Recipes - I am SOOOOO hungry!

[LizStreithorst]

Scallops were a favorite of mine when I lived up north. Down here they're not as good. I don't know if this is true but when I lived on the gulf coast of Alabama I was told that down here they take punches from salt water rays and call them scallops.

As far as the meat loaf I was never satisfied with the ones I made until I tried the quick cooking oatmeal. The result is a very moist loaf that holds together just right.

[LizStreithorst]

I save all my cooking for my days off. Yesterday I had snow crab legs because when Pat mentioned them she got me to salivating. I have the shells and some shrimp shells I'd tucked in the freezer boiling down with onion carrots and garlic. I'll make a Jambalaya next weekend. It's absolutely the best thing I make (although my Bavarian pot roast runs a close second). The key to the Jambalaya is homemade fish stock.

Tonight it's left over chicken fried rice. I need to goose the recipe a bit.

I have the fixins for the meatloaf. I'm using Italian sausage because I have some although I prefer using Chorizo. Perhaps I'll throw it together during the middle of the week. It doesn't take long. The Jambalaya takes a good bit of prep work. It's better to the prep in advance because once the seasonings are all mixed together and everything is chopped and diced it doesn't take a lot of work.

[discuspaul]

Liz, I'm real interested in your Bavarian Pot Roast Recipe, and your Jambalaya recipe as well, if you can find the time and you don't mind posting these recipes some time.

Moving along with seafood dishes, I really enjoy cooking up a Bouillabaisse a couple of times a year (Cioppino, to you Italians) a recipe for which I picked up in France years ago (near Marseille - my grandparents original home area), and if anyone is interested, I'll be happy to post it.

Ricardo, you got this post going and I for one certainly feel it would be worthwhile if we could continue in this vein & exchange some recipes here. If any others want to continue, I'm certainly willing to provide some recipes on any particular food/meal - that anyone would like to hear about & try out. Lamb dishes are one of my favorites if that gets any juices flowing.

And if you try doing scallops for the first time Ricardo, I'd like to hear how you & the family enjoyed them - or not.
Hope others may want to chime in.

[LizStreithorst]

Bavarian Pot Roast:

Brown a 3 lb chuck roast in 2 T oil
combine 1 1/4 c water, 3/4 c good dark beer, 8 oz tomato sauce, 1/2 chopped onion, 2 T sugar, 1 T vinegar, 2 t salt, 1 t ground cinnamon, 1/2 t ground ginger, 1 bay leaf. Pour over meat and bring to a boil
Reduce heat, cover and simmer 2 1/2 to 3 hrs until meat is tender. Remove bay leaf. thicken sauce with corn starch mixed with water if necessary

This is easy as can be and absolutely to die for. Freezes well, too.

[discuspaul]

Bavarian Pot Roast:

Brown a 3 lb chuck roast in 2 T oil
combine 1 1/4 c water, 3/4 c good dark beer, 8 oz tomato sauce, 1/2 chopped onion, 2 T sugar, 1 T vinegar, 2 t salt, 1 t ground cinnamon, 1/2 t ground ginger, 1 bay leaf. Pour over meat and bring to a boil
Reduce heat, cover and simmer 2 1/2 to 3 hrs until meat is tender. Remove bay leaf. thicken sauce with corn starch mixed with water if necessary

This is easy as can be and absolutely to die for. Freezes well, too.

That recipe sounds unbelievably delisioso, Liz - I have to do it !!!

Any Pastas for you Italian freaks ? I have A Veal Cannelloni recipe that people have said "is to die for" - a little labor intensive, but well worth it !

And how about you lovers of comfort soul food like 'Chili Dogs' , or 'Chili Burgers' - I believe I have a killer recipe for "Coney Island" chili sauce. Interested ?

