17 that going Recipes

any liquid can be reduced just by heating it - but why would you want to do that, answer comes back to two of our old friends, flavor and consistency (texture)., by reducing any flavored liquid you intensify its flavor and at the same time thicken it. you can continue this process until what you have left is a syrup if it contains sugar, or a sauce if it does not., this is 1 of the most important tools in the kitchen , believe it or not, because a great sauce can rescue an indifferent meal., literally any liquid can be reduced ., a few uses, wine is frequently used in cooking , both as a marinade and as an addition to sauces for meat., there are some problems with it though, 1 of which is that you need a really good wine and quite a lot of it to produce a reasonable sauce for, say, six people., on the other hand , if you use pure grape juice and reduce it to a syrup, that syrup, added to any sauce (or gravy if you prefer) will lift it into the realms of gourmet ., more , you don tsp have to make your reduction on the night you prepare your meal. you can reduce a liter of grape juice at any time to the consistency and flavor you want; then just store it in the fridge., you can do the same thing with any fruit juice - prune is sensational - and store it until needed. just about all of them will do things for ice cream, pies or tarts that will have your guests demanding the recipe, pork with apple sauce use a carton of fresh apple juice from the supermarket and reduce it. and if you want a real sensation add in a glass of apple brandy during the reduction process., are you getting an idea of how simple this is, take any carton of fresh stock straight of the shelf and reduce it. you will transform it into something even the manufacturer won tsp recognize. but beware, you need to start out with good quality in the first place, because when you reduce a liquid you intensify all the flavors, and not just the good ones., if it s salty to start with, for example, it will be salty beyond belief by the time you ve reduced it even by half. so if you are going to use a supermarket stock, make sure it s an extremely good 1., believe me when i tell you that stock cubes should not be used for reduction sauces., thickeners, because you will be tasting as you go (won tsp you ), you may find that you get the flavor you want before the desired consistency is reached., a couple of hints right now for your sauces., sweet ones can be thickened successfully without loss of color by adding in liquid glucose early on in the reduction process. surprisingly, this will add little in the way of sweetness and produces a beautiful velvety sauce when whisked., if you get it wrong and add too much, no problem. stir in a little extra water to thin it., reduction pans, reductions need to happen rapidly in serving to preserve flavors. and the greater the surface area of the liquid the faster the water will evaporate., however you may want to whisk something into the sauce while its cooking - such as butter or olive oil for example - and for that i find a small wok is best; 1 with a handle., a wok is less likely to reduce so fast that the sauce is burnt while your back is turned. but try both methods and see which you prefer. you may even end up using something totally different., no magic to this. whatever works for you, that s what you should use, in this and everything else to do with cooking., just bear in mind that what you re after is speed and ease of use. as well as a great tasting result, of course. :>), keeping, if they should dry out , simply add a little water and heat through., sauces containing meat juices of any kind must be frozen if you re going to keep them, and should be brought to boiling point before being used again. there is no need to thaw them out to do this, in fact it s better not to. simply drop the frozen cubes into a saucepan, melt them over a gentle heat, and then bring swiftly to the boil., why do you do this to avoid food poisoning, that s why. you are making sure that any bugs introduced into the sauce during the preparation process are killed off., worry , this will not be because of anything you have done wrong (i hope!), but because bacteria are part of our everyday lives and they exist in every kitchen, however clean., in fact your food , and especially your meat, is crawling with wildlife that you will never see. don tsp worry about them. careful handling and simple precautions will ensure that these miniature monsters can never multiply enough to harm either you or your guests.

here are the basics of making an excellent cheese fondue , the proper way (or at least the lindysez way)., use good cheese , i use half emmental swiss and gruyere, grate them up and toss them with some salt and a good amount of pepper. let them sit out at room temp so they melt better . cut your bread (good french bread, but not sourdough) into bite sized pieces making sure to have crust on each piece. let those sit out for a while too so they aren tsp too soft., cheese that you use , you are going to use 1 3/4 cups of a dry white wine, such as a fume blanc, a california sauv blanc (don tsp use a new zealand 1 as most are too grassy) or a pouilly-fume. when you are ready to make the fondue, rub the pot with a clove of garlic (we like garlic, so we leave the clove in, but you don tsp need to); then place over a medium heat and add the wine. when the wine comes to a simmer, start slowly adding the cheese, sprinkling in a handful at a time, allowing each addition to melt (my dad said you always have to stir in the same direction, in a figure 8 motion, it works. if you stir in a circle you will end up with a big glop of cheese in the middle of a pot of wine, the figure 8 is key); keep adding until you have a nice thick sauce, then add a splash of kirsch and a pinch of nutmeg. put over a burner to keep it bubbling, and stir often when you dip your bread., a lb of cheese is enough for 4 people; or more if you are serving other things. and the amounts are guesstimates. i almost always grate too much cheese, so only add as much as you need to get the right consistency ; when you dip a piece of bread into the fondue, you want a nice coating of cheese and for the bread to absorb the wine. that s what it s all about, cheese, wine and bread. so use the best you can of each ingredient. and any left over cheese makes for a mighty good ham and cheese omelet.

