Cilantro Cumin Butter Sauce

Made to accompany perogi, though you could put it on just about anything.

Ingredients

• 1.5tbsp butter
  
• 1/2tsp cumin or to taste
  
• 1 tsp dried cilantro or to taste
  
• ground black pepper to taste
  
• 1/4tsp salt
  

Just put everything in a sauce pan. Melt the butter and cook until it browns just a little. Add the perogi (or whatever) and toss to coat. Let it cook just a little longer, tossing around so nothing sticks. Ta da!

Thoughts: This was pretty much what you got for "hot sauce" if you ordered at Pel'meni (now closed) in Madison, WI. They also put sriracha and vinegar on the pelmeni. I could see doing that, but Claire wanted something less spicy but still flavorful so I whipped this up.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake with Apples

Variation with ~1.5c cherry halves

Ingredients

• Streusel
  
  
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup packed granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  
  
• Cake
  
  
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 and 3/4 cup buttermilk or plain whole yoghurt
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 7 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 apples: peeled, cored, and chopped
    

For the streusel : Mix everything together in a bowl until the mixture resembles wet sand. Set aside.

For the cake : Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, sugars, eggs, and melted butter in a separate bowl until smooth. Gently fold the wet mixture into the dry one. There will be lumps. Don't panic. And don't overmix. Fold in the chopped apples. Mix until completely incorporated. Put the batter into the dish and spread it evenly with a rubber spatula or something. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top. Bake until the streusel is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few crumbs. This will take 40-45 minutes. Take cake out of oven and cool it for 15 minutes before eating.


Thoughts: This was hella delicious. The original recipe didn't call for apples, but we put them in and I'm glad we did. I highly recommend it. Also, I accidentally put in 1 tsp salt rather than 1/4, like the original recommended, and I thought it would totally ruin the cake, but it actually made it better. So just go ahead and put in that whole tsp of salt. You won't regret it. I also recommend eating this with lemon curd. Just so long as you eat it. Whatever.


Disaster Index: 1/10

Avgolemono

aka Egg Lemon Soup.
Ingredients

• 4c chickens stock (or veg)
  
• 1/3c rice or 1c pasta
  
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
  
• ~2tbsp lemon juice
  
• 2tbsp chopped parsley (dried works)
  
• pepper, to taste
  

Cook the pasta in the chicken stock, adding extra water as it boils off. Aim to have a little less than 4c when the pasta/rice is done. Add the lemon to the egg yolks and whisk. When the pasta is done, take it off the heat. Temper the eggs by adding a ladle-full of soup stock to the eggs, whisking constantly. Then add the eggs to the soup, again whisking constantly. Stir in the parsley and pepper and serve.

Thoughts: This is a really easy soup with a lemony, creamy taste. It's really great. The tricky part is adding the egg - it's supposed to thicken the soup without cooking all the way. So don't put it back on the heat after you add the egg. We use really little pasta - orzo is probably best. Though you could make it just as well with extra long grain white rice. It occurred to me while this was boiling away that the amount of salt in the stock probably lowered the boiling point of the water, so the pasta took a long time to cook. If you're working with bullion (as we were), you might consider cooking the pasta FIRST and then adding the bullion. Next time I think we'll do it that way.

This recipe is kind of a go-to for us; I don't know why we didn't blog it before.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Xinxim

Possibly one of the strangest recipes we've done so far.
Ingredients

• 1.5lbs of chicken thighs, cut into thick pieces
  
• 3 limes, juiced
  
• ~4 cloves garlic, crushed
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  
• 1/2lb pre-cooked shrimps (if not pre-cooked, just add them a little sooner. The original recipe called for raw, but we didn't have 'em)
  
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
  
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped (why seeded? I don't know.)
  
