Mini Cherry Cobbler

No. The cobbler is small, not the cherries.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. You can buy the cherry pie filling at Kroger. Perhaps other places.

Now, you need a 5x7x1 3/4 inch pyrex 3 cup dish:

• Grease the dish with butter or spray with canola oil

Pour the cherries in the dish. Rearrange to get it level:

• 2 - 9 oz jars of cherry pie filling as shown above

Mix as a topping using the following ingredients in a round-bottomed bowl. Mash it with a fork:

• 2 tablespoons room-temperature butter
• 3 Tbsp dark brown sugar (packed)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Do not melt the butter. You will end up with a somewhat grainy mixture but try to avoid large chunks of butter.

Spread the topping evenly over the topping in the dish.

Put it in the center of a completely preheated 350 degree F oven. I used a cookie sheet on the bottom rack so any overflow doesn't get on the oven.

Cook for 22 minutes or until you can see the topping is crispy and the filling begins to bubble up around the edges. (I have a convection oven and your time may vary. I doubt by much.)

Remove from oven and let cool on a metal rack. Probably about 15 minutes will leave it hot enough to melt vanilla ice cream but cool enough to avoid burning your mouth.

Or, you can let it cool completely and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for a while. If frozen, let it sit out and thaw. Warm with a few minutes in a 300 degree F oven (or, a microwave, which is a poor substitute, but leaves it edible)

Peach Cobbler

Peach cobbler is one of my favorite things.

When I recently starting talking to people about cobbler, I found a funny thing. There seem to be three schools of thought about what makes a good cobbler. 

Some friends from the mid-west described cobbler as a dish full of fruit with a sweet "gravy" and a topping of flour, brown sugar and butter covering the top with tasty crumbs.

A friend from Texas described his cobbler as a little pie crust on the very bottom, fruit and "gravy" in the middle and a lattice of pie crust on top.

Now I'm the only one calling it gravy, that sweet, fruity, thickened sauce surrounding the fruit in the cobbler. But in my family, a cobbler consists of a well mixed assortment of fruit with gravy and a cake-like crust irregularly scattered through the dish.

(I'm not going to mention the Internet recipe I got that consists of fruit and gravy in a dish with biscuits arranged on top.)

This recipe is what my Grandma used to make. It's the third type. And this recipe is really, really good with peaches though you can substitute berries or cherries or apples as long as you substitute the right spices and alcohol.

Batter for the Crust

Make the batter ahead of time. It has to rise. I mix it up in a large pitcher or 4 Qt measuring cup. Set it out on the counter for 3-4 hours until it doubles in volume. Stir it up and it will get smaller. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight. (Now, this isn't rocket science. Option 1: Mix it up and put it directly in the refrigerator overnight. Option 2: Let it rise once. Stir it up and let it double a 2nd time before you use it.

Stir together these dry ingredients.

• 1 1/2  cups flour (any kind except self-rising)
• 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 pkg yeast (about 1 Tbsp) - use more if you are in a hurry
• 1/3 c powdered milk (note that you can leave this off if you substitute half of the water with milk)

Add the liquid ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c warm water
• 2 Tbsp salad oil (canola or any similar liquid oil like corn oil, peanut oil, olive oil, though each may add a bit of different taste)
• 1 egg beaten

Mix together by hand. I stir it up with a wooden spoon. No need to get all the lumps out. In fact, its better not to. The crust will be somewhat lighter if you stir less.

Prepare the Peaches

This takes ...

• 8 cups = 8 15 oz cans of peaches in heavy syrup = a single 1 gallon can.

Follow these steps to get the peaches ready. Note that you can just drain and use them, but its not as tasty. The purpose here is to concentrate that wonderful peachy flavor and remove some of the internal water.

1. Drain the peaches. Get rid of as much liquid as you can.
2. Spread the peaches on a large cookie sheet.
3. Sprinkle a couple of Tbsp of granulated sugar evenly over the peaches.
4. Set the oven on broil with the rack just a couple of inches below the heat.
5. Broil the peaches for 8-10 minutes until the corner start to brown and crisp up.
6. Remove the peaches from the cookie sheet and let them sit in a colander to drain for 4-5 minutes.

