My Lime Green Kitchen

Archive for December, 2009

Two things I want you to know about this recipe:

1. If you think you don’t like lamb . . just try this recipe.  It’s so good . . so very good.  I think we’re going to have it every day in 2010! 
2. If it looks hard . . it’s just because it’s long and I took too many pictures.  It’s not hard.  It’s so easy and it sits in the oven forever while you sew or knit or shop online.  And, while it’s cooking, it makes your house smell so good!

I adapted this recipe from a FoodNetwork recipe.  One thing I changed from the original recipe is their recipe calls for lamb shanks and while I generally prefer shanks for soups and stews, for lamb I prefer chops.  The bone is still in there so you get some added flavor, they’re very tender and they don’t have all that connective tissue and fat that has that kinda strange “lamby” taste.  I love lamb chops but do not like leg of lamb at all so maybe it’s just me.

And, in my picture you’ll see that I have whole cloves and the recipe calls for ground cloves.  I ran out of ground cloves!

Ingredients:

3/4 c. flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
8 or 9 lamb chops, trimmed of all visible fat
Olive oil
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound carrots, sliced about 1/2″ thick
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
3 cups red wine
2 quarts beef stock
1 cup barley
6 large russet potatoes

For Topping

12 – 14 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Salt & Pepper
1-1/2 cups chopped fresh parsley
1 stick butter
2 T. olive oil.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Season flour with salt and pepper . . whatever amount you think you need.  You can adjust seasonings later.  Dredge lamb chops in flour.

Brown the chops in olive oil over medium-high heat.  They do not need to be fully cooked — just nice and brown.

Remove lamb chops to another dish.  If you need a bit more olive oil in the pot, add it.  Add the carrots, onion and 5 cloves chopped garlic.  Cook til onions are clear.

Add thyme, cloves and bay leaf.  Continue to cook for a couple of minutes.  Return lamb chops to pan.  Add wine, beef stock and barley.  Cover and place in oven for 2 hours.

For the Topping:

While the stew is cooking, chop the remaining garlic and parsley.

Melt butter in a pan and add olive oil oil.  Add the garlic and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and let sit til needed.

After the stew has been cooking for 2 hours, remove from oven.  Peel potatoes and cut into half lengthwise.  Lay on top of stew (like a crust).  You may have to cut some of the potatoes to get all the holes covered and get them to fit.  It doesn’t have to be perfect though.  Put about half of the garlic/parsley mix on top of the potatoes.  Cover the dish and place the dish back in the oven and cook another 45 minutes.

Add the remaining garlic/parsley mix and continue to cook, uncovered for another 15-20 minutes.

Serve, making sure to place a lamb chop or two in every dish.

These rolls are great and the best part is you can make them ahead and keep the dough in the fridge for up to two weeks. The dough can be rolled out (like a biscuit) or shaped into a roll. They don’t rise as much as the typical yeast bread so if you want big, fluffy rolls, roll them out about 1/2″ thick. The story is that they’re called jailhouse rolls because they were rolled out thinner and passed between the bars in the jail. I can’t say from personal experience if that’s true or not.

Jailhouse Rolls

1 c. mashed potatoes
2 sticks butter or margarine
3 whole eggs
7 c. flour (maybe a little more)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. lukewarm water
1 pkg. dry yeast

I make mashed potatoes and use the potato water for the liquid.  Make sure the liquid is cooled down to about 110 – 115° before adding the yeast.  If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast and dead yeast is not good!    I usually use about 1 cup of the potato water and add enough cold water to get it to 115°.  Make the potatoes as usual.  I use butter and cream.

Mix yeast in the warm water and let sit for 5 – 10 minutes.

Melt the 2 sticks of butter in a large bowl.  Add the sugar, eggs and salt.  Depending on whether you added salt to the potatoes as they were cooking (I do), you may want to add less salt than suggested.

Stir in potatoes.

