fauxklore | Entries tagged with recipes

Getting back to catching up on things, I wanted to write a little bit about Thanksgiving dinner. I decided that being on my own was no excuse for not making a nice dinner, though I felt no obligation to be conventional.

I started with homemade bread. There’s no recipe, since I don’t need one to make a simple (and not particularly exciting) white bread. This was made with King Arthur bread flour, by the way.

That accompanied a curried pumpkin soup, which turned out delicious. Basically, you dice half an onion and mince about an inch of fresh ginger, saute them in olive oil. Then add 1 c. water, 1 c. vegetable broth, a 15-0z can pumpkin puree, 1/2 c. cream, and bring to a boil. Then season with 1 T. cumin, 1 T. minced garlic, 1 tsp. curry powder, 1 tsp. turmeric and some black pepper. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Add cayenne to taste before serving.

The main course was poached salmon, which is just a salmon filet simmered in a mixture of water and pino grigio, with a little bit of garlic and fresh dill. I accompanied that with wild rice pilar, which is just wild rice cooked per package directions, with sautéed mushrooms and pine nuts tossed in, and tahini-glazed roasted carrots (from a recipe by Adeena Sussman). All of that was delicious, especially the carrots.

I had intended to make an apple-cranberry crisp for dessert and eat it with a little bit of Haagen Dasz bourbon ice cream, but I was just too full. So that waited for the next day, but I didn’t photograph it.

While I am on the subject of recipes, I contributed my most requested recipe (chocolate rum cheesecake) to the Community Cookbook for Better Said Than Done, to accompany our storytelling show tomorrow night.

But another friend asked me (way back in July) for the recipe for Cheese Enchiladas with Bean and Corn Chili, which I had brought to a potluck ages ago. So I might as well put it here. This serves 6:

1 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 T. vegetable oil
1 can (14 oz.) plum tomatoes
3/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp red papper flakes
1 can (19 oz) kidney beans, undrained
1 can (12 oz) corn niblets, drained
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chiles
1 container (8 oz) ricotta cheese)
2 c. shredded jack cheese
1 package (5 oz) 5-inch corn tortillas

1. Saute onion and garlic in 1 T. oil in large skillet until soft, about 5 minutes
2. Add tomatoes. Stir in cumin, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Bring to boiling, breaking up tomatoes. Add black beans, corn, and half the chilis. Simmer covered for 15 minutes, stirring occassionally.
3. Lightly grease 13 x 9 x 2 pan. Spoon chile into pan.
4. Combine ricotta, 1 1/2 c. jack cheese, and remaining chiles in a small bowl.
5. Soften a tortilla in 1/2 tsp. oil in small skillet over medium high heat, turning once. Spoon 2 T. cheese mixture down the center. Roll up. Place on top of chili, seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling (should be about 10). Sprinkle remaining jack cheese over enchiladas.
6. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, until bubbly.

Crossposts: https://fauxklore.livejournal.com/480257.html

I said yesterday that I'd include the pasta salad recipe below and then forgot to. I should note that this is not an actual recipe, per se, but more or less what I threw together, with reasonable success.

8 ounces or so of smallish pasta (I used a half box of orecchiete)
1 red onion, chopped
1 small can of chick peas
1 small jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained
1 small can of sliced black olives
1 small jar of chopped sweet red peppers
a few handfuls of pignolias

For dressing:
drained liquid from the artichoke hearts
1/4 c. balsamic vinaigrette
enough olive oil to make the whole thing add up to a cup
black pepper
a few pinches of dried thyme

Cook the pasta. Drain and chill it.
Throw in the rest of the ingredients and mix. Let it sit in the refrigerator a few hours before serving.

We have a potluck holiday party at work tomorrow. I've just baked my notorious chocolate rum cheesecake for it. (The recipe is at the bottom of the entry, after a couple of other cake recipes.) It's always gone over well and looks a lot more difficult than it is. That is especially true in this decadent era when one can buy graham cracker crumbs instead of having to start with graham crackers.

