Chocolate Guinness Goodness

(photo by: Lara Ferroni)

"What if you combined a dark chocolate pudding and Guinness, topped it with whipped cream lightly flavored with Guinness, and then put it in a glass to make it look just like a pint of the black?"

Ingredients:

8 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar

One 14.9-ounce can Guinness Draught

3 cups heavy cream

7 ounces high-quality bittersweet (70 to 72% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped

Special equipment: Six 8-ounce old-fashioned glasses

Preparation:

In large nonreactive mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar.  Open can of Guinness and slowly pour into 4-cup measuring cup, pouring down side of cup to reduce foaming. Pour half of Guinness (about 7/8 cup) into heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan. Add 2 1/4 cups cream and whisk to combine. Set over medium heat and heat, whisking occasionally, until bubbles just begin to form at edges. Remove from heat, add chocolate, and whisk until smooth. 

Slowly pour hot chocolate mixture into eggs, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Return mixture to saucepan and set over moderately low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and coats back of spoon, about 15 minutes. (Pudding will look separated.) Pour into blender and blend on high for 1 minute. Divide pudding among glasses, leaving at least 1 inch of space at top of each. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and set.

Meanwhile, pour remaining Guinness into small saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, uncovered, until reduced to 1 tablespoon, about 20 minutes. Pour syrup into small bowl and let cool. 

Beat remaining cream until soft peaks form. Add Guinness syrup and beat until combined. Divide cream among 6 glasses of pudding and serve. 

(Developed by Shane Philip Coffey, the chef at Alias restaurant on New York City's Lower East Side.) Epicurious.com

Roasted Leg of Milk Fed Lamb with Glazed Root Vegetables & Best Swiss Chard

                                                 4 Portion

Roasted Leg of Milk Fed Lamb:

Ingredients:

1 bottom quarter of a young milk fed lamb (sirloin, hip, leg and shank together) 

3 onions 

3 cloves garlic 

1 bottle of dry white whine
1 bunch of rosemary 

10 peppercorns 

Salt and pepper 

Canola oil
4 extra lamb bones (or Veal) 

Water

Procedure:

• Take the leg and with a cleaver, chop through the spine bone and the main leg bone (while keeping the leg intact) in 4-5 equal spots. The idea is to chop through the bone when it is raw so that when it is cooked, you can just cut the meat, and the whole piece comes with it. (You can also tell the butcher to do this for you.) 
• Peel the onions and garlic and rough chop.
• Take a large wide roasting pan and heat it on high. Roast the bones in the canola oil until they are golden brown, then remove. Then in the same pan, roast the whole leg on both sides, until it is golden brown on both sides and remove. 
• Add the onions and garlic and “deglaze” with their juices and caramelize. After they are cooked and the pan starts to brown again, add the wine and bring to the boil. Then add the bones, leg and rosemary. 
• Making sure the rosemary is under the leg and the liquid is about 1⁄3-1⁄2 the way up the leg. You can adjust the level with the water.
• Place the roasting pan in the oven and bake on 170C -375F for about 1.5 hours. Basting every 10 mins or so, and turning the leg over at least 4 times in the cooking process. When a fork slides in the meat easily, remove from the oven. Let cool on the side. 
• Then strain out the juices from the pan. Discard the solids, and put the liquid back on the stove and reduce till thick. Here you can add a tablespoon of optional butter or serve it natural.
• Warm the leg and carve it into the pieces already cut from the cleaver, and serve it with the jus.
• If you want to make a stew, just add more vegetables like carrots, parsnips, or turnips and do the same procedure on the stove top in a pot, covering the lamb leg with liquid.

