Warm German Potato Salad (Kartoffelsalat)

Ah, potatoes - those tasty little tubers that seem to be on every menu in the Western world, and which can stump Dan Quayle in a spelling bee.  While potatoes are originally from the Americas (Peru, to be exact), some cultures over in Europe have managed to do amazing things with them in a the few centuries that they've been cultivated there.  And I'm not talking about the Irish.  I'm talking about the Germans, who transformed the potato salad of the United States into something entirely different.

German potato salad is pretty much the opposite of American potato salad.  It's served warm.  It has only a thin sauce to it.  It is almost entirely vinegar-based, as opposed to mayonnaise or mustard.  And you can practically eat it as its own meal, since it almost always has meat right in the dish.  And bad news for some of you - this dish isn't meant for the devoutly Jewish, as it contains bacon.

I mashed up this recipe from a few different sources, then tinkered to get the consistency I wanted.  The result is from too many places to cite just one, but if you look really hard you should see the same few ingredients in different orders or with different ratios all over the internet.  But you're here reading this one, so just roll with it.


German Potato Salad (Kartoffel Salat)

• 3 pounds Yukon gold or red potatoes
• 1/4 pound thick-cut bacon
• 3/4 cup finely chopped onion (white, yellow, bottoms of a green onion, and/or red)
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 green onions, tops, sliced thinly
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Scrub potatoes and place in a large pot.  Add water until potatoes are submerged at least 1".  Boil the potatoes until they are cooked through, at least 20 minutes.  If you use Russets here, they will be mealy and gross.  Go with a waxier potato like a red or Yukon gold.  Drain potatoes and allow to chill for at least a few hours, or preferably overnight.  Once cooled, slice potatoes into 1/4" thick rounds and set aside.

Boil the potatoes the night before if you can.  Then assemble just before serving

If you want a little kick to your salad, place the mustard seeds in the cold water and let hang out for 10 minutes.  If not, just skip this step.  In a fairly large saute pan, cook bacon until crispy, and set aside.  Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of bacon grease from the pan.  Over medium heat, cook the onions until translucent, about 3-5 minutes.  I used the bottom of the green onion tops I would add later to complement red and yellow onions.

Saute your onion mix

Dissolve the flour in the water, and then add water, vinegar and mustard seeds, and deglaze the pan for a few seconds.  Add the salt, sugar, and flour, and stir to combine.  Now add the sliced potatoes to this and fold them into the sauce.  Once you have tossed this around a bit, added the parsley and green onions, and crumble the bacon and throw that in too.

Toss again to combine, and that's it!  Serve warm, and enjoy with whatever German food tickles your fancy.

It's bacon!

Chinese Stir-fried Pork with Leeks

A simple recipe I found in Saveur magazine, lifted directly from there and then screwed up only slightly on my first attempt.  I will post the recipe ingredients as printed, with a couple of caveats in the instructions.  The recipe describes 'reverse stir-frying', where the vegetables are [atypically] cooked before the meat, then added back in.  I'll admit, I usually cook the meat first, but I don't think this is anything earth-shattering.

I wish I could tell you more about the backstory of this dish, because based on its short ingredient list, I picture this as coming from the countryside.  It's like the Chinese equivalent of a really good taco - throw a few things together, let the individual flavors really shine through, and don't get too fancy with anything.  It doesn't hurt that you're using leeks either, which are delicious in almost everything so long as you rinse the dirt out of them thoroughly.  The longer you can let the meat sit with the seasonings, the more flavorful the product will be.  I recommend more like 1-2 hours in the fridge at least, with the last 45 minutes left out to come closer to room temperature.

Simple, flavorful, rustic.  Not what you think of for Americanized Chinese food.  But really freaking good.

Recipe originally posted here Sept. 2011, updated on second attempt in Jan. 2013.


Stir-Fried Pork with Leeks (Cong Bao Rou Si)
From Saveur, December 2010

Updated 8/24/13: At the request of a fellow chef, I have doubled the marinade ingredients.

