Persnickety
Collected recipes from years of travel and food loving.
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Monday, May 24, 2021
Moving Blog to New Platform!
**Dear Fellow Cooks and Foodies - I am moving my blog to a new platform and eventually, all my recipe posts will be hosted on the new platform and this one will be shut down.
It will take some time to transfer all of my posts, so you will be able to find my recipes on this blog for the next few months, but if you are looking for a recipe and don't find it here, it may have been moved.
My new blog address is persnicketypanhandler.com All my new recipe posts will be there so be sure to check for those as well.
I appreciate your continued support and hope you enjoy my beloved recipes - old and new! I am always discovering and remembering recipes I love to share with you. Life is a never-ending food exploration! So much to cook - so little time! Many thanks and keep cooking! - Michele
Friday, April 30, 2021
Mousse Mound-tain with Coconut Cookies
You must remember the first time you tasted chocolate mousse, your eyes widening as the exquisite richness dawned on your senses. The velvet, creamy texture, and the intensity of the rich chocolate certainly caught my attention. And was it mouse or moose and if it was moose, did it have antlers? I am just one of many who has mispelled it on a menu! For most of us, the taste was love at first bite. (There are actually those that don't care for chocolate, imagine!) To those "unfortunate of pallet", we will do what we can to win you over - this may be one of those desserts that will change your mind about chocolate!
Leave it to the French to create this concoction of cream, eggs, sugar and chocolate (sometimes butter) that makes any dessert worth breaking a diet for, worth saving a bit of room for, worth the expense of the ingredients to make it.
Inspired by the numberless appetizers, that consist of dips and spreads and something to be dipped into them, it didn't seem much of a jump to a dessert of the same fashion. The following was the result.
And if you still can't convince those chocolate-haters among us, you could branch off into other mousse choices like caramel mousse, lemon mousse, white cholate mousse, pumpkin mousse with cookies that will complement your flavors (a shortbread cookie is universally appropriate). Then everyone can enjoy dessert. Now for those that don't care for desserts, it might have to be back to the savory appetizer dips and dippers for them!
Thick Chocolate Mousse
1/2 cup butter softened
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
7 ounces good-quality 70% good-quality chocolate or 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate and 1 oz. unsweetened
2/3 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
-Melt chocolate in small saucepan. Stir in butter until melted. Let cool 10 minutes.
-Beat chocolate mixture and egg yolks in small bowl on high speed for 5 minutes. Refrigerate, covered for 5-6 minutes.
-In separate mixing bowl, beat 3 egg whites until soft peaks form. Beat in 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time until whites are stiff and glossy.
-Fold egg white mixture carefully into chocolate mixture. Allow mixture to set for 10 minutes in refrigerator.
-Whip cream until soft peaks form and add vanilla. (you can use the same bowl as used for the egg whites - no need to rinse it out for the cream.) Fold cream gently into chocolate mixture until mostly incorporated - a few streaks of cream is fine. (For the mound-tain purposely leave streaks of white to create interest.)
Coconut Shortbread Cookies
3/4 cup butter softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
-Beat butter at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Stir in vanilla.
-Gradually add flour, baking powder and salt to butter mixture, mixing well. Sit in coconut and nuts, if using. If mixture is sticky, chill for about 30 minutes.
-Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Press each cookie slightly with the bottom of a glass, dipped in flour to flatten dough a bit.
-Bake cookies in 350 degree oven until they just begin to turn golden around the edges, 10 - 12 minutes. Remove to cooling rack and let cool.
To Assemble Mound-tain:
-Neatly scoop and pile chocolate mousse onto center of a round serving platter. (Mousse will make a more attractive mound if immediately placed on the platter before chilling.) Cover mound with plastic wrap and chill until ready to serve.
-Place cookies around the edge of the mound and one on top so guests understand the cookies are to be dipped into the mousse. Sprinkle with toasted coconut, a bit of powdered sugar and decorate with fresh flowers for a springy touch of color.
-Serves 6-8
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Southwest Eggrolls
Sunday, April 18, 2021
White Bean Chili
A lighter alternative to kidney bean and beef chili:
Friday, April 9, 2021
Risolles a la Dauphine
Rissoles a la Dauphine
(Hand-held meat pies from the region of France known as Dauphine)
1 recipe puff pastry or frozen puff pastry sheets (generally found in
the freezer section with dessert pastries)
Beef Filling:
12 ounces ground beef
2 large shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
1 tablespoon dried Herbs de Provence
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley (1 tab. dried)
8 ounces grated gruyere or parmesan cheese
vegetable oil for frying
-In a skillet, heat olive oil and add shallot and fry about 5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and continue cooking for another minute. Add the beef and brown, breaking the meat apart as it is cooking. Add the Provencal herbs, lemon zest, salt and pepper and taste for seasoning. Cool mixture then mix in 1 egg and minced parsley to bind it together. Set filling aside or chill until ready to use.
For pastry:
-Remove pastry sheets from the wrappers and set them on the counter for about 5 minutes. Unfold each pastry sheet and open to the shape of a tent and allow them to continue to thaw another 5 - 10 minutes.
-Lightly flour your work surface and roll one sheet at a time out into a rectangle, approximately 12 x 14 inches. Using a 4- 5 inch doughnut cutter or ring, cut out as many circles as you can. This recipe should make about 18 Risolles. Repeat with other puff pastry sheet as needed.
-Brush edges of each circle with egg wash made of one beaten egg mixed with 2 tab. milk or water. Place 1/4 to 1/3 cup of filling in the center of each pastry round. Sprinkle each with gruyere cheese.
-Fold circle in half, enclosing filling and pinch edges together tightly with your fingers. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silpad, at least 1 inch apart, then crimp edges of Risolles together firmly with the tines of a fork.
-Bake in preheated 375 degree oven until puffy and golden, 25 - 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with the Persillade dip (below).
Persillade Dip:
4 tablespoon olive oil
1 ounce fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 ounce fresh tarragon leaves finely chopped (or dried)
1/2 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 ounce fresh dill, finely chopped (or chives)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
-Mix above ingredients and allow to sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Store in the fridge. Serve as dip either cold or at room temperature.
- Roll puff pastry out to large 1/4 inch thick rectangle.
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Rainbow Jello Snacks