Irish Soda Bread

  • 3 cups flour
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 1 t soda
  • 1 t salt
  • 1-1/2 cups raisins
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1-1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 2 T oil

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt together. Stir in raisins. Blend eggs, buttermilk and oil. Add all at once to flour mixture, stirring only till moistened. Turn into oiled loaf pan. Bake at 350ºF for 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Knedliky

Raised dumplings

  • 1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 2 T yeast
  • 1 t sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 1 1/2 t salt
  • 7 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup water with sugar. Beat eggs, butter and 1 1/2 cups warm water. Add salt flour to form a dough thicker than bread dough. Knead and let rise, covered and in a warm place, until doubled. Punch down, knead and roll into dumplings the size of a small ladle. Cover and let rise 1 hour. Fill a large pot with salted water and bring to brisk boil. Throw two or three dumplings at a time and boil 4 minutes. Turn and boil another 4 minutes. Remove and cut in half with string.

Ukrainian Dill Pickles

  • Small cucumbers
  • Fresh Dill
  • Garlic
  • 20 c. water & 1 c. salt (not iodized)
  • 1 t. pickling spice per jar

Wash and pack cucumbers into sterilized jars, vertically. Put a sprig of dill amongst them and add a couple of cloves of garlic to each jar. Bring water and salt to boil and add pickling spice; while still boiling pour over packed cucumbers in jars, filling to brim. Seal tight. Ready for use in about 3 weeks.

Salad Dressing a la Danziger

Discovered at El Castillo, Xilitla, Mexico and shared by Gabriela B.

Just outside of Xilitla, at Las Pozas in the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, is a singular garden created by Edward James, an English poet and great supporter of the Surrealist movement. The gardens and structures encompass over 80 acres of subtropical coffee-growing rain forest. The structures and winding pathways are magical, sometimes appearing like ghosts swirling out of the humidity-laden air, half-hidden by verdant ferns and dense vegetation. There are crumbling spiral stairways, arched bridges, gigantic painted concrete flower fountains, and sinuous paths overlooking waterfalls and jumbles of moss-covered boulders. 

Las Pozas Xilitla

El Castillo, now a guest house in the town of Xilitla, was Edward James´ home during the construction of his dream. This salad dressing is a creation of the El Castillo kitchen and the Danzigers, who were managing the property at the time that our friend Gabriela visited and discovered the fabulous gardens..

Ingredients for Salad Dressing a la Danziger

  • ½ cup olive oil (extra virgin)
  • ½ cup balsamic or wine vinegar
  • 1 T Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp powdered chicken broth
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • fines herbes

Shake all ingredients together well and drizzle on a bed of mixed lettuce.

Matchstick Potatoes

Simple matchstick potatoes. The trick is really getting the potatoes to matchstick size, easiest done with a mandoline slicer.

  • 4-5 potatoes
  • 1/4 Ib butter

Peel and cut potatoes into thin matchsticks. In deep frying pan, melt 1/2 of butter. When hot, put potatoes in pan to form a layer about 2″ thick. Add salt and pepper. Cover pan and let simmer until done, forming a crust. Turn over in one piece. Use remaining butter in pan, salt and pepper. Cover and continue on slow fire until other crust is formed. Servings: 4

Serbian Meaty Rice

SzerbRizses Hús: A Serbian Rice

This is a recipe extracted and translated by Dad from the old Hungarian volume of Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook). It smacks of the kind of home cooking favored in our family, even though it isn’t a family recipe, per se.

