Appetizer #23 - Mini Chickpea Cakes

 The Year of Appetizers

Appetizer #23 - Mini Chickpea Cakes

    The next to last appetizer in this year of Appetizers is in 2004's 100 Best Appetizer Recipes. These were easy to make; the part that took the longest, was shredding the carrot.  The recipe says you'll make about two dozen. I used my small cookie scoop for sizing and then flattened them with the back of a spoon and I got about 2 1/2 dozen. *It's okay if they're not perfectly round; I had some that came out misshapened and it was fine. I really liked this little appetizer. Try it!

Serve warm on a platter with a dish of creamy Italian salad dressing for dipping. 

Ingredients:

1 15oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

1 cup finely shredded carrots 

1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs or plain breadcrumbs with 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning added

1/4 cup creamy Italian Salad Dressing

1 egg

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Drain and rinse chickpeas in a large colander.  Using a potato masher, coarsely mash chickpeas in a large bowl. Stir in bread crumbs, salad dressing and egg, mixing well. Stir in carrot until well combined. Shape mixture into patties using a small cookie scoop or tablespoon, placing on lightly greased cookie sheet and flattening with the back of a spoon, or gently press into patty shape using clean hands. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, remove and flip chickpea cakes. Return to the oven for 9 to 10 more minutes. Both sides of chickpea cakes should be lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheets and serve warm with creamy Italian dressing. 

Mini Chickpea Cakes

Mini Chickpea Cakes

Appetizer #8 - Carrot Puffs

 The Year of Appetizers

Appetizer #8 - Carrot Puffs

    Okay, so I sometimes will take a picture of a recipe in a cookbook, so I can easily refer to it in making grocery lists. This time around, I did that and then put the cookbook away. I know it was the Waring Blendor Cookbook, but I do not know for sure which year it was published. I "googled' and I believe that the cookbook I have is the one that was published in 1955. This is not the only Waring cookbook which spelled blender as "blendor", but I am pretty sure of the one I have. 

    These puffs were good. They were of a lighter texture than hush puppies, but you fry them just the same (I actually used about two inches of oil in a large cast iron skillet). There are a number of variations you could do with this recipe. Substitute sweet potato for the carrot, add more nutmeg or substitute cinnamon. I am also curious how this would turn out using spinach. I used avocado oil instead of regular vegetable oil, so it was a little "better". Still fried in oil, but better. Lol. 

    My verdict is that these were tasty and I would make them again if I wasn't being careful with fried foods (I don't know what possessed me to make something fried). They were not difficult to make, so if you like fried things, try this!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg or cinnamon

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup cooked carrots (cut up in small pieces)

2 tbsp oil

Directions:

Into a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, nutmeg/cinnamon and salt. Into your blender or food processor, add the egg, milk, carrots and oil over and blend until smooth. Pour your liquid mixture into the dry flour mixture and stir, thoroughly combining. Drop spoonfuls into hot oil and fry for 3 to 5 minutes. You want them golden. Remove to a paper towel lined baking sheet or plate and sprinkle with salt. Serves 6.

Carrot Puffs

Carrot & Cabbage Noodles with Sweet Chili Sauce

 Carrot  & Cabbage Noodles with Sweet Chili Sauce

    This yummy recipe comes from the Thai Kitchen Cookbook - The Essential Guide To Thai Cooking copyrighted in 2000. If you're like me, trying to eat out less and you like Chinese and Thai food, you try and learn how to make it at home. This is a nice little cookbook and I look forward to trying more recipes. 

Ingredients: 

7oz rice noodles (stir-fry or thin)

3 tbsp peanut oil (I used canola oil, because the peanut oil I found was so expensive)

1 tbsp finely minced garlic

1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped (I used red shallots)

2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 cup carrots, coarsely grated (I had baby carrots and grating those was impossible; I thinly sliced them lengthwise and they were just fine)

1 cup green cabbage, coarsely chopped (I think I used a little more)

2 tbsp Thai Kitchen Spicy Thai Chili Sauce (I used a crispy chili pepper in oil)

2 tbsp soy sauce

Optional: Crushed peanuts

Optional: Cucumber, thinly cut like matchsticks (I did not use cucumber until I tried it with leftovers)

