National Souffle Day

Since today is National Souffle Day, as well as Rare Disease Day, my honey suggested we try this recipe for a Flourless Chocolate Souffle with Raspberry Cream.

I took up the suggestion, since I like both chocolate and raspberries!

My souffles turned out nice and fluffy, although they didn't rise to match the ones on the Souffle Day link.

But, they tasted good and made a nice light dessert.

Flourless Chocolate Souffle with Raspberry Cream

Ingredients

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar

2 cups frozen raspberries, thawed

2 teaspoons butter for greasing ramekins

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Ghirardelli)

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped (I used Lindt 90% cacao)

1/4 cup whole milk (I used 1% milk. This is used to make the chocolate sauce that gets folded into the meringue for the souffles. I don't know if the extra 2% or so of milk fat would make a difference in the results.)

3 large egg whites

Pinch salt   (Baked meringues for pies generally use cream of tartar, so I suggest trying 1/4 teaspoon instead of the salt.)

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 large egg yolks

Directions

1. Whip the cream in a chilled bowl until semi-stiff. Add confectioners' sugar and whip until stiff. Refrigerate. Puree raspberries in a food processor, then pass them through a sieve; fold this into the whipped cream and reserve until later.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Butter 4 1/2 cup ramekins and lightly dust the insides with sugar; set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, combine the semisweet and unsweetened chocolates with the milk. Melt over low heat, stirring constantly. 

4. The minute the chocolates are melted, remove the saucepan from the heat and transfer the melted chocolate to a small bowl and cool to room temperature.

5. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are soft. Add the granulated sugar and whip until stiff but not dry. Whisk the yolks into the cooled melted chocolate. Fold 1/4 of the whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold the lightened chocolate mixture back into the egg whites.

6. Spoon the mixture into the ramekins and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The souffles should remain moist in the center.

7. To serve, bring the souffles to the table and serve raspberry cream on the side. Each diner should break the souffle open with a spoon and add raspberry cream in the center.

Notes:

My ramekins are 1 cup size, twice the size for this recipe, which is why the souffles didn't puff up over the top.

This recipe makes a LOT of the raspberry cream mixture, much more than is needed for the 4 souffles. Since strawberries are coming into season, we plan to use the leftover cream mixed with strawberries. It would also make a nice topping for vanilla ice cream!

Shrimp Orleans

One of my online friends, Julia Bravo, chatted with me today and mentioned she was trying to plan something to cook for a Mardi Gras party, which is coming up next Tuesday, March 4.

I've only visited a couple times, but I have a special attraction to the city of New Orleans because of its rich cultural heritage which is reflected in its cuisine and, of course, music.

So I dug out my copy of Recipes and Reminiscences of New Orleans, which I bought on my last visit over 20 years ago and went looking for a relatively easy recipe to share at a small party. And, after some poking through the book, a recipe for Shrimp Orleans caught my eye. So, I took advantage of a sale on raw shrimp, adjusted the recipe slightly and made it for dinner!

Shrimp Orleans

Shrimp Orleans

Ingredients

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 cup celery, chopped

1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup frozen peas

1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 cup of sour cream

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

French bread

Preparation

1. Saute the onions until tender in a small amount of oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat.

2. Add parsley, celery and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. 

3. Ad shrimp.

4. Cook until pink and tender.

5. Stir in sour cream and Worcestershire sauce and stir thoroughly.

6. Add frozen peas.

7. Stir all the ingredients together until mixture comes to a slow boil. Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the peas are tender.

8. Cut a large slice of French bread. (I used whole wheat French bread that was baked today at the grocery store. Cut out about 1/4 of the middle of the bread to make a depression. It should resemble a dugout canoe.

9. Fill the depression and top with the Shrimp!

This may have derived from the medieval or even ancient custom of using a large round of bread as a plate to serve food. But, I liked the way the bread absorbs the sauce from the shrimp.

I think this would work well at a party, especially if you remove the middle from the slices of bread in advance. For a lower GI option, try serving it over a slice of dark rye bread.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!

Commiseration Burgers

Greetings and commiserations, Denver Broncos fans!

