German food for now

Get thee over to Slashfood and check out the spectacular article on German food for the times. My grandmother used to make kraut, but I'm pretty sure insane amounts of vinegar were used...this article talks about simple kraut you can do at home for fun. There's also a recipe on pickled mushrooms and that sounds like a REALLY good thing.

Beer Cheddar Spread & Hearty Tomato Soup

This went to a party, as a dip, Saturday night and disappeared, and then we used the other half I had kept at home (HaHaHa!) for grilled cheese sandwiches. With hot soup. Ummm.

Beer Cheddar Cheese
2 lbs sharp Cheddar, shredded
2-4 slices smoky bacon
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon Tabasco
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 can beer
In the bowl of a small food processor finely chop the onion and garlic. Add the Tabasco, paprika and bacon and pulse until mixed, scraping down as necessary. In a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer, blend onion mixture and cheddar. Gradually beat in beer and mix until blended, about one minute. Cover and refrigerate at least two hours.

MzJean's Hearty Tomato Soup
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1-1/2 teaspoon dried basil
6 ozs room temp cream cheese
1-1/4 cup milk
2 cans condensed tomato soup
2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained
Melt butter in pan and cook onion and garlic until wilted. Remove from heat; stir in paprika, basil and cream cheese. Whisk until smooth. Stir in tomatoes, soup and milk and heat through.

Bigos: The Dish of Polish Royalty

No, that title is not supposed to be a joke.

Poland was, for centuries, ruled by monarchs, thankyouverymuch (Hello? Boleslav the Bashful? Vladislav Spindleshanks? What do they teach in public schools these days?)

Ahem. Anyhoodle.

Bigos is a perfect food: Hearty, soul-warming, immensely tasty, easy to prepare and cheap if you have leftover pork in the fridge.

Personally, I use a fresh, lean pork roast because I like what cooking it in the kraut does for the texture of the meat.

Totally de-lish and 100% authentically Polish. This is my recipe, culled and cobbled from a dozen other recipes over the years.

Bigos Dziewczynka z Miasta (City Girl Bigos)
2 lbs Pork Loin, Pork Roast or other whole cut of pork
2 Bags Sauerkraut (Boarshead is good)
1 Kielbasa, sliced into 1" thick pieces
1 Large Onion, sliced
1 oz Dried Mushrooms
4 Cups Hot Water
4 Bay Leaves
1 tbsp Juniper Berries (about 12)
Kosher salt

Salt pork and let rest for 1/2 hour.
Preheat oven to 350.
Reconstitute mushrooms in water.
Line bottom of small roasting pan with kraut, top with half the sliced onion.
Lay roast on top of onions.
Arrange two bay leaves on top of roast, top with additional onions and remaining kraut.
Nestle sausage slices, remaining two bay leaves and juniper berries into kraut.
Pour mushroom broth - with 'shrooms - into roaster. Cover tightly.
Cook for one hour, turn pork, stir kielbasa and kraut.
Cook for another hour.

Serve with buttered rye bread or - better - potato pancakes.

Smacznego!

Note: If using pre-cooked pork, reduce the number of bay leaves to 2 and cook the whole thing in a Dutch oven on stovetop for one hour, or simmer all day.

More Leftover Turkey Stuff

Soup. Plain, minimal-ingredient soup. So good that they ate all but one cupful and The Nice Kid took that to lunch today.

Turkey and Noodle Soup
2 cups chopped turkey
1 can chicken broth
2 cans water
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 bag egg noodles

Saute the onion, celery and carrot in olive oil for a few minutes. Add the broth, water and turkey and throw in a couple of bay leaves. I stopped here because The Inmates were at the afternoon symphony, and just let it set. When they got home, I brought the soup to a boil and added the egg noodles...the curly kind because that's what kids like. Cooked until done, salt and pepper to taste, then pulled the hot cornbread out of the oven. These kids luuuhve their mama.

And thank the Lord that was the LAST of the turkey!

Not Black-Eyed Pea Cornbread

City Girl and I have antique dealer friends who are also fun cooks. They LOVE putting out a spread, and are very good at it. A while back they sent me a recipe from a client, for Black-Eyed Pea Cornbread. A couple of times after that they made reference to the dish; having used it for a couple of dinners and things. So yesterday, when I had to cook for The Other Family's Thanksgiving, this seemed like a good idea.

