Cooking With Metachat!

jack_mo's Cullen Skink

2007-01-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

This is a slightly poncey version of Cullen Skink that I drunkenly
copied from a magazine article on the wall of the bar in the
marvellous Glasgow restaurant The Ubiquitous Chip -
ubiquitouschip.co.uk - years ago. It makes enough for four as a
starter, or two as a big hearty main course bowl.

1 lb of Finnan Haddies (ie. smoked and salted haddock, the white
stuff, not the horrid bright yellow dyed stuff)
About 3/4 of a pint of milk
About 3/4 of a pint of double cream
A couple of potatoes (Desirée, King Edward, etc. - enough to make
four good-sized spoonfuls of mash)
A knob of butter
2 tbsp. of vegetable oil
1 big onion, finely chopped
Some parsley, very finely chopped.

Take off the skin and remove the bones from the haddies, but don't
throw them away. Trim the edges and tail off the fish, so you've just
got the thick, meaty bit left, and put the trimmings with the skin
and bones.

Cut the main bit of the fish into rough cubes - about a 1/4" thick,
but there's no need to be fussy about it - until you've got, er,
enough of it - about enough to fill a pint glass, loose - chuck any
spare fish in with the skin, bones and trimmings.

Scald (ie. bring it just to the boil for a second) the milk and most
of the cream in a pan then take it off the heat and dump in all the
bones and fishy trimmings and leave it sitting for half an hour or so
until it's cooled down. (You can add other things, too, if you like -
a bay leaf, a few peppercorns, a splosh of Worcestershire sauce.)

Heat up the oil and a bit of butter in a pot over a medium flame,
then chuck in the diced onion, then the cubes of haddock a bit later,
until the onion is soft and transparent, stirring gently from time to
time. Then turn down the heat a bit and pour the fishy-milk potion
through a fine seive into the pot (obviously you don't want any of
the bones and stuff ending up in the soup), and then simmer the soup
for a while - ten minutes tops - and season (probably just with
pepper, since the fish is pretty salty).

While you're doing the above, slice up the potato, boil it, and then
mash it with the knob of butter and the rest of the cream, so it's
ready at the same time as the soup. It should be a really silky
mashed potato, not rough.

When the soup is done, put it in some bowls, dump a nice dollop of
mashed potato in the middle, and sprinkle some of the scallion greens
over the top.

------

Variations: I've swapped some of the haddie for Arbroath smokie
before, and sometimes I cube some of the boiled potato and put it in
the soup as well as the mash, and you can whisk in the mash as a
thickener rather than leave it as a discrete dollop if you like.

Lonefrontranger's peanut butter orgasm cookies

2007-01-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

These are the *best* peanut butter cookies I've EVER tasted. EVER. They're better even than stuff that has chocolate in, and I'm a chocoholic.

Ingredients:

Preheat oven to 325*F
1 cup smooth / creamy peanut butter.
1 egg
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
~1 teaspoon flour

NOTE: Maranatha's No-Stir Organic creamy peanut butter is the best brand to use, we discovered. If you refrigerate your PB (we don't) it's a *really* good idea to bring it up to room temp before starting so that you can work with it.

Mix together the peanut butter, egg, sugar and vanilla. Stir together until well mixed and creamy. *SLOWLY* add flour until the mixture just begins to tack up enough to form into drop cookies. Depending on relative humidity you may need to add more or less flour, it's really only a binder.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto nonstick or greased cookie sheet. Bake @ 325*F for ~20 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown a bit.

These taste even better after they've cooled. Owing to its simplicity, this is the best 'after-party' recipe ever. Aaron's fond of making them when he's got a case of the munchies.

Lonefrontranger's banana bread

2007-01-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

Recipe 1: Banana Bread.
This one's mine and a riff on my grandma's recipe. I
added the spices and nuts in, cos I'm a spicy nut.

Ingredients:

Preheat oven to 350*F
3 black bananas (yes, black. they must be just short
of moldy)
1 egg + 1 egg white (the extra eggwhite was added for
the altitude in Denver, so if you're not @ altitude
you should try without)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons *melted* butter
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt (really, it helps it rise)
Optional:
1/2 cup finely chopped dates
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mash the bananas in a large-ish bowl with the back of
a silver spoon. Once they've been mashed to a paste,
beat in the egg and melted butter until smooth. The
riper the bananas are, the easier this process is.
Bringing the egg to room temp first also helps.

Sift / stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking
soda, salt and spices together until well mixed in a
separate bowl.

Fold the dry ingredients into the moist and stir
briefly until well integrated. DO NOT over-mix, that
causes the flour to become tough. Add nuts/dates (if
using) and turn the mixture into a nonstick loaf pan
or one lined with parchment paper.

Bake @ 350*F for 45-50 minutes

ROU Xenophobe's Pot Roast

2007-01-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

Here is mine, with ingredients as exact as you will need them to be:

INGREDIENTS

(1) Electric skillet w/lid.
(2) A piece of meat. I recommend a rump roast. They're all 3--6 pounds.
(3) A bag o' baby carrots, opened.
(4) A nonion, chopped up.
(5) Some celery. Any amount you buy will be more than you need.
(6) Two 1-quart tetrapaks of good quality beef broth

INSTRUCTIONS:

(1) Turn on the skillet and let it get real fuckin' hot.'
(2) Take the meat out of the container and dump it in the skillet. Brown all sides, well. Really, no shit. Brown them more than you think you need to. Remove to a plate.
(3) Dump carrots, a couple ribs o' celery, onion into the pan. Cook them a bit if it makes you feel better; you're about to cook the living shit out of them. Add some other spices if you like, whatever smells good to you. Sage, maybe. Or some cayenne if you likes your food a bit spicy. Whatever floats your boat. A bit o' salt 'n' pepa is always nice too.
(4) PUT. ZE CANDLE. BECK. Erm. That is, put the meat back.
(5) Pour in some beef broth so it's going partway up the meat.
(6) Turn the heat down to 180--200 or so, put the lid on, and walk away.
(7) Check on the meat every 20 minutes or so and top up the broth when it runs low. When you check on it, you want the broth a little more than simmering but not full-on boiling. Add more broth when what's there has turned into sort of a runny goo. If you get through both quarts, you will have truly badass gravy, which is good.
(8) When it seems done (2 hours or thereabout), take the meat out and put on a plate to rest. Pour the pan drippings through a strainer into a bowl, and then dump the bowl back into the skillet. Add some water, like a couple-three cups, and some spices, again whatever smells good to you, or nothing at all. In a coffee cup, mix a couple-few tablespoons of corn starch with a like amount of water and stir with a fork. When the juicy-water in the skillet is bubblin' pour in a smidge of the cornstarch-water mix and stir in, ideally w/ a nonstick-safe whisk. Repeat until the gravy is almost but not quite as thick as you want it -- it'll continue to thicken a bit.
(9) Eat the used-up carrots. They're better than candy.
(10) Cut the meat against the grain, so that the fibers are short.

EAT IT UP YUM.

Egg noodles are fine, but really dangerous people eat pot roast with mashed po-ta-toes.
posted by ROU Xenophobe 27 November | 22:31

Greek Pot Roast

2007-01-09T16:18:00.000-08:00

This is typed in from a weird cookbook my mom got me called Simmering Suppers. I tweak the hell out of it and never follow it exactly, so, you know, YMMV.

4-5 lbs beef pot roast, chuck or round
1/4 lb butter
salt & pepper
2 onions quartered
3 cloves garlic, crushed (I use more like 6. Or 8.)
2 stalks celery cut into chunks
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
3 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
28 oz. can whole tomatos
8 oz can tomato sauce
1.5 c. red wine
.5 c water
Salt & pepper the roast (actually, I use McCormick's Montreal Steak stuff for this, whenever I'm doing beef)and brown in 2 tbsp. of the butter in a heavy pot. (I use Great Aunt Claire's kickass 1930s heavy thick oval aluminum pot that I love yet which will probably mean that any moment now I will forget what I'm typing) Set meat aside & drain fat. (I usually skip this step too ;-))
In the remaining butter in the same pan saute onions, garlic, celery, & spices until all nice & soft, then put the meat back in, add everything else (the tomatoes & the wine & stuff & this is usually where I also toss in a big old scrumbled chunk of feta cheese) cover the whole thing and simmer for two hours. Results do vary - sometimes this is awesome & sometimes's it's just okay, but whatever, it's not like usual potroast. I serve it with egg noodles so I can ladle the sauce over it.

occhiblu's broccoli arrabiata

2007-01-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

Makes 2 main course servings (although occhiblu can eat it all in one sitting!)

Chop up two big stalks of (organic!) broccoli into large bite-sized pieces. (I really like the stalk part, so I cut that up, too.) Mince one clove garlic. Sautee the garlic in several tablespoons of olive oil (you need more than usual, because the broccoli tends to soak it up) with a few tsp. crushed red peppers. When the garlic gets fragrant, add the chopped broccoli. Cook over medium heat for about five minutes (basically until the broccoli gets bright green and starts to look cooked), then add half a large can of crushed tomatoes. Add salt. Cook over medium to medium-high heat until the tomato cooks down and the oil separates, about 15 minutes. Add parmesan cheese if desired.

Fuzzbean's Ting Choy

2006-10-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

3-4 bunches baby bok choy, washed and sliced, leaves separate from stem
1T olive oil
.5T sesame oil
.5T pumpkin seed oil
.75T whole grain mustard
hearty shake powdered ginger (or grated fresh ginger)

Heat the oils in a large saucepan. Add the mustard and stir rapidly until it sizzles. Sprinkle in the ginger, then add the stems of the bok choy. Stir fry for a few minutes, then add the leaves. Stir until cooked, then serve warm.

