Cooking

Italian

An excellent Caesar salad dressing, based on the one found here: The Ultimate Caesar Salad Dressing. Rebecca changed it slightly, and it turned out wonderfully:

Caesar Salad Dressing

• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, pasteurized (bring two eggs in water that is approx. 150 degrees and keep it there for 3 – 5 minutes, until heated through. DO NOT BOIL.)
• 1 cup oil (canola or olive)
• 2 – 3 Tbsp fresh parmesan, grated
• 2 inches anchovy paste or 2 anchovy filets
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• 1 ½ Tbsp water
• 1 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 large clove garlic, coarsely chopped
• S & P to taste

In a food processor, pulse the pasteurized eggs a few times. Pour in oil while food processor is still running. Add rest of ingredients and blend thoroughly, about 30 seconds. Thicken in fridge. Serve on torn Romaine with croutons and extra fresh Parmesan. 

Cajun

For our token Cajun recipe, we have Louisiana Jambalaya, out of our local newspaper. I consider it one of our best recipes; it is a pleasant change-up from our normal fare.

Louisiana Jambalaya

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken
• 3 or 4 smoked turkey sausages, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1/2 tsp. each salt and ground black pepper
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 cups uncooked brown rice
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 5+ cups chicken broth
• sliced green onions (1 cup if possible)
• 1 medium tomato, chopped

Boil chicken very large pot or small Dutch oven, strain broth into serving bowl, and chop chicken, removing all gristle. Return chicken to pot; add sliced sausage and salt and black pepper. Cook 2-3 minutes; remove chicken and sausage from pot and set aside.

Place chopped onions, green pepper, and celery in same pot; cook and stir over medium-high heat until crisp-tender. Add garlic; cook and stir for 30 seconds. Stir in rice, cayenne pepper, reserved broth plus water and chicken bouillon to make 5 cups broth, and reserved chicken and sausage; bring to a boil.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer 45+ minutes (up to 1 hour 20 min.) until rice is tender, adding more water if necessary. Stir in green onions and tomato. Serve immediately. Serves 8.

(Most of this was quoted from my sister's rendition of the recipe.)

Mexican

Guacamole

Mexican food is wonderful, though it does take a lot of work to put together (particularly the tamales). One thing we always have with those meals is guacamole and chips. An excellent recipe we use for guacamole is as follows:

• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 T picante sauce
• 1/2 T lime juice
• Dash of onion powder
• 5 grinds of black pepper

Slice the avocado in half, remove the pit, and scoop out the flesh. (Make sure to remove any brown parts). Mash the avocado with a fork, add the rest of the ingredients, and mix well. Stir up the guacamole and serve. Serves 2-4. We quadruple this recipe for 8 hungry mouths, and usually have some left. Use mild or medium (or even hot) picante sauce according to your taste. We, being indecisive on such matters, use half mild and half medium picante. Lemon juice may be substituted for the lime juice. The dash of onion powder might be about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon (I'm not sure). Our black pepper mill is generous, I think. Essentially, this recipe always tastes a little different due to the lack of specifics on some quantities and variations in the flavor and consistency of the avocado

A few points on avocados: they age quickly, so they must be picked out somewhat green. A ripe avocado is very dark, almost black, and somewhat soft (about like an apple you would throw away). If the avocados you get are pretty green, leave them out on a counter to ripen. If they are almost ripe and they have to wait a few days to be used, refrigerate them. The flesh should be green to light green and buttery soft. Often, there are brown parts in the avocado that should be removed for the most part, and sometimes stringy dark lines that have to be pulled out.

Stuffed Peppers

One of the few recipes I can claim as my own--though Sarah and Mom have made it a number of times since I put it together, experimenting with it as well. This recipe is based on the Mexican-style rice (called Arroz). Chicken and cheese are added, and the mixture used as filling for bell peppers. The chicken should be started about 3 hours before mealtime, the rice 2 hours, and the peppers 1 hour. After the chicken, rice, and peppers are assembled, the whole is cooked for 15 minutes.