Actually, I'm not trying to rub in the pain of the Super Bowl loss. I'm actually a Kansas City Chiefs fan so I made a decision before the game to cheer for Denver, hoping at least a team from our division would win the big shebang in the Big Apple. Unfortunately, this one didn't even meet my criterion for a good game, which is that each team has the lead some time in the second half.

Better luck next year, except against Kansas City.

However, I was intrigued by the mayor versus mayor bet and the comparison of the Bronco burger with the Seahawk burger.

Burger Smackdown

Both burgers are way too big for an ordinary meal. And, I liked the Bronco Burger recipe better. I'm actually trying to lose some weight, so adding ham and bacon to an already huge burger would be major overkill!

So, I tweaked the Bronco Burger recipe a bit to come up with this:

Commiseration Burgers

Ingredients

4 oz. can diced jalapeno peppers

 1 ¼ -1 ½ pounds ground beef, 90-93% fat-free

Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

1 Tbsp. steak sauce, (e.g. Heinz 57)

1-2 Tbsp. minced yellow onion

1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™)

1 pinch dried oregano

½ Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp garlic salt

1 oz. crushed Fritos® corn chips

8 large hamburger buns

8 slices Monterey Jack cheese

Directions

1.     Preheat a grill for high heat.

2.     Pulse Fritos in a blender or food processor. About 3 pulses in our Ninja was about right.

3.     In a large bowl, use your hands to mix together the diced jalapenos, ground beef, salt, pepper, egg, steak sauce, onion, hot pepper sauce, oregano, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and Fritos®. Divide into 8 balls, and flatten into patties.

4.     Grill patties for 10 to 12 minutes, turning once, or until well done. Top each one with a slice of Monterey Jack cheese and enjoy!

Suggestions

The egg and liquid from the jalapenos combine with the crushed Fritos to bind the ground beef together somewhat like a meat loaf. In fact, I think this would make a good meat loaf with about 2 pound total ground beef. It gives the meat a better texture so it doesn't break off in chunks. And, with the extra moisture, you don't have to worry about the patties drying out and shrinking. So save the fat and look for beef with 90 or 93% non-fat content.

Also, the recipe really calls for grass-fed beef which tastes better and may be better for the environment. But, since it's a long drive to my favorite butcher shop back in the Flint Hills of Kansas and I'd didin't want to pay the premium to get organic grass-fed beef frozen and shipped from Uruguay, I settled for premium ground beef from the grocery store.

Bon appetit!

More flavor Pear Crisp

Pear Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

As a kid growing up, I enjoyed a lot of desserts. Sometimes we would bake a cake or a pie. Other times, we might just enjoy an apple or an orange or some berries we had picked. But, a dessert we helped make ourselves was always a real treat. We made a variety of pies, but often we didn't have the time to mix and roll out dough for a pie. At those times, I would help my mother make a crisp which uses a pie-like fruit filling but just has a crumb topping sprinkled on top.

Since I'm trying to keep the calories down to lose weight and my honey has diabetes and has trouble with dishes that have starch and sugar, I tweaked a standard apple crisp recipe to come up with this version for some pears we had found on sale.

Ingredients
10 cups pears, cored and sliced
1/4 cup powdered Stevia sweetener
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup water
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray. Place the sliced pears in the pan. Mix the Stevia, 1 Tbsp flour and ground cinnamon together and sprinkle over the pears. Pour the water evenly over all the ingredients.

3. Combine the oats,  1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda together and mix them thoroughly. Add the agave nectar and melted butter and stir the ingredients together until the flour mixture is moistened and crumbly.

4. Sprinkle or crumble the topping evenly over the pear mixture.

5. Bake for about 45 minutes.

Notes
You can use ordinary Bartlett pears for this. But, I found a variety of pears on sale at our local market for the same price, so I used some Bosc pears and some red pears for this dessert. I really enjoyed the special flavor they added to the crisp.

I noticed my apple crisp recipe called for peeling the apples also. But, I generally don't do that. The skins give the dish extra nutrition and crunch!

Any left-overs should be promptly refrigerated and will keep for several days. They can then be quickly heated to serve.

And, as you can see from the picture, I like to serve this with vanilla ice cream!!!