Optional: Thai Kitchen Sweet Red Chili Dipping Sauce (recipe from the book below)

    1 tbsp fresh red chili, minced (again, I used the crispy chili pepper in oil)

    1/2 cup rice vinegar

    1 tsp salt

    1 tbsp sugar

    1 tsp garlic, minced

Instructions For Noodles:

Bring two cups of water to boil. Turn off heat and place rice noodles into the hot water for three to five minutes or until the noodles are soft, and cooked through, but not mushy. Rinse with cold water for thirty seconds. Drain well and set aside. Heat oil on medium-high heat in a large wok or skillet. Add garlic and stir fry for one minute.  Add onion and brown sugar. Sit fry for two to three minutes until the onion is soft. Add carrots, cabbage, chili sauce/chilis and soy sauce. Stir fry for five minutes. Add the noodles, mixing well and stir fry for three to five more minutes.  Serve immediately with sweet red chili dipping sauce and crushed peanuts if desired. Serves three to four. 

Instructions For Sweet Red Chili Dipping Sauce:

Into a small pot, add all ingredients and stir constantly over low heat, until the mixture thickens to a syrupy consistency. I somehow didn't cook this sauce and served it cold. Although it was thin and not syrup-y, I really liked it, so try it without cooking if you like. 

Carrot & Cabbage Noodles with Sweet Chili Sauce

    

Lemonchick's Fried Rice

 Lemonchick's Fried Rice

    I created this healthier fried rice because I'm doing Weight Watchers and wanted to have a side to go with a tuna steak.  It turned out really good and the Weight Watchers app calculated it at only three Weight Watchers points. Add more or less of any veggie or seasoning/sauce, as you desire. 

Ingredients:

2 eggs, whisked 

2 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp rice wine vinegar

1 cup uncooked carrots, shredded

2 stalks of green onions, sliced finely

1/2 cup cooked green peas (I used frozen, because the texture of canned wouldn't be right)

2 cups cooked white rice

3 tsp Sriracha hot sauce (optional)

Directions:

Cook snow peas in a small amount of boiling water until softened and remove to a plate. Drain excess water. Pour whisked eggs into pan. Tilt the pan around, so the egg spreads out and use a large spoon to break up the egg into smaller bits. Add snow peas and other veggies one at a time and mix well. Mix in rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and sriracha. Stir in cooked rice and stir until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Cook over low heat until all ingredients are heated through. Eat just the rice or add as a side to chicken or fish. Mixing in cooked chunks of chicken, fish, tofu or shrimp is also a great option! Makes approximately 5 to 6 1 cup servings.

Lemonchick's Fried Rice and Seared Tuna

Week 7 - Golden Cheese Soup with Parsley Dumplings

 Golden Cheese Soup with Parsley Dumplings

Recipe 7 of 52 in 2022

Vegetarian Entree #1

    So, I can't tell you this week which cookbook I got this recipe from, because I put it somewhere and can't find it! Luckily, I almost always take a picture of the recipe and I had that to work from. I can tell you that this recipe is likely from a 1967ish era cookbook. It seems to be in a font which was used a lot in the cookbooks of the 60's. I will update this post, when I find the cookbook.  

    Week 6's category was Vegetarian Entree and I'm really glad I picked this recipe.  The only thing I'd really change, would be to add some salt, pepper or red pepper flakes at the table. I even had some of my leftovers with Sriracha sauce. If you are going to cook this on a weeknight, I'd suggest doing your prep work of grating the carrot, chopping celery and onion, the night before, so it is ready to go. I know dumplings can sometimes turn out like rocks, but I liked how mine turned out.  Cook your carrots, celery and onion in a soup pan; you'll add it to your large pot. You could certainly use a large pot, but I used a dutch oven, like the original recipe suggests.  I have a cast iron dutch oven I bought last year, which I love but have gotten to use much.  I'll give you the recipe and note any changes/additions in italics. 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup grated carrots

1/3 cup chopped celery

2 tablespoons chopped onion

3 tablespoons butter or margarine (I used butter)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups milk (I heated the milk before adding to the flour; because it helps it thicken quicker)

1 14-ounce can chicken broth (I used vegetable broth and I didn't have a can; I simply measured out that amount)

