Cilantro savvy in Arizona

I made three key observations on my recent trip to Arizona. First, all the people who told me the dry heat in Arizona wouldn’t be so bad were wrong. 110 degrees is hot. It doesn’t matter if it’s dry, wet or slightly moist. Second, the beauty of the Grand Canyon was everything I imagined it would be. Third, Arizona residents seem to share my affinity for cilantro, and that’s a good thing.

At practically every meal, cilantro made an appearance. I was in the state for a Jostens yearbook workshop, and many of our meals were presented as part of the program. Sunday night we had a banquet which consisted of the usual salad, chicken, potatoes and steamed vegetables and dessert. However, the salad had a great Arizona twist. It was a Southwest salad, complete with cilantro-chipotle ranch dressing.

For one of our lunches, we had burgers, chicken, hot dogs and a variety of salads. The best of these salads was the corn-hominy salad with cilantro vinaigrette. As soon as I tried it, I knew I would have to try to make it once I returned home. I even made a note on my phone so it wouldn’t get lost in all of the other important information that was being crammed in my head during the workshop.

I think I got pretty close to duplicating the recipe. Even my husband who doesn’t really like hominy seemed to like it. Now my next projects are duplicating the corn chowder with cilantro and the yummy cilantro-laden guacamole that I enjoyed during the workshop.

1 can of white hominy, drained

1 can of whole kernel corn, drained

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1/4 c. diced red onion

1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

2 T. lime juice

1/4 c. white wine vinegar

1 tsp. honey

1/2 c. olive oil

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

Combine hominy, corn, jalapeno and onion in a bowl. Combine remaining ingredients and whisk together until well mixed. Pour over hominy mixture and stir. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

A passion for pickles

My refrigerator is packed with quarts of delicious dill pickles, and I made every damn one of them. Just don’t ask me why. It’s one of those obsession things, and I have to remind myself, “It could be worse. It could be taxidermy.”

I don’t know what prompted my quest for pickle perfection, but it began in early June and intensified with the rising summer temperatures. It started out innocently enough. I stopped at a new produce market outside of Jonesboro and noticed they had pickling cucumbers, three for a dollar. I bought 12 and went home with no real plan as to what to do with them.

Even though I love to cook, I’ve never made pickles. My mama used to make pickles in the summer in my grandmother’s butter churn. It was a long process that sometimes produced pickles that were either tart and crisp and delicious or were mushy or sour or tasted like kerosene.

I remember one batch in particular that my sister and I referred to as her “killer salt pickles.”

I wanted to make pickles that were easy to prepare and tasted great. My quest for a recipe began.

I remembered seeing Adam Richman sing the praises of half sour pickles on the New York episode of Man vs. Food, so I thought I’d research the process involved in making them. I found out that half sours are cucumbers that are just barely pickled and still retain the distinct taste of a cucumber. I selected a recipe from one of the many I found online, and I made my first batch of half sour pickles. Then came the hard part.

After waiting for two days, it was time to taste the bright green spears that had been hanging around on my kitchen countertop. I opened the jar and tasted what I just knew was going to be a great homemade pickle.

I was wrong.

What I tasted wasn’t a pickle so much as a mushy, cinnamon infused cucumber. I couldn’t even finish it. My husband tried one and agreed. They were disgusting.

Now that I knew that half sours weren’t our thing and that the premixed pickling spices had way too much cinnamon, but I wasn’t about to admit defeat. I researched again and found a recipe for a copycat of Claussen dills. This recipe seemed easy and foolproof. I was back in the pickle business. Only one problem. Now I couldn’t find any pickling cucumbers.

The ones at the produce market were shriveled like prunes, and Wal Mart was out of them. I started scouring roadside produce stands, but my efforts were fruitless. I even resorted to begging for cucumbers on Facebook. I was one step away from standing on Main Street under the stop light with a “Will work for pickling cucumbers” sign dangling from my neck.

