Recipes and Cooking category archive

Aye, there’s the rub:

• 4 parts dill
• 4 parts rosemary
• 2 parts basil
• 2 parts marjoram
• 1 part pepper, preferably freshly ground and coarse

Prepare enough rub to cover lamb chops thickly.

1. Marinate chops in dry sherry or dry red wine.

2. Coat chops thickly with rub, pressing it in.

3. Grill to medium or medium well over medium fire.

10 minutes on the grill at 425 Fahrenheits:

Add lemon butter, jalapeno corn bread, and Hungarian cucumber salad.

International yums.

I got them at Taste at their summer fresh food stand.

A very simple recipe which, when served, tastes very special. I worked it up tonight and was very gratified by how it was received.

Ingredients:

2 lamp chops
3/4th tbsp. dill
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground pepper
Dry sherry

Procedure:

1. Marinate chops in sherry, turning at least once.

2. Combine spices to make a dry rub. Approx. 30 mins. before cooking, rub chops well with spices.

3. Grill to medium or medium rare, either on a grill at lower heat or under a broiler. A grill is preferable because you can lower the heat, whereas a broiler in a stove is all-or-nothing.

Serve with sweet corn grilled in the shucks.

Notes:

A dry red wine would also work for the marinade. I keep sherry around because it can be used in place of either red or white wine and the full flavor of sherry goes well with the rich flavor of lamb. (Do not marinate with anything you aren’t willing to drink–straight. If you won’t drink it, don’t cook with it.)

Increase ingredients proportionately for larger quantities. You want to enough rub to cover the chops well on both sides.

The rub would also work well with a roast, such as leg of lamb.

Other spices can be added. Thyme and marjoram should work well, Rosemary, which is traditionally associated with lamb, would probably conflict with the dill.

This is a derived from an old camping recipe I read somewhere.

Ingredients:

Fish (catfish, cod, or similar fish are best; fillets are easiest)
Onion
Bell Pepper
Tomato
Pepper
Dried Parsley

Note: The quantity of vegetables depends on the amount of fish. See step 4 below.

Procedure:

1. Preheat grill to medium heat.

2. Slice vegetables. For the onion, thin wedges work best.

3. Pull enough aluminum foil to wrap seal in the fish and other ingredients. Brush the aluminum foil with olive oil.

4. Layer the vegetable slices on the foil, then lay the fish on them, then layer more vegetables on top of the fish. Sprinkle with pepper, parsley, and anything else that sounds good. (Salt is not necessary for ocean fish. They come already salted.)

5. Seal the foil tightly around the fish and vegetable mixture and place it on the grill until done (depending on the grill, 30 to 45 minutes).

Goes well with asparagus roasted with olive oil and garlic, which can be cooked on the same grill.

Variations:

For a charcoal grill or campfire, place directly in embers and cover with the embers. Cooking time will be reduced.

Any vegetable that can be sliced thin and still maintain some, such as zucchini, and be added to the ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 can red kidney beans
2 chicken breasts cut into pieces or equivalent
1/4 cp. olive oil
1 sm. (red) onion, diced
1 or 2 stalks celery, sliced
2 or 3 mushrooms, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced, or 1/2 tbs. dried minced garlic
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles or 1 can diced tomatos and 1 small can diced chiles
1 sm. can tomato sauce
1 can chicken stock
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. ground pepper or more to taste
bay leaf
salt to taste

1. Heat oil in skillet and brown chicken in oil. Remove chicken to dutch oven or heavy sauce pan.

2. Saute garlic and ground pepper in skillet in remaining oil for a couple of minutes, then add vegetables and saute until onion is translucent.

3, Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, spices, and anything else that strikes your fancy to mixture in skillet. Bring to simmer.

5. Pour vegetable mixture over chicken in dutch oven and add remaining ingredients. Simmer over low heat until chicken is done, approx 1 hour, but it won’t hurt it to cook longer as long as there’s plenty of liquid. Serve over rice.

_________________

This is a variation of the Chicken and Kidney Bean Casserole recipe from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook, revised ed., p. 161. It’s so much a variation that Mr. Claiborne would not recognize it.

But it’s good.

Based on a recipe from Southern LIving’s Our Best Recipes:

• 2 cps cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (canned sweet potatoes work just fine)
• 1/4 cp butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/4 cp sugar (may substitute brown sugar for all or some)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cp bourbon (Virginia Gentleman recommended)
• 2 pie shells (the recipe says it makes one pie; don’t believe it)

Combine ingredients. Mix until smooth.

Pour into pie shell(s).

