Root Beer Barbecue Sauce

Welcome to my new obsession, barbecue sauce. All summer I've been craving it, slathered over chicken, burgers and fries. So far though I haven't done any true barbecuing though. I didn't plan to either, initially the plan this week was to bring you this recipe.
Looks delicious right? But admittedly more of a winter dish. I was all set to ignore that though and make them this week until 2 separate trips to the grocery store yielded no short ribs. They're sold out and the butcher doesn't know when more are coming in!

On the second trip, my sister (who shouldn't have gone to the grocery store hungry) insisted I get something else to make. She was paying so I couldn't refuse. I picked up several pounds of beef spareribs even though I had no idea how to cook them.
After settling on a cooking method (I'll be slow roasting them), I knew I needed to make my own barbecue sauce. You don't take the time to make ribs then toss bottled barbecue sauce on them.
Not wanting to let go on my root beer dreams, I found this barbecue sauce recipe and adapted it to use root beer instead of Dr. Pepper.
I'm calling this the first version, because I will be experimenting to create a more root beer-y version soon.The sauce is delicious, but I'm not sure someone would know that there's root beer in it.

I am no officially of the opinion that everyone should make their own barbecue sauce, its super easy and a great way to experiment in the kitchen. Find a basic recipe and make it your own, then brag to everyone about your secret special barbecue sauce.

Almost Root Beer Barbecue Sauce
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups of root beer
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon srichacia (or whatever hot sauce you have on hand)
1 teaspoon fine-ground white pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Melt butter in a saute pan, add garlic and onions and cook until "translucent".


Then add everything else. Simmer for 30-40 minutes until it is thickened. Turn off the stove and let the sauce cool. (Do not put it into your blender hot!) Once it is no longer boiling hot, but still slightly warm, pour into the blender and blend until smooth.
The sauce will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks, but it probably won't last that long.


Something weird: I realized halfway through cooking that I didn't have any vinegar so I used Chiavetta's marinade instead, if you do this be very careful about seasoning with salt and pepper since it'll already have some.

Forgotten Fruit Part 2- Nectarine Blueberry Pie

My pie crust luck lately has been pretty good and maybe I got a little bit cocky.
So the universe saw fit to punish me with some terrible pie crust luck.
My Nectarine Blueberry Pie turned out great (if a bit "rustic"), but my pie crust was disastrous. I meant for the pie to have a top crust, but I ran out of flour when I was rolling it out and it was just completely fused to my cutting board.
Why am I admitting to this pie crust catastrophe? Because even though it was a little tricky, the end result was delicious and if I hadn't admitted to the problems, no one would have known.

My dad was a little surprised by the nectarine and blueberry combination, but I opted to use the random fruit in my fridge to convince others not to throw away any less than pretty fruit they have. Although if I had my way, I would have used peaches instead. Use 5 cups total of whatever fruit you have.
Nectarine Blueberry Pie
3 cups of nectarines, peeled and chopped
2 cups of blueberries
4 tablespoons of cornstarch
1 lemon
3/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of shortening
1 cup of flour
cold water
pinch of salt

For the crust:
In a large bowl, mix the flour, and salt, use a pastry blender or fork to break up the shortening and mix it into the flour. Once the mixture is crumbly and the shortening is in chunks roughly the size of peas, add a few tablespoons of water, until the mixture comes together and will form a ball. (Don't over mix) Wrap in plastic wrap and leave in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Cover a flat surface with flour, and roll out the dough into as close to a circle as you can manage. Transfer the dough to a pie pan (whatever you do, do not spray the pan with nonstick spray) and crimp the edges at the top.


In another bowl, mix together fruit, sugar, cornstarch and the zest and juice of the lemon together. Pour into the pie crust.


Bake the pie at 375 degrees for about an hour, till the filling is thick and the crust looks light brown.

Forgotten Fruit Part 1- Banana Nut Muffins

As many commercials lately have been so willing to point out, we throw away a fair sized percentage (which varies from source to source) of the groceries we buy. There's something so disappointing about finding an untouched bag of formerly fresh fruit in the back of my fridge.

So today when I realized that I had quickly aging nectarines, blueberries and bananas I knew something had to be done.You wouldn't throw away a perfectly good baby, just because it was a little old.

Now to be clear, I'm not saying to eat rotten fruit, I'm talking about that just a bit too soft, possibly bruised, not so attractive fruit you bought last week. The smooshed cherries in the back you bought 2 weeks ago are too far gone.

I think we should start with the classic "old fruit" recipe, banana nut muffins. People in my house seem to very picky about the ripeness of bananas, there's only a 2-3 day window before the bananas are forgotten and left behind a bag of chips.

Banana Nut Muffin (adapted from the Joy of Cooking)
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of sugar
2-3 ripe bananas (mashed)
1 egg
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 cup of walnuts, chopped (optional)





Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt and nuts. Set aside.
Whisk together the egg, bananas, and vegetable oil.

Combine the flour mixture and banana mixture, but do not over mix. The batter will be pretty firm and not smooth, just mix until it is moist. Divide batter among 12 muffin cups (1 tray), make sure to line it with cupcake liners.

This picture came out a bit more dramatic than I meant it to.

Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown and let cool.

Surprising Fruit Caramels

I have never made caramels before, and honestly I've been kind of afraid. Generally when I think about it, images of burnt sugar and a caramel covered stove, deter me.

However, my fears were forgotten when I stumbled upon this recipe. Blood oranges aren't in season though, and I'm impatient so I decided to try this recipe with different tart fruit recipes.

You could use any tart juice/nut combination you want for these, just make sure you buy the fancy nice and not a "fruit juice cocktail".

I made Black Cherry Caramels and Grapefruit Caramels (with no nuts).