• 10 oz. boneless pork butt, frozen for 20 minutes and cut into 2" x 1/8" strips (thin is good here!)
• 2 tsp. Asian sesame oil
• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce (this is not just dark-colored soy sauce)
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp. canola oil
• 1 leek, white and pale green parts only, cut diagonally into 1/4"-thick slices

In a medium bowl, combine the pork, sesame oil, soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar, and half the garlic; let sit for 15 minutes at a minimum, and don't refrigerate again unless you plan to let marinate for a while.  The closer this is to room temperature when you start, the better.  And use dark soy sauce, not to be translated by novice non-Chinese chefs as "darkly colored normal soy sauce".  No, this is soy sauce with sugar or molasses added, which gives it a much sweeter and richer flavor, and also makes it more of a syrup.  It will also lend a much darker color to your finished product, make it so your food burns if you're not careful, and thicken a dish much more than regular soy sauce.

Marinate your pork in dark soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, and a few other simple ingredients, and let it hang out.

While the meat is marinating, clean the leeks THOROUGHLY.  Leeks are infamous for hiding dirt in their many layers - I typically cut through the stem enough to get a sprayer in there, but since this recipe wants whole rings, I went a different route.  Just slice off the green tops (maybe the top 1/3 of what's shown below), the bottom 1/4", and then slice into your rings, breaking them apart slightly so the pieces are all loose.  Now rinse the rings, and try to get as much water off as possible.  A salad spinner will come in handy here.


Leeks, soaking in water to clean them out a bit.

This is what you're left with after slicing and rinsing.  When you stir-fry these up, they should cook very quickly because of their thin cut.  Don't overcook them

To prepare, heat a 14" wok over high heat until wok begins to smoke. Add 1 tbsp. oil around the edge of the wok and swirl to coat the bottom and sides. Add the leeks and cook, stirring and tossing constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer leeks to a plate and set aside.

Time to fry up some leeks

Return wok to high heat and add remaining oil around edge of wok, swirling to coat the bottom and sides. Add the pork mixture and remaining garlic and cook, stirring and tossing constantly, until the pork is browned, about 2 minutes.  Really look for browning, and make sure the wok isn't too crowded, or you will end up boiling your meat in the juices it releases.  You want enough heat getting to all the meat that it quickly browns before giving up any moisture.  My wok gets hot, but not rocket hot like in a restaurant.  That would have helped even more.  NOTE: if you put the meat in and it sizzles like it's searing, this is good.  But if it starts to get quiet, that is bad.  It means your wok isn't hot enough for the amount of food you put in, which is probably more cold than it is in your average poorly sanitized restaurant kitchen, making things extra hard for you.  So do this - if you suspect that your wok isn't going to get the job done, just stop.  Take everything out, and get the wok as hot as it will get again.  Now add the meat back in, half at a time, and cook until done, setting aside the cooked meat in between.  You won't need to add more oil each time because the oil is still all over the meat.  This is what I did last night, and it worked out great.  Just remember to use all of your senses - sometimes cooking can involve listening just as much as watching.

I cooked the pork in two batches, to make sure it would saute instead of steam.  This gave it a much nicer color, and allowed the sugars in the dark soy to caramelize a bit (the black specks)

Add reserved leeks to the wok and cook, stirring and tossing often, until just tender, about 1 minute.  Don't overcook, or the meat will toughen.

Return everything to the wok and toss to combine for a minute or less

Serve immediately, over rice.  Don't get crazy with the condiments, this is meant to be a simple dish

Shrimp in Black Bean Sauce

This recipe is similar to my chicken in black bean sauce, but without the marinating and with a slightly different mix of ingredients a bit more well suited to shellfish.  It's not quite shrimp in lobster sauce, which is coming soon, but it's still a solid sauce, very different from your standard Cantonese-style brown garlic sauce.

Shrimp with Black Bean Sauce
Food.com

• 1/2 lb large shrimp ( shelled, deveined and washed)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic oil (or sesame oil)
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans, well washed and drained
• 1 green onion, sliced thinly, white and green parts separated
• 1 teaspoon shaoxing wine (or sherry or rice wine)
• 1 tablespoon fresh coriander, minced
• 1/2 head broccoli, rinsed, cut into florets
• 1/2 can baby corns
• Steamed rice, to serve

• 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon sugar
• Salt and white pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup seafood stock

Ready your stir-fry ingredients - chop up vegetables, set aromatics aside next to wok, and gather ingredients for the sauce (oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, stock) in a bowl.  Peel and devein shrimp, and have nearby.  Smash the rinsed black beans slightly to form something between a paste and whole beans, similar to the consistency of refried beans.

