BootsnAll Travel Community

cheecho asked for it, and whatever cheecho wants, cheecho gets.

Let's give everyone a chance to contribute, rather than letting the foodie dweebs among us (like me) hog the whole topic.

And a ground rule: this should be a recipe that YOU have made yourself and tested.

PUMPKIN SOUP (Simple but Elegant)

INGREDIENTS: 1 or 2 small pumpkins cut into large chunks -- about 5 lbs. after removing seeds (a little more than 6 lbs. before)
Maple Syrup, Cinnamon, and S&P for pumpkin
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 medium apple, peeled and diced (honeycrisp, fuji, gala, red rose)
1 large head roasted garlic (5-6oz before roasting)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1 1/2 qts. Water
1 cup half & half

FOR GARNISH: Pepitos (freshly toasted) Ground chipotle

METHOD: 1. Preheat oven to 400f
2. Cut pumpkin into a few large pieces
3. Lay the pumpkin chunks, skin side down, on a cookie sheet
4. Brush them with maple syrup and dust them with cinnamon, salt and pepper
5. Cover them lightly with aluminum foil and place into the oven
6. Bake until very tender, about 1 hour
7. When pumpkin is done and cooling, sauté onion and apple in a little oil in the bottom of your soup pot until just tender, add cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, salt and pepper and keep stirring to avoid scorching the spices.
8. When the pumpkin is cool enough to scoop away from the peel, do so into soup pot and add the roasted garlic
9. Add water and simmer, covered, until tender, about 30 to 45 mins.
10.Blend in small batches to avoid blowing hot liquid all over the kitchen or use an immersion blender. Return to soup pot, add half & half, (optional) season if necessary with salt, brown sugar.
11. Garnish and serve.

for sentimental reasons, i'm posting EVIL JUNGLE PRINCE WITH CHICKEN even though I no longer eat chicken. I pulled it off the web a few days after I got my first computer modem and have been serving it in one form or another ever since. I logged onto the site of Eating Well, the magazine from whence most of my recipes come these days, but none of my faves were available for a quick copy and paste, so I did a search for evil jungle prince, and whaddaya know? he popped right Up:




Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/2 lb Boneless chicken breast or:
1/2 lb Mixed vegetables
4 Small red chile peppers
1/2 Stalk lemon grass
2 Kaffir lime leaves
2 tb Oil
1/2 c Coconut milk
2 tb Fish sauce
15 Basil leaves
1 c Chopped cabbage

thinly cut chicken into 2-inch strips. If doing veggie version, cut veggies into thin strips. (okay - ayun again: I use firm tofu and veggies)
Grind together red chili peppers, lemon grass,
and kaffir lime leaves. (Ayun again: i have never used a kaffir lime leaf in my life)
Heat oil and saute pepper mixture for three minutes. Stir in coconut milk and cook for two minutes. Add chicken (or vegetables) and cook for five minutes of until cooked. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in fish sauce and basil. Serve on bed of chopped cabbage. (or, Ayun again, serve as I do, atop rice.

Note: For mixed vegetables, choose from amoung bell peppers, string beans, water chestnuts, tomatoes ( small cherry tomatoes are best), bamboo shoots, nimiature corn, asparagus, cucumbers, zucchini, Japanese eggplant, and mushrooms.

Source: Keo's Thai Cuisine by Keo Sananikone, Ten Speed Press, 1986.

Joe, we tried your Pumpkin Soup recipe. It was yummy!

We love Chilean food. Our favorite dish is empanadas, which are meat-filled turnovers. They have chile powder in them, but they're not really hot. To spice them up, Chileans top them with pebre sauce, which contains tomatoes, chile peppers, cilantro and garlic.

A Santiago chef gave us his recipe for empanadas (and permission to publish it), but we had to search all over the country to find a good pebre sauce. We finally found it at a Santiago restaurant, called Ana María's.

Ana Maria invited us into her kitchen to show us how she ground the chiles in a mortar to make pebre sauce. We don’t have a mortar, so we finely chop the chiles. You can make the sauce as hot as you want and it’s really good with the empanadas.

