Author: Robert Andrews

This recipe can use either corn or flour tortillas.  I prefer corn.
Place tortillas one on top of the other, brushing each with EVOO.
Sprinkle each layer with a bit of salt
Cut the stack into quarters or sixths
– For larger tortillas, you can cut them into squares
Spread onto a baking sheet so that each chips is isolated
Bake at 400º for 10-12 minutes

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Ingredients

Flour tortillas
Spray oil (preferably olive oil)

Instructions

1. Lay two or three tortillas on a cutting board.
2. Lay a storage zip-lock on top of the tortillas for sizing purposes.
3. Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut off anything that will not store FLAT
4. Put trimmed tortillas in zip-lock and store (we freeze four per bag)
5. Lay remaining scraps on a cookie sheet
6. Spray lightly with oil and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes

Note

You can cut the tortilla strips however you want, but we came up with this recipe as an answer to “How do we store flour tortillas in a 1 gallon zip lock bag?” The tortillas are about twelve inches in diameter, and the bags only about ten inches wide. Answer: Trim off the edges of the circle.

Ingredients

4 tsps olive oil
2 tsps minced garlic
2 1/4 CU canned diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 CU chopped parsley leaves
1 1/4 tsps anchovy paste
1 1/2 TBLSP capers
2 tsps apricot preserves

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in medium saucepan and sauté garlic, being careful not to brown.
2. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes stirring frequently.

Serve 1/2 CU over pasta.

Ingredients

1 pkg extra firm tofu
1 TBL sesame oil
1 TBL corriander OR curry OR turmeric OR cumin
4 cloves garlic
1/2 CU Coconut milk
1/2 CU water
1 box frozen green beans
4 drained and slice tomatoes

Instructions

1. Cut tofu into uniform cubes
2. Press between two papers towels for 20 minutes
3. Heat sesame oil and fry tofu for 10 minutes tossing every 1-2 minutes
4. In separate pan saute onions while tofu is being fried
5. Add garlic and curry (or other) to onions when they are translucent
6. Fry spices for an additional 5 minutes
7. Add coconut milk and water to spice pan and simmer until thickened
8. Add tofu, green beans and tomatoes
9. Cover and simmer 4 minutes
10. Serve with Chinese Noodles

See also  “Noodles with Sesame Dressing”

Mincemeat Recipe

Pastry Dough Recipe

Ingredients

• Flour
• Butter
• Mincemeat

Step by Step

1. Place chilled pastry dough on lightly floured surface
2. Squash the dough, and roll out flat
3. Trim into circles using a glass or muffin rings
4. Put a small amount of mincemeat in the center
5. Use egg wash to brush the circumference
6. Top with another pastry (or fold over) and pinch together
7. DOCK (or poke holes into) the top of the pastry
8. Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes
9. (optional) Sprinkle powdered sugar on top

NOTE: This recipe was created by our host’s nine year old daughter (a Brit) who we met on our 2007 trip through southern Spain.

For a more traditional mincemeat pie, use circles about six inches in diameter, place 1/4 C mincemeat in the center then fold up edges, leaving center open.  Brush edges with eggwash and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.  Bake at 400º for 30 minutes.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
3 lemongrass stalks, tough outer leaves removed, bottom 5 inches halved lengthwise and sliced thin crosswise *
3 shallots, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
8 sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped
3 tablespoons fish sauce
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk, well shaken
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 pound white mushrooms, cut into 1/4-inch slices
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (5-6 ounces each), halved lengthwise and sliced on the bias into 1/8-inch-thick pieces
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice from 2 to 3 limes
2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until just shimmering.
2. Add the lemongrass, shallots, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon of the fish sauce; cook, stirring frequently, until just softened, 2 to 5 minutes (the vegetables should not brown).
3. Stir in the broth and 1 can coconut milk; bring to a simmer over high heat.
4. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the flavors have blended, 10 minutes.
5. Pour the broth through a fine-mesh strainer and discard the solids in the strainer.
6. Rinse the saucepan and return the broth mixture to the pan.
7. Return the pan to medium-high heat.
8. Stir the remaining can of coconut milk and sugar into the broth mixture and bring to a simmer.
9. Reduce the heat to medium, add the mushrooms, and cook until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes.
10. Add the chicken and cook, stirring constantly, until no longer pink, 1 to 3 minutes.
11. Remove the soup from the heat.
12. Combine the lime juice, curry paste, and remaining 2 tablespoons fish sauce in a small bowl; stir into the soup.
13. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the cilantro, chiles, and scallions.
14. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

