Irish Macaroni and Cheese

1 tbl butter
1 tbl flour
1/2 cup warm milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
1/4 cup Guinness
4 cups cooked macaroni
1/2 cup shredded corned beef*
1/2 cup chopped cabbage*
1 cup lightly smashed, cooked potato*
pinch of cayenne
salt and pepper

*leftovers from a boiled dinner are perfect

Preheat the oven to 375. Heat a little oil in a medium sauce pan to medium-hot. Add the cabbage and corned beef, lightly brown them and set aside. Reduce heat to medium, add the butter and let it melt. Once it's melted add the flour and cook for about 2 minutes, constantly stirring, don't let it get too brown. Slowly add the warm milk, still stirring and let it come to a simmer. Add the Guinness, cheese, black pepper and cayenne. Turn off the heat and stir until the cheese is melted. Taste it and see if it needs more seasoning, add some if it does. Add the macaroni and fold until it's well combined. Spread the mixture in an 8x8 pan. Toss the potato with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and sprinkle it over the top of the pasta. Put it in the oven until browned, about 20 minutes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, a disclaimer: that recipe up top is approximate. I had a detailed plan, I swear, but it went out the window as soon as the stove was turned on. I was wicked tired, I couldn't find the recipe I was using as a base, my brain kind of exploded and all that was left was the desire for macaroni and cheese with corned beef, cabbage and Guinness in it. So I just winged it.

It came out wicked good. The pieces of browned cabbage and corned beef added awesome bits of texture and bursts of flavor. It formed a decent crust, which is important to me, and had tons of cheese. All good things. But. Next time I will definitely make more sauce, plus I might butter the pan to make more crispy crust. I love that. The Guinness was much more subtle than I thought it would be, it probably wouldn't hurt to add some more of that too. But that's really more a to taste thing. All in all this was really good and I must say I'm pleased with it. Plus since my girlfriend doesn't like mac and cheese when it's homemade all the leftovers are for me! Ha!
I'm submitting this to Regional Recipes: Ireland over at Eats Well with Others. Have you made something Irish or at least Irishish this month? If so you should send it over to Joanne! Unless, of course, you already have. Heh.

I'm also submitting it to Presto Pasta Nights for additional excitement.

Tiramisu Blondies

A while back Goldie from Confessions of a Serial Baker asked me what I thought of the concept of tiramisu brownies. I thought it was a fantastic idea. I mean, really, what's not to like? So she made something, which you should go check out, and I made these. I decided to do blondies, since I'd been craving them, and a cream cheese filling like the one from the strawberry cream cheese brownies I made a while ago. I used this recipe for the blondies and for the filling I just added some rum and some very strong brewed coffee (a couple tbls each) to the same one I used for the above mentioned brownies. I put 2/3 of the batter into a parchment lined 8x8, then the filling on that, then I piped fingers of batter over the top. The goal was to have it look vaguely like ladyfingers, but as you can see it didn't quite work. I still think it's a cool effect though. Anyway, I didn't get any step by steps, but they were really good. Next time I make it I'm going to use a light brown sugar blondie instead of dark brown or maybe a cookie bar kind of thing. I think a lighter flavor base would be better, the admittedly delicious blondies were a bit distracting. The filling was wicked good though, you could really taste the rum and coffee. All in all these were a good time, I'm glad Goldie challenged me to make them. And they freeze well, too. Which is good since my girlfriend thought they were too boozy. Heh.

Tuna Rangoon, a Wine Review: Alice White Red Lexia and a New Toy

First I want to talk about the tuna rangoon. Sounds weird, right? This is one of the things I've done with those wonton wrappers. I'm not really a big crab fan, so I've never had crab rangoon. But I like the concept of something mixed with cream cheese, wrapped in a wonton wrapper and deep fried. And I happened to have a can of tuna and a tub of Alouette. For those who don't know, Alouette is a smooth cheese spread kind of thing, like soft cream cheese with herbs in it. I like the garlic and herb one the best, but they have other flavors too. And that's all the pimping they're going to get without sending me some free stuff. Heh.

I took about a quarter cup of it and a can of drained tuna, mixed it together and plopped a tablespoon or so onto some thinly rolled wrapped dough. Not sure why I cut the dough... but then I deep fried it. And it was awesome. The filling was creamy and delicious and the wrapper was crackly on the outside but with a little chew on the inside. I will be making them again.

Next up is my new toy. I was tapped to select a wine type for the Bakespace Wine Club a couple months ago and for doing so Babs (she's the head honcho over at Bakespace and a member of the wine club) sent me a Penguin Corkscrew. When I heard I was getting a Penguin corkscrew I was thrilled, of course, but I didn't realize what it was. I thought it was a corkscrew shaped like a penguin. Heh, wrong. It's a wicked fancy pants dealie. I love it, I just used it for the first time the other night and it works great. Thanks Babs! And since I haven't done a wine review in months, here's what I opened with it, as always in the Bakespace Wine Club format.

