TMD Recipes

[Matt]

I just made this for a party tonight: peanut butter chocolate truffles. It's an incredibly simple recipe, only five ingredients and you pretty much just melt them all together:

1 cup peanut butter chips (Reese's for preference)
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
14 oz (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Melt the chips and the butter over low heat in a heavy saucepan. SUPER IMPORTANT HINT: unless your butter is at room temperature, cube it first so it will melt faster. Your total time on the stove is limited by the peanut butter chips - the sugar in them will crystallize rapidly, shedding a lot of greasy oil and leaving your food tasty but ugly (and swimming in a pool of what is basically crisco). Cubing the butter exposes more surface area and will let the butter melt in time. I had to run back to the store for more SCmilk to make this again because I fucked it up and let it cook too long the first time.

Anyway, where was I. Melt the chips and butter together, stirring constantly. A wire balloon whisk works best here, for breaking up butter pats and chip chunks, but a rubber spatula can suffice. Stir in the cocoa until smooth, then add the SCmilk and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and put it somewhere to cool, fridge or freezer. It should be 100% homogeneous and smooth, like chocolate in a chocolate fountain.

When it's been cooled sufficiently (a lot - figure an hour or more in the freezer), take it out and shape it into balls (1" diameter) with your hands, just like you used to make play-doh into balls when you were a kid. These things melt at room temperature, plus you're adding friction, so you'll have to do this quickly. I suggest only taking out a cup or so at a time, rolling it up, and moving the balls back to the freezer while you finish working with the rest.

Finally, roll the balls in a topping of your choice - you can use your imagination here. Finely ground nuts or powdered sugar, or graham cracker crumbs, or more cocoa powder, there are many possibilities.

I personally get a package of instant pudding mix and roll in that powder for a little extra flavor. Pistachio makes the best.

[policehq]

Before I go on with my recipe, a few points and a question.

I really enjoy cooking, but with a lot of projects I take up in life, I usually try to tackle one difficult "piece" then take up other things. For example, I wanted to learn Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune on piano, "Blackbird" on guitar, etc. first. I still don't know other piano songs.

So I really think this recipe is fascinating, but for one thing, it's probably out of season (especially here in South Carolina), and for another, it's one of three or four things I can cook.

Still, I really appreciate this thread. I hope to learn some things and get to be a decent cook on a regular basis.

Now, for a question: has anyone tried curry in chicken salad? I had it at a small-town restaurant and would love to hear a good estimate of chicken:curry ratio. I really hate curry in everything else; I can't stand Indian food.

Ok, so here's my recipe for beef stew.

2 1/2 lb 1 1/2 in cubes chuck beef
750 ml bottle red wine
2 whole garlic cloves, smashed
3 bay leaves
2 cups all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
2 yellow onions, cut into 1in cubes
1 lb carrots, peeled and cut diagonally in 1 1/2-inch chunks
1/2 pound white mushrooms, cut in half, remove stems
1 pound small potatoes quartered
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
2 cups chicken stock or broth
1 large branch fresh rosemary
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas

Marinade beef cubes in red wine, garlic, and bay leaves overnight.

Next day, preheat oven to 300.

Combine flour with salt and pepper to taste (1 tbsp each for me), lift beef out of marinade and remove bay leaves. Dredge into flower and brush off/shake off excess. Brown beef evenly on medium heat for 5-7 minutes.

Place beef in oven proof Dutch oven and continue browning.

Heat 2 tbsp oil and add onions, carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and heat for 2 more minutes. Place vegetables over beef in Dutch oven and pour 2 1/2 cups of marinade into vegetable pot. Put on high heat and when bottom of pot is deglazed, scrape up the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add chicken stock, rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, worchestire sauce, 1 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp pepper and pour the sauce over the beef and vegetables. Bring to a simmer over medium heat on the stove. Cover the pot and bake on 300 for 2 hours. Stir once halfway; if the stew is boiling rather than simmering, reduce 25 to 50 degrees.

When you remove the stew from the oven, stir in the frozen peas, season, eat.

