by Wilbur, Todd
MEXI-RANCH SAUCE
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons minced tomato
1½ teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon minced canned
jalapeno slices (nacho slices)
1 teaspoon minced onion
¼ teaspoon dried parsley
¼ teaspoon Tabasco pepper sauce
⅛ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon dried dill weed
⅛ teaspoon paprika
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
⅛ teaspoon ground cumin
⅛ teaspoon chili powder
dash garlic powder
dash ground black pepper
1 cup shredded Cheddarl
Monterey Jack cheese blend
2 cups crumbled tortilla chips or
fried tortilla strips (see Tidbits)
1. Prepare marinade by combining marinade ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the chicken to the bowl, cover and chill for 2 to 3 hours.
2. Make the Mexi-ranch dressing by combining all of the ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix well until smooth, then cover the dressing and chill it until it’s needed.
3. When you are ready to prepare the entree, preheat the oven to high broil. Also, preheat your barbecue or indoor grill to high heat. When the grill is hot cook the marinated chicken breasts for 3 to 5 minutes per side, or until they’re done.
4. Arrange the cooked chicken in a baking pan. Spread a layer of Mexi-ranch dressing over each piece of chicken (you’ll have plenty left over), followed by ¼ cup of the shredded cheese blend. Broil the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes, or just until the cheese has melted.
5. Spread a bed of ½ cup of the tortilla strips or crumbled tortilla chips on each of four plates. Slide a chicken breast onto the chips on each plate and serve with your choice of rice, and pico de gallo or salsa.
• Serves 4.
TIDBITS
Crumbling store-bought tortilla chips is the easy way to make the bed of crunchy chips that the tequila lime chicken rests on. But, you can make tortilla strips like those served at the restaurant by cutting a stack of eight 6-inch corn tortillas in half. Stack the halves on top of each other and slice the tortillas into thin strips. Fry the tortilla strips in batches in 2 cups of preheated oil in a large skillet for 3 to 5 minutes or until crispy. Salt lightly and cool on paper towels.
APPLEBEE’S WHITE CHOCOLATE & WALNUT BLONDIE
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Dare to indulge with a white chocolate and walnut blondie under a scoop of ice cream and chopped walnuts. Served warm and topped at your table with a rich, sizzling maple butter sauce.”
For Applebee’s regulars, this dessert is a hands-down favorite. In a hot skillet comes a delicious slice of white chocolate and walnut cake (it’s similar to a brownie in texture) topped with a scoop of ice cream and warm maple butter sauce bubbling as it hits the pan. Commence with the salivating. To re-create this pile of pleasure at home you start by making the cake from scratch. For the white chocolate, get a couple of 4-ounce bars or one 8-ounce bar and chop it into chunks. White chocolate chunks work best in this recipe, but you can certainly use white chocolate chips in a pinch. While the blondie cake is baking, whip up the sauce—it will be fluffy at first. When you’re ready to serve the dessert, zap the sauce in the microwave until it’s hot and creamy Arrange the decadence in a hot skillet and serve it sizzling to happy drooling mouths.
BLONDIE
4 egg whites
½ cup butter, softened (I stick)
½ cup light brown sugar packed
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
8 ounces white chocolate (cut into
chunks)
½ cup chopped walnuts
SAUCE
½ cup butter, softened (1 stick)
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons maple syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
8 scoops vanilla ice cream
½ cup chopped walnuts
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. To make the blondie cake whip the egg whites until they are stiff and form peaks. Add softened butter, ½ cup packed brown sugar, ¼ cup granulated sugar, and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer until smooth. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well until smooth. Mix in milk, white chocolate chunks, and walnuts. Pour ingredients into a greased 9x13-inch baking pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until cake is golden brown on top. Slice cake into 8 equal slices when cool.
3. While cake bakes, combine all ingredients for the sauce in a medium bowl with an electric mixer
4. To prepare dessert, heat a small skillet on your stove over high heat for about 5 minutes. A cast-iron skillet is the best. (You can also serve the dessert on a plate, but you’ll miss out on the showy sizzle.) Arrange the cake in the center of the skillet or plate. Heat up the sauce for 30 to 60 seconds in the microwave until hot. Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the cake, then drizzle some of the sauce over the top, followed by a tablespoon of chopped walnuts. Serve immediately.
• Serves 8.
BENIHANA GINGER SALAD DRESSING
Before your meal at the Benihana chain of hibachi grill restaurants you are served a side salad doused in this tangy, slightly sweet, fresh ginger dressing. When spooned over a simple iceberg lettuce salad this easy clone transforms your bowl of greens into a great start for any meal. Making the dressing is as simple as dumping the ingredients into a blender, whizzing it up, and popping it into the cooler to chill. I’ve seen many attempts to duplicate this coveted formula, but I think the original clone recipe presented here comes closer to the real thing than any other recipe out there.