[LizStreithorst]

Jambalaya:

Preheat oven to 350.
Pat dry 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs in 2 T oil and remove. Add 1 lb anadoullie sausage or other cajun sausage, 1 lg chopped onion, 2 ribs diced delery, 1/2 red and 1/2 green pepper diced, 1/2 t dry thyme, 1/4 t marjoram,1/4 t paprika, 1/2 t salt and 1/4 t cayenne. Cook till onions are tender add 1 1/2 c raw rice, one can diced tomatoes with juice, 2 c home made seafood stock and bring to a boil.
dump it into a large casserole, top with chicken, cover and bake 40 min or until rice is tender. Take out of oven and stir in 1/2 lb shrimp and 2 T chopped green onions, cover and put back in oven for 5 to 7 minutes until shrimp turns pink.

This makes enough to feed an army. I generally cut the recipe in half and still have several meals plus extra to freeze. I was surprised that it does freeze well. When I reheat it, I remove the shrimp and warm it covered over a low flame and add the shrimp back in when it's hot so as not to turn the shrimp rubbery.

There's a good bit of prep work involved but it comes together fast if you have all your spices already measured out and all the chopping and dicing done in advance.

[LizStreithorst]

I'd be very interested in the veal cannelloni recipe if I could substitute pork. Can't find veal here. I use pork tenderloin instead of veal when I make schnitzel. I love lamb but the dang stuff costs an arm and a leg in this neck of the woods so I never buy it.

[discuspaul]

Sure Liz, you can substitute pork for the veal - in fact it would probably taste better than veal !
I'll get that recipe up tomorrow sometime, after I work on trying to condense it properly, like you do yours (which are fully understandable), and get this labor intensive recipe down to something everyone can follow easily.

Btw, I'll most certainly try out the Jambalaya - we've got a great source here for super Andouille sausage which I think is 'key' in this dish.

[discuspaul]

Here's the Cannelloni recipe:

CANNELLONI

The "Queen Mother" of all pastas - Simply Delicious
!
Cannelloni Wraps - (The Pasta itself):

Most people use store-bought cannelloni 'tubes' (brands: Barilla, Primo, Kraft - whatever). Many are sold as being "Oven-Ready" - but don't be fooled - they may turn out too hard after baking. Partially pre-boil the tubes in salted boiling water for 4-5 minutes to soften them up. Remove from water and allow them to cool before filling.

Other options are to use fresh large, flat, thin sheets of Lasagna pasta, cut to the size you wish, and rolled up after filling. Similarly, one can also use wonton wrappers, rolled up after filling. (No pre-boiling needed in either case).

The Cannelloni Filling Ingredients - (Will make approx. 2 dozen or more cannellonis - freeze whatever you don't use initially. Note: A box of cannelloni tubes usually contains around 24 tubes.)

- Approx. 3/4 - 1 lb. ground veal, or beef, or pork, or any combination thereof, seasoned with S. & P., and 1/2 tspn. of ground nutmeg when cooking.
- 1 lb. carton of frozen spinach leaves, thawed, squeezed well to remove most excess water, and roughly chopped.
- 8 oz. (225 grams) carton of ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese, along with 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese (preferably Parmagiano Reggiano) .
- Approx. 1/3 cup of each of finely grated carrot, finely diced celery and finely diced onion, along with 2 finely minced garlic cloves.
- One egg, and 1/3 cup of chicken broth, or cream.
- Optional - 1/4 cup white wine.

Instructions:

In a suitably-sized stove-top saucepan, saute the seasoned ( s. & p. and nutmeg) meat in a dab of olive oil on medium heat for 5 minutes or so until cooked white, add the onions, carrot, celery, and garlic (and the white wine if using) and cook for a few more minutes until softened and mixed in well with the meat.

Allow this mixture to cool, then add the spinach, ricotta & parmesan cheeses, the egg, and the 1/3 cup of either chicken broth, or heavy cream, (as a moistening/flavoring agent), and mix all together well to produce a fairly soft filling mixture.

Fill all the cannelloni tubes with the filling mixture (rather loosely - not too heavily packed in), and place as many tubes as you wish for a meal (suggest 3 -4 tubes per person) in an ovenproof corning ware baking dish. First cover the bottom of the dish with a 1/4” layer of either milk, or cream. The dish should be just large enough to hold the number of tubes you are baking, loosely placed side by side. ( Any remaining filled tubes can be frozen in a zip lock bag for use on another occasion).

