Onion Smothered Eggs

Amy calls this recipe “a definite comfort food,” likes it “with copious amounts of fried onions and a bit of Parmesan cheese,” and notes that “there is no way to make it look beautiful.” I’d say she’s right on all counts.

For 2.

4 eggs
1 large onion, cut into rings
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
2 tbsp parmesan, grated

Hard-boil the eggs.

Meanwhile, saute the onions in the butter until soft and light brown. Add flour and stir until toasted. Add milk and stir until thickened. Add parmesan.

Shell and slice the eggs and pour over the glop.

Good on toast; we had it on buttermilk biscuits.

(From Cooking with Amy: a food blog.)

Papaya, Red Pepper, and Pecan Salad with Chicken

Fruity, but the lime in the dressing cuts the sweetness.

For 4.

Salad:
8 cups torn romaine leaves; about 2 heads
2 ripe papaya, peeled, seeded, and cubed
1 large or 2 small red bell pepper, diced into ¼-inch pieces
4 green onions, sliced finely
¾ lb boneless, skinnless chicken, cooked and cubed
¼ cup chopped pecans, toasted

Dressing:
3 cloves garlic, pressed
¼ cup fresh lime juice (1 lime)
2 tbsp chicken broth
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Mix salad; whisk dressing ingredients together; dress.

Papayas were fiendishly expensive ($2.99 each!) and poor-looking today; I substituted with the remains of a bag of Trader Joe’s frozen mango and half a can of pineapple. It worked out very nicely.

I also substituted leftover turkey for the chicken, which also worked out, making this a good post-Thanksgiving or post-Christmas recipe.

I’m not convinced the broth adds anything much to the dressing; I wouldn’t bother unless you happen to have some handy.

(From the American Institute for Cancer Research’s The New American Plate Cookbook.)

Spaghetti Squash Burrito

An off-the-cuff use for leftover spaghetti squash which worked out surprisingly well.

For 2—4.

½ spaghetti squash, cooked
½ cup tbsp sour cream
1 cup medium fresh salsa (homemade, or we like the La Mexicana from Albertsons)
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, grated
flour tortillas

Mix squash, sour cream, salsa, and most of the cheese. Roll burritos into a oiled baking dish, top with the remaining cheese, and bake approx 15 minutes at 350°F or until heated through.

Spaghetti Squash with Marinara Sauce

Spaghetti squash is weird; but good. It's pretty mild so needs other flavours to accompany it.

I cooked my squash by halving it, removing the seeds, and roasting at 375°F for about an hour. You can also roast whole for about the same time or in a microwave for 15–20 minutes; in both cases, pierce it a few times with a knife first to avoid explosion. Or boil it whole for 20–30 minutes; but you'll need a pot bigger than my biggest…

For 2–3.

½ medium spaghetti squash
2 tsp olive oil
½ medium onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 28oz can chopped tomatoes
(1 tsp dried thyme)
(½ tsp dried rosemary)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
¼ cup grated parmesan

Cook the squash.

Saute onions and garlic until translucent; add tomatoes, thyme, and rosemary, and season; being to a boil; simmer 10m. Remove from heat and stir in basil.

Remove seeds from squash and scrape out flesh with a fork in spaghetti-like strands. Mix with sauce, top with Parmesan.

(Omitting the thyme and rosemary seems to work out OK, too.)

(From the American Institute for Cancer Research’s The New American Plate Cookbook.)

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Sesame-Lime Vinaigrette

Cheap and cheerful for fall, particularly around Thanksgiving when yams are freely available. (In the US, at least, yams are sweet potatoes.)

For 4-6.

2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tbsp canola oil (or other light oil; I used peanut oil)
salt & freshly-ground black pepper
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 scallions/spring onions, sliced
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (optional; turned out fine without it)

Preheat oven to 500°F—which on mine is full blast. Toss sweet potatoes in oil, salt, and pepper and roast in a shallow pan for 15 minutes, turning once. Caramelized edges are good here, don’t worry about blackened bits.

1 inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced (could use more)
2 cloves garlic (could use more)
juice 1 lime
2 tbsp canola oil (or whatever)
1 tbsp dark/toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar

Chop garlic and ginger in blender; add remaining dressing ingredients and blend.

Mix vegetables and dressing; serve warm.

(From Andrea Chesman’s The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook .)

Steel Cut Oatmeal

A revelation after instant oatmeal; it takes time, but it’s worth it. For 2.

1 tsp butter
1 cup steel-cut oats
3 cups boiling water
1 cup milk

Toast the oats in the butter for 2 minutes.
Add the boiling water—a cup at a time, it’ll froth up initially.
Reduce heat to a low simmer and cover for 25 minutes.
Stir in milk and simmer another 10 minutes.

