Home » Discussion Forums » Playing With Your Food » Recipes and Comments, Jan & Feb 2009, archived
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #9380 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Sat, 03 January 2009 17:34   |
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 Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
Senior Member
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OK, this is less a recipe and more a "hey look, I made something tasty without having a plan beforehand..." But it'll come in handy in a couple months when fresh asparagus season rolls around, it was pretty darn good even with distantly grown asparagus.
Shrimp and Asparagus Improv Salad
Get a small bunch of thin asparagus spears, and cut 'em up in half inch pieces.
Heat up a pan with a little olive oil.
Take a shallot and mince it up as fine as you can; set aside about a tablespoon of it, and then put the rest of the shallot, the asparagus, and a pinch of salt in the pan and saute them til the shallot's looking translucent and soft, and the asparagus pieces are tender. Should take about 5-6 minutes.
In the meantime--oh, wait, maybe you shoulda done this first--cut up some cooked shrimp into chunks. If you hate shrimp, no reason you couldn't do this with some bits of stir-fried chicken, or anything else that's bitesized (and already cooked.) Toss the meat into the pan and saute for just enough time to warm it up--if you're using cooked shrimp, they'll get tough if you cook them too much longer, plus they release a lot of liquid. So just another minute or two really ought to do it.
For the salad dressing, put 3 tbl of olive oil, 2 tsp of your favorite vinegar (i've got some with garlic in it, which is nice) and the shallot, plus a little salt and a tablespoon of grainy mustard in a jar, and shake it up til the mustard dissolves.
Get a bowl of your favorite salad greens--I used Boston lettuce last time--and put the shrimp/asparagus shallot mixture over it, then drizzle the dressing over the whole mess. There you go.
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #9581 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Wed, 07 January 2009 11:15 |
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Lucy Coats
Messages: 223
Registered: October 2008
Location: Northamptonshire, UK |
Senior Member |
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Since everyone (including poor Robin) is down with some sort of lurgy, I thought it was time for the Magic Potion recipe. Personally, I swear by bona-fide Jewish momma's chicken soup, complete with egg, parsley, rice and the lot, but it is a pain to make especially if you are feeling like a piece of ancient chewing gum which has been spat out and steamrollered. These are easier--and have the added benefit of suiting vegetarians too. So here goes....
The veggie alternative to chicken soup is a decoction of ginger root (2 thick slices) 2 cloves, a stick of cinnamon broken up, plus 2 coriander grains. Simmer for a quarter of an hour and serve with honey and lemon if you like. Tastes nice, and if you take it at the first sign of a sore throat it will often drive away the bug altogether. We swear by it and call it magic potion. It may not be so totally efficaceous for driving away colds, - but if you add a star or two of anise it will soothe and lubricate and comfort. You can also use lime blossom tea as a base for the above, but it has to be VERY STRONG. Be well, everyone!
Lucy xx
"'Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart."
http://www.scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #9648 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 14:16 |
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Maureen E
Messages: 111
Registered: October 2008
Location: Indiana, USA |
Senior Member |
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I typed these up for some friends so I thought I might as well share them here. Our favorite Christmas recipes, all German.
Springerle (originally from Festive Cookies of Christmas)
4 eggs
2 c sugar
1 t anise extract
¼ t baking powder
grated peel of ½ lemon
4 c cake flour
4 t anise seed
Beat eggs until thick and lemon colored. Gradually add sugar, beat until mixture is almost white and thick enough to ribbon. Add anise, lemon peel, and baking powder. Gradually add sifted cake flour. Dough should be very firm. Add a little flour if necessary. Chill at least 2 hours (and usually more like overnight).
Dust wooden mold (Springerle have special carved wooden molds. You can get them individually or on a rolling pin. The rolling pin is faster but leads to great aggravation for everyone involved.) with cornstarch, tap off excess. Be sure it’s dusted, but also be sure that it doesn’t have too much cornstarch or flour in the cracks or else the mold won’t come out. It’s actually been a couple of years since I’ve been involved in making these, but I’d say err on the side of too little cornstarch/flour because this dough isn’t very very sticky (or shouldn’t be) and you do want the picture to turn out. Turn dough onto lightly-floured board, roll to ¼ inch thickness. Press molds into dough, bearing down firmly and evenly. Cut cookies apart with a floured knife (I think we just always use a sharp kitchen one and don’t bother about the flouring). Place on cookie sheet which has been greased and sprinkled with anise seed, about 1 inch apart. Cover with a tea towel, let stand in a cool place overnight.
