Potato Pancakes

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Add onions to bowl; stir in eggs, beer, flour, salt, and pepper.
4. 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.
5. 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

.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

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-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

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Allow pasta to dry for one hour prior to cooking.
4. 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

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

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:

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

1. 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.
2. Toss the vegetables with the dressing until combined. Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Fresh Basil Vinaigrette

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

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

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• Low Cholesterol Flat-shaped Breads
  
  
• European Flat-shaped Breads
  
  

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Preheat oven to 425°F.
5. 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.
6. Immediately invert a rack over pan and flip focaccia onto rack.
7. Favorite Recipes Phoenix Place.

RICOTTA PANCAKES

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

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

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

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!

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

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!!!