Tasty Tuesday; Pistachio-Coriander Stuffed Chicken

A member of my writers' group posted this the other day, and it looked so fantastic that I thought I'd share it with you, too. I haven't tried it yet, mainly because I don't have pistachios or coriander or feta cheese in stock, but I think that might have to change.

We'll see if Haggen (the big local grocery) has coriander in its awesome new bulk spice rack, where if you only need a few teaspoons of something, you can buy a few teaspoons instead of a whole jar. I'm loving that spice rack—it means I can try out things that before were $9.99 or nothing.

Here's the link: Pistachio-Coriander Stuffed Chicken

Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday: Lamb Korma

"Well..." A whole evening in Granville's hands--it was a daunting prospect.

"Now don't mess about, Jim. You know, there's a wonderful Indian restaurant in Newcastle. Zoe and I would love to take you both out there. It's about time we met your wife, isn't it?"

"Yes... of course it is... Indian restaurant, eh?"

"Yes, laddie. Superb curries--mild, medium or blast your bloody head off."

--Jim Herriot, All Things Wise and Wonderful

I thought of that quote over Christmas, when Lou's family went out to an Indian restaurant in celebration of Lindsey's birthday. The available degrees were mild, medium, hot, and Indian hot. Not being overly brave in the hot pepper department, I ordered mild lamb korma. And I don't know what they call mild in India, but in all my life I can only remember one dish that might have been more impossibly cayenned.

A couple of days later, I heated up the leftovers with a lot of Greek yogurt and honey. Underneath all that fire was a fantastic flavor. I resolved then to try making it at home, where the flames shouldn't get out of hand.

Here's the link to the most appealing and do-able version I came across: Lamb korma

It looks excellent. I'm not a very passionately authentic chef, and I'll probably substitute butter for the ghee, black pepper for the peppercorns, and ground cinnamon for the cinnamon stick. Perhaps even beef for the lamb, as the latter runs expensive around here. But it should taste good all the same.

Maybe I'll look for cardamom and saffron next time I'm at the grocery, and give it a go.

Tasty Tuesday [Rerun]: Shepherd's Pie

The hostess of Tasty Tuesdays is off enjoying her Christmas vacation, so today you get a re-run. But the re-run comes with a couple of improvements, as marked below. Thanks to my sister Beth for recommending the corn.

If you need a good, hearty, quick dinner in this first week of catching up after vacation, this ought to satisfy.

Easy Shepherd's Pie

1 lb ground beef or lamb
1 can green beans
1 can corn [improvement!]
5-6 medium mushrooms, diced [improvement!]
2 cans mushroom soup
1/2 small/medium onion, chopped
Thyme
Garlic powder
Mashed potatoes, prepared however you like them
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Season the ground beef with thyme and garlic powder and brown over medium heat on stove. Add onions and mushrooms and continue cooking till the onions begin to turn clear.

Remove from heat and stir in mushroom soup (do not add water.) Drain the green beans and corn and stir those into the beef and soup mixture.

Top with dollops of mashed potatoes and sprinkle cheese over everything. Bake about 15 minutes or until cheese and soup bubble.

Tasty Tuesday: Fruitcake

Fruitcake has such a lousy reputation that even I laugh when Uncle Vernon tries to knock in a nail with a piece of Aunt Petunia's. And I'll admit, I've had fruitcakes I didn't like. Nearly every one, in fact.

But if nobody you know likes fruitcake, it's because they've never had this one. The only bad thing about this recipe is how difficult it is to crack the Brazil nuts. You can find every other nut shelled, but not the rock-hard Brazils. Honestly, has nobody invented a machine to do this?

Fruitcake

1/2 lb Brazil nuts
1/2 lb pecans
1 lb candied cherries
1 lb dates
1 lb walnuts

1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cooking sherry

Mix dry ingredients and add fruits and nuts.

Beat egg yolks with vanilla and sherry and add to main mixture.

Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into the mix just before putting in oven.

Bake 1 hour at 300 degrees, in greased and floured loaf pans.

Tasty Tuesday: Honest-to-Goodness Michigan Pasties

This recipe comes to you courtesy of my good friend Sarah, who sometimes comments here. During a chat over lunch, she told me about the classic pasties everybody in Michigan makes. Seattle, I have news for you. That tradition tastes good here, too.