Redvixen's Summer Shrimp Quiche

2006-08-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

1/4 cup scallions
2 tbspns butter
1/2 pound cooked (peeled) shrimp
pinch of pepper
3 eggs
1 cup half and half
1 10 inch previously frozen pie shell
1 large tomato
1/4 cup shredded white sharp cheese

Saute scallions in butter, add shrimp and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Set aside. Beat together eggs and half and half. Spread shrimp mixture in the bottom of the pie shell. Pour half and half/egg mixture over the shrimp. Top with slices of tomato and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes (for a shallow dish) or 40 minutes for a deep pie dish.

gaspode's tomato and peanut soup

2006-08-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is the most super easy soup, particularly because it's made with stuff that you normally have in your cupboards.

garlic, 1 to infinity cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon peanut oil (or olive oil, or whatever works for you)
42 oz chicken stock (3 cans)
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 6oz can tomato paste
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
salt to taste
1 cup rice

Saute garlic in oil (medium heat) for 1-2 minutes. Add stock, tomatoes, paste, peanut butter, vinegar, cayenne and salt. Whisk to combine. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and add rice. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Serve garnished with chopped scallions and crushed salted peanuts.

Most of my soups are a dumping ground for leftover roast chicken. This is no exception - chicken is delicious in it. It's usually better after it's been refrigerated overnight and reheated.

viachicago's orzo pasta salad

2006-07-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite summer dishes is an orzo pasta salad. It may be served warm or cold. Here's a general guideline to the recipe. I usually just eyeball everything.

1-1/2 C uncooked orzo pasta
1 C frozen peas, thawed
1/2 C crumbled feta cheese
2 teaspoons lemon juice (fresh is best)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Italian dressing to coat
Black pepper and oregano to taste

Boil the pasta for about 9 minutes and then add the frozen peas to thaw out in the pot as well, for 1 additional minute. Drain. Toss orzo and peas with Italian dressing. Stir in cheese, lemon juice, zest, and pepper.

Mmm I need to make some. It's delicious.

viachicago's orzo pasta salad

2006-07-03T15:57:00.001-07:00

Fuzzbean's Green Bean and Tomato Salad

2006-07-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Green Bean and Tomato Salad
1lb green beans, cut into 1" lengths
1lb cherry or grape tomatoes
2 oz crumbled feta cheese
4 leaves fresh basil, minced
3 leaves fresh mint, minced
2T lemon juice
Sprinkle salt

Microwave steamer

In the base of the steamer, combine the lemon juice and an appropriate amount of water. Layer the beans on the top rack, cover, and microwave for 4 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Allow to cool slightly.

Combine the green beans, tomatoes, basil, and mint in a bowl, sprinkle with salt, and stir/toss to distribute. Sprinkle the feta cheese on top.
-------
I'm also a big fan of packet-fish and chicken, which is great for a single person.

Basically, take a big sheet of aluminum foil and fold it in half to get a square. Put a piece of parchment paper on top. Put a chicken breast or fish filet (sole works really well) in the middle.

Now get creative! I've done roma tomatoes, lemon juice, ginger, and cayenne (mix the wets, pour on top, add diced tomatoes); I've done granny smith apple slices and rosemary; squashes and green beans/snow peas can work well (but not too many as they take a while to cook). Citrus is great. Pop in the oven at 400F for about half an hour (depends how thick it is), let sit for a few minutes, then open (be careful of the steam).

REALLY nice to do is a takeoff on the Panera Fuji Apple Chicken Salad--do a packet chicken with granny smiths and rosemary. Let it cool. Chop up a couple of apples, a red onion, wash some lettuce, combine. Add chicken, a handful of pecans, and some cheese (I don't personally care for gorgonzola that much and would probably go for feta instead.) Try a citrus variation with mandarin oranges and lemon juice/orange juice on the chicken.

Speck’s spicy Thai noodles:

2006-07-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Speck’s spicy Thai noodles:

1 package buckwheat soba noodles
1 large red bell pepper
5-6 green onions (white and green parts)
large handful sugar snap peas
optional: small handful Thai basil leaves
optional: broiled chicken breast or tofu

Sauce:
6 T smooth peanut butter
1 T cider vinegar
3 cloves crushed garlic
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
cayenne to taste (lots)

-Cook noodles, rinse with cold water.
-Chop pepper and onions (I like to leave the pea pods whole), add to noodles.
-Mix all sauce ingredients thoroughly, adding HOT water by the tsp until sauce turns light tan and milky.
-Toss and enjoy! Better the second day, after the garlic mellows

Miko's 'famous' strawberry shortcake

2006-07-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

I often prepare something people call my 'famous' strawberry shortcake. What's ridiculous is that it's so super basic that it should not be at all famous -- but most people don't make strawberry shortcake any more, so it seems great to them.

Basically, you make a recipe of bisquick biscuits, but instead of separate biscuits you make one giant biscuit and bake it.

Slice your berries, sprinkle with just a little sugar to macerate, let them have a couple hours to get happy.

Then take your giant biscuit and cut the top off. Pour the berries over the biscuit, top with unsweetened whip cream, and serve in pie slices. Aw yeah babe.

Miko's pickled peppers with limes

2006-07-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

More with limes: pickled peppers with limes. Slice up red, green, yellow, and orange peppers, limes, and red onions into thin rings. Put them in a plastic container and squeeze lime juice generously over them. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Add jalepeno slices from a jar. Let all this sit for a day or so and then you'll have the tangiest, most delicious thing ever; it's a good fajita topping, but I can eat it as a sort of cold salad just as happily.

Miko's grilled corn

2006-07-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

Many people have heard of my grilled corn with lime and tabasco butter. It's killer. That's pretty much all it is: Grill corn with the husk off, melt some butter, squeeze some lime juice into it, pour some tabasco into it, and brush on the corn as it grills. Serve extra with the finished corn. Do be careful not to over-lime the butter; they need to be in balance.

misteraitch's pseudo-Mediterranean salad

2006-07-03T15:50:00.000-07:00

Our pseudo-Mediterranean salad of the moment...

Boil: 400g small new potatoes
Hard-boil 3 eggs
Boil/steam 100g-ish green beans

Halve the potatoes, slice the eggs & put in a bowl with the beans and:

1 red onion, finely sliced.
A half dozen ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
A good handful of pitted black olives
50g-ish feta, cubed.

Then, for the dressing, mix:

1 small clove of fresh garlic, chopped/crushed
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp lime juice
5 tbsp x. virgin olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Some basil leaves, chopped
1 smidgeon honey
Salt, pepper

Combine Let it stand for a half hour or so & voilà, Bob’s your uncle. Some avocado goes nicely in there too, otherwise customise as predilection dictates.

GeckoDundee's Socca

2006-07-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

I'll give metric measures only because it took me ages to get it just right. If I give imperial eqivalents, you'd just have to go through the trial and error yourselves to get it right.

Socca
180g Chick Pea Flour*
250ml Water
90ml Good quality olive oil (+ a little more for the tin)
Tsp salt
2-4 sprigs fresh rosemary

Mix the oil and water in a bowl
Sift in the dry ingredients**
Whisk to the consistency of a firm batter
Preheat oven to 425°F / 220°C
Let mixture stand for an hour or two

Take two pizza tins (thin, NY style)
Grease pizza tins with olive oil
Pour in batter
Sprinkle rosemary over mixture
Bake until golden brown (about 20-30 mins)

Serve with green salad, Greek salad, or similar. IT wouldn't hurt to drizzle a little more olive oil over it.

* AKA Gram flour, Besan, Garbanzo flour. Try Indian shops if you can't find it

** There are regional variations. Some include ground cumin seeds (a dry ingredient obviously) instead of rosemary. Others use different flours.
A mix (about 50/50) of chick pea flour and buckwheat flour is traditional somewhere (Corsica?). Once you get the hang of it you can experiment.

bmarkey's Insalata Caprese

2006-07-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

This is the perfect summer lunch, and also makes a nice first course at dinner.

Insalata Caprese

You will need:

Tomatoes, preferably Romas, but whatever you have that is fresh will do in a pinch.
Fresh mozzarella – not the plastic stuff that’s indistinguishable from its wrapping, but the stuff that comes in little balls that are kept in water. (I have a theory that this recipe would also probably work with goat cheese or feta, but I’ve yet to try it.)
Fresh basil – if you’re not growing you own, you really should. DO NOT USE DRIED BASIL IN THIS RECIPE.
Extra virgin olive oil. Don’t scrimp here – get the best you can afford. Trust me.
Salt – I like kosher salt for the extra crunch it provides, but table salt will work.
Pepper – fresh ground, black.

Here’s the deal:

Slice the tomatoes into little round wheel-like slices. (If you don't have Roma tomatoes, wedges will do nicely.) Slice the mozzarella into similar rounds. On a plate (one for each person being served), alternate a slice of tomato, a slice of mozzarella, and a basil leaf. I have also seen this served with the basil scattered over the top of the tomato/mozzarella alternation; make your own call here, but I like the idea of a leaf per t/m unit. Now, drizzle the whole thing with the olive oil. Do not drench it – just a nice, light coating is what we’re shooting for here. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Serve with some nice crusty bread, maybe a few kalamata if you have them on hand, and a glass of white wine – nothing says summer like Vinho Verde. I’m partial to Arca Nova, myself. Really, though, any relatively dry white would be good.

overanxious ducksqueezer's Mediterranean White Bean Salad

2006-07-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

I like this with a hunk of bread:

Mediterranean White Bean Salad

4 Cups cooked or canned white beans
2 ripe tomatoes
1/2 Cup slivered red onion
1 yellow bell pepper in 2-inch strips
2 Cups torn up lettuces

Dressing: 1/4 C. olive oil, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 large garlic clove, pressed, 1/4 tsp salt, pepper

Combine veggies and beans. Combine dressing ingredients, whisking until blended. Pour dressing on veggie-bean mix, toss, and let sit 4 hours to marinate. Serve on a bed of lettuce.

arse_hat's summer salad (? no name given)

2006-07-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Finely chopped garlic, finely chopped shallots, loosely chopped cucumber, cubed tomatoes, crushed pepper, sea salt, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Marinate the cucumbers in the balsamic and then salt the tomatoes. Mix pepper with the shallots and toss lightly with some olive oil. Let all sit for an hour.