1 1/4 cups shredded sharp processed American cheese (I used regular sharp cheddar)

1 recipe Parsley Dumplings

    

Directions: 

    Cook carrots, celery and onion until tender in 1 cup of boiling salted water. Do not drain. Melt butter and blend in flour. Add warmed milk when the butter & flour mixture bubbles and stir constantly until thick. Stir in your broth and cheese and mix until smooth. Stir in your vegetables (remember not to drain the vegetables after cooking). Stir over low heat until the cheese melts. Leave on low heat while you mix your dumplings. Drop your dumplings by small kitchen dining spoons, onto the simmering soup. Cover tightly and cook over low heat for 20 minutes. The original recipe says this serves six.  I would say it serves 3. I made 9 dumplings, so three dumplings per serving, would be perfect. Serve with bits of parsley as garnish. Add a salad to complete your meal.

Parsley Dumplings:

    1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

    2 teaspoons baking powder

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    2 tablespoons snipped parsley (I chopped my finely)

    1/2 cup milk

    2 tablespoons melted shortening (I melted mine in the microwave)

    Sift together dry ingredients and mix in parsley. The original recipe says to combine milk and melted shortening and add to the dry ingredients all at once. Stir until moistened. When I added the shortening to the milk, it instantly solidified, so maybe the next time I'd let the melted shortening cool a little longer. I just made sure to mix the dry and wet ingredients well (I maybe did a little more mixing than "just moistened"). Drop onto your soup and cook.

Golden Cheese Soup with Parsley Dumplings

A close-up of a dumpling.

Two of my "helpers" watching me take a photo of the parsley.

Beef In Guinness

 Beef In Guinness

    I know, I know. It's been awhile since I've written.  Life has been a lot lately and I just haven't been cooking much from my cookbooks.  I also had considered discontinuing my blog, but I have decided to keep it going and just cook and write.  Even if it is just for me.  

    This recipe is from a recipe in "Irish Country Cooking - Traditional and modern recipes from the Emerald Isle", published in 1995.  First off, this was pretty much my single most expensive recipe to make. The cost of the skirt steak I bought almost deterred me, but I'd had my mind set on making this, as it was the winner of a poll I ran on what I should make next.  Some of the directions did not make any sense and that was partly due to directions like "Bring to the boil....", but I made it work.  

    The bad grammar and nonsensical, incomplete instructions (I'm not perfect myself, but this was bad) were distracting, but like I said, I made it work.  That is kind of the cool thing about cooking.  The recipe can be modified as necessary and sometimes it still turns out good. This would be perfect with chunked or mashed potatoes (Hello! It's in an Irish cookbook), which I somehow had neglected to buy, so I served with rice and a slice of toasted sourdough bread.   I thought the dish turned out pretty good and I would think about making it again, when beef is less expensive.  

Ingredients:

2-3lbs Beef Skirt Steak

Seasoned Flour (It doesn't say what to season it with, so I used a little pepper and some crushed Italian seasoning)

Oil or "dripping" (I guess that's supposed to be "drippings"; I used a bit of oil in my pan)

2 Onions, sliced (I used sweet onions)

3 Carrots, sliced (I used 2 carrots, because I simply did not buy the correct amount)

4 Garlic, 4 whole cloves (I left them whole, but I don't see why you couldn't slice the garlic)

1 Large bunch of herbs (Unspecified; I used the crushed Italian seasoning)

Salt to taste (I didn't add salt)

Pepper to taste 

2 1/2 Cups Beef Stock

2 Bottles of Guinness beer (I used extra stout)

1 Oyster per person, optional (I don't eat oysters and I don't understand why this is an optional ingredient; like why put an oyster on top of each serving?)

Directions:

Season your flour in a small bowl. Cut up your skirt steak into small pieces, about 2 to 3 inches and dip into your seasoned flour. Fry in hot oil. The recipe does not specify how long to cook it.  I cooked for several minutes to ensure it was fairly well browned. No need to thoroughly cook, since there is another 2 hours of cooking time. I removed the browned meat to a platter and cooked the onions and garlic in the oil. The recipe says to add the meat, onions and "other vegetables" (there's only one other vegetable {the carrots}) to a casserole dish, followed by the herbs and seasoning (the salt and pepper, I guess). I used a cast iron dutch oven for the whole recipe, because the recipe itself calls for bringing the ingredients to a boil, turning to low and cooking for 1 1/2 hours, before adding the Guinness beer. And to me, that means keeping it on the stove and a casserole dish is for putting in an oven.  So, getting back to it, after adding the beer, bring it back to a boil and then turn to low and simmer for another 30 minutes.  