You can find both recipes and photos at the end of this story, along with some of the other yummy recipes that we found in Chile: http://www.krolltravel.com/stories/Chile_Searching4Chiles.htm

Enjoy!

It's so hard to choose just one! So I just picked one at random from my folder of favorites:

FANTASTIC ARTICHOKE DIP

8 Oz Cream cheese
12 Oz Shredded mozzarella
1 C Mayonnaise
1 C Grated parmesan
1 Onion; -- finely chopped
2 cloves Garlic; finely chopped
2 Jars Marinated artichoke hearts
2 pita bread

Drain artichokes well and tear them apart with your fingers.

Cut up pita bread into chip size triangles, separate and bake on a cookie
sheet until crispy (approx 5 minutes).

Combine all other ingredients and mash.

Bake in an uncovered casserole dish for approx 30 minutes @ 350 or until bubbly.

Serve hot out of the oven and scoop up dip with pita bread

Yum! I'm going to have to try some of these! (And you do know it's torture just to post one recipe on here, right?)

OK... this is going to be a bit iffy because I usually don't cook with recipes or measure, so you're going to have to play around with the spices. This is what happened when I wanted to make curry without the whole coconut milk/saturated fat/cream sauce issue. Apologies to foodie purists, because this is a scandalous mutant hack job, but it tastes good!

Low-fat curry chicken soup


1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped (or any other kind of chicken, actually, I just hate messing with bones)
1 large potato, peeled and chopped (pieces can be relatively big, I like chunks in my soup!)
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small/medium head of cauliflower, chopped
1 can pureed pumpkin
1 cup fat-free/low fat milk
4-5 cups water (depending on how thick you like your soup; you can also use chicken broth or veggie broth)
2-infinity tablespoons curry powder (for weenies all the way up to pros, you decide!)
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon (or more or less, etc. etc.)
2-3 teaspoons sugar or Splenda (etc. etc.)
1-2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon corn starch

In large steamer basket, steam carrots, potatoes and cauliflower until tender. Meanwhile, heat a small amount of sesame oil in a skillet and saute garlic, onions and chicken. (I forgot, you can add hot peppers here if you like.) In huge-ass pot, stir together pumpkin, water, spices and sugar and cook (and taste-test the seasonings) until bubbling. Add chicken, onions, garlic and vegetables. Thicken with corn starch and milk, remove from heat. Serve with big hunks of hot toasted bread.

In my little household of two, this lasts a few days. And it gets spicier overnight in the fridge, especially if there are hot peppers or chilies involved.

Grilled BBQ tuna

Tuna Steak*
BBQ sauce**
Aluminum Foil

Take aluminum foil lay down a enough bbq sauce that the steak displaces sauce when you lay it down. Try your best to drown it... more sauce on tuna. Lay aluminum foil/tuna on rack in grill, grill that fish till it is a hot medium rare, remove from heat. Flip the fish on the aluminum foil, give the foil a squirt of sauce under the fish while its off. Tuna keeps on cooking on the plate so be thinking rarer than you want if your cooking it hot. (My grill has 2 settings, off and smelting ore.)

Because my grill is such a finicky beast I cant really give you a cooking time but best I can tell you is that when the bbq sauce is drying out and the steak is starting to stick, flip it over and drown it... when its drying out again pull it off.

*FRESH tuna, the "good stuff" is blood red going on maroon. The uninitiated enjoy the pinker colored less "fishy" steaks. Dont get frozen tuna, dont freeze tuna... and dont overcook it! Thick cuts are good, but I like around 3/4 inches thick, doesnt burn getting to medium rare... I'd just caution you not to get so thick that the outside dries out before the fish gets to a medium, this is about an inch and a half thick. This is of course for somebody that doesnt want to see through the center... I'm from the school of thought that when the white protein goo starts leaking out, and its getting flaky its time to eat! Not dried out, not sushi... mainly 'cause I dont think you should need a knife to cut fish!

** I recomend a tomato based molassas or brown sugar type BBQ sauce. It ends up sweet, not spicy, and not vinegar tasting... spicy ends up overpowering the flavor of the fish, salt and pepper rubs, lots of lemon in my opinion detract from the flavor of the fish. KC masterpiece has a brown sugar sauce that fits the bill.



