Sometime in the Morning - Granola-Topped Breakfast Muffins

 Sometime this morning, I developed an unusual ear worm, the obscure "Randy Scouse Git" by the Monkees.  Besides the fact that the lyrics make no sense, this particular ear worm drew attention to another annoying, but inevitable fact - that I am a lady of mature years.  Sigh.  In my head I am still 18 years old, while in the mirror - well, I try not to look in the mirror too often.  Ear worms, however, have no such mercy, and can evoke age-old memories.  In 1967, the year "Randy Scouse Git" was released, the Monkees were in their second season on TV, and I was between my freshman and sophomore years in high school, finally finished with the year-long planning leading up to my brother's delightfully overblown bar mitzvah, where I wore the worst dress ever. Adolescence was not just creeping up on me, but smacking me repeatedly upside the head.  

Being now of mature years, I occasionally try to adopt a healthy life style, which explains the bag of granola in my desk drawer at work.  Fiber, you know.  I eat dry cereal without milk (gag if you must) and carry this bag between car and office.  It's quite good, with raisins, chopped dates, and pecans.  In one of my adult ADD moments, I kept staring at it until it occurred to me these would be a fine addition to breakfast muffins.  So I shlepped the bag home to work out a muffin recipe that would successfully incorporate my granola.

One small problem, however - I have no luck with muffins.  I can bake almost anything, and when I was younger I even decorated cakes, but muffins are my Waterloo.  They alway seem to come out too small, too dense, and too boring.  But if I could teach myself to make really good spaetzle at the age of 61, I could give muffins one more try.  Or so I reasoned.

I have a couple of muffin cookbooks in the house, but they have generally led me down the path of muffin failure, so I took to the internet, using search terms like "granola topped muffins" and "fluffy muffin recipes."  Within 10 minutes, I was suffering from cognitive overload.  I skimmed about a dozen recipes like I was briefing a case for my Federal IncomeTax Law class (fast and dirty) and came up with this recipe.  I was quite pleased with the light, even crumb of the interior, the attractive muffin top, and of course, the taste.  Oh, and the moistness.  Amazing.  Almost as amazing as the spaetzle.

Granola-Topped Breakfast Muffins

3/4 cup cake flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon each of salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon1 extra large egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
2/3 cup applesauce (I used Musselman's chunky, because that's what was open in my refrigerator)1 cup of your favorite granola (I used Post's Great Grains Cereal with Raisins, Dates, and Pecans)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray 6 of the wells of a standard muffin pan, including the top, and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Combine well, using a small whisk.  Make a well in the center and set aside.

In a 1-cup glass measuring cup, use the small whisk to beat the egg till smooth.  Add the oil and the applesauce and use the whisk to combine them all.  I also used the whisk to mash or break up the apple chunks.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the well in the flour mixture, and using a rubber spatula, gently combine wet and dry, just until the white flour is no longer visible.  Don't worry about lumps in the batter, they are normal and desirable in muffins.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan wells.  The batter will fill 5 to 6 cups, depending on the depth of the well.  Fill close to the top of each cup.   Now with a lavish hand, sprinkle granola over the top of each muffin.  Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake for 18 minutes, watching the granola so it doesn't burn.

Remove the muffin pan from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 5 minutes.  While cooling, carefully brush the excess granola from around the edges of each muffin.  Then, with the tip of a sharp little knife, remove the muffins from the pan and place them on the rack to finish cooling.

These are rather good with a little butter.  Or a lot of butter.  Or Temp-Tee whipped cream cheese.  Eat over a plate, because granola will fall.  These are going to make a really good (and nominally healthy!) breakfast.

The Happy Hangover - Sausage and Peppers Linguine Dinner

I woke up with what seemed to be a hangover.  Since I rarely drink, that was unexpected and extraordinarily annoying.  And painful.  And that was the end of my plans to get some food shopping done.  Which did not stop me from cooking today.  I guess that makes it a happy hangover.

I wanted a hearty pasta sauce to serve over spaghetti, and while I was missing some crucial ingredients for a traditional meat sauce or a bolognese, my freezer came through.  Like most home cooks, I always have jarred pasta sauce in the pantry.  My freezer may have a few things others don't - sliced beef liver, tasso ham, squid and calamari - but I also had the obligatory frozen vegetables plus a half package of Italian sausage links.

Spending the day at home, nursing a headache while working ever-so-slowly on my recipe collection, did not stop me from throwing together a rich and delicious spaghetti sauce.  