Name: Alice White Red Lexia
Price: 6.99
Year: 2006

Short intro from the wine maker about the wine: Red Lexia is a sweet, lusciously red wine with a crisp, refreshing finish that is delightful chilled. Give it a go on it's own or with spicy Thai and Indian dishes or light desserts like fruit tarts and almond cookies.
Review: First off, let's not have any misconceptions here. This is not wine. It is candy. Details? Ok. It's smell is very fruity, peach, red berries and plums. Tastes like it too, although mostly plums. I'm not sure they even used grapes to make it. Despite the number of flavors it's not a powerful taste, which is a double edged sword I guess. Very smooth and sweet with a clean finish. Doesn't really taste like wine. Where was this stuff when I was a teenager? I enjoyed it, but not in a "I'm going to buy this for myself" kind of way, more a "my girlfriend didn't drink her wine coolers and I don't feel like going to the store" kind of way.
Would you buy again?: Maybe, if I'm doing a fruit something.
Wine Pairing Ideas/Recipes: Fruit and lots of it. I bet it would be good with trifle, maybe even in a whipped cream or a reduction for a dessert. I actually ate meatball Lean Pockets with it and it went surprisingly well. But I think part of it is that it's flavor isn't terribly assertive. I could see eating it with spicy foods.

My salsa giveaway ends tomorrow, don't forget to enter!

Various Greek and Middle Eastern Stuff

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that I inherited my love of food from my parents. My dad would cook sometimes (particularly breakfast on Saturdays) and my mom made at least one meal for the family a day. They lived in Boston for decades but moved out into the middle of nowhere in the high desert some years ago. They have a hard time getting a lot of the things they could get in Boston out there, of course. My mom says she can get any Mexican spice she wants, but nothing Asian for example. So when they come to visit there's a lot of stuff they want to eat. They've been visiting for the past few weeks and as usual all kinds of stuff has been made. They always stay at my brothers (since he has someplace for them to sleep), so I wasn't there for everything. But we did do some cooking together, like this, on Fathers Day. Although admittedly I didn't do much of the work, I mostly got in the way and took pictures. Heh.

One thing my parents said they can't get easily is Middle Eastern and Mediterranean stuff, hence the theme. They picked up some lahmajun (think a thin pizza with no cheese), stuffed grape leaves (not sure what they are stuffed with, I don't care for them myself), pita, some fancy pants olives, marinated feta and a couple different hummus... hummuses? Humusi? What's the plural of hummus? Doesn't matter, there were two kinds, both good. My sister in law made some spanakopita (Greek spinach pie)and falafel (deep fried ground chickpea patties). She makes the best falafel, I need to get her recipe. My brother made some tzatziki and some chicken souvlaki. The souvlaki was wicked good, but he doesn't really measure the marinade which makes it hard to get a recipe. He just tosses together some lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, oregano, black pepper... I think that's it. Marinates the chicken chunks for half an hour or so, then grills it. So very good. We also had a red blend, Cardinal's Crest, from Biltmore Estate that went well with it all. And finished it off with some homemade baklava. Which I also didn't get the recipe for. My brother makes it, it's also wicked good. He puts orange juice in it, which is awesome. There was also tabbouleh, but I didn't get a shot of by itself. It's here in the table shot though. We don't often bother with fancy china and stuff, we're simple folk. Heh. It was a great meal for a hot day (not that it was that hot here), most of the stuff was great at room temperature or cooler and there were lots of light but assertive flavors. Good times.

Experiment: Merlot-Pomegranate Braised Lamb Shanks

2 lamb shanks
1 cup Merlot
1 cup pomegranate juice
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1 shallot, diced
oregano
rosemary
salt and pepper

Rinse and dry the shanks. Rub them with plenty of oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper. Heat some olive oil in a dutch oven and brown them well. Remove them from the pot and add the shallots and garlic. Saute them till soft then add the wine, scrap up the fond, reduce the heat and let it simmer till it doesn't smell boozy. Add a pinch of salt, the juice and the lamb. Cover it and let it cook for 2-3 hours, till the lamb is very tender. Remove the meat, turn up the heat and let the liquid reduce for a bit. Serve with the sauce.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I love lamb. I sometimes suggest to my girlfriend that we have it. This leads to fights. Often quite gruesome ones, involving flashing blades, furious gun play and mad nunchuck skills. The inevitable conclusion is my girlfriend with a knife to my throat, a pistol to my temple or a chair leg poised to deliver the finishing blow. I croak out something like "All right, chicken!" and then she allows me to cook dinner.

Ok, so that never happens. But she really doesn't like lamb and I rarely do serious cooking for just myself. I get it at any Greek festival I happen to go to and order it at restaurants, but I hadn't actually made it before this. Then my girlfriend comes home with a package of shanks. Isn't she sweet? I pop them into the freezer and await an appropriate moment. And that moment was yesterday when she was going out to dinner with people from work. So I pull out the lamb to thaw and consult my sources (the internet, one of my brothers and my mom. The sister I called wasn't home and apparently doesn't eat lamb anyway.) Then I made this.

