Celebrity Chefs

Bloody Mary’s For Halloween

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Halloween isn’t just for the kids. How about having a ghoulish little cocktail party while the kids are out trick or treating? Bloody Mary’s make the perfect fit for a Halloween celebration for obvious reasons, plus its always a great drink to have on your repertoire of cocktails for any day of the year.

So here are a couple of the best recipes from two celeb chefs Bobby Flay (Mesa Grill) and Emeril.
The Mesa Grill’s Bloody Mary

16 ounces tomato juice
3 ounces vodka
2 dashes hot red pepper sauce
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
2 jalapenos, sliced
Pinch celery salt
Pinch black pepper
1 lemon, juiced
Ice
Celery spears, for garnish

Combine all ingredients, except celery spears, in a small pitcher, pour into large glasses filled with ice and garnish with celery spears.
Emeril’s Bloody Mary Mix

3 cups tomato juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce, or to taste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3/4 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste (recommended: Tabasco)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Premium vodka
Small jar pickled green beans
Small jar pickled okra

In a blender combine the tomato juice, lemon juice, lime juice, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and hot sauce and process until smooth. Transfer to a nonreactive container and add salt and black pepper, to taste. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours and up to overnight. When ready to serve, fill each glass with ice.

Add 1 ounce of vodka to each glass, then fill the glass with the bloody mary mix. Stir well, and garnish each glass with a pickled green bean and a pickled okra.

[tags]Halloween,Cocktails,Bloody Mary,Emeril,Bobby Flay[/tags]

Originally posted on October 31, 2008 @ 7:02 pm

Ina Garten’s Linzer Cookies

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Christmas is definitely in the air, so what better time to start baking cookies? If you have children, this simple action can turn into a wonderful holiday tradition! These Linzer cookies from Ina Garten are festive and elegant enough to also serve at holiday get-togethers, and also make fabulous presents to give away.

Linzer Cookies

3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup good raspberry preserves
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/4-inch thick and cut 2 3/4-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With 1/2 of the rounds, cut a hole from the middle of each round with a heart or spade shaped cutter. Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread raspberry preserves on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners’ sugar and press the flat sides together, with the raspberry preserves in the middle and the confectioners’ sugar on the top.
[tags]Christmas, Holidays, Christmas recipe, linzer cookies, Ina Garten[/tags]

Originally posted on December 11, 2008 @ 10:31 am

Martha’s Halloween Creepcakes

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With Halloween just around the corner, here’s Martha‘s advice on some fabulously frightening treats that will have the kids screaming with delight.

CREEPCAKE HOW-TO
Each design starts as chocolate or vanilla cupcakes iced with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

For “spider” creepcakes, use your favourite cupcake recipe (vanilla or chocolate) pouring batter into 2 1/2 mini muffin tins with paper liners. Ice mini cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and coat icing with black sanding sugar. Use cinnamon candy for eyes. For legs, attach 8 pieces of black licorice. For fangs, cut out tiny cone shapes from a marshmallow and attach.

For “tentacle alien” creepcake, spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream tinted with a few drops of green food coloring. Cut strips of green taffy and attach around top of cupcake. For eye, slice a yellow gumdrop in half and press into top of cupcake. A piece of black licorice attached in front the gumdrop completes the creepy gaze.

For “big-eyed alien” creepcake, spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream tinted with a few drops of green food coloring. For small eye, attach a mini marshmallow and create pupil by painting on melted chocolate (microwave 1/2 cup chocolate chips for 1 minute). For large eye, push chocolate chip, tip down, into regular size marshmallow, then cut gummy tape for an eyelid. For teeth, place 5 mini marshamallows along the bottom of cupcake.

For “mummy” creepcake, spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream. Add jelly beans dotted with melted chocolate for eyes and red gummy candy for mouth. Using a ribbon tip (such as Ateco #44), pipe bands of buttercream.

For “brain” creepcake, use a medium round tip (such as Ateco #12) to pipe a mound of Vanilla Meringue Buttercream in the center of cupcake, then outline and pipe a brain design over it.

