Week 1 - Gado-Gado

 Gado-Gado

Recipe 1 of 52 in 2022

Salad #1

    Recipe 1 of 52 in 2022 in my 52 recipes in 2022 self-challenge, is an Indonesian salad.  The recipe is included in Favorite Recipes of America - Salads. It was submitted for inclusion by "Mrs. Mort B. Brigadier, Officer's Wive's Club, Canal Zone, Rep of Panama". This 1968 cookbook is part of a set of four which were sold in a cute little 'box' sleeve/cover. I was lucky enough to find the entire set quite a number of years ago.  

    This recipe was a little bit of a pain, but would be easier if you prep the vegetables the day before or earlier in the day.  Although I said it felt like a pain, I am saying that, because I was making it after work and it felt like a lot. As I was preparing this recipe, I was skeptical of how I'd like the mixture of flavors, but I did end up really enjoying this salad dish.  I served my Gado-Gado over white rice, but this would be good by itself or brown rice.  Maybe even quinoa. All I know is that I'm going to take a dish over leftovers just by itself for lunch at work tomorrow, and I know I would definitely make this again. 

    The recipe makes about eight servings, depending on your serving size. 

Ingredients:

1 lb bean sprouts

1/2 lb cabbage, chopped

1/2 lb green beans, chopped

1 tsp salt

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp soy sauce (I used a dumpling sauce, which has soy sauce in it (I didn't have plain soy sauce) and it worked just fine as a substitute)

1 onion, sliced (I used a medium to large sized onion)

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, chopped and fried

1 tsp ground red pepper (I used a spicy red pepper mix by Ariel's Spices)

1/4 to 1/2 lb peanut butter (I used chunky; perfect for this recipe)

1 cucumber, sliced

1 bunch radishes sliced (I used about 8 radishes from a bag I had bought; I had to go to four stores to find radishes) 

2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

(optional) red chili pepper flakes 

Directions:

Remember to wash all of your vegetables before cooking. Parboil the bean sprouts, green beans and cabbage "in a small amount of water" for several minutes. I  used 3/4 to 1 cup water in the largest skillet I have.  3/4 cup water would be a good starting point if you try this recipe, and because of volume of the vegetables, using a large pot may work better for the par-boiling.  I used large kitchen tongs to carefully toss my ingredients, as they cooked down and it did work out just fine. If using a skillet, take care when you are par-boiling the vegetables. I did not measure how much time I par-boiled this mixture, but you'll want to cook them to where they are softened, but still have a bit of crunch.  When your vegetable are cooked, drain the vegetables and reserve the stock. Return the stock to your pan and stir in the salt, brown sugar, lemon juice, soy sauce, onion, garlic, red pepper and peanut butter. You need to make sure to cook the peanut butter down.  It will melt into the sauce. 

The original recipe says to layer the cabbage, beans, bean sprouts, cucumber and radishes in a salad bowl. This didn't sound right to me, so I used a large casserole dish. I spooned the cabbage, beans and bean sprouts mixture into the bottom, followed by a layer of my cucumber slices, then the radishes and finally the sliced egg.  The original recipe says to serve the peanut butter dressing with the salad. I did not. I poured it directly over top of the salad. And you know what? It was perfect.  Sprinkle with red chili pepper flakes for extra kick. 

Try this salad out and let me know what you think.  

A side view of Gado-Gado salad

Layered vegetable and sliced egg

Gado-Gado salad

Gado-Gado salad over rice

Strawberry Tapioca Pudding

 Strawberry Tapioca Pudding

    Today was the 31st anniversary of my mother's death. It's a difficult day and New Year's Eve has never been the same.  I've celebrated my mother (and my father also on 12/23) on the anniversary of their deaths, in my own way. I take off work and on my mom's day, I normally watch sad movies like Beaches and The Joy Luck Club today and although I could not find my copy of Beaches, I just finished watching The Joy Luck Club. I feel like I have such a connection to Joy Luck Club, because it's about the mothers (and daughters) and their hopes and dreams for them. I never got to find out what my mom wanted for me, so it just hits home, because I'm sure my mom would have wanted the same things for me that the Joy Luck Club mothers wanted for their daughters. 

    I also make foods that they liked. For my mom, that is always her version of pork chops, which I've written about here before. This post isn't about the pork chops; you can go back through my posts and read about them, but just know I love them. Total comfort food for me.  