The ASU Farmers’ Market solved my pickle problem, and I was able to get plenty of cukes to try out my new recipe. The first batch was good, but they were still kind of mushy. After the discovery of Ball’s Pickle Crisp Granules, I made a new batch, thanks to a generous donation of pickles from a family member. I hoped they would be clones of those wonderful Claussen pickles that stay refrigerated by the lunchmeat at Kroger. I had to wait three days to find out if I had reached my goal.

Alone in the kitchen one morning, I opened a jar. If they sucked, I didn’t want anybody to witness my disappointment. The difference was obvious. I had made the perfect pickle and I couldn’t wait to tell people.

That night I posted it on Facebook, and I became flooded with requests for the recipe. Everybody clamored for my insights on this simple yet wonderful vinegary treat.

My biggest fan was my father-in-law. In the five years that I’ve been married to his son, the man probably has said fewer than 500 words to me. Suddenly, he’s all chummy with me because he’s apparently got a serious pickle addiction. My husband tells me that he constantly hears him sneaking to the refrigerator at work to fish his hand into the jar that I sent to work with Lanny just to have a little more space in the refrigerator. We gave him a quart of pickles for Father’s Day, and it was by far the best received gift we’ve ever given him.

So now, I’m the Pickle Princess of Northeast Arkansas. I’ve known some people who have competed for some pretty dubious titles before, so I guess this isn’t so bad.

I wish my mama had come across this recipe when I was a kid. These are much easier than the ones she used to make. I’ve made several batches now, and, so far, there’s no sign of the “killer salt pickles” that Rhonda and I still recall with a pucker and laugh.

Here is the recipe that I’ve developed from the one I originally found online. I don’t measure any of the spices, so I just estimated here. You can adapt it to your personal taste. One recipe should make around 4 quarts.

1 gallon of pickling cucumbers

1/2 c. dried minced onion

6-10 cloves of garlic, peeled

4-6 fresh dill heads or 1/2 c. dill seed

2 T. whole peppercorns

1-3 T. crushed red pepper flakes

Ball’s pickle crisp granules

6 c. water

2 c. cider vinegar

1/2 c. canning salt

Trim blossom end off cucumbers and slice lengthwise in half or quarters. Tightly pack in quart jars. Divide garlic, onion, dill, peppercorns and red pepper flakes into jars. You can add more pepper if you want spicy pickles. Add 1/4 tsp. of pickle crisp granules into each jar. Heat water, vinegar and salt until boiling and salt is dissolved. Carefully pour hot liquid over cucumbers and place lid on jars. Let sit on the counter for three days, shaking occasionally, then store in the refrigerator. 

International night – Ireland

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve updated this site, but I wanted to get caught back up with posting our international night recipes. When we started doing international night, I began with it on a Thursday night. That worked out pretty good for us until the week of Oct. 22. That Thursday night I had parent teacher conferences until 6:30 p.m., leaving no time to prepare an international meal after I got home. However, I came up with the solution to the problem by preparing Irish stew in the crock pot and serving it up to my bunch when I got home.

When I started researching Irish stew, I found that it’s one of those meals that everybody prepares to their own taste, but there are some common ingredients such as beef (or lamb), potatoes, carrots and onions. Stew is one of those great peasant meals that has become a comfort food staple for many people all over the world. I love a good stew, and the fact that Irish stew is traditionally served over another great comfort food, mashed potatoes, made it even more appealing to me.

I recipes that used just stew beef, beef mince (ground beef) and a combination of the two. I ended up going with one that had stew beef and meatballs made from ground beef. It was good, but I didn’t really get the point of going to the trouble of making meatballs, so I probably wouldn’t do that again.

A lot of recipes had Guinness beer added in, but after researching I discovered that traditionally Irish stew did not contain beer, so I left it out.

Here is the recipe for Irish stew that I used, but feel free to come up with your own version.

