Thank you Ayesha for a brand spanking new recipe!
Yup…found their website at
http://www.oldoriginalbookbinders.com/products.html
(Don’t bother with the ‘Hot ‘n’ Spicy’ Cocktail Sauce if you want to taste the actual seafood.) Like I said, the heat level of the regular cocktail sauce is perfect, and the coarse texture has a sublime “mouth feel” (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase!)
Fenris
The key to this recipe (as with many) is to do all the preparation first. The cooking time is actually only 10 or so minutes.
You need:
A small cauliflower
Root ginger
Garlic
Turmeric
Cumin seed
Coriander seed
Black pepper
Mustard seed (pref. brown)
One chili pepper (variety to suit your taste)
Red (bell) pepper (optional)
Ghee (vegetable oil if you don’t have it)
A pot with a tightfitting lid (A small dutch pot is ideal)
Peel a 1 cm slice of ginger. Chop it into very fine strips.
Peel and chop 2 cloves of garlic
Roast 1tsp coriander seed and 1 tsp cumin seed in a dry frying pan. Grind them in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt and a couple of black peppercorns
Divide the cauliflower into florets
Chop the bell pepper (if you’re using one) into slices.
Prepare the chili pepper — remove the seeds if you want to and chop him into little bits.
Heat 2tbsp oil in the pot on a medium frying heat.
Throw in the ginger and fry for a minute or so
Add the garlic and fry til very lightly browned.
Add the cauliflower and stir fry til bits of it go slightly golden.
Add 1 tsp turmeric and stir so the turmeric coats the cauliflower florets evenly.
Fry for a minute or so, but don’t let anything burn.
Add the cumin and coriander mixture, and the chili pepper. Stir.
Add 1 tsp mustard seeds. They’ll jump about if the oil is hot.
Add the slices of bell pepper, if you’re using one.
Add 2 tbsp water. Put the lid on straight away.
Raise the heat to very high, to build up steam. Don’t leave it on high for longer than half a minute.
Turn the heat to the lowest possible, and leave covered on the heat for 8-10 minutes.
Enjoy with chappatis and some brinjal pickle.
… by the way, the cauliflower should be al dente. There should be hardly any liquid left at the bottom of the pot.
Not like I didn’t use the preview button four times already.
Tansu, how did you know that yesterday, I bought a cauliflower for the first time in months? Your recipe sounds perfect. I have bought a grinder for spices only and have a mortar and pestle. I have been promising myself to try working a fresh style curry recipe like yours for years. Now it appears as though I have no choice.
I have seen you post elsewhere concerning subcontinent recipes and have meant to ask you to post at this thread too. Thank you for doing so!
Please be so kind as to post a recipe for chappatis and brinjal pickle. Too many people are put off by the strong flavor of curries because they are not combining them with good nan or chappatis. One of my own favorite combinations is papadums (papadums = “potato chips” of the Gods) with a spicy tomato chile chutney. Perhaps a kima curry with fresh nan is up there too.
I would be in your debt if you would post a recipe for tomato chile chutney. I have been able to approximate it by adding some curry to a serrano salsa casera, blending a portion of it and remixing it with some more of the unblended salsa.
Please allow me to share a funny story. When I had business dealings with a Sikh family, I was frequently invited to dinner. I would routinely amaze them by noticing when the mother (and not the daughter) had made the chappatis. Really, it was very easy, mother’s chappatis would balloon correctly whereas the daughter’s would not separate in the proper fashion. I believe this won the heart of the mother like nothing else. Oh, the flavors of that home made food!
Anyway, thank you for letting me share some memories. Just for kicks, allow me to say that one of the first dishes that I ever learned to cook, as a child, was curried chicken and rice. If I may be so rude as to ask an additional favor. Please elaborate, at your convenience, about the difference between a green curry and the regular type.
PS: I proof my postings here four times too and things still slip through. You are not alone.
Beans
Preparation time: 1-2 hours
Serves: 6-8 People
Ingredients:
2 Cups Cranberry beans*
6-8 Cups Water
1-2 Tbs Salt
1 Tbs Onion powder
1 Tsp Garlic powder
1/2 Tsp Ground black pepper
Dash of hot sauce
Dash Powdered cumin
Dash Powdered Pacifico chile
*Pintos and others will work too.
