Fine Food Recipes!

[Mark in Vancouver]

This seems necessary.

By all means add to this sticky.

[Mark in Vancouver]

Coconut banana loaf

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).

You want to start with about 8 overripe bananas. If one goes mushy on the counter, I put it in the freezer. Gradually, you can accumulate them this way. You want to make sure they are thoroughly defrosted - room temperature.

Blend these to a consistent mush, measure out 3 cups and set aside.

In a bowl, mix 4 cups white flour, 1.5 tsps of baking soda, and 1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg. Set aside.

In a large bowl, blend 1/2 lb of butter with 2 cups white sugar. Beat until fluffy, and then add 4 tbsps dark rum + 1/4 tsp white (or rice) vinegar. Blend this into the butter/sugar.

I find that I can use the hand mixer for the first part of this, but then it becomes too sticky, so I get my hands in it... A cup at a time, add the banana puree, then the flour mixture, then more banana... to the butter/sugar mixture. You want a smooth texture. When all the ingredients are blended together, mix in 1 cup of grated, unsweetened coconut. Now the batter is really thick. Pour or scoop this mixture into 2 buttered bread pans and flatten it as well as you can on the top.

Over each loaf, sprinkle about 1 tbsp of brown or demerara sugar. Pop the pans into the center of the oven and bake for at least 50 minutes to an hour. When you take them out of the oven, let them sit in the pans for 20 minutes before tipping them onto a cooling rack. This helps them set.

By the time they come out of the oven, your home will have a lovely stink to it. I've made this recipe several times and it's VERY good.

1 cup = 250 mL
1 tsp = 5 mL
1 tbsp = 15 mL

[Mark in Vancouver]

Graeme's Lamb Vindaloo:

Chili pepper was introduced by Portuguese traders during 16th century. With this came the development of Vindaloo dishes in Goa. I believe that Vindaloo is the oldest dish using chili pepper in India. The only evidence I can provide is the time line when Portuguese traded with India and colonization of Goa by Portuguese and use of wine vinegar in the dish. You can use this recipe with mutton or beef as well.

Ingredients
1. Lamb cubed 1": 3 Pounds
2. Vegetable oil: 1/2 Cup
3. Wine Vinegar: 1/4 Cup
4. Tamarind pulp: 3 Tablespoons
5. Salt: 2 teaspoon
6. Finely chopped onion (Preferably ground): 1/4 Cup
7. Minced Garlic: 1/4 Cup
8. Finely chopped fresh ginger: 1 Inch
9. Ground Cumin: 1-1/2 teaspoon
10. Ground Coriander: 1 teaspoon
11. Ground Cloves: 1/2 teaspoon
12. Ground mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
13. Turmeric: 1 teaspoon
14. Lal Mirch (Ground Cayenne): 1-1/2 teaspoon
15. Ground Black pepper: 1/2 teaspoon
16. Cinnamon powder: 1 teaspoon
17. Finely Chopped Onions: 2 Cup
18. Vegetable oil: 1/4 Cup
19. Degi Mirch (Paprika): 1 teaspoon
20. Water: 2 Cups

Method
Step 1: In a stainless steel or glass bowl, combine items 1 through 16. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 12 hours.

Step 2: In a heavy bottom pan, add 1/4 oil and heat. Add finely chopped onions, sauté till onions start to turn brown.

Step 3: Remove lamb from marinate and and add to onions. Save marinate mixture. Continue frying the lamb till it is seared.

Step 4: Start pouring the marinate, 2 Tablespoons at a time continue frying as it gets pasty, continue till all the marinate has been added.

Step 5: Stir in Degi Mirch.

Step 6. Add water. Bring to a near boil when the bubbles start to rise to top. You do not want to cook lamb at high temperature to prevent it from getting tough. Turn down heat. Cover. Simmer on medium heat about 30 minutes or till lamb is tender.

Garnish with fresh chopped Cilantro

[Mark in Vancouver]

Three tomato salad:

3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 small red onion, diced
3 tbsp tequila
1 tbsp lime juice
8 tomatillos, diced
2 red tomatoes, chopped
2 yellow tomatoes, chopped
salt and pepper
fresh basil torn in

Saute the onion in the oil for a couple of minutes, then add the lime juice, tequila and tomatillos. Stir to heat through and then remove from heat. Add the rest of the ingredients to the warm pan and let stand for 20 minutes before serving.

Tonight it's being served with jalapeno corn bread and roasted salsa chicken. Fab-tastic!

