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Monday, July 26, 2010

Braciole



Thin steak, pounded thinner, and rolled up with a stuffing made with bread crumbs, herbs, egg, cheese and maybe salame. The rolls are secured with toothpicks or string and browned in a frying pan, then simmered in tomato sauce and served over pasta.

top round or bottom round steak
bread crumbs
garlic
Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
herbs: basil, parsley, green onion or chives, mint, celery leaf, marjoram
salame
olive oil
egg

Pound the meat between plastic wrap to be less than 1/4" thick (with a mallet or rolling pin.) Mince the herbs, salame and garlic, mix with breadcrumbs, cheese, egg and olive oil. Spread the stuffing onto the meat, roll up, secure with string or toothpicks. Brown the meat in oil in a Dutch oven. Add tomatoes, and whatever vegetables you like (carrots, peppers, onions, etc.) Simmer, covered, for 2 hours.
Serve over spaghetti.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

SOUR CHERRY ROLL-UP SCONES
















































Scones:
2 cups flour
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder (I use non-aluminum Rumsford)
6 T unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 cup buttermilk

Cherry topping:
1 cup sour cherries (I used frozen)
1 T cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Icing:
powder sugar - about 1/4 cup
lemon juice - about 1 tsp (?)
lemon zest

Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together. Toss the butter with the flour mixture, rubbing the lumps with your fingers to flatten them. Stir in the vanilla and buttermilk until it forms a dough ball.

Place a piece of parchment paper onto a baking sheet and dust it with some flour. Turn the dough onto it, and knead it 3 or 4 strokes just to bring it together. Pat it into a rectangle, and roll it 1/2" thick (dusting with more flour as needed.

Mix the cherries with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon, and vanilla. (I did this whilst the cherries were still frozen.) Spoon the cherry mixture onto the dough. Press them down just a little. Roll up the dough from the long side (you want your roll to be the length of the long side of your rectangle), and cut into 1/2" slices. Lay them on their sides.

Bake in 400° oven for 12 - 15 minutes. Cool on a rack. Cool completely before drizzling with icing. I was impatient, and had to ice them twice because the warm scones just make the icing melt and disappear, as you can see in the bottom photo above.

To make the icing, simply mix lemon juice and powder sugar until it is of desired consistency - that is, very thick cream (you will be surprised how little liquid is needed.) You want it to be pretty thick or it will run right off of the scones. While the icing is wet, toss a few strands of lemon zest onto the icing.

This makes about 8 - 10 scones.
You could also make these with strawberries.

(Note: Some brands of buttermilk contain a lot of salt - read the label. If yours is high in salt you might want to adjust the salt in the recipe.)

Saturday, July 17, 2010

SOURDOUGH BAGUETTES




Summer Afternoon Picnic - All Oregon Menu

Columbia River Chinook Salmon Salad with Oregon Snap Peas and New Potatoes

Hello Kitty's Fabulous Texas Slaw


Oregon Marionberry Pie

Oregon Cherries



Oregon Marionberry Pie Recipe

Crust:
1 & 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter, cold, sliced into pats
2 - 4 T. cold buttermilk

Put the flour, salt, and baking powder into bowl of a food processor, buzz a few seconds, just to combine. Add the butter and buzz briefly. Add the buttermilk one T at a time and buzz briefly until the dough forms into a ball (it will be crumbly). Don't over-process. Turn the dough out onto a floured cloth or a piece of wax paper, form it into a flat disc, dusting with flour to keep it from sticking. Roll dough out to 1" bigger than your pie pan. Fit the crust into the pie pan, flute the edges, and prick the bottom all over with a fork. Put a piece of parchment paper into the crust (big enough to come generously over the sides). Fill the paper with dried beans to weight it down. Blind-bake the crust for 15 minutes at 350°, then remove the paper and the beans and bake another 15 minutes. Let the crust cool.

Filling:
5 to 6 cups berries
3/4 cup sugar
2 T lemon juice
2 T cornstarch
1 tsp lemon zest

Put half the berries, the sugar, lemon and cornstarch in a saucepan. Simmer and stir for 5 minutes, until thickened. Allow to cool. When cool, stir in the remaining berries and the lemon zest, then spread the filling into the baked pie shell.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

tonight's cold salad: chicken, chick peas, potatoes, apples, eggs, greens



Chicken poached in white wine, garbanzos simmered in green garlic, potatoes, apples, eggs, lemon vinaigrette, on a bed of garden greens and herbs, steamed broccoli.

Shells w/ Salmon, Peas, Lemon, & Herbs - a cold salad for a hot evening!


















Salmon, Shells, Peas, Lemon and Herbs
8 oz. large shell pasta (1")
6 oz. salmon (I used TJ's wild Alaska Sockeye filet, frozen)
1 or 2 lemons (I used a very large organic lemon)
Dash O'Dill seasoning **
olive oil
1 cup frozen peas
fresh herbs:
baby celery
Italian parsley
shallot green tops
green onions
chives
spearmint leaves
lemon balm

●Remove the zest of the lemon. I used the kind of zester* that makes nice long curls.

●Cook the salmon by placing it skin side down in a non-stick skillet (I did this while it was still frozen), squeeze 2 - 4 T lemon juice over it, then sprinkle generously with Dash O'Dill** seasoning.

●Turn heat to med-low and cook for 5 minutes, then turn heat down, cover, and cook 5 - 10 more minutes. If the liquid dries up before it is done, add a teeny bit of water or white wine. Don't turn the salmon - leave it skin side down. Don't over-cook it - it's ok if it is slightly undercooked.

●Remove the skin, and break the cooked salmon into chunks / flakes.

●Whilst the salmon is cooking, cook the pasta in salted water until al-dente - the package said this was 10 minutes. Drain the pasta immediately and plunge it into cool water to stop the cooking. Drain it in a colander, stirring and shaking well to get the excess water out.

●Put the pasta in the salad bowl and drizzle with 2 T lemon juice, sea salt, and black pepper. Then sprinkle on 2 T olive oil. (Use more oil / lemon juice to your taste)

●Cook the peas for 1 minute, then drain and plunge under cool water to stop the cooking, drain well.

●Put the herbs, lemon zest, peas and salmon in the bowl with the pasta and toss briefly. Serve immediately or chill further in fridge before serving.

*zester: http://www.outofthefryingpan.com/gadgets/images/citrus.zester.jpg
**Dash O'Dill: "Dash O' Dill combines the bright fresh flavor of dill weed with the heft of onion and garlic and pizzazz of citrus."
http://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Seasoning-Blends-Salt-free-Bottles/dp/B001LQRMVC