Get your shrimp cleaned and at the ready

Chop up your ingredients

It helps if you line everything up in the order of use, to avoid confusion

Heat wok over high heat for 30 seconds.  Add garlic oil and coat the wok.   When a wisp of white smoke appears, add garlic, white portion of the green onion, and black beans, then immediately add the broccoli florets.  Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, until starting to turn bright green.  Now add the shrimp.  The hotter you can get your wok before adding this, the better.  And keep your stove on high!  You want to cook these guys as fast as possible.  Mix together, then leave alone for about 30 seconds.  Flip them over as best you can, then stir-fry another 30 seconds.  Add wine by drizzling around the edges of the wok, add baby corn, and mix well.

Stir-fry until the shrimp turn pink.  These guys aren't ready to go yet

Once the shrimp begin to curl and turn pink, they're basically done.  Make a well in the center of the mixture.  Stir the sauce and pour into the center of this well.  Mix to combine all ingredients, and stir while cooking on high for about 90 seconds or less, until the sauce begins to thicken and bubble.

Turn off the heat, and add the minced green onion tops.  Remove to a heated dish, sprinkle with minced coriander and serve.

Low Country Shrimp Boil - Welcome to America

Coming from the Midwest, I had no idea what somebody meant the first time they said they were having a "low boil".  What does that mean?  So let me help my fellow northerners here - a low boil, or  is some kind of shellfish boiled in a heavily seasoned, creole-infused broth with potatoes, corn, and usually sausage.  Usually crab, crawfish, or shrimp are used, and this ends up being a meal and half when you sit down and roll up your sleeves to this feast.

I have decided that this dish, like chili and barbecue, is the epitome of American cooking - shellfish from the Gulf of Mexico, corn and potatoes indigenous to North America, sausages with Polish or French origins, and a spice blend created by a German Nazi refugee.  Apparently the shellfish boil is most common in the low country of Georgia and South Carolina, whose cuisines I absolutely love, but it has spread to New England and the Chesapeake area as well, where people refuse to call it a boil, and instead use the word "feast".  I could get behind this convention, but really don't care what it is, so long as you leave me alone and let me at those tasty shrimp already.  Let's dig in.

Low Country Shrimp Boil

• 1 large onion, sliced, skin on
• half head of garlic, smashed
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 lemons, quartered
• 1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning
• 4 pounds shrimp, shell on, deveined
• 2 pounds andouille or kielbasa sausage, cut into 1-2" sections
• 3 pounds red potatoes, whole
• 6 ears corn, halved

This recipe is really, stupidly, incredibly easy.  All you need to do is cook things in the proper order, realizing that shrimp cook quickly.  First, gather your ingredients, and make sure they're all cut into serving sized pieces:

Bring to a boil about 1 gallon of water in a large pot with salt.  When boiling, add lemon, onion, and garlic.  Now add the Old Bay seasoning - you can use more or less, or split it up and add directly with the shrimp.

Get your boiling liquid ready to go, and follow the sequence for everything to be properly cooked and not overcooked

Add potatoes, and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add sausage, cook for 10 more minutes.  Add corn, and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the shrimp, stir to submerge, and cook for 3 minutes.  If you want, add the extra Old Bay when you pour in the shrimp.  Serve immediately with more Old Bay, hot sauce, and whatever dipping sauces you like.  Not that this needs any.

Add the shrimp with some more Old Bay if you like

Stir, cook until shrimp are pink and curled, and then serve immediately!

There's a restaurant near me that serves this tossed in a delicious garlic butter sauce, or a cajun sauce if you prefer, both of which are an excellent (though potentially blasphemous) addition.  I intend to figure both of those out, and add to this post in the future.  So stay tuned!

