Smoked Turkey (from Arthursdays - October 9, 2011)

With my wife and daughter being away for a few days looking at a university for her (younger daughter), I had some time to devote to a cooking project. This being Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, turkeys were on sale. We don’t have those great US giveaways for thanksgiving with $.29 a pound, but we did have a reasonable $.99 a pound turkey waiting for me when I got to the store on Thursday. I took the smallest I could find, a little over 16 pounds, and I put it in the fridge to thaw. The next day it went into the sink filled with cold water to complete the thawing process. It was covered in a plastic shell so no water got in.

I had Saturday to cook, and we were planning to have a turkey dinner at our neighbours anyway on Monday, so I could try anything.

I knew better that to try a deep fried turkey, because besides having to buy the fryer, my wife would kill me and then not even eat the turkey. So, my decision was to smoke it.
I woke up on Saturday morning, came downstairs, lit the right side of the barbeque and found my aluminum pan with wood chips, soaked some more chips for later, and started the chips in the pan on the hot right side. The center and the left side were cold, and that was where the turkey would go.

I washed out the turkey, put the giblets and the neck in the freezer and quickly salted and peppered the bird, squeezed lemon juice over it, put the lemon and an onion inside the carcass, put olive oil on the bird and covered it with paprika.

I put aluminum foil in the bottom of a roasting pan, sprayed it with Pam, and put in the turkey. I put the pan on the left side of the grill. The temperature with just the right side on full, would reach and stay at about 275 degrees Fahrenheit, a perfect temperature to use for a slow oven, and that would call for half an hour a pound.

Every hour to an hour and a half, I added wet wood chips to the aluminum pan over the heat, and smoke continued to be generated.

At 4:00 p.m., 8 hours later, the thermometer said, when I inserted it in the deepest part of the breast, 180 degrees, the perfect temperature for poultry.

The smoked turkey was done to perfection, the pan was full to the edge with juices that I was able to pour off and turn into gravy, and at about 4:15 p.m. my wife and daughter arrived home.

It was a perfectly lovely day and a great turkey.

Good Cookies from www.arthursdays.blogspot.com 6-15-11

My daughters make these fantastic cookies and I asked them how they did it. They said they saw them on the web and they just made them with Pillsbury Refrigerated Cookie Dough and some Oreos.
The following are some significant package FAQ’s. The girls said just use the dough and put on the Oreos and bake. This seems to make sense. I looked on the web and found several actual recipes but don’t seem to need them but I’ve included one for the die hards in my audience.

These are fantastic!

Pillsbury Refrigerated Cookie Dough FAQ's

What are the package directions?

Chocolate Chip 350º F. 10-14 minutes SPOON heaping teaspoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets Chocolate Chip Walnut 350º F. 10-14 minutes SPOON heaping teaspoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets Chocolate Chunk 350º F. 9-14 minutes SPOON heaping teaspoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets Double Chocolate Chip & Chunk 350º F. 9-14 minutes SPOON heaping teaspoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets Gingerbread 350º F. 7-11 minutes SLICE dough into 1/4-inch thick slices. Place slices onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Can I add extra ingredients to the dough (candy, nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, coconut, etc.)?

Yes. In a large bowl, break up the cookie dough. Add the desired ingredients and mix well. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake according to package directions.

Someone’s Actual Recipe

Ingredients

2 1/4 Cup Flour

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking soda

3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

2 large Eggs

12 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 16.6 oz Package Double Stuffed Oreos {You won't use all of the cookies only about 12}

Directions

1. Combine Flour, Salt and Baking soda

2. Beat softened butter, sugar, brown sugar, and Vanilla

3. Add eggs one at a time to mixture

4. Add flour, salt and baking soda mixture slowly to mixture

5. Add Chocolate Chips to mixture

6. Set Chocolate Chip Cookie dough aside.

7. Pre-Heat oven to 375 degrees

8. Set up 6 Double Stuffed Oreos on parchment paper covered cookie sheet

9. Using your hands put a small handful of cookie dough on each side of the Oreo and roll into a ball. Make sure Oreo is completely covered. Repeat until aprox. 14* cookies are covered.



10. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 375 degrees!