The recipe instructions in the cookbook call for removing the meat with a slotted spoon and serving,  then reducing the liquid to half for the sauce. Then, it says to pour the sauce over the beef again, season to taste and then add the oysters if you are using oysters and serve with hot, crusty bread.  What I did, was remove the meat, carrots and onions and make a light gravy with the liquid, before re-combining everything in a large casserole dish for serving. This helped make sure all of the ingredients were hot.

If you try this, feel free to comment. 

Guinness Extra Stout

Browning the skirt steak

Skirt steak, onion, carrots, garlic and seasoning ready for the beef stock

My finished product! Beef in Guinness

    

Sweet & Sour Carrots

 Sweet & Sour Carrots

    Today's lunch was another recipe from the Highland Park United Methodist Church (Dallas, Texas) Jubilee of our Many Blessings Cookbook. Printed 30 years ago this year. This is a vegetarian dish. If there is a substitute you can find for soy sauce, it could also be vegan. You could also add chunks of boneless chicken breast or pork loin if you have to have meat. That would be a good way to stretch this to more servings. 

    I adapted the recipe, by adding an extra tablespoon of vinegar. The original uses 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1/3 cup vinegar. It was pretty easy to make. The recipe calls for "scraping" the carrots which I thought was a cute way of saying "peel the carrots", before cutting them in 1 inch diagonals.   Cook the carrots in water until just tender before adding the green pepper, which is cut into 1 inch squares, and cooking another 3 minutes. I didn't cut 1 inch squares, I did small, but chunky (like me) pieces.  Set aside your cooked vegetables and make a sauce out of 1/2 cup of pineapple juice (reserved when you drain your pineapple chunks), sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, soy sauce and salt. Cook the sauce until it boils, stirring constantly. Stir in the pineapple chunks and add your vegetables; stir to coat the vegetables and pineapple with the sauce and heat through. Serve with cooked rice (I used brown rice) and sprinkle with red pepper chili flakes if desired. This serves between 4 and 6 people.  The original recipe was submitted by Gerty Keim McKelvy (Mrs. George McKelvy). 

    The verdict?  I'm glad I added the extra vinegar, because I liked that little, extra kick of "sour". The sugar was fine; it wasn't super sweet, which I liked.  The recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of soy sauce.  I used a packet of soy sauce I had gotten with some Chinese food recently.  It was about 2 teaspoons.  Feel free to use low-sodium soy sauce and/or use a salt substitute if you are watching your sodium intake. Would I make this again?  Yes, I would. It was good and filling with the brown rice I made. 

Let me know what you think. 

Ingredients:

1 pound carrots

1 large green pepper 

1 8oz can pineapple chunks

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vinegar ( (Again, I adapted and used 3 tablespoons)

2 teaspoons (or 1 packet of Chinese take-out soy sauce)

Red pepper chili flakes (optional)

Lemonchick's Turkey & Vegetable Soup

 Lemonchick's Turkey & Vegetable Soup

    Well, I had a little bit of an unplanned hiatus. I had planned to make fudge the week February 14th and then we had a major ice/snow storm (It snowed twice that week) which knocked out power for millions of Texans, all over the state. Some had no power for 5 days or more. Some like me, had multiple power outages, which in some cases lasted hours at a time and others for short periods.  My longest outage was about 18 hrs. Some had power on and off constantly the whole time and some never lost any power at all. I won't go into any more of that, but I will say the fact that we had the weather wasn't the issue, it was the power outages causing no heat in freezing temps. So, that is one of the reasons for the delay in another post. 

    Anyhow, back to the business at hand. When I went shopping the other day, I picked up a package of soup vegetables at a Fiesta grocery store, for just over $4.00. Most Hispanic grocery stores will have these packs of soup vegetables.  All you have to do is chop up the veggies, add them to broth, add seasonings and meat if you like. There was plenty of chopped vegetables and it would have been just fine without meat. The pack I got came with onion, a type of Mexican squash that I don't know, a small bit of corn, cilantro, carrot, a small red-skinned potato, cabbage and a piece of celery.  

