I’ll be brining a turkey this year, and this useful website tells you (and me) how.
THANKSGIVING SPECIAL / The Chronicle’s Classic Turkey
Category: Recipes (Page 25 of 26)
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When we went to the Halloween store, Michaela picked up a bag of Halloween petit four paper cups and I went ahead and bought them. I didn’t want the purchase to be useless, so I decided to make these easy candies that have been a favorite of mine since I was a little kid. They are rolled on shredded coconut so we decided to call them Maggot Balls.
They weren’t as big a hit with others at the party as I’d had expected. Well, it just meant there were more for me! 🙂
All the proportions are approximate, as I didn’t measure when I made them.
Maggot Balls
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup 1-minute oats
- 2/3 cup dulce de leche
- 1/4 cup cocoa
- a dash of cognac, rum or another liqueur
- shredded sweetened coconut
Mix all the ingredients save for the coconut together in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until they all melt and can be easily combined, stir well. Take off the heat and let the mixture cool down. Take a teaspoon of mixture in your hands and roll into a ball. Roll on the shredded coconut, put in a paper cup or directly a serving sheet.
When they are all done refrigerate before serving.
I wrote this post in 2004. Since then, I’ve made this recipe many, many, many times. It’s one of my kids’ favorite, as well as my own. It’s very simple, it only requires buying 3 ingredients (chicken, onions & celery), and it’s absolutely delicious. I’m re-editing this post by doubling the recipe for the dumplings, they’re the best part 🙂
Last night I made chicken and dumplings. This was a favorite recipe of mine when I was a kid, probably because it was a specialty of my grandmother and my father, whom I loved very much. It also tasted completely different from everything else we ate in Argentina. I based the recipe below on my father’s recipe, which didn’t have precise measures. I also looked at this recipe at Allrecipes.com to give me some guidance. The dish came out great, I loved it and I will certainly make it again.
Note that with these measures, the dumplings are not very sturdy, they broke up very easily. I liked this, as they helped make the sauce much denser, though if you prefer firmer dumplings you may want to use another dumpling recipe (like this one). You can vary the spices in the broth and add whatever you like, you can also use fresh parsley, I used dried ’cause that’s what I had at hand.
Chicken and Dumplings
For the chicken
- 1 Tbsp. oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 lbs chicken parts
- 3 ribs celery, chopped
- 4 cups water (about)
- 1 1/2 tsp. coarse salt
- 1 Tbsp. dried oregano
- 1 Tbsp. dried parsley
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. paprika
- 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
For the dumplings
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 6 Tbsp. butter
- 1 1/2 cups milk
In a large pot, heat the oil. Add the chopped onion and fry over medium-low heat until golden, about 8 minutes. Add the chicken parts and brown on all sides. Add the celery. Add enough water to cover the chicken. Add the herbs and spices, mix, turn down the heat and simmer over low heat uncovered until the chicken starts falling apart from the bones, about an hour. Add more water if necessary.
Meanwhile prepare the dumplings. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Add the butter and blend together using a fork or your hands. Put the mixture into the fridge until the chicken is almost ready. Remove and slowly add the milk, blending with a fork.
Add the dumplings to the simmering liquid by the spoonfull. Let them cook for about 5-8 minutes and then flip. Cook for 5 more minutes or until cooked through. When you put them in the water and/or flip them parts of the dumplings will fall off and mix in with the broth making a gravy. Stir to make sure this happens. If it doesn’t, add some extra flour and stir until the gravy is the consistency you like.
I wanted to make chicken & dumplings the other day but I didn’t specify in my shopping list that I wanted regular chicken and Mike got me skinless, boneless chicken breasts instead. Not ideal for chicken & dumpling purposes, to say the least. So I want to use them for something else. Just grilling them seemed boring, but given the very limitted ingredients I had at home the possibilities were limited. So I decided to make chicken salad.
Now, I’ve eaten chicken salad before but I had no idea how to make it. Unfortunately, for this one task, the internet was kind of useless. I found tons of recipes for gourmet or strange chicken salads, but not one well-rated recipe for a simple, supermarket variety chicken salad. Still by looking at the other recipes I learned enough to improvise.
So I grilled two chicken half-breasts, sprinkled with cajun seasoning, in my George Foreman. When done I put them in the food processor with 3 stalks of celery and chopped it all. To that I added some chopped walnuts I found in the cabinet (I don’t want to imagine how old they were) and enough mayo to hold it together. I added some salt (probably a bit too much) and some lemon juice and ta-da. It was pretty good, though I still like the chicken salad at Albertson’s better. Mike really liked it, though and even Mika had some. So yeah, I’ll probably make it again.
About three years ago, Mike had an incredible watermelon sorbet at Charles Nob Hill. One of my motivators in getting an ice-cream maker was to be able to make it for him. Today I finally try but my attempt wasn’t very successful. He says the taste is fine but it doesn’t have the melt-in-your-mouth consistency sorbet should have. We suspect the problem is that the watermelon wasn’t pureed enough (I used a food processor). Next time I think I will use the blender and then strain it (so that I end up with watermelon juice) before making it.
Here is the recipe I tried
-5 cups watermelon puree (about 1/2 a seedless watermelon)
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 cup fresh lime juice
Heat 1 cup of watermelon puree with the cup of sugar and stir until the sugar melts. Mix in the rest of the puree and the lime juice. Cool in the refrigerator or freezer. Put in the ice cream machine and freeze according to the instructions.
Pastel de Carne, or Meat Pie, has been one of my favorite dishes since I was a little girl. It’s rich and hearty, perfect for a cold winter day – and to satisfy those pregnancy cravings.
