LTHForum.com

Just going to start this off early for those who need to know, even though it spoils the surprise a bit:

Lengua a la vinagreta (de Abuelita Elena)

1 Beef, veal or lamb tongue (I use beef because it's bigger and cheaper and truthfully have never tried veal or lamb)
1 carrot in chunks
1 onion peeled and cut in 8ths
2 green onions or leeks in chunks
1 stalk celery in chunks
Parsley sprigs
1 tsp salt for every 2 cups water (water to cover)

Dump everything into a crock-pot and cook until tender (check for tenderness when the skin begins to crack and peel), about 6-8 hours on medium, depending on your crock-pot. Alternately, simmer on stove top for about two hours. Remove the tongue. Pour some of the liquid and veg into a very large refrigerator-safe container (leaving room to eventually submerge tongue) and refrigerate. Peel the skin off the tongue (a paring knife will help with this job - but if it isn't fairly easy, it isn't cooked enough) and replace it in the court bouillon, refrigerating until completely chilled (for food safety, you may want to quick-chill the bouillon using ice in ziploc bags.) Drain, discarding bouillon. Slice the tongue in thin medallions, and cover with vinaigrette sauce. Replace in refrigerator. Ideally, should be served at room temp, but be careful to follow food safety standards!

Vinaigrette sauce (I always double it anyway to have extra for dipping bread, so this is twice what my mother would make for one tongue)

18 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped capers
4 chopped HB eggs
1 1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cup wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
black pepper to taste

_________________
No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

Smoked Buttermilk Brine Chicken

2 quarts water
2 quarts buttermilk
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar

Dissolve kosher salt and brown sugar in small amount of warm water before adding cold water and buttermilk.
Add to brine mix, jalapeno, onion, BBQ rub and hot sauce.
Brine 6 hours for halved chicken, less for pieces.

=-

Make a 1/2-fire in WSM, in other words, only fill charcoal pan to the middle
instead of the top of the ring.

2-3 fist size chunks of wood

NO Waterpan in WSM

Rinse chicken with water, apply rub or compound butter under skin if desired.

Cook skin up for 45-minutes. If not done brush skin with olive oil and flip.
Do not cook more than 10-15 minutes skin down or it will burn.

Chicken should be juicy, flavorful and have a nice crispy skin.

_________________
Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

* 1 cup butter or margarine
* 1/2 cup peanut butter
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/3 cup honey
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, sift before measuring
* 2 tsp baking powder
* dash of salt
* 1 1/2 cups rolled oats, old-fashioned or quick-cooking
* 1 cup flaked coconut

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars; beat in egg, syrup, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; beat into creamed mixture until blended; stir in oats and coconut. Drop by teaspoons onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes.

_________________
As a mattra-fact, Pie Face, you are beginning to look almost human. - Barbara Bennett

My salsa has been on the site for a while

MrsF's pecan pie recipe is primarily from Cook's Illustrated, with more pecans than prescribed, and unwritten modifications that I'm not sure she'll even tell me.

_________________
What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

roasted tomato tarts:

- a whole lotta cherry tomatoes roasted with olive oil at 300 degrees for 2 hours
- shallot marmalade made by chopping lotsa shallots, sauteeing slowly with some butter, salt and pepper, then adding a few tablespoons of white wine vinegar after about 90 minutes and cooking it till it evaporates
- some chopped fresh oregano
- prepared frozen puff pastry, defrosted

Coat small muffin tins with olive oil. Place a few roasted tomatoes in each tin, then a touch of shallot marmalade and a light sprinkle of chopped oregano. Top with a puff pastry round (cut with the top of my water glasses, the round fits perfectly in the muffin tins) and bake at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes - until golden brown. Remove, let cool a few minutes. Place a large plate or board over muffin tins and carefully invert the whole thing. Tarts should fall out pretty smoothly.

