Beet & Horseradish Sauce for Beef

This can be mild and salad-like, or hot and bitey, depending on the proportions of the ingredients. The proportions of the ingredients are completely up to you...

4 to 8 servings
15 minutes prep time


1 small to medium beet
horseradish
sour cream

Peel the beet, except for the top leaf-scab area, which you can hang onto as you grate. Grate the beet finely, and discard the aforementioned top.

Mix 1/2 to 1 cup of the grated raw beet with with 1 to 4 tablespoons of horseradish, depending on how hot your horseradish is, and how hot you would like the resulting condiment to be.

Mix in sour cream, just enough to moisten everthing, or enough to make it quite pale and creamy... this is completely up to you... what do you want?

Serve it on top of steak or roast beef.

Seedy Wild Rice, Apple & Cranberry Salad

I used 1/3 of a cup of red rice in this, just because it was sitting there looking lonely and insufficient to cook on its own. That was, I think, a very good proportion to the wild rice which is fabulous and could be certainly eaten straight, but which is not exactly cheap.

I thought this salad was excellent, but then I would; it's full of my favourite things.

6 servings
1 hour 30 minutes - 30 minutes prep time


Cook the Rice:
1 cup wild rice
OR a mix of wild and brown rice
pinch of salt
water

Cook the wild rice in the rice cooker, with three cups of water and a pinch of salt. If you use a blend of wild rice and brown rice, allow triple the measure of the wild rice in water and double the amount of brown rice in water. Let the rice cool before making the salad.

Make the Dressing:
1/3 cup raspberry vinegar
1/4 cup sunflower seed or nut (hazelnut or almond) oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt & pepper to taste

Shake in a jar or whisk together in a small bowl.

Assemble the Salad:
2 medium carrots
1 cup dried cranberries
2 large apples
1 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds, or a combination
1 head (hydroponic) lettuce

Put the cooked wild rice in a large bowl and add the carrots, peeled and grated. Add the cranberries. Wash the apples, core them and chop them. Add them to the salad.

Toast the pumpkin or sunflower seeds in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned. If you use a combination, start the pumpkin seeds before the sunflower seeds. They should be about half done when the sunflower seeds go in. Stir them constantly to avoid scorching. Once they are done, turn them out onto a plate to cool. When they are cool, they can be added to the salad.

Toss in the salad dressing and serve over the lettuce leaves, which should be washed and dried.

If you wish to make the salad in advance, keep the toasted seeds aside, and don't add the apples. Cut and add the apples just before serving, along with the toasted seeds. It might not hurt to keep the dressing separate until then too.

Irish (Potato Skin) Nachos

There's nothing Irish about these, except of course for the association of Ireland with potatoes. As far as I can see they originated as bar food in Texas. However, they make a nice light lunch with soup or salad, or serve them as an hors d'oevre or appetizer.

Basically, these are stuffed potato skins with nacho toppings. You can put on them whatever you would normally put on nachos. I tried to keep it reasonably light, although I just couldn't pass up on some sour cream.

I call for russet potatoes, which are your classic baking potato. I actually used red skinned potatoes, on account of how I have a 75 pound bag* of them in the basement. They worked fine, and were very well received.

4 servings
2 hours - 30 minutes prep time


4 or 5 large russet potatoes

1/4 cup olive oil
150 grams (1/3 pound) Monterey jack cheese
- ideally with Jalapeno peppers in it
1 cup prepared salsa (you did can some salsa last summer, right?)
5 or 6 button mushrooms, sliced
sliced pickled peppers or green olives or other nacho toppings if you like
about 1/4 cup sour cream

Wash and prick the potatoes with a fork, and bake them at 400°F for about 1 hour, until well done.

Let them cool enough to handle, and cut them in quarters lengthwise. As you work, cut out most of the potato flesh - at least three-quarters - and set it aside for another use. Put the skins on a large baking tray.

Brush the skins, both sides, with the oil. Put them back into the oven at 400°F for 10 minutes, to brown a little. They should be spread out in a single layer.

