Sweet Violet Cooks!

Pumpkin pie!!

2011-09-20T21:21:00.000+02:00

An American Thanksgiving favourite, pumpkin pie is a delectable treat. When my kids were young, instead of cutting up a pumpkin for a jack o lantern, we drew a face on it with markers and saved it until the weekend before Thanksgiving. We carved it up into chunks and made pumpkin puree and and from there made delectable, delicious, mouth-watering fresh pumpkin pie! Try it! You'll like it!

Pumpkin pie
Ingredients
1 c granulated sugar (make it sugar free with 1 cup Splenda instead!)
½ tsp salt
3 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice*
1 ½ cups freshly cooked and drained pumpkin puree**
1 ⅔ cups evaporated milk (unsweetened)
2 eggs, beaten

Prepare
Heat oven to 425F (220C)

Combine dry ingredients then add pumpkin, milk and beaten eggs. Mix until smooth. Pour into chilled unbaked pie shell.

Bake for 15 mins at 425F (220C), then reduce heat to 350F (180C) and bake another 45 mins. Insert silver knife in centre to ensure it is done before removing from oven. Chill until set (4 hours or more) then serve with whipped cream on top.

* If you don’t live in the US and you can’t buy pumpkin pie spice, make your own:

Spice               1 pie   2 pies   3 pies   4 pies   6 pies
tsp cinnamon          1 ½        3 4 ½       6 9
tsp ground ginger    ½ 1        1 ½      2 3
tsp ground nutmeg ½ 1        1 ½      2 3
tsp allspice             ½ 1        1 ½      2 3
tsp ground cloves    ½ 1        1 ½      2 3

** To make pumpkin puree:
Cut a fresh pumpkin into chunks about the size of the palm of your hand.
Remove strings and seeds.
Boil pumpkin until a fork can easily pierce both the pumpkin and its skin.
Cool quickly under cold water. Remove each pumpkin piece and scoop pumpkin from shell with knife.
Puree pumpkin in a blender or food processor.
Put in bowl, cover, and allow to rest in refrigerator for 24-48 hours.
Pour accumulated liquid off top of pumpkin puree.
Pumpkin is ready to use.

PIE!!

2011-07-25T12:20:00.001+02:00

Photo by DailyInvention, Flickr

Who doesn't like pie?? Whether one-crust or two, fruit or custard or something more exotic, nothing pleases like pie!

But even the best fillings are diminished if the crust isn't perfection. Here in South Africa I have found that dessert pies (called "tarts" here, no matter their size) are made on what is called a "short crust" base, something I have found at best to be crumbly and messy, at worst to be hard as a stone and impenetrable even with fork and knife (no kidding here!). Nobody, it seems, has even a passing acquaintance with traditional American pie crusts, those lovely, flaky, tender morsels of deliciousness that define a "good pie."

Herewith, my grandmother's recipe (which she got from her mother, making this more than 100 years old!) for the flakiest, most tender pie crust you will ever taste!

CAVEAT: you absolutely must use lard to make this come out right. If, for whatever reason, you cannot use lard, you can substitute vegetable shortening, but nothing else. Even with shortening, it doesn't come out quite right, but pretty close.

Gramma’s Pie Crust

2 ¼ cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
¾ cup lard
5 tbsp ice water

Mix flour with salt. Cut lard into flour using a pastry blender or two knives cutting in opposite directions, scissor-fashion. Do not use a food processor or other electric appliance as this pastry must be handled as little as possible to retain its flaky texture and prevent toughening.

When flour/lard mixture is the texture of coarse meal with lumps no bigger than peas, sprinkle with 3 tbsp of the water and pull together with fork. Add more water as needed until the mixture holds together (use fingers if fork is not doing the trick). It should not be sticky and all of the flour mixture should be rounded up from the bottom of the bowl.

Shape into a flattened ball. If the day or kitchen is particularly warm, allow dough to rest, wrapped in foil or plastic, in the fridge for up to 30 mins.

On floured pastry board, cut dough in half. Shape each half into a ball. Starting centre, roll first ball out into a circle with a well-floured rolling pin. If dough cracks, seal cracks with a dab of ice water. Lay first circle of dough into a slope-sided pie dish.

Baked pastry shell:
If you are making a baked pastry shell for a pie that will not require baking (like a slipped custard or pudding/mousse pie), trim the edges of the crust, then prick all over with a fork and bake for 10 minutes at 450F (230C) for 12 to 15 minutes. Check after 5 minutes and if the crust has bubbles, prick them with a fork. Makes two pies.

Cool pastry shell on a wire rack before adding filling.

One crust pie:
If you are making a one crust pie that requires a baked filling (such as Dutch apple, pumpkin, or melktert), do not prick the crust. Trim the edges, add filling, and bake according to directions for baking the filling. To prevent the crust edges from over cooking, lay strips of foil over them, removing during last 5 to 7 minutes of baking. Cool on wire rack. Makes two pies.

Two crust pie:
For a two crust pie, such as a traditional fruit pie, set the pie dish aside and roll out the second ball of dough until its diameter is at least 1 inch (2.5 cms) larger than the top diameter of the pie dish.

Fit the bottom crust into the pie dish and do not prick it. Fill with desired filling, heaping it if using fresh fruits, such as sliced apples, as they will compact as they cook. Moisten the top edges of the crust with ice water. Carefully lay the top crust over the filling (folding it into half or even quarters makes handling easier) and press the edges together to seal the top pastry to the bottom. Trim edges. Cut vent holes into the top of the pie with a sharp knife. Bake according to instructions for the filling. Cool on wire rack. Makes 1 pie.

Dinner Party!

2010-06-25T18:53:00.009+02:00

I had a dinner party a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, my broken foot is not fully healed and I can't spend long periods on my feet, so although I prepared and served dinner for eight, I did a lot of cheating...and nobody figured it out! So, if you don't think you are up to all the "from scratch" preparation of a dinner party for eight or more, take a peek at how I cheated my way through a great meal and had a happy, satisfied bunch of guests.

First, the menu:

Appetizers: Corn chips and Salsa Fresca (recipe on this blog)
Salad
Entree: roast leg of lamb and roasted whole chicken
Veg: baked potatoes, corn on the cob, stir fry
Sides: Fresh specialty bread
Dessert: Pound cake (madiera cake) and fruit salad

Actually, it looks like a lot more work than it is!

Let's begin at the beginning: the appetizers
You do not want to put out a lot of appetizers because if people fill up on them, they won't want dinner. And then you'll feel bad watching the lamb roast congeal while everybody moans about having no appetite. Figure one bag of corn (or tortilla) chips for every eight guests. Make the salsa a day early and make it a bit spicy. Drain the excess liquid before serving.

A Super...and super simple!...salad
The best time to make the salad is after the meat and potatoes go in the oven. At the market, buy a bag of baby salad greens and a "salad kit" with at least 3 ingredients in it: my preference is baby tomatoes, chopped green onion, and chunks of cheese,

For the salad, make sure you have the following:
1 carrot (you will grate it)
6 Fresh brown button (or Portobellini) mushrooms, (you will thinly slice them)
1 Avocado (you will peel and slice it)
2 cold boiled eggs, peeled (you will slice them)
Grated Romano cheese (preferably hand grated from a hard cheese)
Dressing of choice, poured out of dressing container and into a pretty decanter or pitcher

Make sure the greens are clean, then tear them into smaller pieces. Add greens from the salad kit and toss together with 1/2 of a grated carrot. Add the other ingredients in the order listed above, adding the remainder of the salad kit before grating Romano cheese over the top. Do not add salad dressing...it will make the salad limp! Place a paper towel directly on top of the salad, cover loosely and refrigerate until time to serve.

Meats: tricks and shortcuts
Roasted chicken: buy a pre-roasted chicken from the deli or rotisserie of your market. For 8 people, make sure you have about 2 lbs (1 kg) of chicken (buy two smaller chickens if necessary).

Peel and coarsely chop a medium sized onion. Slice 1/2 cup celery including leaves and tops. Mix lightly with 4 cloves roasted garlic and some sea salt. Place mixture inside chicken. Microwave until chicken is hot and onion is soft.

Make a mixture of honey, whole grain German mustard and lemon juice. Heat in a ovenproof measuring cup in microwave. Stir until honey is dissolved. Pour over chicken just before serving

Leg of Lamb
Preheat your oven to 180C (350F).

Buy a 2 lb (1 kg) lamb roast that has already been deboned and seasoned. Place the roast, fat side up, on a small roasting rack (if you don't have one, see the recipe for Roast Turkey and the instructions for making a simple alternative out of foil) and insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the centre of the roast. You will need to cook it for 20 minutes per pound (500g) plus 20 minutes. Allow roast to stand for 10 minutes before carving. Serve with cold mint jelly (this cuts the greasiness of the lamb)

Potatoes
Allow one potato per person. Wash and clean potatoes of eyes, blemishes. Insert a potato nail through the length of the potato. Rub all over with olive oil. Prick each potato several times with a fork. place on baking sheet and put into oven with the lamb roast.
Do not wrap in foil!! This steams the potato rather than bakes it.
Caution: use smallish potatoes or they won't get done.
Tip: if they don't get done enough, removed nails and finish in the microwave

Vegetables
Corn on the cob: Corn should be fresh. Clean, removed silk and green husks, break into halves. Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Once boiling, add corn, cover, and turn off the heat. Allow to stand for 20-30 minutes. This will cook the corn without toughening it. If possible, use white corn or bi-colour corn as they are sweeter than yellow corn. Serve with butter, salt and pepper.

Stir fry: you can make this with any vegetable combination you like. This is one I like a lot:
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh shallots
1/2 cup finely sliced brown or Portobellini mushrooms
1/2 grated carrot
1 packet snow peas, fresh or frozen (but thawed)
3/4 cup fresh asparagus tips (snap off tough stalks)
3/4 cup fresh baby corn, cut into bite sized pieces
4 to 6 cloves roasted garlic
mixed herbs
sea salt
red wine
butter and olive oil

Heat butter and oil together in large skillet or wok. When sizzling add shallots, mushrooms, garlic, salt and herbs. Stir vigorously for about 1 minute or until fragrant. Add remaining vegetables and stir for about a minute, then add up to 1/2 cup red wine, cover, and reduce heat. Allow to cook until corn can easily be pierced with a fork. Uncover and cook off wine until just a bit of syrupy liquid remains.

Bread
Buy small sour dough rounds, the ones intended to be used as sandwich rolls. Allow one for each adult. Slice like a loaf of bread, creating multiple slices per roll, but do not slice all the way through the bottom. Butter between the slices. Place on a baking sheet, cover the whole sheet with foil. When the roast and potatoes come out of the oven, turn off the oven, pop these into the oven and shut the door and allow the residual heat to warm them. They can be removed from the oven as soon as the lamb is sliced and ready to serve.

Dessert
Buy a pound cake or a madiera cake. If the cake is frozen, make sure it is fully thawed before dessert time.

Use the recipe on this blog for Fruit Salad. Dress the fruit salad with a tub of artificially sweetened lemon or vanilla yoghurt. If you have a dieter or diabetic among your guests, this will be an acceptable dessert. For everyone else, put a slice of pound cake in the bottom of a shallow bowl (like a soup bowl) and pile on a ladle of the fruit. Top with a squirt of whipped cream if desired.

Don't forget to put out the salad dressing, the mint jelly, the bread rolls and some butter (you can give them a choice of plain butter or garlic butter (use the roasted garlic) or even herbed labneh--recipes on this blog).

Now, if you really look at this, the only thing that actually requires honest-to-goodness cooking is the stir fry. Everything else is pre-prepared and you are basically heating it up or dressing it up.

This was pretty much our menu the other night and it was a HUGE hit!

Enjoy!

Tortillas (Vegetable Oil)

2010-04-01T11:56:00.000+02:00

Tortillas are traditionally made with lard (rendered pork fat). This is nearly impossible to find here in South Africa, so I have gone to making them with vegetable oil. The tortillas are not as fragrant as traditional ones, but they do taste good and are a wee bit less difficult to prepare than those made with lard.

Ingredients:
2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp vegetable oil
¾ c milk, warmed just to take the chill off

Preparation:
Sift together dry ingredients into medium mixing bowl. Sprinkle oil over the top.

While stirring, slowly add milk until all liquid is absorbed and you have a sticky ball of dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until dough is no longer sticky…add more flour to the board if necessary (about 2-3 minutes). Form into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Cut dough into eight pieces. While rolling one piece, keep the others covered with the damp cloth. Lightly flour your pastry board or counter top. Roll dough into a ball, then flatten with your fingers into a circle about 4” (10 cm) in diameter. Using a rolling pin and starting at the centre of the circle, roll to the edges (like rolling pie crust) until you have doubled the size of the tortilla.

Heat an iron skillet or griddle (or a roti pan) on high…do not add oil, although a shot of non-stick spray may be ok. Place the tortilla on the hot surface and cook until bubbles form on the surface. Turn and cook the other side until it puffs up a bit. Remove to a warm plate and cover with a napkin or towel. Keep covered even at the table to keep them warm.

If there are leftovers, wrap in plastic and store in the fridge. Reheat in a dry skillet (I do it over the open flame on my gas stove, but you have to be quick or you’ll get either burnt tortillas or blistered fingers!)

Use with Mexican food, make burritos or wraps, or just butter and eat as a snack!

Easy, fresh, spreadable, homemade cheese!

2009-11-10T16:03:00.002+02:00

Cheese…easy, delicious, spreadable, flavour-it-yourself soft cheese

I was at a farmer’s market some weeks back and came across a couple of girls selling little balls of white cheese. I thought at first that they were baby mozzarella, but upon closer inspection, found them to be labneh, a soft, spreadable cheese made from yoghurt. I bought a packet of six balls for R15 (about $1.50) and took it home to try.

They had flavoured the cheese by making little balls of the plain cheese, then covering the balls in olive oil into which they had put minced garlic, coarse black pepper, and some dried herbs. The idea was good, but the raw garlic was just overwhelming. But it had promise…I decided to experiment. It has taken some time, but I have finally come up with an easy way to make the cheese at home…and the results are spectacular!

The trick to making the best cheese is to get the right yoghurt. First of all, it cannot have any stabilizers in it…no gelatin or vegetable stabilizers, either. A stabilizer is a binder that prevents the whey (the watery stuff that sometimes comes to the surface of yoghurt) from separating from the curds (the body of the yoghurt). The success of your effort depends on that separation…the more thorough the separation, the drier, more robust your cheese.

I at first assumed that if the yoghurt was organic, it would have no stabilizers…wrong! Apparently there are organic stabilizers…I spent weeks buying big and little tubs of various yoghurts, eventually arriving at the conclusion that the best yoghurts for cheese making were 1) without stabilizers, 2) organic, and 3) full fat. Low fat yoghurt, if it doesn’t have stabilizers, will separate, but the cheese will be softer, taste less rich and have more tang than the full fat variety. I haven’t tried fat-free yet, but that’s the next experiment.

I also discovered that covering the cheese in flavour-infused oil was not necessary. The oil adds fat (and calories) and the flavourants do not penetrate the cheese and flavour it. The best way to flavour the cheese is to add the flavourants directly to the cheese itself.

You can make this cheese sweet or savoury. Flavourants can be fruits (well-drained, finely chopped, and sweetened to your palate with either sugar or sweetener) or herbs and spices. I like it with roasted garlic and sea salt, but caramelized onions, minced chillies, lemon zest, all have their merits. The cheese also has multiple uses: spread it on bread or crackers, thin it a bit and use as a dip for chips or crudités, use on potatoes instead of butter or gravy, on hot vegetables instead of butter or rich sauces. Use in sandwiches instead of sliced cheese, or spread it on hot toast. The sweet varieties can be used on toast, pancakes, waffles, hot cereals, scones…anything you might be tempted to put jam on. Some of this cheese, flavoured with a bit of lemon or lime zest, would even complement a mild fish. You can also use the plain cheese in the same ways you ordinarily use cream cheese.

This cheese keeps well. Once made, package in plastic containers and keep refrigerated. I’ve had it in the fridge for up to four weeks (I had to hide it so it didn’t get eaten by a certain household member for a snack!) and found it still fresh-tasting and without any mould growth. It is easy to make and delicious to eat, and making the cheese from low fat yoghurt and using it in place of butter at the table will surely reduce your calorie count…and it tastes SOOO good!

Soft White Cheese (Labneh)
Utensils:
Deep bowl
Strainer
Cheese cloth or coffee filters
Plate to cover bowl.
Ingredients:
1 pint (500 ml) stabilizer-free plain yoghurt (full fat or low fat)
Flavourants (see more on this below)
Salt to taste
Preparation:
Place strainer over deep bowl. Make sure there is several inches (2.54 cm = 1 inch) free below the bottom of the strainer.

Line the strainer with 3 or 4 layers of cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Make sure the filters/cheesecloth cover all of the strainer wire.

