Home » Discussion Forums » Playing With Your Food » Recipes and comments, October - December 2008, archived
| Re: Recipe Thread [message #6551 is a reply to message #6327 ] |
Mon, 01 December 2008 17:52  |
Piankatank
Messages: 35
Registered: October 2008
Location: Virginia, USA |
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I don't use any fat at all, it cuts down on the guilt of having sugar in a "sorta" vegetable dish.
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #6552 is a reply to message #6327 ] |
Mon, 01 December 2008 17:54  |
Piankatank
Messages: 35
Registered: October 2008
Location: Virginia, USA |
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| AJLR wrote on Fri, 28 November 2008 04:04 |
Thanks, Piankatank, that looks like an interesting one. Do you use anything in place of the butter, or just not use any fat at all?
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I don't use any fat at all, still tastes good to me and cuts down on the guilt of the sugar calories.
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #6778 is a reply to message #6552 ] |
Wed, 03 December 2008 09:41 |
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 Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
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I have bought sweet potatoes today, but will either use them in a casserole, or just plain roasted or mashed. I don't think I should like them sweetened in any way; despite their name they are, to me, very much a vegetable (and I don't believe I should care for a sweetened version served with the meat course, although, paradoxically, I do like cranberry sauce or blackberry-and-apple jelly with meat!). Are they eaten all year round in the USA, or just at Thanksgiving?
[Updated on: Wed, 03 December 2008 09:41]
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #6806 is a reply to message #6783 ] |
Wed, 03 December 2008 18:22 |
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Kathy_S
Messages: 313
Registered: October 2008
Location: Indiana |
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| shalea wrote on Wed, 03 December 2008 11:13 |
| Mrs Redboots wrote on Wed, 03 December 2008 09:41 |
...Are they eaten all year round in the USA, or just at Thanksgiving?
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Depends on where you are and what's available, I imagine. In this part of the country (where most of them are grown), sweet potatoes are available and eaten year 'round. Baked or roasted or mashed are all good, and a touch of cinnamon and/or butter are good even if you don't want to sweeten them. I will say I'm not big on sweets outside of desert either and I still enjoy them with a bit of brown sugar sometimes.
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They're around pretty much all year where I live, too. However, the extravagant candied versions are only for special occasions. Most of the time they're in the look-at-all-the-beta-carotene, good-for-you category. In addition to all of the plain sweet potato dishes, you find them brightening up casseroles, or incorporated into unlikely cuisines. Chicken and peppers and sweet potatoes and curry type spices served over rice is one I remember. Someone once even served them as Japanese tempura, very nice.
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #6966 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Thu, 04 December 2008 20:58 |
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7046 is a reply to message #6819 ] |
Fri, 05 December 2008 15:23 |
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Ooh yeah, I love sweet potato tempura! I always go for it first... >.>
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7447 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Tue, 09 December 2008 20:19 |
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Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
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It's just the sort of night for making one of my favorite winter dishes; while I'm waiting for it to finish stewing, figured I'd share it with y'all...
Chicken Nabe (Tori age-nabe)
This is basically like a chicken soup or stew; I serve it over rice, and the great thing about it is the ingredients are pretty flexible. Don't like something I put in? Substitute something else you like better! My version bears only passing resemblance to the recipe I originally got from the Chicago Tribune food page about 10 years ago. So fiddle around with it!
What you need:
LIQUIDS--
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 cups water
3/4 cup soy sauce (low sodium, if you've got it)
a pinch of sugar, dissolved in the above
SOLIDS--
1-1.5 lb of chicken thigh meat, cut up in chunks and rolled in flour
2 packets of bonito flakes--this is basically dried mackerel, in tiny flake form. You can also buy it as powder. It's available at Japanese markets or anyplace with a good Japanese food section.
