Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 (31 page)

BOOK: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2

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MIMI’S CAFE CARROT RAISIN BREAD

It’s dark, moist and delicious, and it comes in a breadbasket to your table at this French-themed West Coast casual restaurant chain. Now the tastiest carrot bread ever can be yours to create at home with a couple of grated carrots, molasses, raisins and chopped walnuts. You’ll be baking this one in the oven for at least an hour. That should be enough time to warm up the house and send amazing smells wafting through every room. Line the carpet with newspaper to catch the family drool.

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
I cup vegetable oil
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
3 eggs
3 tablespoons molasses
I teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded carrot
¼
cup crushed pineapple
1 cup raisins
¾ cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3. In another bowl, combine oil, sugar, eggs, molasses, and vanilla with an electric mixer. Add shredded carrot and pineapple and mix. Add raisins and walnuts and mix well by hand.

4. Pour flour mixture into the other ingredients and stir until combined.

5. Pour batter into two greased 8-inch loaf pans. Bake for 60 minutes, or until done.

• MAKES 2 LOAVES.

MIMI’S CAFE CORN CHOWDER

Arthur Simms was in the restaurant business for many years before he opened the first Mimi’s Cafe with his son, Tom, in Anaheim, California in 1978. Back in the Golden Age of Hollywood Arthur was the guy running things in the MGM Studios commissary where, on any given day, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable and Judy Garland might stop in for a grazing. Arthur named his New Orleans-influenced, bistro-style restaurant after a woman he met and fell in love with in Paris during the war. Today it’s Tom who runs the show at this growing 93-unit chain where regulars return for the staple favorites including the French Market Onion Soup (on page 230), Carrot Raisin Bread (on page 225) and the delicious Corn Chowder, cloned here.

2 tablespoons butter
2 large celery stalks, chopped
(about ½ cups)
½ cup diced white onion
4 cups water
1 russet potato, peeled and cut
into ½-inch cubes (about
2 cups)
1 bay leaf
1 15-ounce can cream-style corn
(with liquid)
1 15-ounce can whole kernel corn
(with liquid)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon ground white pepper
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups half-and-half

GARNISH
minced fresh parsley

1. Sauté celery and onion in the butter for 5 minutes in a large saucepan or stock pot. Don’t brown.

2. Add 4 cups of water, chopped potato, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add creamed corn (with liquid), canned whole corn (with liquid), sugar, salt, and white pepper and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Combine flour with half-and-half and stir until smooth. Add this mixture to the soup and simmer for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until thick.

5. Serve by spooning a I-cup portion into a small bowl and sprinkle a little minced fresh parsley on top.

• MAKES 2 QUARTS (EIGHT I -CUP SERVINGS).

MIMI’S CAFE FRENCH MARKET ONION SOUP

You might not think that a tough World War II flying ace would open a restaurant called “Mimi’s,” but that’s exactly what happened in the 1970s. Arthur J. Simms flew spy missions over France during the war and helped liberate a small French town near Versailles. After the war, Arthur ran the commissary at MGM studios in Hollywood, stuffing the bellies of big-time celebs like Judy Garland, Clark Gable and Mickey Rooney. He later joined his son, Tom, in several restaurant ventures including one called “French Quarter” in West Hollywood. This was the prototype for the French-themed Mimi’s Cafe. In 1978, the first Mimi’s opened in Anaheim, California. Today there are over 90 Mimi’s in the chain with a new one opening every other week; all of them serving this amazing French onion soup that’s topped with not one, not two ... three different cheeses. Oui!

¼ cup butter
3 medium white onions, sliced
3
14-ounce
cans beef broth
(Swanson is best)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons Kraft grated
Parmesan cheese
6 to 12 slices French bread
(baguette)
6 slices Swiss cheese
6 slices mozzarella cheese
6 tablespoons shredded Parmesan
cheese

1. Saute onions in melted butter in a large soup pot or saucepan for 15 to 20 minutes or until onions begin to brown and turn transparent.

2. Add beef broth, salt and garlic powder to onions. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for I hour. Add the grated Parmesan cheese in the last 10 minutes of cooking the soup.

3. When soup is done, preheat oven to 350 degrees and toast the French bread slices for about 10 to 12 minutes or until they begin to brown. When bread is done, set oven to broil.

4. Build each serving of soup by spooning about 1 cup of soup into an oven-safe bowl. Float a toasted slice or two of bread on top of the soup, then add a slice of Swiss cheese on top of that. Place a slice of mozzarella on next and sprinkle I tablespoon of shredded Parmesan cheese over the top of the other cheeses.

5. Place the soup bowl on a baking sheet and broil for 5 to 6 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown.

• MAKES 6 SERVINGS.

OLIVE GARDEN LIMONCELLO LEMONADE

Need a simple cocktail for a hot day when the thought of lemonade makes your mouth water? Try this one. You start crafting this new signature blender drink by making lemon syrup from scratch from lemon juice, sugar and water. Track down some limoncello—an Italian lemon liqueur—and Smirnoff citrus vodka (or your favorite citrus vodka). Now you’re just a press of the blender button away from being refreshed.

¼ cup hot water
¼ cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 ounce Smirnoff citrus vodka
1 ounce limoncello liqueur
4 ounces lemonade (Minute Maid
or Country Time)
I to 2 cups ice

GARNISH
slice of lemon

1. Make lemon syrup by combining hot water, sugar and lemon juice.

2. When syrup is cool, make drink by combining ¾ ounce of lemon syrup with citrus vodka, limoncello, lemonade and ice in a blender. Blend on high speed until ice is crushed. Start with one cup of ice and add additional ice, if needed, to make drink slushy. Serve in a 16-ounce glass with a straw and a thin slice of lemon on the rim of the glass.

• MAKES I DRINK.