1 lb. beef stew meat

1 lb. ground beef

4 carrots, chopped

4 medium potatoes, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 T. dried thyme

1/2 T. dried parsley

1 bay leaf

1 qt. beef stock

3 c. water

salt and pepper to taste

mashed potatoes

Brown stew beef and form ground beef into meatballs and brown. Combine all ingredients except mashed potatoes in a crock pot and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 8 hours until vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving. Serve over mashed potatoes.

International Night – France

I’m home with a sick 12 year-old today, so I can finally take the time to post last week’s International Night fare. At the suggestion of my son, we chose French cuisine. Although there are many more elaborate and well known French dishes, I chose to prepare steak frites largely due to time constraints.

We will probably revisit the food of France on a week when I’m not working because most of the recipes I found required lots of preparation and cooking time. With only about two hours after we get home in the afternoons to prepare our dinner, I’m a bit limited as to the complexity of the dishes I can select.

Steak frites, which is essentially a steak and fries, is apparently very popular in France and Belgium. Growing up steak and fries was a weekly meal in our house, but I had no idea we were being European chic!

There were a couple of unique things about the way the French prepare their steak and fries, though. First of all, they cook the steak in a skillet instead of grilling or broiling it. I don’t remember this, but several of my friends say they recall my mom preparing steaks in a skillet when they would stay over at our house. I do this occasionally when I don’t want to heat up the oven or grill, and it’s usually pretty good.

It appears the French use a variety of sauces to serve with the steak, but the most common seems to be a red wine and shallot sauce. I couldn’t find shallots, so I just used yellow onions. The sauce was excellent, though.

The other interesting thing in the preparation was the way the fries are cooked. They make homemade fries and cook them in medium hot oil for a few minutes and then remove them to drain on paper towels. Then the oil is heated to a higher temperature, and the fries are cooked until golden brown. They were very crispy, and I guess the frying method is the reason.

There were tons of recipes online for steak frites, but I used one from Rachael Ray just because it had the easiest to find ingredients. She called for strip steaks, but I found ribeyes on sale, so I used those. Most of the other recipes I found online used ribeyes or sirloins as well. I also didn’t cut my fries as thin as the French normally do just because I was in a hurry.

3 medium russet potatoes, scrubbed and dried

1 T.  extra-virgin olive oil

4 NY strip steaks or ribeye steaks

Salt and pepper

3 T. butter, divided

1 large shallot or small yellow onion, finely chopped

2 T. all-purpose flour

1 c. dry red wine

Heat 1 1/2 to 2 inches oil in a deep frying pan over medium heat to 325 F degrees or use a deep fryer set to 325 degrees. Cut potatoes into thin slices lengthwise. Cut each slice into thin shoestring strips. Place cut potatoes on paper towels. Place two generous handfuls of potatoes at a time into hot oil, in two batches. Par cook the potatoes 2-3 minutes and transfer to a towel lined plate. Raise heat to medium high up to 375 degrees F. When oil is heated to 375, return potatoes to oil in two batches to crisp them, cooking them to a deep, golden brown color, another 2 to 3 minutes per batch. Remove potatoes from oil to clean towels to drain. Season with salt and serve.

For steaks, heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add a little oil to the pan, one turn. Season steaks with salt and pepper. Place steaks in skillet and sear 2 minutes on each side. Reduce heat to medium and cook steaks 6 minutes longer for medium rare, 8 for medium to medium well. Remove steaks to a warm plate to rest. Add 2 tablespoons butter and the shallots to the pan. Cook shallots 2 or 3 minutes, add flour to the pan and cook a minute longer. Whisk wine into pan and lift pan drippings up. Add the last tablespoon of butter and remove the pan from the heat. Spoon wine and shallot sauce over the steaks and serve with hot, shoestring potatoes.

International Night – Hungary

After a couple of less than stellar results, we were back on track with our most recent international recipes. Still examining the cuisine of European countries, I decided to go with Hungary. The most obvious choice of a Hungarian dish was, of course, goulash or gulyas, as it is known in its native land.

