Recipes

Margarita
this was served to me in a very tall big glass...

double shot tequila --- try black label Jose Tequila

shot of grand marnier

shot of cointreau

ice in cup

fill with margarita mix - jose

GINGERBREAD WAFFLES
(This is a favorite brunch recipe during our peach season.)

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground ginger
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
½ cup unsulphured molasses
2/3 cup milk
½ cup shortening, melted (I use vegetable oil)

Sift together the first 6 ingredients into a mixing bowl. Combine eggs and molasses and add to the dry mixture. Mix well. Stir in milk and shortening/oil. Spoon batter onto highly oiled hot waffle iron. (The amount used for one waffle depends upon the size of the waffle iron.) Bake 2 to 3 minutes on low heat. This batter may be made ahead of time, shorted in a covered container in the fridge, and baked as needed. It will keep 5 days.

Top with fresh peaches, sautéed in a little butter and honey.

Serves at least 4.

Saving Berries from Mold (tip received via email)

Berries are delicious, but they're also kind of delicate. Raspberries in particular seem like they can mold before you even get them home from the market. There's nothing more tragic than paying $4 for a pint of local raspberries, only to More...

look in the fridge the next day and find that fuzzy mold growing on their insides.
Well, with fresh berries just starting to hit farmers markets, we can tell you that how to keep them fresh! Here’s a tip I’m sharing on how to prevent them from getting there in the first place: Wash them with vinegar.
When you get your berries home, prepare a mixture of one part vinegar (white or apple cider probably work best) and ten parts water. Dump the berries into the mixture and swirl around. Drain, rinse if you want (though the mixture is so diluted you can't taste the vinegar,) and pop in the fridge. The vinegar kills any mold spores and other bacteria that might be on the surface of the fruit, and voila! Raspberries will last a week or more, and strawberries go almost two weeks without getting moldy and soft. So go forth and stock up on those pricey little gems, knowing they'll stay fresh as long as it takes you to eat them.

You're so berry welcome!

DEATH by CHOCOLATE CAKE (Rayray)

Very naughty and very nice
Not good for: diabetes; cholesterol-disease; heart-disease; nut allergy; and weight-watching.

Irresistible and moreish: you have been warned.

250g unsalted butter
250g chocolate
220g fine unrefined sugar (golden caster sugar)
3 large or 4 small eggs
165g ground almonds

1.Preheat the oven to gas-mark-4 / 180ºC / 350ºF

2.Line a tin with baking parchment.

3.Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl with the sliced-up butter.

4.Cover the bowl and place it in the microwave. Allow the mixture to melt while occasionally stirring.

5.In another larger container place the sugar and eggs. Whisk together until double-sized.

6.Stir the butter and chocolate mixture into the whisked sugar and eggs.

7.Uniformly fold-in the ground almonds.

8.Turn into the parchment-lined tin.

9.Bake in the centre of the pre-heated over for 35 to 45 minutes.

10.Allow to cool in the tin, then cut into squares.

11.Serve with sliced strawberries and double cream

This is a wonderful grill marinade for flat iron steak or brisket.
In a one gallon freezer zip lock bag, combine 3 Tablespoons honey, 3 Tablespoons basalmic vinegar, 3 Tablespoons olive oil, 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce, 1 Tablespoon garlic powder, 1 Tablespoon crushed dried rosemary leaves, 1 Tablespoon crushed dried tarragon, 1 Tablespoon fresh ground white pepper (I used black), and 1 teaspoon salt. I also added 3 large cloves of fress garlic. Smoosh the bag to mix well, then add your steak. Marinate for at least 6 hours (I did it for 24 hours). Grill to desired doneness.

Has everybody stopped eating or something? No recipes for nearly 12 months. Outrageous!

Barbecued Spare Ribs

1kg pork spareribs (known here as American racks of ribs, can also be used for beef ribs)
4T tomato ketchup or sauce
2T clear honey
3T soy sauce
3T wine vinegar
2t tomato paste
1t salt
1 1/2C stock (I use chicken)

To garnish -
1-2 spring onions (green parts, finely sliced)
Place ribs in roasting pan. Mix together all marinade ingredients and pour over ribs. If time allows marinate for 2-3 hours.
Cook in a preheated hot oven, 220c for 15 minutes.
Transfer ribs to a roasting rack. Lower temp to moderately hot, 190c, and cook ribs for further 30 mins, turning once, till brown and crisp.
Meanwhile, place the roasting pan over a moderate heat and boil the cooking liquor until reduced to a thick sauce.
Separate ribs and arrange on a serving dish and pour over the sauce.
Garnish with the spring onion.
Suggestion - serve with plain boiled rice.
YUMMMMM!

