CHRISTMAS ZEBRA CAKE

So i mentioned that i will try the zebra cake with a twist. I call this a Christmasy Zebra Cake. The process in making this cake is basically the same with my Zebra cake version. The only change i made this time are the colors, i didn't use any cocoa powder. I used a red and a green food color hence the Christmas effect. It'll all depend on how dark of a red and green shade you would like your cake to have. For my version of the Zebra Cake recipe pls check  http://bisayajudkaayo.blogspot.com/2009/11/zebra-cake-my-way.html .

PRIME RIB

Yes, You can make your own prime rib even for a small family of 3! This is what we had for Christmas aside from the usual ham w/ pineapple glaze, potato and egg salad. Roasted asparagus with butter and garlic and drizzle of lemon juice.

Arrange the asparagus on a baking sheet, put cubes of butter and minced garlic on top of the asparagus then roast for about 15 minutes in the preheated 360 degrees F oven

This is a 5 lb. standing rib roast (3 bones). Bring the rib roast to room temperature before baking. Finely mince medium sized sweet onions, 4 cloves of garlic, parsley and rosemary. Season this w/ Montreal Steak Seasoning. Rub the meat w/ 3 T soften unsalted butter (room temperature), this will not only add flavor, moisture to the meat but this will serve as the paste to the seasoned spices you will be rubbing to the meat as well.

The bones will serve as the rack so i just used a deep casserole pan, i nestled the rib roast on top of the mirepoix and little of beef broth w/c later served as the au jus.

I found this great site about Prime Rib. It's thorough and detailed, i highly recommend that you check this site Cooking Perfect Prime Rib. I followed the instructions step by step and it came out perfect. Just exactly how we liked it. Medium to Medium Rare.

I deliberately left the crust because i like the flavor and see the first slice...i had to taste it! Yum!!! and oh the bones? We gnawed on it w/ gusto! yes, there.. i said it...lol!

This is how our Prime Rib came out after 1 1/2 hrs. in the oven at 375 degrees F with an internal temperature of 130. Took it out of the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes covered w/ foil, which had a carry over cooking. Final internal temp was 136 degree.

See!!! If i can do it you can do it!!! You can make perfect prime rib at home!

PAN SEARED ASPARAGUS AND SUNDRIED TOMATOES

Ingredients:

1 bunch trimmed and washed asparagus

1 lemon use the juice and zest

2 T olive oil

2 T balsamic vinegar

2 pcs. sundried tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Blanch  your asparagus and shock in ice water first if they are as big as what i had.

Pan sear with olive oil if they are small or medium sized asparagus.

Add the chopped sundried tomatoes and cook for few minutes until asparagus are soft and tender but still crisp,  then drizzle w/ the lemon juice, balsamic vinegar.

Season w/ S&P, taste and adjust the flavor. Garnish w/ the lemon zest.

Serve as is or w/ rice.

SALMON EN CROUTE

Yes, it's Daring Cooks Challenge time. Decembers' host was Simone of Junglefrog Cooking
I have been planning on making this but never got the chance to do it. Thanks to Simone, the procrastination is over=;) We love love it!

I didn't have time to make the shortcrust pastry so i used the store bought puff pastry. I wanted some acidity on the filling, i decided to use piri-piri sauce in lieu of the orignal filling.

The only issue I wanted to address the next time i make this are the sides, they were half baked because they were thicker than the middle part. Maybe i should have baked it a bit longer?, but then i was worried that the salmon will be overcooked. I will definitely try Audax suggestion to cover the middle part with foil and bake the sides a bit longer.

I wanted to make the beef wellington before the reveal date but due to time constraint i just couldn't do it. I am planning on making them New Year.

Pls. check HERE for the entire recipes (Shortcrust Pastry, Salmon En Croute and Beef Wellington)

PIRI-PIRI SAUCE

Y: 1 ½ Cup
4 red bird’s eye chilies, take out seeds and ribs on two. (Original calls for 8 but I find it too much)
½ C fresh lemon juice
1 preserved Meyer lemon **
Cilantro (few bunches)

Parsley (few bunches)
3 garlic cloves
½ C olive oil (add more if needed)

Instructions:

Puree the ingredients until smooth. Add oil in a slow and steady stream until you get the right sauce consistency.
**I added 1 whole homemade preserved Meyer lemons.
**Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