-hq

[LordHomerCat]

Man, this is definitely my new favorite thread.  I watch Alton Brown religiously, and have made Pate a Choux a few (along with some vanilla pudding, in cream, puffs, its soooo good) among other things.  I'll have to look around for any recipes I have which are good enough to share (I don't do that much cooking now since my girlfriend isn't in town anymore, and I have a hard time cooking for just myself).  I do like to try ambitious things (like pate a choux, at least to me), but im a pretty picky eater so it can be difficult, and really anything difficult I make nowadays seems to come from either a recipe from Good Eats or just some random website, but I have a few simpler ones which are quite amazing.  Here's a real easy one from my mom, which just happens to be my favorite thing ever:

~4 boneless chicken breasts
some sliced monterray jack cheese (other white cheeses work too, but monterry jack is best)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (also acceptable: cream of celery or cream of chicken, but mushroom is my favorite)
1/4 C cooking sherry
seasoned croutons
butter

Put the chicken in an oven safe pan (9" by 13" is what I have).  Add some salt to chicken (and pepper if you like, but I don't like how it tastes with the cheese), cover with slices of cheese (slices maybe 1/4" to 1/8" thick, and feel free to add plenty).  Mix the soup and the sherry together and spoon over the chicken.  Top with a layer of croutons, then dot with small pieces of butter.  Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour, and enjoy a wonderful cheesy, crunchy chicken dinner!  This recipe is open to plenty of interpretation if you want different kinds of cheese or especially soup, which will lend slightly different flavors.

[Hi-Val]

policehq, I love curry in chicken and egg salad. I usually mix in only a dash or two in a single serving portion. It's enough so that you know something is there, but not enough to know that it is curry. As for hating curry, you might try other curries; Thai curry is fantastic (especially green curry) and it tastes nothing like Indian curry.

This past Saturday, I made a blowout dinner with a Vietnamese theme, featuring:

Filet Mignon with nuoc mam on the side (it's their chile garlic dipping sauce, small quantities really bring out beef)
Vietnamese curried shrimp in coconut milk
Korean quick pickles
Bell peppers in a lemon and balsamic reduction
Rice noodles

If folks want recipes, I'll be happy to post them as best I can. The great thing is that you can probably make all of it with ingredients you find at a local grocery store that has a half-way decent ethnic aisle.

[orgcandman]

There are some great recipes here.

Doug, please post those. I may have a use for them tonight.

Kyle, the Spinach-Penne Bechemel was really great. To continue with the bechemel theme, I combined it with some Potatoes Gratin, which was ok. It ended up being a little on the heavier side of meals though.

-Aaron

[Almighty]

All that plus a gratin? That must have been one massive food induced coma.

Hi-Val, are curried shrimp exactly what they sound like?

[Hi-Val]

I kind of winged a lot of it but I'll try my best.

For the Filets, I prepared them as you would normally. I made nuoc mam by the following:

2 T Rooster Sauce (that's what I call it anyway, it's the garlic-chile sauce with the rooster on it and Chinese writing, it's in the Chinese aisle)
1 T Fish Sauce
2 diced scallions
A pinch of sugar

Mix, let it sit for about an hour for everything to meld. Serve it on the side with the filets.

For the shrimp, I did:

1C Coconut Milk (shake the can up well and mix it again when you open it, it separates like whoa)
1C chicken stock or boullion
12 leaves basil (use holy basil if you can find it, but good luck on that)
2 diced scallions
1T good Indian curry powder
2T Fish sauce
1T sugar
Whole, deveined shrimp with the shell still on

Get a nice-sized pot and put it on medium heat. Add the coconut milk and stock and bring to a gentle boil. Add in the curry powder, sugar, basil and fish sauce. When it is back at a very gentle boil, put the shrimp in. Gently poach them just until the shells are completely pink. I cannot stress enough how important this is. As soon as they are pink, they're cooked. Take it off the heat, sprinkle in the diced scallions, mix and serve. I serve mine with rice noodles. You can find them anywhere you find the other stuff. Just pour on boiling water and let them hang out for a little while and they'll soften right up. This dish is also great cold.

The flavor is intentionally light on the curry. You can bring up the curry, but do so carefully. The enjoyment of the dish is all the subtle flavors marrying, so you don't want to overwhelm the basil or coconut or especially the delicate shrimp. You can also use Thai Red or Green Curry, but again, just be mindful of the balance. Vietnamese and Thai food have this salty/savory/sour/sweet thing going on that makes them delicious.

