Fish in Red Curry Sauce - Main Course

This would be quite a risky main course for a dinner party. But, we were so impressed by our presentation that I knew I had to share it. I actually went out and bought better dinner plates for picture taking ... is this getting pathetic? This recipe comes from Kerri's Greatest Hits and we have made it several times. This curry sauce is really good ... restaraunt quality. It's such a rich sauce and goes perfectly with a light fish. The only thing I've added to the original recipe is some extra veggies.

1 t. oil
2 t. minced peeled fresh ginger
1 garlic clove
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
2 handfuls green beans, trimmed
1 c. chopped green onions
1 t. curry powder
2 t. red curry paste
1/2 t. ground cumin
4 t. soy sauce
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. salt, divided
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk (can use light coconut milk if you want)
2 T. chopped fresh cilantro
4 firm white fish filets (such as tilapia)

hot cooked basmati rice for serving

Preheat broiler.
Heat 1/2 t. oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add ginger and garlic; cook 1 minute. Add pepper and onion; cook 1 minute. Stir in curry powder, curry paste, and cumin; cook 1 minute. Add soy sauce, sugar, 1/4 t. salt, and coconut milk; bring to a simmer (do not boil). Add zucchini and green beans and cook slowly until vegetables are tender, 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cilantro.

Brush fish with 1/2 t. oil; sprinkle with 1/4 t. salt. Place fish on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Broil 7 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve fish with sauce, rice and lime wedges.

Cheese Tortellini Soup - Another first course

We've made this soup about a billion times and again last night. It was a cover recipe from Bon Appetit magazine. I thought I would share it since it is so popular with us. I'm usually good about being able to cut down soups to about 4 servings but this one just makes a lot. I would say 6-8 first course servings.

2 T. olive oil
12 oz. fully cooked, smoked kielbasa, thinly sliced
1 onion (or leek), chopped
1 c. fresh fennel, cored, quartered and thinly sliced
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 T. chopped fresh thyme (but I just use about 1/2 t. dried)
1/2 t. dried crushed red pepper
10 c. low-salt chicken broth (I use bouillon)
1/2 bunch of chopped kale (I have subbed spinach or cabbage ... basically something green)
1 (15 oz) can canellini beans, rinsed, drained
1 (9 oz) pkg. cheese tortellini
grated parmesan, for serving

Heat oil in a heavy, large pot over medium heat. Add next 6 ingredients and saute until vegetables are soft and kielbasa is brown, about 12-15 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Stir in kale (or cabbage) and beans. Reduce heat to low and summer until greens are wilted, about 4 minutes. Add tortellini to soup. Simmer until pasta is just tender, about 5 minutes. Serve with fresh parmesan.

Hot Brie Kisses with Homemade Red Pepper Jelly

We really aren't appetizer people. When we go out, we usually order salads instead. Yes, that is a little boring, but we have had some great salads. :) So when I think about appetizers to use at home, I really have a specific thing in mind: finger food, not a dip, and not hard to make. Oh, and not seafood. I went way over my seafood quota last week. This really doesn't leave a whole lot for appetizers. I pulled out one from the first CLBB cookbook that I have made once before. The original author says she uses apricot preserves instead of the pepper jelly, but inasmuch as I have a bounty of hot peppers, I decided to make homemade hot pepper jelly as well.

It has been a busy week!

Hot Brie Kisses

- Thaw store bought puff pastry according to package directions.
- Unfold carefully.
- Cut into 16-18 squares.
- Put each square into the cup in a muffin tin.
- Place a 1/2" piece of brie cheese on pastry followed with 1/4 tsp of hot pepper jelly.
- Fold up pastry around cheese and jelly.
- Bake at 400 for 10 minutes

Truth be told, I only made 6 and froze the rest unbaked in the muffin tin. I will take them out frozen and put in a plastic bag, then just bake them when an appetizer emergency arises. I don't think you are suppose to do this but I have done it before with good results.

This isn't the best picture, but here they are:



The jelly was easy, but hard at the same time. I think I was just stressed about the canning, but thankfully, I heard the popping of the jars sealing after I was done. I guess that whole physics thing works! The best part is that I have 8 extra jars for Christmas presents this year. Woo-hoo! When you open the jar, it just smells incredible. The jelly did not end up too spicy, but it is a little sweet in my opinion. I would use less sugar next time.

Red Pepper Jelly - from CLBB

20 hot red peppers
4 red bell peppers
2 cups white vinegar
10 cups sugar
2 bags liquid pectin

- Remove seeds of peppers and chop fine in a food processor.
- Combine vinegar and sugar in pot and bring to a boil.
- Add peppers and boil for 10 minutes.
- Add pectin.
- Boil 1 more minute
- Ladle into clean hot jars.
- Put jars in pot and cover with water.
- Boil for 5 minutes.
- Allow to cool on flat surface. As they cool you should hear a pop sound. Yield. 8-8oz jars and 2-12oz jars.

Desserts! Part II - CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

That's right, I said CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES!!!!!



