Original Recipes|Baking|Cooking|Cookbook|Learn to Cook|Bake

Chunky Potato Salad

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:25:40 -0400

I was planning a summer supper. When it's really hot I don't like to heat up the kitchen by having the stove or oven on before guests arrive. So, I planned to do everything ahead of time and have a cold, help-yourself, salad buffet.

Along with this chunky potato salad, we had chopped romaine lettuce with several different dressings available, chopped tomatoes, onions, etc. along with cold cuts and a Southwestern black bean salad. There was also bread, butter, cheese and other condiments available.

To save even more work, we used paper plates, on plastic charged plates to make them more sturdy, and used plastic knives and forks to make clean up a breeze! The meal was served on the deck so we had a beautiful view of the sunset over the ocean.

Now, for potato salad, I prefer to use small red potatoes. Then you would just have to halve or quarter them. And, they would make the salad more colorful. However, I only had Russet potatoes available to me, so I used them and it worked just fine. By chunky I mean about 1 inch cubes.

Add 3 quarts salted water to large pot and bring to a boil.
Add the cubed potatoes and cook about 7-10 minutes, just until they are fork tender. Don't over cook or they will go mushy.
Drain and cool.
In serving bowl, mix together everything but the chunky potatoes.
Add the potatoes and toss until they are well coated.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Geoff's Cherry Walnut Bread Pudding with Dark Rum Sauce

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:25:14 -0400

Geoff's mom used to make some wonderful bread pudding using a recipe that she got from her grandmother. In those days everything was homemade and the ingredients were all farm fresh.

Jump ahead to today where we are living on a small island in the Bahamas and ingredients are sometimes hard or impossible to find.

We were having some friends over for supper and Geoff decided he would do dessert. He thought his mother's bread pudding would be good but we just couldn't find the ingredients we needed. So he had to change the recipe and give it a tropical twist. One of the things we have lots of here is dark rum. So the idea of a Dark Rum Sauce just came naturally.

It was a big hit at our get together and we hope you enjoy it.

Cherry Walnut Bread Pudding

Preheat oven to 350º
Tear bread into 1/2 inch pieces. You can use store bought "squeezable" bread if that is all you have but home made Italian bread would be better.
In a medium bowl beat eggs with a fork.
Add the sugar, melted butter and spices. Then stir until sugar is dissolved.
Add the bread and break up the pieces with your fork.
Add milk and whisk the mixture with a fork until fairly smooth.
Pour about 2/3 cup each into 6 ramekins.
Add an equal amount of cherries and walnuts to each ramekin. If you add the cherries and walnuts to the milk mixture they may not get evenly distributed into the ramekins.
Bake at 350º for 35-40 minutes. You know it's done when the top no longer looks wet and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Sprinkle the top with grated nutmeg if you like.

We prefer our bread pudding cold so we make it ahead and put it in the refrigerator. If you like yours warm just pop the raw mixture into the oven when you sit down for your main course.

Dark Rum Sauce

For an extra special treat serve this dark rum sauce and give your bread pudding a Caribbean kick.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat.
Add an egg and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.
Whisk until smooth.
Add the sugar and whisk all ingredients together.
Bring to a simmer, whisking the mixture continuously until thick and creamy.
Add the dark rum and stir it in. If the mixture is now too thin reduce it by continuing to simmer until you get the right consistency.

Baked Beans

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:56:25 -0400

Over the years I have made many batches of baked beans from many different recipes. And, as usual, no single recipe satisfied my expectations.

So, that lead me to develop my own original Baked Beans recipe.

In this recipe I show the measurements in both Imperial and Metric so all my readers will be able to use the recipe easily.

I came across a really useful kitchen gadget that makes these conversions, as well as many other functions, a snap. Check out the KitchenCalc handheld calculator and the KitchenCalc Countetop calculator.

Soak the dried beans over night in 5 cups (1.2L) of water in a covered saucepan.
Drain the beans and rinse well.
Add 5 cups (1.2L) of fresh water, along with 1 tsp (5mL) of Salt, to the soaked beans. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Drain beans and rinse well.
In a greased, oven-proof casserole place half of the beans evenly on the bottom. Sprinkle with half of the onions, green peppers and bacon.
Arrange the other half of the beans on top and sprinkle with remaining onions, green peppers and bacon.
In a suitable container mix 2 Cups (500mL) of water, the tomato paste, brown sugar, molasses, 1 tsp (5mL) salt, pepper and dry mustard. Mix well.
Gently pour this mixture over the beans.
Cover and bake at 250 deg. F (120 deg. C) for 6-7 hours.
Periodically check the beans, stir and add water if needed.
Remove saucepan cover for the last half hour.
Makes approximately 6-8 servings.
Serve and top with grated cheddar cheese (optional).

The Ingredients

Place half of the beans evenly on the bottom.

