German Chocolate Cake

I had never baked a cake entirely from scratch before. Granted I make cheesecakes all the time, but to make a real honest-to-goodness moist chocolate cake from nothing but flour sugar butter and eggs - that was a real treat. I am involving myself even further in this year's Eastern Dinner. I am making even more deserts and I am branching out from the standard pies and cheesecake.

Last week at work I was watching, not casually glancing at - I was flat-out watching, "Throw-down with Bobby Flay." He went to Harlem and took on a local woman who is famous for her German Chocolate Cake. I was enthralled. To be perfectly honest, German Chocolate Cake has very little appeal to me. I prefer a Devil's Food, or Double Chocolate Cake. However when I saw this woman and Bobby each make these beautiful cakes I knew I had to try my hand at it.

This was truly an amazing experience. It came out perfectly and my very first try, and what's more, my whole family loved it. Yum! I frosted the cake with the traditional German Chocolate Cake frosting made of pecans, sugar, butter, and coconut. Instead of frosting the sides of the cake with the traditional frosting, I took a page from Bobby's book and covered the cake in a chocolate ganache and dressed it with more coconut and chopped roasted pecans. The result, as you can see, was delicious.
My recipe came from: http://www.myhomecooking.net/german-chocolate-cake/
This website had detailed instructions and pictures to help with technique and visualize how things should look at each stage. It was extremely helpful. Enjoy!

Meatloaf Masquerade

I was perusing youtube.com and came across an episode of "The French Chef." Featuring Julia Child making Pate en Croute. It was by far one of the most fascinating things I'd ever seen prepared. The basis of the dish is to use French pate which is ground meats, typically pork and veal, with onions and other seasonings, and pork fat. The purpose of the fat, per Julia, is to ensure a moist and juicy pate when cooked. Then the pate is cooked in a pastry shell, free-form, quite like an Italian calzone. This episode was quite interesting. I was dying to make it. However, the thought of literally putting that much fat into any kind of recipe made me fairly ill. So I decided to make it my way. Since Pate is essentially a French meatloaf, I decided to make the recipe using my own meatloaf - something, for the record, I have never made before in my life. Having eaten it many times, though, I felt confident that I could pull it off.

I used 2 lbs of ground sirloin 80/20. I normally prefer the 90/10 extra lean, but in order to preserve some of the "French-ness" of the original recipe, I wanted to go just a little higher in fat. To ensure a high level of moisture, I added sautéed peppers, onion, and seeded tomatoes. I threw in some seasonings, and some pressed garlic with bread crumbs and eggs. I'll list the exact proportions below.

The pastry shell was the hardest part. I am used to making traditional pie crust, but for the right texture in this recipe, eggs needed to be added to the cold water mixed into the dough. While this is not an uncommon ingredient in pie crusts, I had never used it before. As a result, I feel the dough should have been colder, and rested longer before rolling it out for the meatloaf.

So for Meatloaf Masquerade:
2 lbs ground sirloin
2 Tomatoes - seeded and chopped for sauté'
2 Peppers - 1 Yellow, 1 Orange - or any colors you desire - diced
1/2 Sweet Onion - diced
2-3 Cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 Eggs
1-2 Cups of seasoned bread crumbs
1-2 tsp of Kosher salt
1-2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup of Frangelico Liqueur - variable, it can be omitted, or another liquor can be used.
Season to taste with basil, oregano, and parsely

Like I said before, I had never made a meatloaf before, so this was uncharted water. I simply put the ground meat in a bowl and cracked two eggs into it. With my bare (clean) hands I mixed in the eggs with the meat. I added the bread crumbs sort of "eye-balling" it, but approximately 1 1/2 - 2 cups was used. I set the meat aside and then went on to the veggies.