Matzah Brei - from arthursdays.blogspot.com April 17, 2011

Matzah brei is “fried matzah. Wikipedia says about it:


Matzah brei (Yiddish: מצה ברײַ; Hebrew: מצה ברייט‎, matzah breit, or מצה מטוגנת, matzah metugenet, literally, "fried matzah"), sometimes spelled matzah brie or matzo brei, is a dish of Ashkenazi Jewish origin made from matzo fried with eggs.

Numerous recipes exist for this dish. Typically the dry matzo is briefly softened in hot water or milk, broken into pieces, mixed with eggs, and pan-fried in butter, oil or schmaltz. It may be formed into a cake, like a frittata, or broken up and cooked like scrambled eggs. It can be savory or sweet. It may be combined; omelet-style, with meat and other foods, or it may be topped with sauces such as apple sauce, salsa or preserves. Some eat it with sugar, syrup, or jelly.

Matzah brei is commonly eaten as a breakfast food during Passover, when only unleavened bread is permitted. However, some Jews do not eat matzah brei during Passover because they do not eat gebrochts, matzah that has come into contact with water.

Erev Pesach ('Eve of Passover'), the traditional night of the First Seder, is on Monday, April 18, 2011. While I seldom recognize the holidays too much in my family, I do have the “food roots” and need my fix of holiday food. This time of year, while my wife wants to start dyeing eggs, I crave Matzah brei.

I was going to make a run to the store this morning, as a Sunday morning would be a perfect time to have a big breakfast, when a quick look through the pantry found an unopened box of matzah. Most of you won’t have this around, but this time of year you are likely to find it in any supermarket within a stones throw of some sort of Jewish enclave. No enclave, you may have to send for it.

I proceeded to make my matzah brei. Here’s this mornings recipe:

4 sheets of matzah

5 eggs

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil or margarine (I use olive oil)

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, break 3 sheets of matzah into small pieces.

2. Pour in hot water to soften matzah.

3. Strain mixture to remove water and leave softened matzah

4. Break up additional sheet of dry matzah and put on top of wet matzah

5. In a separate bowl, beat eggs.

6. Add eggs, salt and pepper to matzah. Mix well.

7. Heat oil in a frying pan. Cook matzah-egg mixture over medium heat

8. When lightly browned (yellowed even) on one side, turn out onto large plate or pizza pan and turn over, back into the hot frying pan, to get the second side done.

9. Some people prefer a scrambled type mixture, in my household we always made a large omelet type presentation.

10. Feel free to eat it with jelly, jam, syrup and anything else that works for you.

My wife and I had it for breakfast, my daughter declined. “Not her favorite ethnic food”, she declared.

I can’t stop smiling, and we even have some leftovers for later!

From www.arthurdays.blogspot.com, March 25, 2011

The Traditional Meal


I had another opportunity to cook today, not just my usual Tuesday, and even with the use of one and a half arms, as my right one is still a bit useless, I was able to get together a great meal, full of nostalgia for me.

I wanted to make a traditional Jewish meal because I miss my grandmother’s home cooking, and I like to recreate some favorites. As a matter of fact, both of these were never made by either my mother or my grandmother, but traditional they are.

When I grew up, goin g out to dinner usually meant going to a deli. We had a favorite deli nearby, on Garrison Boulevard in Baltimore, called Paul’s. On Friday evening we often would go there as a family, my parents and I, and even later on I would go with my parents and my wife and kids. One thing I loved that they had on the menu was meat blintzes with mushroom gravy, something I have been thinking about for the last 40 years or so and thought this would be a good time to make them.

Along with that I made kasha varnishkes, another traditional dish made of bowtie pasta and buckwheat.

I searched through lots of recipes and made up with this one and it was a winner.

Meat Blintzes

Filling:

1 pound lean ground beef (I used kosher beef because I was being traditional)

1 sweet onion, mostly (3/4) grated and some (1/4) chopped bits

1 carrot, grated

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground pepper

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon flour

½ cup water

In a large frying pan cook the meat along with the onions, carrots, Worcestershire, spices, flour and the water for at least ten to fifteen minutes on medium high, until it’s cooked through. Cook covered for a few more minutes on a lower heat. Let sit covered for 20 minutes. Uncover and blend in a beaten egg to the mixture. Turn off the heat, cover and let it rest for five more minutes.

