Rosie Makes A Fruit Salad.

 Sometimes, you just want sweet and simple and it doesn't get much sweet or simpler than this.

I had red grapes in the fridge and, after snacking on a handful or so, decided to add in a few more items and make a fruit salad out of it. 

 

Rosie's Grape Salad

I don't know why, but I actually measured the ingredients for you.  Just know that this is but a starting point. You can add more or less of whatever you like.  Remember - taste test!

 

1/2 stick (4 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

2 TB brown sugar 

1 TB vanilla

10 oz. red seedless grapes (I use whole grapes.  If you sliced them, I think that would make the salad too watery.  And I used red grapes, because they're a pretty color and they're all I had, but green grapes or a combination would do nicely.)

1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped  (No walnuts?  Use pecans or almonds, or pistachios.  Be sure to toast your nuts for extra flavor.)

1 stalk celery, sliced

1 apple, cored, coarsely peeled (for color), and diced

1/2 cup blueberries (because I had them)

pinch salt, or to taste

 

Combine cream cheese, sour cream, brown sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl.  Mix well.  You could use a beater here and whup it good, but I'm basically lazy and didn't want any more to clean up than absolutely necessary, so I just forked it all together.

 

To the cream cheese mixture, gently fold in the rest of the ingredients until uniformly coated.  Add salt to taste. 

 

And here you have a lovely fruit salad.  Sweet and simple.

But wait...  More ingredients are forthcoming.

 

I ate my way through a bunch of this, then decided I could give it a little kick.

Sooooo....  I toasted some coconut and topped my fruit salad with that, along with a sprinkling of turbinado sugar.  Turbinado sugar is sugar in the raw.  It's minimally processed, coarse-textured, slightly crunchy, and caramel-flavored.

This stuff is hard to stop eating.

Enjoy.

Oooooh Chocolate! Or, F is For February and Fabulous Fudge.

 

   I was feeling a bit peaked and couldn't quite figger out what my body was lacking, so when in doubt, I always go with chocolate.

Here's a super simple chocolate fudge recipe for you that'll cure whatever ails you.

And it’s just in time for Valentine’s Day, in case you’re of that particular persuasion and you actually celebrate such an occasion. If you’re like me and don’t give a crap about V-Day, then you’re in luck.  You don’t have to share and you get to eat all this wonderful chocolate all by yourself.

Rosie's Chocolate Fudge

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 TB vanilla extract

20 oz. bittersweet chocolate morsels (I used Ghirardelli.)

3 TB unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces, room temperature

big handful of chopped pecans

handful of mini-marshmallows

Handful of white chocolate morsels

chocolate ganache for icing

For the fudge:

Lightly butter an 8x8 inch baking pan.  Line pan with buttered parchment paper, allowing excess paper to overhang the sides so you can pull it out easily.

In a large, heatproof bowl combine the condensed milk, chocolate, extract, and butter.  Place bowl on top of a pot with simmering water (like a double boiler).  Stir ingredients with rubber spatula until chocolate is melted.  Immediately remove from heat so the chocolate doesn't separate and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth.  Scrape fudge into prepared pan and spread evenly with an offset spatula.  I decided to sprinkle in some pecans here along with some mini-marshmallows, just pressing them into the fudge.  And when I make this again (and I will -  It's that good), I think I'll press in some white chocolate morsels as well, just because.  Another case of more is more.

Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.  Lift fudge from pan using the overhang and frost with ganache.  Let set, and then cut into squares.

For the ganache:

In a microwaveable bowl, nuke 1/2 cup heavy cream until just simmering.  To the hot cream, I added 2 oz. 70% Lindt dark chocolate and 2 oz. 85% Lindt dark chocolate, but you can use your own combinations.  The general rule for ganache is equal amounts cream and chocolate, by weight, so I used 4 oz. cream with 4 oz. chocolate.  This produces a spreadable consistency for a frosting or glaze.  You can use whatever type chocolate you like - semisweet or bittersweet, just not unsweetened. Stir until melted and smooth.  If your chocolate, for whatever reason, ever seizes up, (water droplets can do this to chocolate) or is too thick,  just heat a little more cream in a small sauce pan and whisk the chocolate mixture, bit by bit, into the hot cream.  It'll smooth right out.  When it's a nice spreadable consistency, pour it over the fudge, spreading it evenly with an offset spatula.  Refrigerate until set. Peel off parchment and then cut into squares.  

