It Was a Goat's Cheese Week!!

I think I've bought more Goat's cheese this past month than I have in years. And I've certainly found some wonderful dishes to use it in.

We've had a couple of open house parties to go to this past month, so I've been wanting to 'stock' up on some entertaining ideas for the upcoming holidays.

A few months ago, I bought a jar of Garlic-Pineapple Salsa that we just love. Even mixed with Pesto, it has a delightful flavor. I've been playing with duplicating it and now have one that is close, but not quite there - will play with more. It's missing the fresh 'upfront' pineapple, so will work more with fresh and a couple other ideas.


Garlic-Pineapple Salsa


1 cup pineapple, crushed, drained, but keep juice
2 tsp. honey
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. crystalized ginger, minced

2 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 T. onion, minced
1 jalapeno, minced (will replace with dried pepper flakes next time)
pinch cumin (will omit next time)
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. sugar


Mix all the ingrdients together, thin with a little of the juice if necessary. Cover and let sit in refrigerator for a few hours before serving.


This is a work in progress - but, it's very good right now!
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Two other dips/spreads tried this past weekend were keepers also - one, from Southern Living's Christmas book is especially flavorful - it would also be great tossed with hot pasta! That's it in the foreground -




Peach & Pecan Tapenade with Goat Cheese


...except no one around here had dried peaches, so subbed about 2/3 dried mango and 1/3 dried apricots - this is so good!! I made half the recipe and it's a very nice amount for a crowd of ~20.

1 cup orange juice
2 cups dried peaches, chopped
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, chopped
2 T. olive oil
1 T. honey
1 T. capers, drained
1/2 tsp. dried thyme (use fresh)
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
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12 oz. goat cheese
lovash or specialty crackers

Bring orange juice to a boil in a small saucepan over med. heat.Remove from heat and add chopped dried peaches.Cover and let stand 30 min.


Drain, if necessary.Combine olives and next 5 ingred. in a serving bowl. Stir in peaches and pecans.Place tapenade on a serving platter with goat cheese and crackers.

Spread cheese on crackers, and smear with tapenade.Makes 3 3/4 cups.

Do ahead - but don't add pecans until service. Will keep in frig 2 days.
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The second is a dip from Nigella Lawson's book, Feasts (more on this book later in this posting)

Basil and Goat's Cheese Dip
You can use feta in place of goat cheese.

1 cup walnut pieces, toasted
2 scallions, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cup basil leaves
1 packed cup soft goat's cheese
3 T. garlic-infused oil

Process the walnut pieces, scallions & basil leaves, then add the goat cheese and oil; process again to make a grainy paste.Transfer to a bowl.

This topping would also be great tossed with a little hot pasta and sprinkled with a little Parmigiano-Reggiano. Add a little rustic bread and dinner's ready.
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Another dish we tried and could not stop eating on is a take off from a Sandra Lee dish, Couscous with Goat Cheese (again with the goat cheese!) This was a clean the pantry/frig dish for me.

4 oz. fideo
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup pinenuts, toasted
1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/3 cup currants
4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup finely hopped parsley leaves

Cook the fideo and salt in water until just done; drain and pour into a serving bowl.

Add the rest of the ingredients and toss together. At this point, either serve the fideo, or cover and chill for a few hours. At serving time, put in microwave for just 1-2 minutes - just to take the chill off, but not hot. This will help melt the cheese and bring out all the flavors.

Grandma Shelledy's Lefse

My two grandmothers were two of the most diverse women that anyone could ever imagine - Grandma (always called 'Moremommie' for some unGodly reason) Fry was as high-falootin' and snobbish as you could imagine in our small town of Yakima, Washington. Ever the lady, short but seemingly tall and stately, she looked down her regal nose at just about everyone in that town. BUT, oh my, she was the most most loving, wonderful Grandmother any child, especially a girl could dream of having. She and her four sisters doted on my sister and me all of their lives.

Grandma 'Mom' Shelledy was the complete opposite in temperment and stature. She was short and plump with pure white hair always pulled back in a bun, held tight with little brown combs. As a young woman, she cooked for the ranch hands on the Columbia River, was a post mistress in her small town, was almost the sole parent of her seven children while my Grandfather was off being a sherriff and probably carousing the countryside. In her later years, she still cooked on her wood stove and the most wonderful foods came out of her kitchen. Lefse is probably my favorite of all she ever made.

It's a Norwegian bread, looks just like a tortilla except for the shape, my Grandma's were usually like triangles of dough she cooked on the wood stove. She made lefse for the family for all my life and probably years before that! I don't know how she kept up with us when the whole family was around her huge round kitchen table, soft butter and the sugar dish in front of us just waiting as the lefse came off her old wood stove. I know we must have eaten faster than she could cook them.