Sweet and Sour Coleslaw

ingredients
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons canola oil
2 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seeds

1 medium cabbage (about 1 1/4 pounds) shredded
2 large carrots - shredded
1/2 bulb fresh fennel shredded

preparation

Combine vinegar, sugar, oil, mustard and celery seeds in nonaluminum medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and dressing comes to boil. Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper. Cool completely.
Combine cabbage, carrots and fennel in large bowl. Add dressing; toss to coat. Cover; refrigerate until cold, tossing occasionally, at least 2 hours.

Hummos (made at my home by me) As long as no one dips his/her pita into the stuff directly, it should be gluten free (chickpeas, garlic, olive oil, lemon, sesame tahini, garlic, cumin, cayenne, garlic). The tahini ingredients say "ground sesame seeds" - made in a facility that may handle peanuts and tree nuts, the canned chickpeas say they have calcium chloride, sodium sulfite and calcium disodium EDTA. While I can not guarantee gluten free, due to free floating molecules of flour or bread or whatever, I did this before I did the pie crust.

Apple Pie
Crust ingredients -
Flour, Salt, Sugar, Butter, Water, cinnamon
Filling ingredients
Apples, Lemon Juice, Cinnamon, Corn Starch, Salt, Sugar

I would venture that my food is not peanut free since we use a lot of peanut butter for dog pacification....

_________________
Leek
SAVING ONE DOG MAY NOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT IT CHANGES THE WORLD FOR THAT ONE DOG.
American Brittany Rescue always needs foster homes. Please think about helping that one dog.
http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org

Ah my husband LOVES chicken done this way

_________________
Leek
SAVING ONE DOG MAY NOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT IT CHANGES THE WORLD FOR THAT ONE DOG.
American Brittany Rescue always needs foster homes. Please think about helping that one dog.
http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org

As a response to all these posts, I feel I must add Can't wait for tomorrow!

_________________
No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

The recipe for nammoorah (semolina cake) I'm using is slightly adapted from the one in Lebanese Cuisine by Anissa Helou. I won't give the procedure -- the book is well worth purchasing if you want to make the recipe!

The ingredients however are:
semolina
butter
sugar
yogurt
baking soda
lemon juice
rose water
orange flower water

South Carolina Mustard Barbecue Sauce:
(G Wiv's version 6.11.04)

2/3 cup yellow prepared mustard
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon ancho powder
1 tablespoon chipotle powder
1 tablespoon guajullo powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
(I add crushed red pepper and, if I want it even hotter,
I use fresh ground piquins)
1/2 teaspoon Louisiana style hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon butter

Combine all ingredients except soy sauce and butter in saucepan and
simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in soy sauce and butter.
May be used as a basting sauce for barbecue meat or as a condiment.

Gary Wiviott

_________________
Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

WORLD'S BEST BAKED BEANS

For every one pound of dried baby limas (after soaking and cooking) add one cup each of bottled chili sauce (Heinz preferred), ketchup, Crisco, and dark brown sugar. Bake at 350 for 3-3.5 hours. Result: the best baked beans in the world. Said to serve 10-12 but I know better.

_________________
Gypsy Boy

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?” (Julia Child)

GF crust:
Rice flour
Tapioca starch
Potato starch
Sorghum flour
Sweet rice flour
baking powder
salt
Sugar
vinegar
egg
shortening
butter
water

Pie:
5 pounds apples - Pink Lady's, Gala, and Granny Smith
Sugar
Brown sugar
lemon juice
lemon zest
corn starch
cinnamon
mace
ginger
eggwhite (wash)

I just realized that I absolutely missed that Pigmon is bringing this. My apologies in advance for missing that.

Olive oil
4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, 1/8 inch slice
2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced

Oil large baking sheet. Layer potatoes, onions, and oil, with some salt, on baking sheet. Bake at 350 about 45 minutes while you cook something else. Remove, cool.

