What's for dinner?

[Menolly]

Sounds great, but do you have any suggestions on making them without the rotisserie?

Yes...I actually edited my original posting of the recipe that's on the Cooking Cache to the way I do it now. But the original recipe is for a grill.

It is very important the heat is low to start. You can gradually increase it as the casings toughen up, but you really want to avoid bursting or burning them.

We're having some friends over tonight and I promised them a traditional Puerto Rican Dinner. We're having a salad (with lettuce, tomato, onion, peas and corn), Pollo guisada, rice & beans, platanos and a bread pudding for dessert.

Oh that sounds great. Any recipes to share?

[Dan65802]

Oh that sounds great. Any recipes to share?

I'll start with the Rice & Beans. Rice & Beans are ubiquitous in the Caribbean. Different islands have different takes on the dish and different cooks add their own uniqueness to their recipes. Mine starts with my grandma's recipe and adds a little more of the vegetables (and omits her oregano).

Rice and Beans

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon
1 cup chopped onion
1 green pepper, julienned
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 or 6 green olives
2 teaspoons capers
2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste
1 can red kidney beans
1 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper to taste
cooked yellow or white rice

Directions:

Fry bacon in a large heavy frying pan until crisp. Remove bacon and drain on paper towels, but RETAIN BACON DRIPPINGS. In those bacon drippings sauté onion, green pepper, and garlic for 3 or 4 minutes until onions begin to soften. Add olives, capers and tomato paste and stir to combine. (Note: This recaito is the start of a great many Puerto Rican recipes.)

Add kidney beans, fill that kidney bean can with water and add to pan. Add salt and bacon, crumbled. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over hot cooked rice.

- Dan -

[Menolly]

Oh yum...

...heaven...

Authentic Puerto Rican recipes.
Call me happy.

After these, if you should have a recipe for yuca with garlic and lemon (I think?), I'll be eternallly grateful...

[Dan65802]

I'll check on that yuca dish. For this next one I often use skinless, boneless chicken thighs instead of chicken parts. I just find it easier to eat that way.

Pollo Guisada
(Stewed Chicken)

Ingredients:

1 large chicken, cut up or about 3 lb. chicken parts
2 slices of bacon, chopped
2 large potatoes, quartered
2 carrots, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
½ cup chopped celery
2 large garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup green olives
1 teaspoon capers
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
4 ounces tomato paste
1½ - 2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan or stew pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover pot and simmer for approximately an hour and 15 minutes, stirring and checking often. Chicken should be very tender, but not yet falling off the bone.

[Wyldewode]

Those recipes sound amazing, Dan! Keep them coming!

And Menolly, aren't you glad I lured Dan over here?

[Menolly]

yes'm!

[Skyweir]

[quote="Wyldewode"]Those recipes sound amazing, Dan! Keep them coming!

quote]

mmm .. hungry now .. :p *drools*

signing off on that note .. i have to say amen to wyldewode's comment .. Dan keep em coming!!

see you anon

[Dan65802]

The dinner turned out very well last night. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of the chicken parts in the Pollo Guisada and they were incredibly moist and tender. The rice was a little mushy, but no one seemed to mind. I have leftovers in the fridge here at work. Of course, I'm eating a bowl of Corn Pops for breakfast, but I can look forward to lunch. I don't have the bread pudding recipe here at work, but here's a nice pound cake I've made.

Rum Pound Cake

Ingredients:

Cake
1 cup chopped pecans
1 package yellow cake mix
1 package instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
½ cup cold water
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup dark Puerto Rican rum such as Bacardi

Glaze
¼ lb. butter
¼ cup water
1 cup sugar
½ cup rum

Fresh whipped cream
Fresh strawberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325° F. Grease and flour bundt cake pan. Sprinkle pecans on the bottom. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, ½ up cold water, vegetable oil and ½ cup of the rum. Mix together for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about one hour until top is brown and inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the glaze. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add water, sugar and rum. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Invert cake onto plate. Drizzle and brush glaze evenly over the cake top. Decorate whipped cream and strawberries

[Brasidas]

Mince and Tatties tonight, the easiest meal you'll ever cook.
Couple of ilbs of best mince, whop into a large pan, cover with water. When it comes to the boil, add beef stock (oxo cube is fine).
Add your peeled and cubed tatties (which is what Scottish people like my mum call potatoes), and boil away till they are perfectly done.
Serve with nothing at all, as there will be a huge bottle of brown sauce on the table...

[Skyweir]

your a gan canny lassie or laddie .. as the case may be

lasagne for tea last night ..

beef mince
browned with onion and garlic
add chilli
kidney beans (for fun )
tomato paste

salt and a tadly vegeta for flavour
black pepper oh and cummin when your browing the onion s and garlic

cheesey sauce
make a rue with 2 dessert spoons of flour
butter just enough to seal the flour
add milk
stir madly to avoid lumps
add nutmeg and black pepper
and a tadly vegeta never hurts

layer lasagne sheets
spoon over meat sauce and then cheese sauce between layers of lasagne sheets

ensure top layer is a cheese sauce layer and cover with grated cheese .. just to make sure you get enough cheese in every bite

put in moderate over to brown

eat

[Dan65802]

Mince and Tatties tonight, the easiest meal you'll ever cook.
Couple of ilbs of best mince, whop into a large pan, cover with water. When it comes to the boil, add beef stock (oxo cube is fine).
Add your peeled and cubed tatties (which is what Scottish people like my mum call potatoes), and boil away till they are perfectly done.
Serve with nothing at all, as there will be a huge bottle of brown sauce on the table...

