Cooking with the Kittens!

[Boschi]

Hmmm... anyone have a recommended recipe for Sweet Potato Pie that does not involve sweetened condensed milk?

Oh Thanksgiving, how I love thee....

[kisstheviolets]

are you opposed to using evaporated or regular milk, or is it just the condensed milk you're avoiding?

i made this one once and it was pretty good, i think i got it from alton brown on the food network.

1 pound 3 ounces sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
3/4 cup packed, dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
5 egg yolks
Salt
1 (9-inch) deep dish, frozen pie shell
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Special equipment: steamer basket

Put cubed potatoes into steamer basket and place steamer basket into a large pot of simmering water that is no closer than 2 inches from the bottom of basket. Allow to steam for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Mash with potato masher and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place sweet potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment. Add yogurt, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, yolks, and salt, to taste, and beat until well combined. Pour this batter into the pie shell and place onto a sheet pan. Sprinkle pecans on top and drizzle with maple syrup.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the custard reaches 165 to 180 degrees. Remove from oven and cool. Keep refrigerated after cooling.

[FineyMcFine]

I adapted a black bean soup recipe that I just love.

1 small onion or 2/3 of a big onion
2 cloves garlic
2 TBSP olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
2 cans black beans
1 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1 can Ro-tel (or 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 4oz can diced green chiles if you can't find Ro-tel)
1 tsp oregano
splash of lemon juice
splash of lime juice
splash of jalapeno sauce or 1 small minced jalapeno
1 TBSP balsamic vinegar

Dice the onions, mince the garlic, and saute 5 min in olive oil in a 3 qt heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the cumin, saute 1 more minute. Add the beans, chicken broth, Ro-tel, oregano, lemon juice, lime juice, and jalapeno sauce. Simmer 15 minutes. Puree 3 cups of soup in a blender, return to pot and simmer 10 more minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and serve with grated cheddar cheese.

[JustSkipIt]

Since we had the baby, people are wonderfully generous at bringing us food. It started slow but in the last week we've had calzones, Thai takeout, Persian takeout, Vegie Chili with bread, Vegie Chili with pumpkin bread, a lasagna, manicotti, and black bean soup (coming tomorrow), fish tacos (later today). Which is all great. The only thing is, and I don't want to sound ungrateful, that the chili is kind of strange. I've been working on my chili recipie for over 20 years and consider it pretty perfect. I'm not saying it's perfect for everyone but since I've altered it to my taste, it is perfect for Rachel and I. The chili we had the other day had carrots (?) in it and was so sweet we speculated on what was in it. Brown sugar? Pears? The chili we just got and haven't eaten has corn in it but we'll give it a chance. Here's how I make chili:

5-6 diced serano peppers
2-3 diced jalapenos
1 diced onion
4-5 diced tomatoes
2 cans rinsed small red beans
2 cans rinsed pinto beans (you could make the beans from dried too)
1 bag (pound equivalent) of meatess from Morningstar farms (or use real beef or turkey or whatever)
1/2 - 1 can of water.
3-4 tablespoons of chili powder
crushed red pepper to taste (for heat)
few dashes of garlic powder

Put it all in a big crock pot and cook on low all day or overnight stirring every hour or two. Serve with cornbread or rice or french fries or cornchips and cheese.

[umgaynow]

Am I just sick and twisted or did anyone else think of the kitten pie scene in that Yahoo Serious/Einstein movie when they read the title of this thread?

[Paint the Sky]

He-He! What came to my mind was an image of Clem frying up his poker winnings.

Just to keep it on topic I have a recipe for taglitelle in a tomato and mascopone sauce.

Ingredients

The amounts will vary according to taste and the amount of people you want to poison

Vine ripened tomatoes
Mushrooms
Onion
Garlic
Proscuittio Ham
Fresh basil
Balsamic vinegar
Mascapone cheese
Tomato puree
Fresh Taglitelle Pasta
Extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper

Method

Fry ham off without oil until almost crisp, remove from pan and reserve.
Add olive oil to pan and fry finely chopped onion and garlic until soft. Turn up the heat to get a good sizzle and douse with balsamic vinegar. Stir well.

Add the mushrooms, chunky or finely chopped, your preference. You might need to add more oil at this stage as mushrooms will absorb a lot.

When mushrooms are almost cooked, add chopped tomatoes and tomato puree. Stir well to mix in the puree.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Fry on a high heat for 5mins or so then lower heat.