Preheat oven to 425 Fahrenheits.

Cook at 425 Fahrenheits for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 Fahrenheits and cook for an additional hour and 20 minutes or until knife inserted in center of pie comes out clean.

Drink remainder of bourbon.

My two or three regular readers know I like to cook.

I’m not doing much fancy cooking lately. It is difficult to work up the energy to make a ratatouille for one.

But this blog has some recipes that I will be trying.

I think I’ll start with this one.

In the Southern Living Our Best Recipes Cookbook (1980), this is billed as “Outer Banks Cornbread.”

1/2 stick (4 tbsp) butter
1 cp cornmeal (yellow preferred)
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2 tsp sugar
1 cp milk
1 egg

Turn oven to 425 Fahrenheits. Place butter in 9 x 5 or equivalent Pyrex and shove in oven.

Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl. If you feel adventurous, add an extra egg (makes the cornbread lighter).

When butter has melted in the Pyrex, take baking pan out of oven and pour batter into pan making sure to center it in the melted butter.

Shove the whole thing back into the oven and bake until done (approx. 20 mins. or until knife comes out clean).

Variations:

Jalapeno Cornbread: Add one small can chopped jalapenos or equivalent chopped pickled jalapenos or sauted chopped fresh jalapenos. Or habaneros if you are lucky enough to have some on hand.

Cheese Cornbread: Grate up some cheese and throw it into the mix.

Oyster Cornbread: Don’t go there.

A recipe for the times:

1. Take seat in diner.

2. Order 1 glass water.

3. Empty two packets ketchup in glass of water.

4. Stir.

5. Drink W. Tomato Juice.

6. Leave restaurant before server comes to take order.

I’m edumacatin’ Karen on red eye gravy, so I figured I would share the knowledge.

You put your grits on the stove to cook. Don’t use “instant grits.” They are so full of salt that they are evil. Probably invented by a Republican. Quick grits are okay, but cook them slow. The package says five minutes. Make it half an hour.

Fry up a couple of slices of real ham(tm) in the skillet (cast iron skillet, preferably–worth the cost, but I inherited mine; they hold the heat and spread it evenly).

After taking the ham off, put a little bit of water in the skillet, scrap any stickins off the bottom of the skillet, add a bit of pepper, and cook it up for a mite.

It’s called “red eye” gravy because it has a reddish tint from the ham.

Pour the grits over the ham. Pour the gravy over the whole thing.

If you have a low cholesterol count, add an egg fried in butter over medium at the bottom of the pile.

Eat and die happy.

Damn Yankees don’t know a blessed thing about cooking. As my cousin once said after a sojourn in Boston, “Them Yankees think peas and carrots grow on the same damn plant.”

Note that the greatest cookbook author in the history of mankind was from Mississippi.

Craig Claiborne’s version of James Beard’s Cuban Bread:

I’m looking forward to supper.

The recipe is below the fold.

Read more »

This is not the recipe to which I linked in this post. This is the recipe I used, Craig Claiborne’s recipe from the 1971 New York Times International Cookbook, the best cookbook ever written.

As with any of Craig Claiborne’s recipes, it is to die for. We verified that tonight.

Ingredients:

3lbs. Bottom round of beef (I used 2 lbs. chuck roast)
3 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard seeds (I substituted horseradish because I had no mustard seeds and didn’t want to go back to the store, and the Internet told me I could use horseradish)
25 whole cloves
25 bay leaves (only had six and some flakes)
3 large onions peeled and sliced (I used only two, because I was using less beef)
2 cups wine vinegar
1/4 cup butter
salt to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp. sea salt)
6 slices bacon (I used five, because that was all I needed to cover everything fully)
beef stock
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 cup cold water
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

1. The meat must be marinated three days in advance. Trim off most of the fat from the beef, then cut the beef into six large chunks. Select a glass, enamel, or stainless steel bowl large enough to the been comfortably. Combine the peppercorns, mustard seeds, cloves, bay leaves, onions, and vinegar and pour all of it over the beef. Refrigerate for 3 days.

2. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

3. Melt the butter in a casserole.

4. Drain the meat and reserve both the meat and half the marinade with the seasonings.

5. Place the meat in the casserole and add the reserved liquid and seasonings. Add slat to taste. Place the casserole, uncovered, in the oven. Cook about one hour, then reduce the heat to 300 degrees.

6. Turn the meat in the liquid and cover each piece of meat with bacon. Continue cooking about one hour, or until the meat is tender. Remove the bacon and discard it. Cook the meat about ten minutes longer, then transfer to a warm platter and strain the cooking liquid. Discard the solids. To the cooking liquid add enough beef stock to make four cups. (I made three cups because of the smaller quantity of beef.)

