~ Cooking With Naran ~

The kitchen is OPEN!

You betcha!

I surely do hope the nice lady above is wearing her pearls whilst cooking, because I always do!
:lol:

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that was you.

Sorry, honeybun, there are no blondes in my home.
:lol:

BTW - Bob, I know you dislike nuts in recipes, so in the one above, you could easily substitute golden raisins for the pecans, or maybe blueberries. Yummy!

Sift together: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 cup sugar, ½ tsp. salt. Stir in: 3 Tbs. melted butter (NOT margarine), 1 cup milk, 2 cups whole cranberries. Mix well. Bake in greased, floured glass baking dish about 45' @ 375°. Serve warm with sauce: blend in heavy saucepan ½ cup butter (NOT margarine), 1 cup sugar, ¾ cup light cream. Bring to boil, stirring constantly, 10'. This sauce will seem very thin, but I guarantee you won't mind. This is an old family favorite. It's easy & inexpensive to prepare, has wonderful texture & flavor, and is not monumentally rich like some holiday desserts. (Heretics who don't like cranberries could substitute blueberries.)

PMH - this sounds wonderful! 8) I bet that sauce is to-die-for good!

I hear you on the "no margarine" warning. For some recipes, one can safely substitute margarine for butter, but not for this kind of holiday recipe, nor for the one I posted.

In trying someone's "favorite holiday recipe" or even just a "family favorite,' don't ever try substitutes (unless directed by a physician) because then you won't have the real thing. Try first, then consider, only then should you try to tinker with someone else's recipe. Coming time to fix dinner; will return eventually with G-g-g-grandmother's steamed Christmas pudding - which IS monumentally rich and is another family favorite.

Is "steamed pudding" like "Plum Pudding?"

Anyone have the best recipe for Indian Pudding?

Not new or exciting, but very practical…

I often find that I have to juggle my oven time during a holiday meal – the turkey used to dominate the morning, until I discovered this fool-proof method to cook a turkey quicker, with excellent results…

Place oven rack at lowest setting, and set oven to 500 degrees.
Prep turkey as usual (stuffed or unstuffed) in a roasting pan, and place in oven legs-first.
Here is the chart for cooking times:

9 lb (stuffed) = 1 hour 45 minutes; (unstuffed) = 1 hour 15 minutes
12 lb (stuffed) = 1 hour 50 minutes; (unstuffed) = 1 hour 20 minutes
15 lb (stuffed) = 2 hours 30 minutes; (unstuffed) = 2 hours
20 lb (stuffed) = 3 hours 30 minutes; (unstuffed) = 3 hours

If there is anything stuck on the bottom of the oven from previous cooking events, it will smoke at this high temp, so it’s good to start with a fairly clean oven – or just crack a window…

Well worth the effort – this turkey comes out with a beautiful, crispy, deep golden skin, and moist, juicy meat, in almost half the time it takes to roast a traditional turkey…

I've roasted chickens that way before, at high temps. It does work, and the warning about smoke should be heeded by all who try it.

"Steamed pudding" is an entire class of desserts cooked over a steaming kettle or immersed in boiling water as below. Plum pudding is an historically accurate misnomer in that it has "everything in it except plums."

Herewith our family's steamed Christmas pudding - from the kitchen of G-g-g-gramma Catherine Merritt (Curtis) Noyes who was, we're fairly sure, a cousin to Fanny Merritt Farmer of Fanny Farmer/Boston Cooking School fame:

Blend: 1 cup finely grated suet (freezing makes it easier to grate), 1 cup unsulphured molases, 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup water; then add 1/3 cup buttermilk powder to dry ingredients), 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix in: 1 cup each: candied cherries, raisins or currants, candied fruit peel (fruitcake mix), broken walnuts. Mix well.
Sift together: 3 cups flour, 1 tsp. each baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, ½ tsp. each allspice & powdered cloves. Slowly add dry to wet, stirring thoroughly. Take your time; this is a very heavy batter and needs to be well-mixed. Steam 3 hours in greased, sealed 2-quart pudding mold. (Large coffee can sealed w/ heavy foil & twine can be used.) Turn out onto fine-mesh cooling rack or onto serving dish. Top w/ G-grandmother's White Sauce: blend 2 cups sugar, ½ cup flour & 1 cup water in heavy saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring constantly; reduce heat & cook till sauce begins to clear & thicken. Remove from heat & blend in ½ stick butter & 1-2 oz. spiced dark rum. (Some people like frosting-style hard sauce.)
Wear a belt with extra notches.

