Molten Chocolate Cake

Following my belated Valentine’s Day dinner, I made Molten Chocolate Cake for dessert.  Although it sounds intimidating to make (and isn’t this the dessert you have to pre-order before your meal at most restaurants?!), it was actually pretty easy to make.  I got this recipe from the blog Closet Cooking:

Molten Chocolate Cake

(makes 4 servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
3 egg whites

Directions:
1. Lightly grease 4 ramekins with butter.
2. Melt the chocolate into the butter in a double boiler and let cool a bit.
3. Beat the egg yolks and sugar and mix into the chocolate.
4. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they form soft peaks.
5. Fold the chocolate into the egg whites.
6. Pour the batter into the ramekins, no more than 2/3rds full.
7. Bake in a preheated 400F oven for 7-10 minutes. The outside will be set and possibly crack and the inside will still be liquid.
8. Let cool for a few minutes and then run a knife around the edges and tip onto a plate. (Optional; Feel free to eat it right out of the ramekin with a spoon.)

I sifted a little powdered sugar on top and ate it straight from the ramekin (I think this was the first time I have actually even used my ramekins!)  Husband M recommends adding a couple raspberries to the top as well.

-Sister M

Not Your Average Rice Cake…

I finally got around to making a special Valentine’s Day dinner, albeit about a week late (last Sunday, neither one of us felt like going grocery shopping and we just ended up getting Indian take-out).  For starters, I made hummus, toasted pita chips, and warm olives with za’atar.  For the actual dinner, I used Ana Sortun’s cookbook Spice (chef of Oleana…my hands down favorite restaurant in Boston and her husband runs the best farmer’s market stand, Siena Farms, in Copley Square during the summer months).  I made the Seared Salmon with Egyptian Garlic and Coriander Sauce, Rice Cake, and Sister K’s Roasted Asparagus.  The salmon was very good…it browned very nicely in this recipe.  I made way too much of the tomato sauce as I forgot to halve the recipe.  I did get to practice my new cooking skill of peeling tomatoes that I learned in my French cooking class.  Basically, you cut off the top, cut an x from top to bottom of the tomato and place in boiling water for 1 minute.  Put in an ice bath afterwards and the peel practically falls off.  The rice cake were delicious…scoops of rice that get a great crusty top when you cook them and then bake them.  Here is the recipe slightly abridged for time for quantity (check out the cookbook for the full recipe):

Rice Cakes:

Ingredients
-1 cup basmati rice
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tblsp canola oil
-1 tsp butter

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil over high heat.  Add rice and reduce the heat to medium.  Simmer for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Drain the rice and allow to cool for 20 minutes.  Preheat over to 350 degrees.  In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the yogurt until smooth.  Stir in rice and season with salt.

Heat a medium ovenproof saute pan over high heat and add oil and butter.  Once the butter is brown, scoop the rice in 1/2 cup measuring container and drop into pan (should make 4-6 scoops).  Cook over medium heat until the bottoms brown (around 6-10 minutes).  Place this pan in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.  The bottoms should have a nice crust and the tops should still be soft.  Serve with the crust side up.

I thought this made a great side dish and was not very difficult to make.  I am definitely going to make this one again.

-Sister M

Beef Wellington with Oyster Pate

For this year’s New Year’s Day dinner, I wanted to try a more challenging dish to mark this special occasion.  My mom made us Beef Wellington for Christmas in 2008 so I wanted to try this dish on my own.  I had also seen a special on the Today Show where they made mini Beef Wellingtons for a NYE appetizer.  I definitely want to try to make these for a party sometime as I suspect they would be a huge hit.  Searching for a recipe, I found this one on the Food Network site by Paula Deen.  All of the commenters seemed to have enjoyed it a lot, so I decided to give this version a try:

Paula Deen’s Beef Wellington with Oyster Pate
Her recipe calls for a 1 1/2 to 2 pounds beef tenderloin, but the smallest one I was able to find was 3 pounds.  I knew it was going to be a bit rare given the extra size so I cooked it about 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for.  It still ended up being rare, but fortunately, this is how the husband prefers his beef.  Paula Deen recommended using the extra pastry to decorate the top…I decided to monogram my Beef Wellington with a big B.  Look how pretty it turned out!

It tasted great!  I absolutely loved the oyster pate as well.  Paula drains the pate using cheesecloth, which I did not have on hand.  I just used a few paper towels instead…I thought the pate came out fine.  I would highly recommend this recipe for a special occasion dinner.  I served it with green olives as an appetizer and sauteed spinach on the side.

I hope you all had a nice new year’s dinner.  It is snowing a bit here in Boston today so I need to figure out a warm dish to make for dinner tonight.

-M