I Can Cook That | Food and Beverage Recipes

Chilled Raspberry Shooters

I fell in love with this recipe for Chilled Raspberry Shooters initially just on the photo; they are so pretty! The original recipe from Taste of Home is actually more of a savory dish but one of the comments mentioned using vanilla yogurt instead of sour cream so I decided to take their suggestion. This take some preparation, so if you plan on using this to impress guests with a slightly different but amazing dessert, be sure to give yourself a few hours before the event.

Ingredients (makes 6):

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cranberry juice
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
3 pints plus 6 fresh raspberries, divided
2/3 cups french vanilla yogurt
1 tablespoon whipped topping, divided

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Strawberries with Chocolate Cream

Valentines Day has come early to I Can Cook That! Ok, not really. I made them for a party recently, but they would be perfect for a Valentines Day dessert, or with your coffee in the morning! I found this recipe on Taste of Home. After reading the reviews, a few people suggested adding some powdered sugar to sweeten up the chocolate cream. I love anything sweet, so I took their suggestion!

Ingredients:

1-1/2 ounces dark chocolate, grated, divided

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup whipped topping

2 containers of fresh strawberries, halved

I used dark chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s. They come in 1.75 oz little bars so I used two of those 1.75 oz bars. Take the first bar and melt over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

In a small bowl, add the cream cheese, vanilla, powdered sugar and whipped topping. Beat with a hand mixer until smooth.

Add the melted chocolate and beat until combined. Add the mixture to a plastic zip lock bag.

Cut off the lower corner and pipe onto the strawberries, with the cut side up.

Using a grater, grate the remaining chocolate over the strawberries.

These are really simple, and really tasty too!

I think the addition of the powdered sugar was a good idea. Fresh strawberries can be a bit tart, so it was nice to add some extra sweetness within the chocolate cream.

The cream cheese adds a nice smoothness to the chocolate cream. They are so pretty too, aren’t they?

You can make these ahead of time and then pop them in the refrigerator until needed.

Mussels in White Wine Garlic Sauce

It’s very rare that I make a meal without some kind of goal in mind. I’m not terribly creative, so I usually do at least some research before making a meal: read a magazine, google a recipe, ask a family member, or have a craving from a restaurant I want to try to make at home.

I guess my subconscious was channeling a craving for Bona Cucina‘s mussels in white wine because I kind of sort of ended up with that at the end of my cooking, so here’s my version of their Mussels in White Wine Garlic Sauce. I was just trying to whip up a quick meal, so I actually didn’t take any photos until the finished product (whoops) but I thought I’d share it anyways. I still had some mussels left over from when I made Angel Hair Pasta with Mussels in a Red Pepper Sauce so I figured I should use them.

Ingredients – serve 2 as an appetizer, multiply as needed (get all ingredients here):

1 dozen mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon olive oil
2-4 garlic cloves, minced (depending on how much you want to offend those around you)
1 shallot, minced
Chopped parsley
2 tablespoons butter

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Goat Cheese Stuffed Lamb Burgers

Oh yes, you read that correctly. A delicious grilled lamb burger, with goat cheese inside. I have been craving Goat Cheese Stuffed Lamb Burgers for a good week now and finally managed to find ground lamb (which was surprisingly difficult for some reason) to make them. I used a recipe off of Finish Your Broccoli‘s blog that she made a while back to make the actual burger. I took some liberty in making it but for the most part it’s basically the same.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground lamb
3 tbsp plain yogurt
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp minced fresh mint
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
Pinch cayenne
4 oz log goat cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped basil
Tzatziki
Sliced cucumber
Pita bread or hamburger buns, toasted

Add the ground lamb, plain yogurt, panko, mint, salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne to a large bowl.

Mix to combine.

Add the goat cheese, olive oil, parsley, and basil to a small bowl.

Mix to combine.

Take the meat mixture and divide it evenly into four patties.

Make a well in each patty and add an equal amount of the cheese mixture into each well.

Form the meat patty around the cheese mixture.

Heat a grill pan (or grill) and cook the burger to your liking. Because they are so thick, you might need to cook them long and slow.

Grill the hamburger buns or pita bread.

