...that my all time number one visited post by far is my beef stroganoff recipe.
It is now the fourth one on the list at Cookingchannel.com...
This is just wrong.
Sigh...
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...the latest Carnival of the Recipes (the 18th, believe it or not!) is up at Mountaineer Musings.
Hopefully I'll be able to participate again after New Years.
The latest Carnival of the Recipes has been posted.
I've been neglectful lately and haven't posted any recipes, but you should still go check it out.
I've been remiss in linking to the last few because of my schedule, so please go to Fresh as a Daisy for the sixteenth Carnival of the Recipes.
...so it's time for the twelfth Carnival of the Recipes! No entry from me this time, but as is noted, it's just in time to start thinking about Thanksgiving!
Go to Beth at She Who Will Be Obeyed for links to all the Carnival postings, and while you're there be sure to thank her for doing all the work to get her great idea started.
Well, not a fight, but the next installment of the Carnival of the Recipes. Holy cow, the list of recipes is getting pretty long...
When I was young, I loved eating the green beans that had been "canned" by my aunts. At the time, calling them "canned" confused me because they were in mason jars. My aunts were two old country women who never married and spent their entire lives living in the house that had been built around 1890 or 1900 by their father. I still recall their argument when they killed a snake in their garden over whether to hang the snake over the top of the fence belly-up or back-up to make it rain.
This recipe grew out of my attempts to make green beans that tasted the same as what I had on my aunts' farm when I was young. I stumbled across a shortcut that at first makes no sense whatsoever, but in retrospect, perhaps it does.
This is another "not heart-healthy" recipe, and any vitamins the canned green beans had is probably long gone by the time they're done cooking. Of course, in the South we either have to fry it or add grease/fat, that's just what we do. In the case of okra, we take a vegetable that's already greasy, coat it in batter, and fry it, so that should tell you something about the regional cuisine...
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Ingredients:
two cans of regular green beans (not French style, and use canned, not frozen, the texture of the frozen just "ain't right")
1/2 teaspoon of white vinegar
one tablespoon of dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce
a piece of fatback or salt pork about the size of a deck of cards
and here's the weird shortcut - a packet of Good Seasons regular Italian dressing mix (NOT the fat-free stuff)
Preparation:
cut the fatback or salt pork into short strips about one inch long and maybe 1/8 of an inch thick (if you want to be able to pick it out when eating, you can dice it finely if you like)
put the fatback into the bottom of the pot
add the dried minced onion
add about 1/3 of the packet of the italian dressing mix
add the green beans
add the vinegar
add the worcestershire sauce
if the green beans are not completely covered with water, add water until they are covered
heat to a boil, and boil for at least 10 minutes
turn the heat down to a simmer level, cover the pot, and heat for another 1/2 hour or longer (longer tends to taste better)
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I tried adding different spices to get the same taste as what was added when my aunts canned their green beans, and one day when I was out of spices but wanted green beans I just tried the italian dressing mix. Oddly enough, it worked. There must have been some spices in common. I don't even bother trying to reproduce the spices, it's too easy to buy the packets, but that's why it's "quasi-Southern"... I don't think the traditional recipe used Good Seasons Italian dressing mix!!!
By the way, when eating this, it's OK to eat the fatback, but I wouldn't unless you exercise a lot or are a child... It's called fatback for a reason.
The new Carnival of the Recipes is up at Inside Allan's Mind. No entry from me this week because I was getting ready to travel, but there are plenty of other good recipes posted, so go there and get cookin'!!!
The ninth Carnival of the Recipes is up at She Who Will Be Obeyed! For this one, get both your stove AND your cocktail shaker ready.
I have only found this drink in Austin, and not every bar makes it the same. The best ones are at the Iron Cactus bar and restraunt, but Trudy's also has good ones. You get it in a shaker or a regular pint beer glass with a strainer, along with a martini glass rimmed with salt, and they only serve you two, because after that you're not speaking English any more... you're not speaking Spanish either... I don't know what you're speaking, but it's not English...
I haven't been able to get the exact recipe from the bars, so I watch when they make it and I made my own recipe, so this one really is mine! I don't know why they call it a martini, because it doesn't have the elegant simplicity of that drink, but then again, it's from Austin and things have always been "different" there.
The same warnings apply as to my special bloody mary, so I'll repeat it here:
WARNING: This is a VERY STRONG drink. I am NOT KIDDING. Please be responsible, both as an imbiber and as a host. If you plan to drink this, do not drive or operate heavy machinery for several hours AFTER you have the last drink, preferably after a night of sleep. This drink is deceptively strong and will kick your ass into next week when you think it's still last Saturday.
