43 posts tagged “recipes”

Mincemeat Fixings

New England is a colorful place in the fall, even in the kitchen. I made up a batch of green tomato mincemeat, an absolutely fabulous meat-free mincemeat recipe that's sweet, tart and rich all at the same time. The recipe calls for dried cherries, so there's a wonderful aftertaste of these as well. It's everything you'd expect in a mincemeat and is second-to-none, particularly if you make the pie with a home made crust.

Green Tomato Mincemeat

Ingredients 

Mincemeat Fixings

New England is a colorful place in the fall, even in the kitchen. I made up a batch of green tomato mincemeat, an absolutely fabulous meat-free mincemeat recipe that's sweet, tart and rich all at the same time. The recipe calls for dried cherries, so there's a wonderful aftertaste of these as well. It's everything you'd expect in a mincemeat and is second-to-none, particularly if you make the pie with a home made crust.

Green Tomato Mincemeat

Ingredients 

Chicken Pot Pie Sign

I made a humongous roast chicken the other day and had tons of leftovers as a result. Since it's starting to get colder, I decided to put together a chicken pot pie. I had some frozen pie crusts - my one concession to "store bought" - and decided I'd use that to top the pie.

The chicken was extremely juicy, so I had plenty of broth on hand to create the sauce. Here's the recipe I used, adapted from the Fannie Farmer cookbook.

Chicken Pot Pie

Directions

Antipasto

We got to take advantage of a farm share this week, when my husband's parents offered us their weekly bounty. They're in Maine on vacation for the week, so we got some plenty nice veggies: onions, lettuce, bitter greens, yellow wax beans, peas, beets and more, all fresh from the farm. I'm also starting to harvest vegetables from my own garden, so I was able to add green beans to that mix. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

Today was very muggy and hot. We were expecting rain storms, but none ever materialized. The weather was miserable, though, enough to keep me out of the kitchen. In fact, I spent most of the day reading while sitting in front of a fan.

As the day progressed, though, I thought more and more about dinner and also about the veggies that were still left from the farm share. I decided to make an antipasto and roast up a bunch of those veggies to accompany it. I've had this antipasto recipe for years. It's easy and it's delicious. All you do is swish marinade ingredients around, chop veggies and shred lettuce. Then you let nature take its course. The finished product is as beautiful to the eye as it is to the tongue.

Enjoy!

• 1/4 cup olive oil


• 3 tbs red wine vinegar


• 1/2 tsp dried oregano


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1/4 tsp sugar


• 1/4 tsp pepper


• Vegetables to marinate, such as mushrooms, beets, fresh mozzarella, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, zucchini, etc.


• Salad greens, such as red leaf lettuce, Boston lettuce, mesculin


• Roasted red peppers (optional)


• Olives


• Sliced hard salami


• Fresh mozzarella cheese


• Prosciutto or domestic ham, sliced thin

1. Prepare marinade. Combine oil, vinegar, oregano, salt, pepper and sugar in a small bowl. Let stand, covered, several hours to blend flavors.


2. Marinate appropriate vegetables for about 30 minutes. Have a good variety, if possible.


3. Add the marinated vegetables to a platter of lettuce, peppers, olives, salami ham/prosciutto and cheese.

It's time for some cooking! I came across a very nice looking recipe for cherry cobbler, which was good since I'd found cherries for sale at Trader Joe's: 3 pounds for six bucks. Can't beat that with a stick. Pictures follow the recipe.

Cherry Cobbler

• 1 cup all-purpose flour


• 2 tbs sugar


• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)


• 1/4 cup butter or margarine


• 6 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened pitted red cherries


• 1 to 1 1/4 cups sugar


• 4 tsp cornstarch


• 1 egg


• 1/4 cup milk


• Vanilla ice cream (optional)

1. For topping: in a medium bowl stir together flour, the 2 tbs sugar, baking powder and optional cinnamon. Cut in butter/margarine until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.


2. For filling: in a saucepan combine the cherries, 1 to 1 1/4 cups sugar, cornstarch and 1/4 cup water. Let stand for 10 minutes (20 minutes if using frozen fruit). Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Keep filling hot.


3. In a small bowl stir together the egg and milk. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Transfer the hot filling to a greased 2-quart baking dish. Using a spoon, drop topping onto small mounds on top of filling.


4. Bake cobbler in a 400 degree oven for 20 - 25 minutes, until top is firm and somewhat browned. Serve warm or at room temperature with optional ice cream.

