| THIS WEEK'S FEATURES AND RECIPES:
> Article:
Fiery Stew, Exotic Flavors
> Wine Appreciation:
Quattro Mani Toh-Kai 2007
> Food Funnies:
Things Celebrities Order When Eating Out
S
E L E C T E D R E C I P E S :
* Red
Lobster Parrot Bay Coconut Shrimp
* Crock
Pot Pork Chops and Gravy
* Creamy
Cajun Chicken Pasta
* Bootlegger's
Beef
* Barley
and Lamb Stew
* Herbes
de Provence Potato Gratin
* Caramelized
Leek Soup
* Strawberry
Streusel Muffins
Healthy Eating:
Low Carb: Lamb
Parmesan
Diabetic: Apple-Cheddar
Popovers
Low Fat: Fiesta
Skillet Spaghetti
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This Week's Cooking Tips
========================
* To make your own corn meal mix:
combine 1 cup corn meal, 1 cup
all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon
salt, and 4 teaspoons baking
powder. You can store it
in a tightly covered container for
up to 6 months.
* A Perfect Pastry Crust? In your
favorite recipe, substitute a
4:1 ratio of lard:butter
* When slicing a hard boiled egg,
try wetting the knife just before
cutting. If that doesn't
do the trick, try applying a bit of
cooking spray to the edge.
* When mincing garlic, sprinkle on
a little salt so the pieces won't
stick to your knife or cutting
board. More Cooking Tips
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This Week's Culinary Quiz (Answer
at the bottom of page)
Imagine you are in Mexico,
and a restaurant is offering
Tortas Ahogadas, and you
are singing with a mariachi group in
this city. What city would
you be in?
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Quote of the Week:
"Swearing is industry language.
For as long as we're alive it's
not going to change.
You've got to be boisterous to get results.
- Gordon Ramsay
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to the VJJE Recipe Weekly - It's fun and it's free!
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UPCOMING FOOD HOLIDAYS:
February is: Berry Fresh in the Sunshine State Month
National Snack Food Month
Canned Food Month
North Carolina Sweet Potato Month
Great American Pies Month
National Grapefruit Month
National Cherry Month
National Potato Month
Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month
February 21 - National Sticky Bun Day
February 22 - National Margarita Day
February 23 - National Banana Bread Day
February 24 - National Tortilla Chip Day
February 25 - National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day
February 26 - National Pistachio Day
February 27 - National Kahlua Day
February 28 - National Chocolate Souffle Day
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FREE E-COOKBOOKS!
Get
14 Sample E-Cookbooks Absolutely FREE!
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Fiery Stew, Exotic
Flavors
by
John Havel
One of the most enjoyable parts
of travel is to taste the foods
that are indigenous to different
countries and cultures. If you
judge Mexican food by local restaurants
you would miss the incredible
variety of moles of Oaxaca, for
example. The stews of Hunan province
are not served in Chinese restaurants
and African food is hard to
find outside of large cities.
But traveling to all these regions
to sample these wonderful
cuisines is near impossible, so
we turn to cookbooks. Traditionally,
West African dishes are real mouth-blisterers.
In fact, some of them
are so hot that they make spicy
Indian food seem bland by comparison.
African recipes, like this one,
have to be severely toned down for
western palettes.
Peanut flavor is prominently featured
in this dish. You may have
seen recipes for "groundnut" stew.
Groundnut is a traditional name
for a peanut and relates to how
the peanut grows; on a vine that
buries its pods into the ground.
In West African cuisine, peanuts
can be found in just about anything,
from soups and stews to
garnishes, snacks and pounded into
a paste.
A typical meal in West Africa is
heavy on starchy foods, light on
meat, generous on fat and commonly
cooked in one pot. Other than
that, the most telling characteristic
of an African dish is heat.
Equatorial climates all tend to
encourage the use of chilis, as
these hot foods produce the effect
of "gustatory sweating" resulting
in an overall cooling effect.
The basis of this recipe is so globally
widespread, it has evolved
to include the various ingredients
native to the new regions. After
all, most stews are very adaptable
making additions and substitutions
easy. You can include okra, carrots,
tomatoes ... pretty much any
vegetable and substituting the chicken
for beef, pork, or lamb will
certainly work.
