Fruitcake with Nuts

 

1 ½ cup flour

¾ cup almond meal, finely ground

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon clove

½ teaspoon salt

1 stick (8 tablespoons) softened butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon orange zest

¼ cup orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons finely diced crystalized ginger

7 cups chopped dried fruit.  I used a mixture of apricot, dark raisins, golden raisins, prunes, figs, cherries, cranberries, dates (if I could have found them I would have used currents).  If some of the fruit is really dry, soak for a few hours in the rum to soften them up.

3 cups roasted nuts, coarsely chopped – almonds, pecans, walnuts and hazelnuts are what I use.

Rum – I like Goslings Black Seal Bermuda Black Rum because of its rich flavor

Candied orange slices for garnish

 

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8 inch spring form pan with a removable bottom. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Also line the sides of the pan with a strip of parchment paper that extends about 2 inches above the rim of the pan.

 

In a bowl mix together the flour, almond meal, baking powder, spices and salt.  Set aside.  

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the softened butter and brown sugar together over medium-high speed for 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time, beating just until each egg is incorporated.  Scrape the sides of the bowl, add in at low speed, the vanilla, orange juice and orange zest and mix until blended, about 30 seconds.    

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined, about 30 to 60 seconds, scraping bowl after about 20 seconds to mix in anything not mixing well.

Fold in the fruit, crystalized ginger and nuts into the dough.  Mix until everything is evenly incorporated.  There will be very little dough to fruit and the mixing can be an arm workout.

Transfer the mixture to your prepared baking pan.  Spread the dough out evenly and smooth out the top. 

 

Bake on the center rack in your preheated oven for approximately 90 minutes.  The cake should feel firm to the touch at the center and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. The cake should be cooled completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing.

With a skewer, poke holes in the top surface of the cake and liberally brush with the rum. Wrap the cake thoroughly in plastic wrap or parchment paper and place in a cake tin or plastic bag. Store in a cool dry place. (If you live in a warm climate I find it best to store the cake in the refrigerator.) Brush the cake periodically (once or twice a week for about two to three weeks) with the rum. This cake will keep several weeks or it can be frozen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

White Chicken Chili

 

• 2 pounds pulled/shredded chicken.  I like pulled rotisserie chicken
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 4 to 6 cups chicken broth or water, Start with 4 cups, reserve 2 cups
• 1 (24 fluid ounce) bottle fire roasted green  salsa
• ½ (4 ounce) can chopped roasted green chilies
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• I packet chi chi’s fiesta restaurant seasoning
• 1 teaspoon ground dried chipotle pepper
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ¾ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
• 2 (15 ounce) cans white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 4 to 6 oz pkg cream cheese

In a deep soup pot or Dutch oven, sauté onions in the butter over medium heat until translucent and starting to carnalize around the edges.  Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.  Add the remaining ingredients except for the cream cheese.  cook until the flavors melt together, about  20 minutes.  Remove from heat.

melt the cream cheese in microwave for 10 to 20 seconds and add to the chili or place cream cream cheese in blender or food processor with 1/2 to 1 cup of chili broth (be carful with the hot broth) blend until cream cheese is smooth and will easily mix into the chili.   

If chili is too thick add 2 reserved cups chicken broth and reheat chili to 175 degrees if needed.  

I really like this green salsa and seasoning mix. 

Baked Chicken & Rice

Baked Chicken & Rice

I had some chicken thigh in the fridge and needed something quick and easy to make.  I whipped this all together and tossed it in the oven.  It was a hit here and was voted as a repeat item.  So here is the recipe so I can remember what I did for next time.

• 5 chicken thighs
• 2 T. oil
• 2 cups rice, rinsed of starch
• 1/2 med onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1/2 c. frozen peas
• salt & pepper
• 1 t. cumin
• 1 t. paprika
• 1 t. Turmeric
•  1/2 t. garlic powder
• 4 cups chicken stock
• some cauliflower (i did think this added to the dish)

Preheat oven to 375.

season the chicken with salt and pepper. Brown the chicken in a Dutch oven with some oil.  once browned removed from pan and set aside.  remove all but about 2 tablespoons of the oil.

toss in onion, carrot, and spices stir around in the hot oil then add the rice and stir until it starts to get nutty.  Stir in the peas and cauliflower .  Add in the browned chicken (with any juices that accumulated) to the pan (Dutch oven) on top of the rice and the chicken broth. 

Place lid on pan and place in the oven for about 35 minutes.  check half way through to see if any more chicken broth needs to be added to the pan. 

Wild Huckleberry Pie

My Brother's Birthday is August 1st which happens to be during huckleberry season and he LOVED huckleberry pie and every year for his birthday our mom would make him huckleberry pie. My brother will be 30 this year and I plan to surprise him with the pie mom used to make for him when he was a kid.

3/4 Cup Sugar

21/2 T. Corn Starch

1/4 t. salt

2/3 cup water

1 cup Huckleberries or any other berry that is in season

2 T. Butter

11/2 T. Lemon Juice

2 cups huckleberries

In a sauce pan bring to boil 1st 5 ingredients, cook until very thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Stir in last 3 ingredients.

Pour into cooked pie shell, chill.

Serve with whipped cream

Braised Pork Ribs and Pasta

I made this a while back and posted the photo on Facebook.  It just came around again as a re-post so I decided that maybe this would be a good time to start contributing to this blog again.

I enjoy watching Lidia Bastianich on Create TV (PBS) and she had made Braised Short Ribs with Rigatoni.  here is my version...Photos not as nice as her's, of course.

• 1 rack pork spare ribs, cut into single rib pieces
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 T. Oil
• 2 good sized sweet onion, halved and sliced.
• 6 to 8 peeled cloves of garlic
• 56 oz, canned plumb tomatoes.  O like the oven roasted tomatoes if you can find them
• 6 pickled cherry peppers stemmed and seeded.
• 1 large bay leaf
• 1 t. dried thyme
• Fresh shopped parsley for garnish 
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• Pasta of your choice.  larger pasta holds up better with the heavy ribs.

Salt and pepper the ribs and brown, in a hot pan with the oil.  do this is stages not to crowd the pan, setting the browned ribs aside in a bowl while finishing the rest of the ribs.  

Once all ribs have been browned and removed add the onion to the pan (if there is a lot of oil remove all but a few tablespoons of it before adding the onion.  cook onion until translucent ( to tell the truth I like it better if I take the time to caramelize the onion).

Just before the onions are ready, about 2 minutes, add the garlic.  Once the garlic has cooked for about 2 minutes add in the peppers (chop them a little first) and stir them in with the onion and garlic for a minute and then add the tomatoes, bay, thyme, and return the ribs to the pot.  thurn the pot to medium low and braise the ribs for a couple of hours, until ribs are tender.  add some water if it gets too dry.

Remove the ribs from the sauce 

Cook the pasta until just under done and add them to to the sauce to finish cooking.  add pasta water to the sauce if needed.  once done spoon the sauced pasta into a bowl and set the ribs around the edge.  

Top with parsley and cheese. 

I did find that the ribs were tender but got a little dry with this recipe and I am not sure how to avoid that so I will have to play around with this recipe some more.

My Grandfather's Beer

I have not tried my hand at making beer personally.  I grew up around beer making because my parents used to make it.  My mother came by beer making honestly because her father made beer as she was growing up as well.

A few years ago my Grandfather gave me a copy of a recipe and to tell the truth I didn't look at it right away.  As I was unpacking more stuff from our move a few months ago I found that recipe he had given me and it was the recipe he used to make beer in 1960.  How Cool!

See below.