Pour the yoghurt into the strainer, on top of the filter/cheesecloth. Cover with a plate and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and uncover. Lift the strainer and pour the liquid in the bowl off into another container. Rinse the bowl.

Remove the cheese from the strainer to a smaller bowl. Discard the coffee filter (rinse the cheesecloth and set it aside for laundering). Rinse the strainer in running water, then return it to the deep bowl.

Add flavourants (see below) to the cheese and mix well. If using savoury (non-sweet) flavourants, add a little salt (ground sea salt recommended). Line the strainer with a fresh coffee filter or clean cheesecloth, return the cheese to the strainer, cover with a plate and return to the refrigerator for 24 hours.

The liquid that came out of the yoghurt is whey. You can discard it, but it also can be used in food preparation. It is a nutrient-packed substitute for water in baking bread, making sauces, even preparing hot cereals. It can be added to dry animal food to make it more palatable. The amount of whey drained from a volume of stabilizer-free yoghurt should be approximately 50% of the original yoghurt…so if you put a pint of yoghurt in the strainer, expect half a pint of whey in the bowl the next day.

After the second 24 hours in the strainer, the cheese should have lost most of its moisture. You can use the cheese now or, if you want it drier and stiffer, leave it to drain another 24 hours. The longer the cheese sits in the strainer, the stiffer it will become and the stronger the taste of the flavourants.

Once stiff enough to hold its shape, the cheese can be removed from the strainer and rolled into a “log,” then sliced into rounds. It can be rolled into balls in the hand, then dusted with herbs or spices. It can be pressed into moulds, like chocolate or butter moulds. Stuff cherry tomatoes with it for hors d’oeuvres. Roll balls or logs in sesame or poppy seeds for use on a snack table. Or it can simply be placed in a small bowl and served with a spreading knife. This stuff is wonderfully versatile and a quick trip to Google Images under the search criteria “yogurt cheese” will just boggle your mind!
Flavourants: Savoury:
Dried herbs, ground to a powder. Can be mixed into the cheese or balls of the cheese can be rolled in it.

Roasted garlic: 4 to 6 cloves per pint of yoghurt, mashed or pulverized and mixed into the cheese.

Chili powder: light dusting on cheese balls: serve with salsa fresca and tortilla chips.

Roasted chillies: fire roast fresh jalapeño chillies, skin, seed and mince the flesh. Mix into the cheese.

Caramelized onions: cut Spanish onions into thin rings and caramelize in butter. Once cooled, mince finely and mix with the cheese.

Spring onion: mince green spring onion tops and mix into cheese.

Masala: dust cheese balls lightly with garam masala

Capers: coarsely chop 1 tablespoon drained capers. Mix into cheese and serve with smoked salmon and bagels.

Sweet:

Mix honey to your taste with the cheese to make a toast or biscuit spread.

Drain ⅓ cup jam in a strainer overnight. Mix the drained jam with cheese.

Drain ¼ cup of crushed tinned pineapple and mix with cheese.

Sift a cinnamon and fine sugar mixture over cheese balls and serve with toast, pancakes, or waffles.

Photo by midiman Flickr

Eggs are not supposed to be crunchy!

2009-09-06T12:41:00.004+02:00

We had breakfast out yesterday and the eggs they delivered put me instantly in mind of my childhood. I have long since developed the habit of ordering eggs scrambled because scrambled are more difficult to screw up than fried eggs, but the dry, crumbly, overcooked mass of yellow that arrived on my plate yesterday morning proved that it can be done.

Earlier this year I wrote a blog post about crunchy eggs and other awful things delivered to the table by my mother, and yesterday’s experience put me in mind of it. It made me decide to post, once and for all, definitive instructions regarding the proper cooking of eggs.

Eggs are not supposed to be crunchy. If the eggs that come to your plate have a crispy little frill around the edges, if they are brown anywhere at all, if they crackle when you bite into them, they are overcooked. Using too high a flame under the pan, butter that is too hot, leaving the eggs to cook too long or, in the case of a scrambled egg dish like an omelette, using too much egg for the size of the pan, can all contribute to overcooked eggs.

Eggs have a delicate flavour and, unless they are merely a part of the dish, they need to be cooked gently and in a mildly flavoured fat. That means boiling them in bacon grease is out…they will taste like bacon, not eggs. Butter…real butter…is the best fat for cooking an egg and, used sparingly, is hazardous neither to your health nor your pocket.

If you want to taste the true delicacy of an egg’s flavour, try one of the recipes below:

Fried eggs
Ingredients:
2 fresh eggs
1 tbsp fresh butter (not margarine)
Pinch of garlic powder (optional)
Salt to taste

Preparation:
In a thin bottomed skillet, slowly melt butter (even if it is a “non-stick” pan). Keep heat under pan as low as possible. Break the eggs into a bowl and inspect for bits of shell or red specks: pick them out if you find them.

When butter has almost fully melted, swirl it around to fully coat the bottom of the pan. Return to heat and immediately slip eggs into pan.

Using a plastic or silicon spatula, rupture the part of the egg white that is higher than the rest, allowing it to flow out and equalize the height of the white. Sprinkle with salt (and garlic powder). Follow one of the three choices below, depending on how you want your eggs:

Sunny side up: Continue to cook slowly until white is fully set, at which time the yolk should be warm but still wet. This style of preparation is not recommended for use with eggs from American chickens due to the risk of salmonella from the soft yolks.

Over easy: Continue to cook slowly until white is almost set. Slip spatula blade beneath the egg, making sure the yolk is fully supported, and flip the egg over. Allow to cook briefly, removing while the yolk is still soft This style of preparation is not recommended for use with eggs from American chickens due to the risk of salmonella from the soft yolks.

Over hard: Using a plastic or silicon spatula, rupture the part of the egg white that is higher than the rest, allowing it to flow out and equalize the height of the white. Also break the yolk at the same time. Sprinkle with salt (and garlic powder). Continue to cook slowly until white is almost set. Slip spatula blade beneath the egg and flip it over. Allow to cook briefly,
pressing down on egg with blade of spatula to make sure all of the yolk cooks This style of preparation is recommended for use with eggs from American chickens since fully cooking the egg kills salmonella bacteria.

Scrambled eggs
Ingredients:
2 fresh eggs
1 tbsp fresh butter (not margarine)
2 tbsp heavy cream, sour milk, buttermilk, or sour cream
Pinch of garlic powder (optional)
Salt to taste

Preparation:
In a thin bottomed skillet, slowly melt butter (even if it is a “non-stick” pan). Keep heat under pan as low as possible. Break the eggs into a bowl and inspect for bits of shell or red specks: pick them out if you find them. Add cream, salt and garlic powder to eggs and beat vigorously to incorporate cream into eggs.

When butter has almost fully melted, swirl it around to fully coat the bottom of the pan. Return to heat and immediately pour eggs into pan. Allow to cook slowly until the egg has set on the bottom, then using a plastic or silicon spatula, stir the eggs around, lifting the set egg and allowing the liquid egg contact with the pan’s surface. Keep eggs moving until entire mass has set. Remove from heat before eggs become dry or begin to separate into small curds. Scrambled eggs should be fully cooked but moist.

Serve with your choice of breakfast meats or over a slice of toast.

Colcannon: vegetarian, gluten-free, and utterly divine!

2009-08-26T08:48:00.007+02:00

This is, I believe, a primarily Irish dish, traditionally made with leftover potatoes and cabbage. Since my husband detests cabbage, we seldom have any left over (as I seldom cook it), but I have come up with some variation on the original which, amazingly, my cabbage-hating husband actually enjoys!

There are a lot of variations you can try, which are listed at the end of the recipe. What is important to remember, however, is that you must prepare this with previously cooked ingredients (except as specifically noted), and those ingredients should not have been fried.

This is especially good served with roast pork or grilled meat.

This is not only a vegetarian recipe (vegan if you don’t use butter), it is gluten-free as well. And it tastes really, really good!

Colcannon
Ingredients:
2 cups boiled, mashed or steamed potatoes (unmashed potatoes should be cut into chunks)
2 cups cooked cabbage, cut into spoon-sized chunks
¼ cup fresh butter (substitute margarine for vegetarian)
¼ cup olive oil
1 large fresh onion, roughly chopped
2-4 cloves roasted garlic (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation:
Heat butter and oil in pot. Add onion and garlic and sauté until onion begins to soften. Add potatoes and cabbage and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is heated through. Add salt and pepper, reduce heat, cover, and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or more.

Variations:
1) Use kale instead of cabbage
2) Use leftover Brussels sprouts, cut in half, in place of cabbage (my favourite...see photo above)
3) Use unpeeled (but cooked) baby potatoes (my favourite...see photo above)
4) Add cooked turnips, kohlrabi, and/or parsnips to cabbage
5) Sauté ½ cup sliced mushrooms with onions
6) Use red cabbage for a different look
7) Use more onion…it makes the dish sweeter

Marvelous Mushrooms!

2009-08-12T11:34:00.003+02:00

I just love mushrooms! And while I love the exotics and the wild ones, give me a succulent, meaty Portobello or a chubby little button mushroom for my skillet and I’m a happy camper!

There are many ways to use mushrooms, but I am going to address the two ways they are seen most often in my kitchen: sautéed with herbs as an accompaniment for steak or delicately sautéed in butter for addition to other dishes…like a cheese and mushroom omelette or savoury rice.

Here are a few mushroom tips:

1) If you have had some mushrooms hiding out in the back of the fridge and they’ve become dry and leathery, don’t toss them out! Inspect them and, if there is no fuzzy green stuff or slippery slime growing on them, they are still edible. Just plop them in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes and they will reconstitute. Drain on a paper towel and they are ready to use.

2) With the exception of reconstituting dried mushrooms, it is best to keep your fungi away from water. But mushrooms often come to the kitchen with bits of blackish growing medium clinging to them and it needs to be removed. There are a multitude of little brushes and tools designed for this purpose, but I find the corner of a muslin dish towel, applied with my index finger in a gentle brushing motion, works just fine!

3) Purchase mushrooms only from reputable sources. If you are buying exotics and are not familiar with the mushroom you are buying, you can look it up here to make sure you are not preparing a poisonous variety.

4) Slice mushrooms with the cap down on the cutting board, otherwise you can break the mushroom. Use a very sharp knife (I use ceramic) or a piano-wire egg slicer…those make perfectly even-sized slices but only work with smaller mushrooms.

Any way you slice them, mushrooms are delicious and make a wonderful addition to virtually any meal!

Sautéed Portobello Mushrooms (to accompany meat)
Ingredients:
4 large Portobello mushrooms, cleaned and sliced ¼ inch thick
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter (not margarine)
½ cup cleaned and thinly sliced shallots or spring onions
2 to 4 cloves roasted garlic
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Sprinkle dried Fines Herbes
½ cup Marsala
Sea salt to taste

Preparation:
Heat butter and oil together in broad, shallow sauté pan or skillet. Wait until oil is hot to add mushrooms…adding too early will cause mushrooms to absorb oil and become greasy.

Add mushrooms and stir gently, making sure all cut sides are coated with hot oil. Add garlic, shallots, and Fines Herbes. Cook until mushrooms begin to shrink and shallots soften. Add Marsala, then Worcestershire sauce, increase flame and cook off the Marsala, stirring constantly. Cut surfaces should take on a golden hue about the time they are ready to be removed from stove.

Add salt and pile on top of a rare chunk of filet.

Sautéed Light Mushrooms (to add to a savoury dish such as an omelette or rice)
Ingredients:
1 cup sliced button or Portobellini mushrooms
2 tbsp butter (not margarine)
⅓ cup thinly sliced spring onions
1 to 2 cloves garlic, put through garlic press
⅓ cup dry white wine
Sprinkle dried Fines Herbes (optional)
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Sea salt to taste

Melt butter in shallow skillet but do not allow to brown. Add mushrooms and Fines Herbes and stir gently until all cut surfaces of the mushrooms are coated with butter. Add onion, parsley and garlic and cook until onions begin to soften. Add wine and increase flame to cook off the wine. Salt to taste.

Uses:
Either recipe can be used to mix with cooked rice for a savoury rice dish. Try adding toasted almonds or pine nuts.

Drain the Sautéed Light Mushrooms with a pierced spoon. Mix with grated Monterey Jack, Colby, or mild cheddar and use as an omelette filling

Mix the Sautéed Light Mushrooms with steamed broccoli for a new side dish.

Spread either recipe over toasted ciabatta and add cheese for a sandwich

Remove stems from a multitude of small, whole mushrooms. Sauté, skewer on toothpicks and serve as hors d'oeuvres.

Photo by bucklava, Flickr

Washday Supper (New England Boiled Dinner)

2009-08-09T10:12:00.003+02:00

I grew up on the West Coast and moved to the Boston area when I was 19. I was adding to my cooking repertoire even then, as my personal cookbook was pretty lean and primarily based on the bland farm cooking of my grandmothers (trust me…you would not want to replicate most of my mother’s attempts at cooking!). One of my in-laws served a Washday supper one evening, explaining that she had been out in the garden all day and this meal needed little attention while she was busy doing something else.

When asked, she explained the name of the dish thus: In the old days, women washed by hand and they heated the water on the stove. Some clothes, primarily whites, were actually boiled in a large tin-lined copper tank called a clothes boiler. This meant the stove, which was usually coal, wood, or oil fired, would be using fuel all day for laundry, and the housewife’s attention would be taken up by the washing.

The Washday Supper was a meal conceived out of necessity: the woman didn’t have the time to actually cook a real meal, and by cooking a chunk of meat all day on the back of the already hot stove, she saved both fuel and time…the vegetables, which cook much more quickly than meat, are added shortly before serving.

This is my variation of the Washday supper, also known as a New England Boiled Dinner, that I learned from a lady who did her laundry in a wringer washer…an all day project…and served this delicious meal weekly.

This is also a frugal meal. A family of four should be able to eat two full dinners from this, and any leftover vegetables and liquid can be put through the blender and used as the basis for Ham and Split Pea Soup…three delicious meals for a family of four out of just one chunk of ham…it doesn’t get much cheaper than this!

Washday Supper (New England Boiled Dinner)

Ingredients:
1 picnic ham (smoked shoulder, Boston Butt Ham, or very large smoked hocks)
1 large onion (or 2 small), coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 bay leaves, bruised or broken
½ tsp peppercorns
1 tsp marjoram, dried
1 tsp thyme, dried
1 cup white wine
Water
6 large carrots, cut into large chunks
4 large potatoes, cut into large chunks
½ bunch of celery, including leaves, cut into 3” to 4” sticks
1 large onion (or 2 small), cut into quarters
6 white turnips, quartered (optional)
1 head of cabbage, quartered through the core, then each quarter halved through the core

Preparation:
Soak ham, fully covered with water, overnight to leach out excess salt. Discard water in the morning. (You may need to put a plate on top of the ham to keep it submerged.)

To have ready to eat by 6 pm, the ham must go on the stove no later than noon. Place ham in deep kettle, add wine and seasoning, then fill to ⅔ full with water. It is OK if the ham is not fully covered, as you will turn it over half way through the cooking process. Add crushed garlic and chopped onion, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to simmer and cook, covered, for 3 hours. Check periodically and add more water if needed.

At 3 hours, turn ham over. Replace lid and continue cooking for at least another 2 hours. Check periodically and add more water if needed. Ham is ready when you can stick a fork into the meat, twist it, and the meat comes away in flakes.

If the pot is not large enough to add the vegetables, you must remove the ham. Put it in a ceramic bowl that you have heated by rinsing in hot water, and cover with a plate. This will allow the meat to rest while keeping it warm. Into the pot liquid add potatoes, carrots, the quartered onion and celery. Boil for 20 minutes, then add turnips and cabbage.

Continue to cook until the vegetables are fork tender, then remove to heated serving dishes.

Serve with mustard for the ham (I like a grainy brown mustard) and butter for the veg. It’s a tasty meal!

Photo by BlueLotus, Flickr

Trout Amandine

2009-08-07T08:42:00.004+02:00

Summertime is fishing trip time. When I was growing up, the men in my family were avid fishermen and so, despite my personal dislike of finny fish (love most shellfish), I ate a lot of it as a child. But plain old fried fish gets tiring after a while, especially if you don’t like fish all that much and so, as an adult, I came up a few recipes that made them tasty and appealing, even for an old fish-detester like me.

One of the few fish I actually enjoy is trout. But trout is a delicately-flavoured fish and a heavy hand at the stove can render it greasy and unpalatable. Here is my favourite way to gently prepare it:

Trout Amandine
Ingredients:
2 whole fresh* trout, entrails removed, head and tail still on
⅓ cup butter

1 tbsp butter
½ cup sliced almonds

Preparation:
Slowly melt ⅓ cup butter in a skillet. Add the fish and fry gently about 6 minutes on a side. Remove fish when done, drain on paper towels, place on plates.

