Dave Giffin’s Killer Jalapeno Bacon Hamburgers

It is finally warming up here in the Northwest and I’m loving it! Time to dust off my favorite summer recipes, shut up the house, and do all my cooking on the grill. Summer, in my mind, is the time for hamburgers—freshly cooked, outside, with bits of charcoal mixing with the juiciness of the burger. If you add in baked beans and some potato salad…what could be better?

For years, I made my burgers pretty much the same way every year—burger, a bit of finely chopped onion, salt and ground pepper, and sometimes a little garlic powder. Then I met Dave and it goes without saying that my burgers will never be the same again!

Before I share his recipe, which he graciously gave me permission to do, let me tell you a bit about him. Dave is one of those extraordinary individuals, people like me dream of meeting. A kitchen kindred spirit…a dump cook…a guy who dreams up recipes and rattles them off the top of his head…a little bit of this and a bit of that, and...Voilà! Magic! Every time I see him, he has some new recipe he is perfecting, and he’s not afraid to try things in combinations that an ordinary person wouldn’t dream of.

The following recipe yields, in my opinion, the best, most favorable burger I’ve ever tasted. Feel free to be creative with the proportions. For those of you worried about the jalapeno…don’t be. In this recipe, it adds flavor, not heat. Enjoy!

One last thing...thinking of family traditions and hamburgers, I'm reminded that my grandfather ate peanut butter on his burgers. I'm curious, what's the strangest thing you've ever eaten on a hamburger?

Dave Giffin’s Killer Jalapeno Bacon Hamburgers

2-4 jalapeno peppers—seeded and deveined

4-5 cloves of garlic

2 lbs burger (your choice of kind, [grins] living in N. Idaho, we use ½ elk-½ beef)

1-2 lbs of bacon—cooked crisp

½-1 onion

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Pulse peppers, garlic, bacon, and onion in a food processor until you have a fine dice. Mix into burger, and add salt and pepper. Form into patties and grill. Serve with the usual hamburger condiments of buns, lettuce, tomato, relish, ketchup, and mustard.

Variation: If you like cheese with your burgers, try adding 1+ cup of sharp cheddar, jack, or crumbled blue cheese to burger before forming into patties.

Quick and Easy Gourmet Espresso Brownies

Pressed for time? Have an unexpected invitation to dinner or a potluck and don’t know what dish to bring? Need a quick dessert that is easy and made with things you probably have in your kitchen?

Well, if you’re like me, you have this problem on a regular basis.

This week at work, we held a going away party for a colleague who is leaving and because I work 12-hour shifts, I had very little time to prepare anything elaborate. Enter my trusty standby—Cheater Brownies—box base with a few gourmet additions. This classic dump-cooking favorite is versatile and virtually fool proof… and not only that, it gets rave review from young and old alike. Enjoy!

Gourmet Espresso Brownies

(makes 12-16 brownies)

1 box Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix

1 egg

1/3 C oil

1/3 C water

½ package chocolate chips

2 Tbs espresso powder (buy or grind your own from whole beans)

Chocolate covered espresso beans

Powdered sugar

Hot Fudge (Mrs. Richardson’s Hot fudge is my favorite)

Kitchen notes: I use the Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix and best quality milk-chocolate chips (Ghirardelli or Guittard), because I’ve had great results and because Ghirardelli and Guittard products are given high marks by the Cook’s Illustrated test kitchen. In a pinch, use whatever you have handy.

Instructions: Mix brownies as per instructions on the back of the package. Add in the extra ingredients before adding the liquids. Line baking dish with parchment paper to allow lifting the brownies from the pan when cool. Bake according to directions on package. Cool in pan until completely cool (overnight, covered with a tea towel, is good). Lift from pan and cut into squares. Garnish with powdered sugar sprinkled through a sieve or shaker. Pipe a dot of hot fudge onto the middle of each brownie and top with chocolate covered espresso bean.

Variations: If espresso brownies aren't your thing, here are a couple of other ideas. Leave out the espresso powder and try these substitutions instead.

Minty—add ½ teaspoon peppermint flavoring to batter or substitute 2 T of peppermint schnapps, for 2 T of water. Garnish with crushed peppermint candies, or mint leaves and a mint flavored Hershey’s Kiss.

Caramel—substitute 2 T of spiced rum, for 2 T of water. Garnish with melted caramels drizzled over the brownies.

Alternatively, if you just want a pretty brownie, consider these garnishes.

·         Fresh berries

·         White chocolate curls

·         Candied nuts

·         Whipped cream with a cherry

·         Candied Sprinkles

·         Andes Mint Curls

·         Candied Fruit

Go here for a cool website with lots of other ideas for garnishing.

Sahlep, Saf Sahlep

Sunny days are glorious aren’t they? Today it looks like spring is going to give us a few hours of sunshine. I have kicked everyone out of the house and am sitting here in peace with a steaming cup of Sahlep in my hands. What is that you ask…?

Pure delight in a cup.

Sahlep is a creamy, milk based drink that is served during the winter months in countries surrounding the Mediterranean. Think cocoa without the chocolate…hard I know. I discovered it on a recent trip to Istanbul where they served it in delicate little cups every morning in the lobby of our hotel. I was completely addicted with the first sip and it will forever embody the essence of Istanbul for me. 

