Pakoras.......finally! and Ribs too.

Just when I thought we would never get together to make pakoras, we found a break in the action this past Saturday morning. Although I am not used to eating spicy deep fried appetizers for breakfast, I could hardly wait to bite into the little darlings. It has been sooooooo long since my wonderful friend and I donned aprons and prepared to feast! This recipe came over from England by way of India with my friend and her family in the 70's, where she knew pakoras as philoories, and that is what I'm sticking with!

Pakoras (don't mess with me, Philoories!)
heat about 6 inches veg oil in a med saucepan over med-high heat
Chop fairly fine:
1 onion, 3 slices fresh ginger, 3 cloves garlic, 1 chili pepper (we used 3 small thin red chili peppers, my friend is a fire blower, lol) and add
a few small florets of cauliflower, chopped celery and red pepper
3 c Dhall flour ( we used Chana flour)
1 tsp turmeric, cumin, salt, red chili powder
1 beaten egg and 1 small container plain yogurt
Mix all together and add enough water to make a med thick batter about 1/2 cup (see picture)
Drop batter by large tablespoons into hot oil about 4 at a time.
Cook until golden, about 5 minutes, drain on paper towels.

We gobbled several right away. 
Rated: Five fiery stars, not really too hot, just bursting with spice and flavor. 
Thank you, thank you, thank you, friend! 
Now I know why I was driving you crazy all these years to make these again. (hugs)

It was a rainy day and I was wanting to get in the garden but seems like Spring is fading away in a puddle! But just when I was feeling sorry for myself we spotted a mother deer at the back of the house and there was a little Bambi scampering ( I exaggerate, barely able to stand Bambi baby) beside her mother. Then I lost sight of Bambi. I went outside with my camera and the little sweetie was lying very very still with her nose under a log. My first thought was that the log had rolled on her. (gasp) I went over, mother watching me cautiously. I snapped a picture, picked up a stick and gently stroked her back and she let out a huge breath. I left but was upset, worried that she was hurt. Let nature take her course, calm down, wait. About an hour later, I ventured down the hill and she was gone. Whew!

In the evening instead of heading to barbeque, it was just too wet and windy. I decided to do the ribs in the house my old way, a very good old way. This sauce is wonderful, rich and works on country style ribs as well.
Ribs- Oven Baked
set oven to 250 degrees and bake 3 hours in shallow roasting pan, uncovered
2-3 lbs pork spareribs
1/2 c dark brown sugar packed
1/2 c ketchup
1/2 c white vinegar
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp chili powder ( 1 regular and 1 ancho for some heat!)
1/4 c water
Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over ribs which you can cut in serving chunks.
My husband likes his ribs with rice and baked beans and I prefer a fully loaded baked potato and salad.

 It was a satisfying weekend!

Photos

There is just so much to learn as we blog and I am realizing that my food pictures are not as good as some of my favorite bloggers. Perhaps it's my camera but I think it's that I am not using all the functions on my camera to the best advantage. Do you have this problem as well? I can't tell the food to 'smile' or 'change that pose' or 'I think it would look better with the blue sweater'. Food is there, waiting, plated and ready for me to make the most of it. My camera lacks 'smell-o-vision', which would help immensely! So, I must learn more from my fellow bloggers.
This is entirely different than cooking. Cooking is fun, relaxing, invigorating, an excuse to try new spices, new serving dishes, new arrangements. 
I made a lovely chicken strata for dinner and hope you can tell by my pictures just how tasty it was.

