A Picnic Pea Salad

I don't recall where or when I came across this pea salad.  I do know it's pretty old because I typed the recipe out on an IBM Selectric.  The salad's a nice diversion from the usual stand-by's of potato salad and black-eyed-pea salad that I seem to gravitate to when asked to bring a salad to the picnic or pot luck.  I made this recently for a family get-together over Labor Day weekend.

I refer to it as a pea salad but there are other goodies in here too, like french cut green beans, shoe peg corn, pimientos, bell pepper, celery, red onion.  Just a note about the onion....this year the red onions I've bought have been e.x.t.r.e.m.e.l.y potent.  I used half the called for amount and diced them a little tinier than the other vegetables.



All of the vegetables are mixed together in a large bowl and tossed with a sweet mixture of white vinegar, vegetable oil, sugar, salt and pepper.




It's a great make-ahead recipe.  In fact, I start mine two days prior to serving. The dressing is cooked and needs to be cooled before mixing it with the vegetables.  I like to chill it in the refrigerator overnight.

Then, once the salad is mixed together the flavors meld nicely when refrigerated overnight.

The next morning you don't have to worry about preparing anything but yourself for the party!  Just grab it from the 'fridge and go!

Picnic Pea Salad
Serves 12

Ingredients:
For the Dressing -
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper

For the Vegetable Mixture -
4 ribs celery
1 red bell pepper
1 medium sized red onion
1 - 4 ounce jar diced pimientos
1 - 16 ounce can Lesueur sweet peas
1 - 16 ounce can French style green beans
1 - 12 ounce can white shoepeg corn

Mise en place:

• Just go a-head on (as they say in West Texas)  to the "Method".  Once you've prepared all of your ingredients they're dumped in their respective receptacles as you go anyway!

Method:
Measure out all ingredients for the Dressing into a small saucepan.  Stir the ingredients as you bring them to a boil.  Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.  Refrigerate overnight if desired. 

Dice celery, bell pepper, and onion (mine are usually ~ 3/8") and transfer to a large mixing bowl.  Drain the pimientos, peas, green beans & corn and dump in the mixing bowl.

Gently fold to combine all of the vegetables (better done with hands).

Pour the cooled dressing over the vegetables and gently fold to mix.  Transfer to a storage container with lid and refrigerate overnight.

The longer the salad marinates, the better the flavor.

Poblano Cauliflower Gratin

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that is either loved or hated.  Myself, I love it.  I usually toss some in a steam basket then toss with butter, salt and pepper and I'm happy.  So, when I come across a recipe for cauliflower that lets me take it a little further I'm all over it.

I found the recipe on Rick Bayless' website and selected it to share for I Heart Cooking Clubs July Potluck.  I really liked the ingredients in this recipe.

Cauliflower, poblanos, cream, cheese, butter, and shallots.

I would put the recipe in the easy category.  You'll get to practice some basic kitchen techniques like blanching the cauliflower and roasting peppers.  I like to roast mine right over an open flame on the range top.  Get them nice and blistered on all sides.

Once they are nice and charred, I put them in a plastic bag, close it and let them be for about 10 to 15 minutes.  They'll steam which will make them easier to peel.  The skin should slide right off.

Once peeled and seeded (please wear food gloves for this) you'll pureé in the food processor until it's smooth.  This is going to be a great part of the sauce and it's such a beautiful green!

To get the sauce started you sauté the shallots

Make a roux by adding the flour.  Be sure to cook the flour for a couple of minutes so the sauce doesn't have a doughy flavor.

You'll slowly add the cream (I like to warm my cream first) and whisk it in until it's smooth.  Then, stir in your cheese.  This recipe called for a Mexican queso anejo but I could not find that specific cheese.  Rick mentions that you can substitute with Romano or Parmesan.  I used Parmesan.

Lastly, stir in your Poblano pureé.

Slowly let it return to a boil and continue stirring until the sauce thickens.  Remove it from the heat and add the salt.

Gently fold the sauce into the blanched, cooled and dried cauliflower florets.

Pour all into a lightly greased casserole and sprinkle with a topping made of chopped almonds (I used blanched), panko crumbs and a little olive oil.

Bake in a 400° F. oven for 15 to 20 minutes until bubbly and the topping has browned nicely.  When you take it out of the oven you get to sprinkle the top with extra grated cheese.  Yum.

The gratin turned out to be creamy with a crunchy topping thanks to the panko and almonds.  The hint of poblano put it over the top. 