In a separate skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter and coat pan. Add almonds and cook on a high heat while stirring constantly. The butter will coat the almonds and they will become golden. Remove from heat before the almonds become dark and immediately turn onto paper towels to drain.

Presentation:
Sprinkle almonds over the top of the fish, then dust with a bit of paprika or freshly ground black pepper. Best served with julienned green beans or steamed asparagus (with lemon butter) and a savoury or wild rice dish.

*If you are buying the trout (as opposed to having caught it yourself), look to the eyes to determine freshness: eyes should be clear, not clouded, and if they are sunken, the fish is not fresh enough.

Photo by MrJorgen, Flickr

Fresh Summer Fruit Salad

2009-08-03T11:02:00.005+02:00

This is a delicious, refreshing, and versatile fruit salad that works for a light breakfast or lunch, an alfresco dinner side dish, and even as a dessert! It can be served with or without a dressing, spilled over a scoop of ice cream, or used as a topping for sponge or pound cake. The variations and uses are practically endless, and its cool, crisp texture and blend of flavours make it a wonderfully fresh, juicy choice for those hot summer days.

Fresh Summer Fruit Salad
Ingredients:
1 fresh ripe pineapple, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 slightly green bananas, sliced
⅓ lemon juice
2 ripe but firm kiwis, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
¾ cup fresh berries (if strawberries, cut into bite-sized pieces)
1 small container lemon yoghurt
Sprig of mint for garnish

Preparation:
Toss bananas in lemon juice, coating all sides well.
Refrigerate berries in a separate container from salad.

Drain all fruits. Combine pineapple, bananas, and kiwi in bowl and toss with yoghurt. Refrigerate for at least ½ hour. Immediately before serving, add berries and toss once again. Garnish and serve.

Variations:
Use a different flavour of yoghurt for dressing
Sprinkle with sliced almonds
Sprinkle with muesli

Omit yoghurt and serve as below:
--with a scoop of vanilla ice cream
--with a scoop of lemon sorbet
--over a slice of baked cheesecake
--over a slice of poundcake
--over a slice of sponge or angelfood cake
--over a bowl of muesli or bran flakes
--over a bowl of oatmeal
--in a dessert bowl, topped with whipped cream

Photo by Kristie’s NaturePortraits, Flickr

Philly Cheesesteak

2009-08-01T11:33:00.003+02:00

This is one of the most delicious hot sandwiches I have ever eaten. It’s substantial enough to serve for a meal and is especially good served with a robust green salad on the side…although most people seem to prefer it with French fries (which I, personally, find to be a bit of carb/fat/fried food overkill).

To be perfectly clear, I’ve never been to Philadelphia, so I make no claims of authenticity here. I was introduced to the cheese steak sandwich at Sir John’s in Sunnyvale, California and found it fabulous. The internet provided me with some background information and I was delighted to find enough information to replicate and even improve on Sir John’s version of this classic American dish. Here is what I came up with:

Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich

Ingredients:
2 soft crust French rolls about 6 to 8 inches long (Amoroso rolls if you can get them)
Soft butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 lean rib-eye steaks, half frozen
1 onion, cut into thin slices
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into narrow strips or 1” chunks (optional)
½ cup mushroom slices (optional)
1 tsp garlic oil (optional)
1 cup Provolone cheese, roughly grated (must be Provolone)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Prepare rolls:
Split rolls lengthwise, open and butter. If you have a toaster oven, put rolls in oven, buttered side up, and toast until slightly browned. Then remove rolls to plates. If you don’t have a toaster oven, heat a skillet or flat griddle and place rolls on hot surface, buttered side down, and heat until slightly browned. Then remove rolls to plates.

Prepare filling:
The meat is easiest to slice if it is partially frozen. Using a sharp knife, slice as thin as possible, ¼” or less. Trim off excess fat and discard.

Heat large skillet or griddle and coat with olive oil. Add meat, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms and garlic oil. Keep moving on griddle, so nothing sticks or burns. You can chop the steak strips into smaller pieces if you like, but I keep mine whole. Cook until onions are limp and meat is browned. (If using green peppers and/or mushrooms, make sure they are soft as well). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble sandwich:
Remove filling and divide equally between the rolls. Spread the cheese over the top of the meat and place the top half of the roll on each sandwich. Microwave briefly if necessary to get the cheese to fully melt.

Comments with your additions/variations are welcome!

Photo by bertosolo, Flickr

Mango (or Pineapple) Pork (or Chicken)

2009-07-28T22:34:00.003+02:00

This recipe has gone through many iterations over the years and has now evolved as one of those either/or recipes that you can fix one of several ways. At our house, Hubby is very fond of mango and he loves this made with pork. But it can be made with chicken as well.

Adding to the flexibility of the recipe is the fact that you can use mango juice or pineapple juice or a combination of the two. In fact, there are several tropical juices that would work well, including passion fruit juice…it works best with high acidity juices, although I don’t recommend citrus juices.

The meat in this dish is braised, a way of cooking the meat with moisture to prevent it from drying out, a common complaint with pork chops and chicken breasts. This keeps pork chops (or a pork loin) and chicken breasts moist and juicy while infusing them with the flavour of the cooking liquid. At the end of the preparation, you cook down the liquid to create a sauce to pour over the meat and which can be used on accompanying rice or potatoes.

It’s a low maintenance dish, meaning you can let it simmer on the back of the stove while you prepare the rest of the meal. This is a household favourite!

Mango Pork/Pineapple Chicken
Ingredients:
4 lean, boneless pork loin chops (or four deboned chicken breasts) (I use pork chops)
1 tbsp olive oil
½ onion finely chopped
3 roasted garlic cloves, mashed
1 cup mango, pineapple, and/or passion fruit (granadilla) juice (I use mango)
½ cup white wine
1 tsp pulverized or finely grated fresh ginger
¼ to ½ tsp chili powder
1 to 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Trim all fat from edges of pork.

Heat oil in bottom of heavy skillet (make sure this skillet has a well-fitted lid).

Sauté onions until soft. Move the onions to the side of the pan and add the meat. Cook on high heat, searing the meat to seal in the juices. Using tongs, turn the meat and also sear the sides.

Once meat is seared, add remaining ingredients. Bring to a full boil, reduce to a simmer, and cover. Cook for 10 minutes, turn meat and cook another 10. Now pierce meat with fork and watch for juices…if they are clear, meat is done. If they are pink, cover and cook another 10 minutes.

Remove meat to heated plate and turn fire up full. Stir pan juices constantly and allow the liquid to boil off until juices become thick and sticky. Pour over meat and serve.

Photo by Ninjapoodle, Flickr

Egg Flower Soup

2009-07-28T14:46:00.008+02:00

If you are looking for something light and delicious but easy to prepare, this is the choice for you. This soup makes a great appetizer, it goes well with a sandwich for lunch, and is even a great dish to serve someone in bed with a cold. There are abundant variations, as well, so you can make the soup as delicate or as hearty as your needs demand.

Left over and microwaved the next day in a mug, it makes an excellent alternative to coffee as a hot drink during your breaks at work.

Egg Flower Soup

Ingredients:
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth, consommé or boullion
1 fresh egg
¼ tsp dried parsley flakes

Preparation:
Break egg into measuring cup (with spout). Whisk egg thoroughly.

Bring parsley and broth to the boil on the stove. As the soup boils, whisk it vigorously with one hand while slowly pouring the egg into the boiling soup.

Turn off heat immediately (overcooking will make the egg bits rubbery) and serve.

Variations:
Add 1 tbsp grated carrot to boiling broth, cook for 5 minutes, then whisk in egg
Add 1 tbsp minced chicken to boiling broth, cook for 5 minutes, then whisk in egg
Add 1 tsp thinly sliced green onion tops to boiling broth, cook for 5 minutes, then whisk in egg
Add ¼ tsp garlic powder to boiling broth, cook for 5 minutes, then whisk in egg
Add ⅓ cup thinly sliced cabbage to boiling broth, cook for 5 minutes, then whisk in egg
Add ¼ cup fresh bean sprouts to boiling broth, cook for 5 minutes, then whisk in egg

Garnish:
Pinch of onion sprouts
Sliced fresh green onion tops
Chopped parsley or other herb
Carrot curls
Cheese curls
Small dollop of plain yoghurt
Float a thin slice of avocado on top

Photo by noonch, Flickr

Steak Soup

2009-07-27T10:21:00.006+02:00

Something for the guys…if you like steak then this soup will doubtless appeal to you. And if you are watching your calories, this can be an especially good choice for a meal.

The trick is to grill an extra steak the next time you bbq (braai). It doesn’t have to be a big steak, but you do need to make sure it has plenty of char on the outside, and don’t baste or season it with anything. Just a piece of your favourite steak thrown on the grill and fired up very nicely. You can refrigerate the cooked meat up to three days or freeze it for up to 6 months and still get that delicious grilled steak flavour in the soup. Leftover soup microwaves well, so it is great for lunches the next day. It also freezes very nicely.

Scrumptious Steak Soup
Ingredients:
Up to ½ lb (250 g) grilled steak of your choice…the more char the better
1 tbsp olive oil
One onion, cut coarsely
1 bell pepper, seeded and cut into bite-sized pieces (optional)
3 (or more) garlic cloves, crushed (roasted garlic is excellent here)
2 tsp dried mixed herbs or 1 bouquet garni
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup brown or portobellini mushrooms, sliced
4 large ribs celery, including the tops and leaves, sliced across the grain
1 cup red wine
1 can crushed tomatoes
4 cups vegetable or beef stock
4 carrots, cut bite sized
1 cup turnips, scrubbed and cut into bite sized pieces (optional)
½ cabbage, cut into 1” chunks
Your choice of starch (optional…omit to keep calorie count down)
---1 cup cooked and rinsed rice
---4 med potatoes, scrubbed and cut into bite-sized pieces
---1 cup small pasta, cooked and rinsed
Salt if necessary (stock will have salt in it)

Preparation:
Trim fat away from meat and cut away from bone. Remove any gristle or inedible bits. Cut meat into small pieces, no larger than ½ inch cubes.

Heat olive oil in the bottom of a very deep pot and add onion and meat. Cook on high heat, stirring constantly, until onion begins to caramelize and turn brown. Reduce heat and add garlic, mushrooms, celery, mixed herbs (do not add bouquet garni here, add it after the liquid is in the pot), cumin and bell pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until celery slices begin to soften.

Add wine, stock, and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add carrots (and potatoes if using them) and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, then add cabbage and turnips. Remove cover and allow to cook for another half hour. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Just before serving, add rice or pasta, if using them, cover and allow to stand for 10 minutes for rice/pasta to heat up.

Serve with a bit of grated Parmesan or Roman cheese, garnish with fresh parsley or sprig of celery leaf

Photos by TomHarpel and Wordridden, Flickr

Potato Pancakes

2009-07-26T12:56:00.004+02:00

This is a savoury dish that gives you some variety in your potato side dish at dinner. It’s also a lovely accompaniment to a breakfast, particularly with a fried egg perched on top of the potato pancake.

Potato Pancakes
Ingredients:
4 large potatoes, peeled
½ cup milk
1 onion, minced fine
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp minced parsley (optional)
⅓ cup flour
½ tsp salt
3 tsp butter

Preparation:
Grate potatoes coarsely. Place in a bowl and cover with milk. Refrigerate for 2 or more hours.

Remove potatoes from fridge, pour off and discard milk. Add onion, egg, parsley and salt and mix. Sprinkle with flour and mix gently to distribute flour throughout.

Melt butter in bottom of heavy skillet.

Using a dry measuring cup, scoop ⅓ cup of mixture and place mixture in hot butter. Flatten to ¼” with spatula and fry until golden on one side. Flip and fry second side until golden, drain on paper towels and serve More than one pancake can be cooked at a time in the skillet, if it is large enough. Add butter to pan as needed.

Photo by ScottFeldstein, Flickr

Luscious Lamb

2009-07-24T21:17:00.003+02:00

I don’t think most Americans eat lamb that often. I know that it was never served at the table when I was growing up, and as an adult, I prepared and served it perhaps a half dozen times in my life before moving to South Africa. South Africans love lamb and will eat it cooked in just about any way you can imagine. I, however, find it rather greasy and gamey and that put me off…until I discovered mint jelly.

Now, ordinarily I detest any kind of sweetness with meat. I can’t even stand a little pancake syrup meeting up with my sausages or bacon, so I have my pancakes on a separate plate to prevent any chance of the twain meeting. But mint jelly is somehow different…there is something about it that counterbalances the lamb’s gaminess and cuts the greasiness, all without masking the essential taste of the lamb. It’s genius…and delicious, too.

Lamb is actually a rather delicately flavoured meat and easily overwhelmed by strongly flavoured side dishes like broccoli. I like to serve it with steamed asparagus (dressed with a little lemon butter) and baked or roasted potatoes. My husband, who grew up eating both lamb and mutton (ew! gross!) grins broadly when I announce that we are having lamb for dinner, so it looks like I have mastered this one!

Luscious Roasted Lamb, Leg or Rack

Ingredients:
1 kg (2 lb) deboned leg of lamb (or rack of lamb)
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup fresh chopped rosemary
1 tbsp minced or crushed garlic
Mint jelly

Preparation:
Early in the day, mix olive oil, garlic and rosemary. Place lamb on a sheet of plastic wrap, slather with oil mixture, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Remove lamb an hour before cooking and allow to come to room temperature (or near to it).

Preheat oven to 325F. Spray roasting rack with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Remove lamb from plastic wrap and place on roasting rack, fat side up. Insert meat thermometer in thickest part of roast, positioned for easy reading.

Place in centre of oven and roast for 1 hour. Check thermometer for doneness: 140F is medium rare. Because you will allow the roast to “rest” for five minutes before you carve it and it will continue to cook during that time, remove the roast when it is about 5 degrees cooler than the temperature you wish to serve it. If the roast is not yet done enough, return to the oven, checking every 10 minutes until desired doneness is achieved.

Because you will have your oven hot, this is a good time to roast some garlic or bake potatoes, using energy and the oven’s heat more efficiently.

Allow lamb to rest for 5 minutes before carving and serve with mint jelly on the side.

Photo by freedigitalphotos.net

Monkey Bones (Peanut butter dog biscuits)

2009-07-15T18:15:00.003+02:00

There is little that dogs like more than peanut butter. I once had a dog that loved all things peanutty so much we used to call her “Monkey.” I spread some on her favourite bone-shaped dog biscuit one day and she was over the moon…it became her favourite treat. But spreading peanut butter on dog biscuits can get tiresome after a while, so I fiddled around until I came up with some homemade dog biscuits with peanut butter right in the mix, and Monkey Bones were born. If your dog loves peanut butter, too, what can be better than peanut butter dog cookies made by your own hands? Healthy ingredients, no preservatives, and the perfect gift for your favourite pup!

And for the pooch that is always sniffing at your chocolate bars…we all know chocolate is toxic to dogs but our little doggie darlings don’t…you can add carob chips. Carob tastes like chocolate but is safe for dogs. Try these for your favourite dog and don’t be surprised if you have to make a second batch right away!

Monkey Bones
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
¼ peanut oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup water
½ cup carob chips (optional)

Preparation:
Set oven to 325F.

Mix all ingredients except carob chips together to form a dough. Turn out onto floured board and roll about ¼ inch thick. Cut with bone-shaped cookie cutter or into strips 1” wide by 2 ½ inches long.

Place on ungreased baking sheet and stud cookies with a few carob chips. Bake at 325F for 15 - 20 minutes. Turn off oven and leave cookies in oven until cooled. Store in airtight container.

Yankee Pot Roast

2009-07-14T23:04:00.003+02:00

I lived in New England for a few years and I learned a lot of good recipes there. I was young and poor at the time, so fancy recipes weren’t exactly my cup of tea…solid, nutritious food that didn’t put much of a dent in my pocketbook was the order of the day.

Among the recipes I learned that were filling, nourishing and inexpensive was the good old pot roast. Cheap meat is often tough, but cooked slowly for a sufficient length of time, the meat turns tender and succulent. Add inexpensive winter vegetables and the right combination of seasonings and you have a deliciously thrifty meal! If saving money isn’t one of your objectives, you can use more costly veg, better cuts of meat and a finer wine, but the frugal recipe below tastes so good, it really isn’t necessary.

This is a particularly easy recipe to prepare. Unlike most pot roast recipes, this one is prepared in the oven and requires no monitoring to make sure the liquid hasn’t boiled away, burning the contents of the pot. Inexpensive, delicious and easy, too…what could be better?

Yankee Pot Roast

Ingredients:
2 lbs (1 kg) chuck roast
6 large carrots
6 large potatoes
2 medium onions
2-4 garlic cloves, minced or put through garlic press
3 ribs of celery (optional)
1 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 cup Knorr Brown Roux granules (optional)
¼ cup mixed dried herbs
2 cups cheap red wine (or vegetable stock)
Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Set oven to 325F. Prepare a 13” x 9” x 3” baking pan by lining with a piece of foil large enough to line the bottom of the pan and extend enough to fold over and seal the dish.

