Posted on 12/07/2013 9:49:27 AM PST by libertarian27
Welcome to the FReeper Recipe Thread.
Looking for something new to make or made something new that came out great? Please share a 'tried-and-true' recipe or three- for fellow FReepers to add to their 'go-to' Recipe Stack of Family Favorites!
Here's the place to share and explore your latest and greatest favorite recipe.
National Cotton Candy Day -December 7
National Chocolate Brownie Day -December 8
National Pastry Day -December 9
National Lager Day -December 10
National Noodle Ring Day -December 11
National Cocoa Day -December 12
Ice Cream and Violins Day -December 13
Ping to the Weekly Recipe Thread:
Last week’s recipes:
Post# 31 ~Pancakes & Waffles~ Stuffing Waffels
Post# 34 ~Pies & Pastry~ Apple Crumble Pie
Post# 35 ~Sandwiches ~ Instant Monte Cristo Sandwich
Post# 19 ~Vegetables~ Airport Bob’s Green Beans
Link
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3096596/posts?page=40#40
Good stuff here:
http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2008/10/chocolate-toffee-bark.html#axzz2moWTygzC
I usually use semi-sweet chocolate chips rather than the broken chocolate bars. Also, just put the pan in the fridge to harden it up some and then just break into irregular pieces.
Decadent.....
Baby it’s cold outside.. So what does an Italian Chef serve on such a day..
Chicken Cacciatore
or as many Americans think of as Hunters Stew..
Ingredients
1/4 cup flour, for dredging
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (3 to 4-pound) chicken, cut into pieces, rinsed and dried
3 tablespoons olive oil
10-ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered
1 onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
4 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves or 4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked
1/3 cup fresh basil, chiffonade, for serving
Cacciatore Variations, recipes follow
Serving suggestion: Serve the dish with crusty Italian bread, over pasta, or over polenta.
Directions
In a shallow dish, combine the flour with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Working in batches, dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture, turn to coat and shake off the excess flour.
Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed saute pan or Dutch-oven over medium heat. Start browning the chicken in the pan a few pieces at a time to avoid overcrowding. Cook the chicken 5 minutes on each side. Remove and transfer the chicken to a plate.
In the same pan, add the mushroom, onion, red bell pepper, and garlic and saute just until tender. Add the wine and simmer until reduced by half. Add the broth, tomatoes, and oregano. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them to coat in the sauce. Add the thyme to the sauce and bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover. Continue simmering the mixture for 40 minutes, or until tender.
Serve the chicken cacciatore with crusty Italian bread, over pasta, or over polenta and garnish with fresh basil.. :)
I've added salt, pepper to it, but I also throw in some small veggies so I wouldn't have to make a side dish. That was the problem last night -- I used frozen vegetables, which baked fine, but the extra moisture was a little too much.
Simple easy meal, 25-30 min baking and the prep time was shorter than the oven preheating.
I never could get enough rich joice out of my roasts to make enough jus to dip in or rich dark gravy for mashed potatoes (used Kitchen Boquet, not necessary with this).
Took about a 3# boneless chuck roast, looked on the web, crammed into my crock pot.
Took one British beef OXO cube and one cheap store brand beef cube and pounded in baggie, sprinkled over beef.
Drenched the beef in a couple cups of water. Then I saw I had too much beef submerged to make more brown so I poured off most of the water and put back in at the end. But it took 12 hours on low in my old crockpot.
Now having done all that, it was delicious. Only next time I will put in a heavy covered pan in the oven, sprinkle on the crushed cubes, use just a little water for bottom but pour it over the crushed cubes so some get incorporated with the water and some stays with the beef. Roast at 275 till it is getting nicely browned (couple hours).
Then pour more liquid over the roast (1-1/2 cups or so) and keep cooking until tender. Would work on better roasts, too, like sirloin tip, rump I find hard to not to be tough. The jus did not taste like boullion, probably because it got cooked in with the meat. If you add it later, I think it might not be as good. Some people use onion soup, I've tried it all (like a can of beef consomme) and this was THE best.
