Summer Salad

           If you are looking for a refreshing summer salad, I want to tell you about my Pineapple Salad.  It’s a combination of the fruits pineapple and apple along with toasted walnuts.

                                                                     

 Pineapple Salad

Ingredients

1 Cored Fresh Pineapple cut into small chunks (Save the juice)

2 Firm Apples cored and diced

Note: I prefer Braeburn Apples for their tartness which makes a good contrast to the sweet pineapple.

1 cup Toasted Walnuts chopped

1 tsp Mayonnaise

1.       Put pineapple juice and mayonnaise into a small bowl and blend together to create a dressing.

2.       Place the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl and coat with the pineapple juice and mayo dressing.

Note: If you find you would like the salad creamier add one or two more teaspoons of mayonnaise and mix it in.

3.       Chill for one hour and serve.

This is a great dish to take to your next pot luck dinner.

Twice Baked Potatoes

                 Doesn’t everyone love to eat those steak house favorites filled with cheese, butter, herbs, and a lovely browned top?  You can make your own, but there is a downside.    

                First you have to bake the potatoes and try to get the walls of the potato just right.  Then you remove the insides and mix it with your favorite ingredients.  Next comes the process of stuffing the potato.  This is where the invention of Twice Baked Potato Casserole began.  I was trying to put the filling back into my beautifully hollowed out potato skins when the side split.  I tried to somehow repair the split, but then the other side went as well.  Then I had the idea to just mash everything together.  I took the filling and the potato skins mixing them all together in a bowl.  Then I put it in a casserole dish.  After baking, the result was Twice Baked Potato Casserole.  I never make it the same way twice, but I will give you the recipe using my favorite ingredients.  Let your imagination run and put together what you like best.  Enjoy Twice Baked Potatoes without the fuss.

Twice Bake Potato Casserole

Ingredients

All of these ingredients can be more or less depending on how many potatoes you have and your taste.

6 medium sized Potatoes

Filling

1 cup Cottage Cheese

2 tablespoons Butter

Fresh Herbs: Thyme and Chives

½ cup Romano Cheese

1.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.       Bake potatoes in microwave as oven heats.

3.       While still warm, mash potatoes.

4.       Add filling ingredients to the potatoes.  Mix together.

5.       Put in casserole dish.  The size is determined by how many potatoes are being used.  Use your best judgment.

6.       Bake for 40 minutes until the top is crusty and brown.

Alternative Ingredients

If I have cooked Broccoli I will chop it up and add to the mix.

Soy or lactose free dairy products can be used as substitutes for the cheeses and butter.

Samosas

           Samosas were my introduction to Indian food.  Years ago my hometown had an Asian Moon Festival that encompassed countries east of Europe.  At the time I was eating a more vegetarian diet.  It’s hard to find vegetarian fare at this type of event.  Then I saw a description of Samosas.  Potatoes, peas, and spices in a crust.  This is everything I love put in one food.

                Why am I mentioning Samosas?  It’s because I have just seen a movie called Today’s Special.  This is a wonderful film portraying the life of a sous chef by the name of Samir.  Never desiring to learn how to cook the food of his Indian culture, Samir is forced into it by the illness of his father.  In the process of running the family restaurant, Samir learns to cook with his heart and not his head from a fortune cookie sage who drives a taxi.

                As always I love watching people prepare food.  I want to step through the screen and eat with the characters.  Be sure to look at the DVD Extras for a cooking lesson.

Christmas Coffee Cake

I have a recipe that I have been making for over 40 years that to my knowledge has been well received by anyone that has tasted it. I make this coffee cake other times of the year but I have always made sure to make it for Christmas Brunch. Here is the recipe and I hope that whomever you make it for loves it as much as my family does.

Christmas Coffee Cake

Preheat Oven 350°

 

Cake

½  Cup Butter*

½  Cup Sugar*

1 Cup Sour Cream or a Non/Low-Fat French Vanilla Yogurt*

2 Eggs Unbeaten

1 Tsp Vanilla

2 Cups Flour*

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Baking Soda

Cream butter and sugar, add sour cream/yogurt. Add 1 egg at a time blending thoroughly. Add the vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients and gradually add them to the batter.

Topping

2/3 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp Cinnamon

2 Tbsp Butter (cold)*

1 Cup Chopped Pecans*

Put the brown sugar and cinnamon together with the butter. Tip: I cut the butter into small pieces. Put the ingredients in a food processor and process with an on/off technique to incorporate the butter into the brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir in the pecans but don’t process.

Pour ½ of the batter in a 9” spring form pan. Sprinkle with ½ the topping. Then put the rest of the batter over that and sprinkle the rest of the topping. Put in the preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you can wait, which my family doesn’t seem to be able to, let it cool. Then serve.

What do all those *’s mean? Those are places that I have been able to alter the recipe to accommodate changes in diet or allergies.

Here is the list of substitutions I have used:

Butter – Use a good stick of margarine in place of the butter for lower fat and lactose intolerance.

Sugar – I only use a ½ cup of sugar so the batter isn’t too sweet. The topping is enough.  If you would like the cake sweeter, you can go up to 1 cup.

