Monday, 8/2/2010

The last time I purchased chicken breasts from the grocery store, I neglected to notice the fine print that noted that they came with rib meat. I thought I was purchasing just chicken breasts. Oh well--I made the most of it by cutting off the extra meat and then chopping and freezing it. Tonight, I used that chopped chicken to make burritos. It thawed pretty quickly and required no knife or cutting board cleaning today! I cooked the chicken in a skillet with vegetable oil until no longer pink, added a packet of Lawry's Chicken Taco seasoning and 3/4 cups of water. After the water evaporated a bit, we had tasty meat for our burritos. In the Ackers house, burritos are just meat, hot sauce, and melted cheddar cheese. Ah, simple and good:) We had corn on the side.

And for dessert...homemade vanilla ice cream and blackberry cobbler! Our neighbor's back yard is almost completely engulfed in blackberry bushes. Although we don't like them invading our property, we don't mind if a few berry laden branches make their way over the fence each year. While my parents were visiting, my dad picked a bowl full of berries for me to use. I tried a new cobbler recipe and it was pretty good. Ben liked it and his was the most important opinion here:)
I got it from the cookbook titled "Basic Baking" by Sebastian Dickhaut, Jennifer Newens, and Cornelia Schinharl.



BLACKBERRY COBBLER

Makes 8 servings

For the filling:
4 cups fresh blackberries
1/2 cup sugar, or more or less to taste
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon

For the topping:
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter
1 cup whipping cream, plus more for serving if desired
1 tablespoon coarse sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. For the filling, pick over the berries to remove any leaves and other foreign material. Put the berries in a bowl and toss them with the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon zest; set aside.

2. For the topping, put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and mix well. Cut the butter into small cubes. Put the butter cubes into the flour mixture and, with a fork or your fingers, blend the mixture until it resembles cornmeal. Slowly add the 1 cup of cream, mixing just until the batter is moistened.

3. Pour the fruit into a 10-inch pie or springform pan. It's a good idea to put the pan on a foil-lined baking sheet to catch any drips--it's better than cleaning out the oven! Spoon the topping over the fruit, letting some space remain between sections of topping. Sprinkle with the coarse sugar.

4. Bake the cobbler for 15 to 20 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbly.

A couple comments about the cobbler. The topping was pretty thick. It was a nice golden brown after 20 minutes, but was still doughy next to the berries. Ben didn't mind that at all. It didn't taste bad, but I felt like it was supposed to be completely cooked. I used a heart shaped pie plate my mother-in-law Jennifer gave me at my bridal shower. I should mention, blackberry cobbler is one of Ben's favorite desserts. It seemed like a good time to use the plate:) Also, you wouldn't think that zest from 1/2 a lemon would impact the flavor much, but it really did add a lemon flavor to the whole dish. Although I didn't mind the lemon flavor, I would have preferred a little less. All in all, it was a nice cobbler, which I'm sure we will completely consume. However, I think I will try to make one more cobbler with a different recipe before the blackberry season is complete.

Oh, and the ice cream recipe came with my Kitchen Aide Mixer ice cream attachment. Pretty basic...lots of egg yolks, half & half, whipping cream, vanilla extract, a little salt...churn, churn, churn...freeze, freeze, freeze:) So nice over a warm bowl of cobbler!