Walnut Rosemary Oven-Fried Chicken

If you've been reading along routinely, you know that I'm trying to work my way through a recent purchase of a massive quantity of chicken tenders, obtained basically off the back of a truck in the hopes that I could learn how to make the perfect 'boneless wing'.  Well it turns out that frying chicken for every meal isn't very healthy, so I have been thinking about alternative, healthier methods to fill the gaps between random bouts of "fry everything", which often end both deliciously and with chest pains.

Consider instead this oven-fried chicken, soaked in buttermilk, breaded lightly with an amazing and fragrant assortment of herbs, nuts, and other crunchy bits, and then baked rather than fried but with fantastic results.  I would by no means call this a compromise from a fried chicken finger, but I wouldn't even put it in the same category.  These are so good that I hate even putting any of my traditional chicken finger condiments on them, although a nice honey mustard might complement them fairly well.  So thank you, Cooking Light, for helping me stay alive just a little bit longer.

Oven-frying is an excellent, healthy alternative to deep frying

Walnut and Rosemary Oven-Fried Chicken
Cooking Light, June 2010

• 1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 4 (6-ounce) chicken cutlets
• 1/3 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 3/4 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Cooking spray
• Rosemary leaves (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°.

Combine buttermilk and mustard in a shallow dish, stirring with a whisk.  Add chicken to buttermilk mixture, turning to coat.

Get your breading ingredients together

Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat.  Add panko to pan; cook 3 minutes or until golden, stirring frequently.  Combine panko, nuts, and next 4 ingredients (through pepper) in a shallow dish.  Remove chicken from buttermilk mixture; discard buttermilk mixture.  Dredge chicken in panko mixture.

Toast your bread crumbs briefly in a dry skillet

Toss this mixture together and bring the chicken nearby

Toss tenders to coat, then place on a baking rack set over a sheet pan.

Arrange a wire rack on a large baking sheet; coat rack with cooking spray.  Arrange chicken on rack; coat chicken with cooking spray.  Bake at 425° for 13 minutes or until chicken is done.  Garnish with rosemary leaves, if desired.

Serve plain, with sweet chili sauce, or with a honey mustard sauce

True Maraschino cherries

In part of my adventures in mixology, I discovered that Maraschino cherries are somewhat of a necessity in old fashioned cocktails (including the Old-Fashioned).  But I was horrified to discover that those gross, bright red cherries which we call Maraschino cherries and put on sundaes for children are actually first treated to leach out all of the color, then soaked in dyes and sugar to put back whatever artificial qualities the manufacturers want.  The FDA even got a hand in this definition!  Here is the 'official' FDA modern Maraschino cherry definition:

"The term "Maraschino Cherries" is regarded as the common or usual name of an article consisting of cherries which have been dyed red, impregnated with sugar and packed in a sugar sirup [sic] flavored with oil of bitter almonds or a similar flavor."

Did you know that before chemists got a hold of this once delicious product, that Maraschino cherries were made by soaking them in a delicious liqueur named - gasp - Maraschino?!  Yup, there's a liqueur out there made with Marasca cherries and cherry pits, with a delicious nutty, fruity flavor, which used to be the sole way of making these bad boys.  And I highly recommend you try this out, stop eating once-whitened bright red cherries, and upgrade the quality of your drinks to impress your guests.  Because trust me, these will.

True Maraschino cherries - well worth the effort, mostly in finding Maraschino liqueur

True Maraschino Cherries
from Bill Norris of Fino Austin

• 1 pound sweet cherries (I used Rainier, but you should use Bing)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup Maraschino liqueur, preferably Luxardo

Okay, you probably looked at this, and thought - what the heck is Maraschino?  Well, here it is:

Luxardo, the original Maraschino liqueur

Go looking for it, and you will hopefully find it hiding in an upscale liquor store.  Once you've got it, wash and pit the cherries.  Invest in some form of cherry pitter, such as this guy:

Pit your cherries.  Keep the stems on if you like.

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients besides the cherries and the liqueur.  Bring all to a rolling boil.  When the liquid begins to boil, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer the cherries in the liquid for 5-7 minutes.

