Sugar and Spice and Meatballs are Nice

 Monsoon season here in Florida.  We've got a huge mass of wet air stalled on our side of the Gulf for more than a week.  It won't become a hurricane but is certainly giving us all the rain of one (but thankfully not the winds).  Days like this you want to curl up in front of a fire,  except it's 'way too warm for a fire in Sally's cabana fireplace!

Porcupine Meatballs

These chicken meatballs are called "porcupines" because they use uncooked rice as a binder, and as the rice cooks it sticks out all over the meatball like spines (sort of)  . Meatballs from many countries include rice (cooked or un-cooked) as an ingredient. Where the porcupine name comes from no one is certain, but all 'rice included' meatballs are called porcupines in America. Go figger!  Meatballs can be baked, deep fried, panfried, or poached in a 'gravy'. These are poached in a tomato cream sauce to provide the liquid for the rice to swell and soften. You could also use a white sauce like Swedish Meatballs are poached in.  This recipe makes about 30 1" balls

2/3 cup Rice, uncooked

1-1/4 lb ground chicken

1/4 cup celery finely diced

1/4 cup carrot, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup fresh parsley chopped

1 28-ounce can of tomato sauce

1/2 cup Half & Half

1 tsp Italian seasoning spice mix

S&PTT (salt & pepper to taste)

In a large covered skillet, pour in the tomato sauce and half & half (I used a bit of leftover Alfredo Pasta Sauce and water instead) and seasonings, and begin heating on low.  Make the sauce thin to start, as it will thicken when you start cooking.

Combine the uncooked rice, chicken, veggies, garlic, and parsley. Combine thoroughly with your Mark-I mixer (hands). Wash those hands!

I used a 1" disher scoop to form the meat/rice mixture into about 1-inch balls and dropped them in the barely simmering sauce. You can just use those Mark-I hands again. Wash those hands afterwards!

Once all the meatballs are in the sauce, cover the skillet and turn up the heat to medium. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove the cover and turn each meatball over. Turn down the heat to low. Cover and cook for another 15 minutes. Serve over rice or pasta or couscous or polenta. Or cool, store, and reheat later.

Here's a Meatball Sub that I made the next day.  Use a slim knife to hollow out the half-loaf of bread, and slide the meatballs inside like loading a muzzleloader! Now thatsa meata-ball sanda-wich!

Mango Gazpacho

Found this is the paper last week. Ran out of time last week, but we're deep in mango season here and I'm going to make this later this week.

3 Mangos, peeled, pitted and cubed

1 English Cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced

1 Red Bell Pepper, diced

1 cup Coconut Milk

1/2 cup Vegetable Broth

3/4" thumb fresh Ginger, minced

1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 Tbsp Cider Vinegar

2 Tbsp fresh Mint chopped, plus additional for garnish

S&P TT

1 tsp Curry Powder (optional)

Combine everything in a large bowl. The ladle half of the mixture into your blender and take it for a spin to puree, then recombine. Chill for several hours before serving.

Spiced Oils

It's been years since I made herbed oils and vinegars, but a friend sent me some new combinations to try using ground spices like mustard, paprika, curry powder, turmeric, caraway, cardamon, cumin, cinnamon, fennel and star anise. Grind your own spices in a clean coffee grinder for the freshest flavor. Guess what the friend will be getting for Christmas!

3 Tbsp ground spice

1 Tbsp water

Blend into a smooth paste. Use a bit more water if necessary.

Put the paste in a pint Mason jar, and fill with canola oil. Cover and shake vigorously. Set the jar in your pantry for 2 days, shaking several times a day.

After a couple days, the spice particles will settle out. Carefully ladle the oil away from the spicy sediment. Discard the sediment and filter the oil throgh a paper coffee filter or a couple layers of cheesecloth. Place the filtered oil in decorative jars/bottles and store in the fridge or at room temp for up to six months.

