Cooking In General

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Revmav,
simplicity is a blessing in the morning Around noon I would probably find myself getting extravagant, perhaps adding one chopped fine, smallish onion.... more would only compete with the mushroom aroma.

Suggestion for improvement: Two pounds of mushrooms, or better three, maybe chanterelles, or.... porcinis

as J.R.R. Tolkien so rightly said about me.

 

This is extremely easy - it took more effort to type up the recipe than to make the soup in the first place.

Spicy Roasted Sweet Potato Soup

2-3 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2" chunks
EVOO
Kosher salt
Black Pepper
Nutmeg
Cayenne

Spread the potato chunks in a baking pan in a single layer. Drizzle with EVOO and season generaously. Toss to coat all the pieces. Roast at 400 F for 10-20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the potatoes are firm-tender and have some brown spots. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, saute in EVOO or butter in a 4-qt stockpot:
2 onions or 4 shallots, sliced
1 red apple, unpeeled and chopped

When the veggies are a bit tender and beginning to brown, add the potatoes and 1 qt. of chicken or vegetable broth and 2-3 T honey. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer ~15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Add 1 14 oz can condensed milk. Puree the soup, in batches if necessary, and correct the seasonings.

Serve garnished with a dollop of sour cream, yogurt, or creme fraiche, and some dried cranberries.

 

This is more food than cooking, I guess, but on the disastrous trip last week, while the power was out almost everywhere, I "dined" twice at a hot dog stand shaped like a dog house and called (wait for it) The Dog House. You order hot dogs by name: the bull dog, for instance, comes with mustard, chili, onions. Puppy dog is plain. The chihuahua comes with salsa, if I remember correctly.

While I cannot advocate eating hot dogs regularly, these were surprisingly good. No doubt I'll keel over from cancer shortly, though.

 

I'm not sure why hotdogs seem to taste better when you buy them from a hotdog stand. Maybe it has something to do with the atmosphere and mixed condiments that have been shared by many people and insects alike.

The more heart-unfriendly you make them, the better they taste. As far as cancer goes Revmaf, if you use a cell phone you will get brain cancer, if you breath the air in most cities you will get lung cancer, if you eat off of aluminum foil you will get altzimers, if you eat brown rice without anything on it you will get bored, so don't worry about it. A couple of hotdogs shouldn't make that much of a difference.

 

My dinner today: Fried potatoes,with onions and bacon and salad, with a beer.

Cut potatoes into slices, and cook them unpeeled in salt water. When they're ready, pour out the water and let them cool a bit. That way the surface of the potatoes 'seals' a bit, and they won't soak up the butter too much. Prepare the salad.
Then fry the potatoes on medium to high heat in cleared butter with some salt, paprika pepper and cayenne pepper. Shake the potatoes in the pan to ensure they are crunchy on all sides, and that they do get their share of the butter and spices.
When the potatoes are ready, cut into small pieces two smallish onions and some bacon and add them and let them get ready on small heat.

While the onions and bacon get ready, prepare the salad sauce. I had a smallish radiccio salad, and a tomato, in a yoghurt-mustard sauce, with some vinegar, pepper and salt.

Serve the salad and the potatoes on one plate, with a glass of beer. Enjoy.

 

Glad to hear from Ragusa - figured everyone's stopped cooking here. Oh, well, it's summer. And the potatoes sound wonderful - maybe I'll actually try them.

 

Summer cooking = throw meat on grill, slather with sauce. While meat cooks, toss a salad out of the farmer's market gleanings.

 

Well, if only it made more sense to fire the grill up for one person . . .

 

Well you could grill extra Rev and have some nice grilled chicken for your lunch the next day on a fresh salad .

 

And the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day . . .

 

This is why I love my gas grill!

Tonight's offering - turkey drumsticks with a sage-mustard sauce, and Vidalia onions. Yum.

 

So - is bulk pork sausage purely a southern U.S. thing? It comes in plastic packages like bulk ground beef. I cooked some this morning, pretty good, but a brand only available in this region - and it's not the brand my sister prefers over in North Carolina, that brand not even being available here in Tennessee. (Her brand is so traditional it comes in waxed paper packages, as I recall).

Actually when I was a child we hardly ever bought bulk sausage at a store because we had farmer friends who made their own and would give us twenty pounds or so at Christmas, which my mother would divide up and freeze.

Just wondering. No doubt it's truly bad for you, but to my southern-raised palate it tastes very good. The manufacturer has to get the spices right, though.

 

Salmon with a creamy mushroom sauce
==============================

Boneless salmon pieces
Onions
Mushrooms
Fresh cream
Grated cheese
Butter
Sunflower oil
Black pepper
Salt

- Sprinkle some parsley and black pepper over the salmon.
- Butter some sheets of tin foil, and loosely wrap each salmon piece with a sheet.
- Put them in the oven to cook at 200 C for 30 minutes. I recommend a fan oven for this.

