Cafe World Challenge Week 41

I'm back in the kitchen. Did I ever leave? No not really, I just took off a week posting while travelling around visiting family over Christmas. Since I have two weeks worth of dishes to report on, this post will be longer than usual. I finished up four more dishes to cross off the list, although one is a new addition.

PITA AND DOLMAS

The Cafe World version has a pita stuffed with Falafel and Dolmas. I have previously made Falafel for the challenge, so I made Tabbouleh instead. It is a fantastic salad made from Bulgar wheat, tomatoes, green onions, parsley and mint with an olive oil and lemon juice dressing. I make it pretty regularly and just estimate quantities and taste. I found a recipe on SimplyRecipes.com which is pretty much exactly how I make mine. So check it out there, it would save me typing it all out.

I've never made dolmas/dolmadas/stuffed grape leaves/stuffed vine leaves...whatever you call them. I've always enjoyed them though and had fun making them. I was in the middle of a biscotti baking marathon for a cookie tray fundraiser, so I chose a crockpot recipe to keep pots off my stove and out of the way of the baking. They turned out great. I made this recipe on the Blog "A Year of Slow Cooking" . This blog is a great resource for crockpot recipes and tips. The year involved was 2008, but the blog is still kept current with new recipes and crockpot related posts. These dolmas are stuffed with a rice and ground lamb and turkey (I used chicken) mixture. Once you get the hang of it, the stuffing and rolling of the leaves is quite easy and fast. I still have a big jar of leaves left so I'll probably make these again.

ATOMIC BUFFALO WINGS

I used a Betty Crocker recipe, it was simple enough except for the whole deep frying in batches thing which takes forever if you don't have a great big pot or deep fryer. It is fried in a seasoned flour and then tossed in a hot butter sauce. I set aside some wings for the kids before coating mine in sauce, it was spicy but not atomic. My husband's were probably ATOMIC as he made up his own dipping sauce using all the remnants of his hot sauces. He loves HOT sauce and the hotter the better. I dipped mine in some yummy chunky blue cheese dressing.

WALDORF SALAD

As my regular readers know, I didn't grow up in North America so I am only vaguely aware of what constitutes a Waldorf salad. The Cafe World game had you gathering walnuts, celery and lettuce and I knew there had to be apples in there. So I came up with my own version, although after further investigation I suppose you couldn't really call mine a Waldorf salad at all. It doesn't have grapes or raisins and isn't in a mayonnaise dressing. But what the hell, no apologies, mine was good, better than good, it was superb!! After using a blue cheese dressing the night before for the wings, I got a craving for some good blue cheese.  So this is my version:

Jen's Apple & Walnut Salad:

A bag or about 12 handfuls of mixed salad greens
2 stalks celery sliced
1 small green apple cored and thinly sliced
1 small red apple cored and thinly sliced
1/4 cup walnut crumbs
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
Vinaigrette or dressing of choice (I used a zesty Italian)

Toss together greens, celery and apple. Sprinkle with walnuts and blue cheese.

BLOOD SAUSAGE

I bought a package of blood pudding and cooked it up with some mash and butternut. I remember blood pudding from my childhood. My dad would buy it and I remember enjoying it and considered it a special treat. I haven't eaten it since then and couldn't even remember what to expect. It was good-ish, although it is very rich and I think it should be eaten in small quantities. No recipe here, just a dish to cross off the list.

CAFE WORLD COOKBOOK ADDITIONS

I unlocked the Waldorf Salad and there is also a new cake - Gem Cake.

Next Up: I'm making Kung Pao Stir Fry this weekend.

Progress: 75/86

Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property

Cafe World Challenge Week 28

Despite starting a volunteer job this week, I actually managed two dishes. Although the lamb was made on the weekend when I had more time. I was exhausted after the first two day's work, but am now faring better and am having a fun and rewarding time after spending the last six years at home with the kids.




Rack of Lamb

There are so many flavour options with lamb: traditional with mint sauce or rosemary or North African/Middle Eastern spices, but I came across a recipe for Cranberry-crusted Rack of Lamb, which combines cranberry, sun dried tomato and thyme, and I thought, "Here's something different!" This actually describes my approach to recipe selection pretty well, I tend to decide the type of flavour (if this makes any sense) first, as in do I want plain, herby, spicy, fruity, rich, zesty or an interesting fusion. Then I either look what I have and make up my own dish or browse through the various sources and get inspiration.

The chosen recipe was delicious and my family really enjoyed this meal. The leftover lamb was a favourite as well, eaten as my son called it "Caveman"-style using the frenched bones as a grip to tear into the yummy lamb.



Clubhouse Sandwich

A Clubhouse or just Club Sandwich is one of my favourites. I must have mentioned before that I love bacon?? So for those that aren't familiar with this one, it's a combination of turkey (in some cases chicken), lettuce, tomato and bacon which are usually layered with three toasted bread slices, although many restaurants serve them in a sub (bread roll).