• 1c chicken broth
  
• ~1/2c dried shrimp
  
• ~1/2c cashews
  
• ~1/2c toasted peanuts
  
• 1 lobe ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  
• 2tbsp palm oil
  
• 1 can coconut milk
  
• (optional) cilantro
  
• 2 spicy sausage links, cut thickly (chorizo would work, we just used "hot italian sausage" we found at the grocery)
  

Mix lime juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Place chicken and sausage in one bowl and shrimp in another, and put about 1/3 of this mixture over the (non-dried) shrimp and the remaining 2/3 over the chicken and sausage. Stir to coat. Let marinate for 15 minutes. In the mean time, place the dried shrimp, cashews, and peanuts in a cuisinart and crush them down to a fine meal. In a pan, heat some oil with a high smoke point (peanut oil, for example). Put the chicken and sausage in and cook until they're more or less done. Set aside (back in the bowl of marinade, possibly).
In the same pan, add the green bell pepper and the onion and sautee until soft. Then add the tomatoes, chicken & sausage (and all the marinade they were sitting in), and the chicken stock. Let simmer on low for 30 minutes. Add the nuts/shrimp meal and the ginger. Let simmer for another 5 minutes. Then add everything else, stir well, and let simmer another 5-10 minutes. Serve.

Thoughts: Really great. We could use more soup liquid - more stock. The taste really matured after refrigerating a day (leftovers were really great). Dan felt it was a little greasy - maybe less or no palm oil next time. Also, we could chop the peanuts and cashews up a LITTLE more finely than we did. This made a LOT of soup - next time we could cut the recipe in half and still have enough leftovers for a week. Finally, skip seeding the tomatoes. Just use 1 can of chopped tomatoes. This recipe was really complicated, so anything to simplify it.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Rosemary Crackers

A first attempt.

Ingredients

• 1c flour
  
• 1/2tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2tsp salt
  
• 1/3c water
  
• 1/6c vegetable oil
  
• ~1tsp rosemary
  
• fresh cracked pepper
  
• olive oil
  

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a single baking pan. Mix all of the dry ingredients together, then add all the wet ingredients and mix to form a soft dough. Roll the dough out thinly to fit the entire baking pan. Place the sheet in the baking pan and press with fingers to fit to edges - this also makes the crackers a little irregular, which I like. Brush the top of the dough with some olive oil, and then cut into squares using a pizza cutter. Bake for 10-12 minutes; until browned as desired.

Thoughts: Flavor was great. For next time, I would consider adding a little garlic powder or (instead) possibly a teaspoon of sugar. We actually didn't brush the tops with olive oil - we baked them about 12 minutes, took them out, realized they were not browning, brushed them with olive oil, and then put them back in for a while. It worked, but ultimately we felt the texture was a LITTLE lackluster. A little too thick; not quite crispy enough. Next time, I'd brush them with olive oil FIRST, but also I would consider using whole wheat flour, and I would probably roll them out thinner (and do two batches). All-in-all, this was a great first experience. Right out of the oven they were great, but I'd have to crisp the rest of them in the oven before I eat any more again.

Disaster Index: 4/10

Spicy Beef Strips and Rice

Ingredients

Spicy Beef Strips

• 1 lb rib-eye steak or some other boneless cut. We may have used sirloin. Who knows?
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp garlic
• 2 tbsp green chilies

Cut the steak into 1/2 inch-wide crosswise strips and place them in a shallow bowl.
Mix the other ingredients together to form a marinade.
Pour the marinade over the beef and put in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, make the rice:

(I am only including this recipe here because it's the first time we've made perfect rice. No sticking to the pan, no chewy grains, nothing)

Rice

• 1 cup rice
• 1 and 1/4 cup water.

Wash the rice very well under cold water, until water runs clear. This will take about 3 minutes, maybe.
Drain well.
Put rice and water in a 2 quart pot over high heat. Bring to a boil. When it boils, immediately turn heat to "low" and put the lid on. Leave for 20 minutes. Don't open the lid. I know you'll be tempted to, but just don't.
After 20 minutes is over, remove the pot from the heat and let sit, covered, for 10 more minutes.
If you want to make sushi rice, add 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar. We did. Then set it aside.