The next morning, place in a 375 degree oven; immediately turn it down to 300 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool on cake racks (in my handwritten copy of the recipe I somehow combined these two so that it says “cool on rakes.” Erm.). Store in airtight containers. Keeps for months. We have, on occasion, eaten Christmas Springerle the next fall. These are very hard cookies and excellent for dunking in tea or coffee. Or hot chocolate.
Stollen (originally from The Cooking of Germany)
Italicized ingredients can be omitted if desired.
1 c dried currents
1 c golden raisins
1 c mixed candied citrus peel
¼ c candied angelica, diced
½ c candied cherries, halved
½ c rum
¼ c lukewarm water
2 pkgs (T) yeast
¾ c sugar
5 ½ c + 2 T all-purpose flour
1 c milk
½ t salt
½ t freshly grated lemon peel
2 eggs at room temperature
¾ c unsalted butter, cut into bits [this year we used ½ cup of butter, ¼ c margarine left over from something else]
8 T melted unsalted butter (This is approximate. If you commonly dab your rising bread with bits of softened butter, or turn it over in a greased bowl, you really only need 2 T melted butter.)
1 c blanched slivered almonds [since we had both almond paste and almond extract this year, we left this out]
1 can almond paste
¼ c powdered sugar, sifted
Combine fruit and candied stuff in bowl. Pour rum over, soak for at least 1 hour. We usually just do candied cherries. This year it was ½ c, but I’d increase that a bit next year. Of course, I like candied cherries. We also didn’t do the rum because Stollen is flavorful enough without it.
Prepare the yeast by dissolving it in lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar.
Drain fruit, reserving the rum, pat dry. Place candied fruit in a bowl, sprinkle with 1 T flour, turn about with spoon until flour is absorbed. Set aside. (You may want a bit more than 1 T flour—I put too much in but I’d say you want it to actually stop being absorbed.) Set aside.
In a heavy saucepan, combine milk, ½ c sugar, and salt. Heat to lukewarm, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Take off heat, stir in almond extract, lemon peel. [This next bit is the way I did it this year and everyone agreed the Stollen was excellent. So.] Pour milk mixture then yeast mixture into large mixing bowl. If you have an upright mixer, I’d use it. Mix well.
Add about 4 c of flour, mixing after every cup or so. Add the eggs and the ¾ c unsalted butter. Let rest ten minutes. Add enough more flour to make a sticky dough, keeping in mind that you’ll be kneading in at least ½ more cup. [End my method.]
Turn out dough onto board with ½ c flour. Knead until dough is worked into flour. If necessary add more flour. This is where prior bread experience is handy. It should make a nice elastic dough. At some point in the kneading, press fruit into dough about ½ c at a time, knead it in but be careful not to overhandle as it will discolor the dough. (This is why you flour the fruit earlier.)
Coat deep bowl with 1 t melted butter, drop in dough. Brush top with 2 t melted butter. (Or grease your bowl with non-melted butter or what have you, drop in the dough, wiggle it about a bit and turn it over.) Cover, set in a warm place for 2 hours or until dough doubles.
Punch dough down and divide in two equal parts. Let rest for 10 min. Roll out into strips 12” long, 8” wide, ½” thick. Brush with 2 T melted butter and sprinkle with 2 T sugar. Fold strips lengthwise by bringing one long side over to center of strip; press down edge lightly. [If you are doing almond paste, before folding the Stollen over, roll the paste out into a cylinder about ½ in thick. Put it in the middle of the rolled out dough and fold the dough over, sealing in the almond paste.] Fold other long side across it, overlapping seam by 1 inch. Press edge gently (or not gently—you don’t want it springing up) to keep in place. Taper ends of loaf slightly. Should be about 3 ½-4 inches wide and 13 inches long. Place on greased cookie sheet, let rise until double. Bake at 300 until golden brown and crusty, about 45 minutes. You can brush with melted butter and sprinkle with granulated sugar to help seal the bread and keep it soft. Just before serving, sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar.
