Quick Southwestern Potato Salad
Apr 9
2013
Just jotting this down because I made it up tonight, and it ROCKED. You’re lucky there were leftovers, or there would be nooooo pictures to prove I made it. (;
Quick Southwestern Potato Salad
Serves 2-4
- 12 red creamer potatoes
- 1 large green onion, chopped
- 1/2 a small red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- a small handful of cilantro, minced
- juice of one lemon
- dollop of Best Foods olive oil mayo (use your favorite mayo)
- splash of hot sauce (I used Arizona Gunslinger chipotle hot sauce)
- salt and pepper to taste
Boil the potatoes until fork-tender. While they are boiling, chop the onion and bell pepper, and make the dressing by mixing the garlic, cilantro, lemon juice, mayonnaise, and hot sauce until well-combined.
Drain the potatoes, cool slightly, and chop into quarters. Toss with the onion, bell pepper, and dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.
Tags: potatoes, salad, side dish, vegetarian
BASICS: Creamy Greens Soup
Jan 30
2013
I am being overrun with greens from our CSA. It’s that time of year, it happens. Mark’s not so much a fan of greens as I am, so we end up with more than we can easily eat, sooner or later. What to do with a plethora of greens? Make soup! This recipe is easily adaptable for whatever greens you have, and it’s a snap to throw together.
Creamy Greens Soup
- one large onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- a pile of greens — I used a mix of kale, beet greens, radish greens, and broccoli leaves, stems removed and roughly torn
- chicken broth
- milk
- salt and pepper to taste
In a medium pot (trust me, a big pile of greens shrinks fast), saute the onion in the olive oil and butter until tender. Add the garlic. When it is nicely fragrant, add the greens. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens have wilted. Add enough chicken broth to make the soup look brothy, then splash in some milk — I think I used about two cups of chicken broth and half a cup of milk.
With an immersion blender, puree the soup to your preferred smoothness. Or use a food processor or a blender, working in batches. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and enjoy. Add a little nutmeg if you think it needs it. I thought the radish greens gave it enough pep that it didn’t.
Be aware that beet greens bleed red — if you use beet greens, your soup will not be a pretty green color, but kind of muddy looking. It’ll still taste fantastic.
Tags: beet greens, greens, kale, radish greens, soup, vegetarian
BASICS: Speedy “Baked” Apple
Jan 29
2013
In the winter, I just don’t want to eat cold food. Coupled with the fact that I crave comfort food and I’m trying to cut down from the sugar insanity that is Christmas, it’s nice to have something semi-healthy to fall back on.
Speedy “Baked” Apple (serves 1)
- 1 apple, cut into 8ths and cored
- generous pinch brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. raisins
- a nice sprinkle of poudre douce
- 1 tsp. butter
Put the apple pieces in a microwave-safe bowl. Top with brown sugar, raisins, poudre douce, and dot with bits of butter. Microwave 3-5 minutes depending on the power of your microwave and how cooked you like your apple. Eat with care as it can be like flaming hot lava. Delicious flaming hot lava.
Tags: apple, dessert, side dish, vegetarian
Curry Chicken Pasties
Jan 28
2013
I really did honestly just throw these together out of what was in the house, so your version may not look like my version. That’s fine, it’ll be tasty, trust me. (: I would like these to have a bit more of a creamy filling, but they’re still pretty good just as they are. This makes enough filling for about 12 pasties, pocket-pies, calzones, whatever you call them.
Curry Chicken Pasties
- 1 to 1.5 recipes Sourdough Piecrust
- 1 lb. ground chicken
- olive oil
- 1 small-medium onion, chopped
- about 10 button mushrooms, chopped
- 1/2 c. celery or Swiss chard stems, chopped (I used reconstituted dried celery and chard from my stash)
- 1 hot pepper, minced
- 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric (if you’re using Penzey’s turmeric, use less — it’s strong stuff)
- 1/2-1 tsp ground ginger
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 c. raisins (or more)
- 1/4-3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (depending on how much heat you like)
- salt to taste
- juice of 1 lemon
- generous pinch sugar
- 1/2 tsp. garam masala
- 2 Tbsp. butter
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Saute the onion and celery in a generous splash of olive oil until they start to turn soft and tender. Add the mushrooms, hot pepper, and spices. When the mushrooms are beginning to get tender, add the garlic and the ground chicken. Chop and smash the chicken with a spoon as you cook it to get small pieces. Add a little water to loosen it all up if you need to (the mushrooms will release liquid as they cook, which may be enough), then add the lemon juice, sugar, and raisins. Let cook until the raisins are nice and plump and the chicken is fully cooked. Swirl in the butter, remove from the heat, add the garam masala, and stir well. Taste and add salt or more garam masala if needed. Allow to cool.