If you are a host, please help keep the imbiber from doing something stupid like propositioning an inanimate object, accepting a marriage proposal from an invisible friend, or shaking their head too hard because then they'll think it came off and spend the entire evening looking for it.
This is another one I do by eye, but it's not quite as complicated.
fill the shaker half full of ice
2 parts tequila
1 part triple sec or Grand Marnier
a splash of olive juice (from the jar you get the garnish olives from)
a splash of lime juice
roughly 1 part of sweet and sour mix (lemon based), usually less than 1 part, whatever fills up the cocktail shaker
shake well and serve in a martini glass garnished with a few olives, this one definitely tastes better with the glass rimmed with salt!!!
drink and enjoy RESPONSIBLY
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Next time, actual food again, my Kinda-Southern Green Beans.
...because the Carnival of the Recipes is up at Fresh as a Daisy. Who needs cookbooks?????
Here's my contribution to the Carnival of the Recipes this week. I'm not sure if drink recipes are what Beth had in mind when she thought up this carnival, but hey, we need to drink as well as eat!!! Besides, this has gotten as many compliments as my beef stroganoff (which is by far my most popular post... I get more hits to that than the next three most viewed posts combined... if I had known that, I would have started posting recipes long ago)!!
WARNING: This is a VERY STRONG drink. I am NOT KIDDING. Please be responsible, both as an imbiber and as a host. If you plan to drink this, do not drive or operate heavy machinery for several hours AFTER you have the last drink, preferably after a night of sleep. This drink is deceptively strong and will kick your ass into next week when you think it's still last Sunday.
If you are a host, please help keep the imbiber from doing something stupid like proposing marriage to an inanimate object, accepting a marriage proposal from an invisible friend, or shaking their head too hard because then they'll think it came off and spend the entire evening looking for it.
The way I measure quantities is by how much the ingredients cover the bottom of my cocktail shaker, so it should scale reasonably well for different shaker sizes (I have a large mondo-sized shaker...). It comes out what I call "moderately spicy" so increase your favorite ingredients for spicier.
coarse ground cayenne (red) pepper - about 1/4 to 1/3 covered
coarse ground black pepper - about 1/3 to 1/2 covered
fine ground cayenne (red) pepper - about 1/4 to 1/3 covered
fine ground black pepper - about 1/4 to 1/3 covered
celery salt - just less than 1/4 covered
tabasco - about 1/2 to 2/3 covered (more for EXTRA hot)
worcestershire sauce - covered plus a bit more (maybe about 1/8 inch on the bottom, total, including the other spices)
lemon concentrate - 2 splashes
lime concentrate - 1 splash
fill the shaker about 1/3 full of ice cubes
fill the shaker with vodka just under to right at 1/2 full (I use Smirnoff Blue Label, the highest proof vodka from Smirnoff, when I can find it), it works best if you keep the vodka in the freezer beforehand (I don't know if any vodka snobs {well, maybe he's not a vodka snob, but he is the Vodka Pundit} will sniff in disdain at this, but hey, it helps the drink!!!)
fill the remainder with good quality tomato juice (NOT a bloody mary mix or V8, it's horrendous with V8...)
put the top on and shake thoroughly
rim your glasses with salt if you like
fill your glasses through the strainer on top of the shaker (I prefer no ice the glasses, but to each their own)
add a small amount of fine ground black pepper on top as a "floater", garnish with a celery stick if you have one
drink and enjoy RESPONSIBLY
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Next time, either my Kinda-Southern Green Beans, or my special Mexican martini. I'll take votes.
A new Carnival of the Recipes is up, at Food Basics (how appropriate!!!). Let's not forget the inspiration, Beth, at She Who Will Be Obeyed!
After this crazy week, I've decided I need to post my recipes way, way early, on the weekend, just to get them up on time...
A new Carnival of the Recipes is up at Prochein Amy. I didn't get my recipe out in time, but go try the recipes of those who did!
OK, I had to cook this again here in France to make sure I didn't forget something, and I'm not an expert at writing recipes so no complaints, please!!! Keep in mind that I "cook by smell", so I've estimated the amounts for some of the additives here, especially since I'm here in metric-land and I don't have tablespoon and teaspoon measuring spoons. As is usual in cooking increase or decrease the amounts of spices to taste. I like both red and black pepper along with worcestershire sauce, so there may be too much of both in there for you.
