Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

I like meals made up of lots of different, little things – I’m a fan of ‘tasting menus’, buffet parties, and can make a restaurant meal of appetizers.

An appetizer recipe that’s been a party hit for us, is this one for Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts in Chili Sauce:

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/bacon-water-chestnuts-50888.aspx

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I think we originally found the recipe for these little Garlic and Mushroom Tartlets about 15 years ago – perhaps from the Sorrento site, or off the bag.

Sorrento seems to have turned into Galbani (?) and I haven’t seen this garlic-flavored Mozzarella cheese lately. Sargento used to have a similar Mozz/Asiago garlic-flavored blend in their 'Bistro' line, and I'm not finding that on their website, either. But you can probably create the ingredient by adding some roasted or even sauteed garlic to shredded Mozzarella. We usually used the little frozen Phyllo cups to make these:

Roasted Garlic and Mushroom Tartlets

3 T Butter

2 (6oz) Jars of Mushrooms (sliced)

1/2 C Scallions, (sliced)

1 T Sherry (optional)

1/4 C Heavy Cream

1 C Sorrento Roasted Garlic Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

1/4 C Parsley (chopped)

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Pepper

24 (2inch) Tartlet Shells or Phyllo Cups

1. In a medium skillet, melt butter, cook mushrooms and scallions until tender.

2. Add Sherry and heavy cream, bring to low simmer; stir in cheese, parsley and seasonings, stir until cheese is melted.

3. Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes and spoon into tartlet shells.

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For a spread to serve with Bruschetta, try this:

Olive Caper Spread

½ C. pitted black Kalamata Olives

3 T. Olive Oil

1 T. drained Capers

1 T. chopped fresh Basil

2 Garlic cloves, minced

Puree the olives with the oil, basil, capers and garlic in a processor. Can be prepared 4 days ahead. Serve at room temp with bread or crackers.

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And, last but best, my very favorite ‘little bite’, which I know I’ve posted more than once: Olive Cheese Balls:

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/olive-cheese-balls/1a335df0-4d11-47ac-ad81-a810a626e6d9

-JT

[kitchen]

I'm sorry if I caused some confusion. Those cakes were made by a customer - actually a former customer - as we just retired. Her flowers are so realistic you almost have to touch them to convince yourself that they are candy. She sells on line, and a few years ago discovered a woman on a TV cooking show using her decorations and representing them as her own.

[Yaelle]

Somehow I never heard of Carmelitas! Now, after seeing your food porn photo, and reading the reviews on allrecipes, I have to make them! I will try to lower the sugar and substitute peanuts for the tree nuts. My family will love these. They sound better than the 7 layer bars which to me are too sweet.

[Yaelle]

I keep those mild green chilis always on hand. They are perfect for giving a tangy Mexican flavor in things like egg and cheese bakes, or cheese and refried beans bakes (great low carb casseroles, great winter morning brunches), without heat. But I also now keep the chipotles in adobo sauce cans too, because combined with sour cream, that is the sauce par excellence for fish tacos. Just combine in food processor and that’s it. So good. Spicy.

[Yaelle]

For a very tasty pan fried burger (not that you can’t grill them too): half ground beef, half bacon (we have to use turkey bacon) ground in food processor for 30 secs. Since we use only grassfed beef, the bacon actually makes the meal cheaper. And you can season very lightly or even not at all, and people start saying, WOW, WHAT A GREAT BURGER!

[Yaelle]

Thanks for the bird feeder tip re chile to keep squirrels out!

[Yaelle]

Wow, how simple, and I can imagine how great that caramel cream would taste. A bowl of strawberries, for example, with a dollop of that, would be an amazing weeknight dessert. I have to make some.

[Liz]

Caramel whipped cream on strawberries......that is inspired.

As a coffee lover, a dollop on my hot coffee is very satisfying.

The recipe is a little tricky....but the results are heavenly.

[Yaelle]

Aliska, the mystery savory cake: is it potatoes? I think it’s spinach or arugula on top. I’d like to see that recipe. Looks fantastic.

[Yaelle]

Aliska, ignore my last. Liz has posted it!