Delicate and flowery, Sahlep is made from the dried tubers of a mountain orchid. The tubers are ground to a fine powder, which when mixed with milk and sugar, and sprinkled with cinnamon, yields a delicious beverage. Unfortunately, because of the popularity of the drink, the orchid is now considered endangered and export of the powder is banned, making it very hard to obtain here in the United States. 

Having discovered it, however, I couldn't bear the thought of not bringing some home. Braving the crowds of Istanbul’s Spice Market, I dragged my husband on a search for Sahlep powder. Success came at the price of my pocketbook, but I think I’d pay almost any price for the yumminess in the cup in front of me.

Teşekkür ederim, Turkey! (Thank-you!)

Sahlep (Makes 6 servings)

4 cups (1 liter) milk

2-3 tsp. pure saf sahlep powder

2-3 Tbs. sugar (to taste)

Cinnamon for garnish

Ground pistachio nuts (optional)

Directions:

Combine the sugar and sahlep powder in a medium saucepan and mix. Slowly add the milk stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is slightly thickened. Remove from heat and pour into demitasse cups or small mugs. Sprinkle with cinnamon and pistachio nuts.

If you can get your hands on some Sahlep powder you are in for a treat. I was able to find the powder here, but I don’t know if they are a reliable supplier.

Here also, but this is the instant powder, which I was told is not as good.

Also, here are a couple of Sahlep links I found interesting.
Anissa's...a cool picture of salep in the raw 

Wikipedia

Morsels and Musings

NY’s Delight

In Transit

All links good: 7 January 2012

Baking Craze Cont...

Now for the bread…

My story starts with too much oatmeal. I’d made extra because there was only half a cup left in the package, and for all the work involved you can’t just leave half a cup in the package, so I cooked it. Normally I’d just throw the leftovers in the fridge knowing someone would want a snack—(oatmeal, as I think I’ve mentioned doesn’t last very long at my house) but that day I was in the mood to bake.

So, I picked up the phone for a chat with Nana.

Now, before I tell you about that conversation however, you need to know that Nana is an amazing baker. Every week she bakes me 3 loaves of the most amazing whole wheat bread. Talk about spoiled, huh? She also bakes amazing rolls, pies, buns, cinnamon rolls and myriad of other things too numerous to list. Anyway…for the past several years I’ve gone on baking kicks, always trying to make my bread turn out as good hers…and of course….ending with varying degrees of success.

“What would happen if I tried to make bread with some of this leftover oatmeal?” I asked her.

Her reply was immediate. It would be great, and she used to make oatmeal bread all the time when I was little. (I don’t remember that…my memories are of ‘healthy’ whole wheat bread, but I’ll take her word for it.) Then she rattles off a recipe from memory while I frantically scribble down ingredients and measurements.

“Add some raisins and make cinnamon-raisin swirl bread,” she suggested. Then said, “after you add the cinnamon, mist it with a little water so it sticks together better”…and “a little sugar sprinkled on the cinnamon is nice”….and “let me know how it turns out, Honey.” I hang up the phone, shaking my head. OMG! Amazing.

And believe me it was…which is why I wanted to share it with you. I hope you’ll enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Makes 2 loaves

2 cups               water—warm (115 degree F or so)

¾ - 1 cup         cooked steel cut or Scottish Oatmeal—cooked

3 Tbs                 brown Sugar

3 Tbs                 butter (or 1 ½ Tbs butter and 1 ½ Tbs Shortening
                                          to extend shelf life)

5 tsp                   active dry yeast

5-6 cups            flour

2 cups                raisins

1 tsp                   salt

2 Tbs                  oil (for coating bread bowl)

2-3+ Tbs           cinnamon

1-2 Tbs              white sugar

Bottle with water for misting

Directions:

I usually use the dough cycle of my bread machine for this recipe but you could use a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook or make by hand.

Place the water, oatmeal, brown sugar, butter, flour, yeast, and salt in the pan of your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select the dough cycle and press start.

(If making without a bread machine, you may consider proofing the yeast in part of the warm water with some of the brown sugar before combining with the flour and oatmeal)

Keep an eye on your dough and add more flour if needed. About 5 minutes before the end of the kneading cycle add the raisins.

Pour oil into large bowl. Remove dough from pan and place in oiled bowl. Coat dough with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Allow bread to rise until almost doubled (30-45 minutes.)

Prepare loaf pans by spraying with no-stick cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 C).

After dough has risen, punch down and pat dough into a large rectangle (about 1-inch thick) and sprinkle with cinnamon. Mist with water, and sprinkle on the white sugar. Roll dough into a 'log' and pinch edges closed.

Cut the ‘log’ in half and shape into a loaves.

Place into prepared loaf pans. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise additional 30 minutes or until nicely risen above the loaf pans.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until nicely brown.

Remove from loaf pans and brush top of loaves with butter.

This bread makes awesome toast. 

Winter Comfort and Italian Sweet Cream

What do you make for breakfast that just comforts the soul?

At my house, it’s oatmeal.

During my growing up years, I didn’t have oatmeal often because my dad—who usually made our breakfasts (Mama worked swing shifts and didn’t get up in the mornings before we went to school) wasn’t overly fond of the mushy, gummy mess that posed for breakfast as his mother had made it. (Instead, he was a master of scrambled eggs cooked in the microwave. Sounds gross, I know but somehow they always turned out fluffy and delicious.)

