Sourdough Bread

After discovering that making and keeping a sourdough starter was a heckuva lot easier than most people make it out to be, I've been having fun experimenting with bread.

Olive Oil and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Meet Miz Helen from Miz Helen's Country Cottage. Miz Helen hails from Texas and in addition to blogging about food, she also blogs about gardening and her spiritual life. She hosts a weekly linkup called Full Plate Thursday.

Making a Sourdough Starter

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This is bread I made using a sourdough starter that I made on January 10 of this year. It was delicious, but this post isn’t about the bread, it’s about the starter. I’ll have the recipe for the bread in a different post. In the meantime, if you’ve been contemplating making a sourdough starter of your own, I hope this post will encourage you to do just that.

I read so many different sites about how to make a sourdough starter. Everything sounded so intimidating. So many dos and don’ts. So many contradictions on different sites that had instructions. There were also many, many recipes for starters – recipes using pineapple juice and flour; milk and flour; water and flour. Some called for yeast and some didn’t. Some took a few days and others took several days. Some recipes said to pour off the hooch that formed and others said to stir it back into the starter. Some said you should refrigerate it, others said you could keep it on the counter as long as it was fed regularly.

Beer Steamed Mussels and Shrimp

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When I read that Debbie thought this dish was so good it was "to die for", I knew I wanted to try it. Debbie has over 200 cookbooks and this recipe is from The Homesick Texan Cookbook.

Spicy Ravioli Florentine

SRC Reveal Day for Group B!

The recipe today comes from Claire at The Realistic Nutritionist. Claire is passionate about health and fitness and uses whole and organic foods. She's also working on her Masters in Dietetics. You can get the list of Claire's delicious "Eat Skinny Be Skinny" recipes here. 

Portuguese Milk Liqueur

On our first (blind) date, when my gardener took me home, I invited him in and offered him some homemade cranberry liqueur. Over the years, we've made a few different liqueurs - irish cream, creme de menthe, cranberry and, coffee liqueur being the one we make most often. 

Ooey Gooey Butter Layer Cake - Paula Deen

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My sister made this recipe around Christmastime and she said it was delicious and everyone who ate it raved about it. I invited friends over for dinner and cake for one of their birthdays and asked what kind of cake he wanted. He requested anything but chocolate, so I decided to make this.

Pizza Hut Pan Pizza - Copycat Recipe

Homemade pizza is so easy and so inexpensive, it's a wonder why more people don't make it themselves. We like a thin crust pizza, but when I saw this at Brenda's blog, I wanted to give it a try. 

Slow Roasted Garlic Mojo (Mojo de Ajo)

Definition of Mojo: a magic spell, hex, or charm; broadly: magical power

2011 Recipe Roundup

Thank you for reading Karen Cooks this past year. I appreciate all of your comments and look forward to reading your blogs in 2012!

The 10 recipes shown today are the ones that had the most views throughout the year - here's the countdown, beginning with Portuguese Rice Pudding, which had the most views.

Cranberry Sweet Rolls

Q: What do you get when you mix milk, honey, vanilla bean, yeast, flour, salt, a stick-and-a-half of butter, 10 egg yolks and takes three days to make?

A: Milk and Honey Brioche

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Soft pretzels, hot out of the oven. I ate two.

This is a really good recipe. They don't taste like the pretzels you can buy at the mall. You know the place. (Psst! They're better!)

Jalapeno-Cream Cheese Swirls

Antipasto, aperitif, canapé, cocktail, chips & dip, fingerfood, finger sandwich, samples, starters, hors d’oeuvres or munchies. Whatever you call them, ‘tis the season!

Rosemary Bread

This is my first month in the Secret Recipe Club! Each member is assigned a blog and from there you choose a recipe to make yourself. This recipe comes from Julie at A Little Bit of Everything. (Hi Julie!) 

Julie lives in Omaha and as I was going through her recipes, I was surprised at how many I had either made myself or saw a recipe that I'd been wanting to try. I'd been wanting to make the copycat Rosemary Bread from Macaroni Grill restaurant and saw that Julie had baked it. I love the smell of Rosemary and after reading how Julie loved the bread, decided to make it. 

This made two very small loaves of bread... just right for individual loaves at dinner. They could also be hallowed out to make a soup bowl.

I adapted the recipe slightly, using olive oil in the recipe instead of butter. 