[Yaelle]

Yeah, no.... will stick to storebought fruit bars for this gang,,,

[Yaelle]

Once you get past browning the sugar, it’s easy. And if you mess it up, it’s only a small amount of brown sugar and you start over. I’m going to try it. Especially for mom, who is a sugar junkie (some say Alzheimer’s is a kind of diabetes and I believe it for her) but only gets one dessert a day and not much bread or fruit, so to have her fruit with a bit of this cream, yum.

I made pavlova for her on Saturday. She was talking about how much she loved in in Australia where she went 3 times for work. It was my first time and it came out pretty well! Whipped cream on top and then filled with berries.

[Liz]

Mmmmm.....pavlova....a divine dessert.

You're such a great caretaker.....giving your loved one all her favorites.

[Liz]

This is a fast, delicious idea if you're feeling "caramelly."

Spice grinder into a powder a handful of hard caramels.

The "caramel powder" can be sprinkled on lots of stuff.

[Aliska]

Thank you. I suspect it's no longer available anywhere except on the web and out recipe collections of to do's..

I'm going to scrutinizee the ingredients again but have been thinking offhand it sounds like a lot of moist ingredients to not-much flour. I guess when I mix it up, if the batter seems too thin, I will deal with it. I guess there's no milk or water as is usual and the applesauce and molasses takes care of it. It will be ok if the batter is thick and hope the cake turns out moist.

I fear the days of A&P are numbered. They will probably be swallowed up by consortiums like Whole Foods, amazon and the like.

Eventually we may have only one gigantic place to shop.

[Aliska]

I think you won't be disappointed. It pays to take a little extra time to sift, get the ingredients to room temp, and make sure with the mixer on slow at first so it won't come flying out of the bowl. And it should be a little on the thick side but spreadable.

Good luck with it!

[Aliska]

I'm not big on ice cream with too much stuff in it. I do like the big Joy brand waffle cones but they are hard on my teeth right now.

I blow hot and cold with ice cream, haven't been hungry for it lately.

My daughter found a tasty half-gallon of salted caramel ice cream at Schnuck's. It had little about 3/8-in cubes of soft caramel coated with chocolate. It had nice streaks of caramel in it, and I ate almost all of it over a couple weeks.

Later she had been at the Kwik Shop and told me about this neat salted caramel ice cream she'd had. Described those cubes so I told her that sounded like the kind she found at Schnuck's (I just asked for some with lots of caramel streaks in it).

The point of my diatribe here is that that particular ice cream is probably sold under different brand names. I googled the general type with Schnuck's and got Blue Bunny and Baskin Robbins. And the box I had I thought just had the Schnuck's label on it.

[Aliska]

I have done them with cut-up bacon pieces in the past, also like green pepper and sometimes some onion. They are delicious. That's not what I'm after right now, I want to try to duplicate the taste of burgers I remember back in the 50's B4 McDonalds.

The butcher disappointed me. Maybe he didn't want to mess with it. I do prefer to buy my meat from him rather than the supermarket though. I have gotten some nasty stuff at the supermarket. And some was ok. I don't like the grind of their 80/20 beef though, too tough and coarse.

If they are going to be that way about it, I will find a way to get across the river to Jerry's which is reputed to be the only seller of USDA choice beef in the area. And lucky the people who can buy half a cow from a farmer and it's a good one. I got a sample from a roast of some kind and never tasted beef that good. But for just me, it would be too extravagant to buy from a farmer and don't have the freezer capacity.

You just gave me an idea for my thick-cut bacon my daughter picked up. I was upset and she snapped at me that I could eat it. It's still in the meat drawer, sealed pretty well, and I like it crisp but can't chew thick crisp bacon. The only way I could use it would be to render the fat out, use that or throw away, fry or bake the bacon, and then try to substitute that for ham in bean-type soups.

Now I can try your idea. The meat market is kitty-corner from a regional hospital so they've set up a huge grill in the nice weather. It's $3 for a burger but are they good! He uses a special pork seasoning on the beef ones (I only like it sprinkled on one side because it's pretty salty), and it makes them unique. He sells the spice for over $11 and I think I'll pass on that for now.

While I was looking for a burnt sugar fudge recipe I just copied recently, I came across my photo of Russian hamburgers on a plate with dilled potato salad, peas and some grain like barley, not sure what it was. The burgers were oval-shaped.

