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321. 30 Mar 2012 10:05

belladonnis

Looking for good salmon and trout marinades. If you know of past recipies or something new please let me know. I have used brown sugar rubs for salmon but looking for a new twist!

322. 1 Apr 2012 08:27

marius

Baked Roughy with Artichoke Hearts

2 pounds Orange Roughy fillets*
½ medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
½ cup diced tomatoes
1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts, drained and cut into quarters
1 tablespoon butter
½ c. white wine or juice of ½ lemon
bay leaf
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut fillets into serving size pieces and place in a baking dish. Sauté onion, celery, tomatoes and artichoke hearts in butter. Add wine and bay leaf and cook for three minutes. Pour sauce over fish. Cover and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for 5 minutes. Discard bay leaf, sprinkle with cheese and serve.

*This recipe works well with codfish, haddock, tilapia or other mild-flavored fish.

323. 1 Apr 2012 08:27

marius

Stuffed Trout

1 – three pound fresh or frozen, dressed trout, or other fish
¼ cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons chopped green pepper
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 twelve-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup soft bread crumbs (1 and ½ slices bread, cut but not dried)
2 tablespoons chopped canned pimiento
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
2 tablespoons salad oil.

Thaw frozen fish, dry fish. Sprinkle inside generously with salt. Place fish in well-greased shallow baking pan. In saucepan cook onion and green pepper in butter till tender. Sir in corn, crumbs, pimiento, ½ teaspoon salt, and thyme. Stuff fish loosely with mixture. Brush fish generously with oil, cover with foil. Bake at 350 F till fish flakes easily when tested with a fork, 40-60 minutes. Remove to serving platter using two spatulas. Serves 6.

324. 1 Apr 2012 08:28

marius

Salmon in Parchment

4 salmon steaks, 1 inch to 1 & ½ inches thick
1 red pepper, julienned
1 cup snow peas
1 cup carrots, julienned
½ cup jicama, julienned
½ cup leeks, julienned
Parchment paper

Herb Butter
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
pinch of dried thyme
pinch of dried oregano

Cut four 15 inch by 15 inch rectangles of parchment paper and fold each on the diagonal, so you end up with a triangle shape. Now, combine the vegetables. Unfold 1 sheet of parchment and place 1 cup of vegetable mixture on one side of the parchment paper. Place a salmon steak on top of the vegetables. Put one teaspoon HERB butter on top of the salmon steak. Brush EDGES of the parchment paper lightly with olive oil on the salmon/vegetable side of the paper. This will help to seal the packet you are making.

Now, fold the empty side of the triangle over the food and lightly press down around the edges. Beginning on one end of the paper, by the fold, roll paper tightly up to within 1 inch of the fish and vegetables as you proceed around the triangle. Press and roll the edges of the paper tightly, except of course the fold-side of the paper. You should end up with a half-moon shape. Proceed with remaining salmon steaks and vegetables, using same process. Brush 2 baking sheets lightly with olive oil and place 2 packets on each. Bake at 500 degrees for 20 minutes, or less as desired for done-ness of fish.

Place each packet on a dinner plate and cut a small “x” in the top of the paper, folding back edges of the “x” to let the aroma escape. Serve at once.