When I was in college, I dated a man who taught me to make oatmeal (and triticale—his favorite) with nothing more than boiling water and time. It was quick and tasty and that was how I made oatmeal until about a year ago, when I stumbled upon a recipe for Irish or steel cut oatmeal. Wow! What a delightful find…we were immediately hooked. Even my “I don’t eat mush!” husband fell in love.

Our favorite way to eat steel cut oats is with a little Italian Sweet Cream and a dollop of raspberry or strawberry freezer jam. Frozen huckleberries and slivered almonds with brown sugar are also good. I usually make extra because they heat up easily in the microwave for a quick and tasty breakfast when you’re in a rush and they never last long in the refrigerator…someone always wants a snack.

I have to confess to an ulterior motive for sharing this recipe now. Recently, I’ve been on a baking kick and I’ve been using leftover oatmeal in a fun and simple oatmeal raisin-cinnamon swirl bread. Stay tuned for further recipe postings. J

Note: this recipe is great for both steel cut oats and Scottish oatmeal.  What’s the difference? Scottish oats are stone ground into a medium fine meal while steel cut or Irish oats have the oat groat cut into two or three pieces. I toast them both before cooking and the finished product is very similar. The Scottish oats cook in about 10 minutes while the steel cut oats take 40-50 minutes depending on how soft you like them.

Irish Oatmeal

1 cups Irish or steel cut oats—may also be called pinhead oats

1 Tbs butter

pinch salt

3-4 cups boiling water

Instructions:
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add oats and roast for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until oats are toasty brown. Remove from heat and carefully add boiling water (it will spit and boil up a bit). Cook on low heat, stirring every 5-10 minutes (to prevent sticking) until oats are soft. Enjoy with toppings of your choice.

Italian Sweet Cream: 

This is pure decadence in a bottle and definitely not meant to be eaten on a daily basis. J (I haven’t tried it but I’m sure you could make something similar with fat free half-and-half.)

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 cup sugar (more or less to taste)

½ tsp vanilla (optional)

Stir all ingredients gently until sugar dissolves. Place in glass jar or bottle. Serve over hot oatmeal. 

Snickerdoodles!

Now for my current baking craze. Do you ever get these?

I’ve been on one—bread mainly (more on that soon), but cookies too. It strikes me that it’s been a long time since I posted any cookie recipes and so today, I thought I’d share the family Snickerdoodle recipe.

These crinkly topped cookies have been always been one of my favorites. Nana would let my brother and I help her make them when we were kids. It was great fun. Who wouldn’t love rolling dough into balls through a sandbox of cinnamon sugar, then licking the extra off your fingers? It was much more fun than play dough!

At my house, they MUST be made in the traditional fashion with cream of tarter and baking soda. No modern variations for us…

Spicy, sweet and crispy tender, you’ll find it impossible to eat just one.

Snickerdoodles

Makes about 5 dozen—don’t worry, they freeze beautifully.

1 cup     butter

1 cup     margarine or shortening

3 cups    sugar

4            eggs

2 tsp.     vanilla

4 tsp.     cream of tarter

5 1/3      flour

2 tsp.     baking soda

½ tsp.    salt
1 cup     cinnamon sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter, margarine, and sugar until fluffy, add in eggs one at a time, beating until each is thoroughly incorporated.

In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients to butter and sugar mixture—mixing until all dry ingredients are moistened.

Form dough into balls and roll in cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Cookies will look a little under-baked. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before moving to cooling rack.

Fresh and/or Roasted Tomato Cappellini

I have tomatoes! This year’s rainy spring and late frost pushed my tomatoes back by about 3 weeks and I have been anxiously waiting and watching for them to ripen. Why? Because there is nothing better than a fresh tomato eaten straight from the garden. Or on a sandwich with crispy lettuce, or with my favorite pesto on pasta. Or…or…or…I could go on forever.

However, eventually there comes a time at the end of summer (not yet…), when all the tomatoes seem to ripen at the same time and I’m inundated with way too many.

And a sandwich doesn’t sound good…

And I don’t feel ambitious enough to can them…

And I’m tired of salad, and I don’t feel like making sauce…

And I’m thinking I planted way too many plants, and next year I’ll remember this and do better.

What exactly do you do with all those cherry tomatoes anyway?

You make Cappellini, and invite your friends or family for dinner.

This recipe chases all my grumpies away… It uses lots of tomatoes. It is very easy to make, feeds lots of people, and is a great recipe for use with both fresh and/or roasted tomatoes. Roasting the cherry tomatoes caramelizes the sugars and gives a delightful smoky flavor to the pasta. Fresh tomatoes give a sweet lemony flavor. Try this dish both ways and then mix the roasted and fresh for an entirely different flavor. Each way is unique and equally wonderful.

Best of all, when I make this…and close my eyes to appreciate the flavors of tomato, garlic, and basil…I fall in love all over again.

And I vow to plant just as many plants, if not more, next year.

