Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 (34 page)

OPTIONAL GARNISH

freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Make scampi sauce by melting butter in a preheated pan over medium/low heat. Add 2 tablespoons minced white onions and saute for 2 to 4 minutes or until the onion begins to brown. If the butter begins to burn, turn down the heat. When the onion is beginning to brown, add the minced garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. Don’t let the garlic burn. After about 30 seconds add the wine, salt, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and black pepper, and bring mixture to a simmer. Simmer for approximately 15 to 18 minutes or until the sauce has reduced by half. Add parsley and heavy cream and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. Do not let mixture reach a boil.

2. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the angel hair pasta and cook for about 4 minutes or until pasta is al dente, or mostly tender with just a slight toughness. Drain the pasta in a colander or sieve when done, then hit it with some cold water to prevent sticking and to keep it from cooking further

3. If preparing all four servings, preheat the oil in 2 large skillets over medium heat (if making just 2 servings, you’ll need only one skillet and half of the total ingredients—save the rest for another meal). Lightly salt and pepper the chicken tenderloins, then coat each one in the flour that has been measured into a large bowl. Arrange all of the coated tenderloins on a plate before sautéing 6 tenderloins in each pan. Cook the tenderloins for 3 to 5 minutes on one side or until golden brown.

4. When the chicken is brown on one side, flip each of the pieces, and move them to the side of the pans, then add an even amount of the sliced peppers and chopped red onion to the center of each skillet. Continue cooking the chicken and vegetables for 4 to 6 minutes or until the chicken is browned and the veggies are beginning to brown on the edges.

5. Divide the scampi sauce in half and pour it over the chicken and other ingredients in each pan. Add 2 portions of pasta to each pan, then toss everything a bit and continue to cook for a couple minutes or until the pasta is heated through. Prepare each dish by serving equal amounts of pasta onto each of four plates. Use a spoon or tongs to add the peppers and onion on top of each pile of pasta. Arrange three chicken tenderloins onto the center of the pasta.

6. Sprinkle each plate with about ½ teaspoon of fresh parsley and serve it up with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

1 18.25-ounce box dark
chocolate or chocolate fudge
coke mix (not too moist)
1
¼
cups water
⅓ cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons cherry extract
vegetable shortening

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

1 ½
cups butter, softened
(3 sticks)
4 cups powdered sugar
¼
cup milk
½
teaspoon vanilla extract

 

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chilled

1. Make the cake in a 13x9-inch baking pan following instructions on the box of cake mix, but add cherry extract to the mix. (Preheat oven to 350 degrees; mix cake mix, water, oil, and eggs together in a large bowl; pour batter into pan greased generously with shortening.) Allow the cake to cool completely.

2. When cake is cool, make buttercream frosting by first whipping the soft butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed. Add two cups of the powdered sugar, mix well, then add remaining powdered sugar. Add ¼ cup of whole milk and vanilla, then mix on high speed for 2 minutes or until frosting is smooth and creamy.

3. Turn cake out of the pan onto wax paper. Using both hands, carefully flip the cake over, so that it’s right-side up, onto another strip of wax paper. Now you’re going to cut through the cake twice, creating three layers. We’ll start at the bottom slice. First slide the cake over to the edge of your kitchen counter. This way you can drop your hand with the knife down below the counter at the edge to get a nice, straight cut through the cake. Using a long bread knife or other long serrated knife, cut through the bottom third of the cake. Spin the cake and wax paper so that you can cut through all sides (your knife probably won’t get all the way through to the other side). When the cake is sliced, carefully flip the top section over onto the other sheet of wax paper Frost the bottom layer of cake with approximately ⅓ of the buttercream frosting. Break the chilled semi-sweet chocolate into little bits that are a tad smaller than chocolate chips. A good way to do this is to put the chilled chocolate into a large zip-top bag, then use the handle of a butter knife to smash the unsuspecting chocolate into pieces. Sprinkle about ⅓ of the chocolate bits over the frosting on the bottom layer.

4. Turn the top section back over onto the bottom layer Again, slice through the top section creating the final two layers. Carefully flip the top over onto the wax paper, and frost the new layer as you did with the first layer, adding chocolate bits as well. You may, at this point, wish to slice the top into thirds across the width of the cake. This makes flipping over the top layer much easier. It’s also how you’re going to slice the cake later, so you’ll never see the cuts. Any cracks or breaks are no big deal since you’ll just cover up the goofs with frosting.

5. Carefully reassemble the top section on the rest of the cake. If you have a large bulge in the center of the cake, you may wish to slice that off so that the cake is flatter on top. Throw that slice away. Frost the top of the cake with the remaining frosting, then sprinkle on the remaining chocolate bits.

6. The cake is served as triangular slices. So, slice it up by first cutting through the middle of the cake, lengthwise. Next cut across the cake through the middle (widthwise) twice. Now you have six slices that just need to be cut from corner to corner one time each, creating 12 triangular slices. Chill any cake you don’t eat that day.

¼
cup hot espresso
¼ cup granulated sugar
¾
ounce Tuaca liqueur
¾
ounce Kahlua liqueur
1 cup vanilla ice cream
I
cup ice

GARNISH

whipped cream

cocoa

1. Make espresso syrup by combining hot espresso with granulated sugar.

2. When espresso syrup is cool, make drink by combining ½ ounce of the espresso syrup with Tuaca, Kahlua, vanilla ice cream and ice in a blender on high speed and blend until smooth. Serve in a tall 16-ounce glass, with whipped cream on top. Sprinkle a little cocoa on top of the whipped cream (tap it through a mesh strainer), and serve drink with a straw.