Tuna, Risotto and Chocolate Cherry Cake

Last night we went to our golf club for dinner. We had a good time, but did not find service spectacular. There was a wedding in progress in the other part of the club and that could have been the problem. Today was a cleaning and clearing day and I spent the day sweating, repacking, finding stuff and cleaning. In the middle, I made a cake and we had a wonderful meal of tuna and Asiago and Corn Risotto.
I made everything backwards to get it all done for dinner. First I made the cake. This recipe was given to me by my favorite neighbor Elaine in Gainesville, VA. It is so easy that it should be in everyone’s repertoire.
Cherry Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
1 pkg. chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling
1 (8oz.) bag of chocolate chips.
Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cake mix, eggs, pie filling. Mix until well blended and then add chocolate chips.
3. DO NOT add any oil or water etc., just the ingredients mentioned.
4. Pour into the pan of your choice. I used a Bundt pan.
5. Time for a 9 x 13 is 35-40 minutes. For my Bundt pan it took one hour and 15 minutes.
6. When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar. The Bundt cake looked amazing.
This is a very good cake. Jim had two pieces. Have to retain enough to bribe my architect on Tuesday.
Asiago and Corn Risotto, from the Washington Post in 2010. Bonnie Benwick copied it from “The Great Big Cheese Cookbook”.
I made this next as I wanted to finish it before the tuna was grilled. I cut this recipe in half and still had leftovers.  Whole recip serves 4-6.
Ingredients:
30 oz. vegetable broth, preferably low-sodium
1 C carrot juice, I had to use my juicer as I could not find plain carrot juice.
3 medium garlic cloves
1 medium onion
16 oz or 2 cups of corn
Leaves of ¼ bunch flat-leaf parsley
Leaves from 4-6 stems of thyme (used about ¼ t dried thyme leaves)
2 oz Pecorino Romano cheese
2 oz parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 oz block Asiago cheese
About 10 long chive stems
2 T EVOO
1 C uncooked Arborio rice
½ t freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Heat the vegetable broth and carrot juice in a large saucepan over medium heat. Or, I just put the measuring cup in the microwave to heat it.
2. Meanwhile, mince the garlic. Cut the onion into small dice. Thaw the corn and finely chop the parsley and thyme together to yield ¼ C. Grate the Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano cheese together to yield 1 C. Shave the Asiago cheese to yield 1 C. Snip chives to yield 2 t.
3. Heat oil in a ditch oven over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion and rice, stirring to coat evenly and heat through. Add 1 C of hot broth stirring constantly for a few minutes. Keep adding broth in ½ C increments and stirring over the course of 20 minutes.
4. When you are down to ½ C or so of the broth mixture, add the corn along with it. Cook until heated through and the kernels look slightly plump. Then add the Parmesan and Romano cheeses, parsley and herbs, stirring to incorporate. The risotto should look creamy and the rice should be tender.
This was a very calming recipe for me. The pre prep made everything go smoothly and it was relaxing to just stir. It was a very good recipe and went very well with the Grilled Tuna.
Grilled Tuna with Basil Pesto is from Giada De Laurentis, serves 4
I did not make the pesto, I bought it.
Ingredients:
2 -2” thick tuna steaks
Salt and pepper
Jar of basil pesto
Lemon juice
Directions:
1. Preheat grill to 400 degrees.
2. Wash and pat dry the tuna steaks. Brush both sides with EVOO and sprinkle on salt and pepper.
3. Place tuna on hot grill and sear each side for 2 minutes for rare. If you prefer well done, cook the tuna an additional 2-3 minutes per side. Remove and let rest.
4. Slice the Tuna in ½” slices and drizzle with lemon juice. Sauce tuna with pesto.
We have half of my tuna left which means that it really does serve 4 if not feeding Jim.