Recipe: Hot Fudge Coconut Pudding

From Denny: We all know and love the folks over at the Hershey's Chocolate kitchens! As a child I learned to bake from their simple recipes and have been loving chocolate ever since. Are you as big a fan of chocolate and coconut as I am? Usually, when coconut is in a recipe I reduce the sugar level - here I would only use 1/3 cup as opposed to what the recipe calls for: 2/3 cup. Your sweetness level is your choice; some folks like things really sweet.



Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook

(Featured in the Romancing The Chocolate Amazon store, just click on the title. Found dozens of various Hershey chocolate cookbooks. These guys have been busy over the years! I have several of their books on my shelves.)

Hot Fudge Coconut Pudding

From: “Hershey’s Chocolate Treasury: A Special Collection From America’s Chocolate Authority”

Serves: 8 to 10

Ingredients:

1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 (3-1/8-oz.) pkg. vanilla pudding and pie filling mix, not the instant mix variety

3/4 cup flaked coconut

1-1/2 cups boiling water

Vanilla ice cream

Directions:

1. Combine flour, 2/3 cup sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt in large mixing bowl.

2. Blend in milk, oil and vanilla. Stir in nuts.

3. Spread in greased 8-inch square pan or 1-1/2-quart shallow baking dish.

4. Combine brown sugar, 1/4 cup sugar, dry pudding and pie filling mix and coconut; sprinkle over batter.

5. Carefully pour boiling water over mixture; do not stir. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Recipe: Refreshing Easy Gazpacho!

Gazpacho Version with Cucumber Image by Marco Veringa via Flickr

From Denny: In this triple digit summer heat wave we all could use something cooling like gazpacho - and it's so healthy! Did you know that tomatoes alkalize your blood? Did you know that cucumbers and tomatoes both cool your liver that in turn cools your body in this heat?

Varieties of gazpacho are practically endless. Here's one faster convenience food version that uses that yummy Spicy Hot V-8 juice that does most of the work for you.

Summertime Gazpacho

From: “Culinary Secrets” by Margo Bouanchaud Hayes and Mary Ann Monsour (featured in the Comfort Food From Louisiana Amazon store, just click on the title)

Makes: 6 cups

Ingredients:

3 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3 cups Spicy Hot V-8 Juice, divided

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I've used bottled lemon juice and haven't died of embarrassment from it)

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 cup finely chopped yellow bell pepper

1 cup peeled and finely chopped cucumber

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Garnish:

Avocado, peeled and cubed

Sour cream (I find no-fat version just as tasty)

Directions:

1. Process tomatoes and garlic in bowl of food processor.

2. Gradually add half of the V-8 juice and process until smooth.

Then add lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil and vinegar.

3. Pour mixture into another container, and add the bell pepper and cucumber. Stir well.

4. In batches, purée about three-fourths of the mixture until smooth. (Leave the last fourth unprocessed to have the contrasting texture).

5. Mix in the remaining V-8 juice, combining with the puréed batches and the unpuréed. Season to taste.

6. Serve well chilled, garnished with avocado and sour cream.

Recipe: Pineywoods Grillades and Grits

To purchase: Crescent City Farmers' Market Cookbook. This book has been placed in the Comfort Food From Louisiana blog store as Amazon has it for far less a price! Help support a farmers' market and cook wonderful recipes for your family: win-win.

Poppy Tooker is a long time New Orleans food instructor. She also has been a promoter, a culinary activist, of perserving the New Orleans food heritage like the century old dishes of Calas (Rice Cakes) and Creole cream cheese. She strongly supports the Crescent City Farmers Market in New Orleans and wrote this cookbook to help support the market.

The cookbook is 216 pages, published by marketumbrella.org and focuses upon telling the centuries long history of food markets in New Orleans since 1718 along the Mississippi River. Tooker founded the Slow Food Movement in New Orleans 11 years ago and her group is credited with helping revive the Farmers Market after Hurricane Katrina.

To purchase: Crescent City Farmers' Market Cookbook. This book has been placed in the Comfort Food From Louisiana blog store as Amazon has it for far less a price! Help support a farmers' market and cook wonderful recipes for your family: win-win.

What else is featured in this new cookbook? There are 125 featured recipes from New Orleans area chefs, local farmers and even shoppers who frequent the market! The forward is by famed food author and chef Alice Waters who also is a farmers' market advocate.

Pineywoods Grillades and Grits

From: New Orleans's Famous Chef Poppy Tooker, from “Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook”

Serves: 6 - 10, depending upon your appetite!


Ingredients:

3 lbs. round steak

Flour (for dusting steak)

Bacon drippings or oil (for sautéing steak)

1/4 cup bacon drippings or oil

1/4 cup flour

1 onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 (1-lb.) can crushed tomatoes

1 bay leaf

1 clove garlic, minced (we add about 5 cloves garlic at our house)

1/2 tsp. thyme

Salt and pepper

Cayenne pepper

Hot cooked grits (or rice at our house)

Directions:

1. Dust steaks with flour and sauté in bacon drippings until browned on both sides. Remove steaks from pan and keep warm; deglaze the pan with water, then pour pan juices into a bowl and reserve.

2. Put drippings and flour in skillet and cook, stirring constantly, to make a dark roux.

3. Add onion, then celery and bell pepper; sauté until vegetables are translucent. Add reserved pan juices, tomatoes, bay leaf, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper and cayenne; mix well. Simmer at least 10 minutes.

4. Add steaks and simmer over low heat until steaks are fork tender. Serve with grits.

Note: Grillades recipes often cut the steak into serving pieces. Chef Tooker prefers to leave them whole. Others like to cut the steak into strips like we do at home because sometimes your skillet isn't large enough to leave the steak whole or in large pieces! Personally, I like to brown the meat on more sides for that wonderful caramelization browned taste.

To purchase: Crescent City Farmers' Market Cookbook. This book has been placed in the Comfort Food From Louisiana blog store as Amazon has it for far less a price! Help support a farmers' market and cook wonderful recipes for your family: win-win.

Thank you for visiting and have a great weekend!

Video: Helping the Amazon Forest by Growing Chocolate!

From Denny: In case you missed this wonderful story on NBC News the other night, here it is. Businessman Steve McDonnell is helping a group of people in the Amazon grow cacao and make chocolate. This is one way to help preserve the rain forest and improve the lives of people in Ecuador. The farmers have formed a co-op to get better prices for their cacao beans. Their goal is to become popular chocolate competitors with the Americans and Europeans.

It is amazing that everyone wins here from the farmer to the consumer - even the planet - for slowing down de-forestation of the Amazon rain forest!

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