Mexican Lasagne

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Susan

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When you need to bring a dish, Mexican lasagne is a great choice.  There are, of course, many versions of this favorite.  I have two—this one, which I am about to share, and another that is made with salsa and pasta noodles instead of meat sauce and tortillas.  (I’ll post that one another time…).  Like all good casserole recipes, this one is good because it’s best if you make it without baking the day before, and then just bake it right before you eat it.  My book club pronounced this yummy just two days ago and you can see from the ingredients that it is square-on in the “what’s not to like” category of recipes.DSC_0051

Mexican Lasagne

Makes 8 to 10 servings

Preparation Time:  30 minutes
Cook Time:  30 minutes in the oven, 10 minutes to stand
Total Time:  1 hour and 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground chuck
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
3 cups tomato puree
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup sliced black olives
1 4 ounce can chopped green chiles
12 corn tortillas
Cooking spray (I use Pam Organic Olive Oil)
2 cups small-curd cottage cheese
1 egg
1 ½ cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Topping:DSC_0039
½ cup green onions, white and green parts, chopped
½ cup sour cream

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a skillet, brown the chuck and pour off excess fat, leaving only a tablespoon or so.  Add the onion to the beef and cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes.   Add the minced garlic and cook for anotDSC_0041her minute.  Add the chili powder and stir to coat the meat mixture well, and then stir in the tomato puree, the sugar, black olives and green chiles.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes to blend the flavors.

Meanwhile, place the tortillas in one layer on baking sheets (you can probably get 6 to a sheet) and spray both sides with the cooking spray.  Place in the oven and cook for 5 minutes and then turn them over.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes or until they are just crisp.  Remove from the oven, cool, and then break into pieces.

Mix the cottage cheese and egg together in a small bowl and set aside.DSC_0046

In a 9 x 13 baking dish (or any similar capacity dish), spread 1/3 of the meat mixture.  Layer ¾ cup of the Monterey Jack Cheese, 1 cup of the cottage cheese mixture and ½ of the tortilla pieces.  Repeat this process, ending with meat sauce on top.  Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over and bake for 30 minutes, until the top is brown and bubbly.  Remove from the oven and let stand for about 10 minutes before serving.  Top each serving with sour cream and green onions or pass these separately.

Posted in Beef, Casseroles, Main Course | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Braised Pork Chops in Paprika Sauce

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Susan

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Until recently, I didn’t have a lot of respect for paprika.  My mother only seemed to use it when a dish needed “a little bit of color” and then she would sprinkle it on whatever (usually deviled eggs), and it looked nice and didn’t really have any flavor that I could tell. And once upon a long time ago, I had to go to Budapest on a business trip — where everybody talked about paprika and it was everywhere to buy.  So I was all set to become an enthusiast.  I brought back 4 cans of the spice, 2 sweet and 2 hot, all set to try recipes using the “really good stuff.”  Then, literally the morning after I got back from my trip, my husband read an article in the paper about some blight on the paprika harvest—advising everyone to throw away their Hungarian paprika (note:  this really was a long time ago—everything is fine now—I don’t want to be sued by Hungary for asking people to throw out their paprika….) And so I forgot all about paprika for a long time.

And then, a few months ago, I was thinking about pork chops and lamenting how they never turned out tender enough for my taste—and I came across a way to make them that after trying and tweaking a few times–has solved the tenderness problem, is easy, can be make-ahead, and is very nice to look at—using paprika.  What more do I want from a recipe?  Nothing much–and now I have a lot of respect for paprika.

Braised Pork Chops in Paprika Sauce

Serves 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time:  1 and 1/2 hours
Total:  Almost 2 hours

Ingredients:

4 Pork Chops, 1-inch thickDSC_0059
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Flour to coat the pork chops
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium or 1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sour cream

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Sprinkle the pork chops with salt and pepper and dredge them in the flour to coat them lightly on both sides.  Heat the oil in an oven-proof skillet or a Dutch oven with a lid.  Add the pork chops to the pan and cook them for 3 or 4 minutes per side until nicely browned.  Transfer the chops to a platter.