Glazed Root Vegetables & Best Swiss Chard

Ingredients:

5 large carrots 

Or Parsnips, turnips, celery root(1 piece), beets or salsify (The method is the same, you could do all these vegetables separate, then in the end when glazing) 

Salt 

Sugar 

Water 

Butter 

1 Bunch Swiss Chard 

2 Tablespoons butter

Procedure:

• Peel and cut the carrots into 1/2 inch pieces on an angle. Put in a pot and cover them with cold water. 
• Add 3 T ablespoons sugar and 1 T ablespoon salt. Bring to a simmer and cook until tender. 8 min +/-. Put pot in sink and run cold water in pot until the vegetables are cold. Strain and keep on side.
• In a pot, heat 3 tables spoons water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of cold butter and whisk vigorously until butter is incorporated evenly in the liquid. Add the carrots and cook for 5 mins in glaze until warm. 
• If you run out of liquid and it looks like it will get too dry, add 3 more tablespoons water and bring to a boil. Serve immediately. 
• Swiss Chard Cut the green from the stems. Chop the green into large pieces, and the stems chop into small batons. In a pot put 2 quarts of water and 1/4 cup of salt and bring to a boil. 
• The water should be salty like the sea. Put the stems in for 1 minute, then add the green and cook for 30 seconds.  
• Strain and cool in the strainer with lots of cold water. In a sauté pan, brown 2 tables spoons of butter and add the Swiss chard and heat for 2 minutes, or until hot. Finish with Black pepper and small pinch of salt.

Coq Au Vin - Burgundy-style poultry and red wine stew

Coq au Vin (literally "rooster in red wine") is probably the most famous of all French chicken dishes, and certainly one of the most delicious, with its rich red wine sauce, its tender onions and mushroom garniture, and its browned pieces of chicken with their wonderful flavor.

                                         6 Portions

  Ingredients:

1 Coq, stewing chicken, or guinea fowl, 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs)or whole quails 

2 thick slices bacon 

2 T flour 

1/4 C cognac
3 C dry red wine (not too dry, not too sweet) 

2 cloves garlic, 4 carrots peeled 

2 bay leaves, 3 sprigs fresh thyme 

20 pearl onions, or 4 large white onions, 1/4ered 

360 g (13 oz.) button mushrooms
2 T. butter 

450 g, (1 lb.) fingerling potatoes 

1 bunch chopped parsley

 

Procedure:

• Portion large poultry such as chicken into 8's, small poultry like Cornish hens into 1⁄4 s. 
• Meanwhile, chop bacon and brown in wide sauté pan over medium heat. Careful not to burn oil, remove and reserve bacon once browned. 
• Place poultry pieces in bacon fat and brown on all sides, add dust with flour and stir to dissolve, then deglaze with Cognac, which can be flambéed if desired. 
• Reduce 3 minutes, then add the herbs and wine, which should cover about 1/2 way up the poultry. Salt lightly, and bring to the simmer over medium heat, careful not to ever boil. (Best not to put on a lid, as the steam build-up can quickly toughen the poultry.)   
• Meanwhile, unless you have a huge pan, you'll have to cook the vegetables in a separate sauté pan. Melt 1 T. butter and soften onions and carrots with light browning about 10 minutes, covered. Add garlic cloves for last 2 minutes, salt, and mix into pan with poultry. 
• Use the same pan with another 1 T. butter to brown the mushrooms, cut smaller if necessary. 
• Mix them, and reserved bacon into the poultry in the last 10 minutes of cooking, which should not exceed 45 minutes total simmering. 
• If sauce remains too thin to coat the back of a spoon, remove the poultry and reduce sauce until it's thick enough to coat the poultry. 
• Check for seasoning, toss in parsley the last minute, and serve with fingerling potatoes, which have been boiled about 30 minutes, salted, till tender. 
• To perfect cooking times, the breast pieces should be cooked ideally only about 10 minutes, so if you want to go to the trouble, remove them from the pan after browning, and add them to the wine sauce only for the last ten minutes.

• Also, should you be trying the authentic recipe with an older bird, count on about 2 hrs of simmering time. In this case, it's better to add the sautéed veggies into the simmering sauce only in the last 1/2 hr or so, to avoid them completely over-cooking.

 

 

Wine Suggestions: 

 

Use the same or similar red wine as in the stew, traditionally a balanced wine from Burgundy.

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Pauline Boldt.

Brandade de Morue

                                                  Serves 6

A southern French classic recipe. It's usually served with slices of crusty bread and raw vegetables, and goes well with a crisp, dry white wine.

