Corn Chowder

I recently started a love affair with America's Test Kitchen. I bought their heavy duty "family" cookbook a few weeks ago. So far we've only tried a few recipes (in addition to the magazine size Best Recipes of 2010 that I've been using), but they have been FANTASTIC. STUPENDOUS. If you do everything they tell you, it will turn out perfectly. And there are pictures. Go buy it.

While you're waiting for it to arrive at your house, here is one of our favorites. Bridget and I refer to Brian as The Great Cornholio because the man can put away up to eight ears of corn on the cob in one sitting. To me corn on the cob is too much work for too little pay off. Plus, corn in my teeth is not cool. All beside the point. For three nights after we had this chowder when I asked Bridget what we should make for dinner she said, "I liked that corn soup. We should have corn soup."

10 ears fresh corn, husks and silk removed

4 oz. bacon

1 onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 T. all-purpose flour

3 c. low-sodium chicken broth

2 c. whole milk

12 oz. red potatoes (about 2 medium sized) scrubbed and cut into 1/4-inch cubes

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. minced fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp dried

1 c. heavy cream

2 T. minced fresh parsley

Salt & Pepper

1. Standing the corn on end inside a large bowl, cut the kernels from 4 ears using a paring knife. (You should have 3 cups.) Grate the remaining 6 ears corn over the large holes of a box grater into a separate bowl. Using the back of a butter knife, scrape any remaining pulp from teh cobs into the bowl with the grated corn.

2. Cook the bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Stir in the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. slowly stir in the broth and milk, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the potatoes, bay leaves, thyme, and grated corn. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are almost tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Stir in the remaining corn kernels and cream. Continue simmering until the corn kernels are tender yet still slightly crunchy, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves. Stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

*I just realized after typing this up that we used the recipe in my pamphlet rather than this one. it called for 6 ears of corn and 2 cans of whole kernel corn. After cutting the corn off the 6 ears, that recipe instructed me to add the cobs to the soup until I was ready to add the cream, then I took them out. Much easier? Maybe. Probably great either way.

Polenta Pizza

Ethan went to Cooking Camp last week and declared this recipe his new favorite food.  Sorry, Melissa, we ate it up before I could take a picture.  I used a pie plate, Ethan said they used a pizza pan at camp.


Crust:
1 c. yellow cornmeal
1 c. cold water
2 c. boiling water
1 tsp
1 egg
1/3 c. grated parmesan
Combine cornmeal, cold water and salt.  Stir into boiling water.  Cook, stirring vigorously for five minutes-until thick.  Remove from heat
Beat a spoonful of hot mixture into the beaten egg, then beat the egg mixture back into the entire hot mixture. Beat one minute.  Let stand until cool enough to handle.
Butter a 9" pie pan.  Form the polenta into a thick crust, patting into place with wet hands and a spatula.  Bake at 200 degrees until dry (about an hour)  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  After the first 30 minutes of baking, brush the surface of the crust with olive oil.

Filling:
1 1/2 c. grated mozzarella
1/2 c. onion
1/2 c. minced green pepper
(you can really add any vegetables here)
1 medium tomato, sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
few dashes of oregano
black pepper
grated parmesan

Saute onion and pepper in olive oil until tender.  Add oregano and black pepper.  Sprinkle 2/3 of the mozzarella onto baked crust.  Spread on sauteed vegetables.  Arrange slices of tomato over saute and top with remaining mozzarella and a little parmesan.  Broil until brown and bubbly.  Serve right away.

Gooey Butter Cake

Me, again.  This cake originated in Missouri when an old German baker messed up his cake recipe and the result was this deliciousness. 

Secretly this is a picture of  a piece of store bought ("Store bought?!  Out of an actual STORE?") gooey butter cake, but I wanted to give you an idea of what it looks like. 

Crust:

1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix

1 stick butter (8 T), melted

1 large egg



Filling:

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 stick butter (8 T), melted

3¾ c confectioners’ sugar, sifted
For the crust, blend the cake mix, butter and egg in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter should come together in a ball. With your fingertips, pat the batter evenly over the bottom of an ungreased 9 X 13 baking pan, smoothing it out with your fingers until the top is smooth. Set the pan aside. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

For the filling, place the cream cheese in the same mixing bowl that was used to make the crust, and with the same beaters (no need to clean either) blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the eggs, vanilla and melted butter and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and add the confectioners’ sugar. Beat on medium speed until the sugar is well incorporated, 1 minute more. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the filling onto the crust and spread with the rubber spatula so that the filling covers the entire surface and reaches the sides of the pan.