7. Return the meat to a clean casserole and add the liquid. Bring to a boil. Blend the flour with the cold water and add it to the boiling liquid, stirring. Simmer about five minutes, adding more salt, if desired. Stir in the cream. Serve hot, with noodles, dumplings, or potatoes. (We served it with rice. I know, thanks to Bush and his ethanol scam, once we run out of rice, we won’t be able to afford any more.)

H/T to Linda for transcribing the recipe.

This came back to me as we planned the Christmas Eve menu.

When I used to travel with Jack–and Jack and I were teamed together a lot back in my Amtrak days; just about any wierd or unusual assignment turned into the Frank and Jack Show–we traveled well.

Jack knew great places to eat in every city we visited.

We were sitting in the Lobby Bar of the Algonquin Hotel when the cheese dip ran out and I watched the bartender make a new batch. It’s very simple and very tasty.

This was a while ago. Jack’s been retired for about 14 years and it’s nine years since I left Amtrak left me.

• 1 jar Cheez Whiz. (Yeah, I know. It seems surprising that a classy dive like the Algonquin used Cheez Whiz, but I saw with my own and Jack’s eyes.)
• dry sherry (I think the barkeep used Dry Sack)
• cayenne pepper

Empty Cheeze Whiz in a bowl
Add sherry and stir until it reaches a smooth, but not runny, consistency
Add a dash or two of cayenne (may substitute Frank’s Red Hot).

(If you need to store the dip, press plastic wrap across the surface of the dip, forcing out all the air, to keep a film from forming.)

One night of soaking, a few minutes of scrubbing, 15 minutes scoring the rind, 5 minutes rubbing salt and pepper into the rind, and . . .

Viola! (Remember Viola? Hot-cha-cha!)

Sixteen and a half pounds of delectable melt in your mouth to die for red and dry and salty like God intended Real Ham (TM)

After it was done cooking (five hours at 350 degrees), I sliced off the rind, ran it into the oven on a baking sheet, and turned it into cracklin’.

The cracklin’ may not make it to Christmas Eve.

We’ll forget about the oven fire.

Ingredients:

(Quantities depend on how many pieces of chicken you are cooking. This is based on five boneless, skinless chicken breasts.)

Chicken.
1 cp Flour.
1/2 Can Stale Beer (That’s because I found a half can of stale beer left on the porch by someone who shall remain nameless).
Pepper.
Assorted Spices (I like sage, garlic, basil, pepper, marjoram, and thyme, but sometimes I cheat and use garlic and poultry seasoning).
1 cp. Goose Grease reserved from last year’s Christmas goose.

Heat grease in skillet. While grease is heating,
Put flour in bowl.
Add beer and, if necessary, water, to make a batter the consistency of pancake batter.
Add spices and mix well (as I write this, I realize I should have added a raw egg, too. Yums.)
When grease is hot, dredge chicken in batter.
Gently put chicken in skillet so as not to disturb the batter.
Cover skillet with splash screen, if you have one, but do not cover it with a lid.
Fry until brown on one side.
Turn chicken and fry until brown on the other side.
(Approx. 1/2 hour per side over medium flame.)

Serve over rice.

If you feel really ambitious, make gravy:
Pour off excess grease and reserve a couple of tablespoons in the skillet.
Add water.
Add flour.
Whisk out the lumps (it’s okay if you leave a few lumps–makes it look homemade).
Add a little salt.
Add lots of pepper.
Keep adding stuff till it comes out right.
It’s trial and error, my friends. You make an error, you go on trial.

Ingredients:

1 Medium Onion, chopped.
1 generous pour Garlic Powder (approx. 1 tbs).
(Face it, if you have to measure, you can’t cook.)
2 Cans Red Kidney Beans (may substitute black beans).
1 Can Diced Tomatoes.
4 or 5 Italian Sausages.
1/2 tsp Salt.
Several Grinds Pepper.
Four Shakes Basil.
One Small Shake Thyme.
One Pour Olive Oil.
Some Paprika.
Some Hot Sauce.

Heat olive oil (Extra Virgin, of course. Cthulhu says there are never enough virgins ).
Add onion and saute until golden brown.
Brown sausages in the mixture.
Add beans, diced tomatoes, and some water.
Add remaining spices.
Simmer until you can’t stand it any more.
Add additional herbs and spices to taste.
Wait a little longer for everything to cook down.

Best served with Amoroso rolls, but we didn’t have any of those tonight.