    This post is about a dessert my late father would make for my mom. Strawberry Tapioca Pudding. I don't remember how often we had it, but my mom was diabetic and she wasn't supposed to have many desserts. While overall she watched what she ate, she also wanted to enjoy life (writing that just made me smile) and would enjoy a dessert from time to time. This is the first time I've made the tapioca pudding.  I like strawberries, but I think I would like the pudding plain.  Strawberry Tapioca was what she liked, so that's what I made.

Feel free to try this recipe based on the Tapioca Cream recipe in one of my favorite and "go to" cookbooks in my collection. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook published in 1990. This cookbook was originally published in 1896 under the name The Boston Cooking School Cook Book by you guessed it, Fannie Farmer.`

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

1/8 teaspoon salt (I accidentally used 1/4 teaspoon and it turned out fine)

5 tablespoons sugar (divided)

2 cups milk

2 eggs, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla

Sliced fresh or frozen and thawed strawberries (Just use as many as you want to use)

Red food coloring

Directions:

Mix 3 tablespoons of the sugar, the salt, and the tapioca in (the recipe says) a heavy-bottom pot. Slightly beat the egg yolks and add with milk to the dry ingredients. Let stand for 5 minutes. The recipe says to cook for about 6 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a full boil. For me, because I hadn't heated the milk before hand (I believe that would have been helpful), it took way longer to boil. It was at list 10 minutes. After my 6 minute timer went off, I didn't really time it. Anyways, when the mixture boils, remove from heat. Beat your egg whites which you've had set to the side, until foamy and slowly add the last 2 tablespoons of sugar. (The directions say to beat until stiff, but not dry. I don't really know what that meant and mine never made peaks. I just beat the whites on high with my hand mixer, until I felt comfortable with how it looked.) Stir your egg whites into the hot tapioca. Add the vanilla and a few drops of red food coloring. Blend well. Mix in your strawberries and serve warm or cold with a dollop of whipped cream if desired. 

   It was easy to make and  I really enjoyed it. So, if you make this, let me know what you think. 

Strawberry Tapioca Pudding

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!    

Tuna, Rice & Peas

 Tuna, Rice & Peas

    I wanted some 'comfort' food. This very, simple dish is one my father used to make when I was growing  up.  I haven't had it in decades, but felt like making it recently.  It is a dish with few ingredients and is inexpensive to make. Growing up,I think we probably also had bread or something with it.  It's been so long, I don't really recall, but I know we had lots of starch-y foods growing up. Rice is in the title, but you can definitely make the sauce and serve it over hot,buttered toast or biscuits. Let me know if you have ever heard of this and/or if you try it and like it.  

Ingredients:

One can tun fish (in water/drained)

One can green peas (drained

1 cup rice (cooked)

White sauce 

    1/4 Cup butter (melted) 

    2 cups milk

    1/4 cup flour 

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1/8 teaspoon pepper 

• Make a medium white sauce by melting butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour and once it is bubbling, slowly pour in milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened. Season with salt and pepper. 
• One trick I've used for white sauce, is to heat the milk in the microwave for a one to two minutes before adding. It has helped it to thicken quicker in the past. 

Directions:

    Leaving your pan of white sauce on low heat, stir in the tuna, followed by the peas. Simply serve your tuna and peas sauce over rice (or toast) or you can mix the sauce and rice together.  Either way, this is a simple, comfort food and I hope you try it. 

Tuna, Rice and Peas

I made a batch of my Cheesy Garlic Butter Balls to go with leftovers the day after. What was it I was saying about lots of starches growing up?

 

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 Potato Biscuits

 Sweet Potato Biscuits

    A short but sweet post.  Mix all the below dry ingredients and then cut in shortening until it is crumbly. Mix egg, sweet potato and milk together and add all together, to the dry ingredients. Stir until dough clings together and then knead gently, 10-12 times on a lightly floured board. Roll or pat the dough to a 1/2 inch thickness and use a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter to cut 8 biscuits.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 

    When I made these biscuits, I had to add a little extra flour, because the dough was pretty sticky. I also made them thinner than recommended at 1/4 inch (oops) and I didn't have a large biscuit cutter. It turned out kinda nice though.  I had 12 smaller, thinner, more "fun sized" biscuits.  They tasted really good and I was happy with them.  

    The recipe comes from The Better Homes & Gardens "All Time Favorite Recipes" published in 1979. 

Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

2 Teaspoons Brown Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/3 Cup Shortening

1 Beaten Egg

1/2 Cup Mashed Cooked Sweet Potato

2 Tablespoons Milk

 

Better Homes & Gardens - All-Time Favorite Recipes

The biscuits (It's bad lighting; they were as yellow as they look here).