All My Own Rice & Beans

Made these as a side for our Sunday Lunch with Mum-- wild-caught PNW sockeye salmon, green beans, rice & beans, and a mango-banana-blueberry smoothie for dessert.

2 cups Jasmin Rice, cooked with 

1 Packet Badia tm Season Tropical

1/4 cup dice Red Bell Pepper

3/4 cup cooked Indian Kala Chana - Black Chickpeas

Shrimp Stuffed Peppers, Ragout, Waldorf Failure

A couple of new dishes for you this week.  Plus, Sally got me interested again in trying to win some recipe contests, so I thought I show you some of the high spots and the not-so-high-spots of creating winning recipes, as we go along.

Shrimp Stuffed Peppers

This is a sort of Latin/Caribbean take on the classic stuffed pepper. Instead of ground beef, I used salad shrimp; and rather than European spices I used Latin flavors, most notably in the rice.  Pretty simple to make, tasty, and filling.  Mexican Chorizo is almost more of a seasoning than a sausage.  When you cook it, it melts down into a flavorful semi-liquid that seasons everything around it.  A little goes a long way.  Spanish/Latin Chorizo is a cooked sausage, more like a hard salami than anything, and it makes great sandwiches!

4 Red Bell Peppers, topped and gutted

2 cups Jasmine White Rice

1 packet Badia brand Sazon Tropical tm  spice blend

8 oz Salad Shrimp, or larger shrimp peeled and chopped

1 stick Celery, diced

1/2 white sweet Onion, diced

1 cup frozen Peas or Peas & Carrots

2" piece of Mexican Chorizo, chopped

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese, divided

Combine the rice and Tropical seasoning with water and cook until fluffy and tender and seasoned. While that's going on, dice the veggies, and saute them with the shrimp and chorizo until the onion is translucent. Cool everything in the fridge so it won't melt the cheese in the next step

Toss to combine the cooked rice with the veggies and half of the cheese. Pack the rice mixture into the peppers, top with additional cheese.  Bake at 350F for 30 minutes until things are melted, browned and yummy.

Vegetable Ragout over Cheesy Polenta

Don't be scared! This looks like a lot of ingredients, but it's a very simple dish to prepare!

Not a stew or a stir fry, a ragout is a naturally thickened saute or simmer; in this case all vegetable. You could add some spicy sausage or a bit of ground beef if you want, but this is a rich, filling dish all by itself, served over Cheese Polenta (which southerners call White Cheddar Grits).   Any combination of vegetables that you love will do; these are what I had handy.

for the Ragout:

1 smallish Eggplant, cubed

2 sticks Celery, chopped

3/4 cup Onion, chopped (I used a mix of green onion and sweet white onion)

1/2 cup fresh Tomato, chopped

2 whole medium Carrots, chopped

1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped

3 cloves Garlic, minced

4 oz (half box) sliced Crimini mushrooms

1 Tbsp Capers

1/2 teaspoon each:

    Celery Seed
    Thyme (dried)
    Oregano (dried)
    Black Pepper
    Dill Weed

for the Polenta/Grits

1/3 cup Grits, Quick, not Instant, I like the Jim Dandy tm brand

3/4 cup Half & half

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup Shredded White Cheese

White Pepper to taste

When you've got all the veggies chopped, throw them in a deep-sided skillet, along with a cup or so of water and the herbs and spices. Bring to a simmer and cook long and slow, adding water as necessary to keep things from burning. You want the end result to be falling apart but still somewhat chunky.

Near the end of the veggie cooking, make the polenta/grits (takes about 15 minutes). Bring the water/cream mix to a boil, stirring so it won't burn. Add the grits and keep stirring for 5-7 minutes as things cook, swell, and start to thicken. When mostly thick, add the cheese and some white pepper, and stir again to melt all that yummy cheese into the blend. Taste and add more pepper if you want.  Cook until really 'stiff', then plate.

Plate a bed of the polenta/grits, and ladle the ragout over the top.  Top with shredded cheese, if you please.