Except, I don't like sausage and this recipe had a pound of sausage in it. I like the IDEA of sausage, and I like most KINDS of sausage, but I don't like country sausage. No idea why...this isn't in my genes...but I don't like country sausage. So off we went.

I knew when I started that I was going to substitute chorizo (I like chorizo), but the rest of the recipe was going to stand. Except then, I remembered that there is a black-eyed pea cornbread recipe in the Neiman Marcus cookbook and when I pulled it out...there were some improvements that could be made. Starting with substituting creamed corn for cream cheese.

And THEN...when I got to Aldi on the Friday afternoon before Thanksgiving...they didn't have black-eyed peas. But they DID have black beans and...that's 50% of the equation so that's what I went with. A wing and a prayer. And this was SOOO good that this morning, I made breakfast out of the leftovers. That's another post.

Chorizo & Black Bean Cornbread
12 ounces chorizo sausage
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cups self-rising cornmeal mix (around here, that's White Lily)
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup grated cheese
1 small can creamed corn (I threw away the can, but I think it's 8 ozs. Or so.)
Canned jalapenos, to taste, I used about 1/2 cup and it was warm
1 14 oz can black beans, rinsed

Brown the sausage and onion in a skillet, breaking the sausage up into a fine crumble. Drain well; I put it into a metal strainer and rested it on four layers of paper towels. Just get the grease out.

Measure the cornmeal mix into a large bowl. Add the grated cheese, creamed corn, sausage & onion, and black beans. Don't stir. Put the jalapenos, eggs, oil and buttermilk in a blender and process until the jalapenos are finely chopped. Add to cornmeal mixture and fold with a rubber spatula.

Pour into a greased 13x9 pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting.

Shepherd's Pie

Fifty percent of the inmates loved this...that would be The Nice Kid and me. The other two don't eat food if it touches, so that pretty much rules out THIS. Their loss...this was so good the two of us ate it three times yesterday.

Shepherd's Pie

1-1/2 pounds cooked beef
1 package small carrots, cut in half long-ways
1 large white onion
1 can beef broth
8 russet potatoes
1 cup buttermilk
1 stick butter
1 package four-cheese mix

Use the beef you prefer...TNK likes hamburger. For this I used leftover sirloin tip roast, or stew meat would be good. Cook the meat until well-done and tender...season to taste. Set aside.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and add the diced onion and carrots. Cover and cook until tender. Add the cooked beef and the beef broth and heat to a simmer. Stir in a slurry of two tablespoons cornstarch in 1/2 cup cold water and heat through. Cover and set aside.

Wash potatoes well. Cut unpeeled potatoes into eighths, cover with cold water and cook until tender. Drain and return to pan with the stick of butter. Cover and let the butter melt; then add buttermilk and cheese and mash with a spoon until chunky and blended.

On a large ovenproof platter or in a 13x9 baking dish, spread the potatoes over the bottom, pushing the sides up a little higher to make a potato "bowl." Spoon the hot beef into the center of the potatoes, sprinkle with extra cheddar cheese if you like, and heat for 10 minutes in a 325 oven.

This was groaning good.

When in Pittsburgh

Our Super Bowl fete went very well, thank you.

Loads of hot appetizers provided by everyone, and ham sandwiches with good, hot soup at halftime provided by yours truly. Lordamercy we were full by the end of that boring-ass game.

The good, hot soup in question was my famous Pittsburgh Soup.

Pittsburgh Soup?

The recipe is based on "Dan's Vegetable Soup" in the Three Rivers Cookbook Volume II. The book was presented to me by my near-miss in-laws (who were lovely, lovely people - wayhay lovelier than their son) and is still inscribed, "To: (Me) From: Mom and Dad R."

The relationship died but the soup lives on. If you've ever been to Pittsburgh, this actually sounds like the city:

Pittsburgh Soup

1 lb lean ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

3 big stalks celery, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

1 very large or three smallish russet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 large bag (I think it's about two pounds) of frozen soup veggies*

1/2 a head of cabbage, shredded

1 46 oz. can or bottle of V8 (NOT low sodium)

2 cups chicken stock

Several good dashes of Maggi seasoning (or Worcestershire)

1 tsp celery salt (DO NOT overdo the celery salt - you'll regret it)

2 tsps kosher salt, divided

50 cranks ground pepper

OPTIONAL - Small-diced polish sausage

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed stock pot. Add the onion and celery and cook until it begins to fade, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Add beef, 1 tsp of salt and half the pepper. Break up the beef and brown it thoroughly (10-15 minutes).