A note on the fish sauce-- it's an Asian product made of fermented anchovies that are mixed with salt and pressed. Sounds nasty, tastes great with other flavors. It's quite salty so don't salt your food when you use it before you taste it.

For the quick pickles, I thinly sliced a cucumber and tossed it with salt and rice wine vinegar and a few hot chile flakes. I let it sit for an hour. I rinsed mine off but they were still a bit salty, so if you're making this, you should probably give them a little bit more thorough rinsing.

The bell peppers I cored and sliced thinly, then put in a medium hot pan with vegetable oil. I sauteed them a bit and let them carmelize for, I'd say, ten minutes. I also squeezed a lemon wedge in and dropped the lemon wedge itself in. I took the wedge out when they were done, transferred the peppers to another dish and used balsamic vinegar and a little water to deglaze the pan; I reduced it down till it was syrupy and then poured it on the peppers. I had the leftovers on brats and they were great there too.

Hope that covers everything!

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

Recipe for cold cereal

Ingrediants:
1 Box of fruity pebbles
1 bowl
1 cup of milk
1 spoon (i've done without this before)

1. Pour cereal in bowl
2. pour milk
3. eat with spoon

talk about really cheap cheap budget date cuisine!

[policehq]

Can we go over general cooking terms, like "carmelize," "sautee," "pan sear," etc?

Basically anything beyond frying, baking, broiling, boiling...

-hq

[orgcandman]

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/school/glossary/glossary.html has a wide variety of techniques which are defined.

[TJ-Whoopy]

Old family recipe I've been using for years

   Ingrediants,

one bottle scotch whiskey
one glass
Ice cubes to taste

combine scotch and Ice (if used) in glass stir briefly and enjoy.

this ones a sure fire hit that you'll keep coming back to as a staple.


great to see Z back on the boards. I'll get down to myriad one of these days.

[The Atog Lord]

This is a great thread.

This recipe is a bit simple, but I've been enjoying it a lot recently. Many sauces are either bland or high in fat, so I wanted to create a low-calorie sauce to put on vegetables. In a small bowl, combine Balsamic Vinegar, Splenda, and a bit of Soy Sauce. Mix. It will start fizzing. It then becomes a great topping for vegetables, slightly sweet with a kick.

By the way, the new "Steams in your Microwave" bags of frozen vegetables are really good -- much better than what I've come to expect from other frozen vegetables.

[policehq]

I made this for a salad once, but I like it with rice, pasta, and to use as a chip dip as well. Really simple, actually.

2 cans Green Giant Shoe Peg Corn
2 cans Black Beans
Rinse and drain all above

1 chopped vidalia onion (1 cup approximately)
1 cup feta cheese
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 cup sugar

garlic powder
pepper
salt

To taste

Just stir it all together; don't worry about cooking.

I used to have a vegetarian girlfriend, so I liked trying to cook new things for her when I was able. As I've already demonstrated in this thread, I'm not very refined and just like to experiment. Still, I was really happy with a spaghetti sauce that had brown sugar, cinnamon, mushrooms, zucchini, and squash. If anyone is interested I'd like to try and recreate the recipe in written form instead of adding things as I am cooking.

-hq

[zaltman]

Do any of you guys have a good pasta salad you would be willing to share? I need to make about 20 lbs of the stuff for a grad party so i need something good and simple. Thanks!

[policehq]

1/2 tsp hot chili sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Heat the peanut butter and honey to loosen it before mixing - microwave works but real heat is better because in a microwave the honey and PB heat at different rates and you'll end up burning the honey by the time the PB is sufficiently loose.

Protip: put the honey and peanut butter in whatever your final container will be.

Do you mean after they are both heated, when you mix them together? Am I a noob for not figuring out how this is possible?

One of my favorite applications for peanut sauce is to boil some spaghetti and serve it cold with peanut sauce.

This recipe is the only one for which I already own all the ingredients (in this thread), so I will be trying it this evening.

