Stitch's Cake Creation

by Denise Parker

Cake

2 1/2 cup AP flour

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup butter

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

Pineapple top

4 oz can sliced pineapple

1/2 cup light brown sugar

4 tablespoon butter

For frosting

4 cup confectioners sugar

3/4 C shortening

1/4 C water

1 tsp vanilla

4 oz can crushed pineapple

Preheat oven to 375 grease one 8 inch round cake pan with butter spray. Place second pan on stove top and add 4 tablespoons butter. When butter has melted sprinkle brown sugar over the top of butter until evenly coated. Take off heat and place pineapple slices on top of brown sugar. Set aside and prepare cake.  Stir together flour,baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In an electric mixer beat buttter on med high for 30 seconds add sugar and vanilla, beat until well combined. Add eggs, 1 at a time beating for 1 min. after each egg. Add flour mixture and milt alternately to beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Pour batter into pans. Fill them about half way.

Bake for 30-35 mins until toothpick comes out clean.

While cake is baking make frosting.

Combine all frosting ingredients except the pineapple . Combine on high speed until fluffy. Add small spoonfuls of crushed pineapple until it thins out frosting a little bit. Set aside until ready to use.

Immediately turn over cake with Pineapple bottom on a flat greased plate. Don't remove pan for atleast 5 mins. Let butter and sugar fall from pan. Cool cakes completely before frosting.

Frost the top of the bottom cake and then carefully place the pineapple cake on top of the frosted cake. ( It might be a 2 person job.)

If desired, add marachino cherries to center of pineapple rings.

Food Porn for a Homesick Texan

by Erica Cooksey

1 can beef broth

1 head garlic, separated into cloves and cut in half

1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

3/4 cup soy sauce

1 tables

poon liquid smoke

1 pound point cut/second cut beef brisket, preferably with fat untrimmed

1 small red onion

Prepared BBQ sauce (I used Stubb's brand)

Shredded queso quesadilla or Monterey jack

Refried black beans

Red taco sauce or enchilada sauce

6 10-inch flour tortillas

Butter

NOTE: Due to time constraints and never before having used my stovetop smoker for brisket, I braised it prior to smoking to ensure tenderness. In the future, I would recommend just finding a good recipe for Texas-style smoked brisket and doing that without the braise. Alternately, if you don't have a smoker, just sear the outside of the meat on the stovetop and then braise it for a little longer.

1. Combine the first five ingredients in a deep casserole dish, small enough that the brisket will be immersed in the liquid. Set the brisket in, cover tightly with foil, and cook at 300 degrees for an hour. Let the brisket briefly cool in the juices, then transfer to a stovetop smoker and smoke over mesquite for an hour or so. Let cool and then shred.

2. Meanwhile, thickly slice the red onion and saute over medium low until caramelized. Season with salt.

3. Heat a generous amount of butter over medium high heat. Brown each tortilla on both sides, adding more butter as necessary. Set aside.

4. Combine some of the beans with a splash of taco sauce until it's thin enough to spread judiciously but not runny.

5. To assemble a quesadilla, coat one tortilla with a thin layer of beans. Arrange the brisket on top and drizzle with BBQ sauce. Cover with shredded cheese and caramelized onions. Top with a second tortilla. Repeat with remaining 4 tortillas, making three quesadillas in total.

6. Bake at 375 for 5 minutes or until cheese is gooey. Serve with pico de gallo.

Pico de Gallo

4-5 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced

1-2 fresh poblano peppers, seeded and diced

1 bunch scallions, sliced about 1/4" thick

1-2 limes

1 bunch cilantro, leaves only, minced

1-2 avocados, diced

Combine ingredients and chill thoroughly.

When You Fish Upon a Star

by Glen Parker

Breading

1 loaf italian, cuban or french bread

1/4 cup  parsley

1/4 cup  chives

1/4 cup sweet onion

1/4 cup butter, melted

Batter

3 eggs

1/3 cup mayo

1 tablespoon Old Bay Spice

Salt/pepper/paprika

6 tablespoons flour

Fish

1 1/2 lb thick white fish filet (cod, haddock, hake, tilapia, etc.)