Rick suggests, and I would agree, that this would make a great dish to take to a potluck dinner because you can make it ahead of time and it only takes 20 minutes in the oven.

A couple of added notes here...
I had a bit of this for lunch today and it does great as a leftover!  The cauliflower stayed nice and firm; not mushy.  Also, I think I might very lightly roast my almonds before chopping them; not too much because I don't want them to get too brown during baking.


Cauliflower Gratin
Adapted from Rick Bayless' Test Kitchen
Serves 8

Ingredients:
3 pounds cauliflower
2 large (8 ounces) poblano peppers
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup diced shallots
1 Tbsp. flour
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Mexican queso anejo or other garnishing cheese such as Romano or Parmesan + 3 Tbsp cheese for final topping
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
1 Tbsp olive oil

Mise en place:

• Lightly oil and 11 x 7 casserole dish
• rinse and cut cauliflower into bite-size florets
• roast poblanos and place in plastic bag
• dice shallots
• grate cheese
• chop almonds (by hand or food processor)
• measure out butter, flour, cream, salt, panko crumbs and olive oil

Method:
Preheat oven to 400°F.  Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil and scoop in the cauliflower florets.  Blanch for 4-5 minutes until just tender.  Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.  Spread onto towels and let the florets dry completely.

Remove the poblanos from the plastic bag and, wearing food gloves, peel and seed the peppers.  Pureé in a food processor until smooth.

In a 4 quart saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Once the butter has melted, add the shallots and cook for several minutes or until the shallots have softened.  Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 2 minutes to make sure that the flour has cooked.  Whisk in the heavy cream slowly so you don't get lumps in your sauce.  Then stir in the queso anejo (or other cheese) and the poblano pureé.  Bring the mixture back to a boil and continue stirring until the sauce has thickened.  Remove it from the heat, season with 1 tsp salt.

Place the cauliflower florets into a large mixing bowl.  Pour the sauce over and gently toss to coat.  Scrape the mixture into the prepared casserole dish.

For the topping:
In a small mixing bowl, mix together 1/2 cup panko crumbs, 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds and 1 Tbsp. of olive oil.

Spread evenly over top of casserole and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  Remove the casserole from the oven and sprinkle top with remaining 3 Tbsp grated cheese.

I'm sharing this recipe at IHCC

Potato Stuffed Puff Pastry Squares

If you are looking for a nice side dish, especially for a chicken entree, I think you will like this one.  It would also be nice for brunch served alongside a tossed salad.

It's seasoned to pair well with poultry, it's not difficult to prepare and can be prepared ahead of time, it's filling, and will give your plate an elegant flare.

This clipping was pulled from a Winter of 1997 Penzey's spice catalogue.  The ingredients call for Italian Herb Mix.  If you don't have one already you can always make your own.  You have a wide choice of herbs to pick from; oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, sage, and rosemary.  You don't have to have all of those in your blend; in fact, for this particular recipe, if your rosemary is not finely ground I would omit rosemary from your blend.  There just isn't enough cooking time and moisture in this to soften the rosemary; you don't want to bite into what feels like tough pieces  of grass.  It's a texture thing with me.

One suggestion might be 2 tsp. each of basil, marjoram and oregano and 1 tsp. of sage.  Blend that together and you'll use 2 tsp. of the blend in the recipe.

A very important step in this recipe is to eliminate the moisture from the potato and broccoli mixture once they are tender.  The last thing you want is an overly moist, runny stuffing.

There are leeks and mushrooms that nicely flavor the stuffing.

Throw the leek & mushrooms in with the potato/broccoli mixture along with the herbs, part of the milk & Parmesan cheese.

Grab a potato masher and take your pent up frustrations out on your stuffing.  I like it somewhat chunky but you can make it as smooth as you like.

Placing the stuffing and fontina on the pastry squares

 Sealed, painted with the egg-milk mixture and ready for the oven.

 Notes:
See how I shaped the mounds of stuffing into a round mound?  You can also make them square.

I had a good 1/2 cup of filling left over.  I could have used a little more in each square but the recipe suggested to err on the side of too little stuffing.  So I erred.

I was afraid the filling was going to be too dry, but the fontina added just the right amount of moisture and flavor.

Make only what you need.  Puff pastry is just not the same as a leftover.