Serves 4

325. 22 Jun 2012 03:52

chelydra

Random Pancakes

I grew up with pancakes, but didn't begin to really understand them until I found myself at twenty-one starting out my adult life as a starving artist in a slum. The previous tenants in my new $50-a-month apartment (a druggist who called himself Gnossos with a harem of lovely zombies, who wove spiderwebs all over the ceiling) had left behind a bag of flour and half a stick of margerine (among other less-edible things) and I had a small flying pan. A paste of flour and water fried in puddles of margerine moderated my starvation for several days. When I came into a little money, I invested in a dozen eggs, then milk, butter, and eventually a fresh bag of wholegrain flour.
The recipe evolved over the years, and eventually the making of pancakes involved a series of rituals that could keep a whole family occupied for an hour or more before breakfast.
Buying a grain-grinder (imported from South America, it looked like a meat-grinder, with a big crank and a clamp to attach it to a heavy table) was a real breakthrough. We could feed any combination of grains into it, my own favourite being brown rice, along with chunks of nutmeg or whatever. It was a lot of exercise, almost like crushing little stones, a great way to build up an appetite. At that time our yard was overrun with ducks, hiding their eggs under bushes, and still-warm duck eggs are perfect in any recipe calling for eggs. The milk was also still warm, straight from the goats we employed to overseee the ducks.
But by then, the basic ingredients of flour, milk and eggs (in whatever proportions you want, but not too thick or too thin to cook properly) had been joined by just about anything or everything available. If you have a blender, it's easy to add beets, carrots, leftover chicken, etc. — or if not, grate them by hand and you get more texture as well as more exercise. Beets give the finished pancakes a glorious rosy-purple hue as well as nice subtle sweet flavour.
The oil and pan you use are crucial. Slightly exotic nut oils, especially walnut oil, are best; linseed oil gives a faint fishiness that tastes better than it sounds. The pan has to be cast iron, unless it's one of the antique stone griddles (which I never used, since the heirloom in cellar was cracked).
Of course you can also just use a ready-made pancake mix out of a box, but read the ingredients before you buy! Unless it's all real grain, you'll be better off just using a good wholegrain flour, with an extra egg or two and/or a pinch of baking powder for leavening.
Syrups, like mixes, are often synthesized from an ungodly combination of chemicals. They can leave you with nasty aftertaste as well as a slight feeling of dizziness and queasiness. Better to use no syrup at all! If you're lucky enough to live in or visit in Vermont, or somewhere near it, you buy awesome maple syrup from farmers. Try the rare, special grades that are either very light (light amber grade AAA, I think it's called, with an exquisite delicate taste) or very thick and inky-dark (grade B or C or D, full of character). Maple syrup from supermarkets is just about all medium or dark-amber, and expensive. Honey is nicer, I think, you can find all sorts of exotic honeys. (A friend of mind keeps hives in the dunes on a barrier beach, and his honey tastes like the ocean.)

The main thing you need to know about Random Pancakes is that there is NO recipe, just experience. It took me about fifteen years, making pancakes almost every day and sometimes having them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, to fully grasp the concept. You never need to eat anything else ever again.

326. 22 Jun 2012 05:05

chelydra

I forgot the most important part - the cooking. Cooking is different depending on the particular batter, and each batch of batter is different.
The only ingredient that's absolutely prohibited from Random Pancakes is white flour - you can use any whole grain - cornmeal, wheat, spelt, kamut, brown rice. are all good, especially when combined. You want batter that's stringly and muscular when you drip it off the wooden spoon. If it's a whole lot too thick and heavy, or way too thin and liquid, the cooking will go wrong. However, it can go pretty far in either direction (thick and coarse or thin and fine-textured) and still be absolutely fine IF you adjust your approach to cooking according.
In general fine powdery flours like rice yield thin batter, and coarse pebbly grains like corn (maize) make it thick. When pancakes go badly wrong, it's usually a case of fine powdery flour in thick batter, or coarse flour in thin batter.
Thin batter should be used for making what the French call crepes — enormous pancakes that fill the whole pan, but very thin. (If you need to shove the batter around with a sppon in the pan to flatten it and spread it out, it's too thick for the crepe approach - crepe batter just pours to the right sizes and shapes.) Crepe batter should have an extra egg or two or three to give it tensile strength and help it dry in the cooking - otherwise you'll end up with limp, damp ragged strips, about as appetizing as used Kleenexes. Flipping big thin pancakes is an art in itself of course, but they'll taste end cook just fine if you cheat and cut it in half or quarters before you flip; otherwise they can fold into themselves and turn into a mess.
Extra-thick batter will result from using coarse-ground flour and not too much milk or other liquid. By the way, if you blend in carrots and/or beets, they provide some extra liquid (as well as flavour and nourishment). Even the thickest useable batter will still be thin enough to pour, or almost pour, without too much spooning or shoveling.

