I planned to make a dijon tarragon wine sauce to go with turkey. Then I found out that I didn’t have any white wine at home so I made this slaw instead. You know I bet it will taste really great with turkey.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
1 small head cabbage – shredded very thin
2 cups corn kernels (cooked however you want)
1 red bell pepper – diced
1 celery rib – diced
1 shallot – sliced thin
1 carrot – shredded
2 teaspoons course sea salt (this goes on cabbage to melt it)
2 teaspoons sugar (this goes on cabbage to melt it)
2 Tablespoons hot sauce (tabasco or Frank’s Red Hot)
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon piment d’ espelette pepper
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 oz fresh tarragon – torn
Directions
In a large bowl add the cabbage, shallots, celery, bell pepper and carrot. Toss in the sugar and salt and mix well. Let sit on counter for an hour and drain. Add the corn and set to the side.
In a small mixing bowl add the dijon, oil, vinegar, hot sauce, celery seeds, white pepper, piment d’ espelette and honey and mix well. Toss the dressing into the large bowl with cabbage and mix well. Tear the tarragon leaves in half and mix into the slaw.
This recipe won’t come out right unless you follow the recipe. II would also not recommend this recipe to people with arthritis. It’s easy but you have to make your own ricotta cheese because you need the whey for the sauce. Also home made ricotta taste a million times better than store bought. Once you make your own and taste the difference you will never buy a tub of ricotta again. This recipe is easy but you also have to be able to hand mix the dough and be dexterous enough to use a pastry bag over boiling water. My idea of serving size most likely will differ from yours. This will make up to 8 very small servings. If you enjoy eating a big plate of pasta than it only makes three servings……see what I mean……but they are maybe the best ricotta gnocchi that you have ever had. This will come out best if you make the cheese the day before.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1/2 gallon whole milk
16 oz heavy cream (I do note some brands of heavy cream contain too many stabilizers for the cream to curd. No matter what you do these creams will not work for cheese. Stay away from anything marked manufacturing cream or cream for shelf use)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (for cheese)
2 lemons – just the fresh squeezed juice
2 1/4 cups fresh ricotta (this ricotta should be drained and very dry)
1 cup parmesan – shredded
1 egg – beaten
1 1/2 cups flour (this is always right for me but can differ slightly)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (to add to gnocchi dough)
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
few grates fresh nutmeg
Tablespoon sea salt for boiling gnocchi
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (to squirt on gnocchi for taste and also so they don’t stick)
3oz walnuts – crush
1 bunch of parsley (remove the stems because they are bitter (mine weighed .7oz)
.07 oz. celery leaves – chopped (use the same amount as parsley)
1 Meyer lemon (the juice and zest)
1 garlic clove – ground to paste or microplane
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
3 Tablespoons whey (or to desired thickness) you might want less or you might want more.
Directions
Put a medium/large pot on your stove with the milk, cream and 1/2 teaspoon of salt on medium heat. This needs to be stirred periodically. It takes a while to bring to a slow boil but once it starts it can boil over so you need to keep an eye on it. You might need to turn down the heat slightly. Once it comes to a slow boil then you SLOWLY add half the lemon juice…this will cool the cheese down and wait till you see it boiling again and then SLOWLY add the rest of the lemon juice. Slightly lower the heat and let it slowly boil for maybe 5 minutes. It should look like this.
Then you scoop out the curds with something mesh and shake out all the whey.
Put the curds in a tub…more whey(liquid) will come out of the cheese. You will have to drain several times. Save about a cup of the whey. You will use some for the Walnut Parsley Celery Leaf Pesto Sauce. The extra whey would also be good for thinning down other sauces or to add a cheesy taste to a soup.
The next day make the gnocchi dough.
In a large mixing bowl add the drained ricotta. (you should have a little over 2 cups of cheese…something like 2 1/4 cups). (If you don’t have around 2 1/4 cups of cheese some adjustments need to happen)….Add the parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt, white pepper, a few grates of nutmeg and the egg. Mix well. Now add the flour. It will seem too dry. You will get angry and think I screwed this up. But then like magic the dough turns out.
*****DO A TESTER GNOCCHI*****
Have a pot of water boiling…medium boiling. Pinch off a piece of gnocchi dough the size of a gnocchi. Once it floats let it cook about 4 minutes. Let it cool and try it out. If it is too soft you can work more flour into the dough. But just so you know a good gnocchi is suppose to be light and soft. You don’t really know until you taste one.