PRESERVED MEYER LEMONS RECIPE HERE

Parsley, Cilantro, Sundried Tomatoes, Preserved Meyer Lemons

Pureed Piri-Piri Sauce

Check my other dish using the piri-piri sauce Shrimp Piri-Piri

Alaskan Sockeye Salmon

Spread the Piri-piri sauce with chopped sun dried tomatoes then top it w/ the other half of the salmon

Salmon En Croute ready for the oven

Fresh off the oven

Served this beautiful Salmon En Croute w/ Pan seared Asparagus with Sun Dried Tomatoes. Check HERE for the recipe

Clementine Spice Cake and Cup Cakes

Got the inspiration from Katie Goodman . Clementines are in season which means it's sweet and what a wonderful way to use them as the main ingredient to a cake.

For my version i used a yellow cake mix and added the spices. If you want to make this using a cake mix i would suggest to use a Spice Cake Mix so you don't have to add the necessary spices. The clementine juice, the molasses and the spices were a perfect combination. This is a beautiful cake.

The only problem i had was the cream cheese toppings. Katie's instruction is to spread the cheese topping to the cake batter. It didn't work for me, as i was spreading the cheese the batter tend to mix with the toppings which is why it was hard to spread the cheese. So i decided to bake the cake halfway enough to harden the top part of the cake which made it easy to spread the toppings.

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix (follow the ingredients of the box mix)
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup molasses
1 cup fresh squeezed Clementine juice
zest of 2 Clementine

Creamy Citrus Cheese Topping:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
zest of 1 Clementine

Garnish:
2 Clementine, peeled and sliced into rounds


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixer beat together the cake mix ingredients, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg.

Add in the molasses, scraping down the sides with a spatula as needed.

Add the Clementine juice and the zest.

Spray a spring form pan with spray oil to grease. Pour cake batter in pan, set aside.

Using a mixer, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and Clementine zest. Set it aside.

Bake the cake half way or when the top of the cake is hard enough to pour cream cheese mixture over top of cake batter. Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the top, leaving a half inch border.

Lay slices of Clementine a top the cake, bake cake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes, or until cake is set. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove outer ring of spring form pan and cool an additional 25 minutes.

Porkloin Calabrese

I don't know about you, but i like to brine pork loin before i stuff and roast them. I like a moist porkloin hence the brining.

Brining Ingredients:
Kosher Salt
Water
Apple Cider
Sugar

Pls. check How to Brine Pork .

Stuffing Ingredients:

Boneless loin of pork about 5 lbs.
2 T chopped parsley
2 T chopped rosemary ****
2 garlic cloves minced
1/4 lb. sopressata diced
1/4 lb. prosciutto diced****
1/4 lb. fontina cheese diced
2 T capers minced
1/3 c olive oil and extra for coating
S&P To taste

***** I went easy on the rosemary since i bought prosciutto cotto with rosemary.


1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Mix ingredients except porkloin in a bowl w/ capers and 1/3 C olive oil.
3. Butterfly the porkloin: slice the length of the loin, so that it unrolls with an even 1/2-1/4” thickness.
4. Spread stuffings evenly over the meat.
5. Roll up pork and tie with butchers' twine at 2-inch intervals.
6. Rub pork with olive oil and season pork all over with salt and black pepper and transfer to prepared pan.
7. Place pork in a roasting pan and roast for 20 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350 degress F and roast for 1-1/2 hrs. or until meat thermometer reads 145 degrees F.
8. Remove pork from the oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

FONTINA CHEESE, ROSEMARY, PARSLEY

STUFFINGS: HOT SOPRESSATA, PROSCIOUTTO, FONTINA CHEESE, CAPERS, GARLIC, CAPERS AND OLIVE OIL

SPREAD STUFFINGS EVENLY

ROLL PORK LOIN TIGHTLY W/ A BUTCHERS TWINE

PETITE PALMIERS

These are easy to make. Great for gifts! A no recipe recipe once again.
I was thinking of baklava ingredients as i was making this sans the pistachio.

Ingredients:
1 sheet of puff pastry
mixture of sugar and cinnamon
honey or corn syrup ( i prefer honey)

DUST YOUR BENCH W/ FLOUR SO PASTRY WON'T STICK

SPRINKLE THE CINNAMON SUGAR MIXTURE AND PRESS USING THE ROLLING PIN SO SUGAR MIXTURE WILL STICK TO THE DOUGH. REPEAT PROCESS ON THE ON THE OTHER SIDE.

