Randy's Grub

Jalapeño poppers

2012-02-06T17:57:00.001-08:00

We made these for a Super Bowl party last night. They were a winner even of the pats weren't.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/baked-jalapeno-poppers-recipe/index.html

We ended up needing more pinko than the recipe calls for. We also ad a ton of essence left over but it is very good. These tasted like the best part of really yummy chili.

12 fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise, stems, seeds and membranes removed
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack or mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or less, to taste
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
8 teaspoons Essence, recipe follows
1 cup panko crumbs, or fine dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside.

In a bowl, cream together the cream cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, cumin, and cayenne.

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, and 2 teaspoons of the Essence. In a shallow dish, combine the panko crumbs and remaining 4 teaspoons of Essence. In a third dish, combine the flour and remaining 2 teaspoons of Essence. Spread 1 tablespoon of the cheese mixture into the middle of each jalapeno half. One at a time, dredge in the flour, dip into the egg mixture, then dredge in the panko crumbs, pressing to coat. If necessary, repeat the process. Place the coated peppers, cut side up, on the prepared baking sheet and bake until the filling is runny and the crust is golden, about 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately with cold beer.

*Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Yield: about 2/3 cup

Recipe from "New New Orleans Cooking", by Emeril Lagasse and Jessie Tirsch. Published by William and Morrow, 1993.

No knead bread

2012-01-08T19:26:00.001-08:00

This is roughly the no knead bread from mark bittmans "how to cook everything" cookbook.

And, it's unbelively simple and delicious.

3 cups of flour
1.5 tsp. salt
2.25 tsp yeast (one packet)
1.5 cups water

Combine flour, salt, and yeast. Add water and mix until flour is incorporated and a sticky dough forms. Cover it and let is rise for at least 4 hours (overnight or 24 hours have worked fine.

Heat oven to 450 and put in a dutch oven to heat.

Turn the dough out ontomtoma lightly floured surface. Fold it onto itself a few times (just 30 seconds or so). Recover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Lightly coat dough with olive oil and place in the Dutch oven with the seam side up.

Put the Dutch oven back in the oven. Bake for 30 min. Remove the top and bake for another 5-10 min until the loaf is browned.

Beet salad with goat cheese

2012-01-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

- trader joes precooked beets
- arugula and mixed greens
- goat cheese
- fine bread crumbs
- balsamic vinegar
- egg white

Chop beets and add to greens
Slice cheese log into disks about .5 in wide
Dip disks in wiskes egg white
Coat disks in bread crumbs
Heat .25 inch of olive oil in a skillet over medium high until hot
Fry disks for about 1 minute on each side.
Carefully (they can crumble) transfer to salad and serve immediately.

Dress with sprinkle of balsamic and a bit of salt.

Brownies

2012-01-08T18:56:00.000-08:00

I had unsweetened bakers chocolate so here is the recip I found for making brownies from unsweetened chocolate ( its from here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/katharinehepburnbrownies.html)

These were very good - very fudgy.

Katharine Hepburn Brownies: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Next, stir in the vanilla extract and eggs. Finally, stir in the flour, salt and chopped nuts (if using).

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve at room temperature or chilled. These freeze very well.

Makes 16 brownies.

Sources:

Colwin, Laurie. 'More Home Cooking'. Harper Collins Publishers. New York: 1993.

Lebovitz, David. 'The Great Book of Chocolate'. Ten Speed Press. Berkeley: 2004.

O'Neill, Molly. 'New York Cookbook'. Workman Publishing. New York: 1992.

Katharine Hepburn Brownies:

2 ounces (60 grams) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup (30 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (100 grams) chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/katharinehepburnbrownies.html#ixzz1ivU7jZRF

Chicken roulades - I think

2011-06-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

I made this out of stuff that looked good at the weekend farmers market but neded to be eaten by Tuesday evening.

- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- parm. Cheese
- 4 slices of slami
- sundries tomatoes in oil
- at least 6 asparagus spears
- 2 cubes each frozen garlic and frozen basil z(get these at trader joes or use freshbi you have it)
- 1 excellent tomato
- about 2/3 cup wine (red oe white) I used red because I had a bottle open.
- about 2/3 cup of peas ( this was past of the farmers MIT haul - and the were very good freshly popped from the pose. But I might whip them if the were nor fresh).
- rice if you want it as a side
- more asparagus spears if you want them as a side.

Preheat ovn to 450

Pound the chicken and about 1/4 inch thick (wax paper over it and mash worth a rolling pin).
The goal is to get a snap you can roll like a burrito. Skin side up works best. If the sun dried tomatoes are not in small pieces! Dice them. Spread over the chicken (skin side down) add a tsp of the oil the are in to each breast if the to a toes are in oil. Slice the park. Thinly and place the slices on the chcken over the tomatoes. Put two salami slices side by Sid on each piece mush the garlic and basil and spread over each piece. Place three asparagus spears across each piece - across the salami. Roll each piece around the asparagus like a big sushi roll. Re roll and retuck as necessary to get fairly tight littl zelin shapes. Tie them with string or oven proof rubber bands. Salt and pepper the pieces.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat and heat about 2 T olive oil in it. Add the chicken hen the oil is just smoking and let it sit for about three
minutes on the fiirst side. The turn over, and repeat for each side. Each side should be browned.

Add about 2/3 C wine to the pan. I used red but white might have been better. Cover the pan and put in in the oven for 10 min.

Remove pan, (careful it and the lid are HOT!!!) place on stove top. Remove chicken to a dish and tent with foil. Put pan with juices and bubbling wine over medium low heat and add the diced tomato and the peas. Cover and simmer for about 7 minutes.

After a few minutes, remove the ties or bands from the chicken and cut the pieces across the direction they are rolled to make spiraled slices.

Plate these (I also cooked rice so I plated over white rice) and top with the pan sauce.

I also served this with more asparagus spears stemmed in the top of the cooker.

Potato salad

2011-05-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

DILLED SPRING POTATO SALAD
2 pounds new white potatoes
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise, as needed
First, cook the potatoes in a large pan of lightly boiling, salted water until they can be pierced with a thin paring knife (they will continue cooking as they cool in their jackets). Drain well, return to the pan and let cool to room temperature.
Second, peel the cooled potatoes and slice 1/4 inch thick into a glass or stainless mixing bowl. Sprinkle with the cider vinegar and season with salt and pepper, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Third, toss the potatoes with the celery, dill, green onions and mustard. Fold in the sour cream and then add in enough of the mayonnaise to bind the salad together.

Note:

The potatoes may absorb some of the moisture if you prepare the salad ahead of time. You may want to add a little extra mayonnaise as needed just before serving.

Submitted by: kph

+ Add review or commentTalkFood! Join the discuss

This is from cooks.com here:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1638,134182-250197,00.html

I didn't use any sour cream or mayo. I mixed in about a cup. Greek yogurt to provide some unifying goop at the end. I also used a few teaspoons of dill from a squeeze tube.

Easy bean salad

2011-04-18T18:03:00.001-07:00

this is quick and easy It was perfect when I needed a side dish for a picnic. I made it with no parsley, basil (frozen cubes from trade joes), and some red ne vinegar in a addition to cider vinegar.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/three_bean_salad/

Three Bean Salad Recipe
Prep time: 10 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 15-oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2 celery stalks, chopped fine
1/2 red onion, chopped fine
1 cup fresh, finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 Tbsp fresh finely chopped rosemary
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
METHOD
1 In a large bowl, mix the beans, celery, onion, parsley and rosemary.
2 In a separate small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add the dressing to the beans. Toss to coat.
3 Chill beans in the refrigerator for several hours, to allow the beans to soak up the flavor of the dressing.
Yield: Serves 4 to 8.

Delicious easy broiled salmon fillets

2011-03-01T17:43:00.000-08:00

this is a really easy and really good dish that Lindsay came up with - it takes Trader Joe's gyoza sauce.

start with two skinless salmon fillets and preheat the oven by turning the boiler on
brush the salmon fillets with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper next brush the salmon fillets with gyoza sauce from Trader Joe's

put the salmon fillets on a cookie sheet under the broiler flame about two or 3 inches away sometimes you need to move the fillets lower after a few minutes of boiling the Fairfax. Also it makes for easier cleanup if you put the fillets on top of the some foil. After about 8 or 9 min. check to see if the fillets are cooked through in the middle if they're not move them lower give them another two or 3 min. That's it. We've made this about six or seven times and it's super super easy and delicious every time

Salad dressing

2011-01-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

Here's how I make salad dressing:

first start with a 3 to 1 ratio of oil and vinegar three parts oil one part vinegar

add something sweet in the same amount as the vinegar also add about the same amount of mayo and the little bit of mustard and some seasonings

put all the stuff in a jar screw the top of the jar and give it a good shake

some good combinations are olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Champagne vinegar and olive oil and poppy seeds

Dans Sweedish pancakes

2010-09-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 T sugar
1 T oil
1 Cup flour

israeli cous cous with curry and onions

2010-02-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

This made for a satisfying side dish

1 box of Israeli cous cous (I think it is about a cup)
3/4 C chicken stock
3/4 cup water
1 med. - lg. onion rough chopped
2 tsp. curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 T olive oil

heat a sauce pan and add dry cous cous - toast for 4-5 minutes until slightly browned - shaking frequently (the pan)
remove toasted couse cous
Add oil - give it a moment to heat
add onion and saute / cook over medium high heat until slightly browned (at least 8 minutes)
return cous couse to pan and add stock and water
add curry powder and salt and pepper to taste
bring to a boil - reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 12 minutes
fluff with a fork

White Bean Chili

2010-02-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

This is inspired by the white bean chili served at Bonnie's restaurant on Aspen Mountain. The pureed beans give it excellent thick creamy texture.

3 16 oz. cans white beans - drained and rinsed (Great Northern or cannelini)
3 cups chicken stock (vegetable stock is fine if you want to omit the chicken and make this a vegetarian dish)
1 medium red pepper
1 medium green pepper
1 medium onion
12 oz sour cream (low fat works fine)
1 C grated pepper jack cheese
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 12-16 oz. can diced tomatoes (drained)
7 oz. salsa
2 T diced green chilis (i recently found diced tomatoes with green chilis included - so this saved a step)
salt and pepper to taste (1 tsp. each works)
oil for the pan (about 1 T - canola or vegetable oil is fine)

Rough Chop peppers and onion (small bite size pieces)
Heat oil in a chili pot (I suppose a Dutch Oven would be a good idea if you feel like it)
Saute peppers and onion for a few minutes (not more than 6 or 7)
Puree half of the beans in a food processor
Add pureed and whole beans to chili pot and cook for 5 min.
add stock and bring to a boil
add cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, salsa, chilis, and seasonings
reduce heat to simmer and simmer, stirring occasionally, until chili thickens - this may take 1 1/2 - 2 hours
serve with broken-up tortilla chips

Swiss Chard with Garbanzo Beans

2009-12-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from Epicurious here:

It is quick, easy, and very good. I make it with rice on the side. The first time I made it I added some saffron to the rice - it was very good.

Garbanzo Beans:

2 15.5-ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained (about 3 cups)
10 garlic cloves, peeled
2 large shallots
3 small bay leaves, preferably fresh
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 1/4 cups extra-virgin olive oil

Chard:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed
3 small bay leaves, preferably fresh
2 shallots, sliced
2 bunches Swiss chard, center stems cut out, leaves coarsely torn
2 cups low-salt chicken broth

print a shopping list for this recipe

Preparation

Garbanzo beans:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine first 5 ingredients in 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour oil over; cover dish with foil. Roast until garlic is tender, about 45 minutes. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly, cover, and chill.

Chard:
Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic, bay leaves, and shallots. Cover; cook until shallots are tender, about 2 minutes. Uncover; add half of chard. Toss until chard wilts and volume is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add remaining chard. Toss until chard wilts, about 2 minutes. Add broth. Cover and cook until chard is tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season chard with salt and pepper. Transfer chard mixture to large sieve set over bowl and drain. DO AHEAD: Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

Drain garbanzos and reserve oil; discard bay leaves. Combine garbanzos and chard in large skillet. Add 2 tablespoons oil reserved from garbanzos. Toss over medium heat until warmed through, moistening with more oil by tablespoonfuls if needed, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Pasticcio

2009-08-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

This is a wonderful pasticcio recipe from this blog: http://whippedtheblog.com

Here:

I made this with one pound of ground beef instead of two - and used ground beef from the local farmers market to try it out. I also used two diced garden tomatoes instead of a can. The pasticcio was delicious - especially the bechamel sauce.

Pasticcio

Meat Sauce:
1 T butter
2 lbs. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 Tablespoon dried greek oregano
and/or fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup white wine
1 can (14oz) diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 egg whites

Bechamel Sauce:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
4 cups hot milk
salt and pepper
nutmeg
1 cup grated cheese
2 eggs and 2 egg yolks

Noodles:
1 lb. pasticcio (macaroni) noodles
1 T salt
2 T butter
1 cup grated cheese

For the Meat Sauce:
Heat butter in pan and saute the onions, garlic and meat until browned. Add remaining ingredients except egg whites. Be generous with the spices and taste regularly. Be sure there is enough salt to bring out the flavor. I always add quite a bit more than the recipe calls for. Let the sauce simmer for 10-15 minutes. Turn off and stir until slightly cooled. Stir in egg whites. (Save the yolks for the bechamel.) You do not want the sauce so hot that it cookes the egg whites immediately. They should be incorporated.

For the Bechamel:
Melt butter in heavy saucepan. Add the flour and whisk for about 1 minute. Add the milk all at once and whisk until sauce is thickened and smooth. I usually heat the milk in another pan or in the microwave before adding. That and a quality, even heating sauce pan help make the best sauce. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. I add quite a healthy dose of each, probably at least 1/2-1 teaspoon. Remove from heat and stir in eggs and cheese. A sharper white cheese works well like Parmesan or Asagio. I do not think Mozzarella has enough flavor.

For the noodles:
Bring water to a boil with salt. Cook noodles until tender but slightly firm. Drain very well and return to pan. Stir in butter.

Asssembly:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large, deep pan (lasagna pan works well). You can see by the amount of ingredients you have, this makes a large dish and serves at least 8 people.

Put half the noodles in the pan and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of cheese. Top the noodles with the meat sauce. Place the rest of the noodles on the meat sauce. Pour the bechamel over the top. Sprinkle on the remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Some of the noodles will be sticking through the top which is good because they get brown and crunchy in the oven. Bake for approximatley 1 hour or until top is lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let sit at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Caramelized Green Beens

2009-08-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

This is a Martha Stewart Recipe from here:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/caramelized-green-beans-with-pine-nuts?

Serves 4

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 pounds green beans, stem ends removed
2 tablespoons pine nuts
Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

In a large skillet, heat butter and oil over medium-low. Add green beans; partially cover, and cook, tossing occasionally, until green beans are tender and browned in spots, 30 minutes. Add pine nuts; cook until nuts are toasted, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Quick ravioli with balsamic brown better

2009-08-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

This is from Giada here:

Ingredients

18 to 20 ounces store-bought ravioli (cheese, mushroom, or squash)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the ravioli and cook 4 to 5 minutes, until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally. Drain ravioli onto a large serving platter.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan cook the butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the foam subsides, and the butter begins to turn a golden brown, about 3 minutes, turn off the heat. Let cool for about 1 minute. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Transfer the ravioli to the pan saucepan with the balsamic brown butter. Sprinkle walnuts and Parmesan over the top. Serve

Blueberry Scones to try

2009-08-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

This Recipe is from averagebetty.com here:

Ingredients for Buttermilk Blueberry

Scones:

2 cups all-purpose flour

6 tbsp salted butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2/3 cup buttermilk

1 cup blueberries (frozen or fresh)

For tops:

2-3 tbsp buttermilk

1 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. Cut stick of butter into pieces. Add butter pieces to dry mixture. Using a pastry cutter

or your fingers, incorporate butter pieces until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. In a separate bowl combine egg, 2/3 cup buttermilk and vanilla.