1) Drain the peaches

3) Corners start to Brown

2) Cookie Sheet goes under the Broiler

4) Drain One More Time

Keep them safe for a while until we are ready to put them in with the "gravy"

Prepare the Gravy

Ok. Its that sweet sauce the the peaches swim in in the deep cobbler dish. Can we call it gravy?

It just needs Nutmeg, now

In a saucepan, add the following:

• 1 cup peach puree ( you can buy this or just use an additional 15 oz can and run it through a blender)
• 1/2 cup white wine (Any is ok. Pinot Grigio has a nice fruity flavor.)
• 2 oz (4 Tbsp) lemon juice
• 2 apples - peeled, cored and grated (I use Honey Crisp apples. Any pie apple will work. These are the ones with deeper flavor and less juice.)
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1/8 tsp (just a pinch) of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (about 1/2 of a single nutmeg nut fresh grated is nice)

Simmer until thickened and reduced by one-half. Do not let the bottom burn. This means you must watch the heat and keep stirring. 

Now add:

• the peaches prepared above (8 cups)
• 1 1/2 cup sugar

Add the Bourbon

Peach Flavoring

Stir until warm throughout. Then add:

• 1 oz bourbon (I use Jim Beam)
• 15 ml peach flavoring

Stir this up and remove from heat. We will use it when assembling.

Assemble the Cobbler and Cook It

In a bowl mix the following for the final crust mixture. Note that we do this at the last minute because mixing this stuff together will kill off the yeast and stop the growth of that yeasty flavor.

• 2 cups batter as prepared ahead
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 oz bourbon or peach flavor moonshine (peach branch or schnapps would work too)

Stir together. Think about the consistency. It should be the consistency of pancake batter.

Now you need:

• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

First, melt butter in the Dish

Add Peaches a Spoon at a Time

Follow these steps:

1. Put the butter in a 10x13 inch deep dish Pyrex glass casserole dish
2. Set the oven to 350 degrees F
3. Put the pan in the oven and let the butter melt
4. Remove the pan from the oven. (Warning: it is hot)
5. Pour the corrected batter mix over the melted butter to a depth of 1/2 inch (1 cm). Discard any extra. (You can change the ratio of batter to peaches to suit your tastes. I find that a deep disk pan with 1 cm of batter and mostly filled with peaches works for me.)
6. Stir batter and butter all together
7. Using a large spoon, spoon the peach and gravy mixture into the pan. Drop the spoonfuls evenly around the surface of the pan. DO NOT STIR. This will mix properly while cooking.
8. I like the cinnamon sticks to be visible at the top so people don't accidentally bite into a massive hidden block of cinnamon taste.
9. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar mixture (1 part ground cinnamon, 3 parts granulated sugar)
10. Put it back in the oven and cook for 22-28 minutes. It's done when the batter has browned up to where you can call it crust and you can insert a toothpick into the crust and it comes out clean.
11. Remove from oven
12. Let it cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes.
13. Sprinkle a little more sugar over the top. 



Ready to cook. Don't Stir It.

14. You can brulee it with a torch for that extra caramel-ly crunch.

Eat

Serve with ice cream or even a couple of spoonfuls of heavy cream.

Cooking Sauce for BBQ

Use this to slather chicken or pork particularly before cooking. Let set for an hour to best absorb the flavors into the meat. The low sugar content makes it harder to burn, but not impossible.

Note that this is not the type of BBQ sauce that is used after cooking. It needs to cook on the meat to taste good. You can put some of that kind of BBQ Sauce on when you serve it.

