Golden Raspberry Tart, Harvard Beets, Oat Cakes and Root Soup

The Ides of May -- one of those 'transition' times of year --too late to be spring, too early to be summer.  Whatever the time of year, it's always time for good food and good friends!

Co-Op Rustic Golden Raspberry Tart

Golden Raspberries were a feature in this week's Co-Op order. I wanted to keep the flavor and color relatively pure, so I made a simple, rustic tart:

1 pint Golden Raspberries

1/4 cup AP Flour

1/4 cup Sugar

1 Pre-made Pie Crust (the rolled up kind)

Whisk together the flour and sugar, then toss the berries in the combo. Thaw the pie crust and unroll it. Pile the berries in the center of the crust and fold in the edges. Brush the top of the crust with milk and sprinkle with extra sugar. Bake @ 375 F for 25-30 minutes or until GB&D.

Steamed Harvard Beets

We've gotten some really nice Golden Beets from the Co-op, which I've roasted and used in curry and soup. This time I got some regular Red Beets because I wanted to try and re-create a recipe from my youth. Although Mom canned beets that we grew, she never made these Harvard Beets, we always bought them in a glass jar and just heated them. Now I wanted to try and make my own.

Steamed Beets

I decided to steam the beets rather than boil all the flavor and nutrition out of them. Of course peeling red beets is the messy, but colorful part of the task. Wash those red hands when you're done or you'll have red finger/hand prints everywhere!! Cut the peeled beets into 1/2” to 1” cubes, place in a steamer and steam for 10 minutes or so. You want them done but firm, not mushy.

Harvard Sauce

...is dirt simple. Make it, and toss some cooked beets in it.

1/3 cup sugar

1-1/2 tsp Corn Starch for thickener

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (or try a mix of white wine and balsamic vinegar)

1/4 cup water (use leftover steaming water which is nicely colored)

Whisk the ingredients together in a small pot, bring to a low boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the beets, and toss to coat.

I told you it was simple!

Staffordshire Oat Cakes

I've been looking at various breakfast dishes and experimenting with some of them as possible additions to our Cabana Breakfast for Two menu. One of Sally's Brit girlfriends offered to send us her recipe for Staffordshire Oat Cakes. We haven't seen that recipe yet, but the following is what I've come up with from my research.

Oat cakes are not “pancakes” in the usual sense. They're much denser and richer in flavor, and in the Midlands of England can be served either savory – with eggs and bacon, or sweet – dusted with confectioner's sugar and a squeeze of lemon, or slathered with jam/marmalade.

After experimenting with size, I've decided that one saucer-sized oat cake with a sunnyside egg and bacon makes a good breakfast.

6" Saucer sized Oat Cake was just the right amount

Or, I could offer it with my chef-made marmalade and have bacon or ham on the side. If the cake is too large, say dinner plate size, it's just too much to take in, really:

9" Plate-size  cake was too much Oat Cake

75 gr (2.6 oz) Fine Oat Flour *

75 gr (2.6 oz) Whole Wheat Flour

150 ml (1/2 cup) each Milk and Water

1 Packet Quick-Rise Yeast

1 tsp Sugar

Pinch salt

Warm the milk and water to blood temp.  Add together the flours and yeast packet and sugar.   Pout in the warm liquid (you may not need it all) and make a reasonably thin batter.  Cover and let it rise in a warm place for an hour, until nice and bubbly.

Use about 2/3 cup of batter for each cake (makes 2-3 cakes 6-7" diameter and 1/4" to 3/8" thick.  Cook on a lightly sprayed griddle or skillet on medium heat, about 3 minutes per side.

Fine Oat Flour *  -- you can buy Oat Flour from Bob's Red Mill, which is what I did  Or you can take some steel cut oats for a spin in your coffee grinder and make your own "fine"oat flour.

Root Soup

Simple and tasty with Co-Op veggies and some Chana Dal.

2 Golden Beets

2 small Sweet Potatoes

1 large White Potato

2 large Carrots

2 large Parsnips

1 cup chopped Parsley

2 Tbsp  24/7 spice blend, Sazon Completa, etc. 

2 cups Chana Dal (split garbanzos) Sally insisted the dish needed protein

Peel and chop the roots,  toss in a large pot with the spices and about 6 cups of water or vegetable broth.  Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour until everything is tender but not falling apart.

Meanwhile in your rice cooker, cook 2 "cups" of Chana Dal (from your local Indian market)   When done, add them to the soup, stir and serve   If you simply must, use dried-cooked or canned whole garbanzos, but it won't be quite as nice.  

Ham n Egg

I made this for my breakfast this morning – a one egg cheese omelet and a leftover half slice of ham. When I plated it, there was this Eureka! moment, and I grabbed the camera  Yes, there is harmony in the Universe!  Darn tasty those Eureka! moments!