Irish Cream Cheesecake
Cuisine @ Home – April 2014

For the Crust, toast:
1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
Process with:
½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. table salt
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

For the filling, beat:
3 pkg. cream cheese, softened (8 oz. each)
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup Irish cream liqueur
½ cup heavy cream
3 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 375 F.
For the crust, toast oats in oven on a baking sheet until they smell nutty, 10 minutes. Process oats, flour, ½ cup brown sugar, cinnamon, and ½ tsp. salt in a food processor until blended. With the machine running, pour in the melted butter and process until mixture clumps.
Press oat mixture into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake crust until firm, 10p12 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 F. Let crust cool to room temperature, then wrap base of pan in foil and place in a roasting pan.
For the filling, beat cream cheese, granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar on medium speed until smooth. Beat in liqueur and cream. Before adding eggs, loosen each yolk with a fork, then add egg to batter and mix to incorporated before adding the next.
Pour filling into crust. Pour boiling water into roasting pan 1-inch up side of springform pan.
Bake cheesecake (at 325 F) until edges are set but center still jiggles, 1 hour. Turn off oven and leave cheesecake inside for 1 hour more. (Do not open oven door.) Let cheesecake cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap, and chill 3 to 24 hours. Top cheesecake with whipped cream and chocolate shavings if desired.

Dottie’s notes: I’ll use half as much butter in crust next time. I’ll also use half-n-half instead of heavy cream. I slightly beat all 3 eggs into the measuring cup that was already used and then added to batter in 3 turns. The batter is thicker than most cheesecakes but it smooths out when baking.

Brandy Snaps or baskets.

Ingredients
50g butter, chopped
1/3 cup (70g) brown sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) golden syrup
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup (160ml) thickened cream
2 teaspoons brandy
1 tablespoon icing sugar mixture


Method


Step 1
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a tray with baking paper. Combine the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Set pan aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Step 2
Add the flour and ginger to the mixture and stir to combine. Drop four teaspoonfuls of mixture on to the tray, spaced well apart. Bake for 5 minutes or until they are bubbling and have spread to 10cm in diameter.

Step 3
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1 minute. Working quickly, use a palette knife to lift each one and wrap around the handle of a wooden spoon. Leave to set for 1 minute, gently slip off spoon and transfer to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining mixture.

Step 4
Use an electric mixer to whisk the cream, brandy and icing sugar in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Spoon cream into a piping bag fitted with a fluted nozzle. Pipe the cream among each brandy snap. Serve immediately.

To make Brandy baskets. Place 1 tablespoon of mixture an trays. Shape over a class or similar container. Fill with mascarpone (or thick cream) and berry fruit

Some - Most? - cooks know the difference but for those who don't....

What's the difference between clarified butter, ghee, and brown butter? By Sam Worley

Not all butters created equal.
When you're baking, butter is perfect just how it is, whether creamed into cookies or rubbed into a perfectly flaky pie crust. But on the stove, it presents a bit more of a challenge.
Butter can't take a lot of heat in a skillet, so when you, say, make pancakes, it can become smoky and acrid.
The problem is the proteins. Butter is made up of three main components: fat, water, and milk solids, which is where the proteins are found. When butter melts, the water evaporates, and the solids, having nowhere else to go, break down and burn. They don't make up a huge proportion of the butter—less than 5 percent, whereas about 80 percent of butter is fat—but they can still ruin a dish if not properly handled.
Humans, being resourceful, have innovated our way out of this problem with clarified butter and ghee. Certain locales prefer one over the other, but both are more or less pure fat, like any other cooking oil. And both allow butter to be used for higher-heat cooking, where it can impart a rich flavor rather than a burned one—say, in this roasted turkey or in this yellow dal.