Top the burger with tzatziki and sliced cucumber.

And there you have it!

You bite in and get a really delicious, moist burger.

With a flavorful, gooey center.

Mmmm.

This is EXACTLY what I was craving. And it’s really quick! What more could you ask for?

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

So I realized today that this post for Homemade Macaroni and Cheese is my 200th! How crazy is that? Okay, back to your regular programing… time for an awesome recipe for Homemade Macaroni and Cheese!

Winter weather really makes me crave comfort food. When it snows (like it did this weekend) my need for comfort food escalates.

I’ve been looking for any excuse to make another mac and cheese recipe, so I jumped at the chance to make it during the snow.

I originally printed out this recipe from Cooking Light, but I changed it so much to fit what I could find it’s barely recognizable. The overall method is basically the same though.

Ingredients:

1/2 an onion, diced
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 1/4 cups 1% low fat milk
1 box uncooked elbow macaroni
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
4 ounces cubed sharp cheddar cheese
4ounces cubed gouda cheese
Panko breadcrumbs
Grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Fresh parsley, chopped

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Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Who honestly doesn’t love crab stuffed mushrooms? Little bite sized bits of happiness: mushroom, crab meat, cheese, and crunchy bread crumbs. I always have my fingers crossed that these party staples show up as an appetizer at any and all social events. So I thought it was about time that I attempted to make them myself. I finally whipped up a batch of theses crab stuffed mushrooms to eat while watching the games on Sunday. They are actually quite easy to make and are awesome right out of the oven or cooled to room temperature. Taste of Home had a great recipe I decided to try. My only “big” change was that I substituted Old Bay in for the cayenne. I’ve spent many a summer on the Chesapeake and now can’t eat crab without at least a little bit of this seasoning!

Ingredients:

1 medium tomato, seeded and diced
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon Old Bay
1 can (8 ounces) crabmeat, drained, flaked and cartilage removed
2 containers of fresh baby bella mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Cooking spray

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Caprese Tomato Bites

I know, I know. It’s January. What the heck am I doing posting a Caprese recipe? I had a craving for a Caprese salad and I can’t bring myself to buy large tomatoes so out of season. Cherry tomatoes always seem to be around the same level of taste all year long, so I thought this might hold me over until the spring. The recipe incorporates all ingredients found in a traditional Caprese salad, while making it into a cute appetizer bite. I found this recipe on Taste of Home and mainly stuck to the recipe, with a few changes based on what I could find.

Ingredients:

1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, torn into smaller pieces
6 fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

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Angel Hair Pasta with Mussels in a Red Pepper Sauce

I’m on a slight mussel kick at the moment. I can’t stop thinking about Eulogy’s beer mussels, Bona Cucina’s mussels in white wine, and most recently, a mussels in red sauce I had back in college. I found a recipe for Angel Hair Pasta with Mussels in a Red Pepper Sauce in an old Cooking Light I thought I’d try. I was hoping for a slightly spicy dish, so I altered some of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

8 ounces uncooked angel hair pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 a yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14.5-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 bag mussels, scrubbed and debearded
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to the directions on the box. Drain, and keep warm.

I wrote in my paella post how to clean and debeard mussels. It’s not terribly complicated, but it took me a while to be ok with debearding. Once the mussels are cleaned and debearded, you can begin cooking.

Add olive oil to a saute pan over medium heat. Chop your onion, garlic and bell peppers.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add the bell pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.

Remove the tomatoes from the can, reserving the liquid. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, liquid, and wine to the pan and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Add mussels, increase the heat to medium and cover.

Cook for 7 minutes or until the shells begin to open. If any do not open, throw those out; do not eat them. Add the pasta to the same pot and mix to coat with the sauce.

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.

When I first tried this, I didn’t add any cheese. And there was a little something just missing. It was ok, but somewhat bland.

I’d add a bit more spice next time. Maybe more red pepper flakes, or even a few drops of hot sauce.

My boyfriend suggested adding Parmesan cheese, and it did really help the flavor of the dish, so be sure to add some at the end!

This could be a really stellar recipe with a few modifications. What would you add to change this from a three star recipe to a five star recipe?