* Fresh lemongrass can be omitted, but don’t be tempted to use jarred or dried lemongrass – their flavor is characterless.

Garnish

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 serrano chiles, sliced thin
2 scallions, sliced thin on the bias1 lime, cut into wedges with chicken slices, mushrooms, and cilantro – what it lacks in looks it makes up for in flavor.Sweet-and-sour components balance the richness of lemongrass-and-lime- infused coconut milk, which, in styles of chicken soup seem as enticing as hospital food. However, most recipes for Thai chicken soup require a shopping list’s worth of exotica available only at Asian markets

This recipe, however, takes the trouble out of the soup and makes it doable for any home cook. And it’s quick too, requiring minimal effort and little time.

While most traditional recipes stew a whole chicken in water with aromatic ingredients to lay the soup’s foundation, we found that we could achieve the same flavor faster by simply simmering prepared chicken broth and a portion of the soup’s coconut milk (the fat in the milk “clung” to the aromatics’ flavors better than broth alone) – and a little potent fish sauce – with the aromatics.

Within 10 minutes, the broth was ready to be strained and enriched with the remaining coconut milk, sugar for balance, mushrooms, and paper-thin slices of chicken breast.

As for those exotic Asian aromatics and flavorings, we could locate lemongrass and fish sauce at most supermarkets, though no such luck with galangal, Kaffir lime leaves, or bird’s eye chiles. Those flavors, however, make up Thai red curry paste, a bottled paste that is available at most supermarkets. Stirring a spoonful into the soup – dissolved into a slurry with fish sauce and lime juice – just before serving gave our soup the heady aroma and resonant flavor of the authentic versions we sought to replicate.

Note: The soup can be prepared through step 1 up to 1 day ahead of time and refrigerated in an airtight container. Finish the soup just before serving, as the chicken and mushrooms can easily overcook.

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Be sure you buy coconut milk, not sweetened coconut milk. Check the label.  They are two completely different products.

A delicious Southeast Asian dessert is made by cooking short or medium grain rice with sweetened or unsweetened coconut milk with water, then blending pureed mango into the rice. I mold the cooled rice into little balls, sometimes tucking a chunk of mango in the center. Serve the mango rice balls finished with a squeeze of fresh lime and a topping of toasted, shredded coconut.

There is no substitute for fish sauce, a salty, uniquely flavored seasoning condiment made from fermented fish and used in many Southeast Asian dishes. A little goes a long way. Keep an opened bottle in the refrigerator. One reliable brand to look for has three crabs on the label. You’ll most likely find it in Asian markets.

The testers at America’s Test Kitchen recommend the Chaokoh brand of coconut milk because it has much less sugar than other brands, or A Taste of Thai Lite Coconut Milk if you’re watching fat grams. Personally, I lean toward the new organic coconut milks on the market.

In my heart of hearts I long to have everyone making their own broths and stashing them in the freezer. That said, I’ve also come to accept the realities of modern life, which is why I like the idea of simplifying this soup with canned broth punched up with the Thai red curry paste, instead of running all over a city trying to find lime leaves and galangal and simmering a chicken to make broth.

NOTE: Therma Pen

Cook chicken to 160°. If to 180° it gets tough.