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Rosemary Bread  (adapted from food.com, recipe 64446)

1 T yeast

1 T sugar

1 c warm water

1 tsp salt

1 T olive oil

2 ½  cups flour

2 T rosemary, chopped

1 T butter

Place yeast, sugar, water, salt and oil in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix for 1 minute. Add 2 cups flour and 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary. Change to dough hook and knead for 8 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, until dough is smooth and elastic.

Spray a bowl with cooking spray. Place dough into bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough and divide in half. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Shape each piece of dough into a small rounded oval loaf. Cover and let rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°. Bake 15-20 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven, brush with butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Makes 2 individual loaves.

Homemade Stock

I trust everyone had a good Thanksgiving with family, friends and too much food! My gardener and I have been busy the last few weeks. We had five guests from California who came up for deer season. Early mornings, hunting nearly every day, cooking, butchering deer, packaging meat, lively dart games, lots of laughs and staying up too late made for an enjoyable, if not tiring, two weeks. Everyone went home with plenty of venison and more importantly, everyone made it back home safely.

I hope you've made your own stock before. If you haven't, please try it - the difference homemade stock makes in soups is great... plus, it's really easy to make the stock!

I save bones and not just the carcasses. I save chicken bones that we've eaten the meat from. Why not? I keep a plastic bag in the freezer and just put bones in there as they become, shall we say... available. After Thanksgiving, I had a turkey carcass, two pheasant carcasses and a gallon size plastic bag full of chicken bones. What I got from that? Six quarts of gelatinous, rich stock that I'll use for soups now that winter has arrived in Montana.

Here's what you do: Put bones in a big pot. Add celery, carrots, bay leaves, peppercorns, and vinegar. Bring to a boil then simmer for hours. The longer you simmer it the better it will be. I simmered mine for 9 hours the first day. At night, I turned off the stove and left it. The next morning I continued simmering for another 6 hours or so.

Include wings and feet if you can. These parts contain more collagen, which will give you a more gelatinous broth. If you want beef stock, just use beef bones... roasting them first will give a richer taste to the stock. After the stock has cooled a bit, strain it and pour into Mason jars. I can't see wasting a canning lid for stock, so I use a doubled piece of plastic wrap. Then, put the jars in the freezer. It's that simple... and that good.

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Homemade Stock

Bones (chicken, turkey, pheasant, beef)

3 ribs celery

3 carrots

1 large onion, cut in half (with peel)

2 bay leaves

10-12 peppercorns

1 T vinegar

Put everything into a large pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 10-12 hours. Strain, pour into containers, and freeze.

Antelope Liver Paté

Most people who refer to venison are talking about deer meat, but the term actually includes elk and antelope, among others. I found a recipe for Deer Liver Paté on Rhonda's blog and adapted the recipe using antelope liver. 

This paté was delicious. We ate it on smeared on toasted bread with a glass of wine. It's not for sissies, though, especially after it aged a few days. This recipe used a pound of antelope liver and I ended up with a lot of paté! Next time I make it, I'll be sure to have a crowd in the house to help us eat it up! Thanks, Rhonda for a great recipe!

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Antelope Liver Paté

1 pound antelope liver, skinned and cut into large pieces

8 T (1 stick) butter, divided use

1 T Garlic Mojo

1 anchovy filet

1 bay leaf

1 cup yellow onion, diced

¼ cup purple onion, diced

1 T minced garlic

1 T capers, chopped

½ T fresh thyme, chopped

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ cup dry sherry

½ cup parsley, coarsely chopped

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Zest from one small lemon, about ½ tsp

½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

In a large skillet, over medium high heat, melt 4 T of butter. Add Garlic Mojo to the pan. Add anchovy filet and cook until it has melted. Add bay leaf and onions and cook until onions are soft, about 3 minutes. Add liver, garlic, capers, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook until the liver is browned on the outside and still slightly pink on the inside, about 5 minutes. Add the sherry and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated and the liver is cooked through. Do not overcook.

Let cool. Discard bay leaf. Add liver mixture, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest and Parmesan to a food processor and puree. Stop and scrape down the sides occasionally. Cube 4 T butter, add softened pieces and pulse until blended. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Pack the paté into ramekins, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for six hours.

Chicken Paprikash (Paprika Hendl)

In Bram Stoker's Dracula, a dish called Paprika Hendl is featured. This dish has Hungarian, German and Translyvanian origins. In researching it, I found that it is very similar to Chicken Paprikash. This recipe gave me a deep, rich sauce, which I served with boiled potatoes.

