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.

[Aliska]

Fresh green beans. My mom and later I cooked them with some sliced onion and cut up bacon (we used raw but now I think I'd fry and crumble). Wonderful flavor.

My mom creamed veggies but I'm not very good at it.

For special occasions, we cooked the beans then sprinkled browned in butter and drained on paper towels slivered almonds over them. Yum!

Now I'm crazy for that green bean fried onion casserole.

Green beans have been good in Chinese food I've bought but I don't like them too crunchy because I can't chew very well.

One summer years ago I shaded my porch with runner beans, got lots of fresh ones from that, have to use when young. Love Italian beans. I've also canned green beans in the pressure cooker but it broke.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

I saw one a pastry crust bag on the King Arthur website yesterday- they have two sizes- 11 in and 14 in:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/pie-crust-bag-11-inch?utm_source=frooglecom&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=shopping

If you bake breads or make homemade pizza, I would suggest their Italian flour or their pizza crust flour!

[FrdmLvr]

Thanks! I’ll try it!

[sockmonkey]

Amazon has the Martha Stewart Plastic 14” pie crust bags for 95 cents.

I actually only remember the old canvas ones, which I guess have given way to plastic.

[Captain Beyond]

bflr

[sockmonkey]

I bought some of those $1.97 a lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, so this is how I did them.

Chicken Fried Chicken

(disclaimer: I kinda just throw stuff I think will work together)

Ingredients:
Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Buttermilk
soft as silk cake flour
(You can use AP Flour, I just like cake flour or even Wondra flour for dredging and frying better than AP)
Saltine Crackers
Paprika
onion powder
garlic powder
sea salt
Optional: Cayenne Pepper

Slice the breast starting at the thickest part of the top so each breast makes two breast pieces of equal size.
It may help, if you lay the breast flat, then slice it horizontally, I have a really sharp knife, so I just hold the breast, and slice it.

If you want a giant sized chicken fried chicken cutlet, just butterfly it, instead of slicing all the way through.

Place one portion of the chicken between 2 layers of plastic wrap on the top, and two on the bottom. And smack it with a meat tenderizing hammer until it is about 3/8 or so thick..Do the same with the rest of the piceces.

You can also do chicken fingers this same way, just instead of beating it into a round shape, beat it into a rectangle, then cut into strips..

Place the cutlets into a square plastic container with lid. Pour butermilk to cover over it, and place in fridge for several hours.

To your cake flour, add salt, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste..The Paprika helps it to fry to a nice golden color, so don’t skip the paprika. You could also add some cayenne pepper if you like spicy chicken.

Remove, one portion at a time, or if you’re doing chicken fingers, a bout five of them..

Dredge with flour, then dredge with super crumbled saltines.
Place in fridge in a single layer for about thirty minutes so the crust “sets”.

Heat about 1.5” of oil-canola, vegetable, corn, or whatever you use..in a 12” frying pan..Heat to about 275-325..
fry cutlets for about 4-6 minutes on each side or until golden brown..Chicken fingers fry a little faster.

Serve with cream gravy, if desired.
I can get about 3 8” cutlets, and 45 chicken fingers out about five dollars worth of boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Slicing the breasts before you hammer them silly, helps them to keep the cutlet shape, and not try to shrink back up into a breast shape.

[sockmonkey]

Oh, as a PS to my Chicken Fried Chicken.

It would work equally well with venison ham steaks, or round steak..I would probably use wondra flour for those, and add a little ground black pepper.

[Aliska]

Yours looks good, too, presume you're talking about the frosting. The marshmallows in mine kind of stabilize. I don't know how long yours lasts before it starts breaking down but they sure look good. Mine doesn't hold up very well in hot, humid weather with no ac like it used to be but it cooks up ok in those conditions.

I've been studying new ideas for months now. The Swiss or Italian originally uses a boiled sugar water mixture which is drizzled over egg whites (much like divinity). It has a beautiful look when piped but sounds much harder. They end up doing all that beating then adding soft butter.

Mine is just tried and true since my mom got it from a club friend in the 50's. If you do try it, egg whites at room temp at the bottom, then the sugar, then the marshmallows, then the hot water (so the hot water doesn't touch part of the egg whites and cook them (never happened).

I did double it in a bowl for a two layer Strawberry marble cake I made up with a French Vanilla cake mix. I decorated it with halves of the new Whoppers strawberry malt balls. I tinted the frosting a pretty pink. But I wouldn't have gotten good coverage in the amounts I gave you so doubled it.

The only downside of both is that neither recipe cooks hot enough to pasteurize the egg whites. I still eat mine and family does but I've gotten a little hesitant to take it anywhere because salmonella has been blamed on eggs so much lately. And I don't think you can buy egg whites pastuerized in a carton at the store.

I know. I bought some Wilton Meringue Powder. I used it instead of egg whites in my recipe and it was awful. It might be ok in Wilton's frosting recipes as a stabilizer but not as say meringue shells or topping. It is pasteurized which is why I bought it.

Now the Italian Swiss hot syrup method would be hot enough long enough to pasteurize the raw beaten egg whites so it's something to think about. I found the best recipe I'd saved:

How to make Italian meringue buttercream

Pretty aren't they? Maybe worth learning but oh so careful with that hot syrup!

[bgill]

Yes, that’s it. Super easy to roll out dough.

[FrdmLvr]

The recipe sounds luscious! But it calls for a pound and a half of butter! That’s 6 sticks! All that butter - It MUST be good!

[Silentgypsy]

This is probably too simplistic for this thread, but I’ll take a chance and post it anyway in case there are any pie addicts out there who are all about the filling and topping. This pie crust method was from Peg Bracken’s “I Hate to Cook” book. It’s tender but not flaky (more like a cookie.) Adding a little sugar makes it even more like a cookie.