The recipe collection project is going better than expected.  It has already taken me about 2 months to sort through and organize the papers, and then there was a lot of photocopying to replace clippings from a 1984 Bon Appetit and the backs of pasta boxes.  I am at the point now of putting the recipes into clear plastic sheet protectors and from there into 3 ring binders.  That blue notebook contains all of my recipes for appetizers, plus a section for sauces, dressings, marinades and the like.  Today I've been working on salads, vegetables, and soups, and hope to have them tucked into a green notebook before too long.

Tonight's dinner involves a crockpot, which you may have guessed from my description of a sitting-on-the-couch sort of day.  The 4 quart is a perfect size.  It is literally the only pot you are going to need.

Sausage and Peppers Linguine Dinner

Olive Oil

3 Italian sausages, frozen (hot or sweet)

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 - 24 oz. jar marinara pasta sauce (I used Classico Marinara with Plum Tomatoes and Olive Oil) 

1/2 cup each red wine and water (put into the sauce jar, cover and shake to get any sauce on the sides of the jar)

Italian seasoning blend

kosher salt

black pepper

granulated garlic

pinch or more of sugar

1 - 14 oz. bag frozen pepper and onion blend

about 6 oz. of linguine pasta, broken in half

another 1/2 cup of water

In the crockpot, place the frozen sausages and garlic and a drizzle of olive oil.  Season with the Italian seasoning blend to taste. Cover and cook on the High setting for 30 to 45 minutes.  Turn the sausage and cook for another 30 minutes.  Add the marinara, 1/2 cup water and the wine, cover, and let cook for another hour.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, using the salt, pepper, and granulated garlic along with the Italian blend. 

Remove the sausage and set aside on a cutting board to cool slightly.  Add the frozen peppers and onions, cover.  While the sauce is reheating, chop up the sausage in very small pieces.  Add the sausage back to the sauce and let cook for another two hours.  Now add the linguine and the last 1/2 cup of water.  Stir to separate the linguine and submerge all pasta in the liquid.  Cook for another 20 minutes, stirring half way through.

Serve immediately.

Did you enjoy this recipe?  Make any changes to improve it?  Let me know by posting something in the Comments section.  Thanks!

#TBT - Hola! It's an Easy Paella

As promised - such a good dish for a casual dinner for friends. 

You will need a rectangular electric frying pan with a domed cover.  So by now you may have guessed that in addition to being the Aluminum Tin Queen, I am also Queen of the Electric Appliances.

Spices, Condiments, Oils:

kosher salt

black pepper

granulated garlic

Hungarian sweet pepper

1/4 teaspoon saffron

2 Knorr chicken bouillon cubes

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco, Texas Pete, Crystal)

Vegetables, Produce:

1 large or 2 medium yellow onions, chopped

1 medium or 2 small green peppers, chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped

Off the Shelf:

7 oz. chorizo (Goya or Tropical Brand), halved, casing removed, sliced into 1/4 inch half moons

1 1/2 cups uncooked converted rice (Uncle Ben's)

1-12 oz. bottle beer, poured into a 4-cup glass measuring cup

1-15 oz. can green peas (trust me), liquid drained into the beer

1-14 oz. can quartered artichoke hearts, liquid drained into the beer

1-6 1/2 oz. jar Fancy Pimientos, drained, patted dry, cut into pieces

15 or more small manzanilla olives (these are little green olives stuffed with pimiento)

Out of the Refrigerator:

6 chicken drumsticks

1 dozen littleneck clams

1/2 pound mussels

1/2 pound peeled rock shrimp (if these are unavailable, use more peeled white shrimp)

1/2 pound peeled white shrimp (medium or large, whatever is on sale)

Sprinkle chicken with some salt, black pepper, paprika and garlic.  Heat olive oil in frying pan at 325 degrees, and brown chicken on all sides.  Remove to a dish and hold. (This is where I use one of those aluminum trays, about 9x13.)  Next cook the chorizo for just a minute, and with a slotted spoon, remove it to the dish with the chicken.  Next cook both shrimp just until barely pink, remove them and hold in a separate bowl.  Do not overcook the shrimp.  Seriously.

Add the onions, green peppers, and chopped garlic to the pan; season with salt, pepper, paprika and granulated garlic.  I also like to sprinkle a very small amount of regular sugar over the onions for flavor and caramelization. Cook until onion is tender, not brown.  Add the rice and stir to coat with the oil in the pan.  Add enough water to the beer to make 3 1/2 cups liquid.  Add the hot pepper sauce to the liquid, then pour it all into the pan, stirring up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add the bouillon cubes and the saffron and stir.  Stir the cooked chorizo into the rice, and then place the chicken on top.  Cover the pan with the domed lid, making sure the little steam outlet is closed.  Lower the heat to simmer, and cook 25 - 30 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is done.  You will want to check on the rice and stir it about halfway through the cooking to make sure it is not sticking.

