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Every once in a while, one comes across a variation to a classic recipe or style. This one I was dubious of. Who wants to tamper with a classic Eggs Benedict? It took me about a week to build up the courage to do so and I was pleasantly surprised. This really isn’t bad. A change.
Using a basic and classic Hollandaise Sauce (https://www.rockinrs.com/CIA-Basic-Hollandaise.pdf ) some lightly toasted Jewish Rye or Marbled Rye can be used also, some ham – I used a thin sliced Black Forest Ham – poached eggs and asparagus with diced caramelized spring onions and their greens (put uncooked diced green onion and greens on the Hollandaise, which I forgot to do, so I put them with the asparagus).
Just a note on making a Hollandaise Sauce – Use fresh eggs, the fresher the better from your local farmer – and I used large or jumbos, which ever is available. But most important is to keep the temperature in your double boiler to 130 degrees F or lower!!! The sauce is likely to break making scrambled eggs if you don’t watch the temperature.
Have a good time with this if you make it. You can vary your Eggs Benedict anyway you want.
Over the past several weeks, we have made some really good meals. Potato Latkes for one (https://www.rockinrs.com/CS-Latkes.pdf), Hopping John, aka Hoppin’ John, (http://www.rockinrs.com/CS-Hopping-John.pdf) and an East Coast style Crab Dip (http://www.rockinrs.com/Marges-Crab-Dip.pdf). Potato latkes are a traditional Chanukah dish,Hoppin’ John is a traditional southern, New Year’s Day meal with ham hocks and black eyed peas (cow peas) and a superb East coast style crab dip. I do hope you enjoy these.
From Chabad.com we learn that,
“Latke (pronounced LOT-keh, LOT-kah or LOT-kee) is Yiddish for “pancake.” On Chanukah, it is traditional to serve latkes (most often potato)fried in oil to celebrate the Chanukah miracle, which involved the oil of the Templemenorah lasting for eight days instead of just one. Those of the Jewish faith, eat foods that reflect the significance of a holiday—such as matzah on Passover and apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah and Chanukah is no exception. For at least the last thousand years, Jews have traditionally eaten oily foods on Chanukah.” In other words, it’s tradition.
Hoppin’ John, on the other hand, is a traditional southern United States dish that is usually eaten on New Year’s Day to bring good luck. The recipe, although not totally like this one, dates back to the early 1800s and is made with ham, or ham hocks, black eyed peas (cow peas), rice, bacon and collard greens, or if you want spinach or rainbow chard. The first written recipe appeared in “the Carolina Housewife” in 1847. It was written by Charlestonian Sarah Rutledge.
This third dish is actually an appetizer. We originally had it at the home of my brother and his wife. I love it! Full of blue crab and I have added the salad shrimp and green onion. It is probably best to make it and then refrigerate it for a while so as to let all the flavors “marry”. Chilling after making, brings out the sweetness and flavor of the blue crab. Chilling brings out the Taste of The Sea, Goût de la mer.
I hope you try some, or all, of these recipes. All are good and fun to prepare, even though the Hoppin’ John is a little involved to make, but not impossible.
First of all. I made it to 80 the first of April and I thank all who helped me make it an awesome day! Parma Ridge Bistro and Winery for a super great dinner as always and the German Chocolate Cake! And Marnie and Eric for opening their house and the Open House. Thank you one and all!
The kitchen has been slow and moderately successful. If I must throw away “leftovers” then that tells me that it was not especially liked. But that’s just my opinion. So lets start with the German Chocolate Cake and homemade Cupcakes. Thank you Stephanie and Michelle. And a very special thank you to the Love of My Life, Robin – you always make these time so special!
Special Occasion Sweets by Michelle Smith, our Granddaughter-In-law Anna Shanner’s sister.
Now for the dinners. One of the better ones was a Salmon Papillote. Eric caught the Kokanee 2 days prior ton the meal and it was delicious! Moist and succulent.
Salmon Papillote right from the oven.
Salmon Papillote plated with a Green Salad and Carrots and Broccoli cooked in the papillote
And finally, we had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs leftover from the Butter Chicken, so I made some Chicken Rice Soup and I really liked it.