Meanwhile, slice the cheese and mushrooms. When the potato skins are ready, top each with a slice of cheese, a teaspoon or so of salsa, and a mushroom slice or whatever other toppings you are using. Return the potato skins to the 400°F oven for 5 or 10 minutes until the cheese is melted. Pile them up on a plate and dab them with the sour cream.

Enjoy! Get 'em while they're hot.





*For which I paid the ridiculous sum of $10. Somebody needs to take those Mennonite farmers aside and introduce them to the concept of "inflation".

Japanese Carrot Salad Dressing

I've seen a number of versions of this dressing around, and have been interested in trying it for a while. I didn't quite do any of the recipes I saw, but picked out the features I thought most appealing from several different ones. Some of the recipes called for up to a cup of oil, but I was interested in the ones that didn't call for any, except a little sesame oil for flavour.

The light miso is fairly important; otherwise the dressing will be a dreary brown instead of a reasonably good orange colour. (If you want an even brighter orange, omit the soy sauce and add a bit of salt instead.) Other ingredients that you could add include a bit of lemon zest, a bit of mustard and honey, or green onions or chives. I don't know that I would add all of them; one at a time maybe.

If covered, this should keep for a few days in the fridge, which is good; it makes a fair bit of dressing.

8 servings (about 1 cup)
15 minutes prep time


1 cup grated carrot
1 cubic inch peeled fresh ginger root
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons light miso
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Peel and grate the carrot. Peel the ginger root, and slice thinly across the grain.

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until very smooth.

Um, that's it. Serve it on a nice light green salad. I used hydroponic lettuce, savoy and red cabbage, and mushrooms.

Vegetarian Sauerkraut Soup

Here's a nice light but filling soup, loaded with vegetables. There are a lot of meat-based sauerkraut soup recipes out there, so I thought I would go for a vegetarian version just for a change. Besides, it's January and we are all trying to eat a little lighter, right? If you feel deprived a little dab of sour cream should cheer you right up.

8 servings
1 hour - 20 minutes prep time


4 cups water
2 cups sauerkraut
2 cups crushed tomatoes
2-3 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed

2 leaves of savoy cabbage
1 stalk of celery (optional)
1 small carrot
1 small leek
10 to 12 button mushrooms
4-6 shiitake mushrooms
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

Put the water, sauerkraut, tomatoes and seasonings in a large soup pot. Check the sauerkraut first; some is more "sauer" than others. If you think yours is a bit strong, you may wish to rinse and drain it first.

Wash and chop the remaining vegetables (peel the carrot first) and add the carrot and cabbage to the soup. Sauté the mushrooms in the oil until lightly browned, then add the celery (if using) and leek and sauté for a few minutes longer. Add these vegetables to the soup as well.

Cover the soup and simmer for about an hour. If you think the soup is too jam-packed with vegetables, you may wish to add a little more tomato and water.




Last year at this time I made Fish in Leek & Carrot Sauce.

No-Bake Puffed Barley Squares

I was really pleased with how these turned out.

I had bought a bag of puffed barley that came from Grassroots Organics (Saugeen Specialty Grains). They are the only small organic mill I know of in Ontario that makes puffed cereals. However, they have sat around for a while as I don't really tend to eat puffed cereals - I stick to my oatmeal, with the occasional outbreak of pancakes. So, I decided to adapt a recipe traditionally made with puffed rice cereal to use these up.

Did I say they turned out really well? I cut back the sugar, and replaced corn syrup with honey as well as swapping out the puffed cereals. The result has far more depth and gravitas than any mere rice crisp could achieve. You can't just stuff these down, you need to nibble them slowly, and savour them. Preferably with a nice cup of tea.

It wasn't just the rich, mellow flavour of the barley (do rice crisps even have a flavour?) but also the honey was a local one, of which we have just bought a gigantic tub. I have to say I find the honey from the Bruce Peninsula/Georgian Bay area/Muskoka to be exceptionally good. Some fingers got licked during the making of these squares, and I just about floated off to heaven right then. Wow, really fragrant.