Chicken Strata ( based on an Anna Olson recipe for Rockwell Bake)
350 degree oven, greased 9 inch springform pan or 9x13 or bundt pan
2 T olive oil
1 c finely diced onion
1 c finely diced celery (I used lovage as well)
1/2 c finely diced carrot
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 apple grated
1 T crumbled sage
2 t fresh thyme
1 t poultry seasoning or rosemary
1 c dried cranberries
1/4 c dry vermouth (I used half vermouth, half chicken broth)
5 large eggs (my gf chickens eggs are smallish so I used 6)
3 c milk (I use skim, your choice)
1 T dijon mustard
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
8 c diced day old bread (I used French but you can mix white and wheat) 1 inch cubes
3 c chicken breast, cooked, 1/2 inch diced
2 1/2 c grated cheese (recipe calls for Swiss (not my fave) I used Gruyere and cheddar mixed

In a saute pan add oil and saute onion, celery and carrot about 4 minutes, add garlic and herbs and continue cooking another minute. Add cranberries and vermouth and simmer another minute or so until most of the liquid has evaporated. Cool to lukewarm.
In a large bowl, while veg mix cools, whisk eggs and milk and add mustard, salt and pepper. Add bread cubes and toss to coat well and let sit for about 15 minutes.
Stir the veg and diced chicken in the bread mix, add 2 c cheese. Spoon into prepared baking pan and sprinkle with 1/2 c remaining cheese. Bake for 1 hour or until the top is golden brown and center springs back when pressed. In the bundt pan I cooked 1 hour 15 minutes as it was thicker.
Let rest at least 15 minutes before serving. If using springform pan, remove side ring after 15 minutes.
This served 6 with a side salad and sweet potatoes. We had cranberry sauce on the side.

Of course all this eating of the savory strata meant I would be craving something sweet to balance the meal. I had baked a Lazy Daisy cake earlier in the day. You remember the old hot milk standby cake with the lovely coconut, brown sugar topping that is put under the broiler at the last minute to 'candify' the topping.
However, I had also made a chocolate self-saucing pudding cake and knowing how dh loves his Reese peanut butter cup ice cream, I thought the chocolate would be the better combination. I like my cake warmed a little first so the pudding layer melts a little more and softens the ice cream.
What I really mean is that I wanted whipping cream but I didn't have any.

Cinco de Mayo

I Twittered earlier about eating an entire bag of tortilla chips from Fresh Is Best and honestly I could barely manage dinner tonight. I had all good intentions of preparing a Mexican inspired feast, but my heart just wasn't in it. I could imagine myself sitting on the beach in Puerto Vallarta at sunset, sipping on my second Margarita with no problem. In fact, I had my white gauze shirt and short shorts on, a cute straw hat and big smoky sunglasses and my skinned was bronzed from a day at the pool. Oh yes, this part is easy.
So what can be done to get through the day without celebrating the 5? How about a trip down memory lane? I was being all nostalgic thinking of how our family centered every occasion around food. I never ever wanted to miss a meal at home, even as a teenager. My mom was a remarkable cook, still is actually. I remember the macaroni with bran muffins, the vinegar marinated beef made into stew with heaps of mashed potatoes on the side, the rich tomato gravy smothering the Swiss steak loaded with peppers and onions , walnut butter horns, molasses brown bread, butter tarts and apple pies. Seriously, every single meal was home made, from scratch, no shortcuts. Who in their right mind would miss a meal? Exactly. Even the days, maybe weeks, I hardly communicated with my parents more than a grunt, I was home for dinner.
One of the recipes was not so homemade, but I do remember it well and always called it Mom's Casserole. In a way it was a relief to have this dinner and take her off the pedestal for just a brief moment. Silly to think of that just now.

Mom's Common Casserole
1 tin cream of mushroom soup
1 tin cream of chicken soup
1 c sour cream
1 c drained corn or frozen niblets
1/2 tsp pepper and paprika
3 c cooked med wide egg noodles
2 lb hamburger
1 c chopped onion
1 c buttered breadcrumbs
Fry and drain the hamburger and onion
Mix the 4 ingredients together and add pepper and paprika
Add hamburger, sauce and noodles, mix well and put in buttered casserole. Top with buttered breadcrumbs.
Bake at 350 degrees for approx 30 minutes

Since I'm on the oldies but goodies kick, whenever I make bran muffins I always go back to my tried and true recipe from Roger's Foods, simple and perfectly bran.