6" cast iron pan, more olive oil
2 dozen medium eggs (they were on sale) - if you use large ones, you'd need only 16-18, I'd guess

Beat 6 eggs
Add a bit of salt
Add 1/4 of potatoes and onions into egg and set in fridge for 5-10 minutes
Heat pan with 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil on medium high heat
Add egg mixture and reduce heat to medium
After a few minutes, carefully loosen eggs from sides and bottom to make sure it's not sticking. Then turn heat down a bit more and cover pan.
When eggs are set about 2/3 to 3/4, place plate on pan and flip out omelette. Clean pan if needed, add 1 teaspoon of oil, heat, then pour in liquidy eggs first, then carefully set omelette on top, ensuring you "tuck" the sides down. Jiggle with a spatula to get runny eggs down to pan. Turn heat to medium or medium low, cover. Wait until set.

Take out, set on plate and start next set. This amount will do 4 6" frying pans or two 10" or 12" frying pans. It's a little easier doing small frying pans in terms of flipping than large ones, though it does take more time as you have to do more batches.

Costillas de Puerco en Chile Guajillo y Chile Morita
Recipe by Veloute

1 package (11ish) dried chiles guajillo, stemmed, seeded, torn into pieces
6-8 chile morita, stemmed, seeded, torn into pieces
5 cups very hot water
8 garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano (or more to taste)
2 teaspoons fine sea salt (or more to taste)
8 ounces tomato sauce
4 pounds costillas de puerco (pork ribs cut into pieces)

1. Preheat oven to 450* F. Spread costillas on one layer on a jelly roll pan or another type that can be deglazed. Season with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and brown well (about 35 minutes).

2. Heat heavy large skillet over medium-high heat 2 minutes. Turn pan to low . Working in batches add chile pieces; cook just until chiles blister, pressing with metal spatula and turning occasionally, about 30 seconds. Transfer chiles to bowl; add 5 cups very hot water. Soak chiles until very tender, pushing occasionally to submerge, about 30 minutes. I soak the chile guajillo in a separate bowl from the chile morita. Remove the chiles from the soaking liquid and place in a blender and dispose of soaking liquid.

3. Remove costillas from the pan(s) and deglaze pan(s) with 1/2 to 1 cup water or as much as needed. Set aside.

4. Puree the chiles guajillo, garlic, salt, Mexican oregano with the deglazed liquid in a blender. Add as much tomato sauce as needed to reduce the spiciness. Taste for seasoning.

5. Preheat oven to 300*F. Sauté the chile mixture in a dutch oven or another oven safe pan with lid. Bring to a boil. Taste for seasoning. Add the meat making sure that each piece is at least partially covered with the sauce. Cover the pan with parchment paper, top with the lid and place in the oven.

6. Braise until the meat is tender 1-2 hours stirring occasionally. You may need to add additional water to keep the majority of the ribs at least partially covered. If the liquid is too thin after braising, remove the meat and reduce the sauce until it coats the back of a spoon.

Serve with rice, beans, corn tortillas and avocado.

Edited to add that like most braised dishes these are best when made a couple of days before eating. To reheat I slowly simmered them on the stove for an hour.

Chicken Tikka

1 lb. chicken breast fillets, cubed
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

mix it up and let marinate two hours or overnight. Skewer and grill. Garnish with lime wedges and onion, sliced into thin rings.

this was easy to multiply (I did this one x 6 for the picnic)

_________________
Joe G.

"Whatever may be wrong with the world, at least it has some good things to eat." -- Cowboy Jack Clement

Sphinx Pie - for a 9" pie

Filling
2 cups skinned, seeded and sliced green tomatoes
3 cups Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2/3 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp flour*
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp allspice
2 tbsp butter

Mix first 8 ingredients (I do this in a ziploc bag; you can judge if you have enough apple by putting the bag inside your pie pan) Pour into prepared piecrust; dot with butter, top with vented top crust (make sure some vents are near edge). Bake at 425 oven for 50-60 minutes.