25 squares
10 minutes - not including the time to set


1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 3 1/2 cups puffed barley

Lightly oil an 8" x 8" baking pan.

Put the cocoa, sugar, butter and honey in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Slowly bring the mixture to a boil, stirring well to prevent lumps. Once the mixture comes to a boil, boil it for 45 seconds to one minute, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Yes, the timing is that precise, so watch it.

Remove the pot from the heat, and stir in the vanilla extract. Stir in the puffed barley, until it is well coated in the mixture. Let the mixture cool for a few minutes, then scrape it into the prepared pan. Press it out evenly over the bottom of the pan. Once the mixture has set - half an hour will do it - cut the squares and remove them from the pan.




Last year at this time I made Wild Rice Pilaf and Sweet Potatoes with Bacon & Shallots.

Lemon-Apricot Carrots

As I've remarked before, we don't tend to eat a lot of cooked carrots by themselves, as a side dish, even though we often go through an average of a carrot a day in this household. They are more likely to go into salads or be unobtrusively blended into soups, stews and casseroles. However, there wasn't much in the way of vegetables in the fridge when I got back, so carrots it had to be.

The good news is that these were really tasty - I'll do them again, even when I have a choice of other veggies.

3 to 4 servings
15 minutes - 5 minutes prep time


3 medium-large carrots
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
the zest of 1/3 of a lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons apricot jam

Peel the carrots, and slice them. Actually, I think I might cut them in julienne next time. Put them in a small pot with the water, butter and lemon zest.

Cover them, and cook them for about 5 minutes. Remove the lid, and continue cooking them until the water has pretty much evaporated. Give them a stir once in a while.

Add the lemon juice and apricot jam, and continue cooking for a minute or two longer, until the sauce is thickened.




Last year at this time I made Chicken with Leeks & Barley - An Anglo-Saxon Recipe, and Carrot Pudding.

Beef with Multiple Onions

Including shallots, which are "multiplier" onions, but that wasn't what I meant.

Well, I'm back in Ontario, after a quiet family visit in Victoria. I was there a day longer than planned, as my flight couldn't leave - couldn't arrive, actually - because of fog. The next day was clear though, and I had a most fabulous view from the plane of the sunrise coming up behind Mount Baker. Almost, I say almost, worth getting up at 5:00 a.m. to see. Once we got home I checked the pantry, and there seemed to be an awful lot of beef and onions. Why fight it?

4 servings
2 1/2 hours - 1/2 hour prep time

2 medium onions
1 large leek
4 to 6 shallots
3 cloves of garlic

450 grams (1 pound) boneless stewing beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups diced canned tomatoes
2 or 3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
black pepper to taste
12 allspice berries
2 or 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Peel the onions and cut them in half, then cut each half into quarters. Clean the leek, and chop it into similar sized pieces to the onions. Peel the shallots, and cut them in quarters. Peel and mince the garlic.

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a large skillet, and brown the beef well. Put it in a large stewing pot with the tomatoes, the bay leaves, the salt, paprika and pepper.

Heat the remaining oil in the same skillet, and add the onions and the allspice berries. Sauté them for about 5 minutes, until they begin to brown. Add the leeks and shallots, and continue to sauté gently for another 10 minutes or so, until they too are slightly browned. Add the garlic and sauté for another 2 or 3 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant. Add all the onions to the stew.

Cover the stew and simmer for about two hours over low heat. After about an hour, add the vinegar. Serve hot with potatoes, crusty bread, pasta or rice. Like a lot of stews, this will be better re-heated the next day.




Last year at this time I made Boston Brown Bread, Pasta with a Creamy Mushroom, Celery & Leek Sauce, and Haystacks - An Unbaked Cookie.

