Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Guinness-Glazed Lamb Chops

This is one of those recipes, that while the execution might not have been exactly what was intended, the results still turned out pretty dang good.

Being that it was near St. Patricks Day (you probably just realized I'm a bit behind on posting...taking a month or so off of blogging means lots of catching up) I wanted to cook with some Guinness. I originally saw this on various Pinterest boards and found that it came from Epicurious.com. I figured lamb with a Guinness glaze would be a prefect dish to serve pre holiday.

We bought a non-frenched small rack of lamb. Mr. L and I like having a little meat on the bone to chew on since that little bit of meat has such great flavor*. We've found we'd rather get the rack and cut it up ourselves than buy individual lamb chops (of course your butcher can do that for you). We usually have to ask the guy behind the counter for the non-frenched rack of lamb as it's not always out on display.

As I mentioned, this ended up having great flavor...but somewhere along the line I had problems. You see my nice "glaze" that was supposed to be brushed on the lamb before cooking and then drizzled on after? Didn't happen. Instead I had nice solid round discs of what seemed like candy. My glaze seized up on me and became a solid mass and I had no idea how to fix it. We microwaved our little solid discs a bit and tried pouring it on the chops but the glaze immediately became hard again. It looked like we had a disc of caramel candy on each chop! The good thing is that once the lamb was cooked, the disc became a sauce and coated the chops nicely. We ended up just cooking the lamb chops with the little discs on top and not worrying about having sauce to drizzle over after cooking.

Really good flavor. This was super simple to put together and gave the lamb a nice finish even if our sauce was a paste (or not even a paste really...caramel disc is what I'd call it). This recipe is also a great way to use up some leftover Guinness (if there is such a thing) or you can be like me...specifically buy Guinness to cook with so you have leftover to drink. And if you think about it, candy discs of Guinness might not be all that bad.

GUINNESS-GLAZED LAMB CHOPS
(Epicurious)

2 cups (16 ounces) Guinness stout
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed
16 rib lamb chops (buy separately or buy two 8-rib racks of lamb and cut them yourself into individual chops)

Bring stout, sugar, coriander seeds, peppercorns, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to a boil in a 2-quart nonreactive saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then continue boiling (keep an eye on it and reduce heat to keep it from boiling over) until glaze is syrupy and reduced to about 1/2 cup, 20 to 30 minutes.

Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and discard solids.

Preheat broiler.

Pat chops dry and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.

Divide glaze between 2 small bowls and set aside for use later. Brush both sides of chops with glaze (from remaining bowl) and arrange on rack of a broiler pan.

Broil 5 inches from heat, 4 to 5 minutes on each side for medium rare. (Don't hesitate to cut and peek to check on doneness of the meat.)

Transfer chops to a platter and drizzle with reserved glaze.

Note: We cut the recipe in half.

Note: We ended up having much more glaze since it seized before we got down to th 1/2 a cup syrup it says to reduce to. But we liked having lots of the "candy" on each chop.

Note: Obviously we didn't strain our glaze as it's hard to strain a solid mass of candy-type sauce!

Note: We actually did have a bit of Guinness leftover (no worries, many bottles were opened) and Mr. L heated that up, added some butter and such and sauteed some mushrooms that we ate with the chops. Great combo. Just in case you open too many bottles and accidentally really do have a bit of Guinness left.

*Some of you may think that getting non-frenched racks of lamb means lamb bones for the dogs once dinner is over. But we don't have dogs. So we have to gnaw on the bones ourselves because it would really just be wrong to let those little tidbits go to waste. But if you are so inclined, get the non-frenched version and give the bones to your dogs. They will love you. Trust me.

 

Crathie Crunch

Not sure what it is about green food that makes it mandatory to think of St. Patrick's Day. If you look at my St. Patrick's Day Pinterest board, it's full of food that isn't Irish at all...it just happens to be the color green. This is one of those dishes that is far from a traditional St. Patrick's Day dish, but none the less, I feel is perfectly suitable for the occasion.

