Recipe and Cook's Corner

[richchan]

Irish Soda Bread

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone for another year--but I finally got a friend of mine to give me his recipe for Irish Soda Bread, a tradition on St. Paddy's Day. This recipe is amazingly easy to make and the results are pure heaven:




4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt [can be omitted if you use salted butter]
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons caraway seeds (make sure they're fresh!)
6-8 oz. raisins
3 eggs
4 tablespoons melted butter (1/2 stick)
2 1/2 cups buttermilk [I fake it with whole milk and 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar per cup of milk]

Soak raisins in 1 1/2 cups buttermilk over night

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Combine and thoroughly sift dry ingredients [flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, caraway seeds]
Add remaining ingredients including any unabsorbed buttermilk from the raisins and combine thoroughly using a wooden spoon or spatula [it's really sticky!]
Pour dough/batter into a metal baking pan [originally, a large cast iron skillet was used--I used a dutch oven uncovered]
Bake for 1 1/4 hours cutting a cross into the top with a knife after the first 20 minutes.

Cool, slice, and enjoy!

[killersmom]

Decided to repost this as I fixed it for Easter with ham. Yum it was good.

Here is my recipe for Hot German Potato Salad. It has been a hit for as long as I have been cooking (and that has been a long time  ) and with just about anyone I serve it to. I cook it in a pressure cooker, but it can also be done in the oven.

GERMAN POTATO SALAD

6 slices bacon, diced (reserve the bacon pieces)
6 medium to large potatoes, diced
1 large onion, diced ( I use 1 1/2 Tablespoons of dried minced onions.
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/3 cup vinegar

Brown bacon, drain

In the bacon drippings, combine all of the ingredients except for the potatoes. Mix well.
Toss potatoes in the mixture, making sure the potatoes are mixed well.

Cook for 5 minutes in a pressure cooker after the pressure regulator starts rocking slowly. Cool cooker at once.

If cooking in an oven, cook in a covered dish, preferably a big enough one in which the potatoes are in one layer. Cook at 350o for 45 minutes. Uncover and cook 10 minutes more or until the top is browned a little.

Mix potatoes and serve warm. Sprinkle the bacon pieces over it right before serving.

[fritzkep]

Ganz lecker, Linda!

[gnash]

YUM. i am really craving two big juicy brats in a bun with a side of your german potato salad.

[dejavu]

Linda, sounds like delicious potato salad.   

[fofol]

I found something that was so good, I had to keep reading the label to be sure that I hadn't misread the carb coount.  The product is white truffle rasberry balsamic vinegar, this particular one was on sale at a local market.  I steamed a red pepper, an onion and a broccoli crown, and used 2-3 tbsp of this on it.  Oh, wow, yum!  Disclaimer: I firmly believe that stuff that helps you lose weight must, MUST I say, taste good.  This particular product is made by Alessio.  (I do not have any interest in this company whatsoever, and the information is offered only because I feel so great having lost 65 lbs. - only 20 to go!)

[gnash]

i wonder if it's good on ice cream.

[gnash]

mixed vegetable salad with lobster

http://www.plumtv.com/videos/vineyard-chris-fischer-cooks/index.html

no wonder jake gyllenhooeyho hangs with this guy: he's got a great body, he's good with his hands, he's down with the earth, and knows how to steam a lobster.

[gnash]

Irish Soda Bread



Cool, slice, and enjoy!

thanks rich, i made this last night w/o the caraway and raisins (oops) and with the fake buttermilk   but it still turned out great. i used a cast iron skillet.

i should post my spanish potato omelet dish, made in the same skillet....

throw sliced cooked potatoes and grated sharp cheddar, maybe some green onion, green chilis, etc., into a hot well oiled skillet, pour on the eggs and cream mixture, season with whatever you want (pepper, herbs), and bake it in a hot oven. like 400, until the eggs are set. then you turn the skillet over and the thing plops out onto a plate, you slice it into wedges after it's cooled a bit.

yummy with a dollop of sour cream and salsa, and accompanied with a fresh green salad.

[richchan]

thanks rich, i made this last night w/o the caraway and raisins (oops) and with the fake buttermilk   but it still turned out great. i used a cast iron skillet.

i should post my spanish potato omelet dish, made in the same skillet....

throw sliced cooked potatoes and grated sharp cheddar, maybe some green onion, green chilis, etc., into a hot well oiled skillet, pour on the eggs and cream mixture, season with whatever you want (pepper, herbs), and bake it in a hot oven. like 400, until the eggs are set. then you turn the skillet over and the thing plops out onto a plate, you slice it into wedges after it's cooled a bit.

yummy with a dollop of sour cream and salsa, and accompanied with a fresh green salad.

Glad you liked the Soda Bread! I'll have to try your Spanish Potato Omelet. It sounds a lot like a real winner of my mother's:

Sausage & Egg Casserole

12 slices of bread, crusts removed
1 1/2 lb. bulk sausage (e.g. 2 pkg. Jimmy Dean)
4 eggs beaten with 3 cups whole milk
12 oz. shredded sharp cheese

Saute sausage & drain well.
Butter each slice of bread on one side.
Place six slices of bread buttered side up in a 12" x 8" casserole
Spread half of cheese/milk mixture over bread
Repeat layer with rest of bread and cheese/milk mixture
Refrigerate over night.