Lebkuchen (Betty Crocker Christmas)
½ c honey
½ c molasses
¾ c packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 t lemon peel, grated finely
1 T lemon juice
2 ¾ c flour
1 t ground allspice
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground cloves
1 t ground nutmeg
½ t baking soda
1/3 c cut-up citron
1/3 c chopped nuts [We like our Lebkuchen plain and leave out the citron and nuts. You can decorate the cookies with almond slivers though.]
For glaze:
1 c sugar
½ c water
Mix honey and molasses in saucepan. Beat to boiling, remove from heat. Stir in brown sugar, lemon peel, egg, and lemon juice. Stir in next 8 ingredients (or 6 if you’re leaving out the citron and nuts). Cover, refrigerate at least 8 hours.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll about ¼ dough at a time to ¼ inch thick on a floured surface. Cut into rectangles or circles [circles for me]. Place about 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake until no indentation remains when lightly touched, 10-12 minutes. Brush glaze over cookies.
Mix 1 c sugar, ½ c water in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat (do I need to add stirring constantly?) to 230 degrees, remove from heat. Stir in ¼ c powdered sugar. If it becomes sugar while you’re brushing the cookies, heat slightly and add a little water until it’s clear again.
[Updated on: Thu, 08 January 2009 14:21]
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #9949 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Wed, 14 January 2009 20:28 |
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Beauty/Anna
Messages: 481
Registered: November 2008
Location: America |
Senior Member |
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Here's one of my Mother's Amazing bread recipe's. And it is healthy. But I'm not very good at writing down recipe's so bear with me. (:
4 cups of white flour and 2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of brown sugar or honey (:
1 1/2-2 tsp of salt
2 scant Tbsp of instant yeast
1/3 cups of vegetable oil
2 cups warm milk (~115 degrees)
Mix together with dough hook
Pour warm milk in while mixing on low speed than increase speed and knead for 5 minuts. Dough should be almost but not quite leaving sides of bowl.
Machine knead for 5-8 minutes. Then stop mixer and cover with towl. Let it rise 30-45 minutes (till doubled)
Remove from bowl, form 3 loaves. Let rise 15 minutes (till doubled)
Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees
Remove from pans promptly, cover with towel while cooling.
By the way I do this in glass pans not mettle. If you do do this in mettle pans set the oven to 375 not 350 and let it cook for 35-40 minutes.
Enjoy!
[Updated on: Thu, 15 January 2009 12:00]
"You are your best resource for success"
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11240 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Mon, 09 February 2009 15:16 |
dances-with-needles
Messages: 38
Registered: February 2009
Location: Colorado, in the north |
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Son #2 is in culinary school and has shown me some good stuff. Over the holidays he showed me how to make Lox, fresh.
I cook by ratio because I often have to increase or decrease amounts depending on how many show up. So, for every pound of fresh salmon fillet you will need 1/2 cup kosher salt" and 1/2 cup sugar*, 1 tsp dried thyme, or dill or whatever herb you like with fish$. Use a glass or non reactive pan. Spread half the salt/sugar on the bottom mostly where the salmon will be sitting, lay the skin side down on the salt, sprinkle the thyme and other favorings over the flesh and spread the salt mix on top of that. Cover the meat as evenly as you can. Cover the pan, I use plastic wrap ( also known as dammit), and place in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours. The time depends on the thickness of the meat and the size of the piece. Check on it every so often and if all the salt had vanished from the top spread some more on. The salmon goes from limber like a washed sock to kind of stiff, like the one you wore for a week. My son says Firm. When past the 24 hour point and stiff enough for your sense of things, rinse the salt off, pat the slab dry and slice at an angle rather thinly cutting it away from the skin as you go. A pound of this will serve one person for three or four meals or big snacks, and two people will demolish it all in five minutes. It is especially good with boiled potatoes mashed with lemon and olive oil dressing on the nights where I am just too tired to cook a meal and too hungry to skip it. Keep it wrapped in the wrap that was on top of the pan, in the refrigerator.