Ghee is a type clarified butter that originated in ancient India and is commonly used in South Asian cuisines today. (iStock)
So what's the difference between the two? And how are they related to brown butter? Let us clarify that for you!

Clarified butter
Butter is an emulsion of fat and water, but one that you're trying to break when you clarify it—you're trying to remove everything that's not fat. Take a bunch of butter and melt it in a saucepan over a low flame for a little while. It'll foam, which means the water is evaporating. You'll see it separate into yellow fat—that's the good stuff—and white milk solids: that's the stuff you're trying to get rid of. Here recipes often call for the solids to be skimmed off the top, and the clarified butter to be poured into another container, leaving any stragglers behind at the bottom of the pan; you can also strain it through cheesecloth.
The product that results will keep much longer than butter, and it'll have a broader range of uses in the kitchen. Cook stuff in it! Sear chicken! Sautée vegetables! Treat clarified butter like you would another cooking oil—this one just happens, blessedly, to taste like butter.
Ghee
Ghee, a popular fat in Indian and South Asian cooking, is clarified butter taken a step further: rather than stop cooking when the milk solids separate, for ghee you want to keep going until the solids brown and fall to the bottom of the pan. Then strain the mixture.
It'll have all the cooking benefits of clarified butter—with the addition of a nutty, toasted flavor. You can buy ghee, just as you can buy clarified butter, but if you've got some butter on hand and about ten minutes of free time, there's really no

Ghee, a popular fat in Indian and South Asian cooking, is clarified butter taken a step further: rather than stop cooking when the milk solids separate, for ghee you want to keep going until the solids brown and fall to the bottom of the pan. Then strain the mixture.
It'll have all the cooking benefits of clarified butter—with the addition of a nutty, toasted flavor. You can buy ghee, just as you can buy clarified butter, but if you've got some butter on hand and about ten minutes of free time, there's really no need to.
Brown butter
The indelicate sibling of ghee, brown butter (buerre noisette, in the French) is simply butter that's been heated until the milk solids have turned browned and nutty-tasting—no clarification, no straining, no nothin'. So unlike the above fats, brown butter is only suitable as a cooking medium if it's used in a gentle saute (say, with these sweet potato gnocchi) or if it's not on the stove for too long, as in these quick-seared scallops.
Mostly, brown butter is a flavoring agent; it is the perfect complement to a crab roll, and a smart dressing for vegetables. You can also stick brown butter in the fridge and, when it's firm again, use it as you would regular butter in any baking project, where it provides an unparalleled flavor. A batch of blondies is practically naked without it.

Turnip Puff

This recipe is from one of the Best of Bridge cookbooks. In Canada, we usually use rutabaga instead of turnip.

6 cups of turnip(rutabaga) cubed
2 Tbsps. butter
2 eggs, beaten
3 Tbsps. flour
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
2 Tbsps. melted butter

Cook turnip until tender. Drain well & mash. Add butter and eggs. (This much can be prepared the day ahead.)
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, pepper & nutmeg. Stir into turnip mixture and place in a buttered casserole dish. Combine bread crumbs & melted butter. Sprinkle on top. Bake at 375for 25 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Serves 6.
( I find it serves more than 6 if you have other vegs. being served.

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Big Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
By Nikki Wynn

Ingredients
•2 sticks of softened unsalted butter (AKA 1 cup, 16 tablespoons, 8oz, 226g)
•1 cup brown sugar
•1 cup granulated sugar
•2 eggs
•1 ½ cups flour
•½ teaspoon table salt
•½ teaspoon baking powder
•¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
•3 cups rolled oats
•2 cups chocolate chips (semi sweet or 60% works best)
•Optional, 1 cup of walnuts or pecans (I like them toasted)

Directions
•In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add sugars and vanilla and beat until fluffy, then add in the eggs.
•In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder together. Slowly incorporate the dry mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. Once incorporated, stir in the oats, chocolate chips and nuts.
This recipe yields at least 15 big cookies and now that you are ready to bake, you have two options.
1.Bake only the cookies you plan on eating today and freeze the rest for cookies many days to come.
2.Roll the dough into two inch balls and bake them all now.
My suggestion…These cookies are best served fresh and warm (like most cookies). I prefer to bake one cookie for us now and roll the rest it into a log. I wrap it in parchment paper, seal it in a heavy duty zipper bag and freeze it. Then, when I’m ready to indulge, I simply slice off 1 inch thick pieces and bake. This way we have fresh cookies every time and we’re not tempted to eat them all in one sitting (yes, it is possible and if you are like me, its best not to give yourself the opportunity).
Bake for approximately 15 minutes at 350 degrees. You want the bottoms and just the edges to be golden. The rest of the cookie should be lighter in color. If you over bake them, they won’t have the same moist, chewy consistency. Every oven and climate is different so your baking time may vary from mine.

