Cooks Illustrated All-Purpose cornbread

Posted on July 21, 2014 by admin

1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
.75 tsp table salt
.25 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
.75 cup frozen corn, thawed
.25 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and make a well in the center

In a food processor, process the corn, buttermilk, and brown sugar just until combined, about 5 seconds. Add the eggs and process to combine, another 5 seconds. You should still have corn lumps.

Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and fold it in with a rubber spatula until barely combined. Add the melted butter and continue folding until the dry ingredients are just barely moistened.

Pour the batter into a sprayed or buttered 8×8 glass baking dish, or as I did, a 10-inch cast iron skillet. Bake 25-30 minutes or until it’s a deep golden brown and passes the toothpick test in the center.

Tina’s notes:

The cast iron, being dark metal, cooks faster so start checking at 20 minutes. It gives a marvelous crust on top and all around the sides of the cornbread!

In spite of the sugar, which made me nervous because I prefer savory rather than sweet bread, the results are perfectly balanced, not too sweet at all.

okonomiyaki from food52.com

Posted on July 19, 2014 by admin

Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sriracha, more or less to taste
Pancakes
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup AP flour
2 cups cabbage, shredded with a mandoline or finely chopped
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and chopped
3/4 cups (roughly) baby or chopped shrimp
canola oil for frying
1-2 tablespoon toasted sesame seed
bonito flakes (optional)

Whisk the first set of ingredients together and voila, your sauce. Set aside while you make the pancakes.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs with the soy sauce, sesame oil, and salt. Gradually add the flour until incorporated. Fold in cabbage, scallions, and shrimp.
Warm a couple glugs of canola oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until glistening. Ladle the batter into the skillet as you would for regular old pancakes. I usually make them about the size of saucer. Cook on each side for about 3 minutes or until golden brown. Keep pancakes covered in a warm oven as you make the rest. Scatter sesame seeds and/or bonito flakes on top of pancakes and serve with dipping sauce and a cold pilsner. Makes roughly a dozen pancakes depending on their size

Grandma Carlough’s Midnight Cake (or cupcakes, or bundt cake, or…) from Liz McGowen

Posted on July 5, 2014 by admin

1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup hot water
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Mix first 4 ingredients; mix in rest of dry ingredients; add vanilla to hot water and mix into other ingredients. Bake in 8″ round cake pans or pour into cupcakes, or bundt pan. Check with toothpick after 25 minutes. Delicious, rich, moist, versatile batter – passed down through generations! I use a mixmaster. Makes the perfect birthday cake!

Deviled Eggs with Smoked Salmon Eric Ripert

Posted on July 1, 2014 by admin

6 eggs
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons crème fraiche
2 ounces smoked salmon, diced
1 tablespoon sliced chives
– cayenne pepper
– fine sea salt and
freshly ground pepper
1 lemon cut in half
– paprika to garnish

Hard cooked eggs go with so many different flavors well. Deviled eggs are a fun way to offer an appetizer that guests can just pick up and eat in a couple of bites. Some mayonnaise and smoked salmon mixed into the yolks in this recipe make them a little more rich.

Place the eggs in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil, cover and remove from the heat. Let the eggs sit, covered for 12-15 minutes; drain the hot water and run cold water over the boiled eggs until cool.

Peel the eggs and cut each egg in half lengthwise. Gently remove the yolks from the center into a small mixing bowl. Set aside the egg white halves.

Add the mustard, crème fraiche, shallot, smoked salmon and chives to the egg yolks and stir to combine. Season to taste with cayenne, salt, pepper and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Spoon the mixture back into the egg whites. Garnish with paprika. Serves 4

Terry’s Dilled Potato Salad

Posted on June 29, 2014 by admin

5 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes
1 bunch watercress
1 bunch dill
8 eggs
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup nonfat sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
salt and pepper
1 large vidalia onion

1. Cook the potatoes in their skins until just tender. Cool, skin, and cut into cubes.

2. Coarsely chop the watercress and dill. Be mindful that if you chop dill too fine it tastes gritty. Combine the chopped hard cooked eggs. Adjust the mayonnaise, sour cream, and buttermilk to make a nice thin dressing. I like lots of salt and pepper. This is a very simple, very delicious potato salad. Perhaps one of my favorites. It just might be these Yukon Gold potatoes. They are fabulous and are the only potato to use for mashed. Serving Size: 6

NOTES : This is the potato salad my friends always ask for when we have our annual crab feast.

Spicy Ramen from Terry

Posted on June 28, 2014 by admin

This is nicely spicy. David liked it enough to ask me to make notes so I could make it again for him. I think you can add whatever you like to this soup. It’s the Lady Sauce that makes it yummy with the spice.

