Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Gold -n- Silver Inn Mahogany Sauce

This is an interesting sauce spotted on a DDD episode featuring this place in Reno.

The thing that I picked up on is that it has a ketchup and grape Jelly based sauce.  They do a bit to jazz it up though.

Take butter / oil and brown some chopped onions, then chopped bacon.  Cook down and add ketchup + grape jelly.

To make the Mahogany sauce, add liquid smoke (guessing that can be any variety, not sure).

not sure of proportions, but on show they made over a pint, less than a quart of sauce, and simmered it for 40 minutes to cook down.

This is of course a Swedish meatball crock pot sauce sounding mixture.

site is: http://goldnsilverreno.com

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Fire Roasted Tomato Soup

http://www.schools.utah.gov/cte/documents/facs/cabinet/FoodNutritionI/CR_BreadBowlsAndSoup.doc

Fire Roasted Tomato Soup
from http://changeabletable.com

l large onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced (or use 1/4 tsp dried minced for each clove)

olive oil

2 - 28 to 32 oz cans tomatoes (I used “ready-cut” to keep it simple)

32 oz bottle fire roasted (or sun-dried) tomatoes (Costco has them for the most reasonable price in larger quantities)

2 - 8 oz cans tomato sauce

2 - 6 oz cans tomato paste

8 cups water (I added 8 - 10 chicken bouillon cubes for more flavor)

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cups milk or cream (more if you like a thinner soup)


In a large soup kettle saute onion in olive oil until almost translucent. Add garlic and continue to saute a few minutes more. Add tomatoes, sauce and paste - along with water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes. Puree in blender until desired consistency.
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Creamy Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup

http://cookingwithkrista.blogspot.com/2009/11/creamy-roasted-tomato-and-garlic-soup.html

Creamy Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup adapted from Tasty Kitchen

•6 Tablespoons Olive Oil, Divided
•3 pounds Plum Tomatoes Quartered
•Salt
•Fresh Ground Pepper
•3 heads Garlic Cut In Half To Expose The Cloves
•12 ounces, weight Onion - Diced
•1/2-1 teaspoon oregano
•6 ounces, weight Tomato Paste
•32 ounces, weight (two 16 Oz. Cans) Canned Diced Tomatoes
•8 cups Chicken Broth
•12 ounces, fluid Evaporated Milk
•12 whole Basil Leaves, Minced
Sour cream for garnish

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 450F. In a large bowl, lightly toss together the quartered tomatoes, 3 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour out onto a foil-lined baking pan and roast for 25 to 30 minutes until tomatoes are soft and have started to caramelize. Remove from oven and set aside.

Place halved heads of garlic on a large sheet of foil with cut side up. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Seal up the foil and roast in the oven with the tomatoes until the garlic is soft. Set aside and allow to cool so that it can be handled.

In a large pot heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until caramelized. Add oregano, black pepper and tomato paste. Cook, stirring constantly for one minute. Add the diced tomatoes with all the liquid, simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the chicken broth and roasted tomatoes to the soup. Squeeze the garlic from its paper, discard the paper and add the soft garlic to the soup. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Using an immersion blender or in small batches in a blender, blend until smooth. Stir in the evaporated milk and bring soup to a simmer. Add the fresh basil. Garnish with sour cream.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

vegetarian tomato soup

 

Ingredients:

Directions:


  1. Over medium heat, sauté the onion and celery in a medium non-stick saucepan sprayed with no stick cooking spray.
  2. When the onion is translucent, add the tomatoes, broth, oregano, rosemary.
  3. Simmer on very low heat for 10 minutes.
  4. Transfer soup to the blender, (work in batches if you need to) add the roasted garlic, and puree until fairly smooth.
  5. Add the parsley and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.
  6. Taste the soup, and if it is too acidic, add a little sugar to taste.
  7. Serve with some chopped fresh basil.

tomato soup

Ingredients:

l large onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
    (or use 1/4 tsp dried minced for each clove)
olive oil
2 - 28 to 32 oz cans tomatoes
    (I used “ready-cut” to keep it simple)
32 oz bottle fire roasted (or sun-dried) tomatoes
    (Costco has them reasonably priced in larger quantities)
2 - 8 oz cans tomato sauce
2 - 6 oz cans tomato paste
8 cups water
    (I added 8 - 10 chicken bouillon cubes for more flavor)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups milk or cream (more if you like a thinner soup)

Directions:

In a large soup kettle saute onion in olive oil until almost translucent. Add garlic and continue to saute a few minutes more. Add tomatoes, sauce and paste - along with water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes. Puree in blender until desired consistency.

