Coriander and Mint Chutney II

 

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 large bunch fresh chopped coriander
• Approx. 20 mint leaves
• 2 – 5 fresh green chillies – chopped
• Juice of one lime
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Check for seasoning and eat immediately or save for up to three days in the fridge.

Tandoori Chicken

I don't like to grill, but this recipe works just fine when cooked in the oven. 

Any way you wish to cook, the main thing about tandori is the Wonderful Mairnade; and this is a great recipe for it.  I'm a thigh guy and this works with legs as well.

 

(Recipe, Unedited for Grill...)

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

12 chicken thighs skinned and left on the bone

Juice of two lemons

1 tablespoon salt

red food colouring (optional)

2 cups plain yogurt

2 tablespoons garlic puree

1 tablespoon ginger puree

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 green chillies finely chopped

1 bunch of coriander leaves finely chopped

Method:

1. Remove the skin from the chicken thighs.
2. Using a sharp knife, make three slits in each thigh. This is done so that the thighs marinate better.
3. Squeeze the lemon juice all over the chicken thighs and sprinkle with the salt and let sit while you make the marinade. You should also add a couple drops of food colouring at this stage if using.
4. Place all the marinade ingredients in a food processor and blend to a fine paste. Cover the chicken pieces with the marinade and rub it with your hands deep into the flesh of the chicken.
5. Allow to marinaded for six hours or up to 48 hours – the longer the better.
6. When ready to cook, build a log fire in a kettle barbecue for best results. The flavour of the burning wood together with the marinated chicken is phenomenal!
7. You are ready to grill when you can hold your hand two inches above the grill without it being unbearably hot. On a gas barbecue, set the grill to medium high heat.
8. Cook the tandoori chicken turning occasionally until the chicken is cooked through and the edges are blackened.

Note:  If cooking in the oven, set your oven to the highest heat. Place the chicken pieces on a rack and cook for about 25 minutes. Turn the pieces half way through the cooking time. The chicken is ready when the juices run clear when pricked with a fork and the edges are blackened slightly.

Mini Mexican Pizzas

 

 

Wonderfully easy and full of flavor.  Great for T.V. Gatherings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

3-4 large whole wheat tortillas

1 cup lean ground beef, cooked

1/2 cup refried beans

1/2 cup salsa 

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shredded cheese, I used half monterey jack/half cheddar

1 small can sliced black olives 

(Optional for toppings: shredded lettuce, sour cream, salsa, diced tomatoes)

Preparation:

 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Using a 3-4" round cookie cutter, the top of a drinking glass, or the top of an empty metal can, cut twelve circles out of the tortillas.

Spray a 12-count muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Press each tortilla circle into a muffin tin using your fingers.

Mix together cooked ground beef, refried beans, salsa, chili powder, cumin and salt together in a bowl. Scoop 2 tablespoons of filling on top of each tortilla round in the muffin pan. Sprinkle cheese over each mini pizza. Place olives on top of cheese.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted and edges are crispy. Remove from oven. Using a table knife loosen the edges of each pizza from the pan and scoop them out with a fork. Serve immediately with desired toppings.

 

Note: easily multiplied for larger gatherings.

Guacamole 2

Another Template Recipe, and not a heck of alot different than my initial Guac Recipe, but it's a great all-round app, and it's easy to whip up.

Ingredients:

• 4 ripe Haas avocados
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
• 8 dashes hot pepper sauce
• 1/2 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 medium tomato, seeded, and small-diced

Directions:

Cut the avocados in 1/2, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh out of their shells into a large bowl. (I use my hands.) Immediately add the lemon juice, hot pepper sauce, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper and toss well. Using a sharp knife, slice through the avocados in the

Spinach Salad with Pomegranate-Glazed Walnuts

This is one of those "twofer" recipes in which the elements can be useful for other recipes.  In this case, I'm sure to find a use for the Pom walnuts.

Also, it's a great template recipe, but I prefer eggs in mine; so I added 2 hard-boiled (sliced) and doubled the amount of spinach from 5 oz. to 10 when I made it.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pomegranate juice

1 teaspoon sugar

Kosher salt

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

One 5-ounce container baby spinach

4 ounces white button mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced, about 1 cup

3/4 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon good quality extra virgin olive oil

(or use your favorite Italian Dressing)

Directions:

Combine 1/4 cup juice with the sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small nonstick skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reduces slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the walnuts and continue to cook, stirring, until the nuts are coated and dark and the liquid evaporates in the skillet, about another 5 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet to cool. When cool, break apart with your hands.
Meanwhile, soak the red onion in ice water for about 10 minutes; drain and pat dry. Place the baby spinach in a serving bowl and top with the onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and walnuts. In a bowl whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons juice with the vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper, and then whisk in the oil. Drizzle over the salad and toss just before serving.