Co-Op Curry, Chicken & Kale, Eggs in Bed and Asian Lunch

Lots of interesting things for a change, with recipes from far and wide!

Mother's Day Lamb Curry

All the wonderful veggies in this dish came from our weekly Combo Box from the SWFL Produce Co-op.  

2-1/2 lbs boneless leg of Lamb

2 Parsnips, peeled and cut into rounds

2 Carrots, peeled and cut into rounds

12 oz Cauliflower florets quartered

2 Golden Beets, peeled and cut into 1/2” fingers

1 Onion, sliced

1 cup Golden Raisins

1 large Tomato, chopped

Cumin

Garlic or Garlic Powder – I used Auntie Arwen's tm Garlic Insanity

Curry Spice of Your Choice, I used:

3 Golden Curry tm pucks

4 Tbsp Vegetable Curry Powder

For Easter I bought a 5 lb leg of lamb, and halved it to make Persian Plum Lamb. So for Mother's Day I turned the other 2-1/2 lbs into Lamb Curry.

Trim the meat of virtually all the fat and cut it into bite sized pieces. Brown the meat with some cumin and garlic or garlic powder. Add the onion and continue cooking until the onion is translucent. Add the beets, carrots and parsnips and 4-6 cups of water.

Add the spices to taste, raisins and the tomato. Simmer for 30 minutes and then adjust the seasonings. Add the caulifower and simmer at least 30 more minutes before serving with jasmine rice. 

 I served Mango-Banana Lassi for dessert – a chilled Indian mango, banana and yogurt “smoothie”.

Chicken, Couscous & Kale

Our Co-Op box included a nice bundle of Kale, so I found this recipe to use some of the kale 'not in a salad'.  This is a really tasty dish (and I'm not fond of kale, not is Sally fond of Israeli couscous!!).

2 Chicken Breasts

2 cups thinly sliced Kale

1 cup Chick Broth or boullion & water

1/2 cup Israeli Couscous

1/2 large Onion, sliced

To taste:

Garlic

Cumin

Thyme

S&P

Spice the chicken breasts and fry them in a splash of EVOO until done – 6-7 minutes per side. Reserve.

In the same skillet, saute the onion until translucent, then add the couscous and garlic. Cook until couscous is lightly toasted-- a couple minutes. Now add the kale, and spices to taste and cook until the kale is wilted. Add the broth, reduce the heat, and return the chicken to the pan. 

 Cover and cook 10-12 minutes until the chicken is warmed through.

Eggs In Bed

Sally remembers this dish from her childhood, and I'm trying to re-create it.  Her Mum vaguely remembers the dish as a family recipe, but hasn't made it in fifty years.   Can't find a thing like it on the Internet!

, 

 The dish has some promise as a breakfast casserole so I'm going to work on making a better product.  Here's where I started:

Bread crumbs, LOTS of breadcrumbs

4 Eggs

Shredded Cheese

1 large tomato, sliced

Here's what is remembered about preparation:

• Lay down a bed of breadcrumbs in a heavily buttered baking dish.
• Make 'wells' to hold the eggs.
• Crack the eggs into the wells, keeping the yolks whole, letting the whites spread

• Lay down some more breadcrumbs to cover the eggs
• Lay down slices of tomato and a layer of shredded white cheddar cheese

• Bake until done.

So that's what I did. The result was, shall we say, crumbly. Nothing to hold the bottom layer of crumbs together, nor the intervening layers of crumbs except when topped with cheese. The eggs came out as if they had been fried hard.

The taste was good, but the texture was dry and dusty. If I can find some way to bind the crumbs – perhaps melted butter, or additional eggs beaten, I think this could make a really nice, breakfast dish for the cabana, or us.  Also the crumbs need seasoning, to me; plain dry crumbs just don't get it.

Quick Asian Lunch

Simple and tasty without all the salt of  typical packaged noodles!

1 packet Udon Noodles

4-5 Thai style Shrimp Balls

6-8 slices Mushroom

1 Green Onion, chopped

Low-Sodium Soy Sauce

Toasted Sesame Oil

Prepare the udon according to package directions, but skip the “flavor packet” with it's 'salt block' taste. Add the shrimp balls, green onion and mushrooms. Add soy sauce and toasted sesame oil to taste. Cook for 2-3 more minutes, and serve. Total time, less than 15 minutes.

YamBrowns, Shakshuka, and Strawberry-Banana Smoothies

YamBrowns

I'm always looking for something different to do with yams/sweet potatoes. We've been getting a lot lately, in our SWFL Produce Co-p Weekly box.  This recipe makes 6-8 cakes depending on the size of the sweet potatoes. Simple, easy and nearly fool-proof, the cakes stick together rather than falling apart.