Sour Cream/Yogurt – If there is a lactose intolerance a soy yogurt can be used.

Flour – To make this coffee cake gluten free I use 2-1/4 cups of gluten free flour.

Pecans – Toasted Walnuts are also good. If there is a nut allergy leave them out and add more brown sugar as desired.

Season’s Greetings to all of you.

Fall Farmer's Market

The farmer’s market season ends today in my city. Most of the small ones have already ended.  The biggest one, the one I have gone to since I was a child, remained open until today.  But this does not mean that there is a lack of fresh vegetables and other goods. The vegetables are just different. Gone are the fresh corn and beans.  They are now being replaced by the squash and cabbage families.

Now on to what many call the fall vegetables. First there is the lovely head of creamy white cauliflower.  Also you can find dark green cabbages.  Then there are the piles of exotic looking squash, a still life all on their own.  It’s the squash that I want to talk about today.

I am not a squash lover. It’s not that I have not been exposed to different kinds of squash and that is the cause for my distaste.  What it comes down to is texture.  For me it is too mushy and watery.  Now some would say it just wasn’t fresh enough, but that isn’t the case either. My Dad used to grow Summer, Zucchini and Acorn squash in his garden. It was a garden to cooking pot experience with no middle man. It wasn’t until I discovered Butternut squash that I truly enjoyed squash. Maybe it was its similarity to sweet potatoes, which I love, that sold me on it. I can’t remember how I started to eat this squash but every year I can’t wait for it to show up at the market.

I have had it as filling for ravioli, just roasted with olive oil, and my favorite as Butternut Squash Soup. Here is my newest version of the soup. Use your judgment as to the proportions for each of the ingredients.

·         Butternut Squash - Peel, seed and cut up in about 1” cubes

·         Large onion - Peeled and cut into the same size as the squash

·         Apples – Peeled, cored and cut into cubes

Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl and lightly coat with canola oil. Spread coated ingredients on a low sided baking sheet and put it in a preheated 350° oven for 30 minutes. Check to see if the vegetables and apples have caramelized to your liking. If you want more caramelization keep roasting.  Check in 15 minute intervals until it is the color you prefer. I personally like them on the dark side. Let everything cool. Then put small batches in a blender to puree, slowly adding water or chicken stock to create the consistency you want. Reheat to serve.

Some garnishes for the soup could be:

·         A drizzle of flavored olive oil

·         Sour Crème or Plain Yogurt

·         Croutons

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It’s good on a cold night, maybe pair with a nice pressed sandwich.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is on Thursday and I want to get ahead of everyone to plead a case for the much-maligned brussels sprout. This vegetable and the lima bean are the two I feel to be the most hated vegetables in America. But, back to what my family called little cabbages: the brussels sprout.

As I was growing up brussels sprouts were a yearly adventure. How could this green vegetable be an adventure?  Well I will tell you. My Dad would always grow brussels sprouts but he would not harvest them until the first frost. He said they needed that frost to make them sweet. Even if there was a frost earlier in November we left them in the garden waiting for the Thanksgiving harvest. The long leaves protected the sprouts and if it snowed they looked like frosted Christmas trees. The tree theme went further because we had to chop them down to harvest. My Dad would take his hatchet and cut close to the ground. Then we would take the leaves off and of course put them in the compost pile. After we got them in the house the fun would really start. You could cut the sprouts off the stalk, but it was much more fun to pop them off. They make this snapping sound very much like popping large bubble wrap. This sometimes met with sprouts flying around the kitchen. After that was getting them ready to steam. Peel the rough leaves off and into the steaming basket to cook. This is where I think brussels sprouts got their bad rap. They seem to have universally been cooked to long and become mush. If they were already bitter and then mushy I wouldn’t like them either, and I love them.

I have noticed that a lot of cooking programs for the Holiday Season are trying to enlighten the world about brussels sprouts and how good they can be. Whether you watch Ina Garten roast them (which she states is the only way she likes them) or chef Brad Farmerie on Martha Stewart this morning making them with an Asian flavor, they show brussels sprouts don’t have to be a mushy mess.

Since I no longer have access to a garden I went this last weekend to the farmer’s market. It’s almost done for the year. I found these small stalks of sprouts which pleased me since those have the tinier and what I feel are the best tasting sprouts. This year I am going to try something I have thought up.

Note: The proportions for the Pancetta/Bacon and Vinegars are to taste.

1. Cut Pancetta or Bacon into crosswise strips.
2. Sauté until brown but not crisp. 
3. Now for the Brussels Sprouts.  If the sprouts are really small, just halve them.  But if they are large, blanch and shock them in an ice bath before cutting in half.
4. Toss the cut sprouts in with the Pancetta/Bacon.  Sauté until the sprouts are heated through.
5. Deglaze the pan with Balsamic Vinegar. Here you can be very creative using flavors such as Pomegranate or Fig.  If you do not want the dish to have a brown coloring, use a White Balsamic.
6. Serve.

Now for a movie to watch on Thanksgiving Day: What’s Cooking? – It is a cross-cultural look at how four families celebrate Thanksgiving. I watch it every year.

Happy Thanksgiving