-hq

[Jacob Orlove]

Here are a couple of recipes I really like. Italian and Italian Jewish food is amazing.

Roast Chicken with Rosemary Potatoes (Friday evening meal, after lighting the Sabbath candles)
2 broiler/fryers about 2 1/2 lbs each
2 tbs salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 large fresh or 2 tsp  dried sage leaves
2 large cloves garlic with husk on
8 large baking potatoes
2 tsps fresh or 1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp olive oil

Wash the chickens thoroughly and pat dry with paper towel. Remove as much fat as you can and tuck the wings under. Sprinkle the cavity of each chicken with 1/2 tbsp of salt and about 1/2 tsp pepper. Place two  fresh sage leaves of 1 tsp dried sage and one clove of garlic in each chicken. Sprinkle the outside with 1/2 tbsp of salt and about 1/2 tsp pepper and place in a large baking pan making sure the chickens don't touch each other.

Peel the potatoes, wash and cut lengthwise into ~6 pieces each. Place in a bowl and season with rosemary leaves, garlic, salt, oil and  1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Toss to allow seasoning to coat potatoes evenly. Pour around the chickens in a single layer, if possible. Place in 450 degree F oven for 25 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and bake chicken for 45 minutes to one hour longer.

You can cut the recipe in half and do one chicken too. Two chickens serves 6 to 8 people.

Note that frozen chickens will need to be completely defrosted--otherwise, you'll get a bunch of water in the pan, which makes the potatoes not crispy. If you like, when the chickensare done, you can take them out of the pan and put the potatoes back in for a few minutes to get them extra crispy (sooo delicious).

Also, I don't bother to peel the potatoes, but that's about half laziness and half personal preference.

I should also add that there's really no reason not to have fresh rosemary. The stuff is practically a weed in terms of growth--even with just a potted plant you should be able to get a decent supply.

This recipe calls for a lot of specific vegetables, but you can seriously use whatever is handy. I always make it whenever we have a lot of leftover rice. Note that the default recipe is vegan, but you can adjust that to taste:

Milanese Style Minestrone
(serves 6-8)
2 T. olive oil (optional: also, 1 tsp sesame seed oil)
3 medium onions, minced
4 medium carrots, shredded (peel if necessary beforehand)
2 stalks of celery, finely diced
1 medium potato, shredded
1/2 lb Savoy cabbage, shredded
1 medium zucchini, finely diced or shredded
8 c. vegetable stock (or meat stock, or water)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. crumbled sage leaves
2 c. canned tomatoes (diced)
1 can of beans (14-16 oz of whatever kind you like--the recipe suggests navy, cranberry, or pinto)
1/2 c Arborio rice (I always use a bunch of Wild Rice, since we never seem to have a potato around)
4 T. parsley (the recipe suggests Italian parsley)
2 T. minced basil
salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, saute onion until it begins to soften. Add other vegetables one at a time, sauteing for a few minutes each, adding broth to prevent sticking.

Add the rest of the broth, sage, bay leaves, tomatoes, and beans. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmering for 30 minutes. Add rice, parsley, and cook for another 15 minutes or so.

"Milanese style" refers to the use of rice over pasta, and the use of shredded/finely chopped veggies. I like it a lot more than regular minestrone.

Now that I've typed up the "official" recipe, here's what I actually cook: I typically use about 4 carrots, a couple small zucchini, the onions, sometimes the celery, and whatever other vegetables we have handy (peas are nice). As I said, I use a lot of rice instead of rice + potato, but you can substitute in more potato or pasta if you don't want to use rice. I also tend to add the rice earlier, and simmer the whole thing longer. I have added Parmesan cheese in the past, as well, but typically use water instead of stock (because the whole point is to only use whatever we have around the house)

[Almighty]

Do any of you guys have a good pasta salad you would be willing to share? I need to make about 20 lbs of the stuff for a grad party so i need something good and simple. Thanks!

Whoa, that's a lot. Good luck. That should feed like 80 people, unless you are serious pasta salad eating machines. Then maybe 60 people

My favorite pasta to use is orchietti (sp?). They look lke bowls the size of a penny.