Potato Stuffed Puff Pastry Squares
Adapted from Penzey's
Serves 4


Ingredients:
1 lb. (2 sheets) puff pastry, frozen
1 medium potato
1/2 cup broccoli stems
2 tsp. Italian herb mix
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1 Tbsp. water
1/4 lb. mushrooms (a large handful)
1 regular-sized leek
2 tsp. olive oil
4 Tbsp. milk, divided
2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 lb. fontina cheese
1 egg


Mise en place:

• remove puff pastry sheets from the box and inner bag, let thaw at room temperature while preparing stuffing
• peel & quarter potatoes
• peel the stems (also known as 'trunks' when I was a wee lass) of the broccoli and chop into small pieces
• combine the herb mix, garlic & water and set aside
• with a paper towel, wipe mushrooms clean and roughly chop
• slice the leek in half lengthwise.  Peeling back layers, rinse thoroughly to remove any sand.  Slice white part only into thin slices
• measure out 2 Tbsp. milk
• grate Parmesan cheese
• slice fontina in 1/4" thick slices
• beat egg in small dish with remaining 2 Tbsp. milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 400°F.  Cook potato in boiling salted water until tender, about 10 minutes.  Toss the broccoli pieces in with the potatoes during the last 5 minutes of the potato's cooking time.

In a large fry pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and leeks.  Cook, stirring, until the mushrooms and leeks are soft and just a bit golden, (about 4 minutes), remove from heat.

Drain the water from the potato and broccoli.  Cover pan with a lid and let dry over low heat for a minute.  Remove the pan from the heat.  Add the mushroom/leek mixture, the 2 Tbsp. reserved milk, Parmesan cheese, the herb mixture, salt & pepper.

Mash with a hand masher until the desired consistency is reached (a little chunky is nice, but you can make it totally creamy if you like).  Let cool a bit.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper so the pastries don't stick during baking.

Lightly flour a work surface large enough to spread out the two sheets of puff pastry.  Lay the pastry out, sprinkle with flour and roll lightly with a rolling pin just to even out the creases.  Turn the pastries over, sprinkling a bit more flour on the work surface if the dough seems to be sticking.  Divide each large square into four equal smaller squares.

Place a large spoonful of the stuffing mixture in the middle of four of the pastry squares, leaving the outer inch of pastry bare.  Top each mound of stuffing with two slices of fontina cheese each.

Working with one square at a time, brush a bit of the egg-milk mix around the outside edge of the dough (using a pastry brush), and place another square on top, gently molding the square around the top and base of the stuffing.  Run your finger around the outside edge to seal the two pieces of dough together.  The object is to have as much stuffing on the inside as possible, without having so much that you can't get a good seal on the dough and the filling oozes out during cooking.

After filling, topping, and lightly sealing the edges of all four squares, press for tines around the edges in a nice pattern, making a good seal.  Poke a hole in the top with the fork, then brush the entire top sheet with the egg-milk mixture.

Using a spatula, place the pastries on the baking sheet and into the oven for about fifteen minutes, until golden brown.

Remove the pan from the oven and the pastries from the pan, using a spatula, then let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Greek Macaroni-Spinach Casserole

The clipping today is from an issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.

 Start with assembling all of your ingredients.  Elbow macaroni, butter, olive oil, ground beef, onion, garlic, salt, allspice, pepper, canned tomatoes, frozen spinach, milk, eggs, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and

 crumbled feta cheese.  I guess this is the "Greek" portion of the recipe.

The first thing you want to do is cook your macaroni, toss it with the melted butter and set it aside.

For the meat sauce, sauté the beef, onion and garlic; then add your spices, tomatoes and water.  While this simmers for about 20 minutes you can begin to assemble your casserole.

Layer half of the macaroni on the bottom of a greased baking dish.  Spread with all of the spinach and the feta on top of that.  Layer the remaining half of the macaroni.
 

Spoon the meat mixture on top.  Spoon the mixture of milk, eggs and Parmesan over the top of the meat sauce then sprinkle with the bread crumbs.  Pop in your preheated oven for about half an hour then let it rest before serving.

My thoughts:  This is not a bad little recipe.  It is definitely a stick-to-your ribs dish.  Serve with a tossed salad it makes a nice meal.  This would also be a good recipe that you could assemble the night before and pop it in the oven when you get home from the office.

If I make it again I would increase the macaroni to 12 ounces.  I used ground tenderloin because that's what I had in the freezer and I think it made it a little greasy.  This recipe would benefit from using a 90% lean ground sirloin.