" this is important, the salt needs to be not iodized and have large granules
*This can be raw, turbinado, brown, or nasty old white sugar. I haven't tried honey yet, so if someone does, please let me know how much works
$Thyme, Citrus peel, Onion Powder, Garlic powder,Dill weed, Ginger root, Just not all at once.
Dances
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11247 is a reply to message #11245 ] |
Mon, 09 February 2009 19:21 |
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Well, I made Finnish Meatballs for my boyfriend and myself last night, and they came out wonderfully - they're an old family recipe (going back several generations at least), and I thought I'd share:
Finnish Meatballs
Lihapyöryköltä
¾ c. soft bread crumbs
1 c. light cream or milk
1 ½ lb. ground lean beef
1 onion, minced
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground allspice
2 T butter (for frying)
2 T flour
1 ½ c. milk
Soak crumbs in ½ cup of the cream. Blend in the beef, onion, egg, salt, and allspice. Shape into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Melt butter in skillet and brown the meatballs a few at a time. Shake pan to roll meatballs around so they brown evenly. After all the meat is browned, remove from pan. Add flour to drippings, stir and brown over medium heat. Slowly add the remaining cream and the milk, stirring to keep mixture smooth. Add water if necessary to thin out the gravy. Strain if necessary. Return meatballs to pan. Cover and simmer 25 minutes over low heat.
Serve with a starch of some sort (I generally use mashed potatoes or pasta, though they make great meatball sandwiches the next day), and a vegetable (my choice was broccoli).
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11271 is a reply to message #11245 ] |
Mon, 09 February 2009 22:17 |
dances-with-needles
Messages: 38
Registered: February 2009
Location: Colorado, in the north |
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My husband named it. It comes off the roll and wads itself up in an unusable tangle in his hands. It comes off the roll as a usable sheet for me and then wads itself as I try to cut it.
Dances
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11303 is a reply to message #11247 ] |
Tue, 10 February 2009 17:12 |
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Erika in Colorado
Messages: 226
Registered: October 2008
Location: Colorado |
Senior Member |
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| Mori-neko wrote on Mon, 09 February 2009 17:21 |
Well, I made Finnish Meatballs for my boyfriend and myself last night, and they came out wonderfully - they're an old family recipe (going back several generations at least), and I thought I'd share:
Finnish Meatballs
Lihapyöryköltä
¾ c. soft bread crumbs
1 c. light cream or milk
1 ½ lb. ground lean beef
1 onion, minced
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground allspice
2 T butter (for frying)
2 T flour
1 ½ c. milk
Soak crumbs in ½ cup of the cream. Blend in the beef, onion, egg, salt, and allspice. Shape into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Melt butter in skillet and brown the meatballs a few at a time. Shake pan to roll meatballs around so they brown evenly. After all the meat is browned, remove from pan. Add flour to drippings, stir and brown over medium heat. Slowly add the remaining cream and the milk, stirring to keep mixture smooth. Add water if necessary to thin out the gravy. Strain if necessary. Return meatballs to pan. Cover and simmer 25 minutes over low heat.
Serve with a starch of some sort (I generally use mashed potatoes or pasta, though they make great meatball sandwiches the next day), and a vegetable (my choice was broccoli).
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Sounds similar to my family's Swedish Meatballs, only there is also potato and parsley in the meatballs and no allspice. To our white sauce, we add nutmeg.
OK, I actually went and found the recipe:
Swedish Meatballs
1 pound ground beef (higher fat content holds together better)
1 small potato (boiled and mashed)
1 egg beaten
1/2 c breadcrumbs (usually two heels from a loaf)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 T dried parsley
3-4 green onions chopped (which I, sadly, have to leave out now)
1 T cornstarch
1/4 sour cream (or heavy cream)
Mix all above, roll into balls, and fry in butter. Make a white sauce with the drippings and add a little bit of nutmeg (2 T butter/drippings, 2 T flour, 1.5 cups light cream, dash nutmeg).
Erika in Colorado
"A person who's happy will make others happy; a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery!" -Anne Frank
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11308 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Tue, 10 February 2009 18:41 |
dances-with-needles
Messages: 38
Registered: February 2009
Location: Colorado, in the north |
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Here is my all purpose dressing for most vegetables and some carbs.It goes great on potatoes but might taste really odd on rice. I haven't tried it on rice because I use my hit and miss pesto on rice.