Sprinkle Roux granules on bottom of pan and spread out. Centre meat on top.

Cut carrots into sticks approximately 3 inches long. Split the thickest pieces. Cut potatoes into chunks no bigger than 3 inches square. Peel onions and cut into eighths. Slice mushrooms thinly. Cut celery into sticks approximately 3 inches long. Split the widest pieces.

Arrange onion and vegetables around the meat and dot surface with garlic. Shake 5 to 10 shakes of Worcestershire sauce over the surface, pour in red wine/stock, then sprinkle with dried herbs. Salt to taste.

Fold foil down to cover and seal the dish. Put in 325F oven and cook for 2.5 hours.

Test for doneness: remove from oven and carefully open foil. Pierce the meat with the tines of a fork and twist. If the meat flakes easily and comes away, it is ready. If the meat does not flake when the fork is twisted, fold down the foil and return to the oven for another 30 minutes. Repeat this test until the meat is tender.

Serving: Remove the meat to a warmed platter and surround with vegetables. If you used the Roux, you will have a gravy in the bottom of the cooking pan: pour it into a gravy boat and serve with the meat and veg. If you did not use the Roux, pour the liquid into a shallow pan, bring to a boil, and make gravy the way you usually do.

This is excellent with biscuits, which can bake in the already heated oven while you are plating the roast and vegetables and making the gravy.

Photo by uberculture, flickr

Shrimp Creole is King!

2009-07-10T10:35:00.003+02:00

I discovered this dish when I was 14 years old. My boyfriend took me to a family dinner and his grandmother was visiting from Louisiana. Out in the kitchen was a pot of the most fragrant red tomato sauce…not at all Italian in scent…and beside the stove was the biggest heap of shrimp I had ever seen. I was handed an apron and a bowl of shrimp and quickly initiated into the rites of peeling and deveining shrimp…and the kitchen camaraderie of women.

The finished dish was delicious…that was back in the days that I could eat bell peppers without distress…and the spiciness was not quite enough to make me sniffle, but enough to make my lips tingle. You can adjust the spiciness to be whatever you want, but I still like it this way. Hats off to Grandma Smith and the fabulous Shrimp Creole that inspired my version of it, below.

Shrimp Creole
Ingredients:
2tbsp oil
1 cup fresh or frozen okra, sliced (discard tips)
1 cup fresh celery, sliced across the ribs
1 cup fresh onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced or put through garlic press
1 bell pepper (green) seeded and chopped coarsely (optional)
¼ tsp (or more) chili powder
½ tsp ground cumin
3 14oz (410g) cans crushed tomatoes
2 tomato cans of water
1 cup white wine
Liquid pepper sauce
Salt to taste
1 lb (500g) fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 cup raw white rice

Preparation:
Heat oil in bottom of deep pot. Sauté onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper, okra and seasonings until onion is translucent. Add tomatoes, water, wine and liquid pepper sauce (3 shakes of bottle for mild…more if you can stand it!). Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, stirring regularly as liquid reduces by half.

Begin cooking rice according to package directions.

Taste sauce and add salt as needed. When tomatoes have lost their bright redness and the sauce no longer smells primarily of tomatoes, continue cooking until your desired thickness is achieved. At that point, turn off the heat, add the shrimp, and stir to cover shrimp with the hot sauce. The residual heat will cook the shrimp without toughening them.

Serving:
Spoon a bed of rice into a shallow bowl or deep plate and make a bit of a hollow in the centre. Fill hollow with Shrimp Creole and garnish with a sprig of celery leaf.

Photo by tvol, flickr

Jambalaya! Oh me oh my oh!

2009-07-09T09:59:00.004+02:00

This delicious, spicy rice dish has been recently added to my repertoire. Jambalaya, a Creole and Cajun dish, is thought to be a New World version of the Spanish dish, paella. Before America acquired the Louisiana Territory from France in 1806, it had belonged to Spain, so foods of both French and Spanish heritage evolved there.

In Cajun cooking there exists something called “The Trinity.” It consists of onion, garlic and bell (green or red) peppers, chopped and sautéed together and used as a base for a dish. I have difficulty with bell pepper (I like it, but it doesn’t like me) so I omit it. But it is included in the recipe to add to its authenticity. The proper sausage to use in Jambalaya is andouille (pronounced ahn DWEE), but it can be difficult to locate. When he couldn’t find andouille, my late husband used to make a killer Jambalaya using kielbasa or chorizo, but you can use milder sausages if you prefer…spicy does not have to be synonymous with hot!

My thanks to IndigoWrath for the recipe I used as a base for the following dish, a meal that my husband pronounced a “winner” and requested for dinner a second night in a row!

Jambalaya Ingredients:
¼ cup butter
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
5 celery sticks, sliced thin across the grain
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and coarsely chopped
½ lb sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp Cajun Spice Mixture (if you can’t buy a Cajun spice mix, add the following)
--½ tsp ground cumin
--¼ tsp red chili powder
--¼ tsp ground black pepper
3 shakes red pepper sauce (more if you like it spicy)
1 cup long grained rice (Basmati rice works well)
1 14oz can of chopped tomatoes, including liquid
1 cup vegetable stock, white or rose wine
1 cup water
¾ cup fresh carrots, cut small
2 smoked chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
½ lb fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined
½ cup frozen baby peas
Coarsely ground sea salt to taste

Preparation:
In bottom of deep pan, melt butter and sauté onion, garlic, peppers, celery and spices. Add chicken and sausage and cook until sausage is browned. Add rice and stir around to fully coat rice with butter.

Add tomatoes, stock/wine, and water, cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add carrots. Simmer, covered, for 25 minutes or until rice has absorbed all of the liquid.

Turn off heat, taste and salt as necessary. Add shrimp and peas, stir to cover shrimp with rice. Cover and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes…the residual heat in the rice will cook the shrimp without toughening it.

Serve with crusty French bread and garlic butter.

Photo by The Marmot, Flickr

Caprese Salad or Sandwich

2009-07-07T10:34:00.008+02:00

If it is summer in your part of the world, fresh vine ripened tomatoes are part of your reality. And there is nothing I like better for a summer salad than a fresh Caprese salad.

This is amazingly simply to prepare and delicious beyond description. Just think…fresh tomatoes bursting with sun-ripened flavour…fragrant fresh basil…smooth, flavourful Italian cheeses…the piquant bite of balsamic vinegar…is your mouth watering yet?

The interesting thing about this salad is that it also makes a great sandwich! See the variations at the end for details!

Caprese Salad

Ingredients:
2 large or 4 small fresh ripe tomatoes, chilled
1 sweet onion, (Vidalia or Maui are best) cut in paper thin slices (optional)
1 cup of fresh basil leaves, uncut
8 slices white Italian cheese (fresh, soft mozzarella is divine, but Provolone is great!)
½ cup balsamic glaze or the dressing below
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Select the four largest basil leaves and make a chiffonade*. Set aside for the garnish.

Wash tomatoes and slice into generous slices. Select the best 8 slices for the salad.

Slice the cheese into 8 slices. If using fresh mozzarella, make the slices thickish.

Bruise the basil.

Assembly:
There are two ways to assemble the salad.

Method 1
Cut all ingredients into quarters, then place in a salad bowl and toss with dressing (below).

Method 2
Place a piece of cheese on a plate and slice of tomato on top of it; salt the tomato to taste. Push the centre section out of an onion slice and place on top of the tomato slice. Put a few bruised basil leaves on top and drizzle with balsamic glaze or dressing. Garnish with a bit of the chiffonade. These little stacks can be arranged individually on a plate or arranged to overlap each other (like crackers on a cheese plate). If overlapping into a row or ring, add glaze or dressing at the end, then garnish.

* chiffonade: select four or more large basil leaves and stack one on top of the other. Starting at the pointed end, roll the stack of leaves toward the stem end, like a cigar. Using a sharp knife, diagonally slice the tube into thin ribbons.

Dressing:
In a bowl whisk together ½ cup olive oil, ¼ cup balsamic or wine vinegar, ½ tsp dried Italian seasoning. Allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes or longer, then whisk again and immediately pour over the salad.

Caprese Sandwich:

Ingredients:
1 panini roll or small baguette, split lengthwise, or slices of sour dough bread.
1 large tomato, sliced
2 slices white Italian cheese (recommend Provolone)
1 paper-thin slice of sweet onion (optional)
6 large fresh basil leaves, bruised
1 tbsp balsamic glaze (or vinegar)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Whisk oil and balsamic glaze together. Brush half of it on the cut side of the bottom piece or bread.

Put cheese on bread, followed by onion, and tomato slices. Salt to taste, then brush on remaining oil mixture. Top with basil leaves and top slice of bread.

Photos by cyancey and aokettun, Flickr

French Onion Soup

2009-07-04T11:32:00.003+02:00

My late husband’s mother was born and raised in Paris and did not come to America until she was in her mid-twenties. While I was not impressed with a lot of her cooking, she did have a few dishes that were so good, they were practically a religious experience to eat…and this very authentic French onion soup was one of them!

French Onion Soup
(serves 8)

Ingredients:
4 large yellow or brown onions
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter (not margarine)
6 cups beef or vegetable consommé/broth
½ cup paper thin mushroom slices (optional)
¼ cup finely chopped parsley (optional)
Salt to taste
1 baguette, sliced into 10 pieces (discard the end bits and keep 8 pieces)
1 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded (any Swiss cheese will do, but smoked Gruyere is best)

Preparation:
Peel and cut onions as shown in photo or into thin (⅛ inch) slices to make rings.

Heat butter and oil in bottom of deep pot. Add onion and cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until onions are limp and caramelized. Immediately add garlic and mushrooms and cook for 1 more minute, then add broth. Bring to rolling boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, taste soup and add parsley and salt. Simmer another 30 minutes and taste again, adjusting salt if necessary.

Heat top element of oven (turn on broiler, if gas) and set oven rack near the top.

Prepare a baking sheet, preferably one with turned up edges, by spraying with cooking spray.

Ladle onion soup into 8 ovenproof dishes or ramekins and place ramekins on baking sheet.

Float a slice of baguette on top of each ramekin, then cover with cheese.

Place baking sheet and ramekins in oven and broil until cheese melts and browns.

Remove from oven and serve hot…remember to use oven mitts to handle the ramekins!

Photos by Lukekb, Flickr

Gravlax, Sweet or Salty

2009-07-01T16:57:00.005+02:00

Gravlax is a dish that has reached cult status as a gourmet appetizer. But its origins are humble, as was my introduction to it.

Pronounced “GRAH vlox,” the word is a shortened form of the original Swedish word for “buried salmon.” There is some dispute as to whether that refers to the salmon being buried in the earth to ferment (like pemmican) or if it simply refers to the salmon being buried in a salt-and sugar mixture. Whichever it refers to, my grandmother simply called it “cured salmon” to differentiate it from the kipper-like smoked salmon she made in the little smokehouse out back, and I didn’t realize our humble cured salmon had another name…or had moved up the social ladder…until I saw a chef preparing it on TV on Cooking at the Academy.

If you can find gravlax at a gourmet boutique deli, you are going to pay through the nose for it. But you can have not only gravlax but an endless array of epicurean variations, all for little more than the price of the raw salmon itself, if you just follow the recipes below!

Gravlax (Base recipe)
Ingredients:
1 salmon fillet, skin on (buy the tail end to save money)
1 oz (shot) good quality vodka or aquavit
For sweet gravlax: 2 cups granulated white sugar
1 cup salt
For salty gravlax: 1 cup granulated white sugar
2 cups salt

Preparation:
Fresh salmon can have parasites, most notably roundworms. To make sure your salmon is free of them, use only commercially frozen salmon or freeze your fresh salmon to at least -10°F (-23°C) for seven days or longer. Freezing kills any parasites that might be in your fish Make sure you thaw the salmon completely before you begin.

Check the salmon for bones both by sight and by touch. If you find any bones, they can be pulled out with needle-nosed pliers. Drape the salmon filet over your hand like a towel, cut side up. This will force the tips of the bones stick up, making it easier for you to grab them with the pliers.

Mix the salt and sugar together. Pour half of the mixture in the bottom of a glass or ceramic dish large enough for the entire piece of salmon to flat in. Add the vodka and spread the mixture out evenly to cover the bottom of the dish.

Lay out the salmon, skin side down, on top of the salt/sugar mixture and cover with the remainder. Make sure the entire salmon is fully covered with the mixture.

Cover the mixture and salmon with a sheet of plastic wrap, pressing it down to cover the entire contents of the dish. Place several heavy objects on top of the plastic to press down on the salmon (I use large cans of tomatoes or fruit). Place in refrigerator.

Wait 24 hours and remove from refrigerator. Remove cans and plastic wrap and set aside. Gently pour accumulated fluid down the drain, turn the salmon to show the skin side, and make sure the salmon is packed, top and bottom, with the salt/sugar mixture. Cover with plastic, add cans, and return to the refrigerator.

After another 24 hours, remove from the refrigerator. Rinse the fish under running water and pat dry with a paper towel and place on a wood cutting board.

Starting at the narrowest end of the fish, slice paper thin at a 45° angle, lifting the slices away from the skin.

Serve with mild cheeses like mascarpone or cream cheese, chopped fresh herbs, and textured breads like pumpernickel or rye, or coarse crackers, and thin lemon wedges.

Variations:
Instead of plain vodka, use one of the following:
Your favourite flavoured vodka
A spicy gin (like Bombay Sapphire)

In addition to the vodka, add one of the following:
¼ cup beet juice
¼ cup cranberry juice

After placing the salt/sugar mixture on top of the salmon, put one of the following on top and then cover with plastic wrap:
1 tsp coarsely ground pepper
½ cup coarsely chopped dill
¼ cup thin strips of lemon and/or orange peel
¼ cup thin slices of fresh ginger
½ cup fresh herbs, chopped

Photo by Bruce_Lee, Flickr

Stuffed Pasta: Shells and Cannelloni

2009-06-30T15:56:00.006+02:00

When we all lived in the same town, my adult children would gather at my house to celebrate their birthdays. Our tradition was for them to choose the main dish they wanted and I would prepare it as their birthday dinner. Invariably the choice was something Italian and most often it was stuffed shells, a delicious…but labour intensive…pasta dish, overflowing with cheeses and swimming in a rich red sauce.

I make this dish vegetarian, but you can make it with a meat sauce if you’d like.

Stuffed Pasta: Shells and Cannelloni
Ingredients:
2 boxes large pasta shells or cannelloni, uncooked
2 qts (8 cups) Sicilian Pasta Sauce (Basic recipe)
1 quart (4 cups) ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese (Asiago or Scarmozza can be used)
1 cup each finely grated Romano and Parmesan cheese
1 large onion, finely minced
6 cloves garlic, crushed or put through garlic press
1 tbsp olive oil
½ cup finely minced fresh basil
1 tbsp dried oregano or Italian seasonings, ground to a powder

Preparation:
Boil pasta in salted water. Remove from heat as soon as they are flexible and plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process. If the pasta is cooked until soft, it will tear more easily while handling. Keep pasta in water to prevent sticking together.

Procedure:
Spray a 9” x 13” x 3” baking pan with cooking spray. It would be a good idea to use a nice pan, like a Correlle dish, as this is usually served in the same dish in which it was baked. Set oven to 350°F (180°C).

Sauté onion, garlic, and seasonings together in oil until onion is translucent. Set aside to cool a bit, then mix thoroughly with the ricotta cheese. Add egg and ½ cup each Romano and Parmesan cheese and mix thoroughly.

Ladle a half cup of sauce into bottom of pan and spread around.

Fill a pastry bag, with largest nozzle attached, with cheese mixture.

To fill shells: remove a shell from water and gently shake off excess water. Cradle shell in the palm of left hand, open side up. Insert nozzle of pastry bag into opening and squeeze gently, filling shell until a bit of the filling mounds out the opening. Gently lay shell, open side up, on the sauce in the pan and repeat until shells or filling is gone.

To fill cannelloni: remove a tube from water and gently shake off excess water. Cradle tube in the palm of left hand, one open end against the base of your thumb. Insert nozzle of pastry bag into other open end and squeeze bag gently, filling tube until a bit of the filling sticks out the opening. Gently lay tube on the sauce in the pan and repeat until tubes or filling is gone.

Once all shells/cannelloni are filled, cover with sauce and sprinkle each shell/tube with the remaining cheeses. Cover the dish with foil, tenting slightly to prevent the foil from sticking to the cheese. Bake for a minimum of 45 minutes or until the cheese in the middle is melted.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Variations:
Florentine: Thaw a packet of frozen chopped spinach. Squeeze 1 cup spinach tightly with your hands over the sink to wring out as much water as possible. Chop finely and add to ricotta mixture. Continue with recipe.