Drain balsamic from the cucumbers and the excess juice and salt from the tomatoes and mix both with the shallots. Yummy.

For variety use rice, red wine, white wine, or cider vinegar in place of the balsamic. Finely sliced strips of sweet peppers are also a nice addition.

Sasshat's Freezer Cookies

2006-07-03T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ok so the major thing to remember is that I never use recipes.
But! here is a reasonable sort of recipe, to taste:
First, mix dry ingredients (1/4 cup flour, 3/4 cup confectioners sugar, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp salt) in a big ass bowl.
then, add in 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1/4 cup butter or margarine, a couple splashes of vanilla.

Mix it all together until it's doughy. If it's too wet, add more confectioners sugar. Too dry (crumbly) add more pb.
Then roll into small balls (ping pong sized). Set aside.

Melt in a double boiler 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, splash o vanilla, and a couple of pats of butter. Melt until melty. Add a sprinkle or two of the confectioners sugar.

Dip the dough balls into the chocolate melty stuff and then lay them to rest on some parchment paper. They will look like truffles.

When they cool, toss them in some more confectioners sugar, throw them in some ziplock baggies, and throw them in the freezer for at least an hour.

They are delicious. They are like a cross between a peanut butter cup, a cookie and a truffle. They last in the freezer forever and don't make your kitchen all hot and sweaty.

GeckoDundee's Gazpacho (for one)

2006-07-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

Gazpacho (for one)250g (8oz) Ripe, good quality tomatoes
Half small cucumber
One spring onion (em, eshallot? scallion? like a very little leek, you know the things)
Half small red capsicum (bell pepper? red pepper?)
Clove garlic15ml (tablespoon) extra virgin olive oil
15ml (tablespoon) sherry vinegar (else a good red wine vinegar, probably not balsamic though)
Small slice day old bread, chopped and soaked in water
200ml (8 fl oz) Passata Dry sherry (good quality Fino, Manzailla, or Amontillado) to taste

Peel, deseed, and coarsely chop tomatoes

Dice cucumber and pepper

Finely chop spring onion

Crush garlic

Squeeze water out of bread

Reserve some of the veg for garnish

Blend the rest (including the garlic), with some passata, vinegar and sherry(Take care adding liquid as you will want to get the consistency and flavour balance right; you might not use all the liquid listed above, or you might use it all and still need to add a little water)

Chill (have a glass or two of sangria or sherry while you wait) and serve, garnished with the reserved veggies.

Note: you could roast both the garlic and the pepper before using them, but it's not really necessary.

AlexReynolds' Rice paper rolls

2006-07-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Among other stuff, we're getting bok choi, spring onions, snap peas, arugula, lettuce, squash, garlic scapes, and lots of pesto and cinnamon basil.

On the side, we buy some cucumber, cilantro and mint, and lightly wok-fry up slices of tempeh in sesame oil.

Put aside some peanut sauce, chopped ginger and soy sauce.
Wash and chop up the veggies, prepare the herbs.
Put them in separate bowls with the different sauces.

Put a big bowl of water in the middle of the table.
Soak the rice paper in the bowl but running it underneath the water. You just want to get it wet and then take it out, put it on your plate. The water will soak in and make the rice paper soft.
Fill the middle of the roll with your veggies, tempeh (if you like), herbs and sauce.
Fold up the roll on the sides, roll it up like a crepe and fold in the middle to tighten up.

Eat. Repeat. It's very light eating, a bit of prep work, but perfect for the summer. And lots of fun with guests over.

3 Recipes That Last

2006-02-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

I'm cross posting these from my blog if anyone cares. This is food that is cheap to make and will last a good long time. Probably actually longer than you want it to. But it is cheap! And filling! And you know, it's all good.

Hippie Lentils
bag of lentils
small can tomato paste
4 or 5 potatoes
1 onion
4 or so cloves garlic
celery
a couple of carrots
hot peppers
tamari
vegetable stock
olive oil

Rinse the lentils & put them in with the stock, bring to a boil, simmer one hour. Let sit one hour (this is only if you have to leave the house and run errands, which I did, otherwise you can skip this step.)
Saute chopped celery, peppers, onions and garlic in olive oil. Add to lentils.
Peel & cut up potatos & carrots, add to lentils.
Add some tamari, maybe some nutritional yeast, and bring back up to a boil. Turn down, let simmer for an hour or so. Add tomato paste for color (this masks the unfortunate gray-ness of the lentils)
Make a bunch of Young Ones jokes as you serve them. They will last far longer than you really want.

Chicken Soup with Noodles
1 whole chicken cut up
onion
celery
carrots
garlic - lots and lots of garlic
1 can chicken broth to cheat with
half a bag of egg noodles
bay leaf, dried thyme, oregano, dill
olive oil and butter

Put the chicken in a big pot, cover with water, add salt, pepper, a bay leaf, and about 8 or 10 cloves of peeled garlic. Bring to boil, take down to simmer, leave alone for an hour or so while you either a) play games on the internet or b) watch Six Feet Under. Cool it down & make a half hearted attempt to remove the gross white foam stuff on top. Take the chicken pieces out and bone them - with your hands. Yeah, it's kind of disgusting but also oddly satisfying, don't you find? Remember that you could fucking die if you leave a bone in there. Leave a couple small bones in there anyway because you're so lame. Discard the bones (remember to take the trash out tonight or the dog will have it all over the floor by morning and then you'll have to worry about him fucking dying) and put the chicken meat back in the pot.
Chop up & saute the onion & the celery in a mixture of olive oil & butter, add to the chicken pot along with peeled chopped (largeish chunks, okay? You don't want little creepy measly carrot bits) carrots and some of the chicken broth. Bring it all back up to a boil and then down to a simmer for half an hour. Throw in the noodles and taste it for seasoning. Add hot sauce, maybe, some worcestershire, some pick a peppa, more salt, whatever. It will take about 15 minutes to half an hour for the noodles to cook through and then voila, serve. Very comforting. Refrigerate the leftovers - the noodles will swell up overnight and kind of change the nature of the dish, which is bonus.

Two Vegetarian Quiches (Only make these if you're planning on having a bunch of friends over to eat them that day. Nasty as hell by day three otherwise)
2 Laura Lynn or your supermarkets generic equivalent refrigerated rolled up pie crusts
2 boxes frozen spinach
1 container feta cheese
1 bunch broccoli
1 small bag of walnuts
about half a container of small portobello mushrooms, or regular ones, whatever
1 generic bag of grated mixed cheeses, like cheddar, jack, whatever
parmesan cheese
4 or 5 eggs
1/2 container sour cream
about 1 1/2 cups of milk (get 2% & pretend this is diet food)
1 large onion
6 - 8 cloves garlic
olive oil

Both Quiches
Chop up and saute the onions & garlic. Put half in a bowl for the spinach quiche and leave half in the pan for the broccoli one. Put the pie crusts in pie plates. Preheat the oven to 375. Note: the egg/milk mixture should be kind of a rich eggnoggy looking yellow. If it's too pale, add another egg. If it's too yellow, either add more milk or accept the extremely rich eggy goodness of it all and decide to stop worrying about cholesterol.
Spinach Quiche
Defrost the spinach in the microwave.
Mix the spinach, feta cheese, onion/garlic mixture, some of the grated cheese and some parmesan together and spread this all out in one of the pie plates.
Mix 2 eggs and about a cup of milk together, pour it into the spinach. This is finickier than it sounds, since the spinach wants to reject the milk. Maybe you could mix it all up together in a bowl first; that way you might skip the spilling the milk/egg mixture all over the stove and cursing part.
Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes
Broccoli Quiche
Chop up the broccoli until it's fairly small. Chop the shrooms to the same size. Chop the walnuts up too. Return those onions to the pan & saute the broccoli with them. You'll have to add more oil. Add the mushrooms when the broccoli is beginning to cook nicely. You'll have to add more oil again. Season - whatever you've got on hand will do nicely. Add the walnuts. Now mix the veggies up with the grated cheeses, some parmesan and the sour cream. Put it all in the pie dish, and, as with the spinach one, pour an egg & milk mixture over it. Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes.

Chicken and yam (or sweet potato) soup

2006-01-05T14:32:00.000-08:00

This is great soup for cold weather, it's nice and spicy and really yummy. It's just a basic recipe, so mess with it a lot, but these are tried and true ingredients. I always make the soup the day after I roast a chicken, so I save about a breast's worth of chicken and make the stock out of the bones.

Serves 4 (big bowls of soup)

1 onion, finely chopped
6 or 7 cloves of garlic (plus or minus to taste), finely chopped
2 or 3 tablespoons ginger, minced
2 medium sized yams or sweet potatoes (or other tubers, carrots, whatever) cut into half inch or so squares
32 oz chicken stock
about a breast worth of chicken chopped
4 or so tablespoons thai-style sweet chili sauce

Saute onion, garlic, ginger until flavor comes out and onion is translucent
Add yams, saute for a few minutes
Add stock, bring to boil then cover and reduce heat
Simmer for 20 -30 minutes, until yams are soft
Cool off a bit if you want to throw it in the blender (depending on how smooth you like your soup, I generally just run a hand masher through it at this stage)
Warm soup again (if needed)
Add chicken and sweet chili sauce, heat through

It's very filling, but is really good with chewy bread.

Variations:
1. A slug of heavy cream at the end turns it into "cream of.... soup" and is yummy
2. Chopped scallions are nice in it
3. Add chopped lemongrass when you put in the yams. Instead of heavy cream use coconut cream and add cilantro at the end
4. Ramp up the heat with chili peppers at the start.