Make small balls of the sourdough piecrust, each a little larger than a golf ball. Roll one ball into a round, top half the round with chicken mixture, fold over the other half, and seal it shut with a fork. Cut a vent hole in the top of the pastie with a sharp knife and place it on a cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining pastry balls. You will get about eight pasties with 1 recipe of piecrust, and some chicken left over. You’ll get about 12 for 1.5 recipes of piecrust, and no chicken left over.
Bake the pasties at 350°F for 40 minutes, until golden brown and crisp. They can be frozen and re-heated in the oven to crisp them up — 20 minutes at 350°F for reheating.
Tags: chicken, curry, mushrooms, onions, pastie, pastry, pie, savory pastry
Completely Impromptu Krab Casserole
Aug 17
2012
It’s been hot here. So hot. I haven’t been wanting to cook much, but dang it if I didn’t want to eat at home tonight, and I wanted warm food that wasn’t too heavy. Been eating out way too much lately.
About 45 minutes after raiding the fridge for whatever was in it, I came up with this:
Completely Impromptu Krab Casserole
- Half a large onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Splash of olive oil
- Kernels from 1 ear of corn
- 1/2 lb. krab or real crab, whichever you prefer, chopped
- 1 hot pepper, minced
- 4 Kalamata olives, minced
- Dollop of Lemonaise (or the best other mayonnaise you can get your hands on)
- Dollop of lowfat yogurt
- About a cup of shredded jack and Fontina cheese, divided
- Half a jar of the Desert Pepper Trading Company black bean-corn salsa
- Salt and pepper to taste
To serve: tortilla chips and guacamole (preferably homemade)
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Chop the onions and garlic, and saute in the olive oil until translucent. While those are cooking, cut the kernels off the cob, mince the pepper and the olives, and chop the krab, and place all of them in a medium bowl. Add the onions and garlic. Stir to combine, then mix in the Lemonaise and yogurt and about half the cheese, and season to taste with the salt and pepper. Spread in a greased 8×8″ baking pan.
Top the krab mixture with a layer of the black bean-corn salsa, spreading it over the surface, then top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350°F until the cheese is melted and the casserole is bubbly, about 20 minutes. Serve hot with tortilla chips and guacamole, or roll into tortillas. (Make sure you include the guacamole. The cool creamy taste with the little pops of sweet corn and krab is to die for.)
Serves 4.
Tags: casserole, corn, crab, Improv, krab
Leftovers for Breakfast Pie
Aug 6
2012
I suppose technically, this is a quiche, since it involves eggs and leftover bits and pieces. But I like pie. Mmmm, pie.
Since my stovetop is currently unreliable for simmering, I’ve started baking for breakfast. Or more accurately, baking ahead of breakfast and reheating. Pies are easy to reheat — plop a slice or two on a pie pan, cover with tin foil, set your oven to 350°, pop the pan into the oven, and wait 10-15 minutes. Not quite as good as fresh, but way better than the microwave. The tin foil helps retain the moisture in the crust, so don’t go without it.
This week’s breakfast is using up some meat and mushroom crockpot ragu that I made last week; it’s a recipe from The Italian Slow Cooker by Michele Scicolone. (By the way, it’s an excellent book. Everything I’ve made out of it has been dynamite.) This particular leftover includes ground chuck, Italian sausage, and mixed mushrooms. I’m also using up some poor zucchini that got left in the bottom of the fridge. Such a sad thing — try not to do that to your zucchini. (; The recipe is infinitely flexible; about six cups of cooked mixed meat and veggies, three eggs, some cheese, and a pie crust.
I love making pie crust by hand, but the high around here has been in the 90°s (that’s about 33° for you Celsius people) for the past week, and it’s going to continue for the rest of the week. So hand-making the crust is not very practical right now. Too melty. Fortunately, the food processor is a great tool for making pie crust in the heat, so I’m including the recipe for that as well. Make the pie crust first, and let it chill while you put together the rest of the ingredients.
