Mocha Rum Cake from Epicurious

Love, love, love Epicurious recipes.  Always delicious. 

This cake is no exception.  It's in my "personal" dessert cookbook, but I've no idea where it came from.  Likely Gourmet or Bon Appetít. Aha!  Actually, Gourmet, 1994.  From back in the day.

Half a cake is better than none.  OK, a bunch of people ate some before I thought of taking a photo.  It is dense and dark and chocolaty.  Kind of a pain in the butt to make, but most wonderful things require some degree of effort. 

Here is the recipe:

Mocha Rum Cake from Epicurious:

Gourmet Magazine, 1994

Ingredients

   

• cocoa powder for dusting
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 pound fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped    
• 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/3 cup dark rum
• 2 cups strong brewed coffee
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, beaten lightly
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• confectioners' sugar for dusting
• lightly sweetened whipped cream
•  
•  

Preparation

1.  
1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Butter a 4 1/2-inch-deep (12-cup) Kugelhupf or bundt pan and dust with cocoa powder, knocking out excess.  Butter well!

2. In a bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Remove chocolate from heat and stir in rum, coffee, and granulated sugar. With an electric mixer beat in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down side, and beat in eggs and vanilla until batter is combined well. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake cake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 50 minutes. Let cake cool completely in pan on a rack and turn it out onto rack. Cake may be made 3 days in advance and kept wrapped well and chilled.
1.  

2.     Dust cake with confectioners' sugar and serve with whipped cream.

Notes:  Make sure pan is well-buttered, so cake won’t stick.  I used 3 4oz. bars of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate.  Used a very potent dark rum.  Made instant coffee from Megdalia D’oro expresso.

                       

Hash Brown Brunch Casserole

I took this dish to a potluck brunch Sunday, hoping to have plenty to take home. The remains were scanty, and we scarfed them down with an unseemly eagerness. The French Fried onions make the dish, imho, so no substitute. I followed the lazy path with pre-shredded cheese which was fortuitously on sale.

This would also work for any evening meal where a large piece of meat is present. Don't add salt. The cheese and onions are salty enough. On the website, there are 247 comment about this dish, most of them totally positive. Someone carped about the fat. Oh well, there's always spoil sports. The nutrition nazis are such a bore.

Yowsa! Hash Brown Brunch Casserole

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Hash-Brown-Brunch-Casserole-886

Grapeshot, who is still licking her chops

Wild Atlantic Salmon

O.K., I'm a salmon snob, which is to say I like the wild salmon, not the farm raised mushy, strong/strange tasting fish.

Today at Roche Brothers in Wellesley, there was a fantastic looking piece of wild salmon. Kids, they don't give it away, and after I told the guy behind the fish counter to wrap it up, I damn near fainted when I looked at the price tag. Yikes!

The first thought had been to smoke it, but then it would taste like smoked salmon, good, to be sure, but it seemed too fine a fish to just smoke.

In mid-afternoon, I went thru my recipes, and nothing appealed. It was also raining buckets. I googled around and found Epicurious recipe for lime-grilled salmon with lime butter sauce. Shoot, we had limes and butter and salmon. I even had my few fancy plane grater like they use on the food channel.

Got busy again. Pretty soon it seemed like a good idea to start dinner. Ooops! Why is it so dark? Because the sun had set. I hustled about fixing the rice and broocoli and grating the lime rind with my new grater, careful not to mix in any bits of knuckle. No need for extra protein tonight.

The lime butter sauce went together quickly. Pitch dark now, raining dripping from the leaves, Significant Other's back out most mysteriously, and the fire just about ready. Put lantern out by grill. Puny insufficient light.

Take flashlight, timer, and fish to deck. S.O. puts fish on the grill. Timing to the minute. Turn fish. More timing. Fire kind of wimpy, fish not done. Or is it? Take flashlight to grill and inspect. Yes! Perfect. Carry fish gingerly into house, careful not to fall up stairs, or do anything really stupid like drop fish.

Cover with foil, bring food to the table. Sprinkle lime zest and lime butter sauce on fish. Looking truly succulent.

We eat!

Yowza, this is one for the books, but in a good way. Enough left for tomorrow. Sauce is dynamite. Salmon is moist and tastes like it should.

Bring in lantern, timer, tongs, spatlula, and whatever else was left in the dark. Remind self to get an earlier start now that the days grow short.

Feel virtuous for having a good well-balanced meal. No dessert tonight.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/GRILLED-SALMON-WITH-LIME-BUTTER-SAUCE-1222181

Grapeshot

Ratatouille

We are eagerly seeking out recipes that begin, "take 2.5 pounds of tomatoes, and . . . " Ratatouille is a great side, because the recipe calls for all the veggies that are in season in your garden or at the farm stand. I made a big pot this week and it was delicioso. Muy.

Tomtoes from your garden are best. We also had green pepper and basil. Oh, it was lovely. Julie Child has a great recipe, but it is a pain to make. Use lots of garlic and olive oil. A spoonful or two of capers add interest.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/RATATOUILLE-108350

Epicurious will not lead you wrong.

Grapeshot

Food Dictionary

After the salad nicoise and the strawberry bavarian cream, I thought you might like to have a food dictionary. Be prepared. Look up those obscure terms your foodie friends are tossing about. Be informed. Find recipes.

http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/

So far, however, I have not been able to find an orange Bavarian cream recipe which pleases me. Will dig through old cookbooks. Nothing like having a mission.

Grapeshot