Flour
Half as much shortening as flour (I use butter)
Half as much water as shortening
Dash of salt
Sugar if desired

Cut butter into flour and salt. Stir water into mixture.
Turn out onto generously floured tea towel or silicone baking mat and roll out into circle. Place pie pan in middle of rolled crust and upend the whole thing. Trim the edges. Pre bake or fill.

The interesting thing about this crust is that handling and adding lots of flour doesn’t affect its tenderness. I’m all about not wasting stuff, so it’s perfect for the fast and sloppy frugal baker.

The only conventional pie crust recipe I ever used was the one on the Crisco label about 50 years ago. It was perfect. Then the real world impinged, and I’ve been fast and sloppy ever since. Nobody complained. Then again, if anybody did, I probably would have told them to just not eat it and there’d be more for me. Maybe that’s why.... ;)

[illiac]

This is where we buy fresh sausages.....they are all great!

http://cart.bobak.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=19901

[Aliska]

FrdmLvr, I forgot about that butter. That is way too much and I would never put that much in it. I think I'll stick to my tried and true. It looks just like yours, shiny and pretty. I haven't tried it in a pastry bag yet 'cuz it's sticky. I've got lots of frozen egg whites in the freezer, freeze em in ice cube trays. That recipe was from Canada or England with the measuring.

I found a recipe for bakery frosting that I love, it's easy and makes enough for 24 cupcakes with swirls. So I will mainly use that now except for chocolate. I discovered penuche frosting for the first time in my life and that it yummy! So I'll try swirling that on cupcakes although it hardens fast.

Silentgypsy, I thought my contributions were a little too simplistic for this thread because it started with what, to me, are more contemporary things people like now. Thanks for your post. Lots of barbeque (I like certain kinds) and ways to use veggies from the garden. I hate zuchinni unless it's cut up in tomatoes or raw, for example. I do ear more yellow squash now.

That recipe would be easy to remember. I'll compare it to what I'm doing now. The part I hate the most is rolling and no way around that. I try to find shortcuts in later years and use them so long as they taste good. A lot of things I just guess and dump and they turn out fine. Some recipes I follow to the letter.

I don't feel like cooking today ;-(

[Aliska]

I wonder who changed the picture I embedded of the pretty cupcakes. Maybe they don’t like that pulling stuff off their server. Hmmmmm.

[Aliska]

Thank you for the link. That looks really good. It would be kind of expensive with shipping but I'll poke around that site some more and see what they are about. That I'd love to try. The others on that page I don't like except bratwurst and I only like certain brands of that. I'm not really a sausage/salami person but once I tried a few of these, I like them. I don't like them too spicy.

What I'd like more than anything is to find bulk or patty sausage just like McDonald's. I love the stuff. I called them and think I got Johnsonville but it wasn't the same. Somebody wrote on the web that Walmart had it in frozen patties in long tubes but ours doesn't. There's Bob Evans, hate to waste money trying different ones. Our family never liked sausage too spicy.

The closest I found is some of that pre cooked stuff frozen in the shrink wrap. I would rather find exactly what McDonald's gets.

And don't get me started on hamburgers. I have never been able to duplicate some we could get when young 50's style. There is a place in Chicago, Schoop's that has franchises. Theirs LOOK like these but I haven't been able to try them.

[Aliska]

They're in Chicago. Chicago has really good foods. I notice they have it smoked ring style, too, which they say put them on the map. I'd try both. After this batch I will see about getting some of that now that you've tempted me.

That's one good thing about all the ingredients except the raw meat. They keep for a long time in the fridge before you're ready to cook it.

[illiac]

Found this online for you RE: McDoanlds Sausage

Macdonald’s Pork Sausage Patty
Pork (97%), Salt, Dextrose, Herb and Herb Extract,
Glucose Syrup, Spice, Yeast Extract.

As you will not be able to match this seasoning try the following
55% Salt
20% Dextrose
12% Cornflour
10% Mixed Herbs
2% White Pepper
1% Yeast extract (or pork stock cube)

I see from your earlier comment they seem to have a lot of sage in, in this case change the mixed herbs to half sage & half mixed.

[Netizen]

Crisco still has trans fats, they just lie about it.

http://www.crisco.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?groupID=17&prodID=315

NUTRITION FACTS

Serving Size 1 Tablespoon (12g)
Amount per Serving
Calories 110
Calories from Fat 110
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 12g18%
Saturated Fat 3g16%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 6g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.5g
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 0mg0%
Total Carbohydrate 0g0%
Protein 0g

Vitamin E15%

Not a significant source of dietary fiber, sugars, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron.

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Ingredients:

SOYBEAN OIL, FULLY HYDROGENATED PALM OIL, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM AND SOYBEAN OILS, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID (ANTIOXIDANTS).

Hydrogenated oils are TRANS FATS. Don’t be fooled. Read the ingredients. I always look for hydrogenated, interesterified, lard, shortening. If any of those are in something, I don’t buy it.

[Netizen]

A lot of sites are starting to have their filenames change to prevent bandwidth theft. They want people to upload to their own serves or photobucket etc.

[Aliska]

I think that's too much salt so will back off. I'll get some fresh ground pork, a little sage (don't like too much), mixed herbs can be a lot of things. Have savory, thyme, fines herbs, can't think of what else. Cornstarch, a little. Have some white pepper, to taste. Forget yeast extract. Don't know what dextrose is. Assume a little karo syrup maybe?

It has a slight bite to it so I'll use this Schilling Pepper seasoning.

Might as well mix by hand as have to shape into patties. Then i can freeze some.

Or I can get some bulk like Bob Evans original and mix it with twice as much as above going easy on everything. Just so it's not a fried ground pork patty.