I think I've figured out that mince is ground beef, but could you give me a clue on what "brown sauce" is?

Last night we had biscuits and gravy. It's a dish traditional to the American south. It's usually made for breakfast and usually made with sausage. But we had it for dinner and I made it with corned beef. Here's a picture of traditional biscuits and gravy:


Leftovers tonight since my son has a T-ball game.

- Dan -

[Menolly]

Uhm...

Isn't sausage and gravy made with corned or chipped beef considered SOS?

Was it sliced corned beef, or corned beef hash like what comes in a tin?

Hyperception went to have an important talk with his dad overnight, so I took Beorn out to one of our favorite restaurants that Hyperception doesn't wish to go to that often, Chop Stix Cafe.

I started with a five individual sushi plate with the standard, tuna, salmon, snapper, red clam, and misago. I then had a small bowl of Tom Yum Tofu, and had Paneng Curry, 5-star spicy, with steamed tofu and vegetables.

Beorn isn't quite that adventuresome. He had a large noodle soup bowl of egg drop soup with won tons added and udon noodles, and a combination (chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp) fried rice bowl.

His soup and my curry are actually customized dishes ordered off the menu, but we were one of their first customers when they opened, which was within a year of us moving to Gator Town. We enjoy going when we can.

[Dan65802]

Isn't sausage and gravy made with corned or chipped beef considered SOS?

You'll have to define SOS for me. Sacrilegious Of the South?

Was it sliced corned beef, or corned beef hash like what comes in a tin?

Not the hash, that would be a little heavy. It's the corned beef that comes in a can/tin:



Chop Stix Cafe sounds great. I'll have to mark that down for my next drive through Gainesville.

- Dan -

[Menolly]

So you come down I-75???

Oh boy...
Mini-elohimfest time...

See...
Our Britains, kiwis, Australians, (not sure about the South Africans) etc., all seem to think that's what I mean when I say I making corned beef and cabbage. But I mean the brisket. I have never had tinned corned beef.

And you honestly don't know SOS? My age is showing again...

[Dan65802]

So you come down I-75???

Not too often, but occasionally. My parents are retired in Ft. Meyers and my favorite uncle is in Tallahassee, so yes, occasionally.

But I mean the brisket. I have never had tinned corned beef.

I don't mind the corned beef hash in the can, but making it fresh is much better. I'm pretty sure the term "corned beef" originated in the British Isles and well before the North American colonies were firmly established. I love boiled corned beef brisket as well as a good Reuben sandwich.

I guess I'd never heard SOS referred to by the initials. I usually think of that as the "chipped beef" variety served in the military. But if you're in Florida I'm sure you can get biscuits and gravy at your local McDonalds in the morning!

- Dan -

[Menolly]

But if you're in Florida I'm sure you can get biscuits and gravy at your local McDonalds in the morning!

...heh...

Not at McD's.
But there are definitely some fine Mom and Pop places that serve up a good plate of biscuits and gravy in the area.

I actually prefer my sausage gravy on crispy hash browns. The biscuits get a bit too soggy for me. Must be my Yankee birth...

Oh, but a bowl of Shoney's cheese grits? Now you're talking breakfast!!

[Dan65802]

Oh, but a bowl of Shoney's cheese grits? Now you're talking breakfast!!

All the Shoney's here have breakfast buffets, so the cheese grits would have to be a bowl of grits with that orange cheese sauce poured on top. I make cheese grits at home, but use a real cheese. What are the chances our friends on the other side of the world know what grits are?

- Dan -

[aliantha]

Pretty slim, I think.

Mmmmboy, biscuits and sausage gravy. That is truly one of the best things about the South. There's a restaurant in Roanoke (where my kids go to college) where all the blue-haired ladies go after church on Sunday. (You *know* the food is cheap and tasty when the place is full of walkers on a Sunday!) Every time I go, I get the "canoe" breakfast -- scrambled eggs with cheese and ham cubes, and biscuits with sausage gravy. The eggs are served in an elongated-oval-shaped dish, hence the "canoe". Grits are not included with that particular breakfast -- we're still at the latitude where they ask you whether you want 'em, rather than just plopping 'em on the plate.

[Dan65802]

I know Roanoke well. The Anglo side of my family come from the Radford/Christiansburg area.

- Dan -

[Menolly]

Now my Yankee is really showing. My Brooklyn-born Jewish parents wouldn't have known from grits if it was placed right in front of them. "Grits? A grit in the eye?"

This Brooklyn-born Jewish girl has branched out quite a bit in her food repertoire...

I only know Shoney's cheese grits, and I've only ever had them on the buffet here in the south. But then, I've never eaten at a Shoney's north of Atlanta. Must be one of the regional choice selections, if not all the buffets offer it at breakfast.