Cooking with Clover

[Widmore]

Here's a recipe my friend gave me for Creamy Chicken Stew. ....

Not that I'm trying to necro this thread but.....
That recipe was GREAT.
I took shortcuts and used canned diced potatoes and canned sliced carrots, which made the stew a little too thick. A can of chicken broth solved that issue quickly.
It's a nice, hearty, winter soup recipe I'm keeping and making again.

[Livejazz]

Sausage Gravy

First, combine mild Italian sausage & regular pork breakfast sausage in a large frying pan over low heat until it's all nicely browned. DO NOT DRAIN THE GREASE.

Second, stir in flour until all the grease is gone. This is called "making a roue'", for those who don't know. I recommend using more flour than you'll think you'll need in this step.

Third, add milk until you've covered the sausage. Give it a good stir. When you finish stirring, the milk will have turned a nice shade of orange, from the grease that's been released. Now comes the tedious, but most important part.

Fourth, using a good-sized spoon, break the surface tension of the milk enough to drain the grease floating on the top into the spoon. You will be standing at your stove, straining & stirring, for quite some time. Do this until you've gotten as much of the grease out as you can. Your milk gravy will probably turn a greyish shade of "white."

Fifth, turn the heat up to HIGH, & bring the milk to a boil. STIR CONSTANTLY WHILE IT COMES TO A BOIL. When it comes to a nice boil, turn it down to LOW. By this point, it should have thickened up nicely. If it's too thick, add some water (a little at a time) until it thins enough. If it's still too thin, you didn't add enough flour to begin with!!!!! I strongly recommend making the gravy too thick, initially, because you can always thin it up ... but once you've added flour, brought it to a boil, & found it's still not thick enough, if you want to add more flour you'll have to bring it back to a boil, mix up more water & flour, & so on .... real PITA.

Sixth, server over biscuits, English muffins, or toast. I prefer Bisquick drop biscuits, because they're fast & easy, & they taste excellent with sausage gravy. Enjoy!

[Livejazz]

Babyback Ribs, Without A Smoker

There are two ways I use to do up lip-smackin' babybacks without a smoker: you can either pre-boil them, or pre-roast them.

Pre-Boil: Put your rib chunks in a nice, large stock pot. Cover them in COLD water. Set them on the stove, & turn the fire to HIGH. When the water comes to a nice rolling boil, turn it down to a steady simmer, & leave the ribs in the pot for roughly 1 hour. Take them out, rinse them off under cold water, pat them dry, & move to the next step, which in my case is a wet marinade:

For each pound of meat, combine 1/4 cup EACH of the following:

Soy Sauce
A-1 Steak Sauce
Chili Sauce
Ketchup
Capt'n Morgan's Private Reserve Spiced Rum
Black Molasses, or packed brown sugar
Salt, pepper, garlic & onion powders, & celery seed to taste.

Mix it all up, pour it over the ribs, seal them up in freezer bags, & put them in the fridge to soak. Note that this sauce is also dynamite on chicken!

Pre-Roast Give each chunk of ribs a nice coating of your favorite dry spice rub. Wrap them in tin-foil, ~3-4 chunks per package, & put them in a nice roasting pan. Pre-heat your oven to 200, put the foil-wrapped ribs in, & leave them alone for 6-8 hours, depending on how tender you want them.

Whether you pre-roast or pre-boil, once they're done, pre-heat your grill to MEDIUM HIGH, put the rib chunks on the grill, & give them about 7-8 minutes per side. This should get them a nice brown coating on the outside & get them nice & hot inside; since they've already been cooked in the boiling or roasting process, you're merely finishing them on the grill.

For myself, I think the pre-boil method gets them juicier & tastier, but other members of my household prefer the pre-roasted dry rub, so I usually make some of both.

[Tirdel]

OK, here's a nice, low carb recipe. Due to whole eggs, viewer discretion is advised.

