by jphilo | Sep 30, 2015 | Recipes
Fall has arrived which means my soup cravings have begun. To be specific, cravings for Thai chicken soup with a coconut milk base. Though the last Thai soup posted on this blog was good, I was feeling adventurous enough to try something new. I found what I was looking for at the Food & Wine website. I tweaked it by using green onions and replacing some of the chicken stock with ham broth, and using Thai noodles instead of fettuccuni. Even with the changes and without the recommended wine, the soup was delicious. Delicious enough to receive the coveted Hiram Seal of Approval. It was also very simple, so it was a win-win-win for everyone.
Thai Chicken Noodle Coconut Soup
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 bunch green onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups homemade chicken stock
1 cup ham broth
2 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk
5 teaspoons Asian fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam)
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 package brown rice Thai noodles
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 3), cut into 14-inch slices
2 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)
directions:
Heat oil over moderately low heat in a heavy dutch oven. Add onion and saute for about 5 minutes. Add garlic, coriander, ginger, black pepper, and cayenne; cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.
Add both kinds of broth, coconut milk, fish sauce, salt, and lime zest. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.
While the soup stock simmers. cook the Thai noodles according to the package directions and drain.
At the end of the 10 minutes, add the chicken to the soup and simmer until just done. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the fettuccine, lime juice, and cilantro. Serve the soup in bowls with a fork and spoon.
by jphilo | Sep 23, 2015 | Recipes
A couple weeks ago, a friend gave us oodles of apples from an apple tree that blew over in the wind. After they were delivered, the Man of Steel helped me freeze a whole bunch of applesauce, 3 apple pies, and 2 dozen apple dumplings. You’ll find the recipe for apple dumplings below.
Mom’s Apple Dumplings
Step 1: Make a batch of Grandma Conrad’s Never Fail Pie Crust. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes.
Step 2: In a saucepan, combine 2 cups water, 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons butter (or Earth Balance Vegan Stick for a non-dairy version), and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
Step 3: Peel, core, and slice 6–8 cups of apples. Put them in a large mixing bowl. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix together until apples are coated with sugar and cinnamon.
Step 4: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Take 1/4 of the pie dough and roll it into a rectangle about 15 inches long and 8 inches wide.
With a paring knife, cut the dough into 6 pieces.
Fill each section of dough with as much of the apple mixture as it can hold.
Fold the dough up and around the apples.
Place 12 dumplings in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Pour the syrup over the dumplings.
Bake the dumplings at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 30–35 minutes until the apples are soft when a fork is inserted into one of the dumplings.
Cool and serve with ice cream, milk, or half-and-half.
by jphilo | Sep 16, 2015 | Recipes
In the interest of full disclosure, readers should know that the grandma referred to in the title of this post is not and has never been my grandma. However, she is the grandmother of seven of my cousins (our mothers are sisters) on their dad’s side of the family. She was a lovely woman and a wonderful cook.
In the interest of fuller disclosure, readers should also know that this pie crust recipe has appeared on this website before. Without pictures. Because making pie crust is floury business and by the time my hands are clean and the camera comes to mind, the pie is usually in the oven already.
Until this week, when I kept the camera at hand for this new and improved version of the only pie crust recipe I can make, complete with pictures, illustrating almost every step along the way.
Grandma Conrad’s Never Fail Pie Crust
6 cups flour 2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder 1 – 1 1/2 cups lard
1 egg 2 tablespoons vinegar
In a 1 cup measuring cup, beat egg with a fork. Add vinegar and enough water to make one cup. Set aside. (Using the Tupperware measuring cup you won at a party over 30 years ago is optional.)
Sift together flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. (The large Tupperware mixing bowl you received as a wedding gift in 1977 works well for this.)
Cut in lard until mixture is crumbly but not clumpy.
Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture and stir with a fork until it forms a large ball, enough for 6-7 pie crusts.
Cover the dough and let it sit for 10 minutes. Roll out all the crusts. (The gi-normous rolling pin your mother-in-law bought for you in Hawaii is a good choice for this step.)
When they’re rolled out, place a piece of waxed paper on the crust and carefully roll the paper and crust into a tube. Put the crusts in a 2 gallon zipper bag and freeze. Then, thaw the rolls and use them when you’re ready to bake.
by jphilo | Sep 9, 2015 | Recipes
Another year, another tweak for the non-dairy version of German Chocolate Cake. As always, I began with the original German Chocolate Cake recipe which you can find at this link. Last year’s tweak used soured coconut milk to replace the buttermilk. This year, I put 1 tablespoon of vinegar in a measuring cup and added Coffee Rich (original, not fat free) to the 1 cup mark. As always, I used Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks in place of the butter.
