Food Recipe Thread

Seeing as how there are a few threads on burgers, marinades, sandwiches, "What's for Dinner?" why not have a thread dedicated to recipes?

Share your favourite recipes here! 🙂

These "savoury" cookies are great for nibbling with rich red wines and fabulous with Port:

Walnut, Blue Cheese & Cranberry Cookies

1 cup crumbled blue cheese
Half cup salted butter, room temp
Half tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 cup flour
Three quarters cup walnut bits & crumbs
Three quarters cup chopped dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350’F. Mix cheese, butter and pepper until roughly blended. Stir in flour, nuts and cranberries until doughy. Form dough into one inch balls and press flat to one quarter inch. Bake 20 –25 minutes until golden around bottom edges. Cool and store in airtight tin.

For a Port primer try: http://www.geocities.com/douglas_sloan/Port_BlueCheeseCookies.html

Originally posted by widget

Walnut, Blue Cheese & Cranberry Cookies

Originally posted by Natsia
Sounds rich!
Thanks Widget.


My Mum's Potato Salad:

4 Medium sized potatoes
4 Generous table spoons low-fat mayonnaise
(Optional: One table spoon low fat plain yoghurt)
2 Large eggs
1/2 finely diced onion
Fresh ground salt and pepper to taste
1 Tea spoon fresh parsley to garnish

Cook potatoes (in jackets) in boiling salty water (1/2 tea s ...[text shortened]... onions, mix through.
Garnish with parsley. Place in fridge and allow to chill before serving.

Chicken thighs with garlic and herb butter

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs
1/2 stick of butter (softened)
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. herbes de Provence (or substitute your favourite herb(s), fresh or dried)
salt & pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Add the herbs to the butter, along with salt and pepper to taste. Divide into two portions.
3. Finely mince the garlic and add it to one portion of the butter.
4. Peel back the skin of the chicken thighs, but do not remove.
5. Rub the garlic and herb butter on the thigh meat and the inside of the skin. Fold he skin back over the thighs.
6. Rub the plain herb butter on the outside of the chicken thighs.
7. Put some olive oil in a pan set to medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, place the chicken skin-side down in the pan and cook until the skin is crisp and golden brown (about 3-5 minutes).
8. Once the skin has browned, turn the chicken thighs over in the pan and place the pan in the oven. Cook until the juices run clear, or a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the chicken registers the proper internal temperature for "well done" (usually listed as 165 F). This usually takes about 10-15 minutes.
9. Once cooked, remove the chicken thighs from the pan and cover in foil to rest for 5-10 minutes.

OPTIONAL:

For a nice sauce, deglaze the pan with some chicken stock and/or white wine, add a crushed clove of garlic, some more herbes de Provence, and any chicken juices from the foil package. Simmer to reduce until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Remove the garlic, check and adjust the seasoning, and add a little knob of butter. Serve over chicken thighs.

This is one of my favorite recipes and great for people who are eating fewer or no eggs for whatever reason.

Vegan French Toast

Ingredients
Loaf of French bread, baguette shaped, preferably stale and cut into 1” slices
1/2 cup soy creamer (rice or soy milk would make a good substitute, preferably rice)
1/2 cup rice milk or plain soy milk
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 cup chickpea flower (aka garbonzo bean flour or besan flour)
Several tablespoons canola, vegetable or extra virgin coconut oil.

Directions
1. The bread should be a bit stale. If not, leave the slices out overnight or put them in a 350° oven for 3 or 4 minutes to dry them out—you don't want to toast them. (If you're in a rush, feel free to skip this step—the French toast will still taste good.)

2. Pour the soy creamer and rice milk into a wide, shallow bowl. Mix in the corn starch and stir until dissolved. Add the chickpea flour and mix until it is mostly dissolved; some lumps are okay.

3. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add enough oil to create a thin layer on the bottom (a tablespoon or two).

4. Soak the bread slices (as many as will fit into your pan) in the mixture and transfer to the skillet. Cook each side for about two minutes; if they are not brown enough when you flip them, heat for 1 or 2 minutes more on each side. They should be golden brown with flecks of dark brown. Serve immediately with sliced fruit and maple syrup.

This is one of my favorite recipes. It's from "Debbie Fields' Great American Deserts: 100 Mouthwatering Easy-to-Prepare Recipes." The "easy-to-prepare" part might be a bit of an overstatement, but it is SO worth the effort! 😛


Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Crust:
1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs -- I generally use chocolate graham crackers and grind them up
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
24 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
¼ cup raspberry liqueur
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon (I usually make it a "generous" tablespoon) pure vanilla extract

Topping:
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

Sauce:
12 ounces frozen sweetened raspberries, thawed
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon raspberry liqueur (I generally make this an extremely generous tablespoon, or two!) 😀

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Lightly butter springform pan.

Make the crust:
2. In a bowl, combine the chocolate wafer crumbs, sugar, and flour, and stir in the butter until combined. Press the crust over the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Set the pan aside to cool.

