Morton's The Steakhouse

A couple of weeks ago I was at my new favorite store Home Goods and I ran into a cookbook I just couldn't pass up -and I'm glad I didn't! The book is Morton's Steak Bible; Recipes and Lore from the Legendary Steakhouse and it kicks ass! By the time I was done reading it I was convinced we had to have a Morton's night, at home of course! And it was through the roof.

What I really liked about this dinner is that a lot of the things, including the dessert, could be made ahead of time. To quote MaryAnn she said "you made it look so easy!" And it really was very easy. The salad dressing and garlic butter where made 2 days prior to the dinner. The dessert was made the night before. The steaks were marinated the morning of, the drinks were mixed a couple of hours before. With all of the "make ahead" involved how could it not be easy?

Here is what we had:

Morton's Cosmopolitan

This was the best Cosmo I've ever had, second only to the Cosmillinium I had while on vacation in the San Juan Islands circa 2001.

Wild Mushroom Canapes with Brie

These where the biggest hit of the night. Everyone loved them and this picture truly doesn't do them justice.

Cajun Ribeye Steak

I was a little skeptical of this, I know how blasphemous of me to question the Masters but I did, but as it turned out I had nothing to worry about. Again, this picture doesn't do it justice.

Morton's Caesar Salad

Very tasty of course!

Cold Grand Marnier Souffle

I have not been able to stop thinking about this, this was probably one of the best desserts I've ever had.

Lemon Lovers Cheesecake w/Hazelnut Crust

This is by far one of the best cheesecakes I've ever had or ever made for that matter. It was over the top delicious. I would say this cheesecake gives the Pumpkin Swirl cheesecake I make at Thanksgiving a run for it's money -and that's not easy to do either!


Now what makes this cheesecake over the top is the layer of Lemon Curd it's topped with and the drizzle of blueberry sauce that it's drizzled in. Without both of these I think this cheesecake would just be good not OVER THE TOP DELICIOUS! Sure it takes a little extra effort but it's worth it, this cheesecake will put you on the map, trust me!



Lemon Lovers Cheesecake with Hazelnut Crust
Courtesy Bon Appetit

Ingredients
For crust
3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

-Lemon curd (store bought or homemade)
-Boothbay Blueberry Sauce

Make crust:Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Finely grind nuts, cracker crumbs and powdered sugar in processor.Add butter; blend using on/off turns until crumbs are moist. Press crumbs onto bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Chill while making filling.

Make filling:Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Slowly add sugar; beat until smooth. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating 30 seconds after each. Mix in lemon juice and peel.

Pour filling into crust. Bake cake until outer 2-inch portion of top is set and center looks slightly glossy and is barely set, about 45 minutes (do not open oven door at all during baking time). Shake cheesecake lightly and if the perimeter is set but the center is slightly wobbley it's done.

Place cooling rack in a cool area but in an area free of any drafts. Transfer cheesecake to rack and run a knife around the edge of springform pan. This will prevent the cheesecake from cracking when contracting from pan. Cool to room temperature (approx 2-4 hrs). Cover; chill overnight.

Remove cheesecake from refrigerator 30 minutes before serving. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen. Release pan sides. Top with Lemon Curd (approx 1/4 of an inch thick) slice and drizzle with Boothbay Blueberry Sauce. Serve extra blueberry sauce on the side.

Boothbay Blueberry Sauce

This was so incredibly fabulous, it wasn't even funny! The thing I liked most was the mix of spices in it, it almost tasted like Christmas. We had this drizzled over cheesecake but I'm sure this would kick butt on waffles, pancakes and especially over vanilla bean ice cream.

The original recipe makes a ton of sauce, so this is the recipe cut down and a link to the original. I plan to make these at the end of blueberry season, which is pretty much upon us, and giving them away as Christmas gifts.

Boothbay Blueberry Sauce
Courtesy of House & Garden August 1962
Makes close to 2 cups.