4. Add blueberries to dry mixture. Carefully coat blueberries with dry mixture.

5. Create a well in the center of mixture. Add buttermilk mixture all at once to the well.

6. Carefully combine, just until moistened. Pour mixture onto board.

7. Spray hands with cooking oil. This will keep the dough from sticking to your hands

when patting out the dough.

8. Cut into shapes and place on a baking sheet.

9. Brush tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar.

10. Bake in a preheated 400(F) oven for 12-14 minutes until golden brown.

Delicious warm or at room temperature.

Makes 10 - 12 scones.

Store in an airtight container for 3 days.

Chocolate cupcakes with strawberry merenge buttercream frosting

2009-07-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is a combination of two Martha Stewart recipes

Cupcakes
Frosting:

Cupcakes:

Ingredients

Makes 12

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
Easy White Icing
Sprinkles (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.
Into a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with flour.
Pour batter into cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
Cool in pan 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, then spread with Easy White Icing using a table knife or small offset spatula. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.

Frosting:

Ingredients

Makes 5 cups

4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoons
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) strawberry jam, pureed in a food processor

Directions

In the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer set over a saucepan of simmering water, combine egg whites and sugar. Cook, whisking constantly, until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch (about 160 degrees).
Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat the egg-white mixture on high speed until it holds stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until the mixture is fluffy and cooled, about 6 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low speed, add butter several tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. (If frosting appears to separate after all the butter has been added, beat on medium-high speed until smooth again, 3 to 5 minutes more.) Beat in vanilla. Beat on lowest speed to eliminate any air bubbles, about 2 minutes. Stir in strawberry jam with a rubber spatula until frosting is smooth.

First published: January 2007

Chicken Gyros

2009-07-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

THis recipe is from Epicurious here:

I meant to make it tonight - and got as far as defrosting chicken - but then I discovered that the pita bread I was planning to use was too old and yucky to use - buy I like the looks of the recipe so I hope to try it soon.

1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced

4 pita bread rounds, heated

Preparation

Stir yogurt, 2 tablespoons dill, garlic and 1 teaspoon lemon juice in small bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper.

Place chicken in medium bowl. Sprinkle with oregano, 1 teaspoon dill and salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; sauté until brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer to plate. Add 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add onions; sauté until beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Return chicken and any juices to skillet. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Stir until heated through, about 2 minutes.

Arrange pita rounds on plates. Top pita rounds with chicken mixture. Spoon some yogurt sauce over chicken. Serve, passing extra sauce separately.

Steamed Potato Salad

2009-07-09T18:49:00.002-07:00

This was something I threw together quickly to round out a soup and salad meal that I thought would be too light. It was easy and worked out very well.

4 or 5 red potatoes - cut into 8ths - about 3/4 inch chunks.
1 T olive oil
kosher salt
2 T (or to taste) sour cream

Steam the potatoes for about 5-7 minutes - until they are cooked through but not mushy
keep the potatoes in the steamer basket and run it under cold water to cool the potatoes
put the potatoes in a bowl and add the salt and oil and toss
add the sour cream and toss

eat

this would probably be good with some chopped green herbs - like chives or breen onion tops

I liked the texture of this - it was creamy without being a mayo disaster

Lemongrass Coconut Sorbet

2009-03-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

Lemongrass Coconut Sorbet

this is from myrecipe.com here

I made this as an afterthought for a fairly involved Thai meal - it was quick and easy and it was the best part of the dinner.

Yield

Makes about 1 quart; 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

10 stalks fresh lemon grass (about 12 oz.), rinsed
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup coconut milk (stir before measuring)

Preparation

1. Peel toughest outer layers from lemon grass; discard. Cut into 1/2-inch lengths. In a 2- to 3-quart pan over high heat, combine lemon grass, sugar, salt, and 2 1/2 cups water. Stir until liquid comes to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, stirring occasionally, until light golden, about 20 minutes.

2. Pour through a fine strainer into a bowl, pressing on solids; discard solids. Nest bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stir syrup until cool, about 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice.

3. Whisk in coconut milk. If mixture is lumpy, pour through a fine strainer.

4. Pour into an ice-cream maker (at least 1 qt.) and freeze. Scoop into bowls or, for a firmer consistency, freeze airtight up to 3 days.

Good Sloppy Joes

2009-01-15T17:55:00.000-08:00

This was quick, easy and, surprisingly, really good. Credit to Rachael Ray here

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
1 1/4 pounds ground beef sirloin
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon steak seasoning blend, such as McCormick brand Montreal Seasoning
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups tomato sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 crusty rolls, split, toasted, and lightly buttered
Garnish: sliced ripe tomatoes, pickles, Deviled Potato Salad, recipe follows

Directions

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and meat to the pan. Spread the meat around the pan and begin to break it up. Combine brown sugar and steak seasoning. Add sugar and spice mixture to the skillet and combine. When the meat has browned, add onion and red peppers to the skillet. Reduce heat to medium and cook onions, peppers, red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce with meat for 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and paste to pan. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to simmer and cook Sloppy Joe mixture 5 minutes longer.

Wrinlked Potatoes

2009-01-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

This is from here:

2 pounds baby potatoes
1 cup salt, plus more as needed
Mojo rojo or mojo verde, for dipping

Directions

Place the potatoes in a deep, medium-size pot. Add enough water to cover, and salt. Potatoes should float in the salted water; if not, add more salt.
Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes are easily pierced with the tip of paring knife, 25 to 30 minutes.
Drain water from pot, leaving just enough to cover the bottom. Return pot to low heat and cook, shaking pot until the salt covering the potatoes begins to crystallize, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover pot with a clean kitchen towel until potato skins have wrinkled, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately with dipping sauces, as desired.

Mojo Rojo

8 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons sweet pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika)
2 dried guindilla pepper, or other dried chile pepper
1/2 cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons sherry-wine vinegar

Directions

Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and salt to a smooth paste. Add cumin, pimenton, and chile pepper; mash until well combined. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while continuing to mash, until all the olive oil is absorbed.
Turning the pestle in a slow, circular motion around the mortar, drizzle in 2 teaspoons water and vinegar. Keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Mojo Verde:

Makes about 1/2 cup

6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups well-packed chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons sherry-wine vinegar

Directions

Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and salt to a smooth paste. Add cilantro leaves and cumin seeds; mash until well combined. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while continuing to mash, until all the olive oil is absorbed.
Turning the pestle in a slow, circular motion around the mortar, drizzle in 2 teaspoons water and vinegar. Keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Chicken and Rice one-pot Thai (sort of) dish

2009-01-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

This is not very sophisticated - but it was easy, fairly quick, and came together all in one pot. I made it with chicken chunks that were too large - and I left them in too long (I put them in for the entire simmer time - they were much too done) Smaller chunks with less cooking time would probably be OK.

1.5 C rice - long grain regular old rice is fine
2 chicken breasts
2 T canola oil
2 medium onions
1 green pepper
1.5 T massaman curry paste
1 can chicken stock
1 can coconut milk (15 oz.)
.5 Can plum tomatoes
3/4 C thickly sliced carrots
1 small can sliced mushrooms
1.5 t fish sauce
1 lime

- Heat oil in a strait sided chefs pan
- Cut chicken into fairly large chunks - pat dry and season with salt and pepper
- Brown chicken chunks in hot oil - place in the pan and do not touch for about a minute or 90 seconds or so - turn each chunk with tongs - repeat until each side is browned - the insides will not be cooked
- remove chicken from pan and set aside
- add another 2T oil and heat
- add rice to pan and stir to coat - stir occasionally for 2 minutes -
- add pepper and onion chunks - continue stirring occasionally until rice is lightly browned
- add chicken stock and lower heat
- add three or four of the plum tomatoes - so not add all of the sauce or paste
- add the curry paste
- stir in the coconut milk
- add carrotts and mushrooms
- add the fish sauce and lime
- stir to combine - make sure the curry paste is distributed - add more chicken stock if needed
- bring the mixture to a simmer, lower heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes -
- stir once or twice to keep the rice from sticking if needed - add chicken chunks - recover and continue simmering for another 10-15 minutes
- serve with a squeeze of lime and sriracha sauce.

Pot Roast To Try

2009-01-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

I didn't follow the recipe very closely - instead I did it like this:

- Heat 3 T canola oil in a dutch oven
- season 1-2 lb. pork roast with salt and pepper, brown in hot oil - turning after a few minutes on each side - throuw in some rosemary sprigs
- add the onions and some carrots
- add a can of chicken stock (I couldnt find any beef stock)
- add some red wine - about a cup, some tomato paste, some crushed tomatoes,
- add chunks of potatoes,
- season with salt and pepper, add some red pepper
- put the dutch oven in a 335 degree oven for 1.5 hour or so.

This recipe is from here: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/ideal-pot-roast?autonomy_kw=pot%20roast&rsc=header_1

Ingredients

Serves 8

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 5-pound beef chuck roast
Salt and pepper
2 cups beef stock or reduced sodium canned beef broth
1/2 cup red wine (optional)
3 onions, cut into large wedges
4 cloves garlic , chopped
2 dried bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 pounds carrots, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
2 pounds potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle roast all over with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Place in pan, and brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
Turn meat fat side up. Add stock, wine, if using, onions, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. Stir in tomato paste. Bring to a simmer, cover; put in the oven, and roast for 3 hours. Add carrots and potatoes, and cook until vegetables are tender, about 1 hour more.
Transfer the roast, carrots, and potatoes to a platter. With a spoon, skim the fat off the surface of the cooking liquid. Cut the roast into thick slices, and serve with the vegetables. Pass the pan juices separately.

Pan-roasted butternut squash

2009-01-01T11:22:00.000-08:00

1 butternut squash
1 T ground coriander
1/5 tsp red chili powder
3 T brown sugar or palm sugar
3 T canola oil
Kosher salt

Peel the butternut squash. Cut it in half and remove the seeds and goop. Slice the halves into strips about 3/4 " wide. Chop the strips into cubes.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat - until very hot. Add the coriander and chili powder - stir a few times and then add the squash. Stir for about 3 minutes to distribute spices. Sprinkle on salt to taste and stir.

Lower heat. Cook, covered, until squash is cooked but holding its shape - about 15 minutes. Uncover, raise heat, and gently turn with a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and cook until it melts and coats.

This was easy and tasty.

Stuffed Roast Pork Loin

2009-01-01T10:56:00.000-08:00

This recipe is adapted from Cooks Illustrated - 9 - 10 / 2007.

I bought a huge - monster-sized Costco Pork loin for this. It was sliced in half - and, each half was large enough to butterfly-cut, stuff, and roll.

Stuffing:

1 C apple cider (I used juice)
1/2 C cider vinegar
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1 large shallot - thinly sliced
1 1/2 cup dried apples
1/2 C packed dried cranberries
1 T grated ginger
1 T mustard seeds (I used 1 T whole grain mustard)
1/2 t allspice
1/4 t cayenne pepper

Bring all ingredients to simmer in a suacepan over medium high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until apples are very soft - about 20 minutes. Push mixture through strainer to extract as much liquid as possible (save this liquid).

- Return the liquid to the saucepan and simmer over medium high heat until reduced to 1/3 C - about 5 minutes. This is the glaze - reserve it. (mine thickened up but was fine after a few seconds in the microwave).

- Pulse the apple mixture in a food processor until coarsely chopped.

For the Pork:

Slice meat to even 1/2 in. thickness - (cut down .5 in from edge - st0p .5 in from bottom - cut across to .5 in from other side - and then cut across to .5 in from the other side - open out, and pound to even it out.

Season inside of pork with salt. Spread the filling over the pork - leaving a .5 inch border. Roll and tie.

Roast roast on rack in roasting pan in oven preheated to 375. Turn over after 30 minutes or so to brown the other side. Brush with glaze and roast for another 10-15 minutes. Check internal temperature - remove when it is 140 degrees.

Remove the roast and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Put pan with over burners on stoves top and add 1 C white wine or vermouth, scrape roasting pan with wooden spoon to loosen bits, add some rosemary sprigs, and then whisk in some flour - add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste - and then pour the gravy into a serving pitcher.

Marbled Chocolate Cheescake

2009-01-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

This cheesecake came out smooth, creamy, and mousse-like. It was late when it came out of the oven - I let it cool with a bowl over it for about half an hour - but there was no way I could stay up late enough to let it cool all the way - so I put it in the fridge with the bowl over it and hoped for the best. It cooled the rest of the way without cracking. The next day, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and foil, and froze it. After two weeks in the freezer, I put it in the fridge for 24 hours to defrost and then served it. The freezing seemed fine - it was delicious.

5 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
3 8 oz packages cream cheese
1 1/4 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs

chocolate tart crust:

3 oz. sweet butter
1/2 C sugar
3/4 tsp. vanilla
dash salt
1/4 C plus 2T unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 C pastry or regular flour

For Crust:

Combine butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt - process until creamy. Add cocoa and process until mixture is a dark, smooth paste. Add flour and pulse until incorporates but crumbly.

Firmly pat 3/4 of the mixture into the bottom of an 8" springform pan. Bake the crust in the springform pan, and the extra dough (loose in a baking pan) at 375 from 10 minutes. Let crust in springform pan cook for another 5 minutes. Cool completely. Pulverize cooked crumbs (these will get pressed onto the sides of the cake when it is finished).

For cake:

-Boil lots of water in a kettle or sauce pan - enough to fill a roasting pan halfway up the sides of the springform pan you are using.

- Heat oven to 325

-Beat cream cheese in mixer on medium speed until it begins to smooth out.
- Scrape down sides of the bowl, gradually add sugar and beat just until completely smooth (do not overbeat here - but be sure it is smooth, once the eggs go in it cannot get any smoother so any grainyness left will remain).
- add vanilla and eggs - one at a time - beat just until well mixed

- Melt chocolate and 1/4 C water (water bath or microwave)
- Measure and set aside 1 C of cheesecake batter - stir warmed melted chocolate into the separate batter
- Pour the rest of the batter into the prepared springform pan.
- Pour the chocolate batter in a ring in the batter in the springform pan - spaces about .5" from the side of the pan. Marble the chocolate batter in with a soup spoon, scooping from edges to center, bottom to top, etc. (I am still not very good at it even though I have made this a bunch of times).
- Wrap the bottom and sides of the prepared springform pan in foil. Put the foil-wrapped pan in a roasting pan and carefully pour in the boiled water until it is halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Carefully put the roasting pan in the oven.

- Check after 25 minutes - it will probably need more time - but bake only until cheesecake shows signs of puffing around the edges but is still very soft in the center. It will not be set in the oven. Overcooking it will wreck it. I think I left it in for about 35-40 minutes the last time I made it.

- remove from oven and cool on rack- covered with an inverted mixing bowl. Unmold when cooled. Press reserved crumbs around sides.