With Meat: Use the Meat version of the sauce

Photos by ninjapoodles and madaise, flickr

Easy, Cheesy Lasagne

2009-06-25T09:52:00.004+02:00

Just like every family has its own recipe for sauce, so does every family have its own recipe for lasagne . There is no single “right way” to make it, although I have tasted quite a number of “wrong ways” over the years.

Here in South Africa, lasagne has very little cheese in it. Instead, they make it layered with what they optimistically call “béchamel sauce,” which is actually nothing more than a simple flour-based white sauce, gooey and tasteless. Personally, I find it disgusting and will not buy lasagne here. So, when I want lasagne, I have to make it myself…and the recipe below is how I do it.

Again, this qualifies as an authentic dish since Old Joe taught this to me and he learned it from his mother. The original recipe must be more than 100 years old by now. This can be made vegetarian by using the Basic Sauce recipe instead of the meat sauce recipe.

This is the perfect “pot luck” dish…in fact, whenever I took this to a potluck dinner, it was always the first dish to be emptied. Everybody loves lasagne!

Lasagne

Prepare a 9”x 13”x 3” baking pan by spraying well with cooking spray. Set oven to 325°F (165°C). Cut a piece of aluminium foil 1 ½ times the width of the dish and its full length.

Ingredients:
2 quarts (8 cups) Meat Sauce
1 package dry lasagne noodles
1 quart (4 cups) ricotta cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese (Asiago or Scarmozza can be used)
1 cup each grated Romano and Parmesan cheese
1 large onion, finely minced
6 cloves garlic, crushed or put through garlic press
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cups sliced mushrooms (optional)
½ cup coarsely cut fresh basil
1 tbsp dried oregano or Italian seasonings

Preparation:
Boil noodles in salted water. Remove from heat as soon as they are flexible and plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process. If the noodles are cooked until they are soft, they tear more easily while handling. Keep noodles in water, otherwise they will stick together.

Sauté onion, garlic, seasonings and mushrooms together in oil until onion is translucent. Set aside to cool a bit, then mix thoroughly with the ricotta cheese.

Ladle some sauce into the bottom of the pan and spread it around. Place a layer of noodles on the sauce. Cut length of noodle to fit if necessary. Generously spread a layer of the ricotta cheese mixture over the noodles, then sprinkle generously with mozzarella, followed by Romano and Parmesan, then a layer of sauce. Now put another layer of noodles on top of the sauce and repeat the process. End with a layer of sauce, then sprinkle with any remaining cheeses.

Cover the dish with foil, tenting slightly to prevent the foil from sticking to the cheese. Bake for a minimum of 45 minutes or until the cheese in the middle is melted.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. This allows the cheeses to set a bit. Cut into 3” squares and serve with a salad on the side and more grated cheeses at the table.

Photo by lachlan, flickr

Italian Meatballs

2009-06-24T12:30:00.004+02:00

So, when you think of spaghetti, what is the first accompaniment that comes to mind? Why, meatballs, of course!

Firm, finely textured meatballs make a fabulous addition to sauce. It is important, however, to make sure they are fully cooked and their fat rendered out before adding them to the sauce or they can disintegrate in the sauce and even make it greasy. It is also important to make sure ingredients like onion and garlic are finely minced so that the meatballs will compact well and hold their shape.

Sorry, but I don’t have a vegetarian version for this one! You are welcome to include your own in a comment, though!

Italian Meatballs
Ingredients:
2 lbs (1 kg) extra lean ground beef (ground chuck is best)
1 large onion, finely minced
1 large egg, beaten
⅔ cup catsup or tomato paste
6 slices moistened (see below) white bread (or 1 cup sieved bread crumbs)
2 tbsp dried oregano or Italian seasonings
1 clove garlic minced or put through press
½ tsp salt

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

If using bread: hold each slice of bread under cold running water until thoroughly moistened. Squeeze firmly to remove water.

Combine meat, onion, garlic, seasonings, egg, salt and bread or bread crumbs in a large bowl. Add half the catsup. Mix thoroughly with hands, making sure to rub bread crusts so they disintegrate and blend into the meat mixture. The mixture should be firm but not dry: if too dry, add a little catsup so soften, if too moist, add a little bread crumbs to absorb excess moisture.

Make meatballs by taking handfuls of meat slightly larger than a walnut and rolling the mixture firmly in the hands to make a ball. Meatballs can be slightly larger, but anything bigger than a golf ball can have problems retaining its integrity as it cooks and the fat renders out.

Place the meatballs on the baking sheet, allowing a small space between them. They should shrink slightly during cooking, so they don’t need much space. You can “crowd” the pan with them.

Bake until a meatball, pierced with a skewer, releases clear juices. If the juices are pink, they are not done. Begin checking after they have been in the oven for 25 minutes.

When the meatballs are done, remove from the oven and set aside to cool on absorbent paper. This is an important step, because as the meatballs cool they will contract further and the outside will dry and toughen up a bit, allowing them to go into the sauce later without disintegrating.

During the last 20 minutes of cooking the sauce, add the meatballs. Remove them to a separate platter for serving.

Photo of meatballs by Powi, Flickr

Pasta Sauce Sicilian

2009-06-23T19:39:00.004+02:00

Many years ago I was married to a man of Sicilian descent. His father, horrified at what I called spaghetti sauce, took it upon himself to teach me how to make proper sauce.

This is not a quick sauce. It takes several hours and a lot of attention to make properly, so I like to make it on a weekend or holiday. Often, I make a double or triple batch of the basic sauce and freeze it in quart-sized containers, allowing me to have the lovely flavour of this long-cooking sauce without having to spend the time.

This is an authentic sauce, a Sicilian-style sauce exactly the way I was taught to make it by a 58-year-old Sicilian man back in 1966. He learned it from his mother, so it goes back a long way. You may make your own variations, of course, but remember that when you do, the sauce you end up with should not be called Sicilian-style because it will no longer be.

The basic (vegetarian ) sauce is used in a variety of dishes other than spaghetti, like lasagne and cannelloni, and the variations Old Joe gave me are shown at the end of the recipe.

Pasta Sauce Sicilian Style
(Basic Sauce)

Ingredients:
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 large cans peeled Roma tomatoes (Progresso (with basil) recommended)
2 6 oz. cans tomato paste (Contadina recommended)
5 tomato cans water
1 tomato can red wine (optional…water can be substituted)
½ cup fresh basil leaves, cut coarsely
1 tbsp oregano (or mixed Italian seasonings)
Salt to taste

Preparation:
In a deep pot, sauté onion, garlic and herbs in oil until onion is translucent. Add one can of tomatoes, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, mash the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon and add the second can of tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, stir the pot, then mash the tomatoes against the side of the pot and add the wine and one can of water. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, add the tomato paste, stir the pot, then mash the tomatoes against the side of the pot and add two cans of water. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, and cook for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, add the last of the water and some salt (keeping in mind that the canned goods are already salted), stir the pot and, if any remains, mash tomatoes against the side of the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook, uncovered for a minimum of two hours. Stir the pot regularly to keep the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

The sauce is ready when it turns from bright tomato red to a darker red-brown and it no longer has tomato as a dominant flavour. Cook until desired thickness is achieved, adding water ½ cup at a time if needed.

Serving:
Serve the pasta separate from the sauce so that people can dish the amount of sauce they want on their pasta. Set out fresh Romano and Parmesan and a small hand grater so that diners can grate the amount of cheese they like over their food.

Such additions as meatballs and Italian sausage should be removed from the sauce and served in separate dishes.

Variations:
Meat Sauce (Bolognaise)
While sautéing the onion, add 1 lb (500g) fresh ground beef and chop up while frying. Drain off the rendered fat and continue with the Basic Sauce recipe.

Marinara Sauce
Peel and devein a pound (500g) of fresh uncooked shrimp. Rinse and drain well. When the sauce is ready to serve, add the shrimp, stir well, cover and let sit 3 to 5 minutes. The residual heat of the sauce will cook the shrimp without toughening it. You can add other seafood in the same manner.

Mushroom (and Olive)
Add 1-2 cups cleaned and sliced mushrooms (Portobellini recommended) to the pot as the onion is being sautéed. Continue with the Basic Sauce recipe. If olives are desired, add 1 small can of sliced olives, well drained, just before serving the sauce.

With Italian Sausage
Add fully cooked and drained Italian sausage to the sauce in the last 20 minutes of cooking. Remove from the sauce and serve on a separate platter.

With Meatballs
Add fully cooked and drained meatballs to the sauce in the last 20 minutes of cooking. Remove from the sauce and serve on a separate platter.

Photo by Brokenarts, Stock.xchange

Sandwich fillings: tuna, chicken, and egg salad

2009-06-20T10:53:00.003+02:00

Sometimes you just get tired of the slice of ham, slice of cheese, mayo and lettuce on soft white bread, ya know? When I get tired of the same old, same old, I like the “salad” fillings for a change. Check the serving suggestions at the end, give ‘em a try and see what you think!

Tuna Salad
Ingredients:
2 cans light meat tuna packed in water, drained
½ onion (or small bunch of scallions) minced finely
1 hard boiled egg, chopped fine
1 tsp sweet pickle relish (optional)
French’s prepared mustard
Miracle Whip or other salad crème (not mayo!)
Sprinkle of ground black pepper

Preparation:
In a mixing bowl, flake drained tuna with a fork. Add egg, onion, pickle relish and toss well. Add just enough Miracle Whip to achieve a dry but spreadable consistency. Add mustard, half a teaspoon at a time, until the taste of the Miracle Whip is no longer dominant and identifiable. Sprinkle with pepper. Tastes best if allowed to rest in refrigerator for at least an hour.

Chicken Salad
Prepare Tuna Salad recipe with the following changes:
1 cup finely minced, cooked chicken breast meat in place of tuna
Omit pickle relish
Add 1 tsp fresh minced herb of your choice (I use marjoram)
Salt to taste

Egg Salad
Ingredients
6 extra large eggs, hard boiled, shelled and chilled
¼ onion (or 3 scallions) minced finely (optional)
1 tsp fresh dill or your choice of fresh herb, chopped coarsely (optional)
French’s prepared mustard
Miracle Whip or other salad crème (not mayo!)
Sprinkle of ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Preparation:
In a mixing bowl, mash egg against side of bowl with fork until egg is thoroughly broken up. Add onion and herb s and toss well. Add just enough Miracle Whip to achieve a dry but spreadable consistency. Add mustard, half a teaspoon at a time, until the taste of the Miracle Whip is no longer dominant and identifiable. Sprinkle with pepper. Tastes best if allowed to rest in refrigerator for at least an hour.

Serving:
It isn’t just the filling that makes a good sandwich, it is the bread and the additions. Try some of these:

Serve on toasted bread or bagels or rye
Serve on a stout artisan bread
A soft sourdough is fabulous with any of these
Stuff a pita with the tuna and add some well-drained Salsa Fresca
A slice of provolone cheese is wonderful with the tuna
Melt some cheese over the top of the filling before putting on the top slice
Add some feta to the tuna or chicken
Stuff a hollowed-out tomato with the tuna or chicken and reduce the calories!
Serve with a slice of tomato and a leaf of crisp lettuce on top
Crumble crisp bacon over the egg salad
Or add some sliced black olives to the egg salad
Sliced avocados on the chicken salad is fab!
A piece of roasted green chili on the chicken salad is also great
Make a wrap with the tuna or chicken salad and take to work for lunch
Spread on crackers, add a tiny herb garnish and you have instant canapés!
Use them as fillings for finger sandwiches for tea

Comment me with your favourite ways of serving!

Photo by jslander flickr

Breakfast Burritos

2009-06-17T10:22:00.004+02:00

It’s not really Mexican food, but a delicious, convenient way to make a yummy…and portable…breakfast. You can eat these at the table, by the pool, even in the car (if you wrap it well).

Breakfast burritos have been a personal favourite for years…easy to prepare, easy to eat, and tasty!

Breakfast burritos

Ingredients:
1 large flour tortilla, warmed
2 eggs, whisked
¼ cup cream
1 tsp butter
2 slices bacon, fried, drained, and crumbled
¼ cup chopped green onion tops (optional)
¼ tsp garlic oil (or a dash of garlic powder) (optional)
1 tbsp Salsa Fresca (thoroughly drained) (optional)
1 slice yellow cheese (optional)
Salt to taste

Preparation:
First fry, drain, and crumble bacon.

Melt butter in skillet over very low heat. Combine egg and cream in a cup or bowl and whisk together. Pour egg into butter and stir around. When the egg is almost set, add other ingredients (except cheese) and mix together.

When egg is set, turn out onto tortilla, break cheese into two pieces and lay over hot egg mixture, and wrap into a burrito. (Instructions to wrap a burrito at the link.)

Photo of breakfast burrito by bradley j flickr

Drinks: Cocktails and Warm Fuzzies

2009-06-15T18:12:00.010+02:00

With summer comes entertaining and with entertaining comes drinks. I’m not into trendy combos that exist either to see how many different kinds of booze you can combine without grossing out the drinker, nor am I into trendy drinks. I’m old and I like the classics. Here are some of my favourite libations, both cold and hot:

Mimosa
Ingredients:
Chilled champagne flute
Fresh orange or tangerine juice
Chilled dry champagne
Preparation:
Fill champagne flute half full with juice. Tilt and gently fill to the top with champagne

Passionate Mimosa
Ingredients:
Chilled champagne flute
Fresh orange or tangerine juice
Passionfruit (granadilla) juice
Chilled dry champagne
Preparation:
Fill champagne flute one third full with citrus juice
Fill it another third full with passionfruit juice
Tilt and gently fill to the top with champagne

Virgin Mimosa
Ingredients:
Chilled champagne flute
Fresh orange or tangerine juice
Chilled ginger ale
Preparation:
Fill champagne flute half full with juice
Tilt and gently fill to the top with ginger ale

Bloody Mary
Ingredients:
Tall chimney glass filled with ice
Chilled tomato juice or V-8 juice
Tobasco® sauce (optional)
Worcestershire sauce
Angostura bitters (optional)
Salt and pepper (optional)
One shot of vodka
Thin stalk of celery
Preparation:
Pour vodka over ice
Fill to near top with juice
Add one shake of Worcestershire and bitters and stir with long spoon
Add Tabasco® and seasonings
Insert celery like a stirrer

Virgin Mary
Same as above except omit vodka

Margarita
Ingredients:
Chilled Margarita or Martini glass
Mixing container and strainer
Ice
Table salt poured into a saucer
Fresh lime, quartered
1 part Triple Sec
2 parts lemon or lime juice
3 parts silver tequila
Preparation:
Run cut side of lime around the rum of the glass; turn glass upside down and place in salt; twist back and forth until rim is crusted with salt.

Pour Triple Sec, juice and tequila into mixing container. Shake or stir until liquid is chilled. Strain into salt-rimmed glass to prevent ice from getting into the glass and diluting the drink. Garnish with the lime quarter.

Gin and Tonic
Ingredients:
Tall chimney glass filled with ice
1 shot gin (recommended: Bombay Sapphire)
Tonic water (can be sugar-free, recommended: Schweppes)
Slice of lemon or wedge of lime
Stirring stick
Preparation:
Pack glass with ice and pour in gin. Top up with tonic water, run lemon or lime around rim of glass and toss lemon or lime into drink. Add stick and stir.

Sangria Blanca
Ingredients:
1 small tube frozen lemonade
3 cups white wine (sweet is best but dry works)
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange, sliced
A lot of ice
Preparation:
Mix lemonade according to package directions in a punchbowl or large pitcher. Add wine and ice. Float lemon and orange slices on top.

Sangria Rosa
Ingredients:
1 small tube frozen pinklemonade
3 cups rosé wine
1 lemon, sliced
1 blood orange, sliced
A lot of ice
Preparation:
Mix lemonade according to package directions in a punchbowl or large pitcher. Add wine and ice. Float lemon and orange slices on top.

Irish Coffee
Ingredients:
Large (8oz or larger) coffee mug
6 oz hot coffee
1 shot cognac, brandy, or Irish whiskey
Sugar or sweetener (optional)
Whipped cream
Powdered cocoa or ground cinnamon
Preparation:
Warm mug by rinsing with hot water. Pour in cognac then hot coffee, leaving 1” headspace. Add sweetener if desired and stir. Top with a froth of whipped cream and dust with either cocoa or cinnamon. Serve with long spoon.

Mocha Irish Coffee
Ingredients:
Large (8oz or larger) coffee mug
6 oz hot coffee
1 shot cognac, brandy, or Irish whiskey
1 spoonful hot chocolate mix
Sugar or sweetener (optional)
Whipped cream
Powdered cocoa
Preparation:
Warm mug by rinsing with hot water. Mix hot chocolate mix in bottom of cup with a small amount of hot coffee. Stir to dissolve. Pour in cognac, then hot coffee, leaving 1” headspace. Add sweetener if desired and stir. Top with a froth of whipped cream and dust with cocoa. Serve with long spoon.