The recipe came from the Eating Royally cookbook. This was originally to be made for the London Olympics since it called for two ingredients I had picked up for that occasion...McVities Chocolate Digestives and a Peppermint Chocolate Aero Bar (substitutes for these English goodies are listed). The recipe is considered a cheesecake but there is no cheese whatsoever in this dish so I'm not sure if that designation means something different in England than it does here. The dish was supposedly named after the village next to Balmoral Castle in Scotland where the Royals vacation from August until early October.

I'm not really a mint or peppermint person, but most folks that tried this liked it. My concoction didn't look nearly as nice as the photo in the cookbook...my filling didn't seem to be as fluffy as the authors, but it still looked okay.

CRATHIE CRUNCH
(Eating Royally)

1/2 pound (8 ounces) McVities chocolate digestives or 1 cup ground graham cracker crumbs mixed
      with 1/2 cup grated bittersweet chocolate
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons creme de menthe liqueur
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 packets unflavored gelatin
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 peppermint chocolate Aero Bar or 1/3 cup grated chocolate

Grind the cookies in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Place in a large bowl and stir in the melted butter. Firmly pack the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Place the egg yolks, creme de menthe, and sugar into a large mixing bowl over a pan of boiling water, and whisk for about 2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat, and continue whisking until the mixture is cold.

Soften the gelatin in the 1 tablespoon water in a small pan, and place over low heat to warm and dissolve the gelatin. Whisk the gelatin into the egg mixture.

Whip the egg whites until stiff, and fold into the egg mixture. Spoon this onto the tart crust, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Whip the heavy cream in a large bowl until stiff, and spread onto the top of the now-set egg mix. Chop the mint chocolate bar, and decorate with it or the grated chocolate.

Makes 8 servings.

Note: I found the McVities Chocolate digestive biscuits and the Aero Bar at Cost Plus World Markets. Digestive biscuits is just the British word for thin cookie like crackers. Wonderful things. Buy extra of the McVities. Trust me, more will go in your mouth than in the crust.

Note: I had no idea if packets of unflavored gelatin are the same size in the US as they are in Britain. I just used two of the small ones that come in a Knox Gelatin box. A difference might explain why my filling didn't get as fluffy and set as I'd like. Of course it could just be my cooking technique but I'd like to be able to blame it on someone else.

Note: I slathered the whipped cream on which didn't make for the best presentation. I think next time a piping bag would work out better.

Note: The Aero bar is kind of interesting looking...lots of little holes in the green part of the candy bar (see below).

All in all not a bad dessert, but not sure I'd make it again. Though if I needed something green, this would be kind of cool to show up with. That is if there were actually any McVities Chocolate Digestive Biscuits to actually make the dish since they seem to disappear quite rapidly in my house.

Mint Oreos Dipped In White Chocolate

Currently that thing called work is still kicking my butt. I'd also like to point out that Murphy's Law has taken up residence at my job as we've had some of the busiest days on record. So though I'm cooking a bit (or at least providing Mr. L and I with food to eat when it's my turn), I'm still not finding time to try out all the great recipes I seem to be coming across. Or maybe it's just by the time I get home from work it takes all my energy just to push the on button for the television. Huge props go out to Mr. L who has taken up the daunting task of not only cooking every other week, but doing all the meal planning (and that's breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks), shopping and cooking for that week.

For St. Patrick's Day this year, Mr. L cooked our traditional Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage. He also scored some wonderful Irish Soda Bread from the caterer at his work. With this wonderful holiday meal, I figured I needed to come up with a dessert...something that was quick and easy. These White Chocolate Dipped Oreos fit the bill.

