Beef Stew with Beer / Beer Geek Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel

K Huff made our beer recipes a good month ago if not longer... but never got around to dealing with our post. I'm finally creating the post but K will need to add the missing stew recipe later.

Beef Stew with Beer
This is K's standard beef stew recipe. However, in the past, K always used Guinness. This time, we tried with with a wonderful pine beer from Yard's Brewing Company and it turned out quite nice.










































































Beer Geek Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel
All the picky steps involved in making cupcakes drives me crazy, so I've been bugging K to make this recipe for the past year. This beer post seemed the perfect opportunity!

http://thebrooklynkitchen.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/best-in-show-the-prizewinning-cupcakes/

This was fun... K used an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute batter into the liners. She placed the scoop on the lid of the cupcake liner container at one point, and when she picked it up, discovered a happy surprise on the lid! The batter was smiling. No lie.































Frosting

















Loved the way that K iced these... the masculine herringbone pattern is a nice touch!
































Conclusion: There were a few technical difficulties with these cupcakes... K accidentally poured in the whole bottle of beer instead of the amount that the recipe noted, and ended up trying to balance out the proportions of the other ingredients. We're not quite sure how far the finished product was from the recipe, but the cake was a bit dense/dry. While I am glad that we tried the recipe, I wouldn't necessarily race to eat them again. The flavor was ok, and if memory serves, the salt would have been nicer cooked into the icing (rather than sprinkled on top; the crunch was odd, like when you discover sand that hasn't been washed out of lettuce). K and I later began doctoring them up by adding 60% chocolate chips to the top... the extra flavor and chocolate texture was a very nice addition; if K ever makes these again, K will probably add chocolate chips to the batter. The chocolate stout (Dundee Stout) that we used however, was a very nice selection for a beer/chocolate dessert. We'll definitely keep it in mind for the future!

Minted Zucchini Soup with Mascarpone

Warm soup, I know, is not usually favored during the hot months of summer. Still, with the abundance of fresh produce at this time of year, I have no problem cranking up the A.C. to enjoy a warm garden medley of comfort food in the artificially crisp climate I've created. That said, I've also gained a considerable fondness for mint over the past few years, but have yet to explore its creative possibilities. Mint with savory meats or fruits or vegetables. So simple, so wonderful.

Thus, in my search for mascarpone recipes featuring mint, this Minted Zucchini Soup with Mascarpone concoction caught my eye.

Most of the ingredients are pictured below.


















Sidenote: I think it was in an America's Test Kitchen book that I read rave reviews about Swanson's Low-Sodium Chicken Broth in a box. Something about how you can get it in a can, but the processing for the broth is different, so it's not as good.

Anyway, back to the recipe.

Slice about 2 lbs. of zucchini, chop 1 yellow onion, and mince or use a garlic press for 5 garlic cloves (-cough- I may have used more like 6 or 7...).

Estimate the amount of butter and olive oil needed; heat equal portions in the frying pan. When near the smoking point, I added the garlic and onion alone simply to encourage caramelization. A few minutes later, I added the zucchini.



















Sauteing should take about 10 minutes after adding the zucchini, but it took me longer - I think because my pan was too small.



















Transfer the cooked veggies to a pot, add 3 c. chicken broth, and cook on medium high for another 5-10 minutes. Add the entire can of cannelini beans along with most of the liquid in the can.



















Puree the contents of the pot by hand or with a blender. Return the pureed soup to the pot and add 8 oz. of mascarpone cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
























And, hoorah - here comes the mint! Create a mint chiffonade and garnish. We served the soup with this fancy braided bread from the farmer's market. It looked better than it tasted.



















I think a white wine would suit this soup nicely, but we only had red wine in the house, and so we paired the soup with this Spanish red. The label said something about how it was good with roasted vegetables and I went with it. It did, actually, compliment the meal quite well.
























In conclusion, my family and I enjoyed this recipe. My sister said it's a keeper. I'd rate it a solid 7/10. It is tasty and fresh and made for a nice Saturday summer supper. Again, we enjoyed a cup of leftover soup (sans mint) with our grilled Gruyère and brie sandwiches today - the perfect rainy day post-church lunch.

I only wish that I had the nutritional stats for this soup - it's very reminiscent of cream of "fill-in-the-blank" vegetable soups, but it lacks the wealth of fatty dairy products; the protein-rich beans and mascarpone give it a nice full flavor. For those who don't enjoy mascarpone, light cream cheese can be substituted. I'd like to try that next time I make this.

Roasted Peaches and Mascarpone Ice Cream

This is very likely one of the best, if not THE best thing I have posted on this site. Seriously. Absolutely, positively delicious. My sister sent me an email not long ago with three recipes in it. I think my keyboard at work needs replacing now I was drooling so much over them. Gosh do they sound good. So, she and my grandma came to visit on Sunday and I figured we'd go out to lunch (which we did. Mmmmmm Cafe Hollander), but I still wanted to make something for them. So I went with this one. Mostly because it required the least ingredients. And because I had TONS of mascarpone left over after the Agnopites and needed to use it up. Do keep in mind that if you don't have an ice cream maker this is possible...but may have took me all Saturday to make. And by may, I mean did. It's not hard, just time-consuming. Right now I'm way too tired to type every tiny direction. So I'm going to be lazy and copy the links. The first is to the recipe. The second to the directions for making ice cream without an ice cream maker.

http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/roasted-peaches-mascarpone-ice-cream-recipe

http://www.serving-ice-cream.com/homemade-ice-cream-2.html

Fragomammella: Strawberry Breasts

I saw this recipe on Food Network several years ago, though it comes originally from The Futurist Cook by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. I have always wanted to make it. I halved the quantities of the original recipe, which I will list here.