 

Simple Salad with Tuna

It's been hot and really humid here lately.  Summer seems to have started in April, and escalated!  Sally got to craving a nice leafy salad, so last night for dinner here's what I made:

1 head Romaine, Chopped

1 bag mixed Baby Greens

1/2 cup thin sliced Carrots

1 bunch Green Onions, diced

1 Red Bell Pepper, diced

1/4 box Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, halved

3 Tbsp hulled Sunflower Seeds

1 can Solid White Albacore Tuna, divided 

Sally dressed hers with Raspberry Viniagrette.  I put Bleu Cheese dressing on mine.

Waldorf Failure

As I mentioned above, I'm getting started competing in recipe contests again.  The Calif. Walnut Board and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC have combined to create a Waldorf Salad Revised contest, with the grand prize a variety of things including having your recipe served on the Hotel's menu.  So, my idea is a Tropical Waldorf salad.  The recipe must contain walnuts, apple and celery; the sky's the limit for whatever else contestants want to add.   I'm adding Jicama, mandarin orange segments and a couple 'secret ingredients', and making a mango flavored yogurt based dressing.

My first version was a huge failure.  We ate token helpings with Friday's dinner.  We critiqued it, and I threw the rest away.

Lesson #1 -- don't shred or grate the ingredients.  As Sally said, it looked like worms on the plate.  The modern Hotel version is julienned (thin sticks) of veggies, and I thought I'd go a step bigger.  Now I'm going back to the more traditional bite-sized pieces.  

Lesson #2 -- even though California Walnuts is a sponsor, and the dish must have them, don't put too many in the dish.  Also use 'pieces' rather than halves.  Too many, and they are so bitter they'll kill all the other flavors.

Lesson #3 -- don't use Mango Nectar to flavor the yogurt.  It's too thin, and to get good flavor you add so much the dressing is too thin.  In Round Two I'll used pureed mango 'meat' which is much thicker

Lesson #4 -- don't add Daikon.  I thought the tangy-ness of the radish would add to the flavor, and it doesn't.  

Lesson #5.  I still would like to add something like sliced grapes, but there doesn't seem to be any tropical fruit equivalent that I can used.  Lychees wouldn't have enough flavor.  Jaboticaba are too rare to make a good ingredient.  I'm thinking about Muscadine grapes rather than the more usually northern green grapes.  What do you think?

Your Favorite Sandwich??

Another contest I'm entering is a Build A Better Sandwich recipe, sponsored by one of the well known bread baking companies (not Wonder).  I asked Sally what the best sandwich she'd ever eaten was, and she gave me a really good idea that I can build on.   So I'll ask you, Gentle Readers.  What is the all-time best sandwich you've ever had?  Not a burger or a 'dog, but anything else will do.  If an idea you give me leads to a win, I'll share some of the prize with you.

Omelet Muffins, Jam, Sides and more

Lots of goodies for you this week, to make up for  a couple of 'dry' weeks.

Baked Omelet Muffins

Found this one on Facebook the other day.  The sky is the limit in the flavor department.   Makes 8-12 depending on the size of the cups in your muffin tin and how much you fill them.  You can zip-bag any leftover muffins and re-heat them the next day -- they stay nice and fluffy and not rubbery.

8 Eggs
Salt & Pepper & Spices to taste

1/3 Cup of Half & Half
1/2 Teaspoon Oil (plus extra to grease muffin pan)
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder, gives the eggs a bit of rise and fluff

Fillings (any or all of the following):
Onion (diced)
Shredded Ham (cooked bacon, chicken, sausage, shrimp, crab, etc)

Mushrooms

Bell Pepper
Grated Cheese of choice

Combine first five ingredients. Whisk well. Add fillings to about half way up the cups. Fill cups 3/4 full with egg mixture. Bake @ 375F for 20-25 minutes until firm and starting to brown (optionally, broil for a couple minutes at the end, like I did). Rest 5 minutes before removing from cups.