Fresh and/or Roasted Tomato Cappellini
Serves 6-8
(as always...amounts in recipes are approximate...feel free to be creative)

1 medium onion—minced
4-5 cloves garlic—minced fine or crushed
1-2 Tbs olive oil, plus more if roasting tomatoes
4-6 cups fresh tomatoes—diced or if using cherry tomatoes, roasted
½ cup fresh basil—chiffonade
2 Tbs fresh parsley—minced
1-2 Tbs balsamic vinegar or lemon juice (see note below)
¼ - ½ tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup freshly grated parmesan and or Romano cheese
1 lb angel hair pasta—cooked al dente
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:
Cook pasta as per directions on package

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil. Add fresh or roasted tomatoes and cook over medium heat for an additional 5-10 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar, red pepper flakes, parsley, and basil and stir to wilt herbs (about 1 minute). Salt and pepper to taste. Toss with pasta and add cheese. Serve immediately.

For Roasting: Place tomatoes on parchment or no-stick tinfoil. Drizzle olive oil over and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in 450 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until they look like the picture below.

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil.

Add roasted tomatoes...

Alway use fresh herbs if possible...

This batch we mixed the roasted tomatoes with fresh. Toss with pasta...yum!

A note about tomatoes: There are many varieties of heirloom tomatoes available in home gardens and farmers markets and I encourage you to try them all. Yellow varieties have a wonderful citrus flavor that is not to be missed. When we make this recipe with fresh and especially the yellow varieties, we use lemon juice instead of balsamic vinegar for the brightness of flavors it yields. With the roasted tomatoes, balsamic vinegar seems to yield the better dish. Play around and let me know what works for you.

Pineapple Zucchini Bread

Late August always brings me Garden Fatigue. What started so hopefully in the spring and blossomed with joy as my garden grew all summer, has now withered with an overabundance of vegetables, and the grim reality (for me at least) of canning season. However, one bright star remains...Baking. I love to bake. And when I’m tired of zucchini fried, raw, steamed, stir-fried, grilled, and broiled, there is bread. I found this recipe (another cut from the Oregonian newspaper) and it has been my favorite since.

There is no author attribution on the yellowed newspaper clipping residing in my recipe book—but my eternal gratitude to the genius that shared this recipe. It's easily the best recipe for Zucchini bread I've ever tried.

As is always the case, the dump cook in me has refined and tweaked it, but the core remains. Baking offers special challenges for the dump cook—it being not as friendly to changes in amount and ingredients as other forms of cooking. Fortunately, a little extra zucchini here, or a few more raisins there, doesn’t seem to affect the taste of this bread. The recipes as it stands is wonderful, but try it with a streusel topping and it’s beyond. Nana tells me if you wait until the bread has cooked for 35 to 40 minutes and then add the topping, it won’t dimple in the middle as it does if you add it before baking. (Yep, I’m gonna try that next time…) Just be careful not to jostle the pans, as you don’t want it to fall.

I also have to confess to ulterior motives for posting this recipe online. My good friend Rosie, has lost it 4 years in a row now...and just last week she asked me for it again. This one’s for you Rosie! ♥ Happy Baking!

Pineapple Zucchini Bread
Makes 2 loaves

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cup shredded zucchini
8 ¼ oz can crushed pineapple, well-drained
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp nutmeg
1 cup pecans or walnuts--finely chopped
1 cup raisins, craisins, or currents


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour, or spray with no stick cooking spray, two 8-by-4 inch loaf pans

Beat eggs, add oil, sugar, and vanilla, and continue beating until mixture is thick. With spoon stir in zucchini and pineapple.

In a separate bowl combine flour, soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, nuts, and raisins. Stir with fork to mix. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just blended.

Divide the batter between the two loaf pans and bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pans about 10 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks to cool thoroughly.

Streusel Topping: optional
(I usually don’t measure these, so amounts are approximate…feel free to improvise)

¼ cup flour
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs white flour

Mix together with your fingers until you have a crumbly mixture. As mentioned above, add to top of bread after baking for 35 to 40 minutes.

Spicy Peanut Sauce²

So what would Fresh Wraps be without a really good peanut sauce? I have two that I use. One is easy and quick, the other a little more complicated. Both are very yummy and versatile…so without further introduction, here they are.

This first recipe I got from Auntie May who say’s this is how they do it in Thailand. It's fairly uncomplicated, and perfect for the dump cook as it doesn’t have precise measurements. Feel free to experiment with the proportions as all are approximate...just keep tasting until you get it how you like it.

Thai Spicy Peanut Sauce

1 tsp Thai red curry paste
1 can coconut milk
½ cup sugar
½ cup peanut butter
½ tsp Paprika
½ tsp salt (or to taste)

Sauté the curry paste for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the coconut milk, sugar, peanut butter and salt. Stir constantly until thickened slightly (burns easily). It will thicken up more as it cools. Serve warm or cold. Enjoy!

*********************************************

The second recipe I have for you was adapted from a recipe I found on epicurious.com. It’s a little more complicated, has a proper ingredient list, and is quite tasty. Serve it with fresh wraps, over chicken and rice, on noodles or as a dressing for spinach salad.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

2 Tbs vegetable oil
3-4 scallions, chopped fine
4 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 Tbs gingerroot, grated fine
1 cup water
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup distilled white vinegar
3 Tbs firmly packed brown sugar
¼ tsp dried hot red pepper flakes, Thai preferably if you have them

In a saucepan heat oil with garlic and ginger, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add scallions and cook additional minute. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer, stirring until smooth and thickened.

Serve warm or chilled. It will also keep in the refigerator for 3 days if you want to make it in advance.

Enjoy!