But I have another potluck to go to next week (at my corporate office; tomorrow is at my customer office) and I don't really feel like making the same thing twice. My standard appetizer for some time has been fresh spring rolls, which I fill with a mixture of cole slaw, tofu, carambola (star fruit), and cilantro. While I do still have a bunch of spring roll wrappers, mostly because I misunderstood how many were in the package, they're actually a bit of work. As is Moroccan orange and radish salad, which would also require finding the time to get over to Penzey's because I would need orange blossom water for it. (It is basically orange sections and sliced radishes, sprinkled with orange blossom water and a little bit of cinnamon. Sectioning oranges is still a pain.)

I think I baked bread last year, so I don't want to do that again. Doing a hot dish is impractical from a transportation standpoint. I'm actually contemplating quiche, as dated as it seems, on the grounds that it is easy to make and easy to transport. It would also use up the cream left over from the cheesecake. But if I do that, should I do mini quiches or just a normal pie plate sized one? The former would be more practical but the latter would be easier. And what filling to use? I am thinking asparagus, but can I get decent asparagus this time of year?

Obviously, decision making is not my strong point.

1) The major case of accidental death among hunters is falling out of trees. Personally, I suspect there is usually beer involved.

2) I am a bad influence. One of the guys from my company took a quick trip to Hawaii to maintain his United Premier Executive status. Over on Flyer Talk, we call that a "mileage run." And the guy who has the office next to mine went to Brazill for the weekend.

3) The only place I went over the weekend was Silver Spring for a story swap. It was a particularly good one, with a lot of people there and a wide range of stories. Jane's rendition of the story about why coyote has a puckered anus was a particular highlight.

4) Dear amazon.com: If somebody buys a Red Sox calendar, it is probably because they are a Red Sox fan. Sending them email every couple of days about the availability of calendars featuring other baseball teams is annoying.

5) Dear Washington Jewish Film Festival: It would have been nice if the film about Jews and baseball were on when Robert is going to be here, as that would easily top the list of possible entertainment events to go to. I will go see the film anyway, of course, but you could have sold two tickets, not just one.

6) I made a vegan version of sausage stew last night. Smoked sausage style soy sausage, vegan beef-flavored broth, potatoes, carrots, onions, seasoned with all-spice and bay leaf. It was reasonably good, but too obvious to be a keeper.

7) I'm not sure what I think of the proposal for one-way trips to Mars. I do know that I won't be signing up for one.

8) I'm sorry to see the parent / child teams eliminated from The Amazing Race. I was surprised that Michael and Kevin blew it by incurring penalties, instead of failing at a physical challenge. I was more surprised at how misled teams were by maps in Oman. And isn't Chad the luckiest bastard on the planet? I was so hoping that oversleeping would get rid of him and Stephanie.

I've been continuing the clean-out of the recipe files. In addition to being a good way to procrastinate on other housework, it has turned up a few things worth trying. One was a green chile and cheese casserole that was sort of like a crustless quiche. It was okay - better reheated over the next few days - but not exciting enough to replace other things I make with similar ingredients.

The weather turning cooler turns my thoughts to soups and I made pumpkin soup yesterday. This involved cutting off the top and hollowing out a small pumpkin (about three pounds) and filling the interior with layers of toasted French bread and Swiss cheese. Cream gets poured on top of that, with pepper and nutmeg to season. Then it's baked at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for a little over 2 hours. The recipe didn't say to do this, but I put it on a pie plate, which was a good thing since the cream boiled over a little. You scoop out some of the pumpkin flesh with the cheese and cream when you eat it. This was pretty tasty, but not really worth the amount of work and time involved. I think I'll save my French bread and Swiss cheese for onion soup in the future.

After having my soup supper, I braved the metro to go to the Voices in the Glen Scary Stories concert. It was slightly challenging to get into he Vienna station, which was packed with people returning from the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. (I am, by the way, glad that I did not attempt to go to this, as the people I know who did never made it onto the mall due to the crowds.) Apparently, large events on weekends don't cause trains to run more often. Combined with the track work on the Red Line, I got to Takoma just a little bit before the concert started.