I don’t roll my gnocchi but you can if you want. It’s less time consuming and less mess to just squirt them out with a pastry bag.
This time I didn’t use a tip on the bag. (I usually don’t use a tip)
Then you fill it with a handful of dough.
Twist the end so the dough doesn’t spill out and push the dough.
Install a string so you can cut the gnocchi off easy…BUT BE FORKING CAFEFUL not to catch the string on fire.
I do about one bagful of gnocchi dough at a time. When I’m done I wait about 5 minutes to make sure the gnocchi are filly cooked. Then the gnocchi get lifted out with a slotted spoon. Try to drain off the water. Add the gnocchi to a container. Squirt a little olive oil on the gnocchi for added flavor and also so they don’t stick. Repeat till you are out of dough.
The rest is quick and easy!
in a container with a stick blender add the walnuts, parsley, celery leaves, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic olive oil, parmesan, white pepper and a Tablespoon of whey. Blend…till smooth. This will be thick add more whey (or olive oil if you prefer) till the pesto is the consistency that you want.
Toss with the gnocchi that you are serving now.
Serve right away!
Fresh Ricotta Gnocchi with Walnut Parsley Celery Leaf Pesto
My favorite way to cook dark chicken parts is to make an easy delicious stew or soup. The chicken is always flavorful and tender and the stew always comes out delicious. You can make this with one tray ( 4 pounds or a little more) of either chicken leg quarters or chicken thighs that have bone and skin. The skin will not come out edible but gives great flavor to the dish. You must cook till the chicken is at least 165 degrees F to be safe to eat but I prefer my dark meat chicken to be at least 180 degrees F. You cook it to what you prefer. I got 6 dinners (small bowl with 4oz chicken) out of this but your portions might differ than mine. To make this a complete dinner or meal you might want to add rice or noodles or even spiral cut zucchini.
Ingredients for around 6 smaller portions
4 lbs leg quarters or thighs with skin and bone (one tray go for biggest tray they have)
1 can (13.5 oz) light coconut milk
1 large sweet onion chopped
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 inch grated ginger
1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves (some tender stems are ok) – chopped
2 carrots – peeled – sliced
2 celery ribs – cut half long ways and sliced
13 garlic cloves – fine chopped
1 hot pepper (either dried and crumbled or fresh chopped fine)
1 Tablespoon course sea salt
1 Tablespoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F.
To a large baking dish or buffet 1/2 pan add the coconut milk, onion, bay leaves, turmeric, ginger, lime juice, cilantro, carrots, celery, fresh garlic, hot pepper and mix. On top of that add the chicken in an even layer. On top of the chicken in an even layer add the salt, granulated garlic and black pepper. Cover tightly with foil and put in pre-heated 350 degree F oven on the middle rack. This stays in the oven till the chicken is at least 165 degrees F to be safe to eat. I prefer my dark meat chicken to be cooked more than that and think it’s much better at 180 degrees F or even up to 200. Ovens do differ but in my oven this dish was perfect in 2 1/2 hours. Your timing may differ. When the dish is done I pull out the chicken and when it cools off (an hour latter) I separate the meat from the bone and skin. I chill the soup over night and scrape off the fat that rises to the top and warm up what I want the next day.
Forking East & Delicious Turmeric Ginger Chicken Soup
I was reading a review of a restaurant somewhere and the food critic was very impressed with blue cheese mashed potatoes with pickled onions from somewhere. I happen to have blue cheese and potatoes that I have to use up so I thought that is what I should make so I did. My idea of serving size might differ from yours. I think 2 pounds of potatoes is about eight servings but those are very small servings. You might figure 4-6 servings depending on how much you dish out. This recipe will also come out better if you make the pickled onions the day before because they need a day to get best.
ingredients for around 6 servings
1 large red onion – (cut in half so strings aren’t too long) – sliced very thin on mandolin.
1 cup white vinegar
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
2 springs fresh thyme
2 lbs potatoes – peeled – cut in half (6-7 average size potatoes)
1 Tablespoon salt (I love course sea salt)
1 egg – washed well (you will only be using the yolk)
3 oz unsalted butter – room temperature and optional more butter for serving
4 oz blue cheese – crumbled – room temperature and optional more for serving
2 Tablespoons celery leaves – torn or chopped for finishing
Directions
Make the pickled onions. Put the sliced onions in a tub or container and set them to the side. In a sauce pot bring to boil the vinegar, kosher salt, sugar, bay leaf, ground pepper, mustard seed and thyme. Cook until the salt and sugar is dissolved and pour over onions. Let this sit out on the counter until it’s room temperature and then refrigerate. If you have extra leftover onions you can use them on a sandwich. They should keep good in the refrigerator a few weeks.