As for contents, defiently keep it simple if you are making that much. Maybe buy like 4 european cucumbers, 7 pints grape tomatoes, 4 red onions, and a quart of Italian vinagrette.

[Matt]

1/2 tsp hot chili sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Heat the peanut butter and honey to loosen it before mixing - microwave works but real heat is better because in a microwave the honey and PB heat at different rates and you'll end up burning the honey by the time the PB is sufficiently loose.

Protip: put the honey and peanut butter in whatever your final container will be.

Do you mean after they are both heated, when you mix them together? Am I a noob for not figuring out how this is possible?

Put the PB in a container, microwave it for a bit - like 5-10 seconds. Then add the honey in the same container and microwave it again, in 5 second intervals. It probably won't take more than one or two such intervals.
Then add the other ingredients and combine them. I personally have a small 3 inch wire whisk but if you don't have that, a fork works fine.

That recipe won't make enough to use a larger whisk on. Probably just use the fork. Stir it up until it's homogeneous, no peanut butter chunks.

[Hi-Val]

Re: Rosemary, from Jacob. I grow the stuff; it takes a little while to grow but it likes being ignored and not watered. Also, if you buy the rosemary in the fresh packs at the store, you can put the still-living branches in a pot of soil after cutting off the end a little for a fresh ending. You can dip it in rooting hormone to make sure that it will grow. This will turn into TMD Gardening : ) Suffice to say, you should never have leftover fresh rosemary since you can plant it!

[policehq]

Matt and Hi-Val: Thanks for the peanut sauce tips! It was really good, although I think I didn't make enough for the amount of noodles I had.

Now I suppose I'm ready to try it with pork. How much meat would you cook with that amount of sauce?

Jacob: Speaking of Jewish food, if I kept cheddar cheese very often (sometimes my stomach can't take it), I would get very fat off dipping cubes into honey and eating them as a snack. Decadence.

-hq

[orgcandman]

I agree that there's no reason to not have rosemary around. There's also no real reason to not have a lot of spices around in either fresh or dried form. For instance - fresh thyme can keep in the fridge for a few weeks, and has an amazing flavor when combined with eggs, or tomatoes, or almost anything.

Also, speaking of awesome peanut-type sauces, I had a great culinary mix of thai-srilankan-indian cuisine the other night.

Here's what I did:


SAUCE INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 C Pineapple Juice
1/2 C Orange Juice
1/4t Cumin
1/2t Ground Mustard
1T Cilantro
1T Peanut Butter
1t Red Curry (I use a generic red curry, but you could theoretically make your own)
1t Soy sauce
1T rice wine vinegar
1t Cayenne Pepper
1t Paprika
1/8t ground clove
drippings from chicken mixture (below)

DIRECTIONS:
   In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and let simmer until reduced by 1/2.


CHICKEN INGREDIENTS:
2 - 3/4lbs breasts, rough chopped into bite-sized pieces
1T sesame seeds (I used white sesame seeds. You can combine white and black
2T olive/soy/vegetable oil (I personally don't like using vegetable oil because of the transfat content)
1/8t cumin
1t cilantro
1T garlic powder (or whole garlic if you prefer that, but you'll need more)
1/2T onion powder
1T soy sauce

DIRECTIONS:
  Oil Wok (or large skillet, but Wok is better). Bring to the highest possible heat your stovetop is capable of. The point here is that you're going to be searing everything on high heat. Combine all ingredients in pan, and make sure that chicken gets thoroughly coated with everything while it cooks. Generally, if you used 1" cubes of chicken, it'll be done when it is just barely beginning to brown on the outside. Remove from heat, and set the chicken aside. Use the drippings to build the sauce (above).


Bringing it together: The Dish
This part requires rice. You're going to make a fried rice here. Now, there are two ways to do this.

1 - use uncooked rice. This option means that the rice won't be getting very plump. I recommend this method for those people who want a lot of chicken on the plate. This means that during the cooking process, you'll be adding some of the simmering pineapple sauce to the pan where you're cooking the rice so that it softens, and takes on a good flavor. This is what I did the other night.

2 - Use previously cooked rice. This option is what typical fried rice is made of, from what I'm told. The difference here is that you won't need to add anything to plump the rice up. You can, of course, and I suggest that you do, but your rice won't be all crunchy if you don't.