Making Carrot Marmalade - A Tutorial

Since I'm away, I thought I would post a revised version of a step-by-step pictorial recipe for Carrot Marmalade I did a few years ago. This requires a Seville orange, (or 2 if you want to double it,) the traditional orange for making marmalade but which is only available in January and February. Other places have their seasons too!

This is adapted from a recipe in the Canadian Farm Cook Book of 1911, of which I am so fortunate as to have a copy. The Canadian twist to this marmalade is the addition of carrots. I like it better than straight-up orange marmalade, which I find just too strong in the home made version - and I like a marmalade with lots of oomph. The lemon makes it a little more subtle too. You don't actually taste the carrots; they just mellow it. All in all, if you like marmalade you should give it a try. It's not hard to make, just a little time consuming.

Most canning recipes should NOT be changed in size as they will likely not set up in a reasonable (or even unreasonable) amount of time. This recipe is an exception. Since the original recipe only makes 3 jars, I generally double it and it has always worked out fine for me. That's what I did here. I also used 3 oranges as the ones I could find that year were all unusually small. They should be the same size as the lemons, at least. Seville oranges, by the way, have a rough and bumpy texture compared to most oranges, and are too bitter/sour to eat raw. Great for cooking, though.

Sorry for the quality of the photos. If you think it's easy to cook with one hand and photograph with the other, well, ha-ha! Think again.

3 250-ml jars
2 hours. 3 hours? Something like that... no, really it's 2. It just feels longer.


The ingredients await.


Keep the seeds! They have the pectin!

I prefer to cut the peel by hand for better control of the sizes of the pieces. You can try using a food processor if you like, but be prepared to pick through them and re-cut some pieces. Cut up the fruit, too; but do it separately from the peel. Be sure to save all the juice.


The sliced fruit, juice and peel go into the canning kettle with the water. The seeds go in too. Put them in a spice-ball or tie them up in muslin, otherwise you willl never get them out again. The seeds are full of pectin; they ensure that the marmalade will set.


Start cooking the marmalade.


Meanwhile, peel and grate the carrots.


Add them, with the sugar, to the marmalade.


Testing for done-ness: nope, not even close.


Okay, this looks more like it.


Watch out! This stuff is hot!


Pack it into the sterilized jars.


Wipe the rims.


Put on the prepared lids.


Seal them... and once they go back into the canner briefly, you're done. Mmm, marmalade!


1 organic lemon
1 Seville orange
2 cups water

2 cups grated carrots
2 1/2 cups sugar
pinch of salt

Wash the lemon and orange carefully and shred them finely. Keep all the seeds from both, and put them in a clean new tea ball, or sew them into a scrap of cheesecloth or thin muslin.

Put the lemon and orange in a pot with the water, and the seeds, and boil for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, wash, peel and grate the carrots. Add the carrots, sugar and salt to the marmalade pot.

Put the canning jars into the canner and cover them with water to an inch above the tops of the jars. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.

Continue boiling until the marmalade is thick and looks inclined to set, about 30 minutes from the addition of the carrots and sugar. Fish out the seeds, draining them well.

Ladle the marmalade into sterilized jars, seal and process in boiling water for 5 minutes.




Last year at this time I made Smoked Trout & Rutabaga Chowder.

Potato Pancakes

Pancakes again! But I had about 2 cups of leftover mashed potatoes, and this is one of the things I do when I have leftover mashed potatoes. The resulting pancakes are moist, soft and potato-ey, but definitely pancakes and not pan-cooked cakes made of potatoes, if you follow me. Not at all like latkes, for example.

Still, they would be as good for brunch as for breakfast, or could be served alongside soup instead of bread. We had ours for breakfast, with applesauce, which is another classic accompaniment for potato pancakes. They are cooked with more oil than regular pancakes, and they take longer. I prefer not to serve any butter with them because of the oil. On the other hand, if you want to you could add a little chopped onion. Blanch it with the grated potato.