1 teaspoon Lady Sauce
2 cups water
1 package ramen noodles
spice packet or chicken base
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1 egg
drizzle of toasted sesame oil
chopped scallions

nn a small saucepan heat the Lady Sauce for a minute or so just to “cook” it a little. Add the water and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the spice packet or the chicken base and stir to combine. Add the bean sprouts. Drain the excess white from an egg and add the egg careful to the hot soup. Bring the noodles over the egg and let sit for a minute. Drizzle with a bit of the sesame oil. Add some chopped scallions for a garnish and serve. Serving Size: 1

Notes:

The Lady Sauce is Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp Sauce which I bought from Amazon after reading about it on http://www.thewoksoflife.com blog. Her family called it Lady Sauce because of the women on the label. It seems the Chinese translation of this sauce is Godmother.

Crab Louie Salad – A West Coast Classic for 100 Years

Posted on June 28, 2014 by admin

Crab Louie Salad may have been born in San Francisco, Portland, or even in Spokane. Written history informs us that it was being served at Solari’s in The Golden Gate City as early as 1914. A cookbook by Victor Hetzler, chef at the St. Francis Hotel, included a similar salad he called “Crabmeat a la Louise” in 1910. Some attribute its creation to Louis Davenport who built the Davenport Hotel in Spokane. An amusingly unorthodox source is The Neighborhood Cook Book, compiled by The Portland Council of Jewish Women in 1912.

Today, in-the-know diners flock to The Swan Oyster Depot in San Francisco for this famous salad, and it’s their dressing recipe I use here. It’s a simple version of Thousand Island Dressing.
Like most salads, Crab Louie is constructed from a few basic ingredients: Dungeness crabmeat (use blue crab if you cannot find fresh Dungeness), iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus, and avocado served with a creamy dressing like Thousand Island or Russian. I added curly topped scallions, hard boiled eggs and crisply fried bacon.

I’ve seen it presented neatly constructed with the ingredients side by side à la Cobb Salad. I prefer the Jackson Pollock method, scattering them pell mell over the lettuce while allowing the star ingredient to assume center stage. Because the crab has a delicate and sweet flavor, I prefer to serve the dressing on the side.

Speaking of dressings, many have a way of maturing and developing deeper flavors if allowed to rest in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight, so make ahead of time if you can.

For the dressing:
2 cups (480 ml) of mayonnaise
1 cup (240 ml) tomato catsup or chili sauce
½ cup (120 ml) sweet pickle relish
½ cup (120 ml) black olives, chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped or grated
Method:

Mix all ingredients until combined and let rest in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.

Note: I can see many subtle ways to adjust the flavor of this dressing: a dash or even a wallop of Sriracha in the catsup could provide a surprising kick. Let your imagination do its magic here.

For the salad:
1 head of iceberg lettuce, chopped (I firmly believe that iceberg lettuce is a must for the cool, crisp texture)
½ to ¾ pound (227-340 g) of fresh crabmeat, picked over to remove any shell or cartilage
½ pound (227 g) fresh asparagus, cooked and chilled
3 tomatoes, sliced into wedges
1 avocado, peeled and sliced
8 scallions, trimmed with 3 inches (7½ cm) of the greens remaining (to make the green ends curl, slice them with a sharp knife or scissors from the beginning of the dark green color to the cut ends and place in an ice water bath)
4 hard-boiled eggs, halved or quartered
4 slices of bacon cooked until crisp and chopped do not use
8 peppadew pickled peppers (Peppadew – a brand name of sweet piquanté peppers: look in the olive bar of your supermarket or on the shelves for jarred peppers)

Place some of the lettuce on a plate as a bed for the remainder.
Artfully place the remaining ingredients and serve with the dressing on the side. For 4 servings

Chocolate Pudding from food52

Posted on June 27, 2014 by admin

2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons tapioca flour
1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces 66% cacao dark chocolate, chopped
Unsweetened whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Put the egg yolks and tapioca flour in a blender and blend on low speed until a light-colored paste forms.

Combine the sugar, cream, milk, salt, and vanilla in a saucepan set over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, then remove it from the heat. Turn the blender containing the egg and tapioca mixture back on low. Quickly and carefully, pour the hot milk mixture into the blender and increase the speed to medium. The heat will cook the egg yolks and allow the tapioca to thicken to the consistency of thick mayonnaise.

With the blender running, add the chocolate in stages so it is emulsified into the pudding. When all the chocolate is added, strain the pudding into a serving bowl (or 3 to 4 serving bowls) and let it cool to room temperature before transferring to the refrigerator to cool completely. Top with whipped cream if you like. Serves 3 to 4

Classic Macaroni Salad from Hellmann’s

Posted on June 20, 2014 by admin

8 ounces elbow macaroni (about 1-3/4 cups)
1 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1 Tbsp. Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Dijonnaise™ Creamy Dijon Mustard
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup chopped green or red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion

Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain and rinse with cold water until completely cool.
Combine Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, vinegar, Creamy Dijon Mustard, sugar, salt and pepper in large bowl. Stir in macaroni, celery, green pepper and onion. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

The Original Potato Salad from Hellmann’s