MY CULINARY DIARY
Monday, March 19th- Saturday, March 24th
Monday – 3/19 – Cheeseburgers – After all the cooking and food prep yesterday (Lobster Lasagna) we decided to take it easy and make something simple for dinner. This turned out to be Cheeseburgers which really need no elaboration, except that I used the leftover Shrimp Dipping Sauce from yesterday mixed with some Thousand Island that I had. The funny part is that Ev refused to try the Shrimp Dipping Sauce (which he thought he wouldn’t like). He didn’t know that I used that for the Dressing for the Burgers and he really liked it. So much, for pre-judging something before you try it. The Shrimp Dipping Sauce from Sunday was Mayo, Dijon Mustard, Horseradish and a dash of Green Tabasco. It was really pretty good!
Tuesday – 3/20 – French Onion Soup & BAT’s – since it was pretty cool out and I had lots of Onions (I buy the Sweet Onions by the 10lb bag) I decided to make French Onion Soup. Ev wanted BLT’s and I thought that would be a pretty good combination. Instead of BLT’s I made what I call BAT’s. Bacon, Avocado and Tomato Sandwiches which we made on Hamburger Buns.
Wednedsy – 3/21 – Enchilada Casserole + Guacamole and Green Salad – today was my MahJong Afternoon and I wanted to make something simple for dinner. I made Enchiladas a few weeks ago and I can never make a small amount, so after I made what we would need for dinner and maybe a leftover lunch, I used the remaining ingredients to make an Enchilada Casserole. For this I used a 10” Pyrex® baking dish. I placed a small amount of the Enchilada Sauce (homemade) on the bottom and then a layer of Tortillas. Next went some Cheddar/Jack Cheese, sliced Green Onions and Olives and some more Sauce. I layered the Casserole like this and on the top went more Sauce, Cheese, Green Onions and Olives. Then I wrapped it well and froze it.
The Original Enchilada DinnerMexican Rice with Corn and Shredded Carrots
Mexican Rice with Corn and Shredded Carrots
All I had to do for Dinner tonight was to thaw it out along with the remaining Enchilada Sauce which was added to the Casserole before baking. When I came home all I had to do was make some Mexican Rice (takes about 20 minutes), mexican-rice/bake the Casserole and make a Salad and the fresh Guacamole which is really simple to do, if you use your Food Processor. I like the Guacamole chunky so that you can actually taste the Avocado. Dessert was the Chocolate Chip Cookies that I had made that morning. Ev always needs his chocolate so I usually make something that is Chocolate at least once a week.
Thursday – 3/22 – Baby Backs, Baked Beans & Cole Slaw – felt like something meaty tonight so made oven Barbecued Baby Backs, Baked Beans and homemade Cole Slaw. The Baby Backs were dry-rubbed with my special Pork Dry Rub and allowed to marinate in the refrigerator all day. An hour before dinner time, I placed them in a baking dish (bone side down) with about half an inch of water on the bottom and covered them with foil. Placed in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, removed the cover and slathered with BBQ Sauce.
While the Ribs were Baking, I made the Coleslaw, something which is simple to do if you use your Food Processor and the 2mm slicing blade for the cabbage. My coleslaw is much tastier and fresher tasting than any you can buy, even in a delicatessen. I cheated with the beans and used the canned variety. Usually I add some sautéed Onions to them and a little Brown Sugar or Molasses and Lemon Zest, but this time I really did not need to do anything.
Friday – 3/23 – Asian Stir Fry Vegetables with Tofu – after the dinner of ribs last night, I felt like we needed something healthy and fresh tasting, so I decided to make an Asian Stir Fry. For this I used one/half of a Globe Eggplant (I peeled, sliced and salted the whole Eggplant and will use the other half for another dish, probably an Eggplant Dip that we all like), one half pound of brown mushrooms (which I purchased today at the California Mushroom Farm in Ventura – they are open to the public & have really good prices and of course, freshly harvested Mushrooms). In addition I used Sweet Onions, Garlic, Tofu and minced Red Bell Peppers. After the Eggplant had given up some of its liquid (salting globe Eggplant also helps to reduce the bitter taste that the sometimes have), I rinsed it and patted it dry with paper towels. I then cut the slices into cubes. I sautéed the Garlic and sliced Onion and then added the Eggplant. The Tofu was rinsed, dried and cut into cubes also and then added to the Stir Fry. I also added Asparagus tips that had been left over from a previous meal.
For a Sauce, I added some Hoison Sauce, some Lite Soy Sauce and a little Sesame Oil. This was all served with Jasmine Rice. I like Jasmine Rice because it is aromatic (a nice scent) and cooks up very nicely. Somewhat a cross between long-grain (which is usually dry when cooked) and short-grain rice (which is soft and moist when cooked.)
