Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Boston Christmas - Mum's Recipes!!

Ceasar Salad Dressing

2/3 cup olive oil
1 egg very lightly boiled
2 large cloves garlic (or 3 small)
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp cidar vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
(2 anchovies if desired)

Boil egg for 2-3 minutes, until white part is just set and yolk is soft. Add all ingredients into a medium container and blend with a hand blender until smoth.
Chill for at least 2-3 hours then serve. Creamy, thick consistency.
To make your own croutons: cut up crusless white bread slices into 1 inch chunks. Mix with olive oil, garlic powder, italian seasoning crushed then spread in large pan and bake at 200 degrees for 35-45 minutes until dried and crispy.
Create salad with romaine lettuce, croutons, parmesean cheese, tomatoes (optional) then add dressing when ready to serve.

Sherried Artichoke Chicken (serves 8)
3 lbs chicken breast, cubed 1 inch
salt, pepper, paprika (or Lawry's season salt)
6 Tbsp butter
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/4 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
scallions cleaned and cut into 1/2 in pieces
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/3 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup sherry
1 tsp dried rosemary crumbled

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Season chicken pieces, then brown in 2 tbps butter on all sides and place in casserole dish.
Place artichoke around and between the chicken pieces.
Heat up additional butter and saute mushrooms and scallions until tender.
Sprinkle flour over and stir to cook.
Add broth, sherry and rosemary and cook stirring for a few minutes.
Pour mixture over chicken and artichokes, cover and bake for 30-40 minutes.
Serve over rice or potatos.

Egg Sausage Strata or Soufflet (prepare the night before)
6 eggs, beaten
6 slices white (Wonder) bread, crusts removed and chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
2 cup milk
1 cup grated cheese (sharp white cheddar)
1 lb Jimmy Dean Sausage tube

Saute cut up sausage then drain.
Mix rest of ingredients together in a large bowl. Crumble sausage and add to bowl and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease an 8 inch pyrex pan and pour in egg batter.
Bake for 35-45 minutes until set when checked with a knife.

Popovers (single) or Yorkshire Pudding (double recipe)
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Beat eggs lightly, add milk, flour, butter, salt and mix - DONT overbeat mixture.
Pour into a greased 9x9 pan (single) or 9x13 pan (double). Can also pour into large muffin trays or rammekins.
Bake for 30-45 minutes until center is not too moist - just set. Will puff up the sides and maybe in center as well.

Roast Leg of Lamb (serves 8-10 people)
1 leg of lamb, boned, cleaned and rolled
2 Tbsp lemon juice (more if desired)
1 large cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1Tbsp paprika
pepper 3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup white wine

Mix all marinade ingredients together, except the wine, and pour over lamb into a container or large zip-lock. Marinate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place lamb in a roasting pan then add wine.
Bake for around 1.5 - 2 hours, basting occassionally. Add more wine if needed.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Turkey Burger/Meatloaf

Adapted from Food Network Bobby Flay Turkey Kofte.
I made this with the idea of making Turkey Burgers but it came out more like Turkey Meatloaf. Great flavor but again, more meatloaf than burger. To make into burgers, next time I could make it without all the tomato paste, 1/2 tbsp less oil and a little more oatmeal.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 large yellow onion, finely grated
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon adobe pepper, finely chopped (could substitute cayenne pepper)
1 teaspoon Lawry's season salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey, 93 percent lean
1 tablespoon worchestire sauce
1/2 cup oatmeal, ground in grinder

Mix all ingredients except turkey together, then add turkey and mix well. Form into patties 1/2 inch thick, then let sit in fridge for at least one hour for flavors to meld. Broil on Hi on rack 2nd to highest for 6 minutes one side, flip then broil 6 more minutes. Flip again, broil 2 more minutes then take out and add cheese to melt ontop. Very yummy but not quite the burger flavor.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Carrot Cake - The BEST Cake I have ever made

