Spanish Rice #1

Preheat oven to 300 F

Bring to a boil on stove or in microwave

• 2 cups chicken broth (you can use vegetable broth or even water)

Leave it to stay hot. 

In another oven proof pot or Dutch oven with a lid add:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped

Sauté about 5 min until nicely wilted then stir in

• 1 cup long grained rice

Stir over medium heat until the rice turns translucent and begins to brown. 

Remove from the heat and add seasonings

• Black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt if your broth isn’t already salty

Carefully pour in all the broth. Cover and bake at 300 F for 20 minutes in the oven. The rice should be tender and the liquid absorbed. If not, we need 5 more minutes. 

Remove from oven and leave covered for 5 more minutes while preparing the vegetables. 

Prepare the vegetables:

• 1 bell pepper, deveined and seeded (or substitute a poblano or two fresh green chiles), chopped
• 1 small onion chopped
• 4-6 canned tomatoes (fish them carefully out of the can). 

Sauté in a skillet in 

• 2 Tbsp olive oil

until wilted but still a little crispness remains at the center. The tomatoes should fall apart. 

Pour the vegetables over the rice in the pot together with

• large pinch of Mexican oregano flakes
• (Optional) 1/2 cup of the tomato juice from the canned tomatoes for a more tomatoey flavor. 

Simmer over low heat 5-10 minutes to let the rice soak up the flavors. 

Serve with garnish of 

• chopped cilantro. 

Inspired by Huntley Dent’s “The Feast of Santa Fe” recipe. 

Beef Shanks with Carrots and Potatoes (Instant Pot)

This is one of the first things I cooked in my new Instant Pot using pressure cooker mode.

In an iron skillet or cookie sheet

• 1.5 to 2 lbs beef shank
• 1 tbsp marjoram
• Salt 
• pepper

Put under broiler to brown. 

In instant pot sauté 

• 1 Tbsp butter or olive oil
• small onion or medium shallot
• 2 cloves garlic

Add 

• 1/4 cup red wine
• 2 cups water
• 2 tsp beef base
• Browned beef shanks
• Any drippings from broiling
• Another tsp marjoram

Pressure cook 35 min and let it release naturally for 10 min. Remove meat. 

Add

• 2 potatoes cut into 8 pieces each
• 2 carrots cut into similarly sized pieces 
• 1 onion cut in half
• Pepper

Pressure cook for 3 minutes and let release naturally for 10 min. 

Remove all but the juices. Add

• 1 Tbsp corn starch stirred into some water (to thicken)

Instant pot sautés until it boils

Serve

Tomato Basil Soup

Creamy Tomato Soup

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/creamy-tomato-soup/amp

This recipe can easily be doubled to feed a larger group—and makes for great leftovers. For a lighter soup, omit the cream; or for a little decadence, add more cream or swirl in a little crème fraîche.

Alison Roman & Christina Holmes

October 01, 2012

Adapted by Lee 2 mar 2020

Total time: 90 min

Ingredients

• ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp each thyme, rosemary, and white pepper
• Pinch crushed red pepper
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 2 28-oz. cans whole tomatoes
• 2 cans of water
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 1/2 Tbsp chicken base
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp dried basil flakes
• 1–2 teaspoons sugar, divided
• ¼ cup (or more) heavy cream
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Melt butter in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add thyme, rosemary, white pepper, crushed red pepper, onion, and garlic. Sauté medium low until onion is completely soft and translucent, 10–12 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high; add tomato paste. Continue cooking, stirring often, until paste has begun to caramelize in spots, 5–6 minutes.

Add tomatoes with juices, chicken base, lemon zest, basil, 1 tsp sugar, wine and 2 cans of water to pot. Increase heat to high; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer until flavors meld and soup reduces to about 2 quarts (8 cups), 45–55 minutes. Remove soup from heat; let cool slightly. Use an immersion blender or working in small batches, purée soup in a blender until smooth. Or leave some chunks. Return to pot. 

DO AHEAD: Soup can be made 2 days ahead. Let cool slightly, cover, and chill. Rewarm before continuing.

Stir in ¼ cup cream. Simmer soup until flavors meld, 10–15 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and remaining 1 tsp. sugar. Add more cream, if desired.

Lemon Drop (Martini)

Best very cold. Lemony and not too sweet.

• 1 1/2 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp hot water 

Stir well

• 1 1/2 ounces vodka
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice (juice of 1/2 lemon)
• 1/2 ounce limoncello

Stir with ice. Pour in martini glass without ice. 