As a general rule, based on childhood experience, I do not eat rutabaga. Not being aware of that fact, Sarah emphasized the importance of the rutabaga to the rest of the recipe, and either she's extraordinarily persuasive or I'm an easy sell or both, because I got myself down to the store and for the first time in my adult life, bought one (once I'd successfully differentiated the rutabagas from the parsnips).

Sarah's right. You'll want to include the rutabaga.

Here's the recipe, as I worked it out from her directions. She and I both tend to be sort of cooks who—well, as she put it: "...just wing it and make note of everything you would do different the next time and then by about the 3rd time you have pure perfection. :)"

Good enough for me. I've tried to make some guess as to measurements for the sake of those of you who are not the type to wing a new recipe. Best of luck. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

Authentic Michigan Pasties

Pie crust (I'd suggest enough for two double-crust nine-inch pies)

Ground beef or finely chopped flank steak, uncooked
Carrots, potatoes, onions, rutabaga, chopped to about dime size
Salt and pepper to taste

In measurements: I used about 2/3 rutabaga, maybe 1/3 medium onion, a couple of medium-sized baker potatoes and two or three carrots to perhaps a pound and a half of ground beef.

Roll out the pie crust according to how large you want your pasties (I think the general idea is eight- or nine-inch pie crusts)

Mix the beef and vegetables together, all raw, and place in the center of each rolled-out piece of pie crust. Fold the crust over and crimp the edges (this can be done along the top or the side.)

Bake at 375 degrees for... Sarah's original directions said two hours, but I knew that in my enthusiastic little oven they'd be blacker than the leather cover of an old KJV by then. I made them half-size and only baked them 45 minutes. That worked beautifully.

Tasty Tuesday: Potato Moussaka

[Have you entered to win a free book yet? If not, you can do that here.]

All right, I admit it: A lot of the time I cook simply. Half-hour chilis with fewer than ten ingredients. Beef-bean-and-cheese burritos. Chicken enchiladas with canned mushroom soup.

Every now and then, however, I go to cooking with a little more artistry and respect. Because as Leopold says, in a romantic comedy that I found likeable if somewhat forgettable, "It is said that without the culinary arts, the crudenesses of life would be unbearable."

Hear, hear. So on Sunday night, I made potato moussaka. Which has made an appearance in another romantic comedy, in which slender blonde girls with Wonder Bread sandwiches make fun of six-year-old Toula Portokalos for having "moose kaka" for lunch. Really makes you want to eat it, doesn't it? But I promise you that this is worlds better than a Wonder Bread sandwich.

Once again, I'm not sure how copyrights work on internet-posted recipes, so for the sake of the law, I'll just link it: Mousakas Patates. You'll want that page for its serving suggestions and such, anyway.

Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Garlic. Allspice. Béchamel sauce. Potatoes and ground beef and cheese... It's definitely worth the prep time. Enjoy.

The Finish Line

11/30/2010 12:12 PM
50,909 words

I could have validated a little earlier, I suppose, perhaps being second instead of third of my writing buddies to make it to goal. But I had my heroine in a tight spot (cue Ulysses Everett McGill: "Damn! We're in a tight spot!") and couldn't stop writing until she got safely out of it.

Now I can breathe. And so can she—for a little while.

Of those 50,909 words, approximately 30,600 are part of the current draft. It's something to start with, now that I can cut the scrapped parts into a separate document and delete stupid sentences instead of just striking them out. Won't that be a relief.

Today is supposed to be Tasty Tuesday. Let's see... if I want to celebrate, what should I make? Maybe the guiltless, faultless family chocolate chip cookie recipe. Oh, and Farmer's City Wife wants fudge recipes, so if you have one, do go share it with her.

Tasty Tuesday... sort of

This being Thanksgiving week, I tried to think of something from the holiday table to post for a Tasty Tuesday recipe. The only problem: My specialty, as it were—the thing I am asked to bring to both my parents' and Lou's every Thanksgiving (and usually every Christmas, too)—is green bean casserole. And you can find the recipe for that on the can of fried onions.

A couple of tips, though: Add a little soy sauce, if the recipe doesn't already call for it. I used French's onions last time, and I don't think their recipe did. Durkee's might. (I have no preference between brand of onions, if you're wondering.) But definitely add it. Maybe 1 or 1 1/2 teaspoons per recipe. I never measure.

Also, I suggest going easy on the milk. I guarantee I don't come near the 2/3 cup recommended. Mushroom soup has a good strong flavor when not over-diluted.