For enough to coat 2 cups of veg, or potatoes or to brush on broiled chicken or salmon.
For each tbs of lemon juice use 2tbs olive oil (The best you can come up with)1/4 tsp salt and the same of onion powder. put this into something like a custard cup and whip with a fork until it goes thick. pour it over or on your intended victim while it( the victim) is hot
It is a good basic cover for the taste of vitamins and healthy enough so that my conscience will not screech too much. this subs for lemon butter or hollandaise mostly, giving some of the same lemon/ salt notes. " sometimes you have to cover the basic taste of the vitamins with calories"- Peg Bracken
Dances
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11396 is a reply to message #11373 ] |
Wed, 11 February 2009 21:48 |
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I have a fabulous Lemon Bar recipe somewhere... I can dig it up, if it's of any interest.
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11448 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Thu, 12 February 2009 18:56 |
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Susan from Athens
Messages: 817
Registered: October 2008
Location: Athens, Greece |
Senior Member |
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Hi Erika I did post it, but it's no trouble to re-post so here it is. Though I say so myself, it is amazingly good (I have tailor made it to go with an egg-whites only chocolate and almond cake so that no eggs go to waste, but here is the lemon curd in and of itself):
Lemon curd
Adapted from several recipes including the one in the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook. Quantities maximized to be made with the Almond and Chocolate cake, as I hate wasting 7 egg yolks.
7 large egg yolks
2 large whole eggs
1 and 1/8 of a cup sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
6 tablespoons butter
grated zest of 3 lemons.
Mix the lemon juice and sugar together and let sit for 5 minutes.
Whisk the eggs and the egg yolks together in a medium bowl. Combine with the lemon juice and sugar and place in a bain marie (double boiler) but with the bottom actually in the boiling water (if you can achieve this). Cook whisking constantly (and I mean stirring and whisking without stopping for an instant) for 8-10 minutes, until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon (i.e. thick and syrupy).
Remove from heat. (if it is lumpy – which it shouldn’t be – whisk some more and pass through a fine sieve), add the butter, a small lump at a time, until smooth. Stir in zest carefully. Place in sterilized jars, cool and refrigerate. Makes 2 big jars.
Hint: this makes a great filling for Victoria Sandwich cake or for lemon tarts, but it is amazing on fresh bread or scones.
[Updated on: Fri, 13 February 2009 05:17]
“I have always imagined heaven to be a kind of library.” –Jorge Luis Borges
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11466 is a reply to message #11373 ] |
Thu, 12 February 2009 19:51 |
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Melissa Mead
Messages: 991
Registered: October 2008
Location: Albany, NY, USA |
Senior Member |
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That sounds wonderful. I've always thought that having fruit in one's own yard is the ultimate luxury.
| Erika in Colorado wrote on Wed, 11 February 2009 19:10 |
Hey, Susan, didn't you post a recipe for lemon curd a while back? If you did, I can't find it in Playing with Your Food. If anyone has a good recipe for lemons, I'd love to have it. My mom has an orange, a grapefruit, and a lemon tree (in AZ) and I never am quite sure what to do with a giant bag full of lemons. And yes, Robin, I do plan to use the recipe for lemon tarts of yours.
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Member of Carpe Libris: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11473 is a reply to message #11448 ] |
Thu, 12 February 2009 20:38 |
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Erika in Colorado
Messages: 226
Registered: October 2008
Location: Colorado |
Senior Member |
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| Susan from Athens wrote on Thu, 12 February 2009 16:56 |
Hi Erika I did post it, but it's no trouble to re-post so here it is. Though I say so myself, it is amazingly good (I have tailor made it to go with an egg-whites only chocolate and almond cake so that no eggs go to waste, but here is the lemon curd in and of itself):
Lemon curd
Adapted from several recipes including the one in the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook. Quantities maximized to be made with the Almond and Chocolate cake, as I hate wasting 7 egg yolks.
7 large egg yolks
2 large whole eggs
1 and 1/8 of a cup sugar
¾ cup lemon juice
6 tablespoons butter
grated zest of 3 lemons.
Mix the lemon juice and sugar together and let sit for 5 minutes.