Hoppin' John - a New Years Thing

2006-01-02T18:35:00.000-08:00

But good enough to eat anytime. Hoppin' John is basically just black eyed peas and rice and so it has infinite variations; this is mine. Eat it for luck on New Years Day with collard greens (represent the dollar bills you'll be getting, hoo yeah) and cornbread. Caveat: I eat this every year and I am neither wealthy nor particularly successful in other ways. However. I have a roof over my head & enough to eat, who's to say that isn't because of my New Years Day menu?

You will need:
a bag of frozen black eyed peas
a cup or so of basmati rice
a bell pepper
2 hot peppers, I used one jalapeno, a big one, and one of those long skinny light green ones.
Pick a Peppa sauce - a tablespoonful or maybe 2.
a sweet onion
some celery
2 big slices country ham, cut into chunks, or about 5 slices bacon, ditto the chunks
2 cups chicken broth
a little olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375. Chop up the onion, peppers and celery; saute in the olive oil. Dump the peas & the rice & the meat (if you're using regular bacon you may want to cook it first) into a big casserole dish. Add the sauteed veggies & some pick a peppa & maybe some other herbs, whatever you've got on hand, stir well, add the chicken broth, cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for about half an hour. Take off the foil and finish it for another half hour or until the liquid is all gone. Serve with more pick a peppa. Yum!!

taz's red beans and rice

2005-12-11T08:32:00.000-08:00

So, I know you all have your own recipes, and it's really just a very simple dish... but I'm still going to give you my (non-vegetarian) version because of that whole rocking-the-universe thing. First of all you should know (if you don't) that in old New Orleans Monday was always red beans and rice day, because Monday was laundry day, and since it's so easy to throw together and the major ingredient in fantastic red beans is cooking time, it was a perfect dish to put on the stove and leave for several hours while otherwise occupied.

So, it's easy, but it's not fast... and since it's always best the second day, I usually start it the afternoon or night before I want to eat it. Here's what to do:

Soak a pound (or 500 grams) of kidney beans overnight (or during the day of the evening you are going to start cooking).

In a large soup pot begin sauteeing some fatty bacon or ham (optional. I just throw in a handful) in some oil (of course, I use olive oil).

Chop a nice large (or two medium) onions, a couple stalks of celery (with leaves) and three cloves of garlic, and add to the sauteeing mix.

Then slice up some smoked sausage (I use a pound), and throw that in as well.

... and, guess what! You're almost done with the whole "preparing" part of this dish...

After all this has sauteed enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy (or just 'til the veggies are nice and thouroughly wilted), add the (drained) kidney beans and cover with water, leaving just enough room in the pot so that it won't bubble over.

Add lots of black pepper and as much cayenne or other hot red pepper as you like, stir it all up, cover the pot, and let it cook And cook, and cook...

You can either keep it on a somewhat sane temperature so that it only simmers, or you can do what I do, and let it boil and bubble away (checking and stirring fairly often). Either way, as the liquid cooks out, keep adding more water until the dish achieves the proper state of bliss. This would be when the beans have broken down enough to create a wonderful thickish, velvety gravy.

I can't give you exact times, because the beans always have their own agenda; sometimes they cook up relatively quickly, and sometimes they take forever. All that matters is that the beans are nice and completely tender and the whole mess has a lovely creamy consistency. These beans were a little recalcitrant, and I cooked mine about six hours all together (three hours last night, and another three hours today).

At some time in the cooking process, you'll want to add salt, but not until the beans have become tender (otherwise they will take longer to soften up!). I also add a little bit of strong coffee as it's cooking - maybe an eighth of a cup.

Serve over rice, and pass the Tabasco.

Greens and Garlic Soup

2005-11-20T11:33:00.000-08:00

(from The New Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas)

With a good bread and maybe some hummous, it's a meal. For best results, use 2-3 kinds of greens, mixing stronger flavors with milder ones.

1 head of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 T fruity olive oil
1 bunch (12 oz) each:
young kale & chard or escarole, spinach, rapini, Napa cabbage, etc
1 ½ lbs potatoes, diced
2 cups water
salt and pepper
8 cups vegetable broth (she offers low salt chicken broth as an alt, but I thinks it's much better with veggie broth, Trader Joe's has a great one if you don’t make them from scratch.)
¾ cup white wine
3 T rice vinegar

garnishes: additional olive oil
hot red chile pepper flakes
feta cheese, crumbled

Sauté the garlic and onion in the olive oil in a large non-stick pan until they begin to color. Wash the greens, trimming away any tough stems and ribs, and shred the leaves with a sharp knife. If you’re using one of the sturdier greens, add it to the pan when the garlic starts to turn golden, and sauté them together for a few minutes, stirring often.

Meanwhile, combine the diced potatoes, water, salt and pepper to taste, and vegetable broth in a soup pot and bring to a boil. When the potatoes are tender, add the garlic and onion mixture, all the shredded greens, the white wine, and the rice vinegar. Simmer everything together for about 30 minutes, then taste and correct the seasoning, if needed.

Put on the table a carafe of good green olive oil, some dried chile flake flakes, and a bowl of crumbled feta cheese, then serve steaming bowls of soup. The best way is with a little of everything: a tiny drizzle of oil, a sprinkle of chile, and a spoonful of feta in the middle. ______________________________________________________________
A few notes : In the recipe, she suggests blending milder and stronger greens, but I avoid the mild greens and go straight for flavor and texture, using kale, chard, collard and mustard greens, sometimes garnishing it with watercress if it's handy/cheap. I also leave out the potatoes, but only because I usually make a huge batch and freeze it and potatoes don't do well after being frozen. Finally, I also substitute fresh lemon juice to brighten up the flavor when I don’t feel like having it spicy.

Roasted Squash Soup

2005-10-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

This stuff is killer, but it takes hours, so be forewarned. It isn't hard, it just takes a long, long time. But your kitchen will smell really, really good.

2 butternut squash
2 acorn squash
8 tbsp butter - real butter. REAL butter.
8 tsp or so dark brown sugar
4 or 5 carrots
1 large onion
10 cups of chicken broth - use canned.
powdered ginger
sage
cayenne pepper or a very little bit of Tabasco

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the squashes in half lengthwise (this takes strength and a big serial killer type knife.) Scoop out the seeds. Put a tbsp of butter and a tsp of sugar in the cavity in each squash. Put the squashes skin side down in a roasting pan - actually, you'll almost certainly need 2. Peel & chop the carrot & the onion. Put them in the roasting pans too. Pour about 2 cups of chicken broth into each roasting pans and cover tightly with foil. Stick in the oven and ignore for about 2 hours or a little more.

Take out of the oven and let cool a bit. Scrape the squash flesh off the squash skin (doesn't that sound fun? Try not to burn your fingers.) and into a big pot. Pour everything else from the roasting pan into the pot too. Heat it up. Add more chicken broth until it seems right. Add the sage and ginger and salt and pepper and maybe a little tabasco until it tastes right. Then puree it all in the food processor, reheat it, and serve it. It is beautiful and orange and rich and delicious.

Hot Pepper Jelly

2005-10-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, I made hot pepper jelly today. I documented every step photographically, because that's just the kind of bored, nerdy, obsessed chick I am. Now, with the magic of technology, I am going to teach you to make hot pepper jelly. Be thrilled. Be excited. Go buy some canning jars. You will also need: 6 cups of sugar, 2 pouches of Certo (liquid fruit pectin), a teaspoon of salt and 1 1/2 cups of cider vinegar. And peppers.

First, you will need the raw materials. This is today's haul of peppers from my garden. There were more in the fridge from last week. You're going to need a total of 2 1/2 cups of chopped up peppers, which is quite a lot of peppers. Some people and the real recipe will tell you to use 2 cups of bell peppers and 1/2 cup of hot peppers. Those people are wimps. Use almost all hot peppers.

Now, you have to sterilize the jars. Read the package descriptions. It will confuse you. Basically, you have to wash the jars and lids and then boil them, except don't boil the lids, just almost boil them. I boil the hell out of the jars - handy hint: put a dishtowel in the pot you're boiling them in so they don't crack - and then keep them hot until they're ready to use.

Start by seeding - a vegetable peeler works well for this - and coarsely chopping (that means, big ole chunks) the peppers.

Put the pepper chunks in the food processor. You can use a little of the vinegar if you need it for liquid, like in a blender that freaks out if it doesn't have enough liquid. If you use a food processor like a normal person, you won't need it. I didn't. Dump the pureed peppers, the salt and the vinegar into a saucepan.

This is the part that would be very amusing if I had remembered the camera. This is the part where I realized that I didn't have enough vinegar or sugar, or, for that matter, dry cat food, so I got into my car and went to Ingles and bought those things and returned. Since I didn't photograph this adventure, it's not very interesting. Ah well.

Bring this mixture to a boil over medium heat, lower the heat and simmer it, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Take it off the heat and - this is a big PITA - measure it. You need to have 3 cups. If you have less than 3 cups, add a little water. If you have more, throw some out. 3 cups, exactly - this is your gold standard, your goal, your destination. Put it back in the pan and add the sugar.

Bring the sugared mixture to a full rolling boil where you can't stir it down (boil it over a little, too. I always do) and boil it for one minute, stirring constantly. Take it off the heat and add the pectin, mixing well. Let it cool for 3 minutes.

Ladle it into the hot jars and seal them. If you have more jelly than you have jars, put some in a regular jar and refrigerate it. Plan on eating it soon. Meanwhile, put the jars back into the pots you boiled them in before - what, you poured the water out already? Sucks to be you. Refill the pots so that the sealed jars are fully submerged and then bring to a boil and let them boil for 10 minutes.

Take them out of the boiling water with tongs and put them on a nice pink towel. Voila! You have hot pepper jelly to give away for Christmas and eat with cream cheese and crackers or on bagels or however. Wahoooo!!!

Note: This year it wasn't hot enough. Next year I'm leaving those seeds in, baby, and I recommend that you do so as well. The heat of the peppers is in the membranes and seeds, and you want this shit to be hot, not wimpy.