Farmer's City Wife hasn't put up the usual host post yet, and Lou and I are about to brave the snow and get out for the evening, so I'll post this as is. And yes, I know green bean casserole is the easiest thing in the world to make and has starred in some incredibly annoying commercials, but honestly, the family spread would be a little lonely without it. I love that stuff.

Tasty Tuesday: Zucchini... something

Technically speaking, I probably should have done this during zucchini season. But I made it the other day, having found a sale at the grocery, and it's just good.

My family always called this zucchini glop. Hopefully that doesn't sound too awful—I'm sure any of you can think of a better name for it. They say that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; zucchini glop by any other name is a tasty use for the proliferating vegetable. You can only make so much zucchini bread. Here's what to do with the extra squash.

If you have any suggestions for a better name, please leave me a comment. :D

Zucchini _______

About 3 medium or 5 small zucchini
1 small/medium onion
Olive oil
2-3 slices bread, cut into crouton-sized pieces
1-2 cups grated Monterey jack cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a skillet and cook zucchini and onion until al dente.

Sprinkle cheese over zucchini and top with bread pieces.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and bread is toasted golden brown.

Serve. It's a great side for chicken dishes.

Tasty Tuesday: Chili

I'm starting to have to think to come up with recipes, a problem that is exacerbated by starting off the day behind on NaNoWriMo. But I'm ahead now, thanks to a burst of something that resembled inspiration and a comparatively free day, and as it was also a cold day, I thought I'd share one of our easy winter recipes.

Everybody does chili a little differently. It does not get more basic than this. People talk of thirty-minute meals; this is one of the very few that I can actually prepare in that short of a time.

Chili

1-2 lbs ground beef
1 red pepper
1 small can tomato paste
1 large or two small cans diced or chopped or crushed tomatoes
2 cans kidney beans
Garlic powder
Chili powder
Optional: a little onion and/or fresh garlic

Brown the ground beef. Dice the red pepper, throw it in with the beef and cook a little longer (also add onion and fresh garlic here, if you're using those.)

Add the tomato paste and stir in. Then add all the other canned goods. Stir.

Give it a good sprinkle of garlic powder, unless you're using real garlic, and then a healthy amount of chili powder. I don't know how much I add--probably around a tablespoon. Season to taste.

Serve with grated cheddar cheese and/or saltines, sour cream, etc.

Tasty Tuesday: Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato

One year ago today, I was on a plane to Rome. A whole year...

Everybody fusses about the food in Italy, but mostly, we ate a lot of pizza. Italian fast food for American tourists, you know. I like pizza just fine, but it's not what I went to Italy for.* But the nation has one food item that is both awesome and hard to come by in America. (Well. You can get it, but it's not guaranteed to taste the same.)

Gelato.

I don't have an ice cream maker, but if I did, I would make that recipe. I would buy the Nutella for it and everything. One of these days I'll have to borrow my sister's or something.

Out of fear of cease and desist orders from whoever owns the Food Network, I'm only posting a link, not the recipe itself. My apologies.

*I didn't go to Italy for the gelato, either, but I did enjoy that aspect of it. And they admittedly do have some great pizza.

Tasty Tuesday: Crock-Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

I am in the middle of rewriting a novel, and am trying to put as much time as I can into it. On account of which, I needed both an easy recipe to make today and an easy one to post about. As it turns out, both of those are the same recipe.

Crock-pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

It's simple, really:

Turn the crock-pot on low.

Peel and chunk several carrots and throw them in.

Put the corned beef brisket in, spices and all.

Chunk an onion and put it in.

Add a cup or so of water.

Let it cook for several hours. When there are about two hours to go, chop a head of cabbage. Push the pieces down into the liquid.

Turn the crock-pot to high and let cook till dinner-time.

It would probably be good with Irish soda bread, but I never seem to have buttermilk around, and bread of any sort just isn't that quick or easy. Maybe someday. At least we had beer with it...

Tasty Tuesday: Erwtensoep

Apparently this soup is also known as snert. Which I thought about using in the title, just because snert is such a funny-sounding word, but it sounds too much like snot for me. So I stuck with the original, which I am not Dutch enough to be able to pronounce.

I am actually not Dutch at all. Back when I worked the nine-to-five, I'd listen to podcasts during my less mentally demanding tasks, and Dutch podcasting priest Father Roderick—whose happy-go-lucky Daily Breakfast (now called The Break, I think) always made my day—once described this. At which point I decided I was definitely making it.