Yum

Angel Hair Pasta with Mussels in a Red Pepper Sauce

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked angel hair pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 a yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14.5-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 bag mussels, scrubbed and debearded
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to the directions on the box. Drain, and keep warm.
Clean and debeard the mussels.
Add olive oil to a saute pan over medium heat. Chop your onion, garlic and bell peppers.
Add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes.
Add the bell pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.
Remove the tomatoes from the can, reserving the liquid. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, liquid, and wine to the pan and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Add mussels, increase the heat to medium and cover.
Cook for 7 minutes or until the shells begin to open. If any do not open, throw those out; do not eat them. Add the pasta to the same pot and mix to coat with the sauce.
Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.

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Thirty Minute “Paella”

I absolutely love paella: rice, saffron, seafood… what isn’t to like? If I could, I’d eat this amazing dish once a week. Traditional paella takes a good hour at least to make, so it would be quite the task to make it all the time. However, I found a paella-like dish from Cooking Light that can be made in 30 minutes! My parents and sister recently went to Spain and brought me back some amazing, but vague, spices. One was just labeled as “paella spice” and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 a white onion, chopped

2 chicken sausages, cut into pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound large shrimp
2 cups uncooked rice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon “paella spice” (sub in 1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron for this)
1/4 teaspoon paprika, smoked would be ideal
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup frozen green peas
the juice of 1/2 a lemon juice

Using a Dutch oven or a heavy bottomed pan, head the olive oil over medium-high heat. Chop your onion and sausage.

Add to the pot and cook, stirring, for three minutes.

Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and stir in to the other ingredients.

Add the rice, water, oregano, salt, paella spice (or saffron), paprika, black pepper, and chicken broth.

Mix so that the rice is coated in the liquid.

Bring to a boil and cover. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in the peas, and squeeze with the juice of 1/2 a lemon.

So, traditional paella has that nice crispy bottom where the rice has started to stick to the pan. Twenty minutes obviously won’t give you that result. But the rice turns out fluffy and has the flavoring of not only the saffron/paella spice, but also the smokiness of the chicken sausage and a subtle fresh seafood flavor of the shrimp.

The little bit of citrus really enhances the dish. It brings out all of the flavors and adds such brightness to the rice.

I am so impressed and pleased with how this turned out. For just thirty minutes of your time, you can have a paella-type dinner prepared!

I kept the tails and shell on the shrimp so that they could soak in the liquid while cooking the rice. It helped so that the shrimp wouldn’t overcook. Also, I think it makes the paella look a bit more authentic. 🙂

If you are a bit squeamish about it, feel free to use deveined shrimp. I’d suggest not adding them to the pot until the rice is about half way cooked, so as to not overcook the shrimp.

I wish I could figure out what exactly was in the “paella spice” I had because the flavor was really amazing. Saffron, tumeric, spanish paprika? Sigh. Who knows. But if you come across any pre-made paella mix, be sure to buy it and try this dish! However, I do think that using saffron would make a really solid substitute.

Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

We recently had a baby shower for one of my co-workers. She’s a big chocolate fan, so I went in search of a super chocolately cupcake that I could make for the shower. Lauren’s Latest had a great recipe that incorporated dark chocolate and cocoa powder, perfect! I used an altered buttercream recipe from my Guinness Cupcakes so that I could have a white icing that I could dye blue. She is having a boy so I went with a duck theme!

Cupcake ingredients:

3/4 cup butter

12 oz dark chocolate

3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used light)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup flour

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup low fat sour cream

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Buttercream ingredients:

1 stick of butter, softened
3 cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Milk, as needed to get to desired consistency

4-5 drops blue food dye

So I did something that is typically a big no-no in baking. I took Lauren’s recipe and multiplied it by three to make 24 cupcakes. And (thankfully) it turned out a-ok! So feel free to use my multiplied version. Be sure to check out Lauren’s page though to see how beautiful hers came out, especially with that chocolate icing, yum!

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a small pot, melt the butter and chocolate over medium low heat, stirring until smooth. When combined, remove from heat and allow to cool.

While the butter and chocolate are melting / cooling, add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and flour in a large bowl.

Mix to combine.

In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, sour cream and vanilla.

Make a well in the dry mixture.

