Recipes »Sweet Potato Turkey Meatloaf

turkey sweet potato meatloafI know that it doesn't look like much, and the fact that ground turkey can end up rather bland at times you may make you a bit suspicious of this recipe. But if I could only recreate the tasty aroma that met me at the door when this was baking, all your doubts would disappear.

The sweet potato adds flavor and sweetness to this easy and healthier meatloaf option that is as good for leftovers as it is the day you make it.

Most Americans enjoy the nutritious sweet potato at Thanksgiving only, but year-round it's a great but underused veggie. This recipe is a perfect example of what the orange wonder food that has been cultivated in Peru since the time before Christ can do for you.

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Posted on March 3, 2008

Recipes »Cider-Glazed Lamb Chops and Fennel in Wine and Honey

cider glazed lamb chops with fennel in honey and wineLocal Red Jacket Orchard apple cider made for an excellent lamb chop glaze in this easy, 327 calorie recipe. The fennel preparation was equally simple and good but does have a 45 minute cook time, so plan accordingly.

Coming into vogue in last few decades in the US, fennel has been around forever, and is used in foods an medicine in many cultures. It tastes a bit like anise, and has a faint licuorice scent.

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Posted on February 25, 2008

Recipes »Beef Tenderloin Steaks Topped with Horseradish and Dijon Mustard and Classic Mashed Potatoes

Beef Tenderloin Steaks Topped with Horseradish and Dijon Mustard and Classic Mashed Potatoes I'll get to the meat and potatoes of the entry and just tell you that these are smashing recipes for old stand-bys. Nothing better than tenderloin and mashed.

Give yourself a day to marinate the beef ; I also found that it took a bit more time than listed to make the potatoes tender enough to mash up.

This meal is also comparatively low calorie. I've found Real Simple to be a great source of healthier recipes to traditionally high calorie goodies.

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Posted on February 18, 2008

Recipes »Homemade Pizza Dough and Exquisite Pizza Sauce

homemade pizza dough and saucePeople are very particular about their pizza likes and dislikes, especially once the discussion veers to the subject of authenticity–so I'm not even going to claim that this recipe makes for an authentic Brooklyn style pizza. Without a brick oven, how could it?

Still, if you want to make the quintessential local meal for yourself and friends (by throwing a pizza party) this is the easiest way to go about it. Just be sure to have a pizza stone to ensure even crispness

3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup warm water (between 95? and 115? F.)
2 T yeast
2 T honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt

Pour in warm water.
The water should be about 85 to 115? F.
Test it with your hand. It should feel very warm, but comfortable.
Add the honey and salt.
Mix on low for about 20 seconds.
Add the yeast and mix on low for another 5 seconds.
Add 1 cup of flour, mix on low for 10 seconds.
Add the olive oil and mix until blended (about 15 or 20 seconds more).
Add the rest of the flour (and any other additions) and mix on high for about a minute or two. The dough should turn into a ball and roll around the processor. If the dough does not ball up because it's too dry, add water one tablespoon at a time until it does. If your mixture is more like a batter, add flour one tablespoon at a time. Adding water or flour as needed to get the right consistency will assure you always get a perfect dough. Just remember to do it in small amounts.

Once the dough is balled up, place the ball on a floured board and knead for about a minute. This builds the gluten which helps the dough to rise and become fluffy when cooked. Place the dough in a plastic grocery bag or a covered bowl and store in a warm, dry area to rise.

After about 45 minutes the dough should have about doubled in size. Show it who's the boss and punch it down. That's right, give it a good smack so it deflates. Let it rise for another hour to an hour and a half.

We recently topped ours with “Exquisite” Pizza Sauce, a recipe that requires many spices and ingredients and has a rich, tangy, bold flavor. It was truly worthy of its name. We also added fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers, red onions, and a bit of garlic sausage, but you can use anything you please.

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Posted on February 11, 2008

Recipes »Crab Cakes

crab cakesAs you can see in the photo, these crab cakes didn't hold together very well. But what they lacked in form they more than made up for in their light, healthy and yummy taste.

Graham Kerr, Galloping Gourmet and fellow Aquarian, began touting healthier food recipes in response to his wife's heart attack in the eighties after decades of showing hungry fans how to make goodies with copious amounts of butter and fats.

I never grew up watching his show, for some reason my sister and I were into the Frugal Gourmet, who I even imagined was the father of my favorite Barbie doll, Cheryl. Of course, it's a bit disturbing, as he was accused of sexual abuse. But I digress.

This particular recipe is quite good for you, with half the calories of a more classic recipe. And as long as you know it's not going to turn out pretty, you won't be disappointed with the results.

