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By Dave

I found this recipe in an old issue of Cuisine at Home. The look of it caught my eye so I thought I’d give it a shot. The recipe looked a little complicated, but it was easier than I thought.

Bavarian Chocolate Cream Horns

Ingredients for horns:
8 sugar cones
2 sheets frozen puff pastry (17.5 oz box)
1 egg
1 t water
1/2 C turbinado (raw) sugar

Ingredients for cream:
2 C whole milk
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C corn starch
1/4 t kosher salt
2 eggs
2 T unsalted butter
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
4 oz semisweet chocolate
1 C heavy cream
2 T powdered sugar

Recipe for horns:
Set out the puff pastry to defrost an hour or two before getting started. In the meantime, wrap the cones in foil and coat with nonstick spray. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Once the pastry sheets are thawed, cut them into 1/2″ strips and wrap them around the cone molds from the bottom up. Be sure to overlap the strips as you go. When you finish with one strip, overlap the ends by at least 1/2″ otherwise a gap will open up when the pastry cooks and expands. Whisk the egg and 1 t of water together and lightly brush the mixture onto the horns. Roll the horns in the raw sugar, coating well. Place the cones on a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer the cones to a rack to cool. Let the cones cool completely before filling otherwise the cream will melt.

Recipe for cream:
With the method of your choice, melt the semisweet chocolate and set aside for later. If you want your cream to be vanilla rather than chocolate, just leave the chocolate out of the recipe. Heat the whole milk in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbles form around the edge. In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth. Then whisk in half the hot milk and then return this mixture back into the saucepan with the hot milk. Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking often until thickened. Boil 1 minute to eliminate the starchy taste and to thicken further. Keep whisking as it thicken further. Add the butter and 1/2 t vanilla, stirring until the butter is melted. Stir in the melted semisweet chocolate. Transfer to a bowl, then place the bowl in an ice bath to cool. Stir until the pastry cream reaches room temperature, about 10 minutes. In a separate bowl, whip the cream, powdered sugar, and 1 t vanilla until medium peaks form. Fold whipped cream into the cooled pastry cream just until incorporated. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes. Transfer the cream into a piping bag and pipe into the horns.

I did make a couple of mistakes along the way, but nothing catastrophic. The first was when I took the cones out to cool. When I took them out I left them on the baking sheet to cool. The problem that I came across was that the melted sugar that pooled around the cones solidified and stuck to the cones. Another mistake was iin making the milk mixture in the saucepan. You have to constantly whisk the mixture, otherwise it burns on the bottom and you end up with burnt bits in the cream.

For toppings, you can make a chocolate glaze and hazelnut topping to drizzle on the top of the cones. I didn’t try this part of the recipe, but I plan to in the future.

Chocolate Glaze

Melt 2 oz of semisweet chocolate in a small saucepan with 2 T sugar and 2 T water. Simmer over medium-low heat until it coats the back of a spatula, about 10 minutes. Off heat, whisk in 1 T unsalted butter. Drizzle onto cream horns while warm.

Hazelnut Topping

Toast 1/2 C skinned, chopped hazelnuts in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until golden. Add 2 T sugar and 1 T unsalted butter. Stir until butter is melted and sugar adheres to the nuts. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet to cool.

Posted for Dave

“Hey Dave, you watch Sam the Cooking Guy much?”
“Nope. Never seen the show. Why?”
“He does a recipe with seared ahi tuna you gotta try.”
“Mmmm… ahi. Sounds good.”
“Yeah, he rolls the ahi in Cap’n Crunch.”
“I do like ahi. I should… wait, say again?!”

Yes, you read right. Seared ahi tuna covered in crushed Cap’n Crunch cereal. Some friends recommended it so I pulled the recipe from the Sam the Cooking Guy site. Granted, it is an odd combination, but hey, I’m the guy who thinks that aerosol cheese deserves its own food group so I’m willing to try anything. Turns out it’s pretty good. Check it out.

Cap’n Crunch Seared Tuna

1/4 C mayonnaise
1 T yellow mustard
1 lb. sushi gradi tuna, in 2 rectangular blocks
1 C regular Cap’n Crunch
fresh ground pepper
chili sauce
oil

Mix the mayonnaise and mustard and set aside. Crush the cereal in a plastic bag until fine and put on a plate and top with fresh ground pepper. Lightly oil the tuna then press down into the cereal making sure it’s covered wll on all sides. Heat a non-stick pan really will first and then add about a tablespoon of oil. When it just starts to smoke, add the tuna and sear quickly on all sides until lightly browned. Slice and serve along with the mustard/mayo mix and some chili paste.

Over Thanksgiving, I went home to the Bay Area to visit the family. One of the things I like to do when I’m home is to get the Lazy Man’s Cioppino at Scoma’s restaurant at Fisherman’s Wharf. I remember growing up and going to Scoma’s after the Niners games or anytime we were up in SF and I’d always get the Cioppino. Unfortunately, there had just been an oil spill in the Bay recently and people were saying not to eat crab. Even crab boats were not going out because they were banned from selling anything they caught. Mmm… Oil slick crab. Same as using olive oil, right? If that wasn’t enough to dissuade me, I looked up their menu on the internet and the Cioppino is now $35 a bowl! Ouch! As you can imagine, no Cioppino for me.
The upside to this story was that all this reminded me that a long while back I had found the actual Lazy Man’s Cioppino recipe in a Fisherman’s Wharf Recipe Book. Upon my return to San Diego, my need for Cioppino was so strong that I decided to make it myself. I was surprised to find that the recipe was pretty straightforward and simple!