The tomatoes should have completely soften and the contents will look liquidy. Stir occasionly.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water. Add a little olive to the water, this prevents the pasta sticking. Fresh pasta will cook in around 3mins.

While pasta is cooking add mascapone cheese to the tomato sauce, stir well until it melts through. At this point add the fresh basil and the ham. Tear the leaves to help release the flavour. Keep this on a low-med heat.

Drain the pasta and then add it to the sauce in the frying pan. Turn up the heat.

Toss it around to coat the pasta in the sauce.

Serve up and enjoy.

You can substitute bacon for the ham, and dried basil for fresh, but dried basil should go in same time as the tomato puree.

[sweet satin lover]

I was just wondering if anyone could give me a really low fat yummy nut free receipe for Flapjacks because my mother wants to make them but is very fussy about how much fat she eats ands she has a severe nut allergy so if anyone could help that would be grea thanks

[Shaucker]

Here you go, sweet satin lover. For lower fat, switch out the butter with margarine or canola oil and use skim milk.

Pancakes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more as needed

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and then whisk in the milk and vanilla.

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet or griddle over medium heat.

Whisk the butter into the milk mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and whisk until a thick batter is just formed.

Keeping the skillet at medium heat, ladle about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the skillet, to make a pancake. Make 1 or 2 more pancakes, taking care to keep them evenly spaced apart. Cook, until bubbles break the surface of the pancakes, and the undersides are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Flip with a spatula and cook about 1 minute more on the second side. Serve immediately or transfer to a platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more butter to the skillet as needed.

Procedure for adding fruit to pancakes: Once the bubbles break the surface of the pancakes, scatter the surface with sliced or diced fruit, or chocolate chips, nuts, etc. Flip with a spatula and cook for 1 minute more, being careful not to burn toppings.

[Zooeys_Bridge]

My favorite potatoes in the world and they're so damn easy to make:

You can use any kind of potato (baby links are my favorite).

Clean them, but don't peel them. Then chop them into tiny pieces. I alternate between thin slices and triangle chunks. Get creative.

In a tin pan, lightly coat the bottom with your favorite olive oil. Mix the slices around, get 'em covered so that the spice will stick to them. Depends how much oil you want, to each his/her own.

Then get Cavender's All Purpose Greek Seasoning http://www.greekseasoning.com/(you can also get it on Amazon) and sprinkle it on the 'taters. Mix it up so each slice hs been bathed in the oily spicey goodness.

Stick it in the oven for a few hours(on lower heat) to roast. I love it when they're golden brown and crispaaaaaay.


Takes ten minutes and makes my mouth water like crazy.

[JustSkipIt]

Zooey's - I do the same with potatoes all the time. Probably 5 days a week I make some type of roasted potatoes with a light coating of olive oil.

But today... to make sure that my wife has some protein in her breakfasts but doesn't have to cook eggs, I made a egg casserole. It's easy:

Beat 8 large brown eggs (you can use white but once you try brown eggs, you'll never want to eat white again)
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk. I don't measure it.
A few tablespoons of cottage cheese
A few tablespoons of flour
A cup of shredded cheese (your choice, I like cheddar or cojak)
A can of diced green chilis (or artichoke, or ham, or tomatoes, or peppers or whatever you like in eggs)

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray pam or some other cooking spray in a glass Pyrex (I used a 9X13). Pour everything mixed into it. Bake about 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. It will probably puff up like a souflee. I'm sure there's a way to keep it souflee like but I don't know it so it collapses. You can serve it at a party or store it in your frig and cut pieces for breakfast.

I took a picture but I don't feel like downloading it at the moment.

[kisstheviolets]

i make large fritattas for friend's brunches, much like you describe, debra, but i don't use any flour... the whole thing rises well and stays nice and airy. it's all about whisking enough air into the eggs before you pour, i think.

[gorn]

What are fritattas?

[Willowtree252]

I am going to make a large chicken and shrimp gumbo this weekend.

[Shaucker]

What are fritattas?

Open faced omelets started on the stovetop and finished in the oven. They're also called tortillas in Spain. Different from an egg casserole (which, if it has cubes of bread, is called a strata), and kind of more like a crustless quiche.
Personally, I could live on omelets with tomatoes, goat cheese, and basil forever.

....yeah, I'm a total food nerd. Forgive me, I work as a baker and my father's a chef.