I found this recipe on RecipeZaar and made just a couple changes. It turned out amazing and then it got better every day. Here it is:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 cup crisco oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, juice pressed out - only used 3/4 of total
FROSTING
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, slightly softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease AND flour a pie pan and loaf pan.
2) Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; make well in center.
3) In another bowl, beat eggs with fork, mix in oil and vanilla, then add sugar and blend well.
Mix with wooden spoon or spatula until smooth.
4) Slowly mix in the wet contents with the flour until incorporated.
5) Stir in carrots, coconut, walnuts and pineapple. Pour into pie and loaf pan and bake for about
40 minutes. Don't panic, the centre will sink a little.
6) While baking, make frosting: Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth (used mini food chopper with mixing attachment); add the sugar and mix until creamy.
7) Let cake cool once cooked then ice the cake.

Next time, I could try it all in one 13 x 9 pan and bake for 45 minutes as per original recipe. However, made this way..it was a hit!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Halibut With Parmesean, Panko and Almond Crust - YUM!

This dish has to be made again. It was wonderful!

1 large pack of halibut from Costco
1/2 cup almonds, ground in processor
1/2 cup panko crumbs, italian style
1/4 cup parmesean cheese
3/4 cup flour seasoned with Lawry's salt and pepper in a plate for dredging
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water in wide bowl
1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Cut halibut into same size serving pieces.
Mix almonds, panko and parmesean in processor then add to plate for dredging. Set aside.
Heat up butter and oil over med-hi heat.
Dip halibut in egg then dredge through flour.
Add halibut to butter and sear for ~ 1.5 minute. Flip and sear other side for the same time.
Take halibut out of pan and coat each piece in almond/panko mixture.
Cover broiler pan with foil and PAM spray.
Place coated halibuts on broiler pan and place under pre-heated broiler for 4 - 5 minutes.
Serve immediately.

This was delicious cold the next day with a little bit of dijon mustard to dip.

Crab Salad Take 1

I made crab salad today and am planning on perfecting the recipe. Here is my first try:

1 8oz pakcage of imitation crab, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of Fage non-fat yogurt
1 tsp old bay seasoning
~ 1 tsp curry powder
~ 1 tsp dijon mustard
2 green onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp red onion, finely chopped
pinch of garlic powder
pinch of lawry's season salt

Mixed all ingredients except crab together in bowl, then added shredded crab meat. Let site in refrigerator for an hour minimum.

Update: Tried this the next day and put WAY too much curry powder! Also, need to add a little bit of light mayo to lessen then tang. Perhaps, 1/3 c yogurt and 2 tbsp mayo. Add a touch of horseradish.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Easy and Yummy Fruit Crubmle Pie

This recipe may be used for any fruit or berry pie....or so it seems so far. I have made one blueberry/ strawberry pie and one pear/strawberry pie, and so far they have both turned out great!

Ingredients:
1 Marie Calendar's Deep Dish Pie Crust - frozen
Filling:
1/4+ cup brown sugar (or splenda or mix of both)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
cinnamon
4 cups berries
Toppings
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
cinnamon/ allspice
3 tbsp butter melted

Preheat oven to 400. Once heated, add frozen pie crust fo 8 minutes. Take out then lower heat to 375.
In a small saucepan, mix all filling ingredients except berries and heat on medium heat stirring constantly. Once thickened, turn off heat and mix in berries until covered.
Make topping by mixing ingredients together until resembles large crumbles. Add ontop of filling until fully covered.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. Let stand before serving otherwise it will spill out.

If making with pear, harder fruit, slice thinly and then add to cornstarch mixture and keep on the heat to let it cook a bit before adding to the pie crust.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Bucca Di Beppo Lemon Chicken and Warm Spinach and Tomato Salad

Last night I re-created this Bucca di Beppo meal that Scott and I love. The salad turned out exactly like the restaurant but the chicken turned out a bit too lemony for our taste. Although I will definitely be making the chicken again, this time with less lemon juice. I did change up the sauce a bit by adding mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes. This dish took quite a bit of work because I do not have a large enough pan to cook 3 chicken breasts thus had to use two separate ones. Next time I will need to use a large pan or just make 2 breasts.