Preparation:
This recipe begins with a very important fact of cooking. Beans are seeds. When you soak them for an extended period, you alter their chemistry and culinary properties. Unlike barley, which must be soaked and germinated prior to being turned into malt, beans do not require such pretreatment. A prolonged soak initiates the germination cycle which begins to convert starches within the bean into sugars the seedling will need for growth. This process has nothing favorable to do with nutrition or flavor.
To avoid this, merely begin cooking your beans when you get home, or on the day before. Always rinse and pick over your beans prior to cooking. Start with a liberal quantity of water and leave the cover off of the pot.
For those of you who do soak your beans, try this trick that I used to use. Add a liberal quantity of salt (1-3 Tbs) to the soaking water. This seems to impart an extra bit of flavor to them. If you are going to add tomato products to your beans, do so after the beans are completely cooked. The acid in the tomatoes will halt the cooking process of the beans if added beforehand.
Start the beans over a high heat and continue to boil them for the first hour or so. Once the beans are tender, add the rest of the spices and reduce the heat to a slow simmer. Keep the pot covered and depending on the desired end product, adjust the amount of water used. I prefer to have a rich “bean gravy” at the bottom of the pot. If you want your beans relatively dry, reduce the amount of liquid that you begin with.
Note: I have found that most Mexican dishes are better when Cranberry beans are used.
Please contribute a recipe and come back soon!
Applesauce-cinnamon bread
(Cannot be made on delay start or on quick cycle)
Add ingredients in order:
1/3 cup applesauce
1 cup milk
1 tsp butter
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ cup chopped nuts (optional)
2 ½ cup breadmaker flour
1 ½ tsp breadmaker yeast
Cinnamon-pecan bread
(May be baked on regular, rapid, or delayed cycles)
Add ingredients in order:
1 1/8 cup water
1 ½ tbsp powdered milk
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ cup butter
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup chopped pecans
3 1/3 cups breadmaker flour
1 ½ tsp breadmaker yeast
I got this recipe from a guy who went to culinary school, then went to the Army and travelled around. This is the recipe he liked from the Phillippines. Everyone has a different way of making it, and this is the one I have.
Adobo
1.5 pounds of pork, cut into 1" chunks Get a cut that will stew well–chops don’t work unless they’re really thick. I like the “country” or “western” rib meat.
1 large onion, very coarsely chopped
About six cloves of minced garlic
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons vinegar
2 bay leaves
olive oil
minced dried chiles, to taste (optional)
In a very large stock pot, heat the oil to medium. Put in the garlic (and chiles, if you wish) and saute for about a minute. Add the pork chunks in small batches, and cook it until it the outsides are almost all white. Do not brown the meat. Add the onions, and cook for another minute, tops. Pour in the soy sauce and vinegar, then add enough water to nearly cover the pork and onion. The liquid should look somewhat like very weak coffee at this point. I usually end up splashing in a little bit more of soy sauce and vinegar, but that’s just me. Toss in the bay leaves.
Here’s the fun part. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT put a cover on this pot. Wait until the mixture comes to a boil, and adjust the temperature so that it is just barely boiling. Then wait. About an hour later, right around the time when everyone in your house is asking what smells so damned wonderful, go over there and give it a look-see. Attempt to break up the pork chunks a bit with a spatula. Wait some more, about another 45 minutes, or until everyone around you is starting to look really hungry. Go around and break up the chunks some more. Eventually (after about 3 hours), what you’ll end up with is shredded meat in a pot with very little liquid. The onions, at this point, should be almost unnoticeable. That’s when it’s ready to eat.
Serve it over rice. It tastes so good it will make you want to cry. It also keeps well–I think it was Doobieous in chat who told me that his grandmother used to say that the sign of a good adobo was that it could keep a week without refrigeration. I have yet to test that theory with this one, mainly because it would never last that long.
Yup. I said sauerkraut!
I was reading Al Zheimers’ thread about his bread machine and decided to post this for him and anyone else with one of those clever inventions. We’ve had one for years and use it a lot.
This bread is really good, and comes out beautifully 99% of the time. You really should try it.
So now, in the words of the lovely and talented Mrs. B:
* Exported from MasterCook *
Sauerkraut Bread (Bread machine)
Serving Size : 10 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Breads
Amount Measure Ingredient – Preparation Method
9 oz sauerkraut – well-drained/chopped
1 1/2 cups buttermilk – room temp
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar – packed
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup rye flour
3 cups bread flour – plus 2 tablespoons
3 tablespoons gluten, wheat flour
1 tablespoon powdered milk – heaping
2 tablesoon caraway seed – optional
2 1/2 tablespoons yeast
Place all ingredients in bread pan in order listed, or in the order recommended for your machine. If the buttermilk is refrigerated it can be microwaved for twenty or thirty seconds to bring it up to room temp - lukewarm.
Set controls for whole wheat bread with medium crust or light (we have ours on light as it makes a darker crust), and start machine
- - - - - - -
NOTES : This is a wonderful, moist bread that is one of the best sandwich breads I have ever eaten. I was told that because the moisture content in the sauerkraut may vary, you might have to add a bit more flour. Check the dough after about five minutes of kneading and if it is sticky and has not formed into a ball, add more flour.
note: I have never had to add more flour but you may want to check just to be safe.
Makes a large 1 1/2 pound loaf, it comes right to the top of the machine in my 1 1/2 pound breadmaker!
Notice what she said about draining the sauerkraut, that’s very important.
If you like this one, I’ll get some other bread machine recipes keyed in. Unfortunately we lost a lot of recipes we had in the computer in the great hard drive crash of '99.
Drain Bead, how nice of you to drop by (Satan’s army of darkness is always welcome here)! I’m still trying to find the recipe for a Philippine won-ton soup with sh!tloads of garlic in it. Please check out my Sinigang recipe. Try it once and you are hooked!
Bumbazine, thanks for dropping by again, you too FairyChatMom. So glad to have you all visit. Well, let’s get busy with our Holiday recipes. I’ll bring by my triple sausage, red wine and sourdough stuffing real soon.
I’ve read the thread, and unless I missed it I don’t think anyone has posted a tried and true recipe for my favorite:
Crab Cakes
mmmmmm the kind that are coated and yummy 
Anyone?
Crab Cakes
Preparation time: 1-2 Hours
Serves: 4 People
Ingredients:
2 Cups Cleaned crab meat
1 1/2 Cups Fresh bread crumbs
1 Egg
1 Cube Butter
1/4 Cup Heavy cream
2-3 Tbs Grated onion pulp
1/8 Tsp Ground white pepper
Juice of one lemon
Dash of salt
Dash of hot sauce
Dash of paprika
Chopped chives or parsley
See the Tartar Sauce recipe in this thread. You may wish to increase the mustard in it to create more of a Remoulade type of sauce. For the very richest presentation also use chopped whole hard-boiled egg in it.
Preparation:
Prepare the crabs. If using fresh crabs, cook them in Zatarain’s or Old Bay seafood boil. Cool the crabs and pick them over leaving the meat in the largest pieces possible. You should have about two cups of crab meat when finished. Cut the crusts from a light white bread and shred the pieces into crumbs using a hand blender. Avoid using dried bread crumbs as they will tend to become leaden during the cooking process.
Mix 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs with the crab meat, onion pulp, spices and a tablespoon of the lemon juice. Work the mixture gently. Fold it so as to avoid breaking up the crab meat. Chopped parsley or chives may be added at this point or used as a garnish. Break the egg into a separate bowl, add the cream and beat thoroughly. Use a fork to remove any of the egg white that has not broken up.
Gently fold the egg mixture into the seasoned crab meat. For best results, chill this mix for one hour, especially if you are going to deep fry the crab cakes. If you are going to fry them off in a pan you may proceed immediately. However, the cakes will benefit from a “marrying up” period of one half hour.
Preheat a pan over medium heat with half a stick of butter. Use a large spoon to scoop out a golf ball sized amount of the crab meat. Avoid compressing or flattening the crab meat. Roll in the remaining fresh bread crumbs and set aside on waxed paper. When the butter begins to foam in the pan, add three or four of the crab cakes. Fry until golden brown and turn gently to avoid any breakage. The cakes should collapse on their own into a flat shape. If they do not, press on them very gently with the back of a spatula prior to turning. Add more butter if the pan goes dry or as needed.
Line a platter with lettuce leaves and garnish with parsley. Drain the fried crab cakes on
paper towels and arrange them on the platter. Serve immediately with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.
Note: For those partial to ketchup please provide Crosse and Blackwell seafood sauce.
Please contribute a recipe and come back soon!
Salsa Casera
Homestyle Mexican Salsa
Preparation time: 30 Minutes
Serves: 5-10 People
Ingredients:
4-8 Serrano chile peppers
6 Large ripe tomatoes
2-3 White onions
3-4 Tbs Chopped cilantro
1-2 Tsp Salt
Use only white onions and salad tomatoes.
Preparation:
Preheat a medium size pan over low heat. Remove the stems from the peppers and chop into thin rings. Regulate the heat of this salsa by using more or less peppers. Place the thin sliced peppers in the pot. Peel and dice the white onion into small pieces and add to the pot. The onions should be transparent before adding more ingredients. Do not allow the onions to brown! Dice the tomatoes into small pieces and add to the pot. Add the salt half a teaspoon at a time and taste for flavor before adding more. Wash well and remove the stems from the cilantro. Chop fine and add to the pot. Bring the pot to a low simmer and taste for balance between the onions and tomatoes. Check for saltiness, the salsa should have a decent degree of salt to it and should not be sweet. Avoid adding too much cilantro as it will make the salsa bitter. Cook until all of the ingredients are tender and chill well before serving.
Note: Serve with yellow corn tortilla chips. Also works well for making guacamole. Be careful when handling the peppers as they are quite hot. This is an excellent all around salsa and is one of my very favorites. To see what this salsa should taste like, try a small can of Herdez brand Salsa Casera that is made in Mexico. After a few tries you should be able to control the exact flavor and heat to your liking.
Please contribute a recipe and come back soon!
Agent Orange
Habanero Hot Sauce
Preparation time: 45 Minutes
Serves: Infinite People
Ingredients:
3-6 Habanero chile peppers
4-8 Carrots
2-3 White onions
1-2 Tbs White vinegar
1 Clove Garlic
1/2-1 Tsp Salt
Dash of white sugar
Dash of oil
Preparation:
WARNING! THIS RECIPE USES EXTREMELY HOT PEPPERS!
(See directions below for the correct handling of chile peppers.)
Preheat your broiler to over 400 F for 20 minutes. Place the peppers on a piece of foil and put them in the broiler close to the heat. Boil two cups of lightly salted water and add the sliced, peeled carrots. Peel and chop the onions coarsely and add to another small pot. Cook the onions until they are transparent. Turn the chiles in the broiler once they have begun to blister. Do not brown the onions! Add the chopped garlic once the onions are cooked. Then add the carrots to the onions with some of the cooking water plus the vinegar, salt, oil and sugar.
Take the chiles from the oven, remove their stems and place into a deep narrow bowl. Mix in the onions and carrots. Use a hand blender to puree the mixture adding more of the carrot cooking water if needed. Once the sauce is smooth, strain it through a fine mesh sieve, pushing it through with the back of a spoon. Carefully taste it for balance between the salt and the vinegar. You should not be able to taste the garlic or sugar. What the heck this stuff is good for I don’t know. Suffice to say that if anyone at your party claims the sauce is not hot enough for them, hand them this and step back to avoid any flashburns.
Note: When preparing Habanero chiles, use extreme care not to touch any part of your face or body after handling them in any way. Use rubbing alcohol or oil to cut the residue on your hands. Then wash thoroughly with soap and hot water. The use of disposable gloves is highly recommended.
Please contribute a recipe and come back soon!
Carrot and Raisin Salad
Preparation time: 15 Minutes
Serves: 4-6 People
Ingredients:
6-8 Carrots
1-2 Lemons
1/4-1/2 Cup Raisins
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise (Best Foods or Hellman’s)
Preparation:
Chill all ingredients before assembling. Grate the carrots with a medium fine grater. Use long strokes to produce unbroken threads of carrot. Try to use carrots that are long and small in diameter (I find these to be the sweetest). Place the grated carrots in a bowl. In a small bowl mix the juice of one lemon with 1/4 cup of the mayonnaise. Mix well and add to the carrots. Mix in the raisins and taste for flavor. The lemon should be just barely noticeable. The raisins should provide a mild sweet note with the carrots.
Note: It is best to chill this dish for another hour or two in order to allow the raisins to plump up. This salad is very refreshing on a hot summer day.
Please contribute a recipe and come back soon!
Hello, I have a recipe I would like to contribute. ( BTW, regarding the handling of hot peppers as mentioned above, please use disposable gloves. This summer I chopped up ONE lousy jalapeno pepper to put in salsa and I had such badly burned hands I would have gone to the emergency room if I’d had a car. As it was I tried every ointment in the house including Vagisil and the only thing that brought relief was keeping my hands in a bowl of cold water. Twelve hours later the pain mysteriously went away, but for 12 hours I was HURTIN’.)
This is a simple, old recipe I originally thought up to cook venison, but I usually use slices of beef round steak, and I guess you could use other meat.
Spicy Baked Steak
4 - 6 thick slices of round steak (enough to lay out flat in a glass 9 x 13 baking dish
- dredge the meat in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, and a dash of ground allspice, and proceed to whack away at it with the edge of a plate or mallet or whatever. Sear each side in hot oil and place in a single layer in the baking dish.
1 chopped seeded green pepper
1 large can pureed or crushed tomatoes
1 chopped onion
2 crumbled bay leaves
1/2 tsp.dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 chopped garlic cloves (optional)
1/2 c. red wine
put everything (except the meat!) in the blender till pureed and pour over the meat. Cover the pan with foil and bake at 325 degrees for 1-1/2 - 2 hours, or until the meat is very tender. Serve with mashed potatoes.
Please note the measurements are approximate. If you like the seasonings you can certainly add more, but I prefer to err on the bland side, especially when serving something new to kids. Keep the pan covered as the sauce thickens up due to the flour. You may want to add some water to the pan sauce and stir before pouring over the meat.
Thanks for the recipe salinqmind. Most kind of you to drop by. If you’re used to deer meat, then perhaps you might have a venison jerky recipe to post. The best that I ever had was bull elk jerkey in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
You’ve got to know that I understand the pain you went through with peppers. One evening when I made a dozen different salsas, including my first Habanero sauce, I too did not wear gloves. I knew not to touch my face from previous experience (I’ll save that for another post), but I didn’t wear any gloves either. After peeling the Jalapenos (red and green), Poblanos, Manzannas and so on I had what felt like a nice solid sunburn for the next three days. Needless to say, there was no guitar playing for this guy!
Come on back with another recipe real soon all of you! I’m getting ready to post how to make my legendary Triple Sausage Red Wine and Sourdough Thanksgiving stuffing. This is one you do not want to miss!
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, this is my gift to you all. Here it is:
Triple Sausage, Red Wine and Sourdough Stuffing
Stolen from Jim Newman in 1978
Preparation time: 2 Hours
Serves: 6-12 People
Ingredients:
2 Lbs. Chicken or turkey giblets
1 12 oz. Package of Jimmy Dean Sage Recipe Sausage*
1 12 oz. Package of Hillshire Farms Li’l Smokies*
2 6 oz. Packages of Swift’s Premium Beef Link Sausages*
2 12 oz. Packages of Thomas’ Sourdough English Muffins*
2 Loaves Sourdough French bread
2 Large eggs
1/2-1 Lb. Button mushrooms
4 Cloves Garlic
4 Shallots
3-4 Ribs Celery (plus leaves)
2 Cubes Butter
1-2 Yellow onions
1-2 Tsp Salt
1 Bottle Red wine
1 Tsp Ground celery seed
1 Tsp Ground sage
1 Tsp Ground thyme
1 Tsp Whole peppercorns
1/2 Bunch Parsley
1/2 Tsp Ground black pepper
Dash of Crystal hot sauce*
- Do not substitute these products
Preparation:
Make the croutons:
The croutons may be made days in advance if needed. I used English muffin croutons last year and they added an extra dimension of richness and texture to this already fantastic recipe. Preheat your oven to 250 F for twenty minutes. Cut the bread and muffins into cubes smaller than a 1/2". Cover a cookie sheet with a thin layer of bread cubes and bake until they begin to brown slightly. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before storing. Continue until all of the bread is used.
Make giblet stock:
Cook the giblets and those from the bird, including the neck, heart and gizzard in a large pot with 1-2 quarts if water and a tablespoon of salt. Do not use the liver when making the stock, it will darken the flavor in an undesirable fashion. Feel free to add a clove of garlic, a spoonful of chopped onion and the peppercorns to the broth. Reduce over a fast simmer until a few cups of liquid are left. If the giblets are very tender after cooking, some of them may be chopped up and used in the stuffing. Tinned chicken broth may be substituted but it will not have the rich flavor of freshly made stock. Strain off the stock and reserve it for later use.
Cook off the sausages:
This may be done the day before. Crumble the Jimmy Dean sausage into pieces the size of marbles and fry until golden brown. Remove the fried sausage and add the whole Swift’s Premium link sausages to the grease and fry until browned. When draining any of the sausages, do not press down on them as this will leave them too dry. The little smokies should not be cooked before hand or they will lose a lot of their moisture. When the sausage is finished cooking, drain off the grease and add the red wine. Use a good quality wine. A zinfandel like Ravenswood Vintner’s Blend or Sutter Home will do nicely. Reduce the wine to half its volume so that you have about two cups remaining. While the wine reduces, scrape the pan in order to deglaze it. Pour off the wine and reserve it for future use.
Prepare the stuffing:
Preheat a pan over medium heat and add half a stick of butter. Slice the mushrooms thinly and add to the pan. Continue to cook the mushrooms until they have released a lot of liquid. Pour off this liquid and reserve it for later use. Add more butter or broth to the mushrooms and continue to saute until lightly browned. While the mushrooms cook, parboil the celery. I am of the school that believes stuffing should not have really crunchy items in it. When prepping the celery, detach a rib from the bunch. Grasp the leafy top of the rib and bend backwards to snap it. Then pull down along the back of the rib to remove the strings from it. Chop the ribs into medium thin slices and parboil them. Use some of the giblet stock to cook the celery briefly until it loses its crispness. Be sure to add some of the leaves from the heart of the celery bunch. They will carry a delightful perfume into the stuffing.
Once the mushrooms are finished cooking, transfer them into a very large bowl. Peel and chop the shallots and onions. Place them in the frying pan with a little butter if needed. Cook them until they are translucent and then add the chopped or crushed garlic. Do not brown the onions or the garlic, this will ruin the stuffing. In the large bowl begin to add the other ingredients. Chop the link sausage and add it to the mushrooms with the crumbled sausage. Chop the parsley and add it too. Once the onions, shallots and garlic are finished add them to the bowl as well. Add the spices and fold the mixture to distribute them. Include a little over half of the smokie links whole and continue to mix. Avoid breaking up the sausage too much.
You are now ready to add the croutons. Before doing so, crack the eggs into a small bowl and beat them well. Fold the croutons into the mixture and be careful to avoid breaking up the ingredients too much. Combine the reduced red wine with a cube of melted butter, 2 cups of the giblet stock and the liquid from the mushrooms. Drizzle this over the stuffing until everything evenly moisturized. At this point, the stuffing may be held at room temperature for a few hours if needed. If you add the eggs to bind it, you must begin cooking it right away. I do not recommend refrigerating the stuffing as this congeals it and can add an undesirable density it.
After binding the stuffing with the eggs, wipe the interior of an over proof pot with melted butter or oil. Fill it with the stuffing but avoid packing it down in any way. If needed, use two pots to accomplish this. Bake for ~30-45 minutes covered and then remove the lid and allow it to brown for another fifteen minutes. Dot the surface with bits of butter during the browning for the best results.
Note: I do not recommend filling the bird with stuffing. Too often, the juices of the bird will make the stuffing soggy and leaden. For the best results, rub the exterior and interior of the bird with a mixture of salt, pepper, ground thyme, ground sage, garlic and onion powder plus ground celery seed. Before cooking the bird fill the cavity with one or two peeled potatoes, onions, shallots, cloves of garlic and ribs of celery or the celery heart. If you have used fresh herbs, feel free to toss in a small bouquet of them as well. These ingredients will perfume the bird while it roasts and the cooking time will be shorter due to the lack of filling.