• 1 1/2 to 2 lb. boneless skinless CHICKEN, cooked and cubed
• 6 to 8 BELL PEPPERS
• 2 1/2 cups COLBY-JACK CHEESE
• SALT
• WATER
• Arroz (Rice):
  • 3 Tbsp. OLIVE OIL
  • 1/2 lb. (≈ 1 1/2 cup) long-grain RICE
  • 1/2 medium ONION, diced
  • 5 cups CHICKEN STOCK
  • 1 tsp. PEPPER
  • 1 tsp. CUMIN
  • 8-oz can TOMATO SAUCE
  • 1 cup WATER
  • 1 tsp. SALT
  • 1/4 tsp. CAYENNE (not required, but preferred)
  • CHILI POWDER, and GARLIC optional (1/8 to 1/4 tsp for any of them)

Heat oil in skillet, add rice and cook until brown, stirring often over medium heat. Add diced onion and cook until onion is tender. Add chicken stock and stir well. Then add pepper, cumin, tomato sauce, water, salt, and cayenne (plus any other spices). Cook over medium heat, covered, for 45-50 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Rice should be tender; stir often to keep from sticking. This makes 6-8 servings of rice.

As soon as the rice is done, add the chicken and 1 1/2 cups of cheese to the skillet. Heat through.

Cut the cores out of the bell peppers, taking care to leave the sides and bottom of the pepper intact. Fill a sauce pan to water and add about a tablespoon of salt. Heat the water to a rolling boil. Place each pepper in the water for 5 minutes, making sure all sides are thoroughly boiled. (This is termed blanching).

Preheat the oven to 350°. Place the peppers in a 13x9 pan with the open side up. Spoon the rice-chicken-cheese mixture into the peppers. Put the rest of the mixture around the peppers. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of cheese over the peppers and rice. Cook for 15 minutes, broil for the last 2 minutes to slightly brown the cheese if necessary.

Makes about 6-8 servings.

Recently, we have been upping the rice quantities by about 1/3, to 2 cups of rice and about 8 cups of liquid, simply to increase the volume of food to a solid 8 servings. Sometimes we have increased the tomato sauce as well, or the onion up to 1 whole onion. We have also now switched to pressure-cooking the rice after browning it to save time; that requires the liquid volume to be cut in half (refer to your sources on pressure-cooking rice). Nowadays, I rarely just steam rice for anything--browning in oil first makes it taste so much better!

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

An easy-to-make but excellent chicken enchilada recipe. It was originally off of FoodGeeks.com but we have changed it substantially (as we normally do). This recipe is not very spicy at all, but very flavorful.

• 1 1/2 to 2 lb. boneless skinless CHICKEN
• 2/3 lb. Montery Jack CHEESE (either in strips off of a block, which is what we do, or shredded)
• About 10 fajita size TORTILLAS
• 2/3 chopped ONION (we omit)
• Additional shredded cheese for topping enchiladas (we use some shredded Mexican 4-cheese blend)
• Sauce:
  • 1/4 cup BUTTER
  • 1/4 cup FLOUR (or 1/8 cup cornstarch)
  • 2 cups CHICKEN BROTH
  • 1 can (4 oz.) diced GREEN CHILIS
  • 1 cup SOUR CREAM
  • SALT to taste

Boil the chicken and shred it; save 2 cups of the chicken broth for use in the sauce. Cook sauce in a sauce pan until smooth and creamy, stirring often: add the flour to the butter first and heat, then add the other ingredients and stir until smooth and thickened. Fill tortillas with chicken, cheese, a small amount of sauce to moisten the chicken, and (if desired) onion. Roll and place into a 9x11 pan. Pour the remaining sauce over the rolled tortillas and top with shredded cheese. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes, until the enchiladas are bubbly and the cheese on top starts to brown. Makes 4-6 servings; we triple this recipe and use for two meals.