    I prepped my veggies by washing them first and then chopping them into small pieces. You can chop them as small as you like. I put my carrot, potato and corn into the soup pot which I had poured two 32oz containers of chicken broth and 3 cups of water (I'd turned the pot on to start heating while I was chopping the vegetables) into. I added the cabbage, squash and celery, followed by two cubes of Knorr tomato bouillon with chicken flavor and about 5 cloves of garlic (finely diced). I added a little more than two cups of cooked, chopped turkey meat and 1/4 cup of quick cooking brown rice and boiled everything until my harder vegetables were soft. Honestly I didn't time it. Just cook until your vegetables are as tender as you like. I added chopped cilantro and 1/4 teaspoon and cooked it just a little bit longer, before serving myself a bowl with a sprinkle of sriracha sauce. The verdict? Yummmmmmmmmm.  And, now I have food for the whole week, because it was a huge pot of soup! 

Options: Use vegetable stock and leave out turkey for a vegetarian version.  Change it up and add different seasonings.  I did not use salt in mine, but you can salt to taste. Use beef broth and use chopped beef. Use chicken, instead of turkey. Sprinkle queso fresco or a bit of your favorite cheese on top when you serve. Make it your own!

Ingredients:

1 pack of soup vegetables (Mine had a wedge of a small cabbage, 1 small red-skinned potato, 1 small Mexican squash, 1 piece of celery, 1 piece of corn-on-the-cob, cilantro and about 4 or so good sized pieces of a giant carrot)

2 32oz containers of chicken broth

3 cups water (I used straight from the faucet, because I'm fancy)

5 cloves garlic (or to taste)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tomato bouillon cubes with chicken flavor (or plain ol' chicken bouillon cubes)

1/4 cup quick cooking brown rice

Sriracha or your favorite hot sauce for extra flavor in your bowl

5-Hour Stew

 5-Hour Stew

    Alright, alright, alright! This is another recipe from the 75th Anniversary Hy-Vee cookbook. I liked that this recipe was super easy. The first thing I did was prep the vegetables, by cleaning and peeling the carrots and potatoes; cleaning the celery and peeling the outer layer of the onion. The recipe says to cube the carrots and potatoes, so I did as best I could. The onion and celery I just chopped. 

       The stew meat was already cut into chunks, so I didn't have anything to do there.  Why not buy the package of pre-cut chunked meat, if you can? Again, this recipe was so easy. I put the vegetables in my cast iron dutch oven, mixed them around, added the meat, the cup of tomato juice and 3 tablespoons of tapioca. The recipe calls for Minute (brand) tapioca, but I simply couldn't find any brand of tapioca pearls anywhere, so had to buy a box off of Amazon.  The last two ingredients are salt and pepper, which you add to your personal taste.  I prefer to salt and pepper my food when I plate it, so I didn't add any during cooking.  

    So, that's it! I put the cover on my dutch oven and placed it in my oven, which I had pre-heated to 250 degrees.  As I think I've mentioned before, my oven is wonky and I had to guess at the temperature, but I think I did good, because at the end of the five hour cooking time, when I took that lid off, it looked pretty perfect.  I had that stews were "soupy", but this one isn't, there's only one cup of liquid added, so it wasn't "soupy".  I'll have you know my house smelled really good and the stew was delicious. 

    This would make a perfect meal with a nice, crusty french bread, garlic bread or rolls and a side salad.  I really liked this dish, because of how easy it was. The five hours was a long cook time, but the recipe also says it can be made in a crock-pot. There was no time give for making it in a crock-pot, so maybe still five hours? On low? Or maybe, eight hours on low? So, maybe it is one of those things you can prep the night before, toss in your crock-pot, go to work and then come home to a delicious meal all ready for you. 

    Would I make this recipe again? 100% I would make this again and I wouldn't change anything about it. You could get several servings out of this, but I don't like to say how many, because you know we don't all take the same size serving. IF I had to hazard a guess, I'd say at least 4-5 servings.  So, I hope you try this one out.  Let me know how you like it.