While the beef browns, prepare your potatoes if you haven't already.

When meat is browned, drain off the fat. Add the remainder of the ingredients, bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook for at least 30 minutes.

This soup, as with so many dishes, is MUCH better the next day although it's pretty damn good right off the stove.

Serves 8-10 alone or more than a dozen with sandwiches.

*If you insist on cutting your own (out-of-season) corn from the cob, dicing your own carrots, shelling your own peas and snapping your own green beans, knock yourself out. I applaud you. However, I can't begin to tell you how much of each to add to the pot. Experiment and let me know how it turns out!

PS - Why the hell won't the Blogger Spell Check button work? HELP!

It's a really cold night so let's have chili and hot bread

My cousin, Adrienne, lives in Atlanta...really, Marietta. She won her tennis club's chili cook-off with this recipe. Reckon I ought to call and tell her it's in here?

BadaBing Chili
1 pound ground turkey
1 pound ground sirloin
2 cans black beans
2 packages French's Chili-O Mix
1 26-ounce can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 4-1/2 ounce can chopped green chilis
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 bunch fresh cilantro

Brown meat and garlic. Add everything else, except cilantro, and cook 45 minutes. Add chopped cilantro just before serving.

Then, there's Beer Bread. The simplest Save Your Ass bread recipe on the planet. The first time I made it was with that high-dollar mix from that gourmet food aka Tupperware Treats party organization. Great bread. Not seven dollars worth of great. So, here's the cheap/just-as-good version. Thank you very much.

Beer Bread
1/4 cup sugar
12 ounces beer
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups self-rising flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and beer and mix well. The mixture should be sticky. Pour into the loaf pan, pour the melted butter on top and bake for 55 minutes. (This makes a crunchy top crust. If you prefer a soft crust, brush the butter on three minutes before you remove the bread from the oven.) Serves 8.

Fresh herbs in the batter are good. Right now, I have rosemary and three kinds of thyme and either would be lovely. Or dried herbs in the butter.

Fish Pie

Our good friend, M, whose birthday was Saturday, went to boarding school in the UK. There, on a regular basis, she and the other girls were fed fish pie. The majority of girls hated it. She loved it. The ensuing nickname that's stuck with her to this day? Fishguts.

I, too, love fish pie. Unfortunately I attended public school in the good old nutritionally-bankrupt US of A, where the closest we got to pies were the Hostess fruit 'pies' in the cafeteria vending machine.

During cold, damp winter months I make fish pie for The Hubster. He loves it. It's just like Chicken Pot Pie only with silky chunks of cod and dill. What's not to love?!

This is a great cold-weather dish and it freezes well.

Cod Pot Pie
(Makes one deep dish or two average pies)

2 lbs cod fillets, cut into 2" cubes (they shrink)
1 russet potato, cut into 1" cubes, separated
2 Tbsps olive oil (not XV)
1 onion, chopped
2 large carrots, finely chopped
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 tsp butter
4 tsp flour
2 cups milk or cream (the heavier, the better) - warmed in microwave
1 Tbsp fresh dill or 2 tsps dried (warning - I love dill, be careful)

Pie crust (home made or refrigerated, I don't judge)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Season fish with a pinch of dill, kosher salt and pepper.
Boil potato, drain, set aside.

Saute carrots, celery and onion in oil until translucent. Transfer to seperate dish.
Add butter to pan, cook until lightly bubbly, add flour, wisk and cook until lightly tanned.
Add milk/cream SLOWLY, wisking constantly.
Add remaining dill, one tsp kosher salt and pepper to taste, wisking constantly.
Bring back to simmer.
Add fish and cook 2 minutes, wisking constantly (this'll scorch if you don't keep it moving).
Remove from heat, add back vegetables, stir it all up and put it in a pie pan.
Top with pie crust, pinch edges, vent, brush with milk and/or egg wash and bake according to your crust recipe/box instruction.

Alternate ending: Put filling in a souffle dish or large individual-serving ramekins, top with home made or refrigerated biscuits, bake until biscuits are brown.

Fishguts, fishguts, eat 'em up - YUM!