Back to the steak. When it's done marinating, take it out of the refrigerator. Heat a griddle (you're SUPPOSED to use a grill, but seriously. This is Wisconsin. In February. Shut up.) to about 350. Once heated, lay the strips on one at a time and pour the remaining marinade over them. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove from eat. Mix with rice. Eat them. EAT THEM.

Thoughts: I thought this recipe was pretty straight up except for one thing. The marinade was WAY too salty. It was overwhelmingly soy saucy. I had to get some of that sweet chili sauce and put it on the steak because it gave me a headache. For real. So in the future, try to cut the soy sauce with something. Maybe rice wine vinegar? Maybe sweet chili sauce? Also, it wasn't that spicy. I would recommend using actual chili peppers (serranos?) rather than the canned stuff, which we bought because there were no fresh peppers. Also we overcooked the beef. We cooked it for longer than 2 minutes on each side. It wasn't INEDIBLE, but you definitely have to work for it. But for real, that rice was just fantastic. It just fell out of the pot, and none of the grains were over or underdone. This recipe was pretty good. It definitely has potential.

Disaster Index: 4/10

Quick Bread Cinnamon Rolls

For when you don't feel like rising dough.
Ingredients

• Dough
  
  
  
  • 3/4c low or nonfat cottage cheese
    
  • 1/3c buttermilk
    
  • .25c white sugar
    
  • cap ful of vanilla
    
  • 3.5tbsp butter, melted
    
  • 2c unbleached all-purpose white flour
    
  • 1tbsp baking powder
    
  • 1/4tsp baking soda
    
  • 1/2tsp salt
    
  
  
• Filling:
  
  
  
  • 1.5tsp butter, melted
    
  • liberal 2/3c brown sugar
    
  • liberal 1.5tsp cinnamon
    
  • liberal .5tsp allspice
    
  • liberal .25tsp ground cloves
    
  • 1/2c raisins, plumped in some boiling water
    
  
  
• Glaze:
  
  
  
  • 2/3c confectioner's sugar
    
  • 2-3tbsp milk
    
  • 1tsp vanilla
    
  
  

Preheat oven to 400.

In a food processor, mix the cottage cheese, buttermilk, sugar, butter, and vanilla and run for about 10 seconds until mixed. Add the remaining dough ingredients and run in 2 second pulses until the dough forms a ball. Don't over-process, though. Just until it comes together. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and dust with some more flour. Knead it just about five times until a little smooth. Dust with some more flour, and then roll out into about 12x16", as rectangular as possible.

Mix the dry "filling" ingredients. Brush the 1.5tbsp butter over the dough to about 1/2" from the sides. Use all of the butter. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the dough and press them in. Distribute the raisins as you desire. We put them on half of the dough and thought it was maybe a FEW too many raisins. I don't really want raisins in my cinnamon rolls, so next time we'll maybe use 1/4c raisins and still just put them on half the dough.

Roll the dough starting at the far side and working toward you (slowly, being sure the dough doesn't stick to the counter. You want to roll it the long way. Using a very sharp knife, cut into 12 cinnamon rolls. Put these on a parchment-covered (and PAMmed) springform pan. Bake 20-28 minutes (we went 24 exactly).

Mix the glaze ingredients and whisk until the the sugar is dissolved. Pour the glaze over all of the rolls (still in the pan) and let sit for about 15 minutes.

Thoughts: These cinnamon rolls were far easier than our normal cinnamon rolls, and possibly more delicious. The dough was really tangy (from the cottage cheese and buttermilk, no doubt) and, because it was a quick bread, it was a little less gummy and a little more just "soft". The dough was very easy to work with, too. All around great idea. They border on too sweet - next time we might try to figure out a cream-cheese glaze (or make a glaze with less sugar) and see what we can do.

Disaster Index: 1/10