Bourbon Balls

Bourbon Balls from Paloozer 2015

These boozy babies replaced rumballs this Xmas but are pretty much the same recipe. Advantage: no baking! I used the most excellent SMOKED MAPLE BOURBON from Knob Creek, yeah baby. 

http://www.tastingtable.com/entry_detail/chefs_recipes/19204
Recipe adapted from Kat Kinsman, Editor in Chief Tasting Table

Yield: 3 dozen  balls- not cooked!

Prep Time: 25 minutes (plus 2-3 hours to bourbonate pecans)

Cook Time: 15 minutes (toasting nuts)

Total Time: 40 minutes, plus chilling time of 2ish hours

keep in mind soaking the nuts & chill-firming the balls, and it's really a 6-7 hour recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 cup pecans

¾ cup MAPLE SMOKED bourbon, divided

2 cups Nilla Wafers crumbs

½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, divided

½ cup confectioners' sugar, divided

¼ cup light corn syrup or honey

I added dry instant coffee to the powdered cocoa coating

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, combine the pecans and ¼ cup of the bourbon. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit until the pecans have absorbed some of the bourbon, 2 to 3 hours. Drain and reserve the bourbon.

2. Heat the oven to 325°. Spread the pecans onto a baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, 12 to 15 minutes. Your house will smell heavenly. Let the nuts cool, then finely chop and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped pecans, remaining bourbon, Nilla Wafers crumbs, ¼ cup cocoa powder, ¼ cup confectioners' sugar and the corn syrup. Stir until smooth. Might try these sometime with molasses instead of light corn syrup.

4. Using a heaping tablespoon portion, roll dough into 1/2 inch to ¾-inch balls. Smaller balls firm up better.

5. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining cocoa powder and confectioners' sugar and coat each ball in the cocoa sugar. I added a packet of Starbucks Via or other good instant coffee.Transfer the bourbon balls to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours or until firm.

Salmon with Anchovy Butter

Melissa Clark

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017329-salmon-with-anchovy-garlic-butter  includes a video

INGREDIENTS- serves 4 : ABout 500 cals/serving, takes 20 mins

This recipe is salty enough for Carol Carter Wall.

3 tablespoons unsaltd butter, softened :

                          USE THE BEST BUTTER

4 anchovy fillets, minced or can use paste

1 fat garlic clove, minced (or 2 small ones) -I use 2

• ½ teaspoon kosher salTFreshly ground black pepper 

I USE GOOD LEMON-PEPPER/SALT LIKE TRADER JOE'S

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• 4 (6- to 8-ounce) skin-on salmon fillets NOT the Farmed STUFF!

• 2 tablespoons drained capers, patted dry

• ½ lemon

I MAKE EXTRA ANCHOVY BUTTER, it's great for cooking scrambled eggs. The key to this recipe is to use 1/2 the anchovy butter to cook the salmon, then stir second half into pan to make a sauce at end. You get the mellow garlic (cooked) and sharper raw garlic taste.

PREPARATION

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, mash together butter, anchovies, garlic, salt and pepper.

1. In a large ovenproof skillet, melt about half the anchovy butter. Add fish, skin side down. Sear the salmon- Cook for 3 minutes over high heat to brown the skin, spooning some pan drippings over the top of the fish as it cooks. Add capers to bottom of pan and transfer to oven. Roast until fish is just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes.

1. Remove pan from oven and add remaining anchovy butter to pan to melt. Place salmon on plates and spoon buttery pan sauce over the top. Squeeze the lemon half over the salmon and garnish with chopped parsley. Serve.

1. I like to braise fennel in the same pan in oven, after the salmon is seared, it provides flavor as it steams if you cover the pan. Lemon zest added with lemon juice is good.
2. sorry about all caps, some strange cut & paste function. I wasn't really yelling at youse.

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Parmesan Rosemary Polenta and Leftover Polenta "Fries"

This is a great dish for leftovers -- make polenta for dinner one night, and then cut up the leftovers into "fries" for the next night.  Also a great party appetizer dish -- you can make the 'fries' ahead of time and just heat them up right before the party.


1 1/2 cup chicken broth (or vegetable, if you're making it vegetarian)
1 c water
1 c milk
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 c coarse grind cornmeal 
1/2 c parmesan, grated 
olive oil for baking, optional


Bring liquids and spices to a boil in a saucepan.  Lower the heat to medium and whisk in the cornmeal, a little at a time, so it won't clump.  Whisk for about 15 minutes until it's creamy.  Take off the heat and stir in the cheese.  At this point you can serve it, or pour it into an oiled baking dish and let it set (or sprinkle with more cheese and bake it until it browns a little on top).  You can also put it in the fridge and do the rest the next day if you prefer -- polenta keeps beautifully. 