Stir in flour.  Near the end, it may be easier to dump it all onto a floured countertop and knead it til smooth.

To make the rolls, shape into rolls or roll out and cut.  Place in a buttered baking dish.

Place the leftover dough in a zipper type bag and keep in the fridge til needed.

Let the rolls rise for several hours.

Butter the tops.  Bake at 450° for about 10 minutes.

This is one of the white bread recipes I’ve used for years:

Amish White Bread

2-1/2 cups warm water
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1-1/2 T. granulated yeast
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1/4 c. oil
6 – 7 cups white flour

Stir granulated sugar into warm water til dissolved. Add yeast. Let sit 5 minutes. Add salt and oil. Stir in 3 cups of flour. Continue adding flour 1 cup and then 1/2 cup at a time til dough is no longer too sticky to work with. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth, adding more flour as needed. You want the dough to be just a tad sticky but don’t let it get too dry (by adding too much flour).

Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled.

Turn dough onto floured surface, knead a couple of minutes. Shape into 2 loaves. Place in greased loaf pans. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise about 30 minutes or til the dough is about 1″ above the sides of the pan.

Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes.

Try adding some herbs, cheeses, sun dried tomatoes, etc. before the final kneading.   Yummy!

6 – 3 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded flat
salt and freshly ground pepper
6 thinly sliced pieces of prosciutto
1 – 10 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained as much as possible
4 T. olive oil
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
2 T. fresh lemon juice

Place the cutlets on a flat surface.  Salt and pepper.  Place on piece of prosciutto on top of each breast.

Mash spinach between paper towels to drain as much as possible.  Salt and pepper, toss with 2 T. olive oil.

Arrange a thin layer of spinach on top of the prosciutto.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of the spinach. Beginning at the short end of the chicken, roll up, jelly roll fashion.  Secure with toothpick.

Heat the remaining 2 T. oil in a heavy skillet.  Add the chicken and cook til golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.  Add the chicken broth and lemon juice.  Scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any drippings.  Cover and simmer about 10 minutes, until chicken is done.  Remove chicken.  Continue simmering liquid in pan until it’s reduced to about 2/3 cup.

Remove toothpicks from chicken.  Pour juice over chicken.  Serve over hot, buttered pasta.

This is one of my favorite cookies.  There are several variations for making these and from what I’ve read, the recipe requiring baker’s ammonia is one of the best, most authentic recipes.  I rarely have baker’s ammonia and we’re perfectly happy with this recipe.

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 lb. powdered sugar
4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 – 4 drops anise oil

Directions:

Beat eggs til thick and lemon colored.  Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add flour, one cup at a time, along with baking powder.  Beat well after each cup of flour.  Add anise oil.  If your family isn’t a huge fan of anise, stick with 2 drops.  A little goes a long way!   We love anise and I usually add more than 4 drops.

If the dough seems a little too sticky, add another 1/4 – 1/2 cup flour.

To roll dough, sprinkle surface with flour and flour the top of your dough.  Roll to 1/2″ thick with a regular rolling pin.  Using a springerle pin, roll and cut the cookies.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and allow to sit out overnight, uncovered, in a dry place.

Bake at 300 for 20 minutes.  Do not allow to brown.  It is recommended that you put these in an airtight container and store for one week before serving.  That never happens at our house.

Sweet & Sour Meat Loaf
1-1/2 pounds ground beef
1 c. dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
2 eggs
1 – 15 oz. can tomato sauce
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. cider vinegar
½ c. white sugar
2 tsp. prepared mustard
This is a great recipe for doubling and putting one in the freezer.  Also, the leftovers make fantastic meatloaf sandwiches.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, bread crumbs, salt, ground black pepper, eggs, and 1/2 of the can of tomato sauce. Mix together well and place into a 5×9 inch loaf pan.

Push the meatloaf down into the pan forming a well for the sauce around all the edges.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining tomato sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, white sugar and mustard. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.