The White Sauce Topping: - Béchamel

- In a stovetop saucepan, on medium heat, place 1/4 cup of butter, melt, then add 1/4 cup of flour, whisk in well, and begin adding up to a cup or more of milk to make a very lightly thickened sauce, in which you then add 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, and 1/3 cup of other grated white cheese of your choice - (either Fontina - Provolone - Havarti, as examples) - and 1/2 tspn. nutmeg - and continue whisking on heat until the finished product is a relatively thin sauce.

You want to add sufficient milk to avoid a fairly thickened sauce so that the cannelloni, once baked, is still quite 'liquidy', and not partially dried out & curdly. This is important, as you want to ensure you have a wet, fairly runny sauce still remaining over the cannelloni tubes when done.

Allow the sauce to cool.

Pour the cooled sauce over the cannelloni tubes, and additionally drizzle 1/4 cup or so of cream (whipping cream or other) all over the top of the pasta dish. Then thinly sprinkle some more grated parmesan cheese on top.
(The sauce with the added cream, should be just enough to lightly cover the tubes.)

Bake @ 350 for approx. 30-40 minutes until bubbly & beginning to brown slightly on top. Enjoy!

Don't be intimidated by the recipe length or the seeming complexity of this dish. It's actually quite easy, and well worth every bit of time & effort that goes into it - guaranteed !

[LizStreithorst]

Thanks so much, Paul. I've added it to my arsenal. It sounds wonderful. I'm not as big a fan of Italian as most folks because I'm not fond of tomato sauce. I do adore anything made with cream, though. The recipe doesn't sound terribly time consuming to me. I could get many meals from 24 Cannelloni since it freezes well.

It honestly doesn't sound too complex or time consuming. If you want time consuming you should see the recipe a Greek guy from another fish forum gave me for Dolmas. It's worth spending me 1/2 a day in the kitchen when I get the craving for them, though. When I get the craving nothing else will do.

[discuspaul]

Glad you didn't find it too complex & lengthy, or too ingredient-filled, Liz
And since you're not a big fan of tomato sauce, this is an ideal type of yummy pasta dish to suit your tastes.
(There is a version of cannelloni that uses a tomato sauce instead of this white sauce, but to me it's not as flavorful as this one.)

And you're right it freezes real well, and the second time around all you need to do is make a fresh white sauce for the topping.

And I can assure you that if you serve this to guests, many of them will feel this dish is "to die for" - which a number of my guests have said.

[LizStreithorst]

Guests??????? The only dinner guest I have ever had is my sister-in-law who visits from Brazil every couple of years for a few days. She's family and I was scared cooking for her! I'm actually a very shy cook, and a shy hostess. The pressure of the the food not turning out good and people not having a good time is just too great for me. Heck, I didn't even cook anything other than basic stuff until I moved back to my old homestead and opened a business in a small town rather than in a college town. Suddenly there were no good restaurants so it was either figure out how to do it myself of starve, and I'd rather starve than eat crap.

I know that I call myself "Mamma Bear" and I am in lots of situations. In other things I'm a sissy girl.

[Disgirl]

I am copying some recipes here! Liz, I will be your 2nd houseguest one day. I won't be hard to please.
Barb

[discuspaul]

Well Liz, when you try the Cannelloni, and if you like it as much as I think you will, I'm quite sure you wouldn't be reluctant to sharing it with any guest you might want to have in your home.

[LizStreithorst]

If it's as good as it reads it will be on my list of go to recipes. I was planning on the Jambalaya next weekend but I've made that. It's wonderful but it is no longer a challenge. I have all week to decide but I'm leaning toward making your Cannelloni.

Barb, I'll put you up and cook for you any time. You might be frightened out here in my wilderness with the only protection being 7 worthless dogs

Anyone want a recipe for a delicious no fail Chicken Paprika that all but makes itself?