Spinach, mushroom and cheese fritata

3 large eggs
1-2 tbsp heavy cream
fresh ground black pepper to taste
salt to taste
1/4 cup or more of shredded cheese (your choice. I prefer one of the 4 cheese blends)
1/2 cup fresh, chopped spinach
1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1 1/4 inch thick slice of onion
Optional: green bell pepper or roasted peppers
1/4 cup diced ham, crumbled breakfast sausage, or other meat.
olive oil based cooking spray

In a 10-12 inch skillet on medium heat, spray skillet with cooking spray, and sautee the onions and mushrooms. While that is going on, crack 3 eggs into a cup or a bowl, and add the cream, salt and pepper. Whisk until the egg mixture is yellow throughout.

Once the onions are clarified, add the spinach and the meat (I'm assuming that the meat is pre-cooked. If it isn't, cook it first.). Allow the spinach to wilt just a little bit, then add the egg mixture and quickly mix the hot ingredients in the skillet. Put a lid over the skillet, and turn the heat on the burner down to low. After about 30 seconds, add a few tablespoons of water around the edge of the fritata to help generate steam, and replace lid. Cook until top is no longer liquid.

Add shredded cheese to the top, and either melt in the covered skillet, or place under the broiler of the oven.

As an additional bonus, you can top it with Hollandaise or Bearnaise sauce, and still stay WAY under your carb budget for the day!

[megaboy]

BACON-Crumble Apple Pie

Ingredients
Apple Filling
• 1 (9 inch) pie shell (I could make it from scratch but I have better things to do)
• 6 -7 apples – peeled, cored and sliced
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup (no brown high fructose corn syrup please)
• 4 slices of crispy bacon crumbled

Oatmeal crumble topping
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest (that’s ground up peel, really)
• 1/2 cup butter (or ¼ cup butter plus ¼ cup bacon grease)
• 6 slices of crispy bacon crumbled


Directions
• Cook the bacon and set aside to cool, set aside some bacon grease for the topping (optional).
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Prepare the apple filling: combine flour, white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and crumbled bacon. Mix well, then add to the apples. Toss until the apples they are evenly coated.
• Remove the pie shell from freezer. Place the apple mixture in pie shell and dot with 2 tablespoons butter or margarine. Lay a sheet of aluminum foil lightly on top of filling, but do not seal.
• Bake for 10 minutes.
• While filling is baking, make crumble topping: In a medium bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, oats, and lemon zest. Mix thoroughly, then cut in 1/2 cup butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly.
• Remove filling from oven and sprinkle crumble on top.
• Reduce heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake an additional 30 to 35 minutes, until crumble is browned and apples are tender. Cover loosely with aluminum foil to prevent excess browning.

[nnichols1]

I made this a few times in college and usually charged my eternally hungry room mates a couple of bucks for supplies in exchange for all-you-can-eat goodness. It was always a hit. Considering most things we ate came from the Union, fast food, or expensive grill meat, this was some popular home cookin.

Nate's Custom Stuffing:
1 large bag of dried out normal stuffing.
2 chicken breasts
1 12oz can of corn
A couple of those little cube things that are for chicken broth
Butter
1 16oz thing of Bob Evans Sausage (hot/spicy) You only want to use about 1/2 or 3/4 of it.
1 or 2 onions
celery


Cook the sausage first. Remove from pan but keep grease. Cook chopped onion and celery in sausage grease until they are soft and not crunchy. Remove the veggies. Cut chicken breasts into strips and then cut them in the opposite way to form little chicken cubes. Cook in the same pan until (mostly) done.

Combine dried stuffing, sausage, cooked celery and onions, and chicken in a large bowl. Drain the corn and add that as well.

I rarely measure anything but this part is important, you can always add more but you cannot remove it. Take 4 or 5 cups of water, throw in 3 or 4 of those little chicken broth cube things and maybe a tablespoon of butter. Put in microwave and get it hot until everything is dissolved. Stir in this mixture into the dried stuffing, chicken, sausage, celery and onion, etc. Pour in a cup or two at a time then stir. Add more as needed. You want the stuffing to be wet but not soaked.

Cover with tinfoil and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove cover, stir contents, bake 10 minutes uncovered. Stir, bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Enjoy.

Don't forget to grease the pan before you bake.

[nnichols1]

edited for accidental double post.