1 1/4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/4 teaspoons grated orange rind
6 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups blueberries
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of cloves

Stir the lemon juice, orange rind, orange juice and sugar in a large pot. Bring to a rolling boil. Add berries and bring to a full boil again. Add cinnamon, cloves and boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and strain for a smoother sauce or don't strain it for a more rustic look. Cool and use at room temperature. If not using right away refrigerate after cooling.

*If using for waffles or pancakes you can probably just reheat in microwave.

Score one for the little guy...

ME! Like Batman and The Joker, like Xavier and Magnito, tempering eggs has been my arch nemesis since the beginning of time. And today I can proudly tell that chapter of my life to suck it! For today I have made LEMOM CURD!!! But that's not all, I've made lemon curd, successfully! -and tasty to boot!

When I read the review for this recipe a couple of people suggested adding an extra egg yolk and straining the lemon curd. Well a lot of people made it as written and loved it. So I made it as it was written with the only exception being to strain the curd once I took it off the stove top. The reviewers recommended straining it to remove the lumps but mine didn't have any lumps the only thing that stayed in the strainer was the lemon zest, which by the way wouldn't bother me if it was in the curd.

Any who, it's tasty and a must try. The thing is I did cook it in low heat not moderate low heat because I really, really didn't want to end up with scrambled eggs like I always do. So it took a lot longer to cook than the six minutes it estimates. It took almost 15 minutes or perhaps more, but it was worth it. I'd rather have spaghetti arm from stirring than scrambled eggs from hurrying. -you can quote me on that :)

Lemon Curd

Courtesy: Gourmet Magazine

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest

1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into bits

Whisk together juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Stir in butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubble appears on surface, about 6 minutes.

Transfer lemon curd to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 1 hour.

Cooks' note:
• Curd can be chilled up to 1 week.

BOTR: They Can't All Be Winners....

Sure, it looks tasty, doesn't it? But is it? No, no it's not, as matter of fact it's far from it. In case you haven't figured it out B.O.T.R. stands for Beware Of This Recipe or better yet run don't walk, the other direction if you come in contact with this recipe. This recipe lured me in with it's tasty name "Tropical Bars in a Butter Coconut Crust" and when I made it I was further seduced by it's killer aroma and oh so appealing filling and crust. But just like the Sirens in the Odyssey who lured Sailors with their sweet song and sexy bodies only to turn on them once the Sailors had given in, so did these bars reveal their not so sweet and not so tasty self to me once they cooled and were ready for consumption.


The only way I could describe the taste is like this; they tasted like I left limes out in the sun for weeks. And once the rind had gained the texture of leather gone arye I decided to pop them in my mouth all at once. Yeah.... it tasted like that! I have to admit I'm partially to blame. I am a strong advocate of "if the recipe doesn't sound right or it just doesn't make common sense, don't do it". However, when it comes to baking I am a little hesitant to get jiggy wit' it, as the kids say, because baking is so freakin' temperamental and in hind sight I realize the change wouldn't have effected the finished product negatively, I mean they seriously couldn't have tasted any worse.

So the recipe called for "3 limes quartered". Quartered?!?! Not segmented, not zested, not sliced, quartered!? So against my better judgement and common sense I quartered them, took the seeds out and tossed them in the food processor. Thinking of it now gives me the willies. The only saving grace was the crust, the crust was fabu. But there is only enough crust you can munch on before it gets old and the remnants of the filling where still there and therefore not worth keeping. It broke my heart tossing food and time away but I had no choice it was just very not tasty :(

Here's the recipe to prove I'm not making it up and I even searched all over the internets looking for a different variation hoping someone had mistyped the recipe but it was all in vain. It was written the same way everywhere.


Tropical Bars in a Butter Coconut Crust
Crust:
1 C. coconut
1 C. butter
1/2 C. sugar
1 1/2 C. flour
Combine all ingredients and press onto bottom of 9x9 square pan. Bake 15 min at 350° F.

Filling:
3 limes, quartered
2 1/4 C. sugar
4 eggs
1/2 C. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 T. plus 1 t. vanilla
Put all filling ingredients in the food processor and process until pureed.
Pour over the baked crust and bake at 350° F. for 20-25 minutes.
Cut only after cooling and sprinkle with powdered sugar and toasted coconut flakes.