This recipe is how she dictated her it to my sister, Joan and me, many years ago. I made these again the other day (while I was cooking potatoes for Tourtiere Tarts, I thot why not go for it) - I also wanted to 'test' the way the recipe was written. I disovered the most amazing thing - all my life I thot Grandma cooked lefse in triangles, but now I realize what she did - there were always so many of us panting for more lefse that after she cooked these circles of dough, she would portion them out in pie shapes, therefore feeding 4 or 6 of us with one lefse!!!!! It only took me 67 years to figure that one out! she'd be so proud!

Mom Shelledy's Lefse
5 large white potatoes (the old & mushy type)
2 cups sweet cream -- half & half, or milk & water (but cream is the best!)
1 tsp. salt
3 T. butterFlour for rolling the lefse out (I made 1/2 this recipe and needed ~ 1 3/4 cups flour kneaded into the dough to make it workable)

1. Boil potatoes and mash until very fine.
2. Add cream, salt, and butter; beat until light.
3. Let cool (fairly)
4. Add flour until workable.
5. Roll out and bake on top of griddle (or wood burning stove)

More traditional instructions -Follow above through #4 - the dough will be fairly dry, but stay together to be rolled out.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.Roll the dough out into ropes and cut into 2" chunks.

Roll chunks into thin circles (or long ovals, or whatever) like tortillas.Heat a griddle to about 400 F.

Place a circle of lefse on the dry griddle and cook until brown spots appear on the heated surface. Flip and cook the same way on the other side.

Lay cooked lefse on cooling rack as you cook the rest.

To serve: Some folks like just butter, my family always smeared the softened butter over and topped with a sprinkling of granulated sugar.

Fold twice or roll into a cylinder. Eat and enjoy!!

Oh my, it's amazing the memories that come while making these - I'll have to post a picture of my Grandma, she is just the epitome of what a Grandma should always be.

And Grandma Fry, of the exquisite Chocolate Set and her sets of Fostoria and Limoges Haviland and all good things in life, was also the epitome of what a Grandma should be!!!

A Dinner of Hors D'oeuvre

No pictures of this wonderful little dinner, but my, what a fun dinner!

There are a couple of open house parties scheduled for the coming weeks and I wanted to play with some new hors. Every one turned out a keeper. Our dinner consisted of:

Salmon Spread - a mixture of -
smoked salmon
cream cheese
thinned with a little creme fraiche (or mayo)
capers
corn - roasted and cut from the cob would be best, or use frozen corn thawed
chives
lemon juice
pinch of cayenne

Very tasty on toasted bread rounds and surprisingly spread on hard-cooked eggs.
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PESTO-GOAT CHEESE SPREAD:

In a food processor, put all the ingredients:
11-oz. log goat cheese
8-oz. pkg. softened cream cheese
2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
1/2 c. toasted pine nuts
3 garlic cloves
2 T. balsamic vinegar

and process till smooth. Chill 2 hrs. before serving. Makes 3 cups.

Store in frig up to 1 week, or freeze up to 4 mos.
Serve w/toasted pita chips or sliced baguettes.

I think this would be very good tossed with some hot cooked pasta also.
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Grilled Apple Sausages and Pineapple
Hard Cooked eggs, which turned out to be wonderful with the Salmon Spread, will do a stuffed egg with this soon.

Fun dinner treat this was!

Using The Chocolate Set!

While I was growing up, my mother had a chocolate set given to her by her mother - it was a wedding present to my grandparents. I thought it was the most beautiful, fragile thing I'd ever seen. Over the years my mother did make use of the set and serve me hot chocolate once or twice, but mostly it sat in the china cupboard with the other Limoges Haviland, untouched. One day, when I was in my early thirties, she decided it should come to my house because I had loved it so much over the years and she also knew I would made use of it much more than she.

I have used it over the years, not as often as I wish I had, but a couple of weeks ago I saw a recipe for 'Alcoholic Hot Chocolate' by Nigella Lawson - while the name turned me off, the recipe sounded delightful. Since the resident bartender usually makes our weekend lavish drink experiments, Roy offered to make the renamed "Rummed Hot Chocolate" for us and I ran for the Chocolate Set.

We sat in the front courtyard on a Sunday morn drinking our chocolate in the style that my Grandmother would have been so proud!

Rummed Hot Chocolate
Nigella Lawson recipe

2 cups milk
3 1/2 ounces best-quality dark chocolate -- bittersweet or semisweet, as preferred
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark rum -- or to taste

Put the milk into a saucepan and break the chocolate into pieces and add to the milk along with a cinnamon stick, honey, and sugar and heat gently until the chocolate is melted.