Crossposted from my blog because I just impressed myself so much with the illustrations and all.

mygothlaundry's Carolina Crock Pot Barbecue

2005-10-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

Get a Boston butt pork roast.
Coat it with BBQ dry rub (I make a big jar of this about twice a year and use it for everything: for a big jar, it is: 2 tbsp kosher salt, 4 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp cumin, 2 tbsp black pepper, 2 tbsp chili powder, 4 tbsp paprika, 4 tbsp garlic powder, 2 tbsp onion powder, 2 tbsp coriander)
Put it in the crock pot with a can of frozen orange or apple juice and 12 ounces of beer.
Put the crock pot on low and leave it alone for 36 hours. Yes, 36 hours. The smell will drive you mad the 2nd day but it's all worth it.
Pull the roast out and into a bowl - it will be falling off the bone. Shred it with two forks and mix in roughly 1/2 c. vinegar, 1/4 c. honey, 1/8 c. mustard and whatever bottled barbecue sauce you like. Or worcestershire. Whatever. Salt & pepper. Just keep tasting it and you'll know. Boy, will you ever know. This stuff is mad delicious.
Serve it on white rolls with coleslaw and baked beans. You are now an honorary North Carolinian.

taz's Welsh Rarebit

2005-10-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

Welsh Rarebit made with a microwave is very fast:

4 English muffins, toasted; top with slices of Canadian bacon and tomato slices.

In the microwave heat up a pound of cubed cheddar, mixed with a cup of beer, a beaten egg, a bit of butter, a teaspoon or Worcestershire sauce, a bit of nice mustard, or 1/2 tsp. of mustard powder, a very little hot paprika or other red pepper. When it melts, pour over the English muffins. You can also put an egg cooked however you like on top of the muffin first, if you'd like. Have it with a green salad, and it's a tasty, comforting,, very fast and easy fall or winter meal.

iconomy's Very Orgasmic Black Bean Soup

2005-10-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

warning: may contain cilantro

The long long way is to start with a bag of dried black beans, and simmer them all the live long day. The short way (much shorter!) is to start with a large can of black beans. You will be wanting the short way, yes?

Two cans black beans
a few sprigs of fresh cilantro
one slice onion
salt
pepper
the juice from half a lime
one 16 oz can chicken (or vegetable, to make it vegan) stock
one tbsp cumin

Just puree it all together, and heat it up!

Very quick, and you can double the recipe to have some for the next night. It's really good with tortilla chips or avo slices or sour cream or a cheese on top, or with crusty bread and salad.

stri fry with taz

2005-10-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

Stir fry is always a treat... and so fast! In fact, I'm having some right now:

Heat 1-2 tbsp. oil in wok or pan over highest heat, and throw in some peanuts (I like the ones with skins) stir around a bit, then toss in minced ginger and small strips of boneless, skinless chicken. Stir around a bit, then toss in onion strips and minced garlic. Stir around a bit, and throw in red and green pepper slices. Stir around a bit and throw in one smallish sliced zucchini and/or broccoli. Stir around a bit and add 2 tbsps. tamari, and whatever spices you feel like using. Stir around a bit more, then serve over rice or noodles.

That's my no-frills supersimple version that I'm having tonight. Just be sure to slice your vegetables before you start cooking; and if you've done it even earlier (like over the weekend, and stored them in baggies in the fridge), it seems like you've spent about zero time on it.

me3dia's lank steak with carmelized apples and shallots

2005-10-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

- Season one 1lb. flank steak to your liking and set aside.
- Slice two medium shallots into thin strips.
- Do the same to one medium apple (your choice, although I recommend sweet over tart)
- Heat 1T of butter or olive oil in a skillet on medium heat, then add shallots and apple and sauté.
- Once the shallots begin to go translucent, add a pinch of salt and about 2tsp of liquid (anything from water to bourbon, as long as it's sweet) to keep it from sticking (the apples will soak up a lot of the butter/oil).
- Set aside once the apples and shallots have mostly carmelized (but not burned). Turn heat to medium high and add steak. Let sear for at least a minute, then turn over and sear the other side. Cook to desired doneness, remove steak to rest.
- Reduce heat back to medium and return shallots and apples to skillet. Add a little more liquid to help loosen fond. Once it's all hot, remove from skillet and plate.
- Slice flank steak into the desired number of portions, put it on the plate next to the apples'n'shallots, retreat to dinner table with plate and bowl of soup.

kellydamnit's spaghetti sauce

2005-09-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is my family's sauce, everyone modifies it a bit for their own needs, my version is a bit spicier than my mom and grandmother's. Like all Italians, I am unfamiliar with measuring cups. This is so insanely easy, and no one ever believes me. Once you get it all together it's just stirring occasionally while you do something else for several hours.

In the biggest pan you can find:

Dump in some olive oil, enough to coat the bottom.
toss in a couple pork neck bones (yes, really) and brown.
When they're browned add some garlic (threeish cloves) and about half an onion, both in teeny tiny pieces, sautee.

Once those are done dump in about six of the big cans of tomato puree. NOT SAUCE, puree. If you're psycho like me you can also use home canned tomatoes and just put them through the blender or food processor first, and strain out the seeds and skins.

Now the spices. Leave them out, you may want to adjust as you cook. I use dried.

A couple bay leaves
A healthy amount of oregano (couple tablespoons at least)
basil (tablespoon? half tablespoon? up to you!)
parsley (very little... a couple shakes)
crushed red pepper (holy god don't be stingy... I go for two, three tablespoons to start, and add more later)
chili powder (maybe a tablespoon)
(the last two were my addition)

I also tend to add garlic powder as it cooks, depending on how strong the garlic I started out with was.

Simmer it for a loooong time. Two, three hours. Stir frequently. Keep it covered with the lid at an angle for steam to escape. Keep the heat super low so it doesn't burn.
Adjust seasonings as you go. I always end up dumping in more oregano and pepper.

After that point you can add your (cooked!) meats... sausage, meatballs, whatever.

Simmer another hour or so over the lowest heat you can manage without turning the stove off completely.

Serve over your favorite pasta with cheese. I like ziti, but that's just me. Watch out for the bay leaves and pork bones!

DeepFriedTwinkies's Red Eye Gravy

2005-09-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

Red eye gravy: Take all the drippings from your skillet (drippings are the little bits of whatever mammal you were cooking for breakfast) and heat it up till it's too hot for words, then add about 1/3 or so cup of coffee. If it's from yesterday, so much the better. Stir it all together till you make gravy. Add a flour/coffee paste if you overdid it on the coffee and it's runny. Serve over fried biscuits.

Fried biscuits: Heat up oil (about 3 cups) in a heavy, deep pan. Take a can of biscuits, the kind that come in the cardboard tubes, and fry them until brown. Usually 3-4 minutes to a side. Drain.

You may also serve Lipitor as an accompaniment.

My Okie grandma used to make this when I'd go down to the farm. Bliss.

Taz's Eggplant (Aubergine) Gratin

2005-09-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

Eggplant Gratin (via Richard Olney)

1 1/2 pounds eggplant (preferably, small, elongated variety), sliced lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices (or, if large, sliced crosswise)

Olive oil for frying

Stewed tomatoes:

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt, small pinch cayenne

Cheese Custard:

4 ounces ricotta or other fresh white cheese
1 egg
Salt, pepper
About 1/2-cup freshly grated Parmesan
About 1/2-cup heavy cream

Pepper
Handful fresh basil leaves and flowers
About 1/2-cup freshly grated Parmesan

Cook the eggplant slices in hot olive oil until golden brown on both sides and tender at all point. Drain on paper toweling (for this quantity, the slices will probably have to be fried in three batches, additional oil being added to the pan for each).

Cook the onion in olive oil for some 15 minutes until soft and yellowed, but not colored. Add the garlic and the tomatoes, season, turn the flame high, tossing several times, until well heated, then simmer gently - for 16 minutes or so - until the tomatoes' liquid is almost completely reduced. Taste for salt.

Mash the white-cheese with a fork, mixing in the egg - first stirring, then beating. Season and stir in enough Parmesan to bring the mixture to the consistency of a thick paste, then stir in cream until a heavy but easily poured creamy consistency is achieved. Taste for salt.

Line the bottom of a gratin dish or shallow baking dish with half of the eggplant slices, grind over a bit of pepper, tear the basil leaves into tiny pieces, sprinkling the surface evenly with leaves and flowers, sprinkle lightly with cheese, and spoon the tomato mixture evenly over the surface. Gently press the remaining eggplant slices into place and spoon the cheese-custard mixture regularly over the entire surface. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan and put into a fairly hot oven (425 to 450 degrees), turning it down after some 10 minutes to about 375 degrees, counting approximately 25 minutes or until the surface has swelled, no depression remaining in the center, and it is uniformly colored a rich golden brown.
___________________________

Definitely all you need with this is good bread and a crisp green salad. Everyone I've made it for has swooned.

(PS: I never bother to peel and seed the tomatoes, and the only time I happen to find basil with flowers is when I'm growing it myself.)

Taz's Gumbo

2005-09-26T20:56:00.001-07:00

The major secret to incredible gumbo is the roux. This is what separates the weak-ass stuff from the wonderful elixir that makes you want to slap your mama. Otherwise great chefs have said that they just can't manage to reproduce the flavor of real Louisiana (et al) gumbo... The roux is why.

To make a great roux, you must be brave, patient, and persistent. I used to spend as long as 45 minutes making the roux... though now I do it in about 15 or 20 minutes. The only difference is your heat setting. Here's how I make it: I put 1/2 cup of olive oil (you don't need to use olive oil, but I do) in the bottom of a large flat frying pan (or enough oil to cover the bottom, but not less than a 1/2 cup), and turn the heat up to medium high. Then I put one cup of flour into a sifter and as soon as the oil is hot, I begin sifting in the flour, blending and stirring with a wooden spoon. Keep sifting and blending 'til you've got all the flour in the pan... then keep stirring and scraping and stirring and scraping and stirring. You want to keep it going until it gets to be a very, very dark brown color, like this.

