The Recipe Thread... Let's Get Cooking!

[Second Hand Pat]

Anyone do fried lobster tail. Now I do this with Florida lobster and you only have the tail. Remove the meat from the shell and cut along the natural divisions in the meat. This will yield bite size pieces of meat. Lightly flour the meat and place in a hot skillet with 1/2 inch hot oil and fry until nicely brown all the way around and it forks tender.

Serve hot with fried grouper, hush puppies and a nice salad or corn on the cob.

[strawberryblonde]

Anyone do fried lobster tail. Now I do this with Florida lobster and you only have the tail. Remove the meat from the shell and cut along the natural divisions in the meat. This will yield bite size pieces of meat. Lightly flour the meat and place in a hot skillet with 1/2 inch hot oil and fry until nicely brown all the way around and it forks tender.

Serve hot with fried grouper, hush puppies and a nice salad or corn on the cob.

I'm a sucker for seafood and especially for fried seafood! Tim waxes poetic about fried lobster, but I've never had it. We don't get a whole lot of lobster out this way, guess I'll have to plan a road trip! =)

[Teshi]

I can see it now... A recipe search bar added! I love this idea Toni.

I am so going to try both of these Pao de Queijo and Chicken wings this week!

[Trier20]

Anyone do fried lobster tail. Now I do this with Florida lobster and you only have the tail. Remove the meat from the shell and cut along the natural divisions in the meat. This will yield bite size pieces of meat. Lightly flour the meat and place in a hot skillet with 1/2 inch hot oil and fry until nicely brown all the way around and it forks tender.

Serve hot with fried grouper, hush puppies and a nice salad or corn on the cob.

Alright Pat, you are a moderator now. You can't talk dirty like that anymore.

[strawberryblonde]

Alright Pat, you are a moderator now. You can't talk dirty like that anymore.

ROFLMBO!!

[yim11]

Wow Pat that lobster dish sounds great, with lobster being so cheap right now I will try it!

Toni, if I have a decent grocery store I would love to try your recipe.

In the interest of not feeling like typing a lot right now, I can only offer a few simple appetizers. We do these for fish group meeting and it usually goes over pretty well.

Sex on a Cracker
Soften a package of cream cheese, plate and cover with candied jalapenos (equal sauce and slices), about 1/2 a small jar. Serve with Ritz crackers.

Smokies wrapped in sweet bacon

Ingredients

1 pound sliced bacon, cut into thirds
1 (14 ounce) package beef cocktail wieners
1 cup brown sugar, or to taste


Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Refrigerate the bacon until needed. It is easier to wrap the wieners with cold bacon. Put the cut slices of bacon in to a zip lock bag with the brown sugar, shake to coat, Wrap each cocktail wiener with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Place on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle extra brown sugar generously over all.
Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until the sugar is bubbly. To serve, place the wieners in a slow cooker and keep on the low setting.

[strawberryblonde]

Hey hey Jim, I'm all about keeping it easy in the kitchen and your Sex on a Cracker recipe sounds like a great variation on an appetizer that I make for my kids at Christmas. I just use jalapeno jelly, cuz I had NO idea there was such a thing as candied jalapenos. Now I hafta go see if my local grocery store carries them.

Did you ever try Jalapeno Popcorn? Heat a 1/2 inch of good oil (I like peanut cuz it doesn't smoke as easily at high temps) till it's good n hot. Then toss in a handful or two of well drained sliced jalapenos. I grab them out of the jar and toss them on paper towels to be sure they're good and dry.

Fry them till they're brown and crispy, then drain them on paper towels. Now make your popcorn and add a tbsp. of the frying oil to either the popcorn oil, or, if you're using "dry" method of popping, add it to the melted butter for the topping.

Toss the popcorn with the butter, some salt, a 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese and the fried jalapenos.

It's addictive and you won't be able to stop munching.

My personal tip for perfect popcorn - Heat the oil in a large pot. Add 4 kernels of corn and when they pop, add the rest of the popcorn (depends on the size of the pot). Immediately cover the pot and take it off the heat. Leave it off the heat for 30 seconds, then put it back on the heat and move the lid a bit so it's ajar and some of the steam can escape. I don't shake the pot around, just give it a couple of good shakes towards the end when the popping slows down.

The 30 seconds off the heat allows all the kernels to heat up evenly for better popping and the slightly off center lid allows the steam to escape so the popcorn comes out light and fluffy like good theater popcorn.

[dpete9]

I have a secret tip for chili which I haven't made in years, but i love it..... add a pinch of cocoa to the pot. It gives it a rich flavor that people can't quite figure out.. shh i never tell anyone i make it for.
I found a really great cookbook/magazine that an upscale Dutch grocery store puts out once a month. I am going to try a bunch of these Dutch cuisines and share the ones I like.. makes me want to go home and start cooking. I want those Pao de Queijo

[Second Hand Pat]

Alright Pat, you are a moderator now. You can't talk dirty like that anymore.