christmas with louise, as a joke , my brother, jay, used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace before christmas. he said all he wanted was for santa to fill them., what they say about santa reviewing behavior and checking the list twice must be true because every christmas morning, although jay s kids stockings overflowed, his poor pantyhose hung sadly empty., year i decided to make his dream come true. i put on sunglasses and with a hat pulled down and went in search of an inflatable love doll. they don tsp sell those things at walmart., i had to go to an adult bookstore downtown. if you ve never been in an x-rated store, don tsp go. you ll only confuse yourself. i was there an hour saying things like, what does this do you re kidding me! who would buy that finally, i made it to the inflatable doll section. i wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also substitute as a passenger in my car so i could use the car pool lane, during rush hour. finding what i wanted was difficult. love dolls come in many different models. the top of the line , according to the side of the box, could do things i d only seen in a book on animal husbandry. i settled for lovable louise. she was at the bottom of the price scale. to call louise a doll took a huge leap of imagination., on christmas eve , with the help of an old bicycle pump, louise came to life., my sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning hours, long after santa had come and gone, i filled the dangling pantyhose with louise s pliant legs and bottom. i also ate some cookies and drank what remained of a glass of milk on a nearby tray. i went home, and giggled for a couple of hours., next morning my brother called to say that santa had been to his house and left a present that had made him very happy but had left the dog confused. she would bark, start to walk away, then come back and bark some more. we all agreed that louise should remain in her panty hose so the rest of the family could admire her when they came over for the traditional christmas dinner., my grandmother noticed louise the moment she walked in the door. what the hell is that she asked. my brother quickly explained , it s a doll. . who would play with something like that granny snapped. i had several candidates in mind, but kept my mouth shut. where are her clothes granny continued., boy , that turkey sure smells nice, gran, jay said, trying to steer her into the dining room. but granny was relentless. why doesn tsp she have any teeth again, i could have answered, but why would i it was christmas and no 1 wanted to ride in the back of the ambulance saying, hang on granny! hang on! ., my grandfather , a delightful old man with very poor eyesight, sidled up to me and said, hey, who s the naked gallon by the fireplace i told him she was jay s friend. a few minutes later i noticed grandpa by the mantel, talking to louise. not just talking, but actually flirting. it was then that we realized this might be grandpa s last christmas at home., dinner went well. we made the usual small talk about who had died , who was dying, and who should be killed, when suddenly louise made a noise that sounded a lot like my father in the bathroom in the morning. then she lurched from the panty hose, flew around the room twice, and fell in a heap in front of the sofa. the cat screamed. i passed cranberry sauce through my nose, and grandpa ran across the room, fell to his knees, and began administering mouth to mouth resuscitation. my brother fell back over his chair and wet his pants laughing and granny threw down her napkin, stomped out of the room, and sat in the car., it was indeed a christmas to treasure and remember. later in my brother s garage, we conducted a thorough examination to decide the cause of louise s collapse. we discovered that louise had suffered from a hot ember to the back of her right thigh. fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct tape , we restored her to perfect health., louise went on to star in several bachelor party movies. i think grandpa still asks about her whenever he can get out of the house

tri-color spiral pasta (bowties and pene work well too), pepperoni slices (you can also use stick and just dice it), fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed, grape tomatoes, halved, jumbo olives, halved, red onion, chopped, italian dressing (if you can find the roasted red pepper , go with that 1), parmesan cheese, to top

top round london broil beef (ours was a montana steer named clyde), cream of chicken soup, water (karen omits this for thicker gravy), beef base (karen only used 1, but also had onion soup mix, which i ommitted. maybe i over did it here.), peeled and chopped medium carrots, onion, peeled and chopped into large chunks, onion powder, fresh mushrooms (that is going to seem like a lot. you might want to tone it down if you have little ones.), apples, large chunks, lime juice, black pepper, table salt, dried ground sage, diced garlic cloves, sections

all-purpose flour, splenda sugar substitute, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, egg , plus, egg white, slightly beaten, low-fat orange yogurt (i use yogurt that is sweetened with splenda.), skim milk, vegetable oil, none such condensed mincemeat, finely crumbled, orange marmalade, melted (i use fifty50 spread.)