Ingredients:
Small amount (1/4 of a cup at most, probably closer to 1/8-1/6 of a cup) of pineapple sauce while simmering (before reduced) if using uncooked rice.
1C rice (see above)
Chicken from above
1 1/2t soy sauce
1t honey
1t rice wine vinegar
oil for the wok (I used 1T)

Directions:
Again, bring the wok (or skillet) to the highest heat. Add all the ingredients. If you're using uncooked rice, add the pineapple mixture. This should take about 12-15 minutes to cook. Once done, you can plate, with the pineapple reduction poured on top.

serves 2-4

Yeah, so, things you can do to really pop this recipe:
1 - fried egg with fried rice? shyea!
2 - In-season veggies would go good in the rice.
3 - You could crank up the heat on the pineapple sauce by adding some Siracha or other chili sauce. Heck, when you're at the supermarket pickup some chillies in adobo sauce, and you've got some great stuff right there. I would make sure that the people who are eating are gonna be able to stand the heat.
4 - If you really want a strong curry flavor, you can go as high as 1/2T. Any higher, and it will overpower. I know because I've done it.
5 - This is a recipe that I've been mutating for the past few years. I've added all sorts of things to it, including lime, coconut, fish sauce in varying amounts, and even homemade tahini. It can accept a broad range of flavors.

-Aaron

[Hi-Val]

I think in common cooking parlance, though cilantro/coriander come from the same plant, Cilantro is used to refer to the leaves and coriander refers to the seeds. I'm sure you mean cilantro in your recipe, but I HAVE seen coriander in Indian curries...

[orgcandman]

I thought they were interchangable for the leaves. I'll make that note.

[Twaun007]

The Stickiest of the icky. A.K.A. Sticky Buns

The secret ingredients

1 tube biscuits
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons syrup
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cupcake pan (you can use a regular flat pan but I prefer a cupcake pan)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, ovens do vary so be careful. Melt butter in a pan on low heat. Slowly add the syrup and brown sugar, stirring until smooth. Pour the syrup evenly into a cupcake pan/flat pan. Mix cinnamon and sugar. Dip each biscuit into the mixture, cover evenly, then place in the pan. If using a flat pan make it so the sides of the biscuits are just touching.

Bake 10 minutes.

Cool 10 minutes(so the topping sticks)

Flip over onto a plate and enjoy.

I must caution you though. This recipe will result in girls coming from miles around to get some and multiple turn 1 pantie destruction.

[Imsomniac101]

Wow orcgandman; that is an amazing recipe.

On somewhat of a related note.... does anyone know how to make curry from scratch?

This is easily the best thread on TMD. I'm gonna be flatting next year, and this is gonna be very Very useful. Thanks to everyone who's contributed so far.

[Hi-Val]

Yes. I have made curry from scratch. It's not worth all the effort a lot of the time : )

You need a spice grinder or a mortar & pestle. You can find recipes all over; your library will have a book on Indian food with recipes for curry.

The biggest advice is to toast the spices in a pan briefly over high heat; when you hear them popping, they're done.

The difficult part of making curries is finding the ingredients. Looking for nigella seeds and fenugreek is hard without an Indian store around.

[Matt]

This thread has totally renewed my love of cooking. I am also learning how to make migas, which is a tex-mex dish that is rarely offered outside of Texas, or so I'm told. It is also delicious but I have not yet mastered its intricacies so I will hold off for now.

My friend's wife decided to throw a "pancakes and mojitos" party, and I thought those didn't naturally go well together, so I made an effort to bridge them by brewing up some syrups:

Basic syrup:

2 parts sugar
1 part water
Flavoring of your choice

Get the water to a roiling boil, then add in the sugar a bit at a time. Stir it until it dissolves, then add more, until it's all dissolved. We're going for what you may remember from high school chemistry is a "supersaturated solution." The water is going to boil away, but that's okay - that's what makes it a thick syrup and not a flat soda. Add in your flavorings while it's still hot, and stir stir stir. You pretty much need a balloon whisk for this. In fact I am seriously thinking about buying a second, just so I don't have to wash it after every meal.

