Laser Inspired Recipes (Or your favorites)

Everything Else
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HI friends-- a little late to the table, but here’s a recipe I’ve been “focusing” on this year:

“Not Neva’s Rum Balls”

My mom made rum balls every December when I was growing up in the '60s. Haven’t had once since, but this year I was feeling nostalgic. Not a big fan of rum or black walnuts, so I decided to doctor this recipe…

Ingredients

1 cup pecans
8 ounces vanilla wafers, enough to make 2 cups
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa, divided
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, divided
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup bourbon

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Spread the pecans on a cookie sheet, and place in the oven for 3 minutes. Toss the nuts and bake for another 3 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when they give off their fragrant aroma, don’t overbake or let them char!

Use a food processor to chop the vanilla wafers into crumbs and set aside. Process the toasted pecans until finely chopped.

In a medium bowl, mix together the crumb-pecan mixture, 1/4 cup of the cocoa, and 1/4 cup of the confectioners’ sugar. Add the corn syrup and bourbon. Mix thoroughly.

The mixture will seem too dry to form into balls, but resist the temptation to add more liquid. Seriously.

Form the crumb mixture into 3/4-inch balls and roll them between your palms, compressing them to form a tight ball. A #50 cookie scoop is just about perfect for portion control.

Place them on a baking sheet to rest until the outer layer is almost dry. The time will depend on your local humidity. Here in Colorado it take about an hour.

Combine the remaining confectioner’s sugar and cocoa and sift over the bourbon balls. If the mix “melts” onto the surface, they are still too wet. Wait a bit and try again.

Store in an air-tight container for up to 5 days. This is a swag guess — none of the batches to-date have lasted that long! By the way, the alcohol evaporates fairly quickly, so they should be kid-safe.

Happy holidays, my friends!

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Oh yum! :yum: (but why would you want to evaporate the bourbon…that’s the best part…)
I’m gonna post a great one tomorrow if I get time…might have to just link to the online recipe.

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You can use a pressure canner on many electric stoves, for what it’s worth. Just need to check with the manufacturer.

Tonight I did bison in mole for tacos. 24 hours in the immersion circulator at ~ 56. The mole poblano I made yesterday.

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This is how we canned tomatoes in my youth.

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Do you sous vide? I’m expecting an Anova circulator in about four days–can’t wait!

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yap. i wanted to do bison in the water bath because it has next to no fat, so it’s easy to cook a tough piece of steak. this was about a day, maybe closer to 18 hours at 56C. looking back i dont think i’d ever cook it higher than that - this was nearly perfect, with a nice amount of chew (i could see potentially cooking it for 36-ish hours tho to see if you can get that pull apart texture as the connective tissue degrades)

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Awesome. Your photo certainly makes it look tender. Is there a sous vide resource you would recommend for recipes and techniques?

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You will love your Anova! We’ve had ours for two years and use it all the time.

Anova has great recipes, plus Kenji over at Serious Eats has published heaps of sous vide guides.

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chefsteps although they are of the breed of hipster chefs that don’t cook chicken enough in my opinion (you can pasteurize meat at pretty low temps making it safe to eat but perhaps less palatable in texture).

i like kenjis things too, as well as of course modernist cuisine at home and the mc book writ large.

also there’s the classic thomas keller under pressure.

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Thanks @jrnelson and @dwardio!

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Agreed! I cook chicken breasts at 69°C for an hour. Traditional texture, but unbelievably moist.

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The Hanukkah Latke Recipe Challenge

Confession time…I think I’ve got the best tasting latke recipe on the planet. Probably not a traditional recipe, but it is a “curl your toes” kind of good. :yum:

I invite those who know more than I do to prove me wrong by posting your secret family recipes below… if I’m wrong, we all still win with this deal!

Game on! :sunglasses:

Tools:

Micro plane shredder - medium fine rasp or Julienne peeler (better for long strands)
Bowls of Ice Cold salted water
Collander or fine mesh strainer
Onion Goggles (Optional - but also quite handy)
Foil lined Baking Tray with gridded cookie cooling rack on it

Ingredients:

4 large peeled baking potatoes
1 small white onion, peeled
1 secret ingredient golden (or red) delicious apple - cored but unpeeled
2 large eggs - beaten
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
2 TBS flour
1 TBS potato starch
coarse salt to taste
black pepper

vegetable oil for frying

Add-Ons:

apple sauce
sour cream
powdered sugar (ain’t bad)
Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup (yeah, I know…it’ll never catch on)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 250°F. Stick the baking tray and cookie rack in there to give you a place to stash the first latkes while you finish up the rest.

Grate or shred the potatoes into long thin strips over a bowl of cold salted water. Shred the secret ingredient into another bowl of water. Grate or shred the onion into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, 1/4 cup water, flour, starch, salt and pepper, and mix well. Add a bit more water if needed to get a nice paste consistency.

Drain the potatoes and secret squirrel ingredient, and mix in well to coat.

Heat 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in a heavy skillet to medium high heat.

Once it’s hot, spoon 1/2 cup of mixture into pan for each cake. (Don’t let them touch each other.) Fry until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.

They’re good with all of the add-ons above, depending on your mood. Sometimes I have one of each. :yum:

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Boy, that does sound good!

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The “secret ingredient” balances it with just a touch of sweet… :wink:

Okay, seriously, is no one going to play potato cakes with me?

(Probably left it too late…everybody’s gone! Guess tomorrow’s waay to late for Christmas cookies.)
:confused: Pooh!

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Okay…gonna post the Christmas Cookies anyway…they’re too good not to share…

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mm, do love shortbread - i made a couple batches with rosemary this year.

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I love latkes, but when I want to get crazy in the kitchen for chanukah it’s usually with yeast jelly-filled donuts.

That said I have a new idea for this year…

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Yes, that has always been one of our cookie staples around here. Also called Mexican Wedding cookies. Or, how our family has always called them, “Dog-dirt Cookies.” (Can’t imagine why.) :smile:

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It has to be something laser-inscribed. Or you made the mold on a laser. Or something.

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:musical_score::musical_note:We are the champions, my friend…:musical_note: :smile:

Only ever had one gal pal come close to matching that one - her family recipe used yellow and zucchini squash. It was pretty good too.

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