FOLD AND ROLL OPPOSITE SIDES UNTIL EACH ROLLED SIDES MEETS AT THE CENTER.

CUT INTO UNIFORM SIZES.

ARRANGE SLICED PALMIERS ON THE BAKING PAN MAKING SURE YOU SET THEM FAR TO ALLOW THE PASTRY TO PUFF.

THEN DRIZZLE EACH PALMIERS W/ HONEY ABOUT A TSP PER SLICES.

BAKE IN A PREHEATED OVEN AT 365 DEGRESS F FOR ABOUT 10 MINUTES OR UNTIL BROWN.

ENJOY!!!!!

HASSELBACK POTATO

THIS IS A NO RECIPE RECIPE, THIS IS ONE OF THOSE "YOU EYEBALL THE QUANTITY"!

CUT ONE SIDE OF THE POTATO TO MAKE IT STAND. PLACE 2 CHOPSTICKS ON EACH SIDE OF THE POTATO. THINLY SLICE POTATO CROSSWISE. THE CHOPSTICKS WILL PREVENT THE KNIFE TO CUT THROUGH THE POTATO.

THERE ARE A LOT OF VARIATIONS ON WHAT TO COAT THE POTATOES. MY VERSION IS A COMBINATION/MIXTURE OF FLOUR, PANKO BREADCRUMBS (MY FAVORITE), PAPRIKA, SALT AND PEPPER, GARLIC AND ONION POWDER.

COAT THE POTATO W/ OLIVE OIL, THEN THE DRY MIXTURE. GINGERLY PUT SOME OF THE MIXTURE IN BETWEEN THE SLICES.



ARRANGE POTATOES IN A BAKING DISH; COVER W/ FOIL AND BAKE FOR 30 MINUTES. REMOVE THE FOIL AND BAKE FOR ANOTHER 15 MINUTES TO MAKE IT CRISPY.

I TOPPED THE POTATO W/ COMPOUND BUTTER (CHIVES, PARSLEY). THIS WAS CRISPY AND MOIST IN THE INSIDE! YUMMY! AND NICE PRESENTATION OFCOURSE

ANOTHER VERSION W/C I MADE THANKSGIVING 2009! SIMPLE YET MOIST AND CRISPY. SPRINKLE POTATOES W/ OLIVE OIL AND ONION AND GARLIC SALT.

ZEBRA CAKE MY WAY

Zebra Cake? huh? I had no clue that this kind of cake existed until i stumbled upon AZ Cookbook. What a beautiful cake. I wanted to make the cake ASAP but didn't have all the ingredients available but i have a lot of cake mix box.

I figured why not try the cakemix, if i fail then i'll do it again by following the original recipe. So here goes my experiment.

Ingredients:

1 Yellow Cake Mix
3 eggs
1/3 C oil
1 1/3 C water
3 T Hersheys Cocoa Powder
1 square of Bakers semi sweet chocolate (grate the chocolate by using microplane)

1. Follow the cakemix instructions
2. Divide the batter into 2 portions.
3. Keep one portion plain, then add the cocoa powder and grated chocolate into the other portion. Mix well until.
***It is imperative to follow this next step to achieve the zebra effect. Do not stop and wait until the previous batter spreads. Do not spread the batter or tilt the pan to distribute the mixture. It will spread by itself and fill the pan gradually. Continue alternating the batters until you finish up all the batter.***

4. Scoop 3 tablespoons of plain batter (you can also use a ladle that would hold 3 tablespoons) into the middle of the greased baking pan. Then scoop 3 tablespoons of cocoa batter and pour it in the center on top of the plain batter.

5. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. Do not open the oven door to avoid the cake to shrink and will not rise. To check if the cake is ready, insert a toothpick into the center. It should come out clean when ready. Remove from the oven. Immediately run a small thin knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the cake, then invert the cake onto a cooking rack. Turn the cake back over and let cool.


***WELL..THE CAKE WAS A SUCCESS, BEAUTIFUL AND MOIST. I WILL MAKE A GANACHE OR BUTTERCREAM FROSTING THE NEXT TIME I'LL MAKE THIS***

****ALSO, I HAD AN EPIPHANY MOMENT AS I WAS SLICING THE CAKE. I WILL DO THIS AGAIN FOR OUR CHRISTMAS PARTY BY USING CHRISTMAS FOOD COLORS! OH I CAN'T WAIT TO DO THIS AGAIN****