They're light and fluffy, and filled with your favorite ingredients -- what more could you ask? Serve with a dollop of BBQ sauce, salsa, or other tasty sauce.

Ascerola Jam

I've talked before about Ascerola -- Barbados Cherry.  Last year I showed you a pie that I made from the tart, vitamin C loaded fruit. I've been saving up the cherries for quite some time. The fruit ripen in spurts and throughout the year, so I keep a zip-top bag in the freezer and just pop in whatever comes ripe whenever they ripen. 

 

I was looking through the freezer the other day, and realized I had quite a stash of cherries, so I decided to make some jam this time.

I took a mostly full gallon bag of frozen cherries, dropped them in a large saucepan, and added about a cup of water. Put the lid on, set the fire to medium high, and brought things to a boil. I cooked the fruit as I would fresh cranberries -- perhaps 15 minutes at a steady simmer. Then I strained off the brilliant red juice, and put the berries in a bowl and set them in the freezer to cool so I could handle them. When cool enough to handle, I rubbed the berries between my hands (messy but fun), breaking them up and trying to separate at least some of the multitude of pips from the tiny amount of meat. The resulting seedy-pulp I pressed through a fairly large hole sieve and added the seedless pulp back to the juice.

The result was about 3 cups of somewhat pulpy juice, to which I added about half a cup of water, and brought it up to a rolling boil. I then dissolved two cups of white sugar in the boiling juice. I didn't want the jam too sweet or too tart, and that much sugar gave me just the taste I wanted. To the boiling sugared syrup I added two packets of liquid pectin and cooked it for a measured one minute. Lastly, I quickly poured the already stiffening jam into screw-top jars and set it aside to cool before screwing down the tops.

What a tasty way to get your daily dose of vitamin C!

Spagetti Squash Two Ways

Sally likes hers with the squash forked from the skin and plated; I like mine with sauce ladled in the hollow. This time the sauce was especially tasty -- Paul Newman's Sockarooni tm Sauce, doctored with a pound of ground turkey, chopped fresh tomato, a stick of celery, a handful of sliced mushrooms, some diced onion, and 1/3 cup of half and half to cut the tomato acidity a bit. Whichever way you choose, choose to try this dish soon!

I half the squash and seed it with a spoon.  Then microwave the halves, cut side down, for 10-15 minutes until soft.  The sauce is assembled in a skillet and simmered to combine flavors before applying to the squash.  

Zucchini Tropical

Another brilliant invention by The Kilted Cook!  I thought you'd like to see this simple and tasty way I created to serve up zucchini. Cut the squash into 3/4" or 1" pieces, and stand them in a microwaveable platter or dish. Sprinkle the tops with the contents of a package of Badia brand Sazon Tropical tm spice blend. Microwave for 2-3 minutes. Serve.

Bananas On The Half Shell

Yet another Kilted Cook Creation!

Here in Southwest Florida we're lucky. A lot of things you northern readers have to buy 'imported' are grown locally here. Take bananas. Please. Sally's neighbor has a number of banana plants growing along the ditch behind his house, and he's not particularly fond of them. So when I was back there walking the dog, and saw where a raccoon had climbed and broken a stem trying o get a snack, I rescued the large bunch of nearly ripe fruit (bananas at right angles to the stem, not pointed upwards). I cut off the bunch, placed them in a large plastic bag and hung them outside for about a week to finish ripening before cutting them from the stem. I peeled and froze several (great for smoothies later); made Mango Banana Smoothies a couple times (banana, mango, blender, whirrrr); and gave some away.  Still had some left.

Yesterday Sally's Mum came to lunch and I need a simple dessert. Hmmm. Excess bananas... Hmmm. Brown sugar..... Hmmmm. Voilà -- Bananas On The Half Shell, a.k.a Bananas Brulee. Slice in half, sprinkle with brown sugar, broil for 3-5 minutes until bubbly.  Let cool, then top with real or spray whipped cream.  Yummy!