Add the vanilla and mix with a small hand whisk and still whisking, add a spoonful of the rum first and taste to see if you want more. Add more sugar if you want this sweeter, too. Take out the cinnamon stick and pour into 2 cappuccino or caffe latte cups.

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I'm promising myself we will use the Chocolate Set and this hot chocolate often this coming winter!!!

...And More Fun In The Kitchen

Just a P.S. to the Crab, Shrimp & Scallop Roulade posting - The goop from 'sieving' the onions from the sauce was too tasty to discard, so added back to some leftover sauce and made Mac & Cheese. I would do this again as the main recipe - it was just delicious.

and served with the roulades - great combination, altho one roulade would be plenty!

MORNAY SAUCED MAC & CHEESE

2 1/2 Tablespoons butter
3 1/2 Tablespoons flour
2 cups milk, 2% lowfat, heated
Salt & white pepper
couple grindings of nutmeg
1/2 cup gruyere cheese, grated
8 ounces onion, finely diced and simmered for 15 minutes in 2 T. butter and set aside
1/3 cup cracker crumbs or panko
2 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Melt butter in a saucepan; blend in the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to make a smooth paste. Stir over moderate heat for 2 minutes without coloring. Remove from heat.

After the bubbling subsides, add 1 3/4 cup of the hot milk and whisk briskly to make a smooth sauce and blend thoroughly. Put back over moderate heat and add the rest of the milk a few drops at a time to desired consistency. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Whisk in salt, pepper and nutmeg - tasting as you add the spices.
Remove from heat and let cool several minutes before adding the cheese.
When cooler, add the cheese and the onions; stirring until cheese is melted. At this point you can chill the sauce for later use, or freeze it, or add to pasta at this time.

Pour into a greased baking dish and top with a sprinkling of cracker crumbs or panko and dabs of butter
Bake in a 350 F. oven for 30-35 minutes.

Description:
"This dish was a by-product of making the Crab, Prawns & Scallop Roulades for Don Kaiser. It's wonderful."
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On top of all the cooking/testing/tasting Roy & I did on Wednesday - Neighbor Neery brot over two crabs (of the 16!!) she and the boys caught this day. Managed to clean them and threw in the frig for tomorrow - No more cooking today!

And so to Thursday and more fun. Wednesday, I received a C.D. from Lorraine, that was just a hoot. Two Toronto Chefs speakingFrench demonstrating recipes. The name of the CD is "Au pied de cochon" which my handy-dandy little translator says "with the foot of pig".......will have to find out more about this from Lorraine, plus the names of the two chefs who are an absolute hoot!

Willl have a lot of editing to do if I don't have this info correct - but, everything is in French and I barely got thru one year of Latin in high school.... The chefs are (apparently?) David Emmanual Fafard and Jean-Francois Boily and because they so inspired me, I only managed to get thru one recipe on the c.d. -

Le Saumon

dans le Papier Journal

Salmon wrapped in Newspaper

It looked so fun (and tasty), I headed for the freezer and neighbor Christine's salmon that she gave me months ago to 'do something' with! This is what I copied from the sub-titles -

Bake the salmon at 400 F. for 20 minutes per pound of salmon 'roast'

Sprinkle with sea salt and fill cavity with something - the boys used pesto.

Soak four sheets (with no color) in some water

Wrap the salmon up tightly and lay on a baking sheet

Place in the middle of the 400 F. oven for 1 hour (I cut my 'roast' to 3 lbs.); remove from oven and let rest before unwrapping.

I made this in the a.m. and did not make any kind of sauce to present this dish with, so it's not a really pretty presentation - but, it was delicious and Roy and I picked at it for nearly an hour!

While picking on the salmon, I had to do something with the crabmeat from yesterday -

Crab & Corn Fritters
Ray’s BoatHouse restaurant in Seattle

2-3 qts. canola oil for frying
1 cup a.p. flour
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. ground white pepper
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsp. unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup crabmeat
1/2 cup each: corn kernels, diced red bell pepper & diced green onions

Heat oil to 350 F.

In mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, white pepper, granulated garlic, cayenne pepper and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, combine milk, eggs, butter, crabmeat, corn, bell pepper and green onion and mix well.

Add to dry ingredients and mix with a fork until just combined. Do not overmix.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls into hot oil Cook until fritters are golden brown and fully cooked on the inside, about 3 – 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce.

Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. sambal oelek
2 T. water
2 T. Thai fish sauce

In a small bowl, whisk together everything except the fish sauce. Then add fish sauce and stir just until combined.