When you are ready to make the potatoes put them in a pot with enough water to cover them well. Add the salt. You need to bring the potatoes to a medium high boil. depending on the size of the potatoes they need to cook usually 15-20 minutes. In the last 7 minutes of boiling carefully add the egg and let that cook. The egg will be medium cooked but on the soft side…if that isn’t good for you then you can cook it more. You will need to remove the egg and peel it. Save the egg white for a salad or just eat it as a snack. The yolk gets mashed into the hot drained potatoes along with the butter and blue cheese. Serve with the pickled onions and celery leaves. You can serve with extra blue cheese and melted butter if you desire.
Blue Cheese Mushed Potatoes with Pickled Onions and Celery Leaves
This recipe was inspired by a salad I ate at FnB restaurant in Scottsdale AZ. The Chef is a James Beard Award Winner so everything she makes is amazing. This salad was simple but delicious. It had very few ingredients so I figured I could do something similar at home. I pretty much made the same exact salad but I added two ingredients the original didn’t have. I added fried radish slices and fried capers for an added interest and texture. This salad is very good and it’s something you might want to try. The dressing is enough to dress four servings. I can’t give you the exact amount of radish you need because radishes differ so much in size. For two people it was about one watermelon radish, 6 regular radishes and about two dates but they were smaller servings.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
2 watermelon radishes sliced very thin on mandolin (or more depending on size) (reserve about a dozen slices for frying)
12 regular radishes sliced very thin on a mandolin (or more depending on size) (reserve about a dozen slices for frying)
2 teaspoons small capers – reserve one teaspoon for frying
4 (or more) dates pits removed sliced in thin strips
5 teaspoons pumpkin seeds
pinch urfa pepper (you can substitute another pepper like black pepper but urfa is better for this)
6 anchovies
1 Tablespoon anchovy oil
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 small lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
1 clove garlic – ground to paste or microplane
neutral oil to fry with
Directions
Get a sauce pot on medium-medium high heat with about an inch of oil in it. If you are using a thermometer you don’t need a high heat. You only need about 250 degrees F if your slices are very thin. Carefully add 1/2 of the reserved radish slices and fry them. They get done quickly and use either paper towels on a pan or a cooling rack to drain them. Then do the other reserved half. Be real careful when you do the capers. They have a lot of liquid that you need to squeeze out and they get done even faster and look like little crispy flowers. Set them on paper towels to the side when you are done.
Blend the anchovy’s, anchovy oil, olive oil, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon capers and garlic till it emulsifies and set to the side.
On your serving plate add the radish slices, dates pumpkin seeds and lightly add dressing. Top with some fried radish slices and some fried capers. Finish with a pinch of Urfa pepper.
Radish Dates Pumpkin Seeds Fried Radishes, Fried Capers and Caper Anchovy Dressing finished with Urfa pepper
I have those frozen New York Strip Steaks and find that they usually don’t come out flavorful on the grill but come out much better if I put them in the Sous Vide and then pan sear them. Sometimes I sauté peppers and onions and or mushrooms In the same pan and serve that with the steak. Lately I find that I prefer a pickled vegetable with the steak. It’s very easy to pickle vegetables. I got the perfect recipe that you came boil up a couple hours or day before a steak and just pour it over your vegetables. As soon as a few hours latter you can have delicious pickled vegetables with your steak. My picture has roasted vegetables on the left side of the plate and on the right are the pickled vegetables. I took another photo of what I pickled. Yours will look different depending on what vegetables you use. I cooked 2 steaks that are around 4 meals in my house in your house this might be only 2 servings. Your idea of servings may differ as I like smaller portions of steak. The pickled vegetables make around 8 servings but they stay good for a few weeks.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
2 N.Y. strip steaks (around 1 lb each) – trim off thick fat
fresh ground sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
neutral oil to sear steaks
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 garlic cloves chopped
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Assorted sliced vegetables like peppers and onions
You can use whatever vegetables you like.