I just got a new bread cookbook for my birthday. I may decide to attempt something today...possibly cinnamon rolls or something else sweet.

[FineyMcFine]

I will never cook steak on the grill again because I just made steak with a cast iron skillet and it was SO GOOD. Better than any steak I've ever grilled.

Let your steaks come to room temperature, heat up the oven to 500. Put a cast iron skillet in the oven to let it heat up. While it's heating up, rub the steaks with a mixture of kosher salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Put the skillet on a burner on high and let it heat up for a few more minutes. Rub a little olive oil on one side of the steaks.

Sear the steaks for 1.5 - 2 minutes, then flip with tongs and sear for another 1.5 - 2 min. Then put the skillet in the oven under the broiler for 5-6 minutes for medium rare, 7-8 minutes for medium. This is if the steaks are 1.5 inches thick - sear and broil for less if your steaks are thinner or butterflied.

SO JUICY.

[Boschi]

Cast iron cookware is indeed one of the wonders of the world. Teflon both creeps me out and pisses me off, so I think a well primed cast iron skillet is a wonder. I recently discovered this deep cast iron pot in the back of a cabinet. It is heavy as hell, but I've cleaned it out and like using it for:


Slow cooked short ribs.

Any somewhat deep cast iron skillet will do:

Preheat oven to 325 F

Add a little olive oil to cast iron pan and heat on stove top until just short of smoking.

Sprinkle a little salt on the ribs and put them in the pan. Flip them as needed so all sides sear to a nice brown. Turn the heat down to medium/low and add a couple chopped up onions and two knife-crushed garlic cloves.

Stir a bit and when the onions are starting to look a little translucent, add:

1 chopped up green or red pepper
a chopped up stalk of celery
1 course chopped carrot
a bay leaf
either a small bundle of fresh thyme (you can fish it out later) or teaspoon of dried thyme.

Stir this around until everything is lightly coated in oil and the onions are nice and translucent. (Maybe 3-4 minutes)

Then add:

3 cups vegetable or meat stock (got questions on stock? PM me. The stock really makes this dish)
2 cups canned tomatoes (one can should do).
1 cup of apple cider, preferably the alcoholic kind.
Salt to taste (I'd start with 1/2 a teaspoon, but if you are using store bought stock, taste first - that stuff can be really salty).

At this point you can also add a cup of chopped up potatoes, but I prefer to serve the whole mess over mashed potatoes. It's up to you.

Heat the pan up while it is on the stove until it is almost boiling and then (carefully, because it is wicked heavy), put it in the 325 F oven and let it cook, uncovered, for at least an hour. Check occasionally to make sure it is not drying out - the ribs shouldn't be sticking out of the liquid very much or they will dry out. Tis done then.

After an hour or two the meat will be super tender and will fall off the bone with just a little poking with a fork.

It's a great winter dinner - be sure to serve a nice big ladle full of the juice and veggies over top of the ribs. Preferably with all of it resting on some nice mashed potatoes.

Note: This could be done with a regular pan and a crock pot I suppose, but the whole "one pan" thing is one of the best parts to me.

[FineyMcFine]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn, Boschi, those ribs sound scrumptious.

Debra, I'm making your chili recipe today, sort of. I'm adding cumin, using garlic cloves instead of powder, ground beef, and cutting the serranos and jalapenos in about...a fourth. Yes, I'm wimping out on it - those mo-fos are HOT.

I'm also making my vegan chili recipe for the vegetarians who are coming over:

1 TBSP olive or canola oil
1 cup chopped onions
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup chopped green, red, orange or yellow peppers
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 jalapeno diced (if you want)
1 TBSP chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup bulgur
salt to taste

Saute onions, celery, carrots, and peppers for 10 min in heavy 3-quart saucepan until vegetables are tender but not brown. Stir in the garlic, chili powder and cumin, cook for 1 minute.

Add the tomatoes with juice and water, jalapeno, bring the chili to a simmer. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.

Add the beans and bulgur. Cover nad cook for 30 minutes, or until the bulgur is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Add salt to taste. Serve hot.

The bulgur makes what would be a pretty good chili GREAT. Bulgur is totally awesome.

[umgaynow]

I will never cook steak on the grill again because I just made steak with a cast iron skillet and it was SO GOOD. Better than any steak I've ever grilled.