Uncover, remove the chicken, and stir the rice.  Add the green peas, the artichoke heart quarters, pimiento pieces, olives, and cooked shrimp and stir gently. Arrange the mussels, clams, and chicken on top of the rice.  Cover and cook another 10 minutes or until the clams and mussels are open.  Discard any that don't open.  Serve everyone a little bit of each type of protein, and pile that awesome rice high on each plate.  Eat with gusto, or at least with garlic bread.

From Fish Bait to Fine Dining - Mussels in Wine Sauce

Back in the early sixties, I spent several summers at the then-ubiquitous Jewish sleepaway camps of the New York Catskills.  We swam, we played a lot of volleyball, practiced shooting hoops, rode horses, and went fishing.  For bait, we gathered mussels from around the shallow shores of Lake Anawana, smashed the black shells, and retrieved the yucky interiors.  I caught the most beautiful fish with those sad bivalves.  Of course we never got to eat the fish we caught, as they were always thrown back for yet another day.

The mussels, though ... it seems that somewhere along the way from fish sticks to chilean sea bass, I also discovered something that European cooks have known for a long time.  Mussels make good eats, can be farmed and are sustainable, and are a lot more reasonable in price than scallops, oysters, or even clams.

This is my favorite way to eat them.  Hot from the pan, with the most delectable juices to sop up with bread.  I also love them cold from the fridge the next day.  If you have ever eaten mussels on the half shell at a Chinese buffet, then you know they are delicious when cold.  These are even better, because of the garlicky, herby sauce they've been resting in overnight.  Either way, you will be glad you tried them. 

This is my other favorite way to eat them, as part of a paella, and I will be publishing that recipe as part of Throwback Thursday #TBT later this week.  Besides tasting wonderful, they really add to the visual appeal. Thursday, I promise.

Back to the mussels in wine sauce - first, a little trick:  rinse the fresh mussels in a colander.  If any are open, and won't close when tapped with a spoon, throw it away, it's dead, Jim.  Place the mussels in a deep pot with a lid, add water to cover.  Stir in a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt, and fill the pot with ice cubes.  Cover, place in the fridge, and leave overnight or for as many hours as you can before cooking.  When ready to cook, dump into a colander and rinse with some cold water.  Shake off the excess water.  Debeard if necessary, then cook as usual.  This little soak seems to keep the mussels plump and tender when cooked.

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I like the curly kind.  That's the kind of hairpin I am.)
4 fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
salt, pepper, sugar

2 1/2  pounds fresh mussels, prepared as above
1 cup dry white wine

In a deep saucepan, heat the butter and oil together, then add the garlic, onion, parsley, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.  Heat gently for 10 minutes.  Add the mussels and the wine.  Cover the saucepan and turn up the heat until it boils.  Simmer for 8 minutes, until the mussels open.  If any of the mussels have not opened up, throw them out.

Sometimes, I take half of a red bell pepper, cut it into strips, and add it to the onions and garlic.  I also like to chop up some more fresh parsley and scatter it over the top before serving.

Hot or cold, these are delicious.  Enjoy.

Love the blog?  Hate the recipe?  Post a comment!

Ode to a Crockpot - Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage

I recently read an Op Ed piece in the New York Times, where the writer expressed her feelings about the societal expectation of preparing daily home-cooked meals for children.  She was indignant, offended, and darn near angry.  After all, coming home after a long day at work doesn't leave time to whip up a pot roast, especially when the children have after school activities, homework, baths, and all that jazz.  She recognized that somewhere in that time period between the end of the school day and bedtime, the kids had to eat dinner, but expressed her longing for the days when the First Lady was not keeping pizza off the school lunch menus, and it was okay to do your dinner food shopping in the drive-thru at McDonald's.  The writer also expressed her not-inconsiderable feminist frustration that here we are in the 21st century, and mothers, i.e. females, were expected to cook for their spawn.

As the late President Richard Nixon would state, let me say this about that:  first of all, I'm a feminist - a real feminist, someone who faced blatant gender discrimination in the seventies, when I first started working, and had to push hard to make progress, failed in the face of a male-dominated industry, and then applied to law school to try to level the playing field.  I've been ready for Hillary for a long time, and furious that countries like India, Israel, and Great Britain have been led by powerful women executives, while we have not.  

