Courtesy of LA Times: Viennese Hazelnut Chocolate Raspberry Bars

CHOCOLATE LAYER

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup (about 2 1/2 ounces) finely ground toasted blanched hazelnuts

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Dash sea salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted European-style butter

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, ground to a powder

Click link below for rest 

  Recipe: Viennese Hazelnut Chocolate Raspberry Bars -- latimes.com

Tantalizing Turkey Recipe From the Delicious Alton Brown

Only the people in my immediate family know about the crush I have on Alton Brown.
It is the stop and stare in amazement whenever he opens his mouth kind of crush. He was skinny when I first saw him, got a little chunky( barely noticed it) and recently lost some weight. I'll take him in a small, medium, or large.
His wife is a lucky lady.

I have finished drooling. On to the turkey.......

Good Eats Roast Turkey

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Prep Time:

15 min

Inactive Prep Time:

7 hr 0 min

Cook Time:

2 hr 30 min

Serves: 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil

Directions

Click here to see how it's done.

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Gyudon(Beef Bowl), Because I Am Nowhere Near a Yoshinoya

 4 Servings


I had a craving for Yoshinoya's beef bowl.  A 50 mile drive for this is not warranted in today's economy. I researched how to make my own Japanese bowl of rice and yummy flavored beef.  Unfortunately, I had almost none of the ingredients. No dashi, no mirin, no red ginger, and no sake.


Here is what I had:

• 1 pound thinly sliced top sirloin( I froze it before attempting to slice)
• 1  large onion, sliced thinly
• 1 1/3 cups beef broth to which I added 2 Table of sugar and 3 T of balsamic vinegar. (my dashi)
  
• 4-5 T soy sauce
• 4 cups white rice cooked ( I miss my rice cooker, it is in storage after a cross country trek)
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced(not in the recipe, but I love garlic)
• black pepper
  

In all honesty, after slicing the beef, I marinated it in 2 T soy sauce and some garlic powder for a couple of hours. This was all by feel.

The onions were brought to a simmer in a 2 quart saucepan filled with the beef broth, sugar, and balsamic.  I then added the additional soy sauce. Once this came to a boil I got ready to add the beef and sliced garlic. I did this to order so as to not crowd the saucepan and bring the temperature down. This ensured the raw beef cooked quickly.  I ladled the beef over 4 individual bowls of white rice. The pepper is personal..some of us had it, some didn't. You know I had it.

Loved it. Next time, I want to go authentic. It was okay for a recipe on the fly.

Sources for Organic Thanksgiving Ingredients

For those of us still trying to get out Thanksgiving meal together...take a look at this.

Sources for Organic Thanksgiving Ingredients

The Final Four Next Iron Chef Elimination: Exclusive interview with Chef Amanda Freitag

The Final Four Next Iron Chef Elimination: Exclusive interview with Chef Amanda Freitag

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