Makes 10 to 12 pancakes
1 hour - work, work, work


1 large raw potato, grated
boiling water
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
2 extra-large eggs
1 cup soft unbleached flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 cups buttermilk

cooking oil

Scrub and grate the raw potato, and put it in a colander. Pour boiling water over it until it is well soaked, then rinse it in cold water until you can handle it. Squeeze it as dry as you can, then put it in a mixing bowl. Add the leftover mashed potato, and beat in the eggs.

Assuming cast iron skillets; put two on the stove to heat over medium to medium-low heat and turn the oven on low, with a couple of plates in it to catch the finished pancakes.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt, and add them to the batter alternately with some buttermilk. The exact quantity of buttermilk will depend on how moist your potatoes were, both the leftover mashed and the grated raw. You want the typical pancake batter; thin enough to spread easily over the pan but not too runny.

Once they are mixed, try not to stir them again.

Put a bit of oil in each of the pans. There should be enough to generously cover the bottom of each pan. Use a 1/3 cup measure to scoop out the pancakes into the pans. Spread the batter out a bit, and cook until the tops of the pancakes look mostly dry and many bubbles have formed. Turn the pancakes over and finish cooking on the other side. As you remove cooked pancakes, add more oil if the pan looks dry before adding more batter.

I find I need to keep the heat a hair lower than for other pancakes, and they take a bit longer to cook. These probably didn't take an hour to make, but they did seem pretty slow.




Last year at this time I made Cinnamon Cocoa Applesauce Cake and Seven Minute Frosting.

Gone Away

Thanks to the fact that you can schedule posts ahead of time on Blogger, I'm able to keep some posts going this week, even though I am not around. I have abandoned my sweetie to the apartment building to finish the painting and cleaning by himself, while I gad off to visit my uncle in Victoria. Yes, I feel mildly guilty, but this was booked months ago. I intend to have a good time. However, once I get back we will be within 2 weeks of the closing date on our apartment building and I expect to be running around like an hysterical automaton. Not cooking or posting much, is what I'm getting at. Apologies in advance for the slim pickings. I'm looking forward to February, when things should get back on an even keel.




Last year at this time I made Cheesy Lentil Loaf. Check it out - it's still good stuff!

Sweet Potato Waffles

This recipe came from The Canadian Woman's Cookbook, originally published sometime in the 1920's although my copy dates from the late 1930's. Their idea was that these were to be served as a vegetable/starch side dish, and you could, certainly; although I thought they were just fine for breakfast. They would be a good way to use up an extra sweet potato baked accidentally on purpose for dinner the night before. My sweet potato was a bit more than a cup when mashed, and I put it all in. In retrospect, I should have measured more carefully my waffle iron was dying. I enjoyed them though!

If you haven't got a waffle maker, I would think the batter would make good pancakes.

Edited 14/04/2020: I've replaced the photo with another, of waffles made on a waffle iron that works properly. The original photo was of the last batch of waffles I made before my old waffle iron died, which was the reason they looked (and were) so limp and floppy.

I also note that nowadays, I omit the sugar, don't bother to beat the egg white separately, and use whole spelt flour. The beaten egg whites probably do make them a bit lighter, but not enough for me to feel like that's a good use of my energy and equipment. 

4 large waffles (8 to 10 small)
45 minutes - 10 minutes prep time; not including time to bake the sweet potatoes

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar, optional
1 extra-large egg yolk
1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato
3/4 cup whole spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 extra-large egg white, beaten stiff

Cream the butter and sugar, and beat in the egg yolk and the cooked mashed sweet potato.

Mix the baking powder and salt into the flour. Mix the flour alternately into the sweet potato mixture with the milk.

Beat the egg white until it is stiff, then fold it into the batter.

Cook the waffles in yer handy-dandy waffle maker, according to manufacturer's instructions. Generally, it should be heated up then brushed lightly with oil between each waffle. Check for doneness when the amount of steam coming out of the waffle iron lessens. Keep finished waffles warm in the oven. These freeze well and can be re-heated in a toaster, from frozen.




Last year at this time I made Rutabaga with Peas & Mushrooms and Oven Barbecued Onions.