Sunday, March 26, 2006

Viola Rieke’s PfannKuchen

Makes 6 pancakes:


6 Eggs

60g flour (about 6 Tbs)

pinch of salt

375 ml milk (about 1.5 cups)

If you start with the flour and just a little milk, it's easier to avoid flour clumps. At the end, the batter is really liquidy. Pour in a heated pan with some oil or nonstick (just before pouring each pancake, wisk the batter again because the flour sinks to the bottom). The pancakes are quite large (I use a ~10-11 inch pan) and relatively thin. When all liquid is stiff, flip the pancake.

And for real German pancakes, you have to flip them in the air with your pan. I loved that, when my mom or grandma were doing that, especially when it didn't work :-) I think you dogs will love it too.

Lemon – Ginger Pound Cake

For cake
3 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For glaze
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Make cake: Preheat oven to 325°F. Generously butter pan, then flour it, knocking out excess. Chill 10 minutes.

Finely grind together fresh ginger and 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor (mixture will be wet).

Whisk together flour, baking powder, ground ginger, and salt.

Stir together milk and vanilla in a small bowl.

Beat together butter, remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, and zest in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Alternately add flour and milk mixtures to butter and eggs in 4 batches, beginning with flour and mixing at low speed until each batch is just incorporated. Mix in ginger sugar until just combined, then lemon juice.

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, and bake in middle of oven until golden brown on top and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes (about 1 hour for loaf pan). Carefully loosen edges with a knife and immediately invert cake onto a rack to cool completely.

Make glaze: Gradually add confectioners sugar to 1 tablespoon lemon juice, whisking until smooth and adding more juice, 1 drop at a time, if glaze is too thick. Drizzle decoratively over top of cake.

* I Double this recipe and it fits nicely into a standard bundt pan.


Makes 6 servings.
Gourmet
April 2001

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Risotto

1 tbsp

1 tbsp

½ small white or yellow onion

2 cloves of crushed garlic

1 cup Arborio rice

3 cups chicken broth

½ cup dry white wine

various favorings


In a large sauce pan cook onion in the butter and oil until the onions are soft. Add garlic, cook for 30 seconds or until garlic is fragrant, don’t let it burn. Add the rice and coat with butter and oil. Begin adding the chicken broth ½ a cup at a time. Stir constantly until the rice has soaked up the broth. The broth has been soaked up once there can be a path made through the rice and no liquid fills in the space. Continue with this until all the broth is gone. The rice should be soft and fully soft. Do not use too much liquid the rice will stop absorbing once it is fully cooked. Use the wine as the last liquid installment. The rice should cook thoroughly within 30 minutes.


Turn off heat and stir in cheese, seafood, sausage, vegetables, mushrooms, squid ink, or whatever turns you on. These ingredients should be cooked beforehand.


Andrea

2005

Roasted Veggies

Assorted veggies

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

5-6 grinds of the peppermill

½ tbsp thyme


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and cut vegetables into bite sized pieces. Place veggies on a baking sheet in a single layer, use just enough olive oil to coat the vegetables, but not enough that there will be a pool of it on the sheet. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the oiled vegetables and toss. Sprinkle thyme over the vegetables. Roast in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the vegetables have softened but not gotten soggy.


I use bell peppers (red), asparagus, onions, garlic, shallots, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, and fennel. Anything that roasts quickly would work. Potatoes would not.

Polenta

1 cup polenta

4 cups of liquid (water, chicken broth, or veggie broth)

1 tbsp butter

salt to taste


Bring liquid to a boil (I use a mixture of chicken broth and water, whatever I have on hand). Add the polenta and bring back up to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes stirring frequently. Add the butter once the polenta is creamy and thick.


* Optional*

Add cheese, whatever you have on hand, I used ¼ cup of parmesan and ¼ cup of mozzarella. This recipe makes quite a bit of polenta, about 4 cups.


Polenta Package

2006

Turkey Chili

1 lb ground turkey, can be breast or thighs

1 package of hot taco seasoning

2 15 oz cans dark red kidney beans

2 15 oz cans black beans

2 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes

4 cups water

1 small can of green chiles

1 lb of noodles

Brown meat in a large stock pot until there is no pink left. Drain the meat if needed and add the packet of taco seasoning. Stir in the can of green chiles, the tomatoes, and all beans. Add Noodles and water to cover, cook until noodles are soft, making sure you keep adding water. This should resemble a soupy, camping type chili. Works well in a Dutch Oven.

Anne and Ross

Camping 2005