Gently pour sauce mixture over the beans.

Baklava Inspired Oatmeal Squares

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:23:55 -0400

The idea for this recipe actually came from my husband, Geoff. He had a craving for something like an oatmeal cookie but a little crunchier and a little more exotic.

When he was describing it to me he said, “You know, kind of like Baklava, but not quite as sweet and with a more oatmeal-ly texture.”

Well, that got me to thinking and searching through recipes.

Baklava is a Middle Eastern desert made with phyllo pastry filled with chopped nuts and soaked in honey.

I wasn’t able to find exactly what I was looking for, or exactly what I thought he was describing, so I created my own recipe I call Baklava Inspired Oatmeal Squares.

Here’s the result and, if I do say so myself, they came out very well.

Combine all ingredients for oatmeal base in a large bowl
Mix together until all ingredients are well incorporated (I like to use my hands to mix this)
Press oatmeal base mixture into a greased 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish
Bake at 350 deg. F for 15 minutes and remove from oven
While base is baking, combine all topping ingredients, mixing well
Sprinkle Topping mix evenly over still warm oatmeal base.
In a microwave safe bowl, or measuring cup, combine all glaze ingredients, mixing well. Microwave on High for 1 minute or until bubbly.
Drizzle Glaze evenly over Topping.
Return to oven for another 15 – 20 minutes at 350 deg F.
Remove from oven and drizzle the remaining honey over squares while still hot.
Allow to cool completely and cut into squares.

Primavera Sauce

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:23:55 -0400

Roma 6" Pasta Machine

Roma Express Electric Pasta Machine

Kinetic Color Cast Enameled Cast Iron 2.6-Quart Round Roaster/Casserole with a Special Self Basting Lid

Primavera means the season spring in many of the romance languages and Primavera Sauce is made from lightly sautéed spring vegetables. Spaghetti is one of my favorite meals, my ultimate "comfort" food and a Primavera Sauce is probably the healthiest choice for a topping.

From time to time I do resort to canned or bottled spaghetti sauces. Some of them are actually quite good. However, I do prefer to make my own sauce when time permits and the ingredients are available. I’m also a big fan of veggies, so I developed this Primavera Sauce recipe to take advantage of that.

Yes, there are many Primavera Sauce recipes available. But, as usual, I was not finding exactly what I wanted, so I created my own.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

In a large pot heat the olive oil.
Add all the spices, except the salt, and sauté for a minute or two to infuse the oil with the flavor of the spices.
Add celery and onion and sauté for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the broccoli and pepper and continue to sauté.
Add the tomato paste, water, sugar and salt and stir well.
Add the chopped tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and fresh spinach. Stir well.
Add the roasted garlic cloves and fresh mushrooms.
Make sure everything is well combined. Allow sauce to come to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for an hour or more. This allows the flavors to combine.
Reheat and serve.

Sautéed Radishes

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:23:55 -0400

Mert Stainless Steel Fry Pan

Kinetic Color Cast Enameled Cast Iron 10 in Fry Pan

Universal Pre-seasoned Cast Iron 3 pc Skillet Set

I always thought that radishes were to be eaten raw – period. They were only for salads, or perhaps a little decoration. I had never, ever thought you might be able to cook them.

I’m not sure why I held this hard and fast belief. I have experimented with other things that are not normally cooked, For instance, I developed a recipe to use green papaya as a vegetable – Green Papaya Medley. Most people let this ripen and eat it as a fruit, raw. I use it green, while the flesh is still white, and cook it.

When I took some radishes from my garden to a friend the other day, she mentioned about having them cooked with butter and salt. Another friend mentioned them cooked in a cream sauce. I couldn’t even imagine cooking radishes, so the idea of them in a cream sauce just seemed very odd.

Anyway, with a bumper crop of radishes in my garden, I didn’t see how we could possibly use them all just in salads. And, we’d still have lots left even if we were giving them away.

So, I decided, as I often do, to experiment. The results were tasty, much to my surprise.

Sautéing just means to fry quickly in a little fat.

Melt butter over medium-high heat.
Sauté celery and green pepper for 4 or 5 minutes
Add the sliced radishes and toss so they get coated in butter
Sprinkle on the salt and pepper (it’s okay to be generous) and toss again
Sprinkle, or grind on, additional seasoning.
Sauté for another five minutes and serve.

My Favorite Pastry Recipe

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:48:23 -0400

I'd like to take credit for this perfect-every-time pastry recipe, but I'm afraid I just can't.

I got this recipe, the first time I used it, from a package of Tenderflake lard.

Most people won't know that brand. I believe it is a uniquely Canadian brand, so most people won't be able to find it either.

But, whether or not I can find Tenderflake lard, I still use their pastry recipe (also shown at the bottom of this page).

