Tag: Recipe

This is a quick, relatively easy, recipe for a European-style quiche.

First, set the oven to 400F (205C).
Then brown about 1 pound (1/3 Kg) bacon. I used a relatively meaty American bacon. In the UK it would be called streaky bacon. It’s sort of important to cook the bacon slowly so that it browns rather than burns. This gives you plenty of time for the next step.

While the bacon is cooking, make the crust.
I use a simple flour crust, similar to what I use for pies, but without any added sugar.

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 stick (1/4 lb, 100g) margarine or butter. Sweet butter is probably not a good idea for this recipe
• 1/2 teaspoon (large pinch) salt.

Cut the margarine into the flour and salt. It should look like coarse corn meal, or actually, Masa Harina tortilla flour. I usually add a small amount of water, not enough to let the mix ball up, and then remove about 1/3 of the mixture. Then I’ll add enough water to the rest to form a plastic dough. (about 2 tablespoons the first addition and another 3 the second time.) Roll out the dough, put some of the dry mixture on it, fold over and roll out again. Do this several times until all the dry mixture is used up. (You can just add enough water and roll it out once, but this procedure makes it fluffier. It’s up to you.)

Shred about 1 cup of a strongly flavored cheese. In the US I use “Swiss Cheese” (which isn’t Swiss). In the UK I’d use a gruyere or something similar that wasn’t cheddar or leicester. I haven’t tried it, but I bet stilton or brie would be really good.

Put the bacon and cheese in the crust. Note that I have the torte shell on a thin baking pan. It will often spill a little bit in the oven, and it’s much easier to clean up a baking sheet than an oven.

Whip together six eggs, salt and pepper and pour it over the bacon and cheese.  Bake for 30 Minutes in the 400F (205C) oven

a simple way to make Satay chicken

Cut a chicken breast (or two) in thin strips. Dry rub with:

• 1 tablespoon peanut butter powder
• 1 teaspoon hot Madras curry powder

Meanwhile heat up the griddle. THIS IS IMPORTANT – even with a well-seasoned griddle, if it’s too cold the meat will stick. I will typically oil the griddle with some corn oil on a paper towel.

Add.

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Place on the griddle:

Four or five minutes latter, the meat is half done, so flip it. This is where pre-heating the griddle will repay you.

After another few minutes it’s done. Enjoy.

I make a wicked pumpkin pie, and the basic recipe works well with sweet potato or any similar filling.

Pumpkin pie is basically a vegetable and spice flavoured custard in a pie crust. You bake it in a moderate oven (375 F, 205 C) until it sets. Then you eat it (at least if you can get there before your family’s pie monster finishes it).

I’m going to give my recipe in the order that is easiest to do, which means start with the crust, make the custard, roll out the crust, put the custard in the pie and bake it.

1. Pie crust step 1
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 stick margarine (1/4 pound or so)
• 1 tablespoon sugar (for a sweet pie, omit for meat pies)
• 1 teaspoon salt

Work the margarine into the flour, sugar and salt. I use a mixer, but forks and pastry knives are almost as easy. It should be coarse – sort of like corn meal- possibly with a few small chunks of the margarine left.

Put it in a bowl in the freezer to chill and rest.

2. The filling

This is basically the same as most cans of pumpkin have on the back, but with a minor twist.

• 1 can pumpkin (1 lb per pie, don’t bother with the “pie filling”) The equivalent is about 1 1/2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin or sweet potato.
• 3 eggs
• 1 can condensed milk (about 1 cup)
• 1 tablespoon corn starch – this helps the custard to set. You won’t find this on the standard recipe.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Mix the eggs, sugar, salt, corn starch and spices. It should be a creamy yellowish mixture. Add the condensed milk and mix thoroughly. Finally add the pumpkin and mix. Set aside.

This is our traditional way of preparing the thanksgiving bird.

Stuffing for a smallish turkey:

• one loaf white bread
• one pound cheap fatty pork sausage
• four or five stalks of celery
• one or two onions
• salt, pepper, thyme, sage to taste
• two eggs

Cook the sausage, crumbled up in small bits. Chop and add the onions and celery. Cook to sweat that. It should be limp but not browned. Add about 1 teaspoon dried sage and 2 teaspoons dried thyme.
It should look something like this:

I would taste a small amount, and possibly add pepper (< 1 teaspoon) and maybe salt (there is usually plenty in the sausage). I typically use “lite” salt that has potassium chloride because I like the extra potassium in my diet.

While it’s cooking clean the bird, remembering to remove the neck and gizzards (use them to make gravy).

Salt both the outside and inside of the bird. (The red dot is from a thermometer plug that’s common in the USA.) Find a pan which will fit it.

Coarsely cut the bread into cubes and add to the mixture. Add the eggs to it and mix.

I will typically deglaze the pan by putting about 1/2 cup of water in it and reducing that to about half the volume. It removes the brown, tasty residue from the pan and converts it into a brown, tasty liquid that gets added to the stuffing.

Stuff the bird. Cover in foil and bake at a moderate heat (300F, 150C) until done. I usually remove the foil about an hour before serving to let it color up.

This is a surprisingly simple recipe that works both on the stove top, and even more amazingly, with period cooking gear, and completely unbelievably with tenderfoot/webelos scouts (did I ever mention I’m a scout leader and adult trainer?).

I’m going to give two variations, the “fail safe” one that you can eat uncooked, and the somewhat nicer one that you can cook when you know what you’re doing.

The recipe

Cover with an unrolled package of crescent rolls. 
Bake until the rolls are done and the soup is bubbling. 

Eat and enjoy. Goes well with Boone’s farm. Unless you’re scouting, when it goes well with lemonade.

Christmas Cake is one of our family traditions, brought over from the “Old Country.” Well not so old, as we have current connections to England. It’s a solid good Fruitcake. By English standards, we’re too late. Should have set this up a year ago for proper aging.

In any case here’s the recipe:

1. Cream 2/3 cup butter or margerine. Add 2 cups sugar and 2 tablespoons molasses. Cream.
2. Add 5 eggs, one at a time. Then turn the mixer up and cream the lot.

It should look like this. Then add: 4 cups plain flour. 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup brandy, doesn’t have to be the best grade. VS is fine.

	Add a couple of pounds of candied peel, a cup of raisins and a pound of candied cherries.
	After mixing, it will be rather stiff. You’ll need to stir it with a spoon. Traditionally everyone in the house should take a turn giving it a stir.
Then put it in a greased springform pan. The beer can is for scale.

Bake at 350F (200C) until done. It might take 1-2 hours or more. I often leave it overnight, after turning the oven off.  It should look like this:
	Poke holes in it, and then “feed it” with about 1/2 cup of brandy. Cover it with foil and store in a cool, dark place to mature. I’ll feed the cake every two weeks or so until Christmas.