Add the onions to the oil and cook them for about 8 to 10 minutes or until they are lightly browned.  Add the garlic to the pan and cook another 30 seconds. Move the pan off the heat and add the paprika, stirring until the onions are well coated.  Return the pan to the heat, pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Return the pork chops to the pan, cover, place in the oven and cook for one hour.  Test the chops with a fork—they should be tender.  Remove the chops from the pan to a platter or individual serving plates.  Put the pan back on low heat on the stovetop and stir in the heavy cream and the sour cream. Simmer for another minute or two while stirring until the creams are incorporated.  Pour some of the sauce over each pork chop, and serve the remainder separately.  The sauce is so tasty that you may want to serve this with mashed potatoes, good crusty bread or noodles—and steamed broccoli is a good vegetable accompaniment.

Posted in Main Course, Pork | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Santa Fe Club Sandwich

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Susan

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There are so many cookbooks, so many cooking shows, and so many cooking blogs, because, obviously, for so many of us—the subject of our food is endlessly fascinating.  I have spent many pleasurable conversations (usually over a meal) with friends, recounting food memories, comparing techniques and ingredients for favorite recipes, and good naturedly arguing about the “right” way to do things. Example:   “You mean to say some people put dark meat in their chicken salad?  Oh yuck!” says one of my best southern-belle-raised friends.
The other day, I was flipping through an old cookbook by James Beard, James Beard’s American Cookery, and came across his recipe for a Club Sandwich.  He wrote by way of introduction:
“… It is one of the great sandwiches of all time and has swept its way around the world after an American beginning. Nowadays the sandwich is bastardized because it is usually made as a three-decker, which is not authentic (whoever started that horror should be forced to eat three-deckers three times a day the rest of his life), and nowadays practically everyone uses turkey and there’s a vast difference between turkey and chicken where sandwiches are concerned.”   Wow.
Intrigued by his passion about this, I “googled” club sandwich to see what “they’re” saying out there.  And I find that no one seems to really know where the club originated, although everyone does seem to agree that it is American.  Here are a few of the most-cited origins of the club sandwich:
One goes all the way back to 1894 at the Saratoga Club-House in Saratoga Springs, New York.  The story is that a man named Richard Canfield purchased this gentlemen-only gambling club, and that the sandwich was invented in its kitchen under his watch.
Another is that of the accidental invention of the sandwich by some man, somewhere who came home late at night and hungry, stumbled into his kitchen, starving for something to eat…and the only thing he could come up with was some stale bread (which he toasted) some leftover chicken, bacon, tomato, etc. etc…you get the idea.
And another is that it came from the dining menu of the Club Car of a train somewhere.
All credible…none proven…. oh well.  After all of that reading, I was hungry and it was lunchtime and a club sandwich sure sounded good.   The clubs I like the best include avocado and some southwesterny flavors, and the star here for me is the Cilantro-Chili Mayonnaise.  We enjoyed this with a glass of iced tea and a few potato chips of the thick, kettle-fried variety.

Santa Fe Club Sandwich
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 Ciabatta rolls (shown) or 4 slices sourdough breadDSC_0027
6 slices bacon
8 slices cooked chicken breast meat (a rotisserie chicken is great for this)
4 thin tomato slices
½ avocado, pitted, peeled and sliced
Romaine lettuce leaves
Cilantro-Chili Mayonnaise (see below)

Preparation:

Lightly toast the rolls or the bread and spread with Cilantro-Chili mayonnaise.  Layer the turkey, bacon, tomato, avocado and Romaine on one slice of the bread, cover with the other, and cut in half.

For the Cilantro-Chili Mayonnaise:
Mix together:

4 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 large garlic clove, pressed
1 small jalapeno chili, minced
½ teaspoon ground cumin

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Chicken Divan

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Susan

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Chicken Divan was the signature dish of the Divan Parisienne, a restaurant in New York in the 1950s.  My mother used to make this from scratch; this was one of her favorite leftover chicken recipes.  But somewhere along the line in the 60s or 70s, she threw out her old recipe in favor of a “much easier” version that relied on mayonnaise and cream of chicken soup.  Of course, it was delicious too, but now that we’re worried about things like salt and fat, and processed foods, recipes like that have to be used pretty judiciously, if at all.  So I pulled out my mother’s original recipe and made it, and wow, was it good.  The fat and the salt haven’t been eliminated, but it’s all made from scratch and well worth the trouble and the calories.   If you’re in a time squeeze, you can make this with a rotisserie chicken.