Let your steaks come to room temperature, heat up the oven to 500. Put a cast iron skillet in the oven to let it heat up. While it's heating up, rub the steaks with a mixture of kosher salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Put the skillet on a burner on high and let it heat up for a few more minutes. Rub a little olive oil on one side of the steaks.

Sear the steaks for 1.5 - 2 minutes, then flip with tongs and sear for another 1.5 - 2 min. Then put the skillet in the oven under the broiler for 5-6 minutes for medium rare, 7-8 minutes for medium. This is if the steaks are 1.5 inches thick - sear and broil for less if your steaks are thinner or butterflied.

SO JUICY.

Want to try something even more amazing...do the same then deglaze the pan with a bit of Scotch...just goes great together for some reason

[meretricious]

One of my list of things to improve this year was to cook more, which was a good excuse to go to Powell's and pick up a couple of new cookbooks. My first new dish was Sweet Potato Tortilla Pie and it was fabulous! It's not actually a pie, more of a Mexican spin on a quiche. It's from Vegetarian Planet, but my co-worker replaced half of the potatoes with chicken and it worked well for her.

You'll need:
2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 lb)
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 Tablespoon olive oil

5 corn tortillas
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs
4 scallions, or green onions, cut into 1/4 inch lengths
1 teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
3 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese ( i used a little more)


1) Peel the potatoes and cut into approx 1/2 inch cubes
Toss with the garlic, cumin and olive oil, then roast at
400 degrees for 20 min, stirring after 10. Let them cool.

2) butter a 10 inch quiche pan or deep pie dish (not a springform)
Layer with the tortillas, covering the base and sides of the pan.

3) Beat together the eggs, milk, scallions, salt, pepper, and
2 Tbls of the cilantro.

4) Spread the cooled potatoes evenly over the tortillas. Sprinkle the
cheese over the potatoes, then cover with the egg mixture. Don't
worry if some custard runs under the tortillas.

5) Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes, or until custard is set (when
an insterted knife comes out clean).

Serve hot, sprinkled with remaining cilantro.

The cookbook suggested salsa verde for this, but we had a mild red salsa someone had given us for Christmas, which was perfect. Also added sour cream, cause we add it to anything we can.

[Leaf]

It's from Vegetarian Planet....

Vegetarian Planet is the best cookbook EVER! Didi Emmons is brilliant.
I can't recommend her cookbooks enough - to veggies and carnies alike.
We recently made a butternut squash, caramelized onion, goat cheese, and sage pizza from her other book. One of my favorites...mmmmmmmm.

[JustSkipIt]

I just added Vegetarian Planet to my wish list. Thanks for the recommendation. If we're recommending cook books, I recommend The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. Yes, it says it's for pregnancy and post-partum but mostly it's just delicious and high protein meals.

Today I made some use of my new food processor that I got for the holidays. I made stuffed shells:

Boiled 2 boxes of large shells and then dumped them on wax paper to cool.

Meanwhile,
processed 2.5 cups of cottage cheese
8 oz. Ricotta
1 lb shredded Mozerella (the food processor did better on it than I thought)
2 lbs of steamed spinich
oregeno, garlic powder (I wish I had some fresh).

Then scooped it tablespoon by tablespoon into the shells. I made 10 in a casserole with some sauce on top for our dinner (350 for 30 minutes), put another 24 or so in another casserole for the week, then froze about 30 shells for later in two big ziplocks. It turned out that we could each only eat about 3 so they were a good size.

Sorry no picture.

[JustSkipIt]

We went to the local farmers market yesterday morning. There weren't a whole lot of sellers there but it was nice. We bought a pound of very fresh and very sweet shelled pecans, some green leaf lettuce, some spinach, and two tomato plants which Rachel put in the garden. This year we've already had some strawberries and we've got Tomatos and peppers in too. Hopefully the mice and rabbits will let us have a little this year.

[Boschi]

Well, the wild turkey experiments began last night.

Nothing fancy to start, just tossed chunks of white meat in apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and jerk seasoning and then sauteed them and served them over mixed greens.

Good, and I think the cider vinegar tenderized it a bit. Although the few bits of dark meat I tried to do the same way were way chewy.

I have popped the breasts in two separate marinades: a lemon/white wine/rosemary/salt/honey/vinegar mix and an apple cider/thai sweet chili paste mix.

Tonight I'll cook them up and report back later.

The legs, which may be too tough to deal with, are in the freezer. I'll tackle those later.

[umgaynow]

Well, the wild turkey experiments began last night.

