Smoked Garlic Chicken

This is going to require you to get...ah...familiar with a chicken.

You need:

A smoker!

1 whole chicken, washed, patted dry and rubbed inside with salt (I use sea salt)
4 heads of garlic, peeled. Mince half, the the rest of the cloves whole.
2 whole heads of garlic, intact

Grab your chicken. (I said GRAB, you pervert. Sheesh.)



Slide your fingers underneath the skin to separate it from the meat. Stuff the minced garlic all over under the skin.

Mmmmm...garlic...

Prepare your smoker, and add two whole heads of garlic to the chips.



Set your rack to the middle, put the chicken in, rub the skin with garlic, put the lid on, and smoke until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees F. This is usually three hours, but will vary by smoker and method.

Let's finish that Tiramisu

Got the cheese and cream and egg whites folded? OK!

Dip ladyfingers into rum, cover the bottom of a small dish with them. Lightly dust with wasabi powder (use a sifter). Spread one third of the cheese mixture, then dust lightly with wasabi powder.

See the pale green?

Repeat lady fingers and cheese layers twice, then cover the top with grated chocolate (we're using ScharffenBerger 99%).



Refrigerate 3 or 4 hours, until set.

Wasabi Tiramisu

A few years ago, we visited Philadelphia, and went to Iron Chef Morimoto's restaurant for some the best sushi and desserts ever! Wasabi Tiramisu is Morimoto-san's signature dessert. Let's see if I can do it justice.

4 eggs, separated
1/6 cup sugar
1/2 pound mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup rum
wasabi powder
grated chocolate

Blend sugar and egg yolks until the yolks are pale yellow, then slowly add mascarpone a bit at a time, blending til smooth. Continue blending and add about 1/8 tsp. wasabi powder.



In a separate bowl, whip egg whites til stiff peaks form, set aside.

In another bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form.



Fold cream into egg and cheese mixture, then fold in egg whites. Be careful, so the whites don't collapse!

More to come...

:Ladyfingers

Some dishes require a little advance preparation. For the next dish, a cheese dish, we'll need ladyfingers. Let's use the Cordon Bleu's recipe:

Eggs, 3 separated
6 tbs Granulated Sugar
3/4 cup Cake Flour, sifted.
6 tbs Confectioner's Sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then brush 2 baking sheets with softened butter and line with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites with a whisk or electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
Gradually beat in the granulated sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form again; the meringue will be glossy and smooth..




Lightly beat the egg yolks with a fork, and fold into the meringue with a wooden spoon.
Sift the flour over the mixture and fold in gently.



Pipe the ladyfingers: Fit the pastry bag with the large plain tip and fill with the ladyfinger batter.
Pipe strips of batter 5 in. long and 3/4 in. wide diagonally onto the baking sheets, leaving 1 to 2 in. between each strip.
Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers; wait 5 minutes and sprinkle with the remaining sugar.
Holding the parchment paper in place with your thumb, lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess confectioner's sugar.Bake without opening the oven door for 10 min.
Then, rotate the baking sheet so the ladyfingers color evenly.
Cook until lightly golden, about 5 more minutes.
Remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and let cool on a rack.

More to come....

Crepes, continued!

Got crepes? Fill them with:

Filling

1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tbs dark cocoa
1 shot of chocolate liquer

Beat cream, cocoa and liquer on high with a hand mixer til frothy, then slowly add powdered sugar until cream is thick and begins to stiffen. (Adjust the powdered sugar to suit your own tastes, of course. You may want more for a stiffer filling.)



Garnish with:



Grated chocolate. We're using ScharffenBerger 99%!

Chocolate crepes with chocolate cream

Let's have breakfast! Chocolate crepes with chocolate cream filling are a great way to start a Saturday!

To begin, we'll make the Crepes:

3/4 cup + 3 tbs flour
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 tbs oil
1/4 tsp salt


Blend all ingredients thoroughly with a whisk or mixer.



Heat a 6 inch skillet over medium heat, oil lightly. Spoon in about 2 tbs batter, tilting skillet to cover the bottom.



Brown on one side only, flip out onto waxed paper or paper towel. Repeat!

Meet the Chefs!

Welcome to Iron Chef Moo! A la Cuisine! (Wait, what? You thought it was "Allez Cuisine?" Actually, it isn't. It was a typo in the book, and it has rather persisted. Listen carefully next time you watch the show!)

Iron Chef Moo is actually three people - myself (Missy)



...and my two Monsters, Alex and Ernie....




We're here today for Blogathon, a 24 hour blogging marathon to raise money for charity. Our charity of choice is the National Kidney Foundation, which we'll talk about a little later.

Blogathon is a really big deal for us this year. Three days ago, on July 25th, my best friend received a kidney transplant at Stanford. He and his Dad - his awesome living donor - are doing well. David is expected to be released from the hospital today, to convalesce at his mother's house for a few weeks before returning to his own home in Mountain View.

So what's in store today? You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so you're just going to have to watch things as they unfold. We'll be preparing 3 or 4 dishes featuring each of 4 theme ingredients chosen by some of our early sponsors - cheese, chocolate, wine and garlic! We'll also be including a couple bonus dishes featuring ingredients we had hoped would make the cut, but didn't.

Stick around. There will be live cooking with pictures, recipes and everything. We had hoped to post a few videos, but that might not happen. Ah, well.

While I'm up here rambling, let me give a HUGE shout out to my fabulous monitor, Laci! Laci is wandering around with a big poky stick to keep us all awake, as well as blogging herself for WHAS Crusade for Children. Hi Laci!!

Y'all ready for this? Yeah? Let's do it.

A LA CUISINE!!

The Auction has begun!

Love Iron Chef? Wish you could BE an Iron Chef? Just want to get your mitts on some of the recipes?

Now is your chance! For the next 24 hours, you have a chance to bid on Iron Chef - The Official Book! Of course, all proceeds go to the National Kidney Foundation!

Bid here!

One hour til Blogathon begins!

The Ingredient Poll is now closed

...and the theme ingredients are:

-- Cheese
-- Chocolate
-- Wine
-- Garlic

So how does this work? It does NOT work by me combining all of these ingredients in one dish. Come on, people. You've seen Iron Chef, you know how it works! Each one of these ingredients will be featured in three or four dishes designed to showcase their flavors. Some of the "also rans" will also make appearances - but I'm not going to tell you how yet!

Tune in on Saturday!

Sign-ups are OPEN!

Blogathon sponsor sign ups are now OPEN! HOORAY!

Hey, brother (sister!), can you spare a dollar? Twenty-four hours of posting, forty-nine posts. A whole bunch of recipes and a good time will be had by all!

Sponsors who pledge $5 or more will receive a link in the sidebar to their blog, website or forum. Sponsors who pledge $10 or more will get to vote in the sponsors only poll to choose 4 theme ingredients from a list for Blogathon Day - Alex, Ernie and I will be playing Iron Chef, and cooking dishes throughout the day a la Iron Chef, documenting as we go with posts and photos. Want to have a say in what we cook with? Pledge $10 and I'll send you the poll link!

We'll also be auctioning off a copy of Iron Chef: The Official Book, with the proceeds of the auction going to the National Kidney Foundation.