Remove from the heat, adding the liqueur (so as not to boil off the alcohol), stir, and let cool slightly.  Once cooled, transfer cherries and liquid to a clean jar and refrigerate, uncovered, until cool to the touch.  Now cap and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Pre-Prohibition Cocktails, Part 1: Martinez, Old Fashioned

One of my new obsessions is classic drinks.  I'm convinced that people forgot what drinking was like back in the good old days, the glory days.  Well, let's take a quick trip back to the good times.  Times like the "Gay Nineties" - the 1890s - when alcohol legends like Jack Daniels, Dewars, and Bacardi were in the process of gaining notoriety, alcohols could be safely transported around the world, and people all over Europe and North America were starting to experiment with classy cocktails without clubbing music and Jaeger bombs trying to horn their way in.  Vodka hadn't been introduced to the Western world much, and tequila was just starting to inch its way north and east.  This left gin, whiskies, brandies, liqueurs, and all kinds of interesting ingredients for bartenders to formulate various cocktails, often drank as either an aperitif, a morning eye-opener, or even for medicinal reasons.  Bartenders even used to place the bottle in front of the patron and let him pour out his own, measuring the results in how many 'fingers' he took and charging accordingly.

Gone are these days for the most part - the days of a well constructed drink, the days of a bartender who took his time and used quality ingredients such as house made bitters and garnishes like Maraschino cherries and cocktail onions, the days when people even knew to ask for these drinks and could tell a well made martini from a thrown together mix of bottom shelf gin, vodka, and a splash of vermouth.  Some would say that we lost a lot of this art with Prohibition in the 1920s, but I would argue that we really lost a lot of this over the last 20-30 years, as recreational drugs and flavored alcohols gained in popularity, and drinking became more of a sport or "pre-gaming" necessity than it was a pasttime.

Fortunately for us, bars that do remember these things are making a resurgence.  You can find pre-prohibition style bars in major cities all over the place - I've found them in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Austin, and New York City, and that's clearly just scratching the surface.  And the home bartender can still find the right ingredients with enough dedicated searching and a helpful liquor store owner.  Let me help you start re-exploring old-timey cocktails, in the hopes that maybe you'll take up drinking and mixology as a pasttime, like I'm trying to do.

Some of the crazy ingredients we're going to learn about

A gift basket someone awesome got me, with everything needed to make Old-Fashioneds, including homemade Maraschino cherries!

Martinez

For example, you may never have heard of this one - the Martinez.  Widely regarded as the precursor to the Martini, the Martinez is made with a very specific style of gin known as Old Tom Gin, sweeter than London Dry Gin such as Bombay, Tanqueray, and Beefeater, but less sweet than Dutch / Holland / Jenever Gin like the original product of Ketel One and a product sold by Bols, although odds are you've never tried either of those.  Anyway, there are a few stories about the name Martinez, but I like the version that goes that the drink was invented in San Francisco by "Professor" Jerry Thomas (who also invented the Blue Blazer, claimed to invent the Tom and Jerry, and helped popularize the hoax that led to the spread of the Tom Collins) for a traveler en route to Martinez, CA.  There are a few recipes for this floating around, mostly differing in their ratios, but I will post the one I made last night, which reminded me of the first one I had, and which I think is perfectly balanced - sweet, yet drying.

The Martinez, a slightly sweeter predecessor to the Martini, but oh so delicious and strangely dry afterwards

First, we'd better start with the ingredient list.  Odds are that you haven't had (or heard of) any of the four ingredients before.  Excited yet?  You should be, because these might change your life, or at least how you think about mixed drinks.  First, the gin.  You need a good Old Tom gin, so why not go for the grandfather of them, all, Hayman's.  Next, the vermouth, which, unlike a Martini, uses Italian-style, or sweet vermouth.  But not just any sweet vermouth - Carpano Antica, made by the company who claims to have invented vermouth.  This vermouth has notes of cocoa, cinnamon, licorice, orange peel, and tons of other complex flavors, and is so good you can drink it on its own.  I would not skimp on this, and would search it out - it comes in a metal can with the bottle inside, and is disgustingly overpriced for a vermouth, although well worth it.  Next, you need a Maraschino liqueur, notably Luxardo.  This is what real maraschino cherries used to be made with, and it is made with Marasca cherries and cherry pits, providing almost an almond-like flavor that's also incredible on its own.  Finally, orange bitters go in this - arguably the easiest of the four ingredients to find, as bitters have made the biggest resurgence of all pre-prohibition components these days.  I used Regan's, which is fairly easy to find.  So now, the actual recipe and process:

