Cooking In General

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Mmm, Silvery, sounds delicious, if only I could be moved to cook - same to Loreseeker for Raphaelos.

 

It's very easy babe and it doesn't take a lot of effort!!

 

Anyone have any good appetizer recipes? This time of the year I like to make extra special things to eat on our family movie night at home. I've been serving baked zucchini circles with oysters and crab dip but I'd kind of like to change it up a little this week. Any good ideas?

 

Dfly, look at post #486, from me, a few pages back, for Cranberry Feta pinwheels. If you can slip feta cheese past your family, that is. I think they're delicious, and they look very seasonable, for Christmas.

 

Actually that recipe does sound good Rev. Feta cheese is definitely not a problem with my kids - they even like the real goat feta. My older boy isn't that fond of cranberries however. He might try it if I made it though.

 

OK, someone who can actually cook , help me out here:
A friend gave me a very pretty, functional looking bottle of olive oil with garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs inside. Now what? Does one cook with it, dip bread in it, or just set it on the counter to admire? Or something else?
All hints gratefully accepted.

 

Use it as normal oil unless it states otherwise on the bottle packaging. The extra herbs gfive a subtle edge to it and also look highly attractive until you need to use it.

 

Thanks, I'll definitely bear that in mind. I'm thinking of sauteing some chicken in it to see how it does. Will report later.

 

"Russian Hats" or "Fur Hats" recipe

With the New Year just a few days away, my mom has picked the dessert for the occasion, so I thought I'd share it with you.

This is a recipe for the so called "russian hats" - lovely, creamy cakes, with a touch of the season.

Cakes mass:

6 eggs
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons flour
1.5 tablespoons of cocoa
1/2 of baking powder

Filling:

1/2 L milk
6 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla sugar (10g)
1 bar of margarine (250 g)

Decoration:

200g of cooking grade chocolate
100g of coconut or ground up walnuts (I prefer the walnuts version, but the coconut one looks nicer - more like snow)

(My mom said that all of this is common knowledge, but my cooking skill is somewhere around level 0 - once I made pancakes that actually rolled across the table, like wheels (used the wrong flour) - so, I'll be a bit more detailed. )

Cake mass:
Mix the ingredients:

Mix the eggs with a mixer until you get a homogenous cream (you can separate the white bits from the yolk, to make the process faster, but there is no need, really). Add six spoons of sugar and mix until you get a nice thickish cream. Add six spoons of flour (spread across the surface, to avoid clotting) and mix it in gently. Add cocoa and baking powder and mix in with a spoon.

Bake in the oven (usual baking temperature - I hope there is such a thing). The mass is ready once it no longer stick to a match (or a toothpick, or some other wooden pin-like object) when you poke it with it. Once done, cut your cake shapes with a mold (a cup or something, depending on the desired size).
Make the layer thicker, since once it's baked and cooled down, you will need to slice each circle on the middle of its height, making two thinner circles out of it (the filling will go in between the two).

Filling:

Cut a piece of margarine and put it aside - you'll need it to melt the chocolate with - just a little bit (1/8 for example).

Separate milk into two parts - put half of it on the stove and add sugar to it - put the other half aside and mix flour into it (spoon). Once the milk and sugar are heated well, add the rest of the milk (with flour). and mix them on the stove until a cream is formed - once the mass begins to thicken, melt margarine into it and leave it to cool down. Add vanilla sugar into it once it has almost cooled down - that way the vanillin wont evaporate beforehand (and leave your cakes with no vanilla inside).

Fill your "hats", in a sandwich like manner, then cover the sides of it with the filling too.

Melt the cooking chocolate with margarine and pour it on top of each "hat" - you want a solid chocolate lid on each cake.
Roll the "hats: (like little wheels) into coconut bits or walnuts, which ever you prefer.

Serve well chilled.

Enjoy.

P.S. My culinary English is even worse then my usual one...

 

OK, I did saute some boneless skinless chicken breasts in the herbed olive oil. They were pretty good but I don't think I had the pan quite hot enough - chicken cooked through but not really browned on the outside so not very attractive.

One way or another, by New Year's Day, I'll have to cook and eat some black eyed peas and greens. This is a Southern U.S. tradition to bring good luck and wealth in the new year. Hog jowl bacon is also a traditional part of it but I admit that's pretty yukky sounding. I have a recipe for soup involving all three ingredients plus a few more that I may get brave and try.

And the count for this year's Christmas cinnamon swirl bread stands at 63 loaves. I have about twenty pounds of flour left over but that will get used in due course.