Macerate together for an hour:
1/2 pound strawberries, cut up small
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

Combine:
3/4 pound mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream, lightly whipped
3 tablespoons sifted confectioner's sugar

The recipe, at this point, calls for 1 1/2 tablespoons of Campari, a bright red bitter aperitif. It's not that Campari is hard to find, but a whole bottle is pricey for as much as I needed. I substituted a small amount of Grenadine and moved on with life.

The strawberry mixture was then folded in:

Our strawberry pudding (essentially) now spent some time in the refrigerator so that the finished mold would "stand up."

The Futurist movement held some intriguing--if not bizarre--ideals. Indeed, The Futurist Cook's meal plans suggest some recipes be prepared and laid on the table simply for visual stimulation. So, it didn't particularly surprise me that the recipe actually calls for a pink serving plate to be used for presentation. Alas, I do not own a pink plate.

Before beginning I saved a few of the smallest strawberries for nipples.

Voila.


Finishing thoughts:

Well, for as much of a sweet tooth as I have, I don't typically make confections. I enjoyed the change of pace.

I really don't care for the sour taste of mascarpone cheese. Generally I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to cheese; if it smells or tastes at all "fungal," I'm done. I did eat some in the end--it was sweet and the strawberries were in no way overpowered by the mascarpone, but that sour taste was always in the back of my mouth.

So, it seems I'm continuing the overall disappointment in mascarpone.

Agnopites (Cheese Pastries)

So Mascarpone. I actually suggested this because I had a recipe in mind already and really wanted to try it out...and I thought it would be an interesting beginning. (Kevin, for your enlightenment, I did look up the pronunciation. I was wrong. Here you go: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mascarpone) Nancy, my mother-in-law, gave me a whole slew of cookbooks when we were visiting her for the Fourth. One of them was Mezze Modern: Over 90 Delicious Appetizers from Greece, Lebanon, and Turkey by Maria Khalife, photography by Stuart West. I found three similar recipes and let Charlie choose. This is what we ended up with.

Agnopites

Ingredients

Dough

1lb 2 oz all purpose flour (not sure why they gave those measurements. I found quite the variety in what that could mean, so I did about 18 oz of flour to begin with and added more as necessary.)

3/4 cup water

3 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp lemon juice or raki

Pinch of salt

Filling

1 lb 2 oz myzithra cheese, or any soft unsalted cheese (this is where I used the mascarpone. And you don't need anywhere NEAR that much cheese. Honestly, less than one 8 oz container...)

4 Tbsp milk

Olive oil, for frying

Honey, grape juice syrup, or sugar, to serve.

Method

Make the dough by mixing together the flour, water, olive oil, lemon juice or raki, and salt. Knead well until a soft, springy dough is formed. Roll out the dough and divide it into small golf ball sized portions.

Prepare the filling by mixing together the cheese and milk until smooth.

Make a small hole in each dough ball and fill with 1 tsp of the cheese mixture. Pull the dough over to seal the hole and roll the balls into 5 ins circles with a rolling pin.

Fry the circles in olive oil until golden brown. Serve hot with honey, grape juice syrup, or sugar.

Our honey is crystalized, so we tried maple syrup, which was quite good. We do imagine that honey would be great. Also, I tried dusting them with powdered sugar, and dipping them in mascarpone mixtures. I used a small amount of the leftover mascarpone and added a bit of powdered sugar and then (in separate containers) almond extract, vanilla, and lemon extract. The almond won. Surprisingly, these weren't very exciting. My original thought had been to add something to the mascarpone filling. I still think that would have been a good idea. Some shaved dark chocolate would be tasty, with the slightly sour taste from the lemon juice in the dough. Oh boy!

Also, the injecting of the cheese into the "small hole" in the dough was laughable. I had to flatten out each ball, then try to put a small amount of cheese in there and then seal it back up and then roll it out. Hah! The cheese exploded rather un-excitingly out all the time. It was quite a bother. I think next time it would be better to leave them in the shape of a ball.

Mascarpone-NLT

Well someone had to be the first...so I made my meal this evening.

Menu: Prosciutto and Mascarpone Penne Pasta
White Chocolate and Mascarpone dip with cherries

I must admit, it sounds better than it was. On a scale from 10 (Best Meal Ever) to 1 (We had to order in it was so bad) I would give it a solid 5. John also gave it a 5...BUT here are the two recipes and the pictures.

Prosciutto and Mascarpone Penne Pasta

1 clove Garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 piece of prosciutto 1/4 in thick
28 oz diced Italian style tomatoes
4 oz Mascarpone
Prepared Penne Pasto

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan and heat, cut prosciutto into small pieces and add to pan. After prosciutto is cooked through add garlic and drained tomatoes. Simmer about 20-30 min or until most of the liquid is gone. Add Mascarpone right before serving.

White Chocolate and Mascarpone Dip

1/2 cup whipping cream
3 oz white chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla
4oz Mascarpone

Melt 3 oz white chocolate with 1/4 cup whipping cream in double boiler. Once it is melted, let cool to room temperature and mix remaining 1/4 cup whipping cream, vanilla and 4 oz--mix well. Fold in white chocolate. Serve with fruit.