Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cake in a Pie

Ingredients
1 pie crust (9")
1 tbsp coarse sugar
0.75 tsp powdered cinnamon
0.5 cup butter
0.5 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp corn syrup
1.5 tsp vanilla
0.5 cup granulated sugar
0.25 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
0.25 tsp cream of tartar
1 egg
0.5 cup milk
1.25 cups flour

Prepare the Crust:
In a small bowl, add the 1 tbsp coarse sugar to 0.5 tsp cinnamon powder and mix. Gently brush the pastry crust with about 1 tbsp of butter, and sprinkle about 1 tbsp of the mix on. Then place in the fridge to chill.

Prepare the Cinnamon Syrup:
Combine the brown sugar, 0.25 cup butter, water, corn syrup and 0.25 tsp cinnamon in a saucepan. Allow the mixture to boil on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Be sure to stir. Remove the mixture from heat and add 0.5 tsp vanilla. Stir, and then place in fridge or freezer to chill.

Prepare the Cake Filling:
Use a mixer to mix the 0.25 cup butter for 20 seconds until gently whipped. Add in the 0.5 cup sugar, the 0.25 cup powdered sugar, salt, baking powder and cream of tartar. Mix. Add in the egg and 1 tsp vanilla and mix. Add in the milk, then flour and mix till smooth.

Use a spatula to pour the cake filling into the pie crust. You don't want to overfill the shell as the cake filling will rise in the oven. Remove the syrup from the fridge (make sure it's not still warm), and pour over the cake filling evenly. Sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon sugar mix on top.

Use foil to cover the edges of the pastry crust and place in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove, then take the foil off the pie crust and place back in the oven for another 15-20 mins. Use a toothpick to ensure the cake is cooked through to the center.

Remove and cool.

Wilde Oscar says: This thing goes great with a bit of custard if you have it.

Chicken Fusilli with Basil Parmesan Sauce

Ingredients

1.5 breasts chicken scalloppini
0.5 tsp minced garlic
2 small, fresh zucchini sliced and quartered
0.25 cup mascarpone cheese
0.25 cup ricotta
1.25 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
0.5 tsp lemon zest
4 leaves fresh basil, chopped
salt + coarse ground pepper to taste
450 grams fusilli
2 tbsp coarse salt

Heat a pot of water and cook the fusilli. Al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain, saving 0.25 cups of the pasta water.

In a blender, blend the zucchini, mascarpone, ricotta, parm, lemon zest, and basil leaves until you get a consistent, smooth sauce. Set aside.

Marinate the chicken using the minced garlic and liberal amounts of salt and pepper. Line a skillet with a touch of olive oil, and heat low-medium. Add the chicken breasts and cook until golden brown. Remove from heat and slice into 3cm pieces.

Toss the pasta with the sauce (you may not need to use all the sauce) and top with the sliced chicken. Add coarse salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with extra grated Parmesan.

An Explanation

Wilde Oscar Says: One simply can't be in the library and the kitchen at the same time.

This week's post to be delayed. Maff Khuro.

Portobello Parmesan Risotto

*Apologies, the picture is terrible. But the flavour is great.

Ingredients

2 large portobello mushrooms
350 g brown cremini mushrooms
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots
0.5 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
diced chives
0.5 cup white wine
1.5 cups arborio risotto
4 tablespoons butter
ground pepper

Chop the portobello and cremini mushrooms. Toss them into a saucepan with a tablespoon or so of oil, and sautee until soft. Drain off excess liquid.

Finely chop the shallots and toss them into a skillet lined with 1 tbsp of oil. After the shallots have heated, add the risotto and mix so the rice is well coated with oil. Do this for about two minutes, and then pour in the white wine. When the wine has been absorbed, add a half cup of the broth to the mix, until it too has been absorbed. Keep adding the broth in half cup servings until the rice is cooked. This should take about 20 minutes and is incredibly boring. Stir throughout.

Wilde Oscar says: Much of how your dish turns out will depend on the type of broth you use. If your broth has too much salt or seasoning, this'll over power the flavour of the mushrooms and parmesan. To compensate, try watering it down.

When the risotto is cooked, stir in the mushrooms, butter, chives and healthy amounts of parmesan. Stir well. Salt and pepper to taste.