Moo Shu Pork

  
Wow, did I ever pick the most complicated (and, arguably the best tasting dish) for this week-ends Chinese-Themed Cooking Party.  As if a decent recipe for the pork mixture wasn't enough, I also needed to produce a great pancake to go with it.  I found one moo shu recipe which read well, until I got to the part where it wanted me to use FLOUR TORTILLAS! in lieu of an authentic pancake.  It's a tell, when one sees such a blatant shortcut, which should cause the screen to be killed; which I did.  Finally found the recipe which follows.  I did a "dry run" on this recipe and it is two things I like in a recipe, Great and Easy.  
Thank goodness, other members of my Cooking Clique are contributing to the dinner, for I fear this would be the only thing on the menu if I was running solo.  
(I am making an edit in the recipe in slicking the pork butt into strips, because of the way I like it to lye in the pancake for presentation.)

Here goes:

For pancake dough:

Use the Recipe which Follows.

For the Pork Mixture:
16 ounces pork butt, trimmed and thinly sliced across grain
4 tablespoons light soy sauce
4 tablespoons Shaohsing rice wine
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 ounce dried Chinese black mushrooms (also known as black fungus or wood ear mushrooms; about 2/3 cup)
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon Asian toasted sesame oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

To cook pancakes: (I did used this suggestion)
1 tablespoon Asian toasted-sesame oil
2 tablespoons peanut oil

To cook pork:
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 (1/4-inch) piece fresh ginger, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced on diagonal
8 ounces Napa cabbage, quartered lengthwise, cored, and cut crosswise into 1 1/2-inch triangles (about 5 cups)
4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 English or kirby cucumber, cut crosswise into 2-inch lengths, then thinly sliced lengthwise (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon Asian toasted sesame oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Prep stir-fry:
In large nonreactive bowl, toss together pork, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons rice wine, pepper, and cornstarch. Let marinate 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine dried black mushrooms and boiling water to cover. Let stand until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain, squeezing out excess liquid, rinse to remove any grit, discard stems, and coarsely chop caps. Set aside.
In small bowl, stir together remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, remaining 1 tablespoon rice wine, oyster sauce, and sugar. Set aside.
In small sauté pan over moderate heat, heat sesame oil until hot but not smoking. Add eggs and scramble until softly set, about 1 minute. Transfer to small bowl and set aside.

Cook pancakes:
Keep warm until ready to serve.

Cook stir-fry:
In wok or heavy large sauté pan over moderately high heat, heat peanut oil until hot but not smoking. Add ginger, garlic, half of scallions (reserve remainder for garnish), and pork and stir-fry until pork is cooked through and caramelized, about 5 minutes. Add black mushrooms, cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, and cucumber and stir-fry until vegetables are tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs and soy sauce-rice wine-oyster sauce mixture and stir-fry until heated through, about 1 minute.
Transfer to serving bowl and garnish with remaining scallions. To serve, divide pork mixture among pancakes and roll up to enclose mixture.

 The Best RecipeLink for the Pancakes I can find. 

At any rate, it worked and it wasn't complicated.

Google's Blogger having trouble with uploading photos...

Having to change my posts' format to accomodate that "bug" at Google which restricts photo insertion feature.  Not being able to upload and easily insert images doesn't make me a happy camper.
Sure, it's still one of the two best Blog Formats around (Tumblr, anyone?), but c'mon.

(okay, I'm over my protest, now on to blogging)

Meat Loaf and Roasted Plum Tomatoes

This recipe from The Foothills Cuisine of Balckberry Farm.
Delicious yet humble, meat loaf was usually made with bits of whatever scraps of meat were left over from previous preparations and meals, and it was often extended with bread crumbs.
Mountain families canned as many tomatoes as possible during the summer so that when winter came, they could reach into the pantry and pull out a jar of “put-up” summer. If you lack a similar supply, reach for a can of store-bought good-quality plum tomatoes.