    

Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish

 Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish

    Dear Readers, I created this recipe this morning.  I've been making a real effort to eat healthier and am also experimenting with alternative protein sources; I'm not anti-meat, but one of my doctors suggested trying to get more protein from sources other than meat, so I am.  One of the things I've discovered that I like, is quinoa. One cup of quinoa contains 8 grams of protein.  I subscribed to Imperfect Foods for about a month and a half, and while it is not a great fit for me, I did get some good produce and tried some new things. For example, I wanted to try leeks, so I got leeks in my last box. There were two leeks and they were huge!!!! I didn't know anything about cooking them, but they are giant versions of the way smaller green onions, so I knew they'd be onion-y (Just like green onions, the closer you get to the bulb, the more onion flavor) and that I could cook them just like you would if green onions.  

    Anyhow, I tossed around the idea of cooking them and making an Asian inspired sauce to serve with.  I went with the much easier, cooked and sauteed with butter.  I had thought about serving them as a side with rice or quinoa, but decided to create a 'salad' if you want to call it that. I'm calling it a 'dish'. So, below is my recipe for my Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish.  I enjoyed it; it was pretty easy to make and tasted good, so I would make this again.  

    This can be made without bacon; try cubed or diced paneer cheese or tofu. You could also add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, because I bet that would be yummy.  This time around, I only did the red chili pepper flakes and salt-substitute.  I didn't want to add to much other seasoning, because the leeks would be flavorful enough (I was right).  

Alone or served as a side with chicken, pork, beef, try this and let me know what you think. 

Ingredients:

1 Cup Quinoa

1 Leek (mine was giant), sliced 

8 Strips of Bacon (or more, this is totally up to you)

Directions:

    Cook quinoa according to directions and set aside; cut the tip of the bulb and slice up your leek. Slice as thin or thick as you like (mine were pretty thin) and drop into a skillet pre-heated with a little bit of oil.  Cook until tender, add butter and stir.  While your leek is cooking, add bacon to another pre-heated skillet.  Cook until both sides are browned, but not crispy and drain on paper-towels. Cut bacon into half inch or so pieces. 

    To assemble this dish, spoon 2 cups of your cooked quinoa into a large serving dish (you'll have about 1 cup of quinoa left; so save that to use in another recipe). Add your sliced leek and bacon and stir to mix all the ingredients.  I added a sprinkle of red pepper chili flakes and salt-substitute. 

Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish

Creamy-Spicy Sauce

 Creamy-Spicy Sauce

        This is a super easy sauce.  I'll give some measurements, but you can adjust as needed or to taste. I made this sauce for chunked pork loin, which I served over rice.  You can use it on chicken or maybe fish or even on plant based substitutes.  Try it with cooked & cubed tofu or paneer cheese or potato. Try it with pasta or rice and mix in chunks of meet or the aforementioned tofu/paneer cheese. I used La Costena Ranchera Salsa. This salsa is a tomatillo and mixed chili peppers sauce.  I definitely taste chipotle in there and I love chipotle. This salsa is a dark, roasted color.  La Costena products can be found at Latino groceries and other local grocery stores. 

    First, cut your pork/chicken/tofu/paneer cheese/potato into chunks as big or small as you like. Heat a skillet, add a bit of oil (I like canola & olive oil) or cooking spray. Add whatever you decided to use, meat, tofu, paneer cheese, to the skillet and cook until meat is cooked thoroughly or the tofu/paneer cheese is completely cooked.  Sorry I don't have more info on how to tell when tofu/paneer cheese is completely cooked.  I just cook paneer cheese so it is a little browned on the edges of the cubes and some of the pieces pop a little.  Also, the tried and true method is to just spear a piece with a fork and check it by biting it. For potato, I like to cook the cubed potato in salted boiling water until softened, but not too soft, because I'm adding it to a skillet.  

Second, determine how 'saucy' you want your sauce.  I like saucy, myself.  You can start with 1 cup of sour cream and mix in "salsa to taste".  Add the sour cream and salsa mixture to your skillet with your meat, tofu, paneer cheese or potato and heat through, stirring to combine all.  

Third, if serving with rice or pasta, fill bowls with rice/pasta and spoon your meat/tofu/paneer cheese and sauce mixture over top.  Serve with bread and butter if you like.  

Ingredients:

La Costena Ranchera Salsa or try it with your favorite salsa

Sour Cream

Pork/Chicken/Tofu/Paneer Cheese/Potato (Use enough for the amount of servings you plan)

Creamy-Spicy Sauce with Pork