Category Archives: Recipes

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Dal Soup (Madhur Jaffrey)

1 1/2 c green or yellow split peas, washed
6 c chicken broth
24 black peppercorns and 10-15 whole cloves (in cheesecloth or teaball)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 – 3/4 tsp salt (only if broth is unsalted)

Garnish:  8 lemon wedges, 6 slices worth of croutons

Combine split peas and chicken broth in a pot and bring a boil.  Remove scum.  Add cheeseclothed spices, turmeric, and salt.  Cover, lower heat, and simmer gently for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until peas are tender.  Remove cheesecloth, squeeze into soup, and discard.
Garnish with lemon wedges, with the croutons on the side.

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Langue de Chat or Cat’s Tongue Cookies (Rombauer)

Preheat oven to 350
Cream:  1/4 c butter, 1/4 c sifted sugar
Beat in:  2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla
Fold in:  1/2 c flour

Bake in greased molds about 15 minutes.  Can also drizzle the dough in lines on a greased cookie sheet.  If flat or flat and dipped in icing they are Cat’s Tongue Cookies, if you turn them into cookie sandwiches, they are Maquis.  Suggested filling or coating – <a href=”http://www.phoenixfiles.plutospeaks.info/?p=935″>European Chocolate Icing</a>.

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Rich Pound Cake (McCalls)

9 egg whites
3 c sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 c sugar
9 egg yolks
2 c butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
confectioner’s sugar (I skipped this part)

Warm egg whites to room temperature.  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and lightly flour 10 inch tube pan.  Mix flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.  Beat egg whites until foamy.  Gradually beat in 1 c sugar, 1/4 c at a time, beating after each addition.  Continue beating until soft peaks form when beater is slowly raised.  Set aside.  Beat yolks with remaining c of sugar, butter, and vanilla.  Once smooth, mix in the flour mixture, and resmoothen.  Mix in egg white mixture carefully, until just blended.  Turn into prepared cake pan.  Bake 65 minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test.  Let cool 15 minutes.  Loosen around edges, and turn cake out of pan.
One of the ways in which this was enjoyed was moderately thin slices with peanut butter and jelly.

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Krimpet-esque cake (baking bites.com)

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 c sugar

1 c light brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 c milk

2 T butter, softened

2 c all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease a 17x11x1 jelly-roll pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper.  Beat together eggs and sugars, 3-5 minutes.  Beat in vanilla.  Heat butter and milk until butter is melted and milk is just shy of boiling.  Gradually add flour and baking powder to egg mixture, then milk/butter mixture.  Pour batter into pan, spreading evenly, and bake 20-25 minutes (was nearly 40 for us, but we were using a smaller, deeper pan).

Let cool five minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Slice and frost.  I used Rombauer’s Butterscotch Icing, which I will post soonish.

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Sunday Supper Soup (McCall’s)

As per usual, changed this one up a bit to give it more flavour.  Also, the original recipe called for onion soup mix – having issues with this, I used onions and garlic instead.

Meatballs:
1 1/2 lb ground beef chuck
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 c soft bread crumbs
1/4 tsp salt
1 T chopped parsley

2 T butter
10 oz or so beef broth
18 oz tomatoes, undrained
2 c sliced pared carrots
1/4 c chopped celery or celery tops
1/4 c chopped parsley
1 chopped onion
3 – 5 (or to taste) cloves diced garlic
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried basil
1 bay leaf

Make meatballs:  combine beef, egg, 3 T water or milk, bread crumbs, salt, parsley.  Mix lightly.  Form into balls.
Heat 2 T butter in 5 qt pot.  Saute meatballs, until browned on all sides.  Set meatballs aside.
Saute the onions and garlic in the drippings from the meatballs, adding more butter if necessary.  Add 2 c water, beef broth, tomatoes, carrots, celery, parsley, pepper, oregano, basil, and bay leaf.  Bring to boiling, then reduce heat, and simmer, covered, about 30 minutes.  Add meatballs and simmer another 20 or until meatballs are cooked through.
We served this over pasta and with grated parmesan, general theory seems to be it is tastier as a straight soup, just serve with bread on the side.

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Shrimp Dip (St. Louis Cookbook)

5 oz can shrimp, drained
3 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 c sour cream
1 T lemon juice
1 T ketchup
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp onion powder
dash hot sauce

Mix all together, adjusting amounts of flavour to personal taste.  Chill and serve.
Quite tasty, although I’m fair positive that we used a bit more of the W-sauce, onion powder, and hot sauce than called for.  I may have added some garlic, too, I don’t recall.

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Potato Soup (Madhur Jaffrey)

1 T veget oil
1/8 in pebble asafetida or 1 pinch
1/4 tsp whole cumin
2 medium potatos, peeled and quartered
2 T tomato paste
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat oil in 3 qt pot over medium flame, and put in asafetida and cumin, and stir once.  When seeds begin to sizzle, add potatos, tomato paste, turmeric, salt, and cayenne.  Stir and fry about 2 minutes.  Add 4 c water and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer gently for 45 minutes.  Turn off heat, mash potatoes.  Serve.

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Our Favorite Baked Beans (McCall’s)

Charlie had been craving baked beans for quite some time, and we’d not managed to find anything in a can that tasted right to both of us.  Finally decided to try making them myself.  These were really tasty, if a bit sweet for my tastes.  Next time will likely try canned tomats as well as ketchup.  Then again, I’ve been thinking about making my own ketchup for ages, too, so…  we’ll see what happens.  I was a bit more..  generous with most of the spices compared to the recipe, which turned out to be a good thing.

1 lb small white navy beans

2 onions, sliced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Ham bone and leftover baked ham

2 c catsup

2 c light brown sugar

1/3 c vinegar

2-3 T Worcestershire sauce

1 T dry mustard

Soak beans in cold water as per instructions.  (Usually 6-12 hours in cold water.)  Drain beans, rinse under cold water.  Put in a 6 qt kettle, and cover with 5 c water.  Add onions, bay leaves, salt, pepper, ham bone, and leftover ham.  Bring to boiling.  Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, or until beans are tender, adding more water if needed.  Remove ham bone (and bay leaves).  Preheat oven to 350.  Drain beans mixture, reserving liquid.  Put beans into a 4 qt baking dish.  Combine catsup, brown sugar, vinegar, W-sauce, and mustard.  Mix well.  Add to beans.  Add enough of the reserved liquid to cover.  Bake 3 hours.

I didn’t actually drain the beans, just added the rest to what was there, as it had cooked down sufficiently.  Recipe states 8-10 servings…  made quite a bit more than that for us.

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