Crab Soup

Lemons beget lemonade,

cute little toast appetizers where you have to trim off the crusts

beget blueberry bread pudding with lemon sauce,

and half and half that's left over from a batch of cheese fondue

begets crab chowder.  Or maybe it's bisque.
What's the difference between chowder and bisque, anyway?
This soup is simple, delicious, and fairly frugal if you substitute fake crab meat,

which I did.
I'd also like to note that an eensy bit of patience is called for here, as you should let the soup thicken and come to a bubble over medium-high heat instead of blasting it on high, as is my wont.
I've always wanted to use "wont" in a sentence.
Happy now.
CRAB SOUP
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
4 c. milk (I used nonfat)
1 c. half and half
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 t. grated onion
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 1/4 c. fake crab meat, flaked
2 hard-boiled egg yolks, crumbled
4-5 T. sherry

Melt butter in saucepan; add flour and stir.  Slowly, while whisking, add milk and half and half.  Add Worcestershire sauce, onion, salt, and pepper.  Heat over medium or medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until bubbling and thickened.  (This takes a bit of time -- maybe 15 minutes or so?  Patience.)  Add the fake crab, heat through, and serve, adding 1 T. sherry to each bowl and sprinkling each with a bit of the egg yolk.  Serves 4 - 5.

Homegrown Asparagus!

Kahuna's homegrown asparagus!  How cool is that?
Anyone have any favorite ways to serve it?

Maple Nut Muffins

These maple nut muffins are not exactly low-cal, but they are tasty.  It must be all that butter.  I do love butter. 
The recipe came from Country magazine, and here's the link:  Morning Maple Muffins.  The only change I made was to use low-fat plain yogurt instead of the sour cream; my yield was 12 muffins instead of 16.
Any good cooking going on at your house?

Blackberry Scones

I love scones and all things scone-y.  These blackberry scones are not only unique but they are absolutely delicious.  Ground up oatmeal gives them a slight texture that's very nice; the blackberry jelly goodness, once baked, reminds me of Pop Tart filling.  They are just the right amount of sweet.

Ok,  now I'm gushing. 

Give these a try, especially if you, like me, still have a  stash of last year's berries in various guises -- jellies, jams, etc.  I used  some berry syrup I made last week that thickened up more than expected.  It was absolutely perfect.

Ok, no more gushing.

The recipe comes from a very fun book for people who love to read and love to eat:  Read It and Eat:  A Month-by-Month Guide to Scintillating Book Club Selections and Mouthwatering Menus, by Sarah Gardner.  I've also made her Vintage Junk Food Dark Chocolate Cake, and can highly recommend that recipe, as well.

Onto the scones.

BLACKBERRY SCONES

1 1/2 c. oatmeal (uncooked)

1 1/2 c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

3/4 c. buttermilk (I just used regular milk with the juice from most of one small lemon squeezed into it.  Let sit for 5 minutes and voila.  Buttermilk substitute.)

3 T. seedless blackberry all-fruit spread (I used thick-ish homemade blackberry syrup)

1 egg, beaten

 

Place parchment paper on baking sheet (or lightly spray it with nonstick cooking spray).  Put oats in blender and blend away until they become pretty fine.  Dump into a large bowl and add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well.  Put the small blobs of butter into the bowl and use a pastry blender to incorporate butter into flour mixture.  Add the buttermilk and stir.  You will probably need to use your (very clean) hands to smush this all together.  Knead it until it comes together.  Pat the dough out on a floured surface until it's a rectangle approximately 10 inches by 8 inches and about 1/2-inch thick.  Cut into 2 1/2-inch squares (12 of them).  With sharp knife, cut a fairly deep "x" into each square (but don't cut all the way through).  Then spoon about 3/4 t. berry spread into each "x," using fingers and spoon to ease it into the crevices.  Brush pastry with the egg wash, transfer to baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 12 - 13 minutes, until golden.  Makes 12.  And they are lovely.

 

Light Pear Clafouti

Sometimes I have a hankering for an eggy, custard-y dessert, one that's warm and comforting with a hint of vanilla and sort of like pudding, but not.
Boy, does this dish fit the bill.
It also doesn't hurt that I have a freezer half full of last summer's fruit that I am valiantly trying to use up so we can give the big lug a good defrost before the current year's crop comes in.  My little baggie of 2 cups of cubed peeled pears was just perfect for this dish.
And did I mention it's a "light" recipe?  Originally from an ancient issue of Cooking Light magazine,  this pear clafouti yields six wedges at 231 calories each.  Delicious calories, every one of 'em. 
I think it'll make a fine breakfast, too.
Since the recipe came out pre-internet days, I couldn't find it online so I'll type it in here.
But I did find that the recipe's author, Steven Petusevsky, is a well-known chef who has a site with more great looking recipes on it.   I think some serious poking around is in order. 
In the meantime -- enjoy.