Process bread in food processor until medium fine crumbs. Toss bread mix, onion, butter to coat. Bake at 350F, 20-25 minutes, until GBD, stirring once halfway through.

Pat fish very dry. Cut into servings. Sprinkle fish with Old Bay, salt, pepper, liberally. Assemble a breading station: fish, a bowl flour, a bowl egg batter, a bowl bread crumbs, and finally a baking pan.

Dredge in flour.  Tap to remove as much flour as possible. Dredge in egg batter.  Let excess drip off. Pat on thick layer of bread crumb.

Bake 16-20 minutes at 400F until fish reaches 140F internal temperature.

Tartar Sauce

1 cup mayo

1 teaspoon worstechster  sauce

1 tablespoon white wine

2 tablespoon sweet relish

Salt & pepper

Stir all ingredients together.  Serve cold.

Master Chef VI: Google Finally Indexes the MC Blog

Any contest who's winner uses "food" and "porn" in a title is bound to increase search ranking.  Congratulations to our first two time winner of Master Chef: Erica Cooksey!  May the search terms "Erica Cooksey" and "food porn" forever be united. 

Master Chef VI: Dinner and a Movie

The Challenge:

Grab you popcorn and candy Master Chef is off to the movies.  One of the best cooking shows ever is Dinner and a Movie.  This is my homage to that show.

The challenge is to pick a movie then make a dish connected in some way to the movie.  It can be something that was in the movie or create your own based off the movie.

Scoring:

The scoring will go as follows: 10 for taste, 5 for theme, 5 for style and 2 for name creativity. When you have selected your movie let everyone know so they can at least read up.

I'll send out an email regarding possible dates.

Tacos Go East

by Rob Cooksey

1 lb Thinly cut pork with some fat in it*

1 Granny Smith apple

1 Braeburn apple

1 Shredded carrot

2 Heads bok choy

1 Cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

2 Tablesp

oons sour cream

2 Tablespoons mayonnaise/yogurt

4 Cloves garlic

1/2 Cup Fish Sauce (I prefer the Three Crabs variety)

4 Limes

1/2 Cup Rice vinegar

1 Teaspoon Chili Garlic Paste

1 Tablespoon Honey

1 Tablespoon Sour Salt

Tortillas (flour or corn to taste, but soft either way)

1 cup water

Several sprigs of mint

Coconut oil

* I used pork loin chops and they were too lean to achieve the desired char flavor that comes with grilling pork fat over a fire.

Zest at least 2 limes. Add the sour salt to the zest. Put that to the side for later. Cut and juice the limes into a bowl. Crush the garlic cloves and add to the lime juice along with the fish sauce, water, rice vinegar, chili garlic paste, and honey. Stir this and marinate the pork in this. Finely dice the apples and mix with shredded carrot and  coconut. Add the sour cream and mayonnaise/yogurt (As an alternative, one could make this mixture a vinegar based slaw instead of a creamy one). Put that in the refrigerator to cool. Put a small amount of coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat. Drop in a tortilla and flip it a few times. Sprinkle a bit of the zest and sour salt mixture over the tortilla while browning slightly. Repeat with as many tortillas as you will need. Put these aside to cool. Thinly slice the bok choy and put aside. Grill your pork over medium-high heat on a (preferably) charcoal grill to get a nice char. When the pork is finished, cut it into small bits. Fill one of your tortillas with a bit of pork, a little of the apple slaw and bok choy, and a couple sprigs of mint. Repeat for as many as you can eat.

La Torta di Orgoglio

by Andy Spetz

Sauce

1 clove of garlic

3 pieces of garlic

1 1/2 sweet Vidalia onion

1 canned tomato

2 heirloom tomatoes

1 cup of red cooking wine

5 Roma tomatoes (a few slices reserved for toppings)

5 sun dried tomatoes

5 leaves of basil

1 sprig of thyme

Cheese mix

1/2 pound of fontina

1 ball of smoked mozzarella

1/2 pound of provolone

Toppings

1/4 pound of bianco del doro

1 bell pepper

2 mild sweet Italian sausages uncooked

1 hot Italian sausage uncooked

Dough

6 cups of flour

2 cup of water

3 tbl spoons of sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of corn meal

3 packets of active rise yeast

butter

1) Roast 1 clove of garlic.

