FReeper Weekly Recipe Thread (June 2, 2012)

FreeRepublic Cooks | June 2, 2012 | libertarian27

[libertarian27]

Welcome to the 26th installment of the FReeper Weekly Recipe Thread for 2012.

Looking for something new to make or made something new that came out great? Please share a 'tried-and-true' recipe or six- for fellow FReepers to add to their 'go-to' Recipe Stack of Family Favorites!

Here's the place to share and explore your latest and greatest favorite recipe.

[libertarian27]

Upcoming Food Holidays:

National Rocky Road Ice Cream Day -June 2

National Egg Day -June 3

Applesauce Cake Day * National Cheese Day * National Frozen Yogurt Day * National Cognac Day -June 4

National Gingerbread Day -June 5

National Day -June 6

National Chocolate Ice Cream Day -June 7

Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day -June 8

National Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Day -June 9

[libertarian27]

Weekly FReeper Recipe Thread Ping List
(to be added/deleted - please contact me)

Last week’s recipes:
Beef _ Post#` 14 _ Bacon, Blue Cheese Hamburgers

Pancakes _ Post#` 7 _ Nigella Lawson’s Pancake Mix

Pork _ Post#` 11 _ Latin-American Pork Steak

Poultry _ Post#` 22 _ Chicken Salad with Pecans & Fruit

Sauce _ Post#` 6 _ Bad News BBQ Sauce
Sauce _ Post#` 8 _ Roast Marinade
Sauce _ Post#` 9 _ Slippery Chinese Meat Coating Sauce
Sauce _ Post#` 19 _ French Fry Sauce

Link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2888275/posts?page=23#23

[kalee]

We have this every couple of weeks. It makes supper with enough leftovers for lunch. I vary the vegetables depending on what I have in the refrigerator. Last night it was broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, pea pods, and scallions.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/chicken-satay-stir-fry-with-orange-scented-jasmine-rice-recipe/index.html

[randita]

Crispy kale chips. A great way to prepare kale. Even kids like it.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/crispy-kale-chips-recipe/index.html

[pops88]

Kale chips are great and very healthy. It’s a winner recipe.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Chinese style fried green beans;
Pop the ends off
Cut in half if they’re long
Chop some pork into crumbs, some ginger too.
1 cup of oil in your wok, heat to 375
Add DRY green beans, and fry until they wrinkle up, and get a bit of blackening
Pour into colander or sieve to drain oil
Put 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil into wok. add green beans and pork and ginger
Stir fry until pork is done
Add a little Black Bean Garlic sauce
Stir and serve.
Yum!

[Aliska]

I'll share two (main course and dessert). You can improvise the main course to taste. I make corned beef and cabbage but cb is expensive. This is a little cheaper and feeds a lot, is good for you (except maybe the meat). I love kielbasa and rinsed sauerkraut in the crockpot but it's a little salty so I improvised this instead.

Get my turkey roaster down and take out the insert.
Cut up the rings of sausage into chunks (whole it will crack), cover not quite all the way with water and bake at 275 for an hour or so.
Shove the meat to one end and add cut up carrots (lots), potatoes (4 premium Idaho or yellow or red, doesn't matter, and an onion or two, no garlic. Pile sliced head of cabbage over the top, cut into wedges with ribs removed.
Add one packet of Swanson's new beef flavor booster and stir in the liquid. Or boullion, or broth. I got some of that English OXO cubes which seem good but only used it once so far.
The flavor booster is super salty concentrated and so is the meat so I only add ground pepper.
Return to oven and cook until the veggies are done.
Use the cover the whole way and I close the steam vent.
The broth is tasty and you can kind of tell when it's done and it smells really good.

You could try some other veggies but this is more traditional spinoff of cb and cabbage.

I cook a lot like this in the oven at 275, takes awhile but can do other things while it's going. I even make my soups and chili in the oven this way in a covered soup pot.

Would be good with corn bread but this fills me up.

The meat I've got to use tomorrow if my stomach settles down is all Hillshire Farm. Polska Kielbasa, Cheddar Wurst (in rings) and Turkey Pepper Jack shaped like hot dogs.

Then I'm learning how to roll pie crust in my old age as I gave up when I was young and just patted it in. I need more practice, but this you can roll, fold in quarters and center nicely in the pie plate without breaking up.

Use purchased dough if you like or your own favorite for lemon meringue pie. I use the Jello cooked lemon pie filling which cooks up nice, thick and tasty when cooled. For the meringue, I used a tip to mix 2 tablespoons of corn starch mixed well with the sugar you slowly add while beating the egg whites. It tastes a tiny bit different but doesn't weep. Meringue will weep in the fridge and meringue pies should be stored in the fridge if any left over.