West African Stew
=================
3 tablespoons peanut
oil
1 1/2 lbs. boneless
chicken breasts or thighs, cut in bite
sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 or 2 habanaro peppers,
seeded and diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups chicken
stock
1 large sweet potato,
cut in 3/4" cubes
3/4 cup creamy peanut
butter (Skippy Natural is very tasty)
1 (15 oz.) can chick
peas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup cilantro, choppped
In a large Dutch oven with a tight-fitting
lid, heat 2 tablespoons
oil over medium high heat. Add chicken,
and brown quickly. Remove
chicken from pot. Add 1 tablespoon
oil. Reduce heat to medium low,
and add garlic, onions and habanaro
peppers; saute 2 to 3 minutes.
Season with cumin, black pepper,
and salt.
Mix in chicken stock, sweet potato,
and browned chicken, plus any
accumulated juices. Place lid on
Dutch oven and simmer, stirring
occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove lid, and stir in the
peanut butter and chick peas. Make
sure the peanut butter is blended
in. Replace lid and simmer for 10
more minutes, or until chicken is
cooked through and sweet potatoes
are tender. Stir in cilantro.
Remove from heat, adjust seasoning,
and serve with hot white rice.
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This Week's Wine Selection
==========================
Quattro Mani Toh-Kai 2007
Price: $9
Ripe quince, Persian melon, vivid
gunpowder, green tea, coriander,
spearmint, and elusive but haunting
floral perfume hover over the
glass. This hits the palate juicily,
softly, and demurely, but then
it spreads out a veritable magic
carpet of captivating flavors, among
which quince, fig, white peach,
green tea, sweet lime, and raw almond
are discernable.
Serve With:
Pasta with Pesto
================
3 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano,
coarsely grated (2/3 cup)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black
pepper
3 cups loosely packed
fresh basil
2/3 cup extra-virgin
olive oil
1 pound linguine or
spaghetti, 1/3 cup cooking water reserved
Salt and pepper to
taste
With food processor running, drop
in garlic and finely chop. Stop
motor and add nuts, cheese, salt,
pepper, and basil, then process
until finely chopped. With motor
running, add oil, blending until
incorporated.
Put pesto in a large bowl. Cook
linguine or spaghetti until al
dente. Whisk about 1/3 cup pasta
cooking water into pesto. Add
drained pasta to thinned pesto with
salt and pepper to taste and toss
well. Serve with additional Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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Food Funnies
============
Things Celebrities Order
When Eating Out:
9. Lady Gaga: Turkey with dressing.
Salad with dressing. Just
lots of dressing
in general.
8. Martha Stewart: Finger sandwiches
that she makes the kitchen
redo until they
are all *precisely* the same size.
7. Sarah Palin: Half-Baked Alaska.
6. Andrew Zimmerman: Last week’s
special that spoiled three days ago.
5. William Shatner: Ham. Uncured,
old-fashioned ham.
4. Arnold Schwarzenegger: California
mussels surrounded by a
bunch of nuts
in a fiscal reduction.
3. South Carolina Governor Mark
Sanford: An Argentinian tart.
2. Donald Trump: Some kind of light-brown
squirrel with ... no,
wait, that’s
just something that fell on his plate.
... and the #1
Thing Celebrities Order When Eating Out ...
1. Rush Limbaugh: Fried chicken
wings, but right wings ONLY.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Red Lobster Parrot Bay Coconut Shrimp
=====================================
Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup pina colada
nonalcoholic drink mix
1/4 cup crushed pineapple
(canned)
2 tablespoons granulated
sugar
Shrimp:
6-8 cups canola oil
(as required by fryer)
12 large shrimp, peeled
and deveined (about 1/2 pound)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose
flour
2 tablespoons granulated
sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons Captain
Morgan Parrot Bay coconut rum
1 cup panko Japanese-style
bread crumbs
1/2 cup flaked coconut
Prepare pina colada dipping sauce
first by combining all the
ingredients. Cover this and let
it chill out in the fridge while you
make the shrimp.
Heat oil to 350F. Measure 3/4 cup
of flour into a medium bowl. In
another medium bowl mix together
the remaining 3/4 cup flour, sugar,
and salt. Stir milk and rum into
this flour mixture. Let this batter
stand for five minutes.
While the batter rests, combine
panko breadcrumbs and shredded
coconut into a third medium bowl.
Butterfly cut each shrimp before
you start the battering: Use a sharp
knife to slice through the top
of the shrimp (where the vein was)
so that you can spread the shrimp
open. Leave the tail intact.