Homemade Chicken Rice Soup
So there you have some of the menus we had in the past week or so. The “not so popular” ones are not included. But enjoy these. I did. There is no recipe for the papillote. From Wikipedia, “En papillote (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ papijɔt]; French for “enveloped in paper”), or al cartoccio in Italian, is a method of cooking in which the food is put into a folded pouch or parcel and then baked. This method is most often used to cook fish or vegetables, but lamb and poultry can also be cooked en papillote. It is a combination cooking method of baking and steaming.
The parcel is typically made from folded parchment paper but other material, such as a paper bag or aluminum foil, may be used. The parcel holds in moisture to steam the food. The pocket is created by overlapping circles of paper or foil and folding them tightly around the food to create a seal.
The moisture may be from the food itself or from an added moisture source, such as water, wine or stock. The choice of herbs, seasonings and spices depend on the particular e being prepared.
The parcel can be opened at the table to allow people to smell the aroma when it opens.”
Here are two dishes we made this past week. Both are delicious and fairly easy to do, especially the salmon. Take a look.
The first is a baked salmon dish that does not have a specific recipe. This time we used a local Golden Plum Jam, but normally I use a MacKays Orange Marmalade. Just make sure the salmon is dry before you spread the jam, or marmalade, on the fish. Lightly salt and pepper the fish before adding the jam and then bake for about 7 minutes in a 375 degree F oven. Enjoy.
Golden Plum Jam or Orange Marmalade Coated Salmon served on a bed of Steamed Red Chard and Spinach.
Next we have a delicious venison backstrap pan roast with a special Blackberry Jam Sauce. A mixture of reduced blackberry jam, made from fresh blackberries from our daughter’s bushes last fall, and a good balsamic vinegar and apple cider. (See the recipe) OK. So your question is, “What is backstrap?”
Venison backstraps are a cut of meat that is found along the back of a deer; alongside the spine. They are often confused with a tenderloin cut of meat. While they aren’t the same as a tenderloin, they are considered one of the most tender cuts of meat of a deer. Also, known as striploin. There are 2 ways of dealing with a venison saddle, the most common is to prepare a venison backstrap or striploin. The difference between backstrap and tenderloin is, backstrap refers to a length of loin on the back of a deer, elk, moose, etc. It’s the ribeye in beef and loin in pork. Tenderloins are the two strips of very tender meat under the loin, behind the ribs.
Venison Backstrap plated with Asparagus and Mashed Garlic Potatoes
This dish would be awesome with a pork tenderloin, if you don’t have venison. Use the same recipe that is linked under the photo of the venison. If you use pork tenderloin, serve it with beets, either whole small beets or sliced, or sauteed cabbage.
Here are two meals we made. The first is probably one of the best alfredo sauces I have ever eaten. Not “gummy” with cheese, but rather clean and smooth. Shrimp went very well with the sauce. The second is an “Old Persons Meal”, of sorts. Fried chicken with garlic mashed potatoes with pan dripping gravy and garden green beans. Enjoy these.
The recipe calls for penne pasta, but we didn’t have any. So we used linguini which worked very well. The shrimp really added to the dish – you could probably use any seafood, scallops, lobster or Dungeness crab might be good, or other protein. Use your imagination.
The Alfredo was smooth and creamy and not grainy. It added to the shrimp we used and did not conflict with it. Several flavor levels came through that were delicious.
Fried Chicken
I have had problems when frying chicken, but this one seems to have over come that flaw. I added some baking powder to the flour that I used to coat the chicken and beaten egg to dredge the chicken in before the flour. We also made sure the chicken was dry before dredging. Cook slowly over medium high heat for about 5 minutes per side, taking care not to burn the chicken. Start cooking skin side down. We always use thighs, or second joints if you are on the East coast, bone-in and skin on.
The gravy was made from the pan drippings to which we added some flour and some wine. Made sure that was all mixed then added some half and half and completely combined to make the smooth gravy. It was delicious.
