Irish Milkshake

This recipe is one of my own, kind of. The "Guinness Milkshake" has been floating around cyberspace for a while. This is my modification.
"A guinness milkshake?", you say.
Yep.
Think about it. Guinness is a creamy thick brew anyway. And in America it is a common thing to put malt in your milkshakes. So it makes sense to mix a malty, creamy, beer like Stout with ice cream.

Ingredients
-1 part Ice Cream (vanilla works very well, but some people like chocolate. I personally think that the stout already gives the shake a bitter chocolaty enough aftertaste)
-1 part Guinness (or other stouts, like Beamish)
-Baileys or similar Irish Cream to taste.

Directions
Blend. Ha.
Now, as in any milkshake, the proportions and methods are varied for personal taste. I often put a little more icecream than what I said above, for added thickness, especially if I use a lot of Irish Cream, as the alcohol thins out the drink considerably.

Thanksgiving Turkey

Turkey. Dry and inedible, or succulent and delicious. This year, the turkey duty fell upon my shoulders. While, I botched up the instructions a bit, it came out pretty good. If I hadn't made a mistake, it would have been perfect.
Usually, turkeys are cooked on medium-low heat, for hours. And they dry out like crazy. This method, which makes sense, bakes at high temperatures for much shorter time. I cooked my 18 pound turkey in about 3 hours. Unheard of, right? The other trick was the brining. Brining means soaking the turkey in a brine mixture overnight before. Osmosis and black magic make that process keep the turkey nice and moist during cooking, and it speeds up the process.

I took my method from Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame). Here it is:

Ingredients
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water
For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Directions

(2 to 3 days before roasting:)
-Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
-Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

The night before you'd like to eat:
-Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Early on the day of the feast:
-Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.
-Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.
-Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.
-Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 151 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

ps: I recommend you watch his videos on the foodnetwork about this process

Easy Chicken with "Marsala" sauce

Note: this should not be confused with Chicken Tika Masala. That is a tasty asian dish of complex flavors. This is a simple mediterranean chicken. It gets its name from the Marsala wine. Marsala is a fortified Italian wine, and therefore can really be substituted by any fortified wine that you may choose. A lot of sweet or cream sherries or Pedro Ximenez would work. A moscatel would work for flavor probably, but the color may be a little light for my taste. For the non-spain readers, basically pick a sweet fortified wine with a dark color.

I generally like to eat it over rice. Also is delicious with wide pasta noodles, like parpadelle. I imagine it would work with mashed potatoes if the sauce is thick enough. But that is up to you.

Ingredients:

4 medium (1 1/4 pounds) skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon(s) olive oil
1 package(s) (10-ounce) sliced cremini mushrooms
1 large shallot, finely chopped
1/2 cup(s) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup(s) Marsala wine
2 tablespoon(s) chopped fresh parsley

DIRECTIONS

-Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper.
-In nonstick pan, heat oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add breasts and cook 6 to 7 minutes or until done (browned on both sides and chicken loses its pink color throughout), turning over once. Transfer breasts to platter; cover with foil to keep warm.
-To skillet, add mushrooms, shallot, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Cook 3 minutes or until mushrooms are browned, stirring frequently. - -Add chicken broth, Marsala wine, and any juices from chicken on platter. Cook 4 minutes to reduce sauce by half, stirring occasionally. Stir in parsley.



This classic recipe was modified from the Good Housekeeping version

Mediterranean Chicken

This is an easy and quick dish to make that is sure to please. It is a variation of an idea I got from goodhousekeeping cookbook. It is fairly cheap as well, since the ingredients are few and simple. Because this dish makes a nice sauce, I serve it with rice, though I have tried it with cous cous or sauteed potatoes. The image above is not quite from this recipe, but sue me. Think of prunes instead of apricots, dont cut the olives, and you´re all set. Or something.

1 tablespoon(s) olive oil
8 large (about 2 1/4 pounds) skinless chicken thighs
1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
2 small (about 4 ounces each) onions, each cut into 6 wedges
3/4 cup(s) chicken broth
1 cup seedless dried plums∕prunes
1/2 cup(s) Kalamata olives- or any large dark green olives. Pitted, for the safety of your guests
1 teaspoon(s) chopped fresh thyme, or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 teaspoon(s) all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

1. In nonstick 12-inch skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until lightly browned. Remove to plate.
2. In drippings, cook onions until golden, shaking skillet occasionally.
3. Add chicken broth, thyme, and chicken with any juices in plate. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add olives and prunes. Cook for 15 more minutes, until juices run clear when chicken is pierced with tip of knife.
4. Remove chicken to warm platter. In cup, mix flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon water until smooth. Pour flour mixture into skillet, whisking constantly. Over medium-high heat, heat to boiling; boil 1 minute until sauce thickens slightly. Pour sauce over chicken.