I'm linking this recipe up with Foods of the World Forums and a post by another Montana foodie who only lives a short 30 minutes from me. Hope we can meet someday, Ron!

Happy Halloween!

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Chicken Paprikash

 6 chicken thighs

2 T olive oil

1 cup white wine or sherry

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 bay leaf

8 cloves garlic, minced

3 medium ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped

2 heaping T Hungarian Sweet Paprika

½ cup sour cream

2 T flour

2 tsp salt

1 T black pepper

Put olive oil into a dutch oven over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Cook thighs until browned. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Deglaze pan with wine or sherry.

In the same pan, add onion and bay leaf. Cook until onions are caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add tomatoes, paprika and return the chicken to the pan. Bring to a simmer and cook until chicken is tender, 45 minutes to an hour.

Whisk sour cream with the flour and stir into the chicken until well mixed. Remove bay leaf before serving. Serve hot with dumplings, noodles, or potatoes.

Roasted Shrimp with Queso Fresco

It's getting to be that time of year when photographing evening meals becomes frustrating. I'll ask you to trust me that this Roasted Shrimp with Queso Fresco smelled and tasted much more appetizing that this picture shows.

I adapted this recipe after seeing it on Debbie's blog, The Friday Friends and also at Brenda's blog, Brenda's Canadian Kitchen. I love Feta, but didn't have any on hand. I wanted to run to the store to get some, but you know how it goes when you go to the store for one item. Somehow you walk out with a basket full of stuff that you didn't realize you needed. Since I had some Queso Fresco on hand, I used it instead. I also have some very ripe tomatoes, so used them instead of canned. 

This was really good. This is the first time I've ever used fennel. The slight anise flavor and crunch of the fennel was very nice in this dish. The Queso didn't have quite the tang that Feta would, but it was cheesy and good. I'd like to try it with Feta next time.

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Roasted Shrimp With Queso Fresco

4 T olive oil, divided use

1-1/2 cups fennel, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup white wine

1 pound ripe tomatoes, chopped (or 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 pound (41-60) peeled and cleaned shrimp, remove tails

5 oz. Queso Fresco, crumbled

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

3 T fresh parsley, minced

1 lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat 2 T olive oil in a 10- or 12-inch oven-proof skillet over medium-low heat. Add the fennel and saute until fennel is tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add the wine and bring it to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Cook for 2-3 minutes more. Add the tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes.

Add shrimp over the tomato mixture. Scatter the Queso evenly over the shrimp. In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs and parsley with the remaining 2 T olive oil and sprinkle over the shrimp.

Bake for 16 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked and breadcrumbs are golden brown. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the shrimp and serve hot with crusty bread. 

Getting Started in Canning

I made another batch of salsa yesterday and intended to photograph the process, but it was just too awkward. The last thing I wanted to do was drop my camera in a huge pot of boiling salsa. Instead, I decided to take some pictures of the equipment that is needed for canning and give you a short and sweet "how-to" with links to sites that will give you safety information, recipes, and detailed instructions.

My grandmother used to make apricot jelly and prickly-pear jelly. Whenever I'd visit she'd send me home with a jar or two and I loved the fact that she made it from scratch and with love, even picking the apricots from the tree and the fruit from the cactus herself. My choice for my first canning project was blueberry jam and it turned out great!

The first thing you'll need is a Ball Blue Book, which will guide you step-by-step through the canning process. This information is also available online, There are two methods of canning food: The water bath method and the steam pressure method, which uses a pressure cooker. I'm going to talk about the water bath method today.

You'll need a big pan, which will be filled with water that has been brought to a boil. This is the water your filled and capped jars will go into for the water bath. This pan is 21-quarts.

This rack fits inside the pan. After the jars are filled and capped, they can be put into this rack and then lowered into the boiling water. The rack keeps the jars off the bottom of the pan and gives you a safe way to submerge and retrieve the jars. 

After the jars have been in the water bath for the proper amount of time and you've taken them out of the pan, they should be set on top of towels. The towels provide an insulation between the jars and your counter. If you set a hot jar on a cold counter, or onto a counter that had water sitting on it, there would be chance for breakage. You'll need pot holders and an oven mitt so you can hold the hot jars. And, you'll need a wet, clean dishcloth to wipe the threads and rims of the jars after you've filled them and before you place the seal and bands on the jars. Wiping the threads and rims will ensure that no food particles will interfere with the sealing process.