Next, Michelle Obama needs to get out of the school cafeteria.  There is nothing wrong with pizza on Wednesdays or fried chicken on Monday.  It's all about balance and moderation. (Sometimes I still dream about those English muffin pizzas on the Wednesday lunch menu at Lawrence High School.) Third, I am firmly opposed to children having too many activities that eat up all their (as well as their parent's) spare time after school and every weekend.  Pick two, and let the kids have time to be kids. 

Fourth is that you don't have to cook every night.  True, my grandmother (she-who-raised-me) cooked a three course meal every night, but she was another generation, a stay-at-home wife and mother, and besides, the kitchen was always closed on the weekends.  I don't cook every night, in fact, I almost never cook during the week, because I've always been a working mother.  My schedule is the opposite of my grandmother's - I do all my major food shopping and cooking on the weekend, pack everything up in those ubiquitous aluminum pans that my cousin Steve Schneider likes to tease me about, and load up the refrigerator with enough food to feed my family for at least a week.  My son, now an adult, likes to eat late, so long after his dad and I are done with dinner, he pulls a goodly number of those tin pans out of the fridge, and fills up a plate with whatever combination of cooked comestibles strikes his fancy, and - are you ready for it? - he reheats it in the microwave.  

Admittedly, I think spending at least one of my days off from work frying artichoke hearts and basting chickens is a big treat, but I got the sense that the op ed author would rather scratch out her eyeballs with a fork.  For her and other parents who either don't like to cook, don't have the time or the talent to cook, don't have another parent in the home who is willing to pick up part of the cooking responsibility, and who can't afford decent take-out every night, there is, of course, always the last, best hope for a delicious and easy hot meal (and the reason for today's post)- the crockpot.  The crockpot is my go-to device on those occasions when I do plan to cook during the week, as well as one of the appliances I rely on during my weekend cooking marathons.  

This, my friends, is a crockpot, AKA a slow cooker.  This little beauty and I made our acquaintance in the fall of 1976, and we've been together ever since.  She is so old - like me - that her inner crock is not removable.  I think she is about 4 quarts, an adequate size for chili and soup, but not large enough for a couple of racks of baby back ribs or a nice big pot roast.  Until recently, I also had a round 5 quart cooker with a removable crock, but after almost as many years of faithful service, it passed on to that great appliance junk yard in the sky.  I am in the market for a replacement, and also checking out some 8 quart crocks, in case I ever feel the need to feed the population of a small city.  In the meantime, I rely most frequently on this 6 quart oval, which has two crocks, one of which is divided into two compartments.  Very nice when I want to serve cocktail meatballs AND little smokies, or two kinds of soup.

That is a lovely piece of stuffed veal breast in the crock, and by the time you read this, I will have posted that recipe.  For today, however, I am using both crockpots to create a relatively easy version of my grandmother's stuffed cabbage.  It can be prepared in stages, if you prefer, and I'll show how using the crockpot takes the stress out of assembling all of the components.  

To me, the biggest stress factor has always been the cabbage.  Either I have to deal with a huge pot of boiling water, trying to remove the rock-hard core of the cabbage so I can dip it in and out of the water to loosen the leaves (imagine cutting yourself and scalding yourself at the same time) or I have to plan three days ahead and put the cabbage in the freeze for at least overnight, and then let it defrost in the refrigerator and hope the leaves are soft enough to remove, stuff, and roll.

Instead, I took a nice big head of cabbage, placed it core-side down into my 6 quart crockpot, first cutting off about half an inch across the bottom so it fit under the lid.  I then added water about a third of a way up the sides, covered the crockpot, and cooked the cabbage head on low for 6 hours. When it's done, carefully move the cabbage to a large bowl, core-side up, and let it cool down enough to handle.  With a long thin knife, cut out the core and begin to carefully remove the leaves, placing them on paper towels to drain.  You will need 12 large yellow leaves, but do not discard the remaining cabbage just yet.

Here is my grandmother's recipe for stuffed cabbage, adapted for the crockpot:

1 large head of cabbage, cooked in the crockpot to yield at least 12 large leaves

For the filling:
2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked long-grain converted rice (Uncle Ben's)
about 1/4 cup grated onion (grate the onion right into the mixing bowl)
1 extra large egg
granulated garlic and onion powder, to taste
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine the filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix together by hand.  Divide the filling into 12 equal portions, shaped like logs.