Before making dinner, I also made some Triple Lemon Cookies. This cookies is a nice crisp cookie with lots of lemon flavor. Just the right thing when you want something crisp and flavorful, but not too sweet and gooey. The Cookies were our dessert.
Triple Lemon Cookies
Saturday – 3/24 – Today, I decided to retry the Crab Creole recipe which I am going to do for my PreTeen/Teen Class at Let’s Get Cookin’ in April. I created a variation on the recipe and decided to make it Crab Nachos as I had Tortilla Chips that were begging to be used. Just before taking the Crab Creole out of the oven I sprinkled on some Queso Fresca (Fresh Mexican Cheese). After taking the Crab Creole out of the oven, I surrounded it with the Tortilla Chips. The Nachos were served with the leftover Cole Slaw from Thursday night along with Fresh Strawberries that I purchased at the Farmer’s Market today. Dessert were the Chocolate Chip and Triple Lemon Cookies.
Crab Creole Nachos garnished with Red Bell pepper
After dinner tonight, I made a Batter for Ebelskivers for Breakfast on Sunday Morning. This recipe was given to me by one of my Danish Exchange Students when i was teaching High School. The recipe was originally from his Grandmother. This recipe is different from most of the ones here in that it uses yeast instead of baking powder and therefore needs time to raise up. Thirty minutes would be sufficient, but I prefer to make the batter the night before. You must always allow extra rooms for the raising of the batter or otherwise it will overflow the bowl and make a mess in the refrigerator.
Categories: Baking, Breakfast Ideas, Cooking for Everyone, Dessert Ideas, Dinner Ideas, Leftovers, Main, Mexican, Salads Tags: Apples, Avocado, Bacon, Baked Beans, BBQ Ribs, Cheese, Cheeseburgers, Ebelskivers, Enchiladas, Guacamole, Lemon Cookies, Mexican, Mexican Rice, Onion Soup, stir fry vegetables, Tomato
THE TOMATO ODYSSEY – ‘TOMATO HERB SCONES’
Tomato Scones - Baked
My third venture with tomato powder was to make Lemon/Tomato/Herb Scones. Scones are the English version of our American Biscuits. They are usually more rustic in appearance and hearty with more flavor. In recent years there has been a wave of popularity over scones and they have been made in many different ways. The Lemon/Tomato/Herb Scone goes well with soup, salad or as a ‘stand alone’ snack. The ones that I made were served with Seafood Bisque. The scones themselves need nothing added to them when eating them, but if you like you can spread on some softened butter or some herb honey.
Scones are fairly simple to make, but the one thing you want to remember is that like Biscuits, you do not want to ‘over mix’ them. You are going to mix only to get the ingredients moistened enough to form into a circle. In this and the previous Tomato Odyssey articles, I keep talking about Tomato Powder. The Tomato Powder I have was purchased ‘on-line’ from King Arthur but today upon checking their website I did not find Tomato Powder. However, there are many other companies that do sell it on ‘on-line’ and you might even be able to find it in Health Food Stores. If you do not want to purchase Tomato Powder, you can substitute a tablespoon of tomato paste for each tablespoon of tomato powder in the recipe. You may have to decrease the liquid by 1 tsp. for each tablespoon of tomato paste that you use.
If you wish, you can even leave out the tomato powder altogether. Follow the recipe below and you will have a delightful snack or accompaniment for your next luncheon or supper.
INGREDIENTS:
1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
1 ½ cups Cake or Pastry Flour
2 Tbsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Baking Soda
¼ tsp. Salt
2 Tbsps. Brown Sugar
2 Tbsps. Tomato Powder
½ cup unsalted Butter, softened
¼ cup Sun-dried Tomatoes, diced
2/3 cup Candied Lemon Peel or 2 Tbsps. Lemon Zest
2 tsps. Fresh Basil, minced
1 cup Sour Milk*
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees; grease 2 baking sheets or line with parchment paper or silpat.
- Combine the first 7 ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
The Dry Ingredients before mixing
The Mixed Dry Ingredients
3. Cut the Butter up into small pieces and cut or rub into the dry ingredients.
4. Add the diced Sun-dried Tomatoes, the Lemon Peel or Zest and the minced Basil to the Flour mixture.
5. Add the Milk and mix gently with a fork until all the ingredients are well-combined.
6. Divide in half and form each half into a circle, one on each baking sheet.
7. Cut the circles into eight portions but do not separate.
The Shaped & Cut Scones, unbaked
8. Bake for 20 minutes; remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
9. Re-cut the scones, separate and return to the oven for 5 minutes.
10. Serve immediately.
Yield: 16 Scones
*To make Sour Milk, squeeze half a lemon into a 1 cup measure; add milk to equal one cup; mix and let stand for 5 – 10 minutes until the milk curdles. Buttermilk may be used in place of sour milk.
