Recipe Wednesday: Spicy Cashew Salad & Citrus Vinaigrette

Here's a little lighter recipe than the last couple of weeks taken from a Valentine Dinner class led by Chef Joshua Simpson, Executive Chef at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Spicy Cashew Salad & Citrus Vinaigrette

 Spicy Cashew Salad




Need a strainer to keep seeds
out of your vinaigrette?
Order online or come by the store.



¼ cup cashews

Cayenne pepper

Black pepper

Salt

Granulated sugar

Butter



Place cashews in medium skillet on medium high. Toss until they are golden brown. Remove them from the skillet. (If you don’t they will burn very quickly)

Put butter and sugar in the pan and melt. Let this heat on medium heat until it turns a light amber color. Add the salt, pepper, and the cayenne pepper and combine.

Toss the sugar mixture with the cashews and spread out even on a sill pad.



Citrus Vinaigrette

Red grape fruit

Olive oil

Sugar

Salt & Pepper



Red wine vinegar

In a mixing bowl combine the olive oil and the vinegar with the salt and pepper.

Segment the grape fruit and squeeze the juice from the remaining membranes.

Whisk vigorously until the vinaigrette becomes thick.

Local organic heirloom farms

Looking back at past issues of Invitation Tupelo Magazine and found Horton Nash and Will Reed in the March edition. Check out this article about their farms and how you can buy from them.

http://invitationtupelo.com/IT_March2011_GreenRoots.pdf

Chef Mitch McCamey taught a class earlier this year on Farm to Table (see a clip of the class here) and used produce from both of these farms. Don't forget the Tupelo's Farmers' Market opened last week. Visit the Farmers' Market for fresh produce throughout the summer on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings from 6 a.m. until the vendors sell out. For more information, check out their website.

Just writing about all the fresh produce makes me hungry!

Cooking Tip: Curly vs Flat Parsley

Have you ever looked at the neatly arranged parsley garnishing your seasfood dish and wondered, do we eat that?

The answer is yes but what you're really eating is curly leaf parsley. Curly leaf parsley is most often used as a garnish to add color to plates of monochromatic food or to dress up seafood displays.

Italian, or flat leaf, parsley has flat leaves as its name suggests, and many cooks prefer it for its more pronounced flavor, as it contains more essential oils than the curly leaf variety.

While parsley is generally used for its leaves, parsley stems actually contain more flavor. Finely dice them and add to stocks, sauces, sautés and other preparations for added taste and vitamins

Recipe Wednesday: Roasted Pork on a Sweet Potato Bun with Apple Slaw and Molasses Mayo

We promised this recipe to a class a couple of weeks ago. It's taken from our Girls Night: Spring Cocktail class with David Leathers.

Roasted Pork on a Sweet Potato Bun
with Apple Slaw and Molasses Mayo


Sweet Potato Bun



Need a new saute pan?
Order now or stop in the store.

 1 Tbsp honey2 Tbsp dry active yeast
1 3/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp sea salt
3/4 cup sweet potatoes
1 tsp cinnamon
5 cups bread flour (King Arthur)

In a large bowl, dissolve the honey in warm water. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.

Stir the olive oil, salt and sweet potatoes into the yeast mixture and mix in the flour until dough comes together.

Transfer the dough to a floured countertop and knead until it becomes smooth, about 4-5 minutes. If any of the dough sticks to your hands, just rub them together with a little extra flour. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky. Place dough back into the bowl, cover loosely with a towel, and put in a warm place until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Transfer the dough to a floured countertop and cut the dough into ping pong ball size pieces and mold each into a ball.

Place the dough balls on a corn meal dusted pan. Cover them with a towel and allow them to double in size. Brush the buns with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden browned.


Pork Tenderloin Dry Rub

2 Tbsp brown sugar
Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp kosher or sea salt
1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp cumin

Mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container.

Pork Tenderloin

2 ea pork tenderloins (1-1 1/4 lbs.)
1 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Heat olive oil in a oven safe saute pan over high heat. Season the pork with the dry rub. Sear well on all sides until golden brown. Place pan in the oven and continue cooking for 20 minutes. Remove and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing on bias.

