This issue "U" 07-20-09

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Hi Everyone!

I hope you enjoy the recipes!
[Archives ] http://www.acrafteladymailing.com/recipes/archives.html

Index

1. Ultimate Chocolate Layer Cake
2. Uncle Buck's Venison Chili
3. Uncooked Mexican Salsa

4. Upper Michigan Pasties
5. Upside-Down Gingerbread with Pears

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1. Ultimate Chocolate Layer Cake

Source: Cooking.com

Active Time:  15 Minutes
Total Time:  50 Minutes
Serves 12

This delicious layer cake is the essence of chocolate and would be welcome as the centerpiece of any party or gathering. The cake batter is versatile and can be used to make other desserts. Here the layers are combined with a rich chocolate frosting.

INGREDIENTS
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 3/4 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water Chocolate Cream Frosting (click for recipe)

Garnish
1 1/4 cups finely shaved bittersweet or semisweet chocolate for garnish, optional

DIRECTIONS
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch high sides. Line with parchment paper; butter paper. Dust pans with flour; tap out excess. Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over barely simmering water, stirring with rubber spatula until smooth. Cool to lukewarm, stirring often. Sift cake flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl.

Using electric stand mixer and flat beater attachment, beat butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add both sugars, beating until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Beat in melted chocolate; blend well. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream in 2 additions, beating well after each addition. Add dissolved espresso; blend thoroughly.

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean and cake just begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 30 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 5 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks; peel off parchment paper. Cool cakes completely.

DO-AHEAD TIP: Cakes can be baked 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

Fill pastry bag fitted with large open star tip with 1/2 cup frosting; set aside. Slice each cake horizontally cake in half. Place one cake layer, flat side up, on 9-inch-diameter cardboard round. Spread 1/2 cup frosting over cake. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Spread 1/2 cup frosting over top of cake. Repeat layering with remaining 2 cake layers and 1/2 cup frosting. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Press chocolate shavings onto sides of cake. Pipe frosting from pastry bag decoratively around top edge of cake. Lightly sprinkle chocolate shavings over cake. Cover cake with cake dome. Refrigerate 20 minutes before serving.

DO-AHEAD TIP: Assembled cake can be made 3 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.

Recipe created exclusively for Cooking.com by Carole Bloom.

Recipe reprinted by permission of . All rights reserved.
Nutrition Information
Serves 12 - Facts Per Serving:

Calories: 976 Fat. Total: 57g Carbohydrates, Total: 123g
Cholesterol: 127mg Sodium: 441mg Protein: 7g
Fiber: 4g % Cal. from Fat: 53% Fat, Saturated: 0g

©1998-2008 Cooking.com

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2. Title: Uncle Buck's Venison Chili
Yield: 8 Servings
Categories: Healthy, Main Dishes, Venison

Ingredients:

      2 tb Olive oil
      1 md Bell pepper; chopped
      2 md Onions; chopped fine
      2    Cl Garlic; crushed
      1 lb Venison; ground
      1 lb Venison; cut in chunks
      8 oz Tomatoes; canned
      4 tb Tomato paste
      1    Bay leaf
      1 ts Ground cumin
      1 ts Oregano
    1/4 ts Cayenne pepper
      1 tb Chili powder; mild
           Salt and pepper; to taste
      1 c Beef stock
      2 tb Dark brown sugar; to taste
      2 cn Chili peppers; small
     14 oz Red kidney beans, canned

Recipe by: Uncle Buck's Venison, Littleton, NH Heat olive oil in large
saucepan. Add onions, garlic and bell peppers. Fr until soft. Brown all
meat and add to above.

Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, seasonings and beef stock with a wooden spoon

   Bring to a boil. Reduce Heat to low and cover. Add chili peppers. Simmer
for two hours, stirring occasionally. Add kidney beans and simmer for
another 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf and serve.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

Source: Steve's Recipe Database

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3. Uncooked Mexican Salsa

Source: The Mexican Gourmet

Active Time:  5 Minutes
Total Time:  5 Minutes
Serves 8

Green, white and red like the Mexican flag, this salsa is the most popular of them all. Although the recipe is subject to some regional variations, the name of the salsa is always the same, except in the Yucatan, where the Mayan name is x-ni-pec, or dog's snout because it is made hot enough there to make your nose run.

INGREDIENTS
1 lb firm tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, minced
4 small serrano chiles, minced and 2 deveined for less spiciness
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 cup cold water
8 sprigs cilantro, chopped

DIRECTIONS
Mix all of the ingredients together just before serving; everything except the cilantro can be prepared ahead of time.