For the sauce:
2 large Vidalia onions, chopped into large pieces
canola or olive oil
2 cans of Campbell's condensed tomato soup
3 soup cans water
1-8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 sauce can water
1-6 oz. can tomato paste
kosher salt, ground black pepper, and granulated garlic to taste
3-4 tablespoons sugar
granulated citric acid (sour salt)


At the same time you start the cabbage, spray or oil the inside of a 4 quart crock, add the onions, drizzle on the oil, cover and cook for 6 hours on low.  Stir occasionally, and watch those onions caramelize without spattering oil all over the top of your stove.  When the onions are done, add all of the remaining sauce ingredients except for the citric acid.  Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.  After the first hour, taste the sauce and adjust your seasoning, including sweetness.  Then add about 1/2 teaspoon of the citric acid, cook the sauce another half hour, then taste again.  You want the perfect balance of sweet to sour.  Just keep in mind that the citric acid should be used sparingly, and take your time in achieving this balance.

Take a cabbage leaf and with a sharp knife, carefully shave off the thick part of the rib.  Repeat for all of the leaves.  This will make it easier for them to be rolled.  Then place one portion of meat on each leaf, and roll it up like a burrito or an eggroll. Set the finished rolls aside.

Rinse out the 6 quart crockpot.  Ladle some of the sauce on the bottom of the crock.  Break up some of the remaining cabbage into smaller pieces and place on top of the sauce.  Add a single layer of cabbage rolls, placing them seam-side down.  Ladle on enough sauce to almost cover them, then place the remaining cabbage rolls on top, crosswise from the first layer.  I fit 5 rolls on the first layer and 7 on the second.  Use some more of the broken up cabbage to tuck in between the rolls so that they fit snuggly.  

Finally, top with the rest of the sauce and more of the broken up cabbage pieces.  Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours, or until the meat filling registers 165 degrees and the cabbage is very tender. I set my crockpot to cook for 5 hours, after which it automatically switched to the "keep warm" setting.  When I woke up this morning, it had been on "keep warm" for 2 hours, and was perfect.  My house smelled so good, I almost ate stuffed cabbage for breakfast!

Serve the stuffed cabbage directly from the crockpot or carefully move to a baking dish for later use.

Cooked stuffed cabbage reheats well and also freezes well. Just remember to place a piece of wax paper between the food and aluminum foil, if you are going to use the foil to cover the pan.  This recipe serves 12 as an appetizer, or 4-6 as an entree.

Try it, you'll like it - then leave a comment.  Love some feedback!

Which Came First, the Pig or the Egg? - Scotch Eggs

"If heaven ain't like EPCOT, I'm not going."  Yep, I used to say things like that.  As you might have guessed that was before I took my first cruise.  Back then, it made me happy just to have Scotch eggs and an Irish coffee for a mid-afternoon snack at the Rose and Crown Pub. These days, if I want a Scotch egg, I'm going to have to make it myself.  My recipe is based on one I found in an old Disney cookbook.  I only changed almost everything (grin).

1 pound hot sausage meat (I use Publix)

1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon rubbed sage

1 teaspoon dried thyme

6 hard cooked eggs, peeled and lightly patted dry

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning (I use Bell's)

2 eggs, lightly beaten with 2 tablespoons half-and-half

1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs (I mixed half plain with half seasoned because that's what I had available in the pantry)

canola oil for frying

In a medium bowl, combine the sausage with the parsley, sage, and thyme.  Divide the sausage into 6 equal portions.  With your hands, shape each portion of sausage into a patty, place a hard cooked egg in the center, and work the sausage around the egg to cover it completely.  

Set out a breading station.  Add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning to the flour.  Take one of the sausage covered eggs and roll it in the flour,  then the egg, and then the bread crumbs.  Use your hands to gently pat the breading and shape the egg.  Then run each egg through the breading station line one more time.  When all of the eggs are double-breaded, place them in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

In a medium sauce pot, heat 2 inches of canola oil to 375 degrees.  Gently place 3 of the eggs in the oil and fry until brown on one side, then turn to brown the other side, frying a total of 5 minutes. With the tip of a sharp knife, carefully pierce the breading and check to make sure the sausage is completely cooked. Set on a rack to drain; repeat and finish the other 3 eggs.

Let the eggs cool before trying to cut them in half.  These are usually served with a mustard-mayo or remoulade type sauce; having run out of energy, I mixed 1 tablespoon of McCormick's Tartar Sauce with 1/2 tablespoon of Goya's Salsa Rosada and 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard.  Not bad.  Then I stirred in 4 drops of fresh lemon juice and 2 drops of Tabasco.  Even better!