[Targean]

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

I am Targean, in real life a scandinavian med student who above all else loves spending time in China. I've had the luxury of going there for longer trips 9 times now, mainly due to my better half is Chinese and we go there to visit her family in the Hunan region. I've been to most parts, except the southern or westernmost regions. My favourite places definately include the Sino-Russian mix of Harbin (Heilongjiang, Manchuria), Changsha and Beijing.

The center and northern cuisines are my top choices!

Now, being somewhat of a rather skilled chef myself it took me about two solid minutes before I decided to master the art of the chinese cuisine, and try to remedy all horrible things we westrons have done to its cuisine in our homelands

Let us start by a favourite, the flagship of Hunan cuisine (interesting enough, it's not very well known in Hunan, but apparently hugely popular in the US. However the americans somehow don't enjoy the taste so they sweeten the dish by adding sugar - I won't do this here but I will try to stay as close to the "real" recipe as I can).

Zuo Zongtang Jí - General Zuo's Chicken

-Medium hotness-

Ingredients:

800g Chicken thigh filet
15-20 whole dried or fresh red chili
4-5 garlic pieces
Sesame oil
The green part of the scallion

Marinade
4 tea spoons of light soy
1 tea spoon of dark soy
2 egg yokes
4 table spoons of potato flour
3 table spoons of oil

Sauce
2 table spoons of tomato purée
1 tea spoon of dark soy
4 tea spoons of light soy
2 table spoons of rice vinegar (or 1 dark, 1 light rice vinegar)
1 tea spoon of potato flour
[optional] 2 table spoons of broth (if you make your own. I make mine of chicken carcass, pork, scallion and ginger)

Slice the chicken into bite sizes.

Mix the marinade so that it is even, and not chunky. Put the chicken in the marinade and spread it evenly.
Mix the sauce ingredients.

Now, deep fry the chicken - the best way is with a wok pan, because you'll get some seared flavour to it, but if you don't have one, go for a pot.

Chop up the garlic into tiny bits, and the chili to small bite-sized chunks. Begin to fry the chili in preferably chili oil, but any oil works. Don't burn it! Add garlic. When you notice a delicious, strong smell, add the sauce, and let it fry while you stir, until it becomes a bit thick. Then, add the chicken. Stir and let it become a bit thicker. Add the scallion.

Ready to serve - preferably with a side dish of shii-take and chili fried noodles!



[edit]: typo :<

[Targean]

My Beijing-styled lunch dumplings:

500g ground pork
Half a "head" of Napa Cabbage (aka celery cabbage or chinese cabbage)
1 egg
3 scallions, finely chopped
3 centimeters of ginger, finely chopped (that's about an inch, for you who don't understand the superior metric system)
1 tea spoon of sesame oil
2 table spoons of salt
3 table spoons of dark soy
1-2 garlic pieces, finely chopped
[optional below]
Shaoxing rice wine, 1,5 table spoons

This is very easy - just mix the ingredients and let it rest for a while, as you make the dough.

Mix wheat flour and water until you get a dough, work it for a bit and then let it rest in the refridgerator. When you take it out 30 minutes later, it should be just so slightly sticky- or rather moist. Add a teeeny-weeeeny bit of flour to it's edges and then use a rolling pin to flatten it. When it is very thin, you can use a somewhat broader drinking glass to carve out a perfect circle. Roll a ball of the above ingredient and put it on the circular piece of dough, and then just seal it up. A tip is to have a little moist fingers so the edges of the dough can blend together well.

Form the dumpling as you want it, I prefer the classic look.

Now, you can either steam or boil it. I do both, really. I use a bamboo-steamer for steaming, and I always use it when I have friends over because they think it looks cool. Normally I boil them, though. Keep in mind their form may be... Deformed when boiled instead of steamed.

Let them cool off, put in a tupperware, re-heat at work and you've got a golden lunch!

For a dip, I mix light soy, rice vinegar, chili oil and ground peanuts.

[edit]: No idea of how to roll a dumpling? Check youtube!