So there are two more meals from this past week. Next thing I am trying is Coq au Vin, Rooster in Wine. Probably not as good as Julia Child would do, but good nonetheless. Stay tuned and Good Eating!
Sorry for the long delay in getting articles or recipes posted. It’s been a crappy Fall, but things are returning to normal now. I will create this post, as I have done in the past with all posts, with a good description of the dish and a link to the recipe that we have created. Most of the recipes, however, are original only to the point that we have altered the original recipe to fit our needs. Most of the recipes presented here and on this blog, have a note attached to them “Source: adapted from (some other recipe)“. At least then, you know where you can find the original recipe. Please, as in the past, feel free to use and try any recipe presented and let us know how it came out and if you liked it or not.
Let’s start with a great soup. Did you ever see the movie Tortilla Soup? Well here is the recipe for that soup, Tortilla Soup http://www.rockinrs.com/Tortilla-Soup.pdf. I’m sorry I don’t have a photo of it. This is fun to make – you can make it as spicy as you want – and great eating. We love it!
And to start the main course off, how about Roasted Prime Rib of Beef? Really easy to do, but be sure you follow the cooking directions exactly. Recipe – http://www.rockinrs.com/CS-Prime-Rib.pdf. This recipe calls for an herb butter and we used our Herb de Provence, http://www.rockinrs.com/CS-Herbs.pdf. Use it liberally and mix well with room temperature butter. I even went so far as to, after adding the herb butter and salt, to dry brine this in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Came out great!
And here is a great leftover prime rib dish, Leftover Prime Rib Beef Stroganoff. (recipe – http://www.rockinrs.com/Leftover-Beef-Stroganoff.pdf) The original recipe called for Baby Portabella mushrooms, but we had some dried Morel mushrooms collected this past Fall and I reconstituted them in a little vodka and used some of the liquid in the sauce.
Leftover Prime Rib Stroganoff
Total time to make this dish is about 20 minutes, not counting preparing the egg noodles or rice. If you would prefer not to use noodles, you can always use rice. If you use rice, I would probably use Basmati or Jasmin. Either way, we loved this and will make it again. Delicious flavors and easy to do. I even had someone tell me they have made a similar stroganoff with leftover meat loaf.
For the last of the prime rib, you can also make a delicious and scrumptious Prime Rib Soup. This is almost a one pot meal. Hearty with the barley in it. Great on a cold winter day. Just takes some time to make, about 3 hours and 15 minutes. But well worth it. Great herb combination in it. Here is the recipe – http://www.rockinrs.com/Prime-Rib-Soup.pdf
Prime Rib Soup
It takes a little time, but well worth it. The barley is really a great addition. That pretty much uses up the prime rib leftovers. But, there are 3 different meals from this cut of beef.
This is a big, hearty meal that will satisfy most big appetites. The speck gives a wonderful flavor the the spaetzle a great texture. We used a store bought spaetzle because I don’t have a spaetzle maker. We bought the spaetzle and the speck from a German shop here in Boise.
A great shortbread treat full of toasted pecan bits, almond extract and a little rum, that is not in the recipe. I don’t usually do this, but our neighbor has a cookie business and they are good. Her business name isCrumb by devlyn and can be reached at (910) 405-4718 or emailed at crumbbydevlyncookies@gmail.com (No. I made the shortbread cookies!)
Enjoy these dishes. They are all good and worth a try. gutes Essen in German or biadh math is Gaelic. That covers my heritage.
We recently made/created a version of the classic Beef Stroganoff as pictured above. (The recipe can be found here – http://www.rockinrs.com/CS-Stroganoff.pdf). The original recipe did not call for vodka. But this is a Russian dish, so vodka is a must. We did not, however, use the traditional potato based vodka, but rather a corn based. An entirely different flavor level and profile. Seems to me to be more inline with White Lightning. The button mushrooms cut into about 1/4″ slices. Also, we added some chopped fresh rosemary, which was awesome.But look at the recipe and see what you think. We are always open to suggestions.
