Mixed Berry Cobbler

mixed berry cobblerI grew up with Grandma’s Peach Cobbler, and it was good.  I have had Cobbler in the South, and it was good.  I have made Cobbler while camping (Dutch Oven), and it was good.  Then I made this Mixed berry Cobbler, and all those others became background noise.  And yes, they got vanilla ice cream, too, which always helps cobber.  This one, however, was worthy of telling people about.

Why is it so good?  Warm berries with cold ice cream, slightly melting, and all mixing together.  Add a crunchy, crispy, bready biscuit into the mix, and it is like a pie mixed with, um, something creamy and delicious.  Like Ice Cream, but that breaks the metaphor as it is actually ice cream.  Ok, I’ll think on the metaphor while you make some cobbler.  We’ll see who gets finished first.

This is adapted and only slightly altered from the Pioneer Woman’s website.  She has some delicious stuff, and gives good directions and lots of photos.  You should take a look over there if you haven’t done so before.

I changed the recipe a bit because I am not a fan of the sugar on top of the cobbler, and I don’t think the zest added enough to be worth zesting something.  Plus I only have lemons around if i planned ahead, but I always have lemon juice in the fridge.  (I know, it isn’t as good as fresh lemons, but in many recipes you cannot taste the difference due to other strong flavors.  As always, disagree if you want, it won’t hurt my feelings.)  I also usually have a bag of mixed berries in the freezer, and they do really well in this recipe.

 

In a large skillet, mix the berries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the the mixture just starts the simmer. Remove from heat and pour into a 2 quart baking dish.

When done it will look something like this.

mixed berry cobbler
Beat egg into milk and set aside.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add Crisco and cold butter, and cut into flour with a pastry cutter, two knives, or by pinching the flour and butter until mixed and all pieces are smaller than a pea.

cobbler biscuit dough cobbler biscuit dough

The texture should look like this, and if gently squeezed it should retain a shape, but come apart again when pushed on.

pea sized dough mix cobbler biscuit dough

Side not, if you don’t have a pastry cutter, go order one now.  They are fairly cheap, and will make this kind of thing a whole lot easier.  You may even find that you make biscuits, dough, and pastries more often if it isn’t tedious to do so.  Mine has vertical blades (not sharp) so when the butter is particularly cold they won’t bend.

pastry cutter

Add milk and egg mixture, and mix until combined.
Drop inch sized chunks of the dough onto the berry mixture in a semi-random pattern, trying to keep an even thickness across the berries.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until browned on top and no longer doughy in the middle.

triple berry cobblermixed berry cobblerServe while hot in bowls, with vanilla ice cream.

mixed berry cobbler

 

Mixed Berry Cobbler
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8-10 servings
 
delicious berry dessert with a biscuit like crust, best served with ice cream. Adapted from http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the_great_cobbl-2/
Ingredients
  • 1¾ lbs (6-7 cups) frozen mixed berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries)
  • ¾ Cup Sugar
  • 1½ Tablespoon Corn Starch
  • 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

  • 1 large Egg
  • ½ Cup Milk

  • 2 Cups Flour
  • ¼ teaspoon Salt
  • 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
  • ¼ Cup Crisco
  • 4 Tablespoons cold Butter
Instructions
  1. In a large skillet, mix the berries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the the mixture just starts the simmer. Remove from heat and pour into a 2 quart baking dish.
  2. Beat egg into milk and set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add Crisco and cold butter, and cut into flour with a pastry cutter, two knives, or by pinching the flour and butter until mixed and all pieces are smaller than a pea. Add milk and egg mixture, and mix until combined.
  4. Drop inch sized chunks of the dough onto the berry mixture in a semi-random pattern, trying to keep an even thickness across the berries.
  5. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until browned on top and no longer doughy in the middle. Serve while hot in bowls, with vanilla ice cream.

 

Hollandaise Sauce

eggs benedictMy wife and I went through a french cooking phase a few years ago.  We couldn’t get enough of it, so we were trying to make everything we thought we would have a chance of succeeding at.  We made crepes, and learned how to properly saute mushrooms, and we figured out how to make amazing sauces.  One of the best, of course, is the Hollandaise Sauce.  it uses many of the same techniques of other sauces, and even though it is not considered a basic sauce like Bechamel (white sauce), it is still very well worth having in your skill set.