[Silchas]

I recently had this and it is very good (if you like garlic) and is very authentically New Orleans in its flavors (meaning that people really eat food like this, not something from a restaurant). If you are not a garlic lover you may want to cut back some. When it says "Tony's" it means Tony Chachere's Seasoning ( a seasoning mix from Louisiana)

Green Bean Artichoke Casserole

2 cans “French” style green beans
2 cans artichoke hearts
¾ cup parmesan/reggiano cheese-the kind in the green plasticcontainer for spaghetti
(in other words you don’t need to get the REAL hard cheese)
¾ cup bread crumbs
1 onion, chopped fine
4 toes garlic, chopped fine
½ olive oil – add more if need
Splash Tony’s
2 dashes of salt

*Drain green beans and artichokes hearts and
*Cut green bean up small and cut artichokes hearts verysmall or put in
food processor
*Put everything in large bowl and mix thoroughly.
*place in baking dish and bake on 370 for 35 minutes

*only if you want –
Melt ¼ butter and add bread crumbs where it is all mixedwell
Sprinkle mixture on top of casserole

[Ceremony]

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Ingredients

22 Oreos, 16 left whole, and 6 coarsely chopped
2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature (Neufchatel is fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt
Directions

Preheat oven to 275 F.
Line 12 standard muffin tins and 4 ramekins (or 16 muffin tins, if you have them) with paper liners.
Place 1 whole Oreo in the bottom of each lined cup.
Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
Pour in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Beat in the sour cream and salt.
Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
Pour the batter into the prepared tins, filling each almost to the top.
Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, 22-25 minutes.
Cool in the pans for about 15 minutes, on a wire rack, then transfer to a plate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

[megaboy]

Manly Cupcakes (for any and all sporting events)

makes ~24 servings

for cupcakes:
1 cup dark beer, like a good stout
1/3 sourcream
1/2cup veg or canola oil
3 eggs
~18ounce package of moist choc cake mix

for frosting:
1cup or 2 sticks unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup whiskey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

for toppings:
crisp cooked BACON
salted peanuts
pretzels
crushed malted milk balls

heat oven to 350F and spray 24 regular size muffins cups with cooking spray
in a large bowl, mix together the beer, sour cram, oil, eggs and cake mix.
mix until thoroughly combined and smooth..~2minutes
spoon into the prepared muffin cups and bakes for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted at center comes out clean.
allow to cool for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

while the cupcakes cool, make the frosting.
in a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together the butter, sugar, whiskey and vanilla until smooth and fluffy..~4-5 minutes

when the cupcakes have cooled, add a smear(remeber these are for guys no need to be neat or pretty) of frosting to the tops and then sprinkle with any or all of the toppings.

start to finish is about 1 hour

[HLOregon]

Cooking in the game strongly compels me to cook in real life. The Cheese and Apple pie recipe that I bought from Theodred's men, like all LOTRO recipes, has authentic history and relevance. The original Engish Apple and Cheese Pie, from which this pie recipe seems to be inspired, requires English Lancashire cheese, which I found at a specialty store yesterday, imported from England! It can also be bought from igormet online. So last night I baked my first Apple and Lancashire Cheese pies! No sugar is added, the filling includes Shire apples, pure maple syrup, grapes, cinnamon and Lancashire cheese. For the crust I used regular flour mixed with a little barley flour. It's delicious!

APPLE AND LANCASHIRE CHEESE PIE

A deep-dish pie filled with delicious apples and cheese. Can be served as a dessert or makes a super tea time treat.

Ingredients:
• Pie Crust
• 2lb cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks (I used tart Granny Smith and sweet Braeburn)
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 3oz grapes
• 5 Tbsp pure maple syrup
• 5oz Lancashire cheese, crumbled
• 1 medium egg, beaten (to brush on top)

Preparation:

•Preheat the oven to 400F
• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use to line a deep 8in/20cm pie dish or loose bottomed fluted flan case. "Poke holes with a fork" in the bottom (rolling my eyes because the 5-letter for this process was censored after I posted it) and chill whilst preparing the filling. Reserve pastry trimmings for the top of the pie.
• Place the apples, cinnamon, grapes and maple syrup in a pan. Cover and cook over a gentle heat until apples just begin to soften. Remove from the heat and fold in the crumbled Lancashire cheese.
• Spoon into pastry lined dish. Top with remaining pie crust pastry dough and brush with beaten egg to glaze.
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until pastry is golden and crisp.