The biggest and best tweak of 2015 was made to the frosting. Last year, I used coconut milk in place of the evaporate milk, and it was an improvement. But the frosting taste thin, not as rich and creamy as I wanted. So this year’s substitute was coconut cream for the evaporated milk, and it made all the difference. (Coconut cream is a little harder to find than coconut milk, but higher end supermarkets and ethnic Asian and Mexican grocery stores stock it.)
The cake was served at Mom’s 87th birthday bash alongside the dairy version to the delight of myself, my daughter, and her husband since we all have issues with dairy. We couldn’t do the ice cream, but the frosting was so creamy we couldn’t have cared less. The frosting recipe is below, and again you can find the original German Chocolate cake recipe here.
Easy Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting
3/4 cup canned coconut cream 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan sticks
1 teaspoon vanilla 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 1/3 cups shredded coconut 1 cup chopped pecans
Combine milk, sugars, butter and vanilla in a sauce pan. Bring to a full boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. (Mixture may appear curdled.) Quickly stir a small amount of hot mixture into the egg yolks; then pour that mixture back into sauce pan. Return to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add coconut and pecans. Cool to spreading consistency, stirring occasionally.
*Cookbooks tell you to frost between the layers and on the top of a German chocolate cake, but not on its sides. Mom always frosted the sides (it’s a little tricky) to keep the cake moist.
by jphilo | Sep 2, 2015 | Recipes
Since the great allergy elimination diet of 2015, an event I hope never to repeat in this lifetime, I’ve cut down on carbs and products containing yeast. A very sad turn of events since I love pizza. And though I’ve learned to love it without cheese, I don’t want to get rid of the crust, too. Or make the cauliflower crust that’s all the rage these days. I just can’t go there.
So in an effort to find the next best thing, I gave no yeast pizza dough a try. I started with a recipe for healthifed pizza dough and substituted almond milk for the milk to make it dairy free. The Man of Steel agrees it’s a recipe worth tweaking, but for now we both still prefer pizza dough with yeast. That said, here’s how I made it.
No Yeast Pizza Dough
1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup almond milk
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place pizza stone in oven to heat. Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Add oil and almond milk. Stir with a fork until it forms a soft dough. Put dough on a well-floured surface and knead 10 times. Cover and let set 10 minutes.
Form dough into a round disk and roll into a thin circle on a lightly-floured surface.. Place a piece of wax paper on top of the dough. Grasping the edge of the paper and the edge of the dough, carefully roll them together into a tube. (Use a spatula to release any dough sticking to the surface.) Remove pizza stone from oven and unroll the tube, dough side down, onto the stone. (See picture above) Discard the wax paper. Pri.ck dough in several places with a fork
Bake the dough for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and add toppings. (Ours has basil pesto for sauce, oven-roasted tomatoes, thin-sliced onions and sweet pepper, cheese (on the Man of Steel’s half), and turkey pepperoni.
Put in oven and bake for 10-15 minutes longer. Remove when cheese is melted and edges of crust are golden brown. Slice and enjoy!
by jphilo | Aug 28, 2015 | Recipes
The summer of 2015 will got down as a great tomato year for the farmers who run our CSA. Week after week, our share is packed with tomatoes, so many tomatoes we’re hard-pressed to eat them all. If you’re dealing with a glut of tomatoes, this Fantastic Friday recipe uses oodles of them. And it’s delicious. Enjoy!
Pasta in Garlic Gravy with Lemon and Herb Chicken
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast sliced into 1 inch chunks
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped (if using dried, use half of the amount)
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ a lemon
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon coarse salt (not table salt)
½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
Mix the above ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to overnight.
About 1/2 hour before serving time, prepare 1/2 pound spaghetti pasta according to package directions.
While the pasta water is boiling, saute the marinated chicken in 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil until cooked (about 4-5 minutes) then set aside. Then prepare the gravy, following the directions below.
½ stick (1/4 cup) margarine
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 ½ cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups whole cherry tomatoes
Heat margarine and olive oil in sauté pan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant and soft. Whisk in the flour and cook for a minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add chicken stock, whisking constantly. Simmer gravy until thickened. Add the chopped basil and season with salt and pepper.
Add the sauteed chicken and cooked pasta to the gravy. Toss until gravy coats the chicken and pasta. Add the cherry tomatoes and serve with Parmesan cheese on the side. Makes 5-6 servings.
Note: This recipe makes a lot of thin gravy. For those who like a thicker gravy (like us), use 4 tablespoons of flour. If you like less gravy, cut the amount of olive oil, margarine, and chicken stock by half, but leave the flour at 2 tablespoons. Hiram says the leftovers for this dish taste better than when originally served.