And it isn’t nearly as difficult as people think it is, or make it out to be.

And as a side note, you should check out one of the best cookbooks ever written, and a must have for anyone interested in cooking, the classic that made Julia Childs’ famous for her detail and love of the art, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

 

Start by clarifying the butter.  Skip if you bought it already clarified.  The easiest method is to put it in a large measuring cup and microwave it on high for 30 seconds, then check it (do not stir or mix it).  Add another 20 seconds and check each time until the butter is not only melted but has separated into white parts and partially clear parts. (and yes, you can use less butter if you need less sauce).

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Skim the white parts off the top with a spoon, and set the clear parts aside (do not worry about the stuff on the bottom; when it is time to use it, just stop pouring before the stuff on the bottom comes out).

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Make a double boiler by putting about an inch of water into a pan, and a bowl over it, with the bowl not touching the water.  Put egg yokes, lemon juice, water, and salt into the bowl.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Turn on the heat to a low or medium-low setting, and slowly whisk the eggs mixture.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Keep whisking it until the eggs thicken a little bit, to the point that you can see the bottom of the bowl after the whisk passes by, and slowly fills back in. This may take 5-10 minutes, depending on how hot you have the stove. Remove from heat, and continue to whisk since the bowl will still be warm.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Set the bowl on the counter on top of a dish towel so it won’t move around. While still whisking, drizzle in a little bit of the clarified butter, and whisk it in. Continue to drizzle a little bit at a time, as you mix it into the sauce.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Add all of the butter, slowly whisking it in, but do not add in the white stuff at the bottom of the butter.  If it becomes too thick, finish adding all the butter, then add a half or full tablespoon of water and whisk it in to thin it a little.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Serve immediately over eggs, fish, or vegetables.  Or over crepes.  Or toast up some English muffins, and add some slightly fried ham and poached eggs, and have Eggs Benedict (which is amazing!)

Hollandaise Sauce eggs benedict

 

 

 

Hollandaise Sauce
Author: 
Recipe type: Sauce
Cuisine: French
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1 cup
 
Rich creamy buttery and slightly tangy sauce for eggs, fish, or vegetables
Ingredients
  • 1 Cup butter (two sticks), clarified
  • 3 egg yokes
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 Tablespoon water
  • dash of salt
Instructions
  1. Clarify the butter if it isn't already. The easiest method is to put it in a large measuring cup and microwave it on high for 30 seconds, then check it (do not stir or mix it). Add another 20 seconds and check each time until the butter is not only melted but has separated into white parts and partially clear parts. Skim the white parts off the top with a spoon, and set the clear parts aside (do not worry about the stuff on the bottom; when it is time to use it, just stop pouring before the stuff on the bottom comes out).
  2. Make a double boiler by putting about an inch of water into a pan, and a bowl over it, with the bowl not touching the water. Put egg yokes, lemon juice, water, and salt into the bowl. Turn on the heat to a low or medium-low setting, and slowly whisk the eggs mixture. Keep whisking it until the eggs thicken a little bit, to the point that you can see the bottom of the bowl after the whisk passes by, and slowly fills back in. This may take 5-10 minutes, depending on how hot you have the stove. Remove from heat, and continue to whisk since the bowl will still be warm.
  3. Set the bowl on the counter on top of a dish towel so it won't move around. While still whisking, drizzle in a little bit of the clarified butter, and whisk it in. Continue to drizzle a little bit at a time, as you mix it into the sauce. Add all of the butter, slowly whisking it in, but do not add in the white stuff at the bottom of the butter. if the sauce ends up too thick, finish adding all the butter, then add a half or full tablespoon of water and whisk it in thin it a little.
  4. Server immediately, or put back on the pan of water (with the stove off), and stir occasionally.

 

Family Friendly Chili

chiliBack in the early days of my hobby of cooking, we lived in Atlanta.  We had just moved there, and were starting to try new restaurants, food, and anything we could find that was “southern”.  There are a lot of amazing foods in Atlanta, and the people are awesome.  They are friendly, helpful and willing to share ideas and recipes (as long as they are not the family secret recipes. 🙂

Anyway, at church they announced a Cornbread and Chili Cookoff.  Can we participate?  sure.  How hard can those be?  They are basic dishes that everyone has a version of, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.  So we teamed up with out friends (Chad and Becky), and we started researching Chili recipes.  There were a lot of them.  And I mean a LOT.  But we wanted it to be out own, so we started mixing and matching bits from different ones.  And we came up with what Chad called “Jeremiah 4:19 Chili” (read the verse if you want in on the joke, because it was HOT).  We made some mistakes along the way, and we didn’t get the spices perfect, but it was a good chili, just way too hot.  This recipe is not that chili.

