|
German, sausage, soup, supper
2.25 lbs. potatoes; peeled and diced
5 leeks; diced
3 tbsp. butter
1 large onion; coarsely chopped
1 bunch marjoram
3 cups chicken stock
1 bottle kokanee beer
12 sausages, bratwurst and chorizo; diced
10 cloves garlic
basil; to taste
This is a real ribsticker chowder/stew; the spicy taste comes from the
sausage. Fast to whip together after a long day hunting. Serve with
steaming hot sourdough bread, big slabs of butter, and frosted mugs of
ice cold beer. This is not Jenny Craig style food...
DIRECTIONS
Peel and dice potatoes to about sugarcube size. Discard the green parts
of the leeks; cut the white parts across about the same size as the
potatoes.
In a suitably sized pot combine the stock, beer, potatoes, leeks,
butter, garlic, and marjoram. Don't use that "lite" crap beer,
but you can use an extra cup of stock instead of beer if you like.
Simmer gently for about 20 minutes.
Cut the sausages into pieces about the size of the potatoes. Don't buy
greasy crap sausage in supermarkets that's mostly fat; in Cranbrook you
get fine quality sausage at Rick's Fine Meats. Weisswurst and other
types of firm sausage can be used, but this is a German style dish. Add
the sausage pieces to the pot and simmer gently for another 20 minutes.
Serve and let others salt/pepper to their own taste.
Note that times are approximate, depending on how finely you dice your
ingredients and how hot you simmer them. Cook the spuds too long and
they'll get mush, don't give them enough time and the sausage will not
have cooked long enough to impart its' flavours to the hotpot. As a rule
of thumb, I dice everything in a dish like this small enough so that two
or three pieces of what might be in the pot can end up on your spoon.
You should also use the marjoram and basil to your taste, not mine.
Remember, you can always put more in, but you can't take it out
afterwards. I have found I can add spices/herbs as close as five minutes
to the end of cooking and still get excellent results.
Yield: makes two servings
Devil Dog Ribs
barbecue, pork, spicy, supper
6 lbs. ribs
1 onion
10 cloves
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. marjoram
1 tsp. oregano
MARINADE
1 cup brown sugar
.5 cup dark navy rum
.25 cup soya sauce
.25 cup ketchup
1 tbsp. worcestershire
3 tbsp. hickory smoke barbecue sauce
.5 tsp. habanaro sauce
.5 cup cocktail sauce
1 tsp. dry mustard
4 cloves garlic
pepper
1 tsp. chili paste
1 teaspoon hot red pepper
This is one of The Girl With The Curls recipes. Les started out
with two of my rib recipes, kind of put them together because they both
looked good and she couldn't choose, and then added her own fine
touch. It's a winner... The name is in memory of our
Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Holly Dolly (Oct 1996 - May 2007).
She was a beautiful girl and a real princess, but an unrepentent sinner
when it came to food. Whenever Les made these, you couldn't drag
the devil dog (as she was called while misbehaving) out of the kitchen
with a logging chain.
DIRECTIONS
Cut spare ribs into serving pieces, trim excess fat, cover with salted
water, and add onion and herbs. Bring to a boil and cook until ribs are
tender - about 50 minutes. Drain and place in a shallow pan.
Blend remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Heat on medium heat until
well blended. Pour over meat, and let marinate for at least an hour
before barbequing. Grill on the barbeque, basting frequently, until
brown and glazed - about 40 minutes. Cook on very low heat- they can
easily turn into carbon due to the BBQ flame and all the booze and sugar
in the marinade/basting sauce. If you see flame and smoke shooting
out from the cover of your barbeque... you're probably too late.
Yield: 5 servings
Rick's
Spicy Beer Chuck & Cluck
chicken, fish/seafood, soup/stew, spicy, supper
.5 lb prawns; peeled, deveined
.5 lb chicken breast (boneless); diced
1 teaspoon basil; crushed
.5 teaspoon cumin
.5 teaspoon salt
.5 teaspoon cayenne
.5 teaspoon red pepper; crushed
.5 teaspoon thyme; crushed
.5 teaspoon oregano; crushed
.125 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
1.5 teaspoon garlic; minced
.3 cup cucumber; diced
.25 cup beer
1 cornstarch
We usually use big prawns, scallops and cucumber - but shrimp, abalone
or whatever else you can get from the chuck should be fine as well. Crab would be okay - although you'd
probably just add the cooked crab chunks with little cooking time. You
could also use this to steam mussels and clams, in which case you'd
double the rest of the ingredients to have a greater amount of liquid.