8-12 fresh shitake mushrooms, in bite size pieces
half a head of bok choy, or several baby bok chois, cut up bite size
2 shallots, chopped (it's theoretically supposed to be onion, but I don't like onion all that much)
6 carrots, chopped in bite size pieces
Anything else you like--peppers, tofu, whatever.
Heat a little olive oil in a medium sized dutch oven. Stir fry your chicken pieces til they're browned and no raw bits showing.
Add all the liquids and the bonito. Bring it back up to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Scrape up any bits of chicken on the bottom of the pan.
Add in the veggies that will need longer cooking--mushrooms, carrots, etc. Put the lid partly on the dutch oven, and let it simmer for 6-7 minutes.
Add in the bok choi and shallots, and let that cook for another 6-7 minutes. Check to see if the carrots are tender yet. As soon as they are, turn the heat off and serve it hot in a bowl with rice. This'll serve 3-4 people easily, but you can expand or contract it as needed.
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7518 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Wed, 10 December 2008 15:48 |
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Oh that sounds good. Yum.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Sweet potato and bean stew [message #7618 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Thu, 11 December 2008 07:54 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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I'm not sure where one would get bonito flakes in this country, and, sadly, I can't digest mackerel... or many oily fish, for that matter (thank goodness I can still digest salmon and trout!).
This is one of my favourite sweet potato recipes, which I made earlier in the week. Vegan; dairy- and gluten-free, but contains peanuts. Serves four, with a green vegetable or two on the side.
2-3 medium-sized sweet potatoes
1 large onion
2-3 cloves of garlic (optional, but I'm one of those who think you can never have too much garlic!)
1 red or yellow sweet pepper
1-2 chilli peppers, depending on strength
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin aduki or other red beans
Seasoning to taste, including vegetable stock powder
2 tbs peanut butter
Roasted peanuts or cashew nuts for sprinkling
Peel and chop onion. I always give my onions 3 minutes in the microwave, but you could give them 20 minutes in a little olive oil on top of the stove instead.
Peel potatoes, and cut into bite-sized chunks; cut the sweet pepper into strips, chop the chillis and crush or chop the garlic. Drain and rinse the beans.
Put all the above into a slow cooker, add the tin of tomatoes and just enough water to come to the top of the pile. Season and stir vigorously, then leave to cook on "auto" for at least 5 hours. If you don't have a crock-pot or slow cooker, give it 3 hours in the bottom of a very slow oven, but it's apt to go a bit mushy if you do, I find (I have cooked this recipe this way when making double-quantity for a church lunch).
When ready to serve, put your peanut butter into a bowl, add 2 tbs of the cooking liquid and stir vigorously until it dissolves down. Now add this back into the casserole and stir.
Serve sprinkled with peanuts or cashew nuts, and a green vegetable on the side. Utterly delicious, and of course, you can make it in the morning and it will wait until you're ready to eat int he evening.
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7659 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Thu, 11 December 2008 16:26 |
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Two words--sweet potatoes.*shudders*
Sorry, it's not you, Mrs. Redboots, it those horrible things...
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7709 is a reply to message #7659 ] |
Fri, 12 December 2008 00:00 |
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Creek
Messages: 44
Registered: October 2008
Location: Valencia, CA |
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| ssshunt wrote on Thu, 11 December 2008 16:26 |
Two words--sweet potatoes.*shudders*
Sorry, it's not you, Mrs. Redboots, it those horrible things...
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I agree completely!! They are horrid!
"remember, it's called a play... that means you should PLAY"
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7723 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Fri, 12 December 2008 09:14 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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I should think they would be with nasty marshmallows on top, but I like them as a vegetable.