Growing up, I recall goulash being a popular dish, though I don’t think my mother ever prepared it. The goulash I remember from the 70’s, however, was very different from the traditional Hungarian recipes I found online. I remember a dish with ground beef in a tomato sauce with macaroni noodles being passed off as goulash, but traditional goulash is more like a beef stew.

One of the things that makes gulyas unique is the fact that it is seasoned with Hungarian sweet paprika, which is apparently quite different than the paprika we find on our grocery store shelves. If I had planned my meal better, I would have had time to order some real Hungarian paprika, but I had to settle for the standard American version. The end result was still very good, though.

We also had another Hungarian staple, langos. Langos is a deep fried potato-based flat bread that is a popular street food in Hungary. Although sometimes it is topped with a variety of items like sour cream, cheese and onions, langos is most often simply rubbed with a garlic clove and salted. The langos was a big hit as well, and the garlic and salt gave it an awesome flavor.

Here are the recipes for Hungarian gulyas and langos:

Gulyas

1 lb. lean boneless stewing beef

2 T. olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

2 tsp.Hungarian sweet paprika

dash of cayenne pepper

3 c. beef stock or broth

2 c. water

1/2 teaspoon caraway seed

salt and pepper to taste

1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

2 bell peppers, cut into chunks

2 T. flour

2 T. water

Cut beef into 1-inch cubes. Place oil in Dutch oven and add beef. Brown on all sides. Add onions and garlic to pan and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add paprika, cayenne, stock, the 2 cups water, caraway, salt and pepper. Stir well. Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low; cook, covered, 45 minutes.

Add tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and peppers. Stir well; return to boil. Cover; cook 30 minutes or until vegetables are done.

Combine flour and the 2 tablespoons water; stir to form smooth paste. Add slowly to soup, stirring well. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened.

Langos

1 pkg. dry yeast

1 1/2 c. lukewarm water

3 medium potatoes, peeled and boiled

1/2 tsp. salt

6 1/2 c. flour

kosher salt

2 to 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm water. Mash the potatoes with a ricer or fork. Add the salt. Mix the potatoes with the flour, adding the yeast mixture and enough additional water to make the dough easy to knead. Knead on a floured surface until no longer sticky. Place dough in oiled bowl, turn over so that the oiled side is up, cover it and let it rise until doubled.

Punch down and divide the dough into 10 or 12 portions. Flatten each piece out with your hands or a rolling pin. Fry the dough, a few pieces at a time, until golden brown, turning as necessary. Remove from oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and rub with a cut clove of garlic.

International Night – Greece

My son requested Greece for our featured country this week, and it proved to be a bit of a challenge to find a main dish recipe. Many Greek dishes are made with lamb, and none of us really care for lamb, so those recipes were out. I finally settled on pastitsio, a pasta and meat sauce dish that is popular in Greece, particularly around Easter.

To be honest, we didn’t really care for it, but it’s only because I insisted on preparing it the authentic Greek way, with cinnamon and nutmeg as seasoning for the tomato based meat sauce. I don’t know about most readers, but in my family cinnamon and nutmeg aren’t spices we generally use with ground beef and tomatoes.

I remember one time when I was young, my dad accidentally added cinnamon to the chicken and dressing one Thanksgiving because he thought it was sage. I never really ate chicken and dressing, so it didn’t bother me, but the rest of the family gave him a hard time about that for years. I guess he would have fit in nicely as a Greek cook!

If you are willing to try new tastes, you can prepare the pastitsio the way the Greeks do. If you’re not feeling that adventurous, feel free to omit the cinnamon and nutmeg and add the familiar spice of your choice.

The Greek salad, however, was a big hit. It was very simple to make, and I’m going to do my best to approximate the measurements for the recipe since I just threw it together based on the traditional ingredients.