• 1.5 oz Old Tom gin, such as Hayman's
• 1.5 oz sweet vermouth, ideally Carpano Antica
• 2 tsp Maraschino liqueur, such as Luxardo
• 2 dashes (1/3 tsp) orange bitters, such as Regan's
• Ice
• Twist of lemon
• Maraschino cherries (my homemade recipe here)

A good close-up of our ingredient set, minus the cherries

Okay, process is important here.  To start, get out a Martini glass, and fill it with whole ice cubes to chill it.  Meanwhile, fill a large shaker with whole ice cubes.  Add the gin, vermouth, Maraschino, and bitters, and stir (do NOT shake) vigorously to chill.  You may note that I gave an actual measure for 2 dashes - that's because it actually has a volume!  There are 6 dashes in a teaspoon by official convention.  Want to know how much you're pouring?  Pour a teaspoon of water into a dish, and then shake out an equivalent amount of bitters into an identical dish.  Did it take 6 of your dashes?  Probably not.  So figure out what a 'dash' actually requires by your hand, and stick to it.  Shaking a bottle over your drink and hoping for magic just isn't going to work here; use the scientific method, come on.  Where did I learn this?  From David Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, widely considered to be the bible of mixology, and written in 1948.

Anyway, we should finish the drink.  Dump the ice out of the Martini glass.  Use a drink strainer to pour the drink into the glass, and twist the lemon peel over.  Garnish with one or two cherries, and enjoy!

Old Fashioned

Moving on, let's consider the Old Fashioned, which is much more well known.  I gather that this was popular on the show Mad Men, but can't confirm.  The Old Fashioned is a bourbon-based drink with some great ingredients, which are also much easier to find.  There's nothing crazy about this one, although it can lay you out if you don't take it seriously.  You'll also need a rocks glass or an Old-Fashioned glass, which is very different from a cocktail or Martini glass.

• 2 oz bourbon
• 2 tsp simple syrup (2:1 sugar:water, heated up to dissolve the sugar and then cooled)
• 2 dashes aromatic bitters, such as Angostura
• Slice of orange
• Ice
• Twist of orange
• Maraschino cherry (again, homemade recipe here.  Don't buy the terrible bright red ones, please)

Put the simple syrup and bitters at the bottom of an empty Old Fashioned glass, and stir with a spoon to combine.  You could alternatively muddle a sugar cube with the bitters, or try to dissolve the cube in warm water, then pour off the water, then muddle, but I prefer the easy method of the syrup.  Now add the bourbon and stir.  Put in the orange slice, and add cracked (not crushed) ice cubes to the glass.  Garnish with a twist of orange and a Maraschino cherry.  I like Esquire's write-up that says not to muddle fruit into the drink, which apparently was done during Prohibition to mask the taste of bad booze with sweet fruit, and which takes away from the purity of this drink.

A few Old-Fashioneds, without too much muddled fruit to ruin the clean taste of this drink

That's it for now, but hopefully you can try these out and get some Maraschino cherries ready while you wait for more drink recipes!

Zuccotto

I haven't forgotten about you, folks - I've been busy cooking!  This time it's an obscure Italian dessert that has been a hit at two pot luck events, called a zuccotto.  This is a large multi-layer domed cake, often made with ice cream, but commonly made with just different cake layers and flavored whipped creams.  I have no idea where I found the original recipe, all I have is an old scribbled down document that I haven't been able to trace back to anything in particular.  I kind of prefer it that way, and have made adjustments since anyway.

The first time I made this I had no idea what to expect, so I brought it in without tasting, set it down at my department event, and walked away for about two minutes.  When I came back, this gigantic cake was completely gone.  So this time I tried a piece before serving, and now I see what the excitement was about.  Not too sweet, incredibly moist, fantastic flavors and very colorful.  Everyone had great things to say.

I'm going to teach you how to make your very own, which I don't recommend for just a small family gathering.  Only make this if you have a lot of people coming over - preferably ones you want to impress.  You're going to make your own whipped cream, and you may even bake a cake.  But the real fun of this one is the assembly, which is unlike anything I've ever seen before.

