For the Love of Food

I have had a craving for Split Pea Soup for a few years – seriously. I just never got around to making it. I had my mother-in-law’s delicious recipe, but just never got around to it.  But, it was always sitting there in the back of my mind.
The other day, when we were all sick with the flu, I went to the butcher and got some ham bones – 1 kg (2.2 lbs) to be exact! I didn’t follow her recipe, but I used her general idea as well as a tip from Running with Tweezers. Continue Reading »

For my first Mother’s Day my husband and son gave me a wonderful cast iron casserole dish from Le Creuset. This is the first dish I coked in it, and it came out excellent! Unfortunatlly, I just threw some ingredients together, so I will tell you what they are, but I will have to make the dish again to try to come up with any definate values.

Ingredients:
4 Chicken legs
Corn Oil
200 grams of Cream
2 sweet Turkish Red peppers
Salt
Garlic
Paprika
2 slices (about 30 grams) of Bacon, chopped

Directions:
Heat oil in pan. Season the chicken with salt and garlic. Brown chicken in pan. Throw in bacon and peppers. Then pour in the cream. Stir. Sprinkle paprika over the chicken, and cover with the lid. Cook for about 30 minutes. Serve over noodles or rice.

Serves 8.

My husband found this recipe in Vegetarian Times Magazine.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoon Oil
1 small Onion, chopped (about 1 Cup)
1 green Bell Pepper, seeded, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 spicey chili pepper, diced (remove seeds to make less spicey)
1/2 teaspoon ground Cumin
3 Plum Tomatos, chopped
19 Ounce can of Garbanzo Beans, drained and rinsed
a dash of Parpika
4 Eggs
Salt
Pepper

Directions: In a medium-sized pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until soft, stiring frequently. Add bell pepper, chili, garlic, and ground cumin. Cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add tomatos and garbanzo beans and bring to a simmer. Cook tomatos until they break down into a sauce. Reduce heat, but maintina simmer, about 10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Individually crack each egg and drop onto a part of the stew–DON’T break the yolks!! Cover and cook over medium heat until the eggs are cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle eag egg with paprika.

Transfer one egg to each plate and extra stew. Serve Immediatley. Goes well over rice.

Serves 4 people.

Ingredients:
1 Lb. ground Beef
1 medium Onion, chopped
2 stalks of Celery, chopped
1 Garlic clove, crushed
1 teaspoon Chili Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon of Black Pepper
2 Tblsps Oil
1 6-ounce can (2 cups) Stewed Tomatos
2 15-ounce cans Kidney Beans, undrained
6 ounces of water
1 Cup shredded Chedar Cheese

Directions:
In a large skillet, brown ground beef, drain excess fat. Add oil, onion and celery. Cook until onions are tender. Stir in remaining ingredients except beans. Simmer covered, 30 to 45 minutes. Stir in beans; heat through. Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese, if desired. Serve with white rice.

Makes 6 servings

Baked Potato Chowder
Ingredients:
4 baking Potatoes
2/3 Cup of Butter
2/3 Cup of Flour
3 Cups of Milk
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2 Green Onions, chopped
12 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 1/4 Cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
200 grams of Sour Cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 200°C (417°F). Wash potatoes and prick them with a fork. Place in oven on a rack (do not wrap in aluminum foil or it will take longer). Bake for 1 hour. OR Boil the potatoes in water enough to cover them for 20-30 minutes or until cooked through (this works better with smaller potatoes). Remove from water, let cool and peel.
Depending on how you cooked the potatoes, either cut the baked potatoes in half and scoop out the pulp into a bowl and set aside. Or, roughly mash the peeled potatoes with a fork in a bowl and set aside.
Melt butter in a large pot over low heat, add flour until smooth, cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add milk gradually stirring. Cook until mixture starts to boil. Add potato, all but 1 tablespoon of green onion, all but 1/4 cup of bacon, all but 1/8 cup of cheese, and all but 1 tablespoon of sour cream. Mix well. Serve in 1 large bowl or in multiple bowl (feeds about 4-6 people). Garnish with the remaining cheese, sour cream, bacon, and green onions.

Tomato Salad
Ingredients:
4 Tomatoes, sliced
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon of dry Dill
3-5 Tablespoons of Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Hazelnut Oil

Directions:
In a large bowl mix all ingredients together in the order listed above, mixing each time in between with a fork. Make sure to prick the tomatoes with the fork to help the flavors enter the Tomatoes better.

Ingredients:
Meatballs:
500 grams ground beef
1 Egg
2 Tablespoons minced Onion
1/2 teaspoon of Garlic powder
1/4 Cup of Bread crumbs

Sauce:
2 Cups of sliced fresh Mushrooms
400 mL Beef broth
3 Tablepoons Cornstarch
400 grams of plain Tomato sauce
1 Tablspoon of Soy sauce
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Tablspoon Molases
200 grams Tomato Paste
1 teaspoon of white Vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). In a medium-sized bowl, combine all Meatball ingredients and mash together. Equally seperate into golfball-sized pieces and roll into ball shape. Place them in a glass baking dish and place in the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the meat is fully cooked and the meatballs have taken on a golden color.

In a large pot, bring the beef broth, cornstach, and mushrooms to a boil, stiring until the liquid reduces to a thick-soup consistency. Stir in all other Sauce ingredients and cook until warm. Add meatballs and cook for about 15 minutes until the meatballs have absorbed the sauce’s flavor. Serve over warm rice.

*A quick version: In stead of making your own meatballs, mix all sauce ingredients, add the frozen meatballs, and cook with the lid on until the meatballs are heated through.

**A vegetarian version: Repleace the mushrooms, beef broth, and cornstarch with 1 14oz. can of “Golden Mushroom Soup”, and replace the meatballs with vegetarian ones.

It may not look too exciting int he picture, but it is a very cost effective meal, filling, and tastes great!

Ingredients:
3 Lbs Beef, the high rib section (should have some visible fat on it)
1 onion with peel, halved
1 carrot with peel, ends cut off, cut into large chuncks
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
1 Bay Leaf
Water
1 Cellery stalk, chopped
1 Carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 medium/large Potatoes, with peel, chopped

Directions:
In a pressure cooker place the meat inside and cover completely with water–make sure there is at least 5 inches left in your pressure cooker above the water or the stew will over flow. Do Not pre cut the meat! Add the halved onion with peel and the chopped carrot with peel, salt, pepper, and the Bay leaf. Cook on high.
Once the pressure cooker is cooking at full speed, cook for 40 minutes. Once 40 minutes are up, remove from heat and let the pressure cooker release it’s pressure.
When safe to open, remove the meat and place on a plate to let cool. With a straining spoon remove the onion with peel, the carrot peices, and the bay leaf and discard.
Add all other ingredients to the remaining broth in the pressure cooker, and bring to boil, uncovered, until the vegetables are cooked to desired doneness.
In the meanwhile, cut beef into large chuncks. When the vegetables are completely cooked, add the meat and cook for about 3-4 minutes until heated through.
Add any desired salt at this time if the stew is not salty enough. Remove 4 chuncks of potato and put in blender with 4 Tbs of broth. Blend and then put back into stew. This will give they stew more consitancy instead of being so soupy and so that you don’t have to add flour or cornstarch.

Serves 4-6