Greek Salad

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 cucumbers, sliced

1/4 c. red onion, diced

1 c. kalamata olives

8 oz. feta cheese, cubed

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1/4 tsp. dried basil

2 T. olive oil

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve on a bed of lettuce, if desired.

Pastitsio

8 oz. penne or ziti pasta

3 T. melted butter

1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese

1/3 c. milk

1 egg, beaten

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 c. chopped onion

1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. pepper

4 T. butter

4 T. all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 c. milk

1 egg, beaten

1/3 c. parmesan cheese

Cook pasta; drain, and return to pan. Stir in the melted butter, 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/3 cup milk, and the egg; set aside.

In a a skillet or large saucepan, cook ground beef and onion until meat is browned and onion is soft; drain excess fat. Stir in tomato sauce, the 1 teaspoon salt,  cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper; set aside.

In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter, then mix in flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Slowly stir in the 2 cups milk, stirring well after each addition so that no lumps form. Cook and stir on medium high until cream sauce starts to thicken; stir for one minute more, then remove from heat. Beat egg in a small bowl, then pour into cream sauce, stirring briskly. Blend in the 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese.

Layer half the pasta mixture in a 11" x 7" (or 2 quart) baking dish. Spoon the meat mixture evenly on top, then the remaining pasta. Pour cream sauce over top, to cover completely. Bake, uncovered, at 350F for about 40 minutes, or until hot and lightly browned. Let stand for 10 minutes.

International Night – Spain

Continuing with our European theme, our International Night this week was centered on the rich cuisine of Spain. When I first started researching Spanish cuisine, I had fully intended to prepare paella as our main dish. Paella is one of those things that I’ve never had, but I see pictures of it in cookbooks and magazines quite often. It always looks very appealing, thanks in large part to the colorful nature of the dish.

I found some recipes for it and discovered that traditional paella usually has both mussels and clams in addition to other forms of seafood. Nobody in our house it very fond of mussels or clams, and they can’t really be purchased in our local stores. I would have had to make a trip to Jonesboro to get them from Kroger, and I decided that it just wasn’t going to happen this week. Even though I found some recipes using just shrimp and chicken, I decided when we started our International Nights that I would prepare the meals with the traditional recipe that is most often used in their respective countries. So I ditched the idea of preparing paella and looked for another typical Spanish meal.

I soon came across a recipe for fabada asturiana, and I was immediately drawn to it. The thing that most attracted me to the dish was the inclusion of chorizo in this rich soup. My family and I have grown to enjoy chorizo at the local Mexican restaurants, so I knew that any recipe featuring chorizo was bound to be good. The recipe called for dried fava beans, but those weren’t available here, so I used large lima beans instead. I also couldn’t find morcilla, a Spanish blood sausage, and there really wasn’t anything that compared to substitute for it. It was good, but, to be honest, I felt it was a little bland. I think it would have been better with a little more spice.

After hearing so much about tapas recently, I also thought briefly about making a variety of the popular Spanish bar foods to go along with our fabada. My husband went to a tapas restaurant at Indianapolis recently, and he raved about it. However, I soon realized that preparing a variety of tapas was going to be too much work for me to whip up after getting home from school, so I decided just to make one of Spain’s most popular tapas, tortilla de patatas. It is essentially a potato omelet, and it was very good and easy to prepare.

Here are the recipes for our Spanish fare:

Fabada asturiana

2 pounds dried fava beans or large lima beans

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Pinch of saffron threads (I left this out because it’s so expensive)

1 tablespoon paprika

10 cloves of garlic, minced

1 smoked ham hock

1 pound slab bacon, chopped

1 pound chorizo, sliced

1 pound morcilla (I couldn’t find this)

1 onion, chopped

Soak the beans overnight then drain and rinse. Place in a large pot, add water to cover by 2 inches, and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam, lower the heat to a simmer, and add the olive oil, saffron, paprika, garlic, ham hock, and bacon. Simmer for 1 hour, adding more water as necessary to keep the beans covered.