To prepare the salsa as it's made in northern Mexico, coarsely chop the tomatoes and mix with a minced (finely chopped) garlic clove. Add the water mixed with a little lime or lemon juice.

For Yucatan-style salsa, add lightly toasted yellow chiles and replace the water with orange juice; you can also add a dash of olive oil.

Recipe reprinted by permission of Weldon Russell. All rights reserved.
Nutrition Information
Serves 8 - Facts Per Serving:

Calories: 23 Fat. Total: 0g Carbohydrates, Total: 4g
Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 155mg Protein: 1g
Fiber: 1g % Cal. from Fat: 0% Fat, Saturated: 0g

©1998-2008 Cooking.com

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4.  Title: Upper Michigan Pasties
Yield: 4 Servings
Categories: Meats

Ingredients:

-----------------------------------CRUST-----------------------------------
      2 c Flour
    1/2 c Shortening
    1/4 c Lard
    1/4 c Scraped suet
           Water

----------------------------------FILLING----------------------------------
1 1/4 lb Beef, coarsely ground
      4 md Potatoes, diced
      1 lg Onion, chopped
    1/4 c Rutabaga (swede), diced
      1    Carrot, diced
           Salt and pepper

Put the flour in a bowl and cut in the shortening, lard and suet. Add just
enough water to make a soft dough. Divide the dough into four parts and
roll out each piece into a circle about the size of a dinner plate.

Crumble the meat into a bowl and stir in the potatoes, onion, rutabaga and
carrot. Divide the mixture into four parts, putting some on one side of
each piece of dough. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Fold the pastry over the filling to make half-moon shaped pies. Seal the
edges and cut a couple of small slits on the top. Bake on a cookie sheet at
375 degrees F. for 30 to 35 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F. and
bake 15 more minutes.

NOTES:

* Cornish-style meat pies from the UP -- The pasty (PAH-stee) is a kind of
English meat pie. It was brought to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by
Cornish miners in the mid-nineteenth century. The UP version differs
slightly from the original Cornish pasty in that it has more vegetables and
less meat and crust.

You can eat pasties hot, warm, or cold. If you wrap them in aluminum foil
when they come out of the oven, they'll keep warm for hours. Or, you can
refrigerate/freeze them and reheat them later. (Maybe the original "fast
food?")

* Most people who live in the UP don't bother to make their own pasties;
they buy them from bakeries and pasty shops (which are as common as
hamburger joints are in other parts of the country). As a former resident,
though, sometimes I get homesick and resort to making them myself. This is
the recipe my mother sent me.

* These have a high cholesterol content. I've tried using an ordinary
vegetable-shortening pie crust, but it invariably turns out too dry and
crumbly to hold together. (Authentic UP pasties have a crust that's thin,
moist, and somewhat chewy, not a flaky crust.) If anyone has any ideas, I'd
love to hear about them. You can also cook the filling by itself in a
casserole dish if you're feeling lazy about making the crust.

: Difficulty: moderate.
: Time: 30 minutes preparation, 1 hour cooking and cooling.
: Precision: measure the crust ingredients.

: Sandra Loosemore
: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation, Salt Lake City
: {decwrl, utah-gr!uplherc}!esunix!loosemor

: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

Source: Steve's Recipe Database

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5. Upside-Down Gingerbread with Pears

Source: Dessert - The Grand Finale

Active Time:  20 Minutes
Total Time:  1 Hour 50 Minutes
Serves 8

INGREDIENTS
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 cups water
3 pears
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup light corn syrup or golden syrup
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Creme fraiche, for serving

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan.

Place the cinnamon stick, sugar, lemon juice and water in a large saucepan and stir over low heat to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile, peel, core, and halve the pears. Add them to the saucepan and poach for 5 minutes. Remove the pears from the syrup and allow to cool.

Place the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Arrange the pears, cut-sides up, on top.

Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl.

Combine the egg, light corn or golden syrup and butter, whisking well, and stir into the dry ingredients. Beat the mixture well with an electric mixer. Pour over the pears.

Bake for 1 hour, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out barely moist.

Allow to stand on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Turn out onto a serving platter. Serve warm, with creme fraiche.

Recipe reprinted by permission of Weldon Russell. All rights reserved.
Nutrition Information
Serves 8 - Facts Per Serving:

Calories: 453 Fat. Total: 18g Carbohydrates, Total: 74g
Cholesterol: 73mg Sodium: 124mg Protein: 3g
Fiber: 3g % Cal. from Fat: 36% Fat, Saturated: 0g

©1998-2008 Cooking.com

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