I'm having them again tonight, roasted, with other veg like butternut squash, mushrooms, sweet pepper, carrots and parsnip (so you could happily leave out whatever of that lot you didn't like), and served with the following curry sauce (and probably rice, since what is a curry without rice?):
1 onion, chopped
As many cloves of garlic as you like
1 apple, cored and chopped
1 banana, peeled and chopped
1 tbs olive oil
1 tin tomatoes
1 tsp honey
2 heaped tsp curry powder - I like a Madras blend, but Balti works well; it wants to be a fairly hot one, though, for this curry
Other seasoning to taste
Put oil in saucepan, add curry powder and cook for a few seconds. Then add onion, garlic, apple and banana, and cook for a few minutes, stirring all the time. Add tomatoes, honey and any other seasoning you fancy, and a little boiling water if it's too stiff. Allow to cook for about 15 minutes. Then whisk with a hand blender until smooth.
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7734 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Fri, 12 December 2008 13:04 |
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ArtfulMagpie
Messages: 34
Registered: November 2008
Location: Chicago area |
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Mrs. Redboots, I'll be the dissenting voice and say that slow-cooker sweet potato recipe you posted sounds lovely!
Here's something I made recently. It was my husband's birthday, and he requested "white cake...or yellow cake...or, is there such a thing as like, banana cake?" Which of course there is, but it's more like banana-bread texture than cake texture, which wasn't what he wanted.
Soooo I compromised and made a yellow cake from a very basic recipe, but I made a banana icing from scratch! It came out very very tasty...sweet and with a hint of banana-y-ness. The longer it sits, the more the banana flavor comes out, though. And it was really quite simple!
* 1/4 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup mashed bananas (which came out to being about a banana and a half when I made it)
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Cream together butter, banana, lemon juice and vanilla.
2. Slowly beat in confectioners' sugar, adding more if needed to make a nice fluffy, spreadable icing.
Makes about 2 1/3 cups.
[Updated on: Fri, 12 December 2008 13:05]
"...nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library."
— Robertson Davies
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7826 is a reply to message #7738 ] |
Sat, 13 December 2008 10:44 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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| Melissa Mead wrote on Fri, 12 December 2008 20:25 |
(Chili powder makes a nice twist, but adds salt.) Drizzle the mixture onto the popcorn. Stir until the popcorn turns golden. Enjoy!
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I would have thought you would get far more salt from the butter than from chilli powder, which is just powdered chillis. You could use chilli flakes from a mill, though.
Also, although I am sure you can get it flavoured with horseradish, Colman's mustard powder is just that - mustard powder, with perhaps something to keep it powdery. Try 1/4 teaspoonful in a cheese sauce, next time you are making one!
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Cheese pudding [message #7828 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Sat, 13 December 2008 10:54 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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Here's the recipe for the cheese pudding I mentioned in the other thread:
Serves 2
4 slices wholemeal bread, crusts removed, spread thinly with butter.
60 g strong cheese, grated
300 ml milk
2 eggs
Seasoning: salt, pepper, garlic powder.... whatever.
Put 2 slices of the bread butter side up in an oven-proof bowl, sprinkle with half the cheese. Put the other two slices on top, and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Whisk the eggs, milk and seasoning together and pour over the bread and cheese. Bake in a moderate oven (gas 4-5, 185 C) for 45 minutes.
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7830 is a reply to message #7826 ] |
Sat, 13 December 2008 11:59 |
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Melissa Mead
Messages: 990
Registered: October 2008
Location: Albany, NY, USA |
Senior Member |
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| Mrs Redboots wrote on Sat, 13 December 2008 10:44 |
| Melissa Mead wrote on Fri, 12 December 2008 20:25 |
(Chili powder makes a nice twist, but adds salt.) Drizzle the mixture onto the popcorn. Stir until the popcorn turns golden. Enjoy!
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I would have thought you would get far more salt from the butter than from chilli powder, which is just powdered chillis. You could use chilli flakes from a mill, though.
Also, although I am sure you can get it flavoured with horseradish, Colman's mustard powder is just that - mustard powder, with perhaps something to keep it powdery. Try 1/4 teaspoonful in a cheese sauce, next time you are making one!