Zuccotto

• 1 16 ounce pound cake (home made or store bought)
• 1 devils food cake mix (or store bought chocolate pound cake)
• ½ cup strawberry jam
• ¼ cup Amaretto, or Luxardo Maraschino (preferred)
• 1 6-ounce bag miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup slivered almonds, slightly toasted

Equipment needed:

• Bowl that is 9 inches across and 4-6 inches deep.
• Good serrated knife, or an electric knife (recommended)
• Handheld electric mixer, or a stand mixer

If making cakes yourself, prepare per recipe instructions on box.  I recommend you buy the pound cake, and make the devil's food cake.  For devil's food cake mix, pour half of mix into a greased and floured ovenproof 6 inch diameter bowl - I used a Pyrex mixing bowl, and filled about halfway full to allow for rising.  Bake the remainder in muffin cups - note that these will cook MUCH faster than the large bowl version.  If you don’t have an ovenproof bowl, get one.  Because of size differences you need to approximate the times listed on box for the bowl-shaped variant, but use a toothpick for testing and you'll be fine.  A toothpick inserted should pull out clean, so check regularly to avoid overbaking and drying it out.  For the record, the small bowl cake took about 10-15 minutes longer than the package directions said for the most stout of cake shapes it described.  Unfortunately, it seems the Duncan Hines folks didn't expect people to be baking their products into bizarre geometries, so I had to sort this out on my own.

Cool the cake(s) for 20 minutes, then turn out on baking racks to continue cooling.  Slice the pound cake into ¼ inch thick pieces, trying to be as consistent as possible.  Now line a 3 quart mixing bowl with plastic wrap.  Layer the lined bowl with slices of pound cake, overlapping slightly to create a pound cake bowl inside the mixing bowl.

Only an electric knife would let you get this many evenly sliced pieces.  I love mine.

Mix strawberry jam and almond or cherry liqueur (not the extract).  A note - I used Luxardo, an excellent liqueur used to make the real Maraschino cherries (recipe to follow soon).  This has a very sweet taste with notes of both almonds and cherries, and I thought it was an excellent substitution for Amaretto.  Whatever you use, mix in a 1:2 ratio with your jam of choice, and brush over inside of pound cake bowl.

Brush the jam and liqueur in the layered pound cake.  Careful not to get the jam on the outside of the cake, or it will ruin the exterior appearance

In another mixing bowl beat whipping cream, sugar and almond extract until stiff peaks form. Fold in chocolate chips and almonds. Spread evenly over bottom and sides of pound cake bowl, using a spatula or back of large spoon to smooth.

Fold the mini chocolate chips and almond slices into the whipped cream, gently

Spread a good layer of the almond infused whipped cream inside of the lacquered pound cake

Place bowl baked chocolate cake gently in the center of whipped cream lined bowl. If using store bought chocolate pound cake just cut to fit center. Fill in gaps by cutting scraps from remaining cake. Be gentle when adding the cake so as not to redistribute the whipped cream layer.

The devil's food bowl cake, before I inverted, trimmed the bottom, and nestled into the whipped cream.

Like a glove!

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate cake overnight.  Put some pressure on with the tension of the plastic wrap, to help apply a downward force that will compress the cake and press the pound cake out to the shape of the bowl.

To serve, place serving plate on top of bowl. Turn bowl over and remove plastic wrap. Garnish by placing strawberries around cake and place one on top, cut in a fan shape. To make fan shape strawberry, just make 4-5 slices ¾ of the way through from top to base. With both hands holding strawberry gently spread so it creates a fan shape.

The final cake, turned out of the bowl.

Here's what you have waiting for you - two cakes in one, with a few delicious extra layers of fruity, nutty awesomeness in between

You may have noticed a gargantuan quantity of pound cake at the beginning of this recipe.  If you find yourself with too much cake, hopefully you have made the extra cupcake-sized devil's food cakes, and have some leftover whipped cream.  I was able to make a medium-sized and small-sized zuccotto to send off with friends in addition to this huge version, which was a great way to use up everything I made.