Jillian's Holiday Broccoli Cashew Salad

This recipe comes from my friend, Karen, who continues to believe that we actually eat vegetables when not in her presence. 

2 bunches broccoli, including stems, pulsed in food processor

1 cup finely grated cheddar cheese

1 cup cashews

1 cup dried cranberries (craisins)

3/4 cup light mayo

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cider vinegar

Whisk in large bowl Mayo, sugar, and vinegar until well blended; add other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

This recipe is best if you mix the day ahead and refrigerate to allow the flavors to set.  Also, when you pulse the broccoli stems, do them "fine" and when you pulse the florets, do not over pulse or they will be too fine -- you want "fine" stems, and coarsely pulsed for the florets.

Vegan Burgers with Pinto Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Roasted Corn, and Polenta

The inspiration for this burger came from the Whole Foods recipe for their Southwestern Veggie Burger. These take some time to put together; I cook a big batch of pinto beans the day before in the crockpot while steaming the sweet potatoes and roasting the corn. I used prepared polenta (comes in a roll at the store), but you could whip up some fresh.

Even though they are labor-intensive, you will end up with a lot of really delicious vegan lunches prepared and in the freezer.

Note: You will often see veggie burgers served on a whole wheat bun. That seems kind of redundant to me, so I leave out the bun. Your choice.



2 cups pinto beans, cooked, drained, and mashed (reserve cooking liquid)

2 cooked sweet potatoes, cooled and mashed

2/3 cup roasted corn (use fresh or frozen and thawed kernels, slowly roast over low heat in an iron frying pan, stirring frequently)

1 cup of polenta, mashed and smooth

1 tbl. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

3 tbl. nutritional yeast

1/4 cup of salsa

salt and pepper to taste

Optional:
Add some or all of the following, finely chopped: Bell peppers, onions, carrots, celery, kale, tomatoes
I have also added leftover cauliflower puree; use up whatever you have!

Mix all together, adding some of the reserved bean juice if the mixture needs to be more moist. You can add in a few shakes of bread crumbs to help hold things together, if necessary. When all is thoroughly mixed, form into patties (my batch made 12 patties). Place on parchment-covered cookie sheets.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, turn over carefully, then continue baking for another 15 minutes. The goal is to get them crispy, so you may want to bake them longer.

Cool and freeze. Reheat in the microwave, or in a pan on the stove, or on a parchment lined cookie sheet in the oven at 300 for about 15 minutes.

Kilian's Bread and Butter Pickles

Kilian is married to Maura, who is the daughter of my half-sister. We love his pickles, which are kind of a hobby for him, as he is a professional restaurant chef in Boston.

6 cups loosely packed pickling cukes, sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
1 red or green pepper, sliced
A few cauliflower florets
1/4 cup salt

Mix all together in a large pot. Let stand for three hours.

Combine in a sauce pan and boil for 5 minutes:
2 cups white sugar
1/2 tsp. turmeric
2 tbl. pickling spices
1 tsp. celery seed
2 cups apple cider or malt vinegar

Rinse the cucumber mixture thoroughly, with several changes of water. Let soak in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain and return to the large pot. Add the boiling syrup mixture.

Heat slowly to just below boiling point, stirring occasionally. Place in sterilized jars and cover immediately.

Note: If you increase the recipe, increase the salt just slightly.

Roasted Vegetables

Ready to go into the oven

Scrub, peel (if necessary), and slice thinly:

Sweet potatoes
Onions (any kind: red, white, yellow, or green--or a combination)
Sweet red, green, yellow, and/or orange peppers
Carrots

You can also add any kind of root vegetable, like turnips

Place all in a large pyrex dish. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle with thyme and fresh ground pepper.

Roast at 400 F. for at least an hour, stirring every 20 minutes or so. Check to see if vegetables are tender. If they still need more roasting and are getting too brown, cover the pan with aluminum foil. At our altitude (3900 feet) I roast them for a total of an hour and a half.

Vidalia Onion Rings

This recipe comes from Harry's Roadhouse Cookbook.

1 Vidalia onion

1 cup buttermilk

Vegetable oil

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cornmeal

Salt to taste

1/4 tsp. pepper

Cut onion into very thin rings (1/8" or thinner). Soak onion in buttermilk for at least 2 hours or overnight.

When you are ready to cook, drain the onions in a colander.

Heat about an inch of oil in a cast-iron skillet.