Although you may be tempted to do so, you don’t have to eat the entire batch.  You can freeze part of it if you like, hiding it in the deepest recesses of your freezer.  Then, whenever you need a fudge fix, take out a square or two, nuke until melted, plop a scoop of ice cream in there, maybe pour some leftover morning coffee, perhaps drizzle some leftover ganache over top, and have yourself an instant chocolate sundae dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, here are the step-by-steps.

 

I like to have my mise-en-place, with everything ready to go:                                                                          Buttered and parchment-lined baking dish. 

Double boiler (bowl over pot with water).

Sweetened condensed milk.

Bittersweet chocolate morsels.           

Vanilla.    

 Buttah.

 

Combine chocolate, butter, and condensed milk.

Add in vanilla.

Melt slowly over simmering water.

Stir.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep stirring.

Pour into prepared pan and smooth it out with offset spatula.

 

 

 

 Sprinkle pecans, white chocolate morsels, and mini-marshmallows over top.

Press in.

Let set. 

I cut these first, then poured on the ganache.

You could pour the ganache on, refrigerate and let set, then cut.

But my way gets more ganache over more surface area.

Enjoy.

Rosie Makes Coconut Fried Shrimp.

 

 

 If you're looking for the best coconut fried shrimp, you've found it.

I always have shrimp available.  The Hawthornes stock up in the fall and freeze individual servings, so a shrimp meal is merely a thaw away.

Here are the step-by-steps to my go-to coconut fried shrimp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, shell and de-tract shrimp.  That black line on the back of the shrimp is not a vein.  It's the digestive tract. So I say de-tract, not de-vein.  And I get rid of it. I'm saving the shells to use for shrimp stock.

My peeled shrimp is on the left.  Then I have a 3-part station the shrimp will be going through.

First is a fairly equal combination of flour and cornstarch, with Old Bay sprinkled in.  Mix it up.

Next is eggs.  Beat 'em.

Last is the coconut flakes with a little bit of panko bread crumbs mixed in.

Dredge the shrimp through the flour mixture, then the beaten eggs, and finally roll around in the coconut.  Place all the shrimp on a plate and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  This gives me time to clean up my mess, make the dipping sauce, and heat up the oil.  It's always nice when you're sitting down to eat to not have to look at a colossal mess in the kitchen that you're dreading to clean up and which will ultimately diminish and distract from your enjoyment of your repast.

Now for the dipping sauce.  I'll give you the basic proportions as a starting point, then you can taste-test and adjust for however you like.

 

Pineapple Dipping Sauce

1 small can pineapple with juice (I used chunks which is all I had and I minced them up.  You could use crushed.  Same thing.)

1/4 cup orange marmalade

1 TB soy sauce

1 TB horseradish

1 TB Dijon mustard

1 TB sriracha

Mix all ingredients together in a small pan and heat through.  Remember to taste test and adjust for yourself.  You could, for example, substitute apricot for the orange marmalade.  Or an Asian sweet chili sauce for the sriracha.  A stone ground mustard for the Dijon. Have fun with it.

My pan is heavy-duty fry pot. 4 inches deep, 6-inch diameter at bottom, 8-inch diameter at top.  I poured in about 1/2 inches oil.  Heated it up hot. Usually I fry at 375°, but I start out hot because the temperature is going to drop as soon as you put cold shrimp into it.  If you are going to fry, it's best to have an instant read laser thermometer.  Fairly inexpensive and worth every penny.  If your oil is not hot enough, your food will be greasy and soggy because it doesn't develop a crisp crust as intended and will absorb excess oil.  Too hot and you'll burn the outside and the inside will be undercooked.  Get a thermometer.  It takes the guess work out of frying.  

Place shrimp in hot oil, one at a time, so as not to drastically lower the temperature of the oil.  I fry 6 at a time for about 1 minute 15 - 30 seconds, depending on size of shrimp.

Remove from oil and drain on a rack.

Serve with dipping sauce and I like some chopped cilantro over top.

Enjoy.