An afternoon of cooking with Kenwood
This week’s Hot Home column in the Saturday Toronto Star is all about test driving the Kenwood Cooking Chef with Sandra Bellomo, the company’s North American training and demonstration manager. Here are the recipes we made. They’re written for those lucky enough to own this $2,000 machine, but a competent home chef could easily adapt. Look at the post below for a separate gallery of shots from our afternoon of cooking.
Drunken Snowman Cocktail
Ingredients
- 2 scoops vanilla ice-cream
- 1 cup ice
- 3 oz. vanilla vodka
- 3 oz. Bailey’s Original
- 3 oz. Peppermint Schnapps
Combine ice-cream, ice and spirits and blend for 2 minutes. Serve in glasses rimmed with crushed candy cane.
Chestnut Soup
Ingredients
- 15-20 chestnuts, preferably fresh, pre-boiled and peeled
- 2-3 shallots
- 2 garlic cloves
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- ½ cup water
- Sea salt
- Fresh black pepper
Using the chopping blade on the food processor, finely mince garlic and shallots. Set aside. Insert the Stirring attachment. Warm up the bowl and season with olive oil. Keep temperature between 70º and 80ºC.
After 3 minutes, add the shallots and garlic, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Adjust temperature to 110 ºC. Set timer for 24 minutes.
Add chestnuts
and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook for 2 minutes, then add 1 cup of stock and cook
for 1 minute. Add the remaining cup of stock.
Note: It’s normal for induction heat to lose temperature when a cool liquid is added. During the next 4 minutes, the temperature will increase to between 99˚ and 108ºC. The best temperature for cooking soup is 100º and 105ºC. Use the splash guard to contain heat.
After 12 minutes, add water.
Chestnuts will soften as the soup cooks and mixes. When cooking is complete, pour soup into blender. Add heavy cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Blend for 2 minutes.
Cranberry Relish
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 1 date
- 1 orange
- 1 small piece of ginger (optional)
- 2 Tbsp of agave syrup
Using the citrus press, extract juice from the orange. Reserve. If you use ginger, grate it. Add the chopping blade to the food processor and add the cranberries, date, orange juice, (ginger if using) and agave syrup. Pulse until just incorporated.
Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 4 tsp butter
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 7 egg whites
- 6.5 ounces dark chocolate
Melt the butter and chocolate in bowl,keeping the temperature between 60º and 70ºC. This should take under 6 minutes. Pour into bowl and set aside. Attach the Power Whisk to clean bowl, and add the sugar and egg whites. Whisk on max speed until it forms stiff peaks. Using the fold function, gradually add the melted chocolate and butter. Don’t mix too hard or you’ll knock the air out of the mixture. Pour into small glasses or chocolate dessert cups. Chill for 4 hours.
Cranberry Apple & Walnut Risotto
Ingredients
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- 2.5 cups vegetable stock
- 2.5 white wine
- ½ white onion
- 2-3 gloves garlic
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup walnuts
- 2 apples (Sandra likes Golden Delicious or McIntosh)
- 2 green onions
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ tsp chili powder
- Sea salt
- Fresh black pepper
- Olive oil
Using the Mini Chopper Mill, chop the walnut coarsely.
Peel apples and pulse in food processor into medium sized pieces. Set aside. Thinly slice the green onions in food processor and set aside. Chop garlic and half an onion.
Add the Flexi Beater to bowl. Warm up bowl and season with a drizzle of olive oil. Set the temperature between 70º and 80ºC.
After 3 minutes, add onion and garlic. Let cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
Add rice and cook for one minute before adding wine.
Increase the temperature to 120ºC. Adjust the timer for 24 minutes, and set the machine to stir.
When liquid is absorbed, add in one cup at a time of the vegetable stock. Use the splash guard to retain heat.
When the timer gets to 17 minutes, add cranberries and walnuts, and set mixing speed to 1. At 14 minutes, add apple. In the last 5 minutes, add butter, Parmesan, green onions, chili powder, sea salt and black pepper.
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