This is a pair of tongs which is a handy way to move hot jars. The yellow part of the tongs is rubberized to help prevent breakage and it also allows you to get a good grip on the jar.

You'll need a ladle for filling the jars. After the jars are filled, run a small, thin spatula around the inside wall of the jar to get rid of air pockets. The green item is a lid retriever... simply a plastic handle with a small magnet on the end. This is handy for retrieving lids that are in hot water, which softens the seal so it will better adhere to the rim of the jar.   

A wide-mouth funnel makes it easy to fill the jars, which can be a messy process (at least in my kitchen)!

And, finally, you'll need jars, which you can buy in 4 ounce, 8 ounce (1/2 pint), 16 ounce (pint), and 32 ounce (quart) size. Jars are available either in the regular, or wide-mouth variety. You'll also need lids, which are the flat discs in the picture. The bottom of the lid is rubberized so it will seal to the jar. The rings are put on after the lids and hand tightened before the jars go into the water bath. The rings are removed before storage to prevent rusting.

All of these items can be purchased in kits like this. Take a look at Ball's "Intro to Canning" and you might just find yourself in the kitchen preserving food from your garden or whipping up some homemade jams and jellies for the neighbors at Christmastime!

Zucchini Salsa

It wasn't a very good summer for our garden. Because of rains last spring, we planted two weeks later than usual. We got early spinach, lettuce and radishes, which was nice for salads, but when we should have been picking ripe tomatoes, we were sitting on the deck wishing for warmer weather and a longer season. We got plenty of zucchini, but not the quantities that we've had in years past, and maybe that's a good thing! It would be nice to have ripe tomatoes to eat all summer long, but it was a ripe one here and an almost ripe one there that my gardener would bring into the house. It didn't take long to eat them up. Our temperatures dipped the second week of this month and we covered the garden at night for a few days, then harvested everything that was left and tilled the garden.

We've been busy making sausage, too. We made 12# of Jalapeno Summer sausage and 15# Cracked Pepper & Garlic Summer Sausage. We use ground venison along with some ground pork and use a kit like this that includes the seasonings and the casings. After the casings are stuffed, into the smoker they go (each log is 3#). These are delicious sliced up and served on crackers with cheese and a glass of wine! 

My kitchen is lined with bowls and bowls of green and pink tomatoes, a few zucchini on the counter and a few small jalapenos and bell peppers. I already made several jars of piccalilli using green tomatoes and went looking for something different. I found Zucchini Salsa at allrecipes.com. Despite thinking "Eww... zucchini in salsa??", it got such rave reviews and I decided to give it a try. It turned out absolutely delicious and you'd never know there was zucchini in it! I'm going to make a few more batches using green tomatoes. We opened a jar at breakfast the other day and by the time we'd finished, half the jar was gone!

We went antelope hunting earlier this month and I got to take some pictures of this beautiful country, which I'd like to share with you. Oh, yes, we got an antelope and I saved the heart and liver, so I'm going to have a couple special posts for those soon. And yes, I've got the Zucchini Salsa recipe for you, but first, a few pictures...

October Sunrise in Montana

Another view of the sunrise

A few cattle.

A few more... my friend, Rhonda told me that there are 3 cows to every person in Montana!

A couple of trees out in the middle of nothing but rolling hills.

It takes a lot of hay to feed all those cattle in the winter!

Old fence posts.

Mountains

Ok, on to the salsa... this recipe got a 5-star review from 85 people and in reading the reviews, it was no surprise to see that everybody made theirs just a little different, adding this and leaving out that according to their tastes, which is exactly what I did with the original recipe. 

We both loved this salsa, so another couple batches will be made next week. I'll still make a few changes to the recipe below by adding a few more jalapenos and leaving out the tomato paste, which I thought gave the finished salsa too much of a canned tomato taste. I think by leaving it out, we'll end up with a fresher taste.


I plan to do a blog post on canning soon, but there is lots of information to get you started here.


Edit 10/23/11: I made another batch of salsa with the following changes: Omitted green peppers and tomato paste. Used a total of 10 jalapenos with seeds. This made a hot salsa, which we prefer. If you prefer spicy, find that recipe here.