I have several "holiday" recipes that are basically the same, it's the color that changes. Cookie Bark and M&M Topped Brownies are two of the ones I've already posted here. Dipping Oreos in white chocolate and topping them with holiday coordinated sprinkles is another quick idea that makes for a festive (easy, quick) dessert. You only need three ingredients....Oreos, white chocolate, and sprinkles. The easy part is that Oreoss usually come out in coordinating colors around the appropriate holidays. Orange for Halloween, Peppermint for Christmas etc. In fact, I've taken the Peppermint Oreos, dipped them in white chocolate and then, instead of sprinkles, topped them with bits of crushed peppermints (you can get bags of the stuff at Trader Joes during the Christmas holidays).

I've had this link from Dandelions and Dust Bunnies pinned for a while. You can find lots of "recipes" out there for dipped Oreos if you look.

Note: You don't need specialty Oreo's, plain old white ones will do. You could even tint the white chocolate to the appropriate holiday color.

Note: To make these look more professional pay attention to the location of the logo on the cookie. I just dunked them in the white chocolate without even looking (or honestly, caring).

Note: You can find holiday sprinkles at Michaels. If you are local, Lunardis bakery area always has tubs of the stuff during holidays. Your local grocery store may do the same thing. I've already picked up Lunardis "Easter" version just in case. I think they'd go well on the Berry Oreos.

Note: I used a couple of mini muffin tins to stand up the dipped Oreos in so that both sides looked good.

Note: You can use sprinkles, colored sugar, Nonpareils, sparkle dust, edible paints, and sugar pearls as toppings on these.

 

Brown Ale-Braised Chicken

I'm a fan of Guinness...some people aren't. I like the flavor it gives to food be it this Brown-Ale Braised Chicken or a Guinness cake. This surprises some people because I don't like beer. I just like Guinness. More specific, I like Black and Tans. Guinness and Bass Ale. With very salty potato chips. I have no clue why. So yeah, pretty much anything cooked with Guinness works for me.

Mr. L and I both really liked this recipe and the flavor the stout gave this dish. I realize they called for "brown-ale" and gave many local beer examples. That's fine for you. I'm using Guinness. The whole thing is pretty simple to put together but took me about 30 minutes or so to prep and then you just have to wait the 40 minute baking time. Which gives you time to sit back and have a Guinness (because you of course bought a full six pack because the grocery store no longer sells the single bottles and you'd hate for Guinness to sit around and go bad). With St. Patrick's Day coming up this weekend, this would be a great dish to serve for dinner.

The recipe for this Brown Ale-Braised Chicken came out of the October 2012 Better Homes and Gardens magazine. As usual the photo of my recipe doesn't look a whole lot like theirs, but at least it tastes really good.

BROWN ALE-BRAISED CHICKEN
(Better Homes and Garden October 2012)

1 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
8 skin-on chicken thighs
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2 stalks celery, chopped
8 small whole carrots with tops, peeled and tops trimmed to 1 inch
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 12-oz. bottle brown ale
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
4 cloves garlic, peeled
Coarsely chopped celery leaves
Fresh Thyme

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl combine brown sugar, chili powder, salt, ground black pepper, and crushed red pepper; rub into chicken thighs. Let stand 10 minutes.

In an extra-large ovenproof skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook until well browned on both sides and skin is crispy. Remove chicken from skillet. Drain fat, reserving 1 Tbsp.

In the same skillet cook and stir the onion, celery, and carrots in the reserved fat about 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in flour; cook and stir 1 minute. Stir in beer and broth. Bring to a simmer. Return chicken to skillet. Add garlic. Cover and bake 40 minutes. Sprinkle with celery leaves and thyme.

Makes 4 servings. (Each serving 552 cal, 23 g carbs, 4 g fiber)

Note: I couldn't find any small carrots but I did find some smallish organic carrots of different colors. I used them but cut them into half and thirds. Messes a bit with the presentation but still tasted good.

Note: I used Guinness Stout in bottles

Note: I of course had the thyme and stuff to garnish the dish and then completely forgot to put them on. Sometimes cooking when you're really hungry isn't the best for food blogging.

