FSU Chefs Unite (Recipes Thread Part II)

[barbk]

Here ya go, Cherub ...not quite the season, but I've had this and it is delicious. No soy sauce to be found:
http://www.food.com/recipe/pumpkin-p...-or-eggs-78098

My go-to dish this hot summer has been a quick cucumber, mint & yogurt dish. Yummy and refreshing on its own, delicious on grilled chicken or lamb, and amenable to kicking it up a notch with other spices if you like. And, super easy:
Peel one ordinary cucumber.
Grate the peeled cucumber using the largest holes on your grater. Don't worry about the seeds.
With your hands, or a potato masher, or in a colander, squeeze out the cucumber to get rid of some of the moisture. Toss with 1/4 t. of salt. (No need to go extreme on the squeezing -- just get out what comes out easily.)
Add plain greek yogurt - a smal cupful is fine. Finely chop up some mint leaves -- I probably use 20 leaves or so. Mix into the cucumber yogurt mix.
Add lots of ground pepper, and a smidgen of cayenne pepper to your taste. Add more salt if you like.

[Jenny]

Colorado Salad

1 pkg. Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 pkg. lime jello
1/2 pt. whipped cream
1 can of drained fruit cocktail
1 cup of chopped pecans
1 pkg. minature marshmallows

Cut cream cheese into small pieces and add jello. Dissolve with one cup of hot water. Stir until blended, adding water a little bit at a time. Chill until firm. Add fruit cocktail, nuts, marshmallows, and whipped cream in another bowl along with 2 or 3 tsp. of sugar. Fold into jello and cream cheese mixture. Pour into bowl and refrigerate.

If you like that, you'll love Watergate Salad, which I heard about from fellow FSUer Cyn, and is now a staple of my Super Bowl menu.

Wonder why it's called Colorado Salad??

Also for those who are interested in eating less meat, I wholeheartedly recommend recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, a contributing chef to the Guardian newspaper. A lot of his recipes can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...lenghi-recipes .

Love him! I've had those leek fritters too! His book Plenty, which includes many of the recipes in the Guardian archive, is worth it for the gorgeous pictures to inspire. He also has another book coming out this fall, which awaits patiently in my basket

And speaking of brussels sprouts, here's another showstopper recipe that can (and has at my last BBQ!) convert non-believers: Brussels Sprouts Salad from Saveur.

[Artemis@BC]

Speaking of tofu, does anyone have any tasty recipes that don't involve tons of salt/tamari/soy sauce? Tofu is low in sodium, but eating it is sort of besides the point if you have to add it to make it palatable!

This is one of my favourite tofu-for-tofu-haters recipes, and esp. good for hot weather when no one wants to cook. It does have a bit of tamari in it, but it's the nutritional yeast flakes that give it the real "salty" taste without any added sodium.

Sunseed Spread

1 lb soft tofu
1/3 - 1/2 cup leeks, chopped
2 cups sunflower seeds
water*
1/2 fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 Tbsp tamari soy sauce

Blend in a blender or food processor, adding 1 ingredient at a time in the order listed. Use only enough water needed to aid blending and achieve desired consistency (I find I don't need any water at all when I use soft tofu). Yields about 3 1/2 cups.

I love this on melba toast, topped with thin slices of English cucumber. Also good on rye toast.

I'm guessing it would be okay to substitute green onions for the leeks, using slightly less, but I've never tried it that way.

Lasts about 2 weeks in the fridge. Freezes ok.

[jl]

Re: Tofu, there are some classic non-soy sauce dishes involving all kinds. Basically, it acts as a sponge for flavor.

With tofu puffs, you cut them in half and throw them into a boiling soup made from broth, vegetables and various Chinese ingredients (dried dates/goji/seafood, etc) right at the end for a minute or two. Serve with noodles. Also works well with firm tofu; soft I don't recommend.

With firm and medium-firm tofu, a simple stirfry with your pick of broccoli, green beans, gai lan, sui choy, tong choy, and carrots works. Use some garlic or ginger, a little salt, cooking wine and a bit of corn starch to thicken the sauce. The flavor is heightened with stir-fried scallops (you don't want a sear in this case).