This recipe is a Family Friendly Chili, one you can feed the kids, friends, neighbors, etc, without just catering to those manly men who line up to prove their strength and worth.  You guys know who you are, claiming it doesn’t hurt, then sneaking around the table to the bread in an attempt to slow the pain ripping at your throat.  Again, this is not that chili.  Everyone can enjoy.

We aimed for a meaty chili with just a hint of heat.  Go ahead and try it, I think you’ll like it.  And then you can change it and make it your own, because that’s what chili is all about: sharing, enjoying, and bragging whose is the best.  It’s what family secrets are made of. 🙂

 

Add tomatoes, bacon, and hamburger to the crockpot, and cook it until it is done, but not mush.  From frozen, on high, this took us abut 3-4 hours.  Or you can do low overnight.

chili chili

Chop the onions and green pepper, and saute them until soft or translucent.  Add to the meat in the crockpot, along with the beans, garlic, and jalapenos.  I drain them first, but if you want a little more spice leave the jalapenos juice, and for a less thick chili don’t drain the beans.  Last, add all the rest of the ingredients and stir them in.

chiliSimmer for a few hours.  Then mix the corn starch and cold water until there are no lumps, and stir it into the hot chili.  Then serve some hot, with sour cream and cheese, and enjoy!

Or refrigerate overnight and reheat.  That will allow the flavors to blend even more.  Then serve with sour cream and shredded cheese.  And enjoy.

chiliAnd, of course, modify it as you wish.

Edit:  yeah, I lost in a local chili cook-off.  Well, I came in fourth.  I talked to the judge after, and he was judging almost solely on chili powder flavor.  To him, a chili is all about that specific flavor, and mine wasn’t.  Feel free to spice this as you like; after all, food, like art, should be catered to it’s audience.

NOTE:  I have been informed by some of my friends that this is a “really spicy chili”.  Other friends answer that with “No way, it’s just enough heat to be a chili”.   I don’t think it is particularly spicy, and several of my kids enjoy it.  However, if you are not a fan of spice, and don’t want the jalapenos, you can leave them out or replace them with mild green chilis.  Or you can make it as listed and add a dollop of sour cream and some cheese to your bowl to mild it out a little.  Your mileage may vary, and everyone’s tastes are different.  As always, alter any of my recipes to your own taste, pallet, profile, etc.

Family Friendly Chili
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4 quarts
 
half alarm meaty chili aimed at families
Ingredients
  • 3 lbs hamburger
  • ½ lb bacon
  • 1 - 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

  • 3 - 15 oz cans beans (2 red kidney beans and 1 black beans)
  • 1 - 4 oz can diced jalapenos
  • 3 cloves garlic

  • 1 large onion
  • 1 green pepper

  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
  • ½ Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
  • ¾ teaspoon Oregano
  • ½ teaspoon Cumin
  • ⅜ teaspoon paprika (or smoked paprika)
  • 3/16 teaspoon thyme
  • 2 Tablespoons Corn Starch
  • 2 Tablespoon cold water
Instructions
  1. Chop up the bacon. Put bacon, hamburger and crushed tomatoes into a crock pot and cook until done falling apart, mixing together, but not all mush). Frozen hamburger can be on high for about 3-4 hours or low overnight)
  2. Once the meat is done, stir in the beans, jalapenos, and garlic. I drain the beans and jalapenos, but if you want a less thick chili don't drain the beans, and if you want a slightly spicier chili, don't drain the jalapenos.
  3. Chop the onions and green pepper and saute in a skillet until they are soft. Stir in to the chili.
  4. Add the rest of the ingredients (minus the corn starch and cold water) to the chili, and stir them in. If you can wait, let it simmer in the crockpot on high for an hour or two. Once the simmer part is done, mix the corn starch and cold water together until there are no lumps, and stir it into the hot chili.
  5. Serve with sour cream and cheese.
  6. If you want it even better, put it in the fridge overnight, and reheat it before serving. The flavors will blend and you will have a better chili.