Note: We seemed to have way more "sauce" than pictured in the recipe article. It's pretty good sauce so I kept it and used it to pour over some brown rice and quinoa.

All in all a great dish that we would definitely make again and perfect to serve to company.

 

Two Ingredient Pancakes

This was a complete impulse make for breakfast Saturday morning. I woke up before Mr. L so not wanting to disturb him, I laid in bed checking Twitter on my iPad. I came across a tweet from Recipe Girl about the Two Ingredient Pancake. I'd been reading about this recipe since last summer...it's been showcased on a ton of blogs...but I'd just never really thought much about it. Well that tweet from Lori made me realize that not only did I have eggs in the fridge that we were already planning to use for breakfast, but I had a couple of bananas that were going to be unusable if I didn't use them right away. And for some reason I just had to have these pancakes right away!

Once Mr. L woke up, I let him know that he was going to make Two Ingredient Pancakes for breakfast. Maybe I should have waited a few minutes until he was fully conscious because the look he gave me when I explained that they were only made of bananas and eggs was priceless. But he's a trooper so once I let him get his bearings, he had breakfast on the table in no time.

These couldn't be more simple to make. It really is just bananas and eggs. There are a few tricks (if you aren't careful, they do fall apart) and there are a few additional ingredients you can add but basically you mix bananas and eggs and you get pancakes!

The cool thing about this recipe is that it works for many types of diets. Protein, gluten-free, low-carb, paleo. It would even work for diabetics (just watch the amount of bananas as that is a high glycemic food).

TWO INGREDIENT PANCAKES

1 very ripe banana
2 large eggs

Mash the banana (Mr. L used a hand mixer but most folks just mash them by hand) in a bowl. Add the eggs to the mashed banana and whisk  together.

Cook on a greased griddle or pan on medium low heat. Cook until the pancaked is bubbling all over and the edges are dry. Flip to cook the other side. (You will not get an even color like regular pancakes).

NOTE: Your pancake flavor and size may vary depending on the size of the bananas you have. Lori at Recipe Girl used about 1/3 of a cup of mashed banana per egg. This is approximately what we did (four eggs/two decent sized bananas).

NOTE: Mr. L made a double batch to feed the two of us. This made about 8 small pancakes.

NOTE: These are delicate pancakes so be careful when you flip them. It helps to keep the heat fairly low and to have a decent sized spatula.

NOTE: You can add a few ingredients to change things up a bit. Several of the Paleo versions add almond butter. There are some that add flavored extracts, cinnamon, cocoa powder, pumpkin puree, and peanut butter. But none of these additions are needed.

NOTE: Tons of ways you can top this. Obviously leaving it two ingredients makes the most sense health wise, but you can top these with maple syrup, more bananas, chocolate chips, jam, berries, nut butters, peanut butters, nutella, plain yogurt, nuts, warmed honey, powdered sugar, whipped cream, cinnamon or pretty much any other topping out there you can think of!

It did take Mr. L a few pancakes to get the hang of how long to cook them and how to flip them without them falling apart, but we actually really liked these and I think this is a great way to use up ripe bananas that would otherwise spend a life hiding in the back of the freezer waiting to be set free to make banana milkshakes. Definitely make these again.

Peanut Butter Football Dip

I loved this dip. And pretty much anybody who tried it also loved it. Did I mention it was actually quite easy to make? Dessert in an appetizer. My kind of food.

I made this for the SuperBowl. Which if you were a 49er fan, wasn't so super. I originally found the idea for this on Pinterest. I believe the original recipe came from the blog Crazy for Crust (though the recipe is not new, putting it into the football shape might be). I decided to go with her recipe for the dip as it sounded good. There are a ton of Peanut Butter Dip recipes online that you can use if the one from Crazy for Crust doesn't appeal to you.