2) Dice 1 whole sweet Vadilia onion and slice 3 pieces of garlic. Cook in  a large sauce pot in a low heat until you start to see the onions turn slightly translucent.

3) In large mixing bowl mix; 6 cups of flour, 2 cup of water, 3 tbl spoons of sugar, 1 pinch of alt,1 1/2 cups of corn meal, 3 packets of active rise yeast. Mix slowly. Let rise for 20 minutes.

4) In sauce pan add 1 canned tomato  2 diced heirlooms, 3 diced Roma tomatoes and 5 sun dried tomatoes in sauce. add 3 leaves of basil torn and 1 sprig of tyme off the sprig. Add 1 cup of red wine. Let tomatoes cook and reduce.

5) Knead dough for roughly 10 minutes,  then put dough into a greased (I used butter ) pie tin.

6) When reduced about 1/2 way the sauce  should be thick enough. cut down to a low/warm heat.

7) Finely shred fontina into a bowl, dice the smoked mozzarella, shred provolone into same bowl.

8) In a saute pan cook uncooked sweet  (2) and uncooked hot  (1) sausage with 1/2 onion julienne and the clove garlic that had been roasted together. only cook half way.

9) WIth dough in pan push down center about 1 inch deep, add sauce, cheese mix, add sliced bianco del doro,  cooked sweet and hot sausage, sliced peppers and Roma tomato slices.

10 ) Put into oven, let cook for roughly 30 minutes. 3 minutes before it is finished, add butter to crust.

Mac and Cheese with Bacon

by Kelly Campana

1 box Elbow Noodles

8oz Gouda cubed

8oz Shredded Kraft Classic Melts (or Mild Cheddar)

3/4 lb Provolone cubed

1 stick butter

1 clove of garlic minced

1 lb bacon

1 cup whipping cream

Fry bacon, let cool, then cut in cubes

In pan over medium heat melt stick of butter.

Add cubes of cheese slowly.

Stir often to reduce chance of scorching.

Add whipping cream as needed to create smooth consistency.

Add chopped bacon and noodles.

Serve.

Master Chef V: Video Recap

Dinner and Dessert Empanadas

by Scott Wurzel

Empanada Dough

9.5 oz Unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp Baking powder

3/4 tsp Kosher salt

2.5 oz Shortening

3/4 c Milk

1 egg beaten with 2 tsp water

Savory Filling

Sliced ham

Grated Medium Cheddar

Sweet Filling

4 oz Blueberries

1/4 c Sugar, plus 4 tbl

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 c Mascarpone cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F

To prepare the dough (using the Biscuit Method):

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a large bowl.  Add shortening to the flour mixture in small chunks.  Mix shortening into flour using hands until the mixture is crumbly. Still using your hands, make a well and pour in the milk. Mix the milk in until the dough comes together.  

Move dough to a well floured surface, kneed 10-20 times, and roll out to 1/2 inch thickness.  Cut rounds out using a biscuit or cookie cutter. Once the rounds are cut, roll each out as thin as possible.  Place rolled out dough on parchment paper, in layers if necessary, and place in refrigerator for about 1 hour for the fats to firm.

For the Sweet Filling:

In a small sauce pan, combine Blueberries, 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and Vanilla extract.  Turn heat to medium low and allow to simmer until liquids are produced and thickened.

In a separate container, mix the remaining sugar with Mascarpone.

Constructing the Empanadas:

For savory filling place a pinch of cheese and a small slice of ham on one half of the dough.  For the sweet empanadas, put a small amount of blueberry and mascarpone mixture on one half of the dough.  Once filling is in place, rub some of the egg mixture on the edge of the dough and fold over like a taco.  Crimp the edges with a fork.

Place empanadas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place in oven for 20 minutes or until crust is golden and flakey.