- This was very good served with raspberry and blackberry sauce.

Butter bare sides of springform pan.

This recipe was adapted from a Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts by Alice Medrich and from a Martha Stewart.com recipe for the water bath.

Blackberry Sauce

2009-01-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

I made raspberry and blackberry sauces to serve with a cheesecake recently. The sauced were almost an afterthought but they were so good and easy that they ended up being my favorite thing about the dinner.

1 lb. blackberries
3 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. lemon juice

Combine blackberries, sugar and lemon juice in a pan. Cover and cook until bubbling, approximately 10 minutes. Remove from the heat; place in a food processor and blend. Pass through a strainer to remove the seeds. Chill before serving.

Parmesan Souffle to try

2008-10-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

This is from Cooking light.com here:

Although chervil is a traditional component of fines herbes, oregano is more readily available and makes a tasty substitute. Serve as a side dish or a light dinner with a green salad.

Yield

6 servings

Ingredients

Cooking spray
2 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup minced shallots (about 1 large)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or chervil
1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon (optional)
6 large egg whites
Dash of cream of tartar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly coat a 2-quart soufflé dish with cooking spray; sprinkle breadcrumbs over bottom and sides of dish. Set aside.

Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shallots; sauté 2 minutes or until tender. Remove shallots from pan; set aside.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, salt, and pepper in saucepan. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended; stir in wine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly; cook 1 minute or until thick. Remove from heat.

Place egg yolk in a medium bowl, and gradually stir about one-fourth of hot milk mixture into egg yolk, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add to remaining hot milk mixture, stirring constantly. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly; remove from heat. Add cheese; stir until smooth. Stir in shallots, parsley, chives, oregano, and tarragon, if desired. Spoon cheese mixture into a large bowl.

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir one-fourth of egg white mixture into cheese mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Spoon into prepared dish. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until puffy, golden, and set. Serve immediately.

Here is a Porcini Mushroom Sauce to try with it:

1 1/2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup dry Marsala
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1 cup chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
1 cup beef stock or canned beef broth

1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Preparation

Combine porcini mushrooms and 1 cup warm water in small bowl. Let stand until mushrooms soften, about 30 minutes. Remove mushrooms from liquid, squeezing excess liquid from mushrooms back into bowl; reserve liquid. Place mushrooms in another small bowl.

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion browns, about 15 minutes. Add Marsala and white wine. Increase heat; boil until most liquid evaporates, about 7 minutes. Add rosemary, mushrooms and both stocks. Pour in reserved mushroom liquid, leaving any sediment behind. Boil until liquid mixture is reduced to 2 cups, about 15 minutes.

Mix butter and flour in small bowl to blend; whisk into mushroom mixture. Simmer until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Stuffed Peppers

2008-09-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

This is from the Food Network: Everyday Italian here

Orzo Stuffed Peppers

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Show:	Everyday Italian
Episode:	Greek Fusion

1 (28-ounce) can Italian tomatoes
2 zucchini, grated
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for sprinkling
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
6 sweet bell peppers (red or yellow)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl and break apart using a pair of kitchen shears or your finger tips. Add the zucchini, mint, cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.

Meanwhile, bring the chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add the orzo and cook for 4 minutes. The orzo should be only partially cooked. Use a fine mesh sieve to transfer the orzo to the large bowl with the other vegetables. Stir the orzo into the vegetable mix to combine. Transfer the warm chicken broth to a 3-quart baking dish.

Slice the tops off the peppers and remove all ribs and seeds. Cut a very thin slice from the base to help the peppers stand up.

Place the peppers in the baking dish with the warm chicken broth. Spoon the orzo mixture into the peppers. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, sprinkle the top of each pepper with cheese and continue baking until the cheese is golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, carefully transfer the orzo stuffed pepper to a serving plate.

grilled peppers stuffed with cream cheese

2008-08-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

These are pretty much exactly what the title says - grilled peppers stuffed with cream cheese. I have peppers growing in the garden - they are shaped like Anaheims - but are not nearly as hot (they are a little hot). I took 4 peppers, cut off the tops, used a paring knife to remove the seeds, and stuffed them full of cream cheese. I used a knife to get the cream cheese started and them shoved it in with the back of a chopstick. I didn't fill them as full as I could have - and, in hindsight, they would be good stuffed full.

I threw the stuffed peppers on a grill at the same time I put on steaks - I turned the peppers when I turned the steaks. They were roasted, a bit charred, and very tasty. They were a bit fragile as hot cream cheese came out the top when I moved them.

Carnitas / tomatillo salsa

2008-08-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated May / June 2008.

I have made this twice - it worked well both times.

Pork:

2-3 lb. pork butt roast cut into 2 in. chunks
salt and pepper
1 t cumin
2 bay leaves
small onion
1 t dried oregano
juice from a lime
2 c water
1 orange

preheat oven to 300
add pork, 1 t salt, some pepper, cumin, onion, bay leaf, lime juice, and water to a dutch oven
juice the orange and add the juice and the orange halves
bring to simmer over high heat
put in the oven and leave it for 2 hours

remove pork from pot, reduce remaining liquid over high heat for about 10 minutes - until slightly thickened

shred pork and add in reduced liquid, turn on oven broiler, prepare cookie sheet by covering with foil and adding a cooling rack.

Spread the shredded pork on the cooling rack and broil for 5 or 6 minutes until slightly crispy,

Tomatillo salsa:

1 big can of tomatillos - drained
half an onion
dried cayenne pepper (or somthing hot - fresh jalapeño if one is available)
.5 t cumin
pinch of salt
2 T cilanto leaves
1 t white vinegar
1 t sugar

add everything to a food processor and pulse

Tsatsiki sauce

2008-08-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

Quick, easy, tasty

1 C Plain yogurt
juice of .5 a lemon juice
1 T Dill from a tube of dill
1/4 C cucumber (finely chopped)
pinch or two of salt
1 crushed garlic clove
2 T minced onion

Mix and eat with pita chips, carrots, pita bread pieces, gyros, chicken souvlaki, etc...

the tube of dill makes this particularly easy to make with other common ingredients. I guessed at the amounts - adjust as necessary, use judgment, don't make it gross.

Wet dough no roll pizza recipe

2008-08-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is adapted from a recipe in the September / October Cook's Illustrated

The dough is not very hard to make - though it takes time, most of the time is rising. Also, it is only easy with a stand mixer - without it, it would be a pain to mix for so fast for so long.

3 cups flour
1 2/3 c. water
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 t yeast
1 t sugar
5 T olive oil
1 t salt

Combine flour, water and salt ans stir with dough hook for 3 minutes and then let it rest for a while

add yeast and knead for a minute or so on low speed
increase to high speed and knead fro 8 minutes or so

add to oiled bowl, oil, and let rise for 2 - 3 hours

spread into oiled baking sheet and bake on a stone in the middle of a preheated 40 degree oven
for 25 minutes

I pulled the pizza out after 10 minutes or so and spread it with pomodoro sauce
sausage, and mozzerella cheese - and some fresh basil added after I took ot out.

Pasta with basil and tomato sauce

2008-07-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

The tomato sauce was something from the silver spoon Italian cookbook that I made with extra ripe farmers market tomatoes. The recipe was something like this:

4 perfect tomatoes (9 oz)
some garlic (2 cloves)
some olive oil (3 T)
some basil (10 leaves - torn)
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

-Boil several inches of water in a saucepan - enough to cover the tomatoes
- slice x's into the non-stem end of the tomatoes
- drop the tomatoes in the boiling water and leave them for about 30 seconds - take them out and remove the skins. Remove the seeds.
- add tomatoes, sugar, and salt to a saucepan and cook over low heat for 30 minutes without stirring
remove from heat, mash tomatoes with a wooden spoon, and let cool - add olive oil and basil

For the basil sauce:

Lots of basil leaves - about 3 cups
about .5 C olive oil
three cloves of garlic - pressed
kosher salt
pinches (little) of cayenne pepper and cinnamon

Process the basil leaves in a food processor and add olive oil slowly while the processor is running. Check for consistency and keep adding olive oil and processing until it is a smooth paste. Add the cinnamon and cayenne pepper and salt to tsate while processing - taste to correct.

(this is not pesto - I didn't have any pine nuts or enough cheese)

For the pasta:

- half a box of spaghetti
- chicken stock
- a few T's of cream

boil spaghetti until al dente. Drain, set aside and cover to keep warm

For chicken: defrost two chicken breasts and brine them. Remove from brine and bash with a rolling pin (I covered them with plastic wrap during bashing to reduce splattering) until they are .5 inches thick. Coat chicken with basil paste.

- heat 2 T olive oil in a large skillet, add chicken, let cook on one side until browned (about 5-6 min.) and them flip to brown on other side. Remove chicken from pan and set aside - tented with foil.

Lower heat under pan - and deglaze with chicken stock (about 3-4T) Pour off and reserve the stock.

Add 3T basil paste, 1.5 C tomato sauce; and 3T cream, and most of the stick use to deglaze to the pan. Heat through and add pasta. Swirl to incorporate.

Slice chicken - serve mounds of pasta, some chicken, and top with shredded Parmesan.

Cornmeal Waffles

2008-06-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

From Cooking Light Here:

These waffles were good and don't have any butter added to the batter. They don't puff up much in the waffle iron - so you I got better results by adding more batter than I would for other waffle recipes.

Cornmeal Waffles

Cornmeal gives waffles a coarser texture than flour. Serve with sliced strawberries and maple syrup for breakfast or brunch.

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 large egg yolks
2 large egg whites

Preparation

Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray, and preheat.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, and level with a knife. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in center of mixture. Place buttermilk, maple syrup, oil, and egg yolks in a bowl, and stir well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist.

Beat egg whites with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into cornmeal mixture.

Spoon about 1/2 cup batter onto hot waffle iron, spreading batter to edges. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until done; repeat procedure with remaining batter.

Chai-brined shrimp and mango skewers

2008-06-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Shrimp and mango skewers from cooking light.

I am not sure the chai brining was worth the effort. it tasted good - but I am not sure I could taste the chai. I didn't have any cardamom - I don't know if that made any difference. But, the grilled mango was excellent - and the shrimp was fine and very quick on the grill. Just for yucks, I wrapped some if the shrimp in basil leaves - this was very good. Next time, I might try grilling shrimp, and wrapping them in basil leaves, running a tooth pick through them and calling them appetizers.

Ingredients

3 cups water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon white peppercorns, crushed
8 whole cardamom pods, crushed
6 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick, broken
2 tablespoons black tea leaves (such as Darjeeling)
1 cup ice cubes
32 peeled and deveined large shrimp (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 large peeled ripe mangoes, each cut into 8 (2-inch) pieces
Cooking spray
1/2 cup sliced green onions
8 Indian flatbreads (naan)

Preparation

1. Combine first 9 ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in tea leaves; simmer 2 minutes. Strain mixture through a sieve into a large bowl; discard solids. Stir in ice; chill.

2. Add shrimp to water mixture; chill 20 minutes.

3. Prepare grill.

4. Remove the shrimp from bowl; discard liquid. Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels. Thread 4 shrimp and 2 mango pieces alternately onto each of 8 (12-inch) skewers.

5. Place the skewers on a grill rack coated with cooking spray. Grill for 2 minutes on each side or until the shrimp are done. Sprinkle with sliced green onions. Serve with flatbread.

Note: As pictured on the cover, you can use smaller skewers. Simply thread two shrimp alternately with two mango chunks, and serve guests two skewers each. You'll need to purchase an extra mango (which minimally increases the calories per serving) if you opt for this presentation.

Yield

8 servings (serving size: 1 skewer and 1 piece flatbread)

Veg. Samosas in phyllo dough

2008-06-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

This is from Cooking Light here: Samosa Recipe

These are very tasty. We used less phyllo than the recipe called for - half a sheet instead of a sheet. Also, it was fine to put lots of filling in each and not to cover it all with the first fold - because the other folds will take care of it. I expected them to be good - and they were very good.

Samosas, traditional Indian pastries filled with vegetables, meat, or both, are typically made with homemade dough, then fried. Our samosas remain light and crisp because we enclose the filling in phyllo dough and then bake them. When processing the filling, pulse just until the ingredients are chopped so it retains its texture.

Ingredients

Samosas:
2 1/4 cups chopped peeled baking potato
1 1/2 cups chopped peeled carrot
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups finely chopped onion
2 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/4 cups frozen green peas, thawed
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
16 (18 x 14–inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
Cooking spray

Raita:
1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint

Preparation

1. To prepare samosas, cook potato and carrot in boiling water 8 minutes or until tender; drain.

2. Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 10 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Add ginger, garlic, and red pepper; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in cumin and next 5 ingredients (through turmeric); cook 15 seconds, stirring constantly. Add potato mixture, peas, cilantro, and juice, stirring well to combine; cool slightly. Place half of filling in a food processor; pulse until coarsely chopped. Spoon chopped filling into a bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining filling.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.

4. Place 1 phyllo sheet on a large cutting board or work surface (cover remaining dough to prevent drying); lightly coat with cooking spray. Fold phyllo sheet in half lengthwise to form an 18 x 7–inch rectangle. Spoon about 3 tablespoons filling onto bottom end of rectangle, leaving a 1-inch border. Fold left bottom corner over mixture, forming a triangle; keep folding back and forth into a triangle to end of phyllo strip. Tuck edges under triangle; lightly coat seam with cooking spray. Place triangles, seam side down, 2 inches apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining phyllo, cooking spray, and filling to form 16 samosas.

5. Bake at 350° for 13 minutes with 1 baking sheet on bottom rack and 1 baking sheet on second rack from the top. Rotate baking sheets; bake an additional 12 minutes or until samosas are lightly browned.

6. To prepare raita, combine yogurt and mint. Serve with samosas.

Thai Cous Cous

2008-06-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

1.5 T minced fresh lemongrass
1 small shallot minced
.5 tsp (or less) minced chili pepper
1 can coconut milk (1.75 c)
1 T oil
1.5 c cous cous
1 kaffir lime leaf - minced
2 tsp green curry paste

Heat oil in a sauce pan - add lemongrass, shallot, and chilit pepper - and cook over medium high heat for about 5 minutes - if the shallot browns lower heat and add coconut milk

lower heat and add coconut milk and lime leaf and curry paste. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and add cous cous.

Let stand off heat for 5 minutes, fluff with a fork.

This is quick and tasty.

Quick Chicken Piccata

2008-05-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

2 frozen chicken breasts - mostly, but not completely defrosted
pesto (or a basil, garlic, olive oil mixture) 2 T
1 garlic clove minced
flour - 1/3 C
lemon juice - 3 T
white wine - 1/2 cup
capers - 2T

Slice the chicken breasts into slices about 1/4 inch thick
place about 1/5 C of flour in a shallow dish - add black pepper
dredge the chicken slices in the flour, tapp off excess and set slices aside on a plate
heat 2T olive oil in a large skillet
add chicken slices and cook without moving for about 3 minutes, turn each piece and cook on the other side
when chicken is cooked, add wine, pesto, capers, lemon juice, and garlic to the pan
toss to combine and coat
remove and place chicken slices
add a bit more wine to the pan and deglaze, spoon pan sauce over chicken slices

Saffron Cinnamon Rice

2008-05-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

2/3 c rice (I used white jasmine rice)
half an onion - coarsely chopped
2/3 C chicken stock
1 garlic clove - mashed
1 pinch of saffron threads
1 pinch of cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
olive oil

Heat 1 T olive oil in a skillet with a lid - add onions and saute for a few minutes

add saffron threads to chicken stock

add rice grains and more oil if necessary - saute for 4-5 minutes until rice begins to brown
peel and chop garlic - add to the rice and stir - let cook for another 30 seconds
slowly add chicken stock - saffron mixture - let boil and then reduce heat so mixture simmers
add cinnamon and cayenne pepper
cover and simmer for 15 minutes - stir occasionally, stir and add more liquid if necessary

Garden salad with grapefruit vinaigrette

2008-05-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

Plant red lettuce and arugula in a garden and wait several weeks for leaves to emerge - watering as necessary

Tear off enough leaves for two salads, pick for critters, rinse, and spin

take a left-over grapefruit half prepared from breakfast but not eaten earlier in the week out of the fridge (or create one if necessary) Pick the half- supremes out of the fruit and set aside

Squeeze the juice into a bowl - add 1.5T olive oil, 1T balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp honey to the juice and whisk. Taste and correct.

