This is one of those recipes that is so easy to do that I haven't written it down until now; and I'm doing so because I'm always hunting around the kitchen for the recipe only to realize that I haven't written it down; so here it is. The recipe is adapted from the Joy of Baking's "Mexican Wedding Cakes" and has many names: Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cake, an Italian Butter Nut, a Southern Pecan Butterball, a Snowdrop, a Viennese Sugar Ball, and a Snowball. But, none of those names mean anything here since I don't use nuts in desserts. The adaptation is that I use crushed granola in lieu of the nuts.
This is a crowd favorite and always popular among my co-workers. For simplicity, I just call them tea cookies because they are sweetened just enough to be eaten with unsweetened hot tea.
Ingredients:
1 c. crushed granola bars (I use the oat & honey variety of the Nature Valley granola bars)
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 c. + 1/4 c. powdered sugar, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. unbleached white flour
1/4 tsp salt
Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, 1/4 c. powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Add sifted flour, salt, and crushed granola. Mix until well combined.
2. Refrigerate the cookie dough until it is firm, about 30 minutes to an hour.
3. Scoop out dough with a teaspoon and form into rounded 1-inch balls.
4. Slightly flatten these onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray. These cookies will expand a little bit, so you can probably fit 12 cookies to a tray.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly toasted on the bottom. If you can press them lightly with a finger and not leave a noticeable impression, these are done.
6. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
7. Dust the cooled cookies with the remaining 1 c. powdered sugar. I use a soup strainer for this step to evenly coat the cookies with the sugar.
Lamb Stew
This is a recipe that I've been making every year for the past few years and always about this time of the year when the weather starts to turn cold and the maple leaves begin to shed their green foliage for a multitude of burnt autumn colors. The stew tastes somewhat sweet because of the ingredients used even though no sugar is ever added. If you see classic, traditional ingredients missing from my recipes, it is because I don't like them. Anyhow..
Ingredients & Directions
1 lb fresh lamb shoulder or chops
4 tbsp olive oil
1 quart broth
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 c. sliced carrots
1 raw sweet potato, cut into irregular chunks
6 oz tomato paste
1 c. sweet corn kernels
an unspecified amount of water to "thin" the stew
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 c. red wine
1. Separate the bone from the lamb shoulder or chops and set aside. The lamb meat should be cut into bite-sized pieces.
2. In a frying pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil and heat it up. Add the lamb meat and brown evenly. Set aside.
3. In an 8-qt stockpot, add 2 tbsp olive oil and heat it until the oil starts to thin. Add the sliced carrots and saute until tender.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the stockpot: the lamb, the broth, sliced garlic, sweet potato, tomato paste, corn, dried oregano, garlic powder, and a bay leaf.
5. Bring it to a boil, then turn down to simmer. The stew will be done when the sweet potato is tender. Everything else cooks pretty quickly.
5. Add 1/4 c. red wine and simmer until the alcohol has cooked off.
6. Turn off the stove and serve stew.
Side notes:
On pot sizes, I have an 8-qt and a 12-qt stock pot; I use the 12-qt if I'm cooking a whole 3 lb chicken and the 8-qt for all other soups and stews. Does this mean you can't cook this in a 4-qt pot? No.. it just means that I only have two sizes to work with.
On the wine, I used a 2003 Sangiovese from Bray Vineyards. It just happened to be a bottle in my fridge that was already open.
Ingredients & Directions
1 lb fresh lamb shoulder or chops
4 tbsp olive oil
1 quart broth
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 c. sliced carrots
1 raw sweet potato, cut into irregular chunks
6 oz tomato paste
1 c. sweet corn kernels
an unspecified amount of water to "thin" the stew
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 c. red wine
1. Separate the bone from the lamb shoulder or chops and set aside. The lamb meat should be cut into bite-sized pieces.
2. In a frying pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil and heat it up. Add the lamb meat and brown evenly. Set aside.
3. In an 8-qt stockpot, add 2 tbsp olive oil and heat it until the oil starts to thin. Add the sliced carrots and saute until tender.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the stockpot: the lamb, the broth, sliced garlic, sweet potato, tomato paste, corn, dried oregano, garlic powder, and a bay leaf.
5. Bring it to a boil, then turn down to simmer. The stew will be done when the sweet potato is tender. Everything else cooks pretty quickly.
5. Add 1/4 c. red wine and simmer until the alcohol has cooked off.
6. Turn off the stove and serve stew.
Side notes:
On pot sizes, I have an 8-qt and a 12-qt stock pot; I use the 12-qt if I'm cooking a whole 3 lb chicken and the 8-qt for all other soups and stews. Does this mean you can't cook this in a 4-qt pot? No.. it just means that I only have two sizes to work with.
On the wine, I used a 2003 Sangiovese from Bray Vineyards. It just happened to be a bottle in my fridge that was already open.
Wild mushroom and curry risotto
I read an article online that if you make risotto correctly, the rice becomes naturally creamy in the broth & wine when it cooks in due to its high starch content; and that you should never add butter or cream as the finishing step. I picked up some arborio rice from Whole Foods today. All the recipes that I came across seemed to have a similar theme going on...