Chicken Divan

Serves 6

Preparation Time:  30 minutes
Cook Time:    30 minutes
Total Time:    1 hour

Ingredients:

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1 large bunch of broccoli, cut into 5-inch spears (I peel the ends a little so they won’t be tough)
4 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
½ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons dry Sherry (optional)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
2 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut or shredded into chunks (or the meat from 1 rotisserie chicken)DSC_0041

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Steam the broccoli for about 8 minutes, or until it is tender, and drain it well.  In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium low heat; add the flour and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes until the mixture is a golden brown.  Add the chicken broth and continue to stir until the mixture comes to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the cream until it DSC_0052holds stiff peaks.  Stir the cream, the sherry (if using), the lemon juice and ½ cup of the Parmesan into the sauce.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.

In a 2-quart casserole dish, arrange the broccoli around the edges, stems pointed toward the middle of the dish.  Arrange the chicken on the broccoli.  Spoon the sauce over the chicken (I like to leave the floret part of the broccoli uncovered) and sprinkle the remaining ½ cup of Parmesan cheese over the sauce.  Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes until the cheese and sauce are golden and bubbly, about 20 to 30 minutes.

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Posted in Chicken, Main Course | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Goat Song-Book Review

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Susan

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Brad Kessler has given us a book which combines the literary pleasure of reading words strung together in a lovely, simple, and artful way—with the occasional action of a best selling adventure–and frequent “I didn’t know that” moments of illumination. Continue reading →

Posted in BOOK REVIEWS | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Crepes with Berries and Mascarpone

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Susan

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Yesterday, we had time to make a nice brunch, –but we wanted something different from our usual pancakes or French toast.  I’ve made a cake before with this mascarpone cream as the filling between two layers of vanilla cake, and I thought it would be delicious as a crepe filling.  It is.   The crepes and the cream and the berries can all be made a few hours ahead of time and refrigerated.  Bring all to room temperature before assembling.  If you don’t have a lot of time and you do have a few extra dollars, you can sometimes buy prepared crepes in your market—not quite as good, but you can put mascarpone cream and berries on a roof tile and it will taste pretty delicious.

Crepes with Mixed Berries and Mascarpone Cream

Makes 12 Crepes

Time:  30 minutes to make the crepes
10 minutes to prepare the berries
10 minutes to make the cream
plus assembly time
Total Time:  1 hour

Ingredients:

Crepe Batter:

1 ½ cups flour
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Mixed Berries:

½ cup dry Sherry (optional)
½ cup sugar
4 cups mixed berries, rinsed, dried and cut if large

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Mascarpone Cream:

8 ounces Mascarpone
1 cup chilled heavy cream
¼ cup sugar

Preparation:

For the batter:  Blend the flour, eggs and egg yolks with a wire whisk.  Add the milk, sugar and salt and whisk together until all of the ingredients are well blended.  Heat a 6-inch non-stick skillet or crepe pan (if you have one) over medium heat.  Brush the pan with a little of the melted butter.  Quickly pour in 1-2 tablespoons of the crepe batter and swirl it immediately to coat the entire bottom of the skillet.  Cook the crepe just until the batter sets—this will probably take about 30 seconds.  Flip the crepe over and cook the other side until just golden.  Repeat this process until all of the crepes are cooked, stacking them on a plate.  If you are making them in advance, place pieces of waxed paper in between them so they won’t stick together.

For the fruit:  In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and the sherry together and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.   Put the berries in a bowl and pour the hot syrup over them and stir gently so all of the berries are coated.  Let stand at least 15 minutes and up to 3 hours.   (If you don’t want to use the sherry, just toss the berries with the sugar without melting it first).

For the mascarpone cream:  Place the mascarpone, cream and sugar in a large bowl and beat together until the mixture just holds peaks (the consistency of a thick custard).

To assemble the dish:  Lay a crepe on a plate and put a generous tablespoon of the mascarpone cream on the lower right hand quarter of each crepe.  Top with a spoonful of berries.  Fold the crepe in half, then in half again to make a triangle.  Top with an additional small spoonful of cream and berries.

Notes:  The crepes and the cream and the berries can all be made a few hours ahead of time and refrigerated.  Bring all to room temperature before assembling.  If you don’t have a lot of time and you do have a few extra dollars, you can sometimes buy prepared crepes in your market—not quite as good, but you can put mascarpone cream and berries on a roof tile and it will taste pretty good.

Posted in Breakfast, Dessert | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment