Recipe from Racing Weight.

Here is the recipe as given in the book * with my notes

Serves 2 * very hungry people! For me, this serves 4.

4 bananas
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp mixed spice (also known as pudding spice)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
Fresh hulled and halved strawberries, natural yogurt, and pecans to serve * I’m usually too lazy to get past the berries.

My directions
I like this recipe enough that I made a mix of the dry ingredients for the pantry shelf. Then, I simply mash a banana, add the right amount of dry mix per banana (about 1/4 cup) and add buttermilk.

Heat a non-stick pan [or the kicka** griddle Matt's mom got us for christmas] over medium heat (~325 degrees), pour batter in small, half-cup servings. If you try to make a larger pancake with this recipe, it is very difficult to turn over. Cook 2-3 minutes on one side, until bubbles appear on surface. Edges may start to turn up. Turn and cook a further 1-2 minutes.

Calories per serving (remember that the recipe serves 2 and this probably includes the pecans – I usually count half of these)

Calories 529

Total Fat 2 g

Saturated Fat 1 g

Cholesterol 4 mg

Protein 12 g

Carbohydrate 121 g

Sugars 47 g

Fiber 8 g

“i take a big pot, saute a couple yellow onions and garlic in olive oil, then brown some pork in it when the onions start to get soft.”

“pork loin is best, but sirloin, chops, and shoulder all work just as well.”

“loin should not be cooked as long, though. once the pork is browned i cover with just enough water to submerge meat, and cover on low or med/lo. i add salt, pepper, chile powder, couple bay leaves, cumin, and a smidge of paprika all to taste. sorry i don’t know exact measurements.”

“while it’s simmering, you roast peppers; throw serranos, greens, poblanos, jalapenos, all the green peppers in existence under the broiler until the skin is black, then into a plastic bag to steam.”

“then under cold water to peel skins and seeds off, set aside.”

“i mush all the water i can out of the pepper pulp, as the verde always seems to get thinner when you add the peppers. then a bunch of tomatillos, then add pepper stuff. i let the meat cook on average around 2-3.5 hrs before adding the green stuff, then an hour or two once the greens are in. the key seems to be that the meat needs to cook on a pretty low heat; almost not even bubbling. otherwise it gets too tough. all this being said, you might want to ask jay as well as i’m sure i’ve been doing some stuff wrong. oh yeah, lime juice goes in as soon as the meat is simmering, it makes it softer, i usually use a whole lime at least.”

1. Husk all the ears of corn, saving some of the young husks. Set aside 2 ears of the husked corn. Finely grate the 18 remaining ears. You should have 3 heaping cups.

2. In a saucepan, combine 2 quarts of water, the salt, and the reserved husks. Bring to a boil; add the potato and the 2 reserved ears of corn. Lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the corn is tender. Remove the corn and set aside. Continue cooking for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potato is done; remove and set aside. If using fresh peas, place them in a strainer, lower the strainer into the boiling water, and blanch the peas for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and set aside. Discard the cooking water.

3. In an enameled saucepan or earthenware casserole, heat the butter. Add the garlic and ginger and stir. Add the leeks and cook until soft, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the onion, cayenne, cloves, mace, tumeric, sugar, salt, and Pernod and continue cooking over medium heat, stirring now and then, until all the liquid has evaporated and the onion is totally translucent. Do not brown. Add the grated corn and stir; add the milk and over medium heat, bring to a boil while constantly stirring. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring, for 8 to 10 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat and place in a food mill with a fine disk. Force the mixture through the mill, leaving only the corn skins. Discard the corn skins.

5. Pour half the chowder in the jar of an electric blender and blend thoroughly. If a smotther texture is desired, blend the entire mixture. Combine the blended and unblended mixtures in a double boiler. If a thinner texture is desired, mix in an extra 1/2 cup of milk.

6. Cut the cooked potato into 1/4-inch dice and add to the soup. Cut the kernels off the 2 ears of cooked corn and discard the cobs. Add all but 1/2 cup of the kernels. Add the peas (if frozen peas are used, rinse and drain them first) and mix. Heat the chowder thoroughly; add the creme fraiche, if desired. Mix well and correct the seasoning with salt to taste. Serve piping hot, garnished with the reserved 1/2 cup of corn kernels.

1 generous tablespoon tomato paste, 4 large cloves garlic, minced.

15 medium or 10 large delicious ripe tomatoes, cored and coursely chopped (do capture their juices for the soup)

Served with cheese sandwiches.

Ingredients

Directions:

Grate most of the cheese, and cut 1/4 lb into small dice.

Chop half of the ham and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the grated and cubed mozzarella, the bread crumbs, thyme, parsley, almonds, capers, salt, and chopped ham, and mix well.  Divide into equal portions.  Line each pepper with a slice of ham, add a mixture of the mozzarella mixture, and place another slice of ham on top.  Close the pepper as tightly as possible.

Cover the bottom of a baking dish or earthenware casserole with the onion slices.  Brush each pepper with oil and sprinkle with wine.  Cover the dish with a sheet of oiled parchment paper and seal with a piece of aluminum foil.  Bake in the middle level of the oven for 25-30 minutes.  Serve piping hot, right from the baking dish.

with black raspberry vinagrette

I roasted 2 large, firm red bell peppers after rubbing them with olive oil.  We were also grilling, and the coals were hotter than expected, so I decided to roast them quickly (25 min) under a 450 degree broiler, turning frequently.

At the first turning.

While the peppers were roasting, I combined montchevre lemon goat cheese and fresh lemon thyme from the garden.  The recipe also called for italian parsley, but I omitted this.  The vinaigrette was black raspberry vinegar and olive oil.

after roasting, with toasted sesame seeds

After taking the peppers out of the oven, I transferred them to a sealed plastic bag and let them cool on the counter for at least 20 minutes.  The time in the bag further loosens the outer skin, making it easier to peel this away later.

ready for peeling

After peeling the pepper, I cut it in half and spread the cheese on the inside of each portion.  I added some additional sesame seeds, and placed them under the broiler again for 6-8 min.  After taking from the oven, I added the vinaigrette and garnished with thyme.  These were pretty good, and the first time I’ve roasted peppers myself.  Definitely will again.

dished up

]]> http://raisedbywolves.viragette.com/?feed=rss2&p=206 0 http://raisedbywolves.viragette.com/?p=179 http://raisedbywolves.viragette.com/?p=179#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 02:42:00 +0000 red http://raisedbywolves.viragette.com/?p=179

bringing the soup to a boil before simmering

finished soup, garnished with cilantro

This is my own recipe, and the description below is partially a re-post from open901. Today, I made one pot of spicy chicken n’ dumplings and used leeks instead of onion. I also used a pre-cut chicken for the first time. It was a bit more expensive, but at least I did not have to waste the giblets. Otherwise, the recipe is the same as the spicy version that Myha and I made, below.

Original recipe:

We made two pots of Chicken ‘n Dumplings – one regular and one spicy. For each pot, we used:

2-1/2 to 3 lb. Chicken (whole) Get a free-range chicken if you can.

4 C Water

4 C Chicken broth – this is a key, so spend the extra $$ on the good stuff if you can. The free-range broth that comes in the carton is best. Organic or regular, but not the low sodium.

1-2 Carrot, roughly chopped

1-2 Medium onion, cut into quarters

3 smallish red potato, cut into quarters (I often omit)

1-2 Stalk of celery, roughly chopped

1/2 lb Crimini mushrooms, chopped

Head of italian parsley (for regular) or a bunch of cilantro (for spicy)

1/2 t Salt

1/4 t Freshly ground pepper

Menudo Mix

2 bay leaf

Dumplings:

2 C All-purpose flour

1/2 t Baking soda

1/2 t Salt

1 – 2 C Buttermilk

kitchen necessity

PREPARATION:
Put the stuff in the pot.
We thawed the chicken and pulled out the stuff inside and rubbed the chicken in and out with lemon. While the chicken thawed, we chopped up the vegetables.

death defying accuracy

We put it in a big pot with salt, pepper, carrot, onion, celery and (for the plain only) half of the parsley. We also added the potato and half of the mushrooms, although you might want to omit these here if you don’t have time to pick them out later. Then we added the chicken broth and water.

plain

For the spicy pot, we also added about 1/2 cup of Menudo Mix.

spicy

cook it
The soup was brought to a boil, then covered and simmered over low heat for 60 to 70 minutes, or until tender and chicken is done. We turned the chicken over about 20 minutes into cooking.

Then we went back to watching Chicken Run – the irony!

at least we weren’t making chicken pie

After an hour or so, we checked to see that it was done by piercing the meat with a knife – the liquid that came out was clear and not rosy, so it was good to go. It’s a good idea not to overcook the chicken, because it will cook a bit more in the soup later.

strain it and de-bone the chicken
Then we took the chicken out and let it to cool enough to handle (well, almost). While we were waiting, we strained the broth into another big pot. From the vegetables in the strainer, we picked out some of the carrots and all of the potato and mushrooms and added these back to the strained broth. Then we put the broth back on the heat to bring it to a low boil for the dumplings. While it heated, we cut and picked all the meat off of the chicken, and set that aside. I like to leave the meat in big chunks whenever possible. If you find a little bit of meat that you aren’t sure is done enough, put it into the broth to cook some more later. Some people do this with all of the chicken meat, but overcooked chicken is rubbery – so only if you have to.

dumplings (easy!)
To make the dumplings, combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl, mix well and mash out any lumps. I sift the flour before measuring it. Then add buttermilk. The idea is to add enough buttermilk to get the dough moist. You don’t have to do this all at once. It works better to wet the center and get that about right – then you can adjust with either more buttermilk or more dry ingredients from the edges of the bowl. I stir it with a fork a bit – but not that much. The dumplings will be hard and doughy if the dough is stirred or mashed up too much. So, get the dough just a little bit moist.

Now grab some of the moistened dough and pull off a little chunk – the size of the tip of your thumb? (When it’s in the broth, the dumpling will expand and big dumplings are often uncooked or thick and doughy in the center, so little is better.) Knead and roll the little chunk just enough to get it roughly circular and so that there aren’t big areas of unmoist flour. Then toss it into the broth. (The broth should be at a low boil.) Your fingers will be covered with dough and flour, but if the dumpling really sticks to your finger, the dough is too wet.

Repeat with the rest of the dough. You can add more buttermilk.

After you’ve added the dumplings, you can add the rest of the mushrooms and parsley /cilantro. Adjust the seasonings. Cook the dumplings for about 10-15 minutes, or until you feel like they’re ready. (Fish one out, cut it in half or into quarters and taste it – it should be cooked in the center and reasonably firm throughout.) Add the chicken meat back so that it’s all hot. Garnish the spicy with fresh chopped cilantro. Unless you hate cilantro. (Weirdo.)

You will need help eating all this. Probably.

yum

ASPEN VILLAGE SALAD – from Colorado Cache Cookbook, The Junior League of Denver, Colorado
Poach gently in water some Free Range Chicken Breasts, and or Thighs. Just use your judgment as to how much. Poach them until they are thoroughly cooked, and then remove from broth. Cool chicken naturally in a bowl at room temp initially. Then break it into bite sized yummy pieces.

Hempler Bacon pieces, fry until cooked, not necessarily crisp, but again that’s your call. Amount = your choice too. Try to think of slightly less in amount of bacon than of chicken, approximately. Drain the bacon and set aside at room temp to rest. Then break it into bite sized pieces.

Prepare some nice greens of your choice, LOTS OF THEM. We had Romaine the night you were here. This is super good with some Spinach thrown in, or it can be mixed lettuces and kale if you desire. Anything is great, just make sure you have lots. Tear into bite sized pieces and set aside at room temp.

One typical sized can of Medium Sized Black Olives, drained. These should be the pitted kind for safety’s sake.
Place aside after draining, again at room temp.

Chop a nice sized Bermuda Onion into chunks. Little, big, it’s kind of your call also. I do them sort of medium usually. They could be rings and be really good too. Place the onions into a big salad mixing bowl, the bowl you will make the whole shindig in. Room temp, again.

Prepare several avocados into bite sized pieces and let them join onions in bowl. Your call as to how much.

Squeeze one half of a nice juicy Lemon over the onions and avocados in the bowl. Lightly toss. This helps the avocados right away so they don’t get brown too early.

Now got ahead and combine the chicken, bacon and olives into this bowl with the onions and avocados. Toss lightly, then squeeze the other half of the juicy Lemon over all of this and toss very lightly again. Now, chill the bowl and contents for a little while. Put the lettuce in it’s container into the fridge now too. You will now start making the dressing.

DRESSING:

One little can of Herdez Salsa Carcera…this is the table salsa with stewed tomatoes, cilantro and onions. It isn’t particularly course, it’s pretty liquidy. Use a big glass jar and put the whole can into the bottom.

Add about 2/3 of a pint of Sour Cream, stir.

Get out some ground Cumin and put a teaspoon in.
Get out some ground Garlic, (not salt) and put a teaspoon in.
Stir.

Add about the same amount of Best Foods Mayonnaise, as you did the sour cream…maybe a little less.

Add another teaspoon of Cumin.
Add another teaspoon of Garlic.
Stir. You’re there!

NOW, ASSEMBLE THE SALAD JUST BEFORE FOLKS ARE GOING TO EAT IT. BUT DON’T LEAVE IT IN THE FRIDGE FOR TOO LONG EITHER, IT DULLS THE FLAVORS.

Set the table, etc and bring out a big bowl of your favorite Tortilla Chips, some real nice salsa of your choice, and condiments for over salad, like pepper and stuff. Got any hot fresh Jalapenos? Go get ‘em!

Get out the bowl of meat and company, and the one of lettuce. Combine them by a layering and tossing method. Introduce the lettuce stuff in waves and then gently toss. Toss as gently and lightly as you can, so as not to break down the avocado pieces. You can also add a little more juicy Lemon if you would like during this tossing.

Take the dressing to the table and give people big plates for all the room they need. Dress individually as desired and Dig In!

The salad without the dressing on it stays nicely in the fridge for a leftover, but don’t leave it in a metallic bowl as it’s too acid-y for that. Glass keeper is good. Of course the olives and avocados get a little moist, but it is nice with a little room temp time & a light tossing to redistribute everything, the next day.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Pistachios

Original recipe from Bon Appetit via epicurious.com here.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 tablespoons grapeseed oil I used olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon minced shallot
• 6 large brussels sprouts, trimmed, leaves separated from cores (about 2 cups), cores discarded
• 1/4 cup shelled unsalted natural pistachios
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

(~5-10 minutes)

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot and stir 20 seconds. Add Brussels sprout leaves and pistachios, and sauté until leaves begin to soften but are still bright green, about 3 minutes. Drizzle lemon juice over. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.

MAKING…

Very easy. Very good. The sprouts had a nice, nutty flavor like this.

Also, I may never eat whole, boiled sprouts again – I found bugs deep inside 2 of my 6 well-cleaned sprouts. So, peel with care.

COST

$7.29 – Pistachios, 1 lb. I could not find unsalted, and this was far more than I needed… although they barely lasted long enough to make the salad.
$1.10 – Brussels Sprouts 0.41 lb @ 2.69/lb
$0.50 – Lemon
= Total <$10

Horseradish Carrots

Original recipe from my aunt Cindy. Her recipe called for peeled baby carrots. I used fresh whole carrots for the first time, and found that the fresh carrots require less cooking time and absorb the flavor more.

INGREDIENTS

• carrots, peeled
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• water
• horseradish
• tabasco
• brown sugar

DIRECTIONS

(~5-10 minutes)

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrots and stir 20 seconds. Add salt & pepper, and sauté until carrots begin to brown lightly, about 3-10 minutes (less with fresh carrots). You can cover them during this step if you like. Add water to cover, horseradish, tabasco and sugar. Cook uncovered until carrots are tender and liquid is reduced to a glaze. (Remove carrots and boil down glaze at the end, if necessary.)

MAKING…

NOTES

Very easy. Very good. Spicy!

COST

$1.59 – Tabasco
$1.29 – Carrots.
= Total <$5