Your entire goal here is to get it as dark as possible without burning it. So you can use a lower heat and cook it longer, with less risk of burning, or you can use a higher heat, as I do, and never leave it for a second. Stir, stir, stir.

And this, boys and girls, is the only great secret of gumbo - the rest you can play with and change if you like. You can make shrimp or crawfish gumbo, or vegetarian gumbo with lots of greens, or pretty much anything.

Today, I'm making chicken and sausage gumbo.

The first thing I do is cut the vegetables. Today I used two large red peppers, two large green bell peppers, two large onions, a small bunch of parsley, and three toes of garlic, all chopped, and two cupped handfuls of chopped celery, with leaves (our celery is different here from regular U.S. celery - but I think I used to use two or three stalks). Put all the cut up veggies together in bowl or on your chopping board.

Now the chicken: I use four chicken leg-thigh parts, which I shake up in a bag with flour, salt, pepper, powdered garlic and hot paprika to thoroughly coat the chicken parts.

While I'm making the roux, I fry the chicken in the same big soup pot that I'm going to make the gumbo in. The frying doesn't need to be perfect, because the chicken is going to cook for a long time in the soup. Basically, you just want to get them nice and browned. When they are done, put them on a plate with paper towel underneath, and throw out any remaining oil from the pot.

(Or you can do this step ahead of time, and use the remaining oil when making your roux.)

As soon as the roux reaches that magic dark mahogany color, I dump all the chopped vegetables into the roux frying pan, and quickly stir and toss with the wooden spoon until the veggies are all coated and have basically gathered up all the roux onto themselves. The aroma that explodes at this point will give you some clue about the treat that lies ahead.

Now dump the vegetables-and-roux and the fried chicken parts into the soup pot, and cover with water. I use about three quarts of water. Then slice up about a pound of smoked sausage and add that to the pot. (If you can find some Cajun Tasso, throw a little of that in, as well!) Season as you please. I use one or two tablespoons of hot sauce, three tablespoons of worcestershire, a little cayenne (or any hot, powdered) pepper, salt, black pepper, white pepper, and two or three bay leaves.

Simmer it for two or three hours (edited to say: "actually, boil for a while at first, then simmer". The chicken definitely must be falling from the bone), then remove the bones and serve over cooked rice. I sprinkle filé powder over mine in the individual bowls before serving - but if you've included okra among your vegetables, don't use filé.

It will end up looking something like this.

It's magnificent the first day, but the second day is when you go to heaven.

If you make this, and you don't love me foreverafterwards, then you're just not right, Jack. Get yourself back to the morgue.

Hugh Janus's BAMIEH OR OKRA STEW

2005-09-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

Yield: 8 Servings

2 lb Okra, fresh
2 ea Onions, lg, chopped
2 ea Garlic cloves
4 tb Butter or oil
2 lb Lamb, beef or veal, cubed
1/2 lb Tomatoes, ripe, sliced
1 tb Tomato paste
Salt and pepper
1 ea Lemon (juice only)

Wash fresh okra and cut off stems. Fry the chopped onions and whole garlic cloves in butter or oil until both are golden and the garlic is aromatic. Add the cubed meat and brown all over. Then add the prepared okra and fry gently for a little while longer. Add the tomatoes, continue to cook for a few more minutes, and cover with water in which you have diluted the tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper, and stir well. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat 1 1/2 hours or more, until the meat and vegetables are very tender and the sauce is reduced, adding a little more water if necessary. Remove from heat, and add juice of one lemon. Stir and serve.

Secret Life of Gravy's Fried Egg Spaghetti

2005-09-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

2 roasted red bell peppers (either roasted on the burner or bottled) cored and chopped
1 TB rinsed capers
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 C of bread chunks, preferably sourdough
6 TB olive oil
12 oz spaghetti
3 eggs

Heat oven to 350

Put the salted spaghetti water on to boil. Tear up a slice or two of sourdough or other dense chewy bread-- crusts and all (prepared bread crumbs or wonderbread isn't going to work.)

In a small baking dish, stir together the bell pepper, capers, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. When the water comes to a boil, begin cooking the spaghetti. Then top your pepper mixture with the breadcrumbs and drizzle 3 TB of oil on the top. Bake.

After 5 minutes, begin the eggs. Fry them gently in the remaining 3 TB of oil and cook until whites are done but yolks remain runny.

When the spaghetti is done, drain well. Remove the baked bell pepper mix from oven and toss with the noodles. Using two forks add in the eggs, shredding them. As the runny yolks make contact with the hot noodles, they will finish cooking.

If you get your timing right, this recipe is simple, fast and delicious.

omiewise's Sourdough bread

2005-09-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

Sourdough bread-easy, it just takes time:

Starter:
organic flour (1/4 cup)
distilled water

[Total time:1 hr spread over two weeks]
Mix together, let sit covered on counter, add a bit more flour and water every day until you have a nice bubbly mess. It should smell fresh and sour, but not moldy. (If it molds, start over.)

Keep feeding now three times a day for about a week. If you have to go a long time between feedings, mix it stiff.

At the end of that time, feed one more time by weight: start with a quarter cup of starter, add 8oz water and 8oz flour. Set aside for 8-12 hours and it will be ready to bake. Take 12-14oz of the starter and set it aside for use in the bread. Take half the rest and put it in a glass or plastic container, add some flour and some water, and throw it in the back of the fridge. At first you should feed it every week, but then it can go for as long as three months between feedings. It's yours for life. It doesn't matter what proportions you store it in, but for this recipe, always refresh it so that it is half flour and half water by weight before you use it.

[In baker speak, since you're now a baker, this is called a 100% hydration dough, because the water equals the flour by weight. Flour is always 100%, then the weight of the water is taken as a percentage of that and that's your Baker's percentage. Light, shapeless breads have a high hydration (Ciabatta can be as much as 80%.) Dense breads lower hydration (55%). We're gonna make a ~60% hydration bread out of a 100% hydration starter]

posted by omiewise 14 June | 09:05

Mixing the bread (even easier than the starter)

30-45 minutes

12 oz starter
34 oz flour (bread flour just to be safe. There's a lot to say about flour, protein content, additives, etc, but I won't bore you. If you want the best, use King Arthur. Otherwise, any flour that says Better for Bread.)
18 oz water (filtered is best but not necessary)
1.5 Tablespoons salt
1/4 cup wheatgerm (not bran!)(optional)
That's it.
Who knew the staff of life was so basic?

Pour all the water, all the starter and half the flour into a big bowl. Beat with a spoon until there are no lumps. Beat another 100 strokes. Lift spoon, try to get as long a strand between spoon and bowl as possible. If it breaks very short, beat a bit more.

Add the rest of the flour. Mix and knead with your hands a bit until just barely mixed. Let rest for 20-30 minutes. (This is called the autolyse, and helps the bread to hydrate so that you knead less and the bread is better able to take it.) Use the time to clean your spoon, wash your hands, clean the kneading surface, flip the record, give your sweetie a kiss and get some props for all the work you're doing in the kitchen.

At the end of the autolyse turn the bread out onto the counter or whatever and begin to knead. Here's how: Smush the bread into a big thick pancake shape to start. Grab the edge furthest from you and pull it toward you, folding the giant pancake in half. Push the half-moon together and away from you, giving it a quarter turn. Repeat a bunch of times. The bread should get smooth and silky. If it's sticky, dust it with flour.

Once it's gotten silky (200 kneads maybe), you want to add the salt. It's kind of a pain to add it now, but it's better for the bread. If you want you can add it at the beginning, but it makes kneading a bit harder and makes the gluten tougher. Whatever you do, do not forget to add the salt.

Make another big pancake, sprinkle with salt, roll it up, sprinking the whole time. Start to knead again until all the salt is incorporated. Sometimes depending on humidity etc, the dough kind of separates into layers around the salt. This will go away as you keep kneading.

Raising and shaping

30 minutes spread over 2(!) days.

Take the freshly kneaded dough and shape it into a ball with a smooth top. Get a big bowl, put some oil in the bottom (about a tablespoon) use the top of the dough to spread the oil over the bowl. Nestle the dough lovingly inside the bowl (there should be plenty of room to spare). Cover with plastic wrap or something to keep it from drying out.

Put in a quiet place. Let rise for 4-8 hours (depending on temp, activity of the yeast, etc). The dough should double to triple in size. The goal is to max it out without letting it fall. The bad news is that natural yeast takes a long time to do this, the good news is that it takes a long time to get past the point you want it to. So, how do you tell when it's ready? Don't poke it! This kind of yeast has to be seduced, not assaulted. So, one of the most sensuous moments in bread baking: take off the plastic wrap and very gently place your whole hand over the top of the bread. Do not apply any pressure. Stand like that for a second. Now, what you've got your hand on is alive. The question is, is it getting tired? Is it starting to feel slack, like it can't hold itself up anymore? If it is, it's done rising; if not, put the cover back on and come back in half and hour.

When it's done rising, lightly flour your counter and gently, gently, turn the bread out onto it. You know that smooth upper surface you were caressing? You want to keep it intact. Take a big knife and cut the dough into several pieces-it can make two 4 pound loaves, or more smaller loaves. Kind of tuck the pieces up so that the upper smooth surface is on top, cover with a towel, and let rest for 20-30 minutes.

Come back and shape them: You want to make taught little balls out of them, stretching that nice gluten sheet on top. Use your hands to gather the bottoms of the pieces together, pulled against that top sheet. If you have baskets to raise them in, now is the time, although I imagine that if you do you haven't needed my help. If not, put them, well-separated, on a cookie sheet onto which cornmeal has been spread.