Whisk the eggs and the egg yolks together in a medium bowl. Combine with the lemon juice and sugar and place in a bain marie (double boiler) but with the bottom actually in the boiling water (if you can achieve this). Cook whisking constantly (and I mean stirring and whisking without stopping for an instant) for 8-10 minutes, until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon (i.e. thick and syrupy).
Remove from heat. (if it is lumpy – which it shouldn’t be – whisk some more and pass through a fine sieve), add the butter, a small lump at a time, until smooth. Stir in zest carefully. Place in sterilized jars, cool and refrigerate. Makes 2 big jars.
Hint: this makes a great filling for Victoria Sandwich cake or for lemon tarts, but it is amazing on fresh bread or scones.
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Susan, thank you so much! I knew I'd seen it posted (yea! I didn't hallucinate!). If you don't mind, what exactly is the measurement for the lemon juice?
Erika in Colorado
"A person who's happy will make others happy; a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery!" -Anne Frank
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| Veggie Stuffed Peppers [message #11520 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Fri, 13 February 2009 19:18 |
SusieBirds
Messages: 6
Registered: October 2008
Location: Maine |
Junior Member |
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I had to share this, and you guys were the first group I thought of. I made these without a recipe, just throwing together stuff that looked good, and they came out SO WELL. And they're veggie, which means I have a good entree meal to feed my veggie friends that doesn't feel like a meat-substitute.
Stuffed Peppers of Triumph
4 medium sized red bell peppers (get squat ones, not tall ones)
1/2 dry couscous (cooked in 1c water, no idea final volume, 1C, maybe?)
Some olive oil for sauteeing stuff (2-3T?)
1 large onion, finely diced (use a walla wall sweet or a red)
1/2 cup finely chopped mushrooms
1 large rib of celery, finely diced
1/4 cup finely chopped purple cabbage
2-3 large kale leaves, ripped to little shreds, no stems (you could use spinach or chard for this as well)
1/4 raisins
4 big cloves garlic
1/2 package of cream cheese (or goat cheese if you like)
cumin
dried savory
smoked paprika
red pepper flakes
uh, some other herbs I don't remember
Wash the peppers and neatly cut the tops off, empty and de-seed and de-rib them. Rub *very* lightly with olive oil (a fingerip in some oil will go a long way) and, if possible, fire-roast lightly. If you have a gas stovetop, this is easy - just set the burner on high, and set the pepper down on top of the grate-thingy that holds up the pots (can you tell my voacabulary is gone today?). Rotate every minute or so until the outer skin get blackened in spots and it smells like roasted peppers.
For the stuffing:
Cook the couscous, set aside. You could also use rice, barley, whatever. It was probably 1C cooked total volume.
Sautee onions in olive oil until clear, then add and sautee mushrooms until soft, then add/sautee celery, then cabbage. When it's all cooked down, add a dash of cumin, some dried savory (1tsp maybe?), salt, whatever other herbs you like (I cook by taste with herbs and spices).
When herbed to your satisfaction, mix together with couscous in a big bowl, then press two large cloves of garlic into it. Mix in the raisins and kale while it's still hot, so they get moist/melty/wilty. Set aside.
For cheese mix:
Blend cream cheese with a bit of salt, press two cloves of garlic into it, add dash of red pepper flakes, and I put in a tiny tiny pinch of smoked paprika (that stuff is *very* strong), and add another dash of savory on top. Mix until everything is well blended. You can season this with whatever strikes your fancy - if you were in a hurry, you could even just use a pre-prepped boursin or herbed goat cheese.
To stuff:
Fill each pepper halfway with the stuffing mixture, put in a generous dollop of the cheese mix, then fill the rest of the way with stuffing. Put top back on the pepper.
Put in oven-proof baking dish with a bit of water (1T) in the bottom and bake at 350 for around 20 minutes.
Makes 4. Serve warm, chop open, mix melty cheese into stuffing, consume. Paired with a good salad, it makes an excellent light dinner. Paired with wine and chocolate cake afterwards, even better.
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11690 is a reply to message #11373 ] |
Tue, 17 February 2009 15:55 |
amp15
Messages: 96
Registered: February 2009
Location: Denmark |
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Do you want sweets only, or do you like savory as well? I'm thinking about, Plain salted lemon, Jewish salted lemon, Oil-preserved lemon, etc.