Bake the cake until it is well browned but the center still jiggles when you shake the pan, 45 to 47 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool, 30 minutes. Cut into squares and serve. Store this cake, covered in aluminum foil, at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Toasted Ravioli

This is a St. Louis tradition found in most local pizza places.  You can get an order of this with your pizza  instead of bread sticks and they also sell it in the grocery stores.  I found this recipe on the back of a bag of Seviroli frozen ravioli.

12 frozen ravioli squares, thawed
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg
3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 T. grated Parmesan cheese
8 oz. prepared marinara sauce
1/4 tsp. salt optional

Put the marinara sauce in a pot on low/medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Whisk milk and egg in a small bowl to make egg/milk batter.  Place bread crumbs and salt in shallow bowl.  Dip thawed ravioli into the batter and coat with bread crumbs.  Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan until the oil sizzles.  Fry the ravioli one at a time, one minute on each side or until golden brown.  Drain well and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Serve with the marinara sauces as a dip.  Serves 4.

Look how fun this is to make!

Favorite Chicken Salad

I'm sure you all have your favorite chicken salad recipes, but is there anything better on a hot summer night?  This is all I feel like eating these days.  Especially since croissants are so stinkin' cheap at Sam's Club.  The best part about this chicken salad?  No celery!

3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup Craisins (I like cherry flavored)

1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

1/4 tsp. tarragon

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/8 tsp. course ground pepper

I like this salad served on croissants or pita bread.

 Serves 6

Amazing Seafood Manicotti

I let each of the girls go through my cookbooks and find a dish they wanted to help me make and Eliza chose this Seafood Manicotti out of the "Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook". This is not a quick meal, but it is fairly easy and man oh man, totally worth the effort! I want to marry it...


Seafood Manicotti

1 quart whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
14 dried manicotti shells
2 lbs unpeeled large fresh shrimp
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 garlic clove, minced
3 Tbs butter
1 lb fresh crabmeat, drained and flaked
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese with peppers


*Combine first 4 ingredients in a large saucepan; cook over medium-high heat 30 minutes or until thickened and reduced to 2 cups. Set aside (This step actually took longer than 30 minutes for us, but since we did other things in the mean time, it all worked out).
*Cook manicotti according to package directions; drain. Peel shrimp, and devein, if desired. Chop shrimp and set aside.
*Saute onion and next 3 ingredients in butter in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until tender.
*Add shrimp and crabmeat; cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Remove from heat. Cool 10 minutes; drain excess liquid.
*Combine seafood mixture and whipping cream mixture. Fill shells, and place in two lightly greased 11x7-inch baking dishes. Sprinkle with cheese.
*Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes. Serve hot.

Caramel Cake

You may want an ambulance standing by if you serve this cake. It's like having the delicious filling of a really good chocolate all over the top of a wonderful cake. Sigh. What is with our cake recipes lately? :) I got this from America's Test Kitchen Best Recipes of 2010. They called it "Easy Caramel Cake," but I left the "easy" part out because I don't want anyone to confuse easy and fast. They explain in the cookbook that this is a Southern tradition and we're all about tradition around here. Tradition. TRADITION!! Enjoy.

Cake:

1/2 c. buttermilk, room temperature

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

16 T. unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces and softened

Frosting:

12 T. unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened

2 c. packed dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 c. confectioners' sugar, sifted

1. FOR THE CAKE: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Whisk the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla in a large measuring cup. In a large bowl, mix the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat in the butter, 1 piece at a time until only pea-size pieces remain in the bowl. pour in half of the buttermilk mixture and beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Slowly add the remaining buttermilk mixture and beat until incorporated.

2. Scrape equal amounts of batter into the prepared pans and bake until golden, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool cakes completely before frosting.

3. FOR THE FROSTING: Heat 8 tablespoons of the butter, brown sugar, and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat until small bubbles appear around the perimeter of the pan, 4-8 minutes. Whisk in the cream and cook until a ring of bubbles reappears, about one minute. Off the heat, whisk in the vanilla.

4. Transfer the hot frosting mixture to a bowl and, with an electric mixer on low speed, gradually mix in the confectioners' sugar until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is pale brown and just warm, about 5 minutes. Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter, 1 piece at a times, and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

5. Frost quickly and serve.