PEAR CLAFOUTI

cooking spray
1 t. flour
2 c. cubed peeled pear
3/4 c. flour
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. cinnamon (he used nutmeg but I hate nutmeg)
2 c. milk, divided (he used 1% low-fat; I used nonfat)
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
3 lg. eggs, lightly beaten
2 t. powdered sugar

I hope you can find a 10-inch deep-dish pie plate lying around, because that's what this calls for.
Spray it with cooking spray and dust with the 1 t. of flour.  Spread the cubed pear around the bottom of the dish.  In medium bowl, stir together flour, salt, and cinnamon.  Slowly, add one cup of the milk, whisking away to keep out the lumps.  Add the rest of the milk, sugar, vanilla, and eggs and stir well.  Pour milk mixture over the pears and bake at 375 degrees for 35ish minutes, until set (mine took 40).  Sift powdered sugar over the top and eat up.  Six wedges at 231 calories each slice.

German Chocolate Chip Cookies

It has been a wise decision to limit my baking in recent weeks.  Turns out exhibiting self-control is a whole lot easier when cookies are invisible.

Visible cookies?  Not so much.

These little German Chocolate Chip Cookies are sweet and coconutty and way too easy to pop into your mouth.  And then to keep on popping. 

And then to maybe pretend they are dinner.

Good thing the survivors are going into work with Kahuna tomorrow.  I am really not to be trusted where chocolate and cookies collide.

 

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c. flour

2 t. baking powder

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 c. butter, softened (I nuked it for easier blending)

1 1/2 c. flaked coconut

1 c. chocolate chips

1 c. chopped walnuts

 

In large bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs, flour, and baking powder.  Set aside.

In medium bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and softened butter.  Blend well, until smooth.  Pour this mixture into graham cracker mixture.  Add coconut, chocolate chips, and walnuts.  (Dough will be a bit firm, so feel free to mix with clean hands if you need to.)  Drop dough by balls about the size of a ping pong ball onto parchment paper-covered cookie sheets.  If you like your cookies puffed rather than spread out (and I do!), plop the cookie sheets with dough into the freezer for about 10 minutes before baking.  Then bake at 375 degrees for 9 - 10 minutes, until light brown.

 

Try not to inhale too many before you get them onto the plate.  Send remaining cookies on their way out of your kitchen as quickly as possible.

 

Pineapple Curry Fried Rice

The tang of curry is wafting through the house.  I just ate the most wonderful fried rice sprinkled with the crunch of cashews, the bite of curry, the sweet juiciness of pineapple, and a touch of that most heavenly of herbs, fresh cilantro.  The recipe came from the book Gourmet's America, a beautifully photographed volume that I love to page through but, for some reason, have rarely cooked from.  Tonight was the night.  Based on the results, I'll do more than just drool over these photos in the future.

CURRIED FRIED RICE WITH PINEAPPLE AND CASHEWS
1/4 c. canola oil
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 1/2 T. curry powder
1 c. chopped fresh pineapple (I used frozen chunks)
1/2 c. coarsely chopped roasted cashews
1/4 c. minced fresh cilantro
6 c. white rice, cooked (I used my rice cooker)
3 T. water
1 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper (I just added a sprinkle of pepper)

If you don't have cooked rice lying around, get your rice going.  Pull out a very large skillet (at least 12 inches across, says the recipe, and I agree.  I cut the recipe down a bit and it still filled my large skillet).  Heat the oil on medium high until it's hot but not smoking.  (It'll start making little popping noises when it's hot.  You can also get your hand wet and fling water droplets into the pan and see if you get some snapping action; if you do, the oil is hot.)  Put onion in the oil and stir, cooking until golden.  Add curry powder and stir, just for about 5 seconds.  Add the pineapple, cashews, cilantro, and cooked rice.  Stir until well combined.  Add the water, the salt, and the pepper and cook for about a minute.

That's it.  Enjoy your rice, and the lovely after-smell.

Anyone else like fried rice?  What is your favorite thing to put in it?