Some type of oil + rice + broth >> Simmer >> Add other ingredients >> Add other seasonings >> Simmer >> Add wine >> Simmer >> Serve
For this experiment, I didn't use much curry since I only wanted to color the dish yellow and not have a curried rice dish; much like how saffron is typically used to flavor and impart color to the rice in a traditional risotto. This recipe makes 2 cups of cooked rice.
Ingredients & Directions:
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 c. dry arborio rice
Heat a skillet and add the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the rice. No, you're not cooking the rice in the butter. This is to keep it the starch in the rice from sticking to the pan. In a separate pot, rehydrate the dried mushroom with 1 c. boiling water. When softened, drain and reserve the mushrooms. Before the rice has a chance to burn and before all the moisture wicks itself away from the pan, add:
2 c. chicken broth
1 c. broken bits of dried mushroom
Cook on low-medium heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. If you're going to watch the director's cut of Dune while cooking, stir and check the rice frequently.
Add some white wine, no more than 1/4 cup or the alcohol won't burn off before its served
When this liquid has all been just about absorbed by the rice or cooked off, turn off the stove and stir in 1 tsp curry powder. The curry taste mellows out when the rice sits refrigerated for a day or so. Salt to taste.
Total cook and prep time: 40 minutes
Notes:
In the mushroom rehydration step, you can reserve the liquid as a mushroom dashi soup base for another dish. The curry powder could also have been added to the butter and heated until fragrant.
Sweet Tamarind Drink
I think tamarind is the foreign equivalent to the lemon in its sourness and use for medicinal and culinary purposes. This is one of the recipes that I've been meaning to try after reading about it in Saveur magazine. Basically you take about a pound of fresh tamarind pods, you'd want them fresher if you wanted a drink or pulp that was less sour. Shell them out and remove whatever harder strings are attached to the pulp. Put them in 2 quarts of water and boil until the pulp is soft (about 15-20 minutes). Strain the water through a sieve and reserve the liquid.
This is where I deviated from the recipe a bit. In the pot where I had boiled the pulp, I added about a quart and a half of cool water and just used my hands to separate the seeds from the pulp. Instead of using a blender, I put the pulp through the sieve to separate the pulp from the seeds.
At this point, you could scrape the bottom of the sieve with a spoon to get your tamarind pulp for other dishes. Anyhow, strain all the tamarind liquid and pulp into an 8-quart pot. Bring that pot to a boil and cool. Sugar to taste and serve.
For 1 cup of tamarind liquid, 2 tsp of sugar seems to sweeten it enough so that it isn't overbearingly tart.
After having made this from scratch, I can see why the advertised pictures of tamarind drink never resembles what it does if you make it fresh. I must say that the whole preparation process tastes better than it looks. The drink itself smells rather earthy, like boiled plants--not vegetables, but like someone cooked up peat moss and served it as a drink. Seeing how it's autumn now, I suppose that sour drinks aren't as refreshing when the weather is cooler.
Kudos to the wild plant gatherer 3,000 years ago who convinced someone else to drink a brownish liquid made from the seed pulp that resembles nearly dried cat sh**.
Beef and Vegetable Soup
It might have tasted meatier if I'd used beef broth instead of vegetable broth, but that's what was already in my pantry. Most recipes of this particular flavor use a bag of mixed frozen vegetables. I remember from my youth that I disliked half the vegetables in that mix, mostly because lima beans tasted pasty, the green beans were way over-cooked, the peas were flavorless, and you didn't nearly get enough of what you did like.
Ingredients:
4 c. vegetable broth
2 white potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery stalks, cubed
1 c. fresh corn
5 medium white mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb. stew beef, cut into smaller pieces
dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. sea salt
black pepper, to taste
1/2 c. white wine (optional)
1 shallot, chopped
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
Directions:
1. Frying pan - On medium heat, add butter, olive oil, and shallots. Once the shallots have been lightly browned, add the beef and stir fry until the beef is nearly done. Set aside the beef. Add carrots, celery, and potatoes and cook until carrots are nearly tender.
2. Covered stockpot - Add broth, corn, and mushrooms, bring to a boil then simmer. Add the vegetables and beef. Add spices. Add the wine (optional). Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes, then simmer until potatoes are almost soft but haven't disintegrated.
Total prep time: 30 minutes
Total cook time: 1-2 hours, or longer
Ingredients:
4 c. vegetable broth
2 white potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery stalks, cubed
1 c. fresh corn
5 medium white mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb. stew beef, cut into smaller pieces
dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. sea salt
black pepper, to taste
1/2 c. white wine (optional)
1 shallot, chopped
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
Directions:
1. Frying pan - On medium heat, add butter, olive oil, and shallots. Once the shallots have been lightly browned, add the beef and stir fry until the beef is nearly done. Set aside the beef. Add carrots, celery, and potatoes and cook until carrots are nearly tender.
2. Covered stockpot - Add broth, corn, and mushrooms, bring to a boil then simmer. Add the vegetables and beef. Add spices. Add the wine (optional). Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes, then simmer until potatoes are almost soft but haven't disintegrated.
Total prep time: 30 minutes
Total cook time: 1-2 hours, or longer
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