After summer busyness, Lou and I always seem to need a weekend of shutting out the world and staying home and quiet. A weekend at home plus cool October weather says erwtensoep to me, which means that I made it this past weekend.

This recipe comes from user Pets 'R' Us on Food.com [with my interjections in brackets]. It makes loads. I cut it in half and we still eat it for a couple of days.

Erwtensoep (Dutch Pea Soup)

3 1/2 cups dried split green peas
3 liters water
1 lb spareribs
1/2 lb bacon, one thick slice, cubed [Good luck finding that. I just get the regular stuff.]
2 leeks, washed and chopped, also use the green part
1 medium celeriac, diced (celery root or bulb) or 3 cups of chopped celery (but the flavor will be weaker) [Not knowing the first thing about celeriac, I've always just used the celery]
1 smoked dutch sausage or 3-4 thick frankfurters, left whole or cut up in slices [I usually just get a kielbasa... yeah, I know, wrong country, but it's easier to find where I live]
salt and pepper
bouillon cube (optional)
chopped celery
fresh parsley leaves

Wash the peas and soak them overnight in the amount of water given. Next day bring them to the boil together with the spareribs and the bacon; simmer on very low heat for approx 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add the leeks and the celeriac; cook for another hour or until the soup becomes thick. Lift out the spareribs, remove the meat from the bones, and return the meat to the pan.

Add the sausage, let it warm through and season the soup to taste and maybe add bouillion cube(s) , add the chopped celery leaves and parsley just before serving.

[I consider it amazing. Enjoy.]

Tasty Tuesday: Tips for a Successful Omelet

I've had a few cooking failures in my life, but the first to occur after I got married was in making omelets. I tried cooking them on my electric griddle, and the eggs ran right off the cooking surface and into the grease tray.

It has honestly taken me most of these two years to learn to make omelets that I can enjoy. Granted, eggs and I have an iffy relationship. But as it turns out, attention to a few little details can help a lot. Here they are.

Tips for a Successful Omelet

1. Use a skillet with sides. (Although my father-in-law seems to manage perfectly well with his electric griddle. I don't know how he does it.)
2. Pre-heat the skillet. Then heat butter or bacon grease before adding eggs.
3. Forget about going low-fat. Cook the vegetables in bacon grease.
4. Beat a little cream (half-and-half or heavy cream, not milk) into the eggs. I use about one tablespoon to two eggs.
5. Coat the whole egg surface with cheese before adding the meat and vegetables, so it has time to melt.
6. Fold carefully. I have no good shortcut for this, but if you've preheated the grease, the eggs shouldn't stick. There's no way I'm trying that whole-pan-flipping thing that professional chefs do, but if you're more coordinated than I am, feel free.
7. Salt and pepper the top upon completion.

As for what to put in it, you're only limited by your imagination and the produce and meat departments. Bacon, ham, sausage, steak; mushrooms, onions, broccoli, tomatoes, olives, peppers.... all right, now I'm hungry. I'd better go make dinner.

Tasty Tuesday: Creamed Cucumbers

Busy days call for simple recipes (and short blogs, unfortunately! Here I am getting this up while it's still Tuesday...) This is about the quickest salad possible short of buying a bag of mixed greens and pulling out the blue cheese.

Creamed Cucumbers

Slice 1 large cucumber (I usually peel it as well).

Throw in 3/4 to 1 tsp sugar.

Add a dash of salt from a shaker and a pinch of fresh or frozen dill.

Add enough mayonnaise to cream well (about a heaping tablespoonful).

Mix, and adjust quantities to taste.

I've heard adding a little vinegar is good too, but I haven't tried it. Maybe next time.

Tasty Tuesday: Sweet Chicken Salad

First, big news: I have turned off my word verification for comments. At least one person has told me that the little image doesn't always display on iPhones (thanks, Briana!) and everybody finds them annoying (myself included.) Blogger has a new spam catcher, so I'm trying it out.

Mom made this chicken salad yesterday and I liked it so much that I made it for myself and a friend today. Enjoy.

Sweet Chicken Salad

1 cooked chicken breast or 1 can chicken
1 small apple, minced (halved grapes also work splendidly)
About 1 tbsp onion, minced
2 eggs, hardboiled
Mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste

Mix. Yeah, it really is that easy. It makes a great sandwich, especially with a few slices of avocado.