For fries:  Once set, cut into 'fries'.  Heat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment and sprinkle it with a little olive oil.  Place the fries on the parchment and toss them a little to get oil on them.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until begin to brown a little.  Serve hot. 

Pecan Bars

This is a ridiculously delicious caramel-pecan bar from Once Upon a Chef
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust: 

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup Confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

Filling:

• 12 tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Generous pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 3 cups coarsely chopped pecans

Directions:

For the Crust

Cover a 9-inch square baking pan with heavy duty aluminum foil. Push foil neatly into corners and up sides of the pan, using two pieces if necessary to ensure it overlaps all edges (the overhang will help removal from pan). Spray foiled pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix  flour, corn starch, confectioners sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add the butter and work in quickly with a pastry cutter or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-size clumps of butter within. Dump mixture into prepared pan and press firmly with your fingers into an even layer over the bottom. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. While the crust is in the refrigerator, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the crust until crust is set but not browned, about 17 minutes. Set on rack to cool. Leave oven on.

For the Filling

In a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and boil gently for 3 minutes. Stir in heavy cream and chopped pecans.

To Assemble and Bake

Pour pecan mixture over crust (its fine if crust is still warm). Bake until filling is bubbling and caramel in color, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on rack. To cut, use the foil overhang to lift baked square out of pan and onto cutting board. Loosen the foil from the edges, then cut with a sharp knife into 1 1/2-inch squares. Store finished pecan squares in air-tight container and serve at room temperature.

Reduced-sugar Apple Butter

I just bought a bag of 'drops' -- apples gathered from under the trees in the fall.  They're perfectly good, but because they have a bruise on one side they need to be used right away.  This is a recipe for making a LOT of apple butter, if you are so lucky as to have a lot of apples.  This recipe uses about half of what other recipes call for, but honestly it's PLENTY sweet. 

Update, 2017:  Since publishing this, I've made apple butter without ANY ingredients other than applesauce, and honestly I think that's my favorite.  Just apples.  It does help to brighten up the flavor with a little lemon juice or cider vinegar, and if you really like the spices, by all means go ahead.  But honestly, just cooking down apples makes a delicious butter.

Ingredients:

Apples
Brown sugar and/or white sugar
Cider vinegar
Ground cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves
Slat


1. Make applesauce:  Wash and quarter the apples and put them in a large pot on low heat, cover.  No need to peel or seed them. Stir occasionally until they are quite soft.  Push through your favorite sieve.  My 1/2 bushel of apples yielded about 6 lbs of applesauce, or about 3 quarts. 

2.  Mix in other ingredients:  So here's the basic proportions I used:
6 lb applesauce (12 cup)
1 lb white sugar (2 cup)
0.5 lb brown sugar (little less than 1 cup)
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all together and put in a large pan so that there's a lot of surface area for the sauce, e.g. a couple of inches deep.  I use a big lasagna pan or a dutch oven.  Make sure there's plenty of pan sides above the sauce because it will blorp a little while it's cooking down. 

3. Set your oven on 325 and put the pan in carefully, uncovered.  Cook it down until it's fairly dense and stays on the spoon, stirring occasionally.  How longs this takes depends on how wet your apples were and how much surface area for evaporation there is.  Could be anywhere from 3 to 6 hours.  Many people use a slow cooker on "low" instead of the oven.  In my case, I got about 10 cups of apple butter from my half bushel of apples.  And the house still smells great! 

Goat Bolognese

Ground goat meat is delicious -- younger goat is milder and leaner than commercial lamb meat.  I have not tried this recipe with ground lamb.

2 Tblsp. olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 carrot, minced
1 rib celery, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 lb. ground goat
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 Tblsp. red wine vinegar
3 or 4 nice ripe Roma tomatoes, chopped coarsely
1 Tblsp butter
Grated parmesan, salt and pepper to taste

In a nice heavy large skillet (I use a cast iron), saute the onion in the olive until transparent, then add the celery and carrot and garlic and saute gently another 5 minutes.  Remove to a bowl and add the goat meat (and red pepper, if using) to the pan and brown.  Note:  if your goat meat is very lean, you may want to add a little butter or olive oil.  Add the vegetable mixture back in and mix.  Add the nutmeg and vinegar and tomatoes and saute gently until the tomatoes soften to your liking -- about 5 minutes should do it.  You can add a little stock or milk if you like a wetter sauce.  Add the butter and mix it into the sauce and serve over your favorite pasta.   Serves 4.

Mango salsa

Good with grilled salmon or fish tacos.  Makes enough for a dollop for 4-6 people.


Combine in a bowl:


1 ripe mango, 1/4 inch dice
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 diced fresh jalapeno
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
Juice of 1 lime


Even better if you make it a day ahead and refrigerate until needed.