Blintze Batter (batter recipe from Jennie Grossinger’s cook book)

3 eggs

1 cup milk or water

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

¾ cup flour

Butter or oil for frying

Beat the eggs, milk, salt and oil together. Stir in the flour. Heat a 6” small fry pan and add a little oil or butter. Pour about 4 tablespoons of the mixture into the hot pan, tilting the pan to coat the bottom and a bit of the sides. Use enough batter to make a thin pancake. Let the bottom brown and turn it out, bottom side (brown) up onto a paper towel. Make all the pancakes. This will make about 8-10.

Spread a heaping tablespoon or more of filling over the top of the blintz, and turn and roll up like a jelly roll, browned side on the inside.

You can pan fry them at this point or bake in a hot oven at 425 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes until brown. You can sprinkle a bit of paprika on them if you bake to insure browning.

The blintze batter is a crepe recipe and can be used for fruit and cheese blintzes as well.


Kasha Varnishkes

In 1925 Wolff Brothers of Paterson, New Jersey, published a Yiddish English cook book with recipes culled from a kasha cooking contest run in all the Jewish newspapers throughout the country. "Recipes of thousands of Jewish dishes were sent us," they wrote modestly, "but we selected only the very best among them and these are listed here." The recipes included buckwheat blintzes, vegetarian buckwheat cutlets, and "a tasteful grits soup" made from their Health Food (merely unroasted buckwheat groats), green peas, and potatoes. The varnishke recipe was basically a kreplach-type noodle stuffed with kasha, buckwheat groats, and gribenes.

Packaged bow-tie noodles,large and small, quickly replaced the flat homemade egg noodles in the American version of kasha varnishkes. The trick to a good kasha varnishke is to toast the whole-grain buckwheat groat well over a high heat for 2 to 4 minutes until you start smelling the aroma of the kasha. This will seal the groats so that there is a nutty, crunchy taste to them, a good foil to the soft taste of the noodles. You can add fresh parsley and sometimes coriander. Although traditionalists use bow-tie noodles for this, try rigatoni, shells, or any other kind of noodle you like.

Wolff Brother’s Recipe (My version)

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons margarine or oil

• 1 large egg, slightly beaten

• 1 cup medium or coarse kasha

• 2 cups water or bouillon

• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• 3/4 pound large or small bow tie-shaped noodles

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (optional)

1. Sauté the onions in 2 tablespoons of the margarine or oil in a heavy frying pan with a cover until golden. Remove to a plate.

2. Beat the egg in a small mixing bowl and stir in the kasha. Mix, making sure all the grains are coated. Put the kasha in the same frying pan, set over a high heat. Flatten, stir, and break up the egg-coated kasha with a fork or wooden spoon for 2 to 4 minutes or until the egg has dried on the kasha and the kernels brown and mostly separate.

3. Add the water or bouillon, salt, and pepper to the frying pan and bring to a boil. (I added a few sliced mushrooms just because I had them around.) Add the onions, cover tightly, and cook over low heat, steaming the kasha for 10 minutes. Remove the cover, stir, and quickly check to see if the kernels are tender and the liquid has been absorbed. If not, cover and continue steaming for 3 to 5 minutes more.

4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the bow-tie noodles according to the directions on the package. Drain.

5. When the kasha is ready, combine with the noodles. Adjust the seasoning, sprinkle with the parsley and coriander. If desired, add a bit more margarine or oil.

I will admit that I used two packages of prepared brown gravy mix, two cups of water and added that to a package of sliced mushrooms that I had sautéed.

We served some veggies on the side and this made quite a feast! Definitely give this one a try!

From arthursdays.blogspot.com Wednesday, March 9, 2011

This was a really great dinner last night. I will admit that the recipe itself was adapted from Giada De Laurentiis. It was so good, although I made some changes. It was so full of flavor, and a good thing to eat while we watched “Biggest Loser”. On Tuesday nights, as usual, I get to cook, after my wife and daughter come home from yoga. It’s my chance to shine in the cooking department.

I highly recommend this dinner!