Ingredients:
Salad:
red onion thinly sliced
vine ripened tomates cut into eighths (or roma tomato cut into quarters)
spinach
2 Tbsp pecans or walnuts chopped
2 Tbsp goat cheese crumbled
Dressing:
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic minced
2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil

1. Heat small pot to med-hi.
2. Wisk dressing ingredients together then add to small pot with tomatoes and onions.
3. Heat for approximately 5 minutes until tomatoes are tender.
4. Place spinach on a plate, pour tomato mixture over greens, then add nuts and cheese to serve.

Ingredients:
Lawry's season salt
pepper
oregano
1 cup flour
3 chicken breasts
3/8 cup olive oil
3/8 cup white wine
less than 1/2 cup lemon
4-5 Tbsp unsalted butter softened
crimini mushrooms sliced
sun-dried tomatos in oil
small handful of drained capers

1. Heat oil in a saute pan on med-hi heat.
2. Season chicken with lawry's, pepper, garlic powder and oregano.
3. In a separate plate, mix flour, season salt, pepper. Dip chicken into flour mixture, shake off excess and then add to pan. Turn heat to medium.
4. Saute chicken on one side for 6 minutes until well browned.
5. Turn over chicken and then saute for 6 more minutes. Take chicken out of pan onto plate and cover to keep warm and continue last bit of cooking.
6. Deglase pan with wine and lemon juice and reduce by about half. Add mushrooms, sun-dried tomotoes and capers and simmer for a few more minutes.
7. Add 1 Tbsp butter at at time, using a spatula to work into sauce. Once thickened, add chicken to sauce then serve over cooked rice or pasta.

Will need to play with the amount of lemon to add to sauce to taste, but otherwise, it turned out quite tasty!

Curry Quinoa - Seriously Restaurant Quality

Wow....this meal was amazing! I used the base recipe (actually just the measurements) from my cookingclub magazine and created a Curried Quinoa recipe that was incredibly delicious. This is a keeper!

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 sausage - Han's All Natural Spinach Fontina Cheese and Basil (can substitute for chicken)
1 can garbanzo beans (wrinsed with water)
1 cup yellow onion chopped
1 cup carrot grated
1 clove garlic minced
1 cup quinoa
1/4 cup Stone Ale Curry Mustard Grilling Sauce
1 cup coconut milk
1/2+ cup water
2 Tbps soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp green curry paste
2 Tbsp craisins (would have added much more but did not have enough)

1. In a small sauce pot, add coconut milk, curry mustard sauce, soy sauce, curry paste and water and heat to low simmer for 5 minutes to blend.
2. Meanwhile in large pot, heat oil on med-hi heat and add sausage (or chicken) and saute approximately 5 minutes.
3. Add onions and saute for 3 minutes.
4. Add garlic, carrots, garbanzo beans and saute for 2-3 minutes. Then add quinoa for 1 minute
5. Pour simmering curry sauce into quinoa mixture, mix in craisins, cover then turn heat to low and keep on very low simmer for 25 minutes.
6. Turn off heat and let sit for a few minutes. Serve either with chopped cilantro or green onion.

This turned out incredible. Next time, adding chopped fresh 3/4 cup pineapple in with the garlic and carrots (instead of craisins) will make it even more perfect.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

1. Fill pot with cold water
2. Add eggs
3. Add some salt
4. Bring to a rolling boil
5. Cover and take off heat and let sit for 25 minutes
6. Drain then place eggs in cold water
7. Keep cold until able to handle
8. Peel eggs

Egg Salad Recipe #1
7 eggs, 2 tbsp light may, 1 1/4 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp cracked pepper, 1/2 tsp paprika.
Could add cayenne pepper, cumin, curry powder or small chopped pickle.

Shepherd's Pie - A Keeper!