I was at the library browsing cookbooks and came across Barefoot in Paris. I actually was hoping to find some interesting appetizer recipes (I am drawing a blank for appetizers). After I got this book home, I came across this recipe for truffles and decided to give it a try. It certainly didn't look like it would be as difficult to make as you might think.

My changes: I used 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate and 3 oz unsweetened chocolate. Hey, the unsweetened was on sale! I do enjoy me some dark chocolate and I think this was right on the border of being too bitter. It may not work for some people and I would recommend sticking with the recipe on this one. I used Frangelico in place of the Grand Marnier.

I poured hot cream over the chocolate to melt it, which worked pretty well. The mixture was a little grainy, so I thought maybe it should be heated up to melt a little more. I put the bowl over hot water, but really, it just kept getting worse. I really thought it was over at this point...but went ahead and added the remainder of the ingredients and it smoothed out.

It was really hard to roll the balls without getting the chocolate too warm. I wish I could have done better, but not really sure how to make them better looking. The recipe says to roll them in cocoa, then in powdered sugar, but I would recommend just sifting the powdered sugar on the truffles. I think it would the presentation would be better.

This ended up being pretty easy, and although it was time consuming, the individual steps didn't take all that long. I would definitely make this again for company. I could see it working well when a cake would just be too much...a chocolate truffle (or two) would be a great little sweet to serve with coffee or port at the end of a heavy meal.

Easy Cheesy Fondue

Okay, so this is a delicious and easy fondue recipe. Company loves it because of the fun of the fondue pot!! Rachel Ray's recipe is one of only a few I have tried. For dipping, I steamed some baby carrots, broccoli and mushroom. I included some apple and bread. The recipe calls for potatoes, but at 9 o'clock...I just didn't feel like making them. I also forgot to get some amazing bread, I just used some store bought wheat. This is great as an appetizer, but Brian and I just ate it for dinner!

Fifteen Brownies

I haven't had a lot of luck on good outcomes with desserts this month. Appetizers and desserts are clearly my weakest areas. Last week I made an apple-pear crisp with all of the wonderful autumn fruit around at the local markets, but unfortunately, used a Cooking Light recipe (some things you just shouldn't skimp on). This got really good reviews online but I thought it was way too "molasses-y". We tried to redeem ourselves by making full fat brownies from scratch this weekend and had another less than stellar result. I think our poor result was the fact that we used too small of a baking pan so I'm posting this recipe in hopes that someone will try it and report wonderful results.

This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's Cooking with Jamie. He says these brownies are on the menu at his restaurant, Fifteen, in London.

250 g/9 oz. unsalted butter
200 g/7 oz. best-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa),
broken up
150 g/ 5.5 oz. chopped nuts
80 g/2 3/4 oz. cocoa powder, sifted
65 g/2 1/4 oz. plain flour, sifted
1 t. baking powder
350 g/12.5 oz. superfine sugar
4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Line a 12" rectangular
baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl
over some simmering water, melt the butter and the
chocolate and mix until smooth. Add nuts, if you're
using them, and stir together. In a seperate bowl,
mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder
and sugar, then add this to the chocolate mixture.
Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until
you have a silky consistency.

Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place
in the oven for around 25 minutes. you don't want to
overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don't want a
skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be
slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the
middle. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully
transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky
squares.

Shrimp Appetizers

I decided to make a couple of new appetizers the other night, both featuring shrimp. We actually had some neighbors over to taste test these with us.

The first appetizer is one from Cooking Light that was featured in a tapas section, Shrimp filled Piquillo Peppers with Sherry Viniagrette. We all agreed this one was the better tasting appetizer and it actually was simpler to prepare.

The second is one I had copied down a long time ago from a Pampered Chef magazine. This took a lot more time to prepare since it has a little bit of everything in it. I was curious because you bake the shrimp cakes instead of frying them ... but really it turned out to be a less than stellar shrimp cake.

Coconut Shrimp Cakes
-------------------
1 c. sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted
8 oz. peeled, deveined, cooked shrimp, finely chopped
1 T. peeled finely chopped gingerroot
1/4 c. thinly sliced green onion tops
1/4 c. finely diced red bell pepper
1/4 c. grated carrot
1 T. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 c. mayo
1 egg
2 t. rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/3 c. dry breadcrumbs
1/4 t. cayenne pepper (ground)

Preheat oven to 375. Prep shrimp through lemon. In a bowl, combine, shrimp through garlic. Mix well. Combine breadcrumbs and cayenne, mix well. Add bread crumbs to shrimp mixture. Mix well. Sprinkle half of cocout onto cutting board, forming 8" square. Form 16 equal mounds onto coconut layer. Sprinkle shrimp cakes with remaining coconut. Flatten cakes slightly with a spatula and place on a baking stone. Bake 18-20 min or until coconut is golden brown. Serve with sauce below.

Thai Red Curry Sauce
-----------------
Combine 1/2 c. mayo, 2 T. chopped cilantro, 2 t. lime juice and 1/2 t. thai red curry paste.