|
|
 Scalloped potatoes in 9x13 dish Total time: 2.5 hours.
Adapted from Scalloped Potatoes and Onions at AllRecipes.
Stop right here if you don’t own a mandoline. You may continue without a mandoline ONLY if you have patience to rival Kesuke Miyagi.
5-7 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3/4 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Preheat the oven to 350.
1. In a greased 9×13 baking dish, layer potatoes and onion.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add broth, sour cream, salt and pepper; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thick and bubbly.
3. Stir in milk and paprika. Pour over potatoes.
4. Cover and bake 90 minutes or until tender.
I uncovered my dish at the 85 minute mark and ended up just keeping them in there until they browned. My guess is it was a total of 2 hours (120 minutes). I probably “overbaked”, but they were still really saucy and soft, with almost no crispness.
The original recipe didn’t call for milk. I wasn’t going to use milk at all, but I just felt like I had way more potatoes than the original recipe called for, so I added a cup of milk to be on the safe side. If you’re using a smaller baking dish, don’t bother with the milk; the steam from having a covered dish produces plenty of moisture.
 Ready for grilling or dipping! Total time: 1 hour.
1/2 cup peaches or other fruit (or ketchup)
1 onion, peeled and diced (about 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup red vinegar
1/2 cup water and 2 tablespoons brown sugar OR 1/2 cup fruit liquid*
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp brown mustard
1 Tbsp ground chipotle pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* If you’re using fresh fruit, you’ll want to stew them first. We’ll use the leftover water from the stewing as the water and sugar.
To stew fruit:
Bring 3/4 cup water and fruit to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Drain, but keep the water. Set aside fruit.
Heat onions in 1 Tbsp of oil over medium heat until onions turn “clear”. Add lemon juice, vinegar, fruity water (or water and brown sugar), mustard, salt, all three peppers, and remaining vegetable oil. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered 20 minutes.
In a small food processor or blender, puree the fruit. (I used leftover peaches!!)
Add fruit and Worcestershire sauce to the onion mixture. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Allow the mixture to cool some (about 10 minutes). Puree all of it.
Refrigerate any unused portions up to 2 weeks.
This makes just under 2 cups of barbecue sauce, enough for 5 large chicken breasts. Maybe you like the chunks of onions, maybe you don’t. I love onions, but I like my sauce to be smooth.
This barbecue sauce is ready to eat once it’s finished boiling. The flavor *does* change once it’s cooked into the meat, but it’s only a very slight change.
 Beef Pot Pie Total time: 2.5 hours.
1 lb beef, cubed
1 medium onion, sliced or diced
1 medium-large potato, cubed and cooked (about 1 cup)
1 carrot, sliced or diced (optional)
1/2 cup of peas (optional)
1 1/2 cups beef broth (about 1 can)
3 T olive oil
3 T flour
1 T seasonings (3 tsps, any way you like it)*
Empanada Dough or other savory pastry dough
In a small dish or plastic bag, mix flour and seasonings. Coat beef cubes in flour mixture.
In a skillet, cook beef and onion in oil until beef is browned and onion is tender. Add broth to the skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Uncover; stir in any remaining vegetables. Cook until heated through.
Spoon meat mixture into a greased 9-in. pie plate or 4-cup baking dish and cover with pastry dough. Be sure to make a slit in the top to release steam. OR — Spread half your pastry dough across a pie plate for the bottom crust, spoon mix on top, and cover with remaining dough (or cheese or mashed potatoes or breadcrumbs or crackers).
Bake at 375 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned on edges. If you’re doing a bottom crust and a top crust (pot pie!), increase bake time to 1 hour.
Let cool 10-20 minutes before serving.
* Today I’m using Durkee chicken seasonings. If you don’t already have a “mixed” seasoning, you could try salt (1 tsp), black pepper (1 tsp), paprika (1/2 tsp), garlic powder (1/2 tsp). Or make up your own; you just want a 1:3 ratio of seasoning to flour.
 Plum and Ginger Chutney Total time: 10 minutes, depending on your fruit.
Adapted from “Pureed Fresh Mango-Ginger Chutney” in 1000 Indian Recipes, by Neelam Batra.