I have popped the breasts in two separate marinades: a lemon/white wine/rosemary/salt/honey/vinegar mix and an apple cider/thai sweet chili paste mix.

Wow...kinky!!!!!! I guess that's what happens when you've been hitting the Wild Turkey

[Shaucker]

Although the few bits of dark meat I tried to do the same way were way chewy.

The legs, which may be too tough to deal with, are in the freezer. I'll tackle those later.

Maybe try in a soup or stock? Dark meat/bones yield a better broth than white meat--more marrow and collagen, I think. Two or three turkey legs'll make at least a few quarts.


On another note, I've been baking bread again lately. It's almost too hot outside to turn on the oven, so I'm gonna enjoy it while I can. I've almost developed a crust/crumb ratio that I find satisfying.

[JustSkipIt]

My wife has started cooking something new each week. Last week it was very good spanikopita (sp). This week was kale & potato quiche. My son even helped cook which is very unusual for him. The quiche looked gorgeous and tasted great:



Less great is the condition of the kitchen when I arrived at home



still worth it.

If anyone wants the recipe posted, send me a PM and I'll put it here. Otherwise, I don't want to type it out.

[Boschi]

Wow. Quiche pic is gorgeous. And the kitchen sink pic, well, it was a necessary fatality on the road to quiche glory.

So the turkey boobs...

Good. Although my gf cooked them differently than I had planned. She actually put the whole pyrex dish in the oven, complete with marinade.

I was a little worried about food poisoning, but it turned out fine. The meat sort of poached and stayed pretty moist and tender for turkey.

The lemon/wine marinade was the best, but the thai chili wasn't half bad either.

And yes, the carcass was used for stock and we plan to do the same with the legs - the meat will go to the dogs, who have been greatly enjoying the scraps.

Yesterday evening someone was nice enough to share some morels they had found with us, so we enjoyed some lovely pan fried morels (quick dunk in milk, quick dredge in flour/salt/pepper, cook on each side until brown in nice hot butter).

So damn good.

[kisstheviolets]

i made some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins last night. it's a super easy "recipe" and makes the single most yummy p.c.c. muffins i've ever had.

1 box of spice cake mix
1 15oz can of pure pumpkin
As many chocolate chips as you want

that's it.

really.

no eggs or liquids. it takes a little while to get the cake mix and pumpkin to fully blend, but then just throw the chocolate chips in and bake in muffin cups (you can make it in a loaf pan) and bake on 350 until a knife comes out clean. so awesome.

[JustSkipIt]

First, here’s a picture of the brownie with lime and chocolate frosting that my wife and her mom made over the weekend. I don’t have the recipie but I could probably get it. It turns out that it was supposed to be brownie with mint frosting but my mother-in-law misread it to start and then my wife wanted the lime frosting. Now I’m not generally a lime person and in fact, never choose to have lime unless I’m squirting it onto fish when lemon is not available, but the brownie was really rich and good with a sort of light kick at the end. Actually, photobucket is taking forever to upload the picture so I'll try to link to it later.

Then, I’ve been experimenting with making lentils. I think I posted earlier from directions my sister-in-law sent me about making lentils with potatoes, carrots, etc. in a pot. Well, I wanted to see how it would work in the steamer rather than a pot because the lentils tend to stick to the pot bottom (even with olive oil) and require a lot of supervision. So I figured I had little to lose. I just ate the ones I made last night for lunch and they were good but I think I want them more mushy and sort of assimilated. I assume longer cooking will do that but I’m open to other solutions. Here’s what I did:

Put ½ cup brown rice and 2/3 cups water in the steamer and turned that on for 15 minutes.
At the end of that 15 minutes, added
a few tsp of olive oil (it seemed like a good idea)
a tablespoon or so of Asian vegetable seasoning
about 10 chopped baby carrots
about a cup or so chopped celery (all that was good)
1 cup lentils
2 cups water
Some (not enough) cayenne pepper

I turned the steamer back on for 30 minutes, decided it needed longer, added a little water and ran the steamer another 10 minutes. I think next time I’ll cook it even longer.

[JustSkipIt]

So for mother's day I/ the kids got my wife a pancake puff pan. It was partially a joke because we used to see the commercials all the time and partially because I thought she would like it. Well, she made pancake puffs today and they were great. She made plain ones for our son, ones with strawberry simply fruit, ones with agave and pecans and ones with agave and almond. The best were the pecan but I think chocolate would be even better.