Piecrust (enough for 10" 2-crust pie, so you can freeze extra)
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup stick shortening, 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp butter, frozen overnight
6 tbsp water

Measure dry ingredients and combine with whisk. Using the large side of a box grater, grate the frozen shortening and butter into the flour, periodically tossing to combine. Add water a few tbsps at a time (I use my hands to combine - since the fat is frozen hard, the heat from your hands isn't as big of an issue) just until the dough comes together. Divide in half; roll each half out to between 1/4" and 1/8" thick (I drew a circle about 2" larger than my pie pan on parchment paper as a guide)

*Liquidity of green tomatoes is hard to judge - Mhays' watery pie cheat: using your edge vents and extreme caution, pour off excess liquid from hot pie into a saucepan. Reduce over high heat until thick and caramelized. Pour back into pie through open pie vents.

_________________
No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

I would like to request from Cookie Monster for the recipe -- or a reference to the original recipe -- for the Cheesecake Brownies. I snuck one out with MrsF's pie plate, and she adored it. Me, I can skip cheesecake brownies (gets in the way of the chocolate), but she's a big fan of them in general, always looking for another variation.

_________________
What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

I really enjoyed Trixie-Peas Chili, which she served with a Mother In-Law casserole. What sold me on her chili, aside from the multidimensional flavor, was how closely she nailed the look of Chicago diner style/Hormel all meat chili. You look at it and go ~eh~, taste and go Wow.

The following is loosely transcribed from conversation with Trixie-Pea and Pigmon during a post picnic Sunday morning breakfast at San Soo Gap San.

Chili in the style of Ramova / Hormel
By Trixie-Pea / Kristina Meyer

Served with Mother In-Law Casserole

Both dishes brought to the LTHForum '07 Picnic

2-lbs Beef Shoulder Ground
3 Sweet Italian sausages out of the case

Saute until soft
Garlic, onion, poblano, serrano, jalapano, in vegetable oil

Fry and seed ancho pepper
rehydrate, puree, and fry with the fresh veg above.

Cumin (ground from the spice house)
Bouillon cube chicken (Goya powder)
1 pack of Goya Sazon with annato
bit of dry cayenne powder

Add meat, do NOT brown, this gives the chili the characteristic 'Hormel' look.

Salt to taste, you need to add more than you think. (pepper?)

Add one small can tomato puree
spice house tomato powder ("for brightness")
pinch of cinnamon
1-clove

Add a tiny bit of water to "perk"

Let Stew

_________________
Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

My refrence would be to go to Maida Heatter's cookbook. The portions that I do have 20 pounds of dough at the bakery. Let me know if MrsF found it, if not I will copy it out of my book.
and send it to you. I am glad that everyone enjoyed it.

_________________
Cookie Monster

Kenny,

I'm planning on making these this weekend. Did you roast the tomatoes whole and let them burst or did you cut them in half first?

Thanks,
M

M,

I've done it both ways. When not sure how much time I have, I cut 'em. If I know I can wait as long as it takes for them to burst, I do prefer to do it that way. To me, the longer and slower the cooking, the better. In fact, if I had all day I'd probably cook them at 250 instead of 300.

K

_________________
...defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions." Screwtape in The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

Fuckerberg on Food

I have two recipes for roasted tomatoes. Both sprinkle herbs, salt, sugar and olive oil on halved roma tomatoes. One roasts for three hours at (temp forgotten, probably 250-300), the other for ten at 170F. I chose the latter, got something close to oil-packed sun-dried in texture.

_________________
What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

The tarts were a great success, Kenny. I really like this recipe, but I think I like the basic technique even more. Upside-down puff-pastry tarts is a pretty extensible technique that I plan on using quite often.

Best,
Michael

Glad it worked out. I'm a huge fan of the approach, as it's so easy to make a large volume of tarts. I've used the same technique successfully with caramelized onions, mushrooms, apples, and peaches. The possibilities are endless.

_________________
...defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions." Screwtape in The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

Fuckerberg on Food