After meatloaf has cooked for 40 minutes, remove from oven and pour sauce over the top of the meatloaf.

Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 20 more minutes. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

It’s pretty much the same whether you’re making chicken broth, beef broth, seafood stock . . whatever. Today I’m making chicken broth.

Start with a chicken! That part was easy, huh? This one was smoked in a Cookshack Smoker, which I highly recommend. Eat what you want, then pick the meat off the bones. You can leave a little meat on the bones if you’d like. Normally, I’d remove all the skin too but the skin has so much wonderful smokey flavor, I’m leaving it for the broth. It will mean more fat but I can skim that off. Depending on how your chicken was cooked, your broth will have different flavors for different batches. When the chicken has been smoked, the broth is great for beans, gumbo, etc. I sometimes roast a chicken with rosemary and lemons. The broth made from that chicken is great for Chicken Piccata and other pasta dishes. If your chicken was cooked with a definite flavor, you will want to note that on your jar so that you know what you’re getting. I wouldn’t want to use smokey chicken broth in a mild flavored dish, nor would I want lemon rosemary flavored broth in my gumbo.

Put the bones in a crockpot and begin adding whatever you want to add. In this picture I’ve added quartered onions (actually, it’s just half an onion because I had it left over from something else and it’s enough).

Here I’ve added carrots, celery, parsley, red pepper flakes, black pepper and bay leaves. Add whatever you want to add!

Fill the crock pot with water.

Cook on low overnight.

Tomorrow I’ll share the next steps in getting it into the jars and processed.

If I were making beef broth, I would start with some kind of bones. When we get half a cow, they ask me if I want the soup bones. Most people do not want them. I always say YES! And sometimes, I get some that other people don’t want. The bones are basically free because if I don’t want them, they don’t take anything off the price! Don’t you love the way I think?

So, I’d start with bones. I’d brown those bones in a little oil first. Then I’d put the bones in the crockpot, ad some chopped garlic to the oil and pan drippings and barely brown the garlic. Then deglaze the pan in order to get all that flavor. Pour the liquid, which will contain the garlic, into the crockpot. Add onions, celery, etc. Cover with water and simmer all night.

About the fat – I’ll mention it here again. If I’m making a small batch, I’ll put the broth in the fridge so the fat will harden and then I’ll remove it. If I’m making a big batch, I find it easier just to keep the fat because the broth has to be hot when poured into the jars. I just can it all and then before using a jar, I can stick it in the fridge and remove the fat at that point.

What we do tomorrow will be the same .. chicken or beef.

This recipe is a lot of work, but it isn’t “hard”.  It’s best to do it over a couple of days.  I’m going to write this recipe just the way I did mine.

You’re going to need a large pot in which you can steam the tamales.  They need to be steamed while standing on their end.  I used this basket in a large canning pot.  You will need to be able to put a couple of inches (or more) of water in the pot, without the water touching the tamales.

For the tamales themselves, you will need:

Corn Husks
MaSeCa
Garlic Powder
Cumin Powder
Salt
Black Pepper
Red Pepper

For the meat mixture, you will need

Pork Roast or Butt (8 – 10 pounds, depending on the fat content.)  I used a butt.
Corn Oil
Salt
Black Pepper
Red Pepper
Garlic
Cumin Powder
Chili Powder
Paprika

For the meat, cut the roast into chunks about the size you would serve at a meal.  Put in a pot, cover with water and boil about 2 hours, until the meat is tender.  Keep plenty of water in the pot.  You will need about 2 quarts of broth/liquid to add to the tamales. Do not add salt or pepper or other seasonings.

You could also use the pressure cooker to cook the meat.

Once the meat is tender, remove from the broth.  Save the broth! Put the broth in a bowl or jar and refrigerate so the fat hardens and can be removed.

Shred the meat with your fingers and remove as much fat as possible.

Soak the corn husks in hot water for at least one hour before using them.

