Red Velvet: A BBW Romance (The Cass Chronicles Book 5)
Page 9
In a heavy stockpot (you will move it to your cute little fondue pots later) bring the wine to a boil. Lower heat. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the grated cheese and toss to combine—a few handfuls at a time add the cheese and stir while it melts. Transfer the melty magic into a fondue pot, or a chafer, or a crock pot.
Serve with cubes of bread, crisp apple chunks, cooked smoked sausage, blanched broccoli and cauliflower.
Huckleberry Swirl Muffins:
Huckleberries changed my life. I love the little blue rascals. Baking with them is a wee bit tricky since they have large seeds. You cannot just drop them in like you would blueberries. Well, you could, but you’d need to have your friendly neighborhood dentist on speed dial…
Begin by combining 1 cup of huckleberries, a squeeze of lemon juice and 2/3 cup sugar in a saucepan—bring to a simmer. Allow to cook for about 15 minutes. Once it’s not dangerously hot, pour it through a wire strainer, use a wooden spoon to press all the solids through the mesh. Return to the heat and cook for something like 10 more minutes on low—you want it thick. Put the saucepan in a sink of cold water and continue with the other steps.
3/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
Melt the butter and stir in the milk and egg. In a bowl, combine dry ingredients—pour the wet ingredients in and stir quickly. Line your muffin tin with paper liners. Fill each liner a bit less than half full of batter. Put a tablespoon of your huckleberry mixture in and then add more batter until each cup is 3/4 full. Using a toothpick, give each muffin a quick stir—this will distribute the huckleberries. Don’t over stir—you will end up with grey blue cupcakes—not delicious. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes.
The Wedding Menu:
Crab salad
Beef tenderloin with garlic horseradish cream
Duchess potatoes
Braised baby vegetable jewels
Apricot caramel wedding cake
Strawberry trees
Champagne
Brunch
Ham
Baked French toast with praline
Citrus salad
Bloody Mary’s and coffee
Crab, avocado and pomegranate salad
4 TB almond oil
4 TB lime juice
Plus an additional 2 TB lime juice
4 TB honey
1 1/2 cups pomegranate pips
3 avocados peeled and sliced
1 lb. cooked and picked over crabmeat
2/3 cup very finely minced celery
Zest of one lime plus 1/3 cup more pips for garnish
Combine dressing ingredients. Toss 1/2 of the dressing with the greens. Gently toss the avocado slices with 2 TB lime juice and salt and pepper. Fan 1/2 an avocado on bed of greens on each plate. Into the remaining dressing, mix in crab, celery and pomegranate pips. Mound the crab salad into the avocados. Sprinkle with the remaining pips and lime zest.
Braised Baby Vegetable Jewels:
Amounts are approximate
3 bunches of the tiniest baby carrots you can find
3 bunches of the tiniest radishes you can find
12 shallots
About 12 Baby leeks (ideally) or scallions
Butter
Chicken broth about 2 cups
Kosher salt
Scrub your tiny baby veggies. It’s okay if they have a tiny sprig of greens attached but not more than that. Cut the ends of the leeks or scallions off, and trim off all but an inch or so of the greens—under cold running water do your level best to de grit them. You will want the water to run in the cut end. Now, we are not properly braising these—we are pseudo braising them. An actual braise begins with browning and ends with a long slow cook in liquid. This is not that. Bring your chicken stock to a boil. Now—begin with the carrots. Submerge them in your broth and cook until almost fork tender (don't put the lid on). Almost—now remove them and set aside. Repeat with the radishes. Then the leeks or scallions. Drop the shallots in and allow the stock to cook down until it’s about 1/2 cup with the shallots very tender. Add butter, as soon as it’s melted, add the rest of the veg and toss to cover with the butter. This can be set aside and then heated through in a hot oven. A good sprinkle of kosher salt will make this look even more like tiny gems.
Duchess Potatoes:
AS many russet potatoes as you can bring yourself to peel and slice as thinly as possible on a mandolin or in a food processor (A 10” cast iron pan will require about 8)
Clarified butter
To clarify butter, melt a pound of butter in a deep pot and leave over very low heat until the milk solids are all on the bottom of the pan (30-40 minutes). Use a ladle to remove the butterfat from the pot and not disturb the milk solids that are on the bottom. Clarified butter will keep forever.