They are similar to the ones my mother-in-law used to make as a staple in their cuisine, things added to stretch the meat to feed more people. In later years I find myself wishing I'd paid more attention and hungry for them. She could make delicious gravy from the pan drippings, used Kitchen Boquet to darken it but don't know if she used bullion cubes or not.

Those with simple boiled RED potatoes (I thought I preferred russets like my mom cooked but find myself getting hungry for red ones).

She never seemed to run out of gravy.

I don't know why I shy away from grass-fed beef. Our midwest beef is partly that on cattle that are allowed to graze, of course, but their diet is also corn which I thought made our beef so good.

As a child, we took family trips out west and in the northern parts of the southwest. Some of the burgers and beef I got tasted terrible to me, wild and gamey tasting. But I learned about chicken-fried steak which is a favorite with gravy on it. Some places that was tasty.

I noticed in later years the taste of beef in the west improved, not sure why that was. A lot of people swear by grass-fed beef. I'd have to do a comparison taste test to become a believer :-)

[Aliska]

Something else that is delicious but doesn’t sound like it, had it at my sister’s and thought about making it again. Sour cream with brown sugar stirred in, then dip green seedless grapes in it. Yum.

[Aliska]

Thanks for posting the recipe, Liz. I wanted to keep people in suspense for a little while :-).

We can't get pecorino cheese so I am going to use what I like, parm-reg, gruyers, think I have some Fontina I haven't opened yet. So will have to make do on that.

Then I don't have a 9-inch skillet, it has to be oven-proof, she used iron and I was tempted to invest in one but not just for one thing.

So I will have to improvise. We can get the gold potatoes, and they are a must; I can slice them down to 2mm or the bigger slicing blade, not sure which one to use.

A problem with potatoes is they turn dark sometimes. I solved that by crushing a Vitamin C tablet in water (has to be natural Vit C) and dripping down a chute in my food processor. Straining them will have to do as I'm not messing with a towel.

I have a nice non-stick skillet and am going to try this. Brown the first layer in butter using the bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan as a template. Butter the bottom and sides of the spring form pan. Then carefully lift and transfer the bottom layer, have a big round layer cake thing and/or very large spatula and fit neatly into the spring form pan.

The rest of the layers aren't browned; it appears only the sides get browned in the baking, so I will build up my layers per instructions. And I actually do have some potato starch on hand.

Then bake and put under the broiler at the end and release from the pan as instructed.

I will even do the argula but darned if I will buy white wine vinegar. I will use some olive oil dressing that looks good along with some Italian and toss to taste.

I hope it works. They are gorgeous! And thank you for posting it with the photo. Of all the google images of Potatoes Anna, these are the most artful and delectable-looking. At first I thought it was some special kind of cake but not with greens on it. She calls it a galette. And I also thought maybe it was some potato dish similar to latkes.

[Liz]

Betcha Mom is gonna love these for her dessert allotment. Like a delicious 7 dollar Starbuck’s special. The patented flavor combo in a bite-sized, semi-guilt free tartelette.

Salted Caramel Mocha Tartelettes / makes 12

ING sheet Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts (if feeling lazy) 7 tbsp cornstarch 3 cups whole milk 1 cup heavy cream 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 2 tsp instant espresso powder 1/4 cup hot water Whipped Cream (aerosol or whip your own) Salted Caramel Sauce (recipe below) Fleur de Sel (coarse sea salt) for garnish

TART SHELLS Using a 3″ round cookie cutter (or tumbler) cut 12 pie crust circles; set in tart pans; gently press in, then dock. Bake golden 350 deg 10–12 min. cool completely in pan on rack.

MOCHA PUDDING BTslowB on med 2 c milk, cream. Add combined espresso powder/hot water then add chocolate chips. Reduce to med-low. Stir/melt then slowly add/stir cornstarch/milk slurry. Cook/stir on med-low til smooth/thick 8 min. spoon into baked tart shells; chill.

SERVE tartelettes topped w/ whipped cream, salted caramel sauce drizzle, few sprinkles of fleur de sel.

SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE Melt 1/2 c sugar on med to light amber (happens QUICKLY). Add 2 tb sweet butter; stir/melt. Offheat SLOWLY add 1/4 c h/ cream; whisk/combine; whisk in 1/4 tea k/salt.