To the meat, add:

1/2 cup oil (vegetable or corn)
3 T. chili powder
3 T. cumin powder
3 T. garlic powder
1 T. black pepper
1 T. salt
1 T. paprika (we’re not big paprika fans. If you like it . . add more)
1 tsp. red pepper

Mix the meat/seasonings and oil and make sure it’s shredded as well as you can shred it. Set the meat aside and refrigerate it if it’s going to be a while before you use.

For the Masa mixture:

Start with a 4 pound bag of MaSeCa. Pour about half of it into a mixing bowl. I weighed out 2 pounds.

Into that, add:
1 T. paprika (add more if you like more)
3 T. salt
2 T. ground cumin
2 T. chili powder
2 T. garlic powder

Mix all seasonings into the Masa. Add 2 cups vegetable or corn oil. Mix well. At this point, you may want to taste to adjust the seasonings. It’s going to taste very “grainy” but you can get a feel for the seasonings.

Remove any grease that has hardened from the broth. Heat up the broth til it’s warm . . doesn’t need to be hot but just warm.

Start with 2 cups and add broth as needed to get the mixture to the consistency of a thick peanut butter. If you run out of broth, use warm water.  Do not use storebought brother that has salt added.  You’ve already added salt to the Masa and it will be way too salty if you add salted broth.  I’ve heard that a ball of the Masa mixture should float in ice water when it’s the right consistency but I forgot to check that.

If the Masa mixture is too runny, add more MaSeCa in small amounts til you get it right.  If it’s too dry, add more broth or warm water.

Lay a corn husk out on a flat surface with the skinny end pointing to the left. Spread the mixture from the edge closest to you, to about 1/2″ from the edge fartherest from you. Also, don’t spread the masa on 1/3 of the thin end.  The Masa mixture expands a little during the cooking.  If you like a whole lot of the cornmeal mixture in your tamales, make it thicker.  If you like less, make it thin.  I made mine about as thin as I could spread it.

Then lay a thin later of meat — about 1 or 1-1/2 tablespoons meat per tamale.  I found that if some of the husks were really big, I just tore off a little piece from one edge.  No need to have some really big ones and some really small ones.

Start with the edge closest to you and roll up.  Then fold the left end up.  Lay them into a steamer basket, with the seam side down.  Keep stacking them til the basket is full.

Place the basket in the pot with at least a couple of inches of water but don’t let the water touch the bottom of the tamales.  Bring to a boil, turn the heat down, cover the pot and steam gently for about an hour. Make sure the water doesn’t all boil out of the pot.  Add more water if necessary.

Remove one (or two!).  Let cool and taste to make sure the masa is done (not runny or grainy).  If done, remove from heat and let cool before wrapping for the freezer.

Easy . . no crust!  And, good . . real good!

Ingredients:

24 Ritz crackers
3 egg whites, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

Crush the Ritz crackers.  I put the crackers in a zipper bag and crush them.

Combine cracker crumbs and egg whites.  Add sugar.

Stir in baking powder, vanilla and pecans.

Bake at 350° for 25 minutes.  Chill.  If serving the whole pie at once, top with sweetened whipped cream.  If serving individual pieces (like a piece today and a piece tomorrow), top individual slices with sweetened whipped cream before serving.

For those of us who could live by bread alone, these definitely need to be added to the menu!  Instead of using frozen bread dough, I used homemade dough.  I don’t think it would have made much difference in the end result but I didn’t have frozen bread dough and it’s so easy to make it myself.

At first I was worried that all the cheese was going to fall out but it didn’t at all.

Ingredients:

1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. each dried basil and oregano
3/4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 T. water
4 T. grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 12″ square.  Combine butter and seasonings.  Spread over dough.  Sprinkle with mozzarella.  Fold dough into thirds.  Cut crosswise into 24 strips, about 1/2″ wide each.  Twist each strip twice.  Pinch ends to seal.  Place 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, beat egg and water.  Brush over the twists.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake at 375° for 10 – 12 minutes or until light golden bread.