Place the leaves in bowls - add the supremes, some chopped onions, some dried craisins, and whatever else. Add the dressing and serve.

Simple pomodoro sauce

2008-05-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes (a good brand)
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
3 cloves garlic
10 basil leaves
3 T olive oil
pinch of red pepper flakes

Dump can of tomatoes and can juice into a saucepan, add sugar, salt and garlic (skinned and sliced, but not mashed)
Cook over low heat fo 30 minutes.
Mash tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon and then continue to cook for another 15 minutes
Remove from heat, Mash more if necessary, add remaining ingredients (checking for taste) - stir to combine.

Simple - very tasty

I made this with the sweet potato ravioli (separate post) but came to realize that this was not the right sauce for it - though I did add a T to the center of each serving for color and is was tasty.

Sweet Potato Ravioli

2008-05-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

Sweet Potato Ravioli with sage butter sauce:

Pasta:

2.5 C all purpose flour
1 C semolina flour
Pinch of salt
4 eggs - lightly beaten

Sift flours and salt into a mound on a counter - make a well and add eggs. Incorporate eggs with your fingers and form gooey mess into a ball - kead for 10 minutes.

I found the "dough" to be to solid to knead by hand so I threw it in a stand mixer with a dough hook and added (a bit at a time) about .25 C water - the mixer got a dough ball formed (worth doing) but was not squishing it enough to get it smooth - so I kneaded the ball by hand for 10 minutes and let it sit for 15 - this worked very well - the dough was not too dry, but held up very well to rolling and cutting.

Break off plum sized chunks of dough and run through a pasta roller on decreasing widths to get pasta sheets.

Filling:

2 sweet potatoes - peeled and chopped into 1" cubes
1/3 C chopped cashew nuts
1 T brown sugar
2/3 C chicken stock
.5 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/5 tsp. thyme
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic

Boil the potato chunks in water in a small or medium saucepan for about 8 minutes - until they are cooked through like potatoes for mashing. Drain the potatoes, add the chicken stock and mash - add more stock or water if necessary to create a smooth consistency.

Mince the rosemary leaves and smash the garlic - put both in a mortar and pestle and mash into a paste - add the paste to the potato / stock mixture.

Mash the cashews in the mortar and pestle and add to the mixture

Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat - adding more liquid if necessary - (I suppose I could have skipped the mashing and thrown everything in a food processor this would have helped keep chunks out of the nuts - through the end result was tasty - perhaps next time) - also, taste and correct - I made this up as I went. Some grated Parmesan, or some ricotta might be a good addition.

Sage Butter Sauce:

Melt 2T butter in a small sauce pan and add about 8 sage leaves (I had some frozen and the were fine) cook for a few minutes and then add about 3T of white wine - I used a chardonnay that I then served with the meal). Strain into a small bowl - pushing on leaves to extract all sauce.

Assembling and cooking the ravioli:

grate a bunch of Parmesan cheese - at least 1 C grated

Take a pasta sheet (probably about 5 or five inches wide by 4 feet long - and place it on a counter (dry! and, I initially used dishtowels under the pasta - but this made it difficult to cut the raviolis out) place small (about 1.5 tsp) dollops of the sweet potato mixture on half of the sheet (thr other half will be floded over on top) - spaces with enough clearance around each to cut out a ravioli - fold the other half of the sheet over the dolloped half and press the dough carefully around each dollop so the tops and bottom sheet meet (be caseful not to rip the top sheets)

use an espresso cup or some similar round object with about a 1.5 " diameter - cut out raviolis (ther are many ways to do this - I will try a pizza cutter next time)

Do not stack the raviolis between cutting and cooking - I did and had a difficult time separating them (many were ripped)

the left over dough can be re-rolled.

Cook the raviolis in boiling water for about 3-4 minutes.

Remove from water with a slotted spoon and serve topped with sage butter sauce (above) and a relatively big mound of freshly grated Parmesan cheese - which will melt with the heat of the raviolis and the sage butter sauce.

suprising thai dressing

2008-04-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

I made this as an afterthought to be a salad dressing for greens and cucumber slices to serve with Thai rice and trader joe's curry chicken tenderloins

.5 c rice vinegar
1.5 t sugar
1 t palm sugar
juice of half a lime
a few slices of a red chili pepper
1 t soy sauce
a tiny splash of sesame oil

combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat - bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes
transfer to a small container and stick in the ice maker in the freezer to cool in order to serve right away

This ended up being a smooth, slightly thickened, tasty dressing. It worked on the salad, and the chicken , and the rice. It would probably work as the main dressing for a variation of teryaki sauce.

huevos rancheros - sort of

2008-04-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

I used left-over improvised cilantro chimichurri, corn tortillas, all the potatoes in my cabinets for hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, and cheddar cheese for tasty huevos rancheros

Hash browns:

1 russet potato
3 red potatoes
1 medium yellow onion
.5 red pepper
.5 jalapeno or other hot pepper
1 t cayenne pepper
3 T olive oil
2 t salt
kosher salt
dash white pepper

Preheat oven to 400
Dice the potatoes - so they are in uniform cubes less then .5 inch - this allows them to cook fairly quickly and evenly
put diced potatoes in a mixing bowl and cover them with water - let sit while you chop everything else - at least 10 minutes (8 worked fine for me)
chop onion in to fairly large chunks - a bit bigger than the potato cubes
chop red pepper into pieces about the same size as the potatoes
mince the jalapeno pepper
drain the potatoes (i dumped them into a big strainer)
wipe out and dry potato bowl
dry potatoes (good faith effort is OK) and put them back in the bowl
add 3T olive oil, cayenne pepper, onions, red peppers, salt (not the kosher salt), and the dash of white pepper - stir to combine
prepare a cookie sheet by sprinkling the kosher salt on it - dump potato mixture on the pan and spread evenly - it should not be more than a single layer deep
cook for about 30 minutes - stir after 20

cilantro chimichurri

1 c cilantro leaves
1 medium onion
.5 chili pepper - minced
3T olive oil (or more as needed)
1t salt

put everything but the olive oil in a food processor with the blade and process until it is smooth
pour olive oil in the spout with the processor running - keep adding until the mixture is the consistency of pesto.

tortillas:

put corn tortillas in something to steam them (with a wet paper towel - I just bought a tortilla steamer / server thing - ugly, but functional)

heat two skillets - at least one non-stick

scramble 5 eggs in one skillet (I think traditional huevos rancheros have fried eggs - but it was easier and fine with scrambled)

-place as many tortillas as will fit in the other skillet - turn after 30 seconds
- add a layer of grated cheese over half of each tortilla, about the same amount of potatoes, (check a big one to make sure they are cooked through), a chunk of eggs, and a spoonful of the cilantro salsa.
after the cheese is melted, fold and serve

A Rummy!

2008-04-23T18:12:00.001-07:00

Improvised after a long day at work:

Combine in a shaker in about the following ratio:

3 Rum
1 Triple Sec
3 Pineapple Nectar
Juice from half a lime
Juice from half a lemon
1 Pomegranate Juice
.25 Grenadine

Shake and strain into a glasses filled with ice with the tonic poured in it:

Scillian Sytle Potatoes Gratin

2008-02-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from epicurious here:

It was fairly quick to put together using a food processor. It would be much more time consuming cutting all the potatoes with a knife. Very tasty. I served this with roast pork.

Ingredients:

1 garlic clove, halved
Olive oil for brushing plus
4 tablespoons, divided
2 cups chopped onions
Coarse kosher salt
2 1/4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, very thinly sliced
8 tablespoons (packed) grated Pecorino Romano cheese, divided
3 tablespoons drained capers
2 cups low-salt chicken broth

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Rub 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish with cut side of garlic clove. Brush dish with olive oil. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, sprinkle with coarse salt, and sauté until soft and beginning to brown, stirring frequently, about 13 minutes.

Arrange 1/3 of potatoes in even layer in prepared dish. Sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Scatter half of onions over. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons Pecorino Romano and 1 tablespoon capers. Repeat layering with half of remaining potatoes, coarse salt and pepper, remaining onions, 2 tablespoons Pecorino Romano, and 1 tablespoon capers. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Arrange remaining potato slices over. Sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper and remaining 1 tablespoon capers. Drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Pour chicken broth over. Press down firmly on potatoes to compact gratin.

Cover gratin tightly with foil and bake until potatoes are tender, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with remaining 4 tablespoons Pecorino Romano. Bake gratin uncovered until cheese is lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Let gratin stand 10 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Beef Burgundy Crepes for valentines day dinner

2008-02-10T05:48:00.000-08:00

Valentines day dinner:

Beef Burgundy crepes with orange-glazed carrots, arugula salad, and nutella-raspberry crepes for dessert.

I didn't have any bacon or olive oil - so I made the beef burgundy with no bacon, some canola oil, and a cup of cheap wine. It was still pretty good - though it would be much better if I made it with some care. Overall this was pretty easy and worked well enough to make again.

For the carrots - I boiled (in salted water with a pinch of sugar) some baby carrots for about 5 minutes (this was too long) and used a sauce of:

Simmer until reduced: 1.5 T melted butter, zest and juice from about half an orange, 1t lemon juice -
Add about a T 50/50 flour water mix - stirred smooth to thicken the sauce.

I sort of drizzled the sauce over the carrots - and it didn't look great - next time I will try tossing the carrots in the sauce - but it tasted good.

To garnish the beef burgundy crepes, I spooned some of the burgundy sauce over the rolled crepes, and them mixed about 2T sour cream with 1.5ish t water (to thin it) and spooned this on over the sauced crepe - this worked well, looked good, and tasted good.

The dessert crepes were simple - reheat pans - toss in a crepe, add a stripe of nutella and some raspberries, fold, plate with some ice cream, add a few more rasberries, sprinkle with powdered sugar (through a strainer)

Here is the Crepe Recipe I used:

1 scant C flour
2 eggs
1 C milk
2 T butter - melted and cooled
salt

Sift flour into a bowl
add eggs and 3 or 5 T of the milk - stir to combine
add the rest of the milk and stir to make a thin batter
add the butter, salt to taste, and whisk for several minutes

brush some oil in a crepe pan (I used 2 10' saute pans - 1 non-stick, one stick) and heat. Add 3T batter and tip to coat pan - cook about 3 min. on one and 1 min on the other

Here is a Beef Burgundy recipe from recipezaar. I haven't tried it yet - but I used it to figure out what ingrediants to get.

3	slices bacon, diced
1	lb boneless beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch pieces
2	garlic cloves, minced
1/2	teaspoon salt
1/4	teaspoon fresh ground pepper
12	ounces mushrooms, halved
1 (14	ounce) can beef broth
1 1/2	cups dry red wine, such as cabernet sauvignon
10	ounces small white pearl onions, peeled (about 24)
1 1/2	teaspoons dried thyme or 1 sprig fresh thyme
1/4	cup flour
1/4	cup water

Not the one? See other Beef Burgundy Recipes

Cook bacon in a heavy 4 qrt Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium heat until crisp.
Transfer bacon with slotted spoon to a medium bowl; set aside.
Brown meat with garlic, transferring it to a plate.
Sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.
Add mushrooms to drippings in pan; cook 3- 4 minutes or until mushrooms are browned, stirring frequently.
Transfer mushrooms to bowl with bacon.
Set aside.
Return meat with any juices to pan; add onions, broth, wine, and thyme.
Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low.
Cover; simmer 1 hour.
Combine flour and water, mixing until smooth.
Stir into meat mixture.
Stir in reserved mushroom mixture.
Bring to a boil; reduce heat.
Simmer, uncovered, 34- 40 minutes or until meat is tender and sauce thickens, stirring occasionally.
Remove thyme sprig if fresh thyme was used.
Serve over noodles, rice or potatoes, if desired.

Steak Salad with Cous Cous and Asparagus

2008-02-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

This was a quick and easy dinner using stuff I had in the fridge and lying arond.

preheat broiler and heat a grill pan

1 ribeye steak
arugala (or whatever greens are available)
1 c cous cous
1.25 c chicken stock
2 T craisins
2 T diced apples
asparagus
1 lemon cut in half
Montreal steak seasoning

add the stock, craisins, and apples to a small saucepan and bring to a boil

toss asparagus in olive oil, season with salt to taste -
arrange in a singe layer on a cooling rack placed in a cookie sheet - place under broiler for 5-7 minutes

press seasoning into both sides of steak
grill the steak for about 4-5 minutes on each side without moving
place one lemon half on the grill pan - cut side down while grilling the steak

take the boiling stock off heat and add the cous cous to it - let sit five minutes covered and then fluff with a fork

after the steak is finished grilling, let it rest and assemble a salad and dressing

use the grilled lemon to make a lemon vinaigrette dressing (I used olive oil, cider vinegar, a bit of white vinegar, the grilled lemon juice, and some dried herbs)

slice the steak, serve over salad greens
serve the asparagus over the cous cous

Hors-Derby: Dates vs. Thai Wings

2008-02-03T15:14:00.000-08:00

I made the wing recipe below for an hors d'oeuvre contest among friends last night. the recipe looked interesting to me because it uses authentic ingredients. It was tasty and came together well - but, in the end, it looked like a bunch of deep fried chicken wings covered with sticky sauce (which it was). I might try baking rather than deep frying if I do these again. The corn starch and rice flour coating worked very well.

My wifes' goat cheese stuffed, basil and prosciutto-wrapped dates were well made, tasty, unique, outstanding, etc. and earned a well-deserved victory for her.

Thai Wing recipe from MarthaStewart.com:

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 fresh red Thai chiles, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
2 pounds chicken mini drumsticks from chicken wings or chicken wings, separated at the joint
1 ripe mango, cut into 1-inch slices
2 teaspoons salt
Grape seed or corn oil, for frying
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

In a medium saucepan, combine soy sauce, lime juice, nam pla, garlic, chiles, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Let cool completely.
Place drumsticks in a shallow baking dish. Pour over soy sauce mixture and toss until chicken is well coated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, toss mango slices with salt. Let stand 30 minutes.
Add enough oil to a deep, heavy-bottomed pot to reach a depth of 3 inches. Heat oil over medium-high heat until it reaches 375 degrees on a deep-fry thermometer. Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry.
In a shallow dish, mix together cornstarch and rice flour. Working in batches, dredge chicken in cornstarch mixture and carefully add to hot oil. Cook until crisp, browned, and cooked through, about 10 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary to maintain temperature.
Transfer chicken to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Place hot-and-sour sauce in a large bowl; add chicken and toss to coat. Serve immediately with salted mango and mint leaves.