Ingredients for Serbian Meaty Rice

  • 4 oz. cubed bacon
  • 1/4 small onion, chopped
  • 2 lbs. veal or lamb
  • 1 T sweet paprika
  • consommé or marrow broth
  • 1-1/2 cups rice
  • grated cheese

Brown cubed bacon with chopped onion. veal or lamb, paprika, and a little consommé. Mix in rice and add consommé or marrow soup in correct proportion to rice. Cover and steam or bake until both rice and meat are tender. Remove from heat and add grated cheese (about 1 T). Serve with additional cheese on the side.

rice shoots

Breaded Pork Cutlets

  • 1 lb. pork cutlets, pounded thin
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 1 T water
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/4 t pepper
  • 1 cup fine bread crumbs
  • Flour
  • Oil for frying

Mix eggs and water together in a shallow bowl. Combine crumbs, salt and pepper in another shallow bowl.

Dredge cutlets in flour, dip in egg mixture and then in crumb mixture to cover. Heat oil in frying pan and fry cutlets until golden.

Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage (Cabbage Rolls)

Hungarian stuffed cabbage with minced pork, pork ribs, bacon, and pork sausages.

My paternal grandfather was from Hungary, and Dad spent the first few years of his life in that country before the family emigrated to Canada. Grandpa J brought with him the art of making sauerkraut, and he was always proud to show us the heavy crock of bubbly sauerkraut that often sat in the corner of the basement, sending a somewhat malodorous scent out into the cool space below the house.


Töltött káposzta (Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage, or Cabbage Rolls)

  • 300 g minced pork
  • 50 g diced smoked bacon
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 80 g boiled rice
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • Salt, pepper and paprika to taste
  • 300 g pork spareribs
  • 1 bay leaf
  • water
  • 1 kg full leaf pickled cabbage (sauerkraut), drained and rinsed
  • boiled smoked sausage
  • 2 T fat
  • 40 g flour
  • paprika
  • Sour cream

Mix minced pork with diced smoked bacon, onion, egg, boiled rice, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. Roll filling in 4 pickled cabbage leaves, tucking in the ends.

Cook 300 g sparerib of pork in a little water until tender, add the bay leaf and sauerkraut. Make hollows in the sauerkraut for the four cabbage rolls, nestle them inside, cover, and cook until tender.

Carefully remove the cabbage rolls from the bed of sauerkraut and set aside, keeping them warm.

Prepare a roux from the 2 tablespoon of fat, 40g flour and paprika. Add some of the sauerkraut liquid to it to make a smooth paste, then return to the sauerkraut pot and cook until thickened.

Cut any meat chunks into small pieces and serve with the cabbage rolls, boiled smoked sausage, and sour cream.

Serves: 4


Gumbo

Filé powder, also called gumbo filé, is a spicy herb made from the dried and ground leaves of the sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum), native to eastern North America. It is used in the making of some types of gumbo, a Creole and Cajun soup/stew often served over rice; other versions of gumbo use okra or roux as a thickener instead. Sprinkled sparingly over gumbo as a seasoning and a thickening agent, it adds a distinctive, earthy flavor and texture. Filé can provide thickening when okra is not in season. Filé translates to “string”, suggestive of the powder’s thickening ability.

Wikipedia contributors, “Filé powder,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fil%C3%A9_powder&oldid=440771200 (accessed December 28, 2011).
  • 6 slices bacon
  • 3 large onion, chopped fine
  • 2 large cans tomatoes
  • 1 cup diced ham
  • 2 cups okra
  • 2 T filé powder
  • 2 T flour
  • 1 can whole kernel corn
  • 1/2 cup rice
  • 1/2 lb. shrimp
  • 2 whole cloves
  • 2 small hot red peppers
  • salt to taste

Fry bacon until golden and crumble. Put in chopped onions and brown lightly. Add tomatoes and diced ham. In another pan heat a spoonful of lard. Add okra; add flour and stir until brown.

Combine the two mixtures in a large kettle, add corn, rice and shrimp. Add water until the pot is 2/3 full. Add salt and cloves and peppers tied in a bag. Simmer for at least 1 hour.

Remove spice bag. Thicken soup with a little flour and water. Turn off heat, let gumbo sit for 5 minutes, then add filé. Serve immediately with extra rice on the side. 10-12 servings