My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
Happy New Year 2014! My husband & I celebrated New Year’s Eve at Abreo Restaurant, in downtown Rockford and it was amazing, just as we knew it would be. We’re big fans of Abreo, who catered our wedding, and this is our first time there …
Leftover ham? My motto is: make soup! I’ll keep this post short and simple. These are guesstimated amounts since soup is a wing-it kind of thing for me and I don’t really measure. The key is really ratio – add more of what you like, …
The truffles that I make are enrobed, meaning I dip my ganache in a hard chocolate coating, before sprinkling them with toppings. I see many recipes for just the ganache rolled with toppings, so feel free to stop at the ganache part, if you’re so inclined. I’m going to give you the “master” ganache recipe, but then I’ll tell you how I customized it in different ways. Feel free to customize these your own way; remember – do NOT be afraid to play with your food.
It’s a good idea to have toothpicks on hand, to help with the enrobing process.
Ganache:
In a glass bowl, break the chocolate up into small pieces. In a small saucepan, heat the cream until bubbles form around the edge. Remove from heat and let sit about 1 minute. Pour half of the cream over the chocolate and let stand about 4-5 minutes. You don’t want to add all of the hot cream at once or your chocolate with break and separate.
Slowly begin stirring. At first, this will look like a gloppy mess, but just keep stirring. After a couple of minutes, the chocolate and cream will come together beautifully. Make sure you’ve stirred until everything is completely blended. Slowly add the rest of the hot cream while continuing to stir. Your ganache should be creamy and smooth. Add your flavoring. Refrigerate overnight.
Remove ganache from refrigerator. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or waxed paper. Using a small spoon, scoop a bit of the ganache into your hands and roll into a small ball. Place ball of ganache on baking sheet and repeat making balls with the remainder of the ganache. Tip: having a bowl of ice water handy to dip your hands into will keep your hands chilled and prevent the chocolate from melting. You’re still going to end up covered in chocolate, but this helps. Some people recommend wearing food-safe gloves, but I find them hard to work with. Try whatever you think works best for you.
Place tray of ganache balls in freezer for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, place your dark and white chocolates, below, in separate glass dishes, breaking them into squares.
Assemble your toppings, below, and have them ready to go.
Chocolate for Enrobing:
Assorted Truffle Toppings:
Microwave chocolates on low, at 30-second intervals, stirring each time after the first minute. Do NOT overheat your chocolate and do NOT get any water at all into it. It usually takes me about 2 minutes total to melt each flavor. The final round there should still be tiny bits of chocolate in the bowl, that melt as you’re stirring.
Let melted chocolate stand and cool for a few minutes before beginning the enrobing process. (otherwise, the minute you dip your ganache balls into the chocolate, the balls will begin to melt)
Remove ganache balls from freezer and, stabbing one with a toothpick, dip and roll the ball completely in the melted chocolate. Holding the ball above the chocolate, let excess chocolate drip from ball.
Slide a fork under the ball and hold it, while removing the toothpick. Using the fork and toothpick, gently place the ball back onto the baking sheet.
Sprinkle immediately with your choice of topping.
Repeat with remainder of balls.
That’s it! It’s quite a process but they’re beautiful and delicious!
Some ways that I customize them are the flavorings that go into the ganache:
And, of course, if you’re not a fan of dark chocolate, play around with milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate.
Use your imagination and your own taste to customize them however you like.
As you can see, mine are far from perfect – a little oddball in size and such – but no one ever seems to care….trust me.
Happy Holidays to all of you and enjoy the season!
Roasting a whole duck, so that the skin is crispy and the meat is still moist, is actually a very simple, classic process. I love to make this at the holidays, but I also make it once or twice in the summertime by using our …
When life gives you hot peppers…make hot sauce. I grew scotch bonnet peppers for the first time, this year. Last year it was bhut jalokia peppers, also known as ghost chilies, which certainly lived up to their hot, hot, hot reputation. On the Scoville scale, …
I’ve never heard of cooking chicken in milk. Ever. From anyone. The fact this recipe from The Naked Chef calls for such an odd mix of milk, whole cloves of unpeeled garlic, a cinnamon stick, fresh sage and lemon zest truly had me intrigued. Considering I’ve never been a huge fan of Mr. Oliver, I was a bit dubious about trying this. But then I Googled “Chicken in milk recipe” and, lo and behold, it seems the folks at The Kitchn are not the only ones who rave about this particular dish.
It almost makes sense to me, cooking chicken in milk because, once you add the lemon zest to the milk, you’re creating a homemade version of buttermilk. Now, most of us have had buttermilk fried chicken and can attest to the fact that it’s delicious. So, without giving it any more thought, I decided to try it.
I picked up a whole chicken on my next trip to the store, plucked fresh sage leaves from one of my many bushes and, on a cool, dreary Sunday, the cooking commenced. Is this the best chicken recipe ever? Hmmmm. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’ll tell you this: It’s pretty damned delicious.
Now, one thing left open for interpretation with this recipe is that Jamie simply calls for “1 good handful of sage”, so I may have gone a little easy on it. I also used a larger chicken than what he calls for, along with using a whole stick of cinnamon instead of a half stick. One of the interesting things that The Kitchn article points out is that Jamie’s recipe originally called for browning it in butter, but has since updated it to olive oil. Also, the Kitchn noted that covering the chicken for half the cooking time results in a more flavor-infused chicken. That made a lot of sense to me, so here’s how I made my rendition of this dish (apologies for the not-so-great-photo):
Preheat oven to 375°
Season the bird with salt and pepper. In a pan just large enough to fit the whole bird in, add the butter and olive oil. Brown the bird well on both sides. (I also used a pair of long tongs to hold the bird and brown the leg/wing sides a bit)
Remove chicken from pan and drain excess fat. Place chicken back in pan, toss in the rest of the ingredients and bake for 45 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and continue cooking for another 45 minutes. (total cooking time: 1 1/2 hours)
That’s it! What you’ll find when you open the oven door to remove the bird is a bubbling cauldron of deliciousness. I squeezed in 4 whole small red potatoes to the pan at the beginning and they cooked beautifully (and tasted wonderful).
One other thing Jamie’s recipe doesn’t specify is whether to cook the bird breast side up or down. I did mine up, so that the caramelization happened on top. But, after the fact, it appears The Kitchn cooked theirs upside down, immersing the breast in the sauce. (I’m judging strictly by the photos in their article) This would certainly add to the moistness and flavor of the breast meat, though even breast-side up, it turned out great.
Will I make this again? You bet! It was very easy to prepare and the results were terrific. Next time, I’ll add some more fresh sage and try it breast-side down, though.
Have you ever cooked chicken in milk? I’d love to hear about it! Thanks for stopping by.
Chimichurri sauce is something I enjoy tremendously and is a great way to use some of your gorgeous summer herbs. I love it with grilled skirt or flank steak, which is how it’s traditionally served, but it’s also great with chicken and fish, Bonus? It …