DECORATING TECHNIQUES

To decorate, use marshmallows and candy-coated chocolates for whites of eyes; jelly beans or gumdrops for peepers with an eerie glow. For pupils, paint on melted chocolate (microwave 1/2 cup chocolate chips for 1 minute). Or use candies whole: candy-coated chocolates will stick to marshmallows sliced to expose their stickiness; for our aliens’ eyes, we pushed chocolate chips, tip down, into marshmallows, then made a hole in the other side with a toothpick and inserted a licorice lace. Cut gummy tape for an eyelid. Sandwiched between halved gumdrops, marshmallows form a toothy grin; snip irregular pieces for fangs. Bend licorice or gummy rings into grimaces, or cut taffy tape for a tongue or tentacles.

Try these toppings:

* marshmallows
* licorice and jelly bean
* gummy ring
* taffy tape
* gumdrops and marshmallows
* marshmallows with licorice and mini
* chocolate chips
* jelly beans with melted chocolate
* marshmallows and candy-coated chocolates or melted chocolate
* marshmallows with candy-coated chocolate or gummy
* tape and licorice drop
* licorice with gumdrops or marshmallows
[tags]Martha Stewart,Halloween,HalloweenRecipe,Halloween Cupcakes[/tags]

Originally posted on October 21, 2008 @ 6:42 pm

Ina’s Anniversary Steak Bernaise

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Happily married to her husband Jeffrey for 38 years, this divine steak with a bernaise sauce was from the “Wedding Anniversary” episode of the Barefoot Contessa. Accompanied by rosemary roasted potatoes and string beans with shallots, this simple but heart-warming meal was also winningly combined with shrimp with cocktail sauce as its starter.

Strangely enough, this menu could very well be my husband’s idea of “the perfect meal” – so thanks to Ina, I now have our next anniversary menu mapped out, but probably with the addition of mushrooms!

For the Sauce Bernaise:

1/4 cup Champagne or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup good white wine
2 tablespoons minced shallots
3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon leaves, divided
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 extra-large egg yolks*
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

6 (1-inch thick) rib eye steaks
Olive Oil
Coarsely ground black pepper

For the sauce, put the Champagne vinegar, white wine, shallots, 1 tablespoon tarragon leaves, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is reduced to a few tablespoons. Cool slightly.

Place the cooled mixture with the egg yolks and 1 teaspoon salt in the jar of a blender and blend for 30 seconds. With blender on, slowly pour the hot butter through the opening in the lid. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of tarragon leaves and blend only for a second. If the sauce is too thick, add a tablespoon of white wine to thin. Keep at room temperature until serving.

Season the steaks liberally with salt and coarsely ground black pepper on both sides. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large saute pan over high heat until it’s almost smoking, then sear the steaks on each side for 1 minute. Lower the heat to low and cook the steaks for about 7 to 10 minutes, turning once, until very rare in the middle. Remove to a plate, cover tightly with aluminum foil and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Serve with the bernaise sauce on the side.

Note: To make the sauce in advance, prepare an hour before serving and allow it to sit in the blender. Before serving, add 1 tablespoon of the hottest tap water and blend for a few seconds.

[tags]Ina Garten,Anniversary,Barefoot Contessa,Steak,Bernaise Sauce,Recipe[/tags]

Originally posted on October 29, 2008 @ 6:08 pm

Delia Smith’s Cornish Crab and Parmesan Tarts

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cornish crabsAre you up for some seafood this Christmas? Well here is something for you to try, straight out of British celebrity chef Delia Smith. She is a legend in her own right and this dish is quite simple but has enough kick to make you a star on Christmas Day. Recipe courtesy of The Telegraph.

Ingredients:
• 1 pack of six savoury pastry cases (M&S)
• 2 x 100g packs hand-picked white Cornish crab (Seafood & Eat It, Waitrose)
• 1 x 110g pack hand-picked brown Cornish crab (Seafood & Eat It, Waitrose)
• 3 level tbsp half-fat crème fraîche
• 1½ tbsp dry sherry
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• a pinch of ground mace
• a good grating of nutmeg
• 40g grated Parmesan
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• salt to garnish
• 2 cartons of mustard and cress, or salad cress

Procedure:
You will need a small baking tray. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6.

All you do here is put the tart cases on to the baking tray, then place the white and brown crabmeats, the crème fraîche, sherry, lemon juice, mace, nutmeg and a little salt in a medium-size bowl. Mix it all together with a large fork, and taste to check the seasoning.

Now divide the crab mixture evenly among the pastry cases and even it out using the back of a spoon. Sprinkle the Parmesan all over the crab and finish off with a dusting of cayenne.

Bake the tarts for 25 minutes until puffed and golden, and serve them from the oven with a mustard and cress garnish.

Originally posted on December 21, 2008 @ 3:13 am