Lazy Man’s Cioppino
1/2 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pinch oregano
1 bay leaf
1 pinch sage
2 cans (No. 2 1/2) solid pack tomatoes
1 T tomato paste
1/4 C water
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 lbs. crabmeat, cooked
4 large oysters
8 scallops
8 prawns, shelled and deveined

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add spices and allow to cook 5 more minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, water, salt and pepper, and simmer for 1 hour. Strain before using.
When ready to serve, add the seafood to the sauce and cook for about 5 minutes. Serve in bowls with plenty of sourdough French bread.
The sauce for this dish may be made any time. It can be stored in the refrigerator for several days and will freeze beautifully.

I didn’t stick completely to the recipe on my first attempt. I changed a few of the seafood ingredients. I didn’t want to have to spend a lot of money on the scallops or crab only to have my first attempt bomb and have it all go to waste. I also didn’t know what No. 2 1/2 solid pack tomatoes were so I used an 18 oz. can of crushed tomatoes and an 18 oz. can of pureed tomatoes. I also didn’t get the straining step. I originally thought it was to take out some of the ingredients like the bay leaf, but the stuff is so thick that nothing strained through except water. I assumed that was the point and the straining process was to get out some of the liquid and thicken the soup/stew. Although it wasn’t in the recipe, I did take out the bay leaf at this point. I was happy with the results. It tasted pretty much like what I’ve had in the restaurant except for the sourdough bread I bought. I have yet to find a really good sourdough in San Diego that compares to what you can get in SF, but that’s for another post.
It was great to have my initial disappointment of not eating at Scoma’s become a discovery of how to make my own Cioppino. Now I don’t have to travel all the way to San Francisco or spend $35 for the meal. I can’t wait to make this again, but this time with fresh seafood from a good seafood store in Point Loma or somewhere. If you try this out, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

-Dave

Here’s a picture of the cioppino, but it wasn’t made “lazy man” style this time.

Recipe from Williams-Sonoma’s “Cakes, Cookies, Pies, & Tarts”

Just had to post this recipe. Idon’t like to cook/bake anything for others unless I like a lot it myself and I LIKE IT! Originally, I wanted to try this dessert because the picture in the recipe book caught my eye. Who knew that the taste and the texture would be just as good. Sweet and chocolatey. Crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. 3 ingredients, easy to make, tastes great. What more could you want? This is definitely one of my new favorites!

Marbled Chocolate Meringues
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4 egg whites
1 C sugar

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a saucepan, bring 1-2 inches water to a simmer. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water and melt, stirring occasionally. Set aside and let cool slightly. In another heatproof bowl, combine egg whites and sugar over simmering water and whisk until mixture is hot, 4-5 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. Using an electric mixer, beat on high speed until stiff peaks form and mixture is lukewarm, 4-5 minutes. Drizzle melted chocolate over egg white mixture, folding in with a rubber spatula until just marbled. With a soup spoon, drop batter in large mounds spaced 1 1/2-2 inches apart on prepare baking sheets. Bake until crisp outside and still chewy inside, 25-40 minutes. Transfer sheets to a wire rack and let cool completely before removing cookies from parchment. Store in an airtight container.

I did hit a few snags, but I still think it’s an easy recipe. My first screw up was that I left the egg whites on the heat a few minutes too long. When I put them in the mixer, it smelled like I was mixing hard boiled eggs. I ended up tossing that batch and making a new one. My other screw up was not as major, but it’s still something I want to fix. I wasn’t happy with the look of the marbling. I overmixed the chocolate and the egg whitesand, as a result, my meringues came out a little too uniform in color. Definitely not as eye-pleasing as I had hoped. I’m also thinking about using a piping bag next time to make the shape something more than just a blob.

-Dave

Recipe from Family Fun Magazine

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
	24 frosted cupcakes
	24 Nutter Butter cookies
	2-3 tablespoons of white frosting or decorator’s gel
	Mini chocolate chips
	Fruit leather, various flavors and colors
	toothpicks

1. To make each turkey, press the lower portion of a Nutter Butter cookie into a frosted cupcake for the bird’s head.

2. Use tiny dabs of frosting to stick on mini-chocolate chip eyes and a red fruit leather wattle.

3. For each turkey’s tail, use a butter knife to cut out a dozen feather shapes (about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide) from fruit leather.

4. Lay 6 of the feather shapes on a flat surface and place a wooden toothpick lengthwise atop each so that one end of the toothpick extends about an inch below the feather. Layer another fruit leather feather layer atop each of the 6 shapes, sandwiching the toothpicks between them.

5. Press the 2 layers together to make them stick, then fringe the edges of the feather with a butter knife. Now your child can stick the colored feathers into the cupcake behind the cookie head.