Fresh Wraps

First, apologies to anyone who wanted this recipe up earlier this week…life has been crazy busy. Second, I wish you all the very best Christmas, and fondest hopes for a blessed New Year!

Moving on…

I adore spring rolls or “fresh wraps” as we call them at my house. There is nothing more delightful than having my entire salad rolled up into a neat little package…add a little spicy peanut sauce or some Thai red chili sauce and I am in heaven.

You can make spring rolls year around but for some reason I find I make them more around the holidays…they are a big hit at parties and I always get requests for the recipe…(thus the reason for this post.)

Spring rolls are very easy to make in themselves. Most of the work comes in prepping the ingredients. Also, the wrappers can sometimes feel tricky to work with but don’t give up…it takes a little practice and in the end it is well worth your effort!

A couple of special ingredients you’ll need:

Wrappers…these can be purchased at Asian markets and some upscale groceries that carry specialty Asian items. They can also be purchased online. There are a couple of varieties and some work better than others. They also come in several sizes—appetizer to main entrée. If you’re new at making them, choose the 8-12 inch wrappers for easier assembly. When you pick up the package give it a squeeze, if there is any give at all…keep looking. The best ones are hard, flat, and completely smooth (no bumps).



Rice noodles…again purchased either online or at an Asian grocery. You want thin noodles…approximately the size of angel hair pasta or a little thinner. They will be labeled bean threads, rice vermicelli, or sometimes ‘oriental style instant noodles’. It is nice if they come in little bundles like in the picture but I can't usually find them like this. Most often they just come in a large package. Bean threads do come in smaller individual packages.

Thai Fresh Spring Rolls
1 pkg Spring roll rice wrappers
1 pkg bean threads or vermicelli rice noodles
2-3 carrots—grated
1 avacado—sliced
lettuce—rinse and spin dry
½ cucumber—sliced length wise
¼ onion—slice thin
cilantro
basil—fresh
protein of choice—crab, marinated tofu, chicken, prawns, shrimp, pork loin (optional)


Start by prepping your ingredients, laying them out for easier assembly. Place your noodles in boiling water for 5 to 8 minutes and then fill pot with continuously running cold water to stop the cooking process. You want your noodles to be bundled into thick ropes, so when they are cold, still in the water, reach in and with a dipping motion, dip the noodles back and forth in the cold water to align them. When you have a fair number aligned and smooth, place them on a spatter screen to drain and dry a little. Continue until you have all of the noodles out of the water and on the screen. (You can skip this step and just drain the noodles, but making ropes gives you a more beautiful product, and makes the noodles easier to work with.)


Once you have all your ingredients prepped, you are ready for assembly. Fill a large bowl with warm water, dip your wrapper several times to wet it completely. Lay wrapper on a cutting board or work surface. Add your ingredients. I don’t have a particular order but usually start with the lettuce. Be creative. Once your ingredient are assembled on the wrapper, fold the sides in and roll up like a burrito.

Serve with a spicy peanut or Thai sweet chili sauce.

It takes a little practice. Don’t worry if the wrappers tear a little, sometime you can roll over the tear to cover it or if tearing is a big problem, try a little less water when dipping or different wrappers.

Here are a couple of video's that will help if you get stuck. The first is how to dip the rice papers and the second will show assembly and rolling. (Use a bigger bowl of water than the one she uses in the video...it's easier) Best of luck and Enjoy!





Photo credit for the noodles.

Thai Noodle Soup

Yep…I’ve been on a soup kick lately so you’ll just have to bear with me…it’s what I crave when fall and winter turn the weather chilly. One of the quickest and easiest soups to make is ramen noodles—the quintessential fast food. In college it was a staple, and it never fails to be the perfect canvas for the creative ‘dump cook’—see sidebar. Also, it’s a perfect way to use up that leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.

My sister-in-law, May, taught me to make this delightfully easy version for more sophisticated pallets. I love the versatility of this recipe and hope you will too.

Thai Noodle Soup
Serves one

1 package Ramen Noodles
½ Cup Fresh or Frozen Vegetables of choice—carrots, green beans, scallions, kale, pea pods, broccoli, asparagus etc.
¼ Cup Protein of choice…Cooked chicken, turkey, beef, pork, or egg—optional
½ tsp Fish Sauce
1 Tbs Fresh Cilantro-minced
Lime—cut in wedges
Dried Red pepper flakes or spice of your choice

In a small stock pot, boil water for noodles as per the package directions. Slice vegetables and protein into bite size pieces. When water is boiling, add vegetables and cook 1 minute before adding noodles. Cook 3 minutes and remove from heat. Pour off some of the water, if you like a stronger broth, and then add seasoning packet, fish sauce, protein, and cilantro. Squeeze lime juice (or lemon in a pinch) over noodles and garnish with pepper flakes to taste. Enjoy!

Dump Cook Notes: as a traditional dump cook, I don’t measure anything that goes into this soup so all measurements are approximate. Fish sauce is fairly strong (don’t smell it…it tastes way better than it smells) and I usually use just a splash or two from the bottle. Experiment. In Thai cooking it is used the same way we use salt…so start with a little and don’t be afraid to use more if you want a stronger flavor. The same goes for the lime juice…I usually use a wedge or two…it blends well with the fish sauce and cilantro to meld the flavors nicely. For spice we use Thai Fried Chili Paste—photo here, but dried pepper flakes—preferably Thai chili flakes, work just fine also.