Make the filling:
3. Put the cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl and beat until smooth using the electric mixer on medium speed. Scrape down the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl. Add the melted chocolate, raspberry liqueur, cream, and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Scrape down the bowl. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and smooth the top.
4. Fill a 2-quart baking pan halfway with hot water and place on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake the cake on the middle rack for 1 hour. Lower the oven temperature to 275 degrees F. and bake 1 hour more. Turn off the oven and leave the cake in for 30 minutes with the door closed. Remove the cake to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Make the topping
5. In a bowl, combine the sour cream and brown sugar until smooth. Pour over the top of the cake and spread until smooth. Cover the cake with foil and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Make the sauce
6. Combine all the sauce ingredients and puree until smooth in the food processor (I usually use a blender). Strain the puree through a fine-mesh sieve (this is a major pain in the butt because there are a million seeds and I've found that I need to stir the stuff for quite a while with a spoon, forcing the sauce through the sieve) into a bowl, cover, and chill until cold.

7. To serve, top the cake with fresh raspberries, if desired, and pour half of the sauce over them. Serve the remaining sauce separately. Or ladle a pool of the sauce onto each dessert plate and arrange a slice of the cheesecake on it.



I generally leave off the fresh raspberries and serve the sauce on the side--some weirdos prefer their cheesecake plain.

If you have left-over sauce when the cheesecake is gone, don't panic! It's amazing over chocolate ice cream.

My favorite recipe for pizza crust. The flavor is amazing! The recipe is from "The Pizza Gourmet" by Shea MacKenzie.

Basil-Rosemary Dough

1 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
½ teaspoon date sugar or brown sugar
2 2/3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil, or 1 teaspoon dried
2 teaspoons snipped fresh rosemary, or 3/4 teaspoon dried. If using the whole dried rosemary leaves I'd recommend chopping them up into small pieces--I use a chopper
http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/product.jsp?productId=240&categoryCode=CE
for this.
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed (or maybe a little more 😛 )
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Place the water in a small bowl and stir in the yeast and sugar until dissolved. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and set aside until the liquid is foamy (about 10 minutes). (I generally skip this step, assume my yeast is good, and mix all the dry ingredients including the yeast together in the kitchenaid mixer, and get right to it! Of course I generally use a fairly fresh jar of yeast and keep it in the fridge.)
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 1/3 cups of the flour, the basil, rosemary, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the yeast mixture, garlic, and oil. With a wooden spoon, beat the ingredients together to form a soft, sticky dough. (I let my kitchenaid mixer do the heavy lifting here.)
3. Turn the dough onto a well-floured work surface. With floured hands, knead the dough, adding more flour, a little at a time, until smooth and elastic (8 to 12 minutes). Form the dough into a ball. (Again, I generally let the mixer handle this.)
4. Place the dough in a large bowl that has been brushed with oil. Turn the dough to coat all sides with oil. Cover with wax paper and a clean towl, and place in a warm draft-free place. Let the dough rise until double in size (about 1 hour).
5. With a floured fist, punch down the dough. Cover again and allow the dough to rise another 40 minutes (Really, who is going to wait THIS long for their pizza? Not me! I'd be tossing the thing in the oven at this point, but this is what the recipe says.)

Wow Ls, you really are a chocaholic.
Andrew loves cheese cake, I'll definitely have to try that one. Thanks!

Crowley: you're onto something there. Will give it a try next time I make a batch 😀

PBE6: That sounds so good!
What would you recommend serving as an accompaniment to that?
I'd think steamed asparagus?

Mimor: Just wanted to ask if you could fry the battered bread with low fat butter rather than oil?
Whenever I shallow fry I end up with something which is soaked through with grease, so I hate using it.

Thanks for sharing everyone. Keep 'em coming!

Originally posted by Natsia
Wow Ls, you really are a chocaholic....

Originally posted by leisurelysloth
Yes. In a BAD way! 😳

Originally posted by Natsia
What was that euphemism you told me?

"Somewhere inside me there's a skinny person trying to get out. I usually shut the b%&&* up with chocolate".
Laugh every time. 😀

Oh, do you know any good cocktail recipes?
A friend's birthday is coming up, and I'm not too keen to try anything that isn't recommended by someone I know who's tried it already.
Not really too keen on poisoning everyone either...

Originally posted by Natsia
Seeing as how there are a few threads on burgers, marinades, sandwiches, "What's for Dinner?" why not have a thread dedicated to recipes?

Share your favourite recipes here! 🙂

Originally posted by Natsia
Mimor: Just wanted to ask if you could fry the battered bread with low fat butter rather than oil?
Whenever I shallow fry I end up with something which is soaked through with grease, so I hate using it.

Originally posted by Mimor
Sure. I use it sometimes if that's what I have on hand. Or, to avoid greasiness, use a very small amount oil and wipe up the excess with a paper towel so there's only a sheen on the pan and make sure it's hot enough. Then you shouldn't have a problem.