---

Joe, your evil... only one recipe a person?

<<Not dried out, not sushi...>.

You speak of sashimi, not sushi, grasshopper... and if you have fresh salmon and pour BBQ sauce on it, the death penalty is again required.

Doh, sorry about that... Raw fish = sushi for me, didnt know there was a difference. I need to get a cookbook from that part of the world and learn how they make fried rice!

I like to do salmon grilled alone or jerked... or done floating in butter... Best luck I've had with the frozen salmon is to do it in the oven with pyrex tray, turning up the edges on some foil to hold the butter... Right before its done ya take some brown sugar and sprinkle it on, drop it back in and let it get nice and crusty. Good stuff!

But no, BBQ sauce doesnt get near salmon... clashes with the flavor in my book.

Costco has some salmon that just needs a little bit of de-boning, farm raised stuff... has a scoop of butter/garlic and some green herb (un-identifiable...) that does quite well on the grill.

But Joe has a recipe for a mango chutney like dish that goes well on the grilled stuff. Tried that out a few weeks ago.

Dang I'm hungry again, pancakes didnt last long!

i dont cook much but this recipe calls to me. all of it i can keep around easily, cost is low, easy to make, and its my preferred hangover prevention.

16 oz. packaged gnocchi (italian potato pasta dumpling, sweet potato is great, fresh made is easy but time consuming)
can san marzano tomatoes (i get them for cheap with basil added)
basil
1/4 lb fresh mozzarella (the stuff in water, in ball form is what you want, it freezes well)
salt

cook gnocchi according to package in salted water till barely done while simmering tomatoes with basil and more salt. drain and add gnocchi to tomatoes and lay slices of mozzerella over top and put in hot oven till the cheese turns golden. mangia

I am so pathetic! I saw this thread in June when it was originally posted, decided to contribute and then forgot! Although my kitchen is very, very small, I do love to cook!

Tandoori Chicken
1/2 C. Plain yogart
1 tbsp. minced ginger root
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp. Vegtable oil
1 tbsp. Tandoori spice blend (recipe follows)

In a glass bowl, stir together yogart, tandoori spice belnd, ginger and garlic. Add chicken, turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Place on foil-lined baking sheet; drizzle oil over top. Bake at 400F for 30 minutes or until juices run clear. Broil until browned and crisp, about 3 minuntes.

Tandoori Spice Blend
1/3 C. Cumin seeds
1/3 C. Coriander seeds
1 Cinnamon stick, chopped
1 tbsp. whole cloves
1 tbsp. Turmeric, ground
1 tbsp. grd. ginger
1 tbsp. grd. mace
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. cayenne pepper.

Toast cumin, corinader, cinnamon and cloves under medium heat, stirring until fragrant and slightly darkened, and let cool. Transfer to grinder, add remaining ingredients and grind together. Store up to 1 month.

Enjoy!!

Maybe not my #1 favourite recipe, but it's one I like and is on my mind since I made it as part of a dinner for my host in Chicago this past weekend. It was taught to me by the family I stayed with in Peshawar, Pakistan.

The Daouds' Chutni:

500ml fresh plain yogurt
15ml lemon juice
1 cup fresh mint (the leaves from maybe a dozen sprigs)
powdered chillis to taste (maybe 5ml or so depending...)

Chop the mint very fine. A food processor is great for this because you want to make it really really fine.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a bowl.

It's soooo tasty, and can be used as a sauce for Indian type dishes, or just as a dip on its own with veggies or flatbreads (naan, pita, chapati, whatever's at hand.)

Rasta Pasta (for the yellow/red & green)

1lb angel hair pasta
olive oil
red peppers [diced]
yellow peppers [diced]
tomato [diced]
2/3 lb shrimp
garlic (finely diced)

boil pasta until firm to the tooth (al dente) drain but don't rinse! while past is boiling saute the shrimp til pink/orange then toss generous olive oil and garlic, peppers. When pasta is done toss pasta into pan with the olive oil and pasta, mix til coated well with olive oil and toss in tomatoes to warm.