The first thing I decided was to keep it simple, I find that makes it harder to screw up. Shanks are best braised and I had some pomegranate juice, so I decided to use that. Wine is always good for braising, so I grabbed some Merlot. Garlic, oregano and rosemary are classic lamb seasonings so those were in. And I had a shallot that wanted using, so that finished it off. I took the lamb and dried it off. I really should have rinsed it first, but I didn't. Anyway, I rubbed it with a goodly amount of salt, pepper, rosemary and oregano. Next time I'm going to use a little more, I think. This is also a recipe that you want to use dried herbs for, they are best for slow cooking. I browned up the shanks, removed them from the pot and added the shallot and garlic. I didn't cut the garlic too small since it was going to break down over the several hours of cooking. I sauteed them till they were soft and then added the wine and juice. This was a mistake, I should have added just the wine and let it reduce a bit first to get rid of the alcohol flavor/smell, then added the juice. Then back in went the lamb and I realized I needed more liquid, so when I added the wine wouldn't have mattered anyway. Then the cover went on and it simmered for about three hours. You could do this in the oven, but I prefer to do things on the stove. Plus my dutch oven barely fits in my tiny real oven. I removed the lamb and reduced the liquid a bit to use as a sauce. I had it with some brown rice that I put a little garlic and onion in. They aren't really that pretty, but they were very tasty. So that's it, Merlot pomegranate braised lamb shanks. It was quite good, the tart/sweet juice and the strong flavors of the wine and lamb went really well together. The shanks were falling apart and very moist. It would be good with beef too, maybe brisket. Next time I make it I'm going to use more herbs, like I had mentioned, but other than the amounts I don't think I'd change anything else.

Lemon Cupcakes with Champagne Glaze

for the cupcakes:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 large lemon
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

for the glaze:
1 tbl butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2-4 tbls champagne

(makes about a dozen)

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and mix well. Add the sour cream, lemon zest and vanilla. Mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Prep a cupcake pan with liners and dole out the batter evenly between them. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven till a toothpick comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.

For the glaze:
Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Add the sugar and champagne and mix to combine. Stir over low heat till the sugar is dissolved. Dip cupcake tops in the glaze.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First things first, props: I got the cupcake recipe from here. I was looking for a nice, simple (and small) lemon cupcake recipe and it fit the bill. Most of the recipes I saw wanted three eggs (making it hard to halve the recipe) and made at least two dozen cupcakes. I didn't need anything like that many, it was just a little something to celebrate my girlfriends first week at her new job. I changed it a tiny bit, swapping out zest for extract and making them full size cupcakes instead of minis. Other than that, it's the same thing. They came out well, although the glaze I whipped up needs a little work. I used to make a champagne glaze that was devastating, but for some reason I can't remember it at all. So I tossed one together using tidbits from the internet (although this post at How to Cook Like Your Grandmother is what reminded me of the whole thing). It was ok. It tasted oddly like Swedish fish, sort of. Instead of like champagne, which was the goal of course. But it went well with lemon and it wasn't gross so it wasn't a fail. Allow me show you.

First, cupcakes. Sweet, cakey treasures, piping hot from their forty watt womb... er, sorry. Cartoons have warped me. These are not made in a Happy Cake Oven, they are made in a real oven. Which means we need to cream the butter and sugar. Once again I'm doing it by hand. I think I'm going to go so far as to throw out my hand mixer, it's a piece of crap and I never use it. Anyway, once that's done add the egg. Mix to combine. I added the vanilla to the zest a little earlier, my brother told me that the alcohol would pull out some of the oils and make it more lemony. Don't know if it worked, but it smelled awesome. So, then I added the sour cream, zest and vanilla. Again, mix to combine. Dry mix? Mix to combine. Now you could resist the urge to eat some of the sweet, lemony batter but I don't recommend it. In fact if you look at that picture you will see at least one finger swipe. I had to make sure it was good, you see. And it was. Now, portion the batter out evenly into your lined cupcake pan. I only got eleven, but that was plenty since it was just the two of us. Into the 350 degree oven till done, about twenty five minutes. I've found it's important to stick your thumb in at least one cupcake while pulling them out of the oven. If it was perfect, no one would believe it, right? Right. And that's that, except for the glaze. Which I didn't manage to get a single decent picture of while I was making it. Sorry. But since it's kind of a work in progress, I'll worry about it more next time I try it. Hopefully then it will come out better too. So, there it is. Lemon sour cream cupcakes with a champagne glaze. They were moist, delicious and for some reason very hard to get a really good, sharp picture of. I think it's all the light colors and shiny surfaces. Well, they tasted good, that's the most important thing. And they weren't all blurry in real life. Heh.