Another beautiful day, another dish on the grill.
Appetizer: Layered Hot Artichoke and Feta Dip Due to a business meeting, Monika was a little late so her dish couldn’t be considered an appetizer. Instead, her dish was served alongside the rest of the entree and it was delicious! I think the dip was gone in 10 minutes. We have found a new trivia night dish to bring.
Entree: Caribbean Jerk Chicken Breasts This recipe has a lot of flavor to it and was tasty but it did not have the heat that traditional caribbean jerk sauce has so it was perfect for the non-spicy eaters. Some tips: pound the chicken so there is more surface area to take in the marinade, double the marinade and marinade the chicken longer than 2 hours.
Salad: Caribbean Grilled Scallop Salad (without scallops) “Mango chutney is a myth!” Apparently Kim had a bit of trouble finding this ingredient for her salad but she improvised and it turned out wonderfully. I love grilled pineapples and the salad complemented the entree nicely. I didn’t even miss the scallops so it’s a thumbs-up for all the seafood-haters. So, if you are in the mood for this salad and you find that you don’t have mango chutney on hand, just substitute strawberry jelly and whisk away.
Dessert: Brownie Buttons
Grated zest of 1/2 orange
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
Glaze:
2 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Lightly butter two miniature muffin pans, each with a dozen cups, and place on a baking sheet.
Combine orange zest and sugar in small bowl, rubbing them between your fingertips to blend; set aside. Whisk together flour and salt. Melt butter, chocolate and brown sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over very low heat, stirring frequently with a spatula and keep from burning. Once mixture is smooth, remove from heat and cool for two minutes. Stir in vanilla, egg and zest into chocolate mixture. Once the mixture is well blended, add flour and stir only until it is incorporated. You should have a smooth, glossy batter.
Spoon batter into 16 of the muffin cups, using about a teaspoon of batter to fill each cup 3/4 full. Put 1 teaspoon of water in each empty cup. Bake 14-16 minutes until tops of buttons spring back when touched. Transfer pans to racks to cool for 3 minutes before removing buttons to cool further on the racks.
Glaze: Melt white chocolate carefully (it burns easily – we microwaved it). Dip the tops of the buttons into the chocolate and refridgerate for 15 minutes to set the glaze.
Adorable little desserts that were not as sweet as you would think they would be. The orange zest gave the chocolate a little zing and reminded you of summer. I could have eaten a whole lot more but refrained…must have willpower.