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Zucchini Salsa - adapted from Food.com

10 cups peeled and grated zucchini
4 large onions, chopped
4 green peppers, seeded and chopped
¼ cup plus 1 T Kosher salt, divided use
5 large jalapenos, seeded and pureed in food processor
2 T dry mustard
1 T granulated garlic
1 T cumin
2 T red pepper flakes
1 T black pepper
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup lemon juice
5 cups chopped red or green tomatoes
12 ounces tomato paste

Day one: In a large pan combine zucchini, onions, green pepper and ¼ cup salt. Mix well, cover and let stand overnight. Do not refrigerate.

Day two: Transfer vegetables to a colander and let drain for one to two hours. Return mixture to the pan and add pureed jalapenos, mustard, garlic, cumin, red pepper flakes, black pepper, vinegar, lemon juice, 1T salt, tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix all ingredients well.

Cover pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately ladle into sterilized jars and seal. Process in a water bath for 20 minutes (for altitudes between 1000 and 6000 feet).

Bacon Hash and Broiled Eggs

A few facts: The entire state of Montana is home to fewer than 1 million people (989,415 to be exact, according to the 2010 census). My previous homeland, California, is home to 37 million people.  In terms of land area, California has 156 square miles and Montana right up there with 146 square miles. But... there are 238 people per square mile in California and only 6.8 people per square mile in Montana. Big difference!

So... not a lot of people in Montana, which means too, that there's probably not a lot of food bloggers in Montana. That's why I felt lucky to have found Rhonda's blog at The Kitchen Witch. She's a Montana food blogger and we live less than two hours away from one another. 

Rhonda writes some great posts, has beautiful pictures... and of course has some wonderful food and recipes. Last Friday she posted her Bacon Hash and Broiled Eggs and as soon as I read it, I knew what we'd be having for Saturday morning breakfast.

I made a few changes (don't we all) and pared the recipe down for the two of us. It was delicious and got a thumb's up from my gardener. Thanks, Rhonda, for the yummy recipe! 

Here's my version...

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Bacon Hash and Broiled Eggs

5 slices bacon, cut crosswise into small strips

1 large russett potato, peeled and cut into 1/2" dice

1/2 large onion, chopped

3 T water

Eggs (one or two per person)

Grated cheese

Salt & pepper

In large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp. Add potatos, onions and water. Cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat until water has evaporated and potatoes and onions are browned, about 15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Put the has mixture into individual ramekins. Crack one or two eggs on top and place ramekins on a cookie sheet. Place under broiler for 3-5 minutes, depending on how you like your egg cooked. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and return to the broiler until cheese melts and is bubbly.

Albondigas

I don't want to see Summer come to an end, but there are telltale signs that it's doing just that. We've been having temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's here in Havre, Montana, but on Tuesday it was cloudy and chilly with a high temp of only 63. Add to that, the honkers have been flying overhead and there are a few fallen leaves on the ground; a sure sign that Autumn is near. 

I'm one of those people who can't really enjoy a nice hot bowl of soup unless the weather is cooperating... that is, cold or rainy days when a simmering pot of soup on the stove helps to warm the kitchen and then our bellies.

So, on Tuesday when the temperature dipped, I was all over having soup for dinner. With plenty of zucchini on the counter and a few ripe tomatoes from our garden, I decided to make Albondigas.

Albondigas  (al-BON-dee-gahs) means meatball in Spanish. So, what we have here basically, is Spanish meatball soup. 

This was  made with homemade chicken stock, zucchini, tomatoes and tiny meatballs which I made with ground beef. Cilantro, cumin and a dash of lemon juice round out the flavors in this soup. I cooked some tortillas and this was a perfect meal for a chilly day. 

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Albondigas

Meatballs

1# lean ground beef

1 egg

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

Soup

4 cups chicken stock

2 cups boiling water

1 cube Knorr Caldo de Tomate (tomato bouillon with chicken flavor

½ medium onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 medium carrot, sliced into rounds

¼ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp oregano

1 large zucchini, sliced

½ cup cooked rice

1 T lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped cilantro to taste

Combine all ingredients for the meatballs and roll into small balls. You should get 24-28 meatballs from a pound of ground beef.

Brown meatballs in a frying pan with some olive oil. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.

In a soup pan, add some olive oil and sauté celery, onions and carrot for 5 minutes. Add chicken stock, water, tomato bouillon,  cumin and oregano.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Add meatballs and zucchini. Simmer gently until meatballs and zucchini are cooked, 10-15 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Ladle Albondigas into soup bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro and cooked rice.