Another fancier one is to take raw shrimp, peel, dice, combine with scallions/golden leek and a touch of ginger + a little soy, sugar and cooking wine, mix and add a small amount of corn starch (very little; else you will end up with something really floury), combine and then shape on spoons, put on top of firm/semi-firm tofu cubes, put water in the pan, steam the shrimp on top and let the steam evaporate out, and then have the bottom get pan-fried a bit. Really good with some vegetables or black bean sauce or whatever else you so desire.

Soft tofu, you may as well break down for dessert. Take ripe fruit (I recommend lychees or mango), de-seed and de-skin, cut into whatever sized pieces you want, throw the juice and fruit with soft tofu, let chill for a second in the fridge if it's not cold enough, and eat. A good alternative to sorbet or ice cream. If it's not sweet enough, add a touch of syrup.

[jl22aries]

I just made this slaw:

3 C choice of cabbage (I used a combination of green, purple, and savoy)
1 C fennel, including fronds
1/2 C celery (organic)
1/2 C cilantro
1/2 C mint (I used a combination of peppermint and pineapple mint)
1/2 C feta (I used goats milk)
1/2 C almonds (organic raw)
1/2 C cranberries (organic)
1/2 avocado

Chopped the vegetables in really thin slices, roughly chopped the nuts, and crumbled in feta.

The dressing was some leftover caesar inspired dressing I had made:

2 anchovies mushed
1-2 garlic cloves grated
zest one lemon
juice of lemon
1/2 C heilman's mayo
drizzle of olive oil until the consistency looked pourable
1-2 tb whole dijon mustard
a few dashes of worcestershire
s+p to taste
pinch of sugar to taste

Really the proportions are to taste. I put everything in a jam jar and shake the hell out of it.

[barbk]

Ummmm...I've lived in Colorado for 27 years, and I've never seen that Colorado salad here. It DOES look similar to things I've seen at potlucks in Iowa. And it seems right up Utah's alley. Colorado? Not so much.

My food effort of the day...emptied out the pantry, cleaned it out, tossed some stuff that had expired , got it all organized, figured out what I'm short on, and set up the start of the "keep an eye out for a good price on X" list. Whew.

[RobbieB]

My mom used to make the Colorado salad at for holidays. We never called it that though. I think she just called it a jello salad.

---
R. Bryant
Burlington Bus

[Rex]

Three things that Belgium has produced that drive me mad with pleasure, frites, Kevin Van Der Perren and this.

I bought some by mistake from the CVS, thinking it was their house brand of peanut butter. But it's not - it's much better. Not just sweeter, but lower in carbs and calories than peanut butter. It has changed my life.

[barbk]

Rex --

Have you ever tried Justin's Maple Almond Nut Butter? (Available in jars and individual squeeze packs) -- tasty, and only 8g of carbs in a 2 tablespoon serving, vs. 16 g. of carbs in 2T of the Biscoff spread.

My favorite marketing pitch is Justin's blurb on the side of the Maple Almond jar: "People always ask me, what's your favorite flavor? And I think they expect me to give some P.C. answer that I love them all the same, but I don't because that would be stupid. Nuts can't read, so whose feelings am I going to hurt? You're holding what I consider to be the most perfect tasting nut butter on the planet, and I'm not afraid to say it."

[BigB08822]

I'm sorry but you should never serve anything with jello in it to anyone you actually like. That is just cruel. This is not 1965!

[Artemis@BC]

I'm sorry but you should never serve anything with jello in it to anyone you actually like. That is just cruel. This is not 1965!

I could not agree more.

Everything I feel about jello cookery is encapsulated in this delightful offering.

I particularly like page 5.

[Rex]

Rex --

Have you ever tried Justin's Maple Almond Nut Butter? (Available in jars and individual squeeze packs) -- tasty, and only 8g of carbs in a 2 tablespoon serving, vs. 16 g. of carbs in 2T of the Biscoff spread.