I have to say after all the tasting we did between the salmon and the fritters, dinner was not looking too good, but I had sirloins thawed out for a couple of days and had to use them. So, went ahead and made the Gingered Tomato Chutney to go with the grilled steaks - instead of Roasted Dijon potatoes I had planned, we ate MORE of the fritters with the steak!

The chutney is from Cuisine at Home, issue #65 - I liked it very much, Roy could not stay out of it!

for one cup chutney:

1 1/2 ccups cherry tomatoes, halved, divided

1/4 cup red onion, diced

2 T. white wine vinegar

2 T. fresh ginger, minced

2 tsp. garlic, minced

3 T. fresh lime juice

2 tsp. tomato paste

2 tsp. jalapeno, seeded, minced

salt to taste

Simmer 1 cup of the tomatoes, onion, sugar, vinegar, ginger, and garlic in a saucepan over med-high heat, stirring often, 12 minutes.

Add lime juice and tomato paste, return to a boil, and simmer 3 minutes or till thickend to jam consistency.

Stir in remaining tomatoes, jalapeno, and salt. Set chutney aside. Grill the steaks and top them with the chutney. Roasted Dijon Potatoes are good to serve with this dish.

Today is Friday and now it's time to put the rest of the salmon in the oven for Marlene's Oven Smoked Salmon - it's been brining with brown sugar, kosher salt, and liquid smoke since last evening - but, this is the only cooking I'm doing today!!! Going to a movie and out to dinner tonight!!

CRAB, PRAWN & SCALLOP ROULADES

My good friend Don Kaiser called last nite to describe a dish that a friend (or brother?) of his had seen on TV – a filled piece of fish, stuffed with crab, prawns and scallops, and had a sauce that might have been a hollandaise sauce. I think that’s all Don knew about the dish and wanted to know how he should put it together.

So, this morning I got to play. Don is not crazy about hollandaise sauce, so that was out. From thinking about it in the middle of the damn night, I knew pretty much what I wanted the ‘stuffing’ to be. That just left the sauce to really play with.

This will be a very easy dish to make for company, because all the stages can be done ahead of time and chilled and/or even frozen.

Crab, Prawns and Scallop Roulades

The filling:
1/2 cup leeks, the white and the light green part, cleaned and minced (2 oz.)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T. butter (clarified, if you have it)
1/4 cup bell pepper, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine or Noilly Prat
Salt and pepper
3 oz. crab meat
3 oz. prawns, coarsely chopped
3 oz. bay scallops, cut in half
1 1/2 T. capers, chopped
The white sauce:
2 1/2 T. butter
3 1/2 T. flour
2 cups milk
Salt and white pepper
Couple grinding of nutmeg
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1/2 cup gruyere cheese
8 oz. onion, finely diced
2 T. butter, again clarified if possible
4 filets of fish (cod, sole, halibut or a firm fleshed fish of your choice)
1/4 cup dry white wine or Noilly Prat
4 thin lemon slices

The filling:
Sauté leeks and garlic in butter until soft, but not browned, 3-4 minutes.
Add the bell pepper and wine; raise the heat and simmer until liquid is almost gone, about 3 min. Season lightly with salt & pepper.

Add the seafood and cook until the shrimp is just turning pink and the scallops are cooked. (If using cooked crab, do not add yet.)
Add the crab, if using cooked and the capers; just heat through. Remove from heat.

At this point, you can put in bowl and chill until ready to use. Can be done one day ahead.

The White Sauce:
Melt butter in a 2 1/2 qt. saucepan; blend in the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to make a smooth paste. Stir over moderate heat for 2 minutes without coloring. Remove from heat.

After the bubbling subsides add 1 3/4 cups of the milk and whisk briskly to make a smooth sauce and blend thoroughly. Put back over moderate heat and add the rest of the milk a few drops at a time. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Whisk in the salt, pepper and nutmeg – tasting as you add the spices. At this point you can chill the sauce for later use. You can even freeze it.

When ready to use, thaw or remove from the refrigerator and heat in a double boiler or over a bain-marie. You may have to thin a little with milk.

After the sauce has heated, remove the from the heat and let cool several minutes, then add the gruyere cheese, a little at a time, stirring well between additions.

Simmer the finely diced onion in the 2 T. of butter without browning for 15 minutes. Add to the sauce and combine well. Force through a sieve.

To complete the dish, lay out the 4 filets and sprinkle each with a little salt, then spoon 1/4 of the filling on each filet, roll up being careful to push the filling in as you go. Secure with toothpicks.