I served this with football shaped pretzels that I found at Cost Plus World Market. Everyone liked the dip though some had to have it explained that it actually was a dip and that you used the pretzels to scoop up the mixture. My favorite reaction though was from one of The Men Who Drive The Cars. I brought the mixture into work and let my co-workers and drivers have a taste. I knew that I had a hit on my hands when the driver came back the next day asking if I had any of the football left. The success of the dip kinda (though not really) made the 49er loss just a tad bit less painful.

You can find the recipe for this here:

 

PEANUT BUTTER FOOTBALL DIP
(Crazy For Crust)

 

NOTE: Didn't add the extra half cup of powdered sugar. I wanted the dip to be easy to use since the football shaped pretzels I got were pretty flimsy. I think I might like it just a bit thicker next time and would add a bit more powdered sugar. I think regular pretzels would hold up just fine.

NOTE: I might draw a football shape on the wax paper before trying to shape the dip into a football since I sucked at the football shaping by hand. I definitely put this back into the fridge for a bit so that it made it easier to shape.

NOTE: I used a flat spatula to level the top and sides of the dip after it was shaped. Once I shaped the football to my liking I trimmed the rest of the wax paper so it didn't show so much.

NOTE: I found the Jimmie's at Cost Plus (couldn't find them in any of my local or gourmet markets). They had a milk chocolate and a dark chocolate...I used the dark. A bit tough to finagle the jimmies on...I used that small flat spatula to help adhere to the sides of the football shape.

NOTE: I used a tube bottle of white frosting to make the laces. You can check online for folks who really got creative and tried to make it all look like a real football...I figured an approximation would work.

I thought this was a very cool dish to bring to a football party. The dip itself was pretty good so if you are creative, you could shape it into just about anything you want. And you don't really need pretzels, you could use fruit (apples seems to be the thing). Or a spoon.

 

Velveeta Cheeseburger Mac

Since I've already admitted that I have a fondness for Velveeta, it probably won't surprise you that I also am partial to Hamburger Helper. Back in the day, hamburger was pretty much the cheapest beef you could find. And there weren't all these fancy variations...no sirloin, no percent fats...you just went to the grocery store and bought a package of hamburger out of the meat counter. Wrapped in plastic on a white plastic plate. And for a single working mother with me as her daughter (meaning feed me now Mom), my Mom didn't have a lot of time to spend fixing dinner once she came home every night. Variations of Hamburger Helper made regular appearances on our kitchen table. By far my favorite (and my Moms) was the Cheeseburger Macaroni version.

A while back I asked my Mom what dish she wanted me to make out of the Velveeta Incredibly Easy Recipes cookbook and she chose this Cheeseburger Mac. We both figured it would be close to our beloved Hamburger Helper version, and while it was good, it certainly didn't match up. Both my Mom and I thought it was too sweet. I'm thinking it was because I used some organic ketchup from Trader Joes that tends to be sweeter than normal. Or maybe because the Velveeta had a heart attack when it came in contact with something organic and real.  Didn't make it inedible, but it just didn't have the Hamburger Helper flavor we were looking for. Mr. L, who is not really a Hamburger Helper connoisseur, had no problem finishing off his portion.

This is super quick to put together since you don't have to boil the macaroni separately.

 

VELVEETA CHEESEBURGER MAC
(Velveeta Incredibly Easy Recipes)

1 pound ground beef
2 3/4 cup water
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tsp. onion powder
2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
1/2 pound (8 ounces) Velveeta Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Brown meat in a large skillet; drain.

Add water, ketchup and onion powder mix well. Bring to boil. Stir in macaroni; cover. Simmer on medium-low heat 8 to 10 minutes or until macaroni is tender.

Stir in Velveeta; cook until melted, stirring occasionally.

Makes six servings.

Serving Suggestion: Serve with a cooked crisp green vegetable, such as broccoli.

NOTE: I figure I need to taste test some ketchup's to find one that might have less of a sweet taste when I'm cooking with it (I'm not a fan of ketchup...don't dunk my fries in it, don't put it on hamburgers or hot dogs).