Note:  careful with hot soup in blender

(If you like chunkier soups, hold back on one of the batches in the blender - leaving it chunkier) Add milk or cream and seasonings and continue to simmer for another 5 or 10 minutes.

At Paradise Cafe, they drizzle the bowl of soup with thinned sour cream, then top with tortilla strips.  Keep a squeeze bottle in your refrigerator to top bowls of soup with little mess.

Breadsticks are wonderful with this soup - as it is thick enough to be able to use the soup as a dip. Make extra breadsticks while you're at it - and freeze them on a cookie sheet.  When frozen store them in zip-locs in the freezer.  Heat them in a warm oven for about 1/2 hour while finishing the soup,

tomato soup

Jen's Fire Roasted Tomato Soup
2 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
28 oz can San Marzano whole tomatoes (I buy them at Fresh Market)
14 oz can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes (I buy them at SuperTarget)
8 oz can tomato sauce
6 oz can tomato paste
4 cups water (chicken stock)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups milk

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Pastor Ryan’s Bolognese Sauce

Another Bolognese, easier looking and looks tasty.


http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/ryans-bolognese-sauce/

Recipe: Pastor Ryan’s Bolognese Sauce


Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup Olive Oil
  • 1-1/2 cup Grated Carrots
  • 1 whole Large Red Onion, Diced
  • 2 pounds Ground Beef
  • 2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
  • 2 Tablespoons Dried Basil Flakes
  • 1 can (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste
  • 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
  • 1 cup (to 2 Cups) Red Wine
  • 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
  • 2 cans (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes
  • 1 cup Milk
  • Salt And Pepper, to taste
  • Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add grated 
carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes. Make a well in the center 
of the mixture, and then add in the ground beef. Cook for a few minutes 
until brown, gradually stirring it into the carrot mixture.

Throw in oregano and basil. Use fresh if you have it; if you don’t, it’s fine. 
When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients, make 
another well. Add tomato paste and let it heat. Add garlic and stir to combine.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and add red wine. Stir together. 
Add Worcestershire and stir. Add canned tomatoes. Finally, pour in milk, 
stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—however long you need.
Serve with pasta and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Gravy


Critical items:
  • onions (at least one)
  • mushrooms (portabella or baby bella are best)
  • about 4 Tbsp butter (olive oil would probably work, but I've never tried)
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sherry or marsala (other flavored liquids would work, but these have the best flavor here)
  • 2 - 4 cups liquid (ideally vegetable broth)
Extra bonus items:
  • garlic (as much as you like)
  • thyme, dried or fresh
  • paprika
  • fresh parsley
You'll need two pans. First you saute onions, garlic and mushrooms in one. Then make the roux in the second. Then add the first pan to the second pan.

Since this is a gravy, I chop the ingredients finely. Minced onions, minced garlic, thinly sliced mushrooms. I almost never chop things finely, but it's worth it. The liquids cook out faster and the gravy is smoother.
You can throw your ingredients in, fry 'em up without thinking and have something that works, or you can pay attention, and have something great.

1. Fry the onions in a little butter or olive oil on high to medium high heat. We want really nice brown bits to give the gravy that great roasted taste. Obviously avoid burning them. Onions have quite a bit of liquid inside them, so they can take a pretty high heat, but once they start turning brown, pay more attention and stir more often to minimize the chance of burning.

2. Add the garlic when the onions are close to done. Garlic burns easily on high heat, so this is when you want to turn down the heat to medium or medium low.