Fresh Cream of Tomato Soup

More Soup…
I got this recipe from the kitchen ladies at work. It comes from an institutional cookbook—or maybe more accurately described as a booklet, which was published sometime in the 1940’s. It was missing its cover, so I don’t have a clue of its name or publisher…all I know is that it makes a great pot of soup. The recipe has measurements for 10, 50, and 100 servings and if you want to make it for more than the 10 serving batch I’m posting here, let me know. I’ve always loved tomato soup but never come across a recipe I really loved until I stumbled upon this one. Of course being a good 'Dump Cook’(see sidebar) I tweaked it a little. I think you’ll love it as much as I do.

This recipe is also a great one to make with kids...the perfect little science experiment—watching what happens when you mix an acid (tomato) with a base (baking soda). They love it.

Fresh Cream of Tomato Soup

2 14 ½ oz. cans Tomato’s—pureed
1 tsp sugar
½ Cup celery (about 3 stalks)
½ Cup onion (about ½ a medium sized onion)
¼ tsp baking soda
½ Cup butter (see notes below)
4 Tbs flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp paprika
1 tsp white pepper
3 Cups chicken broth
3 Cups half and half
2-3 Tbs fresh basil, minced
Tomatoes, fresh diced (optional)

Combine tomato puree, sugar, celery, and onions in a large stockpot. Simmer covered for one hour. Add baking soda.
In a separate pan, melt butter, add flour, salt, pepper, and paprika. Whisk in chicken broth and stir until smooth and thick. Add thickened broth mixture to your tomato puree. Stir in half and half. Heat for about 10 minutes but, Do Not Boil. Stir in basil, taste and adjust for seasonings if necessary. Serve garnished with fresh chopped tomato if desired.


Notes: The original recipe calls for the celery and onion to be minced and cooked with the tomato puree. Usually I puree all three ingredients in the Cuisinart, and cook them that way. This gives a creamy soup with lots of body. If you want a chunkier soup, follow the original recipe and mince the onions and celery. It also calls for one bay leaf instead of the basil. If you want to use bay leaf, add it to the tomato puree and let it cook for an hour to release its flavor. Remove before serving.

To make this recipe a little healthier—back in the 1940’s I don’t think they were so concerned with a heart healthy diet; I usually decrease the amount of butter I use. You really just need enough to moisten all the flour in making your roux…so 3-4 Tbs would probably do it. Also, I have substituted both low fat milk and whole milk for the half and half, and thought the recipe tasted just fine. If you’re wowing guests however, and have no care for their hearts, make it as the recipe calls for…it’s sinfully delicious.

Soup's On...

Remember this?



Soup has always been a comfort food for me. Rich, creamy, warm, and delicious…there is nothing better, in Fall, than a cup of soup to warm you all the way down to your toes. When I was living in Portland, there was an old European Bakery on Morrison St. that served the most delicious Hungarian Mushroom soup. The Three Lions Bakery, (which I hear has unfortunately gone out of business) served this soup with crispy bread sticks. The soup is creamy, a little spicy, and will lead your imagination to faraway lands.

I’ve adapted the Three Lions Bakery recipe, that I clipped from the Oregonian newspaper back in 1994. To get the best flavor be sure to use real Hungarian Paprika—other types won’t taste nearly as good.


Hungarian Mushroom Soup
Makes about 8 cups

6 Tbs butter
1 ½ Cup chopped onion
4 tsp Hungarian paprika
4 tsp dried dill weed (fresh is better, if you have it available)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2/3 Cup all-purpose flour
1 2/3 Cup milk
2 2/3 Cup chicken broth (original recipe calls for water)
2 Tbs Tamari (or soy sauce)
2 Tbs lemon juice
½ Cup sour cream
3 Tbs minced fresh parsley
4 Cups sliced mushrooms


In a large saucepan, melt butter and sauté the onion along with the paprika, dill weed (unless you use fresh, in that case add the fresh dill weed just prior to serving and decrease the amount to 3 teaspoons), salt and pepper until the onion is tender. Whisk in the flour and then the milk and chicken broth. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the soup begins to thicken, then add the mushrooms and cook for additional 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Tamari, lemon juice, sour cream and parsley. Serve immediately.



Note: If your local grocer doesn’t carry real Hungarian Paprika you can get it here. Penzey’s Spice Company is where I get most of my spices. Their selection and quality is hard to beat. For this recipe I use the Hungarian Half Sharp.

Also, because I think it's hilarious, here is The Best of The Soup Nazi…enjoy!

Nana's Fresh Fruit Pie

Summer is in full swing here in the North. Our county fair is next week. My garden is producing green beans by the bushel, zucchini, sweet peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce. As for fruit, we are still picking raspberries and huckleberries and peach season is coming soon. Strawberry and blueberry seasons are finished and the jam is in the freezer.

I think that aside from my garden, fresh fruit defines summer for me. Watermelon, blueberries, and juicy ripe peaches capture the very essence of the season, in all its glorious splendor, and nothing does a better job of showcasing that splendor than a fresh fruit pie.