NOTE: Even though I'm sure this would be way salty for some folks, I added additional salt (I do that to my Hamburger Helpers too so the sodium goes through the roof).

NOTE: This wasn't extremely cheesy. I think you could get away with adding a bit more Velveeta though you might need to cook it a bit longer so it's not soupy.

NOTE: You could always try adding the Mexican Velveeta for a change of pace.

NOTE: This reheats very well.

Will I make this again? Probably not. I think it maybe be kind of like those donut hamburgers...try it once and then move on to something different. There are plenty of other Velveeta recipes to try and if I have a hankering for something like this I can always just buy a box of Hamburger Helper (and I did make Mom some of her beloved Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni before she passed away and she far and away liked it better than the Velveeta version). 

Bloody Mary Flank Steak

I know Guy Fieri gets a lot of crap these days. I have eaten in one of his restaurants locally here in San Jose and though some of the dishes weren't my favorites, some were very good. He might be a little crazy but I kinda like that. I've eaten at several of the places he's featured on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives and cooked from one of those cookbooks and had great success (American Chop Suey). I've always felt he would be a kick to hang out with. But he does seem to be the one to make fun of.

We enjoyed this recipe. I put the flank steak in the marinade and reduced the sauce the night before so it made a quick dinner when I got home from work. Both Mr. L and I liked the flavor and liked having something different to go with our steak. Is it the best thing since sliced bread? No. But it's something that we will make again.

I found the recipe through Pinterest and the Serious Eats Website. The recipe comes from The Guy Fieri Food cookbook. No I do not own this cookbook. Yes, there is actually a cookbook out there I do not own LOL.

BLOODY MARY FLANK STEAK
(Guy Fieri-Serious Eats)

1 cup vegetable juice (Guy recommends V8)
1/2 cup vodka
1 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more for seasoning
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
1 teaspoon hot sauce (Guy recommends Tabasco)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
2 garlic gloves, crushed
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon ground celery seed
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound flank steak
Small celery stalks and leaves, and grilled tomatoes, for garnish (optional)

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix all the ingredients except for the flank steak and the garnish. Pour half the marinade into a resealable 1-gallon plastic bag and add the flank steak. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 8 and up to 24 hours.

Pour the remaining marinade into a saucepan over medium-high and simmer until it is reduced by half, 10 to 15 minutes. Season to taste.

Preheat a grill to high or heat a skillet over high heat. Remove the flank steak from the marinade and wipe off the excess liquid with paper towels. (Discard the meat's marinade.) Grill or pan-sear both sides, then lower the heat to medium and cook to medium rare (135 degrees F), 8 to 10 minutes.

Let the flank steak rest, covered with foil, for 5 to 10 minutes. Cut the steak on the bias across the grain and serve with the reduced marinade. If desired, garnish with celery and tomatoes.

Serves 4 to 8

NOTE: I used V8 and Tabasco...not because Guy recommended them, but because they are favorites of mine too.

NOTE: I left the actual cooking of the steak to Mr. L who just broiled the steak to medium rare.

NOTE: Did not garnish with celery and tomatoes. I suck at garnish. Always forget even if I have bought the ingredients. Luckily garnish is usually optional.

Again, very tasty, not too much work, something I can put together the night before if I have time and then come home and put a decent meal on the table.

 

 

Light and Creamy Mushroom Soup

I've made several quinoa recipes before....Chorizo and Quinoa (which was a good way to incorporate it with some protein); Tangerine Quinoa Pilaf (a good use if you have leftover Satsumas); and Wine Country Grain Melody (a good side dish salad). One thing I've never done was incorporate quinoa into a soup so I decided to make this Mushroom soup from the Quinoa 365 cookbook.  I'm finding quinoa is a good way to get more fiber into our diets so something like this soup, which kind of disguises the fact you're eating quinoa, is good.