Categories: Baking, Bread, Breakfast Ideas, Dinner Ideas, Lunch Ideas, Main Tags: baking, Bread, butter, Lemon, Scones, Tomato
THE TOMATO ODESSY – WHAT TO DO WITH TOMATO BREAD
Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese and Cucumbers on Tomato Bread
Smoked Salmon on Tomato Bread
Now that you have baked your tomato bread, what to do with it other than butter it and eat it? Since the recipe makes such a large loaf there are numerous things that you can do with it. So far, we have made Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Sandwiches and best of all, French Toast! French Toast with Tomato Bread? Yes indeed! It is tasty and the color of the bread acts as a nice browning agent giving your French Toast immediate eye appeal.
French Toast
Categories: Bread, Breakfast Ideas, Lunch Ideas, Main Tags: Bread, Cream Cheese, Cucumbers, French Toast, Smoked Salmon, Tomato
PASTA, PASTA #2 – Tubular Pasta
Penne Pasta with Tomatoes
There are many types of pasta that are made all over the world. The best quality pasta is made from semolina (hard durum wheat) and eggs with maybe a little salt and some olive oil thrown in. There is pasta that has no eggs in it and then there is pasta made for those with gluten allergies. To avoid pasta with gluten, you can buy rice pasta (usually in the Asian Isle in the market) and pasta made from corn flour. There is pasta that is made domestically and then there is the imported dried variety. There are many types of Italian Pasta, most of which are pretty good. It used to be very difficult to find pasta imported from Italy, but now you can find them most anywhere.
Even though most of us think of pasta as an Italian creation, the first pasta we know was actually made by the Chinese. The Chinese Pasta was brought back to Italy by the explorer Marco Polo. The most familiar Chinese pasta is the water noodle type and is quite soft when cooked. The Italian pasta that is now made from semolina and eggs is much sturdier and can stand up under heavy sauces if that is your desire.
One type of pasta that is very sturdy and can withstand the weight of heavy sauces, if those are our preference, is the tubular pasta. A few of the tubular pasta are: penne, rigatoni, and manicotti. There are numerous other types of tubular pasta, many, many more than can be mentioned in a mere sentence or even a paragraph. In addition to penne, rigatoni and manicotti, there is boccocini and bucatini. There is calamarata (to resemble calamari), cannelloni and cavatapi. There is macaroni and maccheroni, tufoli and ziti. If you order Manicotti in a fine restaurant it is usually made in the form of crepes which are then filled and covered with a sauce. In this case, the Manicotti is more delicate than the one you can buy in the supermarket. Cannelloni are very similar to manicotti.
Most of the pasta mentioned above come in different sizes or slightly different cuts; their name changes with the size and the type of cut or whether it is ridged pasta or a smooth pasta. Most of the names of this type of pasta refer to the item which they are made to resemble. For instance, penne means ‘quills’ and refers to straight tubes of pasta cut diagonally at the ends (to resemble the end of a quill, like a quill pen). Penne ‘zita’ is a wider penne version. Mostaccioli means ‘small moustaches’. This pasta is a 2-inch tube pasta common to the Campania region of Southern Italy. (Like penne only without the ridges) We could go on and on here about the different types of tubular pasta, in fact we could probably write an encyclopedia about them. For more varieties of tubular pasta, there are web sites which list and picture all of them.
Pasta itself is great, but it is usually better when it is accompanied by a sauce. Since tubular pasta is sturdy it can withstand a heavy sauce such as that which comes from Southern Italy. Fresh tomato sauce http://sylveeeskitchen.com/recipes/dinner/fresh-tomato-sauce-with-mushrooms/ is good as well as a marinara made from crushed tomatoes or tomato puree. Manicotti and cannelloni are usually stuffed with a cheese or meat filling and then served with a light sauce. If your preference is a white sauce, try a mushroom cream sauce made with an Alfredo base.
Macaroni or elbow macaroni, as most people in the US know it, is the pasta used for the ever popular Macaroni & Cheese. If you do like macaroni and cheese, try making it with a variety of cheese rather than just one. You will be surprised how interesting macaroni and cheese can be! Since tubular pasta and the sauces that accompany it is very filling, you might want to serve it with a chopped Italian Salad or an antipasto. (By the way, the name antipasto means before the pasta and as it name implies is usually served as a first course)
Try your hand with the different types of tubular pasta and different sauces to go with them. If you have trouble finding a variety of these pastas, try going to an Italian deli or a store that imports goods from around the world. You can use high quality commercially made sauce or even better, make your own. Experiment and create and have a good time and a delicious meal.