My favorite marketing pitch is Justin's blurb on the side of the Maple Almond jar: "People always ask me, what's your favorite flavor? And I think they expect me to give some P.C. answer that I love them all the same, but I don't because that would be stupid. Nuts can't read, so whose feelings am I going to hurt? You're holding what I consider to be the most perfect tasting nut butter on the planet, and I'm not afraid to say it."

No, but I'll have to try it - thanks for the tip. I always found almond butter to be bland.

[Simone411]

If you like that, you'll love Watergate Salad, which I heard about from fellow FSUer Cyn, and is now a staple of my Super Bowl menu.

Wonder why it's called Colorado Salad??

I'll have to try it! It looks and sounds delicious.

I'm not sure why it's called Colorado Salad. A friend of my mom's gave the recipe to her back in the early 80's, and that's what it was called.

[Lacey]

We made this cake tonight, and it was too watery, any ideas what we did wrong?


Zucchini Almond Cake (Gluten Free)

1-2 tablespoons Butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups Almond Flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Potato Starch
1 1/4 teaspoons gluten-free Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon fine Salt

3 large Eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup packed Light Brown Sugar

1/2 stick unsalted butter, this portion melted
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup finely grated Zucchini, squeezed of excess liquid

5 more tablespoons butter, room temperature
additional 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
8 ounces Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup Confectioner's Sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 8" round cake pan 2” deep with 1-2 T. room temperature butter, line with parchment paper, and butter paper too.

Whisk together Almond Flour, Potato Starch, Baking Powder and Salt.

Set a large heatproof bowl over a pot with 1" barely simmering water. Add Eggs and whisk until foamy about one minute. Whisk in Brown Sugar and continue to whisk until mixture is fluffy and sugar is dissolved, 3 minutes. Remove bowl from pot and, using a mixer, whisk on high until mixture is thick and pale, 7-10 minutes.

Gently fold in melted Butter, Flour Mixture, 1 T. of the Vanilla and Zucchini.

Poor into pan and bake until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25-30 minutes. Cool cake and invert.

With mixer, beat together remaining 5 T. room-temperature Butter, remaining 1 teaspoon Vanilla and Cream Cheese until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add Confectioners' Sugar and beat until combined. Frost cake.

(Cake can be stored in refrigerator, covered, up to 2 days.)

I have a feeling that we didn't drain the water out of the Zucchini enough. The edges were delicious, will try again tomorrow.

[barbk]

The zucchini would release a lot more liquid if it had even a little bit of salt sprinkled on it. You could also try wringing it out in a dish towel.

[mkats]

Some garden pictures:

We are finally doing a fresh cucumber pickle almost every night with dinner now, and the eggplants are almost ready to pick. I've been collecting up the recipes in anticipation!

(On a super trivial note, I love that the baby eggplants literally go through four hues from white to dark purple. I planted these babies from seed way back in January, so it's super exciting to see them producing!)

[Japanfan]

The zucchini would release a lot more liquid if it had even a little bit of salt sprinkled on it. You could also try wringing it out in a dish towel.

I've made a zucchini quickbread, never a cake, but didn't do anything with the zucchini other than cut it up and put in the mix. . .and it turned out wonderful, not watery in the least. So I have no idea what went wrong with Lacey's recipe, other than maybe it was too much zucchini.

[BigB08822]

I have never made a zucchini cake but zucchini is very very watery. We often make a lasagna with layers of zucchini instead of pasta and it always comes out quite watery. It tastes wonderful but you can't help but notice the extra liquid when serving it. I would recommend laying the zucchini out on paper towels and sprinkling with salt to try and remove as much water as possible, then wring it out as much as you can. This should help.

[Cherub721]

Lacey, try replacing some of the almond flour with coconut flour; it absorbs more water and is also gluten free. When I first experimented with coconut flour, everything was way too dry.

[skatesindreams]

Does anyone have a really good recipe for zucchini bread?
I had one - given me by a close friend - now deceased, which I lost