Hot Toddy
Ingredients:
8 oz lemonade, prepared
1 tsp honey
1 shot rum or Southern Comfort
Preparation:
Heat lemonade to just below boiling and pour into a tall mug. Add honey and stir until honey is dissolved. Add rum and stir.

Mulled Cider or Wine
Ingredients:
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp whole cloves
2 tsp whole allspice
4 cups red wine or cider
Several long rolled cinnamon sticks
Preparation:
Combine first 7 ingredients in a pot with two cups of wine or cider. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from stove and strain into a pitcher. Add remaining wine/cider to the spiced mixture. Pour into individual cups and add a long rolled cinnamon stick as a stirrer.

Photo of margarita by Ralph and Jenny, Flickr
Photo of mimosas by Rick, Flickr

Mild, Marvelous Chili con Carne

2009-06-13T11:53:00.003+02:00

Chili con Carne is a Tex-Mex dish that has as many interpretations. There is no one authentic recipe, so what I offer here is my version, a mild dish with enough chili powder for taste but not enough to burn…seriously, folks, you can feed this chili to little kids! And, by omitting the meat, you can make it vegetarian…just serve with rice to make a complete protein!

This is a particularly tasty chili…it substitutes flavour for heat. At the end of the recipe are a bunch of variations, ways to spice it up or make it more fancy. Make the dish according to the basic recipe the first time, so you know how it is supposed to taste, then go for your own variations in subsequent renditions. Of the many things I cook for him, this is my husband’s absolute favourite.

This is fast for a home-cooked chili. It takes about 15 minutes to assemble, then you leave it to simmer for about 2 hours. It is a great winter dish as the bubbling pot will warm your home and perfume it with a delectable spicy scent, but this works well for outdoor cooking as well. Put the ingredients together and take it along for picnics, beach parties, barbeques, tailgate parties, and let it simmer along on a bed of coals or on the barbeque until the ingredients turn a brownish colour and the flavours marry.

Chili con Carne

Ingredients:
1 lb (500g) ground meat of your choice (I like coarsely ground chuck)
1 onion coarsely chopped
4 (or more) cloves of garlic, crushed (I like roasted garlic in this)
1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)
½ tsp chili powder (more if you like it hot)
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala (available in any Indian grocery or on the internet)
2 to 4 roasted chilies (canned Ortega chilies are fine), chopped
2 cans crushed tomatoes (400g ea)
2 cans red kidney beans (400g ea)
2 cans 4-bean mix (that does not include green beans) (400g ea)
2 cans water (fill up the bean cans to rinse them out and put water in pot)
Salt to taste (you won’t need much as the canned items are already salted)

½ lb (250g) shredded mild cheddar
One onion, finely minced

Preparation:
In a deep pot, sauté ground meat with onion, garlic, pepper, spices, and chillies until meat is brown and crumbly. Add canned items (including the liquid the beans are packed in) and water.

Bring to a fast boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook uncovered for two or more hours, stirring occasionally to keep the chili from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add small amounts of liquid if it becomes too thick too quickly. Chili is ready when it loses its tomato smell and becomes a rich brownish-red colour. It should not need thickening, as it will thicken on its own.

Serving:
Ladle chili into shallow bowls. Top with a handful of shredded cheese and a generous sprinkle of minced onion. Serve with corn tortilla chips and hot sauce on the side for those who want to heat it up.

Variations:
Make a “chili size”
Grill the cut faces of a hamburger bun
Fry two hamburger patties and put one on each grilled bun face
Smother with chili
Top with cheese and onion
Use beer instead of water after adding the beans
Use leftover shredded beef instead of ground meat
Use leftover pinto beans instead of the 4-bean mix
Use black beans and corn instead of the 4-bean mix
Cook until very thick and use as a burrito filling
Add hot chilies (Serrano, jalapeño, habañeros), seeded and chopped, to the meat while cooking
Increase amount of chili powder
Use a stronger-flavoured cheese
Use chopped green onion (scallions) as a topping
Serve with cornbread
Serve with a coarse “artisan” bread
Go vegetarian and make it without the meat

Photo by liberalmind1012 flickr

Terrific Taco Salad

2009-06-12T09:26:00.003+02:00

This is a great dish not only for a summer supper, but for a winter meal when you really need a reminder of those lovely summer days.

You can use refried beans in a can (Rosarita is a good brand) and purchased guacamole and salsa, and if you want roasted chilis, canned ones from Ortega are excellent (drain well before using). You can even make it vegetarian by omitting the meat, doubling the portion of beans, and then frying them with the ingredients specified for the meat.

An excellent choice for a pot luck, buffet, or to feed a horde of hungry kids, it’s quick, easy, cheap and tasty!

Taco Salad
Ingredients:
1 lb (500g) very lean chopped or ground meat of your choice (ground chicken or turkey are recommended)
1 onion finely minced
2 to 4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
1 bullet chilli or small jalapeño, seeded and finely minced (optional)
2 (or more) roasted Anaheim or green Pimiento chillies, chopped (optional)
½ tsp chili powder (optional)
Salt to taste
1 bag corn tortilla chips, plain or your favourite flavour
1 head of iceberg lettuce, coarsely chopped
1 cup guacamole
½ cup sour cream
2 cups refried beans
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
½ cup mild red taco sauce
1 small tin sliced black olives, drained (optional)
2 cups Salsa Fresca
OR
1 cup chopped and seeded tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes
1 onion, minced
⅓ cup chopped cilantro
Small bullet chili, seeded and minced (optional)
¼ cup lemon or lime juice

Preparation:
Sauté the first 8 ingredients together until meat is browned and crumbly. Drain well to remove fat and allow to cool. When meat has cooled, toss with cheese, taco sauce, black olives, and Salsa Fresca.

Line a large salad bowl with corn chips. Add refried beans…you can use the beans like paste to get the tortilla chips to stick to the sides of the bowl. Add the lettuce, then a layer of tortilla chips. Add the meat mixture. Top with cheese, guacamole and sour cream, in that order. Garnish with cherry tomatoes, sliced or whole jalapeños, sprinkles of chopped cilantro, and/or a few slices of olive.

Serving:
Set out salad bowls or plates with tortilla chips on them and serve the salad onto the chips. Set taco sauce or hot sauce out for condiments.

Taco salad photo by EditorB, Flickr

Enchiladas in three varieties: cheese, beef, chicken

2009-06-10T19:44:00.004+02:00

I like enchiladas almost as much as I like burritos. I say “almost” because with burritos, I just put out bowls of ingredients and the family rolls their own…with enchiladas the work is all mine.

I first tried making enchiladas when I was looking for something original to do with the leftover Christmas turkey. We were turkey sandwiched to death and I just wanted something different from the banal turkey vegetable soup. I started hunting around for chicken recipes and found one for chicken enchiladas. This is not that recipe…I didn’t like the looks of that one…but the idea for turkey enchiladas had been planted in my head and I soon added this little gem to my repertoire.

Try making more than one kind of enchilada at a time: maybe two meat, two chicken, and two cheese (which are vegetarian). Cook them all in the same dish at the same time, providing a variety of tastes at the table.

Caveat! This is not an authentic Mexican recipe, it is my interpretation of the enchilada. So if doesn’t look like it will make the enchiladas you love from Tia Maria or Pepe’s Restaurant and Panaderia, that is to be expected. But it tastes fabulous, just the same!

Enchiladas Fabuloso
(Makes 12)

Ingredients:
12 flour tortillas, warmed until they are flexible
2 lb (1 kg) ground meat or chopped chicken (optional)
2 medium onions, minced fine
2 to 4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder (optional)
2 cans (410g) La Victoria Enchilada Sauce
2 cans (410g) Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce
1 lb mild cheddar, grated
1 lb Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1 small can sliced black olives, drained
6 roasted Anaheim chilies (canned Ortega chilies are OK) (Optional)
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Set oven for 350°F. Line a 13” x 9” x 3” baking dish with foil or spray well with cooking spray.

Cook meat, one onion, garlic, bell pepper and seasonings until fully browned and broken up and crumbly. If using left over meats that are already cooked, sauté the onion, garlic, pepper and seasonings in a small amount of oil until onion is translucent and add meat and sauté just until warmed.

Open the cans of enchilada sauce and mix them together in a shallow dish (I use a pie dish). Ladle a small amount of sauce into the bottom of the baking dish and coat the bottom.

Reserve back ¾ cup enchilada sauce and ½ cup of each cheese.

Cheese enchilada: Warm a tortilla, dip it in the enchilada sauce, and lay on a plate. Spoon some of each cheese onto tortilla in a line to the side of the centre. Sprinkle with chopped onion and sliced olives. Add strips of roasted chili, if desired. Starting near the filling, roll the tortilla to enclose the filling in a “tube.” Lay the rolled tortilla, flap side down, crossways in the baking dish. Repeat until baking dish is full.

Meat or chicken enchilada: Warm a tortilla, dip it in the enchilada sauce, and lay on a plate. Spoon some meat onto tortilla in a line to the side of the centre. Cover with some of each cheese and sprinkle with chopped onion. Starting near the filling, roll the tortilla to enclose the filling in a “tube.” Lay the rolled tortilla, flap side down, crossways in the baking dish. Repeat until baking dish is full.

When baking dish is full, pour remaining sauce over the enchiladas, then top with remaining cheese, onions and olives.

Cover with foil and seal foil to baking dish. Bake until cheese is melted, about 45 minutes.

Serve with refried beans as a side dish.

Variations:
Use chopped leftover turkey in place of chicken
Shred leftover beef and use it in place of ground meat
Add some roasted Anaheim chili to a cheese enchilada before rolling up
Experiment with new kinds of cheeses
Use corn tortillas (heat first to make them flexible)
Add vegetables, like corn kernels, to the filling

Photo by wordridden, flickr

Burritos: the original “wrap”

2009-06-09T22:13:00.011+02:00

I had to laugh the first time I saw a “wrap” on a restaurant menu. C’mon…is the word “burrito” too humble? Not chic enough? Because the first wrap I saw was just an unassuming burrito with a trendy new name.

The great thing about burritos is that you can put just about anything in them. And wrapped to enclose both ends, a burrito travels well, making a terrific lunch that, depending on the ingredients, can be eaten cold or after a short turn in the microwave.

My favourite burrito is Chile Verde, but you can use anything you have handy. Vegetarian burritos are a snap, and a simple bean burrito makes a great snack. Like tacos, burritos can be served as a tasty “assemble it yourself” meal…just put out the tortillas and a variety of fillings and allow your family to build their own
.
The original, basic burrito is presented below, along with instructions for rolling, and variations follow. See the end of the recipe for links to recipes for tortillas, beans, Chile Verde, taco meat, salsa and guacamole..

Burritos
(makes 1)

Ingredients:
1 flour tortilla, warmed and flexible (2 if the burrito is going to be stuffed full of goodies!)
⅓ cup refried or cooked beans, hot
¼ cup grated Monterey Jack (or white Mexican) cheese
Chili sauce to taste

Preparation:
Lay tortilla out flat. Place beans to one side of centre and smear up and down the length of the tortilla.

Top with cheese and sprinkle with chili sauce.

Fold according to illustration.

Eat like a hot dog…hold it in your hands and bite at the top end.

Variations: Before folding, add on top of the beans any of the following hot fillings:
– Chile Verde
– Taco filling
– Shredded beef
– cooked rice (for a vegetarian burrito)
– shredded chicken
– shredded ham
– chopped tongue

Top the filling with as many of the following as desired:
Cilantro
Avocado slices
Salsa Fresca
Guacamole
Sour cream
Shredded cheese

Or use your imagination!

Useful links:
http://svcooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/frijoles-refritos-delicioso-refried.html
http://svcooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/heart-warming-stick-to-your-ribs-bean.html
http://svcooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/chili-verde.html
http://svcooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/tacos-in-three-varieties-hard-soft-and.html
http://svcooks.blogspot.com/2009/05/guacamole-and-salsa-fresca.html
http://svcooks.blogspot.com/2009/05/homemade-flour-tortillas.html

Frijoles Refritos Delicioso (Refried Beans)

2009-06-09T14:12:00.004+02:00

The mainstay of the traditional Mexican diet is tortillas and beans. And not just any beans…pinto beans. A common question among English speakers is why they are called “refried” beans, since they are made from beans that have not yet been fried. The answer is in a mistranslation of the Spanish word “refritos,” which actually mean “very” or “well” fried, not fried again!

You actually can use red or black beans for this dish, but the traditional frijoles refritos (and the ones prepared at my house) are made from pinto beans. Sugar beans can be substituted with no significant difference in the outcome.

Beans, whether boiled (see Bean Soup) or fried, are an essential part of the delicious burrito, and a healthy addition to your diet.

Frijoles Refritos

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked pinto or sugar beans
1 cup liquid from the bean pot
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 roasted Anaheim chili, cut into small pieces
1 small jalapeño, minced and seeded (optional)
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp chili powder (optional)
2 tbsp lard or oil
Salt to taste

Grated Monterey Jack or other mild white cheese

Preparation:
Mash beans into a paste with potato masher or fork. If too dry, add liquid, a few tablespoons at a time, until a creamy paste is achieved.

Heat lard (oil) in bottom of heavy skillet. Sauté onions, garlic, chili, cumin and chili powder until onion is translucent. Add bean paste and cook until beans are warm through. Salt if necessary,

Serving:
Top with a spoonful of cheese and serve as a side dish or as part of a burrito or other Mexican dish.

Heart warming, stick-to-your-ribs Bean Soup

2009-06-07T18:20:00.003+02:00

There are as many ways to make a bean soup as there are kitchens and cooks! And while I have been known to occasionally put a pot of white beans on to cook, in our house, it has always been pinto beans. Not only do they a more robust flavour than white beans, the leftovers make fabulous frijoles refritos (refried beans) the next day for burritos!

Bean soup! Yum!
Ingredients:
1 lb (500kg) dry pinto or sugar beans
Water to cover
4 potatoes, cut into quarters
1 onion, coarsely chopped
2 to 4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 bayleaves, broken
4 smoked hamhocks
1 cup cubed fresh carrots (optional)
3 stalks celery, sliced (optional)
4 roasted chilies (you can used canned Ortega chilies) (optional)

White vinegar
Minced onion
Grated mild cheddar
Hot pepper sauce

Preparation:
On the night before cooking, sort the beans, rinse them, then put in a large bowl and cover with water to a depth of 2” above the level of the beans. Soak overnight.

On the day of cooking, drain and rinse the beans and set aside.

Heat oil in a deep pot and sauté onions and garlic until onion is translucent. Add beans, bay leaves, and hamhocks, then cover with water to a depth of 2” above the food. Bring to a rolling boil, reduce heat to a slow boil and cover.

Cook for 2 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally to keep beans from sticking, adding water as needed. An hour before serving, add the potatoes (and other vegetables, if using them). Soup is ready when you can squash a bean against the side of the pot with a fork or the back of a spoon. Taste before serving in case the hamhocks didn’t have enough salt in them for the whole pot of soup.

Serving:
Ladle into shallow bowls. Add 1 tsp vinegar, a sprinkle of fresh onion, some shredded cheddar, and hot sauce if you like it.

Fresh hot bread or cornbread is the perfect accompaniment.

Photo by haniela, flickr

Tacos in three varieties: hard, soft, and rolled

2009-06-06T22:59:00.004+02:00

Who doesn’t like tacos? If the crunchy ones are too messy or the hard shells hurt your mouth, there are soft ones, and if even those are too messy, there are the much tidier rolled tacos. With a variety of fillings and toppings, no two tacos have to be alike…truly something for every taste!

Tacos
(makes 8)

Filling ingredients:
2 lbs (1 kilo) chopped or ground meat of your choice
2 onions finely minced
2 to 4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 bullet chilli or small jalapeño, seeded and finely minced (optional)
2 (or more) roasted Anaheim or green Pimiento chillies, chopped (optional)
½ tsp chili powder (optional)
Salt to taste

Other ingredients:
8 flour (for soft or rolled tacos) or corn tortillas (for crispy tacos)
½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro
1 cup shredded cheese (mild cheddar or Monterey Jack)
1 cup chopped and seeded tomatoes
1 cup guacamole
1 cup salsa fresca
1 cup fresh minced onion
1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
½ cup sliced black olives (optional)
½ cup sour cream
Taco or hot sauce of choice

Preparation:
Sauté filling ingredients until ground meat crumbles finely. Drain off fat and remove to a warmed, covered bowl.

For soft or rolled tacos: warm flour tortillas and stack in a warmed towel-covered plate.

For crisp taco shells: buy ready-made taco shells and warm them in the microwave
. OR
Heat 2” of oil in a pot wide enough to float a corn tortilla

When oil is boiling, drop in a corn tortilla

When hot, the tortilla will be flexible enough to fold without breaking: use tongs to fold tortilla in half with it reaches this point.