You can do this with those bright yellow things from the megamart too, but it's a lot more fun to pick your own.

Meatballs Part II

I feel like a real slacker lately, not giving you, Dear Readers, a wealth of new recipes in the last few weeks.  Lady Sally and I have been doing our summer travel and eating out a lot.   There will be lots more good things coming, so stay tuned.

 Last weekend Sally's daughter Holly made a flying visit for the 4th weekend, on her way from DC  to Houston for work, and joined us on Sanibel Island, one of our favorite local off season  getaways.  Friday evening we went to dinner at Doc Ford's Rum Bar & Grille, one of our favorite places; named for the main character of local author and co-owner Randy Wayne White's main novel series set on Sanibel and the coastal waters here.  

Sally and I had seafood, and Holly had a monster serving of Prime Rib.  Sally's take on the new Oriental Panko Crusted Grouper was that it wasn't very "oriental" flavored, and the panko-crusting would have been better had it not been dissolved in the sauce poured over all.    I had the new Yucatan Shrimp Tacos which,  flavor-wise were fabulous, but presentation-wise should have been served in three tortillas rather than two far-too-over-filled rounds which fell apart as soon as you picked them up and tried to take a bite.

I don't normally recommend having beef at a seafood place or chicken at a burger joint, but Doc's usually does both the surf-y and the turf-y bits up right.  That evening we watched the wonderful movie Paddington Bear, and Holly had her first experience of a Mamey Sapote Smoothie, courtesy of the Kilted Cook and his mighty blender -- mamey fruit, Greek yogurt and half & half.

This year marked Sanibel Island's 25th July 4th parade.  A really nice 'down home' kind of parade and celebration on the morning of the 4th.  We had a great view from the start of the parade route.  After a hard day on the beach, between a gourmet cold cut lunch by yours and a power nap,  we went to another island favorite, George & Wendy's Seafood Grill.  Their seafood is always excellent, and Holly says the half-pound burger was pretty alright too.  Sally had the Bleu Cheese Encrusted Salmon, while I opted for the Grouper Francaise, both of which were outstanding.

So here's you Kilted Cook recipe for the week.  When we go home yesterday afternoon, I went to the megamart to get a few things for Sally in the week as well as our dinner last night.  When I got back from the store, it was time to take Holly to the airport to catch her flights to Houston so she could be at work this morning.

Chicken Falafel Meatballs

If you want to make these look more "falafel like" you could roll the formed meatballs in additional Garbanzo Flour, Falafel mix, or even Panko, and then pan or deep fry the result in oil.  But these were pretty darn tasty just as-is, and healthier to boot.  

The "sauteeing in buttered water" technique wasn't something I'd tried before, but it worked very well.

1 pound ground Chicken

3/4 cup Garbanzo Flour or prepared Falafel Mix

1/3 cup minced fresh Parsley

3 Tbsp cold Butter cut into very small pieces

1 Egg yolk

3 Tbsp Greek Yogurt

1 tsp Garam Masala spice blend

1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

3/4 to 1 cup of Water, plus

3 tablespoons of Butter

Mix the chicken, garbanzo flour or falafel mix, butter, egg yolk, yogurt, garam masala, cayenne pepper, salt and nutmeg; shape into balls of desired size. I made a dozen, about 1.5" in diameter.

Heat water and the 3 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet. Add the meatballs to simmer; shaking and gently turning often to prevent sticking and promote complete cooking, until all of the water cooks away and the meatballs are browned a bit. 

Broiled Eggplant

As you can see, I served the meatballs with grilled eggplant -- slices about 3/4" thick, drizzled with some wonderful virgin Avocado Oil I'd been gifted, then dusted with oregano and cumin. Broil on high about 5 minutes each side.

An even better accompaniment to the Falafel Chicken Meatballs would be a nice Greek Salad or something similar. 

You could also serve them with pitas for MIY sandwiches dressed with hummus, yogurt-dill sauce, raita, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, etc.  There's always next time....