Alton Brown recommends half full-fat milk, half buttermilk; we make it with fat-free milk and it’s fine. Buttermilk is a good substitution but makes a richer, slightly sourer oatmeal.

(From Alton Brown’s Good Eats Food Network show.)

Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I got this one from a New Mexico green chile promotion at Nob Hill Foods. Careful, though: it takes a lot more green chiles than you might expect to yield two cups. My three medium chiles, once roasted and peeled, yielded about half a cup. Improvise by adding jalapeños if, like me, you fall short.

Makes 6–8 portions.

• 3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I used 2 bone-in rib-in breast portions, poached, which was plenty)
• 2 cups roasted, peeled, and chopped New Mexico green chile (about 12; could probably substitute 4 green bell peppers and add jalapeños to up the heat)
• 1 26 fl.oz. can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
• 26 fl. oz. milk (measure using the empty can)
• 2 cups grated cheese
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• green jalapeños to taste, chopped (seeds in or out to taste; I used 4, seeds out, but would leave them in next time)
• ground pepper to taste
• 10–15 corn tortillas, torn into quarters

Fry onions, garlic, jalapenos in a large saucepan until soft. Add soup, milk, chile, pepper, bring to a simmer, and remove from heat.

Layer sauce, tortillas, cheese in casserole dish. (I found this made too much for my 13"x9" pan and had to overflow into a second dish; no big problem, can freeze the excess uncooked.)

Bake at 350°F, 20 minutes covered followed by 20 minutes uncovered.

(From a New Mexico Department of Agriculture promotion; more recipes, although not this one, at their website.)

Lentil-Bulgur Salad

for 6

1 cup dry lentils
2 cups water

1 cup dry bulgur wheat
1 cup boiling water
½ tsp dried oregano

¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp fresh finely-chopped mint
4 tbsp (¼ cup) finely-chopped parsley
½ cup finely-chopped red onion
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
½ cup olives, stoned and chopped
1 tomato, finely diced
½ cup chopped toasted walnuts
½ cup crumbled feta cheese

Mix bulgur wheat with hot boiling water in a bowl, cover, and let stand.
Simmer lentils 25 minutes, or until tender but not mushy. Drain and add to bulgur.
Mix all ingredients and refrigerate.

A good mixture, and the lentils really work well with the bulgur and herbs, but we thought it needed more lemon juice—or maybe the zest of the lemon?—and more salt. I’ll tweak appropriately next time I make it.

(From Mollie Katzen’s revised edition of the Moosewood Cookbook.)

Deep-pan Pizza Dough

makes 1 decent-sized pizza

2; cups strong white flour
½ tsp salt
1tsp dried yeast
½ cup warm water, more as needed
2 tbsp olive oil

By hand: mix flour, salt, yeast in mixing bowl; mix in oil and water to form soft dough; knead 10m.

In a food processor: blend flour, salt, yeast briefly; run at slow speed, pour in oil and water to form a ball of soft dough. Rest 2m. Process 1m at slow speed to knead.

Prove in covered, greased bowl 1h or until doubled. Knock back and knead briefly. Roll out, or shape, onto greased baking sheet. Prove 10m, use.

(From Shirley Gill’s 50 Quick & Easy Pizzas.)

Cornmeal Pizza Dough

makes 1 decent-sized pizza

1½ cups strong white flour
¼ cup cornmeal
¼ tsp salt
1tsp dried yeast
½ cup warm water, more as needed
1 tbsp olive oil

By hand: mix flour, salt, yeast in mixing bowl; mix in oil and water to form soft dough; knead 10m.

In a food processor: blend flour, salt, yeast briefly; run at slow speed, pour in oil and water to form a ball of soft dough. Rest 2m. Process 1m at slow speed to knead.

Prove in covered, greased bowl 1h or until doubled. Knock back and knead briefly. Roll out, or shape, onto greased baking sheet. Prove 10m, use.

(From Shirley Gill’s 50 Quick & Easy Pizzas.)

Onion Dip

enough for 4 greedy people

3 onions, chopped finely
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp chili powder

2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 heaped tbsp sour cream
2 heaped tbsp cream cheese
2 tbsp milk

Fry onions slowly with spices for at least 30m, until very soft and golden.
Let onions cool.
Mix remaining ingredients and stir in onions.
Refrigerate overnight to let flavours blend.

(Reverse-engineered from The Amateur Gourmet’s description of a recipe in Ina Garten’s The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook ; original weblog post.)

