An Inspired Kitchen

Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Peppermint

I make several different cookies for Christmas and it’s always good to have a great chocolate cookie in the mix and these cookies are a really chocolatey and delicious.  You can add peppermint extract to the dough if you want a chocolate mint cookie, but I prefer to sprinkle crushed candy canes on top for a little hit of mint flavor.  To decorate them, put some white chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli white chocolate chips) in a baggie and slowly melt them in the microwave until they have fully melted.  Cut a small corner off and drizzle them back and forth over the cookies and sprinkle them with crushed candy canes or other sprinkles.  You can also add chopped hazelnuts, pecans or walnuts.  These cookies freeze well so you can make them in advance.   Click here for the recipe….

Christmas Pudding

I know everyone has their opinion on Christmas pudding, but my family is British and it’s something we traditionally have as one of our Christmas desserts.   Christmas pudding is mostly made up of a variety of raisins, apples, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves and Brandy and you steam it in a bowl for 8 hours before you store it.  It is traditionally made with suet, but I use butter.  This is my Granny’s recipe and I think it’s perfect.  I use a food processor which makes the job so much easier than my Granny having to grate all the apples by hand.  I use my Grandmother’s 60 year old scale to measure the ingredients and it really connects me to wonderful memories of her baking.  You need to make this at least a month ahead and allow it to rest in a cool, dark cupboard for all the flavors to really meld together before you steam it again for 2 hours on Christmas day.  After dinner, we have a tradition of popping the Christmas crackers.  They are decorated cardboard tubes with twists of paper at the end and you cross arms around the table and pull on the ends.  There is a pop from a small amount of cap gun like chemical that is on the end (sounds like a very dangerous tradition but we haven’t lost a finger yet!) and inside the crackers are a colorful paper crown, a bad joke, and a little toy or plastic puzzle.  We sit around the table with our goofy hats, read the silly jokes and fight over who has the best toy.  It wouldn’t be Christmas without Christmas crackers and I am glad you can find them in the States these days.  Then we have dessert and you serve the Christmas pudding with great fanfare by heating up some brandy, pouring it over the pudding, lighting it, dimming the lights and bringing it to the table so everyone can see the spectacle.  The flames die out quickly so it isn’t a huge bonfire!  My family always serves this with hard sauce, which is basically a buttercream frosting with brandy, and we love to pour warm custard over the whole thing.  Click here for the recipe….

Beef Wellington

I have been making Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner for many years .  It has a few steps, but you can make it the day before and refrigerate until you bake it.  You can use an entire beef tenderloin and wrap it in puff pastry, but I like to make individual Beef Wellingtons.  You start by browning the beef tenderloin steaks (don’t cook it all the way through) and set aside to cool.  I make the gravy at this time by using the same skillet I browned the beef in and sautéing an onion, carrots, celery and garlic, adding red wine, beef stock, some beef glace’ that I purchase at a gourmet food store and reducing the sauce for an hour and then straining it.  Refrigerate until you warm it before serving and pour into a gravy boat.  To make the duxelles, finely chop a mixture of wild and cremini mushrooms with a small onion (I use the food processor) and sauté it with some fresh thyme and garlic until they are nicely browned and set aside to cool.  Allow the puff pastry to thaw and make a large square with the pieces and crimp them together really well.  Place the cooled tenderloins evenly on the pastry and put some of the duxelle mixture under each tenderloin.  Cut a large square around each tenderloin and then cut a square in each corner so you don’t have so much pastry to wrap and pull the pastry up and around each tenderloin and crimp really well around all the seams.  Make little decorations with leftover pastry if you want.  You can refrigerate them at this stage overnight.  Just before you bake them, beat some eggs and brush them over the entire packages and bake.  I like to serve them with scalloped potatoes with sautéed leeks and thyme with lots of Gruyere cheese, and roasted parsnips and Brussels sprouts.  Click here for the recipe….Place mushroom duxelle mixture under the beef and wrap the puff pastry around tenderloin.

Wrap the pastry around the beef and crimp all the seams together.Decorate the tops with leftover pastry if you want and brush a beaten egg over top and make several slits to allow steam to escape before you bake.  You can also make the Beef Wellington the day before and refrigerate. Before you bake, brush with the egg mixture.

Fruit Cake

Why does fruit cake get such a bad rap?  It’s just a dense cake made with mixed fruit and currants.  How bad can that be?!!  I remember my mom making them every year and it was a big chore because she made a double recipe in a large mixing bowl and it is a very stiff batter to mix together.  It took a lot of muscle and mixing as well as some time to cut all the paper to size to line the baking tins but was well worth it in the end.  I make mine in my standing Kitchen Aid mixer and it’s a lot easier.   Click here for the recipe….

