Cooking In General

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In the interest of not letting any of the delicious turkey go to waste, there is turkey chili in my slow cooker at home. I imagine the house will smell like heaven when I get home. Then I just need to whip up some cornbread. Aint nuthin' wrong with that.

 

Had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's, everything homemade, nearly all by her, which is good, since she's the best cook in the family. She brined the turkey this time, which was an unwieldy proceeding with an 18 pound bird but which did produce a very nice result.

Now that I know how badly off my oven has been I may have to go back and revise a couple of recent recipes, if I ever get the new oven. The bread recipe is OK but that recipe for coffee cake is probably wrong.

Giles, your dinner does sound very traditional, right down to the compromises and unexpected problems - they are traditional, too, when delaing with family!

 

I created a great Hors d'œuvre a couple of weeks ago and I've made it several times since. Everyone loves them althought I make a less spicey version for the kids.

Ingredients:

BASE
- 2 or 3 baby zuchinnis
- 2 egg whites
- some bread crumbs or crumbled soda crackers (not sure of amount) about a cup?
- favorite seasoning powder, I like TexMex

TOPPING
- 1/4 cup cream cheese
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 lime
- 1/4 teaspoon corriander powder
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon hot pepper powder (leave it out if you don't like spicey)

- prosciutto for the very top (is an italian dry-cured ham)

To start, take your zuchinnis and cut them into little circles about 1/2 inch thick. Dip the circles in egg white and then in your seasoned cracker or bread crumb mixture. Put them on a baking sheet and cook at 400f for 10 min each side.

While the zuchinni is cooking prepair your topping. Cream the creamcheese and then add the lemon juice. Then you can add the mayo and the seasonings.

When the zuchinni is cooked top with a dab of the creamcheese mayo mixture and then top with a sliver of prosciutto. You can also add a circle of hot pepper on top of that if you like them spicey.

 

DISCOVERY: Homemade Spiced Orange-Cranberry Sauce makes a great stand-in for applesauce as a topping for latkes. It was good on the plain, but I bet it would be magnificent on sweet potato pancakes.

 

Here's a nice little appetizer that was featured on Knoxville, TN, Channel 8's Chef Walter segment:

Cranberry Feta Pinwheels
Friday, November 30, 2007
Farmers Cooperative Magazine

Ingredients Needed:

1 - 8 oz container whipped cream cheese, softened
1 cup (8 oz) crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 - 6 oz pkg dried cranberries
4 - 10 inch flour tortillas

In a small bowl, mix cream cheese, feta cheese and onions. Stir in cranberries. Spread ½ cup mixture over each tortilla and roll up tightly. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. Cut each into 10 slices.

**
Mine came out a little flat for pinwheels - more pin ovals but they were still tasty.

 

Seven Layer Cookies

Ingredients Needed:
4 oz butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 6 oz pkg. chocolate chips (about 1 cup)
1 6 oz pkg. butterscotch chips (about 1 cup)
1 small can shredded coconut (about 1 1/3 cups)
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in 9x13-inch baking pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over melted butter; spread crumbs with chocolate chips, then butterscotch chips. Sprinkle coconut over this, then drizzle the sweetened condensed milk evenly over all. Sprinkle with the chopped pecans. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool and cut in 1 1/2-inch squares.

EDIT: This is another of Chef Walter Lambert's recipes, though he says it is a traditional local recipe. It makes a bar that is somewhere between candy and cookie, but it is very easy and quite good.

 

Traditional local recipe? I know those cookies as "Magic Bar Cookies" and have never been anywhere near TN in 20+ years.

And yeah, they are freakin' good.

 

Rally,
years back, before Easter, we in our church made a passah (sp?) meal, after what was allegedly original Jewish recipes, and what I liked in particular was a pulp that tasted like fruit - probably dates, figs or some such, that we ate with matzen bread - but it's years back and I don't have a clue of how it's named or how it's made.