Combine in the blender and liquefy the following until no chunks remain. Set aside to use soon:

• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup bourbon (I use Jim Beam)
• 8 shots of espresso OR 10 grams of finely ground coffee
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 4 large cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 6 oz (by weight) tamarind paste (seedless)
• 4-8 raw habanero peppers with seeds and stems removed

Grind the following spices to a fine powder:

• 2 Tbsp whole black pepper
• 2 Tbsp whole white pepper
• 2 tsp whole cumin

Heat this oil a 4 qt saucepan (or larger):

• 3 Tbsp coconut oil (we'll use more of the coconut oil below) (or use Olive oil)

When hot add these and cook about 90 seconds until it smells wonderful and the tomato changes color:

• 3 Tbsp of tomato paste (taken from the cans used below)
• 1 Tbsp anchovie paste

Add the pepper and cumin that we ground to powder above.
Stir to intensify the flavors (30 seconds)

Add these to the saucepan:

• 1 cup red wine (or water)
• The contents of the blender prepared above

Bring to a simmer and then add

• The rest of 2 - 12 oz cans of tomato paste
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (added to that above) (or Olive oil)
• 3 Tbsp powdered yellow mustard
• 3 Tbsp Worcestershire powder
• 2 Tbsp Hickory Smoke powder
• 2 tsp salt

Stir and simmer for 20 min. Thin as needed with:

• 2-3 cups water

Remove and seal in jars. Keep refrigerated until used. Will keep longer than you think.

Sichuan Peppercorn Marinade for Chicken

This is a marinade for chicken with those zesty Szechuan peppercorns. They aren't actually pepper in that they come from plants totally unrelated to those plants that supply black peppercorns.

Grind the following in spice grinder (I have a spare coffee grinder I use for spices)

• 2 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns
• 5 whole allspice berries
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 2 cloves garlic (whole but peeled)

Add into a bowl and stir together with the following

• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil

Use unfrozen chicken pieces (or strips) that have been dried with paper towels. Coat the chicken with the marinade and let set 1 hour.

Grill normally. (If I use a thermometer, I go to 155 degrees F. It comes up to 165 internally after resting 5 min. The US government recommends 165 degrees F as the safe temperature for poultry.)

White Bread Plus

As a wedding gift, I got a copy of "The Joy of Cooking" many years ago. This recipe has served well for decades in this house.

To the side here is a photo of the original recipe from the old book which is for 3 loaves:

My version (without a big mixer to use) for 1 loaf

Combine in a measuring cup

• 1 pkg yeast, 
• 1/2 c. Warm water
• Large pinch flour 
• 1 T. sugar 

and allow to proof, which means sit in a warmish place. (Until foamy, approx. 20 minutes.)

In a large bowl combine and stir

• 3/4 cups warm water
• ¼ cup melted lard or shortening (or butter but, if salted, reduce salt to 1/2 tsp)
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 each large egg, beaten
• Yeast/water mixture

Stir in by batches 

• 3 cups flour

Stir in flour until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and can be handled.

Turn out on a floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and pliable, about 5-10 minutes .

Shape into a ball and place into a mixing bowl. Spray with canned canola oil. Turn dough over and spray other side, cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
(Approx. 1-1 1/2 hours for rapid rise yeast, 2 hours or so for standard yeast.) Punch dough down, turn it over in the bowl, and optionally allow to rise again until almost doubled in size. Single rising is ok. Double rising is for the obsessive among us. 

Punch down and form a loaf. Place in a well-greased bread pan. Cover with saran wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. 

Start in a cold oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. 

Remove bread from pan and thump bottom with finger. You should get a hollow sound indicating it is done. Or check the internal temperature, it should be 200 degrees. 

Cool slightly before cutting. 

Store in foil or plastic bag (if there is any left).

With a Big Mixer

Ingredients don't change. Just the instructions of what you do. And its easier.

1. Prepare the yeast mixture as above.
2. Melt the lard/shortening/butter in a small glass bowl in the microwave
3. Put it into the mixer's bowl
4. Use a regular mixing paddle at this point
5. Add the other ingredients in the 2nd list above and turn on the mixer, lowest speed, until everything is thoroughly mixed.
6. Add half the flour a cup at a time 
7. Change to the dough hook and run at the lowest speed some more
8. Add the rest of the flour a cup at a time.
9. When the dough is mixed to the point that there is no flour left, run the mixer for 3 minutes more in place of kneading.
10. Stop the mixer. Leave the hook embedded in the dough.
11. Spray oil over the top surface. No need to turn the dough over.
12. Let the dough do its first rise in the mixer bowl. It will double in size.
13. Turn the mixer back on low. This will push down the dough and knead it some more.
14. At this point, remove the dough and form a loaf.
15. The rest is the same as above.

