Yamcakes, Spaghetti Sauce/Squash/Snack, Co-Op Dinner and more

Leftover Yam Cakes

Yam and Sweet Potato are terms which get used interchangeably in America, although they really are two different critters. Sweet potatoes being sweeter, of course!

What a great thing to do with leftover Sweet Potatoes – mash them and make pancakes! These yams were leftover from last Sunday's Plum Lamb dish.

1-1/4 cups mashed cooked Sweet Potatoes

2 Tbsp melted Butter

1/2 cup Sour Cream or plain Greek Yogurt

3/4 cup Milk

1 large Egg 1-1/2 Tbsp Maple or Cane or Golden Syrup

1 cup Self-Rising Flour (or 1 cup AP plus 3/4 tsp Baking Powder)

1/4 tsp Kosher Salt

Pinch each Nutmeg and Cinnamon

Combine the mashed sweet potatoes, sour cream, milk, eggs, syrup and melted butter, and whisk to combine and smooth out the lumps.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and spices. Add the wet ingredients and whisk just to combine.

On medium heat, fry the batter in 1/4 cup cakes, flattened to about 4” diameter. Fry 3-4 minutes per side, flipping once. These don't “bubble through” the way regular pancakes do.

These yamcakes are soft and unctuous inside, not bread-y like a flour pancake. This recipe makes 8 yamcakes – hearty breakfast for two, or “just right” breakfast for three.

Spagetti Sauce, Squash & Snack

I had a LOT of beautiful large Beefsteak tomatoes from our Co-Op fruit & veg box that I needed to use up. Spaghetti sauce was the perfect answer!

Sauce

5 large Beefsteak Tomatoes, chopped

2 sticks Co-Op Celery, sliced thin

3 cloves Garlic, minced

1 Onion, diced

Italian Seasoning to taste

1-2 Tbsp Honey to cut the acid of the tomatoes

1/2 lb Ground Sirloin

Brown the beef and saute the onion. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about an hour or so, adjusting the taste as you go along. Serve in:

Squash

Halve a spaghetti squash, remove the seeds, and nuke for 6-10 minutes, cut side down, until the flesh will fork apart easily.

Snack/Lunch 

One of my favorite snacks or lunches is simply leftover spaghetti sauce ladled over toasted bread or English Muffins.  Yyyuuummmm!

Co-Op Dinner (mostly veggie)

This week we got some beautiful large Golden Beets, which we love roasted, along with some large carrots and a small Eggplant. Chop, slice, roast and fry – mostly vegetable dinner!

Cut the roasting veggies, lay them out on a baking tray, and drizzle with a bit of EVOO. Start baking them at 400F for an hour.

Halve the Eggplant lengthwise, scoop out the “guts” leaving a 1/4” rim inside the skin. Saute the “guts” with some celery, onion and about 1/2 cup of leftover spaghetti sauce. Toss in some Panko to tighten things up and spoon into the eggplant shells. Top with shredded cheese and bake on the shelf below the roasting veggies for 20-30 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Biscuits & Sausage Gravy

Just had to show off this beautiful breakfast plate which I prepared for our AirBnb guests this week. The biscuits are my three-ingredient Soda Biscuits (see blog of Sept 21, 2014).

Those of us who "did time" in the military will recognize this as a fancy version of SOS

The gravy is a simple white sauce with sausage. Take the skins off of 2 Kielbasa and crumble the meat into a pot. Brown the meat and remove it from the pot, retaining the rendered fat. Add a pat of butter to the pot and let it melt. Add 3 or more tbsp of flour and soak up the liquid. Cook the lumpy flour for a couple minutes. Whisking to break things up, add 2-3 cups of whole milk or half&half, and simmer a minute or three until it thickens. Add a dash of white pepper, and when the gravy is “just right” in thickness, ladle it over the split muffins.

Sticky Orange Marmalade Cake, Plum Lamb, and a Savory Tart

Sticky Orange Marmalade Cake

This one is from The Great British Bake Off Cookbook, which our friend Fiona brought me from England back in November. The first recipe I made from there was the Blood Orange Cake I wrote about back then. This one is a real winner too!!