My Clubhouse sandwich was layered as follows, starting at the bottom:
1. Toasted bread
2. A healthy smear of Dijon mustard
3. Lettuce
4. Smoked Turkey deli meat
5. Toasted Bread
6. Mayonnaise
7. Bacon
8. Tomato, with a sprinkling of salt & pepper
9. Mayonnaise
10. Toasted bread

I then cut my sandwiches in triangles and speared them with a cocktail stick to hold them all together.

This makes a fantastic lunch, but I served mine for dinner with some garlic seasoned baked fries. My son actually loved it so much he's asking for the same for lunch everyday for school and he actually eats it....Hooray!!! I just skip the middle toast layer for his school lunch, his little 4 year old mouth doesn't quite handle the layers yet.



Up Next: Seriously!! Who knows, I'm still adjusting to working and have a very busy weekend too, but I'll make something. I've actually already picked out a Stuffed Turkey recipe for Thanksgiving in October (in Canada) and that is something to look forward to.

Progress: 53/80

Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property

Cafe World Challenge Week 15

I managed two dishes this week, something spicy and something sweet.

Although there have been no more additions to the basic cookbook this week, Cafe World has introduced an Advanced Cookbook for level 75 and up, but since I'm not at that level yet in the game I won't include them in the challenge....yet. I did take a glance on another website and there are only 4 dishes at the moment, Chicken Vindaloo (a HOT favourite), Osso Bucco, Confit de Canard and Kabayaki.






Lavish Lamb Curry

The Cafe World version had yogurt and uses ground lamb. I thought I'd use what I had at home and made a version of Lamb Madras instead. It is usually red in colour with lots of chili powder. You can change the amount of fresh chili and/ or chili powder used depending on the spiciness you prefer. If you want it hotter, keep the chili seeds in, otherwise remove them as most of the heat is in the seeds.

Lamb Madras

2 tbsp oil
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
red chillies (I used 1/2 fresh, hot chili deseeded)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 lb lamb (1 kg), cubed
sprigs of cilantro
large can tomatoes 28 oz (796 ml)
2 tbsp tomato paste
salt to taste

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add the lamb and cook until it is browned. Set aside.
Add the onion and fry for 5 minutes until translucent.
Add the garlic, chili powder, garam masala, red chillies and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the meat to the tomato mixture and cook for 30 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and cook for another 5 minutes. Add salt. Serve with rice and garnish with a sprig of cilantro.

This recipe was enough for us for two nights, so it would probably serve 4 people.




Delicious Chocolate Cake

Cherries were on sale this week and my big bag at home inspired me to make Black Forest Cake. It isn't the cake that Cafe World meant to be served, but it is chocolate, it is cake and boy is it delicious. If you want a really decadent Chocolate Cake I recommend using Martha Stewart's Moist Devil's Food Cake and be sure to use the frosting recipe too, it is too die for.

Another great recipe I've used is this one from a previous post.

I used the following chocolate cake recipe for mine, but use any chocolate cake recipe you like and then follow the construction steps, also the amount of cream etc you'll need will depend on the number of layers you make. This time I made just 2 layers, since I cut my first layer skew, but three layers is great.

Black Forest Cake

200g/ 7oz plain chocolate broken into squares
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3 eggs separated
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
3 tbsp Kirsch
2/3 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup ground almonds

Filling & topping:
Plain chocolate
3 tbsp Kirsch
425g/15 oz can stoned black cherries, drained with juiced reserved
2 cups whipping cream/ double cream, whipped
fresh cherries with stalks

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F. Grease or line with parchment paper, a 20 cm/ 8in round cake tin.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, keep stirring to mix. Remove from heat and leave until barely warm.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until thickened. Add chocolate mixture and the Kirsch. Fold in the flour and almonds. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until firm to touch.
Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out let cool on a wire rack. Use a long serrated knife to cut the cake horizontally into even layers.

Construction:
Mix the Kirsch with 6 tbsp of the reserved cherry juice. Place the bottom cake layer on your serving plate and sprinkle with 3 tbsp of the Kirsch syrup.
Spread cream over the sponge layer and scatter with the canned cherries. Place the next sponge layer on top and repeat adding kirsch syrup, cream and cherries until top sponge layer is added. Sprinkle top with kirsch syrup and top with cream. Use a potato peeler to make chocolate curls and sprinkle over top of cake. Top with fresh cherries.

Store any leftover cake in the fridge, since there is lots of cream involved and if you cannot find Kirsch, use brandy. If you don't want alcohol, you can leave it out, just drizzle the cake with the cherry juice.



Progress: 31/67

Next Up: Not sure...again.

* Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property.