Product Rave: McCormicks Grillmates Cinnamon Chipotle Rub

This stuff is a little taste of awesome, I kid' you not. It has a creole taste to it, which you might not expect given it has chipotle wich is most commonly associated with Mexican or SouthWest cooking. But the chipotle flavor is very mild adding more of a smoky flavor than a spicy flavor. The cinnamon is what gives it that creole taste. I've sprinkled this little fairy dust on shrimp and tossed them on the grill -to die! And just recently used it today or should I say Mom used it today, in what will now be my new favorite way to have this -on baby back ribs!!! Oh my lawd was it good!

She just rubbed it on the ribs added a some salt, though we both agreed it really didn't need it, it made the ribs a little too salty. But I like salty so that was good by me but I think it would have been too salty for the average bear. Anywho, run out and get you some of this stuff and make you some of these:

P.S. For those of you bright ones keeping score. Yes, we did end up having an impromptu feast of roasted chicken, ribs and cauliflower. The ribs weren't part of the original plan but we were starving when we arrived at the grocery store and....well..... the rest is fatty history :)

Don't call it a comeback...

*See closeup of cauliflower at the end of the post, it's to die!

I've been here for years! Well not in the blogasphere but most definately representin' in the real world. It occured to me today that I've been neglecting my poor blog and, well, that had to change. So I dusted off my apron, along with an old recipe, and here I am ready to get down to business.

Now, I know there is enough Rachel Ray hatin' going around to fill a giant"GB" but sometimes the ol' girl has a good recipe and even a good idea here and there and this is one of them. The first and only time I tried this recipe I was still a bachelorette in an 8 year relationship without any prospects of marriage in the horizon, so what better "motivation" for my man to marry me than for me to show him I could be a good wife in the kitchen? -Wow, I just lost the feminist vote but who cares! It's true! The way to a man's heart is his stomach, so suck it feminist!

But I digress......I should say the real way to a man's heart is through his stomach via bacon wrapped anything, which brings us to our recipe. It's not only easy, it's affordable and did I mention easy? It's also.....wait for it....."wrapped" in BACON!!!!

The recipe calls for a 3.5 pound chicken but I used a 5 pounder and therefor had to cook it longer. I didn't realize this until I had already added the cauliflower at the 1/2 way point as called for in the recipe. So my cauliflower ended up roasting for an extra half hour. It didn't turn out mushy but it didn't turn out crunchy like I like it either. Had I paid more attention I would have added the cauliflower in the last half hour because my chicken was bigger. But whatev' you live, you learn and I ain't no pro.

Boy am I chatty after a hiatus, I'll wrap it up. This recipe is a must try and totally awesome for such little effort, so big ups to RR!!! I'll write it as I made it and as I will make it next time.

Bacon "Stuffed" Roasted Chicken with Cauliflower

by: Rachel Ray

Ingredients

1 -5 pound whole chicken, rinsed and patted dry

4 -bacon strips
Salt & Freshly ground pepper
1 -Head cauliflower, cored and cut into bite-size florets
1 -Head of garlic, cloves peeled
1 1/2 Tablespoons EVOO (I had to represent for RR)

1. Preheat the oven to 450°. Loosen the skin of the chicken breast, drumsticks & thighs with your fingers and slide the bacon in. I did 1 slice per breast and 1 slice per drumstick/thigh area. Season the outside with salt and pepper. Place the chicken, breast side up, in a roasting pan with a rack and roast for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes lower the temperature to 400º and cook for an additional 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, toss the cauliflower, garlic and oil together in a bowl and season with salt & pepper to taste. After the chicken has cooked for an hour, remove the chicken and rack from the roasting pan and add the vegetables to the perimeter of the pan. Return chicken (without rack) to the middle of the roasting pan (breast up) and roast until the chicken is cooked through and the cauliflower is tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and tent the chicken with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.