The final proof now begins. It too can take a long time, so it's probably best to put the loaves in the fridge and take them out the next morning, or you may be up all night. Anyway, set them in a quiet place and let proof until they seem like they have no more rising in them.

Preheat the oven to 500 F. When the oven is good and hot, slip in the bread and turn it down to about 450. Cook for 20 min, and then rotate and cook for about 20 more. The bread will get darker than you are used to seeing crappy American bread get, but the flavor is in the crust, so be brave. Remove and cool on wire racks. Let it cool at least 45-60 minutes or it will be gooey inside, just like we are.

There is a lot to say about baking, it's certainly best done on a stone, with some form of moisture, it's best to score the loaf, etc, but since I doubt anyone will read this, much less try it, I won't get into it here. (Feel free to email me.) Baking bread is really easy, and there's almost nothing like eating your own bread.

More info at the pretty decent Sourdough FAQ.

soi-disant's multiple mystery dishes

2005-09-26T20:52:00.001-07:00

i like these a lot because they're simple.

i did them the other night for a couple of the kids and it was v. yum.

i'm lazy so things are grouped in about the order you'll need them, and the exact proportions/temperatures/times/secrets are your own.

also, this thread is good.

1.
fresh squid

rice flour
beer
egg
dried chili
peppercorns
spring onions

peanut/olive oil
hot frypan short time

salt
limes
cloudy beer

2.
lamb racks, skin off, fat on

olive oil
garlic
rosemary
lime juice
honey

hot oven short time

salt
pepper
big red wine

2 and a bit.
rocket
good tomatoes
avocado
thin hard cheese

olive oil
lime juice
salt

3.
figs
demerara

low grill

mascarpone
vanilla bean ice cream

sugar syrup
bay leaves
passionfruit

sticky/desert wine

4. (for the brave and stupid)
cheese
dried muscatels
pear

booze you'll likely regret drinking

AlexReynolds's Tilapia

2005-09-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

This will serve two people, multiply quantities to serve as necessary.
Total cooking time is roughly 45 min (35 to bake the fish, about
another 10 to prepare the sauce) with another 15 min of prep work.

• 4 Tilapia fillets, usually about 6 oz apiece from Trader Joes
• 1/4 pint white wine
• 1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro and parsely

• 1 red onion, sliced into one inch strips
• sea salt and freshly ground black peppercorn
• 1/2 oz unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp cornstarch, blended with a little cold water beforehand
• 2 tbsp heavy cream

Heat oven to 350'F. Place the tilapia fillets into a oven dish (I've
used cast iron, works well) and pour wine on top just enough to cover.
Sprinkle garlic atop fillets, add onion and 3/4ths of your chopped
herbs on top (keep the last quarter of your chopped herbs on hand for
the sauce). Season with salt and peppercorn. Cut butter into four equal
portions, one placed atop each fillet.

Cover the dish(es) with aluminum foil. Bake for 30-35 min. Check in
around 30 min, seems to be fine at that point. If you're making pasta
or other sides, begin to boil water around 25 min in so that you're
ready to go when you're making the sauce.

Remove cooked fish to another oven dish. Pour broth into a saucepan and
put the fish back into the oven, set at Warm while you make the sauce
and any accompanying sides (pasta, veg., etc.)

Simmer sauce with cornstarch for two minutes. Add heavy cream and
remaining herbs and stir vigorously to mix but no further. Do not
simmer further or raise stove temperature, or the sauce will thin out.
If you use flour instead of cornstarch, double the amount added.

Serve fish on warm plates, dollop sauce atop fish. Salt n' peppar to individual taste, as this seems to help brighten the sauce a bit.

This recipe seemed to work well in our testing labs with sushi rice or
spiral rice pasta: anything that will soak up sauce. We also added
sauteed vegetables (bell pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms) for a bit of
color and crunch, and side salad with the garlic rice vinaigrette
(recipe in the vinaigrette thread).

Enjoy!

jaksemas's Blueberry French Toast Casserole

2005-09-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

INGREDIENTS:

* 12 slices white bread, crusts removed
* 2 packages (16 ounces total) cream cheese
* 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed
* 12 eggs
* 2 cups milk
* 1/3 cup maple syrup or other syrup

Sauce:
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 tablespoon cornstarch
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
* 1 tablespoon butter

PREPARATION:

Cut bread into 1-in cubes; place half in a greased 13- x 9-i x 2-inch baking dish.

Cut cream cheese into 1-inch cubes; place over bread. Top with blueberries and remaining bread. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Whisk in milk and syrup, blending well. Pour egg mixture over bread mixture. Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 25-30 minutes more or until golden brown and the center is set.

In a saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; add water. Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in blueberries; reduce heat. Simmer for 8-10 minutes or until berries have burst. Stir in butter until melted. Serve sauce with French toast.
Serves 6 to 8

frecklefaerie's Chicken Fajitas

2005-09-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 cup Orange Juice
1 tbsp Chili powder
1/2 tbsp Cilantro (I use dried, use a full tbsp for fresh)
2 tbsp Minced Garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

3 chicken breasts (1-1.5 lbs), cut into fajita-sized strips
1 medium red onion, cut into slices
1-2 peppers cut into strips (I like to use red/yellow/orange, sometimes green)

Fajita sized tortillas

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325F
-Combine the oil, oj, and spices
a. Marinate the chicken in it for a few hours
b. Don't marinate for a few hours (I've done it both ways, both taste good)
-Cook the chicken and marinade over medium heat until in a skillet or wok or whatever pan until the chicken is white on the outside. Stir it a bit to be sure everything is covered in the spices.
-Add onions and peppers and stir some more.
-Cook the whole thing until the veggies are tender or until the chicken is done. (I like to do it until most of the oj has cooked off, which usually means I turn up the heat toward the end.)
-Wrap the tortillas in aluminium foil and put in the oven for 8-10 minutes

Serve by placing chicken, onion, and peppers in the tortillas. Add other fajita fixins as you like (salsa, cheese, lettuce, tomato, etc.)

mygothlaundry's All Good Marinade for Everything

2005-09-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

lime juice
tamari
grated fresh ginger
pressed fresh garlic
hot sauce
olive oil

mygothlaundry's Peanut Butter Noodles (best while camping)

2005-09-26T20:47:00.001-07:00

Leftover spaghetti noodles
grated carrots
slivered cucumber
natural peanut butter (1/2 c)
tamari (1/4 c)
garlic (2 cloves) press in garlic press
sesame oil (3 tbsp)
lemon or lime juice (2 lemon/limes)
hot sauce (2 tsp)
sesame seeds (1 tbsp)
grated fresh ginger (or powdered, if camping) (to taste)
Mix the peanut butter with the ingredients after it until darker & somewhat thinner. Toss with the noodles and vegetables. Most delicious. For some strange reason, it doesn't keep well overnight on a picnic table, even if you cover it, so eat it all up.

mygothlaundry's hangover breakfast

2005-09-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Go to supermarket while still drunk or early in the morning, before you know you're hungover. Buy the following:
chorizo
tortillas
salsa
one of those bags of grated potatos from the dairy aisle
a vidalia onion
cheddar cheese
feta cheese
eggs
and coca cola - you'll need that for the hangover too.
Heat some oil in a cast iron skillet, toss in the potatos and half a grated vidalia. After about 7 minutes, stir/flip them and add the chorizo in chunks.
Fry for a while - about another 7 minutes.
When it starts to look done, push it all to one side and put on some eggs - leave them to fry or scramble, your choice.
Add grated cheddar & crumbled feta & salsa to the potato/chorizo mixture, stir.
Serve on a warmed tortilla with the eggs on top.
Yes, it's extremely greasy. Drink the coke and go back to bed.

warbaby's Corn Souffle

2005-09-26T20:46:00.001-07:00

3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs flour (or better, Pancake mix)
1 Can Whole Kernal Corn (or two cans Mexicorn)
(optional 1/4 cup chopped raw onion, red and green pepper)
Whole Milk (sufficient)
3 or 4 Eggs
1 Can Vienna Sausages

Preheat oven to 350.

Drain corn liquid into measuring cup. Top up with milk to 1 Cup. Heat in microwave to warm (not necessary, but it makes the cream sauce smoother.)

Separate eggs and beat whites until stiff but not dry.

Melt the butter in two quart saucepan and add the Flour / Pancake mix. Keep pan on medium heat. Immediately start adding small amounts of Corn/Milk liquid while stirring continuously. Keep stirring until sauce boils. Add corn (and optional vegetables.) Stir until boiling recommences. Add egg yolks. Keep stirring until sauce has boiled for three minutes. Fold in egg whites. Pour mixture into greased cassarole (or cast iron frying pan). Garnish with sausages. Bake for 50 minutes until top puffs up and browns. Yum. Serves one if it's me.

gaspode's Blackbottoms

2005-09-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

Preheat oven to 350F
Use 2 bowls. Makes 4 dozen.
1st bowl: mix and blend
8 oz softened cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

2nd bowl: blend together
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence

Use small paper cups in small tins (the ones that hold 24)
Put in 1 tablespoon brown mix
1 teaspoon white mix
Cook for 20 minutes

*I like to refrigerate them overnight before eating*

grapefruitmoon's Yummy Pasta

2005-09-26T20:45:00.001-07:00

Make pasta. I'm sure you know how. Linguini works best for this, but I've had good results with bowties as well. I wouldn't recommend maccaroni or anything teeny weeny like that.

- While pasta is cooking, heat ~ 1/3 cup oliveoil in a pan
- add a pantsload of chopped garlic (I've used anywhere from three cloves to a whole head, depending on what I have available - the more, the better in my opinion)
- If you're adding less than five cloves chopped garlic, I'd recommend 1 tsp. garlic powder to give the oil a little flavor.
- 1/2 tsp. roasted red pepper. (You could use more if you like things really spicy, but this certainly gives it a kick.)
- I sometimes add a little Italian seasoning, sometimes not. I recommend herb experimentation.