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The chili powder I have is a store-bought blend that includes things like cumin and salt too.
I suppose you could use unsalted butter.
Member of Carpe Libris: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7841 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Sat, 13 December 2008 16:57 |
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I do love cumin!
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7926 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Sun, 14 December 2008 10:17 |
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AJLR
Messages: 2566
Registered: September 2008
Location: England, UK |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
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Spurred by the fact that it's a chilly and rather grey Sunday afternoon here, I offer the following very simple recipe. A slice (with or without a little butter) will make any grey day seem brighter. 
Bran Tea Loaf
Ingredients
All Bran (the breakfast cereal from Kelloggs - I'm assuming this is widely available? If you can't get it, use ordinary bran but only about 3/4 of the quantity. It doesn't work with Bran Flakes - not enough bran in that)
Dried mixed fruit
Sugar (any granulated type is fine)
Milk (I use semi-skimmed but any type is fine)
Self-raising flour (or plain/all-purpose flour with a rounded tsp of baking powder to a mug-full)
To make a mixture that slightly more than half fills a 2 lb loaf tin, you will need an average-sized (half a pint or 10 fl oz) coffee mug of each of the above ingredients.
Put a mug-full of All Bran and a mug-full of milk together into a good-sized mixing bowl and leave to soak for an hour (needs slightly less soaking time if you're using skimmed milk). Grease the loaf tin (or any other baking/cake tin of approximately the same capacity) well - this really does need to be well greased and I've found butter works much better than oil. After the All Bran has reduced to mush in the milk, add all the other ingredients and stir well. Pour the mixture into the baking tin and put into the middle of an oven, pre-heated to 200 degrees C (gas mark 6), for an hour, checking from 45 minutes onwards if you're using a tin that allows the mixture to spread out more than a loaf tin will. It's done when the top is firm to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.
This will keep for 4 days if kept well-wrapped (not that it usually has a chance to, around here...)
"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7933 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Sun, 14 December 2008 13:35 |
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I kept wondering where the tea in the recipe was...
You know my dad was Irish, second generation. Everyday when he got home at 3:30 pm everything stopped for tea. As I got older I was included in the ritual (which I didn't know was a ritual). I always had a little cream in my tea and dad would tease me for drinking it "like a bleedin' Englishman."
I think I was 18 before I realized that not everyone in Texas stopped for tea in the middle of the afternoon and figured it all out.
Now that I am married to a Frenchman, we stop for a bit of wine. And sometimes I have tea.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7956 is a reply to message #7926 ] |
Sun, 14 December 2008 17:20 |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2594
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
Senior Member
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Wow. That recipe is nearly identical to the one that we have in the show schedule. (And I have won that class for a few years now... hehe)
Fruit Loaf
1/4 cup milk powder
3/4 cup sultanas
1 cup All Bran
1 cup chopped apricots
3/4 cup raw (granulated) sugar
1 1/4 cups water
1 1/2 cups wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon (when I am not making a show cake I add more)
Combine milk powder, water, sultanas, All Bran, apricots and sugar. Stand for 2 hours. Stir in sifted flour and cinnamon. (Let's face it - wholemeal flour doesn't really sift. So I don't.) Spoon mixture into a greased, lined 23cm x 13cm loaf pan, bake at 180C, 55-60 minutes until cooked.
I find it keeps very well. Easily a week + in a cool dark place in an airtight container. Well it would.... if it didn't vanish really quickly. It's a very handy recipe if you have someone who can't have eggs.
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Recipe Thread [message #7968 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Sun, 14 December 2008 18:44 |
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I have lost my recipe for shrimp creole. Sob. After Christmas I will make it from another recipe I have, and experiment with what I remember from the old recipe. It was one of those "reduce by half" recipes that took a while, but was delicious. Wah.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Bird's Nest Cookies [message #8157 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Wed, 17 December 2008 02:15 |
Marian
Messages: 3
Registered: December 2008
Location: Vancouver, BC |
Junior Member |
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Helloo,
I've been getting some appreciable action, lately, out of the playingwithyourfood section of the blog, so I thought I'd offer up my own most worn-in recipe.