Traditional Indian Pudding is delicious, but also takes hours and hours of oven cooking (my cookbooks say 6-8 hours!), which is expensive these days, and not always practical. Here's a good recipe that uses a crockpot instead!
8)

Indian Pudding
Recipe courtesy Sandra Lee

1 (3.4-ounce) box instant butterscotch pudding
1 (8.5-ounce) box instant corn muffin mix
3 cups milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup dark or robust molasses
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Spray a 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together pudding mix, corn muffin mix, and 3 cups of milk until thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes; set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Stir into pudding mixture until well combined. Transfer to slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Turn slow cooker to low and stir. Cover and continue cooking for 1 more hour. Stir, cover and cook for 1 hour more.

Serve warm, with French Vanilla ice cream.

***********

I suppose one could also try using a crockpot with a traditional Indian Pudding recipe (one that doesn't use the instant ingredients above), but I've never done it, so cannot guarantee results.

oven panckae

2 eggs
1 cup of flour
1 cup of milk

mix, bake at 400 about 35 minutes.

it fluffs up and grows. kids find it fascinating. Top with anything sweet like you'd top fried dough.

I found this recipe in an old magazine last Christmas. I tried making the cookies - and they were so good I ended up making two batches because they ended up being in high demand wherever I brought them. They are wicked good!

http://www.recipezaar.com/106195

"...1/2 cup dark or robust molasses..."

Whacherwannabet they mean "unsulphured"? And when was molasses anything but dark? Yeah, there's this vile stuff in some regions called "blackstrap" molasses. I was born in Texas and have spent time in the South; blackstrap is like grits and okra - cruel hoaxes on folks who only wanted something to eat.

Blackstrap is the unfiltered, undiluted stuff - still easily available in health food stores, and very high in iron content.

The molasses most of us buy in the grocery store for cooking and baking is far less strong. Indian Pudding wouldn't want blackstrap molasses, but neither would I use the lightest grade, either. I'd go for something in the middle range, for use in that particular recipe.

C'mon, Naran. Are you telling us molasses is available in a wide range of potencies?

*Hic*

(ooo - excuse moi).

Yep. Just ask your local rum merchant.
:D

I had in mind sorghum molasses, generally used for livestock fodder & silage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum_syrup When we cook with molasses, it's Crosby's and comes from sugar cane, not cattle fodder. Health food afficianados have been known to claim some strange substances as beneficial. But this deflects from the benefits of cooking with Crosby's unsulphured molasses.

Gotta get back to the thread. I'll try tomorrow digging up my Mother's recipe for pressed butter cookies.

Speaking of pie, Naran, have you seen the movie "Waitress"? "I Don't Want Earl's Baby" pie or "Kick in the Pants" pie, etc.?

Not yet. I've seen previews for "Waitress," and it looks pretty sweet.... as in Pop-Tart sweet.

Have you seen it? Worth the view?

Very good movie, even for us guys. Just don't watch it hungry.

Here's what I serve to hungry hunters at the end of the day.

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds venison

½ pound sweet Italian sausage

1 cup flour

½ tsp. pepper

Oil

2 – 4 strips bacon

1 large chopped onion

4 potatoes

4 – 6 carrots

4 parsnips or turnips

½ tsp. poultry seasoning (optional)

Salt to taste

Any other seasoning you like

Here’s the important part:

Put the bacon in with a little oil medium heat

Put the flour in a bag with pepper & salt, add the venison and shake, coating the meat with flour.

When you’ve got some bacon fat and oil nice and hot, add the onion. When they’re translucent, add the venison and brown on all sides.