½ cup minced onion
½ cup peanut oil
cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced celery
2 tablespoons ketchup
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teospoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend on high speed for about 30 seconds or until all of the ginger is pureed. Chill.
• MAKES 1¾ CUPS.
BENIHANA JAPANESE ONION SOUP
MENU DESCRIPTION: “It takes half a day to make this perfect combination of onion, celery, carrot and garlic.”
Before a skilled chef appears tableside to perform his culinary prestidigitation on the hot hibachi grill at Benihana, you’re treated to a tasty bowl of chicken broth-based soup with fried onions, sliced mushrooms and green onions floating cheerfully on top. The restaurant menu claims this soup takes a half a day to make, but we can clone it in a fraction of that time using canned chicken broth (I use Swanson brand). This soup works great as a prelude to your favorite Asian dishes or other Benihana clones since it’s so light and won’t fill up anyone before the main course. I’ve included a simple technique here for making the breaded fried onions from scratch (for the most accurate clone), but you can skip that step by substituting French’s canned French Fried Onions that are sold in most markets.
4 cups canned chicken broth
2 cups water
1 white onion (see Tidbits)
½ carrot, coarsely chopped (about
¼ cup)
½ celery stalk, coarsely chopped
(about ¼ cup)
1 small clove garlic, sliced
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
I cup milk<
br />
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 medium mushrooms, thinly
sliced
4 green onions, diced (green part
only)
1. Combine chicken broth and water in a large saucepan over high heat. Slice the white onion in half, and then coarsely chop one half (save the other half for later). Add coarsely chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and salt to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the onion starts to become translucent.
2. As the broth simmers, heat up I cup of vegetable oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Slice the remaining white onion into very thin slices. Separate the slices, dip the slices into the milk, then into the flour. Fry the breaded onion, a handful at a time in the oil until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.
3. When the soup has simmered for 10 minutes, strain the vegetables out of the broth and toss them out. Pour the broth back into the pan and keep it hot over low heat.
4. To serve soup, ladle about I cup of broth into a bowl. Drop a few pieces of fried onion into the soup, followed by 6 to 8 mushroom slices (about I mushroom each) and a couple pinches of diced green onion. When the fried onion sinks to the bottom of the bowl (a couple of minutes), serve the soup.
MAKES 6 SERVINGS.
TIDBITS
You will only need ½ of a white onion if you opt to use the canned French’s French Fried Onions for this recipe—the small can will be enough—rather than frying your own. You also won’t need the vegetable oil, milk or flour listed in the ingredients.
BENIHANA MANDARIN ORANGE CHEESECAKE
This charismatic cheesecake is a specialty at the world’s largest Benihana restaurant located in the Hilton hotel and casino in Las Vegas. But don’t expect to find this amazing dessert on the menu at any of the other 69 Benihana eateries, since it’s custom-made just for the Sin City location and probably unlike any cheesecake you’ve had. Check it out: The lightly orange-flavored, fluffed-up cream cheese sits on layer of soft white cake, the edge is frosted and coated with crunchy hazelnut crumbs, and the top is covered with wedges of mandarin oranges in an orange-flavored gelatin. Every element of this top secret kitchen clone is made from scratch, and the finished product is well worth the work you put in. For the cake layer, we whip up just enough of a simple white cake batter to fit into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. The cheese layer in our clone is created with a special custom combination of gelatin, Dream Whip, and cream cheese so that no baking is required to firm it up. You could, of course, use a store-bought white frosting for the edge of the cake, but since you only need a small amount of frosting the clone recipe here makes it cheaper. The hazelnuts are candied with sugar and reduced to crumbs in a food processor (you can find a ½-cup bag of chopped hazelnuts in most supermarkets that is perfect for this). And two 15-ounce cans of mandarin orange wedges is just the right amount for garnishing the top. Just be sure to save ½-cup of the liquid from the cans of orange wedges to create the gel that holds the topping in place.