This dish wasn't bad. I did want more of an earthy mushroom type flavor (maybe different mushrooms) but for a light soup, we enjoyed it. First though, it looks like crap. Seriouslyy, not the best looking dish to present (and how does one photograph an ugly brown soup to make it drool worthy anyway?) The Light and Creamy Mushroom Soup was tasty, though both Mr. L and I needed much more salt (which probably went against all of it's healthiness).  The soup was quite filling as we ended up just having the soup as our meal.

LIGHT AND CREAMY MUSHROOM SOUP
(Quinoa 365 Cookbook)

1/2 cup (125 mL) quinoa
2 Tbsp (30 mL) butter
1 cup (250 mL) diced onion
8 cups (2 L) chopped white button mushrooms
4 cups (1 L) chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp (5mL) minced fresh (or roasted) garlic
1 cup (250 mL) half and half cream (10-12%) (more for garnish)
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
Pinch ground black pepper
3 Tbsp (45 mL) half and half cream (10-12%; optional)
3 Tbsp (45 mL) finely chopped chives (optional)

Place the quinoa in a large, dry saucepan over medium heat. Toast the quinoa until fragrant, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Place the quinoa in a bowl and set aside.

Melt the butter in the same large saucepan and saute the onion and mushrooms until the onion is opaque and tender, about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) of the mixture and set aside. Add the toasted quinoa, stock and garlic to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook until the quinoa is tender, about 18 minutes. Puree the cooked mixture with a hand blender or cool slightly and puree in 2 batches in a blender of food processor. Return the soup to the saucepan. Season with salt and pepper. Add the reserved mushroom mixture and the 1 cup (250 mL) of cream. Reheat gently, being sure not to boil the soup. Garnish each serving with a drizzle of cream and some chives (if using). Serves 4-6

Note: Used vegetable stock. Used minced fresh garlic. Used the optional extra cream and chives for garnish.

A good dish, nothing spectacular. I think adding more flavorful mushrooms would help. A great way to get some fiber into your diet though.

Roz's Lumpia

 

When my mom's cancer returned last year, one of the first things that she and I talked about was having me learn how to cook many of the recipes I grew up with. Though I do have written "recipes" of these dishes, most of them are written in what I call "Grandma's Style"...Take some pork, cook it with some onions and garlic and then add some of this and that and cook until done. I need more direction...how much pork? How much of this and that? Is done when the meat is cooked or do you mean simmer on the stove for an hour? Plus, I found that some of the recipes left out important steps (like when I made Grandma Rosie's Garbonzo Stew and the directions never mentioned adding some water...it was something that my Mom knew automatically to do, but it never made it into any of the steps).

Since my mom was born in the Philippines (she lived there until she was twelve) a lot of the comfort food she has been craving in her illness has been Filipino food.  I grew up with my Moms wonderful FIlipino cooking and in fact her Pansit is on the top of the list as my most favorite food dish ever (a dish that has become standard Thanksgiving fare for us instead of a turkey). Over the years, while my mom has cooked Filipino dishes on a regular basis, the one that she hasn't made for quite a while has been Lumpia. I always thought it was a long involved process, probably because the last time Mom and I made Lumpia was for a party almost 30 years ago, where we prepped hundreds of the little rolls to be fried later in the day.

Lumpia is not as difficult or time consuming as you might think. There is a bit of prep (that can be done the night before) and once you get the hang of how to wrap them it's a quick process.To be quite honest, my first wrapped Lumpia were a mess. But after wrapping a few, I got the hang of it and they turned out like the little beauty above. Yes, there is only a photo of one Lumpia...we were eating them as fast as I was cooking them!

My Moms Lumpia is not the standard Lumpia you'll find in most restaurants. It's probably not the Lumpia you'll find made in your Filipino neighbors kitchen. In fact, it's probably not the same Lumpia many of my Aunties and cousins make. That's because, like many cultural dishes, each cook has put their own spin on a dish, changing up ingredients whether it's because of cost or availability or convenience. We've never made the slim "finger size" Lumpia, ours has always been more the size of standard Chinese Egg Rolls. This is the same recipe that my Mom has been making since I was a kid.