Brandon, wait until I tell you guys about my sweet boiled shrimp which was my grandmother's recipe and is my absolute favorite.

[Second Hand Pat]

Wow Pat that lobster dish sounds great, with lobster being so cheap right now I will try it!

It is awesome Jim. I have only done it with florida lobster...maybe fine with maine lobster too.

[DLock3d]

I'll be giving this recipe to my girlfriend. If it's anything like buena braza or fogo de chow we'll both be quite pleased.

[Trier20]

I have a secret tip for chili which I haven't made in years, but i love it..... add a pinch of cocoa to the pot. It gives it a rich flavor that people can't quite figure out.. shh i never tell anyone i make it for.
I found a really great cookbook/magazine that an upscale Dutch grocery store puts out once a month. I am going to try a bunch of these Dutch cuisines and share the ones I like.. makes me want to go home and start cooking. I want those Pao de Queijo

Yup alotnof people do this. Gives a depth of flavor slightly similar to what you would find in a mole sauce. Good stuff Maynard.

[discuspaul]

Great recipes above - thanks to all of you - they're all 'must try' !

BTW - A small addition to my thai wings recipe:

Please note that the amount of glazing sauce produced with the ingredient quantities I have listed will only be sufficient sauce to coat approx. 10 complete wings, or 20 pieces if split in two between the drumette and wing portions (a small package of wings) - good for about 4 to 6 persons as an appie only.

Double the glaze recipe, or even triple it, for a large batch of wings - and you can also increase the quantities of the bbq, hoisin, and plums sauces, as well as the apricot jam if you use it - 1 tbspn, or more, of each of these ingredients, rather than 1 tspn.
And yes, they're great grilled too, in the manner suggested earlier.

[strawberryblonde]

i sorta figured out that I needed more sauce. =)

I made up the glaze right after lunch so that it would be ready for tonight's wing extravaganza and decided to triple it. I used the only jam I have in the house... homemade cranberry that I put up last year. Gotta tell ya, it tastes awesome! I waffled about the addition of the jam but decided to try it since it's quite sour, like apricot jam and has the same consistency.

My BBQ sauce is one that my oldest son makes...he owns a BBQ catering company, so I'm really spoiled.

I'll snap a few photo's tonight before Tim tucks into the wings. I had to send him out fishing because he kept bugging me for "early dinner". LOL

[discuspaul]

Great Toni - hope you & family like it as much as I do.

Now, on to the next segment:
I'd like to provide you with 2 simple but great French recipes that go back at least 150 years, one an entree and the other a dessert.

One at a time though - the dessert first:

This is an elegant and delicious, but rich, MOCHA CHOCOLATE TORTE (flourless) - for you chocoholics out there - (to die for) !

You will need a 9" springform pan, to yield 8 to 12 servings, depending on how much 'richness' you can take at a time.

Ingredients:
- 8 oz. (225 grams) of good quality dark chocolate (Dark Swiss, Cadbury's Premium Dark, Hershey's - Lindt - whatever)
- 1/2 cup strong coffee (espresso is good)
- 8 oz. of butter (unsalted is best), cut up into small pieces
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten.
- 1/3 cup finely chopped unsalted pecans, or cashews, or walnuts - whatever nuts you like best.

First, wrap the springform pan with alum. foil around the outside bottom to prevent leakage (to avoid any messy leakage whatsoever, I also wrap the bottom plate of the pan, before insertion, with enough foil so that it clings all round & up the inside wall of the springform to fully contain all of the batter until it sets.)

Lightly grease and flour the springform pan.

Break up the chocolate into small pieces into a glass or other microwaveable bowl and add the coffee to it. Microwave for 30-40 seconds to really get the melting underway.

Stir/whisk it until fully melted, and begin adding the pieces of butter, a few chunks at a time, whisking after each batch is added, until the mixture is smooth & glossy.

Then whisk in the sugar.

Microwave the mixture a few second more, just to get it warm.
Slowly add in the beaten eggs, whisking constantly, until all is blended in.
Add the diced nuts & mix in.

Pour the finished batter into the springform pan,
and bake for 50 minutes in a 350 degree preheated oven.

Remove from the oven & cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges, and remove the sides of the pan.
Cool completely. The cake should be around 2"-2.5" high when done, and will deflate slightly while cooling.
Cut away the excess foil wrapping.

Wrap the cake very well in saran wrap and refrigerate overnite or up to 2 days.
(Note: I leave the cake on the springform bottom plate to fully retain it's shape, and cut & serve it from that.)

Before serving, unwrap it, and let the cake sit at room temp for about an hour.

The cake is great just plain, or with fresh rasberries and whipped cream, or raspberry sauce with the whipped cream, or with custard sauce.
(I prefer raspberry sauce - just use seedless raspberry jam with a little water added to thin it out. - Heat it up a bit before drizzling it over the cake.)

The cake will be good for up to a week in the fridge.
Enjoy!

The next recipe will be the entree - which I think you'll just love - traditional Parisien french main couse.