Category Archives: Vegetables and Salads

Where the greens and the fresh crunch come in.

Vegetables and Salads

Scalloped Potatoes

Potatoes, layered with onions and milk, baked tender and crusty…

  • 4 cups potatoes, peeled and sliced
  • 2 cups onion, chopped or sliced
  • Salt, pepper, thyme, and paprika
  • Flour
  • Butter
  • 1-1/2 cups milk
  • 2 cups buttered bread crumbs

Grease a 2 quart casserole and place in a layer of sliced potatoes. Top with a layer of chopped onion. Season layer and sprinkle with a little flour and dot with a little butter. Repeat layers, ending with a layer of potatoes. Scald the milk and pour into casserole. Top with buttered bread crumbs. Bake, covered, for 50 minutes at 350F, then uncover and continue baking for another 20 minutes until golden.

Vegetables and Salads

Hungarian Stuffed Potatoes

Hungarian Stuffed Potatoes (Töltött burgonya)

Recipe from Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook)

Ingredients for Hungarian Stuffed Potatoes

  • 12-14 large potatoes
  • 3-4 oz. ground bacon
  • Salt
  • 4 oz. grated cheese
  • Breadcrumbs
  • Butter

Bake the potatoes. Cut in half and scoop out the pulp. Mix the potato pulp with the ground bacon. Season with salt and add grated cheese. Stuff the potatoes with this mixture.

Sprinkle with crumbs, dot with butter, and bake in a hot oven until golden.

Vegetables and Salads

Caesar Salad (Ensalada Cesar)

The classic Caesar salad as we know it: romaine lettuce tossed with oil, eggs, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and other seasonings. Anchovies are optional.

Ingredients for Caesar Salad

  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 clove chopped garlic
  • 8 leaves romaine lettuce
  • 1/4 cup croutons
  • 3 T Parmesan cheese
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 T red wine vinegar
  • 1 T Worcestershire sauce
  • dash Tabasco sauce
  • 2 T capers (optional)
  • 1 T lemon juice
  • black pepper
  • anchovy fillets to taste (optional)

Crush garlic and oil together. Add anchovies and capers and mash together well. Add egg yolks, then Worcestershire, lemon, Tabasco, vinegar. Mix well and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Toss with lettuce. Top with croutons and Parmesan. Serves 2

The Caesar Salad is said to have been created by Caesar Cardini (or his staff) in his Tijuana restaurant in 1924.

According to Rosa Cardini, the original Caesar salad […] did not contain pieces of anchovy; the slight anchovy flavor comes from the Worcestershire sauce. Cardini was opposed to using anchovies in his salad

Wikipedia contributors. “Caesar salad.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Apr. 2016. Web. 15 Apr. 2016.

Vegetables and Salads

Potato Saute

A María Teresa recipe

  • 4 potatoes, cooked, peeled and quartered
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 green peppers, thinly sliced
  • Oil
  • Salt and pepper

Heat oil and sauté onions and green peppers slowly until very limp. They need constant stirring so they do not burn. Season. Add the quartered potatoes and continue frying until potatoes get crisp brown on the outside. Season.

Vegetables and Salads

Dilled Mashed Potatoes

Dill is an herb of the celery family and is best known as a flavoring for pickles and many typical Central and Eastern European dishes.

A bit of fresh chopped dill weed in mashed potatoes gives a savory boost to this old favorite.

Ingredients for Dilled Mashed Potatoes

  • 8 large potatoes
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 T butter
  • 2 tsp fresh chopped dill
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp black pepper

Boil potatoes and mash with rest of ingredients. For thinner mashed potatoes, add more milk.


Vegetables and Salads

Elote con Queso

A Mexican corn and cheese casserole with a zing of fresh green chiles.

Elote Con Queso Ingredients

2-1/2 cups corn kernels (from about 5 ears)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 lb Manchego cheese, cubed or grated
1/4 lb. cheddar cheese, cubed or grated
4 fresh green chiles (serranos, for example), seeded and chopped
3 tbsp sugar
9 eggs
3 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp salt

Heat oven to 250º F. Butter an ovenproof 3-quart baking dish.

In a blender, break down corn kernels slightly. Mix with cheese, chiles, sugar, and baking powder.

Whisk together eggs and cream. Add to corn mixture with salt.

Pour into baking dish. Bake until just set, 45-55 minutes. Serve immediately. 12 servings.

Corn cobs

 

Vegetables and Salads

Green Bean Salad

  • 1 lb. cut green beans, cooked
  • 3 pimientos, chopped
  • 1 T minced onion
  • 5 or 6 sprigs parsley, chopped
  • 3/4 cup oil and vinegar dressing
  • Lettuce

Toss together all ingredients except lettuce. Let sit, refrigerated, for an hour or two. Serve on a bed of lettuce. Servings: 6

Mixed Bean Salad Variation: Add 1 cup of cooked and drained white cannelli beans or alubias and 1/2 cup cooked and drained garbanzo beans to green bean mixture and marinate together.

Vegetables and Salads

Avocados with Cilantro Dressing

A fresh, green, tangy way to dress up your avocados,

  • Avocados
  • 2 T fresh lime juice
  • 2 T chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 T salad oil
  • 1 T chopped green onion
  • 1/4 t salt
  • 1/4 t sugar
  • 1/8 t ground pepper

In blender combine all ingredients. Blend well. Drizzle over 2-3 ripe, sliced avocados.

Avocado

Persea americana, or the avocado, is possibly thought to have originated in the Tehuacan Valley[6] in the state of Puebla, Mexico,[7] although fossil evidence suggests similar species were much more widespread millions of years ago. However, there is evidence for three possible separate domestications of the avocado, resulting in the currently recognized Mexican (aoacatl), Guatemalan (quilaoacatl), and West Indian (tlacacolaocatl) landraces.[8][9] The Mexican and Guatemalan landraces originated in the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala, respectively, while the West Indian landrace is a lowland variety that ranges from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador to Peru,[8] achieving a wide range through human agency before the arrival of the Europeans.[9] The three separate landraces were most likely to have already intermingled[a] in pre-Columbian America and were described in the Florentine Codex.[9]

Wikipedia contributors, “Avocado,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avocado&oldid=815535461 (accessed December 21, 2017).

Vegetables and Salads

Potato Paprikash (Paprikás Borgonya)

Paprika is sweet and/or pungent dried red pepper and a staple in the Hungarian kitchen. Paprikash is made by stewing your ingredients in a thick, paprika-based gravy-like base.

paprika red pepper

Recipe from Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook)

Ingredients for Potato Paprikash

  • 1-1/2 kilos (3-1/4 lbs) potatoes
  • 4 oz bacon or 3 oz lard
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 or 3 tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 green pepper, sliced
  • 1 t paprika
  • Salt and pepper to taste

In frying pan, cook bacon or lard, add finely chopped onion, and brown till golden. Add chopped tomatoes, green pepper rings, and paprika. Cook until pepper is well wilted.

Peel and quarter the potatoes. Add the bacon/tomato/pepper mixture, barely cover with water, and simmer until tender and liquid is reduced to a thick gravy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.