Here are a couple pictures of my results.





Happy Baking!
Rosylaine, Supreme Master Cook of The Shire, and "Friend" to Theodred's Men ;-)

(they just like me for my cooking)

[bigsix66]

That smaller pie in the picture has my name on it. Rosy very kindly volunteered to deliver it to me today, assuming she can sneak that luscious pie past all of the hungry hobbits in my neighborhood. My morale went up just looking at the picture! Thanks, Rosy!!

[brianvencill]

Can anyone share (or point me to) a good recipe for a Lembas or Cram facsimile? I've seen many of them online, but would like to hear from someone who's actually tried their hand at making them.

EDIT: Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but it seemed appropriate.

[Micrathene]

A simple and deadly little dessert from Mom's side of the family:

Adam and Allison Peanut Butter Bars

FOR THE CRUST

2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
4 cups rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar

FOR THE TOP

12 ounces chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Combine all crust ingredients in 9x13" cake pan. Just use your hands. Trust me, it's fun!
3. Pat crust mixture evenly across the bottom of the pan.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until center bubbles
5. Remove from oven; let cool for 30 minutes.
6. In a double-boiler, melt together the chocolate chips and peanut butter. (You can also do this in the microwave if you're lazy, but I prefer the double-boiler as there's less risk of burning the chocolate.)
7. Spread chocolate mixture evenly over crust.
8. Refrigerate until chocolate is set, then cut into squares and enjoy!

[BigBeard]

Not my own recipes but i highly recommend picking up a book by levi roots=Carribean food made easy.

He appeared on the UKs bbc show/Dragons Den,uses his grandmothers recipes,great book,i've barely been eating anything else since i picked it up.

The times i don't feel like cooking,i buy his ready meals from the supermarket,the beef carribean curry...usually ready meals are horrible and nothing like real cooking but in this case,his stuff is delicious :O

One of my favourites though...

A Jamaican classic. Lamb and mutton are delicious too, but do try to get goat. Serves 4.
1kg lean goat meat
juice of ½ a lime
2 tbsp mild curry powder
2 tbsp all-purpose seasoning
6 tbsp sunflower or groundnut oil
425ml vegetable stock
1 onion - roughly chopped
a 2cm piece of root ginger - finely chopped
1 hot red chilli (ideally Scotch bonnet) - seeds left in, chopped
2 garlic cloves - finely chopped
10 allspice berries
½ a red pepper - deseeded and cubed
½ a green pepper - deseeded and cubed
2 spring onions - green part only,
roughly chopped
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
salt and pepper
2 waxy potatoes - cut into chunks
boiled rice, to serve

Wash the meat and pat it dry with kitchen paper - any small bones in it are good for flavour. Cut it into large chunks, then put it in a large bowl with the lime juice, curry powder and all-purpose seasoning. Turn it over with your hands to get it well coated. Leave to marinate for 4 hours in the fridge.

Heat a large non-stick casserole or heavy-based saucepan until it is very hot, then add the oil. When the oil is very hot, put the goat in and turn the chunks over with a wooden spoon to coat the meat in oil. Cover with a lid, turn the heat right down to very low and leave it to just simmer for 45 minutes. The goat will sweat in its own gravy, locking in all the juices with none of the usual browning or boiling - this is the way it's done! Keep checking the pot to make sure the meat isn't getting scorched on the bottom.

After 45 minutes, add 150ml of the stock, bring to the boil, turn the heat right down, cover and leave to simmer. After another 45 minutes, repeat this with another 150ml of stock and cook for a further 45 minutes.

Add the onion, ginger, chilli, garlic and allspice and stir gently. Add the rest of the ingredients - except the potato and rice, but including the rest of the stock - and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down again, cover and cook for another 2 hours, stirring from time to time. Keep an eye on it and add more stock if it seems dry. Twenty minutes before the end of cooking time, add the potatoes and gently stir them in. Once the potatoes are soft, check the curry for seasoning and serve with boiled rice.

[''Cris''']

I miss Clover.. I hope you are well with a new job and maybe still playing LotRO (?) Let us know!