Marmalade

The original recipe calls for a jar of “chunky Seville marmalade” – rather hard to find on this side of the Pond. Make your own, the same way I did:

2 Oranges

Sugar

Chop the oranges into thumb-sized pieces, and throw everything (fruit, pith, skin, seeds, juice) in your food processor and take it for a whirrr until is sorta looks like chunky marmalade.

Measure into a microwave safe bowl and add the same measure of sugar (any kind). Stir to combine. Microwave on High for 5 minutes, stir, and microwave for 5 more minutes. Ladle into screw top jars and let them sit on the counter until cool before lidding and refrigerating.

The Sponge

3/4 cup Unsalted Butter, softened

3/4 cup Sugar

3/4 cup Self-Rising Flour, sifted (first time I ever used this)

pinch of Salt

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

3 large Eggs, at room temp, beaten

Marmalade -- see above

2 Tbsp Whole Milk

....

1/2 cup Confectioner's sugar

1-2 Tbsp warm water

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Put the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Continue beating and slowly add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Continue beating and add the eggs, a bit at a time, and with the last addition toss in an extra tablespoon of flour. Fold in the rest of the flour, the salt and baking powder. When thoroughly combined, add the marmalade and fold until incorporated.

Line an 8” springform pan with parchment, and spray the sides with non-stick. Pour in the batter and spread it evenly. Bake 50-55 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Putting it Together

Cool the cake on a wire rack for 1/2 hour, then remove the pan side.

Brush a layer of marmalade all over the top. 

 Later, when the cake is completely cool, mix up the confectioner's sugar and water to make a simple frosting, and brush the icing over the top of the marmalade and let it run down the sides.

Where I messed up was the icing. I made mine much too thin. Start with just         1 Tbsp of warm water, whisk thoroughly and test the thickness. Add extra water only if absolutely necessary...

Acorn Squash Quickie

Since you made that nice marmalade, use some in Sally's (the Closet Gourmet) version of baked Acorn Squash.

Halve the squash for pole to pole – microwave the whole squash for a couple minutes, to soften, if you don't have the strength to slice the raw squash. Remove the seeds, and fill the cavities with marmalade. Bake as you normally would – I microwave for however long it takes to get the flesh done -- 6-8 minutes.

Savory “Cheese Cake” – The Blood Sugar Diet

Fiona has had great luck with this diet (a Mediteranean style diet  under 1000 calories per day) so we thought we'd try a few of the dishes to see what they're like.  The original did not include the Italian seasoning, just the mint.  The added seasoning really makes this dish come alive!

This is a cheese cake because it has a ton of cheese and is sort of cake-y.

6 Mint leaves, cut chiffonade
8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
8 oz Feta Cheese, plain

1/2 lb Zucchini, cut 1/8” thin
3 Eggs

Italian Seasoning

Slice zucchini into rounds and lay out on a baking tray. Drizzle with a little EVOO and dust with Italian Seasoning.  Fire up the Broiler, and grill the zucchini 5-6 minutes until they start to brown. Remove to a bowl, toss with the mint, and cool.

 Turn the oven to Bake and set the temperature to 400F.

Put the cream cheese, feta and eggs in a food processor and whizzz until well combined. Add a splash of EVOO to a 9” oven-proof frying pan. Spoon the cheese/egg mixture into the pan and press the cooked zucchini into the top.

Cook the cheesecake for 5 minutes on the stovetop, on medium high heat. Then bake the skillet 15 minutes until the top is puffed, set, and browned. Serve warm.

According to the Blood Sugar diet, a quarter of this recipe is 450 calories and should be eaten as a complete meal. 

 So Sally and I had it for lunch, and we have to say, this is very rich and filling, and we were only hungry for dinner 6 hours later (not starving early, as we expected). Sally is having a quarter for her lunch today and tomorrow.

Persian Plum Lamb

For Easter luncheon, I used a double batch of last week's Plum Sauce test, plus 2+ pounds of trimmed boneless leg of lamb cut into bite sized pieces, and a peeled, sliced yam to replicate the Plum Lamb dish which I had at a Persian restaurant a couple weeks back.

I browned the lamb with the cumin and a bit of S&P, then removed it (leaving the lamb juices) from the pot.  I cooked the sauce ingredients and pureed them, then added everything back to the pot and simmered the dish for about an hour at
300 F. Tender and oh so tasty! One of the best dishes I've created in a loooong time!