Continue to fry until tortilla becomes stiff. Remove carefully and drain on paper towelling.

Place on paper towel-covered plate and cover with a cloth towel to keep warm

Serving:
Place meat, tortillas and other ingredients on table, assembly line fashion: first the tortillas, then the meat, then the various other ingredients. Allow diners to assemble their own.

Assembly:
Crispy: fill shell half full with meat, then top with diner’s choice of other ingredients
Soft: cover one side of flour tortilla with meat, then top with diner’s choice of other ingredients; fold over the other side of the tortilla and eat.
Rolled: place meat to one side of flour tortilla, top with cheese, then a sparing amount of other ingredients. Starting at the side with the meat, roll the taco into a tube. Frequently eaten by dipping the end of the tube into guacamole and/or sour cream.

Photo of tacos by jspatchwork, flickr

Chili Verde

2009-06-05T07:21:00.007+02:00

Verde means “green” in Spanish and Chili Verde (sometimes spelled Chile Verde) takes its name from the roasted mild green chilies that are its primary flavourant. This delicious Mexican dish can be served in a variety of ways: as a stew, as filling for burritos, or ladled over rice. It is a filling, comfort-food kind of dish that will warm the kitchen as it cooks and fill the hungriest family with satisfaction.

Chili Verde

Ingredients:
4 Anaheim or green Pimiento chilies, roasted, peeled, seeded, cut into large pieces (you can use canned chilies)
4 medium potatoes, cut into 8 pieces each
4 to 6 green tomatillos (optional), roasted, peeled, and coarsely cut into bite-sized chunks
1 jalapeño pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped small (more if desired)
4 lean boneless pork loin chops, ¾ in. thick, cut into 1” cubes
(boneless, skinless chicken breasts may be substituted)
2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped
2 to 4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 heaped tsp ground cumin
2 tsp cooking oil
½ tsp chili powder (more if desired)
1 cup dry white wine
Water
Salt to taste
½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro (coriander, dhania)

Preparation:
Remove husks from tomatillos and wash thoroughly to remove sticky residue. Roast per directions for Roasted Peppers and Chilies ( http://svcooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/fire-roasted-peppers-and-chilies.html ). Cut into bite-sized chunks.

Saute onion, garlic, jalapeño, seasonings, and pork in hot oil, stirring constantly to brown the meat on all sides. Add remaining ingredients (except cilantro) and enough water to completely cover the meat and vegetables.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover pan. Cook slowly until meat, potatoes and tomatillos are fork tender. More water can be added if necessary to keep the meat and veg covered. When cooking is complete, add cilantro.

Thicken broth if desired. Serve over rice or with tortillas.

Topped with grated Monterey Jack cheese and sliced avocado, this makes excellent burritos!

Fire-Roasted Peppers and Chilies

2009-06-02T09:39:00.006+02:00

Any number of recipes call for roasted peppers and there are numerous ways to get from raw to roasted, but nothing beats a truly fire-roasted pepper or chili!

Fire roasting peppers is surprisingly easy and the use of live flame makes a distinct difference in the taste. You can use the open burners of a gas range, a gas or charcoal bbq, a gas broiler or even a chef’s torch. Whichever you choose, know in advance that roasting chilies and peppers over an open flame imparts a flavour that you simply cannot get by roasting in a stove-top pan or in the oven.

This recipe is primarily oriented towards the large, mild Anaheim chili, but the same method works for all kinds of chilies and peppers. When roasting small peppers, it may be necessary to put some kind of screen over the flame to keep them from falling through.

Fire-Roasted Peppers and Chilies

Ingredients and tools:
2 large Anaheim chilies (in places where these are not available, large Pimiento peppers that are still green will work well.)
Open flame (I use the burners of my gas stove)
Tongs
Clear plastic bags large enough to hold the peppers
Cutting board
Small sharp knife

Preparation:
Set flame to high. Lay the chilies on the burner grids. Allow skin of the chili to blister and blacken down its length. With tongs, turn chili to a green side and repeat. When entire chili is blistered and blackened, remove from the flame and put into the plastic bag. Twist bag shut and allow chili to steam in the bag for 10 minutes.

Remove chili from bag and place on cutting board. Cut off stem end and discard. Split chili down its length and open. Scrape out seeds and discard. Turn chili over and scrape off blistered and blackened skin. When chili is scraped clean, rinse in cold water.

The chilies may now be used or wrapped in plastic and frozen for future use.

Small chilies:
Small chilies should have their skin scraped before removing stem end and opening to seed. They are easier to handle that way. Be sure to wash hands thoroughly, especially under the nails, after handling hot chilies.

What to do with fire roasted chilies:
My favourite use is to make a pot of Chili Verde with them.
They are delicious with chicken, especially a chicken sandwich with cheese.
Substitute roasted chilies where a recipe calls for cooked bell pepper
Fabulous with fajitas!
Add to meat for burritos or tacos
Place a strip in a cheese enchilada

Photo of roasted peppers by jspatchwork, flickr

Fast, fabulous fajitas!

2009-06-01T12:08:00.005+02:00

These are so amazingly easy to prepare, you can even make them at a tailgate party! Delicious, with enough variations to satisfy virtually anyone, fajitas are a quick-fix solution for snacking or dinner.

Chicken Fajitas
(makes 6)

Ingredients:
6 flour tortillas, warmed
2 chicken breasts, pounded flat and cut into ½ inch wide strips
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely minced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 large onion, cut into rings
1 medium bell pepper, seeded and cut into narrow strips
⅓ cup chopped cilantro leaves (coriander, dhania)
1 tbsp oil
Chili powder (optional)
Mesquite flavouring (optional)
Sea salt to taste
Fresh salsa (recipe on list at right)
Guacamole (recipe on list at right)
Sour cream
Grated Monterey Jack cheese or Queso Fresco (optional)
Hot sauce (chili sauce, taco sauce, etc.)

Preparation:
If preparing outdoors on a grill, tortillas can be warmed directly on the grill.

Fajita fillings must be prepared on a griddle or in a skillet. Heat oil in skillet until it sizzles. Add chicken, onion, garlic, jalapeño, bell pepper, chili powder, salt and mesquite flavouring. Cook on high heat, turning and stirring constantly until peppers and onions are soft and chicken is cooked through. Remove to a heated plate or bowl.

Serving:
Serve hot mixture and warmed tortillas with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, grated cheese, and a hot sauce. Each person assembles his own fajitas.

Assembling:
Lay a warm tortilla flat on a plate. Spoon hot mixture onto tortilla, then top with choice of condiments. Roll up (see picture) and eat.

Variations:
Use roasted Anaheim chilis in place of peppers

Use red, green, and yellow peppers for colour

Make vegetarian by using firm tofu strips in place of chicken

Substitute strips of tender steak for the chicken, or shrimp

Substitute scrambled eggs for the chicken and have a breakfast fajita

Fire roast the bell peppers before cutting and seeding

Use roasted garlic in place of fresh

Marinate chicken in some yoghurt and chili powder before cooking

Use your imagination for more variations!

Quesadillas: Value, Variety, and Very, Very Good!

2009-05-31T08:55:00.003+02:00

The word “quesadilla” is actually a portmanteau of “queso,” the Spanish word for cheese, and tortilla…and this very accurately describes exactly what it is: a cheese-filled tortilla.

But quesadillas are so much more than that. While the simple cheese-and-tortilla can make a satisfying nibble, there are so many delicious variations that you can create meals with them. These are great for hot snacks for a party, quick lunches for kids, even as a way to use up leftovers. Once you’ve mastered the basic quesadilla, let your imagination run wild!

Basic Quesadilla (V)

(makes 6)

Ingredients:

6 flour tortillas, warmed

1 ½ cups cheese, grated (recommend a combination of Monterey Jack and mild cheddar)

1 ½ cups salsa fresca (drained)

Sour cream (optional)

Guacamole (optional)

Preparation:

Lay a warmed tortilla out on a plate. Place ¼ cup grated cheese on half of the tortilla…spread out to cover half. Sprinkle ¼ cup salsa over the cheese. Fold empty side of tortilla over the cheese and salsa. Repeat with all tortillas.

Cooking:

Heat a dry griddle or heavy skillet until water skitters and jumps when flicked onto it. Place quesadilla on hot cooking surface until cheese melts. Flip quesadilla to warm other side of tortilla. Remove to serving plate. Put next quesadilla in pan and while it cooks, cut the hot quesadilla into three wedges for serving.

Serving:

Serve hot with guacamole, sour cream, and more salsa.

Leftovers:

I have never seen a leftover quesadilla. But if, perchance, you do end up with one, refrigerate in a plastic food bag and warm in microwave or on the griddle before serving. They would make a nice lunch...but I have never seen a leftover one, so I can only speculate!

Variations:

Extra ingredients are added with the cheese and the salsa may be omitted. This is a good way to use up leftover meats (chop them before adding), or vegetables. Use your imagination!

Make breakfast quesadillas by scrambling an egg and adding it with the cheese and salsa.

White cheeses and seafood, especially cooked, chopped shrimp pieces and salsa, are a particularly good combination.

Photo by jspatchwork, flickr

Homemade Flour Tortillas

2009-05-30T17:21:00.004+02:00

Pronounced “tor-TEE-yah,” the tortilla is the mainstay of Mexican cuisine. Not only eaten as a bread, tortillas are an integral part of Mexican cooking, the basis for such delicious fare as burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, and fajitas.

Most American cooks have all-purpose flour in their kitchens, so this recipe is for flour tortillas. Corn tortillas are actually made from masa harina, not cornmeal or corn flour, a product that may not be readily available outside of California and the Southwest. If you can get masa harina, by all means try corn tortillas…there should be a recipe on the side of the package.

Flour tortillas don’t require much work and they are delicious. Leftovers can be easily reheated on a hot, dry skillet, but not in the microwave, as they will get crisp and hard as soon as they begin to cool. When using as a wrap, whether in Mexican cuisine like a burrito or in something trendy, warm the tortilla first to make it flexible enough to roll without cracking or breaking.

Flour Tortillas

(makes 12)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 cup warm water

¼ cup lard (shortening can be substituted)

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Prepare dough:

Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. (You can shake it through a sieve if you don’t have a flour sifter.)

Add lard and cut into flour. If you don’t have a pastry cutter, use two table knives, one in each hand, in a scissors-motion. Continue cutting lard into flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal. Lumps of lard should be no larger than a small pea.

Slowly add ¾ cup of water while mixing it in with a fork. Grease your hands with lard to keep the dough from sticking, and gather the dough up into a ball. If it is too dry to stick together, add more water, a little at a time, until dough holds together but is not sticky to the touch.

Knead the dough about 20 times on a floured board. With a sharp knife, cut dough in half. Cut each half into thirds, then cut each third in half. You will have 12 pieces of dough. Roll each piece of dough into a ball. Cover the dough and allow to rest for about 20 minutes. Dough can be refrigerated for later use at this point.

While the dough is resting:

Prepare a place for the cooked tortillas to rest: a plate with a lint-free towel placed on it, a second lint-free towel nearby to cover the hot tortillas as they come off the grill. This will keep them hot and flexible.

Roll the dough:

Take a ball and flatten in between your hands. Place on a floured board and roll with a floured rolling pin (if you don’t have a rolling pin, a straight-sided bottle filled with water and capped will work). Roll to a thickness of no more than ⅛ inch.

Cook on dry hot griddle or skillet (see below). Roll and cook only one tortilla at a time: if you stack uncooked tortillas, they will stick together.

Cook the tortillas:

Use a griddle or heavy skillet. Do not use any oil. Heat pan until a drop of water bounces and skitters when flicked onto the cooking surface.

Place a tortilla on the cooking surface and watch closely. When the surface begins to bubble and the bubbles inflate, turn the tortilla. Cook until they are not doughy, but remove from heat before they begin to burn. Brown spots on the tortilla are normal.

Place the cooked tortilla on a towel-covered plate and cover with another towel. When second tortilla is done, place it atop the first and cover with the towel.

Serve hot.

To reheat:

Heat a dry griddle or heavy skillet until a drop of water bounces and skitters when flicked onto the cooking surface. Place cold tortilla on cooking surface, turning several times until heated through. Place hot tortilla on a towel-covered plate and cover with another towel.

Guacamole and Salsa Fresca

2009-05-29T23:18:00.001+02:00

The best guacamole starts with sinfully ripe Haas avocados and a sensational fresh salsa. Here’s how to make both. Olé and enjoy!

Salsa Fresca

Ingredients:

2 large ripe tomatoes

1 medium onion

1 bullet chili or ½ jalapeno pepper (more if you like it spicy)

½ cup finely chopped cilantro leaves (coriander, dhania)

2 tbsp lemon juice

Sea salt to taste

Preparation:

Mince the tomatoes and onion. Grate the chili/pepper (easiest if frozen).

Combine in non-metal bowl and add remaining ingredients. Toss well, store in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving

Guacamole

Ingredients:

2 ripe Haas avocados

¾ cup Salsa Fresca

1 tsp lemon juice

Preparation:

Halve avocados and remove pits. Scoop flesh out of shell into a straight-sided bowl.

Mash avos against side of bowl with fork. It should be slightly lumpy when finished. Stir in lemon juice.

Add salsa and stir together until well mixed. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Serve with corn tortilla chips as a snack or as a condiment for tacos, fajitas, or other Mexican dishes.

Walk-Away Breakfast

2009-05-28T22:20:00.004+02:00

There are just those mornings when nobody has time to sit down and eat. If you have a toaster, microwave oven and five minutes, you can make this delicious morning meal, wrap it in a paper napkin, and eat it on the road!

My husband loves this served open face on a Sunday morning. He calls it the “egg thing” and it is his most-requested breakfast.

Walk-Away Breakfast (The “Egg Thing”)

Ingredients:

2 split English muffins, toasted and lightly buttered

2 round slices of ham or Canadian bacon

2 large eggs

2 slices cheese

1 tbsp butter

Preparation:

Place two muffin halves on a microwave safe plate

Put a slice of ham/Canadian bacon on each muffin half

Melt butter in skillet, taking care to keep heat low so that butter doesn’t brown

Break two eggs into skillet

Break and flatten yolks

Cook until whites are set then turn eggs

Press eggs with back of spatula to flatten

Cook slowly until yolks are cooked

Remove eggs from skillet and drain briefly on paper towelling

Place one egg atop each slice of ham/Canadian bacon

Top each egg with a slice of cheese

Microwave for 30 seconds to soften cheese and heat ham

Place remaining muffin halves on top of cheese to make sandwiches

Easy, Economical Cottage Pie

2009-05-27T11:28:00.003+02:00

Nothing says “economical” like a free meal! And when you consider that this dish can be made almost exclusively from leftovers of previous meals, it’s like getting a delicious dinner for free! It’s fast, easy, tastes great and is easy on the pocket…what more could you want in a one-dish meal?

The leftovers make excellent hot lunches the following day, especially for those who brown bag it to work…just microwave for a minute or two and a hot, nutritious, tasty lunch is ready in an instant!

Cottage Pie

Ingredients

1 lb (500g) hamburger or an equal amount of chopped leftover meat

1 can (about 400g) crushed or chopped tomatoes

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

2 tbsp cooking oil

2 cups mixed vegetables (leftover veg is perfect)

1 tbsp Fines Herbes (mixed herbs will do)

2 cups (or more) mashed potatoes (you can use leftovers or make Quickie Mashed Potatoes http://svcooks.blogspot.com/2009/05/instant-potatoes-that-taste-homemade.html )

Milk (maybe)

Preparation:

Prepare a large casserole or lasagne dish by spraying with cooking spray.

In a deep pot, sauté in oil: onion, garlic, mushrooms and herbs until onion is translucent. If using hamburger, reduce oil by half and sauté hamburger with onion mixture until meat is brown and crumbly. If not using hamburger, add meat to pot when onion is translucent and mix to heat the meat. Remove from heat. Drain off oil and discard.

Into pot add vegetables (cut into bite sized pieces), and canned tomato. Mix gently but well.

Turn mixture out into casserole dish. Warm potatoes and add milk to make them soft if necessary. They should be the consistency of thick frosting…spreadable.

Smooth meat mixture in pan until level. Top with mashed potatoes and spread them to cover the mixture.

Turn on broiler (in electric stoves, the top element). Place pan in oven just below broiler. Cook until top of mashed potatoes begins to brown. Turn off oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

Variations:

Mix shredded mild cheddar cheese into the meat mixture before turning into baking dish.

Add ½ tsp chili powder to the onion mixture as it cooks

Use cheesy or garlic mashed potatoes for the topping.