Penne Pasta
Penne Pasta with Shrimp
Categories: Cooking for Everyone, Dinner Ideas, Italian, Main, Pasta Tags: Manicotti, Mushroom, Pasta, Pasta Sauce, Penne, Rigatoni, Tomato, Tubular Pasta
Pasta, Pasta # One: Flat Pasta
Mushroom Papparadelle
When you walk down the pasta isle in the market how do you choose which pasta to buy and which to use for what purpose? There are flat pastas, round pastas, hollow pastas and twisted pastas. There is pasta that is made to look like rice (Italian orzo) and pasta that resembles gnocchi (potato dumplings). There are shells and tubes and then there is pasta that is made into shapes to fit the season.
To clear up some of the confusion, this will be an ongoing series that deals with different types of pasta. For our first installment we will deal with the flat pastas. But before we get into the shapes of pasta, you might want to consider what pasta is made from. The best quality pasta is made from semolina (hard durum wheat) and eggs with maybe a little salt and some olive oil thrown in. There is pasta that has no eggs in it and then there is pasta made for those with gluten allergies. To avoid pasta with gluten, you can buy rice pasta usually in the Asian Isle in the market) and pasta made from corn flour. There is pasta that is made domestically and then there is the imported dried variety. There are many types of Italian Pasta, most of which are very good. It used to be very difficult to find pasta imported from Italy, but now you can find them most anywhere.
There is fresh pasta which you can usually purchase from your local Italian deli or you can make it yourself. There are many pasta machines available on the market which help to make the production of pasta at home a fairly simple task.
The best way to cook pasta is to have plenty of boiling water which has been salted. The salt not only helps to flavor the pasta, but it also increases the temperature of the water which makes the pasta cook more quickly. Dried pastas usually have a recommended cooking time on the package and it is wise to follow that at least until you have cooked the pasta at least once. Pasta should be cooked to ‘al dente’ which means “to the tooth”. You should be able to bite into it, but not have it crunch.
The flat pastas include lasagna, linguini, fettuccini and papparadelle. Dried Lasagna noodles are usually about 2-3” wide and can be purchased in boxes either uncooked or precooked. Domestic lasagna noodles are longer than the imported ones; however most of the imported ones are of a better quality. You can usually also purchase fresh pasta which can be used for lasagna from your local Italian deli. Lasagna may either be served simply with a Bolognese (meat) sauce with shredded parmesan or more traditionally as a layered casserole. The sauce for lasagna can vary from marinara (tomato) to Bolognese, mushroom, vegetarian or seafood. There will usually be a layer of pasta, a layer of ricotta cheese, a layer of sauce and a layer of mozzarella. Sometimes the pasta and cheese is layered without the sauce and the sauce is added at serving time.
The narrowest of the flat pasta is linguini; linguini is long narrow pasta (about ¼” wide) which can be served with any number of sauces. A favorite that is served with linguini are clams in either a white wine sauce or a spicy red sauce. The next size up is fettuccini which is usually served with an Alfredo sauce (cream or béchamel) made with butter, heavy cream and parmesan. It is utterly delicious, easy and simple to make and loaded with calories. Not for those who have to watch their cholesterol intake!
Other than lasagna, papparadelle are the widest at about one inch in width. Papparadelle can be served with most any kind of sauce. Papparadelle go especially with vegetables primavera as they provide a nice contrast to the vegetable and are substantive enough to provide contrasting texture and flavor to the vegetables.
All of the above pastas are also made with variations in flavor. You can find [amazon Spinach ], Tomato or Squid Ink Pasta. The Squid Ink is a little more difficult to find and will probably be in specialty shops. In addition to the manufactured dried pastas there are also gourmet pastas which are made in different colors and sometimes have a decorative edging. Choose the ones that most appeal to you, add a flavorful sauce and make a salad and voila! You have a wonderful meal! See our recipe section for Papparadelle with Mushroom Cream Sauce. http://sylveeeskitchen.com/recipes/dinner/pappardelle-with-mushroom-cream-sauce/
Categories: Cooking for Everyone, Dinner Ideas, Italian, Main, Pasta Tags: Corn, family dinner, Fettucinni, Flat Pasta, Italian, Linguini, Papparadelle, Pasta, Rice, Spinach, Squid Ink, Tomato