Thin pancakes may cook in about 45 seconds on side A, then another twenty seconds or so on the B-side. The thickest one can take five or even ten minutes to cook through. But you need to watch the pan, not the clock.

The flipping rules are the same for all pancakes, thin or thick, random or standardized: In all cases, wait to flip until the bubbles on top start to become permanent little holes, as the surface starts to dry out a little. (This may not happen if the batter is WAY too thick or thin, in which case you'd have to use your judgement and hope for the best.) The other side may need to cook for just as long, or just a third or half as long, depending on exactly when you flip. Also crucial: Use a medium-low heat, to ensure they cook through thoroughly and gently - unless you have a hungry family, in which case you can go up to medium-high as long as you're paying attention.
There are strong opinions on the amount of oil or grease you should use. I can go either way, a mere trace of oil or a deep puddle. It's a matter of taste. The quality of the oil you use is a factor. The skillet in my childhood home was always greased with old bacon fat collected in a tin can, best applied with a paper towel in small doses. Also, bear in mind that different oils can tolerate different amounts of heat before they break down and lose their flavour. If the pan is smoking noticably it's probably way too hot, and any kind of oil or grease can burst into flames if you're not careful.

By far the most important ingredient in random pancakes is cautious optimism and confidence. But not overoptimism or overconfidence - these are almost invariably fatal.

Oh - one other note on the cooking: the first batch never comes out quite right. Just keep cooking and don't change anything until the second batch is done --- unless you can see that the batter is obviously way too thin or way too thick (easily remedied with more flour or more egg/milk).

327. 22 Jun 2012 06:02

Baldur

Baldur has a dear friend in New Orleans that regulary sends him bags of pecan meal. What a divine addition to pancakes this is
Oatmeal ground into a coarse flour is another.

My grandmother sandwiched halfcooked pancakes together with a bit of soft farmer's cheese in between. Then she finished frying them until cooked throughout. These were often served at dinner.

You have brought up a wonderful topic chelydra. thank you.

328. 22 Jun 2012 07:14

mdawrcn

Yep, you started something. I am now eating my buckwheat pancakes with fat, juicy blueberries, butter and organic maple syrup. Yummy.

329. 22 Jun 2012 07:38

chelydra

Thanks, Baldur! I forgot to mention that ground-up nuts are a great addition, and pecans are probably the very best. I should disclose that I fell out of my pancake habit quite a few years ago. I ate enough to last me a lifetime between that first revelation in Gnossos's crash pad at 622 East 11th St NYC in March 1969, and my gradual withdrawal from the habit 12-14 years ago. The emphasis on organic and fresh ingredients is not so much ideological and practical. The usual things sold as pancakes in diners and supermarkets are not exactly toxic, but they're certainly no good as food. You might as well eat a slice of the dusty chocolate cake on display in a corner of the diner. But with really good, honest ingredients, Random Pancakes are an amazingly well-balanced meal that will keep you feeling strong and good and energetic for many hours. In buying ingredients, by the way, bear in mind that anything that's been reduced to a powder has probably lost two-thirds of its nutritional value and flavour before it even gets to the shop shelf, and if it then sits in your cupboard for months or years, you might as well eat dust. Something like powdered nuts are liable to go slighty rancid before too long, too. So it's best to use grinders, graters, choppers and blenders to turn whole, unmolested things into batter.

330. 22 Jun 2012 07:40

chelydra

make that (above) "not so much ideological AS practical"

331. 22 Jun 2012 07:43

chelydra

and, thanks, mdawrcn - how did I neglect to mention buckwheat! and blueberries! (as well as bananas, etc etc).