Rum Butter Tarts

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas at our house without these family favorites.   This is my father in laws recipe that he has been making for years and everyone insists he continue to make them.  They have currants that have been soaked in rum and a caramel filling that you bake in a little tart crust.  They freeze well so they are a good dessert to bake ahead of the Christmas baking rush.  Click here for the recipe….

Moroccan Chicken with Apricots, Figs and Garbanzo Beans & Couscous with Fresh Mint, Lemon and Almonds

This Moroccan chicken has so many wonderful spices like coriander, cumin, ginger, and several cinnamon sticks that really are incredible together. You add tomato sauce, dried apricots, dried figs and garbanzo beans to make a great sauce that you braise with the chicken.  I served it over couscous which takes 5 minutes to make and this one has fresh mint, parsley, lemon zest and toasted almonds.  I served it with carrots that I cooked with chicken broth, garlic, ginger and paprika.  Serve it with the traditional Moroccan tea made with fresh mint, gunpowder tea and a little sugar.  I have got to go to Morocco one of these days.  It is definitely on my bucket list!  Click here for the recipe….  Click here for the couscous recipe…. Click here for the carrot recipe….

Dutch Babies with Mixed Berries

My Mom would often make us Dutch Babies for breakfast when we were growing up.  I don’t know where this breakfast puff pancake got its name, but my family has been making it for years and we all love it.  It takes seconds to make the batter in a blender and there are a lot of variations you can add.  We love ours plain with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and lemon juice, but I also like it with butter and maple syrup.  You can thinly cut apples or pears and put them in the center with some cinnamon sugar and they gently roast, or scatter fresh or frozen berries over before you put it in the oven.  For a savory Dutch Baby cut up and sauté some bacon or pancetta and pour the batter into the skillet before you bake it.   I like to use my cast iron skillet for this recipe. Put some butter or oil in a 12-inch cast iron or oven safe skillet a 425 degree oven and allow skillet to get really hot which is the secret to a good Dutch Baby.  Meanwhile, in a blender, add eggs, flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and milk and blend on high for several minutes.  Pour batter into hot skillet and scatter fruit over (if using) and bake for 12-14 minutes.  They puff up and get all golden brown and then deflate when you cut them into wedges and serve. Click here for the recipe….

Bibimbap

Bibimbap (spelled so many ways!) is a very popular Korean dish that is made with thin cut strips of rib eye that have been marinated in the same marinade you make bulgogi and is usually eaten in a shallow bowl of rice.  You can add sautéed spinach, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, and a fried egg along with the meat.  Traditionally, you top the bowl off with a fried egg with sesame oil sparingly poured over the top and toasted sesame seeds.  I sautéed some mushrooms with soy and sesame oil, sautéed some kale, grated a fresh carrot and added some leftover green beans.  I had bean sprouts in the fridge and forgot to put them on!  The rib eye beef marinated in the soda really makes the meat tender.  If you want to live on the edge and eat this dish the way Koreans do, buy some Gochuchang paste ~ a spicy red pepper paste that Korean’s put over everything like we use ketchup to mix into the bibimbap.  It is sold either in glass jars or plastic containers that can be purchased at an Asian market and is super spicy.  A little goes a long way!  Click here for the recipe….

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Snickerdoodles are such a great old fashioned cookie. They are soft on the inside and kind of crispy on the outside with a wonderful hit of cinnamon sugar that you roll the cookies in before you bake.  It’s best to refrigerate the dough before you roll them to make sure they keep their shape.  Click here for the recipe….

Beef Stew and Mashed Potatoes

Beef stew is comfort food at its best and I made a huge batch and had a bunch of friends over for a fall dinner.  I like to serve it over mashed potatoes, but you can also add small red potatoes 40 minutes before it is finished so they don’t get so mushy.  I make it pretty traditional with fresh thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, red wine, beef broth, onions, garlic, carrots, and celery, cook it for 2 hours and thicken it at the end with a cornstarch slurry.  I like to add half the carrots and celery at the beginning and then 3o minutes before it is finished, I add the remaining vegetables so they retain some of their texture.  I served it with a salad of baby greens with Fuji apples, scallions, candied pecans and blue cheese with a pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette and tons of French bread. Oh yes, and quite a few bottles of wine!  Afterwards, we played Love it-Hate it and had a lot of laughs.  Click here for the recipe….  Click here for the salad recipe….