[Mark in Vancouver]

Neua nam toke:

1 lb good, lean sirloin steak
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup beef stock
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp roasted rice powder (easy)
1/3 cup thinly sliced shallots
4 scallions, sliced length-wise into 2" ribbons
2 bird or serrano chilies, minced
1/2 cup chopped mint leaves

Press black pepper into the steak on all sides, and grill until rare, about 3 minutes both sides. Remove to a plate and let cool for up to an hour.

Add about 1 tsp raw jasmine rice to a skillet over high heat, and shake as though you were making popcorn to keep the rice from sticking. After a couple of minutes, the rice will begin to split and darken. Aim for a medium brown colour. Grind this to a fine powder with a mortar & pestle and put to one side.

Combine stock, fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar in a medium saucepan and place over high heat. As this heats, slice the steak as thinly as possible, across the grain. When the mixture comes to a boil, add the rice powder and then the sliced steak and remove from heat immediately. Transfer all of this to a large bowl. You don't want to overcook the beef!

Add the shallots, chilies, scallions, and mint, and toss gently.

Serve on a small bed of bibb lettuce or chopped savoy cabbage, or with a small heap of sliced English cucumber to balance the heat from the chilies.

Man this a good recipe!

[Mark in Vancouver]

Kate's Guinness Stew:

This stuff was even better the day after:

2 lb lean stewing beef
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs flour
salt and freshly ground pepper
pinch of cayenne
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed
2 tbs tomato puree
1- 1/4 cups Guinness
2 cups baby carrots
sprig of Thyme
2 lbs baby potatoes (skin on- I used baby Yukon golds)
1 cup beef stock

Trim meat of any fat, cut into 2-in cubes and toss in a bowl with 1 tbs oil. Season the flour with salt, pepper and cayenne. Toss the meat in flour mixture. Heat remaining oil in wide, heavy frying pan over high heat. Brown the meat on all sides. Add onions, crushed garlic and tomato puree, cover and cook gently for about 5 mins. Transfer contents of pan into a casserole and then pour some of the Guinness into the frying pan- bring to a boil and stir to dissolve and carmelize the meat juices on the pan- pour onto the meat with the remaining Guinness. Add carrots and thyme. Stir, taste, and add a little more salt if necessary. Cover with the lid of the casserole and simmer very gently 2-3 hours until meat is tender. Add potatoes and beef stock and simmer until potatoes are done. I also added a cup of peas at this point, as it looked like it needed color...serves 6-8.


Kate

[Mark in Vancouver]

Best tomato soup:

Try this, even with store bought tomatoes. Home grown ones have so much more flavour, but just for reference, here's the recipe...

Simmer, covered, for 15 - 20 minutes:
2 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery

Pour this into a blender or food processor and liquefy. Then strain through a sieve - use a spatula to press the liquid through. Put aside.

Melt 2 tbsps. butter in a large saucepan. Add 2 tbsp flour and stir until it's totally blended. To this add:
2 cups beef stock
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp paprika
then pour in the tomato stock.

Just before serving, add some chopped fresh basil.

It's incredibly easy to make. You can even use a can of chopped tomatoes, but believe me - fresh ones make the soup. You will be shocked at how good tomato soup can be.

[Mark in Vancouver]

Basic cookie recipe:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup demerara sugar
1 egg

Blend this until light and pliant.

1 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

mix the dry ingredients into the sugar/egg mix until creamy.

Add 1 cup broken dark chocolate. I used a 70% cocoa chocolate bar. If you put it in the freezer before hand, you can crush it into "chip" sized pieces quite easily.

Bake at 375F for 12 minutes - just brown.

Num nums!

[Mark in Vancouver]

Try pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw- shred up your pork (this is enough sauce for about 1-1/2 lbs)

***Barbecue Sauce:***
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup catsup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco

***Coleslaw:***
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
4 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon chicken stock
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 cup shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 carrot, grated
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
Salt and Freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Pile the pulled, sauced pork AND the coleslaw together on toasted kaiser rolls- it sound weird but it's awesome!!!

Kate

[Mark in Vancouver]

Rye Bread:

5 cups light rye flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp cumin seeds
2 cups plain full fat yoghurt
1/2 cup whole milk (homogenized will do)
1/4 honey

Mix the flour, soda, powder, salt and cumin in a large mixing bowl. Mix the other ingredients in a smaller bowl, and stir well to blend the honey into the yoghurt/milk.

Preheat the oven to 400F and grease two bread pans.

Pour the liquid mix into the dry mix and stir for several minutes to blend the ingredients. The mixture will be extremely sticky and too stiff for most machines, so do it by hand with a spoon.