For the meat loaf:

1 tbsp. flavorful fat such as bacon fat or butter, or grapeseed oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1½ lb. ground beef
8 oz. bulk pork breakfast sausage
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¾ cup sour cream or crème fraîche
1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp. ground mace
2 ½ tsp. garlic powder
¼ cup fresh bread crumbs
1 tbsp. heavy cream
Mushroom Ketchup (recipe link) , for glazing and serving

For the roasted tomatoes:

2 tbsp. pork fat or other flavorful fat
12 whole canned peeled Italian tomatoes, drained
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 3-inch fresh thyme sprigs
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

To prepare the meat loaf, in a medium skillet, heat the fat over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape into a large bowl and let cool. Add the beef, sausage, eggs, sour cream or crème fraîche, Worcestershire, mace, garlic powder, bread crumbs, and cream and mix thoroughly but gently, without overly compacting the meat.

On a rimmed baking sheet, mound the meat mixture into a loaf that is about 10 by 5 inches.

Bake until the center of the loaf registers 150°F on a meat thermometer, 40 to 50 minutes; about 15 minutes before the end of cooking, brush some of the mushroom ketchup over the top of the meat loaf (and begin the tomatoes; see the next step). Remove the meat loaf from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 450°F. Let the loaf rest for at least 10 minutes.

To prepare the roasted tomatoes, in a large ovenproof skillet, heat the fat over medium-high heat until it sizzles. Add the tomatoes, turn to coat them in the fat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and arrange them in a single layer. Tuck the thyme sprigs and garlic among the tomatoes.

Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast until the tomatoes are very soft and lightly charred on the bottoms, 10 to 12 minutes. Discard the thyme and garlic. Serve hot.

To serve, slice the meat loaf and arrange on warmed plates with the tomatoes alongside. Pass the ketchup.

Cocktail Polska Kielbasa

Friend Brenda shared this appetizer with me. 

Great Recipe for the upcoming Bowl Games!

Ingredients:

2 Lbs. Kielbasa , cut into 1/4 or 1/2 inch slices

1 - 18 oz, jar Apple Jelly

1 - 9 oz. jar Prepared Mustard (yellow or dijon)

Prepearation:

Mix jelly and mustard in crock pot.

Add kielbasa and mix to coat.

Set cooker on low and cook 2 hours, stirring ocassionaly.

Note: Can also be made with cocktail smokies.

Mushroom Ketchup

When we consider ketchup, we tend to think only of the sweet-and-tangy tomato-based concoction. Yet ketchups have in fact been around for a long time, and other varieties—notably mushroom and walnut—preceded the now ubiquitous tomato ketchup by at least one hundred years. Ketchup originated in China—early versions of the table sauce were based on pickled fish—and made its way with explorers and traders back to Europe, eventually arriving in the New World colonies. The combination of acidity, sweetness, spice, and heat played right into the burgeoning Southern palate.
Over time the tomato became the preferred main ingredient in American ketchup, but I love variations, like this one, that hark back to ketchup's earliest incarnations. Preparing it at home reminds me that it is more similar to classic pickling than it is to sauce making. Note that some of the mushrooms must sit overnight so that they soften sufficiently.

Ingredients:

1 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. natural cane sugar
½ lb. button mushrooms, coarsely chopped, plus 1/2 cup sliced button mushrooms
2 oz. dried shiitake mushrooms
1 tbsp. kosher salt
1 whole allspice
¼ tsp. whole fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 cinnamon stick
1½ tsp. grapeseed or canola oil
½ medium onion, thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp. sorghum

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan, bring the vinegar, 3 cups water, and the cane sugar to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the 1/2 lb. chopped mushrooms and dried shiitakes. Cover and let sit at room temperature overnight.

In a large saucepan, stir together the sliced mushrooms, salt, allspice, fennel seeds, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, cinnamon stick, and 2 cups water. Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and let sit, covered, for 30 minutes. Strain through a chinois or fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the solids to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids and set aside the mushroom stock.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until very soft and caramelized, about 15 minutes. Add the reserved mushroom stock and stir with a spatula to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the reserved mushrooms with their liquid and the sorghum.

Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to medium low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until all but about 1 cup of the liquid cooks away, about 2 hours. Discard the bay leaf.

Pureé the mixture in a blender, in batches if necessary. Add a little water if necessary to keep the mixture moving. Let cool to room temperature. Transfer to an airtight container, cover, and refrigerate for up to 1 week