Bill Mayhew started things off with a nice little jump tale, followed by a seasonal joke. He really should have had more time. He was followed by Jane Dorfman telling "Mary Culhane and the Dead Man," which she does very well, making this one of the highlights of the evening for me. She also told a local legend called "The White Dog." Ralph Chatham finished off the first half with excerpts from a novel by Jack Vance. This didn't really work for me, because there were too many things happening to keep track of mentally. I should note that, in my opinion, literary stories often suffer from the differences between written and spoken language. Ralph told well - but the material just isn't the sort of thing I can listen to well.

After a break for cookies and cider, the evening resumed with Anne Sheldon telling the English folktale, "Tibb's Cat and the Apple-Tree Man." She followed that with the other highlight of the show, a Robert Frost poem called "The Witch of Coos." It was definitely not what I was expecting from Robert Frost and was wonderfully creepy. We moved from creepy to just yucky with Tim Livengood telling "The Dissolving Rat." Finally, Margaret Chatham told Jane Yolen's "Mama Gone" (a literary story which does tell well, because Jane Yolen understands oral language) and "How to Turn Into a Witch."

All in all, it was a nice mix of stories and a fun evening, worth putting up with metro's inefficiency for.

I baked two cakes this past week - a birthday cake for a colleague who turned 50 and another cake to take to Saturday night's story swap. Here are recipes and a bonus of my most requested recipe of all time.

Chocolate Cake

This was a Hershey's recipe, slightly modified because of what I had on hand and frosted with commercial ("boughten") frosting. The birthday girl enjoyed. I will probably use this recipe again, as it made an amazingly moist cake.

2 c. sugar (I used 1 c. white sugar, 1 c. brown sugar)
1 3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (I left out the salt as I seem to have run out of it)
2 eggs
1 c. milk (I used almond milk since that is what I had)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. boiling water
1 (11 oz) bag chocolate chips (not in the original recipe, but they seemed like a good idea)
chocolate frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one 13 x 9 x 2 baking pan

2. Stir together sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer at medium for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water. (Batter will be thin.) Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

Sour Cream Cake with Caramel Icing

This is what I bought to the story swap. The cake was actually a bit bland and I doubt I will make it again. The icing got positive reviews, but I actually think it is too sweet. (It is like penuche fudge.)

Cake:
1 egg
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. sour cream
3/4 c. flaked (unsweetened) coconut
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt (I had bought salt by this point, but still left it out)

Icing:
1 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. milk
1 c. confectioners' sugar

Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch square pan.

2. Beat egg with electric mixer on medium. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until light. Stir in sour cream and coconut.

3. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Add to egg mixture and beat well. (This will make a thick batter.) Pour batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 25 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched lightly. Cool before icing.

Icing:

1. Combine brown sugar, butter and milk in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Continue to boil, stirring constantly for 3 minutes.

2. Cool to lukewarm. Stir in confectioners' sugar a little at a time and continue stirring until mixture is of spreading consistency. Spread over cooled cake.

Chocolate Rum Cheesecake

This is my most requested recipe. It is very dense and one cake serves at least 20 people, unless one of them is a particular former colleague of mine. Note that step 3 of the filling recipe is essential. You may be tempted to omit it, but I insist the recipe will not work if you do.

Crust:

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/2 c. butter, melted
3 T. sugar

Combine crust ingredients and spread onto bottom only of a 10 inch springform pan.

Filling:

1 1/2 lb. cream cheese
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 lb. unsweetened chocolate
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. + 2 oz. Jamaican rum (I recommend Meyer's)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. almond extract

1. Beat cream cheese until fluffy (using electric mixer). Add eggs and sugar and continue beating until smooth.

2. Melt chocolate in top of a double boiler. Combine with cream and 1/4 c. rum.

3. Drink remaining rum.

4. Add chooclate mixture and remaining ingredients to cheese mixture. Beat until smooth. Pour into springform pan.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Let cool in pan.