Garnish: lemon twist

Mini Cherry Cobbler

No. The cobbler is small, not the cherries.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. You can buy the cherry pie filling at Kroger. Perhaps other places.

Now, you need a 5x7x1 3/4 inch pyrex 3 cup dish:

• Grease the dish with butter or spray with canola oil

Pour the cherries in the dish. Rearrange to get it level:

• 2 - 9 oz jars of cherry pie filling as shown above

Mix as a topping using the following ingredients in a round-bottomed bowl. Mash it with a fork:

• 2 tablespoons room-temperature butter
• 3 Tbsp dark brown sugar (packed)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Do not melt the butter. You will end up with a somewhat grainy mixture but try to avoid large chunks of butter.

Spread the topping evenly over the topping in the dish.

Put it in the center of a completely preheated 350 degree F oven. I used a cookie sheet on the bottom rack so any overflow doesn't get on the oven.

Cook for 22 minutes or until you can see the topping is crispy and the filling begins to bubble up around the edges. (I have a convection oven and your time may vary. I doubt by much.)

Remove from oven and let cool on a metal rack. Probably about 15 minutes will leave it hot enough to melt vanilla ice cream but cool enough to avoid burning your mouth.

Or, you can let it cool completely and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for a while. If frozen, let it sit out and thaw. Warm with a few minutes in a 300 degree F oven (or, a microwave, which is a poor substitute, but leaves it edible)

Peach Cobbler

Peach cobbler is one of my favorite things.

When I recently starting talking to people about cobbler, I found a funny thing. There seem to be three schools of thought about what makes a good cobbler. 

Some friends from the mid-west described cobbler as a dish full of fruit with a sweet "gravy" and a topping of flour, brown sugar and butter covering the top with tasty crumbs.

A friend from Texas described his cobbler as a little pie crust on the very bottom, fruit and "gravy" in the middle and a lattice of pie crust on top.

Now I'm the only one calling it gravy, that sweet, fruity, thickened sauce surrounding the fruit in the cobbler. But in my family, a cobbler consists of a well mixed assortment of fruit with gravy and a cake-like crust irregularly scattered through the dish.

(I'm not going to mention the Internet recipe I got that consists of fruit and gravy in a dish with biscuits arranged on top.)

This recipe is what my Grandma used to make. It's the third type. And this recipe is really, really good with peaches though you can substitute berries or cherries or apples as long as you substitute the right spices and alcohol.

Batter for the Crust

Make the batter ahead of time. It has to rise. I mix it up in a large pitcher or 4 Qt measuring cup. Set it out on the counter for 3-4 hours until it doubles in volume. Stir it up and it will get smaller. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight. (Now, this isn't rocket science. Option 1: Mix it up and put it directly in the refrigerator overnight. Option 2: Let it rise once. Stir it up and let it double a 2nd time before you use it.

Stir together these dry ingredients.

• 1 1/2  cups flour (any kind except self-rising)
• 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 pkg yeast (about 1 Tbsp) - use more if you are in a hurry
• 1/3 c powdered milk (note that you can leave this off if you substitute half of the water with milk)

Add the liquid ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c warm water
• 2 Tbsp salad oil (canola or any similar liquid oil like corn oil, peanut oil, olive oil, though each may add a bit of different taste)
• 1 egg beaten

Mix together by hand. I stir it up with a wooden spoon. No need to get all the lumps out. In fact, its better not to. The crust will be somewhat lighter if you stir less.

Prepare the Peaches

This takes ...

• 8 cups = 8 15 oz cans of peaches in heavy syrup = a single 1 gallon can.

Follow these steps to get the peaches ready. Note that you can just drain and use them, but its not as tasty. The purpose here is to concentrate that wonderful peachy flavor and remove some of the internal water.

1. Drain the peaches. Get rid of as much liquid as you can.
2. Spread the peaches on a large cookie sheet.
3. Sprinkle a couple of Tbsp of granulated sugar evenly over the peaches.
4. Set the oven on broil with the rack just a couple of inches below the heat.
5. Broil the peaches for 8-10 minutes until the corner start to brown and crisp up.
6. Remove the peaches from the cookie sheet and let them sit in a colander to drain for 4-5 minutes.

1) Drain the peaches

3) Corners start to Brown

2) Cookie Sheet goes under the Broiler

4) Drain One More Time

Keep them safe for a while until we are ready to put them in with the "gravy"

Prepare the Gravy

Ok. Its that sweet sauce the the peaches swim in in the deep cobbler dish. Can we call it gravy?