They weren't difficult to make, all you really need is a little attention and a candy thermometer.

Black Cherry Caramels
3 cups of black cherry juice
1/3 cup light cream
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla extract

Grapefruit Caramels
3 cups grapefruit juice
1/3 cup light cream
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract


Instructions:
Line a 8in round baking dish (the one you use for 2 layered cakes) with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper with non-stick spray/butter/Crisco. If using nuts, cover the bottom of the pan with the nuts.

Pour juice into a large pot, reduce to about a 1/3 cup. (Make sure you use a large enough pot that the juice cannot boil over.) Once it is reduced, add the butter, sugars and cream.

Whisk throughly. Let boil, to 248 degrees then pour into baking dish. Place in refrigerator and let cool for 2 hours. Then cut into individual pieces.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the caramels cut, most of them got eaten, and the rest melted. (Don't leave them out in the heat!)

One more thing: The original recipe calls for salt, which a lot of people like on their caramels. However a lot of other people absolutely hate it! I like salted caramels, but decided to omit it.

Banana Oreo Ice Cream

Every summer my ice cream maker stares at me, and every summer I talk about making ice cream, but I just never seem to get motivated enough to do it.
However a recent trip to Boston and a homemade ice cream shop had me inspired. There I tried a wonderful Banana Oreo Ice Cream and have been thinking about replicating it ever since.

I decided not to make a custard base for my ice cream (this would involve eggs and stovetop cooking) and modified this banana ice cream recipe. One of the important changes I made was using fat-free half and half instead of milk or cream and the results were very satisfactory. Bananas have a lot creaminess so even without fat the froze well. (Of course there is fat added when you add the Oreos, but in comparison to most ice creams this one is pretty waist friendly.) You can actually make ice cream using only bananas, without an ice cream maker (one ingredient ice cream).

If you wanted to be really health conscious, nix the oreos and the sugar and add a little honey to taste. Or if you just don't care, use regular Half & Half, it'll work great too.

I would advise eating this the day that you make it, it can get a little hard in the freezer.

Banana Oreo Ice Cream
3 ripe bananas
3/4 (375 ml) Fat-Free Half & Half
1/3 cup of sugar
10 Oreos (or as many as you want)

Puree the bananas and Half & Half together, add sugar to taste (depending on the sweetness of the bananas). Let chill in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it. Pour the mix into your ice cream maker and follow it's instructions for freezing.

Put Oreos in a bag and smash them up into desired crumbliness.
Once the ice cream is firm scoop out of ice cream maker and gently mix in smashed Oreos, cover and place in freezer to set up.

Eat.

Tiramisu (Finally)

Tiramisu is easy.
Much, much easier than I made it.


I thought I would be super cool and made my own lady fingers. It did not work out, at all. My lady fingers were strange rubbery and flat. The ones I bought at the store the next day were lovely and crisp.
As much as I love baking, sometimes things just go wrong. I think the recipe required much more flour than it called for and my oven was too hot.
Do not be discouraged by my cookie failure though, tiramisu is a work out for your mixer, but it amazingly simple. Especially if you use a nice brand of lady fingers. Look for these in the bakery o international section of your grocery store.
The mascarpone might also take some special searching, check the fancy cheese section. (Mascarpone is a special extra creamy Italian cream cheese.)

I reworked this recipe to omit the alcohol, but feel free to use the alcohol version. (I'm 19, so it's just easier to remove the alcohol from a recipe than try to acquire some for cooking.)
Definitely make this the night before, sitting around and waiting for it to set up is maddening!

Tiramisu

2 1/3 cups of very strong coffee

3/4 cup of sugar plus 1 tablespoon divided

4 large eggs, separated

1 pound mascarpone (2 1/2 cups)

1 cup chilled heavy cream

36 savoiardi (crisp Italian ladyfingers; from two 7-ounce packages)

1 cup chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine egg yolks, 1/2 cup of sugar and vanilla in a metal bowl, set over a saucepan of barely simmering water using a whisk or handheld electric mixer for 2 minutes, until foamy. Set aside an let cool.

Beat the egg whites (make sure the egg whites are cold when you do this) and a pinch of salt into soft peaks (not quite thick, still foamy) with a mixer. Then add 1/4 cup of sugar and beat into stiff peaks. Set aside.














**Stiff peaks ideally means that you can flip the bowl upside down and the eggs won't fall out, only try it if you're sure it's right and really want to impress someone.

Beat chilled cream in a separate bowl until it resembles whipped cream (because basically that's what it is.) Set aside.



Mix together the mascarpone and egg yolk/sugar mixture until just combined.




Now it's time to fold. Important folding tips:
1.) Be gentle, you want to incorporate everything, but keep it fluffy.
2.) Only fold in half at a time, you can't rush this.
3.) Use a rubber spatula.
4.) Pretend to be a fancy chef and lecture anyone near by about the importance of not deflating the mixture.
5.) Don't Panic! It will taste just as delicious if it isn't very fluffy.















First fold in the egg whites.
Then fold in the cream.
Set aside the giant bowl of deliciousness.





Pour the coffee and a tablespoon of sugar into a bowl. Open the lady fingers and get you trifle dish/ baking dish ready. Dip each lady finger in the coffee or brush the coffee on with a pastry brush. Line the bottom of the dish with lady fingers.















Spread some of the fluffy mascarpone mixture over the lady fingers. (If you plan to do just 2 layers of lady finger use half the mascarpone mixture here, if you plan to make 3 layers, use a third of the mixture).













Make another layer of lady fingers dipped in coffee and then mascarpone mixture. Repeat until the dish is full.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let it set in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight.



Serve with leftover lady fingers.