- While that cooks, fry some finely chopped onions and some mushrooms in sunflower oil.
- Add black pepper, and a pinch of salt.
- When the mushrooms are ready, pour the fresh cream and let it simmer at a very low temperature.
- Add the cheese to slowly thicken the sauce to your own taste.

- When the salmon is done, take it out from the foil, cover with the sauce, and enjoy with some roasted potatoes, or white rice.

 

“Where’s Waldo” Salad
Ingredients Needed:
from Ansley Whitley, Young Chefs Academy, Knoxville TN

2 to 3 cups chopped apples
1 cup cubed cheddar cheese
1 cup green grapes (plus 6-8 red grapes)
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 TBSP lemon juice

Directions:
Cube cheese. Dice celery and chop apples. Measure out grapes and raisins. Stir lemon juice and mayo together. In a large bowl, toss all ingredients and stir well to coat with the mayo and lemon juice. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes 5-6 cups

The trick is to find the red “Waldo” grape in your serving!

Heard this on the noon TV show today. You can make this gluten-free if you are cautious about what kind of cheese and mayonnaise you use. It's a good summer main course for kids but grownups should like it, too, with or without the "where's Waldo" gimmick.

 

Zucchini Quiche

Ingredients Needed:
1 1/2 lbs zucchini, grated
1 tsp salt
1 medium onion, chopped fine
about 1 Tbsp butter
1/2 lb sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 lb Swiss cheese, grated
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup half-and-half (OK to substitute milk)
1 TBSP flour
1/4 tsp salt
black pepper

Directions:
Sprinkle grated zucchini with 1 tsp salt. Allow to stand at room temperature at least 30 minutes. Drain, squeezing zucchini to remove all liquid. Saute onion in butter until golden. Mix cheese with zucchini and onion. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix well.
Pour into a 9-inch greased pie plate. (No crust needed!) Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes or until center is set. Allow to cool about 10 minutes before cutting in wedges to serve.

from Chef Walter, WVLT Knoxville, volunteertv.com

My sister made this while I was visiting last week and it was absolutely delicious. She did use the half and half rather than the milk, so I'm sure the calories were out the top - but it was really good!

 

Instead of taking a pie plate for the quiche one can of course make one oneself, which is fairly easy and quick.

You need:
80g of butter
200g of flour
1 egg
5 large spoon of milk
two fingertips salt

Chop the butter into small pieces, let it get warm somewhat (do _not_ let it melt!). Put flour into the bowl, add milk, add butter. Mix until you have a smooth dough. Time required is approx 10 minutes, probably less. Then let the dough rest in the fridge for half an hour at least (and if it's a day it doesn't matter when you cover it well). Done.

It can be rolled (even very thinly) quite well. Best way to put it into a fatted form is to roll it and cut pieces of the size of the form plus some four centimetres and then put them into the form rather than putting the dough into the form and try spreading it. Once rolled work the dough quickly, because the more surface it has the quicker it will dry and get brittle. The quantity of dough in the recipe should suffice for a one form, even, when you roll carefully, with cover.

Tip: If you blanch the vegetables briefly, they will retain their fresh colour. That goes for broccoli and carrots especially.

 

Summer brings corn-on-the-cob, and we usually have a little leftover. I made up this soup to take advantage of the bounty:

Spicy Sweet Potato-Corn Chowder
Peel 4 large sweet potatoes and cut in to chunks.
Toss with canola oil (not EVOO, you want a mild taste), kosher salt, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg - be generous!
Spread in a roasting pan and bake at 400 F until tender.

Meanwhile, dice a medium onion and 2 ribs of celery. Saute these veggie in canola oil in a soup pot until just beginning to turn golden. While they're cooking, strip the kernels from 3-4 ears of cooked corn. Add to the pot along with the sweet potatoes, 1 can (14 oz) evaporated milk, and 2 c. regular milk. Reduce heat and simmer without boiling, stirring to break up the large chunks of potato. Correct the seasonings and thin with a bit of water, if desired.

 

Revmaf, I'm definatly going to try that quiche recipe. My mom and her neihbour have me three large zucchinis and I want to make something special. My husband loves fried zucchini, and I often add it to soup dishes, but the quiche sounds fun. We all like eggs so that is a bonus. On the same path as the quiche, I did make zucchini ham and cheese omelets last year. I thought they tasted great but my son wasn't so thrilled about it.

Oops! I forgot about the real reason I wanted to write in this thread today. I bought an icecream maker yesterday!!! I cannot believe how friggin amazing real home made icecream is. Its a good thing that I bought this device because after tasting that, I will never want to eat the store bought kind again.

 

Dragonfly,
Enjoy the quiche - it was easy and good. If your pie plate is a little on the small side be sure to stick a cookie sheet or some aluminum foil on the rack below in case it overflows.

And in honor of your new ice cream makers, here is a recipe for burnt sugar ice cream from Cook's Illustrated.

 

This thread makes me hungry...I think I'll visit mom tomorrow and eat something - anything - that doesn't come from the microwave.