. “Let’s make dessert!”
We found the recipe for Clafouti aux Mûres and gathered the ingredients. While the cucumbers baked, we made the batter for the clafouti and got it ready for the oven.
In the movie Julie & Julia, Julie talks about de-boning her duck but she never mentions the presentation. After you bake and cool the duck, you have to carefully cut it out of the crust while leaving the crust in tact. You take the now cooked duck and remove all the trussing string. Then, you re-stuff the duck into the crust for a lovely presentation.


Voilà …


Dinner is served. After dinner is served and the dishes are washed and the trussing needle is stored away and Julie & Julia is gone from the theaters and the DVD grows dusty on a shelf one might ask, “Why take on such an exercise?”
The key to the long-lived appeal of Julia Child was her ability to get us into the kitchen without fear, to move us out of our comfort zone and try something new, and most importantly to have fun. I love a challenge and nothing says “challenge” like ten pages of recipe! Ann wanted to take part in the blog and have fun in the kitchen. What could be more fun than taking plain old salad cucumbers and transforming them into Concombres au Beurre? 
Now when people ask me, “Have you ever made Julia’s stuffed duck?” my reply will be, “But of course.“ When they ask Ann if she actually ever used Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she’ll say, “Sure!”
I may never make Pâté de Canard en Crouté again, but when I see a non-descript salad with slices of cucumber tossed on top I will think of how much better they would be had they been cored and sliced and baked in rich butter the way Julia taught Ann to do it. I will remember the unctuous duck, the succulent cucumbers, the clafouti with blackberries from my garden and the sound the wine glasses made as we toasted Julia.
Do try this at home! 

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ZUCCHINI PICKLE RELISH

This time of year, there is an overabundance of zucchini, so I've been making relish out of it. A friend kindly gave me a wonderful recipe last year and I was thrilled with the outcome of my first pickling adventure. Unfortunately, I only made half of the recipe and we ran out quickly because we used it in EVERYTHING from tuna fish, to potato salad, to hot dogs, to you name it... you would NEVER guess it was made out of zucchini.

This season, I'm making TWO batches. I also (nervously) tweaked last years recipe a little with amazing results; we love this recipe, it has a perfect bread and butter pickle flavor.

12 cups unpeeled zucchini (chopped small)
3 cups sweet onion (chopped small)
1 cup celery (chopped small)
2 large red bell peppers (chopped small)
2 cups peeled carrots (chopped small)
1 cup pickling salt (see important note)
3 cups white vinegar
3 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 teaspoons DRY mustard powder
1 tablespoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon corn starch

Wash and dry the vegetables before cutting them (the only one you should peel is the carrot).  Coarsely chop the vegetables, then put them in the food processor (2 or 3 cups at a time) and pulse them a few times to get them small enough for a good relish (but not too small). The chop size should look like the next photo.

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Measure the vegetables AFTER you chop them in the food processor.

Mix the small chopped vegetables and 1 cup of pickling salt. Place this mixture (covered) in fridge overnight (The salt will draw excess moisture out of the veggies).

IMPORTANT NOTE: After the vegetables have chilled overnight, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you rinse the salt off of them.  I used a colander and rinsed the veggies three times (in small batches). Whatever method you choose to rinse the salt off, just make sure you rinse, rinse, rinse then squeeze as much water out of the chopped veggies (with your hands) as you can. Set aside.

In a large, non-aluminum, pot, mix the vinegar, sugar, celery seed, spices and corn starch. Bring to a boil (to dissolve the sugar). Add all of the rinsed vegetables to the pot and bring BACK to a boil. Once it is boiling well, turn heat to medium low and gently boil everything for 20 minutes, stirring every five minutes or so.

While the relish is simmering, sterilize 7 pint jars and 7 (two piece) screw on lids. I do this by putting the jars through a hot cycle in my dishwasher (but I don't put the lids in there). Keep the jars in the (unopened) hot dishwasher after the last cycle.

For the lids, I just wash them with hot soapy water, rinse them well and then pour boiling water over them in a large saucepan which I keep warm on a burner.

Also, while the relish is simmering, bring your  hot water bath to a boil, here's how: Place a rack on the bottom of a large stock pot (or something to keep the jars up off of the bottom of the pan) and fill the pot with water (water should be deep enough to cover the jars by 2". Bring to full boil.

Now that your relish has boiled for 20 minutes, remove it from the heat and place it in the hot jars, leaving 1/4" space at the top of the jars (make sure there are no air pockets in the relish). Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, hot, wet kitchen towel and screw on the two-piece lids fairly tight. Lower the jars into the already boiling water and keep them in there  10 minutes for half pint jars and 15 minutes for pint jars.