Turkey Hints: Buy a hen turkey, they are more moist. Always baste the bird with butter. Be sure to squirt some of the basting liquid into the cavity every so often. Keep the bird tightly covered until the last half hour of roasting. Remove the foil and increase the heat by 25-50 degrees F. Baste it frequently during the final hour.
Be sure to allow the turkey to rest for a minimum of 20 minutes before carving it. This allows the bird to reabsorb the juices that were released during the roasting process. While the bird rests, use the pan drippings to make the gravy and finish baking the stuffing. When carving the bird, do not miss the “oysters”. They are underneath the bird, in between the legs and the body along the back. These two small pieces of meat have the very finest flavor of any cut from the entire fowl.
This recipe continues to receive rave reviews from all who taste it. Last year, people who did not even like stuffing tried this and were instantly won over. If you are pressed for time on the big day, merely make the ingredients ahead of time as the recipe suggests. I have done this quite often and the end product does not suffer in the least.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, allow me to humbly thank all of you for the outstanding debates, insults, jokes and everything else that makes these boards what they are.
::mmmmwwwaaaaaaahhhhhh::
You are all cordially invited to drop by my 1,000th post party thread.
**
[/QUOTE]
This isn’t the thread to read when you’re hungry and the only grocery store in town isn’t open on Sunday.
Here’s a hearty, easy soup - it makes a huge amount, but just freeze any leftovers.
I guess it’s kind of an Americanized minestrone
Meat – 2 lbs. Use beef shank if you can get it, or what our locker calls “beef neck boil”. Otherwise, a good stew beef is okay. You could probably make it without meat, but what’s the point?
Put the meat in a large stockpot (or heavy saucepan) with plenty of water, a few cloves of chopped garlic and a bay leaf. You can brown it first and then add water, but it isn’t necessary. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender. (This could take several hours – I usually do the meat one day and finish the next.) Take the meat off the bone and tear or cut it into manageable chunks.
Put the chunked meat back in the pot with the broth (skim off any icky stuff if it bothers you), and add:
Veggies and stuff –
Shredded or chopped cabbage
Carrots – cut however you like them
Beans – I use light red kidney beans (two 15 oz. cans)
Peas – fresh or frozen
Tomatoes – 6 or 7 fresh (peeled and chopped) or a large can of whatever you like. I like the crushed tomatoes from Dei Fratelli. Also add an 8 oz. can of a nice tomato sauce.
Spaghetti – break it up into short pieces.
There should be enough liquid to cover everything. If not, add some water. If you let it boil completely dry – (who raised you?) then you’ll want some beef seasoning with any added water.
Simmer until the carrots are tender. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.
This soup is so yummy, I’ve never wanted to experiment with it. I’ve often wondered what a splash of wine would do.
Glazed Baby Carrots
A Thanksgiving Tradition
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Serves: 4-8 People
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Lb Baby Carrots
1/2 Cube Butter
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
1 Tbs Brown Sugar
1 Dash of salt
1 Dash of vanilla
Preparation:
Be sure to use real baby carrots. These will come with their tops still attached. The small pre-peeled “baby” carrots you see in the store are usually just the broken off tips of larger carrots and do not have the sweet, delicate flavor of the real thing. Peel the carrots, or if they have a particularly thin skin just scrub them with a fresh unused copper scrubber. Boil a small quantity of lightly salted water (1/4 - 1/2 cup) in a medium sized sauce pan and add the trimmed and peeled carrots. Cover tightly and check frequently to catch them while they are still al dente. Once the carrots are done, lift them out of the pot and rinse them under cold water to stop the cooking process. There should be only a few spoonfuls of water remaining. Reserve the cooking water and mix into it the brown sugar, butter and maple sugar. Bring this to a low simmer in the pot and allow it to dissolve and thicken a bit. Once the mixture is bubbling, add the carrots back in and stir gently to coat the carrots completely. Leave the cover off and allow the carrots to reduce until the glaze is in a semi-candy state. Be careful to avoid overcooking the carrots. Transfer to a covered dish and serve quickly.
Note: This is a close approximation of a recipe that my father’s mother used to prepare each Thanksgiving. Her carrots were always crisp and rich in flavor like few others are. I believe it was because she was a disciple of the pressure cooker. Sadly, she took the recipe with her to the grave. Be sure to use real maple syrup when making this dish.
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