Mix together flour, cornmeal, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Toss the drained onion rings in this mixture until they are thoroughly coated. Shake off excess coating and fry the rings until they are crispy and golden. Drain on paper towels. These onion rings may be fried up to half an hour before serving.

Pommes de Terre Anna

I came across this recipe in my old 1951 cookbook, A World of Good Eating; a collection of old and new recipes from many lands; tested in the kitchen of a New England housewife.

The recipe reminded me of the times my father would make Potatoes Anna and recount his experiences as a waiter working in the dining room of the Copley Square Hotel in the late 1920s. We would listen to his stories while watching his careful preparation of this beautiful dish, which turned out looking something like this picture from Wikimedia Commons.

6 medium-large potatoes

1/4 lb. butter

1/2 tsp. prepared French mustard

Salt and pepper.

Butter a 9" pan that is about 2 - 1/2 inches deep.

Pare and slice the potatoes thin and brush or spread the slices with butter into which the mustard has been worked.

Arrange the slices around the edges of the pan and covering the bottom, overlapping the slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue to build up the layers this way until the pan is filled. If any butter remains, melt and pour it over the top. Press the layers down so that the pan is well filled.

Bake in a hot oven (400°) until the slices are tender when tested with a sharp knife (40 - 50 minutes).

Remove from the oven and let stand a minute or two. Then run a knife around the edge of the pan, invert and unmould the golden brown potatoes onto a hot serving plate.

Copper Pennies (Sweet and Sour Carrots)

Candia, NH, Fire Department

Years ago, when we lived back east, my ladies knitting group went out to lunch in Concord, New Hampshire at a place that served copper pennies. I had never heard of them; all the others had, so I assume that this is an old New England favorite.

This version comes from Tastes of Our Town, a cookbook compiled in 1994 by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Candia (NH) Volunteer Fire Department. Reading it make me so nostalgic and homesick I can hardly stand it!

2 lbs. carrots

1 large green pepper

1 large green onion

3/4 cup vinegar

1/2 cup oil

1 can tomato soup

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. dry or prepared mustard

Cut carrots crosswise into coins; cut the pepper and onion in slivers. Cook the carrots till tender but firm. Layer vegetables in casserole.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in saucepan and cook about 10 minutes until it thickens. Pour the sauce over the vegetables. Serve hot or cold.

Broccoli Salad

I first had this at a family picnic in Massachusetts.

1 bunch raw broccoli* flowerets

1/2 lb. bacon, fried crisp and crumbled

1/2 lb. shredded Mozzarella cheese

1 medium onion

Dressing:

1 cup Miracle Whip or mayo

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbl. vinegar

Mix dressing into first 4 ingredients; stir well and chill.

*Can substitute cauliflower for broccoli or use a combination of the two

Warren's Really Good Stuffed Hot Peppers

My brother-in-law, Warren, makes the best pickles and jams. Whenever Ben comes home for a visit, he checks out all the cupboards for "Warren's jars." These peppers make a wonderful appetizer.

One jar of hot cherry peppers
Provolone cheese
Prosciutto ham

Olive oil

Drain the liquid from the jar of peppers. Remove any pepper stems and shake out seeds--do not rinse them, or wash out the jar.

Roll some prosciutto around a small piece of cheese and stuff into the center of each pepper.
Place the peppers back in jar and add olive oil to the top. Screw the lid back on and keep refrigerated.

Note: The olive oil will harden in the fridge. Let it warm up a bit to room temperature before serving.

Blender Soups

For some reason, I never thought of doing this. It sounds like a great way to use up leftover vegetables. I always make more than the two of us can eat, hoping that Beez will eat eat more than a single reluctant forkful. Just as he was born with refrigerator blindness (defined here, see #1) he has a genetic disability to eat vegetables with any kind of gusto.

So, finally, I have found the solution--blender soups. Mind you, this solves the leftover vegetable problem, but does not mean that anyone will eat this stuff but me.

Blender Soups

According to The Boston Globe Cook Book (mine is from 1974; later edition here): Leftover vegetables can buzzed into delicious last-minute soups. Use:

spinach

asparagus

celery

peas

to name a few. Add: Milk or water or bouillon and seasonings; heat and serve.

Pumpkin Turkey Chili

The season arrives with "the chill", the sound of rustling leaves, an instinct to hurry up and tuck in, and that "autumn smell". Gosh, I love the fall! Pumpkin season. Of course you can buy canned pumpkin year-round, but there's something really great about eating it right when the fall shows up. This recipe may sound somewhat bizarre, but it's pretty delicious. Hearty. It comes from allrecipes.com.