I wanted to incorporate as much color as I could to the meatloaf so that when it was sliced, it would look eye catching, as well as mouth-watering. I diced the peppers and onions and threw them in a frying pan with the chopped, seeded, tomatoes. I let everything soften with some butter and more garlic for about 10 minutes, then combined the veggies with the meat and mixed them, this time with a wooden spoon, and approximately 1/4 cup of Frangelico.

Dough:
I used my pastry dough recipe from my quiche posting the only difference was I added two yolks and beat them into the ice water and poured it all into the food processor. 1 Cup of ice water with two yolks. It worked well, but this dough will have to rest in the fridge for about an hour and a half.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22pAuJA7zA8

By all means refer to the Grande Dame herself on the rolling out of the dough and the formation of the "Pate'." Above, I have included a picture of how I rolled out the dough and free-formed the meatloaf in the center. Then I simple folded the dough around the meat, much like a calzone. ***Make certain though, that you poke holes into the bottom, top, and sides of the dough once the whole thing is formed. If not, it will likely explode once it is in the oven.

For the rest, I simply followed Julia's instructions as far as the baking, glazing, and serving. I did not, however, have enough dough to properly decorate it. One tip I would like to pass on. I followed Julia's instruction about using foil cones to vent the meat and see the "juices" while it was cooking. It was useful of course, but even more useful was the meat thermometer I inserted in the middle. This was the most accurate way I could determine that the meat was cooked. It was a hit! I told my grandmother about it and she has consented to me making it as an appetizer for Easter dinner. I cannot wait.

Recipe Number 1

Something wonderful happened last week, and I have been a lazy sod, so I have not been able to write about it. One of my patients informed me that she read my blog. It was nice to hear that someone, other than you dear, dear friends, took the time to read through it. Her only comment was where are the recipes? I think that's perfectly valid. So here goes:

Quiche Lorraine a la' Chris
Filling:
2 Eggs
4 Egg Whites
1-2 tbsp Half and Half
1/2 tsp of Kosher salt - more if desired
1/2 tsp of fresh ground pepper - more if desired
1/2 tsp of smoked paprika
Several sprinkles of garlic powder - omit if garlic is not desired (minced garlic may also be used instead)
1/2 of Large sweet onion, or 1-2 shallots - finely diced
1 Large or 2-3 small potatoes of any kind - cooked and chopped into cubes (Originally I used canned sliced potatoes and chopped them up a bit, but this significantly increases the total sodium in the Quiche and I don't like that thought.)
1/4-3/4 cups of cheese. Any kind you prefer. I like soft goat cheese, but anything can be used or it can be completely omitted if not desired.
1/4 pound of sliced deli ham. Any kind, Black Forest, Honey, etc. Cut ham into small square slices.

Beat eggs and whites together with half and half until mixture is well combined. Mix in the dry seasonings until evenly distributed. Add onions, potatoes, ham, and cheese - mix until everything is coated in the eggs. Pour into the slightly baked pastry shell and bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until center seems set and not watery. Serve warm, or cold.

Pastry Shell:
This is probably the simplest and most successful pie dough recipe I could find, and it has worked beautifully. This recipe is for a top and bottom crust, so really you only need half of it to make a simple quiche. You can cut the recipe in half, or make the full recipe and freeze the dough. (I frequently make more than is needed and save the leftovers for other projects. It keeps quite well in the freezer when thoroughly floured and wrapped to prevent air contamination.)

As with any pastry dough, the name of the game is to keep it cold. Handle the dough as little as possible, and keep your ingredients chilled. I always use my large capacity food processor. This ensures that I am capable of combining the ingredients and turning out a perfect dough while keeping my hands off it. Pastry dough is among the hardest and most cumbersome to make. If you have a sure-fire method of doing it then stick with what you know, the results will be virtually the same.