Food Processor Pie Crust
- 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting
- 1/2 c. white flour
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- generous pinch salt
- 1/4 c. butter, cold
- 1/4 c. bacon drippings, cold (you can use all butter, but I like bacon drippings for meaty pies)
- 2-3 Tbsp. milk
Put the flours, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor, and process just to combine. Cut the butter and bacon drippings into chunks and add to the food processor. Process just until they are incorporated into rough pea-sized bits. With the motor running, add the milk slowly through the feed tube, stopping immediately when the dough gathers itself into a ball. You may need to whip the dripping feed tube out of the processor. Remove the dough from the food processor, wrap it in plastic wrap, and tuck it in the fridge for at least half an hour to chill out.
Leftovers for Breakfast Pie
- 3-4 c. zucchini, small dice (about four small zucchini)
- olive oil
- about 2 c. leftover cooked meat and mushroom ragu, or whatever meaty thing you have left over, well drained
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 c. milk
- 1/2-3/4 c. shredded cheddar, or whatever cheese you like (cheddar was just what I had on-hand)
- salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Saute the zucchini, seasoned with salt and pepper, in a generous splash of olive oil until nicely browned.
This is just about right, could be a little browner
Add the drained ragu and set aside to cool.
Zucchini and meat
Beat the eggs well with the milk, season with salt and pepper, and set aside. Shred the cheddar. Check your pie crust and see if it’s firm enough to handle.
Eggs and cheese
When the pie crust is firm enough to handle, roll it out, dusting with extra whole-wheat flour to prevent sticking.
This entire post is just an excuse to show off my super-awesome Amish-made rolling pin that my Mom got me. (;
Scoop it up with the rolling pin and drape it into the pie pan, and flute the edges however you like. I used a fork because to be honest, I didn’t wait long enough to roll the crust out and it was sticking.
This is a wonderful deep-dish plate that my Auntie Deb gave us for our wedding. If you’re using a standard-size pie plate, you may want to reduce the amount of filling by a cup or two.
Fill the pie with the zucchini-meat mixture and top with half the cheese. Pour the eggs over, then top with the remaining cheese.
All ready for the oven now. I could have put more filling in that if I’d had more leftovers!
Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes, until a sharp knife stuck in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve, or let cool completely, cover, and store in the fridge for breakfast.
Mmmm, yummy!
Tags: breakfast, eggs, leftovers, pie, quiche, zucchini
Malmenye is something I got introduced to many years ago in the SCA, at the first event where I helped in the kitchen. I’d never heard of it then, but it made quite the impression — shredded chicken napped in a rich wine sauce, studded with pine nuts and raisins. And if that wasn’t good enough, it was then put in honey-brushed pie crusts and baked off. Amazing stuff.
When I inquired as to the recipe, I got told that it was in Take A Thousand Eggs or More, by Cindy Renfrow. Aha! thought I — I have those books. It turned out that it was in the second book, which is the one with the translations, but no redactions. Since it’s been over fifteen years and I couldn’t remember exactly how it got made, I ended up re-redacting it myself. And since I loved the recipe, but didn’t want to deal with a million dishes, I took a shortcut, and made it in the crockpot. This is actually a mix of several malmenye recipes; one’s specifically a capon recipe, the others are pottages (think of a pottage as a soft cereal dish, kind of like oatmeal).
Crockpot Malmenye Furnez
- 1 chicken, skinned and cut into 8-10 pieces (I did 10 — the breasts were huge)
- 1 medium onion, chopped (this is in none of the original recipes; it’s my own addition, because I felt the dish was too sweet otherwise)
- 1 c. almond milk (find this at your local health-food store)
- 1 c. good red wine
- 1 Tbsp. poudrefort or poudredouce
- 1/2 c. honey
- 1/4-1/2 c. red wine vinegar
- 3 oz. pine nuts (1 small package)
- 1 c. raisins
- 1/4 c. rice flour
- salt and black pepper to taste
Combine everything except the salt and pepper in a large crock pot. Mix well. The dish will be scary pink right now because of the red wine and red wine vinegar. Do not fret; it will turn a lovely brown color as it cooks. Cook on low 5-6 hours, until the chicken is done and falling-off-the-bone tender. Remove the chicken from the crockpot, shred well, and return it to the rest of the sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.