Asian Chicken Salad

2 servings

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
½ cup rice
4 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp roasted sesame oil
2 small garlic cloves (or 1 large), peeled and crushed
a good dash Tabasco
¼ tsp sugar
1 tbsp rice or other mild vinegar (cider vinegar works well)
1 cucumber
2 handfuls salad leaves (baby spinach works well)

Season chicken and pan-fry whole in a little oil.
Cook rice by absorption method with 1 cup water.
Mix soy sauce, peanut butter, sesame oil, garlic, Tabasco, sugar, vinegar. Add 4 tsp hot water 1 tsp at a time until smooth and creamy.
Peel, deseed, and dice cucumber.
Dice chicken. Combine with cucumber and dressing.
Serve on rice and salad leaves.

(Heavily adapted from Mark Bittman’s The Minimalist Cooks at Home; original weblog post.)

Waldorf Salad

¾ cup walnut pieces
3 large crisp apples, cored and cut into chunks
2 stalks celery, cut into ½ inch slices
1 cup grapes, halved
1½ tbsp lemon juice

½ cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp chopped chives
1 tsp sugar
¾ tsp grated lemon zest
ground pepper to taste

Toast walnuts in a 350°F oven or a dry skillet.
Toss apples, celery, grapes in lemon juice.
Whisk remaining ingredients, add to salad, toss.

(Adapted from this Food Network recipe.)

Beef Goulash

Serves 4–6.

2–3lb braising or stewing steak (US: chuck or 7-bone), cubed
2 tbsp flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
3 medium onions, cubed
2–3 red peppers, cubed
3 tsp paprika
1 can (~14 fl oz) beef stock
1 cup white wine
1 cup sour cream
(1 tbsp snipped fresh chives)

Toss the beef in the seasoned flour. In a casserole or heavy pan, brown the beef in batches in the oil and butter and set aside. Fry the onions and pepper 4—5 minutes until browned. Add paprika and cook 1 minute. Add any remaining seasoned flour and brown briefly. Add beef, stock, and wine and bring to a simmer.

Transfer to a 300°F oven and cook 2 hours or until beef is tender. Remove, stir in sour cream. Serve with noodles, garnish with chives.

Best made in advance and reheated (add sour cream after reheating) but really, who does that?

(Tip: if you cut up a 7-bone roast and have bones and trimmings left over, roast them alongside the casserole to brown them and render out the fat, and use the pieces to make beef stock for next time.)

(Adapted from this Waitrose recipe.)

Turkey Meatloaf with Apples

Serves 4. The original recipe adds raisins and pine nuts, but we didn't think they added much.

2 lbs ground turkey
½ medium onion, grated or food-processed finely
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 large egg, beaten
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground black pepper

1 large green apple, cored and thinly sliced
vegetable oil for brushing

Mix all ingredients except apple and place in loaf pan. Fan out apple slices on top of loaf and brush with a little vegetable oil.

Bake 55m at 400°F. Remove and let rest 5m or more.

(Adapted from Sheryl Julian & Julie Riven’s The Way We Cook : Recipes from the New American Kitchen.)

Corn & Pasta Salad

6 servings.

2 cups tiny pasta shells
4 ears fresh corn, stripped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
½ red onion, finely chopped
4 scallions, finely chopped—or double up the red onion
3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

½ tsp salt
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
¼ cup cider vinegar
½ cup olive oil

Boil and drain the pasta. The original recipe cooks the corn briefly with the pasta, but I think if the corn's fresh and young it doesn't need any cooking.

Whisk the salt, mustard, vinegar, and oil together; toss the hot pasta with the dressing; mix in the other ingredients. Chill.

(Slightly adapted from Sheryl Julian & Julie Riven’s The Way We Cook : Recipes from the New American Kitchen.)

Golden Jubilee Chicken

Nigella Lawson's Golden Jubilee reworking of Coronation Chicken, which I finally got around to trying. Better late than never. For 2.

1 mango, cut into 1cm cubes
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1–2 red chilis, deseeded and finely chopped
juice of 1–2 limes
1 cold cooked chicken breast, cut into chunks
1 little gem lettuce, shredded
1 handful fresh coriander, chopped
1 tsp groundnut oil
few drops toasted sesame oil

Mix mango, spring onion, chilli, lime juice.
Add chicken, lettuce, coriander, and toss.
Add oils, toss.

I substituted ¼ chopped red onion for the spring onion and 1 tsp olive oil for the groundnut oil: still good. However, it does need a lightweight lettuce like little gem or iceberg; Romaine is too dark and robust.

(From Nigela Lawson’s Forever Summer; also online as Golden Jubilee Turkey.)

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Enough to ice one cake. Excellent on yellow cake.