It might be good to cool the beef so you can cut across the grain. I shredded mine this time. Either way it is good. If you reheat cooled meat sliced, do not let it boil or simmer again. I heat in the oven with juice covered with foil loosely at about 300 until hot.
I will also adapt this with a little salt, pepper, tomato paste, garlic, basil, oregano, boullion cubes to make Italian beef like they used to have at a restaurant here. Most Italian beef uses only the spices but not the tomato paste (as a rub, couple tablespoons or so).
Then I like it heated in the oven on French or Italian bread with roasted green pepper strips and mozarella or Italian cheese.
You could also do it with large meat balls and stuff them in bread. Yum. I kind of improvise some recipes (not all) when I cook now so it's hard to be precise.
I usually rinse my frozen vegetables through a sieve and shake it to drain them before using them in a recipe -- gets rid of any frozen crystals and some of the frozen taste.
Angus Barn's Chocolate Chess Pie
Ingredients:
1 unbaked pie shell
1/2 cup butter
2 (1 ounce) bakers semi-sweet chocolate baking squares
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 dash salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Melt butter and chocolate.
Mix with other ingredients which have been blended together.
Pour into pie crust.
Bake 35 minutes, at 350.
Cool; and serve with whipped cream.
Thanks. I thought about that, but a little late in the process. I figured at that point, I’d probably be adding moisture. (I was a little rushed last night.)
I was going to add a recipe but after seeing the sophistication in other posts, I would be embarrassed to show how simply I cook. 8^)
Just made these for a holiday party.
Black Bottom Cupcakes
(I used mini muffin cups-rich enough for just one bite.)
TOTAL TIME: Prep: 20 min. Bake: 25 min. + cooling
MAKES: 24 regular sized, 48 mini
FILLING:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
CUPCAKES:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1. In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg and salt until smooth. Stir in chips; set aside.
2. For cupcakes, in a large bowl, beat the sugar, water, oil, egg, vinegar and vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into egg mixture until blended.
3. Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full with chocolate batter. Drop a heaping teaspoonful (heaping half tsp. for minis) of cheese mixture in center of batter of each cupcake. Sprinkle with sugar and chopped almonds if desired.
4. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes (15 minutes for minis). Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 20-24 cupcakes.
Apple Dumplings
1 refrigerator cresent rolls (I use store brand)
1 large grannie smith apple
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sevens up or sprite
Unfold rolls into triangles. Cut apple in 8 triangular pieces and peel.
Wrap each apple piece in a piece and place in pyrex dish 8X??
Melt sugar and butter in pan or microwave in appropriate dish. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over dumplings and then pour the 7 up over them
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min. or until browned.
CLAM CAKES
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. fresh chives or parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. milk
1 small can minced clams
1/2 c. clam broth or liquid
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
Drain clams well, reserving 1/2 cup of clam broth liquid. Combine all ingredients. Drop by tablespoonfuls into medium hot oil in a deep fryer or heavy skillet.
Oil that is too hot or cakes which are too large will cause burning or uncooked centers. Adjust temperature up or down slightly to compensate. A good starting temperature is 360 degrees.
The clam cakes will float; turn them over gently as they rise to fully cook both sides. Do not overload the cooker, as this will reduce heat too much. Fry only a few at a time.
Drain on paper towels. Serve with tartar sauce. Best while still warm, but can be served at room temperature as well.
These are an old New England favorite.
If we left right now we’d be there by dinner time. LOL!! That recipe is a keeper.
Instead of a recipe, here is a trick to make other recipes better.
Quick roux.
Roux, a mixture of fats/greases/oils and flour, is the basis of a multitude of other recipes, but it can be tricky, even dangerous to make. But there is simpler, and safer way to make roux, so it is ready to make what is good, great.
Light roux, sometimes called “blonde” or “white” roux, is the thickening agent of three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: béchamel sauce, velouté sauce, and espagnole sauce. Clarified butter, vegetable oils, bacon drippings or lard are commonly used fats. It is used as a thickener for gravy, other sauces, soups and stews. When used in Italian food, roux is traditionally equal parts of butter and flour.