Hot and Sour Sauce:

1/4 cup grape seed or corn oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
1/4 cup thinly sliced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped dried red finger chiles
1/2 fresh red Thai chile
1 piece fresh galangal (1/4 inch), peeled and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch slices
1/8 teaspoon belacan (shrimp paste)
1 1/2 tablespoons palm sugar
2 tablespoons tamarind paste
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3/4 teaspoon nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
3/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic. Cook, stirring, until deep golden brown. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and transfer mixture to the jar of a blender. Carefully puree until smooth. Transfer to a large mixing bowl; set aside until ready to use.

Date recipe from Epicurious.com

1/3 cup soft herbed goat cheese
16 Medjool dates, pitted
16 large basil leaves
4 wide, thin slices prosciutto di Parma, each cut into 4 long strips
16 toothpicks, soaked in water 10 minutes

Heat broiler to low. Spoon 1 teaspoon cheese into each date; wrap with a basil leaf, then a prosciutto strip. Secure with a toothpick. Broil until cheese bubbles, about 3 minutes. Serve warm.

Easy Sesame Green Beans

2008-01-16T18:26:00.000-08:00

This is very easy and tasty:

1 pound green beans, trimmed
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Directions

Set a steamer basket in a large pot. Fill with enough water to come just below basket; bring to a boil. Add green beans to basket; reduce heat to a simmer. Cover, and cook until crisp-tender, 5 to 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together vinegar and oil; season with salt and pepper. Add green beans and sesame seeds; season with salt and pepper, and toss.

Pad Thai II

2008-01-15T18:40:00.001-08:00

2/27/08 - I finally got pretty good results!!!! I tried once following the recipe below fairly closely - it was OK - but there was not enough sauce. I tried it again doubling the amount of sauce and cutting the rest of the recipe in half - this seems to work! I didn't use all of the sauce, but I had enough to use an amount that seemed right, and then add a bit more. I had about 2 T left over. Also, I used green onions (the top 2/3ds - cut into inch long pieces) instead of garlic chives.

I cut the rest of the recipe in half to keep the amount that goes into the wok manageable so it will stir-fry rather than steaming (unless you have a huge wok and a big flame - I do not) If there is too much stuff in the wok, the temp. goes down and things steam and get soggy. If you need more than half this recipe makes (2 big servings) work in batches - it only takes a few minutes to do each.

I have had good luck setting out all the ingredients, ready to throw in the wok in about the right order - because once you start, there isn't really time to chop, pour, or measure anything. I have burned the crap out of my shallots (you have to start over - it will taste nasty with burnt shallots) several times because of lack of preparation for the next step.

Since my last Pad Thai post I have taken two Thai cooking classes - one in the US and one in Thailand - and I have tried making pad thai 6 or7 times with various different recipes and techniques - and it is still a work in progress. Here is what I did tonight:

2 T Oil (I use canola)
2 shallots - minced
1 chicken breast - cut into .5 inch pieces
2 eggs - scrambled
rice stick noodles (5-6 oz.) - soaked in hot water (boil then remove from heat and add noodles) for about 5 minutes (test along the way - they are ready when softened but still have a bit of firmness - if they are left too long they will turn to mush in the wok) and then drained
.5 tsp chili flakes
1.5 C bean sprouts
3/4 C garlic chives cut into 1.5 inch lengths (scallions are fine)
2 T ground peanuts
1 lime cut into 1/8ths

sauce:
2 T tamarind pulp - (I have a thing of tamarind concentrate ($1.69 from Bangkok 54 in Arlington ) - this works well. I tried making pulp by mashing and straining dried tamarind pods once. It worked, but it took forever and there were still lumps after much effort with a mortar and pestle)
1 T Palm Sugar - (also from Bangkok 54 - good and cheap)
1T Fish sauce
pinch white pepper
smaller pinch salt

For sauce:

Combine sauce ingredients in a saucepan and heat (low to medi and stir until sugar dissolves (stinky!) - turn off heat and set aside.

-Heat oil in wok over medium high heat- add shallots and stir fry for about a minute - (be careful not to burn - I have burned the shallots here twice (2-27-08 - three times now))
- Add the chicken pieces- stir fry until no longer pink
- lower heat and add eggs - stir to scramble
- add noodles and chili flakes (not too much or the dish will steam and not stir fry) and stir fry for about a minute
- add sauce - stir fry for another minute (keep things moving to keep from burning in wok - I have had to add more oil here to keep things moving - I have also added a bit sherry or rice wine for this purpose)
- add half of the bean sprouts and half of the garlic chives - stir fry for another minute
- remove from heat, plate, garnish with remaining sprouts, chives, and peanuts and limes

serve with Thai chili sauce (this is important - a bit (start with a few shakes - .5t) of this stuff really brings it together)

White Cheddar Corn Chowder

2008-01-13T19:00:00.000-08:00

I made this soup while making the potato pancakes.

Serves 6

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 celery stalk, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 1/2 cups)
2 cups homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock
1 cup nonfat milk
3 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 6 ears of corn)
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, grated (about 3/4 cup)

Directions

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add celery, and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add coriander, cumin, and cayenne. Raise heat to medium-high, and add wine. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes. Add potatoes, stock, and milk, and bring to a boil (skim any foam from surface). Reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
Add corn, and cook until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Transfer 2 cups soup to a blender. Let cool slightly, then puree. Return puree to pan, and stir. Reheat if needed. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into bowls, and top with cheese. Chowder can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Potato Pancakes

2008-01-13T18:57:00.000-08:00

This recipe worked well and was tasty:

4 large russet potatoes, peeled
1 small white onion, finely grated
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup beer
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying
Pink Applesauce
Sour cream, for serving (optional)
Caviar, for serving (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Shred potatoes using the large holes of a box grater into a large bowl of ice water. Alternatively, place half the potatoes in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the shredding disk attachment and process until shredded. Repeat process with remaining potatoes; transfer to a large bowl of ice water. Using a strainer or slotted spoon, transfer potatoes, reserving liquid, to another large bowl lined with a clean kitchen towel; gently squeeze dry.
Set reserved liquid aside for 10 minutes to allow starch to sink to the bottom; carefully pour liquid from the bowl, reserving milky residue (potato starch), and discard. Transfer potatoes back to bowl with potato starch.
Add onions to bowl; stir in eggs, beer, flour, salt, and pepper.
Line a baking sheet with paper towels; set aside. In a heavy nonstick skillet, heat 1/4-inch of oil. Spoon scant 1/2 cup of potato mixture per pancake into skillet, working in batches and taking care not to crowd the skillet.
Fry on both sides until golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer to prepared baking sheet to drain; transfer to oven to keep warm. Repeat process with remaining potato mixture. Serve hot with applesauce, or sour cream and caviar, if desired.

Green Curry Thai Rice

2008-01-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

.5 C Rice
1 can coconut milk
2 tsp green curry paste (or more for more heat)
3 kaffir lime leaves - minced
1 tsp minced lemongrass
1/4 C chicken stock
1 T canola oil

Heat canola oil in a saucepan over medium heat
add lemongrass and curry paste - cook for 2-3 minutes - until fragrant - but do not burn
add rice, coconut milk, chicken stock, kaffir lime leaves-, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer
simmer, stirring and adding more stock or water, as necessary, until rice is cooked through

Quick Chicken Enchiladas

2008-01-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

This was a quick and and fairly easy way to throw together chicken enchiladas adapted from this recipe at allrecipes.com.

2 Chicken Breasts
half an onion - chopped
half a green pepper - diced
1/4 cup black olives - minced
2 or 3 tsp. parsely (I used fresh but dried would work)
2 cloves garlic pressed
1 C grated cheddar cheese

1/4 C mole sauce (I used Trader Joes)
1/4 C water
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 C plain yogurt

1 can of tomatillos
2 T white vinegar
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
.5 tsp salt
5 flour tortillas

-preheat oven to 350
-heat a nonstick skillet - cook chicken alone in the skillet - brown for about 3 or 4 min per side
-remove chicken breasts, cube, and return to pan
-add onions, peppers, and some salt - cook for 3 or 4 minutes
- add garlic, olives, parsley, stir, cook for 2-3 minutes
- add parsley, mole, tomato sauce, water, yogurt, cheese - stir until melted and combined
- reduce heat and bring to simmer

- steam tortillas in microwave - put a damp paper towel in their bag, and nuke for 1.5 min

-put a tortilla flat in a small baking dish (about 8 x 10 ish) spoon in .5 cup of mixture
- fold the tortilla over mixture (bottom 1/3,up, sides in, fold filled 2/3rd up over remaining third)
- repeat with other tortillas to fill dish
- top with tomatillo salsa and cheese and bake for 20 minutes

tomatillo salsa:

combine in food processor:
1 big can of tomatillas - drained
.5 chopped jalapeno (or to taste)
pinch cumin (or to taste)
pinch salt (or to taste)
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/4 c chopped onions
1/4 c chopped green pepper
tsp lime juice

Coconut Macaroons

2007-12-20T18:21:00.000-08:00

These were really easy - especially with some extra chocolate sitting around from tempering.

I found a recipe here:

But I didn't have any condensed milk - so I found a substitution recipe here:

I cut both recipes in half and ended up with 34 macaroons. They took about 25 minutes in a 300 degree oven. After they cooled a bit, I drizzled some chocolate on them. I remelted the chocolate over an off-heat sauce pan pf of water that had just boiled. I brought the chocolate up to about 105 degrees - it wasn't really runny enough to drizzle - but I got it to work using the back of a spoon.

SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK (SUBSTITUTE)
1 c. instant non fat dry milk 2/3 c. sugar 1/3 c. boiling water 3 tbsp. melted butter Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Store in refrigerator. Equal to 1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand milk.

Makes 90

2 large egg whites
Pinch of salt
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 bags shredded sweetened coconut (14-ounces each)
Ice cream, optional for Icearoons

Directions

Heat oven to 300 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites and salt until frothy, about 2 minutes. Stir in condensed milk and vanilla. Using a rubber spatula, fold in coconut until well combined.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats. Using a teaspoon and your fingers, form macaroons into 1 1/4-inch mounds about 1 inch apart.
Bake until macaroons are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to a cooling rack; let cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Tempering Chocolate

2007-12-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

My plan was to temper chocolate and dip cream caramels in it. Tempering chocolate turns out to be a pain. I worked in it last night until past minute and failed in two attempts. I did more research today - and I think that last night I put the "seed chocolate" in at too high a temperature - and it melted before if could do any seeding. And then - I only took the temp. down to 88 - 91. THis was not cool enough according to other methods I read today.

So, now I am trying again - I remelted the chocolate from last night (over a double boilier - heat off - after simmering lightly) the melted chocolate got up to about 118 and is in the process of cooling to 80. I plan to ring it up to 89 using a bowl of warm water.

For cooling it, I transferred the melted chocolate into the bowl of a stand mixer, and stirring with the dough hook on the lowest setting - that way I don't have to stand there and stir it fo half an hour as it cools. Off to check the temp... 86.4 and cooling.

The tempering directions I am following now are here:

Double Boiler Tempering

Chop chocolate blocks into small pieces or use chocolate wafers.

Fill bottom of double boiler so the hot water does not touch the bottom of the upper pan. Do not let the water boil. Stir the chocolate while melting to ensure even heating. Try to avoid creating air bubbles. Heat chocolate to 120 F. to 122 F.

Replace the hot water with 70 F. water, no cooler. Stir until the chocolate cools to between 79 F. and 80 F. It may occasionally be necessary to add additional cool water to the bottom of the double boiler.

Now replace the 70 F. water with warm water (about 92 F. to 93 F.) and raise the temperature of the chocolate to between 88 F. and 89 F. for dark chocolate or 84 F. to 86 F. for milk chocolate or white cocoa butter coating (white chocolate). Maintain the appropriate temperature while dipping. If the chocolate exceeds 90 F., it will be necessary to repeat the tempering process.

---

The directions I used last night - which were good - but led me a bit astray about the "seed" method are here: At cookingforengineers.com - which also appears to be a good site.

When the chocolate got down to 80 degrees - I put it over a bowl of 95 degree water and brought it back up to 89. It was still pretty thick - too thick to use effectively - I tried a test strip on some parchment - and after three or four minutes it didn't look like it had tempered propoerly, it was still soft and bent rather than snapping. I added warmer water to the bowl under the chocolate and brought it up a bit more - slightly over 90. At this point, I decided to dip the caramels anyway.

Dipping took about an hour - I kept an eye on the temperature and replace the water in the bowl under the chocolate with warm / hot tap water every now and then. I used wooden skewers to dip the caramels - I think tongs or some other way of grabbing a caramel from two sides might work better. One problem with the caramels is that when they first came out of the freezer, they were too solid to stick a skewer in. After a while, they became too soft to stay on a skewer - so they had to go back in the freezer.

The chocolate must have been in temper - because in the morning, the caramels were shiny and the chocolate broke with a snap. I think I could have doen a better test for tempered-ness by dipping a spoon in the chocolate and putting it in the fridge for a few minutes. The first sign of success I noticed was the dough hook on the mixer - the chocolate it was covered with hardened to a shiny gloss and broke with a snap. Also, the chocolate I worked with stayed tempered for an hour with occasional reheating - sometimes the reheating went to 95 or 98 - this thinned the chocolate enough to work with and did not destroy the temper.

Cream caramels

2007-12-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

I had a chocolate covered caramel with sea salt from Trader Joes -yum. I decided to try to make them. That was the easy part.

Caramel:

After searching awhile for recipes - I followed this recipe from chocolatedgourmand.com - an excellent site with lots of great pictures and tips.

I followed the recipe closely - using a silpat to line the pan that I spread the caramel in. (this is described somewhere in the site - and is worth finding and trying - it was simple) The caramel mixture took quite a while (25 min?) to come to the proper temperature - but it did, I poured it, wrapped it, left it, and it was perfect.

The next day I transferred the slab to a parchment covered cutting board, and put that in the freeze for 15 minutes. Then I cut (slowly - line by line) a grid pattern in the slab. Then I put it back in the freezer to mess with the chocolate (separate post - long story). The process of separating out individual chunks wasn't too hard after if messed with if to a while - it involved returning the slab to the freezer every now and then. Also, It took some trial and error to figure out that the best way to store the individual chunks was on anything, on parchment. They sagged when they warmed - but the resulting shape was cool. I had some on plates without parchment. These were too soft to move until I popped them in the freezer for awhile - then they came off with a bit of help from a paring knife to the bottom.

Classic Cream Caramels

2 cups light corn syrup
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed
4 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Some Safflower oil.

Oil the foil lined baking dish.
Using safflower oil and a paper towel, generously oil a 9x13 baking dish lined with foil. Don't skimp, trust me.

Heat sugar and corn syrup to boil then stop stirring and cook until 305° F.
Combine the sugar and corn syrup in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until it comes to a boil. Wash down sides several times with water using a pastry brush. Stop stirring and place a candy thermometer in pan and continue to boil over medium high heat. You are going to boil the sugar syrup mixture until it reaches 305° F (151° C), which will take about 10 minutes or so.

Heat cream over medium heat until simmering.
While you are waiting for the sugar mixture to heat you can heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently until simmering. Remove the hot cream from heat and set aside.