Add the chorizo, morcilla, and onion and simmer for another 2 hours, or until the beans are very soft; add water as necessary to keep the beans and meats covered. Remove the ham hock and pull off the meat. Tear into bite size pieces and return to the pot. Serve with crusty bread.

Tortilla de Patatas

1 cup olive oil

4 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

salt to taste

1 large onion, chopped

6 large eggs

Heat the oil in a 9-inch skillet, add potato pieces and onion. Cook slowly over medium flame, being careful not to brown potatoes. Turn occasionally until potatoes are tender and still loose.

Beat eggs in a large bowl with a fork and add desired amount of salt. Drain potatoes. Add potatoes to beaten eggs, pressing them so that eggs cover them completely. Let sit for 15 minutes. Heat 2 T. oil in a large skillet. Add potato-egg mixture, spreading quickly. Lower the heat to medium-high. Shake pan to prevent sticking. When potatoes start to brown, put a plate on top skillet and flip to cook other side, adding another T. of oil. Brown on the other side and serve.

International Night – Italy

Spaghetti, pizza, lasagna – all very familiar Italian dishes to the average American. However, for our third International Night we decided to feature a meal from Italy that isn’t commonly served outside of the country. As I do each week, I started with the Wikipedia entry on the cuisine of our chosen country. This proved a daunting task this week, as there were 19 different regional cuisines listed for Italy! This was going to be much more than pizza and spaghetti!

After reading over the different regions, I decided to feature a main dish from the Basilicata area. One of things that caught my eye was the fact that peperoncini are often used in the recipes from this area. I knew that would be a popular choice with my husband, so I quickly settled on a dish, pollo alla potentina, chicken stewed with white wine, tomatoes and peperoncini peppers. I had some fresh mozzarella cheese in the fridge, so I decided to step out of Basilicata a bit and add a caprese salad to the evening’s meal.

Here are the recipes from our Italian night:

Pollo alla potentina

1 chicken, cut into pieces

2 cans petite diced tomatoes

3 T. olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 c. dry white wine

10-15 peperocini peppers, chopped

Chopped fresh basil

Chopped fresh parsley

1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in oil for 3 minutes. Add chicken and brown. Add wine and peperocini. Reduce wine by half. Add tomato, basil, parsley and parmesan. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with pasta and garnish with additional parsley and cheese.

Caprese salad

4 medium tomatoes, sliced

1/2 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

1/4 c. chopped fresh basil

3 T. extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Alternate tomatoes and cheese on a serving plate. Sprinkle with basil and drizzle with olive oil. Add salt and pepper.

International Night – Germany

Tonight we enjoyed our second International Night with food, facts and activities from Germany. My son suggested Germany for our first week, but after doing a little research, I decided to prepare sauerbraten as our main dish. I discovered that the beef roast had to marinate for three days, so German night was pushed back.

Our German night was made even more authentic with the help of Candace, an old friend who is living in Germany with her family for a year. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I’ve been able to ask Candace for her advice on German food and culture the last couple of weeks, and she has been kind enough to take time out of her schedule to help me. I can always do research online about the food and customs of the various countries we choose, but it’s been great to actually get confirmation about things from people rather than a website. I really appreciate your help, Candace and family!

Candace suggested the potatoes and red cabbage as side dishes to my sauerbraten, and I decided to try to make spaetzle, a traditional German dumpling. I gave it my best shot, but it was kind of a miss. I’m not sure if I overcooked them or undercooked them, but they were a little too soft. We had spaetzle this summer when we ate at Epcot’s Biergarten, and it was much firmer. I threw in some pretzel nuggets since we ate pretzel bread at Biergarten as well. These were just some frozen ones I bought at Kroger, and they weren’t that great. 

Even though everything wasn’t perfect, we had plenty of good food. For our activity of the evening, we played the game Settlers of Catan, which my husband tells me is extremely popular in Germany (confirmed by Candace). Although I’m not a big board gamer, I thought it was pretty fun. Of course, my opinion of the game was greatly enhanced by the fact that I won!