Medium roux, sometimes called “caramel” roux, thickens less but imparts a delicious and rich flavor to dishes that have a thinner taste. In southwestern Germany, they make a “brown broth” from caramel roux that is just lard, flour, and water, with a bay leaf and salt for seasoning.
Dark roux, sometimes called “chocolate” or “brick” roux are beloved in Cajun and Creole cuisine for gumbos and stews, and while they just slightly thicken, they are all about the flavor.
In any event:
While some people use equal parts fats and flour in their roux, for this recipe, I use:
3/4 cup fats to 1 cup flour
(1/4 cup fats and 1/3rd cup flour + broth for gravy)
For the fats you can use vegetable or olive oil, lard, butter or bacon grease. 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter plus 1/4 cup bacon grease works well.
Liquify fat, if necessary, in the microwave, in a 1 quart Pyrex container with handle. Whisk in the flour, then use a metal spoon for the rest of the cooking. At first it should be a thick mix, but it thins over time.
Be very temperature conscious, because roux gets extremely hot and can easily cause burns.
Cook on high for 3 minutes, watching constantly to insure it does not boil over, stirring if it tries to.
After this time, it should be blond in color, and with each additional minute it should darken to caramel then chocolate color. It will continue to darken when stirring so take it out of the oven a few shades too light.
Pour the roux in the cups of a non-stick mini-muffin tin, and when mostly cooled, freeze. Bag your blonde, caramel and chocolate roux separately, and they will store in your freezer a good long time, while being ready at a moments’ notice to make a good recipe taste wonderful.
Cut a 12oz pak of sliced bacon in 1/2 inch strips and fry in a Dutch oven, set the bacon aside and heat the grease to smoking.
Sear 6 boneless beef or moose ribs (3&1/2lbs) in the bacon grease till well browned, place in a flat sheet pan.
Dust the ribs with flour, salt, and pepper and place in a 450 oven for 5 minutes, flip them over and repeat until a thick crust forms.
Sauté 2 sliced onions and 6 carrots in the remaining bacon fat, pour off the grease, add the bacon and ribs back to the Dutch oven.
Add enough (cheap) red wine to cover the meat and vegetables. Add a 1/4 can of tomato paste, a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, a couple of sage leaves, a bay leaf, some coriander and bring it to a boil, cover and put it in the oven.
Turn the oven down to 300, and resist the urge to mess with it for three hours.
Serve with fresh pasta and a good Cabernet!
We set tables at 6, dinner at 6:15pm, and bring your own drink unless you love iced tea.. Come one and all, there’s always plenty to go around..
We like good recipes. Simple is good. Please share your tried-and-true dishes with us!
For lots of delicious jus:
2-3 1/2# decent cut of beef roast (I have used tri tip, rump, round, sirloin, chuck. I prefer the less fatty cuts)
1 pkg McCormack Au Jus mix
1 packet Zesty Italian Dressing mix
1 packet Ranch Dressing mix
3 cups water.
Bring slow cooker up to highest heat and sear the meat.
Mix dry powders w/3 cups cold water and whisk until blended.
Add to slow cooker w/seared roast. Bring to slow boil. Reduce to 225-250 degrees. Cover. Cook 6-10 hours, turning meat occasionally.
found online as “3 Envelope Roast”.
I have also done this with a pork loin roast.
If you want a thicker gravy instead of jus, substitute 2 Brown Gravy packages for the single Au Jus packet and add an extra cup of water. Whisk well and stir often while cooking, as the cornstarch in the gravy mix will tend to thicken sooner. You can use up to 3 1/2 cups water with gravy mix and the gravy will be thicker than jus without being lumpy, but you still need to stir.
I was skeptical, but this has become one of my go-to recipes when I am busy. The leftover jus+meat makes a great Stroganoff. Just saute onions and mushrooms, add a generous portion of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry to deglaze, then reduce liquid slightly. Stir in the cut up leftover beef roast and gradually add the leftover jus and simmer to blend flavors. I add this to cooked and drained egg noodles and let it sit, covered, until serving time. Then I reheat to taste and finally, stir in sour cream to taste, just before serving. This avoids the sour cream breaking down and becoming grainy.
anyone have any favorite Christmas cookie recupies?
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