I have to keep trying with the crust. This turned out too tough which I'm told is because I added too much water. But otherwise it was nice. Have everything cold, even the rolling pin. I wanted to be able to roll right on the counter although I have a pastry cloth and sock also a silicone mat. I watched tons of videos of different ways to do it.

[libertarian27]

Lemon Meringue! Mmmmm
Awesome Golden Peaks there!

I don’t know where you live but try to find some ‘real’ Polish kielbasa - with real casings. This past Easter I bought fresh raw kielbasa for the first time - that was great! I always put a ring of Kielbasa around the Ham being cooked for Easter - all the flavors meld :)

[bgill]

Dry green beans as in they’re not wet or they’ve been drained from can juices? Or do you mean dehydrated?

I need something new for fresh green bean from the garden.

[FrdmLvr]

I was just on Pintrest, checking out the recipes, when I came upon this recipe for marshmallow frosting. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, my grandma would sometimes bring the most delectable white cupcakes piled a mile high with this creamy Swiss meringue frosting and covered in sweet shredded coconut. She picked these up from one of the downtown department stores that had a bakery department by one of the front entryways. That store always had the most wonderful smells, from the bakery to the perfume counter to the dining room on the second or third floor. Anyway, I think I’ll make these cupcakes soon and cover them in coconut.
http://veronicahurly.blogspot.com/2010/09/marshmallow-frosting.html

[bgill]

I don’t have much luck rolling a dough out either and usually just pat it in, too. And forget having a pretty edge. The best thing I found was a plastic thingie that Crisco gave out free about 25 years ago. It was clear plastic (like a thick freezer bag texture) that was cut into two circles (maybe 12” diameter) and held together with a zipper all the way around. You could dust it with flour and zip up your dough inside and roll it out without it getting stuck to the counter top. Mine wore out years ago and I’ve never found another one. If you run across one, buy it! I’m thinking maybe a dollar store would have them because they shouldn’t cost much.

Also, a spoonful of vinegar into the dough helps keep it flaky.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“I need something new for fresh green bean from the garden.”

Fresh from the garden! Not canned! Yuck. You just don’t want to put anything that is wet into a deep fry of oil! The water will explode into steam! Very dangerous! Just make sure that your fresh beans are dry when you drop them into your wok.

[Aliska]

Yes, the blending of flavors is what does it. We have a German butcher shop where I used to get potato sausage, yard long sausage and their brats. But they're more expensive. I don't think he makes or orders kielbasa but I will ask because I need to go get 4 pkgs of ground chuck 1-1/4 # for the freezer (like a little extra and sometimes combine 2 for meat loaf.

I will try to find the real deal. Put some around ham, that is a good idea. I like Cook's brand the best around here although there are tons of choices. I like their cure and buy the more expensive end but only for something special. I don't fuss any more with glazes, have a meat slicer but only drag it out for a lot of meat. Then I make soup out of the bone and what's left on it.

This is changing the subject, but one night my son brought me a plate of beef roast, mashed potatoes and forget what else. I told him you know I can't chew meat sliced with the grain because I only have a few teeth left (don't look a gift horse in the mouth). Well, I got my knife and sliced small pieces across the grain.

That roast beef was so flavorful I could not believe it, made it's own gravy, maybe credit to his wife 'cuz they both cook. I thought it was chuck roast but it could have been a more expensive cut like rump or sirloin tip, surely not prime rib. I asked him where he got that beef. His business partner buys a half a cow from a farmer. Oh my, I'd love to have some meat like that!

Oh thanks about the lemon meringue pie. It's not something I would make too often because it's a little acidic but I've always been crazy about it and you can only get good purchased pies a couple places and quite expensive. Did you know you can use that box mix and use cream instead of water (directions for the way I made this one are on there) and it is heavenly for filling, especially meringues I used to make with whip cream on top.

That satay chicken sounded so good. I'm crazy for Asian food and it's so good for you. But I have to buy so much extra I don't normally cook with. I have some of the special stuff on hand but then I run into a recipe that needs something else. I've never tried jasmine rice. You can get it at the store raw. Lots of Asians around here.

[bgill]

Ok, thought so but just checking.

[Alissa]

If you have a ping list will you add me?

[Aliska]

I make mine in a double boiler. 7 minute frosting. 1 cup gran sugar. 75 mini Kraft marshmallows. 3 egg whites. 1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon hot water. 1 tsp vanilla when stiff peaks form and removed from heat.