Cucumbers are good, eggplant would probably be okay as well. I think
brocolli and stuff like that wouldn't quite "go". Similarly, I
imagine wine would work well too - but I think that beer is best to go
with this. In fact, you could just use various kinds of seafood for a
seafood medley (I do that more often than not); the character of this
recipe is in the spicy sauce you end up with. Anyway, the resulting
sauce would be good with most seafood, but the following directions are
for prawns. BTW, the chicken is in this recipe simply because our
budget can't afford using nothing but the high priced seafood stuff in
the amounts we make this dish in.
DIRECTIONS
Clean and devein prawns under cold running water; set aside to drain.
Combine all dry seasonings and herbs and place in a wok over high heat
with the butter, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. When the margarine is
melted, add the prawns and chicken. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring evenly.
Add the beer and vegetable, cover, and cook for one more minute. Toward
the end of the cooking period add just enough cornstarch, arrowroot, or
whatever to thicken liquid into a light "sauce" that clings to
the seafood and chicken. Don't overdo it or the sauce will become a
heavy thick gravy that overpowers the delicate taste of the seafood. You
can also try thickening the sauce separately and allow each person to
pour as little or as much as they want over their food. Remove from heat
and serve with garlic bread or sourdough rolls. And cold beer, of
course...
Yield: 2 servings
Bentley's Hot Salsa
condiments, Mexican, sauces/dips, Tex-Mex
4 cans (10 oz) Thrifty Maid peeled and diced tomatoes
2 cans (10 oz) Rotel Original Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
(hard to find where we live in Canada)
.5 medium onion; chopped
4 jalapeno peppers
5 individual jalapeño
peppers, Clemente Jacques or La Costeña
brand; canned pickled jalapeño
peppers
4 cloves garlic (of course, you can always use more...)
1 bunch cilantro; to taste
.25 cup juice from canned jalepeños
.5 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. pepper
2 tsp. chili powder
3 tbsp. cumin
3 tbsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. cayenne
2 tsp. Lowry's seasoning salt; (optional... your call)
.5 lime; juiced
.125 cup oil
This recipe is courtesy of Georgette Bentley, a transplanted Texas gal
who moved up to Canada because her lifelong dream was to be a lumber
grader working for Tembec (just kidding Georgie). Georgette passed it on to
us as one of her sister's recipes. Aside from being a great
friend, Georgie introduced us to some wonderful Tex-Mex ingredients and
recipes that we have included in our everyday table fare. This
salsa can be thrown together in minutes and goes great with everything.
DIRECTIONS
Get a gallon jar ready...
Drain and reserve the juice from the canned diced tomatoes; put into the
jar with the Rotel tomatoes undrained. Dice the onions to the size you
like and add to the jar with the tomatoes.
Remove the stems from the fresh jalapenos, put in processor with the
canned jalapenoes, and peeled garlic cloves. Wash the cilantro and strip
away the lower heavy part of the stems. Add to the processor with the
reserved jalapeno juice and a little of the tomato juice. Process it to
the desired stage of liquification. You may find it works better to do
the cilantro separately with most of the tomato juice. Add to the jar
with the remaining tomato juice.
Add the seasonings to the jar on top of everything else and stir well.
Add the vinegar, lime juice, and vegetable oil. Stir well again.
Enjoy...
Yield: don't worry, it won't last long enough to go bad...
Ma's Shortbread
Cookies
Christmas, cookies
1 lb. butter
1 cup icing sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
.5 cup corn starch
My Mom makes the world's best shortbread cookies, hands down, no
questions asked. These do indeed melt in your mouth, and they can
quickly make you a charter member of the Men Without Waists Club if you
don't control yourself. I think the recipe originally came from my
Gramma, Dora Sparks, and she probably got it from her Scottish mom.
DIRECTIONS
Put butter and icing sugar in a bowl and beat for AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR.
Don't cheat on the time... it should be light and creamy when you're
done.
Sift the flour and corn starch together.
Add flour/corn starch; don't beat, knead until it starts to crack - it
should be slightly creamy, not lumpy.