Classic Bran Muffins
1 1/2 c Rogers Wheat Bran
1 c buttermilk
1/3 c veg oil
1 egg
2/3 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c Rogers all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda and baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c raisins or dates, optional
375 degree oven, greased muffin tin, makes 1 dozen. Cook 15-20 minutes
Mix together bran and buttermilk and let sit. Combine oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to bran mixture. Combine flour, b soda, b powder, and salt and stir well. Add this to the first mixture and stir until just blended.

So the '5' is almost over, it's early evening. I wish you all a colorful, musical fiesta evening!

Here's lookin' at you!

Flat Out Chickster!

I saw on a few blogs that 'spatchcocking' (An old British term, spatchcocked, refers to the removal of the backbone of a bird so that it can be flattened prior to grilling or roasting, according to the turkey farmers of Canada website) a chicken flat would cook it faster and keep it juicy. I like that idea since I am the white meat fan and nothing could be worse than eating a rubber chicken. So I flattened it! Actually, cut through and took out the back bone, seasoned it all up with olive oil (Greek Olive Oil), my Greek seasoning spices which I loaded with mint, oregano, dried lemon zest, sea salt and cracked pepper, a little garlic under the skin.

Smelled terrific in about 40 minutes in a 375 oven. On a separate roasting pan I drizzled olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper and thyme over my asparagus spears, Yukon gold potatoes, yam and cauliflower. 

                                                                                                                                                                              Easy oven cooking although my heart was yearning for barbq, the weather was not cooperating.

In spite of the weather, there is always yard work and I was anxious to see what might be showing in my raised garden beds. The peas were up! So dependable every year. Little bits of onions, turnip, squash, beans but nothing to get excited about. Still a little early when temperatures are dropping to low 40's overnight. Sigh..

And my dh has a confession (that's my word since he has no idea I'm writing this!! haha). No matter what divine dessert I may have made, how I labored over some recipe or baked a 7 layer cake, his meal ends with a honking bowl of ice cream. Not just any ice cream but his flavor of the past year...drum roll...Reese by Breyers (Ice Cream and more). Oh yes, every night, no exceptions. Kinda cute.

Soup Saturday...at least for lunch

It's the end of the week and it's raining. I feel caught somewhere between monsoon season and drizzles. Let's call it April! 
I had made us a pot of chicken noodle soup the other day and put leftovers in the fridge. It seems all my friends that called during the week were complaining of scratchy throats and headaches. Not taking chances, the soup is out today for lunch and this time I'm adding some ginger and chili garlic sauce to it!

While I was in the fridge (not literally but it gave you pause, right?), I remembered that I had an old standby, Boiled Raisin Cake, waiting for me. You know I love my sweets, so after sharing my peanut butter cup with dh, I brought out the cake to thaw for dinner. 

The pizza dough I made yesterday (from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking Cookbook always) is waiting in the fridge for later this evening. I love the weekend because there is simply no stress, no fuss. 
Back to the cake, it may have been a hardship during the war to think of recipes that didn't have eggs or milk and butter and sometimes even sugar. This cake has stood the test of time. It is moist and rich with the flavor of spices and I personally want to thank the war brides who did whatever was humanly possible to bring healthy meals to their table during WWII. Cheers.
Boiled Raisin Cake
350 degree oven. Bake 1 hour, test.
2 c raisins
1/3 c shortening (I used butter but remember this is the 40's!)
1 c dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg, cloves, ginger
1 c hot water
2 c flour
dash salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 c orange juice, zest of orange
1 tsp vanilla
Put raisins, shortening, sugar, spices and hot water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer 6 minutes uncovered and cool.
Add dry ingredients, orange juice, zest and vanilla to raisin mixture, mix well (runny batter)
Use small tube pan or loaf pan, greased.
Enjoy the weekend whether you have sun or rain, look for the rainbow!