3. Add the mushrooms. They'll have a decent amount of liquid in them from the washing, so we want to cook them slowly to draw it out nicely for the sauce. This time I ended up adding one box of mushrooms first, then chopping and adding the second. This led to a nice gradation from totally cooked mushroom bits to fairly solid mushroom slices. If I weren't so lazy I might have cooked them longer, for a smoother gravy, but a few slices are nice too.

4. After the mushrooms have cooked down a little, add the thyme and paprika. I tend to sprinkle, mix, smell or taste, and repeat the process until I'm happy.

I'm horrible at estimating times for these steps, and it's more important to get it to the right doneness than check the time. But the onions might take 10 minutes, the garlic may take 1 minute, and the mushrooms another 10 minutes. But while the mushrooms are cooking, you can start the roux... (And if the mushrooms are done before the roux, you can take them off the heat until you're ready for them, or vice versa.)

I don't know much about classic sauces, but I have learned the key to good gravy: mix the fat with the flour first. Then cook it. Then add the liquid.

So, equal parts fat and flour. For this recipe, about 4 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cup flour. (Yes, those are equivalent amounts. Silly Imperial system.) Melt the butter in a new pan (everything will end up in this pan at the end, so it should be reasonably big) over medium heat. Mix in the flour. It'll bubble oddly. It looks and smells like Playdoh. Kind of gross, right?

Keep stirring. And stirring. And stirring. You don't want to burn it, but you do want to brown it. So medium heat is good. Lots of stirring. Thick bottomed pans are better here for an even heat.

I can usually tell that my roux is ready from the smell more than the color. It goes from smelling like Playdoh to smelling like baked pie crust. And basically, that's what it is, cooked butter and flour. It just happens to be liquid instead of solid.

Once you've got the roux ready to go, you should deglaze the mushrooms. Deglazing is the point at which you use a liquid to melt those tasty brown bits (fond) off the sides of the pan.

I just sprinkle as much sherry as I need, which is probably between 1/2 and 1/4 of a cup. All of the alcohol cooks off, so we're just doing it for the rich flavors. If you don't have sherry on hand, you could use Marsala wine or vermouth, or red or white wine. I think at one point I used a mix of apple cider vinegar and water, but that was a long time ago.

Once the fond is mixed into the liquid, you're ready to add this to the roux.
Pour the mushroom bits into the roux. Stir a lot. It'll foam up, but just keep stirring and pouring. The sauce should be thick and glossy. It'll probably be too thick. This is when you add vegetable broth or water to thin it out. If it's really thick, don't just add veggie broth -- it's too salty. Add water too. If you're frugal like my Depression-raised grandmother, you'll add the potato water from your mashed potatoes. Theoretically it has lots of vitamins, and it's already hot.

See how the sides of the pan are nicely coated with thick gravy? Yum.

This is where you could mix in some minced fresh parsley.

Seven Layer Cookies


7 layer cookies     350o    30 minutes
1 stick (1/2 cup) Margarine, melted
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup shredded coconut
1 six oz. pkg. chocolate chips
1 six oz. pkg. butterscotch chips
1 cup pecans, chopped


Mix cracker crumbs with margarine and spread on bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan.   

Then spread chocolate chips over crumbs.   

Next add layer of each coconut, butterscotch chips and nuts.   

Pour Eagle Brand milk over and brake.

Cool completely before cutting into 1 inch squares.

Pot roast


Ingredients
  • 1 (3 to 4 pound) piece beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 yellow onion, halved
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 bunch baby carrots
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced
  • 1 cup button mushrooms, stems removed and sliced in half
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
Directions
Season all sides of the beef with a fair amount of salt and pepper. 

In a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot that has a tight cover; heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over moderately high heat. 

Brown the meat on all sides, taking the time to get a nice crust on the outside. 

Pour in the tomatoes and the water. 

Scatter the vegetables and herbs around the pot roast, season with salt and pepper; and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of oil. 

 Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. 

Braise for about 3 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the pan juices, until the beef is fork tender.

Slice the pot roast and arrange on platter surrounded by the vegetables. 

Serve with the pot juices.