Pour the wet ingredients into the well.

Mine overflowed. Oops@

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients as well as the cooled butter-chocolate mixture until just combined.

Add half of the mixture to the cupcake tins (the recipe makes 24 so you will have enough batter for 24 cupcakes). I use an ice cream scoop to at least attempt to divide the batter evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a middle cupcake comes out clean.

Allow to completely cool before decorating.

To make the icing, use a hand mixer to beat butter until smooth. Add half of the sugar and beat until smooth. Add other half of the sugar and repeat. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit of milk to thin and beat until smooth. (Note: be careful to not add too much, a little bit of milk goes a very long way!)

I added 4-5 drops of blue food coloring to get a light blue color. The icing became water for my ducks.

How cute are these?

I used a pastry bag to add the icing, but you can also put the icing into a plastic zip lock bag and cut off one of the bottom corners to squeeze the icing out. It doesn’t have to be perfect (mine definitely aren’t!), the ducks splashing makes ripples in the water 🙂

I ordered the ducks and the sprinkles from The Bakers Confections, which you can buy on Etsy.

You’re probably thinking, super, they are adorable. But are they tasty?

They sure are! The double chocolate makes it a really nice dense cupcake, fully of chocolately flavor. The sour cream keeps them nice and moist.

My cupcakes were snatched up in minutes, so I think they were a hit!

Thanks to Lauren for posting such a fantastic cupcake recipe!

English Blackberry Pudding

Recipes can tell you a lot about the time period in which they were written. I have always been interested in how recipes change over time to meet tastes, availability and personal income. A few months ago, I went to an event at the Historical Society of Philadelphia about a Civil War era cookbook they found within their documents. The cookbook, written by Ellen Emlenwas written around 1865 and is really well organized, especially for the time. Mrs. Emlen, a Philadelphia housewife, put a lot of time into the cookbook, organizing it into thirteen categories including over 200 recipes.

Some of the fun facts that I learned:

If you think Americans have a sugar problem now, you should see some of the amounts of sugar that used to go into recipes! Most recipes would have to be altered to include less sugar to make palatable to us today.
Despite their not so wallet-friendly prices now, oysters used to be “poor man’s food” in nineteenth century Philadelphia. The Delaware River used to be teeming with them! Because of that, there are some ridiculous-sounding recipes for things like “how to pickle 1,000 oysters”
It’s quite amazing how some things haven’t really changed. There is a recipe for eggnog in the book that is comparable to today’s recipe.
The affluent families of Philadelphia (Mrs. Emlen included) really had a thing for saffron. So many dishes include it in the ingredients!

The event was really interesting and we all were given a copy to take home with us! (Expect some posts including adaptations of her recipes in the future). I also picked up another book while I was there, 35 Recipes from “The Larder Invaded”, which also included historical recipes from local Philadelphians. I used a recipe from that book for this Blackberry Pudding, with a few slight changes.

I’m sure some of you just looked at that photo and thought to yourself “that is NOT pudding.” It’s actually an English pudding. Although in the U.S., pudding is usually a milk-based custard type dessert, pudding in the United Kingdom can be used for any sweet dish after dinner (think: Christmas pudding or “figgy pudding”). So, this recipe is actually more of a bread or cake.

Ingredients:

1 pint almond milk, plus more for glaze

3 1/2 cups flour plus more for dredging the blackberries

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine to make dairy free

2 heaping teaspoons baking powder

1 pint blackberries

powdered sugar

To make this recipe a bit more my own, and bring it into the 21^st century, I decided to try this with Vanilla Almond Milk. I thought it might add a nice extra flavor to the whole dessert. Feel free to use normal milk.

Beat the eggs together until light.

Add the almond milk and flour and mix to combine. Add the melted butter, salt and baking powder and mix to combine.

Wash the blackberries and dredge in flour.

Add the blackberries to the pudding and mix to combine.

The original recipe wanted me to put the batter into a pudding tin (I have no idea what a pudding tin is) and then place that in a pot with some boiling water and cook it this way, replenishing the water when needed, for 3 hours. Yep. Not happening.

Instead, I preheated my oven to 350, added the batter to some Pyrex bowls (I used one medium and one small to use all the dough) and baked them for 40-50 minutes.

