Our Father's Day Celebration - An Adventure in Food

Good Day Friends!!

I hope that everyone has been doing well, trying recipes and living life to the fullest.  Recently we celebrated Father's Day with my boys and my husband.  My husband is a wonderful man that does his fair share of cooking for our family, especially during the work week.  We are a true TEAM when it comes to taking care of our family as a whole.  So, when Father's Day comes around, we try our best to make it very special for him. 

This year, our day started out with a brunch of Huevos con Chorizo.  This is one of our favorite authentic Mexican dishes that we will usually order when we dine out at our local Mexican restaurant.  The dish is spicy Chorizo sausage browned, crumbled and drained combined with eggs and scrambled.  It is usually served with steamed tortillas, crumbled queso fresco, crema and fresh cilantro.   This combination of the spicy sausage and the creamy eggs topped off with the fresh cheese and cilantro is like a symphony of flavors in your mouth.  Top of each "breakfast taco" with a squirt of fresh lime juice to liven it up even more.  Until this day, I had never made it myself and I was pleasantly surprised at what a simple dish it was to make and assemble.  Huevos con Chorizo is now on our breakfast and dinner rotation.  Once you've had this dish, you'll never imagine having "sausage and eggs" any other way.

 

Huevos con Chorizo

Ingredients:

1 lb chorizo sausage, remove casing

7 eggs, lightly scrambled

2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1/8 c queso fresco, crumbled

½ tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp fresh black pepper

Steamed flour tortillas, fajita sized

Juice of lime

Crema or sour cream, chopped tomatoes, garnish

Directions:

In a large, non-stick skillet crumble and cook the chorizo sausage.  Cook until brown, drain grease.  Immediately add the eggs to the sausage, mix to combine well until eggs are cooked.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Top with queso fresco, cilantro and squeeze of lime juice.

Serve with steamed flour tortillas and toppings of your choice.

 

My husband is a chocoholic.  He LOVES it.  So, while my husband DID make his own dinner for Father's Day (he grilled ribeye steaks with his own homemade rub, corn salsa salad and asparagus), I made him a delectable, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate hazelnut tart.  It was my first time also making a tart and it was a SNAP!  The recipe was pulled from the same cookbook that I found the coconut lemon cream pie and peanut butter chocolate pie recipes (Taste of the South's Special Collector's Issue Southern Pies). 

One important tip with this tart definitely toast the hazelnuts. I felt it added a level of flavor both in the buttery hazelnut crust as well as sprinkled on top of the tart.  Also, when baking the tart crust, you MUST use pie weights.  A cheaper alternative to purchasing actual pie weights, dried beans.  They can be used time and time again and work just as well as the pie weights.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

Ingredients:

1/3 c toasted hazelnuts

¼ c sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ c all- purpose flour
½ c plus 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ Tbsp water
½ c chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella)

Milk Chocolate Ganache (recipe follows)

Directions:

In a food processor combine toasted hazelnuts, sugar, salt and flour; pulse until smooth.  Add butter and 1.5 tablespoons of water, pulsing until a smooth dough forms.  Remove dough and shape into a disk.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Press dough into bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch tart pan with a removable bottom.  Place a piece of parchment paper into tart shell, letting corners hang over sides.  Fill tart shell will pie weights.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove pie weights and parchment and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely on wire rack.

Spread chocolate hazelnut spread in bottom of tart shell.  I use a small offset spatula to smooth evenly.  Pour milk chocolate ganache over hazelnut spread.  Once again, use clean offset spatula to spread ganache evenly.  Refrigerate until set, approximately 1 hour.  Carefully remove tart from pan (pushing bottom upwards).  Sprinkle with chopped toasted hazelnuts.  Serve at room temperature.  Tart can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. 

 

Milk Chocolate Ganache

 Ingredients:

6 oz milk chocolate, chopped

¼ c heavy whipping cream
¼ c unsalted butter, softened
2 Tbsp light corn syrup

Directions:

Place chocolate in a medium bowl, set aside.  In a small saucepan, combine cream, butter and corn syrup.  Bring to a boil over high heat and remove from heat. 

Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate, whisking until smooth.  Use immediately.

Finally, I thought I'd include a photo of the Father's Day dinner, as cooked by my husband.  Yes, it is was served on  a paper plate purchased from Target, don't judge!  Paper plates equal less clean up AFTER dinner.

Well friends, that's it for today.  As always, I hope that you choose to perhaps try one of the recipes in today's blog.  If you do, please consider sharing your thoughts and results on the blog.  Also, I've added a "following" button on the upper right hand portion of the blog page.  Please click if you'd like. It's nice to see those that are following along on Katie's Adventures in the Kitchen.  Until next time....HAVE FUN AND BE ADVENTUROUS!!