Recipe(tried): This Weeks Winners

This was a good week. Lots of yummy things to eat. Enjoy! RisaG

Saturday Night Dinner

One of those nights when I didn't have anything planned which is rare so I just opened a can of soup and served this after. Small dinner but yummy.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Risa's Yummy Mushroom Quesadillas

Recipe By : Risa Golding
Serving Size : 2 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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4 flour tortillas -- your preferred size
3 mushrooms -- sliced
2 scallions -- sliced
1 leek -- white part sliced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese -- shredded*
1/2 tsp ancho chile powder -- divided
1/2 tsp cumin -- divided
1/2 tsp salt -- divided

Heat 2 nonstick skillets - one 10" and the other 12". Spray both with nonstick cooking spray.

Place the scallions and leeks in the larger skillet. Saute for a few moments until softened. Add the mushrooms and cook until they soften a bit too. Add the chili powder, cumin and salt and combine together. When seasoned and veggies are soft, take off the heat.

Meanwhile, in the other smaller skillet, put a tortilla in and warm it through. When heated on one side (let it brown slightly) flip it over and cook it on the other side. When done, place it in a towel and close the towel around it. Then do the next tortilla the same way. Keep cooking the tortillas this way until all 4 are done. Then take two out.

Place 1/4 of the cheese and sprinkle it on one tortilla. Place 1/2 the mushroom mixture on top of the cheese and cover it with another 1/4 of the cheese. Place the 2nd tortilla on top. Put the quesadilla back in the pan and put a cast-iron pan on top of it to weigh it down. Cook until brown on one side. Then flip it over, put the iron skillet back on and cook it on the other side. When done, take it out and keep warm in a toaster oven or the oven. Then make the other quesadilla the same way and cook it the same way. When done, serve with a dollop of sour cream and salsa, or hot sauce.

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Suggested Wine: Not wine, beer - Mexican Beer would be great.
Serving Ideas : Sour cream, hot sauce or salsa

NOTES : Of course you can use anything you have on hand. This is what I had. But you may not have mushrooms, you may have beans or corn. Use them instead. You may not like ancho chiles, use what you like.
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First Night Hannukah Dinner
Sunday Night


I made this in my bread machine to have with hummus appetizer instead of pita bread. Came out yummy and smelled fantastic.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Rita Fried's Garlic Herb Bread

Recipe By : Bread Machine Baking - Perfect Everytime by Brody/Apter
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bread

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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FOR DAK MACHINE
2 1/2 tsp yeast
2 2/3 cups unbleached white flour
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese -- + 1 tbsp
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried basil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 cup water -- + 1 tbsp
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic -- when machine beeps

Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Place all the ingredients, except the minced garlic, in the machine, program for White Bread and press Start. When it beeps a few times, add the fresh minced garlic, and continue process.

When bread is done, take out of the machine and place on a wire rack to cool. Wrap as usual.

Makes One 1-1/2 lb loaf.

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NOTES : I had to use quite a bit of extra flour to make the dough form a ball. You may not have to depending on the humidity or coolness of your kitchen. Also it may need a little extra water. Watch the dough carefully to see what you have to add, if anything.


* Exported from MasterCook *

Butter Beans and Cumin Hummus

Recipe By : Bon Appetit, December 1998 Issue
Serving Size : 10 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Appetizers

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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2 large garlic cloves
2 15 oz cans butter beans -- rinsed/drained
2/3 cup tahini -- (sesame seed paste)
6 tbsp lemon juice -- fresh
1/4 cup olive oil -- prefer extra-virgin
1 tbsp ground cumin
4 tbsp water
pita breads -- cut into wedges
assorted cut up vegetables

Finely chop the garlic in processor. Add beans and next 4 ingredients; process until smooth. Mix in water 1 tbsp at a time, thinning to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon into bowl. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature; thin with additional water, if desired.

Serve with pita bread and vegetables.

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NOTES : From the article on Hannukah, page 152.

I served it with garlic-herb bread made into little toasts.