RAVIOLI WITH ARUGULA, TOMATOES AND PANCETTA

Recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients

• 1 pound frozen cheese ravioli

• ¼ pound (200 grams) pancetta, diced into little cubes

• 1 (15-ounce) can San Marzano tomatoes (she drains them, I use the liquid for a much saucier dish)

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus extra for seasoning

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning

• 3 cups arugula

• 1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves, divided

• 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the ravioli and cook for 7 to 9 minutes until tender. Drain.

In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, add the pancetta and cook stirring frequently, until crispy, about 8 minutes. Remove to paper towels to drain. Add the tomatoes, olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook for 2 minutes until tender, roughly chopping up the tomatoes in the pan as it cooks. Add the arugula and 1/4 cup basil and cook until wilted, about 30 seconds. Stir in the butter and melt.

Add the ravioli and cooked pancetta and toss until coated. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Transfer the ravioli to a large serving bowl.

Garnish with the remaining basil and serve.

Another Great Dinner from www.arthursdays.blogspot.com

This was a really great dinner last night. I will admit that the idea and the recipe itself came from Chef Michael Smith, as did the advice he starts with. It was so good, although I made some changes and I will suggest some others. It’s worth doing and I will make it, with changes, sometime next week. It was so full of flavor, and a good thing to eat while we watched “Biggest Loser”. On Tuesday night I aways get to cook now, after my wife and daughter come home from yoga. It’s my chance to shine in the cooking department. I highly recommend this dinner!

A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into this dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don't like. Try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour; you have to add your own!


Michael Smith


Halibut Provencal

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 4x6 ounce halibut filets, dried on paper towels (I used tilapia, which was wonderful and half the price of halibut. It is a bit thinner, so it cooks up even faster. The whole dish is very quick after you start to cook.)

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped

• 8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

• 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped or 1 can of whole tomatoes (I will use a can of Italian tomatoes the next time as they are very flavorful. The vine ripened tomatoes I used have not much taste in the winter months.)

• 24 black olives, pitted (I will chop them in quarters the next time.)

• 24 green olives, pitted (I will chop them as well.)

• 1/4 cup of capers

• 1/4 cup best quality balsamic vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat a large heavy skillet. Add enough oil to cover the bottom with a thin film. When wisps of smoke begin to appear, season the halibut with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Sear on one side until it has a crispy golden crust and releases easily from the pan. Flip and sear on the other side, remove to a plate and reserve.

2. Add the onions and garlic to the hot pan, and sauté until they smell great, a minute or two. Add the tomatoes olives, capers and balsamic and heat through. Add the halibut back to the pan and continue heating until the fish is cooked through, another five minutes or so.




Moroccan Zucchini

Ingredients

• 2 zucchinis, cut in half, lengthwise (I did 4 zucchinis, and added a bit more couscous and stock. I had way too much for 4, so I’d leave the couscous the same and add a bit more stock.)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 1 cup couscous

• 1 cup chicken stock (add a bit more if needed)

• 1 small bunch basil leaves, chopped

• 4 ounces feta cheese

• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place zucchini; cut side down, onto a baking dish (use parchment paper on a cookie sheet) and roast in the oven until it turns golden brown. Scoop the pulp out from the centre of the zucchini, keeping the skins intact for stuffing. Reserve pulp and skins.

3. Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onion. Sauté until golden brown then add the zucchini pulp, couscous, chicken stock and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer then turn off and rest until the couscous has absorbed all the liquid. Add the basil leaves and feta cheese and stir well. Spoon the mixture into the zucchini skins and place in an 8” by 8” baking dish. Bake until golden brown and hot.

Braised Pork Chops and Creamy Polenta.

recipe from http://www.arthursdays.blogspot.com/

On January 29 I wrote:
I haven’t done a food post in a long time and I feel the need coming on. In my non-linear thinking, why not? It seems to be I just go with what I’m thinking, and fortunately or unfortunately, much of my life had worked that way.

