Cumberland Sauce

This is a traditional British sauce, apparently - i made it for the first time this Easter, to serve with baked ham. It was impressively tasty - so much so that i helped myself to an extra piece of ham, just to have an excuse to eat more sauce! It is served cold, and will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for a week or so.

• zest of 1 lemon, cut in wide strips
• zest of 1 orange, cut in wide strips
• juice of 1 lemon (use the one you just zested ... and the orange can be cut up for a pineapple glaze)
• 1/2 cup of red currant jelly
• 1 Tblsp port
• 1 Tlbsp powdered sugar
• 2 tspn Dijon mustard
• pinch ground ginger
• pepper

Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil; add the lemon and orange zest, and boil for 5 minutes, 'til zest is soft. Drain and rinse, discarding the water. 

Cut the zest into very thin strips, and return to saucepan. Stir in lemon juice, currant jelly, port, sugar, mustard, and ginger, and place on very low heat. Cook, stirring often, very gently, until jelly melts and mixture is smooth; be careful not to let the sauce boil or scorch. Use a small whisk to remove any final lumps of jelly or mustard, and remove from heat. Season with pepper, to taste, and refrigerate 'til ready to use.

If the sauce seems more thick than you like, use a bit of port to thin it.

Traditionally served with ham, venison, beef, and other "non-white" meats.

Kung Pao Me, Baby!

I made this sauce recently, based on a recipe I found in Cooking Pleasures; the original recipe included instructions for chicken kebabs, using mushrooms, frozen pearl onions, zucchini and bell pepper. We used fresh onions and yellow summer squash and added pineapple chunks. I wasn’t wild about the kebab presentation, but the sauce was amazingly good.

Next time I make this, I intend to quadruple it and keep the extra in a jar in the refrigerator; seems like it would be a handy thing to have on hand.

Kung Pao Sauce

½ cup chicken broth
2 tspns cornstarch
4 green onions, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tspns sugar
2 tspns chili paste or sauce, depending upon how it’s labeled – not the sweet stuff
2 tspns rice wine vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 tspns sesame oil
½ tspn crushed red pepper

1. Combine broth and cornstarch in small saucepan. Stir in all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer 3 minutes or until sauce has thickened.
2. Use as glaze whilst cooking meats and vegetables, and as a sauce with cooked food.

Quinoa Gratin with Spinach

I saw this today in the NYTimes Recipes for Health section. It sounds tasty, so it's marked here for future reference.

Individual Tomato Aspic Salads

Russ asked me to post this - we found this to be a flavorful tomato dish for when decent fresh tomatoes are not available (most of this past Summer, unfortunately).

Individual Tomato Aspic Salads

3 cups V8

1 stalk celery

1 onion, sliced

2 lemon slices

1 bay leaf

1 tspn salt

1/8 tspn pepper

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

2/3 cup cold V8

1/4 cup vinegar

Pam

1. Combine 3 cups V8, celery, onion, lemon, bay leaf, salt & pepper.  Simmer, uncovered, 10 mins; strain.
2. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatine over cold V8 & vinegar to soften; stir in hot mixture until dissolved.
3. Pour into 7 greased individual molds.
4. Refrigerate 'til firm.
5. To Serve:  Unmold onto salad greens; serve with italian dressing mixed with equal parts mayonnaise or half-&-half.

Thanks, Craig

I tried making Craig's Cocktail Sauce the other night to serve with fried clams.  It was OK, although not as good as our favorite, Crosse & Blackwell Zesty Shrimp Sauce.  Next time i'll try adding some onion powder, which i believe may be the missing flavor.

i made no changes to the recipe, except to scale it down to 1/9th of the original (4 oz ketchup), which is how much ketchup i had on hand.

Venison & Salmon Stew w/Potatoes & Carrots

No, that's not what i made for supper tonight; that's what my DOG had for supper!  i keep Kit on an all-natural diet as much as possible, & i came across the Old Mother Hubbard brand of dog foods advertised at PetFoodDirect.com - they had them on sale for $1/can, & with an additional 22%-off coupon, it brought the price to 78¢/can, which is a phenomenal deal for all-natural dog food.  i got a case each of Venison & Salmon Stew, Duck & Sweet Potato Delight & Lamb with Spinach & Apples.

We, on the other hand, had leftover Hamburger Pot Roast with homemade egg noodles.  i'd never made noodles or pasta from scratch before & was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was & how yummy the egg noodles were.  i followed a recipe i found on AllRecipes.com - as usual, it's transcribed below with any changes i made in red.

Next time, i'll divide the dough into 2 or more portions before rolling, which i believe will make it easier to roll it out thinner & more evenly.  None of mine were more than 1/8" thick, but we thought those were a little too thick; we preferred the ones that were cut from the edges where i was able to roll the dough out quite a bit thinner.  It took a good 5-6 minutes for the thicker noodles to be properly cooked; i threw a few Knorr tomato & beef boullion cubes into the water for added flavor.  I cooked 1/2 the batch last night for supper & the other 1/2 is in the freezer for another night.

Egg Noodles (from AllRecipes.com)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Pinch salt

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk (i used 1/4 cup skim milk & 1/4 cup half-&-half)

1 Tbsp butter

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt.  Add the beaten egg, milk, & butter.  Knead dough until smooth, about 5 minutes (i used the dough hook on my mixer).  Let rest in a covered bowl for 10 minutes (i let mine rest more like 30 minutes).
2. On a floured surface, roll out to 1/8" or 1/4" thickness.  Cut into desired lengths & shapes.
3. Allow to air dry before cooking.
4. To cook fresh pasta, in a large pot with boiling salted water cook until al dente.

Boston Bean Casserole

OK, i realise deviled ham is weird, but it really is very good in this dressed up baked bean dish; we usually have this with Superb Skillet Cheeseburger Loaf & the leftovers always get eaten!

Boston Bean Casserole

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup sliced onion, separated into rings

1 can Boston Baked Beans (20 oz)

1 (small) can deviled ham (2.25 oz)

1 Tbsp mustard

1 peeled tomato, sliced

1/2 tspn salt

1 tspn brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Saute onion in oil until tender.
3. Combine beans, ham & mustard.
4. Arrange 1/2 bean mixture in 1 qt casserole.  Place 1/2 of onions & tomatoes over beans; sprinkle with 1/2 of salt & brown sugar.  Repeat layers.
5. Bake, covered, 30 minutes; uncover & bake 5 more minutes.