Into a big cast iron pan, lavishly brush on some of the clarified butter. Make a layer of potato slices, brush with more butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper and repeat. Over and over. When the pan is full, drizzle on some more clarified butter. Put a plate that fits inside the skillet on top of the potatoes and weight down—a giant can of tomatoes works, as well as a tea kettle. Turn the heat down to low and let it go until all the potatoes seem tender. (30 minutes) Now turn the heat way up and cook until you can slide the whole giant pancake o’ taters around in the skillet. Using an oven mitt, lay down a (not hot) plate unto the potatoes and flip the whole thing over. As carefully as you can, slide it back into the pan to brown up the other side. This is gorgeous served cut into wedges. If you aren't serving the beef tenderloin with the horseradish cream, consider serving it with some sour cream.
Horseradish Cream:
2 TB of prepared horseradish
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 sour cream
Stir together.
Perfect beef tenderloin
4-5 lb. tenderloin trimmed and tied by a butcher.
1 head of garlic
Drizzle of olive oil
2/3 cup butter
Okay, twenty-four hours before you want to cook the meat you are going to salt thoroughly (kosher or sea salt—you want the coarse grind). Put it on a rack on a baking sheet and allow it to sit uncovered in your fridge. Turn your oven to its lowest setting (probably about 225 degrees). You want it to cook slowly until it registers 135 degrees. You will cut the top 1/8 of the head of garlic off and drizzle with a tiny bit of oil. Wrap in foil and cook along with the meat. Pull it out after about 90 minutes. The meat should take about 5 hours. In a small bowl stir together the softened butter and the roasted garlic (squish the individual heads out). Turn on your broiler. Lavishly frost your tenderloin with the garlic butter and run under your broiler. Watch this every second—it should take only a minute or two on each side. This will result in rare beef with a luscious crust. Ignore your skeptics—have I steered you wrong yet? No. No, I haven't. Trust me.
Yellow Cake with Caramel Butter Cream and Dark Chocolate/Sea Salt Ganache:
Oh my god—there is just nothing else to say.
To make a nice high 8” round cake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup buttermilk
6 eggs (separated)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 sticks butter
1 cup dark chocolate—I like Ghirardelli
1/8 cup sour cream
Coarse sea salt
Follow the cake mix directions—sorta—you will use 6 egg yolks instead of 3 eggs, and substitute the buttermilk for the water and 1 stick melted butter for the oil. Beat until very fluffy. This will make 3 layers. Use a crazy amount of baker’s spray (had bakers spray been around forty years ago, Last Tango in Paris would have been a very different movie—just sayin’) and cook each layer at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes—let them cool completely.
Over a double boiler, combine the egg whites and the sugars�
�whisk constantly—I mean CONSTANTLY until the sugar is dissolved. Using spotless beaters, whip it into meringue on your mixer. Cut the remaining two sticks of butter into cubes (you want it soft) and add it to the mixer a few at a time. There will be a distressing moment when the whole thing looks like a curdled mess. Keep calm and keep mixing. In a trice, it will become the silkiest butter cream you have ever seen. You will slather a layer of cake with about a 1/3 of your butter cream. Top with a cake layer—repeat. With remaining butter cream apply a “crumb coat” to your cake. This is a thin layer of icing meant to prevent the cake from coming up in clumps when you do the final frosting—refrigerate.
Meanwhile, back in your double boiler—I don't even wash the mixer bowl between the buttercream and the ganache—you may be more pristine. As you will… Combine chocolate and sour cream and stir over simmering water until all is silky, dark and luscious. Allow to cool slightly. Using a rubber spatula, cover the entire cake with the ganache—the coldness of the refrigerated cake will help with this. Sprinkle lavishly with a pretty salt (I love the pink sea salt for this) Again… Oh my God.
The End
About the Author
Susannah Shannon
Susannah Shannon lives in the Midwestern USA with her family. She is a committed cook, a more committed eater and reads anything she can get her hands on. She is delighted to have joined the Blushing Books publishing family. Her books combine humor, romance and spankings.
http://susannahshannon.com/
Don't miss these exciting titles by Susannah Shannon and Blushing Books!
A Handful Of Stars
The Cass Chronicles:
Roasted - Book One
Relish - Book Two
Rendered - Book Three
Rare - Book Four
Red Velvet - Book Five
Anthologies:
Sunstrokes
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