Talk someone else into doing the clean-up.

4 egg yolks

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbs lemon juice

8 tbs (1 stick) butter

tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper

Combine egg yolks in blender.

Hit blender once quickly to blend egg yokes.

Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper (sauce) to blender.

Melt butter in small sauce pan until it’s bubbling (the butter, not the sauce pan).

Turn blender on high and pour butter in thin stream directly into center of blender blade. Turn off blender immediately that mixture is, well, blended.

Serve over Eggs Benedict.

Makes approx. 3/4 cp.

This is not authentic, but it’s good:

1 cp chopped onions
2 stalks celery, sliced
3 lg. mushrooms, sliced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced, or equivalent garlic powder or minced garlic
3 tbs ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground mustard
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp basil
2 tsp vinegar
2 lbs. top round or flank steak, cut in 1 inch cubes
2 1/2 cps beef stock or water and one beef bouillon cube
salt
2 tbs lemon juice

Saute fresh vegetables in dutch oven until onions are translucent.

Add spices and vinegar and stir.

Add meat and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until meat is browned.

Add stock. Cover and cook over slow heat until meat is tender. Add salt and lemon juice.

Server over rice. Accompany with lime pickle or chutney (for the faint of heart), puri, and cucumber and sour cream salad.

Variations:

1. Add additional spices, such as paprika. No one will notice.

2. Add a dried habenero pepper for extra pep.

3. Use chicken instead of beef.

4. Marinate meat in red wine; reserve marinade and use in place of vinegar (makes a sweeter dish).

Derived from a recipe in the Best Cookbook in the World.

My brother once requested a birthday cake with Milky Way icing.

The recipe for the icing: Take seven Milky Way bars. Melt them. Spread over cake.

It was pretty good, actually, but it dried harder than regular icing. The resulting cake had sort of a Milky Way shell around it.

But this is the first time I’ve heard of Snickers Pie:

It is, they say, the unhealthiest recipe ever published: Antony Worrall Thompson’s Snickers pie contains no less than five Snickers bars and boasts an incredible 1,250 calories per serving. When they gave the pudding Death By Chocolate its name, they were clearly envisaging a comparatively slow suicide. Calling Snickers pie a dessert is like describing a precipitous leap into the lion’s enclosure as a day at the zoo.

3 cps. flour.

1 pkg. yeast.

1 cp. lukewarm water.

5 tbs. olive oil, approximately.

2 cloves garlic, minced, or equivalent dried minced garlic or garlic powder. Or more if you like.

Salt to taste.

2 tbs. dried oregano, or to taste.

1/2 med. onion, chopped.

4 med. or 2 large mushrooms, sliced.

Sliced pepperoni.

1 reg. can peeled tomatoes (cut up) or one reg. can diced tomatoes.

1 sm. can tomato sauce.

1 cp. or more shredded mossarella cheese.

Freshly ground black pepper.

Proof yeast in water.

Make a mound of the flour on a board and make a depression in the top.

Put 1 tbs. oil and a pinch of salt in the depression.

Add the water/yeast mixture a little at a time, working it into the flour by hand.

Knead the dough until it is smooth. When done, it should be smooth, firm, pliable, and not sticky. Add more water or flour if needed.

Lightly oil a bowl, place the dough in the bowl, brush oil on the surface of the dough, cover, and place in a warm place to rise until doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hrs.).

Meanwhile, put about 3 tbs. oil in a sauce pan and heat slowly over low heat. Add the garlic and saute briefly. Add the tomatoes, sauce, and 1 tbs. oregano, and bring to a simmer. Taste and add oregano, black pepper, and garlic as needed. (It’s the oregano that disguishes pizza sauce.)

After sauce is simmering slowly, add onions and mushrooms. Simmer until flavors are well-blended. Remove from heat.

When dough is ready, grease cookie sheet or similar surface with remaining oil and sprinkle with salt. Place dough on the surface and work till it is smooth and thin (yes, it’s okay to use a rolling pin or a glass to stretch it out).

Spread sauce on dough.

Spread pepperoni slices on sauce.

Sprinkle with cheese.

Cook in oven pre-heated to 500 degrees until done (15-20 mins.).

(My son and I were full after eating half of this.)

Variations:

Basil and parsley are good in the sauce.

Use fresh tomatoes: blanch tomatoes, peel, chop, and use instead of the canned tomatoes.

Just about anything for toppings. If using sausage or meatballs, cook first, then slice and put on the pizza.

Sorry, pineapple or broccoli on pizza are crimes against nature.