And then one morning, Robin asked for an Avocado and Tomato Omelet. Never thought of this combination, but it was really good. No, did not cook the avocado or the tomato, Serve with a good fresh fruit mix. In this case, blueberries and cantaloupe. CROW bread toasted from Acme Bakeshop in Boise. Great combination.
I have been asked how do I make Blueberry Bacon Waffles and the answer is rather straight forward. For the bacon I use Falls Brand Thick Sliced and for the waffles I use Krusteaz but with a twist. I add 1 egg and I use 1/2 cup whole milk and 1/2 cup water in the batter. This is not really necessary but I think it makes the waffles better. Light and delicious. Here is how it is done. Enjoy!
Cut 1 strip if bacon per waffle into quarters.
Fry the bacon on the waffle iron to your doneness level.
While the bacon is cooking, place the egg and jam – it can be any and I use either Huckleberry or Blueberry for these waffles.
Add the flour, milk and water to the egg/blueberry mixture and mix well, but don’t over mix. There can be some lumps.
Pour the batter over the bacon in the waffle iron. Add blueberries, close the lid and cook.
Serve with blueberries on the waffle, syrup and basted eggs. A hearty breakfast.
This week in mid February, 2019, was dedicated to the one I love. (There ought to be a song written to that phrase!) A week in the kitchen. Planning. Finding. Testing and tasting. Preparing. Serving. It was an exciting week and very fulfilling. I know she liked the meals – they are all gone! That’s always a good sign. Here are some of the dishes we had. And to answer the question – someone did ask – yes I did make all of this. There are recipe links where available. Enjoy! (Left-Click any of these photos to see them enlarged.)
Eggs Benedict are always liked. Especially on a Sunday morning.
Crab Louie salad is awesome.
Or maybe a Crab Omelet one weekday morning.
Scallop and Watercress Salad makes a great dinner.
The absolute best meal, and the one that took the most time, patience and tasting, was this one. The sides that Robin wanted are checked in red. The salad and the entree are fixed.
Valentines Day Dinner Menu
We had a 2014 Indian Creek Winery (ID) Chardonnay with this dinner
Caprese Salad
Stuffed Lobster with Crab
Brussels Sprouts in Balsamic Reduction
Parsley Potatoes
Two sauces were made for the entree – Lemon Butter Sauce for the lobster, and Brandy Mayonnaise Sauce for the crab.
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
Peanut Butter Cookies
After all of these delicious seafood meals and all, we had to make something, well ………. more subtle. Like some Robin’s Vegetable Soup. But this is not your standard peas, corn, tomato, etc soup. Try some leek, celery, turmeric, etc soup. It is delicious!!
Robin’s Vegetable Soup
So there it is – Our Valentines Day (Week) in the kitchen. Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the kitchen! Cheers and enjoy the recipes.
Since Boise State was playing the University of Connecticut, (BSU 62, UConn 7) we thought it would be fitting to have a shell-fish boil. Just did not have any sea water to boil the packs in nor any sea weed. Nonetheless, it was good. No! It was fantastic!
Per package, we used 1 lobster tail, 9 clams, 6 mussels, 1/2 ear corn and 8 small potatoes that we left whole. That was plenty per person. Wrapped the articles in cheese cloth, tied it into a package and placed it in sea salted boiling water for 20 minutes. Made some brown butter for dipping and some good wine and had a feast. Here are some photos. Left Click them to see enlarged. Enjoy!
Making the cheese cloth packages.
After cooking and plated.
Earlier this week, we had an awesome Scallops and Peas with Garlic Pasta. Here it is. Easy to do – Sear the sea scallops (the large ones), 4 per person, in butter with a little minced garlic. In the meantime, make about 1/4 pound angel hair pasta until adente. Add frozen peas and cook until peas are soft, if using frozen ones. Add to the seared scallops and mix well. Plate and top with chopped Italian parsley. Eat slowly and enjoy!
Scallops and Peas with Garlic Pasta
And then tonight, we had an awesome Baked Salmon with Green Beans, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Israeli Melon. Simply delicious and quick and simple.
Baked Salmon with Green Beans, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Israeli Melon
Over the past several weeks, we have made some really good meals. Potato Latkes for one (
Boise Foodie Guild 