Just a side note - As you can see, I double-breaded the eggs.  While it kept the sausage from breaking through, I thought the breading was too heavy.  Could just be me.  Both Robert and Cory tasted the eggs and thought the breading was just right.  I googled around and saw that Jamie Oliver also recommended a double breading, but skipped the flour in the second go-around.  He also undercooked his eggs, so that they were done enough to peel, but underdone enough that the frying stage did not make them too hard.  Lovely idea.  Here is the link to Jamie Oliver's version, I am definitely going to try this again, undercooking my eggs as he did.  This article, also from a British chef, expounds on the whole idea of undercooking and gives her recommendation for the best egg (put eggs in a pan with cold water, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 5 minutes, then remove the eggs to a bowl filled with ice water and let them stay there a full ten minutes before shelling.)  Oh, and she uses panko crumbs instead of regular bread crumbs!  No recipes with matzo meal, though ...

Marinated Artichoke Tempura

I love fried food.  Proper Southern fried chicken, onions rings in puffy fried batter,  tempura shrimp and vegetables with a sweet soy dipping sauce, corn fritters dripping honey, conch fritters, hush puppies, Nathan's French fries, fried pickles, and the list could go on forever.  Many of these taste best with a mayonnaise-based dipping sauce and I can hear my arteries hardening as I type this.  

I also love artichokes.  Whole globe artichokes, which I stuff with savory flavors and bake or cook in the crockpot.  Frozen or canned artichoke hearts for sauces and soups.  Marinated artichoke hearts for antipasto and cold pasta sauces.  And frying.  Oh yes, you can take canned or marinated artichokes and bread them or batter them.  I first had breaded fried artichoke hearts at BJ's Brewhouse at the Loop in Kissimmee, and I was hooked.  So when I got a craving the other day,  I just had to try making it at home.  Rather than set up a breading station of flour, egg, and bread crumb, I tried this tempura version.  Much easier.  I'll save breading stations and the inevitable "club hand" for my fried eggplant.

Marinated Artichoke Tempura

2-12 oz. jars marinated artichoke hearts, drained and patted dry
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
dash of salt
dash of granulated garlic (optional)
1 cup very cold water

canola oil for frying
additional salt 

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a frying pan, over medium high heat.

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, and seasonings.  Gradually add the water and whisk until the batter is smooth.  Make sure that the artichoke hearts are as dry as you can get them; be prepared for some oil splatter.  Dip the artichoke in the batter, letting the excess drip off, and then, while you are standing arm's length from the pan, gently place the battered artichoke into the hot oil.  Repeat, working in several batches so that there is space between the pieces while they cook.  Turn one time, and when they are light golden brown, remove to a rack set over a baking sheet or aluminum foil to catch the excess oil drips.   Immediately season the hot artichoke hearts with salt.

Pretty, aren't they?

I tried a couple of my go-to dipping sauces - honey mustard, horseradish, even salsa rosada, but they all overwhelmed the delicate artichoke flavor.  I then took a couple of tablespoons of Hellman's mayonnaise, thinned it with  a little fresh lemon juice, and dipped into that.  Perfect - it enhanced the artichoke flavor.  Just add lemon juice and taste as you go. 

Stuffed Breast of Veal for the Crockpot with Potato Gratin

This is kind of dish that Jewish mothers from Brooklyn prepared back in the middle of the last century.  Veal was always a treat, and our taste ran to chops and the the breast, stuffed with potato or bread.  Back then, you could find a nice big piece, 5 or more rib bones, a full half-breast, with a pocket already cut into it.  Veal is eaten a lot less these days.  It is now prohibitively priced, and for some people, there is the ethical issue of how the calves are raised and slaughtered.  Maybe once or twice a year, I see a small package of veal stew or a nice piece of veal breast on sale, and I allow myself to indulge.

2 pieces of breast of veal, 2 rib bones each piece
Cajun-style seasoning blend*
olive oil

Stuffing:
1 1/2 cups crumbled saltine-type crackers
1/2 cup chopped leftover cooked vegetables - I had some cooked mushrooms and onions
1 extra large egg
1 generous teaspoon each dried thyme and rosemary
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon oil
Water

1 jar of Gia Russa Marsala Simmer Sauce
1/2 cup marsala or dry sherry

Potato Gratin:
1 large russet baking potato, sliced very thin
Butter
Kosher salt, ground black pepper, and sweet paprika (preferably Hungarian)
5 oz. bag shredded Swiss cheese
up to a cup of French's French Fried Onions

Prepare the veal: Cut a pocket by sliding a sharp boning knife between the meat and the bone.  Slide the knife upwards from the bottom of the breast (you will see the bones protruding) without cutting open either side.  Rub the veal breast all over with a little olive oil, and sprinkle generously with Cajun seasoning.  Set aside.