Not just any fresh fruit pie…but Nana’s extraordinary fresh fruit pie…a pie with an amazing secret—its cheesecake middle. (For those of you who had this at Kevin’s client appreciation luncheon and have been awaiting this post, I apologize for being so long in getting it up.) The pie can be made with any fresh fruit you like…softer fruits work best for obvious reasons—all berries, and peach are wonderful. I’ve never tried banana, pear, apricot, plum, or cherry, so if you do, let me know how it turns out. Enjoy!

Nana's Fresh Fruit Pie

(Recipe make 2 small pies or 1 large pie)

4-6 C Fresh Fruit

Crust:
1 Pkg Graham Crackers, or equivalent (6 oz/~2C) Vanilla Waffers or Animal Crackers
½ C Sugar
½ C Melted Butter

Middle:
8 oz Cream Cheese—low fat is OK but will give a softer set
1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/3 C Lemon Juice
1-2 tsp. Vanilla

Glaze:
2 C Cold Water
1 C Sugar—or if fruit is sour, more sugar to taste
1 Small Pkg. Jello
5 Tbs Corn Starch

Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place graham crackers and sugar in food processor and blend into crumbs. Add butter and mix until crumbs are moist. Press crumbs into pie pans or baking dish. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crust turns slightly more brown. Remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Middle: Place cream cheese, and sweetened condensed milk into food processor and blend until smooth and without lumps. Add in vanilla and lemon juice and blend until mixed. Pour immediately into crust and allow to set (10 minutes).

Glaze: The type of glaze you make will depend upon the fruit you use to make the pie. In most cases you can match the jello to the fruit and make the glaze as follows:

Place water, sugar, cornstarch, and jello into a small saucepan and whisk until cornstarch is disolved and there are no lumps before placing over med-high heat. Heat until glaze is thickened and you can see a ‘faint line’ after pulling the spoon through the glaze(runny pudding consistency). Glaze should be clear.

For certain types of fruit, the pie is better if you use fresh juice and lemon jello. This is true of blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries etc. For these fruits, cook approximately 2 cups of berries in 1 cup of water until boiling and fruit is mushy. Strain through a cheese cloth to get juice. Then take: 1 cup juice, 1 cup water, 1 small pkg. lemon jello, cornstarch and sugar and prepare as above.

If using peaches as your fruit, add ¼ tsp. almond extract to glaze mixture.
If using blueberries or huckleberries, add ¼ tsp. vanilla to glaze

Make sure berries or fruit is well drained and heap onto pie. Allow glaze to cool about 10 minutes before pouring over fruit. Chill well before serving or until glaze is set.

Microwave Caramel Corn

This is for Valerie…

Remember Cracker Jacks? There was no mistaking the box with its bright red and white label, little blue sailor and dog. As a kid, I wasn’t overly fond of caramel corn but I loved the peanuts. Of course, the hidden toy was the biggest draw and I would always dump a little out, and then dig through the rest, until I found it. Invariably it was at the bottom. It didn’t work to open the box from the bottom either—the toy would be on the top! You never knew what you would find—tattoo or stickers, maze and ball puzzles, rings, toy cars or animals. Compared and sometimes traded, it was magical to get the coolest one.

These days the toys that come in Cracker Jacks aren’t nearly so fun. I asked my husband this morning if he had liked Cracker Jacks as a kid. His reply; “you bet. But now the prize is just some stupid riddle on a piece of paper.” Clearly, I was not alone in my love of those little prizes.

This recipe for caramel corn came from Nana. It’s been in our family practically since the invention of the microwave. Now you too can make Cracker Jacks at home…the prize at the bottom as creative and cool as your imagination will allow.

Microwave Carmel Corn

6 quarts Plain Popcorn—no salt or butter

1 cube Butter

1 Cup Brown Sugar

½ teaspoon Cream of Tarter

¼ Cup Karo Corn Syrup

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1-2 Cups nuts—your choice (Almonds or Peanuts work well) optional

Pop corn and place in a brown paper grocery bag. (We use an air popper to pop our corn, and 6 quarts is about two poppers.) Add nuts to popcorn. In a 3½-quart saucepan, melt butter. Add corn syrup, brown sugar, and cream of tartar. Bring to a rolling boil. Add soda and stir like crazy for 10 seconds. (The caramel will foam up so be ready to pour over popcorn in a hurry if it looks like it might overflow your pot.) Immediately pour onto the popcorn and mix well.

Fold top of bag down tightly and place in the microwave for 6 minutes, stirring after each minute. Dump the cooked caramel corn out on to parchment paper and spread to cool. Enjoy!

Pizza!

What’s not to love? A crunchy, chewy crust, loaded with cheese, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes and feta. Just writing those words sets my mouth to watering. On the other hand, maybe you prefer the Combo, loaded with spicy pepperoni, sausage, olives, and mushrooms, the Hawaiian, or the simplicity of fresh basil, garlic, tomatoes, and mozzarella—whatever your pleasure, pizza never fails to entice the soul to rapture.

We have always made pizza at home. This is not to say we don’t order in now and again, but for the most part, it is a homemade labor of love. Fresh ingredients and the freedom to be creative have given us a better pie than any a chain pizza store could produce, and that quality, taken together with our current economy, makes homemade pizza an awesome choice.