Spray a baking dish with pam and pour the 1/4 cup white wine in the bottom of the dish. Lay the fish bundles seam side down, or stand up in the baking dish. Lay one thin slice of lemon over each roulade. Bake uncovered in at 350°F. oven for 30-35 minutes until the fish flakes when prodded with a paring knife.

To plate: spoon a little of the sauce on a plate and lay slices of the roulade on the sauce, adding a little more sauce to the top.

It was very, very good!! Now, I hope Don likes it also!!

P.S. Could not stand to throw the 'goop' from the sieve away - it had a great flavor, so cooked up some Campenelle, tossed with the goop and added a tad more of leftover sauce. Now, that's going to be good!!

I had intended to make a Mornay sauce, but I kept coming back to a Soubise sauce, so it's kind of a bastardized-Mornay/Soubise sauce. Whatever we call it, it is delicious.

Hangtown Fry....Finally!!

Since my twenties, my mother was fascinated with the Hangtown Fry, but for some reason she never made the dish. I probably didn't help the effort much because in those days, I was not a fan of oyters as I am today. Having just gotten her old recipe books (clipped recipes and handwritten treasures) and going thru them, my interest was piqued and this morning I made the dish for the first time. I did a little research first to try to get as close to the authenic recipe as possible and I think, I found it. Here's a little of the history and lore of Hangtown Fry from Placerville, CA
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Hangtown Fry History

Hangtown fry could possibly be the first California cuisine. It consists of fried breaded oysters, eggs, and fried bacon, cooked together like an omelet. In the gold-mining camps of the late 1800s, Hangtown Fry was a one-skillet meal for hungry miners who struck it rich and had plenty of gold to spend. Live oysters would be brought to the gold fields in barrels of sea water after being gathered in and around San Francisco Bay. Such a meal cost approximately $6.00, a fortune in those days.

However it came to be, ordering a Hangtown Fry became a mark of prosperity for gold-rich miners, the status symbol of the day. The recipe swept the entire Northwest Territory, from California to Seattle, in the mid-1800s. A few drinks and a Hangtown Fry were considered a gentleman's evening.
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Start out the dish by frying two slices of bacon (for 2 servings), cut them in half and set aside keeping warm. Bread, eggwash, bread again 3-4 small oysters per person; fry these in clarified butter. Add two slices of bacon per omelet in the pan with the oysters, placing them like railroad tracks in the pan.

Mix together two eggs (per person again) with seasoning & a little milk and pour over the oysters and bacon. Cook slowly until eggs are set and lightly browned. During the cooking, lift the cooked eggs to let the uncooked part run underneath onto the hot pan.

To serve, fold in half and slip onto a hot platter. Serve French fried potatoes as an accompaniment. (Next time, I think I'll serve as a frittata, not folded, so I can get the effect of the beautiful fried oysters and the 'rail road' bacon strips.) This was wonderful and I so wish my mother was at a place she could have enjoyed this dish with us also. Hangtown Fry is a wonderful, historical dish.

This week also saw the first of the '07 rhubarb crop, thanks to our neighbor, Kemp! Within two hours of picking a cobbler with a puff pastry topping was in the oven - oh my, was it delicious. I just combined sugar, cornstarch and salt with the rhubarb and put in a pie dish and topped it.

I also tried a "Seared Seafood and Wasabi Salad" - Saturday night. Didn't really care for the completed dish, but the Wasabi Vinaigrette was wonderful and especially good brushed on the cod filets and portabellos that I grilled to top the salad. Will definitely repeat this. (this vinaigrette was very good tossed with the rice noodles also)

Wasabi Vinaigrette

1/4 c rice wine vinegar

1/4 c soy sauce

2 T. Wasabi paste

2 T. brown sugar

1 piece ginger root (1") - peeled and minced

1 large clove garlic, miced

1/4 c dark sesame oil

1/4 c corn oil

Combine rice wine vinegar and wasabi paste; stir till smooth.

Add soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger.

Combine the corn oil and sesame oil and in a slow steady stream, incorporate the oils into the other ingredients to form an emulsion. (a food processor can be used) This vinaigrette can be made up to 3 days ahead of using.

All in all, it was a nice week of cooking - Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Bread, Buttermilk-Brined Pork Chops, Home made Creme Fraiche and Chocolate Creme Fraiche Ice Cream - will try Grandma Fry's chocolate ice cream custard method next time trying to incorporate chocolate into an ice cream base.....

Also, made Three-Sster Stew from a packet I picked up at the Portland Farmer's Market - it's a Native American Blend and the stew was wonderful. Checked out the website and there was an Enchilada recipe using the same seasoning packet that looked very good!

Cynthia and I have pushed through an Ethiopian Dinner to be reviewed April 30th.