Thursday, July 8, 2010

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Pyrenees Lamb

Pyrenees Lamb with white wine and paprika sauce (serves 8-10)
from the
MoVida Cookbook


Ingredients

2.5 kg lamb shoulder - ask the butcher to cut into chunky pieces. (You could also use shank, or forequarter chops)
2 tablespoons thyme leaves
150ml olive oil
6 cloves garlic chopped
3 brown onions finely diced
6 bay leaves
7 red capsicums, seed, membrane removed and finely chopped
8 large tomatoes. peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

To make the sauce, heat ¼ cup olive oil in large heavy based saucepan over medium heat and sauté garlic, bay leaves and onion until soft. Reduce heat to low. Add capsicums, cover and cook stirring occasionally for 30 minute or until well softened. Add tomatoes, cover and cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add white wine, and cook 10 minutes. Add 5 and a half cups of hot water and increase heat to high. Once the water is boiling add the paprika, reduce water to low and continue cooking the sauce gently for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Trim lamb of any excess fat and put in a roasting tin. Pour in the sauce to just cover the top of the meat (you will have left over sauce). Cook in the oven for about 2½ hours until meat comes easily off bone. As the lamb cooks, some of the sauce will evaporate, allowing the top of the meat to brown.

I should say the last 3 recipes have been found at scrambledeggs.blogspot.com .
also, this.
Chicken, grape and champagne pie
(serves 4)

40g unsalted butter
3-4 chicken thigh fillets (770g)
2 leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 cup champagne
¼ cup plain flour
11/2 cups chicken stock
1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped tarragon
1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped thyme
½ preserved lemon, flesh removed, rind rinsed and finely chopped
2 tablespoons verjuice
1 cup seedless green grapes

Heat butter in large frying pan until nut brown then add a splash of olive oil. Season chicken with salt then sauté in batches until lightly coloured. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add leeks and garlic to pan and cook over low heat for 5 minutes until soft. Increase heat to high, then deglaze pan with champagne and cook over medium heat until wine has reduced by half. Sprinkle in flour and whisk to combine then add stock and bring to simmer. Add chicken, herbs and preserved lemon and combine, then cook 4-5 minutes. Add verjuice and simmer another 2-3 minutes. Remove chicken from heat, then add grapes and leave mixture to cool completely.

Sour cream pastry
250g plain flour
200g chilled unsalted butter
120ml sour cream

Process flour and butter in food processor until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Gradually add two thirds of the sour cream then enough of the remaining sour cream to help pastry come together to form a ball. Refrigerate at least 20 minutes.

Cut in 2 and roll each piece to 3mm thickness. Line pie tin with one piece. Spoon cooled chicken mixture into pie and top with remaining rolled pastry. Brush with lightly beaten egg. Place pie in fridge to chill before baking for 30 minutes in preheated 220 degree oven.

Hummingbird Cake

I want to make this. It sounds good. And deadly!

Mrs Wiggin's Hummingbird cake
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups salad oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, divided
2 cups chopped bananas

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl; add eggs and salad oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not beat. Stir in vanilla, pineapple, 1 cup chopped pecans, and bananas. Spoon batter into 3 well-greased and floured 9-inch cakepans. Bake at 350 degrees F. For 25 to 30 minutes; remove from pans, and cool immediately. Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with 1 cup chopped pecans. Yield: one 9-inch layer cake.

Cream cheese icing
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 (16 ounce) packages powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine cream cheese and butter; cream until smooth. Add powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Yield: enough for a 3 layer cake.

Mrs. L.H. Wiggins, Greesnboro, North Carolina
"Making the most of bananas," Southern Living, February 1978 (p. 206)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Sour Milk Carrot Cake


  • N and I made this yesterday. We doubled the recipe we were using, and it was fine for a 9x13. It was fairly bland, though, so I adjusted some amounts accordingly. Also, I didn't actually have soured milk, but I had soured heavy whipping cream and half-and-half. Still tastes fine, and the texture is pretty good.

  • 2 c white sugar
  • 4 c all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 tsp (1tbs + 1 tsp) ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 2 tsp ground cloves
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3/4 c vegetable oil
  • 2 c soured milk
  • 2c shredded carrots

  • Combine all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves). Pour in the vanilla, milk and oil. Mix until combined, then add carrots.
  • Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees F for around an hour.