* Exported from MasterCook *

Brisket with Portobello Mushrooms & Dried Cranberries

Recipe By : Bon Appetit, December 1998 Issue
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Beef Entrees

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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1 cup dry red wine
1 cup canned beef broth
1/2 cup frozen cranberry concentrate -- thawed
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 large onion -- sliced
4 cloves garlic -- chopped
1 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary -- chopped
1 4 lb flat-cut brisket -- trimmed of fat
12 ounces medium portobello mushrooms -- dark gills removed
-- caps thinly sliced
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 300 F. Whisk wine, broth, cranberry concentrate, and flour to blend in medium bowl; pour into 15x10x2 inch roasting pan. Mix in onion, garlic and rosemary. Sprinkle brisket on all sides with salt and pepper. Place brisket, fat side up, in roasting pan. Spoon some of the wine mixture over. Cover pan tightly with heavy-duty foil.

Bake brisket until very tender, basting with pan juices every hour, about 3-1/2 hours. Transfer brisket to plate; cool 1 hour at room temperature. Thinly slice brisket across grain. Arrange slices in pan with sauce, overlapping slilces slightly. (Brisket can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place mushrooms and cranberries in sauce around brisket. Cover pan with foil. Bake until mushrooms are tender and brisket is heated through, about 30 minutes (40 minutes if brisket has been refrigerated).

Transfer sliced brisket and sauce to platter and serve.

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Serving Ideas : Potato Latkes with sour cream/apple sauce

NOTES : I made it in the crockpot so I would have more time to do the other things. I just made the mushrooms separately in a pan.

I also made it without the cranberries. Just added more broth (instead of the concentrate) and used more mushrooms instead of the cranberries.

Instead of portobellos, I used a combination of shiitake and baby bella.



* Exported from MasterCook *

Potato Latkes

Recipe By : Pepi Lund (my mother)
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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1 egg
1 small onion -- cut in eighths
5 russet potatoes -- washed/peeled
matzo meal -- a handful
salt -- to taste

After you peel the potatoes, cut them into 1" chunks. Put into a big pot of water (unsalted) and let sit until you are ready to cook potato pancakes. When ready to cook, take them out and dry them off best you can (in paper towels is best).

Place the egg, onion and a dash of salt in a blender or food processor. Process (or blend) for a moment or two so the onion is broken up. Add the potatoes (which are already cut into small pieces) and blend (or process) until the mixture becomes like a thick pancake batter. Add some salt and a handful of matzo meal. Keep blending until it looks more combined and a little thicker.
Meanwhile, heat a cast-iron or heavy skillet with some corn oil (or vegetable oil). Put a spoonful of batter in and cook until brown on one side. Flip over and cook on the other side until brown. Take it out and pat the fat off. Taste. If it needs more salt, add some more to the batter. Then cook, pouring by spoonful into the skillet and cooking until brown on one side. Flip over and cook until brown. Drain on paper towels. When you have a few ready, serve. They'll come asking for more too quickly, believe me.

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Serving Ideas : Sour cream, apple sauce

I found Friendship came out with Roasted Garlic Sour Cream. Serve it with this and everyone will flip. It is really tasty.

NOTES : can be doubled
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Monday Nights Dinner

* Exported from MasterCook *

Chicken Soup2

Recipe By : The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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1 lb stewing chicken -- or 1 chicken
carcass (1 to 5)
1 large onion -- quartered
2 carrots -- cut into fat pc.
1 leek
1 turnip -- quartered
2 stalks celery -- w/leaves cut in lg
sl.
2 sprigs parsley
salt and white pepper
additions: knaidlach
mandlen
egg and flour dumplings
kreplach

Put the chicken, or the carcass and giblets in a large pan with 9 cups of water. Bring to a boil and remove any scum. Then add the vegetables, the parsley stems (keep the leaves for garnish), salt, and white pepper. Simmer, covered, on very low heat, for 2-1/2 hours, adding water as necessary.

If you are using a whole chicken lift it out after 1 hour, remove the meat so as not to overcook it, and keep it moistened with a little broth, for a second course. Return the carcass and bones to the pot and continue cooking for another hour or so.

Strain the broth. If you want to remove the fat floating at the top, you can mop it up with paper towels or make soup a day ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator, then skim off the congealed fat with a spoon.

