Tag: vegetarian

A Lost Recipe—Apple Cranberry Crisp

I’m not sure, but my guess is that professional chefs never lose recipes, which is one reason I know that I will never be or even aspire to be a professional cook. I confess to losing, or at least misplacing, at least one recipe a year. For instance, there was the great Hot Fudge Sauce Hot Fudge Sauce recipe that I made a couple of times, then lost for years until finding it by chance. And then there is Pat’s Caponata recipe that I never found but had to recreate by tweaking some recipes I found on line.

Jerri suffers from the same weakness. Forty or forty-five years ago when we were still living in Kentucky, Jerri made a dessert that we loved. It was a crisp made with apples, cranberries and oatmeal. She made it three or four times in Kentucky, and we think that she made it at least once or twice after we moved to New Richmond. We are not sure of that, so it is possible that she lost the recipe during the move.

Every year when we buy cranberries at the marsh near Stone Lake, Wisconsin, she laments that she has lost that recipe. This fall I suggested that we try to recreate it. I went on line and saved six recipes that resembled the one she remembered. She chose the one that seemed closest to what she remembered and dictated some changes to me.

She then followed her newly revised recipe which produced a wonderful dessert. You really need to try it. It will wow your family and guests. Offer it as a second dessert on Thanksgiving day or just serve it warm with a scoop of ice cream after any meal. It’s even good plain and cold for a healthful breakfast! Think of it as oatmeal and fruit.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen
3 1/2 cups diced peeled apples
1 cup sugar
3 T all-purpose flour
Dash of salt
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped pecans

PROCEDURE:

Grease an eight by twelve-inch baking dish and set a stick of butter aside to soften to room temperature.

Peel and core the apples and chop them into a half-inch dice. Blend the flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir the apples and cranberries into the sugar mixture. Make sure that the fruit is mixed evenly through the batter.

Preheat the oven to 350º and make the topping. Blend the oatmeal, flour, cinnamon and brown sugar together in a mixing bowl. Add the butter in small pieces, and cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Stir in the chopped pecans. You should have a crumbly topping mixture.

Pour the fruit batter into the greased baking dish. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit. Bake at 350° for fifty to fifty-five minutes or until the apples are tender and most of the cranberries have popped open.

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. You will have eight to ten servings.

Vegetarian Quesadillas

When our niece Gina served us her version of quesadillas made with leftover steak and vegetables, I was so impressed that I asked for the recipe. The recipe turned out to be a set of instructions which you can find here. It is easy to follow and produces delicious appetizers or light lunches in almost no time.

Gina’s instructions call for using various leftover ingredients from your refrigerator, but for once there weren’t many leftovers in our fridge. The most obvious one was a resealable package of some corn tortillas that remained after Jerri had made Layered Enchilada Pie . I also found half an onion and a chunk of Cheddar cheese.

A quick visit to the supermarket solved the problem of vegetables for my quesadillas. I chose things that I like, and you should do the same. You might, however, want to avoid broccoli, brussels sprouts, turnips, carrots, beets and other vegetables usually associated with the north country. The ones listed below create a tasty quesadilla and offer a good starting point.

INGREDIENTS:

2 small to medium jalapeño peppers
1/2 medium red bell pepper
1/3 cup chopped zucchini squash
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 tsp. Mexican seasoning
Dash of salt
2 T olive oil
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 or 2 T butter
8 corn tortillas

PROCEDURE:

Wash and cut the stem ends off the jalapeño peppers and slice them into quarters. Remove and discard the white membrane and seeds. Chop the peppers into an eighth to quarter-inch dice. Clean and chop the rest of the vegetables into a third to half-inch dice. Shred the cheese.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over moderate heat, add the vegetables, Mexican seasoning and salt. Cook the vegetables three or four minutes, stirring them often, until they are tender but still crisp. They will continue cooking when you fry the quesadillas.

Set the vegetables aside in a bowl and wipe the frying pan with a paper towel. Butter a tortilla very very lightly and put it butter side down in the frying pan over moderate heat. Sprinkle the tortilla with some shredded cheese and spoon on an even layer of vegetables, then top with more cheese. Butter very lightly a second tortilla and put it butter side up on the cheese.

Cover the pan and cook the quesadilla for three minutes. Press the top tortilla down on the filling and turn the quesadilla. Cook for a minute covered and a second minute uncovered. Turn the quesadilla over to make sure that it is lightly browned on both sides. Fry it an extra minute or two if necessary. Place the quesadilla on a warmed plate and repeat until you have made four of these tasty morsels.

To serve, cut in halves or quarters with a pizza cutter. If you wish, pass the salsa.

NOTES: Feel free to experiment with other vegetables, more spice, different cheese, etc. If you are averse to any spiciness, you can substitute a green bell pepper for the jalapeños and make up your own seasoning with salt, garlic powder and whatever. Chopped very fine, however, the jalapeños simply offset the blandness of the other vegetables and do not taste very hot. You really should try it, perhaps starting with only one jalapeño.

MEXICAN SEASONING: You can find Mexican seasoning in the spice section of most supermarkets, or you can make enough to spice up a lot of dishes in a few minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1?2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1?2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. paprika
1 1?2 tsp. ground cumin
1?2 tsp. sea salt
1?2 tsp. black pepper
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves

PROCEDURE:

Grind the pepper flakes and oregano in a mortar. Add the salt and black pepper and grind more to mix well. Add the other ingredients and grind briefly to mix everything together. Store in a tight container in a cool place out of direct sunlight.