You don't happen to have an idea?

 

Anyone has a recipe for Indian butter chicken laying around? I litteraly fell in love with this recipe after trying it in an Indian restaurant.

There is a pre-made cooking sauce available at the grocery store near where I live, but nothing beats something homemade.

 

DoTW,

Making restaurant quality/decadence Indian is an elusive spectre that always seems to be just out of reach for me. I mean, my stuff is good, but it isn't like the restaurants. I think it's because I refuse to put in the amount of cream it would require to reach such culinary heights. However, I have tried the following recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/9250

Well, sort of tried it. I followed it as much as I follow ANY recipe. I just can't! I HAVE TO experiment! Change it! Make it mine!

Uh, anyway, it was really good. And with a name like Charishma Ramchandani, the author must be pretty legit, right?

 

@DotW: I have a very good Indian cookbook at home, and IIRC the recipe for butter chicken in there is pretty much just a sauce that's put over Tandoori Chicken. I seem to remember there being a full stick of butter in it? I'll try to post it for you later.

@Ragusa: What you're referring to is charoset, a food that's meant to symbolize (everything on the seder plate symbolizes something!) the mortar that the Jews had to mix during their slavery in Egypt. Here is one recipe, a fairly typical Ashkenazi preparation, but there thousands of variations. Sephardic versions of charoset (also spelled charoses, or haroset/-ses) may feature dates, figs, or apricots.

 

Thanks a lot Rally

 

Attempted to bake walnut brownies earlier. Only realised halfway through that it was hazlenuts I was adding instead of walnuts! I need more sleep.

Unfortunately, the recipe instructed me to leave them for 35 minutes in a 180 degree oven. Turns out that they probably only needed 10 minutes. Rescued them just before half an hour had past. Burnt and stuck to the tray, but after chisling them out with a knife, we found that they tasted a lot like overdone cookies. Not a complete disaster after all!

 

Don't supose that anyone could recommend a good potato salad recipe? Nice and simple thing, I know, but not something that I've ever really tested before.

 

Here's mine:

-Cook potatoes in their skin, then let them cool down and peel. Only then, cut them into slices.
-prepare the sauce: You need mayonnaise (ready or self made, up to you), a shot of white vinegar, salt, pepper, finely chopped parsley and chives. If mayonnaise is too heavy for you you could lighten up the sauce a bit by adding yoghurt.
-you need one finely chopped onion, a largish handful of chopped olives (green or black, up to you), smoked bacon cut to small squares, sour cucumbers cut in small pieces.
-put potato slices and the chopped stuff into the sauce, mix and let it rest for two hours or so before you eat.

Because you have raw onions in it, I advise eating it quick, because it'll be likely to get bad relatively quick in warm weather or rooms.

 

Crap, I forgot to post the recipe for Indian butter chicken for DotW! Fortunately, I found this link to the recipe, and also this link to a photo and commentary.

I haven't tried this particular recipe (too calorie-rich for our table!) but I've found every other recipe from this author to be excellent, and easy to follow. One of the things I like best about her cookbook is the evocative comments she makes about the memories each dish holds for her. Also, she makes recommendations for what dishes pair up well - an essential for someone who wasn't rasied with the cuisine. Enjoy!

 

Giles, doesn't surprise me that it's not all that local. Most folks around here appropriate anything they like and say it was first cooked here.

Bread loaf count is now 54,

Goodness, we're almost at the end of this thread.

 

Rally,
'too calorie rich' depends on what you do - not so much what you eat. Don't let that deter you from cooking something delicious! Rather, plan intense physical activity around your meal, so that the eaters will actually burn what they consume Alternatively, make smaller portions.

I say that because I hold that there is nothing wrong with calorie rich means, except for the quantities. When you're an office dweller, you just don't need as much energy as a farmer who does hard physical work, and should choose your portions accordingly.

 

And just because I never managed to do it before, here is post #500 for Cooking in General.