Ingredients:

400 g Salt cod, diced, soaked in cold water overnight

500 g cooked potatoes

3 shallots peeled and sliced

250 ml Milk

250 ml Cream

2 eggs

8 Tablespoons olive oil

Black pepper

Procedure:

• Cook the peeled and chopped potatoes and keep on the side.   
• Sweat the chopped shallots in 2 Tbs of olive oil for 5 mins. Add the soaked Cod, potatoes, cream and Milk. 
• Cook until the fish is tender. 
• Strain off most of the liquid and put in a food processor. Add the Eggs and black pepper and mix on medium speed. Slowly incorporate the rest of the olive oil. Taste for salt, but it should be good.  
• Put in oven proof individual dishes and bake 375 degrees for 5-10 mins, when it soufflées and browns. Serve with fresh bread.  

Home-made Gnocchi

Ingredients:

for 4 people

1.25 Kilos Raw Old Russet Potatoes

Rock Salt

125 grams all-purpose Flour

75 grams Semolina Flour

200 Grams Parmesan, finely grated

5 Egg Yolks

Procedure:

Bake the potatoes on a bed of salt in a very hot oven (500F / 260C) with aluminum over the top for 1 hour.

Cut them in half and pass them through a fine mesh sieve. Take 1 kilo of the potato pulp in a bowl, add in the egg yolks and the parmesan cheese. Mix the flour together, then put half flat on the table. Put the potato mass on the flour and add the rest of the flour on top.

Cut the flour into the dough with a flat wide plastic bowl scraper.

Then start to fold and form a ball. Roll the dough into small tubes, using the smallest amount of flour.

Cut the tubes into small bits about 3/4’s of an inch. Then roll them off the back of a fork to create the ridges. Poach them in simmering water until they float and serve with any kind of sauce.

This recipe can also be deep fried at 175C / 350F for about 4 mins.

Happy Valentines Day

Litchi and Rose Spongecake

Ingredients:

150g/ 5.3O oz sugar

180g/ 6.3O oz  soft butter

3 eggs

150g/ 5.3O oz  flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

250G /8.8O oz  whipping cream

50g/ 1.7O oz icing sugar

250G/ 8.8O oz mascarpone

1/2 teaspoon of rose essence, and crushed rose tea petals

Procedure:

In a bowl mix the butter and the sugar until it gets white. Add the eggs one by one and mix. Add the sifted flour and a spoon of baking powder and vanilla.

Pour mixture into a cake mould. Add the fruit you like, such as litchi, mango, apricot, berries….Bake at 175C (350F) for 20 mins

To check if it’s cooked you need to stick a knife blade in and check if it comes out clean.

In a mixer whip the cream then add the icing sugar. Finish with the mascarpone and the rose essence & coloring if you wish,  you can also add cinnamon, ginger, spices,…

Then add the cream on top of the cake, make sure cake is cooled down so it doesn’t melt.

Rosemary and 7-garlic clove leg of lamb

                                                  8 Portions

Ingredients

1 small leg of lamb, about 3 lbs/1.5 kg 

7 branches fresh rosemary 

7 cloves fresh garlic 

Olive oil
2 T coarse salt

Procedure

• Trim most of the fat off the leg of lamb, if necessary. 
• In a large sauté pan, brown the leg on all sides. Cut each clove in half or thirds, pierce the meat with a paring knife and insert the garlic. 
• Finely chop the rosemary and rub all over the meat surface, with olive oil if necessary to form a paste which clings. 
• Place in 400 F/200 C oven the 1st 15 minutes, then at 365 F/180 C for about 30 more minutes for medium rare, 45 for medium well. 
• Sprinkle surface with salt, let rest 5-‐10 minutes before slicing against the grain. Season sliced meat with fleur de sel, and fresh cracked pepper. 

Tips:  

• If you don't have a large enough sauté pan for initial searing, rub meat surface with olive oil and place under broiler on upper oven rack, 400 F/200 C, to brown at least two sides well, before rubbing on the rosemary, and piercing with the garlic, lowering the temperature to continue cooking. 

 Wine Suggestions

Full bodied reds : Rhone valley, Corbières, Minervois, Bordeaux