Prepare the stuffing:  Combine all of the ingredients, adding just enough water to hold the stuffing together.

Using a wooden spoon, divide the stuffing in half and slide into each pocket.  Pat gently with your hand to evenly distribute the stuffing in each pocket, stopping about an inch before the opening.  It will look like a skimpy layer of stuffing, but will puff up nicely while cooking.

Heat a large deep skillet over medium high, add about 3 tablespoons of the oil, and brown each piece of veal on all sides, including the back of the bones.

Use about a half tablespoon of butter to grease the bottom of a 6 quart crockpot.  Place a single layer of the sliced potatoes to cover the bottom.  Lightly season with salt, pepper, and paprika, and dot with a little more butter.  Repeat with the remaining potatoes. Put the stuffed, browned breast pieces on top of the potatoes, placing the curved sides against the sides of the crockpot.  Pour the sauce and marsala or sherry over the meat, cover and cook on Low for 4 to 6 hours until the veal is tender and the potatoes can be easily pierced with the tip of a knife.  If you are around the house, turn the veal about halfway through the cooking time.

Remove the veal and let cool slightly.  Cut between the bones to serve.  If you have any difficulty (I did, even with an electric knife) do the best you can and don't fret.  Now the celebrity chefs tell us you eat first with your eyes, but I think you eat first with your nose, and this smells so good no one will care if your ribs are uneven.  Also, my mother always said it all ends up in your stomach anyway, and she never steered me wrong when it came to eating.  

Finishing the gratin: using a little more of the butter, grease an 8 inch square tin.  Carefully move the cooked potatoes from the crockpot to the buttered tin.  First place a single layer of potatoes, then drizzle a little of the sauce, then sprinkle some of the Swiss cheese.  Repeat until the potatoes are used up, and finish with more Swiss cheese.  Cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.  Remove the foil, and add the crispy fried onions to the top.  Return the pan to the oven for another 5 minutes or until the cheese bubbles and the onions are browned.  Let the gratin cool slightly before cutting into squares for serving. 

Spoon any remaining sauce over the veal and serve with the gratin.  

*For this I used Lowcountry Gourmet Seasoning from the Lowcountry shop in Savannah, Georgia.  Emeril's Essence is an ideal substitute.

#TBT - You Get No Bread With One Meatball

Columbus Day has come and gone, Monday of this week, and I could not help but notice that it is no longer politically correct to celebrate the birth of the man who is credited with discovering America.  I just hope that doesn't mean an end to all of the Italian food specials that invariably show up at that time.

I love Italian food.  It is as much a part of my culinary heritage as chopped liver and potato kugel.  Growing up in Flatbush in the fifties and sixties, there really was no difference between Italian Catholic families and us Russian Jewish families, and it was the late comedian and actor, Dom DeLuise, who reinforced this point, writing "the Jews had matzo balls, and we had meatballs."  For me, cooking Italian is instinctive.  Maybe I should call these instinctive meatballs.  Never mind.  I also love to make Jewish sweet and sour meatballs, Swedish meatballs, tiny meatballs for Italian wedding soup, and you get the idea.

"You Get No Bread With One Meatball" Meatballs  

The waiter hollered down the hall:
You get no bread with your one meat ball.

Little man felt so very bad,
One meat ball is all he had.
And in his dreams he can still hear that call
You get no bread with your one meat ball.

Oh, but what a meatball!

3 1/2 - 3 3/4 pound ground beef (I use Publix market beef or you can use ground round)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/2 cup cornflake crumbs
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon Hungarian sweet paprika
1 tablespoon coarse black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
crushed red pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons ground mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
4-26 oz. cans Hunt's garlic and herb pasta sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and lightly spray the bottom of two casserole dishes, preferably the aluminum 9x13 size with deep sides.

Loosen up the ricotta by mixing it with the eggs.  Then combine all the ingredients except for the pasta sauce, in a very large bowl, take off your rings, and start mixing.  When everything is well mixed, take a small portion of the meat, form a very small patty and cook it in a pan.  Taste the cooked meat and make any seasoning adjustments to the meat mixture in the bowl.