To batter the shrimp, dip each one
in the flour, then the wet
batter, then coat each shrimp with
the panko/coconut mixture. Arrange
the shrimp on a plate until all
of them are battered. Fry the shrimp
by dropping six at a time into the
hot oil for 2 to 3 minutes or
until the shrimp are golden brown.
Remove shrimp to a rack or paper
towels to drain.
Serve shrimp with pina colada dipping
sauce on the side, along with
a small dish of your favorite salsa.
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Crock Pot Pork Chops and Gravy
==============================
1/2 cup all-purpose
flour
1 1/2 teaspoons dry
mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic
powder
6 lean boneless pork
chops (1 in. thick)
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can
condensed chicken broth
2 tablespoons vegetable
oil
Combine first four ingredients in
a shallow dish. Dredge chops in
flour mixture and set aside. Combine
what is left of the flour
mixture with the chicken broth and
pour into your crock pot.
Pour oil into a large skillet and
cook the chops in hot oil until
browned on both sides. Place chops
in crock pot and cook covered on
High for about 4 to 5 hours or until
tender. Season with salt and
pepper to taste. Serve with hot
rice or mashed potatoes.
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Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta
==========================
2 boneless skinless
chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
4 ounces linguine,
cooked al dente
2 teaspoons cajun seasoning
2 tablespoons butter
1 thinly sliced green
onion
1-2 cups heavy whipping
cream
2 tablespoons chopped
sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried
basil
1/8 teaspoon ground
black pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic
powder
1/4 cup grated parmesan
cheese
Place chicken and Cajun seasoning
in a bowl and toss to coat. In a
large skillet over medium heat,
saute chicken in butter or margarine
until chicken is tender, about 5
to 7 minutes.
Reduce heat add green onion, heavy
cream, tomatoes, basil, salt,
garlic powder, black pepper and
heat through. Pour over hot linguine
and toss with Parmesan cheese.
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Bootlegger's Beef
=================
1 2-pound butt-end
beef tenderloin roast, well trimmed
2 tablespoons vegetable
oil
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped carrots
1/4 teaspoon dried
thyme
1 cup beef broth
1/3 cup whisky
1 tablespoon all purpose
flour
1 tablespoon butter,
room temperature
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons coarsely
crushed black peppercorns
Preheat oven to 400F. Pat beef tenderloin
dry with paper towels.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat
vegetable oil in heavy large
ovenproof skillet over medium heat.
Add beef to skillet and cook
until brown on all sides, about
8 minutes. Add chopped onions,
carrots and thyme to skillet.
Transfer skillet to oven and roast
beef until meat thermometer
inserted into thickest part registers
120F for rare, stirring
vegetables occasionally, about 30
minutes. Transfer beef to platter.
Tent with foil to keep warm.
Place skillet with vegetables over
medium-high heat. Add beef broth
and whisky and bring to boil, scraping
up any browned bits. Boil
until liquid is reduced to 2/3 cup,
stirring occasionally, about
7 minutes. Strain sauce and return
to skillet.
Mix flour and butter in small bowl
until smooth paste forms. Add
to sauce in skillet and whisk until
well blended. Add whipping cream,
crushed black peppercorns and any
accumulated juices from beef.
Simmer over medium heat until sauce
thickens, whisking constantly,
about 3 minutes. Season sauce to
taste with salt. Cut beef into
thick slices and arrange on platter.
Spoon sauce over.
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Barley and Lamb Stew
====================
2 pounds boneless lamb
shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut into
bite-size
pieces
1/4 teaspoon kosher
salt
1 teaspoon freshly
ground black pepper
1 tablespoon all-purpose
flour
1 tablespoon olive
oil, divided
3 medium carrots, cut
into 1/4-inch rounds
1 cup barley grits
4 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons freshly
chopped oregano
In a medium mixing bowl, toss the
lamb with the salt, pepper and
flour. Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive
oil in a 4 to 5-quart Dutch oven
set over medium-high heat until
it shimmers. Add half of the lamb,
and brown on all sides, approximately
7 to 8 minutes total. Remove
the lamb to a bowl and repeat with
the remaining oil and lamb.
Remove the second batch of lamb
to the bowl and add the carrots to
the pot. Saute the carrots for 3
to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Return all of the lamb to the pot
along with the grits and stir to
combine. Add the chicken broth and
bring to a boil. Once boiling,
decrease the heat to low, cover
and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or
until the liquid is absorbed and
the lamb and grits are tender. Five
minutes before the stew is finished,
add the oregano. Taste for
seasoning and add salt and pepper
as desired. Serve in bowls.