Served with rosemary roasted potatoes and green beans with slivered almonds.

Zucchini-Goat Cheese Tomato Tart

My own version of this savory dinner tart, taking the best from several “out there” recipes.

1 Recipe No Fail Tart Crust (March 13^th blog)

1-2 large Beefsteak Tomato, sliced thin

2 medium Zucchini slice into 1/8” rounds

3 oz Goat cheese, softened

Italian Seasoning

1/4 cup Shredded Parmesan (not that canned stuff)

Make the crust and pre-bake it. Spread the softened goat cheese on the warm crust and then lay down a layer of tomato slices. Follow this with overlapping rings of zucchini rounds (see photo). Dust with Italian seasoning, then top with the shredded Parmesan. Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the zucchini browning.

Bison, Quinoa, Plum Sauce, and First Flan

Bison Meatloaf

Awhile back Sally's Mum brought us two 20 oz packages of ground bison. The first one went into a Bison Pot Pie that I reported to you six weeks or so back. This package will make Bison Meatloaf, my own recipe.

Bison Meatloaf with fresh green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy

20 oz Ground Bison

1 large Shallot, diced

1/4= Sweet Onion, diced

1 can Ro*Teltm, Chili Fixins

8 0z Mushrooms chopped/sliced

1 cup uncooked Steel Cut Oatmeal

2 strips uncooked Bacon, cut to fit

S&P TT

Optional – Sweet Chili Sauce

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and transfer to a loaf pan and shape the meatloaf. As a kid, I thought that that deep rectangular pan was called a “loaf pan” because that's what my Mom made meatloaf in. Imagine my surprise when I saw someone bake a loaf of bread in the meatloaf pan!!

Like my Mom, I still press a groove into the top of the meatloaf and pour some sweet chili sauce into the groove. Mom's chili sauce was home made, and I've lost the recipe. These days I use Frank's Red Hot brand Sweet Chili Sauce.

Bake the meatloaf 45-60 minutes; do not overcook, or you'll have a rectangular hockey puck!

The beauty of a bison meatloaf is that it is 97% fat free, and you won't find your finished loaf floating in a pool of grease. The disadvantage of a bison meatloaf is that it may not contain enough fat to cook properly. I compromised by topping the loaf with bacon which, as it cooks, will work its way into the ground meat and add just a hint of flavor as well as some fat to keep things from being too dry.

Quinoa with Spinach & Goat Cheese

Is this a salad? Or a side dish? You decide! Either way this is pretty tasty stuff!

3/4cup Quinoa

1-1/2 cup Water

4 cups Baby Spinach

4 cloves Garlic, minced

4 Tbsp Goat Cheese

1 Tbsp EVOO

1/2tsp Cracked Black Pepper

Boil the water, add the pepper and quinoa. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook 16 minutes. Fluff with a fork, re-cover and let it rest for 10 minutes.

In a large pan, saute the garlic with the oil – don't let it burn! Add the spinach to the garlic and saute a minute or three until wilted. Toss everything together in a large mixing bowl, divide between plates, and top with the goat cheese.

I served this with “Greek” Chicken – breasts spiced with Cavendar'stm and Ultimate Garlic Insanitytm, a salt-free spice blend from Auntie Arwen's Spices www. auntiearwenspices.com.

Plum Sauce Test

I had a fabulous lamb dish called Plum Lamb at the Persian restaurant Bha Bha in Naples last weekend, when we went to see The Merchant of Venice, and I want to try re-creating the dish for Easter. This was my first attempt to re-create the sauce, which is the critical ingredient for the dish – anyone can slow roast lamb!

16 Dried Plums (with stones) soaked overnight in water

1/2 tsp Cumin

Water

1/2 tsp Turmeric

5 Black Cardamon pods

1 Beefsteak tomato, chopped

½ white Onion, diced

Balsamic Vinegar

Worchestershire Sauce

Dried plums are the hard to find ingredient. These are not your average “American” prunes, but a “sour plum” which has been dried/salted. I found them, not at the local Mediterranean market, but at the Chinese market next door.

Simmer everything in a couple cups of the soaking liquid for 30 minutes, remove pits from plums and remove the cardamon pods. Puree everything else, and return it to the pot. Adjust the sweet/tart ratio with balsamic vinegar and Worchestershire sauce. I discovered that too much balsamic will leave a harsh vinegar-y taste which you don't want. If you need to thicken the sauce, add a dusting of Wondratm as desired.