Wilde Oscar says: The second key to this dish is good quality cheese. Make sure you're using fresh parmesan that you've grated by hand. Also, try for fresh cracked pepper that you're grinding by hand rather than the finer pepper that's good for adding spice when cooked right in.

The third key is low heat and patience. Good food won't be rushed.

Simple Lemon Bars

*These bars are remarkably simple but have always been well received. One bowl, minimal mess.            

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 cup flour
0.5 cup butter
0.25 cup powdered sugar

For the lemon filling:
2 eggs
1 tbsp lemon zest
3 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsp flour
0.5 tsp baking powder
1-1.5 cups of icing sugar
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 325F, and grease an 8x8 baking pan.

Cream together the butter, powdered sugar, and flour to make the crust. Spread into the greased baking pan and toss into the oven for about 15 mins until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, mix the eggs, lemon zest, juice, flour, baking powder and salt to create the lemon filling. Add 1 cup of sugar, and continue up to 2 cups. Taste to determine appropriate sweetness. Pour into the baking pan over the lightly browned crust, and place back into the oven for about 20 mins until the filling is just cooked.

Remove the pan and allow to cool before cutting into 2x2 squares. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Potatoe-Cheese Pierogies [Ukraine]

Although these require a some work, they're fantastic and amazing and delicious and can be stored. And varied. And eaten again and again and again. So good. Also, the great thing is you can vary fillings: cheese and spinach, beef and mushrooms, etc

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
2 cups of flour
2 egg yolks
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp veggie oil
1 cup cold water

For the Filling:
3 medium size potatoes
1 cup cheddar cheese
0.25 cup cream cheese
milk/yogurt/sour cream to taste
salt to taste


Skin and boil the potatoes. When cooked, mash together. Add cream cheese, salt, and milk and mash some more. Add in the cheddar cheese and mix well. Set aside. Try not to devour... you just added cream cheese to potatoes...

Pour the flour into a pile on a wooden board, and sprinkle salt on top. Dig a small well in the center of the flour, and add the two egg yolks and the oil. Drag your fingers in a circular motion starting at the inside of the pile, mixing the flour with the eggs and working your way out. Add cold water as necessary to mix, until you get a dough that holds and is a bit sticky. You may not need to use all the water. Form a ball, then knead the dough ~30 times until soft and well mixed. Wrap in ceran wrap and throw in the fridge for a few hours. Overnight would be ideal.

When ready, remove the dough from the fridge, and divide into three parts. Shape the chunks into logs of 1.5 cm in thickness. Slice into 1.5 cm pieces, and sprinkle with flour. Use a rolling pin to make small discs of about 7cm in diameter.

Place a tbsp of filling into the center, fold in half, and use fingers to crimp edges.

Add finished pierogies to a pot of lightly simmering, salted water. Cook for about five minutes. Don't over crowd the pan. Remove, and drain.

Wilde Oscar says: When you add the pierogies to the pan they should sink. Once they're cooked, they generally start to float and rise to the top of the water. Let them cook for about 1-2 mins after they've reached their buoyant stage.

Add a bit of cooking oil to a skillet, and throw on the boiled pierogies to brown each side. The pierogies should be edible without being added to the skillet- you aren't trying to cook them in a frying pan, just brown them.

Sprinkle chives and sour cream on the side, and enjoy.

Wilde Oscar says: For a healthier alternative, you can add the boiled pierogies to a panini machine or grill coated with cooking spray to brown. Serve with shaved turkey breast. Just as delicious.

Also, you can put just about anything inside pierogies- chopped baby spinach cooked with cottage cheese and mixed with mushrooms, ground beef, sauteed onions,  and a touch of minced garlic is also a fantastic filling.

Better Than Blue Chip Cocaine Cookies

  *Salima, this one's for you. Better than Blue Chip and until now, strictly classified. The pictures here don't really do justice.

Ingredients

0.5 cup butter/margarine
0.5 cup packed brown sugar
0.25 cup white sugar
1 egg
0.5 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.25 tsp salt
1.5 cups oatmeal
0.75 cup hazlenuts (or walnuts)
0.5-0.75 cup pure dairy milk chocolate


Add the butter, brown sugar and white sugar into a bowl, and cream together. Mix in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and oatmeal.

Break the chocolate into little pieces using a knife, or by smashing it against a counter. Add the pieces of chocolate and hazlenuts to the mix. Stir in.