Here's the recipe

Greek Macaroni-Spinach Casserole

Serves 8 

Ingredients:

1 pkg (8 oz) elbow macaroni

1/4 cup melted butter or margarine

2 Tbsp. salad or olive oil

1 lb. ground beef or lamb

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp. salt

Dash allspice

Dash pepper

1 can (1 lb) whole tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup water

2 pkg (10 oz-size) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup bread crumbs

Mise en Place

• Measure out your macaroni, olive oil, spices, water, feta, & milk
• Melt butter
• chop onion
• peel and crush garlic
• drain spinach and squeeze dry (get as much liquid out as possible)
• open your tomatoes and crush with a fork in the can
• grate Parmesan & measure
• grind up fresh bread crumbs & measure

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 12" x 8' baking dish.  Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain.  toss with melted butter and set aside.

In a large sauté pan, sauté beef, onion and garlic in oil, stirring, over medium heat until meat is browned.  Add salt, allspice, pepper, tomatoes and water.  Bring to boiling; simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.

Layer half the macaroni on bottom of prepared dish.  Spread with spinach; sprinkle feta over spinach.  Layer with remaining macaroni; spoon meat sauce over the top.

In small bowl, beat together milk, eggs and Parmesan cheese.  Pour over meat sauce.  sprinkle with bread crumbs.  Bake 30 minutes.  Remove to rack to cool 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Leslie’s Favorite Chicken-And-Wild Rice Casserole

This recipe is out of an issue of Southern Living; date unknown.  It was submitted by  Leslie Flemister from Dunwoody, Georgia.

 C. selected this clipping for our dinner this evening.  Since it’s just the two of us, I halved the recipe and it halved very well.  Leslie notes that the recipe freezes well; up to 1 month. Although I halved the recipe, I have given you the recipe below for the whole recipe that yields 6 to 8 servings.

Here are the cast of characters for today’s clipping.  Milk, sour cream, water chestnuts, onion, cheddar cheese, cooked chicken, celery, wild rice mix,  & mushroom soup.

Begin by melting some butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Sauté the onion, celery and water chestnuts.

Stir in the rice (as well as the seasoning packet), the chicken & part of the cheese.

I’d like to add a note about the chicken here.  The recipe calls for 5 cups of chopped cooked chicken.  You can do this a couple of ways.  If you are in need of some good broth to freeze you can boil your own chicken (don’t forget to add all of those flavorful additions like celery, carrots, onion and a little garlic).  Or, you can do what I chose to do today and that was to buy a plain roasted chicken from the neighborhood store’s deli department.

I boned the chicken and shredded the meat.  It easily yielded the 5 cups that the recipe calls for.  I can’t emphasize enough here how fabulous it is to wear food gloves to bone the chicken.  Once you are through and toss the gloves your hands are so nice and clean.  There is nothing nastier than greasy, poultry fat hands.

Add the soup mixture and stir to combine.

Transfer the mixture to a lightly greased casserole dish.  You can top it with the breadcrumbs if you like; I elected to leave them off.

Bake for 30 minutes then top with the rest of the cheese and bake for 5 more minutes.

It proved to be a tasty dinner.  It produced a creamy texture with a pleasant crunchiness from the water chestnuts.   This casserole pairs nicely with a crisp dinner salad and a chilled Pinot Grigio.  That’s all you need for this easy dinner.  We enjoyed it very much.  Thank you Leslie!

Leslie’s Favorite Chicken-and-Wild Rice Casserole

Yields 6 to 8 servings; Prep: 30 minutes; Bake:  35 minutes

Ingredients:

2 (6.2 ounce) packages fast-cooking long-grain & wild rice mix

¼ C. butter or margarine

2 medium onions, chopped

4 celery ribs, chopped

2 (8 ounce) cans sliced water chestnuts, drained

5 cups chopped cooked chicken

4 cups (1 pound) shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided

2 (10-3/4 ounce) cans cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

2 (8 ounce) containers sour cream

1 cup milk

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

½ cup soft breadcrumbs (optional)

Mise en place:

·         chop onions and celery

·         drain water chestnuts

·         shred or chop chicken

·         shred cheese and divide

·         whisk together the soup, sour cream, milk, salt & pepper

Method:

·   Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add onion, celery, and water chestnuts.  Sauté 10 minutes or until tender.

·   Stir in rice, season packet, chicken, & 3 cups of the cheese.  Gently mix.  Add soup mixture and gently mix.

·   Pour into a lightly greased 15 x 10 inch baking dish or a 4-quart casserole.  Top with breadcrumbs, if desired.

·   Bake casserole at 350° for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese, and bake 5 more minutes.

NOTE:  Casserole may be frozen up to 1 month.  Let stand at room temperature 1 hour.  Bake, covered at 350° for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake 55 more minutes.  Sprinkle with cheese, and bake 5 more minutes.