It just needs Nutmeg, now

In a saucepan, add the following:

• 1 cup peach puree ( you can buy this or just use an additional 15 oz can and run it through a blender)
• 1/2 cup white wine (Any is ok. Pinot Grigio has a nice fruity flavor.)
• 2 oz (4 Tbsp) lemon juice
• 2 apples - peeled, cored and grated (I use Honey Crisp apples. Any pie apple will work. These are the ones with deeper flavor and less juice.)
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1/8 tsp (just a pinch) of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (about 1/2 of a single nutmeg nut fresh grated is nice)

Simmer until thickened and reduced by one-half. Do not let the bottom burn. This means you must watch the heat and keep stirring. 

Now add:

• the peaches prepared above (8 cups)
• 1 1/2 cup sugar

Add the Bourbon

Peach Flavoring

Stir until warm throughout. Then add:

• 1 oz bourbon (I use Jim Beam)
• 15 ml peach flavoring

Stir this up and remove from heat. We will use it when assembling.

Assemble the Cobbler and Cook It

In a bowl mix the following for the final crust mixture. Note that we do this at the last minute because mixing this stuff together will kill off the yeast and stop the growth of that yeasty flavor.

• 2 cups batter as prepared ahead
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 oz bourbon or peach flavor moonshine (peach branch or schnapps would work too)

Stir together. Think about the consistency. It should be the consistency of pancake batter.

Now you need:

• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

First, melt butter in the Dish

Add Peaches a Spoon at a Time

Follow these steps:

1. Put the butter in a 10x13 inch deep dish Pyrex glass casserole dish
2. Set the oven to 350 degrees F
3. Put the pan in the oven and let the butter melt
4. Remove the pan from the oven. (Warning: it is hot)
5. Pour the corrected batter mix over the melted butter to a depth of 1/2 inch (1 cm). Discard any extra. (You can change the ratio of batter to peaches to suit your tastes. I find that a deep disk pan with 1 cm of batter and mostly filled with peaches works for me.)
6. Stir batter and butter all together
7. Using a large spoon, spoon the peach and gravy mixture into the pan. Drop the spoonfuls evenly around the surface of the pan. DO NOT STIR. This will mix properly while cooking.
8. I like the cinnamon sticks to be visible at the top so people don't accidentally bite into a massive hidden block of cinnamon taste.
9. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar mixture (1 part ground cinnamon, 3 parts granulated sugar)
10. Put it back in the oven and cook for 22-28 minutes. It's done when the batter has browned up to where you can call it crust and you can insert a toothpick into the crust and it comes out clean.
11. Remove from oven
12. Let it cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes.
13. Sprinkle a little more sugar over the top. 



Ready to cook. Don't Stir It.

14. You can brulee it with a torch for that extra caramel-ly crunch.

Eat

Serve with ice cream or even a couple of spoonfuls of heavy cream.

Cooking Sauce for BBQ

Use this to slather chicken or pork particularly before cooking. Let set for an hour to best absorb the flavors into the meat. The low sugar content makes it harder to burn, but not impossible.

Note that this is not the type of BBQ sauce that is used after cooking. It needs to cook on the meat to taste good. You can put some of that kind of BBQ Sauce on when you serve it.

Combine in the blender and liquefy the following until no chunks remain. Set aside to use soon:

• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup bourbon (I use Jim Beam)
• 8 shots of espresso OR 10 grams of finely ground coffee
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 4 large cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 6 oz (by weight) tamarind paste (seedless)
• 4-8 raw habanero peppers with seeds and stems removed

Grind the following spices to a fine powder:

• 2 Tbsp whole black pepper
• 2 Tbsp whole white pepper
• 2 tsp whole cumin

Heat this oil a 4 qt saucepan (or larger):

• 3 Tbsp coconut oil (we'll use more of the coconut oil below) (or use Olive oil)

When hot add these and cook about 90 seconds until it smells wonderful and the tomato changes color:

• 3 Tbsp of tomato paste (taken from the cans used below)
• 1 Tbsp anchovie paste

Add the pepper and cumin that we ground to powder above.
Stir to intensify the flavors (30 seconds)

Add these to the saucepan:

• 1 cup red wine (or water)
• The contents of the blender prepared above

Bring to a simmer and then add

• The rest of 2 - 12 oz cans of tomato paste
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (added to that above) (or Olive oil)
• 3 Tbsp powdered yellow mustard
• 3 Tbsp Worcestershire powder
• 2 Tbsp Hickory Smoke powder
• 2 tsp salt

Stir and simmer for 20 min. Thin as needed with:

• 2-3 cups water

Remove and seal in jars. Keep refrigerated until used. Will keep longer than you think.