This is what I make most frequently when I feel like I need to bake something for person/event x but can't afford to try anything new and therfore possibly disasterous. They are demanded every month by the little old ladies in my mother's bridge group (unless that's just her way of getting me to make them). Anyway, that being the case, these are also what I make most often around Christmas, and the association has stuck. The recipe is a (very) much adulterated version of tea cookies that my grandmother used to bake (I was only allowed one cookie at a time, which is another reason why I bake them whenever I have an excuse).
1/2 cup butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar (preferably 1/2 brown well packed, and 1/2 white)
1 tbsp milk or cream
1 cup flour (sifted if you have the patience, which I almost never do)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup quick oats (or slow oats, blitzed to a similar consistency in your food processor or brave coffee grinder)
1/4 cup - 2/3 cup of shredded coconut, depending on your threshold for the stuff (and not dessicated, if possible)
1/4 cup of ground nuts. I like hazelnuts best. (optional)
icing sugar for dusting
good raspberry jam for nesting (I like a tart jam with these - something where sugar is the second ingredient. Although a jar of homemade is obviously ideal, for those who are lucky enough to have Aunt Mildred bottling away all year long.
Preheat your oven to 350, and butter a couple of pans (or pans with parchement on them - in which case still butter the parchement)
-Cream the butter.
-Beat in the egg, then the vanilla, then the sugar, then the milk/cream.
-Add the flour and the baking powder and soda in three or four stages, until it's nice and smooth-like.
(if you were mixing electric up until this point, then switch to a fork or whatever you like best - I just go fork all the way, myself)
-Add the oats, then the coconut and the ground nuts.
-When everything is mixed, drop by mounded spoonfuls onto your trays. Depending on how buttery you were willing to get, or not get, these can either stick pretty close to the shape you dropped them in, or flatten and expand. Allow some room in any case, and let the first round be your guide.
-My enthusiastic oven cooks these in as little as six minutes, but maybe 8-10, depending. Until they're turning pale gold at the edges.
-Right out of the oven, push a little finger indent into each of them while still soft.
-Switch over to racks when they're sturdy enough not to fall apart, and when they're entirely cool, dust icing sugar over them artfully, and put about a teaspoon or so of jam into each of your indents.
Obviously these can be done without jam at all. They're also good with raisins, without (or still with) the coconut, with a teaspoon of cinnammon, etc.
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| Rum Truffles [message #8465 is a reply to message #9226 ] |
Sat, 20 December 2008 14:21 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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I actually have two recipes for this - no, three (one is chestnut chocolate truffles, and can be found here).
For the first recipe, you make a ganache with about twice as much dark chocolate as whipping (heavy) cream. A good cooking chocolate is best. And of course the alcohol of your choice. You heat the cream up almost to the boil and melt the chocolate, which you have broken into its component squares and NOT eaten any of en route, into it.
For the second recipe, you make a chocolate butter icing - twice as much icing sugar as butter, plus cocoa powder, plus the alcohol of your choice. Cream it all together.
In terms of alcohol, despite its name, rum isn't the best choice; I prefer brandy or, better still, Vana Tallinn, but some people like Cointreau or Amaretto or - well, whatever you do like, really, but Robin - it's an awful waste of good Laphrohaig!
Anyway, you let your ganache or butter icing solidify in the fridge for a few hours, and then you roll teaspoon-sized amounts into little balls, roll in a bit of cocoa powder, and store in a plastic tin between sheets of greaseproof paper. Actually, I usually get my husband to do this bit, or not a lot would get in the tin, and anyway, I can never resist licking my fingers (it is a seriously messy job!).
[Updated on: Sat, 20 December 2008 14:22]
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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