Apple Slaw

3ea apples, cored and cut into matchstick pieces3 cups cabbage, shredded
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
To taste salt and pepper

In a bowl, combine the vinegar, Dijon, and sugar. Slowly add the oil, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Combine the cabbage and apples in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture and toss gently to mix. Season the slaw with the salt and pepper. Chill for 2 hours in the refrigerator before serving.

Molasses Mayo

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp Dijon
2 Tbsp molasses
To Taste black pepper

Whisk together the mayonnaise, Dijon, molasses and black pepper until combined.

Cooking Tip: Cooking with Mussels

Check out this great tip from Chef Joshua Simpson before putting mussels on your menu.

Cooking Tip: Cooking with Onions (Plus a special recipe)

When you are prepping onions are you crying like you're watching a Hallmark commercial? Tony Tantillo (The Fresh Grocer) swears by his method of storing onions in the refrigerator to keep you from crying over your onions. It's the unstable sulfur compounds that causes this reaction and colder onions seem to help with this problem. Most people will tell you not to store them in the refrigerator because of the moisture, but if you are like me (and, I love to cook with onions) then you won't encounter this problem.

As a special bonus with today's tip, here's a great salad so you can put this new onion chopping method to work!

Amy’s Summer Salad

2-4 tomatoes, sliced and then quartered

1 small onion sliced thin

1 package of mozzarella

1 avocado

1 jalapeno

Arrange sliced tomatoes, onion slices mozzarella and avocado on a medium sized platter.

Seed and dice your jalapeno and sprinkle evenly over top. Drizzle with lime vinaigrette below.

For Lime Vinaigrette:

3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

In a jar with a lid, shake together remaining ingredients. Pour desired amount of vinaigrette over salad just before serving. There will be leftover dressing.

Recipe Wednesday: Death by Chocolate

Layers of chocolate cake and chocolate mousse covered with warm chocolate ganache and vanilla Chantilly cream. Treat your mom to this amazing dessert this Mother's Day!

Death by Chocolate

Dark Chocolate Cake

Yield 3 - 9 inch round pans
Ingredients
2 cups boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2-1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Mousse Filling (recipe below)
Chocolate Ganache (recipe below)
Vanilla Chantilly Cream (recipe below)
Raspberries (recipe below)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease 3 - 9 inch round cake pans, line bottom of pan with parchment and grease.
3. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool.
4. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
6. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla extract.
7. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, use clean straw test. Cool for 10 minutes, turn out on cooling racks and cool completely.
9. Allow to cool on racks.

Chocolate Mousse Filling
Ingredients
3 cups heavy cream
12 oz semisweet chocolate, cut in pieces
Preparation
1. In saucepan, heat 1 cup cream. Add chocolate; whisk to melt. Heat over low heat, about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.
2. Whip remaining 2 cups of heavy cream until stiff. Gently fold in chocolate mixture.
3. Pour into bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and vent. Chill.

Chocolate Ganache
Yield: Enough to cover a three layer, 9” cake.
Ingredients
16 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp cognac or brandy (optional)
Preparation
1. Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside.
2. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil.
3. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.
4. If desired, add the liqueur.

Vanilla Chantilly Cream
Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation
1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract together on high speed until soft peaks form in the mixture. Chill.

Presentation – large layer cake
1. Chill cake layers and mousse filling in the refrigerator.
2. Brush any loose crumbs from the cake layers.
3. Place one cake on a wire rack, over a shallow pan. Cover with a layer of mousse filling. Place the second cake layer on top, cover with a layer of mousse filling then top with the third cake layer.
4. Crumb coat the cake: Using a cake spatula, cover the sides and top of the cake with about 4 tablespoons ganache. This is called a crumb coat and seals in any cake crumbs so that your cake will have a smooth finish. Refrigerate cake for 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
5. To cover cake, pour the remaining ganache into the center of the cake. Working quickly, spread with a spatula, using big strokes to push the ganache over the sides of the cake, to create an even coating of ganache. If there are any bare spots on sides of cake, cover with leftover ganache. Strain leftover ganache to remove any crumbs. At this point the leftover ganache can be refrigerated until cold so you can make truffles. Or it can be whipped with an electric hand mixer or whisk and then piped to decorate the cake.
6. Serve garnished with Vanilla Chantilly Cream.

Variation: fill cake with Chocolate Mousse and refrigerate. Keep Chocolate ganache warm and pour over cake slices when served.