Plum Meatballs and Yam Coins with Rice

The test turned out really successful, except for a slight excess of vinegar. Silky smooth, rich and just plain unctuous! More Worchestershire next Sunday!

Flan

I've eaten my share of Flan over the years, but never made it. Now I wonder whyWe were gifted with all these wonderful eggs, and I needed to use a good number of them. Flan is/was the perfect solution.

This looks like a long complicated recipe, but it isn't. Trust me it's worth the effort to read ahead!

The quintessential Latin dessert, this alternative to cheesecake is not only creamy and oh so tasty, but it's pretty darn simple to make too. I scouted a bunch of recipes and came to my own recipe and techniques that make this a snap!

Caramel Topping

Flan invariably has a caramel upsidedown topping that needs to be made, applied to the baking vessel (mold), and allowed to cool before the eggy custard is poured into the pan prior to baking. It's a critical facet of the dessert, and if you make it the older way and don't pay attention – remarkably easy to burn and ruin.

The old way was a pan, some sugar, some water and boil until the sugar melts and caramelizes without burning. The easy way is a microwave safe container:

Put 1 cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of water in the container – a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup is the perfect size. Stir things up a bit, and start microwaving for 5 minutes. When you pass the 4 minute mark keep a real close eye on the color of the liquid and stop immediately when the “right” color is reached. Depending on your microwave, you may have to go longer – in 30 second increments, to get the right color. Mine took about 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Watch closely and stop the second you get that dark amber color!

When you've got the magic color, pour the caramel into your mold pan and swirl it around to coat the bottom. The caramel has to harden before you can proceed further – plan on at least half an hour in the fridge for that to happen.

Looking at a bunch of recipes it's really hard to tell what size pan you need. I used a 1.5 quart Pyrex “pie” dish, and 5 silicon ramekins (I had to make a second batch of caramel for the ramekins). One site had the perfect solution – use a bundt pan. It's deep enough for the most massive flan, and will yield a much more decorative final product. Make sure you get that caramel up on the bundt pan's stem as well! That's what I'm using next time! Don't try to use springform pans for this – they just aren't made to be leakproof!

The Custard

We've been blessed with a bunch of eggs from one of Sally's work friends, but they are smaller than the average Large commercial egg – more like a medium. The Puerto Rican version of flan is much denser than flan from other Latin countries. Where others use 6 eggs, the folks from PR used 8 or even 10 eggs, and I did likewise. Here's my basic recipe for the custard:

1 cup Sugar
8 large Eggs
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 13-oz cans evaporated milk
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

1 Tbsp Lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare a bain-marie (large, deep pan to hold a water bath around the mold dish). The hot water will go only half way up the side of the mold dish. Don't put the water in yet. 

Put the custard ingredients in a blender and process until well blended, but don't over mix. Pour the custard into the caramelized mold, cover with foil, and sit in the baño de María (Spanish for  bain-marie or water bath). Then pour hot water into the baño and carefully place in the oven for 1 to 1-1/2 hours until and a toothpick comes out clean.

When it came time to serve, I ran a knife around the edge, inverted the Flan onto a plate, as per directions, and removed the mold. Perfection!

The extra mini's that I made were slightly overcooked (I cooked the pan of those for 45 minutes during the same hour as the main flan). I ended up with a hardened disk of caramel on top of each mini, and not much runny sauce, so be warned to lessen the cooking time if you plan on making a batch of mini-Flan.

Tortilla Sandwich? Chiffonade, Pakoras and a Salad

Tortilla Sandwich

Take a breakfast dish and turn it into lunch. That's what the Spanish do. Well, we think of eggs and fried potatoes as breakfast, but in Spain it can be lunch, dinner, or a sandwich.

Tortilla de Patata

I'm talking about the Tortilla de Patata, which I've chronicled here before – slices of pan fried potato smothered in beaten eggs and a handful of onion, slide on the broiler to finish. In Spain the dish is eaten hot, or at room temperature, or in this case, as a sandwich.

Sunday I ended up with a “spare” tortilla de patata, so we decided to make a dinner sandwich with this 'leftover' and some nice Cuban bread.