--1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
--1 cup chopped Onion
--1/2 cup chopped Green Bell Pepper
--1/2 cup chopped Yellow Bell Pepper
--1 clove Garlic, minced
--1 lb Ground Turkey
--1 (14.5 oz) can Diced Tomatoes
--2 cups Pumpkin Puree
--1 and 1/2 tbsp Chili Powder
--1/2 tsp ground Black Pepper
--1 dash Salt

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and garlic until tender. Stir in the turkey, and cook until evenly brown. Drain, and mix in tomatoes and pumpkin. Season with chili powder, pepper, and salt. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Serve on top of Corn Bread, topped with Shredded Cheddar Cheese and Sour Cream.

Broccoli Casalinghi

One more recipe from Ciao Italia, by Mary Ann Esposito.

--1 bunch Broccoli
--1/4 cup Olive Oil
--2 cloves Garlic, chopped
--1 and 1/2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
--1/4 cup Water
--Salt and Fresh-Ground Black Pepper to taste
--1/4 cup shredded or grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese

Clean and cut up the broccoli. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until it begins to soften. Add the red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute. Add the broccoli and toss to coat with oil. Cook for 2 more minutes, then reduce heat to medium low. Cover and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the water and cover again. Cook for about 6 minutes until broccoli is crisp-tender, adding more water if necessary. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper and toss with cheese.

Lentils

I was a little surprised when Ben asked for my lentil recipe, because I only remember making this dish once, long ago. It was delicious, but then we kind of forgot about lentils in the intervening years.

The recipe comes from Jeff Smith's first Frugal Gourmet cookbook. Here it is, sounding very simple and very, very good.

2 cups lentils

4 chicken bouillon cubes (we prefer Knorr's at the Zees--less salty than the other kinds)

Salt to taste

1 cup sautéed yellow onions

3 tbl. sesame oil.

Soak the lentils in a quart of cold water for 3 hours. Place the lentils and the water in a pot and simmer for about an hour, or until barely tender.

Add the bouillon cubes, salt, yellow onions, and sesame oil. Place all this in a greased baking casserole, and bake at 325˚ for about an hour. Serve as a side dish.

Haitian Sweet Potato "Bread"

This is an old recipe from Auntie Bucksnort's recipe box. I thought that I'd copied it down incorrectly because, as you will see, there is no flour in it. I researched the recipe a bit online and found that it is usually called "bread" with quotes around the word and with a note that the original is called "pain patate."

I used this online recipe to help fill in the blanks, as Auntie's recipe card left rather a lot to the imagination!

2 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled, cooked, mashed, and cooled

1 banana, peeled and mashed

4 tbl. soft butter

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup raisins

Mash the sweet potatoes and banana together. Add the soft butter, the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and spices and beat well. Stir in the milks and blend, then add the raisins and vanilla and stir well.

Pour the batter into a well-greased 2 quart loaf pan and bake at 350˚ for 55 minutes, until the center is firm and the top is golden.

Let the "bread" cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a plate. Slice and serve plain, or with whipped cream or a little rum poured over the top.

Zucchini Bread

You can't ever have too many zucchini recipes, especially when your garden starts producing armloads of the stuff!

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 cups grated fresh zucchini

1 cup coconut oil 

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup golden raisins

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Stir in the remaining ingredients, mixing well. Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bake at 350˚ for one hour.

Pumpkin Bread

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, unbeaten

2 cups sifted flour

1 1/2 txp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. each: Salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/4 cup water

Combine the sugars, pumpkin, oil, and eggs; beat until blended. Sift together dry ingredients, add to other mixture and beat well. Stir in the raisins, nuts, and water.

Spoon into a well oiled 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pan. Bake at 350˚ for 65 to 75 minutes until done. Cool thoroughly on a rack.

Hash Browns

This is the kind of breakfast dish you prepare in the years before you start seeing a cardiologist. Hey, maybe this kind of breakfast dish is why I see a cardiologist now, what do you think? Now that I've reached the time of life where I count out the eggs we are allowed to eat each week (maximum of four!), I am willing to make all kinds of deals, meal-wise, to allow myself to continue to live long enough to really enjoy this wonderful retired life.

Ah, well. We used to eat this stuff with our eggs in the mornings. You decide what to do with your own breakfast menu...

To make lovely, crisp hash brown potatoes, scrub several russet potatoes and dry them carefully.