I do have a recipe for a simple and sweet American Lemon Cream and for a slightly more elaborate Danish Lemon Pudding, but I eat so little sugar these days, that I'll need to do some digging for those recipes.
Anette, the Great Dane
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #11694 is a reply to message #12301 ] |
Tue, 17 February 2009 19:08 |
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Susan from Athens
Messages: 817
Registered: October 2008
Location: Athens, Greece |
Senior Member |
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Your wish, o mighty moderator is my command 
Yiouvarlakia (Minced meat and rice balls with an egg and lemon sauce)
My English mother cooks from recipes, while I am inspired by recipes and instructions and cook from inspiration, like my Greek fore-mothers. So this recipe has a little of both: its roots lie in one of the collection of Greek cook books my mother acquired before and after she relocated here in the late sixties, in an attempt to understand her new environment and family, with additions taking into consideration the way my grandmother and aunt cook and what I would now add and change. The original recipe - now very much altered - was in Joyce M. Stubbs': The Home Book of Greek Cookery - A Selection of Traditional Greek Recipes (Faber and Faber, 1963). [In an aside books are rarely now cookery books, they might be books on cooking or eating, but the homely cookery has faded away, I wonder why?] The quantities are sufficient for four people.
400g finely minced meat
2 medium onions, grated, with juices collected and used
2 spring (green) onions, finely chopped
1 large clove of garlic, mashed
half a cup chopped parsley – flat leafed please: curly leaf doesn’t exist in Greece
3 teaspoons chopped mint (Greeks would use diosmos - the closest equivalent is spearmint)
60 g butter
85 g long grain raw rice
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon oregano
For the sauce
2 eggs, separated
juice of one and a half lemons
Place the minced meat, onion, spring onion, garlic, parsley, mint and half the butter into a mixing bowl and knead until well blended. Scald the rice (place a separate bowl and cover with boiling water for five minutes), drain and knead into the mixture. Moisten with vinegar, add the seasoning and oregano and leave in a cool place for thirty minutes or more. Shape into round balls the size of a small egg and arrange in concentric circles in a wide-bottomed saucepan (I use a deep sauté pan). Barely cover with boiling water, pouring it in carefully from the side, so as not to break the meat balls. Add salt and the rest of the butter and press down with a plate, before putting on the pan lid. Simmer for three-quarters of an hour. Whatever happens, don’t stir (you will get a mush) or allow to boil dry. You want enough liquid to make an egg and lemon sauce at the end, i.e. at least half a cup, preferably one cup.
Carefully pressing down on the plate that covers the youvarlakia, so that they can’t move around, and taking care not to burn yourself, drain the juices and keep them simmering in a pan (you can add half a stock cube to this if you want more zing – by all means use an healthy organic one).
Make an avgolemono sauce:
Beat the egg whites to a soft meringue and add the yolks. Add the lemon juice drop by drop (yes, that slowly, otherwise it can curdle and you have to start over). Then slowly add two tablespoons of the broth from the yiouvarlakia. Pour all this into the pan with the remaining juices, stirring slowly. Do this either over a very low heat, or else having the juices very hot. Serve immediately, pouring the sauce over the meat balls, without further cooking. You can sprinkle with additional chopped parsley.
If you have leftovers, store the sauce separately from the yiouvarlakia and reheat gently together.
The recipe is very flexible: you can use olive oil instead of butter, you can increase the lemon juice, or the quantity of herbs used, so long as you can make balls that cohere and a sauce that doesn’t coagulate. I can easily imagine a Thai version of these, with some chile peppers sliced in the meatballs, using coriander instead of parsley and adding coconut milk instead of the avgolemono sauce. In fact, in some ways these are naked dolmades, without any vine leaves. Mum’s book starts with a lovely quote from the Deipnosophists or The Banquet of the Learned, by Athenaeus (ancient forerunner of Julia Child and Delia Smith et al) that is entirely apropos: “For when you write a book on Cookery, it will not do to say: ‘As I was just now saying’; for this Art has no fix’d guide but opportunity, and must itself its only mistress be.”
“I have always imagined heaven to be a kind of library.” –Jorge Luis Borges
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