Because I have a ridiculous sweet tooth, I decided to add a little bit of a glaze to the top of the dessert. Combine 2 parts powdered sugar to 1 part milk. (I made 1 tablespoon powdered sugar to 1.5 teaspoons almond milk).

So how was it? Delicious of course! Look at that beauty!

I was a bit afraid of how this would turn out because I messed with the method of preparation. But it looks fine to me! I enjoyed the glaze on top to give it an extra pop of sugary goodness. The blackberries were nice and tart, so it was a good contrast. I was really happy with the almond milk in it as well!

Best thing about this recipe is that it can easily be adapted to include any kind of berry you choose. It’s a wonderful base recipe to let your creativity run wild.

I actually had a really hard time taking these photos; I kept trying to eat the pudding!

English Blackberry Pudding

A traditional English pudding made with blackberries and drizzled with a simple glaze

Course Dessert

Cuisine United Kingdom

Keyword Blackberry, Cake, Dessert, English, Pudding

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1 5

Servings 6

Author Kaitlin @ I Can Cook That

Ingredients

1 pint almond milk plus more for glaze
3 1/2 cups flour plus more for dredging the blackberries
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine to make dairy free
2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
1 pint blackberries
powdered sugar

Instructions

Beat the eggs together until light.
Add the almond milk and flour and mix to combine.
Add the melted butter, salt and baking powder and mix to combine.
Wash the blackberries and dredge in flour.
Add the blackberries to the pudding and mix to combine.
The original recipe wanted me to put the batter into a pudding tin (I have no idea what a pudding tin is) and then place that in a pot with some boiling water and cook it this way, replenishing the water when needed, for 3 hours.
Instead, I preheated my oven to 350, added the batter to some Pyrex bowls (I used one medium and one small to use all the dough) and baked them for 40-50 minutes.
Let cool.
To make the glaze, combine 2 parts powdered sugar to 1 part milk and drizzle over the pudding while it cools.

Stuffed Peppers

I have been a part of a food swap for about 6 months now, and I am already running low on ideas. As I was frantically looking for an idea, I realized no one had made stuffed peppers yet, win! Stuffed peppers are a perfect, hearty meal for relatively little cost. They are pretty adaptable and can honestly be made with whatever you want. To make vegetarian, sub in beans or just omit the ground beef all together.

Ingredients (this makes 10 stuffed peppers)

10 peppers

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

3 onions

3 garlic cloves, minced

2.5 lbs ground beef

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

1 can diced tomatoes

½ teaspoon each of basil, oregano and parsley (dried)

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper, to taste

5 cups cooked rice

½ cup grated Parmesan

Cut off top of peppers, removing the seeds and membranes. Dice the edible parts of the tops of the peppers.

Add the whole peppers to a pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove from water and set aside.

Add the butter and olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Add the onion, diced peppers, and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add the ground beef, stirring to break up the meat.

Cook until browned. Add the Worcestershire, diced tomatoes, and tomato puree, stirring to combine.

Season with oregano, basil, parsley, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cooked rice and parmesan cheese.

Stuff peppers with mixture, sprinkling with more parmesan cheese if desired.

Because I made these for a swap, I froze the peppers at this stage.

To cook, thaw completely then bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes.

I hope they like them!

Homemade Pancake Mix

Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with store-bought pancake mix. However, are you aware of how easy it is to make your own at home? This recipe makes 16 pancakes; you can store the dry mix in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda

Liberté at Sofitel Philadelphia’s Chestnut Ravioli

I am lucky to live in such a food city. Everywhere around me, there are restaurants that deliver seemingly effortless food with beautiful presentation. Twice a year, center city hosts Restaurant Week, with pre fixe meals at many restaurants around the city. Recently, Center City District and Philly Homegrown compiled a free recipe book of meals offered during Restaurant Week. I would love to take the time to make each and every one of these recipes, but for now, I’ll start with Liberté at Sofitel Philadelphia‘s Chestnut Ravioli. The chestnut ravioli is served on top of a sweet potato puree, drizzled with a sage cream sauce, and topped with pancetta and crispy sage. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect winter meal?