This time I used a small red onion and half a white onion. I used 1/2 a bell pepper of yellow, orange and green. Part of a watermelon radish and leftover shaved leeks. I didn’t use a spicy pepper this time but sometimes I add a spicy pepper sliced paper thin and very thinly sliced carrots.
Directions
In a sauce pot on medium high heat add the vintagers, water, salt, sugar, garlic, pepper, coriander, bay leaf and oregano to a boil. After boiling pour over pickling vegetables and let sit out an hour on the counter to cool off some. Put in the refrigerator and can serve in about another hour but is best the next day.
When you are ready for the steaks.
Pull out the steaks one half hour before cooking to warm up slightly.
Add the water and set the Sous Vide to 130 degrees F.
Apply fresh ground sea salt and pepper generously to the steaks on both sides and vacuum seal the steaks.
The steaks go in the Sous Vide when the water is at 130 degrees F. They stay in for no more than 4 hours. Three hours is good.
Dry the steaks off as good as you can with paper towels.
Put a pan on high with a coating of oil. Sear a minute or slightly more on each side and serve.
pickled vegetablesSous Vide N.Y. Steak with roasted vegetables and pickled vegetables
I usually don’t like these steaks but when they are cooked in the Sous Vide and then seared with some pickled vegetables they are good!
I was watching Jacques Pepin on TV and he made this Red Cabbage Pistachio & Cranberry Salad with Blue Cheese. I thought that it sounds really good and he made an interesting but simple dressing for it that interested me so I wanted to try his recipe. It delicious and very balanced. I think most people would enjoy it. I didn’t have walnut oil so I didn’t add it but it still came out delicious. I guess it would be even better with walnut oil! Will add the walnut oil next time!
Ingredients for 4 servings
1 small head red cabbage – core removed, sliced thin
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 cup cranberries
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 Tablespoon walnut oil
6 Tablespoons blue cheese
3 Tablespoons chives
Directions
in a large bowl add the oils, salt and tabasco and mix well till it emulsifies. Then add the cabbage, pistachios and cranberries. Carefully add in the blue cheese and toss. Serve
Jacques Pepin’s Red Cabbage Pistachio Cranberry Salad with Blue Cheese
It’s DELICIOUS and easy to make!
A SPECIAL THANKS to Jacques Pepin for sharing this wonderful recipe!
I heard great things about the Delish Recipe for Lemony Lemon Brownies. I wanted to make them but I don’t need so much dessert in the house or eat such a big piece so I converted the recipe into bites by cutting the recipe in half and using a mini cupcake pan.. The only alternation to the recipe (besides cutting the whole recipe in half) was that I added a 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder so my bites would have a little bit of fluff to them since they are so tiny. I have to say that this really is a FORKING DELICIOUS Lemony Lemon Bites recipe. I thought 350 might be too high for the tiny bites so I reduced the oven temperature slightly to 325 F and the bites were done in ten minutes. This recipe make 10 tiny mini Lemony Lemon Bites.
Ingredients for ten (tiny) servings
1/4 cup unsalted butter – room temperature
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon – fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 Tablespoon – fresh lemon zest
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch sea salt
2 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice (tart lemon glaze)
Set oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a mini cupcake pan with non stick spray and set to the side.
In a medium bowl mix the butter with the sugar till smooth and then mix in the egg till smooth. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, flour salt and baking powder and mix till smooth. Use an extra small scooper or a teaspoon and fill mini cupcakes about three quarters full. This should make about ten mini cupcakes. These cupcakes cook up very fast. If you overtake them they could come out dry. I put mine on the middle rack of the oven. Mine were very moist and done in only ten minutes.
Make the Tart Lemon Glaze.
In a medium bowl mix together the lemon juice, remaining lemon zest and powdered sugar. You can either pour it over the cupcakes (when they are cool) or spoon the glaze over them.
Lemony Lemon Bites
A Special THANKS! to DelishRecipes.net for your amazing Lemony Lemon Brownie Recipe. It’s FORKING SCRUMPTIOUS!