Spoon the batter into the two pans, and flatten the top surface with a wet spatula. Pop them in the preheated oven and reduce heat to 385F. Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and bake for a further 20 minutes. The loaves should be quite dark, and will have pulled away from the sides of the pans.

Poke the bread with a wooden skewer - it should come out dry.

Let these set on a rack for at least two hours. My recipe says it's better if you let them firm up overnight before slicing.

I just pulled them out, and cracked off a corner. OMG! Wow! Great bread!

[Mark in Vancouver]

Ron's BBQ Sauce:

Mine has many of the same ingredients as Kate's:
1/4 Cup of Olive Oil (this will come from the sautéing)
2 large finely chopped onions which have been sautéed in Olive Oil
1 large finely chopped bell pepper which has been sautéed in Olive Oil
4 large very finely chopped garlic cloves which have been sautéed in Olive Oil with one teaspoon of powdered Tarragon
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons of mild chili powder
1/4 cup of Balsamic Vinegar
Heat all ingredients for 1 hour on simmer with the lid on prior to use.


This recipe can be used for basting except one teaspoon of Curry should be added as well as corn starch and Wondra flour to thicken (also, believe it or not, double the quantity of balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard).

If you insist on a "tomatoey (sp)" BBQ sauce add two cans of tomatoes which have been well blended and simmer with the lid off instead of the lid on until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.

TR

[Mark in Vancouver]

Tanja's Mac & Cheese:

Kaese Spaezle (Cheesy noodles) -- This is a southern German recipe called Farmer's Cheesy Noodles. Basically all the ingredients are found on the farm. I learned this recipe from my rommate in Berlin. It is fantastic, and so far haven't met anyone who didn't like it. Smile For the Germans on the forum, I am sure you have had spaetzle, but if you haven't had it like this, try it. You will be surprised. My uncle was. He didn't want to try it because spaezle is such a common food, but he couldn't believe how good and different this was from plain spaezle with butter.

1 large onion finely chopped and carmelized.
1 pound mushrooms quartered (add 1 tsp of salt) boiled and drained.
1 package of spaezle cooked. (You can substitute with wide egg noodles.)
1 small wheel of edam and 1 small wheel of gouda shredded.
(It absolutely must be gouda or edam or both. If you want to substitute it must be a very melty cheese -- cheddar doesn't work. The little bit of bite that edam has really works the best.)
You may also add cubed, cooked ham.

Get a large, deep bowl.
Layer
Noodle, mushrooms, cheese repeat until you run out. Then add the onions on top and let the entire mixture melt together. If it cooled before it had a chance to melt, pop in the microwave for a minute or two.

Leftovers taste great!

[Mark in Vancouver]

Ken's smoked stuffed peppers:

The recipe given to my was for large jalapenos but I had a bunch of undersized Mexican bells I used instead.

A bunch of peppers
Equal amounts of cream cheese and grated sharp chedder.
Minced garlic.
Minced onion.

Mix cheeses, garlic and onion. Cut off tops and core peppers. Stuff with cheese mixture. Seal cheese into pepper with a small piece of bacon and a toothpick or put a bunch on a shish kebab skewer. Smoke with hickory until the bacon is done or if you have a crappy smoker that doesn't produce much heat like mine, smoke for an hour or so and then put in an oven at 400 until done. This is the weird part. Cool them off and put in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Heat in the oven until the cheese is melted and enjoy with some beer.

My wife didn't get enough cream cheese so I stuffed some with onion, garlic, mozzarella and Italian style bread crumbs. They were also delicious.

I made a rack out of oak to use in the smoker that keeps the peppers upright so the melting cheese doesn't come out.

[Mark in Vancouver]

Vodka Salmon Nests:

5 sheets of phyllo pastry
3 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp extra virgin (there is no other kind) olive oil
juice from one lemon
2 tbsp vodka
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp cayenne
scant 1/2 lb of thinly sliced smoked salmon, coarsely chopped
3 tbsp minced red onion
1 tbsp capers
1 cup loosely packed fresh dill leaves
1 radicchio

Layer your phyllo sheets together with melted butter and cut the resulting square into 4 smaller squares. Mold these into ramekins or a muffin tin to form nests and bake at 350F (180C) for about 15 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Combine olive oil, lemon juice, vodka, Worcestershire sauce and cayenne in a small bowl. In a medium mixing bowl, combine salmon, onion and capers. Add the sauce and chopped dill to the salmon mixture and toss well.

Each phyllo nest gets lined with 1 radicchio leaf and you should have enough room for 2 or 3 tablespoons of the salmon mixture. Hey presto!

[helen nightingale]

could this be a sticky? i would like to try some of these, but when i get around to it, the recipes have long dissapeared into the OT ether