Wilde Oscar says: the key to excellent cocaine cookies the quality of the chocolate. The better quality milk chocolate you can find, the better these'll turn out. Forget about baking chocolate. don't even think about chocolate chips. Cadbury's milk chocolate bars work well, but if you can get your hands on good french or german chocolate, that'd probably be best.


Scoop out the dough onto a greased cookie pan, and top with each cookie with another piece of chocolate. Slide into oven (preheated to 160 C).

Bake for ~12 minutes.


Wilde Oscar says: Salima, if you still find these too thin or not of the right texture, you might give baking powder a shot instead of baking soda. They sometimes rise up a bit thicker like that.


A story: Once upon a time there was a girl who came across a magical recipe for cocaine cookies. She was cheap and used chocolate chips instead of real chocolate. The next day on the way to her grandmother's house, she fell into an open pot hole. True story. The moral is pretty clear: to avoid tragedy, use proper chocolate.

Banana Cinnamon Springrolls

*Though I've not tried it, I bet this would work well with apples or mangos instead of bananas as filling.

Ingredients

4 bananas
3 tbsp sugar
0.3 tsp cinnamon
spring roll papers/rice paper
icing sugar to garnish
Eagle Brand condensed milk


Cut the bananas in half and then quarters length wise. Chop the banana along the center so you have small quarter circles. In a bowl, mix the chopped bananas with the cinnamon and sugar to create the filling. Feel free to throw finely chopped walnuts into the mix, if that's your thing.

Separate each spring roll paper. Dip edges in a shallow bowl of water, or place the sheet on a flat surface and use hands to lightly wash water over the sides to moisten.

Wilde Oscar says: This is a delicate operation- too much water and the sheet will become sticky and fall apart. Too little and it'll be brittle and hard to fold.

Once you've prepared the sheet, scoop out a about a table spoon of filling onto the center of the sheet. Grab the right corner of the square, and fold over. Grab the left and do the same. Use your hands to shape the filling in the center into a rectangular pocket within the paper.

Fold up the bottom edge, and start rolling the little packet upwards the way you would a j- the way you would a spring roll. Make sure to tuck in all little

bits of dough along the way, and use water to dampen down out lying little bits so you have a smooth packet at the end.

Once you've used up all the filling and rolled the spring rolls, drop the spring rolls into a frying pan on medium-high heat, 2 or 3 at a time. Make sure you're constantly moving the rolls around or you'll find them burning unevenly. Remove when golden brown, and remove excess oil by placing on a paper towel lined plate. Pat dry if necessary and line up on a plate.

Wilde Oscar says: Having an imported Chinese labourer do the frying give it an extra authentic feel.

Now the fun part- use a tea strainer to sift the powdered sugar over the spring rolls. The more, the better.

Wilde Oscar says: try drizzling the condensed milk over the springrolls and adding

some finely chopped peanuts on top. If you can't do the latter, make sure you try these with the condensed milk, even if it's just on the side. Seriously. Condensed milk. It's like the pot of gold at the end of a delicious rainbow.

Cottage Cheese Chicken Scalloppini

*This is a ridiculously easy and reasonably healthy dinner. It's a light clean meal that's good for the post-holiday season.

Ingredients:
2 pieces chicken scalloppini
8 stalks asparagus
2 small red potatoes
5 cremini mushrooms
3 handfuls chopped spinach
3 tbsps cottage cheese
0.5 plum tomato
0.5 tsp minced garlic
butter
salt + pepper to taste
cooking spray

[prepares 2 servings]

Marinate the chicken scaloppini in salt and pepper. Use both a finely ground pepper and a course ground pepper. Spray skillet with cooking spray and cook each side on low-medium heat until lightly brown and cooked through (~3 mins/side). Remove from skillet and set aside.

Blanche the asparagus (in boiling water for about 50 seconds, then straight to cold water to stop the cooking). Wash the red potatoes and either stick them in the boiling water to lightly cook, or throw in the microwave for ~1min. Remove, and slice.

Place the asparagus, potatoes and chicken back into the skillet on medium heat. This should lightly char the asparagus and finish cooking the potatoes while heating the chicken. Add a bit of butter and salt to the potatoes if desired.