I came across Burmese Samusa Soup recipe from Food & Wine Magazine by Desmond Tan. I thought the recipe sounded interesting and different. I happen to have a bunch of home made turkey stock in my freezer so I wanted to make the vegetarian soup turkey based as I felt those flavors would be great with turkey and they are! I am so tired now of Thanksgiving flavors and I want something different with my turkey. There isn’t much Burmese food to be found in Phoenix but the few plates of Burmese dishes I came across were unusually delicious so I really wanted to make this recipe. I made very few changes to the recipe besides not using vegetable broth. I used less oil and instead of adding a potato to the soup I spiral cut a potato and fried it. The original recipe is vegetarian and instead of crispy potatoes on the top they add a samosa to the top.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 teaspoon cumin seeds – toasted 30 seconds and grind
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds – toasted and grind
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3-4 dried chiles
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion chopped
12 garlic cloves – chopped
1 Tablespoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup chick pea flour
6 cups broth(I used my home made turkey stock but original recipe calls for vegetable broth)
1/2 cup tamarind water (1 heaping Tablespoon tamarind pulp 3/4 cup boiling water and strain)
1/2 cup lentils (I forgot what kind he used but I used red)
1 potato ( I spiral cut mine and fried it but you can remove skin and dice and add to soup)
2 red Thai peppers or 1/2 a jalapeño – chopped
fresh mint – for finishing
sliced cabbage – for finishing
fresh cilantro – for finishing
fresh mint- for finishing
Thai Chili – for finishing
Lime wedges – for finishing
Directions
Toast the cumin and black mustard seeds for around 30 seconds in a medium high heat sauce pot and then grind them and add them back to pan.
Add the vegetable oil, and onion and let that cook around 25 minutes stirring occasionally.
Next add chopped garlic, salt, paprika, turmeric, water, chickpea flour, broth or stock, tamarind water, lentils, potato, Thai or Jalapeño pepper, farm masala and mix well. Turn down to medium heat and let it go till lentils are cooked and potato is tender.
Serve immediately and serve with fresh mint, fresh cilantro, lime wedges, sliced cabbage and Thai Chili peppers,
Burmese Style Turkey Soup
A special THANKS to Food & Wine Magazine. and Desmond Tan for this wonderful and delicious recipe.
I had beets, red grapefruits, fresh mint and a watermelon radish in the refrigerator and that is how I came up with this recipe. It’s sort of light and tasty with textures. I think most people would like it.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1 medium/small watermelon radish – sliced very thin on a mandolin (this gets fried and is used for finishing)
neutral oil for frying
1 lb beets – peeled – roasted and cut in wedge shapes like pieces of citrus
2 cups red grapefruit supremes and the fresh squeezed juice from the flesh around the segments
1 cup radish sprouts
1/4 cup (loose) fresh mint – torn (for finishing)
1/4 cup feta cheese – crumbled (for finishing)
1/4 cup red grapefruit juice (squeezed from the flesh that was around the segments from your grapefruits (dressing)
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (dressing)
1 Tablespoon tahini (dressing)
1 1/2 teaspoons red Aleppo pepper (dressing)
1/2 teaspoon paprika (dressing)
small pinch ground allspice (dressing)
1 1/2 teaspoons date syrup (you can substitute honey or sugar) dressing
small pinch cinnamon (dressing)
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander (dressing)
I Tablespoon chopped fresh mint ( dressing)
1 garlic clove -ground to paste or microplane (dressing)
Directions
Set oven to 400 degrees F if your beets aren’t roasted yet. The peeled beets get wrapped in foil with some water and go on a tray that can catch some liquid if they leak. They need to stay in the oven till fork tender. Depending on their size and age the timing will differ. Beets usually take one hour – one and one half hours. If you have very large beets you might want to cut them in half. When the beets are cool enough to handle cut them in wedges that are similar to citrus segments and set to the side.
Get a pot on medium heat with around an inch and a half of oil. You should use a thermometer and when the oil get to 200 you can start frying if your radish are sliced paper thin. You do need a pan lined with paper towels or a cooling rack for the beets to drain on. You can fry about a third of the beets at a time. They are done with they turn into a small flower shape like in the picture. Repeat till they are done and set the fried radish to the side.
Make the dressing. The grapefruit juice, olive oil, tahini, pepper, paprika, allspice, date syrup, mint, garlic, cinnamon, coriander all get blended together. I don’t think they need anymore salt or pepper but feel free to add some if you want.
When you are ready to serve dress the bottom of your serving plate with dressing. Add the beets, grapefruit and radish sprouts. Then it gets topped with some crumbled feta cheese, torn mint and the crispy fried radish.
Red Grapefruit Beet Salad with Fried Crispy Radish Feta Radish Sprouts and Red Grapefruit Tahini Mint Dressing