A dear old friend from Baltimore sent an email to me the other day and he said, after the posting about my mother’s 100th birthday:

“Wonderful remembrance. Thanks for sharing and if your Mom can read these e mails from heaven my best wishes to her for a happy birthday. Great recipes too. Ever consider publishing a cookbook of them?” Jack


We have appeared in a cookbook published in Alberta a few years ago, where we had three recipes, but nothing planned, so far. We appeared in the Calgary Herald many years ago, about ten times, cooking with the kids. We also did one family cooking event for the Hamilton Spectator. But this week, instead of Greek Meatballs, the January 29 delicacy, I am going with the next big hit around here, which was Braised Pork Chops over Creamy Polenta.

To be fair, I took the basic recipe from Chef Melissa d’Arabian’s “Ten Dollar Dinners” show on the Food Network. I had to change the Country Ribs to Pork Chops as Country Ribs tends to be a US cut, available here in Canada but basically it would have to be ordered, so I just used bone-in pork chops, pretty much a thinner version of the same thing. I used my own polenta recipe as hers was too strange for me to do and way to high in fat content.

So here’s the big hit at my house from Tuesday evening. I came home from the grocery store at five before six o’clock to say good-bye to my wife and daughter as they left for yoga. I had until eight o’clock to make my dinner, a Tuesday night recurring event. This is my one, guaranteed chance to get to cook each week and its fun! Its newly minted, so I hope to keep it up and add to my knowledge and to yours, as well as add it to my other blog, the one with my mothers cookbook plus all of my own recipes. http://renascookbook.blogspot.com/

Braised Pork Chops and Creamy Polenta.

Braised Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 3 pounds bone-in pork chops

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1 onion, chopped

• 1 carrot, chopped

• 1 stalk celery, chopped

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 2 bay leaves

• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pat the ribs dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown the ribs on all sides, working in batches if needed. Remove the ribs and set aside. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the Dutch oven and reduce the heat to medium. Add the onions, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, to remove the raw flavor, about 3 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the vinegar, and then add the red pepper flakes and bay leaves.

Add the ribs back to the pan and add enough stock to reach halfway up the sides of the ribs. Bring the pan to a simmer, cover, and place in the oven. Braise until the meat is tender, about 1 1/2 hours. During the last half hour, uncover to allow the liquid to reduce and the pork to brown.

Serve the ribs over Creamy Polenta and garnishing with parsley.



Creamy Polenta

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup whole milk

• 3 cups water

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 1 cup coarse polenta, or corn grits

• Ground salt and black pepper

• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

• ¼ cup Pecorino Romano Cheese

Directions

In a medium saucepan boil 1 cup water and 1 cup milk. Mix polenta well into 2 cups cold water. Add this mixture to boiling liquid, lower heat and continue stirring all the time. Add butter to mixture, season with salt and pepper and continue over medium-high heat, whisking constantly to keep the mixture lump-free. Boil very lightly for 25 to 30 minutes. At the end of the cooking time, add cheeses and the rest of the milk and continue to stir for a minute or two.

Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish. Put into the oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or until you are ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Greek Meatballs

From: http://www.arthursdays.blogspot.com/

I haven’t done a food post in a long time and I feel the need coming on. In my non-linear thinking, why not? It seems to be I just go with what I’m thinking, and fortunately or unfortunately, much of my life had worked that way.


These were fantastic last week. I served them with a Greek salad, spinach pie (Spanakopita, small frozen ones from the supermarket), orzo and pita on the side. It was a big hit around here.


Greek Meatballs
(Adapted from 2005’s South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook)

1 pound lean ground beef

½ small onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic finely chopped or 2 tsp. garlic from a jar

½ cup finely crumbled feta cheese (measure crumbled)

1 large egg beaten

1 T extra virgin olive oil

1 T dried oregano

4 tsp. red wine vinegar

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp. Greek seasoning (surprisingly available in the supermarket, I never knew it was there)

Preheat oven to 400.

I micro waved the onion for 30 seconds to remove the”bite” of using raw onion.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl with your hands.

Place parchment paper on a large cookie sheet and form approximately 24 meatballs and place on sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes and turn, bake for another 10 minutes, turn again for another 1 to 10 minutes, until they are brown and cooked through.

They will look awful during the cooking process because the cheese and the vinegar oozes out during cooking and you need to get to that beautiful browned, caramelized state.

Serve with Tzatziki Sauce, easily available at all supermarkets.