Mexican Chicken Kebabs and friends

I'm beginning to dream of summer, aren't you?  I first had this served to me at my girlfriends home in the Gulf Islands on a warm summer evening. We had chilled white wine and feasted on kebabs. What better way to enjoy the company of friends? Ole! Discussing the menu for our getaways is half the fun of going and an intrinsic part of the much anticipated mini vacations together. Girlfriends, I heart you!

Mexican Chicken with Spicy Yogurt Sauce
2-3 Tbsp fajita seasoning* (recipe follows)
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut in 1 inch chunks
1 large garlic clove
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp evoo
1 c plain yogurt
1 each red, green and yellow pepper cut into chunks for skewers
1 red or white onion cut into chunks
whole mushrooms
In a large bowl combine heaping 2 tbsp of fajita mix and chicken Toss well to coat, cover and chill for 2 hours.
Yogurt Sauce
Using a mortor and pestle or a smooth flat surface, grind the garlic and salt to form a paste. Place in a small bowl with olive oil. Mix in yogurt (and dash of cayenne to taste) and the remaining fajita seasoning.
Alternate chicken, peppers, onion and mushrooms on prepared skewers. If using wooden skewers, pre-soak in water for 30 minutes so they don't char on the grill.
Grill 10 minutes over hot grill.
Serve with rice and drizzle spicy yogurt sauce over all.
Fajita Seasoning*
1/4 c cumin
1/8 c oregano
1 T salt, pepper, garlic powder or granules, onion powder and cayenne pepper.
(1/2 tsp celery seed, basil, nutmeg, marjoram, thyme, rosemary and chili powder all optional)
Mix well.

First Bear of Spring

They're back! I took this picture late last fall before the last of the bears decided to hibernate and leave our yard and their favorite apple tree. Or maybe it's the swing that amuses them. I've been a big fan of Lily the Bear at bear.org where she and her cub, Hope, have just left their den, so I knew it wouldn't be long until our bears were back. I wondered how he got in the yard and after checking out the neighborhood, I found out he had simply climbed over the fence, a good 8 ft fence, since I had neglected to leave the gate open for him. He found the compost and turned that over and sauntered down the hill towards the river. Nice life! 

This aside, I made a Sweet n Spicy chicken dish last night and it was wonderful. Just the right kick tempered with a sweet glaze served with cilantro onion rice and a big salad loaded with toasted cashews, feta, avocado and tomato. Has anyone tried the new artisan lettuce from Costco? 4 lovely small heads of crunchy lettuce..perfection. The recipe follows 

Get your spices ready! Start the rice. Serves 4.

8 boneless skinless thighs

Spice Mix:
2 tsp granulated garlic
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cilantro chopped
1 tsp sea salt
The chipotle is hot chili powder, if you don't have it on hand substitute cayenne to taste or another hot chili powder such as de arbol or pasilla.

Glaze:
1/2 cup honey, melted in micro
1 Tbsp cider vinegar or white vinegar
Mix and reserve 2 Tbsp for serving.

Pat chicken dry and rub with oil. Toss chicken in spice rub to coat well on each side.
Grill approx 5 minutes per side until cooked through. While chicken is cooking, drizzle glaze on each side the final minute of grilling or broiling. Prepare for a little smoke from the sweet glaze. Yum.

 

What did you do last summer, fall and winter? Me? Well this is what I did: stack 'em high! I mixed and measured and toasted and ground until I had a tower of rubs and seasonings done. The house was filled with exotic aromas for hours. It was heavenly and after labeling and putting the spices in tins, I breathed a sigh of satisfaction. 
This went on for weeks actually, as I was a vendor at the local Farmer's Market. A fun experience and I met some wonderful new friends. 
This spring I begin a new adventure. I have raised garden beds to begin square foot gardening and plans for a chicken coop are underway..