CAKE
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons milk
⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract
/ egg
CREAM CHEESE LAYER
I envelope unflavored gelatin
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 cup boiling water
I envelope Dream Whip
½ cup low-fat milk
3 8-ounce pkgs. cream cheese,
softened
I teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon orange extract
¼ teaspoon lemon juice
5 drops yellow food coloring
I drop red food coloring
TOPPING
2 15-ounce cons mandarin
oranges (in light syrup)
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
NUT CRUST
I tablespoon water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ cup chopped hazelnuts
(2.25 ounce bag)
ICING
¼ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
⅛teaspoon vanilla extract
1. I To make cake layer, combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a medium bowl. Add dry ingredients to the butter and mix well. Mix in milk, vanilla and I egg. Pour into a well-greased 9-inch springform pan (or line it with parchment paper). Slam pan down on the counter a few times to even out the batter. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until the cake is light brown on top.
2. For the cream cheese layer, combine gelatin with ¾ cup sugar in a medium bowl. Add boiling water and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Set this aside.
3. Prepare Dream Whip by whipping together I envelope of Dream Whip and ½ cup milk with an electric mixer in another medium bowl. Whip it good until the topping makes stiff peaks.
4. In another bowl, whip the cream cheese with vanilla, orange extract, lemon juice and food coloring in a large bowl until smooth. Slowly add the gelatin mixture while beating.
5. Add half (about I cup) of the Dream Whip to the cream cheese mixture and beat until smooth.
6. Pour this mixture over the cake layer in the springform pan. Chill for 2 hours or until firm.
7. Drain the liquid from the cans of mandarin oranges, saving ½ cup. Heat the ½ cup liquid in the microwave on high for 1 to I ½ minutes or until hot. Dissolve I teaspoon unflavored gelatin in the liquid. Combine liquid with orange wedges and pour over the top of the firmed-up cheesecake that’s still in the springform pan. Chill the cake for at least 2 more hours.
8. For the crunchy nut crust, combine I tablespoon water with 2 tablespoons sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. When sugar is dissolved and liquid begins to boil, add the hazelnuts and stir until nuts are coated. Stir often until the water has cooked off, then continue to stir until the sugar begins to caramelize and turn light brown. Be careful not to burn the nuts. The nuts are done when they are light brown and glazed with candied sugar Pour the nuts onto a plate and let them cool completely When the candied nuts are cool, chop them up in a food processor until they are the consistency of crumbs.
9. Make the icing by combining shortening with powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.
10. When the mandarin orange gelatin has firmed up on top of the cake, remove the cake from the springform pan. Use a spatula to spread the icing around the edge of the cake. Press the hazelnut crumbs onto the icing around the edge of the cake (you’ve got more than enough hazelnut crumbs and much of it will fall off as you press it on the sides). Chill the cake for at least another hour before serving. To serve, cut cake into 12 slices.
• MAKES 12 SERVINGS.
BENNIGAN’S THE MONTE CRISTO
MENU DESCRIPTION: “A delicious combination of ham and turkey, plus Swiss and American cheeses on wheat bread. Lightly battered and fried until golden. Dusted with powdered sugar and served with red raspberry preserves for dipping.”
It sounds crazy, but tastes great: A triple-decker ham, turkey, and cheese sandwich is dipped in a tempura-style batter; fried to a golden brown; then served with a dusting of powdered sugar and a side of raspberry preserves. For over ten years tons of cloning requests for this one have stacked up at TSR Central, so it was time for a road trip. There are no Bennigan’s in Las Vegas, and since the Bennigan’s chain made this sandwich famous, I headed out to the nearest Bennigan’s in San Diego. Back home, with an ice chest full of original Monte Cristo sandwiches well-preserved and ready to work with, I was able to come up with this simple clone for a delicious sandwich that is crispy on the outside, and hot, but not greasy, on the inside (the batter prevents the shortening from penetrating). This recipe makes one sandwich, which may be enough for two. If you want to make more,
you’ll most likely have to make more batter so that any additional sandwiches get a real good dunking.
8 to 12 cups vegetable shortening
SANDWICH
3 slices whole wheat sandwich
bread
1 slice Swiss cheese (deli-style)
3 ounces sliced turkey (deli-style)
I slice American cheese
(deli-style)
3 ounces sliced ham (deli-style)
BATTER
2 egg yolks
1 cup ice water
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
ON TOP
powdered sugar
ON THE SIDE
raspberry preserves
1. Heat 8 to 12 cups of shortening in a deep fryer or large saucepan to 375 degrees. You will need the hot shortening to be at least 4 inches deep.
2. Make the sandwich by arranging the slice of Swiss cheese on a piece of wheat bread. Arrange the turkey breast on the Swiss cheese. Place a piece of wheat bread on the turkey. Place the slice of American cheese on the wheat bread. Arrange the ham slices on the American cheese. Top off the sandwich with the third slice of bread. Make sure the meat is not hanging over the edge of the sandwich. Press down on the sandwich with the palm of your hand to flatten it a bit.