When the oil is all nice and hot and reeks of garlic, toss in a chopped tomato or two. Cook until tomato is to your done-ness preference. Add feta cheese (in very small hunks). Melt slightly.

Toss cheesylicious sauce over pasta.

chota's everything but the kitchen sink tuna salad

2005-09-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

2c Chunk Tuna or Mashed garbanzo beans (for the vegetarians out there)
3/4c Mayo (Hellman's Regular, not "diet" or Miracle Whip)
3 tsp Spicy Brown Mustard
3 pinches Curry powder
1 tsp Horseradish
1/2c Sweet pickle relish
2 green onions, chopped
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
2-3 stalks of Celery, chopped
1-2 Hardboiled egg(s), chopped

1) Dump together
2) Mix thouroughly
3) Chill in refrigerator for at least one hour.
4) Toast two slices of multi-grain bread
5) Place a cheese slice on one slice
6) Liberally dollop tuna concoction on the other, and smoosh together.

Smart Dalek's tuna sandwiches

2005-09-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

Oil a skillet and preheat; add a 1/2 lb. tuna steak, pan-frying until nearly done. Dice and mix 1/2 Hungarian wax pepper, 1/2 Thai pepper and 1/2 Italian pepper, along with the faintest hint of garlic and 1/8th cup of fresh-cut parsley.

Place 2 cinnamon-rasin English muffins in microwave oven and heat for 7-10 seconds at medium level. Carve tuna steak half; garnish english muffin halves with honey mustard, mayonnaise, mesclun salad and whatever cheese you prefer. Build sandwiches and serve.

jonmc's pork chops

2005-09-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

if you're feeling slightly more ambitious. Get some boneless pork chops, trim the fat, and pound 'em a while. Dip in egg, then spicy bread crumbs, fry the chops in oil.
Slice some jalapeno jack cheese and melt on top, squirt on some horseradish sauce, maybe some pickled sweet peepers, serve on a sub roll. Serve with beer.

safetyfork's custom breakfast stack

2005-09-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

The only basic thing in the stack attack is the fried potato "pancake" (for two) which is prepared by grating two to three potatoes (I prefer red, but it can be others) and grating a sufficient amount of cheese (I prefer Jack, but it can be custom and should be if you are utilizing mozzarella later -- see below). Not too much cheese, though because you'll have the opportunity to add more with other components. Heat up a cast iron (or otherwise oven proof) skillet on the stove with some olive oil, black pepper, and a few red pepper flakes (optional) in there. Pre-heat the oven (425/450 degree F) now too. When the oil and skillet is sufficiently hot to accept a layer of potato, do just that. Spread about half of your potato gratings on the skillet. Quickly spread the cheese layer on as well, and rapidly top that off with the other half of the potato gratings. Shape and lightly flatten with a heat resistant spatula. Cover that up and let it cook for a bit.

Now you should be prepping other TBD components of the dish.

Once that potato-cake has firmed up you gotta flip it! That's right. You can do this like you flip eggs if it is firm enough but only if you have the kitchen skillz. If you don't have that kind of kitchen kung fu, then cut it in half and flip each part with the spatula (the downside of this approach is the oozing cheese). After it's been flipped cover it again and go back to the other prep work. After a few minutes of browning that side of the potato pancake, you put it in the oven to really crisp it up. (Leave in the oven for a few minutes, check for good browning tone and remove when appropriate). Each person gets a half of the cake. I recommend quartering it up so each person gets two quarters.

OK, so that's the core ingredient. Here's what I've stacked it with in the past. Most all stack items are optional, really. Hence, all that custom talk earlier.

In a bowl:
A) Grits (w/extra cheese, salt, pepper), fried eggs (2), fake sausage, and salsa.
B) salad of lettuce and cut tomato chunks w/some lime, and fried eggs (2) and salsa.

On a plate:
A bed of fake sausage links, tomato slices, mozzarella slices, fried eggs (2), salsa.

Interleave, alternate, or intersperse the other ingredients in the stack with a quarter of the potatocake to make an artful stack of breakfast goodness. Like all good software cook books, the information provided in this recipe is presented on an "as is" basis...has been known to produce food coma. Enjoy!

Specklet's garlic cilantro chicken enchiladas

2005-09-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Filling:

-Trim the fat off 1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs.
-Put in a frying pan with a cup or so of chicken stock.
-Coarsely chop 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and 3 or 4 tablespoons fresh cilantro and add to the chicken.
-Cover and gently bring to a simmer. Don't overcook.
-Discard garlic and cilantro, save leftover stock to cook your rice in.
-Dice chicken.
-Dice 1 large yellow onion.
-Dice 2 anaheim peppers.
-Dice 2 jalepenos.
-Chop 4 tablespoons fresh cilantro.
-Salt to taste.

Tortillas:
-Pour a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet, put on medium heat.
-Lightly fry 16 small corn tortillas (must be corn), about 20 seconds on each side.
-Replenish olive oil as needed.

Sauce:
-I'm still working on the recipe for this, so until I get one I'm happy with, buy a high-quality jar of it. Buy 2, actually, 16oz or so.

Assembly:
-Put about 3 tablespoons of the filling in each tortilla, roll, and place in a 9x11 baking pan. You should be able to squish all 16 in there.
-Pour sauce over the top, sprinkle with cayenne.
-On top add 1 pound of grated jack cheese. (I use organic raw milk cheese, but it can be prohibitively expensive.)
-Cover with tinfoil and cook at 350 for about 30 minutes.
-Uncover and cook for another 15.

Serve with Mexican rice, black bean soup, a vinegary salad, and sangria.

Wait, I can't stop there.

Mexican rice:
-Rinse a cup of short-grained brown rice. Put in a medium saucepan with the chicken broth from above, and add enough water to make 2 cups of liquid.
-Bring to a boil, cover and simmer gently until the liquid is gone.
-Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and saute 1 large yellow onion and 1 large red bell pepper, diced small. Salt to taste.
-Add cooked rice and gently fry for a few minutes.

Black bean soup:
-You can use canned beans, or cook dried from scratch (if you want to know how, email me: specklet at hotmail dot com), but you want a good 3.5 - 4 cups of soup.
-Add 1 yellow onion and 1 red bell pepper, chopped.
-Cayenne to taste, salt to taste, and a tablespoon of cumin.
-When everything's cooked nice and soft, add the juice of one orange.

Sangria:
-MUST be made 24 or more hours in advance!
-Pour two bottles of red wine (I like a nice rioja, but any merlot or cab or chianti will do) in a large pot.
-Add the juice of 4 oranges, 4 lemons, and 4 limes.
-Slice 2 oranges, thin, throw in pot.
-Add 1/4 a cup (or more if you like) raw cane sugar.
-Add a sprinkle of cinnamon and five or six bay leaves.
-Here's the magic: 6 or 8 generous shots of Cointreau. (You can use a dark rum if you must, just add more sugar.)
-Stir, cover, and refrigerate.
-Serve over ice with a splash of seltzer.

the Doohickie Salad

2005-09-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

Take a half cup to a cup of snap peas (in pods), add a few pieces of chopped onion and pepper to taste, and top it off with about a half of a 3- or 3.5-ounce pack of fake crab meat.
No dressing or anything else is required. If you keep chopped onion and peppers around like I do, you can make this in about a minute. (serves one; multiply for additional servings).

Specklet 's raita with Lebanese variation by madamjujujive

2005-09-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

cucumber, yogurt, onion, and cumin. And try sprinkling some cumin in lemonade; sounds weird but is delicious.

This is a Lebanese variation on Specklet's yogurt recipe - very refreshing.

1 quart of plain laban (yogurt)
2 cucumbers sliced whisper thin
1 clove of garlic
2 tsp dried mint
salt
Mix ingredients. Add salt to taste. Refrigerate til ready to serve.

safetyfork's Kicking-Lemon Salad

2005-09-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

Take two decent-sized cloves of garlic, put them in your mortar throw some salt over them, mash them up good with the pestle.
Take a lemon, grate/zest about half of it (approx. 1 tablespoon).
Cut it in half and juice it (approx. 1/4 cup o' juice).
Put the zest and the juice in the mortar.
Take about 2 tablespoons of whole-grain mustard (like the grey poupon, or better brand, country style) and put it in the mortar too.
Now add some olive oil (maybe a 1/3 cup or so).

Stir that all up. Now you have yummy salad dressing to put on your mixed greens (I like boston and some romaine maybe with a little bit of arugala too).

Toast up some walnuts on the stove (maybe half to a whole cup).
Throw those guys in the salad and toss it with the dressing.
Top that with some grated parmagian or romano cheese (maybe a little fresh ground pepper, too) and you are good to go.

Want stronger flavor? Add more Garlic, lemon and mustard to the mix.
Need to bulk it up because that's all you are eating? Cut up some Ginger-marinated Seitan or Lemon Tofu in small cubes (my favorite is "lemon pepper tofu" by fresh tofu inc - it's already baked and so good).
It is worth noting that some people like a little less kick to the dressing, in which case, simply reduce the garlic, lemon, and mustard. (I like more zing.)

Additional Variations:
Stepping out of my vegetarian box: You can also cook up chicken and mix it in with the salad described above. No real need for the tofu then.

You can also slice up an avacado and mix it in with the salad for another variation on the flavor factory that is Kicking-Lemon Salad.

iconomy's killer black bean salad

2005-09-26T20:26:00.000-07:00

One can black beans drained
a thick slice white or red onion, finely chopped
half cup corn kernels
a thick slice red bell pepper, finely chopped
one clove garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper of your choice to taste
a chopped bit of fresh parsley, cilantro, or maybe fresh mint if you have it
a tbsp olive oil
a tsp balsamic vinegar, or any good vinegar

Toss it and refrigerate until chilled. Really great with toasted pita or tortilla chips, or alone. It's light and refreshing, but has a bit of 'stick-to-it-iveness' that makes you feel like you've eaten something substantial.