Ingredients

2 cu sugar
2 cu sifted flour
½ tsp salt
2 cubes butter (1/2 lb)
1 cu water
4 tbsp cocoa
½ cu sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp soda
1 box powdered sugar
¼ cu butter
vanilla
milk

Instructions

1. In lg bowl put sugar, flour & salt.
2. In small heavy pan bring butter water, cocoa to a boil.
3. Take from heat. Add immediately to sugar/flour/salt ingredients.
4. Add sour cream, eggs and soda to mixture, mix till well blended. Batter will be very thin.
5. Pour into greased, floured 10 ½” x 15 ½” pan. Bake 20-25 min at 350°. Don’t overbake while warm, frost.

Special Steps Frosting;

¼ lb butter, 6 tbsp milk, 4 tbsp cocoa.
Boil milk, butter and cocoa until bubbly.
Mix in nuts, 1 box powdered sugar & 1 tsp. vanilla.
Beat until smooth. Spread over warm cake.

Also sometimes written Babaganouj or Babaganoush

1 medium eggplant – Halved, Cooked face down 350 degrees for 40 minutes
– Let cool, then remove meat
10 cloves garlic – Oil, Wrap in foil, and cook with eggplant
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C Tahini
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste

Process above in food processor
Mix in 1/2 parsley after processed

Top with Garnish
Parsley – 2 TBL minced
1/4 C Kalamata olives
1/4 C Feta cheese

Serve with bread or pita chips

Baba ghanouj
Eggplant is better if it is heavy for it’s size
Oven at 500° until it starts to char. 15 to 20 minutes
Put in a large bowl and cover with saran wrap
Leave in refrigerator until the next morning
Food process meat of eggplants.
Add tahini or peanut butter.
Add Greek yogurt.
I had a little bit of parsley and mint. So well and then puree.
Add lemons and garlic.
Pour lemon juice Andrews Esther to catch the seats.
Add olive oil.
Add one can chickpeas

Ingredients

• 1 med zucch (peeled and grated) – about 2 cups
• 1-1/2 C  Grandpa’s Healthy Happy Pancake Premix
• 1-1/2 C AP flour
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 C canola oil plus oil to drizzle
• 2 C granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1/2 C buttermilk (alt: whole milk)

1. Sift together flour, salt, soda, baking powder, and cinnamon – Set aside
2. Mix oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla – Set aside
3. Beat eggs until completely blended
4. Fold in zucchini mixture
5. Fold in flour mixture
6. Pour into two well greased loaf pans
7. Bake at 400º for about 45 minutes – or until knife comes out clean

NOTE:  I’ve seen recipes that say to cook at 450º for 30 minutes.  Another recipe said 350º for an hour.  The chemistry of what is happening is this:

• At higher temperatures, for a shorter time, the outside cooks more quickly, leaving the inside not completely cooked
• At lower temperatures, for a longer time, everything cooks completely, but the bread tends to evaporate and dry out
• Banana and Zucchini bread is a balancing act.  Find what works best for you.

2 eggs
1 TBL each
– Flax, Flour, Buttermilk, Garlic, Onion
1 tsp each
– Sugar
2 jalapeños (vein and seeds removed)
10 basil leaves (chiffonade)

Mix everything and put in small fry pan, cover, and cook on lowest heat for 10 minutes
Top with shredded cheddar

These are tips and snippets pretty much just for me, so that I don’t forget some of the settings that work for me:

Whole artichokes – not halved – 12 minutes

Fagor stovetop unit
1 tbl evoo
3 lb misc chicken parts
Pieced
Sear in three batches in hot oil

Pour off most of hot grease
Add 1 C chopped onion till browned
Then bay, garlic and salt
Add 1 C water to deglaze
Add 1 gallon water
Add back chicken
Cover and put on medium high till pressurized
Turn to medium low and cook 1 hour
Quick release the strain into a bowl
Cool then skim off fat

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