Bake at 325 F uncovered one hour
Cover last 10 minutes if sausage gets too brown.

[gnash]

why, yes it does! only bread instead of potatoes. glad it uses lots of that good sharp cheese.

(i sometimes crumble bacon into mine, or bits of diced smoked  ham)

[gnash]

i'm really enjoying the camp recipes from scoutorama.com...


S.L.O.P. (Stupid Little Operation Pancake) Recipe

Ingredients
pancake mix, water, eggs, sausage, bacon, butter

Equipment
grittle, stove, spatula, two prong fork, wisk, stiring pot, plate, aluminum foil

Instructions
cook pancakes tell golden brown while cooking the pancakes also cook eggs. remove eggs and pancakes oand put them on a plate covered with aluminum foil. cook bacon and sausage. finally put the eggs and pancakes back on the grittle after draining the greese.cut up pancakes to one inch squares. also chop eggs, bacon, and sausage. mix all ingredients together. put a little butter on the grittle and let the S.L.O.P. sit for one minute.
Commentour patrol made this on accident it tuned out to be fabelous out patrol loved it so we segguest you try it.


fabelous! yes!

i had so much fun as a gay boyscout. i remember scrambling up to 24 dozen eggs at a time (or it seemed that much) on a huuuuge stainless steel griddle the size of arkansas. we'd do bacon, sausage, pancakes, all that good stuff, but we never mixed it up like the recipe above. the big old cast iron dutch oven desserts after supper were good as well. sometimes we'd have three of them going, buried under the red hot coals, the scouts restless as our dads would drink and smoke. campfire cherry cobbler made with bisquick was the best. we also made aluminum foil packet meals, those were fun...  best meat loaf ever, i'd say, esp. when you're hungry after a 5 mile hike in the woods.


Cooked Onion Recipe

Ingredients
1 whole onion 
1 bouillon cube (beef) 
1 camp fire

Equipment
Tinfoil, knife

Instructions
Peel off skin of onion. Then drill a hole in onion (not all the way through) with knife. Put bouillon cube in hole. Wrap onion with tin foil, and twist at top. Place in camp fire for about 15 min.
CommentVery messy, so don't eat over any thing you don't want to get messed up (Good with a T-Bone stake, very filling)!


t-bone stake, yeah!:D

these guys need to work on their spelling merit badge!

yup. it's time to go camping and eat stuff made with fire and tongs. of course, there's an art to foil packet cooking. ways to double the foil up, insulate the bottom so stuff won't burn, sealing the seam with an airtight fold, plus placement in the coals, rotation techniques, and all that. if there's one thing you don't want, it's ash in your onion. and nothing tomato-y or acidic in the packet, either... i've found that zucchini doesn't cook well in foil, it tastes metallic and gross when it's done.

what's the easiest foil packet food? it's all pretty easy, but potatoes, for sure. shown here with bacon and onions and a "glug of olive oil." get the recipe at janetishungry

there's a ham packet recipe at coffeebreakwithlizandkate

[Cally]

As requested, recipe for the jam which my husband sort of invented.  Under his instructions my daughter made it, the first time she's ever made jam, and won first prize in the flower and vegetable show!

It can also be used for peaches, plums etc.

Apricot and Lemon Jam

Ingredients:
2 kg (4½ lb) apricots
3 lemons
2 kg (4½ lb) sugar
About 800 mls (3.3 cups I think!) water

Method:
Stone the apricots and slice them into pieces.  Squeeze the lemons. 

In a large saucepan, make a syrup out of the sugar, the lemon juice and about 600 mls of water.

Put the apricot stones and lemon pips and flesh into a separate saucepan with about 200 mls of water.  Bring this to the boil and simmer for 10 mins.  Strain the liquor and add it to the syrup.

When the syrup is hot, add the sliced apricots, and bring to the boil.

Stir regularly and continue boiling until the mixture reaches a “rolling boil”.  Then test whether the jam has reached the setting point.  (A simple way to do this is to put a small quantity on a saucer.  Put the saucer in the fridge for a few minutes and see whether a skin forms on it.  If it does, the setting point has been reached.  It usually takes about 10 - 15 mins to reach the setting point.)

Pour the jam into warm jars and cover.

The advantage of this Prize-Winning Method is that the apricot pieces stay intact.  You can choose how large to make the pieces.  The lemon juice enhances the taste of the jam, and helps the setting process.



ETA No torture was used in obtaining this information....

[gnash]

^^^ torture free recipes are good!

the recipe sounds delicious, and easy.

i take it pips are seeds? and what do you get from boiling the stones and pips in water, is it some special flavor they provide?

[Cally]

Oh, I forgot to remove the pips LOL.  We had this pip/seed conversation a few months ago.

I think they may add a little pectin, and also a slight bitterness, which I like.