I sometimes add/substitute: pease, onions, mushrooms or another kind of meat instead of shrimp (usually a healthy choice keilbasa cut on a bias into coin sized rounds).

Yummmy!

Certainly we have more cooks around here. Where are all the recipes?

I've got a recipe category on my blog. Of all those, this is a favourite stand-by whenever I cook up curries:

Steve's Red Lentil Dhal

(Based on a recipe from Sainsbury's magazine)

1 onion, finely chopped;
1 carrot, grated;
1 red chilli, shredded;
1 tsp brown mustard seeds;
1 tsp tumeric;
oil for frying;
250g red lentils;
1 tin coconut milk (½ if it is very thick);
3-4 tomatoes, skinned and chopped;
3 cm ginger, cut into ½ cm slices;
salt;
juice 1 lime;
good handful fresh coriander;
good knob butter;
3-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Soften the onion in the oil then stir in the mustard seeds and chilli. Fry another 2 min, stir in the carrot and lentils and add the coconut milk and enough water to cover plus the ginger and tomatoes. Simmer gently until the lentils are soft (ca. 40 min.) topping up with water as necessary. Taste and adjust the seasoning then take off the heat and stir in the juice and chopped coriander. Heat the butter in a small pan until foaming, then add the garlic and fry gently until discoloured, turning once. Tip into the dhal; it should splutter slightly.

Satay Sauce

1/2 C Peanut Butter
1 package Creamed Coconut
1/4 C Rice Vinegar
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/4 C Lemon Juice
2 Whole Garlic Cloves -- Minced
2 Tsp Crushed Dried Chilies
2 Tsp Grated Fresh Ginger

Throw it all into a blender or food processor. Failing that, warm the peanut butter and creamed coconut and stir the rest in. Use as a baste for skewered meat of choice - I have made chicken, pork, shrimp. Could try beef, lamb or firm tofu. Serve more with the cooked food as a dip. Makes a great dip for shrimp chips and is tasty right off the spoon.

The best compliment I ever got was "this is better than any I've eaten in Asia"

Hey, Canuck Girl, if you're ever in TO, wanna come feed my OCD by helping me build a tandoor:
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Island/3012/page2.htm

We could try out your recipe.

quote:

Originally posted by whalewatcher:
Simmer gently until the lentils are soft (ca. 40 min.) .

You can cut down time to cook Dhal is you use a pressure cooker. Try it. Especially Red Lentil will cook in about 10 mins.

Never tried Dal with coconut milk...will have to do so.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, soaking overnight or all day cuts down on the time. Works for brown rice too. Not a lot cooks faster than red lentils anyway, so they're a good faster choice.

Yum, I love coconut dhal, coconut curry anything. Too bad it's so high in saturated fat.

Goan Shrimp Curry


500 gm prawns/shrimp (shelled and de-veined)
1 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
2 cups coconut milk
200 gm chopped onions
2 tbsp oil
2 green chillies (Indian or Thai kind)

Masala
4-5 whole red chillies (take seeds off to reduce heat, espeically)
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 black peppercorns
½ tsp turmeric
1" ginger
6 cloves
¼ cup vinegar or Tamarind (size of small lemon)

1. Marinate the prawns with a little salt & tumeric and keep aside.
2.Finely chop onions.
3. Marinate all the masala ingredients in vinegar. Rice vinegar is fine, or if not use tamarind. Grind to a fine paste in a food processor.
4. In oil, fry green chillies and onions till golden brown.
5. Add masala and fry (cook for a while) on slow heat.
6. Add shrimp and then coconut milk (cook on slow fire so that the coconut milk does not curdle)

Serve with hot basmati rice or even brown rice.

*heading to Madhu's house for Goan Shrimp Curry*

Will you make it for me? Sounds like a lot of slicin' and dicin'.

My GOD this thread makes me hungry. Fortunately some kind of braised poopymeal is currently on the stove smelling heavily of thyme and garlic.

So the recipes don't need to be travel-related, necessarily? (And remind me not to BBQ frozen salmon with....uh....BBQ sauce. Yum....not. )