Add butter to sugar syrup. Slowly add the hot cream.
Once the sugar mixture has reached 305° F (151° C), reduce heat and slowly add the 1/4 cup of cubed butter. Slowly add the hot cream to the sugar mixture. I usually do this with a small ladle or measuring cup. Keep the mixture boiling while adding the cream, but beware of boil-over if you add the cream too quickly. The boiling mixture will rise rapidly after adding the cream. Let the mixture settle down before adding more cream. The game is to keep it boiling without letting it overflow.

Continue cooking caramel until it reaches target temperature.
Once the cream has all been added, continue stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 242-243° F (116°) for dipping or else 246-248° F (117° C) for wrapping. If you like your caramel harder, you can keep heating until you get to around 250° F. If you like your caramel soft, be careful not to make it too soft. Extra gooey caramel is hard to package or dip. The caramel will usually continue to heat a degree past when you remove it from heat.

Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes. Add salt and vanilla.
Let sit 5 minutes before my favorite part: stirring in the salt and vanilla. If you love vanilla, then get ready for what you might call vanilla free-basing. Once you pour in the vanilla and salt, stir just until blended. As you stir the vanilla into the caramel, the vanilla bourbon will boil off and you can inhale intense vanilla smell.

Pour into oiled baking dish. Let sit overnight wrapped tightly.
Pour mixture into prepared baking pan. Cover well and let cool overnight. Once you are ready to dip or wrap, peel the foil off the caramel. This can be a major pain. I simply have to find a better way. They need to make a silpat lined baking pan. The gooier the caramel, the smaller the pieces of foil rip off. Oil a large plastic cutting board and place the caramel slab there. Slice into pieces and wrap or dip.

Dip or wrap as desired.
I typically prefer to make my dipped caramels more gooey than the wrapped caramels, but note that softer caramels are more difficult to work with and dip. Even firm caramels will succumb to gravity and sag after a few minutes. When dipping, slice only as much as you need from the main block to maintain rectangular shapes.

Quick Raita!

2007-12-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

I made this as part of throwing together a no-effort meal featuring a can of some sort of Indian soupy dish with white rice. Searched for a recipe and found this one from epicurious:

Ingredients:

1 large unpeeled English hothouse cucumber, halved, seeded, coarsely grated
2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
1/4 cup (packed) chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon plus pinch of cayenne pepper

Preparation:

Wrap grated cucumber in kitchen towel and squeeze dry. Whisk yogurt, mint, cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper in medium bowl to blend. Add cucumbers and toss to coat. Season raita to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.) Sprinkle raita with pinch of cayenne pepper and serve.

I changed a few things - I used
-2/3 of a leftover cucumber - peeled seeded and minced (no squeezing - the idea here was a quick simple meal).
-1 single serving of plain yogurt
-juice of the small half of a lemon
-about a T of frozen mint leaves - chopped up
- about 3/4 t cumin
-a pinch of cayenne - and then more to taste

whisk together and eat immediately

I will try it the epicurious way sometime - with towels and time and such - but this worked very well - especially going from thinking about it to eating it in about 5 minutes.

Braised Pork Roast

2007-12-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from the Silver Spoon Italian Cookbook.

This recipe was easy to set up - I rolled the roast in rosemary leaves, tied, it browned, and then added onions, garlic, and wine, and then left it alone to simmer. The recipe called for 90 minutes of simmering - so I didn't check the temp. for amlonst an hour - and the temp. was up to 190. Whoops. Oh well. IT was still tasty and the juices made nice gravy. The texture was card boardy. Next time I will check the temp. much sooner - and I will use lower heat fo simmnering.

2.25 Lb. Pork Roast
rosemary leaves from 2 or 3 sprigs
6 T olive oil
2 T butter
.5 medium onion - chopped
1 clove garlic - crushed
3/4 c dry white wine
1 T dijon mustard
1 t white wine vinegar (I used red - because tha tis what I had)

press half of the rosemary needles into the roast
tie the rost with twine
heat 4 T of oil and the butter in a pan
brown the roast on all sides - turning with tongs
pour off the accumulated fat
add the onions and garlic and wine
lower heat and let simmer for 90 min. (check temp after 30 or so just in case

when roast is to temp. - remove and let sit for 10 minutes
ass mustard, rest of oil, and vinegar to pan juices (I also added 1 t corn starch dissolved in about 1/4 C wine - for thickening)
Slice roast in thick slices and serve with gravy

I served sweet potato disks with this - yum!

garlic chive and cous cous salad

2007-12-04T20:12:00.000-08:00

I made this salad to go with lemon parsley stuffed chicken. I seemed strange - I just threw together stuff that I had as a way to use garlic chives leftover from trying to make pad thai. It worked better than I expected - I might even make it again.

half a bunch (about 30-40) garlic chives
1 C cous cous
1 1/4 C chicken stock
1/4 C crasins
1/4 C cashews (chopped if you feel like it)
1/4 C chopped cucumber
1 T balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. Olive Oil
1/5 tsp. sea salt

-Boil the chicken stock - turn off heat and add the cous cous - let sit for five minutes and fluff with a fork.
-Preheat a grill pan - spray with some oil and, when the pan is hot, put in the garlic chives - let them grill for about 3 minutes and then turn the chives over to grill the other side. Salt the chives. Remove them from the pan when they are grilled on both sides.
-Chop the grilled chives into 1' lenghts
- mix all ingredients together

Improvised Ground Turkey Soft Tacos with Mole

2007-11-25T20:21:00.000-08:00

I threw this together sort of in a hurry tonight - but it came out unusually well. I heated canola oil in a nonstick saute pan - and added half an onion minced, .5 t ground dried cayenne pepper, about the same amount of cumin, and about half that amoutn of cinnamon. After this mixture cooked for a few minutes and the onions became soft, I added about .5 lb. of ground turkey - and a bit more olive oil to keep things sizzling. After the turkey browned, I turned the heat down and added 1 pressed garlic clove, about half a small fresh chili pepper finely diced 2 T of mole sauce from trader joes, ans about 1/4 c water. I stirred, turned the heat down to a a simmer, covered, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes while some black beans and rive from a Vigo bag cooked.

I made salsa as follows: 1 med hot house tomato, the other half of the onion, about a t of cayenne powder, 3/4 t of cumin, juice from 1/4 of a lime, a tiny piece of lime rind cut into very small bits, about a t of tomato paste, about 1.5 of white vinegar, salt, one cube of frozen cilantro from trader joes, some frozen corn I had in the freezer, and a pressed garlic clove. I mixed all of this in a bowl - it tasted OK but was funny looking - so I ran it through a food processor.

I took one avocado and removed the flesh to the bowl of a masher - and added a T of the salsa, plus a bunch of salt, more pressed garlic, and more chili or cayenne powder.

I also throw some pomegranate seeds into the turkey and the salsa - since they were in a bowl nearby. (ok in the salsa - not noticeable in the turkey)

The turkey simmered with the mole sauce was very good. This is worth repeating. The soft tacos - assembled with the turkey, salsa, guac, black beans and rice, and cheddar cheese (grated) and shredded lettuce - (served on a tortilla steamed in the microwave in a plastic zip lock bag with a moist paper towel in it) were very good.

Raosted Bell Peppers

2007-10-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

bell peppers
basil leaves
garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper

Line a roasting pan with foil, place peppers in it, and place in the middle if a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.
Wrap peppers with foil after one hour - let cool.
Cut the peppers in half, remove the seeds, membranes, etc, and peel the peppers.
Put the peeled peppers on paper towels to absorb juices.
Cut the ppers into strips. Lay the strips in a baking dish. sprinkle with garlic, salt,and pepper after each layer. Drizzle with olive oil. Let sit for flavors to combine before serving.

Pomegranate Dressed arugala salad

2007-10-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Dressing:

1 T Pomegranate vinegar
.5 T Balsamic vinegar
1 T Olive Oil
1 tsp honey
1 T lemon juice
.5 tsp coarse sea salt
dash pepper

Salad:

Arugala leaves
diced cucumber
diced carrots
craisins
cashew nuts
grated parmesan

Curried Rice

2007-10-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

Simple and yummy:

Add rice and half chicken stock and half water to a rice maker. Add a tsp. curry powder. Start the rice cooker.

Tilapia with rosemary, lemon, and capers

2007-10-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

-2 Tilapia fillets
-1 Lemon
- 2 T Capers
- Olive Oil
-1/4 C sherry
- Rosemary Sprigs
- Garlic

This was quick and tasty:

Preheat the oven to 350 ish.
Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Add rosemary sprigs and sliced and mushed garlic. Remove the garlic when it is golden, Reserve the rosemary sprigs.
Place fillets in the skillet. Turn after 2 or three minutes - put a rosemary sprig under each fillet after turning.
Add juice from half the lemon, sherry, capers.
Cover the skillet and put it in the oven for 8 minutes.
Remove the skillet from the oven, remove the fillets to a dish and cover. Place the skillet over a medium flame to reduce the liquid. Add juice from the other half of the lemon.

Plate the fillets over rice (see curried rice recipe) and drizzle with pan sauce.

Crispy Orange Beef

2007-08-29T04:50:00.000-07:00

I made this last night and used bibb lettuce and rice stick noodles to make it into lettuce wraps. The beef was very good. It was OK in a lettuce wrap - but this concept needs to be developed more - probably some other ingredients would help. But, as a stand alone recipe the beef is very tasty.
(though it is double deep fired - so it won't win any health food contests)

Orange Beef

half pound boneless beefsteak, sliced into 1 half X 2 x half inch pieces
half teaspoon baking soda
half Cup water

Marinade:
half teaspoon kosher salt
1 small egg
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon corn oil

Sauce:
2 tablespoons chicken broth recipe here
1 teaspoon sugar
half teaspoon cornstarch
half tablespoons rice wine
half teaspoons mild rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon oriental sesame oil

for frying
canola oil

For Stir Frying:

1 large piece dried tangerine peel, in small pieces
4 to 5 dried hot red chili peppers
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
half teaspoon minced garlic
1 scallion, chopped
2 teaspoons sugar

Mix the beef with the baking soda and water; refrigerate for 1 hour (about 30 minutes was fine). Rinse the beef thoroughly with cold water and dry well. The meat must be very dry.

Mix the marinade ingredients, add the beef, mix well and refrigerate again for at least 1 hour.

Mix the sauce ingredients and set aside with all the other ingredients near the stove.

PHeat a wok over high heat and add the oil.

When the oil is hot and almost smoking, add the beef. Stir and fry until it just changes color, then remove the beef with a slotted spoon

Heat the oil again until very hot. Return the beef to the oil and stir and fry once more, until the beef is crispy around the edges.

Reheat the wok to medium hot. Get rid of all but 2 Tablespoons of the oil. Heat 2 tablespoons of the drained oil, then add the tangerine peel, chili peppers, ginger, garlic and scallion. Stir fry for a few seconds, or until the chili peppers brown, then add the beef. Stir for 30 seconds and add the sugar.

Add the sauce to the beef, stirring constantly until it coats the meat with a clear glaze. Turn off the heat and serve hot.

Basil Pasta

2007-07-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

I have an urge to try making basil pasta. I have lots of basil and I ought to use it. Here is a recipe I will try: (it is from Allrecipes.com here)

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 tablespoons water
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

Using a food processor, process basil leaves until chopped very fine. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and pulse two or three times, or until combined. Add egg, 1 teaspoon oil, and the water until dough forms a ball shape. If dough seems dry, add a bit more water. Wrap dough in a piece of plastic wrap which has been coated in a few drops of olive oil. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours.
Remove dough from refrigerator, and cut into 6 equal size portions. Run pasta though pasta machine, or roll with rolling pin to desired thickness. Use the additional flour to coat pasta while rolling.
Allow pasta to dry for one hour prior to cooking.
Cook in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. This should take only a 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the pasta.

Blueberry Pie

2007-07-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

Part of a week spent in Michigan earlier this sumer was U-Pick Blueberries! Hundreds of huge beautiful blueberries - fresh and cheap! Here is a recipe I found for making pies (from About.com here)

The recipe is different from what I expected - no baking the pie - but I tried it because it seemed much easier and quicker than other recipes. It worked well, and the "raw" berries were very good. I didn't use enough thickener - so the pie was runny. It was still very tasty. Also, I have to admit to using premade pie crust dough, the kind that comes in a box. It was very good and very easy.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups blueberries
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
dash of salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 pie crust (9 inch) -- baked

PREPARATION:

Bring 1 cup of blueberries and water to a boil. Boil gently for 4 minutes; add butter. Stir in sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Cook slowly, stirring, until thick and clear. Remove from heat; add lemon juice.

Pour mixture over the remaining 2 cups of blueberries; stir gently to combine. Pour into the baked pie shell. Serve chilled or at room temperature with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.

Tilapia Fish with Lemon Sauce Recipe

2007-06-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

This is from Cooking.com here

When I made it, I put the tilapia in the saute pan for two minutes or so on each side to give it some color, hit it wous some sherry and lemon juice and then I added most of the sauce to the pan and reduced the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes. Also, instead of black olives, I used chopped cured Mediterranean olives from Trader Joes - it was yummy, but the sauce didn't look all that great - kind of black and nasty like mud - but is was very tasty. I served it by plating the fish and spooning some, but not all of the sauce over the fish.

cooked with some saffron, slivered almonds, Also, I served this with Israeli cous couscrasins, and raisins. After the cous cous was cooked, I stirred in some basil vinaigrette dressing (see separate post).

The fish was very good!!!

RECIPE INGREDIENTS

For the Lemon Sauce:

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon chopped shallots or onions

1 tablespoon chopped capers

1/4 cup sliced pitted black olives

1/2 teaspoon chopped lemon zest

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

For the Fish:

4 boneless, skinless Tilapia fillets or other firm, white-fleshed fillets

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Garnishes:

Cooked asparagus

Baby cherry tomatoes

Chopped parsley

RECIPE METHOD

In a bowl, combine the lemon juice, shallots, salt and pepper to taste, capers, olives, and lemon zest. Slowly whisk in the oil until the sauce is emulsified. Stir in the parsley. Set aside.

Season the fish with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour the teaspoon of oil into a nonstick skillet, and heat over medium-high heat. When hot, add the fillets and cook for about 2 minutes on each side, depending on thickness of fish.

Put the fillets on a serving plate, garnish with the asparagus and tomatoes, some lemon sauce, and a sprinkle of parsley.

Mint - Tahini Salaad Dressing to Try:

2007-06-16T14:35:00.001-07:00

INGREDIENTS

2 pickle-size Persian cucumbers, diced
1 large tomato, diced
3 radishes, diced (optional)
1 green onion, sliced
10 mint leaves, sliced
1/3 bunch parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Combine the cucumber, tomato, and radish in a bowl with the green onion, mint, and parsley. In a small bowl, stir together the garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil until smooth; season to taste with salt.
Toss the vegetables with the dressing until combined. Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Fresh Basil Vinaigrette

2007-06-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

This is from recipiezarr at http://www.recipezaar.com/171816
I added a tblspoon of honey to the recipe and used more basil - because my basil plants are producing lots and lots of leaves - I have to use a bunch every day.

Yummy and quick!