For the Tortilla:

1 largish Red Potato, cut into slices 3/4” thick, and par-cooked for 6-8 minutes in the microwave

2 Eggs, beaten

3 Green Onions, chopped

Fresh ground Black Pepper, to taste

In a 9” oven-capable skillet, heat a splash of olive oil and then fry one side of the potato slices. You can, of course make a large tortilla in, say, a 12" skillet with more potatoes and 3 eggs.  

When nice and brown, flip the potato slices over, pour the beaten eggs overall, toss on the green onions and add a few cracks of black pepper. Turn the broiler on high, and transfer the pans to a top level rack. Broil for 1-3 minutes, until the tortilla is puffy and nicely browned. Transfer the cooked tortilla to a plate.

For The Sandwich:

Bread – a French or Cuban loaf will do since you probably won't find Spanish bread in your megamart

1 beefsteak type Tomato, halved

Optional - a large clove of garlic (or an entire head which has been roasted) with the end sliced off, for rubbing

Once the tortilla has cooled, halve it, and slice open a 9” length of good bread. Rub the cut face of the tomato all over both sides of the bread. This is a very Catalonian technique. Bread served this way with cut garlic for rubbing too, is called Pa amb Tomàquet – Bread and Tomato – a Catalan appetizer.

Lay a half of the tortilla in the bread, and serve.

Americans will probably want to add a schmear or salsa and/or slices of tomato to the sandwich.

Technique – Chiffonade

This one is for our English friend Fiona.

Chiffonade is a fancy French cooking term for rolling up leaves of herbs and slicing them very thin, into strings. Last week I made a chiffonade of mint; here's how:

Stack some herb (mint, basil, etc) leaves.

Roll them tightly around the central stem.

Slice at right angles to the roll.

Use as a garnish or in dishes.

Pakoras

These Indian fritters are a great accompaniment to any Indian style dinner. I served them with Channa Dal - a dish of cooked, spiced chickpeas with diced onion and tomato added at the end. Next time I'll serve them with Butter Chicken, a dish we both love.

1 cup Besan (lentil or chickpea flour) from your Indian Market

3/4cup Water

1/2Onion, diced fine

1 tsp minced fresh Ginger

1/2tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1/4tsp each ground Coriander and Cumin

1 cup fresh spinach leaves chiffonade and then chopped (or 1/2cup thawed frozen chopped spinach)

Salt to taste

1 quart Vegetable Oil for frying

Mix the flour and water, then add everything else except the oil; stir well to combine into a sort of lumpy pancake batter.

In a heavy-bottom pan, bring the oil up to 350F on your thermometer. Drop the batter by spoonfuls into the hot oil, two or three at a time. Turn over when one side is GB&D, and remove when both sides are golden. Drain on paper towels, sprinkle with salt, and serve hot; with chutney on the side. I found a fablous Mango Chutney at my neighborhood Indian market that will also make a great glaze for Salmon or other fish.

Green Bean, Tomato & Corn Potato Salad

Had a bunch of these ingredients in our Co-Op box last week, and needed to do something with them. This Potato Salad variant isn't as heavy in the spud department, making this a bit on the healthier side.

2 ears of Corn

1 medium Beefsteak Tomato

1 lb Green Beans

3 Medium White Potatoes

Salt & Pepper to taste

Dressing:

White Wine Vinegar

Dijon Mustard

EVOO – I used a special Basil-infused EVOO which I was gifted at the holidays

Peel and boil the potatoes, until done but firm. Tip & tail the green beans and blanche them for 5 minutes in the microwave with 1/4cup water added to the bowl. Slice the corn off the cob onto a plate, and chop of the tomato.

In a bowl or measuring cup, combine 3-4 Tbsp of mustard with about the same amount of vinegar. Whisk in the EVOO until things are emulsified and the oil/vinegar stays together as a viniagrette.

Toss to combine all the veggies, then pour the viniagrette over and toss again. Salt & pepper if necessary. Can be eaten warm, but I prefer to chill things for an hour before serving.

I liked the corn raw; but Sally would have preferred it cooked. She also wanted more potatoes that I had included. The viniagrette was really good, but use it sparingly.

I served the salad with Mango Chutney Glazed Salmon, and it was a great accompaniment.