Heat a large griddle and butter it (I'm warning you, I'm pulling out all the stops and telling you the truth here).

When the griddle is good and hot, grate the unpeeled, clean potatoes directly onto its surface. Don't grate the potatoes ahead of time, because they will turn an unlovely pink. You don't want that.

Dab the grated potatoes here and there with more butter (!), and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. and a little paprika, if you wish.

Turn the heat to medium. Cook the potatoes slowly, turning over in sections and adding more butter (that's it, I'm done making excuses) as "needed."

When the potatoes are all crispy and brown and well cooked, serve them with eggs, any style. And some homemade bread, lightly toasted. And, what the heck, spread a little more butter on your toast. Just remember the warning above about the cardiologist, and don't eat like this too often.

Red Chile

Red Chiles Drying (Library of Congress)*
This post first appeared on my other blog, The Zees Go West, long before I had a recipe blog. It makes sense to duplicate it here.

If you travel around New Mexico during harvest time you are bound to see ristras (strings) of red chiles hanging outside to dry in the hot sunshine. Down in Mesilla, south of Las Cruces, we saw them spread out on rooftops and up north in Chimayo they were hanging everywhere.

You can buy fresh green chiles in the summertime and the dried red ones later in the fall. They both come from the same plant—the red ones have just been allowed to ripen longer on the plant before being dried. They have an earthier flavor to me. When I grew my own chiles in Las Cruces, I couldn’t get over how many wonderful chile colors could be found on a single plant—sometimes all at once--the greens at first, and then as the chiles ripened they ranged through yellow and orange to red.

We make a very simple version of Carne Adovada at our house. We brown pork strips with onions and garlic, then simmer all in red chile sauce (below)** until the pork is tender and well done. I know that traditional versions call for a long marinating period, but the kind we make is absolutely delicious.

For some good basics to get you started, see Chile Colorado (Red Chile).

Visit the Focus New Mexico web site for information on both red and green chiles, where to find them in New Mexico, and how to use them. Be sure to check out the rest of the web site, too, for travel information.

**For a good Red Chile Sauce Recipe:http://www.pepperfool.com/recipes/southwest/nm_red_sauce.html

*Library of Congress photograph: I do not know of any copyright restrictions associated with this photo. If you do, please notify me via the comments section of this blog.

Posole

Photograph from Library of Congress*
This post first appeared on my other blog, The Zees Go West. That was way back before this recipe blog was started. It makes sense to duplicate it here.






Posole defined:

1. Kernels of corn that have been soaked in lime water, hulled, and dried.
2. Hominy and pork stew flavored with red chiles



Posole stew is a New Mexican tradition and can be ordered as a side dish in many New Mexican restaurants. You can order some real NM posole from the resources below, or you may substitute yellow or white canned hominy in the recipes.

Blue Corn Posole recipe, resources, and a wonderful memory about eating posole at San Ildefonso Pueblo

A nice collection of New Mexican Posole Recipes

Posole Recipe courtesy of Comida de Campos farm and cooking school, Embudo, N.M.

Posole recipes from the Santa Fe School of Cooking

Posole Stew, A New Mexico Holiday Tradition

If you have a moment, take time to read this evocative New York Times article--In Pueblo Food, Deep Respect for the Earth, which includes a recipe for posole. They might spell" chile" as “chili” but they know how to make New Mexican food sound delicious.
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*The Library of Congress knows of no restrictions on the publication of this photograph. If you do, please let me know via the comments section on this blog.

Green Chile--How to Process It

Waiting in line at the chile roaster

In New Mexico, you can go to the farmers' markets and buy a big sack of fresh green chiles, which they will roast for you. When you get home with your bag of chiles, still hot from the roaster, you can dump a couple of pounds at a time into ice water to cool them down, then drain them and pack them into quart freezer bags and pop them into the freezer. Some people like to peel them before freezing, but we just peel them when we are ready to use them. The skins slip off nicely when the chiles are partially thawed.

When we lived in New Hampshire we used to have a couple of boxes of chiles shipped out from Hatch, NM every fall. It was a lovely September tradition to work out on the deck on a sunny afternoon, under the big umbrella, roasting the chiles on the gas grill. Then, we continued as above with the ice water bath, etc.

It is a wonderful feeling to face winter with a freezer-full of green chiles, just waiting to go into all those wonderful New Mexican recipes. In New Mexico, many people say they have an extra freezer just for the chiles because they put up so many pounds, but that just might be what they tell the newcomers. Who knows?