1/4	cup lemon juice
1/4	cup red wine vinegar
1/3	cup fresh basil leaves
2	tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2	cup olive oil
1	teaspoon salt
1/2	teaspoon pepper

1 T honey

-put everything but the olive oil and honey into a blender.
- blend
- drizzle in oil and honey

Rosemary Foccacia

2007-05-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

My rosemary plant is thriving. I felt like using some - so I am trying this recipe from Recipezaar

1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast (1 Tablespoon) 1 2/3 cups lukewarm water (105 to 115 F) 5 cups unbleached all purpose flour, plus additional for kneading 2 1/2 teaspoons table salt 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

FOR THE TOPPING

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Not the one? See other Rosemary Salt Topped Foccacia Recipes

Stir together 1 2/3 cups lukewarm water and yeast in bowl of mixer and let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. Add 5 cups flour, 1/4 cup oil, and 2 1/2 teaspoons table salt and beat with paddle attachment at medium speed until a dough forms or use a wooden spoon if you don’t have this equipment. Replace paddle with dough hook and knead dough at high speed until soft, smooth, and sticky, 3 to 4 minutes. Or use a wooden spoon or your hand to mix. Mix at least 8 minutes by hand.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in 1 to 2 tablespoons more flour. Knead dough 1 minutes (it will still be slightly sticky), then transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and turn dough to coat with oil. Let rise, covered with plastic wrap, at warm room temperature, until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Press dough evenly into a generously oiled 15 by 10 by 1 inch baking pan. Let dough rise, covered completely with a kitchen towel, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Stir together rosemary and 3 Tablespoons oil. Make shallow indentations all over dough with your fingertips, then brush with rosemary oil, letting it pool in indentations. Sprinkle sea salt evenly over focaccia and bake in middle of oven until golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
Immediately invert a rack over pan and flip focaccia onto rack.
Favorite Recipes Phoenix Place.

RICOTTA PANCAKES

2007-05-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

RICOTTA PANCAKES

This is from Cooks.com: link

Dry ingredients:

1 tsp. baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1/2 c. flour

Also need:

3 lg. eggs, separated
1/2 lb. Ricotta
1/2 c. whole milk

Combine the dry ingredients and set out your milk and cheese. Whip egg whites until very stiff. Combine Ricotta, egg yolks and milk with the dry ingredients. Then fold in egg whites. Have griddle hot (test by dropping a few drips of water onto the griddle. If water bubbles skitter around on the griddle it is just right).

Drop batter onto hot griddle with a spoon - depending on the size of spoon, one or two tablespoons at a time. Pancakes should be about two to three inches in diameter. Cook as you would regular pancakes.

Serve with your favorite topping or with white sugar and butter. These pancakes are very light and delicate - and delicious!!

Recipe can be doubled. Pancakes are very good cold when topped with jam, rolled up and eaten with fingers.

Turkey Burgers

2007-05-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

Turkey Cheddar Burgers

1 lb ground turkey
1 cup low-fat shredded cheddar
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tsp parsley
1 tbs dried chives or 2 of fresh chopped
1 tsp dried onion
1 tsp garlic powder
Dash of salt, pepper, paprika

Form loosely packed burgers.
Spray a non stick pan with cooking spray.
Heat pan on high add burgers to hot pan reduce heat to medium cover pan (keeps everything moist)
Cook 3-4 minutes on each side turning as little as possible.

Alfredo sauce

2007-05-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Take whatever noodles you are making out of the pot they boiled in. Reserve a bit of cooking water.
pour about .4 C of cream into the pot - bring it to a simmer.
Add a sprinkle of cinnamon and some pepper
put the noodles back (they have to still be warm)
throw in a few handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Stir, add some cooking water if it is needed for consistency.

That should make a creamy sauce.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

2007-05-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

This a recipe from Cooks Illustrated

3 lb. vine-ripened grocery store tomatoes - cut in half pole to pole
1 medium onion cut into disks
3 cloves of garlic peeled
2 T tomato paste

Pre-heat the oven to 400
line a cookie sheet with foil - and put a cooling rack on it
put the tomatoes, garlic, and onion in a bowl - toss with the tomato paste

Place a piece of foil in the center of the rack - put the garlic and onions on it
place the tomatoes on the rest of the rack around the garlic and onions.
Put the tray in the oven for about 20 minutes

Put the roaster tomatoes, onion, and garlic in a food processor and process until the tomatoes are broken down.

Yum!

Pasta Maker!

2007-05-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

I found a new manual pasta maker at a flea market - it has lots of attachments. I tries making fettuccine and ravioli. The first time, I made the dough too wet. The fettuccine didn't really separate - and the ravioli was a disaster - it rolled back up in the roller and was very gooey. The fettuccine worked pretty well. Here is the recipe I used:

4Cs flour and 4 eggs, 1.5 T olive oil - with everything thrown in a food processor and pulsed until it started to get sticky enough to form into a ball. I added drops of water until it seems stick enough - but I used too much water.

I tried again without the food processor - this time I used 1C flour, 1 egg (beaten), and about 3/4T of olive - and no water at first. I made a mound of flour, made a well, put the egg in the well, mixed with a fork, etc.. Eventually the mix became a dough, I added about a T of water - tsp at a time - the dough was much drier, but it did hold together. It was harder to get it started in the roller, but the noodles were much better. Yum!

Sweet Potato disks

2007-05-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

This is an easy sweet potato side dish. You can set it up, get it going, and do other stuff - you will probably forget about it and then when you remember it will be done!

Pre-heat oven to 400
Pre-heat an oven safe skillet.
Cut two sweet potatoes into disks a bit less than 1/2 an inch thick.
Put the disks in a bowl and toss them with a bit of canola oil and some salt.
Put the oiled, salted disks in the skillet - flat sides down - cook them for about 4 minutes on each side. The sides should be slightly browned.
Put the skillet with the oven for about 15 minutes.

Yum!!!

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

2007-04-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

This was fairly easy to set up - I used 7 slices of turkey bacon instead of ham - so I had to cook that first. Also, the recipe dosent mention anything about boiling or soaking the split peas, but my slow cooker directions say it is important to boil and soak. I boiled them for 10 minutes, but did not soak them - since I was going to cook them for 7 hours. The peas were soft after 7 hours, but didn't get mushy and form a smooth consistency. The soup was still tasty - but I might run half of it through a blender to make it more "split pea soupy."

The recipe is from Real Simple here:

Slow-Cooker Recipe: Smoky Pea Soup


From

Thick as fog yet pure as rain, this soup deserves an accompaniment of homemade corn bread or biscuits.

object2=">2 ham hocks (about 1 1/2 pounds)*
object2=">1 pound green split peas
object2=">2 large carrots, coarsely chopped (2 cups)
object2=">2 large celery stalks, chopped (2 cups)
object2=">1 large onion, coarsely chopped (1 cup)
object2=">2 garlic cloves, chopped
object2=">2 32-ounce cans chicken broth
object2=">1 bay leaf
object2=">1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

Rinse the ham hocks. Place them in a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, along with the peas, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, broth, bay leaf, and thyme. Cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours. Using tongs, remove the ham hocks. When they're cool enough to handle, pick off the meat and discard the skin and bones. Chop the meat into small pieces, return it to the soup, and stir.

*A ham bone from a roast or 1/2 pound of cooked smoky bacon can be substituted; however, the soup will then require up to 1 tablespoon of salt. Add it 1/2 teaspoon at a time, tasting after each addition.

Yield: Makes 6 servings

Curried Cous Cous

2007-04-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

I made this for two picnics. The first time, I used Israeli cous cous - becuase that is all the grocery store near me had. It was really good - I reccomend this - though it worked fine with regular cous cous. I did not use mint either time - becuase I didn't have any. It was still fine.

The recipe came from epicurious here:

introduction

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

serving size

Serves 2.

ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced and mashed into a paste
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons raisins
1/2 cup couscous
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves

preparation

In a non-stick skillet heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and cook onion with salt to taste, stirring, until browned lightly. Reduce heat to moderate. Add garlic paste, curry powder and cook, stirring, until garlic paste is golden. Remove skillet from heat and keep mixture warm.

In a small saucepan bring broth to a boil. Stir in raisins and couscous and let stand, covered, off heat 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork and transfer to a bowl. Stir in onion mixture, mint and salt and pepper to taste.

Gourmet, April 1995

2007-04-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

I had crabcackes almost ready to eat and need some sauce. A quick google search led to this recipe.
It was quick, easy, and good.

DIJON CRAB CAKE SAUCE

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small shallot, minced
1 small garlic clove, minced
pinch of kosher salt
1/2 oz white wine
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon butter

Sauté shallot and garlic until shallot is translucent. Add wine to deglaze pan, allowing to reduce for 15-30 seconds. Add mustard and salt; bring to boil.

Remove from heat. Add butter and stir gently.

Fills a 2 oz ramekin.

Enjoy :D

Submitted by: Joe

2007-04-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

Parent-Visit EGG-TACULAR!!!!!

I plan to make this this weekend. It is from Martha Stewart.com

Serving: Serves 6

6 large eggs
1 1/2 Cups skim milk, preferably organic
1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 Cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 apples, such as Gala or Red Delicious, peeled, quartered, cored and thinly sliced
1 Tablespoon light-brown sugar
Confectioners' sugar, (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Combine eggs, milk, and vanilla in the jar of a blender. Blend until well combined. Add flour, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Blend until dry ingredients are well incorporated; set aside.
Place butter in a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish. Transfer dish to oven and heat until butter has just melted. Carefully remove from oven and place apples in a single layer in baking dish. Return to oven and cook until butter begins to bubble, about 4 minutes.
Pour batter over apples, sprinkle with brown sugar, and continue baking until puffed and golden, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, if desired; serve immediately.

Turkey Sausage

2007-04-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

This is from:
http://www.panix.com/~clay/cookbook/bin/show_recipe.cgi?sausage+recipe106

Turkey Sausage, Italian

1 pound extra-lean ground turkey
2 teaspoon crushed fresh garlic
2 teaspoon ground paprika
1 ½ teaspoon whole fennel seeds
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon salt

Combine all of the ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for several hours for all the flavors to blend.

Thai Chicken Soup

2007-03-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

This recipe is adapted from Cook's illustrated magazine:

1 tsp. vegtable oil.
3 lemon grass stalks (bottom 5 inches sliced)
3 shallots
8 sprigs cilantro - chopped
3 tablespoons fish sauce
4 c chicken stock
2 cans coconut milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 lb. white mushrooms, stemmed, and sliced in 1/4" slices
1 lb. boneless chicken breast - thinly sliced
3 tbsp. fresh lime juice (2 or 3 limes)
2 tsp. thai red curry paste
cooked white rice

Method:

Heat the oil in a saucepan until it shimmers. Add lemon grass, shallots, cilantro, and 1 T fish sauce, stirring frequently until softened;
Add chicken broth and 1 can of coconut milk, bring to a simmer and reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes;

While the broth simmers, combine lime juice, curry paste, remaining fish sauce, and 1/2 tsp sugar in a small bowl. Whisk together and set aside

strain broth, rinse saucepan, and return broth to saucepan;
Add remaining can of coconut milk to saucepan and bring to a simmer;
reduce heat to medium, add mushrooms and cook for 2 or 3 minutes
add chicken and cook, stirring just until no longer pink -

remove the soup from the heat - stir in the lime juice / fish sauce mixture

To serve:

Fill a small bowl with cooked rice - pack it down and flatten the top. Invert the bowl in the middle of a larger soup bowl so it is like an island- (repeat for each bowl)

Ladle the soup - fill the ladle with chicken and mushrooms - in the soup bowl around the rice - make sure the chicken and mushrooms are evenly distributed. Ladle in liquid soup to the level of the chicken and mushrooms.
Garnish with cilantro and perhaps some sliced red chili pepper - on top of the rice "island"

Yum!!!!

Honey Soy glazed grilled salmon

2007-03-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

This recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated guide to grilling and barbecue.

I used skinless center cut salmon fillets instead of skin-on fillets - this worked fine.

Marinate salmon fillets for thirty minutes in a half-and-half mixture of soy sauce and maple syrup. Prepare a two-level grill - heat the grill with all burners on for 15 minutes - then turn all but one of the burners down to low.

Prepare glaze while the fillets are marinating:

In a small saucepan, mix together 3 tbsp. each of soy sauce and honey. Heat over low heat until is thickens slightly.

Oil the grill over the burner on high -
Put the fillets over the high burner, grill for two minutes on each side. Brush the glaze on the top side after the second side grills for two minutes -
Flip the fillets glazed side down over one of the low burners.
Glaze the new top side.
Flip after three minutes and grill for another three minutes.

Lemon Rosemary Chicken Skewers

2007-03-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

This recipe is from Epicurious.com:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/104459

This is good - worth repeating and fairly easy.

LEMON-ROSEMARY CHICKEN SKEWERS
8 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (each about 7 ounces)
48 8-inch bamboo skewers, soaked in water 30 minutes, drained
1 1-pint basket grape tomatoes or small cherry tomatoes

1 cup olive oil
1 cup fresh lemon juice
6 bay leaves, broken into small pieces
3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
4 large garlic cloves, pressed
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce

1 cup light mayonnaise
Cut each chicken breast half lengthwise into 6 thin strips. Thread each strip completely onto 1 skewer, leaving 1/2 inch of skewer exposed at 1 end. Press 1 grape tomato onto end of skewer. Divide skewers between two 15x10x2-inch glass baking dishes, stacking skewers if necessary.

Pour oil into bowl. Whisk in next 6 ingredients. Pour marinade over chicken. Marinate 1 hour at room temperature, turning often, or cover and chill overnight.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Remove skewers from marinade and arrange on 2 large rimmed baking sheets; reserve marinade. Bake chicken until just cooked through, about 8 minutes. Transfer to platter.

Transfer reserved marinade to medium saucepan. Boil over medium-high heat 1 minute. Cool marinade 15 minutes. Strain. Pour 1/2 cup marinade into medium bowl; whisk in mayonnaise. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon remaining marinade over chicken to moisten. Serve chicken with sauce.

Bon Appétit
December 2000

Carrot soup

2007-03-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

This is from a recipe at Epicurious.com
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/236394

I wanted to have soup and grilled cheese sandwiches - but I wanted something better than cans of tomato soup. I used the recipe below as a starting point, but I made some changes:
-I cut the recipe in half - and it was just enough for two servings;
-I used about a half a C of coconut water (not the creamy stuff used for Thai, but a Goya can of coconut water - like you would get right out of a drilled coconut) in addition to the water called for in the recipe (next time would would replace all the water with coconut water),
-I added about a teaspoon of cayenne pepper sauce - this was just enough to taste a bit of heat;
-I crumbled bacon over the soup before serving it.

The soup was very good - creamy, tasty, satisfying etc. and fairly quick and easy to make. I served it with basic grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches - which were very good dipped in the soup. I will keep this recipe around.

1 cup sliced shallots (about 4 large)
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Rounded 3/4 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1 small boiling potato (3 oz)
1 1/2 lb carrots, peeled and cut crosswise 1/4 inch thick
1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (14 fl oz)
1 cup apple cider (preferably unfiltered)
1 1/4 cups water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Cook shallots, bay leaf, ginger, curry powder, and thyme in butter in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until shallots are softened and pale golden, 6 to 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel potato and cut into 1/2-inch cubes.

Add potato to shallot mixture along with carrots, broth, cider, water, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until carrots are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Discard bay leaf.

Purée soup in 2 batches in a blender until smooth, transferring as blended to a large bowl (use caution when blending hot liquids). Return to saucepan to reheat if necessary. Serve soup sprinkled with almonds.