You Have To Use Lard

I'm sure some of you are absolutely horrified at the idea of using lard instead of a vegetable shortening. I can almost hear you calculating the amount of cholesterol, not to mention calories. But, hey, let's not pretend that pastry is a diet-friendly item anyway.

However, it has been my experience that if you want a truly flaky, tasty pastry you need to use lard.

That's not to say that the recipe won't work with a vegetable shortening, it does. There have been times when I haven't been able to find pure lard. At times I have been able to find a shortening that has both vegetable shortening and lard in it. That works fairly well. But, I've never been happy with the results when I use an all-vegetable shortening.

You Can Freeze Pastry

This recipe makes a lot of pastry, enough for six pies, or three double-crust pies, or a really large number of tart shells.

Don't worry if you're not making that many pies or tarts, this pastry freezes well.

There are recipes for a smaller batch, but I always make the large recipe and freeze what I don't need. Then, the next time I need some pastry for a recipe, I can defrost the surplus and make a dessert without much fuss or mess.

I double wrap the leftover pastry in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. To defrost it, I set it out on the counter until it softens. Don't forget that you want it to be cold when you roll it out, so if you leave it on the counter too long, just pop it in the fridge for a while to chill it down.

Basic Pastry Recipe from Tenderflake Lard

Mix together the flour and salt. Many recipes will tell you to sift the flour together with the salt. I haven't owned a flour sifter in years and usually just ignore any reference to sifting flour, or any other ingredients. I do, however, tend to use just a little less flour than they call for. After all, you can always add more if needed, but you can't take away any if you already have too much flour when you add the wet ingredients. I also like to generously flour my rolling surface, so if the dough is a bit wetter than it would normally be, so much the better.
Cut in the lard with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal or peas. I've always had difficulty with this kind of explanation so check out the pictures of what this should look like in the "Learn to Bake" section. In a one cup liquid measure combine the slightly beaten egg and the vinegar. Then add enough water to reach the one cup level. Stir to combine.
Conventional instructions say to add the liquid slowly to the flour mixture and only enough to make the dough stick together, using a fork or some other utensil to mix it. I have had great success with this pastry and what I do is add all of the liquid to the flour mixture and then get in there with my hands to mix it up. After a while you'll get to know the feel that you want so that you know when it's mixed enough. It will stick to your hands a bit but will pull off fairly easily. Make sure to get all the flour as it tends to want to sit at the bottom of the bowl.
Pastry rolls out best when it's cold, so cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put the pastry in the fridge for a while. You might also want to chill the rolling pin. Determining the amount of dough you need for a pie crust or tart shells can be an art, but you'll get the hang of it. I like to grab a large handful, form it into a ball, put it on a well-floured surface and squash it down with the heel of my hand, and then flip it over to get some flour on the other side, before starting to roll it out. See instructions for this under "How To Make Perfect Flaky Pastry".
The finished dough, when removed from the fridge, should be firm but pliable and feel a little greasy.

Baked Egg Nog Egg Custard

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:18:19 -0400

This recipe was developed as kind of a “turning lemons into lemonade” scenario.

Spending Christmas on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas is always a special time. However, being on a Bahamian out island means that we don’t always have access to the kind of things you’d find in major supermarkets.

We both love egg nog and when we found some UHT (Ultra High Temperature) egg nog at a local store we thought, “Wow! We lucked out!” Well, the reality was somewhat different. It turns out that using the UHT preserving method doesn’t really work well for egg nog – at least, we didn’t think so.

So, we had a couple of one litre cartons of this egg nog that we didn’t really want to actually drink. So … what to do … what to do …

Light bulb goes on – baked egg custard and substitute the egg nog for the milk in the recipe.

Hey, it was worth a try. We certainly weren’t going to drink the egg nog and we are loathe to throw things out if there’s any way to save them.

So, that’s exactly what we did and it made the creamiest, tastiest egg custard we have ever made. We even served it at our Christmas dinner party to rave reviews!

In a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed, beat eggs, salt and sugar until lemon colored.
Gradually beat in egg nog and vanilla extract.
Pour mixture into custard cups, put in an oven-proof pan (we use a 13” x 9” glass baking dish) and put hot water in pan up to 1” from top of cups.
Grate a bit of nutmeg on top of each cup.
Bake at 320 - 325 deg. F. about an hour – until knife inserted in center comes out clean. We found, with our oven, it took closer to an hour and a half. We started it at 320 deg. but bumped it up to 325 as it wasn’t even close to done after an hour.
Cool on wire racks and then refrigerate. Serve cold.

Piña Colada Baked Custard

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:02:37 -0400

This recipe is a tropical twist on an old favourite.

We enjoy the fresh tropical fruits that are available, and even grow in our garden, on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. So, developing a favourite recipe into one that included some of these tasty treats was just a natural progression of the experimentation that I love to do with any of my recipes.