This is easier than Italian meringue. However, one recipe of mine is good for a two layer cake or sheet cake.

When you make those swirls it uses a lot of frosting fast. I got the special tip, two actually, and the bags. To frost 24 cupcakes, it takes a double or more recipe and I need two bags full.

So my double boiler frosting wouldn't frost very many cupcakes and it gets fluffier than in a stainless bowl over hot water (water shouldn't touch the bottom of the bowl).

[ChocChipCookie]

I made these Refrigerator Pickled Vegetables yesterday. Carrots are especially good to use.

6 cups sugar
6 cups vinegar
1/4 cup each celery seed and mustard see
2 T. Canning salt

Bring to a boil in a large pot. Pour over cut up vegetables, such as carrot sticks, red bell peppers, onions, and cucumbers. Refrigerated overnight. Keep chilled.

[Aliska]

I think you can get those bags at amazon. I had something like that once. I had a Tupperware mat. Nothing worked and I'd end up frustrated and mad.

You can roll between wax paper. You can spray the counter and lay down two long pieces of plastic wrap then flour. Or roll between plastic wrap, not sure. Tried the oil crust. Have to patch too much.

I'm determined I'm going to learn how to get this right. They changed the Crisco to take out the trans fats so it doesn't taste as good.

My fluted edges were easy with the crust recipe and technique I used but it shrank a little and one edge is a little rough. This recipe uses part butter. I never used butter (or margarine) in pie crust before. Lard I won't use but my mil used to make pies and they would roll out in a perfect circle on the table top.

I read about vinegar and should try it. I've got just enough cherries off my little tree I need to make one soon or freeze the cherries. The Pillsbury refrigerated crusts are not bad, but I wanted to learn the real way.

BTW the technique I developed for the patted crust with crumbly and large crystal bakery sugar on top my family was crazy about. I was the one who wanted to go back to the traditional pie crust.

[sockmonkey]

Do you use lard in your pie crusts, or something else?

[Aliska]

I'm sorry I talked too much. Renewed enthusiasm for cooking.

I have never used lard. The one in the photo, I'll see if I can find the YT video I used, and she was kind of sloppy but when I saw her fold that crust and it didn't crack all apart that was it!

The next one will be all Crisco and I'll put up with the change in taste.

This one in the photo was 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup Schnuck's store brand shortening and the rest what she says. I did not use my hands until time to wrap in plastic but used 3/4 cup of water I keep in the fridge and it was too much. I didn't dump so much at once like she does, tossed lightly with fork. Plus I work all the crumbs in the bottom in. Then chilled overnight.

Then it was so cold I let it warm up to room temp and shaping the disks with my hands (I hate cracked edges), I got almost a perfect BIG circle with no cracked edges.

My crust was neater than hers but hers was probably better and flakier.

My style of pie pans are not the easiest to do edges but it worked better than I feared. I broke my regular 9-inch just a couple weeks ago standard glass pie pan. On amazon they are saying the new Pyrex pans are shattering. So I'll use these glass ones and then try to find a couple matching alum ones like I used to have.

There is another video where some foodie expert did a perfect Crisco crust in a food processor but I don't have one. I did one in my Kitchen Aid and not recommended. I had tons of scraps to piece together on that failure but didn't want to waste. Had to use the heavier pastry blender like she does with the cold ingredients as my wirey one I prefer has gaps from bending and can't take cold chunks (I always made pie crust with everything at room temp before except the ice water, then press in pans right away). I was making huge fresh fruit pies in an 11X15 cake pan when I got free fruit from my trees which all are gone but one cherry tree and they don't taste like I remember from the old ones right off the tree, North Star. But I think my taste might be off for certain foods.

But I'm going to keep experimenting with this one for now:

How to Make Homemade Pie Crust - Youtube

There are lots of related videos batched with that one so you might find something else to your liking.

One of the tricks so it won't stick to the counter is rub flour all around (not too much because will make it tough again) and keep turning the crust as you roll so it won't stick and flip it at least once early in the rolling. But after the first roll, which was just starting to get sticky in the center, I will have to clean that section of the counter if it continues to stick if I do two crusts. The outer parts were fine because there was less contact and pressure.

I think there is hope for me, and I will try a little vinegar to see what happens. Flour was on sale for $1 for 5# so I got one and sent checkout back for another one. Then put in freezer for 3 days in grocery bag, then seal in plastic container. Otherwise it gets buggy in a few weeks.