A pastel de carne is very simple and quite reminiscent of an Irish Sheperd’s pie. It’s consists of a layer of mashed potatoes, a layer of cooked ground beef and another layer of mashed potatoes baked in an oven-safe pan. I use the same filling I use for the empanadas (a modify version of which I also use for spaghetti sauce). It contains many more spices than my mom’s simple Argentinian basis, but I like it more.
To make it you need
-6 cups mashed potatoes (I often use boxed ones, but if you want to make them yourself this recipe is great
-1 tbsp. olive oil
-1 onion, chopped
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1 lb ground beef
-salt & pepper to taste
-2 tsp. garlic powder
-2 tsp. oregano
-2 tsp. paprika
-1/2 tsp. curry powder
-1/2 tsp. coriander
-1/2 tsp. cumin
-1/2 tsp. chili powder
-1/4 tsp. allspice
-1/2 cup pasta sauce (optional)
-1/8 cup red wine
-1/2 cup raisins
-Shredded and/or parmessan cheese to taste
Sautee the chopped onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat in a deep skillet. When soft, add the garlic and sautee for a couple of minutes. Add the ground meat and brown. Add the spices and stir. Add the pasta sauce and the red wine, stir and cook until the meat is well cooked. Remove from heat and stir in the raisins.
In a oven-safe deep pot, layer half the mashed potatoes, cover with the ground beef and top with another layer of mashed potatoes. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake until the cheese on top melts or browns.
This meat sauce is really easy to make, as it relies on store-bought sauce, but it’s absolutely delicious. I always get great raves from everyone when I make it.
For an even more delicious dish, sprinkle shredded cheese (mozarella, jack, provolone or a mixture of cheeses) over the hot pasta before serving the meat sauce.
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 tsp. garlic powder
- 2 tsp. oregano
- 2 tsp. paprika
- 1/2 tsp. curry powder
- 1/2 tsp. coriander
- 1/2 tsp. cumin
- 1/2 tsp. chili powder
- 1/4 tsp. allspice
- 1 jar pasta sauce
- 1/2 cup red wine
Sauté the chopped onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat in a deep skillet. When soft, add the garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the ground meat and brown. Add the spices and stir. Add the pasta sauce and the red wine, stir and cook until the meat is well cooked. Serve over any type of pasta.
My second batch of dulce de leche ice cream was more sucessful. This time I used 1 cup of cream, 1 cup of 2% milk, 1 cup of dulce de leche and 4 egg yolks, milk/cream and eggs were cooked separately and then all mixed together, strained, allowed to cool and frozen. I still don’t understand what the purpose of cooking is, however.
The taste of this batch was stronger (it had a greater proportion of dulce de leche) and I thought it was just as smooth. Kathy liked the first batch better, but Mike and I preferred this one.
I’m now making my 3rd batch. I used 1 cup cream, 1 1/2 cup nonfat milk (all left at home), and probably 1 1/2 cup dulce de leche. The truth is I didn’t measure it, I just keep adding it until it was very sweet. I wanted to add eggs as well, but I overcooked them so I’m not sure how much egg were left in the mix after I strained it. We’ll see how it turns out. I’ve also runned out of chocolate, so this will be plained dulce de leche, not dulce de leche granizado like my last two batches.
Kathy arrived today for a month-long visit. She always complains that I’m always talking about this great food I’m making and yet never cook for her when she’s here. She’s right. So I offered to make dinner for the night of her arrival – she was afraid I’d back down but I didn’t. I had already eyed this recipe – I had some leftover stilton – and she was OK with giving it a try (after I explained that stilton was another blue cheese, just like the gorgonzola that she likes).
It was great. Easy to make and delicious – the sort of thing you can serve either for a family dinner or for company. It is terribly fattening (with all that butter, cream and meat). I’m pretty sure it would work just as well with another blue cheese (at least with one of the milder types), so just use your favorite. Finally, if you are not a blue cheese fan, you don’t need to sprinkle the rest of the blue cheese on the steak. The original recipe called for beef tenderloins (expensive), but there is no reason why it shouldn’t work as well with a cheaper cut of meat. I made both a tenderloin for Kathy and New York steaks for us.
The original recipe is for 6 (people/steaks) but that would leave you with too little sauce per person. I think it works best for four. I served them with egg noodles (the first thing that I found on the pantry) and that worked well. Mashed potatoes would also go well with the dish.
Recipe
-4 steaks
-salt & black pepper to taste
-1 tbsp dried tarragon
-5 tbsp butter
-1/2 lb portobello mushrooms, sliced
-1/3 cup red wine
-1/2 cup sour cream
-3 oz silton, crumbled.
Rub steaks with salt, pepper and tarragon. Let rest until they come to room temperature.
Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a large skillet. Grill steaks until done to your taste. Remove and keep warm (put them in a plate and cover them with a heavy napkin).
Melt additional 3 tbsp butter in the skillet where you cooked the steak. Add mushrooms and sautee until soft, 2-3 minutes. Add wine and deglaze the pan. Add sour cream and mix well. Add 1/4 cup crumbled Stilton cheese. Remove from heat.
Spoon mushrooms and sauce over each steak. Sprinkle remaining stilton and serve.
After the bite of chicken Escabeche I got at Patagonian Gourmet, I was in the mood for more, so I tried making my own. The recipe that follows (from an Argentine site) is quite simple. It’s nowhere as tasty as the one at Patagonian, but it’s quite good and addictive! I still haven’t served myself a dish, I keep going back to the pot and taking pieces of chicken (don’t worry, I only made it for Mike, Mika and I – we share our germs in many other ways)! We are going to have a lot of wasted veggies (next time I’ll use less). Mika also liked it, despite the vinegary tasty.
A word of caution, I cooked the chicken for 2-3 hours and that was probably too much (or at too high temperature). You may want to check the texture after 1 1/2 hours.
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