Note: Updated 22 Mar 2020 to fix typo in amount of flour and reword some errors that said it makes more than 1 loaf of break.

Prime Rib

This works for 3-4 bone prime rib roasts. It works for 9 bone roasts. Perhaps for other ones as well. I have tested with 6-9 lb roasts and that monster 26 lb one. Expect about 1 lb of uncooked prime rib with bones for each adult to eat.

Prepare the roast starting up to 4 days ahead:

1. Thaw if frozen. (This may take up to 3 days.)
2. Remove any wrapping from the roast.
3. Salt liberally on all sides. 
4. Put it in a pan with airspace on all sides. This means it must sit on a rack in a pan with space on the sides.
5. Leave in the refrigerator for 1 to 4 days.

Several hours before time to cook

1. Put 2 sticks of butter on the counter to soften

When it’s time to begin cooking, prepare by mixing these thoroughly.

• 2 sticks (1/2 lb) soft butter
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh Rosemary (optional)
• 1-2 Tbsp chopped garlic

Dust off any loose salt, dry off the meat and then slather the roast on all sides with the butter mixture. 

No need to preheat the oven but it doesn't hurt. Set it to 220° F.

The roast should be in a roasting pan, lifted up off the pan so it can cook on all sizes.

Cook for several hours until the internal temperature as measured by an instant thermometer measures 135 degrees F. This will result in medium rare. (141 will make it more medium) Do not attempt to cook by timing. You spent $50-$100 dollars on the meat. Add $10 more for a digital, instant read thermometer.

At the right temperature, remove the roast from the oven and let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes at a minimum. Its fine to let it sit for up to 3 hours to time the meat for the rest of the food. (Also any late guests don’t cause a problem)

Preheat the oven to 500° F or more. Make sure the oven is thoroughly hot and put the roast back in for 10-12 minutes. It should be sizzling on the surface. (A gas grill can be used.) Do not put the meat in before it’s fully 500°.

Remove it from the oven and immediately slice and serve.

Posole Variation with Chile Pods

I happened upon this recipe when I was feeling lazy. I'm adding it here for Scott to consider cooking in a hotel room with no prep time and a crock pot. If I was Scott, and if I were doing this, I'd ziploc up the spices. I would cut up the pork and freeze it together with onions. I'd probably buy frozen onions but chopping my own would be more economical. I'd need a can opener for the hominy and, maybe, the chicken broth.

Add the following to a crock pot:

• 1-2 lb pork (pork loin cut in 1" cubes OR cheap pork chops with the meat cut in bits and bones added OR ham hocks OR pork neck bones -- smoked or fresh)
• 3 dried New Mexico red chile pods (remove stem and seeds without being obsessive)
• 3 cloves garlic (peel but leave whole)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp whole cumin (a little less if powdered)
• 1/4 tsp mexican oregano (any oregano will do)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3/4 cup chopped onion (frozen is convenient, sauted is ok)
• 4 cups chicken broth (or chicken base/boullion with water)
• Additional water if needed to cover everything.
• Do Not Add Salt (pork may be salty. broth may be salty. taste and salt at the end)

Cook on high for 6 hours or until the meat falls apart. If the meat is frozen when you start it will take longer.

While cooking, depending on the pork, you may want to spoon off the accumulated oil off the top of the crock pot. Stir afterwards. This is not crucial but you may want less fat.

When done, add:

• 1 large can hominy (the hispanic brands are firmer. If not, yellow is better than white)

It just depends on your crock pot. Once the posole is hot, you can eat it. (For shorter cooking time, microwave the hominy before you put it in.

Here is another posole recipe that takes longer to cook and has a different vibe.

http://flatlandfood.blogspot.com/2011/11/posole-variation.html