Chicken Skewers w/ Blackberry Sauce

Another recipes using the wild blackberries!

ROSEMARY CHICKEN SKEWERS W/ BLACKBERRY SAUCE

4 boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons rosemary, chopped
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-3/4 cup fresh blackberries
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons red currant jelly
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

• In a medium bowl, mix the chicken with the rosemary, wine, pepper and olive oil. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Remove chicken from marinade, reserving the marinade for later. 
• Thread chicken onto the skewers and season generously with salt. 
• Grill on high heat from 4-5 minutes each side. When done, place on platter and cover with foil to allow the chicken to rest.

For the Sauce:

• Place the remaining marinade and berries into a sauce pan and simmer gently until berries are soft.
• Press the berry mixture through a strainer and discard the pulp.
• Return the juice to sauce pan and add vinegar, jelly and nutmeg and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, until reduced to 1/3 cup and has the consistency of syrup.
• Drizzle over chicken and serve.

Blackberry Cabernet Roast

BLACKBERRY CABERNET ROAST

• 5 pounds eye of round beef roast
• 1-1/2 cups wild blackberries
• 2 cups Cabernet Sauvignon
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves, plus more for garnish
• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves, plus more for garnish
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons cracked pepper 

Au Jus Sauce

• 1 -1/3 cups wild blackberries
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/3 cups Cabernet Sauvignon

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

• Pierce all sides of meat using a meat fork every 1 in and place in a large resealable plastic bad.
• Puree blackberries in a blender or food processor. Press through a sieve to remove seeds. Discard solids.
• Combine blackberry puree with Cabernet, garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, salt and pepper in small bowl. Pour mixture over roast and seal bag.
• Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight, turning roast occasionally.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Drain meat from marinade.
• Sprinkle cracked pepper evenly over meat and place in large roasting pan.
• Pour 2 cups marinade from plastic bag into roasting pan. Discard remaining marinade.
• Roast 15 minutes, reduce oven to 350 degrees F. Continue to roast 1-11/2 hours or until meat thermometer reads 145 degrees F.
• Remove meat from pan. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing thinly across the grain.

Sauce:

• Puree 1/2 cup blackberries in a blender or food processor. Press through a sieve to remove seeds. Discard solids.
• In a saucepan, combine blackberry puree, beef broth and Cabernet, and heat over medium and bring to a simmer, constantly stirring. Boil for about 10 minutes.
• Combine cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water, then add to saucepan. Cook for 1 minute or until slightly thickened.
• Remove from heat and serve with roast.

Wild Blackberry Bread

Oh yes, you read that right. I was given the pleasure to visit a friend's property and pick all the wild blackberries that I wanted. So at the end, I ended up with a little over 6 pounds. And I just L.O.V.E. it!

WILD BLACKBERRY BREAD

1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-1/2 cups fresh blackberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Gently toss in the blackberries.
• In a different medium bowl, combine sugar and next 5 ingredients and mix until all combined.
• Add the sugar mixture to the blackberry mixture and gently stir until evenly blended.
• Pour into a greased loaf pan (8.5"x 4.5"/ normal sized) and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes still in the loaf pan, then remove it from the pan and let cool for about an hour.
• Drizzle icing (recipe below) over top. Slice and serve!

Icing:

In a wire mesh, crush blackberries through the strainer to get the juice without the seeds. You only need about 2 tablespoons of juice, so about 1 cup of blackberries should do the trick. In a small bowl, put about 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Little at a time, add the blackberry juice until its a the right consistency to drizzle over the bread. 

Blackberry Mojitos

My hubby loves making himself regular mojitos fairly often, so ME making a mojito was very intimidating. But I did it anyway. He tried it, turned to me and said he loved it so much more than any mojito he has ever had. *huge grin*

BLACKBERRY MOJITOS

• 3/4 cups blackberries
• 5-6 large mint leaves
• 4 teaspoons sugar 
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cups seltzer water
• 1/4 cups white rum (or you can use vodka)
• ice cubes

• Muddle blackberries, mint leaves, sugar, lemon and lime juice in a tall glass until berries are mostly crushed.
• Add seltzer, rum and add ice to reach edge of glass. 
• Garnish with a blackberry, lime slice and/or mint leaves. Stir and serve!

Wordless Wednesday {{linky}}

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

I had the pleasure of going to a friends property to pick all the wild blackberries I could handle. It was amazing! Beautiful evening it was too. I got about 6 pounds worth. There was a recipe today with the wild blackberries, but keep watching the rest of the week is full of blackberry dishes!

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March: Smoothie Month & Blackberry Banana Smoothie

Ok, so March is my "Smoothie" month. I came about this wanting to have a healthier lunch that is easy to prepare. Some of the ingredients aren't just what you might just find in your pantry, but the majority of them are! Not to mention, you can get your full serving of fruit (a day) and most are really low in calories when you use reduced-fat or low-fat ingredients.

Blackberry Banana Smoothie

2 cups orange juice
1/3 cup vanilla reduced-fat yogurt
2 medium ripe bananas, cut into thirds and frozen
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blackberries

In a blender, combine all the ingredients. Cover and process until blended. Serve immediately.
4 Servings (3/4 cup serving 136 calories)