It's Sunday and every week I try to make a nice homey dish for my fiance and me. I had leftover mashed potatoes and from being in England, I remember the best way to use up leftover mash is by making Shepherd's Pie. I used Emeril's recipe for the filling with a few adjustments:

Ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/4 pound ground turkey 93/7
1/2 white onion chopped
1/4 red onion chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 sticks celery chopped
Lawry's season salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black peppercorn
4 ounces crimini mushrooms sliced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoon tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Heat oil in large pot over medium high heat. Add the ground turkey and cook until starting to brown, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the onions, carrots, celery, season salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms and bay leaf, and cook, stirring, until their liquid is almost all gone, about 2 minutes.
5. Add the tomato sauce and cook, stirring, until starting to color, about 1 to 2 minutes.
6. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
7. Gradually add the stock and Worcestershire sauce, and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to med-low to thicken sauce for about 10-15 minutes.
8. Spray Pam on a casserole dish. Add meat to dish then spread mashed potatos ontop. Sprinkle lightly with cheese then place in oven for 10 minutes.
9. Take off bake and turn broiler on High. Place under broiler for 5 minutes until lightly browned.
10. Let sit for a few minutes then serve. (Optional - sprinkle chives on top)

I meant to add frozen peas and green beens to this which I will do next time.
Also, I think adding garbanzo beans would be a great addition.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

I am NOT a Baker

I have baked for 2 nights in a row with little success. My first attempt was at baking what started as a beautiful, thick halibut steak from Costco. It was meant to be succulent and moist and instead turned out to be...dry. Did you know that if overcooked, halibut can taste like tuna? The halibut was at least 2 inches in thickness. I first pan fried it for a total of 6 minutes, then baked covered in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. ARG! I probably should have halved the time in the oven...next time I will try for 10 minutes. My fiance is from Boston and informed me that the best way to cook fish is to leave it pink in the center, take it out then cover and let it continue to cook. This way it will be perfect. Since I had 5 steaks, I actually pan fried 2 of them which were a bit less thick. I cooked them for about 8-10 minutes total and then covered with foil on a plate until ready to eat. These were moist and much more palatable.

The only saving grace for the baked halibut was that I made a delicious fruit (white nectarine, mango, pineapple) salsa to serve with it. My fiance loved the salsa so will definitely be making this again. 1 mexican mango, a bit less than 1/2 pineapple, 1 white nectarine, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 green apple, 1/5 jalepeno, handful of cilantro, red onion, juices of 1/2 small lemon, dash of kosher salt, dash cumin, dash of chili pepper. Best if made overnight or at least refrigerated for a few hours to let flavors blend.

Due to the dryness of the halibut, I made a halibut salad sandwich the next day: halibut, 1 ttsp light may, 1/2 tbsp curry, touch of creamy horseradish, 10 grapes cut in half. Spread this over a piece of toast witht a light spread of rasberry jam. It was Yummy!

My next attempt at baking was making a lemon bar. This was a first for me. I had just picked a ton of lemons from my parents' house and wanted to find a good recipe to use them up. I found a recipe for Lemon Lovers Lemon Bars by Julie at the following blog: http://www.aminglingoftastes.com/2008/05/lemon-lovers-lemon-bars.html

I attempted to make the recipe with half of the crust recipe and full filling recipe as I only have a small baking pan at the moment. I had to bake the crust for 13-14 minutes, then filled with almost all of the filling, leaving about 1/4 cup out. I baked for 20 minutes and AGAIN overcooked. The crust actually came out quite nice, but the filling was stiff and did not have that gooey texture that it should have. I would like to try this recipe again, this time only cook for 15 minutes and then check.

The lemon filling had great flavor and just the right amount of lemony-ness to it. I made the following changes: I used splenda for the crust, instead of making the lemon sugar, I used half c splenda and half c sugar and 1 tbsp of lemon zest, only 2 eggs and 1/4 c + 1 tbsp lemon juice. Next time, I will follow the full recipe making the splenda substitutions. I think this could be a winner.