When the meat is seared on all sides, dump a cup of cold water in. By this time, the flour is stuck to the bottom of the pan. Scrape it off with a wooden spoon and stir.

(That’s why I like the cast iron pot – it works well on the wood stove)

Throw in all the other stuff and barely cover with water. Simmer for a few hours or as long as you want (I had mine on a trivet on the wood stove all day).

Enjoy!!!

Dot sounds very good, ja.
8)

My God, that just may be the *perfect* meal-- or maybe I shovelled too much snow today :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmgf60CI_ks

Christmas tree display on Youtube for a bump

Warning - anyone with epilepsy shouldn't watch the video in the preceding post.
Whoa - my eyes!
:shock:

Waiting.......................

I stumbled across this recipe doing a catering job and it's guaranteed to please!!!!!!!!!

Chocolate Hazelnut Galettes

6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped into small pieces
3 Tablespoons light Cream
2 Tablespoons slivered Hazelnuts, toasted
4 oz White Chocolate, chopped into small pieces
3/4 Cup Cream Cheese (may substitute Ricotta but Cream cheese has a better flavor IMO)
1 Tablespoon dry sherry (little for me, little for you)
1/4 Cup finely chopped hazelnuts, toasted

On wax paper, draw circles using a shotglass-sized stencil (pencil works best to draw circles) and turn the wax paper over. Melt the plain chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove from heat, lift off the bowl and stir in the cream. Using a spatula, spread chocolate into the circle making "chocolate wafers" untill all chocolate is gone. Top every third wafer with slivered hazelnuts. These will be your top wafer. Set in a cool place and let harden.

Melt white chocolate in the same manner as the plain chocolate, then stir in the cream cheese and dry sherry. Fold in ground toasted hazelnuts. Let cool until the mixture holds it shape.

Remove the wafers from the wax paper carefully. Making stacks of three, alternate wafer, white chocolate mixture, wafer, white chocolate mixture and finally wafer with slivered hazelnuts.

A nice touch is to top the galette with a berry dipped in a chocolate of your choice. I like raspberries.

nytimes.com

December 19, 2007

Recipe: Black Forest Cake

Adapted from Johnny Iuzzini, Jean Georges
Time: 2 hours
12 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
2 cups cake flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 pound semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
3 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons sifted confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup kirsch
1 cup sour cherry preserves (sold in fancy food shops and online)
Grated semi-sweet chocolate for decoration.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use 1 tablespoon butter to grease 3 8-inch layer cake pans. Line bottoms with circles of waxed or parchment paper and use a little more butter to grease paper. Dust pans with a little flour. Sift remaining flour with baking soda, baking powder, cocoa and salt.

2. Beat eggs until very frothy. Gradually add all but 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, beating until mixture is thick, light and falls in a ribbon when beater is lifted. Whisk in vanilla and mayonnaise. Add dry ingredients alternately with 1 1/4 cups water, mixing just until combined. Spread in pans and bake 30 to 35 minutes, until springy when touched. Cool on a rack.

3. Place chocolate in a bowl. Bring 1/2 cup heavy cream to a boil, pour over chocolate and mix until it makes a smooth and shiny ganache. Refrigerate until cooled and thickened but still spreadable, about 30 minutes.

4. Melt remaining butter in a saucepan with 1/2 cup cream. Allow to cool to room temperature. Whip remaining cream with confectioners’ sugar until softly peaked, then gradually add butter mixture, beating just until butter has been incorporated. Refrigerate.

5. Place remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl and add 2 tablespoons boiling water. When sugar dissolves, stir in kirsch. When cakes have cooled remove them from pans and peel off paper. Place layers on cutting board and brush with kirsch mixture.

6. Place one layer on a flat cake plate for serving. Spread with half the chocolate ganache. Spread with half the preserves. Spread with 2/3 cup of the whipped cream. Top with another layer and spread with ganache, preserves and whipped cream. Put last layer on cake, top side up. Press lightly to secure layers and use a spatula to smooth outside of cake. Frost cake with remaining whipped cream and dust with grated chocolate. Wipe rim of cake plate clean. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve.

Yield: 12 servings.