 

Good Luck Soup

This soup incorporates several traditional New Year's Day ingredients from the Southern U.S. I suggest a couple of changes after having made it.

Good Luck Soup
Chef Walter, WVLT-TV, Knoxville, TN
December 29, 2008

Ingredients Needed:
1/2 lb smoked hog jowl bacon, cubed <I recommend 6 slices regular bacon>
1 medium onion, chopped
1 16 oz pkg frozen chopped mustard greens
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies (either size can will work)
4 to 6 cups chicken stock
2 to 3 cans black eyed peas, drained <and I would also rinse them>

Directions:
In a large soup pot, saute the bacon until browned and all grease has been rendered. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and reserve. <Drain fat, then return about 2 tablespoons to the pot.> Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions starts to brown. Add the greens (it is not necessary to thaw them) and stir until thawed. Stir in chicken stock and allow to cook about 25 to 30 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and black eyed peas. Return to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and allow to cook at least 20 minutes. Stir in the cooked bacon and serve hot. This soup cries out for cornbread.

Note: If you decide to try the hog jowl bacon (assuming you can even find it in a store where you live), don’t forget to cut the rind off before you dice it. It’s pretty much inedible. Also, in the original recipe, Chef Walter left all the rendered bacon fat in the pot. While I'm sure the greens soaked it all up, that was just too much saturated fat for me, and I reduced the amount I left in drastically. If you switch to regular bacon you will have much less fat anyway.

This was surprisingly good, and even looked more attractive than I expected it to. The tomatoes with chilies gave a nice bite to the dish - you could also use regular diced tomatoes and add hot sauce, like Texas Pete or Tabasco, to taste.

And as for crying out for cornbread: well, it does if you grew up in the South like I did, but any substantial bread should work as a nice accompaniment to it.

 

Your soup sounds really good Rev although I'll be forced to use regular bacon if I do decide to make it. Alberta is pretty much the opposite of the old south. Especially at the present temperature of -30.

@ Loreseeker - In your recipe you call for 1 vanilla sugar. I was wondering if it you could tell me the measurement for that possibly. I'm also having a hard time picturing it, you wouldn't, per chance, have a pic you could link? From the sound of it I'm pretty sure my family would like that one.

 

D-Fly:
Vanilla sugar (a mixture of sugar and vanillin, basically) is sold in little bags here, I think that each weighs around 10g. You need one, so 10 grams of it.

I googled this for you, since I don't have any pictures on hand: (just google "ruske kape" under Images if you want more )



Some people like these cakes tall and with more mass then cream. My mom usually makes them quite creamy, with thin cake layers, so that the "hats" are rather short.

 

Oooooooh these look delicious!

 

OK, I'm sure that somewhere in this thread is an answer to this question, but there's too many pages to search, so here it is:

I love Tacos -- and I don't mind the Old El Paso powder I use to make the ground beef for my tacos. Yet, I'd like to make such a seasoning mixture from scratch. Any tried and true recipes?

 

Banana Bread Recipe - Fast and Easy to make / Kids can help

For those of you who enjoy a soft and delicious banana bread but are not sure how to make it. This is a recipe my daughter (who is 3) and I have used a few times together. She loves smashing the bananas and mixing the batter. The batter is on the liquidity side but the bread is ultra moist and has a great banana flavor.

Fast and Easy Banana Bread

5 extra ripe (almost complete brown) peeled bananas
1 Cups of Sugar
1 & 1 / 2 Cups of Flour
1 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
1 / 2 Cup of apple sauce
1 / 4 Cup of melted butter
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 / 2 teaspoon of sale
1 Egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium to large bowl smash the peeled bananas, the smashed bananas should almost be like a batter by it self. Mix into smashed bananas the vanilla extract, melted butter and apple sauce. Mix into batter baking soda, salt and sugar. Slowly mix flour in with the rest of the batter.

Butter or spray on cooking spray to a 9x5 or 8x4 pan. Add batter to pan (batter should fill a 9x5 pan perfectly, though a smaller pan may have left over batter).

Bake for 1 hour.

Take banana bread out of the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes. Using a knife or spatula, move it along the outer edges of the bread and place bread on a wire rack. Let bread cool for another 15-20 minutes.

Slice bread, butter if you want and enjoy.

 

Cook a jacket potato until it's almost ready, half it, scoop out the middle
Mix some green pesto (as much as you like depending on your taste) into the scooped out innards. Put the potato back in the skin, sprinkle on some cheese and bake until ready.

 

What is a jacket potato? Is that a British term for a baking potato?

 

Yes it is bunny