Remove from boiling water and let cool to room temperature on your kitchen counter. As they cool on your counter, you will hear the lids "pop" when they make the correct seal.  If they don't "pop", just keep them in the fridge.

NOTE: Do not use regular table salt for this recipe because the anti-caking agents in table salt cause the relish to discolor.  If you don't have pickling salt, the next best thing to use is kosher salt (but I highly recommend pickling salt).

NOTE: This recipe makes 7 pints of relish.

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QUICK and EASY STICKY CHICKEN WINGS

This is one of picky-picky hubbies all time favorite things to eat (hands down!!). Wing sections baked in a soy sauce, brown sugar and pineapple mixture, this recipe is  super simple and always a hit at parties. I've been asked for this recipe countless times and people are always surprised how few ingredients (simple) the recipe is.

CLICK ON THIS PICTURE

2 pounds of chicken wing sections
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon black pepper
pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
20 ounce can of pineapple chunks (drained well)

Cut the wings into sections, discarding the wing tip (or buy already cut up party wings) and place in a 9" x 13" (greased) baking dish.  Mix everything else together and spoon over the wings.

Bake in a 350 oven (uncovered) for 1½ hours, turning everything over every 30 minutes or so. Now I know that seems like a LONG time for chicken wings, but trust me, it does takes that long for the wings to "break down" and be super tender, sweet and juicy and sticky!!

Remove the wings and pineapple from the sauce and serve  (discard the sauce). Hubby likes the pineapple chunks, but I don't care for them...your choice.

NOTE: Do not omit the pineapple, the flavor and moisture content of the fruit is important to the cooking process.

NOTE:  The last 30 minutes of bake time, the chicken wings will get shiney and sticky!!

NOTE: If you are still in doubt about the 1½ hour cooking time, click on the above photo and you will get a better look at the wings themselves and you will see they are juicy and not overcooked.

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RED CURRANT and RASPBERRY JAM

It's been gloomy, rainy and chilly all week; fall is right around the corner here in Alaska; that also means it is berry picking time!!

Today I whipped up a batch of red currant - raspberry jam which is picky-picky husbands all time favorite. Lucky for us, these berries grow in the woods around our house and I've been using them to make this jam for over 35 years now.  Hubby likes this recipe so much that HE picks the berries without me asking him to!!

The red currants really brighten up the raspberries and the combination is simply delicious (and gorgeous)!!

3 cups of crushed red currants (measure after crushing)
3/4 cup water
4 cups raspberries (frozen berries are OK)
7 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup liquid pectin (I use Certo)

Crush the red currants (I use a potato masher) and measure three cups into a heavy pan. Add 3/4 cup of water and boil for 10 minutes.  Strain the mixture with a sieve and return the juice to the pan (throw away the solids)

Add the raspberries and sugar to the currant juice and bring to a hard rolling boil (one that can not be stirred down); boil for one full minute minute exactly (stirring constantly).

Remove from heat and stir in liquid pectin until well mixed; skim off any pinkish foam (throw the foam away). 

Pour the hot jam into clean and sterilized jam jars, wipe the rims clean with a clean wet
towel and put on the lids. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes 8 cups of jam

A NOTE  ABOUT  RED  CURRANTS

In the woods around our house, we have raspberries, red currants and high bush cranberries. My first jelly making "adventure" (a million years ago) involved high bush cranberries (they grow in profusion around here and they are a lot of fun to pick).

Thinking that I had hit the "berry mother lode", I was so proud of my huge harvest. It wasn't until I started cooking them that I realized they weren't red currants (high bush cranberries smell like dirty gym socks when you cook them). 

 A lot of people DO eat high bush cranberries, but they usually mix them with other fruit to help mask the strong "sock taste".  Let's just say I didn't make that mistake again, lol !!

So..... for my young Alaskan friends who are beginning to make jam, don't make that same mistake. This is what a high bush cranberry looks like:

A red currant is very different... they look like this:

NOTE: It is always a race between us and the birds for these red gems. If I wait until they are ALL ripe, the birds usually win, so I pick and freeze....pick and freeze, until I have enough for a batch of jam (these berries freeze VERY well).

NOTE: This recipe uses a liquid pectin called CERTO. I'm guessing that a powdered pectin would work well, but I've never tried it with this recipe. It takes 1½ pouches of liquid pectin (1½ pouches = 1/2 cup). If you use the powdered pectin, make sure you follow the cooking instructions on the box.

NOTE: If you've never processed jam in a hot water bath (it is super simple), go to this web site for some specific instructions:   http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/waterbath-canning-highacid-foods.html

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