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Posted on February 4, 2008

Recipes »Spiced Lamb Chops with Chickpea Salad

spiced lamb chops with chickpea saladMy longtime struggle with lamb has been well chronicled in these picks (which must be extremely riveting for you readers, I'm sure). But now I'm finally and truly a lamb lover and this is one spectacular recipe for a rib chop.

The chickpea salad is also very tasty. Chickpeas, which are insanely popular in India, also once came to the aid for WWI Germans, who used them as a desperate attempt to substitute coffee. The beverage was called chikamuddle (though wikipedia is the only source of this information, so, you know, grain of salt). Either way, chickpeas are high in protein and grow on fern looking leafy plants.

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Posted on January 28, 2008

Recipes »Hoisin-Glazed Chicken with Cabbage Slaw

hoisin glazed chickenChicken tends to be the last meat on my list to cook. I hate handling it raw, the slimy paleness is unappetizing and I got it into my head that chicken is boooring. But when you get a recipe like Hoisin-Glazed Chicken with Cabbage Slaw, you tend to rethink your long-held judgments.

Hoisin sauce, which is readily available at most grocery stores, is traditionally made with sweet potatoes (although now it's often made with soybean paste), and is actually vegetable based, despite its name meaning “seafood”. It's apparently a sauce full of contradictions and its strong flavor may be over-powering for unadventurous palettes. This recipe, however, is good enough for anyone. Even if you're skeptical of uncooked cabbage like I was.

Like most of my picks, it's a super easy and healthy dinner option with only 272 calories per serving.?

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Posted on January 21, 2008

Recipes »Enchiladas Suizas

enchiladas suizasTo be able to enjoy Enchiladas Suizas for around 200 calories per enchilada is fabulous–and these don't taste like they're too healthy for you either. This recipe comes from Roberto Santibanez, the culinary director of New York's Rosa Mexicano, the over twenty year old restaurant that introduced New York to upscale Mexican cuisine and is probably the reason you can now be charged twenty dollars at restaurants for a dish like this.

Enchiladas mean “in chiles” and, in this case, the recipe calls for serrano chiles, but if you aren't able to find any, I used jalapenos and it still turned out great. These vary from traditional enchiladas because they are not fried, but baked.

The “Suizas” variation on the dish, which was invented at Sanborns in Mexico City,?means “swiss” in reference to the use of cheese and cream. Sanborns is part of a chain that began in 1903 similar to Walgreens, but in 1919 they opened their most famous branch and restaurant House of Tiles and it was here, where the country's elite went to see and be seen, that the enchiladas suizas were invented.

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Posted on January 14, 2008

Recipes »Spanish Stew

spanish stewI found this recipe while browsing The Clumsy Cook, this week's website pick. She in turn found it in a Rachel Ray cook book. Hey, don't knock it, when you don't have to hear the barbed screech of the woman, her recipes can be downright excellent.

This Spanish Stew is incredibly flavorful and rich?- tasting as though it cooked for hours and hours, though it only takes about 45 minutes total to complete. It serves four, so if you're cooking for two you can look forward to amazing leftovers.The recipe calls for a hodge podge of ingredients like chicken thighs, peas, roasted red peppers, chorizo, and potatoes that all meld together beautifully. It also calls for good paprika. I splurged on some Andalusian Sweet from Fresh Direct and could tell the difference from the little McCormick that has been sitting on my shelf forever.

Paprika is traditionally associated with Hungary, who in fact grew and utilized the spice decades before it made its way to Spain. As an odd footnote, paprika is not only used in delicious human recipes, but is often fed to flamingos in captivity to keep their plumage colorful and bright.

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Posted on January 7, 2008

Recipes »Artichokes Stuffed with Serrano Ham

serrano artichoke 1080 recipes1080 Recipes, a huge, beautifully illustrated book of Spanish cooking is said to be “Spain's answer to the Joy of Cooking“, but not until this year was it available in the U.S.

Greek mythology says the artichoke began when lovely young mortal girl caught the eye of Zeus. He made her into a goddess, but homesickness caused her to sneak back to the world of mortals under Zeus's nose. He found this behavior to be tacky and, in disgust, threw her back to the world she missed so much – transformed into the artichoke plant.

The plant is a popular ingredient in the US, France and, of course, Spain, where this recipe comes from. Serrano ham, a delectable cured meat traditionally produced in the mountains of Spain adds a salty rich flavoring to the stuffing.

The recipe is easy but takes about an hour for cook time alone, so plan accordingly. Also, I am not sure how this was intended to be eaten, but I may have not trimmed the artichoke enough. It was still great but required a bit more participation to eat.

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Posted on December 31, 2007