Peach Pie

preheat oven to 450, oven rack in lower third of oven, sheet of aluminum foil on bottom of oven
to catch any spills, which there won't be because you have made a hole and slits!, but in case...

two-crust pie crust for 8- or 9- inch pie plate, your choice of homemade, Betty Crocker, pre-made
make and prepare crust before cutting peaches to reduce liquid coming out of peaches

one pound of peaches, ripened - about 6 good size peaches, more if smaller

in a small bowl, combine:
1/2 cup white or brown sugar or a combination
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons corn starch and/or flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, or more
1/4 teaspoon ginger, or more
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, or more
or use 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix

Set some water to boil in wide pot or deep pan, so water is 2-3 inches deep.
Rinse the peaches and remove the stems, then place three at a time into the
boiling water for maybe half a minute. Roll them around to get boiling water
all over the peaches. The skins will then slip off easily as you start to cut.
Cut peaches into 8 pieces (each half into quarters). Place cut peaches into
a large bowl. When all are cut, add sugar/starch/spice mixture and mix well.

Place peaches neatly and tightly around and around in the bottom crust. If a lot
of liquid is left in the bowl, stir in some flour and pour that goop into the
pie. Dot with a bit of butter (or not, it will be fine).

Cut a hole in the middle of the top crust and make slashes from near the center
to near the edge around and around the crust, then place on top of the peaches.
Crimp the bottom and top crusts tightly together. Slightly moisten the top crust
(with a wet hand, not lots of water) and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sugar.

Put aluminum foil or a pie crust shield on the edge of the pie.

Place in the hot oven for 10 minutes. After the ten-minutes, reduce heat to 350
Bake for 45 minutes or until crust is fully baked. Remove foil or edge shield for
the last few minutes (or don't-it will be fine).

Peach pie with correction in quantity of peaches!

Peach Pie

preheat oven to 450, oven rack in lower third of oven, sheet of aluminum foil on bottom of oven
to catch any spills, which there won't be because you have made a hole and slits!, but in case...

two-crust pie crust for 8- or 9- inch pie plate, your choice of homemade, Betty Crocker, pre-made
make and prepare crust before cutting peaches to reduce liquid coming out of peaches

three pounds of peaches, ripened - about 6 good size peaches, more if smaller

in a small bowl, combine:
1/2 cup white or brown sugar or a combination
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons corn starch and/or flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, or more
1/4 teaspoon ginger, or more
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, or more
or use 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix

Set some water to boil in wide pot or deep pan, so water is 2-3 inches deep.
Rinse the peaches and remove the stems, then place three at a time into the
boiling water for maybe half a minute. Roll them around to get boiling water
all over the peaches. The skins will then slip off easily as you start to cut.
Cut peaches into 8 pieces (each half into quarters). Place cut peaches into
a large bowl. When all are cut, add sugar/starch/spice mixture and mix well.

Place peaches neatly and tightly around and around in the bottom crust. If a lot
of liquid is left in the bowl, stir in some flour and pour that goop into the
pie. Dot with a bit of butter (or not, it will be fine).

Cut a hole in the middle of the top crust and make slashes from near the center
to near the edge around and around the crust, then place on top of the peaches.
Crimp the bottom and top crusts tightly together. Slightly moisten the top crust
(with a wet hand, not lots of water) and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sugar.

Put aluminum foil or a pie crust shield on the edge of the pie.

Place in the hot oven for 10 minutes. After the ten-minutes, reduce heat to 350
Bake for 45 minutes or until crust is fully baked. Remove foil or edge shield for
the last few minutes (or don't-it will be fine).