Place banana slices in large bowl and mash well using electric mixer on slow speed.
Add eggs and continue to beat on slow speed until eggs and bananas are well incorporated.
Continue beating on slow and gradually add salt and brown sugar. Then, gradually beat in milk and vanilla extract.
Pour into greased, individual custard cups or 1-1/2 quart casserole. Places dish(es) in oven proof pan and fill pan with hot water to within one inch of the top of the custard dish(es).
Bake at 325 deg. F. for about one hour, until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
Note: if using casserole dish you may have to increase baking time by about 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Refrigerate.
Prior to serving, top with chopped fresh pineapple and grated coconut. Garnish with wafer type cookies or mint leaves.
Makes 6-8 servings.

This original recipe first debuted (along with a few others) in our book "The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera", a guide to the many beautiful, but hard to find, beaches on the island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas. The book is available from our web site - http://www.elusivebeaches.com or from Amazon.com

Green Papaya Medley

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:02:33 -0400

2-in-1 Kinetic Color Cast Enameled Cast Iron Saucepan with Fry Pan Lid

(This one set does for both boiling the papaya and sautéing everything else)

We tend to get an overabundance of papaya at our house and found that we like it much better as a vegetable than as a fruit.

Here’s how we like to prepare it.

Peel, seed and dice papaya.
Boil diced papaya in salted water for about 20 minutes, drain.
While papaya is boiling, place about 2 Tablespoons of oil in large frying pan. Heat over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and garlic and brown slightly.
Add drained papaya, red and green pepper and sauté for about five minutes.
Add sliced mushrooms and sauté a couple of minutes longer.
Add diced tomatoes complete with juice from the can.
Cook over medium heat for about five minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
Sprinkle Romano cheese over the top and allow cheese to melt slightly.
Serve immediately.

This recipe first debuted (along with a few others) in our book "The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera", a guide to the many beautiful, but hard to find, beaches on the island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas. The book is available from our web site - http://www.elusivebeaches.com or from Amazon.com

Ham and Swiss Casserole

Wed, 06 May 2009 16:50:20 -0400

I developed this recipe because I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted anywhere else. I found a lot of recipes that were close, but just not right.

I didn’t want a casserole recipe that had noodles, potatoes or rice in it because I wanted to serve noodles as a side dish with the casserole.

This may seem like a lot of ingredients, but it’s really pretty simple to put together.

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.
Lightly grease a 13” x 9” glass baking dish. (I just spray it with Pam)
Spread ham, green pepper and onion on bottom of baking dish.
Mix together the golden mushroom soup, sour cream, black pepper, eggs, heavy cream, water and mustard until they are well combined.
Fold in 1-1/2 cups of swiss cheese, ½ cup of cheddar cheese and sliced mushrooms.
Pour mixture over the ham, green pepper and onion in the glass baking dish.
Sprinkle the remaining swiss and cheddar cheese over the top.
Combine bread crumbs and spices and sprinkle on top of casserole.
Bake at 350 deg F for 40 to 45 minutes. Cheese should be bubbly and casserole should be nicely browned.

Carambola (Star Fruit) Tarts

Wed, 06 May 2009 16:49:16 -0400

You may have seen Carambola (more commonly known as Star Fruit because of it's star-like shape when sliced) in your local grocery store and wondered what to do with it.

Well, I had always wondered as well. Previously I had bought one or two and just sliced them and ate them raw, like I would just about any fruit. They have a rather mild, but slight acidic taste somewhat reminiscent of gooseberries. But, I'm afraid I wasn't that impressed initially.

Friends of ours in Eleuthera, Bahamas have a huge Carambola tree on their property. On one visit they had an over abundance of fruit and offered us quite a large quantity.

My first thought was perhaps to make a jam with them, but then I considered the idea that, perhaps, they would make nice tarts.

I scoured my favourite cook books for a recipe, but there were none specifically for star fruit. So, I decided to create my own recipe and the results were, if I do say so myself, spectacular. Carambola makes lovely tarts.

Now, every time carambola are in season, our friends give us as much fruit as we can handle and we, in turn, thank them with many, many finished tarts.

Wash Carambola, remove any brown or damaged parts. Slice crosswise (so you get several star-shaped slices). Remove any seeds. Dice.
Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in saucepan. Add water and mix well. Add diced fruit and mix well making sure sugar mixture is well distributed through the fruit.
Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for 2 minutes.
Let cool for 10-15 minutes and add 1/2 tablespoon lime juice. Mix well.
Pour into tart shells.
Bake in a hot oven - 425 deg. F. - for about 15-20 minutes or until pastry is nicely browned.

Our thanks to John and Kay Duckworth at The Duck Inn http://www.theduckinn.com/ for supplying the Carambola fruit from their extensive gardens so that we could develop this recipe.