Chocolate Kahlua Sauce for Dipping

Fresh strawberries, cherries, marshmallows and nuts, drenched in yummy rich Chocolate Kahlua Dipping Sauce - are you salivating yet?

I whipped up the best Chocolate Kahlua Sauce two weeks ago, with hardly a thought about how I did it. Chocolate chips nuked with some milk, then flavored with the liquor, nothing easier. Until I tried to repeat performance a week later, only to have the chocolate seize up, not only in one batch but in the second batch as well! I managed to soften the mess with additional liquids, but the sauce was grainy and dull, not the satiny smooth dip I'd envisioned. It's still in the fridge; maybe I'll roll it into balls and pretend I meant to make truffles.

So I pulled out all the cookbooks and scanned endless websites on chocolate, only to learn what I already knew: when chocolate is melting, the slightest drop of water or whiff of steam can make it "seize up." So why didn't that happen to the original sauce? Why do some recipes call for melting the chocolate with butter and cream, both of which contain water, while others insist on using only shortening or oil for melting? Why do some types of chocolate seize up while others melt like butter on a barbeque?

There's some sort of chemistry here that I'm missing. Suggestions are encouraged. Please.

Meanwhile, I've come up with a different Chocolate Kahlua Dipping Sauce that's pretty darn good. Because it has no sugar other than what's in the chocolate chips, it is a bitter-sweet sauce, designed for adult tasted before the liqueur even joins the mix. It starts out thin, then thickens as it cools. If left overnight in the refrigerator, you'll need to scoop it with a spoon. Why not put some in a nice jar along with some marshmallows, as a gift for that good friend who just lost those 10 lbs? (heh, heh.) Perfectly satisfying.

 Recipe: Chocolate Kahlua Dipping Sauce

This is chocolate for adult tastes. To make a children's version, omit the liquor and stir a cup of miniature marshmallows into the hot milk mixture.

1 c. milk (almond or soy milk are fine.)
2 Tbs. butter or canola oil
2 Tbs. Kahlua or other liqueur
1 3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
dash of salt

Combine milk and butter or oil in a microwave-safe mixing bowl. Heat 1 -2 minutes, until steaming but not boiling. Stir in liqueur, chocolates and dash of salt until dissolved and sauce is smooth. Chill several hours.
Serve with fresh berries, cut-up fruit, marshmallows, large nuts or any other treat that can be dunked into chocolate.

Hot & Crisp Fresh Corn Fritters

The kitchen is swelteringly hot with grease spattered from floor to ceiling, but the Fresh Corn Fritters are worth every bit of it!  I've mopped the floor twice and need to change this stained t-shirt. I don't care. The Fritters are fabulous.

Thinking back to a time when frying was something everyone did several times a week, I can remember layers of newspapers spread on the floor in front of the stove, and my grandmother warning us kids to "stay back, this grease is popping!" After frying up these fritters today, my right arm is polka-dotted with red grease burns, like the ones my aunts wore with pride. A forearm covered with burns indicated a good cook.

Of course I don't plan to make this sort of frying a regular habit. While trusting my doctor's insistence that dietary fat has nothing to do with coronary health, the calorie count is clearly prohibitive. Besides, these fritters require fresh corn cut directly from the cob, something rarely found in our house.

I'm looking at the floor, where I still see spots of grease that the mop missed. That's okay. Every once in a while, fritters are fabulous.

Recipe: Fresh Corn Fritters

Heat lard or oil (or combination) in a deep skillet to about 300 degrees. As you cook the fritters, the temperature will vary from about 280 up to 320, so use a thermometer and watch the temperature carefully. Wear long sleeves and an apron because the grease will "pop"!

3 ears of fresh corn
3 eggs
1 c. milk (soy or almond milk is fine.)
1/2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
3/4 c. cornmeal
1/4 c. brown sugar (optional, if corn is very sweet)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Frying oil or lard

Cut kernels off  cobs. You want 2 1/2 to 3 cups of corn.
Combine with the rest of ingredients.
Heat about 1"oil or lard in deep skillet to about 300 degrees. (It will range from around 280 to 320.)

Spoon a quarter of a cup of batter into hot oil for each fritter. Fry until brown and crisp, turning once.
Remove to rack set over paper towels. Sprinkle fritters with salt and serve hot with applesauce or cole slaw.

Corned Beef Brisket - Summer Style

The summer sale on corned beef brisket was too good to pass up. But with the July heat topping 108 on the patio, no one really wanted a heavy hot meal of meat, potatoes and cabbage. And I definitely didn't want to heat up the kitchen.

So I tracked down a recipe for Crock Pot Corned Beef. On the day before our scheduled luncheon I layered my -- cup slow cooker with carrots, onions and chunks of cabbage with the hunk of corned beef nestled in the middle of it all. I turned the knob to low then forgot about it for 12 hours. Yes, that's right, twelve whole hours. At 6, 8 and 10 hours the brisket was tough as a shoe. But late that night before crawling into bed, I transferred falling-apart succulent Corned Beef from the Crock Pot to the refrigerator. By noon the next day it was perfectly chilled and ready to slice for cold sandwiches.

But what to do with all the vegetables that had cooked along with the corned beef? Tender and flavorful , yes, but no one wants cold cooked carrots for lunch. So I took a hint from Mark Bittman, who turns vegetables into soups and sauces. The cooked carrots, onions and (not too much) cabbage went into the food processor along with generous amounts of mustard, horseradish and mayo. That made a bright orange sauce that was fabulous on the Corned Beef Sandwiches.

A red & green coleslaw rounded out the lunch menu along with a few good beers and strawberries for dessert.

Recipe: Corned Beef Brisket, Summer Version

Flavors mellow in the slow cooker, so it is best not to rinse off excess spices from the corned beef before cooking. Because of the long slow cooking time, choose large mature carrots and leave them whole.

1 2-3 lb. Corned Beef Brisket
5 or 6 large carrots, peeled
2 large onions, peeled and quartered
2 to 4 1" wedges of cabbage
1 c. apple juice
1/4 c. brown sugar
yellow or brown prepared mustard

Brush the slow cooker interior with oil. Cover the bottom of the pot with whole carrots and onion wedges. Add brisket and surround with more vegetables. Combine brown sugar and apple juice, pour over brisket. Spread top of meat with mustard, and top with cabbage wedges and onions. Cover and cook on low setting for 12 hours or until meat pulls apart easily with a fork.

Remove meat from cooker and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Refrigerate vegetables separately and use for Cold Vegetable Sauce, below.
Slice brisket or pull apart for sandwiches. Pile meat on rye bread or whole grain buns with plenty of mustard, horseradish and Cold Vegetable Sauce. Serve with Cole Slaw and/or Potato Salad

Recipe: Cold Vegetable Sauce
  

Cold cooked Vegetables: carrots, onions, cabbage
2 Tbs. brown or yellow prepared mustard
2 Tbs. horseradish
1/2 c. mayonnaise, or to taste
1/4 c. cider vinegar, as needed
S & P


Place cooled cooked vegetables - carrots, onions, cabbage - in bowl of food processor.
Add mustard, horseradish, and mayonnaise.
Process until very smooth.
Taste for seasonings; add cider vinegar for tartness to taste, salt and pepper as needed.