Tasty Tuesday: Hobo Dinners

First Tasty Tuesday I've done in how many weeks? Bah. Several. Anyway, this is my first since huckleberry picking.

I made this recipe with some assistance from Lou over the campfire at that great event. Other family members were intrigued. I found it a nice change from hot dogs and hamburgers.

The intrigued family members thought it would be a fun cooking project to do with kids, which of course I affirmed. I learned it at summer camp, back in junior high, and obviously it proved memorable.

Hobo Dinners

Amounts are per person, and approximate:

1/4-1/2 lb hamburger
1 baker potato, chopped pretty fine (otherwise it's the last thing to cook)
1/3-1/2 a can of corn
a little chopped onion
about 2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
garlic salt and pepper
...anything else that sounds good (olives, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, thyme, etc.)

Double up a long sheet of aluminum foil and shape the edges into a bowl. Put the hamburger in the center, flatten and break it apart. Season with garlic salt and pepper.

Layer the vegetables on top of the burger, potatoes first so they'll get near the heat. Top with further seasoning if desired and cheese.

Roll edges of the foil together to make a tight packet. Cook on hot coals, burger side down, for about 20 minutes.

Tasty Tuesday: Huckleberry Muffins

As this post hits the web I'm out picking huckleberries, so I can't link this over at City Wife, Country Life like usual. If I'm really lucky, the hostess of that blog will be out picking huckleberries too (that means she probably won't have a post, but it also would mean that I get to hang out with her.)

For those of you already here, that probably doesn't matter much. What does matter is the recipe, and I'm linking huckleberry muffins because I've been trying to find a good recipe for them and this one worked (except that I somehow missed the timer going off, and blackened the tops. Also, I'd put the pie recipe up, since huckleberry pie is one of the big reasons for this trip, but it comes from a cookbook and is therefore probably under copyright. I'll look into that another day.)

The recipe for Huckleberry Muffins resides at Cooks.com. Enjoy! I liked that it was butter-based instead of shortening-based, and these rose a lot better than those made from the cookbook recipe I'd been trying to perfect for months.

If you don't have huckleberries, blueberries usually work too.

Recipes and Anne Rice

The hostess of Tasty Tuesday is on vacation, so... I don't have a recipe this week. But if you want recipes, my friend Auntie-C has been running a Savory Sundays theme. Hers look great. :)

So I went looking for something else to post about, and this week the blogosphere is all about opinions on Anne Rice's (second) renunciation of Christianity. Since I just reviewed her memoir, Called out of Darkness, part of me feels obligated to talk about it too—but I don't know what to say. Anne Rice came back to her Catholic faith committed to the principles of the sexual revolution, and she never let go of them, so it's honestly just not a surprise that she left again. Happens all the time; it was startling news, but not all that shocking.

My experience of Christianity (and of sexual revolutionaries) obviously differs greatly from hers. Apart from a prayer for Ms. Rice, because I don't think you get Christ without the Church (people who try to separate Christ from Church usually just make Jesus in their own image), I haven't much to offer.

As a matter of fact, I haven't much to say at all. We had pork baked in cinnamon applesauce and garlic salt for dinner, with ranch mashed potatoes on the side; Lou gave me a Leinenkugel's beer with lemon and put on Frank Sinatra, and now I feel very mellow. I think I'll spend the evening writing my book and/or listening to The Hunger Games and working on web design.

Tasty Tuesday: Hot Fudge

When I called family friend Sharyn to ask if I could post the tortellini soup recipe she passed on to us, not only did she say "Absolutely!" but she gave me a hot fudge recipe as well. I've recently had, thanks to warmer weather, a chance to make it for the first time--the first time, yes, but not the last.

It works a little like Magic Shell, if you've ever used that (I love Magic Shell, especially the Twix kind) but has the real chocolate-and-butter homemade flavor.

Hot Fudge

Melt 1 stick of butter with 2 one-ounce squares of bakers' chocolate.

Stir in 1 cup of sugar till it melts.

Heat 1/4 cup milk or cream and stir that into the chocolate mixture until it thickens.

Add a little vanilla, almond or mint extract. (I didn't write down a measurement, and probably didn't bother with a measure... maybe half a teaspoon?)

Serve warm. According to Sharyn, the leftovers work well as frosting between chocolate chip cookies. I'd bet they do. But I made it with family around, and we just didn't have enough left over to try that. :)