Use a cookie press or whatever you wish to form the cookies; bake the
cookies at 350 F. for about 11 minutes. Keep an eye on them; they burn
very easily. Cookies are done when golden brown around the edges.
........
Version for folks out there
with Celiac disease who can't have flour/gluten:
Shortbread for Celiac Disease: 350 degrees - 12
minutes.
Beat 1/2 pound butter with 1/2 cup Icing Sugar till light and creamy.
Add after sifting together:
1 cup Potato starch
1 cup Sweet White Rice Flour.
Beat vigorously till creamy and put through cookie press onto ungreased
cookie sheet. Bake till edges of cookies are golden brown.
Contributor: Minnie Lowe
Yield: 1 cookie tin
Steamed Mussels In
Wine
appetizers, fish/seafood, snackies, soup/stew
2 lbs. mussels
1 cup water
1 medium onion
.25 cup butter
.25 cup white wine
6 cloves garlic
black pepper
A wonderfully messy way to eat fresh mussels (would probably work with
clams as well... never tried it).
DIRECTIONS
Scrub the 'beard' off all shells and throw out any that appear dead.
Grate the onion and garlic into mush in a wok, add the butter and gently
saute until golden but not brown. Add wine and water and bring to a
boil. Add the mussels, cover, and steam until the shells pop open.
Serve in large bowls with pepper and sourdough rolls on the side with
lots of napkins - this is a dirty business (the rolls are for mopping up the juice... the napkins are for mopping up the mess).
Yield: makes two servings
Les's Ring O' Fire
Curry
Indian, spicy, supper
1 tsp. chili pepper
1 tsp. ground tumeric
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
2 tsp. grainy mustard
2 tsp. mustard powder
2 tbsp. water
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
4 clove garlic; finely chopped
2 tbsp. fresh ginger; finely chopped
1 cans (10 oz.) Rotel Original Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
(hard to find where we live in Canada)
.5 bell red pepper
3 cup spinach; chopped
1 bag mixed seafood (about .4 Kg)
2 cup shrimp
1/2 onion; finely chopped
4 tbsp. fresh coriander/italian parsley; finely chopped
DIRECTIONS
Combine dry spices, mustard and two tablespoons water. Mix to a paste.
Heat oil and gently saute garlic, ginger and onion. When lightly
browned, add spice paste and cook for 15 seconds. Add tomatoes and red
pepper. Cook for 1 minute and add 1 cup or so of water. Simmer uncovered
for 10 minutes. Add shrimp and seafood. Stir and cook for a few minutes
until cooked. If needed separate stock from solids and reduce. Add a tablespoon or so of
cornstarch as needed. Combine again , add spinach and 1/2 of fresh
coriander/italian parsley. Add coconut milk or heavy cream, simmer for a
second and serve. Serve over brown rice and garnish with the remainder
of fresh coriander.
Yield: makes two servings
Imitation Fresgo Inn Cheesecake
cheesecake, desserts
CRUST
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
.25 cup sugar
.25 cup margarine; melted
FILLING
1 envelope gelatin; unflavoured
.25 cup cold water
.5 lb. cream cheese
.5 cup sugar
1 dash salt
.75 cup milk
.25 cup lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream; whipped
Once upon a time there was a restaurant named the Fresgo Inn on Davie
Street in Vancouver, back in the 70's and 80's when Davie Street had
every imaginable sight you could imagine once night fell. The
Fresgo Inn was noted for massive amounts of food that spilled off the
sides of plates; in particular I remember the fish and chips, the
mushroom burger, and the cheesecake. It was really a unique place:
about two in the morning, the police, hookers, and druggies declared a
truce and politely lined up together with the rest of the late night
herd to stuff their faces. We used to leave our patrol area fairly
regularly to sneak into Vancouver and eat at Fresgo's.
Fast forward to 1993, peacemaking in the former Yugoslavia.
Hunkered in the bunker one day, I wrote to Fresgo's to tell them how
much the troops from the Vancouver area missed their cheesecake.
Lo and behold, this is the recipe they sent back - not the
"real" recipe, but what they said was as close as we would be
likely to be able to reproduce over in Yugo. Pretty darned good...
DIRECTIONS
Combine crumbs, sugar, and margarine, press into bottom of a 9" springform
pan. Soften gelatin in cold water; stir over low heat until dissolved.
Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and salt, mixing at medium speed with
an electric mixer until well blended. Gradually add milk, lemon juice,
and gelatin. Chill until slightly thickened. Fold in whipped cream and
pour over crust. Chill until firm.
Contributor: The Fresgo Inn, may its' memory live forever...
Rick's Ring
Sting Fried Rice
Oriental, spicy, supper
1.5 cups rice
2 eggs
2 dozen medium size white mushrooms
2 cups diced cooked ham
1 dozen green onions
3 tbsp. canola oil
3 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. Mongolian Fire Oil (House of Tsang brand)
1 tbsp. crushed chilis
dark mushroom soy sauce
roasted sesame seeds to taste
Once the rice is cooked, this takes no time at all to
make. In fact, you better have everything ready to go when you
start cooking because you won't be able to prepare food fast enough to
keep up once started. This makes a meal in itself (which is how we
usually have it), or as a side dish to something else. These
amounts are not written in stone - I measured them out one time so I
could write out this recipe, but usually I just cook the whole mess
thrown together using the Mk I eyeball.. DIRECTIONS
If possible, cook the rice several hours ahead of time. I'm not sure
why, but it cooks better once it has been cooled in the fridge for a
while. This much rice should result in about three cups of rice
after cooking it. You don't want to cook more than this much rice at
one time unless you have a stove capable of kicking out some serious heat
- the amount of food in the pan will be more than the stove can keep hot
and the mushrooms will give up all their water and the whole mess turn to
soup. Beat the two eggs, pour into a frying pan at low
heat, and cook until just barely firm. While the egg is cooking,
chop up the mushrooms and dice the cooked ham. We use honey garlic
or Black Forest smoked hams, they all give a little different taste.
Cut up the white parts of the green onions and save the green tops for
later. Put a large, deep skillet on a burner set to high
and pour in the canola and sesame oil. You can use peanut oil
instead, but we don't as Les is allergic to peanuts. When the oil is
smoking hot, throw in the mushrooms and begin to brown them. As they
start to brown, throw in the ham and green onions as well, the crushed
chilis, a few splashes of the dark soy sauce, and the Mongolian Fire Oil
(or similar hot chili oil). If your stove isn't hot enough, this is
when the soup stage will suddenly set in. Once the skillet
is smoking hot again, throw in the cooked rice, mix the whole mess up, and
continue cooking. While this is going on, diced up the pancake of
cooked egg that you cooked to begin with, and chop up a handful of the
green onion tops. Once the everything appears cooked, throw in the
cooked egg and green onion tops and cook for another minute. Remove
from the stove and continue to stir until the pan cools enough the rice
doesn't stick to the bottom of the skillet - or transfer to a bowl and
create another dirty dish. Top with roasted sesame seeds to taste
and light soy sauce. Variations to this dish include using
seafood in addition to the ham - we use diced squid tubes. You can
also throw a few liberal splashes of rice cooking wine in at the same time
you add the ham, onions, and chilis to the mushrooms. This recipe is
pretty tame on the chilis and chili oil; feel free to increase them to
taste. Yield: makes three full servings.
Heidi's
Huckleberry Boy Bait 2 cups flour
1.5 cups sugar
.75 cup butter or margarine
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites, beaten
.75 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1.5 (or more!) cups fresh huckleberries
Our neighbor down in Montana (and all around fun person to be in the
company of) Heidi Duncan shared this recipe with us. I'll remember
this recipe because the day I got it Heidi was suffering from a little too
much fun from the night before. We had dropped by to say hi on our
evening walk and Heidi cracked a bottle (or maybe two) of wine, and we
eventually got home about ten in the evening. I was surprised the
next day that she remembered I had asked for the recipe. Obviously,
she did, and now you can enjoy this as well! It's a good one! Directions
Other kinds of berries will work as well, but nothing tastes remotely as
good as tart mountain huckleberries. Mix together the flour, sugar and butter with a pastry blender. Reserve one cup of this mixture for topping. Add the remaining ingredients in order given, adding egg whites last. Pour batter into a 9-inch square, greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 approximately 25 minutes before spreading berries over top. Bake 20 more minutes and sprinkle remaining crumb mixture over top. Continue baking 15 minutes longer, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Yield: serves 4-6
|