1 pound of plums, washed, peeled, pitted and diced
1 Tbsp peeled and minced fresh ginger root
2 Tbsp lemon juice (or lime)
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro, including soft stems
1 serrano pepper, minced with seeds
salt and pepper to taste
Mash the plums with a fork or potato masher to make the fruit as smooth as possible.
Mix in all the remaining ingredients.
Keep up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
Some of the Daring Cooks used a plum chutney with their September Challenge, which made me want to try it, too. Then a friend brought me some fresh plums from her tree, and I knew it was meant to happen. I didn’t use the same recipe as the other folks, though. I love my book of Indian recipes, and I like to make them adapt!
The original recipe calls for mashed mango, and suggests mixing in 1/2 c yogurt or substituting peaches, plums, nectarines, pineapples or other soft fruit in place of mango.
Total time: 20 minutes.
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.
Total time: 50 minutes.
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced
1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.
 Slow cooked pulled pork sandwich Total time: 6.5-8 hours.
1 lb pork
1-2 cups water (may or may not be necessary)*
3 cups barbecue sauce
Makes 4 really big sandwiches (assuming the sandwiches are on hamburger buns).
I didn’t actually measure any of this. I made the barbecue sauce while boiling some pork on the stove in 1 quart of water. I poured out about half the remaining water and put the rest in the crockpot with my barbecue sauce and the pork.
Cook on high for 6-8 hours, periodically “mashing” the pork pieces with a potato masher.
Shown here on an onion topped potato bread roll.
I had this on high for 5 hours before I realized I had just way too much liquid. Ended up boiling it in a frying pan for 10 minutes to burn off some excess water.
* Whatever the case, you want just enough total liquid to cover your pork while it’s cooking in the crockpot.
Total time: 15 minutes.
1 onion
1 tomato
4 cloves of garlic
1 jalapeno
1/2 c ketchup
1/4 c red wine vinegar
1/4 c mustard
1/4 c dark molasses
1/4 c Worcestershire sauce
2 T lime juice
2 T brown sugar
1 T vanilla extract
2 tsp ground chipotle
2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp celery seed
1 T vegetable oil
On medium-high heat, cook onions and garlic until golden brown (about 8 minutes). Add tomato and jalapeno and cook for 2 more minutes. Puree vegetables and remaining ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth.
 Chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting Total time: 1 hour.
Adapted from the Devil’s Food Cake Cockaigne recipe found in the Joy of Cooking. Makes two 9-inch round pans.
5 ounces semisweet chocolate (about a cup!)
2 cups cake flour
1 cup milk, divided in half, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs, separated (means separate the yolks and the egg whites), room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup water, room temperature
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla, room temperature
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 350.
In a double boiler, cook and stir chocolate, 1/2 cup milk, brown sugar and 1 egg yolk until smooth and thick. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift or mix together baking soda, salt, and flour. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter until soft. Add sugar and mix until smooth. Beat in the other two egg yolks one at a time until smooth.
Add about 1/3 of the flour mix to the butter mixture. Mix until smooth. Add the vanilla and water, mix until smooth. Add another 1/3 of the flour mix, mix until smooth (see a pattern here?). Add 1/4 c of milk, mix until smooth. Add the remaining flour mix, mix until smooth. Add the remaining milk, mix until smooth.
Stir in the chocolate mix (until smooth!!).
In a separate bowl, whip two egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold them lightly into the cake batter.
Bake in greased pans about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Shown here with cream cheese frosting (3/4 c powdered sugar, 4 T cream cheese, 1 T heavy cream).
I always use semisweet chocolate morsels when I bake cookies, so that’s what I had on hand. The original recipe calls for 2-4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate and an additional 1/4 cup white sugar.
I realized *after* I mixed everything together that I don’t own 9 inch round cake pans… so I used my brownie pans instead.
 Sofrito Total time: 1 hour.
* 2 tablespoons of olive oil
* 5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
* 2 small onions, chopped
* 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
* 4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
* 1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
* 1 Bay leaf
* Salt
* Touch of ground cumin
* Touch of dried oregano
Directions:
1. Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.
2. Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)
I used 1/2 cup mushrooms, no green peppers, and added 2 habaneros. This took about 30 minutes to prepare and another 30 to cook.
|
|
Leave a comment