4 ounces (½ package) cream cheese (Philadelphia, or supermarket brand)
4 tbsp (½ stick) butter
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, or extra to taste.
2 cups confectioners (US: powdered; UK: icing) sugar (about ½ a 1lb box)
½ tsp vanilla extract

Bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature.
Cream with vanilla extract in mixer or food processor.
Add cocoa powder & sugar 1 cup at a time, blending at low speed until incorporated.
Taste for balance; I used Nestlé cocoa and found it needed a couple of teaspoons extra to round out the chocolate flavour.
Blend on medium speed 1 minute until fluffy.

(From Anne Byrn’s The Cake Mix Doctor.)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Enough for one cake; good on carrot cake.

4 ounces (½ package) cream cheese (Philadelphia, or supermarket brand)
4 tbsp (½ stick) butter
2 cups confectioners (US: powdered; UK: icing) sugar (about ½ a 1lb box)
½ tsp vanilla extract

Bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature.
Cream with vanilla extract in mixer or food processor.
Add sugar 1 cup at a time, blending at low speed until incorporated.
Blend on medium speed 1 minute until fluffy.

(From Anne Byrn’s The Cake Mix Doctor.)

Romaine with Caesar Buttermilk Dressing

For 2. Quick.

¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup buttermilk
¼ cup grated parmesan or romano
½ small onion, grated or finely diced (red onion works well)
1 tsp or to taste Worcestershire sauce
ground black pepper

1 romaine lettuce, cut
1 cup croutons (garlic & paprika works well)

Beat together dressing ingredients; toss with lettuce; add croutons and toss.

(Adapted from Rick Rodgers’ The Carefree Cook.)

What’s this? And why?

What’s this? A place for me to post recipes I’ve tried, liked, and want to keep. A modern, searchable alternative to saving piles of printouts, photocopies, and newspaper clippings, and to transcribing recipes onto index cards.

And why? That’s a harder question.

I brought my box of recipe index cards with me to the US, but I’ve found I haven’t used it much since I arrived. Partly this is because I’m still in full-on new-recipe-discovery mode. But it’s also because it’s such a pain to search 200-plus cards for the one recipe you vaguely remember but forget the name of; or for recipes that use up that celery in the icebox. My aunt solves this by transcribing everything into a huge Word document and searching within it, which works well but somehow feels vaguely unsatisfactory to me. Maybe I’ve come to expect everything to fit within my web browser.

This post by Jason Kottke on digital memory, and the Cory Doctorow piece it references, My Blog, My Outboard Brain, crystallised my thinking. I do treat my blog as memory: when did I last hike in Las Trampas? Where was that Javascript quick reference I spotted? And in particular, I do search the blog for recipes I’ve discussed in the past: what was in that onion dip?

So, this is an electronic version of the trusty old index cards. Blogger takes care of the publishing (and, as a bonus, the backup). Google takes care of the searching. (Note that the search box in the Blogger bar, at the top of all Blog*Spot blogs, does a Google search within the blog.) It’s mostly for my own benefit; but if anyone finds, reads, uses, comments on recipes here, so much the better.

But finally: what of copyright? Well, copyright on recipes is a bit of a vague area. According to the US Copyright Office:

Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.

[…]

Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to names, titles, short phrases, ideas, systems or methods.

So, copying a “listing of ingredients”: OK. Copying “systems or methods”: OK. Copying “substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions”: not OK. To me, this suggests that you can reproduce a Nigella Lawson recipe, by copying the ingredients and describing the functional method in your own words; what you can’t do is copy the flowery prose in which she describes how she makes the recipe, including the sensual joys of licking the bowl and the secret pleasure of raiding the fridge at midnight for leftovers.

This seems reasonable enough, and it acknowledges that recipes themselves are not unique creations; they circulate and evolve, but ultimately there’s only so many ways to bake a chocolate cake. The literary expression is in the description of the recipe and in the compilation of recipes into a collection. Recipezaar, one of the many recipe-collection sites on the web, takes the same stance:

Where does Recipezaar stand? A list of ingredients is a list of ingredients, the government doesn’t care and neither do we. But when it comes to other people’s description and directions don’t copy the flowery stuff, put it in your own words. You probably made the recipe, you probably did it slightly differently than the original directions anyways, describe what you did.

That suits me; I usually tweak recipes anyway, to fit the ingredients and equipment I have to hand, to simplify, and to suit my own style.

Enough introduction: time to start. No guarantees on how often I’ll update—it’s only successful recipes which’ll make it here, so if it goes quiet assume I’m either enjoying a run of repeats or suffering a run of failures. Let’s see how it goes.