You can serve it as-is, or serve it in a pie crust. To serve in a pie crust, brush the bottom crust with honey, add the malmenye, cover with a second pie crust, crimp, and bake at 350° until the pie crust is golden. (I’ll admit, I haven’t baked the current batch in a crust — it’s good just plain or over rice.)
You may find that the sauce is not thick enough for your liking; the rice flour clumped in mine because I didn’t stir well enough. If that happens, remove the shredded chicken and sauce from the crockpot and put it in a pot on the stove. Bring to a boil. Make a slurry of equal parts cornstarch and water, and add it to the sauce 1 Tbsp. at a time, allowing it to return to a boil (that’s when the thickening occurs) before you add more.
Easy and delicious. Give it a try — you’ll like it. (:
Tags: chicken, crockpot, medieval, pine nuts, poudredouce, poudrefort, raisins
Extreme Raw Kale Salad My Way
Jun 14
2011
I’ve seen some recipes for raw kale salads floating around on the interwebs, and I’ve tried them, and they were OK, but they weren’t what I wanted today. Today, my body flat-out demanded Raw. Kale. Now. OK, OK, OK, says I. Here you go:
Extreme Italian Kale Salad
Serves 1
- 3 leaves lascianato (dinosaur) kale, stems removed and leaves sliced very thin
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 sprig basil, sliced very thin
- 1 sprig oregano, leaves and buds torn off
- generous amounts salt, pepper, olive oil, and good balsamic vinegar
Combine all ingredients, mix well, and eat. OM NOM NOM. This is insanely good. I might go make seconds.
Tags: kale, salad, vegetarian
Roasted Tomato Panini
May 12
2011
No pictures. I know, I know. I ATE IT ALL, okay? ^_^
This is a great thing to do with leftover ricotta, which I often have, and then dither on what I should do with it. No dithering here! If you want to be luxurious, add a slice of prosciutto to each sandwich, or leftover sliced cooked sausage.
By the way, since I have your rapt attention: it’s one PANINO, two or more PANINI. Not that any of the fast-food places seem to know this or care. (;
Roasted Tomato Panini
Serves 4
- 1 sourdough baguette, sliced into four sections, then sliced in half horizontally (so you get four long sandwich rolls)
- ricotta (a couple tablespoons per sandwich, or more, if you don’t mind your sandwich being gooshy)
- 8 Roma tomatoes, stems removed and each sliced lengthwise in half
- mixed lettuces
- olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, basil, oregano
Preheat the oven to 400°. Place the Roma tomato slices on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, basil, and oregano, and pop in the oven to roast until wrinkled, slightly chewy, and smelling wonderful, somewhere between 40-50 minutes. You can do this step ahead and just pull the tomatoes out of the fridge whenever you need to make sandwiches. They’ll keep for a few days.
Pull out some of the soft inside of the bread. You can save that for making breadcrumbs or croutons or just eat it (which I will admit that I do, sometimes). Toast the bread if you want, or not. It’s good either way. Spread the bread thickly with ricotta, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and top with roasted tomatoes.
Toss the mixed lettuces with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil and place on top of the tomatoes, top with the other half of the bread, and serve immediately.
Tags: ricotta, sandwich, tomatoes, vegetables, vegetarian
I’m working on the brine for March’s Charcutepalooza challenge. The basic challenge is a brined whole chicken or pork chops, the advanced one is a corned beef brisket.
Right now we’re sufficiently meat-ed out, so I’m opting for a basic-and-a-half challenge, and brining a duck. (Yes, this is the one I was originally going to make prosciutto out of, but I just cannot yet find a decent spot to do that, so it’s getting back-burnered until later.)
This is what I’m brining it with:
American Melting Pot Duck Brine
- 5 1/2 quarts water
- 1/2 c. Blend 1776 black tea (maple-strawberry, and safe to overbrew — does not get bitter)
- 1 c. kosher salt
- 1/2 c. maple sugar
- 2 tangerines, squeezed into the pot, rinds added to the pot
- around 30 peppercorns
- about a head of garlic, separated into cloves
- half a large onion, thickly sliced
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 blades of mace
- 1 bunch cilantro (homegrown)
- 1/2 smoked habañero (homegrown)
The duck will go in the brine tonight, get pulled out tomorrow morning, and then be smoked if weather permits, and roasted if not.
0