UPDATE: I've adjusted some quantities here, so use the recipe as posted now, not the one posted on Wednesday morning!
One more warning: this recipe is NOT heart-healthy... it has a lot of butter and sour cream in it!!!
Ingredients:
1 small to medium sized onion (white or yellow)
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of mushroom base or ~1/4 cup of substitute (see below for more info on this)
1 and 1/2 or 2 pounds of beef cut into bite-sized chunks (good cuts taste better, but even "stew beef" turns out pretty tasty)
two small cans of sliced mushrooms, drain the cans before adding
1 cup of red wine (use whatever you're drinking while you're cooking this, that's what I do)
2 teaspoons of flour (do not use self rising flour, use the pure, undiluted stuff)
red (cayenne) pepper, finely ground
black pepper, finely ground
worcestershire sauce
1 and 1/2 cups of sour cream (do NOT use non-fat sour cream, use the regular stuff)
extra wide egg noodles (enough for 8 servings)
Instructions:
open the wine and pour yourself a glass (well, that's how I always start...)
dice the onion finely
melt the butter in a medium to large deep skillet (preferably one that you have a lid for) over a low to medium heat, not enough to scorch the butter!
once the butter is fully melted, add the mushroom base and the onions, saute the onions for a few minutes at the same heat
once the onions have softened and soaked up some of the color of the mushroom base, add the beef and turn the heat up just a bit
while the beef is cooking, sprinkle a quarter teaspoon of red pepper, half a teaspoon of black pepper, and half a teaspoon of worcestershire sauce over the beef
start heating the water for the egg noodles
when the beef is about 1/2 done and you are turning it, sprinkle half a teaspoon of the black pepper, and a quarter teaspoon of worcestershire sauce again, add a quarter teaspoon of the red pepper if you really like red pepper
when the beef looks like it's fully cooked, lower the heat a bit to about the same level as when you were melting the butter, add the mushrooms, and put the lid on the skillet
while the skillet is simmering, mix the two teaspoons of flour with the one cup of red wine thoroughly so there are no clumps
roughly 5 minutes after adding the mushroos, hopefully by this point the water for the noodles is boiling, so add the egg noodles, they should cook for about 8 to 9 minutes for al dente
right after adding the noodles to the boiling water, add the wine/flour mix to the skillet, and leave the lid off for it to simmer for about 5 minutes over low to medium heat, if after 5 minutes the liquid seems thin, add another teaspoon of flour, try to add it slowly so it doesn't clump but instead thickens the liquid
when checking the consistency of the sauce at 5 minutes, this is the main time I check on how it smells... sometimes I add more worcestershire sauce, sometimes more black pepper, occasionally more red pepper, whatever the smell seems to be "lacking"
when the noodles are ready (8 to 9 minutes until al dente, usually), drain them (tip: add a small bit of vegetable oil to them and mix well while they are in the colander so they don't stick together!!!) and put them in a bowl
reduce the heat on the skillet to low and add the sour cream, thoroughly mix the sour cream (sometimes I add 2 cups instead of one, depending on how much sauce I have) and leave the skillet on low heat while you put the noodles on plates
turn of the heat to the skillet, put the beef and sauce over the noodles, and eat accompanied using the red wine you used in the recipe!
MUSHROOM BASE:
There is a wonderful product I've found called "mushroom base" that is sold in small jars with a black label. I have no idea who makes it, or how widely it's distributed; it's sold along with similar chicken and beef bases generally in the soup aisle next to the beef and chicken bullion. It's a thick sauce with the consistency of jam or marmalade. I took the beef stroganoff recipe off the label of this product and modified it to what you see above. I've found a way to substitute for this ingredient if you can't find it. The recipe for making the substitute:
Ingredients:
1/2 a cup of water
fresh mushrooms (your favorite kind) thoroughly washed and sliced (chopped in a food processor is better)
beef bullion (the cube or powdered kind, enough for one cup)
Instructions:
start with the water and add the chopped or sliced mushrooms until there is just enough water to cover them all (sorry for the imprecise quantities... I'm having enough problems over here in France to deal with the metric-English conversions, too!!!)
add the beef bullion and boil until there is only half of the liquid left
strain the mushrooms out and use the 1/4 cup of liquid in the recipe above to substitute for the mushroom base (NOTE: very, very salty... not for those on low salt diets!!)
Beth, She Who Will Be Obeyed, has started the Carnival of the Recipes. Unfortunately, I was not able to find my beef stroganoff recipe in time. Check out the contributions of those who did participate!