332. 22 Jun 2012 07:59

chelydra

I tossed this off without bothering to review previous pages, with their great bread (from Baldur) and waffle (with yeast!?) recipes. So this Random Pancake thing can be read as a continuation, or a variation on the theme. It's basically about ways of eating grass-seed (all grains are just grass-seeds).

333. 11 Dec 2012 16:53

Normal

Change of Subject to CRANBERRY CHUTNEY (pursuant to recent TD pic)

1 lg. can pineapple chunks, cut up a little (I just use the tidbits!)
1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 1/2 c. sugar (WAY too much: 1 c. is enough, but suit yourself)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp fresh ginger
1/4 tsp. all spice
3/4 c. golden raisins
3/4 c. walnuts, broken into pieces

Drain pineapple and pour liquid into a pan. Add cranberries, sugar, all 3 spices, and raisins. Cook over medium heat until cranberries pop open & are tender (not all popped.) Stir in pineapple and walnuts. Serve at room temperature.

I make ahead and add nuts when reheating to keep them crunchy.
Can last a week in refrigerator. Probably would be much stiffer if I used ALL the recommended sugar! Recipe from a family cookbook, given me
by a friend whose kids collected the recipes and published them.

334. 12 Dec 2012 00:43

Login

I'm intrigued by chelydra's 'flying pan' ... was it designed to save the cook from the chore of tossing the pancakes.

335. 23 Feb 2013 07:41

09adam2963

my style lasange

ingredients:


2 tins of fresh mince

2 tomatos

1 mushroom

pasta sheets

bechemel cheese

cheddar cheese (grated)

tomato purre


methood:

find a biggish plastic tub

spread the full packet of tomato purre on the bottom

pour half the mince into the dish

put some tomatos in (chopped)

put the mushrooms in (choped)

put one layer of pasta on top of the mince

do these steps again leaving the tomato purre out

put the bechemel sauce on

put the cheddar on

set the oven to 200 degrees (fan oven) or 220 degrees (conventional) or gas mark 5

serve hot!

delicious!!!




336. 24 Feb 2013 04:16

Lizzi

Sounds very easy-peasy, Adam. but one thing intrigues me. You make this in a "plastic" tub? And then you bake it. In the same plastic tub?

337. 13 Sep 2013 07:38

09adam2963

yes ps who r u?

338. 13 Sep 2013 11:34

Normal

I'm with Lizzi - would never put a plastic pan in my oven, even at
200 degrees.

339. 18 Sep 2013 05:51

Hazer

I have stumbled upon a bread recipe that is so easy and delicious I must share.

Perhaps some of you have heard of this before but it was new to me. It is

called Peasant Bread. I will give the basic ingredients first which will result in

two round loaves of white bread.

Combine the dry ingredients: 4 cups white flour , 1 tablespoon sugar, 2

teaspoons salt, and 1 package instant dry yeast.

Combine 1 1/2 cups cold water with 1/2 cup boiling water and stir into dry

ingredients to make a very soft dough. No kneading required!

I place the dough in my oven with just the oven light on and let it rise for 2

hours. Before rising I give the top of the dough a light spray with Pam (canola

oil) and lightly cover with plastic wrap.

After the first rise, stir the dough down and divide into two greased oven proof

bowls. Spray, cover lightly and place in warm spot for 1/2 hour while the oven

is preheating to 425 F. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 F and

bake another 15 minutes. Remove loaves and place on rack to cool.

So quick and easy....I taught my grandchildren how make it and they were

thrilled to have bread they had made themselves to treat their Dad with when

he got home from work.

I make variations by adding grated cheese, a mixture of seeds sprinkled on

top, or use a combination of white and whole wheat flour. I like Baldur's idea of

adding oatmeal and will try that next. I also want to try cinnamon raisin or

poppy seed.







340. 18 Sep 2013 10:17

indigo

Well, I just printed out your recipe Hazer and I'm anxious to try it. I have a
similar recipe from Chef Michael Smith and I cook my bread in a cast iron pot
with a lid. The smell of fresh bread from the oven is wonderful. *J*