How to Cook Shrimp

My post-holiday bathroom scale has been hinting that perhaps a few more salads are in order.  So, inspired by this post for shrimp caesar salad at A Blog About Food, I headed to the local Chinese market for the freshest, juiciest shrimp around.

The market sells them with their heads still on (see those little shrimp eyes?).  And while whole shrimp take a bit more time to prepare, I think the extra flavor and juiciness is worth it.

It occurred to me that in this era when so much of our grocery store food is pre-cooked and pre-cleaned, somebody out there might not know what to do with whole shrimp.  So I share with you a method for cooking them that I just discovered a few years ago.  It's easy, adds no extra fat, and near as I can tell, is foolproof.  You don't need anything but a large-ish pot and some water.  The shrimp end up moist and never overcooked.  And if you buy them from my Chinese market, they'll be sweet and mmmm mmmm good.

1.  Put one to two inches water in large lidded pot.  Bring water to boil over high heat.
2.  Add shrimp that are IN the shell.  Cover, remove from heat, and let stand until shrimp are cooked through in center, about 8 minutes.

3.  Pour shrimp into colander to drain.  Let cool for a couple minutes.

4.  Pop off the shrimp heads (there might be some orange goo-squirting going on, so wearing an apron is not a bad idea).  Then snap off the tails and pull off the shrimp's outer shells.  (Gardeners may want to set aside the shells to dig into soil later; they add calcium to the soil, apparently, which helps prevent tomato bottom rot, I am told.)

And there you have it.  Shrimp deliciousness, ready for your next salad.

Not cookies.  Salad.  We are eating salad here.

Ooops

I'm fairly certain it was not part of the plan for this  Colonial Brown Bread  to glop over the side and onto the oven like this.

Aaaargh.  Anyone have a tried and true brown bread recipe to recommend?

The quest for cumin recipes . . .

Please tell me I am not the only one with files like this, overstuffed like a deep dish pie with recipes to try someday.

Most of these recipes I acquired pre-Internet days, back when cookbooks were king and magazine recipes were at least crown prince.  My files are passe now, I realize, as anyone with a mouse can ask the Great Wizard of Google to find recipes for, let's say, chicken livers plus mango salsa plus fresh lime juice.

But with a simple web search one would miss the thrill of the hunt.  The tactile pawing through of a ragtag collection of multi-sized scraps of paper, torn or carefully cut, some in neat rectangular shapes and others splotched together with scotch tape and folded, wonton-like, to fit into the bulging file folder -- that's the spirit in which I want to decide what to make for dinner.

It suits my librarian-like tendencies to spend an evening flipping through a file in my vast collection, looking for, this time, recipes containing cumin, a nice bag or two of which I acquired last summer while we were in Morocco for a friend's wedding.

(Yes, the careful reader may note those instructions are in French, and I'm pretty sure there's something there about aiding the stomach with diarrhea.  Moving on.)

This is the recipe I chose to make, Picadillo Tortillas, recipe pre-splattered (somehow) to save me the trouble.  From an old issue of Cooking Light magazine -- so old it's not on the Cooking Light archived recipes page -- it turns out this was a grand choice.  It used just 1/4 t. of cumin (unfortunately), but with a delicious hint of cinnamon, and the surprise of diced apple and raisins, it's a keeper.  Serves four (in our house, two), 232 calories each (in our house, 464).  I think I may multiply this by a gazillion and make it for the next big family reunion.

PICADILLO TORTILLAS
1/2 lb. ground round
1 c. peeled, finely chopped Rome apple
2 T. raisins
1 T. minced jalapeno pepper (I omitted)
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/8 t. ground cinnamon
dash of ground coriander
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
4 8-inch flour tortillas

Crumble beef in microwave-safe 1-quart casserole dish.  Cook for 1 1/2 minutes on high; stir; cook for 1 1/2 more minutes on high; stir again.  If meat is still pink, cook for another minute or 2 until it's done.   Drain off fat to discard.  Add all the rest of the ingredients to the meat, except tortillas, then nuke on high for 3 minutes; stir; cook 3 more minutes; stir.  If it's still kind of soupy, cook for another minute or two until it's a little thicker.  Spread 1/2 c. of the meat mixture on a tortilla.  Can fold over, burrito-style, cover with paper towel, and heat just another 15-20 seconds or so to warm it up.  Then you get to eat it.

So tell me:  Do you have a pile of recipes somewhere that you're waiting to try?