a simple sweet tomato sauce and shrimps

Note: Pasta is treated with cruelty by people in their 20s. Especially in spain, where a can of Tomate Frito and some chopped chorizo is a hungry man's quick meal when poured over a plate of pasta. Don't get me wrong, that has its time and place, but it is overused. Carbonara is another one that has been beaten to death. The problem is that a lot of pasta sauces can be quite time consuming and complicated to make (a good bolognese should take hours and hours of supervision), so when I find an easy, tasty sauce, I jump on it with glee:

ingredients
8 blanched and peeled plum tomatoes, chopped -- sure, fresh tomatoes are delicious, but if you dont have time, you can use canned tomatoes and break them up
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 good knobs of butter
extra virgin olive oil
300g (10&1/2 oz) small peeled prawns or shrimps -- I used fresh shrimp, but frozen shrimp will do in a pinch
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 shots of Vecchia Romana or Cognac -- Don't forget that Cognac is just a type of Brandy, use a Brandy de Jerez or equivalent, they can be just as good for a fraction of the price
142ml cooking cream
400g/14oz fresh or dried taglierini -- or any fresh flat noodled pasta
1 large handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Put a pan of salted water on to heat for the pasta. Put the butter and a couple of lugs of olive oil in a second pan, and fry the prawns, garlic, lemon zest and tomatoes for a couple of minutes. Add the booze and allow to flame if you like. (The flame should go out after about 30 seconds, so don’t worry!) Add the cream, allow to simmer gently for a couple more minutes and then remove the pan from the heat. Season the sauce carefully with salt, pepper and the lemon juice.

Put the pasta into the boiling water — fresh will need only 3 minutes and dried will need to be cooked according to the packet instructions. If your sauce has cooled down then reheat it now. When the pasta is cooked, drain it in a colander and then toss with the parsley in the pan in which it was cooked. Check the seasoning, then divide on to your serving plates with the sauce on top. Serve straight away, telling your guests to stir the pasta up in their bowls every so often to keep the pasta moist.


serves 4 - taken from Jamie Oliver

A cheater's clam chowder

Note: Most chowder recipes are much more complicated than this one. Chowder tends to be a bit like a magic potion, everyone has their own detailed and secret way to get a great solution. Unfortunately, many of those great solutions involve ingredients that are hard to come by in spain. After looking around, I found this recipe, which seems to do the trick for an easy and decent tasting chowder. I have made this recipe several times with varying degrees of success. Be careful not to cook the potatoes too long, or the whole thing becomes too thick and starchy. Ah, also, in Mercadona you can buy frozen, shelled clams. While I still like to use the canned ones because of their juice, I often throw in some extra frozen ones to make it meatier.


Ingredients:

3 slices bacon, diced -- I once used cheap spanish bacon, not smoked, and it completely changed the flavor of the dish. It lost the husky essence of the soup. Don't be stingy, get something decent. Like the prechopped Oscar Myer bacon cartons.
1 cup chopped onion
3 cups diced potatoes
1 bottle (8 ounces) clam juice -- Alas, in Spain there is no such thing as clam juice. I use fish stock, or water with fish bullion instead.
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cans (approximately 7 ounces each) minced clams
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups half-and-half -- I make my own by simply adding one part milk, one part cream.
1 cup milk

Preparation:

Cook bacon until crisp in a Dutch oven or large, heavy saucpan. Remove bacon to paper towels with slotted spoon; drain. Add onion to bacon drippings; sauté until softened. Add potatoes and clam juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Remove from heat. Add minced clams with their liquid. Whisk flour into milk; add to chowder with half-and-half. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until clam chowder thickens and bubbles, or about 3 minutes.
Clam chowder recipe serves 4.

A summertime cake

Note: I made this cake earlier this summer. It is a variation of a Red Velvet cake. Red Velvet cakes are typical in the south. Though they have cocoa, they do not taste like a typical chocolate cake, perhaps because they are made with buttermilk. In this version, the taste of the cake itself is overpowered by the berries anyway. In a good way. Many of these ingredients, like the baking cocoa and food coloring, are not readily available in Spain though, and you will have to go to an American import store to pick them up; these ingredients are starred

Red Velvet Cake with Raspberries and Blueberries
Bon Appetit, June 2003

Cake
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured) --Sifting is essential in cakes. If you dont have a sifter. Get one
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder**
1 teaspoon baking powder --Levadura en polvo, found in large supermarkets like carrefour or the ever odd Lidl
1 teaspoon baking soda -- bicarbonato, in spanish
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon red food coloring**
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
Frosting
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar** -- Perhaps its possible to find spanish confectioners sugar, but it tends to be rougher than its american counterpart. It isn't expensive at the american store though.
3 1/2-pint baskets fresh raspberries
3 1/2-pint baskets fresh blueberries --found some at supercor!

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Sift sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla in small bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions.
Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 27 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks; cool completely.

For frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over top of cake. Arrange 1 basket raspberries and 1/2 basket blueberries atop frosting, pressing lightly to adhere. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Arrange remaining berries decoratively over top of cake. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.)