I made two syrups: lemon-orange, and habanero-lime. Both came out GREAT, although the habanero heat didn't transfer as well as I'd've liked. I might have scraped too much of the seeds and membranes out (first time working with habaneros). Still, I am super pleased with both.

To get the citrus flavorings, you'll need to buy a fruit and use a knife to scrape what's known as the zest off. You don't need a lemon zester, although I imagine the specialty tool helps. The zest is the colorful outside of the rind (not the white inner part, which is inedible). Just scrape it with the edge of a serrated knife (like a steak knife) until you've scraped down to white, then turn the fruit and continue on virgin territory. I liked the steak knife because it made the zest atomic, where a dedicated zester peels off strips (ideal for garnishing a pretty mixed drink but not so much for baking/cooking).

For each syrup I used 2 cups of sugar 1 cup of water. I used the zest from one whole lemon, about half an orange, and 1.5 limes. I also added some lime juice while it was boiling to kick up the lime flavor - which might explain the loss of habanero heat.

[Methuselahn]

You may have heard of this dessert before, but my family just loves Banana Fosters.

What you need:

1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons rum
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 bananas, peeled and sliced lengthwise and crosswise
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
ice cream.

The above ingredients were c/p'd from some recipe I found through Googling.  It has the same ratio of butter to brown sugar that I use, the rest you can pretty much eyeball on the fly and to taste.  I also use a banana liqueur and sometime a pinch of lime juice as well.

Melt the butter on low-medium heat, add sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, rum/liqueur until it starts to bubble.  Add bananas and your choice of chopped nuts.  Cook a few minutes.  SET ON FIRE.   Yeah, you get to light your skillit on fire, mostly to burn off any alchohol.  (for those of us who don't drink, are under age, or preggers).  Serve promptly over vanilla ice cream.


Matt, that habanero texas sauce sounds kinda good.  I tried making a habanero sauce like that once, but ended up touching my eyes after handling the habs.  I kinda gave up at that point.  Wasn't a very smart play on my part.

[nataz]

<3 foster!

sprinkle nutmeg over flame for added effect pre-serve while at the table.

 

[Imsomniac101]

Here are a couple of recipes I really like. Italian and Italian Jewish food is amazing.

Roast Chicken with Rosemary Potatoes (Friday evening meal, after lighting the Sabbath candles)
2 broiler/fryers about 2 1/2 lbs each
2 tbs salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 large fresh or 2 tsp  dried sage leaves
2 large cloves garlic with husk on
8 large baking potatoes
2 tsps fresh or 1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp olive oil

Wash the chickens thoroughly and pat dry with paper towel. Remove as much fat as you can and tuck the wings under. Sprinkle the cavity of each chicken with 1/2 tbsp of salt and about 1/2 tsp pepper. Place two  fresh sage leaves of 1 tsp dried sage and one clove of garlic in each chicken. Sprinkle the outside with 1/2 tbsp of salt and about 1/2 tsp pepper and place in a large baking pan making sure the chickens don't touch each other.

Peel the potatoes, wash and cut lengthwise into ~6 pieces each. Place in a bowl and season with rosemary leaves, garlic, salt, oil and  1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Toss to allow seasoning to coat potatoes evenly. Pour around the chickens in a single layer, if possible. Place in 450 degree F oven for 25 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and bake chicken for 45 minutes to one hour longer.

You can cut the recipe in half and do one chicken too. Two chickens serves 6 to 8 people.

Note that frozen chickens will need to be completely defrosted--otherwise, you'll get a bunch of water in the pan, which makes the potatoes not crispy. If you like, when the chickensare done, you can take them out of the pan and put the potatoes back in for a few minutes to get them extra crispy (sooo delicious).

Also, I don't bother to peel the potatoes, but that's about half laziness and half personal preference.

A very simple variation is to rub the chicken with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper to taste. Then stuff the chicken with crushed garlic cloves and roast as per instructions. Also, another delicious thing I like to add are carrots. Peel and chop them, then add them when the chicken is HALF-DONE (ie halfway through roasting time). This is especially important, to get soft but not mushy carrots. The carrots are extremely delicious, especially if they've been soaking in the dripping.