go to you lumber yard and buy a few 60-penny nails,(these are large nails about the size of a lead pincil and about 5 long) wash the nails., buy red skin potatoes such as the pontiac potatoes ,the red skinned potatoe is far better then the others today that is sold for baking potatoes., run the 60-penny nail through the potatoe lengthwise ,leaving the nail protruding out of each end., a patch of skin off from the side of the potatoe as big as a nickle. this patch lets off moisture from the potatoe when it first begins to bake preventing any toughness developing.after the potato bakes a short time this open patch seals over., nail causes the potatoe to bake from the inside and out,making the potatoe flaky, bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes, serve the potatoe with the nail in so as to keep the potatoe at the right temperature until opened. remove the nail ., enjoy

risotto with sausage and cranberry beans, make risotto , you absolutely must use a specific type of rice called arborio rice (carnaroli and vialone nano are also used, some say superior, but are more difficult to find). these types of rice release starch when stirred in a liquid; it is this process which makes risotto, otherwise you just have a starchy mess of mush. these types of rice are identified by their fat round grains and pearly appearance. they can be used to make other sorts of rice dishes, such as pilaf, but other types of rice cannot be used for risotto. arborio is no longer that much of a specialty product; it can be found in most large, well-stocked grocery stores in the italian section. or sometimes, misguidedly, in the asian section., okay , so now we have the rice. you will also need some good, low-salt stock or broth - it should be low-salt not for health reasons, but because a good deal of it will evaporate, leaving its salt behind, and i like to have more control over the salt in a dish. it can be homemade, but i m not going to be a snob about it because, in truth, we go through gallons of store-bought stock in this household and i don tsp see that changing anytime soon. furthermore, risotto is actually a dish which can be whipped up out of thin air when it seems as though you have nothing to eat, as long as you have butter, rice, stock, maybe a few herbs, and some leftover parmesan. i like the kind of stock purchased in tetrapak cartons, because they are resealable and can be put in the fridge and used as needed. if you really want to use homemade but you don tsp have time to make stock or don tsp like the aroma of roasting bones in your house (i don tsp blame you), you can buy really great stock at north market poultry and game - it is expensive, but can be diluted with a 2- or 3-to-1 ratio of water to stock, so it stretches. my general guideline is to plan on 1/4 cup dry rice per person, and about 4 cups of stock to 1 cup of rice. of course, this isn tsp exact and will vary depending on your elevation and the phases of the moon, but it s a good place to start. i usually just use 4 cups of stock and then dilute with water or wine (or sometimes beer, if that s all i have) if i feel i m going to run out., well, we have rice and stock covered, now we just need our setup: place the stock in a saucepan on your rear burner, bring to a simmer, and leave it there with a 6-8 oz ladle in, and place a large, wide saute pan (must be really large, plan that your rice will at least quadruple in size) or dutch oven on the burner in front. get out your favorite wooden spoon and flex your stirring arm., nice thing about using sausage is it s so full of flavor you can leave out the usual onion/garlic/shallot/celery nonsense if you re tired and don tsp feel like chopping. furthermore, sausage goes from the freezer to the pan without suffering too much. okay, let s go, risotto with sausage and cranberry beans - serves 4, links italian sausage , or 1 lb bulk (or hot, or a combination - definitely with some fennel), casings removed, cooked cranberry beans or 1 can white beans, drained, arborio rice, beef , chicken or vegetable stock, butter, freshly, finely grated parmesan cheese , plus more for garnish, an oz) flat-leaf parsley, chopped finely, lemon juice , or juice from 1/2 lemon, salt and black pepper to taste, red pepper flakes to taste, optional, good balsamic vinegar , optional

lime juice, cheap olive oil, minced fresh cilantro, ground cumin, jalapeno pepper minced very fine, salt, tabasco sauce , i use the chipolte for the smokey taste., shrimp, peeled and deveined, yellow and red pepper, cored, seeded, flour tortillas, warmed, cilantro sprigs, for garnish, tomato, seeded and diced, limes cut in wedges, sour cream to which you have added more cilantro and salt and pepper, go for taste on that, i like lots