A few minutes before serving, add a handful of fine lokshen, broken into small pieces by hand, or other additions, and simmer until tender. Serve very hot, sprinkled, if you like, with a little chopped parsley.


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NOTES : Lokshen are the usual addition, but others may be substituted, including pasta shapes such as plaetschen (little squares), shpaetzlen (bow ties), and farfel (grated or chopped pasta), pastry croutons, Kreplach (meat ravioli) are for holidays and special occasions, knaidlach (matzo balls) are for Passover, but people make them anytime.
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* Exported from MasterCook *

Matzo Balls2

Recipe By : The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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2 eggs -- separated
1/2 cup medium matzo meal
salt

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold in the lightly beaten yolks, then the matzo meal and salt, and continue to mix gently until amalgamated. Chill, covered, for 30 minutes. Then roll into 3/4" balls and drop into plenty of boiling salted water. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Just before serving, heat them up, then lift them out and drop them into the boiling soup broth. It is usual to cook knaidlach in boiling water rather than right in the broth, because they soak up so much liquid that unless you have made a very large quantity you will end up with very little broth. Makes about 16.
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Served with Challah Bread, made in ABM.
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Tuesday Nights Dinner

* Exported from MasterCook *

Grilled Salmon in Gingery Lemongrass Marinade

Recipe By : Risa Golding
Serving Size : 2 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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GINGERY LEMONGRASS MARINADE
3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
4 stalks lemongrass -- roughly chopped
2 tablespoons ginger -- minced
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce -- red. sodium prefer
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 stalk lemongrass -- cut in small pc.
SALMON
2 medium salmon steaks -- wash/pat dry

Take outer sleeve of lemongrass off. Chop off top part and discard. Chop lower part into 1" pc. Set aside

In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar, lemongrass, ginger and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, covered, for 1 hour.

Remove from the heat and strain the liquid into a small bowl, discarding the solids. Return the liquid to the saucepan and boil over high heat until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 5 minutes.

Stir in orange juice, fish sauce, vegetable oil, sesame oil and soy sauce. Set aside to cool.

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NOTES : To make marinade:

May be made ahead and stored, covered, in the refrigerator for 2 days 2g fat per tablespoon

Can be made in microwave. Place all ingredients that go in saucepan into microwaveable container. Place in microwave on HIGH for 15 minutes. Stir. Cook on HIGH again for another 10 minutes. Take out of oven. Let cool. Then continue recipe (Strain, etc).

To make salmon:

Put salmon in a container big enough to hold both steaks comfortably. Pour marinade and lemongrass pieces over salmon. Let marinate for 1/2 hour. Then remove from marinade, put on grill or in preheated grill pan for 7 minutes the first side, 4 minutes the other. Should be done by then. Plate with chinese side dishes (fried rice, stir-fry veggies, anything you feel is appropriate.)

I served it with sweet potato kugel (because it is Hannukah) and some challah bread to sop up the lemongrass marinade.
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Wednesday Nights Dinner

* Exported from MasterCook *

Potravka (Chicken with Wild Mushrooms)

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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1 chicken -- quartered
4 tbsp light vegetable oil
1 lb wild mushrooms -- sliced or quartered
1 1/4 cups white wine
salt and pepper
3 tbsp parsley -- finely chopped

In a large casserole, brown the chicken (or cornish hen pieces) all over in the oil and remove the pieces. Then saute the mushrooms briefly in the same oil. Add the wine, salt, and pepper and return the chicken or cornish hen pieces to the pan. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until tender, adding a little water if necessary. Serve hot, sprinkled with parsley. Makes 4 servings.
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NOTES : The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden

served with:

* Exported from MasterCook *

Soft Polenta

Recipe By : The Well-Filled Microwave
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Sides

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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3/4 cup polenta -- or yellow cornmeal
2 1/4 cups water -- or stock
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter

Place the cornmeal, water and salt in a medium-size bowl or deep dish. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH for 3 minutes, until the mixture begins to thicken. Stir, then continue to microwave, uncovered, on HIGH for 3-5 minutes more, or until you have the consistency you desired.