4 medium Sweet Potatoes/Yams

2 Eggs, beaten

1 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 cup Almond Flour

1/4 cup Oil for frying

Optionally: diced green onion folded into the 'batter'

Peel the yams. Wrap one in a soggy paper towel and place in a bowl with 1/2” of water. Microwave for 7-9 minutes and let it set while you finish grating the other three potatoes on the large teeth of a box grater.

Mash the cooked sweet potato with a fork and add it to a mixing bowl with the grated potatoes, almond flour, spices and beaten eggs.  Stir with a spatula to combine.

Heat a heavy skillet to medium or electric skillet to 350F, add the oil, and add 1/3 cup measures of the potato mixture, flattened to about 1/2” thick. Fry 5 minutes per side, and remove to paper towels while the next batch fries.

I served them as a dinner side dish:

If you serve them for breakfast, a bit of maple or cane syrup goes well, and you should put some nutmeg or cinnamon in the batter too.

Simple Shakshuka

Shakshuka is a dish which is popular in the culinary circuit for whatever reason, so I decide to see what the fuss was all about. It's an ancient dish from North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Basically you poach eggs on top of crushed/diced tomatoes that have been simmered together with onions, chili peppers and spices.

I looked at a bunch of recipes for the dish, and thought to myself – why bother?? Why bother dicing and chopping and slicing and simmering... Ro*Teltm has been making cans of diced tomatoes, onion, chilies and spices since 1943. So I hauled a can of their Mild version down off the pantry shelf, opened it up and dumped it in my 9” skillet.

You know I can't leave things alone, so I added a bit of cumin and a dash of nutmeg for that Middle Eastern flair, and when the mixture was simmering, I carefully cracked two eggs into the mixture.

Only problem was that I had it simmering too hot, and the tomatoes sort of drowned the eggs. Pretty tasty breakfast or lunch though, I must admit!!!

Next time I'll make this a dish for two by crushing some of the tomatoes, adding some diced onion and cracking four eggs onto the (much slower) simmering tomato base. This may become a breakfast offering at the Poolside Cabana!

Co-op Strawberry Banana Smoothie

I needed a fruity dessert for Sunday brunch with Mum – the main offering was Toad in A Hole (which I wrote about back on March 20th 2017), sauteed Rainbow Carrots and Mashed Potatoes & Bisto tm Gravy. Potatoes & carrots compliments of our Combo box from the SWFLProduce Co-op.

The combo-box from last week also contained the last of the Florida strawberries, and some beautiful bananas that were just coming ripe. Strawberries (minus the hulls) + Bananas (minus the skins) + a scoop of Greek yogurt, and WHIRRRRRRR! Smoothies for dessert.

Savory Asparagus Cheese Cake

Asparagus Cheese Cake

It's still Spring (sort of) -- asparagus season.  You expected maybe winter squash pie?

See how powdery the cracker crust is on the original.

We were out of town for a few days last week, so there's only one recipe this week.  But this sure is tasty!

The original of this recipe, from Better Homes & Gardens magazine, is overly complicated, overly time consuming, and sort of bland. The original “crust” of butter and crushed Ritz tm crackers is full of calories and salt, practically tasteless, and falls apart if you look at it. 

Follow my recipe below for a much more tasty and simpler savory tart.  If you're a calorie counter, look the other way!  Or make this your once-a-week diet break treat!  You can always halve the recipe or make smaller individual tarts.

1 recipe of my No-Fail Tart Crust (from my March 13, 2017 blog post)

1 lb pencil thin Asparagus, divided

1 cup Heavy Cream

1/2 cup Half & Half

1 Tbsp Corn Starch

2 Tbsp butter

4 Eggs

1 tsp to 1 Tbsp Lemon Zest

½ tsp White Pepper

Make the No-Fail Tart Crust, put it in a 9” spring form pan lined with parchment paper, and pre-cook it after docking the bottom.

Divide the asparagus into two half pound portions, and reserve 3 or 4 stems from each portion for garnish.

Take one portion of asparagus, cut into ½ pieces, and simmer with the onion in the cream, butter, salt and white pepper for 20 minutes or until tender. Cool, then puree in a blender or food processor. 

Take the second portion of asparagus, slice into 1/2” pieces and microwave on High for 6 minutes to par cook it, and reserve.

In a large bowl beat the cream cheese and cornstarch until smooth, then add the eggs, one at a time, and beat to combine before adding the next egg. After the last addition, beat another 2 minutes, until light and airy. Fold in the lemon zest and puree mixture, then fold in the remaining cut and par cooked asparagus pieces.

Pour the mixture into the tart crust, arrange the reserved asparagus spears on top, and bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes (center still slightly jiggly). 

 Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, release the spring form side, and cool an additional 30 minutes. Best served at room temperature, but can be reheated.

A slice and a small side salad make a great warm weather supper!

This would also be great if you added a packet of real bacon crumbles to the puree mixture!  Not particularly healthy, but darn tasty!

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.