Horseshoes pt 1


This is a fairly obscure folk food made by stacking bread, a meat, a potato product, and a sauce. Most traditionally you use Texas toast, a hamburger patty, french fries, and American cheese sauce.

We had some things lying around the house, so we made it with a hamburger bun, bbq pulled pork, tater tots, and a mixture of swiss and american cheese.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Cornbread

J's Super Special Cornbread Recipe:

2/3 c melted butter
3 eggs
1 2/3 c milk
1/2 c white granulated sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 c flour
1 1/3 c cornmeal
1 1/4 tbs baking powder

Mix all wet ingredients and all dry ingredients, then mix them together.

Preheat both the oven and your pan. Put a tablespoon of butter in each pan and let it melt. This will help give your bread an awesome crust. This recipe makes one 9 1/2 in round pan of cornbread, but I usually double it. Because it's that good.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min or until browned.

Pi Day

Sunday, March 14th: 3/14, or Pi Day.
I had my friend N over and together, she, A, and I made 6 pies of deliciousness.


This was an apple pie that we added a couple strips of bacon to... while a good concept (I think) it just kind of tasted smoky. If we ever do this again, I won't burn the bacon and we'll see how this works. On the bright side, the rest of the bacon went to the BLT sushi.



This was a lemon meringue, which is one of the pies that I make most regularly.
It was good, as always, but we didn't have a zester, so I had to dice the peel, and the chunks were a little big.


This is a key lime pie, which none of us had ever made. Judging by A's enthusiastic acceptance of the results, however, we'll probably start making it more often.

A says: squeezing limes is annoying. I want to get some lime juice next time, rather than "fresh lime juice." I'm a lime philistine, and wouldn't be able to taste the difference. Does anyone else?

J rebuttal: I squeezed the lemons for the LM pie, and while lemons are bigger and therefore more juicy, it only took me about 45 seconds to get what I needed. (The key is to microwave them for 15 seconds, roll them on the table, and then juice them.)

N's apple pie. It was really good. She complained a little about not being able to make her own crust, but all in all not a bad effort. (We made two of these.)

A says: N is hardcore.

J says: She's really hardcore. A very talented baker, and next year when we live together, she is going to make me rotund.

What is the sixth pie?, careful counters will ask. Well, A liked that one soooo much that we'll make it again soon. And it will get its own little post.



Briton Roll


This sushi was so special, it needed its own post. We ran out of traditional sushi things and I still had rice, so A had the great idea of using summer sausage. I combined that with some Branston Pickle that we had, and some cream cheese. While it sounds weird, it was really good. The pickle and the rice went well together, and after that immediate vinegar taste the Yard-o-Beef came into play. The cream cheese helped smooth everything out.

The only thing I'd change in the future is making the sausage into narrower slices. It was kind of hard to roll, especially without a mat like I've been doing. But I was lazy and I didn't want to have to dice up the rest of our sausage just to get long thin strips.

Smoked Salmon and Tuna Salad Rolls

This is a standard tuna salad (mayo, spicy brown mustard, onion/garlic powder) that I added some sesame oil to and rolled with some cucumber. Untoasted sesame seeds on top. All the colors are really light so I feel like the toasted would have looked funny.

Wild-caught Alaskan Smoked Salmon, avacado, cream cheese roll with toasted sesame on top. I tried it again later with cucumber, and I think I like that better. It gives it more crunch.



Monday, March 15, 2010

S'more Cheesecake


This was the first attempt...
Store-bought graham cracker crust coasted with melted Hershey's Special Dark chocolate
Cheesecake filling made of 1/2 tub of pre-made Philidelphia Cheesecake Filling and more melted Hershey's Special Dark.
Topping comprised of marshmallow fluff that we browned with a pastry torch.

The next pie we added more of the marshmallow fluff and it balanced out better. Hint: the fluff will glop evenly on its own, so it's not even worth fighting to spread it out.

BLT Sushi


Made this tonight- each roll has:
3 slices of bacon
1/2 an avocado
toasted sesame seeds
a mixture of 1/2 tbs tomato paste + 1 tbs mayo (to be fiddled with as tomatoes come back into season)
and of course the usual sushi rice.

Where does the L come into it? Garnish. Maybe. Avo is how we do it in CA.

A says: Salt. We used low-sodium bacon on this first attempt, and both avocado and tomato LOVE salt. I sprinkled some on top, and personally felt it was super-er. J say that salt isn't appropriate to add onto sushi. I say: go for it. It is great.