In a separate skillet, lightly sauté the mushrooms, then add two or three handfuls of chopped spinach, 2-3 heaping tbsps of cottage cheese, and a half tsp of minced garlic. Allow the cottage cheese to gently melt and mix with the spinach and mushrooms. Stir now and again to keep the cheese from sticking and burning. Add the tomatoes to the top, and allow the mix to simmer. Add pepper if desired.

Prepare a plate with the asparagus, potatoes and chicken, and spoon out the spinach cottage cheese sauce on top of the chicken. You can also add a bit of left over cottage cheese to the potatoes.

Mint Chocolate Bars

Ingredients:

0.5 cup butter

0.5 cup white sugar

0.25 cup plus 2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1.5 tsp mint extract

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

0.25 cup cocoa

0.5 tsp baking soda

2 bars Cadbury mint chocolate

dusting of powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325F, and pre grease 8x8" baking pan.

Cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar using a hand mixer. When properly integrated, add in the vanilla, egg, and mint extract. Combine.

In a separate bowl whisk together the cocoa, flour, baking soda.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix. Pour into the baking pan.

Cut the chocolate into 2cm x 2cm pieces, and press into the batter at the center of each piece. Crush remaining chocolate into slivers and sprinkle on top.


Bake for about 25-30 mins (careful not to overcook), and remove. Allow to cool, then cut into 9 squares. Once completely cool, dust with icing sugar.

Mango Chili Chicken Skewers

Ingredients:
3 not-quite-ripe mangos
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 limes
3 tbsps olive oil
0.25 cups lime fresh squeezed lime juice
lime zest from 1 lime
1 tsp chili powder
0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
0.5 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar

Peel the mangoes and cut them into cubes. Do the same with the chicken. No need to peel first.

Wilde Oscar says: Keep in mind that when cooked the mangoes will become a bit soft and likely slide off your skewers if you cut them too small, or if they're too ripe. Go with the pale firm ones, not like the ones in the pictures. A bit of crunch goes a long way.

In a bowl, mix the olive oil, lime juice, zest, chili powder, cayenne, salt and sugar. Add the chicken and mangoes and mix well. Allow to marinate in the fridge for several hours, possibly overnight. If you find the chicken lacking a kick, it's likely because you havent allowed the pieces to marinate long enough.

When ready, grab some skewers and throw the pieces on, alternating.

Heat up your barbeque to medium heat and place the skewers on. You should only have to flip once, cooking for about 6 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Works better if you can close the lid on the BBQ.

Wilde Oscar says: if you have some pitas lying around, throw them onto the grill and serve with tzatziki sauce. hmm- latin america meets greece, meets iran. globalization. yum.

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients


For the Cake:


0.5 cup shortening
1-2 tbsp butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 eggs
2.5 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 30 ml bottle red food coloring
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar


For the Frosting:

250 g pack cream cheese

250 g Mascarpone cheese

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

1.5 cups heavy whipping cream

Start with the ingredients for the cake. Grease and flour two 9 inch pans and set aside.


Using a hand mixer or processor, cream together the shortening, butter and sugar. Add in eggs one at a time, and mix well.


Sift the flour two to three times. Add into the cake mix, alternating with the buttermilk. Mix continuously until fully integrated. Add in the vanilla extract.


In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa and food colouring. Add the full 30 ml bottle, then add 30mls water. Whisk until smooth.


Mix colouring/cocoa mix into red velvet cake batter until fully integrated.


In a separate bowl, mix the vinegar and baking soda. At this point, it'll fizzle and react. Once the baking soda has dissolved, fold into the cake batter. Separate the cake batter into the two lined cake pans, and slide into an oven preheated to 350F degrees.


Bake for ~25 mins. Insert a toothpick into center. If it comes out clean, cakes are ready. Remove from pans and allow to cool.


For the Frosting:


Using a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and mascarpone until smooth. Add in the vanilla and icing sugar slowly until smooth. Use a whisk to mix the cream in. If necessary add more sugar until the right thickness is achieved for frosting. Place in fridge for at least an hour until fully cooled.


Layering:


Wilde Oscar says: If the two cakes are not perfectly flat, you may want to use a knife to even the tops and smooth out any imperfections, otherwise the layered cake may end up looking like the leaning tower of pisa.



Place the first cake on serving platter, and add a thick layer of frosting on top (~3/4 cm thick). Place the second cake on top. Liberally add icing along edges and sides. Garnish with shredded chocolate.