ROZ'S LUMPIA

1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
Bacon grease
2 cans french style green beans
2 cups bean sprouts
1/2 large onion minced
2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic from a jar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Rice Flour Lumpia Wrappers
Egg White for sealing edges
Vegetable oil for frying
Vinegar and chopped or crushed garlic for dipping

Saute onions in the bacon grease until almost translucent. Add garlic and cook for a minute or two. Add beef and pork and cook until done. Drain mixture in colander.

Drain the cans of french cut green beans in a colander.

Wash and dry bean sprouts.

Once everything has drained, mix meat mixture with green beans and sprouts. Add salt and pepper.

Take small spoonfuls of mixture, put in Lumpia wrapper and wrap into shape.

Heat vegetable oil in pan (doesn't have to be deep oil, a one inch layer works), about medium high. Fry each Lumpia 15-30 seconds in the oil, turning the roll so it gets golden brown all over. Remove and put on a paper towel lined plate to soak up any additional oil.

NOTE: Draining in a colander is an important step. You want as much moisture out of the ingredients as you can, otherwise you will have soggy Lumpia (and especially if you are making these ahead of time and freezing or cooking later). After letting the meat mixture sit in a colander for a bit, I turned it out onto some paper towels and pretty much let any grease or water soak up. I did this with the green beans too and was surprised at how much liquid they contained. I used a lot of paper towels drying those beans!).

NOTE: There are specific wrappers made for Lumpia. The ones I bought were actually a bit dry right out of the package which made it difficult to wrap without them breaking. Next time I'll try a different brand of wrappers (if you don't have a FIlipino store near you, a lot of Asian markets do sell them). Be sure to keep them under a wet towel while your working so that they don't dry out. My mom has a recipe for making the wrappers from scratch which I'll have to try someday.

NOTE: I'm not going to try to explain how to wrap the Lumpia. I went online and looked up videos of Lumpia wrapping (yes, there are quite a few). It's similar to wrapping a burrito in that you put the mixture on one side, roll, then pull the sides in and roll again.

NOTE: Because the wrapper seems a bit big and you're making more of an egg roll size roll, you might try to put more filling in the wrapper than is necessary. I kept breaking the wrapper until I put much less filling in. This gives the Lumpia lots of wrapper to get that nice crunch.

NOTE: Per Mom, the filling is already cooked so you just want to heat it up a bit with the frying and crisp the outside wrapper. If you've made the filling the night before, let it come to room temperature before wrapping. Basically you are frying the wrapper so it looks nice and just heating up the filling. Depending on how hot your oil is (we just fried in a stove top wok but plan on using a cast iron skillet next time) you may fry these more or less than the 15-30 seconds.

NOTE: I fried these one at a time because we were pretty much eating them as they were cooked. Some of the ones towards the end came out a bit dark because I was running out of oil. Best to start with a good amount of oil or add more as you go. You can obviously fry more than one at a time.

NOTE: If one of the wrappers breaks while frying, do try to get as much of the filling out of the oil as possible, otherwise it burns and colors the oil and doesn't make for pretty Lumpia.

NOTE: This may seem a bit bland so adding a good amount of garlic and salt and pepper to the filling helps. Also, we dip our Lumpia in a mixture of vinegar and garlic which to me makes the dish. There is special FIlipino vinegar if you can find it, but we've used apple cider and white rice vinegar.

NOTE: My mom has also made this with potato...You would want to dice them real small.

Obviously, you can add other ingredients to the filling. You can usually find julienned carrots, cabbage and other assorted vegetables in most Lumpia. You can go all pork. You can add some shrimp. You can doctor this up all you want. But for my Mom and I, this is Lumpia.