Homemade pizza is not hard. The crust is simply flour, water, oil, salt, and a little yeast—or if you’re feeling very creative, as I have been lately—sourdough. Often we will make pizza the night after having spaghetti and use the leftover sauce on our pizza. The toppings can be as simple or complex as your imagination allows. You don’t even need a red sauce if you don’t want—Italian herbs and garlic in olive oil is just as tasty. Here is a simple but wonderful recipe for pizza dough. It makes four small pies (~8 inch).


Pizza Dough
1 cup warm water
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil—can us any oil really
1-2 tsp honey or other sugar
3(+/-) cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt—less if you use table
1 package yeast (2 ½ tsp)

In a small bowl, mix the yeast and honey with ¼-cup warm water –let sit for 5 minutes. In a mixer with a dough hook, combine remaining water with the flour, salt and oil and your yeast mixture. Mix on low until the dough comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes. Place in oiled bowl and cover with a piece of plastic wrap or damp tea towel. Allow to rise for 30 minutes.

After rising, divide the dough into 4 pieces, shaping it into smooth ball like clumps. Allow to rise for another 20 minutes. Your dough is now ready to use. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, place it in the oven to heat.

We use ‘no-stick’ tin foil or parchment papers to prepare our pizza’s as it makes for easy cleanup. Gently stretch your dough into a circle. Add the toppings of your choice—be as creative as you like. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until crust is nicely brown and cheese is melted.

(This recipe can also be made in a bread maker. Put the ingredients in your bread maker in the order in which they appear. Use dough setting. Rise for 30 minutes, shape into balls and rise additional 20 minutes.)

One other note: Sometimes it is too hot outside to use the oven. We have used this recipe and baked the pizzas successfully on the grill. If you want to do this, my best advice is to limit the amount of toppings so they cook quickly and to use the no-stick tinfoil. You'll have a super crispy and delicious crust. Enjoy!

Sour Reconnections

What is this longing to reconnect and acknowledge the past and those who came before? Is it a quest to understand—to remember? We study history. We read books about the past and try to place ourselves in the lives of the characters who lived there. We imagine what it would have been like to be a gold miner on our way to Alaska, a baker living in San Francisco before the Great Earth Quake, or a fur trapper in the wilds of Montana. We might imagine our great, great, great grandmothers on homesteads throughout America and wonder what delicacies were created in their pioneer kitchens. In some instances, we are lucky and those recipes are handed down through the generations. In others, they are forever lost. What fun then, to rediscover recipes long forgotten?

With that in mind, I’ll tell you about my new pet. It lives on my kitchen counter and is very well behaved. Aside from needing to be fed once or twice a day, it requires very little in the way of love and affection. I never have to take it out for a walk or do the pooper scooper thing. In all, not a bad pet. In return for my care, my yeasty beasties give me wonderful baked goods—the most delicious sourdough imaginable.

No one knows who first discovered the process of leavening bread with yeast but historians think it happened in Egypt. Imagine you are an Egyptian chef in the palace of the pharaoh. One bright summer morning, you’ve combined water and flour, maybe a little milk and oil to make the pharaoh’s hard, flat dinner cake, when in rushes a messenger.

“Baker,” he yells at you, “you must come quickly! There has been an accident. You are needed urgently at home.” The pharaoh’s dinner forgotten, you rush home. While you are away, natural yeasts present in the flour and milk, and maybe others floating in the air which land in your bowl, begin to ferment in the warm summer sun. The yeast uses the flour and water as food and produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct of their reproduction. When you finally return, hours later, you barely notice the bubbles now present in your mixing bowl. You go about making your flat cake as usual, mind preoccupied by the crisis at home. When you pull your cake out of the oven, you are horrified. Pharaoh is expecting his dinner and his cake looks nothing like it usually does. It is abnormally thick and deformed. However, you haven’t anything else to replace it, so with trepidation and remorse you set it before the king and hope for the best.

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(Fabulous!) He shouts. “Promote this baker to head chef.” You sigh and return to the kitchen thankful to have escaped death and clueless as to what you did to make the cake so delicious. Thus began a series of experiments that gave us yeast and sourdough today, thousands of years later.

Sourdough and bread made with beer barm, (the yeast 'overflow' that rises to the top of fermenting beer or mead and obtained from the dregs when the beer is racked) were staple foods for the next 5000 years. It wasn’t until the mid 19th century that commercial yeast was introduced by Charles Fleischmann at the Centennial Exposition (Philadelphia, 1876). This marked the rise of modern bread making, and some would argue the decline of good flavor in our bread—think ‘Wonder bread’—as the incredibly complex flavors of sourdough and the techniques used by our great grandparents disappeared beneath the increasingly busy schedule of the modern family.

There are hundreds of strains of yeast and all give different flavors to bread. Wouldn’t you like to make a loaf of bread made with the yeast native to Egypt? Bread that would taste very much like the one you served to pharaoh all those many years ago. Since my pet was given to me, I have made innumerable loaves of breads, a batch of cinnamon rolls, and loads of hotcakes. I’m still learning…experimenting with ingredients, rise times, and reconnecting to the breads made by my great grandmothers. I don’t have a recipe for you but here are several links I’ve found helpful in my own explorations. If you don’t want to hassle with making bread yourself, I would at least encourage you to visit an artisan bakery and experience the wonder of great bread made the old fashioned way.

Sourdoughs International : a good place to get starters from around the world
Sourdoughbreads.com: starters, instructions, and recipes
The Basics
History of Bread Yeast