Stir in the butter. Serve right away or let stand until firm, then cut into squares and fry.

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Serving Ideas : Chicken, or anything with lots of sauce
or gravy

NOTES : All grains expand when cooking, so be sure to use a dish or bowl twice as high as the cornmeal and water mix in Step 1.

Polenta firms as it sits and sets to cutting texture after 30 minutes. It keeps well in refrigerator for re-frying next day. Or make a batch ahead ot fry or grill when you are ready.

I served the meal with some warm garlic-herb bread for sopping the sauce up.
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Thursday Nights Dinner

* Exported from MasterCook *

Planet Hollywood Thai Shrimp Pasta

Recipe By : http://www.jsonline.com/letsgo/dining/
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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THAI SAUCE
2 tablespoons ketchup
3/4 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chili oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons hoisin sauce
1/2 garlic -- fresh chopped
1/2 teaspoon ginger root -- freshly chopped
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Chinese mustard powder
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon peanut butter
PASTA
1 teaspoon butter -- approx.
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
16 jumbo shrimp -- peeled and deveined
1 cup celery -- julienne
1 cup carrots -- julienne
1 cup bell pepper -- julienne
1 cup onion -- julienne
1 tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro -- divided
1 tablespoon chopped peanuts* -- divided
10 ounces uncooked linguine -- cooked
2 tablespoons chopped green onion to garnish

For thai sauce: Place all ingredients except crushed red pepper in blender and blend well. Place in storage container.
Mix in crushed pepper. Use 1/2 cup or more to make Thai Shrimp Pasta, and refrigerate remaining sauce. Sauce keeps 4 to 5 days.

For shrimp & pasta: Place butter and garlic in clean, heated saute pan. Cook 1 minute. Add shrimp, cook 3 minutes, turning occasionally to cook evenly. Add additional butter if pan becomes too dry.

Add cut vegetables, half of the cilantro and half of the peanuts. Add 1/2 cup Thai sauce (or more to
taste) and mix.

Add shrimp/vegetable mixture to pasta, tossing well to coat. Remove shrimp from mixture.

Divide pasta with vegetables and sauce between 2 serving bowls. Place reserved shrimp, tails up, around rims of bowls, facing toward middle. Garnish center of each bowl with the onions, remaining peanuts and cilantro. Makes 2 servings.

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NOTES : Additional Thai sauce can be added to this dish or remaining sauce can be refrigerated 4 to 5
days and used in another dish.

* I couldn't use peanuts because my son is allergic. I used blanched, slivered almonds.
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Friday Nights Dinner

I took the brisket wrapper sandwich from the other day (for lunch) and made it into a full-fledged meal. Yum.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Risa's Brisket Burritos

Recipe By : Risa Golding
Serving Size : 2 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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4 flour tortilla -- large
8 slices cooked brisket -- cut in strips
1 tsp mexican seasoning blend
small mushrooms -- sliced thinly
2 pickled jalapenos -- sliced
cheddar cheese -- shredded
monterey jack cheese -- shredded
8 oz can tomato sauce -- plain
additional cheese -- for tops, if desired
ADD'L ADDITIONS
scallions -- sliced
pickled garlic -- sliced
salsa

Sprinkle mexican seasoning on brisket slices on rub in. Place brisket in a preheated nonstick skillet and heat for a couple of minutes. Add the mushrooms, or any other vegetable plus the slices of pickled jalapeno. Take off heat. Put on tortilla (towards the top) and put more jalapeno slices, your choice of additional items and the cheese. Fold the sides and then roll it up. Spread 1-8 oz can of tomato sauce over top. Sprinkle with cheese, if desired. Place in preheated 350 F oven for 10 minutes to melt cheese.

Serve with refried beans, corn bread, yellow rice, or any other side you like.

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Suggested Wine: A very cold mexican beer

NOTES : I got the idea for this while going through a zip file I had downloaded. Someone had done something similar. I had leftover brisket from the holidays and didn't know what to do with it. I also had a jar of pickled jalapenos I have had in the refrigerator for a long time and had no idea what to do with. Great combination. Yummy!

RisaG