Cherries

Cooking

Unbaked

Baked

1 comment

Beef Stew

Lovely! Easy! What more can I say? Love the garlic:

• Olive or vegetable oil for cooking


• 1 1/4 lbs stew beef


• 6 garlic cloves, minced


• 4 cups beef broth


• 1 cup red wine


• 2 tbs tomato paste


• 2 tsp sugar


• 1 tbs dried thyme


• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce


• 2 bay leaves


• 4 - 6 medium potatoes, cubed


• 4 - 5 medium carrots, peeled and cut into rounds


• 1 cup frozen peas


• 2 tbs fresh parsley, minced


• Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Heat oil in pan. When hot, add beef to brown, salting lightly


2. When beef is browned on all sides, add garlic to pan and saute for one minute


3. Add water, wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.


4. While beef is cooking, cut up potatoes and carrots, mince parsley.


5. Add potatoes after 1 1/2 hours. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.


6. Add carrots. Bring to boil, cover and cook another 20 minutes


7. Add peas and parsley. Cover and cook over low heat for about five minutes.


8. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I picked up a pound of Gyulai sausage when I visited Little Poland last week. It's made in this country by the Bende Company, and is absolutely out of this world. It's fabulous when added to the follow Hungarian potato stew recipe called, in Hungarian, Paprikas Burgonya.

You can order the sausage online, at www.bende.com. It's fabulous stuff and can be gotten regular or hot!

Potato Paprikas with Gyulai

• 2 lbs boiling potatoes


• 3 tbs lard, or cooking oil


• 1 medium onion, chopped


• 1 small clove garlic, chopped


• 1 - 1 1/2 tbs sweet Hungarian paprika


• 2 cups chicken or beef stock, or water


• 1/4 tsp caraway seeds


• 1 medium tomato, chopped


• 1 large green pepper, seeded and chopped


• 1 tsp salt


• Freshly ground black pepper


• 1 pound Hungarian Gyulai sausage


• 1/2 cup sour cream

1. In a large saucepan or saute pan, heat the oil/lard until hot. Add onions and garlic and cook until lightly colored.


2. Take pan off of heat and add paprika. Stir to coat onion mixture thoroughly.


3. Return pan to heat and add stock/water and bring to a boil. Add caraway seeds, tomato, green pepper, potatoes and a few grindings of pepper. Bring back to the boil, reduce to simmer.


4. Cover and cook 25 - 40 minutes, or until potatoes are soft. Add salt if necessary (sausage contains salt and other flavorings).


5. Serve with dollops of sour cream. If you wish to add sour cream to the broth, take dish off heat. Then spoon 1 or 2 tablespoons of the broth into the dish containing the sour cream. Gradually add more hot broth, to bring the sour cream up to a higher temperature without breaking up. Slowly stir the sour cream mixture back into the pot with the vegetables and sausage and stir to combine.

Potato Paprikas Paprikas Burgonya @ Group Recipes

Well, by popular demand, here's the recipe for that lovely banana bread:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


• 2 1/4 tsp double-acting baking powder


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1/3 cup shortening


• 2/3 cup sugar


• 3/4 tsp grated lemon rind


• 1 - 2 beaten eggs


• 1 - 1 1/4 cups ripe banana pulp


• 1/2 cup broken nut meats (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan (a standard sized loaf pan).


2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir well to combine


3. In a separate bowl, cream the shortening, sugar and lemon rind. Add eggs and banana pulp and stir to combine.


4. Add dry ingredients in three parts to liquid, stir just to combine. Fold in nut meats if desired.


5. Scrape the batter into the greased loaf pan. Bake for one hour, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool before slicing.

Coconut

This was really easy to make and unbelievably good! We don't often indulge in dishes made with coconut milk, but its flavor is out of this world. In this combination coconut milk and tomato combines to create a sauce rich with chicken, onion and green pepper. It's a fabulous combination and absolutely delicious.

As you can tell, I highly recommend it!

• 3 pounds chicken pieces, or similar amount boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed


• Freshly ground pepper


• 3 tbs chopped cilantro


• 2 tbs fresh lemon juice, strained


• 2 tbs olive oil


• 1 large onion, chopped


• 1 large green pepper, chopped


• 2 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded or 2 (28-oz) cans diced tomatoes, drained


• 1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk


• 1/2 tsp salt


• cayenne pepper, to taste (optional)

1. Sprinkle chicken with pepper and 1 tbs cilantro. Add lemon juice and marinate 1 hour in refrigerator.


2. Heat oil in a large casserole, add onion and green pepper and saute over medium heat about 6-7 minutes. Add tomatoes, cook 3 - 5 minutes more over high heat, stirring often. Stir in coconut milk and bring to a simmer.


3. If using whole chicken pieces, add now. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook chicken until tender, about 30 minutes for breast and 40-45 minutes for thighs and legs.


4. If using boneless, skinless chicken breast, add salt and pepper and cook sauce for 15 minutes. Add chicken and stir to incorporate. Cook another 15 minutes.


5. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro


6. Serve over rice