1 & 1/2 sticks of cold UNSALTED butter - cut into small cubes and chilled. (I have on different occasions added 1/2 a stick of butter, or subtracted half a stick. Use your judgment. I'm in favor of keeping it at 1 & 1/2 sticks.)
3 Cups of all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/3 Cup cold Canola Oil - (It sounds strange, but the oil has significant fat to ensure that the pastry comes out flakey, while adding the heart-healthy fat that vegetable oil, or shortening cannot. Trust me, this works.)
1 tsp Kosher salt
8-12 tbsp Ice Water

If you have smaller than a 10 cup food processor, you may need to split the recipe in half. Again, this recipe is for a top and bottom crust, depending on what you're doing, you may only need half.

Take the butter cold, and cut it up into small pieces and return it to the fridge. Measure out 1/3 cup of Canola oil and get it cold as well, either fridge or freezer. The oil is too viscous to freeze so leaving it in a bit longer is fine. Put three cups of leveled all purpose flour in the bowl of your food processor. Add sugar and salt and pulse a few times. Add the butter and the oil and pulse about ten times until the butter is the size of small pees. Scrape down the bowl and replace the lid. Turn the processor on and add the ice water a tablespoon at a time until the dough form into a ball. Dump the mass out onto a floured surface. If you are not ready to roll out the crust right then and there, then cover it with some flour and put it in the fridge in a Tupperware container or wrapped in plastic. The butter and fat in the oil need to stay cold in order to ensure that the pastry comes out flakey and not tough.

Again this is for a top and bottom crust, so if you are making the quiche, only use half of the dough you made following this recipe as it is written.

When you are ready to put the whole quiche together pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Roll out the dough to the desired diameter, typically a 9" pie pan, or tart pan. To transport the dough from your rolling surface to the pan, the best way is to gently roll the dough over the rolling pin and then spreading it out over the pan. Take a piece of scrap dough and flour it roll it into a ball and use it to gently press the dough into the corners of the pan. Try not to stretch the dough too much as it will only sink when heated by the oven. Once you have placed it into the pan you now have 2 options:
1.) Poke several holes into the bottom of the dough with a fork to vent it then place it in the oven for about 10 minutes. I frequently do this, but there is a slight draw back. Most of the time, the dough will sink down from the sides of the pan. Granted you are pouring an egg mixture into it in ten minutes so in this instance it is quite alright to do that.
2.) Poke holes with a fork into the bottom of the dough. Cover it with tin foil and pour unbaked beans into the pan to weigh it down. I have watched this done by several of the Foodnetwork's finest, but I have not yet done it myself. I am looking forward to doing it soon though.

Once the pastry shell is baked for about 10 minutes, remove from the oven and pour in the egg mixture. Lower the oven to 400 degrees and cook for about 45 minutes.

And as Julia always said, "Bon Appetit!"

To be a volunteer

To be a volunteer:

I am a volunteer with the Greater Derry Medical Reserve Corps. Actually, I am a team leader, but that makes me a volunteer all the same. Our purpose is to provide medical support to the community during times of crisis or emergency. The ice storms of 2008 allowed us to be deployed to the Londonderry Red-Cross Shelter and provide medical support and triage. At that time, many people, with specific medical needs that could not be met at a shelter, were admitted to the shelter and it caused many issues that my excellent team was able to combat and support. This year it was not quite as high in scale or maintenance.

It's incredibly difficult to volunteer like that, for extended periods of time. The stress levels are high, and the tension is constantly mounting. You never know what's going to happen next. However, when a kind elderly woman looks up at you with an earnest expression on her face, and says, "Thank you so much. God Bless You." It changes the world. It makes the long hours, and sleepless nights all worth it. It's like I am making good on my vow in a way that I cannot while I'm at work. I feel a sense of fulfillment like no other when I am busting my ass and not getting paid except in gratitude and the knowledge that I have done something completely for the benefit of someone else.

I would like to encourage everyone this year to volunteer and give something of yourself to another for no other reason than it might help them. Our country is in danger of losing its way, I fear. I think we have all forgotten the magic of giving to others without directly benefiting ourselves. Try it. You may get surprised by how it makes you feel.

Peace!