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Herbes de Provence Potato Gratin
================================
3 pounds russet (Idaho)
potatoes, peeled
1 tablespoon butter,
softened
2 cups half-and-half
2 to 3 garlic cloves,
smashed
1 tablespoon herbes
de Provence
Salt and freshly ground
black pepper
2 cups grated Gruyere,
packed
Preheat the oven to 400F. Peel and
wash the potatoes and slice them
really thinly using a plastic mandoline.
Generously butter a 12-inch
ovenproof baking or gratin dish
(about 2 1/2 to 3-quarts).
In a small saucepan, bring the half-and-half,
garlic cloves and
herbes de Provence to a simmer.
Season, to taste, with salt and
pepper. Remove the garlic cloves.
Set aside.
Arrange the potatoes in an overlapping
layer on the bottom of the
dish. Season the layer generously
with salt and pepper. Scatter
lightly with some of the grated
cheese. Make another potato and
cheese layer, finishing with a most
generous cheesing. Press the
layers down gently. Pour the half-and-half
mixture over the potato
layers and fill the dish up to the
top of the potatoes. Cover the
dish loosely with foil so it is
not touching the cheese on top and
bake 30 minutes, uncover and bake
another 10 to 15 minutes until
the cheese is bubbly and nicely
browned. Let cool for 20 to 30
minutes before serving.
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Caramelized Leek Soup
=====================
2 pounds leeks (white
and pale green parts only; about 2 bunches)
3 tablespoons unsalted
butter
1 1/4 teaspoons sugar
1/4 cup vermouth
3 1/2 cups chicken
broth
finely sliced fresh
chives for garnish
Halve leeks lengthwise and thinly
slice crosswise. In a large bowl
of cold water wash leeks well and
lift from water into a large sieve
to drain. In a 6-quart heavy kettle
cook leeks in butter over
moderately low heat, stirring occasionally,
until some begin to turn
golden, about 40 minutes. Stir in
sugar and cook, stirring
occasionally, 10 minutes. Stir in
vermouth and cook, stirring
occasionally, until liquid is evaporated
and most leeks are golden,
10 to 15 minutes. Deglaze kettle
with 1/2 cup broth and cook,
stirring occasionally, 10 minutes
more, until liquid is evaporated
and leeks are deep golden. Add remaining
3 cups broth and bring soup
just to a boil. Season soup with
salt and pepper. Serve soup
garnished with chives.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Strawberry Streusel Muffins
===========================
1 3/4 cups all-purpose
flour
2/3 cup granulated
sugar
2 teaspoons baking
powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
extract
1 cup fresh strawberries,
chopped and tossed lightly in
2 tablespoons flour
Streusel:
1/4 cup chopped toasted
pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar,
packed
1/4 cup all-purpose
flour
2 tablespoons butter,
melted
Strawberry Butter:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioners'
sugar
1/2 cup chopped fresh
strawberries
1/4 cup finely chopped
toasted pecans
Preheat oven to 375F. Grease bottom
and sides of an 18 cup muffin
tin. Mix together ingredients for
streusel and set aside. Mix
together for the muffins the flour,
sugar, and baking powder.
Separately, mix together the milk,
melted butter, beaten eggs and
vanilla. Gently mix the wet ingredients
into the flour mixture.
Fold in lightly floured chopped
strawberries. Pour mixture into
prepared muffin tins and top with
streusel mixture. Bake at 375F
for 25-30 minutes until toothpick
comes out clean.
Allow muffins to cool for 10 minutes
before trying to remove them
fom the pan (or they will stick).
Finish cooling muffins on a wire
rack. To make strawberry butter,
mix together thoroughly the soft
butter and powdered sugar. Fold
in the strawberries and toasted
pecans. Chill until needed and soften
before serving on split
muffins.
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This Week's Culinary Quiz
Answer: Guadalajara
Guadalajara is the second largest
city in Mexico, and is very
famous for three things; its beautiful
women, its tasty tequila,
and of course Tortas Ahogadas.
If you ask for a torta in Mexico
you will get a snack. Tortas
Ahogadas are made with a piece of
bread, beef, and they're "drowned"
in chile pasilla sauce. That's how
it got its name. The bread and
the meat are soaked in a very spicy
sauce.
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