Ingredients:

Ravioli –

2 lasagna sheets of fresh pasta (in Philly, try By George in Reading Terminal)

1 handful of sage leaves, chopped

4 egg yolks (reserve the egg whites)

6 ounces chestnuts, cooked

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Salt, to taste

Sauce –

1 handful of sage, chopped

1 pint heavy cream

2 ounces white wine

Sweet Potato Puree –

1 large sweet potato

1 tablespoon butter

Garnish –

4 slices panectta or bacon

sage leaves

olive oil

Begin to preparing your chestnuts. Using a paring knife, cut an X into the flat side of each chestnut. There are a few layers in a chestnut so don’t be afraid to cut pretty deep into the chestnut.

This is so while cooking, air can escape and the chestnuts wont explode. Add the chestnuts to a pot of unsalted boiling water. Boil for 15 – 20 minutes.

Remove the chestnuts from the water and allow to cool enough to be handled. (They will begin to peel back after being removed from the water.

When cool enough to touch, peel the shells off of the chestnuts.

Take 1/2 of the chestnuts and roughly chop.

Add the other 1/2 of the chestnuts to a food processor (I used a magic bullet) and blend until finely chopped.

Add the egg yolks, chopped sage and maple syrup to a medium bowl, mixing to combine. Add all of the chestnuts to the mixture.

Place one lasagna sheet on a floured surface. Add about 1 teaspoon of the chestnut mixture 6 times, spread evenly apart. With the reserved egg whites, brush around the filling.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the second lasagna sheet a bit more so that it is slightly larger than the first piece. Carefully lay the sheet over the first one making sure that there are no air bubbles. Using a ravoli stamp, press down around each filling.

Use a knife to cut around the ravioli stamp. Inspect the edges of the ravioli to make sure they are sealed (you can just use your fingertips to seal any edges that need to be closed). Set aside.

To make the sweet potato puree, peel a sweet potato and add to salted boiling water. (You can cut it into smaller pieces to make it cook faster… I honestly don’t know why I didn’t. Weird.)

Cook until fork tender (about 10-15 minutes). Pour out the water and add the sweet potato back to the pot over low heat. This will remove the rest of the water that might still be in the sweet potato.

Use a ricer to mash the sweet potato. Add the butter and mix to combine.

Add the puree to a plastic zip lock bag and set aside.

To make the sauce, add the white wine to a small pot. Bring to a boil. Stir in the cream and lower the heat to a simmer. Add the chopped sage and cook until the cream reduces by half.

To make the garnish, add the pancetta to a saute pan over low heat. Place a smaller pan on top while the pancetta cooks so that it can’t curl up.

When the pancetta is crispy, remove from heat. Turn the heat up to medium-high and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the sage leaves and cook until crispy.

Bring a salted pot of water to a low boil. Add the ravioli and cook for 3-5 minutes. Drain.

To assemble, take the zip lock bag of sweet potato puree and cut off one of the lower corners. Pipe two thin parallel lines of sweet potato puree onto a plate. You want them about ravioli width apart. Add the ravioli in between the two lines and spoon the sauce over the ravioli. Top with pancetta and crispy sage leaves.

I’m pretty sure I used every pot and pan in my place to make this dish. As I was making it, tasting each part, I was a bit worried about how this would all turn out. Chestnuts, sweet potatoes, cream, sage and pancetta?

The flavors were FANTASTIC. Wow. It was a lot of work but I am so happy with how it turned out.

My sweet potato puree was a bit too chunky for my liking, but oh well.

This recipe is usually an appetizer, but I thought I’d make it into a meal by adding 3 to a plate instead of one.

Champagne Risotto Primavera

I still have some prosecco sitting around after New Years Eve that I don’t want to go to waste. It’s already open so there’s really no way to save it. I usually use leftover wine in my risotto, so why not use sparkling wine instead? After all the food I ate in the past week, I thought I should probably incorporate some vegetables into my risotto as well. I adapted a Weight Watchers recipe to incorporate the sparkling wine.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 zucchini, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup uncooked arborio rice
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup champagne, prosecco, or other sparkling wine, divided
1 cup frozen edamame, thawed
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
fresh parsley, chopped

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