Using a 3/4 cup measure, divide the meat into 16 portions.  Form the meatballs, and place eight in each of the prepared pans.  Place in the oven, uncovered, for 15 minutes.  Remove, carefully turn the meatballs over, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, heat the pasta sauce.  Ladle half the sauce into each pan of baked meatballs, cover with aluminum foil, lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees, and return the pans to the oven for 45 minutes.  Check for doneness with a thermometer - it should register 165 degrees internal temperature.  Add more time as needed to finish the meatballs.

Then eat your one meatball with as much bread as you like ... garlic bread for me.

Not Vegetarian Chick Pea Chili

I am trying to organize my recipe collection.  Over 40 years of scraps of paper scribbled in someone else's handwriting, recipe cards featuring pictures of cornucopia and matronly chickens, photostats from hundreds of cookbooks, printouts from food websites and blogs like this one.  I had one rather successful organization in 1990, using a very rudimentary program to type up and print out most of my recipes, but I never finished it and then things got out of control.  Still, I have all of those recipes, printed out and slipped into sheet protectors and clipped into a couple of extra-large ring binders, to use as a starting point for my ambitious project.  

Not only that, but I have a serious cookbook collection (and that's after weeding out the books I did not use or want anymore) and I have favorite recipes in most of them.  Okay, the truth is that I really want to leave a culinary legacy for my son.  And that means finding all of those favorite cookbook recipes, copying them, and adding them to the ring binders.  

Which means going through all of these cookbooks.  As well as the ones further to the left that didn't fit into the photo.  And the ones on the kitchen counter.  Also those on my night table, in my car, in my office, and on my Kindle reader.  

Going through those books was like opening up a whole lot of presents on Christmas morning.  In addition to the tried and true favorites, I was finding a new generation of recipes that I wanted to try.  This particular recipe, found in a book I must have purchased a good 15 years ago, caught my eye because of it's unabashed inclusion of garbanzo beans.  That was all it took for me to buy the ingredients and test it on my willing family, after I made some substantive changes to suit their taste. 

I realize that sounds kind of nervy, but have you ever read the reviews of online recipes?  The ones that start out "I love this recipe, and so did my husband!  I just substituted shallots for the red onion, and at the end I added nonfat yogurt instead of creme fraiche and I didn't have pork in the house so I used chicken and it was wonderful and thank you for sharing  your recipe."  Read enough of the reviews and you will realize there is an awful lot of tweaking (not twerking) going on, especially among us old cooking dinosaurs (definitely no twerking!)  For us, someone else's recipe is a framework, a suggestion, an idea that has not yet risen to full fruition.

It's not a great picture of the finished product, but when you see the turmeric in the recipe, you'll understand.  It really is quite delicious, and tastes best without any kind of topping or condiment.  But if you just have to pile on the cheese, sour cream, chopped onions, sliced black olives, and homemade guacamole, don't let me stop you.

Not Vegetarian Chick Pea Chili

2 1/4 pounds beef chuck, cut into very small pieces (carne picada, available in Walmart)

2 tablespoons Emeril's Essence

2 large onions (or 1 very large Vidalia), chopped

2 celery ribs, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

1 large sweet green pepper, chopped

1 large sweet red pepper, chopped

1 Anaheim chili, seeded, ribs removed, and chopped*

6 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

2 tablespoons McCormick Dark Chili Powder

2 tablespoons Badia Polvo de Chili Powder

2 tablespoons granulated garlic

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons paprika (preferably Hungarian)

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons molasses

1/2 cup dry red wine

1-28 oz. can diced tomatoes

1-10 oz. can Ro-Tel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilis (mild or hot)

1-16 oz. can red kidney beans, drained

1-16 oz. can garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained

1-2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

Season the beef with Emeril's Essence and set aside.   Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large deep pan.  Add the onion, celery, sweet peppers, Anaheim pepper, and garlic, and sauté just to soften the vegetable.  Add the beef and cook, stirring constantly, until beef is no longer pink.  Drain off any fat and return to the pan.  Stir in all of the remaining ingredients except for the sherry vinegar.  Bring to a boil.  Cover the pan, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for an hour and a half.

After an hour, taste the chili and reseason to taste.  At the end of another half hour, add the sherry vinegar.  Taste and add more if needed.

*Anaheim chili peppers grown in New Mexico are a lot hotter than those grown in California.  You can also add some heat to the chili by leaving the ribs and seeds intact.