Add roasted garlic to the onion mixture as it cooks

Add leftover gravy to the meat mixture as it cooks

Top potatoes with a sprinkling of grated cheese before placing dish in oven

Add 1 tbsp peeled and grated ginger to onion mixture as it cooks

Add Worcestershire Sauce, soy sauce or teriyaki sauce to meat mixture as it cooks

Instant Potatoes that Taste Homemade

2009-05-26T17:53:00.004+02:00

For years I hosted either Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner for the family at my house…sometimes both. Making dressing (from scratch) and roasting a 22 lb turkey is a load of work. Add freshly made pies (including Gramma’s homemade pie crust) and rolls and a kitchen too small for a helper, and it becomes obvious why, when taste would not be compromised, I took the occasional shortcut.

My daughter, who had come for dinner with her family, popped into the kitchen one holiday as I was making the mashed potatoes, stopped dead, and dropped her jaw open. “When did you start using instant mashed potatoes?” she asked incredulously. I stirred the pot and just smiled, handing her a serving dish to put on the table.

“I always use instant potatoes when I’m doing a big meal like this,” I told her, but she didn’t believe me. You see, instant mashed potatoes lack the creamy richness of homemade, and can have a subtle grittiness…and even a faint cardboardy taste…that gives away their time in the box. The reason my daughter was so shocked is that the way I made the instant potatoes, the taste and texture don’t give their origins away, so it never occurred to her that they might not be freshly made!

Quickie Mashed Potatoes

(6 servings)

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

3 tbs. butter (not margarine)

½ tsp salt

¾ cup cream

2 cups high-quality instant mashed potatoes (Betty Crocker Potato Buds recommended)

Preparation:

Heat milk, butter and salt to just before milk boils

Remove from heat

Stir in cream and potatoes with a fork until potatoes are the desired consistency. (Do not whip)

These will get stiff if allowed to sit for any length of time, so do not prepare until just before serving. If they must be thinned out, stir in more cream in ¼ cup increments.

Tuna Casserole: a one-dish meal

2009-05-25T10:38:00.001+02:00

The much maligned tuna casserole takes on a whole new life here!

I’m not much of a fish fan, particularly if the fish is strongly flavoured, but this is so good that I bake it in a lasagne pan so the leftovers can be cut into squares and packaged for work/school lunches the following day. This is fast to assemble and can be cooked ahead, refrigerated, and reheated in the microwave without difficulty. A delicious, fast, and economical way to fill up the family on busy nights.

Tasty Tuna Casserole

Ingredients:

2 cans light tuna, packed in water, drained

1 can condensed cream of celery soup

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 lb (500g) dry noodles (egg noodles, fettucini, etc)

½ lb mild yellow cheese, grated (Colby or longhorn is fab!)

½ lb mild white cheese, grated (Monterey Jack is great)

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 or more roasted garlic cloves, mashed

⅔ cup frozen baby peas

½ tsp dry mustard (optional)

Milk (maybe)

Preparation:

Before you start cooking, set the oven for 350°F and spray a lasagne dish with cooking spray.

Boil the noodles in salted water according to package directions. While the noodles are cooking, drain the tuna and turn it into a large bowl and break it up with a fork into smallish chunks. Add the condensed soups, the onion and garlic, the mustard, peas, and half of each of the cheeses. Mix well.

When the noodles are done, drain thoroughly and add to the mixture in the bowl. Mix well. If the mixture is dry (it should be stiff but not dry) add a little milk and mix some more.

Turn mixture out into the lasagne pan and spread out to fill the pan. Sprinkle the yellow cheese over the top and then the white cheese. Cover with foil (to keep the noodles from drying out) and put in the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Allow to sit for ten minutes, uncovered, then cut into pieces like lasagne and serve.

No salt is added to this dish because the tuna, the condensed soups, and the cheese all have salt in them, and the noodles are cooked in salted water.

Not your average meatloaf!

2009-05-24T19:17:00.004+02:00

A few years ago, not long after we married, Hubby and I were in one of our local boutique hotels for a late lunch. We ordered hamburgers and after a few bites, Hubby began to wax ecstatic about this being the best hamburger in Cape Town, which made me smile because the it tasted just like my meatloaf, which I had not yet made for him. When I told him about my meatloaf…which is actually my grandmother’s recipe with just a few tweaks…he asked me to make it for him, and he agreed…they tasted the same.

We don't go there for hamburgers any more...I make meatloaf, which can be formed into patties and grilled for hamburgers. And as good as this meatloaf is, it is even better the next day, sliced and served cold with catsup in a sandwich.

Gramma’s Meatloaf

Ingredients:

2 lbs (1 kg) extra lean ground beef (ground chuck is better, beef and ostrich is best)

1 large onion, finely minced

1 large egg, beaten

⅔ cup catsup

4 slices moistened (see below) white bread (or ⅔ cup rolled oats)

2 tbsp rubbed sage

1 clove garlic minced or put through press

½ tsp salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray inside of a loaf pan or baking pan with cooking spray.

If using bread: hold each slice of bread under cold running water until thoroughly moistened. Squeeze firmly to remove water.

Combine meat, onion, garlic, sage, egg, salt and bread or oatmeal in a large bowl. Add half the catsup. Mix thoroughly with hands, making sure to rub bread crusts so they disintegrate and blend into the meat mixture. The mixture should be firm but not dry: if too dry, add a little catsup so soften, if too moist, add a little oatmeal or bread crumbs to absorb excess moisture.

Gather meat together and form into a ball. Press meat into loaf pan or place in baking pan, shaping into an oval mound.

Spread remaining catsup over top of meat loaf with spatula, like frosting.

Bake for 45 minutes, then test for doneness: insert a skewer or knife in centre of meatloaf. If juices come out pink, cook another 10 minutes and then test again. When the juices come out clear, remove meatloaf from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Remove meatloaf to serving platter and cut in ½ inch slices. Serve with catsup.

Leftovers

This meatloaf makes fabulous cold sandwiches the next day.

Rich and Creamy Mashed Potatoes

2009-05-23T16:27:00.003+02:00

My late husband's mother was from France and although she came to America in the 1940s, her French accent remained strong, as did her love of cooking and entertaining. Her mashed potatoes were to die for…rich, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth delicious! I was finally able to find out what she did to make them so fabulous and now you will, too. This is the way she made them...rich and creamy and better than dessert!

Make a little extra and set aside (before taking the potatoes to the table!) to top a delicious Cottage Pie for your next night's meal.

Jacqui’s Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
2 lbs (1 kg) waxy potatoes (White Rose or Yukon Gold)
⅓ cup salted butter
4 oz cream cheese, softened
½ cup whipping cream
Milk
Salt

Preparation:
Peel potatoes and cut into bite-sized pieces. Place in pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes or until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside.

While potatoes are cooking, place butter and cream cheese together in a large bowl and blend together thoroughly with an electric mixer.

Take hot potatoes and place in a potato ricer, food mill, or Mouli. Place potato ricer over the bowl of butter and cream cheese and rice all of the potatoes. You can use a traditional potato masher, but you are much more likely to get lumps in the final product with it.

Once all the potatoes are in the bowl, add cream and beat with electric mixer. If the potatoes are too thick, add milk in small amounts until you get the desired thickness. Add salt to taste and whip thoroughly with mixer.

Serve with fresh butter.

Variations:
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Prepare exactly the same as above with the following exception:

At the time the potatoes are put through the potato ricer, add 4 to 6 cloves of roasted garlic and pass them through the ricer with the potatoes.

These are especially delicious the second day!

Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Using the main recipe above, reduce the amount of cream cheese by half and substitute an equal amount of a finely grated cheese of your choice. Do not beat the cheese with the butter, but add it after the potatoes are riced and beat into the hot potatoes.

Herbed Mashed Potatoes
Prepare potatoes according to main recipe with the following addition:
After potatoes are riced but before beating with mixer, add ⅓ cup finely chopped fresh herbs of your choice.

Photo credit: jslander, Flickr

Flavourful Roasted Garlic

2009-05-22T08:17:00.003+02:00

.
Roasted garlic cloves are an essential addition to several of my dishes, so it makes sense to get that recipe posted early on. Roasting garlic takes away the sharpness and imparts a mellow, subtle nutty flavour to the cloves. It keeps well in the refrigerator for several weeks, and can be a delightful addition to some of your own dishes. To save on your gas or electric bill, prepare these flavourful bulbs while cooking something else in the oven, like a chicken or a casserole. Don’t cook with something that wouldn’t taste good with a bit of garlic added, however, like an apple pie!

Roasted Garlic
Ingredients:
6 large heads of garlic
Olive oil
Aluminum foil

Preparation:
Set oven to at least 350° F. It is not necessary to preheat the oven for Roasted Garlic.

Cut foil into six squares, each large enough to enclose an entire head of garlic.

Select garlic carefully. Look for heads that have a smooth, unbroken “paper” covering.

Cut the tops off each garlic head, cutting far enough down on the head to open the top of each clove.

Centre a head of garlic on each piece of foil.

Drizzle olive oil over the exposed ends of the garlic cloves.

Wrap the garlic snugly in the foil.

Place foil packets on a baking tray and put in oven.

Roast for at least 45 minutes. Check for doneness by opening a foil packet and checking the garlic for doneness: stick a toothpick into the top of a large exposed clove. If the toothpick slides in easily and encounters no resistance, the garlic is ready. The cloves should be nutty brown and translucent.

Remove the garlic from the oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate in their foil packets.

To use:
Unwrap a foil packet and, using something slender with a dull tip, like the point of a potato peeler or the handle end of a spoon or fork, pop the desired number of cloves out of their paper jackets. Squeezing slightly with the left hand while applying the tool with the right can help remove them.

Cloves can be used as is, or can be mashed or rubbed to distribute their flavour. Return unused garlic to the refrigerator in its foil packet.

Devi’s Divine Curry

2009-05-21T08:31:00.003+02:00

Mild Indian Curry
My husband is Indian and before I met him, I had not eaten Indian food. His mother was kind enough to write down her recipe for me. It is wonderfully versatile and can be used with beef (South African Indians eat beef), chicken, lamb, even hamburger! And it is soooo delicious! Adjust the amount of chili powder to determine how spicy you make it.

Ingredients
2 lbs (1kg) meat, cut up (see special instructions for hamburger, below)
1 medium onion
2 to 2 ½ heaped tsp masala (available in Indian groceries…I like garam masala)
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 tomatoes, cut into tiny pieces or lightly pureed*
1 cinnamon stick
½ tsp crushed ginger
½ tsp crushed garlic
½ tsp chili powder (more for spicier)
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup water
½ cup frozen baby peas (optional)
Salt to taste

Preparation
Put meat in bowl and add all ingredients above except tomato, water, peas and oil. Mix thoroughly and set aside to marinate for 30-45 minutes (can be left in the fridge overnight). Heat oil in pot and add meat mixture. Brown meat thoroughly, then add tomato.

Cook at a slow simmer for about 10 minutes, then add water. Cook slowly, covered (with lid cocked to allow steam to escape) for about 1 hour or until meat is tender. Cooking time will depend on the tenderness of the meat you chose. Add peas as you take the curry off the stove, stir them in and allow to set for 3 minutes to allow peas to heat up.

Serve over a bed of basmati rice with sambals** and raita**.

Special instructions for hamburger curry
Raw hamburger is called “mince” in South Africa, and this is called "mince curry. "

Omit the oil. Brown the hamburger, chopping with the side of a spatula or wooden spoon to break it up. Add the dry spices while browning the hamburger so they will roast while the meat is browning. When the meat is crumbly, add tomato. Finish per instructions above. Peas are not optional but a regular part of this dish.

*In our family, we buy fresh tomatoes when they are in season and cheap, and we freeze them. We do not blanch them or peel them, just toss them into the freezer. When making curry, remove two tomatoes from the freezer and, using a hand grater, grate the frozen tomatoes and add to the pot. This gives the best possible consistency to the curry gravy. We also freeze fresh jalapeno peppers or bullet chilis and grate them into dishes like sambals (below)

**See recipes below

Sambals
Sambals is really the same as Mexican Salsa. Easy to make, but refrigerate a few hours before serving to allow the flavours to marry.

Ingredients:
1 large ripe tomato
½ medium onion
1 bullet chili or ½ jalapeno pepper,
¼ cup finely chopped cilantro leaves (coriander, dhania)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation :
Mince the tomatoes and onion. Grate the chili/pepper (easiest if frozen).
Combine in non-metal bowl and add remaining ingredients. Toss well, store in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving

Raita
Raita (pronounced RYE-tuh), is an essential accompaniment to curry, especially if your mouth is sensitive to spicy hot foods. Eaten with hot foods, it cools the mouth immediately while imparting its own unique flavour.

Ingredients:
1 cup plain yoghurt
½ cup finely chopped cucumber, skin on
¼ cup onion, minced fine (optional)

Preparation:
Combine ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.

My Grandmothers’ Iowa Potato Salad

2009-05-20T18:21:00.002+02:00

Tangy Potato Salad
When I was a girl, I was amazed that both of my grandmothers made the same potato salad…as did several of the local farm wives. It wasn’t until I was older and met a woman completely unacquainted with my family and friends who made exactly the same potato salad that I realized the connection: they were all from the MidWest, most of them from Iowa. This deliciously tangy potato salad keeps for several days and the longer it sits in the fridge, the better it gets!

If you are making boiled potatoes for dinner, throw some extra in the pot so you will have left over potatoes the next day for potato salad. This is a crowd pleaser and has found favour with everyone I have served it to.

Ingredients:
2 lbs (1 kg) White Rose or Yukon Gold potatoes
2 medium onions
6 large eggs
Miracle Whip
French’s mustard (yellow mustard)
White Vinegar
½ small tin sliced black olives, drained (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare:
The night before or morning of serving day:
Cut potatoes into bite size (peeling is optional), place in large pot. Cover with cold salted water. Bring to a boil and gently boil (uncovered) until potatoes are fork tender. Drain thoroughly and set aside in colander.

Hard boil the eggs, remove shells, and set aside.

When eggs and potatoes are cool, place in bowls, cover and refrigerate for a minimum of four hours.

Serving day:
Peel and chop onion, add to potatoes.
Cut eggs into bite sized pieces and add to potatoes.
Add olives to potatoes

In a separate bowl place 1 cup Miracle Whip, ⅓ cup prepared mustard, 1 tsp. white vinegar, and ½ tsp salt. Stir briskly and taste. The dressing should be a bit tart, but none of the three flavours should dominate. If the mustard dominates, add some more Miracle Whip; if the Miracle Whip dominates, add some more mustard; if the dressing lacks tartness, add a little vinegar.

Once the dressing is satisfactory, pour it over the potato mixture and fold in, coating the ingredients thoroughly (you may need to make more dressing if you like your potato salad “goopy”). Return the bowl to the refrigerator for at least two hours to allow the flavours to marry. Immediately before serving, sprinkle lightly with freshly ground pepper.

Sumptuous Shrimp and Pasta Salad

2009-05-19T19:23:00.004+02:00

This cold one-dish supper will be a family favourite on those hot summer nights. Do the cooking late at night or early in the morning when the kitchen is cool, then just assemble a bunch of cold ingredients at suppertime and serve! Perfect for pot lucks, picnics, or poolside dinners on those evenings when it is just too hot to cook!

Sumptuous Shrimp Salad
Ingredients:
1 lb (500g) Rotini Pasta
1 lg bottle Bernstein's Cheese and Garlic Italian (Fat Free) salad dressing
8 to 16 oz Shelled shrimp (you can substitute cubed ham or sliced smoked chicken)
3 large Eggs

1 medium Red Bermuda onion, coarsely chopped
1 large Avocado, ripe
¼ cup Lemon juice
1/2 small can Sliced black olives
2 small jars Marinated artichoke hearts, drained
1 small jar Marinated mushrooms, drained
2 ripe Tomatoes, cut into 8 wedges each
1 can Asparagus tips, chilled and drained
Parmesan cheese, grated

The night before (or early in the morning of) serving:
Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain, turn into large bowl, and add entire bottle of salad dressing. Stir well to coat the pasta, cover the bowl and put the pasta in the refrigerator.

Hard boil the eggs, shell them, and put them in the refrigerator.

Cook the shrimp: lightly salt 4 quarts water and bring to a boil. Add shrimp and bring back to a boil. Cover pot, turn off the fire, and allow to sit for no more than 5 minutes. Drain the shrimp and refrigerate.

Refrigerate all other ingredients until ready to assemble salad.

To Assemble:
Make sure pasta and ingredients have chilled for at least four hours.

Stir onion, olives, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms into pasta. Peel and cut avocado into bite-sized chunks and toss with lemon juice to prevent browning. Drain and add to pasta. Toss well.

Make a slight well in center of pasta and mound the shrimp (or ham or chicken) there. Slice eggs and place at even intervals around the shrimp on top of the pasta. Space tomato wedges and asparagus tips around shrimp. Grate Parmesan over the entire salad.

Once salad has been presented to the table, toss well to mix ingredients, and serve with more Parmesan (and/or Romano) on the side.