Pad Thai - A work in progress

2007-03-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

I tried making Pad Thai last night - mostly because I had some shrimp and didn't have ant coconut milk - so I couldn't make the Masaman curry / cous cous / shrimp / snow pea dish I had in mind. After a quick inventory of my kitchen, and some web searching for a recipe - I decided on Pad Thai. Here are the two websites I used:

http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2007/01/pad_thai_for_be.html

http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/recipes/Pad_Thai.htm

The chezpim site is more of a method then a recipe - but it seems like a good method. I didn't follow it all that carefully - so I am to blame for the mixed results. My sauce mix was pretty stinky and I don't think I made enough - but the dish can out OK after all. I added some lime juice to the sauce - and ended up hijacking the recipe with some soy sauce to ensure it was edible. Hmmmmm... I guess I will keep trying.

Salmon with Avocado dip

2007-02-27T16:27:00.001-08:00

Here is the recipe I am trying tonight: (From allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
* 2 avocados - peeled, pitted and diced (I used 1)
* 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (I used 1)
* 3 tablespoons Greek-style yogurt (I used a bit less and used plain yogurt)
* 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (I used the juice from half a lemon - it was probably too much - the dip was good, but fairly lemony))
* salt and pepper to taste
* 2 pounds salmon steaks (I used two fillets - about 6 oz. each - I defrosted them for about 20 hours and I think that made a difference in the texture rather than trying to getntly nuke them just before cooking)
* 2 teaspoons dried dill weed
* 2 teaspoons lemon pepper (I used Penzey's lemon garlic grilling mix - becuause I had some)
* salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil grate.
2. In a medium bowl, mash together avocados, garlic, yogurt, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Rub salmon with dill, lemon pepper, and salt. (I also coated the seasond fish with olive oil) Place on the prepared grill, and cook 15 minutes, turning once, (I broiled instead of grilling) until easily flaked with a fork. Serve with the avocado mixture.

(Added later)

This was very good - though I made it somewhat differently from the recipe above. I broiled the salmon rather than grilling, and, I thought I was going to bake it first so I had the oven pre-heated to 425 - so I guess I broil-baked it. The broililng gave the top nice color and made it a bit csispy. Also, I messed with the ingrediants as indicated in edits to the recipe above.

The dip was similar to guacamole (What do you expect when the main ingrediant is mashed up avocado) - but different enough that it stands on its own. It was very good on the salmon.

Parsley Lemon Stuffed Chicken Breasts

2007-02-26T18:18:00.000-08:00

I made this again on 12/04 - using parsley in the stuffing, a pinch of cayenne pepper in the gravy, and less time in the oven. Yum!! It came out really well. I also used lower heat sauteing the apples and onions, and added a bit of olive oil during the saute to keep things sizzling. I als made a strange cous cous salad - see separate post.

I made this again on 3/17. I used cilantro instead of parsley. It was good, but it would have been better with parsley. Also, 15 minutes is the oven was too long. The temperature raced by 150 degrees when I checked it. Oops. Still good, but a bit tough. Finally, I strained the gravy this time - this was worth doing and I also thought that the gravy might have been improved with a bit of cayenne pepper - or something to give it some heat.

2 chicken breasts
2 slices wheat bread
1 lemon
1/4 C. shredded fresh parsley leaves
4 cloves garlic
1 small onion - minced
half an apple - diced
2 tbsp. apple cider (optional)
several sprigs of rosemary
salt
pepper
olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
-
-preheat oven to 350

Stuffing:

-toast and dice the bread - put the diced toast pieces in a small mixing bowl
-preheat a 12" ovenproof skillet
-add half the butter, the onion, and the apple to the skillet, saute for 4 or 5 minutes.
- bruise a tbsp. rosemary leaves and add them to the skillet - add some salt and pepper and cook for another two minutes
- mince one clove garlic and add it to the skillet
- cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice from one half into the skillet - let it cook for another 30 seconds or so.
- add the sauteed apples and onion to the diced bread
- add the parsley to the mix
- squeeze the other half of the lemon into the the stuffing mixture
- add 2 tbsp. apple cider to the stuffing mixture
- mix the stuffing together

Chicken:

- Pat the chicken breasts dry,
- carefully slice into one side of each chicken breast to make a pocket - for the stuffing
- mince two cloves of garlic
- coat the inside and outside of each piece of chicken with minced garlic, salt, pepper, and some olive oil
- stuff each chicken breast with the stuffing - if they look to fragile to turn once in a skillet, tie them closed
- reheat the skillet the apples and onions cooked in
- add 2 tbsp. olive oil
- place the stuffed chicken in the skillet - brown for about 3 minutes on each side - turning carefully to not spill the stuffing
- after a few minutes on the second side, add the rest of the rosemary, and several peeled and crushed garlic cloves to the skillet, and put the skillet in the oven for 15 minutes.

Gravy:

- Remove the skillet from the oven, place the chicken on a platter - tent loosely with foil
-place the skillet over a medium high flame
- add a tbsp. butter, 1/2 C chicken stock (or white wine if you have some open) to the skillet - stir with a wooden spoon to mix chunks off of the pan into the gravy
- mix 1 tsp. corn starch and a few 1/8 C. chicken stock or wine in a small bowl (mix well so there are no corn starch chunks) add this mix to the skillet
- cook for another 2 or 3 minutes or until the gravy starts to thicken

plate the chicken and drizzle the gravy over it (strain the gravy if you want to get the garlic and rosemary chunks out of it before serving)

I made this tonight and served it with mashed potatoes (covered with the gravy) and steamed broccoli. (3/18/07 - I had been starting the mashed potatoes with the mixing thing in the stand mixer and then switching to the wire whip attachment. I didn't bother with the whip this time and it was fine.)

Pralines

2007-02-25T18:51:00.000-08:00

I went to a Mardi Gras party over the weekend. I wanted to bring something related to the theme - but I didn't want to work very hard or have anything that required heating, cooling, or serving. I thought pralines would be too much of a pin - but I found an easy recipe:

I kept the flam low and it took 20-25 minutes from the temperature to creep up to 238 degrees. The mixture changed considerably over the last few degrees - I think it was important to wait.

After adding the butter, pecans, and vanilla, the mixture cooled very quickly. I was only able to make half of them before the mixture was too cool to form flat pralines. I Made lump pralines with the rest, but they were funny looking and not shiny, so I threw them back in the sauce pan with a bit more evaporated milk, gave them a stir, and reheated them slightly until the mixture was smoother and shiny again - about 5 minutes. This produced acceptably flat, shiny pralines. Yum!

The quintessential New Orleans candy. And it's pronounced or (and sometimes by some of the more wacky locals), NEVER . I've had ferners (that's New Orleansese for "non-New Orleanian") stand before me and insist that it's pronounced . Well bra, I'm from The City where they were invented, and I know how to pronounce it. And you're certainly entitled to your opinion on its pronunciation, no matter how wrong it may be ...

* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup evaporated milk
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 cup pecans

Combine the sugar and milk and cook slowly in a heavy pot over a low flame until it reaches the soft ball stage (238 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla and pecans. Beat mixture with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and creamy. Drop by spoonsful onto waxed paper. If the candy does not harden within 10 minutes, it may be cooked some more.

Yield: Approximately one dozen

Linguine with Squash, Bacon, and Goat Cheese

2007-02-25T18:41:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from Real Simple.

This is fairly easy, dosen't destoy the kitchen, and is yummy! I use turkey bacon and I think it tastes fine. The squash makes the sauce creamy without too much fat - though 4 oz. of goat cheese certainly contribute. I have made it 5 or 6 times.

Next time I make this I will save some of the second 2 oz. of goat cheese to sprinkle on plated servings so it melts as you start to eat it.

made this on 12/3 - I didn't use the full pound of linguine - and I should have - the squash to pasta ratio was messed up - but, it was still tasty. I held back half of the goat cheese -for sprinkling before serving. This was good to do.

6 slices bacon (I use turkey bacon)
1 2- to 2 ½-pound butternut squash—peeled, seeded, and diced (4 to 5 cups) (I made it with a package of peeled, chunked squash from Trader Joe's - that worked fine)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled
1 1-pound package linguine, cooked
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain on a paper towel, then crumble or break into pieces; set aside. Drain all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat from the skillet. Add the squash and garlic to the skillet and sauté over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the broth and salt. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the squash is cooked through and softened, 20 to 25 minutes. Add half the goat cheese and stir well to combine. Place the cooked linguine in a large bowl. Stir the sauce into the linguine and toss well to coat. Drizzle with the olive oil and add the reserved bacon, the remaining goat cheese, and the pepper. Serve immediately.

Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 420(26% from fat); FAT 12g (sat 5g); PROTEIN 16mg; CHOLESTEROL 17mg; CALCIUM 101mg; SODIUM 442mg; FIBER 5g; CARBOHYDRATE 64g; IRON 4mg

Frank Mentesana
Real Simple, DECEMBER 2004

Challa Burgers

2007-02-25T18:23:00.000-08:00

Obviously, if you don't have any challa, you can use any other buns - but it is really good with the challa described here

Here is what I do for burgers. It's not rocket science - but it works for me.

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef - I use at least 93/7 to keep the burgers from being greasy -
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Combine the beef, sauce, and garlic powder (this is the only place I use garlic powder instead of garlic - it distributes throught the beef more evenly), knead to distribute evenly, and form into patties. I do this my mounding all of the beef on a cutting board, making a well in the center and adding the sauce and powder - that way I don't get another bowl dirty.

I usually cook the burgers on a grill pan over a medium flame - about 5 minutes on the first side, turning only once (this is important), and the longer on the other side until done (I check with a thermometer)

Challa

2007-02-22T18:32:00.000-08:00

I use a recipe from a book of recipes collected from bed and breakfasts around the U.S.: Best Recipes From American Country Inns and Bed and Breakfasts by Kitty and Lucian Maynard

1/4 oz. yeast packet
2 cups warm water
2 eggs
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. honey
1/8 c. sugar
1 tbsp. salt
1/2 c. canola oil
7 C flour

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together 1/2 c. water and the honey - let it sit for a few minutes if you have time -

-Combine all other ingredients except one egg and the poppy seeds in the mixer bowl
-Knead with dough hook attachment for 10 minutes (or by hand for 15 minutes)
-Cover and let rise to double - I put the covered bowl on a radiator for about 40 minutes
-Punch the risen dough down and divide it into 6 equal pieces - (to make two loaves)
-Roll the pieces into a long ropes - I make them as long as the cookie sheet I will use to cook the bread
-Braid the ropes - Pull each strand back over the previous one to keep the braids tight -
-Flatten the ends and tuck them under the loaf.
- Cover and let rise to double again
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- I have a pizza stone in my oven, I think that helps.
- before baking, beat the remaining egg and brush the beaten egg on the loaves
- Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35 - 40 minutes. I found that after 35 minutes, the center was still doughy.

This recipe makes two loaves - they freeze well if they are well wrapped.
I have used the challa for excellent hamburger buns and french toast - for the french toast, I took a 8" piece of the loaf, poked a hole through the middle of it with a chef's knife (very carefully from each end) and then stuffed it full of pineapple chunks. I set the stuffed loaf in the and egg mix, turning several times, for 20 minutes before slicing into slices for french toast. I let the slices soak for several minutes before cooking in a skillet.

Lava Cake

2007-02-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

Update: 2008 - I tried this using powdered sugar - I think at a 4:3 ratio to replace the regular sugar - It worked perfectly - the centers were smooth rather than grainy. The desert was already very good but this change put it over the top! Also - the recipe below serves 12 - I usually cut it into thirds to make 4 - though this requires coming up with 3/4 of an egg.

I found this recipe searching the Internet for Lava cake and Volcano cake. It says it was adapted from a cooks magazine recipe.

The batter is easy to make and the end result is over-the-top chocolate. It is probably the richest chocolate desert I have had. Being a bit cheap (and taking a cue from cooks magazine, I used Bols triple sec instead of Grand Mariner. I also quartered the recipe - to produce four cakes instead of 16. The only tricky part of this was getting 3/4 of an egg - but the recipe worked fine.

I had some unmolding trouble where the bottoms stuch to the ramekin - I think a bit more butter would would have helped.

The center was a bit grainy - I want to try it with powdered sugar to see if it is smoother.

Also, it is important to serve quickly after it comes out of the oven. I made this twice last week. The first time, I served it right away and the centers were perfectly gooey. The second time I was delayed (do to stupidly getting lost in traffic) and they sat for 20 minutes before I served them. They were still tasty, but the centers set.

Lava Cake serves 12

10 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for greasing ramekins
3 cups granulated sugar plus more for dusting ramekins
16 oz. bittersweet chocolate
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
4 tablespoons cornstarch
3 large eggs
4 egg yolks
4 teaspoons Grand Marnier
powdered sugar, for dusting
espresso ice cream, for eating

Prepare your 12 4 oz. ramekins by buttering them heavily, making sure to get the corners. Roll granulated sugar in the ramekins to coat, tapping out any excess.

For the cake, use chocolate bars, not chips. The chips have extra ingredients in them to stop them from sticking together. Chop the chocolate finely, and cut the butter into small chickpea-sized nuggets.

Put the butter and chocolate into a metal bowl that will fit snugly over a saucepan filled halfway up with water. Bring the water to a simmer and place bowl filled with chocolate and butter on top. Stir to melt and combine the chocolate and butter. Stir together until smooth and uniform

In a large bowl, combine the sugar and cornstarch and mix well. In a separate small bowl, combine the eggs egg yolks, and grand marnier and beat the eggs until well scrambled.

Add the melted chocolate/butter mix to the bowl with the flour/cornstarch and stir to combine. Add the egg mix and stir to combine well. Keep stirring until you have a deep dark mostly uniform mixture.

Scoop out about 1/2 cup of the batter into each ramekin. You may have to adjust the amounts as you get to the last ramekins.

At this stage you may cover these with plastic and store for 24 hours before baking.

When you want to bake them, preheat an oven to 375 F. Place the ramekins in the oven and bake until the tops have set and show cracks - about 15-20 minutes. Don't overcook. You want a liquidy center.

Remove the ramekins and set them on a cooling rack for 2-3 minutes. To unmold, first run a knife between the cake and the ramekin walls to loosen. The ramekins will still be hot. Use a glove and grip the ramekin. Turn the ramekin over quickly just off-center on the serving dish and dust with powdered sugar.

Pair with a scoop of coffee or espresso ice cream. I used Ciao Bella's espresso ice cream (though known for their gelatos I think this was an ice cream), and can recommend it highly.

Teriyaki Chicken

2007-02-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from Recipezaar:
http://www.recipezaar.com/23418

It was really good - and easy!

23 min 8 min prep

1/2	cup chicken broth
4	tablespoons soy sauce
2	tablespoons sugar
2	tablespoons oil
2	tablespoons minced garlic
1/2	teaspoon ground ginger
4	boneless skinless chicken breast halves

Mix all marinade ingredients in shallow dish.
Place chicken in marinade and refrigerate for 1-1/2 hours. (20 minutes for me!)
Preheat broiler.
Broil chicken 5 inches from heat for about 15 minutes, turning and basting with marinade often.

I pounded the chicken breads to a bit less than 1/2 an inch thick so they would cook more quickly and easily (I wrapped the chicken breasts in wax paper and walloped them with a rolling pin)

I reduced the extra marinade by boiling it for a few minutes until it thickened. The pan was a mess but the sauce was good. I served this with steamed edamame beans and white rice.