Here are the recipes for sauerbraten and spaetzle as I prepared them tonight:

Spaetzle (adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pinch freshly ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

Mix together flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Beat eggs well, and add alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Press dough through a large holed sieve or metal grater. Drop a few at a time into simmering liquid. Cook 5 to 8 minutes. Drain well. Saute cooked spaetzle in butter or margarine.

Sauerbraten (Alton Brown’s recipe)

2 cups water

1 cup cider vinegar

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt, additional for seasoning meat

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 bay leaves

6 whole cloves

12 juniper berries

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 (3 1/2 to 4-pound) bottom round

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/3 cup sugar

8 dark old-fashioned gingersnaps (about 5 ounces), crushed

In a large saucepan over high heat combine the water, cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, onion, carrot, salt, pepper, bay leaves, cloves, juniper, and mustard seeds. Cover and bring this to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Pat the bottom round dry and rub with vegetable oil and salt on all sides. Heat a large saute pan over high heat; add the meat and brown on all sides, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side.

When the marinade has cooled to a point where you can stick your finger in it and not be burned, place the meat in a non-reactive vessel and pour over the marinade. Place into the refrigerator for 3 days. If the meat is not completely submerged in the liquid, turn it over once a day.

After 3 days of marinating, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Add the sugar to the meat and marinade, cover and place on the middle rack of the oven and cook until tender, approximately 4 hours.

Remove the meat from the vessel and keep warm. Strain the liquid to remove the solids. Return the liquid to the pan and place over medium-high heat. Whisk in the gingersnaps and cook until thickened, stirring occasionally. Strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve to remove any lumps. Slice the meat and serve with the sauce.

Our first “International Night” – the full English breakfast

During the lazy days of summer I come up with a lot of brilliant ideas. Most of these ideas never materialize once I get back to work in the fall, but ones involving food somehow seem to have the best chance of survival! International Night came about when I was looking at an online forum back in the early part of the summer. I’ll admit that I blatantly stole the idea from some creative poster who was planning on making a meal from a different country one night each week for her family. I thought that sounded pretty cool, so I put the concept in the back of my mind to try sometime. This week I finally started what I plan to be a family tradition with food, facts and fun stuff from merry old England!

When I asked my oldest son what he wanted to be our first country for International Night, he quickly responded with Germany. After a little online research I decided to prepare sauerbraten as the main course. However, since I only decided to do this on Tuesday of this week and all the recipes I found required three days of marinating, German night had to be postponed until next week. In an effort to find a quick substitute, I came across the full English breakfast.

I’ve eaten at some British themed restaurants, but I’ve never heard of this delicacy. I’m familiar with fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash and other well known British culinary fare, but the full English breakfast (or full Monty as some seem to call it) has eluded me all these years. If you can’t tell from the picture above, it consists of fried eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, toast and baked beans. Apparently another item often served with it is a slice of fried black pudding. I’m pretty sure you can’t find black pudding in our area, but even if it I could have found it, I doubt I would have included it because I think that would have been a little more than we could handle! We tried to remain true to the British classic, but I think they serve their fried eggs considerably softer cooked than we like ours.

To go along with our night of all things British, we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I’ve been waiting for the right time to introduce my 12 year-old son to the finer things like Monty Python, and this was the perfect opportunity. I also printed some information about British cuisine for him to read. His current career goal is to become a chef, so International Night could be more than just a tasty meal for him each week!

I plan to post each week’s International Night along with the recipes for the meal. However, this week there really isn’t a recipe. I just fried up some bacon and sausage and then fried the eggs in the same pan. I cooked the tomatoes and mushrooms in another skillet for a few minutes, toasted some bread and heated up a can of pork and beans on the stove. I was a very filling meal, even though we ate it for dinner instead of breakfast.