seasonal fish and vegetables are used in tempura. the ingredients for tempura in the recipe below are only a few of the many, many common ingredients that lend themselves to this treatment. shrimp; squid; small whole fish like perch, smelt, and goby; white-fleshed saltwater fish; eggplant; green beans; onion rings; sweet potato slices; bell pepper strips; mushrooms - the list could go on for several pages. chicken, beef and pork, however, are not usually prepared as tempura because of their relatively heavier, identifiable taste. chicken and pork are deep-fried in other ways, and beef is often given a more highlighted preparation, say, in sukiyaki., http://japanesefood.about.com/od/tempura/a/cookingtempura.htm, basic steps for cooking tempura, prepare the ingredients ., make tempura batter ., heat vegetable oil in a deep pan to 340-350f degree., lightly dip ingredients in the batter and immediately fry them until crisp. it takes longer to fry vegetables than to fry seafood., drain tempura on a rack ., serve right away with tentsuyu (tempura dipping sauce) or salt. tempura is best served hot. *grated daikon radish is a common condiment., tempura batter recipe - japanese recipe, http://japanesefood.about.com/od/tempura/r/tempurabatter.htm, egg, ice water, all purpose flour, preparation, beat an egg in a bowl. add ice water in the bowl. be sure to use very cold water., add sifted flour in the bowl and mix lightly. be careful not to overmix the batter., tempura dipping sauce recipe, tempura dipping sauce is called tentsuyu in japanese. serve this sauce with tempura., dashi soup stock, mirin, soy sauce, sugar, preparation, put mirin in a pan and heat. add soy sauce and dashi soup stock in the pan. bring the sauce to a boil., tips for making crispy tempura, by setsuko yoshizuka, tip 1: ice, use ice water for the batter. this is really important to prevent the batter from absorbing too much oil., tip 2: batter (tempura batter recipe), do not make the batter ahead of time. try not to over mix the batter and not to coat ingredients with the batter too much., if you are frying both seafood and vegetables, fry vegetables first. then, fry seafood. fry vegetables at 340f degree and fry seafood at 350f degree., tip 4: oil temperature, check the temperature of frying oil , drop a little batter into the oil. if the batter comes up right away instead of sinking to the bottom of the pan, it s about 360 f degree. if the batter goes halfway to the bottom and comes up, it s about 340f degree. this is said to be the right temperature to fry tempura.

yellow squash, ears of sweet corn, onion, garlic, fresh dill, greek yogurt (note : adjust the yogurt volume based on the amount of veggies that will end up in the salad. the yogurt should lightly coat all the ingredients not drown them. the veggies will release liquid that will thin out the sauce, so restrain the urge to go heavy on the yogurt.)

a roughly 2 lb piece of beef like inside round. you want it to be fairly lean and with the grain of the meat running along the axis of the meat; you could use something like tenderloin if you want to shell out the money, but you don tsp want something thin like brisket. see note 1., salt for curing, you re looking for about a ten to 1 mix of kosher to pink * (see note 2), red pepper powder (a mix of paprika and cayenne to taste), salt, black pepper, ground, cumin, methi (fenugreek) seeds, ground, allspice, ground, garlic, crushed, note 1: this is a piece of meat that s going to hang at close to room temperature for a month, and likely won tsp be cooked, so get the good stuff. don tsp just get stuff from the supermarket, but find yourself a good butcher and get to know them so you know you re getting quality meat., note two : you ll occasionally hear stuff about how nitrites aren tsp safe (and pink salt is 6.25% sodium nitrite), but in small quantities it s just fine and occurs naturally in food we eat. more importantly, it inhibits the growth of botulism. i don tsp do any curing outside of short cures in the fridge without nitrite, and i wouldn tsp do any multi-month cures without nitrate.

grain white rice, bulgar wheat, chicken stock (if you don tsp have homemade stock i recommend tones soup base. ordinary bullion cubes don tsp have enou), onion, chopped, summer squash, shredded (go ahead and use up that big, tough 1), cumin, celery seed, garlic clove, minced, olive oil, butter, salt and pepper

prepared pizza dough, all-purpose flour , for dusting, tomato sauce, cheese grated mozzarella, chopped fresh pineapple, red bell pepper, thinly sliced, yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced, pepperoni

unsweetened chocolate, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, chocolate , semisweet, dulce de leche, marshmallow creme